Welcome back, readers, to another exciting chapter of Dragonball: Harmony! When we left off, Zackary was introduced to Bra, who had in her possession a Dragon radar. Following the reading on it, they were soon lead to Uub, who also had a Dragon ball on his person. With Bra also having found one, they was more than half way through finding the elusive Dragon balls, but why are they cracked? Is it a bad omen for our new heros?
Meanwhile, Twilight and Spike have finally landed on Earth, and are meeting with Dende. What role will they play in the events to come? Find out now!
A Dragon is Summoned: Twilight's Mission Revealed
"Hey, it looks like they're heading right for us," Bra called out to the group from the front. "Someone's found them already."
"Hopefully it's someone we know," replied Marron. "Otherwise Zack's gonna have to learn to fight in the air."
"Wait, you guys never covered that?" Uub asked.
"Don't worry, he's a fast learner," Marron replied. "I'm sure that he'll figure it out."
Zackary could only gulp at the prospect of having to fight airborne. Simply being airborne was taxing enough for him already, even though he felt he was starting to get the hang of it. He soon let out a sigh of relief, however, as a pair of figures came into view, one of which he recognised and knew to be friendly.
"Hey look, it is Pan," exclaimed Bra. "And it looks like Majin Buu is with her!"
"Majin Buu?" Zackary asked Marron.
Marron gave him a smile as she replied. "You'll see."
The two groups got closer until they were right near each other and then stopped. Zackary once again found himself gasping for air, but he wasn't falling out the sky this time. Before the group was the familiar black haired girl in her orange sleeveless gi and pants. Just behind her was an unfamiliar, overweight looking being with pink skin and what apeared to be a large antena right on top of its head. It was wearing a black vest and white pants and a pair of mits. Then the greetings began.
"Hey Pan!" Bra said excitedly. "You're looking for the Dragon balls too?"
"Sure am, Bra," Pan replied. "Buu's been a great help with that. We've found three already!"
"We saw," said Marron. "And we have the other four!"
"Really! We have all seven now!" Pan exclaimed. "Buu told me he sensed that one of them was out here, but now we have all seven!"
Zackary would have spoken up at this point, but he was still trying to suck air into his lungs. Pan seemed to notice him first though, and approached him.
"Hey, I remember you," she said. "Zack, right?"
"Yeah... good to... see you... again... Pan," Zackary replied in between breaths.
"You're looking for the Dragon balls too?" Pan asked. "When did you learn how to fly?"
"Actually... Marron... taught me," said Zackary. He soon became aware of Uub and Marron on either side of him ready to catch him.
"He just learned a month and a half ago," Marron said. "He's not quite used to extended airtime just yet."
"Friend of Pan is friend of Buu," the pink being suddenly said with an uncharacteristically high pitched voice as it rushed at Zackary with its arms extended. "Buu give you energy!"
Zackary felt a power surge through his body as he begain to glow pink. When the glowing subsided, Zackary found himself no longer panting or feeling any kind of exhaustion. He looked up at the pink creature, which now had its arms down, and wore a wide smile on its face.
"I... thank you, mate," Zackary said as he clenched and unclenched his fists. "What's your name?"
"Me Buu," the pink being replied. "You Zack. Buu like you. You get strong quick."
"Ch... Cheers, Buu," Zackary replied hesitantly. Zackary felt a little unsure of what to make of this 'Buu' character. He was definitely on their side, that much was evident.
Pan giggled a bit before speaking up. "You'll get used to it eventually. Buu's a little eccentric when he's in a good mood."
"Well, as long as he's friendly," Zackary managed to say before Buu wrapped him up in a tight embrace. He could feel his ribcage being compressed painfully by this hug, but at least he could stop focusing and flying for a brief moment before Buu eventually let him go.
Pan then approached Uub and said. "You've been awefully quiet. You're name's Uub, right?"
Zackary looked over and saw that Uub's cheeks had reddened and he and Pan looked at each other.
"Uh.. yeah, that's me." Uub replied. "You're Goku's granddaughter, right?"
"My name's Pan," Pan said with a small giggle.
