Flux Capacitor really screws it up this time, when she takes two annoying stallions back in time with her! What will be the results of her actions?
Flux Capacitor is from another dimension Gallifrey. But when an innocent game throws her into a world of candy-colored horses, the game becomes a little more intense! Read on as our little filly travels through this new found land!
I've always had a backstory for every single one of my characters, where everything ties together. But none of my characters have such a rich backstory as Flux Capacitor. So, over the course of however long it takes to tell this story, I'll try to post one part of the story at most and at least every week.
Gallifrey Flux's name isn't Flux. She also is not a timepony, she's a timelord. As in human-looking timelords.
A time tot, just 7 years, has already been assigned what she will do as a Gallifreyan. She is one of the lucky few children who will master in time travel, hence her name, the Traveler. Sadly, her twin brother will major in a different job. Her brother's name is the Engineer. You can imagine what his name means. Most stories of twins tell about how close their bonds are, that they go through the thick and thin together. Not Traveler and the Engineer. The Engineer is an absolute HORRID twin brother, always doing what he can to make his twin sister's life terrible. I suppose their job separation isn't so bad after all. The poor Traveler tries to ignore her brother's bad attitude, as she knows how lucky it is that they are twins.
The Traveler is running. From her brother, as she thinks they are playing tag. They are in the Traveler's school for time travel. They run right into the room with a huge metal portal, being studied by many teachers. It looks like a vortex of different shades of violet. The Engineer's mad side takes hold of his mind, and headbutts the Traveler right into the vortex, taking himself as well.
"ENGINEER! What did you do that for?!" "I just thought it would be a nice twin bonding moment. Being thrust into a whole 'nother dimension, with only each other to survive," he laughs a bit evilly with a smirk on his face. "Only, we won't have each other!"
He sees a split in the path, and takes the chance to inflict emotional and/or physical pain on his sister. The Engineer pushes the Traveler down the smaller path, hoping it takes her to a horrible place. Little does he know, after all the years of causing his twin's suffering, things will start looking down for him.
1640, Riverside Drive, Hill Valley
The Traveler is thrown out of a temporary portal onto hard wooden floor. As soon as it appeared, the portal disappears, leaving the Traveler stranded in this new dimension. She tries to get up, but struggles. She stumbles, then sees something terrifying. HOOVES. And they're dark grey! She finally concentrates a moment to figure out how her new body works, then stands up with all four of her hooves. She notices how much shorter she feels, it's quite unsettling. The Traveler slowly puts her hooves forward, trying to not be overwhelmed by the two new legs she must to control. She finds her way to a mirror, and is surprised by what she sees. A short, gray mare looks back at her. She has a black, silky top mane, and her neck mane and tail are dark gray, darker than her coat. Her eyes are black as well, quite an unusual eye color. It's all too much to take in at once. The Traveler lets out a scream. "AHHH! WHAT..WHAT HAPPENED?!" Her screams attract the attention of the only other pony in the house. A pony we will discuss in chapter 2.
1640 Riverside Drive, Hill Valley Visible Light comes home with bags of food
Vis is busy cooking for herself. She is a kind mare, aged 25, and single with no foals. She is used to this. Vis isn't really a pony looking for love, but if given the chance, she would take care of a pony or two if she must. She frequently goes over what she has accomplished in her time, while she waits for her food to cook. She's a scientist, she works and makes money by inventing, and is in a family who does the same, and has made loads. A good portion of her money is inherited, as well was the fabulous mansion and property she owns. She goes over her latest invention when she hears a high-pitched scream, breaking Vis from her thoughts. Vis throws herself to the living room where the sound originates. To her surprise, a short, dark gray filly stares into a stand-up mirror.
"'Tis it?" Vis rushes over, "are you hurt?!"
The filly whips her head around as her eyes grew wide, and forgets whatever it was she was concerned about before. "Wow, a unicorn! And...you have rainbows in your hair! Back home they said they were fake, but boy are they wrong now!" Vis can sense something is amiss. This filly has never seen a unicorn? She can't be from another nation, she's a pony, not a horse or griffon. But even if she was, why would she be taught unicorns weren't real? Is she taught the same about pegasi, alicorns, earth ponies? Wherever the filly is from, Vis can tell she probably has no means of getting back home. She decides to do the right thing. Vis would become the filly's foster mother. She doesn't feel she can give her to anypony else, there's something special about this filly.
"What's your name?" Vis asks the foal. "I'm the Traveler!" The Traveler answers eagerly. "Well, 'Traveler,' for as long as you are here, I will take care of you. You must be starved, come with me." Vis turns and leads the way to the kitchen. She mutters under her breath, "Yes, you certainly must be quite the traveler...."
6 years later The Traveler is now aged 13.
The Traveler is home schooled. It's been quite the change for her, as she used to be in a public school as a young timelord. But that's just it. The Traveler doesn't even remember her origins, or her first encounter with Visible Light. You may think she would remember something as important as that occasion, but she was seven years old. I certainly don't remember CRAP from when I was seven. But the Traveler thinks of Vis as her mother. Vis has also grown from this change, she's learned to be more patient, and how to teach others important life skills. She teaches the Traveler in Science, Maths, History, Language Arts, and Debate. However, the Traveler started being interested in Physical Ed when she was eleven, when she found Visible's weight training room. While Vis never uses the room, the Traveler uses it frequently. Vis even started taking the Traveler to a public gym for better equipment. And the Traveler got excited about these visits. It was a time where she got to meet other ponies. Today was a special day though. The Traveler's interest in strength training would spark her interest in inventing and science.
The Traveler walks into the gym doors for her usual weekly workout. While her visits aren't excessive, she works herself hard in every department of the gym. Except one place, the pegasus workout place. And why would she? The Traveler is a simple earth pony, what can their machines help her with? And even so, every time she passes by the room without entering, her curiosity grows stronger. Today, she decides to inspect the room. The Traveler walks into the room, and almost instantly regrets it. "Hey, who let the flightless PIG in here?" One pegasus shouts. It draws all attention to the Traveler. "I uh....was just...." she panics, as she desperately tries to conjure up a reason to be there. Then it hits her. "I am here to study pegasi for my next invention, of course! Why else do you think I come to the gym so often?" The Traveler blurts out, which raises a lot of eyebrows. "Uhmm....I'm working on makeshift....distinctive parts of certain pony breeds for ponies who want to be another breed or lost their identifying qualities. Like, a pegasus who lost their wings would need new ones....?" As shifty as her excuse sounds, the pegasi just accept it and go back to their business. The Traveler is relieved, but now she has a statement to uphold.
