The dry, rocky wasteland was littered with smoking craters due to the recent spar between a particularly strong Saiyan and her current Mentor, the two had been going at each other for most of the day and most of the nearby landscape had been flattened as a result of their high-speed battle and the burnoff of such tremendous amounts of Ki.

"You're still too slow to react on your left side! Don't let your enemy into your blind spot!" Scolds her mentor, his green and black-spotted carapace shining in the late afternoon sun as he gets back into a battle stance, although it looks casual enough to reveal his arrogant attitude as his student stands opposite of him on the battlefield panting slightly in her battle stance.

"Understood Cell-Sensei." She replies with a sharp nod as her cape flows in the gentle breeze, her forehead is already dotted with sweat due to her training. With the smallest of shifts it's enough to make the smirk fall from her mentor's face as they both vanish a split-second later only to cause more craters to appear over the battlefield and even cause a resounding drum-like sound as they both connect their blows in midair, the sheer strength making the world sound like the rumble of thunder. It was only for a few seconds but to both combatants it seemed to go on forever, each one becoming simply a blur of ki to the other's senses as they bounced around the battlefield.

The Saiyan is the first to appear again and without missing a beat she puts her right side forward forward as her index and middle finger hover above her chest, gathering a fiery-green energy while her eyes search for her mentor's ki.

"...There!" She moves with a near-invisible speed to send the ball of energy out, catching cell in the chest as he appeared. The ball expanded and caused him to grunt a bit with pain before the ball exploded and sent him reeling. With the sound of a drum-beat he expels some ki behind him to stop in midair.

He straightens up and smirks again. "Good job, you've certainly come a long way from the little girl who was begging to learn my techniques."

She lets out a small chuckle and scoffs a little as she starts to relax and straighten up herself. "Puh-lease... Every one of your tests I dominated and kept on going no-sweat." She wipes her forehead with the back of her bandaged hands. "Well, I better get back, Trunks is probably looking for me."

He nods as she turns around. "Paolina..." She glances over her shoulder, "...Good shot." He gives her a wink as he points at her with two fingers.

She giggles in response. "No Cell, It was a Perfect Shot." She puts two fingers to her forehead and closes her eyes, disappearing within seconds and reappearing in the industrial sector of Tokitoki city. She looked behind her to get a good view of the giant hourglass that dominated the view and let out a small sigh. "it's good to be home." With a light flourish of her brown cloak she began walking towards the main square of the city. Lately it simply seemed a lot more empty though, all the patrollers that used to be there were trickling down from the packed city that had tried to fight with her and Trunks to defeat Demigra. Now all that was left was the bare minimum needed to consider the place a village, and even those ones seemed to be almost constantly away on missions. She let out a small sigh as she ran a hand through her long, wild brown hair, "It was so much more interesting when there was a big threat..."

She looked up to the statue that contained the Dragon Balls that she had collected on her missions, all seven were assembled but she just couldn't think of what to wish for. Without realizing it at first she made her way to the edge of the pond that ringed the statue and sat down, the tips of her boots hovered inches above the water as she looked up at the architecture that went into creating the shrine for the dragon.

"So... anything come up recently?" She asks to what seems like no one in particular until a male voice replies.

"The Kai of Time hasn't noticed anything lately, but with all of the patrollers going back to their respective worlds I can't help but feel a bit worried." The purple-haired young man sat down next to her as he looked up to the shrine with her. "you know, I'm happy we beat Demigra... but I can't help feeling like we missed something."

"It couldn't have been that monster... Goku and I made sure that he wouldn't come back." Paolina replied as she looked down at her reflection in the pond, her bright teal eyes staring back at her without the light she remembered them having.

"You know... you haven't been quite the same since that battle." Trunks points out as he turns his gaze to her. "For a Saiyan you don't seem to enjoy fighting as much anymore. Come on, I'll get you a drink, you look like you could use something." He gets up and holds his hand out to her, which she takes in order to pull herself up.

