Two days. Two days since Twilight Sparkle went missing. This statement echoed through Celestia's mind as she walked through the ancient halls of the archaeological site for the thousandth time that day. As she strode through it, hundreds of ponies and gryphons were attempting to search for any signs of what might have happened to Twilight.

She exited the structure through the large doors that slowly creaked open. Outside stood Luna, waiting for Celestia's arrival. She walked up to Celestia with a grim expression on her face.

"Any luck?", Celestia asked, though she already knew the answer.

Luna shook her head, her eyes sorrowful, "Neigh, dear sister. The structures to the north are clear."

"Same in the East", Celestia commented, trodding over to the ramp that dips to the surface. "Nothing, not even of any clues as to what happened. It's like everything went back to sleep after she..." Tears threatened to burst out, but Celestia held them in. To any normal pony, she would seemed only slightly at unease, but Luna knew her better than anypony else, so it was obvious how Celestia was feeling.

"Twilight is a most resourceful and resilient pony", she said in a quiet voice so only Celestia could hear it, "if she is in fact gone to another place, she will make her way back."

Celestia took in a deep breath and relaxed slightly. "I know, Lulu", she said, "but I still have a feeling that she won't. What if she wasn't teleported like we believe, and she may have been disintegrated and..."

"Stop!", Luna said fiercely, halting Celestia's tangent. "Don't do this to yourself. Don't let these thoughts plague your mind at this point of time. We both know that if Twilight died, we would have felt it."

It was at this point that an archaeologist ran up to them. "Princess Celestia! We have..."

Before he could finish, Celestia spun on the spot so fast she was like a blur, her face lighting up in a flash. "Have you found Twilight?!" She shouted in a hopeful, almost hysterical tone of voice. She rushed up close to an uncomfortable distance to the archaeologist, who started to sweat profusely.

"No, princess, I'm sorry." Celestia's face fell instantly at this. "But we have encountered something unexpected."

"What, pray I ask thee?" Luna asked in an attempt to distract Celestia from her own thoughts.

"We were investigating the structures in the west", the archaeologist began, "just only fifteen minutes ago, when one of our search teams found themselves unable to enter a certain building, one of the larger ones that appear in the centre of a group of structures across the entire site. Apparently, the structure could generate a forcefield at the entrance portals of the structure. When the team called us over, they had noticed that the structure began to glow a hazard red in certain areas."

"We attempted to teleport in using magic, but with no effect. It was as if something was blocking us. So, then we tried to take down the shield. One unicorn directed a small magical blast at one of the forcefields at an entrance, but it only rebounded and hit him instead."

Luna and Celestia looked at each other with a concerned expression. "Do you know what triggered this event?" Celestia asked after a short pause.

The archaeologist shook his head. "No, but maybe one of the ponies in the search team might."

"Then we should get down there as soon as possible", Luna stated in a serious tone.

"Spikey-Wikey! Where are you?"

For one of the rare times in his life, Spike decided to ignore Rarity's voice. He had locked himself in his and Twilight's room, far away from that accursed site, so he could be by himself, with only his thoughts to accompany him. Though this was the only reclusive spot that he could go to be alone, the memories of Twilight in the room, with her bed, the pictures on the mirror and her crown left on her bedside table, seemed to torment him with every passing second.

Spike's mind went back to the very moment that Twilight disappeared. The sense of helplessness had never been so prevalent as he watched Twilight disappear in a flash of light, only just recovering from being thrown off that platform. For a moment, no pony spoke or moved a muscle as their minds processed what had just occurred. Until Spike started to cry, then gradually began to wail, shouting Twilight's name.

As he sat on the ground, sobbing, he felt somepony's hooves hug around him. He opened his teary eyes, and saw Cadance, who was similarly in tears, look at him with a distraught expression. He pulled her close and hugged her tight.

As the two of them cried on each other's shoulders, they were joined by all of the others: Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, whose mane and expression had fallen into an almost depressed state.

Ever since then, none of them had even remotely been in a happy state of mind. Pinkie Pie has stopped smiling for the last two days, Rainbow Dash lies in her own room in Cloudsdale, secretly crying when no pony is watching, Applejack is working nonstop at the farm with no break, with the others having similar signs.

The fact is that Celestia had called everypony she could over to Equestria to help find Twilight: Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Discord and even Sunset Shimmer, who is normally at Canterlot High in that other world. Sunset had done a search in her new home, but to no avail, so she had returned to Equestria to help her former teacher.

With this in mind, Spike could not help but feel a little guilty for secluding himself from the others, but he couldn't help it. He needed to be by himself. Twilight was his first friend, and more of a mother than any other pony or creature he has ever known.

He was shaken out of his thoughts when somepony knocked at the door. "Spike!", a familiar voice called out, "I know you're in there!"

"E...Ember!?", Spike replied, then covered his face as the door was kicked open, revealing three figures: Rarity, Ember and Smolder.

"Oops", Ember said, her face flushing with embarrassment as she looked at the remains of the door, "I guess I got carried away...again." Smolder burst out laughing at this, until a stern look from both Ember and Rarity shut her up.

"Spike", Rarity said, turning to face Spike, "Why are you hiding in your room, being away from everypony else? You haven't left the castle ever since you came back."

"I...just needed some time alone", he replied. "I still can't get over the fact that...that...", he started to feel the tears swell up in his eyes once again, "she's gone." With that last word, he burst out crying. He threw himself onto the covers of Twilight's bed, sobbing. The others looked on in a similarly distraught manner, though they all knew that his pain and loss would be greater than all of theirs combined, even Rarity's.

