Luna and Celestia walked from the towering throne room and down the halls of Canterlot Castle deep into the evening. Their footsteps echoed all around them while the voices of the Castle workers joined, greeting the pair as they gave their own soft acknowledgements, only to be surrounded once more by their footsteps once more.

Their destination was the grand library, a vast repository of knowledge and wisdom accumulated over millennia. As they approached the massive oak doors, intricately carved with flowing designs, they swung open silently at her touch, revealing the sanctuary within. The library was a cavernous hall, its high, vaulted ceiling supported by columns of marble entwined with ivy. Shelves upon shelves carried copies of ancient tomes and scrolls, stretching as far as the eye could see, each containing secrets and stories from across the ages.

The Princesses glided down the central aisle, their footsteps muffled by the plush, moss-green carpet. The air was filled with the comforting scent of parchment and aged leather, mingling with the faint aroma of blooming flowers from the enchanted garden outside. They paused as they rounded a corner.

Mages and Spellcrafters stood at a central table, piles upon piles of books, notes and other materials scattered around. Their usual robes of varying brown shades were dropped in favour of more breathable attire while still keeping to their general design. They quietly discussed among themselves as they worked their way through many cups of coffee, more than a few empty cups sitting nearby being a testament to their commitment to stay awake and focused.

"Progress?" Princess Celestia asked no one in particular.

"The findings of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, progress has been...shockingly encouraging, if unsurprisingly slow," A Mage replied, stepping over to a set of notes splayed out. "Here's what we know so far."

"We know the stone and the traces Lady Sparkle found are tangentially related through time magic," He continued, picking up and reading the notes he motioned towards. "So Lady Sparkle presented the idea of reverse engineering a spell using the helix traces as a starting point that would travel along a proposed linear line of temporal energy the stone outputted."

"However, finding Sir Felwinters physical and temporal location and actually reverse engineering a spell to latch onto and pull him back to present day has been by far the biggest hurdle," Another older Mage chimes in. "But we do have Lady Sparkle and our most senior Mages and Spellcrafters working on potential spell incarnations and running multiple simulations to, hopefully, speed up the process."

"And that's not mentioning the amount of magic necessary to power such a spell," Another, this one slightly younger, added.

"Regarding finding Sir Felwinter's location," Luna spoke up. "We know time magic leaves behind residual traces even many years after casting, could we not scan his remains at the cut-off point and use the energy left behind to potentially find where he may have ended up?"

The Mages and Spellcrafters paled at the mention of the Paladin's remains as one stepped forward. "We tried that, but the numbers produced were too inconsistent and bounced all over the place even after numerous scans. Some had him thousands of years in the future while others should him as far back as billions of years in the past. This is why getting a lock on him has been our biggest struggle."

"Which is why I suggested using his remains as a latching point for the spell to bounce off of," A Spellcrafter, easily the youngest in the group, spoke.

"We have been over this," Another Spellcrafter, an older one, chastised. "Without knowing where or when his physical body is to act as an anchor for the spell, the outcome wouldn't be detrimental to just him, it could have serious ramifications for us all."

"But we've been treating this like any other teleportation spell," The young Spellcrafter replied. "A regular teleport simply needs the castor to have a visual or highly memorised aid for it to work while by all accounts–"

"Yes, we know how it all works Zaman but comparing regular magic to magic we never properly attempted to use would be wasting our time," The older Spellcrafter said, stopping him in his tracks.

"That's enough," Princess Celestia said suddenly. "While I appreciate your knowledge Lucky Star, shooting down ideas is not what we want to be doing here, no matter how far-fetched you may think them to be."

"My apologies your Highness," The Spellcrafter, Lucky Star, replied. "It's just...we're just dealing with an unprecedented situation and taking unnecessarily complicated actions could be more detrimental than beneficial."

"We understand that," Luna interjected. "But perhaps complicated actions are what are needed to accomplish this unprecedented conundrum."

