My Little Pony: Darkness Rising

Chapter 7 - Greater Power, Part 2

Disclaimer: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, and Stardust Balance was created by the Warrior of Twilight. I just own Casey, and this story.

Inside the main room of his unknown hideaway, Xenos was currently looking at a digital holographic map of the entire universe, trying to figure out where exactly Anti-Stardust was at right now.

You won't be able to hide from me forever, thought the large and menacing figure, now smiling just a little after remembering something. Especially since I still have in my grasp what you hold dear...

"Hey, boss!" The menacing villain turned his head to side, and could see from the corner of his eye one of his few loyal followers, a beautiful red-haired and deadly-looking woman named Rhoswen who had a sly smile on her own face. "I think your mad scientist is done with his new project for you."

Putting his thoughts of the scarred and traiterous individual aside, Xenos nodded his head, and said, "Wonderful. Take me to him."

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

Lifting up and removing his welding helmet, a smiling Elixir sighed in relief as he observed the handiwork that was on the table in front of him, but his smile faltered a little after hearing the sound of Xenos entering the room.

"Took you long enough, Doctor, although I figured that you would've been done a few days ago."

Elixir gave a nervous chuckle once he saw his master's poker-faced expression, and replied, "My sincere apologies, sir. I was very fortunate, though, in getting assistance from your daughter Serilda this past week and that allowed me to finish for you what is currently underneath this tarp."

A small scoff came from Xenos as he said, "Perhaps if you hadn't alienated my favorite and beloved daughter Emerl, she would still be here assisting you, and we would have had this discussion at an earlier date."

"Thank you so much for the vote of confidence, Dad," muttered Serilda, a Navy blue pegasus whose voice had a slight metallic edge to it, along with her right wing and one of her eyes being completely roboticized.

As for Elixir, the winged scientist hesitated for a moment before responding. "With all due respect, sir, I do not think that Emerl was not exactly strong enough to handle-"

"She was raised and trained to be one of the deadliest and toughest females ever in this entire universe, Nova," interrupted Xenos, and the silver pegasus quickly closed his mouth. "So for your sake, I highly recommend that you do not finish that sentence."

A small chuckle came from Serilda as Xenos stood at the front end of the stainless steel worktable, and he lifted up part of the tarp to see what had been covered up, the sight of it causing a small smile to appear on his face. "Are you certain that those stiches will keep her mouth permanently shut?"

"Heh, well, it would be extremely painful… almost deadly for her, even, if an attempt was ever made to open it," said Elixir, glad and quietly relieved to see that his boss was now somewhat pleased. "Also, once I perform a field test, she will be ready for you to use on whomever you please."

Letting go of the tarp, Xenos gave a small chuckle, and nodded over at the silver pegasus. "Do the test right away. Then, have it go to Anti-Equestria so that it can take care of that traitor… and in the meantime, I want you to do something for me, Serilda."

The fierce-looking mare turned her head over in the direction of her adoptive parent, and replied, "Yeah, sure. What is it?"

One of the digital maps that Xenos had been looking at earlier appeared in front of him, and the sinister figure said, "There's a pony in Equestria currently in possession of one of the magical stones meant for my ultimate weapon. Do whatever you have to do to get it back for me."

After Starswirl finished talking with Casey and Twilight, a no-longer-confused Stardust was finally able to speak. "So, um, any other reason why you're here exactly aside from just saying 'hello' to them?"

"Possibly, but that can wait for another time," replied the elderly unicorn, who was walking towards the castle's front doors. "In the meantime... good luck with the continued success of your school, Twilight."

Then, once Starswirl was out of Twilight's castle, Stardust sighed and rolled his eyes, saying, "I hate it when he acts like - wait, what? You have an actual school now?"

"Uh-huh," said a smiling and proud Twilight, with Stardust now looking surprised while everyone else nodded in agreement. "It's the-"

"The School of Friendship!" cried out Pinkie while Twilight rolled her eyes in amusement. "Tomorrow's actually going to be the re-re-opening… well, for certain ponies, I mean… cause the first time didn't exactly go so hot, and the reason why this past Friday doesn't really count is because there are some new students coming in to be a part of Casey's class."

A slight unimpressed expression appeared on Stardust's face as he turned his attention over to Twilight's special someone. "Oh, yeah, the pony with a human name… can't really say I'm exactly curious about whatever the heck your class' subject will be."

"I figured you'd say something like that," said Casey, who was almost mirroring the same expression as him. "Speaking of which, I just remembered that I have to go make a few more adjustments to my classroom, so Twilight... I'll be back later. Pinkie? I could use your help-"

"Cool!" The energetic pony nodded her head, and began to follow the young stallion out of the castle. "Later, Spike, Starlight, Twilight! Bye, Stardust, see you around! Oh, and welcome to Ponyville!"

Stardust let out a quick chuckle while Starlight watched Casey leave with concern, and once they were gone, the pink unicorn said, "Um, I'll be back in a little bit."

Then, after Starlight walked out of the castle, the gold Earth pony looked over at Twilight with a slight smirk. "I get the feeling that your boyfriend's not exactly pleased with me being here."

"No, no, it's not you," replied the young princess, shaking her head. "Well, I mean, it kind of is, but not exactly… Casey's just dealing with some, uh, 'friendship issues' regarding your counterpart from another universe."

"... right, sure," said Stardust, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that there was another version of himself in a parallel universe, currently in a relationship with that world's version of the princess that was standing in front of him. Lucky damn bastard.

Meanwhile, in that other universe…

Even though it had only been a few minutes since a sitting Twilight had laid herself back against the wall, it felt more like a few hours once she had lifted her head back up.

