My Little Pony: A Race Against Time

by CJ Esmerio

Saying Goodbye

Author's Note:

"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight

[Sometime after the ending of the previous chapter…]

"Alright, Casey… this isn't going to be the same thing that we always do… it's forreal, this time."

Casey was a young and orange-colored Earth pony, whose Cutie Mark was a silver crescent moon, along with a bright, blue-colored, and eight-pointed star, and was very knowledgeable when it came to astronomy.

He was also the special somepony of Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, ever since their first encounter at the Crystal Empire, and he currently lived in Twilight's own castle that was located in Ponyville.

"Yeah, I think I get it, Stardust… but it's not too late foryouto back out of this."

"Oh,please," replied the gold-colored Earth pony, who represented balance between chaos and harmony. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

He also came from an alternate universe that Casey had ended up in one day, and in that universe, Stardust was the special somepony of Twilight, as well, except it was his world's version of the alicorn princess.

"Well, alright, you're asking for it, pal," said Casey, giving his friend a sly smirk as he shrugged his shoulders, and the two ponies looked at the blue Pegasus that was standing in front of them.

"Alright, everypony, you know the rules… this is gonna be a fair two-mile-long race, which starts here, and endsall the wayat Sweet Apple Acres… so that meansno usingyour special powers!"

She and Casey both looked over at Stardust, who rolled his eyes, and said, "Yeah, yeah, I know… I don't even need them anyway to beat this pony."

"Oh, you're about to eat those words," replied Casey, as he got his body into a racing position.

Nodding her head, Rainbow Dash flew up into the air, and cried, "Alright, the race starts in three… two… one…and…"

WHOOSH!

Once the pony that represented the element of loyalty was out of sight, Stardust and Casey both began racingdown the rocky path that was in front of them.

At first, it was starting off fairly easy, but soon enough, they were jumping over boulders, and making sharper turns, along with the occasional taunts being made.

"You might as well give up now, Casey, if you know what's good for you!"

"Ha, funny hearing that coming from the pony who couldn't last a three mile race in his own universe."

*sounds of frustration*

"When I get my hooves on that Pegasus…"

---

Meanwhile, standing a few feet away from the side of the finish line were Rainbow and Twilight, currently waiting for the two Earth ponies to reach them.

"Casey's gonna be fine, Twilight," said Rainbow, who easily noticed that her friend was looking worried. "What's the reason to be so afraid?"

"I'm notafraid, Rainbow," replied Twilight, with a slight frown. "I just… I'mconcernedfor him. He hasn't been the same that wholefusionthing with-"

"Twilight,trust me, nothing bad is gonna happen," assured the young Pegasus. "I mean, come on, it'sjust arace!"

---

Once they had reached the halfway point, Casey looked over at Stardust, and asked, "Feelin' tired yet, pal?"

"You kidding?" replied Stardust, giving his friend a smirk. "I feelfantastic… and I'm still going to win this thing!"

"That's whatyouthink, but this race ain't over just yet," exclaimed Casey, and the two of them continued to increase their running speed.

Alright, Case, you know what to do if things start to go south, thought the young pony, but before he could finish his thought process, a familiar flashback appeared in his mind.

"Mom! Dad!"

As he kept on running as fast as possible to his home, Casey kept on calling out for his parents, hoping that they had chosen to stay outside, or gone to a safe place before it was too late.

"Princess Twilight! You have something that belongs to me!"

Several miles away, Tirek was destroying everything in his path, in order to find the super-powerful alicorn princess.

"Pleasebe okay, Mom and Dad," whispered Casey.

The young Earth pony suddenly shook his head, trying to not focus on that past memory.

"What's wrong, man?" asked a teasing Stardust, who was giving him a grin. "Havin' trouble there staying awake?"

"Oh,as if," replied Casey . "I am going to bewinthis race, Star… and I'm about to do sonow!"

Before Stardust could even say anything, Casey suddenly reached a more faster pace, and to his friend's surprise, he started to get more ahead of him.

"What?!"

The young and teenaged pony began to laugh, and he continued to go faster, knowing that the racing line would be coming up soon enough…

Alright, I just got to stay at this pace without-

Unfortunately, more flashbacks began to appear in his mind, and they were definitely not pleasant ones.

