The Time

Seven o'clock and Adam woke up to his alarm clock. He groggily turned it off and got out of bed, in his blue stripped nightshirt and stretched. He opened the window curtains to reveal a beautiful autumn landscape, all the trees now with their bright fiery leaves. After he took in the view, he went downstairs to brew himself some tea to get his day started. Although once at the kitchen, he was swiftly reminded that he was not alone.

Before the human was the sight of someone bent over and raiding the fridge. He just blushed when he saw the shapely blue physical training pant covered behind. Adam quickly cleared his throat to get his roommate's attention.

"Oh hey, you're finally awake." said Danni as she got her head out of the fridge with a bottle of energy drink on one hand and a basketball cradled in her other arm. Adam still blushed, he had not seen a human female in years up to this point, and found it awkward to be living with one. "Sorry if I woke you up or anything, just pretty used to getting up very early to work-out, military routine and all." she apologized before she chugged down her energy drink. "Mind if I go shower first?" she asked.

"Uh...sure, go ahead." he nodded. His eyes could not help but wander across her body, he was also not used to seeing a woman who was not his lover wear so little by his 19th century standards. "I'll be making tea." he quickly went over to the kitchen to grab a teapot, to keep himself distracted.

Danni could sense the awkward tension between them, but said nothing as she quietly nodded and walked off up the stairs to the bathroom.

"Easy there Adam, calm down, you're married to a beautiful mare and this arrangement is only temporary." he mumbled to himself as he took deep breaths to calm himself down.

It had been about ten days since Danni showed up unexpectedly at Adam's door, and she seemed to have adjusted to life in Ponyville quite easily, to her it was like living in an old-fashioned farming village, but with ponies instead of people. Although she found it quite helpful that Adam guided her, plus lived in the only house in the area designed for human habitation, she kind of found it annoying to bend over or look down when navigating a pony house or talk to one.

After a nice ten minute hot shower, she came out and quickly went into her room that was right next to the bathroom. The room was bare, it had not been used much since Rainbow Dash wintered over here two winters ago, and it was planned to become Fluttershy's own room for the few nights in their marriage where they were not having sex or cuddling. Danni felt a bit guilty that she had to temporarily put those plans on hold.

She quietly got dressed, and thought about how endearing it was that Adam was still not used to the 'liberated' woman of the 20th century. So much as changed in the one hundred years that separated them. After she got dressed, she got out of her room and ran down the stairs to see that Adam was finished with the tea. "Smells lovely." she smirked as she walked in and sat down at the dinning room table before she grabbed her cup of what smelled like lavender tea. As she drank her tea, she soon noticed the awkward silence between them, and how Adam seemed to be avoiding eye contact with her. "Adam, I know this must be hard to get used to, but I am here for a very important reason, I know there's a culture clash between us, but you are stuck with me for a while." she explained.

"It's not that," Adam began with a sigh. "it's just that I finally found some semblance of stability in my life." he looked down at his wedding band. "only for it to be thrown off once again."

"I know." she then placed her hand on Adam's. "But the fate of the world and of the past is counting on me to do this."

"I thought you can't change the past?" Adam looked at her quizzically.

"You can't change your past, but your past is someone else's present, like what you wrote in your journal; 'you may not be able to change the past...'"

"...but you can change the future." Adam completed the quote as he looked at her with realization.

"We need to find that bomb before they do." she warned.

Adam suddenly pulled his hand away from hers, got up, and walked off upstairs. "I'll be at my wife's." he mumbled, he still had trouble accepting the call once again, he did not want to jeopardize everything he worked hard to get.

Danni sighed with frustration before she got up, put on her sweatshirt, and walked off outside in the crisp autumn air.

As Danni walked outside and through the park that she was at earlier that morning while she also occasionally dribbled her basketball, she soon heard the sounds of two fillies who argued with each other, she looked over to see the two fillies who fought and argued.

"No! I don't wanna play with you anymore!" yelled a pink filly to her friend.

