Chapter 3. Their journey is just beginning!

Now it was darker than before, Spike was on his way along with Doctor Whooves, who had stayed on his bedroom for more than thirty minutes packing everything for their journey, the doctor thought about everything, his bags looked like robots, and if they weren't, they sure looked extravagant.

Spike was happy, he got the doctor to go with him and they were currently on their way to the cavern, Spike would finally know if that thing was a time machine and the doctor would get his chance to travel across time, but not everything was assured, they still had to know if the thing worked.

"And how is the device?" Asked the doctor.

"What?" Replied Spike.

"Yes, how is it? is it small? is it big? Is it simple? What shape does it have? Is it like a whole station? Or is it just a device that you can perfectly put on your hoof? Maybe..."

"Well, it's difficult!" Exclaimed Spike, preventing the doctor from making any more questions. "You'll see once we get there."

"Okay, then." Replied the doctor, looking forward.

Eventually they arrived, Spike noticed that the tunnel was still open, and the Diamond dogs would be asleep by now, so they wouldn't be a problem. The pair went to the tunnel, and they saw the wall made of rocks and dirt, it only took a few punches and bucks to take it down, it was even darker, Spike pulled out the lantern and entered the darkness with the doctor behind him.

"You know, this reminds me of a dream I had, I was on a darkness similar to this one, only slightly more tense, and I saw a beautiful vision of myself being the pony I always wanted to be, but then again, I don't even know what it meant, mainly because I woke up afterwards." Commented the doctor.

After a few steps, the doctor saw it in its glory, it appears that this kid wasn't kidding after all, before him, a transparent bubble with two seats was laying down, waiting to be used by someone; the doctor couldn't believe his eyes, he was in a state of shock, and even so, after a few moments of staring awkwardly at the machine, the doctor exploded with joy.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!! I'M NOT DREAMING, RIGHT?! THIS IS REAL, RIGHT?! OH, LET ME TAKE SOME EVIDENCE FOR THE FUTURE!!" Just when the doctor finished shouting, he grabbed a camera from his bag and took a few photos of the device.

"SHHHH!!! Doctor, there could be Diamond dogs nearby!" Said Spike, calming the doctor down.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't wait to see how this marvelous machine works!"

"Oh, so you're gonna go for it right now?" Asked Spike in surprise.

"Of course! After all, the iron is hot for striking!"

--------------------------------- One hour later... ---------------------------------

"Well, I'm surprised the iron hasn't cooled down yet." Said Spike, sitting on a corner of the cavern with sleepy eyes.

"Hey, these things take time, science is not a simple thing that you can go through in one hour, it takes more than that to completely understand devices like this one." Replied the doctor.

"But how are you going to understand the machine if you've been looking at it from different angles this whole time?" Said Spike, pointing at the machine, the doctor looked sheepish after hearing that.

"W-well, I'm trying not to meddle with it because it could be dangerous! Maybe this thing can malfunction and it can explode, and all this time will go to waste."

"Uh-huh, look, here's my proposal: why don't we just lie down and rest and tomorrow we explore this thing with more light and a clear mind?" Suggested Spike.

"Huh, I suppose I could get a little break, I DID wake up in the middle of the night because SOMEONE couldn't wait until tomorrow." Spike scratched the back of his head after hearing that. "It's settled then, we'll rest now and we will travel through time tomorrow!"

"But it's all rocks and gems here, will we able to sleep in here?" Asked Spike, not sure on how to sleep on rocks.

"Oh, don't worry about that, you see, I packed a pair of sleeping bags with the ability to change their size, one of my most recent inventions that I haven't shown to the world yet."

"And why not? Why did you create those in the first place?"

"Well, I figured that regular sleeping bags take a lot of space, so I made a special kind of sleeping bag that can change size with one button, I'd tell you how it works, but you don't seem like the kind of guy who would want or understand the part of the procedure that involves science."

"I don't know if I should take that as an insult, but okay, and why didn't you show it to the world? I feel like that would've been a great idea."

"Well, that's a personal point of view, maybe you think it's a great idea, but I think that it could just be another failure, just like every other thing I have created: The dig-o-matic? A total failure! The robo helper? I don't think I can even call it 'decent', The air-suspension system? A complete mess in my laboratory!"

"Okay, but how many times have you tested them?" Asked Spike, now intrigued.

"Well, about ten to a hundred times, why?" Replied the doctor, getting really frustrated.

"Because I know that not everything you do in life will turn out successful at the first try, and maybe not even at the hundredth, you need to keep trying until you are satisfied with the result." Replied Spike.

"Oh, this is very different, but I don't want to talk about it anymore! Let's just go to sleep and we'll be on our adventure tomorrow in the morning."

"What? But..."

