Paolina let out a slight groan as she got up from her bed, She slowly shifted into a sitting position to look out the window. A few birds could be heard in the distance but for the most part it was quiet. The Saiyan had gotten the serv-bots that came with the new house to start up the garden so that she could continue training... but there was just something about this world that caused her to stop training as often as she used to. It took a few minutes of her thinking quietly before she finally found the reason why she was so bored.

"...I need some sort of big threat..." She groaned, knowing that without some sort of big obstacle like a time-destroying demon lord to try and defeat she just wasn't motivated enough to continue training as hard. Paolina gave a sigh as she got up and walked out to the kitchen. Even the serv-bots hovered quietly, waiting on her to give them orders as she simply walked around the house nude. Why was she not wearing anything? She was out in the middle of nowhere, She was a saiyan that was proud of the scars on her body, it was her house and she would do whatever she damn-well pleased? any of those reasons could have sufficed since she really didn't care... the serv-bots didn't judge her... the animals didn't judge her... She had no real responsibilities at the moment... Even trunks hadn't given her any information on who was altering time in an attempt to take over the world.

So what was she going to do? She had no clear enemy, she had no particular reason to go anywhere...

"I think I should go see Spike..." She mumbled as she went to her room with the bottle of water she had taken from the fridge. In minutes she had changed into another one of her Saiyan battle suits, this one modeled after the one Prince Vegeta had used when he came to earth with Nappa, and ordered the serv-bots to keep working on the garden. Aside from that they were given free reign to keep the place orderly and occupy themselves with whatever caught their fancy.

She took her time with the flight to Ponyville, deciding not to break the sound barrier would take her a little over an hour to reach the town, but lately she wasn't in any sort of rush. Everything in Equestria seemed to just be so relaxed... her radio wasn't picking up crimes in progress... although that could be because Equestrian police likely used magic instead of radios... Or something like that. She let out another sigh as she watched the lush landscape of Equestria pass by quickly under her. The sound of the wind whipping by her at her speed drowned out everything as she simply enjoyed the feeling of not being bound to the ground, simply defying the law of gravity as she used her ki to keep herself suspended in the air.

Even that feeling had begun to lose its luster here...

She was a warrior, she had to fight...

But there wasn't anyone to fight... no one that was on her level... none that could give her a challenge and possibly beat her... so... why was she here? To play the knight in cloth armor when the big bads came around?

"That couldn't possibly be the reason..." She muttered to herself. "It would only make them weaker if they depended solely on me..." She took a deep breath before she noticed ponyville coming into view. She picked up her speed just a bit and cut most of it once she approached the town, gliding gently down to the library and knocking on the door once she alighted on the doorstep.

"I've got it!" Came the voice of the little dragon she had taken to considering a real friend here. She smiled as the door opened to reveal the pint-sized lizard, whose smile broadened before he leapt at her. "Lina!" he cheered as he managed to get a grip on her waist. "I missed you! What's up?" He chuckles from the hug, eliciting a chuckle out of the alien warrior.

"I've just been training like usual, nothing too hard since there hasn't been anyone who needs to get a personal relationship with the ground yet." Paolina chuckled as she hugged the little dragon back. "Is it just me or have you grown a few inches?"

He lets go and lets out a half-sigh. "No... But Twilight said that I should be growing any day... it would help... if I hadn't been this size for the past three years..." He lets out a partial frown at the interior of the library.

"I'm sure you'll start soon... Can I come in?" Paolina asked with a warm smile.

He looks to her with a small laugh. "Of course, it is a public library after all." He explained, making his way inside with a chuckling Saiyan in tow. "Want something to eat? or drink?" He asked as she closed the door behind her.

Paolina thought about it for a second. "I'll go with some tea... doesn't matter what kind, if you don't have any I'll just take some water."

Spike let out another chuckle. "I don't like the stuff, but Twilight got the habit from Celestia so we have a bunch of different types... I don't mind the peach tea so much, but most of them just leave a bad taste in my mouth."

"Yeah, it does take a bit of getting used to... but the more you drink it the better, it really does help in the long run."

Spike was about to respond when the door to the basement opened up, letting the violet unicorn in charge of the library into the living room as her horn lit up and closed the door behind her, locking it with a tiny *click*. "Oh! Paolina! It's good to see you again, what brings you here?" She asks with mild surprise.

"It's good to see you too Twilight, I was a bit bored around the house so I decided to stop by and check on my favorite little dragon." The Saiyan chuckled, causing spike to blush and pout a little as he quickly made his way to the kitchen. "Anyway..." She continues with a slight sigh, taking a seat on one of the couches with a slight slump before leaning back into the upholstery of the couch. "...I don't know what to do... Back in Tokitoki city I could just train whenever I wanted and more often than not I'd be able to fight with anyone I wanted to... but here..." She takes a deep breath as Twilight sits on the couch next to her, squeaking a little in surprise before melting at the Saiyan's touch when a spot just behind her ear was scratched and she let out a happy hum. "...Everyone is either too weak or too strong... No one is here to give me a challenge and I was wondering... something..." She starts to trail off as she lets Twilight come back to her senses.

