Author's Notes:

Welcome, one and all to my first ever Arc in the Princess and the Yo-kai! What these Arcs are is that I'll be making multiple-chapter mini series in the story, while not distracting from the actual story as a whole. There will still be new Yo-kai and new problems for Twilight to face later, but for now, these Arcs serve as a way for her to get stronger, meet rarer and more beloved Yo-kai, and face off against some of my own original creations.

Now, I'm sure that some of you who have played the Yo-kai Watch game on 3DS or have seen the anime remember a giant pig Yo-kai named Sproink. Well, he was a Boss Yo-kai, and could not be befriended in the original game. This story will have bosses, but almost none of the ones from the 3DS game, as that would just be plagiaristic. I might just add them if you want to see them so badly, but I don't know. It'll come down to your preferences and all that.

As a small disclaimer, these Arc parts will be shorter than what you've seen before, as I usually make a single problem with a new Yo-kai around three-thousand words long anyways. But nonetheless, here's the first Princess and the Yo-kai Arc: A Real CAT-astrophe.

(For those of you who wanted to see Jibanyan, here you go...)

The stars glittered and twinkled high in the sky above Ponyville as the ponies of the town climbed into their beds and fell asleep, letting themselves become blanketed by not only their bedsheets, but the serene darkness of the silenced town. It didn't take anyone very long to drift off deep into their dreams either, as they got into their comfortable sleeping positions and curled up sweetly.

In the castle, Twilight Sparkle was making up her bed for the night. She took off her Yo-Kai Watch and left it on the nightstand next to her, along with her Yo-Kai Medallium. She hummed a little tune to herself as she picked the sheets up, slithered underneath them, and picked out the latest Daring Do book from her miniature bookcase by the other side of her bed.

"It's been a long day, hasn't it, Whisper?" said Twilight.

"Indeed. I thought we'd never get that situation under control." Whisper nodded.

"Yeah. From the way Noway had a hold of Rainbow Dash, and was able to deflect Roughraff's attacks, I almost believed that there was no way to beat it." Twilight flipped past the author's notes of the book and began to read. "I'm just glad that we did. Now I can have a good night's sleep, relishing in the fact that Ponyville is safe for another day."

"Oh, by the way, what book is that?" Whisper came over to Twilight and glanced at the cover of the book. "Daring Do and the Timestream of Tenzranol?"

"Daring Do is this great adventurer who goes on all kinds of crazy adventures, fighting against evil forces who want to control powers that they don't understand." Twilight pointed Daring Do out to Whisper. "They might seem like fictional stories, but me and Rainbow Dash know for a fact that she's real."

"Real?" Whisper looked at the book. "But from the way this cover art looks, there's no feasible proof that Daring Do is real! She seems like nothing more than a figment of the writer's imagination."

"Believe what you want to believe, Whisper." Twilight smirked. "But when Daring Do does eventually come to Ponyville, I'll be right there to rub it in your face."

"IF she comes." Whisper crossed his arms and floated towards the door. "Either way, I hope you don't plan on reading that for too long, Twilight. There's an awful lot of work to be done tomorrow. Places to go, Yo-kai to meet, problems to solve, you know."

"Don't worry, Whisper. I won't be reading for too long." Twilight gave him a pleasant smile before she dove her head right back into her story. "You just rest up. Yo-kai need their sleep, right?"

"You shouldn't be concerning yourself over my wellbeing, Twilight." Whisper's tail drifted in front of him. "I just hope that you have a good night's sleep tonight. You never know what could happen tomorrow.

"Who knows? You might just have to fight your first Boss Yo-kai." He shrugged, thinking of what Twilight would have to fight against. "They're the biggest, meanest, and downright destructive Yo-kai ever. They can't be befriended, so your only goal is to knock. Them. Out."

"I'll keep that in mind." Twilight rolled her eyes.

"I mean it, Twilight! I'm just telling you that for your own personal protection." Whisper looked at the Yo-kai Medallium and examined the medals that Twilight had collected already. "With only six Yo-kai Medals, you should really brace yourself. Who knows what could be lurking out there?"

Whisper looked out into the town one last time before he drooped his head and went to sleep, snoring lightly.

The next morning, Twilight Sparkle woke up to a massive white ball of fluff in her face. She felt it tickle against her face, and as soon as she tasted that it was the hair of something, she screamed and used her magic to send the ball catapulting against the wall.

The ball made an audible yelp, and it was quickly revealed to be none other than Opalescence. Her hair looked frazzled from the throw, and she slowly stood up on her four paws and walked back up to Twilight.

"Oh. It's just you, Opal." Twilight sighed as she watched the cat climb up onto the bed. "What were you even doing on my face? Isn't Rarity supposed to be responsible for you?"