Uub began scratching the back of his head as he replied. "Oh, sorry, Pan. It's really nice to meet you again."
"You don't have to apologise, Uub," Pan said, clearly amused by Uub's awkwardness.
"If we're done re-enacting high school, we have a dragon to summon," Bra announced impatiently.
"Yes," Zackary said as he shook himself back into focus. Watching Uub and Pan's antics was a bit distracting for him, to say the least. He looked around before continuing. "We should probably find a safe spot to land first, unless of course we can summon this 'Shenron' in mid air."
"That would be a neat trick," Marron replied. "But you're right, Zack. We need to land first."
"That Island with the cafe isn't too far away from us," Uub said. "We can head back their and do it."
"There's a cafe around here?" Pan said excitedly. "That's great. Buu and I forgot to have breakfast when Buu said he could sense another Dragon ball nearby."
"Then it's settled," Zackary said, turning back to the direction of the island cafe, with the group following close behind.
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"It's an honor to meet you, Dende," Twilight said to their host, simultaneously kicking Spike to keep him from laughing. "I do have a question though. How did you know we were coming?"
"We were informed by King Kai, who was informed by your Princess Celestia," the black skinned man in the turban replied.
"King Kai?" Spike asked.
"He's the overseer of the North Galaxy," Dende replied. "Anyway, you were summoned here by your 'cutie mark map', if I understand correctly."
"That's right, Mr. Dende," Twilight replied, prompting a chuckle from the black skinned man with the turban (and from Spike). "We're here to solve a friendship problem."
"Well, I don't know about any 'friendship problems', but Earth could sure use all the help it can get," Dende replied sadly as he made his way to the edge of the lookout. Twilight and Spike followed their guides curiously to the edge and looked right down when they reached it.
"As you can see," the turban clad man said. "None of these disasters are at all natural. Something caused the Earth to suddenly shake itself apart."
"The cutie mark map showed me a sneak peak of this before I left." Twilight said. "How can I help with this?"
"I imagine that that is what you are here to find out, Princess Sparkle," Dende replied.
"Well, it's never been easy, has it, Twilight?" said Spike with a nonchalant sigh. "What do we do now?"
Twilight pondered Spike's question for a moment. She barely even knew enough about this world to even determine where to begin. Then she remembered a question that she had in her mind from the last few days of her travels.
"Mr. Dende," she said. "Could you tell me about 'the Dragon Balls', please?"
Dende smiled as he replied. "Of course, Princess Sparkle. Please, come and have a seat."
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"Finally, we have all seven Dragon Balls," Uub said enthusiastically.
Zackary smiled contently at the collection that they had amassed. All of them were gathered in a small bunch in no particular order, just waiting to be ignited. But something still lingered in the back of Zackary's mind. He had to voice it.
"Would it still work the same way if they're all cracked like this," he asked. "That kind of raises alarm bells in my mind."
"Like I said, Zack, it's probably nothing to worry about," Bra replied. "We'll just summon the Dragon, ask him what the deal is, and then, if there's a way to fix it, we do it."
"If worse comes to worse, it'll just mean taking it to Dende," Uub added.
Zackary remembered Marron telling him about the Guardian's lookout during his training with her. He had never heard her say his name, though.
"I don't know who this 'Dende' is," he said. "But his name sounds like code for a penis."
The rest of the group was silent at this. After a few moments, though, Marron spoke up.
"You know what, I've never actually thought of that before, it totally does," she said with a small giggle.
"Hey gurl," Buu suddenly piped up. "You wanna see my Dende?"
Everyone had a good laugh over this. When it died down, Zackary noticed that he felt a lot better. He looked back down at the Dragon Balls with a new sense of hope. Finally, it was all going to be right again.
"You wanna do the honors?" Marron asked Zackary. Zackary smiled and took a couple of steps forward. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before opening them again and throwing his hands up into the air.
Nothing happened.
He could feel the others waiting expectantly for him to do something else, but he had expected something from the Dragon Balls to appear.
"Uh... guys," he finally said after a minute of having his arms in the air. "How do I summon the Dragon?"
