Young Saiyan Cloud has lived in the Everfree Forest for a long time, but hasn't once considered leaving to explore the world, not until he happens upon three young fillies after fishing!
Cloud has lived in the great Everfree Forest for as long as he can remember. He fishes, he hunts, he lives in an old Capsule Corporation spaceship, he trains, and he generally has a good time doing so! This is his nice and simple life, and he doesn’t really need anything else.
One day after some nice Saiyan style fishing, Cloud happens upon three young fillies named Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. They turn and run away from him, and Cloud goes about his daily life. However, he soon becomes excited about having an adventure in the world outside the forest and thus begins his journey!
Deep within the Everfree Forest is a large clearing with a pond which shimmers under the sun. This pond is known by the local animals to be filled with many delicious fish of various sizes. Nearby Manticores, Timberwolves, and even Ursas come here for fish just about every day.
Besides these animals, another single person comes to this pond for fish just about every day. This person is a teenage Saiyan boy, one Cloud. He has black spiky hair that stands upwards, two bangs that form an upside down “V”, and black eyes.
Cloud’s lived in the Everfree Forest for a long time, since he was only 4 years old, and 8 years of survival had made him incredibly strong. ‘Just how strong’ you ask? You’ll see in but a moment…
Cloud threw his clothes to the side and kicked off his boots, leaving himself buck-naked. With a quick laugh of enjoyment, he ran for the water and jumped straight in. “Time for some fishing!” Cloud said excitedly.
Swimming to the center, Cloud kept in mind to hold back. He didn’t want what happened last time to happen again. Then he dove beneath the surface to be greeted to a world of brightly colored coral reefs and unique species of fish.
Cloud swam behind a pink colored coral reef to scope out for a good meal. There were schools of tiny fish and a fish about two feet in length with silver scales and a green triangle pattern on its side. Both were too small to eat however.
After another minute of looking around, Cloud swam back to the surface for some crisp and cool fresh air. Cloud drew in a deep breath before diving back down. He hid behind another coral reef, these ones colored bright green.
‘C’mon fish, where are you?’ Cloud thought. Just then, a gigantic fish appeared behind the unsuspecting Cloud with the aim to eat him. Its mouth opened wide to reveal rows of sharp, curved teeth a foot in length.
*SNAP!*
The fish’s mouth closed quickly with bone crushing strength, and it began to chew. However, the fish soon realized that its prey had somehow escaped it before it could bite. It looked in every direction but could not find Cloud. Little did it know that Cloud had been behind it the entire time.
‘Yep! He’ll do alright!’ Cloud thought with a smile. He poked the fish with a single finger, causing the fish to spin around in response. Before the fish could think of what to do, Cloud pulled back his fist and threw it forward, landing a knockout punch square in the fish’s face.
Cloud then grabbed the fish by the tail fin and swam all the way back to shore, unaware of the shocked expressions worn on the faces of every other fish.
After about two minutes, Cloud finally made it to shore, where he threw the fish a few feet away. He then took a minute to dry off before throwing on his green Gi, blue under shirt, a blue sash which he wrapped around his waist, blue wrist bands, and blue boots with a white strip going through them.
“This should be enough for lunch!” Cloud said, looking at the delicious looking fish which was at least twice his size. After a moment he realized he was drooling and wiped the drool off with a chuckle.
“Now where’s the sun at?” Cloud asked, looking into the sky. “Looks like it’ll be noon in a few hours, so home is in the sun’s direction.” Cloud said, grabbing the dead fish’s tail.
Cloud began walking in the direction of home, which was in the direction of the sun when it rose, dragging the fish behind him. “Now, what’ll I do when I get home?” Cloud asked himself, putting a finger to his temple.
“Hmmm, I could exercise a bit.” Cloud said, thinking about tinkering with the weights. “Or maybe I could mess with the computers some more. Actually, that might not be a good idea.” Cloud said, but recalled the time he pressed a wrong button and everything got all heavy. Cloud winced when he remembered the pain.
“Yeah, I think I’ll just do some exercising.” Cloud said. This time around, he might up the weights a bit to challenge himself.
Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes, snapping Cloud out of his thoughts. The teenager turned towards some nearby bushes, and with a Saiyan’s his keen hearing, he heard whispering.
‘Are those bushes… talking?’ Cloud asked himself, a confused expression on his face. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bush talk before.’ Cloud thought.
Cloud dropped the fish and began walking towards the bush in order to figure this talking-bush-thing out. When he got close, he sat down with his legs crossed and his hands on the back of his head.
“I don’t know how many times I passed you when I went fishing, but I’ve never heard you talk!” Cloud said. “So tell me, what’s your name?” Cloud asked in a happy tone.
The bush was silent.
“C’mon! Please?” Cloud begged on his knees with puppy-dog-eyes. “I promise I won’t be mean or pee in any other bush! I SWEAR!” Cloud pleaded.
The bush remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.
“Do you Pinkie Promise?” The bush asked in a tone much like a little girl’s. “Do you cross your heart, hope to fly, and stick a cupcake in your eye?” The bush asked, but in a different girl voice.
Cloud was a bit confused by the fact the bush had two different voices, and even more by the promise, but rolled with it since he didn’t want to risk losing a potential friend.
“I cross my heart, hope to fly, and stick a cupcake in my eye!” Cloud said, earning a sigh of relief from the bush. “So what’s your name?”
“U-u-uh, my name is, uhhh…” The bush began stammering before a third girl voice answered in a tomboyish tone. “Bushy McBushistein!”
“Bushy McBushistein?” Cloud repeated in confirmation. “That’s a cool name! My name’s Cloud!” Cloud said extending a hand for a handshake, but retracted sheepishly when he realized the bush didn’t have a hand to shake. But then the bush extended a bright yellow hoof to shake, which Cloud met with his own hand to shake. Then Cloud realized something.
Bushes… don’t have hooves…
“Wait a second!” Cloud gasped. He pushed the leaves and branches apart and was met with three fillies. One was an Earth Pony with a yellow coat, a red mane and tail, and orange irises, another was a Unicorn that had a white coat, a purple and pink mane and tail, and green irises, and the last one was a Pegasus that had an orange coat, a purple mane and tail, and purple irises.
The fillies freaked out at having been spotted and ran out of the bushes as quickly as possible in whatever direction they came from, leaving behind a confused Cloud.
“… What was that about?” Cloud asked to no one in particular. “Well, I guess that's that. I better get home. I can’t wait to cook up this fish!” Cloud said, channeling a Saiyan’s love for food.
~ Cloud’s House ~
After about an hour of walking with only the occasional bout with hungry Manticores to entertain him, Cloud finally made it home. His house is an old Capsule Corporation spaceship, the kind shaped like a sphere and notable for its trademarked gravity chamber. Little did Cloud know that it was originally made for his own ancestor, Son Goku.
Cloud pressed a button on the side and the hatch opened to touch the ground. With the fish he caught, Cloud walked inside and was greeted with lights and a robotic voice.
“WELCOME, CLOUD.” The ship greeted in a female voice.
“Hiya!” Cloud greeted.
Cloud walked to a ladder and climbed down to the living quarters. It was small and pretty basic; on one side of the room was a small makeshift kitchen, on another side was a couch and T.V., and on another side was a small bathroom.
Cloud placed the fish down on a table and began to work his magic. He extended all his fingers to make his hands flat and focused his energy.
“HYAH!” Cloud exclaimed. He quickly karate chopped the fish, chopping off its tailfin. “TYAH!” Cloud exclaimed. He attacked with a barrage of karate chops, slicing the fish into bits from the tail all the way to the nose. After a few seconds, he finished.
“Now all I need to do is cook!” Cloud said. He took the pieces and placed them in the oven for about 30 minutes.
Cloud walked back to the ladder and climbed up. When his feet met the red tiled floor, Cloud began stretching, bending over to touch his toes and then entering a normal standing position, but reaching up as far as possible. After a minute or so, Cloud sat down with his legs spread apart. First he stretched to touch his right set of toes and then he stretched to reach his left toes. After doing this a few times, Cloud got up and did some lunges all the way to the other side of the room.
When Cloud reached the other side of the room, he saw weights which were like enormous red wristbands and anklets. Before he put them on, he did a few final stretches to prep his arms and legs. He wound up his arms and slipped the weights onto his wrists and ankles.
“OKAY!” Cloud said, putting his fists up. “LET’S DO THIS!!”
“HYAH!” Cloud exclaimed, throwing a basic right punch and then pulling back the same punch to throw a left. Cloud then pulled back his left and followed up with a right. “WATA!” Cloud exclaimed, throwing a left punch, this one even harder and faster. Cloud threw more and more punches, each punch faster and packed with more energy than the previous.
After about 40 punches, Cloud went to max speed. He threw a right punch and followed up with three left kicks. Upon the third kick, he spun around and threw a kick with his right. He followed up with a straight left punch and then a right.
Cloud then leapt backwards. He landed on his hands, and then pushed to his feet and continued flipping a few more meters. Upon landing on his feet, he turned around and threw a right punch. Then he leaned back to attack with an elbow, following up with a spin kick.
Cloud quickly brought his foot down and looked to see a worn out punching bag lying on the floor a few meters away. He back flipped to the punching bag, slipped his foot under it when he reached it, and kicked it into the air.
“Here I go!” Cloud exclaimed, getting into a ready stance with his feet spread and his fists leveled with his waist. “HYAH!” Cloud exclaimed as he jumped to meet the punching bag. He began laying into it with a barrage of punches and kicks, sending it flying with a final left kick. Cloud fell to the floor and, with no time to lose, ran towards the bag.
Cloud leapt for the wall and then jumped off it to meet the punching bag with a flying knee. He followed up with a left punch, and followed that with another barrage of punches and kicks. After 50 punches, Cloud ended the ‘bout’ with a downward kick, sending the punching bag to the floor.
“Huff… huff… huff… Great *pant*… I *pant* forgot… to bring *pant*… water *pant*…” Cloud said, laughing exhaustedly when he fell back to the floor. Cloud sweated profusely after 15 minutes of intense exercising and fell on his back as he panted.
Cloud then thought back to earlier. “Who were those three girls anyway?” Cloud said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in the forest before. Are they even from here?” Cloud said.
“What… What if they’re not from here? I never even thought about trying to leave before, actually, I never even thought that I could leave the forest! There might be a whole world out there!!” Cloud exclaimed excitedly as he stood. “It’s decided! I’m gonna go out on an adventure! I’ll head into the direction they ran. Surely I’ll find a town or even a city!” Cloud said. He ran to the door, but forgot how exhausted he was and tripped from weak legs.
Legs that also had weights on them still.
“Heehee! My bad!” Cloud laughed, removing the weights on his ankles and wrists.
Cloud resumed his run to the door and exited immediately, excited about the journey ahead, and forgetful about the fish he had cooking back home!
Cloud’s adventure begins! What kind of excitement awaits the youngster? Will he meet more people - or rather - meet more ponies?! And is there actually a world outside of the Everfree Forest?! Find out in the next action packed episode of DRAGON BALL TX!!
Sunlight peered through the tree leaves and onto a trail of sorts. Cloud walked along this trail whistling a tune to himself with a good sized stick resting on his shoulders and behind his neck, his arms hanging loosely over said stick.
“Geez, just how big is this forest?” Cloud asked to no one in particular. He had left home quite a while ago, and was still trying to leave the forest. “At least I finally got to the brighter part.” Cloud continued, looking to the sun shining through the leaves.
He happened up a stream in a small area lacking trees, allowing the sun to shine upon the ground with all it had. He hopped to a stepping stone, landing on it with one foot. Cloud hopped to the next, landing on the other foot this time. He hopped onto four other stones to cross the stream and reached the other side.
The other side of the stream was more or less the same as the side Cloud was previously on, only there were more trees, some of which were covered in strong vines and some of which were very tall, and manticore paw prints were covering a part of the ground and then going off in the direction towards the sun.
Cloud sighed in boredom, thinking this trek was pointless. He looked up at the trees, and then…
“Wait a second! I have an idea!” Cloud said excitedly.
Cloud ran to the tallest tree nearby and leapt to a branch. He climbed, and with his amazing speed, reached the top in a matter of seconds. He saw the position of the sun. Three hours or so had passed, but he wasn’t really interested in the sun.
Cloud still couldn’t see the edge of the forest, disappointing him a little, but not too much.
Cloud dropped to the ground and ran to a nearby tree. He grabbed a piece of vine with both hands, and in one swift pull, ripped a long strand of the vine out. He ran to another tree and ripped out some more vine, and then did so to a few other trees.
Cloud ran back to the tall tree. He placed the strands of vines in his mouth and climbed to the top. When he reached the top, he took the vines out of his mouth and fastened them tightly to the treetop.
Cloud leapt back down to the ground and walked to the other end of the vines lying on the ground. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together quickly before grabbing the vines. He began to tug, but to no effect.
“Grrr…!” Cloud growled as he pulled with all of his strength, pulling the treetop to bend it downwards slowly. “Come… on… you!!” Cloud growled, his face taking on a slight red tint. He pulled even harder, but yielded little result.
Eventually, the tree won out the struggle, yanking the vines out of Cloud’s hands. Cloud panted as his face returned to its natural color. Cloud eyed the now straightened tree with determination.
It. Was. On.
Cloud grabbed the vines yet again and yanked, bending the treetop towards him slightly. He pulled once again with all his might, bending the treetop down towards him. This time the treetop was pulled even further than before, making Cloud smirk. But then Cloud became serious just like a moment ago and he pulled even harder. However the tree began to pull in the opposite direction again to straighten out.
“Not… this… TIME!” Cloud yelled. He pulled harder and the tree bent towards him even further. Cloud wasn’t going to lose this time! He just needed one more good tug!
“RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” Cloud screamed. His muscles bulged and he gave one powerful yank. The tree bent down to the ground, just as planned! Cloud quickly tied the vines around a nearby tree stump.
“Tada! Now I have a catapult!” Cloud cheered, his hands placed on his waist proudly. “Now I just need something to cut the vines…” Cloud said, scratching his temple.
Cloud sat down with his legs crossed and examined the vines.
“It’s kinda thick. I don’t think I could chuck a sharp lookin rock at it to slice it… I don’t even know where to get a sharp rock…” Cloud thought, plucking the vines. He placed his fingers on his chin in deep thought, tilting his head to the side. “Darn, if only I had someone to slice it for me!” Cloud said, crossing his arms in irritation. He sure was in a pickle alright.
Cloud sighed and looked around him for an answer. He looked at the manticore paw prints and an idea came to him.
“I got it!” Cloud exclaimed, snapping his fingers. Cloud got to his feet and ran from his makeshift catapult and in the direction of the paw prints. “I just need to lead the manticore here and have him cut the vines!” Cloud said with a smile on his face.
Cloud neared the entrance to a cave and stopped in his tracks. He walked in and looked around before quickly spotting a sleeping manticore. “Yes!” Cloud exclaimed. He tiptoed to the sleeping beast and when he neared…
“WAKEY WAKEY!” Cloud yelled into the manticore’s ear. The manticore quickly got to its feet and into a defensive stance. It roared loudly in Cloud’s face and clawed at him. Cloud quickly jumped backwards three meters. The manticore roared again.
“Come and get it!” Cloud taunted, turning around to moon the beast. The manticore responded by charging at Cloud, and the Saiyan quickly ran away out of the cave with the manticore in pursuit. “You’re gonna have to run faster if ya wanna catch me!” Cloud said, looking behind him for a second.
Cloud reached the site with the bent tree and stopped in front of the vine. He turned around to see the manticore a good 15 or 20 feet away. He waited, and with each passing second, the manticore closed the gap. Cloud only had one shot to get this right. The manticore’s muscles tensed in one leg in preparation for a powerful swing. After a few more seconds, the manticore was within three feet of Cloud. It raised its right paw into the air and swung.
“Now!” Cloud exclaimed as the massive clawed paws came for him. He leapt towards the tree top and the manticore’s claws sliced effortlessly through the vines. The tree snapped back and Cloud just barely made it in time to grab onto the tree top. The manticore could only stand in awe.
The tree threw Cloud, the young Saiyan soaring through the air at great speeds with a big grin on his face.
“WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!” Cloud yelled as he flew. Trees passed by underneath him as a big blur, making it seem as though he was travelling miles in mere seconds.
Cloud looked down with a big smile on his face to see the trees far below passing underneath him. “Heehee, now I know why birds always fly! This is fun!” Cloud said as he looked forward. Then something caught his eye.
“Wait…” Cloud said, squinting his eyes. He saw something in the distance. “What is that?”
Cloud saw strange shapes in the distance. Then he noticed the edge of the forest.
“Is… that…” Cloud said as he stopped squinting. “Is that a town?!” Cloud exclaimed in excitement. His smile grew even larger!
“I was right! There is a town outside of the forest!” Cloud said in excitement. Then his focus on this moment of excitement snapped as he realized he was descending. In that moment, Cloud realized something.
“… How am I gonna land?” Cloud asked himself, crossing his legs as if he was sitting on the ground and placing his fingers to his chin.
Cloud descended further and further until…
*BAM!*
Cloud slammed into a tree really hard, and headfirst too. He slid down slowly until he hit the ground. The Saiyan boy slowly stood up on his two feet, wobbling back and forth after doing so. He tried to find his balance as he wobbled, but the world was way too topsy-turvy, and thus he fell on his posterior.
“Geez! What did I even hit?!” Cloud asked no one in particular. He looked up to see the obstacle which denied him a potentially softer landing - a tree. He hit it hard enough to leave a good dent in it too.
Cloud stood up yet again, this time without falling, and now he had another question.
“How far away am I from that town now?” Cloud asked. He looked up at the tree and hopped to the nearest branch. From there, he climbed all the way up to the top and was surprised to see that he was only an hour’s walk from the town, if that. Cloud yet again had a smile on his face.
He hopped down and started his trek. He was so happy now, he began singing a song, the first one that came to mind.
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream~!” Cloud sang as he went on his merry way through the Everfree Forest before his bottomless pit of a stomach growled. It growled a second time, much louder than the first, and Cloud grabbed at his stomach in discomfort.
“Heeheehee, okay, okay!” Cloud pleaded with a chuckle. “We’ll stop to eat!” Cloud said. He reached for his back to get his backpack but felt nothing. He looked behind him to see if he had his backpack on, only to see it wasn’t there.
“Huh, must’ve forgotten to get it before I left…” Cloud said, thinking back to earlier to recall leaving in a hurry. He then looked at the path behind him. “And now it’s reeeeaaaally far away…”
While Cloud was still in thought, a pair of vicious eyes glared at him. These eyes belonged to an enormous creature resembling a lion, but with the wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion. It growled, and then it roared.
Cloud turned to see the hungry Manticore and smiled. “Hiya! What’s your name?” Cloud said, walking towards the beast and extending a hand for a handshake.
The Manticore was confused at this action, but quickly roared in Cloud’s face, blowing back his tall and spiky black hair. After the Manticore stopped roaring, Cloud fixed the positioning of his two bangs so they’d form an upside down ‘V’. Then he spoke in a calm manner.
