Race Through Time:

Equestrian Dust

The door to the pawnshop opened two days later and the heroes were rather shocked to see Fidget stumbling in like he hadn't left his bed for days, which was accurate. Apparently he managed to get himself sick and locked himself in his cottage for three days (if you include the day he returned to his cottage).

"What the heck happened to you?" Marion exclaimed. "You look like you've spent hours forcing alcohol on yourself!" Judging by how pale the Batrishan's nose looked like, he did have the appearance of someone who drank too much. Seeing the state of his old friend, Killian helped him stand up straight since the latter seemed to have a hard time focusing on walking with his normal leg and his peg leg, and judging by the fact that Fidget didn't even bother to snap at him or anything, it was obvious that things weren't straight.

"Is that...wine that I smell?" David sniffed as Mr. Gold brought a chair from the back and placed it near one of the counters for the Batrishan to sit. A look of concern appeared on Killian and began to take a sniff at Fidget.

"More like a 1772 Aldoradian Sangria, I'll say," Killian replied. "Fidget, exactly how much did you drink?"

"12 whole bottles," the Batrishan said. Emma, who had been drinking coffee currently, spit the drink out of her mouth and onto Anubis' face in shock.

"You're lucky I have darker skin than you," he said while he summoned a towel to wipe off the coffee from his face.

"12 WHOLE BOTTLES? BUT AREN'T YOU A MINOR? WHY THE HECK WOULD YOU DRINK TWELVE WHOLE BOTTLES?" Emma's voice exploded to the point where everyone had to cover his or her ears until she was done.

Fidget brushed it off as if it wasn't a big deal. "Bah! I drank the Elixir Of Nine Lives. I doubt that I'll die from intoxication!"

"The what now?" Marion frowned.

"Just an old potion that grants eternal immortality to whoever drinks it nine times," Mr. Gold said. "I've heard that our dear friend here drank the nine sips left of the last bottle of Elixir Of Nine Lives before he began his official hunt for Hook..."

"Leaving me all the time in the world to plot my revenge. Yay!" Fidget let out a weird hiccup. "Goldie, ol' chap! How's it going with the Equestrian dust to find da predator?"

This was rather weird for everyone: an intoxicated Fidget calling Mr. Gold 'Goldie'? That would be the next thing among the weird things they've seen in this town.

To answer Fidget's question, Mr. Gold pulled out a small vial of sparkling violet powder from the pocket of his trench coat. "Combining pegasus dust with unicorn dust took longer than I expected and required lots of experimenting, but Belle and I have managed to produce it."

"So how does it work?" Killian asked. "It's not like we can just sprinkle it on the floor and expect it to fly us straight to Midnight Sparkle."

"Why would you want to sparkle the floor...when you got a magic globe?" Fidget said.

Mr. Gold stiffened at the mention of the magic globe that he used to find his son in the Land Without Magic and Henry when the latter was kidnapped to Neverland. "How on earth did you know I had it?"

"Duh! My old mentor had it before you!"

"I can't stand it," Anubis groaned. He snapped his fingers and a bucket full of water appeared in his hands. No one expected for the god to then toss the water onto Fidget's face, causing him to yelp at the contact between cold water and his face. "Feeling better."

Fidget rubbed his face dry with his hands and blinked a bit. "Surprisingly," he said in a normal tone, "that helped."

"Concerning the globe," Mr. Gold returned to the main topic. "I forgot that Cora was your mentor. Has she told you about it?"

"Actually, I was with her when she went to trade the magic globe from its previous owner, some weird caterpillar, with an enchanted hookah. Cora was after the Cheshire Cat back then. Long story." The Batrishan let one of his fingers cautiously rubbing the notch on his right ear while a grim, dismaying look was surfacing his face. The heroes didn't have to ask: they instantly guessed that Fidget had encountered the cat and tension must have occurred for Fidget to get his ear notched.

Gold went to get the magic globe, which he kept in a cabinet full of school globes, sport balls, and miniature crystal balls. It was slightly dusty from being unused in years, but all it needed was a little wipe from Gold's sleeve to look clean again. The ex-Dark One uncorked the vial of Equestrian dust and began to sprinkle the dust onto the globe. Those who were familiar with the globe expected some sort of bloody map marking the location of the alicorn, but instead a sparkling live image appeared.

"Looks like it has different effects when you use Equestrian dust," David commented as they gathered closer to the globe in order to have a better look. The image showed Midnight Sparkle on a fishing boat in the middle of the Storybrooke Harbor. She was in the middle of pulling out a full net from the water, and once the net was on the deck, she used magic to toss all the caught fish back into the water and sort the leftover green seaweed into separate containers.

"What the heck is she doing?" Marion asked as the image dissipated from the globe.

"Most likely finding a way to have my heart, depending on which way she means it," Fidget groaned.

"I can instantly teleport us to the docks and try to corner the alicorn," Anubis suggested.

"Then take this just in case," Gold said as he handed the vial of Equestrian dust to Anubis. "If your hounds take a sniff of this, they will be able to track down the alicorn's scent."

"Great," Killian said. "I'll take Fitzgerald back to his cottage."

"I don't need a babysitter, codfish." Fidget glared at the pirate.

"You've intoxicated yourself, you got a stalking alicorn on your tail, and we need you," Killian listed. "And as far as I know, we need to have a chat...without any violence."

Fidget silently glared at the pirate he loathed.

"I really hate you," he muttered in defeat.

"Great, let's get going." Anubis waved his hands and he, Marion, Emma, and David disappeared into a smoke of hieroglyphics, leaving Gold, Killian, and Fidget alone in the pawnshop.

"I'd better take you back home," Killian told Fidget as he helped the reluctant Batrishan get up from his chair. Without saying a word, Fidget walked towards the globe and pricked his right index finger. Gold and Killian watched as a drop of black blood fell onto the globe and a black map appeared on the globe.

"The Eastern Highlands," Gold realized. "I've seen them back in the Enchanted Forest. But why...?"

"Rosetta's there," Fidget answered.

Suddenly, a black blast sprouted out of the globe and struck the Batrishan, much to the shock of the other two men in the room. Fidget began to feel dizzy.

"Uh. I wonder if this happens to anyone in this town on a regular basis," he said before falling unconscious onto the ground. Again.