Into the Dashieverse

Chapters

Chapter Three: The Griffin named Rainbow Skies
Chapter One: Getting into some Zap Apple jam!
Chapter Two: Welcome to Rainbow Society
Chapter Four: The chase through the Dashieverse
Chapter Five: Shadow & Chaos
Chapter Six: A shadow of doubt
Chapter Seven: Trials to Come
Chapter Eight: A Storm is Brewing

Chapter Three: The Griffin named Rainbow Skies

"Okay, here we go, don't mess this up. I may just be the mascot, but I gotta prove I'm Wonderbolt material." A blue feathered griffin muttered to herself; the griffin didn't look like anything like the rest of her kin, sporting a blue and yellow skirt and having her claws stuck inside two massive blue and yellow cheerleader pom poms with multi-colored lion fluff around her neck, a wispy tail with a tuff of rainbow-colored hair on the end and two round magenta-colored eyes. She looked like a perky cheerleader pony, then a griffin, which is why Spitfire made her the Wonderbolt mascot. Soarin flew over towards his sweat pouring off his brow as he shouted, "Buck this!"

He slammed his hooves into the lockers nearby as the griffin was shocked to see the usually laid-back stallion so angry. Worried for her friend, Rainbow flew over and asked, "Soarin, what's wrong?"

He tore his mane and shouted, "They kicked me to reserves. Can you believe it!? I messed up once, and they threw me aside like nothing!" He then took off his uniform and threw it into his locker.

The stallion turned towards her as he calmed down and looked rather hurt, "Sorry, Rainbow, I didn't mean to get angry in front of you like that."

Rainbow Skies was still abit in shock as she asked, "So… they're replacing you? I thought Spitfire was going to let you keep your spot?"

"I thought so too," He sighed, revealing his wings. Rainbow noticed the left was a bit crooked compared to the right and said, "Yeah, I guess after my accident at the relay race, my wing never fully healed. Spitfire just took me aside and told me I must take some time off and put me on the reserves." He lowered his head and grumbled, "Honestly, I think I might just quit."

Rainbow Skies flew over and hugged her and said, "No! We were supposed to be Wonderbolts together!"

The stallion looked over as Rainbow Skies took him by the hoof. "No, you can't give up! You're amazing, Soarin."

Soarin smiled at her as he said, "Maybe before my accident, I didn't know if I could ever be where I was; my wing is all bucked up. The doctors said I'm lucky I can even fly at all."

"Then find a way to work around it! I bet you can be a Wonderbolt again!"

"Maybe, I guess that means there's a chance you can be one yourself now. If anyone deserves my spot, it's you."

Rainbow Skies stood there, her heart pounding in her chest. She couldn't help but grasp a claw to her chest to keep herself from feinting and whispered, "Me, you think so?"

He let out a sarcastic laugh and added, "Come on, you know if it were up to me, you would be a Wonderbolt already; you helped save Equestria like a dozen times now, you were able to do a sonic rainbooom at the young flyers' competition, saved my flank from falling to my death," He then slowly trotted over and whispered, "you were the only one who visited me at the hospital when my wing was broken."

The stallion took the Wonderbolt uniform and hoofed it to her. As Rainbow Skies stepped back, she was completely taken aback by the offer, feeling unworthy, and stammered, "I...I can't."

"We both knew this was coming, and well, you might need to clean it and modify it, but it's yours."

Rainbow Skies gently took the sweaty, smelly Wonderbolt uniform and hugged it as she whispered, "This…this is…"

Soarin gently smiled at her, "Yeah, it's yours. I'll come by to watch you compete, okay? I'm sure you'll be a Wonderbolt, no problem."

He then began to trot off as Rainbow Skies turned and asked, "Wait! Where are you going!?"

He looked over and said, "I think I need to have some time for myself for a while….just fair warning, the Wonderbolts aren't all they're cracked up to be; they can be real jerks."

The stallion continued to trot out of the locker room as Rainbow Skies held his uniform, thinking about what Soarin said. She remembered how the Wonderbolts didn't let her go to the Wonderbolt Academy; instead, they had her become their "mascot," and she thought it was a privilege at first; now she was wondering if this was some token way of keeping her from being a proper Wonderbolt.

She then heard Spitfire shout, "Rainbow Skies, you'll be on in five!"

The griffin sighed as she placed the Wonderbolt uniform into her locker and sighed, "Alright, well, here goes nothing." She spread her wings and flew out towards the stadium.

"One, two, three, hey, the Wonderbolts are the best! They will pass any test!" Rainbow cheered, twirling about in the air and shaking her pom poms in front of a crowd. Many of the ponies clapped and cheered back as they watched her jump about and do some energetic twirls between the many stunts of the Wonderbolts. After a few hours, the show ended, and she turned towards Spitfire, who flew over to her and shouted, "Rainbow Skies!"

The griffin flew over to her, perked up, gave a sharp salute, then chirped, "Yes!"

"You did great out there. I just wanted to ask if you are still interested in being a Wonderbolt?"

Her eyes glowed with excitement as she chirped, "Oh yes!"

"Well, good news, you may have heard Soarin's wing is still busted, and we're holding tryouts for somepony to take his place tomorrow. If you want a shot, be here at 0700, understood?"

"Yes, mam!" the griffin cheered. She then ran off, squealing in delight. She felt terrible for Saorin but couldn't miss this opportunity to be a Wonderbolt finally.

Rainbow Skies soared through the skies at breakneck speeds the following day as she approached the Wonderbolt stadium. The griffin was so excited! She's been waiting so long to finally get a chance to join the Wonderbolts! She then flew to the locker room, adjusted her feathers, and looked at herself in Soarin's old uniform. It was now cleaned and adjusted to her body, thanks to Rarity. She put on her goggles and came outside to the tryouts; she was last in line with dozens of other pegasi as they continued to do various stunts in front of the Wonderbolts as judges, and then it was her turn. Then, when Rainbow Skies did her performance, soaring into the sky and waving through a bunch of hoops, circled a few clouds, dodging and weaving expertly without any, she flew up as high as she could, aiming downwards. This was it time to do her signature move, the sonic rainboom. She tucked in her wings and bent downwards, then shot down like a bolt of lightning as the griffin gathered speed and rainbow swirls went around her. Then, there was a crack as a rainboom appeared, and the magical blast of rainbow-colored energy radiated through the arena. She slammed back down as she took off her goggles, which were now torn from the excessive wear and tear, sweat coming down her forehead, and heavy heaving, but she did it perfectly! Now she had to see how the judges acted as she looked up nervously and asked, "How was that?"

Everypony just gawked at her, and then they all started clapping and cheering. The judges all gave nods of approval, writing things down from the looks of things. She really wowed them. The griffin could barely hold her excitement together. She squealed in delight as Spitfire came over. "Well, uh, Rainbow Skies, that was, uh, really good! But my fellow Wonderbolts and I must discuss who won, okay?"

"Yeah, okay!" Rainbow cheered. She then waited with the other contestants after patiently waiting for what felt like an eternity. But eventually, Spitfire came forward and cleared her throat as she exclaimed, "I, along with the rest of the Judges, decided that you all performed adequately. But only one of you will be chosen to be a Wonderbolt. Without further ado, welcome Lightning Dust as our next Wonderbolt!"

"Oh, heck yeah!" the green pegasus flew in the air, and everypony else groaned. Meanwhile, Rainbow Skies just cried out in horror as the green-coated pegasus was now wearing a wonderbolt uniform and gave her a sly smile as she flew off.

Rainbow Skies then turned towards them and asked, "Wait!? Did I do something wrong? Did I mess up!?"

Spitfire approached her and said, "No, your performance was perfect, but the other judges and I believe you wouldn't make a good fit for the team. You're amazing and can do a lot, but being our mascot is the best place for you."

Rainbow started to get furious as her face turned red, and she shouted, "A good fit!? What does that mean!? Why wouldn't I make a good fit!"

Spitfire stomped a hoof and snapped, "Would you sit down for a second!"

Rainbow did as Spitfire ordered as she stood over her: "You should be thankful we let you be our mascot. Another outburst like that, and I'll have you fired, understood?"

Rainbow bowed her head and grumbled, "Fine, I understand."

"Good, now wash up and take some time off…I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but take it and be grateful for being our mascot."

Spitfire then turned around and stomped off as Rainbow Skies slowly walked towards the shower, glumly wondering what she had done wrong and why she wouldn't be a good fit.

After an hour of changing and showering, Rainbow Skies was grumpily trotting through the locker room, wondering why the Wonderbolts wouldn't let her join when she heard hushed whispers. Curious, she sneakily went over to some of the lockers and hid behind them, seeing Fleetfoot with Spitfire alone. She then heard Fleetfoot ask, "Please tell me you didn't tell her the truth, right?"

Spitfire turned her head, looking somewhat guilty, as she said, "Of course not. We can't let her know...but this doesn't feel right. Soarin thought she should be a Wonderbolt."

Fleetfoot smiled as she said, "Who cares what Soarin thinks? I understand she wants to be a Wonderbolt. Still, the Guidelines are clear: the only creatures allowed to be Wonderbolts are pegasi."

"Rainbow Skies is amazing, but you're right. If we let her join, other griffins could get the wrong idea and think anyone can join. Griffins are violent and greedy and can't follow orders. Those are the last things we want on our team."

"Exactly! Rainbow Skies can be relied on, but we saw how griffins are; they can never be allowed to become Wonderbolts. You made the right call. Rainbow's perfectly fine anyways; she'll be better off being our cute mascot and will never know the wiser."

Rainbow Skies could feel the anger boiling inside of her. That was why they wouldn't let her become a Wonderbolt; she was a griffin! She then took her uniform in her claws, threw it, and shouted, "That's why you didn't let me join—because I'm a griffin!"

The other two Wonderbolts turned to her Spitfire, eyes lit up, and shouted, "Rainbow, what are you doing here!?"

"Just taking a shower, and I don't know, guess being a ditsy cute griffin!"

Fleetfoot rolled her eyes and threw a hoof, "Come on, Rainbow. She didn't mean it like that. It's not just because you're a griffin; you don't have the attitude we're looking for."

Rainbow Skies was appalled at what came out of her hero's mouth and just stared at them. Her eyes furled as she stared straight down at Spitfire. "Soarin was right; the Wonderbolts are a bunch of jerks. I'm going to find Soarin and apologize for trying to take his place."

She threw the cheerleader uniform towards Spitfire, saying, "You don't have to worry about firing me; I quit." The griffin ran off, tears streaming down her face, unable to look back at her former heroes.

As she flew out of the locker room with tears in her eyes, Soarin stood outside with a smile. He had a giant bottle of Apple Cider and some tankards, and he asked, "So, did you make it?"

She looked up, and his smile turned apologetic when he saw her sorrowful expression. He whispered, "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. I should say sorry. I was so excited to be a Wonderbolt that I didn't even think how bucked up it was that they were trying to replace you." Tears started to run down her face as she cried, "You were right; the Wonderbolts are a bunch of jerks!"

She couldn't control herself anymore, so she tarted to sob. Soarin held her close and whispered, "It's okay. I was fine with you taking my place. Honestly, I was just happy your dreams were finally coming true."

Rainbow laughed, wiping the tears from her face. "Thanks, You're too good for those jerks anyways. Can… we just get out of here?"

He nodded, and the two flew to a cloud far away from the Wonderbolts Stadium to sit on. The stallion then poured some cider, which they drank as they watched the sunrise. She told him everything that happened as he sat there nodding, "Yeah, I figured they would use those stupid old guidelines against you."

"Did you know about them?"

He sighed, brushing a hoof over his black mane, "Yeah, a little…I didn't know how seriously Spitfire would enforce them, though, but I did try to tell her they were outdated and that you deserved a chance, and for a while, she agreed. I don't understand why she changed her mind?"

Rainbow rubbed her leg, thinking about how Spitfire mentioned Soarin pushing back for her. She said, "Well, thanks for trying to get me in; it means a lot."

The stallion still looked so depressed as he muttered, "Yeah, and what good did that do?"

She turned to him, wishing to cheer him up, but he'd been through so much recently with all of his hospital appointments, even after he broke his wing. Then, an idea suddenly came to her, and she shouted, "Why don't we make our own team! start from scratch, ya know?"

Soarin laughed, then asked, "that actually sounds like a great idea, what should we call ourselves?"

"Not sure, but I'm sure we can think of a cool name!"

Soarin pondered, then suggested, "What about the Rainbooms?"

Rainbow giggled at the name, then asked, "Seriously, the Rainbooms!?"

Soarin laughed back, saying, "I mean, that's how we met you doing a Sonic Rainboom to save my sorry flank."

She nudged him and added," Well, you tried saving Rarity; she bucked you in the face, so that was more on her."

"True…" He nuzzled her back as she whispered, "Let's do it; we'll make our own team; we'll find our own talented pegasi, griffins, heck, even dragons; you got wings and talent you can join, no questions asked."

"Sure, that sounds awesome!" He took out a present as Rainbow put her talons to her face and gasped, "No, you didn't!"

He blushed, then said, "Look, I had to get you something if you made it…but seeing we were making our own flying team, I didn't want it to go to waste."

She opened the box and gasped. Seeing a new set of goggles, she squealed, taking them and placing them over her head. Soarin replied, "These are the most expensive goggles I could find. They're enchanted to help your eyes see much further than they can, and I made sure to have them sized for griffins. Plus, they are way more durable then your last pair."

She held them close and whispered, "They're amazing…"

"Yeah, they'll look great on you."

They then just looked deep into each other's eyes. The two then both came close and started making out as they held onto each other, and then she felt a hot flash, and then she was suddenly thrown aside by Soarin. Everything happened so fast by the time Rainbow turned her head she saw Soarin was being hit by a bolt of lightning and was shouting in pain as he clutched his chest. The griffin then took out her talons and cried out as she turned to a massive shadowy alicorn made up of what she could surmise were storm clouds standing in front of her. This creature was unlike anything she'd seen before. However it looked similar to Nightmare Moon, with glaring green eyes. It glared at her and shouted, "That wasn't supposed to happen! I was targeting you!"

It flew at them, and Rainbow screamed in anger and pain as she slammed into the shadow monstrosity and started clawing at it with her talons in a rage. But they sliced through it like it was made of smoke.

So Rainbow flew up and dodged the lightning strikes from the creature's horn. From then on, as she gained air, she started preparing for another Rainbooom. As she gathered her strength, she flew towards Soarin, picking him up as she then aimed herself like a bullet straight at the shadowy creature. She built up rainbow-colored energy glowing around her as she built up speed, and suddenly, a Rainboom exploded around her as she hit the nightmare creature with all her might. But then, as she made impact, the griffin started tumbling about in an ethereal plane made of rainbow-colored swirls. Then, as she gathered her bearings and looked around the clouds, she relaized her claws were empty. Her immediate thoughts were to find out where Soarin was!

Rainbow Dash looked around as she shouted, "Soarin, Soarin!"

"What!? Who's calling my name?"

The light blue pegasus flew over, and she cried joyfully, "You're okay!" She flew over as he held up a hoof, then snapped, "Um yeah, I am, but who are you?"

"Oh, come on, it's me, Rainbow Skies, your friend. We just fought a shadowy creature; you took a lightning bolt in the chest!"

He blinked looking completely confused as she scoffed, "Okay, seriously!? Drop the act, nopony is around!"

The stallion looked somewhat confused as he said, " I'm sorry, but I don't even know who you are."

Rainbow paused, then eyed him in the Wonderbolt uniform and remembered how he quit just yesterday as she asked outloud, "Wait, what's going on here?"

She then heard, "Rainbow down here."

Rainbow Skies recognized that voice as she flew down through the clouds, seeing her Soarin on a cloud with a nasty burn in his chest. She flew over, crying, "You're okay! I thought you…" The griffin couldn't bring herself to say thinking she lost him.

Soarin then took her by the talon, gave a painful smile, and joked, "Come on, I've been through worse." The stallion groaned as she started to pick him up, "Don't you worry. I'll get you to a hospital, and you'll be good as new."

He could only nod, grimacing in pain. She then took him to her back, and despite being aching and exhausted from all the flying she did, the adrenaline coursing through her was still pumping with the fear of losing a friend. She then turned towards the other Soarin, gawking at them as she shouted, "Can you stop standing there and help me!? Where's the nearest hospital!?"

"R..right! Um, follow me!" he flew over. She helped him onto her back and escorted her down to Ponyville. As they approached the city skyline, the griffin sighed in relief, recognizing Ponyville General. She burst through the front doors and shouted, "I need help! A lightning bolt struck my friend!"

There were several nurses as they came over, taking the stallion onto a gurney and wheeling him away to the emergency room. A nurse reassured Rainbow Soarin would get the best treatment and will be fine. She then took a seat in the lobby and tried her best to calm down. Meanwhile, somewhat confused, the other Soarin sat down beside her and asked, "So, uh, who are you anyways? Who is that other me? What's going on here?"

She turned the stallion around the lobby, recognizing many of the ponies there but noticing that none came to greet her and said, "I told you I'm Rainbow Skies, and from the looks of it, I think I got sent to a different universe."

Chapter One: Getting into some Zap Apple jam!

It was early one morning, and Rainbow Dash was slowly flying through the skies. A lot happened recently, with her being kidnapped by changelings and fighting and defeating the Storm King. But out of everything, she became a Wonderbolt…a Wonderbolt after years of work and toiling through all the challenges and heartache. She was now sailing through the skies, letting the wind hit her face. It felt like she had everything: good friends, a wonderful life, and a dream fulfilled. But something felt empty, the thrill…that part of her that desired the feeling of facing danger or doing some insane stunt, the risk and reward of pulling it off or crashing. Then the idea came to her: how about she wake up by doing a Sonic Rainboom? It's been a while since she did one, and it would feel good just to let out some steam! She then soared through the skies, and as she gathered speed, she felt energy surge through her as a massive explosion rippled behind her; she squeaked, seeing a rainbow tear in the sky. As she went through it, all around her was a beautiful plume of rainbow colors streaking around her as she was whipped through the skies and slammed down towards the ground and then as she broke through a bunch of trees, she skidded onto the ground, breaking her landing. Rainbow Dash then looked around seeing the dozens of apple trees around her. It didn’t take long to recognize she was in Sweet Apple Acres, recognizing the rows of apple trees, then she heard a loud Crack and turned to see a massive blue-coated stallion with a short rainbow mane and tail and wearing a cowcolt hat. Rainbow Dash eyed him as she first mistook him for Big Mac, but the coat color didn’t match; im fact other then being a bulky earthpony stallion he looked much like her. She then slowly trotted over and asked, “uh…hello?”