“Your breath is stinky.” Cloud said.
The Manticore, now furious, took its right paw and swung it, aiming it at Cloud’s face. Cloud easily dodged the attack. In response, the Manticore swung its other paw, but this one was dodged as well.
The Manticore roared, its patience wearing thin, and brought both paws above its head, planning to bring them down on Cloud and crush him. In an instant, its paws came down on Cloud like a hammer.
“…” Cloud was silent as the Manticore’s iron paws rested on his head. “… Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this mornin’.” Cloud said, putting both his hands on the back of his head as his tail relaxed.
The Manticore retracted its paws and roared once more before flexing its scorpion tail. Its tail came for Cloud, but the boy grabbed it by the tip and stopped it. The Manticore looked on in shock and tried to pull its tail back, but couldn’t. “So, are ya’ good now?” Cloud asked, letting the Manticore’s tail go. The Manticore nodded quickly, turned around, and then ran away.
“’Kay, bye!” Cloud said. He went to wipe some green liquid off of his hand before taking notice of a small cut. “Hey, look! I got… a… lit… tle… cut…” Cloud began before feeling very lightheaded and tired. His arms hung loosely, he wobbled back and forth, and his eyelids became heavy.
*KATHUNK!*
Cloud fell on his side unconscious due to the Manticore’s poison entering his veins, unaware of the pairs of very, very hungry eyes falling on him…
~ Nearby ~
“We should help him!” Apple Bloom said in urgency.
“But those monsters are big!” Sweetie Belle said.
“Come on girls! Let’s do this!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“Alright! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: HEROES! GO!”
Cloud’s passed out from a manticore’s poison and now it looks like he’s just been added to the menu, and some very hungry beasts all want a piece of him! Will he get himself out of this sticky situation? Will he be saved by these three youngsters? Or will he meet an unfortunate end?! Find out next time on DRAGON BALL TX!!
Cloud’s eyes fluttered open and he saw a brightly colored room lit up by the sun shining through the nearby window. The room was kind of small, but not uncomfortably so. In one corner of the room, by an open window with magenta curtains, was a small oak vanity and a simple little brush. In another end of the room was a bird cage with three small birds of different colors inside.
Cloud raised his upper body to enter a sitting position and found he was lying down on a soft bed with white sheets and a blue blanket. Nearby was a nightstand with an open window above it, and on the nightstand was a plate with a sandwich and a cup of water next to it.
“Where am I?” Cloud asked, rubbing away the last remaining bits of sleep he had in his eyes and blinking several times afterwards. Before no one in particular could answer him however, his stomach growled loudly, and he grabbed at his stomach in discomfort. “Okay! I’m listening!” Cloud said.
Cloud looked at the sandwich and water and immediately grabbed them. In a few Saiyan sized bites he finished the sandwich, and in a few Saiyan sized gulps he finished the water. However, they were not nearly enough for him as his stomach growled again.
‘Guess I’ll have a look around…’ Cloud thought to himself. He hopped off the bed and his feet were met with the feeling of a soft and warm carpet. He looked around and found his white boots by the vanity. Cloud grabbed them, slipped them on, and made his way towards the door.
Only, there was no door in the room. Actually, it was just an opening with a staircase leading down.
Cloud walked down and was shocked at the sight before him.
There was a whole bunch of animals in the room, ranging from the sizeable grizzly bear, to the small mouse. And I mean there was a bunch. Like… A LOT.
But Cloud’s hunger was ever greater. His Saiyan appetite added by the number of animals before him, and the sum of that further multiplied by his hunger, equaled drooling. The animals took notice and Cloud immediately leapt for a nearby sheep. The sheep quickly evaded, causing Cloud to crash into a wall.
“OW!” Cloud exclaimed. As he got up, a portrait fell on his head. Cloud rubbed his head and quickly turned around to charge for the bear. The bear too dodged, causing Cloud to crash through the window.
“OH, IT’S ON NOW!” Cloud exclaimed, jumping through the window to get inside. By now, all of the animals began freaking out, running all over the place, trashing the house.
Though Cloud caused most of the damage to be honest.
~ On The Way To Fluttershy’s Cottage ~
“Thanks for coming with me to find out what this critter is, Twilight.” Fluttershy thanked as she trotted beside the lavender unicorn. Both mares had saddlebags on them, each filled with a number of books regarding animals.
“No problem, Fluttershy!” Twilight said. “I’m personally excited to help. Who knows, it might even be a never before seen species!” Twilight said, excited to document such a discovery.
“Right now, I’ve been able to narrow down what it could be.” Fluttershy said. “I believe it could be some sort of ape. And I took a look at its teeth to find two pairs of canines, so it may be omnivorous.”
“Very interesting!” Twilight said, taking out a quill and notebook to write all this down. “Anything else?”
“It may be a colt, and maybe only a child.” Fluttershy said. “Oh! And it was wearing clothes, too!”
The two mares came to the bridge to Fluttershy’s cottage, and then finally the door. But from there, they heard something strange like thudding and crashing. They opened the door to find Fluttershy’s cottage a complete and utter wreck. All the animals were gathered around an exhausted and tied up Cloud, catching their own breaths after the intense chase.
“What the hay happened here?!” Twilight demanded as Fluttershy hurried to her critter friends.
“I… *pant*… was… *pant*… SUPER hungry!” Cloud said exhaustedly. He attempted to wiggle out of the ropes, but to no avail. Twilight and Fluttershy both approached him. Twilight’s horn suddenly glowed in a magenta aura, and the ropes did as well. The rope suddenly began to untie itself, shocking Cloud. “Whoa! How did you do that?!” Cloud asked eagerly as he got to his feet.
“I just used magic.” Twilight responded. “That aside, what happened here?” Twilight asked, wanting to know exactly what happened and why.
“It’s like I said, I was hungry.” Cloud said. “So I chased the animals. I figured I could at least eat a few of them, but they’re… A LOT tougher than I expected.” Cloud said, scratching the back of his head, slightly embarrassed as the animals gave him the evil eye.
“Y-you can’t EAT them!” Fluttershy scolded Cloud. The Saiyan backed away a little in fear. “These critters are my friends!”
“O-oh, um, I’m sorry.” Cloud apologized. “I didn’t know they were you’re friends.” Cloud continued. Fluttershy took a second to calm down.
“Since you apologized, it’s okay.” Fluttershy said. “Here, let me make you something to eat!” Fluttershy said. At that, Cloud’s stomach growled loudly and he began to drool. The next thing he knew, a napkin enveloped in a magenta aura appeared to wipe off his face, snapping him out of La-La Land.
“Unless you have something better to do, I suggest we start cleaning the cottage you wrecked.” Twilight said.
~ After A Few Minutes of Cleaning ~
Cloud and Twilight sat opposite of each other on a small wooden kitchen table. Fluttershy was nearby, cooking some food for all three of them, and her critter friends. Twilight used her magic to levitate a notebook and quill nearby, she had an ink well sitting in front of her, and she had on a pair of glasses.
“Okay, so what’s your name? How old are you? Where do you come from?” Twilight asked, starting with the easiest questions.
“My name’s Cloud, and I’m… uh…” Cloud started. He brought his hands up to his face and began counting aloud. “I think I’m… 12. And I came from the forest.” Cloud said.
“Wait, so you’ve been living in the Everfree Forest?” Twilight asked, jotting down everything Cloud said. “How long have you been there?”
“I dunno.” Cloud said with a shrug. “I’ve been there since I was little.” Cloud answered.
“Hmmm…” Twilight said, jotting more notes down. “Do you have a family? Any parents? What about brothers or sisters? What were their names?”
“I had a mom and dad.” Cloud began. “But I don’t know where they’re at. I think they left me…” Cloud continued, scratching his temple.
“Do you miss them?” Twilight asked. “Are you mad or sad that they’re gone?”
“I dunno. Not really, I guess.” Cloud answered in an unsure tone. “But I did have a second mom!”
“Really?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah! Actually, I was adopted by those wood wolves when I was little!” Cloud said, recalling the pack he was taken into. “But something happened and they left. Now I live by myself. But I’m happy to meet new people after such a long time!”
“So you were adopted by timberwolves? That’s strange, they’re typically vicious animals.” Twilight noted. “Last question: What do you like to do for fun?”
“That’s easy!” Cloud chirped. “I like swimming, I like running, I like playing… OH! And I REALLY like fighting! I do it all the time! I train back at home with these SUPER heavy weights and I sometimes fight manticores!”
“Wait, what?!” Twilight and Fluttershy asked at the same time. “Y-you fight manticores for fun? That’s dangerous!” Twilight said.
“No it’s not, I do it all the time!” Cloud cheered. “I’m super strong and fast! Wanna see?” Cloud asked. He didn’t wait for answer. Instead, Cloud got off the chair and went outside. Twilight and Fluttershy followed after him.
The two mares saw Cloud standing in front of a large tree just outside the cottage. Cloud grabbed it and began pulling it up.
“Grrrrr!” Cloud grunted as is face took on a red tint from the strain. Before the mares could even think about stopping him, Cloud summoned all of his strength, bulking his muscles up. “RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!” Cloud screamed. In a matter of seconds, Cloud ripped the tree out of the ground, roots and all. He held it proudly above his head.
“Tada!” Cloud cheered, looking at the girls. Twilight and Fluttershy stood in shock and awe at the sight. Before them, a young 12 year old boy barely taller than them held a tree above his head like it was a toy. “I told ya I was strong!” Cloud said in his normal happy tone. He put the tree down next to his feet and walked to the mares. Then a question popped into his head.
“By the way, how did I get here? Last I remember, I was in the Evertea Forest.” Cloud asked. But the mares just stared at the tree. “Heeey! Helloooooo! Are ya asleep?” Cloud asked. He then knocked on Twilight’s noggin. She blinked three times at this and shook her head.
“U-uh, w-wha?” Twilight asked.
“I asked ya how I got here, but ya didn’t answer, so I said ‘Heeey! Helloooooo! Are ya asleep?’, then I knocked on yer noggin, you blinked a few times, shook yer head and asked-” Cloud blabbered only to be shushed by Twilight.
“Y-yeah. You see…” Twilight began.
~ Three Hours Ago ~
The Cutie Mark Crusaders: Heroes charged ever so bravely into the field of battle. Vicious monsters were everywhere but they pressed onward. For there was a helpless being in need of help, and somepony had to answer the call!
They leapt, the charged, they somersaulted over and through the monsters and to the child in distress. Swiftly they picked him up and ran! And thus…
The day was saved! The monsters were never seen of or heard from again, the boy had a happy ending, and most importantly of all, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had their Cutie Marks, the items they had sought since day one! Everypony lived happily ever after…
And their legend went down in history…
The end…
Let me guess. Not what you were expecting, eh? Well, good, ‘cause that didn’t really happen…
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!” All three fillies screamed at the top of their lungs, startling and confusing the timberwolves. They ran over to the unconscious Cloud, picked him up and ran back where they came from.
The alpha timberwolf barked at the three other timberwolves, and they all chased after the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“WHOSE BRILLIANT IDEA WAS IT TO JUST CHARGE IN?!” Scootaloo demanded as a timberwolf neared her. It opened its jaws to bite her but missed and wound up with a buck to the face, slowing it down.
“Tah be fair, we didn’t come up with a plan!” Apple Bloom answered. A timberwolf attempted to bite her but missed as well.
“SOMEPONY HELP US!!!” Sweetie Belle screamed.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders continued to run, but began to slow down due to exhaustion. Apple Bloom was carrying Cloud, so she was slowing down at a quicker rate than Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. The alpha timberwolf took this opportunity to speed up. It opened its toothy maw in preparation to bite down on the filly. But then…
*CRACK!*
The fillies came to a grinding stop and turned around to see that a tree had fallen and shattered all of the timberwolves. And beside the tree, they saw-
“APPLEJACK!” The Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered, running up to the orange mare.
“Thank goodness Ah found ya’ll, an’ just in the nick of time, too!” Applejack said in her usual country accent, looking back at the smashed remains of the timberwolves. “Jus’ what in the hay are ya’ll even doin’ in the Everfree Forest?! Ya’ll had me worried sick!”
“Sorry, sis, we jus’ thought we’d get our Cutie Marks in explorin’ the forest…” Apple Bloom said sadly.
“Well, we didn’t exactly get our Cutie Marks like we wanted.” Scootaloo said, embarrassed.
“But we did find this!” Sweetie Belle said, pointing with her hoof at the unconscious Saiyan.
“What in tarnation is that? Some kinda monkey?” Applejack asked.
“We dunno, but he was about to be eaten by those timberwolves! We had to help him!” Sweetie Belle said.
“*Sigh* Well, let’s get out of here. We’ll take ‘im to Fluttershy’s. She might know what he is.” Applejack said. “But ya’ll are in BIG trouble!”
~ Present Time ~
“After Applejack brought you here, she and the Crusaders left. The rest you know.” Twilight finished. She and Cloud had sat down at a table outside the cottage while Fluttershy went back inside to finish cooking.
“Wait, I know those girls!” Cloud said. “I met them on my way back home! I found them in the bushes and they ran away from me. I guess I scared them by accident…”
“Food’s done!” Fluttershy said from inside the cottage. The Pegasus set out on the window sill a plate with fish, meat, and a few vegetables accompanied by a glass of water, and another plate with a hay and lettuce sandwich with a cup of green tea.
“Thanks, uh, what’s your name again?” Cloud asked, walking up to the window to retrieve the plate and drink with Twilight.
“My name’s Fluttershy.” Fluttershy answered happily. Cloud hurried back to the table with the plate to dig in. Basic Saiyan nature took control and he began eating the fish and meet like an animal. In a matter of seconds, 10 to be precise, Cloud finished both the food and glass of water. Twilight and Fluttershy could only stare in awe. Cloud took the plate and glass back to the window sill. “Can I have some more?”
“S-sure! No problem!” Fluttershy said happily. “How much do you want?”
Poor mares. If only they knew what they were getting themselves into by asking such a question.
At last, Cloud’s left the Everfree Forest to find himself in Ponyville, the town home to many ponies! And his adventure isn’t going to stop there! Don’t miss the next exciting episode of Dragon Ball TX!
Peace, quiet, tranquil, and most important, clean.
These were the words that best described Ponyville’s very own Golden Oaks Library. Inside, all of the books had been reorganized, not alphabetically and not by genre, but instead by the year they had been released.
The floor had been mopped and swept, the dishes had been cleaned and put in the cabinets, the beds on the upper floor had been neatly remade, and other such chores had been completed. All of this had been done by none other than Twilight’s number one assistant, Spike!
The purple dragon currently resided on a sofa in the lounge, reading his favorite comic book, “The Adventures of Supermare!”
‘You’ll NEVER have your way, Net Worth!’ Spike read as Supermare battled a giant robot controlled by her sworn nemesis, Net Worth. ‘On the contrary, Supermare! I’ve ALREADY won!’
“Spike, I’m home!” A familiar voice called. The dragon set the comic down and leapt off the couch, making his way to the main room to see Twilight walking in, and alongside her… was… a thing… “Spike, meet Cloud!” She gestured to the boy.
“Hiya!” Cloud said happily.
Spike stared at the strange creature that sort of resembled a monkey standing next to the lavender Unicorn, unresponsive as he tried to figure out what he was. Then Twilight coughed, snapping the dragon out of his stupor. “U-uh, hi…!” The purple dragon said with a big smile, trying not to sound or look rude.
“Did you get done everything I asked for?” Twilight asked.
Spike recalled the chores she assigned him. “Oh, yeah! I was just now reading a comic!” He said to the mare.
“Thanks, Spike. Sorry I couldn’t help. Applejack told me about Cloud here and I just had to see him for myself-!” She turned to look at the Saiyan next to her but saw that he was missing. “Where’d he go?”
“What’s this thing?” Cloud asked from upstairs. He began tinkering with the telescope by the window as Twilight and Spike made their way up the stairs. “Oh! It makes everything smaller!” He said in astonishment, looking through the wrong end. He moved the telescope around and saw his friends.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Cloud laughed hysterically at the sight of his shrunken friends.
Twilight giggled a little. “That’s a telescope, silly!” She said. “You were looking at it through the wrong end. What it really does is let you see farther!”
He moved to the other end of the telescope and looked through it and out to Ponyville. “Wow! This is so COOL!” He said joyfully, aiming the telescope at different subjects at rapid speed.
Meanwhile, Spike walked up to Twilight. “Uh, Twi, what is he and why is he here?” The dragon asked.
“I brought him here to conduct some tests. I really want to learn more about his physiology!” She explained eagerly. “As for what he is, he’s… he’s… um… Actually, I forgot to ask that!” Twilight pulled her notebook out of her saddlebags and a quill from a nearby desk.
“Cloud, I forgot to ask you one question: what are you?” She asked.
The Saiyan boy turned from the telescope to look at the mare. Before he answered though, he began to scratch his temple and think. “I dunno.” He said.
Spike raised an eyebrow at his response. “What?” Spike asked. “How could you not know what you are?”
“Wait a sec…” Twilight said as she began thinking about everything she knew about Cloud. Her horn glowed and a nearby children’s book began to levitate towards Cloud. “Can you tell me what it says on the front?”
Cloud took the book and examined it closely. After a few seconds, he looked back up at the lavender Unicorn. “I dunno what it says.” Cloud said nonchalantly.
“… Can you count for me? Count as high as you can.”
“Okay!” He said with a smile. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and… 15!”
‘At least he can count okay…’ The mare thought to herself. “Cloud… have you ever been educated in your life?” She asked, already knowing the answer.
“… Edoo… Edah… Eguh… what’s that word?” He asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Have you ever learned things? What all do you know and how did you learn them?” She asked.
“Well… I know how to talk, fight, and fish and a little bit on how to cook and count!” He said in his naturally happy nature. “I learned how to fight, fish, and cook on my own, but I learned how to talk and count a little from my parents before they left!”
“… I see…” Twilight sighed. “Looks like I’m gonna have to put you in school, but that can wait till tomorrow.”
The Saiyan thought about this ‘school’ Twilight just said. “Skuh… Skoo… Skool… School! What’s that?” He asked.
“It’s a place where you go to learn a lot of things, like reading, math, and more!” Twilight said. “I remember being in school as a filly! Trust me, it’s really fun!”
“Yeah, ‘fun’!” Spike quoted with a laugh, earning a glare from Twilight.
“Before that though, I’m going to conduct a few tests on you. Follow me.” The mare said.
“Okay!” Cloud said, following the mare down the stairs.
~ Laboratory ~
Cloud and Twilight reached the basement, which had been converted into a lab for studying science. Cloud looked in amazement at all the odd trinkets and chemicals, immediately running up to a test tubes of test tubes, half with a red liquid and half with a blue liquid. “What’s this do?!” He asked excitedly, picking one pair up. An idea popped in his head and he immediately poured the red liquid into the test tube with the blue liquid.
“Wait, DON’T-!”