"Why not?! You love playing hopscotch!" yelled the light gray filly back.

"What's going on here?" asked Danni as she walked up to the two fillies. They just looked at her a bit stunned at the new non-pony stranger before them. "Now don't be afraid, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on and how to fix this." she assured them as she crouched down to them.

"My EX-friend Coconut doesn't want to play anything else with me because she's afraid to losing!" the pink filly explained.

Her friend looked on completely offended. "That's not true Toola and you know it!" she snarled back.

"Playing games isn't about winning or losing." Danni explained to them. "It's about having having fun with your friends, and if someone is no longer having fun, then you play a new game." she gave the fillies some words of advice. "Like basketball." she showed the fillies her ball and then spun it on her finger.

The two ponies looked on in awe at the skill. "We never played basketball before, how do you play it?" Toola asked the human.

"I'll show you." she smirked.

About a half-hour later, Twilight walked through the park and then saw before her, the human passing the ball at one of the fillies, who would then bounce the ball off of their snout and into the basket. "Excellent Toola, three points." the human laughed, having fun, the two fillies also giggled, also having fun.

Twilight looked at the sight, pleased that Danni had begun to fit in quite nicely. After a few minutes, the two fillies had to leave for lunch, leaving Danni alone in the court, who began to shoot three-pointers. "Watch out Gary Payton, I'm coming for you." she mumbled to herself to pump her up.

"You're really good." began Twilight.

Danni stopped what she did and looked over at the unicorn. "Oh hey Twilight, how are you?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm fine, the usual." she nodded in response. "I see you're holding up well."

The human smiled at that. "Yeah, I just wish I could say the same thing about Adam." she sighed with concern.

"Give him time, he wasn't expecting to see another human ever again, and he needs a while to get used to the fact that you're here and all." Twilight explained.

"I know that, especially since I am a human female from the late twentieth century." Danni clarified.

"I've been meaning to interview you about what things were like a hundred years after Adam, I'd really like to study your species." she offered. "Maybe talk about over tea at my place?" she offered.

At Las Pegasus, Pinkamena lounged on her office chair as she looked over the city skyline and the main street lined with resorts, casinos and clubs. "Look here Mr. Jack Pot, we're trying to attract a more youthful crowd to my resort, and let's just say, magic shows are SO 980's." she explained to the light blue unicorn stallion who was in shock at the sudden sacking.

"But I've given nearly eight years of hard work for this resort during my residency!" he exclaimed. "And this is how I get repaid? By being replaced by a rapper who proclaims himself as the 'based god'?"

"Well, there's also the fact that your former partner Big Bucks couldn't keep his hooves to himself around the gray manned mares." Pinkamena stated. "Now you have two choices, finish out the rest of your contract quietly, or get a crash course reminder over what happens when resort employees get 'uppity'?" she referred to her two bodyguards, a diamond dog named Steel, and a griffon named Gustav, who looked at the magician with intimidating looks.

Jack Pot knew he had no other choice, he just got up from his seat and left the office. "It was a pleasure working for your resort." he tipped his top hat to her and then left the room. Once in the hallway, he saw a formally familiar sight of a unicorn mare with her face painted as a skull, and a snaked coiled around her neck. "Look, I am in no mood." he sighed as he just walked passed her and down the hallway.

But as he walked, the mare suddenly appeared in front of him. "Revenge waits fi nuh one." she said, as her snaked hissed intimidatingly at the stallion. "Even fi deadbeat fathers like yuh."

"Look Vitrine, I want nothing to do with my past anymore okay? The moment the tabloids hear that I was once bayou trash, my career is ruined." he snarled at her.

The snake just lunged at Jack Pot, its face dangerously close to his. "Suh yuh're going to let our daughter's murderer get away wid dis?" she responded, offended. "Or ah yuh going to embrace yuh voodoo roots an do something about dis injustice?" she then materialized a talisman. "It's not like yuh have better tings to do."

