Narrowing her eyes, Twilight stepped directly in front of Rainbow Dash.

She looked over the cyan pegasus and raised a hoof, waving it back and forth in front of her face. When she got no response she stepped back and sighed before turning back to the other girls.

"I think she's reliving Svanhild's memories," she surmised, "I'm fairly sure the same thing happened to me when I consumed Asger."

"Oh, that's right!" Rarity replied, her eyes widening in understanding before turning to Applejack, "I believe something similar happened to you back at the dreadful lab, did it not?"

"Oh, yeah," Applejack answered with a slight frown, "almost forgot about that. Got a hold o' some crazy pegasus stallion named Wind Tunnel an' saw everythin' about 'im," she shook her head, "wasn't right in the head, that one... even by our standards."

"So, um... what do we do now?" Fluttershy asked, making her way over to Rainbow. She stared at the other pegasus for a moment before looking back to Twilight with a worried expression, "do we just... leave her like this?"

"It should end soon," Twilight replied, "for now we should just wait until she snaps out of it, and then..." she paused briefly before letting out a quiet but heavy sigh, "...I think we should do what Rainbow suggested in the first place and just fly to Equestria."

"Are you sure, darling?" Rarity asked with a concerned frown, "you still don't seem too keen on the idea."

"I'm not," Twilight confirmed with a shake of her head, "something tells me it's a bad idea, but I think we'd have less problems in the air than travelling by hoof at this point."

"Ya got a point," Applejack replied grudgingly, "ya'll already know ah'd much prefer ta use mah own four hooves, but frankly, ah'm getting sick o' this place, an' ah wanna see Big Mac an' Apple Bloom again... assumin' they're still around after the war an' all."

The rest of the girls sat in silence for a few heartbeats, letting it sink in that there had been an actual war, and that each and every one of them had been technically dead for the entirety of it.

And then there was the fact that they had lost the war against Sombra and his forces. Then there was Luna's apparent betrayal, and the fact that Celestia was missing.

What else could've possibly changed in the last sixteen years?

Was Ponyville even still around anymore?

What of their friends and loved ones?

What of Apple Bloom, Big Mac, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, the Cakes, the rest of the Pie Family, Twilight Velvet, Night Light, Shiny, Cadence, Spike, and so many others?

What had they endured during the war? Where they still alive? Did they manage to survive? If so, where were they now?

All these questions and more piled on top of the five mares, and they found themselves momentarily crushed under the weight of their worry.

That was, until Twilight noticed Pinkie staring up at the sky with a puzzled frown.

"Pinkie?" Twilight asked, furrowing her brow, "what is it? What's wrong?"

"I was just wondering," she looked back down towards Twilight, the puzzled look still on her face, "do you think the Princesses still move the sun and moon?"

"Well, that's..." Twilight paused and blinked, her initial response dying on her lips, "...you know what?" she replied slowly, lifting her head to the sky with a thoughtful frown, "I'm not sure. There's still a night and day cycle, so I have to assume so... though I have noticed that the cycle seems to be moving at a much slower pace than normal."

After staring at the sky for another minute, Twilight lowered her head and gave a dejected sigh.

"...I really hope the Princess, my brother, and Cadence are okay," she said quietly, "I wonder if they're looking for us... or if they've already given up. After sixteen years I wouldn't be surp—"

"M-Mine... can't... d-don't take... I'm... I'm n-not..."

In an instant, everypony's gaze snapped towards the previously silent, catatonic cyan mare. Each of them cried out in alarm as they watched Rainbow's face twist and contort into a grimace of pain.

She shuddered violently before raising two shaking hooves to her head and crouching low to the ground. Fluttershy was the first to move, rushing over to Rainbow's side and putting a comforting hoof on her back.

"R-Rainbow Dash? Are you okay?" Flutttershy asked, her face the very picture of worry, "w-what's going on? Can... can you hear me?"

Bright Fang's ears perked up and he suddenly crouched low, growling out a warning as he glared at Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy ignored him.

"Rainbow Dash... please answer me!" Fluttershy tried, turning the cyan mare so that she was facing her, "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong!"

Rainbow Dash didn't respond to her words, simply shuddering in Fluttershy's grip and mumbling to herself.

"Not... n-not... I'm Rain... not Rainbow... c-can't..."

Dread began to rise within Twilight as she watched Rainbow Dash shiver, shake, and mutter. An inkling of what may have been happening to her rainbow maned friend came to her mind and she took a step back.

"Fluttershy," Twilight said in a rising tone of warning, "I think you should probably get away from Rainbow Dash... something's not right."

"No, she's..." Fluttershy eyed Rainbow for a moment before shaking her head, "I think she's hurting.... we need to help her!"

"Ah think ya should listen ta Twi on this one. Fluttershy," Applejack agreed, not moving from her spot a short ways away, but still giving Rainbow Dash a wary look, "ah got a bad feelin' about all o' this..."

Bright Fang barked out an agreement.

"No!" Fluttershy growled, turning to glare at the slightly shocked cowpony and the whimpering wolf, "I'm not going just sit here and—eep!"

Fluttershy was yanked back by a pair of cyan hooves, and before she realized what was happening, she was face to face with a wide, teary eyed Rainbow Dash.

