My Little Pony: A Race Against Time

by CJ Esmerio

Equestria Bound, Part 1

Author's Note:

"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro whileStardust Balancebelongs to the Warrior of Twilight.

After Elixir had given his statement about Stardust, Omega waited a moment before saying, "That… is… ridiculous."

"What?" said Elixir, who started to frown since that was definitely not what he wanted to hear.

"You heard me, Nova," replied the cloaked pony. "We had adeal… I help you take over Equestria, and you give her back to me. Killing Stardust was not part of that agreement."

His anger slowly starting to rise up, Elixir glared at Omega, and said, "Well, I can't take it over if someone like Stardust is in the way, now can I?"

"No, I… guess not…" muttered Omega, who continued to try and fix whatever was around his neck. "But you promised me that she wouldn't get hurt, so if she is any sort of pain-"

"I can assure you that she is fine, my friend," replied Elixir, who had a small smile on his face. "Once I see the death of Stardust right in front of me, you will know where she is… but until then, I have something else that I need you to do."

Omega let out a sigh, and he said, "Alright, what would that be?"

Elixir's grin widened more as he replied, "I want you to bring me Sunset Shimmer."

"For what?"

The dark-colored Earth Pony looked at the object that Omega had brought him, and said, "Now that I'm free from Celestia's imprisonment, I can resume my experimentation, and I have just the perfect thing in mind for my first test subject…"

Omega nodded his head, and walked out of the throne room while Elixir began to let out an evil laugh. "Hahaha… hahahaha… hahahahaha!"

---

Once Stardust and the others had finished with their grieving over Casey's death (for now,anyway) it was finally time for them to discuss the plan to save Equestria.

"Alright, everypony, here's what I came up…" Stardust began to say, but he stopped after noticing that his friends were all looking a little nervous about something. "What?"

Applejack gave her friend a sheepish smile, and said, "Um, no offense to what you got written up on there, Star, but your plans tend to end with you… well, you know… like what happened with Casey, and…"

"We just don't want to loseyouagain, darling," added Rarity, and everyone else nodded their head, agreeing with her, while Stardust started to frown.

"Notallof my plans against villains have ended with the same result," replied Stardust, even though he had a feeling that he was wrong. "Give me an example."

Using the feathers on her wing as one would use fingers on a hand, Rainbow began to say the names of villains that, at one point, had almost beentoopowerful for Stardust.

"Chrysalis… Tirek… Sombra… Starlight… Rowan… Evil You…"

Before Stardust could respond to that, Pinkie suddenly raised her hoof, and cried, "Oh, and when you went to Sunset Shimmer's world for the Friendship Games!"

"Okay,fine, I get it," muttered Stardust, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "Twilight, you take over from here."

Twilight chuckled, and she nodded her head as she walked over to the chalkboard. "Okay, so the ponies that we're going up against are Elixir, of course... Ronxor, who is probably his personal assistant… and Omega… now, like Jack mentioned earlier, they probably have already taken control of Canterlot and Ponyville, so it's up to us to stop them from doing the same to the rest of Equestria, and the one major advantage that we have is they all think Jack is dead."

"Um, how exactly is that an advantage, Twilight?" wondered Fluttershy.

"Because, like Rowan and Evil Me, they all think of me as the biggest threat to theirtakeoverscheme," explained the young pony. "And since they are under the assumption that I am dead, none of them will expect me to do what I plan on doing once we get to Canterlot."

While Fluttershy nodded her head, Rarity raised up her hoof, and she said, "There's something I don't understand, darling…. Who exactly is Omega? He must have some sort of secret identity if he's going through the trouble of covering himself up."

"I'm afraid I don't know just yet," admitted the young princess. "But it has to be someone that-"

"It's Rowan underneath that thing," said Stardust, to everyone's surprise.

That's a high assumption, Jack, considering the place where he was sent to by the other Pinkie Pie is not one that is easily escapable.

"Well, who else would have such a hatred towards Casey, me, and all of them?" pointed out Stardust. "It makes sense, especially after what Kronos told us… Rowan is back, and he wants revenge."

