Prologue or The Test Run
Author's Note: I apologize in advance to any authors that have or are doing this premise (by premise I mean what is essentially Back to the Future ponies)
Prologue or The Test Run
At first there was nothing but static. But slowly but surely a fuzzy picture of a tree at night time.
“…on alright, jeez,” Spike said off camera. The camera turned towards Twilight and Derpy standing in front of something covered in a tarp.
“Well this is a very important moment in my life that I really want filmed, Spike,” Twilight snapped. “So please, can you keep the camera sturdy and go over this as we planned?”
“Yes master,” Spike said off camera in a half deadpanned, half sarcastic tone. “Whatever you say. Your wish is my command.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Just get this right,” Twilight said. She cleared her throat. “This is Twilight Sparkle, standing next to me is Derpy –”
“Hello,” Derpy interrupted as she waved a little too enthusiastically.
“And Spike at the camera,” Twilight continued. The camera turned to show the purple dragon wink right into it. “Okay Spike, quit mugging and let’s do this.” Spike sighed and did as he was told. With Twilight back on screen, she smiled.
“This is the day after my second Winter Wrap Up in Ponyville,” Twilight said. “12:33 am, and we are about to embark on the most grandest discovery of all of Ponykind.”
“Creating the perfect muffin,” Derpy said in awe.
“What?” Twilight said. “No, not even,” She sighed. “Just stand still and be quiet for a bit Derpy, okay?”
“Sure thing, Twilight,” Derpy said with a smile and salute. Twilight looked expectedly.
“Why can’t you be more like that?” Twilight asked. She shook her head and sighed. “Never mind, let’s just get to the point of this okay?” Twilight pointed over to the object under the tarp behind her. “This right here is our first proper step into the future, and with it,” She pulled the tarp with a simple spell, to reveal a very strange looking carriage. It was silver, so much so that even in the moon light it seemed to glow in the dark; much of it was metallic than any other carriage Spike had ever seen before. “We can take a step into the past.”
“So this is the thing that you’ve been working on for the past seven months?” Spike asked off screen.
“Actually,” Twilight explained. “I’ve been working on the concept ever since my future self told me about that ‘great disaster’. But wasn’t until Derpy here crashed into me –”
“I told you it wasn’t my fault,” Derpy insisted while looking somewhat guilty. “Somepony was messing with my flying, I just couldn’t see who it was.”
“That I had a sudden revelation,” Twilight continued as she rolled her eyes. She put her hoof to her chin. “It was weirdly nostalgic though, like remembering an old friend, for some reason I almost feel like I should’ve known already how to do it.”
“Well because you did,” Spike pointed out off screen. “You went back in time to warn yourself, which was the whole reason you freaked out in the first place.”
“That was under different circumstances Spike,” Twilight said. “I’ve been reading some of the scrolls in the Stars Swirl the Bearded wing, and he’s been throwing several theories why time travel with that spell was always so self fulfilling and impossible to alter. One of the theories he’s suggested is perhaps his time travel spell is incomplete, and as of tonight, we’re going to prove that he was right. You see, time travel is much more complicated than most other magic spells, and is impossible to use beyond a week or a month at most. Sometimes magic needs a little science to help it out.” Twilight stepped into the carriage and gestured to Derpy and Spike to follow her. “C’mon you guys. Remember to keep filming, Spike.” Derpy climbed into the machine followed by Spike, who quickly filmed the insides of the time machine. “Spike, Spike turn the camera to the dashboard.” Spike did as he was told. The dashboard was about as silver as the outside of the carriage but the one thing that caught the eye of anypony was the big metal box with numbers on it.
“Uh, Twilight,” Spike asked off screen. “What exactly is it?”
“Well Spike,” Twilight began to explain off screen. “This is the location matrix.” Her hoof pointed at the top array of numbers which appeared to be a date of some kind. “This is the destination of time, otherwise known as where you’d be going if you were going to take this for a spin, which,” Twilight grabbed the camera and turned it to her revealing an extremely serious look on her face. “You won’t even think about doing without my permission, do you understand?”
“Yeah, Twilight, jeez,” Spike snapped off screen with a slight hesitation.
“I’m serious, Spike,” Twilight continued. “If I ever find out that you used this without my permission, you’ll be lucky if you escape my punishment with any scales left on your body. Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes, I get it,” Spike replied with more of an alarm off screen. “Why are you on edge so bad tonight, Twilight? You never threaten me, at least not with something that serious.” Twilight’s hard face softened and she looked at the floor of the carriage, refusing to look back into the camera. After a short moment of awkward silence, Twilight leaned in and kissed Spike’s forehead off screen.
“I’m sorry, Spike,” she apologized, still not looking into the camera. “It’s just, this is the most important thing we’ve ever had to work on. And I’ve been working on this for so long, perhaps too long. I guess all the stress and fatigue is getting to me.” Twilight looked back into the camera. “This is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever taken part in,” she squeaked. But before Spike or Derpy could say a word, Twilight shook her head and sighed. “But what’s done must be done. Can you film the dashboard, Spike?”
