//------------------------------//
// True Friendship 
// Story: My Little Pony: A Race Against Time 
// by CJ Esmerio 
//------------------------------//

Why?

That was the question that Stardust kept repeating in his head after he was no longer unconcious.

He was no longer inside of the throne room; instead, the gold-colored pony was in some sort of dungeon-like cell that he figured was somewhere in the underground part of the castle.

His hooves were chained to the wall, so Stardust could only walk up to the middle of the room before the chains brought him to a stop.

To his relief, Pinkie Pie was also in there with him, but she was still unconcious, and for a moment, Stardust grew worried about her.

"Your friend will be fine, Star… but it'll be a while before she wakes up."

Casey stepped out of the shadows, no longer wearing his mask, but right now, Stardust didn't seem to care.

"Why?"

The young pony smirked at him, and he replied, "Come on, Star, you're smart enough to figure it out."

As he spoke, Casey's eyes started to shine very dangerously, and Stardust remembered the last time he'd seen them that way.

"The energy ball that Evil Me trapped you in… but how-"

Casey chuckled, and replied, "Well, it appears that I had another side-effect, similar to how you can still use your energy blast from time to time… however,Iam the one in control of my own actions, which means that I had no problem hurting you with my new lightning attack."

"Butwhy, Casey?" asked Stardust, glaring at the pony who had been his friend. "I mean, I spent these last few days thinking you were dead, and to find out that it was you who-"

"I don't care about the tears you shed for me," replied the cloaked pony, frowning at Stardust. "And to answer your question, I'm doing this forher."

A look of confusion and anger was on Stardust's face as he said,"Who?"

However, instead of answering, Casey simply began to walk away from him, and that made Stardust yell, "How could you do this to Twilight?!"

When Casey stopped moving, Stardust knew that he'd gotten to him, so he continued to speak.

"Itold youthat the most important thing in your life was keeping your version of Twilight happy, Casey, so explain to me how in the[BEEP]does this-"

"Are youthat clueless, you stubborn numbskull?" growled an angered Casey. "Why the[BEEP]do you think I've kept you alive this entire time?"

Stardust was about to yell out his response, but Casey left before he had a chance to speak, and that just left him wondering what he was missing.






The Throne Room


With hisOmegamask back on, Casey entered the room, and saw Elixir standing by the rubble of Celestia's throne.

"I see that you were busy," said the sinister pony, with a chuckle.

Instead of speaking, Casey just scoffed at Elixir, and tossed what was left of Stardust's cloak at his hooves, which brought a smile to Elixir's face.

"Well, I'm glad it wasn't his actual head," replied Elixir, giving a nod of approval. "But thank you, Omega, for killing Stardust… you have no idea how relieved I feel about this."

"I think I can guess," muttered Casey, and then, in a serious tone, he asked, "So, where is she?"

"Ah, yes, the version of Twilight from Casey's world," said Elixir, nodding his head again, and before Casey could say anything else, he yelled, "Ronxor!"

The silver Pegasus entered the room, with a female pony slung over on his back, and he tossed her body at Casey's hooves. "There ya go, boss!"

"Well done, Ronxor," replied Elixir, and he turned his attention over to Casey. "And a deal is a deal, my friend… you rid me of Stardust, I give you Twilight."

Normally, Casey would have felt relieved to see his girlfriend, but instead, he was feeling only pain and anger, especially since Twilight looked like she had been roughed up.

"Youpromisedthat no harm would come to her," growled Casey, glaring at Elixir, who was still smiling. "This is unacceptable!"

"Well, to be fair, my friend, I swore to you thatIwould not harm the princess… however, not once did I say that Ronxor couldn't do anything to her…andshe was put in a safe place."

Ronxor let out a dark chuckle, and he added, "Such a shame, though, that she put up more of a fight than Applejack did… right, sire?"

While Casey's anger continued to grow, Elixir began to leave the throne room, with Ronxor following after him, and he said, "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Omega… stick around for a little more, though, so you don't miss the show."

However, at that point, Casey's only concern was for Twilight, and once he was sure that the two villains were gone, the young pony removed his mask and cloak, with his eyes beginning to water up.

"No… Twilight… not you, please… this wasn't supposed to happen…"

As he held her in his hooves, the alicorn princess didn't give a response, so Casey did what he felt like he had to do… which was giving her a slow and passionate kiss.