5 months later
From that day forward, the Traveler pours herself into learning pegasus genetics, aerodynamics, nerves, and wings in general. She starts producing a pair of metal wings two months into her studies. She even skips every single weekly workout to keep at her studies. And finally, today, the work will pay off. In front of the Traveler lies a pair of stainless steel, five-"feathered" wings. Vis stands next to her.
"You sure you want to go through with this? You don't have to prove yourself to passersby at the gym..." Vis says. "Of course! I may have started out wanting to prove myself, but now it's about science!" The Traveler exclaims. "I'm ready." Vis picks up a needle full of a liquid that will put the Traveler down until she is done. She injects it into the Traveler, and puts a breathing mask on. Visible Light will spend the next few hours surgically installing the wings into the Traveler.
June 20, 1983 The Traveler is aged 15, and has been spending months getting used to the wings.
The Traveler is out, looking at the sky. She is thinking about what to accomplish next. She can take off, land, glide and just fly with her wings. And she even got over her fear of heights. It was kind of a trap for her, wanting to fly yet being afraid to. But she can't fly too fast. And that is precisely what the Traveler will practice today.
"This is the last key to finishing up my research...and who knows, maybe when I'm done with this, I may take a liking to these tacky old things?"
The Traveler actually dislikes her final product. The wings are kind of a burden for her to take care of. They are made of an aluminum metal, one of the lighter metals on the table of elements. That's a large part of what makes her wings successful in flight. However, when she sleeps at night, the wings press against her body, and typically are cold. The wings absorb the temperature of where the Traveler is, and intensify it. If it's a hot summer day, you wouldn't want the wings pressed against your body. And at night and winter, the wings become almost as cold as ice. The wings are, however, helpful for picking things up. The Traveler never uses her hooves or mouth anymore, it's all her wings.
The Traveler sighs and bunches up her muscles, and pushes her wings down hard, getting her off the ground. She keeps a steady flap, which keeps her just a few feet off the ground. The Traveler then angles her wings slightly backwards, but still keeps them slightly faced downwards. This angle brings her upwards and forwards, in a diagonal line. The Traveler does a series of exercises for her wings, then when at the height of at least two clouds, she faces forward and flies as fast as she can. Previously, the Traveler took many crash landings trying different techniques for fast flying. She has finally figured out the correct way of flying. And boy, does she have barely any control over this new speed! She has an average wing power of 8.8.
"WOOHOO! Now THIS is flying!" The Traveler is abruptly stopped by a pegasus in a very strange getup. "Wha....do you need something?" She asks the pegasus. The pegasus replies in a deep voice. "You are the one who goes by 'The Traveler'?" "Uhm...yes. Why do you ask?"
The Traveler is starting to feel a sense of intimidation and fear from being around the pegasus.
"You'll be coming with me, then." The Traveler's eyes widen and about takes off, but the pegasus throws a hard punch, knocking her out. The pegasus catches her and lands, dragging her away.
Gallifrey, the ponified version
"Traveler...you awake? Traveler? We gotta go the boss pony is calling everypony...TRAVELER!"
The Traveler sits up, gasping for air, and sweating heavily. She's under the covers of a military bed, top bunk. There's a stallion holding himself up on the top bunk's border. He has a black coat and gray mane and tail, and he looks extremely curious.
"Who...who are you?" The pony starts to answer, but the Traveler shuts him up by speaking before he can. "Nevermind that question, it's a stupid one. Where am I?" The stallion waits a few seconds, making sure the Traveler won't stop him again, and answers. "Your at a military base on Gallifrey, of course. And...I know you said the other question was stupid, but I'm Hawk."
The Traveler takes a few moments to take in everything around her, then refocuses her thoughts.
"Gallifrey? What the heck is that? And why am I at it?" She asks sternly. "Because we're in a huge war right now and our side is losing troops FAST, so we started looking for any and EVERY timepony left," he continues, "Gallifrey is the planet at war. You're here because you're a timepony. They say you showed some potential in combat." Hawk notices the Traveler is giving him a confused look, and explains a little further. "Timeponies look like any old pony, except we have two hearts. And a few other features. Basically, you have two hearts, and you are a timepony."
The Traveler is about to scold the stallion for his ridiculous words, but they get cut off by a pony intruding in on their conversation.
"WHY are you two not in line? I called for everypony in line and they all came. Except you two. Do you think you're too special for MY call? Do you think this war is a JOKE?" The pony looks the Traveler and Hawk both in the eye as he speaks. Hawk looks nervous. "N-No sir! Sorry sir!" Hawk runs off and finds his spot. "And what about YOU, missy? Do you think you have the right to disrespect my word?" He intensely stares her down, but she just looks dumbfounded. "WHAT are you waiting for? Is your incapable equine mind still processing my words?" The pony obviously has little to NO respect for the Traveler. And that's a big mistake on the pony's part.
"EXCUSE ME? How DARE you get angry at me like that after you or one of your stupid little troops KNOCKS ME OUT and takes me to this stupid place BY FORCE? And you expect me to fight in your stupid little war that I know absolutely NOTHING about? There's not even a way I CAN be a timepony anyway, my mother isn't a timepony, and neither am I!" The Traveler is fuming, as the stallion looks a little freaked out, but he pulls out a scanner and scans her with it.
"What the HECK are you doing now?!" She growls. "This is my scanner. It can tell what species a pony is," he shows her the results, and it says 'timepony' on it. "Your stupid machine is BROKEN, then!" The stallion presses a button on the machine and shows it to her. The machine shows the scan of her body, and it clearly shows two hearts. It also shows her skeleton, her muscles, and her nerves. They seem to have partially spread into her wings. "This is what the inside of your body looks like. Two hearts, the distinctive identification of a timepony. Sorry to burst your little life bubble, but you must have a foster mother. She probably found you out of nowhere and took you in, not knowing what you were or how you got there."
The Traveler desperately tries to reassure herself that the stallion is wrong, but every point she tries to bring up in her mind just supports the stallion's explanation. She sighs, and gives up.
