Forgotten Friendship

by CJ Esmerio

A Big Difference, Part 2

Author's Note:

My Little Pony and Equestria Girls belong to Hasbro and DHX Media. I just own the story, Casey, any OCs (minus Beck and Stardust), etc.

With Sunset and Trixie both knocked out on the ground, Wallflower turned her attention to Casey, who was being cautious as he spoke to her. “Just hand over the Memory Stone, Wallflower… please… you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into with that kind of power.”

For a moment, an expression of guilt was on Wallflower’s face as she said, “I’m sorry, Casey, but…” Then, there was a dark look in her eyes. One that was very familiar to Casey. “This is something I’ve got to do.”

“Wallflower, please, you-” Casey began to say, but he was cut off by the sudden appearance of a bright green light that was similiar to a camera flash, and the next thing he knew, he was lying down on the ground, not even knowing how he got there to begin with or how long he’d been there. “Ugh, my head… Sunset, how long have we - gah!”

Casey had been looking at his right hand to see if it had gotten injured somehow, and for some reason, it was almost completely transparent. He could see the whole entire door through it!

“... Casey? Why are you screaming?”

A dazed Trixie rubbed her head as if it had been hit, and Sunset was slowly opening up her eyes, feeling like she had woken up from a huge nap.

Casey was about to answer the former pony’s question, but he quickly noticed that his hand was back to normal except it was a little more faded.

“Uh… bad dream, Sunset,” said the young teenager, deciding to worry about his problems later while trying to remember why they were even in the yearbook editing room, but nothing was coming to him.

He got up to walk over to the door, but when he tried opening it, Casey became surprised to find out that it was locked.

Why in the heck is this even locked from the outside?

“No… no, no, no,” said a worried Sunset, hurrying over to try opening it herself but she didn’t have any luck either. “If we don’t get out of here and figure out who has the Memory Stone, in just a few hours it will be too late to restore everyone’s memories.”

Trixie sadly shook her head. “Um, hate to burst your bubble, Sunset, but it doesn’t really matter if we get out. How are we even supposed to catch someone who can erase our memory every time we get close to catching them?”

As Casey realized that Trixie had a point, Sunset found herself putting her hands in her pockets, and she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

“... we do it by being clever!” Sunset exclaimed, remembering what Twilight had told her about Clover leaving himself a trail of bread crumbs, and she showed the piece of paper to Casey. “Look, I wrote myself a note - Check the video.”

“Uh, what video?” asked a confused Casey.

Sunset walked over to the bookcase by the door that had several past yearbooks in the shelves, and one of them had a hidden camcorder that was still in recording mode. “Yes! It’s been recording this whole time!”

“Recording what?” Trixie questioned,since she had no idea what Sunset was trying to say.

“I don’t remember doing it,” explained Sunset. “But I must have realized that our memories could be erased, so I pressed record at some point!”

The three of them were now looking at the camera while Sunset began playing the recorded video from the beginning, and in the video, Sunset had given a thumbs up before going over to Wallflower in order to check her memories.

“Wait, who’s that?” asked Trixie.

“Wallflower Blush,” replied Sunset.

“Ohhh… yeah, name’s not ringing a bell to me.”

Sunset and Casey rolled their eyes at the same time, but before either of them could speak, they heard Wallflower starting her song about feeling invisible.

“Ugh…” groaned Trixie, and she pressed the fast-forward button on the camera, which had Wallflower singing at a much faster speed. “Long song, huh?”

When it seemed like Wallflower was done, Trixie went over to click the Play button, and found themselves seeing Casey talk in a comforting tone about him also having felt the way she did.

“... so was I, Wallflower, for almost two years.”

Casey became silent for a moment, with Sunset doing the same since she had seen through his memories before how terrible life had been for him during those years, and then, the video had reached the part where Sunset had confronted Wallflower.

“What did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you!”

“Exactly! You had everyone fooled, but now they know that you’re still the Biggest Meanie!”

“You’re about to see how mean I can get!”

Sunset paused the video, and before she could even say anything, Trixie cleared her throat before speaking. “Um, you know… she’s kinda right about you.”

A slight frown appeared on Casey’s face, and Sunset gave a sarcastic response. “Gee, thanks.”

However, according to Trixie, she didn’t mean what Sunset thought she was talking about. “You said in the video that you didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t!” exclaimed Sunset. “I wasn’t mean to her at all!”

While Casey was still trying to figure out how to open up the door, Trixie sighed before saying, “Maybe it’s not good enough to not be mean to someone.” Casey paused his attempt after hearing Trixie speak. “Maybe you have to be nice.”

