My Little Pony: A Race Against Time

by CJ Esmerio

Strange Things, Part 2

Author's Note:

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

Stardust was about to head straight for Rainbow Dash's door when Twilight stood between the two ponies. "All right, hold on... look, there's no need to hurt him, Rainbow."

"Twilight, look at what he did to my home!" Rainbow cried, gesturing to all of the highly-offensive words that were spray painted onto her walls.

"Itold you,Rainbow, that I didn'tdoany of this," exclaimed Stardust, now getting frustrated. "Whywould I do something like this?"

The Pegasus pony frowned at him, and said, "Don't try to make up excuses, Star, Iknowthat you did this... I thought you were myfriend."

"Rainbow,as yourfriend, I amtelling youthat I did not-" yelled Stardust, but Twilight interrupted him.

"Look, we'll figure this stuff out later, alright? In the meantime, Jack, help Rainbow out with cleaning all of this up."

"What?!"Stardust exclaimed, not expecting her to say that. "Twilight, love, I'm all for helping remove this stuff from her door, but do you know howlongit would take for the two of us to remove... all ofthis?"

"Maybe if you didn'tdothis, then-"

"For thelasttime, Rainbow, Idid not[BEEP]-in do any of..." Stardust cried, but then, Twilight moved closer to him, standing face-to-face with the young pony.

"Jack... please... I'm not saying that you actuallydiddo this, but..." Twilight looked back at the upset Rainbow, who was trying to remove the spray paint with soap and a brush. "Prove to her that you didn't do this by helping her clean this up."

Stardust frowned, and said, "Knowing how stubborn she is, love, I don't think that's going to help out much."

"Well, it'll probably be worse if you storm off like an angry or upset child," replied the alicorn princess. "Now, I'll do what I can here before I handle some important business with Shining Armor and Cadence at the Crystal Empire, but in the meantime, go and find Pinkie Pie so that you two can come here to help Rainbow clean all this up... okay?"

Stardust tried to argue with her some more, but Starswirl offered him some more advice.

Just relax, Jack... we will find the culprit later on, but don't let he or she have the last laugh by letting your friendship with Miss Dash be ruined by a careless act.

"Alright, I'll help her and Pinkie with cleaning all this up," muttered Stardust, knowing that it was the right thing to do, even though it definitely wasn't something he wanted to do.

I don't even know how this damn stuff got on all of my hooves.

---

"Well, now that I'm done with this, I just have to..." Sunset looked up, and saw that the book she'd just finished reading belonged up on the highest shelf.

"Good thing I have unicorn magic again," said Sunset, letting out a chuckle as she prepared to use her magic to send the book back up to its proper spot.

Unfortunately, for some reason, her magic wasn't working. "That's strange."

Sunset concentrated on the book, her unicorn horn powering up, but it still wasn't moving. "Aw,come on...aaugghh!"

The young human-turned-pony gritted her teeth together as she suddenly felt the right side of her flank be in the same amount of pain as last night when somepony had chosen to slap it.

"Focus on the book, Sunset, worry about... your flank later."

She tried several more times to move the book, but the result remained the same, so Sunset eventually walked away, and returned with a library ladder that she could climb up in order to put back the book.

"Alright, let's try this way," mumbled Sunset, taking the book in one of her hooves, and she started climbing up the ladder, going all the way up to the highest shelf.

"Hmmm... T-R, T-S, T-U, T-V, T... ah, here we go,"said Sunset, smiling and feeling satisfied once the book was in its proper place. "Now, to just -whoa!"

While starting to make her way back down, Sunset's back legs accidentally fell off one of the steps, causing her to slip off of the ladder...

"I got you!"

... and into the open hooves of Stardust, who looked relieved that she was safe. "Youdo knowthat you're a unicorn, right?"

Sunset raised her eyebrow, and said, "No, what ever gave it away, Stardust? My horn?"

"Hey, leave the sarcasm tome,Shimmer," replied Stardust, as he helped her stand on all fours. "There you go... please trynotto get in any more danger while I'm gone."

A confused Sunset asked, "You're leaving again? But you justgot here... right?"

"Yeah, and I'm sorry, Sunset, but there's somecleaningstuff that I have to take care of."

As he walked out of the library, Sunset started to frown, and thought,That was weird.

---

"So,whydid you spray paint all over Rainbow Dash's walls?"

Stardust groaned, and he replied, "Itoldyou, Pinkie, it wasn't me who did it... somepony else did, and tried putting the blame on me."

