Amidst a lush celestial forest, the final and tragic battle within the great barrier was about to begin...
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Rainbow Dash screamed, hurling herself at her opponent, filled with every ounce of fury that could possibly fit inside her. With what little strength she had left, she shot toward Badwhiz at full speed and, with a kick, sent flying the sealing crystal attached to his left helmet plate. Then, with another strike, she aimed straight for his head.
It wasn't enough.
Badwhiz's magic shield activated at the last second, blocking the blow that would have knocked him out.
The counterattack began.
Badwhiz fired a beam as thick as a tree, nearly striking Rainbow Dash.
The pegasus, though slowed by exhaustion, didn't give up. She kept attacking Badwhiz's barrier from different angles.
Badwhiz kept launching more thunderbolts—explosions tore through the place.
One after another, conflagrations erupted. There were no words exchanged between them, no pauses in their movements...
The merciless battle soon turned into a duel of endurance.
Giving everything she had, Rainbow Dash felt her body breaking down. Every fiber of her muscles screamed for her to stop, but she refused. She could hear her bones clashing and feel her wings twisting midair, forcing her off course.
But she didn't stop—she couldn't.
Fluttershy, Applejack, Twilight... all of them.
None of her friends were there.
They had all vanished... and it was all because of him.
"I'll avenge them! I'll avenge them all!"
She shouted to herself, ignoring the pain, the exhaustion—everything.
Tears mixed with sweat as she rammed into Badwhiz over and over again. Counterattacks came and missed again and again. She didn't care about the frustration on her opponent's face or the agony in her own body. She just wanted to see him fall—once and for all.
One hit.
Just one final hit.
That was all she needed.
And then—it finally came.
"Ughhhhhhhhhhhh…"
Rainbow Dash fell to the ground after a powerful strike. Badwhiz, on the other side, was violently thrown back inside his own magic barrier. For the first time in the fight, there was no immediate response.
The earth pony with the pink mane gasped, struggling to catch his breath. The pegasus gave a faint smile.
This was her moment.
She couldn't feel her wings. She couldn't even spread them. But it didn't matter—she only needed her legs.
With unbearable effort, Rainbow Dash stood up, ignoring the lacerating pain throughout her body. She gathered the last of her strength into her limbs and charged forward, accelerating with each step.
She could hear the thunder of her exhaustion roaring inside her, but it didn't stop her.
Her opponent, still dazed, looked up at her advance, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Just a bit more! Haaaaa!"
With a final battle cry, Rainbow Dash leapt and spun in midair—an impossible move in her condition, yet she managed it. With both hind legs together, she struck the barrier surrounding Badwhiz with full force.
The impact echoed through the entire forest.
Badwhiz, unable to react in time, was flung backward and crashed against the ground with a thunderous sound.
His magic barrier finally shattered.
He could no longer maintain it.
Rainbow Dash, staggering, watched him with dark satisfaction as he tried to crawl across the ground.
Victory was within her reach.
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
Voices rang around her, sharpening into a deafening roar inside her mind. She saw herself at the center of a crowd cheering her on.
She no longer thought of her friends, nor of her own life. She thought of only one thing: revenge.
Possessed by her own passions, she advanced without hesitation. But then another voice shook her.
"Rainbow Dash! No! Don't keep fighting, it's enough! Stop!"
It was a distant echo... like Twilight's voice...
But she paid it no mind.
It was no longer possible to stop. The final victory was only a few steps away...
"Rainbow Dash!"
Another voice burst into her thoughts, and this time she froze.
"Applejack?!" Her name escaped in a whisper.
But the surprise lasted barely an instant.
A blinding light erupted before her.
The gem at Badwhiz's neck had reached its limit.
Horrified, Rainbow Dash squinted against the glare pouring from the overloaded gem. Reflexively she raised her battered wings to shield her face.
A terrible mistake.
Before she could fully realize her error, a powerful black beam struck her full-on.
Everything went light.
The world spun out of control.
Her vision, blurred by the frantic motion, snapped to a halt when her body slammed into the rocky, abrasive ground.
During that instant —in the brief time she had left— her mind (in shock) could only cling to one memory.
The last voice she had heard...
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
Applejack had called her in desperation.
The remnants of her consciousness dissolved into a dreadful blackness that swallowed everything.
"Applejack..."
She tried to say her name one last time but couldn't finish the word.
And thus, she vanished from that world...
[---]
Much later... in the present...
A desperate cry shattered the silence of the cluttered room.
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
Applejack held Rainbow Dash by the shoulders, shaking her to wake her.
