Broly was lying flat in his bed. He had tried moving from one side to another, hiding under the covers, even pressing the pillow to his face until almost suffocating. But it was useless, he couldn't sleep. The events that had leaded him from the cold space to this new land and transformed him into a pitiful pony were still etched on his memory even hours after this "Fluttershy" had left. The enormous pain he was sensing all the time didn't help, either.
If her words were true, she had found him unconscious and severely injured in a place called "Everfree Forest" after finding her drug addict bunny Angel there (Twilight had angrily shouted at him for calling him that, while Fluttershy only explained his odd behavior smiling like she didn't care about his words). That white brat went then to a nearby town called "Ponyville" (quite original...), searching for this repulsive Twilight. She found both of them and, using her magic, carried him to the town's hospital, where he was treated immediately. He was still furious imagining her moving his unconscious body around like he was a puppet. Well, he would deal with her later. It would be funny to hear her screams of pain and seeing her precious blood staining her purple coat.
He found really hard to believe what he heard, and even more that it seemed that nopony had transformed him. Twilight reassured this fact to himself after quickly checking on his body with a spell, saying that no known magic was influencing him. She even made a really weird set of motions called "Pinkie Promise", moving her hooves around her chest, then like wings and finally poking the helmet above one of her eyes like she was shoving a cupcake into one of them. What the hell was a cupcake, anyway? But they looked really serious and didn't show any tics, like they weren't lying...or were really good at. After that, Twilight wanted to ask him about his past, but the doctor said that they had to leave in order to let him rest. The purple mare left with a frown saying that she didn't trust him, while Fluttershy politely said her goodbyes. Then the nurses locked him in the room and also left with the doctor.
Life was a total shit. He was trapped in an unknown world, with a body unfamiliar to him, wounded to the bone and defenseless. The good thing was, given his regeneration he knew he wouldn't be in the hospital very long. Well, he would be patient. Waiting there meanwhile couldn't be so bad, could it?
It was WORSE.
He always had been unstoppable (until he met Kakarotto, of course), so he really hadn't been in a hospital before. The first thing he learned about this kind of places was that food was awful. Nurses still provided him three meals each day, but calling that garbage "food" was an insult. The fact that it always consisted of vegetarian dishes was quite logical: horses didn't eat any meat, after all. He could deal with that...as long as the food was appetizing. And things like a greenish gooey blob (some kind of spinach dish, the nurse said) and cubes of tasteless gelatin weren't appetizing. Sometimes he preferred not eating at all, but when hunger won...he had to make great efforts to not throwing up. At least the juice tasted like fruit.
The second thing he learned was that these small meals couldn't satiate him. Being a saiyajin, his metabolism was way higher than other races, and he needed to eat a lot (amounts of food enough for no less than ten people) in order to sustain himself. As the Legendary Super Saiyajin, his requirements were even bigger. Then, when food was disgusting, it came in small rations and his body was working extra hard to repair his wounds...doing the math was easy. He was always hungry, his mouth had an awful taste, and his weight was decreasing at an alarming rate. After merely explaining to the doctor that he needed to eat more than the rest of ponies, they reluctantly gave him more food at lunch time, but to a little avail.
And then the final lesson came. When you are still in a bed, without moving for a large period of time, and you like to be active (walking, playing, going out with friends or, in Broly's case, destroying things), you have to face an immortal, eternal, cruel and time-manipulating enemy: boredom.
There aren't many things to do while you're in a hospital. Even less when you're at intensive care and you can't touch almost anything unless it's sterilized. The clock seemed to mock him, time passing like hours were millennia. He first napped for hours, but became tired of that. Thinking about his things wasn't a good idea, given his obsession with destroying Kakarotto and the fact of living like a fugitive during all his life. And he was alone in that room, he couldn't talk to anyone besides the busy nurses, whose paid little attention to him (he didn't like talking to anyone, anyway).
Then, one day while he was furious about his lack of activity, universe seemed to decide to play with him. He thought Twilight Sparkle was utterly annoying...well, he was going to be proved wrong.
