The young couple cold not believe themselves once they returned to Canterlot and received the princesses’ praise and approval for their work. For Sunburst, the depth and breadth of reading available to him was nothing short of spectacular. With such resources and his hoof-tips, any sub-spells or supportive incantations he could require were readily available. For Starlight, getting to push the boundaries of her spell-casting with her friend was a pleasure. They work as an effective team with minimal chit-chat and minds focused on the task.
If their calculations are correct, given the proportional amount of magic energy required, it was possible to create a stable opening to a point in time, though just how far was uncertain. With only two weeks before the classes were to resume at the School of Friendship, they have hit another impasse. They simply can’t focus enough magic energy into the crystal in order keep it the portal open for any length of time, a few seconds at most. They were in need of help. Twilight knew just the pony to ask.
Moondancer arrived at the school within an hour of receiving the scroll from Twilight. Keen to hear more about the subject her princess had written about, she was thrilled to be asked to assist them in their experiments. Twilight made the introductions, but Sunburst had casually met Moondancer at Caterlot’s library on occasion or two; both of them meeting at the index card catalog.
Before long, they had successfully strengthened the portal’s power, each of them assisted to fine tune the crystal’s structure to the right frequency. With amazement, the four of them could now watch the passage of the millennia second by second as their combined power had touched the cosmic fabric of Time itself. All are in awe of what they beheld. Whole centuries of time passed in seconds before their eyes, making what little they saw little more than blurred images.
It will take refining of Starlight’s spell to control the rate of the passing time in the portal; but they had succeeded in open the portal none the less. The successes kept on coming when Moondancer had found a spell in the archives that would enhance control of Starlight’s original spell. It took another week to rewrite Starlight original time travel spell, now incorporating a new incantation to control the rate in which the time passed.
Starlight still had to spend time getting the School of Friendship ready for the returning students so she spent part of the day in her office catching up on official schoolwork and the other half in the magic lab.
Standing together, they admired their magical prowess at creating a stable portal that could access Time itself and enter its stream to points in the past or future. Starlight’s spell, now refined, could more accurately control to how far forward in the time-stream she would move. One last aspect that needed addressing was making sure whoever went through had a way back.
Sunburst voiced his concern. So far, Starlight had been gone for only a very short time. What was to happen to any pony should they try to go forward in time, say, a year and could not find the portal once in the future? Moreover, he showed in the calculations they’d come up with that, for the greater the distance into the future or past a traveler went, the more difficult it would be to target a specific day or even season in which to emerge on the other side. The greater the distance in time travel to traverse, the more magical energy was required and the more difficult it was to maintain stability in the portal’s energy filed because it would become more sensitive to other extraneous magical energies.
This was concerning; Twilight did not want her friends risking more on her behalf. They’d done a great feat of magic and should be proud. But Starlight thinks she can overcome this problem. By removing all the magical items from the immediate area, from the lab, she demonstrated that the energy field became more stable, less magical interference in the room. Sunburst then came to the logical conclusion; if the portal was re set-up in an isolated spot in, say, Canterlot Castle that was away from stray magical energies, and that would help to keep the portal even more stable.
It is agreed; the four of them will reassemble the portal and lab work in a new lab within Canterlot Castle. Starlight stays behind at the School of Friendship to continue getting the school ready for the coming semester. Twilight, Sunburst and Moondancer move all of their experimental gear to the new lab space, resetting up everything. Moondancer makes a proposition to Twilight and Sunburst; she would like to be the first volunteer to go for an extended journey.
Moondancer explained that since Sunburst and Starlight have to get the School of Friendship ready for the coming year, and Twilight couldn’t go because of her position as Princess of Equestria, the most logical choice to go was her. As she was on sabbatical still from her teaching job, she should be the one sent, just in case ‘something’ went wrong. It was an awful decision for Twilight to have to make and they would wait for Starlight to join them this afternoon to discuss this more.
The next day, Starlight was back in the lab with her friends, her solution to every pony’s concern now in her forehooves. She had successfully imbued some of the magic power from the time portal’s crystal into a much smaller crystal, no bigger than a small pendent to be worn around the neck. Whoever wore the crystal and went through the portal would be able to return, no matter how far in the past or future they went. The resonance frequency within the smaller crystal would act as a magical ‘frequency finder’ in order to bring the traveler back to the time in which they originated from. Moondancer is very impressed with Starlight’s magic, clearly in the presence of a friend who possessed great magic skill then herself.
It was not quite lunchtime as Twilight sat quietly alone on her throne in the throne room, reading over yet another official document requiring her signature before acting into law. She sighed over the tediousness of the position of Princess at times like these and was privately wishing she was in the magic lab with her friends.
From out of the blue, and completely unexpectedly, appeared the Lord of Chaos and Twilight’s trusted envoy, Spike. They brought a welcome distraction to Twilight, who was getting lost in the legalese of the document’s wording and tired of reading it. The fellas give her a brief rundown of what they were up to and asked the same of Twilight. She tells them of the work she, Starlight, Sunburst and Moondancer have been doing and why. Spike was not pleased to hear of this. Discord, however, was intrigued by what Twilight was telling.
Spike, hearing the reasoning behind Twilight’s desire to time travel, had the small dragon very concerned. He succinctly reminded Twilight of what happened and what they witnessed when chasing Starlight through time like they had in the past and the consequences of interfering with the flow of time. But Discord was intrigued by what his friends were up to and poo-pooed Spike’s concern. He was clearly impressed by the daringness and boldness of his pony friends’ magic work. He likes to hear of them pushing the boundaries of their magic and trying something on his level of difficulty.