"I...yes...yes, you're right," Lucky Star slowly concedes. "We will run Zaman's proposal by the other team. We will inform you of our progress."

"Good. You're all doing incredible work," Celestia praised. "I know we can accomplish this."

Twilight sat quietly as she rested her chin against her clasped hands. The other Mages and Spellcrafters wandered throughout the room, keeping to staying close to the wall, avoiding the large blue hologram in the centre of the large office space. Equations, models and other such scientific tools and instruments floated softly as various simulations ran as the many bodies present went about drinking their next cup of coffee or ate their high-energy snacks.

Thoughts ran through the woman's brain at terminal speeds, theories and hypotheses joined in with pure guesswork to make an amalgam of torrential ideas and concepts. Off to her right, a group of Mages and Spellcrafters spoke idly, their comments adding to the fuel of her mental fire, influencing her thoughts. But while all of this was happening inside her head, one theory a young Spellcrafter had proposed some hours ago held her attention.

Momentarily humming to herself, she stood suddenly and stepped over to a small cooler that had been delivered upon a specific request. Reaching for the lid, she hesitated and closed her eyes, shuddering and swallowing the rising bile before steeling her nerves and her resolve. Wrapping her hand around the magically reinforced lock, she applied specific pressure to it, the mechanisms inside shifting and clicking into place before it opened, allowing her to open it.

As she fully reached inside, she shivered as the cold air and colder innards touched her skin before she pulled out one of the contents of the cooler. In her hand was a sealed plastic bag, the object inside wrapped tightly in gauze. It was Percival's foot.

The woman blanched as she held the severed limb at a distance, she moved towards the centre where the blue hologram kept churning out data while signalling the group that had been speculating. As they moved, she began removing the limb from the plastic bag.

"Got an idea?" One of the Mages asked, their horn enveloping in a yellow aura while the others joined in.

"I've got a mild inspiration. I'd like to see if it checks out," Twilight replied, removing Percival's foot from the gauze. "Let's run just one last sim before we pack it in for the night."

Lifting Percival's foot into the air, she floated it towards one of the group. "let's see if Zaman's theory holds credence," She continued. "So add that as the spell catalyst and change the overall spell format."

The Mages and Spellcrafters nodded in unison as they focused their magic on Percival's foot. Tendrils of energy flowed from their horns to his appendage, then to the large hologram. The equations and visual feedback froze before disappearing completely, leaving only a central orb floating in place.

"What changes did you have in mind?" A Mage asked, stepping up next to the young academic.

"Instead of sticking to the helix design like we were doing before, can we instead do it in the shape of a Mobius Strip?" Twilight suggested as the group's horns flashed resulting in the hologram transforming from the central orb into the shape of a 3-D Mobius Strip as the Paladin's foot moved from the front of the group to the middle of the Strip. Equations appeared once more, cascading down beside the Strip in a vertical line like a river of data. Suddenly, an idea popped into the woman's head. "Hmmm, can we incorporate a tracker spell? And if so, how advanced can we make it?"

The mages and spellcrafters raised their brows in unison before exchanging quiet words, leaving Twilight to wait patiently. After a minute or so, they turned back to her. "It would be difficult and it would take time, but we could do it."

"Do it."

The Mages and Spellcrafters nodded again and turned to face one another, huddling together in a circle, their horns meeting in the middle while a bright aura of shifting colours emanated from where their horns connected. Minutes passed by and the group began gritting their, sweat slowly dripping down their faces as they strained to complete the integration of their most advanced tracking spell. Before long, they all let out a gasp and a small orb jumped from their horns to the centre of the Strip, slamming into Percival's severed foot, becoming an integral basis for the spell to work.

Tilting her head as she watched the flow of data fall, she hummed to herself again. "Huh. Can we get the eigenvalue of..." She pointed at a spot on the hologram. "...that particle factoring in temporal decomp?"

