Out of Time

by Onomonopia


Change

Instinct kicked in before anything else.

After all that had happened with Goku Black, and having been forced to watch allies be killed in front of him, Trunks was far more prone to lunging head first into battle to save those who were being attacked. At first it had been to save the people that he cared about, but as more and more fell to the monsters rampage, Trunks would consider his day a success if he could save anyone at all.

By the time he was aware of what he was doing, he had already landed in front of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie with enough force to blast back all of the dark armored ponies that had gotten close to the two of them. He glanced over his shoulder to find that the pair of them were staring at him with disbelief and amazement, taking in note that the metal wing for Rainbow and the weird mane cut for Pinkie were both completely solid. He would have to worry about that later.

"Alright, I may not know for certain what's going on here, but I do know that right now there are a lot of ponies dying and I've had enough death in my life to last for several lifetimes," Trunks said to the dark horses, all of who gazed at him with wary stances. "So I'm going to give all of you one warning and one warning only. Step away or pay the price."

For a brief moment the army of darkness before him seemed to hear his words and started to back off. Then their eyes blazed with a sickening green light and they lunged towards the Time Patroller with an unholy roar. Trunks sighed as he reached back and grabbed hold of his sword, slowly starting to unsheath it.

"Don't kill them!" Pinkie called out, in a voice far harsher and full of pain than Trunks remembered it being. "They're nothing but mindcontrolled henchmen, under the spell of Sombra the Dark King! I don't know who you are, but something inside of me says that you can help us, but more importantly, them!"

Trunks stared at Pinkie for a long moment before he sheathed his blade, turning back to the advancing henchmen with some sympathy in his heart and some relief that he was staying his blade. Trunks didn't enjoy killing. He would put down scum like Frieza or Cell with no issue, but, after all the lives that had been lost to Black and Zeno, he was sick of watching others die. So as the dark ponies finally reached him, a small smile spread across his face as he decided to deal with them in a far more careful manner.

The first pony summoned a black blade out of thin air and lunged towards Trunks, but with a simple sidestep and chop to the back of the neck Trunks sent him into dreamland. Two more ponies created dark spears and prepared to impale the warrior, but before they had the chance to move Trunks embedded his fists into their guts. The dropped to the ground without another sound, leaving Trunks to look up and see that one was pointing his horn right at Trunks, a dark energy forming on the end of it.

"For King Sombra!" the pony cried out in a dark and distorted voice, before unleashing a beam of black energy at Trunks. Trunks watched the beam approach before he held out his hand and stopped the attack with the palm of his hand. He heard Pinkie and Rainbow Dash both gasp in amazement as they watched Trunks not only take a blast of shadow magic, but then smirk at the pony who had fired it at him.

'Okay, that stings a bit,' Trunks thought to himself as he cast a quick glance down at his right hand, finding that his glove had been burned off and there was a slight stinging in his hand, similar to if a bee had stung him. 'The pain is fine, but what concerns me is that this feels similar to what Babidi used against me when he tried to free Buu. Dark magic, huh? Seems that my ki won't be as good at protecting me against magic as it would other ki users. Good to know.'

The pony charged up another volley of darkness in his horn and aimed at Trunks once more, but Trunks dropped him within the blink of an eye. While the magic was nothing more than a slight annoyance to Trunks, he had already pieced together that all unicorn's could use magic, along with other beings with horns like Twilight. The abundance of magic, along with the being that could kill Time Patrollers and leave nothing behind, told Trunks that he wouldn't be able to take things easy. So as he turned to face the dozens of dark horses that charged him all at once, he decided to end things.

"HAH!" he yelled. His arm thrust forward a moment later and a massive burst of ki ripped the advancing forces off of their hooves and sent them rocketing backwards across the barren lands. It took the forces a few moments after being hurled across the ground to regain their senses, but when they had they rose back to their hooves and began to march towards Trunks once again, clearly not at all intimidated by him or his power.

"Don't these guys learn? They're clearly no match for me," Trunks muttered, extending his arm once more.

"They're being mind controlled by Sombra," Rainbow informed Trunks, clearly having seen enough to wager that he was on their side. "They have no will of their own and do whatever he commands without question. And his orders right now are to exterminate all of Celestia's forces or die trying. Guess they think of you as apart of her forces after what you did."

"Then I might have to be a little more assertive in helping them to stay down," Trunks realized. He tightened his fist and for a brief moment the ground shook beneath him, halting the advance of the dark forces for just a moment. Then one of the ponies raised his hoof and turned his head back towards the others.

"The king says to retreat. We shall finish Celestia and her forces another day," his raspy voice commanded the rest of the troops. The ponies all saluted before turning and marching off. Now that he wasn't fighting them, Trunks noticed how all of them moved exactly the same, almost as if they were robots. He shook his head free of the thought before glancing back over his shoulder at Rainbow and Pinkie.

