Excuse me for any rubbish parts of this. It's been a while.
Memories are very important aspects of life. Some are good, some are bad yet most are memorable. Rainbow Dash felt like she found herself standing somewhere from a distant memory. She was in the Everfree Forest but there were aspects that seemed...off. The moon didn't appear to move at all, like it was everlasting and she felt like she was being watched by something unreal.
"This all seems too familiar..." she said to herself as she gazed through the mist. She couldn't quite put her finger on what was so important about the Everfree Forest this particular time around. All she knew was she walked into an entrance and there she was. No rhyme or reason. Confused, she looked around the area thoughtfully, trying to get some idea as to why she was there.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained I guess" she said to herself as she stalked the dark woods trying to piece together everything that happened. Just what was that "thing" that attacked them? Sonic seemed scared of it or shocked it existed, whatever it was. That wasn't all, where were the others? Were they ok? Dash's head rushed with all these questions as she walked through the forest floors. Just from the corner of her eye, a shapeless mist glided through the trees with ease. Dash turned her head but saw nothing.
"Whose there?!" she yelled and with only the soft wind replying to her calls. She giggled nervously to herself. "Heh...I must be seeing things" she said in order to convince herself that nothing was wrong.
With no luck.
Not too far from her was another, younger Rainbow Dash. She had followed her older self into the area, not knowing who the other pony really was. The younger Dash was nowhere near as calm as her older self in the forest's depth. This was totally new territory being on the freaking ground after all. As she walked, her legs shivered with nerves as the creepy imagery greeted her eyes.
"C'mon Dash...keep it together. There's nothing dangerous here-" she whispered. She stood on a small twig, which to Dash made the loudest noise in history. She squeaked in fear as she regained her bearings. Frowning, she berated herself for being so scared.
"Now stop it Rainbow Dash! This place may be...", she gulped, "... terrifying, but you have to find out what's happening!" she said, giving herself some moral support. With that, she trotted off, her fuzzy tail swishing back and forth.
...
It felt like an eternity, but the older Rainbow Dash reached a new location. It was an old rickety bridge over a tall, seemingly bottomless drop. Beyond the bridge was nothing but thick fog plastered over whatever was beyond it. Narrowing her eyes, she saw the outline of a stone structure or temple. Memories came flooding back.
"I remember this place...I was with the others, searching for the elements of harmony!" she realised. That was the day she met Twilight Sparkle for the first time in her life and the day she was declared "the element of loyalty". She felt somewhat ashamed to forget such a fateful day. It all suddenly made sense! The reason the moon never moved was because of Nightmare Moon! She noted that the bridge was odd as well. It was broken before, so why was it fixed? She put it aside for other questions. She thought cautiously to herself about what was going to happen when she did cross the bridge. Was she to be tempted into joining the "Shadowbolts" like before? The more she thought about it, the more reluctant she was to cross it. She sucked up a breath and flew across the gap. What was the point of walking across when you had wings on your back? The second her hoof touched the ground, a ghostly female voice echoed around her.
"Rainbow....." it whispered, almost playfully. Rainbow frowned and looked around in all directions. It was happening again. Any second now she'd see the Wonderbolt duplicates eager to 'enlist' her. Not afraid or put off, she simply sat down and waited.
"We have eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best flyer in all of Equestria..." the voice again whispered. Rainbow Dash deadpanned. "Yeah yeah, heard it all before. I'm the best blah blah blah". Unlike before, the 3 Shadowbolts slowly trotted out of the mist with rather confused looks. Last time they ran out, triumphantly proclaimed themselves. The middle one spoke.
"Huh? Wha-Never mind. We are the greatest aerial team of the Everfree Forest! And soon we will be the greatest in-" it proclaimed before being cut off by the bored pony.
"All Equestria? Yeah. Like I said, heard it before" she deadpanned. The 3 ghostly figures looked at each other.
"...Have we met before?" the middle one asked. Rainbow merely shrugged in reply, still looking as uninterested as before. The middle pony shook her head and continued.
