Rainbow Dash, Big Mac, Spike, and Fluttershy stood at the edge of the Everfree Forest, each eyeing the thick treeline with various expressions. There was a mix of fear, determination, apprehension for what they might find within, and though Fluttershy in particular wanted nothing to do with the situation, they were all set on unraveling the mystery.

That said, none of them were expecting the unnerving chill that seemed to emanate from the very trees themselves. It wafted out and around them like a cold shroud, sending shivers down each of their spines, despite the relentless sun beating down on them all.

"M-Maybe this isn't a good idea after all," Fluttershy squeaked, taking a few steps back, "I'm... I'm not the only o-one that can feel that, am I?"

"Oh, I feel it alright," Rainbow Dash muttered, her face set in a scowl and her eyes hard as she stared at the forest defiantly, "I feel it, but I'm not backing out, not now."

Fluttershy whimpered and turned to Big Mac for help, only to find that the stallion had already started moving forward, Spike sitting on his back and giving her an apologetic shrug.

"I'm scared too, Fluttershy, but I need to know what's in there," he said before pounding a confident fist to his chest, "don't worry, if it comes down to it, Rainbow Dash, Big Mac and I will protect you," he turned to the cyan pegasus, "isn't that right?"

"I don't know what you think you're gonna do, shrimp," Rainbow scoffed as she followed after the large stallion, "but there's no way I'm gonna let Fluttershy get hurt on my watch."

Spike opened his mouth to retort, but thought better of it and shut it again. Remembering Big Mac's words, he decided, perhaps wisely, not to point out the shortcomings that would've made it difficult for Rainbow to fulfill that promise. Instead he shook his head and turned back to Fluttershy with a reassuring smile.

"It'll be okay, you'll see," he assured before patting the small satchel he had slung across his chest, "besides, the Mayor gave us that scroll, and we can use that if things get really bad."

Fluttershy watched Rainbow Dash and Big Mac as they trotted into the forest, her worried frown deepening. Deciding there was nothing for it, she adjusted her wings, steeled her nerves as best she could given the circumstances, and followed the rest into the Everfree.

It was so cold.

Twilight racked her brain trying to remember what had happened before her consciousness had returned, but the chill in the air was making it difficult to concentrate.

There had been pain, and a lot of it, that much she knew, but she felt as though things were beginning to settle. Images of darkness and desolation flitted across her mind—the memory of an endless, gnawing hunger and the ones she'd used to sate that hunger slowly began to creep upon her.

She didn't know if the cold was beginning to wane, or if she was just getting used to it, but she suddenly found it much easier to gather her thoughts. The other Princesses, those endless, empty dark wastes, her horrible trek through Tartarus, the desperate decision she'd made in order to keep her sanity intact to at least some degree.

It was all beginning to come back to her, and as she mentally cataloged her thoughts, she gradually became aware of the Voices. She could hear them within her, nearly drowning out her own thoughts, both the Voices of the living and the dead. They seemed almost infinite, whispering and screaming, and moaning their grudges and bitter regret.

One of those Voices in particular rang out louder than the rest, by a wide margin. It pounded incessantly in the back of her mind, screaming of vengeance and justice. To her confusion, Twilight found she recognized the Voice, yet at the same time it felt completely different, like an old friend who'd changed drastically in the years since she'd last seen them, and the target of that overwhelming rage...

Twilight finally snapped her eyes open, blinked a few times, and frowned.

She was curled up on her side, one quick look around showing that she was in a large crater, seemingly of her own making. Though the majority of her memories had returned, she still had no idea how she'd come to be in the crater or where she was in general. Slowly, and with some difficulty, she began to rise to her hooves, and with the added height, she could finally see just where she'd ended up, or so she thought.

Just outside the crater, and much to Twilight's confusion, there was a solid wall of ice that rose several meters high and surrounded her on all sides. She could make out nothing through the heavily distorted images the ice wall created. Twilight looked around with slight bemusement before raising a hoof and inspecting it.

Gone was the blinding glow of her light form, gone were the wisps of light, gone was the insatiable hunger, and in their place she could see what looked like pure starlight in the form of a hoof. It was around this time that she noticed that, while she wasn't nearly as tall as she'd been in that monstrous form, she was still a great deal taller than her normal lavender alicorn self, her legs much longer.

Curious... I wonder...

She turned to see the rest of her body, and found that her entire form looked as though it was cut right out of the night sky. Her mane and tail were no different, and for a moment, the mare wondered if she'd taken on the form of the Tantabus, but dismissed the thought.

There were several key differences in that, this form was far more solid in shape, and the stars and galaxies blinking, swirling and sparkling within her were far more pronounced. There was also something vaguely familiar about her form, but Twilight couldn't quite put her hoof on what it was.

"Interesting... I wonder what this could mean..."

Unlike the warbling, echoing voice emitted from her previous form, this one was soft, ethereal, and also somewhat familiar. There was still much to discover about herself and her new form, but Twilight figured that could wait until she at least knew where she was.

