My Little Pony: A Race Against Time

by CJ Esmerio

A Crystal Break-In

Author's Note:

"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight... and thanks to FanficReader920 for helping me with this story!

After adding the rest of her friends to her bulletin board, along with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Twilight took a few steps back while shaking her head in confusion.

"I just don't understand why this unknown pony is capturing almost everypony that I - Casey, for the last time, leave that picture alone!"

Her special somepony had been trying several times to remove Stardust from the"suspect"portion after hearing Ride Along's crime report.

"Youknowalready that the pony behind this is alight-greenEarth Pony, Twilight…Stardustis agoldEarth Pony, so he isn't really a suspect anymore."

"Well, until we've saved everypony that he's captured, Stardust is stayingright there," said Twilight, in a serious tone.

Knowing that he wouldn't win this one, Casey walked away from the board, and replied, "Alright, Twilight, I'm leaving him there… you think Shining Armor made it back to the Crystal Empire yet?"

An hour after Ride Along and Applebloom had left the castle, a carriage being pulled by four Crystal Pegasi had arrived at the outdoor steps, with one of them describing what had happened to his and Cadence's castle, as well as the Princess of Love herself.

"Don't worry, Twily, I'm putting an end to this once and for all,"Shining had said to the young alicorn. "You keep on figuring out why this is happening."

Then, after making sure that Twilight was okay, Shining entered the carriage, and the quintet had immediately began their ascent.

"I really hope so," replied the Princess of Friendship, after sighing in sadness, and she continued on with her work.

As for Casey, he took another look at his friend's picture, and hoped that nothing wrong was happening to Stardust or anypony else in the former human being's world.

---

This is complete and total bull-[BEEP]!

I should not be in this wretched, horrible place… gah, if it wasn't for my infuriating other self and his meddling friend, I would have been ruler of both Anti-Equestriaandthe one that my counterpart lives in.

Instead, I've been subjected to having the same [BEEP] tea party every damn day of-

WHOOSH!

Pausing his inner monologue, Evil Stardust turned around to see that his newest "companion" had finally fixed the previously-damaged wristwatch that had belonged to Casey, and a smile appeared on his face when he also saw that a time portal had been created.

"Good thing that Kronos sent you here… otherwise, I don't think I ever would have gotten to repairing that damn thing."

"Yes, well, don't thank me yet," replied Elixir Nova, another sinister pony who had his own issues with Stardust and Casey, and he handed the watch back over to the dark-gold pony. "Save it until after we've taken control of Equestria."

Evil Stardust let out a chuckle, and began shaking his head.

"Oh, I have no intention of ruling Equestria anymore, Alexa… and I don't intend on having you accompany me on myrevengejourney."

Before Elixir could respond to that, the young pony delivered a swift kick to the scientist's head, and watched as he collapsed to the ground.

"But… we made a… deal…"

"Well, obviously, you made it with the wrong type of person," replied Evil Stardust, flashing him with a sinister grin. "Now, then, if you'll excuse me, Alexa, there are several ponies… and a dragon… that I need to take care of."

As the groggy Elixir tried to stand up, Evil Stardust walked over to the portal, which transported him to a realm that he'd wanted to travel to for avery longtime.

"Honeeeeyyyy… I'm hoooo - what the... ?"

The evil version of Stardust was surprised to see his closest friends, as well as his girlfriend, locked up inside of a cage.

"Hey, free usafteryou've beat the livin'[BEEP]outtahim," exclaimed Anti-Rainbow, referring to the elderly gentleman that was standing beside Evil Stardust.

"You're not going to succeed in your plan, Jack… they will stop you."

Evil Stardust rolled his eyes, and replied, "First of all, there's not one damn single piece of that [BEEP] inside of me… I'mall evil, old timer, and right now, you're about to go into retirement!"

WHOOSH!

Courtesy of Casey's wristwatch (which had also been upgraded by Elixir), the dark gold pony created a portal that led to the unescapable world known as dimensional limbo, and before knocking Kronos inside of it, Evil Stardust said, "Oh, and don't worry, old timer, I'll takeverygood care of your special time staff."