"Ahem, anyway. We need a captain...." the pony revealed, walking up Dash before flying around her. Dash didn't even bat an eye as the pony circled around her.
"The most magnificent..."
"Uh huh"
"...swiftest..."
"Uhhh huh"
"...bravest flyer in all the land!"
"Eeyup" replied Dash, taking on an impression of Big Macintosh all of a sudden. The pony flew right up to her ear.
"We need....you..." it whispered. Dash turned with a blank expression.
"Hmm, Nah. Not interested at all. I know you’re not actually real and I'm rather saddened that you'd think that'd work again" Rainbow said confidently. The pony backed off, caught off guard by the sudden remark. Angered, the 3 ponies dissolved into a single purple mist that seeped into the temple. Rainbow smirked to herself.
"Well...that went better than expected" she said quietly as she walked into the temple. As she did, it began to distort before her eyes and faded to white. Everything disappeared as she looked back to find herself standing at the 'entrance' to the Everfree Forest like she began in. Suddenly, dark colours returned to the once washed out trees. Only specific colours seemed to come back. The bark of the trees and the dirt came back leaving about half of it without colour, it was an improvement anyway. She turned to the 'statue' of Sonic. Colour seemed to return to him as well making Rainbow grin with joy. Sonic rubbed his head in pain as he turned to Dash who leapt at him to give him a friendly hug.
"Hey, thanks Rainbow. Man, this is what Tails had to go through. Jeez" he continued to rub his head as Rainbow paused for thought.
"You wouldn't believe what just happened to me Sonic. I felt like I just went through a memory..." she said. Sonic paused and looked around. It seemed like what happened to him was happening to her...but there was no sign of Tails to back it up. His younger self was nowhere to be seen either. He did keep a look out for her younger self though. He thought about everything that happened, but he would explain later.
"Hey! What's that over there?" asked Dash aloud. She pointed to a tall, white building off to the distance. "Let's go check it out!" she said as she flew off to it. Sonic ran after her, wanting to find out more about where he was this time around.
...
"Who would use such a bad looking bridge?" asked the filly Rainbow Dash aloud. She calmly flew across the gap and set her tiny hoofs on the ground. As she did, a voice called though this one was not so playful.
"What are you doing here?" asked a pony dressed in all black attire. Dash stepped back a little at its sudden appearance. "Um...why are you smaller?" asked the pony, taking note of the filly's size. Rainbow Dash frowned.
"I'm not scared of you! Gimme your best shot!" she proclaimed ready to fight. The Shadowbolt just glared confused at her.
"Look kid, I'm waiting for someone else, just go on through that temple and you won't be harmed..." it threatened. Dash did as she was told, backing away into the temple, still in her aggressive stance. Like before, everything stated to fade out as she wound up back at the entrance. The young filly shook her head as she regained her bearings. Gazing at the entrance, its colours returned to its entirety, yet Dash didn't care. She only had two questions on her mind, who was the pony she ran into and what ever happened to the pony she saw earlier also entering the strange forest? She looked up to see some random floating letters above her reading "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC" in bold lettering. Dash rubbed it off and looked off to the side where she spotted two figures conversing. She didn't approach, just stared.
...
"This looks a little like the town hall...covered in snow for some reason." remarked Rainbow Dash. Sonic stood by her. She was right as it was a tall building, washed out like the Everfree Forest was before. The door to the building was open for anypony to walk through. "I'm gonna go check it out, will you wait here?" asked Rainbow Dash. Sonic nodded despite being left out of the action a second time. Rainbow entered the doorway and disappeared completely. The young filly decided to follow suite and sped up to the entrance and through the doorway. Sonic stood back in surprised as the blur blasted by him.
"Was that?...Nah. Never mind" he thought to himself as he waited by the entrance. He turned and screamed at an angry statue staring right at him.
"Shadow?!" she asked aloud expecting a response. By his side lay a motionless Fluttershy, covering her head in fear. They were all white.
"Hurry Rainbow Dash and save your friends. I know I had to..."