Jack Pot looked at the mare. "What do you want me to do?" he accepted the talisman and placed it around his neck.

"Wat yuh did best." she grinned cryptically, her badly cared for teeth showing.

Danni looked around at all of the books and tomes in the library shelves. "Do you think there's a way to use magic to time travel?" she asked Twilight who walked into the room with a teapot and began to serve it.

"Well, apart from you and Adam, and myself briefly, the only other individual I know of that time traveled is Star Swirl the Bearded, and it is said that it took him twenty-six years of his life to finally achieve the feat." Twilight explained, since she was an expert on the legendary magician.

"I wonder what a unicorn would do with a time travel spell?" Danni pondered to herself, as she said that, the front door opened, and walked in Starlight Glimmer and Spike.

"Hey Twi, we're back from the market with fresh produce like you requested." said an exhausted Starlight, she was about to plop herself down on the couch, until she noticed the new human. "Still not used to seeing two of you humans around." she mumbled with annoyance.

"Don't worry Starlight, whatever happened between you and Adam is now in the past, and you're both moving on from that." Danni assured the unicorn. She then turned to Twilight. "It would be nice to time travel anywhere without using a machine." she professed. "Or at least a way to send intel to the past to inform my superiors."

Starlight was intrigued by the discussion about time travel. "I'll go write a letter to Luna and maybe she'll send me some relevant scrolls about it if you wish." offered Twilight to the human. "Anything to help you on your endeavor."

"Sure, it's worth a try." Danni nodded, grateful at the offer.

Before Twilight went off to her room to write the letter, she looked back at the human. "You read Adam's journal right?" she asked curious.

"No I have not, why do you ask?" Danni asked, confused. But before Twilight could make up an excuse, the front door to the library opened to reveal Fluttershy who wore a light green scarf. The entire room fell into awkward silence, Danni, Spike and Starlight could feel the thick tension in the air.

"I-I just wanted to talk to Danni." Fluttershy nervously stuttered from the tense atmosphere. She looked over at Twilight, her former friend that she formally trusted. "Alone..." she added. Danni just nodded and followed Fluttershy outside to the back of the library to talk privately. Once out back, Fluttershy took a deep breath before she spoke. "I don't care what Adam says, he badly needs human companionship...no matter how much he denies it." she began.

This intrigued Danni. "So what are you proposing?"

"Come over for some dinner at my cottage tonight." she proposed. "I just want to see him spend some time with his own kind for once."

"I understand, but I think he's afraid that I might unintentionally ruin the good life he has built for himself here." Danni told Fluttershy as she looked around at her surroundings. "Especially your marriage."

"Well, I do sometimes feel like he's TOO devoted to me..." the mare began nervously. Danni gave her a look of confusion. "...I occasionally tell him that he's free to start a herd or be with someone for a night...now don't get me wrong, I feel honored by his unwavering devotion and loyalty to me, but I just feel like he's unnecessarily limiting himself."

"So you Equestrians are into more open marriages with the occasional polyamory thrown in?" Danni assumed.

Fluttershy nodded. "So I wouldn't mind if you and him..."

"Just because we're both humans doesn't mean that we're just going to do it." Danni reminded bemused. "Besides, I didn't come here to play 'The Dating Game', I came here to fulfill an objective."

"I understand..." Fluttershy said, a bit embarrassed.

"By the way, what happened between you and Twilight?" Danni asked, curious.

"Oh well..." she paused to think about the right words. "...she used me to get to him." was all she said. "See you tonight." she quickly turned around to hide her look of shame and anger and walked off.

Danni looked on with concern, but decided not to bother her. She sighed, it seemed like Adam generated a lot of drama among his wife's friends. She decided to just go back inside to talk with Twilight, who was upstairs to compose a letter to Princess Luna. She knocked on the bedroom door. "Come on in." said Twilight from inside.

The human female let herself inside. "Writing the letter?" she asked the unicorn.

"Yup." Twilight nodded as her magic moved the quill across the letter.

