Later, at night, in Po's bunkhouse room, he was still yelling in pain.
"Aaaoo...whoohoo...EEEee...hee-hee... OW! I thought you said acupuncture would make me feel-" Po tried to say as Mantis, who was in his beastman form on Po's back and holding a handful of needles, pierced another needle into Po's back. "-better!"
"Ooh... Yowie-zowie!" A familiar cheery said, revealed to Pinkie and the rest of her Canterlot High friends in the room with Po alongside Viper and Mantis.
"Oh, here-here, Pinkie Pie. That looked like it was as painful as a sting from a bee." Rarity agreed.
"Trust me, it will. It's just not easy finding the right nerve points under all this..." Mantis started, but stopped himself, trying to think of what to say.
"Fat?" Po guessed.
"Fur, I was going to say fur." Mantis denied as he removes a needle and moved to another part of Po's back.
"Sure you were." Po said with skepticism.
"Look, Mantis. Ah know y'all tryin' not ta hurt Po's feelings, but it doesn't hurt to be honest about it." Applejack told the praying mantis beastman.
"I know that, Applejack." Mantis responded as he adjusted a needle and taps Po's back for nerves. "Still, who am I to judge a warrior based on his size? I mean... look at me." Mantis retorted as Po tried to look at Mantis, who was now on Po's other shoulder.
"Point taken." AJ admitted.
"I'm over here." Mantis told Po as he jabbed another needle into him.
"Ah-HAH!" Po yelped in pain.
"Yowch! That looked like it hurt!" Rainbow Dash winced.
"No kidding! I'd hate to be in Po's shoes, right now." Raptor agreed.
"Maybe you should take a look at this again." Viper suggested to Mantis as she held up a diagram of acupuncture meridians, which was modified with a drawing of a panda.
"Oh! Okay." Mantis said after looking at the diagram and continued to do acupuncture on Po.
Meanwhile, Monkey was meditating in another room, when...
"Ow! Don't..." Po tried to resist but then began to laugh, making Monkey open his eyes. Being annoyed at the disturbance, Monkey sticked his fingers in his ears to block out the noise.
In another room, Crane was doing calligraphy.
"Stop it, stop... YOW!" Po yelled in pain, startling Crane, making him accidentally smear the paper.
Back in his own room, Po settled down.
"Look you idiot, if you're going to be the Dragon Warrior, needles should be the least of your concerns." Swampsuke scoffed.
"I know Master Shifu and Luna are trying to inspire me and all, but if I didn't know any better... I'd say they were trying to get rid of me." Po said, trying to crack a joke as he chuckled.
Mantis and Viper looked at each other, then back at Po and smiled awkwardly, who noticed the expressions and his chuckle faded.
"I mean, seriously... What's wrong with Master Shifu and Vice-Principle Luna?" Rainbow Dash rhetorically asked angrily.
"It's like they don't even want Po around!" Raptor agreed, frustrated as well.
"I know he can seem kind of heartless..." Mantis started as he jabbed another needle into Po. "Ah!" Po hissed in pain. "But, you know, he wasn't always like that." Mantis finished, catching Po, and the Canterlot High students' attention.
"Really?" Fluttershy asked, filled with hope that Shifu is kind on the inside.
"According to legend, there was once a time when Master Shifu actually used to smile." Viper told them, much to their surprise.
"What...?!" Pinkie gasped in absolute shock that Shifu lost his genuinely happy smile.
"No..." Po awed, completely surprised by that legend, while Tigress was walking down the hallway when she overheard them talking, stopping outside their door.
"But that was before..." Viper tried to tell them, but hesitated.
"Before what?" Po asked, when Tigress opened the doors and entered.
"Before Tai Lung." Tigress answered as Crane's shadow could be seen through the wall.
"Uh, yeah, we're not really supposed to talk about him." Crane tried to warn Tigress.
"Well, if they're all going to stay here, they should know." Tigress simply replied.
"Guys, guys. I know about Tai Lung." Po said as Tigress looked at the panda beastman.