The violet mare blinks a few times, partially wanting to get Paolina to scratch behind her ear again, "What do you want to know?"

"Well, my friend Cello is going to become Kami of this world soon... and... if there's a chance there's a room similar to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from back home... I wanted to see if I could bring Spike with me to train." Paolina gets quiet as she notices Twilight slowly straighten up.

Twilight starts to narrow her eyes a little. "And why would you want to bring Spike with you?"

Paolina lets out a small sigh. "I'm not going to lie here... This whole plan sounded a lot better in my head but... I want to turn him into my rival." She says causing Twilight to get a slightly confused look. "He has a ton of potential, I can sense it... what he doesn't have is the opportunity here to practice that potential without hurting someone. I want to give him a place to become his own hero without putting those he cares about at risk."

"How long?"

Paolina smiled a little as it seemed the conversation wasn't turning out as bad as it could have been. "A month..."

That caused Twilight to raise a brow. "A month? A month and he'll be as strong as you?"

"I hope so... he might not be quite as strong, but he could also possibly become stronger, the challenge has had me interested and excited to see just how much potential he has that can be tapped into."

"And when will you want to take him?" Twilight asked as she got up from the couch.

Paolina got up as well. "Sometime after Cello becomes Kami, So it's not going to be immediately."

Twilight took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds. "I'll think about it... He's still a baby dragon... and I don't know if he's ready to do something like that."

Paolina nodded. "No problem, all I ask is that you consider it... I'm happy to help train him to be stronger, and it would help alleviate the boredom I've been having since I started helping around here." She smiles.

Spike's mouth was open a little in shock as he listened against the entrance of the living room, the water for the tea was still waiting to warm up, so he had decided to see if he could listen in on what Paolina and Twilight were talking about. In a way, he was certainly happy that he had...

"Twilight's really thinking about it! Twilight is REALLY thinking about letting me train with someone that strong!?" he had to contain himself as he nearly started skipping over to the kettle with a smile on his face. The more he thought about it though, the more he started to wonder how Twilight would be able to handle herself without him. Seriously! She would go on study binges and forget to eat, if it weren't for his careful diligence as her number one assistant then she would've likely starved herself with her thirst for knowledge. It was a lot to take in at once, at least it wouldn't be for a while... hopefully...

His mind began to daydream as he got the teapot ready, he had done stuff like this so many times that he could perform most of his duties even while his mind wandered... sadly it got him yelled at quite a few times by Twilight for not listening, that's when the instructions seemed to make their way into his dreams so that he could convincingly not pay attention.

Spike stood above a mountain, his form larger, bulkier... his chin was chiseled to perfection and his spines were as sharp as ever. With no problems he could've easily dwarfed any stallion that tried to stand before him. And what luck! There was an army of every race on Equis making their way towards the confident dragon, simply making him smile as he roared to the skies, causing most of the closer soldiers to hesitate before he leaped from the cliff, picking up speed and reaching the front of the army in seconds.

He only had pants and a cape on, but that was all he needed. The front ranks of the pony soldiers nearly broke and fled just at his descent, all it took was a few punches and rapid kicks to leave most of the close ones unconscious while the rest fled in terror, letting him stare down a legion of minotaurs that had griffons as air support.

It was foal's play as he simply weaved through the minotaur forces, delivering a punch here and a kick there, disabling as many as he could before many of them turned tail as well, leaving him face to face with the minotaur leader... a Big, Hulking brute of a bull who simply pointed at the imposing dragon so that the griffons in the air could shoot him with crossbows.

There was no use though, as the bolts simply bounced off of Spike's tough scales, he inhaled deeply as the griffons were busy reloading. Several noticed the dragon's chest expand with air and quickly scrambled through the air, alerting the others to what was going to happen. Fortunately many of them were already scrambling away as Spike let out his emerald flames, encouraging them all to leave as many of them acquired singed and smoking tail feathers.

He smirked as he looked back at the remaining enemy, as well as behind the minotaur leader at the beautiful Lady Rarity. "Oh Spike! Help me away from this ruffian! Just look at what he did to my mane!" she wailed against the collar and chain that connected her to a large throne atop a battle wagon.

"Don't worry Fair Rarity, I shall handle this curr, then I shall help you from your binds." Spike replied with a deep voice and suave coolness.

