My Little Pony: A Race Against Time

by CJ Esmerio

Till Next Time, Stardust

Author's Note:

"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight.

Once the party was over, everypony who hadn't left decided to pitch in, and help out with cleaning up the leftover mess from the party.

"So... you basically turn into some kind of... what did you say... super saiyan pony?" Sunset - the one from Stardust's world - asked, once the gold pony had finished telling her the story.

The two of them were also actually in the library, having already done their fair share of cleaning, and as Stardust looked down at his necklace, he said, "Yeah, pretty much... although the only complaint I have is that it's my actual f***in Cutie Mark."

Jack, we talked about this already.

Stardust muttered some words under his breath while Sunset suddenly became surprised, and asked, "What in the... was that Starswirl?"

The young pony paused his drinking from the Coke bottle to look back at his friend.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I forgot," chuckled Stardust, who also had his soda bucket nearby. "Since this world isn't like ours, it allows others beside me to hear what he is saying."

Sunset just looked at her friend, trying to imagine herself seeing the ancient pony, and said, "Um... hi, there, Starswirl."

Hello, Miss Shimmer, and what a pleasure it is to speak to you... I take it you plan on having another eating contest in the future with Jack?

"Well, that depends on him," repliedSunset, smirking at Stardust. "I mean, I am the one who finished all of my slices first."

Stardust rolled his eyes, and argued, "You are so delusional... I'm the one who won this contest, not you!"

Sunset frowned, and pointed out, "You didn't even finish the crust on your last piece of pizza!"

"So? It's not my fault that they f***ed it up," exclaimed Stardust. "I won fair and square... right, Starswirl?"

I'm afraid I will have to side with her on this one.

Sunset gave Stardust a smug look, while he frowned, and said, "Well, fine then, I'll prove it to you in a rematch... the next time you come to Ponyville... our version, I mean..."

"Well, I'll still be there for a few more days," replied a grinning Sunset. "How about tomorrow?"

"Fine by me," said Stardust, and the two of them shook each others hooves, which caused Starswirl to sigh.

You'd better not blame me for any lack of sleep.

Ignoring his friend, Stardust began looking around the library, curious to see if there were any books that he would enjoy reading.

"Hey, Stardust, come look at this one I found..."

The young pony walked back over to his friend, and noticed that she was pointing at a book that had caught Sunset's interest.

"Did you want to read it?" Sunset asked, with Stardust flipping the book over to look at the title.

"A Journey Beyond Sanity... huh..." Stardust thought about it for a moment, and then, he simply shook his head. "Ehhh, doesn't really sound that interesting to me."

Before Sunset could respond to that, Twilight entered the library, along with the rest of their friends, except for Applejack, who was helping Rara settle into one of the guest rooms.

"Okay, hold up a second," exclaimed Stardust, raising one of his hooves in the air. "Can everypony that I know personally stand over here, please?"

So, then, after a few minutes, on one side of the room was Twilight, Casey, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Starlight, while the other side had Stardust, Princess Twilight, their respective versions of the rest of the Mane Six and Starlight, and Sunset.

"Now, this is better," said Stardust, before going back to his soda pop bottle.

Princess Twilight gave her special somepony a disapproving look, and asked, "Haven't you already drank enough of those, Jack?"

"I know when I've reached my limit, love, and I haven't just yet," replied Stardust, which made Princess Twilight roll her eyes at him.

"Sooooo..." Pinkie said, looking at Stardust with a wide smile on her face. "Did you enjoy the party?"

Stardust pretended to think about it for a moment, and he replied, "Surprisingly, Pinkie... yes, I actually enjoyed it... thank you for- oof!"

Pinkie wrapped her two front limbs around Stardust, giving him a warm hug, and said, "You're welcome... plus, I knew you'd say you did anyway. Who doesn't love any of my parties?"

Stardust chuckled while softly giving Pinkie a pat on the back, and as she walked back to her side of the library, he replied, "Yeah, yeah, just... leave all of the other possible parties that have to do with me for the Pinkie from my world, alright?"

"Sure thing, Stardusty," said Pinkie, giving her new friend a salute. "And you can take the rest of the sodas with you!"

Not really in the mood to correct her for saying his name wrong, especially since she told him that he could keep the Coke bottles, Stardust simply nodded his head, while Rainbow walked over to her other self.

