//------------------------------// // Paper Face // Story: Why Am I A Super Saiyan? // by toxiconym //------------------------------// Rainbow tubas. I saw rainbow tubas all around me, playing a strange song. The corners of my vision waved around, and all the colors I saw seemed a bit off. When I strained my ears to hear the music better, the tubas shied away. After a few minutes of this, I fell through an abyss and landed in the middle of a changeling hive. Every changeling turned their head to look at me, literally dropped what they were doing, and posed in martial arts positions. "Time to fight," I idly commented as I instinctively prepared for battle. The first changeling lunged at me, posing in a judo kick that would slam into my face. Except, it never did. I always showed these changelings who's boss. Which is why I was brutally shocked when the kick landed, sending me stumbling backwards into the hooves of another attacking changeling. He slammed my head, and my body shot across from him onto the gray stone floor below us. Headfirst. When I slammed into the rock, a crater formed and brown dust rose from where I landed. "Agh..." I muttered. My whole body ached, and my wings were so sore I couldn't feel them. When I tried to lift a hoof, I felt a bolt of pain rushed up my veins. I quickly leaned back down. Hay, even opening my eyes was difficult. "Nopony is better than me..." I thought to myself, over and over again. The changeling flew over to where I landed and smirked. That was it for me. "Nopony is better than me!" I growled, slowly lifting my body up. I was tired, and sweat was forming around my face, but I pushed on anyway. The pain returned, searing down my legs, and I felt little bolts of electricity dance along my spine, but I grit my teeth and tried my best to ignore it. Once I was on all four hooves, I shakingly flew over to where the changeling was standing, watching me. More of its brethren had joined him, smiling at my struggle to simply fly over to them. I frowned, lift a hoof back, and felt a sudden rush of air coming to my face. I tried to bob my head, but the hoof made contact with my skull and I was sent flying upwards, yelling as I embedding myself on the ceiling of the caverns. "N-No..." I whispered to myself. My body fell after being stuck for a few seconds, and the last thing I heard before making contact with the ground was echoing laughter. -PAGE BREAK! BREAK PAGE! I shot up from my bed, heart pounding and breathing faster than normal. My wings had were slightly hardened against the sheets. I closed my eyes and let myself calm down. My body felt slightly more energized than before. "What kind of dream was that?" I thought to myself. After a few moments, I opened my eyes and brushed the hair out of their way. I got off the bed without making it and head to the bathroom and turned on the firefly lantern. I took out my tooth brush, squirted some tooth paste on it, and looked in the mirror. The face that met me was not mine. "Gah!" I yelped and jumped back, hitting the wall and staring at myself in shock. The spot of the wall I hit with my back dented. My body was yellow. Completely golden. My mane, eyes, tail, and fur all shone brightly against the surrounding room. If I tried hard enough, I could faintly see what I thought was a yellow aura surrounding me. I didn't know much about auras, though. That was Tree Hugger's business. I shook my head and slapped myself. Nope, I wasn't asleep. Pulling my hoof back, I stared at it and felt a lot more power inside it. I don't know how to describe it, but I felt a lot more powerful than when I had fallen asleep the night before. The air around me also felt more tense, as if energy was coursing through it. After getting over my initial shock, I decided to test my new body. I held the tooth brush and brushed it on my teeth, but it snapped in half when it came into contact with my face. Frowning, I testingly punched the cloud wall behind it. It completely exploded, along with some of the floor. My eyes widened and I instinctively flapped my wings out, but found I was floating in place anyway. I slowly retracted my wings, just to see what would happen. Yep, I was still floating. I willed myself to go forward, and my body did it at a faster acceleration than I expected. "Wah!" I yelled as I zoomed past my wall. I tumbled out into the open air, spinning sideways as I fell towards the ground at frightening speeds. "Help!" I shouted before stabilizing myself, rolling out of my bail. Using a small cloud for support, I slowly drifted down onto the floor and looked around Ponyville. All the doors and windows were shut, not a single pony in sight. "What time is it?" I wondered and looked up at the sky. From its position, I guessed it was around noon. "Why is nopony out?" I thought and frowned. "Must be a Pinkie Party... so why don't I hear music?" I walked on the cobble road towards one of the nearby houses. The red one was Daisy's house, so I walked over to it and knocked three times on the wooden door. "Hello? Anypony in there?" Silence. I knocked three more times. "Hey! Is there a pony in there or what?" More silence. "Ugh," I growled in frustration and stormed off, but stopped when I heard the door's hinges creaking. I turned around immediately, but the door slammed shut. Slowly, it opened again until it was wide enough for a pony's head to fit out. "Monster!" Daisy whispered and slammed the door shut. How do you even respond to that? Eh, monsters were