Goten had finally stopped crying a few minutes ago. Apple Bloom had managed to remind him that Goku might be dead, but he was a warrior who saved Earth countless times; he'd be able to keep his body and meet them soon. Goten had known this, but was still saddened that it had to happen this way though. He was also worried about what this Prince Sapphic was going to do.
Apple Bloom was very worried about it. What horrors would he cause once he reached her home dimension? She had asked Applejack if the other Elements of Harmony could stop them, but her big sister wasn't sure. King Kai even seemed unsure if Celestia and Luna could defeat him if Goku couldn't.
Now King Kai was standing looking into the horizon at the scene playing out on Earth now. He told his pupils to continue training, and to try not to worry too much about the situation, but even he was scared now. Sapphic had wished himself o Equestria, and Shenron still remained, ready to grant two more wishes. If Piccolo and Trunks could just get past this Dosne character...
* * *
Dosne stared down the namekian and the half-saiyan with a bloodlust Piccolo had only seen in a select few individuals. The sight was haunting; as if this sandman was staring deep into their souls trying to make them go to sleep forever with just his gaze.
Trunks looked over at his father, and a look of anger plastered itself on him. He gritted his teeth, fists shaking with rage. Picclo put a hand on his shoulder to grab his attention.
"Calm down, Trunks..." He said. "We can't win if we go in half-cocked in a blinding fury, ok?"
Trunks nodded after a moment, calming himself down as much as he could. The young fighter then turned to Dosne, a look of determination in his eyes.
"You're going to pay for what you've done..."
Dosne didn't respond; he just continued to stare at the duo hungrily. He had already measured both their power levels, and they were nowhere near a threat to him. He would crush them easily.
His purple eyes darted to the corpse of what used to be Seaiga, and he immediately looked back at the opponents before him. In that brief moment, Piccolo sensed pain in the titan. But it was just a brief feeling.
"I'm not going to allow you to interfere with Prince Sapphic's revenge." He said simply, his slow voice sounding rather sleepy.
Piccolo threw his turban off; his antennae springing out from their folded position and hanging naturally above his eyes. After he took his shoulder pads and cape off as well, he dropped into a fighting stance, as did Trunks. They were as ready as they were ever going to be to fight this beast.
"Goku..." The namekian said to no one in particular. "I won't let you down..."
Sand suddenly jutted out from the ground towards the duo in a blur, and they barely got out of the way before it covered all the grass in the area they were standing just seconds before. Piccolo didn't waste time to look, and charged forward, uttering a battle cry.
He thrust one open palmed hand forward; his clawed fingers ready to slice. Dosne moved his head, and went for a gut shot with his knee, which Piccolo blocked with his free arm. The namekian then attempted to drive the elbow of the arm he attacked with first into the tall one's temple, but his head turned to sand to dodge the attack, and reformed once it had passed by.
The titanic sand-bender lifted Piccolo into the air, and turned his arm into a blade of rock solid sand particles. He jabbed for the falling namekian, but he regained flight mere moments before the attack would have hit, and dashed away in mid-air. Immediately, he placed two fingers to his forehead, and rushed as much energy as he could into that point; thrusting the two fingers forward, he fired a spiral beam of energy that would blast through anything.
"Special Beam Cannon!" He cried out the name of the attack.
Dosne actually looked slightly worried as the beam approached; the heat from the attack was massive, and he did not want it to even graze him. He disintegrated himself as the beam passed over, and reformed behind Piccolo.
He made a move to strike, but Trunks was above him, and landed a kick into the big guy's face, which blasted into and particles on impact. Dosne grabbed Trunks by the ankle, and swung him around to smack Piccolo. He released his living weapon as the two warriors flew back a few feet, landing ungracefully near Vegeta's dying form.
"N--na--namek...son..."The rough voice of the saiyan prince coughed. "L--l--listen..the...the wish...the one...f-f-for Apple Bloom..."
Piccolo looked up at Shenron, who was impatiently waiting for two more wishes. Vegeta had told him about the plan to give Apple Bloom an anthropomorphic transformation to harness her power. But was that the best use of the Dragon Balls right now?
He looked down at Vegeta, about to ask a question, a wave of sand separated them, and tried to bury Piccolo under it's crushing weight.
"Piccolo!" Trunks cried out, throwing several a few high intensity ki blasts at the ground up dirt covering his teacher.
The sand parted before theki blasts could touch it,and they exploded on the ground near him.
"Thanks, kid." Piccolo breathed. "I thought that was it for me..."
"Don't mention it..." Trunks said, looking around. "Where'd that creep go?"
"Just look down." The voice of Dosne resonated in their skulls.
The monster lurched form the dirt, grabbing Trunks, and encasing him in sand; ready to crush the half-saiyan under several tons of pressure. Piccolo went for a hand chop to Dosn'es throat, but it passed through as if he were striking a sand castle. He backed up and fired off some ki blasts again.
Dosne ducked, when Piccolo continued to fire, the sand titan dropped Trunks, and slithered out of range before reforming again.
Piccolo was starting to see something here, but he needed a little more time to find out if what he was seeing was coincidence or something they could use to their advantage.
* * *
Apple Bloom concentrated on the ball of spirit energy she held in her hoof. The power was amazing in her grasp, and this was only the power of a few plants and a monkey. But it was already pretty powerful. Now it was time to test her aim with it.
"You ready Applejack?" Apple Bloom called out.
"Ready, lil' sis!" The orange mare replied, standing ready to catch the mass of energy.
Goten watched from the sidelines as Apple Bloom tossed the Spirit Bomb over at her sister. The ball zipped away, and Applejack had only seconds to react.
"Kaioken!" The southern mare bellowed as a red aura engulfed her.
She put her forelegs up an the Spirit Bomb halted right there, held perfectly in her hoof. She could now toss it back to Apple Bloom so the younger mare could try her hand at it.
"Here comes the pitch, Apple Bloom!" She warned as se tossed the thing with all her might.
Apple Bloom yelled out the name of the Kaioken, and she too was engulfed in a red aura. She aught the Spirit Bomb easy enough, but she slid back a ways when she did so.
"Horse apples.." She breathed. "Still can't stay in one spot.."
"Don't worry, Apple Bloom," Goten piped up. "you only slid back a few inches this time."
There was a sudden woosh noise, and the trio looked over to see what had caused it. There, standing in front of King Kai's house, a halo floating above his head was Goku. The saiyan's normally cheerful face was now pensive and thoughtful.
"Dad!" Goten cried out, running to his father to embrace him.
Goku returned his youngest son's affections, but merely walked over to King Kai and placed a hand on his back afterwards.
"Hey, King Kai." He said curtly.
"Hello, Goku. I wish we could have you here on less dire terms..." King Kai replied grimly.
After a few moments of silence, Apple Bloom trotted over to the two masters as they stood there silently watching what she assumed was Earth.
"What's the deal, Goku?" She asked, wanting to know what was going on.
Without turning to look at her, he answered. "We may have a plan for you and Goten, but we need t see how this battle plays out first."
"Until then, continue your training..." King Kai added. "If you want to have any chance at beating this Prince Sapphic, you must use every moment you have to get stronger."
* * *
Over and over again, Piccolo saw it. Dosne would never even try to dodge a physical blow unless he was going to have a physical counter attack, but everytime any ki blasts were fired, he would hurriedly move away or try to catch them in his hands rather than let it hit him. Why was he so afraid to get hit by something that probably didn't even affect him?
Probably because it would affect him.
Piccolo thought about it as he and Trunks tried to press an attack; fists and feet flying everywhere. Ki blasts were energy attacks that had both explosive and heat based damage types. If Piccolo remembered correctly, at a certain temperature, sand would turn to glass. If Dosne were to get hit by one of their ki attacks, would he too turn to glass? How hot would the attack have to be? And how would they hit him without him deforming to get away?
It struck him; as did one of Dosne's fists which sent him flying back. As he recovered, he dodged several sand waves trying to grab at him as he regained his train of thought. Piccolo had an attack that just might work, but he needed some time to set it up.
"Trunks!" Piccolo shouted for his former student.
The half-saiyan front flipped over to the namekian, barely escaping the reach of a large tendril of sand from below.
Once Trunks was within ear shot, he quietly told him the plan.
"I need you to keep Dosne busy while I set up my attack. He's afraid of our ki blasts because if one hits him, he'll start crystalizing into glass. If he's glass, he can't move or morph around like he can as sand."
"I see! That's genius, Piccolo!" Trunks exclaimed. "I'll keep him distracted while you do your thing!"
As Trunks rushed up t catch the titan's attention, Piccolo summoned as much ki as he could from is body, and like a child throwing a tantrum, started to throw the energy all about the sky.
Dosne dodged on kick from Trunks, and brought his fist up to hit the young man in the gut, nearly flattening him as he threw him down. Trunks recovered quickly before the sad on the ground could be used to put him under. He danced around the big sand giant, and started throwing several punches which did nothing effective.
Something was up. Dosne knew this for sure; why else would this kid be trying his most minimum to even hurt Dosne's body. Surely he must know physical attacks were useless.
He decided to take advantage of the kid's apparent stupidity and grabbed him with a mound of sand, lifting him into the air. As he prepared to smash the half-saiyan, he noticed the sky was a bit brighter then it should be with Shenron out. He looked up, and his eyes widened in shock.
Hundreds upon hundreds of floating ki balls were placed among the night sky like candle in lamps. The kid had been a distraction.
Dosne looked over at the namekian, and saw a confident grin on his face. This had all been a trap; and he'd fallen right into it.
He turned back to crush Trunks under his sand clump, but was again surprised when trunks was seen free of the deadly sand; his golden hair floating upwards in his Super Saiyan state.
"Trunks! Move away!" Piccolo yelled.
As the young half-saiyan did so, Dosne attempted to sink into the ground to escape.
Piccolo wasn't having it. "You're not getting away! Hellzone Grenade!"