"You'd better be here for Round 1 tomorrow, just like Human Rainbow, so we can start figuring out who exactly is the best Rainbow Dash."

"I'm looking forward to it," grinned Rainbow's alternate counterpart, with the two of them shaking hooves before Alternate Rainbow went through the Crystal Mirror's magical portal.

She was soon followed by the alternate versions of Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Starlight, and Pinkie, leaving only Stardust and Princess Twilight, as well as Sunset.

Clearing his throat, Stardust walked over to Casey, and said, "You know, I'm beginning to wonder if you're supposed to be this world's version of me."

"Well... I doubt that," replied Casey, while Twilight was now looking through her Stardust notes to see if she had missed something. "I mean, from what your Twilight and our Pinkie told me... I'm not from Earth... or speak British... or use 'beeps' to cover up certain words... or even have my own super powers."

Stardust chuckled, and explained, "No, not literally, Casey... I meant regarding your Twilight, and that... if I could imagine a pony besides me and..."

He took a moment to avoid saying the names of two certain characters he despised heavily. "Well... yeah, you would probably be a good match for Twilight."

Casey and Twilight both blushed a little, and the orange-yellow pony smiled. "Thanks, Ja- Stardust... you're a really cool friend."

"Yeah, well, just be glad you didn't know before I started falling for Twilight," replied Stardust, giving a small shrug.

"Why?" Casey said, tilting his head to the side. "What were you like?"

"He was a real ****," said Twilight, surprising everypony except Princess Twilight and Sunset. "Or at least, that's what the other me said."

Before Stardust could reply back, Parallel Twilight chuckled, and said, "And that's the closest you'll ever get to hearing me curse, Jack... ever..."

"Eh, I'll take it," said the young pony, giving a small shrug. "But now we've reached that point again..."

"Yeah, he's right," added Casey, letting out a sigh. "The whole 'what do we know' moment... do we really have to wait that long to see you again?"

Stardust nodded his head, but part of him was not liking the decision either. "I'm sorry, but... this is just the way things have to be."

"Well, not exactly," pointed out Twilight, who was now looking through her Friendship Problem Solving book. "You could come once a month or so, at least, and vice versa for us."

Stardust didn't look too sure, and he replied, "Look, it's not that I hate or not enjoy seeing you all, since I technically do that everyday, but I..."

"Jack, come on, really?" Princess Twilight came over to place a hoof on his shoulder, and she added, "I know you're trying to do the sensible thing right now, but after everything that's happened so far... don't you think they deserve a little more than us being placed on an emergency call?"

Stardust turned to look at the others, seeing their awaiting faces, and he said, "Well, before I tell you what my decision is... let's just say that bad things can happen when time travel is involved, as I'm sure we all know at this point... and I don't want some new evil pony creating even worse damage to your world and ours, along with the ones that have alternate versions of me."

"But didn't Princess Celestia and Starswirl take care of that by blocking all of the possible passages?" Twilight asked, and Stardust started to laugh sarcastically while Princess Twilight and Sunset looked at him nervously.

"As much as I have faith in Starswirl that he did his part in making sure nopony gets to those worlds, I am not exactly convinced that your version of Celestia was able to do hers a hundred percent..."

Twilight was about to start an argument with Stardust, but he held up one of his hooves, indicating that he was not finished. "However... even though I feel like I'm going to hate myself one day for doing this... I've decided that they'll be one day per month where I come to this world for a visit, or you can come to ours... but besides that, we're only to be called when something really bad happens here... are we clear on that?"

Casey, Starlight, and the Mane 6 all nodded their heads, with Sunset smirking at her friend, saying, "You really do have a soft spot for us ponies, don't you?"

"Especially Twilight," reminded Rainbow Dash, snickering to herself, and Stardust turned his head to glare at her. "What? It's true... why else would you have become speechless when seeing our Twilight for the first time-"

"Okay, I'm going back home now..." said Princess Twilight, walking into the Crystal Mirror, and being transported back to her world.

Sunset chuckled nervously, and said, "I'm gonna go and make sure she's okay... see you soon, Stardust."

Once she was gone, Stardust groaned, and shook his head while Rainbow continued with her explanation.

"Or feel all warm and fuzzy inside when she thanked you by kissing you on the cheek?"

While Twilight started to blush again, Stardust glared at the winged pony, and asked, "How did you know about all that?"

