//------------------------------// // Lessons & Memories Part 4 // Story: Surviving Saiyan in Equestria // by bcmorgan96 //------------------------------// [Ponyville, 8:30 A.M., Castle of Friendship] A couple of months have passed since Gine took the students out to the Everfree Forest to train. While they were doing that, Twilight and the girls continued doing their own interests while waiting for the students and Spike to return. Within the Castle of Friendship, Twilight was currently restocking shelves, only this time, she found it hard to be interested in doing it by herself. Normally, it wouldn’t be so quiet as she did this and she wouldn’t be doing it alone. When Spike helped her, they would talk, crack jokes, and laugh to make the time go by faster. But with her doing it by herself, she wasn’t feeling as enthusiastic. Sure she enjoyed reading books, but shelving them wasn’t nearly as fun or enjoyable. “Now I know how Spike feels about the times he had to do this by himself when the girls and I were sent on missions by the map,” Twilight said with a groan and sleepiness in her voice. With Spike not around, she had to do a lot more to keep the castle in order. But she had no regrets since Spike gave a reasonable argument on wanting to improve himself in terms of strength. And if anyone could teach him how, it was Gine. While Twilight was admiring and respecting Spike’s desires, she wasn’t focusing on her balance on the library ladder and slipped, falling with many books in hand. She would’ve crashed onto the ground had she not found herself caught a few inches from it. She looked to see it was Starlight who caught her and the books with her magic and a smile on her face. After using her magic to put the books on the shelf and Twilight on her feet, Starlight asked, “Need some help?” Twilight smiled sheepishly before sighing, “Sorry… I guess I’m just…” “Not used to not having Spike around?” Starlight asked, knowingly. “Yeah… I guess that is the case,” Twilight said. “I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see him commit to something, but I still can’t help but worry. They’re in a place full of dangerous creatures. Not to mention Spike’s my best friend and I don’t want anything to happen to him.” “Twilight,” Starlight said, levitating some tea to her. “Don’t worry. Remember they’re with Gine. And she can handle anything in the forest. And we both know she’s earned our trust.” “Yeah. You’re right,” Twilight said, though she still couldn’t help but worry. “Hey. If it makes you feel better, you’re not the only one worrying about them,” Starlight said. “What do you mean?” Twilight asked while Starlight smiled. “She means us, darling.” Twilight looked to the door to see her friends all entering the room. “What are you guys doing here?” Twilight asked. “Well sugarcube, we kinda wanted to see if you heard from Gine lately,” Applejack said. “Things have gotten a little quiet with Spike and the others with her and we thought we’d come by and see if you knew how things are going for them.” “And I haven’t heard anything about Scootaloo and I was curious myself,” Rainbow said. “Just wanted to see if my little buddy was getting even more awesome.” “Same for us.” Twilight looked to see Applebloom and Sweetie Belle walk out from behind their sisters. “Things have been kind of boring with Scootaloo not around so we decided to come and see what she might be learning.” Sweetie Belle said with Applebloom nodding in agreement. “Well,” Twilight said, scratching her head a bit. “To be honest I haven’t heard anything from Gine since they left.” This made the group a bit disappointed. “But I guess we could check on them,” Twilight said walking to the door. “Come on. Let’s head to the map room.” This perked everyone up as they followed Twilight into the map room. There, Twilight picked up a mirror and placed it on the map. The map then began to glow before an image of the Everfree Forest appeared above it. “Alright. Let’s see.” Twilight began using her magic on the image before she began moving it around to try and find the group. “Hmmm… Where could they be? Ah. Here they are.” Twilight then pulled up an image of Winsome Falls, before she used her magic to give them a live feed of what was happening. What they saw surprised them all. “Wow,” Rainbow said. “And I thought Wonderbolt training was hard.” From the image, they could see the group doing multiple things. They first spotted an image of Ocellus running to a nearby tree and gave it a sharp kick causing multiple fruits to start falling from it. She, Sandbar, and Yona each began grabbing them, but what surprised Twilight and the others were they were moving so fast that even Rainbow Dash had a hard time keeping up with them. Eventually, the three appeared sitting down, each digging into a pile of their fruit. The image then shifted to show Gallus standing by a stream running from the falls. Up the stream, there was a shadow coming towards him. He grinned before taking a deep breath and, to the watching mares surprise, he shot both his hands into the water and pulled out about three fish in between his talons in each hand, fast enough to keep his hands dry. From the water, the shadow jumped out to reveal Silverstream as her seapony state before changing back into a hippogriff. “Nice grab Gallus.” “Great job on guiding them to me,” Gallus said smiling as Smolder walked to them, carrying a gigantic pile of wood with only one hand. “Can you get us a fire going so we can get these cooked?” “No problem,” Smolder said, throwing six pieces of wood to the ground at lightning-fast speed before igniting them with a burst of flame from her mouth. “Wow,” Pinkie said, amazed at what she’s seeing. “I can’t believe I saw what I saw which was the students moving almost as fast as Gine. It’s really amazing.” “I’ll say,” Starlight said, surprised and impressed. “I knew they’d get strong, but not that quickly. They’re full of surprises.” “Hey? Where’s Scootaloo?” Applebloom asked. “And Spike?” Fluttershy asked. “Hold on a moment,” Twilight said, moving the image with her magic until it stopped on the area where that showed Scootaloo. She was running with an apple in her hand. “There she is.” They were shocked, however, when from behind Scootaloo came a pack of timberwolves chasing her. But rather running scared, Scootaloo was laughing as she ran, looking back at them and sticking her tongue as she said, “Sorry guys. This is one meal you’ll never get. Hehahahaha.” Scootaloo kept running faster and faster until she spotted a thin branch ahead of her. She ran towards it and jumped up on a branch above it, taking the thin one in her hands and right as the timberwolves got close enough, she let it go and it smacked the leading one right into the others and knocked them to the ground. The wolves each let out a whimper before running off for the forest while Scootaloo began chewing on her apple, sitting on the branch. “Scootaloo six. Timberwolves, zip.” “That’s my little sister,” Rainbow said proudly after witnessing Scootaloo handling herself. Twilight then shifted the image to find Spike. After a moment, it stopped to show Spike standing in front of a large rock. He was sniffing the air for a minute before smirking and said, “Yep. This is the one.” They all then watched as Spike reared his arm back and clenched his claw before he said, “Here it goes.” He then shot his fist forward and struck the rock right in the center. For a moment, nothing happened. But then, the rock began to crack right in the middle up to the top, and then it split in two, revealing the inside of the rock was covered with gems. “Jackpot,” Spike said, licking his lips. He then picked up both halves of the rock and flew off back to the camp. The mares in the castle couldn’t believe what they witnessed so far. The group of students, Spike, and Scootaloo were incredible. “How did they get that strong?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I think I have an idea,” Twilight said before focusing the image on the back of Spike’s armor where the gravity device was. “Right there. Gine asked me to make more of those gravity devices that Discord gave her to help the others train.” “What’re they set to right now?” Applejack asked. Twilight focused the image on the gravity device and they were all shocked when it showed Spike’s was at 10x gravity. “Wowie,” Pinkie said. “No wonder they got so strong. Gine is really pushing them huh?” “Indeed,” Rarity said, taking a small glance at Spike’s new muscles for a moment. “Speaking of, where is Gine?” Starlight asked. “Let’s find out,” Twilight said, moving the image along once more until they found Gine. It showed Huck sitting on the side, chewing on a broken branch like a bone while Gine was balancing herself on her right thumb while doing a form of push-ups. The girls could see she was covered in sweat and they quickly figured out why when they spotted the gravity device on her back was set to 60X normal gravity. “9,998… 9,999…” Gine said through gritted teeth as she was struggling under the weight of the gravity. She remained focused on keeping her balance as she began panting. She took a deep breath before slowly lowering herself and struggled as she managed to push back up on her thumb. “10,000!!!” With that, Gine jumped up to land on her feet, wobbling a bit from her exercise while she was panting. “*pant* *pant* Alright… *pant* One more thing to try real quick.” Gine then charged ki into her hands as two orbs formed and three ki lenses formed in front of her. She then brought the two orbs together and moved her hands behind her. “Trident… Cannon!” Gine then fired a ki blast through the three lenses, increasing its power through each one before pulling her arms to the left, causing the blast to redirect itself and head right back at her. Gine crossed her arms as the blast closed in and collided against her, covering the small area in smoke and causing the image on the map to go blank. “Hey? What happened?” Rainbow asked. “Guess the power of Gine’s attack disrupted the magic letting us see them,” Twilight said. “Looks like it’ll take a couple of days before we can check on them again. But hey, at least now we know they’re doing great.” Everyone in the room nodded to Twilight’s words. [Everfree Forest, 8:45 A.M., Winsome Falls] From the area that Gine was training in, the smoke began to fade and clear to show Gine with her arms crossed in front of her and panting. She shook off some dust from the attack she fired and looked to her arm which was bleeding from the shot she had just taken. “Wow. Guess I went a little harder than I thought with that one.” She then felt a nudge against her before she looked to see Huck brush his snout against her with a bottle of healing formula in his mouth. Gine smiled before rubbing his head and taking the bottle in hand. “Good boy Huck.” Gine sat down on the ground while unplugging the lid of the bottle before pouring a little of it on her arm’s wound where it began to glow a bit as her wound began to heal up instantly. “That’s better.” Gine stretched her arm a bit and flexed her fingers before putting the cork back on the bottle and said, “That last shot actually stung quite a bit. Good medicine works every