"Fight me!" exclaimed Casey, who gritted his teeth in frustration.

"I'm not going to fight you," replied Stardust, which only made the young pony angrier, and he found himself dodging another one of his friend's attacks.

"Fight me!"

Casey shook his head again, and muttered, "No, that wasn't me… I didn't do any of that…"

"Why, you little..." Having lost all of his patience for the foolish pony, Anti-Stardust used his powers to make Casey rise up from the ground, and then, he slammed him into the nearest wall. "You were supposed to be hurting him!"

Twilight's worry for Casey continued to grow.

She could feel that something wasn't right, and not even Rainbow's comforting words were helping.

After pinning him harshly against a wall, Anti-Stardust - now more angrier than he was before - started slamming his body against the wall multiple times, and to make things worse, the sinister pony delivered some very powerful kicks to his ribcage area after tossing him to the ground.

"Casey?" asked Stardust, who was getting a little concerned as he watched his friend continue to shake his head several times. "You okay?"

After Starcade went back to just Stardust and Casey, who had both flown to opposite sides of the arena, the young pony made a rather harsh landing on the ground.

"What... the..." He gasped, but then, he let out a yelp of pain, due to his ribs now being seriously injured, and to make matters worse, he heard the sound of several explosions nearby.

"Casey!"exclaimed Twilight, who began to run towards her loved one, and Rainbow soon followed after her.

After opening his eyes, Casey looked up, and saw a giant piece of the roof now falling down towards him. "That... can't be-"

WHAM!

---

By the time the three ponies reached Casey, he had already crashed headfirst into a dead tree, and was now sprawled out on the ground.

"Casey!"exclaimed Twilight, who started to help him up to his hooves. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fi-" Casey began to say, but then, he found himself shaking his head. "My… ribs…"

Twilight nodded, and she replied, "Alright, we're heading back to the castle so you can take your medicine… the race is over."

As the two of them quickly went in the direction of Twilight's castle, Rainbow looked over at Stardust, who had a sorrowful look on his face.

"He's going to be fine, Star," said the winged pony. "You didn't do anything wrong."

The human-turned-pony sighed, and he replied, "I wish that was true, Rainbow… but it's just not…"

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

After he was given two teaspoons of medicine, Casey made a face of disgust, and said,"It still tastes horrible."

The orange-colored pony was back in his bedroom, and as Twilight began putting the medicine away, she replied, "Well, that's what comes with being a hero… but I am glad you didn't end up like Stardust, though, since his Twilight told me about the times that he has ended up-"

"Oh, yeah, I've had my fair share of near-fatal injuries," interrupted Stardust, who was making his way into the bedroom.

Twilight quickly noticed that he looked unsure about something, but she just figured that he was simply showing concern for Casey.

"Oh, you'd better not start gloating or anything like that," said the young pony. "I was almost about to beat you!"

Stardust let out a chuckle, and he shook his head, replying, "You must have hit your headpretty hardif you thought that I was going to lose the race."

"Ha-ha, very funny," said Casey, speaking in a sarcastic tone. "Just wait until the next time you come to visit... by then, you'lldefinitelysee what I'm talking about."

At first, Stardust didn't give a response, but then, he gave a playful punch to his friend's shoulder, and replied, "Alright, I get it… just focus on getting betterhealth-wise,okay?"

Due to the medicine's side-effects, Casey was becoming tired very fast, and as soon as they did a bro-hoof, he went right to sleep.

Well, time to go,thought Stardust, who looked over at Twilight, and gave her a small head nod before walking out of the room.

---

The time has come
It's for the best, I know it
Who could have guessed that you and I…

As he entered the library, Stardust rolled his eyes, and muttered, "Not right now, Starswirl."

Then, he proceeded with turning on the world-travel machine that Twilight and her friends had created after defeating Rowan for the first time, but before Stardust could step inside, a familiar voice caused him to remain still.

"I may not know you as well as the Twilight from your world does, but I can tell when something is bothering one of my friends."

Letting out a sigh, Stardust turned around to look at Twilight, who was standing by the doorway, with a look on her face that meant she knew he was hiding something.

She also had a point… even though neither of them obviously did not have any sort of romantic feelings for each other, Twilight still considered him as one of her friends, especially after everything that her other self had said about Stardust.

"What's wrong?"