"Want me to follow them? I might be able to find this King Sombra and end him for you," Trunks offered.

"Thanks, but we know better. The troops are just returning to one of their outposts where they will rest up and be prepared for the next battle," Rainbow replied. She dropped to the ground and let out a sigh, exhaustion showing on her face. "Sombra never reveals himself unless he knows that victory is certain. We thought that we had managed to drag him out a few weeks ago, but that turned out to be a shadow clone. Nearly cost Celestia her life to kill that thing and it turns out to be a fake. Moral took a hit after that fiasco."

"But look on the bright side Dashy, at least we have a new friend," Pinkie said in a happy tone, but for Trunks, who had seen Pinkie at her peak happiness, the version he looked at now seemed almost devoid of joy in comparison. She walked up to him and extended a friendly hoof. "Hey there, strange swordsman. I'm Pinkie. Commander in Celestia's army and one of the few sources of joy left in the whole darn thing. Thanks for listening to me and not slicing up those guys."

"Hey Pinkie, I'm Trunks. We've...well, let's just say that I know of you and Rainbow there," Trunks replied, holding his tongue on revealing that he had met them before. 'Telling alternate versions of someone you know that you know them always leads to trouble. Learned that the hard way with alternate mom. Who knew she had built a cannon powerful enough to knock me out?'

"Let me guess, you heard of our exploits at the battle of the plains?" Rainbow said, though it was more of a statement than a guess. "Yeah, we got real famous that day for our victory over one of Sombra's greatest generals. Still not giving you an autograph."

"I'm not here for an autograph, I'm...look, I'm trying to figure out what's going on," Trunks admitted. When all his words got were looks from Pinkie and Dash, he continued. "This world, these ponies...the storyline here doesn't make sense. Or rather, this isn't the way things are supposed to be. Things are supposed to be peaceful and filled with magic, not...dead and war torn."

"Great, another loon. Guess we're going to have to deal with this one as well," Rainbow muttered with a sigh, warily eyeing Trunk's sword as she started to crouch down. Pinkie, on the other hoof, seemed to light up at what Trunks had just said and practically threw herself into his face.

"Are you saying that there's something wrong here? Like, things aren't what they should be and things should be better?" Pinkie asked Trunks with such desperate enthusiasm that all Trunks could do in reply was nod slowly. Pinkie then swung her head around to face Rainbow Dash. "See, it's just like I said! There is something wrong with this place, like it's fractured and can't fix itself!"

"Yeah, and the last time you mentioned that at camp I had to beg Celestia not to throw you in a madhouse," Rainbow snarled. Pinkie ignored her and returned her gaze to Trunks. "Is that why you're here, mister Trunks? To undo whatever has happened to us and fix everything that's going on? To fix nightmare?"

"Kinda. I'm mostly here to..." Trunks began, but then he locked eyes with Pinkie and saw a well of suffering and anguish that he had not seen there previously. He found himself unable to tell her that he had come to their world mostly to avenge his comrades and find out who had killed them. "Yes, I'm here to fix whatever happened to your world and make sure this...war never came to be."

Pinkie shot a look of validation back at Dash, before she walked past Trunks and motioned for him to follow. "Then you are exactly what we need. Come on, I'll take you back to Fillydelphia and take you to the princess. She'll want to speak with you, especially after we explain to her who you are and what you can do. Flattening an entire squadron like that is insane. Doing it without killing anypony is down right impossible."

"What's the point, Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked Pinkie, who stopped to look back at her friend. "You really think Celestia is going to believe your ravings because there's another being in this world that believes what you do? She's not going to change her mind and will likely throw the both of you in the madhouse. Why risk it?"

"Because as long is there is the tiniest percent of a chance that there exist a way to undo this world and all of the tragedies that have happened in it, and create a world of peace and happiness like Trunks says there is, then I will do everything in my power to make that world happen. It's what Maud would have wanted," Pinkie replied in a near whisper, clutching a hoof to her heart before smiling up at Trunks. "Come on, it's a long journey. We need to meet up with our captain before heading out."

"Probably be a lot faster if I flew you," Trunks said. He grabbed Pinkie under her arms and hoisted her into the sky with him, waiting only a moment for her to point out where he would be flying to before he rocketed towards the princess. He stopped only for a brief moment over Pinkie's base so she and Dash could clear what was going on with their commander, before he took off.

Yet as he flew over the ponies that were gathered there, for a brief moment he locked eyes with a single mare standing amongst the civilians that had been gathered there. A mare with a pinkish coat with a purple mane with a streak of mint blue in it. A pony by the name of Starlight Glimmer. Trunks recognized her as he flew by.

And, even though he wasn't certain, she seemed like she recognized him.