Alright, come on, be a big mare, thought the young princess, attempting to give herself a pep talk. Just find a way to - huh?

Noticing the unopened envelope that had fallen from her desk, a curious Twilight used her magic to place it front of her, and her expression changed to slight boredom after recognizing what kind of envelope it was.

Ah, great, thought the purple alicorn, rolling her eyes. This is just what I need right now - someone who completely missed the point of why the Friendship Journal was even published in the first place, and has decided to give me his or her 'concerns' over probably what's mostly written inside of the book. I swear, if it's another pony telling me that I was better before I earned my wings...

With very limited enthusiasm, Twilight magically ripped open the top half of the envelope, and pulled out a letter from an unknown reviewer of the Friendship Journal that she'd had published throughout all of Equestria, which she began to read in a dry, uninterested tone.

Sometimes, one can make friends in the most unexpected circumstances. You could meet someone entirely... different in looks and personality to yourself and… still establish a connection...

"Wait, what?" Twilight suddenly found herself doing a double-take after noticing that the letter's writing style was very familiar, along with how it was being presented to her word-wise, and started over from the beginning.

"Sometimes, one can make friends in the most unexpected circumstances. You could meet someone entirely different in looks and personality to yourself and... still establish a connection."

Twilight's eyes widened up a little once she fully realized who it was that had written the review, and a small smile started growing on her face.

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

At the same time, Rainbow had been walking down the hall, having been sent by Applejack to check on their friend after a few minutes had passed since Twilight's departure, and was currently muttering to herself about how the rest of the girls all agreed that the blue pegasus might have gotten a little ahead of herself.

Ok so maybe I did, and maybe I didn't, thought Rainbow, now turning left at the corner to start going down another hallway, but her train of thought (as well as her own self) came to a halt when she saw Anti-Stardust at the far end of the hallway, holding up in front of him a necklace that looked exactly like the one Twilight always wore.

"Hey!" yelled the blue pegasus, causing him to turn his head in her direction. "That doesn't belong to you! Give it to me now!"

Anti-Stardust raised an eyebrow at Rainbow, and put the necklace back in his cloak's pocket. "Over my dead body, Rainbow. It doesn't belong to you, either."

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

"The ties of friendship is something one could never completely understand regardless how much we try, but once it's deep enough, we can witness how beautiful the magic of friendship brings people and ponies closer than we ever deemed possible."

The smile on Twilight's face grew with every sentence that she finished, her feelings of sadness from earlier quickly fading away as she read aloud the words that were written by her special someone.

"And these six wonderful mares - not to mention one amazingly awesome young dragon - have proven this time and time again with the lessons incorporated into this fantastic reading material. We're taught that there's far more to friendship than we could dream of."

Twilight paused her reading for a moment, wondering if she should head back over to the throne room now and show this letter to everyone else, but she also noticed that the review was almost done anyway.

…

…

I'll act like I haven't read it yet, thought Twilight, deciding to simply go ahead and finish reading the rest of it since there wasn't much left to be read, and because this was something that she needed.

"Kindness. Honesty. Loyalty. Laughter. Generosity. Family. Equality. And, last but just as crucial, Magic."

A warm feeling of happiness spread out through the alicorn's body. "We could definitely learn a lot from these amazing individuals, each as important to one another as the last. The magic of friendship is certainly a challenge to obtain. But you know what? It is definitely something worth fighting for."

Just as she was about read the last few remaining sentences, there was a knock at her door, and the voice of a concerned Applejack asking, "Twi? Everything alright in there?"

"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm okay," replied Twilight, quickly placing the letter back in the envelope and onto her desk before heading over to open the door, seeing the rest of her friends standing out in the hallway with concerned looks… but someone was missing. "Where's Rainbow at?"

"I told her to check up on you after we talked to her 'bout getting too carried away with her anger and everythin', sugarcube," explained Applejack, while everyone else either smiled sheepishly or stayed concerned. "But a few minutes later, we heard this loud 'boom' sound, and…. well, um… I reckon you got yourself a new window."

A confused Twilight walked out to see what her friend was talking about, and her eyes became wide once she saw what appeared to be a long scorch mark trailing down the hallway, leading all the way up to a hole in the wall that showed the bright and sunny outdoors.

"My castle… I mean, the castle!" exclaimed the alicorn, quickly running over to the wall while her friends followed after her, and once they were at the hole, the five ponies looked down to see what appeared to Rainbow wrestling with Anti-Stardust on the grass-covered ground.

"Give… me… that necklace, you… lame excuse for a counterpart of my friend," exclaimed Rainbow, trying to get out the accessory from his coat, but Anti-Stardust continued to knock her hooves away.

"You are making it… so hard for me to not... lay my own hooves on you," replied the scarred pony, even though he was sensible enough to know better. "Get off of me, you… damn stubborn, little pony!"

Just as it looked like Rainbow was about to remove his special eyepatch, she felt herself being magically lifted off of Anti-Stardust. "Hey! What's the big i… oh…"

As Twilight kept Rainbow in the air, a head-shaking Applejack asked, "What in all of Equestria tarnation has gotten into you, Rainbow Dash? Why are you attackin' him for no reason?"

"I wasn't attacking him, I was wrestling with him," corrected the heated pegasus. "And I was getting back the necklace that Stardust gave to Twilight-"

"You mean the silver one with the book and spinning star pendant that's currently around her neck?" finished Pinkie, making Rainbow confused as she looked back and forth between the two.

"But how… I thought…" Not knowing what else to say, Rainbow let out a groan, followed by a sigh before muttering to the young princess. "Alright, alright… can you put me down, please?"