Who is she? thought Casey.

Sunset took a look at the camera’s paused screen, which showed a frowning Wallflower, and back over at Trixie. “You’re right… but, uh, there’s still the issue of us all being trapped in here. Unless my Great and Powerful friend can magic us out of here?”

“What’s the point in trying?” said Trixie, sounding defeated because all that she had with her were smoke bombs. “You’ve seen enough of my tricks to know what’ll hap… wait… you think of me as a friend?”

Sunset glanced over at the photo she’d taken yesterday with her friends, whose good memories of her were almost close to being gone forever.

“Uh-huh… and one that I know I’ll still have at CHS by the end of the day.”

Feeling touched by Sunset’s kind words towards her, Trixie’s look of defeat turned into one of smugness. “You poor, unfortunate soul! You actually believed that I gave up? Mere stage banter! The Great and Powerful Trixie never gives up on herself, or her… her friends!”

Casey went over to stand by Sunset while Trixie backed away towards the door, speaking with a loud stage voice. “Behold! The Magician’s Exit!”

The illusionist tossed one of her smoke bombs down to the ground, and after it exploded, Trixie almost expected to find herself still in the room… but instead, she opened up her eyes to see that she was now in the hallway. “It worked… it worked! Yes, I’ve finally did it!”

Knock-knock-knock!

“Still in here!” reminded Sunset, who was standing behind the door.

Trixie smiled sheepishly at her friend. “Um, all part of the trick! Don’t worry, have you out in a jiffy!”

She tossed down another smoke bomb, but when the smoke cleared away, Casey was now in the hallway while Trixie was back in the room with Sunset.

“Again!”

Now it was only Sunset in the room by herself, with Trixie standing next to Casey outside.

“Um, third time’s the charm?”

After trying it again, Trixie found herself and Casey in the room while Sunset was now out in the hallway.

“You know what? Just go and do what you have to do! I’ll get Cody out of here in a minute!”

Seriously? thought Casey, letting out a sigh before gesturing to Sunset for her to go, and the young teenager gave a small nod of gratitude.

“I owe you one, Trixie! I’ll never forget this!”

“Never say never!” replied Trixie, as she watched her race down the hallway.

Then, she turned over to Casey, and asked, “Um… would you happen to have any extra smoke bombs with you?”

Casey opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly, his body deteriorated into pixels and letters, and Trixie let out a small yelp of surprise as he teleported from the room to out in the hallway.

“How is that even possible?”

That explains how I got to Sunset’s car so fast. The young man shrugged his shoulders, and started to run in the same direction that Sunset had gone in. “We’ll come back for you, I promise!”

Once Casey was out of Trixie’s view, the illusionist put on a face as determination while backing away a little from the door.

“I sure hope this door’s not too expensive,” muttered Trixie, gathering up all of her strength in an attempt to break the door down, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and resulted in a now-dazed Trixie.

“Peanut… butter… crackers,” she mumbled before collapsing to the floor, with a row of periwinkle stars twirling around her head.

---

After searching everywhere in the entire school for Sunset or Wallflower, Casey finally went out the front doors and scanned the parking lot, where he saw all of Sunset’s friends standing by Applejack’s truck, as well as Sunset confronting a retreating Wallflower by the very edge of the campus, and a black car that he didn’t recognize.

“Wallflower, stop!”

The green-haired teenager bore an innocent expression as she stopped to turn and look at Sunset. “You remember my name?”

“I remember everything!” replied Sunset. “The Memory Stone! How I acted, all of it.”

“What? How?” exclaimed Wallflower, in disbelief. “I erased the whole afternoon!”

After she said those words, Sci-Twi and the rest of the girls all looked at Wallflower, remembering what Sunset had told them earlier about the Memory Stone, and Wallflower did a small gulp after realizing her slip-up.

“Listen, I used to be just like you,” begged Sunset. “Sure, I was popular, but I was lonely-”

“You’re nothing like me at all!” interrupted a glaring Wallflower. “And I’m not lonely cause I have… plants!” She blinked her eyes for a second, and placed a hand on her forehead. “That sounded less lonely in my head.”

“I’m sorry, Wallflower,” apologized Sunset, just as Casey was getting close to her. “Please, just hand over - Casey?”

“Uh-huh,” gasped Casey, taking a moment to catch his breath after running so fast. “Wallflower... please… revenge isn’t the answer. I’ve seen what it can do to someone… myself, included… stop now before you actually end up physically hurting someone.”

