My Little Pony: Seeds of the Past

Chapter 22 - A Truth Revealed, Part 2

Author's Note: Hasbro and DHX Media are the rightful owners of My Little Pony, while Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck belongs to FanficFan920.

So, yeah, I realized today that I didn't really give much explaination as to why Rowan showed up, and it was mostly due to the fact that I wanted to finish the now-previous chapter before I ended up going to sleep knocked out, so I did some quick editing, which resulted in making this the second half of the earlier chapter… hopefully you'll enjoy it!

After she was able to regain conciousness, Starlight coughed a few times before realizing that Casey and Twilight were gone.

"W-where did they…"

"Starlight!" The purple unicorn turned her head to see Stardust and Twilight's counterpart coming over to where she was. "What happened?"

Once Starlight was standing on all four hooves, she pointed out to where her friends had been at, saying, "I saw Rowan fire an energy blast straight for Casey, so I jumped in front of him so that he wouldn't get hurt… but now I have no idea where Casey or Twilight are at."

The two of them looked at Starlight with confusion, and Stardust said, "I'm pretty sure that Rowan isn't alive any-"

"I know what I saw, Stardust," replied Starlight, who was now getting upset with him again.

"Okay, what did I ever do to you?" questioned the gold pony, who was also still irritated about her scratching his right eye. "If this is about Beck, then I'm sorry I wasn't there to help, but no pony told me about-"

Before he could finish, Starlight shook her head, and replied, "It's not just that, Stardust… it's the fact that you keep taking away from me!"

"I told you already that-" Stardust began to yell, but he paused after realizing what she had just said to him. "Wait, what?"

Starlight rolled her eyes, and was about to repeat her answer when they heard Twilight say, "Oh, my gosh, this would have been a perfect friendship-problem-solving moment if…"

Then, she noticed the two of them looking at her, and Twilight let out a sheepish chuckle.

"Did I… say that out loud?"

Star… dust…

Suddenly, the gold pony heard Casey's voice in his mind, as well as sensing that he was in terrible pain, which made him start to wonder if Starlight was right about Rowan.

"Jack? What is it?" asked Twilight.

"We need to go back to the castle… I think I know where Casey and the other you might be."

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

Once they were in the library, the three of them were about to turn on the Crystal Mirror when they heard a familiar voice cry, "Wait! Don't leave without us!"

As Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie (who had spoken), and Starlight's counterpart walked inside the room, a confused Twilight asked, "Um, what happened to-"

"Hold… ow… on there a minute… ow… sugarcube," said Applejack, followed by Rainbow Dash, but to everyone else's confusion, they both had several mouse traps stuck across their body.

"Um, you doooooo knoooww that those things are meant for something else, right?" pointed out Pinkie, and the two ponies glared at her. "Sorry."

Rainbow let out a sigh, while the traps began falling off of her wings, and she said, "Let's just leave… ow… before something worse… ow… happens… ow! Pinkie!"

Limbo

A smirk appeared on Rowan's face, and he said, "This actually looks very familiar to me."

Casey, who was trying his best to ignore the burning pain coming from his broken hind legs, simply looked up at Rowan, with an expression of confusion and anger.

"This reminds me of the way your father looked before he died."

The young pony blinked his watered-up eyes a few times, and said, "W-What do… you mean? It was… Tirek who…"

Rowan let out a chuckle, and replied, "Tirek's battle with Twilight may have resulted in the demolition of your house, Casey, but I was the one that killed your father, who had arrived to try saving your mother after he'd been talking to somepony I don't know about…"

Casey suddenly remembered a part that Beck had talked about in his story, where he'd come across a middle-aged pony trying to find his son, but a nearby scream had caused the pony to leave before Beck had a chance to help.

"Why else do you think there were no bodies to be found, or that only his glasses remained when you finally showed up to your house?"

Then, before his victim could respond, the cloaked pony raised Casey up in the air once more, and said, "You should honestly be thanking me right now, Casey... I'm about to reunite you with your parents."