The stallion turned to face her, rather surprised, and said, “Uh, hello, mam. Are you lost?”

Rainbow Dash was taken aback, surprised somepony in Ponyville wouldn’t recognize her, then snapped back, “What, no! In fact, who are you, and what are you doing here!?”

The stallion tilted his hat with a smug grin and said, “I'm Zap Apple, and I've been helping the Apples run this farm since I was a colt. Now, how about you tell me what ya doin’ here? This here apple orchard is private property.”

“What are you talking about!? I come here to visit Applejack all the time?!”

The stallion scratched his mane, “Well if Applejack’s your friend, I’m sure I would’ve seen you by now?”

Rainbow Dash started getting scared and angry as she snapped, “I could care less if you know me or not! I'm going to go find her!”

She flew off, looking around the apple orchard, scanning for any sign of her best friend. Then she saw the orange-coated earth pony not far away, landing near her and waving a hoof. “Applejack!”

The mare looked over and eyed her as she stepped back. “Um, who are you?”

Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks, her heart freezing in her chest. “Applejack, stop joining! Is this some kind of prank? Is that just Big Mac in disguise!?”

The stallion looked at her as if she were crazy and asked, “Um, no? And whose Big Mac?”

Rainbow was now starting to get scared, “no, wait! You have to be a Changeling!” she flew over and looked her over as Applejack scoffed, “I am no changeling! Now, what is with you!? If anypony is actin’ like a changeling, it's you!”

Rainbow Dash flew back and shouted, “I’m no changeling either! I'm Rainbow Dash, your best friend, and this isn’t funny anymore!”

She then heard something and saw the big blue earth pony coming over, looking stern as he said, “Applejack, has this pegasus given you any trouble?”

“No, she ain’t; she just seems confused.”

Then Rainbow Dash felt something similar when she caused a Rainboom. She turned to see the sky above and watched in awe as bipedal creatures emerged from it. Rainbow Dash recognized them instantly as the minions of the storm king. It wasn’t long before she heard screams from Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash didn’t take a second to think about what to do next as she, Applejack, and Zap Apple were rushing toward the town.

In the middle of Ponyville, the storm creatures were smashing homes and dragging scared ponies into the middle of the square as more poured through massive rainbow portals. They were now gathering the ponies, enslaving them in shackles as a blue-coated unicorn sporting silver armor and hoisting a flag bearing the emblem of a burning sun flying over him. His stone-cold glare looked among the ponies and shouted, “I am Captain Nimbus! This is but a taste for what is to come as you must be ready to welcome your new ruler of this Equestria Princess Day Breaker!”

The stallion slammed his flag into the ground as he removed his sword and poised. “Now kneel!”

Many of the ponies stood there, but most were forcibly placed onto their knees. Soon, most were doing it of their own free will, too scared, and then somepony shouted.

“Not if I can say anything about it!”

Then he turned to see Rainbow Dash slamming next to him, dirt flying everywhere, her eyes glaring as she shouted. “You will let these ponies be, or get ready to get your flank kicked!"

“Don’t forget about me!” the massive stallion she met early slammed next to her as he looked up, tilting the hat on his head, and said, “This pompous windbag needs to learn a lesson bout messin' with Ponyville."

The knight just scoffed as he held up a hoof and shouted, “These are your champions! Some peasant and this mare!" Lightning started to spark from his horn as he reared his head and then shouted, "Come then, let's see what you can do!"

Then, the rest of the creatures started to surround the two. Zap Apple then lowered his head and whispered, “I don't know you, but for now, we both wana to stop this crazy colt, so we work together to stop this, agreed?”

“Agreed,” Rainbow Dash replied, seeing she had no choice. Then one of the storm creatures attacked, and Zap Apple slammed her hooves into its face, sending it back smashing into one of his comrades while Rainbow Dash flew up, missing two as they collided into each other. Zap Apple then took out a lasso, tied one of them, and started to swirl him around, knocking a couple more as Rainbow Dash bucked and hit left and right, slamming one after the other as she circled around in circles like how Zap Apple was and their motions started to create a lightning storm zapping and knocking out the rest of Nimbus’ minions. Then the knight came forward as his eyes filled with lightning, and lightning started to shoot out of his horn. “Don’t think I will go down so easily as those fools!”

He was about to send a blast of lightning at Rainbow Dash as Zap Apple lassoed Rainbow Dash out of the way, then threw her up in the air and ran right at the knight as he bent his head, readying his horn this time, Zap Apple anticipated the lightning jump up and took his lassoed his muzzle then jumped over and slammed him down onto the ground. As the cowcolt got up, Nimbus was about to ram him with his horn, but then they heard a massive Boom! Everypony looked up in amazement as a rainboom appeared above them; a blast of rainbow enveloped the entire field, and the two blinked and looked up to see Rainbow Dash standing on top of the stallion as he struggled under her, shouting, “Unhoof me, you cur!”

“Such naughty language for a knight in Shining Armor!” as Zap Apple started to tie him up with the lasso, the storm creatures started to jump back through the rainbow-colored tear, and the stallion shouted but couldn’t as his minions fled, and the tear disappeared, Then, as the danger passed, many of the ponies around them started to clap and cheer. Just as six ponies came running into Ponyville, Rainbow turned to see she recognized most of them as her friends except for a red-coated pegasus with a straw-colored mane blinking in confusion as she groaned, “Aww, we missed all the fighting!? I wanted to show off a new trick!”

Rainbow Dash blinked, looking at the red pegasus with confusion. As she was about to say something, she felt queasy, and every muscle in her body seemed not to want to listen to her. As she began to lose her footing, the pegasus felt lightheaded and then fell backward, as she felt two massive hooves catch her before everything went dark.

Later that day, Rainbow Dash groaned as she lifted her head, trying to gauge where she was. Looking around, she saw a massive room filled with bookshelves, a trophy case, and some plowing equipment. Then she looked to her side to see a massive stallion sitting by her bed reading a book. He looked towards her and, with a sigh of relief, “You’re awake.”

She groaned, slamming back down, and said, “I was hoping that was all just some crazy dream.”

He came forward, wiped his forehead, and said, “You’re telling me the last few hours were nuts? The princesses came down, and they took that crazy stallion away to their dungeons. Meanwhile, I’m being praised as a hero despite trying to tell them if it weren’t for you and doing that sonic rainboom, I'd probably be dead.”

“Oh, stop! You saved my flank, and you deserve some praise. I'm starting to realize that this might not be my universe anyways.”

Zap Apple turned to her and said, “Twilight mentioned something like that while I took you over here. Especially what Applejack saying somthin' about knowing her, but she doesn't know you.”

Rainbow turned to see a bowl of soup and a mug of cider on the table. “Is that for me?”

“Yeah, it’s some cider, and Granny's cream and mushroom soup thought it could help.”

Rainbow got up and ate her food, which was okay, but she eagerly drank the mug of cider, enjoying every last bit of it. As she wiped her mouth, she then asked, “So, another universe? Ho…how did I come into another universe?”

Zap Apple sat down next to her bed and simply shrugged, “I can’t say for certain, that's something some egghead like Twilight will know.”

Rainbow Dash snickered. Seeing so much in her in this stallion made her want to know more about him, so she asked, “Alright? So why not tell me about your life? Why are you here in Ponyville?”

“Ah well, been born and raised here my whole life by to two pegasi no less; parents were quite surprised to birth an earth pony; nonetheless, they loved me, and I simply found I had a talent growing Zap Apples and been here helping the Apples farm ever since.”

“I see, so what about that red-coated pegasus? I don’t recognize her.”

“Oh, Candy Apple!? She’s quite a show mare. I've been trying to be a daredevil, going to fairs and performing ever since I knew her as a filly,” he then took a draught from his mug of cider as he chuckled, “She and her friends are the ones going out to save Equestria. I mainly just stay here and take care of the farm.”

Rainbow scoffed, seeing that if this stallion was anything like her, that wasn’t the only thing he does, and asked, “Oh, if you’re like me, you have bigger ambitions than that!”

“Well, I said I help out on the farm. My true passion is competeing in rodeos. Heck, I went to the big Rodeo in Canterlot last year and won nearly every blue ribbon!”

Rainbow sighed in relief, then said, “See there, that proves it! You’re me! Despite it, you’re like a Big Mac Rodeo star mixed with my personality!”

“I still don’t know who this Big Mac you’re talkin’ bout, but sure? So what about you? what ya do in your universe?”

Rainbow blushed a little as she started to talk about herself, “Me, well, I saved Equestria by turning Nightmare Moon into Luna, stopped Discord’s rampage, helped the Crystal Ponies and stop Sombra from returning, helped Twilight defeat Tirek, stopped the Storm King from taking over Equestria, and became a Wonderbolt!”

Zap Apple chuckled and said, “Is that all? You didn’t become a princess, too, and now you have a kingdom?”

Rainbow couldn’t help but snicker at Zap Apple’s sarcastic remark, then said, “No, my friend Twilight became a princess; I'm just a pegasus.”

The stallion rose, stretched his limbs, and replied, “Well, it seems we have some similarities, except you’re a hero, and I’m just a simple farmer.”

Rainbow felt a pang of regret, just lambasting her glory a little. She then trotted to the trophy case, admiring the dozen blue ribbons inside, and said. “Don’t sell yourself short; getting all those blue ribbons is quite an achievement. I bet you even gave all the prize money to help Ponyville?”

The stallion was surprised to hear this and asked, “How did you know?”

“My Applejack would’ve done the same; in fact, when she competed, she didn’t earn any blue ribbons at the Cantelot rodeo and tried to gain enough bits by working at a cherry farm.”

The stallion paused, and he couldn't help but chuckle and replied, “That’s funny, my Applejack did the exact same thing?”

They both paused for a second, and then they started laughing, and Rainbow Dash felt another pang in her chest thinking about her Applejack, Ponyville, and all her friends. She started to feel sad and depressed as she said, “But now I'm stuck in another universe, and I can't get home…" Rainbow Dash couldn't hold back, tearing up a little and crying, "I’m stuck here forever.”

Zap Apple slowly came over, and she looked up into those two big magenta-colored, caring looks in his eyes as he said, “Rainbow, listen, I don’t know you that well, but you saved my life and helped my Ponyville. The least I can do is help you get you home, and I promise that’s what I'll do.”

Rainbow felt in her heat. Zap wanted to help her, but the problem was he was just an earth pony. Feeling abit angry, she blurted, “But how!? I'm sorry, but you don't have magic powers, and you're not really smart, as you said! So how can you help me if you literally can't do anything!"

Zap Apple stepped back, clearly not really knowing how to respond as he stammered, “I’ll…I'll ask around; I'm sure somepony has to know how to get ya home, ok? I'll do research, ask Twilight, I'll beg the princesses if I have to. I promise I ain't gonna just leave you high and dry." Rainbow then started to stumble as Zap went by her, aiding the mare up on her hooves as he suggested, "You're still pretty beat from the fight; why don’t ya rest?”

The pegasus tried to get back up on all fours, wanting to support herself, but every muscle in her body was aching in pain, so she lay there against the big oaf and grumbled, “Fine…if I'm gonna be bedridden all day I might as well read, do you at least have some Daring Do books in this universe?”

The stallion laughed as he helped her to the bookshelf she had noticed before and then saw that it was completely filled with Daring Do books. “Help yourself.”

Rainbow got up, having enough strength to look through, chose a few titles she hadn't read before (or weren't written in her universe) and plopped them on the bedside table, looking forward to reading them all. She then gave one more look around the room and, with a confused look, asked, “Hey, if I'm using your bed, where will you sleep?”

The stallion pointed a hoof towards a sleeping bag with some pillows. “I’m comfy here.”

Rainbow was taken aback. It was a nice gesture, but this was Zap Apple’s room, and she did not feel comfortable stealing his bed. “No, I'll take the sleeping bag. You can sleep in your bed.”

The pegasus squeaked as the stallion laid her down and tucked her underneath some blankets like a filly, “Now stop your frettin’; you saved my life, and you get to sleep in my bed.”

The pegasus didn’t like this arrangement; seeing Zap Apple was way too nice for his good. In fact, he's been nothing but kind since they met, despite not knowing each other. Rainbow sighed, seeing a lot of the Apple's stubborn, kind nature in him, so fighting back would be like talking to a brick wall, so she relented. “Fine, but that just means I still owe you.”

“Well, if you're up for it, how about you help me with some chores tomorrow? That'll probably help keep your mind off things and pay me back abit while my friends find ya way home?”

“Fine, I've helped my Applejack buck apples before; it’ll be fun.” Rainbow yawned as she picked up a Daring Do book and started to read. She then spent the next few hours engrossed in the adventure of Daring Do trapped in the Underworld and having to explore a labyrinth full of traps and monsters! It was exciting, and she continued reading until her eyelids grew heavy. Then, she fell back on her pillow, dreaming of herself stuck in a labyrinth with Daring Do, searching for a way to get home.

Chapter Two: Welcome to Rainbow Society

Later that afternoon, Rainbow Dash was going around Sweet Apple Acres, flying up and picking apples from apple trees, placing them down in the baskets below. She wasn't paying attention to what she was doing, and she did her best to keep her mind busy and not think about being stuck in a different dimension. Zap Apple slowly trotted over, pulling a wagon with barrels filled with apples. The stallion looked up and said, "Wow, you got nearly all the apples here."

Rainbow looked around, rubbed the back of her mane, and apologized, "Yeah, sorry, I help my friend Applejack now and again."

Zap laughed, "No, need to be sorry, you've been doing quite alot of work."

They then poured the apples into a barrel, and Candy Apple flew over, Rainbow Dash peering up as she said, "So you're Rainbow Dash, huh?"

"Yeah, what about it!?"

"Well, seeing another pony from another dimension is super cool!? What is it like? Do you have flying carriages!? Do you have princes instead of princesses!? Are there towers made of cheese!"

"What, no!? My dimension is almost exactly like yours except… well…" She looked at Candy Apple for abit longer, her red coat, blonde mane, and bright green eyes. "Um, you look very familiar to my friend's brother?"

Candy's eyes went wide, and she started to get giddy with excitement. She squealed, "Wait, hold on in your universe. Applejack has a brother!"

"Yeah."

Rainbow winced as she turned towards her, feeling abit embarrassed as she continued her train of thought, "And that means….well, you know…"

“What should I know!? Tell me! The suspense is killing me!”

Zap came over, ruffled her mane, and added, "That means in Rainbow's universe, you're a dude." He then threw his mane back and, with a cheeky smile, added, "And you look a lot like me."

Candy playfully pushed back. "Oh, buck off! Like we need two of you!"

Rainbow Dash was starting to trot away, but the red-coated pegasus flew over and asked, "So, is anything else interesting? I mean, what is this other me like?"

"Oh well, he's a big earth pony, definitely less talkative…sorry, that's all I got. I don't talk to him all that much."

"Oh, come on! You gotta give me more than that!"

Rainbow Dash started getting irritated, but Zap trotted over and nipped his friend. "Candy, stop asking our guest so many questions."

"Fine," The pegasus blew on her mane and followed with a moody look on her face. After putting the barrels of apples into a barn, they returned inside, where Granny Smith had some apple pie with cider. Rainbow Dash loved this stuff, but it still didn't ease her feeling homesick for being with her friends. Zap Apple sat back and asked, "So, are you feeling better?"

Rainbow Dash swished the liquid in her mug, taking a swig, then said, "A little; the cider helps."

"That's good to hear."

"Yeah, thanks for everything, letting me stay here, the food, the company…it means a lot."

"It's the least I can do for saving my life."

"Alright, you gotta cut that out! I told you you don't owe me for that!"

"What, it's true?"

"Well, it just means I still owe you, even if I knocked out half the harvest all by myself."

Zap Apple gave a hearty laugh, and then they heard.

"Get a room already!"

"Granny!" Zap shouted in response.

Then they heard a knock on the door, and then the two got up and went to see who it was upon opening the front door. Rainbow Dash stepped back, looking distraught, seeing a copy of herself, a rainbow-colored mane, light blue coat color, and magenta-colored eyes; the only difference was that this copy had her mane covering the left side of her face. She looked rather cheerful as she waved a hoof. "Hey, you're just the ponies I came to see!"

The other Rainbow Dash stared at the other with her mouth agape. She rubbed her eyes and asked, "Is this real?"

The other version of herself chuckled and then said, "First time seeing another version of yourself, huh?"

She turned to the big blue stallion and said, "Guess the second…or third considering the Day Breaker soldier…"

Rainbow Dash pointed at herself and then added. "But they well…are stallions and different you…you look almost exactly like me."

"Yeah, uh, if you haven't figured it out, there's a lot like me, or us, to be exact."

She then sniffed the air, "is that cider!?"

The mare flew in, took a glass, and chugged it down. "Oh, you have no idea how good it is to find a universe with good old Sweet Apple Acres cider!"

Granny Smith then trotted downstairs and asked, "So you travel to other universes!?"

"Yeah, you wouldn't believe the other Sweet Apple Acres variants are out there, ones that grow pears, peaches, watermelons, you name it. They all have their signature drinks: sweet teas and lemonades, sodas." She then took another draught, "but nothing hits it like Sweet Apple Acres cider.

Granny perked up in pride. "Well, thank you! I didn't know my cider was so popular! You could help me with marketing!"

"Trust me, no one beats old-fashioned cider, Granny Smith."

She gave her a hoof bump and asked, "Mam, would it be okay if I talked to my variants in private? It's not that I don't trust you; this information is top secret, ya know?"

"Of course, "she said, placing another jug down. You all just drink as much cider as you want; we had a lot left over."

She then left, and the three sat down together. They all started drinking. The suave Rainbow Dash asked, "So we're all variants of the same pony, so ask any question you want?"

The other Rainbow Dash then asked, "So, um? What's going on here?"

"Sorry, I should've explained," she then took out a piece of bread and some zap apple jam and poked it with various blobs of peanut butter as she continued to explain, "so I don't confuse the heck out of you. First of all, there is a multiverse represented by the peanut butter."

She then took out a jar of Zap Apple Jam and connected the blobs of peanut butter with lines of the rainbow-colored jam, "and then across these various dimensions, Variants of the Element of Loyalty or those connected to it and a lot of them seem to have a knack of accidentally causing rifts, mostly through using a Rainboom as most of are pegasi, but there are other instances as well with some using science or magic."

Rainbow blinked, looking abit overwhelmed as she replied, "So what you're saying is, I broke my dimension with a rainboom?"

