Universe 19884
“AAAAAAAH!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she came finally came out of the portal and crashed through several trees before slamming herself into the ground. The pegasus grunted in pain as she held her head and brushed off the leaves in her mane… Except, there were no leaves in her mane. She looked at the trees she hit, only now realizing that they were dead trees. “Where did I end up?” She asked herself as she looked around.
She found herself surrounded by a desolate forest, its once vibrant trees now barren and lifeless. The branches, devoid of leaves, hung like fragile twigs. The land beneath her feet was parched and devoid of grass as if it hadn't felt the touch of rain in years. It was as if a whole forest was nearly gone! Before she could ponder the reason the ground was this way, thunder roared in the distance, startling her as she turned around to see where the noise was coming from. In the far-off distance, dark clouds loomed ominously, their jagged bolts of lightning illuminating the horizon. Even from such a distance, she could faintly hear the rain pouring as if the water droplets were actually rocks. With the way the clouds were gathering and swirling, she could tell a tornado would be forming soon.
“Alright… Wherever I am, it sure isn’t Equestria. ‘Cause there is no way anypony would let those clouds unattended,” She commented in annoyance since someone was clearly not doing a good job taking care of the weather.
Speaking of the weather… Wasn’t the sky a bit too red? The pegasus gazed upward, her eyes widening as she finally took notice of the sky's unusual hue. Instead of the familiar expanse of ocean blue, it was now a deep and foreboding shade of red. With a furrowed brow, she shifted her gaze toward the sun and gasped in shock. It wasn’t faring any better than the rest of the land! The sun’s edges were red while its center was completely black. Almost… Almost like it was dying.
“T-That’s… Okay, that’s probably Equestria’s problem, too,” Rainbow Dash muttered worriedly as she looked around again to see if she could recognize the place. Surprisingly, it was familiar… “What did that stupid stone do?! Don’t tell me we doomed the world or something?!” She panicked as she flew up to have a good vantage point. “Let’s calm down, and find the way to Equestria…” She mumbled to herself while breathing nervously.
Suddenly, before she could even try looking for Canterlot or any place related to Equestria, something pulled her by her tail and slammed her back on the ground, knocking the wind out of her lungs. Thankfully, she was used to falling from huge heights, otherwise, this would have broken her spine! She lowered her eyes towards her tail, whose end was between a timberwolf’s fangs.
“Crap,” Rainbow uttered as the timberwolf raised its wooden claw and attempted to slam it into her belly. Using her quick reflexes, she pulled her tail out of his mouth and dodged with one flap of wings before getting back on her legs. “That confirms it… I’m still in Equestria. And we really bucked it up!” She panted as she narrowed her eyes at the timberwolf. Those monsters only lived in Equestria, but were most commonly found in the Everfree forest. What was this guy doing in this deserted dump? “Heeyah!” She shouted as she kicked its head away, making him turn into smoke. “That takes care of it,”
Several other growls came from behind her, alerting the pegasus that she wasn’t out of danger yet. Turning around, she noticed a dozen timberwolves slowly surrounding her. Any regular pony would have been worried or afraid, but she was freaking Rainbow Dash! She could easily take out these creatures! She scoffed, feeling like they were underestimating her by attacking her with so few of them. She unfolded her wings and dashed through the first one she laid her eyes on, shattering him to pieces, then flew up and quickly descended back down on one of the timberwolves’ backs.
She put all her weight into every one of her punches or kicks, killing each timberwolf in only one hit. This was child’s play for her, but with every timberwolf taken down, the more she felt like she was squandering precious time.
“Seriously? Where did you all come from?!” Rainbow clamored as more and more timberwolves jumped out of nowhere, nearly always coming from behind her. Were they teleporting? Was there a hole they were hiding in? No matter the way they appeared, there were several more than a dozen now even if she already killed many of them. “Forget it! I gotta find my friends!” She shouted as she flew away, leaving a rainbow trail behind.
Just as she thought she was out of trouble, a shadow from above covered her. She narrowed her eyes before looking behind and immediately yelping as a timberwolf slammed her hard enough to drop her out of the sky. Rainbow Dash clutched her chest in pain while getting closer and closer to the ground. The instant she was about to hit the floor, she managed to recover, and fly up again.