"Rainbow Dash! Wake up!" she kept calling, but there was no response. Her friend lay unconscious, her face bandaged, showing no sign of life. Occasionally she would part her single visible eye and mumble unintelligible sounds while her mouth twisted into a bewildering grimace.
The scene persisted until, suddenly, that one visible eye flew open.
"You finally woke up, Rainbow Dash, thank—Ughhh!" Applejack breathed with relief, only to be kicked in the stomach and sent sprawling to the floor.
Rainbow Dash, who had just kicked her, stood up—awake... or rather trapped in a violent sleepwalking. Overrun by uncontrollable euphoria, the pegasus darted her gaze in all directions like a cornered animal. Without a word, she began gnawing at her bandages and flapping her wings desperately, like a hummingbird trapped in a suffocating web.
Applejack, struggling to rise, watched in dismay as her friend careened around, smashing furniture and walls, injuring herself and colliding with the others who were also waking.
"Rainbow Dash, no! Wait! Stop, Rainbow!" she shouted, unheard.
Rainbow Dash was utterly out of control, and Applejack—who was free—was the only one who could do anything.
She had to stop her.
With that urgent mission in mind, the farm pony scanned her surroundings for anything useful. Her eyes fixed on the long bandage still hanging from the pegasus's neck.
Without hesitation, she chased after the trailing strip and, with a leap, caught its end in her teeth. She pulled back with all her might.
It was a decisive move, but too abrupt. Anyone else would have suffered a severe neck injury; with Rainbow Dash it produced only a brief choking whine.
Halted mid-flight, the pegasus crashed into a bookshelf.
Applejack hurried to her fallen friend. She knew Rainbow was tough, but all she cared about now was that she be alright.
"Rainbow Dash, please, react!" she cried, holding her and trying to calm her.
Still, there was no answer. Determined in her frenzy, Rainbow Dash tried once more to take off, flailing her limbs without coordination. Applejack, terrified by her friend's state, felt panic rise in her chest. She didn't understand what was happening and couldn't accept the madness that possessed her.
"Rainbow Dash, please come back to yourself!" Applejack whimpered through tears, embracing her. But it was in vain —only more struggling met her.
With her heart in her throat and hope fading, Applejack noticed something she had overlooked.
Rainbow Dash's eyes, now uncovered after the bandages fell away, were in an odd position: looking in opposite directions, giving an incongruous but familiar impression.
Didn't she know someone in Ponyville with a look like that?
Suddenly, an old memory popped into her mind. With it came an idea that lit up her face.
Now she knew what to do.
"If it worked before… it can't fail now, right?" Applejack thought. "Hold on, Rainbow!"
Raising her helmet with a precise motion, she struck Rainbow Dash hard on the head.
The rainbow pegasus took the blow squarely but didn't fall... She stood rigid, trembling like an old device rebooting after long disuse.
Applejack watched anxiously.
Then Rainbow Dash began to move again, but this time with more control. Her expression shifted. The eyes that had been spinning aimlessly slowly refocused.
Her wings, which had not stopped flapping, finally stilled and folded gently. Her limbs, which had flailed, extended once more before relaxing.
Rainbow Dash, wearing her usual look, sat down, breathed deeply, and closed her eyes as if returning to the sleep she had barely escaped.
Applejack, astonished, tilted her head, unsure. After an undefined silence she approached cautiously.
"Rainbow Dash?" she asked in a trembling voice.
The response was immediate.
"Ouch, Applejack! What on earth is wrong with you?" protested the pegasus, lifting a helmet to her head and rubbing the bump that now adorned her forehead. The harrowing scene from moments before faded as if it had never happened.
A smile brightened Applejack's face. She couldn't contain herself and burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha, hahahaha!"
Her laughter filled the room, unrestrained. Overcome with joy at the reunion, she flung herself onto her rainbow friend and hugged her tightly.
"Hey, hey, Applejack! What are you doing? Don't squeeze so hard! Wait!... Are you crying?"
Rainbow Dash blinked, confused. To her, it felt like she had just awakened from a wild dream, her memory still foggy.
"You big hard-headed mare! Haha, I can't believe it. You're safe! We're all safe! Yeeehaw!" shouted the farm pony, her voice breaking between laughter and sobs as she hugged her rainbow friend even tighter.
"We're safe...? That sounds good, doesn't it?" replied Rainbow Dash, still unsure what to say, growing more confused by Applejack's strange behavior.
"Yes! That's very good!"