*BOOM*
Cloud’s eyes were wide as plates, his face was covered in soot, and his hair blown back a bit. The test tubes were completely destroyed, along with some items near the Saiyan. Twilight sighed, using magic to grab a small broom and dust pan to collect the small shards of glass and a wet washcloth to wipe away the soot. “That was fun!” Cloud said as Twilight took a clean end of the washcloth and cleaned his face.
“Please don’t touch anything else unless I tell you to, okay?” Twilight ask, earning a nod from the boy. Then the mare noticed something: Cloud’s face was completely unharmed by the explosion. A test formulating in her mind, she grabbed the nearby notes on the liquids and looked through them. She grabbed another test tube with red liquid and another test tube with blue liquid, tinkered with them for a minute, and then handed them to Cloud. “Hold these for a second.”
Twilight hurried behind cover a few feet away. “Now pour the red liquid into the blue liquid!” She said.
Cloud was kind of confused at this test-thingy-ma-jig but just rolled with it. He looked at the liquids for a moment, but was hit with another wave of confusion. He examined them closely and then looked back at Twilight. “What’re red and blue?”
“The red one is in your left hand!” She answered. Cloud looked back at the test tubes and smiled. He happily poured the red liquid into the test tube with the blue liquid like before and was met with an even bigger explosion than before. His face was covered in soot yet again and his hair was blown back even more. However, his smile remained the same.
“That was fun!” He said, looking back at his friend. “Can we do it again with an even BIGGER explosion?”
“Sure thing!” She said, eager to figure out just how durable he was.
~ Back With Spike ~
Spike was yet again sitting on the couch reading his Supermare comic in enjoyment, with only the sounds of explosions from the basement disturbing him every now and then, but only for a moment. But then he was further disturbed by a knock on the door. “Come on in!” He hollered, far too engrossed in the comic to get up and see who it was.
The door opened to reveal a marshmallow white unicorn with a purple mane and tail, both of which were uniquely styled and taken care of with great care. She walked inside the library and looked around. “Twilight!” She called.
The dragon recognized the voice and hurried out of the lounge to meet his crush. “Hey, Rarity! What brings you here?” He asked.
“Oh, hello Spike!” Rarity responded with a smile. “Have you any idea where Twilight is? I wanted her to see her gown for this year’s Grand Galloping Gala.”
“Oh, she’s-” Spike began.
*BOOOOM!!*
“… down in the laboratory…” Spike said.
“By Celestia’s beard, what in Equestria is she doing?” Rarity asked as she walked to the stairway leading to the laboratory below.
“She’s just doing some experiments.” Spike said as he followed the mare.
The two went down the stairs and entered the laboratory to see a huge mess. All of the experiments Twilight had had been moved to a single corner of the room, clustered all together without rhyme or reason. And there was an entire spot in the room covered in soot, with Cloud standing in the center. By now, his clothes were ruined, his hair was blown in every direction, and he was about as dirty as one could get.
“WHAT THE HAY IS GOING ON HERE?!” Rarity asked, running down the last set of stairs. Twilight walked out from behind a blast shield with a quill and clipboard.
“Hey, Rarity! I was just conducting a test on Cloud here to figure out just how durable he is. So far, it seems he can take punishment equal to that of dragon fire!” Twilight said excitedly. Cloud walked forward and extended his hand for a handshake.
“Hiya! I’m Cloud!” He said happily. Then he looked towards Twilight. “My face is starting to tingle a little bit…” He continued, pointing towards his soot covered face and earning a laugh from the lavender mare.
“SWEET CELESTIA!! YOU’RE A TOTAL MESS!” Rarity screamed in utmost terror. “You’re… You’re all covered in soot! And just look at your mane and clothes! They’re a total wreck!” She continued. Cloud could only stare on in confusion.
“I’m fine though, really, I am!” Cloud protested, but it seemed the white unicorn was having none of it.
“Twilight, I was going to show you your gown, but THIS is far more important!” Rarity claimed.
“Rarity, it’s fine, it really is!” Twilight protested.
“Fine? THIS is anything but FINE! This. IS. THE WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!!” Rarity proclaimed dramatically. It became clear her mind was not going to be changed. “Cloud, was it? Follow me. Spike, you too! We’re going to hose him down posthaste!” Rarity ordered. Spike stood up straight with his chest out, saluting like a soldier. After that, he hurried up the stairs to get the hose ready, followed by Rarity. Cloud just stood in confusion.
“We’ll resume later.” Twilight said. “You go on up, I’ll clean this mess and be up in a minute.”
“Alright! See ya!” Cloud said happily, dismissing his confusion and hurrying up the stairs.
~ Outside Golden Oaks ~
Spike unrolled the hose from the side of the library, which was then enveloped in a blue aura. The aura carried the hose over to Rarity who readied herself for the “dirty deed”. Cloud then walked out the door to find the pony and dragon by the side of the library.
“What’s that thi-” Cloud began but was interrupted as water sprayed all over him in torrents. Out of surprise, he fell on his behind. He tried to gather himself, but found the task difficult as the water hit him.
Rarity squinted to get a good look at the soot covering Cloud’s body and saw it wasn’t fully coming off. “Spike, would you be a dear and amp it up a little?”
The dragon stood tall and saluted. “Yes, ma’am!” He said. He turned the handle at the base of the hose, and more water came out the nozzle with greater speed and force.
The unicorn looked closely at Cloud again to see that the soot was finally coming off. “Thank you Spike-wikey!” She said with glee. The love struck dragon saluted as he blushed madly, though this went unnoticed by his crush. Then Rarity said to Cloud, “Now turn around so I can get your back!”
‘Thank goodness!’ Cloud thought relieved. He turned around and the soot on his back was washed away in minutes. “Are we done yet?” He asked the mare.
Rarity took one last good look at Cloud and said, “Just a little bit more… Done!” She looked to the dragon behind her. “You can turn it off now Spike!” She said to him. He answered with yet another firm salute and turned the hose off. Rarity looked towards Cloud and examined him closely. His entire body was soaking wet, and quite frankly still dripping. His hair hung in front of his face from the weight of the water. After a moment, Rarity and Spike began to giggle, and then ultimately break out in laughter. Cloud looked at his reflection in the window and suddenly began to laugh as well.
Twilight suddenly walked out of the library with a towel levitating beside her. She saw the state her Saiyan friend was in and giggled a little bit. “Here, Cloud. Dry yourself off!” She said, holding back some laughter, but ultimately joining in with her friends.
~ Meanwhile ~
Outside a bakery, a young mare was playing with two little foals when, suddenly, she perked up and became serious. Something was happening nearby. She didn’t know what it was, but somehow she knew it involved one of her friends… and… AND!
Somepony NEW in town!
“Sorry, Pumpkin Cake! Sorry, Pound Cake!” The pink mare said. “There’s something I need to do right now!” And with that, she made a mad dash - or rather a mad hop - to Golden Oaks Library with intentions only she knew…
Cloud seems to find himself in all sorts of excitement, doesn’t he? And there are no signs of it stopping any time soon as a mysterious mare makes her way to him and his friends with intentions unknown! Stay tuned for the next episode of DRAGON BALL TX!!
The group consisting of Cloud, Spike, Twilight, and Rarity entered the Carousel Boutique. “Alright, Cloud, right this way!” Rarity said, motioning the Saiyan to a chair. “Now sit still so I can get to work on repairing your clothes.” She added. He sat down in the chair with his legs crossed as Rarity levitated a pair of fancy glasses, a mane tie, a sewing needle, and green thread over. She put the glasses on, bound her mane in ponytail, and got to sewing.
Cloud craned his head towards Rarity who stood behind him sewing. “How long is this gonna take?” He asked.
“Hmm, my best guess is somewhere around an hour.” The fashion mare guessed.
The boy was surprised greatly by this answer. “I have to sit still that long?” He complained. “Can we do this later?”
Rarity continued to work on restoring Cloud’s clothes. “We could do it now or we could do it later, but either way it’ll take an hour all the same.” She said to the boy. “We might as well do it now and get it over with…” She added.
As Cloud sat bored as Rarity was sewing, Twilight opened up her saddlebag and took out a children’s book. The lavender unicorn walked over to Cloud and said, “I thought it might take a while for Rarity to fix your clothes, so I figured I could start teaching you a little bit on how to read!” She showed him the book in question: it was an ABC’s book with a variety of colors and cutely drawn animals and items on the front.
Rarity’s ears perked up the moment Twilight mention that Cloud couldn’t read. “My word! You don’t know how to read?” She exclaimed in shock, stopping what she was doing for a moment.
“Uh-uh…” Cloud confirmed.
“And that’s why I brought this ABC book!” Twilight said. Cloud looked back at the librarian to see it open to the first of many, many letters: the atrocious letter A, for apple. “Before you can start reading, you need to know all the letters of the alphabet, how they look, and how they sound! This one is A!”
“Um, okay… A…” Cloud said as began to feel embarrassed at being treated like a little kid, but set it aside as he wanted to learn how to read.
From there, Twilight continued teaching Cloud the alphabet. He struggled learning at times, but he ultimately learned each letter and how they sounded. However…
“Okay, time for a quick quiz!” Twilight said happily. She opened the book to a random letter: the radical letter R, for rabbit. “Which letter is this?” She asked.
Cloud looked intensely at the letter for a solid minute. ‘What letter is it? A? No, that doesn’t seem right. How about 7? Wait, no, that’s a number.’ He thought. He leaned forward a moment, only to be pulled back by Rarity. He wore an irritated facial expression as he scratched at his temple. ‘What is it? Wait a sec! I know it! I KNOW IT!!’
Cloud wore a confident expression as he answered with glee, “That’s the letter L for little!” Spike facepalmed at the Saiyan’s obviously wrong answer while Twilight sighed.
“That’s wrong, Cloud. This is the letter R.” Twilight said, earning a frown from Cloud. “Let’s try again. What’s this letter?” She asked as she opened up to the persistent letter P, for Pegasus.
Cloud readied for round 2 of ‘What’s That Letter?’ and leaned forward to stare intensely at the letter, of course though he was pulled back by Rarity, but the intensity remained all the same. ‘Think, Cloud! Think! THINK!’ He thought intensely as his eye twitched.
As Cloud thought deeply, Rarity took a moment to breathe and looked out the window to see the sky darkening slightly as the sun began to set. “Spike, would you be a dear and turn the lights on?” She asked the purple dragon. He responded immediately and ran to the light switch, turning it on immediately. “Oh, and could you turn the lamp beside me on?” She asked. The dragon responded immediately yet again and ran to turn on the lamp. It lit up instantly right above Cloud.
‘Brain blast! Huh? Why’d I say that? Never mind, that doesn’t matter!’ Cloud thought just as the lamp lit up above him and Rarity. He once again wore a confident expression on his face and answered, “That’s B for bear!” At this, Twilight sighed once again.
“Sorry, but that isn’t right either. This one is the letter P.” She said. “We’ll try one more. If you don’t get it right, that’s fine; we’ll just go over the letters again.” She flipped the book open to a new page, to the ever zany Z, for zebra.
“Okay, that’s… umm… that… one… is…” Cloud began as he thought deeply. “… N?” He answered unconfidently.
Twilight sighed yet again. “Sorry, but that isn’t correct either. This one is Z.” The lavender mare sighed.
Poor Cloud sighed in disappointment. “I’m… I’m…” He started, finding the next few words difficult to say. “… I’m not gonna get this right, am I?” He asked sadly as his head hung low.
Twilight looked at the upset Cloud and raised his chin with her hoof to look him in the eye. “You’re going to get this right eventually, Cloud, I promise!” She said, confident in her young friend’s ability to grow. “It might take some time, but you’ll get this down eventually! You just have to keep on trying!” She added, earning a small smile from Cloud.
“You know, I can’t count how many times I failed before I got something right!” Spike added with a chuckle. “Once I tried to make a simple jewel cake, and it kept coming out so burnt it was practically a pile of ashes! Then, on my tenth try, I got it!”
Rarity decided to join on in and added, “I make clothing for a living, and I’ve had many rather unhappy customers! And what did I do when they weren’t happy? I didn’t give up, I’ll tell you that! No, no, I kept on working on their particular clothing until they were 100% satisfied!”
“You see? You can fail 10 times, 100 times, or even 1,000 times, but so long as you keep on trying and hitting those books, you’ll get it eventually! You just can’t quit on yourself, because that’s when you really fail!” Twilight said.
Cloud was still feeling pretty dumb, but smiled at his friends anyways. “Thanks you guys. Thanks a lot!” He cheerfully and continuing with, “Now, let’s hit those books!” He declared, winding up a fist and rearing to punch the book immediately in front of him. Twilight rolled up nearby magazine and hit Cloud on the nose, not hard, but still good enough to at least make him stop.
“We don’t LITERALLY hit the books! It’s just a funny way of saying things!” She scolded. “Now, let’s go over the ABC’s again. This time, pay close attention to how they look!”
“Alright, I’m ready!” Cloud declared, pumping himself up.
“This is…”
~ About half an hour or so later ~
Quite a bit of time had passed since Cloud’s first little quiz on the alphabet, and it was now nighttime, with the full moon in the sky. By now, Rarity had finished restoring Cloud’s upper gi and was working on his pants. The young Saiyan only had many more quizzes as night rolled around, and all of which he failed. However, he remained confident…
And then…
“Now, for your 13th quiz…” Twilight flipped the book open to another letter, specifically the capitalistic letter C, for cat. “What is this letter?”
Cloud began pondering, placing his fingers on his chin as he squinted at the letter, as though he was trying to intimidate it. “That’s…” He started. “That’s O for orange!!” He said with confidence.
Twilight shook her head. “No, this is the letter C for cat, but I can… C how you’d make that mistake!” Twilight said, earning a blank stare from Spike, while Rarity tried to contain a light giggle. Cloud on the other hand was laughing hysterically. “Now for the next letter!” She said, flipping to the easygoing letter E, for elephant.
Cloud smiled confidently as he answered, “That’s F for fun!”
Twilight once again shook her head in response to the incorrect answer. “No, this is the letter E for elephant, but like with the letters C and O, there is a resemblance.” She said before flipping to the next letter, the… the… uh, letter Q (I got nothing clever for this one), for quilt.
Cloud stared at it intensely, but yet again answered with confidence. “That’s the letter R!”
Twilight yet again shook her head in response. “Sorry, but that’s incorrect as well! This is Q for quilt!”
Cloud sighed in irritation, taking his thumb and middle finger and snapping as he said, “Darn it! I REALLY thought I had it this time!”
“It’s okay, we can try again tomorrow morning! Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you something!” Twilight started. “I was wondering if you’d like to sleep over at Golden Oaks tonight!”
Cloud smiled, not so much at spending the night, but the earlier and quicker he got to challenge the ABC’s again, the better! “Sure, I’d like to spend the night!” He said eagerly.
Rarity spoke up, but her eyes and focus never left her work as she continued to repair Cloud’s pants. “Sweetie Belle and the Crusaders are spending the night at Fluttershy’s tonight, so if it’s alright with you Twilight, I wouldn’t mind sleeping over as well! It’ll just take me one minute to finish this, and then I want to show you your Gala gown before we leave to show you some minor additions I made…”
“I don’t see any reason why not!” Twilight said excitedly.
Another minute or two passed as Rarity continued to sew up numerous holes and tears in Cloud’s pants. As she did this, Twilight pulled out a notebook to write down the progress she made teaching Cloud the alphabet while Spike told the Saiyan all about the super cool Supermare and her many adventures and battles. Such talk of such a powerful being began to boil Cloud’s Saiyan blood, and funny enough, it actually took a while for the dragon to convince him the superhero didn’t exist, much to his disappointment (and honestly much to Spike’s disappointment as well).
“There! Done!” Rarity announced as she finished up her work, snipping off some string and setting it and the needle aside. Cloud, for the first time in an hour, stood up, and he was very, very happy to do so! “Now if you’ll follow me, Twilight!”
“Sure thing!” The lavender mare said excitedly. “You boys get ready to-”
“WHAT’S THIS?”
“MEOW!!!”
*SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCRATCH!!!*
“Ow, ow, ochie, ow!” Cloud said in pain and discomfort as he placed both hands on his scratch wounds from a certain spiteful kitten who aimed primarily at the Saiyan’s face. Twilight tried to stifle her laughter as rarity scolded Opalescence.
“That’s a cat, Cloud!” Twilight said, walking over with a wet napkin to clean his battle wounds. “Y’know, C for cat!”
“Yeah, a very hateful cat…” Spike muttered as he recalled a similar incident, rubbing at the right side of his face as old ‘wounds’ began to ache.
“I don’t think I like the letter C anymore…” Cloud said with a chuckle.
After some laughs and Twilight seeing her slightly modified gown, Rarity packed her things and the group left for Golden Oaks. However, just as they were leaving, a certain thing caught Cloud’s eye. It was a celestial body - one everypony in Equestria was familiar with when nighttime came. That is, everypony but Cloud. He gazed at the object which lit the starry night sky.
He stared, at the full moon.
*BA-BUMP*
*BA-BUMP*
*BA-BUMP*
*BA-BUMP*
The ability to transform into a powerful and vicious Great Ape - the Oozaru - at the sight of the full moon. This was a gift given to the warrior race known as the Saiyans, who used this heinous power to level entire worlds! What will happen to Ponyville, next DRAGON BALL TX?!
An entranced Cloud stared up at the moon, his heart beating strongly as his black innocent eyes became red. He was undergoing the transformation into the Oozaru, however, something was missing, one single component needed for the transformation.
A tail…
Spike, Twilight, and Rarity all took notice of Cloud’s strange, hypnotized state, but did nothing as they stared on in confusion. After a moment however, Spike walked forward to tap Cloud on the shoulder. “Hey, Cloud. Hey!” The dragon began shaking him.
Cloud twitched and his red eyes returned to their normal innocent black form. He looked back to see the concerned and confused looks of his friends and returned a confused look of his own as he said, “What’s wrong? You’re looking at me all strange…”
“Um, sorry, it’s just… you sort of froze there for a second…” Twilight answered. “It happened when you looked at the moon.”
Cloud looked back at the moon, but the effects from before did not happen again. He looked back at his friends and said, “What’s a moon?” This question surprised his friends. “I’ve never seen it before…” He added, looking back at the moon with interest.
“You’ve never seen the moon before?!” Rarity asked in shock.
“Uh-uh. I think it’s ‘cuz of the trees in the forest…” He said, still looking at the moon. “But… I kinda feel like I have seen it before… Anyways, can we go back to the Old Cokes li… libra… libar… uh, Twilight’s place?”
Twilight was going to correct Cloud’s usual mispronunciation, but chose not to, instead saying “Alright, let’s get going everypony!”
~ A Block or Two from Golden Oaks ~
Minutes had passed since Cloud’s small incident and the group had long since forgotten about it. They had passed the time getting to the library with a friendly chat. Occasionally they passed another pony, in which they waved hello and wished a good night. Eventually, the boys wound up talking about Supermare and the girls about what they’ll do during the sleepover.
“… So, what did Supermare do?!” Cloud asked eagerly as Spike educated him on one of Supermare’s many feats.
