Into the Dashieverse

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.”