Casey coughed a few times, and he asked, "But… why… did you…"

Rowan gave a small shrug, and replied, "It's what I was created for, Casey, and unfortunately, your parents were at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Twi….light…" whispered Casey, looking around everywhere, trying to find any sign of her.

"Hmmm? Oh, right...You'll never see your girlfriend again," taunted Rowan. "And how sad that you never got to tell her how you felt…"

He watched as Casey fell back down to the ground, causing him even more pain, and with a wide smile, the cloaked pony said, "If it wasn't for Evil Stardust letting me out of that blasted thermos, I wouldn't have been able to head over to your world, where I was able to plant the idea in your head about creating that pill on the night you were at the balcony… and from what I can tell, you certainly drank a lot of it."

Realizing that he'd allowed this to happen while being upset with Twilight about Beck, Casey found himself asking one more question.

"W-why would you do this to me?"

A scowl appeared on Rowan's face, and he replied, "If it wasn't for you warning Twilight and her friends about going into the room where I turned five of them into statues, my plan of taking over that world would have been successful… not to mention that you ended up bringing that damm gold pony into all this."

"Then, why… even send me over there… in the first place?"

To his surprise, Rowan looked momentarily confused, and the sinister pony said, "I honestly don't know why or how you ended up in Stardust's world instead of someplace else… and frankly, I could care less, so if you're done talking, then…"

"You'd better get the hell away from him, you son of a b****h."

Rowan turned around, and found himself looking at Stardust, as well as the two versions of Starlight and Twilight, and the rest of Casey's friend, which brought a sense of hope to the young pony.

"You… all… came…"

As for Rowan, he let out a sarcastic laugh, and said, "If either of you damn ponies take one more step, I'll end Casey's life in an instant… as well as the life of his special somepony, who's currently up above all of us."

Everypony turned their heads up to see Casey's Twilight, who was floating unconciously in the sky, and the sinister pony growled, "You're all worthless losers who were put on this earth to serve those more powerful and greater… those like me."

Stardust was about to give him a witty remark when suddenly, in a confident tone, Casey said, "You're wrong, Rowan."

Then, as Rowan began walking over to him, the young pony continued to speak. "They are not worthless, and are not meant to serve villains like you…. I've seen these ponies do great things, and year after year, they've been able to find a way to save Equestria from those who were somewhat like you: Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis… even pre-reformed Starlight and pre-reformed Discord… in fact, you're the one who is worthless, so-"

"I applaud your attempt at a noble speech," interrupted Rowan. "But it's not going to do you any good, Casey, so why… why… why are you chuckling like that?"

With a wide grin across his face, the young pony replied, "You're also stupid for letting yourself be distracted so easily."

Wham!

Then, before Rowan could yell at Casey, both versions of Starlight, as well as Twilight's other self, fired an energy blast combination that sent him flying a few feet away, which also resulted in Twilight quickly falling -

"I've got her!" cried Pinkie, running over to sucessfully catch Twilight with her hooves. "Wow, she's easier to save than Stardust."

When Rowan tried to get back up, he found himself looking at the one who represented balance, who was also aiming Kronos' staff at him, and he said, "Go ahead, send me to that damn Smile HD world again… because ponies like you can't bring yourself to kill someone like me."

"Well, that's where you're wrong," replied Stardust, with a smirk on his face. "Because I'm not all pony… and when it comes to murder, I can make an exception if the culprit's someone who greatly hurt the ones I care about."

Then, the gold pony fired a deadly energy blast at Rowan, and after seeing that he was gone, Stardust dropped the staff while making his way back over to Casey, who was now starting to become unconcious because of the pain in his hind legs.

"Star… light…" muttered Casey, as his friend began to place him on top of herself. "I… need to…"

"Just go to sleep, Casey, okay?" asked Starlight, in a soft tone. "You'll wake up in a better place than this."

"Not… yet…" mumbled the drowsy pony, who felt his eyelids closing heavily, and said one last thing before he was knocked out cold. "Have to tell… Twilight that… I…"