Back to Equestria

Shining Armor was a full-grown stallion now, with a loving wife and a foal on the way. He had seen many things as he had grown into a captain, but he never forgot the first excitement he had as a Royal Guard, even if he was just a Junior Initiate.

Unfortunately, the Princess had ordered the case of the alien to be dropped, using a Royal Decree. This had infuriated the future captain to no end, but his mind became occupied with other things, and he had not thought of it for many years.

Right now, he was contentedly sitting in a sky-carriage, returning to Canterlot after an extended stay in the Crystal Empire. The sky was blue, the wind was blowing, and the mountain-city was visible, and rapidly approaching.

He smiled to himself. Today is going to be a good-

BANG

Shining Armor jumped, nearly tumbling out of the chariot and into the sky. He scrambled to his hooves, glancing ahead of him, towards the direction of the sound. That... That sounded just like-

BANG

-princess damn it ALL TO BUCKING-

BANG

“Hell!” he swore aloud. In a brilliant flash of light, the notorious metal shape appeared in mid air, heading straight for the- oh shit it’s heading straight for us!

The pegasi swerved downwards, and the alien vehicle soared over their heads, barely missing Shining’s head by an inch. He steadied himself from the dive, glaring back at the offending shape with rage in his eyes.

Shining snorted. “Guards!”

The two pegasi, still shaken, snapped to attention. “Yes, sir?”

“Follow that... whatever the hell it is.” Shining traced the vehicle’s flight path with his eye, attempting to judge it’s destination.

The pegasi glanced at each other, uncertain. “Uh, sir? Shouldn’t the Princess be informed?”

“I will inform the Princess myself,” he replied curtly. “For now, follow it. It seems to be headed towards the Everfree, no doubt to hide itself.”

The guards nodded, then turned around, following the bizarre vehicle as it hurtled through the air.

Shining narrowed his eyes at it. I will get you, creature. I will protect my home from whatever evil you used to steal that purple colt.

And I will destroy your infernal machine forever.

The unfortunate band of temporal misfits congratulated each other as they soared through the air.

“We made it!” Spike exclaimed. “And we’re in one piece!”

“And I didn’t destroy Equestria!” Pinkie chimed.

Applejack wiped her forehead. “Boy howdy, that was quite an adventure, let me tell you.”

Marty stifled a laugh. “Just be glad it’s over. I think we’re almost out of gas, anyway.”

Rainbow glared at him. “You have gas? Gross.”

“No, Dash, it’s-“ Marty began to explain, but gave up. “...nevermind.”

“Whatever, just don’t fart near me.”

Marty rolled his eyes, quickly steering the DeLorean towards the ground. In no time at all, the sight of Ponyville graced the windshield, and Marty steadily and effortlessly pulled the vehicle into it’s prior place behind the library. The wheels hit the dirt with a satisfying thunk, and the gull-wing doors hissed open.

As soon as they were able, two pegasi, two earth ponies and a human piled out of the car, groaning and stretching their limbs.

“Maty, yer confangled alien contraption is just about the crampest thing Ah ever did sit in,” Applejack groaned.

Spike was in the middle of stretching his wings when a thought occurred to him. “OH! Twilight! We’re been gone for two days, she’ll be freaked out!”

“Spike. Chill.” Marty waved a hand at the colt. “We used a time machine! We came back at the exact same time that we left.”

Spike tilted his head. “Wait, really?”

“Yep. Twilight doesn’t even have to know you were gone.”

“Neat! I’m gonna go get some lunch.” Spike merrily strolled around to the front of the Library, and promptly entered.

The rest of the small group glanced at each other. For a few moments, nothing happened.

Suddenly, very loud voices could be heard from within the tree building. Marty saw a window near the top open, and Spike jumped out, panicking. He hastily floated to the ground, his new wings barely keeping him from breaking bones.

He landed with a huff, then looked to his friends with pleading eyes. “Hide me!”

Behind him, there was a brilliant flash of light, and a fully-grown Twilight Sparkle appeared, enraged. “What the BUCK is going on!?!”

Marty raised his eyebrows. “I’ll admit you’re upset and all, but let’s watch the fucking language, hm?”

Rainbow sniggered. Twilight gave her a death glare before looking up at Marty. “WHY the bloody HELL did you vanish with my Spike and three of my friends for five days? and WHY the bloody HELL is Spike now a pony?!?!”

Marty sighed. “We were- Wait, it was five days?”

“Yes it was five bucking days!!”

“But, we just-“ he turned to look at Pinkie. “Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie shrugged. “You asked me for the date. What were you expecting?”

Marty turned back to face Twilight. “Well, we went up in the DeLorean, you see, at the insistence of someone who shall remain unnamed. That same someone turned on the time circuits, and flew off the moment we got there, forcing us to mess up the past to find her.”

Rainbow was making herself seem small as possible.

“Anyway, so somewhere in the mix, Celestia-“

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight corrected.

Marty gave Twilight a flat look. “Celestia had a talk with me and Spike, and she transformed him into a pony so that people wouldn’t freak out.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “But she didn’t disguise you?”

“Yeah, I know. We don’t get it, either. Also, while we were there-“

“HALT, FIEND!”

A booming voice resounded the area, as a royal sky chariot landed beside the Library. Shining Armor hopped out, striding confidently towards the small group of friends.

“Twilight, I’m gonna have to ask you to step away from the creature before it hurts you. It’s already foalnapped a colt, and it can do magic. In fact, there’s that same colt!” Shining’s eyes widened as he beheld Spike. “He must have done something to it!”

Shining Armor’s horn glowed, and Spike once again was hoisted into the air by magic, and pulled to Shining’s side.

Marty groaned. “Dude, you kinda scuffed up my guitar last time we did this. Can we sorta skip that?”

Shining sent a bolt of magic lightning at Marty’s head, who ducked just in time. “Yeah, I thought not.”

Twilight jumped over to her brother. “Shiny, stop, he’s a friend.”

“No, Twilight! This is a monster I’ve been hunting for seventeen years! He stole this colt from his family and he’s going to do it again!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “That’s not even a colt, Shiny, that’s-“

“AARGH!” With a holler, Shining Armor charged at Marty, his horn blaring with offensive magic. He jumped at Marty’s chest just as he released the bolt of light from his horn.

Marty flinched, pressing his forearms together and raising them in front of his face. He awaited the blow, and...

...nothing happened. He lowered his arms to see a shimmering blue forcefield, blocking the way between him and the enraged unicorn (who now lay on the ground in a heap).

Marty grinned. “Hey, that’s pretty neat.” He could feel the forcefield’s energy, now that he was aware he was casting it, and the small amount of strain he was putting in to keeping it there.

Shining rose to his hooves, groaning.He glared at the forcefield, before his horn flared and struck the field with a magenta light. The field dissipated, leaving Marty with a jarring feeling in his hands.

“Fool!” the unicorn cried. “My special talent is shields! And now, I finally have you! Ahahaha!”

From the sidelines, Twilight grew more and more embarrassed at her brother’s cliché villain lines. “Spike, why is Marty doing magic?”

Spike blinked. “You know, I think that was explained at some point, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was trying to walk on hooves.”

Twilight sighed. “Okay. Can you go get Doc? He’s downstairs.”

“Oh, sure. Be right back.”

Spike trotted back into the Library, and Twilight turned back to the “battle”. It was hard to gauge who was winning, as Marty was mostly sidestepping Shining’s attacks, which were sloppy and uncoordinated from the unicorn’s anger.

Marty had even figured out how to shoot magic bolts, and while they weren’t as strong as Shining’s, the human was using them to prod at his opponent, further angering him.

Twilight trotted forward, horn flickering alight. Without warning, Shining Armor was enveloped in a small magenta force-field, similar to his own. It slowly rose into the air, and cut off any of his magic attacks.

“Y-you can’t-!” Shining stammered from within the sphere. stumbling on his hooves. “T-this is MY magic, I-I can-“ his horn flared, attempting to tear down the force field as he had done before.

Shining Armor’s special talent was “protection”, which is a fancy way of saying “defensive magic”, which is a fancy way of saying “forcefields”. If it were anypony else, he would have had the upper hand in a heartbeat.

However, Twilight Sparkle’s special talent was “magic”. “Magic” is a fancy way of saying “magic” which is a fancy way of saying “magic”. In short, she was pretty good with magic.

Shining struggled against the barrier for several moments, before giving up and pleading with Twilight. “Twiley! You have to let me go! He’s an evil monster who foalnaps foals!”

“Shining, he didn’t foalnap anypony. Honestly.”

Marty brushed the dirt off of his clothing, and walked over besides Twilight. “So, Twi, this is your brother?”

“You’re not out of this yet, mister.” Twilight snapped. “You’ve been able to use magic this whole time! Why did you hide it?”

Marty shook his head. “I haven’t been able to use magic since we got here. I only managed that when we were back in time.”

“B-but I saw you react every time magic was used! You cringed!”

