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“-AAAAAAAA-”

“Shining.”

“-AAAAAAAA-“

“Shining.”

“-AAAAAAAA-“

Spike rolled his eyes. “Marty, could you do something about this?”

Marty glanced at the young pegasus. “What’dyou want me to do? Grab his mouth?”

Spike shrugged. “It could work.”

Wincing, Marty reached out a hand, and clamped it around Shining Armor’s muzzle. The panicked unicorn looked at him.

Marty chuckled half-heartedly. “Are you going to stop yelling?”

Shining nodded. “Good.”

Marty released his hand. Shining didn’t yell, but his eyes still shot about the car rapidly. “What happened?”

“Time travel. What did you expect to happen?”

“Uh...” Shining took a large breath. “Right. Time travel. Uh...”

“You alright, dude?” Spike asked. “You seem really freaked out.”

“Of course I’m freaked out, Spike,” Shining remarked, “I just TRAVELED THROUGH TIME.” The unicorn held his head in his hooves, mumbling to himself with a panicked tone.

“What’s his problem?” Spike asked.

Marty shrugged. “I think he’s just taking this hard. I mean, he’s known about all of this, and us, for the better part of twenty years, you know? And the whole time, he’s hated it. And now, here he is, a part of it?” He shook his head. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.” Spike examined Shining carefully.

Marty sighed, and turned his head. His eyes widened. “Holy shit!”

Spike jumped. “What! What?!”

Marty pointed a finger. “W-w-why is the car so huge?!?!”

The interior of the DeLorean was... massive. Rows and rows of seats extended backwards, of the same make as the front, yet larger and more comfortable. Far more seats and room than was possible to carry in the tiny car. There were at least eight new rows, with the last two wrapped around a sunken rotunda.

There was even a little coffee table in the center.

“Hey, that’s pretty cool,” Spike responded. “I didn’t notice that before.”

“B-b-but it wasn’t there before! There were just the two seats! I realize this is a moot point but that’s impossible!”

“I dunno, man.” Spike shrugged. “It makes sense.”

“How does that in any way make sense,” Marty deadpanned.

“Well, think about it. You said there are only two seats, right? Then how did we fit Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, me AND you inside?”

Marty opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Huh. That’s a really good point. I wonder if-”

THUNK

A large collision came from outside the window. Shining jumped in the air. “Aah!”

Marty rolled his eyes. “Did you see what hit us?”

Spike pressed his face against the window. “Hang on, I can see it.”

“What is it?” Shining asked, frightened. “Time-monkeys? Time-Bandits? Vengeful gods? Ticket-takers?” He gasped. “Langoliers?!”

“It’s a filly,” Spike deadpanned.

Twister shook her head, recovering from the shock of ramming into the flying thing. Ow, she thought.

Up close, the flying metal “bug” looked a lot different. There were wheels on the bottom, almost like a wagon, but they were covered in a blackish tar. Planes of glass adorned the sides, as well. Twister could see indistinct shapes, moving through them.

Hesitantly, she hovered towards the flying machine, and cupped her hooves around the glass. Inside, she saw... two ponies and a third thing, sitting towards the front, near a whole bunch of tiny lights. Aside from that it was just rows of chairs, more than should have fit... Is that a coffee table?

Her reverie was interrupted by one of the ponies, the pegasus colt, who pressed up to the window opposite from her. She flinched backwards a bit, looking at him. He seemed curious, and not very threatening.

The colt’s eyes also seemed, just for a moment, to have long, slitted pupils, that sent Twister’s heart racing. But only for a moment.

She broke off of the window, and began to circle around the stationary... wagon. It’s definitely some sort of flying wagon.

Examining it closer, Twister had no idea what she was looking at. The front had two squares, almost like eyes, that shone with an intense light.

Suddenly, a portion of the mysterious flying wagon lifted off, peeling away from the side like a wing. There was an opening beneath, leading to the miraculously large space within. Hesitantly, Twister hovered towards it, and looked inside.

The unicorn, pegasus, and skinny hairless thing (it looked sort of like a dog?) sat there, looking at her expectantly. The pegasus colt waved at her. “Um, excuse me, would you like to come inside?”

Twister blinked. “Uh...”

“We’re kinda lost. Could you help us out?”

Twister thought it over for a moment. Finally, she flapped inside, sitting on one of the oddly-textured seats.

The inside of the weird flying thing was cramped, with a low ceiling and not very much moving space. The odd lights took their place below the front window, as well as a wheel-shaped thing, that jutted out at the tall dog-thing. The two ponies sat in the second row of odd seats, leaning over the top of them so that they could participate in the conversation.

