In the midst of a dense, sky-colored forest, the final and tragic battle within the great barrier began...
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Rainbow Dash screamed, launching herself at her opponent. She was filled with every ounce of fury her body could hold. With the last of her strength, she flew straight at Badwhiz and, with a powerful kick, sent the sealing crystal on his left helmet flying far away. Then, with another blow, she aimed a strike at his head.
It wasn't enough. Badwhiz's magical shield activated at the last second, withstanding the hit that would've knocked him out cold.
The counterattack began.
Badwhiz fired a beam as thick as a tree, barely missing Rainbow Dash.
The pegasus, though slowed by exhaustion, wasn't discouraged. She kept attacking Badwhiz's barrier from different angles.
Badwhiz launched more thunderbolts, and explosions battered the area.
One after another, the blasts erupted. There were no words between them, no pauses in their movements...
The merciless battle soon became a test of endurance.
Giving it her all, Rainbow Dash felt her body failing. Every fiber of her muscles screamed for her to stop, but she refused. She could hear her bones clashing, see her wings twisting mid-air, forcing her off course.
But she didn't stop; she couldn't.
Fluttershy, Applejack, Twilight... all of them.
None of her friends were there.
They had all disappeared… and it was all his fault.
"I'll avenge them! I'll avenge them all!"
She screamed to herself, ignoring the pain, the exhaustion—everything.
Tears mixed with her sweat as she charged at Badwhiz again and again. The counterattacks came and missed, again and again. She didn't care about the frustration on her opponent's face or the pain tearing through her own body. She just wanted to see him fall once and for all.
One hit. One final, decisive hit.
That was all she needed.
And finally, it came.
"Ughhhhhhhhhhhh..."
Rainbow Dash crashed to the ground after a powerful blow. Badwhiz, on the other side, was slammed hard into his magical barrier. For the first time in the fight, there was no immediate response.
The earth pony with the pink mane opened his mouth weakly, trying to catch his breath. The pegasus gave a faint smile.
This was her moment.
She couldn't feel her wings. She couldn't even spread them. But that didn't matter. She only needed her legs.
With an unbearable effort, Rainbow Dash stood up, ignoring the searing pain coursing through her body. She focused what little energy she had left into her limbs and moved forward, gaining speed with each step.
She could hear the thunder of her fatigue inside her, loud and clear—but she didn't stop.
Her opponent, still stunned, looked up at her approach, his eyes wide open.
"Just a little more! Haaaaa!"
With one final battle cry, Rainbow Dash leapt and spun in the air. An impossible move in her condition—but she did it. With both hind legs together, she struck Badwhiz's barrier full force.
The impact echoed through the entire forest.
Badwhiz, unable to react in time, was hurled backward and hit the ground with a crash.
His magical barrier finally collapsed.
He could no longer sustain it.
Rainbow Dash, staggering, looked on with dark satisfaction as her opponent tried to crawl across the ground.
Victory was within her grasp.
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
Voices echoed around her, growing louder in her mind like a deafening roar. She saw herself surrounded by a crowd, cheering her name.
She no longer thought of her friends, or even of her own life. There was only one thing on her mind: revenge.
Possessed by her own rage, she moved forward without hesitation. But then, another voice shook her.
"Rainbow Dash! No! Stop fighting, it's enough! Stop!"
It was a distant echo… like Twilight's voice…
But she didn't listen.
Stopping was no longer an option. Final victory was just steps away…
"Rainbow Dash!"
Another voice broke into her mind—and this time, she stopped.
"Applejack?!"
Her name escaped her lips in a whisper.
But the surprise lasted only a moment.
A brilliant light exploded in front of her.
The gem on Badwhiz's neck had finally reached its limit.
Horrified, Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes, blinded by the glow radiating from the overloaded gem. Instinctively, she raised her battered wings to shield her face.
A terrible mistake.
Before she could realize her error, a powerful black beam struck her head-on.
Everything went weightless.
The world spun out of control.
Her vision, blurred by the frantic motion, came to an abrupt halt as her body slammed against the rough, rocky ground.
In that instant, in the brief time she had left, her mind—numb from shock—could only cling to a memory.
The last voice she had heard...
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
Applejack was calling her, desperately.
The final threads of her consciousness faded into a dreadful darkness that consumed everything.
"Applejack..."
She tried to say her name one last time, but the word never left her lips.
And just like that, she vanished from that world...
[---]
Much later… in the present...
[---]
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
In the middle of a messy room, Applejack held onto Rainbow Dash tightly, shaking her in a desperate attempt to wake her.