"This is...very kind of you, Rainbow Dash...but you don't have to do this if you don't want to..." some certain pale yellow pegasus said to her friend, bulging saddlebags on her back.
"Heh, don't worry 'shy. I don't have any more duties for today, and I've just finished reading that Daring do cross...croshow..."
"Um...crossover?"
"Yeah, that!" Dash said while grunting. These difficult words were for librarians and eggheads like Twilight, not her.
"And...what was it like? Did you like it?" the other mare timidly asked.
"Well, it wasn't bad, but...that Lara Clop girl didn't fit well. It's cool to fight the bad guys, I'd do that. But she seems too perfect! Good brain, good body, awesome skills, never fails...Heck, it's like she's trying to steal Daring Do's role! And I don't like it!" she snorted.
Fluttershy never stopped smiling while listening to her friend chatting about how Ahuizotl almost destroyed the world with a dragon shaped emerald statue which could control weather, but she was still worried. It had been two weeks since she had find Broly, and she had been really busy. The incident at the Everfree Forest (whatever had occurred, she and Twilight still didn't know) had caused quite a ruckus, scaring the wild animals to death and even hurting some of them. She had been taking care of them, from nursering to kindly helping to repair nests and dens, all of this without forgetting about the little critters she had at home. She had want to visit the stallion in order to see how he was recovering, and today she finally was going to the hospital, as it was being a slow day. Well, she had to admit, maybe this visit could have occurred a day or two earlier, but she was still scared about him. Of course she was worried about the green pony, but his behavior from the last time...
Thinking about it, Broly's mood seemed to get worse when he was around Twilight. Fluttershy didn't know why, her lavender friend was very nice and intelligent. She could be quite obsessive some times, but still. Maybe it was the fact that she held him with her magic and her lecture what he annoyed him. Nopony liked being held to the ground...or the air, but he took her actions too violently. That's why she chose to visit him alone after doing some shopping...until her blue pegasus friend spotted her from a cloud when she was in her way to the hospital, asked where she was going, and offered to go with her.
"So tell me Fluttershy...who are you visiting?"
"Huh?" the another pegasus said while awakening from her thoughts. "Oh, a stallion I found in the Everfree Forest the other day."
"A stallion? What the hay was a stallion doing in that creepy place?"
"I don't really know...Oh, we've just arrived!"
"I don't understand this. I...I really can't."
Broly remained seated in his new bed (it was weird, being capable to sit like always although he was now a quadruped being). Half an hour ago, Dr. Heart had visited him bringing news: his burns were healed enough to remove him from intensive care into a normal room. In order to prevent pain and injuries, he was moved on a wheelchair. He didn't complain: he wasn't the doctor, after all, and anything that shortened his recovery was welcoming. But he still wore a sneer all the time, he was really upset of being in the hospital. The doctor seemed relieved of his peaceable attitude, that last time had been troublesome. But at the same time, he was really shocked, and right now he was babbling about the cause.
"It's just impossible. Almost all your skin was charred, several muscles and organs were so damaged by heat and dehydration that necrosis was guaranteed, and the fractures, even as they weren't a major threat, should have been taken weeks to heal. And yet, when I checked on you yesterday, I saw that your external damage was almost gone, and your internal tissues are healing at an alarming rate. You surviving to such lethal injuries was shocking, but this...I've never seen something like this, nor has been recorded on medicine books."
"My regeneration abilities are impressive."
"I must agree, of course...Seeing your state, it seems that your metabolism has consumed your body in order to repair your wounds."
It was true. Saying that he was thin would have been an understatement. He was scrawny. His ribcage was evident under his skin, the meat was almost absent from his face and limbs, and his belly was gone, occupying only the necessary space for his organs. He looked like a living corpse.
"I would be far better if you had provided me with real food, instead of that crap!" He had intended to shout, but his voice only raised a little. He was too tired.
The doctor opened his mouth to reply, but a soft knock was heard at the door.
"Yes?"
"Doctor, this is Nurse Redheart. A pair of mares are here to visit the patient."
"Okay, let them pass."
The door opened, revealing Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. They audibly gasped upon seeing him, the pale yellow pegasus was horrified.
