My Little Pony: A Race Against Time

by CJ Esmerio

A Truth Revealed

Author's Note:

"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck was created by FanficReader920. I just own the story.

Warning - This chapter also contains some dark moments that may not be safe for any young fans of the show to read.

"Well, at least he hasn't eaten it yet," said Rainbow, speaking in a hushed tone, and Applejack scowled at her.

"You're not exactly helpin' ease the situation… shoot, I don't what's worse; that lil' fella gettin' himself caught in the trap, or us bein' covered by-"

However, the young pony paused her sentence after noticing that the mouse was heading back to the hole it came out of, with the slice of cheese in its paws, and she said, "Huh, would ya look at that? Must be our lucky day."

Rainbow nodded, in agreement, and let out a sigh of relief. "Yup, and you actually thought- wait, what's it doing now?"

[Insert "Battle With The Forces of Evil" from Sleeping Beauty]

After coming back out of its hole, now holding onto a cherry stem, the mouse tossed it up into the air before leaving again, and Applejack glared at a sheepish Rainbow. "Uh, too soon?"

Snap! Snap! Snap!

The next thing they knew, all of the mouse traps were going off, and Applejack quickly tried breaking down the door using her hind legs while Rainbow tried to offer vocal support.

"Hurry before they reach us!"

"Well, you... could help me out... here, ya know!" yelled the Earth Pony, in between her slams against the door.

---

As Beck started moving towards Twilight, the purple alicorn found herself wishing that Casey wasn't in another world, but then, a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

Twilight! Wherever you are, run!

"Stardust?" said Twilight, and Beck rolled his eyes before turning his head around.

"For Equestria's sake, did we not talk about you leaving Twilight to - huh?"

While Beck realized that Evil Stardust wasn't there, Twilight heard the voice of her other self's special somepony again.

Twilight, you need to run, and use your magic!

A frustrated Beck turned back to face Twilight, but to his surprise, she wasn't there anymore.

"Where the hell is - hey!"

The purple alicorn was now out in the hallway, and as she began running away, Beck cried, "You are not getting away from me, princess!"

Then, after he placed a circular-like tray into his muzzle, the sinister pony began chasing Twilight, and because she was still not completely a hundred percent, it didn't take that long for him to catch up.

POOF!

Damn you and your magic, thought Beck, after seeing Twilight teleport herself several feet away from him, and he started moving faster.

---

"Any last words?"

For a moment, Casey remained silent, but then, he pointed at something behind Evil Stardust, and cried, "Look, a moose!"

"Huh?" The dark pony turned his head around, and Casey tossed the thermos over to Starlight, who caught it by using her magic.

"Come on, let's go!"

After the two of them ran out of the throne room, Evil Stardust growled, in frustration, and he started running after them.

"So what's this for?" wondered Starlight, referring to the thermos that was above her head.

"I have no idea," replied Casey. "But I have a feeling that it can help us some - aah! Quick, go left!"

The two of them suddenly turned in a direction heading left, and Evil Stardust stopped moving so that he could yell, "Where the hell have you all been at?"

"Tryin' to find the other versions of us!" replied Anti-Applejack, who was with the dark versions of Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy, as the three of them began following after their friend.

"Where the [BEEP] is our Pinkie at?!"

---

As Stardust and his girlfriend continued to run down the hall, Twilight asked, "You sure this is the way, Jack?"

"Positive, love, I could sense her-"

"Heeeeyyy, Starrrrdust!"

The two of them stopped running after noticing what appeared to be Pinkie, who was a few feet away.

"Which one is this?" wondered Twilight.

A sly grin appeared on the pink pony's face, and she replied, "Maybe this can answer your question!"

Whoosh!

Stardust watched as a circular, beeping object quickly flew towards them, and he said, "This is not-"

BOOM!

Anti-Pinkie let out an evil chuckle as she ran away from the smoke explosion while Twilight and Stardust started coughing.

"Yep, that was the evil one," said the purple alicorn. "Jack, are you okay?"

"Just… peachy…" muttered an irritated Stardust. "What the [BEEP] was that supposed to - nope, never mind, don't tell me."

"You mean to not questi-"

"I said, don't tell me!"

---

At this point, Beck was downright furious with Twilight, who kept avoiding being captured by him, thanks to her magic, but a sinister idea suddenly entered his mind.