time.” Gine then shot out a fist a couple of times to make sure she had no issues from the healed injury. “Seems good. So Huck? What do you say we check on the students?” Huck let out a positive bark in return before Gine picked him up and the two flew off. They soon landed at their usual hill spot to look down at the students as they were trying to climb the waterfall with a boulder tied to them. “Looks like they’re at it again Huck,” Gine said as she sat down to watch. The group was indeed attempting to lift the boulder together up the waterfall with it pouring down on them as they climbed. They climbed with as much effort as they could, each struggling as they managed to get the boulder off of the ground. They continued climbing, and despite the water pouring down on them and the 10x gravity devices on their backs, they were getting much farther than their first time trying. They continued climbing and climbing, nearing the top with Spike in the lead. “We’re almost there guys,” said Spike as he was just about to put his hand to the top edge of the falls. However, his grip was placed on a dangerously wet and moist piece of ground which broke from its place as he took a hold of it. Spike went wide-eyed as he felt himself falling back and said, “Oh buck!” Spike fell back completely and crashed into Yona and Smolder on his way down, and combining the weight of the three with the weight of the boulder pulled the others down, causing them to all land in the water under them and wash to the surface right before the boulder lander beside them.  Gallus slammed his fist to the ground as he sat up. “Oh come on! We were so close that time!” “We’ve tried it so many times! Over and over again! What are we doing wrong!?” Smolder asked. “You’re thinking too much,” Gine said, landing down beside them. “We’re thinking too much?” Ocellus asked. “What do you mean Gine?” Scootaloo asked, curiously. Gine smiled as she sat down with the eight of them. “From what I’ve seen of your attempts, despite how much progress you’ve made, your fear of messing up is what causes your failure.” “You’re saying we’re failing because we’re so scared of failing?” Silverstream asked. “I honestly don’t get that,” Gallus said. Gine giggled a bit from her students’ reactions before saying, “What I’m simply saying is, from what I can tell, you’re all so nervous about failing that it’s making hard for you to trust yourselves and each other to get it done. You worry so much about what might go wrong that you don’t focus on just doing it.” “Gine mean us worrying about failing is what makes us fail to get rock up waterfall all the time?” Yona asked. “Exactly Yona,” Gine said. “You all think too much while you’re trying to get it done that you but you don’t always have time to think. Sometimes you just have to trust your body to make the right call without having to think. But when you’re worried about failing, you can’t do that. That’s one of the reasons why I’m having you do this obstacle. If you want to pass, you have to learn to trust yourselves and each other without a second thought.” The students remained silent as Gine stood up and said, “Now try one more time. And this time, don’t worry about failing. Don’t let failure go through your mind. Just think about doing the task, trust yourselves, and each other, and you’ll be just fine.” With that, Gine took flight and went to the top of the waterfall where she stood and waited. The students looked up at her before Spike looked at the others. “Well, guys? What do you say we give it one more try for today?” “Do you really think we can?” Sandbar asked. “Gine does,” Ocellus said standing up. “That’s enough for us to keep trying.” The others remained silent for a moment before nodding and got to their feet. They all walked to the falls where the water reached the bottom. They all took deep breaths before they began climbing, pulling the boulder up with them. They started off slowly, as their past attempts, and began climbing. “Come on guys. We can do this,” Smolder said, despite having water splash her right in the face as she climbed. “Smolder’s right. We just gotta keep going,” Gallus said. As they continued climbing, Scootaloo reached for a rock to grab onto but quickly felt her hand slip. “Whoa!” Scootaloo yelled, but before she fell too far, her free hand shot forward to grab a different rock, causing her to only lean back a bit. However, the action surprised herself a bit given how quickly she reacted on instinct. “Wow. Didn’t see that coming.” They all kept climbing and were about halfway up the waterfall as Gine continued watching from the top. She smiled as they seemed to be doing better. “That’s it, guys. Keep it up.” Ocellus felt the water splashing in her eyes and as she reached to wipe some off, she felt her grip slip and she fell back. “Whoa!” However, before she fell too far, she felt herself get caught by her wrist and she looked to see Sandbar was the one who caught her as he smiled at her and pulled her up enough for her to get a grip on the rock again. “You okay?” Sandbar asked. “Yeah,” Ocellus said, relieved. “Thanks, Sandbar.” And so the students continued climbing, with some slips from time to time with them either catching themselves or one of the others managing to catch them. Gine smiled proudly, seeing them make progress, just as she had hoped, they were learning to trust each other and their bodies to think together and on their own. They kept climbing until Spike managed to get over the edge to see Gine back up and smile at him. Spike then pulled himself up and began helping the others up as well, with each one during