Time Out
Consciousness returned to Trunks. Which surprised the Saiyan, as he was fairly certain he should have been standing before King Yemma after what had happened to him. Yet the agony that coursed through his veins told him that he was not yet dead, meaning that he had to get up. Trunks struggled against the darkness, eventually managing to break through and open his eyes.
To find himself staring up at a pony.
The pony let out a yelp and backed away as Trunks started to move, while Trunks struggled just to move the way he wanted to. His limbs were like lead, his head hammered like an Android was trying to cave it in and he could barely feel the ki that resided with him, much less call on any of it to strengthen his body. But he had been through worse, so after gritting his teeth and fighting through the pain he managed to sit upright.
"Are you doing okay Mr. Trunks?" the pony asked Trunks. It took Trunks a moment to focus on her, but when he was able to do so he found he recognized her instantly.
"Starlight?" he asked, his voice weaker than he liked. She nodded and he put his weakness on the back-burner. "Okay, are you the Starlight that I met or are you a different timeline of her? Actually, am I in the normal time, the one where Sombra and Celestia are at war or in a new one altogether?"
"Slow down there, Mr. Trunks. You were all but dead when I found you," Starlight said calmly.
"Just Trunks is fine. And what do you mean by...?" Trunks began, but his voice trailed off when he saw that beside the mare was the vial that Maestro had talked about. And that it was empty. "Wait a moment, did you give me the cure? How did you even know what was going on in the first place? And how are you not affected by the timeline shifts?"
"Slow. Down," Starlight said much more strictly, getting Trunks to close his mouth. "Look, I'm...like you. I seem to not be affected by the shifts in the time space continuum. As for where...or when we are, we're in another time. Not the one I know, but not the one with Sombra and Celestia. That one is...gone. As for how I knew about what happened, I had you bugged."
"What?" Trunks asked, only for a tiny cricket made of magic to walk onto his shoulder. Starlight held out her hoof and the cricket crawled onto it, before vanishing into thin air. "Back when we met at the crystal castle, I put it on you. I had a feeling that you would help to uncover what's been going on, but with all of the dangerous attacks, I figured it best if I hung back. And after what happened to you, I think my line of thinking was correct. I only heard what happened though and sometimes it cut out. Who...?"
"Maestro. Him and Clockwork," Trunks grunted, finally building up the strength to push himself up to his feet. He didn't like how his body was barely responding to what he wanted it to do. "Clockwork is responsible for the time shifts. He's looking for something, but I don't know what. As for the Maestro...he's dangerous. One of the more dangerous foes I've fought. He has the ability to nullify ki and knows more about me than I like."
"And he nearly killed you," Starlight added on.
"He got lucky with some toxins. It won't work again," Trunks snarled, before fully looking over the pony before him. "Starlight Glimmer. Twilight's student and the only pony that seems unaffected by the time shifts like me. How did you manage to find me?"
"...luck, I guess? One moment I'm standing in a camp of ponies who had been rescued for Sombra's forces, the next thing I know I'm standing next to you're dying body, with the cure ten feet away," Starlight explained, though her explanation raised more questions than answers. "But you weren't the only other thing that was here. There's also...that."
She pointed behind Trunks and he turned to look, his eyes going wide as he saw his sword laying on the ground with a note on the front. He walked over to it and picked it up, finding that the note only had one word written upon it. "Sorry". He removed the note and checked over his blade, finding that it was almost an exact replica of the one he had arrived on the world with.
'Actually,' Trunks thought to himself as he checked the blade closer. 'This is the same blade that I had when I arrived on this world. Yep, right there is where the attached a new upper half to the broken off lower half. But I saw this blade be erased by Clockwork. How is it...nevermind, I'll think more about that later.'
He sheathed his blade, noting that it was a perfect fit, before he glance around at the area the two of them were in. There were trees all around them, filled with vines and their limbs blocking out the sun. He could hear creatures moving all around them, but his senses were still barely working after whatever Maestro's toxin had done to him. Yet he couldn't recall this location from either of the timelines he had been in.