“It was SUPER awesome! She flew up to the sky and into space and flew around the world SO fast, she REWOUND time, fixing all of the damage!” The dragon said, still amazed greatly by the feat. “The best part about it is that she’s an Earth pony - she doesn’t have wings, and she STILL flies!” He added.
Cloud exclaimed “So. Awesome! I wish I could fly…” He added, looking up at the night sky.
The group arrived at the library in no time and Twilight pulled out a key from her saddle bag. “It’s just about 8:00 now, so we have plenty of time to play games and-”
Cloud sensed a… dark presence behind the door, one with intentions so vile they sent a chill down his spine. Just as Twilight turned the knob with her magic, he said, “Wait a second Twi!” The mare stopped and everyone looked at him. “I’ve got a feeling something’s behind the door. It’s like… I dunno, but I have this really weird feeling!”
Cloud walked forward and approached the door. “Stand back, I’ll open it…” He said. No pony knew what he was talking about just now, but if there was something behind the door he’d definitely have the strength to deal with it alright.
The door creaked open slowly to reveal darkness. The moment the door was fully opened, he got into a fighting stance and inched forward into the darkness. And then…
*Bam!*
A cannon went off as the lights flashed on. Cloud’s body tensed, ready for battle as confetti hit him. He-
Wait a second. Confetti?
“SURPRISE!!” A bunch of ponies yelled, popping out of their hiding places and scaring Cloud as he fell on his back.
A pink pony with a pink, puffy mane and tail appeared right in front of Cloud’s face with the biggest smile he had ever seen in his life. “Welcome, welcome, welcome to Ponyville! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?” The mare dubbed Pinkie Pie said. The Saiyan boy was unable to respond due to his immense amount of confusion.
“Oh! Is that a chocolate emerald jewel cake?! I love those!” Spike said as he rushed in, followed by Rarity.
Cloud got up to a sitting position and scratched the back of his head as he stuttered unintelligibly, “Uuuuhhh, w-what…?”
Twilight giggled as she walked to her pink friend, wrapping Cloud in magic to levitate him onto his feet as she did so. “Pinkie Pie, this is Cloud! Cloud, this is Pinkie Pie!” She said happily. “It looks like she’s planned a ‘Welcome’ party for you! You should feel honored!”
Cloud shook off his confusion as he extended his hand for a handshake, which Pinkie me with her hoof. She shook vigorously and said, “Come on in! This is your big ‘Welcome’ party!” She pulled him inside with enough force to create a strong gust of wind which slammed the door shut. She continued to drag him to see a number of games like pin the tail on the donkey, apple bobbing, and twister, which the majority of ponies seemed to be playing. Ponies who weren’t playing any games conversed with each other, danced, and really just had fun. “And right here is ALL the food!”
*GRUMBLE*
The party mare did something she should not have done. She showed a Saiyan an ENTIRE buffet.
Cloud’s hunger peaked and he stared longingly at the towers of food, ranging from various types of cake and pie, sandwiches, cupcakes, muffins, and more. He drooled intensely as he thought deeply about which of the foods he should eat first He was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice Pinkie Pie trying to get his attention, holding a baseball bat in her mouth with a blind fold.
“HELLOOOOOO! ARE. YOU. IN. THERE?” She asked, knocking on his noggin. Suddenly, he disappeared from sight. She looked around herself, turning her head in directions thought to be impossible and found Cloud behind her at the table digging into the mounds of food like a wild animal. After a moment, she giggled and joined in with Cloud.
Cloud grabbed a handful of mangos and a liter of soda, chomping on three mangos at a time before switching to a liter of of soda and draining it by half in three or four gulps. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie began to chow down on a bunch of cupcakes and muffins, each of varying flavors but each coated in hot sauce. As she moved onto the three layer cake, Cloud grabbed as many apples as he could, chomping into three at the same time. He then took a moment to pause as a realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.
‘MMMMMMM! These apples taste REALLY good!’ Cloud noted in his head. He finished 12 of the apples in under two minutes and was about to grab another when he noticed the apple pie. He went for that instead, but the moment his hand was a mere inch away, a certain pink mare appeared out of nowhere and devoured it entirely. By doing this (not that she knew he was reaching for it) she awakened a slumbering beast. Pinkie reached for some more pie, but when she was only an inch away, Cloud grabbed it and devoured it within seconds.
Then he smirked challengingly.
Both looked at each other with an intense fire blazing in their eyes, eyes like that of hungry tigers. The Saiyan broke the silence.
“I bet I can eat more than you!” He challenged eagerly as began to care less about not being able to eat the apple pie and more about eating in a contest with her.
“CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!” She exclaimed joyfully.
The two renewed their feast with Cloud taking the food on the table’s left side and Pinkie the right side. They ate as fast as they could, and within minutes a good portion of the food was gone. Neither of them seemed to be out eating the other.
After a few more minutes, all of the ponies in the tree house took notice of the two’s battle and watched. “CLOUD! CLOUD! PINKIE! PINKIE!” They all cheered.
“Whose winning?”
“I have no idea. What do you think, MidnightTwister?”
“Dude, I’m the author and I have no buckin’ idea…”
“LANGUAGE!”
“Sorry!”
Many minutes passed and the battle was still raging on. Pinkie finished wolfing down a chocolate-chip-cookie-pizza and Cloud a dozen of frost tarts. They both reached out for more food only to feel something very strange, nothing like food. Actually what they grabbed seemed to resist. They looked to see what it was and found that they had grabbed each other’s hand and hoof. They took a moment to realize what this meant.
“ALL THE FOOD’S GONE?!?!” They yelled in unison for all of Ponyville to hear. “So wait, who won?” Pinkie asked.
Twilight stepped up and answered, “I guess it’s a tie!” She earned a bout of disappointed groans from the two.
“Well, that was fun!” Cloud said happily. “I’d like to do this again some time!”
“YEP, YEP, YEP!” Pinkie said cheerfully.
~ The Party Ends ~
“Goodnight everypony!” Twilight said as the last of the ponies left. She closed the door to see the last remaining ponies, dragon, and Saiyan.
Excluding Spike, Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, Cloud had not met everypony. Twilight walked to Cloud and pointed to two ponies, saying “Girls, this is Cloud! Cloud, this is-”
A cyan Pegasus mare who had a rainbow mane, rainbow tail, and rose red irises flew up quickly with flare, interrupting the lavender mare. “The name’s Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in ALL of Equestria! Nice ta meet’cha, kid!” She proudly stated.
Rainbow was suddenly engulfed in a magenta aura and pulled aside as an orange Earth Pony having a blonde mane and tail worn in a ponytail, green irises, and sporting a cowboy hat walked forward. She outstretched her hoof with a smile. “Ah’m Applejack! Nice ta meet ya, pardner! Ah’ve heard tales of yer strength from Fluttershy over there!” She said with a chuckle.
A rainbow blur appeared instantly, taking the form of Dash as it stopped next to Cloud. She rested an elbow on his shoulder and said, “Yeah, same here! I didn’t believe her at first until she showed me, and still I’m having a hard time believing a kid like you could uproot that tree!”
Twilight walked up and added, “Well, it’s true! He’s pretty strong for somepony his age!”
“I bet if I taught you some kung fu, you’d reach top class easy!” Rainbow said.
Cloud wore a confused look on his face. “What’s gun food?”
“Kung fu.” Rainbow corrected. “It’s a way of fighting!”
Cloud’s confusion switched to joy and excitement. “REALLY?! I LOVE FIGHTING!” He said. “Please, please, PLEASE teach me!” He begged with the biggest puppy dog eyes.
Rainbow smiled as an idea crossed her mind, then her smile disappeared as she put on an unimpressed face. She teased, “I dunno, kid. Looking at ya, you might not have it in ya…” A look of fear overtook Cloud’s face.
“I’ll work SUPER hard! Please teach me!!” He begged, not catching onto the fact that she was just messing with him.
Rainbow earned a glare from Applejack and Twilight and responded. “I suppose I could teach ya. But you have to work HARD! If you for a moment start slacking off, you can forget me teaching ya!”
Cloud wore a big smile at that. “Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!” He said, jumping up and down.
As the ponies just watched the joyous boy jump with glee, Rarity realized something. She looked to her butter yellow Pegasus friend and asked “Fluttershy, I thought you’d be with the girls! Did you tuck them in?”
Fluttershy wore a confused expression on her face. “They never came by. I thought they changed their minds and stayed at the boutique.”
~ Rambling Rock Ridge Mines ~
A bipedal, lanky dog with dark, brownish grey fur, pointed ears, and green eyes walked through the tunnels of the mine. He wore a diamond studded collar with one orange gem attached and a red vest with pockets full of varying gems.
This was the diamond dog named Rover.
He entered a very large space filled with cages which contained ponynapped fillies and colts. He came to a desk to find his closest comrades, Fido, a large muscular Diamond Dog, and Spot, a small and easily irritable Diamond Dog. Both sat in chairs by the desk which had a door behind it. Rover took a seat by his friends and readied to hear the news.
The door behind the desk opened and three beings walked out. One was an old and round Diamond Dog with thick blue fur and a thick white mustache, dressed in a formal suit. He sat down in the chair behind the desk.
The other two weren’t Diamond Dogs at all. They were reptilians, one being a lizard and the other being a crocodile.
The lizard was very lanky, had light green scales, a short snout, yellow eyes, and had a thin tail. He wore a beige vest with pockets on the front and pants of the same color. Two silver containers were holstered on either side of his hips with contents unknown.
The crocodile was just the opposite of the lizard. He was very large and unbelievably muscular, had dark green and bumpy scales, his snout was very long, his eyes white, and his muscular tail was cut in half. He was dressed in a dark brown vest with pockets on the front and pants of the same color. Attached behind him at the top of his pants was a sheathed hunting knife.
The old Diamond Dog at the desk named Mr. Furry cleared his throat. “Gentledogs, I have good news! We have struck the deal!” The dogs on the other side of the desk cheered for a moment before becoming quiet as Mr. Furry raised his right paw to silence them. “In exchange for these 200 ponies, we’ll receive from these Saurians a sum of 400 diamonds!” The three began to wag their tails and drool heavily in excitement.
As the old dog explained more of the details, the two Saurians still standing at the door began their own conversation. “Phase 1 is complete, Big Bro! Now to phase 2!” The lizard whispered as the croc grinned a toothy grin.
Just as everyone was beginning to enjoy themselves, trouble arises! The Cutie Mark Crusaders have disappeared without a trace! To make matters worse, a shady operation takes place under the ground in which young ponies are going to be sold! Could the CMC be one of the foalnapped ponies?! For answers, don’t miss the next action packed episode of DRAGON BALL TX!
The group consisting of six mares who we’ll just call the Mane 6 for short, one dragon, and one Saiyan stood in the main room of the library, talking in worry about what to do about the missing fillies known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or CMC for short. The CMC was supposed to spend the night at Fluttershy’s cottage, but had never shown up. Currently, no pony, dragon, or Saiyan knew what to do…
Applejack asked with worry in her voice, “Ya don’t think they went on anotha one of their crusades?”
Fluttershy responded quietly with, “I don’t think they’d go out on another crusade at night. Not after what happened last time…” Everypony recalled the incident with the cockatrice, which could turn ponies to stone with a gaze.
“Maybe they’re at their tree house?” Twilight suggested. “Maybe they’re just sleeping over there!”
Applejack shook her head. “Ah didn’t see them in there ‘fore Ah left Sweet Apple Acres.”
Rainbow Dash showed a look of irritation on her face to mask her worry. “Why the hay are we just sitting here talking?!” She said as all eyes fell on her. “We NEED to go out and just find them!”
Twilight said, “Find them where? We don’t know where they went!”
The room fell silent for a moment before Spike voiced his thoughts. “What… what if they were kidnapped?” Everypony considered the idea and became much more worried.
Cloud was still a little lost in the madness. He knew the CMC was missing, but he didn’t know about most of the stuff the mares were talking about. Beyond that, he had no idea what kidnapping was. So the boy walked up to and lightly pulled on Twilight’s mane to get her attention. “What’s it mean to be kidnapped?” He asked innocently.
“Uh, basically we think somepony might’ve taken the girls…” She answered
“That is, unfortunately, very likely…” A new voice said in a motherly tone. The voice came from the now open door, which everyone looked towards. Standing at the opening was a tall white mare. She had the long horn of a Unicorn, a pair of Pegasus wings, pink irises, and a multicolored main and tail. She was adorned in gold regalia and a crown which had purple gems embedded into it.
The mares and dragon gasped in surprised, though Pinkie’s gasp was far more exaggerated. She even sped off into the kitchen and came back in an instant with a cup of water in her hoof, took a sip of the water, and spit it out in surprise! Everyone but Cloud looked at the pink party pony blankly before bowing to the obviously important pony.
The Saiyan boy looked at his friends in confusion as they bowed before taking a second look at the white pony. He then noticed something very unique to this mare.
Her mane… Blew in a nonexistent breeze… Um… What?
He immediately scampered over to the mare to investigate her mane. However, the moment he reached to touch her mane he was hit over the head. “OW!” He yelped, turning around to see a very, VERY angry Twilight. She held a frying pan in her magical grip, ready to use it again if necessary. Cloud gulped in fear as he backed away slowly from the tall white pony. “Um… sorry?”
The white mare looked in surprise but soon chuckled at the event. She said, “That wasn’t the introduction I was expecting!” She looked towards the mares and dragon as they remained bowed. “You may rise my little ponies.”
Everyone rose to their feet and hooves and relaxed, although Cloud moved to a corner to sort of hide, fearing incurring a certain lavender mare’s wrath. Said mare asked, “Princess! W-why are you here?”
Cloud perked up at this. “Prin… cess… What’s that?”
Twilight looked to the boy and answered his question, slightly embarrassed. “Oh, Cloud, this is Princess Celestia! She’s in charge of, well, pretty much everything…” She turned to Princess Celestia. “Princess, this is Cloud, a new friend of ours!”
Celestia looked over to the young Saiyan. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cloud, I just wish we could’ve met under different circumstances.”
He smiled and was about to happily reply, but then gave a somewhat confused look. “Sir… Sirgum… huh?” He attempted to pronounce the words. He then shook it off and set his question aside as he smiled and replied appropriately. “It’s nice to meet’cha, too!”
The Princess suddenly became serious, changing the atmosphere immediately. “I came here to ask all of you for your help in a very serious matter.” Everyone perked up at this news, especially Cloud. “Back in Canterlot, we’ve been undergoing an investigation into an illegal operation. We have all the evidence we need to go in, however, as the Elements and the ones who defeated and reformed my sister, I wanted to ask you all for your help.”
“We’d be SUPER happy to help!!” Pinkie exclaimed, hopping on over.
Applejack smiled. “Couldn’t have said it better mahself!”
After everypony happily responded, Twilight asked the obvious question. “What kind of operation is going on?”
Princess Celestia said “Based on reports found and other evidence, innocent foals are going to be sold.” Everyone was shocked to have heard this, though Cloud was confused yet again. Suddenly it began to seem like Cloud was confused by anything and had a question for just about anything every second.
She continued with “Apparently 200 foals were kidnapped over a couple of months by Diamond Dogs, who will then sell them for gems… Two weeks ago, we captured a Diamond Dog as he was attempting to kidnap a young foal in Fillydelphia. It took a few days for him to confess, and even more to convince him to help us undercover. As we speak, the deal is going down at Rambling Rock Ridge.”
“Then what are we waiting for?!” Rainbow questioned, flying off the floor dramatically. “LET’S GO!”
~ Back at Rambling Rock Ridge with the Cages ~
Fillies and colts of all ages sat in their steel cages. There was a good number of cages, each very large and capable of holding at least 20 foals comfortably. In one of them, a colt blew into a harmonica, playing a sad melody in the background.
A young filly sat on the cold iron floor of the cage, her face matted with dried tears. “Are we ever gonna see are families again?” She asked sadly.
“Yes, we will!” Scootaloo said with confidence, wrapping hoof around the filly’s shoulder. She smiled to show her confidence to the filly.
Apple Bloom walked up with more of her own air of confidence and hope. “Don’t worry! Somepony’ll come save us! Ah promise!”
“You’ll see! We’ll be just fine!” Sweetie Belle said, joining on in. The CMC’s attempts to cheer the filly up worked as a small smile formed on her face.
“In fact…!” Scootaloo started. She stood up and walked over to another spot, motioning the rest of the CMC to gather closely and began to whisper something inaudible. “… and that’s my plan!”
Sweetie Belle asked, “Are you sure it’ll work?”
“Of course! It has to!” The orange Pegasus responded. “Everypony know what to do?”
“Yep!” The other two CMC members responded.
After a minute, Sweetie Belle screamed loudly, “Guards! GUARDS! Help!” A nearby guard Diamond Dog in heavy armor walked on over to the cage where the scream came again. He immediately saw Apple Bloom and Scootaloo in a fight, hitting each other over and over again. He lost interest however and started to leave. Suddenly, with a well placed kick to the ribs, Scootaloo fell over, screaming in pain. She held at her ribs and began to cough and wheeze. Sweetie Belle hurried over as some nearby foals held back Apple Bloom. The unicorn put her hoof on the injured part of Scootaloo and looked at the guard with panic. “HER RIBS ARE BROKEN! SHE COULD DIE!”
The guard looked on dumbly and shrugged, turning around and walking away with disinterest.
The plan wasn’t working.
Scootaloo dropped her act and looked at the guard as he walked away. “Shoot! I was so sure that would work!”
A colt who was helping to hold back Apple Bloom wore a look of confusion. He then realized the youngest member of the Apple family had stopped struggling but was instead looking down upset. He looked between the two, got his math on and put two and two together, and stepped away. He walked to the bars and began shaking them as hard as he could.
“HEY! IDIOT! GET BACK HERE!” He screamed as the guard stopped and turned around with a look of anger on his face. “There was a deal, right?! You were gonna sell us, right? And for a lot of money, right?”
“What’s it matter to you, eh?” The guard asked as he began to turn back and walk away.
The colt began to buck at the bars as hard as he could. “So? If they find out YOU let one of us DIE, those jerks aren’t gonna pay any of you guys!” The Diamond Dog wore a look of fear and began to sweat profusely. “AND GUESS WHO YOUR BOSS IS GONNA BLAME!!”
The CMC smiled widely, but got back to acting as soon as the guard turned around and hurried to the door of the cage. He took out his keys and entered, shoving aside all of the foals to get to the Pegasus in pain. However, the moment he reached her, he was met with a buck to the face, and one of the hardest Scootaloo ever dealt, too! He stumbled backwards and was bucked again by Apple Bloom! Guess who dealt more damage…
The Diamond Dog fell over unconscious as colts and fillies began to run out of the cage all at once. Sweetie Belle took his keys off him the second he fell over and made her way out with the rest of her friends. While most foals ran out as fast as they could, some stayed behind to help the CMC unlock the other cages.
~ Outside With our Heroes ~
Multiple carriages pulled by Royal Guard Pegasi touched the ground and ran smoothly to a stop. Royal Guards hopped off the carriages and got ready for the mission as they stood just outside a hole which was guarded by a lone Diamond Dog with pointed ears. The Mane 6, Cloud, Spike, and the Princess walked up to him.
