Rainbow Dash barely had time to process Henry’s words before a cry of “Stupid kid!” went out as John kicked Henry out of the way.

John and Peter were right in front of her now. She glanced toward Henry, then up to John, and all her fear vanished for the moment as a seething anger infected every part of her being. As John went to shoot her she quickly stood up and jumped upward on her good legs, slamming her head into his and knocking him to the ground. Spinning around before she landed she kicked Peter in the stomach as hard as she could. Both of them fell to the floor.

She started running full out, knowing that they would chase her, all thoughts of her wounded leg forgotten as adrenaline surged through her body. She had to lure them away. They weren’t interested in Henry. Only her. It was the only way she had to protect him now. Guilt attempted to drain her strength, but she didn’t listen to it. She had gone off on her own, and a friend had paid the price for it. The only thing she could do now was run. Just as she had thought before, the idea of having someone to protect gave strength to her limbs, even when she was hurt and feeling weak.

Coming upon the staircase she jumped onto the banister, sliding down it and jumping off near the bottom, rolling as she landed. The front door was close. If she could get out of the house they wouldn’t be able to find her. She ran up to the door as she heard the yells and footsteps of John and Peter as they approached, eager for revenge.

The part of the door near the doorknob was in pieces, blown open by the force of the bullets. Grabbing the handle she turned it. So close! Once she was out she could try to find some help for Henry. She thought he would be okay. She had been badly hurt and now she was alright. It was the only hope she had to rely on. No longer was this just about her. It was about Henry too. She had been wrong about him. Dead wrong. He truly did mean what he said, and she had doubted him even though she was sure he was on the side of good.

As she opened the door and began to run out she stopped in her tracks, letting out a gasp as she came face to face with the dog from before. Time seemed to stop in place for a moment, both of them surprised at the others sudden appearance in front of them. Scruffy started growling and Rainbow quickly turned around, slamming the door behind her, having to use all her strength to stop the dog from getting in the house and attacking her.

Worry and despair ate at her. Now what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t get out of the house and her bad leg was really starting to ache again.

The cellar! That secret compartment Henry had told her about. If she could just get there… but could she make it now without being seen?

Her question was answered as a shot went off, making holes in the area right next to her. She looked up into the eyes of her tormentors for a brief moment before she began running again.

“Going somewhere, stupid horse?” John asked with cruel glee. “I knew you might try something like that, so I had Scruffy waiting just outside for you. You’re not going anywhere! You hear me? You’ll die tonight, and I’ll be rich!”

Rainbow heard them running down the stairs after her. She cursed under her breath. She was quickly reaching her limit. Her leg was throbbing and they were too close behind her. There was no way she could get to that secret room without them seeing her go in. Even after Henry had gone out of his way to take an attack meant for her, was this where it was all going to end? The only thing she could think of now was to hide in one of the rooms under a bed or in a closet or something. She didn’t know how long that would work, but with the outside off limits it was the only thing she could do to get a little rest so she could hopefully run some more later.

As she rounded a corner a shot went off, and her back leg near her hoof seared with pain as a stray pellet hit her, making her trip and fall on her face. ‘No!’ she thought desperately. ‘No…’ Tears came down her eyes. She had let everyone down. ‘Henry.’ She did her best to get up but it was too late. John and Peter were in front of her again.

“Well, little horse. I guess this is the end of the game. Not just once but twice you made a fool out of me,” John said furiously, giving her a hard kick in the face that sent her rolling over a few times. The anger left his voice and a big smile came to his face. “I hope you had fun being defiant, because now you’ll get to see just what the cost of that will be.”

He dropped his gun on the ground. “It would be so easy to shoot you now and finish you off, but that would be much too simple. No, no, no. I think I’ll take my time. After all, the night is young and no one is going to interrupt us.”

His eyes narrowed with a demented glee, he reached towards the right side of his belt, pulling out a hunting knife. “So now, let’s see. So many choices. What to do first? Maybe I’ll cut those wings of yours off…” He took a step toward her. “Or maybe one of those legs. Either way it goes I’m going to enjoy watching you die.”

Rainbow Dash watched helplessly as he slowly approached her. She was now totally out of options. There was nothing left to do but die. She couldn’t run away, and all she had to look forward to was a long and slow torture. For a moment she thought of asking him to at least spare Henry, but she decided to keep her mouth shut, figuring John would just go kill him immediately to spite her.

John looked down at her, knife at the ready, still giving her that frenzied grin. “Well then, are you ready? Oh, who cares what you want anymore. I’m done just talking and threatening. I have a lot of aggression built up that I think I’ll take out on you.”

As John raised the knife Rainbow closed her eyes, not wanting to see. However, though she waited she didn’t feel the plunge of the weapon into her flesh. She heard a gentle hum from a space in front of her, and she slowly opened her eyes. John had now backed up away from her, back towards his brother, looking perplexedly at the area between them. There was a glowing white ball of energy occupying the space, about the size of a basketball but slowly expanding. Using her two good limbs she awkwardly jerked herself backwards away from it, not sure what it was. After a time it stopped growing, now completely filling up the space in the hallway between the three, the humming louder and the energy pulsing hard.

As she watched the ball of light started turning grey in the middle, at first just swirling around, but then it slowly solidified into distinct shapes. Disbelief crossed her features as another few seconds passed and the bright light faded away to reveal all of her friends and Princess Celestia.

“Y-you guys!” Rainbow called out, hardly believing this fortune of coincidence. “Y-you really made it.”