The group's horns glowed once more, but only briefly this time. The hologram started to shift, causing the Strip to shake. The intricate details seemed to detach and then reattach themselves together, resembling waves on a calm ocean. Suddenly, various lines appeared at one end of the Strip. Some curved sharply, while others remained straight, but none ever intersected. This continued for several minutes, making Twilight's heart race and her breath catch as some lines came dangerously close to meeting, but never quite did as each attempt ended with bright flashes of red. Finally, a darker-coloured line extended further than the others and connected back to the starting point.

And then, the hologram lit up in a vibrant green hue.

Celestia and Luna groaned as they closed the doors to the eldest sibling's large chambers, removing their regalia after a particularly long day. Luna flopped herself unceremoniously upon her sister's plush bed while Celestia held her head in her hands as she sat at her vanity table.

Luna couldn't help but stare with a mixture of sadness and empathy. Outwardly, she stood tall, her hair and feathers combed and preened to perfection. She seemed to be fairing no differently than any other day in her millennia-long life. The key word being seemed. Luna having known her sister her entire life, could see past the mask she erected. Her eyes were very faintly bloodshot, her eyelids hanging ever so slightly lower than they should be. Occasionally, she would stifle a yawn, trying to shake off the weariness.

Luna stepped behind her sister, wrapping her arms and wings around her as she let out a tired sigh.

"We will find him sister," Luna whispered.

"I know we will," Celestia said firmly, though her words came out as though she was trying to convince herself more than anything. "We are on the verge of a breakthrough. I know we are."

Just as quickly as her resolve began to hold strong, it seemed to crumble, her face falling as her brow scrunched. "But what....what if we don't?" She asked quietly, turning to face her Lunar sibling. "What if this is like Vihaan? What if we never find him? What if-"

Celestia suddenly stood. "We have scoured every tome countless times, consulted with every available magically skilled Unicorn at our disposal! Whatever spell that took him is ancient and we have next to nothing!" She ranted as her sister let her vent her frustrations. "Even with my student's findings, it could take months at the very least to complete when we might not even have weeks! As we are, we cannot hope to defend ourselves should the demons attack again!"

"Stop. This line of thinking will not help us," Luna said resolutely, reaching up and gently cupping her older sister's cheeks. "This will not be like Vihaan. It has only been two weeks. We will find him and we will bring him back."

"What if we can't?" Celestia replied, her voice becoming strained and weak, its softness lacking any of its usual grandeur. "We have to accept the limits of our power. We are powerful but we are far from omnipotent. Even Mother and Father couldn't touch the flow of time."

"These thoughts are not yours," Luna stated, gently taking her sister's hands and giving them a comforting squeeze. "You have not been eating properly and you have not slept in the time since Percival's disappearance. Sister, you need to rest."

"I..." Celestia closed her eyes, hanging her head slightly as she slowly nodded. "You're right. I am doing no one any favours."

"I shall handle our duties. You focus on resting. For Percival," Luna said softly, hugging her taller sibling close.

Just as the words left her mouth, there was a knocking at Celestia's chamber doors, frantic and forceful. The sisters shared a curious look before the eldest took the doors in her magic, quickly opening them and allowing Twilight to burst in, surprising both Monarchs with her ferocity. She stood there breathing heavily for a moment with a broad, accomplished grin spread across her face.

"We figured it out!"

The Princesses stood in shock and awe alongside the group of Spellcrafters and Mages, basking in the green hues of the hologram for a moment as they watched the completed simulation spin slowly.

"I...how?" Celestia asked incredulously.

"We had been treating this like any other teleportation, but on a much larger scale. While we weren't wrong in thinking that way, there were extra steps we hadn't accounted for," Twilight explained. "After running the sim a few times and looking over the equations, we realised what we needed is tangentially similar to a standard teleportation but we found out that a temporal teleport would need two anchors with a single connecting point, one in the originator time-space and one where he may have ended up with a single connecting throughline."