"I said no more! Here, have your sleeping bag already!" Said the doctor, tossing Spike his sleeping bag, the doctor was right, the sleeping bags were really tiny, almost like little blue cubes with a red button on top of them, Spike pressed the button, and in a matter of seconds, the sleeping bag had expanded itself to the size of an adult pony! Which was good to Spike because it was much larger than his little basket and he had a ton of space to stretch and move, after a few seconds of surprise Spike jumped inside the bag and found himself a position to sleep.

"Well anyway, good night, doctor!" Said Spike, inside the sleeping bag.

"As to you too, my friend." Replied the doctor before wrapping himself in the sleeping bag.

It was morning in the gem fields, Spike and the doctor were getting up to what seemed the journey of their lives, while Doctor Whooves woke up in a normal way, Spike didn't want to get up, mainly because he wasn't used to getting up early in the morning and because dragons were known for sleeping more than a pony, but it was no use because the doctor had put an alarm clock to wake them up just in case, the doctor woke up some minutes before the alarm activated itself, but Spike wasn't so lucky.

'Danger! Danger! Must wake up now! Danger! Danger!' The alarm was louder than any amount of yelling Twilight had ever created to wake him up, and it worked well.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! WHA-? WHY? HOW? WHEN?" Spike stuttered before looking at Doctor Whooves, who was sitting inside the machine.

"Oh, I see you woke up, good morning! Now, would you be kind and turn the alarm off?" Said the doctor.

Spike was dizzy, he had never woken up like that in his life, not even when Fluttershy had thrown a bucket of water on him, when Spike saw the clock, he went there to turn the dang thing off, when he saw the large red button on top of it, he punched it as hard as he could, and the alarm inmediately went off.

"Doctor, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!?!?!" Complained Spike.

"Sorry, but I figured that dragons slept more than ponies do, so I thought that maybe waking you up with this invention would be the best way to go, just in case you didn't wake up in time." Replied the doctor, calmly.

"Ugh! I think you shouldn't show this to the world." Said Spike.

"Now, now, there's no time to lose, come inside." Spike did just that with an unamused face. "Oh! But did you bring your sleeping bag? In case you didn't, the red button makes it smaller again."

Spike grunted, after complaining a few seconds, he went there and he pressed the button, when the sleeping bag was a cube again, Spike grabbed it and packed it inside his backpack. And when Spike was coming back to the machine, both of them heard some noises coming from around them, some kind of growls and grunts.

"What is that?" Asked Spike.

"They must be Diamond dogs! I think my alarm clock awakened them too!" Replied the doctor.

"Dude, that thing can wake up the dead if you put it on a graveyard." Replied Spike with an unamused expression on his face, the doctor copied his expression when Spike finished his phrase.

"Just get inside and let's go before they capture us!" The doctor replied, then, they saw three shadows approach in fron of them.

"Ooooohh, look what we have here, guys." Said the small Diamond dog.

"Hey, isn't that the dragon we met before?" Replied the taller dog.

"Well, we can make them OUR servants, and if they don't collaborate, then I think we can add them to the menu!" Finished the last Diamond dog, they approached the machine with smiles on their faces, enjoying themselves as they watched the fear on their faces.

Once inside, Spike sat on the other seat of the machine, but he didn't know what to do, so he asked Doctor Whooves what to do.

"Doctor, now what?! There they come! We're going to be dog food if we don't get out of here right now!" As Spike spoke, the dogs were already surrounding them, and they started to punch the bubble they were in.

"Look at the number panel, just type any number on it, and then just press the green button below to go there!" Replied the doctor in a hurry. Spike didn't know what he was typing, but when he hit the green button below the number panel, everything went blank.

The diamond dogs saw a bright light that came from inside the bubble, and they backed out a little bit to cover their eyes, when the light died down, they were surprised; the thing wasn't there anymore!

"Oh, look at what you did!" Complained the small dog.

"Me? what about YOU?" Replied the taller dog.

"Ugh, would you shut up? Now we have to see what we can get for breakfast! By the way, who woke us up?" Finished the third dog, the other two shrugged before following their friend out of the cavern, such a shame they didn't look behind them, because they could've seen two figures behind them.

"Whoah! Doctor, where are we?" Asked Spike, still dizzy after the bright light that knocked him out.

The doctor was speechless, he observed the scenery around him, the giant trees, the place they were stuck in, the life forms, when the doctor pieced everything together, everything clicked.

"My friend, I think this really is a time machine, because we are no longer in the outskirts of Ponyville, from the scenery that is all around us, the place we are sinking in and the interesting life forms from around here I can deduce something; we travelled back in time to... A mesozoic swamp!"

Author's Note

Well, here ya go, the first chapters of this thing I had in my mind!

I hope you're looking forward to some of the future time periods and adventures this pair is going to have!

I'll see you again in the next chapter, goodbye!