“Yeah, Celestia explained that. It’s... something. Something about the ruby in the DeLorean.” Marty scratched his head. “There was a lot of exposition going on that only superficially made sense, I don’t really remember most of it. Something about ‘horn rot’?”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Horn rot? But you don’t even have a horn!”

Marty snapped his fingers. “I remember this one.” He tilted his head to the side, shutting his eyes. “Uh... something something, third eye?”

“Oh, your third eye! Wow, that explains a lot, actually.” Twilight puzzled this over for a moment. “That must have taken a ludicrous amount of energy. Kudos on not dying.”

Marty rubbed his shoulder. “I don’t think the rot was as much danger as the natives. Sparky here beat me up on two separate occasions!” he gestured at the suspended Shining Armor.

Shining snarled.

Spike and Doc appeared from the front of the library, eyeing the situation warily. Doc jogged over to Marty. “Marty! Where’ve you been?”

“985. There were some... issues, with the DeLorean. We wrapped everything up, and nothing seems to have changed.”

Doc frowned. “Nothing at all?” Marty shook his head. “Well, I’ll say, that’s interesting.”

Shining Armor looked at Doc and freaked out, scrambling around inside his bubble. “Sweet Celestia, there’s another one!” No one payed attention.

Twilight glanced at Doc. “Why is that interesting? Everypony knows the timeline is recursive.”

Doc shook his head. “No, the timeline isn’t recursive. I can tell you that from tests and personal experience.

“And I can tell you, the timeline is recursive. I went back in time, and it was only because of what my past self saw that my future self even went back in the first place.”

“That’s impossible. That would imply the generation of information from nothing!”

“Yes, that’s right,” Twilight confirmed. “I told myself where I could find the time spells, and that’s where I found them.”

“But-! B-but!” Doc stammered. He finally turned to Marty. “Marty! Maybe you can reason with her!”

Marty put his hands in the air. “Hey, I have no idea what you’re talking about, doc.”

“Time travel! When you went back in time, everything you did changed the future, right?”

Slowly, Marty nodded. “...yeah. Even tiny things were noticed. I mean, I made my dad into a famous author, but I also changed the name of a mall.” He shrugged. “None of that was how it was when I originally left.”

Twilight stomped a hoof on the ground in frustration. “No! It doesn’t work like that!”

“Actually, Doc, I think she’s right.”

Doc whipped his head to face him. “What?!”

“Remember this morning?”

Doc furrowed his brow. “...yes? you weren’t here.”

Marty rolled his eyes. “Last morning I was here, Doc. I snuck up behind you, yeah?”

“What of it?”

Marty sighed. “I got the idea to do that from seeing myself doing it.”

Doc paled, sputtering. “But that’s-! That’s not!” He threw his hands in the air, pacing around in a circle. “That’s not possible! That can not happen! The rules can not just change!”

Marty shared a quick glance with Twilight.

“Did the laws of physics just up and take a holiday last week?!”

Twilight facehooved.

Marty cleared his throat. “Uh, Doc?”

“Not now, Marty!”

Marty sighed, as Doc began pulling at his hair as he paced around. Suddenly, a voice came from behind the teenager. “Please, Marty, allow me.”

Puzzled, Marty turned around, to face the source of the voice.

It was Princess Celestia.

“Hello, again, Marty McFly.”

At the sight of the solar diarch, Shining Armor began to flail around in his bubble again, trying to convey his panic at seeing the Princess so close to the monsters.

Celestia glanced at him, then trotted forward to face Doc.

The good Doc Brown was burying his face in his hands, staving off a full mental breakdown. The princess smiled. “Emmet.”

Doc looked up, then jumped back, startled by the Princesses tall stature. “Gah!”

“It was magic, Emmet. Would you like me to explain?”

Stumbling over his words, Doc accepted. “Y-yes, your majesty. Thank you.”

Celestia turned to the rest of the gathered, which now included Shining Armor’s two guards, continuing to radiate an air of easy confidence. “I have many things to explain to you all, but perhaps we should calm ourselves down, hmm? Twilight, would you please release your brother.”

The glowing bubble of magic popped, and Shining came tumbling to the ground. He immediately darted to his hooves, giving uneasy looks to Marty and Doc. “Princess, I feel the need to ask you why two monsters who are charged with assault, foalnapping, breaking AND entering are being allowed to roam free!”

Celestia gave him a stern, motherly look. “Captain, you have been obsessed with this case since you were a colt. I can understand dedication, but this is bordering on obsession. These two humans happen to be very good friends of mine.”

Doc glanced at Marty. You met her? he mouthed.