"You're probably right...."
She gets up off the top bunk and gets in line with the rest of the ponies, next to Hawk. Hawk smiles at her, and it oddly kind of cheers her up. The Traveler holds her head up high and takes a breath as the stallion from before gets up and starts speaking.
"Listen up, and listen hard, little ponies! Gallifrey is on the brink of destruction, and it is up to US to save it! Some of you may think you have this combat thing down. Well, let me be the first to tell you, you DON'T. ALL of you have an equal chance of getting killed as an experienced soldier. So, you must ALWAYS be on your guard." The stallion walks along the line of ponies and assigns them what they are to do. The stallion gets the to Traveler.
"YOU will be on the team of ponies to create new weaponry. You will also be a last minute soldier if needed. Your team is over there," the stallion points his hoof to a group of 4 stallions, one looking particularly bummed out, and the rest looking scared as heck. The Traveler walks over in an annoyed fashion.
".......This is crap! I should be a soldier, I should be FIGHTING, not inventing weapons that I should be using! Not to mention, I'm in the NERD group!" The stallion notices the Traveler coming to the group, and suddenly his expression and whining go from bad to worse. "Oh GREAT, now I'm working with a MARE! She probably doesn't know ANYTHING about war OR weaponry!"
The Traveler perks her ears up when she hears his complaints, and rushes over angrily. "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" She's all up in his personal space. "At least I'm not a WHINY BABY like YOU ARE! And I'll have you know, I know very much about inventing and combat! And I certainly know more about than YOU DO! You aren't a good soldier because you're a BULLY!" Her words and fury just cause the stallion put on a smirk that seems eerily familiar to the Traveler.
"You know what? I think I might take a liking to you in the future." The stallion stands up, keeping level with the Traveler's height, as they are both slightly short. "I'm the Engineer. And you are?" The Traveler still looks fuming as she answers in a low growl. "The Traveler."
2 Years Later The Traveler has been working with her team making new weaponry for the war
The Traveler looks outside of the lab, a worried expression on her face. The war is showing no signs of ending, and their small weaponry team is running out of ideas. They do, however, have a massive bomb they developed earlier that year. It is ONLY for dire situations.
"Traveler, why don't we just use the bomb? It could end this war in seconds!" The Engineer suggests. The Traveler takes this into consideration. While it would certainly end the fighting, it would also kill thousands of innocent ponies. Does the Traveler have the right to determine the fate of all those ponies?
"We don't have the right to kill all of our troops and citizens! And what if the bomb doesn't kill of the rest of our enemies?" The Traveler frets, as she's really starting to wind down. Another stallion answers. "We put the greatest possible amount of concentrated plutonium in it! If the explosion of the bomb doesn't kill our enemies, the radiation will!" "And besides, if we don't sacrifice a few thousand lives, many MORE lives will be lost than our bomb could ever inflict," the Engineer pushes for her to agree, as she had been nominated the group leader shortly after the team started working.
The Traveler goes over her options in her head. She hesitates and struggles to think of another way when she finally comes to a conclusion.
"We can release the bomb. But I'm going to have to get all of our troops and citizens out of harm's way that I can."
The team complies. The Traveler gets some gear on and runs outside, into all the fighting, dodging bullets and grenades. The Engineer and the rest of the team get in a large helicopter and equips it with the bomb, then takes off. They are waiting for a signal from the Traveler to release the bomb. The Traveler bumps into Hawk.
"Hawk! Thank goodness, you're alive! Listen, you need to help me with something, FAST!" She quickly explains to Hawk. "Of course, what is it?" "I need you to get all of our troops and citizens into a safe place, some place safe from explosions and radiation," "I'm on it!" Hawk has a determined look on his face as he runs off to inform everypony of the situation. The Traveler runs in a different direction to keep getting ponies to safe ground.
Hours pass by as the Traveler and Hawk meet up. The Traveler is panting, and her left ear is bleeding. "What happened to you?" Hawk asks in a concerned tone. "There's no time, it doesn't really matter. But listen, I don't know if we can get all these ponies to safety soon enough...."
The Engineer grows impatient as time passes. "She's taking too long! we just need to release this bomb right now, I don't care how many more citizens are down there!" The others look startled by his words. One stallion speaks up. "You aren't suggesting we release it while the Traveler is still down there?"
The Engineer looks at the others before jumping at the release button. All three of the others jump at the Engineer and hold him back, but their strength combined is still weaker than the Engineer. The Engineer breaks loose and presses the button, releasing the bomb.
"...Gallifrey will survive this loss of ponies-" the Traveler stops as she sees a LARGE explosion in the distance. "Oh no...RUN, HAWK!" The Traveler grabs Hawk and frantically flaps her wings. As soon as both of them are off the ground, the Traveler flies fast, away from the explosion, trying to evade the radiation approaching them quickly. Little does she know, the radiation has already hit them. The massive heat wave afterwards throws the traveler to the ground, forcing her to release Hawk. The Traveler starts panicking, as she can't see Hawk anywhere, and lies there helplessly. Her wounds are open to the radiation. The Traveler blacks out. And there's absolutely nothing that can save her.
Hawk awakes on the cold, hard ground. The last thing he remembers is the Traveler picking him up and running away from something; the rest of what happened is blank from his memory. He is standing in a field of devastation. Just a few yards away, a light grey pony lays unconsciously on the ground. Something is odd, however. The pony has weird looking five-'feathered' wings, which are darker grey than the rest of the pony's body. Her mane and tail are dark grey, except a few parts which are a very bright, neon blue...
"Traveler!"
He rushes over at the realization, and puts his hoof on her, as to shake her awake. He immediately recoils at the action. Her body is very cold. Not dead cold, no, it's more like light snow cold. She's not dead, she is clearly breathing very shallow breaths. as much as he doesn't want to, Hawk pushes his head under her side, and stands up with her on his back. He starts walking.
"I'm going to freeze my fur off...why do you look so, mutated?"