"Kind of, yeah."

"So…am I in trouble?"

The other Rainbow Dash gave a sigh and then said, "Sadly, you broke Dimension code number six thousand thirty-two and will be placed in Dimension Jail for the next ten thousand years."

Rainbow's mouth dropped as there was a moment of silence, then the mare burst out laughing, "Oh my Faust, you should see your face!"

Zap Apple snickered as he nudged his friend, "You believed her!?"

She chuckled nervously, seeing she was being pranked, and asked, "Okay, ha ha, but seriously, did I do something wrong?"

"What no!? Most pegasi variants accidentally break the dimensional barrier all the time! We simply come by, figure out which dimension you belong to, and send you back, easy peasy."

Rainbow Dash excitedly exclaimed, "So you can get me home!?"

"Yup,"

The pegasus flew up, feeling a rush as she realized she was going back to her own dimension. She shouted, "That's Awesome!"

Zap Apple then held up a hoof, "that explains her, but what about that crazy knight version of us? What was that all about?"

"Oh, him? My partner is taking care of that; I promise he'll be sent to his own dimension soon."

The stallion continued to eye her suspiciously, then asked, "There's something else? Why are you holding stuff back."

She looked at the stallion, getting rather serious as she said, "Listen, you two seem like good, honest ponies; you don't want to get mixed up in this…"

"If it affects my world, I do want to be mixed up in this as you said."

Rainbow sat down and said, "Yeah, please tell us why he came here."

"Alright, well, there's a group of Variants unlike us trying to create an interdimensional empire using evil versions of us as weapons. This problem is massive, and we're doing our best to control the situation."

Zap Apple scoffed as he snapped, "It doesn't seem you have."

The suave Rainbow Dash took offense to Zap's comment and then snapped, "Well, nothing's perfect, but we have kept these idiots from literally tearing the fabric of reality apart. So how about you learn to keep that big mouth shut!"

Rainbow's eyes lit up as she started to get excited, "We? So you have a society of Rainbow Dashes flying around, saving the multiverse! That's so awesome!"

Her copy then shrugged, "Yeah, that's close enough."

She then took the zap apple sandwich, ate it in a few bites, and then chugged down the rest of her cider, "but that's my problem, how about we get you home." She then took a device other forehoof and set it then a beam hit the air creating a swirling colored hole. "Just walk through that, and you'll be back in your Sweet Apple Acres…if that's what it's called in your dimension."

Rainbow Dash peered inside and slowly trotted towards it, then turned to see Zap Apple looking at her, shaking his head. "No," she paused, peering into the void. Then she thought about what this other person had said and considered the consequences if she had just left all of this. She shook her head, stepped back, and said, "No."

"Huh, what do you mean no?"

"No, I'm not going. If there are evil versions of me out there threatening the multiverse, I have to stop them."

The other Rainbow Dash eyed her as that calm demeanor was gone, "listen, you have no idea what you're asking for."

Zap Apple got up and titled his hat, "I agree with my friend here. If our worlds are being threatened, we gotta stop them, so stop stalling and show us where to sign up."

"You two aren't ready," the suave version replied as she pulled back her mane, which made Zap Apple and herself step back. There, on the left side of her face was covered in an inky black smoke pouring out from what was lef ot it, with his left eye now a dark green color with magical essence oozing off of it. "There are universes where things don't work out, somewhere we don't make it, others…" she peered downwards and whispered, "Where were the only ones left."

She pushed her mane back down her face and added, "You two seem like good versions of me. You have friends and family who care about you, right? So don't make this decision lightly."

Zap Apple paused as Rainbow Dash's heart pounded in her chest, seeing how this version of her seemed like two opposites: this happy, cheerful pony and this broken pony with some horrible past, losing all her friends. Then she raised her head and said, "I don't know what you've been through, and I get what you're saying, but if we don't do something and our worlds are in danger, and we end up losing our friends and family it would be worse as we had the chance to stop it and did nothing."

Zap got up and tilted his hat. "My friend here is right. We understand the risks and we are willing to do whatever it takes."

Her copy eyed them, then shrugged as she relented, "Alright, don't say I didn't warn you."

She then pushed a few buttons on her device, and the swirling colorful hole shifted as she threw a hoof. "Come on."

Rainbow Dash looked forward into the magical, colorful swirls, knowing she was risking her life but knowing deep down she had to help. The mare gulped and followed after the other versions of her into the portal as it closed behind her.

The two blinked, and now they were suddenly in a massive lobby made out of some rainbow-like essence. As she trotted along, it felt like walking on glass, and there was a loud clopsound as she and the others. Rainbow then started looking around her, seeing the area was filled with tons of versions of her pegasi flying about, earth ponies, and unicorns floating cider drinks and talking. There was a massive court where ponies tossed a ball across and threw it into hoops. There was a massive library field with Daring Do books and versions of her cosplaying as the famous adventurer. Rainbow then looked around as a massive roller coaster lopped around the building, with cars filled with screaming ponies. The blue-colored pegasus eyes were wide as she looked around, unable to focus on just one thing as their escort held up a hoof, "Welcome to the Society of Loyalty. It makes it easy to see that not everyone is named Rainbow Dash."

"Finally, somepony gets it," Zap chuckled as they continued, and another portal opened. An alicorn version of herself walked through with her mane long and flowing around her, not unlike how Princess Celestia had hers, with the knight they fought earlier, knocked out and floating abover her aura.

She then came over and kissed their escort on the lips, and they just embraced each other for a moment. Then the alicorn looked over at the other two and asked, "Who are they?"

"Just some greenhorns wanting to try out to be agents."

She looked them over, then scoffed, "They won't make it past tryouts." She threw her wings, which were quite large and way more majestic looking than hers, giving them a few flaps as she flew off, leaving a trail of rainbow dust behind.

Rainbow looked up at the majestic alicorn fly off as she whispered to herself. "Who is she?"

Their escort looked up at her longingly as she said, "She's my partner."

Zap chuckled, then asked, "In what way?"

The pegasus flashed him a smug grin and teased back, "In the ways that matter, big guy."

She then pushed them to an office where she saw an Earth Pony version of herself. She looked similar with the same blue-colored coat, but her rainbow-colored mane was tied up in a ponytail, and she wore a lab coat and thick glasses. The mare was typing away at various screens, which appeared around her in the air, filled with rows and rows of formulas and weird symbols scrolling around her like an endless rain of data. This made Rainbow's eyes gloss over how complicated it all looked. Then a brown-coated stallion wearing a green tie ran over and shouted, "Honey, just got word the Day Breaker's Capitan Nimbus has been captured!"

"Good, move to make plans for Shadowbolt to start interrogating him. We need to know when Hurricane and Tempest's next moves are."

"Considering his psych profile, it'll be difficult to get anything from him?"

"Yes, but we have ways around that? Shadowbolt will get him to talk."

She then turned to see the others and laughed, "Speak of the devil." She hopped down and held out a hoof, "What's up, Shadowbolt?"

"Prism," the Rainbow Dash that the two have been following bumped hooves with Prism. Rainbow Dash was abit astounded by the fact the version of her that they've met was named "Shadowbolt". As Rainbow Dash was reeling from this revelation the egghead version of her then looked over at them and asked, "Huh, you brought some friends, I see?"

"We got two variants who are up for tryouts."

She pushed her glasses and eyed them," these two?"

"Yeah, they want to be agents."

She scanned them with the device on her hoof, then nodded as two data-filled screens popped up. The mare looked them over for a few hours, “they both have potential. What do you think, honey?"

The brown-coated stallion looked them over and gave a few nods of approval, "Very promising candidates; you know how to pick them, Shadowbolt."

"Thanks, it's a talent."

Rainbow eyed her as Zap scoffed, "Seriously? We practically had to pull our teeth to get you to let us come here?"

"Hey, what can I say? I had to see if you two were serious."

Prism then cleared her throat loudly as they all turned to her; she adjusted her glasses and said, "If you two are done, Tryouts begin tomorrow at seven AM sharp. If you want to become agents of the Elements of Loyalty, I suggest being here on time, as both of your dimensions are synchronized with ours. You can stay here for the night if you want to avoid being late."

Rainbow Dash blinked, then exclaimed, "Um, wait!? Shouldn't I tell my friends where I am?"

She sighed, took out a hoof device for each, and said, "This will get you back here; just push the red button at six AM."

Rainbow groaned, "Six, seriously!?"

Prism got into her face and snapped, "Yeah, you wana to be early for warmups; you want this, right?"

Rainbow slowly nodded and grumbled under her breath. Then Shadowbolt came over and said, "There it is. Miss it, well, I'll come back for those bracelets, and you can forget about helping us, is that deal a deal?"

The two both saluted and exclaimed, "Yes, mam!"

Prism then returned to her desk, started plugging away at the various screens floating around her, and said, "Okay, now that we've got that over with Shadowbolt, we need to talk to you," she then looked over and nudged her muzzle towards the other two and added, "alone."

The pegasus nodded as she escorted the other two out of Prism's office. Then, she closed the doors behind her and said, "Now, you're free to stay if you like, but I'll leave that up to you. There's a lot to explore here." She then gave a sharp salute before heading back into Prism's office.

As the two sat there, she left, and Zap turned to Rainbow and, with a blush, replied, "So, uh… I guess you get to go home now."

Rainbow shrugged and said, "Yeah, I uh gotta try to explain what's going on to my friends at least, I guess…and um…guess you gotta talk to your family?"

"Yeah, they uh probably wana know where I am too? The Apples also think we just vanished into thin air."

Rainbow let out a burst of laughter and then said, "Applejack will go nuts, and Celestia knows how Candy Apple will react. But um…Thanks for helping me; I hope to see you tomorrow at tryouts?"

Zap started to look abit down as he whispered, "Yeah, me too…though...did you see how Shadowbolt looked? I mean…what if she's right? What if we're not ready for this?"

Rainbow thought about it, wondering what happened to Shadowbolt and what she might've lost, "As I said, this is scary, but if we don't do something to help, I feel like we'll regret it, ya know? we gotta try."

"Yeah, guess you're right."

They then both clicked the buttons on their bracelets, opening separate portals. They then both smiled at each other before going through them back to their own dimensions.

Chapter Four: The chase through the Dashieverse

Rainbow Dash was somewhat confused when she suddenly returned to Sweet Apple Acres. Looking around, she spotted Applejack flying over and shouted, “Hey! Applejack!”

The Earthpony looked over rather surprised and asked, “Hey ya, Rainbow, where have you been?”

Rainbow Dash paused, feeling relieved at first to see her friend recognize her. But then came the issue of knowing how to start or even where to begin with her tale about being in a weird interdimensional rift with a bump of weird versions of herself flying about trying to stop a bunch of evil versions of herself. She paused, looking rather dazed as Applejack waved a hoof in front of her, “Uh, Rainbow? Are you OK?”

“What!? Yeah, I'm fine, just uh…ya know, was uh out doing some hardcore practicing since I'm a Wonderbolt now?”
Applejack eyed her, seeming not to buy her response, but shrugged, “Alright, if you don’t want to tell me where you’ve been, that’s fine. But I think you should go to Ponyville General.”

“Why, what happened!?”

The farm mare looked abit worried and then asked, “You haven’t heard then?”

Rainbow Dash was now getting worried and asked, “Heard what!?”

Applejack then said, “Well, I hate to tell you this, but it sounds like Soarin got into a pretty bad accident or a Sorain. There was something about there being two Soarins, but it sounds like some tall tale.”

Rainbow put a hoof to her chest, feeling it thump pretty hard. She remembered how clumsy Soarin can be, remembering how he hurt himself during the Equestira Game Tryouts. “I gotta go see him! Just tell the others I'm back, and I'm ok, alright!”

“Uh, sure thing, just don’t go off again, ok!?”

“Don’t worry; I’ll explain everything soon!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew off as fast as she could through the air and headed straight towards Ponyville General.

As Rainbow Dash was heading towards Ponyville, General Rainbow Skies waited in the hospital for what felt like hours, sitting there patiently for any news on Soarin’s condition. Things were getting rather frantic as the other Soarin was outside being mobbed by the press as he was trying his best to explain the situation. Rainbow Skies didn’t envy him, especially trying to explain why another version of himself was in a hospital bed recovering from a lightning strike. She continued to sit there, watching as nurses went to and fro. Still, she was only focused on the doors, waiting until a pegasus resembling her came through the lobby. As she was looking around, she spotted her and said, “So it's true!?”

“What's true!?”

“Soarin!? Is he ok!”

Rainbow Skies rose up, being abit astounded at seeing a pegasus version of herself fly over to her, seeming abit in awe of her but more concerned over the condition of her friend. “sorry, there’s been some misunderstanding. The Soarin being looked at is from a different dimension. Your Soarin is trying to explain things to the press outside, but it can be rather confusing.”

The Pegasus was starting to look abit relieved and sad, “Oh ok, that’s why there was another Soarin outside…” She flew over and held out a hoof. Sorry, my name is Rainbow Dash.”

The griffin then stuck out a talon and introduced herself, “Rainbow Skies, so I guess my hunch was right. I am in a different dimension?”

“Yeah, the last two days have been crazy! I just got sucked into a dimension yesterday.”

“What happened!?”

Rainbow Dash sat down and explained everything that had happened to her in the past two days, and Rainbow Skies mouth just dropped, listening intently to her. “Wow, so there’s like hundreds of different versions of us!?”

“Yeah! You wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it for yourself.”

The griffin started to get excited. " Oh, that's so cool! I have so many questions, like how many of them are Wonderbolts, and maybe there are other griffins who are Wonderbolts!”

The Pegasus placed a hoof onto her chest and said, “Well, I don’t mean to brag, but I'm a Wonderbolt myself.”

“You are!” Rainbow Skies squealed as she flew over. “How are they here? Are they cool!? Do they accept griffins!?”

“Woah, easy, um…I mean, yeah, of course, they’re cool, and I’m not sure they accept griffins, but I don’t see why not.”

Rainbow Skies squealed, “Oh wow! I gotta tell Soarin when he gets up, maybe we can hop into another dimension where the Wonderbolts aren’t horse-butts!”

“Um, ok, easy now, just uh, let’s focus on Soarin like what happened?”

Rainbow Skies started to remember the dark shadow creature sending a bolt of lightning into her friend, making her shiver in fear. She then fluttered back onto the bench and whispered, “I…I don’t want to talk about it, but I’ll tell you this: Something was trying to hurt me, and it hit him instead.”

Rainbow Dash then slowly came over to her side, sat by her, and said, “I get it. If that happened to one of my friends, I wouldn’t want to talk about it either.”

Rainbow Skies gave the nod, and the two sat there silently, waiting for any news until Nurse Red Heart came out from the doors; the griffin perked up as the white-coated mare looked towards her and asked, “Um, Rainbow Skies? Is that your name, right?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Well, there’s some good news; the doctor just wanted to let you know your Soarin is doing very well and believes he will fully recover in a week or two.”

The griffin placed a talon on her chest, let out a sigh of relief, and chirped, “OK, can I go see him?”

Red Heart held up a hoof and, with an apologetic expression, said, “You can tomorrow. He needs his rest, and we want to make sure there’s no permanent damage…though the doctor made a note on his wings…”

Rainbow Skies winced, remembering again Soarin was already badly hurt from his crash during the Equestria Games tryouts, and said, “I know about his wings, just as long as the lightning bolt didn’t add to his condition.”

“It didn’t, as far as we are aware. Now, Rainbow Dash, would you mind providing accommodations to your other you?”

Rainbow Dash laughed, nudged the griffin version of herself, and said, “Yeah, that won’t be awkward.”

The griffin brushed a talon over her head and whispered, “That's fine, as long as I won’t be too much of a burden.”

“It’s no problem at all! Now let’s head out the back so nopony sees us.”

The Pegasus then led Rainbow Skies into a back entrance and up to the clouds, with the blue feathered griffin relieved that her coltfriend was okay. She’ll be at the hospital first thing tomorrow morning with flowers and a massive apple pie.

The two flew through the skies for quite some time as they headed towards Rainbow Dash’s home. She was rather tired and exhausted from flying quite abit, fighting a weird evil knight version of herself. The mare was quite happy seeing her home as they went through the door, and she revealed her spacious living room,” welcome to my abode. Please take your time to chillax. I most definitely will.”

The two then went to the couch, laid down, and spent a few hours chilling and snacking. Once they were settled, Rainbow Dash felt it was time to talk to this griffin version of herself and asked, “Um, hey, listen, Rainbow Skies?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“We need to talk about some stuff mainly because we’re from different dimensions, ya know?”

“We can, sorry, just worrying about Soarin makes it hard to chillax.”

“I know, and I don’t want to pry about that, mainly because, as I mentioned before, I recently accidentally went into a different dimension and found another me. Now I'm going to try working with a bunch of different mes, and I was wondering if you're a part of that?"

The griffin blinked, looking rather confused for a second, then said, “What, no!? I don’t know anything about that! I wasn’t even sure I went into a different dimension until I met your Soarin!”

Rainbow Dash winced, feeling abit stupid for saying that out loud, seeing it should’ve been obvious Rainbow Skies wasn’t a part of the “Element of Loyalty Society.” Then they said, “Right, sorry, it seemed you didn’t. I just had to be sure.”

The griffin was now rather concerned and asked, “Well, what's going on? Do they know why we were attacked?”

“If something did attack you and Soarin, it seems an evil me is working with a version of Tempest.”

The griffin jumped back and flared her wings as she exclaimed, “You mean Tempest Shadow?”

“You know her!?”

“Well, yeah! She and the Strom King tried to take over Equestria, but my friends and I stopped them; technically, we had to find the hippogriffs, and we did this whole run around with pirates and a talking cat.”

Rainbow Dash held up a hoof and said, “I know. You don’t have to relay everything my friends and I went through; we went through the same thing.”

Rainbow Skies paused, tapped a talon to her beak, then said, “So let me get this straight: a bunch of good Rainbow Dashs are facing off a bunch of evil ones! And my dimension is getting hit in the crossfire!?”

The Pegasus was looking abit confused as she wasn’t sure and exclaimed, “Well, hopefully not! I'm not sure!? But I'm going back to this "Society of Loyalty" tomorrow. Maybe you should come with me to help learn more and get you and your Soarin home.”

“That sounds like a plan, but I have to see Soarin first. I’m not leaving until I make sure he’s okay.”

“Of course, we’ll just have to get up early tomorrow." Looking around her home, Rainbow blushed, then said, "You can take the couch; sorry, I don’t normally have guests over.”

