//------------------------------// // I Can't be Stuck Here! // Story: Back from the Future // by Ironskull //------------------------------// Twilight started at the sound of the front door of Golden Oaks Library being slammed open. She turned toward it and saw a frantic looking Rainbow Dash standing outside. "Twilight! You've got to help me!" "Ah, Rainbow! Good timing! I need you to help me with something too! Don't say a word!" "What? But I-" "Not a word, not a word, not a word!" cried Twilight as she grabbed Rainbow Dash's front hooves and pulled her toward the basement. Some of the urgency in Rainbow's expression was lost and replaced by confusion as she allowed herself to be led through the door and down stairs. Twilight finally stopped in front of one of her 'crazy looking contraptions'. Rainbow Dash eyed a weird metal bowl thing with lights stuck all over it. It was connected to the machine. "Hey, isn't that your-" "Yep, although I've made some modifications to it since I tried it on Pinkie. It used to only be able to indicate general activity in specific regions of a pony's brain, but now it should be able to allow me to read your thoughts! In theory." "In theory?" "Shush! Remember, you can't give me any hints! Put this on!" Twilight slammed a second mind scanning bowl over Rainbow Dash's eyes. "Hey!" cried Rainbow in annoyance. She reached up to lift the cumbersome headwear to a more comfortable position. When she had moved it out of her eyes, she saw that Twilight was also wearing another one just like it. "Remember," said Twilight, "not a word. Except to tell me if I guessed right or wrong! Of course you'll need to be able to do that!" Rainbow scowled at Twilight, but she didn't notice because she chose that time to clench her eyes closed and put her front hooves on her head. "You... you've perfected a new flying technique and you want me to come see?" She opened her eyes and looked at Rainbow enthusiastically. "What?" asked Rainbow in surprise. "No!" "Oh." replied Twilight, disappointed. "Um, um, um." She clutched her helmet even tighter. "You... You want to borrow another Daring Do book? You've been flying through them ever since I introduced you to the series a few weeks ago." "Twilight, this is serious! I need your help!" "No, no!" cried Twilight. Don't tell me!" She lay her belly flat on the ground and pressed her hooves into her eyes. "You... You... You pulled a prank on Rarity and made her get dirty and now you need a place to hide?" Rainbow let out a sigh and pulled the mind scanner off of her head. "Twilight." She said slowly. "I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that you invented, and now I can't get home. I need your help to send me back to the future!" "Oh." replied Twilight, scowling. "Twilight, didn't you understand what I just said?" asked Rainbow Dash urgently. "Oh, I understand alright." "You do?" asked Rainbow, confused. "Yes. I understand that that this thing..." she said as she took her hat off, "doesn't work at all!" "Twilight! I'm being totally serious right now!" "No you are not," accused Twilight. "You're just making fun of me for what happened last week." "What? I don't even remember what happened last week. I'm from the future, remember?" "If you're from the future and you came in a time machine, then where is the time machine?" asked Twilight. "It's, uh, outside. I left it... in a tree." "Uh huh," replied Twilight skeptically. "Look, Twilight, I'm telling you, it's real! "Time travel magic was lost with Starswirl the Bearded," insisted Twilight. "The only reason that I was able to cast the spell last week was because he created some scrolls enchanted with the spell. And I... used one of them up. It's... sort of gone forever." "But you found a way to do it, Twilight! Of course, you said that the magic is really in-ee-fishent, but it works!" "Oh?" asked Twilight, evidently intrigued. "And just how does it work then?" "I... I don't know! Why are you asking me? You'd have to ask your future self that question!" "So then why are you here instead of her?" said Twilight triumphantly. "Because, for some reason that I don't really get, the machine can only travel through time when it has broken the sound barrier. I'm the only pony who can make that happen!" "So you're telling me that you performed a sonic rainboom while hauling a time machine with you? I find that rather hard to believe. You have enough trouble pulling it off when it's just you." Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a surprised look. "That's almost exactly what Twilight from the future said. That's why she had somepony else to help me." "Who would that be?" "Ummmmmmmm..." "Yes?" "You... you haven't met them yet! Well, yes you have, but you don't actually know them yet. Look, I don't have time for this, Twilight! It was an accident that I traveled this far back at all! Something terrible happened just when I left and I have to get back and fix it as soon as possible!" "You know Dash, no matter how bad the problem is, you don't have to get back as soon as possible. You do keep insisting you have a time machine after all. So you can go back to the future to time you want! "How can you say that, Twilight? Your future self is in terrible danger right now! Or, at least, she was when I left, and you will be in the future. And I left her all by herself!" "Well, logically-" "Logic Shmogic!" cried Rainbow Dash. "I'm not spending my time here in the past worrying my guts out over what's going to become of my friend in the future while I sit here and argue with that same friend!" "Rainbow Dash... I think I believe you." "But I- You do?" "I think so. Either you are being honest or you are a really good actor. But what in Equestria happened that is so bad?" "Oh. Welllllll-" "Wait!" cried Twilight, shoving a hoof into Rainbow's mouth. "Don't tell me. I just finished learning this lesson. The less I know about the future, the better. I don't need to know about any incoming disasters. I'll just help you be on your way and we'll both pretend that this never happened." "Oh, whew!" replied Rainbow Dash. "Thats a relief. I don't even know how I would begin to explain it to you when you don't even know about... stuff... yet." "Right..." said Twilight dismissively. "Now then, you said that you left the time machine in a tree?" Suddenly Twilight let out a yelp. "Oh no! Come on, we need to hurry before somepony stumbles upon it!" "Uh, Twilight," said Rainbow Dash. "It's in a tree. Nopony is going to trip over it." "I mean that we need to find it before somepony finds it and uses it by accident!" cried Twilight in frustration. She ran toward the staircase and through the door, and then through the library entrance and out of the front door, where she stopped. Rainbow Dash easily caught up with her. "So, um, which tree did you hide the machine in?" "It's just down the street, this way," indicated Rainbow Dash. "Maybe we should, you know, walk," said Twilight. "We wouldn't want to attract any attention after all. Oh, but if we walk, it will take longer to get there and everypony will have longer to see you! We can't let anybody see you! Maybe we should run instead! Oh, but then everypony will see us for sure!" "Twilight, relax," assured Rainbow Dash. "It's just a short way. I know that you can't keep up with me anyway. We'll go at your own pace. Besides, who cares if anypony sees me?" "You should care!" insisted Twilight. "Especially if the Rainbow Dash who is actually supposed to be here happens to see you! Meeting yourself could cause a time paradox! Believe me, you do not want a time paradox!" "Yeah, I don't even know what that means." "Also, she'll think that you're an imposter!" "Hold on!" said Rainbow, suddenly flying backwards while facing Twilight. "I am not an imposter." "I know that you're not an imposter," said Twilight, "But the other Rainbow Dash won't know that! And I don't think it will be easy to convince her otherwise." "Are you saying that I wouldn't know whether I am an imposter or not? How could it be any more obvious that I'm not? I'm the last pony who would make that mistake!" "I... What I mean to say is..." Twilight stammered. "It would just save us alot of trouble if the other Rainbow Dash doesn't see you. Please don't let her see you?" "I really don't see what the big deal is," answered Rainbow Dash. "Actually," Twilight continued. "We can't let anypony else see you. They might figure out that there are two of you!" "Alright! If you're that worried about it, I promise." "Thank you." "There it is!" said Dash happily, suddenly stopped and pointing up. Twilight looked up into the tree that Rainbow indicated. "Is that... a carriage?" "Yep! We decided to put the time machine inside so that... the other pony... could have somewhere to... sit." "Rainbow, you haven't done a very good job of hiding it! The only thing that keeps it hidden from anypony that might wander by is everyone's tendancy to not look up!" "Oh. Right. Sorry". "Well, it doesn't matter now. Let's get this over with. What's wrong with it? If all you need to do is perform a sonic rainboom to make it work, then why do you need my help?" "It's not that simple," answered Rainbow Dash in frustration. "I can make the machine move fast enough, but to actually travel through time, it needs lots and lots of magic. "So all I have to do is use some of my magic to power it up?" "No. Future Twilight said that she isn't strong enough to do that. Nopony is. All we need is a little something you called liquid etherium." Twilight's eyes boggled for a moment before she started coughing. "Twilight, are you okay?" "Yes- *cough cough* -fine. Uh, could you repeat that? I must not have heard you correctly." "Are... you okay?" asked Rainbow, confused. "No, not that part. The part where you said 'All we need is'...?" "Liquid... etherium?" "Liquid etherium?" demanded Twilight. "As in pure distilled liquid magic? So potent that even a milliliter could sustain most magic spells for weeks, or even months?" "Um. Probabily?" Twilight let out a long sigh. "Rainbow, I don't know where future Twilight could possibly have gotten ahold of, oh, just liquid etherium, but in these days it's as rare as chicken teeth!" "Chickens don't have teeth, Twilight." "Exactly!" cried Twilight in frustration. "Surely future Twilight gave you enough of it so that you could make the return trip back to your own time?" "Nope. We were doing first time testing, so we were just sending the machine forward in time only one minute at a time. We had more etherium right there when the machine popped up again out of nowhere a minute later." "Oh dear," said Twilight. "Well, if it takes that much magic to travel through time... well... I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you might be stuck here!" "Stuck here!