Hawk continues walking, desperately trying to think up a way to escape Gallifrey. Even if he does escape, how is he going to continue his life? Without the Traveler? He doesn't actually believe the Traveler will wake up. He doesn't even know why he's bringing her with him. Maybe he can salvage his memories of her, the good, the bad, the ugly times, if he doesn't let go of her. Maybe he can find a way out of the situation one last time with her, and she WILL survive this tragedy, and live the rest of her lives with him happily, and maybe-
His thoughts are interrupted by a loud and obnoxious noise. It sounds like the noise of a...type 40 TARDIS...defective...with its breaks left on? A blue box materializes right in front of his eyes. A light brown pony steps out. He has frizzy brown hair, a Stetson, and a VERY long scarf.
"Oh, I do apologize for scaring you like that! She loves to honk her own horn like that...I came here to look for any survivors of this whole incident...can you believe it? The weaponry team is able to just go around dropping bombs of mass destruction like that! Well, enough of me blabbering on, get in here!"
Without hesitation, the pony goes behind Hawk and pushes him in his TARDIS. He shuts the door and runs to the console.
"So who's the mare you carry with you? Is she your marefriend?"
A surge of blood rushes to Hawk's face in pure embarrassment, yet he grins slyly at the idea.
"N-No way! S-She's way outta my league!"
"I dunno, you both seem to be what they call...'neko' ponies? Visible fangs, an excess of fur...heck, you even seem to be the same breed of neko! You're both "Mane" coons!"
Hawk is desperately trying to change the subject.
"She's gonna regenerate! D-Do something!"
"Don't be ridiculous, the fact that she hasn't says something. But I can remove this...radiation back up from her, is it? It'll take a while. I can return you to where and when you need to go, just like that, and you won't have to worry about her one bit. Now, tell me, where are you headed?"
Before Hawk can object, the pony starts pressing buttons on the console and pulls a lever.
"We're here."
"What do you mean?! I didn't even tell you anything!"
Hawk walks over to the console and looks at the place and time period.
"...Oh. But...that doesn't mean I'm going to just leave her here with you! She doesn't even know you, and I don't know you, and I don't trust you!"
"I can tell where you're from. You're very obvious. Look, I know you're trying to protect her, and thanks for trying to, but we both know I can save her from regeneration, I'm the ONLY one that can, and you're going to be much happier if you leave things to me from now on. This is for the sake of both your futures."
Hawk tries to keep a stern look on his face, but his willpower slowly melts as the pony speaks. He lets the pony take the Traveler and walks out of the TARDIS, and watches as it dematerializes. He wonders how big of a mistake he just committed.
TARDIS
"Hello? Hell...o? Can you hear me? Well, I'm speaking whether or not you can. But this IS for you. Anyway, you need to hang in there. Your life is very important. You may not think it. You may want to let go of yourself, give up, and just let life go on without you. But you can't do that. You don't have the right to do that. It's not fair to the ponies' lives you need to affect. You're going to do great things in your life. You're going to do bad things in your life. But you have to stay long enough for those things to happen. I've seen your future. And I've seen worlds where you decided to give up now. And there's nothing I could do for those ones. But this is the world where you hang on. You pull through. You wake up. WAKE UP!"
The Traveler opens her eyes. Everything is warped and weird looking. She feels like she's floating. And there's a hoof right in front of her vision. She pairs her hoof up to it, and realizes there's a barrier between her and the outside world. She starts to panic, and the voice she heard earlier speaks again.
"Slow down, there's no need to get excited! I'll get you out!"
The unicorn presses a few buttons on the containment device. The liquids inside of it start to drain. When the container is fully drained, the glass keeping her in lowers. She lunges out, hostile, and turns around close to the ground, creeping up on the pony. He backs up, until he is pressed against the controls of the container, and takes his scarf off. This slightly offsets the Traveler. He walks calmly up to her, puts the scarf on her, and runs to the other side of the TARDIS. The Traveler whips around and chases him, but steps and slips on the long scarf. She runs after him again, this time watching her steps.
The Traveler chases the pony until he crawls under a large mirror. She stops immediately until she sees herself in the mirror.
"What...what happened?!"
The Traveler looks thoroughly at herself, and turns to her side. She stops dead in her tracks.
Her eyes shrink in shocked terror.
There's a cutie mark on her flank.
"I've got it. I'm DEAD!" the Traveler exclaims.
"No, but you gave it your best shot!"
The Traveler whips her attention back to the brown pony.
"What is this thing?"
"Well it's a cutie m-"
"NO, I mean what IS it?" The Traveler is getting impatient.
"Looks like that Flux Capacitor thing from Back to the Future..."
"HOW in the name of Mother Superious did I get a cutie mark based on something I know NOTHING of?! What am I expected to do, just drop EVERYTHING and start towards some unknown destiny?"
"You dropped everything for the Time W-"
"SHUT UP!"
The brown pony looks startled for a moment, and recovers as the Traveler starts pacing.
"Well it probably has something to do with wibbly wobbly stuff, your destiny possibly coming before it was supposed to? Because it has a special connection to you and realized you wouldn't get it any other time?"
"You're going to help me."
"Help you with wh-"
"Help me figure this whole 'destiny' thing out, of course! Now take my back to my house!"
The brown pony leans on the console. He pulls a lever. The TARDIS starts moving through time and space.
"I'm the Traveler, by the way."
The brown pony pokes at the console before looking the Traveler dead in the eye with a suddenly intense gaze.
"I'm the Doctor."
The Doctor explains to the Traveler what her cutie mark means shortly after he takes her home. She now has a vague understanding what she needs to do.
"I think...I need to make a time machine. Like, the one from that one show. What's it called? Into the Future or something?"
Most ponies would become severely cross with the Traveler for not knowing anything about the trilogy. But how can she help that the topic never came up?
The Traveler tries her best to build the time functioning parts of the machine. But she has very much trouble trying to build the "car" frame. She's never seen a car. It's such alien technology to her. That's when the Doctor goes about and finds her stuff she can't make herself.
"Where and HOW did you find this?"
"I have my ways...hehehe..."
The Traveler finds the Doctor's behavior weirder and weirder the closer she gets to finishing the project. She is certain he knows something that she doesn't. And it bothers her. But she doesn't bother asking.
The day has come. The Traveler, with the constant assistance of the Doctor, completes her project. She has successfully built a time machine out of a car. At least, she hope she has. The Traveler opens the car door, which opens up, and about steps in. She's stopped abruptly.
"WAIT!" the Doctor shouts. The Traveler is startled.
"'Tis it?!"