Rainbow Skies laughed and waved a talon, “No, it's ok, it's okay. I might go out to get some grub, but I think I just want to stay here and relax for abit.” But then the bracelet Rainbow Dash was given started to blaring red as a massive rainbow swirling portal opened up as Rainbow Skies shouted, “What in the hay is that!?”

Before she could say anything, the portal glowed and sucked the two into it as it closed up behind them.

Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Skies suddenly plopped down onto a glossy, rainbow-like floor, and the Pegasus got up, shouting, “What the buck was that!?”

She then turned to see Zapp Apple rubbing his head, grunting, “I have no idea, but somepony is askin’ for askin’ for a buck in the face!”

Then a voice came over, “All versions of the Element of Loyalty red alert! This is a red alert! Shadow Dash has escaped and captured her! She is a pegasus, wearing a shadowbolt uniform! I repeat, this is a red alert!"

“What!?” Rainbow Dash then spotted across the way the office met the nerdy earth pony version of her bursting out with shards of rainbow glass being sent in all directions, as dozens of other versions of her all scrambling, flying, and trying to capture her, but this one Rainbow Dash just seemed way to agile and fast maneuvering around the others with ease that made it rather impressive. She kicked and evaded, seeming not to try to hurt the others but mainly trying to avoid capture.
The alicorn she met yesterday flew down, trying to blast her with beams of magic, but the shadowbolt flew up and soared right over them. Zap Apple then took out his lasso, twirled it, threw it around her, and slammed her down onto the ground, but she somehow slipped out from the rope, slamming next to them, cracking the Rainbow Glass. She then peered up, her face obscured by a purple mask over her face.

She smirked and laughed, “So you guys are the three newbies! good luck becoming agents!” the pegasus then threw out her wings, twirled about, and was now flying above them. Rainbow Skies flew up and grabbed her, trying to clasp her down with her claws as the other Rainbow Dash flew over to her and snapped, “Who are you? What’s going on here!?”

“Sorry, but I don’t have time to explain!” The shadowbolt then bucked Rainbow Skies in the gut and hit a button on the bracelet on her hoof, and another portal opened. The four were suddenly sucked into it as the portal closed behind them once more.

The three, once more, were flung into another world. This time, they were all flying through a bunch of trees, and Rainbow Dash had to brace for impact, throwing her hooves over her face as she came crashing to the ground. She then groaned, getting up and rubbing her head. As she gauged her surroundings, she turned to see they were deep in some forest, with grass-covered fields and groves stretching for miles. She looked around as Zap Apple was getting up, adjusting the colt-hat on his head, spitting out leaves, and grumbling, “I am starting to regret being a part of this "society of loyalty" thing."

“Me too,” Rainbow Dash grunted, getting up and shaking out the leaves and twigs in her mane.

Rainbow Skies flew downward rather gracefully, looked around, and then, with wide eyes, pointed into the sky, “Look at that!”

Rainbow Dash turned to hand. Her eyes grew just as wide as seeing a massive moon glowing overhead and her eyes went wide, “woah, that's a big moon!?”

“Get used to it, and we’ll be here for a while.”

Then the other Pegasus slammed down next to them, sporting a dark violet uniform with her mask having yellow visors, making her look rather menacing. She then unfurled it as it dissolved into inky black shadows, revealing the Pegasus looked exactly like her. Rainbow Dash has gotten used to seeing other versions of herself, with weird looks now, different species, and even a pegasus resembling her. However, this was like looking at a doppelganger or a changeling, trying to mimic her in every way.

This other Rainbow Dash slowly trotted over, admiring her for a second, then, with a chuckle, held out a hoof, “Nice to meet ya. Name’s Shadow Dash.”

Zap Apple stomped over, slapped her hoof aside, and snapped, “Don’t think we’re falling for that for a second! What did you do!? Why are we here!?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Skies snapped, flying over, slamming a talon, and pointing at her, “Are you working with that shadow creature that attacked Soarin!”

Shadow Dash stepped back with a hoof out, “Oh no, please, you got me all wrong. I'm not here to hurt anypony. In fact, I’m trying to do the exact opposite.”

She then held up the bracelet, “One of Hurricane’s minions is coming here, and he’s the key to finding her and stopping all the other evil Rainbow Dashs for good.”

They all looked at each other, and Rainbow Dash got up and said, “Hold on. Are you related to Shadowbolt?”

“Oh her, we’re twin sisters.”

“Twins!?”

“Identical twins, to be exact; she and I go way back.” Shadow Dash chirped as she flew up and looked around, seeming to be avoiding saying anything else.

Zap Apple then trotted towards Rainbow Dash and whispered into her ear, “I don’t trust her one bit; the rest of the Rainbow Dashs were chasing her for some reason.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

“So go ask her why? She seems to trust you the most.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but agree as she flew up to Shadow Dash, cleared her throat, and asked, “So, uh, Shadow Dash? Would you happen to know why you were being chased and why we’re here?”

She turned towards her, then, with a smirk, said, “Trust me, you don’t want to know, but mainly because my sister thinks I’m too reckless and doesn’t know what I’m doing. I’m here to prove her wrong.”

She then turned towards the others. “I assume you all want to help stop Hurricane, who probably sent her minions to your dimensions as well? Hurting friends, causing havoc!?”

The two reluctantly nodded as she flew over and slammed back onto the ground, with it cracking beneath her hooves. She then placed a hoof over her chest and said, “Listen, I'm sorry for dragging you all here, but those other versions were trying to stop the problem one bad Dash at a time. I’m trying to stop it for good; they don’t like me, but I get results and get things done. If you want to go back and report to me, that's fine. But trust me when I say this: I’m not a villain I just want to help end this so we can all go home to normal lives.”

The others weren’t sure, but they seemed to find her convincing. Rainbow Dash meanwhile felt a kinship with this alternate version of herself, yearned to trust her instincts, and said, “Alright, we'll follow you, but tell us where we are exactly?”

Rainbow Dash held up a hoof and proclaimed, “This is universe code number 00BA1p09y! My favorite universe, to be precise!”

The others just stood there, giving Shadow Dash blank looks. She laughed, “Sorry, um, better yet, I’ll explain this world’s backstory.”

“No need, I can do that, Shadow!”

They then turned, and soon they were all staring as they saw hundreds of bat-winged ponies staring down at them with yellow-slited eyes glowing in the dark backdrop of the forest. The three companions all stepped back, all looking rather scared. Then one gently flew down towards them with the blue coat and magenta-colored eyes, but her rainbow-colored mane and tail were a frazzled mess and puffy; there were bats flying in and around her. As she looked up and smiled, “Shadow Dash, is that really you?”

“Rainbow Bite! It’s so great to see you!” Shadow Dash flew over, and they bumped hooves as she held up a hoof, “I came in peace with some friends; I was going to explain what’s happening in your world.”

Rainbow Bite fluttered over and bowed with a smile. “I apologize for scaring you. My fellow bat ponies and I were just curious and being rather cautious. But seeing your friends with Shadow Dash means your friends of ours, so welcome.”

“Oh, your bats are so cute!” Rainbow Skies squealed as she flew over and started flying and playing with a couple of them.
Rainbow Bite placed a hoof over her chest. “awww, they like you!” she fluttered over to the griffin as they started talking about how cute the bats were. They eventually flew back down as Rainbow Bite turned her attention to them. “Sorry, I got a bit distracted anyway. Welcome to Chiroptera, where bat ponies live in harmony with nature. Quick backstory of our world a thousand years ago: we were all different pony tribes: unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. We lived in harmony and worked together under the rulership of princesses of the sun and moon. However, the moon princess was jealous of her sister and turned into a nightmare creature, sealed her away into the sun, and made the land under an eternal night with the sun, never allowing her to shine. But the ponies could not live in such a manner, so she transformed us all into bat ponies, and we thus became her worshipers, brainwashed to believe she was our savior. That was until my friends and I discovered the truth, and we defeated her, sealing her into the moon.”

The other ponies just blinked, looking completely confused and bewildered as Zap Apple asked, “Um… so earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns aren’t here anymore?”

Rainbow Bite shook her head. "The curse placed upon us is thousands of years old and possibly permanent for all eternity. But do not worry; we bat ponies are quite kind and have changed a lot in the past few years. Come, there’s so much to show you!”

They all started to move through the first, with Rainbow Dash seeing a massive mountain in the distance illuminated by the moon. Hundreds of black silhouettes were flying around it. Despite how weird this world was, Rainbow Dash felt that it was rather interesting and wondered why they couldn’t turn their Nightmare Moon back into Princess Luna. Then Shadow Dash came up next to her and asked, “Are you doing alright?”

“Yeah, I'm fine, confused, and abit bruised, but overall, I’m doing fine though this world is weird.”

“Good, sorry. I really didn’t mean to drag you and your friends here. If the other Dashs caught me, I would end up in their stupid little jail, and then I couldn’t help anypony.”

“Why, though? You keep saying that, but you're not really explaining how you’re helping!?”

“It has to deal with their story; they didn’t use an alternate version of elements of harmony; they were destroyed a thousand years ago between their version of Celestia and Luna. The bat ponies used some old spell to seal their Nightmare Moon away, and I need your help to find it.”

“Why?”

“It’s hard to explain, but as I said before, it deals with luring an evil Dash here and taking him down,” The shadowbolt nudged her, “Just trust me, ok?”

“Alright?” Rainbow Dash muttered, eyeing their new companion. She wanted to trust her, but Shadow Dash was keeping her cards to her chest. She should keep an eye on her, and if she felt this version of herself was using them for evil, she’d immediately turn her into the other Elements of Loyalty.

Chapter Five: Shadow & Chaos

The bat ponies led the group through the forest as they headed towards the distant mountain. The majesty of the world was still something to behold; they continued onward for some time until they came up to the mouth of it to reveal a massive city with stalactites and stalagmites all over; they went to the center of the cave. As they entered, Rainbow Bite turned and explained, “This is the Castle of the Moon! It used to be the home of Nightmare Moon, but now it's where my friends and I live!”

The others were astounded at its size—it was as big as the crystal castle that Twilight now resides in—and were captivated by the magnificence of the construction. The walls were covered in pictures of the various bat pony versions of the mane six, all looking rather happy, with Shadow Dash turning her head as she passed.

They then came to the foot of the throne room, and there, a violet bat pony (that looked almost exactly like Twilight Sparkle) flew down from above and landed in front of them. She flared out her wings and bowed, “Hello, my name is Princess Twilight Sparkling, princess of the bat ponies.”

Rainbow Bite bowed and explained, “Princess, this here is Shadow Dash, my closest friend from another dimension. She and her allies helped us defeat Discord, if you recall.”

The violet batpony fluttered to the “shadowbolt” and said, “Ah yes, I remember you! Shadow Dash, so you returned to stop another threat come to our lands?”

Shadow Dash nodded and explained, “Yes, indeed, a student of Discord is coming, and he is quite powerful, and I intend to stop him.”

The rest of the bat ponies around them all nodded in hushed whispers as the princess batpony approached them. “Then I gave you my leave to prepare for the fight; I’ll show you to your chambers.”

Twilight Sparkling led them through the dark halls of the cavern, which were scarcely lit by glowing stones on the walls. They eventually came to a rather lavish bed chamber. It had expensive-looking canopy beds, a full-sized bathroom, a kitchen, and a small cozy library.

“We made this room like what ponies used to live in before we were turned into bat ponies. If there’s anything else I can do to make your stay more welcoming, I will happily oblige.”

Zap Apple was the most blown away as he said, “No, this is too much; in fact, I think I would prefer something less fancy-like.”

“What are you talking about, Zap Apple? This is awesome!” Rainbow Skies flew over to the bed and started to bounce up and down on it.

Twilight Sparkling paused as she scratched her forehead with a hoof. " Huh? I thought beds were for sleeping in, not for bouncing.”

“Excuse my friend. She’s rather excited, is all,” Shadow Dash replied, snickering. “No, this is amazing. I assume the kitchen is stocked?”

“Yes, well, we bat ponies only eat fruit…if that’s ok?”

“Of course!” Shadow Dash flew over to the fridge, revealing it was jam-packed with fruit of all kinds; taking out a handful of apples and a pint of cider.

Rainbow flew over as she felt her stomach growl. She helped herself by choosing some juicy mangoes to pair with a glass of cider.

As the others gathered around, they all started to eat. Rainbow Dash saw it was the perfect opportunity to get to know her abit more and asked, “So…is stopping this “Student of Discord” a part of your plan?”

Shadow Dash shrugged, “Yeah, that’s about it. Really, it’s a version of us who sided with Discord in his dimension. Some clown guy—he’s kind of insane, but I can take him easily.”

“Why is he important?”

“He’s one of Hrurricane's top agents. He can travel the multiverse without technology, using chaos magic to rip the fabric of the universe and slip through. He’s sneaky and clever, but he's also egotistical. I’m using that to my advantage as I challenged him to a duel.”

“A duel!? Why!?” everyone shouted at once.

As they were alone now, Shadow Dash bent her head forward, getting rather serious as she whispered, “Because this world has a secret that will make sure I win, and I need a spell book the bat ponies have and learn a spell that can release ponies from the moon seal.”

Zap eyed her and asked, “Why? Who are you planning to release?”

The pegasus sighed, “It’s the bat ponies’ nightmare moon.”

Rainbow Dash shouted, “What!? Are you crazy!?”

Shadow Dash put a hoof to her lips as she set her down. “I…I think I can release their Princess Luna from her, but they wouldn’t listen to me. I need to steal their book so I can save their Princess Luna and use the essence of her Nightmare Moon to help me defeat this agent of Discord. It’s a win-win situation for everypony! I’ll even be able to get some information on how to locate Commander Hurricane. I just need somepony to trust me.”

Zap scoffed, “This is insanely reckless! You’re gonna get us all locked up in prison or killed.”

Shadow Dash got rather angry, slamming her hooves on the table and shouting, “I know ok! I'm super reckless; just about everypony tells me that! But I’m the only one who knows what happens when you aren’t reckless!”

Zap was reaching for his lasso as he growled, “You need to calm down.”

Everypony paused as a shadowy goop flowed from Shadow Dash. Now, she took deep breaths as it returned to her, whispering, " Sorry, that happens from time to time.”

Rainbow took a moment to watch, mulling everything over, not knowing who to side with. She needed more information. She turned to Shadow Dash and said, “I want to believe you and help you, but for us to do that, we all need to trust each other.”

Shadow Dash turned towards them and said, “Well, if we’re gonna put our cards on the table… I’m not really Rainbow Dash; I’m a creature created from shadow by Nightmare Moon.”

Zap Apple reared himself from the table, “And you waited until now to tell us!?” He then took out his lasso, but Rainbow flew over, threw her wings up, and shouted, “Zap, stop!”

The stallion turned his head towards her, “Why should I? She just told us she’s a creature made by Nightmare Moon, which is probably why our other variants were chasing her.”

Rainbow Skies flew over and said, “It’s not like she could just tell us, “Hey, I’m a shadow creature made by Nightmare Moon,” when we first met!? We were still really suspicious of her. Even now, she’s risking a lot by doing this. Let’s hear her out.”

Zap scoffed and sat back down. “Fine, but if she does anything suspicious, I’m gonna tie her up and wait for the other Rainbow Dashs to take her away.”

Shadow Dash eyed the earth pony but continued her tale, “I was created from the essence of Rainbow Dash; she goes by Shadowbolt now. Long story short, she lost her friends to Nightmare Moon, and my sister wouldn’t give up fighting her, even after she took over Equestria.”

Shadow choked a little, seeming to fight back tears. There was silence, with the others all waiting for her to continue. “Shadowbolt continued to fight her with a group of rebels, and eventually, Nightmare Moon had enough. She used some dark magic and took a piece of Shadowbolt’s face and tore it as she created me…I was born to defeat my sister and end the rebellion.”

She let out a long sigh, munched on her mango for abit, and continued, “However, my will was much stronger than Nightmare Moon anticipated; I…I have a lot of Rainbow Dash’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, and even her memories, even though they were suppressed by this need to defeat my sister. I just couldn’t. I overcame those orders and instead joined Shadowbolt. We defeated Nightmare Moon together and turned her back into Princess Luna. However, even though our world was saved from her tyranny, Princess Celestia and Rainbow Dash’s friends were still sealed into the moon. The spell used was lost when Princess Luna returned to her normal self, and the Elements of Harmony could no longer be used without my sister’s friends…”

Everypony was in shock as Zap Apple, now looking a bit guilty for some of the stuff he said, asked, “Sorry for uh mistrusting you; I didn’t know you went through so much.”

“It’s fine; most ponies naturally don’t trust me. I’m used to it.”

Shadow Dash’s body turned smoky black with two glowing green eyes as she said, “This is my true form if you want more proof.”

Zap and Rainbow Dash both were taken aback abit. Still, Rainbow Skies comically sighed in relief, wiped a talon over her head, and said, “That’s a relief. I…I thought maybe you were the pony that hurt Soarin. But this proves you weren’t the one who hurt my Soarin, that creature was made of storm clouds.”

“No, and I'm sorry to hear that, really,” she reverted to her normal pegasus form and added, “So, I know what I’m asking of you is dangerous, but will you help?”

The Element of Loyalty remembered not too long ago when Twilight Sparkle took it on her own to steal the transformation orb from the Hippogriffs and how it almost ruined their mission to save Equestria from the Storm King. “Do we really have to resort to stealing? If the bat ponies find out, you’ll destroy any trust you built with them.”

“It's more like borrowing, and I tried talking to bat ponies, but they refuse to hear me out.”

The earth pony shook his head,” No.” “I understand where you're coming from, but I can’t condone stealing, and it ain’t up to us to meddle in the affairs of the world. We should wait for the bracelets to reconnect us to the “society of Loyalty” and then ask for help.”

Rainbow Skies scoffed, “By then, everypony here will be in danger! Shadow Dash is right; my best friend is hospitalized because of this Commander Hurricane. If this war gets dragged out, more ponies will get hurt or worse! We can’t risk that!”

Zap then threw a hoof in the air and shouted, “Alright, let’s put a vote to it; I say we wait and forget about all of this.”

Rainbow Skies raised a talon and snapped back. “Well, I want to help Shadow Dash!”

They then all turned their heads to Rainbow Dash, who groaned, seeing it was already “two to one,” hoping that Zap and Rainbow Skies would be on the same page. But now she had to choose and hope it was the right choice. “I think we should “borrow” the spell book from the bat ponies…not that I don’t want to, but this world is already at risk. Without their elements of Harmony, Shadow Dash might be the only one who can stop this Discord version of us.”