But then, the light orange Earth pony gritted his teeth in frustration, and he growled,"Stardust…"

So, looking down at his special somepony, Casey promised that he would return, and after laying her down in a more some-what comfortable position, the angered pony headed swiftly back to the room that he had left Stardust in.

A few minutes later, Twilight's head began to move around, and in a weak voice, she said, "Jack…?"





"Did you know, Starswirl?"

No, Jack, I did not… he even took me by surprise.

After checking on Pinkie again, Stardust went over to the other side of the room, and he began to shake his head in frustration. "I just can't see how-"

"You [BEEP]!"

Suddenly, the young pony found himself looking up at a returning Casey, who now looked extremely upset.

"This is all of your damn fault!"

Before Stardust could say anything, Casey walked over to him, removing the chains off of his hooves, and he cried,"If you'd been there like you had promised…"

"Hey, I don't know what the [BEEP] you're talking about, Casey," replied Stardust, taking a few steps back. "And how is this-"

"You know why, a-hole!"yelled Casey, angrily stomping his hoof to the ground, and then, he waited a moment before saying, "A few days after… you broke our friendship… I come home to find out that Twilight was captured by Elixir via a letter that he had left me… and that if I came to save her, he'd kill her…"

Then, he let out a sigh, and glared at Stardust, who could almost see the pain in Casey's eyes.

"I immediately knew who to ask for help, but as I recall… and correct me if I'm wrong… that certain pony told me to not bother him with my problemsever again."

Remembering their argument, Stardust began to feel some regret, but before he could say anything, Casey added, "You want an answer to your earlier question? Is it obvious now? I did this tosaveher, Stardust… I was supposed to take her back with me safe-and-sound, but instead, Elixir had his damn servant nearly beat her to death, and…aaaaggghhh!"

Casey walked away from Stardust, his frustration growing, and he yelled, "To make things worse, Star, he has the rest of my friends, and I already lost Applejack… but if I lostTwilight…"

He was now sitting on the ground, and his eyes began to water up again.

"I accepted the death of my parents, Star, but ifshewas to… I don't think I could…"

"I know, Casey."

The young pony looked back at Stardust, who nodded his head, and said, "I know, more or less, of how you feel…"

Casey frowned, and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Stardust sighed, and he took a moment before saying, "After Tirek was defeated, and Twilight had gotten her castle, it seemed like everything was almost back to normal, but… I quickly learned that I would be going back to my original home-world… and that meant I could never see none of the friends that I had made in that world... in Equestria... ever again… including Twilight…"

The memories were coming back into his mind, starting from when Starswirl had said that his family was awaiting him, and stopping at the moment he thought he was having one last kiss with the alicorn he loved so much.

"I… never knew that," said a surprised Casey, and Stardust smirked at him.

"Yeah, well, I think you can see why… but the point I am making, Casey, is that I know what it feels like to lose Twilight, and I don't want the same to happen to you."

Then, the two former friends shared a smile with each other, but before either of them could say anything, a familiar voice said, "Oh, hi, Twi…(gasp) Twilight, you're hurt! Badly!"

As she walked into the room, Twilight replied, in a weak voice, "Thanks for the reminder, Pinkie… and… Casey, is that… you?"

"Yeah, but why does it sound like-" He started to say, but then, the young pony realized that Twilight was wearing a necklace that looked like the one Stardust had given to his, and that meant…

The second time this has happened,thought Casey, bringing his hoof to his forehead.

"Twilight?"said Stardust, who was shocked to see her like this. "What the… who in the[BEEP] hurt you?"

The alicorn princess took a few deep breaths before she answered his question.

"Elixir did… this… andhisTwilight looks just as worse, up in the prison ship…"

"She's in there?" exclaimed Casey, who was now realizing that the dark-colored pony had pulled aswitchon him. "That lying,[BEEP]-ing…"

Twilight looked over at her special somepony, and she said, "I see that he still has some of you in him."

"He does?" asked a surprised Pinkie, who had escaped her locks, and she was now standing by her friend. "Well, that explains the'beep'sound effects."

Before Stardust could explain to her, an angered Casey growled, "I am going to personally kill those two if it's the last thing that I-"

"Wait a minute!"