"Can I ask you a quick question?" she asked as she sat down at the foot of Twilight's bed.

"Sure, go ahead." she nodded as she put the letter and quill away to focus on the conversation.

"You still love him do you?" she asked directly.

Twilight's face fell, she knew what the human meant. She just sighed. "...it was our destiny..." she mumbled with shame.

"Twilight, what matters more to you?" she asked. "You fulfilling your destiny? Or having one of your friends finally find true happiness in her life?"

"But I doubt she would ever want to talk to me after what I did..." she trailed off.

"Did you ever even try to talk to her?" she asked bluntly. Twilight's ears and face fell, it was a definite 'no'. "You know, if Fluttershy won't try to talk to you or extend an olive branch, then maybe it should be you that does it, there's no need to wait, sometimes you need to be the one that takes the initiative."

"So what do you suggest I do?" Twilight was completely unsure of what to do, but she did knew that something must be done or else her friendship with Fluttershy would remain strained. Twilight was met by a devious look from the human.

The sun began to set as the crisp autumn air turned cold. The days have become noticeably shorter now as Adam and Fluttershy were at Fluttershy's cottage as they finished up the final preparations for a simple dinner, expecting their guest to arrive at any minute. As if on cue, someone knocked on the front door. "I'll go get it." smiled Fluttershy, she thought it was Danni. She happily trotted over to the front door and opened it but her mood quickly changed as she saw the guest and quickly started to slam the door.

"No wait!" yelled the unwanted house guest who used her magic to swiftly prop the door open before it could slam shut. "I'm sorry for using you!" she exclaimed to her former friend with a look of pleading and shame. Fluttershy looked at her with suspicion, hearing out Twilight. "And I wanted to give you this at the bridal shower." said Twilight as she levitated over to the pegasus her intended gift; a red journal.

Fluttershy looked at the journal and knew what it was. "Y-you knew I always wanted a new journal..." she was stunned, all this time she has forgotten that Twilight was one of her best friends for a reason.

"I just want us to start rebuilding our friendship...or least be on speaking terms again." Twilight proposed.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight in deep thought before she gave a warm smile and quickly enveloped Twilight into a hug. "About time you finally apologized." she said. "Friends forever." she then whispered into Twilight's ear. The unicorn could not help but to smile at that.

The dinner between Adam, Fluttershy and Twilight went by normally and uneventfully, mostly filled with all three catching-up and mending their estranged friendship. Now the three were in the living room, in front of the fireplace, all three slightly tipsy from the wine. Adam sat down, with both mares on both sides of him underneath each of his arms. All three were silent, just enjoying the company and the warmth of the fire and each other. "This is nice." said Twilight to break the silence.

"Hey Adam..." began Fluttershy who looked up at her husband. She was nervous, wondering how her husband would react.

"Yes hun?" Adam responded as he rubbed his wife's back.

"How would you feel, just this once, have Twilight join us for some well...fun?" she blushed at the proposal. It could not have hurt to at least ask. "You know...a threesome?" she clarified to Adam.

Adam looked at his wife in deep thought and then looked at Twilight. "I don't know..." he answered unsure. "...are you sure?" he said apprehensively. He was worried about jeopardizing a good thing he currently has.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight, who just silently nodded in approval. "We're both sure." Fluttershy answered reassuringly.

Adam smiled at that and began to both brush each mare's manes. "Just give me some more of that wine and I might reconsider." he said jokingly, but both mares just giggled as Twilight levitated over another glass of wine and began to pour it for him. Adam took the glass and began to drink it while both mares whispered into each other's ears. They obviously were up to something. "What are you two girls planning?" he smirked at the two.

The two mares just smirked back at the human before both mares leaned in and their lips touched. Adam watched in stunned silence as his wife began to kiss Twilight. The human was yet intrigued by this, he found the sight erotic in a way as both mares began to get more passionate with the kiss. "Never knew you could do that hun." he said to Fluttershy.