“What the hay was that?!” She shouted, widening her eyes in shock as she finally noticed that the timberwolves had wings and were chasing her! Even if those wings were made of wood, they somehow allowed them to fly! “They have wings?! Now that’s bucked up!” She exclaimed before glancing at the timberwolves on the ground. They were growling at her while growing wings on their backs. “You think you can catch the fastest flier in Equestria?” Rainbow taunted them before speeding up.
The hardest part was avoiding them. She never got to go at full speed because they kept surrounding her and getting in her way. Feeling like she had no choice, she continued to fight. The pegasus slammed her forelegs against the chest of the nearest timberwolf and shattered him before speeding up and quickly going through multiple other enemies. One of them managed to grab onto her back, keeping her from flapping her wings.
“Let go!” She shouted as the timberwolf sank his teeth into one of her shoulders, making her scream in pain. She clenched her teeth and started spinning faster and faster until she managed to throw him off. “Yah!” She let out a war cry before charging forward and blowing his head to smithereens.
She didn’t leave them any time to jump on her again and immediately flew up. Higher and higher until she was sure she was far enough. She quickly looked around to search for Canterlot. All it would take her to find her way to Ponyville would be to spot the capital city of Equestria. She was so good that she would be able to determine her location and the direction she needed to take to reach the town with a single glance at a familiar place.
She didn’t know what happened to the timberwolves, to the sky, or to the land, but that wasn’t her current priority. What she needed to do was find her friends! As long as they were together, they would solve any issues!
Then her eyes landed on Canterlot, finally… And she was filled with dread. Not because of the state of the city, which clearly lost its usual liveliness and had several buildings crumbling. It was because of the mountain near the city. On the side of it was a gigantic statue, just as big as the Canterlot castle. A statue of the centaur, who, stole all the magic in Equestria and nearly managed to conquer all of it. A statue of Tirek. It was grinning in victory and arrogance. She could see it even from where she was flying! But why? Why was a statue of him even there? When was it even built?!
No… No! This didn’t make sense at all! This was a nightmare! Right?! It must have been! Or maybe it was an illusion from the stone! Yeah! When it absorbed them in that weird place, it must have placed them in an illusion! Those were the only explanations possible because… because she simply couldn’t believe something like this could be real.
Yet the pain of her bleeding shoulder felt very real. The wind in her mane while she flew like she always did certainly felt real. Even crashing through those trees felt real. Then, staring at Canterlot… She realized where she actually was. Too stunned to move or even think, Rainbow Dash stopped flapping her wings and let herself fall as timberwolves jumped on her, several of them trying to sink their claws and fangs in her flesh at the same time.
Did she do this? Did she and her friends do this when they tampered with the stone? Did they doom Equestria? Did they end the entire world?! And were… Were her friends okay? Were they all transported to different places of Equestria or… Were they just gone? A single tear rolled down her cheek at the prospect.
No! She refused to believe that! She was Rainbow freaking Dash! Whether they caused this or not wasn’t important right now! And she sure as hell wouldn’t give up and get depressed so easily! She clenched her teeth in fury as she somehow managed to flap her wings even if they were trapped under those timberwolves. She sped up toward the ground, fighting through the pain and the blood leaking out of her wounds while the monsters trying to kill her didn’t even pay attention to her seemingly futile escape attempts.
But she didn’t want to escape. She wanted to destroy them. Finally, she reached her desired speed. The one that started her story and that helped her, in some way, to meet her friends. She created a sonic rainboom a few meters above the ground, blowing the timberwolves holding on to her into nothingness. Then, she changed direction right before she could splatter herself on the ground. Regrettably, she couldn't ascend swiftly enough to evade the ground entirely. With a resounding thud, the rainbow-maned pegasus made contact with the earth, rebounding several times before careening across the terrain, leaving a pony-sized trail behind her. She crashed through withered bushes and fallen logs, until at last, she skidded to a halt, dust and debris swirling in her wake. Rainbow groaned in pain.
“H-Had enough yet!” She shouted as she struggled to stand up, still fighting through her injuries. She spat out blood in satisfaction, seeing as there were no more timberwolves.
