MLP: Darkness Rising

Chapter 5 - Questions, Part 2

Disclaimer: My Little Pony and Equestria Girls belongs to Hasbro, and Stardust Balance was created by the Warrior of Twilight. I just own the story.

"Okay, so let me see if I got this right," said Rainbow Dash, after Anti-Stardust had finished his story. "You - the pony that tried to make all of us hate our Stardust - are asking for our help in helping you to try and save your Twilight from this Xenos creep?"

"More or less, yeah…" The scarred pony gave a small nod, limb still stretched out towards the alicorn for a hoofshake, and it took a moment before Twilight decided to shake it. "Thank you very much, pri-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the young alicorn said, "Don't thank me just yet, Anti-Stardust… we'll do what we can, but we don't exactly trust or have faith in you a hundred percent at this particular moment."

"Which is why you'll need to excuse us for a moment while I talk to my friend here for a bit," added Rainbow, bringing a surprised Twilight with her out into the hall while Spike remained in the throne room with Anti-Stardust.

After a brief few seconds of silence, the young dragon asked, "So… um… how did you get that eyepatch again?"

A small smirk appeared on Anti-Stardust's face, and he replied, "Oh, yer in for a real treat, me hearty…"

###################

Once they were a few feet away from the doors, Rainbow released Twilight's limb from her grip, and she asked, "Are we going to tell everyone us about this?"

"In the morning, yes," replied the young alicorn, since it was currently nighttime outside, and the rest of their friends were probably fast asleep. "So for now, you can return home while-"

Rainbow's eyes widened in surprise after hearing what Twilight just told her. "Say what? I'm not gonna leave the castle knowing it'll just be you, Spike, and him in here while Starlight's at the Crystal Empire and… you know… which is why I'm gonna stay here to keep an eye on him in case he tries to do anything bad to you."

"I appreciate your concern, Rainbow, but I don't want you to be staying up all night just to-" Twilight started to say, but Rainbow waved her hoof around as if she were pushing her friend's concerns to the side.

"I'll go to sleep once I'm sure that he's not gonna do anything to the two of you. Besides, who ever said anything about stayin' up all night? Can't be that hard to watch over someone for a couple hours."

Twilight closed her eyelids halfway as she said, "You fell asleep after two minutes in the classroom portion of Wonderbolts training, Dashinator."

"Hey, there's a big difference between hearing stuff that I already know about flying and keeping an eye on Anti-Stardust, alright?" said the determined pegasus. "Trust me, Twilight, I totally got this…"

################

Several Hours Later (around 11 p.m.)

As Rainbow slept over on one side of the throne room using sleeping materials that Twilight had lended to her, Anti-Stardust was sitting down on the floor, and he had his back laid against the wall with his own sleeping-over-set nearby on the floor.

Like all the other different versions of him, Anti-Stardust usually didn't sleep that much during the night like everypony else; instead, the young stallion was looking at a special necklace that he was currently holding up in front of him with a forehoof, which looked similar to the one that Stardust had given to his own Twilight.

Please be okay, thought the scarred stallion, and just as he began to put the silver accessory back inside one of his pockets, Rainbow suddenly sat up wide awake, looking alarmed as she cried, "No more pies, Pinkie!"

After quickly realizing that she'd only been dreaming, Rainbow relaxed a little bit, and then, she swiftly turned her head to look at Anti-Stardust, who gave the blue pegasus a small wave. "You're still in that same position?"

Anti-Stardust did a small nod, and he replied, "I don't really sleep the same amount as you and the others usually do… especially since I learned that the pony who I thought was dead is actually still alive."

A small scoff came from Rainbow as she said, "Well, maybe if you'd spent less time on trying to hurt us, our Stardust, Casey, and his world's versions of us, and more on keeping Anti-Twilight safe, then we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion."

"..."

"..."

The scarred pony let out a sigh, and he muttered, "I can see that it won't be easy to get on your good side."

Rainbow yawned before shaking her head in agreement. "Nope, it's not… and I'm pretty sure it'll be like that for everypony else."

"Well, I think I'm off to a good start with Princess Twilight," Anti-Stardust started to say, but he was cut off when Rainbow angrily pointed a hoof at him.

"Hey… me and the others all heard about what you did to Twilight over in Casey's world," hissed the blue pegasus. "So, if you ever do anything to hurt her in any way… even make her say ow, then we-"

Anti-Stardust sighed, and he muttered, "I'm not here to do stuff like that, Rainbow, really… also, I thought it was his job to tell me what you're saying right now."

"She's important to all of us," clarified Rainbow, who clearly had a dislike towards the scarred Earth pony, and she turned away from him before he could say anything else.

