The Cat in the Counselor's Office
Author's Note
So yeah... this has been what I’ve been trying to work on recently in order to make sure that my skills with writing didn’t rust up. I hope you guys enjoy it.
If you’re not familiar with Yuumi, I would first recommend to read a bit of her biography here first beforehand since some parts of the story reference that.
The Cat in the Counselor's Office
If Starlight had known anything over the last few years living in Ponyville and through her time being the school of friendship’s guidance counselor, it was to expect the unexpected… or in some capacity, try to. Having to help give ponies advice on their problems, whether it be social or academic, can sometimes be simple. While other times, it made her thankful that she would have enough hot chocolate packs to get her through the entire school year. Even outside of her work as a guidance counselor, Starlight was tested in ways she didn’t think was possible whether it was having to get her father to stop fighting Sunburst’s mother in their hometown of Sire’s Hollow or have her patience tested in Saddle Arabia over the last couple of days while on the road traveling with her friend, Trixie.
No matter what she had to go through though, she was always glad to come back home to her office. It was, in her mind, a bit of a safe haven from everything going on outside. Not to mention that she was still glad that, despite everything that had happened in Saddle Arabia, their bond was stronger than before and that made her happy.
Though, as she came back to the school and began to trot towards her office, she noticed something off. The door to her office was partially open and from the sounds of it, somepony was inside. Which was weird since she remembered telling Twilight not to schedule any appointments while she was on the road with Trixie and she remembered to lock the door to her office.
As she had her magic grip around the handle of the door, the unicorn heard somepony… or more likely, some creature speak as she looked around the room, noticing that the window to her office was open. “No no no, Book. I don’t think we should leave this place just yet… I mean, master can be anywhere, right? So we should at least look around first. Plus, the sunlight’s really warm here. Better than that cave with all the creepy crawlies.”
Fully trotting inside, the unicorn looked around. Trying to find where the voice was coming from as she now began to notice something sticking out from under her desk. It looked like that of a tail as it moved from side to side. Yet, as she circled around, the mare went behind her desk and looked underneath, not finding anything under there.
“I must be imagining things.” She said to herself, shaking her head as she rose up from under her desk. Yet, the moment that she emerged from under her desk, she stared in shock at what was sitting on her desk.
It was a cat. Not just any ordinary looking cat or one of the citizens from Abyssinia, but one that was on all fours and was wearing a strange ornament on the top of her head and a set of gold colored whiskers at the side of its face. And if that was not strange enough, there was the fact that there was a floating book that was right behind the cat.
“Rawr-” It spoke, just before coughing something into Starlight’s trash can as it let out a groan. “Ooh, excuse me. Sorry, didn’t mean to do that… stupid hairballs.”
Starlight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This cat actually could speak? Not in meows or growls, but actual equish? How was such a thing possible? As she was thinking these things though, the cat just tilted her head. Confused as to why she was silent.
“Hey um… Miss pointy horn pony… are you okay?” It spoke again, ears falling to the sides like a filly that looked like they were caught doing something they shouldn’t have.
Blinking once more, the unicorn now actually took a moment to speak. “W-who are you? And h-how… did you get in here?”
The cat’s ears immediately shot straight up the moment that Starlight spoke. “A portal from the spirit realm while looking for my master. But if you mean in here, I just floated through the open window,” She said, pointing her head at the ajar window. “Oh, right! Names, names! I’m Yuumi and this is Book! Say Hi, book!”
All that did was cause the book under her to ruffle its pages a little like it was waving as the cat spoke once again. “Book says hello.”
“H-hi.” Was the only thing that the bewildered unicorn could say in response. In her time being Twilight’s student as well as the counselor at the school of friendship, she became somewhat familiar with the subject of magical artifacts. But a sentient and magical book that was the companion of a talking cat? That… was definitely new. And what was this about a master-?
“What’s your name, pointy horn pony?”
Oh right, introductions. Starlight almost forgot about that. “I’m Starlight Glimmer-” As she said that though, the unicorn watched as the cat turned its head to the door as it sniffed the air. Just before her ears went straight up, her tail began to twitch and the cat began to purr to herself. Which, confused Starlight as well as concerned her. “Uh, Yuumi-?”
Before she could say anything else though, the cat bolted through the door. The book following suite. Baffling the counselor as the chair in front of her was flat on the floor. “Oh dear…”
Elsewhere…
“So, do you guys have any ideas for what we should do this weekend?” Sandbar asked some of his friends as he, Gallus, Ocellus, Yona and Smolder left the school cafeteria. Silverstream was with them earlier, but she left to go take care of something in her room as the rest of her friends began to stroll down the hallway.