"Yeah... I think I'll just go with a nice, hot tea..."

Trunks put his cup down on the table as he looked back over at his partner. "So... I've been hearing that you've been training with Cell..."

She gives him a small smile. "Yeah, he's actually a really great teacher when you manage to get his attention. He's even taught me several awesome techniques."

"He may be from an alternate timeline but I still don't trust him..." Trunks grumbles before taking another sip of his tea.

Paolina lets out a small giggle. "It's because he killed you in one of those alternate timelines isn't it?" the reactionary scowl only managed to get her to laugh a little louder. "Come on Trunks, you know as well as I do that the Supreme Kai of Time wouldn't let him come here if he was going to destroy the place."

"Still, it doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't let your guard down around him."

"You really need to lighten up a bit Trunks. All this stress isn't healthy for you."

"You're one to talk, a week after defeating Demigra and you start getting quieter just to fight your parallel quests solo."

"That's because I don't need to bring anyone else along... I'm able to fight Beerus to a standstill, I destroyed Demigra with Goku's help and when we gathered all of those time chasm shards I helped fight Broly... actually... I think I was the only one who was actually doing anything to him! Bardock's change into a great ape didn't help the battle one bit, Vegeta only threw himself into the fray and became little more than a distraction as I tried to keep him from getting killed!" She grits her teeth as she stands. "You want to know why I've been going solo on my patrols? It's because I don't want to risk anyone else! When Demigra destroyed the hourglass in Tokitoki I had to fight you... When you teamed up with me against Beerus and Whis you barely managed to walk away... And don't even forget about our fights with Mira."

The violet-haired teen leans back in his chair in a bit of surprise as he starts to feel a tad smaller than he normally was, especially in the presence of such a powerful Saiyan.

"Trunks, I've nearly lost you in so many battles since you wished for me to be brought here... I don't like bringing other people with me because I don't want them getting hurt either." She says quietly as she slumps back in her seat. She looks up as Trunks starts to chuckle, her face laced with confusion as he lets out a decent laugh.

"you know, you're actually almost exactly like Goku... His Saiyan pride keeps him from wanting to put others in harm's way." Once he calms down he notices her pout. "Oh come on, you know I'm right... He gets into a fight with someone stronger than anyone else and he just seems to get as giddy as you were when you had the chance to fight Lord Beerus."

"So? Beerus is a really adorable giant kitten when you get to know him..." She grumbles as she crosses her arms. She lets out another small sigh as she gets up. "Well, I gotta go do some more patrols."

"Oh! By the way, your scouter's waiting at the accessory shop, I got a call that the function you requested just got installed." Trunks says as he gets up as well. "The Kai wants me to look over a new scroll today so you might get a call."

The female Saiyan waits until Trunks leaves the cafe before she doubles over with laughter, causing a few onlookers to wonder about her sanity.

Paolina eagerly walked up to the counter of the accessory shop with a goofy smile on her face as she tried to stifle her chuckles. The robot attached to the counter greeted her with their usual happy tone.

"Good afternoon! Miss Paolina, your order just arrived today; Green New Model Scouter with standard readout and optional redout in Raditz's." The little round robot has a cover slide over the bottom of his eye-lens to make it look like he's smiling as another little robot brings a small box to the counter. The Saiyan eagerly opens up the box after handing the robot-cashier several pieces of paper that have several printed Z's on them as well as a few very large numbers. She picks up the scouter and presses a small panel to turn on the UI.

"Ooh... I like the new model, every readout is so clear..." She says as she starts walking away with the scouter, once she gets away from the store though she turns off the readout and looks back up at the sky as her feet simply seem to walk on autopilot. Her thoughts seem to flit from one battle to the next, each victory, each loss... Her frustration... her joy. Now that Demigra was gone and the threat of imminent destruction had passed it seemed that soon she would only be training and never get a real fight again.