“It’s about time you got here!” He said angrily.
“Thank you for your aid…” The Princess said with a hint of anger. She looked towards the girls and said, “You’ll be accompanied by Royal Guards when you go in, but you need to know one last thing.”
“What is it?” Twilight asked.
“The Cold Blooded Bros. are involved and are even down there as we speak. You should all know who they are: the infamous Saurian brothers, Ghid and Orah.” The princess answered to everypony’s shock. She continued, “It’s just the strangest thing, however. They’re usually the ones who do the kidnapping! Having Diamond Dogs do it for them? Cutting a deal of ANY kind? Just what’s their game here…?” She shook her head and brushed the questions she had aside.
“We understand!” All the mares said as they headed towards the entrance with the guards behind. Cloud followed, but was abruptly stopped by a magical golden aura. He looked to see the Princess’s horn wrapped in the same aura.
“Sorry, but you can’t go in with them. This is too dangerous.” The princess said, releasing Cloud from her magical grip.
Cloud’s face took on that of horror. He yelled, “WHAT?!” He did not understand why he wasn’t allowed. “B-but I’ll be fine! Honest! I’m SUPER strong! I really am!” He complained. He wanted so badly to get in on the action! Besides this morning in the Everfree, nothing too exciting has happened! And these dangerous guys? How could he resist the sound of danger?! Oh, if only this princess would let him go!
“It’s fine princess! He’s not lying!” Twilight said happily. “In fact, we might actually need his help here!”
The princess was shocked. “Really? Are you sure?” She asked. She looked to Cloud to see him on his knees with puppy dog eyes, whimpering pitifully. She sighed in defeat and said in her normal motherly tone with a smile “Alright, you may go!”
“YAY!” Cloud exclaimed, jumping into the air with a big smile. Woohoo! Time for some excitement!
The Saiyan boy hurried to meet his friends, and together they jumped into the tunnels below…
Our heroes are about to face an entirely new threat, TWO to be exact! Just what are the Cold Blooded Bros. really up to? And what do they have in store for our heroes?! Tune in next time on DRAGON BALL TX!
A pair of Diamond Dog guards, clad in iron armor, stood underneath a hole to the surface. They stared blankly at the tunnel in front of them as they guarded the path behind. Finally, after what had seemed like forever to the Diamond Dogs, 5-10 seconds to the reader, and 10 minutes to the author, one of the guards sighed, looking at his feet. He looked slightly at the other guard (let’s just call them #1 and #2, kay?) and said, “Hey…”
#2 looked slightly in the direction of #1. “Yeah?”
“… You… You ever wonder why we’re here-?”
The author’s lame attempt at a reference wall was suddenly interrupted by a group of ponies plus one Saiyan boy, landing on them from the hole above. The poor dogs were dazed and confused, but they fortunately served as makeshift cushions for our heroes and the royal guards accompanying them.
They all got up and a unicorn royal guard created magical handcuffs to put onto the dogs.
“Alright, let’s head on forward! We’ll split into two groups! The Royal Guards will go down there!” Twilight said as she pointed in the direction that the Diamond Dogs were facing. “Girls, we’ll go down here, and you too Cloud!” She added, pointing in the direction that was behind the diamond dogs. Everyone nodded to confirm that they knew they’re orders.
“Good luck everypony!” She said as they all went their separate ways.
~ Back With the Baddies ~
The Saurian brothers sat at the desk on the side where Spot, Rover, and Fido were originally sitting. On the other side was Mr. Furry, the boss of all the Diamond Dogs at Rambling Rock Ridge. On a contract, ink danced gracefully as the old dog finished signing his name.
“There!” He said, pleased with his work. “Everything appears to be in order! The ponies are yours, and of course, the gems you promised are ours…”
Orah, the large crocodile, and his lizard brother, Ghid, looked blankly at the piece of paper. They then covered their faces with one hand as they both slumped back in the chairs. The dogs behind and in front of them stared in confusion.
“I-is there something wrong?” Mr. Furry asked, concerned.
“No, not at all. In fact everything’s just peachy!” Orah said, his voice like a deep guttural growl. He then began to laugh hysterically, his younger brother joining in shortly after. The crocodile stood up, nearly reaching the office’s ceiling. He smiled widely, enabling everyone to see his sharp, pearly white teeth. His enormous claws reached for the paper, and he ripped it to shreds, tossing it all to the side.
Spot, Fido, and Rover stared on in horror at what they had just witnessed. A promise, a dream of so many gems, literally ripped to shreds right in front of their eyes. They pathetically whimpered as they tried to gather all of the tiny pieces and put them together. Mr. Furry, however, was absolutely furious! “What have you done?! What is the meaning of this?!” He demanded.
Ghid stopped his laughing and answered “What we just did was ACTUALLY somehow not laugh the entire time you were signing that stupid piece of paper!” Mr. Furry was confused, until he realized what the lizard met. “You idiot! Did you really think were really gonna hold our end of the bargain?! We were gonna take all your gems in this mine the moment you had all those ponies! But you actually believed we would work with you, so we decided to play along as a joke! And it… was… PRICELESS! HEEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Ghid was laughing hysterically, clenching his sides as he wriggled in the chair and began wheezing.
Mr. Furry was in shock, and the three other Diamond Dogs were virtually on the edge of tears at the betrayal. No, a betrayal would mean that they were honestly working with each other and one side decided to take everything for themselves. No, this was a prank, and the dogs were the poor fools who fell for it.
“Ha… ha… ha… haaaaa… Hoo, boy! That was uh good one! Heehee, Orah, show the old geezer the door!” Ghid said as he tried to control himself, but still wound up laughing more.
Furry wore a look of fear as a gigantic, green, scaly claw reached for the collar of his suit. Effortlessly, the croc dragged him over the desk, seemingly as though he weighed nothing, and threw him at the door, shattering it to pieces. The old dog was sent skidding across the floor, his clothes torn and his glasses broken. He looked up in the cages’ direction.
Orah made his way out the door with his brother following behind. The crocodile had to turn sideways to get through due to his immense size. His eyes never left his prey as he pulled his gigantic hunting knife out from behind. “Don’t you worry… You won’t die, not just yet…” In very few steps, he made it to the downed dog and slowly reached for him, savoring the moment. “But is that really a good thing?”
The old dog smiled slightly and turned to the killer croc. “I know it isn’t a good thing for you…!” He said, earning a confused glare. “Looks like the joke’s really on you…! Take a look at the cages! TAKE A GOOD LOOK YOU BRUTE!!!”
Both brothers, Fido, Rover, and Spot included, looked at the cages. They were empty, but nothing too special-
Empty…
Empty…
Empty…
Both brothers stared with their mouths agape. Orah hurried to check all of the gates, cursing under his breath and talking about how he was going to place his boot somewhere between the ‘geezer’s’ lungs but just to the right of his sternum. Ghid wanted so badly to kill the old dog himself, but was too shocked to do anything at the moment but ask “What… kind of sick joke… IS THIS?!”
“Hmhmhmhmhm…” Furry chuckled as he got up, straightened his collar, and patted dust off of his clothes. He placed a hand on the lanky lizard’s shoulder. He said in a calm, wise and professional tone “Well, old sport, you’re the comedian! You tell me! Hohoho!” He walked past the lizard as he put his paws in his pockets and walked back into his office.
Orah picked up the last cage effortlessly, which must’ve weighed over a ton, and threw it across the entire room they were in, which was a good 40 or 50 feet. It landed on its side, and out came one of the diamond dog guards, dazed, confused, and quite frankly rattled. He fell to the floor and struggled to get up. “Here! Let me help ya!!” He roared, closing the 40 foot distance quickly. He picked the diamond dog up and asked “WHERE ARE THEY?!”
“I-I-I dun-dunno…” The guard groaned wearily.
Furious, Orah threw the guard across the room. He was going to run over and squash the mutt before Ghid stopped him. “Leave him be! I’m ticked too, but we gotta go and find those brats NOW!”
Orah growled. “Bah! Fine!”
~ The Kiddos as they Flee ~
How long’s it been? 10 minutes? 20? 30? An hour? A Day? Oh, who knows. Down here in the gem mines, it feels like one minute is an hour. Or at least that’s what the CMC thought. They and the rest of the foals had been running around through the tunnels endlessly. Occasionally they’d come across a bunch of diamond dogs. They’d either try to outrun them or fight them if they had to.
“GET THEM!” A diamond dog screeched as the mass of foals lead by the CMC came to a screeching halt in a big open space full of mining equipment.
They were all very tired and out of breath, and to be honest, the odds didn’t seem to be in their favor. They wanted to stop for a second, but knew if they did they’d surely be captured. It ultimately came down to fight or flight, and freeze definitely wasn’t an option.
“ATTAAAAAAACK!” The CMC yelled courageously as the foals behind them, with a sudden burst of adrenaline, charged.
Looks like fight wins this time, but what about these poor foals?
The two forces clashed. While outnumbered by the nearly 200 amount of fillies and colts, the Diamond Dogs were much stronger and deadlier. There were 40 or so dogs, and many of them were ganged up by a good number of foals.
A diamond dog began to be overrun by 15 or so colts and fillies, but in a fit of anger and animal brutality, the dog knocked ten of them away in a single blow. He thoughtlessly charged towards the remaining 5 and made to pounce on them. Two fillies instantly closed the distance, turned around, and bucked him hard in the chin. The combined force of their kicks snapped his head upward, shattered his teeth, and sent him flying in a back flip. He crashed into a nearby wall, unconscious.
5 unfortunate foals were knocked out by two diamond dogs. Said dogs grabbed them by their tails and made to leave with them, but were confronted by more than 20 foals. They gulped in fear as the foals charged relentlessly, pouncing them and striking them with all of their might to save the young foals.
The CMC and a number of other kids dispatched their 10th diamond dog. They looked around to see a good number of the diamond dogs had been either beaten or driven off in fear. However, a good number of ponies were either knocked out or sadly taken.
“C’mon everypony! Ya’ll can do it! Jus’ a little more t’go!” Apple Bloom encouraged.
The little Apple filly took a second to breathe, only to be pushed out of the way by Sweetie Belle as a Diamond Dog leapt for her. The dog crashed headfirst into the ground, dazed for the moment. Scootaloo ran up to him and bucked him to the side of the head, knocking him out cold. Man, and it was a buck right to the temple, too. Might be out for a while…
“Dangnabbit! Cain’t we catch a break?!” The earth filly demanded.
At that moment, loud thumping was heard just nearby. Everyone heard it, and for a moment they stopped. Out from a nearby tunnel came…
“GET THESE KIDS OUTTA HERE!!!” A Royal Guard ordered! All of the kids cheered in joy and made it for the tunnel the Royal Guards had come down from.
Looks like the CMC really can have that long awaited breather.
The girls hurried up to a guard who wasn’t fighting at the moment. He looked at them and said “You kids need to get outta here! Now! Go back the way we came, hug left, and you’ll see two guards guarding the entrance! They’ll take you up-”
Sweetie Belle interrupted him and said “Some of us were taken on our way out of here! You have to save them!”
The stallion nodded. “Understood. We’ll wrap this up quick, but you-”
A boom was heard as everyone stopped yet again. They looked to one of the cave walls to see a gaping hole with dust clouds pouring out of it. And coming out of it was a very, very angry Orah with his younger brother behind him. Ghid was also very angry, but was more capable of controlling his temper unlike a certain cold blooded relative of his who was standing not even a foot away from him.
All of the diamond dogs trembled at the sight of the angry Orah and immediately made their way towards the exit, abandoning their previous cause, leaving just the CMC and the Royal Guards.
The guard looked towards the CMC immediately and said “Get out of here now!”
The CMC left immediately for the exit. Now it was just the Royal Guards and the Cold Blooded Bros…
~ Back With Cloud and the Mane 6~
Our heroes continued to run through the tunnels, not knowing if they were going in the right direction or not. Honestly, this place was like a labyrinth, and not the kind where David Bowie is there to make things really interesting, either…
Poor Cloud was the one who was most bored, with Pinkie as a close 2nd. Everypony else was either irritated or didn’t seem to express any other emotion as they tried to remain focused. In his boredom, the boy thought back to the pair of brothers he heard of before and asked “So who’re the Full Putty Bros.?”
“The Cold Blooded Bros.!” Twilight corrected. She added “They’re brothers who do really bad things. You know lizards right? Well, they stand on two legs and have hands like you, but their lizards, or at least one of them is an actual lizard…”
“I… I think… I get it?” Cloud said, not really catching what she said.
Twilight sighed. “Well, there’s a big one and a small one! The small one is Ghid. Everypony knows how he fights! He has these canisters full of Manticore poison! He uses them to end his fights quickly!”
Rainbow added her own thoughts, saying “Yeah! He’s a lazy coward who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty!”
“Who can blame him?” Rarity said. Everyone but Cloud glared at her. “…What?”
“Anyways, he’s not the most dangerous one, he’s just a little tricky! Anypony with half a brain could take him on so long as they knew how he fought!” Rainbow said.
“I think I get it now.” Cloud said as he started understanding what they were telling him. “What about the big one?”
Twilight gulped as she thought about Orah. “The giant crocodile, Orah, is a total brute! He’s the one who does all the fighting!”
Cloud’s Saiyan blood began to boil in excitement as a smile formed on his face. “Really?! I can’t wait to fight these guys! It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun!”
“No!” Twilight protested. “He’s not fun at all! He can lift well over 10 tons and destroy entire houses easily! Hay! There’s even a rumor that he won in an arm wrestling match against a Dragon!”
This info only served to excite the young Saiyan even further. That is until…
“Cloud! Look, I know yer a good kid, but there’s somethin’ ya need tah get through yer head: These guys are real bad - they’re evil! They hurt innocent ponies! They kill fer fun! They do the worst things imaginable!” Applejack said. “Especially that Orah! Worst thing is, no pony even knows how he’s so dang strong!”
Rainbow Dash added “No pony that evil ever deserves that kind of strength!”
“I don’t like getting into fights… BUT THEY WILL PAY IF THEY HURT OUR SISTERS!” Rarity yelled. The mares sped up…
But Cloud lagged behind slowly. He fell farther and farther behind until he eventually came to a complete stop. His friends, the happy bunch he had just met today… They were not only angry… They were scared for their loved ones. And they were scared for their own lives, too! These guys were truly evil! And here Cloud was talking about how fun it would be to fight these guys!
‘How… How…’ Cloud thought as he looked down at his feet with guilt. ‘…How could I say something like that…?’ He looked back up at the mares as they continued, unaware that he had stopped.
Cloud’s fist clenched tightly and he made a mad dash to catch up. As he stood there, the mares had gotten about as far as a 20 meters. Cloud caught up in mere seconds, and even got ahead of them when previously he was behind them. And he wasn’t even breaking a sweat.
The girls’ separate trains of thoughts were derailed when they saw the boy. There was a different air to him as he got farther and farther ahead of them. Though they couldn’t see his face to make out his expression, they felt an emotion similar to their own. But it felt strange coming from this happy go lucky kid because it felt…
It felt like anger?
Indeed, Cloud was angry. He wore on his face a serious expression as an intense flame burned within his eyes.
‘I’m not gonna let them get away!’ He thought as he clenched his fists even tighter.
~ A Couple of Minutes Later ~
The Mane 6 accompanied by Cloud made it at long last to…
The entrance of the mine.
“Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow yelled. “We just went in a circle!” Everypony shared her irritation, but Cloud was especially angry. He hurried to two guards posted below the entrance. Currently they were filing all the foals out.
“You guys!” Cloud said. The two guards turned to look at the boy. “Do you know where the Coco… uh, Cod… Co… Ugh, the bad guys! Do you know where they are?” He asked urgently.
“They’re back where we came from!” A familiar tomboyish voice said. The mares looked to see the CMC, and the CMC looked to see the mares.
“SIS!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom exclaimed. They ran up to hug their older sisters. Meanwhile, Scootaloo and Rainbow ran up to each other and hugged, but remembered that they were supposed to be the tough ones of the group and broke their hug. However, they chose to let it slide this one time and hugged again.
At the sight of the family reunion, Cloud smiled. However, he quickly remembered the bad guys who rightly deserved a good beating. This happiness had to wait. Cloud turned in the direction of the bad guys and took off like a bullet.
~ Guards Versus The Cold Blooded Bros. ~
Orah laughed manically as his younger brother leaned against the wall, thinking to himself. “Oh, you’re still alive and kicking?” The crocodile said with slight surprise as a guard tried to stand. He grabbed the stallion by the neck and threw him into the wall. The stallion hit the wall with enough force to create large cracks and making him cough up large quantities of blood.
Suddenly, a Unicorn guard ran up to Orah and attempted to impale him with his horn. However, the croc quickly turned around and grabbed the stallion by the head. He lifted the guard up and threw him into the wall, knocking him unconscious.
“RAAAAAAH!” A Pegasus screamed. She flew in and landed a kick to the croc’s head, only for it to have no effect. He grabbed her by the mane, spun her around and let go, sending her flying into a wall.
Orah heard the sound of running coming towards him from behind. He clenched his fist and turned around to deal a massive right punch.
*BAM*
Orah was hit, and he was hit hard, right on the side of his long jaws. He was sent flying into and through the stone wall. Ghid was shocked at the sight, actually unable to fully process what he had just seen.
What is it that hit Orah, you ask?
Why, it was none other than Cloud!
And he wasn’t too happy, either…
Cloud quickly looked around at the guards. Though many appeared unconscious, a few had the strength to stand up, at least just now they did. “Get everypony out of here!” Cloud said to them. The guards didn’t know quite what to do or say, not after seeing a 12 year old monkey boy just punch a 7 foot tall, 500 pound crocodile man through a stone wall. Speaking of which…
Orah emerged out of the gaping hole in the wall, a confused look on his face. He shook his head and spit out a bit of blood and a tooth and asked “WHAT JUST HIT ME?!”
Cloud looked at the killer croc with a serious expression on his face, the same fire from before burning in his eyes yet again. He said fiercely “Me… that’s what!”
Orah’s face switched from confused to shocked, and then he smiled and laughed loudly. “You?! Hit me?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The crocodile said in disbelief, throwing his head back in laughter.
Cloud suddenly disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared right in front of the croc. He clenched his fist and punched the croc in the stomach. Orah hunched over as it felt like the Saiyan had just punch straight through him. “HAAAAAAAAAAA!” Cloud screamed, throwing a barrage of powerful punches. He then landed a left elbow to the gut, a right upper cut, and finally a roundhouse kick across the face to send Orah into another wall.
Orah got up much quicker this time with a serious look on his face as the ponies behind Cloud stared on in awe.
Cloud clenched his fist tightly in front of his face and said “You AND your brother are both gonna pay!”
Just in the nick of time, Cloud saves the day, coming in with a series of impressive punches that leave even the evil brothers amazed! Cloud is serious now and ready for a fight to end their reign of terror! Will he succeed?! Find out in the next exciting episode of DRAGON BALL TX!
