"Riding a pegasus or any flying beast like griffins, unisi, hippogriffs, hippolectryons, papillequines, caballucos, or any species of the pterippus genus is a challenge for young fairies before they earn their wings and learn how to fly." Poppy narrated to a group of young sprites. "So each young rider gets an adult fairy to mentor them so everything clicks and after a week of training, they get to show off everything they learn at Castle City's autumn fest's junior fairy grand prix."
"The next logical step is to pair with our mentors, do you know when we'll do it?" Priscilla asked.
"Let me think…..how about now!" Poppy squealed as she brought in all the fairies, either they are elves, sprites, nymphs, peri, etc. who volunteered to become mentors for the young sprites. Among them were Guy Diamond, Rose, and Branch. "Pick up a name from the basket and you'll get your match."
The kids ran up to the flower basket and each picked out a piece of paper. One male nymph got Guy Diamond as a mentor, a young male elf got Rose, CJ Suki got paired with Aspen Heitz, and everybody else was finally matched with their mentor. Poppy flew up to Branch, who is also excited.
"Oh Branch, good, I've been needing to tell you that I'm so proud that you volunteered to mentor." She said.
"Awww!" Branch smiled.
"Just remember, these are kids, they respond more to fun rather than to pragmatic severity." She continued.
"Great, now you tell me." He sighed.
"Branch, I can't believe you're my mentor!' Keith squealed as he ran up to him.
"Look Keith, I had a rigorous 40-step flying lesson planned by Poppy says, I gotta keep this fun." Branch said. "So we'll just wing it and eat my aunt's marshtato crispy squares!"
Keith squealed and took some marshtato crispy squares for himself, leaving some for Branch, who took out some matching bomber jackets.
"Did I hear someone say "Matching jackets?" Branch asked again as he pulled out matching riding bomber jackets from his backpack.
"Now you did it!" Keith squealed as they both wear jackets and they start flying with their pegasi. Branch tried hard to mentor Keith but the young sprite went flying hard on his own pegasus.
"I'm impressed Branch, I thought maybe with the junior grand prix, you'd make this mentoring thing too much about winning." Poppy smiled at him.
"Winning? Why in the world would I care about winning a kid's race?" Branch asked.
Suddenly, Creek flew in the center of the team with Priscilla beside him.
"Attention friends!" Creek shouted.
"Creek! That bobo again!" Branch growled.
"I am very proud to present my star pupil, Priscilla!" He said as he showed Priscilla beside him. She did a lot of tricks on a pink unisus, which impressed everybody, all except for Branch and Rose, who both have a huge dislike for the sprite.
"Incredible!" Guy squealed. "Priscilla is with flying but I am to winning the hearts of all beings well!"
"Oh yes, she'll probably finish first place in the grand prix, thanks to my mentoring." Creek smirked.
Everybody cheered for him while Rose scoffed with her head held high and Branch groaned.
"Ay ay ay!" Rose nodded.
"Oh please, if Priscilla will win cause she is the smartest kid in her class, not because of Creek's mentoring." He nodded with a frown. "Not that I care because this is not about winning."
"You should've seen my papa when he trained me for the junior grand prix in the Philippines, he is serious." Rose glared back. "In fact, he'll have me get Majesty when he found out I am mentoring an elf, as he did with me."
"Oh, I agree Branch." Creek replied. "It is not about winning but I do recommend how you've prepared yours to not win."
"It's on, you beanstalk!" Rose spat.
"Hey, I'm supposed to do that!" Branch groaned.
"What? I can't help myself." She groaned.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna pass more wisdom to my pupil." Creek said before flying off.
"Oh, we'll just see who's the better mentor." Branch growled.
Branch had a hard time mentoring Keith. He tried to make it fun but it is hard to do it.
"You know what, Keith." Branch said. "Before this lesson, I want you to know, I see a lot of potential in you, you can totally win this Grand Prix next week."
"Well, if you wanna win, we can always use booster power glyphs." Keith suggested but Branch stopped him.
"No mijo, booster power glyphs make you fast but the point is to learn how to fly before you get your wings." Branch nodded. "You just need to buckle down and a little less goofing off."
"But I thought this was supposed to be fun?" Keith said.
"And it will be, there is no reason we can't have fun and get first place." Branch said. "So, let me demonstrate how we fly through these trees."