Twilight relays to them of the status of their progress as well; close to having a volunteer enter the portal for an extended time length. Discord, in his excitement and eager to see his old par Starlight, decides to teleport them to the lab to check in on how it was going. Before Twilight can say anything to stop him, Discord snapped his fingers to teleport them to the lab straight away.
The moment Discord’s aura of Chaos magic entered the magic labs controlled and isolated state, the portal’s magical field was sent into wild imbalance and the spells controlling and balancing the crystal’s power it went out of control. There was a great sucking in of wind and a bright blinding white light emanating from the portal that filled the lab. So intense it was that everyone had to cover their eyes to protect them. They ware loud screams of terror and then a loud bang as the light flashed brighter and then disappeared. When they all looked up again, they saw the mirror’s glass, the pane that the portal had been focused in, was now cracked in several places and only now showed snowy-static flickering in the broken fragments.
Sunburst let loose a blood curling scream of horror, realizing that his wife was now no longer in the lab with them. Moondancer, Twilight and Spike had clung onto each other and had held onto the lad table’s leg to prevent being sucked into the portal. Both Twilight and Moondancer were in an instant panic; Starlight had been pulled into the portal and they had no idea of where in the Time-stream she’d been sent to. The panic lasts for a few seconds as they tried to get a grip on the situation. Quickly their attention turns to Discord, standing there and looking quite innocent.
Moondancer lays into Discord about this unwanted interruption and how his aura had destroyed their delicate magic work and pulled Starlight into the portal. Twilight yells at him for not listening to her and for doing as he pleases without regard for any pony else. Spike, for his part, yells at Twilight for having gone down the road of potential disaster and now suffering the consequences of making Starlight disappear. She knew better to not do this and look what happened!
Sunburst is beside himself with shock and grief, falling to the floor and crying as his mind is almost gone for any rational thought at that moment.
“Oops, um, my bad?” was all Discord could offer for having done what he did, even if it was unintentional. He felt bad that his aura had upset their magic; unaware that his magical aura would have done what it did. There is more yelling and accusations about what just happened between the four of them, only to then be interrupted by loud banging on the door of the lab.
One of the palace guards was trying to reach the Princess; he has an urgent message for her from Ponyville General Hospital, it’s about Head-Mare Starlight Glimmer. Twilight magically flings open the door and takes the message from her guard to read it out loud. Starlight was now in the hospital and in terrible condition; the Princess is requested there at once. The five of them; Twilight, Spike, Discord, Sunburst and Moondancer all teleport to Ponyville and make for the hospital just around the corner from where they appeared.
Inside the hospital and in a second-floor room, the five of them were brought to Starlight’s bedside, shocked by her appearance. It is the sound of Sunburst’s voice and his particular scent that brings Starlight around from near unconsciousness. She manages to smile weakly and crack open an exhausted eye to see the love of her life once more, before falling unconscious once more in a deep sleep. He is brought to tears with relief to have his beloved Starlight home, the thought of losing her too much to bear.
Outside the room, and to give Sunburst some privacy, Twilight inquires to Starlight’s condition from the doctor. Starlight’s condition is not good; she suffered from starvation and extreme dehydration. A few more days like she was in would have killer her for sure. With rest and some fluids replenishing her system, she should recover. Moondancer had to prop Twilight up somewhat when hearing the news that Starlight was going to make it, her relief so overwhelming that she nearly fell over.
“Promise me you’re never going to mess around again with time travel spells, Twilight? Will ya’?” The small green dragon beseeched his princess, exasperation in his voice.
“She was wearing this,” the doctor presented Twilight with some kind of harness that was for wearing, fitted with small accessory pockets. In the pockets Twilight discovered some survival equipment; a compass, a multi-function pocket knife, two empty canteens for water and a number of plastic wrappers stuffed in the pockets, what must have been used to keep food preserved in. But the one detail that caught Twilight’s attention more than just the belt was the embroidery on the cover of the first accessory pocket.
On the flap were, what Twilight could only guess, the embroidered images of five pony Cutie-Marks, the designs of which Twilight had never seen before. One thing she was sure of beyond a doubt, Starlight did not have this in her possession before entering the portal. It then brought Twilight to the next logical question. If Starlight didn’t have this when she went into the portal, then where did she get it from? Even more perplexing is what fell out one of the pockets and clattered to the floor. Neither Discord nor Moondancer had any idea of what the strange object was, watching Spike pick it up gently and wore an even more shocked look on his face.
Twilight, too, knew exactly what it was that Spike was holding. It was a cellular phone, the likes of which Spike and Twilight had only seen in the human world of Sunset Shimmer’s, when they’d traveled to that alternative dimension those months ago.
“How…?” Spike could only stammer in disbelief at what he was holding. Twilight is dumbstruck, unable to come up with a single reason for this object to suddenly be here in Equestria.
Discord points out an obvious flaw in their pony magic; Starlight was supposed to reappear through the portal. How did she end up out here and not in the castle? Clearly his pony friends need more practice with their magic if they wanted to overcome such issues, should they want to try again.
Twilight could not answer him. This was going to have to have to wait until Starlight had recovered. Perhaps then she could explain what happened to her.