The Doctor steps up to the Traveler, and looks her dead in the eye.
"I have installed this car with artificial intelligence. But it's not like a robot, it's a real being with real emotions and will respond to you with hearts. But, not hearts. You understand. It can grow to like you. It can grow to hate you. It all depends on how you treat him. He can drive on his own, and can save you in times of need. I suggest you treat him well."
At this point, the Doctor is all up in her face, almost death staring her.
"...Okay...why do you need to say it so seriously?"
He jumps back to his usual light-hearted self.
"Oh, I don't need to!"
The Doctor steps out of their work space.
"I left you a small present. Well, it's big. WELL, it's small with great significance. Good luck."
He pauses.
"...You'll need it."
Before the Traveler can question him, the Doctor leaves. She soon hears the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing. She turns to the car.
The Traveler puts her two front hooves in the car. There's a small, slender metal device laying right in front of the time circuits. She inspects the device when the car door shuts and throws the rest of her body inside the car.
"HEY!"
The Traveler squeals with sudden resentment.
"What in the name of Mother Superious was that for?!"
The car starts itself up as if to be threatening. This makes the Traveler huffy.
"You think you're scaring me? Well, you've another thing coming! Try this on for size!"
The Traveler whacks the car horn and makes it go off. She startles herself and succeeds in enraging the car. The car suddenly drives backwards at a fast pace, terrifying the Traveler. She screams in terror.
"AHHH! S-STOP I'M SORRYYY!"
At once the car stops. It drives very slowly back to its original position. The car somehow seems to be amused by this.
"Okay...Okay. So we don't get along. That's fine. I spend years in a never ending war and get infected by radiation, mutating my entire body, getting a cutie mark in something I know nothing of, work an entire YEAR towards a destiny I don't even know about, all to be REJECTED by my supposed DESTINY?!"
The car just sits there silently. It seems ready to listen.
"That's what I thought. Maybe we need to be on the same level. That means you need a name? Okay."
The Traveler goes through a thinking process.
So this thing is a car...DeLorean, to be exact. What can I do with this? Lorean...Lori...Loki, maybe? I guess he can be Lori and Loki. Yeah, that sounds good...
"You're gonna be Lori! And Loki. Lori can be short for Lorean. Look at that, you're so special you get two names! Now, I'm gonna let the first place we go your choice. Surprise me."
Lorean processes this before setting the date. The Traveler presses a button above her. It makes the car levitate. She presses the gas, going higher in the air, and pushes the pedal harder for it to reach 88 miles per hour. She and the car soon disappear in a flurry of sparks.
1883
Lorean appears out of thin air in the year 1883. He and the Traveler are suspended high above the old town of Hill Valley. The car would be normally unnoticed. However, the transition was loud and bright. All eyes are on the car.
The Traveler panics and drives the car away. Too fast for anypony to follow. She finds a cave and parks the car in it. The Traveler covers the cave entrance with rocks and a few nearby dead bushes. She flies as far away from it as she can. She sees the start of the old Hill Valley, and casually descends. Before she lands, a unicorn tackles her out of air. He's very hostile.
"Who in the hay are you?!"
The Traveler is recovering from shock, as the pony speaks again.
"You're the one with the flying metal thing, aren't you?!"
The Traveler snaps out of her daze and replies firmly.
"No, I'm not. That's why I'm here. The dang thing has been appearing all over Equestria by surprise, causing fear and havoc. I've been sent by Princess Celestia to take care of the situation, and according to locals from the last town, the thing was headed in this direction. I presume you've seen it?"
Once again, the Traveler has performed greatly in the face of danger. She should be the Actress, rather than the Traveler!
The stallion continues staring her down for a few moments, then suddenly grabs her by the hoof and pulls her to a place. The Traveler resists every moment of it.
"H-HEY! DON'T DRAG ME!"
"You're with the royal guard, aren't you? A night guard? Or day guard?"
He takes her into his house and down the stairs. The Traveler is more uncomfortable than she's ever been in her entire life. The pony lights up his horn, fully lighting the room. The Traveler can't believe what she sees.
Dragons.
Baby dragons.
Running around like crazy.
The stallion pushes her further into the room, as the dragons of different shades and shapes and sizes crowd around her hooves. The Traveler squeaks in fear.
"Welcome to Hi-Fi's dragon emporium! I'm your host, Hi-Fi, and today we have a special guest! A mare from the royal night guard!"
The Traveler awkwardly looks around, looking for the pony Hi-Fi is looking for. Hi Fi continues in a normal tone.
"Today is the guard's lucky day. They're getting an unstoppable asset to their defense! I'm gonna give you a dragon to take back to the royal guard and you tell Celestia all about how dragons are invincible!"
"That's all good and well but-"
Hi Fi scoops up one of the dragons and sets it on the Traveler's back. She flies up to the ceiling.
"I..uhm...would rather have a stronger dragon. The Guard can use better than that."
The Traveler notices a slightly bigger dragon. It's the only one locked up in a cage. It seems very curious about her. It's a black, long dragon with gray, blue, and brown points. It has sharp claws and lots of pointy spikes. One of its eyes are green, while the other is a light amber. The Traveler approaches this dragon.
"Why is this one locked up?"
"He's got too much firepower. It's a different kind of firepower."
"I want him."
Hi Fi raises an eyebrow. He hesitates, and open the cage. The dragon bursts out and tackles the Traveler over. He spreads his wings out and seems to literally be staring into her soul. The dragon makes a connection between the two of them. He suddenly loses the intense look on his face and jumps off her. The Traveler gets up.
"What was that all about..."
Hi Fi begins to explain.
"That dragon just shared its abilities with you. You're able to do some of the things he can. It's a thing this breed of dragon does with other animals or dragons or even ponies! Now you're going to have to keep traveling. Dragons are known to be troublemakers, and dragons tamers and owners typically are frowned upon..."
"How do I get out of here then?"
Hi Fi uses his magic to levitate her right in front of a door.
"This is an exit underground. It'll take you far outside of town. I suggest you take it back immediately before going on after the flying thing? I'll take you through to the end!"
Hi Fi opens the door and runs in. The Traveler is forced to run after him. She closes the door after her with the dragon on her shoulder.
Hi Fi is soon nearing the end of the passage. The Traveler started flying quite a while back. Hi Fi is becoming more and more suspicious of her, she seems so...alien. But not in an extraterrestrial way. Back here it means foreign.