Opalescence meowed at Twilight and tried to use her paws to gesture something, but Twilight and Whisper both looked at her completely dumbstruck.

"Did you catch any of that, Whisper?" Twilight craned his neck towards him after Opal had finally stopped.

"Nope. Sorry, Twilight." Whisper flew over and examined Opal's body. "I might be a ghost with a plethora of supernatural talents, but unfortunately, cat is not one of my main languages." He shook his head. "But it did sound like she was trying to tell you that something was wrong..."

"Well, this gives me the perfect idea to try out a new experiment." Twilight lit up her horn and let a small wave of energy flow into the Yo-Kai Watch, making it glowed bright magenta as she strapped it on her hoof. "Since I've put on a speaker to make Yo-kai speak to mortals, why not make cats talk like ponies?"

"Is there any opportunity you won't seize?" Whisper chuckled as Twilight pointed the watch at Opal.

"Alright, Opal. Just repeat what you were trying to say into the lens." Twilight instructed the cat, moving the lens closer to its' mouth.

Opalescence repeated everything that it had said a moment ago into the lens. It was being translated in terms of both the pitch Opal was speaking in and how she was saying it. It manged to translate as, "Twilight. You have to help me. Something's really wrong with my master."

"Something's wrong with Rarity?" Twilight asked Opal, to which she simply nodded and meowed into the watch again.

"Yeah. She woke up in the middle of the night, and I saw her cou—"

"Twilight?! Have you seen my darling Opal anywhere?" Rarity burst into the bedroom and immediately found Opal just sitting on the bed next to her. "Oh. Never mind. There she is." She lifted Opal up into the air with her magic and levitated her close to her face. "Where were you, you cute little—"

Opalescence didn't even let Rarity finish, as she extended her claws and dealt a swift scratch to Rarity's face, leaving three red cut marks on her cheek. Everyone gasped at the sight as Rarity dropped her and watched her scurry off back to Twilight.

"Opal..." Rarity began to tear up as she felt the blood leak out of the scratches. "Why would you ever do that to me? I'm your master, remember?"

"Then why in the world were you licking your legs and coughing up a hairball last night?!" Opal yelled into the lens again in her cat voice, being translated into english instantly. "You're not a cat! You're a pony!"

"Opal. That was not called for." Twilight glared at the cat, who stepped backwards. "Rarity's been looking after you for as long as you can remember, and you just have the gall to scratch her across the face?"

"It wasn't Rarity last night! She became... something else." Opal shot back, but then hung her head.

"Opalescence is telling the truth, Twilight." Whisper stroked Opal's hair, getting her to calm down. "I don't speak much cat, granted, but I know what a voice of desperation sounds like from a mile away." Whisper pointed over to Rarity. "Someone, or rather something must've used some bizarre magic to turn Rarity into some kind of monster."

"Still, that doesn't forgive her for scratching Rarity in the face!" Twilight threw one of her hooves into the air as she looked at Rarity, who was now curled up into a ball, crying and bleeding at the same time at how Opal had hurt her.

"She was going to transform back, I could just feel it!" Opal stretched her arm out in Rarity's direction. "I don't really know what's going on myself, but I do know that Rarity's been acting more like a cat than usual and I'm just a bit concerned that she'll turn into one soon."

"Do you think that a Yo-kai might have caused this?" Twilight looked at Whisper.

"There are cat Yo-kai, but I highly doubt that any of the ones that I know would physically turn their user into one." Whisper pulled out his tablet and showed off a picture of a red cat with two tails, both of which had blue flames on each. "At the most, this cat Yo-kai, Jibanyan, often just takes control of the body, and doesn't turn the person into an actual feline. So that really does leave a massive gap on who could've done this..."

"Are there any other cat Yo-kai that you know of?" Twilight examined the picture of Jibanyan closely.

"Yes, but they're all just other different variants of Jibanyan with different powers, personalities, inspiriting powers, and even Soultimates." Whisper looked through all of the other different cats in his encyclopedia. "And even then, none of those other cats are able to transform ponies into cats."

"Well, then that means that there's only one explanation for this." Twilight walked over to Rarity and used her magic to slowly seal the cuts dealt by Opalescence. "We've got a mystery on our hooves." She then looked over at the nearby closet, pulled out a grey detective cap, and put it on her head.

"A mystery? What a jolly good idea, Twilight!" Whisper generated a black bowler hat and monocle. "How should we start?"

"Well, we already have two of the three fundamentals to finding our inspiriter." Twilight used her magic to disappear for a few seconds, then immediately return with a white hairball sealed up in a plastic bag. "While we may not have any leads, we do have evidence, and a witness at the scene of the crime."

"Leads? Witnesses? Evidence?" Rarity had only just calmed down and noticed Twilight's detective hat. "Whatever do you mean, Twilight?"