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "I can't be stuck here! I had a life in the future! I have friends that need me! Well, of course, I have friends here too, but they're not the same as the friends that I left behind! Twilight, there's gotta be something we can do! Anything?" Twilight lowered her head in despair. "I don't know what to tell you, Dashie. The only thing in Equestria with that much magical energy is the elements of harmony!" "Did somepony say... the elements of hamony?" said a new masculine voice. "...I remember that voice," whispered Twilight fearfully. Slowly, she turned her head up to the time machine. "AHHHHHH!" she shouted before bolting away. However, she was unable to get very far because Rainbow Dash was suddenly in her path. "Rainbow!" shouted Twilight. "You let Discord find your time machine! Do you have any idea how bad this is?" "Wait Twilight!" cried Rainbow Dash. "This isn't what it looks like!" "It isn't?" shouted Twilight hysterically. "It looks like the harbinger of chaos has somehow escaped again and is here to steal the elements of harmony and take over Equestria again, and now you've let him have even more power! We have to warn everypony!" "Twilight!" shouted Rainbow Dash, grunting as she restrained her frantic purple friend. "If ever there was a time that- ugh- I need you to just trust me it is now! Please!" Twilight stopped struggling against Rainbow and looked into her eyes. "Yes..." she answered shakily. "Yes, of course." "Discord is not here to take over Equestria!" "That is right, dear Twilight," said Discord from above. Twilight risked looking up at him. He was sitting in the carriage while wearing a bathing hat and using a scrubbing stick to wash his back. From this angle, she couldn't tell whether the carriage was in fact full of water or not. "If all you need to send us back to the future is the elements of harmony, you could just ask." said Discord. "I have them right here." He revealed his other arm with the five neckalces worn around it along with the tiara in his eagle hand. "Agh! Where did you get those?" demanded Twilight in a paniced voice. "I've taken the elements before you know. It's not hard. Hmm... It has been rather a while since I've seen these." "Give them back Discord!" cried Twilight. "Of course!" replied Discord, letting the necklaces slide off of his arm and fall below. Twilight simply watched open mouthed as all five necklaces dropped unceremoniously into the dirt. "Come now Twilight," said Discord. "These are only the elements of harmony after all. Show a little respect." Discord released the element of magic, which Twilight managed to catch with her magic at the last moment before it hit the ground. "You were being serious?" said Twilight in a voice that indicated that she was in fact only talking to herself. "All I had to do was ask?" "If you need them to send Rainbow Dash and myself back to our own time then I will do for you whatever you wish." "Wait," said Twilight. She turned back to Rainbow Dash. "Him? Discord is the 'pony' that you brought with you from the future? What were you thinking?" "Twilight, you promised that you would trust me!" "I know, Rainbow! But I think you have made a serious lapse in judgement!" "Discord's not... evil... and stuff. Anymore. Remember how we helped Luna see the light again? We were able to help Discord too!" "Rainbow, I'm not sure that I should believe you anymore." Before Rainbow Dash could protest, Twilight quickly added, "I'm not sure that you should trust yourself anymore. What if you are not from the future at all? What if Discord is controling you again and this is all some rediculous phony story that he made up and made you think it was true?" "Twilight that's the most- Okay, actually that does kind of make sense, but you're wrong. He just now gave you the elements of harmony. Why. Would. He. Do. That. If he was trying to take over Equestria?" "And," added Discord, "If I was here to take over Equestria, I wouldn't be wasting my time here. I would be out there spreading some much needed chaos." "There!" cried Twilight, turning back to Rainbow Dash. You heard it from his own mouth! He wants to spread chaos!" "Okay," said Rainbow Dash, "I'll admit, just because Discord isn't evil or whatever now doesn't mean he doesn't still act like a foal. Discord, you were supposed to stay out of sight so this wouldn't get complicated!" "Oh, but that would be so boooooring!" whined Discord. "Rainbow Dash," said Twilight