"I'll leave you alone, he's too weak to try anything. Besides, I need to attend other patients."
"Wait, doctor! What happened to him?" Fluttershy asked.
"It seems like he heals way faster than anypony and doesn't need intensive treatment anymore, and we haven't got enough food his extreme metabolism. You can see the results."
"The fact that your 'food' is a total SHIT doesn't help either!!" Broly snarled.
The doctor merely shook his head, leaving the room and closing the door. Both mares, still shocked about his rude outburst, slowly walked to his bed while he cautiously lied down and tuckered himself.
"Um, so..."
"What."
"How are you feeling?"
"Oh, pretty fine. Just look at me. My body was almost destroyed when I arrived here, these nurses and your disgusting purple friend pestered me, and I'm starving due to the fact that dirt would indeed taste better than the 'food' I have eaten since my arrival. How the hell do you think I'm feeling??"
"Hey! Don't talk to Fluttershy like that, she was only asking!"
"She asked, I answered. Got a problem with that?"
"I haven't got a problem! YOU will have a problem if you keep talking to my friends like that!" Rainbow shouted while hovering above Broly, her nose pressing against his.
"I swear, if I wasn't so weak, I would smash you against the ceiling!"
Rainbow was about to answer, but felt something on her tail and looked behind her. Fluttershy was pulling it with her mouth, a worried expression in her face. She had suspected bringing her pegasus friend here could end badly given her attitude.
"What do you want, 'shy?" said Dash as she landed on the floor.
"Please Rainbow, calm yourself. I know he's...difficult, but..."
"Difficult?! That's no way of talking to you, and he wants to hit me!" She looked at him, smirking and flapping her wings slightly. "That's if you can catch me, of course. You don't seem to have these two babies."
"You think I cannot fly just because I haven't wings?" he said while exhibiting a toothy grin.
"Somepony's craazyyyy" mocked Rainbow as she rolled her eyes.
"Please, stop!" suddenly cried Fluttershy. "Broly, you don't have to be so aggressive. And Rainbow, it isn't nice to press against anypony like that. Besides, he's very ill. Now, could you introduce yourselves? Um, pretty please?" she timidly smiled.
For some seconds, anypony said nothing. Rainbow was reluctantly thinking about Fluttershy have said, and Broly had just mentally added the blue pegasus to his "Ponies to kill" list. Finally, the rainbow-maned one spoke.
"Ugh! Fine. I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria."
"Broly. Most powerful warrior on the universe." It was only fair talking about his legitimate title. Besides, that girl also possessed some kind of special ability, if what she had just said was true, countering with his power level seemed the correct thing to do.
After his answer, Rainbow was thinking that that guy was even more egotistical than that annoying unicorn showpony who visited the town some time ago. No, he was just plain crazy, as she had suspected. Most powerful warrior on the universe, of course. She only could look at him with her eyes half-closed after his introducement. Then, a mighty roar was heard...it was Broly's stomach.
"Oh, poor dear" spoke Fluttershy, still half-scared of the sound. "Wait a moment, I'm coming back. Please Rainbow, speak with him a little, he must be feeling so lonely..."
"What?! Wait, Flutt..." her words died in her throat seeing that her friend was already gone. Sighing, she returned her look towards the stallion. This was going to be hard. But, to her surprise, he spoke first.
"So. Fastest flier in...where, did you say?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, Equestria. You know, the name of this country?"
"Ponyville, Equestria...originality has died a long time ago" he muttered.
"What was that, big boy?"
"Nothing that matters. I take you're a racer?"
"Well, that's more like a hobby, but yeah. I'm always training and making new aerial tricks in my free time so I can join the Wonderbolts one day."
"...The what?"
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHO THE WONDERBOLTS ARE??"
"Must I, annoying brat? They're so important?"
"Important??" If she heard his insult, she didn't seem to react. "They're only the most awesome acrobatics team in Equestria! Hay, all over the world I would say! They act at every kind of places! Each time I see them, flying like there was no tomorrow with their suits, I'm like I could explode of excitement!" she squealed.