Then, in his mind, he added,As do I… once I get my hooves on him for what he's done.

"Ooh, does that mean we get to visit all of those other worlds again?" wondered Pinkie, and Stardust just gave her a confused look.

"You didn't go with us, Pinkie, that was the other one who went-"

"Anyway…" said Twilight, who was actually not fond of remembering those particular events since they involved her having to see Stardust romantically kiss alternate versions of her friends. "Kronos said that it would take several days to get there, so after we all get a good night's rest, we should start making our way back home, and hopefully find a way that will get us to Equestria faster."

Applejack, who was looking at both her and Starlight, said, "Couldn't you two think of some kinda instant teleportation spell or somethin' to justpoofus all into Princess Celestia's castle?"

A look of uncertainty appeared on Twilight and Starlight's face, with the alicorn princess saying, "I don't think we can right now, AJ, especially since neither of us know exactlywherewe are at… I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's alright, Twilight," replied Applejack, who then started to yawn. "But I agree with ya on the restin' part… good thing that Kronos fella gave us some comfortable sleeping bags."

"Oh, yeah, he's a real sweetheart," muttered Stardust, who had only gotten a pillow and a blanket from the elderly pony.

Will you have trouble with sleeping tonight?asked Starswirl.

"I hope not… otherwise, this is gonna be a long night."

---

A few hours later

While everyone was sound asleep, Stardust was back at the lake, standing right in the middle of it.

Since he was unable to fall asleep, the young pony had decided to start practicing for his eventual confrontation against Omega.

Jack, I am not sure it is safe for you to-

ZZZZZZZZTTTT!

SPLASH!

After falling down into the water, Stardust let out a groan of frustration, and growled, "Why is it that every time I try to use my powers, those damn lightning bolts come back to shock the hell out of me?"

It would appear that Omega has found a way to stop you from fully using them.

"Oh, well, then that is justpeachy," exclaimed Stardust, striking his hoof across the water. "How in the[BEEP]am I supposed to kill-"

Come again?

"Youheardme, Starswirl," said the frustrated Earth pony, as he sat down on the grass-covered land. "He has to pay for what he's done to Casey… to his Twilight… which reminds me… I need the communicator."

POOF!

The hand-made wristwatch device that Casey had made for Stardust was now around his hoof, and Stardust quickly began to turn it on.

Are you sure about this, Jack?

"I have to know how she's doing, Starswirl," said Stardust, who was almost done. "And I have to apologize…"

Then, once the device was activated, he waited for the sound that would go off once whoever was at the other end of the-

CLICK!

"Twilight?" said Stardust, hoping that his friend was okay. "You there?"

"..."

"Twilight?"

"..."

The gold-colored pony continued to wait for a response, but all that he heard from the other end was silence.

Jack, I don't think that she-

"... Stardust?"

Hearing the alicorn's voice after a long hour of silence caused Stardust to almost jump back in surprise.

"Twilight? Can you hear me?"

What he mostly heard now was static, but if Stardust could talk to her for just a moment…

"... help... still… please?"

CLICK!

Suddenly, the line went dead, and as the communicator turned off, Stardust let out a sigh of disappointment, even though part of him was glad knowing that nothing dangerous had happened to the other Twilight.

"You havin' trouble sleepin' tonight, sugarcube?"

A somewhat tired Applejack was making his way over to him, and he said, "I just… got a lot on my mind, AJ… is Twilight awake, too?"

"Nope, just me," replied the apple-harvesting Earth Pony, who took a seat next to Stardust. "You need somepony to talk to?"

Stardust was about to politely say that he did not when he quickly realized that she probably knew what exactly he was going through.

"Actually… yes, now that you mention it," said the young pony. "Thank you."

"My pleasure, Star," replied Applejack, and the two of them smiled at each other before they started to have a conversation that eventually made Stardust feel a lot better than he had all day.

---

The next morning…

"..."

"Jack…"

"..."

"... wake up, Stardust!"