"Hah! Don't even think about it... you got no chance, Dragon..." The minotaur said as he pulled a necklace of huge teeth from his side pouch. "I got these teeth from every Dragon I had slain, I'm a professional dragon hunter, you ain't got a chance." He laughed as he let the necklace dangle from his muscled hands.

Spike smirked. "I've defeated dragons too, usually because I have a technique that most dragons don't."

A sudden metal bending snap caused them both to stop and turn to look towards Rarity with a unison "...huh?" before their jaws dropped in shock.

Paolina was standing there holding Rarity like a fantasy hero would hold a damsel he had rescued dramatically. "Hope I'm not late for the party boys..." she chuckled before bringing her hand up to let a sphere of blue energy shoot from her hand to the minotaur to cause a small explosion at his chest and send him flying a few feet away.

"Gah! Oh no! You... Killed... Me...! ...Bleh..." He groans out before going limp, causing Paolina to chuckle again.

"You should probably wake up Spike... Good imagination though." Paolina giggled before the dragon blinked to find himself standing in the living room a few feet away from his caretaker and his friend.

Twilight was giggling a little as Paolina opened her eyes, smiling at him with a wink that caused the dragon to blush again. "It's alright Spike, You didn't miss anything important this time." Twilight giggled before she took a drink of tea.

"Yeah, If you want you can join us, that way you can work on getting accustomed to tea." Paolina chuckled as Twilight scooted over a bit on her chair to give him room to sit next to her.

Spike smiled a little, although he still had a light blush, as he sat next to the purple unicorn he had known all his life. She was practically his mother... and she acted so much like he was her own foal that he was sure that if he ever got a brother, he'd have to compete to be Twilight's number one assistant. That wasn't so much of a problem though, as Paolina and Twilight continued to talk he began to lose focus again as his eyes traced Paolina's form. The skin-tight bodysuit left little to the imagination and the fact that the armor molded around her chest did the same as he found himself simply letting his eyes examine every inch of the Saiyan's toned body. His mind wandered back to his dream, the way Paolina had been holding Rarity... he felt strange about it... a tad jealous that he hadn't gotten to hold her that way but at the same time... a way he couldn't explain. It wasn't quite like what he felt around Rarity... but the more he thought about the image, the more he was simply happy he was friends with Paolina.

Everyone was called to attention as Pinkie burst into the room speaking a million words a minute in quite a huffy attitude, Spike blinked a few times as he quickly got up to get the pink mare some water... instinct telling him that was what was needed at the moment.

By the time he got back out into the living room Twilight and Paolina had managed to calm the party pony down a bit and she took the glass of water he offered with a polite "Thank's Spikey." Before turning her attention back to the Saiyan and unicorn. "Her friend Gilda is so mean! She told me to buzz off when Dashie and I already had plans, I was even willing to include her in our plans... but all she wanted to do was keep Dash away from me!"

Twilight let out a small sigh. "Pinkie... Gilda is a friend that Rainbow Dash hasn't seen in quite some time... What if she just wanted to spend some time discussing hobbies that they shared in flight school? Pinkie... what if Gilda's not the rude one... what if you're just jealous?"

Pinkie gasped and looked like Twilight had just slapped her with a fish, why? It didn't matter why, she just got smacked with a fish! "Me!? Jealous!?"

Spike was biting his lip to keep the bad joke in, it took so much willpower... but in the end, he couldn't help it as he clambered up the back of the couch. "Yeah, you might just be green with envy... or in your case, pink with envy." As much as he knew the joke wouldn't help, he couldn't help but feel just a little bit better and more secure now that he knew he had a good supply of cringe-inducing jokes to fall back on.

Paolina groaned and facepalmed as Pinkie started to bluster. She tried to recover from the bad joke before Pinkie stormed off, but it was too late as she had just recovered as the upset party mare slammed the library door on the way out. Paolina gave a quick glare to Spike, who simply shrugged, before walking over to Twilight.

"You may be right on this Twilight... but sometimes it's better to think about why your friends would throw around such accusations... Pinkie's not normally the type to get this upset at someONE... maybe someTHING, but for as long as I've known her she's practically found a way to become friends with everyone in town just because she loves to be friends." Paolina explained. "I'm going to go see this Gilda for myself to see why Pinkie would act like she did."

Twilight sighed as she hung her head a little, "It's not like I can agree with Pinkie... I've never met Gilda."

"And I'm not saying that you should blindly agree with her, just that you shouldn't jump straight to the conclusion about your friend being jealous." Paolina replies before she heads out and takes to the air.

Twilight looks over to Spike, who simply gives her a shrug. "Don't expect an easy answer from me... for the most part they're YOUR friends."

Paolina spent the better part of twenty minutes searching for Pinkie before a roar in the marketplace caught her attention. "Aw crap... right now? Really?" she groaned a little before speeding off to the marketplace. She landed quickly in the square behind a strange lion-bird-eagle-thing as she caught the end of its' speech.