"Great... and, uh... where exactly are we?" asked the pegasus, uncertain of what lay beyond her friend's shoulder.
Applejack opened her mouth, but no easy answer came to mind. Her joy faded instantly. She pulled back a little, her expression clouding as the unsettling reality of their situation returned to her.
"I... I'm not sure. Maybe it's... Twilight's house?"
Rainbow Dash went quiet, not entirely following the answer. But as she looked more closely around at the chaotic scene, the absurd statement began to make sense.
"Right... we're in Twilight's old house, aren't we?"
"Yep," replied Applejack, glancing again at the room.
"I mean... the library in Ponyville —Golden Oak, right?"
"Yep," repeated Applejack.
"The same one Tirek destroyed almost completely moons ago, right?"
"Yep..." confirmed Applejack, this time with a graver tone and a nervous glance. After a hesitant pause, she added, "I don't get it."
"I agree... this is weird. Really weird..." murmured Rainbow Dash, casting a wary look at everything around her. Then she continued, "And the others...?"
"They're here too, safe and—" Applejack stopped short as she turned her gaze deeper into the room.
Her sudden silence was understandable.
Amid the chaos left behind by Rainbow Dash's earlier rampage, Twilight's house was now in even greater disorder. Their friends were scattered throughout the room in absurd situations.
Hanging from the ceiling like a piñata, Pinkie Pie swung back and forth, wrapped in her own bandages.
Beneath a fallen bookshelf —luckily cushioned by a pile of pillows— Rarity squirmed in distress, trying to free herself from the smothering trap.
Farther off, in a corner surrounded by embedded knives, shattered bottles, and a small fire starting to spread, Fluttershy lay peacefully asleep in her simple bed. Untouched, with an angelic expression of pure tranquility, she seemed utterly unaware of the chaos that had filled the room.
Unable to react, Applejack and Rainbow Dash stared in silence as Fluttershy began to stir.
The pink-maned pegasus stretched, opened her mouth, and, with the innocent grace of a kitten, let out a tiny yawn. Without the slightest trace of pain or worry to disturb her natural sweetness, she opened her eyes slowly, shaking off the calm dream that still clung to her.
Noticing her friends' grave expressions, she blinked a few times, then tilted her head slightly and asked in her soft, gentle tone:
"Did... something bad happen?"
[---]
Wrapped in the thick night, a scream rose from within Twilight's treehouse.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
"Don't scream so loud, Pinkie! You're not helping!" complained Applejack, irritated. Beside her, Rainbow Dash wore the same look of frustration. Both advanced cautiously through the messy room, carrying the bandaged and plaster-covered body of their pink friend on their backs.
"I'm sorry..." Pinkie tried to apologize, only to let out another short scream.
Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed.
Moments earlier, she and Rainbow Dash had been helping their trapped friends. It was already clear that Fluttershy was unharmed —something Applejack thanked from the bottom of her heart. But she couldn't say the same for Rarity and Pinkie Pie.
Rarity had no serious injuries, but the lack of oxygen after being trapped under a bookshelf had left her disoriented. Once freed, she could barely speak and had trouble standing. Fortunately, Fluttershy's quick aid stabilized her, and now she rested on the couch under her pink-maned friend's attentive care.
Pinkie Pie's condition, on the other hoof, was... peculiar.
Leaving aside the fact that she had been hanging from the ceiling, her body was completely wrapped in bandages and plaster blocks, as if she had suffered a fall so severe that every part of her had to be immobilized. Even her face was plastered over, with only a few tiny openings to breathe. Alarmed by the muffled choking sounds coming from those slits, Applejack decided to remove the plaster from her face to help her breathe.
It was a terrible mistake.
As soon as her mouth was free, instead of gasping for air or thanking them, Pinkie Pie let out a shriek so high-pitched and prolonged that they all covered their ears at once. The whole room vibrated with her scream. Desperate, they tried to calm her down, to see if she was hurt or confused—but to everyone's surprise, Pinkie responded clearly: she was fine and fully aware of what was happening. She simply hadn't been able to speak before because of the plaster on her mouth. What's more, she revealed she had been the second one to wake up—right after Applejack had turned on the lights and long before Rainbow Dash.
Still, despite seeming recovered, Pinkie Pie kept screaming between words. When her exasperated friends asked why she was doing it, her answer was simple:
"I don't knoooow!"
Thus the minutes passed, with no clear explanation —and an unbearable racket growing louder by the second.