Then, he fired an energy blast at him, and once Kronos was gone, he closed up the portal.

"You're welcome, Alexa… now, then…"

Rainbow's evil self rolled her eyes, and muttered, "Great, he's talkin' to himself again."

Ignoring her comments for the time being, Evil Stardust turned his attention over to the various portals that had to do with talking ponies, and he said, "Normally, I would have just gone back in time to kill my other self, but Rowan already tried that… I would need a world that…oh!"

An idea popped inside his mind, and the sinister pony's smile grew a little wider.

"I knowjusthow to take care of you, my worthless counterpart… and as for hisfriend…"

Evil Stardust turned to look at another "pony portal" that Kronos had been observing, and after seeing what was inside that particular world, he added, "You're going to regret not allowing me to finish you off inside the castle when I had the chance…but… before I do anything else…"

Holding the staff that belonged to Kronos, Evil Stardust walked over to the cage that contained his friends, and used its energy to make the lock quickly melt away, which eventually caused the cage to open. "Wow, this staff does everything!"

"Well, we could've told youthat,genius," replied Anti-Rainbow, walking over to her friend. "Now, if you're done talking to yourself, I say we use that thing to take care of Stardust and Ca-"

"Just cool it for a sec, Crash," exclaimed Midnight, who was glaring at her boyfriend. "I should really lay a number on you after that stuff you pulled with Sunset."

Evil Stardust let out a sheepish chuckle, and said, "I'm sorry, love, but I was just doing whatever it took to turn Stardust's friends against him… besides, you know my heart belongs to you."

"Oh, for eff's sake, not this stuff again," growled Anti-Rainbow. "Need I remind you, Star, about two certainponiesthat we have to take care of? We don't have time for you two to start makin' out and whatnot!"

Evil Stardust gave a small shrug, and he smiled at Midnight, saying, "Well, with Kronos out of the way, Crash, I gotallthe time in the… hey, what's this thing?"

He walked over to the frozen canteen that was placed on a nearby table, and Midnight was the one who gave him an answer.

"Actually, sweetheart… I have abetteridea… one that will, as they say, kill two ponies with one stone... but you'll have to melt that ice away first."

---

Damn, IknewI shouldn't have left without making sure I had every single part for my flying mechanism… oh, well, it's not like-

Panting as he ran, Beck looked up to see the Crystal Pony Carriage a few feet away, and he realized that they must have gotten a trail on him somehow.

"[BEEP] my life," he muttered. "Well, guess it's time to improvise."

Then, after pulling an about face, Beck quickly started to chase after the carriage.Good thing I brought a little extra more darts with me!

The cloaked pony then pulled out his grappling gun once more via his mouth, and took a shot, aiming for the carriage's rear.

To his pleasure, the hook managed to hook itself into one of the carriages axles.

'Bingo,'Beck thought, beginning to pull himself up.

However, as soon as he reached the top, and grasped the carriage, the extra weight was felt by all five of the other ponies.

"What the...?" Shining said at the sudden weight change. The Crystal Prince took a gaze behind the carriage, only to find nothing.

"Surprise," he heard a menacing voice say.

However, before he could implant the dart into Shining Armor's flank, said pony managed to deflect the dart from his hand, sending it plummeting to the ground.

---

Angel Bunny was looking feverishly for food.

Ever since that cloaked pony kicked him out of his owner's cottage, he had been starving.

Finally, Angel managed to find what looked to be a grape on the ground, so he happily approached the berry only to suddenly feel pain in his rear.

The bunny screeched in pain, before immediately falling unconscious, only inches from the food he so desired. As if fate was playing a trick on Angel, another bunny took the grape not even a minute later.

---

"Well, that's just unfortunate," Beck remarked before pulling out another dart.

The comment was met with a solid left hook to his face, sending Beck crashing against the carriage's back.

Luckily for him, he still maintained grip on the dart.