For a moment, neither mare said a word. The rest of the girls went silent, unsure of what was going to happen next... and then the cyan pegasus spoke.

"F-Fluttershy... h-help me..."

Latching onto Fluttershy for dear life, Rainbow spoke—her voice cracked, pleading, broken, frantic, morose, scared, angry, and most of all... confused and horrified. All of these emotions and more seemed to be conveyed in that one single strangled cry for help.

Fluttershy returned Rainbow's look of horror with one of her own, her gaze never leaving Rainbow as the other pegasus disappeared in a mass of writhing tendrils. Stunned as they were by the sight before them, the others were slow to react, leaving Fluttershy to struggle in a panic.

"RAINBOW DASH!" Fluttershy cried out, trying to pull away, "RAINBOW, WHAT'S Hhgghk!"

A blackened, blade tipped tentacle shoved through the back of Fluttershy's neck cut off any more words and sent the yellow pegasus flying backwards towards the others.

The elongated limb stretched and shot Fluttershy further back past the scrambling mares behind her, finally pinning her to a tree farther back.

Pinkie was the first to recover, scrambling to her hooves and making to charge after Fluttershy. Before she could get too far, she froze and grunted in apparent pain.

DEAL WITH THE THREAT FIRST.

N-No, I... I gotta help, another grunt and Pinkie began to crumple under the strain of fighting against the Voice, p-please! the others can... handle it... need to... make sure—

DEAL WITH THE THREAT FIRST.

No! Dashie... is not... a threat!

LOOK BEHIND US AND TELL US OUR FRIEND IS NOT A THREAT.

Against her better judgement, Pinkie turned and gasped at what she saw, as did Applejack and Rarity, while Twilight kept her eyes on the mare pinned fast to the tree by the blade impaled through her throat.

"What in tarnation?" Apple muttered in horrified disbelief as she stared in Rainbow's direction, "Rainbow Dash?!"

"That... isn't Rainbow Dash, darling," Rarity corrected, taking a few steps back, "in fact I'm not quite sure what to call her at this point."

Bright Fang stood where he was, snarling and snorting in indecision. On one paw, he wanted to charge forward and tear into the one that had attacked his alpha... but on the other... it still smelled like part of the alpha's pack.

She was an enemy... but at the same time, she was not.

Eventually he growled in frustration and followed after Twilight as she made a beeline for the injured butter yellow pegasus.

The black limb holding Fluttershy aloft chose that moment to retract, tearing itself out of Fluttershy's throat through her mouth and snapping back to its owner, reverting back to a flexing yellow claw as it returned.

Without the limb holding her up, Fluttershy slumped to the ground, only to be caught and supported by a pair of lavender hooves.

Behind Twilight and Fluttershy, a low, pained moan could be heard, which gradually rose into a keening wail, then a loud avian screech that devolved into mad high pitched cackles.

Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity looked on with a mix of utter confusion and boiling anger as the mass of tendrils finally receded, revealing a familiar cackling white and grey griffon.

The laughter died down to dark chuckles as Svanhild got control of herself and stared them all down with a malicious grin.

"Did ya miss me, girls?"

"Svanhild," Applejack growled, shooting the smirking griffon a venomous glare, "what'd you do with Rainbow Dash? Where is she?!"

"Where is she?" Svanhild repeated with a mocking laugh, "technically, you're already talking to her!"

"You. Are. Not. Rainbow Dash!" Rarity hissed, "I can't believe you'd have the gall to claim that you're—"

In a flash of writhing black tendrils, Rainbow Dash stood before them all once again, her characteristic smirk present as she passed her gaze over each of the other mares.

"Would it be easier to believe if I looked like this?" Svanhild sneered, her smirk dropping into a glare, "is this what you wanted to see?" with another flurry of tendrils, she reverted back to her griffon form, "well too flocking bad! I'm Rainbow Dash now, and she's me, so you're just gonna have to—"

"Rarity, my magic still refuses to cooperate, could you please hold her down for me?"

"Gladly."

The griffon had only a very brief moment to let the words sink in before she was slammed to the ground with the weight of what felt like several tons of pressure on her back.

She grunted, groaned, and growled as she struggled to move, but it was to no avail. The black aura surrounding her wouldn't let Svanhild budge even an inch.

She couldn't even speak.

All she could do was glare at the lavender mare that was now leisurely making her way over to where she was being held.

Twilight stopped directly in front of the trapped griffon and eyed her with a look that spoke volumes of what she wanted to do to Svanhild in her most vulnerable moment.

"Remind me again," Twilight asked, not looking away from Svanhild, "why you didn't simply use magic to incapacitate Svanhild in the first place?"

"I don't know, dear," came Rarity's swift reply, "remind me again as to why you didn't remind me."

"Fair point," Twilight replied with a slight smirk that disappeared as quickly as it came as she turned her attention back to Svanhild, "in any case, we are not doing this again, Svanhild."

She leaned in close to the griffon, her dark violet eyes and cold look brimming with the vengeful malice of a madmare who had her friend stolen away from her.

"I thought you were stronger than some worthless no name griffon, Rainbow Dash... but I guess I was wrong."

Wasn't sure if something like this happened in the second Prototype game, but if it didn't, I felt like it should've.