A little bit, Marty held his thumb and index finger apart by a centimeter. For this long. Not what I’d call friends, though.

“You see, Shining,” Celestia continued, “That flying device you see right there? It is in fact a Time Machine. For Marty here, that fight you had seventeen years ago happened yesterday.”

Shining looked at the DeLorean, and Marty, switching back and forth. “A Time Machine? Forgive me, highness, but that seems a little bit ludicrous.”

Celestia raised a single eyebrow. the Captain flinched, an apologetic look on his face. “Forgive me, Princess. A-as you command.”

“Wonderful. Now, I’d like you all to sit, for this exposition may take some time. Guards, you are dismissed. Not you, Captain.”

The two chariot-pullers left, as Celestia, Twilight, Spike the Pegasus, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Marty and Doc sat in a circle, behind the Library. The Princess let out a long breath, and began her story.

“Emmet, you are wondering why the timeline here does not obey the properties of the timeline in you world, correct?”

Doc nodded, puzzling over the use of his first name. Celestia smiled warmly at him, before continuing. “A very very long time ago, the timeline was not recursive. Temporal experiments wrought havoc.”

“Around that time, there was a pony, who was a very dear friend of mine. This stallion was gifted with a profound knack into the workings of time and magic, despite having no magical ability himself. He studied for years, and the achievements he created have to this day been left unsurpassed. His name was Starswirl the Bearded.”

Twilight grinned, almost stupidly. Celestia chuckled.

“Now, Starswirl wished desperately to perfect the workings of temporal magic, but knew too well from experience the dangers of the timeline. It bothered him for days, until one night, he slipped off of his sink, hitting his head on a clock. That was when he had the idea for the Flux Nexus.”

Doc raised his eyebrows. “Nexus?”

Celestia nodded, once again smiling. “Yes, Nexus. Not a capacitor. I barely understood what he was rambling about, as he threw notes together. He babbled what seemed like nonsense, locking himself up for weeks on end, just to finish a single portion of his theory.”

“Finally, one day, after an isolation stint of almost three months, he emerged, bearing his creation. A fully-funcitoning Flux Nexus, which fundamentally altered the rules of the game, all through this universe.”

“What was it?” Twilight asked, eyes wide.

Celestia tilted her head. “It was a magical engine, very complex. Sort of a mix between a lynch pin and a computer.”

Twilight blinked. “Computer?”

“A structure which can think. I can explain more about them later, Twilight, if you wish.”

Twilight eagerly nodded. Marty shared another uneasy look with Doc, before allowing the Princess to continue.

“The Nexus allowed for a recursive timeline, stabilizing temporal events and correcting physical paradoxes into informational ones. It had immense power, and as such, also had the ability to be abused. Starswirl placed it inside of a watch, and kept it on his person at all times.

“Alas, he grew old, as all ponies do. The Nexus was given to me for safekeeping, and it was hidden by several of my most trusted agents. And it remained hidden, for nearly six thousand years.”

Celestia turned to face Marty. “When you went back in time, Marty McFly, you disrupted a key event in the lives of the Elements of Harmony, creating for a brief moment an alternate timeline in which they were never rediscovered. Thankfully, you quickly righted this, but it was already too late.”

“In that alternate timeline, a notorious foe managed to find the hidden location of the Flux Nexus. She used this artifact in the most perverse way possible, spreading her dark taint backwards through time. After her timeline was destroyed, she managed to keep it alive using the Nexus’ power, and is slowly beginning to affect this timeline.”

There was a round of gasps from the gathered. Applejack tentatively raised her hoof, like a schoolfilly. “Uh, Princess? Is this big baddie who Ah think it is?”

Celestia nodded. “Indeed. The only other pony still alive who knew about the Nexus. Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow all shivered, involuntarily. Marty raised his hand, mimicking AJ. “Hang on, who?”

“Nightmare Moon. A product of my own sister’s corruption. She is slowly affecting Equestria, and Land of Night has begun forming at its fringes. In fact, it began seventeen years ago.”

Celestia sighed. “It began the moment the DeLorean disrupted the Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot. Nightmare could spread her evil, using the Nexus as her tool. However, once you traveled back, the Nexus vanished.”

Twilight perked up. “Wait, what?”

The Princess chuckled. “For seventeen years, the Flux Nexus simply did not exist. It popped into existence again, not but a few minutes ago, and the frozen areas of nightland began expanding once more. Have you figured it out yet?”

Twilight scrunched her face up, thinking it over. As the truth dawned on her, her face lit up. “The DeLorean! The Nexus was in the DeLorean.”