Shadow Dash then flew over and hugged her, “thank you.”

“Ok! Ok! Take it easy!”

The earthpony sighed, “Well, I can’t just let you knuckleheads run around and get thrown in prison, so what’s the plan?”

Shadow Dash smirked, took out a map of the entire castle, and said, “It’s actually pretty easy.”

She then started going over the plans to get to the library.

The heist was relatively easy. The four traveled through secret tunnels carved out over centuries, plopping right into the library. Rainbow Dash looked around and said, “Huh? That was easy.”

“I told you so! The bat ponies aren’t worried about thieves as they are way more communal than us ponies, and they wouldn’t think anypony would steal from them.”

“Which makes this look ten times worse,” Zap grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll return it once I learn the spell, okay?” Shadow grumbled as she flew towards the massive tome in the room. She shifted through the bars and gently levitated the book from its small cage. She slipped out as she took it and said, “Now I’m just going to speed read. Just keep an eye out for any guards.”

They did as she asked, waiting outside the library; a few hours passed as the three dimension travelers sat together in a cozy cave-like room with nothing but the constant dripping sounds. Zap Apple was poking his bracelet, but it didn’t glow or do anything, and growled, “I swear that Shadow Dash is up to no good. Stopping a Discord variant by herself, is she insane?”

Rainbow Skies looked back, seeing her " shadow pony” self going through the book, and said, “I disagree. I think she’s doing what’s needed to be done; somepony gotta.”

“Even if it gets others hurt? Doesn’t it bother you she chose this world of all places to challenge this Discord variant.”

Rainbow Dash thought about what she said before leaving them with the other bat ponies. “The second our bracelets work again, we should transport her and ourselves back to the “Society of Loyalty.” Until then, we should keep an eye on her and try to keep her out of trouble.”

But then they saw a pair of bat pony guards approaching their patrol. Rainbow Dash was the first to notice them and shouted, “Hey, we should stop them!”

Zap growled, “How!? They're coming this way.”

Rainbow Skies flew over them, then slipped and cried, fumbling and crashing into the wall. This made the bat ponies squeak in freight as she groaned and rubbed her head. “Ow!!! That hurt!”

The guards flew over as one asked, “Are you ok, mam?”

“I think so,” Rainbow Skies winced as she was helloed up. “Sorry, I was flying about and got lost! This castles is a freakin’ maze!”

One of the guards chuckled, “You can say that again.”

“Yeah, I still get lost here, and we can see in the dark. Let us help escort you back to your chambers.”

The griffin brushed her head with a cute smile and said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. Do you guys like fruit?”

“Yes…” both guards replied rather suspiciously.

“Well, for helping, I have all these extra mangoes lying about.” She then bought some, and they ate them together as she juggled some. The two guards were somewhat amazed as they trotted off together.

Zap lowered his lasso, chuckling, “She's something, ain't she?”

Rainbow Dash laughed, “Yeah, she reminds me of Pinke Pie!”

“Hey guys, I’m finished.”

This made the two cry as they jumped and looked around to see Shadow Dash flying towards them with a smirk, “did I scare you?”

“No,” the two snapped back defensively.

Shadow Dash shrugged and whispered, “Whatever. I got what I needed. Did anything happen?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No,” added, “Just some guards came by, and Rainbow Skies distracted them.”

“So, how about we leave before our luck runs out?” Zap added.

The three then flew off through the maze-like tunnels of the castle.

Later that evening, they went outside to see the massive moon shining overhead. Rainbow Dash paused, wondering what was going to happen. She turned to Shadow Dash and asked, “How are you going to perform the spell? None of us have horns?”

The shadowpony smirked and said, “I prefer being a pegasus, but I can be whatever I want.”

She then flew up towards the massive celestial sphere, and Rainbow watched as she grew a horn from her forehead, shot a beam of energy, and pierced it right in the middle of it. It wasn’t long until dark clouds poured out as a silhouette of a creature was flying towards them. Zap readied his lasso as Rainbow Skies flew up with her talons out and ready; Rainbow Dash took a stance, ready to fly at any moment's notice. There was diabolical laughing as Nightmare Moon landed and threw out her wings, shouting, “You fools were foolish enough to free me! And now you wish to fight me!?”

But as soon she finished speaking, Shadow Dash shouted, “ Zap, tie her down now!”

Zap went around wrapping his lasso around Nightmare Moon’s hooves; she tried blasting him, but Rainbow Skies flew in and deflected her beams with her talons, making her more furious. She turned her attention to Rainbow Skies, and Rainbow Dash kept her busy as she could not hit any of them with her attacks. As soon as Rainbow Dash saw an oppurtunity, she and Rainbow Skies both flew in and smacked her in the face, sending her reeling backward as Zap Apple hogtied her down.

Nightmare Moon roared, her eyes glowing, as a sphere of green energy threw the others back. Rainbow Dash screamed in pain as the energy burned her mane and body a little, but just then, she heard.

“This ends now!” Shadow Dash finished her spell and was now careening down from the skies, going as fast as she would be. She performed a Sonic Rainboom as she zoomed right towards Nightmare Moon and flew inside the creature as a shadow liquid substance exploded outward.

Nightmare Moon screamed, shook, and cried, but as it convulsed, it started to melt. Soon, the shadowy substance faded, leaving her body like smoke as it drifted off into the air. It wasn’t long until all that was left was Princess Luna collapsing onto the ground, completely knocked out as the shadowy substance formed and joined together, creating a massive alicorn creature similar to Nightmare Moon. This one had a long rainbow-like mane drifting off her like a seamless magical essence; her body was massive with a long wispy rainbow mane, her eyes were glowing magenta, and her cutie mark was a massive lightning bolt over storm clouds. She raised her head as she threw out her wings and showed off her massive horn. She then flew down towards the other alicorn with a sad look in her eyes as she whispered, “I’m sorry, Princess Luna. This was the only way to save you without the Elements of Harmony. Please forgive me.”

Luna groaned as she looked around, “Wh…where am I? What's going on!?”

The shadow alicorn bent down. “It's a long story, and I don’t have time to explain everything,” she said, pointing to the castle. “Just go to that castle over there and ask for Twilight Sparkling. She’ll help you.”

Luna eyed the creature and whispered, “Wh…what are you?”

Shadow didn’t respond, flying off as Zap untied her and apologized. But then they heard an explosion outside, and they all ran out into the darkness as they came over a valley, a massive snake-like creature with talons and a bird-like face with a long rainbow mane and facial features resembling a draconequus not unlike Discord. It roared, “Shadow Dash, where are you!? You said you know where the society of justice is!? Or is this some ruse!?”

“What!?” Rainbow Dash glared at Shadow and shouted. “You traitor!” They all turned to shadow, Zap roaring. “I knew we couldn't trust her!”

Shadow rolled her eyes and blasted them aside as she flew towards the Discord-like being. With a smirk, she shouted, “Yeah, I know where they are! It's right here!”

She turned around and smacked her flank, making the draconequus laugh. “So what is this some sort of ruse?”

“No, it's a duel, me and you. If Commander Hurricane is looking for a new number two, I’m more than willing to show her I’m the one she wants!”

“You really think you can defeat me, a lord of chaos!? You don’t stand a chance!”

With a snap of a talon, the creature levitated a bunch of fruits and turned them into massive boulder-sized pies, then started tossing them at her. Shadow Dash zipped and dodged around the projectiles like they were nothing. The problem was that the pies were slamming into the orchards and fields of the bat ponies, some crashing into buildings. Rainbow Dash zipped off with Rainbow Skies, rescuing bat ponies and helping them evacuate the fight as the two continued their fight.

And then he tried snapping his claws, but she just laughed, “Sorry, chaos magic can’t affect me directly. Didn’t your master teach you that?”

“Shut up!” the draconequus roared as it started to swirl around the skies, creating a massive storm cloud that started to send out bolts of lightning after Shadow, who zoomed past them with ease and sent out bolts of lightning from her horn back at the creature. But once again, they didn’t think about the ground below, and Rainbow Skies, Rainbow Dash, and Zap Apple went around trying to push and rescue any civilians below. Zap saw his bracelet glow, then turned to Rainbow Dash and shouted, “Call for help now!”

Seeing the destroyed fields, she had to stop this. Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof on it, sending a location to the other members.

Then she looked back at the fight and saw dozens of copies of the shadowy alicorn surrounding the draconequus. They all scoffed in unison, “Is that the best you can do?”

“My mom has better hand-eye coordination than you!”

“You couldn’t pass a party clown!?”

“Are you really a Lord of chaos!? Trixie would mop the floor with you.”

“Shut up!”

“SHUT UP!”

The creature roared and started to swipe left and right, tearing at the clones as Rainbow Dash just watched in amazement as Shadow was probably the best flyer she'd ever seen; her eyes glowed as she flew upwards, and then she started to perform miraculous maneuvers as she continued to dodge and wave through Discord’s attacks then, without hesitation, using her momentum and speed to fly up then crash down into him with a massive bolt of lightning shooting out from her horn. They crashed into the ground, causing a massive dust storm to kick in, sending them backward. Rainbow Dash got up, seeing a swarm of black tendrils twisting themselves around the draconequus until he could scarcely move. The shadowy alicorn flared her wings and glowed. “Enough of this!”

Her eyes glowed as he remained transfixed on her. There was now silence as the creature cursed and waved as it screamed! The scream echoed across the valley, and it was unlike anything Rainbow had heard before, being one of pure terror as it was having the most horrible of nightmares. Then Shadow Dash slammed her horn into the draconequus’ chest. It didn’t pierce the flesh but created a shadowy hole, and she used her magic to remove a ball of rainbow energy from it slowly. The monstrous form slowly dissipated, revealing an earth pony clown with a rainbow afro falling to the ground in a heap. Shadow Dash’s alicorn form dissipated and flowed from her body until nothing was left but the small pegasus form. She looked rather pale now and seemed to have trouble breathing, heaving, and wheezing as if she were an old mare. But the mare seemed happy as she threw the ball up and down. “See what I tell ya? I'm reckless, but I ain't no buckin’ traitor.”

Just then, portals opened up, revealing the other Rainbow Dashs. They flooded the area with magical shackles placed on Shadow Dash, Shadowbolt flying to her “sister.” She was instantly slapped with hoofcuffs as her sister flew down and shouted, “What the buck were you thinking!?”

Shadow Dash reared her head and shouted, “Saving everyone and our friends, that's what I was doing! I rescued their Luna from the Nightmare Moon curse, defeated a Discord variant who was one of Hurricnae’s top agents, took away his chaos magic, and found her location. I have a spell to release our friends from the moon! You’re bucking welcome!”

“Shadow Dash, what is the meaning of all of this!” Rainbow Bite shouted as the batpony fluttered down to meet her. “Princess Luna told us much, but the only way she could have returned is if you performed the unsealment spell.”

Shadow Dash turned to her, apologetic as she said, “That’s right! I borrowed the tome on my own… I’m sorry.” I didn’t mean to deceive you, but I needed that spell more than you know.

“So…all this time….you were here just to use that book?”

“You don’t understand it’s also because I owe a debt.”

Before she finished, Rainbow Bite slammed a hoof down, sending a bunch of her bats to screech and fly out from her mane as she shouted, “I would’ve let you borrow it if you had given me time; I told you that! Why didn’t you tell me rescuing Princess Luna was part of your plan!?”

“Because I’m running out of time, I couldn't risk you knowing and stopping me. I'm sorry, but I don't really trust other ponies.”

“Maybe I shouldn't be so trusting as well,” she cried. The batpony took hold of herself and continued, “However, Princess Twilight Sparkling is trying to calm things down in the capitol. I am here to give you a message. She can't overlook that you gave us back Princess Luna; soon, her sister will be reunited as well. So, for your services to the Batpony Kingdom, you have been absolved of your crimes, but heed my words; you are banished henceforth, never to return.”

Rainbow Bite then flew off with the rest of the bat ponies, and Shadow Dash just muttered, “It doesn’t matter; I won’t be around much longer anyways.”

Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide upon hearing that, and asked, “What do you mean by that?”

But before she could ask, two pegasus variants of her were taking Shadow Dash away. Shadowbolt came over to Rainbow Dash and bowed. " Thank you for keeping an eye on my sister; she's quite a hooofful, as you can tell.”

“It was no problem. The fight was getting out of control, so calling you was probably the best decision I could have made.”

Zap Apple nodded in agreement and said, “That Shadow Dash was out of control, using this world as a battlefield!? I know she's trying to help, but are you sure you can't just send her home? She needs somepony to look after her kinda like a child.”

Rainbow Skies flew up, peeved, and snapped, “But it wasn’t all bad! Like she said, we stopped that evil clown guy! And rescued their Luna! I mean, she's done more than anyone else so far!”

Sahdowbolt looked at the griffin mournfully and said, “Rainbow Skies is right. Deep down, my sister wants to help everyone, and she can do a lot with her unique powers. But she thinks she can only do it by deceiving and using others. It’s not her fault. Maybe you’re right. She needs time with my parents; they could help her.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, wondering how variants of her parents would act around a much crazier version of herself. She then thought about why Shadow Dash did all this and asked, “But she mentioned that she wanted to help save your friends as well. Will you let her finish that?”

Shadowbolt paused, “That’s a story for another time, and I'd rather we discuss that in private. For now, I wanted to congratulate you all for making tough decisions on the fly without supervision or guidance; you stopped a dangerous foe, ensured there were no casualties, and helped my sister. For that, I'm eternally grateful.” She slapped bolts onto each other's chests, “You three are now official agents of the Society of Loyalty!”

“You mean we don’t need to do the tryouts!?” Rainbow Skies asked.

Shadowbolt shrugged, then added, “You can still do them? But since you’ve proven yourselves already, there’s no need.”

She then took out her bracelet, zapped a portal, and they all headed through. Rainbow Dash was the last one she heard somepony shout, “Wait!”

She turned to see Rainbow Bite flutter down and bowed, “Before you go, I just wanted to…thank you for saving our citizens from getting caught in the crossfire.”

“Yeah, no problem. Just help where I can.”

She then whispered, “Um… I overheard some of what Shadowbolt said. Can you pass a message to Shadow Dash?”

The pegasus nodded as she continued, “I still think Shadow Dash and I can be friends, but…I…I need time to calm things down. When we have Princess Celestia and the sun return, the other batponies will think fondly of her. Despite everything, I’m sure the banishment will be lifted…also tell Shadow I care for her and I want to see her again.”

“I will, and yeah, I’ll slap some sense into her next time she does anything crazy.”

“Please do.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and then mulled over what Shadow Dash said about how she wouldn’t be around much longer. She wanted to ask Rainbow Bite if she mentioned anything like that to her but she closed her mouth and instead said, “Just…take care of yourself.”

“I will.”

The pegasus then flew through the portal, and as the rainbows swirled around her, she couldn’t help but feel as if, after everything, they were much farther in stopping this multidimensional war, saving a world, and potentially rescuing variants of her friends at the end of the day despite how weird, and dark she was Shadow Dash was a hero maybe she didn’t need to be treated like a child as Zap mentioned… perhaps she just needed friends to keep her from going down a darker path.

Chapter Six: A shadow of doubt

Rainbow Dash and her new friends waited outside the “cells” where they had Shadow Dash. It had been a few hours, and there was a tense feeling hovering around the trio as they were all seemingly unsure of what would happen to their new friend. Zap Apple, who, despite being the least concerned for her, growled, “This shouldn’t be taking so long.”

“What if they’re torturing her!?” Rainbow Skies cried out. Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes. "They aren’t torturing her; that’s crazy."

“But they could be! We don’t know what they’re doing!”

Zap Apple threw his hooves over his chest and gruffed, “Well, I don’t like her one bit, but we should check on her just in case.”

Rainbow Dash was now feeling a bit worried about remembering what she said and how the other Rainbow Dash treated her. She didn't want to anger the others, but she wasn't going to leave until she knew Shadow Dash was ok. She then got up and said, “Let’s go.”

The others got up and followed her and they all trotted through the cells until they heard yelling reverberating across the halls of the Rainbow crystal-like walls.

“You’re finally getting what you want!”

“This isn’t what I want! I wanted you to help me! You’re so frustrating!”

Shadowbolt bucked her hooves into the bars and cried out in pain as Shadow Dash stood back. " Listen, I did what I wanted to, but I almost messed everything up. If I had lost my fight with Nightmare Moon or that Discord Dash, I would have doomed Rainbow Bite’s world. As you said, I'm too much of a loose cannon to be an agent, and I want to see Mom and Dad again and tell them that we're okay.”

Shadowbolt eyed her, “This isn’t like you at all; what’s gotten into you?”

Rainbow Dash was glad to see the two “sisters” were ok, but their arguing was trotted over and asked, “What’s going on?”

Shadowbolt threw a hoof, “My sister wants to go home forever.”

Rainbow looked abit confused, seeing that was the solution everypony was coming to, and said, “I mean, isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t she have the spell to save your friends?”

“Yes, and I want to see them so badly! But I was thinking she would go to our world and then come back, not stay there!”

Rainbow Dash blinked, confused. Again, this entire time, she thought Shadowbolt and the others all wanted this for the rogue Dash and added, “Um, isn’t that what you wanted?”

Shadowbolt was tearing her mane as she shouted, “Yes! But it’s not what she wants! She’s just doing it because she feels guilty! I'm not trying to make her feel guilty!”

Shadow Dash lowered her head and whispered, "Seriously, guys, you're overthinking this. I…I feel bad for how I left things with Rainbow Bite, and I don’t want to be a burden anymore.”

Rainbow Dash was fuming abit; she knew that now this Dash was self-defeating, and she wouldn’t let her feel that way! She then flew over to the cell and snapped, “Shadow! You are not a burden. Rainbow Bite wanted to thank you for helping her! And she doesn’t blame you; She wants to work things out, and when things die down in her world she wants you to come back!”

Shadow Dash was starting to cry, tears welling up. " That’s great. Um, just tell her if you can. I…I…I want to see her again, okay?”

“You will, but please, come back once you save your friends. Your powers are super cool, and you can do much with them. Just…don’t give up, okay?”

“Ok, I won’t.”

Shadowbolt flew back to the cell and opened it, “Fine, but when you get back, tell Mom and Dad I’m fine and will be back soon. They’re probably worried sick,”

“Of course.”

“Also, let Scootaloo know I’m ok.”

“Yes, mam,” Shadow Dash replied sarcastically.