"He was a student, the first ever to master the thousand... scrolls of... kung fu..." Po started but nervously trailed off as Tigress gave him a piercing glare. "and... then he turned bad... and... now he's in jail..."
"He wasn't just a student." Tigress told Po and the students of Canterlot High, as Sunset's eyes flashed white, beginning to see something.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Cue Flashback*
Sunset saw a younger Shifu stepping out of the Training Hall Courtyard, finding a baby leopard beastman on the steps, swaddled in cloth.
"Shifu found him as a cub. And he raised him as his son." Tigress began narrating as Sunset saw that while being fed, baby Tai Lung yanks off some of Shifu's whiskers, who winced from the pain.
"That's cute, yet painful to watch." Sunset thought.
"...and when the boy showed talent in kung fu..." Tigress started to say as Sunset saw a slightly older Tai Lung approach the training dummy. He kicked it across the floor, making it hit the wall, knocking a spear off from the weapons rack as Shifu approached, impressed, and Tai Lung nudged him affectionately. "...Shifu trained him." Tigress finished that sentence as Sunset saw Shifu teaching Tai Lung how to punch. "He believed in him. He told him he was destined for greatness." Tigress continued as Sunset saw Tai Lung facing a wooden warrior, attacking and counterattacking it. "Masters Celestia and Luna and other masters helped train him. It was never enough for Tai Lung." Tigress said as Sunset saw a full grown Tai Lung demolish the warrior while Shifu, Luna, Dragalchimaru and some masters looked on with intense pride, while Master Oogway, Principle Celestia and the other masters were also watching, but did not look impressed. "He wanted the Dragon Scroll. But Oogway saw darkness in his heart and refused." Tigress explained as Sunset then saw an enraged Tai Lung rampaging through the village. "Outraged, Tai Lung laid waste to the valley." Tigress said as Sunset then saw Tai Lung returning to the Jade Palace and crashed through the doors into the Hall of Warriors, where Shifu, Luna, Celestia, Oogway, Dragalchimaru and the other masters are waiting for him. "He tried to take the scroll by force. And Shifu had to destroy what he had created." Tigress continued as Sunset saw Shifu leap at Tai Lung to deliver a kick. However, at the last second he and Sunset saw only baby Tai Lung running towards the red panda beastman, making Shifu pull his kick short. "But how could he?" Tigress asked as Sunset saw Tai Lung countered with a devastating strike, making Shifu crashes to the ground with a broken leg. Tai Lung leapt for the scroll, but Oogway intercepted him with lightning speed strikes at his pressure points, making the snow leopard beastman fall to the ground in a heap, as Shifu stared at what has become of his beloved student with sadness and disbelief, crawling toward Tai Lung, but was ultimately unable to touch him. "Shifu loved Tai Lung like he'd never loved anyone before..." Tigress started as Sunset then saw that some time later, a young Tigress in the training hall strike the dummy in the same manner as Tai Lung, but this time, making the spear in the rack spin rather than topple. Shifu corrected her form, nothing more, making the young Tigress and spirit of Sunset look crestfallen. "...or since." Tigress finished as Sunset saw the young Tigress sigh in sadness with a tear falling down her cheek. Everything then vanished in a white light around Sunset, making her close her eyes.
*End Flashback*
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sunset's eyes stopped flashing as she found herself in the present, in Po's bunkhouse room, seeing Tigress' sad face. She couldn't believe all of that happened, and neither could Po and the rest of the Canterlot High Students as everything was quiet in the moment.
"And now he has a chance to make things right, to train the true Dragon Warrior. And he's stuck with you... a big, fat panda who treats it like a joke." Tigress told the panda beastman when all of a sudden...
"Doieeeee..." Po uttered as he made a googly-eyed face and froze, which at that, made Tigress and Swampsuke lose their temper.
"Why you big-!!!" Swampsuke growled fiercely, drawing his kunai.
"Oh, that is it!" Tigress angrily said as she raised her fist, with the rest of the Canterlot High students trying to stop her and Swampsuke, when Mantis popped up on Po's face and halted the two hotheads.
