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        Princess Celestia sat in her throne room, rubbing her temples with her hooves.

        It had been a long day. She was scheduled to hold public audience today, listening to the concerns of her subjects, and doing all in her power to aid them. Today, however, did not go quite as planned.

        Earlier that day, even before noon, she had been visited by two delegates, each from a fair distance away. The mayor of Manehattan and the mayor of Neigh Jersey had come to see her personally, as they believed she could settle a disagreement between them about zoning laws.

        She had intended to listen to both arguments and settle them in a perfectly reasonable manner, but it quickly became apparent that they had no intention of speaking about zoning. These two ponies had come all the way across the nation, to her court, to bicker.

        The Manehattan mayor began by listing an extensive list of the Neigh Jersey’s mayor’s failings, many of which did not even relate to her job as a mayor. The Neigh Jersey Mayor had rebutted with a remark about his mother. They had continued to squabble like that for the rest of the day, forcing other, less “important” ponies to wait for hours.

        They had argued right up until the official end of Public Audience Day, one hour before sunset. Celestia had ushered them out, perhaps a bit too bluntly, and informed the patient ponies in line line next to the door that she would extend the day's services into tomorrow, as well. They had all thanked her endlessly, before she ushered them out as well.

        The Princess sat, now, and observed her sun slowly dip below the horizon, silently thinking of her sister, who was currently making sure that the Night Sky she had designed for tonight was displayed properly.

Hmm... The ageless princess pondered the night ahead of her for a moment. I wonder if Twilight has-

BANG

        Celestia snapped to attention. Where did that sound come from? She looked around the throne room. It almost sounded like-

BANG

After all these-

BANG

CRASH

        Celestia whipped her head upwards as a large silvery object crashed through her stained glass ceiling. Rose-colored shards scattered themselves across the marble floor, and the motorcar flipped through the air, hurtling towards the ground.

BANG

“GOT IT!”

        Marty howled in relief as the engine finally turned over, and the DeLorean sprang to life. The ruby’s light cleared from the car’s interior, and the two humans fell to the ground as gravity suddenly returned with a vengeance.

        The hovercar righted itself almost immediately, wobbling mere inches from a white marble floor as it leveled itself out. It began to rotate in mid air lazily, keeping itself in neutral, not but two feet off the ground.

        “Hey, Doc.” Marty reached over and slapped the inventor on the knee. “Y’alright?”

        A loud groan was his only response. “Yeah, you’re fine.” Grunting, the teenager pulled himself back into his seat, and slowly turned off the hovercar.

        The time machine’s wheels righted themselves, and gently touched down onto the ground. The engine died with a flicker, and Marty sighed a breath of relief.

Now where the hell are we?

        Marty’s thoughts turned to the white ballroom they seemed to have landed in. He slowly opened the door, his ears straining at the sound of the hissing hydraulics, and looked down to find millions of shards of rose-colored glass. Oops.

        Thankful for his high-tech Nikes, he stepped out of the DeLorean, squinting his eyes. Damn, that’s bright. The room seemed to be a long, large hall, with large doors at the far end, almost like a chapel. The walls were lined with colorful stained glass, similar to what (formerly) adorned the high ceiling.

        “Is this... the year 1002?” Marty said aloud, mostly to himself. We gotta be in Europe or something-

        “Yes,” a soft, motherly voice spoke from the other end of the room. He turned his head to see... what?

        He saw a tall, white horse, with a Neapolitan-colored haircut. It was adorned with plentiful gold jewelry, and sat upon a large white... throne. That’s a throne.

        It spoke again. “This is the year 1002. Did you mean to end up here?” Marty just stood there, his mouth agape. Okay, forget not being surprised anymore, he thought, this is pretty damn surprising.

        The large white... That’s a horn. That’s a unicorn. He was bewildered. I must be crazy. The large white unicorn smiled, gently. Marty realized that it didn’t look exactly like a horse, really. It’s eyes were more intelligent, its face, more expressive.

        Whatever it was, it continued to smile for a few moments. It spoke again, with the same motherly tone. “It is good to see you again, Marty Mc-”

        “HALT! Intruder!”

        Marty whipped himself around, back to face the large doors again. A small army of more horses- unicorns?! -had barged into the room, most of them wearing ornate, pointy armor. They were all much shorter than the tall Ice-Cream colored one, but were still mostly almost up to Marty’s height.

        The center one, a white unicorn with a blue haircut, not wearing any armor, commanded the herd. “Guards! Seize that individual at once!”

        Suddenly they were all yelling, charging towards the DeLorean. Aah!

        As fast as he could, Marty jumped inside the car again, pulling the door shut. He reached over and slapped Doc upside the head, who was still struggling to correct himself in his chair. “Wake up time, Doc! We gotta motor!”

        Marty turned the key, and the car roared to life without a hitch. Just as one of the unicorn stampede made it to the time machine, he pressed his foot down on the gas pedal, and they soared into the air.

        Marty was left with very little room to maneuver within the grand hall, however. Panicking, he brashly flew his way through another one of the stained glass windows, and he could hear the detailed glass shatter onto the chasis. He maneuvered the car around so he could get a clear view of his attackers, now that he was safe outside their reach.

        Not so. The unicorns lowered their heads, and several beams of white light began to shoot at the DeLorean, blazing past and barely skirting the undercarriage. Panicking again, Marty turned the car away and drove as fast as he could into the large verdant valley below, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the equine attackers.

