C3- A Quest for the Meek

"Fluttershy, it feels like we've been walking for hours!", Rarity loudly complains. "Could you please fly above the trees again to try and spot anything that looks familiar?", she begs.

"But Rarity, we've only been walking for about twenty minutes. I really don't think I'm going to see anything different.", Fluttershy responds.

Rarity stops her pegasus friend, and looks at her with pleading eyes. "Please, please, please, pleeeeeease!?", she continues to beg.

Fluttershy lets out a weak sigh. "Okay. I'll check again.", she agrees.  She flaps her wings to lift herself from the ground, and pushes her way through the dense tree tops. When she breaches the canopy, she looks around for anything familiar. As she suspected, their surroundings remain unchanged. She pushes back to the ground below, and sits down in front of Rarity. She looks down to the ground and sighs. "Forests, mountains, and valleys as far as the eye can see..."

Rarity slumps her ears, and looks to the ground as well. "What... what happened? Why is this happening?" Fluttershy looks up to offer a response, but she's cut off by a very loud roar in the distance. The two mares look at each other with fear in their eyes, "F-F-F-Fluttershy... How far away do you think that was?", Rarity stutters out.

"It... it sounded pretty far away.", the meek pegasus replies after making a loud gulp sound. "I think we need to keep moving. We should get out of this forest before we run into whatever made that noise...", she suggests.

"I... I concur...", the fashion pony agrees. The two stand up, and begin walking at a fast pace in the opposite direction that the roar came from. They remain silent as they wade their way through the forest; trying to find some end to the wooded area they were forced into. After what seems like hours of walking, they finally reach the forests edge, and find themselves before a beaten dirt path. They can see another forest and more mountains in the distance, but the road stretches out away from all of it for an indeterminable distance.

"Thank goodness. We're FINALLY out of that forest! Let's rest for a moment while we have the chance.", says Rarity. Fluttershy simply nods in agreement. They both sit silently for a few moments; neither of them really wanting to broach the obvious subject of where they were.

Fluttershy finally breaks the silence between them. "Rarity... What do you think happened? Where are we? I don't remember there being some place like this in Equestria at all."

"Fluttershy... I... I don't know.", Rarity states as she begins to mentally retrace the steps of what happened. "Lunalia was casting her spell, there was the big explosion, and then we suddenly find ourselves here. I don't underst- ...wait...", Rarity stops herself as she comes to a sudden realization. She stares wide eyed at her pegasus friend. "We could be where Twilight is!"

Fluttershy jumps up to all fours and gasps. "That's right! We may have gotten caught up in her spell, and ended up where she intended to go! That means...", Fluttershy stops as she begins to think.

Rarity finishes the very thought Fluttershy was running through her mind. "That means it would only be a matter of time before Lunalia shows up! Even if we didn't end up in the exact same place, they must have noticed that we're gone! So it's only a matter of time before we're rescued! We may even be here to help bring Twilight home!", she excitedly explains.

Fluttershy flaps her wings several times in excitement, and then leans forward and tightly hugs Rarity. "We could be the first ones to see Twilight! This may not turn out to be so bad." Before any further words can be shared, the sound of the trees and bushes rustling next to them interrupts their thoughts. They break from the hug, and turn to see that they are being watched by something very big. It has an enormous head, brown leathery skin, and it was clear that its mouth contained a great number of large, sharp teeth.

Rarity nervously gulps and says, "Fluttershy... what is that?"

"It... It looks almost like a dragon... But the head is shaped differ-", Fluttershy's response is cut off as the beast opens its mouth and lets out a loud, bellowing roar! "RUN, RUN, RUN!", she quickly shouts, and she and her unicorn friend break off into a sprint down the road. The giant lizard roars again as it gives chase to them. They both look back to see that its massive size is allowing it to clear the small lead they had gained on it very quickly. It has two long, thick legs, tiny arms, and a long tail.  Within moments, it was on top of them, and reaching down with its large head.