A tired Stardust groaned underneath his breath, and muttered, "Just give me 5 more minutes, guys."

---

A few minutes later

Letting out a yawn, Stardust stretched out his limbs, and he said, "Alright, let's start this… uh…"

The young pony had expected to wake up to the sight of Twilight, but instead, he saw that she and the others were all packed up and ready to start the 3-day-long journey to Equestria… and that he was currently floating over the lake, courtesy of a certain pony's magic.

"Good morning, Jack, glad you could join us," said the alicorn princess, giving him a cute smile, and Stardust found himself looking down at the water below him.

"Twilight, love… please don't do what I think you are about to do."

"Who,me?" said Twilight, sounding surprised. "Jack, why would you think I was the one holding you over the lake?"

Stardust smirked at his special somepony, and said, "Well, I mean, whoelsecould it-"

"Okay, Starlight, it's drop time," interrupted Rainbow Dash, and just as Stardust realized what was going on, Starlight released him from her magic, causing the young pony to fall into the lake.

"Come on, sleepyhead, Equestria is waitin' for us!" yelled Rainbow, who began to laugh while an irritated Stardust started to make his way towards them.

"Oh, I amsogoing to get her back for this."

---

It had only been five minutes or so since they had left their camp-site when Fluttershy said, "Um, does anypony else beside me think that we're lost?"

Stardust shook his head, and replied, "Don't worry, Fluttershy, I'm positive that Canterlot is inthisdirection, so… um, Pinkie, what are you doing?"

Everyone turned to look at their friend, who was floating in the air, and various parts of her body were either flapping or twitching, which could only mean one thing.

"I think I feel asongcoming on!"sang Pinkie, and she began walking in front of Stardust and Twilight, with the human-turned-pony slapping his forehead with the front of his hoof.

"She's not really about to…"

Looking up at a sunny sky, so shiny and blue and there's a butterfly

Applejack nodded her head, and said, "Yep, afraid so, sugarcube."

Well, isn't that a super fantastic sign
It's going to be a fantastic day

"I don't see how that works, Pinkie," said Stardust, while Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Jack, just let her enjoy this, okay?"

Such marvelousness
It's gonna bring a pocket full of songs that I'm gonna sing

"Oh,wonderful, she has more stuff for us to hear," muttered Stardust, trying his best not to get scratched by some of the sharp-edged branches.

And I'm ready to take on anything

Hooray!

Some super fun surprise around each corner
Just riding on a rainbow, I'm gonna be okay

"Uh, Pinkie, could you get off of me, please?" asked the blue-colored Pegasus.

Hey!
I'm not giving up today
There's nothing getting in my way
And if you knock knock me over
I will get back up again

When Stardust suddenly felt his hoof tapping along, he quickly stopped it, and shook his head.

"Nope, nope, not dancing to this…"

If something goes a little wrong
Well you can go ahead and bring it on
'Cause if you knock knock me over, I will get back up again
Whoa oh oh oh, get back up again, whoa oh oh oh oh oh!

"She's not done yet, is she?" muttered Stardust, and everypony else shook their head. "Lovely…"

I'm marching along I got confidence
I'm cooler than a pack of peppermints
And I haven't been this excited since
I can't remember when!

"Ugh, why do my hooves keep trying to tap along with her?" exclaimed Stardust.

"Jack, come on, this isfun... don't deny yourself this wonderful moment," said Twilight.

I'm off on this remarkable adventure
Just riding on a rainbow

Rainbow groaned, and rolled her eyes as she cried, "Itold youto get off of me, Pinkie!"

Oh, yeah!

I'm not giving up today
There's nothing getting in my way

And if you knock knock me over
I will get back up again!

"... andthere we go," said Pinkie, who had a look that readvictoryon her face. "We are all-"

"- still in the forest, darling," interrupted Rarity, letting out a sigh.

"Plus, that there is the same lake that Stardust's fell into, like, five times," pointed out Applejack.

Pinkie turned her head to look at the lake that she was referring to, and replied,"Ohhhh… I thought it looked familiar."