The pink pony, who was pulling a cart that contained cleaning supplies, tilted her head to the side as she asked, "Who would want to put the blame on you? You and Rainbow are friends!"

Once they entered the blue pony's house, the two of them noticed immediately that Twilight had already left, and only a small percent of the spray paint was removed.

"Huh, thatdoessound like something the old you would've probably said to her," pointed out Pinkie, but Stardust quickly shook his head.

"I may not have enjoyed being with herethatmuch, Pinkie, but not even a person like me would ever say something likethisto Rainbow... I don't even know if I could say these words to Celestia-"

"Hey! Less talking, more cleaning up this mess thatyoumade, Stardust!" Rainbow yelled, who had also made plans of her own for the day, but now they would have to be rescheduled.

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie said, giving her friend a salute, and went over to the nearest wall to start cleaning up.

As for Stardust, he decided to try and convince Rainbow again that it wasn'thimwho did all of this.

Choose your words carefully, Jack, I'm sensing quite a lot of mixed feelings from Miss Dash.

"Thanks, Starswirl," whispered Stardust, and once he was close enough to her, he said, "Rainbow, please tell me that you don't actually think-"

"Well, what am Isupposedto think, Star? You had thespray canhidden underneath your cloak, allfourof your hooves are covered in the same type of paint, and we both know that in the beginning, I was yourleast favoritepony to be with."

Stardust sighed, knowing that it would take alotof the "right words" to convince his friend. "Okay, yes, that is true... for theold me... but that was a long time ago, Rainbow, and you know I've changed a lot since then."

"Yeah, well..." exclaimed Rainbow, who was now torn between believing or blaming him. "Maybe youhaven'tchanged as much as you thought."

"Rainbow, you can't just-" Stardust tried to say, but the Pegasus pony paused her cleaning to glare at him, and he could have sworn that her eyes were almost watery.

"Justget awayfrom me, Stardust... and somefriendyou are."

As she flew over to another part of the house, a wave of sadness swept over Stardust, and he asked, "Any advice you have for me, Starswirl?"

Time, Jack. Give her some time to come around. I'm sure that, deep down, she knows you didn't do this.

Stardust sighed, and he started to work on removing the spray paint. "I hope you're right about that..."

---

Several Hours Later

Now in the Throne Room, Sunset was admiring the Cutie Map table, trying to remember what parts of Equestria she had yet to visit. "I remember beingthere... and overthere... but I don't think-hey!"

She angrily turned around, having felt somepony grab her from behind, but like last night, the only pony in the room was herself.

"Whoin Equestria is trying to... nope, nope, just relax, Sunset, you're imagining this, it's all in your head because of that book you read earlier."

So, she went back to looking at the map, but a few minutes later, Sunset felt a pair of hands (or hooves?) on both sides of her flank.

"Alright, you little..." She turned around immediately, using her front right hoof to slap whoever did that, but to her surprise, Sunset found herself slapping Stardust.

"Ow! What the [BEEP] was that for?"

Sunset frowned, and she exclaimed, "For trying to... with your... my flank..."

"What are you talking about?" Stardust asked, confused and frustrated, and Starswirl explained for him.

I believe she's trying to say that you, um... inappropriately touched-

Yeah, I think I get it now.Stardust rubbed the part of his cheek that she'd slapped, and replied, "I don't know why you're accusing me of...you-know-what, Sunset, but I'm not in the mood right now to-"

"Well, you should have thought about that before..." Sunset cried, but then, she noticed that her frienddidlook almost exhausted. "You look terrible."

Stardust smirked, and said, "Thanks a lot... I just spent almost the whole damn day cleaning up the walls of Rainbow Dash's house, thanks to some pony who I plan on givinghellonce I get my hooves on him or her."

Sunset looked at her friend, and thought,It can't be him. He would never...

"I take it you've been in the castle the whole day?"

The yellow unicorn nodded her head, and replied, "Yeah, pretty much... oh, and thanks again for what you did earlier this morning."

"Um... you're welcome," said Stardust, but to her surprise, he sounded like he had no idea what she was referring to.

He's probably just tired from cleaning at Rainbow's house.

"Okay, then, if we're done here..." Stardust started to walk away, but Sunset gently grabbed one of his front limbs.

"Um, Stardust? You would never, er... you know..."

"Oh, [BEEP] no," replied Stardust, shaking his head. "I have plenty of respect for females, and I wouldneverdo something like that toanyoneoranypony... why, did someone do that to you?"

