//-------------------------------------------------------// Fluttersaiyan -by TH3C001- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Arrival //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Arrival                                                                Chapter 1: Arrival My story begins June 23, 2012, on a Saturday. It was summer break and I was mostly bored to tears every single day of every single week except for Saturdays. It’s almost ironic how I’m so tough and strong and whatnot, yet I watch a show that seems quite the opposite. You see, on every Saturday a new episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic airs on the hub. In case you haven’t been kept up to speed, this makes me a “Brony”. Unfortunately, it was summer, and the latest season had already ended. So there would be no new episodes until, at least, fall. When school is back in. It just doesn’t seem fair sometimes. So anyway, it’s summer break, and I’m hangin’ out with a couple of my friends. They live in the suburbs while I live in the city, so I’m visiting in a way. It’s a nice place, mixed ethnicity, like a mini America or something. I’m supposed to be spending the night, so before we headed in for the night we were just walking around a couple of blocks and it was getting dark, it was about, 8:30-ish. We wanted to head back in earlier, because it was supposed to rain a lot soon, we could see the clouds coming earlier accompanied by lighting and distant thunder, and my friends were scared to get wet like a couple of cats. But as luck would have it, we got caught in the sudden downpour. As we say in Texas, “When it rains, it pours” and boy did it. I feel I should have mentioned this part a little earlier. I’m not human. Coincidentally I am a saiyan, like from Dragon ball Z. True story. It’s the weirdest thing ever, but it really is true. I found out one day when I was a kid after watching an episode of Dragon ball Z. Now go ahead and admit it, at some point when you were a kid you too tried doing the Kamehame-ha at some point in time or another. Well, when I tried it, it well, worked. I may have destroyed some unlucky person’s car but, what can you do. Later, I also learned how to do the Kaioken, which was pretty fun. And I will always remember the day I learned how to fly, that was badass. So my friends were scared of the rain, right? So I thought it’d be a good idea to start flying around dodging lightning bolts and stuff. The wind sure did start to pick up, and it was getting hard to keep control. The lightning began intensifying and I’m pretty sure I saw a tornado dropping. I thought I was screwed, but then I realized I might be able to use the Kaioken. I used it but it did nothing. I could feel myself being pulled higher and higher into the sky, the rain and wind were blowing at hurricane strength. It was hard to keep my eyes open, and the rain stung against my face. This really was some kind of tornado, and I could feel it’s vacuum pulling the air out of my lungs, and eventually I passed out. I don’t know what in the hell happened, but this was like something out of the Wizard of Oz. I wasn’t in Texas anymore, now I was in some other strange place. When I could breathe again and my brain could get oxygen I woke up. I was soaking wet, and on someone’s couch, in someone’s house. For the moment I had hoped I fell out of the tornado unharmed and that somebody had taken me in from the rain. I don’t think my friends got hurt, I’m pretty sure the tornado never hit the ground, and I was it’s only victim, at least I hope so. Although, I still wasn’t sure if I was in the same state still, I’ve heard stories of how an entire house can be destroyed and a china cabinet can be picked up and set down counties away undisturbed. I hoped this wasn’t the case. But still, I wouldn’t be missed too much, except in school. I lived in a foster home, and should’ve been there that night, but against their rules I decided I would hang with my friends instead. But no, I had to get carried away by a tornado. So, I’m no longer in Texas. When I woke up, I slowly sat up to gather my surroundings. I saw a bunch of pet food, for animals such as birds, rodents, and other small creatures. I also saw a bunch of bird cages everywhere, and playscapes for what I figured were for ferrets or something. ‘Great’, I thought, ‘I’m stuck in some crazy cat lady’s house.’ I got up and walked around. I began to wonder just exactly where I was. I looked out the window. It was pitch black outside and the rain was coming down in buckets. All I could hear was the hurricane force wind and rain, and the biblical thunder outside. In flashes of lightning that that lit up the entire area as bright as day for split seconds, the surrounding area began to take shape. In one direction, vast rolling hills covered in grass. In the other, a forest that seemed to expand into oblivion. With any luck, I may have been picked up from Austin, and simply dropped into Bastrop county. What I found strange was the lack of television, and the absence of a car outside. Whoever brought me here must’ve left, but why would they be out in this mess? Maybe they didn’t own a car. And because of my location, maybe T.V. wasn’t a real necessity. Sure, lots of rural residents don’t have T.V. I was still confused. Should I explore some strange person’s house? Or stay put and try to go back to sleep? I couldn’t help but snoop around. If I thought no television and no car was strange, then this was just scary. I was looking around and stumbled upon a food pantry. Inside, nothing but food suitable for a vegetarian, which I unfortunately was not. Later back in the living room I found a bunch of pictures of ponies in a photo album. I saw the “Mane Six” and others, like Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Big Macintosh, and Angel Bunny, etc. I can understand if you’re a Brony, or a fan of the show, but this was just a little creepy, and the pictures looked so real. I took a second look around at my surroundings, and suddenly everything hit me like a bullet train. I was in Fluttershy’s cottage! My eyes widened involuntarily, and I didn’t know whether to run or play along. And I didn’t dare venture upstairs. What would she do if she saw me in her room? What if she was already there? Would she think I would try to hurt her, like a scared strange wild animal, suddenly in a house which was not its natural habitat? Fuck it, curiosity killed the cat. I slowly walked up stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible, but it wasn’t easy since every step creaked under my weight. I decided to just hover up the stairs. When I got to the top I slowly opened the door. I peered in and found no one inside. I felt like I was in some strange dream. What if she was outside, she has animals outside that would need tending to. I decided I wouldn’t be hurt if I got wet some more. When I got outside it was starting to let up a little, but it was still pretty windy. If I wanted to find her I would have to take to the skies. When I flew around back I saw that all the animals were safely under cover in small shelters. I began to follow a trail that led from the animal pen into the forest. It was a thin dirt path that didn’t seem to be used often. It made sense, since the Everfree Forest was supposed to be dangerous and scary. But hey, I’m a saiyan, I can handle anything in there. After flying for about a mile I began to wonder if I should turn back. But soon I saw the end of the trail. There was a creek washing over the trail, but it looked like a raging river due to the rain. I’m sure there was a small bridge of some sort, but it had to have been under water now. Then I heard the scream for help. A few yards to my right, I could see someone hanging on to a fallen tree. I quickly flew over to find Fluttershy holding onto a badger. She was soaked, cold, and tired, who knows how long she had been hanging on, and how much longer she could hold if I hadn’t gotten there when I did. I was just about three feet from her when she slipped and was pulled in with the current. Her head went under, she had no strength left to keep her head above the surface. I dove in. It was dark, the water was murky, and was rushing at an unbelievable speed. I found her near the bottom still going with the current, and still holding the badger. I used all my strength to swim after her and grab her. I looked up towards the surface, and shot out like a rocket. I headed straight for her cottage. Luckily she held her breath long enough so she didn’t get water in her lungs. I could see her breathing heavily, exhausted. I opened the door and rushed inside and set her on the couch. The badger was alright but freaked out. Fluttershy was out cold but alright. I decided to leave her there on the couch for the night. The whole time she was hanging on, and when I rescued her, her eyes were closed. She’ll be just as surprised to be in her cottage when she wakes up as I was. I saw a clock and saw it said something like 10:47. I didn’t know where else I could sleep, so I just lay on the floor in front of her. I was tired from fighting the tornado earlier, and tired from the recent rescue, so I fell asleep within two minutes. I don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow, or what I’ll say. “Hi, as you may know I’m not from this world, but I’m not dangerous either, nice to meet you.” I will explain who, and what I am, as well as where I’m from. But the how and why will be little more difficult. At least for now we’re both okay. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Acquaintances //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Acquaintances                                                              Chapter 2: Acquaintances I slowly opened my eyes to bright white sunlight filtering in through the windows. I quietly and slowly sat up. I was still in Fluttershy’s cottage, so last night certainly wasn’t a dream. I slowly looked around the room taking in my surroundings for about the fifth time since I’ve been here. I turned and looked at the couch. To my surprise she wasn’t there. That was good news to me; if she had moved from last night then she was definitely okay. I walked to the door and looked outside through the window next to it. It was clear and sunny outside. I opened the door and walked out slow and cautious. It was a warm summer day outside, probably 85 degrees out. I headed around back to see if I could find her. I did. She was tending to some of the animals in cages, like the bunnies. I opened the gate into the fenced area so casually as though it were my own place. The hinges squeaked a little which caused her to look in my direction, my cover had been blown. “Uh, hi there.” I said as kindly and as calmly as I could. She looked a little scared, but she remembered that she had rescued me and dragged me into her house, and that after all of that I probably wasn’t going to hurt her but rather thank her. “Um, hi.” She replied quietly. She seemed incredibly shy and timid. “So. You saved me last night didn’t you?” I asked, as if I didn’t already know. “Y-yes.” She replied just as quiet. “Uh, look, I’m not going to hurt you or anything. I want to thank you for saving me, I’m very grateful.” I told her. We were about 25 feet away from each other, and to make the conversation a little more, conversation-y, like a chat between friends, I walked towards her a couple of steps. She backed up slowly at a distance equal to my two steps. “Please, don’t go, I just want to talk to you for a minute, you don’t have to worry, I don’t bite.” Of course, saying “I don’t bite” never really sounds good even if it’s the truth. I think she believed me, because she came back towards me. “My name’s Dako. And I know this may be weird but I know who you are, and I can explain how, but right now I think I should explain myself first.” I didn’t want to freak her out to much and flood her with my knowledge so I didn’t explain the cartoon yet. “Um, okay, Dako. I’m, Fluttershy, nice to meet you.” She replied quiet and softly. I kept taking steps toward her until I was about 10 feet from her. She was still standing next to the cage of bunnies. They all stared and looked at me like any other bunny would whether they had seen people before or not. “There was quite a storm last night, wasn’t there?” I asked. “Did you know I found you in a creek last night and saved you?” I began letting her know how she got back to her cottage. “That was you?” she asked. “Thank you, you saved my life, but how?” she was asking me questions now, and now I could let her know who I was. “Well, I woke up in your cottage and I decided to go looking for you when I found that you weren’t there. I followed that path there into the forest and found you trying to save a badger. You slipped and were pulled in by the current, so I dove in and carried you out. Simple as that.” I finished with a proud, an almost heroic smile on my face. But she must have known it wasn’t as “simple as that”, because she asked me another question. “But how?” she asked. “Well, it helps when I can do this.” I then demonstrated my ability of flight by hovering off the ground about five feet into the air. She seemed stunned. “How are you doing that without wings?” she gasped. “Uh, well it’s complicated. You see, I am from the planet Earth, well not your Earth, but from a different dimension.” I began explaining how even though I was from an “Earth”, I was still from another planet. And although I looked like the humans there, I was a saiyan. And I explained how being saiyan gave me all of the cool abilities I had, although I still had no idea how I got to Earth in the first place. She was thrilled; after all it sure was some amazing story. “So I was just hanging out with friends of mine and I was picked up by a tornado, I blacked out and the next thing I know, I wake up here on your couch.” By the time I finished my explanation of arrival she was sitting down, but like a dog, on her rear. It was the most, adorable, fucking thing, I have ever, seen. Of course I didn’t burst out Awing like some complete weirdo; I have more self control than that. “You should meet my friends,” she began. “Especially Twilight Sparkle, she would love to meet you.” She said in her quiet, yet still excited way. So I agreed, she spread her wings and flew up into the sky, slow, low, and gentle. Then I followed behind her, the same speed as her, I gently lifted off the ground and followed. Her cottage was probably 10 miles outside of Ponyville, and we were flying about 20 miles an hour, and about 20 feet off the ground. I politely kept the same speed as her, but this was taking too long. So I got the idea to show my full flying ability. “Hey.” I said as I flew right up next to her. “Do you wanna go a little faster, I mean, if that’s okay with you?” I tried to ask politely almost like her. “Oh, well I guess we could.” She replied. Now we were going at close to 30 miles an hour, which I guess is pretty fast, although it’s not 60 miles an hour down and interstate highway. “Can I show you something?” I asked, if she said okay then I would go ahead and take off at full speed, then make a sharp 90 degree turn upward and into the sky and do a couple of loop-de-loops. “Um, okay.” She said. Perfect. I took off at full speed, and I could feel and hear the wind intensifying as I accelerated. The wind got louder as I got faster. I probably hit 60 miles an hour in one second, then to 100 miles an hour in another second. I could’ve gone faster if I wanted, but then the sharp turn into the sky wouldn’t be so sharp. I shot upward straight into the sky, and at about 200 feet up began turning into a loop. As I came back towards the ground I continued my circle for a second loop. When I had reached the peak of the second loop I cut all power and let myself free fall back to Earth. I came closer and closer to Fluttershy, and when I was about 50 feet above her I “slammed on the brakes” so to speak, until I stopped level with her. I was smiling like someone who had just gotten off of a roller coaster. By using the energy I did, it was close to someone running a marathon, at the speed of the 100 meter dash. So I was panting and breathing hard. “Whew, what, did you, think of that?” I said between breaths. “That was amazing!” she said again with her quiet excitement. “You should really show that to Rainbow Dash.” That wasn’t a bad idea. I think once I was properly acquainted with the other ponies I would do just that. Besides, it seemed like I would be here a while, might as well hang with them. After 20 minutes of flying we arrived in Ponyville. We landed outside of Twilight’s place at the library. Fluttershy knocked on the door with her hoof and the door opened as we were greeted by Spike. “Oh, hello Fluttershy. Whoa, who’s that guy?” he wasn’t really scared, but confused and surprised to see, well, me. “Oh, this is my friend, his name is Dako, I found him during the storm last night.” She didn’t give much explanation, but it was her word, so Spike let us in. As I walked in saw Twilight studying her books, and Rainbow Dash with her own pile of books. “Hello everypony,” I said again casually and nonchalantly as though I lived here forever. “Twilight, I see you’re studying as usual, and Rainbow Dash, more Daring Do, am I Right?” All three of them, Spike, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash, turned to look at me in surprise confusion and concern. One, I was so casual, two, I knew their names, and three, I was some strange creature they had never seen before. Spike was just surprised that I knew Twilight, and Rainbow’s names. And upon hearing my voice, Twilight jumped a bit and let out a startled shout. “Ahh! Who are you? And what are you? And how do you know our names?” she asked, then she turned to Fluttershy. “Who is this?” Before Fluttershy could answer, Spike did. “She said he’s her friend, and that she found him during the huge storm last night.” He began. “She said his name is Dako.” I looked at Twilight. “Pleasure to meet you ma’am.” I said half as a joke, and half for real. Half as a joke because it was such a hilarious (to me) amount of casual behavior for being such a stranger, and half for real because I’m polite like that. “Well, where in Equestria did he come from?” she asked. “Well, I didn’t come from Equestria.” I began explaining. “You see I’m from Earth, but not this Earth, another one, some alternate dimension. How do I know? Because where I’m from, you guys are a cartoon made for entertainment, and I watched this cartoon, that’s how I know you all. I’ve seen your adventures, right from when you guys used the elements of harmony on Nightmare Moon” After that, everyone’s jaw dropped, even Fluttershy’s, now she knew how I knew her name. “What’s a cartoon?” I heard Rainbow Dash ask. “Well, it’s like, like your book. Yeah, it tells stories, and it has a series of, episodes. Only a cartoon is like a book you can watch. It’s a series of moving pictures and drawings on something called a television.” I did my best at explaining, thank god I’m so intelligent. “O-kay.” She said slightly confused. “Anyways, who am I? Well, I am from another Earth. It is populated by all kinds of animals, just like the one’s you have here, except for hydra, manticores, and cockatrices. And there’s no pegasi or unicorns, and our ponies don’t talk. Instead of ponies, we have people. The human race. But even though I look exactly like a human, I’m actually a being from another far away place that was inhabited by beings known as “Saiyans”.” After this all had time to sink in with them I could only think of the “seems legit” meme. “So if you’re not a human, what makes you different from them?” Twilight asked. Excellent question and I have an excellent answer, one I always use when explaining to other people what makes me different. I then proceeded to lift off of the floor about two feet. “But I don’t know, what do you think?” I said sarcastically. What? I just have a great sense of humor. Now Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped again. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I wanna be first to hang out with the new guy!” “Yeah! That’s the spirit!” I said. I just wanted them to be as comfortable around me as I was around them. Show them I’m a nice guy and real good person, regardless of species, I mean look at Spike, he’s a dragon and he’s nice too. “So, do you guy’s wanna hear more about me and my world?” I asked. “Yeah!” They all shouted. Perfect, they’re really warming up to me now. I began to tell them various stories of life on Earth, my Earth. I told them about my life and how I found out about my powers and found out how I was saiyan and the huge coincidence behind it all with Dragon ball Z. I shared stories about how my world worked, its countries, the governments in different countries, and how people lived in my country, American life. Then explained all about the technology, iPods, computers, the internet, cars, everything. They were blown away by the similarities of our worlds. Especially the names like Manehattan and Manhattan, Fillydelphia and Philadelphia. When me and Fluttershy first arrived it was around 10:30 A.M., but by the time I was done with all the stories it had grown dark outside, and a clock in Twilight’s place said about 7:24 P.M. “Well it sure has gotten late, time really has flown, it’s time for me to go guys.” I said, but perhaps I should’ve been more specific, they thought I was leaving leaving. “What!?” they shouted surprised. I stared at them blankly for a moment. “Oh! Ha ha! No! I mean, I have to go to bed soon, ha ha! No, seriously, I have no idea how I got to Equestria! I’m not leaving already!” I explained laughing. I saw them all sigh in relief. ‘Yes!’ I thought. ‘They really like me now, they thought I was leaving for real and they all got freaked out! I’m one of them, no longer an outsider. This is great, now the chances of being chased out by an angry mob fueled by fear have been lowered.’ “But, where are you staying?” Twilight asked. “You could stay here, in the library. We have plenty of room.” “Well, Fluttershy did find me, I think I’ll stay with her. Besides, I think I like the rural country life better.” I said. Twilight looked slightly disappointed, I could tell. Even after my lengthy explanation I’m sure she still had plenty of questions. I still had to meet Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. Me and Fluttershy flew back to her cottage together, but much faster this time, probably because it was getting dark, and I think Fluttershy was starting to get a little scared. I pulled out another trick. I powered up the Kaioken and lit the landscape below us in a bright red. Now we could see a little better. We got inside the cottage, and I helped her feed the animals indoors. After that we began getting settled for bed. She made my bed on the couch I first woke up on. “Um, Fluttershy, that couch is pretty comfortable, and I can sleep on many things, even the bare floor. But I was wondering if I could sleep with you in your bed.” I was fine for the fact that I was no longer in my own world, but I didn’t really want to be entirely alone, after all, I slept near her all night after I rescued her. “Oh, um, well…” She sounded a little uneasy, and began to blush a little. Ok sure, my request was a little weird, but I wasn’t a pony requesting to sleep in the same bed as her, I was a person. It might be like letting your dog sleep in bed with you, which not everyone does, but some people do. Yeah, like a dog, that’s it. “Don’t worry, if you’re uncomfortable with it you don’t have to, it was just a suggestion, but after I had saved you and all, I just wanna make sure you’re okay.” I explained to her. “Okay.” She finally said. “Really? Are you sure?” I didn’t want her to feel pressured. “Yes.” I headed upstairs with her. She climbed into bed before me and pulled the covers over her. I sat down on the bed, pulling back the covers when she stopped me. “Don’t you want to take your clothes off?” she asked. “Well, I can. But, that doesn’t seem weird to you?” “Not at all” she replied. After all, they don’t regularly wear clothes. Just because I lived in Texas doesn’t mean everyone owned an oil well, rode horses or stage coaches, or wore cowboy boots and cowboy hats, and said “Howdy partner” to everyone. I still don’t know why to this day that is such a stereotype, especially when in Houston, or “H-town”, people were more likely to say “Yo dawg, what up?”  Anyways, not because of some stereotype, I wore cowboy boots and blue jeans, with a bright orange collared shirt. I took off my boots and socks, my shirt, and my blue jeans, then pulled the covers back. “What about that?” She asked pointing at my boxer briefs. This time I was turning a little red. “Heh heh, no, I think I’ll keep these on, if you don’t mind. Trust me, if I do it’ll save us both a ton of embarrassment.” I said. And that’s all I needed to say, she let me keep them on. Finally I got into bed. Ah, bed, how good it felt to be in one. “Good night Fluttershy, sweet dreams.” I said before rolling over, and eventually falling asleep. I had no trouble falling asleep either, despite my given situation. “Good night Dako.” She said before falling asleep herself. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: Party in Ponyville //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: Party in Ponyville                                                                       Chapter 4: Party in Ponyville It was now dark, probably 8:00, and me and Fluttershy could see Sugarcube Corner. I could also see a bunch of other ponies arriving. My own arrival would be a chance to show off my powers, and to show them how nice I could be. Fluttershy landed before me, while I watched from about 100 feet up, waiting for the signal. “Where’s Dako?” Pinkie Pie asked confused. “Don’t worry, he’s right behind me.” Fluttershy said. That was the signal. I slowly drifted down over the ponies that were arriving and yelled out to them. “Hello everypony! My name’s Dako, and it’s good to meet you all!” I yelled to them. Most of them gasped, then others began to cheer and applaud. I touched down and bowed, causing them to cheer even more. As I walked in to the bakery they all followed me, like I was a celebrity. As soon as everypony was inside I heard some music start playing. Out of all the technology they were lacking, I was glad loud speakers, music, and a means of playing music, wasn’t among the missing technology. Everpony started to dance, talk, hang out with friends, and drink punch. I began talking to other ponies as well, meeting with them, shaking their hooves. I was letting them know just who I was, what I was, where I was from, and all of my good intentions. Everything was going as planned. Eventually, I met the Mayor, Mayor Mare. “So, you’re the new pony in Ponyville?” Mayor Mare asked me. “Yes, although I’m not really a pony, where I’m from, instead of “pony” we say “person”.” I told her. “Ah, yes I see. So now that you’re here, you say you want to be our hero and protector?” she asked. “Well, I do have these super powers. I also just want to help out, do what I can to make things right, if anything bad ever happens. I’d just like to help people, or ponies in this case.” I told her. “Well, I’m glad a good and kind creature such as yourself came here, instead of some monster.” She said laughing. After talking to and meeting other ponies, I sat down at a table with my new six friends. We were talking and laughing, and when I say we, I meant mostly them. They were talking about matters foreign to me, local events I wasn’t aware about. But still, I sat and listened, but then I got to thinking. “So, I really will be living here now. I like staying with Fluttershy, but I might have to get my own place eventually. And if I do stay with her, I’ll still need a job.” I then brought up the topic to them. “Hey guys, do you know where I could get a job?” I asked them. Who knew they’d be so excited to help. “You could help at the library!” shouted Twilight Sparkle. “Help with the weather!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “Help me buck apples!” shouted Applejack “Assist me in my dress making!” shouted Rarity. “We could bake together here!” yelled Pinkie Pie. “Or, you could help me with my animals.” Fluttershy suggested quietly. “Well, at least finding a way to make money here shouldn’t be too hard.” I said chuckling. “Well, how about a place to live? Any apartments or homes?” I asked. Again, I had no idea they’d all be so eager to have me stay at their places first. “There’s extra room at the library!” Twilight Sparkle yelled. “I have room at my place in Cloudsdale!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “We got room on the farm!” Applejack yelled. “I have a place at the boutique!” Rarity yelled. “You can stay here!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “You can keep staying at my place, I don’t mind.” Fluttershy said gently. “Ok, that shouldn’t be hard either.” I said laughing again. This place, and all of Equestria was perfect. Maybe there would be peace on Earth back home, if every country launched nuclear war, and when all the humans were gone, there would be peace. Yeah, that’s it. Humans have a violent nature. But ponies are gentle and nice. That’s what makes this place so great. I don’t think I’ll ever leave, even if I knew how. Everything was going great, everypony was having fun, there was partying and dancing. I was sitting and chilling out at a table watching my friends dance. I was watching Pinkie Pie dance, and she was really good, but I was laughing my ass off and almost fell out of my chair at the faces she was making while dancing. Then I suddenly felt something. It felt a little like the floor was shaking. I looked around, and noticed nothing out of the ordinary, but I could still feel it, and was intensifying. It wasn’t like a rumble, it was like something huge was taking steps. I remembered Jurassic Park, and looked at my glass of punch. It was rippling a little. But the steps kept coming, and they were getting bigger. Soon the ponies stopped dancing, and they all felt it too. I got up and walked outside to check it out, and a few ponies followed, including my friends. When we got outside we were all shocked. About 100 yards away we saw a dragon walking into Ponyville, a giant, 100 foot tall, red, dragon . I didn’t do anything right away, if it wasn’t going to do anything it would be best not to provoke it. Of course, that would include not running or screaming in fear, which of course, almost everyone did right away. The dragon noticed us right away and roared, scaring everyone even more. The dragon turned and brought his tail down towards the bakery. I jumped up and kicked back at his tail as hard as I could, sending the dragon stumbling forward. I can’t believe I actually did that. All that did was piss him off, so he swung for another building. I dodged over to him and caught his tail. He then began swinging me around and eventually shook me off. I was flung into somepony’s house. I hit the building hard as I flew straight through the wall, sending up a cloud of dust and debris, splinters of wood, and chunks of plaster. I blasted right out of the cloud of dust and flew towards the dragon. He was just about to stomp in a house when I distracted him. I put my hand out, and launched a blue energy ball at his back. When it made impact it exploded loudly into a cloud of smoke, it may not have hurt him, but it sure got his attention. He began walking back towards me. He swiped at me with his left arm, which I dodged, then with his right, which I dodged again. He was really angry now, if he couldn’t hit me, he would just roast me. He took a deep breath, and blew a huge torrent of flame and fire right at me. I had to power up and try and deflect it around me, but then I remembered that behind me was the bakery. I put both of my hands out in front of me, and blasted. The blast of energy blew back his fire and narrowly saved the bakery from a crispy fate. I heard my friends cheering me on, so I turned and gave them a thumbs up, even though they don’t know what that is or means, lacking thumbs themselves. While I had my back turned the dragon took his chance to swing his tail at me. He hit me and sent me flying into the ground hard. I slid 20 feet before I stopped. The dragon roared again and stomped on somepony’s house for real this time. I heard other ponies screaming in terror. I got up slowly, I was hurting, but I wasn’t hurt too bad. I faired better than my tuxedo, a sleeve ripped open along the seam, one of my pants legs ripped the same way. “Alright asshole, I didn’t want to do this, but I have no other choice.” I said as I used the kaioken. The bright red aura engulfed my body like fire. Gusts of wind were generated as I powered up, stirring up dust. I took off blowing up more dust and flew straight at the dragon. I kicked him right in the chin knocking his head back. I flew around to his left and punched him right in the side of the face. He began stumbling sideways and tripped, falling straight for three homes. I flew straight underneath him and caught him. I began straining, trying to lift him. I powered up to kaioken times 2, and began flying upward with him. At about 300 feet up, I cocked back and threw him as hard and as far as I could, then I dropped out of the kaioken. He flew a couple hundred yards and then opened up his wings and stopped himself. He began flying back at me as I brought both of my hand together, and pulled them back. “Ka… me…” I began. Suddenly, a blue light formed between my hands, flickering brightly, and I could hear the unmistakable sound. The dragon kept flying towards me, picking up speed, and closing the gap between us. “Ha… me…” I continued building energy. Soon a ball of energy formed in my hands. The dragon kept coming at me, getting closer and closer. I went back to kaioken to get even more energy. “Haaaaaa!!!” I screamed as I thrust my hands forward, cupped together. A bright beam of energy flew from my hands and shot out towards the dragon. The dragon was caught in the beam with full force and stopped dead in his tracks. He started flying backwards out towards the wilderness. As the beam flickered out and stopped I saw the dragon continuing in the direction out of Ponyville. I hadn’t hurt him too bad, but he was definitely scared, and decided to leave. I began floating back down towards the ground, and began hearing cheers of joy, from my friends, and from the other citizens of Ponyville. Everypony began running towards me and picked me up. They threw me into the air while shouting “Hip Hip Hooray”. Only two buildings were destroyed, but no one was hurt, and I had saved them. “Aw yeah! You did it! You showed that dragon who’s boss!” Rainbow Dash cheered. She flew up to me and gave me what I would call a “Brohoof”, although with an actual hoof against my fist, it kinda hurt a little. Then the crowd set me down and the rest of my friends came up to me. “You did it Dako, you saved us all.” Fluttershy said hugging me. “Well I’ll be, that was some rumble, you showed that dragon what for.” Applejack said smiling. “That was super duper cool, you were flying around, and glowing bright red and shooting light and stuff!” Pinkie Pie yelled while hopping up and down. “That was exciting, you all had us worried there when you hit the ground, we thought you were hurt.” Twilight said to me. “Oh darling! You ruined your tuxedo, you simply have to let me fix it!” Rarity said, more concerned about her work, than my work. I was fine except for a couple of scrapes and cuts, and maybe some bruises later. After everypony had a chance to say “Thank you”, and shake my hand, and get a few pictures, the crowd died down as ponies left and went home. It was late, maybe 11:00, and my friends went home too. We all said goodnight and left. Me and Fluttershy flew home and got settled in. She was concerned about my injuries and took a look at me. “I’m alright Fluttershy, really, I’ll live. It’s just a few cuts.” I said to her. “Oh no, I have to clean them or they could get infected.” She said. “Trust me, I’m tougher than a couple of germs.” I tried to tell her. “I’ll be right back.” She said as she left to get some bandages. She came back with what looked like hydrogen peroxide, and some gauze. She opened the bottle and held it between her hooves. “Hold still, this might sting a little.” She warned me. “I did just fight a dragon, I’m sure it won’t be so ba- Aagh!” it was actually more of a sting than I had expected. “I’m sorry, are you alright?” she asked me concerned. “Yeah, just wasn’t expecting that. Keep going.” I said. She wiped my scrapes and cuts clean with cotton, then wrapped my arm and leg with the gauze. “There, all better.” She said smiling at me. “Thank you.” I said. Then I leaned down and hugged her around her neck. “It was nothing, it’s just what I do.” She said. We flew up to her room together and we got ready for bed. She got into bed first. I took off what was left of my tuxedo’s coat and pants, then took off my undershirt. They were ripped up pretty good, but I liked them. I guess I would take them to Rarity’s and have ‘em fixed up. I pulled back the quilts and into bed. Fluttershy was almost asleep. “Good night Fluttershy.” I said. “Good night Dako.” She replied. Tomorrow I would look for a job of some sort. I would look for a place to stay later, but first a job. Soon, Fluttershy was fast asleep, and then I was too. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Job Application //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Job Application                                                                       Chapter 5: Job Application I awoke at the sound of a rooster crowing. I opened my eyes tired and lazily. I looked over to my left, and saw Fluttershy cuddling next to me. She had her forelegs wrapped around me, and her head on my chest. And she was smiling. She felt so warm and soft, and I didn’t want to disturb her. She was so cute and adorable. I moved my left arm underneath her and around her. I held her close to me, and returned the cuddling. I whispered in her ear. “Good morning Fluttershy. You’re cuddling me, you know that?” I said. She woke up, slowly opening her eyes. “Good morning Dako.” She said. She then looked down and saw that she was cuddling me, and started blushing. “Sorry, it got cold last night.” She said. “It’s alright, I don’t mind.” I said smiling. “But you have to let me go now, I have to get up.” I said. Even though I didn’t want to get up, I had to if I wanted an early start at finding a job. “Okay Dako.” She said. Then she let go of me. I got up and put on my normal clothes, starting with my orange collared shirt, then my blue jeans, then my socks, and finally my boots. I headed downstairs, Fluttershy following me, and headed into the kitchen. “Dako, would you like me to make you something for breakfast?” She asked. “Sure, if you really want to. Do you have any eggs?” I asked her. I remembered that in this world all ponies were herbivores, or plant eaters, and don’t eat meat. Which kinda sucked for me, ‘cause that’s all I ever ate. But eggs are protein, so if I ate enough eggs, then I should be just fine. Fluttershy trotted out to her chicken coop and brought in five eggs. Not enough for my saiyan appetite, but enough that I could cope with. She cooked them hard boiled, and after breakfast, I was ready to go. “Alright Fluttershy, I’ll be back later today, hopefully with a job of some sort. If you need anything just come and look for me. Okay?” I told her. “Okay, I understand.” She replied. I left at around 9:00 and flew over to Twilight’s place first, to see what she had. I landed at the front door and knocked. Twilight answered the door, instead of Spike, she must’ve been expecting me. “Hello there Dako, it’s good to see you, what brings you by?” she asked. “Well, I was wondering if you had any jobs here for me at the library. I could shelve books, or help ponies check books out, or something.” I told her. “Well I can let you try.” She said smiling. She invited me in and got me started. “Are you familiar with the Dewey decimal system?” she asked me. “Well, I know it categorizes books, but I don’t know which is which.” I explained. “Just put these books on that shelf, okay?” she said. “Sure, I can do that.” I said with a smile. I grabbed a stack of books, about five in the stack, and walked to the shelf. A tall shelf. I flew up to the empty spot and began shelving the books. When I was done I flew back down. “There, easy.” I said. “Okay, now take the rest of these, and put them up there as well.” She said, revealing a stack about 100 books tall. “Uh, kay.” I said as I stared at the height of the stack. After 15 minutes of high speed shelving I had them all put away. I looked around at all the books here. I noticed a section labeled “Culture” and saw a big book that was semi hidden between a shelf and the wall. I pulled it out and dusted it off and looked at the title. It said, “The Pony Sutra” I quickly put it back where I found it. I think I may know why it was put back there. The book wouldn’t fit though, so I began forcing it, noticing the shelf was wobbling. Twilight walked into the room to check on me just then. “So, how’s it going so fa- look out!” she yelled as she saw the shelf coming down. “Crap!” I shouted as I flew up to catch the shelf. I stopped the shelf, but as soon as it did all of the books on it slid right out, and any book above me fell right on me. I fell and was caught under the pile of books. I clawed my way out, and flew out and to the side of the pile, there must’ve been 300 books in the one pile. I saw Twilight looking at me with an angry look. “Um, oops, I’m sorry, I can help cle-“ she then cut me off. “No! I got it, you’ve done enough for today, you can go now.” She said, obviously angry with me. I left and decided to try and see Rainbow Dash. I flew up and above the cloud layer. I looked all around until I saw her house. It doesn’t quite seem fair how she has a mansion, but since it’s made of clouds, which are a free material for sky housing, she can make her house as big as she wants, since she can move and manipulate them. I flew straight over to her house, but found I couldn’t walk on the clouds like she could. That didn’t stop me from trying to knock on her door, which I later found was impossible too. So I just flew in through the door. I called her name, and immediately she flew down stairs. She was extremely excited to see me. “Dako! What are you doing here!? Are you looking for race!?” she started asking me excitedly. “Whoa now! I’m just here to see if you have a position open on the weather team!” I told her. “Oh. Well of course I have a position for you! Anything for you!” she said excited again. We left and headed back towards Ponyville. At some point during our trip Rainbow Dash got the idea to race me. “So Dako, wanna race?” she asked me. “Sure, but I have a question for you.” I told her. “I don’t need wings to fly, right?” “Yeah, so?” she told me. “So? Think you can keep up?” I said smiling at her. Then I blasted off ahead of her. “Oh! It’s on now!” I heard her yell from behind me. I looked behind me and saw her gaining on me, leaving behind a rainbow streak in the sky. For having to use wings to fly, she was incredibly fast. Well, she did do a sonic-rainboom before, twice. She flew right past me, probably at 200 miles an hour, and I could tell she wasn’t trying. “Think you can keep up!?” she yelled back at me. This time I really poured it on. I went full throttle, full power, all out. I barely started to keep up with her, but then she started flying faster. Since we were now flying at full speed, we arrived in Ponyville sooner than we expected. We slowed down and hovered over the center of town. I had to catch my breath, while she floated not even tired. “So, flying without wings not as good as you thought?” she asked me, smiling victorious. “Well, I, have to, use my, energy!” I said out of breath. “You can just, flap your, wings, and all!” I said again breathing hard. “Ha! You’re not tired, are you?” she asked me almost laughing. “Me, no, of course not! I fought a dragon before.” I told her. “Although, to be honest. I kinda held back.” “Oh really? Is that true?” she asked me. “Well it turns out, for a job on the weather team, you have to apply at the weather center back at Cloudsdale.” She said smiling. “I’ll race you back!” she said, and took off. “Are you kidding me?” I said, a little annoyed, before taking off myself. I went full power again, and this time, I went kaioken. I suddenly took off in a burst of sudden speed and acceleration. She may have had a five second head start, but in one second I had already passed her up. “Beat that, wings!” I yelled back at her. Now, she was trying. I may have been going around 250, but she caught up, and passed me. It wasn’t so important to me, but I wanted to win anyway. I used kaioken times two, and really took off, faster than I ever have. I think I probably hit 400 miles an hour. I flew past her again, and luckily I saw Cloudsdale, and stopped hard as I got near a few pegasi. They all gasped at my appearance, come to think of it, they weren’t at the party, so they didn’t know me. Just then Rainbow Dash came up behind me. “Aw man! No fair, you used that glow thing you used last night!” she said disappointed. “Oh, hey guys, this is my pal Dako. He’s new here.” She said to the frightened pegasi. “He’s looking for a job, wanna teach him how to manipulate clouds?” she asked the other pegasi. If I was a friend of Rainbow Dash’s, they would help me any way she asked. I was led over to the training area. In front of me was a cloud, the size of a sofa. “Ok, try and move it.” Rainbow Dash said to me. “Uh, okay.” I tried, and of course my hands went right through it. “Uh, okay, well there you have it. I can’t.” I said. “Since you’re not a pegasus it won’t be easy. But since you can fly, all you have to do is focus.” She told me. “Okay, right. Just like energy control.” I said. We were all hovering about a mile up in the sky. It was me, a cloud, Rainbow Dash, and seven other pegasi, floating around me in a large circle. I reached out, and tried to push again. This time it worked, I moved it about a foot. “Alright! It worked! Hey, when you hit them they’ll rain, right?” I asked excitedly. “Wait, I don’t think you’re ready for tha-.” Rainbow Dash tried to stop me but it was too late. I pulled back my right fist, and punched the cloud as hard as I could. It darkened immediately, rumbled with thunder, then began dropping hailstones the size of baseballs. A few hailstones hit a couple pegasi flying by below in the head. “Oops, sorry, guess I hit too hard?” I said sheepishly. They weren’t happy. “I think you should leave, Dako.” Rainbow Dash whispered to me. I took off and flew towards sweet apple acres. Things hadn’t gone well at Cloudsdale, but maybe things would be better working with Applejack. After ten minutes of flying I reached sweet apple acres. I saw Applejack outside bucking apples from trees. I landed and yelled out to her. “Hey Applejack! Got work for me!?” I asked her. “Howdy Dako, come on over!” she yelled back. I walked over to the tree she had just bucked the apples out of. One trees worth of apples filled an entire basket. I’ve tried apples before, but something about them just isn’t appealing. The texture, I think, and the peel especially. But I love apple juice, and apple pie, those are alright with me. “So, what can you start me off with?” I asked. “Picking up, or catching apples? Or do I get to knock ‘em out of the tree right away?” I asked eager to begin working. “Well, I want to plant a couple of new apple trees, but the ground needs preppin’. Can you pull a plow? Since you ain’t a pony you ain’t exactly built to pull plow, but you are a might bit strong.” She said to me. “Sure, I’ll give it a try.” I said. I walked over to a plow sitting in a bare patch of land. I grabbed the harness and began pulling. It wouldn’t move, I wasn’t heavy enough, and my boots were slipping in the grass. So I got up off of the ground to see if I could drag it by flying. And I did, a little too fast. The grooves were crooked and uneven. “Okay, I guess that works.” She said. “Well, you can’t exactly buck, but let’s see if you can get those apples out of the tree.” She pointed at one lone tree. I walked over and punched the tree as hard as I could. I accidentally took some bark off, and only one leaf fell. So this time I spun and kicked as hard as I could. This time a couple apples fell. I smiled a little at this small accomplishment, and then I got the idea to do the kaioken on it. I erupted into my red aura, then I spun again and kicked with all of my strength, but maybe I shouldn’t have. I split the tree and lodged my foot in the middle. “Bloomberg the second!” Applejack yelled out in concern. “Uh, oops, my bad, h-hold on, I think I can get out.” I said as I yanked my leg back trying to free my foot, but the tree began to uproot, and I could hear the roots snapping. Applejack could no longer stand, and sat down in shock. “Uh, crap, wait I got it!” I yelled out. Without thinking I stuck my hand out and fired an energy blast at it. The tree exploded into splinters of bark and wood and leaves. All of the apples flew everywhere. When the dust cleared I only saw a jagged looking tree stump left. I powered down and landed 15 feet away from the tree. Applejack didn’t look good at all. “I’m sorry Applejack, I didn’t mean to-.” She held up a hoof to stop me. “No no. I-it’s just a, t-tree, j-just a tre-.” She fell over and fainted. I just slowly turned and flew off. I headed to Rarity’s at the Carousel Boutique. Maybe she would let me work there, if I didn’t tell her about the others. I knocked on her door. She opened up and greeted me. “Dako, darling! What brings you here?” she asked me. “Well, I’m looking for a job, do you have anything for me to do?” I asked her. “Well, I do have a few outfits I had in mind for you. Would you like to try them on?” she asked me. “Oh, well, I was kind of looking for something to do.” I told her. “Well, I do suppose you could help decorate.” She suggested. “Uh, painting? Wallpaper? If its work, I can do it.” I said to her. “Well, I was going to have my workroom painted, would you like to do that for me?” she asked.   “Sure, let me in there!” I said, eager not to mess this up. She led me to the paint cans and brushes. She wanted the entire room painted, which would seem hard, considering the size of the room. But hey, I could fly. There was a can already open, so I got my brush, and began painting. Rarity said that if I needed anything I could just ask. I finished the first can, and I was already halfway done with the ceiling, so I flew down to open another can. I tried to pry the lid off, but it was stuck. So I held the can between my legs, and tried to pry the lid off even harder. I didn’t know how hard I was squeezing, and as soon as I got the lid off, the can exploded sending blue paint everywhere. It got all over the place, on her dress models, her work table, and her rolls of cloth. Then she walked in. “Dako, dear. How is everything, did I hear something spill?” she said just before entering the room. Her eyes shot wide open and she gasped at the sight. “Rarity! I am, so, sorry! I will clean this up, all of it! I will, I-.” I started, but she cut me off. “Dako, that’s quite alright. You may leave now, I no longer require your help.” She said, holding back anger. “O-okay, I, I’m going, sorry.” I said as I left the room. I walked out and stood in front of the boutique for a few minutes. It was probably 4:00 now. I had been all over Ponyville, all day looking for a job, and all my attempts had been failures. Pinkie Pie was my last option, and I had to make sure I didn’t mess anything up. Of course, like everything else, that was a disaster as well. I felt I should save you all the time and just tell you what happened. Even though I saved the bakery from being roasted last night by the dragon, I almost burned it down in an attempt at baking. I had never been so ashamed and embarrassed. After that happened, I flew straight back to Fluttershy’s, and by that time it was around 6:00-6:30. “Hello Dako, how did your job hunt go?” She asked smiling. “Um, well, I don’t really have a job. I tried and failed at everything.” I said kinda upset. “Oh, that’s ok. You can always help me with my animals, would you like that?” She said to me still smiling. “No, I might accidentally kill something. Besides, I wanted a job that would pay me, so I could pay you back for taking care of me, and with all the food I eat.” I explained. “That’s okay Dako, honestly, I don’t mind taking care of you.” She said, still smiling. “Thanks Fluttershy. But still, I would like to make some money, so I can get my own stuff at the very least.” I told her. “I understand. Don’t worry Dako, you’ll get a job, I just know you will.” She reassured me. Then she walked over to me and hopped up on her hind legs, put her forehooves over my shoulders and hugged me in a way. I put my arms around her and hugged her in return. “Thanks Fluttershy, I needed that.” I told her as I started to smile. She was right, tomorrow would be better. I would make sure of it. Today was just serious bad luck, and tomorrow I knew things would go right. Tomorrow I would continue my job hunt, and possibly for a place to stay. Me and Fluttershy walked upstairs and got ready for bed. We got into bed and began to fall asleep. Then Fluttershy asked me a question. “Dako? Would you mind if I, um, cuddled with you again?” she asked shy and quiet. “No.” I said smiling. “I wouldn’t mind at all.” I then put my arms around her and held her in a hug. She buried her head into my chest and began falling asleep. She was so adorable, soft, and warm. I could no longer resist sleep, and I too fell asleep. “Good night Fluttershy.” I whispered just before falling asleep. “I love you.” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6: You've Got Mail //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6: You've Got Mail                                                                           Chapter 6: You’ve Got Mail I woke up to the crowing of a rooster outside. Eye opened my eyes to see sunlight shining in through the window. I looked down and saw Fluttershy lying next to me, with her forelegs still wrapped around me, still cuddling me with her face in my chest. We were still lying on our sides, I don’t think either of us moved all night long. I slowly pulled away from her trying not to wake her up. I got out of bed and got dressed, then went downstairs to get breakfast going. I was able to find 10 eggs in the chicken coop today, and I scrambled every single one. I also found a sack of potatoes in the food pantry, and chopped up a few and fried them in a pan to make hash browns. Soon Fluttershy came down stairs. “Good morning Fluttershy. Breakfast?” I asked her. “Good morning Dako. What did you make?” she asked sitting down at the table. “I scrambled some eggs, and fried some potatoes, they’re called “Hash browns”.” I said. “Oh, it looks good.” She said smiling. “Try some.” I said already stuffing my mouth with eggs and hash browns. She sniffed the potatoes a few times, and then took a bite. “They’re good!” she said with a smile. “Thank you, I’ve never really cooked before, and when I tried my hand at baking yesterday I almost burned down Sugarcube Corner.” I said chuckling. “I don’t see how, this is great!” she said smiling again. “Thanks.” I said again. I finished eating and got up, taking my dishes to her sink. “I have to go and look for a job again Fluttershy, and today I am going to get one too.” I said. “But I want to go apologize to Twilight first, and everyone else. I’ll be back in a while, and again if you need anything at all come and look for me.” “Ok Dako, be safe.” She told me. I walked outside and flew away. I headed straight towards Twilight’s place at the library. Although a little unnecessary, I flew as fast as I could at top speed, without the kaioken. I think I was flying at 250 miles an hour. When you think of the fact that I was flying out of willpower with no wings, using my own energy to move myself through the freaking air, 250 miles an hour seems pretty fast. At that speed it took me five minutes to get to Twilight’s place. From now on when I’m not with Fluttershy I think I will always fly as fast as I can, to get better at flying. I landed right outside the door and knocked. Spike opened the door for me and let me in. “Hi Twilight, how are you today?” I asked with a smile. “Oh, hi there Dako! I’ve been fine today, you?” she said cheerfully. It was like I hadn’t destroyed a shelf of books. “Well, I wanted to apologize, for yester-.” She cut me off and held up a hoof. “It’s okay Dako, you were only trying to help, and you had an accident. Everyone has accidents.” She said. “So, you’re not angry at me, right?” I asked her. “Of course not!” she told me. Just then a letter came in from Princess Celestia, as Spike spit out the letter in a magical flame. Spike began reading the letter aloud. “My faithful student Twilight Sparkle, It has come to my attention that there is a new resident living among you in Ponyville. It has also come to my attention that they are not a pony either. I would like you and your friends to escort them to Canterlot immediately so I can meet them myself.” Spike finished reading. Twilight stood there with her eyes wide open, and her jaw was dropped in disbelief. “Oh no! What is she gonna do? What are we gonna do?” She started panicking. “Whoa, Twilight, listen to me.” I began while putting my hands on her shoulders. “From watching you guys as much as I have I know you sometimes tend to overreact. Trust me when I say, “It will be okay.” Okay?” I tried to reassure her. “Okay, let’s get everyone else together.” She said, calming down. Then she teleported out of the room to go and get the others. I wish I could teleport, all I can do is look like it, you know with the quick dodge moves where it looks like I disappear in a blur. Maybe I’ll figure out the instant transmission technique one day. I waited at the library for Twilight to get back with the others for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, me and Spike began playing a card game. We didn’t get to finish even though I was already winning when Twilight returned with the others. “Okay everypony, we’re taking Dako to see Princess Celestia, so be on your best behavior. That means you Pinkie Pie.” She said glaring at Pinkie Pie, who just smiled in return. “Are you ready Dako?” she asked me. “Yes.” I replied. She lowered her head as her horn began to glow with magic. The room began to get brighter and brighter as it filled with light from her horn. Then in an instant we were all teleported to the castle in Canterlot. It was pretty cool, a tingling sensation covered me, like sand lightly falling all over me. When the light faded out I was standing in what looked like a huge room, or a huge hallway. This was definitely the Princesses place. Suddenly the Princess appeared before us, she had teleported into the room, which I think may be the throne room. She walked towards us slowly and elegantly, even without wind, her magical mane was flowing, changing colors as well. The others bowed before, and so did I without hesitation. Then she spoke. “Thank you all for coming.” She said. “Twilight, I see you brought your friend along.” “Yes, just like you asked.” Twilight replied. “You,” Princess Celestia said to me. “What is your name?” “My name is Dako, your highness.” I said with supreme politeness. “And what are you?” she asked, still looking at me, trying her best to guess what I was. “I am, a saiyan.” I said to her. “I am similar to another race, called “Humans”.” “I see. Where are you from?” she asked. “I am from another dimension. From the planet Earth, it is very similar to this one.” I explained. “I see.” She said again, even more interested. “So how did you get here?” “I, don’t really know. I was brought here when I got sucked into a tornado in my home world. Somehow I ended up hear.” I told her. “I see.” She said, then she went quiet for a few moments. “What are your intentions?” she then asked me. “Intentions. Well, when trouble comes, I’ll be your superhero. A couple nights ago I single-handedly fought off a dragon attempting to attack Ponyville.” I explained. “But for now, I was just in the middle of looking for a day job, something that puts food, uh, in my, stomach. As a saiyan, I tend to eat a lot.” I said smiling. “I see. You are pure of heart. We are lucky someone like you came to our world. Seeing that you have no clue as to how you got here, and have no real intention on leaving, I shall let you stay in Equestria, and in Ponyville.” She said. “Thank you Princess Celestia.” I said while bowing before her. “One more thing. You wish to be our hero, what makes you say so?” she asked. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to demonstrate my powers. “This, your majesty, is what makes me say so.” I said as I lifted off of the floor. “Oh my, that is something.” She said in astonishment. “Yes, it is, and where I’m from, I am the only one who can do this.” I said to her as I began to float back down. “I understand. I will allow you to protect Ponyville, and all of Equestria. Dako, you are free to go.” She said to me. Suddenly my friends began to smile and cheer for me, and the princess smiled as well. “Thank you Princess Celestia. Thank you.” I said to her. We all turned and were ready to leave when Princess Celestia asked to see me in private. “Excuse me Dako, if I may have a word with you in private.” She asked. “Hang on guys, this’ll only be a second.” I said as I began jogging back towards the Princess. She motioned for me to follow her into a separate room. When we entered she used her magic to shut the doors behind us. “Now Dako, I’d like to ask you a few personal questions.” She said. “Okay, go ahead your majesty.” I said politely. “I’ve sensed some, feelings within you. Hard to detect, yet unmistakably present feelings. Very deep and complex feelings.” She said. “Oh, and is this good? Or bad?” I asked. “Well, it depends. Do you have any particular feelings toward anypony?” She asked. “Well, not really, I mean, I’m not like, madly in love with anyone. I’ve only been here for a few days.” I said. “Yes, I know, but I also know how you knew of us before coming here. You could have had time beforehand to develop feelings for someone.” She said. “Yeah, I guess your right. But, I don’t think I’m in love with anyone.” I said. “Are you sure? Are you telling the truth?” She asked me, looking me in the eyes. It was like she was testing me, like she was a lie detector, like she could see a lie appear in my eyes like a traffic sign. “Okay, maybe, maybe I do like, or maybe even love, someone. Kind of.” I said hesitantly. “I see. I will warn you now Dako, and only once. Do not fall in love with anyone here. Do you understand? It is important that you do not develop feelings for anyone.” She said flatly, and seriously. “I, I think I understand. But why?” I asked. “It can be dangerous, for you and those around you. You are a powerful being Dako, and you will make or find equally powerful enemies, and they will use anything they can to their advantage, if you give them the proper leverage. Now do you understand?” She asked once again. “Yeah, I do.” I said, bearing the weight of this whole concept all of a sudden. “Good, you are free to go.” She said. She opened the doors with her magic, and I turned to walk out of them until I was stopped. “Dako.” The Princess said. “Yes?” I replied. “Don’t tell anyone about this conversation.” She said. I nodded, then continued walking, joining my friends once again. After all of that we were able to leave. Twilight used her magic to take us all home, but by then it was only 1:00 p.m. I still had plenty of time to look for a job. So I left Twilights place and began flying around, anywhere I could, just looking out for any possible job opportunities. I was flying around kinda slow like, looking straight down, inspecting the streets and businesses when I felt the sun get blocked out by something. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so I looked up to see a Pegasus falling straight down towards me. It landed right on top of me and sent the two of us falling towards the ground. I hit the ground hard, but luckily, ‘cause I’m a saiyan, I was unhurt, and the pegasus landed on top of me so they were just fine. I looked up to see a gray female pegasus with a blonde mane and tail. “Oops, I’m sorry, are you okay?” she asked me. “Yeah, I’m alright, you?” I asked her. “Yeah, thanks to you catching me.” She said smiling. “Is your name, Derpy?” I asked her. “Yes! How did you know?” she gasped with excitement, her wings standing up straight. “Oh, well, I’ve, seen you before, yeah.” I replied. I noticed she was wearing a mail bag. “Do you, deliver the mail? Are you a Mail Mare?” I asked. “Yes!” she said with her wings up again. This “Wing Boner” thing was much funnier and adorable in real life. “Are you expecting a letter or package?” she asked. “No, but I was wondering if I could get a job delivering mail like you.” I told her. “Sure! Follow me.” She said. Luckily we were actually a block from the post office, so we walked over to it. When we entered there were ponies coming and going in uniform, and lines of ponies waiting to pick up mail, or get stamps. When we got the counter Derpy told the manager that I wanted the job. “Mr. Stamps! This guy’s looking for a job delivering mail, do you have a spot for him?” she asked an old looking pony behind the counter. “”Mr. Stamps”, were you born with that name, that would be an oddly accurate prediction.” I said. “Actually pal I had it changed when I got into this business, I started out managing stamps when I was real young. You got a problem with it?” He said grumpily. “No sir.” I said. “Okay pal, if you want a job just fill out this application and you can start today, just get your mail bag and uniform, and Derpy’ll show you your route, now get outta here.” He said impatiently. “Isn’t he the nicest?” Derpy said smiling, and she wasn’t joking. “Yeah, a real charitable guy.” I said sarcastically. Derpy helped me get my stuff together, but we had to wait on the uniform since one wasn’t available in my size. She gave me a list of addresses in Ponyville and map, since I was unfamiliar with the places. I got my bag of mail, and filled it with the mail I was supposed to deliver. There were probably 200 envelopes! Luckily though, as Derpy explained, one mail box will almost always have more than letter or envelope addressed to it, so this may only be about 50 mailboxes worth of mail. She flew away with more mail in her mail bag. I looked at my map and which addresses to fly to first, then I took off into the sky. At the post office I noticed that not all of the mail ponies were pegasi, but were earth ponies, or unicorns, pegasi were just faster at delivering mail because they could fly, and unicorns and earth ponies carried the heavy or large packages. I saw the first mail box and flew down to it. I began taking out the letters and envelopes addressed to it, and began putting them in the box. This was actually the easiest job I could get, and so far nothing bad has happened. I flew off and to the next box a block away and began getting its mail ready. As I landed near I began pulling out envelopes, walking towards the mail box. I began putting letters in the box when somepony walked up. “Hey buddy, got anything for me?” a tan earth pony asked me. “Well, is this your box? Most of this is sent by address, not name.” I said. “It’s not my box, but my name is FireHoof. Got any for me?” he asked again. “Look, I don’t see any with your name, and I go by a specific route.” I tried to get him to go away, but it wasn’t working. “Let me look.” He said shoving his nose into my bag, he began pulling out all kinds of letters. “Whoa, dude, come on that’s private property. Besides, this is my first day, I don’t want trouble.” I said to him, snatching the letters from him. “Oh really tough guy? Why can’t I look at the mail? What if mines in there?” he started getting defensive. “Your mail isn’t in here, I’m sure of it, and you can’t go through the mail because it belongs to other people, tampering with ponies’ mail is a crime. It’s a federal offense.” I explained to the guy, but he still didn’t understand. “A what offense?” he asked suddenly confused. Then I realized they don’t have a “Federal” government, it’s more like a monarchy, with Princess Celestia and all. “Uh, later.” I said suddenly taking off, surprising him, since of course I had no wings. I kept flying to the next mail box, and then to the next after that. The rest of the day went like this until I was out of mail, then I headed back to the post office. Everypony was leaving and the mail carriers were punching out. It was now 5:30. “Mr. Stamps, what time do you want me here tomorrow sir?” I asked the manager. “I want you here at 8:00 sharp, one minute late and your fired.” He yelled from his office. “Sir, I was also wondering, when can I expect to be paid, and how much?” I asked. “When? When you get the check, that’s when. And how much? Do you want to get nothing or do you want this job?” he yelled back. “I was just curious.” I replied. “Yeah, well curiosity killed the cat.” He yelled back. “These are hourly wages, you start at 8 bits an hour, then work your way up from there.” With that said, I punched out and began to head home. I flew back home at top speed again and made it back in about five minutes. Fluttershy was asleep on her couch, but woke up as soon as I came in through the door. Poor thing, no T.V., no radio, no iPod. There’s nothing to do here in one’s spare time than to read or sleep. It’s like at school when you finish the TAKS test. “Hi Dako, how was the job hunt?” she asked “Great, I got a job at the post office!” I told her. “Oh, that is great!” she replied. “It sure is, now I can make some money.” I said smiling. “So, does this mean you’re also going to look for another place to stay?” She asked, suddenly getting a little sad. “No, Fluttershy, don’t worry about that, I’m staying here.” I said, comforting her. “Really?” she asked, still not persuaded. “Of course, come here.” I said walking towards her. I sat down next to her on the couch and gave her a hug. “I’ll stay right here.” I said to her. “Thank you Dako.” She said starting to smile. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’ll never leave you.” I said to her, then I kissed her on top of her head. “I’ll always be here.” We sat together for a while, then we went outside to walk around a little, we stayed by her cottage, but I was able to fully explore her place. While we walked we also talked a little. “So, what do you normally do, when I’m gone?” I asked her. “Well, I feed my animals, and give them water. Or I stay inside and read a little.” She said. “Anything else?” I wondered how she kept from being bored. “Well, today I checked out a book or two from Twilights after you and everypony else left. Then I went to pick up some food for my animals.” She said, still walking along peacefully. “Not much exciting things happen here, huh?” I said. “Not really. The most exciting things have happened while you were here.” She explained. “Like when you arrived, and when you fought the dragon, and when you met the princess earlier today.” “I see. How do you keep from getting bored? In my world we had television, if we were bored we would watch a show, or a movie, or a cartoon. We had video games we could play. We had music, and the internet, God, how I miss the internet.” I said to her. “Well, we have theatres and plays. We have board games, and I think I’ve seen a video game before.” She said. Come to think of it, I think I saw a video game in the cartoon before too. “And we have music. But if there’s nothing else to do you can always hang out with friends.” “Yeah, I want to try and hang out with you and your friends.” I said. “I usually don’t get to know you guys, because I kinda already know you.” “Yes, I remember, we were one of the cartoons you watched in your world.” She said smiling. “I guess if there was nothing else to do, a last resort would be-.” She cut me off before I finished. “Sleep? Yes, I do that too.” She said smiling still. It was getting dark, so we headed back inside. It was around 7:45 now. We began making dinner together, a kind of vegetable stew. It was good, and hopefully high in protein, because I was starving, and I would need the energy tomorrow, if I was going to deliver all of that mail. When we finished, I went ahead and washed the dishes for her, and we made sure all of the animals were locked up. We headed upstairs and got ready for bed. We both got into bed and held each other, cuddling. Tomorrow I had a job to go to, and I was determined to be ready, and on time. “Good night Fluttershy.” I said. “Good night Dako.” Fluttershy replied. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 7: A Crazy Weekend //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 7: A Crazy Weekend                                                                     Chapter 7: A Crazy Weekend I woke up at the sound of a rooster crowing. When I thought about it I looked at the clock on Fluttershy’s wall and saw that the damned bird kept waking me up at 6:30 every morning. Just about when you could see the sun. I whispered into Fluttershy’s ears. “Good morning Fluttershy.” I said to her. She slowly opened her eyes. “Good morning Dako.” She said smiling. “I have to get up now, I’m going to get ready for work.” I said. “Okay, I’ll be down in a little while.” She said, closing her eyes. “Okay.” I headed for the bathroom and turned on the faucet. Lucky for me there was a shower head, and I prefer showers. When the water was warm I got in and pulled back the curtains. Again, things were a little smaller and shorter in this world, considering the ponies aren’t very tall. To picture my situation, just remember back to the scene in the movie Elf, where Buddy realizes why he’s so different, and it shows him standing out of the top of the shower. That was what I had to deal with. But no matter, I got clean and ready. I dried off, got dressed, and went to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. I was halfway done with my hash browns when Fluttershy walked in. “Hey, perfect timing, the taters are almost done.” I said smiling at her. “They smell good.” She said inhaling deeply. I handed her her plate and a grabbed mine then took a seat. We ate, me eating a little faster, and a lot more than her. Then I got ready to leave. “Remember Fluttershy, if you need anything at all, just come find me.” I told her. “I will.” She said. As I head for the door she flew up to my face for a second. Then she kissed me on the cheek. “Aww, Fluttershy.” I said then I hugged her. “Now I don’t want to go, you’re too adorable to leave behind.” As I said that she started to blush a little bit. “I’ll be back before you know it.” I said walking out of the door. I flew off in the direction of the post office. When I got there I saw the clock read 7:59, but the doors were locked, and the sign said “Closed”. I was confused for a moment, then a voice broke the silence. “So he tricked you too?” it was Derpy’s voice. She was standing behind me. “What?” I asked. I was still confused. I heard trick, but what could this trick be? “It’s Saturday silly!” she said smiling at me. “We don’t have to work on the weekend.” It hit me, that this was my seventh day here. I arrived here on a Saturday, seven days ago. Now I fully understood, and I was a little angry. The guy tells me to be here at 8:00 sharp, I get up early, leave Fluttershy, miss sleeping in and miss cuddling, to find out the post office is closed and that it’s a Saturday? “Son of a bitch. Thank you Derpy, for being kind about it.” I told her. “It’s okay, he got me with that when I first started working here too.” She said. “What did you do when you found out?” I asked her. “I cried.” She said. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my chest. I think it may have been my heart tearing a little. “I thought he was making fun of me because of my eyes.” She said. “Maybe he thought I was dumb.” “I’m sorry.” I said to her, then kneeled down and gave her a huge hug. Then I stood back up. “I think I might dangle him over a cliff somewhere if I find him, he better not run into me angry.” I said, just entertaining the thought. I wouldn’t really do it, I’m supposed to be a good guy anyway. “So, what brings you here anyway, if you already knew it was Saturday?” I asked. “I was passing by on my way to get some muffins for breakfast.” She said smiling now. “Oh, well I guess I’ll see you Monday, good morning, and good day.” I said, then flew away waving at her. She waved back, then walked off. I flew back to Fluttershy’s so I could do something with her. I wanted her and I to do something, maybe even at the least walk around town together. When I got there she was surprised to see me home, after all, it was only 8:15. She was coming back in from the back of the cottage. “Dako? What are you doing back here? What happened to work?” she asked me. “The boss pranked me, the post office is only open on weekdays, it’s Saturday.” I said. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” She said flying over to me, she began to hug me mid-air. “It’s okay, at least now we have time to do something together.” I said. “Well, what do you want to do?” she asked me. “Hm, you said you have music here in Equestria, right?” I asked her. “Yes, we don’t have those iPod things like you do. We have something called, “Vinyl Records”.” She explained. “Cool, I had those too, they were old! I believe they were invented in my world about 80 years before I was born. But I know those.” I said to her excitedly. “Wow, we’ve only had ours for about half of that time.” She said. “Man, soon you guys will invent the 8 track, then cassette tapes, and maybe CDs. Wait, CDs are digital, and you all don’t even have computers, but maybe soon you guys will have computers too!” I said excited again. Since saiyans retain their youth that would hopefully mean I would live long enough to see these things invented. Hopefully T.V. is one of them. “Well, speaking of music, do you know anyone who has any equipment?” I asked her. “Well, there may be somepony, how about Vinyl?” She said. “Who?” I think I knew what she meant, but I wasn’t sure just yet. “Somepony named Vinyl Scratch, but her DJ name is DJ Pon-3.” She explained. “Perfect, let’s go.” I said I ran upstairs to get my iPod, then ran back down. We took off headed for Ponyville, but this time I was flying at Fluttershy’s pace, so it took a little longer than I expected. It took about 15 minutes. When we came into Ponyville Fluttershy took the lead and led me to a house that looked like it was full of sound equipment. We landed out front, then walked inside seeing equipment and electronics everywhere. The most abundant thing, was speakers. There were speakers everywhere, from 1” tweeters, to 18” subwoofers. I had no idea this kinda sound equipment existed in Equestria. Then I saw Vinyl walk into the room. “Hello folks, can I help you?” she asked us. “Is this all yours?” I asked her, still looking around in amazement. “Actually, this is a run-at-home kind of audio store.” She said proudly. “Wow, can I test out some of your speakers?” I asked, eager to play something on the 18 inch subwoofers. “Go ahead.” She told me. I walked over to a pair of speakers. In between them was a huge stereo system that said on the front “5000 watts”. I found an audio jack cable that would fit my iPod’s output, a 3.5mm jack. I connected the two together, then turned the stereo and my iPod on. I looked for a couple of songs, there were so many I wanted to try. I finally settled on E-40 Musclecars. As soon as I hit play the bass kicked in and the speakers started shaking everything as they began moving the tremendous amount of air they were designed to move. I heard Fluttershy yelp a little, so I turned the volume down. I told her it was just music, and she started to calm down a tiny bit. Vinyl Scratch came up next and started bobbing her head to the beat. “Boom, boom boom, boom boom, boom.” One of the background singers was whispering to the beat. “Not bad.” She said, sounding impressed. I turned the music off. “Thanks.” I said. “They’re nice speakers, but I don’t think I can afford them, I just really wanted to try them too.” “Yeah, they’re loud.” Said Fluttershy. “Alright, well if you need or want anything, just let me know.” Vinyl Scratch said to us. Me and Fluttershy walked outside and began walking for the center of Ponyville, just so we could spend some time together. “So why did you want to see a place that had music stuff?” Fluttershy asked me. “Well, my iPod has a battery that I could normally recharge, but I can’t do it here, so I want to try and transfer all of the music I can to vinyl records.” I explained. “Maybe when I make a couple bits I can afford to do the transfer.” I said. “Oh, I see.” She said. We were walking along and had just rounded a corner when I had bumped right into a griffon. “Hey pal, watch where your going!” it said. I instantly recognized the voice. “Gilda?” I said. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” She said. “Well well well, look what we have here, some strange hairless looking monkey in clothes, and the shy little crybaby.” She said. “Hey! Who are you calling a monkey!” I said to her. “What’s the matter?” she asked in a grumpy tone. “Don’t you call Fluttershy a crybaby, you leave her alone or you’ll be dealing with me.” I said to Gilda, as I started getting in her face. “Dako, please, let’s just go.” Fluttershy asked me. “Yeah, run away!” Gilda yelled at Fluttershy. “I said, LEAVE HER ALONE!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, my face inches from hers. By now by standing  ponies were all staring. “Oh, so you wanna yell huh?” she said before taking a deep breath then roaring as loud as possible, making my ears ring a little. I heard Fluttershy whimpering behind me. I turned and saw her lying down right behind me with her eyes shut tight, and tears starting to stream down. Inside I felt as though my heart stopped beating, like gears were slowing to a halt. I felt myself getting warmer, and warmer like being surrounded by steam. I felt my fists involuntarily ball up and I was gritting my teeth, and as if in slow motion, I turned to my left very slowly while swinging my right fist around. Everything seemed slow, and then instantly sped up as soon as I made contact. I hit Gilda right in the face, so hard that I flipped her onto her back and off of her feet. Well, that is after she flew through the air all the way across the street. She was knocked out cold, and that would have been enough, except for the fact that I was still so pissed off. I instantly dodged over to her in a blur. I was hovering a foot over her. “WHAT NOW, BITCH! FUCK YOU!” I yelled down at her. “If you ever make Fluttershy cry again, no one will ever see you AGAIN!” I screamed at her. All of the bystanders were staring with wide eyes. Finally I snapped out of it. I turned and flew back over to Fluttershy who was still on the ground crying. “Fluttershy. Fluttershy, it’s alright, it’s okay now.” I said trying to comfort her. She was still crying, and there were lots of tears. “Fluttershy, look at me, its okay now. Please stop crying, you’re breaking my heart Fluttershy, I hate seeing you cry.” I said to her. Finally she looked up at me through teary eyes. Then she jumped up at me, throwing her forelegs around me hugging me tight. I kneeled down so I could hold her. She started crying harder into my chest, and she was shaking. “Shh, it’s okay. She’s gone, I knocked her out.” Gilda was actually starting to get up. She didn’t hesitate to look around, she got up and flew away. “I was so scared.” Fluttershy finally managed to say. “When you started yelling, and got loud and mean and scary.” She said while still crying. “And Gilda started saying mean things.” “Shh shh, it’s okay now. I took care of her, I don’t think she’ll bother us anymore.” I said to Fluttershy. It may have only been 10:00 but this day was going bad so far. “Okay Fluttershy, we’re going home now, do you think you can fly?” I asked her. She shook her head. “Okay Fluttershy, I’m going to carry you home, okay?” I said. She nodded. I put my left arm underneath and around her flank to hold her up in my arms and had my right arm around her back. For a pony she wasn’t very heavy, she felt like she only weighed about 70 or 80 lbs. She was hanging on to me with her hooves over my shoulders and her back legs wrapped around my waist. I slowly flew off towards home. “Okay Fluttershy, we’re going home.” I whispered into her ear. The whole way back I flew slowly so Fluttershy would be comfortable, and with my right arm I was stroking her mane. I was flying so slowly that it took about 25 minutes to get home. My right hand stung a little, like it was cut. I was pretty sure I cut myself on Gilda’s beak. When I set down in front of the door I opened it with my free right arm and saw that sure enough I had cut myself on Gilda’s beak. I shut the door behind me and flew upstairs with Fluttershy still in my arms. I pulled back the blankets and laid down on the bed, Fluttershy was now lying on top of me on my chest. I pulled the blankets over us. Even though I was still fully clothed I didn’t mind being in bed. Fluttershy had fallen asleep on the way home, she had cried herself to sleep, and was shaking still, all the way until she fell asleep. Now her head was resting on me on my chest, and I kissed her on the forehead. I laid there with her on top of me for what felt like an hour. I could feel her breathing, and her heart beating. Her face was stained with her tears. She felt so warm, and soft and comfortable, she was just being a cute little pony, sleeping on top of me like that. I didn’t feel like doing anything else for the rest of the day. I put arms around her back and hugged her to me, and soon I closed my eyes and fell asleep along with her, feeling exhausted from the dramatic experience. I slept with her for the rest of the day. I felt like I was protecting her, guarding her. Like I was shielding her from all of the evils and bad things in this world.  By the time I had fallen asleep I guess it was about 11:00, or 12:00. Tomorrow would be a way for me to make it up to her if I could. Maybe surprise her with a nice dinner or something. Or breakfast in bed. Either way, I would make it up to her, somehow. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 8: Organic Produce //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 8: Organic Produce                                                                      Chapter 8: Organic Produce As always, the rooster woke me up at 6:30 on the dot. I opened my eyes to see Fluttershy lying on my chest. She hadn’t moved at all. I kissed her on the forehead and decided to wake her up. “Hey Fluttershy. Wake up, we slept all through yesterday, its Sunday now.” I whispered to her. She opened her eyes. “Dako, did we really sleep all through yesterday?” she asked me. “Yeah, and I still have my clothes on.” I told her. I pulled the blankets off of us to let her get off of me. She climbed off to my left on her side of the bed. “Fluttershy, today I want to make things up to you for yesterday.” I said, sitting up in bed. “Dako, its okay, you don’t have to.” She said to me. “No, I flipped out. I should’ve had more self control.” I said. “Well, what do you want to do?” she asked. “What ever you want.” I told her. “I’ll make it happen.” “Okay.” She said, and started to smile. “But first things first.” I said. “I want to go into the Everfree forest to find and talk to Zecora.” “Dako, please, don’t go in there!” she begged. “At least take me with you, you don’t know what kind of things are in that dark scary forest.” “Well, you did tell off a Cockatrice once. Okay, but be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt.” I told her. With that we set off into the forest. Before we left though, I did some stretches and exercises, so I could fight on a moments notice. We followed the trail where I first found and saved Fluttershy. Looks like there was a bridge over the creek after all, we crossed it and continued on the trail. Walking took us 10 minutes before we saw Zecora’s hut. Fluttershy knocked on the door. After few seconds the door opened. Zecora had never met me and was a little surprised, but still let us in anyway. “Hello Zecora, I already know who you are, it’d be a long explanation that I don’t feel like sharing right now, but I know you. By the way, my name Dako.” I said to her. “Hello Zecora, Dako wanted to ask you something.” Fluttershy said quietly. “You know an awful lot about the plants that grow here and in this forest.” I began. “I need to know if there is any kind of plant here that can instantly heal ones wounds or injuries.” “Hm, this plant you seek requires a journey, not for the weak.” Zecora said. “This sounds good already!” I said with excitement. Normally I hate anything quest related, like World of Warcraft, Runescape, and especially Skyrim. But this sounded fun. “The name of this plant for you, is called, Senzu.” She finished. “Whoa! The Senzu, bean?” I asked. This was amazing, such a plant exsists, and I could definitely use it just in case something were to happen. “You seem quite keen, of this mysterious bean.” She said. “You could say, that I’ve heard of it before.” I said. “I am prepared to do whatever it takes to find it, no matter what.” I said in my most serious tone. “I must warn you of one fact, once you begin it will be hard to turn back.” Zecora warned me. “I can handle it.” I said. “Dako, are you sure about this?” Fluttershy asked concerned. “As sure as the sky is blue.” I said with a smile. “Come on Fluttershy, let’s go now, it’s time for your best day ever.” I told her. We said goodbye to Zecora, then me and Fluttershy took off out of the forest and flew towards Ponyville. I told Fluttershy that we could do whatever she wanted. She told me that she would want to go to a carnival. I wasn’t sure if there were carnivals here, but I guess there were. After a few minutes of flying we finally found one on the edge of Ponyville, then we landed at the entrance. For today only admission was free which was lucky for me because I had no money. I had never seen a carnival in the show, at least I don’t remember seeing one. We rode the Ferris wheel, ate cotton candy and popcorn, and they even had side-show attractions. And wouldn’t you know it, Trixie was there too. She was still trying to claim she was the greatest unicorn ever, and the best at magic, even though everyone already know it just a trick. “Feast your eyes, everypony! Prepare to witness the magic of The Great and Powerful Trixie!” she yelled from her stage. She was met the crowds jeering and disapproval since they already knew she was a fraud. “Boo!” yelled somepony. “Get off the stage!” yelled somepony else. “You suck!” they continued. This only made her angry. “Fools! Trixie will show you all!” she yelled out at them. Me and Fluttershy took a seat to watch the show. “For this trick I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, require a volunteer.” She said. No one volunteered. “You!” she shouted, pointing at me. “Yeah, I-but I didn’t, volunteer.” I said, trying to get out of it. “Get on stage before Trixie makes you!” she glared at me. “Okay, okay, don’t get that cape in a bunch.” I muttered as I got out of my seat. “Dako, wait, please don’t do this, I just know this going to end badly. Remember what happened with Gilda?” Fluttershy said worried, she looked scared too, her ears began to hang down in worry. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, this is supposed to your day, I won’t let anything happen.” I said smiling. “Now, strange, pink, fleshy creature, witness the power of Trixie!...” there was a moment of silence as she tried to build tension, then somepony in the back yelled, “Get on with it!”. “…as Trixie makes him disappear!” she finished. Oh, great, this will certainly end well. Her horn began to glow and I was surrounded by her aura of magic. I got the same tingly feeling from when Twilight teleported all of us to Canterlot. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and when the flash was over, I was no longer on the stage. I actually had no idea where I was. That was, until I heard the crowd at the magic show, and they were still booing at her. I realized that the flash must’ve been a huge distraction, everpony would cover their eyes and miss that I had fallen through a trap door. Okay Trixie, my turn. I flew headfirst through the trap door smashing it into splinters. Everyone gasped, even Trixie. “Ta-da!” I yelled smiling. I hovered in the air, floating a few feet above the stage. “Let’s all give a big round of applause to Trixie! Yeah!” I began clapping, alone, until Fluttershy slowly and quietly started clapping her hooves with me. “What are you doing!?” Trixie screamed at me. “How dare you try at out perform, The Great and Powerful Trixie!” “I’m sorry, I thought that would get you some positive cheers.” I said. “You have ruined Trixie’s show, you will pay!” she started screaming at me. She also began making a bunch of magical sparks, and fireworks or something. “Oh, so that’s how it is, you want to do fireworks, huh?” I said. “Check, these out! Aaaagh!” I screamed as I went kaioken. I was engulfed by my red aura of light as wind began to be stirred up. I only did this for about five seconds though, then powered down. And because I saw Trixies jaw drop, and she fell to the sitting position, then she did something that genuinely surprised me. She was starting to cry. Looks like The Great and Powerful Trixie had had enough of the stress. She fell to the stage bawling, and covered her face with her hooves, continuing to cry loudly. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” I said trying to calm her. “Leave Trixie alone!” she yelled. I kneeled down next to her. “It’s okay, I understand how it feels when no one likes you, or when no one cares about you.” In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best thing to say. “No you don’t!” she yelled again. “Okay, so I don’t.” I said to her. She pulled her “Wizard Hat” over her face. I reached down and pulled it off of her, which surprised her. “You know, I think somepony needs a hug.” I said to her. Then she smacked me with a hoof and ran away. “So this is how you treat someone who is actually nice to you!?” I yelled at her. “And you forgot your hat!” I got off of the stage where Fluttershy was waiting. “Dako, what happened up there?” she asked me worried. “I don’t know, hey, let’s get on the Ferris wheel again.” I told her. We walked over to the Ferris wheel, luckily there was no line at the moment. We got on and rode around a couple of times. Time had flown, and the sun was low in the sky. It appeared to be 7:45 now. As we rode we talked to each other a little, just some casual conversation. It was difficult to talk for me, since I didn’t have much to talk about, still only having been here a week. But we still talked. “So Fluttershy, I want to ask you about things that I never got to see on the show.” I said. “Like what?” she asked smiling. “Well, is there anypony in particular that you, like?” I asked. “No, not really.” She said. She looked so cute and beautiful in the sunset, I couldn’t help but “D’aww” a little on the inside. “Well, I really like you, just so you know.” I told her. “Really?” she said starting to blush. “Actually that’s not true. The truth is, I love you.” I said. “Oh, Dako, I don’t know what to say.” She said. “It’s okay, I don’t love you like that. I just, love you, you’re so cute, and adorable. I love hugging you, I love being with you, I love talking with you, and I love, you.” I told her. “Oh, then I love you too Dako.” She said while giving me a hug. “Sorry, just outright saying that was kinda awkward, huh?” I asked her. “Maybe a little.” She said, still hugging me. “I love you so much though, it’s true. I hate seeing you cry, so when Gilda made you cry, it made me so sad, and angry at the same time. I felt the same when she did it the first time, when I saw it in the show.” I told her. “I didn’t know you really cared that much about me. You have only been here a week, but you say you saw all of us in the show and knew us all.” She said. “That’s right.” I hugged her more, then we sat riding the Ferris wheel a little more, watching the sunset. I don’t think I was satisfied with today, and making things right with her, but I think she was. We rode the Ferris wheel for another five minutes before we got off. When we did it was really starting to get dark now, and we decided to head home. Today was a great day all in all, we got to have a great day together, like I wanted yesterday until Gilda and I ruined things. And today was a little weird with the event with Trixie. I tried to be nice, maybe if I actually hugged her, instead of suggesting it, and if there weren’t so many ponies watching, and especially if I hadn’t kinda embarrassed her. Oh well, I gave it my best shot. Before we left I saw a ball toss stand, and a bunch of stuffed animal prizes. I couldn’t leave without getting one for Fluttershy, so I walked up to the stand and asked if I could try, even though I had no money, which still sucks. Luckily the guy was nice enough to give me one free throw, which was all I needed. I grabbed the ball, and cocked my arm back, then threw it as hard as I could with precision aim and knocked down the stack of bottles. “So, what do I win?” I asked with a proud smile. “Whatever you want pal.” The manager said with an impressed smile. I picked the biggest stuffed teddy bear there. Of course I carried it for Fluttershy, but I was glad to. We continued towards the exit as it got even darker out, probably 8:15 now. We took off and headed for home. I had to go to sleep early so I could get up early and go to work. When I get to the post office in the morning, I’m gonna tell the guy “I quit”, because that little joke of his won’t fly with me. And without a job, I’ll have plenty of time to go on my little quest for the Senzu bean. Although, if this quest will be as dangerous as Zecora said it would, then I might need the Senzu bean just as soon as I find it. Actually, I don’t really know where to start looking, I’ll ask Zecora tomorrow if she has an idea where it could be. In fact, in addition to the Senzu bean, I want to learn how to do the Instant Transmission technique by asking Twilight if she can teach me how to teleport. We flew for 10 minutes, our usual flight time from Fluttershy’s cottage to Ponyville, but we were on the edge of Ponyville, which meant we had to fly fast if we wanted to get home in time for me to get my rest. When we got there, Fluttershy opened the door for me instead of me opening it for her, since I was still carrying her stuffed bear. We walked upstairs together and got ready for bed, or I did, because I had to undress. We pulled back the blankets and got into bed, then we scooted towards each other to cuddle together. “Fluttershy, I love you. Your so soft and cozy.” I said, and then kissed her on the nose. “I love you too Dako.” She said, and then she kissed me on the cheek. With that said, we held each other and then fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Tomorrow would be a big day, I would tell of my boss, I would get my friends together, and we would all go on quest to look for the Senzu bean. If can actually heal people, and make up for an entire meal like in Dragon ball Z, then It would also have serious benefits for others if I could get some and then start growing it. Tomorrow I would begin my quest for the Senzu bean. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 10: Quest for the Senzu Part 2 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 10: Quest for the Senzu Part 2                                                         Chapter 10: Quest for the Senzu Part 2 Being deep inside of a forest, the rooster at Fluttershy’s wasn’t able to wake me up this morning. So I got to sleep in and set a record for the time I got to cuddle with Fluttershy. I could hear that it was actually nice out today, the birds were singing, and the sun was shining through the leaves and onto the tent. Fluttershy had her forelegs wrapped around my chest, and her face nuzzled against mine. I was going “Aww” on the inside but I didn’t want to say it out loud and wake her up. I was lying awake with my eyes closed cuddling with the cute, warm, and adorable Fluttershy for about an hour when I heard the zipper to the tent opening. “Pst! Dako, are you…” I heard Twilight begin to say, but then she gasped in surprise at the sight of me and Fluttershy cuddling. She’d never guess that we did before. Hearing Twilight gasp, the others stuck their heads into the tent too. “Oh, hi guys, good morning.” I said. I unzipped the sleeping bag and stood, the others gasped again, probably because they saw I had no clothes on, just my underwear. “What were y’all doing in here?” Applejack questioned. “Uh, cuddling. We were cuddling.” I said. Just then Fluttershy woke up too. “Good morning everypony, what are you guys staring at?” Fluttershy asked confused. “Why were you two cuddling?” Twilight asked. “Well, she was scared of the thunder last night, and I made her feel safe.” I said. “Besides, we cuddle all the time.” Fluttershy said. “Okay, well aside from this awkward event, what’s going on? We can continue our journey right, well let’s get going.” I said while quickly getting dressed. “But why were you guys cuddling?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Because I love her, okay? Cool.” I said flat out. Then I heard them do something I least expected, I heard them go “Awww”, all of them except Rainbow Dash. That seemed to distract them. We all packed up our stuff and got ready to leave, but first Twilight had to check the map. Once she found the direction we began our march again. Today we would have to be quick to make up for lost time. After 30 minutes through the forest, we finally reached the base of the mountain. Now that we had made it to the mountain, we stopped for lunch. We woke up late, at around 10:00 and had no time for breakfast, so we immediately began walking. So we took the time now to eat, and it was close to lunch anyway. I took out the food I had, an entire loaf of sliced bread, some lettuce, a whole onion, some ketchup and mustard, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and a knife. I had everything to make a sandwich, except unfortunately, meat. There was no lunch meat in Equestria. I began making me my sandwich with plenty of lettuce, cheese, and onion, to make up for the lack of meat, I’m not a huge fan of tomato. Everyone else had their own versions, some containing grass, or flowers. “You know what would go great with this?” I asked them. “Some Senzu beans.” I said smiling. They laughed, which I liked, because that meant that bad joke was actually a little funny. “Remember how I said I love Fluttershy?” I asked them, to which they all responded with “yes”. “Well, as awkward as this will be for you guys to hear I’m just gonna go ahead and tell you. I love you guys too. It’s why I knocked out Gilda for making Fluttershy cry, I care about you guys. I would risk my life to protect you all.” I said. They went “Awww” again. “I just see you guys and think “Wow, I still can’t believe I’m here in their world.” You guys are so cute and adorable, so cuddly and soft looking.” I said, now that was weird. “Sorry, that was probably the weirdest thing you heard, but it’s true.” They all Awww’d again, and I was suddenly surrounded in a group hug. “Words cannot describe, how cute you guys are being right now.” I said holding them all. “That’s the magic of friendship!” I said fake crying, which made them laugh more. We broke up the hug and finished eating, then packed up again and headed on our way. We began climbing the mountain. There was a path, but even then it was incredibly steep, and loose. Every step had to be a careful and planned one to prevent slipping in the loose rocks. This may have been the slowest and most dangerous part of our entire journey. Suddenly I heard one of them slip and cry out, it was Rarity. Before anyone could turn around I had already flown over in a blur to catch her. “Oh, thank you Dako! You saved me!” she said relieved. “It’s what I do.” I said while gently setting her down. “That was close, everypony, please be careful, we’re almost to level ground.” Twilight said while looking at the map. After another 100 feet we finally reached a point in the path where it leveled out and we could walk normally. But this place looked really, spooky. “Remember everypony, we have to be absolutely quiet, we don’t want to trigger an avalanche.” Twilight whispered back to us. I began to hover off of the ground, since I wasn’t very light in my steps in the first place, and because I was wearing boots. Then I got a brilliant idea. “Wait, stop.” I whispered to them. Their eyes shot over to me. “What if we trigger an avalanche now, so one won’t happen later.” I said. “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, grab somepony and carry them up off of the ground.” I told them. Rainbow Dash grabbed Applejack and picked her up, Fluttershy grabbed Pinkie Pie and flew up with her, then I grabbed Twilight and Rarity in one arm and flew up with them. “Dako, what are you doing?” Twilight asked me. “Making this path safer.” I said. “Watch.” I stuck out my right hand and fired three energy balls at the top of the avalanche zone triggering a landslide. When the rocks and dust settled we all set back down. “Cool, now we can talk, and walk safely.” I said to them. We continued walking, the path got tighter and tighter as we got nearer and nearer to the top of the mountain. But then something else started to hold us back. The air was getting thinner and thinner, and we were all becoming exhausted from the lack of oxygen. Every step was more difficult than the last. I could see the ponies were tired, but they faired slightly better than I, being able to walk on all fours. I thought I meet need to use the freaking kaioken just to keep walking. “Twilight, how, much, farther?” I managed to ask between breaths. “Almost, there.” She said the same as me. If I could carry them all to the top I would, but at the least I could only carry two of them. I didn’t like seeing them like this. All of a sudden I lost my footing on a loose rock, I should have been more careful, but I was too tired. If I had fallen flat on my face that would have been just fine, but I didn’t do that. I began sliding down the side of the mountain face. I heard everyone gasp and run over to the edge. It happened so fast, I was picking up speed, knocking other rocks and boulders loose to fall after me. At one point the mountain came out from under me as I was thrown from the mountain face. I immediately shot into the kaioken and began flying straight upwards trying to dodge the falling rocks. On my way back up a lot of them hit me, but there was one I couldn’t miss, one I should have seen if it weren’t for the fact that I was looking down, one that I somehow didn’t see coming. The boulder I didn’t see coming, the size of a bedroom, came down right on top of me. That’s the last thing I remember. These next events were told to me by my friends. They say I was lucky enough to be knocked out and knocked out of the way by the boulder, therefore I wasn’t crushed. Since I was knocked out I started to fall again. Rainbow Dash took off in a nose dive straight after me. They said I was bleeding a lot, and that my left leg was broken. Rainbow Dash threw me over her back and flew back up to the top off the mountain. They laid me out on the sleeping bag I was carrying. Twilight checked me out, and heard my heart was still beating. They decided I was hurt so bad that it would only be wise to head back down the mountain. Then I finally regained consciousness. I woke up on Rainbow Dash’s back. I opened my eyes slowly, and weakly. I looked around and saw Fluttershy, she looked extremely frightened, and had tears running down her face. I could feel pain all in my back, and in my left leg. I tried with all the energy I had to speak. “Fluttershy.” I managed to get out. I saw her eyes widen as she looked over at me. They all stopped walking to look at me. “Dako! You’re awake, I was so scared!” she said, starting to cry more. “I’m okay. Where are we?” I strained to ask. “It’s okay, we’re going back to Ponyville, we’ll get you to a hospital.” She said. “No.” I said, then I rolled off of Rainbow Dash’s back, which was a bad idea. As soon as I hit the ground I felt all of the pain. “Dako, what are you doing, you’re hurt!” she gasped as I fell. “We can’t stop. The Senzu bean, can help.” I grunted in pain. “Dako, we can’t go back.” She said. “If we do and you really need a hospital, we might not…” she couldn’t finish her sentence, she burst into full out tears, thinking of me dying and what would happen if we didn’t get to the hospital in time. “Fluttershy. Come here.” I said to her. I was still lying on the ground. When she walked over I forced myself up to hug her. Unfortunately I got a lot of my blood on her. “I won’t leave you, I promise.” I said to her. “As soon as we get that plant, I’ll be fine, you won’t have to worry.” I told her. “Please Dako, there won’t be time if , if…” Twilight tried to say before she too broke down into tears. Then I tried something incredibly stupid. I tried to stand up, which instantly failed as soon as I put weight on my broken leg. I asked Rainbow Dash to help me, I wanted to put my arm over her so I could stand. Now that I had her for support, I began hobbling back up the mountain. “Dako, it ain’t worth gettin’ yourself killed over a bean.” Applejack said, trying to change my mind. “Trust me, let’s go.” I said through gritted teeth. The journey back up was more grueling than before, but I was determined to find that damn bean, and determined to live. I kept going though, step after painful step. I was getting lightheaded again from the thinning air, and from loss of blood. The bone in my leg was sticking through the skin, I could tell, and I had a deep gash on my left arm. On the way up, due to blood loss, exhaustion, thin air, and excruciating pain, I passed out probably 10 times, each time lasting only a couple of seconds. But each time I stayed out for longer and longer, who knew when the next time I passed out would be my last, and I wouldn’t wake up at all. We continued on, until we passed the point where I fell. I said to keep going so we did. After another football fields distance, the gray dusted and barren rocky mountain surface, turned a vibrant green, covered with plant life. This was it, surely this was where the Senzu bean grew. The top of the mountain had about a square mile of flat land. We continued towards a dip in the flat land, where a field of green grew at its thickest. We came to the plants, they were what we had looked for the whole time, the Senzu bean plant. They were 50 yards away, we had finally made it, and now I was going to live. I kept walking with my arm over Rainbow Dash, I tried to go a little faster. I started hopping, trying to go faster and faster until I tripped and fell of Rainbow Dash. 20 yards to go, I began crawling frantically, inching closer and closer. As soon as I made it to one of the plants I ripped of a couple of bean pods and started opening them. I was out of time now, I felt cold, weak, and things started getting dim. I quickly tossed one of the beans into my mouth and began chewing fast. I swallowed the bean waiting for it to work, but it wasn’t doing anything. I was panicking now, I rolled over on my back and laid on the ground staring at the sky. The ponies ran over to me and stood over me, watching me die. Everything in my field of vision began to pull back, like everything was zooming out of focus, and around the picture in my mind darkness began to close in toward the center. I felt numb all over, no more pain, no more cold. I stopped breathing, I no longer could, even if I wanted, and I felt my heart stop, I couldn’t move and was now a prisoner within my body. Everything was black now, but I could still hear. I heard them all gasp, and then I heard Fluttershy crying. Suddenly I felt something on my cheek, Fluttershy kissed me on the cheek. Now I started to feel warmth. Suddenly, I blinked once and the picture came back to me. I felt everything, my arms and my legs, my feet and hands. I sat up, revived. “Dako! You’re alive!” Fluttershy cried out tackling me in a hug. “Whoa, that was too close.” I said, then taking a deep breath. “It worked, I guess it isn’t instantaneous.” Everyone started cheering as I stood up to my feet. I dusted myself off only to realize my clothes were still covered in my own blood. My arm was no longer cut, just covered in blood from where the wound was, my felt better, and my leg was healed completely, bone set straight and all. “Did you guys know that when a saiyan like me recovers from a near death injury we get several times stronger afterward?” I asked them. To which they shook their heads. “Watch this.” I said smiling. Then I took off straight into the sky, the lack of oxygen wasn’t so bad on me now, now I was stronger, and I could fly much faster than before. As I flew straight up I kept accelerating, faster and faster until I broke the sound barrier, sending out a loud sonic boom. It wasn’t a rainboom yet, but it was something. I flew back down and landed among the others as they cheered and stomped their hooves in joy. “Lets go home.” I said. I grabbed as many beans as I could and filled my pockets and their saddlebags, then we began our trip back down the mountain. Obviously the trip back down was much faster than the trip up, we were no longer fighting gravity. Now I had unimaginable strength, Applejack and Pinkie Pie sat on my shoulders as I flew down with them, and Twilight and Rarity held on to my chest while I hugged them to me. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew down on their own right next to me. What took two days was finished in 30 minutes of flying as we flew to Ponyville. I flew everyone to their homes, then quickly flew back to pick up Fluttershy, who was waiting at Sugarcube corner. I picked her up in my arms, to carry her home myself. She laid on her back in my arms, like how a groom would carry his wife into their home, I guess. When we got home I had to take a shower to get the blood off of me. I unfortunately had no other clothes now, just my underwear, my clothes were torn apart and bloody. At least I was clean. I would deal with clothes tomorrow, but now I was alive, and stronger than ever before. Me and Fluttershy got ready for bed, she got into bed first while I stood in front of a mirror, checking the places where I was injured. There wasn’t a single scar anywhere. Then I began showing off, flexing, checking out how much bigger my muscles were, how they had grown to about one and half times their original size. After I was done looking at myself, I pulled back the blankets and got into bed and put my arms around Fluttershy as she put her forelegs around me. She nuzzled her face into my chest as we hugged each other. “Fluttershy, I’m sorry I scared you today. I scared you a lot didn’t I?” I said to her. “I thought you died twice, I was so scared I had lost you, especially after you told me how much you loved all of us.” She said sadly. “Its okay now, I’m here and twice as strong. I will never leave you.” I reassured her. “I love you Dako.” She said to me. “I love you too Fluttershy.” I replied. We cuddled together and fell fast asleep in no time at all. I fell asleep due to her coziness and softness. She fell asleep since she had just gone through a traumatic and dramatic day. We were asleep for about an hour when I woke up. I heard her crying, she had just woken up from a nightmare. She told me it was a dream where I had died for real, that I never got help in time. I held her tightly to me, telling her it was just a dream, and rubbed and stroked her mane then kissed her on the top of her head, trying to calm her down. She felt better after a while and went back to sleep. Tomorrow I might just fulfill one of my dumbest ideas ever, but I couldn’t have Fluttershy around for it. What I would do is try to hurt myself more and eat more Senzu beans, I would cheat my way to being stronger. That is if it doesn’t kill me first. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 11: The Dumbest and Strongest Saiyan //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 11: The Dumbest and Strongest Saiyan                                                Chapter 11: The Dumbest and Strongest Saiyan I don’t miss that rooster at all, but at least it woke me up at the same time every morning, always consistent, always reliable. Today I was going to focus entirely on getting stronger, hopefully I’d be able to hold the kaioken times 5 at a stable level, that is to say, without dying or blowing up. I slowly pulled out of Fluttershy’s grasp, sliding her forelegs of off me, then hopping out of bed, literally. I jumped up into a back flip before landing. Fluttershy woke up and sat up in bed, looking confused. “Oh, good morning Fluttershy.” I said to her with a smile. “Good morning Dako, isn’t it a little early?” she asked sleepily. “Uh, well, I was going to start working out today. See how strong I can get.” I said to her. “But you said yourself that after you had healed you got way stronger.” She said. “Yeah, but I can always get stronger, like if a dragon attacked again.” I explained. “Okay, but please wait a little longer, come back to bed and cuddle with me?” she said smiling all cute and all. I had no choice now. “Ok.” I said smiling. “I can’t say “no” to you.” I said as I got into bed. We cuddled for another four hours, and although I was so eager and ready to work out and exercise, I fell back asleep and let time get away from me. I woke up later at 10:00. When I woke up I was lying on my back and Fluttershy was on top of me, her head lying on my chest, and her legs on either side of me. She was so cute and adorable, I know I mention it way too much, but it’s true. She made it so hard for me to get up, and to make me wake her up so she could get off of me, even though I didn’t want her off, she was so warm, soft, cozy, and cuddly. I truly loved her. “Fluttershy. Pst, Fluttershy. I have to get up now, its 10:30.” I whispered to her. “Okay Dako.” She said crawling off of me. “You’re free to go.” She said smiling. I got up and got dressed in what was left of my clothes, blood soaked, torn, rags. And I really liked them. This meant only one thing, a quick trip to Rarity’s. I didn’t have time to make something to eat, so I ate a Senzu bean, worked like a charm. As I walked outside I looked straight up and took a deep breath, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and it was warm and sunny out. I jumped straight into the air and took off. I flew as fast as I could, well, actually probably half speed since I was much faster now. I hit close to 500 miles an hour with ease, it was incredible. I made it to Rarity’s Carousel Boutique in less than one minute! And her place is about five miles away from Fluttershy’s cottage! I landed at Rarity’s and knocked on the door. When she opened the door she jumped back noticing my shredded clothes, remembering what happened. “Oh darling! We have to get you out of those clothes right away!” she said while pulling me inside. “Actually, that’s kinda why I came here, I need some new clothes.” I told her once I was inside. “I see. Okay, take your clothes off.” She said walking over to her work desk. “Uh, do I have to?” I asked. “Well you have to take those off some time once your new outfit is made.” She said. “Besides, you don’t have to be modest, you have nothing fear.” “Okay, I guess.” I told her. My boots were torn, my pants had rips in the knees and the left leg was ripped from the thigh all the way down the leg, and my shirt was torn in several spots. Not to mention everything was soaked and stained with dry blood, and dirt. I stripped down to just my boxer-briefs and my socks. “I said to take everything off.” Rarity said to me as she passed me by gathering the rest of her cloth and materials. “No I think I’ll keep these on, thank you.” I said smiling. “Darling, I don’t mind what you’re hiding, but I need you completely undressed so I can get all of the measurements I need to make your new clothes. Now take those off.” She said. “Oh, fine, fine. If it makes you happy, but please try not to stare, my eyes are up here.” I said with no choice in the matter. I took off my underwear and socks, but I covered myself with my hands. “Thank you, now hold still.” She said levitating her measuring tape to me. After gathering all of my measurements she began drawing patterns on the pieces of cloth. I noticed they were all orange and blue. “So, could I see what you have in mind, like a sketch of something?” I asked her. As she began cutting pieces of fabric she levitated up a sketch of the masterpiece she was now working on. I grabbed it and looked at it carefully. It looked exactly like the uniform Goku wore in Dragon ball Z. Rarity must’ve figured I was some kind of martial artist, and that a kung fu type of outfit would fit me best. “Rarity, I don’t want to rush you, but could you make a pair of underwear or something now that you have my measurements, its cold in here.” I said starting to get shivers. She quickly stitched some together out of nowhere. Then she continued with my outfit. “Finished!” Rarity exclaimed holding up my new clothes. “Everything is made of tough fabric to fit your lifestyle, and everything is double stitched as well.” “Rarity, think you so much, I can never repay you, until I get a job.” I said. “Oh, it’s nothing, nothing at all dear. I’m always glad to help.” She said with a friendly smile. “Well, go ahead, try it on.” She said. I started to put the fighting uniform on, but I noticed something missing. “Rarity, do you have any boots for this?” I asked. “Well, I do suppose I could throw something together.” She said, imagining what the might look like. “Oh, I have feet, not hooves, remember? Keep that in mind.” I reminded her. In a couple of minutes she had boots that looked like Goku’s boots too. “Anything else I can help you with?” she asked. “Wristbands?” I asked, if I was going this far, I might as well have the complete outfit. She made both wristbands in about 30 seconds. “Awesome!” I said looking at myself in a mirror. “My, it certainly suits you.” Rarity said admiring her work. “Rarity, as soon as I get some money, I’d like nine more of these, could you do that for me?” I asked her. “Whenever you’re ready dear.” She said with a proud smile. I took off to Cloudsdale looking for Derpy, because I had a bag full of Senzu beans, and a couple of dumb ideas. When I got there I got some stares from everypony, mostly good ones. I saw Rainbow Dash chatting it up with a couple of other pegasi, until she noticed me. “Whoa! Dako, where did you get the cool clothes!?” she asked surprised. “Rarity made ‘em for me. You like ‘em?” I asked her. “Yeah! They make you look about, 20 percent cooler.” She said, trying to put a number to it. “I couldn’t agree with you more.” I said smiling, I can’t believe she said that. “Oh, by the way, have you seen Derpy?” I asked. “Uh, I think I saw her over there.” Rainbow Dash said, pointing at a smoke stack that churned out huge white and fluffy clouds. I flew over and saw Derpy playing around, jumping on the clouds. “Hey Derpy, how are you today?” I asked in a friendly way. “Oh hi Dako! I’m just enjoying my break.” She said as she continued bouncing on a cloud. “How much time do you think you have left?” I asked her. “Maybe, 25 minutes, I just started.” She said smiling. “Would you like to help me do something?” I asked. “Oh, sure!” she said excited. “What do you need help with?” she asked, now curious. “It may be something dumb, but I assure you it’s entirely safe.” I said. “What is it?” she asked again. “I need you to follow me and I’ll explain on the way.” I said flying off. She followed closely next to me, while I explained what I needed her for. She seemed to understand with almost no questions. We flew a short distance from Cloudsdale and landed in a clear area with nopony around. No one but me, Derpy, and some TNT. I had a bundle of dynamite that was wired up to 2,000 feet of wire with the old fashioned plunger style ignition. I was holding the dynamite bundle in my hands. You can probably see where this was going. “Okay Derpy, go!” I yelled to her, giving her the signal. As soon as I saw her push down the plunger I was filled with feelings of instant fear, and regret. There was a huge and deafening explosion that tossed me threw the air. The pain was indescribable, if only it had killed me, and killed me instantly. Derpy flew over to me quickly with my bag of Senzu beans. “Ugh, okay, quickly, give me, ugh, give me one.” I said wracked with pain. She opened the bag and gave me one. I quickly chewed it up and swallowed it as fast as possible. In a couple of seconds I felt it working. Suddenly I leapt up to my feet feeling fantastic. “Whoo yeah! I feel great!” I shouted out, Derpy looked at me confused. “Okay, I have one more thing to do.” I said to Derpy. “Stand back, like double what you were when you set off the dynamite, but be ready to fly over once it’s over, okay?” “Okay.” She said smiling, then she flew off. I waited until she was far enough away before I began. “Right.” I said exhaling. “Kaioken!” I shouted as I powered up as far as I could. Now I was stronger than I could ever imagine. I didn’t hesitate to go straight up to times five. The power felt amazing, impossible. Chunks of the ground around me began floating up into the air and exploding into fine dust. Enough playing around, time for my next stupid idea. If I wanted to get a huge power and strength boost, I would have to be hurt by an energy attack, oh yeah, this is gonna feel great. I raised my hands above my head and began to concentrate. About 10 feet above the palms of my hands a bright blue orb began to form, about the size of a basketball at first. I kept charging, until it grew to about 10 feet in diameter, then 20 feet. Finally I sent it straight upward, it began to shrink the higher and higher up it got. Soon it was just a twinkle in the sky. Then I put arms straight down at my sides as I brought the energy orb back down. I heard it rumble like thunder as it came hurtling back down. The closer the orb got, the more I could hear a low buzzing, like the buzzing of electricity around a power plant. Everything around me got brighter as it was lit up by the approaching orb. I fell out of the kaioken so I could be impacted by the full force of the blast. I wonder if this could be considered as a suicide attempt? The blast hit the ground at full force, I could instantly feel the intense heat, followed immediately by an enormous explosion. I only had it for half a day, but I was pretty sure that by now my uniform was completely destroyed, I could feel and hear it rip apart. If I thought the incident with the cliff was pain, I must’ve had a different definition of pain then. As soon as the explosion went off, the split second of chaos, a plume of dust and smoke filled the air. I lay on the ground, in pain, waiting. Waiting for Derpy to find me, and in a minute or two when the dust thinned out she flew over to me with the bag of Senzu beans. She gave me another one, I took it and chewed it weakly, then swallowed it. In 30 seconds I felt it take effect, I felt instantly reborn. I hopped back to my feet and looked down at my uniform. “Okay Derpy, I think I’ll call it day.” I said, pulling at the shreds in my uniform. “Well, of course its day silly, the sun is out.” she said smiling at me. “I mean, I think this will be enough today, my uniform is shredded. Thank you for the help.” I said to her. I gave her a hug before she left to go back to work. I flew off to Fluttershy’s. It literally took me no time at all, now I was even faster than before. I walked in, closing the door behind me, looking for Fluttershy. I didn’t see her anywhere, so I looked outside. I found her in the back feeding her animals. When I got close enough for her to hear my steps, she turned around and gasped at the sight of my new uniform, completely shredded up. “Dako! Where did you get that from?” she asked. “Rarity made it for me, earlier today. But I kinda tore it up, uh, “training”, with Derpy.” I told her. “You should’ve seen it earlier, when it was new. It’s still pretty nice, these are just minor damages. Look, I have these shirts, the pants and belt, boots and wristbands. Does it look good on me?” I asked. “You look great, you look like a real hero now.” She said smiling proudly at me. “Thank you Fluttershy.” I said then I picked her up off of her hooves in a tight hug. “Uh, Dako, you’re, h-hurting me.” She said with effort. I immediately set her down. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I don’t know my own strength yet, I’ve gotten a lot stronger.” I told her. “Stronger? How?” she asked confused. “I cheated using the Senzu beans. I would hurt myself, then eat a bean, then voila, I’m healed stronger and healthier than ever.” I explained. “Hurting yourself? Dako, you shouldn’t do that! What if you can’t heal yourself?” she said worried. “It’s okay Fluttershy, I won’t get hurt. Besides, the stronger I get, the harder it is for me to get hurt.” I reassured her. She started to calm down about the subject. We went inside after she was done feeding the animals. She waited on the couch while I made us lunch. I wasn’t too hungry, but I still felt like making her something to eat. I made her something simple, since I was still just learning about their food here. I didn’t see much on the show after all, just stuff like sandwiches. So I made her a sandwich. When I finished I brought it out to her. “Here you go cutie, I made you a sandwich.” I said with a wink. She blushed. “Aww, you’re so cute Fluttershy, I wuv you so much!” I said kissing her on the forehead. Okay, I may have gotten carried away, but I was honest. “Thank you Dako.” She said smiling and blushing still. “Um, are you alright?” she asked me. “Uh, w-well, yeah I, I got a little carried away.” I said. “But, you know, that’s how I feel. I love you Fluttershy. You know that.” I said to her. “I know, I love you too Dako.” She said to me, then she kissed me on the cheek. “Aww, somepony’s being cute again.” I said to her. “Now, go ahead and eat your sandwich, I will be right back, I’m going to see Rarity and see if she can fix these clothes for me a little.” I flew off as fast as I could, breaking the sound barrier with ease. I didn’t get far though, as I was stopped dead in my tracks by a familiar sight. The dragon had come back. He was carelessly stomping his way through Ponyville. He started breathing fire down on several houses and buildings. I wasn’t about to have that. I powered up the kaioken and flew down to face him. “Hey!” I yelled at him. Being the only one of my kind, he instantly recognized me, then tried to blast me out off the sky with his flames. “Raaaagh!” I screamed as I powered up as high as I could to deflect the flames with an invisible wall of my sheer power. When the dragon saw I wasn’t roasted he looked confused then angry. He swiped at me with his right arm, using all of his strength. I stuck my left hand out and caught his arm in mid-air, not even flinching or budging an inch. “Oh yeah, I’ve gotten stronger, way stronger.” I said as I pulled my left arm back and quickly punched with full force, throwing his arm back at him. He staggered back a bit, trying to keep his balance from the sheer force of my attack. Then he turned to his right quickly, trying to swat me out of the air with his tail. I stuck my arms out and caught his tail, then twisted, pulling him off of his feet and flipping him over me, tossing him into the ground. He hit with a loud, low, and rumbling impact as I visibly saw the buildings shudder under the weight of his impact. “Look I’m busy, so I’ll just make this quick.” I said to him, as if he could understand. I flew down to him and grabbed his tail again and lifted him off of the ground. The whole time, I never came out of the kaioken, instead of using it in short bursts, I treated it like it was super saiyan, if only I could go super saiyan. As I lifted him off of the ground, I began to spin around. As I began spinning faster and faster, I was also spinning him around and around prepare to chunk him as far as possible. As I reached top speed, spinning so fast I could no longer hang on to him, I let him go, sending him straight towards the Everfree forest. “And that, is how it’s done.” I said to myself, wiping my hands off. Those scales feel really creepy to touch, like a snake. Almost slimy. I heard cheers from down below, and looked to see a group of ponies celebrating my victory as I had saved them twice from the same dragon. I hovered down toward them. The group began parting as they let somepony through, and as they got closer I saw it was the mayor. “Congratulations Dako for once again saving our town!” she said to me as everyone cheered louder. “Thanks, I just happened to be passing by.” I said. “As a reward for your bravery and heroism, the town of Ponyville presents to you, 1,000 bits.” She said as somepony else brought up a sack of money. “Oh, thank you all, this is very generous.” I said modestly. “You know, normally I wouldn’t and couldn’t accept this, but I really do need the money.” I explained. “That’s quite alright.” The mayor said to me. “You earned it after all, in fact, if you’re going to be our hero from now on, we might as well reward you for it.” “I guess so. Again, thank you all. I have to go now, I need to fix these clothes of mine.” I said to them as I slowly ascended with my reward money. I quickly continued to Rarity’s, and this time I was able to pay her for her work. She repaired my clothing and asked me how I could have completely destroyed them in the same day I had them. I told her what I did and she just shook her head. When she asked how I got the money and from where, I told her about the dragon and how he returned. “Oh, Rarity, could you make me another 10 suits like these? I have the money now, and I will let you take all the time you want.” I said to her. She agreed to do it for me, but reminded me it would take some time. It didn’t matter, I was patient. When she was done making the repairs I paid her what I owed, said goodbye, then flew back off to Fluttershy’s. The sun was starting to set now. When I got home I presented the new clothes to Fluttershy. She liked them even better, now that they were fixed. It was late now, so we headed upstairs to get ready for bed. I took off my new clothes and carefully folded them, setting my wristbands on top of them, then set my boots in front of the stack of clothes. I looked at myself in the mirror again. My muscles were even bigger than before, it was unbelievable. I climbed into bed with Fluttershy who was waiting for me. As I got into bed she stuck her forelegs out, grabbing me in a hug. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her as well, but gently this time, I didn’t want to hurt her. I could hear her sigh with content, wrapped in my arms, as she began to fall asleep. Later I fell asleep too, as we cuddled together, warm, happy, and safe. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 12: It's all in the Technique //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 12: It's all in the Technique                                                                  Chapter 12: It’s all in the Technique I woke up at the rooster’s crow, same time as usual. At this point, I think I may miss the annoying droning of an alarm clock. I quietly shook Fluttershy and then whispered into her ears. “Good morning Fluttershy. I have to get up, I’m going over to Twilight’s place today.” I whispered to her. She rolled over and smiled at me. “Okay Dako. Be safe.” She said to me. Then I pulled back the blankets and got out of bed. “Dako?” she said. “What are you going to do?” she asked. “I’m going to ask Twilight if she can teach me how to teleport.” I told her. “But, you don’t have magic, you’re not a unicorn. How could you teleport?” she asked. “Well, let’s say that I’ve seen it done before.” I said to her as I stepped into my suit. “Okay, well, be careful.” She told me. I smiled back at her and said, “Always”. After I got dressed I headed downstairs to get something to eat. I was getting tired of eating boiled eggs, so I made the biggest sandwich that two slices of bread would allow. I used some cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion. The only thing I was missing now was the meat, oh well, this was as good as it would ever get. After eating, then making two more sandwiches and eating those, I was ready to go. I yelled upstairs and told Fluttershy I was leaving and that I would be back soon, and then I left. I gently floated off of the ground and into the air until I was about 100 feet in the air. I looked all around me in all directions. Clear skies for as far as the eye could see. I slowly took off, flying slowly at first, lazily. I was drifting through the sky at about 20 miles per hour. Then I went full throttle, I took off in a burst of speed as I accelerated to top speed. The wind was incredible, and after I short while I broke the sound barrier. At this speed I actually flew right over and past Twilight’s place at the library. I stopped as suddenly as I could, then turned around, flying much slower than before. I floated down to the front door and knocked. Spike answered the door and was surprised at my new outfit. “Whoa! Where did you get that from? It looks awesome!” Spike said. “Rarity made it for me. Thanks, I think it’s awesome too.” I said to Spike. I walked in and looked around, but I didn’t see Twilight anywhere. “Uh, is Twilight here?” I asked spike. “Yeah, she’s upstairs, reading her books.” He said flatly. “Oh, cool.” I said before floating up to the second floor. There she was, lying on her bed reading a book, with stacks of other books surrounding her. “Hi there Twilight.” I said to her. She looked up from her book. “Oh, hi Dako.” Then she tilted her headed a little in confusion. “Uh, what are standing on?” she asked me. “Nothing. Just floatin’.” I said. “I was wondering, could you teach me how to teleport?” I asked her. “Teleport? But you’re not a unicorn, you’re not even a pony. How do you expect to teleport?” She asked me. “Well, I’ve heard of something called the “Instant Transmission” technique. I’ve tried to learn it forever, but I can’t quite get it down. If I understood how you teleport, then maybe I could learn how too.” I explained to her. “I see. But I can teleport using magic, so it won’t be the same, and magic works differently, it almost defies conventional science and the laws of physics. If you really want to learn I have a few books for you to read.” She said. “Right, I can read some books. That’s fine. But can you tell me, what exactly do you do to teleport, what do you think, or feel?” I asked. “Well the first thing is focus, you need good concentration.” She said. “Right, focus.” I said, then I tried making some serious face. Twilight laughed. “What are you doing?” she said. “Uh, focusing?” I said. “Okay, next I think of a place I want to go to. Somewhere near or far.” She said. “Right, a place.” I said, as I thought of the mountain where we found the Senzu beans. “Now, imagine going to that place, the feeling of escape.” She said. “Right. Escape.” I said to myself. “Then that’s when I use my magic to make it happen.” She said smiling. “Aw, why can’t I do it? I must be doing something wrong. I know it can be done without magic.” I said disappointed. “Well, I still have those books.” Twilight said. “Cool, let me see one.” I said glumly, sitting down on her bed. I has handed a huge book, like two feet wide by three feet tall, and it was heavy. The cover read, “Advanced Level Magic Spells” I may not know any magic, or lack the ability to use it, but at least I might learn how to do the Instant Transmission. I began reading the table of contents, looking for something on teleportation. I finally found it on Chapter 42, page 2468! I read the entire chapter, which was full of long historic notes on who first found out how to teleport, and when, and why. I read everything in the chapter barely even once, I was starting to fall asleep. I always had trouble in school reading things, I would always fall asleep when reading anything. But if I got more sleep, and went to bed instead of sneak off and out of the foster home to fly around Austin, then maybe I wouldn’t fall asleep. Yeah, that probably had a lot to do with it. “Twilight, I think I’ve finished the chapter in this book, are there any others?” I asked while yawning. “Finished? Just now? How long did it take you?” she shouted up from downstairs. I looked around confused. I hadn’t realized I fell asleep, I thought I fought it off. “Sorry, I guess I fell asleep while reading.” I yelled down. Suddenly Twilight teleported up in front of me, blowing around papers and scrolls. “So, can you do this yet?” she asked me while smiling. “No, I don’t think so.” I said, while trying to teleport back up to the mountain. “Well, there are four more books, if you’re still interested.” She said. “I don’t know Twilight, I don’t think books like me, they keep putting me to sleep.” I said tired. Twilight laughed a little. “Okay, well if you remember hearing about this teleportation-without-magic thing, do you remember how it was supposed to work?” she asked me. “Well I thi- wait a minute. I remember now. I shouldn’t think of a place, or of escape, or going there. I have to think of a person, I have to focus on their energy.” I said with realization. “There you go!” Twilight exclaimed happily. Then I jumped up from her bed and got into my stance. I put my index finger and middle finger to my forehead, and began searching for someone’s energy. “Oh, wait. I don’t know how to sense energy. Crap!” I said disappointed again. “Well, how do you think that can be done?” Twilight asked me. “Hm. You know, it actually shouldn’t be hard, it’ll just take a ton of concentration and focus.” I said. Really all I’d have to do is shut everything out of my mind, and sense beyond my five senses where everyone is in the room. I would have to turn on a sixth sense. So I sat back down and focused hard. I closed my eyes in concentration, and I let everything around me slip into the darkness that engulfed my mind. I started to feel something. It was like a small feeling of warmth, and cool in front of me, and I little ways of to my left and below. The feeling also felt a little like a gentle whisper of breeze that radiated outward. There were so many feelings in one. There was one in particular that felt like a pulsating heat lamp that stayed in perfect rhythm, like a heartbeat. When I reached out in the pulsation’s direction I felt my hand hit something, then it felt 10 times stronger. My eyes shot open, and I saw that my hand was on Twilight’s chest. She looked at me confused. “So, did you figure it out, or what?” she asked me still confused. “Yeah, I could sense your heartbeat.” I said in awe silently. “Good, does this mean you can stop touching me now?” she asked jokingly. “Yeah.” I said still in awe, as I slowly lowered my hand. “Twilight, it was amazing. I could feel the presence, energy, and life of you and Spike. I can sense energy and more.” I told her smiling with accomplishment. I stood up from her bed again, but slower this time. I got back into my stance, putting my index finger and middle finger to my forehead. I began searching for energies all over Ponyville. I had someone in mind in particular. I was looking for Pinkie Pie, which wasn’t hard at all, considering the amount of energy she has. Then everything around me felt all tingly like my entire body was numb or something. “Well Twilight, thanks for all the help.” I said smiling. “I’ll be back in just a couple of seconds.” Then there was a whooshing sound as everything around me disappeared in a blur. As quickly as it all happened a new scene appeared in front of me, I was inside the bakery. I saw Pinkie Pie standing behind the counter, filling the glass display cases with fresh baked cakes, pies, cupcakes, and other pastries. “Dako, what are you doing here? I didn’t even hear the door.” Pinkie Pie asked me cheerfully. “I just learned a new technique with Twilight.” I said with pride. “So what are you doing?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Just testing it out.” I said. “So… Taking some cupcakes pay you later!” I yelled out before teleporting back Twilight’s place. The room blurred into sight as I reappeared in Twilight’s bedroom. I heard her gasp behind me. I turned around to see her on her bed reading again. “Well, I’m back. Wait, I was gone for literally 20 seconds and you’re already reading again?” I asked her smiling. “What’s wrong with that?” she asked. “Nothing.” I said laughing. “You know, since I can’t use the Instant transmission to go to a place, I can use the locations of other pony’s energies, and transport myself between them.” “Uh, I guess. I can go anywhere I want with my magic, I don’t need to find the location of somepony.” Twilight said. “Lucky, everything I do is more difficult, or requires strategy. Oh well, if a GPS can use three or more satellites to find a location, then I can use three or more ponies to find a location too.” I said. “Uh, okay, you lost me Dako. What is a GPS?” she asked confused. “I’ll explain what it is later, it just stands for global positioning system.” I said quickly. “Oh, okay. Where are you going anyway?” she asked. “Back to the mountain, I want to make sure I have plenty of Senzu beans.” I said. I sensed out the energy of anyone close to the mountain. I found the energy of Zecora. She was the only one around, which sucked, but at least I could control just how far away I appeared from someone. There would be only one way to find out. “Well, here I go.” I said waving to Twilight. I teleported out of Twilight’s house and over the Everfree forest in mid-air, at least it shouldn’t take me two days to get to the mountain now, and since I was alone I could fly. I looked around, and saw the mountain behind me about 10 miles away. “Damn it! I teleported far away from Zecora alright, far up in the sky!” I shouted to myself. It didn’t matter, I was incredibly fast now, flying to it would take a minute or two. I turned toward the mountain and took off at full speed. At the rate I was flying it only took me about 25 seconds to get to the mountain top. I dropped down and landed in the middle of the bean patch. I grabbed as many as I could fit into the pockets of my suit, I grabbed about 50 Senzu beans. I wanted to make damn sure that I would never run out at the worst possible time. After I loaded up my Senzu beans I searched for Fluttershy’s energy, just like I thought it was a small one. Once I found her energy I teleported right outside of Fluttershy’s cottage. I floated down to the ground and walked inside. I saw Fluttershy napping on her couch again. “Hey cutie.” I whispered to Fluttershy. “I’m home now. How was your day?” I asked her. “Hello Dako.” She said while yawning. “My day was fine. How was yours?” she asked. “Great, I learned how to teleport, it’s kinda like Twilight’s technique, except without magic. It’s called the Instant Transmission.” I explained. “Teleportation, you can teleport now?” She asked me. “Yup, that’s how I got here.” I said smiling proudly. “Well it’s getting late, you wanna go to bed?” I asked. “Sure, you go ahead, I’ll be right up.” She said. I walked upstairs and began getting undressed. I folded my clothes and set them near the bed, then I took off my boots and set them near my clothes. I pulled the blankets back and got into bed. Five minutes later Fluttershy came into the room and joined me in bed. This time I had my arms out so I could grab her in a hug. “Come here you adorable little pony.” I said smiling affectionately. She hovered down into bed and into my arms. We pulled each other close as we began to cuddle with each other. I wasn’t tired or sleepy until I felt her warmth. Her cute, soft, warm, cuddly, body against mine, I could not be happier at all. I closed my eyes as I held her tight to me, my left arm around her back, my right hand around and on her flanks, holding her close to me. “Good night Fluttershy. I love you.” I said to her. “Good night Dako. I love you too.” She replied, just before we both fell asleep. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 13: The Land of the Lost? //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 13: The Land of the Lost?                                                                   Chapter 13: The Land of the Lost? The rooster crowed at the same time, as I woke up slowly and reluctantly. I had actually forgotten what day it was, but I didn’t care, the only thing I had on my mind was staying bed, cuddling with my warm little pony Fluttershy. How is it physically possible for anypony like her to be that cute? She must have rolled over in her sleep, now she had her back against me. I held her close to me, my left arm around her, and my right hand on her flank, covering her cutie mark. I kissed her on the back of her head. Everyone has a dream in life, and this is pretty much mine. This was true happiness for me, cuddling and snuggling with my favorite little pony. I felt paralyzed with cute cuddly softness. Out of nowhere I heard a huge thunderclap that shook the entire house. I heard the windows and pictures on the wall rattle. Fluttershy was instantly woken up. “What’s going on?!” Fluttershy gasped, sitting straight up bed. “Whoa, it’s okay Fluttershy. It’s just thunder.” I said sitting up hugging her to me. “What time is it?” She asked. “I don’t know, probably 10:00. Lay back down, everything’s fine.” I said to her stroking her mane. We laid back down and cuddled together again. Only 30 seconds later there was another thunderclap just as loud as before. Fluttershy jumped and squealed in fright. Something didn’t feel right about it all, why the thunder? Was there a storm? I don’t think the pegasi would allow such a thing. “Fluttershy. Fluttershy let go of me for a second.” I said. She was squeezing the hell out of me, and she was shaking a little. “Wh-what are you doing?” she asked me as I was getting out of bed. I began slipping into my outfit as I walked to the window. “I need to get a better look.” I said as I stared outside. The sky was incredibly dark for the time of day it was. There were huge black storm clouds in the distance. It was getting really windy outside too, I could see trees starting to sway with the gusts. I walked back over to the bed and put on boots, tightening the laces, then tightening my belt, and put on my wristbands. I began walking for the stairs. “Wait! You aren’t planning on going out there are you? Please Dako, don’t!” Fluttershy said flying over to me frantically. “It’s okay, I just want to get a better look.” I said trying to calm her. I walked downstairs and to the front door. I opened the door with effort against the blowing wind. Outside I could hear soft low rumbling thunder over the sound of the wind in the trees. Every branch on every tree around the cottage shook with the gusts. The clouds above were moving fast, but not towards us, away from us. It should have been 90 degrees out, but it now felt like it was 50 degrees, and the smell of rain was strong. “Okay, you saw, now can we go back inside now please?” Fluttershy asked while hiding behind me. “Wait, I can almost feel the storm, it’s, different. Something’s going to happen.” I said slowly. I had a weird feeling, not anything bad, just an odd feeling. Suddenly we heard the loudest thunderclap of all. It was like an atomic bomb went off in the distance. I could feel the shockwave in my chest, and I could feel it through the ground. At the same time of the thunder there was a huge flash of lightning in the distance. Something had definitely gone wrong wherever the storm was. I had to find out what was going on, it could be nothing, but I don’t know why I just felt so compelled to find out what it was. In fact, I wanted to find out even though I was still scared of going out during storms, if one brought me here, I didn’t want one to take me out of here. “Fluttershy, I’m going to find out what’s going on over there. I want you stay here.” I said to her. “What!? Dako, please don’t, what if you get hurt, what if the storm takes you away?” Fluttershy asked me scared. “That’s what I was concerned about. I’ll be fine, I just need to know more about this storm.” I said. “It’s just a storm, a strangely loud and big storm.” She said shaking more, still hiding behind me holding onto my waist. “Exactly, it’s too big, and too loud. And where’s the rain?” I asked. “This is some other storm, like the one that brought me here, except for the lack of rain. I know something’s on its way.” I said. “Please Dako, I’m begging you not to go, you don’t know what could happen.” Fluttershy said, still trying to persuade me. I turned around, got on one and looked Fluttershy in the eyes. “Fluttershy, go inside, and don’t worry about me. I’ll be back, I promise. No matter what happens. I will not leave you. Okay?” I said to her. “Okay, please be careful.” She asked me. “Always.” I said smiling to her as I stood up and lifted off of the ground, and flew off in the distance. This time, I flew slowly, cautiously. I didn’t know what was waiting for me off in the distance, and I honestly wasn’t in a hurry to find out. The storm had stopped moving now, and was resting just over a mountain range, some 30 miles out. The storm had now gone silent, just clouds. As I came over the ridge I saw a huge and endless clearing, like a field of grass, and it looked like a scattered junk yard. There was a large slow rotating tornado in the middle of the field. It began dissipating and lifting off of the ground. As the ground cleared, I saw what looked like a shrimp boat. What in the hell was a shrimp boat doing in Equestria? I’ve never even seen a boat, I have yet to see one. In fact, I don’t think ponies sail. So with that said, I was confused as to how this thing got here, and where it came from. I flew down, seeing that the skies looked safe. When I got to the ground I checked out the boat in closer detail. I looked on the bow of the boat, and saw registration stickers, state registration tags. The confusion only intensified. The tags read “LA” for Louisiana. “What the fuck?” I said to myself. This didn’t make a whole lot of sense, or did it? If I  was brought here through a terrible storm, then storms all over the world could bring things here. Planes lost in the Bermuda Triangle? Brought to Equestria. As I looked around, I began seeing all kinds of things, which only confirmed my theory. There was random junk, to lost treasures. I walked around in and out of piles of stuff. I found a couple of cars, some old and beat up, and some that looked as though they had just rolled off of the assembly line. I decided I should find out more, and ask Twilight what she knew. I took off and flew as fast as I could to Fluttershy’s before I went to Twilight. I landed outside of the cottage and walked. “Fluttershy, Fluttershy I’m back, come here quick.” I said as I walked in. “What is it? What happened?” she asked curious of my hurrying. “Did you know that storms here drop random things from other places in that clearing in the distance?” I asked her. “Well I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never seen it with my own eyes.” She said. “Come with me to Twilight’s, I want to ask her what she knows.” I said to her, putting my hands on her shoulders. “Okay.” She said. “Great, now I get to show you the instant transmission.” I said smiling as I put the index and middle finger on my right hand to my forehead. I kept my left hand on her shoulder as I did the instant transmission, then I heard the familiar whooshing sound. We appeared in the middle of the library. Spike was standing on a ladder shelving a couple of books and turned to see us. “Oh, hi there Dako, have you heard of knocking?” Spike said smiling. “Sorry, where’s Twilight?” I asked. “It’s kinda important.” “I’m up here Dako, come on up.” I heard Twilight yell down from her bedroom. I floated up cradling Fluttershy in my arms, setting her down as I landed on the second floor. “You wanted to see me, right? What’s up?” Twilight asked. “Are you aware of the field of junk that gets dropped of by these weird and abnormal storms?” I asked her. “Actually I’ve heard of them before, but I’ve never seen it happen. And I didn’t know there was a specific place things popped up either.” Twilight said putting a hoof to her chin remembering what she had heard. “I’m glad I wasn’t dropped there, that’s all I know. I guess not everything is dropped in that specific spot.” I said to Twilight. “I think we’re all thankful for that.” Fluttershy said. “Hang on guys, I’ll be right back, I want to find something.” I said as teleported out and back to the clearing. Once I arrived back out to clearing I looked around. There were troves of treasure everywhere, now it was only a matter of finding what I wanted. I found sticking out of a random pile of stuff a pristine iPhone 4s. I grabbed it and teleported back to Twilight’s. “Hey guys, check this thing out.” I said as I held up the phone. “What is it?” Twilight and Fluttershy asked in unison. “Back in my world this thing was some modern technological wonder. It was a phone, you could dial a number, then it would connect to that number which would belong to another phone, and you could talk back and forth to the person who owned the phone.” I explained. “That’s amazing!” Twilight said in excitement. “Yes it was, but this thing did, and does so much more. You can also write, send and receive messages of text. And, you could download things called “Applications” or “Apps” for short. Each one did a special thing. Some were games, and some were tools.” I explained further. “Wow! How does it work?” Twilight asked me in curious excitement. “Well, it’s all very complicated and I can’t really explain in any greater detail.” I said. Twilight looked disappointed. “Well, I’d like to hang on to that one if you don’t mind.” She said. “Go ahead, you can take it apart and figure it out a little more.” I told her. She eagerly pulled it out of my hand with her magic, and walked over to her desk, beginning to disassemble it. “Fluttershy, would you like me to find you something?” I said to her sweetly. “Um, no, that’s okay, you don’t have to.” She said to me. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back, again.” I said, teleporting back to the clearing for a second time. I looked around a little, and found what looked like signs and displays for Wal-Mart. I looked around and found a smashed jewelry display counter. I grabbed a golden necklace and looked over it carefully. I knew she’d love it, and while I was at it I found and grabbed a pack of socks. I couldn’t wear the same socks forever, and by having some I could ask Rarity to make me some more just like these. After I made my grab of loot I teleported back to the library to show Fluttershy the necklace I got for her. “Alright Fluttershy, I got you something special.” I said to her, getting down on one knee just like before. “What is it?” Fluttershy asked tilting her head a little. “I hope you like it.” I said as I revealed the necklace. “Oh Dako, it’s beautiful.” Fluttershy said smiling. I reached around her neck to put the necklace on her. “You look beautiful.” I said. “And now you look 20 percent prettier.” I added smiling, a poor attempt at a joke. “Thank you Dako.” Fluttershy said as she jumped up and hugged me. I heard Twilight “Aww” in the background. “Well,” I began as I stood up, picking up and cradling Fluttershy again. “today sure was interesting. I learned you guys had a “Land of the Lost” of some kind.” “And I learned that I can learn more about your world and humans by visiting the “Land of the Lost”, as you called it.” Twilight said as she began reassembling the phone. “Well, Twilight, if you need any of my help with finding things from my world you know where I am.” I said to her. “See you later.” I said as I put my fingers to my forehead and teleported back to the cottage. I still had my package of socks when I got a great and funny idea. I had seen pictures of ponies in socks, and they were always the most adorable thing to me, it was as though it was so cute it could give you diabetes. I asked Fluttershy if she could help me with something but I didn’t tell her what it was. “Yes Dako, you need me?” She asked me as she came into the room. “Can I put these on your hooves?” I asked her, showing her the socks. She gave me a strange look. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. I just want to see how you look.” I said. She agreed to let me put them on her. She sat down on her flanks, raising one forehoof at a time so I could put a sock on, then I put socks on her rear hooves. The socks were long, so they all went about halfway up her legs. She looked at me and blushed. “Aww! Where’s a camera when I need one? Fluttershy, you look so cute and adorable right now.” I said to her smiling. She blushed even deeper and lowered her head a little. “Aww, it’s okay, come here. I love you, my cute little pony.” I said to her as I gave her a big hug. It was getting dark out, so I decided to carry her up to her room. I lied down on my back with her lying on her back as well on top of me. I had my arms around her chest, hugging her to me like a stuffed animal. She had her head under my chin while I grabbed her hooves on her forelegs. I was playing with them, move them back and forth, up and down, or just playfully wiggling them. She started blushing again. “Aww, who’s got some cute little hoovesies?” I said in a puppy dog voice. “Um, I do?” she said with a red face. “Yes you do.” I said as I continued playing with her hooves, except this time switching to her back hooves. “Fluttershy, you’re so cute in these socks, you know that?” I told her. “I noticed.” She said shyly, still embarrassed. “Okay, I’ll take them off now, I just wanted to do that real quick.” I said to her as I began pulling the socks off. I picked her up and gently set her down next to me. Then I got up and began pulling my boots off. When I finished undressing I took the necklace off of Fluttershy for her. Being designed for humans with fingers, there would be no way for her to take it off, unless she had magic. I carefully set it on the nightstand next to the bed. I pulled the blankets back and covered her up, then I lied down in bed as well, pulling the blankets over myself. I rolled over onto my left side to face Fluttershy. She rolled over to face me as I put my arms around her and pulled her to me. I had left hand on the back of her head, and stroked her mane softly, while I held her to me with my right arm around her flanks. I wanted to clarify this before, but didn’t find it necessary before. It was completely non-sexual. Any lesser, perverted, and ignorant person would have easily seen it that way. Come on, she’s a pony, and I’m a Saiyan, it wouldn’t exactly work. We couldn’t do anything. Well, we could, but it wouldn’t be right. For now I love her no matter how. As I was holding her with my chin on top of her head she lifted her head up to my face. Then she closed her eyes and gave me a small kiss on the lips. Although it was short and quick I kissed her back. I didn’t mind it, but she apologized immediately anyway. “I’m sorry Dako, I don’t know what came over me, I …” She started, but I cut her off. “Shh, it’s okay, I’m fine, you don’t need to apologize. I love you, and you love me. We have our ways of showing it.” I said to her. The strange thing about our love together to me, was how it started at the very beginning when we met, and we eased into it. We didn’t just start liking each other like other people, or ponies, and then just blurt it out to each other at some awkward moment. We both new what has happening, and we were completely fine with it. “I know we have our ways. You cuddle with me, and hold me.” She said to me. “And in the mornings sometimes you poke me a little.” My heart stopped when she said that. I usually have the greatest control over my emotions, and one hell of a “Poker face”, but I think I went visibly pale, and then my stomach felt hollow and empty. “Oh. Holy. Shit.” Was the only thing I could think. I’ve been less freaked out about a fight, I was less scared then when I fell of off the mountain, and was bleeding to death and died for about 10 seconds. I had to tell her the truth, even if it meant I would get a reaction of disgust, terror, or if she laughed at me. Besides, I have no real control over what my body does. “Um, Fluttershy.” I said nervously, almost nauseous. “Yes Dako.” She replied. “Uh, p-part of loving, each other means, t-telling the t-truth, right?” I stuttered. “Of course.” Fluttershy said. “W-well, about the, the p-poking thing. I uh, I have to confess something.” I continued hesitantly. “Yes?” she asked. “Um, where I come from, w-we have a name for that. It’s called, “Morning Wood”.” I said finally. Then she gave me a confused look. “What’s that?” she asked. “It’s not easy, easy to say, for me. I was poking you, but not with, with my hands, o-or fingers.” I finished. My throat was swelling shut from the nervousness. She looked at me blankly for a second, trying to figure out what I meant. “I don’t think I understand, are you okay, why are you stuttering.” She said concern and confusion. “I-I, it’s a, an…” I tried to speak. “It was, m-my…” Then she got it. She suddenly understood what I was trying to say, and why I was getting so nervous. “Oh Dako!” she said surprised, her face turned red again, and then I felt mine turn red too, at least I wasn’t paling up like some vampire anymore. “It’s okay, it’s perfectly normal!” she said as she hugged me, burying her face into my chest. This reaction was actually the most ideal one of all, one I hadn’t even considered, empathetic understanding. “I’m so sorry Fluttershy.” I said quietly. “No, you have nothing to be sorry about Dako.” She said still hugging me. “Like I said before, you have your ways of showing your love for me. It’s perfectly okay, I understand.” She said. “Thank you. Thank you so much, you have no idea how scared or how sick I felt thinking you would be scared of me.” I said. “For doing something you have no control over? I would never be scared of you, or stop loving you.” She said, further comforting me. “Thank you for being so understanding Fluttershy. I love you.” I said to her. “I love you too Dako.” She said, hugging me the whole time. “Good night.” She said. “Good night.” I responded. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 14: Eavesdropping //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 14: Eavesdropping                                                                      Chapter 14: Eavesdropping I heard the roosters crow, but ignored it the best I could. I wanted to keep cuddling with Fluttershy. I still felt really weird about the night before. Explaining “Morning Wood” to Fluttershy gave nightmares of all the negative ways she could have reacted, and in my nightmares, as most all dreams work, the reactions were exaggerated. It felt like a horror themed funhouse. I don’t know why I had such nightmares, she said she was completely fine with it. Either way, I was prepared to keep cuddling with her for hours more. I still wasn’t sure of what day it was, I would have to ask someone, like Twilight. Fluttershy began to stir. She woke up a little and yawned. “Good morning Dako.” She said. “And good morning little Dako.” She said looking down, giggling. My eyes shot wide open as I quickly jerked back away from her. Then I covered my face, and felt it get warm. I never blush, ever, I have no reason to. In school I would do the most embarrassing things to myself because I either found it worth it, or funny, or someone else bet me or paid me to do it, and I never blushed. “Good morning to you too Fluttershy, I apologize in advance for my… friend.” I said with my eyes closed. Fluttershy kissed me on the cheek. “It’s okay Dako, it’s not your fault.” She said. “No, really, it kinda is.” I said. “Dako, you mustn’t be so hard on yourself.” She said, scooting over closer to me again to hug me, pressing into me and, me. “Whoa!” I shouted. “Sorry Fluttershy, just kinda uncomfortable right now, just stay back for awhile, like six or seven inches.” I said, immediately realizing my impeccable, bad choice of words. “Is that really how lo-?” She began to ask. “No! Maybe! Yes! Oh, who knows!” I started shouting. “Can we change this please? For example, what are you doing up so early?” I asked her. “Well, today is my day to go to the market and hang out with my friends.” She said smiling. “Oh, well can I come with you?” I asked her. “Sorry, today I’m also going to the spa, it’s a girl’s day.” She said. “Oh, okay. I understand, go ahead, I can watch and take care of the animals.” I said trying to find something good out of the situation. “Thank you Dako, I’d really appreciate that.” Fluttershy said. She got up and got her saddlebag and got ready to go. I got dressed myself and went downstairs to make breakfast. I made her something to eat, and something for myself too. “Dako, what are you getting ready for?” she asked me. “Oh, I’m just gonna patrol Ponyville, you know, as an unofficial, official superhero.” I said. “Okay, be careful.” Fluttershy said. “Don’t worry, I’m always careful.” I said When she was done eating she walked out the front door and left. I was all alone now. And I was bored. I got out of my chair and went outside to the back. I grabbed a sack of feed for the chickens, then filled their feeder. I grabbed a couple of carrots and put them in the rabbits cages. Last, I fed the birds. When I was done with all that, I went back inside. I was so bored, I wouldn’t mind having to fight something. At least it would be something to do. I was so bored at one point that I actually got my bag of Senzu beans, walked outside, and started smashing my hand with a rock, then eating a Senzu bean to heal, then repeat. It lasted five Senzu beans, until I realized that I was just wasting them. “This sucks.” I said aloud to myself. “I wonder what my friends are up to right now.” I thought out loud to myself. “What am I saying? I’m in freakin’ Equestria, I should be having all kinds of adventures. Although, if I wanted adventure I should have just gone to The Land of Ooo, from Adventure Time.” “And aren’t bad guys naturally drawn to good guys as strong as me? Where are the bad guys?” I thought out loud again. I stood up and looked at the sky, wondering what Fluttershy was up to. Then I saw a small cloud at the left of my field of vision. Then I got to thinking. “I’ll bet I could push that cloud around and hide on top of it, and follow Fluttershy around.” I thought to myself. I flew up to the cloud, and tried lying down on top of it. It worked, it felt like lying in a Tempurpedic hammock. I dug my fingers into it like it was a giant wad of cold damp cotton, then slowly flew forward with it. After a long while I drifted into Ponyville, headed straight for the market. If I flew too fast I might give myself away. I saw her now, she was walking into the Cakes’ bakery, no doubt to meet with her friends first. From there they all went to the spa. I slowly followed behind them. I thought to my self again, wondering what would happen if I was caught. They finally arrived at the spa, and I waited outside on my cloud. I wanted to know what they talked about. And what Fluttershy tells them about me, it’s not like they don’t ask her things, with me being me, and from another world. It was so strange that I felt this way, I normal could care less what anyone said or thought about me in front of me, or behind my back. I parked my cloud above the spa and flew in closer. I found what looked like an air conditioning exhaust vent and flew up to it. I didn’t think the ponies had air conditioning. I snuck through the ducts, I could be incredibly quiet since I could float through the ducts. I stopped when I saw a vent looking down into a room. I looked around a little, and saw all six of them. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in the hot tub, or what looked like a hot tub. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were having a mud bath, Pinkie Pie was playing with the mud. Twilight was getting a massage, and finally I saw Fluttershy, getting a, how did they say it? Hooficure? I listened in as well as I could. “Oh, this feels so wonderful!” I heard Rarity say. “We should do this far more often, don’t you agree girls?” “Yup, it sure is nice to kick back and relax once in awhile.” I heard Applejack say. “Yeah, but it’s still not as great as being out in the wide open skies soaring around.” I heard Rainbow Dash say, sounding bored. “This is so much fun, we get to play in mud!” I heard Pinkie Pie shout. “Darling, you’re not supposed to play in it, you’re supposed to soak in it.” Rarity said to Pinkie Pie. “This is great, Spike has his time off for the day, and I have mine here at the spa.” Twilight said relaxed. “I wonder what Dako is up to.” I heard Fluttershy say. Now I listened even closer. “Don’t worry about him dear, I’m sure he can take anything that happens, after all he did fight off that awful dragon, twice. And those muscles!” Rarity said in an admiring tone. Now I really felt uncomfortable about having to get undressed for Rarity. After she said that the others turned to look at her strange. “What? Haven’t you girls thought the same thing? He is handsome.” Rarity said. “He is a very nice person. A gentleman if you ask me, he’s so polite.” Twilight said. “He felt so bad about knocking over the shelf at the library, and came back to apologize the next day.” Twilight added. “He’s so cool! I remember when we had our race, he was so fast! I mean, I was obviously faster, but I still haven’t met a pegasus who can keep up with me.” Rainbow Dash said. “He sure is strong too. Although he destroyed one of my apple trees, I’ve never met a pony, or one of his kind, who can buck a tree that hard.” Applejack said. “Ooh! I wanna challenge him to a cupcake eating contest, he sure can eat a lot, I wonder who would win!” Pinkie pie yelled. “Well he may be tough and strong, but most of the time he’s really affectionate.” Fluttershy said. The others looked at her. “What, with the animals?” Twilight asked. “You don’t mean towards, you? Do you?” Rarity asked. “Well, yes. He’s real gentle and nice. He’s a cuddler.” Fluttershy said to the others. I heard them all either giggle, snicker, or try to stifle their laughter. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked. “Well, that doesn’t seem strange to you?” Applejack asked. “Not at all, he loves me, he cares very much, in fact, last week Gilda was back in town. When she started messing with me he got defensive in an instant.” Fluttershy explained. “They started yelling at each other, then he hit her so hard she flew across the street.” I heard the others gasp in shock. “How could he do that?” Twilight asked. “That doesn’t seem like him at all.” “I know, he’s totally different when he’s angry.” Fluttershy said. “But he only did it to protect me, because he loves me.” “Do you feel the same way he does about you?” Rarity asked slightly concerned. “Well of course, he saved my life, he takes care of me, and he’s really nice, even if he’s not a pony.” Fluttershy replied. “It just seems strange.” Applejack said. “So, a cuddler, huh?” Rainbow Dash said snickering. “Yes, he loves to cuddle, he’ll cuddle for hours after the sun comes up.” Fluttershy said. “Anything else?” Rarity asked, curious. “Well, sometimes,” Fluttershy started. My shot wide open. “I feel something poke me in the back or stomach.” She said blushing. “What’s wrong dear, you’re turning red.” Rarity asked in concern. “Well, he calls it, “Morning Wood”.” Fluttershy said. “What’s that?” Twilight asked confused. I looked down through the vents with wide eyes. I saw Fluttershy motioning for the others to lean in. “It’s where his…” She began, quieting to a whisper. Five seconds later I heard half of them burst out laughing. It was Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. Rarity and Twilight were silent. Twilight gave an angry glare at the three who were laughing. Rarity had a blank look in her eyes, and was covering her mouth with a hoof, and her face was turning red as well. “That’s not funny you three!” Twilight said angrily at Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. “It’s perfectly fine, it’s natural, and it’s not his fault.” Twilight added. “I’m sorry Twilight, it’s just so weird.” Applejack said. “Well how does that make you feel Fluttershy?” Applejack asked. “Well, I agree with Twilight. Dako felt worse about it than I did, he was so embarrassed. Oh, I shouldn’t have mentioned it, if he knew he’d feel terrible.” Fluttershy said hanging her head. “Don’t worry, we won’t say anything, and we’ll be cool around him too.” Rainbow Dash said. Since they were fine with it I breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately I didn’t notice until I heard a soft creaking that I had stopped floating and now had my full weight on the vent. “By the way, have you seen it? How big is it?” Rainbow Dash asked. At that moment the vent came open, and I fell out of the duct. I fell into the hot tub with a huge splash. While underwater I could hear them all scream. I shot my head out of the water and gasped for air. I wiped my eyes so I could open them. When I did I saw all six of them looking at me with a shocked look on their faces. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were still in the hot tub with me. I floated up and out of the water, then landed out next to it. “I give you all, my deepest apology. Sorry for dropping in like this.” I said. “Fluttershy, I forgive you, it doesn’t bother me anymore.” I said, walking over to her. “Dako, I’m so sorry, I-.” she started but I interrupted. “It’s okay Fluttershy, really, it’s my fault for eavesdropping like this, I should’ve known better. Now, I would hug you, but I’m all wet.” I said smiling at her. “Um, this is pretty awkward.” I said to everyone. “Twilight?” I asked. “Yes Dako?” she replied. “I’m gonna need to write letter to the princess for this.” I said. “Do you have a scroll and quill?” I asked. “I always keep some in my saddle bag.” Twilight said levitating a scroll, ink, and a quill over to me. “Thank you.” I said as I began writing. This is what I wrote. “Dear Princess Celestia, This is Dako. I bet you never thought you would receive a letter from me, did you? Well, I have in fact learned a lesson about friendship. I learned that it isn’t right to invade someone else’s privacy, even if they share some of your own privacy. Eavesdropping is wrong, and you could get caught doing it as well. When you eavesdrop, you not only violate the privacy of your friends, you violate their trust. Sincerely, Dako.” “Twilight, I’ll let you take this, Spike can send it when you get home.” I said holding it out for her. She grabbed it out of my hand with her magic. After all that, the Lotus, or Aloe, I can’t really tell them apart, gave me a couple towels to dry off with, I sat with them and waited awhile until they were done with the rest of their treatment. When everyone was done with their treatments we all left, saying goodbye to each other. Me and Fluttershy walked together to the market. It was just some grocery shopping. We got lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, and carrots. I still miss eating meat, I don’t see how vegetarians survive. When we had gotten everything we headed home, flying side by side. “So, how exactly was your spa day, before I dropped in that is.” I asked Fluttershy. “Oh, it was great, I really liked the massage. It was so relaxing.” She said. “Well, if you ever need a massage, but don’t want to go to the spa, I could do it, for free too.” I said. “Thank you Dako. I’ll let you next time.” She said with a smile. We got home and put the groceries away. I made dinner for us, and we ate together. After we were finished I washed the dishes and put them away. We headed upstairs together and got ready for bed. I pulled back the blankets for her, then got in myself. I pulled the blankets back over us, then we cuddled up together. “I’m sorry I told them that Dako.” Fluttershy apologized again. “Don’t be, it’s okay, I’m fine with it now.” I said to Fluttershy. “I still love you.” I said to her, kissing her on the nose. “I love you too Dako.” She said, snuggling up to me. We held each other for a while silently. Then I heard Fluttershy gasp. “Dako, it’s not morning right now.” She said silently. “It doesn’t always happen in the mornings, and it doesn’t have to either.” I said to her. I still don’t understand how she was more aware of it than I was. “Oh, I see.” She said, blushing a little. She may have been comfortable, but she sure did get red, it was kinda cute. “Are you alright, you’re not being poked anywhere that’s uncomfortable are you?” I asked her. “I can roll over if you want.” “No it’s fine, it’s just in my stomach.” She said. “Oh, okay.” I said to her. “Good night Dako, I love you.” She said to me. “Good night Fluttershy, I love you too.” I said. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 15: It's not just TV, its DirecTV //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 15: It's not just TV, its DirecTV                                                                Chapter 15: It’s not just TV, its DirecTV I woke up to the rooster crowing outside. Things are pretty weird in my life. First off I’m not even human, which was a huge realization for me. I’m a saiyan, an alien being from a possibly extinct race, who knows if there was anyone like Frieza, or if the planet was destroyed by him. I got picked up by a tornado and got dropped off in Equestria. Now, I’m cuddling with my favorite pony, Fluttershy, in her bed, in her house, in Ponyville. I know for a fact, that I won’t be here forever. I wonder when I’ll have to go. I don’t know when, but I know I’ll hate the day that I would have to leave Fluttershy. I remember reading “My Little Dashie” and thought to myself, “I don’t think I could let Rainbow Dash go like that, shit, I’d rather eat a bullet, eat hot lead before they took her. Hell, I couldn’t go on living without my favorite little pony like that guy, I would kill my self.” For now, I would have to forget about all of that. The morning sunlight was filtering in through the windows. Fluttershy was lying on the left side of the bed, and I was lying on the right side, as usual. Her forelegs were over my shoulders, her hind legs were wrapped around my waist, and she had her head under my chin, buried in my chest. My left arm was behind her head, stroking her mane, and my right arm held her close to me, my hand on her flank, occasionally giving her a couple of gentle pats. I was here, so far, for two weeks. I don’t think I can go without TV anymore. It was painful not having my mind-numbing idiot box to stare at. I had to do something about it. I gently woke Fluttershy up. “Good morning cutie.” I said to her smiling. I kissed her on the top of her head. “Good morning Dako.” She replied, smiling back at me. “I think I’m gonna get up now.” I said to her. She tightened her grip on me. “Don’t you want to stay in bed a little longer?” she asked me. “Aw, don’t give me any ideas.” I said jokingly. “What are you going to do today?” Fluttershy asked. “I’m planning on going to Twilight’s, see if she can help me with an idea I have.” I said. “Okay, you’ll be careful won’t you?” She asked me. “Always.” I said smiling at her. She nuzzled me with her nose, then let go of me. I pulled the blankets off of me and got out of bed. I grabbed my pants and put them on, later slipping on my boots, and finally putting on my shirt. I tightened my belt, and put on my wristbands. I thought it was funny that I had the exact same wristbands as Goku. I have no idea what the hell they mean, or what their purpose is, they just complete the outfit. I walked over to the bed and gave Fluttershy a kiss. “I’ll be back, see you later Fluttershy.” I said as I walked downstairs. I stepped outside shutting the door behind me. I walked down the dirt path leading from the front door a little ways until I had crossed the bridge. I stopped and looked around. It was a beautiful morning, the birds were singing, it was warm, and the sky was clear. Before I took off, I decided to power up. I didn’t use the kaioken, but used my own strength to power up, forming my own aura. A white-ish glow surround me in a blur that looked like the rising hot air of a huge fire, ripple-y and distorted. I powered up as high as I could, blowing dust and grass all around me before finally taking off. I shot straight up and into the sky at over 500 miles per hour at least. Then I began to curve as I headed straight for Twilight’s place. I got there in only a few minutes, then I landed outside. Sure I could’ve used the Instant Transmission technique, but it felt great to fly. I walked to the door and knocked. Spike answered the door and let me in. “Hey Dako, what are you up to today?” Spike asked. “I just wanted to see if Twilight could help me with something.” I said looking around. “Where is Twilight anyway?” I asked. “She’s upstairs. She said she was going to be studying your world, or try to anyway.” Spike said. “Oh, well I think we can help each other out then.” I said as I walked upstairs. Twilight had several different books floating around her at once, looking for a way to “see” into my world. As I reached the top of the stairs she noticed me and looked up. “Hey Dako, what brings you by?” she asked with a cheerful smile. “I heard you were trying to study my world a little, and I needed to ask you for your help with something, something that might help you understand my world.” I said. “What’s that?” she asked suddenly interested. “Back when I first met you I mentioned that we had something called, “Television”. Now, I used to watch TV all the time, and I can’t stand not having it.” I started. “Yes, so what do you need me for?” Twilight asked, getting and idea of what I was getting at. “Well, since I found that, “Land of the Lost” place, I was wondering that if I found a Television, you could help me and use your magic to get it to work. That way, you could see human life on earth by watching the programming made by people, and I would get my favorite shows and cartoons back.” I said. “So, you think my magic can help you?” Twilight asked unsure of my idea. “I know it can.” I said confidently. Like a crackhead looking to score, I was determined to make it work. “Okay, but I need to see one of these TVs first.” She said. “I’m on it.” I said as I put my index finger and middle finger to my forehead. I used the instant transmission to go back to the land of the lost. When I got there I hovered over the vast fields of collected things. I began to fly over the mountains of stuff looking for TVs. I saw the remains of a Wal-Mart and flew down. If a tornado had brought me here, most likely tornadoes brought other things here too, like parts of buildings, and things they contained. I looked around, but not for long as I quickly found a flat screen lying in the rubble. I drifted down to land near it. I examined the TV for a while. It was a new L.E.D. type flatscreen, a modest 32 inches, and it was a Sony. I had to look around a little harder to find a DirecTV cable box as well. It took a while, but I found one with it’s remote nearby. I picked it up then teleported back to Twilight’s at the library. “Here you go Twilight, not bad huh? I wish I had one like this.” I said. “So that’s what one of these looks like.” She said as she walked closer, examining it with a careful eye. “So, can you power it? It takes electricity, but is there a way you could do it with magic?” I asked Twilight. “Well, I do have an outlet we could plug it into.” She said. “Oh cool, so you guys really do have electricity and stuff like that.” “Yeah, we don’t live like caveponies.” Twilight said in a sarcastic tone. “Oh my god. Say that again, that was so cool.” I said, apparently these ponies evolved like mankind. “Caveponies?” she said confused. “It’s fine. So, let’s plug this thing in.” I said excited to get my good ol’ television back. “She levitated the TV over to a nearby wall and plugged the cord in. Then she did the same with the cable box. I walked over and turned both of them on. The TV turned on to a blank blue screen, it was flashing a black box with white letters across the screen that said “No signal”. Twilight looked fucking amazed. It was so cute, it was almost like if a kitten saw it’s reflection in a mirror for the first time. “Its, beautiful, it lights up.” She said stunned. “But, what does it do now? You said you could watch shows on this.” Twilight said. “Now I need you to help me with something a little more difficult.” I said to her. “What do you need?” she asked. “Now, I need you to try and make some sort of “bridge” or “tunnel” so that the television signals can be received by the cable box here.” I tried to explain. “Um, I’m not sure I understand.” She said a little confused. “Do you know what radio waves are?” I asked. “No. What are they?” She asked. “Okay, light travels in waves, I know that sounds weird but scientists back from my world found that out.” I started, but was interrupted by her curious fascination. “Light travels in waves? How was this found out?” she asked. “Okay, there’s something called the “Photoelectric” effect, I learned about it in Physics class. Wait, okay, that proves that light is also made of particles, so that would mean…” Again I was interrupted. “Light is made of particles?!” She asked, standing up getting more and more excited. “Whoa! Calm down girl, I’ll have a science chat with you some other time, don’t worry, but right now I’m trying to get to radio waves.” I said to her. “Okay, I’m sorry, continue.” She said sitting back down again. “Right, well, radio is a form of waves on the Electromagnetic Spectrum, the same spectrum as light.” I could see her trying to stifle herself with effort as her eyes grew even wider, and she began to cover her mouth with one of her hooves. “Radio is on the low end of the spectrum, light is on the high end of the spectrum. Television is broadcast as a radio wave, and I want you to try and find that kind of wave being broadcast from my world.” I told her. “I don’t know, I can try to open some portal, but its one of the most difficult, and forbidden spells around. You can’t just bring and send things from one place to another, even from other worlds.” Twilight began to explain. “Besides, I don’t even know what to look for, I don’t know what radio “feels” like.” Twilight finished. “Well, this is something that can only be picked up on these kinds of devices, no one else would know they were here. And as for what they feel like, try and “portal” some sun light into the room, then once you know what light feels like, try and focus on a weaker and lower energy type of wave.” I said. “Okay, I guess you’re right. No one will know. Alright, here I go.” She said. Her horn began to glow as she began to perform the spell. Instantly a small CD sized purple portal appeared above us all in the middle of the room. I flew up to get a closer look at it. It was weird to try and look at. It existed in two dimensions, you could only see it if you looked straight at it, but move to the side and it would appear thinner and thinner until it was no longer visible. It had no depth at all, none to speak of. Just height and width, but no depth. What was strange was the fact that it was not visible from the back. Get all the way behind it and it was like it was not even there, it defied physics. “Okay, well, the portal is here and not here. It worked, so, next step?” I asked. Twilight’s horn began to glow brighter, she was now concentrating on sunlight, the feeling, the warmth, the brightness of it. Soon, the portal began to have light shine through it. Like an invisible flashlight that still shone, light was shining down and out of the portal. “That’s great Twilight, you’re doing it.” I said. “Wait here, and keep the portal open, I’ll be right back.” I teleported over to Fluttershy’s to find my iPod. I quickly grabbed it and teleported back to Twilight’s. When I returned I went to the radio function of my iPod. “Okay Twilight, now, try and lower the frequency a little, imagine a weaker form of light.” I said. The light began to shift from white light to yellow, then orange, finally stopping at red light. The red light began to get dimmer and dimmer until light was no longer visible as the spectrum shifted into the infrared area. She continued on until I could hear static from the radio. I heard no music or talking, just static, then I could hear high pitched tones, then clicking. Now, I learned about how the universe is full of radio waves, and I was just hearing stars and stuff. “Twilight, what galaxy are we in?” I asked her. She looked at me like I was crazy. “The Milky Way?” she said, thinking I wanted to hear something different. “Holy crap! You have the same name for the galaxy!” I said, excited again. “Okay, scan around the Milky Way specifically if you can until I say stop.” I said. “Okay, I’ll try.” She said, as she shut her eyes concentrating. I began hearing all kinds of different sounds until I began to hear a human voice speaking. “Wait! Stop stop stop! You’re there, now just hold that there.” I said. “Just try and focus in a little more.” The signal began to clear up, and I could hear familiar things. I looked at my iPod to see what station I had, I was tuned in to 102.3. “… at Mothers Window Tint we have it all, we have remote vehicle starters, car security systems, and amplifiers and subwoofers that’ll make your car go, thump thump thump, mother thump! Do it at Mothers and save! Yo, we back from commercial, hear we go ya’ll, it’s one-oh-two-three, The Beat.” The radio said as I turned down the volume. A smile instantly cracked across my face, if the TV thing didn’t quite work out, at least I had radio, and it was my favorite radio station as well. “What is that?” Twilight asked, with her head tilted and a confused look on her face. She couldn’t have been a cuter pony, at any other time. I laughed a little, the commercial was so familiar to me. “It’s an advertisement for car accessories, then the guy you heard last was letting the listener know that the advertisements were over and they were gonna resume the music. I’ll show you what a car is if we get the TV to work.” I said to her. I turned the volume back up to see what song was playing. “…ya son out in Barbados, cheese eggs and potatoes, smokin’ weed on the beach is my mind workin like Plato’s, analyzin’ the world, fantasizin’ ‘bout girls, I’m handed diamonds and pearls, and vandalizing her curls, sweatin’ the weave out, moans as she breathes out, f…. I’m doin’ in parties with Hova and Steve Stoute? I step over piranha, that’s death over dishonor, they killin’ n…..s for J’s that’s death over designer. Hey Cole heatin’ up like that left over lasagna, remember when I used to be stressed over Duana? Now a n…. only be textin’, gets stressed over Rihanna’s. I’m talkin’ tens and better, b…..s in Timbs and sweaters, and we always argue about the same thing, tell me why we gotta argue ‘bout the same thing same thing… well. Nobody’s perfect, uh, nobody’s perfect ey, ey, uh. Ey but you’re perfect for me. Nobody’s perfect, uh, nobody’s perfect ey. Ey but you’re perfect for me.” I turned the radio down again. Twilight sat there with her jaw dropped, she had just heard other humans talking, and heard their music. I laughed at her expression. “That was human music Twilight, that genre is called Rap and Hip Hop. That’s the kind of music I like to listen to.” I said. “The guy singing, his name is “J. Cole”, that’s not his real name, but it’s his rapper name. He’s a rapper, not a singer. See Rap stands for “Rhythm and Poetry” which is why it sounds so good, and rhymes a bunch, it just flows.” I explained to her. “That was amazing, I like the sound of it, but I still prefer the classical music I hear here.” She said. “That’s cool, it’s fine, I don’t always listen to rap and hip hop, I listen to classic rock though, not classical music. In fact…” I said to her as began looking for a new station, 93.7 “You’re listening to KLBJ, The Rock of Austin, ninety three point seven. I see a bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightnin’. I see bad times today. Don’t go around tonight, well it’s bound to take your life, there’s a bad moon on the rise.” It was CCR Bad Moon Rising. She seemed to like any music I played. “Okay, now, lets see if we can get these radio frequencies and a little higher.” I said to Twilight. She concentrated again, trying to find the signals. The DirecTV box and TV were turned on, now I just waited for the picture to show up. After a minute of searching for the signal something began to appear on the TV screen. I hit the Guide button and the channel guide came up on screen. It worked, I could see the channels and shows that were being broadcast from Earth. I scrolled around and looked for something with people in it to show to Twilight. As I channel surfed I found BBC America and noticed that Top Gear was on. I liked the show, it was funny, and it had a bunch of cars, what else could I want. I selected it and began watching, Twilight was visibly interested and confused at the same time, but she was watching. “So, those are humans?” Twilight asked. “But they talk, differently than you.” “They’re English, from England, it’s their accent. I’m American, from America. We have a flatter accent, like most of the ponies here.” I explained. “What are they doing with those things?” Twilight asked about the cars. “Those are Cars. A long time ago people rode around in horse-drawn carriages, then people invented the horseless carriage, or “Car” for short. Nowadays it’s what most humans use to travel and get around.” I said to Twilight. Her eyes were huge, she loved the knowledge. And she had the cutest look I’ve ever seen on anypony. “I have an idea, I’ll get Pinkie Pie to send out some invitations to the others and we’ll have a real quick movie night. How does that sound?” I asked. “Movie, night?” Twilight said. “Oh, a movie is like a play, but better. It’s another thing you can watch on TV.” I told her. “Oh, ok. What are we going to watch?” She asked. “Um, I’ll figure that out later, I’ll be back.” I said to her as teleported over to Pinkie Pie’s place at Sugarcube Corner. It was around 7:00 now, and they were already closed, but I wanted to see if Pinkie Pie thought it would be fun. She did. She ran out of the bakery to deliver her invitations that she had ready in case an opportunity for a party presented itself. Now I could pick up Fluttershy and wait for the others to show up. I teleported over to Fluttershy’s and walked in. “Fluttershy, I’m back, and I was wondering if you wanted to go to a, a party with me?” I yelled out as I came back in. She walked downstairs. “Oh, Dako, you’re finally back. I was just upstairs dusting, did you say something about a party?” She asked. “Yeah, Twilight and I got this thing called a TV to work, and we’re going to watch it.” I said. “Oh, well, I guess that would be okay.” Fluttershy said a little unsure. “It’ll be fine, we won’t watch anything scary. Come here.” I said as I gave her a hug. I was barely gone for a day and I missed her, hugging her felt better than what I imagine drugs are like. As I hugged her I teleported back to the library where the others were already there waiting for me. “Okay guys, are ya’ll ready for one of the funniest movies in my world?” I said to them all. They all cheered in reply, which was good, at least if they didn’t know what the movie was, they were enthusiastic. “Alright guys, this movie is called, The Hangover.” I said. I selected it on one of the HBO movie channels and it was just starting. Everyone sat and watched the movie with surprise, they were all so cute, like kittens watching TV or something. They were so excited to see humans that they never saw before, in the world that people lived in, and got to see what human life was like, at a slightly exaggerated scale. As I expected they didn’t get every joke that I did, but they laughed whenever someone was hurt, and attempted to figure out why what I thought was funny was funny. When the movie was over they cheered, shared their thoughts, said their goodbyes, and left. It was a pretty good movie night, if I could think of another good movie then we could do this again. I teleported back to the cottage with Fluttershy once everyone else had left and said their goodbyes. We went upstairs and got ready for bed. I took off my outfit along with my boots, and wristbands. I pulled back the blankets for Fluttershy and me, then we got into bed. We immediately scooted next to each other and held each other. I held her to me with my left arm and had my right hand resting on her flanks. I kissed her on the forehead. “I love you Fluttershy, I love you so much.” I said to her. She kissed me back, on the cheek. “I love you too Dako.” She said to me. “Goodnight Fluttershy.” I said. “Goodnight Dako.” She said. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 16: Six Months Later //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 16: Six Months Later                                                                    Chapter 16: Six Months Later. I have lived in Equestria for six months now. In the time I’ve lived here I’ve become more and more of a familiar citizen to the ponies. They see me like they would see anypony, except the fact that I’m some saiyan that resembles a human, you know, that thing. But everyone accepts me for who I am. And I accept this place as home now. I am their hero and protector of sorts. If an occasional disaster where to arise I would be there to help, like if a dragon or something wanders into town. Though nothing big ever happens, it never hurts to be ready and prepared. For six solid months I kept feeling worried and nervous about something. I knew I shouldn’t think about it, but I kept thinking of what might happen if I wasn’t strong enough to “save the day”. I didn’t want to let anyone down. So I trained and trained like there would be no tomorrow unless I fought for it. Nothing happened. But I got a lot, lot, stronger. Now I could effortlessly pull of a Kaioken times 10 if I wanted. I asked Twilight to see if she could design a machine to measure my power level. She was actually able to build such a machine. At full power it claimed that I had a power level of around 150,000! I didn’t know if that was good, but I sure as hell was proud, considering at rest I had a power level of around 10,000-15,000. I thought about it for a while, “What if I could go Super Saiyan?” I knew it was possible, on Dragon Ball Z Goku and Vegeta did it. But it wasn’t something I set my heart on, besides, I knew it would happen when I absolutely needed it, although I really didn’t like that idea. Anyway, when I first arrived in Ponyville it was near the middle of summer. I pretty much trained that entire season away along with fall. Now it was the beginning of winter, and it had already snowed. If I had to guess it was around December now. The good thing about the snow was that it gave me something to do for the ponies so I could earn some money. In the six months that passed, I spent almost all of the one thousand bits that I got for scaring away the dragon for good, and it was time to find a job to get more money. As one might expect, I had a job suitable for my powers, I could fly up to ponies’ roofs of their homes and get the snow off. I also helped clear the roads around town, but since there were no cars I didn’t have to clear a large path. So today I was getting up to go clear the snow that fell over night. For once, it was to cold for the rooster to come out of the chicken coop and wake me up at 6:30, now I usually woke up at 8:00. As I found more and more things in the land of the lost as I called it, Twilight helped me to get them to work. Eventually I found an alarm clock and had it set to the time that I wanted to get up at. So its 8:00 now, and it was time to get up. The alarm was going off, so I hit the snooze button, about three times, then finally got up. It was cold outside, probably a warm 20 degrees out, and the wood stove Fluttershy had barely kept the place warm. We were huddled together for warmth this time, instead of just cuddling. I don’t know who needed the warmth more, me or her, because she had fur, and I didn’t. That was one of the main reasons I liked cuddling with her anyways, she was soft. My other reasons were; she was warm, she was cuddly, and she was impossibly cute, adorable, and… cute. “Fluttershy. Fluttershy wake up.” I said to her. I gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Hm?” Fluttershy moaned as she began to wake up. “Good morning Fluttershy. You’re being cute again.” I said to her. “Good morning Dako. What time is it?” she asked. “Its 8:30. Is it cold in here or what?” I said to her. “Well, it did snow again last night.” Fluttershy said, turning to look out the window next to her. “Yup, more work, I believe I can make a lot of money today.” I said, recalling all of the customers I had yesterday. “Oh, you don’t have to go now, do you?” She asked me as she climbed on top of me. “Aw. Damn, now I can’t go. You’re too cute to leave.” I said as I began to stroke her mane with my left hand. “Thanks.” She said smiling. Then she kissed me. Not on the cheeks, or anywhere else, but on the lips. As time went on she decided she would start kissing me on the mouth, and now she was fully comfortable with it. I was okay with it too, I didn’t think it was weird, we never “made out” or anything like that. Just kiss. “I love you Fluttershy. I know you hear it all the time, but I just like to let you know. I don’t think I could live without you.” I said to her. I rubbed my hands down her back and let them rest on her flanks, occasionally patting her. “I love you too Dako.” She said. She put her hooves on my shoulders and hugged me considerably tight for her. “Fluttershy, I have to get up now. Okay?” I said to her. “No, please, just stay in today and keep cuddling with me, please?” She asked me. “Oh, fine, I guess I can take a day off, but first…” I said as I sat up with her still on me. She squealed a little in surprise. I held her to me with one hand around her back, and held her up with a hand under her flanks. I began to float out of bed, carrying her downstairs, Fluttershy starting to giggle. “But first, let me see how much snow fell.” I said as I landed on the floor and walked to the door. I held her up with one hand and opened the door to look outside. The ground was blanketed with snow, but it was blanketed yesterday as well, and it didn’t look like much was added. “Well my little pony, looks we have a whole day to ourselves.” I said to her with a smile, then I kissed her on the forehead. I shut the door then walked back inside, carrying Fluttershy upstairs. I set her back in the bed and lied down next to her. “So, what do you wanna do?” I asked her. “Um, we could cuddle some more.” She suggested sweetly. “I got no problems with that.” I said I rolled over so I could put one of my arms around her. I pulled her close to me. I do not regret skipping work at all. I love Fluttershy so much, this is the best part of being with her. The cuddling. When I sleep in bed I don’t wear any night shirts, or pajamas, or shorts. I sleep in my boxers, and that’s pretty much it, which is no wonder why I get cold easily in bed at night. Anyway, since I wear no clothes but my boxers, it feels great to cuddle with Fluttershy, she’s so warm, soft, fluffy, the feeling of her warm soft fur against my skin. She’s just so soft and warm, I love holding her. She’s just such a cute little pony. I need help, I may have issues. Could I be addicted to her or something? I need to do something, like date her, marry her, something! I love her! “Fluttershy?” I said. “Yes Dako?” She replied. “Would it be possible for us to get married? Would you marry me?” I asked her right out, I wasn’t scared. “Um, well I, I don’t know. I don’t see why we couldn’t.” She said a little surprised at my question. “Yeah, that’s true. So, will you marry me?” I asked again. “Well, sure Dako, I love you, and you love me, you care about me, and take care of me, but I don’t think we can get married.” She said sounding worried, as if she wanted to get married, but was uncertain if we could. “Well, we don’t have to you know? We’re still here with each other right now. It was just a curious thought. We could definitely go out with each other, although we kind of have before.” I said. “Well, I would love to go out with you Dako, what do you want to do?” Fluttershy asked. “Well, I think we should go and see the town and all the snow. You know? How does that sound, you wanna do that?” I asked her. “I think that would be nice.” She said smiling. “Cool, I’m gonna get dressed, do what you need.” I said to her as I got back out of bed. I got all dressed up, but only in my outfit, I didn’t have a jacket or coat or anything, which really sucked in this weather. Remember how I had Rarity make ten of my outfits that resembled Goku’s? I finally have them, but I never planned ahead to think that I would need a coat or jacket. I’m used to Texas weather, not the panhandle, but central Texas, Austin. Usually it gets to around the mid 40s at least, although I have endured a frigid SIXTEEN degrees before! Plus, I’ve only seen it snow, at a considerable amount, twice in my lifetime. So now I have to freeze my ass off until I get enough money to get a coat or something, I can’t even have regular clothes, I just wear the same outfit all the time. Sometimes I wish I could go around naked like the ponies, but I would mentally scar and traumatize them if I were to do that. “Alright, I’m all ready, how about you Fluttershy?” I asked as soon as I finished tightening my belt. “I’m ready.” Fluttershy said. She had some boots and a scarf on, pretty much all she needed being covered in fur. And, she looked plain adorable in them. Imagine! A little pony like Fluttershy in boots and a scarf, just cute. “Alright, lets go.” I said as I headed for the stairs. As I reached the bottom steps I made my way to the stove and tossed a couple of logs in to keep the place warm. After that I looked out the window, reminding myself of how cold it was out there. I opened the door and was met by an icy breeze, then me and Fluttershy walked out together into the fresh snow. “Ooh, damn that’s cold!” I said instantly chilled. “Oh my, the snow is so beautiful.” Fluttershy said softly. “Yeah, and it looks like more might fall soon.” I said looking up at the sky. The worst part about the weather was the fact my outfit had no freakin’ sleeves! Thank God, though, for my wristbands, otherwise I might’ve frozen to death! “So Dako, what do you want to do?” Fluttershy asked. “Uh, I wonder if they have some hot chocolate down at Sugarcube Corner. Why don’t we go check it out?” I suggested. “Okay, that sounds great.” She replied. Well, I’ll say right now, this ain’t flyin’ weather. 20 degrees standing still, maybe felt like five degrees in the wind. I had to fly through this weather, without sleeves. Do you know how that feels, what that’s like? I don’t think you do. We finally got to Sugarcube Corner after 15 minutes of flying. I flew alongside Fluttershy at a brisk 30 miles an hour. One, she could never keep up with me at full speed, and two, I would have died had I flown any faster, it was too damn cold! “Hello hello The Cakes! How are you guys this frozen morning?” I said as I walked into the bakery. “Oh, well hello there Dako, we’re fine, how are you?” Mrs. Cake replied. “I’m cold, thank you. You guys wouldn’t happen to have any hot chocolate this morning?” I asked. “We sure do, help yourself to some, it’ll be on the house!” Mr. Cake said as he walked in. “Thank you sir, is Pinkie Pie around?” I asked as I grabbed a cup for me and Fluttershy. “Not right now, she went out earlier to play in the snow. She should be back soon.” Mr. Cake replied. Fluttershy and I sat down at a table by the window. I filled our cups with hot chocolate. It sure was good, like drinking a Hershey bar. We sat there for about five minutes until Pinkie Pie walked in, and she had a scarf of her own on, they’re lucky they can wear so few clothes. “Hey Pinkie Pie, how are you?” I asked her. “Great Dako, have you seen this snow, its amazing!” Pinkie Pie replied. “Glad you like this weather, I’m not used to this wear I’m from.” I said. “How could anyone not like this weather?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Oh, its fine with me, it’s just that I don’t have the proper clothing to enjoy it.” I said reassuringly. “I have a question!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “Yes?” I said. “Would you guys like to come to a sleepover at Twilight’s?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Fluttershy, does that sound like something you want to do?” I asked Fluttershy. “Come on, it’ll be fun, everyone’s coming!” Pinkie Pie added. “Sure, that sounds like fun.” Fluttershy answered with a smile. “Great, be there 7:30, that’s when it starts!” Pinkie Pie said as she headed upstairs. “I’m gonna get packed!” “Well, Fluttershy, shall we go home and get some things?” I asked. “Sure, like what?” She asked. “Some pillows, a blanket, a change of clothes for me.” I began listing. “One blanket? We’re sleeping, together? In front of the others? Fluttershy asked uneasily. “Yeah, that won’t be a problem right? And not in front of, along with them.” I said. “No, no problem, but, they might think it’s a little weird, even if I’m fine with it.” Fluttershy said. “Don’t worry, they’ll be just fine, I just know it.” I reassured her. “Okay.” She said. We headed back home in the freezing weather. I grabbed everything I needed and folded it all together. Fluttershy didn’t really have anything to take with her, so she helped me get my stuff together. For a while we just listened to a radio I found, then we just decided to take a nap until 7:30. It didn’t really matter if we stayed up all night, no one really sleeps at sleep over, right? Besides, in the cold cottage, the best way we could keep warm was by cuddling with each other on the couch. Although, I still think it’s me who cuddles for warmth in this situation, and Fluttershy who just plain likes the cuddling. Anyway, we took a nap on the couch, Fluttershy lied on top of me resting her head on my chest. With my alarm set for 7:15 exactly, we slept until it was time to head out. This would be the first time I would attend any sleep over, especially in Equestria. I was just excited to have been invited. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 17: Slumber Party //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 17: Slumber Party                                                                 Chapter 17: Slumber Party My alarm went off at exactly 7:15. I woke up first, hit the off button, then woke up Fluttershy. I was hesitant to wake her up, I felt so warm and comfortable with her on top of me, and she looked pretty peaceful and cute. I put my arms around her and hugged her to me for a minute. I slid my hands down to her flanks, giving them gentle loving pats. She was so cute, but I had to wake her up. “Fluttershy, come on cutie, time to get up.” I said softly as I began stroking her mane. “Come on, you can sleep some more later tonight baby.” “Huh, is it time to go to the sleep over?” Fluttershy said with a yawn. “Yup, let’s head out.” I said slowly sitting up. We got our stuff for the sleepover ready, then headed to the door. I stopped for a second. I couldn’t stand the thought of going back out in the cold, so I decided we would just teleport us there with the instant transmission. I put my hands on Fluttershy’s shoulders and gave her time to prepare herself for the teleportation. With my left hand on her shoulders I put my fingers to my forehead then teleported off to Twilight’s. We arrived right outside the front door. I knocked quickly so we could get inside. I hadn’t taken a second to look at the weather outside, so I didn’t notice that the snow was just coming down like no tomorrow, and the wind picked up a little. With these factors in mind the temperature seemed to drop to about five degrees, to negative five degrees. “Hi there Dako, Fluttershy, you guys made it, come on in!” Twilight greeted us at the door. I was surprised, I was expecting Spike. “Mother of Celestia it is cold out there!” I said with a shivering stutter as my teeth chattered. “I’ve only been exposed to the weather for a few seconds and I’m freezing!” “Hey you guys came!” Pinkie Pie shouted as soon as she heard us. “Oh, yes, we’re here.” Fluttershy said quietly. “Are you guys ready for the most awesome, coolest slumber party ever?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I don’t know, what makes it so awesome?” I asked smiling. “We’re gonna watch a movie tonight!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “What kind of movie?” I asked concerned. I never turned on any parental blocks knowing they were mature enough to deal with whatever they saw, but I kind of worried about what they might have seen. “Well actually, I went on that “YouTube” thing you told us about, and looked up all the cool videos people made for us, and this one wear some guy reads a story called “My Little Dashie”, so I had to check it out!” Pinkie Pie shouted once more. “Oh, do you, know what it’s about?” I asked, breathing a sigh of relief. “I don’t know, but it sounds like fun!” Pinkie Pie replied. “If it’s about me it’s got to be awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I think it sounds interesting.” Twilight said. “Well, as it just so happens, I’ve seen this video before, and I know what happens. I won’t tell you anything, but I will warn you: be prepared to cry. Oh, and I’ll be here for hugs, that is if I don’t start crying and asking for them first.” I said to them all, giving them a fair warning. “Oh, this is gonna be great.” I thought to myself. “They have no idea.” “Cry? Why?” Fluttershy asked concerned. “Oh, it gets sad at the ending, you’ll see.” I said. We all gathered around the computer Twilight and I resurrected and sat down around it. We all had our blankets, snacks, etc. Twilight started the video and we all sat waiting. I grabbed Fluttershy and pulled her close to me, I know I’d need to hug her through most of this. This would probably be the only time I’d see them all this cute, and sad, in one place. As expected everyone Aww’d at the part where the guy finds Rainbow Dash as a filly in the box, except Rainbow Dash herself, who ducked a little clearly embarrassed. The story continued on, and everyone continued to Aww including me, which got me a couple of surprised looks, which I didn’t mind. Then when things started to take a turn for the worse, I could feel the sadness. When Rainbow Dash in the story ran away, everyone Aww’d in a slightly different sense, and I heard someone starting to sniffle. “Rainbow, are you crying?” I could hear Applejack ask. “No! An eyelash or something just got into my eye!” Rainbow Dash said. “Ahem, anyone need those hugs yet?” I asked to the crowd. “No? Not yet? Okay.” Then things looked up once the Rainbow Dash in the story came back for the guy, and everyone felt a little better. But I knew better than this, I knew this where it got a whole hell of a lot sadder. Everyone was so still and silent when the guy in the story answered the door for Princess Celestia. I knew what was right around the corner now. I waited till the part where Celestia said she had to take Rainbow Dash back, then as I once heard someone say would great with this part of the story, I started playing the music to the Dead Island video game trailer. I had perfect timing, the music started right when the guy started to break down. Instantly, the reader started to cry as he read, I thought that was funny the first time I listened, but now, the ponies thought it was sad. “That’s just, awful, I feel so bad for that guy.” Twilight said, her voice breaking. I heard Fluttershy sniffling next to me, and I was prepared. The music going in time with the story, the narrator crying, the sad scene, all of it was enough to make them start crying, and I felt my eyes water a little as well. Fluttershy was now crying, and I was now hugging. If the story had been made into a movie by Hollywood, it would make hundreds of millions in my opinion. “Dako.” Fluttershy said, as she buried her head in my chest. I hugged her tight, patting her back. I guess she imagined what it’d be like if she had to leave me, or vice versa. The sad scene was finally over, and the Rainbow Dash in the story had left the guy. Everypony was bawling, yet I still had not cried, even with them crying. No matter how close I got I wonder why I never cried, it almost pissed me off. I forgot about for a while. “Magnificent, simply magnificent!” Rarity finally spoke through tears. “That was, pretty, cool!” Rainbow Dash struggled to say, crying herself. “So, anypony need a quick hug? I know I’d like to give a few.” I said to them. Suddenly I was pounced by all of them. They all clinged to me for what felt like forever. I patted each and everyone of them on the back, and had to give them the “Shush shush” routine and calm them down. “It’s alright everypony, the stories over, you can all calm down now.” I said reassuring them. They eventually calmed down. The night was still young, and we couldn’t just go to sleep already. So Twilight remembered to when she had a sleepover with Applejack and Rarity. She suggested that we have a pillow fight. Right away Pinkie Pie agreed, so did Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but Rarity and Fluttershy were hesitant. “Uh, I don’t know if I should participate. I’m afraid I might hurt someone.” I said. “Don’t worry, you won’t hurt anyone, at least not on purpose.” Fluttershy said reassuringly. “You go and have the best pillow fight ever.” “Yeah, but to me hurt was an understatement. I’m scared I might kill.” I said looking down at the floor. “All I heard was “scared”.” Rainbow Dash said smiling. “I can understand if you don’t want to get beat. It’s okay, you and Fluttershy can give each other a makeover or something.” “Damn it, you know, I suddenly feel like participating.” I said to everyone as I stood up. Rainbow Dash was smiling but everyone else suddenly looked scared. I grabbed my pillow that I had brought with me and held over my right shoulder like a baseball bat. “Let me just say this right now, if anyone gets hurt it’s not m-.” I began to say until I was cut off by Rainbow Dash who flew up and smacked me as hard as she could with her pillow. Just because it’s a soft pillow, doesn’t mean it won’t hurt when it hits you, especially if it comes at your face near 50 miles an hour. My head twisted as if I was punched and I stumbled back a little. My face actually stung a little. At least all this gave me a chance to say what I always wanted to say. “PRISON RULES!” I yelled leaving everyone looking confused. I lunged towards Rainbow Dash and “Uppercut” her with my pillow. After that everyone went after each other. As soon as I did that, Pinkie Pie jumped after Twilight, then Rainbow Dash went after Applejack. Pinkie Pie jumped up to swing downwards at Twilight, who swung from the side and knocked Pinkie Pie out of the air. Applejack hit Rainbow Dash before she could get to her. With Pinkie Pie out of the way Twilight came after me, to which I spun with my pillow coming back around to connect with Twilight sending her into Applejack. Rainbow Dash got back up after being hit by Applejack and went for Pinkie Pie. Applejack crawled out from under Twilight and came after me, I sent her back towards Twilight doing the same spin move. Rainbow Dash hit Pinkie Pie under the jaw sending her into the air landing on top of Applejack who was on top of Twilight. Rainbow Dash went after the three but stopped when they signaled her to listen to them for a second. They were whispering something. After a couple of seconds they all looked at me with suspicious looking smiles. They all jumped at me ready to hit me, but I pulled up my pillow ready to block. It had turned into a sword fight, every time they swung at me I swung back, pillows clashing. It was me against them, four on one. After about a minute of relentless attack, and I’ll admit that it was probably cheating, I powered up the kaioken and took a huge swing at all of them knocking them all down except for Rainbow Dash who ducked. She popped back up and flew right at me. I cocked back again, like the pillow was a baseball bat, then swung as hard as I could. I hit Rainbow Dash hard, sending her flying into a wall. Everyone stopped and looked at me, then to Rainbow Dash. “Oh shit, are you okay!?” I shouted out to Rainbow Dash. “I’m good.” She said trying to stand up, a little hurt from hitting the wall. Suddenly everyone shouted, “You win!” and the fight was over. We spent the next couple of hours watching episodes of My Little Pony, from the very first episode. Even though we had internet access from my world for about three months, this was their first time watching the show. We probably made it to episode five, after that everyone knew why I didn’t like Gilda. The weird thing was, they all remembered doing these things, all of this actually happened. Anyway, we were on YouTube, just messing around. I was looking at all of my favorite songs, showing them what kind of music I liked. Eventually someone wanted to see another movie. It was only 10:47, a movie would be fine. We looked for a little while and couldn’t decide what to watch, so I suggested that we watch The Terminator. I thought they would like it, Rainbow Dash did. Then, when it was too late to stop and pick something once we had gotten too far in, I remembered the sex scene in the movie. Oh well, they were smart, they could figure it out. And they did. At first they were confused, then they got it saying “Oh!” realizing what they saw. They were fine apparently. Aside from the scary parts, they liked the action. I think they should see more action movies, or even “Mind-fucks” like Shutter Island, something that will leave you confused until the end. After the movie was over it was now 1:34 A.M. We were all tired, and everyone was yawning and ready to go to sleep. We all began setting up our beds. Twilight was sleeping upstairs as usual, Rarity had the spare bed Twilight had, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie had their sleeping bags. Finally, Fluttershy and I had our makeshift mattress of blankets, our blanket, and pillow. I pulled back the blanket for her to lie down, then I laid down next to her. I pulled the blanket back over us, then we scooted together and began cuddling as usual. After ten seconds I looked up and noticed everyone else was looking at us. “What?” I asked them. “Well isn’t that precious?” Applejack said smiling. “You two lovebirds all snuggled in together.” “You two look absolutely adorable together!” Rarity said. I think it may have been the only time in my life that I had ever actually blushed at anything, or felt embarrassed about something. “What!?” I asked again. “You guys know we do this, Fluttershy told ya’ll.” “We know, but, we never thought that we would actually see it.” Twilight said. “Alright, well, you saw it. Now, goodnight everpony.” I said. “Goodnight Dako, goodnight Fluttershy!” They all replied in unison. “I love you Fluttershy, goodnight.” I said to Fluttershy, kissing her on the nose. “I love you too Dako, goodnight.” Fluttershy replied, kissing me on the lips. Right after we said that to each other I heard everyone in the room go, “Awww!”. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 18: From Holidays to Hell //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 18: From Holidays to Hell                                                             Chapter 18: From Holidays to Hell I was the last to wake up. I woke up at around 11:00 something, everyone else was awake by now, and they were watching TV. I woke up slowly, hesitantly at first, forcing my eyes shut, trying to sleep a little longer. I opened my eyes to see that I had my arms around Fluttershy’s waist, and resting my head on her stomach. I looked up and noticed she was sitting up watching TV. I slowly moved to sit up alongside her. “Good morning Dako.” Fluttershy said smiling down at me. “Good morning Fluttershy, sleep well?” I asked. “Fine thank you, it wasn’t so cold since I was able to cuddle with you.” She said. “Hey sleepyhead!” Rainbow Dash shouted to me, once she heard me and Fluttershy talking. “Look who’s finally awake!” “Good morning Rainbow Dash.” I said. “Oh, so there’s mister-snores-a-lot.” Twilight said jokingly. “What, I didn’t really snore, did I?” I asked. You never really know whether you snore or not unless someone tells you, obviously. “Of course, it was like someone was trying to saw the tree down.” Rarity added. “Well, now that I’m awake, anything for breakfast?” I asked. “It’s in the kitchen, plenty of eggs, toast, orange juice.” Twilight said. “Alright, I hope everyone’s had their helping, because I’m about to finish it off.” I said smiling and hungry. “Hey Dako, wanna watch TV?!” Pinkie Pie shouted at me. “I guess, what’re you guys watching?” I asked. “Monster truck rally.” Applejack replied. “Wow, you guys are into cars, or monster trucks?” I asked. “Yeah, they’re really cool, and big, and loud!” Pinkie Pie shouted again. I sat up to watch TV with them. I sat up right next to Fluttershy, putting my arms around her, holding her next to me. We were still underneath the blankets, cuddled next to each other. “I’m gonna go get some breakfast real quick.” I whispered to Fluttershy, kissing her on the forehead. “Gross, get a room you too!” I heard Rainbow Dash yell as I stood up. “Ah, forget you!” I yelled back jokingly. Just as I warned them, I single-handedly finished off breakfast. Although, there wasn’t much left in the first place, I was able to eat it all, thanks to my saiyan appetite, which really isn’t as bad as you see in Dragon Ball Z. I just eat enough for about two people, instead of, like, ten? After I had eaten I came back to lie down next to Fluttershy. Suddenly I got a shiver down my back, just out of nowhere. I physically shivered, like a reaction to cold. “Dako, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine, just got a shiver all of a sudden.” I said. I sat down next to her and put my arms back around her. She rested her head on my shoulder as we watched TV together. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were the ones who most enjoyed the monster truck rally, Twilight, and Rarity didn’t care too much. Fluttershy was just content to be by my side. We sat there watching TV for another two hours, after the monster truck rally was over we switched to BBCAmerica and watched Top Gear for awhile. Out of nowhere I got another shiver twice as strong as before. I shook even harder for a second, Fluttershy immediately looked up in concern. “Dako, what’s wrong? Are you cold?” She asked. “No, I just got a shiver for nothing. It feels weird though, I think I feel something.” I said. “Is something wrong?” Fluttershy asked again. “No, it’s fine. Let’s keep watching TV.” I said. She put her head on my shoulder again. I kissed her on the forehead and hugged her tight. I was starting to get concerned myself with these shivers, I never got the shivers like this before. It was weird, it felt wrong. Five minutes into watching Top Gear, I just gasped out of nowhere, like I was suddenly running and had to catch my breath, simultaneously I was hit with another shiver, the biggest one yet. Everyone turned and looked at me as I panted heavily trying to catch my breath, my eyes were wide with shock, almost panic as well. “Dako, what’s wrong?!” Fluttershy cried out. “Holy, I-I don’t know! Something’s wrong, very very wrong!” I said suddenly feeling something powerful. “Are you sick, what’s wrong?!” Twilight asked. “No, I’m not sick. I-I felt something, something’s coming this way, whatever it is it’s powerful like me.” I said. “Something, like what?” Fluttershy asked worried. “Something, bad.” I said. I immediately jumped up and began throwing my clothes on. I quickly stepped into my pants and hurriedly tied my belt. “What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked standing up. “I have to check this out, it’s coming this way, and I can tell it’s not good at all. I have to find out what it is though.” I said. “No, Dako, please don’t, you could get hurt!” Fluttershy said concerned. “Fluttershy, I have to do this. I promise not to get hurt, okay? I want everyone to stay inside, lock the doors.” I said as I began heading for the door. “Dako! Wait!” Twilight shouted after me. “What?” I asked. “What do we do if things get bad?” Twilight asked. “Like, really bad?” “Do you have the Elements of Harmony?” I asked her. Twilight nodded understandingly. “Alright guys, wish me luck.” I said as I opened the door and headed out to face the unknown. Outside it was beautiful and sunny, what a terrible day to waste in my opinion. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and there wasn’t much extra snow on the ground from yesterday. I slowly lifted off of the ground and above the library and stopped once I was about 200 feet up. I closed my eyes and tried to sense out the guy. The fact that right now I was trying to detect this guys power, but before I felt it out of the blue, meant a rise and fall in energy. And that sent a cold sweat down my spine, because a rise and fall in energy could only mean one of two things. One: the guy just arrived here from somewhere else, or two: they were using energy for something, like an energy based attack. I was praying that no one had been hurt, or worse killed. I found the guys energy, it was about 50 miles out, and closing in, and if I had to guess, this guy was stronger than me. I opened my eyes and took off in its direction moving at near full speed. It didn’t take long before I saw something off in the distance. About a mile away a small dot on the horizon was coming straight towards me. As it saw me I saw it visibly slow down and stop, as I began to slow down and stop about 75 feet away from it. At this distance I could clearly tell what it was. They were male, and appeared a little older than me. They looked human. We stared each other down for what felt like an eternity, waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally he spoke. “You there, what are you?” The man asked. “Excuse me?” I replied. “I said, ‘What are you’?” he asked again, sounding impatient. “I’m a, a Saiyan.” I replied hesitantly. “What!?” They exclaimed, as if they didn’t hear me right. Suddenly, I felt the need to act a little more “tough” I subconsciously raised my power level and got a little more serious. I floated towards them another 25 feet. “My name is Dako, and I said, ‘I’m a Saiyan’!” I said with a little more courage and authority. “Ah, another Saiyan.” They said quietly, I could see them smiling, which started to creep me out a little. “Who are you?” I asked. They just stared back at me, eyeing me. “I said, ‘Who are you’?!” I shouted at them, my power rising a little more. I was admittedly nervous, I’ve never fought another person before. “Calm yourself, my name is Xendo. I am a Saiyan like you.” He said slowly. I almost gasped in disbelief, I couldn’t believe it, I wasn’t alone anymore! There was another Saiyan, but unfortunately, this guy didn’t seem so nice. “Okay, so, why are you here? What do you want?” I asked. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know where ‘here’ is.” He said. “You see, as a Saiyan I was a survivor of our planets destruction by a meteor, and I fled to a planet called Earth.” He continued. “Earth?” I asked confused, and a little scared that I had never noticed before. “Yes, you see, I remained hidden, until I could repair my ship, it was damaged during a landing malfunction. I am a general of sorts, I rule another planet, and I wanted to go back.” He said. “So how did you end up here?” I asked. “Well, there was a peculiar storm that struck a day ago, that brought me here, and it appears you were living on Earth as well, and you ended up here first.” He finished. “So, what are your intentions?” I asked. “What? My intentions? Ha-ha! Well, since it appears I won’t be going home for a while, I think I’ll add this world to my collection.” He said smiling evilly. “Would you like to help me enslave this world?” “Like hell I will.” I said gritting my teeth together. “What?!” My reply caught him off guard. “You dare go against my wishes?!” “This is my home, and I am its protector, its guardian, and its hero! I am not about to let you take it over!” I yelled at him. I suddenly went to Kaioken, as I was engulfed by the red aura. “Oh, so it’s a fight you’re looking for?” He said, popping his knuckles. “I must warn you, I am one of the strongest warriors in the known universe.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I thought to myself. “Listen! I don’t want to fight you!” I said to him. “Good! So it’s a draw, is it?” He replied. “No! I mean, I don’t want to fight and I’d like to make an agreement! Besides, if you knew half of what I was fighting for, you’d know that I will not lose!” I shouted to him. “Oh, believe me, if we fight, you will lose!” He said sinisterly. “If we can’t come to some agreement, then I’ll be forced to fight!” I said, trying to warn the guy of something. “What would you like to agree on?” He asked. “How about you leave everyone on this planet at peace, and we’ll help you get back home?” I suggested. “Tempting, but as I can see that getting some sort of transportation suitable for my trip home would take a while, I may get bored, and enslaving the population would be fun, would pass the time, and would persuade them to hurry along with their work. I think I would rather enslave them either way.” He said. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” I said. “Then,” He began as he cracked his knuckles again. “a fight it is!” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 19: The Battle for Equestria Begins //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 19: The Battle for Equestria Begins                                                 Chapter 19: The Battle for Equestria Begins Xendo and I stared each other down for a while. We were floating about 500 feet above the outskirts of Ponyville. Why did this guy seem so confident? I don’t really think he was that strong. I was using the Kaioken, even if he was stronger, I could just power up and take him out, right? But he was just sitting there. “So, are you going to do something? Or are we going to sit around floating here all day?” He asked me. “I don’t know, you’re the one who wanted to enslave this planets people. I’m here to stop you from doing that, and you aren’t doing that at the moment.” I said smartly. “Oh really so if I tried to do this,” He put his hand out, pointing directly at the center of Ponyville. An orb of purple energy began to form. “You would try to stop this?” I began to tense up, ready to move in case he actually used it. “Oh, is someone ready to make a move?” He asked. “Then, MOVE!” Suddenly he fired the orb straight for the center of Ponyville. I instantly moved right in front of it and smacked it away with the back of my hand. It flew straight up into the sky before it blew up in a small explosion. “Well, well, well! We’re a fast one aren’t we?” He smirked. “Okay, that’s not funny!” I shouted angrily. “Oh really? Well if you didn’t like that, then how about you try these out!” He shouted. He suddenly fired off ten more energy orbs. “Yaaahhh!” I shouted as I powered up to Kaioken times two. I immediately begin firing my own orb at each of his, exploding as they made impact with each other. I flew straight forward towards Xendo, cocking back my fist. He stood there as I got closer and closer. I swung hard, right at his face but missed at the last second. He dodged my attack. I stopped and spun around, there he was right behind me. He swung right for me, but I put up my forearm and blocked his punch. He brought his knee up into my stomach throwing me back. I floated back a couple feet holding my stomach, coughing, trying to catch my breath. I was hit so hard that I came out of the Kaioken. “Is that all? You mean that with all of your power it takes one knee to the gut to stop you? Pitiful.” He said. “Ah, I-I wouldn’t celebrate j-just yet.” I said breathless. “Hrrg, AAAAHHH!” I shouted as I powered up the Kaioken again, this time going times five right off the bat. “So, you still have some fight left, good. If it had ended so quickly I would be disappointed. After all, you are the strongest opponent I’ve faced yet.” He said. “Oh really? Well that certainly makes me feel special.”  I said sarcastically. “So, Dako, was it?” He asked. “Yeah, what do you want?” I asked. “Do you really think you can beat me? I understand that you’re trying to play hero, and you’re making quite the noble effort to protect this place. But honestly, do you think you can beat me?” He asked. I’ll be honest, that kind of sent shivers down my back. I wasn’t to sure if I could beat him, but I sure as hell would try. “I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” I replied. I flared up the aura on my Kaioken to show him I wasn’t afraid to fight, no matter the outcome. “That’s the spirit!” He said smiling sinisterly. “That the SPIRIT!” He shouted as he flew straight at me. He swung his leg wide trying to kick me in the ribs, I bent back and let his leg fly right over me. I straightened back up. In a fraction of a second I decided that if I wanted to win, and end this quickly, I would have to try and roast the living shit out of him. I cupped both of my hands together and held them out in front of me, then I let loose. “Aaa-AAAHHH!” I screamed as I put every ounce of energy I could pull up that quickly into one solid blast. A bright beam of energy burst from my hands, a beam the size of a school bus flew straight for Xendo. He took the full brunt of the blast. “Well, at least, I didn’t, drag this crap out, like in, Dragon Ball Z.” I said to myself panting lightly. I knew I hit him, there was a ton of smoke blowing through the air. The smoke began to thin out and blow away, it appeared that I got him. “No, no fucking way! You gotta be shitting me!” I shouted in disbelief. As the smoke cleared I saw him floating there, his hands out in front of him, and him smiling, or more like gritting his teeth. The only damage it appeared I’d done was slightly char his clothing and armor, smoke still rising from them. “Really? Ha-ha ha-ha! Did you underestimate me that much?” He laughed to himself. “FUCK IT!” I yelled as I flew straight at him. I began swinging wildly, sending a volley of punches straight at him. He either dodged right out of the way or blocked every hit, catching my fists in the palm of his hands. I pulled back one of my fists and wound up for the power shot, then hit as hard as I physically could. He caught my fist right in the palm of his hand, and he didn’t let go. He began squeezing my fist. “AH! Let go!” I yelled in pain. He didn’t let go, so I swung hard with my other fist, right for his face, hoping that then he would let go. Of course, that didn’t work either. He caught my other fist as well, and began to squeeze again. “Aaah!” I yelled as I felt the bones shifting. I think if I weren’t screaming so loud I would’ve been able to hear my hands cracking. I had one last move to make in a moment of such desperation. I pulled my head back, and hit him square on the fore head in an intense head butt. That worked, his head flew back, his eyes shut tight in pain, and he let go of my hands. Sure it stopped him, but it hurt me like hell too. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, human, saiyan, it hurts. At least now I was free. “So, you want to play rough, huh?” He said with a menacing smile. He flew at me and started swinging wildly at me in return. I made my best attempts to dodge as many swings as I could, but a few connected. I dodged, blocked, and countered. While I was pre-occupied with his wild swinging he blasted me with an energy attack out of nowhere, but it wasn’t exactly a blast, it was an intense flash that blinded me in a second. There was no way to avoid it, as soon as I knew what was going on it was too late. I was blinded, I was floating there rubbing my eyes and blinking like crazy trying to regain my sight. Suddenly I felt him slam me right over the top of the head, I was sent flying straight down towards the ground. I was hit so hard that I came out of the Kaioken, again. I tried to slow my self down, and I had to fast. Since I still couldn’t see I had no way to tell how far I was from the ground. I felt myself stop moving and had avoided crashing into the ground, that was one problem solved, but I still couldn’t see. Seconds after stopping as I continued blinking the white began to fade, and I could see blue, and then clouds. I felt the top of my head with my hand, it was still sore. Then I remembered that I was still in the middle of a fight, and began looking around for Xendo. I couldn’t see him anywhere, I began looking all around frantically searching on the horizon, in case he decided to leave and try to destroy Ponyville. Xendo suddenly appeared on top of me, about 25 feet above me. “Surprise! Rrrgh, AAAAAH!” He shouted as he threw both of his hands out in front of him. He fired a bright beam of light purple energy straight at me. In a split second I had to decide whether I would dodge or try to block it. I chose to block, which probably wasn’t the best thing. I shot my hands outward and caught the beam. I held back with all my might, but I could feel myself slipping, if I didn’t try to blast it back I might be engulfed by it. “Raaaggghh!” I heard him grunting as he forced even more energy into the attack. “Nnnooo!” I yelled trying to hold the beam back. He kept putting more and more into it. I would use a lot of energy in this, but I would need to in order to get out of this. “You fool! Thinking you were any match for me! I’ll admit, this was fun, but now it’s time for you to die! AAAH HA-HA HA-HA HA!” He shouted as he finally went all out, letting every ounce of energy fly. I felt myself being forced back towards the ground. I was able to hold the beam off, but I couldn’t hold my ground. I was getting closer and closer to the ground. The intense wind and heat of the blast was blowing away and melting snow all around and below me. I felt my feet hit the ground. The ground was soft from the melted snow, and I began to sink in as the beam kept pressing down on me. The grass all around me was starting to rip out and blow away from the intense winds. I was now a foot into the ground, the soft soil blowing out of the way leaving a crater. “They say for some lessons you only get to learn once! Well by now I’m sure you’ve learned to watch who you mess with! Too bad you won’t live long enough to apply your newfound knowledge to the rest of the world!” He shouted. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t fight him off, I could only hold off his attack and hope he would tire out soon, but the chances of that seemed abysmal. It felt like all hope was lost. I had nothing else to do, but think. Think about the things that had led up to this moment. I remembered my arrival in Equestria, meeting Fluttershy, meeting all the others. Then I remembered the adventure we had together, looking for the Senzu beans. I remembered it all. I remembered when I got hurt on the mountain, how I fought to survive, even when on the edge of death. I refused to give up and die, I refused to leave Fluttershy. And then it all came flooding back. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, this is supposed to be your day, I won’t let anything happen.” “I love you guys too. It’s why I knocked out Gilda for making Fluttershy cry, I care about you guys. I would risk my life to protect you all.” “I won’t leave you, I promise.” “Its okay now, I’m here and twice as strong. I will never leave you.” “It’s okay Fluttershy, I won’t get hurt. Besides, the stronger I get, the harder it is for me to get hurt.” “Fluttershy, go inside, and don’t worry about me. I’ll be back, I promise. No matter what happens. I will not leave you. Okay?” “I love you Dako.” She said to me. “I love you too Fluttershy.” I replied. I began to feel angry, furious, overcome by rage. It wasn’t fair. That after all the promises I made to Fluttershy that I wouldn’t let anything happen to me, I was about to die. It wasn’t right. Just thinking about all of this seemed to really fucking piss me off. My rage continued to boil, and I knew that I had to survive, I knew I had to win. I burst back into the Kaioken, and immediately went times 10. “Ha-ha ha-ha, this old trick again!? Go ahead and try all you want, it’s worthless!” He shouted down at me. “No. No! NO!” I shouted in rage. “Aaahh-AAAAAHHHH!” I continued powering up. “What are you doing!?” He shouted, his tone of voice suddenly changing to one of fear. “Ka, me, HA, ME…” I shouted as a bright blue glow formed in my hands. I began to hear that unmistakable sound. “Quit that! It’s useless!” He shouted. “Rrrgghh-HHAAAAAAAAAA!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I fired the Kamehame-ha. The beam fired from my hands and blew straight into his beam, sending it flying back towards him. There was a tremendous thundering sound that shook the ground as the two beams collided, like the sound of two waterfalls hitting each other straight on. His beam kept receding, quicker and quicker, until he was the one barely able to hold me off. “NO!” He shouted. “KAIOKEN, TIMES, FIFTEEEEEN!!!” I shouted, putting even more power into the blast. This time, he couldn’t block the wave of energy, it slipped past his hands, and he was engulfed by the massive beam. The beam shot upward into the sky, carrying him along with it. As soon as I saw him flying away I jumped out of the hole in the ground and took off after him. I flew straight over until I was a foot above him. He saw me, and the look of fear on his face made it all perfect. I quickly cocked back my fist and punched him as quickly and as hard as I could in the face. He flew straight down towards the ground. I wasn’t going to stop there, I used the instant transmission in order to appear right underneath him. He came flying towards me at over 100 miles per hour as I cocked back one of my legs like I was attempting to make a field goal kick in football. I waited until he was right in front of me, then I brought my knee up into his back. “AAHH!” he shouted in pain. I tossed him up, then kicked him in the back sending him straight up into the air. I used the instant transmission again to appear above him this time. As he came back up towards me I brought an elbow down hard into his stomach sending him back down to the ground. He fell all the way down, impacting hard, sending snow flying up all around him. I landed next to him. “Now, it appears my job as the local superhero is done. If you can still fuckin’ move, you should drag your sorry ass outta here, before I withdraw my decision to let you live.” I said down to him in a low serious tone. “Agh! Rrgh! Y-you, f-fool.” He grunted. “You will regret, t-this.” He said weakly as he climbed to his feet. “Yeah, yeah, get the fuck outta here.” I said. “You may have won the battle, but the war has just begun!” he shouted back at me as he slowly flew off. That actually left me a little chilled. I really, did not like the sound of that. I was surprised that I sustained the least damage. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 20: Exercise //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 20: Exercise                                                                              Chapter 20: Exercise I woke up early next morning. It was 5:00 even. I quietly got out of bed and got dressed, quietly putting on my boots and taking slow, quiet steps out of the room so that I wouldn’t wake up Fluttershy. I wrote down a quick note letting her know that I was going out to train and practice all day, that way she wouldn’t get worried and wonder where I was. I ate more than I have the entire time I was here. I had a king’s breakfast. I had five bananas for potassium, plenty of eggs and potatoes for protein, and I ate a dozen slices of toast. Normally I don’t have much of the saiyan appetite, but this time I was really using it. After breakfast I flew off into the Everfree forest.             I was prepared to make sure this guy was the one to lose, there was no way I could possibly lose, everything depended on me. I landed in the middle of the forest, where I knew the trees would be able to absorb all the damage I would dish out. I first needed to practice with actual fighting, hand-to-hand stuff. So I picked a tree at random and pretended it was an enemy, then I began swinging at it. I did this for an hour when I decided that this wasn’t doing anything for me. I had to think of something that would actually test my current skills. So I did the dumbest thing I could think of, I began forming a bunch of energy balls. What I did was stick my arms out at my sides, and form an orb of energy within the palm of my hands. Then I would let them float there, then turn a little in place, then make a few more. I kept doing this until I had about, 20. I wasn’t just making lights, but I was going to control each of them with my mind, and have them fly all over the place and try to attack me. Once I was ready I flew straight up into the air, about 100 feet up, once I hovered there I lifted my arms above my head, sending the orbs flying straight for me.             I dodged left and right, up and down, trying my best to avoid the orbs. It was kinda hard to do, there were 20 of them, and I had to watch all around me, everywhere, all at once. I was starting to get a little tired, and I was beginning to slow down. Suddenly from behind one of the orbs flew right past me as I barely dodged it, it grazed my left arm, blowing off shreds of my sleeve as it slightly burned my shoulder. I immediately grabbed my shoulder in pain. This was enough, I was going to get nowhere with this either. I suddenly stopped in midair and began blasting each of the orbs out of the sky.             I thought of a new plan, I would just try to lift some weights, something simple. So I flew back towards Ponyville, heading for the middle of town. I had been to the gym before, but it was just a visit, so I’d know where it was for future needs. Like today for example. “Hello again sir, how may I help you today?” The mare working at the counter asked. “Well, I’m here to lift some weights, I don’t need some kind of membership do I?” I asked. “No sir, not at all.” She replied. “Oh, good, so, can I just go right ahead, or do I need to do anything special?” I asked before just jumping into things. “Well, you’ll need a spotter first, for safety reasons.” She said. “Don’t worry, I think I’ll be just fine.” I said as I walked away. They probably wouldn’t let me back in after that, but I just wanted to be here for a day, I would find something else to do later. I went to the first empty weight bench I saw and began putting weights onto the bar. The bar was already weighted at ten pounds. After I added all of the biggest weights there that could fit on the bar, I knew this would be heavy, especially if the bar was beginning to bend. I laid down on the bench and got in position, placing my hands on the bar. I was just about to lift when I noticed a couple of the ponies at the gym were staring. I looked over at a couple of stallions staring at me, grinning, snickering. They didn’t think I could lift all of this weight. They might not think I can, but in a few seconds I’ll make sure that they know I can. I ignored the non-believers and put my hands on the bar and took a deep breath. I pushed upward and lifted the bar straight into the air, the ends of the bar sagging under the immense weight. I can imagine those stallions snickering at me instantly lost their grins, or something, cause I heard their snickering just stop dead. Although they may have quieted, I heard other new sounds, like other ponies in the gym gasping in surprise. “What the hell? That’s it? Come on, at this rate I’m gonna get nowhere.” I muttered to myself in disappointment. The bar was actually easy to lift, too easy in fact. I slowly set it back down. I slid off of the bench and looked at the weights on the bar, counting the pounds. I didn’t count before I lifted, I just fit as many of the biggest weights I could find on there. On each side I had fit five 25 pound weights onto the ten pound bar. So, that would equal 260 pounds. No wonder it was easy, I could lift that when I was back at home, before I ever trained in my life. I had to find more weight, or cut my losses and find something else that wouldn’t quite waste my time so much as this has. I left the bench and walked back over to the front counter. “Excuse me, do you have any bigger bars here? Or heavier weights?” I asked politely. “Uh, no we don’t sir, sorry. That was amazing though, how did you do that so easily?” She asked. “Um, beginners luck?” I lied, thinking of an excuse. “Oh, well, it was pretty impressive anyway. Well, sorry, we don’t have any other bars, or heavier weights.” She said. “Oh, well it was nice being here. Have a nice day.” I said before leaving. I walked outside and stood in front of the gym, thinking. “What can I do? I need to get stronger than Xendo, but nothing here is challenging enough, except for Xendo. How am I gonna get the training I need?” I stood there thinking like that for a couple of minutes. I slowly lifted off of the ground and flew up into the sky. I floated mid-air for a while, just hovering over Ponyville. There had to be something I could do. I could cheat and hurt myself, then eat a Senzu bean. But I was running low, and there weren’t many left on the mountain, it took a long time for them to grow back. I only had three Senzu beans left, I didn’t want to waste those. I could try, and for the first time did I even consider it, to go super saiyan. I wasn’t obsessed with the idea of super saiyan, the Kaioken technique worked fine for me, and this was the first time I even considered the idea of super saiyan. I quickly forgot about all that in favor of the hurting myself strategy. I flew towards the open clearing I had used before in order to hurt myself in order to get a power boost. I took off wanting to waste no more time but stopped before I had even left Ponyville. I thought about how I would completely destroy my outfit, and how I could accidentally kill myself. I had one other idea though, I could see the princesses. I turned around looking at the mountain where the kingdom resided, than took off. As I flew I began thinking about what Princess Celestia could do for, and how much help it would be if I had my very own “Hyperbolic Time Chamber” like on Kami’s lookout. It didn’t really matter as long as the Princess would have something for me, or could help me in any way possible. At full speed I arrived in Canterlot in about ten minutes. I flew straight towards the castle and landed on the front steps. Right away the guards stopped me. “Halt! Who goes there?” The said with authority. “I am Dako, the superhero. I wish to speak with Princess Celestia, it’s important.” I said. “Right, follow me.” One of the guards said. He signaled to a guard on a balcony above us, who began opening the doors. As the massive doors slowly opened up they revealed the gargantuan and majestic hallway of the castle, just a huge-as-hell hallway filled gigantic chandeliers, and stained glass windows. The floors were made of the shiniest most polished marble I’ve ever seen, and were covered in a long red carpet. The guard led me into the castle, and the door shut behind us as we followed the red carpet to a staircase. We followed the stairs up to another set of doors, doors that were just as fancy as the rest of the castle. There were jewels in the door itself, and the door knob appeared to be solid gold. But enough about the door, the guard opened the doors, revealing another long room, not quite as long or as big though. The long red carpet continued on towards the throne, where Princess Celestia sat. We walked a little towards the throne when Celestia noticed us. “Stop.” She said. “You may leave me alone with him, I’ll handle things from here.” She spoke to the guard, he bowed his head then left. “Hello, your majesty.” I said, attempting to bow with little grace. “Hello Dako, what brings you to Canterlot?” Princess Celestia asked in a friendly tone. “Well, I’m sure you know now about, um, Xendo?” I asked. “Yes, I do. I also know about your little fight with him.” She said. “Oh, well, as you know I made the mistake of letting him live, and or get away.” I said. “What makes you think that was a mistake?” She asked suddenly concered. “Well, with us saiyans, when we are defeated in battle, but survive, we get stronger.” I said. “We don’t just heal and get better, we get much stronger than before.” “I see, but you shouldn’t have a problem, you didn’t use your full strength last time to beat him.” The Princess noted. “Yes, but, how did you know?” I asked. “You don’t think I’ve been this lands magical Princess for over one thousand years without learning a few tricks, do you? As soon as I felt Xendo’s presence I began watching him, and I’ve been watching you since you’ve been here as well.” The Princess explained. “Oh, I see. Well, the problem is that next time we meet he’ll be strong enough to face me at my full power, so I have to get stronger than I am now.” I said. “And what do you need me to do?” She asked. “Do you have any kind of special, magical even, place for some kind of warrior or hero to train? Or some kind of special, fountain of youth type-thing? Or potion to drink? Anything?” I asked. “I’m sorry Dako, we don’t have anything like that here.” The Princess replied. “Just what kind of fairytale world do you think you’re in?” Damn it. I was “Trollestia-ed”. But that was the least of my problems, now I had no way to get stronger in a hurry. “I see, well thank you for your help Princess. Sorry to waste your time.” I said, bowing, then turning to leave. “Dako.” She said. “Yes Princess?” I turned to her. “I believe in you. You should believe in yourself as well. If you believe you can, you can.” She said. “Thank you Princess.” I said then continued walking out. I sat on the steps of the castle in Canterlot, watching other ponies pass by. Yeah, I was pretty much moping, sitting there. Why, I don’t know. I could have been training, or something. I just wanted an easy way out, a way to cheat, some way to get stronger quicker and easier than just training. The Kaioken works, but the higher up I go, the more energy I burn in the process, which doesn’t help since I prefer energy attacks anyway, I don’t know how to fight very well, I’ve never had any martial arts training. At least I have strength, if I don’t know how to fight I could just use my strength to beat the crap out of someone, unless they’re stronger and actually know how to fight. Whatever, I’m a freaking superhero, superheroes don’t lose, and I’m a saiyan. Either way, I can take him, if I believe in myself, yeah right. So anyway, I just sat there on the steps of the castle. I watched the ponies walking by. These are my people, well, ponies. These ponies are who I’m trying to protect, and why? They have the perfect society, peace, they’re kind to each other, at least most of the time. I stood up all of a sudden, I had some new idea, or new motivation. “That’s it.” I said to myself. “I’m gonna go super saiyan, that’s all there is to it. If I want to make sure I beat him, I have to do it.” I flew up and into the sky, and headed for anyone who could help me, so I flew off to Twilight’s. When I got there she wasn’t exactly in the mood for visitors. She was reorganizing her books or something, but she certainly was busy. When Spike opened the door I could see several things fly through the air behind him, all levitated by Twilight’s magic. “Hey Dako, how’s it going?” Spike asked. “Okay, what’s going on here?” I asked. “Twilight feels like her books need to be rearranged or something. Who knows what she’s doing.” He said. “Anyway, I would leave if I were you before she…” He was cut off as Twilight came to the door to see me. “Oh hi there Dako, could you help me for a second? Thanks.” She said as she pulled in the door. “Uh, actually, I came to see if you could help me.” I said. “Well what is it? I’m a little busy right now, so you’ll need to make this fast.” She said returning to her books. “It’s about that guy, Xendo.” I said. She stopped everything and turned to me. “What’s wrong?” She asked, suddenly concerned. “I need to get stronger than him. Since I let him live he’ll heal to become stronger than me.” I said. “What do you mean? Oh! That’s right, just like when you got hurt on the-.” She started to say, but interrupted her. “Yes, and he was tough to begin with, now he’ll be even stronger. So I need your help.” I said. “I don’t see how I can help, I mean I-.” Twilight began to say until I interrupted her again. “I know how, I need something that can help me train, something. You’re smart, you know a lot about science, you can come up with a way, a training regimen, something. Please, I need your help.” I said to her. “Okay, I’ll help. But I’ll need some time to get things ready, I have to plan this out.” She said. “Thank you Twilight, thanks a lot. I gotta go now, I need to get home to Fluttershy.” I said before turning to fly home. I took off into the sky heading for Fluttershy’s cottage. I kept going over in my mind the idea of going super saiyan. I remember when I first saw Goku go super saiyan in Dragonball Z, I flipped out, it was the coolest thing I ever saw. Now, the possibility of going super saiyan my self was unbelievable. That night I could hardly go to sleep. Okay, that’s a lie, I mean, how could I not sleep while being cuddled by Fluttershy? What I really meant was, I kept thinking about what would happen tomorrow. I had a lot to do tomorrow, I had to find a way to unlock the power of a super saiyan. Man, I feel like a nerd saying that over and over, but it’s true. If I wanted any fighting chance, I would need to do it. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 21: Going for the Gold //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 21: Going for the Gold                                                                  Chapter 21: Going for the Gold My eyes shot open. I sat straight up in bed. I was ready to start the day, then kick its ass. I could have woken up a little less crazy though. My quick movements woke up Fluttershy. “Dako? What’s wrong?” She asked slowly waking up. “Uh, nothing, go back to sleep.” I said to her softly. I got up out of bed, much slower this time, and got dressed. After that, I made myself as big a breakfast as I could, and still leave some food in the house. Then I headed off to Twilight’s. I won’t bore you with the details, but I got up really early. So when I got to Twilight’s and stood there knocking on her door for, like, five minutes, she wasn’t very happy about it. So when she answered the door, she wasn’t in a good mood, even if it was me. “Dako!? What the heck are you doing knocking on my door so early?” She asked me angrily. “I, was coming over for training? Remember? I need to beat the bad guy, fate of Equestria?” I said. “I know all that! I mean, why are you so early?” she asked. “I need all the time I can get! Let me explain, you guys are all counting on me, right? If not, Princess Celestia sure does! And I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I don’t feel too confident in my self, and on top of all that I’m really stressed out! I’m freaking out over here!” I said to her frantically. “Okay, okay! Just come inside, quickly, it’s freezing out there!” she urged me. She offered me some hot chocolate, which I excepted, since I was standing outside in what I guess was 10 degree weather, and it was beginning to snow lightly. “So, where do we start?” She asked. “Wait, hang on, I thought you were gonna make some schedule for me?” I asked her. “I didn’t have time to, sorry.” She said. “Oh, okay, well, I guess I can always use my words to convince him not to level the planet, I mean, if it worked for Gandhi.” I said sarcastically. “Wait, I can still help you, I never said I couldn’t do that, I just said I didn’t come up with a schedule.” She said. “So, where do we start?” “Well, I guess you could read my strength or something?” I suggested. “If I knew where I stand at the moment in terms of strength and power then I’d know where I can or need to improve the most.” “Okay, well, I do have this thing that I found.” She said, pulling a strange device from a shelf. She levitated this device of hers over to me using her magic. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I had realized what it was. It was a freaking scouter! “Holy crap! Where did you find this!?” I exclaimed in disbelief. “I found it in the snow on the edge of the Everfree forest during a trip to Zecora’s. I thought it might be useful, and I’ve been trying to reverse engineer it ever since I found it.” She explained. “Well, did you get it to work?” I asked her. “I couldn’t read anything it displayed; it was in some other language or something. Eventually I had to use a transformation spell of some sort in order to understand, it kept saying things like, “Power level detected”. Maybe we could use it now.” She said. “Of course we can use this, scan me.” I said to her. She put the device on and pressed the button on the side; it beeped a few times, then stopped. “It says you have a power level of fifteen thousand.” She said. “Whoa! But, I’m not even doing anything, that’s amazing.” I said. “We gotta take this outside.” “Why?” Twilight asked. “Do you want me to use the Kaio-ken indoors?” I asked her. She understood. I waited for her to put on her scarf and boots, after that we were able to go outside in the worsening weather. It was now completely snowing. “Okay, let’s hurry this up, I’m freezing my tail off!” Twilight complained. “Right! Kaio-ken!” I yelled. I was engulfed by the bright red aura of the Kaio-ken as I began to power up. I could hear the scouter beeping as it automatically detected my increasing power level. “Twenty thousand! Thirty thousand! Thirty five thousand!” Twilight yelled out. I kept going higher and higher, powering up as high as I could stand without killing myself. “Forty thousand! Forty five thousand! Fifty thousand!” Twilight continued. I had already passed the Kaio-ken times three, time to really crank things up. “Kaio-ken, times five!” I shouted as a new burst of energy surged, throwing out a larger wave of wind around me. “Seventy five thousand! Keep going Dako!” Twilight cheered me on. “Kaio-ken times Ten!” I yelled. The snow beneath me began to melt under the warmth emitted by the aura and all of the energy. “One hundred and fifty thousand!” Twilight yelled. I may have gone times fifteen against Xendo, but it appeared ten was my limit, the more I tried to power up, the more I tried to hold back the energy so that I didn’t explode or something. I took a deep breath and dropped out of the Kaio-ken, sighing in relief. I looked around me and noticed that despite the cold, some ponies heard the commotion, and were looking out of doors and windows, staring at me. “Uh, that’s all folks.” I said, trying to calm them. “Nothing to see here but, practice.” I walked back inside with Twilight. We decided that now we know where I stand in terms of energy, we know where I can improve in terms of strength, and fighting skill. All I knew was that if I wanted to beat Xendo, I would have to be much stronger than I was right now, especially since my current strength was barely enough to beat Xendo last, and now he’ll only be stronger. “Okay, so, now that we know you have a power level of one hundred and fifty thousand, it’s time to get you stronger, and help you learn how to use that power efficiently, and get even stronger.” Twilight said with a smile. “Oh, you make it sound so easy. So where do we start?” I asked her. “First, how do you primarily fight?” She asked. “Well, I don’t much martial arts, or any fighting skills. I try to punch and hit the other guy, but I’m not good at it. Xendo pretty much caught every punch I gave him, so, yeah. I can’t really fight worth a damn, even with all of my power and strength, and what not.” I explained to Twilight. “Okay, well, what about your laser beams?” She asked. “You mean, Ki? My energy control? Those are pretty much the only thing I’m good at, in fact I’m a pretty good shot, I can shoot an apple off of a fence post from 100 feet away, just point an’ shoot, heh-heh.” I said. “Okay, then let’s work with that later, first your fighting skills will be refined and honed.” She said. “Cool, but, how long could this take? ‘Cause, Xendo could attack any day now, and I don’t wanna be taken off guard.” I told her. “I don’t know, to train you could take, months, weeks if you’re a fast learner.” She said uncertainly. “Hm. So how about we start on energy control? Think you can teach me to do a Kaio-ken time fifteen or twenty without popping like a balloon?” I asked her casually. “Ugh, Dako, you can’t take the easy way out. You know as much as I do that you’re nothing without any actual fighting skill.” Twilight lectured. “That’s not true. Remember when I cut that topiary, bush, thing into a statue of Fluttershy?” I asked her. “Showing off won’t win you any competition. Remember when Trixie first came to town?” Twilight asked. “I remember. Oh yeah, and that time I saw Trixie at the carnival and ruined her act, ha-ha ha-ha, I made her cry, that was funny, heh, lawl!” I said, joking around. “Focus! Besides, you can’t use your energy forever anyway.” Twilight added. “Yeah, it kinda wears me out a little. So does swinging and punching, but less so than energy attacks. I got it! Can’t you just find a book on martial arts and magically beam the knowledge into my head?” I asked her. “Are you crazy? Get real, I perform magic spells, not miracles.” She snapped at me. “Well I don’t know what to do, I’m strapped for time here! I’m scared, Twilight. I’m genuinely terrified, look at my hands, I’m shaking! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do on such short notice, I got a world to defend! I’m worried I won’t beat him. I’m worried he could hurt, or kill you guys. I’m scared that he’d hurt Fluttershy, especially because of our relationship, and he’d use her to stop me.” I said, my voice starting to shake. “I’m sorry Dako, but, I don’t know if it’s possible. We could try.” She said to me in a softer, more sincere tone. She levitated over a book using her magic. “This book says it’s a complete guide to advanced martial arts. It has detailed training courses, charts and diagrams for poses, and covers at least three forms in their entirety. Let’s see if we can teach you in record time.” She said, a grin forming on her face. “Wait. Are you, gonna try?” I asked her. “Yes.” She said sternly. Her horn began to glow brighter. She opened the book up at page one. She shut her eyes to focus. I could see her mental effort as she began clenching her eyes shut. Glowing magical streaks of purple light began to appear, looking almost like smoke. They began to swirl around the book, slowly at first, but speeding up until you could hear it. They were swishing around very fast, so fast you could feel some wind coming off them. The pages began to flutter in the intensifying wind. Suddenly, the words on the pages began glowing faintly, as though printed with glow in the dark ink. In a flash, beams of light shout out of each letter and punctuation mark. The letters were lifting off the page in a string of sentences, then whole paragraphs, like one line of yarn. They were twisting up in a ball of letters, all glowing purple, swirling with the whirlwind of magic. Without warning, the mass of text shot out straight for me in one straight line. The words spun around me, surrounding me in a cylinder of text. They stopped dead in their tracks, and began to close in on me. To be honest, I was, concerned. Yeah, let’s go with “concerned”. The text tightened around me, then began making contact with my body. As it made contact they printed onto me, then faded away. I began seeing pictures, words, and letters. I could feel knowledge appearing out of nowhere. Twilight opened her eyes and gasped as she dropped the book. It hit the floor, closing automatically. “So, how do you, feel?” she asked, panting breathlessly. “I. I know things. I know lots and lots of things. Things I wish I had never ever known before.” I said with a blank expression on my face, my mind scarred. “What? What happened? Tell me.” She said. “You used the wrong book.” I said, slowly pointing to the evil tome now lying on the floor. “I what?” She asked in disbelief, still trying to catch her breath. She looked down at the book she had used by mistake. Her eyes went wide. “Oh, oh my goodness! I’m so sorry Dako! I’m so, ha-ha ha-ha, sorry!” Her sincere apology turned to laughter as she sat down, laughing uncontrollably. “Don’t you laugh at me! I saw things! Horrible things! Unspeakable evil!” I shouted, a little angry. Spike walked down after hearing all the commotion. “What’s so funny Twilight?” He asked with slight concern. “I used a spell to teach Dako the contents of a book, ha-ha ha! But I used the wrong one! Now look at him!” She screeched laughing still. Spike picked up the unholy binding of leather and paper. “The Pony-Sutra? What the heck is that?” Spike asked confused, Twilight only laughed harder. “Dammit! Now I got that in my head forever! How am I gonna beat Xendo if all I know are those, ugh, positions!?! I needed fighting skills, not, those skills!” I shuddered at the thought of what I now knew. “Relax crybaby. Let’s do this again, this time I’ll make sure I have the right book.” Twilight said calming down. “Can you remove all of that from my mind?” I asked. “Sorry, I don’t think I can, once you’ve learned something, do you ever really forget it?” She said to me. “Well, if it’s like anything I’ve ever learned in math class, than hopefully it’ll be gone after a night’s sleep.” I said hopefully. She repeated the process again, this time with the right freakin’ book. I’ll skip the details for you, but this time it worked, and it was awesome. Now I knew pretty much every single thing I’d need to beat Xendo. “So, it worked, right?” Twilight asked. “Did it work? Did it work!? Ha! Knowledge is power!” I shouted comically. I made Twilight giggle a little, so it wasn’t all for nothing. “Thank you so much Twilight, thank you for all your help. Now we can start working on my strength trai-Ah!” I was cut off as I felt something cold as ice run down the length of my spine. I gasped for air as I fell to a knee. “What? What’s wrong? Dako?” Twilight asked worriedly as she rushed to my side. “Oh god! Oh shit, no! Not now!” I said in terror. “Tell me what’s wrong!” She demanded. “It’s him!” I muttered. I looked Twilight in the eyes. “He’s here!” I said, quietly stunned. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 22: It Begins //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 22: It Begins                                                                        Chapter 22: It Begins “Twilight, listen to me, you have to round everyone up and hide them somewhere, the Everfree forest, somewhere!” I shouted in panic. “Okay, I’ll run and tell everyone!” She said as she headed for the door. “Wait! Be careful Twilight, whatever you do, do not let him catch you, don’t fight, just run.” I told her in a serious tone. She ran off tell the others. Spike walked in again, confused. “What is it this time?” he asked. “Spike, hold down the library. You’re the man of the house now, I gotta go. Oh yeah, hide.” I told him before running out the door. I took off as fast as I could without breaking the sound barrier right within Ponyville. I flew straight up into the air, then I began scanning the skies. I slowly looked all around me, trying to see if I could find him. I didn’t need to look any farther, I heard a deep boom, and then some terrified screams right behind me. I turned around and saw a small dot in the sky, and below it, a huge column of dust, smoke, and debris rising into the air. “No! You son of a bitch! I’ll make you regret that!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as I took off straight for him. I was flying straight at him with all my power and speed available with a fist cocked back. As I got closer I saw him turn and look at me. He saw me coming and dodged out of the way at the last second. I slammed on the brakes and turned around on the spot. He was right behind me, swinging his fist with full force, with my new training I quickly countered with my forearm. The impact made a loud sound like a baseball hitting brick wall at 100 miles an hour. He brought up a knee which I blocked with my own, then I punched him straight in the stomach, sending him back about ten feet. He stopped and floated there, silent. “My my! You aren’t any stronger, but you certainly are a much better fighter! Tell me, how did you do that in just two days?” He asked. “Wouldn’t you like to know? I’ve got a question for you. Why are you back, didn’t learn your lesson the first time?” I asked. “What makes you think that little beating you gave me would hold me off? You do know saiyan nature, right? Now that I’ve recovered I’m several times stronger, so why pass up the opportunity to get rid of you? I must thank you though, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be strong enough to crush you now and still have energy left to conquer this planet.” He snarled evilly. “Sorry, that won’t happen, trust me. The good guy always wins. I’m gonna beat the shit out of you, again. And this time, I’ll kill you!” I yelled as I leaped straight for him. We began exchanging punch after punch, kick after kick. It was the most brutal thing I ever took part in. He was definitely stronger now, and I was surprised I didn’t need the Kaio-ken’s help yet. I soon realized that he was holding back. Especially when he sent the mother of all punches flying straight for my face. I was lucky enough to block it by crossing my forearms over each other in front of my face. I was thrown back about 20 feet. I stopped myself as quickly as I could. I held out both my hands, then fired two energy balls at him. Two bright yellow orbs of energy the size of basketballs shot out towards him as I flew after him. He smacked either one away using the back of his hand, but left himself open to my attack. I kicked him squared in the stomach as hard as I could. He doubled over in pain, gasping and coughing for air, holding his stomach, hanging his head. At least that did something to him. I flew straight towards him with a punch ready to connect with his face. I swung out as hard as I could, but was stopped as he caught my fist. He never looked up, he just caught my fist. I heard him chuckle softly, which turned into maniacal, evil laughter. He slowly looked up. “Gotcha!” He whispered. He then pulled me towards him with my fist and slammed his knee into my stomach. “How do you like it!? Huh!?” he shouted as he continued driving his knee into my stomach. I gasped in pain, and coughed on the first hit, then after the third or fourth hit, nothing, I couldn’t gasp, I couldn’t breath, and I’m pretty sure I’d be pissing blood later, or at least coughing it up. “Now! Get out of my way, you pesky, ignorant, fool!” he shouted as he held me by my arm, then began swinging me around in circles. He spun faster and faster until he finally let go and I went flying towards the ground. There was no stopping it, I was flying head first towards town hall. I made impact with the roof and tore through to building. As I went through the ceiling, rafters, and all, I pulled down a shower of debris, dust, and splintered chunks of wood. Because of the angle I hit I finally exited the building when I flew through a wall, hitting the ground hard, bouncing once, then sliding to a stop in the snow covered grass. “Ugh, why didn’t I, urg, use the Kaio-ken!?” I asked myself dazedly as I struggled to get to my feet. My head was ringing, but I could hear terrified screaming all around me as ponies ran out of the town. My vision was blurred, but I could see them running. I finally got to my knees, then to my feet. I wiped the blood from my nose. My shirt was torn to shreds as I passed through town hall, only my blue undershirt was spared, along with my pants and everything else. “Come on, motherfucker.” I slurred. “I can still take you.” “Dako!” I heard Twilight’s voice shout. I slowly, and numbly turned around. “Twilight? Twilight! Get out of here, it’s not sa-!” I was cut off by an explosion just a couple of feet in front of me. I was thrown back by the shock wave as I was showered with dirt, snow, and grass. I hit the ground landing on my back. I slowly sat up and looked above me. Sure enough, there was Xendo, pointing his hand down towards me. “I’m sorry! Am I interrupting something!?” He shouted down at me. “If I may remind you we are still fighting, yes? So allow me to remove, the distraction!” He fired an energy orb straight towards Twilight. Without hesitation I went Kaio-ken times five and went straight for the orb, kicking it away from Twilight just in time. “Ooh! That was fast! Looks like you’re not too badly hurt! And look, your red glow has returned! Does this mean you’re ready to really take me on!?” He shouted. “Does this answer your question?!” I yelled as I flew up to him in a split second, aiming to punch him right under the chin, except he dodged. “Too slow!” he yelled from behind as he kicked me in the kidney. I bent backwards in pain, grabbing my side. “What the hell!?” I thought to myself. “Why am I letting him do this? I’m gonna get beat the hell up unless I start blocking some of this. Even worse, at the rate we’re going, even if I do beat him, Ponyville will be destroyed by the time this is over.” I did the only thing I could think of in this situation. I turned and blasted him. He was hit with a beam of blue energy, square in the chest. “TAG! YOU’RE IT!” I yelled out as I took off at full speed out of Ponyville. “Why you, impudent, irritating, little!” He followed right behind me, just as I had planned. The only problem now, where the hell am I going? “Get back here you cowardly excuse for a warrior!” He shouted as he got closer and closer to me. I started flying in a serpentine pattern, doing what, I have no idea, but I was. He came up right above me, smiling diabolically, possibly insane. “Gotcha again!” He yelled as he brought both his fists down above my head. Things went black for about 3 seconds, and I saw a flash of light and color as my brain rattled off of the inside of my skull. I went down, spiraling. I saw sky, then ground, then sky, then ground, sky one more time, then I felt the ground, but not before I fell through some of the thickest, scratchiest branches ever. I slowly rolled onto my back, waiting for my vision to come back into focus. I heard a small explosion, then sat up and looked. A tree was falling straight towards me. My eyes went wide as I rolled out of the way as quickly as I could, seconds before the tree came down right where I landed, shaking the ground. I looked behind me after hearing another explosion. Another tree was falling straight after me. I began running. As I ran, I ran past every tree, weaving in and out, trying to stay in the areas I could run through. There was a flash of light above me, then a string of thundering, ground shaking explosions that sounded like fireworks. Xendo was trying to crush me under a tree. He followed above me, laughing like some crazy person, felling tree after tree in my direction. The falling trees were catching up, until I saw a clearing up ahead. I dove into flying position, turned in midair putting my back to the ground facing upward, then fired a beam of energy at Xendo. A bright blue beam tore through leaves and branches, blowing around limbs from the immense winds. I saw Xendo’s figure dodge it through the trees. I flew straight up and out of the clearing, turning again to put myself the right way as I continued flying. I could see where I was headed now, to Canterlot. Maybe the Princess could help, even though Xendo was powerful, surely there was something Princess Celestia could do. “Where are you going!? Why are you running!? There’s nowhere to hide!” Xendo shouted from behind. I could tell he was getting close again. “Kaio-ken! Times ten!” I shouted, taking off in a burst of unreal speed. I flew faster and faster. I was getting close to Canterlot now. I could see the castle, and the roofs, covered in snow. I looked at my uniform, my orange outershirt was almost completely gone, just tattered pieces that hung out of the belt were blowing in the wind. My pants were dusty and slightly ripped in places, but other than that I was fine. You know, except for the thousand scratches all over my face and arms from falling through a building, and several trees. I was home free now, at least a mile from Canterlot and closing, when Xendo snuck up above me again. “ENOUGH!” he shouted angrily. He blasted me right in the back with his strongest, quickest blast. I felt the scorching, blistering, painful heat of the blast as it blew right through my shirt. “AAHH!” I shouted in pain as I fell to the ground once more. As I fell to the ground I tried to at least steer myself, but the blinding pain of my scorched back made it difficult. As I got closer I could start to make out the shapes of ponies on the street. I could see them panic and run out of the way, ‘cause I was comin’ in hot. “Man, this is getting’ old!” I thought to myself, seconds before I hit the icy snow. Unfortunately, this being Canterlot, I hit a hard, iced over cobble stone street, no more soft and comfy dirt and grass. I slid over the icy road until I slammed into some sort of produce stand, going straight through the ply-wood as though it were wet toilet paper. At least the brick wall of the building behind it stopped me from going any further. I heard the screaming of several ponies and their hooves hitting the ground as they ran away into the distance. I slowly stood up, shaking with pain. I heard footsteps in the snow, but they suddenly stopped right behind me. I turned to see Xendo standing on the other side of the fruit stand glaring angrily at me. “I’m sorry sir,” I slurred, blood dripping from my mouth. “But we’re closed for the day.” He didn’t find it as funny as I thought it’d be. He shot out his hand around my throat and squeezed tightly. I choked and my eyes widened as he pulled me through the stand and threw me to the ground. Then he pulled me towards him by the collar of my shirt, which seemed backward to me, since he already had me by the throat. Guess he just wanted to throw me on the ground. “You! You have tried my patience for the last time! Fight like a man, or surrender!” He said to my face. “How about C, neither, pfft!” I slurred, spitting blood in his face. He didn’t think that was funny either, this time he threw me straight through the wall. I was fine going through the wall of town hall, it was wood and plaster. This was solid brick and cinder block. I hit my everything so hard when I went through the wall, even my head, that I thought I was gonna pass out. He stepped through the hole in the wall and picked me up again by the collar. “Fight or surrender!” He shouted again, even louder and closer to my face. “Maybe brush your fuckin’ teeth, and then we can talk.” I replied weakly. That time, I thought he was going to have a stroke. All I had to do, was at least tire him out, or so my genius brain thought. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 23: S*** Gets Real //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 23: S*** Gets Real                                                                        Chapter 23: Shit Gets Real Xendo screamed at the top of his lungs as he pulled his fist back, still holding me by the collar of my shirt. “Oh, hello.” Was all I could get out before his fist connected with my face, sending me across the room. I slid across a cold marble floor until I hit carpet. I turned my head to look at the unusually soft feeling carpet. I saw it was a long, red, velvet carpet leading to two large double doors, encrusted with jewels. I turned my head the other way and saw where the carpet led, all the way to another set of doors. The windows were beautiful and magnificent stained glass. And then I realized where I was. “Oh shit.” I thought to myself. “I’m in the fuckin’ castle. I hope Princess Celestia won’t be too mad.” I was interrupted from the peace and tranquility of my thoughts as I was yanked up one more time by Xendo, this time holding me off the ground by my jaw. He cocked back his fist one more time. “Last chance, you insipid excuse for a saiyan! Fight, or surrender!” He said quietly, and fiercely. “You know what, I’ll have your answer in a little while, wake me up in a minute.” I said in a groggy tone, letting my eyelids shut. “Then die!” I heard him say, before my eyes shut completely. “Stop right there.” I heard a familiar voice say. It was Princess Celestia. Thank, well, Celestia! “Who are you? The queen pony or something!?” Xendo demanded. “I am Princess Celestia, and you must be Xendo, correct?” She said. “Of course! I am the mighty, General Xendo! Commander of the once mighty saiyan army!” He said. “I see, what happened to this great army?” Princess Celestia asked calmly, walking towards Xendo slowly. “Here’s a hint, the planet got blowed the fuck up by a meteor.” I said through my bleeding lips. Xendo suddenly dropped me on the floor, hitting my head for about the fifth time. “Thank you, ass.” I coughed. “You idiot, it’s not a hint when you actually say it!” He yelled at me. I looked at Princess Celestia, then back to Xendo. “What, you’re talking to me? Shit, I just wanted to help the princess.” I said, wiping the blood from my gushing nose. “You are not welcome here. You have hurt my subjects, and destroyed this land.” Princess Celestia said calmly. “Destroyed!? Ha! If you want to see destruction, be my guest!” Xendo said as he bowed slightly. “Leave this land!” Princess Celestia shouted in what I believe was the royal Canterlot voice. Suddenly her horn glowed brightly, and a yellow force field radiated out from her, growing larger and larger. It made contact with Xendo, sending him flying out of the hole in the wall as the force field grew ever larger. “Hell yeah, Princess.” I tried to shout with excitement, but I didn’t have the energy. I heard hoof beats approaching outside, stopping at the double doors. The doors opened, revealing Twilight and the others. “What the? Twilight, I thought I told you to hide everyone.” I said to her weakly. “Everyone is hidden. Dako! What happened to your, to-?” She started, but I interrupted her. “My everything? Oh, you know, I just went through a couple walls, trees, and other, miscellaneous things.” I said weakly, lying back down on the floor. Fluttershy gasped louder than I’ve ever heard her speak. She rushed right over to me and put her forelegs around me. “Oh, Dako, what happened? How badly are you hurt?” She asked. “Well, Xendo’s back, and let me tell you, he’s winning this time.” I coughed. “I’m not hurt to bad, besides, I’m really numb anyway, so I can’t feel much.” I said reassuringly, although I failed to reassure her. “Oh Dako, please don’t ever do this again!” She said, burying her head in my chest, squeezing me. “You promised me you’d never get hurt!” She said, tears beginning to run down her face. “Ow.” I groaned weakly. “Oh, I’m sorry, am I hugging you too tightly?” she asked me. “Yes, sorry.” I replied weakly. “Dako?” I heard Applejack ask me. “Yes?” I said, struggling to look up at her. “We brought you something just in case.” Applejack said, holding out a small bag. “It’s the last Senzu bean we have.” Twilight said. “Eat it now.” I then tried with all might to stand, and it took way more effort than necessary to do. “No, I don’t want it, I’m fine. See?” I said to them. Suddenly the ground shook, and some plaster dust from the ceiling fell on top of us. “Never mind, give it to me!” I said. I took the bean out of the bag. I quickly put it in my mouth and chewed it. I swallowed it as quickly as I could. Within seconds the pain of my wounds disappeared, my bruises healed, my cuts closed up, and I felt energized. “So, that was the last one, huh?” I asked, stretching out my arms, now back to full strength. “Yes, we couldn’t find any others.” Applejack replied. The ground shook again, more plaster dust falling. “Don’t worry Princess Celestia, I’ll handle the rest of this.” I said with new authority and confidence. I walked outside and looked straight up. I saw Xendo, shaking his hand. He was apparently trying to punch through the force field, but hurt himself in the process. Every time he punched the force field the ground shook. “Dako, there isn’t much time. Hurry, go and face him.” Princess Celestia said. “Yes ma’am!” I shouted back as I took off at full speed. Now I was ready to actually kick some ass. I noticed I was much more powerful, and I could fly much faster with ease. I flew straight up to Xendo’s position. As soon as I was within 20 feet of him the force field disappeared, and I connected right with Xendo’s face as I punched with all my might. I sent him flying back about fifteen feet away. “What!? How!? I was beating you to a pulp earlier, how did you regain your strength!?” He asked confused. “Ha! Regained is a bit of an understatement, I’ve been healed and rejuvenated!” I said triumphantly. “Now what was that about saiyan nature? Oh yeah, we get stronger after being beaten. Well, now I must thank you, Xendo, because now I have the strength to beat you once and for all.” I said. He lunged straight for me, attempting to punch me, but it was all for nothing as I caught his fist in the palm of my hand. I began to squeeze. “AAH! Let go!” He yelled. “How do you like it?” I asked coldly. As he struggled to free himself I pulled up my knee and by using his arm the way he did to me, I slammed him back in forth into my knee, knocking the wind out of him. I threw him up above me and decided to blast him as hard as I could with as much energy as I could pull up on such short notice. I surprised myself at the size of the blast. A huge beam of bright blue energy shot from my hand, engulfing Xendo. He went flying higher into the sky, and when I stopped I saw him fall back down towards me. Smoked streaked from him as he fell. I could have let him hit the ground, but I caught him from his suit of armor at the last second. As I caught him he suddenly sprang to life. He turned and smacked my arm away from him, freeing himself instantly. He drifted away from me and floated there, breathing heavily. “Nice try! But even with your new strength, it’ll take a lot more than that to take me out. Honestly, how strong do you think you are now?” He shouted. “Strong enough to teach you a lesson, at least.” I replied. “I just hope it does you well to know that the entire time we have been fighting I’ve been holding back. But no more! Your new strength may challenge me now, but wait until I’ve used my full power!” He said with an evil grin. “Bullshit! What do you mean, “holding back”? Go ahead and try, I can still take you.” I said in determination. He was engulfed by a bright blue aura as he began powering up. I didn’t hesitate to start up the Kaio-ken. I decided times five would be enough, and charged him as fast as I could as he charged after me. We clashed in a blur of punches. We were really going at it now. Punch was met with punch, kick with kick. It seemed he was able to match me in speed and strength, but not quite. We were both thrown back from each other with a punch connecting to a punch. “It seems I’ve met my match.” Xendo said. “Nope!” I replied. “Kaio-ken times 10!” I yelled out as I charged back at him. We started going at it again, pretty much trying to kick the crap out of each other. I was able to take a significant lead on him, I was blocking much more of his punches with my increased speed, and I was making more hits as well. I was forcing him back, instead of just hovering over one spot in the sky, we began moving. I was gaining the upper hand in the fight. For every hit that connected, I began hitting harder and harder, trying to take more out of him. In the middle of all this he suddenly threw me back with a blast of his aura. It flared up again, as he tried to match my increase. Unfortunately he did match my increase, only slightly though. We continued fighting for another whole minute, until he threw the both of us apart again. I turned off the Kaio-ken, trying to conserve energy. His own aura faded as well. He was just floating, breathing hard and trying to catch his breath. I raised an eyebrow at this, and I couldn’t help but smile a little at that. “You’re not, tired are you?” I asked. “Of course not! What makes you think that!?” he snapped at me. “Well, you’re breathing hard, you’re starting to break a sweat, and you keep taking these breaks.” I said. “You, dare mock me!?” He asked in anger. “No, but, you’re kinda making it easy.” I chuckled. “I still want to know how you got stronger!” He shouted. “I’ll let you know, if you surrender to me instead.” I said with a smirk. “Never!” he shouted. He blasted me as hard as he could. I could hear him screaming at the top of his lungs, putting everything into it. Little did he know, I went up to Kaio-ken times fifteen and deflected it around me at the last second. As I waited for the smoke clear I could hear the others gasping from down below, and Xendo’s crazed laughter. I heard him gasp in surprise once the smoke cleared and he saw me sitting there, untouched. “So, what was that supposed to do?” I asked disappointedly. “Grr! If I can’t defeat you! I’ll just split this planet in half, leaving you in the cold vacuum of space!” He shouted. “Holy shit, really? No, really? You’re gonna blow this planet up. No, I don’t think so, you’d be stuck here too.” I said, not buying his bluff. “Oh really? Do you want to know how I healed so quickly?” He asked. “Wait, how did you heal so quickly?” I asked. I honestly hadn’t thought about it before. “I found my ship!” He said with a sinister smile on his face. “It ended up here with me, I could end this planet and leave in time to see the fireworks!” “I would have enough time chase you to your ship, idiot! You can’t beat me, so what makes you think you could blow up the planet, get to your ship without me, and leave, all in time?” I said to him. “Oh? Did somebody order a distraction!?” He shouted. At that moment he swung his hand over the area below him firing a string of energy orbs at the only group of ponies left in Canterlot by now, the Mane Six. I flew right in front of the blasts and shot each one down as they came at me. Xendo didn’t flee, instead he looked in confusion. “My! I’ve never seen you move so fast, ever!” He laughed. “Watch where the hell you’re shooting!” I yelled. “Did I make someone angry!? Come on! Let’s have some fun!” He shouted. The rotten bastard did his dirty trick again. He blinded me with a bright flash. But this time I remained calm, and sensed out his energy. Although I couldn’t see him I knew where he was, he was flying straight for them, but I quickly used the instant transmission to get in his way, and as soon as he was in front of me, I kicked him as hard as I could. Luckily, I hit him, and I kicked him right in the chest. I heard him cough. Slowly, my vision came back to me. “That wasn’t funny, and it didn’t work.” I said unimpressed. “How did you know!?” He grunted. “I didn’t need to see, I could sense your presence, idiot.” I said softly. “Who are you calling an idiot!? I’ll show you any idiot!” He shouted. He flew straight towards me, with his fist cocked back, for about the hundredth time. I knew exactly what to do, just block it as usual. Except this time as he swung, and I prepared to block, he switched to a kick, and kicked me in the side, sending me flying. The bastard faked me out. Then I saw him point a finger towards the group. “TAKE THIS!” he shouted louder than I ever heard him shout. “NOOO!” I couldn’t stop him in time. He fired a single beam at random, and it was aimed at one pony in particular. Fluttershy. I watched in horror as the beam hit her in her side. It knocked her over on the ground. She wasn’t moving. I rushed to her side as quickly as I could move through the air. I landed right beside her, quickly picking her up in my arms. I held her close to me. “Fluttershy! No! Please don’t die on me!” I cried out, my voice shrill. “Dako, I-I.” Fluttershy said weakly. “Fluttershy, you’ll be just fine! I-I’ll go get some more Senzu beans!” I told her frantically. “Dako.” She said one more time. Then she closed her eyes. “AH-HA HA-HA HA-HA! Wonderful! How amusing! You really do care for these pathetic creatures!” Xendo laughed maniacally from above. I just sat there with Fluttershy in my arms, unmoving. I could feel the lump in my throat, that lump. The painful, swelling feeling that comes when on the verge of tears. I was breathing shallow and quickly, and I could feel a tear run down my face. I was shaking, just shivering all over uncontrollably. “Fluttershy?” I said. A few more tears ran down my face. “Fluttershy!?” I said again, still with no answer. “FLUUUTTEEERSHYYYYY!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I could hear myself echo off in the distance. I heard the others whimper quietly, and one of them sniffle. “This is absolutely priceless! Ha-ha ha!” Xendo shouted from above again. “You truly care about them! Ah-ha ha! Ha-ha ha!” he laughed even more. “Rrgghh! NO! NOOO!” I shouted. “No no no no no!” I gently laid Fluttershy on the ground. I stood up, tears running down my face. I was heartbroken, but at the same time, seething with anger. I was gritting my teeth trying to keep my calm. It wasn’t working. My heart began racing, I was breathing like I was running a marathon. “I’m sorry, did I do that!?” Xendo asked mockingly. “Oh, that’s right, I did! And it felt great!” “YOU!” I turned to look straight at him. “I loved her! And you took her from me! You miserable piece of shit!” “What’s the matter!? Angry!?” He continued. “I’ll kill you! And I’m not just gonna take your life! I’ll rip your fucking throat out!” I yelled in fury. I was going insane by my intense anger. I just kept running through my mind, replaying what had happened to Fluttershy, everything I had lost. It wasn’t right. “AAAGGHH!” I screamed out of blinding anger, screaming for the sake of doing so. The ground rumbled. I noticed small pebbles floating up around me, lifting out of the snow. The anger was rising, and my control slipping. I clenched my fists tighter and tighter. The ground continued to shake. I was no longer civilized, I turned into a savage, wild beast on the inside. I had lost all self control. I wanted to do something about all of this. “Are you going to throw a fit!? Xendo mocked. He thought he was safe up in the sky. “You evil, cold, fucking, MONSTER!” I continued shouting. Gusts of wind were blowing out and away from me, off and on. I could feel the cobble stones giving way, rising off the ground. The ground shuddered beneath me. All I could do was remember all the time me and Fluttershy had spent together, and how everything was suddenly ended. The events didn’t just replay over and over and over again, but they did so at a hundred times a second. I kept seeing her get hit by the beam, I was reliving the hell over and over again. It was the only thing that existed anymore. The only thing my mind could focus on was the sudden traumatic loss, what had been taken from me. Then I heard a voice. “I love you Dako.” At that moment something inside me snapped in two. Out of sheer primal rage I threw my head back and roared in anger, loss, and pain. “RRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!” I thundered. The ground collapsed beneath my feet, the buildings all around me trembled, glass shattered, and a violent gust of wind radiated outward from me, throwing out snow, stone, dirt and any other thing unlucky enough to be in the way. I was instantly engulfed by a yellow aura, and I felt my hair lift up. When I regained my cool, I looked around me. I had done it. If it weren’t for my current situation I might have been cheering and celebrating. I had finally become what I had always dreamed of. I had my answer to the problem that was Xendo. I had become a super saiyan. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 24: The End //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 24: The End                                                                           Chapter 24: The End I stood in the crater caused by my new transformation, suddenly realizing just exactly what I had become. I turned behind me and looked at Fluttershy, lying on the ground. I slowly walked over to her, took off my blue undershirt, and gently covered her with it. “I love you too, Fluttershy. I’m sorry.” I said to her. Then I turned and looked at Xendo. “NO! It’s not possible, i-it can’t be! You, you’re a, a-a, a super saiyan!?” Xendo said from above. I looked dead into his eyes, savoring every bit of fear on his face. I floated up to him slowly, patiently, enjoying the idea of what was to come. “I have a promise to keep.” I said lowly. “Ah! Stay away from me you, you monster!” He shouted in terror. “Now give me that throat of yours.” I said in a quiet, ominous tone. I flew at him faster than I thought possible, hitting him square in the throat with my elbow. He flew back holding his throat, coughing violently. I went for more. I began punching him, rapid fire, from his stomach to his face, and everywhere in between. He quickly put his arms up trying to block me, then flying out of range. He flew behind me, trying to kick me in the head, but instead I turned and caught his leg in the crook of my elbow. I brought my other elbow down on his knee as hard as I could, and I heard a cracking sound as I shattered his kneecap. He howled in pain. “You! You broke my leg! You’ll pay for this!” He screamed in agony. “No I won’t.” I said as I sent a kick right to his jaw. He flew up and back, flipping in midair. He tried to blast me with an energy orb, but it just hit me in the chest and exploded, having no effect whatsoever. I blasted back with a bigger energy ball. He thought he could deflect it with a backhand, but as soon as he connected, it exploded in a bright flash, and I heard him scream again. When the smoke cleared he was holding his arm. His glove had been blown off, and part of the sleeve of his uniform, and there was blood trickling down his arm. “I like that, seeing you bleed.” I said coldly. I rushed at him and roundhouse kicked him three times in the head. While he was stunned holding his nose I flew up over him and kicked him over the head sending him straight for the ground. He flew through two buildings made of stone before hitting the ground hard. I used the instant transmission to teleport right over him. He quickly looked up behind him to see me above him with both arms outstretched. “AAAHHH!” I screamed as I poured every ounce of energy into one solid blast. I saw him cover his head with his arms as the giant column of a beam flew straight towards him. Ton after ton of dirt was instantly removed from the area as the beam carved a path through Canterlot. Building after building was hit and slowly fell over into the beam, only to be obliterated and ‘washed away’ completely. After I stopped I flew off towards the end of the colossal trench left behind, finding Xendo lying at the end. His armor was almost completely destroyed, his uniform torn to shreds, and blood was running out of cuts and wounds all over his body. “Wait! I-I surrender!” He pleaded. “Bullshit.” I replied. I grabbed him by the feet and tossed him into the sky. As he sailed into the distance I took off after him. As I caught up with him I began to assault him with more rapid fire punching, attempting to literally beat him to a pulp. I then decided to play my own game of ping pong with him. I slammed him towards the ground, then dashed under him. As he came close to the ground, I kicked him back up into the sky, then chased after him again. The last time I slammed him towards the ground I let him make impact. I saw the small amount of dust thrown up by his body hitting the dirt. As I flew back down to the ground I saw him attempting to crawl away. I walked over to him and put one of my boots on his back, forcing him back to the ground. I kicked him in the side, flipping him onto his back. “Please! I-I’m sorry about what I did! I t-truly am! Spare me, and I will serve you, f-for the rest of my days!” He begged weakly. “Sorry!? SORRY!?” I screamed in his face, grabbing him by the collar of his uniform. “Is sorry gonna bring her back!? Is sorry gonna fix all this mess!? Huh? ANSWER ME!?” “I’ll, I’ll be your personal slave.” He struggled to say. I just decided to stop listening and grab his head, then slam his face into my knee repeatedly. I slammed his face into my knee over and over and over, until there was a visible stain of blood on my pants. I held out his head, then kicked him right in the face, throwing him back. “P-please, just k-kill me already.” He grunted. “I intend to. But not yet.” I said. I took a few steps back and got into my stance. “Ka, me, haa, meee, HAAAAA!” I shouted as I thrust my hands forward. The huge beam of energy hit Xendo dead on, like a freight train. The beam ripped through another couple of buildings as it sent Xendo on a ride from hell. When the attack was over I flew straight to where Xendo lied. Again, he was trying to crawl away, but with much greater difficulty this time. I walked up to him and stomped on his head. I rolled him over. His eyes were shut, and he was breathing heavily, barely clinging to life. I stomped him again in the stomach. He coughed up some blood. Then I stomped him on his chest, right in the ribs. He shouted in pain. I finally kneeled down on one knee and began beating the crap out of him, punching him over and over again. I stopped and looked at him for a while, he was barely breathing now. I pulled back my fist, ready for one final death blow, ready to end it all. In mid-swing a voice interrupted me. “That is enough!” I heard Princess Celestia say. I turned to look at her immediately. “P-princess Celestia! What are you doing!?” I asked surprised to see her. “That’s quite enough Dako.” She said walking towards Xendo. “Princess, he killed her, he deserves to die! I want to kill him!” I shouted at her. “And you will if you keep going. I can’t let you kill him.” She said sternly. “But Princess, saiyan nature! He’s only gonna get stronger, and he’ll want revenge!” I said to her. “He will do no such thing.” She said. “I’m sending him back to where he belongs.” Xendo tried crawling away still, having just long enough of a break from my beat down to attempt escape. Princess Celestia lowered her horn to Xendo. He looked in confusion and fear. Princess Celestia’s horn began to glow. I looked around for a minute and saw a crowd was forming around us, a crowd of ponies had come to see Princess Celestia deal with him. “S-stay away from me, you, you vile creature!” He groaned with effort. Princess Celestia’s horn glowed brighter. There was a flash of light, and Xendo was suddenly gone. Celestia slowly raised her head and sighed. The crowd began cheering. “Attention everypony! The threat once known as Xendo, is now gone!” She declared. Everyone cheered even louder. “Well.” I said. “I guess I can rest now.” I sighed and fell out of super saiyan mode. I heard a voice from the crowd calling my name. “Dako! Dako!” they called. I turned to see who it was. I saw Twilight’s face among the crowd. She ran out towards me. “Dako! You did it! You beat him!” Twilight cheered. I fell to my knees and hung my head. “But, Fluttershy.” I said. “Dako?” I heard a soft voice call out. The crowd slowly fell silent. I stood up and looked in the direction of the voice. I saw the rest of the Mane Six walk out of the crowd, and following, was Fluttershy. “Fluttershy!?” I yelled. “Dako!” She shouted. We ran towards each other. She jumped into my arms, and I held her close to me. The crowd began cheering again. “Fluttershy! I thought I lost you! How are you okay!?” I asked her, tears of happiness now running down my face. “There was another Senzu bean. It must have fallen out of your uniform when you put your shirt on me.” She said. “Oh Fluttershy! I’ll never let a single thing happen to you ever again! I promise, and this time I’ll keep it!” I told her. “I love you Dako!” She said. “I love you too Fluttershy.” I said to her. We kissed each other, even in front of everyone there. The crowd suddenly died down. I looked up and looked around. I turned and saw Princess Celestia standing right behind me. “Princess?” I asked her. “Are you ready Dako?” she asked. “Ready for what?” I replied. “Ready to go home.” She said. My heart dropped, and almost stopped when she said that. I felt cold. “What do you mean, “go home”?” I asked. “Dako. You don’t belong here. Your time in Equestria is up. You must go now.” She answered. “Oh no, no no, please! Princess! I’m sorry!” I began. “You don’t need to apologize, it’s time to go.” She said again. “But, but why?” I asked, my voice breaking. “Dako, this is not your world. You have to go, just like Xendo.” She said. “But I, I saved the day! He’s gone now, forever! Everything’s fine!” I pleaded. “Equestria has been attacked. Canterlot is in ruin, and several ponies have been hurt. This is not your place, saiyans have no business here.” She said coldly. I fell to my knees, still holding Fluttershy. I hung my head down over her. I hugged her tightly, and began to cry. “Don’t I at least get to say goodbye?” I sobbed. “Yes, I’ll let you say your goodbyes.” She said. I turned and looked at the rest of the Mane Six. Their eyes were full of shock and sadness. I could see tears welling up in their eyes. I looked back down at Fluttershy. I cried even harder. Not only would I leave all of my new friends, but I’d have to leave Fluttershy, who I had just fought for, and even went super saiyan for. “Guys.” I said weakly. They walked closer to me. “I have to go now. Will you be okay?” I asked, sniffling. They all nodded, some of them now had tears streaming. Even Rainbow Dash. “Come give me a hug, I really need one right now.” I cried. They all came up to me and hugged me in a huge group hug, I could even feel Fluttershy squeezing me. I looked back down at her, and saw the tears coming from her eyes. Her head was buried in my chest, and her eyes were shut tight as she cried. “Oh Fluttershy, you know I hate it when you cry. It kills me inside.” I said to her, sobbing. They were all openly crying. I’ll admit, it was a sobfest, but for good reason. I had to leave them forever. “Fluttershy?” I asked. “Yes, Dako?” She said, looking at me with teary eyes. “I love you. Always remember that. Okay?” I said to her. “Okay.” She replied. “One more thing. You’re gonna have to be strong for me, and brave too.” I said in tears, blubbering. “I will.” She replied. “Promise?” I asked. “I promise.” She answered, bawling and whimpering. I hugged her tightly one more time, then gave her a kiss on the head, and set her down. As I stood up her friends hugged and comforted her. I turned to Princess Celestia, who stood there, unmoved by the whole situation, and the crowd remained silent. “Are you ready?” She asked. “I’m ready.” I said, tears running down my face. She tilted her head down, and her horn began to glow. “I’m sorry Dako, but I warned you. I told you not to fall in love with anyone.” She whispered. “I know.” I sniffed. “And I’m sorry.” I shut my eyes tight. There was a bright flash all around me. I slowly opened my eyes, and saw myself standing in the suburb I was in before I left. I dropped to my knees, and began crying loudly. I sat there on the sidewalk holding my head in my hands, bawling. I was interrupted by a familiar voice. “Dako? Is that, you?” The voice asked. I looked up to the person. It was one of my friends. “Dude! It’s you, you’re alive!” The other shouted, the two of them running toward me. “Hey man, we thought you-. Hey man, what’s up? Why are you crying?” One of them asked. “Nothing man, it’s nothing I, I’m just glad to be back.” I lied. “Cool man, we understand.” He said, patting me on the back. I notice he had a picture of Rainbow Dash on his shirt. “Is that?” I started. “What, this? Oh yeah, dude! We started watching the show after you disappeared. We’re bronies too now!” He said. “When?” I asked confused. “About a week after you were gone. We thought you were gone gone. So we kinda watched the show in your memory.” He explained. “Hey, you wanna go watch some mlp right now? Season three started, they’re up to episode four now.” The other said. “Yeah man.” I replied, wiping my eyes. “I’d love to.” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: The Others //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: The Others                                                                     Chapter 3: The Others I think I woke up at around 8:00 the next morning. Fluttershy was still asleep, and I got up quietly so I wouldn’t disturb her. I got dressed and decided to go outside. Living at the foster home didn’t give me a lot of time to work out or exercise. So for a saiyan I wasn’t very strong. Hell, flying too fast for too long would tire me out. I figured that since I would be here with a bunch of mythical creatures and monsters I should try to get stronger for my own good. I headed out into the vast open field in front of Fluttershy’s cottage. I began my stretches so I wouldn’t hurt myself while training, that would be a huge fail. I wanted to practice my energy control, like energy blasts and energy balls. I cocked back my right arm like a baseball pitcher ready to throw a fastball. I let the energy flow towards the palm of my hand, until an orb formed in my hand, and let the ball grow until it was the size of a softball. I flung my arm out in front of me as hard as I could and sent it flying towards a tree. As soon as it made impact it exploded and broke the tree in half about 5 feet up from the ground. Splinters and bark were sent flying in all directions. The tree was about 25 feet tall and fell to the ground hard. Throwing an energy ball isn’t as hard as one might imagine. Although pure energy has mass, it’s almost negligible; an energy ball the size of a softball feels like holding a penny in your hand. So while it takes force to throw an actual softball, you don’t need much force to throw energy, but the more force you use will mean a higher speed and stronger impact. Next I made my hand flat, and with my right arm extended straight out, bent my hand at a 90 degree angle. I was basically pointing with my palm. I aimed at another tree and fired three energy balls from my hand in less than a second. All three hit the tree and reduced it to toothpicks. A huge cloud of dirt, leaves, and bark was thrown into the air in a plume reaching 30 feet. I turned looking for my next target and saw that Fluttershy was standing behind me, she looked a little scared. “Oh, good morning Fluttershy. I was just, practicing my techniques, energy control.” I said. “Oh my, its, loud.” She said quiet and cautious. I didn’t want to wake her up but I had. I decided to show another demonstration. “Its okay, come here, let me show you something.” I said “No, that’s fine.” She replied “It’s okay, really. I won’t do anything loud. I promise.” I told her. It must’ve been scary. A strange creature like me that has no hair except on top of my head, walks on two legs, can fly without wings, and shoots balls of light from my hands that blow things up. Put that way it does seem pretty scary. “This is called energy control. I can focus my own life energy and use it. The stronger you are the more energy you can use, and the more energy you have.” I explained. “Oh. That’s neat.” She said. I tried looking at the sun to tell the time even though I don’t know how too. Well it was directly above me, so it had to be noon. If I was going to live here I would need to learn some better fighting skills, but I also needed to meet Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. Screw the exercise, I had places to go and ponies to meet. “Fluttershy, what do you think of having me meet your other three friends?” I asked her. “That sounds nice. I’m sure they’d like you.” She said smiling. I always liked Fluttershy a lot, but in real life, she was the cutest fucking thing! We both took off and flew towards Applejack’s place at sweet apple acres. It was kinda close after all. Another thing I would need to work on was my flight. I never used to fly all the time on Earth, it drew way too much attention. But here I felt quite free to fly whenever I felt like. Although since I didn’t fly a whole lot I couldn’t fly the best. I could fly okay, do some stunts, but I could only hit about 100 miles per hour tops, 140 if I really pushed it. Meanwhile on Dragon ball Z, Goku and Vegeta could break the sound barrier. Anyways, we landed just outside of the fence surrounding the farm. Fluttershy led me in. Just as I thought, I spotted Applejack about 100 feet away bucking apples from the trees. I thought it’d be funny to just stroll on up and yell “Howdy!” so I did. “Howdy!” yeah, that got her attention. She turned around and looked straight at me. Her reaction was one of, confusion. “Who the hay are you, and what are you?” she asked. “His name is Dako, he’s my new friend. I found him during that really big storm two nights ago.” Fluttershy said. “Well, what exactly is he?” Applejack questioned again. “I’m a saiyan. I’m from a far away land much like this one. I don’t know how I got here, but just know that my intentions are good and friendly. Besides, the way I see it I’m going to be living here for a while, if not forever.” I said. “Well, I don’t know what a saiyan is, but it’s mighty nice to hear that you’re a good fella.” Applejack replied. “Yup, if you want a more detailed explanation you can go visit Twilight, I met her yesterday and explained everything. Right now I have to go and meet Rarity and Pinkie Pie. See you around.” I said smiling to her. Fluttershy was the first to take off, then I did while still smiling at Applejack, just to see her reaction when she saw me fly. Her jaw dropped in disbelief. That made me laugh. After another five minutes of flying, me and Fluttershy arrived outside of Rarity’s place. Fluttershy knocked on the door for me and we waited for Rarity to answer. Rarity opened the door and instantly screamed in surprise. I thought it would be funny to act as though I didn’t know why. “What!? Is there a spider!?” I asked jokingly. “Fluttershy, what is that, thing with you!?” Rarity asked frightened. “I’m her friend Dako, she saved me from the storm two nights ago. Nice to meet you madame.” I reached for her hoof and kissed it like a gentleman would kiss a woman’s hand. Like I thought, she immediately jerked her hoof away from me. “Ah! It talks! And it’s, a gentlecolt, rather than a beast.” Rarity said starting to calm down a little. “Well of course I talk, and where I’m from, we say “Gentleman”.” I said. “Yes, well, where are my manners, my name is Rarity, the top fashion designer of Ponyville.” She said proudly. “Oh, it’s okay Rarity, he already knows who we all are, it’s complicated, but it’s also true.” Fluttershy said quiet and calm with a little smile. “Yes, I’ve already met Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. Now all I have to meet is Pinkie Pie.” I explained. I thought about it, and it was a good thing I was going to Pinkie Pie’s because I was starting to get hungry, and I hadn’t eaten since I got here. “Well dear, if you ever need anything fashion wise from me, perhaps a tuxedo, you know where to find me.” Rarity said smiling. “Yes ma’am, yes I do. Well, I have to get going now, but I do hope to talk to you more soon, you see, these are my only clothes and I’ll be needing more in a while.” I said. “Okay, ta-ta!” Rarity replied waving her hoof. Me and Fluttershy took off, and I saw the same look of awe and disbelief in Rarity’s face as I did with all of the other ponies. They all make me laugh! Again, it was about five minutes of flying until we came upon Sugarcube Corner. We set down in front of the Cakes’ bakery and walked in, me as usual acting like some casual customer. As the door opened a bell rang to let them know we had walked in. I heard Mr. Cake yell from another room telling Pinkie Pie to care of things. Lucky day, huh? I saw Pinkie pop up from behind the counter, and I still don’t know if it was Pinkie being Pinkie, or if she was just hanging out behind the counter. “Hello, what do you have in the way of breakfast pastries, I know it’s late, but I missed breakfast, and I’m really hungry.” I said just as casual as ever. “Ooh! Who are you? You look really weird! Are you a monster? I really hope you’re a nice monster! But then again I don’t know any nice monsters! In fact I don’t know any monsters! What’s your name? What are you? Where are you from? Do you wanna be friends?” Pinkie Pie shouted at a million miles an hour. I chuckled a little. “Hi, nice to meet you, my name is Dako, I’m a saiyan. No I’m not a monster, and I’m from Earth, well a different Earth. And yes, I’d like to be friends.” I replied. “Fluttershy, where did you find him? He’s super duper cool!” Pinkie said in her hyper way. “I found him outside of my house during that storm two nights ago.” Fluttershy told Pinkie Pie. “He doesn’t know how he got here, or how to go back. So for now he’s staying with me. But I don’t mind, he’s really kind and nice and friendly.” Fluttershy told Pinkie Pie. “Well, I wasn’t kidding when I said I was hungry, I haven’t eaten since I got here, and seeing all of these baked goods have really reminded me of how hungry I am.” I said, feeling my mouth water a little. “Well since you’re new here you deserve a welcome party! You can have anything you want right now on the house!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly. “Thank you, that’s great, I don’t have any money anyway. So when is the party?” I asked. “Later tonight! Everypony will be here!” said Pinkie Pie. “Cool! So can I get a cake, some cupcakes, a few chocolate chip cookies, and some milk too? Can you make the cake and cupcakes chocolate as well?” I asked. I was so hungry right then I could take my boots off and eat the leather. “Sure! Coming right up!” said Pinkie Pie as she disappeared behind the counter. I took a seat at a booth nearby with Fluttershy. As I sat and waited, I thought about things back home. What my friends might have thought happened. Could the only real actual saiyan have died because of a tornado? They know I’m tougher than that. I may only be 17, but that doesn’t matter when you’re a saiyan. I wonder if they could be looking for me right this moment. Then I began wondering about my arrival. How did Fluttershy find me? How did she get me inside? The curiosity was unbearable, so I asked her. “Fluttershy, how did you find me on that night? I don’t think you ever told me.” I asked her. “Well, I was all ready for bed that night when I heard a loud crash outside. When I went out to check it out, I saw you lying on the ground. You fell on top of one of my animal cages and were unconscious. That’s how one of my badgers got out.” She explained to me. “I saw you laying there in the rain, you didn’t look hurt, but I knew I just couldn’t leave you there. And since you were unconscious I knew it would be safe to go near you. So I threw you over my back, laid you down on my couch, and went back outside to find my badger.” She finished explaining. Well now that I knew that I felt, meh. I knew what happened now and now I knew just how thankful I should be. “Wow, you carried me in? Some strange creature you’ve never seen before that could’ve possibly been dangerous? Thank you, Fluttershy, so much.” I said. I’m glad she cares so much about all living things. I noticed she began to blush a little. “Oh, it’s nothing really, it’s just what had to be done.” She said with a shy little smile. My god she’s just so freaking cute and adorable. I may never have been able to pick my favorite pony before, but now I think there is no contest. Just then Pinkie Pie showed up with my food. And it looked glorious! “Here you go Dako! Enjoy!” Pinkie Pie said. I began with the cupcakes, there were twelve there, and I ate them all like they were nothing. Well I would’ve eaten them all, but I offered one to Fluttershy who politely accepted. They were perfect, chocolate with vanilla frosting. Then I moved on to my cake, which again I could’ve eaten whole, but gave a slice to Fluttershy. It too was chocolate with vanilla frosting. It was like eating a cloud, it was so fresh and fluffy, like it was baked after being carbonated like soda. Then I finally had the cookies with milk. Fluttershy had two of the cookies, two out of 20. The first glass of milk wasn’t enough though, I had two more glasses after. The cookies were great, like chips ahoy on steroids. All of this thanks to the saiyan appetite I had. I would need all of it, even though it wasn’t the healthiest, because when I got back to Fluttershy’s I would start my hardcore training. If I had to guess my power level right now, it would probably be at 1,000. Full power with the Kaioken, maybe at 5,000. Who knows? After breakfast/lunch, me and Fluttershy headed off to her place. When I first took off Pinkie Pie could only gasp at my ability. It was a 15-20 minute flight back. When we got to her cottage Fluttershy said she’d like to watch me train. I let her, so she could get to know me a little better, see me in action. Unfortunately for me I don’t have an artificial gravity training chamber. So I found a huge rock to strap to my back. The rock I found was about the size of a bed, so maybe it was more like a small boulder. It may have weighed a ton or two. Once it was strapped to my back I began hopping around and punching and kicking invisible enemies. I was doing back flips, dodges, and jumps. I did anything to build muscle, speed, and strengthen my flight ability. I did this for about a half hour, by then I was exhausted, and my muscles were killing me. I moved to the next portion of my exercise. I ripped the boulder from my back and spun a couple of times like I was doing the shot put. I let it go flying into the sky, then I put my hands together as though I were doing the Kamehame-ha, pulled them back then thrust them out towards the boulder. I pulled up as much energy as I could and fired a bright yellow beam of energy at the boulder. It was reduced to sand. Fluttershy was lying on the ground, hooves over her head with her eyes closed and a nervous smile. “That was good Dako. Very scary, and loud.” She said nervously. “Oh, I’m sorry Fluttershy!” I yelled over to her. “Oh no, it’s okay.” She replied back to me. I tried to fly over to her, but as soon as I got off of the ground I fell back down. I stumbled and fell to my knees. Fluttershy rushed over to my side and asked if I was okay. I told her I was fine, that I was just low on energy. I was soaked in sweat, and so were my clothes. I wonder if I should’ve taken them off first, before working out, like Goku might have done. We walked inside together, me leaning on her for support. She showed me to her bathroom like I asked and got the tub ready so I could bathe myself. For a minute she stood watching as I undressed. I stopped once I got to my underwear. “Fluttershy, is it okay if I got a little privacy for now? I don’t really mind you being here, but maybe after I’ve gotten in the water?” I said to her. “Oh, I understand. I’ll be right outside if you need anything.” She said to me before walking out. Now the house may have had some low spots, like the doorways, the ponies only stood about 4 feet tall to the top of their heads, but I was 5 foot 11, so I had to duck under doorways. But the tub was actually normal sized. Once the tub was full of water I got in. The relaxing sensation of the warm water slowly seeped into me. It felt good to get clean. I would also need to be clean if I wanted to make a good impression at my party later tonight. I decided to call Fluttershy back in. “Excuse me Fluttershy, my clothes are kinda dirty from exercise. Could you wash them for me, if you can’t its fine, I’ll do it.” I asked her. “Its okay Dako, I’d be happy to clean them for you.” She said with a smile. She walked out with a pile of my clothes in a basket balanced on her back. As she walked out with the basket some small black object fell out. It was shiny and rectangular. Luckily, it was in my reach, so I picked it up and instantly recognized it. It was my iPod from back on earth, and it still had the earbuds wrapped around it. I turned it on and began scrolling through the songs. Just because I felt like listening to it, I played C-murder- Down 4 my N’s. Yeah, I may be from Texas, but I like rap, besides, we invented “Screw”. Once I was done, I got out of the tub, grabbed the towels Fluttershy left me, and dried off. The towels were actually normal sized, I expected them to be the size of rags. I wrapped a towel around my waist and left the bathroom to look for Fluttershy. I found her out back hanging my clothes up to dry. “Almost done Fluttershy?” I asked. “Yes, they’re drying now.” She replied while hanging my shirt. I’m glad I met Rarity, she could make me some new clothes, since I didn’t see myself wearing the same thing forever. All I had with me were my boots, a pair of jeans, boxer-briefs, socks, and an orange SouthPole brand collared shirt. I would need something new eventually. As for my current clothes, sitting in the direct sunlight, it would only take them about 25 minutes to dry, considering there was also a slight breeze. While waiting for my clothes to dry, me and Fluttershy were in her living room, relaxing. She was reading while I was being bored. I miss T.V. already, along with the internet. She was lying on her couch reading a newspaper, while I sat next to her, still in my towels, just looking around the room. “Anything interesting in the paper?” I asked. “No, just the usual.” She said. “Well, what exactly is the usual here?” I asked slightly curious. “Just articles about sports, stuff in Canterlot, and local events in Ponyville.” She replied. I slowly slid sideways on the couch until I was lying down. Lying down out of sheer boredom. I just couldn’t think of anything to do, I don’t think I’ve ever been this bored in my life. I got up and went to check on my clothes to see if they were dry yet. They were the tiniest bit damp, but I didn’t really care too much. I put them on anyway. To help speed the drying process I decided to go flying. I bent my knees a little for take off, then I jumped as hard and as fast as I could and used all the energy I could. My take off was like the giant bungee ride at carnivals, where they strap you in to what looks like a giant slingshot and send you flying. I must’ve hit 100 miles per hour in three seconds, and I was still speeding up. I really wanted to hit my true speed limit. I kept going until I was almost at 140 miles per hour, but I kept pushing. If I wanted more speed I knew what I had to do, I had to use the Kaio-ken. I focused and concentrated hard, braced myself, then powered up to Kaio-ken. There was an instant burst of speed and acceleration, I began passing what I guessed to be 180, then 200, and finally probably 230 miles per hour. Then I was exhausted and had to stop. I cut all power and let gravity slow me, until I stalled and hovered in place. Then I fell, like a sky diver. If I wasn’t dry before, I was now. I may have been a mile up, so I had time to rest while free falling. It was pretty fun, I never tried to sky dive before. At around 1,000 feet up I powered up and hit the brakes hard. I slowed down pretty quick, and landed softly right in front of Fluttershy’s cottage. I walked in to find her napping on the couch. I, can’t handle, the cuteness! I walked over to her, and quietly woke her up. I whispered in her ear that it was about time we started heading to the party. It was about 5:00, and the party started at 8:00, but I wanted to visit Rarity again and ask her if she could throw me together a tux or something. Me and Fluttershy quickly flew over to Rarity’s to see if she could make me something to wear. “Of course darling! I’ll just need to get your measurements.” She said as she began to levitate a measuring tape over to me. I let her get her measurements, then she trotted over to her work desk and began laying out fabric and began cutting the pieces. She was pretty quick and talented with her work. She used her magic to lift and carry the pieces of fabric to her sewing machine and began sewing them together. In a total of five minutes she had measured, cut, and sewn together a shirt for me. In another five she had a coat done. And finally, she had made a pair of pants to match. It looked good, like a real tuxedo from home, made by a pony who had just met a human earlier that day, this tuxedo was perfect. I was very impressed. “Well, aren’t you going to try it on?” Rarity asked me. “Sure, do you have a dressing room?” I asked her. “Of course dear, it’s right over there.” She said pointing at a door. I opened the door and walked in. Yup, it certainly was a dressing room. I got all nice and dressed up, then I walked out to Fluttershy and Rarity. “So, what do you guys think?” I asked them. “My, you look handsome!” Rarity said, admiring her work. “You look great Dako!” Fluttershy said smiling. “Who’s awesome? I’m awesome!” I said grinning. Me and Fluttershy left to go to Pinkie’s party at Sugarcube corner. Rarity said she would be there shortly, she just needed to get her own dress ready. All the other ponies in Ponyville would be there, and I was ready to make a good impression. If I could show them what I was really like, and if they would all be accepting of me, I might have a chance to make Ponyville my new home. All I had to do now, was get to the party. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 9: Quest for the Senzu Part 1 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 9: Quest for the Senzu Part 1                                                              Chapter 9: Quest for the Senzu Part 1 This morning was different. This morning I woke up before the rooster could wake me. I snuck out without waking Fluttershy and got dressed quickly so I could race over to Zecora’s hut to ask her where I could find the bean. When I got there she let me in and offered me some tea, but I declined, telling her I was far too busy. When I asked her if she knew where the bean was she told me about a legend, a story that contained clues as to where it would be. She said that it grew on the highest point of one mountain in particular. That it was known for certain to have healing properties, that some pegasi have eaten it before only to confirm the stories, and that exhausted migrating birds have eaten it as well so that they could continue their journey. The one mountain just happened to be the one where the dragon had been taking his nap in the episode Dragonshy. All I needed were directions, directions Twilight had, on her map. After finding all of that out I flew back to Fluttershy’s at top speed, and quietly entered without making a sound. I made us breakfast, then brought Fluttershy hers to the bed and woke her up. I explained to her the events I had planned for today, and she seemed concerned. “Dako, are you sure this is a good idea, Zecora said herself it would be dangerous, you could get hurt.” She said to me. “It’s okay, I’m tough, you know that, I fought a dragon before, and besides the Senzu bean has healing properties anyway.” I told her. “Okay, but do I have to go?” she asked me. “Well, no, but I’d like you to come with me, but at the same time I want you to stay so nothing happens to you, it’s weird. You can stay if you really want.” I said. “I’ll come, I want to make sure you don’t do anything reckless.” She said. “Don’t worry, I won’t.” I said reassuringly. After awhile, I had to go, it was 7:45 now, and I had to be at the post office at 8:00, although I began to wonder if I should be late on purpose. I opted to go on time, so I did. When I got to the post office, all the other mail carriers were there too, on time and ready to make their deliveries. I saw Derpy and asked if I could have a word with her. “Hey Derpy, you got a minute?” I whispered to her. “Sure, what do you need.” She asked me. I motioned for her to follow me into the mail room where I could talk in private. “Well, I’m going to quit this job. I know I actually haven’t worked except for half of one day, but I just don’t like the boss and his jokes.” I told her. “You don’t have to do that, that was the only time he’ll mess with you, I promise.” She said to me. “Yeah, but he might actually make fun of me, because I’m not a pony. That and, I’m going on a little, you could call it, an adventure.” I told her. “Really? That sounds fun!” she said excitedly. “Yeah, and I can’t keep this job and not work at the same time, I need to be free to do my little quest. It may take me an entire week, and this early in the job there’s no way I can get my time for vacation.” I explained. “I see. Okay, go ahead, but I’ll miss you.” She said, starting to get a little sad. “It’s okay, I can still meet you outside of work.” I told her, which cheered her up a little. We left the mail room, and while Derpy kept getting ready to make her deliveries, I went looking for the boss, although he found me instead. “You! New guy, why aren’t you in uniform? We got it especially for you, so wear it!” Mr. Stamps yelled at me out of his office door. “Oh, good morning to you too Mr. Stamps.” I said with sarcastic kindness. “May I speak to you?” I asked. “What is it, make it quick, the mail ain’t gonna deliver itself!” he yelled. “It’s about the job, sir.” I said patiently. “What about it? Spit it out!” he kept yelling impatiently. “Yeah, take this job, and shove it! Shove it right where the sun don’t shine!” I started yelling at him. Everyone in the post office, customers and mail carriers went dead silent, and I knew they were staring, how could they not? “I didn’t appreciate that little prank you pulled on me, telling me to be here Saturday. If I had any less sense of reason or self control, I’d have half a mind to throw your sorry ass off a cliff, but I won’t do that. No, that’s to good for you anyway, and it’d make me look bad.” I said, getting closer in his face. “And don’t worry about dangling this job in front of me, I don’t want it anyway. Seriously, who in their right mind would want to work for you?” I finished, turning and walking towards the door. I saw the mail carriers looking at each other, thinking about the last thing I said. Mr. Stamps really didn’t like that. “Well what are y’all looking at? Back to work, or you’ll be out of here just like him!” I heard him yell, just before I took off to Twilight’s. Twilight had a map, and had been to the mountain before, I never have, so she would be very helpful. She might also have some knowledge as to where the bean may be as well. When I got to the library I knocked on the door, and naturally she asked why I had stopped by. I explained what I was planning on doing, and how I needed her help. Then she let me in. “Thank you Twilight. I knew if anypony could help, it would be you.” I said. “I don’t know about this though, Dako. Are you sure you want to do this? A search for a plant that nopony knows really exists or not, and to top it all off it requires a dangerous trek up a dangerous mountain, I know I wouldn’t want to do it.” She said to me while looking for her map. “Yeah, I know it won’t be a walk in the park, literally. But the risk is well worth the reward, especially if you consider the benefits this plant would have for pony kind.” I said. “Well, you certainly can’t do this alone. You are planning to take a team, right?” she asked. “Well as far as I know, you guys are the only to have ever gone up that mountain. So I was considering having you all come with me. And since this is unfamiliar terrain, I need someone to carry me back home if I get hurt.” I told her, the last part said jokingly of course. “Here it is.” She said pulling out a map with her magic. I looked at the map, which I imagined would look old and tattered, but not while under Twilight’s ownership, I looked pristine and brand new, as if printed yesterday. “Awesome. Oh, you wouldn’t happen to have any books on the bean, would you?” I asked. “No, sorry. So you want to take all of us up there with you?” she asked me. “Well I can understand if you guys don’t want to, but, yeah pretty much.” I said plain and simple. “I could go alone, but there’s the issue of my personal safety. If it weren’t for that, I could easily carry all the equipment I need to complete the trip.” I said to her. “No, we’re going with you, I’ll write everyone a letter informing them of the journey.” She said, walking off to find some scrolls and a quill. So Twilight, “Rallied the troops” and told everyone to be prepared for a second trip up the mountain. If everyone prepared quickly enough we could leave the same day. And as luck would have it, they were ready. They all met on the edge of Ponyville, facing the Everfree forest. Unfortunately, they had to wait for me, the one with the idea for the trip, was late. I was still getting my stuff together and packing my backpack, and just in case, a tent. After being 15 minutes late, me and Fluttershy finally met with the group. “Sorry I’m late guys, I still had to pack my stuff, most of its food, I eat a lot.” I said. “Well what matters is that you’re here.” Twilight said. “Oh man, this is gonna be so awesome! Just like Daring Do!” Rainbow Dash said to herself, hovering above the group. “Oh, does anyone know what time it is?” I asked. No one had a watch, so they looked at each other and shrugged. “It’s, Adventure Time!” I yelled out, and began marching towards the forest. Okay, so they were a little confused, but the played along alright. You may ask why I didn’t fly off towards the forest, well just remember that only three of the seven of us can fly. That wouldn’t be fair to them. As we trekked through the forest, Twilight led the way, since she had the map and all. But I was right alongside her blasting branches and bushes out of the way. It might have been better if I just chopped them down instead, because I did start a couple fires, which I had to stomp out. But hey, it got the job done. Walking, is so much slower than flying. I had gotten to used to the freedom of being able to fly here that I forgot how slow walking is. To make things worse, I wasn’t properly dressed for the hiking, just to get to the mountain. My boots weren’t hiking boots, I wore thick denim blue jeans instead more appropriate shorts, and out of all the food I had, I brought no water with me. I had been walking like this for 45 minutes now, and there were still another 45 minutes to go. “Pinkie, where do you find the energy?” I asked panting under my heavy backpack. She wasn’t walking, just hopping along as usual. “Don’t worry Dako, maybe a song will make you feel better!” she said, hopping over to me. “What song do you want to hear?” she asked smiling. “It’s fine I just, whew tired!” I said as I fell to my hands and knees trying to catch my breath. Vegeta would be disgusted with me, I’m the most out of shape saiyan ever. Everyone circled around me. “Dako, are you alright?” Applejack asked me. “I, just need, some water.” I said breathing heavily. Applejack pulled a canteen out of her saddle bag. “Drink up.” She said with a friendly smile. I franticly grabbed and pulled off the cap and drank as fast as I could, almost choking a couple of time’s. “Whoa! You weren’t kidding.” Applejack said as I handed the now empty canteen back to her. “Thank you. Twilight, how much farther till we reach the base of the mountain?” I asked. “Well, we might need to make camp, the weather seems to be getting pretty bad, we don’t want to get caught in it.” She said with slight concern. “Let me check it out.” I said taking my backpack off. I flew up and through the trees to get a view of the sky. The sun was no longer visible, and the clouds were dark gray, and I could hear thunder. I immediately dropped to the ground. I swore to myself I would never fly in bad weather again, ever since the tornado incident. “Alright guys, you heard Twilight, were setting up camp.” I said to everyone. We found the densest group of trees in attempt to shield as much rain as possible. We began setting up our tents under the trees, and fast, as we could hear a few raindrops coming down. “Who needs help? I’m already done with my tent.” I announced to the group. Before they could get their tents up the rain started, lightly for now. “Could a lady get some assistance, please?” I heard Rarity ask. I jogged over and quickly helped her set up her tent. Then I helped Pinkie Pie. “Alright everyone, inside!” Twilight yelled out over the sound of the rain. It was really coming down now, pouring buckets. Fluttershy and I huddled together inside of our tent. Every time there was a clap of thunder she jumped a little and would squeeze me tighter. I had my arms around her, holding her closely to me. “It’s okay Fluttershy, it’s just thunder.” I said in a soothing tone. Before it started raining it may have only been 12:00. The rain continued for hours, almost five hours! It would lighten up at times, then come down even harder than before. At one point it was calm and quiet for almost 30 minutes and allowed us out of our tents. “Okay everypony, here’s the plan.” Twilight began. “Due to inclement weather we will camp here for the rest of the day and tonight.” She said. “We will continue in the morning if the weather allows. Stay in your tents, don’t go out unless you absolutely have to.” She said. Rarity spoke up, obviously not wanting to stay in her tent any longer than she already had. “Why can’t Rainbow Dash clear the skies for us? As fabulous as my tent is, I do not wish to stay cooped up inside it any longer.” She said. “Rarity, this storm is too big for one pegasus to handle, besides, its natural weather, outside of what the pegasi at Cloudsdale are responsible for. It would be against the rules for me to mess with it.” Rainbow Dash said. “Rainbow Dash is right, we’re all just going to have to wait it out.” Twilight said heading back into her tent. “That’s cool, well early to bed, early to rise. Good night!” I yelled out of my tent. Shortly after everyone went back in their tent the rain started again. I heard the others groan in disappointment. It kept raining until was completely dark out, then I lit our lantern. “So Fluttershy, how are you?” I asked her. “You doing alright?” “I’m fine.” She said to me with a smile. “Good.” I said smiling too. “Come here.” I said smiling with my arms out. She walked over and put her forelegs around me as I put my arms around her. We sat hugging and holding each other, and she would jump at the occasional thunder clap. She was resting her head on my shoulder with her eyes closed. Being in my arms made her feel safe, no matter what was happening outside. “I love you Fluttershy.” I whispered to her. “I love you too Dako.” She whispered back. We continued holding each other for a while, until she fell asleep in my arms. Then I unzipped our sleeping bag and gently laid her down in it. I got undressed slowly and quietly trying not to wake her, then I laid down next her and zipped up the sleeping bag. I kissed her on the nose and cuddled up next to her, stroking her mane. I laid there for a while listening to the rain outside. Tomorrow would hold either great satisfaction or colossal disappointment. I blew out the lantern and shut my eyes, trying to shut out the thunder. Fortunately I was so exhausted it only took me a couple of minutes to fall asleep.