Uninvited guests in Harmony 16
Year 3205, 200 lightyears from the Unicorn Nebula
A lot had changed in the 2,000 years following the rise of the Elements of Harmony. Following the passing of her friends, Princess Twilight had moved on from her sorrow and moved to make the legacy of her friends something that could benefit ponykind. As time grew, so did her horizons and access to technology previously found in the human dimension.
The computer tablet that Sunset Shimmer had given her following their first victory against the Tartarus escapee Tangled Minds bore more fruit that originally expected. The schematics had given her access to creating electrical equipment such as the telephone and the television set, followed by the schematics for the first electrical power station and eventually holographic communication systems. Sunset's old tablet created many scientific opportunities for Equis.
One of those opportunities came in the form of the Harmony projects.
In the year 2908, the royals of Canterlot launched the first Harmony space station into orbit. The launch sparked a new wave of space travel. As time passed, more Harmony space stations and colonies were launched and sparked the Age of Space Travel. Nearby planets were colonized by equines and dragons and even the Griffin kingdoms were ready for the new age of travel.
But with the age of exploration, there was chaos.
Over the course of several decades, one alien race wiped out a dragon colony and severely damaged an equine one. For many ponies and dragons, the attack against the innocent would've called for war. What Canterlot released, however, was not a declaration of war. Princess Twilight publically announced the creation of Harmony 16: a next step in space travel. Harmony 16 would override the call to war and create an interplanetary highway system for explorers...and military.
That was 54 years ago.
200 lightyears from the Unicorn Nebula, a large asteroid dominated the belt it was in. The asteroid was the span of 20 football fields, and while many alien species feared it would hurtle toward them, one alien race called it home: the Equestrian.
On top of the asteroid sat a collection of 16 towers, each tower stood exactly at 2,082 feet. Arranged in a perfect circle, the towers all reaches toward the nearby star where it drew in its power.
On the highest floor of Station 16, a large room hosted a small crowd of ponies and griffons as they worked. Griffons, who had talons that resembled hands, ran most of the electrical work while the equines worked with the device in the middle of the floor. With a radius of 35 feet, a flat platform sat with no abrasions whatsoever.
One of the ponies, a pegasus stallion, stood by the controls next to a female griffon. "...and I told her that her coltfriend isn't allowed to be at the house until I'm there to meet him officially. What does she do instead? She tries hiding him underneath the table where the computer was," the stallion complained.
The griffon shook her head. "I understand that one. No offense, but my son fell for a mare on a business trip to Canterlot, and even when I told him interspecies relationships hardly ever work, he insisted on keeping the relationship. Children, huh?" she remarked.
The pegasus smiled. "It's like the gods made children so they can be rebellious. One of these days, when I'm back home, I hope she's ready for my interrogation of the guy," he said.
"Oh no, I understand the rebellious nature of the young ones, never interrogate the significant other. Your daughter will hate you if you do that," the griffon warned.
The stallion scoffed at her warning and turned his attention back to the center of the room. One of the griffons had reached for one of the control switches near the platform before it sparked. A unicorn came by and magically flipped the switch before bumping hooves-on-talon with the griffon.
The pegasus stallion turned to the power station behind him. "What do we have?"
"802 Mhz surging through the tower. We're almost at minimum capacity!" one of the ponies yelled back. "We can always switch to fission cells whenever we're ready!"
The stallion thought for a moment. Solar power? Check. Fission Cells active? Check. All 16 towers operational?
An alarm began blaring. Not check. "Stein, what's going on?" the pegasus demanded.
A griffon on the far side of the room looked up from a computer. "Tower 4 is experiencing trouble with their power couplings. Energy transfer has halted," the griffon, Stein said.
The griffon female cursed under her breath. "How is that possible? Those power couplings are brand new. They're supposed to run efficiently for half a millennium," she said.
Stein shrugged and returned to her computer. The alarms continued to blare, blinding some ponies as the sirens flashed. The head pegasus knew two things were absolute when he was brought on board: the fission cells were supposed to provide power to the station for 5 millennium, and each station's power couplings were impossible to break.
Energy surged throughout the room from the platform. Stein looked back up and gulped nervously. "S-sir, Tower 4 is down," he reported.
The pegasus's jaw dropped to the floor. "H-how is that possible?"
Stein said nothing and continue to monitor their own tower's energy output. So far, everything was running smoothly, and if Tower 1 did its job correctly, then Princess Twilight would surely hear about what was going on.
The pegasus shuddered. While known for her compassion early in her life, Princess Twilight had recently gone quiet in Equestria. She had not attended the last five Grand Galloping Galas, the unveiling of the Harmony Memorial dedicated to her friends and future bearers of the Elements and even Princess Celestia's last birthday party.
Right now, the last thing the pegasus wanted would be digging Twilight back up due to his failure. "Somepony get in contact with Tower 4 immediately! We cannot continue the operation without-"
A surge of electricity formed in the center of the platform. Energy collided, both from solar energy and the fission cells in the core of the asteroid. The energy met in the middle of the platform and began to form an opening.
The ponies and griffons in the room could only stare in awe. The intention of Harmony 16 was to create a shortcut across the galaxy so Equestria relief could reach the colonies. One of the ponies, a unicorn mare, felt her eyes go wide. "W-we did it!"
She began hopping up and down. "W-we opened a rift in Time! This is revolutionary! This is-"
The rift opened wide, too wide for the comfort of the ponies and griffons in the room. From within the ponymade rift, a big blue box emerged. The box crashed into a nearby wall and continued to move as it were flying. The ponies and griffons had to dive out of the way as the blue box continued to crash into their equipment.
The pegasus pony and female griffon were both in the way of the box. "Lapis, look out!" the griffon screamed.
The griffon tackled Lapis, the pegasus stallion, right as the box settled at their command console. Once the box had settled, the rift in the middle of the room sealed itself shut.
Everypony looked around to see millions of bits worth of technology in shambles. Aside from the broken tech and a few bruises and papercuts on the scientists in the room, everypony and griffon were alive.
Lapis wiggled his way out from his colleague's grip and straightened himself out. "T-thank you Belinda," he said.
The griffon, Belinda nodded and shared a smile. Together, they inched close to the blue box in the room. As Lapis drew close to the box, the wooden door flung open, scaring the stallion out of his fur as he flew into the air.
Everypony looked on as two ponies emerged from the box. One was a brown Earth pony stallion with a floral multicolored shirt and straw hat on his head. Around his neck was an old fashion film camera. The other pony was an orange Earth pony mare. She had a similar outfit on, instead she wore a different kind of hat. A hat a farmer would wear.
"Barcelona! The city was so great, it got a planet named after it! An incredible piece of history and even more incredible art!" the stallion bellowed for everypony to hear.
The mare instead looked around, noticing that the room they were in wasn't the beach resort the Doctor talked about before. "Uh, Doc..."
The Doctor immediately felt his straw hat fall off as he met the combined glares of Lapis the pony and Belinda the griffon. The Doctor sighed before turning to Applejack. "I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere between the 20th and 22nd century," he muttered.
Applejack rolled her eyes and cracked a grin. They were never going to get to their vacation now.