Trunks flipped backwards away from Sombra, glancing around in all directions as he did so to get a better lay of the land. The world of darkness that Sombra had dragged him into was, well, completely filled with darkness all around him. The only part of the world that wasn't darkness were numerous floating platforms made out of violet crystals, which floated around like islands in a sea of black. Sombra was standing on the largest of these crystals with Trunks, easily the size of a town center, but the smile that he had worn on his face earlier was long gone.
"Even though I knew that it most likely wouldn't have worked, I really wish that Tirek had killed you," Sombra admitted to Trunks. "I had done the math based on your base form and, for a moment, I believed that he actually would have been powerful enough to kill you. Sadly, it seems that you were hiding what you could really do. Seems I've signed my own death warrant in picking you as my opponent."
"Then stand aside and let me do what I came here to do," Trunks warned Sombra, drawing his blade and pointing it at the dark king. "I don't want to kill you. All I want is to fix the timeline and restore the right Equestria timeline to where it belongs. All of these timelines are ones that shouldn't exist. You know this."
"Yes, we're not supposed to exist. But yet we do. We exist, we live, we feel, we die...even though we're not supposed to," Sombra whispered. "And as beings that exist, is it wrong for us to fight so hard to ensure our survival? I'm certain that if the main timeline was intelligent enough to realize what was happening, they would be fighting equally as hard to ensure that they came out alive. So why side with them and not us?"
"Well for one, this world is ruled by two of the most evil ponies that have ever lived. And I've had enough evil futures for one lifetime. If I had to pick between saving this evil timeline or letting it be erased, you'd better believe I'd pick the latter," Trunks snarled. But then the image of Nightmare smiling at Sombra's shocked face, who had just learned her secret, crossed his mind and for a moment his resolve wavered. And Sombra noticed.
"It was easy with the other timelines, wasn't it?" Sombra asked, nodding in understanding. "Chrysalis was a tyrant. Tirek was a dark god. Even the other me was just an asshole. They were all nothing but pure evil. All of them were just another villain that you had to strike down. But it's different here, isn't it? To know that you're not just going up against two evil monsters, but a pair of ponies who will, hopefully, be parents soon. Parents who want to raise their foal in a world that will be there tomorrow."
"Raise your foal to be a tyrant or monster like either of you," Trunks snapped back. "Don't pretend for a moment that your foal will be any nicer than either of you. If anything, thanks to the both of you, they'll probably be the most evil being to ever live."
"Maybe. Or maybe they'll be the world's greatest hero. I don't know. But what I do know is that as their father," Sombra began as he crouched down, his horn glowing. "It's my job to ensure that they have a world in which to make that choice."
Blades of darkness erupted from the ground and drove themselves into Trunks limbs, getting the Saiyan to look down with shock and surprise at the blades that had impaled his arms and legs. Sombra barreled towards Trunks, surrounding his body in a tornado of darkness that ripped apart the land around him.
Trunks didn't waste anytime and erupted into his Super Saiyan form, the golden light that erupted from his body blasting away the darkness and deflected Sombra back from the way he came. Trunks was on him in an instance, driving his blade at Sombra's legs with the intent to end the fight then and there. But his eyes widened in shock when Sombra spun his head to intercept the blow, catching Trunk's blade on the tip of his horn. The blade began to be consumed by darkness, snaking up the blade and to the handle where Trunks was gripping it. He dropped the blade and leapt back, amazed that Sombra could keep up with him in his form.
Sombra slammed his hooves into the crystal beneath them and conjured spires of darkness that jutted out of the ground on a warpath to Trunks. Trunks snapped his arms back before thrusting them forward, firing a massive beam of ki that shattered all of the spires and stormed towards the dark king. Sombra vanished into the darkness just in time to avoid the blast, which spiraled into the darkness and was quickly lost from sight.
'Alright, where's he going to come from?' Trunks asked, glancing around for any sign of Sombra. 'He's tricky, underhanded and is a villain. So in all likelihood he'll be...here!'
Trunks swung around and lashed out with his leg, catching Sombra just as the king came up from the shadows beneath. Yet the moment Trunks leg made contact with his Sombra's body warped into shadows, which then twisted up Trunk's leg and towards his body. Trunks eyes widened at the sight before Sombra's shadows spiraled up his neck and went into Trunks mouth. Trunks gagged and held his hands to his throat, able to feel the darkness siphoning the air from his lungs and slowly begin to suffocate him to death.
'No! Not here!' Trunks roared within his mind, thrusting his arms to his side and taking his power to the next level. The light around him erupted like he was a star, while electricity crackled around his body to boost the light within as well. The eruption of light was strong enough to dispel the darkness within him, sending the smoke stream out of his body and sailing into the dark surrounding Trunks.
"You won't escape!" Trunks roared. He chucked a ball of ki after the smoke and caught it in an explosion that shone like a small sun, decimating hundreds of the floating crystals around him. When the explosion died down, Trunks narrowed his eyes at the spot where Sombra had been, not sure if he had killed the king or not.