Alright, princess, let's see you escape from this!

So, after he was close enough for the young princess to teleport away, Beck quickly tossed the circular object in front of him, like one would toss a frisbee, and once Twilight reappeared, the tray smacked right into her weak spot.

"Aaaaaaggghhh!" screamed Twilight, who found herself collapsing to the floor, gritting her teeth in frustration while a smirking Beck approached the fallen alicorn. "Beck… stop… please…"

"No, Twilight, I won't stop," replied Beck, speaking in a cold and serious tone, and he started applying pressure to her chest. "Not until you know what it's like to lose everything that you hold dear."

"Beck, I - aaaaaaaauuuuggghhh!"

#############

As Midnight began walking towards them, Sunset looked over at Rarity, and asked, "Um, you wouldn't happen to know any magical attacks like the ones that Twilight and Starlight use, would you?"

Before the white unicorn could give a response, Twilight's dark self let out a chuckle. "Why don't I do you all a favor, and show you what I can do… since Starlight isn't here to- aaagghh!"

However, an energy blast that came from behind sent Midnight crashing into the room's farthest corner, and the other three ponies turned to see Starlight (from Stardust's world), as well as Pinkie Pie.

Wham!

Then, after using another blast to break the lock into pieces, Fluttershy opened the cell door, and Sunset quickly hurried out of it, saying, "Thank you so much."

"No problem, but let's get you back to your world a-sap," replied the purple unicorn, and she led everypony else out of the room. "Also, I think Twilight's in trouble!"

#################

"Which Twilight was that who screamed?" wondered Starlight's other self, as she and Casey continued to run away from Evil Stardust and four of his friends.

"I have no idea, but I got a bad feeling that- aaaaagghh!"

His response was cut off after Evil Stardust used the Time Staff to fire an energy blast at the two ponies, causing them to collapse while the canteen rolled away after landing on the ground.

"Alright, I have had enough of this nonsense," growled a frustrated Evil Stardust. "Prepare to die!"

Then, he was about to fire another energy blast when, suddenly, a familiar voice cried, "Hey, asshole! Why don't you shut the [BEEP] up?"

Evil Stardust lifted his head up, and he found himself looking at his counterpart, which made a smirk appear on the dark pony's face.

"I am definitely going to enjoy this…"

Stardust chuckled, and he replied, "Yeah, well, so am I… and if this thermos does what I think it can, then I hope you're all comfortable with itty-bitty living space."

Recognizing what Stardust was now opening up, Anti-Rainbow asked, "Hey, isn't that what Kronos- aaagh, what's happening?!"

Everyone looked over at the blue pegasus, whose hooves were now turning into something similar to dust, as well as those of the other evil ponies, and it was going straight inside of the thermos!

"Aaaaaggghh!" cried Anti-Applejack, who was the first one to be sucked into the thermos, followed by Anti-Rarity and Anti-Fluttershy.

Not wanting the same to happen to Anti-Rainbow, Evil Stardust grabbed ahold of her hooves, and it momentarily stopped them from entering the thermos, but that time was cut short when Anti-Pinkie suddenly appeared, crashing right into the blue pegasus.

"No!" yelled Evil Stardust, and he glared angrily at his counterpart. "You do not get to win every ti- Midnight!"

Just like he tried with Rainbow, Evil Stardust grabbed onto her girlfriend's hooves after the half-turned-into-dust alicorn appeared.

"This is not over yet!" growled the dark Earth Pony. "I refuse to lose to someone as pathetic-"

WHAM!

However, Evil Stardust was unable to finish his sentence after an energy blast from the Time Staff went straight towards Midnight, and that only left him once she was inside the thermos.

"You messed with the wrong human, [BEEP]," said Stardust, who then nodded at whoever was holding onto Kronos' staff, and Evil Stardust turned around to find a smiling Sunset Shimmer.

"It's payback time…"

Then, the yellow unicorn fired an energy blast at Evil Stardust, and he suffered the same fate as the rest of his friends, with Stardust closing the thermos once he was inside.

"What… was… that?" wondered Casey, as he and Starlight began to stand up.

Instead of answering right away, Stardust tossed over the thermos to Starlight, who quickly used her magic to blow it up, and after realizing that she'd done that, she said, "Oh, Celestia… did I just… do what I… ohhhh…"

The young unicorn fainted into Casey's hooves, and he was about to talk to Stardust when Sunset said, "You must've went through a lot of trouble to come here, Jack."