This question elicited more laughter from the group. Zackary's face began to heat up after this.
"Perhaps we should all do it together," Pan said after the laughter died down once more. "Zack can learn by following us."
"That's actually a great idea, Pan," Uub said enthusiastically as he leaped to Zackary's left side. The others gathered around him as well, all with their hands in the air.
"Now Zack, try and say it with us, ok?" Marron said. Zackary nodded and listened for what they would say. When they spoke, he found it easy to keep up.
"Eternal Dragon, by your name we summon you forth: Shenron!"
The Dragon Balls began to glow. Zackary and the others waited in anticipation for what was to come. Zackary's worry began to return, however, when the Dragon Balls suddenly turned a dark blue. Smoke began to seep out of the cracks in them at and alarming rate, and shoot up into the sky. The smoke eventually began to form a figure, but not one that Zackary was hoping for.
"Guys," Zackary asked. "Is this supposed to happen?"
"It's never happened like this before," Marron replied.
"What's going on?" Buu cried out.
The group could only stop and stair in wonder as the smoke began to turn into a giant being. It vaguely resembled an eastern dragon, but it was holding a cigar in one of it's claws. Its scales were the same dark blue colour as the Dragon Balls were now. It glared at the group with glowing red eyes. It did not look at all friendly.
"That's not Shenron, is it?" Zackary asked again. He could almost hear them all shaking their heads.
"This isn't supposed to happen at all," Pan said before calling up to the Dragon. "Hey! Where's Shenron? Are you going to be the one granting us our wishes instead."
There was a moment of silence. The Dark Dragon took a big puff of his cigar and blew the smoke down on Zackary and his new friends, causing them all to cough and splutter.
He'd better, or all this was a waste of time after all, Zackary thought to himself worriedly.
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"So these Dragon Balls will summon this 'Shenron' guy and he'll grant you any three wishes?" Spike asked.
"Depending on the scale and size of your wishes, yes," Dende replied. "He has limits, you see. If you were to, say, wish an entire planet's worth of dead people back to life, that would be the only wish he would be able to grant."
Twilight took a sip of her tea before asking. "I take it that's quite a common thing to wish for?"
"You have no idea," Dende replied.
The Turban wearing man, who's name Twilight learned was Mr. Popo, suddenly rushed in on their little tea party.
"Dende, it looks like someone has tried to summon the Dragon again," he said. "But... with not so good results."
"What do you mean, Mr. Popo?" Dende asked. "Forgive me, Princess Twilight, I think there's something wrong and I need to see to it?"
"I'll come with you," Twilight replied. "It may be related to why I was summoned here."
The four of them ran back outside to the edge of the lookout to find a very different setting. The sky had turned pitch black, with not even the clouds visible. Lightning coursed throughout the sky and the following sound of thunder was almost deafening to Twilight, who covered her ears with her wings.
"Well, everything seems normal for a dragon summoning," Dende observed. "Except..."
"Is that normal, Mr. Dende?" Spike asked, pointing out to the horizon. Twilight squinted and could barely make out a column of dark blue smoke shooting up to the Sky.
"That... no, that's not normal at all," Dende said shakily. "Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong with the Dragon Balls!"
Twilight's ears suddenly perked up. Perhaps this is what she was sent here for.
"That's where we'll start, then," Twilight said. "Thank you for your help, Mr. Dende. C'mon, Spike!"
She galloped underneath Spike and scooped him up as she took to the sky. Her dragon assistant was much taller than he used to be, so he could no longer sit normally on her back, and was instead clinging around her collar line.
"Be careful!" She heard Dende call out to her as she flew in the direction of the smoke.
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The six of them finally cleared the cigar smoke and managed to look up at the dark dragon. It was glaring at them now, or rather, right at Zackary. Zackary gulped at the sight of those completely red eyes glaring down at his own. Suddenly, the Dragon began to cackle loudly.
"What's the big deal?" Bra demanded. "Are you here to grant us our wish or not?"
The Dragon stopped cackling and looked back down at the group. Then, finally, it spoke.
"I'm not interested in granting any wishes," it said, with an ominous and dark tone.