He merely kept looking at her. She was plain crazy, and rather annoying. He couldn't still decide who to kill first: Twilight had lectured and hold him in the air, and this...Rainbow Dash was an egotistical and obsessed-with-a bunch-of -sportsponies mare that had mocked and threaten him. She noticed that he was looking at her.
"What's the matter?" No response from him. "Oh, I bet you were admiring my perfect body! Like what you see?" said proudly while running a hoof across her mane.
"You're really crazy, dyeing your hair like that. One of this 'Wonderbolts' has it the same way, or what?"
"What?? This is my natural color, greeny!"
"That only confirms how weird you really are."
She was already gritting her teeth, tempted with smacking him with her hoofs across his head like it was a drum. But she remembered Fluttershy's words, breathed heavily, and slowly calmed herself. It was time to change the topic. And talking about time, what was taking her friend so long?
"You know what? Enough talking about me. Let's talk about you. I don't know how you ended so badly injured. While we were waiting in the hall, Fluttershy told me how she found you, and all that happened after that. What were you doing before?"
His mind suddenly snapped, anger slowly returning to him. The annoying boys and the useless girl. The black haired warrior. The battle. HIM.
"Kakarotto..."
"Huh?"
"KAKAROTTO!"
He could sense every fiber of his muscles tensing, his whole body trembling. Strangely enough, a fit of rage like that would normally transform him into Super Saiyajin, but right now he couldn't do that. Maybe it was because his new form?
"H-hey, calm down! What are you talking about?" Rainbow was beginning to feel scared. Maybe asking about whatever had occurred to him had been a bad idea, because she could sense his anger in the air like it was solid. No, there was something more. This guy was definitely hiding something, but what?
"Kakarotto...I was fighting him, my sworn enemy, and his family. I almost had them! But that attack distracted me long enough to letting them to empower their attack and almost kill me! They wanted to send me into the sun!"
Rainbow mouth was hanging open. He was fighting somepony and his family? What kind of name 'Kakarotto' was? Kill him? The freaking sun??
"...How's that po-"
"Twice! He has defeated me TWICE!! And I don't care about the fact that he was getting help from a bunch of saiyajin kids! I'm Broly! I'm the Legendary Super Saiyajin, destroyer of worlds! I even managed to blow up an entire galaxy one time! NO ONE COULD STOP ME!!" said breathing heavily, the veins of his head and neck pulsing heavily.
"Um, sorry for being late, the vending machine was under repair and..."
Fluttershy had just entered the room, and was already feeling that something was wrong. Broly seemed to be angry. REALLY angry, given his body language. Rainbow Dash was sitting at the floor, eyes wide open, ears flat against her head, wings folded. It was like she had seen a ghost.
"Rainbow Dash? Broly? What's happening here?"
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" he shouted.
"Eek! I, um, bought you a sandwich, since you said that hospital food is...bad. It has boiled eggs, cheese, tomato and lettuce..."
He sat up and turned his head towards her at such a speed that anyone might think that he had just broke his neck, and raised one foreleg in the same direction. He was hungry, and a sandwich sounded like something delicious at the moment. Fluttershy took the sandwich from her saddlebag and hoofed it to him trying to smile, and saw how he ate it in some few seconds.
"Leave me alone."
"What?"
"I want to be alone! LEAVE!!"
"Fluttershy, we're leaving."
"But Rainbow Dash, we've just arrived..."
"I. Said. We. Are. Leaving." the blue mare said while pushing her friend from behind, exiting the room and quickly closing the door behind them.
Broly merely remained sat, looking at his covers. After some seconds, he roared in frustration and smashed a hoof against the wall behind him, leaving a hole in it.
"Rainbow, what was that about? And why has he just screamed? What was that noise?"
"Keep flying Fluttershy. We have to get away from him."
They were crossing the sky, moving away from the hospital towards the shy mare's cottage. Her owner was scared during all the travel, Dash was quiet. Too quiet. That wasn't normal. Finally, they arrived. The blue pegasus only opened the door and ushered her into the house.
"Fluttershy, stay here. Do your chores, feed your animals...do whatever you do, you know. If you must go into town, do it. But do NOT go to the hospital."