The tall-skinny-hairless-dog-thing spoke first. “Hey! Could you possibly give us some directions?”

Twister looked at the thing nervously, but she new it would be rude not to answer. “...Sure. I guess. Where are you headed?”

The tall thing pursed his lips for a second. “Well, we don’t actually know.”

Twister let out a nervous laugh. “That’s not really... helpful...”

The purple pegasus colt stuck his head out from behind the chair. “Well, we’re looking for a pony, by the name of Starswirl. May or may not be Bearded. Have you heard of him?”

Twister smiled. The pegasus was much easier to talk to than the monkey-thing. “That’s much more helpful! But no, sorry.”

The pegasus rubbed his chin for a moment. “Okay, what about Princess Celestia? Where can we find her?”

“Who?” Twister had never heard of this pony.

Her surprised reaction brought the stares of the three passengers. “I thought Celestia was in charge of everything?” The hairless thing asked.

“No, not always. But to our knowledge, she was a prominent historical figure.” The white unicorn tilted his head. “...Maybe there was a point where she wasn’t completely relevant? you’re asking the wrong pony, though.”

“Well, yeah, she wasn’t always in charge,” the colt remarked. “In the Pre-Unification period, she technically wasn’t even around at all. The occasional miracle or wise goddess-figure pops up, and we usually assume its her.”

The unicorn chuckled. “I wasn’t aware you were such a history buff, Spike-o.”

“I live in a library. With Twilight! And history isn’t that boring...” ‘Spike-o’ shuffled his hooves together, sheepish and defensive.

Twister giggled. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about. but you mentioned miracles?”

The monkey thing eyed her. “Yeah. But probably not, like, levitation, more like...”

“Raising the sun and vanquishing great evils,” the pegasus cut in.

“Yeah.”

Twister smiled. “Well, I am headed for one place where there are supposed to be miracles abound!” She got on her back hooves, wings spread, gesturing with her forehooves. “Where magic and mystery combine to make the greatest center of adventure and learning within the whole wide world!”

The unicorn nodded. “That sounds like someplace we should be headed. Where is it?”

“I dunno.”

There was a collective fall of expressions. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean I don’t know. Me and my parents came into the Endless Everfree looking for it! It took us five years just to get this far. They say you can only find it if you’re worthy enough.”

The hairless thing’s expression changed, as though he just figured something out. “...Where are your parents?”

Twister got quiet. “Mom and Dad weren’t worthy enough, I guess.”

The pegasus colt cringed. “Aw, Jeez, I’m sorry. Listen, we’re-“

“But it’s okay!” Twister smiled again. “They wanted to find the hidden palace so that I could grow up there. I can’t give up on what they wanted, after they’re gone. So I have to find it!” She laughed. “I’m Twister, by the way.”

“Marty.” The hairless thing held up a hand in a wave.

“Shining Armor, you can call me Shining.” The unicorn did the same.

“Spike.” The colt grinned.

“Pfft!” Twister guffawed. “How’d you get the name ‘Spike’? Your hair isn’t even spiky.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know, that I don’t always look like this. I’m usually a big, ferocious, incredibly handsome-“

Shining Armor cut Spike off with a swift kick to to the side, knocking the young colt down. “Doofus, that’s what he is. So, uh, how were you looking for this hidden palace?” Spike groaned, but otherwise didn’t retort.

“I have a map!” Twister declared. “It was my dad’s. We were using it to go through the forest.”

“A map?” Marty asked. “May we see it?”

“Sure.” Twister pulled a small satchel off of her back, where it had been hidden by her wings. She withdrew a folded sheet of parchment, and hoofed it to Marty.

Marty opened the map, unfolding it and pressing it on the dashboard. A squiggly line ran across the map, with several points on the line being listed. He couldn’t read the symbols on the points, but it looked like writing.

The end of the map stood at the very top. An elaborate stamp of a castle, surrounded by clouds and rays of light, and several symbols, including a sun-moon symbol.

Shining pointed his hoof at the sun-moon. “That’s got to be a sigil of the princesses.”

Marty frowned. Elsewhere on the sigil, beside one of the towers of the ink palace, was another symbol. Rough and uneven, moreso from the stamping process, but distinctly recognizable.

Spike blinked. “I don’t get it.”