their best to keep the boulder from falling. They all soon made it over the edge and each took a grip on their ropes and looked down to the boulder. “On three?” Gallus asked. “Yep,” Spike said. “1… 2… 3!” Smolder said before they all yanked their ropes and the boulder came hurling over the edge, up into the air. Gine looked up to see the boulder start coming down and took a side step to the left to avoid the boulder landing on her. It then landed with a cloud of dust forming beside her. After the dust cleared, it showed Gine standing right beside the boulder with a smile on her face. “Good job everyone,” Gine said as Huck walked to her side. “You’ve done it.” “You mean…?” Scootaloo asked in a hopeful tone. “Yes… You’re bodies and minds now appear to be strong enough.” Gine said. “So that means?” Silverstream started. “We’re finally going to learn how to use ki?” Sandbar asked. Gine nodded as they all couldn’t help but cheer as loud as they could. After months of hard training in the Everfree Forest, they had finally reached the point to really learn what Gine had to teach them. “Now head back down and take some time to relax. We’ll start tapping into ki in a couple of hours.” Gine said as they all walked down the hill. Once they were out of sight for a moment, Gine groaned as she raised and rubbed her foot while Huck watched in amusement. [Everfree Forest, 2:00 P.M., Winsome Falls] The students all sat on their knees in front of the waterfall with Gine sitting in front of them. Huck sat nearby chewing on a branch like a chew bone again. Gine had her hands on her knees as she looked to them with a smile. “Okay gang. What you’ve been training so hard to do has arrived. You’ve trained hard, both physically and mentally. You’ve also learned to trust yourselves and each other far more than ever before. You’ve been able to react without worry. Trusting your bodies to make the right call when you have no time to think. And now it’s time for you to take the next level.” Gine lifted her hands and began forming a small orb of ki that gave them all gleeful expressions. “I’m proud to tell you all that you’re now ready to learn the basics of tapping into ki.” “Does this mean we’re going to learn flying?” Scootaloo asked. “Afraid not yet Scootaloo,” Gine said sympathetically, given Scootaloo’s spirits going down a bit. “But this is one step closer. Right now you’re just learning to draw out your ki. Once you learn to do that, then you’ll be closer to flying. I promise.” This statement lifted Scootaloo’s spirits a bit making her smile before sitting back down again as Gallus asked, “So what do we do first?” “First off,” Gine said, closing her eyes. “Close your eyes and focus.” The group was confused but did as Gine said. They each placed their hands on their knees, closed their eyes, and started to try and focus. “Clear your mind. Allow the sound of nature itself to help rid you of any thoughts that could distract you. Like the Winsome Falls. Allow the waterfall to act as white noise. Let it aid you in drowning out all distractions.” The students did as Gine said. They focused on drowning out nothing but what Gine told them. They listened as the wind around them blew through the air, the many creatures of the forest ran around in their environments, and the running water of the falls and current. The sounds began to help the students relax and focus. And as they did, Gine began to sense it. “Now raise your hands in front of you and guide your focus to them,” Gine said lifting her hands again while the students did so as well. They all began to try and make ki appear in their hands as Gine did, but found it became more difficult than they originally thought. It soon reached the point where some of them became frustrated, including Smolder, who gave up with a huff. “Uh… Why is this so hard? I’m doing what you say Gine, but it’s not working for me.” “It’s because you’re not picturing it right Smolder,” Gine said focusing on her own ki. “When you form ki, you have to think of it as an extension of yourself. Think of it… Like the fire you dragons use. Just think of your ki like the fire that burns in you and focus it into your palms. Same with you Ocellus.” Gine looked to Ocellus, who also struggled. “Think of ki like your magic. But instead of focusing it into your horn, focus it into your palms.” Ocellus took a deep breath and nodded. They all started focusing once again, trying to focus on Gine’s words. As they did this, Gine began to notice as sparks began flickering between their hands. She continued watching as the sparks got bigger and began to take more shape. They still flickered, signs that the students were trying to hold them together. “That’s it,” Gine said. The students continued focusing and soon, they formed complete, small, stable spheres. “You’ve done it.” The students opened their eyes to see the spheres between their hands. They were amazed. They were holding spheres of pure energy in their hands, they couldn’t believe their eyes. “Yona no believe it,” the yak said amazed. “I know. It’s… AWESOME!!!” Gallus said. “We’ve really learned to do it,” Spike said. He couldn’t believe he was finally able to tap into to ki just like Twilight can do with magic. Sandbar and Ocellus were amazed by the energy they were holding. They expected it to burn a little or something, but instead, it felt tingly and surging. Silverstream was her usual giddy self at what she was holding between her hands. “So this is what ki is like huh?” Smolder asked amazed. After spending summer in the Everfree Forest, she was finally holding the same kind of power Gine was able to summon at will. Scootaloo was the most excited of them all. The fact that she was holding ki in her hands was proof that she was one step closer to flying with her friends and sister. “It’s incredible.” Not long, however, the sphere began to flicker again before disappearing. Then the students fell forward a bit, panting and trying to catch their breaths.  “What happened? I thought we had it,” Silverstream said. Gine giggled at her question. “You have learned how to tap into it, but you’re not used to it yet. You still have a bit more work to do. You need to become used to summoning to where you need no effort in holding it. You have to be able to bring out your ki at will as easily as you breathe for what I can teach when we return.” “Seriously?” Smolder asked. “Afraid so,” Gine said. “But don’t worry, we still have another three weeks before we have to head back to Ponyville. For that time, you need to practice summoning your ki to get more used to it.” Though they were a little bummed they weren’t completely done yet, the students nodded to Gine in response. Gine then stood up and looked to the forest. “But you’re all at least to the point where you can understand what ki is like now. So how about we gather some food and celebrate?” “Yeah!” They all yelled at once.  Everyone quickly got to their feet while Gine looked to Huck. “Huck. Watch the camp while we’re gone, okay?” The timberwolf nodded before lying down and getting some sleep. Gine smiled before looking to them all. “Alright. Let’s go gather some food. Pick what you want because we’re celebrating a bit. Understand?” They each nodded respectfully to the Saiyan before she said, “Alright. Let’s go.” With that, they all ran for the forest. Smolder looked to Spike and asked, “How about we go find some gems?” “Sounds good to me,” Spike said as they used their wings to fly off. “I think we’re gonna go and find some berries and other fruits,” Scootaloo said with Ocellus and Sandbar nodding. “Yona help friends get fruit too,” Yona said, enthusiastically before they all ran off as well. Gine looked at Silverstream and Gallus. “What do you say we do some fishing and find some freshwater as well?” Gine asked. “That sounds great. I’ve been dying for some fish,” Gallus said. “Then let’s get going.” The three then took flight, Gine by ki, and the other two by wings. They flew off deep into the forest and soon managed to find a stream flowing nearby. They soon landed and Silverstream transformed into her sea pony form and jumped into the water. “I’m going to gather some freshwater. You guys have fun fishing,” Silverstream said before ducking under the water and swimming off. Gallus looked down at the stream and saw there was no motion under it. “Looks like we’re not gonna be catching anything today, Gine.” “Don’t be so quick to judge Gallus,” Gine said smirking. Gine took a deep breath and waited a moment before… BLAST! Gine shot a small ki blast straight for a rather large fish, just as it jumped out of the water. The sight of this quick action amazed Gallus. “How did you-?” Gine caught the now lifeless fish before it could fall back into the water. “If you want to catch fish here Gallus, you can’t just rely on just your eyes. Remember, you have other senses.” Gallus took in Gine’s words and decided to give it a try himself. He took a deep breath and stepped into the water. He closed his eyes and began to focus and thought, ‘Like Gine said… Use all of my senses.’ Gallus remained still, listening, smelling, feeling, everything he could do with his senses. Then… He shot forward and grabbed onto a fish just as it jumped from the water before Gallus, using his new strength and speed from training, jabbed the finish in the side, giving it a quick and painless end. Seeing Gallus accomplish this made Gine smile. “Well done. Keep it up.” After a few minutes, Gine and Gallus managed to catch up to 15 fish, Gine’s being the largest ones just as Silverstream arrived with bottles holding freshwater, jumping out and turning back into a hippogriff. She was amazed by how much fish they had caught. “Wow. That’s a big hall.” “Yeah. It was easier catching than it looks,” Gallus said. Silverstream giggled at Gallus’s words before blushing a bit. Something about how wet his feathers were made her feel… Strange. ‘Wow. I never noticed how… Strong he looks. Being out here has really made him a hunk. Whoa! Why am I thinking this? I’ve never thought of Gallus this way before. What’s going on?’ While Silverstream was in her thoughts, Gallus noticed a shadow began forming behind her from the forest. It was soon revealed to be a Chimera with its lion and goat head’s licking their teeth as the lion head said, “Looks like we finally found a meal.” “Seems so,” the serpent tail said from behind. “Let’s eat. I’m starving.” The chimera raised its claws to bring down of Silverstream before the hippogriff had time to react. “LOOK OUT!!!” Gallus said running forward and pushing Silverstream away, only to have the claws strike his back through his armor, leaving a bad wound on his back. “AAAHHH!!!” “Gallus!” Silverstream yelled as she and Gallus fell to the ground. “Looks like we have a double meal,” the goat head said. The chimera proceeded towards them and was about to pounce only for Gine to land on top of the two heads before grabbing the snake tail. “Sorry, you three. But these two are off your menu,” Gine said, taking a strong grip on the snake tail and began spinning it around rapidly before sending it flying. “Looks like they’ll be finding their meal somewhere else.” “Aaagh.” Gine looked to see Silverstream supporting Gallus, who