“Personally, I just want to stay in my room and relax. We barely get any weekends like this.” The griffon named Gallus replied back.
“Really now? Because I’m pretty sure that you said that last week.” Smolder herself grinned, folding her arms as she looked back at Ocellus. Both of them chuckling at Gallus’ ironic remark.
“I mean a weekend where we aren’t on a school field trip, personally in danger or where we have some kind of school holiday going on.” He corrected himself.
“You… bring up a fair point,” Sandbar now added. “Though, nothing really comes to mind. I mean, we don’t have any assignments that are due on monday… Yona, do you-?”
Pomff!
The earth pony, along with his friends, froze as they stared at the Yak. Just now, what looked like a cerulean colored cat with yellow whiskers and a headdress just appeared on Yona’s back. Yona though, did not seem to notice as she turned around, looking back at the others with what one could say was a look of confusion.
“… What? Why Yona’s friends staring at Yona like that?”
“Yona…” Smolder was the first to speak, before pointing at her. “There’s a cat on your back.”
“A cat!?” Yona looked up to see the face of a feline looking down at her. However, no creature expected at all what the cat did next as it used its paw to tap Yona on the nose.
“Hi there!”
Almost every creature in the room flinched at the sound of that. Gallus himself had to blind first before asking a question. “Did that cat… just say ‘hi there’?”
“Yes I did, Silly Birdy,” she replied, before nuzzling against Yona’s fur for a moment. Though, just when the students thought it couldn’t get any weirder, that was when they saw a book float over to where the cat was sitting as it opened and she looked at the pages. “No Book, I don’t think we’re going to get shot at with arrows like last time… Yeah, I know Valor did not like that, but Quinn’s not here! We should be safe here-”
“WOW!!! A talking cat!?” Silverstream shouted excitedly, flying to and hovering over the cat. Catching the rest of her friends off guard by how she had caught up with them so quickly. “What’s your name? And where did you come from? Are there other talking cats like you!?”
“I’m Yuumi, came from someplace very far away after traveling through a portal and-” Before she could finish, the cat sniffed the air. The look in her eyes changed as the others could hear a small part of her stomach growl. Just before she leaped onto Silverstream’s back and began to sniff around. “Where is it?”
“W-where’s what?” Sandbar asked.
“The fish! I just smelled it! I haven’t eaten in a long time… well, aside from the ones that were in that small pool outside.” The cats words did not quite set the right tone. Especially since one of them realized what she might’ve meant.
“Is she… referring to the fish in the friendship pond outside? The one that Princess Twilight got from the Ambassador of Neighpon?”
“I thought she was sniffing Silverstream.” Ocellus added. “Not for anything bad, but since Silverstream has turned into a Seapony before and lived next to the ocean.”
“I… rather not even think about what might happen next-” As Smolder finished her comment, that was when the book that was floating next to Yuumi opened up in front of her and Silverstream. A small golden ring, similar to that of a portal opened up as a fish leaped out from in between the pages, before diving back in on the other side. Moving too quick for Yuumi’s paws as she tried to grab it.
“Dang it… they always move too fast for me.”
“… Maybe we should ask for Headmare Twilight’s help with this?” Sandbar asked
“Good idea,” Ocellus replied. “I think I can get Yuumi to follow us to Headmare Twilight’s office.” In a burst of blue flames, Ocellus turned into a cat version of herself. “Oh Yuumi! Care to join us? I believe Headmare Twilight has some fish in her office.”
“Fish? Where?!” Her head shot straight up, before leaping off of Silverstream. However, instead of landing on the floor, the cat landed safely on her book as she still floated in the air. Following Ocellus down the hall as some of her friends just watched.
“Okay, some creature please hit me. I think I’m in some kind of dream.” Gallus said, still not sure what he just witnessed.
“Yona can help griffon friend!” Yona spoke before delivering a hard slap on the back of Gallus’s head. Which had him land face first on the ground, while Smolder was giggling at his predicament.
“Oww… my beak…” Gallus groaned, rubbing his head as he looked in front of him. “H-hunh? Miss S-starlight?”
“What’s going on out here?” The unicorn now asked, before looking back at Gallus. “And why is Gallus on the floor?”
“Griffon friend needed to wake up, so Yona help!” The Yak cheerfully replied, much to the griffon’s dismay.
“Miss Starlight, have you seen Twilight this morning? We kind of… found a talking cat this morning-.” Sandbar told her. Yet, it was in that moment that they saw the pupils in Starlight’s eyes shrink to the point that they were the size of bits.