“And Tank! Make sure he’s fine.”

“I'm sure Mom and Dad are doing a good job caring for him.”

They both looked at each other for a second, hugged, and then Shadowbolt tapped on her bracelet as a portal appeared. Shadow Dash trotted towards it and took a hoof through it as she did; Rainbow Dash didn’t hesitate as she jumped through. Shadow Dash cried, “Hey!” and they tumbled through the swirling magical gate together.

After tumbling through the magical gateway the two then landed right into Rainbow Dash’s childhood home, and Shadow Dash got up, shouting, “What was that for?”

“Sorry, I had to come make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine! You didn’t ha-”

“Rainbow, is that you!?”

They both turned to see a massive blue-coated stallion with a small crop of rainbow-colored mane and a smaller older blue-coated pegasus mare with a crop of orange mane and tail. They both flew over, shouting, “Rainbow, Shadow your back!”

They then threw the two into a hug and started crying as the two Dashs struggled to get out of their embrace. Eventually, they did as Rainbow Dash wheezed, “Wait, hold on, you got the wrong Dash.”

“Yeah, um, that one is a friend of mine from another dimension.”

The couple took a moment to collect their thoughts and said, “Oh, sorry.”

“It’s alright, mom, dad can we uh get something to eat?”

“Of course!” the two chimed as they were then escorted to the dinner table and sat down into chairs as if they were royalty.

“Oh, it’s so amazing to have you both for breakfast! I just wish our Dashie were here!” Windy chimed as she was hoofing out pancakes.

“Yeah, then we can see who can eat the most! but I bet our Dashie could eat you under the table!” Bow laughed as he shoveled some pancakes into his mouth.

Shadow Dash feigned a smile while taking in the food and scarfing it down. She then eyed Rainbow Dash, who was just scarfing her meal down, and she had to admit they were good, being exactly the same as her mother's cooking, and cried. “This is amazing! It tastes just like how my own parents would make it!”

Windy laughed, “of course! I guess your parents are the same as us?”

“Yeah, which isn’t surprising!”

“She looks so much like our Dashie bef-" Bow paused, then clammed up rather suddenly.

Windy paused, looking abit worried, and Shadow Dash slowly approached him and said, “Da—“ she stopped, and then the stallion smiled and said, “Hey, I told you can call me Dad, okay?”

“Please, dear, we told you you’re like a daughter to us,” Windy whispered as she hugged her. The mare looked slightly annoyed but let her mom hug her, which was wholesome to see, and it gave her a pang of regret for putting a wall between her own parents. She hadn't even told them she was a Wonderbolt yet, mostly due to how embarrassing they were. The alternate Dash then whispered, “Mom, Dad, I have a way to get Rainbow Dash’s friends back.”

“You do!” they cried.

“Yeah, not just them but Princess Celestia as well, but I have to wait until tonight when the moon is full.”

Windy, looking rather desperate, asked, “That’s wonderful news! Does that mean our baby will be back too!”

“Yeah, is she coming back!” Bow cried.

Shadow shook her head, “No,” and continued to explain, “She’ll be back once Commander Hurricane, the leader of the evil Rainbow Dashs, is captured. But yeah, after that, she should return.”

“Well, it all sounds like you girls really kicked some butt!” Windy exclaimed.

“Couldn’t be prouder of you!” Bow added.

“Yeah, thanks, so um, I just want to have fun today! You know!?”

Rainbow Dash couldn't agree more, especially if it meant getting away from alternate versions of her parents, who were friendly and cool, but she could only take so much of their antics. She then turned to Shadow and replied, “Yeah, that’s fine. So what do you want to do for fun?”

“I have a few ideas, mainly attending a Wonderbolt show and chillaxing.”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Rainbow added, throwing a hoof in the air.

“Well, I gotta go check on Tank, then we can head out!” Shadow chirped as she flew off to her room. Rainbow then turned to the alternate version of her parents, and seeing them just staring and gawking at her made her realize how similar they were to her own parents. With this in mind, Rainbow couldn't help but ask, “So, uh? Guess you guys are also obsessed with your daughter, huh?”

“Of course, how did you know!?” the two cried.

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but smirk and said, “You could say that's one thing that's probably the same in every universe.”

Later that day, they all went to a Wonderbolt show and cheered them on as the flyers performed their aerial stunts; they had a wonderful time as the two were enjoying the show. Shadow Dash cheered excitedly just as much as her parents would, and it was fun but embarrassing to witness. After the show, the mare waited hours to get an autograph from them and showed off her Wonderbolt poster. “Finally! I got Soarin’s signature! Now I have a signature for every Wonderbolt on it!”

“That’s awesome!” Rainbow Dash replied, being rather happy for her friend and having done something similar in her own past.

“Yeah, I've wanted to join them since I was created! Even after we defeated Nightmare Moon, though, they told me that it wouldn't be fair to the others because I didn't have a physical body. But I still love watching the shows; they’re just so awesome!”

Rainbow Dash felt abit bad for her friend being denied to become a Wonderbolt, but considering hse was some creature made of shadow, the decision made sense and said, “Yeah, they are…though that sucks; they won’t let you join.”

“It’s fine. I got over it," Shadow replied with a wave of a hoof she then picked up the poster and said, "Anyways, my sister will love this. I’ll put it up in her room.”

Rainbow Dash paused, thinking Shadow Dash had gotten that poster and all those signatures for herself. She wondered why she would give it away and asked, “I know she’s your sister, but are you seriously giving that to her?”

“Yeah, I mean, I wo-just you know…” Shadow clammed up suddenly, then rolled the poster up and said, “It’s fine. Let’s just keep going and having fun. Don’t wana bum you out, ya know?”

“Ok, if you say so,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, eyeing her, wondering if she was still hiding something, and that thought was in the back of her mind the one about how Shadow said she didn't have much time left.

“That show really pumped me up! How about I race ya back home, to drop the poster off then we go find a place to chillax!”

“Oh, you’re so on!” Rainbow cried, and the two flapped up and sped back home as fast as their wings could carry them, zooming across clouds and busting through them as they headed back home.

Later that day, the two Dashs were chillaxing out next to a pond near Ponyville, both lying down on lawn chairs with sunglasses and drinking Cider from tall glasses with swirly straws. Rainbow didn’t want to disrupt her friend, but she needed to learn what was bothering her, and that thing she had said about not being around much longer was in the back of her mind. She then asked, “Shadow, I don’t mean to pry, but you said something before we left Rainbow Bite’s world about you not being around much longer?"

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Shadow snapped rather suddenly and angrily.

“But maybe you should?”

“I SAID I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!” Shadow shouted as she rolled to her side and grumbled, “I just want to chillax and forget about things!”

Rainbow Dash didn't want to pry further, but she had to know what was wrong, so the pegasus flapped over and landed next to her friend and said, “Sorry, but no, I won’t let this go! Something is wrong, and you're just trying to avoid it.”

“How would you know?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, pointed a hoof into her chest, and added, “Because I would be doing the same thing. Also, there is no way I would give any pony a poster with the signature of every Wonderbolt on it.”

Shadow Dash laid there for a second, then got up and said, “Let’s just go to Canterlot and talk to Princess Luna there. I’ll explain everything there, alright?”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but it was better than nothing, and pushing her to open up further probably wouldn’t help things. So Rainbow relented and said, “Okay, at least that’s something.”

“Well, how about one more race to Canterlot.”

Rainbow flexed her wings, seeing she won the last race, and with a smirk, replied, “You wana go two out of three?”

“Trust me, I was going easy on ya last time!”

The two then lifted off with a burst of speed, flying through the trees and soaring at top speeds once more. The adrenaline pushed them through the air, and they hurled themselves towards Canterlot.

At Canterlot, Rainbow Dash saw that things weren’t much different either, as this dimension really wasn’t much different from her own. They flew through one of the open windows and found Princess Luna in her bedroom, neck-deep in paperwork, writing things down and muttering about tax reform and how Celestia could have done this for a thousand years. As the two pegasi came through the window, she turned towards them with a smile and cried, “Shadow Dash! Rainbow Dash! You’ve returned!”

“Um, kind of,” Shadow Dash replied, “Before we have to explain things, this Rainbow Dash is from another universe. Our Rainbow Dash is still out, still fighting a bunch of evil Rainbow Dashs.”

Princess Luna blinked, looking rather confused, but gave a few nods. “I see; well and so what brought you here?”

Shadow Dash lowered her gaze and mumbled, " I found a way to get Princess Celestia and our Rainbow Dash’s friends back, and it requires a very powerful spell I recently learned.”

Luna got suddenly excited as she clapped her hooves together and whinnied like a school filly, “You did!? and Without the Elements of Harmony!”

“Yes, and it will be successful. I just need to have a full view of the full moon tonight. Once there, I will use my powers to release your sister and my sister’s friends from their prison.”

“That’s wonderful news!” Luna squealed in delight, flying over and hugging Shadow Dash. Shadow had to squirm and push the princess away as she asked dozens of questions. “Do you wish to stay here for the night? Do you need anything to eat? Do you need any components for the spell?”

Shadow waved her hooves and said, “No, I don’t need anything like that, maybe a place like a writing room; I have some letters I want write.”

Rainbow Dash was abit surprised by the request and scoffed, “Letters!? Why do you need to write letters for?”

“They’re important,” Shadow snapped again then she looked right into her friend's eyes and continued, “I need you to deliver them, ok? I know you’ll be heading back to the Society soon, so I wanted to at least let Rainbow Bite and my sister know everything is ok.”

“Yeah, ok…” Rainbow whispered, feeling something was off deep down in her gut.

A few hours passed, and now it was dusk. As the sun set, Rainbow Dash saw the stack of letters Shadow Dash had, and she hoofed them one by one: "They're all finished, so these two are for Win-I mean mom and dad, this is for my sis, this one is for Scootaloo, this one’s for Rainbow Bite, and this one is for you.”

Rainbow was surprised by that and asked again, “For me?”

Shadow stood there for a moment just looking at her, then said, “Yeah, for you; thank you for being here for me; just know you’re a good friend.”

“Of course! If you need anything else, let me know!” Rainbow chirped. She then flew out the window and went to deliver the letters. She found Scootaloo coming out of school and giving her one of the letters; then she returned to Cloudsdale and came back to her childhood home to find Windy and Bow, who looked worried seeing she came back alone. Rainbow Dash then hoofed them the letters, and they opened them up and started to read them instantly. To her surprise, their happy, cheerful demeanor changed. They both began to tremble, and tears came down their cheeks. Windy looked up and said, “Rainbow, have you read any of these?”

Rainbow Dash was now looking rather concerned asked, “What, no, what’s wrong?”

Bow stifled back tears, “Our daughter Shadow, she’s going to sacrifice herself to save them!”

Rainbow Dash was taken aback by what her alternate version of her dad said, so she opened her letter and started reading it.

Dear Rainbow Dash

Thank you for the wonderful day today. I had a lot of fun, more so than almost any other, and it was the closest thing I had to what my sister must’ve felt before Nightmare Moon sealed her friends away. Let me be honest: I was a weapon designed to hurt you. I never meant to exist, and the magic holding me here has been slowly ebbing away for quite some time. I may have a few weeks or days left, so I thought it’s best to end this by sacrificing what’s left of my life to save others. I appreciate everything you did for me and trust me when you barely even knew who I was, and I know deep down it will be you who will defeat Commander Hurricane; you will be a hero; you’re so much braver and stronger than me, and you’re the most loyal Rainbow Dash I’ve ever met. I am happy to have met you, and I only wish we had gotten to hang out for a bit longer.

Goodbye, friend, from Shadow Dash

Rainbow Dash was in tears as she finished reading the last words, cursing at herself. How could she have not seen this coming? Everything she did and how she acted led to this, and she was too stupid to notice. Then she shouted, “No! I won’t let her!”

She then shot out of her family home, bursting through the room and soaring into the sky. Without thinking, she gathered speed to perform a Rainboom, which exploded around her as she shot herself toward Canterlot at top speeds, ripping through clouds and the air itself! She was going to get to Shadow before she did something stupid and save her life!

It was now nearing midnight as Shadow Dash drifted towards the full moon. She threw out her wings and felt the breeze go through her mane. This was the last time she felt the wind over her mane and through her wings. It was a feeling that sent shivers down her spine, “Mom, Dad, I’m sorry. I would’ve flown back to hug you one last time, but if I did, I don’t think I would have the strength to do this.”

She then roared, transforming into her alicorn form once more. She then threw out her wings and stared right into the moon. “I wish I got to at least see your friends, sis. I would’ve liked to have met them.”

She then threw herself into her, gaining speed and sending herself to the moon. Out of nowhere, a pegasus slammed into her, and they were sent to the ground, picking up a massive cloud of dust and dirt around them. Rainbow got up, heaving angrily as she shouted, “What are you thinking!”

“What does it look like!? I'm saving my sister’s friends and Princess Celestia!”

“And you think any of them would want you sacrificing yourself to do it!?”

“I…I have to. At least I'm going out on my terms, not wasting away! So let me die!”

She shot a beam at Rainbow and nimbly dodged out of the way as she flew up and said, “Shadow! If these ponies were anything like the ponies I knew, they would be saddened and horrified knowing somepony I cared about sacrificed themselves for their sakes. You have to find another way to free them.”

“How else!? I need more energy from the nightmare realm! and I barely have enough to keep going!”

“We can find it! But you have to give us time, and you need to know you're not alone!”

She then pointed to the sky, and Shadow saw silhouettes coming down from the night sky. She saw the forms of Princess Luna, her parents, and even Scootaloo hopping off her dad’s back and running over to her. Shadow Dash's form shrank back down to her smaller pegasus body, and she stood there paralyzed for a second and asked, “Why do you all care for me? I’m not real; I’m just a weapon.”

“No, you’re our daughter!” her parents cried as they hugged her, pulling each other into a tight hug.

“You’re my big sister!” Scootlaoo cried, joining in the hug.

They all held each other as Shadow hugged them back, feeling so stupid for thinking nopony cared for her.

Seeing the situation being handled, Princess Luna gave a relaxed sigh and whispered, “Thank goodness I came in time. I had no idea she was going to sacrifice herself. I was so blinded by the idea of seeing my sister again I should’ve known or sensed her plans.”

The pegasus turned towards the princess of the night, shook her head, and said, “No, it’s me who should be sorry; I should have seen the signs.”

Luna peered up at the moon, seeing the silhouette of her sister and six other ponies, and cried, “I'm happy Shadow is ok, but they will have to wait abit longer now.”

“Don’t worry, princess; we’ll free them without sacrificing anypony!" Rainbow shouted as she flew up towards the moon, pointed a hoof right at it, and proclaimed, “That will be our next mission!"

Chapter Seven: Trials to Come

Rainbow Dash and Shadow returned to the “Society of Loyalty,” and there they came upon the halls being empty. They then continued looking around, trying to find out what was going on until they found everypony in a central chamber and a bunch of Rainbow Dash staring up at the tall "Alicorn Dash" who shouted, “Listen up! We finally have the location of Commander Hurricane, who will launch an assault into her world and end her conquest once and for all! But she is powerful and has many allies. We, the head of the Council of Loyalty, decided to create a strike force to take her down! We are looking for the elite of the elite!”

Almost every Rainbow Dash in the room jumped at the chance, shouting and boasting about themselves, but the alicorn held a hoof and shouted in her Canterlot voice, “EVERYPONY PLEASE QUIET DOWN!”

This got the crowd of Rainbow Dashs to simmer down, and the alicorn cleared her throat then continued, “I know all of you would volunteer given the chance, but the idea is that we need a small team to infiltrate her dimension and stealthily find out where she is, and learn about the other dangers we can be facing. If we just rush in head first, many of you can be injured or killed. I don’t want to put any one of you at unnecessary risk. Once the strike team returns with the intel, we can make plans to invade her dimension and take her down, understood!?”

“Yes, princess!” everypony cried at once. As the crowd began to disperse, Rainbow saw Shadowbolt quickly rush over and slammed into her sister, throwing her wings around her and crying, “Shadow, your back!”

“Yeah, sis, I’m back.” she sighed.

“So you brought my friends back!? How are they!?” she asked frantically.

Her sister bowed her head and whispered, “Um..well, no, I couldn't.”

“Why not?”

Rainbow Dash intervened, “She needs more power.”

“More power?”

“Yeah, like nightmare fuel or something like that.”

Shadowbolt paused to think, then turned to her sister and said, “Like how you can take the power of Nightmare Moon and turn Princess Luna back to normal?”

“Yes, precisely!” the mare cried.

“Well, sadly, that has to wait. All hooves are on deck to defeat Commander Hurricane, and I’ll lead the strike force. If you want to be a part of it, you better sign up now.”

She pointed to a massive module with a weird-looking creature. She had weird tan skin and hair that was similar to her rainbow-stripped mane and tail, and instead of hooves, she had odd appendages typing away at a keyboard. The pegasus looked horrified as she pointed a hoof at her and shouted, “What is that!?”

Shadowbolt then whispered, “That is a human, I believe. Weird, huh? She and Prism keep the place running. I don't talk to her all that much, but she is friendly."

"OK, I'll take your word for it," Rainbow replied with a shrug. She paused and turned towards Shadowbolt, pondering why she wasn't trying to rescue her friend, and asked, “Are you sure you want to hold off saving your friends?”

“I want to save them so badly I do, but this takes priority. Commander Hurricane is a threat to not only my world but every world. My friends would want me to finish this and then rescue them after.”

“If you say so,” Shadow Dash replied, being abit standoffish.

“Why don’t you get in line for the strike team? I’m sure you all have traits that would make you great.”

“Yeah, come on!” Shadow tugged at Rainbow, and the rest of her friends got in line; she wanted desperately to talk to the two sisters and try to get them to go rescue their friends, but seeing a major threat, she had a point. The more time they wasted, the more ponies could be hurt, and the more worlds could be conquered. If her friends were sealed away, she would stop at nothing to find and rescue them, but if there was a threat to their world coming. They most definitely would want her to take it down first. So they waited in line until they approached to the “human.” She turned to face them and simply asked, “Bracelet.”

Rainbow Dash hesitantly held up her hoof, and the human grabbed it, scanned it with a weird device, typed some stuff, gave her a ticket, and shouted, “Next!”

Rainbow took it and walked off, abit annoyed, when she noticed her other friends, Rainbow Skies and Zap Apple, waiting for her. She hopped over with a smile, “Hey!” and hugged each other.

Rainbow Skies asked, “Are you ok? You’re not hurt, are you!?”

