“So basically what you’re saying is…” Sweetie Belle started off before Applebloom continued “... you can’t decide between what your mom wants and what your dad wants.”
Gohan nodded, still feeling incredibly awkward about revealing so much to three children. Still, Twilight insisted and he couldn’t help but trust her. “Yeah. Something like that. My mom wants me to be a great scholar and always has but I want to honor my father’s memory somehow. Plus, I feel like I need to do what I can to protect everyone.”
Scootaloo tilted her head curiously before sitting down. “His memory? Is your dad dead or something?”
Applebloom smacked Scootaloo on the head. “You Dodo, you can’t just say something like that!”
Scootaloo rubbed her head with her hoof, letting out a pout as she responded. “What? My parents are dead too. It’s no big deal really.”
Gohan frowned. So that’s why it was so easy for her to come to that conclusion. She seemed so young, though. He couldn’t help but wonder about Scootaloo’s story but this wasn’t the time and place to get nosey.
“Anyways,” Sweetie Belle spoke, “how come you have to choose? Can’t you just do both?”
“Well... “ Gohan started. But then he stopped. Why DID he have to choose? “Doing both sounds really difficult, dontcha think?” With all the studying he had to do while posing as the Great Saiyaman, doing both did seem rather difficult. What would happen when the next Cell showed up eventually?
Scootaloo stood up and hoovered in place for a second. “Difficult yeah but still really cool! Having a Cutie Mark for TWO talents sounds awesome!”
Applebloom glared over at the hyperactive pegasus. “It sounds cool but trust me, it ain’t. Remember the Cutie Pox?”
“Oh...right…” Scootaloo landed back with all four hooves on the ground and stared at the dirt beneath her.
“Dodo.” Sweetie Belle murmured.
“Hey! Don’t call me names I don’t know the meaning of!”
Applebloom stood between them and pushed the two apart. “Girls! We’re trying to solve a Cutie Mark problem, remember?!”
Gohan laughed nervously for what seemed like the hundredth time. “Actually, I really don’t think this is necessary. Where I come from most people don’t have Cutie Marks or anything like that. Your destiny isn’t figured out until you’re well on your way into it.”
“Well, that’s okay.” Applebloom responded. “We’ve helped plenty of creatures who don’t have Cutie Marks! We’ve actually recently helped a Hippogriff with a similar problem you have only we didn’t really do much to help without Twilight.”
Gohan sighed. He wasn’t getting away from this. Still he gave Twilight a look, a silent plea for mercy, if you will, but she just smiled, shrugged and went back to her book. He just hoped when this was all over he didn’t still have this Cutie Mark on his human body, his mother would kill him for having a tattoo, magical or otherwise.
Gohan sat down, getting used to the feeling since he was now a horse and all that. “So, where do we start?”
“Easy. We write up a list of pros and cons for each side!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “I’ll go get a paper!”
An hour or two passed and still they were writing down the pros and cons of each side.
Scootaloo seemed to favor the “protector of the Earth” side of things while the other two were more neutral. Though Applebloom leaned more towards science specifically of all things. She seemed really interested in potion making.
Gohan growled in frustration as he continued to think about the pros and cons of each side. If he didn’t keep up his training and a new threat did appear to attack the Earth, his world would probably end up just like the Future Trunks’ timeline, (Gohan wondered how he’s been) but if he abandoned his martial arts side, he would be able to focus more on his dreams of being a scholar and leave protecting the world to Vegeta, Piccolo, and the others.
Sweetie Belle yelled out in frustration suddenly. “This is impossible! I can’t believe it’s all evened out!”
Applebloom scratched at her mane. “Yeah. It’s really difficult. Are ya SURE you can’t do both?”
“Positive.” Gohan answered. “If I had been able to do both, I would have found a way to do so by now, but being a hero does take a lot out of my school hours, and being stuck at school cuts my time as Sai- I-I mean being a hero.”
“Hmm….” Scootaloo pondered. “Well, I’m stuck.”
“Me too.” Sweetie Belle replied.
“Me three.” Applebloom finished. And together they all sighed and fell over onto their stomachs.
Gohan frowned. There had to be something he could do in order to figure this out. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered, why DID he have to choose? Many kids his age did school and extracurriculars. He was already doing both and even with skipping class to be the Great Saiyaman he managed to stay on top. Maybe…
Applebloom interrupted his thoughts. “Say, what DO you wanna be a scholar for, anyways?”
Gohan raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what are you going to school to learn how to do? Are you studyin’ magic?”
Gohan laughed. “It’s not magic, really, in my world it’s - “ and then there it was. The spark. He could study ki! That would create an interesting topic for millions of other scientists to write thesis about for years to come! Soon, Gohan began to think out loud. “Studying ki would require me to keep up my training and keep growing my ki to be better controlled. I could study what mastery of ki could do for fighting prowess in general. It might even be a book Dad would read. Okay, so, that’s a little bit much to believe in but still, it’s possible!”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders watched as Gohan was lost in his little dream world with a sweatdrop falling from their manes.
As Gohan continued his ramblings, a light began to envelope him as he was raised from the ground. The Cutie Mark Crusaders stood up and stared with wide eyes as it happened. Finally, after only a few hours of being in this world, he found the answer to his most troubling question. And it only took breaking the fabric of reality through the power of science and magic to do it.
When the light was gone and Gohan came back down to Earth after finishing his monologue, he noticed the CMC dancing around him excitedly.
“You got your Cutie Mark! You got your Cutie Mark!” they sang. Gohan watched them with a smile before blinking and taking a quick look at his flank.
Sure enough, like a colored tattoo, there was an image placed right on his butt. He still found the placement odd but at the same time, he was beginning to get used to it. There, right on him, undeniably so, was the symbol of his fathers name “Son” placed on a big brown book. He smiled. That’s what he would do. He would write a book about ki. About what his father taught him.