"I'm getting out of here, too many lame ponies in one place..." she scoffed before flaring her wings and taking to the air.

Paolina watched the creature with curiosity before a shout got her attention. "Linny! Are you okay!?" Pinkie called as she raced over.

The Saiyan nodded a little. "Yeah, I'm alright... although just call me Lina if you're going to use a nickname... What in the world was that thing?" Paolina asked with confusion.

"That's Gilda the Griffon, She made Fluttershy cry right before you got here! Can you make sure she's alright? I want to get her ducks safely to the lake so she doesn't have to worry about them." Pinkie explained with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Of course Pinkie, I'll head right over... I'm pretty sure you'd be better at getting those ducks rounded up than me anyway." With a small nod Pinkie dashed off and Paolina took to the air in order to look for the yellow pegasus. She spotted the mare just outside of ponyville and almost at her home. "By kami do these ponies run fast when they're scared..." she thought with astonishment before angling towards the shy mare's home and animal shelter. Several animals had already formed a type of perimeter around the house by the time the Saiyan arrived, much to the warrior's continued surprise, with several of them letting out warning growls as she approached.

The saiyan held up her hands. "Chill... I'm just here to make sure Fluttershy is alright..." She explained, letting out a small breath when they made a little path for her yet still kept their warning growls, just daring her to try anything funny. In a way, that got a lot of respect... a few days of living in this world had let her know that the non-talking animals had just slightly more of a connection to ki sensing than the talking ones, Winona had been terrified of the Saiyan at first too... but after Big Mac and AJ had convinced the dog that Paolina wasn't going to hurt her, the farm dog had quickly warmed up to the warrior. So it was a small shock to see so many animals willing to fight against power like hers for just a chance to keep her away from the pony that took care of them. She smiled a little as she got to the door. "I promise... I'm just here to help..." She said quietly as she tried to open the door... only to find it locked.

She quickly knocked on the door a few times, the refusal of an answer only caused her to frown a little before putting two fingers to her head before she vanished from the doorstep and reappeared about a foot away from the sobbing mare. The sudden appearance of the Saiyan made her squeak and stop sobbing as she flinched away. A little white rabbit leapt up in front of her and held its arms out as if to block the mare from some sort of attack. Paolina's look softened a bit before she sat next to the buttercream mare, ignoring the bunny's protests, and pulled her into a hug that caused the shy pony to squeak in embarassment. It only took a few seconds though before the tears started up again and Fluttershy was crying onto her Saiyan friend's armor and had the warrior in a tight hug. Paolina simply pet the mare's mane and let her keep going for as long as she needed to.

Fluttershy wiped away the stray tears that remained once she had finally regained her composure. "T-thank you..." She quietly stuttered as she stood back up.

Paolina put her hand on the mare's shoulder. "It's no problem... I consider all six of you friends... I like to make sure my friends are alright." Their attention turned to the door as there were a few sharp knocks right before two letters slid under the door. Paolina quickly walked over to the letters and picked them up, opening the one that was addressed to her. After unfolding the letter she began to read it out loud.

You are invited to a special party to help welcome a very special guest to Ponyville! Our very own Rainbow Dash will be bringing the guest of honor and I hope that you will come to make Gilda the Griffon feel welcome here in ponyville so that she doesn't have to feel like Rainbow Dash is her only friend!

The party will be held at Sugarcube Corner in four hours and will have games as well as full catering. Hope to see you there!

At the end of the letter was Pinkie Pie's signature with a drawing of a happy cupcake. Paolina smiled as she looked back to Fluttershy, "I think we should go..."

Fluttershy immediately shook her head. "I don't want to be anywhere near her... She was mean to me in school... and... and... she roared at me in the marketplace..."

Paolina pulled the shy pegasus into another firm hug. "It'll be fine, you're gonna have me there to make sure that mean griffon gets a beak-full of dirt if she tries to hurt my friends."

"But I wouldn't want you to hurt her because of me..."

"I wouldn't be, I'd be hurting her because of her." Paolina smiled. "It wouldn't be anyone's fault but her own. Now come on, you need to get cleaned up and presentable." Paolina encouraged with a smile.

Fluttershy had her head lower than normal as her wings twitched every so often, ready to have her run at any moment if that griffon tried to roar at her again. The reassuring hand of her alien friend was enough to keep her from simply running away as they walked to Sugarcube corner, it was... relaxing... like Paolina knew exactly where to touch in order to help ease most of her tension. Soon enough the pair made it to Sugarcube corner and the shy pegasus was greeted by Twilight.

"Fluttershy! You've met Gilda already, please... tell me what she's like."