"Rainbow Dash! Wake up!" she kept calling out, but got no answer. Her friend, unconscious, lay with her face bandaged, showing no signs of life. Occasionally, her only visible eye would half-open, and unintelligible murmurs escaped her lips while her mouth twisted into a puzzling grimace.
The scene dragged on until suddenly, that one visible eye snapped wide open.
"Rainbow Dash, you're finally awake, thank goodne—Ughhh!" Applejack exclaimed, barely able to feel relief before an unexpected kick struck her in the stomach, knocking her backward onto the floor.
Rainbow Dash, the one who had just kicked her, was now standing—awake... or rather, trapped in a violent sleepwalking state. Driven by an uncontrollable euphoria, the pegasus darted her eyes around like a cornered animal. Without saying a word, she began gnawing at the bandages on her body and flapping her wings wildly, like a hummingbird caught in a suffocating web.
Applejack, getting up from the floor with effort, looked on in dismay as her friend shot around the room, crashing into furniture and walls, hurting herself in the process and colliding with their other friends, who were also beginning to wake up.
"Rainbow Dash, no! Wait! Stop, Rainbow!" she shouted, but her voice went unheard.
Rainbow Dash was completely out of control, and she—Applejack—was the only one free at the moment, the only one who could do something about it.
She had to stop her.
With that urgent mission in mind, the farm pony scanned her surroundings for anything that might help. Her eyes immediately locked onto the long bandage still hanging from Rainbow Dash's neck.
Without a second thought, she dashed after the trail her pegasus friend left behind and, with a leap, caught the end of the bandage in her mouth, yanking it backward with all her strength.
It was an effective but brutally sudden move. Anyone else might have been seriously injured, but for Rainbow Dash, it only caused a strained choking sound.
Yanked toward the ground, her flight was cut short, ending with a loud crash into a bookshelf.
Applejack hurried to her fallen friend. She knew Rainbow Dash was tough, but right now, all that mattered was whether she was okay.
"Rainbow Dash, please, snap out of it!" she shouted, holding her by the shoulders, trying to calm her.
But it was no use. Rainbow Dash, still locked in her frenzy, tried to take off again, flailing her limbs without any coordination. Applejack, terrified at her friend's condition, felt fear flood her heart. She couldn't understand what was happening or accept the madness that had taken hold of her.
"Rainbow Dash, please, come back to us!" Applejack pleaded through tears, hugging her. But the gesture was in vain—met only with more frantic struggle.
With her heart in her throat and hope slipping away, Applejack looked helplessly at her pegasus friend's distorted face.
That's when she noticed something she had overlooked.
Rainbow Dash's eyes, now visible with the bandages torn off, were in a strange position: they pointed in opposite directions, giving off a look that was both unsettling and oddly familiar.
Didn't she know someone in Ponyville with a gaze like that?
Suddenly, an old memory resurfaced. And with it, an idea lit up her face.
She knew what to do now.
"If it worked before… it's gotta work now, right?" Applejack thought to herself. "Hang in there, Rainbow!"
Raising her hoof, in one swift motion, she struck Rainbow Dash's head hard.
The rainbow-maned pegasus took the hit square on, but didn't collapse… She remained standing, stiff, trembling like an old machine rebooting after a long shutdown.
Applejack watched anxiously.
Then, Rainbow Dash began to move again—but this time with more control. Her expression shifted. Her eyes, which had been spinning aimlessly just moments ago, slowly began to refocus.
Her wings, which hadn't stopped flapping, finally came to rest and folded gently. Her limbs, previously thrashing around, stretched one last time before relaxing.
Rainbow Dash, now with her familiar look once more, sat down, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes—like she was returning to the dream she had just barely escaped.
Applejack, stunned by what she'd just witnessed, tilted her head in confusion. She remained still, expectant, wondering if something else would happen. After a moment of silence, she cautiously stepped forward.
"Rainbow Dash?" she asked with a trembling voice.
The response was immediate.
"Ow! Applejack, what the hay is wrong with you?" the pegasus snapped, lifting a hoof to her head and rubbing the bump now forming on her forehead. The distressing scene from a moment ago faded away as if it had never happened.
A smile lit up Applejack's face. Then, unable to contain herself, she burst into laughter.
"Hahaha, hahahaha!"
Her laughter filled the room—overflowing, unstoppable. Overcome by the pure joy of seeing her friend again, she didn't hesitate to throw herself on Rainbow Dash and hug her with all her strength.
"Hey, hey, Applejack! What are you doing? Don't squeeze so hard! Hey, wait!... Are you crying?"
Rainbow Dash blinked, confused. To her, it felt like she had just woken from a wild dream, and her memory was still hazy.
