Casey was in the middle of a heated battle. Jared was even stronger than before. Last time, Casey had barely escaped with his life. He wanted to fight back, but he just couldn’t bring himself to hurt Jared. Even if he was possessed, Casey knew Jared was still in there, somewhere. Casey got up, against his body’s better judgement. He couldn’t live with himself if Jared was lost to Dai Shi forever.
“So, you’re stupid enough to want to keep going. Looks like I’ll just have to finish you off,” Dai Shi taunted. He charged Casey and took him down. He then charged his animal spirit to fire at Casey. Casey tried his best to get up, but he just couldn’t move. Dai Shi fired Jared’s lion spirit at Casey, but before it hit, Theo and Lily jumped in front of him. They took the hit hard. Slowly, they started to deform and turn to dust. Casey watched in horror as his friends blew away with the wind. Dai Shi didn’t hesitate to charge the lion spirit again, and he fired it at Casey.
Casey gave a slight yell as he shot awake from his nightmare. He looked around and slightly recognized the room that Twilight had insisted he sleep in while he was in Equestria. It was so strange, Casey hadn’t had these kinds of nightmares, well...ever. Even while Jared was possessed, he never had them.
A few seconds later, Casey heard a knock at his door.
“Come in,” he said. The door opened, and the purple unicorn known as Starlight Glimmer enetered with a slightly concerned look on her face.
“Are you alright? I thought I heard you yell,” she asked him. She was sleeping in the room just next to his.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just had a bit of a nightmare,” Casey explained. “I’m fine now, really.”
“Are you sure? Sometimes, it helps just to talk things out with a friend. We-we are friends...right?” Starlight responded, sounding a little desperate.
“Starlight, of course we’re friends. But no, I really am fine,” Casey said. Starlight turned to leave. Casey’s instincts told him he was doing the wrong thing. Against his better judgement, he called, “Starlight, wait.” Starlight turned back around. “I guess you’re right. I should probably get this off my chest before it becomes a real problem.”
Starlight pulled up a chair with her magic and sat down. “So, what’s bothering you?” she asked.
“Well, I guess I didn’t really tell you everything about my life as a ranger. I used to fight an evil spirit named Dai Shi. The spirit possessed an old bully of mine named Jared. He used his lion spirit to attack me and my friends. We fought so many times before Jared started to fight Dai Shi himself. I eventually saved him, and we’ve been friends ever since. But almost every time we fought, I barely escaped with my life. In my nightmare, I was fighting him again. He was sweeping the floor with me. He even used his animal spirit to try and destroy me, but my friends stepped in front of me and took the blow. The were destroyed by the resulting blast, a-and all I could do w-was watch them die. I’ve never had nightmares like this before. I just don’t know what it means,” Casey explained.
Starlight had a sympathetic look on her face. “Well, it seems to me that you’re letting your past bother you. I know how you feel; it happens to me a lot too,” she explained.
“What do you mean?” Casey asked.
“I-It’s kind of a long story,” Starlight said sheepishly.
“It’s okay. You can tell me,” Casey offered.
Starlight took a deep breath. “Before I met Twilight and the others, I wasn’t exactly the best pony I could be. I had a lot of trouble making friends. I took my anger out on cutie marks. I thought that if I could get rid of those, I would be truly happy. So I convinced an entire village to give up their cutie marks, and I told them they would be happier this way. So that’s how my life went for a couple years. Until Twilight and the others came to my village, that is. They convinced the village that their unique talents were essential to life, and they unraveled my entire plan. I was run out of the village. I was so angry at them, so I took an old unfinished spell and altered it a little to get even. I went back in time and undid the action that drew Twilight and the others to get to know each other. I did all I could to keep it that way, but Twilight convinced me that it wouldn’t really solve anything. She told me that I could start over. She offered to take me under her wing, literally, and teach me everything she knew about friendship. Ever since, my life has gotten better and better, but still to this day, I-I dream of what could’ve h-happened i-if I hadn’t met Twilight.” Starlight’s voice grew shaky, and she couldn’t go on any more.
