"So."

Clear Sight and Res stood in the center of a group of ponies. Anypony that wasn't cleared enough was sent to work on observations from the adjoining rooms, and so the group now was comprised of Illesio, Doc, Crystal Mirror, Quick Quill, Star Swirl and the Bearers, and Deep Thought and Clear Thought, who had just been called in. Fourteen ponies in total, only fourteen to figure this outlandish situation out.

"We know the source of the unusual actions of Everypony Equestria Round now, the Control Fragment," said Res. "But..."

"We don't know where it is just yet." Clear Sight spoke up. "I'm working on it."

Res spoke again. "That's why I want Doc, Clear Thought, Starswirl and anyone of his that can help to, while we do this, figure out the source of our other problems, the--"

"Plot holes," finished Clear Sight.

"Not actually a bad name," responded Res thoughtfully. "We've got the Dowsing Circuit loaded up with the data, we need you to figure out where the source is, whether it's in Equestria or even out of our timeline. Do not do anything to it, it's what's keeping us in the clear right now," he emphasized.

Clear Sight raised his hoof. "Meanwhile, we need Deep Thought, Crystal Mirror, and any other Bearers to help us with the Control Fragment location managing. Illesio and Quick Quill, we need you as temporary scribes." He gestured to each of them. "Illesio...you go to our group, and Quick Quill, you go to Doc's group."

"Meanwhile," Res continued as the group separated itself, "The Memory Fragment can't handle the overuse it's getting. Some rough calculations give us until Saturday to stop the pony in control of the Control Fragment. In short, we have no time to lose."

Res leveled a serious look at every individual there. "We need your absolute cooperation and dedication to complete this task. Now let's go."

Doc's group walked off in the direction of the Dowsing Circuit, while Illesio, Somnambula, Flash Magnus, Meadowbrook, and the others followed Clear Sight and Res towards the back of the room.

Clear Sight leaned over and quietly spoke to Illesio. "Remember that summoning circle from the original Saturday? Well, one of the only things that those plot holes didn't touch was this building. We still have the materials that were delivered then, so we've been able to continue work on our most secret project."

They entered a section of the room blocked off by a thick lead dome, first having to go through a door with two simultaneous twenty-four digit passcodes that Res and Clear Sight tapped off like a Liszt piece.

When they were through multiple levels of security, door upon door and wall upon wall, anti-magic charms and teleportation bafflers, time dilation refusal units and retcon safeguards, and even a few dreamcatchers for good measure, they finally found the door to the central chamber.

Clear Sight checked a screen to the side. "Huh...one of the retcon safeguards is out...lemme check."

He tapped the screen a couple times. "Nope, nothing big. Just a rewrite." He turned back to the door.

Inside this heavily guarded and extravagantly locked door, if Clear Sight and Res were correct, was the central piece of their technology--a machine so important they had come back from the future to give themselves the idea...

Before Res and Clear Sight opened the door, Illesio gave a shout of realization.

"Aha! I get it!"

Everypony turned her way. "What is it?" asked Res.

Illesio turned to Clear Sight. "You can't remember if you came back from the future to give yourself the idea? Isn't that just a confirmation that you did? I mean, you have the Memory Fragment. It would be the obvious thing to do!"

Res said, "You continue to surprise me, Illesio."

Clear Sight said, "That's the second time today."

The two of them then used their magic, Clear Sight from the Klaspmente, on the vault door, which released its few hundred locks, spun around and slowly slid to the side.

Inside the strangely large room, on an ornately carved mahogany and bronze pedestal, was a watch.

A wristwatch.

Of course, it wasn't just a wristwatch, because Res caught sight of it and said, "Ah, here we are. The Six-Coordinate Modulus."

He walked over and strapped it onto his forehoof, before coming back and showing it to all of them.

Illesio looked closer and found there were some differences between it and her first impression of a wristwatch, for instance the fact that no clock appeared on its metal face, but rather a delicately embossed emblem. Res pushed a button and this face flipped out to either side, revealing the inner mechanism.

Beneath a protective slice of glass, a geometrically perfect, multi-layered, exceedingly complex maze of wires wrapped around a small gem glowing with all the colors of the rainbow. Tiny machines crowded the rest of the available space, making a small, faintly harmonic humming. As they watched, a green tinted hologram appeared above the machine, depicting a small ring separated into 360 degrees.

"The SCM is a very strange and complex machine, but due to the shipments from Bitaly we received last week, we've been able to incorporate fully five out of the six circuits needed for complete operation," Res said proudly. "However, as I said to Illesio a few days ago, it is already the most technologically and magically advanced machine in existence. The reason why is that not only can it traverse and monitor all three dimensions of space, but..."

He paused for dramatic effect.

"...Well, potentially two of time, as well. We're still working on it."

Somnambula balked. "But time, as Star Swirl is fond to say, is the fourth dimension...and the fourth only, how does the fifth come in?"

Clear Sight sighed. "Look, this is really complicated and I hate having to explain this, but we're not going to get anywhere like this..." He sat down.

"There are three dimensions of time, just like there are three dimensions of space. Just like space has X, Y, and Z, time has forward/backward, around, and sideways." He gestured to the hologram floating above Res's wrist. "Forward/backward is easy: that's time travel, but around and sideways are two ways of getting to alternate timelines, universes. There, that's the short version, and all you'll really need to know."

Everypony stared. "My," said Meadowbrook. "That's incredible. Too incredible, perhaps. I could imagine those who would kill to own this much power."

Flash Magnus, who was quite conspicuously wearing a red tuxedo, said, "Yeah...Anybody with this amount of power could shape not just the entire world to their whim...but all entire worlds."

Somnambula turned to Clear Sight, and asked, "Why have you let us in here? We are strangers, you don't know us, how could you just trust us like that?"

Clear Sight raised his eyebrow. "Anybody who embodies the Elements of Harmony can't be that bad, can they?"

Illesio, who was just next to him, whispered, "That can't be your real reason."

"Of course not," whispered Clear Sight out of the corner of his mouth.

"Alright," said Res, now fiddling with the hologram and moving its images around. "The SCM will help us in locating the Control Fragment."

"I was just about to ask," said Meadowbrook.

Clear Sight spoke up, "Because this can monitor all of Equestria as of now, all we do is plug in some small magic examples from the Memory Fragment and let it scan around for similar impulses."

He pulled his necklace out from under his shirt and held it up to the SCM.

Again, Illesio was reminded of something by its shape and color...what was it?

Something flickered in the back of her thoughts.

Clear Sight looked in surprise at the Memory Fragment. "What now?"

She made a mental note to check on it later.

--<>-------Ooh, cliffhanger-ish-------<>--/

Author's Note

when you have to use a dictionary when writing a my little pony fanfiction

whoa there's a lot going on here. SCIENCE STRIKES AGAIN
I think I'll lay off the sci-fi for a while and just get on some action sequences or something.

Tuesday is where it starts

Cheers and good tidings of cheer
Betless