Out of Time

by Onomonopia

Champions

Twilight's friends weren't that far from the castle. A short flight to an open field filled with flowers was all it took for Trunks to meet the Ambassadors of Harmony. Along the way Twilight gave Trunks cliff note versions of who each of them was and what they could do, but he barely heard a word that she said. His mind was back in the castle and with Starlight, the closest thing to a clue he had found in his brief time in Equestria.

'There is something wrong with the time stream here and she knows something. Or at the very least she suspects,' Trunks mused to himself, before catching Twilight waving to him out of the corner of his eye. She motioned to down below and a moment later the both of them descended into the field of flowers. Trunks barely had time to touch down before a pink pony with a cotton candy mane was in his face.

"Hiya, new Time Patrol friend! My name is Pinkie Pie! It's so nice to meet you!" the pink pony exclaimed with mirth in every word.

"Um, hiya. Would you mind backing up a bit?" Trunks asked as he tried to pull Pinkies legs off from around him. In a blink she was back alongside her friends, who were all looking up at Trunks with interest, but there were hints of rage and sorrow within their eyes as well. 'These ponies were friends to the other Time Patrollers. And now they're suffering.'

"Trunks, these are my friends and fellow heroes of this world. Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity," Twilight went down the line, each of the respective pony's waving or nodding when their name was called. "They've helped me save the world time and time again and each of them has a personal stake in whatever is going on. I figured that you would want to meet them before we start anything."

"Howdy partner," Applejack introduced, tipping her hat to Trunks. "I'd ask if ya were ready for trouble, but judging from that sword on yer back ah can see that ya came prepared."

"Pleasure is all mine, darling. I must say that is a very nice coat and I would ask where you got it, but it's probably from another dimension all together," Rarity said with a polite bow.

"Hi. Nice to meet you," Fluttershy said meekly.

"So you're the famous Trunks that Berts told us so much about. Apparently you're one of the best warriors in the whole Patrol," Rainbow Dash said with a cocky, but not unfriendly, smile. "How about we go a few rounds some time? I've been wanting to test my might against one of the best."

"Do you like parties? What the best party you've ever had?" Pinkie asked.

"I've never had one. At least, not one that I can remember being enjoyable."

The look of horror on Pinkie's face was enough to tell Trunks to take the conversation somewhere else.

"it's a pleasure to meet all of you, but is this really the best that your world has to offer in terms of protection?" Trunks asked the princess. He felt a wave of insulted looks wash over him and he held up his hands defensively a moment later. "I don't mean that I doubt your heroic abilities, but if the foe we're going up against turns out to be really dangerous, then I want the best fighters that your world has backing us up."

"Well, there is my roomie Discord," Flutershy muttered. "Let's see, last I saw of him he was searching the chaotic pathways that link every world and reality together. I don't think that he's found anything, but he's a being that can warp reality and is pure chaos."

"So a god. Okay, that's better. Anyone else?"

"Princesses Celestia and Luna are two of the strongest magic users in the land and each move the sun and moon respectively. I think that the both of them would be incredibly useful in a fight...if they don't get captured first like all the other times," Twilight said, muttering the last part under her breath so that Trunks couldn't hear.

"Moon and sun movers? That is impressive, even by my standards," Trunks said with a nod, starting to like the odds more.

"How about you Mr. Trunks?" AJ asked. "What can ya do?"

"Just Trunks is fine. If you've met the other Time Patrollers, then you've got a general idea of what I can do. I can manipulate my ki to fly and shoot energy attacks, but I'm also a fairly skilled swordsman and martial artist," Trunks replied. The ponies seemed impressed at his words, while Rainbow seemed to look forward to the challenge he would pose. "Just take what you've seen the others do and crank it up to eleven. But I'm not sure that my skills will be enough to stop this foe. I hope they are."

"Why do you say that Trunks?" Twilight asked.

"Because out of the last three world ending threats I fought, I was only able to handle one of them by myself. A wizard named Babidi. The others I needed backup for," Trunks admitted.

"You know, that's not exactly the best thing to say to keep our spirits up," Fluttershy said with a small laugh. "Especially since we constantly heard about how good you are."

"I'm being realistic. I don't...want you all to put too much of your faith in me. I never seem to be able to live up to those standards," Trunks muttered to himself before glancing back at Twilight. "Alright, now that the gangs all here, what's our first move?"

"You don't want to take point on this investigation?" Twilight asked with some surprise. "I thought since you lost your comrades that you would be the one who wanted to bring this foe to justice."

"Oh I do, but this is your world, so for now I'll play by your rules. Not to mention," Trunks began, looking into each of the eyes of the ponies closely. Able to still see the hurt and loss that came with the death of their friends from another world. "I may have lost comrades, but you all lost good friends. And I know that pain well. You all can take point here. Just consider me the muscle for now."

"Alright, we can go with that for now," Twilight said. Her horn lit up a moment later and she used her magical power to create a platform of violet light, one which AJ, Pinkie and Rarity walked onto. Fluttershy and Dash took to the air and hovered over their friends, all of who looked to Twilight for instructions. "The first thing we're going to do is investigate the area where the third Time Patroller went missing. That was a week ago and we believed that we found everything that the crime scene had to show us, but perhaps with a ki expert here you might be able to find something that we missed. You ready Trunks?"