"You hard-headed fool! Haha, I can't believe it. You're safe! We're all safe! Yeehaw!" the farm pony neighed without restraint, squeezing her rainbow-maned friend even tighter.
"We're safe...? That sounds good, right?" Rainbow Dash replied, unsure what else to say, growing more and more confused and concerned by Applejack's odd behavior.
"Yes! That's very good!"
"Great... and... where exactly are we safe?" the pegasus asked, sweeping the room with her eyes.
Applejack opened her mouth, but no easy answer came to mind. Her joy faded instantly. She pulled back slightly, her expression darkening as the unsettling reality of their situation crept back in.
"I... I'm not sure. Maybe it's... Twilight's house?"
Rainbow Dash fell silent, not quite understanding the answer. But as she looked around the messy room more closely, the absurd statement started to make sense.
"Okay... we're in Twilight's old house, right?"
"Yep," replied Applejack, glancing around the room again.
"You mean the Ponyville library, Golden Oak, right?"
"Yep," Applejack repeated.
"The same one Tirek nearly completely destroyed moons ago, right?"
"Yep..." Applejack confirmed, this time with a heavier tone and a nervous look. After a moment's hesitation, she added, "I don't get it."
"Agreed... this is weird. Really weird..." murmured Rainbow Dash, eyeing her surroundings with clear suspicion. Then she added, "And the other girls...?"
"They're here too, safe in—" Applejack stopped as her gaze turned toward the room's interior.
Her sudden silence was understandable. In the middle of the chaos caused by Rainbow Dash's earlier rampage, Twilight's house was in an even worse mess than before. Their friends, caught in the aftermath, were scattered across the room in ridiculous situations.
Dangling from the ceiling like a piñata, Pinkie Pie swung back and forth, wrapped in her own bandages.
Beneath a toppled bookshelf, cushioned by a lucky pile of pillows, Rarity struggled desperately, trying to escape the stifling trap she'd gotten stuck in.
Further off, in a corner surrounded by embedded knives, shattered bottles, and a small growing fire, Fluttershy remained fast asleep on her simple bed. Unharmed, with an angelic expression of utter peace, she was completely oblivious to everything that had just happened in the room.
Unable to respond, Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood in silence as Fluttershy began to wake up.
The pink-maned pegasus stretched, opened her mouth, and let out an adorable yawn with the innocent grace of a kitten. With no trace of pain or distress to disturb her usual sweetness, she slowly opened her eyes, shaking off the calm dream that still lingered.
Noticing the serious expressions of her friends, she blinked a few times and, after a short silence, tilted her head slightly before softly asking:
"Did something bad happen?"
[---]
Wrapped in a dense night, a scream erupted from within Twilight's treehouse.
"Aaaaaaahhh!"
"Don't scream so loud, Pinkie! You're not helping!" Applejack complained, clearly irritated. Beside her, Rainbow Dash wore an equally frustrated expression. Both mares were carefully navigating the room's mess, carrying on their backs the partially bandaged and plaster-cast body of their pink friend.
"I'm sorry..." Pinkie Pie tried to apologize, only to let out another, shorter scream.
Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed.
Moments earlier, she and Rainbow Dash had rushed to help their trapped friends. By then, it was clear that Fluttershy was completely unharmed—something Applejack was deeply thankful for. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Rarity and Pinkie Pie.
Rarity hadn't suffered any major injuries, but the lack of oxygen from being pinned under a bookshelf had left her disoriented. When she was finally freed, she could barely speak and had trouble standing. Thankfully, Fluttershy had acted quickly to stabilize her. Now, she was slowly recovering on the couch under the watchful eye of the pink-maned pegasus.
Pinkie Pie's condition, however, was... odd. And not just because she had been dangling from the ceiling. Like Rainbow Dash before she woke up, Pinkie's body was completely wrapped in bandages and plaster, as if she had suffered a fall so severe that she had to be entirely immobilized. Even her face was partially covered in plaster, with only small openings for her to breathe. Alarmed by the muffled sounds of choking coming from those tiny gaps, Applejack decided to remove the cast from her face to help her breathe more easily.
It was a terrible mistake.
As soon as her mouth was freed, instead of words of relief or gratitude, Pinkie Pie unleashed a shriek so piercing and prolonged that all of them immediately covered their ears. The entire room trembled with her wail. Desperate, they tried to calm her down and check if she was hurt or confused. But to everyone's surprise, Pinkie Pie responded clearly: she was perfectly fine and aware of what was going on. She explained that she simply hadn't been able to speak before because of the plaster over her mouth. Even more shockingly, she revealed she had been the second to wake up—right after Applejack turned on the lights and long before Rainbow Dash.