Zackary felt his knees go week. They buckled under him and he fell forward onto them. The voices from his nightmare began to ring in his head again. He put his hands to his ears, but of course that did no good.
The dragon sucked in another large puff of smoke and blew, but as it did, it evaporated back into smoke that travelled back down to the Dragon Balls. The smoke then seemed to carry the Dragon Balls away, turning into dark eastern dragons that snaked their way in all different directions with a Dragon Ball each. When they disappeared, the sky turned back to normal, leaving a dumbfounded Zackary and his friends standing there wondering what had happened.
Zackary fell forwards onto all fours, as his eyes began to tear up. He had failed in his mission, and the voices that now rang in his head were a constant reminder.
"Hey Buu," Pan said. "You think this is what Garnet ment?"
"Buu think so, now," Buu replied.
"Wait, who's Garnet?" Uub asked. "What did she tell you?"
"She insisted that we don't summon the Dragon," Pan replied. "She wouldn't tell us why, though."
"Don't you think that's information worth sharing?" Uub asked again.
"Honestly, I was with Bra the whole time, Ididn't think it was anything to worry about," Pan answered.
"Well, this is just f* #ing great," Bra shouted suddenly. "Thanks for the heads-up, Pan! Now we know to take them to Dende first! Oh wait, we already potentially made things so much worse!"
"Pan, calm down, this isn't going to make anything better," Pan said.
"Pan was as much to know that this would happen as any of us," Uub added.
"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN AFTER THAT!" Bra exclaimed. "All I wanted to do was..."
The argument drowned out of Zackary's attention in favour of the destructive voices in his head. He began to sob hard at his failure. He had to return to his mother and brothers and tell them that he failed.
They would never see their father again.
The voices suddenly disappeared when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Zackary looked up to see Marron, looking solemnly at him.
That was the end of Zackary's control. He clenched his eyes shut and began to sob loudly. He felt Marron pull him into a tight embrace as he did.
"Marron," he managed to say in between sobs. "I failed... I'm sorry..."
"We all did, Zack," Marron replied sadly. "We all did. But we can't give up now. There's got to be a way to fix this."
Any hope that Zackary had was slowly seeping away. With the rest of the group now arguing amongst themselves, what could they hope to accomplish. He let his anguish go into Marron's shoulder, when suddenly...
"ATTENTION, EARTHLINGS..."
A booming female voice stopped everyone in their tracks. Zackary looked up to the source of the voice with tears still in his eyes, and couldn't believe what he was looking at...
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"There is no need to be fighting amongst yourselves," Twilight announced, while casting a voice amplifying spell. "All you need to do is talk with one another calmly about any issues you may have, and work together to come up with a solution. I'm sure that if you all put your heads together, your friendship will make it through anything!" Twilight turned back to look at her cutie mark and waited for it to flash. Spike was still hanging off her neck, but luckily he was not putting enough pressure on her to bother her. She became disappointed when it didn't flash.
"That wasn't it, Spike," she said to her dragon assistant. "I was so sure."
"Come on, Twilight," Spike said. "When has it ever been that simple?"
"Well I-" Twilight began, but was cut off by another voice from the group she was just announcing too.
"Um..." Twilight looked down and immediately felt her cheeks heat up, as she suddenly became aware that all of the earthlings were now giving her the most confused looks she had ever seen on any living creature ever. Despite her embarrassment, she took this moment to observe the group she was dealing with.
They all appeared human, like in the world through her mirror portal to Sunset Shimmer's dimension. On the ground was a man in a leather jacket and blue jeans, who looked like he had been crying. Next to him was a woman, in an orange... thing that looked like one of Rainbow Dash's Karate gis but with no sleaves, and orange pants with a blue undershirt. She had blonde hair and dark eyes and didn't appear to have a visible nose. Among the four on their feet, was a man with dark skin and a spikey mohawk. He wore a black sleeveless karate gi and pants. Another girl stood next to him with black hair, dressed similarly to the blonde girl on the ground. By them stood another girl, this time with blue hair being held back with a read hairband. She was wearing some kind of skin tight suit under some kind of armour, and had white gloves and boots. The being that drew her attention the most, however, was the fat pink coloured gum-looking individual who appeared to have a giant antenna sticking out from his head. He wore a black vest with white pants, a purple cape tied around his neck and a pair of mits on his hands. This individual spoke first.
