An indeterminate amount of time had passed since Twilight's friends and Badwhiz had made eye contact. How long could it have been? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?! There was no way to know. No one in the room was keeping track. The only clock present displayed, with its fake hands, a moment frozen in time: a physical representation of the tense and prolonged reunion between those two declared adversaries.
Nevertheless, that motionless standoff couldn't last forever. Sooner or later, someone would have to make the first move.
And that someone was...
"Aaaaaaahhhh!" Like a lightning bolt crashing without warning, Rainbow Dash, consumed by fiery rage, charged straight at Badwhiz.
A thunderous crash echoed through the room. A light cloud of dust rose instantly. Shards of the shattered wall flew in all directions. At the same time, a larger body soared through the air in the opposite direction.
Badwhiz, who had managed to dodge the powerful attack and leap away, landed gracefully on the far side of the room.
However, mid-air, a rope—moving faster than his fall—began to wrap around him like a serpent encircling its prey.
"Rarity!" shouted Applejack, gripping the other end of the rope in her mouth. Instantly, her unicorn friend intensified the glow of her magic.
The rope coiled around Badwhiz shimmered and, in less than a blink, tightened around his body with a relentless grip.
Immobilized, the earth pony dropped to the ground like a sack of sand. Even so, he could still move a bit and tried to crawl, twisting his body across the floor, but the rope holding him tugged taut, dragging him forcefully toward the center of the room.
After several pulls and a sudden shove from behind, Badwhiz, bound like a trapped mummy, found himself tied upright in front of his captors.
That's when the pony behind him stepped forward and spoke.
"Don't move..." Fluttershy commanded in a severe tone, threatening and completely unlike her usual self. She held a pillow in her hooves, ready to strike without hesitation if he tried anything.
In front of him, Applejack and Rarity stared at him with looks just as intense—or even more so.
Seeing his situation—surrounded and with no way to escape—Badwhiz let out a long sigh and finally lowered his head in defeat.
[---]
"Crack!" The sharp sound of a snap echoed through the room as Rainbow Dash's body finally broke free from the wall she had been embedded in after her charge. Without bothering to thank Pinkie Pie, who had helped pull her out, the pegasus shot up into the air and urgently turned her attention back toward the room.
"Where is he?! Where is he?! ...Yooouuuuu!" she screamed as soon as she locked eyes with Badwhiz, launching herself at him once more in a furious attack.
"Hold it right there, Rainbow!" shouted Applejack, stopping her in midair just inches before she could land a heavy blow to the pony's head.
"Are you serious?! Give me one good reason not to beat this guy into the floor right now!" the pegasus protested, furious, not shifting her stance or breaking eye contact with Badwhiz.
"We need answers, Rainbow. We don't know where we are, what happened here, or where Twilight is," explained Applejack, stepping forward steadily without taking her stern eyes off the bound pony. "But he does. Don't you... Vanilla?" she finished, almost spitting out the name.
Badwhiz, who had been watching the scene with a cold stare, gave a lifeless nod.
Dissatisfied, Rainbow Dash let out a loud snort through her nose. For a moment, she seemed to restrain her emotions, but finally she landed with a hard thud, standing beside the other ponies.
"So..." Applejack began. "Are you going to confess like a well-mannered pony, or would you rather we do this the old-fashioned way?"
Up to that point, her tone had remained neutral, but now a sharp edge had started to creep into her voice. The anger she had been trying to contain was growing more evident by the second.
Badwhiz, standing in front of her, noticed it too. His stern expression slowly began to crumble, giving way to a face full of regret.
It caught all of them off guard—even Rainbow Dash. Applejack, who was close enough to sense the shift, noticed it too. Still, she stood her ground.
That's when the enemy, known until now as "Vanilla", broke the silence.
"Badwhiz..." the pony whispered, his voice tight. "...My name is Badwhiz."
"I don't want to hear that," Applejack replied coldly, not looking away. "Where's Twilight?"
A strange grimace crossed Badwhiz's face. He glanced toward the ground and, after a brief silence, murmured:
"I don't know."
Silence fell over the room. Applejack narrowed her eyes.
"Where are we?" the farmpony pressed.
"I don't know," Badwhiz repeated in the same dull tone.
Behind her came the sound of a loud, frustrated exhale. Applejack didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
"Do you think this is all some kind of game?" she continued, her voice heavy. "What are you trying to pull?"
"No, no... I... I don't know... I..." Badwhiz stammered, visibly nervous, unable to meet her gaze. "I was just trying to return the favor... to her."
"Her..." echoed in Applejack's mind.
"Twilight?"
"Yeah... her... the princess... she saved my life. I was trying to repay her... to help her..."