Stardust groaned, and face-palmed himself again, saying, "This is gonna be alongday."

---

Stepping through the Crystal Mirror, Sunset got down onto all fours, and began to look around the library.

"Hey, Stardust, I am so sorry I didn't get here sooner when I got your message, but I'm here now, so let's… um…"

The yellow-colored unicorn paused her sentence after seeing the book that Stardust uses to communicate with her was just left open on the table, with the human-turned-pony nowhere in sight.

"Star? Twilight? Everything okay?"

"Glad you could make it, Sunset… it's been a while."

Sunset turned around, and found herself looking at a cloaked Earth Pony that looked very familiar to her.

"Oh, hey, aren't you that one pony who-"

ZZZZZZZZZTTTT!

---

Stardust immediately stopped moving, and he found himself turning his head from left to right several times.

"Jack? What is it?" asked Twilight.

"I... thought I felt…" said Stardust, who began to frown in confusion. "I felt Sunset's presence or something… and it was almost as if she was in danger…"

The group of friends hadfinallyfound their way out of the tropical forest, but as they walked in the direction that would lead them to Canterlot, no one could yet recognizewhereexactly they were at, or how far (and long) it would be until they had returned to Equestria.

"I'm sure that Sunset is perfectly fine, Jack," assured Twilight. "Remember, Elixir wants to rule overEquestria, not the world that Sunset and the others live in, so there's no reason for her to be involved in this."

Stardust nodded his head, choosing to take her word for it, but he still had that small feeling of his close friend being in possible danger.

If Omega ever got to her, I swear that I would just-

"Okay,one of ushas to know where in the heck we are at," groaned Rainbow Dash, who was currently flying in the air. "All we have seen for the past few minutes is nothing but rocks, dirt, and even bigger rocks… at this rate, it'll take usforeverto get to Canterlot."

Pinkie stopped looking around, and replied, "Oh, I thought we were still going to Starlight's village."

"Why would we…?" The purple unicorn groaned, and she shook her head. "Do not question, Starlight, do not question…"

Stardust looked up at the winged Pegasus, and he said, "Youknowthat nopony here has any clue on where we are at, Rainbow, and your complaining isn't helping one bit with figuring it out."

The winged pegasus just grumbled in annoyance underneath her breath, while Stardust continued to think about Sunset.

You don't think they would-

That is a possibility, Jack,said Starswirl.But I, too, see no reason for Elixir to bring her into this if he only wants to rule over Equestria.

Stardust nodded his head, but as he continued walking, the young pony was promising himself that if anything happened to Sunset, there would be no one to hold him back for what he planned on doing to the cloaked pony.

---

"Welcome back to Canterlot, my dear Sunset."

The yellow-colored unicorn opened her eyes, and saw that she wasn't in Twilight's library anymore.

Instead, she was in some kind of laboratory, and she herself was strapped to a table that was currently placed in an upward position, allowing Sunset to see everything around her besides the ceiling.

"I presume that you are curious as to where you are at?"said Omega, who stepped out of the shadows, and began to walk towards her.

Sunset frowned, and replied, "Sort of… but I'm more curious to know what Stardust thinks about you doing this."

"Why would I possibly care what he thinks?" answered Omega, whose face was being covered by only his hood. "That arrogant pony means nothing to me…"

Stardust's friend and pupil just gave him a confused look, and said, "I don't know why you are acting like this, but I'm willing to bet that Twilight-"

"She and the others are no longer a factor in this situation, Sunset Shimmer."

As Elixir made his appearance, Omega looked away from Sunset, and the dark-colored Earth pony said, "You can also forget about your precious teacher coming to the rescue… because he's dead."

For a moment, Sunset didn't say anything, but then, she shook her head, and replied, "No… I don't believe that."

Elixir chuckled, and shrugged his shoulders, saying, "Your loss, Shimmer… now, then, I think it's time for us to get this thing going."

"Getwhatgoing?" asked Sunset, giving the sinister pony a suspicious look, and she also looked at Omega, but the cloaked pony continued to not look at her.