Sunset was about to give her response, but paused when she noticed again that he looked exhausted, so she said, "It's nothing, Stardust, just... get some rest."

"Oh, Iplanto, trust me," replied the young man-turned-pony. "But youdo knowthat you can come to me if something is ever bothering you, right?"

Sunset nodded her head, and Stardust added, "Good... see you tomorrow."

As she watched him walk away, Sunset began to feel sorry for her friend, and hoped that he would be okay.

---

(Anti-Equestria)

"So, how's it going, my love?" Midnight Sparkle asked, speaking to Anti-Stardust.

"Oh, I'm havingplentyof fun, beautiful,cackled the sinister pony."Everything is going according to plan... and soon enough, you and the others will be here, having your own fun, as well."

A wide smile appeared on the alicorn's face, and she said, "I can't wait, handsome."

"Oh,God..." groaned Anti-Rainbow, shaking her head in disgust. "You two ponies need to get a [BEEP] room."

---

The Next Day (around a quarter to 8 o'clock)

Stardust was knocked out on his bed, having used a lot of his strength and energy to remove the spray paint, and he planned on resting for a few more hours.

"TWILIGHT!"

Stardust jolted out of his bed, dropping onto the ground again, and he yelled, "[BEEP-BEEP-BEEP]!"

Although he was still sore from yesterday, the young pony hurried over to the Throne Room, and found Twilight, as well as Starlight, talking to Applejack. "Whatis itwith you ponies and-"

"You've got some serious explainin' to do, Stardust," exclaimed Applejack, who did not look happy to see him.

"Look, if this is about Rainbow Dash, AJ, then I don't want-" said Stardust, but he was interrupted by Applejack.

"Thisain'tabout Rainbow,Stardust, it's about whatyoumight have done to my farm last night while I was sleepin'!"

Stardust looked at her, and said, "Well, as a matter of fact, AJ, I can assure you that I washere, in the castle,sleepingin myroombecause of how exhausted I was cleaning up the-"

"Uh, guys?" The three ponies turned around to see Spike, who looked concerned.

"What's wrong, Spike?" asked Twilight.

The young dragon gulped, and said, "Er, well, I was gonna remind Star about the plans we had for today, but when I went into his room, I saw that his bed was covered in mud and chicken feathers and... uh, you kinda look like..."

Applejack glared at Stardust, who realized that parts of his limbs and body were muddy, as well as his cloak being covered in chicken feathers.

"Uh, I might have to take a visit to Sweet Apple Acres, Spike."

However, Applejack shook her head, and said, "I don't think so, Stardust... it'll be better if you don't step one hoof into Sweet Apple Acres."

"Well, how do you expect me to-" said Stardust, but Applejack held up one of her hooves to silence him.

"Because even though I'm mad at you righ' now, Star, I don't want to see Granny Smith beat the livin' hay outta you when she finds out it was you, so do yourself a favor, and stayawayfrom my home."

Before Stardust could even say anything, Applejack walked away, and he saw that Twilight was following her. "Please tell me, love, that you don't think I actually-"

"I know, Jack, but..." said Twilight, looking sad and confused. "Just do what AJ said, okay? Now you can rest from what you did yesterday."

She then kissed him on the cheek before going after Applejack, and after Twilight was gone, Starlight asked, "Are you going to be okay, Stardust?"

"I... I... I don't..." The young pony replied, feeling sore, sad, and confused.

What in Equestria is happening to me?

Then, an idea popped into his head, and a serious look appeared on his face. "I'm getting to the bottom of this, starting with going to Sweet Apple Acres."

"What?!"Starlight and Spike yelled, and the little dragon immediately shook his head.

"You heard what Applejack said, Star, she'll beat thehayout of you."

Stardust smirked, and he replied, "Spike, I've gone up against enemiesworsethan an angry and eldery Earth Pony... I'm sure I can handle her... besides, I'm not going to let whoever is doing this get the last laugh."

Ignoring Spike's warning, the young pony ran out of the room, in hopes of catching up to his friends, and Starlight looked at Spike. "You think he's gonna be okay?"

"Uh..." Spike took a moment to think about it. "Y-yeah... He'll be fine... I hope..."

---

A few hours later

Starlight sighed, and she said, "I had a bad feeling this would happen."

Spike simply nodded his head, while Sunset looked at her friend, and asked, "Whathappenedto you?"

A heavily bruised, battered, and sore Stardust layed in his now-clean bed, and he coughed a few times before saying, "I made, uh... AJ's grandmother veryupset... someone get me aCoke,please..."