Marty gaped at it for a bit, before responding. “That’s... uh, that’s like Doc’s calling card. He uses his initials, he got the idea from Jules Verne.” He scratched his head. “And... I’d bet anything that’s a picture of the Flux Capacitor.” Marty indicated the glowing device with his hand, three strips of tubing that fluctuated with light.

Spike’s eyes went from the capacitor to the symbol. “Oh. Oh!”

Shining shook his head. “How did that happen?”

Marty shrugged. “I dunno...” he scratched his chin for a moment. “Maybe... Have I ever told you guys about the time I saw my own grave?”

The three ponies all stared at him. “Woah! That’s so hardcore!” Twister applauded.

The other two ponies were less than thrilled, knowing the reality of such a thing. “What?!”

Marty nodded. “Yeah. See, I had found Doc’s grave, right? So, I took a picture of it, then went back in time to save him. Only, I saved him by taking his place, in the duel that was supposed to be his death.”

He paused. “This was when the timeline changed a lot, instead of the solid stuff you guys have.”

“Anyway, so, I had this photograph, and when Doc was saved, the grave in the photo went blank, but didn’t go away. Then, when I got roped into the duel, the grave showed my name.”

“So what does this have to do with that?” Spike asked.

“Well, maybe this is like that. So things can happen here that are recursive, right? So maybe Doc, or us, or anyone, left us that clue. So we could figure out how to get there.” He put a finger to the writing at each point on the map. “Twister, can you read these?”

The filly shook her head. “No. We used the pictures to figure it out. Like, this one-“ she put a hoof to the third symbol on the line, “-was a rock, see?”

The picture was of a large shape, with a hole in one side, and stretched on the top. “We found that rock, in the forest, then we judged where the line was.”

She sighed. “My dad tried to figure out the words, because the letters are just regular Equish, but it’s a code. He said there was a...” The filly rubbed her chin. “Key something. Key... Sie-por? Ci-four?”

“Cipher,” Shining Armor stated. “A key cipher. We use them to send messages to ranks in hostile territory, in the guard.”

“Yeah. Anyway, he tried to figure it out, but he said he needed something.”

Shining nodded. “Yes. The ‘key’ of a key cipher is a short phrase or number, applied repeatedly to the text. Only the sender and recipient know the key phrase, so it can’t be intercepted.” He put a hoof on the words. “From the way this is written, I’d bet it’s a number.”

Marty rubbed his neck. “Well, if Doc had a hand in this map, the number is probably 1955. When we first met.” He looked to Twister. “Where are we now?”

“Just the last one, before the seal. There’s a pond below us, shaped like a clover, that’s the last symbol.” She cast a furtive glance at the parchment. “...You can read this?”

“I can.” Shining said. “1-9-5-5, or, A-I-E-E. You said the clover?” Twister nodded. “Well, the text there says...”

The unicorn concentrated for a moment, his eyes locked firmly on the ink. “...Walk the path...of crystal...and foes...and brave...the scar...of fog.”

Marty whistled. “That was fast.”

“I do this a lot.”

Twister frowned, her lip trembling. “W-well what does that mean? That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Hey, hey, yeah it does,” Spike consoled the stressful filly, “it’s a riddle, right?”

Shining nodded. “Right. The ‘path of crystal and foes’ means northeast.”

Marty frowned. “How does that work?”

“Well, ‘crystal’ refers to the Crystal Empire, which is also synonymous with the North. And way back now, the ‘foes’ could only mean the Gryphons, who live across the East Ocean. So, northeast.”

“But what about the ‘scar of fog’?” Marty inquired.

“I don’t know. Maybe a valley? Or a crevasse?”

“Well,” Spike interrupted, “there was that canyon that Twilight and the others found, when they were going to the old palace.”

“Old palace?” Twister asked. “And who is Twilight?”

“Wait, Spike, if there’s an ‘old’ palace nearby, it wouldn’t be very ‘old’ right now, would it? That’s probably exactly what we’re looking for.” Marty replied.

“But where is that from here?” Shining remarked. “The landscape is completely different, creature. Except, apparently, for the canyon, and maybe some of the older mountains, there would be no way to pin the two locations together!”

Spike chuckled. “Well, its a good thing we just got directions, isn’t it? Seriously, its not that hard to piece together. We’re almost sure to find it now-“

“WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT?!” Twister shouted.

Marty slapped his hands over his ears, glaring at the filly. “Jesus, kid, where’d you get that voice?”

“I just want to know what you’re talking about!” she cried. “I mean I get in this stupid flying wagon thing and you ask me my name and suddenly you’re reading my map and talking about all these things I don’t know and also you’re from the future?!”