"Wait! My fault! I accidentally tweaked his facial nerve." Mantis explained as Po fell face-first into the floor with his back to be covered in needles, much to the surprise of everyone in the room.
"Oh my!" Fluttershy gasped.
"My word!" Rarity yelped.
"Holy guacamole!" Pinkie said.
"What in tarnation?!" AJ asked in shock.
"Huh?!" Rainbow and Raptor yelled in surprise.
"Po looks like a pincushion!" Sunset said.
"And may have also stopped his heart." Mantis added as he tentatively poked Po's face, making his eyes twitch.
"Tch! That means he's out cold." Swampsuke snarled.
In the Training Hall, Shifu was sitting in meditation, surrounded by candles, as his inner turmoil causes him to fidget incessantly.
"Inner peace... inner peace... i-in... in-in...inner peace." Shifu repeated to calm himself as he heard a very faint flapping sound in the distance, which did not help matters, making him turn around. "Would whoever is making that flapping sound, quiet down!" Shifu ordered, replied with silence, satisfying him as Shifu turned back around to resume his meditation. "Inner..." *WUMP!* A goose honked as it dropped from the open ceiling. Scowling, Shifu got up, but smiled seeing who it was. "Oh, Zeng. Excellent. I could use some good news right now."
However, Zeng hesitated, for he had anything but good news. "Uh..."
Minutes later, Shifu, Luna and Celestia rushed up Peach Tree hill, finding Dragalchimaru leaning against the tree and Oogway standing under the tree, slowly performing Tai Chi movements as blossom petals were floating elegantly from the branches.
"Master! Master!" Shifu called out, catching their attention.
"Hmmm?" Oogway wondered as Dragalchimaru stood back up.
"I have... it's... it's very bad news." Shifu urged, out of breath.
"It's really... terrible... Master Oogway." Luna agreed, out of breath as well.
"You... need to... to know about what we heard." Celestia said, also out of breath.
"Ah, Shifu, Luna, Celestia. There is just news. There is no good or bad." Oogway calmly said as he turned around to face the three.
"Master, your vision...your vision was right! Tai Lung has broken out of prison! He's on his way!" Shifu told Oogway and Dragalchimaru as Luna and Celestia confirmed with a nod. Everything seemed to have paused.
"Well... The cat has razor-sharp claws after all." Dragalchimaru said to himself.
"That is bad news... if you do not believe that the Dragon Warrior and the Warriors of Harmony can stop him." Oogway responded to Shifu.
"The panda? Master, that panda is not the Dragon Warrior. He wasn't even meant to be here... it was an accident!" Shifu said.
"And I don't think our students are ready to fight him either!" Luna told Oogway.
"I admit, I am concerned for the students' safety." Celestia said to Oogway.
"There are no accidents." Oogway calmly replied to Shifu and the two sisters, making the red panda beastman and Luna sigh.
"Yes, I know. You've said that already. Twice." Shifu said.
"Well, that was no accident either." Oogway added.
"Thrice." Shifu corrected himself, holding up three fingers as Luna facepalmed herself.
"My old friends, the panda and the girls will never fulfill their destinies, nor you any of yours, until you let go of the illusion of control." Oogway advised, making Shifu, Luna and Dragalchimaru incredulous and confused, while Celestia understood what Master Oogway said completely.
"Illusion?" Shifu, Luna and Dragalchimaru repeated, completely lost on that word.
"Yes. Look at this tree, my friends." Oogway advised as he looked up at the tree's branches, where blossom petals continue to fall. "I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear fruit before it's time."
"But there are things we can control." Shifu countered as he kicked the tree, making a hundred peaches fall to the ground with Oogway gazing at him in silence. "I can control when the fruit will fall!" Shifu said as a peach fell on his head, making him growl and the other masters chuckle and giggle. "And I can control..." Shifu began as he tossed a peach in the air, leapt up, and split it with a chop, freeing the seed. "...where to plant the seed... Hi-yah!" Shifu finished as he punched the ground, creating a small hole, followed by the seed falling into his paw. "That is no illusion, Master!" Shifu said as he tossed the seed into the hole.