"Alright," Beck said. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."

"What's going on up there, Your Highness," one of the Crystal Pegai inquired, slightly concerned.

"I've got it," he responded. "Just land this carriageright now."

"Yes sir." Then, a few seconds later, they began to make the descent down to the ground.

Meanwhile, behind them,Beck's attempts to dart the Crystal Prince had been in vein as Shining continued to deflect it, so he decided to discard the dart, which ended up in between the carriage cushion and the back, and he elected to go for a full-on brawl with the Prince of the Crystal Empire.

"Come on,Crystal Prince,is this the best you-"

WHAM!

After recieving a good punch to the face, Beck shook his head a few times, and said, "Alright… I'll give youthatone, Shining."

"Well, thanks, but there's plenty-"

WHAM!

Beck quickly delivered a swift kick to his ribcage area, and while Shining groaned in pain, the cloaked pony let out a laugh.

"Oh, I agree, Shining… this isfarfrom over!"

---

[Stardust's World]

After reading more of what her counterpart was telling her, Twilight let out a sigh, and began heading over to her special somepony's bedroom.

Knock-knock-knock!

"You can come in, love!"

After opening the bedroom door, a surprised Twilight asked, "How'd you know it… never mind… you done playing that game yet?"

Eyes glued to the t.v. screen, Stardust shook his head, and replied, "Not until I got all 7 of the Chaos Emeralds, love, and level-wise, I'm still on Metal… oh,[BEEP] you and your plasma balls, Eggman! Take some of this, then!"

"Jack, I think that Casey and-"

Stardust shook his head, and said, "I'm sure he's fine, love, I would tell if one of my closest friends was in da -haha,how does it feel bein'[BEEP]-ed up by the fastest thing aliveagain?"

"Um, is the gamereallythat impor-"

Twilight's special somepony nodded his head, but still not looking away from the t.v., and he said, "Yeah, itkind ofis, love…this is my freakin'childhoodright here! I mean, I haven't been this excited about a Sonic game since… well, okay,Generationswas pretty cool, but it was rather short, and they didn't even make Classic Sonic talk or whatever…"

Before Twilight asked what he was talking about, Stardust added, "Anyway, thisManiagame right here is…come on, Tails, you're better than that…I mean, Iamstill sour about the fact that they'll probably never make a season 3 of SatAM, but...yes, onto the next zone!"

The purple alicorn rolled her eyes, and said, "Jack, can youpleasecome down here to-"

"Oops! Sorry, love, it's already on the next level," exclaimed Stardust, and he continued playing the game, while Twilight was getting annoyed.

"Well,fine,then I'm going to just waitright hereuntil you beat this… game… and the second it's over, you are coming with me to-"

Stardust nodded his head, and said, "The library, yeah… sure thing, love, I promise -oh my god, that was freakin' awesome!"

---

Meanwhile

As she sat by one of the tables in Sugarcube Cafe, Sunset Shimmer hummed to herself while tapping her fingers on the table.

You'd think he would remember the time that we both set this lunch da-

"I'm here, don't worry, I'm here…phew!"

The pony-turned-human teenager looked at the person who was now sitting in front of her, and said, "You know, Jack, they have these things on our phones called areminder…"

"Hey, I swear, it wasn't my fault this time," replied the young man that also happened to be her boyfriend. "But I promise I'll make it up to you…right now,in fact!"

Before she could start giving him more of the"you were late"treatment, Sunset suddenly smelled somethingverydelicious, and the young teenager said, "Wow, I… I almost forgot you knew how to make these."

"Eh, more fun and easier than baking a cake," said Jack, giving his girlfriend a shrug, and opened up the napkin that he'd placed on the table to reveal several home-made brownies. "Ladies first…"

Always the gentleman,thought Sunset, giving him a smile as she began to eat one of the brownies.He must've figured he would be late if-

"Aw, isn't this sweet?"

Suddenly, the two of them turned around to see a dark-yellow teenager that looked a lot like EG Stardust, and he added, "Sunset Shimmer… and theboyfriend!"