Twister sighed. “I just want to know what’s going on.”

There was a pregnant pause.

“We’re from the future!” Spike exclaimed. “You were right. This is our time machine.”

Twister huffed. “If you didn’t want to tell me, you could have just said so.”

“Actually, he’s right,” Marty remarked. “I’m from another dimension or something, and this is my time machine.”

“No way.” Twister folded her front hooves, but she was smiling. “Prove it.”

Marty smiled. “Well, that I can-“

“No.” Shining Armor frowned. “We don’t have time to go fooling around with demonstrations. We need to find Starswirl so we can destroy the Nexus so we can go home.”

“Pfft!” Spike scoffed. “We have all the time in the world! We’re in a time machine.”

“No buts. Princess Celestia had me escort you, so we’re doing this my way. Understand?”

“Aw, don’t be so harsh, Shining,” Marty insisted. “We can give the kid a whirl in the DeLorean, just so she trusts us, hmm?”

“You can take her for a ‘whirl’ after we get to the palace.” Shining remained resolute. “The faster we get there, the faster you can show off your alien device. Now drive.”

Marty rolled his eyes. “Fine. Just point out the way.” Shining nodded, returning to the map, spread out on the dashboard.

Marty turned to the two children. “Just do what he says for a bit, eh? We’ll get to the palace soon enough.”

Slowly, they both nodded. “Okay.”

Marty smiled, reassuringly, then returned to the wheel. He revved the engine, and the DeLorean shot forward. Soon, the flying car was soaring over the Endless Everfree, headed northeast.

“Hit me.”

“Six!”

“Hit me.”

Spike scoffed. “No way! You have sixteen showing already.”

Twister locked eyes with the other pegasus, and smiled. “What can I say, I live life on the edge. Hit me.” She rubbed a hoof on her chin. “And how about this; all or nothing, on this one bet.”

Spike grinned. “Done!” He dealt another card. “There you go! Eighteen! Now lets see what you’ve got under there.”

Twister drummed her hoof on the coffee table for a moment, then revealed the card with a flourish.

It was a three. “Dammit!”

Twister laughed. “Ha-ha! Now gimme!”

Spike sighed, then begrudgingly pushed over his pile of paper balls. The makeshift ‘chips’ weren’t worth anything, but it was a matter of principle. He had lost to a girl!

Twister scooped the chips into a neat little pile, besides her own. “Welp, I win.”

“What? No way, we can still play!”

“And what are you gonna bet with, dummy?”

Spike paused. Maybe not so bad losing to THIS girl. “I dunno. But if I win, then I’ll have the chips to bet with!”

“So you’re going into debt?” The smile on Twister’s face pushed the boundaries of devious.

Spike remained oblivious. “Yep! It won’t be too long before I’m back into positive numbers.”

At the front of the DeLorean, oblivious to the sinister game in the back, Marty weaved between the taller trees, skimming as close to the forest canopy as he dared. The DeLorean hummed as it swept over the forest. “See anything yet?”

Shining Armor hung his head out of the gull-wing door, scanning the forest with his eyes, and his magic. “Nothing major, but my spell’s detecting something ahead. It’s in line with the map, so we should probably check it out.”

Marty nodded, continuing to drive the DeLorean with expert precision.

His eye glanced at the fuel gauge. Even with futuristic fuel efficiency, the needle was hovering just a single tick-mark above the large glowing E.

Marty was about to say something, but Shining spoke first. “Alright, stop here. This seems like the place.”

The human held back his words, and nodded. He slowed the DeLorean down, and gently maneuvered it between the sweeping branches of the forest. The car set down on an open piece of dirt.

The two pegasi clambered to the front of the car. Spike bore a sullen look on his face, while Twister was positively beaming. “What’s gotten into you?” Marty asked.

“He owes me every ice cream he ever gets for the next twenty years.” Twister beamed.

Spike looked like he was holding back tears.

Marty chuckled. “Ah, relax, Spike. We’ll be back in a jiffy, and those twenty years’ll be up.” He laughed. “Time travel, remember?”

Twister frowned. “Oh, right.”

Spike beamed, and stuck out his tongue at her.

“Hop to it, children!” Shining called. “It’s a few feet ahead!” He snapped his hooves to attention, then marched forward, unheeding of the bushes and branches in his way.

Marty and the pegasi followed, though less professionally. “Jeez, Shining, lighten up. This isn’t combat training.”

Shining huffed. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand discipline, but it’s important. This is still a mission from my princess, and I will not have it failed by a lack of protocol.”