"Ah, yes." Oogway agreed as he stepped forwards while Shifu began pacing in frustration. "But no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple, or an orange... but you will get a peach." Oogway said, with Dragalchimaru finally understanding what Oogway meant by that, and Shifu and Luna becoming more confused.
"But a peach cannot defeat Tai Lung!" Shifu said after he stopped pacing to face Oogway.
"Maybe it can. If you are willing to guide it, to nurture it. To believe in it." Oogway advised as he covered the seed with dirt.
"But how? How? I need your help, Master." Shifu requested.
"Please, Master Oogway, you need to help us." Luna agreed.
"No, you just need to believe." Oogway simply denied with adviced as he leaned in toward his friends. "Promise me, everyone. Promise me you all will believe."
"Yes, Master Oogway." Celestia agreed clearly.
"Understood, old man." Dragalchimaru answered, while Shifu and Luna hesitated.
"O-Of course, Master." Luna hesitantly agreed.
"I... I will try." Shifu answered.
"Good." Oogway said with a smile, glancing up at the starry sky, with the petals beginning to rapidly fall from the tree as the wind picks up. "My time has come." Oogway declared as he turned toward his confused friends. "You must continue your journey... without me." Oogway told them as he gave Shifu his staff.
"What are you..? What...?" Shifu asked, baffled, as Oogway began walking to the cliff's edge, making Shifu, Celestia, Luna and Dragalchimaru realize what he's doing and run after him.
"Master! You can't leave us." Shifu pleaded.
"Master Oogway! Please don't go!" Luna pleaded as well.
"What are you doing, you old fool?!" Dragalchimaru asked in shock.
"If you go through with this, you'll...!" Celestia tried to warn him, but stopped herself when the petals surrounded Oogway as he stopped at the cliff's edge, turning back to Shifu and the others.
"You must believe." Oogway said for one last time.
"Master!" Shifu, Luna and Celestia called out as Oogway was engulfed by peach blossoms, beginning to glow with a lovely blue light. As the winds settled, Shifu, Luna, Celestia and Dragalchimaru stood at the edge of the cliff, with the red panda beastman clutching Oogway's staff, staring after the mass of petals as they float up into the sky.
"So that old tortoise truly is gone with the wind... That decrepit old man, just like the 3rd Mizukage..." Dragalchimaru growled as he silently cursed himself for his selfish actions.
Everyone on the cliff knew that there was no denying it...
Oogway is gone.
Meanwhile, at the bunkhouse's dining room...
"...So I'm like, fine, you may be a wolf, you may be the scariest bandit in Haijin Province..." Po said, telling a story as in the kitchen, he was cooking for the Five and the Canterlot High students, who were all sitting at the table. He chopped a radish mid-air and the slices fell into the pot, while the CH students Viper, Monkey, Mantis and Crane were listening to Po's story with amused skepticism, but Tigress was ignoring him completely. "...but you're a lousy tipper."
"Really? So... how'd you get out of there alive?" Crane asked incredulously.
"Yes, darling. Please, do tell." Rarity agreed.
"C'mon, Po. You can tell us." Sunset added with an amused smirk, making Po falter.
"I mean, I didn't actually say that, but I thought it... in... in my mind." Po explained as he flipped some bowls, expertly lined them up on his arm, and ladled soup into them. "If he... could read my mind, he'd have been like, 'What?'" Po covered as held multiple bowls, one for everyone, except for Tigress who had a plate of tofu. "Order up!" Po said as he slid out the bowls of noodle soup to the Canterlot High students, Viper, Crane, Mantis and Monkey. "Hope you like it."
Mantis was the first one to try the noodle soup, by taking a sip. "This is really good!" Mantis said, really liking the soup.
"Wow! I feel like I could eat this in seconds and have more!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she tried the soup as well.