He did a demonstration with his blue pinto pegasus, Nachos and Keith tried to imitate him while riding on the chestnut pegasus, Clover but he kept on crashing through the hedges and goofing off. Rose noticed how Branch was so exhausted about trying to mentor Keith so they landed their unisi to the ground and Rose hopped off Majesty but she told her pupil to keep watch.
"Branch, having a hard time mentoring Keith?" She asked him.
"Yeah, he always gets distracted and would goof off when I teach him." Branch complained.
"There is an alternative way to teach Keith how to fly, I did the same thing with Lynn Elfmore here." Rose said.
"Is he your boss's kid?" He asked her.
"No, he's his grandson and his son entered him in the grand prix next week." She answered. "I got picked as his mentor because my boss volunteered me to this program. I had a hard time teaching Lynn how to fly too."
"You do?"
"Yeah, my boss told me that Lynn loves cars and go-kart driving so I decided to make his training fun by taking him to the amusement park." Rose replied. "We drove go-karts and he is very good at it so I would encourage him to learn to ride a unisus, just like how he drive go-karts and he nailed it. For you, what does Keith love to do?
"Well…." Branch murmured but he noticed that Keith was riding on Clover crazily in the sky.
"I feel like I'm in Pixie Kart 2.0!" He yelled.
Hearing this, Branch got an idea. He took Keith to his apartment and they started playing Pixie Kart 2.0. Keith always beats Branch in the game, which he used to encourage the young sprite to ride the pegasus like how he plays the game. After many days of training, the grand prix is ongoing with Keith on the lead. Poppy and Cooper are hosting the race, as requested by the mayor of Castle City.
"This is just like Pixie Kart 2.0!" He screamed.
"Keith is well...spectacular." Creek gasped.
"Well, he is a Guy Diamond…..in the rough." Guy smirked.
"Wow, impressive mentoring, Branch!" Aspen cheered at him.
"You're scoring off the charts, my man!" Guy complimented.
"But that's impossible!" Creek nodded. "He's so far ahead!"
"Oh, what do you know? I did really care so much about winning but I got this secret that I motivate him to keep him going." Branch smirked."Ahh, good times."
Creek wasn't giving up and in the final laps, Keith pulls in for a pitstop.
"How's it going up there? Branch asked him.
"This is fun, I can't wait to win like in Pixie Kart 2.0!" Keith squealed.
"So, still feeling like playing it so go! Go! Go!" Branch shouted as Keith flew up with Clover.
As Priscilla pulls in, she shouted. "Woohoo, this is so much fun!"
"Well, it's gonna be more fun when we teach Branch a lesson." Creek smirked as he placed a booster power glyph on her unisus. Nobody but Rose noticed it.
"That's unfair!" Branch yelled when he discovered that Creek cheated. "Not that I care about winning, it's about beating you!"
"Don't worry Branch, there's nothing to worry about being the second-best mentor." Creek grinned.
"Oh, I saw you using a booster power glyph on Priscilla's unisus!" Rose smirked at Creek.
"Wait, how did you know?!" Creek was shocked.
"I see how you placed that cheat on Priscilla's unisis during the pitstop!" She glared. "My dad is against using power glyphs to cheat and he also caught a cheater once when I was in the Junior Grand Prix."
Suddenly, Priscilla's unisus started to buck on air when the power glyph lost its magic as an effect of overusing it. Priscilla screamed as her mount went out of control.
"Oh no, I don't think she can hold on!" Poppy commented from the booth.
"What have I done?!" Branch and Creek cried.
"So much for being focused on being number one" Rose nodded.
"Keith, you'd better turn around, Priscilla needs you." Branch called to Keith.
"Gotta win this!" Keith said.
"Just forget about winning, you're too focused on that" Branch pleaded. "But please, Priscilla is in danger and she needs your help, you gotta save her."
Keith immediately flew to the rescue as Priscilla was bucked off her unisus and he caught her in a flash. Everybody cheered when Keith finally rescued Priscilla. The two didn't win but DJ Suki won first place while another nymph got third and Lynn Elfmore got third. Rose hugged Lynn as he got his medal.
"Well bud, sorry if it's not first place." Branch apologized.
"Nah, I never cared about that." Keith nodded. "Just between you and me, I'm better off being a goof-off."
"In that case, wanna play Pixie Kart 2.0?" He asked him.
"Yeah!" Keith squealed as they ran off to play video games in his apartment.