Marty just shook his head.

Spike and Twister were trailing a few feet behind, casually arguing about ice cream. “Listen, I really think you should give me twenty years of ice cream now, because-“

A sudden crack from the forest made the filly jump in the air, knocking over Spike as she did so. Her eyes were wide. “Wh-what was that? Was that a dragon?”

Spike frowned, and looked into the forest. A few feet away, a small cloud of dust surrounded a dead tree, which seemed to have fallen over. “It’s just a tree. What on earth made you think it was a dragon?”

Twister gulped, slowly calming down. “I don’t like dragons.”

“Why not?” Spike asked. “Dragons are cool, and awesome, and really tough, and usually quite handsome-“

“Dragons aren’t cool! Dragons are big scary bullies who ruin everything!” Twister cried, pressing her face up to Spike’s, her features twisted in anger. She retreated, frowning. Slowly, she sat down.

Spike took a step closer. “Twister?”

The filly rubbed her eyes. “A dragon killed my parents.”

Spike paled. Oh, shit. Ohshitohshiohshitohshitohshit-

Twister sniffled. Spike pushed past any misgivings and put his forelegs around her, squeezing tight. She leaned into him, sobbing gently.

Further ahead, Marty turned and saw the pair. He stopped walking swatted Shining on the head, who turned, and saw also. They both remained silent.

Twister finished crying. “...Sorry bout that.”

Spike chuckled. “Heh! Don’t worry about it. You alright?”

“Yeah.” The filly got to her hooves, rolling her shoulders. “Alright, let’s keep going.” She soldered onwards, her hoofsteps resounding with determination.

The rest of the party followed. Spike trailed behind, lost in thought. Marty slowed down, falling behind with him.

They were silent for a moment. “So, what was that about?” Marty inquired.

Spike didn’t respond. Then, “She’s deathly afraid of dragons because one killed her parents.”

Marty cringed. “Ooh...”

Six thousand two hundred and fifteen years later, an Earth Pony was enjoying the sun.

Applejack walked to her farm slowly, taking in the sights as she wandered the dirt path. She had seen Rainbow Dash comfortably to her home, and was heading home herself. Dash had tried to apologize to Applejack, but the farm pony has stopped her, asking her to get some rest and do this tomorrow.

Oh, shucks. Ah can’t stay mad at Rainbow. Ah know she didn’t mean nuthin by it, neither. She sighed, hanging her head. That girl is just impossible sometimes.

As the farm came into view, Applejack smiled. Having seen how it was, she could now appreciate it for how it had changed. The trees were taller, and there were more fences. The barn was much bigger, and everything had a nice fresh coat of red paint.

She walked through the gate, and down the front path to the road. Macintosh sat on the bench on the porch, staring at the hills, thoughtfully chewing at a stalk of wheat.

“Hay Big Mac!” Applejack waved. “Sorry Ah was gone so long. Ah miss anythin important?”

Macintosh chewed his wheat for a moment more. “Nnope.”

Applejack smiled, relieved. “Well, that’s dandy. Ah’mma go tell Granny Ah’m back, an maybe take a nap.”

Big Mac nodded. “Eeyup. Sleep tight.”

Applejack smiled, and walked into the house.

“...Braeburn from Neigh Jersey.” Macintosh smiled, muttering under his breath.

A series of loud bangs from inside the house, followed by a small yelp of pain, indicated that she heard him. Macintosh chuckled. “Been waiting seventeen years to do that.”

Applejack stormed out of the house. “You recognized me?!”

“Nnope.”

“Wha... Then you figured it out later?”

“Eeyup.”

Applejack just groaned. “And why the hay didn’t you say anything before now?”

Macintosh didn’t answer for a moment, his brow furrowed in concentration, as he pondered the myriad of poetic responses that could be soldered to fit his sister’s temporal inquiry of familial strife.

He used TWO words. “T’was funny.”

Applejack slapped a hoof to her face. “Macintosh, Ah swear, one of these days Ah’m gonna kick you so hard you’ll be buckin moon trees.”

Big Mac frowned. “Speakin a’ moon trees, we got somethin funny poppin up, over in the east orchard. Be mighty obliged if y’went an took a look.”

Applejack sighed, then went to go investigate the mysterious weed. Macintosh settled back down on his bench, resuming chewing his wheat.

Heck, be mighty funny if they were moon trees, he thought. Sure as hell look the part.

Another one of the odd black trees suddenly materialized before his eyes, right in front of the house. The silver leaves trembled from the sudden appearance.

...Buck.