My Little Pony: A Race Against Time

by CJ Esmerio

Learning the Truth

While Casey and Twilight couldn't believe that they had been unsuccessful in rescuing Spike from the cloaked pony, Stardust was busy dealing with things that were preventing him from going to Casey's world, aside from his belief that everything there was fine.

"... for the last time, love, his actual name is Dr. Robotnik, but everyone just calls him Dr. Eggman now."

Twilight's eyes went back to her boyfriend's television screen, and she asked, "Well, why can't you just have Sonic try and talk things over with him?"

After passing by a checkpoint in the game, Stardust let out a chuckle, and replied, "This isn't that type of game, love… besides, if I just stood still, he'd attack me, thus depriving me of all the Power Rings that I collected, and if I got hit again, then it would-"

Before either of them could think about who was at the castle doors, they got their answer a few seconds later.

"Twilight!"

A concerned expression appeared on Twilight's face, and she said, "Oh, no, that doesn't sound too good."

The young alicorn quickly hurried out of Stardust's room, but before he could resume playing the video game, she returned to stand in his doorway.

"Aren't you going to come so we can figure out what's wrong?"

Stardust gave a small shrug, and replied, "I'm sure it's not that hard for you and Spike-"

"Spike's not in here, remember?" reminded Twilight. "He's outside enjoying theAnnual Snack Cart Invasion…"

Ah, yes, all of those traveling food carts,thought the former human.Why does that sound familiar, though?

"... and Pinkie'sbothof our friends, Jack, so now that you have the hedgehog onpause mode,let's go down to see why Pinkie needs help."

Not wanting to cause an argument between them, Stardust began to walk out of his room, following his girlfriend downstairs, and he said, "This better be worth spending time away from my childhood."

Once they were at the doors, Pinkie Pie suddenly barged her way inside, front limbs flailing about helplessly before landing in front of Twilight. "Help me! The Phenomnomenoms are back!"

"Um… come again?" said Stardust, wondering what the pink pony was talking about.

After closing the doors behind her, an almost terrified Pinkie gave them a quick explaination.

"I've got to find a way to keep away from the food carts whilethey'rehere… you know, my food nemesis-"

"The, er,phenomnomenomsor whatever?" replied Stardust, and Pinkie quickly nodded, while signs of hunger appeared on her face.What kind of [BEEP] name is that for a type of sugary treat?

"Yup, those tasty, brain-spinning, nerve-blowing, happy-tummy morsels are theonetreat that my hypermetabolism cannot defeat!"

As Pinkie continued to explain more about thenom-nom'sStardust was wondering why this seemed so familiar to him.

I could've sworn that someone told me something about this somewhere on the Internet…

"So, we're all Twilight has now?" Scootaloo asked, making sure that she had heard Sweetie Belle correctly.

After the events that occured in her sister's boutique, Sweetie Belle immediately called a CMC meeting at their clubhouse.

"Yes, that is correct," confirmed the young unicorn, gesturing towards a scroll that contained crudely drawn depictions of the ones who were missing. "The Princesses, the rest of the Elements, her parents, her childhood friends, Spike… they've all been captured, and taken Celestia knows where. The only ponies she has now are Casey and her brother-"

"No, she has us too," Scootaloo declared. "If this pony managed to capture the other Princesses, Twilight's going to need all the help she can get. Plus, he's captured ponies close to US too. I think it's fair that we get to help."

"Then it's settled," Apple Bloom decided. "We're gonna help Twilight and Casey solve this here mystery."

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DETECTIVES, YEAH!" the three fillies declared together before dashing out of their clubhouse to Ponyville castle.

The Crystal Mirror crackled and popped as Casey continued to fiddle with its circuits.

"Come on,you damn thing… work!"growled a frustrated Casey, also regretting that he'd lost his special watch, and ended up hitting the side of the machine in frustration.

As the device settled back down, he let out a forlorn sigh.

I wonder what would Stardust do in this situation… probably first say something like [BEEP] or-

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock on the door.

"Casey, are ya here?" the voice of a filly asked from the doorway.

"... so that's why I came here to ask for your help, Twilight, because you're theleasttreat-tempted pony here in Ponyville," finished Pinkie. "Oh, and the same goes for you, Stardust, even though you might have the same problem with that one soda you enjoy drinking."

Stardust rolled his eyes, and he replied, "Thank you, Pinkie, but I don't have aproblemwhen it comes to drinking a bottle ofCoca-Colaevery now and then-"

"What about that one time when you came back from Casey's world with a whole bunch of them?"