"So by using the helixes we found as a blueprint and by incorporating Percivals...remains...like Zaman suggested-" She continued. "-it would not only create an anchor for the originator time-space, I.E, here, but it would also create a genetic imprint on the spell which when combined with the most advanced locator spells we have, could lead us to him, latch onto him, making him the second anchor and allow us to pull him back!"

"Lady Sparkle this..." Luna trailed off as she watched the hologram spin. "...this is revolutionary."

"But, we ran the numbers and...it would take months at least to accumulate the necessary energy to power the spell," She said, handing the Princesses a clipboard.

"Due to the fact we don't know where in time he is, we would need the accumulative power to span hundreds of thousands of years," She explained as the two Monarchs scanned the clipboard she handed them. "Potentially much, much further."

The Princesses shared a look as they flipped the pages, looking back and forth between several of the mathematical calculations and many more of the potential outputs before settling on the bare minimum they would need to provide the spell in front of them, their minds running overtime to work out the higher percentages.

"It's possible," Celestia whispered

"We'd be left recuperating for a week at least," Luna whispered back. "You potentially longer in your current state."

"Can we afford to lose this opportunity?"

Luna didn't reply right away. "...no..."

Celestia flashes a soft smile to her sister giving her shoulder a soft, reassuring squeeze before looking toward the hologram and then to the group, who also gazes upon it, writing down on several notepads and other parchments. "We will power the spell."

All commotion in the room ceased as all present stared at their Princesses in shock. Twilight stepped forward.

"Princess, the process could leave you debilitated for weeks!" She exclaimed. "That amount of power is-"

"We know of the risks, my dear student," Celestia said softly, her tired eyes flashing with a newfound source of determination. "And these are risks we may have to take."

"But-"

"It's alright, my student," Celestia said, this time a little more firmly.

"But I..." The young academic started, before cutting herself off, slowly nodding as her mentor squeezed her shoulder also.

Letting go, Celestia's horn glowed, the golden aura surrounding her hand, and she dragged it across the air in front of her, the hologram sputtering before it dimmed and disappeared. The twins moved to the centre of the room as Twilight, the Mages and Spellcrafters moved to the edges of the room. One Diarch stood opposite the other, lowering their heads while lightly spreading their arms, their palms facing outwards. The tips of their horns began to glow their respective colour, washing the room in a swirling cascade of vibrant gold and deep navy blue. The glow from their horns slowly built in intensity, until the previously dim room was drowned in their light, effortlessly cutting away the darkness.

As the glow reached its apex, globules slowly trickled from their horns before pouring out. Bright mass flowed from Celestia's horn, seemingly similar in consistency to molten gold while a dense blue surged from Luna, taking the form of cascading water. Meeting in the middle, the two forms of liquid-like magic congealed at the centre of the room, moulding and rippling like oil on water, building mass over several minutes before something happened.

Sweat began to condense on the Princess's foreheads, dripping down their faces in thick droplets as they concentrated, pouring as much magic into the speel as they could. The growing mass suddenly stopped, ceasing all movement for a moment before morphing into a vertical line that shifted, spinning to create a circle as the colours changed from a congealing blue and gold to bright iridescent, shimmering waves folding in on themselves as the edges flickered like fire.

A chill air and soft wind filled the room, bellowing robes, dresses and lab coats alike as the now circular mass swirled and flowed, shifting and rippling like the surface of a tranquil lake kissed by the morning sun. A kaleidoscopic of iridescent shimmering glass cast prismatic hues in a mesmerizing dance, pulsing with an eery glow. The now-opened passageway whirls onward from the facing point of view, the walls creating a borealis-like atmosphere of thick weightiness.

The air filled with a high pitch whine, accompanied by a symphony of yelling whispers as vivid bursts of ancient runes etched into the crystalline walls. These symbols, glowing with an inner fire, pulsed rhythmically, resonating with the sound of an apparent heartbeat.

"Oh my Gods," One of the mages muttered as the rest simply looked on with both awe and fear.