She breathed heavily, trying her best not to pass out as she looked around. She wanted to be in denial, but it was useless. She already acknowledged where she was when she saw Canterlot. She had been in what remained of the Everfree Forest. And now… She was in Ponyville.
She limped out of the bushes to have a better look at the town and nearly teared up in pain. The town seemed deserted. Broken windows, and some buildings on the brink of collapse. She could see a few ponies a bit farther from where she was standing, but they were too far for her to recognize them. She wasn’t even sure if they saw her. Just like the rest of the Everfree Forest, nearly all plant life was gone. If someone told her she was in Appleoosa, she would have a hard time contradicting them.
“Can somepony… Please… Tell me what the buck happened?!” She slammed her hoof on the ground, then immediately pulled back in pain. Her cry wasn’t really out of anger, but mostly desperation.
Suddenly, as if to answer her prayers, a strange white light materialized right in front of her eyes, making her step back in surprise only for the light to follow her. The light quickly changed shape and turned into a portal-like mirror similar to the ones they had seen in that bizarre place. And Twilight’s panicked face appeared in it, which immediately prompted Rainbow to jump forward.
“Twilight!” She shouted only to crash into the mirror, unable to go into it as she had done earlier. “Ouch…” She uttered in pain while rubbing her head.
“Oh, I hope this works… I-I don’t know if this message will reach you or when it will reach you, girls, because… Time is all messed up in this place! Broken and unrepairable! And I’m not sure I’ll ever manage to get back without you, but listen carefully!” Twilight frantically shouted while seemingly running from something.
“You can’t escape!” A distorted and almost demonic voice screamed from behind the alicorn. Whatever it was, it chased Twilight while filled with hate and fury.
“Twilight! I’m here! Hey!” Rainbow attempted to get her attention, but the princess didn’t react one bit. From what she said, it sounded like this was some kind of pre-recorded message.
“The stone is… some kind of magical artifact that allows… multiversal travel!” Twilight shouted between breaths before shooting a beam of magic at something out of the picture’s range. “Basically, you are all in different worlds! Okay? This is not the Equestria you know! No matter how nice or how bucked up it seems… Just remember that! Luckily… I have… Found another stone in the universe I’m in… Ah!” Twilight screamed in pain, seemingly hit by something, but kept running.
“Stop worrying about us and watch out!” Rainbow yelled at her friend, forgetting she was wounded and that Twilight couldn’t hear her.
“We’ve traveled together, so that means we’re still connected… I don’t have… Time to explain it fully, but find another stone! No matter… How the universe you are in is… The stone will be there! It always will! Once we’re all holding on to it at the same time… We’ll go back ho-” Twilight explained before the portal was suddenly shut, and the light faded away.
“T-Twilight? Twilight! Ah!” Rainbow kept shouting her name before grunting in pain as she put a hoof on her ribs. “At least… Now I know what I have to do…” She mumbled, oblivious to the slow footsteps advancing from behind her.
“Rainbow? R-Rainbow… Is that you?” A familiar voice called out, making the blue pegasus turn around to be face to face with…
“Applejack?” Rainbow narrowed her eyes, unsure of what she was seeing. It was the earth pony she knew, except her eyes were grey. Her eyes were marked by heavy bags, evidence of exhaustion and sleep deprivation. She rarely ever saw Applejack in such a state. But the most shocking was… the lack of a cutie mark.
“I can’t believe… Rainbow!” The earth pony choked out as tears began streaming down her cheeks as her lips curved upward, forming a smile. A smile that held a mix of emotions. Obviously, there was happiness, pure bliss as if Applejack just fulfilled her dream. But there was a lingering sorrow of disbelief, meaning she likely wondered if any of this was real. Suddenly, the earth pony ran up to her and embraced her nearly broken body, hurting her in her grasp. “Please, please, don’t tell me it’s a dream! Oh, Rainbow!” Then she cried, openly and with no restraints, something else she usually didn’t see in Applejack.
As the earth pony’s tears wet Rainbow Dash’s coat, the pegasus allowed herself to relax. Feeling out of danger, she closed her eyes, passing out in her friend’s grasp.