"Opal, your cat was with you on the night you supposedly turned into a cat." Twilight walked Rarity over to the bed and showed her the cat, who gave Rarity another hiss and turned her back on the two ponies. "I'm going to ask her about what she saw that night, add it with the evidence, and in the event that that doesn't immediately give me the answer, I'll have to go out and ask some of the Ponyville ponies about what happened at Carousel Boutique that night."

"This whole thing sounds ridiculous." Rarity let a meek chuckle slip as she watched Twilight go over to talk with Opal. "Me? A cat? Never! I am a lady. The epitemy of pristine and mature." She posed. "There is absolutely no way that I would turn into some insect-riddled, fish-loving, lazy house cat."

"We have to take Opal's words into account to, though, Rarity." Twilight knelt down and once more put the Yo-Kai Watch in front of Opal's mouth. "So, what exactly did you see on that night, hmm?"

"Well..." Opal scratched her chin. "I was just sleeping in Rarity's room all cozy and warm, thinking about cat dreams, when all of a sudden I heard a purring noise that sounded like no cat I'd ever heard in my life." She purred for effect and walked over to the pillow. "I woke up and tried to find where this new cat was. I thought I'd been replaced; that Rarity had found a new cat and was going to just throw me away like some piece of garbage!"

"Opal, I would never do something like that to—"

"Quiet, Rarity! I'm talking to Twilight!" Opal hissed again before she cleared her throat and looked back at Twilight. "Anyway, as I was saying, I couldn't find the other cat anywhere, so I just went back to sleep. But then, I saw the door open up just as I was getting comfortable.

"I didn't really see what came through it, as it was so dark, but I could make out the shadow of some really, really big cat with a bushy tail, gleaming golden eyes, and some massive claws." Opal's body parts twitched to emphasize each different part of the aggresor. "I saw the big cat tickle Rarity with its' tail. I heard her giggle, and the next thing I know, she was out of bed, and she was following the big cat thing into the streets."

"A cat that size and of that caliber can only mean one thing, Twilight." Whisper clicked his fingers as he took in Opalescence's story. "That was no ordinary Yo-kai that inspirited Rarity. I believe that we are dealing with..." He took a deep breath and lowered his brows. "A Boss Yo-kai."

"A Boss Yo-kai?" Twilight tilted her head sideways. "But why would it want to inspirit Rarity and her alone?" She looked up to the ceiling and began to pace around the room. "It just doesn't make any sense, really. Why would a Yo-kai that big go for one pony when it could potentially do some major damage to the town?"

"Boss Yo-kai are the most unpredictable Yo-kai of all." Whisper pulled out his tablet, showing Twilight a few pictures of the many other Boss Yo-kai that he had encountered in his past. "If you thought that the Shady tribe Yo-kai were hard to track, then trying to follow what these big things do is like trying to play a game of pachinko. You never know what to expect. Ever."

"We have a lead. That's the third piece of the puzzle." Twilight nodded as she began to write on a scroll with a quill. "We now know that some big Boss Yo-kai turned Rarity into a cat for the night, frightening Opalescence and making her partially break ties with her." She tried to think of something else related to the mystery, but she ended up sighing instead. "It's not enough, though. We need more to go on. We need more witnesses, more clues, more leads relating to this big cat that Opal described."

"Then let us be off, my dear Twilight." Whisper stretched over towards the door. "Time's a wasting, and the sooner we fix this problem, the better."

"Rarity. I'm sorry if Opal's lost faith in you for the moment." Twilight gave her a gentle rub on the body and picked the cat up. "She can't stay with you if she feels that way, so I'll hold onto her until this mess all blows over. I wouldn't want to see you get hurt again."

"Well, that's very kind of you, Twilight, but I don't think you've ever taken care of a cat before." Rarity looked at Opal, who was still glaring at her. "Ohh... She's got a very strict diet of—"

"Tuna and mackerel." Twilight cut Rarity off this time. "Pinkie Pie's shown me the cans one too many times."

Rarity simply stood there with her mouth agape. She closed it and said, "Uh... yes. Well, I suppose there is that. Just don't forget that Opal spends most of her time sleeping, so don't be surprised if she falls asleep on your little mystery."

"It's alright if she does." Twilight gently stroked Opal's back, listening to her purr softly. "She's already said what she has to say. All we need to do now is to find other ponies who saw you go out with this cat Yo-kai that can validate her claims." Twilight walked over to the door. "I'll see you soon, Rarity."

"Yeah. Bye, Twilight..." Rarity waved Twilight out before she walked over to the bed and fainted on it, groaning into the pillows over everything that had just happened. "Why do I get the feeling that this is going to end in disaster?"