        A single, last, very powerful beam shot it’s way past the car, soaring over the top and shooting down into the trees. Marty felt his palms tingle in the strangest way, though whether it was in fear or bewilderment, he could not tell.

        He soared down into a valley, spread out below them, impressively massive, not taking into consideration his rapid speed or haywire direction. Doc was still rubbing his eyes, trying to make sense of their situation.

        The old scientist looked out the window. “Marty, when are we? This is... beautiful.”

        Marty took a moment to take his concentration off of escaping, and took a look at the area they seemed to be flying over.

        Mountains. Tall, icy-peaked, incredible. The area below the mountainous ridge was flushed with deep green foliage, and the sky was a clear blue, with not a single cloud in sight. Small villages and farms lined the surface of the valley, and a series of roads stretched into the distance, of what seemed to be a plain, maybe a hundred miles out of the valley. The entire area seemed to resemble the North Western United States, in an almost too-perfect way.

        “You’re right, Doc.” Marty inhaled, feeling the cool, crisp air seep in through the windows. “It’s great."

"But, ah, do you know where the hell we are?”

        Doc looked at his friend quizzically. “The time circuits said 1002, didn’t they? So, logically, this is 1002.”

        “Well yeah,” Marty said, his disbelief obvious, “but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a whole civilization like this in 1002, at least not in California.” He laughed, a bit too loud. “And I’m almost certain there were no unicorns!”

        “Well, yes, this area was largely- wait, did you say unicorns?” Doc eyed him suspiciously.

        “I know, I know, it sounds crazy, Doc, but I know what I saw!” He waved his hand behind him, back towards the encounter in the mysterious ballroom. “Horses, dozens of them, with horns on their heads! And get this! They were speaking perfect English!” Marty sighed. “Doc, something really weird is going on he-”

        “Marty! Watch your driving!”

        “Wha-?” Marty looked up to see that they were about to collide with one of the larger farming settlements. “Shi-!”

        The DeLorean spun, skirting the rooftops of the now-much-larger-and-closer buildings, and coming within inches of destroying them. Marty pulled on the wheel, bidding the car to veer upwards.

        It did not comply. They continued to skirt dangerously close to the pointy rooftops of the earthy houses, occasionally taking out a potted plant or what appeared to be a radio antenna. Marty tried to slow down the car’s forward inertia, so as to return skyward, but the DeLorean continued onward at its breakneck pace.

        The hovercar spun, and approached a large oak tree, planted in the middle of the town. As they approached it, however, Marty noticed some windows, poking out of the sides, and a widow’s walk. It’s a house?

        At any rate, they seemed to be on a course to not crash with it, despite being taller than most of the other buildings they had skidded over. Marty finally thought he had slowed the car enough to pull up, as he raced over the top of the tree/house, and gripped the steering wheel tightly.

        Marty suddenly felt a ‘bump’ on the bottom of the car, and suddenly the time machine was tumbling wildly through the air again. Both occupants once again screamed their lungs out. “Aaaah!”

CRASH

        Marty and Doc braced themselves as the time machine skidded along the dirt ground, upside down, on its roof. Marty winced as the crash threw him against the windshield, sending pain through his entire body. He looked again at the tree/house, and saw a wavy purple light spiderweb around the tree, forming a dome-shape. We ran into... a forcefield?

        Marty’s palms tingled as he watched the purple light bounce around the tree/house, before finally fading away, leaving no trace of its existence.

        He suddenly realized he was upside down. Blood was flowing rapidly into his head.

        Marty struggled with the seatbelt for a moment, before it finally came undone. He slumped onto the roof of the car, and painfully dragged himself out of the (broken) door window, and onto the ground. Oh, man, more broken glass. Woo.

        He lay there on the ground for a moment, catching his breath. This dirt is... really comfortable.

        Groaning, Marty tried to turn himself over, to check on Doc, and see if he was okay. “D-...” he stopped to catch more of his breath, and broke into a coughing fit. “D-Doc?! Are y-you okay?”

        “Hello?”

        Marty whipped his head towards the new voice, which was much closer than Doc. He immediately regretted doing so, as his neck cracked, screaming agony at him. The young time traveler groaned again.

        “Are you okay?”

        Marty squinted through the light. His focus returned, and he saw another one of the unicorns standing over him. It was purple, with large eyes, and very obviously a female. It looked concerned. “Um, I think you need some help.” It’s voice sounded like a young girl’s.

No, more like a young woman’s. Maybe a teenager.

        Marty coughed again, and cracked out some words to the purple unicorn. “Is D-’cough’-Doc ok-kay?”

        She looked up, then back down to him. “Is he the one with the white mane?”

        Wheels turned in Marty’s mind. Mane = Haircut. Gotcha.

        “Yes.” he breathed out.

        “He’s getting up. Slowly, but he doesn’t seem to be hurt as much as you.” the purple unicorn looked at him again. “You really need some help, I think.”

        “Y-yeah..” Marty sighed and gently closed his eyes. “Doc’s fine, and he’s old, you know. I-I’ll be good. I...” Marty easily and gratefully drifted into unconsciousness, his palms gently tingling.

        Twilight Sparkle looked uneasily at the creature which had just passed out in front of her. Across from the strange silver flying machine, the one with the white mane was slowly pulling himself into a bipedal position, looking around with bewilderment.

Oh, dear. She thought, This is not going to be easy.