"Oh, you have no idea," replied the glasses-wearing pony, and he looked back at Casey, who realized what was going on.

"Jack? W-what are…" stammered Casey. "B-but how did… I… y-you said that… stuff about some rules you couldn't break…"

The human-turned-pony chuckled at his friend, and shrugged as he replied, "Eh, well, I figured… what the hell?"

Before Casey could ask him anything else, Sunset hurried over to Jack, giving him a loving embrace that brought a smile all three of their faces.

"But, um, I think I should mention, Sunset, that I don't have much time left here now, so-"

An amused Sunset rolled her eyes, and looked over at Casey, asking if he could quickly help them, which the young pony agreed to, followed by him using the Time Staff to create a return portal for the two of them to go through.

"Jack, wait, how were you-"

"I'll explain another time, pal, I promise," replied the gold pony, as he and Sunset stepped into the portal. "And I hope you get to tell Twilight you-know-what!"

Whoosh!

Once they were gone, the portal disappeared in the blink of an eye, and a confused Casey had no idea what to say.

"Ughhh…" moaned Starlight, who was coming to, and she looked up at Casey. "What happened? Where did Stardust go?"

"Casey?"

As he helped Starlight up to her hooves, the two of them saw Twilight quickly approaching them, alongside-

"Evil Stardust!" cried Starlight, and the purple unicorn retrieved the staff from Casey's hooves, aiming it at the gold pony, but Twilight quickly stood in front of him.

"Starlight, wait! This is the actual Stardust, the one you gave that eye scar to!"

A confused Starlight turned back around, and said, "Wait, but who was-"

"At ease, Starlight," replied Casey, lowering the staff, and he looked at the two ponies in front of them. "Do either of you know about a-"

"Aaaaagggghhhh!"

A scream interrupted him from finishing, and Casey was instantly brought back to the last time he'd heard that exact scream… when Beck was about to-

"Twilight!" shouted Casey, who began heading over in the direction that he'd heard the voice come from.

---

As the tears began falling from Twilight's face, Beck said, "Now it's time for me to put the nail in the coffin."

He moved his hoof away from the alicorn's chest, with a sinister smile across his face, but before he could do anything, Casey appeared from out of nowhere, and launched himself right into the villianous pony, with the two of them crashing through a window.

Then, after they landed on the outdoor ground, Beck began to try and stand up. "What the damn hell is your-"

A furious Casey stopped him from talking by delivering a leg sweep move that sent Beck falling back down to the floor, and he cried, "You think you can hurt my special somepony?!"

Wham! Wham! Wham!

He began punching Beck the same way the green pony had done to Twilight, and he added more strength every time he landed a punch.

POOF!

"Casey, wait!" yelled Twilight, who had used her last ounce of magical strength to teleport near him.

"No, Twilight, he deserves this!" exclaimed Casey, still continuing to harm Beck, who was now defenseless, at this point.

"Casey, please… look at me!"

The furious pony turned his head in Twilight's direction, and found himself looking into her eyes as she begged, "You are not this type of pony, Casey… put down your hoof…"

"Twilight, he… I…"

His girlfriend shook her head, and said, "Please don't do it, Casey… please…"

For a moment, Casey remained silent as he looked back at a bruised-up Beck, wondering on whether or not he should deliver one last fatal blow.

"Casey!" yelled Starlight, who was now approaching them. "You can't do this!"

Tears were now falling from the hesitant pony's face, and after what seemed like forever, Casey finally lowered his front hoof, thus not ending Beck's life, while the other two let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Casey… I-" The young alicorn started to say, but then, her boyfriend raised up a hoof to silence her.

"Twilight, I… I'm sorry… I-I only did this because I… don't want to… l-lose you… and that's because I… I… lo-"

"Casey, look out!"

WHAM!

From out of nowhere came a powerful energy blast, and at the very last second, Starlight teleported in front of Casey, causing her to recieve the pain of the attack.

"Starlight!" yelled Casey and Twilight, after watching her land several feet away from them, but before they could run over to her, a swirl of black magic appeared in front of them, and it quickly transformed into a very familiar pony.

"I'm baaaaaaacccck!"

Rowan, thought the two ponies, and the cloaked pony looked back over at Starlight.