sorrowfully. "I'm sorry, but there is just no way to prove that you are both telling the truth!" "Well, what about that?" asked Discord. Twilight followed his pointing finger. She stared at the pegasus that he was pointing at, unsure what the significance of Rainbow Dash sleeping on a cloud some distance away was. Twilight turned back to the other Rainbow Dash. "Oh. Rainbow! Hide!" "What? Why? This is awesome!" "You promised me you would stay out of sight! Especially from her!" "Oh. Right. Hey Discord, scoot over." "Hurry!" urged Twilight! "Yeah yeah." *Splash* "Really Discord?" "Alright, alright I'll get rid of it!" "Ugh. Oh-kay Twilight, I'm in. Nopony is going to see me." "Good!" whispered Twilight. "Now keep your heads down! I need to take you someplace safe!" "Fine," whispered Rainbow Dash. "But can you hurry? It's kind of cramped in here!" Suddenly the carriage lurched and the sky above Rainbow began to move. "Whoa! Careful!" cried Rainbow Dash. "SHH!" whispered Twilight. Somepony is coming!" "You didn't check to see if anypony was there before picking up the carriage?" "SHH!" "Hey Twilight!" said Pinkie Pie. Twilight let out a sigh of relief. Pinkie was not a pegusus and would therefore be unable to see who was in the carriage. "Um. Hello Pinkie Pie?" "You're holding the elements of harmony!" said Pinkie cheerfully. "Ummmmm... Well, the Princess, she asked me to, eh, hold on to them for a little while. You know? Just in case anything... really bad happens?" "That makes sense to me!" cried Pinkie. "You know, I don't know why she didn't do that earlier. It's not like anypony else but us can use them anyway." "Um, well, I hate to be rude," Twilight chuckled nervously, "but I have something very important to get to back at the library, so if you don't mind..." "What's with the carriage?" "What? Oh, you mean this carriage?" said Twilight, looking up and making an expression that suggested that she had never seen it before. "Mmhmm. Any why is Rainbow Dash riding inside?" "...Welllllllllllllllllll... She was... pretty tired today, you know, from doing all that flying and fancy tricks, so she just fell asleep in this carriage that I have never before seen in my life, so I thought that I would take her back to my place?" "Oh, I can see that. She does look tired." Twilight followed Pinkie's eyes, which were not pointing anywhere near the carriage. "What are you- uph!" Pinkie was looking up at the cloud where the present-day Rainbow Dash was sleeping. "Well, I better let you go then so that you can get Rainbow Dash into a proper bed!" said Pinkie Pie. "It must be so uncomfortable to fall asleep in a carriage." "..." "Well, bye then!" "Goodbye... Pinkie." When Pinkie's hoofsteps had died down and Rainbow Dash felt that it was finally safe to say something, she whispered "that was close." "Much too close," agreed Twilight. "Hey, Rainbow." "Yeah?" "It sure is a good thing that she didn't realize that... Discord... is in there with you." "He's not anymore." "What?" said Twilight, barely remembering to whisper. "He disappeared when Pinkie Pie showed up." "Where did he go?" "He'll turn up." "He had better. We're back. Don't come out yet." Rainbow Dash heard a door open. She also began to hear a strange metallic noise, apparently from within the library. "What is that sound?" she asked. "I have no idea! said Twilight. "Libraries are supposed to be quiet places!" Rainbow watched as the carriage was pushed through the library door and the ceiling came into view. A moment later the door was shut. "I can come out now, right?" "Yes, I think so. Spike has been asleep all day, so if he sees you, he won't think there's anything strange going on. Although there's no way that he can be sleeping through this racket! What is that?" "It sounds like a pair of pots being bashed together," offered Rainbow Dash. "It sounds like it's coming from my basement!" replied Twilight. She threw the basement door open and beheld another Twilight Sparkle bashing the two mind reading bowls together like a pair of cymbals. "What is going on here!" shouted Twilight loudly enough to be heard over the noise while running toward her double. "Don't tell me that you're from the future too! Do I wind up being driven as loony as Pinkie Pie in the future?" "Unfortunately, no," said the other Twilight, who then proceeded to morph into Discord while continuing to bash the metal bowls together. "Discord!" shouted Rainbow Dash in what part of Twilight thought sounded a lot like the tone one would use toward an annoying sibling. The rest of Twilight was busy trying to comprehend the situation. "Discord, stop that noise!" shouted Rainbow Dash. Discord complied. "Hmph. Do I ask you to stop when you're having a bit of fun?" "Why did you just now look like me?" asked Twilight. "Oh, that. Your dear little dragon friend came down here to find out what the noise was too, and I knew I shouldn't let him see me, so I pretended to be you. "Spike thinks that I'm in the basement acting like a complete fool?" demanded Twilight angrily. "Oh, no. When he asked me why I was acting like that, I told him