Minuette grimaced as she blocked another strike with the magical edge of her sword. The soldiers surrounding her were dressed in blue and silver armor embossed with the symbol of a compass.
"I could use a little help over here, Starswirl," she shouted towards the other unicorn, who had projected a shield around himself and the machine, leaving the soldiers to focus on her.
"I'm sorry. Would you rather we fight our way through an entire army, or I fix this hunk of junk and get us out of here?" he snarked back as she finished off a soldier with a stunbolt.
Fighting for every inch, she made her way over and set her back against the dome.
"What year are we in, anyways?"
"Looks like," he paused for a second as he navigated the complex readouts of the machine, "1003 After Discord."
"That can't be right. I came from 1003, and Ponyville wasn't an active warzone, last I checked. Unless..."
"... unless we've ended up in a parallel timeline," she and Starswirl finished at the same time.
Fighting with renewed vigor, Minuette felt real hope for the first time on this damnable adventure.
It would be quick. She just had to grab Starswirl, bring him to the future for a quick meet-and-greet, then dump him in back in the past with none the wiser. It definitely wasn't a responsible use of time magic, but the timeline was tougher than many ponies gave it credit for, it could withstand a little meddling here and there. Plus, she was doing it for a good cause.
Having psyched herself up, Minuette stepped through the portal the machine had created and into the past.
Ponyville apparently hadn't changed much in the past thousand years. Looking around, she was met with the same thatch-roofed architecture as in the modern day.
She winced as she heard a deafening crack of thunder and turned around to see a singed machine with no portal.
Minuette and Starswirl stepped through the portal and into darkness. It quickly closed behind them with a characteristic thunderclap almost concealing the metallic echoes their steps made.
Minuette conjured up an orb of light, but almost dropped the spell in surprise. She was face to face with a statue of Discord. She squeaked and stumbled backwards into Starswirl.
"Sorry. I was surprised to see that face here."
Starswirl grunted noncommittally.
On closer inspection, she could see that the statue was half buried in a mountainous pile of bits.
"What the hay?"
That was when the alarms came on.
"Are you sure you don't wish to surrender now, pony? You would only be sentenced to a lifetime of servitude as befitting your place as an inferior being."
"I wish they had taught us more about the draconic period in history class," she grumbled to Starswirl.
"I wish you knew when to keep your mouth shut."
"Ashbringer, Lord of the Green, over there seemed inclined to impress us into serfdom anyways. At least this buys you some time to tinker with the machine."
"Whatever. Just try not to lose the honor duel."
As Starswirl walked off, she returned her attention to the arena that the dragons had dug out of the stone frightfully quickly.
Other than her opponent, a referee and a handful of spectators had arrived, all of them dragons.
"The pony may pick a weapon if it so choses. The dragon, of course, has no need," the referee intoned as he brough out a rack of weapons. All of them showed battle damage, half were charred.
Picking up the most intact spear she could find and giving it an experimental twirl with her magic, Minuette turned to face the dragon.
"Let's do this."
"Would you care to explain to my brother and I, how the two of you arrived inside our security vault?"
"We'd very much like to know."
Minuette looked from the two well-dressed stallions to the strange mechanical ponies that had escorted them here, then met Starswirl's gaze.
"I don't mean to offend, but should I know you two?" the old stallion started, "We're from... out of town."
"How amusing, brother, the robber takes us for idiots."
"Or maybe not."
"Very well, if they truly don't know."
The brothers broke into a fast-paced song.
"He's Flim."
"He's Flam."
"We're the world famous Flim-Flam Brothers. The most powerful ponies in Equestria."
"You know, Flim? I just don't think it has the same ring as the old one."
"Regardless, you were saying about how you arrived into our vault? I assume that the machine you left inside is somehow involved?"
"You won't be getting that back, by the way. You couldn't take it if you wanted to.The only two keys to that vault are around his neck and mine," Flam bragged, gesturing to his necklace.
"Maybe we should just dispose of them, and dissect the machine ourselves, brother. It has been a while since we've thrown anypony out of our penthouse windows."
It was at this moment that Starswirl grabbed the key with his magic.
Minuette was right on his tail.
Minuette had never felt more panicked in her life. Maybe that bookworm was rubbing off on her in the wrong ways. She had meant to get Twilight a Hearth's Warming present earlier, but things kept coming up and she forgot.
She just had to find a gift that was good enough for the most amazing mare in the world before tomorrow. No problem.
She kept racking her brain, but she just couldn't come up with anything. Well, anything except for a very, very stupid idea.
"I have never been gladder that the future is not set in stone," Minuette panted out between breaths as hundreds of Flimdroids and Flambots filled the space she had been mere seconds ago. "It's another left up here, I think."
As one of the mechanical ponies closed with her, arms protruding from its back holding out weapons.
With a burst of telekinesis, Minuette tore one of its arms free and turned the magically edged sword against its former wielder.
"Shouldn't be much further to the vault from here."
They came to a narrow hallway.
"I'll hold them here for as long as I can, Starswirl. Hopefully that'll be enough time to get the machine running."
"This faulty time machine of yours completely messes up the flow of time in its wake. If you ever want to get back to your original time, you have your pick between finding the correct frequency by trial and error or taking the long way around... Stop looking at me like that. There is no way I'm getting tangled up in this mess you've made."
"...and if we're in a parallel timeline, it's a lot simpler to jump back to mine than it is to jump through time without a navigator."
"Exactly right, Minuette. Just hold these fellows off a few seconds longer and you'll be home before you know it."
Fighting on with renewed vigor, the few seconds before the portal opened felt like an eternity. It opened all the same, and Minuette and Starswirl vanished into it, leaving behind the confused soldiers.
Stepping out of the alleyway where the machine had deposited them, Minuette saw the library standing there in the middle of Ponyville. A lantern still burned in the downstairs window.
Minuette couldn't stand waiting a second longer, and galloped forward, nearly knocking down the door as she burst in.
"Minuette! I was so worried," Trevor Sparkle started.
Minuette however was already closing the door as she galloped back to Starswirl.
Another quick temporal jump later, they were in the correct timeline, probably.
Minuette burst into the library to see a worried looking Twilight pacing the floor.
"Minuette! I was so worried. You disappeared yesterday and-" Minuette cut her off with a hug.
"I was just picking up some last minute presents. I'm sorry I scared you, but I have a friend waiting outside I think you'd like to meet."
