The faint sounds of screaming reached Rainbow Dash's ears as she slowly regained consciousness. Squinting her eyes open, she was surprised she had actually survived the fall, winding up at the ruined ramp up to the now destroyed coliseum with only a broken wing from the surprise attack earlier. The pegasus slowly got up, wincing in pain as some survivors desperately made a break to leave the city before whatever's destroying Zanarkand makes it all crumble to the ocean.

After gaining her bearings, she headed down the ramp to escape with everypony else, but stopped when she noticed somepony standing near one of the destroyed statues outside the coliseum. "Rarity!?" she said, running up to the oblivious mare. "What are you doing here!?"

"I was waiting for you," Rarity replied, giving Rainbow a bottle with green liquid. "Drink this. You'll need it."

"What?" Rainbow looked at the strange liquid as Rarity headed off down the road, but toward the dangerous threat and not where the others were evacuating. Curious, she drank the liquid, nearly coughing it back at the horrible taste. "Ugh! The hay is this stuff!? It's awful!"

As bad as it was, it did give her some energy back and helped eased some of the pain she was experiencing, though she didn't risk moving her injured wing until it's properly mended. Rainbow ran off to chase after the older mare to try and turn her around so they could leave Zanarkand and live. Many ponies ran past her, nearly shoving her over as they escaped until a stallion managed to knock her off her hooves and on her back. Her eyes closed in pain as she bumped her wing on the road, not noticing the world had flashed around her.

Opening her eyes, she noticed the same hooded figure from earlier standing before her, feeling his eyes look at her underneath the cloak he wore. Rainbow stood up and approached him, but before she could tell him to find a way out of the city, she noticed that the screaming and destruction had turned to silence. She turned her head, her jaw dropping as the fleeing ponies had somehow been frozen in time, having no idea what was going on aside from the destruction of Zanarkand.

"It begins," he said, confusing Rainbow Dash as she turned to face him. "Don't cry."

"...What?" The world suddenly flashed, the chaotic sounds returning as time went back to normal. The hooded boy had somehow vanished before her eyes, only confusing the pegasus more. "What the hay is going on?" She looked further down the road, spotting Rarity standing in the middle of the road as she looked out at the burning city. Rainbow ran up to her and got in her line of sight, averting her gaze for a moment. "Rarity, what are you doing!? We're supposed to be running away from danger, not run toward it!"

"Turn around," she said, the pegasus obeying her and looking out at the city. Rainbow wished she didn't as she stared in frightened awe. Hovering above the city was a massive sphere of water, able to see a large creature inside of it, though it was hard to tell what it was inside the rippling ocean water. "We call it Sin."

"Sin?" Rainbow questioned.

Suddenly, something shot out of one of the buildings nearby, a strange, blue tentacle wriggled from it as it shot scales off its body, sending them out onto the highway. The scales suddenly transformed into insect-like monsters, skittering their way toward the two mares. Rainbow tried to fight them off with her hooves, but they didn't seem to do much as they ganged up on her. One of them slammed into her, knocking her on her back, Rarity shaking her head as she pulled out a curved sword.

"Here, darling. Take this." She held the weapon in front of Rainbow Dash with her magic, the pegasus grabbing the hilt with her teeth as she was lifted up by the unicorn's powerful telekinetic grip. Her blue aura around it disappeared, making Rainbow fall to the ground, misjudging the weight of the sword as she lifted it up with her hooves instead. "A little gift from Jet Stream."

"My dad!?" Rainbow snapped out of her surprise as she remembered they were being attacked.

She swiped the sword at them, only to fall back to Rarity as she found it more difficult to wield an actual sword than a toy one she sometimes had when she was younger. Rainbow got back up, noticing the unicorn mare had her weapon already pulled out, a heavy looking katana made entirely out of diamond resting on her shoulder.

"I hope you know how to use that." Rainbow scoffed as she grabbed her sword in her mouth, getting used to the weight as they stared down the nearly endless hoard of monsters. "Cut through the ones that matter and make a run for it."

"No need to tell me twice." Rainbow struck first, slicing through the scale monster as it fell, its body disappearing as strange lights flew out of their bodies.

The two mares ran through them, slicing through the ones in front of them as more scales flew down after them, slamming into the highway as they formed into more monsters. As they climbed up a hill, Rainbow saw another one of those tentacles sticking out of the road, Rarity continued running toward it with her katana ready. The pegasus groaned, thinking the unicorn had some sort of death wish, but she followed her lead as the tentacle had a few of those scale monsters.

"How rude. You're all in the way." Rarity grabbed the hilt of her heavy weapon, staring down the twitching insects and blue tentacle. "You beasts should know not to block a lady when she's on a tight schedule!"

The unicorn leapt up high into the high, surprising Rainbow Dash at the height she got at without having wings, then slammed back down to the ground, shoving her blade down into the road. The monsters were suddenly struck by flames that came out from the ground, killing off the scale insectoids and greatly damaging the tentacle creature, some of the smaller limbs next to the longer one on top disappeared.

"Whoa," Rainbow said in awe, never knowing the older mare was this powerful or agile, even with a heavy blade weighing her down.

The tentacle whipped down at them, but it didn't strike them. Instead, a gravitational force threatened to suck the life out of the mares, injuring them slightly. Rainbow had no idea what had happened, but Rarity didn't seem all that concerned.

"Hmph. Demi," she said. "Not a spell that would kill, only to easily weaken foes."

"You think you can tell me what the hay is happening, Rarity!?" Rainbow asked, wanting answers from the cryptic mare she knew growing up.

"Soon, Rainbow Dash. For now, we keep fighting." Rarity ran forward, slashing her katana several times into the side of the tentacle pillar, making more of the smaller ones disappear.

She leapt back as the bigger limb tried to whip her. Rainbow Dash decided to find out after all this is over, keeping a firm grip on the sword in her mouth as she crouched low. Taking a running start, the pegasus cartwheeled, then backflipped, and with a powerful leap into the air, somersaulted rapidly as she sliced through the monster, destroying more of the glowing tentacles.

"Showoff," Rarity muttered as they continued slicing into it as they were struck by the Demi spell it kept casting.

Eventually, it was beaten, the tentacle whip flailing in agony as several lights flew out of it, turning it into an immobile husk. Rarity ran on ahead with Rainbow right behind her as they continued heading toward the threat that was the root of Zanarkand's destruction. The pegasus recognized the road they were on, looking up at the building that had the same commemorative picture of the blitzball player.

"They hay are you laughing at, you old fart?" Rainbow uttered to herself, stopping as soon as Rarity did. "Rarity, we gotta get out of here before you get us killed!"

"...We're being expected." She stared at the unicorn quizically.

Suddenly, they heard thousands of scales flying through the air, a large group of them surrounding the mares on the highway, many of them turning into monsters as they caught them in a pincer formation. Rarity and Rainbow Dash slashed through them, killing each insectoid instantly, but another would replace its fallen comrade, keeping them trapped.

"There's too many of them!" Rainbow shouted, narrowly avoiding another one as she ran it through with her blade.

Rarity calmly looked around, spotting a destroyed tanker nearby, its fuel cells still active. "Aha. Rainbow, knock that down!"

"Huh!?" She looked over at the tanker, then back at the unicorn like she was crazy. "That's gonna get us killed!"

"Just do it!" Rarity continued fighting back the monsters while she gave Rainbow Dash cover to destroy the tanker.

Having no other option, the pegasus ran toward it and slashed the machine until it was completely cut off. The tanker was sent hurtling off the edge as it caught on fire, exploding as it hit the ground down below, causing the skyscraper next to it to lost its foundation. Rainbow Dash quickly got out of the way as it fell toward them, slamming into the highway and destroying a majority of the scaly insectoids in their path.

As the building sunk, Rarity motioned with her head, telling Rainbow to move forward despite the building close to blowing up and destroying the road. Left with no choice, they both leapt onto the skyscraper, Rainbow lagging behind as the explosions nearly threw her off. Rarity had reached the other side, but Rainbow Dash didn't look like she would make it. Taking a powerful leap, the pegasus jumped off right as the building began to blow, managing to make it to the edge, dangling for dear life as she tried to pull herself up.

"Rarity!" she cried out, unable to use her wings to help her up because of her injury. "Rarity, help me up! I can't fly! I hurt my wing earlier!"

Rarity looked down at Rainbow Dash as she struggled to pull herself up. Above them, the large monster from the sphere hovered over them, the unicorn looking up, hear ears twitching as if she was listening to its silent words. The highway as well as other buildings and fixtures began to get pulled into the strange gravitational force it had, giving the pegasus an easier time to lift herself up.

"Are you sure?" Rarity asked the creature.

She looked down as she heard Rainbow grunt, saving herself from falling to her death. "Thanks for the help..."

"...This is it, darling." Using her magic, Rarity grabbed the collar of Rainbow's shirt, lifting her up closer to the monster as the road was pulled closer to it.  "This is your story, Rainbow Dash."

"T-The hay are you doing!?" Rainbow shouted, unable to break free from the mare's aura, completely terrified of the fate that awaited them.

"It all begins here." Rarity was unfazed by the gravitational pull as Rainbow Dash felt her mane and tail being pulled closer to the beast above.

She was soon swallowed up by the core underneath the monster, with Rainbow unable to tear her eyes away as she felt every single part of her being sucked along with her, screaming as she saw nothing but white. She soon felt like she was underwater, struggling to see through the brightness as she tried to figure out which way was up and down.

"Hey!" an older male voice called out to her, her ears perking up as she recognized the pony it belonged to.

As soon as she was able to see, she found herself floating over the city of Zanarkand, where pieces of the ruined walkways floated above. There was also a large letter "J" burning in a myriad of colorful flames floating in the center of the floating platforms, and standing on one of them Rainbow saw what looked like her father watching it burn. She swam down to him, but his body shifted like an illusion and instead saw herself as a filly. The filly version of her glared at the flames, her mane more of a mess than the real pegasus's and bare of any clothing.

Suddenly, Rainbow began to feel faint, whether from the pain from her wing, her spirit finally succumbing to her unfortunate death, or her brain suffering from the illusion she was seeing at this moment. Her eyes grew heavy and her body went limp as she passed out, wondering if this would be the last dream she would have before embracing death's door. Next Chapter: Chapter 2: All Alone...Or Am I? Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 56 Minutes