"So you can go ever further beyond your golden form? Shit." Trunks turned his head to see Sombra standing on the crystal across from him, his body shaking weakly with numerous gashes across his legs and chest. "Of course, my spellwork is so incredible that I was able to survive that attack of yours, but it seems that even I could not get away unscathed. And unfortunately, with you glowing like that, I will not be able to take advantage of the darkness inside of your body to kill you from within. Well, this is bad."
"Sombra, just give up. I'm not going to kill you or your wife," Trunks promised Sombra. When the look on the dark kings face showed he didn't believe him, Trunks sighed and held up his hands. "I'm after the ones behind the time fractures, the ones that broke the timeline to begin with. We're only fighting you to draw out Maestro and Clockwork."
"The metal men. So they're the ones behind everything," Sombra pieced together.
"Yes. They are the ones that we are after. See. There's no need for us to do this," Trunks added, hoping that Sombra would see reason. "So just surrender and help me to draw them out. Then we can slay the both of them and that will put an end to all of this."
"...there is a problem with what you are saying. Maestro and Clockwork being behind this makes sense. But if we kill them, those who are responsible for all this, then everything will go back to the way it's supposed to be," Sombra said with narrowed eyes. "Including that my world, my wife...my foal, will never exist. Is that right?"
"...yes, I suppose it is," Trunks said. He took up his fighting stance and let out a sigh, knowing that Sombra was right. The timeline he was in would most likely fade once he killed the metal men. And Sombra would fight with every last ounce of his strength to prevent that.
"Then you know my answer, Trunks. Now fight for your life."
(SSJ)
Starlight let out a yelp as she ducked behind a tree, just in time to avoid the blast of lunar magic that ripped apart the space where she had been standing a moment before. Starlight placed her back up against the tree and tried to control her breathing, before taking a peek to see what Nightmare Moon was up to.
"Why are you bothering to run? We both know that you are nowhere near powerful enough to stand against me," Nightmare Moon told Starlight. Starlight knew this to be true from the moment she tried to match Moon's magic with her own and ended up getting hurled across the forest. She then adopted her new plan of running for her life. "And running will not help either. Even if you somehow manage to get away from me, all I have to do is tell the lunar guard that we are hunting you and it will only be a matter of time. So why don't you save us a lot of time and give up?"
"Because if I do that then the timeline, my timeline, will cease to be! And I'll do whatever it takes to ensure that doesn't happen!" Starlight yelled out at Moon. 'At least, I want to believe that. But I even with all that on the line I don't think I can hurt Nightmare Moon. Not as she is now.'
Starlight yelped once more as another burst of lunar magic decimated the tree she had been hiding behind, forcing her to create a barrier around herself to deflect the next spell that had been aimed at her. While she did manage to get her barrier up in time, Moon's spell was strong enough to launch both Starlight and her barrier backwards through numerous trees. Starlight groaned in pain as her barrier dissipated, looking up in time to see Nightmare Moon gently land in front of her.
"Normally I would allow for this chase to go on for a little longer, but due to reasons I do not want to risk moving around too much," Nightmare Moon said. Chains of dark magic wrapped themselves around Starlights limbs, chaining her to the ground. A sinister smile then crossed Nightmare Moon's face as she aimed her horn at Starlight Glimmer. "And once I am done with you, I will aid Sombra in deal with your friend. And then we shall go back to our day, as if nothing had ever happened. You are not the first to try to kill me and I am certain you will not be the last. just the latest in a long line of failures."
"I see. How boring."
Nightmare Moon's eyes widened and she spun around just in time to take a metal fist to the face, one that sent her hurtling backwards. Right before she hit the first tree in her path she managed to fire off a teleportation spell, avoiding damage to her body and also positioning herself away from whoever had struck her. When she reappeared, she locked onto her target and narrowed her eyes at the metal man that stood before her.
"You. I heard Sombra speak of you months ago. It seems that you are responsible for a great deal of misery that has befallen us recently," Nightmare Moon snarled. She then channeled all of her lunar might into her horn and body, glowing with a dark magic that blocked out all light around them, making herself the only source of pale light. "Why are you here?"
"It is a simple reason. Because that Starlight and this version of Trunks have gained my interest. And I would rather not have them die before I get the chance to see how their story plays out and what choices they make," Maestro said with a shrug, before his the void where his face should have been darkened and he locked onto Nightmare Moon. "But a Nightmare Moon that has defeated her sister and rules the land is something that I have seen far too many times. Even if you are married to Sombra and are having a foal, you are still far too common and like others that I have seen so many times. And if there is one thing I hate above all else..."
Shattered magic erupted from Maestros body, drowning out Nightmare Moon's magic and making both Starlight and Moon look at him with absolute terror in their eyes.
"It is something that bores me. Like you."