"Look, Stardust, if this is some weird prank or something, then I suggest-"

Evil Stardust let out a laugh, and shook his head, saying, "I can assure you, Shimmer, that it isnot… in fact, there's a little more to it."

Whoosh!

With a sinister grin, the young pony fired an energy blast that came from his newly-obtained staff, which caused her to fly back towards the wall, crashing into a few unoccupied chairs.

However, before Evil Stardust could do anything worse, he felt a pair of hands roughly turn him around from the shoulders, and found himself looking at Sunset's boyfriend.

"What the [BEEP] is your problem?!"

An unimpressed Evil Stardust raised his eyebrow, and said, "Do I know you?"

Instead of allowing Jack to give him a response, the sinister pony-turned-human delivered a solid headbutt to his forehead, and a now-dazed Jack collapsed to the ground while Evil Stardust simply gave a small chuckle.

"You got guts, man, I'll give you that much… but, do yourself a favor, and stay down…"

He turned his attention over to the unconcious Sunset, and his smile began to widen up dangerously.

"It'spaybacktime, Shimmer… and I hope you-"

Suddenly, he stopped talking after hearing Jack begin to stand up, making Evil Stardust let out a groan before saying, "I told you to stay down."

"You aren't taking heranywhere," growled Jack, who was quickly becoming furious. "And if you do anything else to her-"

Evil Stardust laughed, and he replied, "You'll do what? Also, if you're trying to scare me, man, then it's not working one bit… so, like I said,stay down… or else I'll use this bad boy right here to rip the flesh off her bone."

Before Jack could give a response, Evil Stardust used his own energy blast to send him crashing through the kitchen doors nearby, and after that, he put the former unicorn in his arms, bridal style.

"You're gonna pay for doing this to my eye, Sunset… but before that, there's someone who is justdyingto meet you…hahahahahaha!"

---

Just as the carriage was approaching the ground, in the same field Beck landed in earlier in the day, Shining finally managed to get the upper hand.

"Not this time," said Twilight's brother, who was now holding Beck's head over the edge.

"So, I see you've connected me to the other disappearances," Beck observed. "Rather impressive, I will admit..."

"Where are the others?" Shining demanded. "Where did you take my wife?!"

"Like I'd tellyou!" Beck responded before using his back legs to do a backwards summersault/bucking motion that knocked both of them off the carriage into the ground below, which was about a good ten foot drop.

However, it didn't make the landing any more comfortable, so after the two ponies hit the ground, they both struggled to get up.

"Uhhhh..."Beck moaned as he pulled out another dart, seeing as how he'd already lost one (and another he'd left on the carriage), and managed to successfully impale it into Shining's flank, which caused him to let out a soft chuckle at his victory.

"Freeze!"He heard one of the Crystal Pegai said as they approached ready for a fight.

Beck responded by quickly pulling out four darts, and using his tube, propelled them into the necks of all four Crystal Pegasi, causing them to drop to the ground.

"Idiots," Beck remarked as he shoved the now unconscious Shining Armor into his burlap sack, and then, he found himself limping back to his lair, using his mouth to help with dragging the filled-up burlap sack.

Once he arrived, the other prisoners watched as Beck placed his newest capture in the same cage that the still-knocked out Cadence was in.

"I promise ya, you're not gonna like it when Twilight finds you," exclaimed Applejack. "She ain't gonna go easy on you, either!"

Pinkie nodded her head, in agreement, and replied, "Yeah,and I've seen how angry she can get… this one time, she literallyburstinto flames!"

As he started to heal up some of his bruises, Beck let out a quick laugh, and said, "Oh, I'm not too concerned about afieryprincess, Applejack… and speaking offire…"

He turned to look over at Rarity, with a smile on his face. "Care to take a gander at who's next on thecapturelist?"

---

After having spent enough hours working on her bulletin board, Twilight decided to look for some more information that would help her learn more about this mysterious Earth Pony.