It attempts to bite down on both of them at the same time, but they split away from each other, and the beast falls down as it tries to correct its movement. They both rejoin, go around it, and begin to run as fast as they can in the opposite direction. "Oh please no! I don't want to be eaten by that big something! I'm too pretty to die like this!", Rarity runs through her mind.

The beast is now back up, and in hot pursuit of its prey. Just like before, it quickly covers the distance between them. The two ponies once again attempt to break away from their pursuer, but Fluttershy trips and falls down! Rarity stops, and looks on in horror. Fluttershy looks up to see the creature bearing down on her. It opens its large mouth to reveal rows of massive, sharp teeth. No time to dodge. No time to run. Rarity screams, "SOMEPONY, PLEASE HELP US!!!!"

"POWER POLE, EXTEND!"

The maw of the beast is mere inches away from its prey, when a long, red staff cracks it over the head; forcing its mouth shut, and knocking it unconscious! Fluttershy stares at the beast. It was so close she could touch it with her nose. The beast slowly falls over, and kicks up a veil of dust upon impacting the ground. Rarity runs over to Fluttershy, whom is still frozen in fear. "Fluttershy! Are you okay!? Are you hurt!?", Rarity frantically asks as she wraps her forelegs around Fluttershy.

Fluttershy snaps to attention, and grabs hold of Rarity. "R-R-R-Rarity! That was... eep.", the pegasus lets out a squeak; unable to even finish her sentence. After several moments pass, the meek pegasus regains some of her composure, and is able to form complete sentences again. "That... That was too close, but I think I'm okay. What happened? I thought I saw a flash of red, and then it just stopped."

"I saw it too.", replies Rarity. "But, I could have sworn that I also heard somepony yell." The dust around them clears, and they begin looking around for the source of the yell. Standing at the edge of the road, just ahead of them, is a small creature that's holding a red staff. It stands on two legs, has a white complexion, is wearing a blue gi, and the only place it seems to have hair is on its head. Its hair is black, and seems to spike out in random directions. This strange creature stands shorter than them, and also has the tail of a monkey. The staff it's holding flashes once, and shrinks down to a smaller size. It then slides the staff into a sheath on its back.

Rarity and Fluttershy watch this creature carefully as it runs past them, and up to the large beast that was chasing them. Rarity thinks to herself, "Did this small thing do that!? What is it? Wait... that tail... is it a saiyan!?"

The small boy pokes the beast a few times. "Woohoo!", he shouts. "I never see dinosaurs this big out here! I'm gonna eat good today!", he happily says.

"Um... excuse me?", Rarity speaks, trying to get his attention. He turns his head towards her with a puzzled look on his face. "Did you do this? I mean... knock this beast out with one hit?"

He nods while having a big smile on his face. "Mhm. I was hungry, and it looked tasty, so I'm going to cook it up and eat it. And... hey...", the boy turns his head to the side and studies the unicorn for a moment. "I've never seen something like you here before. You look like a big marshmallow. Do you taste like one too?"

Rarity's face now bears a look of panic and disgust. "Ack! No! I am not a marshmallow, nor do I taste like one!", she loudly replies.

"Oh, okay. What are you then?", he asks. "I've never seen anything like either of you out here."

"I am a pony. A unicorn to be specific, and my friend here is a pegasus.", Rarity replies. She thinks for a moment, and realizes that neither of them even knows where 'here' is. "Um... You said you've never seen anything like us here. Where exactly is 'here'?", she asks the boy.

He cheerfully responds, "This is Mt. Paozu. I live out here."

Rarity looks over to Fluttershy, who is now back up to her hooves, and asks her. "Have you ever heard of Mt. Paozu? I don't believe I've ever heard of it."

Fluttershy shakes her head. "No. I've never heard of it either. Rarity... that means we really aren't in Equestria anymore. What are we going to do? And what if there are more big monsters like this out there? If this is where Twilight is, how will we find her?"

"I'm not sure.", Rarity responds. "We've got to stay calm and think of-", her words stop, and her face turns red from embarrassment as her stomach makes a loud growling sound.