Fluttershy felt her heart, or possibly the contents of her stomach, leap to her throat as she fought the urge to run again. "I... I'll tell you later Twilight.." She dodges and quickly makes her way to the back of the party area.

Twilight turned to Paolina, the Saiyan simply gave a shrug and followed the meek pegasus in order to make sure she enjoyed the party as much as she could. "Oh!" Paolina said just as she passed Twilight. "By the way, where's Spike?"

"He's over at one of the booths... I think that Pinkie got him a plate of Amethysts before she went back to finishing preparations."

The Saiyan nodded and began to look for the booth that Spike was at, sure enough she spotted the dragon sitting alone and spinning one of the gems on the plate sadly. She quietly sat down across from him. "What's up Spike?"

The little dragon let out a sigh. "Nothing much Lina..."

"It doesn't sound like nothing, come on... tell me about it." The Saiyan prods as she picks up one of the gems and examines it.

"Well..." He starts as he sits up a little. "...It's really complicated..."

"It's only complicated when you keep it in your head, talking to someone else can help simplify a problem..."

He nods. "I... I don't know what to do... It's not easy for me to make friends here... I can't say that I had a bunch of friends back in Canterlot, but I did know a few ponies there. Here? Here colts tease me for being around girls so much... and Fillies are all grossed out that I'm a boy... None of them understand half of what I'm saying so I'm too much like a grown up for them... but Twilight still treats me like a hatchling..." He takes a rather curious bite of the gemstone, his teeth snapping it in half before he tosses up the remaining half and he catches it with his mouth to chew on it like rock candy.

"So... You're not friends with Twilight's friends?"

He made a half-grimace. "...Sorta... They're more her friends because whenever something happens I'm still stuck in the library with cleanup duty." the little dragon shrugged a little. "It's not a big deal, for the most part they just go off to do girly things... and it gives me plenty of time to read... I just get... bored..."

Paolina let out her own chuckle. "It seems we may have a bit more in common than I thought then. Ever since the end of that battle with Nightmare Moon I've just been too bored to do anything."

Spike was about to say something before the lights dimmed and the two of them were shoved under a table by Pinkie Pie. It wasn't long before the guest of honor walked through the doors causing everyone in the room to shout "SURPRISE!" She hadn't registered it at first but Paolina was surprised at just how many ponies were able to fit in one room, yet they were all still standing comfortably apart.

At first Gilda had jumped a little at the surprise before she quickly recovered her composure. "Well Dash, you were right about it being a decent surprise."

It took a few minutes for the party to get into full swing but once it did the only one really not enjoying the festivities was the sole creature that the party was supposed to help. Gilda was simply standing over near Rainbow Dash not participating in any of the games that had been started and not really bothering to talk to anyone else. Every so often though, she did take a glance over to Paolina, it only seemed to be when the Saiyan had begun focusing her attention on the Griffon as well. With how often she was looking at the same time though Paolina couldn't help but get a certain feeling deep in her gut... one that she listened to more often than hunger and managed to survive most run ins because of...

It was the feeling that she was about to throw-down, that soon enough she would be getting into a fight and she would have to be ready. Woe betide anyone who made that feeling go off, because it usually meant that person was going to get a rough relationship with the nearest solid object... which in most cases was the ground.

Her train of thought was soon broken as Pinkie wheeled in a large cart full of gifts. "Woah... I wonder who got her all of-... oh yeah, Pinkie... duh..." The Saiyan quickly resisted the urge to facepalm as she gathered with the rest of the crowd as Gilda went to open the first gift... Only to have a bunch of fake snakes pop out with enough force to ruffle the Griffon's feathers on her head. A few of the members of the crowd started to chuckle and one even said that she had that same prank pulled on her at her birthday.

Paolina noticed the one sentence that the griffon growled though. "...yeah... I bet I know who that was..." as she passed a venom-filled glare at the pink party pony, who seemed blissfully unaware that there was a dangerous carnivore standing only a few feet away. Much of the party continued on without too much of a problem despite the prank... that was, until Gilda decided to try one of the lemon drops.

The moment she popped it in her mouth her eyes started to water and her cheeks puffed out, to be honest Paolina had been surprised at the whole cheek-thing, before she let her mouth open and spewed a gout of fire into the air like a small dragon before making her way over to the drink table to grab a glass of something to drink.

Paolina had simply stared in shock until she heard Pinkie giggling. "Oh! Pepper in the lemon drops! Classic!" The Saiyan turned to the mare and gave her a look like she was crazy.

"Pepper?" She said with disbelief as she went to pick up one of the drops and popped it into her mouth. She could taste the black pepper that was sprinkled on them, sure, but nothing hot enough to make a literal gout of fire happen. "What the hell did you put on hers? she literally sent up fire like a dragon!"