She then broke the kiss and looked at her husband. "Only with potential herd mates." she smiled. But Adam's face soon fell upon a realization. "What's wrong?" asked his wife, concerned.

"Shy, hun, I don't want a herd." he began as he brushed her cheek. "At least not right now..." he clarified.

Twilight felt guilty. "I don't mean to intrude, but I understand if you're not ready." she nodded in agreement with full humility. "You get the final say."

Adam looked over at Twilight and looked into her violet eyes, the same eyes that his old love used to have. "Twi, I think you are an amazing mare, and I feel blessed to have met you, but right now, I am happy and content with my current situation. Right now, I just want it to be just me and Fluttershy." he explained. Twilight silently nodded in understanding. "But..." this suddenly made her perk up. "...that doesn't mean we can't come up with an arrangement." he proposed.

Both mares looked at the human with confusion. "What kind of arrangement?" asked Fluttershy.

"I don't want you two to have a falling-out ever again, so I am willing and open to consider any proposal you two girls come up with...short of forming a herd of course." he explained.

Both mares looked at each other and agreed to the proposal. "If it means that we get to repair our friendship, we'll gladly work something out." Fluttershy nodded. "But as the married mare in this situation, I get to set the initial terms." she smirked over at Twilight.

Twilight chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Okay, what do you propose Mrs. Fluttershy?" she asked playfully.

"Term one, you are free to have sex with Adam but only with my approval and only if Adam promises to rut me within 24 hours after." she set the first term. "Two," she turned to Adam. "should I ever be away on a trip that lasts at least a week, you are free to rut Twilight whenever you want and without my approval, as long as you rut me within 24 hours of my return, of course." she smirked slyly at the human. Adam just blushed at that. "And don't worry Adam, hun, it's not cheating if it's a threesome or the wife knows about it." she winked.

"Is that all?" asked Twilight.

"Twilight, the only thing I ask from you is that you throw in full access to your impressive toy collection and a fortnightly mutual masturbation session." she smiled at Twilight.

"My wife sure knows how to make a tempting offer." Adam chuckled.

Twilight chuckled as well. "Make it at least monthly and you have yourself a deal." she nodded as she extended her hoof out. Fluttershy nodded in return before she extended her hoof out and tapped it against her friend's.

"So, what now?" asked Adam as he petted both mares.

Both mares looked up at the human and smirked seductively. "Well, that's ultimately up to you." said Fluttershy in a husky voice. The human blushed crimson red at that.

The next morning, just after sunrise, Danni was once again out in the park at the basketball court as she threw free-throws at the basket. "Gary Payton shoots and he scores!" she said to herself as she made another basket, she then ran around the court as she made crowd-noises to herself.

"You're up early." Adam smirked as he walked up to the court.

Danni smirked back as she picked up her basketball and chest passed it him, which Adam promptly caught. "Good reflexes." she joked.

Adam just held the ball under his arm. "By the way, very sneaky of you in sending over Twi instead of you." he said, fully aware at what she did.

"You never told me you could be such a ponies man." Danni joked.

He chuckled at that. "Yeah don't remind me." he walked up to her and handed her her ball back. "Especially when drunk apparently."

"Anything interesting happen last night?" she asked as she resumed her free-throw attempts.

"What occurs between me, my wife and her best friend is none of your concern." he answered cryptically with a smile.

"Regardless of what happened, you're still one lucky son-of-a-bitch." she pointed out. "Married and surrounded by friends."

"Sorry for being so cold to you at first." Adam apologized suddenly. "I was just afraid of having a good thing get ruined."

"It's okay." she accepted the apology. "Besides, I intend to not stay around here long, have a past and country to defend, plus I have season tickets to the Sonics that I don't want to waste." she joked.

"So basketball has become a huge sport during the last hundred years I see." he noted, during his time, basketball was just sport played at local gymnasiums and athletic clubs.

"A lot of things have become huge in the last hundred years." she responded.