To everyone's surprise, Twilight looked at the light-orange pony, and she cried, "Casey, you… you're alive! This… this is great! Confusing, as well, but… Jack, he's alive!"

"Yeah, I was surprised, too," replied Stardust, in a sarcastic tone, and Twilight gave him a confused look. "I'll explain later, love

He then walked over to his former friend said, "I know we aren't on good terms, Casey, but all of our friends need us… and your Twilight needs you… so forget about what I said, and let's solve this thing together."

Casey frowned at Stardust, still showing signs of hatred against him, but then, after a moment of silence, he nodded his head.

"Fine… but on one condition, though…"

"What would that be?" questioned Stardust, raising an eyebrow.

As Casey's eyes slowly began to return back to normal, he replied, "When the moment comes, I'll leave Elixir to you… and I want to take care ofRonxormyself."

Stardust smirked at him, and he nodded his head, saying, "Fine with me…"

So, then, the two of them began to walk out of the room, but as Twilight and Pinkie hurried after them, the party-loving pony noticed her friend's confusion.

"What is it, Twilight?"

"Nothing, Pinkie, I just… I remember dreaming of Jack kissing me, but… it felt real…"

Pinkie just gave a small shrug, and replied, "You got me, Twilight, I don't know what to say… I mean, it's not like somepony else kissed you or something, right?"





As the four of them headed to the castle doors, Twilight's hooves gave out, and she collapsed to the floor.

"Twilight!"cried Stardust, who quickly went back over to her. "Okay, you need some rest… and some help…"

"I'll be fine… Jack," replied a worn-out Twilight, who still looked pretty beat up. "I just… need a moment to…"

But Stardust shook his head, and he looked at Pinkie Pie, saying, "Help her while me and Casey deal with that[BEEP-BEEP-BEEP]Alexa pony… Twilight, just stay here, okay?"

Twilight was about to argue with him, but all she could do was nod her head.

"Thanks, love," replied Stardust, and he gave her a quick kiss before continuing to follow Casey out of the castle.

As she watched him leave, Twilight looked over at Pinkie, who was currently holding onto her, and said, "Okay, first… we need to-"

"Nope, nope, nope, nope," interrupted Pinkie, also now dressed up like a nurse. "You let me take care of you, Twilight… and if you behave, I'll even give you a lollipop!"

Then, the pink-colored pony softly patted the top of her friend's head, and Twilight let out a sigh.

As for Casey and Stardust, the gold-colored pony told him that he needed his former friend to do something very important, regarding his supressed powers.





At the very top of the spaceship, which was where the controls were at, Ronxor was about to fire a deadly weapon at the rest of the Mane 6, but then, Elixir said, "Hold on a second… I want to talk to them first… go and bring you-know-who up here."

The silver Pegasus nodded his head, and made his way back inside the ship while Elixir focused his attention on Stardust's friends.

"What did you do to Twilight?" asked an unamused Sunset.

"Yeah, and where's Stardust?" cried an irritated Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, I'm not quite sure exactly what happened to the princess of friendship," replied Elixir, who was giving them a sly grin. "As for your other friend… well, this should answer your question."

He tossed out the remains of Stardust's cloak, which landed in front of the young pony's friends, and Starlight gasped in shock.

"You mean… that he was…"

Elixir let out a laugh, and he answered, "I'm not sorry, but yes, your precious savior is no longer alive… in fact, you'll never see himnorthis world ever again!"


BOOM!


With the silver staff raised above his head, the dark-colored pony caused a very large energetic portal to appear in the sky above them, and Applejack asked, "What in the hay is that supposed to be?"

"Thatis a gateway to dimensional limbo," explained Elixir. "Whoever goes through will be stuck inside for all eternity… it would be absolutely impossible foranyoneto escape, and if it wasn't for the lovely intervention of the Celestia frommyworld, you wouldn't have even had to dealt with me in the first place."

Sunset frowned at the sinister pony, and she replied, "Well, once we find out Twilight, she'll be able to-"

"Oh, that childish alicorn knowsnothingabout dimensional gateways," exclaimed Elixir. "The only way for it to be open is by the power ofthisstaff… if increased greatly, it would cause the gateway to be closed forever, with absolutely no way to re-open it."

As his cruel smile grew, the villainous pony added, "All of the prisoners that are in this ship are going to be sent there, and I'm about to start withall of you."

