To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

"You wouldn't believe how much this town has surprised me! And I really mean that. I've been far too lost so far. I'm so glad to have met somepony who could help me out."

"Hey! It's no problem at all. I had a similar time my first time here coming from Canterlot, but the ponies around here were more than willing to help out, so of course I'd do the same! Especially knowing you'd be comforted by a familiar face, even if we just met not too long ago."

"You're exactly right, again, thank you. I've been on a trip detailing different parts of Equestria with a different angle for my work, and I've been struggling at times like now as you see. I had been hired to do all of Canterlot but I was completely unable to check out the castle. I'm not sure I will be rewarded for my hard work when I came up short. Still, here I am with hopefully no royally sanctioned areas to continue to blockade me, aha."

"Oh really, did that happen? I didn't realize just how restricted it can be. I suppose I'm just so used to passing through there naturally. Say, after you finish here in Ponyville I wouldn't mind helping you finish your work in Canterlot. I'm heading there anyway. Unless you have something else you need to do?"

"Absolutely not! That sounds fantastic! I will expedite and finish up here in a jiffy. Is there somewhere you wanted to meet up later?

"Sure, see me tonight at the train station around six p.m."

"Done deal."

Three weeks later

Celestia lay in bed, unable to sleep yet another night and staring up at the ceiling.

Time was running out. It had not been long, but every second mattered.

Luna had not shown any major changes or signs of discomfort, but who knew how long that would last? Who knew how accurate the estimates were in the first place? This wasn't something you could just up and say "whoops!" when you missed the deadline.

Her visit with the historian had been mostly fruitless and a waste of time. While they had known about the Inner World Sanctuaries, they basically said the last time any one of them had been seen had to have been at least five centuries ago. So they were lost. What else was new?

Should she go on a adventure in search of then? Was that even realistic? What were the chances she even found a lead, and how much time would she waste in that desperate chase completely unaware of Luna's condition? The thought to send Twilight flashed into her mind, but she tossed it all the same. Twilight may have been knowledgeable, but this was far too removed from anything she could do effectively. This was nothing like the original mission she had sent her on. Should she pay a group to go searching for her? It was truly tempting.
She quickly made a note by her bedside table for tomorrow, where she would see it and make a decision then.

Still, while Celestia had been stubborn since her decision to never give up on Luna, it didn't make the situation feel any less hopeless at times...

As her thoughts sank, she once again had the mental image of her filing cabinet at her desk pop up, and what was inside. Everything it had meant and implied. No. She had to stop thinking about that.

But still, what kind of avenues did she even have left? She had done a lot more research from that same room that started all of this and had truly learned a lot, including multiple spells she would need to know if they did ever miraculously recover a Sanctuary amethyst. Even a few extra spells in her fretting. But all of it was useless unless she had one. Twilight had joined her quite a few times, bless her. She had even brought a friend along once, how it made her proud to see Twilight continue to flourish.

Her mind flashed to the rare times of travel in her life and meetings with the upper echelon of other civilizations. Even seeing jewellery had been rare to see. She thought of the dragons by chance in relation to treasure, and suddenly challenging them one by one for their treasure troves didn't seem so far fetched after all. Wait. She could actually do that. Why hadn't she thought of that already? She suddenly felt very stupid. It struck her that it should've been obvious that one of the five would end up in one of their lairs somewhere. This was happening. As extreme as it sounded, she truly believed that it was the best option available to her. Perhaps it would even allow her to regain a little bit of confidence that had been waning back. No dragon would be getting in her way. She would incinerate them down to the bone with fiery energy they could only dream of if they dare tried to stop her.

But her daydreaming didn't stop there. She had grown nostalgic at this point, after so much consideration for all of the neighbouring races on Equus. She thought of the Zebra's, Kirin, Diamond Dogs, Centaurs, Cyclopes, Minotaurs, Griffons, hell even the—

Griffons. There was a memory she had of meeting the late emperor Silabo Vulus that clicked. More importantly, his wife who she couldn't remember the name of that had been with him when she had seen them. It all came back to her in one burst, but she was absolutely certain of it, now that she actually remembered. They had bragged, in front of her, some few hundred years ago, that they had recently acquired an extremely rare gem in which they placed into a necklace for his wife. She remembered seeing the gem stick out as the centrepiece. It matched the drawing that she had recently seen.

She got out of bed and rushed for the door. Opening it and completely naked, she yelled at the stationed two guards.

"Bring me the fastest delivery pegasus that Canterlot has! Go now!"

They were completely stunned, but eventually came back to their senses when she nodded her head for them to go again and rushed off.

She then backpedalled into her room, closed the door and locked it, and then immediately lit the candle near her desk.

Scrounging everything together that she would need quickly including pen and papper, she started penning a letter to none other than the current emperor of the griffins - Cyrel Daris.

The griffin's royal family was notorious for never throwing anything away.

Hope surged through her veins and brought her back from the depths. She would meet with Cyrel and secure the amethyst in no time. She would give him an offer than he could not possibly resist for it. It was unlikely he even cared for any of their older stuff at all. She could start the conversation slow, and then manipulate the situation perfectly to bring it up and her request to acquire it. Within no time she would be working on finally saving Luna.

It was all coming together.

Just as she was putting the finishing touches on the letter, an intense knock came from her door.

"Just a minute!"

There was no response or continued knocking, so they had clearly heard.

She then finished her final sentence and signed off on it. A quick reread to ensure no mistakes were made in the hastily prepared official summons covered up as an opportunity to discuss other important topics that would tempt the griffin emperor. Shen then put the letter inside of an envelop and wrote the destination and stamped with her her seal and sealed it.

She made for the door, and when she opened it the pegasus had practically fallen into her room.

"Are you the most fastest and capable one?"

"Of course, your majesty! I shall deliver this with posthaste and without fail!"

He bowed before her.

"Then I give you my blessings. Please, take care to take this to the griffin domain. I will need to inform some others of this soon while we wait for a response. But for now, I must sleep. Now go."

A nod of the head and he was off, practically sprinting through the hallway and almost tripping. They were known for flight anyway. It was quite amusing.

She made her way back into the room and put out the candle. While she had been excited at first at the chance, she eventually passed out after some thirty minutes or so from exhaustion that had accumulated from past sleepless nights.