"What's wrong with your wings?"
The Traveler perks her ears up.
"...I'm a test subject. I'm an Earth Pony with artificial wings. They wanted to find a way to give wings the ponies who lost theirs in battle or protecting the princess so I offered myself for the future and they developed these things for me."
Hi Fi doesn't seem to actually believe her, but they reach the end of the passage. Hi Fi opens the door with his magic. They are both surprised by what they see.
Lorean is there. It's the cave where she hid him in. The Traveler rushes over and tries to cover the car and fails miserably.
"...You're not a royal guard, are you?"
The Traveler sighs.
"Can you keep a secret?" She asks.
"I suppose so."
"Don't attack me. I'm the pony who owns this complex machine. And I'm not from around here. I'm from the future, and this is my time machine."
Hi Fi looks like he's holding his breath.
"Will you help me get my contraption out of here? I'll be on my way right afterwards, out of your mane forever. No stress whatsoever."
She looks at him with pleading eyes. He can't seem to refuse her gaze. He silently uses his magic to move the barrier she had made and sets all the materials aside.
"Go on. I don't want to see your lying face." He feels very spiteful.
The Traveler opens the car door. She stands by it, while her dragon jumps in the passenger seat.
"You know, if you keep working hard, and your descendants as well, dragons WILL become known as friendly and respected instead of feared. And maybe, just maybe, your descendants may find me in the distant future. Make sure you stay in Hill Valley."
"Who are you?"
The Traveler's eye suddenly holds a visible spark.
"I'm...Flux. Flux Capacitor."
She closes the door and starts it up. She drives out before turning the flight ability on. The date is set. And she floors herself back to the future.
Author's Note
Okay so this is in the middle. I didn't have anywhere else to put it. I just wanted to say that we are officially heading into ROLEPLAY TERRITORY. Most of what happens throughout the rest of Flux 1's story happens in a roleplay. And I'm warning you all, some WEIRD stuff happened in it. Some stuff I'm changing or not including in it completely because it's too out of whack. So, if you ever get to a part in the rest of this story you think is stupid, just remember it is either vital to the Traveler's story or dummed down. It could have been a lot worse if I didn't change some of the things. And onto the next thing. From this point on, the Traveler is officially going to be referred to as Flux Capacitor. When narrating and when speaking.
2054
Lorean appears out of nowhere still at 88 miles per hour. Suddenly, there's a Pegasus right in front of the car. Lorean stops, which at the speed it was going at and instantly becoming stationary, throws Flux out of the front windshield.
"AHH!"
Flux screams in terror and desperately flaps her wings hard. She can't properly fly, however, because she's still in shock. Her wings are flapping around uselessly while Flux is falling right into a large forest.
Flux's useless flapping isn't completely useless, as it slows down her falling. She is thrown into the canopy of the forest. Her impact is hard, but not as hard as it would have been. Flux goes through a series of getting scratched and grabbed by vines and even stabbed by branches. It seems to take forever for her to reach the ground, but she finally hits the ground hard after being free of branches. Her vision is kind of messed up, she seems about to pass out.
Flux forces herself up. As soon as she takes a step, she collapses in pain.
"W-What...IS that?!"
Flux puts her hoof where the pain originates. She almost faints when she brings her hoof back up. It's almost completely covered in blood.
"Guess I'll just have to wing it..."
She crouches down and launches herself up with her wings. She stays up there for a second or two and falls back down with an omph.
"What the actual heck-"
Flux turns around and sees her wings are almost completely torn apart. Must have been the branches. Flux sighs and tries her very best to walk. She walks VERY slowly. Every once in a while she can manage to fly a little distance and lands and cringes every time. Eventually she finally makes it to the end of the forest as it opens up to civilization.
Two stallions are hanging around the entrance, they're looking clearly for something. One of them is the Pegasus that got Flux thrown out of the car. The other one looks extremely familiar. The familiar one runs up to her.
"You're the one who flew out of that flying car, aren't you? Are you okay?"
Flux hates the idea of being pitied by other ponies. She strides forward and shows no sign of weakness.
"I'm FINE! Just took a little tumble is all!"
She takes one more step and screeches in excruciating pain. Flux collapses on her belly.
"Oh my goodness, what do we DO?!"
The familiar pony frets. The Pegasus rolls Flux over and both ponies gasp when they clearly see the wound. It's a very long, deep cut, and it's bleeding enough to stain a good portion of Flux's belly fur. She breathes very quick, shallow breaths.
"She needs an ER."
The Pegasus oddly seems to be completely calm about the whole situation. The other pony teleports them all to an ER.
"SOMEPONY CALL 911 NOW SHE'S GONNA DIE!!"
A bunch of medic ponies rush and put Flux on a stretcher. They run her to a room. The entire time, Flux is vaguely aware of what's going on around her. And she's very afraid of what's about to be found out.
Fluxy is hooked up to heart monitor. She is passed out, and totally ratted out. The medic ponies soon find her irregular heart beat, being relayed by the heart monitor.
thump thump thump thump
As soon as they do, they take a scan to her heart. They find she has two hearts. They're appalled by this. They inspect the other aspects of her, finding she has also two livers and many other organs not even known to pony kind.
"Is this mare even actually equine?!"
"I'm sure these are all just tumors or something..."
"Are you kidding me?! How do you explain the orange-ish blood? Not to mention, it has no type! We've got to report this to Princess Luna, maybe she knows about stuff from other worlds!"
One of the medics swings the door open and stares at the ponies sitting outside in chair. They're the two stallions from before.
"Are you two related to her?"
"...Yeah!"
"Then you two are aliens too!"
"I find that very offensive, me and generations of my family have lived here in Hill Valley since the late 1800's!"
The Pegasus whacks his friend.
"Not that kind of alien!"
"Listen, this hospital is for equines only. We've never seen anything like this, and we don't know how to properly treat her. We've stopped the bleeding, and stitched it up. That's what's important. But we're not going to do any more than what we have."
Suddenly there's a ruckus going on in the room. There's a bit of yelling every now and then, and Flux slowly walks out with a bandage wrapped around her belly. She strides out and heads straight for the exit. The two stallions runs and catches up to her outside.