The gold pony shook his head, saying, "Those were a party gift from that world's version of you, Pinkie… now, if you'll excuse me, there's two more chaos emeralds that I-"

Suddenly, Twilight stood in front of Stardust before he could reach the stairs, and said, "Jack, we arehelpingPinkie Pie… the blue hedgehog can wait."

Stardust turned back to look at Pinkie's pleading facial expression, and after letting out a sigh, he replied, "Alright, fine… so howexactlyare we going to help her?"

"That's a good question," wondered the young alicorn. "Maybe some form of aversion therapy?"

A few minutes later, Pinkie - now wearing a wetsuit - was standing in a swimming pool that was filled up with ice-cold water, and she had one end of a rubber band in her muzzle while the other end was wrapped around her hoof.

"Well, this issomething," muttered Stardust. "How is this going to help her, love?"

Twilight, who was now wearing a white lab coat, replied, "In order to desensitize her to the phenom-"

"The treat with a ridiculously long name…"

"-nomenons, we are putting Pinkie through a series of excercises to make her feel so uncomfortable that she'll associate the target habit… in this case, eating phenom -you know what I mean…with discomfort or disgust."

Nodding his head, Stardust looked at Pinkie, and he said, "Alright, so… I guess… whenever you find yourself thinking about thespecial treat, let go of the rubber band so that the pain will bring you out of whatever trance you might be in."

"Exactly," replied Twilight, now smiling while using her magic to create images of the sugary treat, and placing them above her friend's head. "That sting and the cold are temporary sensations that will help you make a permanent change!"

Pinkie looked up at the images, and she quickly found herself drooling hungrily over them.

"Mmmmmm… phenom(snap) -ow!"

Then, after the young pony put the end of the rubber band back in her muzzle, she tried again…

"Is it working?" wondered a hopeful Twilight.

Pinkie, whose eyes were like those of someone being hypnotized, found herself drooling over the thought of eating the special treat, and then, she cried, "Mmmmmmm…. I'm…hungry!"

As fast as a torpedo, the young pony flew straight out of the pool, and was out of the castle faster than Twilight could cry out, "Pinkie!"

"Yeah… I don't think that worked," said Stardust, who then started to follow after the Princess of Friendship as they both went after Pinkie.

"Thanks for coming, you three," Casey thanked as the quartet made their way through the castle's long and winding halls. "Twilight hasn't come out of that room since we got back from the boutique. She hasn't even letmein."

"Are you two fightin' or something?" asked Applebloom, and her fellow CMCs looked at her, with the little pony giving them all a sheepish expression. "Oh,right… sorry."

"Don't worry, Casey," Sweetie Belle said, after rolling her eyes at Applejack's sister. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders-"

"- are here to help," finished a wide-smiling Scootaloo.

Casey smiled at the fillies' passion, and he replied, "I'm sure she'll appreciate that very much."

Once they had reached the young alicorn's room, Casey's knock brought her attention away from the fact that she had been crying into her pillow.

"I told you to leave me alone!" she yelled.

"You have visitors," informed the light orange Earth Pony. "Three, in fact..."

"Well, tell them to go away," exclaimed an upset Twilight.

"Twilight, it's us. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo," the youngest of the Apple family said, and this managed to get Twilight to at least turn her attention towards her bedroom door, mentally sighing in exasperation.

She knew she couldn't turn them away, they were only fillies. "Alright, you can come in."

The door creaked open as the crusaders made their way in.

Just as Casey was about to enter himself, he heard a loud knock on the castle door.

"You three go on in. I need to take this," he excused himself as he went to see who it was.

"We just came to check up on ya, Twilight," Apple Bloom explained as the door shut, significantly darkening the room.

"Yeah, and to help you catch that no good pony that's been taking everyone -OW," Scootaloo exclaimed as Sweetie Belle hit her side with her hoof.

"What shemeans is,we just wanted to see how you were holding up and if there's anything we could do," Sweetie Belle explained, and Twilight began to feel slightly better at the display.

They all just wanted to help, just like…

Spike,thought the purple alicorn, who began to whimper once more.

"Now look what ya did," cried Apple Bloom, scolding Scootaloo.

"WhatIdid?" Scootaloo said, taken aback.

"Yeah, have you no tact?" Sweetie Belle said, taking the side of Apple Bloom.