"But Rainbow, what-"
"Just do as I say! Ugh, please. Listen, I'm only protecting you. This guy is dangerous, and we need to know what to do before seeing him again."
She left, flying at rocketing speed and leaving a dumbfounded and worried Fluttershy behind. She just couldn't tell her what happened earlier, that would kill her from fear. Besides, something was really wrong with that Broly. She needed help, she needed to do some research. She needed Twilight.
One week later, Broly left the hospital, completely healed but still starved and haggard. The doctor and nurses still couldn't understand how somepony could be alive after such wounds, and recover after less than a month. They could almost swear that, with amounts of food enough for all the hospital, his stay would have been even shorter, as impossible as it seemed. The doctor thought about studying him more in order to understand his physiology, but he didn't want to anger him, so they allowed him to leave.
As he exited the hospital, he learned that walking on all fours when all your life you had been bipedal was really difficult. He was falling to the floor almost every time he tried to move a limb, and even trying to maintain his balance was a pain. After some minutes, he was able to advance by very slowly moving one foreleg, then another, and repeating with his hind legs. Sometimes he couldn't avoid falling to the floor on his belly with his limbs spread, but it was better than nothing. Getting up was still difficult, though.
The green stallion took a more detailed look of this new world as he walked along the road. It was awfully colorful, like nothing he had seen before, although some grey clouds in the sky seemed to announce rain. This Ponyville seemed to be some kind of small town, with a serious lack of technology. Hell, the houses were mostly made of wood and hay. And the ponies were already sickening him, they were just ridiculous, wearing clothes and makeup and most of them wearing a smile on their faces.
They seemed to sense his power, or maybe they were just scared at his looking and odd way of walking. The fact was than most of them were staring at him, some walked away, and a strange trio of mares just screamed and hid into a house. Better that way, he was upset about this world. He had to seek a way to return home, regain his body and kill Kakarotto and all his friends and family. Then he heard it, a low rustle in a nearby bush under a tree.
He merely pointed a hoof towards it and fired an energy ball. Or that was what he intended to do, because nothing happened. Grumbling, he walked to the source of noise. It seemed that his ability to use Ki was still nullified, he only hoped this to be temporary. Then, a white and fluffy cat jumped from behind the bushes and, after seeing him, shrieked loudly and ran towards somewhere. A bloody cat. Snorting, he turned back and started to walk away. Then, a low noise from the tree above caught his attention and made him to tilt his head upwards, but its source was too quick. His sight blackened as he felt himself being put into a bag, tossed on something, and moved quickly to some place.
After less than ten seconds, it stopped. Whoever had dared to kidnap him threw the sac to the floor and opened it, allowing him to see his surroundings. He seemed to be in a kind of basement, and shelves full of flour, sugar and other sweet ingredients were everywhere. Was it some kind of bakery? Then, he only could see pink. He had to step back to see that a bouncy, pink mare with a darker shade of pink mane and tail (both of them puffy) had just appear in front of him, smiling broadly.
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie, and you're at the basement of Mr. and Ms. Cake bakery where I work! You see, I was searching for Opalescence, Rarity's cat, when I suddenly felt my Pinkie Sense working! Itchy back, trembling knees, my tail swinging clockwise two times and grumbling belly! It means "Some rude, angry and hungry pony has just arrived to town and doesn't like it and wants to go away and it's coming closer to you! So I hid in the tree and waited for you to appear an then you scared the poor Opal making her to run away to Rarity's boutique so THANK YOU! Anyway, in normal circumstances I would have prepare you a super duper mega party with balloons and streamers and games and punch and food, but I don't even know where you live, there wasn't enough time to prepare it even with my party cannon and look at yourself, you're STARVING! So I took out this bag, put you into it, and ran as fast as I could to this very basement where I could give you SO MUCH food and turn your mood up so you can stop being such a saddie-frownie-grumpy-meanie pants because that is what I like to do and WHAT'S YOUR NAME??"