Cloud clenched his fist tightly in front of his face and said “You AND your brother are both gonna pay!”
Orah stared seriously at the little fighter just a few meters away before a cocky smile formed on his face. He chuckled a little, saying “Say, kid, you hit pretty hard! How did ya get so strong?” He asked, hunger for more power in his eyes.
Cloud wasn’t interested in talking however. “Does it matter?! Or are you gonna fight already?!” He asked impatiently as he entered a crude fighting stance.
Orah frowned in slight annoyance, but quickly switched to a malicious grin, saying “Alright then, runt, have it your way!”
Cloud tensed up as the large crocodile walked forward. Each step he took closed the distance between the two, and with Orah’s large feet, they closed very quickly. Cloud’s heart began to beat faster and faster, as well as his breathing rate. Orah clenched his fists tightly, stopped and smirked, and Cloud tensed.
Cloud charged quickly for the killer croc. He jumped and attacked with a sweeping right kick towards Orah’s side, and the croc flexed his huge muscles. The kick hit him with great force, but not enough to hurt him too much.
Cloud fell to the ground, but used his hands to push himself back up, landing an upwards kick on Orah’s gut. Cloud quickly got to his feet and launched a barrage of punches to the croc’s upper body, causing the croc to hunch over slightly, but having no real effect. Orah laughed and the boy looked up angrily. He aimed his next left punch to the chin, however, Orah grabbed it with his right hand.
The killer croc took the offensive and pulled Cloud up off the ground, smashing his enormous left fist into his smaller abdomen. Cloud was sent crashing into the ground hard a few meters away.
The Royal Guards had not left the room as they stared on in shock. They were afraid, but they couldn’t just leave Cloud there! They had to do something! They all looked at Orah with fire in their eyes as he walked over to the Saiyan, but he returned their gazes with a look of terrifying malice. “Go on and get outta here weaklings! It’s the whelp I’m after!”
The Guards remained in their places as they prepared to charge. Orah stopped in place and crossed his arms. They all charged at him, the Pegasi flapping their wings for a boost, the Unicorns charging their magic in their horns, and the Earth Ponies tensing their muscles as they prepared to ram.
“Stop!” Cloud yelled, leaping in front of the guards, halting them.
“Wh-what are you doing?! You need help, even with your strength!” A guard said.
Cloud turned to look at the group with a smile, saying “Don’t worry! I’ll be fine! ‘Sides, I’m still warming up a little!” He earned shocked looks from the guards before he flexed his muscles playfully.
Ghid looked at his older brother and said, “C’mon bro! Finish this quick! I want outta here before more guards decide to show up, along with the Princess!” He earned a glare from the croc. “Hey, don’t give me that! I don’t wanna be banished to the moon!”
Cloud heard the lizard’s complaints and looked at him and then back to the guards. A light bulb materialized above his head and lit up brightly before dissipating into thin air. “If you guys wanna help, take care of the liz… erd… Lizard one!”
The guards looked at each other and then back at Cloud. They stood firmly and saluted before heading in the direction of Ghid.
“Well? Are you done messin’ around? Cause I’m ready to get back to business!” Orah said, cracking his knuckles and neck.
Cloud looked at him blankly. “… What’s buzzynuss?”
“RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!” Orah yelled as he ran at his bite sized opponent. He got to him in no time, pulled back his right arm, and threw a powerful punch as he came to a screeching halt. Cloud jumped over the croc and landed behind him, whose fist crashed into the stone ground, causing some bits to rise up around his fist. The criminal glanced behind himself for a split second, ripped his fist out of the ground, and spun around with a backhand. Cloud jumped and landed Orah’s forearm with his hands and then flipped himself to the ground, landing on all fours. Cloud quickly landed a back kick to the nose. Orah grabbed his nose as he backed away for a moment.
Cloud ran at the croc, who threw a left punch. Our hero ducked to avoid the attack, and countered with a headbutt to the chest. Orah grabbed at his chest with both hands and groaned in pain. However, Cloud was not finished. He kicked the croc in the shin, causing him to fall on his knee. Cloud landed a right hook the croc’s face, followed by a left hook, and then an entire flurry of punches!
After an intense beat down, Orah gathered his senses as best as he could and raised his fists above his head. “GRAAAAAAH!” He brought his fists down to smash Cloud into the ground, however, the Saiyan jumped up into the air just before the crocodile’s fists came down, smashing into the ground and shaking the entire cavern and forming a small crater in the ground.
‘Huh, he really is strong…’ Cloud thought to himself, his Saiyan blood boiling a little more. He fell down and landed on the killer croc’s back only to jump off to a wall. Orah quickly looked back to see his bite sized opponent land on the wall, only to jump off with great force. He flipped himself around in midflight, his leg extended completely. He flew towards the croc too fast for him to even ready himself. In seconds, Cloud landed a mighty flying kick to the croc’s back, sending him flying into a wall headfirst. Cloud landed on the ground where he had just kicked Orah, ready for the fight to continue.
~ Royal Guards versus Ghid ~
Meanwhile, the younger brother, Ghid the Lizard, stood, surrounded by Royal Guards, who were ready at any moment to make their move. The lizard sweated profusely as he was… honestly? He was REALLY bad in a fight. Nonetheless, he stood ready, his claws hovering over the two canisters on his holster. To be frank, he stood a lot like a cowboy in an old western, ready to draw his pistols at high noon.
“You don’t stand a chance Ghid! Give up!” A Royal Guard ordered as the lizard sweated even more.
Ghid stood in the same position. And then…
“Alright, alright! I give up! I give up!” He said, standing relaxed, with his hands above his head.
All the guards stared at him in disbelief as he got on one knee and placed his hands behind his head. Everypony stood relaxed, and one walked up to cuff him.
Suddenly, Ghid sucker punched the guard in the muzzle and spun the lids on the canisters around to open them. He dipped his long claws into the green liquid in the canisters and pulled them out in the blink of an eye, closing the canisters afterwards.
He looked to his left to see three Earth Ponies running towards him. His claws dripping in the poison, he dodged their attacks and then slashed at them, catching one on the shoulder, one on the cheek, and another on the leg. Instantly, their visions became blurred and they wobbled back and forth before finally falling.
Ghid backed away quickly to catch his breath as the guards came towards him, only to stop a few meters away, wary of his poisonous claws.
“Y-yeah, yeah! That’s right! Stay ba-ACK!” Ghid started, only to be hit from behind, forcing him into the ground hard.
Behind the sly lizard stood the Mane 6, lead by Applejack, who was responsible for bucking him in the back. Before he could get up, the guards surrounded him, and one Unicorn formed a pair of magical cuffs to cuff him.
Twilight sighed in relief. “That’s one down, one to-” She froze when she saw not too far away another fight raging on. “CLOUD!”
~ Back With Our Main Hero And His Conflict ~
Cloud dodged with quite a bit of trouble as Orah started slashing at him with his enormous knife. He dodged to the side, jumped up, ducked, rinse and repeat. Orah only managed to slash at his clothes, though.
“CLOUD!”
Said boy turned towards Twilight for a split second, but that was all Orah needed. Cloud quickly realized his error, but was too late, as he was slashed in the face. Cloud spun around and fell on his stomach, and the crocodile stopped. The boy’s friends stared in shock and horror as he lay there…
The girls and guards all gasped. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow could only stare on while Fluttershy and Rarity hugged each other. Pinkie’s normally bright puffy mane and tail dulled and deflated.
Orah looked towards the group with an evil smile, then he saw his defeated younger brother. “Damn it, Ghid! Can’t even handle a few ponies?! You’re lucky we have the same mother, otherwise I’d just leave ya here.” He walked slowly over to the group, savoring the taste of fear and despair in the air. The Mane 6 tried their best to shake off their sorrow and stand strong with the Royal Guards, but it was evident that everypony was very, very afraid.
“Don’t worry! I’ll make it slow so you can get used to the idea of dying!!” Orah said, flicking some blood off of his knife.
*BOOM!*
Everyone looked up to see a hole form in the rocky ceiling, a golden light shining down from above. Down came Princess Celestia, and she was not happy!
“Don’t you dare even think about hurting my little ponies!” She roared. Her horn glowed in a golden aura and she stamped her hoof on the ground, ready to fight at any moment.
Orah taunted “Oh my, the horse princess herself! Whatever will I do? Hahahahahaha! Alright then come-AAAAAAGH!”
Orah screamed as he was hit from behind! He fell to his knee and grabbed at his back. He turned his head around and was shocked to see-
“CLOUD!” The Mane 6 cheered, wiping the tears from their eyes. Pinkie Pie’s hair exploded and returned to normal as she bounced excitedly.
There stood Cloud, his foot in the air and a small cut on his cheek. It wouldn’t even become a scar!
Cloud put his foot back on the ground and stood relaxed. “Hiya! Sorry about that! I needed to catch him off guard to lay a hit on him!”
Everypony smiled, but Rainbow scolded him, “WELL DON’T SCARE US SO BAD NEXT TIME! OR EVER AGAIN FOR THAT MATTER!” Cloud comically sweatdropped and scratched at the back of his head. Then he looked back at Orah.
The crocodile was even more furious than before as he struggled to stand on his feet and even turn around to face the little boy. “THIS! IS! IMPOSSIBLE! NOTHING IS STRONGER THAN ME!! NOOOTTTHHHIIINNNGGG!”
He pulled back his right arm to punch Cloud, only to hit air.
“WH-WHAT?!”
Cloud had once again jumped into the air to avoid the attack and came back down, this time with a karate chop to the top of the croc’s head. Orah grabbed at his head as he backed away from Cloud who stood strongly. He ordered, “Give up! There’s no way you can win, and I don’t want to fight anymore!”
Orah back into a wall, still grabbing at his head. He opened his eyes to look at the Saiyan with fear.
‘Th-this c-can’t be p-p-possible! There’s… THERE’S NO WAY I CAN WIN!! This isn’t right! I’M THE STRONGEST! I’M THE ONE WITH THE BANE!! I’M THE ONE… wait a second…’ He thought as an idea came to mind.
He stopped sweating, his hands came off of the sore bump on his head, and he relaxed. Then he stared seriously at everyone, mostly at Cloud. Everyone stared on confused. “That varmint is plannin’ somethin’!” Applejack whispered to her friends.
Orah’s face changed to a cocky smile, saying “Hahahahahaha! You’re all going to love this…!” He reached into his pockets to pull out two large objects which he wore on his knuckles. They were like brass knuckles, but much larger. At the ends of each were four sharp needles. He put his dukes up and Cloud tensed.
“Don’t you get it?! You can’t win!!” Cloud yelled angrily, his fists clenching tightly.
Orah laughed at the boy. “No, no, it’s you who doesn’t GET IT!”
Suddenly, the killer croc stabbed himself in his chest with both “black-knuckles”. Everyone stared in shock and confusion as he ripped them out and threw them to the side. “NNGG!! NNGG!! NNNGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” Orah roared. His own shout shook the cavern, causing rubble to fall from the ceiling.
“What’d that big meanie-mean-pants do?!” Pinkie Pie asked as she and everypony dodged incoming rubble.
“Everypony, come to me!” Princess Celestia said. The Mane 6 and the guards, along with Ghid, rushed to her and her horn glowed gold as a bubble formed around the group.
Only Cloud and Orah remained outside the magic bubble, and the Saiyan had a front row seat for the horror that unfolded before him! The killer croc’s muscles began to bulge outwards, doubling their normal size in mere moments, and then tripling. His veins bulged and glowed red.
After a minute, the previously 7 foot tall crocodile reached a height of just about 9 feet, maybe a little more.
Orah laughed as Cloud and everypony stared on in horror. He reached for a large rock and crushed it into dust effortlessly. “I’ve been experimenting with a super steroid I made by myself! Now you know the answer to the question everyone asks! Now you know how I get so strong!! NOW YOU KNOW MY BANE!!!!”
The killer croc suddenly threw the dust at Cloud, who covered his face with his hands instantly. Cloud dropped his hands and was met with an enormous knee to the gut! Actually, Orah’s knee was so large that it practically hit Cloud’s entire upper body…
Cloud was sent flying, however he suddenly stopped. He looked towards his right leg, where a large scaly left hand resided, clenching tightly. The bane induced killer croc spun around. He used the little fighter like a flail and slammed him into the ground. Cloud hit the stone floor with so much force, it not only cracked deeply, it created an entire crater equivalent to a small meteor! But Orah did not stop there, he spun around again to slam the boy into the ground, creating another crater.
Orah stopped and lifted Cloud up. He pulled back his right arm and threw it forward with great force, slamming his fist into Cloud’s stomach. The croc pulled his arm back, only to punch him again. Cloud screamed in pain with each strike to his gut, and energy began to leave him.
Our hero’s vision began to blur, and his eyes began to slowly close. Even his screaming began to cease. Orah suddenly stopped and slammed the boy into the ground to see if he was even alive. Sure enough, he was still alive. He rolled over to his chest and struggled to push himself up. He then stopped as his eyes shot open and he began to cough violently and painfully, spitting up blood.
‘Heh… heh… heh… To be… honest… I… don’t think… I’ve ever… been hit… so… hard…’ Cloud thought.
Suddenly, Orah slammed his boot into Cloud’s back, forcing him back to the ground with a yelp of pain. Orah raised his boot and stomped on him again, and again, and again.
~ With The Ponies ~
Everypony could only stare on helplessly at the brutality. Some tried to avert their gazes, but couldn’t.
“Hahahahahahahahaha!” Someone laughed maniacally. All eyes turned to see the handcuffed Ghid with a grin on his face, sitting with his legs crossed. He said arrogantly, “There’s no way you’ll get out of here now! You lot shouldn’t have ever come here!”
Rainbow Dash charged furiously towards him. “Shut up you jerk! What do you know of anything?!” Ghid, however, just continued to laugh, angering the rainbow maned mare even more. She tensed up and quickly punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.
Ghid spit out a tooth and looked angrily at the mare who hit him as she struggled against the guards who restrained her, even though most of them wanted to just let her loose. “IF I WASN’T IN THESE CUFFS, YOU’D ALL BE POISONED RIGHT NOW!!"
Twilight’s eyes opened wide in an instant as a light bulb glowed above her head. Pinkie then pulled the light bulb back into her puffy mane to let the Unicorn speak. She said, “Applejack! Grab one of those canisters!” The farm mare hurried to the lizard, pulled a canister off of his holster, and hurried back to her lavender PFF. Twilight smiled and took the canister, using magic to hold it. “Does anypony have anything sharp?”
Rarity stepped forward. “I have a sewing needle! Will that work?” Twilight nodded and took the needle. She opened the canister and dipped the sewing needle in.
“Alright everypony! Here’s the plan!” Twilight said.
~ The Main Battle ~
Orah raised his boot off of Cloud’s back. “There! Are ya finally dead?”
After a second, Cloud used some of the strength he had left to push himself up, though slowly. He stopped and began to cough and groan in pain, spitting some blood up. He panted and pushed himself onto his knees. He almost fell, but placed one hand on the ground to catch himself. He then brought one knee up, and with all of his strength, pushed himself to stand up. The little fighter turned around, clenched his fists, and stood strongly, staring Orah in the eyes.
The croc stared back at Cloud annoyed and asked. “Why the hell don’t you drop dead already?!” Then his eyes went wide. He saw something in Cloud’s eyes. They flashed red briefly, and he saw a fire burning furiously. Cloud was not going to give up, not with the lives of his friends on the line.
“GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Now die!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!” A giant fist flew towards Cloud.
Suddenly, a blue blur appeared where the fist was heading, taking Cloud with it. Orah stopped his fist as fast as he could and looked around himself in confusion. He wore a shocked expression when he saw the Mane 6, the Royal Guards, and Celestia surrounding him. Hovering above the group was Rainbow Dash, carrying an exhausted and confused Cloud.
Orah yelled furiously, “YOU ALL WANT TO DIE THAT BADLY, FINE!!” He charged the group, each step he took shaking the cavern.
“CHAAAAARGE!” Princess Celestia ordered. She, the Mane 6, and the guards ran to attack the incoming beast.
However, Rainbow Dash didn’t charge, at least not yet. She put Cloud down and said boldly, “Don’t worry kid! We got this!” She stretched her wings and took off like a rocket.
Three unicorn guards led by Celestia charged golden magic in their horns and fired bolts at Orah. The croc raised his left arm and flexed his already huge muscles. The bolts crashed into him, but had no effect. He wound up his fist and back handed them, sending them flying.
Ten more guards rushed the crocodile, who roared angrily. He raised his clenched fists in the air, and brought them down on the ground. This created a shockwave which sent the guards flying and even brought down some rubble.
As this battle went on, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie stood together.
“W-w-what d-do we d-d-do?” Fluttershy said, fear evident in her voice.
Rarity scratched at her temple, planning something. Suddenly, a brightly colored cannon appeared out of nowhere with Pinkie behind it. The super duper party pony said “PARTY CANNON GOIN’ OFF IN 3... 2…”
“W-w-wait Pinkie!” Rarity stammered as she and Fluttershy were still standing in front of the cannon.
“FIRE!!” Pinkie yelled. She pressed the button and the two mares in front of the cannon dove out of the way, clinging to each other for dear life.
“BOOM!” Roared the cannon, firing out tons of confetti and sparkles. Along with the party favors was a big rock that Pinkie named ‘Hanks’, who had a big smilie face painted on, a big red clown nose, and a rainbow afro wig. Hanks flew towards the unsuspecting Orah and rammed into him as hard as he could. The rocky hero fell to the ground, his mission… A failure.
Orah turned around and stared blankly at Hanks, and then at the three mares beside the cannon.
“DUCK!” Rarity yelled as she and Fluttershy, who had gotten back up earlier, yet again dove to the side.
“Where?!” Pinkie question as she looked around. Then her pupils shrank as Hanks flew past her and into the wall. Pinkie rushed to the rock’s aid and nursed him in her hooves. She sniffled and whimpered.
*Boink*
The clown nose attached to Hanks’ face fell to the ground and rolled away. The two dots that were his eyes became big X’s, and Pinkie froze. Tears welled up in her eyes and came pouring out in a cartoonish manner as she wailed at the fallen hero that was Mr. Hanks.
Okay, silliness aside, four guards led by Applejack rammed him from behind, taking him by surprise. He fell on one knee, but got back up and spun round with another back hand. However, the Earth Ponies dodged and backed off.
“HOLD STILL DAMN IT!!” Orah yelled only to be hit in the back of the head. He turned around to see the blue blur from before speed off. Rainbow bucked him in the back of the head again, and sped off when he turned around. “GRRRRRRRRRRRR!! DAMN YOU ALL!!”
Twilight watched everypony as they continued to distract him. Sweat rolled down the side of her face. She was tense. Should she stay or should she go? Wait! Maybe she missed the opportunity already! ‘No! Stay calm, Twilight! Be brave! BE BRAVE!’ She thought.
Orah continued fending himself as he was attacked repeatedly. But he wasn’t given any moment to breathe, which served to anger him. After all, it took a lot of energy to move his enormous muscles.