“Y-you saw her too?” The counselor asked hesitantly. Almost as if she was wanting for them to say no. However… seeing the five of them nodding their heads had her bit sized eyes shrink even smaller. “Oh dear Celestia… W-where is she?”
“With Ocellus. They’re looking for Twilight-” Sandbar’s response to the question did not help any as it looked like she just froze up. Not even moving at all as the earth pony got closer. “Uh… did we break Miss Starlight on accident?”
“Yona fix Pony Counselor!” Yona announced, grabbing Starlight tight and squeezing the guidance counselor, causing Starlight to wheeze and look like her eyes were gonna pop out.
“Yona, I think that’s enough-” Sandbar tried to tell her, but that didn’t stop the yak from squeezing her again in what looked like the yak equivalent of a full neighelson. It wasn’t until Starlight started coughing and trying to catch her breath that the Yak finally released her grip.
“T-thanks…” Starlight coughed, before looking back at the rest of the students. “Let’s hurry though… I’m worried that Twilight will freak out the moment that she see’s Yuumi.”
“Really?” Smolder asked. “I think we’ve barely seen her ever freak out before. I mean, how bad could it be?”
That just had the counselor look to her right with a nervous strain on her face, before looking back at the dragon. “Well, if what Pinkie says is to be believed… she kind of… ignited once.”
It was another bright and beautiful morning from where Twilight was in her office overlooking the grounds of the school of friendship. The flowers were blooming, the birds were singing, the pond… had less fish than she remembered seeing the other day. But nevertheless, things were looking up.
In fact, she had just gotten back from a small meeting with that of Princess Celestia. The solar diarch was curious about if Twilight had any ‘plans’ for when the school year was going to end, so that she could make some time in her schedule for an appearance. Of course, she had ideas for what could be done, but had not fully formulated any kind of plans yet.
Of course, she didn’t entirely have the time to formulate anything in that moment earlier. Because just as she was turning away from the door, the princess of friendship heard a knock at her door. “I’ll be right there!” She called out, teleporting to the door and proceeding to open it with a spell shortly afterwards.
However, what she did not expect… was for her to see Ocellus looking like that of a cat. Not the ones from Abyssinia like Capper, but a four legged house cat. “Ocellus? What are you doing here? And why are you a cat?”
“Uh… meow?” Ocellus failed miserably at trying to be like a cat.
“Ocellus…” Twilight repeated herself, looking to the left and right to see that none of her friends were in the hallway. “Where’s Sandbar and the others? Normally they-” Of course, the moment that she looked up, the alicorn of friendship found herself staring directly at a floating cat that was sitting on a book. Not just any, but one that looked to move on its own.
“Is this the pony you were talking about? She’s… staring at me funny.” Ocellus bursted into blue flames, back to her original self.
“Twilight, this is Yummi.” She introduced her to the cat. “Yummi, Headmare Twilight.”
“Nice to meet you!” The cat said, before stretching out her paw and touching Twilight’s horn as she let out a giggle. “I would have Book say hi, but he kind of said hi to that Starlight pony already.”
“Y-you met Starlight? She’s back from Saddle Arabia?” Twilight then asked, seeming surprised for a moment at hearing how the school counselor just came back.
“Yeah, but for some reason, she smelled like a litter box… not sure why though…” The cat shrugged, before she tried to peek inside to see what was in Twilight’s room. “Oh! Right! Do you have any fish? I’m kind of hungry and Ocellus said that you might have some.”
“Umm…” Before Twilight could fully respond, all she saw was a look from Ocellus that one would illustrate her as saying ‘please say yes’ before finishing her sentence. “Yes! Yes, I can get some right now.”
“Great! See Book, I told you that this place is safe for us!” She said, getting off of the Book as both the book and the cat floated over to the nearby windowsill. “Ooh! This place looks just like Master’s home!”
To Twilight though, all she could was stare again as she looked back at Ocellus. “Is that… a sentient book? Please tell me I’m not seeing things and that this isn’t one of Discord’s pranks…”
“If this is one of Discord’s pranks, then it must be a really good one.” Ocellus replied. “Why do you ask that, Headmare Twilight?”
“I’m just… having trouble processing all of this…” Twilight blinked for a moment, before looking back at her. “Why don’t you go keep her company while I go get some fish for her? I’ll be back in a short while.”
“Yes, ma’am!” She turned to Yummi. “I’ll be back with some fish, Yummi. Stay here for a bit, ok?”
“Okay, Ocellus!” The cat told her, looking down from outside before as both the changeling and the alicorn disappeared shortly afterwards. Though, it was while they were gone that the cat began to think a bit about everything that she had seen as well as every creature that she had met. Some were loud, some were energetic and some were pretty nice and kind. They all reminded her of the Yordles that lived in Bandle City.