The gold-colored pony paused, for a moment, before he replied, "Look, Twilight, I… uh… it would be best if I just stayed in my own world from now on… and that you all stay here in yours."

At first, Twilight was confused after hearing his statement. "Well, then, why do you… wait… you mean that… you don't want us to see each other ever again?"

"Er, I mean, when you put it that way, it sounds kind of harsh," replied Stardust, but when Twilight raised her eyebrow, he said, "I don't want anything worse happening to Casey… it's because of me that he even got hurt in the first place."

"Stardust, that wasn't your-"

The young pony shook his head, and said, "I had so many chances to get him out of harm's way, but instead, I let my evil counterpart nearly beat the living **** out of him."

Before Twilight could say anything else, Stardust added, "I am doing this foryoujust as much as I am doing it forhim, Twilight. You don't deserve to go through the same type of pain that my alicorn princess did… so-"

"Stardust?"

The two ponies turned around, and saw that Casey was now in the room, looking half-sleepy and half-awake.

Not wanting either of them to cause an argument, Twilight tried to get him out of the library. "Alright, Casey, time to go back and-"

"This isn't, like, agoodbyegood-bye, right?" said the orange-colored Earth pony, who did not plan on leaving just yet. "We agreed that-"

"I know what we said, Casey," replied Stardust, who was starting to speak in a little more serious tone. "But ever since then, almost nothing but trouble has happened to us… and this is exactly what I feared would happen if this continued any longer."

Casey started to frown, and he said, "What do you mean by 'this', Stardust? You sound as if you regret ever being my friend… or that it's my fault we are."

"Well, I mean, this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't shown up inmyworld on some random day from out of the blue," reminded the gold-colored pony. "And if you hadn't left your necklace behind, then I wouldn't have had to come back in order to return it."

Raising an eyebrow, Casey exclaimed, "Oh, so basically, you wish that this never would have happened in the first place?"

"Hey, those areyourwords, not mine," replied Stardust. "But now that you mention it, Icouldhave avoided being killed in the past, present, or whatever by Rowan… I would not have had to deal with the Rainbow from my world being upset with me…"

Jack, I don't think now is the best time to-

(Stardust) I'm doing this for his own good!

"If we're going down that route, Stardust, then I should point out that it wasyourother self that came intothisworld to kidnap Twilight," said Casey, who was now starting to get upset.

Not wanting anything else to get worse, the young princess said, "Alright, Casey, let's not end up doing something that will-"

"Well, it wasyourstupid time travel watch device that he got ahold of," growled Stardust, now sounding like he was irritated. "And I didn't ask to be fused withyouin the first place!"

"Hey, neither didI," replied Casey, who was no longer feeling tired. "In fact… yeah, you know what, Idoblameyoufor me getting all of these injuries… so, why don't you get back to your own world before something else happens to me?"

"That's what I amtryingto do, youfool," exclaimed Stardust, who began to walk through the time machine. "And don't expect me to come help if something terrible happens here…yourworld,yourproblems."

WHOOSH!

Before Casey or Twilight could respond to that, Stardust was taken back to his own world, and neither of them said anything.

Then, just as Twilight was about to speak, Casey quietly walked out of the library, and went back to his bedroom, leaving the alicorn princess by herself.

"Oh, thiscan'tbe good," said Twilight, sounding concerned. "I mean, how is the other me from Stardust's world going to react when he hears about this?"

---

"Haha, yes,nowwe're getting somewhere!"

A grin of triumph appeared on Elixir's face as he watched the argument between Stardust and Casey unfold in front of him.

"So, does that mean we get to attack Pony-" Ronxor started to say, but his master shook his head, in response.

"Not quite yet, my friend," he replied, with an evil smile on his face. "But rest assured, our victory is a guaranteed success… and in the meantime…"

Elixir walked over to a nearby desk, where a nearly-complete mechanic weapon was being built at.

"Hurry with the completion of your invention, Ronxor… I want it to be ready on the day that we decide to pay Stardust Balance a visit."

The silver-colored Pegasus nodded his head, but before he resumed his work, Ronxor asked, "Sir? What are you going to about Casey?"

"Oh, I have somethingvery specialin mind for him," replied Elixir, as he started to laugh. "But until that time comes… we have to make balance a little bit moreunstable."