"Girls, girls, please," Twilight whimpered again. "It's not your fault. I just miss…" The alicorn couldn't even say the dragon's name, she went back to crying into her pillow.

'Why couldn't I have been there?' She thought to herself.

The CMC immediately ceased their arguing and looked to the princess in concern, never had they seen anypony so upset before.

They knew what they needed to do.

Twilight's eyes widened as she felt three small weights on her back. She looked to find that the Crusaders had climbed onto her bed and laid themselves out on Twilight's back, all three rubbing it soothingly with one hoof.

"There, there,Twilight," Sweetie Belle said.

"I miss them too," Apple Bloom consoled.

"But we can't stay in here and mope," Scootaloo said, attempting to motivate her. "We have to find them... and I'm positive we will!"

'They're right,' Twilight thought. 'And… I still have Casey… so that means we can find them… together.'

The Princess of Friendship whimpered again, only this time, it was with tears of pride, and she managed to prop herself up so that the CMC could make their way back to the floor.

"Thank you, fillies," the purple alicorn thanked.

"It's the least we could do," Scootaloo replied, a bright smile appearing on her face.

Suddenly, a knock was heard from the door, and they heard Casey's voice cry out, "Mares, you need to see this!"

'Oh, come on!'Sweetie Belle said mentally as one of the four crystal pegasuses that was transporting Shining Armor back to the Crystal Empire explained what had happened.

"All we found when we came too was this dart he must have lost in the scuffle," one of them said, presenting it to Casey while the CMC were ready to comfort Twilight who was dangerously close to losing it again.

"Thank you," Casey thanked as he inspected the dart, which Sweetie Belle recognized as the one she had given to Twilight. "We'll let you know what we find."

The crystal pegasuses nodded in acknowledgement and Casey turned to look at his special somepony.

"I'm sorry about… what's been happening, Twilight, but don't worry… because now that we havethis," said Casey as he gestured to the dart. "We'll find where Spike, Shining, and everyone else are, then we'll take that son of a[BEEP]out."

"Casey, language. There are fillies present," Twilight scolded, and also wishing that he'd never fused with Stardust. "But thank you."

"Alright, let's go solve us a mystery!" Scootaloo declared.

With the cart ofnom-nom'sin her sight, Pinkie had her muzzle open wide, but just as she was about to consume several of the tasty treats, the pink pony found herself caught in a safety harness.

"Huh, that's funny," said Pinkie. "I don't remember ordering this, but considering the eating I'm about to do, it might be a very good idea, so I… oh,hi, Stardust!"

The former human being gave her a small wave, and he looked over at Twilight, saying, "Let's take her back now, love."

"Go back?! No-no-no-no-no-no…"exclaimed Pinkie, who was being pulled towards them. "Nom noms! Must… eat… nom noms!"

Twilight shook her head, and replied, "No, Pinkie, we are going to help you no matter what… and you'll thank me for doing this later."

"Thanks, Twilight!"cried Pinkie, now sitting in her Cutie-Mark throne, and she pointed up at the trio of words that were above them. "Hey, look at that… I am thanking you later, after all!"

While Stardust wondered what his friend was talking about, Twilight looked over her list of possible ideas to provide help for Pinkie.

"I think… we need a simpler, more straightforward approach."

Using her magic, Twilight placed locks and chains all around the doors and windows, and she said, "We'll just keep you locked inside until the snack carts are gone! You can't overdo it on the phenomnomenons if you can't even get to them!"

Stardust was about to resume playing his video game, but his bedroom door was bolted shut, as well.

"Ugh,the things I do for my best friends…"

Don't you want to help Miss Pie with her dilemna?

Hearing the voice of his friend-and-mentor, Stardust replied, "Yes, but if she wants to stop eating thenom-noms, then all that Pinkie needs to do is-"

"That would be her bouncing around the castle," muttered Stardust, who was now back to where he'd been earlier, and his eyes went a little wide at the sight of Twilight using her magic to engulf Pinkie's entire body, thus preventing her from escaping.

"Let me go, Twilight, please let me go!"exclaimed Pinkie. "I just want a little snack before dinner!"

"No!"cried Twilight, while Stardust continued to watch. "You asked for help, Pinkie, and by Celestia, you are getting what you asked for!"

"Then, why can't I taste any nom noms, huh?!"

Ignoring her, for the moment, Twilight began to pace back and forth. "What we have here is a dilemna…"

Told you.

Stardust just mumbled some words underneath his breath, and said, "Not to mention a significant amount of kinetic energy to contain."

"I'm so hungry!"whined Pinkie, whose mane and tail were now flat instead of its usualpuffystyle. "Stardust, you know how I feel, right? Help me out here!"

"Weare,Pinkie," replied Stardust, letting out a sigh. "Is that not why you came to us in the first place?"

Pinkie just closed her eyes, and cried,"I… want… noms!"

Before Stardust could say anything else, Twilight gave her an optomistic statement. "Yousaythat you want them, but in reality, you want to be free of their power over you! Right?"

"No… what I really,reallywant is a box of those special and delicious treats,"replied Pinkie, giving her a hopeful smile."So just let me go, please… haha… turns out I don't actually want to avoid them after all!"

Stardust shook his head, and said, "Pinkie, we weren't born yesterday-"

"Well, duh, of course not, silly! Yesterday was when I caught you after Kronos sent you through the ceiling of Princess Celestia's castle."

Ignoring the urge to roll his eyes, Stardust added, "It means that we aren't dumb, Pinkie, and this is not over until you admit that you're over the pheno - special treats."

"Jack is right, Pinkie," replied Twilight. "Besides, no one should face their problems alone. We all need ourfriendsto help us staystrong!"

After hearing the young princess say that, Pinkie's eyes started to turn red, and she huffed angrily before saying, "I'm not exactly feelingfriendlyright now, Twilight!"

As the two of them continued arguing, Stardust found himself starting to wonder what was it about thenom-nom'sthat was making Pinkie act this way, so he decided to go and find out for himself…

… which was by going to where all of the food carts were at, and to his amusement, Spike was sitting by a cart that had jeweled pretzels.

"Oh, hey there, Star, how's it going?"

Stardust chuckled, and he said, "Just… felt like checking thisinvasionout. I see that you enjoy it greatly."

The little dragon happily nodded his head, and Stardust walked away to head over towards the cart that had Pinkie's special treat.

I just don't get it," a frustrated Twilight said as she sifted through purchase records. "I analyzed the substance in the dart perfectly, yet there isn't any record of any of the suspects buying all of them."

As for the CMC's, they were inspecting Twilight's bulletin board.

Photos of Spike and Shining Armor were added to the "Missing" portion, while some excerpts of purchase records were connected by tack and string to the photos of the respective suspect that bought them.

"Maybe he made some of the ingredients himself?" Apple Bloom suggested.

Twilight's eyes widened in realization. "That's it! The only reason why there isn't any one pony that bought all this stuff together is becasuse he grew either one of, or all of the materials himself! Brilliant deduction, Apple Bloom."

"In fact, I can't help but notice a connection…" Sweetie Belle said, a contemplating hoof on her chin.

"What's that?" Twilight asked, already knowing what Sweetie Belle was going to say, but decided to play along.

"(as Rarity) Elementary, my dear Twilight… (in regular voice)These missing ponies all have some connection to you. Your family, your friends, and your idols," explained Sweetie Belle. "And considering how they were ALL captured, it'd be safe to assume that the perpetrator is targeting you specifically through the ones you care about."

"You're right," Twillight confirmed. "I just don't know why, though."

"Let's focus on the 'where' before we get to the 'why'," Casey remarked as he arrived in from tinkering with the Crystal Mirror some more. "Also, um… the Crystal Mirror's still busted."

Twilight sent Casey a sarcasticthank youlook, and he gave an apologetic shrug.

"So, since this pony managed to produce all, or some, of these plants and herbs, that would mean he'd have to be some kind of plant expert," Scootaloo surmised, and this fact managed to reduce the suspect board by a considerable margin.

All five ponies were now searching through purchase records of the 10-something suspects that remined, including Stardust, much to Casey's chagrin.

"Wait a minute, we know our perp is able to make the substance himself, but what about the darts?" Casey postulated. "He'd need some way to transport this knockout stuff, and since his talent, or knowledge, specializes in plants, then he'd need to purchase the darts."

"That is…brilliant!Casey, you're agenius," Twilight praised, planting a kiss on the stallion's cheek, causing him to blush a little bit.

"Eww! Blegh! Yuck!" the CMC reviled in disgust at the display of affection.

"Ohplease, in a few years from now, you'll want to do that to somepony too," Casey teased.

While Twilight began to conduct an analysis of the dart, Casey and the CMC continued to search through purchase records, now looking for both ingredients of the knockout substance and any type of dart.

After a few hours of research, the five ponies managed to find what they were looking for.

"I think I found what we're looking for!" Sweetie Belle said, holding up a receipt. "It says that Beck bought a large amount of darts in bulk in town a few weeks ago."

Beck's picture on the "Suspects" portion was surrounded by other receipts that showed he had bought the seeds of a few of the various ingredients in the substance found in the dart.

"I remember him! He's that gardener pony I always see at the market whenever I go there to help my family," Apple Bloom pointed out.

"It makes sense," Twilight said. "His business is small enough to where the purchase of these seeds wouldn't cause any alarms, and combined with the fact that he bought as many darts as he did…. he might be our stallion. Sorry about accusing Stardust, Casey."

"It's okay, you were just acknowledging all possibilities, as stupid as some of those possibilities were," Casey snarked. "But I'm glad I can finally take him away from-"

"It says here he lives in the outskirts of town, come on!" Sweetie Belle said as the four of them ran as fast as they could to Beck's house, with Twilight pulling Casey along with them before he could touch the bulletin board.

"You ever try this thing before, Starswirl?"

Before he could get an answer from him, Stardust heard the faint sound of an explosion that sounded like it came from Twilight's castle, and he said, "In 3… 2… 1…"

"No, Pinkie, you'll hate yourself in the mor - Jack?"exclaimed Twilight, who had not expected to see him by the food cart. "Why areyouhere?"

"Just wanted to see for myself why Pinkie enjoys this so much," replied Stardust, who then handed the treat over to her. "But I'm over it now, so you give it a try, love."

While Pinkie was busy scarfing down multiplenom-nom's,Twilight carefully placed it in her own muzzle, and she began to consume it.

"So… how is it?" wondered Stardust, who then became surprised to see her eyes be almost as wide as Pinkie's own.

"This is… this is incredible!"said Twilight, and Stardust watched as she stood by Pinkie, with the two of them eating the treats together.

Then, to his amusement, they had eventually reached their limit (for the moment), and while Pinkie was whimpering in pain and sadness, he walked over to stand by Twilight.

"Well, one…thathappened… and second, are you alright?"

She gave a small shrug, and replied, "I don't know what to do anymore… I've tried everything that I could possibly do in order to help Pinkienoteat thenom-nomtreats, butnothingseems to work!"

The young Earth Pony looked over at his fourth-wall-breaking friend, and then, it took a moment for the answer to appear in his mind.

"Actually, love, I have an idea…"

"That's just crazy talk, Rainbow," exclaimed Applejack, frowning at her friend whose body color was now a bright pink instead of its usual blue. "How in the hay do you expect us all to escape?"

The young pegasus rolled her eyes, and she said, "Likethis, AJ…"

To everyone's surprise, Rainbow delivered a head-butt to the front of her cage, and they watched as it quickly fell down to the ground.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?"questioned Rarity.

"Had to wait till the time was right," replied Rainbow. "I noticed that the bars were weak sometime after Beck had fired his weapon at me, so-"

"Um, not that your story isn'tfascinating," interrupted Discord, to her chagrin. "But I think it'd be better if you could find a way to releaseallof us before-"

"Well, what do we have here?"

Rainbow turned around, and found herself looking at Beck, who was almost fully recovered after having spending some required time to rest and nurse his bruises.

"Before exactlythathappens," muttered the draconequs, letting out a sigh of disappointment.

Ignoring what he was saying, Beck glared at Rainbow, and asked, "How in Equestria did you get out of your cage?"

"Whocareshow I got out?" replied Rainbow, also glaring at her enemy. "All that matters now is stopping you right now, and freeing everyone else before-"

To her surprise, Beck suddenly started to laugh, and replied, "Oh, I don't think you are going anywhere,Pinky Dash… in fact, if I were you, I wouldn't move very much at all."

"What are you-" She started to say, but then, Beck whistled an unfamiliar tune, and a trap door quickly appeared underneath her, causing Rainbow to fall into whatever was underneath. "Aaaaaggghhhh!"

Then, once the door closed, everyone looked over at Beck, and Minuette asked, "Did you…knowthat would happen?"

"Eh, more or less," answered Beck. "I think it's obvious that I wasn't born yesterday… now, then, anyoneelsecare to join her?"

None of the other prisoners gave a response, at first, but then, Spike (who, unsurprisingly, was locked up in a cage near Rarity) said, "Well,we allthink it's obvious that, before you know it, Twilight and Casey are going to show up, and then, you'll be sorry that-"

"Hahahahaha, I-I'm sorry, but who the heck is Casey?"wondered Beck. "What sort of stuff hasheever done?"

Before the young dragon could answer him, Beck rolled his eyes, and said, "Yeah, I thought so… he's not important… but I don't mind locking him up, either, if hegets inmy way."

His voice lowered near the end of his sentence, which made Spike back away from the front of his cage, and Beck continued to laugh as he left the room.

"Whew," said Beck, who sighed in relief as he plopped down on his couch.

'That was a close one,' he thought to himself.

However, he had no time to revel in his victory, for he heard a "knock, knock, knock" coming from his door.

"Beck, open up! We need to talk!" Twilight yelled.

'Shit!' Beck thought, who now knew that he had to move fast. 'That damn dragon was right!'

After several more knocks, Twilight, Casey, and the CMC's had decided that enough was enough.

"Alright, that's it… time tobustour way in," Scootaloo said.

Just as she was about to back up to do just that, however, Twilight stopped her. "Wait, you three. I don't think you should go with Casey and I."

"What? Why not?"the CMC said, all together in disappointment.

"We don't know what might be in there," Twilight explained. "It could be dangerous."

"Well then, what are we supposed to do?" Scootaloo asked,who had been imagining how she would try to save Rainbow Dash.

Twilight took a second to think, but Casey beat her to it.

"You three wait here. If we don't come out after fifteen minutes, then that means we were probably captured, and you need to go get backup. Think you can do that?"

The Crusaders looked at each other in contemplation.

"Okay, Twilight and Casey, we'll do it," Apple Bloom said, nodding her head.

"Good luck in there," Sweetie Belle added.

"Thanks, you three…for everything," Twilight said, with a smile on her face while Casey managed to force the door open by (what else) ramming into it.

"No problem, Twilight," Scootaloo replied. "Go get him, you two!"

"Oh, don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him," Casey said, in a dark and lower tone, which was only noticed by Twilight, but only for a moment.

The dup made their way inside, shutting the door once they did, and the CMC's all looked at each other.

"You thinkin', what I'm thinkin'?" Apple Bloom asked, and the other two crusaders nodded in affirmation, with all three then screaming out into the heavens.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSDERS LOOKOUTS, YEAH!"

Meanwhile, inside of Beck's house, Twilight and Casey fondly rolled their eyes at the CMC's outburst.

"Anypony home?" Twilight asked, looking around several times, but no reply came.

The abode didn't have any lights on, leaving the only source of light to be Celestia's sun, and even then, it wasn't able to illuminate all that much.

The duo stepped lively on the wooden floor of Beck's home, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

'Come on, where could he be hiding them?' Twilight thought to herself. She found her answer when she stepped down, and instead of feeling her hoof rest on solid floor, she felt the wood curve slightly under the weight.

"Casey," Twilight said, in a low voice, letting out a tiny gasp of surprise.

"What?" he whispered back, and Twilight gestured to the floor below her.

Knowing exactly what she was thinking, Casey stepped toward Twilight, who removed her hoof from the floor.

The earth pony managed to get his hoof between the wall the floor bordered against, and the floor and pulled up, which resulted in the door to Beck's lab opening right up.

Casey and Twilight looked at each other triumphantly, and she said, "Let's do this!"

The walk down the spiral stairs to Beck's lair was filled with paranoia and determination.

'It can't be this easy,' Twilight thought, but when the duo had finally reached Beck's lab, all of her worries had gone away in a flash.

"Everyone!" Twilight said, relieved to see that they were all safe and sound.

However, to her surprise, none of them looked relieved to seeher… in fact, they seemed to look even more frightened.

"No, Twily, Casey! Get out of here!" Shining yelled.

"It's a trap!" yelled Rarity, and Casey was about to respond when he felt a sharp prick in his flank.

"Behind you!" Moondancer yelled, and that was because Beck had been standing a few feet away, hiding himself in the shadows.

I've waited a long time for this,thought Beck, who was now looking at the targeted flank of his final prisoner while preparing his dart gun.Light's out, princess!

"I'm gonnakill… that… bastard… " Casey said as the darkness permeated his vision.

"No... no... you… can't..." Twilight pleaded as she fell to the cold, hard ground. "You won't get… get away with this."

"Oh, I already have," Beck said menacingly. "And also, allow me the honor, oh Princess ofFriendship… to your worst nightmare."

The last thing Twilight heard before going compeltly unconscious was Beck's evil chuckle, overlaying her friend's screams of panic.