Meet Casey's brother (Chapter Preview) · 11:29pm Jan 19th, 2018
“You have a brother?”
Casey quickly shook his head, and tried to close the castle’s front door, but the older pony standing in the doorway used his fore legs to block the attempt.
“What’s the matter, pipsqueak?” With a sly grin, the dark-orange stallion that resembled a somewhat older version of Casey pushed his weight against the door, causing Casey to fly backwards, and land roughly onto the floor. “I thought you’d be thrilled to see me after so many years.”
As he got up to his hooves, Casey rubbed the side of his head, and muttered, “Yeah, I’m jumping through hoops right now.”
The older pony made his way into the castle, with Starlight giving him a disapproving frown, but then, she figured that she was being too judgemental. “So, Casey’s brother… what is your name exactly?”
“Casey?” said the stallion, giving the pink pony a confused look before erupting into laughter. “You’re still sticking with that name, eh, short stuff? Still a major improvement over the one Mom and Dad gave you.”
Casey muttered some words underneath his breath, but before he could say anything, his brother suddenly grabbed ahold of him. “By the way, we never got to finish playing our favorite game… oh, and uh, the name’s Astral, sweetheart.”
“Hey, you don’t get to talk - gah!” cried the young pony, whose body was now being twisted around in a spiral motion. “Okay, alright, uncle, uncle!”
“Took ya long enough, pipsqueak,” replied Astral, and he laughed after releasing Casey from his grip, with the light-orange pony spinning around like a tornado until crashing against the staircase. “So, tell me, how did my little bro land somepony like you?”
Starlight continued to frown at the Earth Pony in front of her as she said, “First of all, I’m not in a relationship with Casey, Twilight is… and second, I don’t think-”
“Wait, seriously?”Astral walked over to Casey, and helped him stand up while continuing to chuckle. “I guess your stupid crush wasn’t so meaningless after all. Look at that, my lil’ bro - dating an actual princess.”
A scowl appeared on Casey’s irritated face, and he said, “Just tell me why you’re here exactly.”
“What, I can’t give my congrats after I found out you helped save Equestria?” answered the older stallion, and he began ruffling Casey’s mane in a swift, rough manner. “Yup, I was right, you inherited Mom’s manestyle.”
“Ahem!” After clearing her throat, Starlight looked up at Astral, and said, “I may not have any kind of siblings, but shouldn’t you be trying to set some sort of example-”
Before she could finish her sentence, Astral suddenly noticed the turtledove necklace that Casey was wearing. “Bro, you’re wearing jewelry now? You can’t be serious.”
“I wear it because my girlfriend gave it to me the first day we met,” said Casey, now being able to distance himself from Astral. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would greatly appreciate it if you left right now before I - whoa!”
“You want me to leave already, pipsqueak?” asked Astral, who was now holding Casey upside down in front of him by his right hind leg, and the young pony nodded his head. “I guess so… maybe your mare will be here by the time I come back.”
“No, I didn’t mean… oof!” Casey started to say, but then, Astral quickly released him, and after he had fallen to the ground, Astral began to head out of the castle.
“Later then, pipsqueak… and nice meetin’ ya, sweetheart.” Then, Astral began to laugh again, and once he was gone, Starlight went over to help Casey stand up.
“I see why you’ve never mentioned him before.”
At first, Casey didn’t respond; instead, he just walked away from the purple unicorn, with an expression of anger and embarrassment, as well as his eyes suddenly feeling a little watery.
“Casey, are you-”
“Just leave me alone right now.”
Siblings... they always know JUST which buttons to push.