"She may not have been first on the list, but man, does it feel good to see her like that… so, that means it's time for… you two."

Then, he transformed into a cloud of black smoke, which quickly headed over to Twilight and Casey, engulfing them in the darkness.

---

"Wakey, wakey, Casey…"

After hearing his old enemy's voice, Casey opened his eyes, and cried, "Rowan, you leave… her…"

The young pony realized that Twilight was no longer by his side, and instead of Anti-Equestria, he was back in the limbo world where Rowan had suffered his defeat.

"Seem familiar?" asked Rowan, with a sinister smile on his face. "It's where you and your friends ruined everything for me."

Before Casey could respond, he suddenly felt himself rising up into the air. "What the…"

"Good thing I had you drink that stuff so many times," taunted Rowan, with an evil chuckle. "Now it's everywhere in your body, which means I can do what I'm doing right now… along with this."

CRACK!

After lowering Casey to the ground, Rowan watched as the light-orange pony began screaming in pain, with his enemy saying, "Looks like you won't be walking anytime soon, little pony."

Star… dust…, thought Casey, praying that whatever worked for Stardust and their special some-ponies applied to him, as well.

---

After she was able to regain conciousness, Starlight coughed a few times before realizing that Casey and Twilight were gone.

"W-where did they…"

"Starlight!" The purple unicorn turned her head to see Stardust and Twilight's counterpart coming over to where she was. "What happened?"

Once Starlight was standing on all four hooves, she pointed out to where her friends had been at, saying, "I saw Rowan fire an energy blast straight for Casey, so I jumped in front of him so that he wouldn't get hurt… but now I have no idea where Casey or Twilight are at."

The two of them looked at Starlight with confusion, and Stardust said, "I'm pretty sure that Rowan isn't alive any-"

"I know what I saw, Stardust," replied Starlight, who was now getting upset with him again.

"Okay, what did I ever do to you?" questioned the gold pony, who was also still irritated about her scratching his right eye. "If this is about Beck, then I'm sorry I wasn't there to help, but no pony told me about-"

Before he could finish, Starlight shook her head, and replied, "It's not just that, Stardust… it's the fact that you keep taking away from me!"

"I told you already that-" Stardust began to yell, but he paused after realizing what she had just said to him. "Wait, what?"

Starlight rolled her eyes, and was about to repeat her answer when they heard Twilight say, "Oh, my gosh, this would have been a perfect friendship-problem-solving moment if…"

Then, she noticed the two of them looking at her, and Twilight let out a sheepish chuckle.

"Did I… say that out loud?"

Star… dust…

Suddenly, the gold pony heard Casey's voice in his mind, as well as sensing that he was in terrible pain, which made him start to wonder if Starlight was right about Rowan.

"Jack? What is it?" asked Twilight.

"We need to go back to the castle… I think I know where Casey and the other you might be."

############

Once they were in the library, the three of them were about to turn on the Crystal Mirror when they heard a familiar voice cry, "Wait! Don't leave without us!"

As Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie (who had spoken), and Starlight's counterpart walked inside the room, a confused Twilight asked, "Um, what happened to-"

"Hold… ow… on there a minute… ow… sugarcube," said Applejack, followed by Rainbow Dash, but to everyone else's confusion, they both had several mouse traps stuck across their body.

"Um, you doooooo knoooww that those things are meant for something else, right?" pointed out Pinkie, and the two ponies glared at her. "Sorry."

Rainbow let out a sigh, while the traps began falling off of her wings, and she said, "Let's just leave… ow… before something worse… ow… happens… ow! Pinkie!"

---

Limbo

A smirk appeared on Rowan's face, and he said, "This actually looks very familiar to me."

Casey, who was trying his best to ignore the burning pain coming from his broken hind legs, simply looked up at Rowan, with an expression of confusion and anger.

"This reminds me of the way your father looked before he died."

The young pony blinked his watered-up eyes a few times, and said, "W-What do… you mean? It was… Tirek who…"

Rowan let out a chuckle, and replied, "Tirek's battle with Twilight may have resulted in the demolition of your house, Casey, but I was the one that killed your father, who had arrived to try saving your mother after he'd been talking to somepony I don't know about…"

Casey suddenly remembered a part that Beck had talked about in his story, where he'd come across a middle-aged pony trying to find his son, but a nearby scream had caused the pony to leave before Beck had a chance to help.