The grand hall of a beautiful, white castle was silent as the soft, yet loud clopping of hooves on stone echoed through the chamber. Immaculate stonework slowly gave way to cracked and ruined walls, finery and artwork. Two massive doors that once stood as an icon of the greatest power in the country now lay in several splintered parts. Several feet away from the entrance was a large, winged unicorn whose once-immaculate alabaster coat was now caked with dust, dried blood and several splinters. She struggled for breath as she shakily pulled herself to her hooves, looking at her assailant.

The dark-navy winged unicorn began to let out a chuckle. "Oh sister... You really did let yourself decline... While I was stuck on the moon you simply let my country grow soft and fat." She sneered as her horn lit up with a violet-black aura, sending a shockwave of energy into the white pony to knock her off her feet and into the golden throne, cracking it and the foundation it was on. The navy pony smirked and let out another chuckle. "How fitting... killed on the very throne you denied me while all of your power lies in ruin around you. You've simply made this too easy." With another wave of her horn an etheral scimitar appeared in front of the white mare, slashing quickly so that her coat began to stain with blood. "Don't worry sister... your new queen shall trim the fat of this world so that it can be born anew." The navy pony cooed before throwing her head back in laughter.

Trunks and a pinkish-violet skinned girl looked up from a multicolored scroll with grim frowns. The girl was the first to speak, "...Trunks... get Paolina, I think we're going to need her on this one."

Trunks gives a quick nod before running out of the Time Nest so that he could fly into the sky with a trail of white ki behind him as he searched for the energy signature of his partner. "...Come on... she couldn't have gone far..." He grumbles before he finally picks up her signature and angles towards the industrial sector

Paolina is standing at the counter for the parallel missions and looks over to trunks in surprise as he lands, once she notices his serious look she seems to almost mimic it as she puts her index and middle finger to her forehead, with Trunks putting a hand on her shoulder as the two vanish and reappear next to the Supreme Kai of Time.

The female Saiyan's posture is completely serious as she looks over at the scroll. "...How long's the mission?"

The Supreme Kai shakes her head, "I don't know, the scroll is showing that this is just one possible outcome if we don't set everything right, you might be there for a while."

Paolina nods a little. "Give me ten minutes and I'll be ready." The Kai responds with only a slow nod as the Saiyan teleports out of the nest and over to a small supply shop in the market sector. She puts a card on the counter and looks at the robot on the counter. "I need capsule twenty-one, thirty-three, Fifty-... you know what, just make it the Domicile bundle with an air car thrown in." The robot gives a small nod before it gives a few beeps before swiping the card and having another robot present her with a capsule case that she tucks into her jacket. She puts her fingers to her forehead to teleport right back into the Time Nest and gives the Supreme Kai a thumbs up before walking over to the scroll.

"Hey..." Trunks says, catching her attention. "Be careful..." He says quietly as she brings the scroll up.

"Come on, when am I not?" She says with a smirk as she disappears in a flash of light, leaving the scroll hovering in the air before the Supreme Kai sets it on the table.

Trunks lets out a sigh. "She's a Saiyan, she's never careful..." He deadpans.

Paolina touched down in what looked like an incredibly thick forest, the moist ground actually squished a little under her boots as she landed. With a quick look around she turned on her scouter and set it to the normal readout in order to be quite surprised at what she saw. There were indeed plenty of energies around her, most were near level one but there were certainly a few more formidable foes that reached up to level five on the readings.

"Good to know that not every creature is pathetic here..." She mutters as she starts making her way towards an oddly-shaped level two reading. She takes to the air again, hovering around some low-hanging branches before she notices a path that the source of the energy was walking along. The reading began to have a yellow outline as she flew closer and she had to bite her lip to not let an exited squeak alert the creature. "Oh my Kami... It's an adorable little zebra! It's even got a little walking stick!" she bit her lip a little harder to keep herself from going into a giggle-fit as she landed on a pretty thick tree branch. "I have got to see if I can bring one back to Tokitoki with me..." She lets out a small chuckle only to realize that the zebra she was following had heard her. Paolina made her way to a higher branch as the zebra whipped around and scanned the treeline for her pursuer.