They also reminded her of her master, Norra. A Yordle who had been there for her as long as she could remember… only to never come back home one day. Day became weeks and weeks became months, but it was then that she had decided that she couldn’t just sit around and wait for her master to come home. With Book by her side, she was going to find her, no matter what!
Though, a new thought entered her mind now and was mainly what Yuumi was primarily thinking about. That Twilight Pony… almost seemed to know Starlight for some reason? Were they friends? Were they closer then that? Was one of them a pet like Rakan was to Xayah? Many questions appeared in her mind. Some of them she said to herself, while causing Book to do the floating book equivalent of a collective facepalm with a corner of a page.
It wasn’t long though until she heard the sound of magic as another flash of light lead to Twilight and Ocellus returning with a small basket of fish. One that made Yuumi’s mouth water just at the sight of it. “I’ve found it! I found the precious-”
“Wha-?”
“Nothing! Nothing at all!!” Yuumi corrected herself, before diving into the first fish that she saw. Chewing through it like if you had Pinkie Pie participate in a pie eating contest. Because no less than thirty seconds after she started, several fish bones had bumped across Twilight’s forehead and Yuumi was trying to talk while sinking her teeth into the last one. “Fhis iz zooo guuud!! F-fank yu-!”
“Um… Yuumi? Maybe try not eating with your mouth full.” Twilight’s suggestion soon lead to Yuumi rushing through the last fish and subsequently having the skeleton drop in front of the alicorn. Who used some of her magic in order to clean up the fish bones that were on the floor.
“That was so delicious! Thank you, maste-!!” Upon realizing what she was saying, the cat stopped. Her ears dropped to their sides as she looked back at them. “Oh… sorry.”
“Is something wrong?” Twilight now asked, looking a bit concerned. “Did you not like the fish?”
“No, I totally did… I just…” Yuumi looked nervous now, shortly before saying something else. “You… remind me of my master back home.”
“Your… master?” Ocellus now asked, only for Yuumi to nod. “Was she… important to you?”
Another nod followed from the cat before she looked back at both the alicorn and the changeling. “My master Norra is… somebody who’s really important to me. She’s very smart as well as compassionate and kind. For as long as I can remember, I was her companion. Somebody to keep her company whenever we traveled the world. But one day she never came home…” For a brief moment, the expression on Yuumi’s face was that of anguish and loneliness. That was, until Book brushed up against her side. Prompting her to change her tune as she looked back at both of them. “So Book and I have been on an adventure to try and find her! No matter what. Which reminds me… have you seen her? She’s a bit shorter than you guys.”
Twilight actually liked the sound of that. In fact, Yuumi telling her about Norra kind of reminded her about something. “Your master sort of reminds me of Princess Celestia. She sounds just as kind and also taught me everything I know about the magic of friendship-”
“Oh, so you’re Celestia’s pet then!”
That immediately made Twilight’s eyes widen and her pupil’s shrink as she looked at the cat, and the book that was facepalming itself with an open page. “W-what? No! Dear stars, no! What made you think that?!”
“Well, you said that your princess is like my master, so that would mean you are like me.” Yuumi’s response was followed by an innocent head tilt as she looked back at the startled headmare. “Is something wrong?”
“Dear stars, why does it feel like Discord is messing with me right now?” The alicorn thought to herself, shaking her head for a moment to try and clear her brain up before looking back to the cat and her book.
“Um… Y-yuumi, I don’t think Celestia is like that to Twilight,” Ocellus tried her best to fix the situation the best that she could while thinking of a more proper comparison to help Yuumi understand. “Let’s just say that she’s… a very good friend of hers.”
“But master’s a very good friend of mine and I’m her pet… How is this different?” All that did was have Book ‘face-page’ itself again, before turning a couple of pages and showing it to Yuumi. “Book says that we should talk about something else. Though… I’m not sure why-”
Of course, before they could even change the subject of the conversation, Book immediately floated straight upward before looking back at Yuumi. Turning a few pages before looking back at Yuumi. The words on the page surprising her. “Oh come on, again! That’s the eight time this week!!”
“What? What do you mean ‘again’?” Twilight now asked.
“Some very important people need us right now. I can’t really explain right-” Before Yuumi could finish her sentence, a portal opened up from Book’s pages, slowly beginning to pull the cat in like a vacuum. “No no no-! Wait a minute! I need to say goodbye-! AIE!!!” With that, Yuumi was sucked in, just as Twilight tried to get close to it. But it was when she had her head close to the book that she saw something inscribed on the top left corner.
You might want to step back. This will get really loud.
“Wha-?”
