MLP: A Journey's End
Chapter 7 - Equestria Bound, Part 1
Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro.
Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight, and I own the story... also, the following song is owned by UMG [Universal Music Group].
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 a deal… 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 lose you again, darling," added Rarity, and everyone else nodded their head, agreeing with her, while Stardust started to frown.
"Not all of 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 been too powerful 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 their takeover scheme," 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 just poof us 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 exactly where we 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 just peachy," exclaimed Stardust, striking his hoof across the water. "How in the [BEEP] am I supposed to kill-"
Come again?
"You heard me, 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, who else could 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 am so going 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 in this direction, 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 a song coming 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 is fun... 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, "I told you to 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!
"... and there we go," said Pinkie, who had a look that read victory on 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 a long day."