“I can’t actually hurt someone with this, Casey,” replied Wallflower, who had taken the Memory Stone out of her backpack. “All it does is erase memories, like last night when I did it to your friends, Sunset Shimmer!”

The other girls all gasped in shock after hearing Wallflower’s proclaimation, and the green-haired teenager was now growling with frustration once realizing she messed up again.

“If I can’t teach Sunset a lesson by erasing her friends’ good memories of her,” said Wallflower. “Then, maybe I can by erasing all of their memories from high school!”

An alarmed expression appeared on Sunset’s face, and she cried, “No, Wallflower, you can’t do that!

“If you did that, you’d be stealing their memories of each other,” added Casey, who was also trying his best to stop himself from glitching. “You have to listen to her, to me! Please don’t do this!”

For a moment, Wallflower gave Casey an apologetic look but it soon changed to a dark one, and after shaking her head, she turned her lips into a deep frown. “All I know is that they’ll think of one another the way that you’ve thought of me, Sunset, which is not atall!”

Then, she was about to fire a beam of the Memory Stone’s magic towards all of Sunset’s friends, but for some reason, the stone was suddenly snatched out of Wallflower’s hands. “Wait, what-”

“What did I say to you about going overboard?”

A sinister voice was heard throughout the CHS parking lot, with a black swirl of magic appearing behind the magical object that was floating in the air, and while Wallflower gulped nervously, both Casey and Sunset shared a look of confusion and concern.

“Teenagers these days, honestly.” The swirl slowly transformed into the shape of an unfamiliar person wearing a black cloak, his face covered up by its hood, and he pointed with a gloved hand at the young green-haired teenager. “I’ll deal with your impatience in just a moment... and may I say what a pleasure it is to finally meet you.”

Sunset, Wallflower, and the human versions of the Mane 6 all looked over at Casey, who replied, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, it’s not every day that you get to actually meet one of the few individuals you despise so much meet a tragic end,” said the sinister figure, now floating only a few inches above the ground. “Only a matter of time until you’re gone completely… unless…”

He slowly made his way over to Casey, and the young teenager was about to say something, but then, his glitching suddenly returned, and everyone else watched with horror as the young man’s body went back and forth constantly from its regular form to nothing but pixels and inked letters.

“I suppose this also works.” A hidden smile appeared on the cloaked person’s face

“Hey!” The unknown figure turned his head in Sunset’s direction. “I may not know who the heck you are, but leave my friend alone!”

“You still think of him as a friend? Someone who wasn’t even meant to exist in the first place?” He asked, though he was no longer moving, and Sunset nodded her head.

“Of course I think of him that way… and what do you mean he isn’t supposed to exist?”

Instead of answering her question, the cloaked figure simply backed away enough for Casey to only glitch occasionally, but he now looked a lot worse than he had a few minutes ago.

“Thank… you…” gasped an exhausted Casey, and it wasn’t long before he felt himself collapse, but luckily, Sunset was able to catch him before he got hurt in any way.

“Once I watch him vanish into thin air, I’ll be sure to do the same with the vigilante,” said the cloaked figure. “My only regret is that I can’t see it happen together.”

Casey looked up at him, and it was almost as if the dots were starting to connect in his mind. “You… are the reason why this is… happening to me.”

“Well, more or less, but yes,” answered the cloaked figure, and he gestured to the Memory Stone. “Amazing what this can be capable of after making a couple of major adjustments to it… such as restoring the balance of a universe to what it was originally meant to be.” He turned his attention over to Sunset. “To answer your question, my dear… if this were a t.v. show, I’d simply be erasing Casey from it because he’s only a self-inserted character that came from the mind of someone else… and does not belong in it whatsoever.”

While Sunset was trying to figure out how to respond to the cloaked figure’s statement, Casey was mentally calling out to the only person that he hoped would be able to help -

“There’s no use in trying to contact your beloved friend,” said the sinister man, as if he’d been hearing Casey’s thoughts. “His dimension is lightyears away from this one… and besides, his only existence are now in the pages of a book that Princess Twilight doesn’t even remember writing.”

He moved a few inches towards them, and as Casey’s glitching became more constant, a red ball of deadly energy appeared in one of the cloaked figure’s hands. “Let me ease the rest of your pain by putting an immediate end to your story… and I would say that you’d be reunited with your parents, but not even they exist anymore, so you will literally fade away into nothingness… also, I highly suggest that you move out of the way.”

Sunset was still holding onto Casey, and she took a moment to look back and forth from him to her nearby friends, but just as the sinister man was about to just fire his blast despite his warning, a familiar magenta streak of magic shot towards him from behind, causing the figure’s energy ball to dissapear.