"Why, resuming my experimentation, of course," replied Elixir, who was starting to smile. "And you've been chosen as my first test subject."

Sunset smirked at the dark-colored pony, and she said, "Youdoknow that I'm able to use my magic to stop…aaauugghh!"

Elixir was now using the tip of the Silver Staff to touch the tip of Sunset's horn, and she could feel nothing but pain.

As Omega slightly turned his head to see what was going on, Elixir waited a few more minutes before moving the staff away from Sunset, who now looked exhausted.

"What… what did you…"

"I did some…alteringto your precious unicorn magic," replied Elixir. "Now, for this next part of my experiment, I need you to be unconcious, so Omega, if you could, please…"

The cloaked pony looked over at Elixir, and asked, "Why not use the staff? It's capable of putting her to sleep without my assistance."

"Yes, probably… but I prefer usingagonizingpainin my methods, so I will ask you again… please…"

Omega looked at Sunset, who tried to give him a pleading look, and the cloaked pony replied, "It would bemy pleasure."

Elixir nodded his head, and he began to walk away.

"Wonderful… I'll leave you to it, then."

Sunset and Omega were now looking at each other, and the young unicorn said, "Why… are you…"

"Because I have to, Sunset…" replied Omega, as he prepared to use his lightning energy. "And don't worry, you'll get used to this very quickly."

ZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!

---

Stardust groaned, and he brought a hoof to the side of his head, which Twilight quickly took notice of.

"Are you okay, Jack?"

Her special somepony nodded his head, and replied, "I just…knowthat Sunset is in trouble, but… I can't tell if it's Omega trying to play a trick-"

"Tweet-tweet! Tweet-tweet!"yelled Pinkie Pie, who was suddenly pointing at something that was coming towards them from behind.

"Is that… Gilda or… Gabby?" wondered Rainbow Dash, who was squinting her eyes to see if it would provide a better look. "Kinda looks like one of them."

Putting his worries aside, for a moment, Stardust looked up at whatever was heading their way, and he said, "Starswirl, what the heck-"

Jack, you all need to start running.

"Why do we need to-"

CAAAAWWW!

Stardust's eyes went wide, and he cried, "That is onebig [BEEP] eagle! How in the hell-"

Jack!

"Oh, yeah, right…run!"

---

After his experiment was complete, the sinister pony had returned to the throne room, and a few minutes later, Omega came inside, asking about the wherabouts of Sunset.

"I sent her to go and find the princess of friendship, along with her friends," replied the black-colored pony. "If they somehow get passed my bird, then there's no way they can get past thenewSunset Shimmer."

"A…bird?" said Omega, who was also wearing his mask again. "What do you mean abird?"

"Well, technically, it's aCaucasian Eagle," admitted Elixir, who gave him a small shrug. "But all that matters is that it will happily tear those ponies apart... thanks to a fewaltercationsthat I made to it."

---

As the group of friends continued to run, Rainbow yelled, "Why is there a giant bird chasing us?"

"How the [BEEP] should we know?!"exclaimed Stardust, and Twilight quickly glanced at him. "Hey, in this situation, cursing is acceptable!"

"Maybe Fluttershy can try talking to it," suggested Spike, who was currently sitting on Twilight's back.

Everyone looked at the yellow Pegasus pony, who turned her head in the direction of the giant eagle.

CAAAAWWWW!

"I… don't think… I'll be of much help," replied Fluttershy, speaking with a high-pitched voice.

Preparing her magic, Starlight fired an energy blast at the winged creature, but all it did was cause the bird to let out a louder cry.

CAAAAWWWW!

"Fluttershy, I know you're probably just as scared as the rest of us," said Applejack. "But you have to, at least,tryand find a way to get that bird to-"

"I'm not even sure if she can help… no offense, though, Fluttershy," interrupted Stardust, to the winged pony's relief. "But I have a feeling that -whoa!"

Having decided to take an open opportunity, the giant eagle swooped down towards the group of ponies, and was now floating several feet above them, with Stardust's cloak in his beak.