The Princesses suddenly stumbled back, Celestia fully falling to her knees, her sister quickly came to her side, being careful to avoid the apparent portal as she gently lifted her to her feet. Muttering her thanks and appreciation, the two looked at their handy work with equal parts astonishment and trepidation.

"This is...unlike anything I have ever seen," Luna said, her voice barely audible over the torrent of noise despite her holding a regular volume.

"This is...this is incredible!" Twilight shouted as she came to her mentor's side, looking down the swirling vortex. "It's like...an infinite corridor or something!"

"We need to be careful! We are treading uncharted grounds!" Celestia shouted as well, trying her best to steady her shaking legs while the trio slowly approached the opening.

"Your Highness!" One of the Mages yelled, quickly catching the trio's attention as he tightly held onto his hat. "We took a precautionary scan and the vortex seems to be stable! Whatever you did, it worked!"

As the words left his mouth, a loud gong filled the air as all present flinched away while the opening began shifting again, expanding outwards, taking over the room. Now standing amidst the mosaic of polished obsidian and celestial marble, the group huddled close as a bright light flashed beside them. Starting from a small pinpoint, the deep waves seemed to peel back in thick layers like cotton candy being dipped in water. The layers shrunk to reveal a savana, the sun dipping behind the horizon before deep thumping shook the ground while the silhouette of a large biped appeared in the distance. Mechanical whirring registered in their ears as the figure approached and stepped over them, the behemoth disappearing into the fog while the opening closed behind it.

More openings appeared around them seconds later, flashes of far-off worlds. A deep forest with a loud yell, a man atop a rotten carcass of a long dead tree, covered in mud holding a makeshift torch aloft as his voice echoed throughout the brush. A titanic lizard battling a colossal ape amidst a glowing city. A man in a red spandex suit on a tarmac road surrounded by mechanical carriages talking to a large being of metal and a smaller teenage girl. A dying man resting on a mountainside, looking upon the eastward sunrise as he took his last breath. A woman fighting off a large black carapaced creature in a mechanised suit of yellow, a small girl and a man torn in half with a white liquid seeping from his wounds some distance away.

Finally, a small window peeled open as the rest closed. A single man in a relatively small study, a thick mane of vibrant red hair plumed from his head, an equally thick bread and moustache sprouting from his face. He peered over his shoulder, a small smile spread across his face as he set down the quill in his hands. He turned fully to face the group as recognition flashed through the Princess's eyes.

"So you finally figured it out," He said, his baritone voice raspy yet rich.

Before any of them could respond, the opening slowly closed, and the Princess's hands twitched, ready to reach out but stopping before they could get the chance. The floor beneath them began to glow, growing quickly in intensity, and their vision was consumed soon after while a resonating tinnitus filled their ears. As the glare in their eyes and the ringing in their ears cleared, they were back in the room from before, the room dimmed as the light from before disappeared entirely. Glancing around in silence, the group looked at each other, silently asking the other what had just transpired.

"Did...did it work?" One of the Spellcrafters asks after a minute of contemplative silence.

The Princesses glance at each other before their horns glow, their expressions of concentration shifting to that of concern.

"I-I can't sense him. Sister?" Celestia asked quietly.

Luna only shook her head in response.

"Umm....your Highness?" A Mage suddenly speaks up, his voice filled with uncertainty.

"Yes, my little Pony?" She said, trying to keep her tired voice up and hopeful despite the implications that had suddenly reared their ugly heads.

"Are clouds supposed to be pink?"

Author's Note

Apologies for the wait for this one, been a bit busy lately with life and another story idea I've toying with
Also, time travel's a bitch. Won't lie, I was spitballing for most of the explanations but it was still fun to write
Anyway, enjoy, and hopefully, the next ones easier to write (definitely jinxed myself)

Please point out any mistakes I may have made
Constructive criticism is always appreciated
Until next time, TTFN!