Pinkie simply smiled at the alien warrior. "I didn't do anything to them, I had one myself, it just had pepper on it. I think she might be a spice-lightweight." Paolina sighed as the black pepper taste faded from the lemon drop she had just before she noticed the death glare that Gilda was giving Pinkie. The look changed as Rainbow Dash walked up to her friend and the Griffon tried to cover up the glare she was just giving, that was also the moment where Paolina noticed the yellow stain on the Griffon's chest.

"If Pinkie's not careful... that bird's gonna try to murder her... and then I'll have to curb stomp a Griffon..." as she finished the thought though another one crossed her mind as the Griffon tried blowing out a number of candles on the party cake, despite them re-lighting. "On second thought... keep it up Pinks... I want to see if she's worth the effort..."

It wasn't long before Pinkie announced a new game that was being set up. "Heh... pin the tail on the pony eh? probably to make it less offensive to donkeys or something..." She was about to step up to the game when Spike called out that he wanted to use the purple tail, only for Gilda to send him flying with the excuse that she should use the purple tail as the guest of honor, making Paolina dive to catch the little dragon. Once he had landed in her arms and managed to send them both to the ground she checked him over a little to make sure he was okay. "You're good... right Spike?" She asked with concern as she checked his head and arms for injuries. "Nothing hurt?"

He let out a sigh and quickly pushed out of her grasp. "Just my pride..." He replies with a slight frown as they both watch Gilda's attempt at avoiding a prank.

She only managed to take a few steps before slipping on some cake that had been on the ground and screeching as she slid along the floor into the rest of the cake to make a mess and get cake all over most of the closer ponies. Gilda let out a groan and held her head as she sat up, cake sticking to her wings and starting to stain her coat.

"Uh Gilda? The tail is supposed to go on the other end..." Pinkie said sheepishly as everyone started to notice the tail stuck to Gilda's face in the shape of a western movie villain-stache. Once the Griffon noticed where the game piece was and put together what happened she started to scowl, then shake, just before taking to the air and letting out another roar.

She looked down in hate at Pinkie, sheer anger seeming to radiate off of her. "I can't believe I came to a party with such a lame bunch of ponies! You call those pranks!? A hatchling could pull those off!" She landed right in front of Pinkie. "And you! Trying to use all these pranks to humiliate me in front of Dash, Well...! It's not going to work Queen Lame-o!" She gave a huff and started walking towards the door. "Come on Dash, We're leaving..."

At the lack of response she looked back over to the cyan pegasus. "Dash, Come on!" she growled.

"Gilda..." Rainbow Dash started. "...I'm the one who set up those pranks..."

Pinkie let out a gasp. "Ah-Ha! I knew it! That can of worms prank had Dashie written all over it!" She cheered.

At that Gilda seemed to deflate a little and get nervous. "C-come on Dash, you gotta be kidding?" She stuttered a little. "S-she's the one who set all this up! She wanted to make me look bad in front of you!" She practically pleaded.

Dash let out a small sigh. "Those pranks weren't all meant for you, it was just dumb luck that you happened to set them all off." Then she had a bit more of a frustrated look. "Besides... you don't seem to need help doing that."

Dumbstruck, Gilda looked between the earth pony and pegasus before scowling. "Fine! I don't need you anyway, When you decide you want to be cool, come and find me." She scoffed as she made her way to the door. "I'm outta here..." Just as she flexed her wings as if she was going to take off though, she shuddered, which caused Paolina's fightan' feelin' to come back as she tensed up. "No..." Gilda said cooly just before turning around, the sclera of her eyes a pitch-black and her pupils a sharp red. "On second thought... I'll just deal with the problem..." She growled before seeming to vanish.

In the span of just a couple of seconds Paolina was now standing in front of Pinkie, one claw that was outstretched pinned under one arm, the Griffon's beak only a few centimeters from her own, and one fist vertical against the Griffon's chest. In one smooth motion her stance changed to a 'forward-bow' stance while she twisted her fist to a horizontal position and seemed to simply push on the Griffon with it.

With the sound of a drum beat accompanied by the snapping of the swinging doors at the entrance to Sugarcube corner Gilda seemed to have disappeared right out the front door. Paolina straightened up and turned to Mr. and Mrs. Cake. "I'll fix those doors when I'm done dealing with her..." She explained quickly before dashing out the door.

Twilight and her friends managed to quickly recover and quickly followed suit, standing just outside the door as Gilda began picking herself up from the dirt. Rainbow Dash looked over at Paolina in confusion. "What's going on? Why are Gilda's eyes like that?"

"Well, my dear dash, that is mind control, the source... I don't know... but there's only one good cure that I know of because the Supreme Kai of Time diagnosed it before and had me treat it."