So, now, she and Casey, along with Spike, were following Sweetie Belle as they made their way to Carousel Boutique, but were all unaware of the fact that somepony was keeping an eye of them through a pair of high-tech goggles.

'Heheheheheheh, your turn, Spikey-Wiley,' thought Beck, who was watching from afar, and a few minutes later, he was making his way into the boutique through Rarity's window once more.

While Sweetie Belle and Casey were searching the lower story, Twilight and Spike were looking upstairs.

"Sweetie Belle said that she saw the hooded pony standing over Rarity right here," Twilight explained, standing on the spot she was referring to. "So let's try to look in the hallway. He may have dropped something on the way out."

"Got it. I'll check in Rarity's room," Spike replied.

"Alright," Twilight said, giving the young dragon her approval. "Let me know if you find anything."

As Twilight turned to inspect the hall, Spike made his way into Rarity's room.

"Alright, if I were a clue, where would I be?" Spike asked himself.

Little did the little dragon know that he was being watched.

Insert "Seizing the Spirit of Adventure" from UP

'Jackpot,' Beck thought to himself from the safety of Rarity's shut closet, while slowly pulling out his tube and a dart.

"Hmmmmm… wonder why the window's open?" Spike wondered. "Maybe that's how he got in?"

"Very perceptive, Spike," answered Beck.

WHOOSH!

"What?" Spike asked, hearing a voice before he felt a prick on his rear. "Yeouch!"

The young dragon looked behind him to see the same kind of dart that Sweetie Belle had showed Twilight a few days ago.

"Oh no...TWILIGHT!He's here in… in the..." Spike managed to yell as his voice began slurring.

'Damn it,'Beck thought to himself as he emerged from the closet carrying his burlap sack.'I got to start labeling these damn things!'

"Spike, what's wrong?!" Twilight said, running toward Rarity's room.

However, what she found shook the young alicorn to her very core.It's him!

Well, if it isn't the beloved princess herself,thoughtBeck, as he and Twilight stared each other down.

One was standing in the doorway to Rarity's room, and the other was standing on her windowsill with a burlap sack in mouth.

Unfortunately, just as quickly as the stare down began, it ended with Beck hopping down from Rarity's window, and dashing through the streets of Ponyville.

"No! You're not gonna get Spike!" Twilight yelled as she gave chase.

'Thank Celestia he's so light,' Beck thought, finally relieved about the fact that he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with any new or old bruises. 'Pain aside, I gotta lose her somehow.'

Unfortunately, the cloaked pony already had a mile-wide advantage over her, and by the time that Twilight rounded the corner, he was nowhere in sight, leaving the alicorn almost heartbroken.

"No, no,nonononononono...NOOOO!" Twilight yelled.

"Twilight!" Sweetie Belle and Casey yelled, running toward their distraught friend/special somepony. "What happened?"

"He... he.. he got Spike," Twilight said, through some freshly made tears of guilt leaking from her eyes.

"Oh no," Sweetie Belle said, in concern and sadness.

As for Casey, he gritted his teeth together in frustration, and growled, "That's it… when I get my hooves on this pony is,he is gonna PAY!"

---

Anti-Equestria

After placing Sunset in her "new home",Evil Stardust walked into the throne room, where the Anti-Mane 6 (except for Midnight) were waiting, with the now un-frozen canteen placed on the middle of the table.

"So, are we gonna deliver some payback to those ponies, or what?" asked Anti-Rainbow, who was not as patient as the rest of her friends

"Not just yet, Crash," replied Stardust's counterpart. "Regarding what happened last time, I completely underestimated those two… and by now, my other self is probably smart and powerful enough to sense either of us approaching him or any of his friends."

While Anti-Rainbow rolled her eyes, Anti-Applejack asked, "So, what in the hay are we supposed to do until then?"

Taking a look at the time staff that was in his hooves, as well as the unfrozen canteen, Evil Stardust chuckled, and replied, "Until the time is right, my friends… let's have somefun."