After his unfortunate journey down and back up he stairs, Po was in Viper's room, where she helped Mantis try to relieve his pain via acupuncture. He yelped however each time Mantis leaped up and stuck a needle in his back.
"I thought you said acupuncture would make me feel better," he protested.
"Trust me, it will. It's just not easy finding the right nerve points under all this…" Mantis trailed off.
"Fat?" Po asked. He was frankly used to being called a lot of names.
"Fur. I was going to say fur," Mantis returned.
"Sure you were," Po muttered.
"Who am I to judge a warrior based on his size. I mean, look at me," Mantis said, but Po couldn't turn to see the small wolf behind him no matter which direction he faced. "I'm over here," he told him, stabbing another acupuncture needle into Po's back.
"Ow!" he yowled.
"Maybe you should take a look at this again," Viper helpfully hinted, showing Mantis her diagram of Po again. It was drawn with the organs and nerve points shown, encircled by Po's bulk.
"Oh, okay," Mantis replied, but it still didn't really help, as Po's yells disturbed Monkey's sleep and interrupted Crane's calligraphy.
"I know Master Shifu's trying to inspire me, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say he was trying to get rid of me," Po nervously laughed. He wasn't the smartest of wolves, but he knew that Master Shifu clearly didn't want him there. The only question was did The Furious Five feel the same way. He thought they had, but now they seemed to sympathize with him-except Tigress.
"I know he can seem kind of heartless," Mantis soothed him, jabbing in another needle, "but, you know, he wasn't always like that."
"According to legend, there was once a time when Master Shifu actually used to smile," Viper told him. She couldn't remember a time when he had genuinely smile and neither could Po.
"No," he disbelievingly said.
"Yes," Mantis affirmed.
"That was before," Viper added. sadly
"Before what?" Po asked.
"Before Tai Lung," Tigress answered, entering the room. She had been listening outside their room once she returned, and she wanted to tell this story. Master Oogway had shown her, so she would show him.
"Uh, yeah, we're not really supposed to talk about him," Crane protested.
"Well, if he's going to stay here, he should know," she returned.
"Guys, guys, I know about Tai Lung. He was a student-the first ever to master the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu, and then he turned bad, and now he's in jail, and-" Po's confident tone changed to submission as Tigress came closer.
"He wasn't just a student," she murmured, and as Master Oogway had shown Master Shifu his dream, Tigress showed Po her memory. Shifu had clearly been much younger back then, and he still had white fur, but the tan was a richer brown. "Shifu found him as a cub and he raised him as a son," she showed him Master Shifu feeding the young cub, and the cub laughing as he pulled out his whiskers. "And when the boy showed talent in kung fu, Shifu trained him," she said as Tai Lung beat up the training dummy and affectionately nuzzled Master Shifu. "He believed in him. He told him he was destined for greatnesss." And he trained him well. Maybe too well. "It was never enough for Tai Lung," Tigress sighed, knowing it would have been enough for her. "He wanted the Dragon Scroll, but Oogway saw darkness in his heart and refused," she coldly showed Po Tai Lung's reaction-complete and utter rage. "Outraged, Tai Lung laid waste to the valley," she murmured, passing scenes of Tai Lung's horror, killing and injuring the inhabitants of the valley and destroying their homes. "He tried to take the scroll by force," she added, revealing Tai Lung smashing through the door and racing for the scroll. "And Shifu had to destroy what he had created," she growled. Master Shifu had leapt at Tai Lung, ready to knock some sense into him. "But how could he?" she painedly asked. He had remembered his son as who he had been, and Tai Lung took advantage of his pause, sinking his teeth into Shifu's leg and wrenching his jaws, sending him flying. Master Oogway stopped Tai Lung with his nerve attack, but the damage had been done. Master Shifu's heart was broken and so was his leg. He limped over to Tai Lung and reached out his forepaw to release Tai Lung, but he couldn't. "Shifu love Tai Lung like he had never loved anyone before," she sighed. Then, absentmindedly, she showed him the memory of her as a cub, defeating the dummy, but receiving only criticism and he turned his back on her. "Or since," she added. She had watched Master Shifu limp away, hardly caring for her in a way that was so different from Tai Lung.
Monkey and Crane were listening to the story too, peering in from the crack in the doorway.
"And now, he has a chance to make things right, to train the true Dragon Warrior, and he's stuck with you, a big, fat wolf who treats it like a joke," she accused him angrily. While she had worked so hard to gain Master Shifu's approval, Tai Lung had taken away his love and Po was destroying her chance of a future.
"Doi!" he made a mocking face at her with his huge tongue flapped to the side and his eyes crossed. How dare he?
"Oh, that is it!" she yowled, raising a paw with her sharpened claws outstretched, ready to give him the slap of a lifetime.
"Wait! My fault-I accidentally tweaked his facial nerve," Mantis intervened quickly, and Po fell over, revealing a back completely covered in acupuncture needles. Tigress backed up. "And may have also stopped his heart," Mantis added a little nervously. Gently, he tapped the side of Po's head, but he only twitched in response.