Into the Dashieverse

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.