Casey placed a hand on her neck. “It’s okay. I’m glad you told me. I understand. Just let it out,” he said. Starlight took a few deep breaths. This was still a real sore spot for her. All Casey could do was watch, just like his nightmare.
“You know, I think maybe you’d have less trouble thinking about this if you stopped asking yourself ‘what if?’ Instead, just ask yourself...’what can I do next?” Casey told her.
Starlight held her head up to face him. Her eyes were a little tearful. “What can I do next?” she asked to clarify.
“Exactly. Look, I know it’s hard to let go of the past, but it will be a lot easier accepting it as who you are if you start asking that question,” Casey responded. “You got that, Twilight?”
Twilight revealed herself from the other side of the door. “How did you know I was here?” she asked.
“It’s hard to hide yourself from my instincts. For instance, I can feel Pinkie Pie’s enthusiasm from here,” Casey chuckled. “Seriously, we should get to sleep.”
“Right, it was nice talking with you, Casey. Goodnight,” Starlight said as she left the room.
“Wait, I have more questions. How do your instincts work?” Twilight yelled as Starlight pushed her out of the room as well.
“Come on, save it for another time.”
Later
The next morning, Casey was taking a jog through the streets of Ponyville. Although he couldn’t hear them completely, he knew that the locals were whispering about him. He wasn’t offended, he knew they knew he was a ranger. He was just still getting used to this new world, along with his new nightmares. Although the talk he had with Starlight the night before made him feel somewhat better and a little more welcome, he still felt like he needed to clear his head.
While he was jogging, he saw the pegasus known as Rainbow Dash taking a stroll around town. He never did find out why she was being so distant. He decided to go talk to her.
“Hey...uh Rainbow Dash was it?” he asked her.
“Oh hey...uh, yeah, that’s me,” she said with a sheepish smile. She didn’t really feel like talking, but she couldn’t come up with an excuse not to.
“What’s up?” Casey asked.
“Not much. I don’t really have anything going on right now,” she said.
“I hope you don’t mind my intruding, but can I ask what was going on when you first met me?”
“Well...um. I-It’s kind of a long story. IT’s not you though, really. I-If that’s what you were thinking.” Casey seemed to notice that she was blushing.
“It’s personal, isn’t it? I get it, I won’t intrude any further,” Casey said.
“Thanks. I bet Twilight or one of the others could explain it to you,” she said. Casey turned away to continue his jog when he heard Rainbow call out to him, “Wait, do you...uh. Do you want to get something to eat or something?”
Casey considered and realized he didn’t eat breakfast before he got going. “Yeah, sounds good,” he said, trying to sound as friendly as possible.
The two of the, arrived at Sugar Cube Corner and got some cupcakes. Casey didn’t really like the lack of protein, but he didn’t mind too much.
“Serious question: how long did the Dino Rangers stay here for?” Casey asked. Not that it would matter, he just wanted an estimate of his stay here.
“Hmm, I’d say about four and a half weeks. Why do you ask?” Rainbow said.
“Just curious,” Casey responded. He took a bite into his cupcake. He may have been upset by the lack of protein, but these cupcakes were still really good. It was no wonder the locals came here so much.
The crazy pink party pony, also known as Pinkie Pie, came literally bounding into the room. “I hope you don’t mind Casey, but I took the liberty of planning a party for you. It’s gonna be in two days. Tra-la-la-la-la,” she said, bounding out of the room.
“I was kind of expecting her to just shout something super fast,” Casey said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, you never know with her,” Rainbow responded.
Just then, Twilight and the others came running into the room with urgent looks on their faces. “Casey, Rainbow, we have to go to Canterlot, now! Where’s Pinkie?” she shouted.
“She’s on the back. What’s going on?” Rainbow asked.
“I just received a letter from Princess Celestia! She said that Canterlot is under attack!”
“We can’t waste any time,” Casey said.
“Pinkie! We’re going to Canterlot to help Princess Celestia!” Rainbow shouted.