common enough, I guess. Except that Twilight is researching Sombra's magical traces in the north. And Pinkie's in appaloosa with Applejack for a family gathering. So that leaves Rarity... wait, no, she's taking a vacation in the Caripony islands. I'm not just going to up and ask Fluttershy to help me fight a monster, though. That's just cruel. I sighed. "That's okay, I guess. I'm probably the best fighter of all of them anyway," I grinned and remembered her old Tae-Wing-Doe lessons as a child. Black belt? No problem. I flew about a hundred meters in the air and surveyed the area. There were no monsters, but I did see a flying unicorn above Twilight's library. Wait, a flying unicorn? My wings folded against my sides as I remembered that I could fly faster using whatever happened this morning. Using that instead, I floated over to the unicorn. "Hey! You've got some nerve for terrorizing all of Ponyville!" He didn't turn back. He was a gray unicorn with a dark gray and ruffled mane. His eyes glowed orange, as if bioluminescent, and his cutie mark displayed a light bulb. In fact, he was just simply floating over Twilight's house, not moving an inch. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and looked at me. "You have some nerve following Celestia," He simply replied. I could feel his cold eyes on my body, hating everything about me. Well, I decided to return the favor with a frown of my own. "What do you mean? She's a great leader!" I huffed, and stomped on the air. "Why would you terrorize Ponyville over that?" A cloud floated above us, covering the sun. Wind brushed along my feathers faster than normal, and I watched as he started laughing and staring up at the sky with closed eyes. And I thought I had an ego. "My name is Paper Face," He sneered, spitting in my general direction. It got carried away by the wind. "And I'm going to end Equestria," Before he finished the sentence, had had flown at me, hoof ready to punch. "Whoa!" I thought and barely managed to dodge, hearing it sail right next to my ear. He didn't waste a second and threw another punch at my stomach, which landed. I felt my stomach bulge behind me and yelped as I shot across the town. "Your leader is terrible! She's using us all!" He shouted as he sped up to me and hit me again, causing my acceleration to continue. Surprisingly, I didn't actually feel too much pain from the punch. "Don't you realize that? We're just pawns on her battlefield!" And with that he finally slapped my head downwards, soaring me through the sky towards the earth. The dirt I landed on flew everywhere, and I felt something crack where I landed. I gasped in shock, and flipped over to make sure I hadn't broken anything. My bones were okay, but the rock wasn't. Wait... did I just crush a rock with a simple touch? "Hahaha... silly unicorn, you're not supposed to fly!" I shouted as I zoomed at him with the literal speed of a sonic rainboom. A rainbow trail followed behind me, and I wasn't even trying.His eyes widened a bit but he stayed calm, catching my hoof with his own. He got pushed back several feet in the air, but his position stayed the same. "Who the heck are you?" I shouted when I found him very much still alive. "Your end," He replied and was instantly an to my face. He kicked my chest with his right leg, and slammed my head with left foreleg, sending me flying downwards. It didn't hurt as much as it should have. I stopped myself before I hit the ground, and looked at him. My eyes crossed, and I felt anger rising in me. "Okay tough guy, this stops now." I yelled and flew at him once more, foreleg extended to punch. He simply grabbed me and threw me the opposite way, sending me right through a cloud. I puffed air through my nose and frowned deeply at him. "How dare he?" I thought as I felt my teeth starting to grind. My hoof was shaking, and my mouth was open so you could see my teeth. I carelessly flew at him and made the same mistake, getting thrown again. This time, when I was airborne he shot some sort of spell from his horn, singing one of my wings. I could feel the heat melt some of my feathers off, burning the rest. I quickly fell from the sky and... conveniently landed in a lake. Paper Face pulled his head back and laughed. "Aw, am I hurting the Princess's bravest warrior?" He jeered. "I expected more from one o the oh so mighty elements of harmony!" He flew towards me once I had gotten up and punched my gut, using his magic to steer his hoof's course and add strength to it. I screamed and clenched my hooves. My vision darkened a bit, and I felt one of my teeth crack a bit under the pressure. My nerves were firing everywhere, and my muscles were beginning to ache. My tail was erratic, flailing everywhere, and a single tear rolled down my cheek. I don't know what happened, but I got sick of him. I was just so tired of him... he thinks he's everything! "If the Princess is such a bad leader, why don't you lead Equestria yourself?" I shot forward at him, trail behind me, and jabbed his side. He flew backwards, a startled look on his face. I didn't waste the opportunity, and flew at him again. This time, my punch to his head literally exploded. When he flew back, I felt a lot of energy inside me. If only I could just figure out a way to release it. "Argh!" I grunted and tried to shake off the growing energy I felt inside me. When I flicked my hoof, a... a blue blast of fire flew at Paper Face, sending him dazed to the ground. "What the hay?" I asked and looked