"From the other me that came from your world," replied Rainbow, who didn't think she was doing anything wrong. "You aren't mad at her now, are you?"

Stardust sighed, and shook his head, saying, "No, but I'm definitely going to have a talk with her about keeping certain things to herself... did she say anything else to you that I should know about?"

Rainbow tried to remember what else her alternate self had said to her. "Well, since you told me that you weren't going to be mad at her... I was talking to her about how there was one time me and everypony else tried to stop Princess Celestia from having Twilight leave Ponyville because we didn't accept her help for anything, which caused her to pretty much become insane, and she told me that that never happened in your world."

"Why wouldn't it?" asked Pinkie Pie, while Stardust quickly began realizing what the blue Pegasus was about to say.

"Because Stardust pretty much stopped her from not getting too insane by kissing her-"

However, before she could finish her sentence, Stardust interrupted her by saying, "I think you've said quite enough, Rainbow... and I'm warning you right now to never, ever tell my Twilight or anypony else from our world about what I did that day... got it?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, and said, "Do I really have to-"

"Are... we... clear or not, Rainbow Dash?" Stardust repeated, walking over to the speedster pony so that they were now facing each other eye-to-eye.

The young pony gulped, and quickly nodded her head, saying, "As crystal as the Crystal Empire..."

As Stardust nodded his head, feeling satisfied, Twilight asked, "Did something bad happen after you kissed her, Stardust?"

His anger and irritation going away after hearing her question, Stardust replied, "No, but... let's just say that, if this were a story that she was reading, and she hadn't gotten to a certain part yet that other ponies knew about, I wouldn't want to spoil anything for her."

While Twilight nodded her head, Pinkie Pie asked, "So is this part where you go back home, and we all live happily ever after, without having to worry about some new evil pony causing serious damage to our worlds or anypony else's, even though Starswirl and Princess Celestia blocked all the passages?"

Stardust chuckled, and said, "First of all, Pinkie, I learned a long time ago that everypony has their own version of happily ever after... and second, like I said earlier, I am hoping that Celestia was able to be successful in her part with blocking those passages."

"Oh, don't be so worried about it, darling" assured Rarity. "Besides, it's not like she missed any of them on accident..."

---

[Insert "I Am... All Of Me" by Crush 40, from Shadow the Hedgehog]

As I raced through the pathways of Ponyville on my beloved custom-made chopper, my smile continued to grow, knowing that the plan I created so long ago was finally about to come to fruition... and all because that clueless pony who called herself the "ruler" of Equestria did not even bother to check on our world...

"... which was absolutely perfect," I said to myself, as well as hitting the brakes since I'd already arrived at my destination.

After placing my bike on its kickstand, I walked over to the pony who had been awaiting my arrival. "Sorry for the delay, sweetheart... I take it that the portal is still open?"

"Uh-huh," she replied, even though, judging from her facial expression, I could tell that she was clearly not pleased with me being late.

So, I simply walked over to the young alicorn, and kissed her with as much passion I could possibly give to her... then, after a few minutes, she gently pushed me back so that she could catch her breath.

"Feel better now, Midnight?"

Midnight rolled her eyes, even though she was now smiling at me, and said, "You already know the answer to that... just promise me that you won't be kissing Twilight that way once you're in his world."

Aw, she's so cute when she tries to sound jealous.

"No need to worry, sweetheart, I just have to kiss her with enough passion that will make her believe I'm actually him, and not-"

"His evil self?" She finished for me, and I nodded my head.

"Exactly... also, once I'm able to turn everyone against him, that's when I take his spot, and then, I'll bring you and everypony else so that you can all replace them."

Midnight nodded her head, but she then handed to me a photo of an orange-yellow Earth pony. "What about this guy's world?"

"Already planned out in her, my dear," I replied, tapping the side of my head with my hoof after tossing the photo aside. "I have something very special in mind for him, as well as my other self."

I then looked at the object in front of us... our world's version of the Crystal Mirror... and imagined that I was speaking to the one pony who would never have a chance in ruining my plan.

"I sure hope you've enjoyed these final moments of your life, Stardust... because you're about to lose everything you've ever cared about... I will rise..."

I paused, for a moment, to hold up a photo that showed him with Twilight, Spike, Starlight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity, as well as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and with the help of my own special energy, I watched it slowly be burned to a crisp.

"While you fall..."