Time Enough for Everything at Last

by Jay Watson

Ch.4 Research & Development

The uproar and concern for the strange energy pulse that had caused such consternation was quickly forgotten within a few days, with the newspapers and websites moving on to other topics to cover. Sunny made every effort to make Starlight as comfortable as possible. Starlight, for her part, was grateful for the attention and they soon got to know one another better. Starlight was introduced to some of the advancements in technology, as well as some of the new foods that were available.

Sunny got to share with Starlight her father's collection of artifacts and various tomes of works, some going as far back as to the time Starlight said she was from. Hoping the volumes might be spell-books, Starlight was a bit let down to find only books of history and some materials on the fragmenting of the three pony races. Together, she and Sunny were able to assemble a rough timeline and a clearer reason why it happened.

Argyle Starscout had done his diligence when it came to detailing what he learned and how some of the various possible lines of history could be interpreted to give the wrong impression of what happened. For Sunny, it was a chance to reconnect with her dad through his work while aiding Starlight at getting familiar with this time and place.

Hitch made sure to stop by after his shift to check in on their special guest. It wasn't every day that he got to meet a time traveling unicorn and he couldn't pass up such a chance. On this particular visit, Pipp and Zipp have brought the three Unity Crystals for Starlight to examine with them from Zephyr Heights. When Starlight saw the crystals and heard the story of how these five came into possession of them, it set her mind ablaze with magical possibilities of use. Her hosts could see by her expression the desire to investigate what the crystals could do to assist her in some capacity.

Glad they could offer something that might assist Starlight, the sisters produced some official scrolls from their royal archives that could shed some more light onto the pegasus crystal's origins. Starlight was very grateful for the information. Every afternoon after Sunny returned home from running her smoothie stand, she and Starlight would review the scrolls and books, scouring them for how the crystals were made by Princess Twilight, what spells she might have used and what ponies might have been given the duty of keeping them safe.

Starlight did manage to recreate a few of the sub spells she and her friends had used in the time travel spell, but the work was exhausting, and she had no help with the magic. Seeing how hard Starlight had been working and getting frustrated with her lack of progress, Sunny and Hitch offered to take her for a night on the town in Maretime Bay.

Both of them believed that by now any danger of Starlight being discovered has passed and she should at least try to have a little relaxation from her toiling. Reluctant to stop her work, she agreed to go with them. Zipp, Pipp, and Izzy soon joined them intown and Hitch took them to one of his favorite haunts, a pub called The Snooty Pony. Here with Sunny and her friends, Starlight began to relax and tell some tales about her time and about Princess Twilight and her friends.

More than once did a pony who passed by their table refer to Sunny as Princess Sunny. Starlight had been wondering about this, first seeing Sunny with a unicorn horn and translucent gold wings when arriving in this time, now she looked like any other earth pony. Sunny couldn't explain how or why she transformed at times, believing it had something to do with the Unity Crystals and her dad possessing the earth pony crystal for so many years. Starlight was as intrigued as she was perplexed. It was a relaxing night out for all of them, getting to know Starlight better and just having fun on a Friday night.

All of them had been drinking a little too much and were feeling the buzz, laughing at one another and enjoying their company. By midnight, the friends headed off for home, needing to sleep off some of the alcohol. Back at the Brighthouse, Starlight was telling Sunny one funny story about Twilight that had Sunny rolling with laughter; the time when Twilight was just beginning her studies in Ponyville and had to write every week to their princess about a friendship problem she had solved. But in one instance, Twilight had actually created a friendship problem on her own, just so she could have something report back with about solving it for her teacher. Needless to say, Twilight's idea backfired spectacularly. Sunny was almost doubled over laughing so hard at the chaos unleashed.

For the two mares, it was a bonding moment of friendship, but Sunny could tell that Starlight looked homesick when talking about her friends. She could see the sadness behind Starlight's eyes and promised to do anything and everything possible to help her. Starlight, in a moment of weakness, reached out to embrace Sunny, needing her support in the belief that she would get home and should not give in to despair.

Starlight spent several more days and nights at the Brighthouse deep in her work. The stack of spell scrolls had grown as she'd copied down a good number of spells from memory of what she, Twilight, Moondancer, and Sunburst had created. It was incomplete though. Some of the spells required combining with others in order to create the desired effect for the time travel spell to work.

Twilight and Moondancer had hashed out most of the spell choices to use from the collection in the restricted area of Canterlot Library. She turned her attention to the three Unity Crystals. She tried recalling what Sunburst had explained to her about the crystal they'd selected to use as a vessel for their magic to focus within: something Maud Pie had discussed with him, about the structure and resonance and how important it was.

Imbuing a crystal with magic would bring out its natural frequency. She kept staring intently at the three crystals in front of her laying on the small work table she was using, mentally comparing them to the original Elements of Harmony that her friends had once held in their possession. Starlight kept focusing on the name, Elements of Harmony, discerning something of a clue from them. On a hunch, she tried casting a spell on the crystals, a spell that would make each crystal emit its frequency like a tuning fork. The energy from her horn encompassed the three crystals, trying to discern what, if any, resonance they might have.

She was extra cautious with them, increasing her magic in small increments, sensing for any change in the crystals' state. It took patience to do it but she had each crystal emit its frequency, the three of them together made a triad of ethereal tones that she could actually hear. She was elated with the discovery but kept concentrating on her spell, trying to isolate the tone of each crystal.

To her increasing delight and excitement, Starlight managed to isolate the tone emitted from the unicorn crystal. She had the germ of an idea about how to use the unicorn crystal. Back in the magic lab, she had made a small crystal pendant to wear when going through the time portal. The pendant was tuned to the same frequency as the portal's crystal, allowing a traveler to go to and from a fixed point in time and always return to the same.

Since the unicorn crystal was created by Twilight back in the past and therefore had a signature resonant frequency already from its magic infusion, there was a chance that if the unicorn Unity Crystal was charged up with enough magic, and if she could get the time travel spell worked out, she might be able to recreate a portal in this time and send herself on a one-way trip to the past, to her time. Trembling with the excitement of discovery and as quickly as she could, Starlight wrote out her hypothesis, including how she came to her conclusion and what steps needed to be done in order to try. She reread it a few times, rewriting some parts of it to make more sense.

Her first copy was so full of cross-outs and changes that she had to write it out again, just to be sure it was legible to any pony she should show. So overcome with relief with some kind of plan to her conundrum, she rushed from her bedroom to Sunny's, barging in and yelling for Sunny to wake up, even though it was two in the morning. When Sunny could finally understand what Starlight was raving about and read what Starlight had written about, she was so happy and just as excited as Starlight was. It felt like a huge weight had been removed from their collective shoulders. There was a plan now.

Comments

[Phetiamwantip]

This is very good. I'm giving you six stars for doing a good job. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Phetiamwantip]

I can't wait to see more of your chapters. Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish.