//------------------------------//
// New Arrivals 
// Story: My Little Pony: Darkness Rising 
// by CJ Esmerio 
//------------------------------//

"So, are ya sure that you want to do this, Twilight?"

Everyone was now sitting inside of the Friendship Express, which was heading back to Ponyville, and they were discussing Twilight's current plan that included having another Friendship Festival next week.

"Yeah, I mean… things didn't exactly get off to an easy start," reminded Rainbow, giving a small shrug. "Still, it would be nice if I - we could find a way to invite the pirates."

"And I don't recall the last time that I saw Capper," said Rarity, unaware of Spike now muttering some words underneath his breath with an annoyed expression.

"Maybe even reach out to the hippogriffs?" suggested Fluttershy, and the rest of her friends looked at her. "What? Pinkie isn't here to suggest it."

"Speakin' of which, where is Pinkie at anyway?" wondered Applejack. "I don't think any of us have seen her all day."

As for Starlight, she was looking at Casey with concern. The young pony was sitting next to him by the window,.quietly staring at whatever he saw but not paying much attention.


Flashback


"Whatever happens, Casey," said Anti-Stardust, giving his former enemy one last warning. "Don't let him get to your Twilight. Don't let yourself go through the same type of the pain that I did. Whenever he comes, do anything to keep her safe from harm."

Then, he jumped through the magical portal that had been created for him, and the young pony was left feeling speechless, unsure as to what-


Present


"Casey? You okay?" Starlight nudged him on the shoulder, and Casey turned to look at his friend.

"Yeah, I'm… fine," he replied, giving the pink unicorn a weak smile. "Just thinking about certain memories."





Flash Sentry was currently walking around the halls of the castle that belonged to Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, but he suddenly found himself shivering for a moment after passing through a certain hall.

"Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?" wondered Flash, and he turned to the side, seeing a door that bore a carving of Princess Twilight's Cutie Mark, surrounded by five smaller carvings that belonged to her friends.

Just as he was about to place one of his hooves on it, an older and more experienced royal guard caught his attention after saying, "Hey, Sentry! What are you doing over there?"

"Nothing, sir, I just... it suddenly got really cold in here, for some reason," replied Flash, and the other guard rolled his eyes. "No, really, it was right after I passed-"

"You're in the Crystal Empire, son," pointed out the guard. "It's supposed to feel cold… now, continue with your patrol. We don't need another Earth Pony breaking into here and causing destruction."

With the guard's eyes keeping focus on Flash, the young pegasus continued walking down the hall, and as the other guard went in the opposite direction, Flash decided that perhaps it would be best to inform the two rulers about what he'd felt. It was more than just the cold weather that's usually outside… but I don't know exactly what it could be.

Little did he know that there was something sinister going on inside of the special room, as well as the fact that an unknown figure was making his way back down from the ceiling, with a sly and devious grin on his face.





"Here. Put this over your eyes."

Pinkie held out a decorative bandana in front of the vigilante's face, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "Exactly how do you expect me to put that on?"

"Well, duh, with your… ohhh, right." The pink pony now noticed that her captive was still tied up to a chair, so she decided to put it on for him.

Oh, sweet Jesus, thought the vigilante pony, having no idea on what to make of this other than knowing that this shouldn't be too terrible. It was Pinkie, after all.

Once the blindfold was covering up the young pony's eyes, she stepped back a little bit, and said, "Tell me what kind of flavor this is."

The [BEEP] does she mean by -

Suddenly, something chewy and sweet was put into the bearded pony's mouth, and after tasting it, her captive said, "Chocolate cake. Easy."

"Well, how about this one?" asked Pinkie, now giving him a quick slice of another cake, and watched patiently as he chewed it up into tiny pieces before eventually swallowing.

Just as he was about to answer, Pinkie decided to give him a quick sip of milk, and after that, he answered, "Cookies n' cream. What else you got?"

Meanwhile, Casey, Twilight, Spike, and Starlight were all making their way back to the castle, and as they began to walk up the steps, the pink unicorn asked, "So, how come Pinkie decided not to show up to Canterlot again?"

"I'm not really sure exactly, but I don't think it was anything too serious," replied Twilight, while Spike opened up the castle doors. "Maybe she just-"

"Uh, Twilight?" Everyone turned their attention over to the young dragon, now already inside. "Why is everything so dark in here?"

For some reason, as the quartet entered their home, they were standing inside of complete darkness, but before Twilight or Starlight could light up the room with their magical horns, the light returned, and revealed Pinkie standing by a table in the middle of the room with several cakes on top of it.

"So, this is my punishment? You're going to force me to eat a whole bunch of random-[BEEP] cakes?"

In front of Pinkie was a gold Earth pony that was tied sitting to a chair, and a voice that sounded very familiar to the newly arrived Equestrians.

"Well, I'm not really forcing you to eat these, per se… I just wanted to see if- oh, hi, everyone! How did the meeting go?"

"Uhhhh… Pinkie?" asked a confused Twilight, who was slowly making her way over to them. "Why is he tied up to a chair?"

Well, this certainly isn't the way I imagined meeting her again, thought the vigilante pony, and acting as if she'd forgotten that small detail, Pinkie began to untie him.

"Because I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't go away before you came back," replied Pinkie, which made Twilight bring a hoof to her forehead, and Starlight let out a sigh.

"You couldn't have just asked him to wait here patiently until we came back?" said the pink unicorn.

That voice is one I don't recognize, thought the vigilante pony.

"Ohhhh… I guess I forgot about that," admitted a sheepish Pinkie, and Twilight rolled her eyes. "But I did bring you what you asked for, Twilight!"

"Wha - I never asked you to do anything like this!" cried the young alicorn. "When did I tell you to…"

After the un-tied ropes fell down to the floor, Pinkie's mane suddenly became similar to Twilight's own as she said, "Remember? That one day you were all 'Why can't we just have our own Stardust to help us out with problems like this'..."

She then brought her mane back to its original style. "It took me some time, but I was able to find him, so without further ado, I present to you: Stardust Balance, vigilante of Equestria, Warrior of Twilight, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!"

All of Pinkie's friends just blinked quietly at the smiling Earth pony while the young vigilante muttered, "It's technically the Twilight Warrior…."

"Oops! Let me try that again, then," said Pinkie, now clearing her throat, but just as she was about to introduce him again, Twilight used her magic to move Pinkie away from Stardust, and began to remove the bandana that was covering up his face.

"I'm so sorry about this, Stardust, if I had known she would…"

"No, it's fine, there's no harm in me eating some free cake, Princess…" said Stardust, with him and Twilight pausing their sentences after the bandana was removed, and they were now looking at each other.

"So… are you okay, then?" asked a concerned Twilight.

A smile appeared on Stardust's face, and he nodded his head. "Yeah, I'm… just fine now…"

Then, the two ponies went back to being silent until Casey cleared his throat, and asked, "How is uh, your girlfriend doing, Star?"

Stardust's smile turned into a frown as he looked at the young Earth pony that had spoken. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't have a girlfriend."

"Huh? Did you and Twilight break up or something?" asked a confused Starlight.

Who are these two ponies anyway? thought Stardust, who replied, "No, because me and Princess Twilight here never even became a couple in the first place, and I think I would've definitely remembered something like that happening."

Starlight and Casey shared the same confused look with each other, and as for Twilight, she looked over at Pinkie. "You didn't hurt him on the head or anything, did you?"

"Well, I technically only hit his face a couple of times with a frying pan," answered Pinkie. "But what does that have to do anything?"

"Pinkie! You might have affected his memories or something," exclaimed Twilight, quickly giving Stardust an apologetic smile before going back to her friend. "And I've told you about how I feel when you don't ask to-"

"I didn't use the Crystal Mirror," replied the energetic pony. "Why would I… ohhhhh, I see…" She then started to let out a chuckle, much to everyone's confusion. "This isn't that Stardust, Twilight, he's our very ownStardust!"

"What?" exclaimed the others that were in the room, and Pinkie simply nodded her head.

"Yeah, I mean, why else would he be saying… ohhh, you thought I was hurting the other -"

Suddenly, Stardust began to shake his head while starting to get out of the chair. "Whoa, whoa, okay… can someone else besides Pinkie please explain me to what in the [BEEP] is going on here?"

"Alright, but just take it easy, Stardust," said Casey, just as Twilight was about to explain. "Let's not-"

Who the [BEEP] is this clown supposed to be? thought the bearded vigilante. "Uh, who are you again exactly?"

"I'm Casey," replied the light-orange Earth Pony, and he gestured over to Twilight. "And her special somepony."

Stardust's eyes went wide after hearing that, and he cried, "Casey? What the… that's your actual name? And when the [BEEP] did you start dating… oh, my God…" He began to groan while placing a hoof over his eyes. "This is [BEEP]-ing Sentry all over again…"

Casey started to frown, as well, but just as he was about to march right over to Stardust, Starlight held him back, and she said, "Um, Stardust? Maybe it'd be best if we, uh, started to explain all of this from the beginning."

Twilight nodded her head, in agreement, and Stardust replied, "Uh… okay, but first… do you mind if I ask who you are?"

"I'm Starlight Glimmer," replied the pink unicorn, offering Stardust a hoofshake, and it took a moment for him to accept her offer as politely as possible.

Starlight Glimmer… Sunset Shimmer… sheesh, they couldn't have put more effort into making them not sound similar? thought Stardust, who was now letting go of Starlight's hoof.

"Right, then…" said Twilight, while Casey continued muttering underneath his breath, for some reason. "Okay, Stardust, this all started back kinda a couple years ago when me and my friends were all taking a trip to the Crystal Empire…"





As he stood atop a grass-covered hill, Beck looked quietly at what remained of his old home.

All of those years I spent… filled with pointless anger against an innocent princess… and it led me to almost committing the worst crime ever in Equestrian history…

He then remembered everything that had happened earlier today, and a smile appeared on his face.

Now, thanks to Twilight and her friends… I get to have a fresh new start at life… a chance to create new memories… heh, maybe now I can go back to studying that one flower I-

Suddenly, his thoughts of happiness were interrupted by everything around him suddenly going darker, and the middle-aged pony began to wish that he'd brought an umbrella with him, but as he began to walk away, Beck saw that only a certain part of the area was covered in shadows while everywhere else was still bright and sunny. What in the world is… gah!

After looking up into the sky, Beck quickly ran as fast as he could so that he would be able to avoid being crushed by a giant airship that was landing onto the ground.


Thud!


Then, one of the side doors opened automatically, followed by a ramp that was making its way to the ground, and a few moments later, a purple unicorn began to walk down the ramp, with a hoof placed on the side of her head.

"Ugh… that is the last time I'm ever letting you drive this thing, Grubber."

She was followed soon after by a pudgy grey hedgehog that had white-furred spikes, and was currently munching on a slice of carrot cake.

"What's the matter, Tempest? It's not like I did any kind of damage to… ohhhh, my gosshh… did I do that?" Grubber was now looking at the remains of Beck's old home. "I sure hope not."

Before Tempest could even say anything to him, an approaching Beck gave Grubber an answer. "Not to worry, it's been like that for ages now… and, uh, thanks for not making me a pancake."

"I'm sorry about that," said Tempest, after scowling at the sheepish hedgehog. "Would you happen to know if Princess Twi…" She found herself pausing her sentence for a moment. "Your voice sounds… familiar to me… oh! You're that guest of Princess Twilight who hurt his tongue while eating, correct?"

Once Beck remembered what she was referring to, he began rubbing the back of his neck while saying, "Uh… yeah, that was… me…"





"Spike, how many times are you going to be playing that same game?"

With the game controller in his claws, a concentrated Spike said, "It's not the same… game, Twilight… it's three on one remastered disk, and right now, I'm on the Warped ga - no!


GAME OVER!


"You don't have to be scared, Twilight," said a smirking Spike, referring to the tiki-head that had suddenly popped onto the screen, as well as the game's continue option.

The purple alicorn quickly shook her head, and she said, "No, I just… didn't expect him to appear like that… look, you have ten more minutes, and then, it's time for bed."

"Got it," replied Spike, who hadn't even taken his eyes off of the t.v. screen.


Thud!


Suddenly, a loud noise from inside the castle caught both of their attention, and the young dragon asked, "Uh… w-what was that, Twilight?"

"Um… I'm not sure, Spike," answered the curious alicorn, who started to walk out of the room.

Spike simply just watched her leave, but a moment later, she whispered, "Spike! You coming or not?"

Knowing that she'd probably get upset if he told her the other answer, Spike paused the game, and followed after her. "This doesn't count as my ten minutes though, right?"

The two of them continued to walk down the hall, and eventually found themselves entering the Throne Room, where they noticed a cloaked pony-shaped figure lying face-down near the Cutie Map table.

"Oh, my gosh… Twilight, is he…" asked Spike, letting out a nervous gulp.

"No, Spike, look! He's still moving…" said Twilight, and the two of them watched the newcomer slowly start to stand up. "Um, excuse me? Are you-"

"Nice to see you again, Princess Twilight," interrupted the cloaked pony, to the alicorn's surprise, and he slowly removed his hood in order to reveal his scarred face, which had a close resemblance to Stardust's, except there was a scar over his right eye, as well as a small and metal eye-patch that covered up his left eye.

Twilight's curiousity turned into surprise, and then, it became irritation as she said, "I can't exactly say the same for you, Anti-Stardust."