still felt pain from his wound. “Gallus? Are you okay?” Silverstream asked, worried to death. “I’ll… Be okay. Hopefully,” Gallus said, trying to keep his usual tough-guy attitude. “Quick reaction there Gallus,” Gine said as she supported him as well. “Hey.” They looked to see Spike and Smolder flying towards them, both carrying bags full of gems, but quickly grew concerned when they saw Gallus injured. Smolder asked, “What happened?” “Gallus took a hard hit,” Gine said. “Get him back to the campsite. Spike? Gather that fish we caught. After we patch up his wound, he’s gonna need that meat to keep his strength up.” Spike saluted out of instinct and gathered the fish while Silverstream and Gine passed Gallus to Smolder, who supported him. The two dragons then took Gallus and flew off while Silverstream looked to Gine. “What are we going to do?” “I have some healing formula to heal Gallus’s wound back at the campsite,” Gine said as she started looking around. “But we need to find some aloe and wet leaves in the water to bring back. The formula will heal his wound, but the leaves and aloe will help dull the pain he’ll still feel afterward.” “Oh… Okay.” Silverstream said as she began looking through the water for wet leaves. “Gine? Why do you think Gallus did that?” Gine looked around before spotting some aloe plants and began picking them clean of their petals. “I can think of a lot of reasons, Silverstream. Your boyfriend does care for you more than anyone else in our group.” Silverstream just grabbed some wet leaves before shooting up with wide eyes. “Boyfriend? No, no. Gallus isn’t my boyfriend.” “You might wanna tell him that, Silverstream,” Gine said with a small smile on her face. “I’m sorry?” Silverstream asked, confused and for some reason, a little embarrassed. “Silverstream,” Gine started before looking to the hippogriff. “If I learned anything from the time I was with Bardock back on Planet Vegeta, it was that only love can make you do something that damn stupid… And that damn crazy.” Silverstream took in Gine’s words while looking to the stream as she continued gathering wet leaves, trying to figure out her thoughts. [Everfree Forest, 5:00 P.M., Winsome Falls] Gine and Silverstream arrived shortly back at the camp after gathering enough aloe and wet leaves, where the others were waiting. Gallus was laying on his stomach by the fire, sweating from his wound. Gine walked over and knelt down beside him and asked, “How ya feeling?” “Never…” Gallus said with a groan before putting on a small smile. “Better.” Gine chuckled a bit before signaling Silverstream to her. Silverstream, with concern for Gallus, quickly ran over to Gine’s side. Gine pulled out her pack and pulled out the bottle of healing formula and poured a little onto the leaves Silverstream handed to her. Gine then took the aloe and crushed them in her hands, squeezing the juice between her fingers and mixing it with the formula on the leaves, she then started mixing it with a stick and once it was mixed well enough, she gently placed the leaf over Gallus’s wound making him cringe a bit. “It may sting a bit. But the formula will heal your wound quickly and the aloe mixed with it will help keep the pain down.” Gallus groaned as he felt the formula heal his wound, but relaxed as the pain began to subside. “Thanks, Gine… You too, Silverstream.” Silverstream smiled as she sat by him and said, “You saved my life. Least I could do was help fix you up.” The two smiled to one another, and the moment made Gine smile as well before she looked at the food and water everyone had gathered. “Now then. Let’s get a fire started and get to cooking. Gallus? You’re gonna need to keep your strength up to feel better sooner.” “Way ahead of you Gine,” Smolder said before igniting a nearby pile of wood with a shot of flames from her snout. “Then let’s get cooking,” Gine said. After a couple of hours, they all sat by a fire, each eating their respective choice of food. Gallus appeared to have improved after having his wound tended to. By the looks of it, he would have a couple of small scars, but he was thankful he was alive. He happily ate fish while Silverstream had remained by his side the whole time. ‘Could I really have feelings for Gallus? And could he feel something similar to me?’ Silverstream thought as she ate her own food. She then looked over to Gine who was feasting on one of the large fish they had caught. She used the fire to cook a large chunk of meat before pulling off a part to throw to Huck, who eagerly ran to it and began eating on it. Gine took the rest and began eating on it as well. Silverstream watched as Gine ate happily before a thought came to mind that she had the urge to bring out. “Gine?” Gine chewed up some meat before swallowing and looked to Silverstream, wiping her mouth with a cloth. “Yes, Silverstream?” “From what you told me when we were gathering stuff to help Gallus, you made something come to mind…” Silverstream seemed hesitant as she said this. “Yes? And?” Gine asked, patiently. “Well… I was wondering… How did you and Bardock… Fall in love?” Silverstream asked, her question catching the attention of everyone. Gine was sipping her water when Silverstream asked that and instantly stopped. Silverstream became a little nervous, afraid she had brought up a sensitive topic. But Gine smiled and took that worry away from the hippogriff before saying, “Oh boy. Now that is a story to tell.” Flashback (“It was a usual day. We were assigned a new mission to a new target planet.”) Gine sat in her pod as she traveled with the rest of her crew, heading for a planet for