at my hooves, which had electricity forming around them. Paper Face got up from his crater and looked up at me in shock. One of his eyes was black, and some of his fur was singed off. Half of his tail was gone. Even his horn looked bad, with a scar down the side of it and extending over the left side of his face. Yet, despite all this he smiled. With a simple spell, he healed himself completely, scar and everything, and teleported in front of me. "Can't you see? This is already over," He immediately attacked me with an energy spell, but I swatted it away and rushed forward for his head. I used my good wing to manipulate the air around me, sending a blade of wind at his body. Except that it was made out of energy, and it cut his leg and tail clean off. This time he wasn't smiling. His leg wasn't even bleeding because the inside of it was burned too much. He lowered his head and clutched his leg, a tear in his eye. Then, he teleported away. I blinked and looked around. He had vanished. Dread started filling me. I just cut off his leg! I grew more and more worried the longer I realized this. It doesn't matter how bad of a pony he was, I just brutally maimed him. What if he died? How could I ever explain that? I lowered myself to the ground and stood on all fours. I walked over to the lake and looked at my reflection, still golden. "Yet... I enjoyed all of it," I thought and frowned. I could feel a whisper in my voice, as if someone was whispering to me. I strained my ears, but that did no good for a voice inside my head. Slowly, I started to hear bits of pieces of it. The voice was masculine, one I haven't heard before. "Elite warrior race... this time I'll beat you... Now I'm angry!... I see you've done it, you've become a super saiyan." Super saiyan? I looked down at myself. I was pretty super, but saiyan? "A super saiyan is born once every 1000 years... they've ascended their full potential... neigh unstoppable... I used to think they were just a legend, but now I see they're not... I'll defeat you, once and for all!" Agh! I shook my head. What were these voices? As I looked around the town, I saw a few ponies had come out of their homes to see what all the noise was being caused by. Only a few, though. And then came pain. I smashed into the the earth beside me, some of my fur ripping off my body. My wing snapped in half, and when I looked down at myself I saw Paper Face grinning down at my body. His leg had somehow healed, and he was laughing. My eyes widened when I saw he was holding a small dagger with his telekinesis. Before I could put some space between us, he fired up his horn and restrained me on the ground. "You're going to pay for what you did," He statically stated as he walked over to me. The ponies on the street looked at him with fear but dared not do anything. "No! Stop!" I frantically yelled, pushing against the restraints. I remembered the voices from earlier. It doesn't matter where they came from, they had to be right. I've never been this strong, I've not even been as fast as this before. So why was I losing to a stupid unicorn? He smiled and continued walking at me. He stopped for a second and looked at a filly that had come between us. Scootaloo was staring defiantly at him. He laughed and pointed his blade at her, Scootaloo's eyes widening when she realized what was about to happen. Paper Face slowly started walking towards her, and when he got within a foot of her he lifted his blade. "No... no... now I'm angry!" I screamed and the air around me exploded, sending him and some debris back. Scootaloo managed to get out of the way as I flew at him, breaking his magical restraints and punching him repeatedly with my hooves at his chest. I could feel his bones crack with every hit. "You're going to pay for everything you've done to me!" I swatted him upwards, slammed his chest with my legs, circled around to his back and smashed into him with my whole body. I was practically teleporting around him, sending punches his way every time I got near him. He was too fazed to do anything, and his body was starting to break under the pressure. He tried to fire a spell, but I quickly kicked his horn clean off. This time he screamed, clutching his head. His eyes rolled into their sockets, and he fell on the ground, cradling himself as his body twitched in convulsion. Dust was rising from his involuntary kicks and punches at the earth below him. I lifted into the air, and pointed my hoof at him. Using the same trick as before, I directed the energy through me at his direction. I even added another hoof to my pose for added measure. "HA!" I yelled and thrust my hooves at him, hoping something would happen. A giant lazer shot forward at him. He lifted a hoof to try and block it, but screamed when he realized he didn't have magic and the lazer engulfed him and a radius of 100 feet in a blinding blue light similar to Twilight's attacks against Tirek. His screams could only be heard for a few seconds. I started panting from the effort, and sweat rolled down my body. Scootaloo watched in terror a few hundred meters away, and was trying hard not to fly off from the draft the blast was creating. Once it finally died down, I stopped panting, and looked at the destruction I had caused. The crater was the size of a Ponyville house, and deep enough to satisfy an Olympic swimmer. My eyes rolled into their sockets, and I fell face first onto the ground. The last thing I saw was my fur turning to its normal cyan color.