"What's that dear?" Rarity asked as the group formed up around Pinkie once Gilda let out another roar as violet flames exploded around her.

"The only cure is a good, strong punch to the face." Paolina replied with a broad grin just before she rushed the controlled Griffon, with Gilda mimicking the dash with a growl of her own. The Saiyan's grin quickly faded as the Griffon was able to keep up with her own speed, albeit with a bit less power behind her punches, so that Paolina couldn't land a hard enough hit as they began to rise up into the air.

Every punch seemed to either graze a few feathers or only hit air as the augmented Griffon would dodge and weave around her attacks, only to counter with strong claw-swipes. Each swipe didn't have enough power behind it to deal serious damage though, so the boost must have focused on her speed. With every second the battle continued going though, Paolina's excitement began to grow.

With a quick exchange of blows and blocks the two of them split in mid-air and hovered at least a good thirty feet off the ground. Paolina smirked at the possessed Griffon. "I gotta admit... I wasn't sure I'd ever find anyone here that could get somewhere near my speed..." She starts, getting an indignant 'Hey!' from Rainbow Dash. "... But it seems that's all you have..."

Gilda narrowed her eyes as she tried to keep her breathing even. "Oh yeah!? how come you're panting harder than I am?"

Paolina smirked. "Am I really? Or do you just think that I am? Do you really think that your new abilities can go toe to toe with a Super Saiyan?"

Gilda growled a little as she tensed up. "I don't have to find out! I'll just kill you here!" She shouts before moving as a brown blur towards the Saiyan. All of the gathered ponies gasped as it seemed the Griffon was about to be true to her word, only for the Saiyan to vanish the second the claw was about to hit and reappear behind her with one hand raised. One swift chopping motion to the back of the Griffon's neck was all it took to send her rocketing to the ground and skip off of it a few times, landing with a groan in a large pile of dirt.

Paolina landed just in front of the Griffon with a smile. "Good work... excellent speed, but you need to work on your power." Gilda only let out a groan before the dark violet aura faded like smoke and she passed out. Twilight and her friends quickly ran up as the aura faded, slowing a few feet away from the pair as Twilgiht took the first cautious steps towards the two.

"Paolina... what happened?" the violet mare asked as she gave the unconscious Griffon a wide berth.

"She was possessed by a powerful magic-user, There's only been two people I've known that could possess like that... but she didn't quite show the same traits... I think it might be a good idea to get the princesses informed on this." Paolina let out a sigh. "Now... if only we had a place to put her in case the power boost only deactivated while she's unconscious."

Gilda let out a groan, causing Twilight to flinch away and for Paolina to tense, she slowly brought a claw to her head as she seemed to struggle just to sit up. "Ooh... I feel like I got hit by an air tram..." she groaned out, letting Paolina relax a little.

"You got in a fight with someone who could break a mountain... and surprisingly managed to hold your own for about a minute."

Gilda looked up quickly with surprise. "W-what? But... what happened?" She let out a pained squawk as Rainbow Dash zoomed over and hugged her.

"Gilda! Are you alright?" She asks quickly, much to the predator's confusion. "Gilda, I might want you to fix your attitude, but you're still my friend... Nothing will change that."

Paolina tapped the cyan mare on the shoulder. "I think it might be a good idea to have us take this somewhere a bit more private... there's still a few details we have to work on."

With a nod Rainbow Dash quickly helped her friend out of the dirt pile and escorted her back to Sugarcube corner, sitting her down at one of the booths as Paolina unclipped the capsule case at her hip and pulled out one of the senzu essense capsules.

"Spike, I need you to get this information down for Celestia..." Twilight instructed, with the little dragon seeming to pull a sheet of paper and a quill from nowhere. "Good, now... Paolina, what did you mean earlier that Gilda was possessed?"

Paolina sat across from the Griffon in question and let out a small sigh. "Back when I was brought to Tokitoki city originally, two time travelers used magic to go back in time and attempt to mess up the timeline... Their names were Towa and Mira, two residents of the demon realm..."

For the next couple hours Paolina explained about how Towa had been the one to use magic in an attempt to alter the timeline in a way that would throw the future in disarray, though her possessions had given those she possessed a boost in every attribute instead of a specific one. Her bodyguard, Mira had been the muscle on their missions until Trunks had assisted Paolina in destroying Mira once and for all during Majin Buu's ascension. While Twilight did ask a bit about some of the other details, the group kept mostly to the topic of Paolina's encounters with possessed fighters, moving on to the difference between Demigra's possession method and Towa's.

"...Overall, while they both boosted every attribute, Demigra had a much larger boost. So far it seems that whoever's doing the possession in this dimension is only focusing on one attribute instead of all of them... I can't say for sure though since I wasn't able to gauge Nightmare Moon's abilities before the boost..."

