Chapter 11:
The Story Of Tai Lung
Rarity had guessed that the purple unicorn would be daft enough to climb back up the stairs. She had even set up acupuncture needles for when she came to her door. But still, she couldn't help shaking her head in disbelief and admiration as Fluttershy and Pinkie dragged the beleaguered girl into her quarters, her face wracked with pain, but determined to stay conscious.
A determination that shook like rippling water as Rarity set about aiding her.
Twilight yelped in pain as Rarity placed a needle inside her back. Aside from Twilight and Rarity, Sweetie Belle stood with the box of needles, while Fluttershy watched on with worry in her eyes. Even though Fluttershy technically couldn't see with the blindfold on, the yelps and yowls of pain were plain enough.
"Darling, you must stop squirming," Rarity insisted.
"I'm trying. I thought you said acupuncture would make me feel…..better!" Twilight hissed as she winced from Rarity placing another needle into her back.
"It actually does. Rarity did this a lot for me when I was first starting out," Fluttershy mentioned, but if she was trying to be helpful it didn't work this time.
"Though, to be fair, you were much more… er…" Rarity pointed out as she shot an uncomfortable look at Twilight, who hung her head in resignation.
"In shape?" Twilight muttered.
"I was going to say well-trained," Rarity said, rolling her eyes, and jabbed another needle in, earning a yelp from the purple unicorn.
"Really, Twilight; do you truly think less of us just because of our experience?" Rarity asked.
"O-Of course not!" Twilight stammered, wincing as Rarity placed another needle.
"It's just…I know Master Luna's just trying to inspire me to train harder. But… sometimes, it really feels like she just wants to get rid of me," Twilight said with a sad sigh.
Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle, and Rarity all shot each other uncomfortable looks. Though they tried to hide them with false smiles, Twilight saw right through them. Twilight suddenly realized what should have been obvious from the start, but the revelation hurt all the same.
"Oh, sweet Celestia…" Twilight mumbled, burying her head in her hands as Rarity drew a few more needles from Sweetie Belle's box.
"Come now, darling. Master Luna may seem heartless, but it's truly not her fault," Rarity said, literally prodding Twilight out of her moping.
"Yeah. Rarity, didn't you say that there was a time when Master Luna used to smile?" Sweetie Belle asked, recalling how Rarity used to tell her about Luna smiling.
Twilight laughed at the concept.
"You mean like a genuine smile? Actual happy and joyful smile?" Twilight asked, given what she had seen of the Alicorn master it seemed impossible that she could smile. At least, a real one.
"The very same. At least, that all happened before…" Pinkie replied, poking her head in with a grin before the grin faded from her face.
Rainbow Dash glared out at them, before gazing in the direction of the hall herself.
"Before what happened?" Twilight asked.
The group looked at each other. But just as Pinkie started to lean in and whisper, Rainbow Dash sighed and walked up to them.
"Before Tai Lung happened," Rainbow Dash replied.
"Rainbow Dash! Ya know we ain't allowed to talk about him!" Applejack barked from her own room.
"Luna forbid it," Fluttershy added quietly, she was afraid of what Luna would do with them if she found them talking about Tai-Lung.
"Well, if she's going to stay here, then she needs to know," Rainbow Dash insisted.
As they argued, however, Twilight perked up. She remembered Tai Lung's name from the books. This was something she knew!
"B-But I know about Tai Lung! He was one of the first students to master the thousand scrolls of… Kung… Fu?" Twilight declared, drawing Rainbow Dash's gaze.
Instead of impressing the cyan master, Rainbow Dash's glare had deepened. All of Twilight's courage failed her.
"T-Then he turned… bad? And… went to… jail?" Twilight whimpered.
At first, Twilight feared Rainbow Dash was going to smack her. Then… the cyan master's glare faltered.
"He wasn't just a student." Rainbow Dash said quietly and almost bitterly as the flashback of Tai Lung's Past begins…
( Flashback Begins )
The Flashback begins with Luna cautiously opening the door and finding no-one there. Yet, upon looking down, she found a blanket wrapped around a sleeping child. Picking up the baby she saw that the child had snow-white fur with black circles all over his body and took the infant into the Celestial Palace.
"Luna found Tai Lung as a cub and raised him like a son" Rainbow Dash narrated.
The following morning, Luna personally fed the child she couldn't help but smile as the child made happy sounds and clapped, gazing at her with the unconditional love of a baby recognizing his mother. While Luna was entranced with the child, she shrieked in pain, for Tai Lung had pulled out a little amount of her midnight hair.