Then, the staff began to glow with dark energy, but just as he was about to fire, a white-hot energy blast knocked it out of his hooves, and the staff landed several feet away from them.

"Hey, Alexa!"

Elixir turned around, and found himself looking up at a glowing Stardust, who was back to using his fullbalance power.

"What the… this is impossible! You're supposed to be dead!"

As he made his way down to the ship's platform, Stardust chuckled, and replied, "I diealmost every day, Alexa… or, technically, every other Tuesday, but I was actually'killed'on Monday, so thanks for pushing it back."

While an annoyed Elixir growled in frustration, Stardust looked at his friends, and said, "Go back to the castle, and help Twilight... leave him to me."

They all nodded their heads, figuring that Twilight was either injured or in trouble, but before leaving the ship, Sunset asked, "Are you gonna be okay?"

"I'll be just fine," assured the energized Earth pony. "Now, go, Twilight needs your help…"

With a nod of her head, Sunset quickly hurried after the others while Stardust glared at Elixir, who smirked at his opponent.

"So, youhonestly thinkthat you can stop me, Stardust Balance?"

"You're damnright, you[BEEP-BEEP]," replied the determined human-turned-pony.

Then, as his own hooves began to glow with black fire-like energy, Elixir said, "Bring it, then,hero…"

With his energy attacks ready to go, Stardust smirked at the sinister pony, and replied, "You just need to sit the[BEEP] down, and shut the [BEEP] up!"





After opening the door that led to the special door where Casey's Twilight was in, Ronxor let out a chuckle, and said, "You're looking better, princess… are you and your cellmate ready to get some sunshine?"

Before she could answer him, a familar voice yelled,"Hey, you [BEEP] a-hole!"

Ronxor turned around to see Casey, who back in his Omega disguise, as well as holding onto a very powerful gun-shaped weapon.

"This is for AJ and my girlfriend, you [BEEP]!"


BOOM!


Casey fired the weapon, and once the blast hit Ronxor, he quickly disintegrated into a pile of dust, which brought a smile to his face.

Then, after removing his disguise, the young pony looked at who was in front of him, and said, "Hey, Twi-"

"Casey!"

The next thing he knew, his Twilight had wrapped her hooves around him, and Casey let out a huge sigh of relief.

"I have something of yours, by the way..."

A few seconds later, they moved away from each other, and Twilight looked down to see the turtledove necklace that was similar to the one she had given him on the day they had first met.

"Ugh… I feel like I bumped my head on a crate of cider…"

To Casey's surprise, Applejack (the one from his world) slowly walked out of the room, and she had a hoof on top of her head.

"You wouldn't happen to have my hat, as well, would you, sugarcube?"

Although he was confused, Casey decided to just "roll with it", and so, he brought out his friend's hat from underneath the cloak, which was then handed over to her.

"Thank you… now, what in Equestria is goin' on here?"


BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


Suddenly, the muffled sounds of explosions caused them to look up, and Casey said, "I'll explain later… right now, we got to help Stardust."





As he dodged another one of Elixir's attacks, the gold-colored pony asked, "Hey, Alexa, you think you could improve your aim?"

"Stopcalling me that!" shouted an annoyed Elixir, who was growing impatient with Stardust. "Don't you ever shut up?!"

"Nah, not really, it's actually a gift," replied Stardust, doing a backlip before firing his own blast. "Oh, hey, how about I call you Eliza? I mean, even though you're sort-of a talking animal-"

Elixir barely moved away at the last second, and he yelled,"Aaaaarrrgghhh… just shut up, you worthless piece of garbage!"


WHAM!


Then, before he even realized it, Stardust suddenly appeared in front of him, and delivered a solid punch to his forehead, causing Elixir to fall to the ground.

"Thank you for your services, Alexa, but Amazon said that you were defunct, so I gotta send you back to the warehouse."

Must you always say something like thiseverytime you engage in combat?

Stardust just laughed, and was about to answer his elderly friend when a familiar voice cried,"That was pretty darn good, sugarcube!"

"Thanks, Other AJ," replied the young pony, as he saw Casey arrive with Twilight and Applejack. "Are you okay, your highness?"

While the young alicorn nodded her head, Casey walked over to Stardust, and said, "Hey, um… look, there's something we need to-"

"Look out!"