Twilight nodded, looking over to Spike and the long letter he had written up. "Good... anything else you would like to add?"

"I think what I have to say will be better in person..." Paolina replied. "I'll be heading to Canterlot soon so that I can speak with the Princesses. Aside from that... I think I might have to start training with Spike a bit sooner than we had hoped Twilight..."

Rarity quickly stood. "What do you plan to do to our little Spikey Wikey?" She asked with more than a hint of suspicion. Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash looked on in slight confusion while Gilda was absolutely lost.

"Like I told Twilight earlier, My training is better when I have a sparring partner, and I can sense a lot of potential in Spike. Dragons are forces not to be taken lightly back where I'm from so I'm hoping he has what it takes to help me protect this world. Besides, if there is a room like at the old Kami's lookout then only two people will be allowed in at once, otherwise I would train all of you at the same time."

"What in tarnation are ya talkin' about Paolina...?" AJ asked as she slid out of the booth next to Rarity.

Paolina let out a sigh. "I'm going to put it bluntly... if I wasn't here, Gilda would've been taken control of and then would have proceeded to kill Pinkie... and likely the rest of you. For now I want to train Spike so that he could deal with threats like what happened to you, Gilda..."

She clears her throat. "So... That... That could happen again?" Gilda asked nervously.

"Not likely, I've already proven that I'm way out of your league even with the power boost... if whoever controlled you thinks like most villains, he or she will be searching for someone even stronger to boost in order to make them stronger than me, because if they can beat me, the only defense left will be the princesses. The only reason they would try with you again would be either out of desperation, or to unleash it again when we least expect it to happen."

"How long would you be training with him?" Rarity asked with a bit more concern.

"I doubt it would take longer than a month if Cello is able to acquire the right facilities... although if the right ones aren't available it could take considerably longer..."

Twilight tilted her head. "How long?"

"Well... it could be anywhere from several months to a few years if the lookout that Cello will be getting doesn't have the right room..."

Twilight blinked as she leaned back in her seat. "That long..." she stated quietly.

"Well, only on a less than ideal training area..."

"Come on Spike... We... We need to get home, we need to get this information to Celestia..." Twilight says as if in a daze, The dragon following behind her with a sheepish smile.

Paolina puts a hand to her head as she takes a seat nearby. "... Please Cello... Please become Kami soon..." She looked up as she felt a hoof on her shoulder, her eyes met ocean-blue ones.

"Thanks... for saving me and not hurting Gilda too much..." Pinkie says in a much more subdued voice than normal.

"Don't worry about it, I like to save people, especially if I get to rough up a troublemaker in the process." Paolina replied as she smirked at Gilda. "Besides, she wasn't in control of her actions... I couldn't simply destroy her for that."

Gilda felt a small stab of guilt in her chest as she watched the monkey-creature, no... Saiyan, smirk at her. Was she actually in control of her actions? The more she thought back to it the more she began to remember what happened between her dismissing Dash and landing in that pile of dirt with more bruises than she ever had before in her life along with what had likely been a few fractured ribs and a strained neck.

She slowly looked over at the Cyan mare who had been by her side during the whole exchange, one hoof on her shoulder the entire time, "... Am I really the cool one?" she thought numbly as she had noticed Dash's entire body tense like a familiar Griffon she had known quite a while ago. "Here I am dismissing my oldest friend just because she made more friends after she left flight school... while I... While I..." She quickly wiped at her eye as she shielded her emotions under a mask. "Jeez Dash, it's so dusty in here, how can they sell pastries to anyone?"

"Huh... I coulda sworn I got it all... Oh well... OH! Gilda! We never got to get you a piece of cake before Spike jumped into it! I'll be right back!" With the actual sound effect to match Pinkie zoomed out to the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, confusing the Griffon with how she would still want to be so nice.

Dash smiled. "That's Pinkie for ya, she's happy to be friends with everypo-... One..." the pegasus corrected at the last moment.

Fluttershy let out a small yawn. "I think I should be getting back home... I've gotta put angel to bed, see you tomorrow girls."

"See ya Shy." Rainbow Dash replied as the petit mare got up and made her way out the door.

Gilda thought more about what happened as she saw Pinkie Pie coming back out. "Hey Dash... Mind if I crash at your place for a bit...?"

Rainbow Dash elbowed her side. "Alright, but if it's more than a week then you gotta look for a job around town." She chided, getting Gilda to let out a nervous chuckle. "But seriously though..." Dash continued with a straight face.

Author's Note

Well... I had several ways I thought this chapter was going to end as I wrote it, a few more one-liners that I wanted to add... but all in all, I think a nice 7K chapter like this is nice.

Yay for Gilda redemption! Sorta... slightly... just a bit...