"And when the boy showed talent in Kung-Fu, Luna trained him. Believed in him. Told him he was destined for greatness" Rainbow Dash continued.
Tai Lung was in the training hall with Luna. As he played with the various objects inside, he came across the round training dummy. Grinning at the new challenge, Tai Lung swiped at it with his right paw before jumping back and delivering a strong kick, knocking the dummy back and causing one of the spears to fall from the weapon rack and onto the ground.
Luna noticed this and approached her son, pride in her eyes, love adding itself in as Tai Lung nudged her affectionately. An idea blossoming in her mind, Luna began to show her adopted son the steps to the basic move set of Kung-Fu. There was actual joy in her eyes and her grin widened as Tai Lung copied her movements, almost with perfect fluidity.
"But it was never enough for Tai Lung,"
By the age of 18 Tai Lung done something even his mother hadn't: he was the first to master the thousand scrolls of Kung-Fu. But the only scroll he had yet to read was the one inside the mouth of the Celestial Dragon. He had no idea what is was or what was in it.
But he yearned to find out.
One day, when Tai Lung was training with his mother to hone his skills like a well-balanced weapon, his curiosity and determination won out. Tai lifted himself from the ruins of the training dummies, but gazed at his mother with ambition in his eyes.
"He wanted the Celestial Scroll. But Celestia saw darkness in his heart… and refused"
"Outraged, Tai Lung laid waste to Ponyville…."
With a CRACK like thunder, the doors were flung off their hinges. As they clattered to the ground… Luna's heart tore in her chest as a furious Tai Lung ran through them.
Luna wanted to believe it was a trick: that Tai Lung was stopping some invisible fiend. Or that he was simply coming to check on his family. But in the cruel light of his eyes, Luna saw the truth: Tai Lung only had one goal, and that was to claim what was rightfully his.
"He tried to take the scroll by force. And Luna had to destroy what she had created."
Luna could not let him past her. She had to stop him. Leaping forward, she readied a powerful kick that would stop his rampage. But as she and the leopard closed in, for a moment, Luna did not see the monster that she had created. She saw the cub that she had raised – had fed by hand. The cub, who gazed at her with the love a child reserves only for its mother.
"But, how could she?"
Luna's kick faltered. How could she destroy that which she had created? The son she had loved? But her hesitation was her undoing.
The vision passed as Tai Lung swept her leg aside. Pain flared up Luna's leg as the bone broke from the force of his blow. As the cruel light in his eyes once again became clear to her, Luna suffered another punch that threw her back toward Celestia.
And as the master that once was his mother fell, Tai Lung made a powerful leap towards the dragon statue, claws yearning to claim the power of Celestial Scroll. But then Celestia intervened. Like a beam of sunlight, she rammed her staff into Tai Lung's neck, holding him in place as she tapped his chest in five vital nerve points, before leveraging him back into the ground. Tai Lung did not rise from where he fell.
Only the rise and fall of his chest indicated that he was still alive. Luna crawled to her son, the pain in her leg nothing compared to the pain in her heart. Placing a hand on the boy's head, Luna shut her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Luna had loved Tai Lung like she had never loved anyone before… or since…" Rainbow finished.
Twilight imagines a scorned child. An unfavorite. One that had tried to live up to the expectations set by another… and never achieved them. Not due to her own lack of skill… but because the teacher wasn't past her own failures.
( Flashback Ends )
Then Rainbow Dash looked up, for the scorned child was replaced by the master.
"And now she has a chance to make things right to train the true Celestial Warrior. And what does she get? A scrawny, egg-headed unicorn who belongs in a library and takes it as a joke!" Rainbow said firmly as her eyes narrowed at Twilight.
Twilight lowered her head. She wanted to say she wasn't taking it like a joke. That she wanted to do right by Luna. But at that moment, a sharp pain went up through her nerve, and her jaw went slack, her tongue hanging out as her eyes went cross-eyed from the nerve jolt.
"OH, THAT IS IT!" Rainbow Dash yelled, moving to smack Twilight out of the building until Rarity just barely managed to jump in her way.
"Rainbow, wait! That was me; I accidentally tweaked her facial nerve!" Rarity shrieked.
At that moment, Twilight slumped to her stomach, her back covered in acupuncture needles.
"And… may have also… stopped her heart," Rarity admitted, as Sweetie Belle poked at Twilight's face.
Author's Note: Looks like Twilight's not gonna do acupuncture for a long, long, long time.