Adam nodded his head as he silently watched her, the first human female he had seen in years. "Want to go to the cafe and get some tea once you're done?" he suddenly offered her.

Danni stopped what she did. "About damn time you asked me to hang-out." she smirked. "You paying?"

"I wouldn't be a Victorian gentleman if I didn't." he chuckled. He then politely offered his arm to her, which she gladly accepted and locked her own arm with. The two humans then walked off back into town to spend some quality time together and hopefully form a new friendship and come to an understanding together. "So, tell me more about this Gary Payton."

Luna paced her chambers, she was anxious and in deep thought since next week was the first official Nightmare Night since her sister's passing over two years ago now. Luna still felt like it was too soon for such merriment dedicated to her, but she felt like it was best to bring as much normality as possible. The only other pony in her chambers with her was one of her most trusted guards; Gleaming. Luna looked at him. "I believe it is past your shift, you are free to go." she told him.

"You sure ma'am? You have been looking increasingly troubled." he explained with worry.

"I am sure, I just want some alone time to collect my thoughts." she assured as she tried to put on a brave face for her most loyal guard.

Gleaming nodded and trotted out of the chambers. Once out of the room, his eyes glowed green and a large grin formed on his face.

At a hidden cave just outside of Canterlot, Gleaming walked in and once he was certain that no one followed him, began to change form while enveloped by a green glow, as he changed back to his real true form as a Changeling. "Soon, at next month's Cultural Exchange festival, I, Thorax, will finally exact my revenge." he hissed as he stared at his secret weapon, something he found among the ruins of Celestia's secret vault, a weapon that was designed by a long extinct species to cause massive death and destruction. "Kill off my kind, and I'll kill off yours Luna."

Before him, was a large nuclear warhead, something the humans brought over centuries ago, but was confiscated by Celestia and kept hidden, until Thorax re-discovered it. The changeling then went over to a special container that contained the pit of fissile material. He just gleefully grinned at it, if Luna did not die in the initial explosion, then watching her have severe radiation poisoning and die a slow and painful death from the inside would just be as entertaining. He had nothing else to lose, he was the last of his kind, but he was adamant to take Luna down with him if he had to.

Thorax rubbed his face against the pit, the potential radiation did not effect him at all, being a bug does indeed have its advantages. After that, he kissed the pit before he walked off out of the cave so he can be at the barracks where the other off-duty guards were at. He changed back to his pony form, a form he has used for nearly five years now, and trotted off. He just secretly hoped no one would dare ruin his plans for the bomb.

June 11, 1999
Somewhere in Chechnya, Russia

"The machine is ready sir..." nervously stuttered a scientist to a tall and muscular man in army fatigues and a large mess of curly hair who was in the middle of a series of pull-ups. The man got off the pull-up bars attached to the wall and looked over at the scientist. He grabbed a towel, wiped the sweat off of his face and walked over to him.

"Right time and space coordinates?" he said in a deep gruff voice as he began to get dressed in his old military service dress.

"Give or take a year or two..." the scientist gulped, completely intimidated by him.

The big man then placed a hand on the scientist's shoulder. "Relax my Chechen friend, tell your boss that the money will be wired to him shortly." he grinned. "And you now have all the tools and knowledge necessary to build your own nuke." he then grabbed a duffel bag and walked out of the room. After he walked down several corridors of the underground bunker, he arrived at the central room, where a makeshift time machine stood, ready to be used.

All the scientists and guards stood as they watched this man, who promised them funding and nuclear weapons for their cause against the Russian government, slowly walk up to the machine they have built under his direction. He then turned around and looked at the crowd before him. "I love my country, I love my nation and my faith so much, that I was willing to commit high treason against it in order to save it from those who would love to see my nation, and my peoples, exterminated." he began. "See you all on the other side comrades." he nodded before he stepped into the machine and turned it on.

He disappeared in a flash of red light, never to be seen from again.

To be continued...
Next time: The Nightmare Night