Then, she was back to being asleep a few seconds later, but Anti-Stardust was still awake, now thinking about the rest of his friends that were all in far-off locations… including one whom he would probably never see for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, in another world…

"Is she out there?"

"..."

"..."

"... nope, we're all good," said the human version of Stardust, making his way out of the classroom, followed by the human version of Twilight. "No sign of her whatsoever."

Sci-Twi let out a sigh of relief, but as they walked over to her locker, a confused EG Stardust asked, "Why are you so… concerned about avoiding her today anyway?"

Once the young teenage girl was standing by her locker door, she replied, "It's because I asked for help in - aaaahh!"

"Surprise!"yelled Pinkie Pie, unexpectedly popping out of Sci-Twi's locker, and making her friend quickly walked backward into EG Stardust's arms with an alarmed expression. "I had a feeling you'd be here… hi, Stardust! How are you doin' today?"

EG Stardust just let out a chuckle as he released his girlfriend, and Sci-Twi was now trying to make herself relax. "Look, Pinkie, I really appreciate what you're trying to do for me, but it's too much! All I've been able to think about this entire day is 'Where's Pinkie Pie, Where's Pinkie Pie?' I haven't had one moment to…"

Then, she quietly blinked her eyes after coming to a realization of something, and the purple-skinned teenager looked back over at a smiling Pinkie. "... to think about the play… Pinkie, you're a genius!"

"You're welcome!" shouted Pinkie, her loud voice making both Sci-Twi and EG Stardust take a few steps back, but unfortunately, this caused one of them to get accidentally bumped into by Flash Sentry, who had been carrying a plastic cup of soda in his hand.

"Ohhhh, no…" said both Sci-Twi and Pinkie, the two teenage girls looking worried about how EG Stardust was going to react since he, along with Sentry, both had the front of their shirts dripping with soda, and because they knew that the two boys weren't exactly friends with each other... for obvious reasons.

"Oh, I am so sorry about that, Stardust" apologized the yellow-skinned teenage boy, who also was a little worried about what EG Stardust's reaction would be. "Uh, wait right there, let me go get a towel."

He then hurried off to retrieve said object, and Sci-Twi cautiously asked, "Um, Stardust? Are you okay?"

The young man blinked his eyes for a moment, and just sighed quietly before muttering, "It's not the worst thing to ever happen to me."

"Phew!" said a relieved Pinkie, wiping away some non-existent sweat onto her forehead. "For a second there, I thought you were going to-"

"Alright, here you go, Stardust," said a returning Flash, handing over a towel to EG Stardust. "Again, I'm sorry that - gah!"

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, EG Stardust grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and with an extremely upset look, he growled, "If you ever do any kind of [BEEP] to me again, I swear that I-"

"Stardust?"

After hearing his girlfriend call out to him, EG Stardust turned to look at her, and he saw that Sci-Twi looked very afraid and concerned for him. I haven't seen her like that since -

############

The only two people remaining on the rooftop now were Sci-Twi and Stardust, who currently had one of his hands over his left eye.

"Damn you, Shimmer," he muttered angrily to himself, and he brought some of his attention back over to Sci-Twi, who didn't know what to say to her boyfriend.

Once she was able to talk, the human counterpart of Twilight said, "Stardust… why would you…

Stardust looked at the glasses-wearing teenage girl, and he replied, "No, they were unoriginal characters without any kind of personality whatsoever... [BEEP], my eye hurts like hell!"

He then started to walk towards her, and Sci-Twi said "Stardust, please, this isn't the right thing to do. Why are you acting like this?"

"Because for over six [BEEP] months, I have put with all kinds of [BEEP] in this world," exclaimed Stardust, trying to ignore the pain coming from his left eye. "And what happened a few days ago was the last straw..."

Sci-Twi looked at his other hand, which was still glowing with dark energy, and she asked, "Are you going to... do the same thing... to me?"

"If that's what it takes to get me to Equetria," replied Stardust, raising up the energized hand. "Then, so be it."

The human version of Twilight looked back at the spot where her friends had been at not that long ago, and as she watched Stardust come closer to her, tears slowly started to fall down off of her face. "Star... please..."

################

Releasing Flash's shirt collar from his grip, EG Stardust instructed him to just walk away, and Flash had no problem with following the young teenager's order.

Once that was all said and done, Stardust's human counterpart looked over at Sci-Twi, and he said, "Twilight, I… I didn't mean to… it's not what…"

"I know, Star, it's okay," replied Sci-Twi, but she didn't exactly sound a hundred percent sure. "Um… I think we need to go over to my house… as in right now." She turned to look at Pinkie. "Don't tell the others about this just yet, okay?"

Pinkie nodded her head, and watched as Sci-Twi led EG Stardust towards the front doors of the school. "Alright, don't tell our friends about this… yeah, I can do that!"