another cleansing mission. As they closed in, she heard Fasha on the coms saying, “So tell me. Why are we doing this mission again?” Bardock’s voice then said, “Because Fasha, it’s our job.” “That. And we’re being paid five times our usual fee to get this planet,” Shugesh said. “Where are we heading anyway?” Borgos asked. “Did you not pay attention in the briefing, Borg?” Tora asked. Gine sighed as she pulled up her information screen and said, “Alright Borgos. I’ll run it by you again, but this time, pay attention. The planet we’re heading to is called Arus. Now the name may not sound threatening, but the planet is far from safe. The creatures here make what we fought on Planet Claw seem harmless, so be ready.” “Good to know at least one of my crew members paid attention to the briefing,” Bardock said from his ship. Gine chuckled at his comment before he continued saying, “But Gine is right. The creatures on this planet will be far more deadly than what we faced on Claw. And unlike Claw, there is no moon, so if plan to use our Great Ape forms for any reason, we’ll have to rely on a moon ball.” “Understood,” everyone said in unison. (“And boy was Bardock right. The creatures on Arus… Well, let’s just say what was there made what you have here in the Everfree Forest seem like normal house pets.”) [Planet Arus] Creatures of all kinds were attacking the group of Saiyans. A creature that resembled a komodo dragon with heavily armored scales jumped on Shugesh who punched it off before another one bit down on his shoulder causing him to yell out. Borgos yanked it off of him before pulling its jaw open until it snapped, killing the creature. Fasha then kicked another of the creatures away as a reptilian barbarian-like creature swung its club down, only for Tora to catch it and give Fasha an opening to blast a hole through the creature’s chest. Fasha wiped some blood off from that attack before looking at Tora. Both of them, along with Borgos and Shugesh did have their armor damaged along with scraps and cuts from enemy attacks. “Wow. These things are a lot tougher than I thought they’d be,” Fasha said. “Yeah. But I don’t think we have to worry about those two,” Tora said pointing out towards Gine and Bardock. Gine and Bardock were back to back as creatures surrounded them.  (“Bardock was my mentor at the time. You could say we became quite a team within the team. But our battle on Planet Arus… Well, let’s just say it’s what helped us realize something even more important.”) One made a swing at Gine only for Bardock to block it and blast it back. Another swung its club at Bardock only to be knocked in the jaw by Gine. Gine then caught one’s fist and flipped to throw it towards Bardock, who blasted straight through it. Gine then ran for Bardock to take her by the arm and swung her around to kick another down. Gine then leaned down for Bardock to flip over her back and blast another one. He then ducked to dodge the swing of another, which resulted in Gine jumping over him to kick it. She then picked up its club and threw it to Bardock, who then broke it against another one of the creatures. “Think we’re starting to get a hang on these th-AH!” Bardock was tackled from behind by one of the komodo like creatures as it bit into his shoulder. He tried to reach for it only for it to dig its teeth further into his shoulder. It was about to yank its head back and take his shoulder with it, until… “Raagh!” Gine yelled as she kicked it off of Bardock’s back and before it could react, Gine began rapidly shooting at it until she was sure it was dead before looking to Bardock who looked to her with what she thought was a mixture of surprised and impressed. She then reached her hand out to help him back up to his feet before asking, “You okay?” (“What happened next… I was never prepared for.”) Bardock reached forward, took Gine, and made her eyes widened when he kissed her. She looked straight at Bardock’s closed eyes for a moment before slowly returning the kiss. It felt… Magical to her. Given her past experiences, she never thought that another Saiyan could show her what Bardock was that very moment… Love. After a few moments, they broke the kiss and just looked into each other’s eyes. “Hey, love birds!” The two looked to see Tora and the rest of the group still fighting off creatures. “Hate to break up your moment, but do you think one of you could throw a moon ball?” Bardock was about to lift his arm, only for his injury to prevent that. Gine smiled and gently lowered his arm as she said, “Allow me.” Bardock was silent before smirking and nodding. Gine then charged some ki into her hand and an energy ball formed before shooting it into the air and holding her hand up and closed into a fist while yelling, “Burst open and mix!” The ball of energy soon burst into a giant sphere of light and energy. And soon after, the Saiyans began morphing into the Great Ape forms. [3 hours later] The creatures were soon wiped out and the squad sat around a fire, feasting on whatever meat they could find. While most of the group feasted, Gine was pouring healing formula over Bardock’s wound before standing behind him and taking hold. “That creature’s bite knocked your shoulder out of place a bit. Hold still. In 1… 2...  