that it was an experiment for SCIENCE!" "..." "Don't look at me, Twilight," said Rainbow Dash. "You said so yourself that stuff like this is preferable to complete chaotic tyranny. Of course, it was future you that said that." "... And then I told Spike to go spend the rest of the day with Miss Rarity," said Discord. "That should keep him occupied for a while. I thought it would be a good idea to get him out of your mane until we are gone." "You know about his feelings for Rarity?" said Twilight. "He knows all about all of our friends, Twilight," said Rainow Dash. "I'm not sure that I am comfortable with that," said Twilight. "Look, I'll be honest. I don't trust you Discord. But I do trust Rainbow Dash, and I can't deny that you two are clearly from the future. I will help you if I can, but remember, I've got my eye on you, Discord." "Fine then," said Discord, crossing his arms. "If you're going to be like that, then lets get straight on with business. Go ahead and go grab your friends so we can use those elements of harmony to magic our way back to the future." Twilight glared at Discord for a moment before answering with, "It's not that simple. Unfortunately, we can't just harness the power of the elements of harmony to do whatever we want, whenever we want. They only yield their power when they are used to banish evil from Equestria, and, technically, that is not what we would be using them for. "And then there is another problem. I cannot overstate this. We cannot let either of you two be seen by anypony! It could cause severe changes to future events if you were to interact with anypony. You're already having to interact with me. Anypony else might lead to even bigger changes! "So," began Rainbow Dash in despair, "You're saying that not only are we both really stuck here forever, but we can't ever even leave the library?" "Well..." said Twilight hesitantly. "Not forever. Once I manage to reverse engineer the time machine and build another one, the old Discord and Rainbow Dash will be gone and then you two can come out of hiding and pretend that nothing ever happened. I can't just use this time machine here because if that would create a paradox in which the time machine was never created." "I'm not just going to sit here!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "Although... How completely nutso would it be if it turned out that Twilight has secretly been hiding a Rainbow Dash from the future in her basement for all this time and I never even knew it?" "I don't think we'll have to do that!" cried Discord. "You don't?" asked Twilight and Rainbow Dash together. "You said that the elements of harmony will only work if they are banishing evil, right?" "Yes?" said Twilight, even more confused. "Then I have a plan!" declared Discord happily. "I will stage an 'evil scheme' and you and your friends can use the elements to 'defeat' me again, but when their power hits me, it won't work because I'm not really being evil and we can redirect their energy into the time machine, sending Rainbow Dash and I back into the future!" "That's a very... interesting plan, but there's just one problem," said Twilight. "It won't work unless the wielders of the elements of harmony genuinely believe that you are evil." "Then we just won't tell them." said Discord. "You want me to lie to them?" asked Twilight, shocked. "About this?" "You're not going to be lying," assured Discord. "You will just be selectively leaving out information. Besides, do you want Rainbow Dash and I to be stuck here forever instead of in the time where we belong, or would you rather play just a harmless little trick on our friends? You can even tell them what it was all really about afterward." "Well," said Twilight hesitantly, "it would be for the greater good... But there's still a problem! What about me? I will know what's really going on!" "Oh, don't worry about that," said Discord. "The elements will work anyway, if the other five of them are fooled." "Are you sure?" "I'm certain." "Hold on," said Rainbow Dash. "Let me get this straight. All we have to do is get Twilight and our friends, plus my other self, to hit us with the elements of harmony at the exact same time that I'm performing a sonic rainboom, and we have to have them do it without letting them know that it's exactly what we need them to do, and we can't let anypony know that we are actually Rainbow Dash and Discord? Did I get all of that right?" "Well, not quite..." said Twilight. "Actually, we can get away with Discord being seen. The present-day Discord is stuck in a statue back at Canterlot Castle, and nopony is going to go check to see if its still there when the future Discord, that's you, shows up in Ponyville. But we absolutely cannot let anybody know that you are really Rainbow Dash. The other Rainbow Dash will have to be there too after all!" "I still don't see how we can possibly pull this off!" said Rainbow Dash. "Leave it to me!" said Discord proudly. "Give me a moment to figure out a plan and we will be out of here before anypony is the wiser! It's time for... just one last 'evil' scheme!"