"They say you're an alien but I don't believe that! Tell me, are you an alien?"
The Unicorn says this confidently trying to convince himself that he's right.
"...No, they're right. I'm an alien from another dimension, bonus!"
The Unicorn and the Pegasus stop abruptly and look at her. Fluxy keeps walking for a moment and stops and turns around when she doesn't hear their hoofsteps.
"Look, it's not as weird of a thing as you think. I look like any other equine on the outside, speak the same language, and have mostly similar behavior. I just can withstand more things than the lot of you equines. I have a normal name like you all-"
"What's your name?" the Pegasus interrupts her.
"...Flux Capacitor. Who are you all?"
"Storm," the Pegasus replies in a refined tone.
"Hi Fi!"
The Unicorn reveals his identity. Hi Fi?! How could that be? Flux suddenly notices everything about him. The similar coat color, mane color, even slightly his mane style! And the most obvious giveaway, the dragon cutie mark! Flux hasn't really taken a good look at him until now. She has an obvious flustered look on her face.
"...Flux are you okay? Why does your face look like that?"
"He stayed! He actually stayed in Hill Valley! And you're his descendant!"
Flux paces around a bit.
"You! Hi Fi! I need to crash at your place so I can get...repairs!"
Hi Fi now has the flustered look.
"Yeah I suppose so..."
"Do you have a garage and some scrap aluminum?"
"Yes but-"
"GREAT! Let's go!"
Flux flares her clipped wings out and pushes off the ground. She gets a few feet in the air, and takes a hard fall. She starts out with a groan of pain and turns it more into a frustrated whine. Hi Fi rolls his eyes and walks to his house at a steady pace.
Hi Fi leads Flux into his house. Flux looks around. There's one stallion, probably two years younger than Flux, sitting on a chair. He looks particularly bored. Two foals run across the living room; one colt and one filly, presumably twins. There's a scent of fur and...a small dragon?
"HI FI!"
The piercing voice of a cross mare rings through the back of the house. It startles Flux out of her shoes, metaphorically speaking.
"Your stupid dragon burned the tip of my mane off-"
The mare stops abruptly and takes a good look at Flux.
"Who's this?"
"...Flux. She needed a place to stay for a while so-"
"She's not staying here,"
Hi Fi heats up a bit.
"She's staying here because she's injured and she's...unwelcome to the hospital."
"Fine, but she's your responsibility!"
"She can be my responsibility~!"
The 'bored' stallion is looking at Flux with a particularly fond gaze. Suddenly she feels extremely uncomfortable.
"How about I take care of myself in...the garage!"
Flux nervously exits the house and lets herself into the garage. She rushes over to a particularly large pile of aluminum. Some of it looks like armor...for a dragon?
She lifts up some of the scraps and is ambushed by a small dragon. It looks like the same species as hers, but even smaller. Flux falls backwards by surprise, and the dragon stands right on her belly fur. It sends an electrical shock right at her and runs out the garage door. Oddly enough, she seemed to have taken no damage.
Flux runs outside after the dragon. She lunges at it, but it takes flight right as she hits the ground. Flux angrily gives up, knowing she can't currently fly after it. She turns back to the garage and goes about her business, picking out good pieces of scrap metal and comparing them to her clipped wings.
Flux finds a good set of aluminum. She finds a chop saw and uses it to cut the metal to the right sizes and angles. She then proceeds to take the cover off her wings, revealing a weird, confusing, and annoying set of black metal pieces that make up the spines of her wings. Flux presses a button on both of her wings. It releases the 'feathers' from the spines so she can work freely with them. She puts on a welding mask and gets to fixing the feathers.
Hi Fi wakes up. He's under the covers on top his bed. He stretches and literally throws himself off the bed. He stands up shortly afterwards, and takes a long walk to the kitchen. Hi Fi opens the pantry in search for something breakfast related.
"Goodness, I wonder what that mare eats?"
Hi Fi goes out to the garage, feeling guilty he forgot that she was in there.
"Flux?"
He walks into the garage and sees Flux curled up and sleeping on the floor. His dragon is curled up laying on her, where her feathers are absent. It's just a wing spine.
Hi Fi walks over and shakes her awake. She looks kind of alarmed at first, then recovers when she realizes that Hi Fi is familiar. Flux looks at the wall clock.
"Three hours? I overslept!"
Flux gets up, waking the dragon. She does a good stretch and walks out the garage and back in Hi Fi's house. She starts rummaging through his food supply.
"Where are all your apples?"
Hi Fi opens a compartment of the fridge and pulls out a bag of red apples. Flux is very displeased with this.
"This is no good. Green apples are the best, you only have the red ones. We must go to the market at once!"
Flux jumps on Hi Fi's back and kicks him lightly to get him going. He sighs and painfully drags to the public market.
Flux and Hi Fi arrive at the market. She flares just her wing spines out and flaps them down. She has used her hooves to push her up. She shortly afterwards hits the ground with a thump.
"Oof!"
Hi Fi can't help being amused by this. Flux goes about her business buying some green apples with bits she keeps in her cutie mark pocket. They go back to the house, and Flux ravages the apples.
"So what's the deal with your wings? The feathers?"
Flux gives him an astonished look.
"You don't think those are real, do you? They don't even look real."
He looks slightly embarrassed.
"So did you lose your real wings or something and so some ponies made a pair for you?"
"No way. I made them myself in an act of arrogance. I'm an Earth Pony, not a Pegasus."
"You made them? I doubt they even work!"
Hi Fi and Flux both turn to hear the unannounced entrance of Hi Fi's adoptive step son. Flux challenges him back.
"Son, I'm in the business for inventing. I get paid for inventing things. Anything I make will very likely work fine."
"You're probably not even smart enough to be in school! You're only good for lookin' pretty!"
Flux gasps in disbelief. She reprises in anger.
"You wayward, ill-nurtured scut! You just watch me fix these wings up! And when I do, I can fly away from this beslubbering scene!"
Flux stomps her hoof at the last syllable. She runs on out to the garage and goes back to her studies.
A few days later
Flux strides straight out of the back door of Hi Fi's house. The inhabitants of it promptly follow her out. Flux turns and faces them.
"Well, beloved temporary family, I have finally fully recovered from my crash landing here! And, I am very much able to fly away from here, out of your lives, contrary to 'popular belief.'"