Still, despite being unharmed, Pinkie Pie kept screaming right in the middle of her sentences. When her exasperated friends asked her why she was doing it, her answer was simple:
"I don't know!"
And so the minutes passed—without a clear explanation, and with a racket that became more unbearable by the second.
"For Celestia's sake! Could someone PLEASE shut her up already?!" shouted Rarity from the couch, her expression twisted in pure frustration as her migraine worsened.
"Pinkie, stop it! This isn't funny!" Applejack snapped, her voice sharp, her ears ringing. Without much care, she dropped her plaster-covered friend onto the floor with a loud thud.
"Aaaaaaaa! I'm sorry, Applejack... but... but... Ugggggg, I can't help it! Aaaaaaaaaaaa!" Pinkie's voice, though tinged with guilt, made it clear she wasn't joking. She truly couldn't stop screaming—even after Rainbow Dash tried stuffing a makeshift sock gag in her mouth. It didn't work; it only made her scream even louder.
With hooves over their ears, everyone was reaching the end of their rope. Rarity, in particular, began looking around frantically—perhaps searching for the bookshelf she'd been trapped under earlier, seemingly considering crawling back beneath it.
Just as Applejack's patience hit its limit, an unexpected but welcome voice snapped her out of her frustration.
"Stand back!" Rainbow Dash barked, now holding a massive wooden mallet between her hooves.
"Where'd you get... Wait, Rainbow Dash, you're not seriously thinking of—" Applejack didn't finish the sentence. Before anyone could stop her, Rainbow Dash charged forward, swinging the mallet high into the air in a swift, powerful motion—and brought it down on Pinkie Pie's head like she was a whack-a-mole.
A dull thunk echoed through the room. Then, silence.
To the relief—and later, dismay—of her friends, Pinkie Pie's screaming stopped immediately. Rainbow Dash, looking proud, stood firmly atop the pile of broken plaster and unraveled bandages that now covered the pink pony. Her friends, meanwhile, let out long, grateful sighs. Seconds passed, maybe even minutes, as they regained their composure.
However, reality soon settled in: not a single sound came from beneath the rubble. No murmurs. No giggles. Nothing.
The realization of what they had done, combined with the absence of any sign of life from Pinkie, crept onto their faces in the form of nervous grimaces. Panic began to set in—until suddenly, a sound broke the silence.
As if a balloon had suddenly inflated, a pink figure burst out from the pile of debris on the floor.
"I'm freeeeee!" Pinkie Pie cheered, all smiles and bursting with her usual exuberance… only to collapse face-first onto the floor moments later.
"I'm okay..." she muttered without moving, as Fluttershy rushed over to check on her.
Rainbow Dash, unimpressed, looked away.
"Great, Pinkie's not a screaming mummy anymore, Rarity can breathe again, Fluttershy's immune to everything, and you're missing your hat. Can someone please tell me what's going on here?" she snapped, tossing the massive mallet aside and taking flight inside the room.
Applejack raised an eyebrow.
"Thanks so much for worrying about me, darling. I'm doing just splendid..." came Rarity's indignant voice from the sofa.
Ignoring the unicorn's sarcasm, Applejack pondered Rainbow Dash's question. Much to her annoyance, she realized she didn't have an answer.
When she looked at the others, their expressions mirrored her own. No one had a clue.
Silence fell again—heavy, and tinged with melancholy. Until, out of nowhere, something broke it.
"Maybe..." came a soft voice in the background. "We should start by saying what happened."
All eyes turned to Fluttershy, who was still holding Pinkie Pie in her arms. Almost immediately, everyone's attention shifted to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash froze the moment she felt all those piercing gazes on her.
"Hey—wait a second. I was the last one still standing. If we're starting with explanations, you all should go first," she said defensively.
"Oh, darling, so you were the last one standing?" Rarity said, with just a hint of sarcasm in her tone. "But weren't you also the first one to leave? Do tell us, sweetie—how did your little date with Vanilla go?"
Rainbow Dash's feathers flared instantly.
"Excuse me? I didn't bail to go to some fancy etiquette duel like you're used to, Rarity! I left to fight—for all of you!"
"Ahh, I'm sorry, Rainbow. Maybe I didn't make myself clear before, but… don't dodge the question. How did it go?"
Still hovering, Rainbow Dash went quiet. Unsure of what to say, she slowly descended to the floor, sat down, lowered her head, and after a long, drawn-out pause, answered in a weary tone:
"I lost..."
A cold wave swept through the messy room. Pinkie Pie, who had remained on the ground, sat up with an expression of concern that matched Fluttershy's and, without saying a word, settled down beside her. Rarity, with much more grace, did the same from her spot on the sofa.