WHAM!


Elixir, who had landed by the silver staff used it to fire an energy blast at Casey, aiming for his rib-cage area, but luckily, Stardust was able to deflect it away just in the nick of time, sending it flying back to the staff, which caused it to break in half.

"It'sover,Alexa," exclaimed Stardust, glaring at the sinister pony. "I'm going to do what your world's version of Celestia should have done, and send you intothat thing!"

"Oh, is that so?" laughed Elixir. "Well, if I'm going, thenso… will-"


WHAM!


Suddenly, a familiar pony had appeared from out of nowhere to trap Elixir in her party cannon, and then, she turned it around so that she could fire the sinister pony, along with some confetti, into the portal.

"Thanks for visiting us,"cried Pinkie Pie, from Casey's world. "Hope you never come back… oh, hi, everypony!"

She waved her hoof at the three of them, but before anyone could say anything, Casey suddenly yelled, "Star, watch out!"


ZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!


"If I go, then I'm taking somepony with me!"roared Elixir, from inside the portal, and he was referring to the electro-magnetic worm that he had sent down at them.

At first, it was about to grab Stardust, but Casey moved out of the way, causing the worm to wrap itself around him instead!

"Casey!"

Then, the worm quickly began to take Casey back into the portal with it, but right as they reached the halfway point, Stardust and Twilight showed up, and got a tight grip onto his front hooves.

So, now, it was like a dangerous game of tug-and-war, and neither side wanted to give up.

"Isn't there a way to shut this thing off?"exclaimed Twilight.

"Yeah, but we need to get Casey away from this thing first,"replied Stardust, refusing to let go."So, let's keep on-"


ZZZZZZZTTTTT!


Unfortunately, more worms were starting to appear, and they headed straight for the three of them, but Stardust used one of his hooves to fire energy blasts at all of them, which forced the worms back inside.

[Insert "Tears of Life" from Pokémon, starting at 0:35]

However, they eventually figured out what he was doing, and so, they morphed with the worm that was already holding onto Casey, which made it harder for Stardust and Twilight to pull their friend towards them.

"Alright, that's it!"

Stardust prepared to fire another energy blast, but to his surprise, he was no longer able to, which meant that he had finally run out of that energy.

"Starswirl, help us out-"

"No!"

Casey, whose previous injuries were returning (due to the worm almost squeezing the life out of him), looked at the two of them, and had a serious facial expression as he cried,"Let go!"

"Are you crazy?!"yelled Stardust, who head."We're getting you out of this, Case, just-"

"Star, listen to me,"exclaimed Casey."The longer this portal is open, the more easier it is for everypony here to end up in here, also!"

"You don't know that,"replied Twilight, who was almost close to feeling the pain that her counterpart was going through."We can figure this out, Casey, so-"

But Casey was refusing to listen."It's the only way, Twilight! I'm the only one who can close this thing!"

"What are you talking about?"

The young pony looked over at Stardust, who soon realized what Casey was talking about.

"No! No! [BEEP] no, you are not going to-"

"Ihaveto, Stardust, and you know it… aaaaaggghhhh!"yelled Casey, as his injuries became worse.

"No, Casey! I'm not going to-"

Looking straight into the eyes of his friend, Casey yelled,"Take her, Stardust… take her - aaaaaaggghhh!"

As the worm prepared to give one more final tug, the young pony said,"Star… I'm sorry… for everything… and for what I'm about to do."

Before Stardust or Twilight could say anything else, Casey used his lightning attack on them, and it caused the two to fly straight back down to the ship's top platform.

Then, while letting out a yell of anger and pain, he unleashed all of the full remaining power that was left inside of him, with the sky now being filled with deadly lightning.

"Casey!"yelled a weakened Twilight, and she was about to use the rest of her strength to-


BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


All of the power that had come from Casey was too much for the gateway's portal to handle, and the result came in the form of a giant explosion, which almost sent her, Stardust, and Applejack flying off of the ship.

Once the smoke had cleared away, the three of them looked back up at the sky, but they didn't see any sign of Casey or the portal.

"No… Casey…"sobbed Twilight, as tears fell from her eyes."Casey!"

A tearful Applejack had placed her hat against her chest, while Stardust was shocked, speechless, and felt like he'd just lost his friend all over again.