Flux glares at the son of the family when she says the last part. He already starts to protest.
"We all know you're wrong! Those wings are not aerodynamically possible, most likely! Who really thinks..."
She stretches out her wings as he blabbers on. She takes an attack stance, flaps her wings a lot for a charge, and flies straight for him. She grabs him and takes a sharp turn into the sky.
"Ahhhh!"
The Unicorn shrieks in terror. He's holding onto Flux like his life depends upon it. And, at their altitude, it does.
"Who's not aerodynamically possible now?"
"I-I'm sorry! You were right! J-Just get me down from here!"
As soon as she hears his apology, she slows down her flying. She calmly and gracefully descends back down to the ground, and safely lets him go.
His mother is absolutely horrified.
"How dare you? You could've killed him!"
"But I didn't, did I? Anyway, if you don't like it, no worries."
She pauses to look up at something in the sky.
"'Cuz I have no need to stay here!"
Flux promptly flies away from the scene. Hi Fi turns in concern to see Flux and his friend Storm and a dragon that looks similar to his own. Storm and Flux are having their own conversation in the sky.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well Hi Fi's dragon got loose and so I followed it here...but now I see it's just one that looks similar to his..."
"Yeah, that's because it's my dragon!"
"I didn't know you had a pet dragon! What's his name?"
"I just got him a week ago...or...something like that. So I haven't got a name for him yet."
Flux suddenly looks a little bit uncertain. She mutters to herself.
"How does this whole time thing work now..."
"What was that? Something about time?"
"I said nothing of the sort! Now, shoo! I'll be on my way!"
She flies in the direction of the forest she crashed in, and speaks when she's far enough from Storm, who has landed and is speaking with Hi Fi.
"I presume Lorean is all busted up? It would've been nice to stay there and fix it, but not after that mess! And we would've been at risk of being found out. I'll have to find some other place to work in private...A place like...my house!"
The two of them don't know that they're being followed by Hi Fi and Storm. Hi Fi is struggling to hold onto Storm, and they're both struggling to not bicker loudly.
Flux's dragon does a speaking thing in her mind. It's what comes with the whole "ability linking" thing.
He's actually up and running well. He was able to get himself to your future self for fixing.
"Woah! H-How are you doing that?!"
The ability share. Also, you may not have noticed, but you have the ability to attack things with lightning. Because that's what I can do.
"No way! I'm gonna try that out!"
Flux kinda tries a few different methods of attack before one of them works. A bolt of blue lightning shoots through the atmosphere and to the Earth. Somewhere, it hits a crazed stallion who looks as if he had become used to being struck by lightning.
"TWELVE TIMES! I'VE BEEN HIT TWELVE TIMES NOW! WOOHOO!"
"...Wonder what lucky object is gonna receive that...but I suppose we should head in the direction of my house?"
Storm is just close enough to hear those words, and hides in a puffy cloud just in time to avoid the sight of Flux and her dragon.
"Is it me, or does she seems completely based off of an entire movie trilogy?"
Storm shrugs.
"S'ppose we should follow her?"
Flux lands behind her garage, out of sight of the house. She looks a bit worried.
"Could you get Lorean? I...don't know if I exactly want to see myself in however many years."
Her dragon flies straight up to the door and enters. She talks to herself.
"I should really think of a name for him..."
Flux is interrupted by the rough landing of Storm. Hi Fi is happy to fall off.
"What do you two think you're doing?! Get outta here!"
"I was just concerned for your safety so I f-"
Hi Fi is interrupted by the front door of the house swinging open. Flux grabs the two of them and shoves them against the garage wall. She breathes heavily.
"...So I fixed the car to the best of my ability. I wasn't exactly the main producer of it, most the help came from a friend. Also, I know that the lot of you aren't planning on taking back those two stallions. But it's crucial that you take them back. History has to happen. Got it?"
Flux carefully peers around the corner. She is closely followed by Hi Fi and Storm, of which she whacks them both back with her wing.
"What are you hiding?!"
"We have a right to know!"
Flux pushes Storm to the ground and pins Hi Fi down. She has a hoof over his mouth. Her eyes have oddly turned a bright, menacing yellow, and are giving Hi Fi a death stare.
"If either of you two so much as look around that corner then Mother Superious help me-"
Flux stops in surprise to hear that her words are being perfectly copied at the same time she says them. She turns around to see herself leaning against the garage. Flux turns around with a slight maniacal look in her eyes.
"Buh-bye!"
She bolts into the air. Her future self looks up and starts counting down.
"And three...two...one...oomph!"
The younger Flux is hit by a bird as soon as her older self's countdown is done. She hits the ground hard. Storm and Hi Fi are pretty much freaking out.
"It's decided, we're going with you wherever you go now!"
Hi Fi seems pretty eager to leave his entire family. Storm debates him.
"What do you mean 'go with her'?"
"We all know at this point she's a time traveler! Her older self is here, so it must mean she's from the past! Think about what we could change about our futures, Storm! C'mon!"
Flux stops him.
"Woah okay let's slow down here! There is no way you're going to the past with that kind of mindset! I suppose you'll just hafta stay here with your wife and kids!"
The eldest Flux combats her.
"Sweetie, I would be a different pony today if you hadn't taken these two nutjobs back in time. You're gonna get some stuff out of it. You're also gonna lose a little something...a few things...but for the most part, it's all good. Besides, history has to happen, right?"
"Fine! Let's just get on with it...give me my car back!"
"Our car."
She opens the garage and pushes out the repaired Lorean. Flux gets in the driver seat, and her dragon forces himself in the small space behind it. Hi Fi and Storm struggle to get in on the other side. Storm falls out of the car.
"I should just leave him behind!"
Her older self goes back in the garage and comes out with a rope.
"That won't be necessary. Storm, on the roof! now!"
Storm reluctantly jumps on top of the car.
"Is this safe..."
"Don't be ridiculous! You've done crazier things than this! Or, you will, but...there's two...now...well it worked when I first did it, and that's all that matters!"
She tightly ties him to the roof of Lorean. She looks around and whispers to him.
"Look out for Hi Fi back there...and, well, yourself."
She flies out of the way and mutters to herself.
"Ruining my own life..."
Flux gives herself a positive signal for them to go.
"Date set, time circuits on...time for an adventure!"