Broly just blinked. This mare had spoken all these things without seemingly breathing and bouncing around him all the time. She was, by far, the most annoying being he had encountered in this freaking place full of ponies, and she had kidnapped him. However, he was struggling between beating her to a pink pulp and just sitting there dumbfounded: since she had no horn she couldn't perform any "magic", and without wings she couldn't fly; and yet, she seemed to have some kind of special powers like high speed, incredible amounts of energy and great strength and endurance (he wasn't light at all but she had managed to carry him on her back, he presumed, all the way to this bakery in a very short time without even sweating nor panting). While he was pondering about her source and levels of power, she gasped loudly.
"Oh my gosh, what was I thinking? First things first!"
He could then see how high her speed was. Only a pink blur was visible while she was moving all over the place, placing muffins, strange things muffin-like with frosting over them, pies, chocolate bars, milkshakes and juices of all kind of flavors in front of him. His stomach grumbled loudly while he could sense his mouth watering, but something wasn't right. This pink pony was tapping her chin with her hoof, seemingly lost in thought.
"Hmmm...no, this just simply won't do...Okay. Time to get serious."
She suddenly took out a pair of darkened security glasses from nowhere and put them on her face, while slowly walking to a big wardrobe in front of one wall. She carefully put it aside, revealing a safe-deposit box the same size behind, and tapped a password in a panel full of numbers. A soft click was heard and the door opened, revealing a massive chocolate cake consisting on ten layers, each one of them with a different colored frosting, cream and dozens of different toppings, fruits and berries decorating it all over.
"This is my masterpiece" she said with an incredibly serious tone of voice. "The most delicious and filling cake in the world...I think. It took me months of planning, tons of bits and hiring a special oven, but when I was hit by inspiration that night while I was sleeping, I knew it had to be done. I was keeping it for a special occasion, and it seems to have finally come. Go and eat it if you dare, though boy. But I must warn you..." spoke while very slowly taking down her glasses just enough to see him over the frame, "its sweetness level is over nine thousand."
"Twilight please, could you stop walking in circles? You're gonna dig a hole on the floor!"
The lavender mare wasn't keeping attention to Spike. She couldn't. It had been a week since Rainbow crashed into the library, incredibly nervous about something. After some scolding and making her to stay calm, the blue pegasus spoke about the incident that had occurred at the hospital earlier that day. Broly's impressive healing capabilities, his threatening to Rainbow, his attitude...his past. Hearing her friend words they both agreed on not telling Fluttershy a thing. They also thought that something had to be done, so Rainbow volunteered to keep an eye on the hospital in order to know when he would come out from it and Twilight started to seek from information on astronomy, medicine and anatomy books. After some days of research, the conclusion was crystal clear: his story was impossible...just as his mere existence.
She knew there was something strange with that stallion the very first second she saw him. She didn't know what, but she definitely could sense something in the air surrounding him. Something disturbing that sent shivers down her spine and screamed to her brain to get away from him. Even Rainbow was scared, and this wasn't definitely normal. Finally, sensing that she, her friends and maybe even Ponyville could be in danger, she had decided to send a letter to princess Celestia explaining all that she knew, and asking for her help. An answer came short after that, telling her that she would make some research and asking all of them to making sure he wouldn't cause any problem. It had been a day since that.
"TWILIGHT!"
"Huh??"
"I said, calm yourself! What's worrying you so much? It's about what you told the princess yesterday?" He knew all the story, Twilight had told him after sending the letter.
"Yes, Spike. Of course I'm worried, this stallion is dangerous."
"Come on, Rainbow could be exaggerating things, you know how she is. To me, it seems that this guy is only really mad about something and plain nuts...Urk!" He belched a scroll, and Twilight began to read it loudly.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I might have some news about the topic you told me yesterday. All of you must come to the palace immediately, I'm sending you a carriage for it while I'm writing this. Bring Broly with you. Your teacher,
Princess Celestia
"What's happening, Twilight?"
"Spike, we're leaving. We need to retrieve the girls quickly."
Just then, the front door opened, revealing an stressed Rainbow Dash outside.
"Rainbow, what happens?" the unicorn said with a hint of worry.
"He's gone! I overslept, and when I arrived at the hospital, he had already been released!" she shouted.
Twilight facehoofed. This was getting worse and worse every second.