"Can Buu help you?" he seemed to demand.
Twilight shook herself back into focus before replying. "Well, actually I'm here to help you." She slowly descended and landed before the group before continuing. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my assistant, Spike." She indicated Spike, who gave the group a short wave. "We've been sent to your planet to help you resolve your friendship problem!"
There was silence for a long time as Twilight finished her introduction with a wide grin. They all looked to one another, seemingly unsure of what to make of this.
"Come on, Princess Celestia's been sending talking ponies here for years," Spike suddenly said. "Don't tell me you haven't seen one before?"
All was still quiet, and a few of them began muttering amongst themselves. Twilight suddenly noticed the young man in the leather jacket stand up, dry his eyes and approach her.
"I don't know about any 'friendship problems'," he said with an unfamiliar accent. "But we could definitely use all the help we can get." The man suddenly turned back to his friends as he continued. "And by the way, guys, she's right. Arguing over it isn't going to solve anything. I have a feeling that our fight for the Dragon Balls isn't over. We need to work together in order to get through this."
The blue and black haired girls seemed to look down as the leather clad man said this. He turned back to Twilight, drying his eyes some more, and kneeling down to meet her at her eye level. Twilight notice that when he was standing, she reached his waist level on all fours, just like on Spike.
"Sorry for our awkward staring before, Miss Sparkle," he said. "It's good to meet you. My name's Zack." He opened his hand and offered it to Twilight.
Twilight offered up her hoof, which he took and shook gently. "It's nice to meet you, Zack," she replied. Zack stood up and turned back to his group. The blonde woman was next to speak.
"Well, guys, aren't you going to introduce yourselves?" she said. "Hi there, Twilight Sparkle. My name's Marron."
"I'm Pan," the black haired girl said.
"Hey, I'm Uub," the dark skinned mohawked man said.
"Me Buu," said the Pink blob man.
"And my name is Bra," said the blue haired girl in the strange armour. "Welcome to Earth."
"Thank you," Twilight replied. "It's really nice to meet you all. Now that we have intruductions out of the way, what kind of help do you need?"
The man named Zack looked down at his had before clenching it into a fist. He looked back at Twilight with a new look of determination in his eye.
"We need to fix the Dragon Balls," he said.
Twilight was a bit taken aback by this statement. She had only learned about the Dragonballs existing a few moments ago, and now she needed to fix them. She observed the rest of the group and saw that she was not the only one who was surprised. The blue haired girl named Bra seemed to be the most surprised of them all. Zack approached her.
"Do the Dragon Balls still show up on your radar?" he asked.
Bra hesitantly reached behind her a pulled out some sort of round object and looked at it.
"It looks like they do," she replied. "In fact, there's one just a few miles East from here."
"Right," Zack said. "Then there's no time to lose. Let's-"
"Wait!" the girl named Pan cut in, followed by a low rumble that seemed to emanate from her as well. "Can Buu and I get something to eat, first?"
Zack let out a sight before saying, "You know what, I could do with a cup of tea right now,"
There were a few noised of agreement from the others, including "same," and "me too!". Twilight followed them all to a shack on the edge of the island that they were on.
"You want anything, Miss Sparkle?" Zack asked.
"Please, just call me Twilight," Twilight replied. "And if they have any hay burgers, I'll have one of those."
"Well, you never know," Bra spoke up. "There have been ponies here for a little while now, we might just be able to get that."
Twilight trotted happily towards the group, with Spike close behind.
Zackary: G'day, Zackary here. I'm more determined than ever to get that wish!
Twilight: And Spike and I are gonna be right here with you!
Spike: Ugh, what's that smell?
Uub: Oh no! My Village!
Zackary: Next time on Dragonball: Harmony: The Two Star Dragon; Uub's Village in Danger! Don't miss it!