FOR DEMACIA!!!!
The sound of that single warcry was enough to not just enough to immediately throw Twilight backwards, but subsequently shake both the school and ponyville. Ocellus herself had almost slipped her footing, but her immediate focus was on seeing if Twilight was okay. Yet, tapping her just caused for the headmare to fall over as she saw something flicker briefly in her eyes.
Headmare_Twilight_Sparkle.exe has stopped working. Please use a ‘Young Aggressive Kickstart’ to initiate reboot procedure.
“Wha-?”
“Yak see headmare need help!! Yona help Headmare!!”
“No no no no, wait-!!”
“Yona SMASH!!”
Extra- Warn me next time, Book!
Victory!
“Booyah! That was awesome!!” The Canterlot High student named Rainbow Dash cried out as she got up from her chair in the living room. Setting the headphones that she had down on the table and grabbing a soda from the cooler not far from where she and a few of her friends were sitting at. If she were to be honest with herself, when Twilight Sparkle (their Twilight, not the princess) suggested that they would try to find a way to have fun, she honestly did not expect for them to be doing a game that she originally thought was just for nerds. But, here they were. Her, Twilight, and three of her best friends playing League of Legends in the middle of Sunset’s home.
Why they were playing League of Legends of all things though? Well, that was different. It all started during the last time they had set up a game night. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie made a bet with Sunset and Twilight that they could be able to beat her in a team battle on Super Smash Bros Ultimate, the only rules being ‘Fox only, no items, Final Destination’. If Rainbow and Pinkie won, Rainbow would have Sunset and Twilight take part in a game they would choose to play, but if they win, they were the ones that had to play a game that Twilight would choose. And they could not back out of it.
Unfortunately for Team ‘PinkieDash’, they lost to Team ‘SunLight’. And with it, Twilight declared that they needed to have them play a game of League of Legends with them. Ironically, Sunset already knew how to play, so it was Pinkie Pie and Rainbow having to learn how to play, much to the latter’s dismay.
Oh and Fluttershy was there too, volunteering to be the last member of their five player team.
At first, Rainbow was not entirely thrilled about this. After all, most of the games that she preferred to play were more of the fast paced and action variety. But, after she picked some guy named ‘Garen’, she began having a bit of fun with whacking minions and champions with her oversized sword.
“See, I told you girls that you would like it if you gave it a chance,” Twilight now spoke up as she took off her headphones and set them by her laptop. “Both of you did pretty well for your first game. Though, maybe try to not mimic Jinx when you’re getting on a roll, Pinkie.”
“What? She has that ‘Get Excited’ thingy, so I needed to get excited too!” She replied, bouncing up from her position on the floor and walking towards the kitchen to get something to eat. Sunset decided to follow her as well, though for Twilight, she had something to ask from their fifth team member.
“So… what do you think?”
At first, Fluttershy looked a bit startled by the sudden question. But she tried to answer to the best of her ability. “It was… fun-”
“No, no, not that,” Twilight shook her head, before looking back at the screen of Fluttershy’s laptop as she pointed at the cat that was in the portrait to the right of the results screen. “What do you think of Yuumi? She’s sort of new and I’ve been hesitant to try her. What do you think?”
“Well, uh… she’s kind of adorable?” That answer was not what Twilight was looking for, but before she could say anything else, that was when Rainbow came back around.
“Twilight, I don’t think Fluttershy’s like you where you pick a character because of what they can do. Fluttershy is more towards picking characters based on appearance,” She told the purple colored girl before pulling the tab on the top of the soda can she was holding and cracking it open. “Heck, why do you think she just stuck with playing Isabelle on Smash last week?”
“… Hunh. I did not think about that actually.”
“Ooh, ooooh! You talking about the kitty? She looked so adorable, yet so powerful! She even road on my character’s shoulder like Gummy-!” However, before she could continue, her hair soon twitched before looking back at her friends and began to hide behind the couch. “Twitchy hair! Take cover!!”
Yet… that just only had Rainbow bolt to the other side of the room and hide behind the couch too. While her friends just looked at her with a puzzled look on each of their faces. “Um… what’s this about?”
“Yeah, this thing started happening when I was with her in middle school,” The athlete told them. “Anytime that she feels her hair twitch, something falls a few seconds later.”
“Really? Because I don’t see anything falling-”
CRASH!!!
“-yet.” Immediately, everyone in the room got up at the sound of the fence outside breaking as splinters of wood were scattered around the backyard. At first, they thought that it was a tree falling over from next door or some guy accidentally driving through the fence.
Turns out, what did cause that was neither of those things.
“Um… Where in the world are we now, Book?”