Satisfied for the moment, she turned her attention back to the ice around her and, with a thought, shattered it, sending shards and chunks of ice falling around her. With that done, she snapped out of existence for a brief instant before reappearing just outside of the crater. She scanned her surroundings, and saw that she was in some kind of forest, the amount of trees around her thick enough to blot out the sun.

Twilight turned to look behind her, and through a break in the foliage she could just make out the top of a familiar ruined castle in the distance. That was when it all clicked in Twilight's mind, and she almost had a mind to chuckle in amusement... almost. Instead, she gave a slow, understanding nod to nopony in particular and returned her focus to the trees before her.

It looks like the other me managed to get us all back to some kind of timeline, but somehow I doubt it was the one she intended if the Voices I hear are anything to go by. That being the case though, where is she and the other two? Why am I alone in the Everfree?

She closed her eyes and focused on the Voices, but they were of little help, and she opened them once again. The loud, familiar yet alien Voice in particular had nothing to offer but endless fury and promises of retribution. It was then that she began to feel something similar to what she'd felt when her other self first arrived in her own desolate world.

It seems I'm not alone after all. I can feel it... there's other ponies out there somewhere in the forest, maybe my other self and the rest? she narrowed her eyes, concentrating on that feeling, no... one of them holds a terrible grudge, but it's not Starlight Glimmer, and the other three...

Her mind made up, she moved forward to meet the group she could sense further away. As she trotted ahead, her starry form shrank and morphed back into her once natural lavender coat, minus her cutie mark and amethyst irides. One new addition she noted with some interest, was the frosty breath she exhaled every so often.

A new timeline brings with it a new body and new abilities it seems... interesting, but how and why did this happen? What was the trigger? What are the rules? All that time to think and I still haven't figured it out yet...

"Hey guys?" Spike began, eyeing every branch, bush, and stone with an acute wariness, "is it just me, or has it gotten a lot warmer?"

"Yeah, that weird chill is gone," Rainbow observed, her eyes flicking from one tree to another as though expecting something to jump out at them at any moment, "I don't know what that means, but we should be careful anyway," she turned to the shivering yellow mare at the front of the group, her features softening slightly, "how you holding up there, Fluttershy?"

"F-Fine, I'm... I'm fine," she replied a little too quickly for Rainbow to believe it. Fluttershy went silent for a moment before raising her head and looking around, her worried grimace turning into a troubled frown, "s-something isn't right though."

"I'll say," Spike agreed, "it might not be cold anymore, but this place still gives me the creeps. It looked creepy from a distance, but now that I'm here..." he gave a little shiver, "...yeesh."

"No, t-that's not what I mean," Fluttershy replied, shaking her head, "it's too quiet. I don't hear any of the critters that live here, big or small. It's like they all just... vanished."

"Ya think somethin' scared 'em off?" Big Mac guessed, "maybe whatever's hidin' deeper in the forest?"

"Maybe," Fluttershy replied, biting her lip and continuing to look around uncertainly, "oh, I hope they're all right. I'd hate for anything to happen to—"

Fluttershy's lamentations were suddenly cut off by Rainbow Dash, who shushed her and the others.

"You guys hear that?" she whispered, "I think there's something out there."

The others stopped in their tracks, their ears swiveling around and trying to catch any kind of noise. In Spike's case, he stood atop Big Mac's back, looking around in confusion for a moment before returning his gaze to Rainbow Dash.

"I don't hear anything," he whispered back, "what are we listening for?"

"Ah hear it," Big Mac muttered, "there's somethin' in the underbrush, maybe a few yards away. Maybe a forest critter... maybe not."

Each of them froze as the ominous chill descended upon them again, albeit somewhat muted compared to before. They could all hear it now, the rustling of bushes being pushed aside and the soft crunch of dirt being trodden on. They all turned towards the sound, unsure of what to do.

All of them had their own expectations as to what they'd meet when they finally came across whatever had made that noise in the forest. Rainbow Dash, who'd caught only a glimpse of the thing before it smashed her out of the sky all those years ago, had been expecting some kind of twisted glowing monstrosity with writhing tentacles.

Fluttershy, who hadn't seen the thing at all, but had heard a vague description from Rainbow Dash, was expecting something similar, albeit most likely much bigger. Big Mac and Spike had no idea what to expect, but they were prepared for something horrible all the same.

"Get ready, guys," Rainbow muttered, her eyes locked on the underbrush and her body tensing up for a fight. She grit her teeth and stomped a hoof into the ground in a futile attempt to stop the shaking. Her wings began to ache with a familiar pain, "it's almost here, no turning back now."

She couldn't and wouldn't admit it out loud, but Rainbow Dash was scared. Thankfully her growing anger cancelled it out, and she was able to stand her ground, despite the shaking in her limbs. Fluttershy merely whimpered as she spotted movement in the bushes. Whatever was making its way toward them, it didn't appear to be some big, hulking monster like she'd expected, though that did little to calm her fraying nerves.