Pinkie ran out of the back room into the front. “Pinkamena Diane Pie reporting for duty!” she said with a salute.
The eight of them got to the train station as fast s they could, where there was already a train waiting for them. They all boarded as the train began to move. Canterlot quickly came into view. It was clearly being attacked. There were guards flying all over the place.
Once they arrived, Twilight and the others saw the Rinshi attacking the locals. Casey quickly jumped into battle, taking down one of the Rinshi. He turned to avoid an attack from another, landing another shot. Rainbow flew around the Rinshi and created a tornado, sending almost all of the Rinshi flying, Casey was impressed.
There was an audible blast coming from the main throne room. “We have to go help the princess,” Twilight said.
“You shall go no further,” shouted a leading Rinshi.
“You two go, we can handle him,” Starlight whispered to Casey and Twilight.
Casey ran toward him, as if looking to fight. But once he got to him, Casey jumped over the leading Rinshi. Twilight simply teleported her way around the leading Rinshi. “Okay, no one else will get past me!”
Casey and Twilight made their way to the throne room, where they found Princess Celestia trying to fight Carnisoar. Her magic was of no use, as Carnisoar kept attacking with his claws.
Casey pulled out his sunglasses from before and put them on. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” Casey shouted as he became the red ranger once again. “With the strength of a tiger! Jungle Fury, Red Ranger!” Casey leapt into the middle of the princess and Carnisoar.
“You’re going down, Carnisoar!” Casey shouted.
“You sound so confident. Perhaps you have forgotten what happened the last time we fought,” Carnisoar retorted.
“Actually yeah, I do. We defeated you,” Casey said.
“WE being the keyword of that statement. You are all alone now.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Casey said attacking Carnisoar. Carnisoar avoided the attack and returned it with a slash of his blade. This sent Casey onto the ground, as Carnisoar charged a blast from his wing. Casey avoided it and tried to attack using his nunchucks.
Meanwhile, Twilight was tending to Princess Celestia. “Are you alright?” she asked, helping the princess up.
“I am fine, but I just couldn’t fight him off. Who is he?”
“His name is Carnisoar. According to Casey, he’s supposed to be the Overlord of the sky on Earth.”
Casey was getting his butt kicked. He couldn’t keep up t\with Carnisoar’s attacks. Every time Casey tried something, Carnisoar would easily counter. Carnisoar threw a gust of wind at Casey, sending him out a window. Casey landed in front of the others. They all watched in horror as Carnisoar slowly descended behind him.
“I can’t lose now. Not with so many ponies counting on me. I have to keep fighting,” Casey said as his aura began to glow. Carnisoar watched in amusement as Casey got back up. “Call to the beast inside! Free the tiger!” Casey said as his aura transformed into a red tiger that charged at Carnisoar. Carnisoar tried to dodge it, but the attack was too fast. Carnisoar was thrown back. Before he could retaliate, Casey got his nunchucks and attacked Carnisoar once again. This time, Carnisoar couldn’t keep up with Casey. Casey landed blow after blow, forcing Carnisoar to a ledge. Casey pushed Carnisoar off the ledge. Carnisoar looked he was falling, but he simply just glided into the air in front of everyone.
“You have gotten lucky this time, red ranger. But next time will be different,” he said as he flew away.
The ponies came up to Casey to see if he was okay. “Casey, what was that?” Twilight asked.
“That was my animal sprit at full power,” Casey responded with a slight chuckle. He pressed the button on his visor and powered down.
“Carnisoar’s gonna be back. I have to prepare,” Casey said.
“Wait, we can help you,” pleaded Starlight.
Casey stopped and remembered the conversation they had the night before. “Don’t ask ‘what if?’ Ask ‘what can I do next?” Casey whispered to himself.
“Carnisoar’s right. Next time will be different, because we’re gonna get him for good,” Casey turned to them with a smile. “WE being the keyword of that statement.”
Just then, there was a huge flash of light. It lingered for a few seconds; and when it left, there were two humans, one male the other female, standing in its place. They both had confused looks on their faces.
“Theo? Lily?” Casey said.