Rarity walked up to Spike's sobbing form, planting a hoof on his shoulder. His head rose off of the Bed and looked at her with red brimmed eyes. Though she herself was almost on her knees through sadness and misery, she had kept her composure, for once, and put on a comforting expression for Spike.

"Twilight's not gone", she said in a comforting tone, "she's still around here, somewhere. Remember, Princess Celestia and Luna would know if she's gone from us forever. And, this is Twilight of all ponies we are talking about. She'll find a way back to us and it'll be like nothing has changed. We'll all still be friends."

"I guess so", Spike said, wiping his eyes. "But I...I still worry so much for her."

"Spike", it was Ember's turn to talk, "If there is a pony that I can say is more than capable of doing anything that is possible, it is Twilight. Remember, she has managed to traverse through time and different dimensions, not to mention she is the element of magic, and an Alicorn."

"And", Smolder added in, "She's our Principal, so she wouldn't even consider...err" she paused, thinking about what to say before noticing the glares from the others. She shrugged in an apologetic way, though she was secretly fearful of what Ember may make her do afterwards.

"Twilight will be fine", Rarity said after a pause, turning back to Spike, "so why don't come with us and we can all await her inevitable return together?"

Spike considered this for a moment before nodding. With a smile on her face, Rarity led Spike and the others out of the room into the corridor, where it felt empty without Twilight's constant lectures about magic, Equestrian history and friendship, making all of them feel a bit down.

"Sister, what do you make of it?" Luna asked as she studied the forcefield in detail.

They had arrived only a moment ago, in front of the nearest structure in the West. Apparently in the short time it took for them to fly over here, more of the structures entered what appeared to be a lock-down, with the forcefields acting as barriers. It was as if the structures knew they were coming to investigate.

"I don't know. I don't know anything that's going on", Celestia replied in an almost depressed tone. And Luna could sympathise with Celestia on that. Twilight was her first friend since her redemption, and was there for her always. It was a stab to her will that she could do almost nothing to help find Twilight and bring her back, but alas, that was how things are.

Or how things were. 'Maybe these structures may hold the key to finding her', she thought to herself as she studied the shield in the doorway of the structure, with its blue, transparent texture.

"It's just as they said", Celestia commented, her horn glowing bright gold, breaking Luna out of her thoughts. "I can't teleport either myself or anything to the other side of the shield. It's as if something is actively blocking our magic."

"Which begs the question", Luna started to say, before a huge flash of light was emitted from the top of the structure, blinding every pony that was present there temporarily. As it died down, Luna felt her gut wrench as yellow circles began to encircle her until there was another flash, and she found herself outside the entire site, along with everypony else.

Luna felt her anger start to rise, as she realised what had just happened. "That was no magic!", she snarled out loud. "Indeed", Celestia agreed in a much calmer tone, though her eyes displayed her annoyance at the situation. "Something managed to just teleport not just one pony, but every living creature that was studying and searching those ruins, out of it completely at once."

"Well, now I feel insulted!", a voice spoke out from behind them. Luna turned around, and found, much to her simultaneous joy and annoyance, Discord standing behind them with his mismatched body and face in an almost comedicly angry expression and stance. "Some ancient ruin managed to do what I spent eons attempting to do. Well, it can go stick itself in its..."

"Why are you here?", Celestia interrupted, "Shouldn't you be checking the other side of the world?"

"For your information, I have been", he stated in a pouting manner, then turned serious, which seemed to scare Luna. "I've searched over there fifteen times, and there's nothing. So, I decided to do some digging in the Chaos realm, and guess what? Nothing there too." Discord not only looked annoyed, but also hurt. Though he wasn't as close to Twilight as most others are, he still considered her a friend, and his pride must have taken a considerable hit with him not being able to find her.

"So, I had to pull in some favours..."-"Favours?"-"Yes, Celestia, favours, with beings beyond your understanding. As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted, I called in some favours and managed to get some information about where she may be."

"You know where Twilight is?!" the joy in Celestia's voice was plain for everypony to hear. Discord, however, seemed to cringe at her almost excited attitude.

"Not exactly", he said, rubbing his head in an almost embarrassed way. "I have a rough idea of what region she is in. Here's the bad news: She's on the other side of the galaxy, and there is no way for us to reach her and bring her back."

On hearing this, Celestia simply collapsed, beginning to cry at the news, her guilt and sadness all culminating and flowing out of her. Luna, however horrified she was at the news, gave Discord an accusatory gaze.

"Why wouldn't we be able to bring her back", she spat out, much to Discord's discomfort.

"Two things,"he put forward "one: she is on the other side of the galaxy, and it would take more than Equestrian Magic to bring her back. And two, which is the most important fact: She has become involved in something beyond all of us, where she now holds the fate of Equis in her hooves. And before you even open your mouth Luna, I got this information from some very powerful, but isolated deities."

Luna thought over what he had just said, pondering how she should respond. Finally, she looked back at him, only a single tear betraying the feelings she was feeling for her lost friend.

"So, she is stuck there, forever?" she asked, her voice breaking.

Discord shook his head. "No", he said, "If she survives whatever that side of the Galaxy holds for her, there is a way for her to come back, though it will take time."

Discord then looked at the sight of the ruin. "Now, in the meanwhile, we'll have to deal with whatever this mystery is. And I have the feeling whatever it is; we won't solve this mystery over a short period of time."

Author's Note

Hi Everyone,

Finally finished this chapter. I must say, that this is one thing I dreaded writing, returning to Equestria temporarily. It won't be often, but it is unavoidable.

However, I have good news: Next chapter will focus back on our duo on a faraway ringworld, looking for a map on an island.

If you notice any errors, or think something could have been written better, please comment below.

Till next time,
dalek117