“GRAH!” Orah shouted in pain. Celestia, who was hovering in the air, had fired an intense beam of magical energy at Orah’s back. The crocodile turned around fiercely and swiped at her with his sharp claws, only to miss. She continued to fire energy at him, though this time to no effect as he was well aware of her presence. “JUST DIE!” He yelled. He slammed his hands onto the stone floor, cracking it deeply. He growled and then roared as he dug his fingers into the rock. With all of his might, he ripped out a large chunk of stone. With a yell, he threw it at the princess, who zapped it into rubble with a beam of magic. Suddenly, a gigantic fist was in front of her. She reacted quickly and tried to evade, however, she was clipped and sent crashing into the ground.
‘Celestia! NO!’ Twilight thought as her eyes went wide in fear. Then she saw something. It concerned Orah. He was… Panting! He was worn out! ‘Now’s my chance!’ Twilight readied the poison tipped needle and charged at the unsuspecting croc, whose back was to her. She stopped when she was close enough and pricked him in the back of his leg. Orah reacted instantly. He turned around and tried to back hand her. However, the lavender mare instinctively charged her horn with magic. She was quickly enveloped in a magical bubble and teleported a few feet out of harm’s way!
“THAT’S IT! THIS ENDS… THIS… ENDS… Uuugh…” Orah started, however, he started feeling dizzy. Everypony stopped to watch him. The killer croc wobbled back and forth, his vision became blurred, and his mind was fuzzy. He said groggily, “Wh-wha… didja… d-do t-to… me?” He fell to one knee, dazed and confused.
Everypony walked towards the killer croc and stopped about a meter or two away. Celestia said, “My brilliant student, Twilight Sparkle, used your tricks against you - or rather, she used your brother’s tricks against you!” Orah glanced over to his younger brother with an angry look on his face and then looked back at the princess. “However, it seems that your own tricks betrayed you as well. It grants you incredible strength, but takes a lot of energy out of you when you fight for too long, doesn’t it?” She said.
Orah couldn’t believe this. He just couldn’t! How could a stupid bunch of horses and a weird looking runt beat him?! That was the last straw! The croc rose to his feet, an angry expression on his face. He pulled back his right arm and threw forward a mighty punch at the princess. “RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” He yelled!
Suddenly the punch stopped! There, standing in front of the princess, was Cloud, his hand blocking the attack (which was significantly weaker than before)!
“N-N-NO! NOT Y-YOU!” Orah screamed, fear evident in his voice as he stared at Cloud’s eyes - eyes with a mighty inferno burning inside them...
Orah quickly pulled his fist back and stumbled backwards in fear.
“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!” Our hero yelled as he ran at Orah! He threw a punch at Orah’s gut, causing the crocodile to hunch over in pain. He continued to punch him, firing his fists off like a machine gun! “This is for the Cookie Heart Mouse-Aiders!” Cloud continued with his barrage of punches, however, he aimed higher and higher. He then stopped for a split second and looked up at Orah. Cloud jumped up and charged all the energy he had left into this final punch. He threw a power packed upper cut to the croc square in the chin and sent him flying upwards, only to come crashing down on his back seconds later. Cloud landed on his feet and relaxed, panting. “And that was for my friends!”
The ponies behind Cloud all cheered and rushed over to him.
“THAT… WAS SO… AWESOME!!” Rainbow said in amazement, earning a smile from Cloud.
“You were all like this! He was all like that! And then you went, WHAM!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly, reenacting the moment eccentrically.
The rest of the Mane 6 could only giggle at the pink mare, and then they all began to laugh out loud with Cloud joining in.
Rarity said, “Personally, my favorite part was when you mispronounced the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ name!” She said jokingly, earning a blush from Cloud as everypony continued to laugh. Cloud got back to laughing, though his laughter slowed down after a few seconds. His eyes closed and he fell backwards, unconscious, snoring calmly as he drifted off to dreamland!
After a hard fought battle, the day is saved by none other than a young Saiyan boy and his friends! And judging by their crushing defeat, it seems like the Cold Blooded Bros. won’t be causing any more trouble from now on! Stay tuned for the next episode of DRAGON BALL TX!!
Warm summer light poured into the hospital room through the open window, lighting up the room perfectly, and the fresh smell of Equestria was carried into the room by a cool and crisp breeze.
This room was occupied by none other than our hero, Cloud, who slept soundly on a white hospital bed. Channeling his Saiyan instincts strongly, the young hybrid was sleeping in an awkward position, with his head and left arm dangling off the foot of the bed, his right arm hanging off the right side, his left leg on the pillow, and his right leg partly off the right side of the bed.
Cloud was snoring soundly in peace when his nose twitched a little. After a second, his nose twitched again, and then-
"ACHOOO!"
Our hero's eyes tightened for a moment before relaxing and fluttering open. He yawned as his vision cleared up and he took in his surroundings to see that he was in a room with white walls having small teal dots, a marble tiled floor, and some white cabinets on the side of the room.
Cloud got up to a sitting position and asked in a confused tone, "Where am I?" He looked around for a moment before looking at himself. A look of surprise adorned his face as he grabbed at his clothes. "What happened to my clothes?! What is this thingy?!"
This 'thingy' Cloud was referring to was of course a typical hospital gown, one that was white with the same teal dots on it like the walls.
Cloud looked around frantically for his favorite green Gi for a moment before spotting next to him three things on an oak night stand under the open window. These three things included a small letter, a plate with a sandwich and a pill, and-
"YAY! MY CLOTHES!!" Cloud cheered joyously. He hopped off the bed and reached for his Gi, but then he suddenly fell down after losing his balance, groaning after collapsing on the floor. "Oh yeah, that's right, gotta focus on my balance since I lost my tail..."
Cloud got up slowly to his feet, and then began to wobble as he tried to find his balance. After a moment, he stopped wobbling and stood just fine, afterwards giving a sigh of relief.
He swiftly removed the hospital gown, and then he then grabbed his favorite clothes and prepared to put them on. However, the second he grabbed them, he fell flat on his belly with a loud thud!
The hybrid boy got to his feet immediately and looked at the clothes in shock. "What gives?! Why are they so dang heavy?!" He grabbed them again, this time without dropping them. "And where are all the holes and tears? Didn't Orah beat me up pretty good?" He looked them over for a minute but couldn't figure out why his Gi was so different, so he shrugged it off.
After about a minute of struggle, Cloud finally put his green Gi on. The only things missing though were his boots and wristbands. "Geez, these are really heavy! I can barely stand!" He was hunched over and shaking. Sweat rolled down the side of his face as he fought to stand up straight. "Wait a sec... this is great! I can use these to train better now!"
Cloud then, with some effort, got to doing a couple of stretches, followed by a few minutes of push ups and sit ups as warm ups.
When he finished, he got ready to do the real exercise, but met a new problem. "I don't think I have enough space in here to train." He looked out to the open window and took a look outside. Nearby was a good empty space to train in.
Without hesitating, Cloud jumped out of the window and landed on the ground with a loud thud. He then quickly ran over to the empty space away from the hospital.
After reaching the desired spot, Cloud entered a martial arts fighting stance and threw out a fast punch. He then threw out another punch, followed by ten more punches. He then threw out a kick, and then another, and another.
With each attack, his speed increased, and his actions became more and more complex. He threw elbows, knees, uppercuts, spin kicks, and galore.
"DADADADADADADADADADADA!" Cloud exclaimed attacking with a flurry of right kicks, followed by a left kick and a flurry of more punches. After thirty lightning fast punches, he ended the flurry with a right hook. He followed the hook up with a spinning kick, and then an elbow.
Worn out and sweating so badly it seemed he just finished swimming, Cloud stopped his exercise, and allowed his arms to hang at his side. He panted heavily and wobbled a little.
"Huff, huff, huff... No! I know I can do more than that!" He raised his arms up again and started off round 2 of his exercise with another flurry of punches.
~~~ Back in the Hospital ~~~
Twilight was joined by Rainbow Dash and Rarity, and they were all ready to stop by to see Cloud. They didn't know he was awake at the moment, but they had received news that Cloud had finished healing, and in a quick amount of time, too, and they were also told that he should wake up today.
However, they had also been told that after his healing had finished in just two days, Cloud had a lot of energy inside him which made him stronger than before. Strangely though, it wasn't magic. This especially piqued Twi's interests.
Rarity and RD came by for different reasons. Rarity had some more clothing to drop off, and RD just wanted to be there when he woke up so she could talk about training him. Unfortunately, AJ, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie couldn't stop by due to work, and they were understandably upset about it. But they promised to come by the second they were free.
The three walked through the hospital halls, on their way to Cloud's room, where he should be sleeping.
"So what exactly did you bring him, Rarity? Didn't you already give him his clothes?" RD asked the fashion mare.
Rarity used her magic to open up one of her saddle bags and brought out a pair of finger-less leather gloves and a pair of white boots with yellow tips. "Yes, actually, but I decided to take back his wrist bands and boots to make something else."
"So you made these gloves and weird boots?" RD asked.
"Actually, Rainbow, we found these boots in Cloud's house after we brought it to Ponyville." Twilight answered.
"That's right! And after we found these boots, I decided to make these finger-less gloves to go with them! With his Gi, they screamed to me, 'cool punk martial arts'!"
After thinking about it for a second, RD said, "I'll admit, they actually look pretty cool!"
"Although, to be frank, I don't know whether or not he'll appreciate his Gi..." Rarity said.
"Why's that?" Twilight asked.
"Cloud's Gi was in such bad shape from both age and Orah, that I pretty much had to make a new Gi from scratch! But considering Cloud's the type who will likely get into a lot of fights, I knew I had to make it as strong as possible. So the material I used, while strong, is also pretty heavy. I had to have Big Mac come and help me deliver them!" The white mare said.
"Really?! Big Mac had to help you?! BIG MAC?!" RD said in surprise. "Don't you think that'll be too heavy for Cloud?"
"Considering how strong Cloud is, Rainbow Dash, I'm certain he'll be fine!" Twilight answered.
The mares finally arrived at the door to Cloud's room and immediately entered, only to find that Cloud was nowhere to be seen. Their eyes were as wide as plates, and they got to searching the room.
"Where'd he go?!" RD asked.
"All that's here is his hospital gown!" Rarity said. She looked over to the night stand where she set the Gi to find they were missing. "At least he's wearing his Gi..."
Twilight realized the window was open and proceeded to look outside. After a couple of seconds, she found Cloud in an empty space, training.
"There he is!" Twilight said. RD and Rarity looked outside and saw him. They all sighed and made their way outside, although RD chose to fly out the window.
~~~ Back With Our Hero ~~~
"WATATATATATATATATATA!" Cloud threw a barrage of punches, and after 20 or 30, he threw a kick, and then another kick. This lead into a barrage of more lightning fast kicks.
Gradually, and then rapidly, the speed of the kick barrage increased. "Grrrrr... UUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" Cloud screamed, kicking faster and faster. "YAAAAH!!" He finished off with one last, powerful kick.
He remained in a fixed position, with his leg raised in the air and his body leaning back. He was breathing heavily, and sweat fell from his body and onto the grass. He slowly put his foot on the ground to stand normally, before falling backwards on the grass.
"Huff, huff, huff... That... should be... enough..." Cloud said. He took a moment to cool down and breathe normally, and then he got up to a sitting position. He looked at his hand and clenched it tightly in front of his face. He wore a surprised and happy expression on his face and said, "Gee, I feel so much stronger than before! I feel like I could beat Orah at his best without any trouble at all!!"
"Hey Cloud!" Rainbow Dash called from behind.
Our hero looked behind himself to see the cyan Pegasus and then got to his bare feet. He then turned around just as she landed and said, "Hey, Rainbow! What's up?"
"Ah, nothing. Still as awesome as ever!" Rainbow said with a smile. "But what in they hay are you doing out here?"
"Just training! And it's going great! Heck, I'm stronger than I've ever been! I feel like I could take on anyone!" Cloud said.
"And you're okay, even in those heavy clothes?!" She asked with shock.
"Heck yeah! With any luck, these'll get me even stronger!"
"Rainbow! Cloud!" Twilight shouted from not too far away. She was running towards the two with Rarity (who looked like she wanted to do anything but run and get sweaty).
The mares reached Cloud and Rainbow, panting loudly. "You two should really get in shape..." Rainbow teased with a little chuckle.
After a second, the Unicorn mares caught their breath. "Here Cloud!" Rarity said, using magic to pull out the leather finger-less gloves and white yellow-tipped boots from her saddle bag. "These are for you!"
"Thanks, Rarity!" Cloud said happily. He put the gloves and boots on, and at last his clothes were complete. "Heh, heh! I think I like these more than my old boots and wristbands!"
"We were told you should wake up today, but we didn't think you'd be up this quick! It's not even noon!" Twilight said with a smile. "But there's something I need to ask you. You see, when the doctors checked on you earlier, they said you had a lot more energy in you than anypony else! Like, a lot of energy!"
"Oh yeah! I have a lot more energy now! More than I've ever had!" He looked around for a second and spotted a nearby tree. "Check this out!" He ran over to the tree and starred at it for a second.
"HIYAAAA!" Cloud punched the tree with just half his strength and completely uprooted it and sent it flying for miles on end. He turned to see the shocked faces of his friends and ran back towards them. "Did you see that! I feel incredible!" He exclaimed with childish energy and joy, flexing his muscles.
The mares stood with their jaws dropped, trying to wrap their minds around what they just saw. After a moment, Twilight spoke, or rather stuttered in awe. "H-h-h-how? Th-that's... n-not... p-p-possible!!"
"Well then, I'm gonna go on home! There's something I wanna test out!" Cloud said, walking in the direction of the Everfree.
It took a couple moments, but Twilight snapped herself out of her stupor. "Wait a second! We moved your house to Ponyville! Actually it's right by Sweet Apple Acres! Let's just sign you out before we leave!"
*Grooooooowwwlllll*
Cloud grabbed at his stomach which growled louder than ever before in his life. "C-c-can we h-hurry, though? I'm starving!!!"
The mares looked at each other in silence for a moment and burst out laughing.
After signing Cloud out of the hospital, our hero and his friends made their way to Sweet Apple Acres, home to none other than Applejack and the sweetest apples you've ever tasted!
Cloud grabbed at his stomach tightly in pain. "Uuuugghh, how far away are we?" He asked.
Twilight and Rarity sighed in annoyance while Rainbow Dash was off in her own little world ignoring everything going on around her. "We're only a couple minutes away, Cloud. Just hold out for a little longer." Twilight said.
"Aaaaaawww!" Cloud complained. "But any longer and I'll wither away!"
"Complaining about it won't make it go away, darling." Rarity said. Cloud groaned in defeat, hanging his head low as he sulked by their side. "Listen, just think of something else. Get your mind off of food!"
Cloud raised his head after a second and thought to himself. What could he think about to get his mind off of food? Well, before he could think up something, Twilight thought up something herself.
"After we're done at Sweet Apple Acres, Cloud, I'd like to run some more tests on you, mainly to find out how strong you are and why you're so strong!" She said.
"Oh sure! Okay!" Cloud responded. "Also, can you teach me how to read more?"
"Certainly! And after we've finished reviewing the alphabet, I'll give you a test! From there, we'll work on reading and writing entire sentences! Ooh! And then we'll work on your math, going over all of the numbers and then operations!" She responded eagerly. "After you've learned the basics, I'll sign you up for school, and you can learn with all the other kids!"
Cloud stopped in his tracks for a second, as did the mares, who looked at him in confusion. "Something wrong, Cloud?" Rainbow asked
'Kids... kids... kids!!' Cloud thought as he remembered something important. "Wait a sec! Are the kids alright?! Tell me they're okay!" Cloud said, concern quickly replacing his normally happy attitude.
The girls looked at each other in confusion. "What kids?" Rainbow asked.
"THE KIDS! You know, the ones that Ghid and Orah kidnapped! Tell me they're all okay! Please!" Cloud exclaimed urgently.
"Don't worry, Cloud! They're all fine!" Rarity said in a reassuring tone.
Cloud calmed down a little. "... Are you sure?"
"Yeah! They're A-O-Kay thanks to you!" Rainbow said with a smile.
"To be honest, I don't think any of us would've seen a happy ending without you there, especially the kids!" Twilight said
Cloud stood in silence for a moment before letting out a deep sigh of relief. He wiped away some nervous sweat from his forehead with the back of his gloved hand. "Thank goodness..." He said. After another moment, Cloud began walking again. "Alright then, let's get going to Squee Appa Aiks!"
"It's called Sweet Apple Acres, Cloud." Twilight corrected with a smile.
"Dang it! I was close!" Cloud exclaimed.
~ Just A Couple Minutes Later ~
After a couple more minutes of walking, and with a little complaining from Cloud about being hungry, the hybrid boy and mares finally reached Sweet Apple Acres.
Twilight held out one hoof as she began to say, "We're finally here, Cloud! Now-"
Cloud immediately started running towards the gate with newfound energy. "Finally!" This quick burst of energy blocked his stomach pain and allowed him to charge at full speed towards the nearest apple tree, which was far behind the house.
The mares stood in place, quite frankly shocked at his speed. Twilight said, "I was just about to tell him that if he's hungry, we could go inside the house and see if Granny Smith would be willing to make an apple pie..."
Cloud made it to the tree in no time at all, and stood right in front of it. He merely stared in awe at the many bright red and green apples the tree had, his mouth watering heavily.
*Grooooowwwlll!*
The Saiyan got into a fighting stance and focused energy into his right fist. "HIYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" He threw another of his mighty punches at the tree, resulting in a loud 'BAM' and causing the entire tree to shake for a couple seconds.
Suddenly, apples started to fall from above!
"You're mine!" He said with fiery eyes. He very quickly grabbed apple after apple as they fell, shoving one by one into his mouth and quickly gulping it down like a true Saiyan.
More apples continued to fall, and Cloud did not let up as he continued to catch more and more of the shiny red delights. Before he and the tree knew it, they were down to the last three apples. His hands moved to grab them at super speed, but then-
*BAM!*
"OW!" Cloud yelped as the three apples hit the ground, bouncing a couple times before they settled.
"What in tarnation are ya doin'?!" Yelled Applejack, who held her little sister's bat in her mouth for a second before putting it down.
Cloud's hands reached for the top of his head, which felt like it was throbbing. In a pained and confused tone, he said "Geez! I was just eating some apples! You didn't have to hit me like that!"
"Sorry about that, but nex' time ask first instead of jus' helpin' yourself out." Applejack scolded for a moment. A moment of silence passed as Cloud's pain started to ease down as AJ looked between the Saiyan and the tree. "Hey, I have a question if ya don't mind me askin'."
Cloud's hands moved away from his head as the pain left. "Sure, what up?" He asked.
"Ya wouldn't mind helpin' me with apple buckin' sometime, would ya?" She asked, before continuing with, "Ah mean, Ah'll pay ya if ya help me."
"Sure, I'll help out!" He answered. "But what exactly is apple bucking?"