Applejack, who had already expected that answer, leaned into her friend in a silent show of support. Rainbow Dash didn't respond. After a brief silence, she went on:
"I'm not even sure what happened... I had him in my hooves, I had caught him and was just about to come back to you guys, but... then he did something. After that, it's all a blur. I think they somehow took control of me and made me attack you. If it hadn't been for Twilight... I don't even know what else would've happened," she confessed in a tired voice that didn't sound like her at all. The memories of the battle and her defeat churned in her head, wrapping her in a bitter fog that tightened her throat and drained her spirit.
And then, right in the middle of that painful confession, the same thought struck all of them at once.
"Twilight... where was she?"
Before anypony could voice the panic caused by her obvious and incredibly important absence, a voice beat them to it.
"Oooh by all that's PINK!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie with a look of utter surprise that made everyone hold their breath. "Applejack! You don't have your hat!"
No one replied to that belated and ill-timed revelation. Least of all Applejack, who, suppressing the sudden surge of anger, let out a deep sigh. Those weren't the words she was hoping to hear right then—but they weren't false either, so she let it go, like a stampede of wild pigs across her path.
What also kept going was Pinkie Pie's tongue, which continued: "...and Twilight! ... she's not here?" she finished with a look that barely hid the fear in her voice.
Was Pinkie's declaration a premeditated act? Nopony thought of it at the time, but if they had, it would've made perfect sense. Because the panic that swept over the group of friends was far less than it might have been without that brief distraction.
Surprised and anxious—but not yet desperate—Twilight's friends glanced at one another, unsure of what to say. Soon, they all began searching the room for her.
But there was no sign of their beloved friend.
"How did nopony notice this before?!" cried Rainbow Dash, frustrated, as she rummaged through fallen bookcases and overturned cabinets.
"I'm sorry, that was my mistake. I thought we were still in her house. Back then, we'd sleep downstairs and she would, sometimes, in the..." Applejack moved a couch while trying to justify herself, but she was cut short when a piercing scream shook the room.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
Instantly, everypony stopped what they were doing and turned toward the pony who had screamed.
Rarity, her face twisted in horror, was trembling as she backed away, unable to tear her eyes from the couch she had been resting on.
Not fully understanding what was happening, Applejack approached the frightened unicorn.
"What is it, Rarity? Did you find something?"
"Did I find something? Look for yourself!" Rarity cried, her voice on the verge of breaking into sobs.
Confused, Applejack looked at the couch her friend was pointing to with shaky hooves.
"This is... a couch," she said slowly.
But to Rarity—whose eyes were trained to catch details invisible to others—that couch was something much worse...
"It's... plastic!" she wailed, unable to hide her horror or her dramatic flair.
Applejack resisted the urge to collapse sideways in exasperation and instead replied with total indifference, "Plastic... Anything else?"
"Of course there's more!" Rarity snapped immediately. "The walls are plastic! The lights are plastic! Even the books are plastic! Everything is plaaaaastic!" she finished in a near scream, collapsing into Fluttershy's embrace as if about to faint.
Startled, the others began observing their surroundings more carefully. What had once seemed like a messy but familiar room now looked completely foreign. A place cloaked in mystery they were only just beginning to unravel.
Ignoring the confusion of her friends, Pinkie Pie—without warning—grabbed a book off the floor and licked its surface.
"Definitely plastic..." she muttered seriously.
Applejack, meanwhile, tapped the floor with her hoof and tilted her head, puzzled. "Weird..."
Amid the group's rising murmurs, Rainbow Dash took to the air, drawing everyone's attention.
"Alright, so we've got a plastic problem, right? Great! ...How about we deal with that later and focus on something more important? Like, oh I don't know... finding our missing friend?" she exclaimed, her expression deadly serious.
That's when another scream shattered the room.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
Pinkie Pie, her face pale and eyes wide, had let it out.
"Please, if this is about my mane looking different, you better not say it, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash said immediately, clearly annoyed.
But Pinkie didn't respond. Her gaze remained locked in the direction behind Rainbow Dash.
"Pinkie? What are you looking at...?" asked Applejack, noticing her friend's petrified look and turning to follow her stare.
Applejack froze.
The others did the same... and also went still.
Several steps behind Rainbow Dash, beyond the couch, a staircase led to the second floor of what appeared to be their princess friend's old home.
But halfway up the stairs, hidden in the shadows, someone was silently watching them.
A regular earth pony with a pink mane, no gear, and only a blanket draped over them, stood alone—staring back with a piercing gaze.
Badwhiz Starheart, declared enemy of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, was there...