The boy in front of her laughs. "Haha. It sounds like you're hungry."

"Ye-Yes... It would appear so.", Rarity nervously responds. "Well, we were walking through that forest for a long ti-", her words are cut short once again by the same sound, though not coming from her this time. "That wasn't me that time..."

The boy shakes his head. "It wasn't me either."

The two shift their gaze at the yellow pegasus that has, for the most part, remained quiet. She is intentionally looking away from the other two, but her face is clearly red from embarassment. She mutters out a weak, "E-Excuse me..."

"Haha. Looks like you're both hungry." Not one second after he finishes his sentence, the boys own stomach growls loudly. "Haha. Looks like all three of us are! Hey, if you want, you can both come back home with me and we can all eat together.", he suggests. "After all, I've got plenty of this thing to go around.", he says as he motions towards the dinosaur... that was now up and trying to slowly creep away from the group. "HEY!"

It turns its head  to look at the boy. It had a very distinctive knot on the top of its head, its face bore a look of panic, and its eyes seem to be filling with tears. It let out a panicked roar as it bolted away from the group as fast as it could.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY DINNER!", the boy shouts. "Awww... Now I have to hunt something else.", he says with disappointment.

"Was... was that thing crying?", Fluttershy whispers to Rarity.

"It looked like it...", she responds with a whisper of her own. "Fluttershy, do you think we should go with him?"

Fluttershy looks over to the small boy, and then back to Rarity. "He saved us from that big monster, and offered to feed us. He seems nice. It might be safer if we go with him."

"You're probably right about the safer part. It would be nice to have somewhere safe to sit, and think about what we should do next.", Rarity agrees.  She looks back to the small boy that saved their lives. "Ahem, after discussing the matter at hoof, we have decided to take you up on your kind hospitality."

He gives her a confused look. "Hops in what?"

"Um... Your generosity?", she says with a raised eyebrow.

"My general what?", he questions again.

"Uh, she means, we thank you for your kindness.", Fluttershy says.

"Ohhhh. Okay! You're welcome!", he shouts after finally understanding what was said. He walks ahead of them, and motions for them to follow. "My home is this way.", he says, and begins to walk. As the two begin to follow, he turns around and walks backwards. "By the way, my name is Goku. What's yours?", he asks.

"How rude of us. We never made a proper introduction.", states Rarity. "I am Rarity."

"I'm... Fluttershy...", the shy pegasus says to introduce herself.

With introductions finally out of the way, the three converse as they make their way to their destination. Rarity and Fluttershy do their best to explain their situation to Goku, whom has lived in the mountains his entire life, and ask him questions about the area. He, in turn, asks them about themselves and where they came from.

"Goku, are you a saiyan?", Rarity asks.

"A saiyan? What does that taste like?", Goku responds.

"Do you think your other friend is out here?", Goku asks.

"We hope so.", replies Fluttershy. "We're really eager to see her again."

"That's so sad about your grandfather.", says Rarity.

"He's still kinda with me. So I see him every day. You'll meet him once we get to my home.", Goku replies.

It's now late afternoon, and the three finally arrive at Goku's small home. Goku is still full of energy, but Rarity and Fluttershy are barely dragging behind him. They are exhausted from the incredibly long walk. Goku looks behind him to see his two new friends can barely even walk at this point. "You two seem tired. Come inside. I'll  let you meet my grandpa, and you can rest while I go get food."

Rarity looks ahead to see the very small building that Goku calls home. "Is that where he lives? That's barely a shack! I suppose I shouldn't complain. Anything is better than sleeping outside.", she thinks to herself.

They follow Goku inside, and once inside, they see something in the back of the small building that looks incredibly familiar: a small orange sphere that contains four red stars. Goku walks up to it, claps his hands together once, and performs a small bow in front of it. "Grandpa, thanks for looking out for me while I was out again today. I made two friends. This is Rarity, and Fluttershy. They're lost out here, and looking for another friend that's also lost."

The two ponies stare at the orange sphere; not quite sure how to respond to the situation.  Fluttershy finally gives a small nod, and shyly says, "He-Hello... Sir..."