All at once the ki balls crashed down at speeds too fast for the eye to see. Explosions rocketed the field, and fires started to erupt on the once green grass. The cacophony of ear splitting booms soon died down, and there, halfway buried in the ground was Dosne; his waist up completely turned to cracked glass.
Trunks caught sight of some sand starting to shift away from the seen. It was a small amount, and it only ook one blast from trunks to vaporize it.
Piccolo kicked the glass remains, and they shattered into pieces, never to reform again.
Trunks ran over to his father, returning to his normal state. Vegeta's eyes were barely focused, and Piccolo knew there was no way he was walking away from this one.
"Dad...?" Trunks croaked, a few small tears in his eyes. "Please hold on..we'll use one of the wishes to--"
"No..." Vegeta coughed and sputtered immediately. "use the wish..to help...the pony...and..Goten.."
"But why, Vegeta?" Piccolo questioned, still not one-hundred percent behind the idea of "wasting" a wish.
"Piccolo..." The voice of Goku rang inside Piccolo's head. "Listen to him. Use the wishes to give Apple Bloom a new transformation, and to bring Goten back to life."
Piccolo knew that Goku must be communicating through King Kai, but he still didn't get it.
"Why is this pony so important to all of you? Sure she may have some hidden talent, but we're talking an interdimensional crisis here..." He tried to reason.
"Think of it like when you trained Gohan to face the saiyans, but the results being ten times more spectacular." Goku's voice answered back. "Please, Piccolo, trust us...not only is she one of the best hopes for Equestria, it's also her home. She deserves a chance to save it, don't you think?"
Piccolo looked up at Shenron, and sighed. there was no arguing with these saiyans.
He looked to trunks who was holding his father in is arms as he drew his final breaths. Piccolo watched the light fade from Vegeta's eyes as he passed into Otherworld. Looks like there was no choice now.
"Eternal dragon!" Piccolo bellowed. "I have two wishes!"
Shenron seemed to make a "finally" face, and told the namekian to make his wishes quickly.
* * *
"Apple Bloom, are you ready to become a powerhouse?" Goku asked the young mare behind him.
Apple Bloom dropped her training instantly. "I...I guess....why..?"
"Piccolo and Trunks beat Dosne," He explained. "They're making the wishes to Shenron right now!"
Apple Bloom rushed over and placed a hoof to King Kai's back, sudden excitement taking hold of her. She was about to do it; she was about to become an anthropomorph.
* * *
"Shenron," Piccolo shouted to the huge dragon before him. "I wish for the one named Apple Bloom to be given the power of transformation to and from anthropomorphic state!"
There was a short pause, and then Shenron's eyes glowed red as the crimson rubies in the deepest mines.
* * *
Apple Bloom started to feel strange as the wish began to take hold. Her legs started to tingle and her torso started to ache a bit. Then everything went white. A brilliant, radiant white light engulfed her, and she felt her body start to change; her forelegs thinned out as her front hooves were replaced by what she assumed were fingers. It was a strange sensation. Her back hooves stayed the same, but her hind legs thickened and elongated as her belly flattened out, and stretched. She felt a bit of weight on her chest, and her shoulders sprouted out wards. Then she blacked out as the final changes took effect.
Goten and the others watched in awe as Apple Bloom's new body lay in the yard of King Kai's home. Her new body was short; about the same size as Goten. Her yellow fur was still present all over her body, and her tail remained as well just above her thickish rear end. Her arms were slim, but toned and muscular at the same time, and she had grown small breasts on her chest as well.
Her head was largely unchanged, save for it being a bit more compacted; her big ears twitched as she began to awaken.
Goten and Applejack rushed to her side to help her up in her new body.
"Did...it work...?" She asked tiredly.
"Take a look for yourself, Apple Bloom." Goten chuckled.
The former mare did so and saw her new body; muscular and yet slim, and with body parts she really didn't feel were necessary.
"What purpose..do these things serve, sis?" She asked, grabbing at one of her small breasts, it's weight on her front unfamiliar.
"I think that's a question better asked to Goten or Goku, sugarcube." Applejack said plainly.
Goten took her are and hoisted it over his shoulder to support her. "I'll tell ya all about human anatomy soon, but first, we need to get you some clothes."
Apple loom realized suddenly she was naked in a humanoid body, and tried to cover herself up, her blush darkening her face considerably.
Goten laughed and took his shirt off to let her wear, which she gratefully accepted.
* * *
"Alright, Goku," Piccolo started. "the last wish is for what now?"
Trunks had just finished removing his sword from Vegeta's body and cleaning it off while making sure his father looked not so mangled up in death. The poor boy was tearing up, but hadn't let out a single cry.
After a moment, Goku's voice came back, telling Piccolo exactly how to word the wish.
"Say this to Shenron, Piccolo: I wish for all the good natured souls who perished in the presence of the one called Apple Bloom to be brought back to life."
Piccolo nodded, and prepared to shout his wish to he massive green dragon. As he did so however, something caught his eye; one of the Dragon Balls, the seven-star ball, had turned purple, and if Piccolo wasn't mistaken, it was cracked...no, cracking.
"What the--?"
Before either Piccolo or Trunks could react, the Dragon Ball exploded.