//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Arrival // Story: Dragon Ball Z: Equius Arc // by EndertheDark_0326 //------------------------------// “Promise me you won’t tell them Goku, or I might not be born!” “Hey, not a problem.” Trunks took a step back from Goku as he realized it was time for him to go back to his time period, “Well look, I better be off. My mom’s worried sick about me. She needs to know that everything went okay.” “Yeah, please tell her that I send my love,” Goku then tosses the capsule that contains the medicine for his upcoming heart virus into the air momentarily before catching it in his hand again, “And thanks for this, you’re great!” Trunks turned around, “Hey, you’ve helped me in a lot of ways, I should be thanking you.” “So is this goodbye?” “For now, I’ll be back in 3 years time.” Goku nods his head, “Okay, 3 years time.” “See ya then,” With that, Trunks sets into the sky and flies off to a place that cannot be seen by Goku’s friends and pulls out the capsule that contained his time machine. He pressed the top and tossed it to the ground. The capsule explodes into a large poof of smoke. The smoke quickly clears to reveal the large time machine that his mother had made for him. He opens the lid and hops in. After he finishes the engine check up to make sure nothing has malfunctioned, he closes the lid and punches in a time 20 years in the future. The machine hums to life as it lifts off the ground and into the air. As he lifts into the air, he sees the Z warriors and gives them all a wave goodbye. He flies a little higher into the air and suddenly vanishes from view as he is sent forward in time. Little did he know, there was a malfunction within the time machine, one that hadn’t been anticipated by his mother, Bulma. So, it was not detected. This was not going to end well for Trunks. Or was it? (Equestria: Unknown Location) “HELLO?! Is someone there?!” Twilight called out, but nobody answered. She recalled her brother, Shining Armor, who had told her off not too long ago, and all of her friends, too. Even Princess Celestia was very disappointed in her. Why had she been so boneheaded? Why did she say those things about her old foalsitter? Shining Armor might not ever forgive her for ruining his and Princess Cadence’s wedding. Twilight slumped down to a sitting position and began to cry softly into her arms for a minute or two. That was until she heard laughter echoing around her. This caused her to stand up quickly and flare her horn. “WHO’S THERE? Where am I?!” Twilight called out. She was met by maniacal laughter again along with an answer. “The caves beneath Canterlot, once home to greedy ponies who wanted to claim the gems that are inside. It’s now your prison.” Princess Cadence said with a manic gleam in her eyes. “Help! HELP!” Twilight continued to call out, but it was in vain. Cadance began to laugh again. “It’s no use. No one can hear you. And no one will ever think to look for you, either. Most ponies have forgotten that these caves even exist, which is why they are the ideal place to keep the ones who try to interfere with my plans.” Cadence stated, before cackling once again. “Plans? What plans? What are you going to do?!” Twilight was shouting now, visibly afraid. “The plans I have for your brother, of course.” The evil mare said; looking innocent for whatever reason. Twilight did a double take, and then instantly knew what that meant. An indescribable rage filled her mind. It was almost as if the free will had been removed from her mind and replaced by a single objective; She must make the evil mare pay. “DON’T YOU DARE DO ANYTHING TO MY BROTHER, YOU MONSTER!!!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs. This caused Cadance to recoil for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure. “Only way to stop me is to catch me! Over here! Nope, over here!” Cadance taunted Twilight while cackling as evil as ever. Twilight was blasting all of the images of Cadance on the crystals with her magic, with next to no hesitation. It was then when she had blasted the wall of the cave, revealing Cadance in a tattered and beaten state. Twilight gave her glare of death, causing Cadance to recoil in fear. “No! Wait!” Cadance begged, but Twilight didn’t listen. She tackled Cadance to the ground, while she was shivering in fear under her. “Please! Don’t hurt me! Twilight, it’s me! Please, you have to believe me. I’ve been imprisoned like you. The Cadance who brought you down here was an imposter.” Cadance once again tried to get Twilight to listen but to no avail. “Likely story!” Twilight shouted. Cadance needed to think of something to make Twilight believe her. But what? Suddenly it came to her. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves…” Cadance started. “ ...and do a little shake!” Twilight continued with her. Twilight smiled as tears of joy streamed down her face. “You remember me!” Twilight spoke. “Of course I do. How could I forget the filly I loved to sit for the most?” Cadance said as they hugged. However, their moment was interrupted by the laughter of Cadance’s evil impersonator. “We have to get out of here. We have to stop her!” Twilight said as Cadance followed. But they stopped when there was, somehow, a wind pushing towards a single point in Twilight’s cave. A moment later tiny, glowing, yellow particles were drawn in with the wind as it got stronger. Twilight and Cadance had no idea what was going to happen, but assumed it was something really dangerous, and did the only logical thing. “CADANCE, GET DOWN!” Twilight screamed as she tackled Cadance behind a large rock, big enough to conceal them from whatever was happening. A blinding flash filled the cave, while Cadance and Twilight covered their eyes from the brightness. When the light died down, there was a strange craft sitting in the middle of the cave Twilight was trapped in. She and Cadance could only wait with baited breath for what was going to happen next. Trunks’ time machine had risen high into the air, hovered for a minute or two, and then disappeared as it traveled to the future. Since it took a few minutes for the time machine to travel through the time rift, Trunks was thinking to himself: I did say I would be back in 3 years, but what am I actually going to do until then? I can’t exactly fight those android bastards. As powerful as Super Saiyans are, I just can’t beat them on my own. Maybe I should have stayed behind with the others. I could have trained and become stronger. *sigh* But I guess there’s no going back now. Trunks’ time machine began to leave the time rift, and when it did, Trunks was very confused. He was not where he expected to be at all. Instead of emerging hovering over a wrecked and nearly abandoned city, his time machine was in the middle of some kind of cave. Trunks thought that it was just a small malfunction, and he had just ended up somewhere else than where he was supposed to. After climbing out of the time machine and putting it back into it’s capsule, Trunks started to look for a way out. Then Trunks heard a sound behind him. It sounded like a rock falling. He quickly turned his head toward the sound, but didn’t see anybody there. “Hello? Is someone there?” Trunks called out in the direction of the sound, as he exited his time machine. No one answered, which made him feel uneasy. He started to walk towards a large hole which leads to a much larger cave. But Trunks just couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being... observed... Okay, this is really starting creep me out. Is someone watching me? Let me check. Trunks thought to himself as he sensed behind him for anyone or anything. He felt two power levels behind him. This meant that they couldn’t possibly be Androids 17 and 18, simply because he could sense them. Each one was only about the equivalent of Piccolo, so he decided to just leave whoever those were, be. He continued to walk towards the opening and hoped whoever that was would leave him alone. Then he heard ANOTHER sound behind him. It was hard for him to make it out, but it sounded somewhat like... someone whispering. He whipped around even faster than last time and grabbed the hilt of his sword. Trunks swore he saw a small purple... thing dart out of sight almost exactly at the same time he turned. He decided that enough was enough. Whoever those two were, they were clearly following him, possibly even going to stalk him. So, Trunks decided to confront whoever was watching him. He used high-speed movement to move over and behind the rock, and what he saw he couldn’t really believe what he was seeing. What in the heck...? What is this...?