"I think we're in the Everfree Forest," Starlight said, seemingly reading Trunks mind. "At least, that's what it looks like on the inside. But according to my magical map, we should be well within the town limits of Ponyville. So either my map is messed up, or we're in a timeline where the Everfree Forest grew out of control and swallowed up Ponyville. I hope it's the first."
"But I bet it's the second," Trunks replied, before he forced himself to start to move into the forest. "Come on, we won't learn anything standing around. We need to find ponies or anyone and see what they can tell us."
"Are you sure that you're in any shape to move? When I found you you were pale as a ghost, in a pool of your own blood and not breathing," Starlight pointed out. "You should probably rest up and recover more of your strength. For both of our sakes."
"I'll be fine."
"But what happens if we run into another villain like Sombra? Or the Maestro realizes that you didn't die and comes back to finish the job?" Starlight continued on, getting Trunks, who patience was already pretty thin thanks to the pain, to grit his teeth together in anger.
"Sombra went down without a fight, so I can handle him even weakened like this. As for the Maestro, I think he would be happy to find that I still live, in some sick and twisted way. So for the time being, let's just figure out where we are," Trunks said with all of his self control. Starlight caught the tone of his voice and shut her mouth, though her eyes revealed that she had dozens of other questions that she had.
The two walked on in silence, with Starlight wondering what was going on while Trunks tried to repress his anger. He knew that he wasn't angry with Starlight, how could he be after she had saved his life, but he was still angry at the Maestro and what he had said. How he had failed to save his world from Zamasu. How he had failed the people that had believed in him. His friends, his Mai...his own father.
The thought of his father made Trunks smirk, knowing that his anger issues were mostly because of his father's side of the family. His mother Bulma had a temper as well, but Vegeta was the saint of temper problems. Yet that very same temper he had inherited had given him access to his greatest strength, a strength that could rival that of the gods. Good with the bad.
'Focus on what needs to be done. Find Clockwork. Return the world to its normal timeline. Kill Maestro, brutally if possible, report to Supreme Kai of Time...and get back to Mai. This is what matters,' Trunks thought to himself, closing his eyes and forcing the anger and words that the Maestro had spoken from his mind. But when his mind had calmed he recalled something that Starlight had said and turned to look at her.
"Hey Starlight, when we were talking earlier you said something about the timeline with Celestia and Sombra being...gone?" Trunks asked. He didn't like the way her face fell at his words. "How do you know that it's gone and what happened to it?"
"...I don't know if Twilight told you this, but I am responsible for the fracture in Equestria's timeline. At least, I was the first one to do it," Starlight revealed. "Back when I was...lost, I tried to create a timeline without Twilight and her friends in it, so that they couldn't save the world and stop me. But each timeline was worse than the last, getting to the point where the world was just dust."
Starlight didn't like the look Trunks gave her after that, but she continued on. "Twilight stopped me and I eventually came to work under her, trying to learn about what it meant to be a good pony and friend. But ever since that day I've...been able to peek into the other timeline's, to see what's been happening. With this."
Her horn glowed with magical power and a moment later a mirror appeared in her hooves. What drew Trunks eye about the mirror was that it was cracked in the center, leaving six pieces of mirror to be made from the cracks. Images moved in four of the pieces, one of the pieces showed only them, and the final piece was black.
"There are five timelines that were created because of my actions," Starlight explained, showing Trunks the mirror. In the other pieces, he saw a mix and match monster making chocolate rain from the sky. In another, a giant centaur was obliterating the world with energy beams from his horn. In the third a dark alicorn sat on a throne, while moonlight shined on the land. And in the fourth piece he saw Twilight walking through Ponyville, seemingly calling out for somepony. But after he waited for a moment, he realized that none of these other times were moving. None except for them image of the two of them.