"Me too, Dash!" Raptor agreed, as everyone else tried it.
"Mmm! Delicious!" Soulfire said, enjoying the soup as well.
"Whoa! So good!" Makoto gasped in delight as she kept eating her soup, making Po feel bashful. "No, c'mon. You should try my dad's secret ingredient soup. He actually... knows the secret ingredient."
"What are you talking about? This is amazing." Viper said to Po.
"There's um... No need to be nervous about your cooking skills." Fluttershy kindly said, enjoying the soup.
"Wow, you're a really good cook." Crane told Po, amazed by his other skills.
"This soup tastes simply divine!" Rarity agreed, delighted to have tasted such a meal.
"Hoo-wee! That noodle soup's got some zang to it!" AJ said, having not tasted something this good since her family's cooking.
"I wish my mouth was bigger." Mantis said, wanting to eat more soup.
"This really is good! I could have seconds of it!" Sunset told Po, eating her soup with joy.
"Hmph, I'll admit... You're not bad." Swampsuke admitted.
"SO! STINKING! GOOD!" Pinkie squealed in happiness, savoring the noodle soup.
"Tigress, you've got to try this." Monkey said to Tigress, as she picked up her plate of tofu.
"It is said that the Dragon Warrior can survive for months at a time on nothing but the dew of a single gingko leaf and the energy of the universe." Tigress said, eating her tofu, making everything silent as everyone realized that Po has been put down yet again, who just shrugged it off.
"I guess my body doesn't know it's the Dragon Warrior yet. I'm gonna need a lot more than dew. And, uh, universe juice." Po said as he pick up his bowl, taking a giant gulp. When he lowered the bowl, there was a noodle string hanging from his face, which looked like a long mustache, making Mantis snicker along with Rainbow Dash, Raptor, Soulfire and Makoto. "What?"
"Oh, nothing... Master Shifu!" Mantis acted with a bow, making everyone else laugh, excluding Tigress.
Po realized he was wearing a noodle mustache, deciding to play it up, by picking up a chopstick and pretending it's Shifu's staff. "You will never be the Dragon Warrior, unless you lose five hundred pounds and brush your teeth!" Po imitated Shifu's voice, making the Five, except Tigress, and the Canterlot High students laugh. "What is that noise you're making? Laughter? I never heard of it! Work hard, Panda. And maybe, someday, you will have ears like mine!" Po continued as he held two empty bowls like they were ears, with the gag getting the Five, once again except Tigress. and CH students have near-hysterics, when suddenly, they stopped laughing. Shifu was right behind him, holding Oogway's staff with one mean scowl. "Ears. It's not working for you? I thought they were pretty good." Po said in his normal voice, while looking at everyone in the room, who looked stone-faced.
"It's Shifu." Monkey tried to warn Po, but the panda beastman didn't realize that.
"Of course it's Shifu. What do you think I'm doing?" Po asked.
"Ifu-shay is behind ou-yay!" Pinkie uttered to Po while Monkey pointed and Viper, Mantis and Crane shifted their eyes to something behind him.
Po turned and finally saw Shifu standing there, doing a slow burn, while in mortification and shock, Po slapped the bowls to his chest. "Ooh! Master Shifu! I..." Po stuttered as he slurped up the noodle mustache and lowered his arms, with the bowls stick to his chest, making the Five, except Tigress, and the Canterlot students burst out laughing.
"You think this is funny?! Tai Lung has escaped from prison and you're acting like children!" Shifu scolded, catching Po and Sunset's attention.
"What?" They silently gasped.
"He is coming for the Dragon Scroll, and you and the Harmony Warriors are the only ones who can stop him!" Shifu said as the bowls fell off of Po, clattering on the floor.
"*Laugh* And here I am saying you got no sense of humor. We're gonna... stop Tai Lung..." Po trailed off as Shifu just stared at him, deadly serious.
"You're not kidding, are you?" Sunset guessed, getting her friends' attention and leaving them in shock.
