//------------------------------// // New Beginnings // Story: The Adventures of Flux Capacitor from Gallifrey // by fluxcapacitor100 //------------------------------// 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.