"Creature who has been following me, stop or for mercy you shall plea..." The zebra seems to growl in a feminine voice.

"Okay... intelligent... darn, I wanted to keep one as a pet..." Paolina pouts a little before letting out a small sigh. "Well... she didn't get to level two without being able to defend against some of these predators... so I might as well see if she can help me." The female Saiyan leaps down to the path with her boots making a slight tap on the packed ground.

The zebra gives her a slight confused look. "What manner of creature you are has me curious, of the inhabitants of the everfree you are not furious." At the girl's confused look she starts to relax her stance a little. "You seem quite peaceful, perhaps even my mind's equal. With a frame so meek perhaps you can speak?"

All this rhyming was giving the Saiyan a headache. "Y-yeah... I can talk just fine... um... Why are you rhyming?"

"To rhyme is an art, so that one's mind may stay smart." the zebra chuckles in response. "Come with me, might you be interested in some tea?"

At the offer the girl quickly found herself walking alongside the zebra, the glorious offer of some fresh tea would be a perfect way to acclimate to this new place. It was actually only a few minutes later that they arrived at a small hut that was built into a hollow tree, Paolina let out a small gasp of interest as she was invited inside and looked around. "This is so cool..."

"Small reminders of home, they are great reminders to have when I roam." The zebra explains. "My name is Zecora."

Paolina gives her a small bow. "It's good to meet you Zecora, My name's Paolina." Once she straightens up she looks around again. "So... where am I?"

"You are currently within the Everfree, a forest most hostile to many. How did you find yourself here, this place instills much fear." Zecora asks as she gets a pot of water going over the fire place.

"Oh, It's my job, I help fix big problems in time."

As the night drew on the two of them shared stories about their travels, with her zebra companion listening with quite an ear for detail.

"You come from a world with so much strife, How is it that you must always fight for your life?" Zecora gives a worried look to the muscled girl.

"Well, being an alien in my world certainly helps." Paolina chuckles. "Saiyans are naturally-gifted fighters so the stronger the enemy, the more enjoyable the fight."

Zecora nods with a pensive look. "Living to fight... in a world where might makes right."

"Well... I wouldn't exactly put it that way..." Paolina says as she gives a small shrug. "I mean, Goku and his friends fight to keep the earth safe, and so do I by proxy since I have to make sure events happen as close as they should to the way the timeline was supposed to be."

Zecora perks her ears a little. "you constantly speak of protecting a timeline, yet you sound like you stay on the sideline..."

The Saiyan shrugs, "It's important that time flows the way it should, while all our choices can spawn so many different outcomes, there's always one major timeline that is the source of all the branches... a stem timeline if someone would name it." At her companion's interested silence she takes a breath and continues. "My job is to protect the stem of the timelines and I'm here because someone is trying to change history itself on this world starting with some sort of upcoming major event."

"Perhaps the one who plans this alteration will strike at the Summer Sun Celebration." Zecora suggests as she pulls a map of the area out of one of her panniers that were resting by her chair.

Paolina quickly opens the map up to reveal a moderately detailed map of the country of Equestria. "It's surprising how we're from different worlds yet our alphabet is exactly the same..." she chuckled as she looked at the map.

"The ponies of Ponyville are hosting, an event that has all of them boasting." Zecora explains as she points to the note of where Ponyville was located. The female Saiyan nodded a little and used her scouter to take a picture of the map so that she could help it reconstruct an accurate three-dimensional model later.

"How long until the celebration?"

"The ceremony will be in three days as the ponies wait for their princess to set the sky ablaze." Zecora replies as she takes a seat to finish her tea.

"I guess I have some time to scout out the locals to see what all the hubub is about." Paolina mutters as she sits across from her zebra companion.

Author's Note

Well... after all of my experience with the LoHAV/H stories, NW,NW stories, and a few other "___ in equestria" stories, I decided to take a stab at a DBZ crossover that I've been wanting to do and just haven't figured out how to start.