Goku grins wide. "Okay. You can both rest here, and I'll go get some food! Be back soon!", he shouts, and then heads out.

Rarity walks up to the object Goku was talking to, and stares into it. "Fluttershy... tell me I'm not hallucinating from exhaustion. Please tell me that I'm seeing what I think I am."

Fluttershy walks up to it as well. "It looks like a dragon ball, but it's so small. The ones we saw were a lot bigger than this."

"Do you remember the story Vegeta told us? The one he told us when we asked him about his past? When he came to earth, it was for the dragon balls. The size may be different, but the resemblance is too strong to deny.", Rarity explains.

Fluttershy gasps. "That's right! Maybe the dragon balls from earth are different from the ones on Namek."

"Fluttershy... This could be the answer to all of our problems."

"Wait... This dragon ball? What do you mean?", Fluttershy asks.

Rarity walks over to the opposite side of the ball, and looks at Fluttershy through it. "If we can somehow gather all seven of them, we could summon the dragon, and he could send us home!"

"But what about Twilight? Weren't you saying that this is probably where Twilight was, and that Lunalia will eventually show up? They have to notice that we've gone missing. She'll come for us. We just have to wait."

Rarity lets out a sigh. "Don't you remember what Lunalia said about that spell? In its early stages, it was gauranteed death to use it. Since she lost control of the spell, what if everyone thinks that we died? What if this isn't actually where Twilight is? I hate to say it, but we need to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. If Lunalia is looking for us, then she'll find us regardless of where we are. But, if she's not..."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that, Rarity. But, the dragon balls have their own problem altogether. We'd still have to find the other six. We don't know where they are, so how would we find them?", Fluttershy asks.

"I don't really know. But, given our situation, trying to find them is a much better alternative to sitting around and hoping for a rescue that may never come."

The two share no more words. They look at one another and simply nod. Their decision was made. Somehow, they had to complete a near impossible task. Somehow, this fashionista unicorn, and this animal loving pegasus were going to gather the dragon balls. Somehow... some way... they were determined to see Equestria again.

_________________________________________________________________

LUNALIA

Two pegasi soldiers are casually walking outside of a small farming village. "Tell me again why we're actually doing this, Spiral?", one asks to the other.

"Because, Cirrus, the villagers reported seeing some strange magic at the edge of the forest outside of their town. Everypony is still feeling on edge after the incident three months ago. So the king sent us here just to check things out.", he responds.

"Yeah, but it's gonna be nothing. She may have wiped out all of the royal family, except the king and both princesses, but she was beaten. There's no reason for anypony to be so skittish.", Cirrus says as he rolls his eyes.

"You may be right, but the king still doesn't know what caused her to go mad. So he's just being precautionary.", Spiral responds.

"Fine. Let's just do a quick check and get back." The two survey the area where the magical disturbance was reported, and seemingly turn up nothing. Cirrus leans up against a tree and says, "Hmph. See, it's like I said. Nothing."

Spiral lets out an annoyed groan. "Fine. Stand there and do nothing. I'm going to look around a bit more." He walks on ahead to continue looking

"You're wasting your time. You're not gonna find anything.", Cirrus calls out to him. Several moments pass by, and Spiral has offered no response. Cirrus walks to the other side of the tree, and sees Spiral several yards ahead with a look of pure terror on his face. He rolls his eyes and trots over to him. "You'd better not be trying to trick-", he cuts himself short, and his eyes go wide with fear as sees what Spiral has found.

"C-C-C-C-Cirrus... You're the faster f-f-f-flyer. G-G-G-Get back to th-th-th-the castle, and inform the k-k-k-king. He's the only one who could hope to deal with this.", Spiral nervously stutters out.

"You don't have to tell me twice.", Cirrus states, and takes to the sky.

Spiral watches Cirrus fly away. "Oh please hurry. If she wakes up, I won't be able to fly faster than her grasp of death...", he says as he looks down at the unconscious body of Lunalia.