"What, you're serious? And I have to... uh... Master Oogway will stop him! He did it before, he'll do it again." Po assumed with a hopeful smile.
"Oogway cannot!" Shifu snapped. "Not anymore." Shifu said with a softened face of sadness, looking down at Oogway's staff, making the Five look up in shock, realizing what that meant, leaving them saddened by the news as well. "Our only hope... is the Dragon and Harmony Warriors."
"The girls and the panda?" Tigress asked, suspicious of that.
"Yes, them and the panda!" Shifu answered.
"Master, please! Let us stop Tai Lung, this is what you've trained us for!" Tigress argued as she pushed her chair back, standing up.
"No! It is not your destiny to defeat Tai Lung. It is theirs!" Shifu said as he pointed dramatically at the HuMane 6 and Po, only for Po nowhere to be seen. "Where'd he go?"
Outside, Po was screaming at the top of his lungs as he raced down the stairs in total panic. He was almost to the top of the stairs leading down to the village when Shifu suddenly jumped in front of him out of nowhere, making Po skid to a stop. "You cannot leave! A real warrior never quits!"
"Watch me!" Po said as he tried to maneuver around Shifu, but was redirected back. "Oh come on! How am I supposed to beat Tai Lung? I can't even beat you to the stairs."
"You will beat him because you are the Dragon Warrior!" Shifu declared as he poked Po in the belly with the staff, keeping him back.
"Ow! You don't believe that!" Another poke. "Ow! You never believed that! From the first moment I got here, you've been trying to get rid of me!" Po said as he tried to maneuver again, but Shifu sweeped his legs from under him, causing him to fall on his back, as the red panda beastman pointed the staff at his face.
"Yes! I was! But now I ask you to trust in your master as I have come to trust in mine." Shifu requested.
"You're not my master." Po denied as he shoved the staff away from his face. "And I'm not the Dragon Warrior."
"Then why didn't you quit?! You knew I was trying to get rid of you, and yet you stayed!" Shifu said.
"Yeah, I stayed." Po admitted as he got up onto his feet. "I stayed because though every time you threw a brick at my head or said I smelled, it hurt... but it could never hurt more than it did every day of my life just being me." Po paused as Shifu was in a stunned silence. "I stayed because I thought if anyone could change me... could make me... not me, it was you! The greatest kung fu teacher in all of China!"
"But I can change you! I can turn you into the Dragon Warrior! And I will!" Shifu declared.
"Oh come on! Tai Lung is on his way here right now! And even if it takes him a hundred years to get here, how are you... gonna change this... *indicates belly* ...into the Dragon Warrior?! Huh?" Po asked, as Shifu opened his mouth, but froze. "How... how?" Po repeated as Shifu closed his mouth, still speechless. "HOW?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Shifu yelled out the answer in frustration, then sighed deeply, realizing what that meant. "I don't know."
Po's anger turned into sadness, causing him to sigh as well. "That's what I thought." Po said as Shifu walked away, leaving the path open to the panda beastman.
Unknown to them, the HuMane 6, Raptor, Soulfire, Makoto, and Swampsuke saw everything that happened, and felt sorry for Po.
And above them, Tigress stands in the moonlight on the edge of the palace roof, having seen what just transpired between Shifu and Po. She turned away, a look of resolve on her face, and leapt as she flew through the air, towards the village in the valley below. At the last second, she slid down a pagoda roof and lands safely on the rooftop, looking up at the horizon, then back up at the palace. "This is what you trained me for." Tigress said to Shifu from the distance as she took off across the rooftops, with the other four being right behind her, having suspected what she would do.
"Tigress!" Viper called out, making Tigress look back, seeing that they have followed her as she kept going while they gave chase.
"Don't try and stop me!" Tigress said as the chase continued through the village.
"We're not trying to stop you!" Viper told Tigress.
"What?" Tigress asked, confused.
"We're coming with you!" Viper explained as the boys of the Five joined Tigress with her. With Monkey giving Tigress a thumbs up, she smiled as she and the rest of the Furious Five leapt off into the night...
To be continued...