"For Celestia's sake! Could someone PLEASE SHUT HER UP ALREADY?!" shouted Rarity from the sofa, her face contorted in pure frustration as her migraine worsened.
"Pinkie, stop! This isn't funny!" Applejack snapped, her voice sharp as a hammer while pain pounded in her ears. Without thinking, she let her bandaged friend drop to the floor with a dull thud.
"Aaaaaaaa! Sorry, Applejack... but... Ugggggg, I can't help it! Aaaaaaaa!"
Pinkie's voice, though filled with guilt, made it clear she wasn't faking it. She simply couldn't stop screaming —not even after Rainbow Dash tried to stuff her mouth with an improvised sock. It didn't work; it only made her scream louder.
Covering their ears, everyone reached the limits of their patience. Rarity looked around in despair, spotting the same bookshelf she'd been trapped under before—perhaps seriously considering crawling back beneath it.
Just as Applejack's patience was about to snap, a firm voice broke through from behind.
"Step aside!" ordered Rainbow Dash, holding a huge wooden mallet between her hooves.
"Where did you get that...? Rainbow, wait!" Applejack managed to say.
But it was too late. Rainbow charged forward, swung the mallet high, and slammed it down on Pinkie Pie's head like a carnival hammer on a whack-a-mole game.
A dull thump followed. Then—silence.
To their relief —and subsequent alarm— the screaming stopped instantly. Rainbow Dash, proud and satisfied, stood atop the heap of broken plaster and torn bandages where the pink pony lay buried.
The others sighed in relief. For a moment, calm returned.
Only to be replaced by grim realization.
Nothing.
No murmurs. No laughter. Nothing came from the mound that had once been their mummified friend.
Unease crept among them until suddenly, a sound broke the silence.
Like a balloon inflating at once, a pink figure burst from the debris.
"I'm freeeee!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, all smiles and euphoria... only to collapse face-first onto the floor seconds later.
"I'm fine..." she mumbled without moving, while Fluttershy hurried to her aid.
Rainbow Dash, unimpressed, turned her gaze away.
"Perfect. Pinkie's no longer a screaming mummy, Rarity can breathe again, Fluttershy's immune to everything, and you—" she pointed at Applejack "—don't even have your hat. Can someone finally tell me what the hay is going on here?" she asked gruffly, tossing the massive mallet aside and hovering in the middle of the room.
Applejack raised a brow. The pegasus's tone wasn't friendly.
"Thanks for caring so much about me, darling. I'm perfectly fine..." came Rarity's dry reply from the couch, equally irritable.
Ignoring the unicorn's complaint, Applejack reflected on Rainbow's question—and, to her annoyance, realized she had no answer.
What had happened, really?
Had everything since the train ride with her friends been a dream? No—Applejack couldn't believe that. The memories were too vivid, too alive to dismiss as fantasy.
When she looked at the others, she saw the same expression mirrored in their faces. No one had an explanation.
Silence returned—heavy and melancholic—filling the room.
Until, suddenly, something broke it.
"Maybe..." came a soft voice in the background. "Maybe we should start by saying what actually happened."
Every gaze turned toward Fluttershy, who was still holding Pinkie Pie in her hooves. Almost immediately, everyone's attention shifted to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow froze, feeling their sharp stares.
"Hey, wait a second. I was the last one still standing! If you're gonna start demanding explanations, maybe you should give me yours first," she said defensively.
"Oh, dear—so you were the last one standing?" Rarity said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. "But weren't you also the first to leave? Tell us, sweetheart, how did your little date with Vanilla go?"
The pegasus's feathers bristled instantly.
"Excuse me? I didn't leave you for some polite tea duel like you'd attend, Rarity. I went to fight—for all of you!"
"Ahh, sorry, Rainbow. Maybe I wasn't clear earlier, but... don't dodge the question. How did it go?"
Rainbow Dash, still hovering, fell silent. She hesitated, slowly descended to the floor, sat down, lowered her head, and after a long moment that seemed to suspend time, answered in a defeated tone:
"I lost..."
A cold atmosphere filled the messy room.
Pinkie Pie, who had remained on the floor, sat up with a worried expression much like Fluttershy's and silently moved closer to her. Rarity, with greater elegance, did the same from her place on the couch.
Applejack, who had already expected that answer, leaned against her friend to comfort her. Rainbow Dash didn't react. After a short silence, she continued:
"I'm not sure what happened... I had him right there, and I was about to come back to you all, but... then he did something. After that, everything's blurry. I think... somehow they took control of me and made me attack you. If it hadn't been for Twilight, I don't know what else would've happened," she confessed, her voice weary.
