Author's Note

Disclaimer: There will be cuteness and mushy stuff in this chapter! If you like cuteness and mushy stuff by all means read ahead and enjoy!

Buckle Up Buttercup

As Hitch held onto one of the rusted chairs, the large viewscreen in front of them flickered on, showing an outside view of the area in front of them.

"WINTER!!" Hitch yelled, "IF THOSE PONIES SEE THIS SHIP, ITS GAME OVER FOR THIS TIMELINES FUTURE FOR SURE!"

Sunny stumbled around on her hooves as the ship groaned and creaked, shifting this way and that as it unsteadily hovered into the air.

"Woah!" She shouted, tripping backwards into a console by the bridge door.

"AUTOPILOT DISENGAGED, CLOAKING INHIBITORS ONLINE"

A deep sounding robotic voice boomed through the ship, as it steadied and remained floating in the air. Sunny and Hitch panted, as they let go of their respective consoles and looked at Winter. The cyborg was shaking his head as he stood up.

"Shit.. that was wild," he said, "did we actually go anywhere?"

Hitch looked out the viewscreen which was shrouded in thick trees.

"I think so, but I'd say not high enough to break the treeline."

Sunny went over to a glowing console next to the command chair and looked at it. She couldn't make heads or tails of the language, but she could see there was a 3D image of the ship in its current state. A light blue glow pulsed around its hull on the screen.

"Yo Winter, what does this mean?" She asked. Winter trotted over and looked at the screen.

"Well I'm no expert on this technology yet, but I'd say the computer activated a cloaking device when we took off. After all, it did adapt to our language and speak Ponish. So maybe it responds to what we need."

Hitch followed Winter and also peered at the screen.

"So how do we land this thing?"

The cyborg turned to the adjacent console and looked at the display.

"Not sure, but I bet we can give it commands and it will follow them." Said Winter, looking up at the viewscreen. "Computer," There was a weird beeping noise as he said this, "take us forward 3 miles, altitude 1200 feet, speed 70 miles per hour."

The computer beeped back at Winter and the craft surged forward, causing Sunny and Hitch to fall backwards.

"Oof!" Sunny said as she landed on top of Hitch. The sheriff let out a puff of air as Sunny's weight came down on him.

Hitch, who had just had the wind knocked out of him looked up at Sunny as she regained her balance. The alicorn looked back down at him and chuckled softly.

"Sorry Hitch," She said apologetically, standing up.

"No worries," he said, moving out from under her and standing up. From afar, Winter watched the scene. The cyborg could easily tell they liked each other but neither had the guts to admit it.

"Oh for fuck's sake you two, would you just kiss already and make it official? That fall onto Hitch was cliche as hell." Winter said, scoffing and turning his attention back to the viewscreen.

Sunny and Hitch blushed and looked at one another.

"Hitch I-"

But before Sunny could say anything else, Hitch leaned in and gave Sunny the softest of kisses on her lips. After a few seconds the sheriff pulled back and smiled. The alicorn was taken off guard for a second or two, but quickly regained her composure and wrapped her hooves around Hitch, pressing her lips firmly against his as he embraced her back.

Winter eyed the scene from his peripheral vision.

"Yayyyy, way to go you twooo," he said sarcastically, making a barfing motion with his hoof and mouth.

Sunny pulled back and looked up at Hitch.

"How long?" She asked.

"Since the night we camped out with Izzy, Pipp, and Zipp on our way to Bridlewood," he admitted. "I realized when you gave me that smile, that my love for you was more than what friends share. It's what changed my mind and made me stay. Plus, I didn't want to see you get hurt Sunny."

Sunny blushed and hid her face in the sheriff's neck.

"Oh Hitch.."

Winter coughed from the otherside of the bridge.

"Coughcough geta room coughcough."

Hitch peered over at Winter and laughed a little to himself.

"I thought you were a romantic Winter? Didn't you mention something about your cuddly wuddly snookie bear on our way to the UFO?" The sheriff asked.

Winter blushed slightly, the LED panels in his cheeks registering his embarrassment as he waved a hoof dismissively.

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about. I said nothing of the sort."

Hitch rolled his eyes and smirked at the cyborg.

"Riiiiiight... I'm sure Snowdrop will tell us something completely different when we restore her chip." He said sarcastically.

Winter made a pouty face and turned back toward the monitor.

"Just focus on the task at hand, finding Twilight and rescuing her." Said the cyborg.

Sunny and Hitch looked at one another and smiled, before joining Winter at the helm.

~~~~~

Twilight looked around at her surroundings. It was Canterlot, for sure. But the buildings were older, many of the shops she knew during her rein as Princess were not there. Instead empty lots and trees stood in their place. The Princess of Friendship looked at her temporal watch, tapping it with her other hoof a few times as it sparked and leaked black smoke. Letting out a sigh, Twilight lit her horn and tried using a spell to fix the technology. The watch stopped leaking smoke and glowed as the princess looked at it hopefully. However, all hopeful thoughts were diminished when the watch sparked brilliantly and fell off her hoof, exploding in short puff of smoke that left nothing but a small burning crater in its wake.

"Ughhh.. You've GOT to be kidding me," Twilight said to herself, poking the burned dirt with a hoof before sighing and poofing away to a safe place to hide. Nopony could see her. Or she would risk completely disrupting the timeline. And she remembered ALL TO WELL, the trouble she went through trying to repair the timeline after Starlight fucked it up for revenge. Reappearing in a darkened alleyway, Twilight peered out into the street. Luckily there wasn't any pony around or they might have seen that little incident. She had no idea what had happened to her watch, one minute she was traveling through time and space, and the next she was spit out here. On top of that, she didn't even know WHEN it was. She did know however it was extremely dangerous to be in the same time period as your past self. And from the looks of things, this was right around the time the Grand Galloping Gala was taking place. It had been her first one ever. Creating a cloak to cover herself with, Twilight hid her crown in her pocket before turning around and trotting down the alley. She needed to find the crash site before-

But before she could take another step, she felt herself de-materializing and then re-materializing.

"Oh shit!" She cried out, stumbling forward a couple steps before falling onto a hard cold surface.

"Damn it Hitch! I said go EASY with the transporter. You have to slide the lever slowly," said Winter, trotting over to help Twilight up.

"Well SORRY if I don't know how to operate ancient alien technology WINTER."

Twilight looked up at the familiar face of ELM-581, better known as Winter.

"Winter! Are you a sight for sore eyes," said the princess, accepting his hoof and giving him a quick hug. "I thought I was gonna be stuck here forever. My watch it-"

"I know I know, it's good to see you too Twilight. I brought along a couple of friends. Hope that's okay?" Said the cyborg, nodding to Sunny and Hitch. Both of whom waved and smiled. Twilight nodded.

"Of course, it's always better to have friends around to help you. Especially when it comes to matters such as this." The Princess of Friendship took off her cloak and placed her crown back upon her head. "I see you found the ship, any luck extracting the chip?" Winter shook his head.

"No, but we figured we'd just modify the ship to make the jump back. Then we could take all the time we needed."

Twilight nodded, "then there's no time to lose. Let's get the preparations ready to jump back."