Spike, who'd hopped off of Big Mac's back, swallowed nervously, one claw resting on the satchel and the other clenched into a tight fist at his side. Big Mac merely frowned and took a step forward, putting himself in-between the other three and whatever was in the bushes. It was all too clear now that the horribly cold presence belong to whatever this thing was, and it didn't make the coming confrontation any easier to stomach for the group.

Then, all at once, the rustling stopped just short of the entity revealing itself.

Nopony or dragon dared to move or make a sound for several seconds. The air grew tense, the sudden silence pressing down on each of them like a physical weight. It dragged on to the point where Rainbow was ready to simply charge in, if only to put an end to the unbearable pressure. Just when the cyan mare thought she couldn't take anymore, a feminine voice droned out of the underbrush, surprising all of them.

"I'm not here to harm anypony, so please, calm down all of you," the voice spoke in a clear but oddly lifeless tone, "I only want to talk, nothing more."

There were several reactions from the group of ponies and the dragon, ranging from shocked, to confused, to wary. Rainbow Dash in particular was having none of what this voice was saying.

"You only wanna talk, huh?" she scoffed, glaring daggers at whatever was still hidden from view. She stomped forward, emboldened by the fact that this creature wasn't attacking, "if you wanna talk so bad, why not show your face? Got something to hide?"

There was no immediate response, and Rainbow went to say more, but a shaking hoof on her shoulder made her turn around instead. Looking back at her was Fluttershy, her frame trembling, but a hint of both pleading and hope in her eyes.

"Please, Rainbow, don't antagonize her," she begged quietly, "if she just wants to talk, I... I think we should at least hear her out, whoever... or w-whatever she is," she looked back at the bushes, "it's better than starting a fight, don't you think?"

Rainbow Dash wanted to argue, but the pleading look on Fluttershy's face stopped her cold. She grimaced and looked to Big Mac and Spike for help. The drakeling was standing stock still, his eyes strangely unfocused as he continued to stare in the direction the voice had come from. Big Mac returned her look with a thoughtful frown, and shook his head a moment later.

"Ah'm sorry, Miss Dash, but ah'm gonna have to agree with Miss Fluttershy on this one," he finally replied, his shoulders relaxing a bit, "ah'd rather avoid a scuffle if ah can help it," he nodded towards the voice, "if they wanna talk, ah'm willin' ta listen."

"Wha—oh come on!" Rainbow snapped, jabbing a hoof towards the underbrush, "am I the only one with any kind of common sense around here?! For all we know, this thing could be lying! It could just be waiting for us to let our guard down before... doing... something! I know you can all feel that creepy chill in the air, and I'm pretty sure it's coming from this thing!"

"I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash, but that's something I can't help. It's simply a part of who and what I am now," explained the voice flatly, "rest assured, though, I truly mean you all no harm. The reason I have yet to move from this spot is because you all may find... issue with my appearance. I'd like to have your word that you won't panic if I come out into the open."

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow cried, her frustration mounting at the unexpected turn of events, "look, I don't know what game you're trying to play here, but I'm not making any kind of agreement until I see your face. Show us what you look like, and we'll see what happens from there."

"Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy began, only to stop and sigh in resignation when she saw the determined look on her friends face. She wasn't going to budge and Fluttershy knew it, "oh, Rainbow..."

There was another long silence as the voice seemed to mull over Rainbow's words. After what felt like an eternity, she finally replied, her strange, flat tone taking on a softer edge.

"...Fair enough."

With that, the creature the voice belonged to slowly emerged from the underbrush. It wasn't some horrible glowing beast with countless tentacles like Rainbow or Fluttershy thought, and it wasn't at all what Big Mac was expecting either. What had stepped out of the bushes was a pony—a lavender alicorn to be specific.

Rainbow Dash had seen only two alicorns in her life, the Princess-turned-Queen, and Nightmare Moon. Compared to the appearance of Queen Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon, this alicorn was relatively normal looking and not all that intimidating, but that was only at a first glance.

When it came to the unsettling factor, this mare took the cake by a long shot. Aside from her blank white eyes and lack of a cutie mark, she was rather unremarkable looking as far as an alicorn went—her mane wasn't even flowing like Daybreakers or Nightmare Moon's, but none of that mattered. There was something about the mare that put Rainbow on edge, something that made it feel like there was a claw at her throat, just waiting to rip it out.

Her eyes seemed to pierce right through her, and she felt like the mare was summing up her entire existence in one quick glance. Her unreadable expression and the visibly icy breath she exhaled didn't help matters, and Rainbow could see that everypony else was just as unnerved as she was. Before she had any time to give any sort of response to her appearance, the alicorn mare spoke, her blank eyes moving from one pony to another before resting on an open mouthed, wide eyed Spike.

"You all can call me whatever you'd like I guess, it doesn't really matter to me anymore. That said, and I realize I'm being presumptuous given most of us have only just met, but I would like to ask a favor of you... if you're willing to help."

Next Chapter: Here's to a Lasting Friendship Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 53 Minutes