Yet Trunks hadn't heard a word that Twilight had said. His gaze was locked onto something else. Something that didn't belong. Or rather, somepony that didn't belong. Lay off to the side about fifty yards away was a gray pony wearing a suit of armor, which was stained red with his own blood. Trunks could barely make out the insignia of an alicorn silhouetted against the sun on his armor, which reminded Trunks of a military insignia. The pony had a dagger sticking out of his back and his breathing was ragged, telling Trunks he was dying. Yet Trunks didn't rush over to help him. Because the pony wasn't there.

Or rather, all of Trunks senses told him that there was nopony there. He couldn't sense any ki, the pony, who opened his mouth a few times to cry out, was silent. And despite all the blood that he was losing from the knife wound, the flowers beneath him were every color except red. It was like he was there...but also wasn't.

Then the pony looked over to Trunks and their eyes locked, telling Trunks that this pony was indeed existing, even if he couldn't sense him. Yet the brief moment of awareness of each other passed and the pony flickered out of existence, leaving the flowers as still and undisturbed as they had been moments before. Trunks blinked a few times, trying to process what he had just seen, before Twilight nudged him with her wing.

"Um, Trunks? Are you doing alright?" Twilight asked Trunks. "Sorry if you're not acclimated to our world yet, it is possible that all of the magic in our world is messing with you a little bit. I know it took Berts a few days to properly adjust to-"

"Hey Twilight, does your princesses have an army with her insignia on it?" Trunks cut her off.

"An army? No, we have the Royal Guard, but we haven't had an army in Equestria for at least five hundred years. Why, did you see something?"

"...No, it must have been the magic in the air messing with my mind," Trunks said with a shrug. He then shook his head, ran his fingers over his face and then smiled down at Twilight. "Forget about it. Come on, let's go to where you said the Time Patroller was found. I'm curious to see if I can find anything."

Twilight nodded and flapped her wings, ascending into the sky while carrying her less flight inclined friends with her. Rainbow took off after Twilight and so did Fluttershy, though at a slower pace, leaving Trunks alone in the flower field. The moment the ponies were gone his face set with the same angry expression that he inherited from his father, before he turned his gaze back towards the spot where the pony had lay.

'That was no illusion and that was not magic messing with my mind. But there wasn't an actual pony laying there. I trust my senses enough to tell me that. But there was some form of being there. I trust my instincts on that matter. So who was that pony?' Trunks asked himself, walking over to where the pony was and kneeling down. He placed a hand on the spot and closed his eyes, trying to sense some form of ki. Nothing.

But when Trunks opened his eyes, he found that what his senses had missed his eyes had caught. On a single, white flower was a speck of red. A tiny, practically invisible speck of blood. Yet when Trunks pressed his finger against the speck, some red spread onto his finger, telling him that it was still fresh.

'So there was somepony here. Not for long, or there would be more blood, but here nonetheless,' Trunks realized as he rubbed his fingers together. He then kicked off the ground and flew into the sky, catching up with Twilight and the other seconds later. He glanced at the princess and considered telling her of what he saw, but thought better of it a moment later.

'For the time being I'll keep this to myself,' Trunks thought as he flew. 'While the ponies may be willing to accept me being an alien thanks to meeting to other Time Patrollers, I don't want to start off our relationship with them thinking I'm crazy or see dead people. Once I've found more proof, then I will tell them of what I saw. But only then.'

But despite having a solid game plan, Trunks had been around danger and death long enough to know that there was something in the air. He wasn't sure what it was, but he did know that it could only spell disaster for all that were caught by it. And he hope that this time, for the ponies sake, that he would be strong enough to stop it.

Comments

[Ze1a7in]

...by Zen-o, this isn't just a case of temporal tampering/anomalies, I'm seeing a potential full-blown overlapping timelines crisis here.

[Osiris Prime]

"How about we go a few rounds some time? I've been wanting to test my might against one of the best."

No offense Rainbow, but you're going to get utterly destroyed if Trunks puts an ounce of effort into a fight with you.

[badninja]

8941700

That is what it makes it so sad. She is so udderly outclassed it isn’t funny. Gohan got more powerful then her during the Namick arc.

[RainbowDashVegetaFan123]

8941863
I'm pretty sure Rainbow was even outclassed in the Original Dragon Ball when Goku was a Kid, Master Roshi in the 21st Budokai was able to destroy the Moon, even Raditz would tank that attack and one shot Roshi, in fact, he was beating both Goku and Piccolo with ease and that Piccolo was able to casually destroy the Moon, Base Trunks when we first seen him after Namek would be thousands of times stronger then Raditz, Time Patrol/Xenoverse Trunks and DBS Trunks are leagues above the Trunks from the Android Arc

[titanhades70]

I never did see much in terms of competent magic users in the DB universe. And a lot of the magic in MLP is pretty oc/broken. The upper tier magic users of MLP should be able to give most of the DB crew a run for their money.

[AMuffinlover]

"Do you like parties? What the best party you've ever had?" Pinkie asked.

"I've never had one. At least, not one that I can remember being enjoyable."

The look of horror on Pinkie's face was enough to tell Trunks to take the conversation somewhere else.

So is Pinkie going to rip dimensions out of thin air or is she just going to throw parties

So we got a case in which both timelines are collapsing on each other. Well isn't that great hmm. Now how are they going to deal with this other timeline

[Midknight Defender]

Ambassadors of Harmony

This is the second fic I've run across in recent times that called them that instead of the Elements of Harmony.

Is this a translation issue from a foreign-language version of FiM, or did I miss something? Googling the phrase only turns up a men's a cappella chorus from Missouri.

[Onomonopia]

9265323
When they lost the elements i started calling them this to give them an official title. Yeah they've gotten them back, but i like the term better