“S-sure thing, Twilight,” Spike said off screen and turned the camera back to the dashboard.
“Now, as I said,” Twilight said off screen with her hoof pointing at the top date. “This is where you’d go. Now this,” Twilight’s hoof pointed at the middle date. “Is where we are right now.”
“More like when we are!” Derpy joked as she bobbed her head in front of the camera. Another awkward silence set in and Derpy’s joyful face immediately turned sad. “I’ll be quiet.” She ducked back out of frame.
“As I was saying,” Twilight continued off screen. “This is where we are, our current time. And this,” Twilight pointed at the bottom date. “Is where you were, y’know the last time period you came from. Just in case you did something unspeakable and need to go back and change it to avoid a time space continuum paradox that would result in the utter implosion of the entire universe.” The camera slowly turned towards Twilight who was still looking at the dashboard. When she realized the camera was back on her she turned to it and smiled embarrassingly. “Or not.”
“So wait,” Derpy asked as she popped up from behind Twilight. “Why am I here again?”
“I was getting to that,” Twilight snapped. “Look behind us.” They all turned to the seats and looked at the glowing symbol, that looked exactly the 5 pointed star that is the symbol for the Elements of Harmony, over it. “You see, when we feed the fuel into the carriage, it is pumped through this, the FiM capacitor.”
“FiM?” Spike asked off screen.
“It stands for Friendship is Magic, Spike,” Derpy snapped off screen. “You’d think he’d know that by now or something.”
“Uh,” Twilight said off screen. “Yeah. Anyway, this is the thing I remembered when Derpy crashed into me. The FiM capacitor is one of the vital missing ingredients to total time travel. It needs concentrated friendship to be absorbed into it. That’s where Derpy comes in.” There was the sound of somepony exiting the carriage and Derpy and Spike were soon behind her. Twilight was standing in front of the carriage with a confused Derpy as Twilight was levitating a briefcase from inside the carriage.
“Mares and gentlecolts,” Twilight said as soon as the briefcase was on the ground in front of her. “Behold,” The briefcase’s locks opened and a vial of rainbow colored liquid was levitated out of it. “Pure concentrated friendship!”
“It looks like you found some of Rainbow Dash’s shampoo,” Spike remarked off screen.
“This is concentrated friendship,” Twilight insisted. “But it is from Rainbow Dash. You see, I was also researching the Sonic Rainboom at the time, and what exactly are the properties of the molecules in a rainbow created Sonic Rainboom. It turns out they are super charged molecules containing particles that could elevate any unicorn’s magic level to alicorn by merely digesting them, and although the effects are temporary the discovery was groundbreaking nonetheless. Through means, I’d really not like to talk about, I managed to obtain some of the particles from one of Dash’s Rainbooms and –”
“Wait,” Spike interrupted off screen. “Does that mean you…uh…y’know…with Rainbow Dash?”
“What?” Twilight asked. Then as she understood what he meant her face grew bright red. “What, no. Sweet Celestia, no! Never, not in a million years. How would that even work, the Sonic Rainbooms cause explosions and crack boulders in half.”
“Hey, you’re smart,” Spike said off screen. “You could’ve found a way and –”
“I didn’t, okay?!” Twilight cut him off. “The point is that I got the particles.” Twilight continued in a more calm demeanor. “Now what Rainbow didn’t know is that this means that when she does a Sonic Rainboom she’s ripping the very current action of friendship into visibility.” Twilight smiled to Derpy. “So here you go.” The vial floated over to Derpy.
“Uh, what am I supposed to do with that?” she asked.
“Drink it, duh,” Twilight said.
“I really don’t want to do that,” Derpy replied.
“Derpy, only pegasi can properly pull this carriage through the air and along the ground,” Twilight said. “So,” She pushed the vial onto Derpy’s cheek. “Drink this!” Derpy sighed.
“Alright, alright,” Derpy said reluctantly. Derpy took the vial in her hooves and closed her eyes. Derpy slowly and shakily brought the vial to her lip as Twilight looked on expectantly. But just as the rainbow liquid was about to enter her mouth, Twilight remembered something.
“Wait!” she cried out. “I’ve got to set the time.” Twilight chuckled to herself. “C’mon Twilight, get your head in the game. We wouldn’t want Derpy lost in time itself by accident, would we?” Derpy’s eyebrows shot up as Twilight climbed into the carriage. Derpy pulled the vial away from her lips.
“I’m starting to think Twilight might’ve gone a bit crazy,” she whispered.
“Not any crazier than that Doctor pony you hang out with,” Spike retorted off screen.
“Hey, you leave the Doctor out of this,” Derpy snapped. Twilight trotted back to them with two digital watches levitating next to her.