"Why else do you think there were no bodies to be found, or that only his glasses remained when you finally showed up to your house?"

Then, before his victim could respond, the cloaked pony raised Casey up in the air once more, and said, "You should honestly be thanking me right now, Casey... I'm about to reunite you with your parents."

Casey coughed a few times, and he asked, "But… why… did you…"

Rowan gave a small shrug, and replied, "It's what I was created for, Casey, and unfortunately, your parents were at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Twi….light…" whispered Casey, looking around everywhere, trying to find any sign of her.

"Hmmm? Oh, right...You'll never see your girlfriend again," taunted Rowan. "And how sad that you never got to tell her how you felt…"

He watched as Casey fell back down to the ground, causing him even more pain, and with a wide smile, the cloaked pony said, "If it wasn't for Evil Stardust letting me out of that blasted thermos, I wouldn't have been able to head over to your world, where I was able to plant the idea in your head about creating that pill on the night you were at the balcony… and from what I can tell, you certainly drank a lot of it."

Realizing that he'd allowed this to happen while being upset with Twilight about Beck, Casey found himself asking one more question.

"W-why would you do this to me?"

A scowl appeared on Rowan's face, and he replied, "If it wasn't for you warning Twilight and her friends about going into the room where I turned five of them into statues, my plan of taking over that world would have been successful… not to mention that you ended up bringing that damm gold pony into all this."

"Then, why… even send me over there… in the first place?"

To his surprise, Rowan looked momentarily confused, and the sinister pony said, "I honestly don't know why or how you ended up in Stardust's world instead of someplace else… and frankly, I could care less, so if you're done talking, then…"

"You'd better get the hell away from him, you son of a b****h."

Rowan turned around, and found himself looking at Stardust, as well as the two versions of Starlight and Twilight, and the rest of Casey's friend, which brought a sense of hope to the young pony.

"You… all… came…"

As for Rowan, he let out a sarcastic laugh, and said, "If either of you damn ponies take one more step, I'll end Casey's life in an instant… as well as the life of his special somepony, who's currently up above all of us."

Everypony turned their heads up to see Casey's Twilight, who was floating unconciously in the sky, and the sinister pony growled, "You're all worthless losers who were put on this earth to serve those more powerful and greater… those like me."

Stardust was about to give him a witty remark when suddenly, in a confident tone, Casey said, "You're wrong, Rowan."

Then, as Rowan began walking over to him, the young pony continued to speak. "They are not worthless, and are not meant to serve villains like you…. I've seen these ponies do great things, and year after year, they've been able to find a way to save Equestria from those who were somewhat like you: Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis… even pre-reformed Starlight and pre-reformed Discord… in fact, you're the one who is worthless, so-"

"I applaud your attempt at a noble speech," interrupted Rowan. "But it's not going to do you any good, Casey, so why… why… why are you chuckling like that?"

With a wide grin across his face, the young pony replied, "You're also stupid for letting yourself be distracted so easily."

Wham!

Then, before Rowan could yell at Casey, both versions of Starlight, as well as Twilight's other self, fired an energy blast combination that sent him flying a few feet away, which also resulted in Twilight quickly falling -

"I've got her!" cried Pinkie, running over to sucessfully catch Twilight with her hooves. "Wow, she's easier to save than Stardust."

When Rowan tried to get back up, he found himself looking at the one who represented balance, who was also aiming Kronos' staff at him, and he said, "Go ahead, send me to that damn Smile HD world again… because ponies like you can't bring yourself to kill someone like me."

"Well, that's where you're wrong," replied Stardust, with a smirk on his face. "Because I'm not all pony… and when it comes to murder, I can make an exception if the culprit's someone who greatly hurt the ones I care about."

Then, the gold pony fired a deadly energy blast at Rowan, and after seeing that he was gone, Stardust dropped the staff while making his way back over to Casey, who was now starting to become unconcious because of the pain in his hind legs.

"Star… light…" muttered Casey, as his friend began to place him on top of the pink unicorn. "I… need to…"

"Just go to sleep, Casey, okay?" asked Starlight, in a soft tone. "You'll wake up in a better place than this."

"Not… yet…" mumbled the drowsy pony, who felt his eyelids closing heavily, and said one last thing before he was knocked out cold. "Have to tell… Twilight that… I…"