3!” Gine then shifted Bardock’s shoulder to the right and made it pop and Bardock groan before she looked it over again. “Alright. You should be okay, but maybe take it easy on that arm for a couple of days. Understand?” Bardock was silent for a moment before chuckling and giving her a mock salute and put his arm over her shoulder. Then with a joking voice, he said, “Yes ma’am.” “Wow,” Tora said, chuckling. “Never thought I’d see the day Bardock would meet a woman who could tell him what to do.” “I knew you had it in ya Gine,” Fasha said, biting into her meat. “If anyone would ever be able to get through to Bardock’s skull like that, it’d be you.” Gine smiled as they all looked to the fire, happy to be in Bardock’s hold. (“Then, about a month later, another change happened.”) Bardock’s squad all sat in the quarters and were silent until… “WHAT?!” Fasha, Tora, Borgos, and Shugesh yelled all at once. “I’m afraid it’s true,” Gine said. “I’m leaving the team.” “But why? You’re one of us Gine. Not to mention your cooking will be missed,” Tora said. “She’s going to be working as a butcher for good reasons,” Bardock said. “Why leave the team to become a butcher? I mean what could possibly make you decide to do that Gine?” Fasha asked. “Because something big has happened for me and Bardock. Something we didn’t plan,” Gine said. “Yeah? What’s that?” Borgos asked. Gine smiled as she moved her hand down to her stomach for a moment. “Gine?” Shugesh asked. Gine took a deep breath before speaking again, “Guys. The reason I’m leaving the team is because… I’m pregnant.” This made everyone go silent. They had looks of shock and surprise making Bardock chuckle and say, “Looks like they weren’t ready for it.” Flashback ends “And then, Raditz came into our lives, and everything was just… Perfect,” Gine said happily. “Wow. Bardock showed you how much he cared right in the middle of what you Saiyans did best,” Smolder said. “Yeah. Bardock was a real man of mystery,” Gine said. “Does Gine ever miss Bardock?” Yona asked. “Every day Yona,” Gine said, almost tearing up. “He taught me everything I know and he was the first to show me Saiyans were capable of feeling love.” “Sounds like he was an incredible guy,” Spike said. “And a caring one as well,” Ocellus said. “Indeed he was,” Gine said. “Bardock was incredible. And no matter what we faced, weak or powerful, he never showed fear, and in the end, he gave everything he had to save his people.” “And you,” Scootaloo said. “Yes. And me,” Gine said. “But even though he’s gone, what he taught me lives on. What I’ve taught you here and now was exactly what he showed me back then. So in a way, he lives on through us all.” Everyone became silent for a moment as they all looked at the fire before Sandbar raised his water up. “Though we may not have known him like you did Gine, we’re honored to keep what he taught you alive… To Bardock!” Everyone then raised their waters as well and said, “To Bardock!” Gine couldn’t help but smile as her students respected the man her mate used to be as she looked to the sky, full of stars. ‘I’ll always miss you Bardock. But I promise, because of what I’ve taught this young group here, what you’ve trained me and helped me believe will live on through generations to come.’ [Canterlot, 2:00 A.M, Canterlot Castle] Meanwhile, within the old abandoned relics room of Canterlot Castle, the old stone remains of the Storm King lay abandoned and forgotten. However, they soon began to flinch a bit before coming together and reassemble his shape and began to return to his normal state. After no longer being stone, the Storm King looked to his hands in shock and asked, “Whoa. What happened?” Before his question could be answered, he disappeared in a black puff of smoke. [Tartarus, 2:00 A.M, Dungeons] Tirek was scraping his claws on his cage’s floor before… “Hey, Tirek.” “It is Lord Tirek,” the centaur said with a groan, turning to see Cozy Glow in a cage right beside his. “And what is it now?” “I just wanna make sure you can see my best friend rock sculpture over there,” Cozy said, with a smile, pointing at a rock sculpture that looked like Tirek holding the filly up. This made Tirek groan again right before he disappeared in a puff of black smoke. This confused Cozy, before suddenly disappearing the same way. And not long after, the sculpture crumbled. [Underground Cavern, 2:00 A.M.] Water dripped from the walls as an unknown figure began drawing a circle in the ground and then drew a symbol resembling an M with a line through it before it began to glow. And from the circle came a black crystal where dark magic began surging through it and green eyes flashed from it along with a red curved horn. Later in an unknown location, Tirek and Cozy Glow appeared in part of the area with the Storm King following shortly after. The latter then asked, “Hey. Aren’t you that centaur? Tirek?” “It is LORD Tirek!” Tirek said as he and Cozy walked down to meet him. “Yeah, yeah. So what did you bring me here for anyway?” The Storm King asked. “Golly. We didn’t bring you here. We thought you freed us from Tartarus,” Cozy said. “Tartarus. I may be strong, but even I couldn’t do that,” the Storm King said. They all then heard a laugh before looking up to the top center where dark magic began to form and fade to reveal… “King Sombra?” Tirek asked as the magic faded. “Why did you bring us here?” “I did no such thing,” Sombra said. “I did.” They all looked to see a cloaked figure walk down a path in what appeared to be a swamp. The figure walked past Tirek and Cozy, with the filly hiding behind Tirek’s leg. As the figure reached their spot, Sombra moved with his magic to the Storm King’s side. As the figure stopped walking, a crystal ball of orange magic appeared in front of them. “You may call me.” The figure pulled the hood down to reveal an elder ram with long, white, curved horns, a red bell sash around his neck, and blood-red eyes, as he spoke with an intimidating and serious voice, “Grogar!”