"Why are none of them moving?" Trunks asked.
"Normally they do move, but ever since this business with the dead Time Patrollers has started, the only time that moved was our timeline. At least, until we shifted to the one with Sombra and Celestia," Starlight explained. "Clockwork has done something to the timelines, making it so only one time moves and the others freeze. I believe that only the timeline he is currently in is the timeline that moves."
"Yet we are not frozen in time...or we don't realize it," Trunks muttered. "So that means that right now, Clockwork is in this timeline with us. Is it just coincidence that we're in the same place at the same time? Or, as two beings that can exist out of time, are we dragged along every time he changes the timeline? Grah, it's too much to think about right now."
Trunks then looked at the mirror piece that was dark an empty, a question forming on his lips. Starlight knew what he was going to ask and she looked away from Trunks. "I know what you're going to ask, but you won't like the answer. That timeline...has been destroyed, along with everything in it."
"What? But how? How did Clockwork manage to destroy an entire timeline?!" Trunks asked Starlight. But the look she gave Trunks caused his stomach to go cold and he knew what she going to say the moment before she said it.
"Clockwork didn't destroy this timeline Trunks...you did."
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So Trunks needs to destroy every alternate timeline that Starlight created or remove its ability to be connected to the main universe.
...There are two possibilities I foresee from all the info Starlight has revealed. 1) Starlight is going to become the first pony Time Patroller, or 2) Starlight will become the apprentice to the Supreme Kai of Time.
Also, with how often Mai is being mentioned, I can't help but have this nagging feeling that Maestro is some evil version of Mai from an alternate/future timeline. It would explain how Maestro knows so much about Trunks, and how they are able to push Trunks' buttons so easily. Was it ever said if the Maestro sounded Male or female? ...scratch that, if they were able to make a ki nullified, they could easily make a voice changer.
8970023
While that's an interesting idea, it wouldn't explain why she's going around the omniverse destroying life on every main planet as she sees fit including Equestrian. Mai even as a villain doesn't seem the type to go Zamasu on the omniverse cause she can before Zamasu was a thing as far as I'm aware. Especially considering Ryu's words at the end of Truly Divine, if she has something against Trunks, why go after potentially Street Fighter worlds or even Megaman Starforce ones too as the Maestro has?
8970285
Not sure, but that's the beauty of multiple timelines, something can happen in one timeline that makes a character completely different than we are used to. Also, I feel the need to bring this up:
Pretty sure this goes beyond a grudge. And we don't know what other worlds they have gone to, only that they have apparently traveled through enough timelines and alternate universes to have killed MILLIONS of Trunks. Millions of variations of the same character. There is no guarantee that even a one-hundredth of them are good guys.
One does not simply kill the Maestro Trunks
8970023
Maestro mentioned that they hunted down every other alternate version of themselves so I don't think it's any one we'd know
8970696
I missed that part.
8970702
I think they mention it the Mega Man story but I can't remember which chapter
8971778
Mega Man story? Is this fic part of a series?
8971785
several stories by Onomonopia have maestro as either the main villain or responsible for the main villain
I haven't read all the stories but the ones where he's involved include
The Girl that Never Was (Xion from Kingdom Hearts)
Champion of the Sun (Mega Man)
The Wandering Warrior (Ryu from Street Fighter)
Let them Wonder (Wonder Woman)
Maestro is mentioned/alluded to in these stories
How to Ponify Your Dragon ( Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, Stormfly from How to Train your Dragon)
Back to the Past (Samurai Jack)
Truly Divine (Thor from Marvel)
He could be in more but I haven't read all of them yet
so is this foreshadowing for Trunks turning into super sayian god super sayian?
Well aside from the flim flan brothers, I think every other villian are much more powerful. Then again the power capitalism might be trunk's weakness? I really wonder how Trunks is going to fight the god of chaos.
And the plot thickens.