The memories of the battle and her defeat crowded her mind, revealing a vulnerability unusual for her.
Influenced by her sorrow, the others bowed their heads, leaving only Applejack standing, trying to comfort her friend.
It was then, in the midst of that painful confession, that a single thought struck all of them at once.
"Twilight... where was she?"
They all said it simultaneously.
Before anyone could give voice to the panic that came with the obvious absence of their most important friend, another voice cut through the tension.
"Ohhh, by all that's PINK!" Pinkie gasped as if she had seen a ghost. Everyone held their breath.
"Applejack! You don't have your hat!"
No one answered that untimely revelation —least of all Applejack, who, restraining her irritation, let out a long sigh.
It wasn't what she had hoped to hear, but it wasn't wrong either. So she let it pass, like a herd of wild pigs crossing her path.
Even with all eyes still on her, Pinkie's tongue didn't stop: "...and Twilight!... she's not here?" she finally said, her expression barely hiding her dread.
Had Pinkie's sudden interruption been deliberate? None of them thought so at that moment —but if they had, it would've made perfect sense. Because the panic that washed over the group was far smaller than it might have been without that distraction.
Startled and anxious, but not yet desperate, the ponies exchanged worried glances, unsure of what to say. Soon, all began searching the room for her.
But there was no sign of their beloved friend.
"How did no one notice this earlier?!" cried Rainbow Dash, frustrated, rummaging between fallen bookshelves and toppled cabinets. Her earlier weakness had been replaced by growing guilt.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault. I thought we were still in her house. Back then, we used to sleep downstairs, and sometimes she slept in the—" Applejack was moving a couch as she tried to justify herself, but her words were cut off by a piercing scream that shook the room.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
Immediately, they all dropped what they were doing and turned toward the pony who had screamed.
Rarity, her face frozen in horror, staggered backward, trembling, unable to tear her eyes away from the couch where she had been resting moments ago.
Not fully understanding, Applejack rushed to the terrified unicorn.
"What is it, Rarity? Did you find something?"
"Find something? Look for yourself!" Rarity cried, her voice on the verge of tears.
Confused, Applejack turned her eyes to the couch her friend was pointing at with trembling hooves.
"This is... a couch," she said flatly.
But for Rarity —whose eyes were trained to notice even the slightest detail— that couch was something much worse...
"It's... PLASTIC!" she wailed through tears, her horror and trademark dramatism overflowing.
Applejack fought the urge to fall over sideways and instead replied with weary indifference, "Plastic... anything else?"
"Of course there's more!" Rarity shot back immediately. "The walls are plastic! The lights are plastic! Even the books are plastic! Everything is plaaaastic!" she cried, nearly screaming, before collapsing against Fluttershy to keep from fainting.
Baffled, the others took a closer look around.
What moments ago had seemed like a messy but familiar room now looked foreign —strange and unreal. A place steeped in mystery, one they were only beginning to comprehend.
Ignoring the confusion around her, and without warning, Pinkie Pie stepped forward, picked up a book from the floor, and licked its surface.
"Definitely plastic..." she muttered seriously.
Applejack, meanwhile, stomped a hoof on the supposedly wooden floor and tilted her head, puzzled. It sounded hollow.
"Weird..." she murmured. The material didn't feel familiar —but for some reason, it reminded her of Apple Bloom's little toy house.
Amid the growing murmurs, Rainbow Dash took flight, drawing everyone's attention.
"All right, so we've got a plastic problem, huh? Great! How about we save that for later and focus on something more important? Like, I don't know... finding our missing friend!" Her final words carried a tone of nervous urgency she couldn't quite hide.
Once again, a scream pierced the air.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
Pinkie Pie, her face pale and frozen, had let out the cry.
"Please, if it's about my mane looking different, you'd better not say it, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash barked immediately —more a threat than a warning.
But Pinkie didn't reply. Her wide eyes stayed locked on something behind Rainbow Dash.
"Pinkie? What are you looking at...?" asked Applejack, noticing her friend's petrified expression and turning toward the same direction.
Applejack froze.
The others did too —and fell silent.
A few steps behind Rainbow Dash, beyond the couch, a staircase led to the second floor of what looked like their old friend's home.
But halfway up, half-hidden in the staircase's shadows, someone was watching them in silence.
An ordinary earth pony with a pink mane, wearing nothing but a simple blanket, stood alone, staring at them with intense eyes.
Badwhiz StarHeart, sworn enemy of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony—and of friendship itself—was there.