"Hey, Tweety, you put me downright now!" shouted Stardust, and the bird responded by moving his head back and forth several times, causing Stardust to feel a little dizzy.

"Rainbow, let's go!"

Twilight and Rainbow quickly flew up towards the giant eagle, and took ahold of Stardust's front hooves in their own, trying to pull him out of the bird's grasp.

"Wait a sec, you two are going to make him-"

The winged creature began moving his head around again, and this made all three of the ponies feel some dizziness, but then, they heard the sound of fabric ripping, and after one more swift turn of the bird's head, he sent Twilight and Rainbowflying back to the rest of their friends while Stardust landed a few feet away from them.

"Thanks, love… and Rainbow, for…" Stardust started to say, but then, he noticed that his beloved cloak now looked like a cape, and he saw that the eagle had just finished swallowing the other half. "Oh, you've[BEEP] up now, Tweety!"

As the bird glared over at Stardust, the young pony's front hooves began to glow, and an energy orb was starting to form.

Jack, I highly disagree with what you're about to do!

Stardust shook his head, and cried,"Hey, in a moment like this, Starswirl, Ihaveto do it!"

CAAAAAWWWW!

The giant eagle flew straight for Stardust, who was waiting for the perfect chance to fire his"Cutie Mark"energy blast.

"That's right, Tweety, you're about to turn into fried chicken!"

Jack, you don't know if the lightning bolt energy will-

"I will befine,Starswirl, this isn't going to kill me!"

CAAAAWWWW!

A sly grin appeared on Stardust's face, and he cried, "Okay, Tweety, it's cooking time!"

Then, once the bird was inches away from him, Stardust fired his energy blast, but when the blue lightning suddenly appeared, he said, "What the-"

BOOM!

An explosion of dust and smoke was created, and everypony watched as the bird was sent flying high up into the sky, leaving a trail of black smoke behind.

"Where's Jack?" asked Twilight, who started to become worried. "Jack! Where did you-"

"I see him, Twilight, I got him!"yelled Pinkie, who suddenly ran straight past the alicorn princess, and she had her front hooves wide open, ready to catch her friend. "Don't worry, Stardust, I won't miss-"

THUD!

Pinkie quickly stopped running, and headed over to where a soot-covered Stardust had landed.

"I got him, everypony!" yelled the pink-colored pony, as she picked him up, and started to head back to the others.

"Thank you, Pinkie…"muttered a non-amused Stardust.

---

Shaking his head, Omega began to walk out of the throne room, but then, he stopped after Elixir said, "Hold on a moment, my friend… there's something else I want you to do now."

From underneath his mask, the cloaked pony gritted his teeth in frustration, and said, "Hey, I am not yourservant, Elixir… that job goes toRonxor… so unless you tell me where she is, I'm not going to continue being yourerrand pony."

A laugh came out of Elixir's muzzle as he shook his head, saying, "I don't see you that way, Omega… or, in this case,Rowan… this is actually something that will benefit you."

Before Omega could say anything, the doors to the throne room were opened, and Ronxor happily made his way inside, followed by…

"What is the meaning of this?" asked Omega, looking at a smiling Elixir.

Standing in front of them were the Mane 6 (except for Twilight), Spike, and Starlight, who were all chained up together, and had been taken from Casey's world.

"Alright, what in the hay is going on?" said Applejack. "Why are we here?"

The sinister pony chuckled, and said, "Since you already got your revenge on two of the ponies that ruined your life, I figured… why not do the same to the rest of them?"

"You mean that-"

"Indeed, I did," replied Elixir. "You already killed Casey, Rowan… why not do the same to his friends?"

Starlight's eyes became wide with shock, and she said, "Rowan?But you're supposed to be-"

"How did you get out of theSmile HDworld that I sent you to?" exclaimed a surprised Pinkie. "This is impossible!"

While Ronxor started to grin evily at the cloaked pony, Elixir began to laugh, and he looked at Omega, saying, "Go ahead, my friend…killallof them."