"Yo'll jus' be goin' ta each an' every tree, hittin' 'em, an' catchin' the apples with a bucket as they fall."
"Oh, well that doesn't sound too hard." Cloud said. "Maybe I can even make it a part of my training and see how fast I can do it!"
"Alright then! It's a deal!" AJ said, extending her hoof for a hoof-handshake. They shook hand and hoof for a second before AJ asked, "Now then, ya wanna come on inside for food?"
Cloud looked between her and the apple tree, then he grabbed at his stomach for a second and thought. He brought his hand back to his side. "Actually, I'm fine for now. I think I'll spend time training." He said. "Do you know where my house is?"
"Yep! It's that way!" AJ answered. She pointed in the right direction, to an area further into the orchard where the trees were thicker. "Jus' keep goin' in that direction, yo'll get there eventually."
"Thanks! I'll see you and everypony else later!" Cloud said, taking off in the right direction to find his house.
~ A Minute or So's Walk Later ~
Cloud was walking in a very relaxed manner, with his hands behind his head. He'd been relaxed like this for the past couple of minutes, just taking in the sounds and sights of nature: the blowing of wind and the clear pale blue sky, the rustling of leaves and the many apple filled trees, and the like.
However, these weren't what he was paying attention to the most. He was paying attention just enough to be aware of his surroundings, but otherwise his mind was focused on something else entirely.
'I wonder if I can handle it this time...' He was thinking of a certain contraption in the ship. 'Last time it almost flattened me like a pancake!'
Another minute passed and Cloud arrived at home sweet home. He smiled and said, "Hahaha! I don't know why, but I'm so happy to be home again! I feel like it's been forever!"
He ran straight to the door and pressed a button. There were three audible beeps and he moved out of the way. After the beeps, the hatch opened up with mechanical groaning as it lowered. A second or two passed and the hatch touched the ground.
Cloud walked on inside the ship and into the dark interior. Then there was a gentle hum and the lights all flickered on.
"WELCOME, CLOUD" The ship said in a female voice.
"Haha! Hiya! It's been a while hasn't it?" Cloud said cheerfully. He quickly pressed another button, but this one closed the hatch. There was again three beeps, and then the hatch closed with a mechanical groan.
The hybrid hero walked towards the huge machine at the center of the room. The machine was like a column and stretched all the way from the red tile floor to the ceiling.
The teenage Saiyan examined the console carefully, both trying to remember how to turn it on, and working up the courage to do so. 'This could very easily go wrong. I have to be careful...'
Sweat rolled down the side of his face as he remembered how to turn it on. He inhaled deeply and then exhaled. He wiped his forehead with the back of hi gloved hand, and with a determined look on his face, he pressed a series of buttons.
The machine turned on and there was a display that read 1G. "Huh? What's that mean?" Cloud asked no one in particular. He waited a second, but decided to keep fiddling with the contraption when nothing happened.
He pressed a button and the display read 2G. He presses the button again, and the number went higher. "I think the higher the number, the higher and more intense the level is..." He looked around and thought to himself for a second. He looked back to the console. "Only one way to figure it all out, I guess."
He pressed the start button and with the level set to 10G. There were a couple of beeps that came from the console, and then the machine began to whir.
After a moment of suspense, Cloud felt it. The weight took him by surprise and he hunched over. "Grrrr!!" With some effort, he got back into a normal standing position. He looked to the console and considered turning the level back to normal, but his Saiyan instincts said otherwise. He shook the thought out of his mind and turned his back to the machine.
"I'll start off with some basic exercises." Cloud said in a slightly strained voice.
He started doing some walking lunges around the entire room. Each knee drop was quick and took him by surprise, several times his knee nearly slammed into the hard floor. And each time he rose up required the most amount of effort he had ever used in his life - excluding his fight with Orah, of course.
"Grrr, that's... 12... 13... 14... 15... uh... what comes next?" Cloud stopped for a second to think of the next number. "uh, never mind, I'll just go for a couple more minutes."
And a 'couple more minutes' flew by - 5 minutes to be exact! They were surprisingly the longest 5 minutes of his life, but at least they were up.
He then got down low to do push ups and started counting. "1! 2! 3! 4!" and then he got to "13! 14! 15... I really need Twilight to teach me..." He once again went for another very long 5 minutes of push ups under 10x normal gravity. Afterwards, he moved onto 5 minutes of crunches.
Cloud was currently laying on the floor, breathing heavily and sweating profusely, but was overall fine. "GrrrrrrAAH!" He yelled as he got up to his feet. He inhaled and exhaled deeply and got into a crude fighting stance.
Now the real training was about to begin.
He visualized an opponent, a strong one. His name was Orah. The imaginary croc came charging at full speed. "HIYA!" Cloud threw a punch with all his might, and then seven more towards the fake croc's gut. Orah responded with a left claw swipe, which Cloud narrowly avoided by leaning back. He transitioned into a series of back flips to get away, and ended by landing on his feet in another stance.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!" Orah roared as he charged again. He wound up a punch and delivered it towards Cloud. He tried to dodge by jumping but forgot entirely about the gravity.
"AAAHH!!" Cloud screamed in panic, his eyes wide as plates. The croc's fist came at him, but phased through the smaller warrior, who in turn fell on his rear. Then, Orah disappeared, and the fight was over for the mean time.
"Darn it!" Cloud yelled in anger. He gritted his teeth for a moment, but then stopped. He inhaled and exhaled calmly, and let the anger go. He got to his feet, and said calmly and determined, "Time for round 2, you creep! And this time, I'm going to win!"
Orah appeared again, this time he pulled his knife out and held it with his left hand. Cloud took the offensive and charged towards the killer croc. Orah slashed at the Saiyan-Human hybrid. His first instinct was to jump, but that wouldn't end well, so Cloud instead blocked by slamming his right forearm against Orah's left forearm.
"HAAAAA!!" Cloud threw a left kick at Orah's gut and then attacked with two right punches to the gut, followed by a right knee. That knee caused Orah to buckle over, and with this opening, Cloud jumped as high as he could and landed a left uppercut to the chin.
The croc stumbled backwards, dazed and confused. With another opening provided, our hero ran forward a couple of feet before leaping forward with as much force as he could muster. Orah tried to move, to block, anything, but was too weak!
"HAAAAAAAA!!!" Cloud's elbow slammed into Orah's gut, and then he fired off a barrage of punches! He continuously punched over and over again, each hit landing faster and harder.
"And here's...!" Cloud exclaimed, spinning around and landing a swift left kick to Orah's side, followed by a right uppercut to the side of the face. The Saiyan teen jumped, higher than before, and raised his fists above his head, focusing his energy into his final attack. "THE FINISH!" The fists came down on Orah's head fast and hard like a powerful sledge hammer!
Cloud landed a foot or two away from Orah, who fell to his knees, and then to his stomach, defeated. Our hero breathed deeply and calmly one time, and Orah disappeared from existence.
The hybrid walked over to the console and turned off the machine. It's whirring and humming ceased, and Cloud felt 10x lighter than earlier!
"Alright then!" Cloud said, putting one hand on his hip with a smile. "I think I'll do this every day from now on for about an hour! And when I've gotten used to it, I'll up the level 10 times more! That'll get me REAL strong then!"
*Grrrroooooowwwlll*
The teenager grabbed at his stomach and winced in discomfort. "Hahaha! Fine, I'll get you some real food and not just a couple of apples this time!"
He slid down the rails of the ladder and landed on the floor of the lower level. He looked around, and smiled to see everything was just as he had left it.
The only thing off was that there was a strange smell about the place, like something was burning...
"Where is that smell coming from?" Following his heightened Saiyan sense of smell, Cloud followed the odor all the way to the kitchen area, and straight to the oven. "Why do I feel like I forgot something?"
He stared blankly at the oven and grabbed the handle. "Well, here goes nothing." He opened the oven door and was met with a great blaze to the face! "AAAAAAHHH!" He screamed in surprise as the fire enveloped his head.
Just as quickly as it happened, the fire died down. Like in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, Cloud's face was black from a bunch of soot and his eyes were as wide as plates.
Then it hit him. "That's right! Before I left the forest, I caught some fish, chopped them up and put them in the oven!"
"I wonder if Applejack has anything to eat..." said Cloud as he exited his ship and walked on back to the Apple house. One short walk later, and he was out of the orchard. He quickly saw AJ standing by the barn with Twilight, but they were next to a tower of hay.
"Hi girls!" He said walking up to the mares. The Saiyan-Human looked up at the towering stack of hay curiously. "What's this for?"
"I figured that the lab back at the library might not be the best place to test on you, so Applejack let me test you here!" The lavender mare explained simply.
''Oh, I think I get it now!" Cloud said, smiling brightly. He then started looking around and said, "Where's Rarity and Rainbow? I was kinda hoping they'd stick around."
"RIGHT HEEEEEEREE!" Pinkie Pie cheered. The three quickly saw her bouncing towards them with the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike. They were all carrying some sort of lab equipment.
"Thanks for grabbing the equipment everypony! And thanks for coming, all of you!" Twilight said, earning a smile from her friends.
Rainbow flew up to her friend's side and boldly said, "No problem, Twi! We're happy to help!"
"Now, are ya ready?" The unicorn asked.
*Growwwlll*
Cloud grabbed at his stomach in discomfort and groaned. "Y-yeah, in a minute! But can we please get something to eat first?"
The mares and Spike giggled for a second and all agreed to get a bite to eat first, much to the Saiyan's delight.
~ Ultra Heavy Tower of Hay Test ~
One meal later, and everything was set! Our hero stood next to the stack of hay with a contraption attached to his back like a book bag. Hovering at the top of the stack were Fluttershy and RD.
"What am I supposed to do?" He asked.
Twilight, who stood by some sort of gizmo, answered, "All you have to do is try and lift it! It's also really heavy - it should weigh a little over 600lbs! Also keep in mind that it'll wobble a lot, so try to keep it balanced! If it gets to be too much, Rainbow and Fluttershy will help you keep it balanced and-"
"I don't understand what you're sayin' at all! You're confusing me!"
Rarity said rather simply, "Just try and lift it up and don't let it fall!"
"Got it!"
Cloud looked at the stack for a second. He quickly did a few stretches, as per usual, and grabbed from the bottom. "Errrrrm! Haaaa!" He strained. With some effort he lifted the stack off the ground!
"Good! Now hold on, we'll tell you when to let go!"
The machine Twilight was next to began to glow and beep. It then proceeded to print out data. The librarian studied the sheet and began to think to herself, 'I see, I see... I think-'
"What'cha lookin' at Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked, startling the unicorn.
"Well you see, Pinkie, I'm trying to analyze Cloud's mysterious energy readings! That backpack he's wearing is reading his energy, and that information is transmitted to this machine! Hopefully I can figure out what kind of energy it is! Maybe I can even measure it, like on a scale!"
The poofy pink haired mare humorously said, "Teehee! Silly Twilight, everypony knows power levels are bologna! *Sigh* You have much to learn my padawan!"
Twilight was a tad bit confused, but shrugged it off as Pinkie Pie being her normal random self. "Aaaaaand done! You can drop it Cloud!"
Without hesitation, our hero dropped the towering stack and was ready for the next test.
~ Amazing Boulder Breaker Test! ~
Cloud stood in front of a rather large boulder that was at least the size of one of the apple trees.
"Do you see the target on it?" Twi asked from a few feet away.
He looked back at the boulder to see a sloppily painted smiley face with its tongue stuck out. "Heehee! I see it alright!"
"Now punch it and break it apart!" She shouted.
The Saiyan grinned and cracked his knuckles. He got into a crude fighting stance and focused his energy into his fist. "HIIYAAAAA!!" His fist crashed into the target square in the face!
... But nothing happened.
Cloud then walked to his confused friends happily with his hands behind his head.
Spike said in disappointment, "Nothing happened!"
Rainbow Dash in agreement said, "WHAT WAS THAT?! That was lame!"
"I came here to see stuff blow up! I DEMAND A REFUND!" Pinkie shouted, tossing aside popcorn in exaggerated fury- wait, where'd she even get popcorn from? "You don't wanna know, Mr. Author!"
... Ooookaaaaay, let's move on...
"Wait just a sec! Trust me! Everything's fine!" Cloud reassured them. "Just look at it!"
Everypony and dragon looked back at the boulder. Suddenly, it shook and large cracks began to form in a web pattern all over it! After a few more seconds, it crumbled into tiny pieces!
"It took a while, but I finally learned how to pull off that trick!"
"Okay..." RD started off. "THAT was awesome!"
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
Twi looked at the new data sheet and analyzed the data before her. "Yes! This is great!"
~ A Super Sonic Race Test! ~
"On your mark!" Spike said.
Cloud stretched out his legs a bit and RD stretched out her wings.
"Get set..." Said Fluttershy quietly.
RD got into a ready stance and Cloud got into his own.
"GO!" Shouted both Fluttershy and Spike (though Fluttershy was a bit quiet).
The competitors blasted off at super sonic speeds, blowing away everything they passed! But something was off...
"Where'd Pinkie Pie go?" AJ asked.
Our two racers were neck and neck. "You're a lot faster than I expected! But you're gonna have to try harder than that! Now eat my dust!" Without breaking a sweat, RD passed the Saiyan teenager, leaving a thick trail of dust.
"That little cheater! I can't see a thing!" Cloud said covering his eyes. With some smart thinking, he focused more of his energy into his legs and-
*FUUUUSH!*
He jumped high into the sky way up above Sweet Apple Acres and looked for RD. "Where is she?" His eyes moved from one location to another and he quickly spotted her just before she entered the orchard! At that moment, Cloud fell back to the ground just at the edge of the orchard and continued sprinting at super sonic speeds!
RD zoomed past every tree faster than the eye could see. She flew in the same direction for a few more seconds before making a left turn.
"That was real dirty leaving that trail of dust behind you, Rainbow Dash!" Shouted the Saiyan teenager.
She looked behind her quickly to see Cloud only a few feet behind, but it only took him a few seconds to tie her.
"Really? What'cha gonna do about it?" She taunted with a smirk. Cloud returned the favor with a smirk of his own though.
"I don't know, I was kinda thinking of winning this race!" He said as they both made a left hand turn.
Meanwhile, the others awaited their friends.
Spike asked Fluttershy, "They know this isn't an actual race right?"
"I think their competitive natures got the best of them." Said Fluttershy.
"Actually, we might get much better results now, so I guess it works out in the end." Twilight said as she read the data being printed out.
"Here they come!" Rarity shouted. Everyone but Twilight looked in the direction the racers were coming from, and they looked to be neck and neck again until-
"You're not too bad kid! I didn't think I'd have to go full speed!" RD boasted. Cloud's eyes widened in shock and awe.
*BOOOOOOOOOM!!!*
The Rainbow Dash then blasted off one final time, creating a legendary Sonic Rainboom! Her speed increased tremendously and she easily able to leave Cloud in the dust! The hybrid went full speed as well, but to no avail.
RD was able to slow herself down and come to a halt at her friends. Exhausted, she wiped sweat from her forehead. After a few seconds, Cloud stopped next to the pegasus. He then put his hands on his knees, panting and sweating.
"You alright? You look a little tired." Rainbow said.
"*Huff, huff* Yeah! That was so cool! I didn't think *huff* you were so fast!" Cloud said responded with a tired smile. "Actually, I'd like to race you again some time!"
Rainbow chuckled and said, "I'm all for a round two! Any time, any place!"
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Pinkie shouted loudly as she appeared behind the two, startling both of them. But oddly, she was sweating just as much as them. "First you were tied, and then you flew SUPER DUPER fast, and then you jumped like WHOOSH, and then you caught up and were tied, and-"
"How do you think? I followed you two, silly! You were kinda tough to keep up with, but not too tough!"
Both were silent at the random nature of their friend, and then broke out into laughter. Somehow, they weren't too surprised.
"EUREKA!" Shouted Twilight, jumping up and down with another sheet of data. She tossed it aside and galloped over to Cloud with the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike following her.
"Did'ya figure out what his energy is?" AJ asked.
"N-no, not really, only that it definitely isn't magic, but I think I can bring it out just for a moment using my magic!" Twi responded. "Everypony, stand back!"
Everyone did as she said and stood behind her. Her horn began to glow along with Cloud.
'Whoa! I feel incredible!' Our hero thought as he tensed his muscles.
Spike said in a worried tone, "Be careful Twilight! We don't know what wil-"
*VSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH!!!*
There was a sudden bright flash that blinded everyone! They all began to rub their eyes as their visions began to return.
"EEEEEEEEEEK!" Screamed Fluttershy, whose vision returned first.
"What's wrong Flutter-" RD began, but her vision returned to her as well and she was at a loss of words from what she saw.
Soon, everyone else's visions returned and they saw what was before them!
Rarity said, "C-Cloud! Y-y-you're... y-you're-"
"ON FIRE!" Shouted Fluttershy.
Cloud, our own young and mighty Saiyan hero, was enveloped in a fiery white aura of pure spiritual energy - Ki!! He quickly checked himself out, amazed by the amount of energy coming from his body!
"This power is AWESOME! I feel like I could do anything now!" He exclaimed.
Unfortunately, the moment was short lived, and the aura quickly dispersed.
"Cloud! Do you think you can power up like that again?!" Twilight asked eagerly.
The Saiyan shook his head. "Sorry, but now I don't feel anything anymore."
The unicorn sighed. "Well, I guess that's enough for today." She looked to her #1 assistant and said, "Spike, help me take the equipment back to the library! I have an important letter to write!"
The dragon stood firmly and saluted. "I'm on it!" and took off with the unicorn to gather the equipment.
"Oh wait!" the librarian said coming to a halt. "Do you want to come with us, Cloud?"
"Maybe later. I'm gonna go on home and nap. I'm beat from my exercise earlier and this race! So see ya guys later!" He said. Everyone responded with a wave and a 'see ya later' before he went walking back in the direction of his spaceship.
This story has been inactive for a long time now. I thought I should let all of you who like the story know why. Ordinarily, one would post a blog for this kind of thing, but no one ever reads my blogs when I post them, so it only makes sense to post an update on the actual story itself so that you all know what’s going on.
Anyways, tbh, I’ve just not really been wanting to write this story anymore. Or any fanfics here for that matter. This is just because I’ve kind of become interested in other stuff, which is a little upsetting because I’ve never been able to tell Cloud’s story (which I’ve been working on for years and means a lot to me) properly. But at the same time I’m a bit relieved because I don’t feel like i’m being tied down by this story anymore by pursuing other interests.
So - and as much as it pains me to say it - Dragon Ball TX is hereby cancelled. At least for now. I am considering coming back to this story sometime in the distant future just to finish it, or maybe telling Cloud’s story again in an entirely different form (one that is not an MLP fanfic) because the character and his story still mean a lot to me. Of course, I’m not entirely sure if I will as the future is fairly unpredictable. One thing’s for certain: If I ever do come back, this story may not go in the direction I originally intended.
Anyways, it was all fun while it lasted. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end.
(Gotta love how needlessly dramatic I made this lmao)