“No, no, just had a quick misadventure with Shadow.” She then held up a hoof and pointed to Shadow Dash, who blushed and waved a hoof as Rainbow Skies asked, “Soooo, how was the trip?”

“Well, me and Dash hit it off pretty well, though the spell I learned, um…As she put it earlier, I need more uh nightmare fuel to save my sister’s friends.”

Both Zap and Rainbow Skies were taken aback and asked, “Nightmare fuel?”

Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her mane, looking rather uncomfortable. She said, “It’s a long story. We can talk about it later. How about we figure out where to go to do these trials?”

She then looked at her ticket, and the others did the same, explaining where to go and at what time. “I guess we should go to our assigned stations,” she said.

Rainbow Skies peaked over the shoulders of Shadow and Rainbow, then said, “Seems we have to go to the Cloud chamber.”

Zap looked down at his. “I'm supposed to be at the combat arena.”

“I’m sorry you’ll be doing yours on your own. I guess we can meet up after?”

“Yeah, sure!”

Rainbow Dash, Shadow Dash, and Rainbow Skies came to the cloud room, and there she saw a massive obstacle course made of dense storm clouds with rain pouring on them and streaks of lightning could be seen flashing across the room. She noticed many of the ponies there were pegasi, but there were also a few griffins and dragons, a changeling or two, all boasting about how fast they were and if they were Wonderbolts, how many times they saved Equestria, etc…etc…. Rainbow smirked, knowing most were probably exaggerating, but she kept her head up and looked as confident as she could. She headed towards the starting line. She turned to see both Rainbow Skies and Shadow Dash; they both weren't looking as confident, seeming to keep their heads down. She said, “How about we do some wing exercise and limber up?”

“Yeah, ok,” Rainbow Skies chirped.

Shadow nodded, and they followed her example as they continued doing the exercises, and then an older, gruff-looking Rainbow Dash with a baseball cap on her head flew over and shouted, “Enough milling around, everypony line up!”

They all did as the “Coach Dash” (as Rainbow will nickname her). They did as she said as they all lined up. She cleared her throat, “We need somepony who is both fast and agile to maneuver around storm-like weather that encircles this version of Equestria. From the little intel we gathered, Commander Hurricane’s world has dense storm clouds, which will be hard to maneuver in the air! I will only take the nine from this group and move to the next trial!”

“Now get ready.”

“Get set!”

“Go!”

As soon as she said that, everypony lifted off and zoomed around the massive storm clouds, having to battle strong winds and dodge bolts of lightning. Rainbow Dash did her best to keep her friends together, seeing they both were excellent fliers, being able to dodge the random bolts of lightning and keeping their wings tucked as they maneuvered around the storm clouds. The mare then saw one dragon zooming around them like it was nothing. The dragon in question had beautiful blue scales and rainbow-colored spines going down her back. She wasn't much bigger in size than Ember, meaning she might not be that old. She flew about the storm like it was nothing, and it was clear she was good. Rainbow Dash couldn’t but admire her for a second before seeing how her teammates were doing. She could tell their minds were distracted, and they needed some motivation she flew over and shouted, “Come on, you two are better than this!”

Shadow was struggling when a gust of wind hit her and slammed her into some clouds. Rainbow Skies flew after her but then smacked right into the dragon she was watching earlier. The creature instinctively pushed her friend aside and snapped, “What was that for!?”

“Nothing, it was an accident!”

“Accident, huh!? You think I’m gonna buy that!” she shot a burst of flame, and Rainbow Skies quickly dodged it as Rainbow Dash flew over and pushed her. “Hey, leave my friend alone!”

“You want some too!?”

She then took a swipe with her claws, but Rainbow dodged it; then a massive shadowy dragon reared its head and roared, making the smaller dragon cry out and fly off as it shrunk back to Rainbow Dash, who scoffed, “Was getting tired of that bitch!”

Rainbow Skies then asked, “You ok?”

Shadow shook herself and grumbled, “I'm fine, thanks; come on, let’s get going; we’re already behind.”

Rainbow flew over and asked, “Right, but first, do you want this!?”

“What, of course, we do!”

“Then show it! You both are amazing flyers; right now you don’t have your heads in the game. Now I want to hear you say it: You want to win, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Louder!”

“YEAH!”

“Then let’s go!”

“Yes, mam!” the two chimed together.

Rainbow Dash then led her team, flying through the air at a high speed and bursting through the storm clouds going above them. Then, seeing the finish line, she led her two friends as they gathered speeds and blasted through the storm clouds, dodging the various lightning blasts at them as they burst through the finish line, all panting and out of breath. Rainbow Dash saw a few others already there, but then “Coach Dash” came over and smirked, “You three just passed; good job! The trial is over!”

As she said that, the clouds dispersed, and the rest of the Rainbow Dash groaned some, mumbled angrily, and looked a little “singed.” Meanwhile, her friends cheered and hugged her, laughing as she looked up, seeing that things were going well so far.

During the other trial, Zap Apple found himself in a circular combat arena with other unicorns and earth ponies, all of them smirking and talking behind his back. He titled his hat on his head and ignored them. After a while, a massive stocky pegasus who looked a lot like Bulk Biceps flew downwards toward them with a shortcut rainbow mane and tail and shouted, “Alright, everypony, listen up!”

The rest of the ponies all turned to face him as he continued, “This is a trial by combat. We need somepony who can protect the others in the strike force from Commander Hurrciane’s goons! The goal is to defeat as many as possible, but if you get struck three times, you’re out! The trial ends once all the minions are defeated, or we have nine contestants left, understood!?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Alright, let’s begin!”

Then, copies of the “Storm King’s” minions started to appear; the massive burly creatures started to appear with many of the ponies getting ready, some picking up various types of weapons, spears, maces, and poleaxes, some unicorns lighting their horns lifting swords while others readied spells. Zap Apple merely picked up his lasso and readied himself. Then, without warning, the fight started with the burly bipedal creatures attacking, smashing their hooves and bashing them with spears and heavy weapons such as maces and axes. When somepony was hit, they weren’t actually hurt, but a small tik came over their head to indicate how many times they were hit. When one reached three, they disappeared. Zap did his best to buck and avoid being hit, using his lasso to wrap one of the creatures, twirling him around, and throwing him into a bunch of others like a canon ball. While a knight version of him with a flowing mane and tail shouting “Hazah!” threw his sword about with this prideful smirk as he scoffed, “Come now, commoner, you can do better than that!”

Zap’s eyes widened, being somewhat surprised by the response, and asked, “Did you seriously just call me a Commoner!?”

“Yes, a commoner, you fright like some backwater ruffian; you should be fighting with honor like somepony as myself.”

He then continued to slash through the army of soldiers as Zap just rolled his eyes, and then he heard an explosion of shadow-like electricity ripping apart dozens of the soldiers. He turned to see the pony performing these feats and saw, to his surprise, Shadowbolt; her mane was waving around her, that green eye glowing over the left side of her face with a playful smirk as she twirled a massive swirl of black lightning ripping apart many of the creatures and then smashing her hooves into one and then turned to Zap and shouted, “behind you!”

He ducked as she shot some black lighting into a few of them, and Zap laughed, “Thanks! Why are you here? Aren’t you leading the team?”

“Yeah, but couldn’t help getting a warm-up!” she laughed, then flew over, “Now come on! You wana to be a part of the team or not!?”

Shadowbolt's words drove him to fight harder, and he started to pound and kick the creatures relentlessly. They fought for what felt like hours, but in the end, Zap Apple was more than enough for them. He was surprised to see him, along with a few other different versions of himself, all heaving and out of breath. He turned to see he was one of the few left standing alongside Shadowbolt, who nudged him. “Not bad. It will be an honor to fight alongside you.”

“You as well,”

“You made it!?” the knight cried in disgust, looking straight at him. “How awful would it be if we ended up on the same team.”

“Same here, pal,” Zap replied with a snort as he tilted his hat and walked off to find the cafeteria for some grub.

The others were all at the “chow hall,” the place massive among the hundreds of Rainbow Dashs, where Zap loaded up on pasta and potatoes with sourdough bread sandwiches and tankards of cider. Zap trotted through the rows of benches looking for his friends and upon finding them blushed seeing they all had similar sandwiches and commented, “Guess we all got the same thing, huh?”

“Not surprising, seeing they were all the same pony,” Rainbow Skies chirped. “It's weird; it’s like having hundreds of identical twins you’ve never met before.”

“Yeah, most of them are kind of jerks,” Zap grumbled. He then took a few bites of his sandwich, drank his cider, and asked, “So, how was your trial?”

Rainbow Dash replied, “It was alright, just flying a bunch of storm clouds; I guess their Equestria is completely covered in them."

Shadow then turned to Zap and asked, “So, what was your trial like?”

“Mine, it was just a big fight; guess they need to know if one of us can keep your flyers safe,” Zap paused, then turned to Shadow and said, “Crazy enough, your sister was there, and she was amazing! I've seen a lot of pegasi fly and fight during my time, but she is really good.”

“That's weird. Isn’t she leading the mission? Why is she in the trials?”

“She said she wanted a warm-up or something like that.”

Shadow burst out laughing and then said, “That sounds a lot like her.”

“So what do you think is the next trial?” Rainbow asked.

Just then, they heard “Coach Dash” shout over an intercom, “everypony, listen up! Everyone who passed the first trials made a group of three and headed to the cloud room. If you won the first trial, find a group of three and head to the cloud room for the next trial.”

“Guess we know where we're heading next,” Rainbow sighed.

Rainbow Skies flew next to Shadow Dash, wrapping a wing around her, and said. “I'm joining with you!”

She nudged her back and said, “Ok, that works with me.”

Rainbow turned to Zap. “How about we join up?”

“Yeah, I guess, but were both missing a third?”

“We can worry about that later,” Rainbow Dash chimed as she quickly scarfed down the rest of her sandwich, drank the rest of her cider, and headed with her friends toward the Cloud Room.

This time, the massive chamber had walls with storm clouds towering towards the ceiling. As lightning struck across the room, thunder clapped with rain now pouring down on them. The walls created a maze designed to inhibit flight. Most had a group of three, but then Rainbow Dash spotted the dragon Rainbow Skies fought with back in the first trial. She had her arms crossed around her chest, and looking pouty, she could tell that she needed a team despite looking disinterested. Seeing they needed a third member, Rainbow Dash came over and said, “Hey, uh, we got off on the wrong hoof earlier.”

The dragon looked over with an angry look on her face and said, “You can say that again.”

“Listen, we need a third, and you clearly need a team. Why not join me and Zap here?”

She eyed them and asked, “Why are you asking me for?”

“You wouldn’t be my first choice, but there’s nopony else here, and we’re running out of time also; you were a good flyer and can handle yourself.”

“I don’t need your empty platitudes.”

Rainbow started getting annoyed, slamming a hoof on the ground, then snapped, “They’re not empty platitudes; I’m serious. You were amazing out there; my only problem with you is your attitude.”

The dragon snorted out some smoke and then paused, and her attitude shifted, and she apologized, “Sorry, I'm learning to be more welcoming…but um, sure, I’ll join your team.”

“Good, now why don’t we get a name.”

“I’m joining your dumb team. It doesn’t mean we’re friends,” the dragon growled as she huffed away. Rainbow just gave an annoyed sigh as Zap came over and asked, “Are you sure having her on our team is a good idea?”

“Yeah, she seems to be rough around the edges, but I'm sure she’ll come around,” Rainbow replied with a smirk. “Come on, let’s get ready; the trial’s about to start.”

Meanwhile, Rainbow Skies was looking for a third member for their team and frantically asking for a third team member, but many of the other “Dashs” were already chosen. Then she spotted a stocky unicorn stallion with a long mane and tail with a sword strapped to his side. He looked gallant, like someone from a fairy tale, but he also looked desperate, looking for a team, and he flew over and chirped, “Hello, how ya doing!?”

As she approached him, the knight reared its head and replied with a sneer, “A griffin! What are you doing here!”

Rainbow Skies’ felt her feathers bristle as she already regretted talking to him and said, “Because we need a third team member, and you need a team.”

With a snort, the stallion threw his head in the air and snapped, “And why would I ever join with a griffin!?”

“Yes, I’m a griffin, and right now, we need a third, and you clearly need somepony, so join us, or we all get disqualified.”

The stallion looked over the two, saying, “Well, I guess we can join together, though I’m not comfortable working with other creatures that aren’t ponies.”

“Well, I'm not comfortable working with pompous jerks, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Fine, I will join your squad.”

“Good! Hope you can keep up!”

They then formed up as Coach Dash came forward: “Listen up! This is the final trial! I will only allow two groups to make it to the end of the maze! In this maze, you will have to dodge traps and avoid various obstacles while facing off copies of the Storm King’s soldiers! Remember you must work as a team. The entire team is disqualified if one team member gets lost or struck three times! Just make it to the other end with all members, understood?”

“Yes, mam!”

“Good!”

The groups then went to the starting portions of the maze. They all flew or ran through the openings of the maze, and as soon as they did, the openings closed, leaving clouds behind them.

Deep in the maze, Rainbow Dash and Zap Apple were making it through the dark halls with bolts of lightning striking out at them and dodging the constant winds. Alongside the dragon, they were getting through it pretty well, mainly consisting of obstacles, massive balls of lightning swinging on chains, and the hordes of the copies of the Storm King soldiers hounding them. Zap and “Dragon Dash” were bashing them and keeping them off Rainbow Dash as she zipped around and slapped buttons or pulled levers to shut down the electrical fields or open new pathways around the storm clouds. As they were making it towards the end of the maze, Rainbow Dash flew over to “Dargon Dash” and complimented her, “Hey, you did pretty good back there!”

“Yeah, whatever, don’t mention it.”

Rainbow Dash eyed her wanting to try to make some meaningful conversation, and asked, “I mean, you saved our butts back there and did such a great job keeping yourself from getting hit by any lightning.”

“Just shut up! I don’t need you telling me how great I am, alright!”

“I’m not. I just want to get to know you better, is all.”

“Why!? I'm just a dragon, okay? I want to help and save the world like my friends.” She growled with a snort of smoke and flew off ahead of her. Zap ran over and asked, " So, guess she ain’t much of a talker?”

Rainbow gave her a remorseful look and replied, “Guess not…”

“So, do you want me to try to talk to her?”

“I'm not sure; she just wants to be alone.”

“Yeah, but she's gonna be a part of the task force, and we should try to work together at least,”

Zap then took a chance running beneath “Dragon Dash” and asked, “Hey, so um, what is your name!?”

“If you and the pegasus friend are so insistent, it’s Geode.”

“Geode, that’s a nice name; I've met some dragons myself, ya know.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really, my best friend Twilight Sparkle has a dragon.”

“Spike, yeah, I know there’s a lot of them or Barb.”

Zap chuckled, thinking about Spike as a girl, then said, “In my universe, it’s Spike, but honestly, you're a lot more like…”

“Ember, yeah, I know again it’s not the first time I've been told that; she’s my sister," Geode cut her off rather suddenly.

Zap paused, and then Rainbow Dash, who overheard, flew over and asked, “Wait, Ember is your sister!?”

“Well, my Ember is, well…unlike most, she’s more like Rarity.” Geode then continued flying off as fast as she could as Rainbow Dash caught up with her and asked, “Wait, I have so many questions!”

“We should focus on getting to the end; we can talk later; come on!” Geode snapped as she led them towards the exit, which can be seen at this point.

Rainbow Dash slowed down and went by Zap and said, “Great job! Geode seems to be more talkative now!”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect her to be; let’s just focus on wrapping this up, and then we can talk later!” Zap laughed as they raced towards the finish line.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Skies and Shadow Dash followed the pompous knight as they made their way through the maze of storm clouds and dodged the various obstacles in their way, just like their friends. Rainbow Skies focused on pushing buttons and pulling levers with Shadow. Meanwhile, the knight was facing off the fake soldiers, cutting through them like butter with his massive sword and that smug grin on his face. Overall, the maze was a breeze, and they did a pretty good job making though Rainbow Skies wanted to talk to the knight abit more, fluttered over him, and asked, “So I just have to ask? What is your name?”

The stallion eyed her and said, “I am Sir Arcus Hyphen.”

“Sir Arcus?”

“Yes, Sir Arcus. Now, how are you? You’re really good at keeping these guys off us.”

“Well, I am glad you asked!”

He then went on and on about how he and his friends fought off all kinds of monsters, including hydras, dragons, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Discord. It was noble, but the way he talked and how he continued to brag annoyed the other two to quite a degree. They fell back, and Shadow Dash whispered, “You think we can work with this guy?”

The griffin shrugged, then said, “He’s abit much, but I’m sure we can make it work....somehow.”

As they crossed the finish line, the trial concluded with the exit closing up, and Rainbow Skies squealed. Seeing her other friends had made it, she flew over and hugged Rainbow Dash. “I’m so glad you made it!”

“Yeah, glad to see you too,” the mare replied with a laugh. She then saw the dragon she had fought earlier and pointed a talon at her, “What are you doing here!”

“And what is he doing here!” Zap snapped, pointing at the knight.

Before anypony could say anything else, Shadowbolt flew down and clapped her hooves, “Congrats, you six will make up the strikeforce; now please follow me.”

With that, she led the way as the six others all gave each other some with angry looks but followed suit as they went to Prism’s office.

The six contestants were now in Prism’s office, where they first met her. Shadowbolt stood before them, her head held high, and said, "You all have proved yourselves exceptional beyond my expectations to be part of the strike force. Now, we shall show you how you will conduct your mission and what we hope to achieve.”

A massive map formed in the middle of the room and showed a horrifying version of Equestria. The sky was covered in storm clouds, as described before, with lightning and storm-like winds howling. Despite the conditions, ponies were going about their lives as if this were normal. However, Rainbow Dash peered closer and could see from the hologram that they were all scared, with the Storm King’s minions standing around with pikes.

“This is the best we can gather from “Discord Dash’s” memories, but from what we can tell, this place is highly guarded, and it’ll be best to drop you in the Everfree Forest.”

They then maneuvered the map to the Everfree Forest, which looked as dark and menacing as it always had but lacked any of the bipedal minotaurs. Then she continued, “We will drop you here, and from there, you will have to make your way to Canterlot.”

The map maneuvered up to the mountain where the city was. From what Rainbow could remember, it was the same from the few times she visited the city, seeing “rich and noble” ponies still living their lives but were also under the same scrutiny of the Storm King's soldiers patrolling the streets and the city was lined with statues of two tall powerful looking unicorns.