“Spike, come over and film this,” Twilight called. Spike walked over to her and zoomed in on the stopwatches. “Note that both watches are in complete and total synch with one another.” And it was true as both watches simultaneously changed from 12:34 am to 12:35 am right before the camera. Spike zoomed out as Twilight placed one of the stopwatches around Derpy’s back hoof. “Okay Derpy,” Twilight said as she strapped the reins of the carriage onto Derpy. “I need you to drink the friendship, and just try to fly around this area.”
“Uh, Twilight,” Derpy said nervously. “I’m actually not the strongest flier. Maybe you should’ve got Rainbow Dash or Thunderlane, or –”
“No Derpy,” Twilight insisted. “I need you. Believe me, I’ve crunched the numbers and you’re the only pony that can properly assist me in this test run.”
“Really?” Derpy and Spike exclaimed in complete disbelief.
“Yes, really,” Twilight said as she started to beg. “Please, Derpy. I need your help.” And with that, Twilight’s lip began to quiver. Derpy closed her eyes and looked away.
“No, please,” she begged. “Not those puppy dog eyes.” Derpy peeked at Twilight to see if she listened to her, but to no avail. “Fine, fine, fine,” Derpy said. “I’ll do it.” Twilight squeed and stood over next to Spike off screen. Derpy sniffed the vial and sneezed, with the friendship luckily staying in the vial. Derpy gulped, and then in one swing drank the entire vial with her eyes closed. A few moments passed, and then Derpy opened her eyes looking around expectantly. “Uh, Twilight, nothing happened. I think your ‘friendship’ might’ve gone bad or some –” Just then, Derpy’s face glowed a bright yellow in the darkness. She gasped in surprise and then her body began to lurch from side to side as the rest of her body matched her bright yellow. The yellow was soon replaced by blue, then red, then orange, green, purple, and finally indigo. The color changes began to accelerate across Derpy’s body to the point where it causes a sort of strobe effect. Suddenly Derpy took off into the air with the carriage behind her. Spike whistled in awe, but then yelped in fear as Derpy’s flight pattern became extremely erratic. Suddenly the camera dropped and everything was on its side as Twilight, Spike, and Derpy screamed on and off screen. Claws and hooves ran in front of the camera as the wheels of the carriage closely zoomed past the camera. The camera was kicked a few time and the world spins from left to right until finally Derpy flies towards the camera screaming and before she was about a foot or two from crushing it, there was a multicolored explosion with a rainbow circle fleeting from the center of it. And with that, Derpy was gone, along with the carriage, and the only thing left behind were two rainbow fire trails. For a long moment there was nothing but silence.
“Please tell me you got that on film,” Twilight said off screen. There was the sound of claws walking on the dirt and the camera was picked up, bringing the world ride side up and on level.
“…I’m going to say yes,” Spike said shakily off screen. There was a pause. “Twilight? Where’s Derpy?” The camera turned to Twilight who had a face of slowly growing joy.
“The future Spike,” Twilight said. “The future…one minute in the future to be exact.” Twilight looked down on the ground. “That last part might’ve taken out some of the dramatic weight,” Twilight walked over to the fire trails. “But it worked.” She leaped into the air. “IT WORKED!!! After so much time, so much work, the machine, its functional! I’ve done it, I’ve completed the lost work of Stars Swirl the Bearded!” Twilight continued to swell in her achievements as she bounced around like Pinkie Pie as Spike continued to film the aftermath.
“Jeez,” Spike said off screen as the rainbow fire trails’ bright colors muted away into the gray smoke that floated into the heavens. Spike lost track of how long he did this, but the trails had died down into flickering embers by the time he asked, “Uh, so what happens now?” Twilight stopped bouncing and looked at Spike.
“Well Derpy will come back when the minute’s up,” Twilight explained. She checked the stopwatch that now levitated next to her. “Which should be in about,” Twilight’s eyes suddenly widened. “Look out!” She tackled Spike, sending the camera flying into the air and landing on its side just in time to get a sideways view of another multicolored explosion and Derpy appearing out of it and slowing to a stop.
“Ugh,” Derpy groaned dizzily off screen. “That was a lot rougher than the Tardis.” There was the sound of somepony running up to Derpy and soon Twilight’s hooves were close to the camera. Suddenly everything went purple.
“Spike, I need you to film this,” Twilight asked off screen as the camera levitated to Spike and the world was right side up once more. Derpy had collapsed with her eyes spinning more than they usually do. Twilight held up Derpy’s hoof with the stopwatch on it as her own levitated next to it. Twilight’s stopwatch turned from 12:36 am to 12:37 am in front of the camera whereas Derpy’s stopwatch turned from 12:35 am to 12:36 am. “Derpy’s stopwatch skipped over the minute,” Twilight exclaimed off screen. She laughed and hugged Derpy. “Thanks Derpy, I owe you one.”
“Derpy,” Spike asked off screen. “Are you okay?” Derpy responded by vomiting a rainbow liquid onto the ground.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Twilight said happily off screen. And with that static. Nothing but static.