“Dashie!” cried out Pinkie Pie. “You’re ali-“ She suddenly stopped as she saw the condition Rainbow was in; Her leg and wings wrapped up, a bruise swelling on the left side of her face, and the blood dripping out of one of her back hooves.

“Rainbow Dash!” said Twilight with alarm. “What in Equestria happened to you? You’re a mess.”

Rainbow’s feeling of joy was quickly snuffed out as she remembered John and Peter right behind them.

Princess Celestia bent over her and touched her horn to Rainbow’s forehead before she could say anything more. As Rainbow’s memories flowed into Celestia a burning anger seized her as she turned around to face the two men.

John let out a maniacal laugh, pure joy suffusing every fiber of his being. The little freak had been telling the truth. There were more of them. He had just witnessed magic, real magic, with his own eyes. Eight of them. There were eight of them; All of differing colors but only one of them had the look of a regular pony from earth. He thought that maybe the blue one was right. Maybe he SHOULD shift priorities and take care of the one wearing a hat and leave the rest of the freak brigade alive.

John picked up his gun, aiming it at Applejack without a word. He never got the chance to pull the trigger. Celestia’s horn glowed, and John went flying backwards twenty feet, slamming into the wall. Peter let out a frightened yell, shooting at Celestia who effortlessly blocked it with a magical shield. With another shine from her horn she twisted the metal of the weapon before splitting it into two pieces.

Celestia walked forward, hatred on her face. Her magic slowly changed from its usual yellow to black, her eyes lighting up and turning green as a sphere of magic surrounded her. “You worthless scum have dared to attack one of my most important subjects.” Tilting her head forward she unleashed a powerful blast, incinerating the door and most of the room behind the two men. “LEAVE HERE AT ONCE WHILE I STILL HAVE SOME CONTROL OVER MYSELF! IF I EVER FIND OUT ABOUT YOU HARMING ANOTHER LIVING THING AGAIN I WILL RETURN AND DESTROY YOU!”

The two men trembled in fear, finally finding out that they had messed with something they shouldn’t have, something beyond their understanding. Turning around they began running away as fast as their legs would carry them.

Once the two men were long gone the aura faded and her horn stopped glowing. Turning around back to Rainbow Dash all of them could see tears streaming down her face. Walking over she lay down on the floor, nuzzling Rainbow’s face. “I am so sorry for not coming sooner.”

“You were right on time,” Rainbow said with relief. “Another few minutes and… well… he certainly wasn’t planning on letting me die easy.

“So how did you guys manage to find me? I thought it was going to be impossible, but I certainly hoped…”

Twilight spoke up. “Well, we created a very complex spell based upon the Elements of Harmony.”

It was only then Rainbow noticed her friends were each wearing their respective elements. “But I thought that they only worked with all six of them? And I don’t get how it helped you find me.”

“Well, when I transported you I refused to believe that you were dead. I immediately went to Princess Celestia with the rest of our friends. I was a wreck, panicking and freaking out. Even if I was sure you were alive I wasn't sure what my spell had done to you.

"Well, anyway, I finally hit a brainwave. I thought that maybe we could use the Elements of Harmony to lead us to you. This was a hypothesis based on two very important pieces of information. The first was that the Elements are ALWAYS connected to their most recent wielder, regardless of how much time passes. I deduced that from the Discord incident. “

“Discord?”

“Yes. Following Princess Luna’s banishment, Princess Celestia stored the Elements away and never used them again. They remained inactive for one thousand years until we reactivated them. Despite the fact they remained dormant for so long they turned to stone Discord’s seal spell still held up until the point the Elements got a new wielder, at which point her spell began to weaken, so even though we returned the Elements to the Tree of Harmony you should still be connected to them as the Element of Loyalty.

“The second piece of information came from the incident with Sunset Shimmer. Even though only the Element of Magic was taken, your alternate world counterparts, despite not possessing the actual Elements but holding their virtues inside their hearts, were enough to allow me to use my lone Element to its full effect to defeat her.

“From these two important facts I deduced that you have a certain 'magic' inside you. It’s not like unicorn or alicorn magic, but a piece of who you are. It’s why you can be the Loyalty holder in the first place. All we needed to do was search out that 'magic' and hone in on it. We found no trace of you in Equestria, so we knew that you had to have transported to another world. In order to gather the necessary energy to make up for you missing and thus unable to use your element’s power, we enlisted the help of Princess Luna, Cadence, and my brother. We all played our parts in helping to get here. Now we need you to help us get home.” Her horn began glowing as she levitated the Element of Loyalty onto Rainbow’s neck.

In her love of spouting knowledge she had temporarily forgotten, but as her diatribe ended she suddenly found her worry coming back. “Rainbow Dash, what did those two do to you?”

Rainbow gasped as the memory came back to her. “We don’t have time for this. We have to go now!” She ignored her injuries as she forced herself to her hooves and began running. After just a few seconds she tripped, but she turned it into a roll to keep her momentum.

“Rainbow, stop! You’re hurt!” Twilight cried out. “What’s the rush?”

Rainbow didn’t answer. She hopped up the stairs on her two good legs, ignoring all her friend’s warnings and questions. ‘Henry,’ she thought, thinking of her injured friend. ‘We’re coming. Please hold on!’

Author's Notes:

I made an attempt to fill in the plot hole of explaining how they managed to find Rainbow Dash in the original story, but I don't know if I just made it more implausible. Let me know your opinion on it.