“Here, you will have to make your way to the castle.” She pointed out, “Discord Dash never entered the castle, so we don’t know what could be in there. But here is what we need to know: whether there are any variants of us working for Commander Hurricane, if there are any other enemies like Discord, Nightmare Moon, Tirek, or Sombra working for her, where the princesses in this dimension are located, and the element bearers. Once you have as much information as possible, you will return here. You will not engage unless you are threatened. If things become too overwhelming, come back regardless of how much info you have. Understood.”

“Yes, mam!” they all chimed together.

“I will give you a few hours to prepare.”

They looked weirdly at each other, Zap and Acrcus eyeing each other and Geode and Rainbow Skies looking ready to fight. Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and said, “So, um…how about we go chillax for abit, huh?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” several replied as they all left in separate directions. Rainbow Dash realized she would have to put a lot of work into making this team functional. She, for one, never really felt like a team leader, being more of a "lone wolf," and wondered how Twilight usually kept them going when she and her friends were at each other necks. Thinking about her book-loving unicorn friend made her feel abit homesick as she whispered, “Twilight, I wish you were here.”

Chapter Eight: A Storm is Brewing

Rainbow Dash was now sitting in the lobby of the Society of Loyalty with the rest of her companions. They were all trying to put on a brave face but they was clearly tension in the air about their upcoming trials ahead. Geode was grumpily biting on a gemstone, Sir Arcus was practicing with his blade twirling it about with his magic, Zap Apple was tying his lasso in knots and unfurling it, Rainbow Skies just sat there biting her talons looking the most nervous of the group while Shadow Dash just sat there amongst them with a downtrodden look on her face. Then out of nowhere Shadowbolt came striding into the lobby with a determined expression. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath as she stood over the other versions of herself all standing at attention. From the looks of things, they were all ready to go, and face whatever dangers that lurked in a world now controlled by Tempest and a evil version of herself. Standing amongst them onto the rainbow glass platform was Shadowbolt she trotted over, “Alright, listen up! As of now, I'm the leader of this group, and I need to make sure you all know what will happen here. We know next to nothing about Commander Hurricane who started this war, but she’s dangerous and working with a version of Tempest Shadow. The truth is we believe in their world; she and Tempest have turned the other princesses into stone and now possess the staff that has power over all of them. They also have full control of The Storm King’s army, so there’s no turning back once we enter. We are facing two powerful alicorns, and they both have an army at their beck and call. Our goal is to go in and learn ehat we can then return understood?"

“Understood!”

She got up and then said, “So from this point forward, I am in charge of this mission, and you will obey my orders, or I will send you back here.”

“Yes, mam.”

"Good, now let's go!"

The mare flared her wings, opened the portal, and they all stepped through the portal. out the other end, Rainbow Dash saw an entirely different world. One had massive storm clouds covering the sky, and there was a constant downpour of rain. What Rainbow Dash saw astonished her was the massive homes, all strategically placed, lined perfectly into one massive city that stretched for hundreds of miles. Shadowbolt looked it over, and there among the roads of homes were the massive bipedal creatures with poleaxes. Shadow Dash then threw smoke over them, and they all suddenly turned into the creatures. Rainbow Dash, surprised by her body becoming bulky and she was now standing on her hindlegs as she whispered,” What did you do? In a gruff voice.

“It's an illusion spell; it’ll dissipate the second any of them touch you, so act like you're one of them, so do not break formation.”

They all grumbled angrily but continued their march. They eventually made it to the end of the street, seeing ponies moving through them and being escorted by the soldiers to massive factories. Earth ponies worked all day tirelessly, smacking their hooves against dozens of trees that produced all kinds of fruit and, picking from bushes, building roads, and paving the streets. The pegasi were flying around the skies, keeping stray clouds and patrolling the air with spears. The unicorns were all standing at every corner, building architecture and lifting heavy stones all along the roads were statues of two tall alicorns embracing each other. As they got closer to the castle above where Canterlot was, it was clear that everypony here was treated as a slave it boiled Rainbow’s blood as she continued their march to the massive castle.

There in front of them was a group of statues. These ones were of statues of Discord, and Tirek, King Sombra, and Queen Chrysalis. In the middle of the statue garden was one of the Storm King with his hands held up and an expression of confusion twisted on his face.

Then, as they opened the doors to the castle and led through along the line of the halls, Rainbow’s friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all froze with horror on their faces, and then there on either side of the two massive thrones were statues of the princesses all four of them Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and Princess Cadance was alongside her husband, Shining Armor. They were all there frozen in fear, unable to move, and upon the thrones were two tall, powerful alicorns, one being a magenta-coated mare with teal eyes and a long flowing mane. Meanwhile, sitting beside her was a tall blue, coated alicorn with a shortcut mane and a scar going down her right eye. Commander Hurricane eyed them as Tempest whispered. “So, these are the replacements?”

Shadowbolt came forward and said, “Yes, your grace.”

“Your grace? Huh, didn’t expect the Storm King’s soldiers to be so formal,” Tempest scoffed.

Commander Hurricane then stepped forward, flaring her wings. She looked over them with a smirk and said, “These soldiers are starting to grow on me.”

They then went into formation, all going down the hall, taking their positions at each other. Just then, a dragon burst forward. It was a young blue one in armor, wielding a massive staff. She had two massive soldiers at her sides, armed with their poleaxes pointed at her.

Princess Tempest threw her wings forward and asked, “So, what news do we have with the dragons?”

“What news!? You turned my father into a statue!”

Commander Hurricane eyed her, “Yes, we told you before we’re keeping him safe as leverage.”

“You call having him as a statue as leverage!” Ember snarled with fire, shooting from her nostrils.

Tempest eyed her and asked, “What else would you call it? We can’t have him rampaging through our streets.”

Ember came forward, snorting fire through her nostrils, and snapped. “We’re complying with everything you have given us, giving you the quota of gems you ask for, mining for ore, keeping your lands safe from rogue changelings and pirates. My father saw what you did to our armies; he's stubborn, but he isn’t stupid now. Give him back, or else!”

“Or else what!?”

Ember pointed a finger at them and snarled, “Or else we end this deal, and I declare another war!”

Tempest rose up and lit her horn, aiming at her, and snapped, “You’re either as stubborn as your father or a fool; either way, you're not leaving this castle alive.”

“I'd rather die than live one more day under your tyranny!” Ember shouted, throwing her claws and aiming her staff at her. “Prepare to die!”

Commander Hurricane then stepped in front of the two and cried, “Stop this! No one is killing anyone.”

She turned to Ember, “You know we cannot let your father just return. Restarting the dragon wars will only end with us destroying your entire race. You know that.”

“Is that a threat!” Ember heaved angrily.

Commander Hurricane ignored Ember's retort and continued, “So instead, we can release your father once in a while on the grounds that he will return to a statue afterward. Does that work?”

Ember threw her claws over her chest, “I guess I don’t have a choice to this deal.”

The alicorn eyed her and snapped, “You don’t! Or I let my wife finish this and that will not end in your favor, so don't be stupid.”

“Fine, I will leave it, but you better stay out of my way!” she snarled and flew off.

Tempest started to dissipate the magic from her horn and grumbled, “We should’ve taken care of her. She’ll probably try rebelling against us in the future.”

Commander Hurricane rolled her eyes and threw a hoof in the air, “And do what? We have a staff that can turn any living creature into stone and do much more. If she dares, the dragons are finished, and she knows it. Ember just wants to see her father.”

“Her father is worse; if he gets loose, we won’t be able to contain them.”

“He won't. We’ll keep a barrier around them during the visits and turn him into stone immediately afterward.”

Tempest scoffs, " We’re trying to create an interdimensional empire, and we can barely handle our own backyard.”

Hurricane nuzzled her, “It's fine. That's why we need to build connections in these other dimensions. But we’ll worry about that later. How about we take a nap Fizzy hmmm?”

Tempest gave her bedroom eyes and whispered, “You mean?”

Hurricane smirked as she whispered, “You know what I mean?”

Tempest smirked as they walked off, leaving the staff in the case, seeing the entire hall deserted except for them.

“Finally.”

Shadowbolt dropped their disguises as the shadows dissipated revealing ghe fove ponies and a dragon. The mare smirked and added, “Those two are pretty powerful and have measures against changelings. Luckily that doesn't effect me."

Rainbow Dash was abit confused and asked, “Yeah, and how come they didn’t detect us?”

“That's a secret,” Shadowbolt chirped with a wink and then she slowly trotted over towards the scepter. She took out a hoof, felt the energy coming out of it, and whispered, “The magic is stronger, much stronger than anything I've ever felt before.”

Rainbow Dash was looking abit concerned and asked, "aren't we supposed to just to report what is going on? We should leave."

"No, the mission has changed," Shadowbolt whispered coming towards the scepter encased in the ornate case. The pegasus' eyes were filled with a glow as she came forward. "This has the power of the four princesses. Now, we can take down the shields and silence the alarms for now, but I'll bet the second we take this out of here, they’ll be on us, and this castle has dampeners on our magic and our bracelets. We would need to escape and then go back to base.”

“So we don’t need to capture them to end their war?”

“No, without the staff, they’re powerless. We can save this world later but taking this first step to saving their world and everyone else's!"

She turned to the others and said, "I know I'm changing the plan here so if you wish to leave I will allow it."

Not a single pony moved as they gave silent approval to stay and continue fighting. Shadowbolt gave a nod then started to dismantle the barriers and then the alarms using her shadowy tendrils to unlock the locks and opening them. Then she snuck the staff, and they flew across the hall, bursting open the doors. Two guards turned, and then, out of nowhere, Geode slammed their heads together. But then, as they ran into the statue garden, more guards started pouring over them, and Zap Apple tied one with his lasso and threw him around and slammed him into another. Then Sir Arceus took his sword, blocking a poleaxe and slashing another, only to fly back as he stabbed at the creature and smacking him with the flat of the blade.

Zap Apple rose and nodded as Sir Arceus threw his head up. “I told you I am not all talk. Now, let’s deal with these ruffians.”

"Well, guess I misjudged ya," Zap mumbled then looked around seeing they were still being assaulted by the hundreds of other soldiers.

Meanwhile, Rainbow quickly threw herself, slamming a few of the Storm King’s former soldiers away. Shadow Dash then formed a circle of shadow magic around her and blasts them with it. Rainbow Dash was rather astonished at how well they were doing keeping pace with these creatures and then having to constantly dodge their attacks while smacking them on the head with her hooves. She flew over to Shadow Dash as she was reforming to her smaller pegasus form and asked, “How are you holding up?”

“I'm doing good,” the pegasus wheezed, wiping a hoof over her forehead. “These guys look tough, but they’re just goons, nothing I haven’t handled a million times before.”

Rainbow Dash nodded but she noticed that Shadow Dash is looking rather pale and said, “Okay, just don’t strain yourself.”

“I'm not!” Shadow snapped as she sent a wave of black smoke at another, sending the creature flying.

“Stop worrying about me and focus on keeping my sister safe.”

Rainbow Dash was still worried about her partner, but seeing how stubborn she was, decided to stop. She turned to Geode, and Rainbow Skies were working well together with the dragon and griffin working in tangent. It was quite the sight to see with how they danced around them as they kept close to Shadowbolt and smacking any bipedal creatures away from her. With Geode looking much fiercer than usual. Eventually, as the smoke cleared, the unconscious bodies of the Storm King’s goons were splayed out on the ground, with Shadow Dash looking around with a smile. “Good job; we need to get out of here now!”

"Finally lets fly!" Geode roared she threw her wings out and rose into the air snatching Zap Apple as Rainbow Skies took Sir Arcus and they soared off with the rest of their friends. But as they took off and flew out of the city with the thunderclouds coming in with lightning striking around them, they worked together, swerving through the lightning, dodging the massive clouds, and landing in a field nearby. Despite being quite a daredevil, Rainbow felt a bit overwhelmed by the lightning that struck her making her coat puff out and her mane stand on end.

But just as everyone was getting comfortable, a lightning strike hit the ground before them, and a pair of tall alicorns appeared before them, slamming her barrier with their magic. The alicorn Tempest trotted forward with a smirk on her face and scoffed, “I thought they looked suspicious.”

“Told you so, you owe me Fizzy,” Commander Hurricane replied with a smirk. The alicorn and then lowered her head, and then they blasted magic at them. Shadowbolt instantly took action, throwing up a shield of shadow magic to absorb the blast. Then, this time, they were able to raise a defense with magic and deflect the blast. They then fought each other, continuing their fight. Shadow Dash wanted to help, but Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her, seeing she had already over-exerted herself. In fact, she saw that others wanted to help, but these two alicorns they were facing were clearly out of their league. Shadowbolt then pressed a few buttons on her bracelet and opened several portals around the area. She turned towards the others and shouted. “Go through them now!”

Rainbow turned to Shadowbolt as she continued to deflect their oncoming blasts and then asked, “What about you!?”

Shadowbolt turned towards them and shouted, “I’ll hold them off and get the staff to Society of Loyalty, you need to get into the portals now!”

Many of them hesitated, but it was clear that Shadow Dash was doing everything she could to keep them safe.

Rainbow Dash shouted, "Everypony listen to her we need to go!" She tugged at her friends' hooves and lead them through the various portals in front of them.

As soon as Rainbow Dash leaped into a portal, she was flung through it and landed on a dirt field covered in burnt trees. Looking around, she saw Shadow Dash suddenly slamming down next to her. Then, just as she crashed into the ground, her bracelet exploded.

Shadow then flung it off her hoof and shouted, “Buck!”

Just as Rainbow grabbed her and helped her down, she asked, “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine, but where in the hell are we?” Shadow Dash asked as she looked around confusedly.

Rainbow Dash also started looking around herself at what appeared to be a wasteland covered in dead trees and darkened grass. She then looked around the place where half the land was covered in massive giant white towers of marble with walls with flags of Celestia's cutie mark flapping in the wind. The sky overhead was a bright blue sky, white puffy clouds and a blaring sun in the sky. The other half of the land was a massive night blue walls with towers also jutting into a pure night sky with glistening stars and the moon shining bright. It was weird seeing they were just smacked in the middle of two different worlds and what appeared to be a wasteland.

Shadow Dash was starting to get worried as she looked her with a look of fear in her eyes and whispered, “This is bad. This is really bad.”

“What!? What is going on here!?”

“Isn’t obvious! This world has a Nightmare Moon and a Daybreaker! how is that even possible!?”

Rainbow Dash then looked over and said, “Um, whose Daybreaker?”

“She’s the princess Celestia version of Nightmare Moon and she's just as bad if not worse than her! But with two of them, my Faust!? We need to get out of here now!”

Just then, a group of ponies came forward from the darkened brush, wearing broken pieces of armor and pointing at them with busted-looking spears. Rainbow Dash held up her hooves and said, “Hold on! We're not here to harm anypony, we came to help!”

A white coated stallion stood up and pointed a spear at them, “Who do you work for, Daybreaker or Nightmare Moon?”

The two both looked at each other and then said, “Neither.”

They all paused as Zebra came over to the stallion. “We can’t trust them; they may not be what they seem.”

“You can trust us! We aren’t with either!” Shadow cried.

The stallion eyed them and snapped, “We shall see!”

The two were rounded up, tied, and gagged, then forced to trot through the blackened woods.

Meanwhile, Sir Arceus and Zap Apple were thrust into the streets of a massive metropolis. The first thing Zap felt was the pitter-pat of the rain pouring on top of him. He looked around, seeing massive buildings towering over them, and shouted, “Where in the hell are we!?”

Sir Arceus then came forward, looked around the place, and saw the skyline seeing massive electronic signs overhead flashing pictures of Flim and Flam on them selling all kinds of products from cider to furniture, to clothes to even foal supplies. It was rather confusing seeing flying chariots overhead zooming pas them with high speeds.

“Flim and Flam, what did those two hooligans do?”

“Who knows, but this is clearly another dimension, look how awful it is,” Sir Arceus grumbled just as his bracelet exploded. “My word! What is going on here!?”

Just then, they heard sirens blaring, and red lights glared over them. The two looked up to see two giant metallic alicorns flying downward, with a red light swirling over their heads. They both shouted in a robotic, angry voice, “Unauthorized magic use detected! You are under arrest!”

The mechanical monstrosities then tilted their heads and sent bolts of lightning at both Zap and Sir Arceus with their horns as the two wriggled in pain. But then suddenly, without warning, the two exploded, and an earth pony jumped down from the rooftops above. As the mare slammed down onto the ground, she rose up, tiling her cowcolt hat, revealing herself as Applejack. She looked over at them as Zap let out a relieved sigh, “Applejack you're a sight for sore eyes."

She gave him an odd look and asked, “How the heck did you know my name?”

“Um, that's a long story anyway; what’s going on here?”

The farm mare eyed them and said, “I'm assuming you two aren't from here?”

They both shook their heads, not looking completely confused.

“Well, that explains why you idiots are breaking curfew and using magic. Come on.” she then threw a hoof, pressing against a wall, and it started to slide into the wall. Just then, a grate on the ground opened up and led the two stallions through as the grate came over them, sealing their way back.

Just as they were dealing with their new world, Geode and Rainbow Skies were groaning. They were also waking up to the new world, and they were in to see a bunch of griffins looking down at them with odd looks on their faces. But as Rainbow Skies was looking around, the crowd of griffins all looked downward, with them whispering amongst each other. Geode gnashed her teeth and shouted, “What you want a fight to!”

Many of the griffins just looked back at each other woth vonfused looks and then one slammed down next to them. A big white-coated griffin bristled as he came forward, took up Rainbow’s face, and then came back and threw his wings. " Do not worry—this is the one! The last of the six griffins of prophecy has returned!”

The griffins then broke into cheers as a few of them flew over and started hugging Rainbow Skies and throwing her into the who blinked as one chirped, “We are so happy you came back! Let's celebrate the herald of the griffins!”

Geode was astonished as a dozen griffins flew over clamoring for her autograph. “Oh, is this your dragon friend!?

“What's your name!?”

“You look like princess Ember. Are you related?”

Geode was starting to get annoyed and swiping at the griffins, but Rainbow Skies quickly held up a talon, “Okay, enough questions! We need to um go!?"

“Go where?” they turned to see a massive burly purple griffin slowly coming towards them she was unlike any griffin Rainbow Skies has ever seen being powerful with sparkly gizzard that puffed around her chest, and she threw her head up with a smirk.

Rainbow Skies stepped back and asked, “Who are you?”

“Princess Twilight, come to my castle there’s so much we need to discuss.”