“That’s right. In fact, it’s still in there. I do not know how you found it, Marty, but I congratulate you on the service you’ve done this world.”

Marty furrowed his brow together. “Uh, no problem?”

Celestia’s horn glowed, and the passenger door of the DeLorean opened. Out of it flew a small bronze pocketwatch, surrounded by her yellow aura.

Pinkie Pie chuckled. “That’s the Nexus? It’s so tiny!”

Celestia rotated the watch in her magic for a moment. “Marty.”

Marty blinked. “Yah?”

“Catch.” The watch was sent hurtling out of Celestia’s aura at a mile a minute, straight at Marty. He instinctively threw up his arms, and the watch stopped dead on contact with a shimmering blue shield. He slowly opened his eyes, lowering the shield, and and gently floated the watch down to his hands.

Doc gaped at his friend. “M-Marty?”

“I learned a new trick, Doc. It’s no big deal.” He casually tossed it to Twilight (who immediately began to scrutinize it) before turning to face the others who went with him to 985. “How did it end up in the DeLorean?”

A collective shrug. Then, Applejack popped her head up. “Macintosh!” she gasped. “What in tarnation was he doin with an all-powerful magical thingamajigger?”

“B-but,” Doc sputtered, “I’m still interested into why Marty is performing tele-, er, psycho- ah, magic!”

“Now, now,” Celestia hushed. “We may discuss this after I finish.”

“Now that the Nexus once again exists, Nightmare Moon can spread her influence from the alternate timeline here, and once again, into the past. If we do not act soon, the changes will become widespread, and this reality will shift into hers.”

“Now hang on,” Doc began, “won’t this Nexus prevent that? I thought it created recursive events.”

“Oh, it does.” Celestia grimaced. “However, once the Nightmare manages to completely overtake this timeline, it will be the recursive event. She is surpassing it’s power.”

Shining Armor, Spike, and Marty spoke in unison. “What can we do to stop it?”

The offending individuals all glanced at each other. Shining gave Marty a look of pure venom.

Celestia once again smiled. “Ah, I think the three of you would be perfect. Ideally, the only way to ensure that the timeline can be cleansed would be to destroy the Flux Nexus. And there’s only one pony who ever lived that could do that. ...Sort of.”

Doc glanced at the Princess. “Sort of?”

“Wait, so we have to back and talk to this Star-Twist guy you were talking about? Why can’t we just send it to, like, a million years in the future?”

“An excellent question. While it seems that would be the case, as that is how it happened for the past seventeen years, it would prove ineffective for the same reason she was able to affect 985 from her year 1000-or-so. The power of the Nexus is temporal, and her effect is recursive.”

Marty nodded, slowly. “So, it needs to completely destroyed, cause she can wreck the past from the future?”

“Correct.”

“And you said it was me, Spike, and Angry over here?”

“Also correct.”

“But why him?!” Shining whined, despondent. “I’m still not entirely sure that the alien I’ve been hunting my whole life is responsible enough to carry out this mission. Why can’t Twilight do it? I bet she’d love to meet Starswirl.”

Twilight, who had been scrutinizing the small pocketwatch intently (and was particularly giddy about the name scratched on the back), made a small noise at the mention of her name. She did not look up.

Celestia sighed. “That would be exactly a problem. Being in the past, before the creation of the Flux Nexus, you must be very careful not to say anything about the future. Twilight would be too excited to think about what she was saying.”

Twilight made another small noise, not even bothering to defend herself. Or maybe she didn’t hear the conversation.

“Plus, do you know how to pilot the DeLorean, Captain?”

Shining furrowed his brow. “DeLorean?”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “The time machine.”

“Oh.” Shining frowned, grumbling. “...no.”

“That what I thought.”

Spike raised a hoof. “But why do I have to go?”

The Princess tilted her head for a moment, thinking. “Hmm. How about you keep the other two from killing each other.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Oh, ha-hah.”

“I am completely serious.”

Spike blushed. “...oh.”

Celestia abruptly got to her hooves. “Very well. You shall leave in the morning. In the meantime, I would like to have a conversation with Emmet, Marty, and Twilight, alone.”

The Princess cantered into the Library. Doc and Marty shared a worried look.

“Oh, relax, both of you. I’ve never known the Princess to get mad about anything. She’s probably just got some questions to ask you.”

Doc scoffed. “Well, I’ve got some questions to ask her. Like why Marty here can do magic.”

“I can explain that one, Doc-“

“-but I’m very interested in one tiny detail.” Doc said. “She seemed to know several details about our world and the DeLorean. And most importantly...”

“...how did she know my name?”