“What the hell is…” said the elderly figure, turning over to see who had fired the shot at him. “Ah, how lovely it is for us to meet again, Kronos, you meddling imbecile… and I see you brought a friend.”

“Twilight?” Both Sunset and Casey spoke at the same time, surprised and confused to see the princess of friendship standing beside Kronos, but still in the form of an alicorn instead of a human being.

“Leave these innocent people alone, Xenos,” proclaimed Kronos, glaring at the cloaked figure while Twilight hurried over to check on her boyfriend.

“You okay?” asked the young alicorn.

Casey just nodded his head, not exactly knowing what to even say right now.

As for Kronos, he continued to speak to the dangerous being in front of him. “You have no business even being here.”

A laugh came out of Xenos’ mouth, and he shook his head. “Neither do you… now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some unfinished business with her.”

The sinister figure tossed the Memory Stone into Wallflower’s hands, and he pointed at Sunset. “Use it on her now.”

Wallflower remained silent, looking over at the bacon-haired teenager with hesitation, which made Xenos even more upset.

“I gave you an order, Wallflower. You wouldn’t have even gotten the stone if it weren’t for me.”

Casey looked at Kronos, wondering why wasn’t he doing anything to Xenos.

“Because the last time he tried, it almost cost him his life,” said the sinister figure, who was still glaring at a petrified Wallflower. “And was forbidden by a higher authority to ever go up against me like that again… which means that he can’t stop me from doing this.”

Casey’s fear grew at a rapid pace as he watched Wallflower suddenly rise up into the air, with only Xenos’ eyes moving at the same time, and it was because he was reminded of when Rowan had done the same to him.

“I’ll be taking this back,” said Xenos, with the Memory Stone swiftly floating towards him, and Wallflower’s eyes were now closed as she grunted in pain, dark psychic energy now surrounding and almost crushing her body.

There has to be something I can - wait a second! thought Casey, who suddenly found himself looking down at his special watch that he’d created some time after meeting Stardust, and a frown appeared on his face.

“As of right now,” growled Xenos. “Your services are no longer requ- gah! Who…”

From out of nowhere, the sinister figure was struck by a powerful electric attack, and that caused him to lose his focus on Wallflower, who fell down safely into the arms of Kronos. “ .. you abomination.”

“Stupid head.” A smirk appeared on Casey’s face, and he fired the same attack again at Xenos’ hands, causing the Memory Stone to fly away somewhere else.

Xenos’ hidden eyes started glowing with rage, but then, a sly smile appeared on his face. “Well played, Casey… but who do you think gave Rowan that power to begin with?”a

Before Casey could say anything to him, Xenos added, “Who do you think was the one responsible for you even entering Stardust’s world in the first place?”

The young man remained frozen in place, and Xenos grinned once he realized what needed to be said in order for him to hit it home. “I’m the reason why Rowan entered your world in the first place… and it was I who instructed him to ‘take care’ of your parents… isn’t that right, Kronos?”

Casey turned his head towards the elderly man, who was silent but had a sad expression on his face, and Xenos started to laugh. “You know, since we have… I would say, a few more hours until the sunset arrives, let’s have a little fun. What do you think, Princess Twilight?”

“You do... anything to her,” growled Casey, in between another unexpected glitch, and Xenos shook his head.

“I wouldn’t dare hurt the lovely princess myself… I’d give that honor to someone else, and since you’ve already done it in the past, I’m going to have her do it.”

Then, he glanced over at Kronos, with one eyebrow raised. “You think you’re the only one who can keep someone in their actual form?”

With a quick snap of two fingers, Xenos’ smile grew wider as the person who was standing next to Casey quickly became surrounded by dark energy that formed into the shape of an egg. “Another positive in tampering with the Memory Stone, which was used on you not so long ago, if I recall.”

Everyone else was too shocked at what was now going on in front of them to say anything, except for Sci-Twi and Twilight.

“Sunset!”

A chuckle came from Xenos as he said, “Time to see which one of you is more powerful.”

Twilight and Casey began to back away a little once the egg-shaped cocoon had vanished, revealing Sunset Shimmer in her unicorn body, but she didn’t look happy to see them.

“Sunset? Are you - whoa!” Twilight teleported herself out of the way to avoid an energy blast that came from Sunset’s own glowing horn. “Sunset, stop, don’t do this!”

“A little too late for that, princess,” replied the possessed unicorn, and fired another blast at the purple alicorn.