"What?" Applejack gasped in surprise. Behind her, her friends reacted the same way.
Well, almost all of them...
"He's messing with us!" Rainbow Dash exploded. "This is just another one of his acts, Applejack. This guy is a—"
"That's enough, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack interrupted her firmly. Her gaze turned ice-cold as she turned to Badwhiz. Without warning, she grabbed him by the neck and forced him to look her in the eyes.
Their eyes met. Applejack stood still.
There was no lie in those sorrowful eyes.
Slowly, the farmpony let go and took a step back, confused. That's when she noticed something she had overlooked before—bandages covered part of Badwhiz's head… the same kind she had seen on Rainbow Dash when she woke up.
Could it be possible? she thought. Stunned, a thought she hadn't dared consider struck her like a bolt.
"You!... were you taking care of us?" Her voice, though quiet, rang clearly through the tense silence.
Badwhiz, eyes brimming with tears, nodded. The rest of the ponies held their breath.
Applejack felt the world around her start to spin. A question that had crossed her mind upon waking returned now, burning with unbearable weight.
"How long has it been?" she asked out loud, almost as if speaking to herself.
This time, the answer came quickly.
"Seven months," Badwhiz replied, his tone once again cold, freezing the entire room. "...The princess estimated that much, but she wasn't sure. You were all in terrible condition... unconscious... for a long time."
No one said a word. Badwhiz continued.
"I don't know much more about what happened. She never told me. I woke up much later. It was the princess who found me. And it wasn't easy... not for either of us..." His voice began to break. "I thought I was dead... I thought everyone was dead. It was my fault. I didn't understand things the way I do now..."
Tears started running down his cheeks.
"The princess and I... we didn't know where to go. Everywhere we went, there was confusion and danger. We were deceived... hunted... captured... but she never gave up. We escaped. And finally, we found a safe place here."
The ponies watched him in silence, a mixture of awe and disbelief on their faces.
"That's when she found a way to heal you. She taught me how, and I helped her prepare everything you needed. Then... she just disappeared..."
His last sentence cracked into sobs, accompanied by a gaze full of pain... and fury.
"I don't know where she is! Do you get it?! I don't know! I don't know if she was taken, or if she got lost somewhere else. I haven't stopped searching! But I can't find her! I don't understand!"
A deathly silence settled over the room. Bleak and heavy, broken only by the sound of Badwhiz crying.
Applejack stood motionless. Her thoughts were somewhere far away.
"Seven months..." echoed in her mind over and over.
"Ahem..." She flinched as a voice behind her spoke. Without her noticing, Pinkie Pie had stepped up beside her.
"Sorry to interrupt, but... Applejack, can we borrow you for a minute? The girls want to talk about something..." she said with a somewhat nervous smile.
Applejack turned. In one corner of the room, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were already gathered, waiting for her.
She hesitated for a moment, still disoriented by the revelations, but finally made up her mind and walked over to them quickly. Pinkie followed, but not before gently placing a tissue over Badwhiz's face.
Huddled together shoulder to shoulder in a tight circle, as far away from Badwhiz as possible, the group of friends welcomed Applejack and Pinkie in silence as they joined them.
Rainbow Dash, the last one to join the circle, stretched her neck cautiously, keeping an eye on Badwhiz to make sure he hadn't tried anything.
The young pink-maned pony was still crying silently, his face hidden behind the handkerchief covering it.
Convinced he wasn't an immediate threat, the pegasus turned her attention back to the group, and they finally began to speak.
"Alright then, putting aside the craziness of where we are—does anyone think he's lying?"
"No," they all replied in unison.
"Applejack?"
"No, Rainbow Dash. He's not lying," the farmpony confirmed, her tone grave.
Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue. The nervous flutter of her wings betrayed her unease. She wasn't the only one—everypony wore troubled expressions. Badwhiz's revelations had shaken them more than they had expected.
"So... we're buying Vainilla's story now? Uhmmm..." muttered Rainbow Dash, still skeptical.
"It's Badwhiz, Dashi," Pinkie Pie gently corrected her.
"Whatever... So Twilight turned him... 'good'? How?" the pegasus asked the air, still frowning.
"In the last seven months they spent together... I guess," replied Applejack. Rainbow Dash let out a frustrated snort. For her, accepting all this was almost impossible. Just a few hours ago, in her mind, she'd been locked in a deadly fight with Badwhiz.
But time had passed. Even if it was still hard to believe.
"Seven months..." Rarity repeated, feeling those words strike her like a blow to the heart. "How is that even possible?"
"Friendship magic and a flashforward?" Pinkie Pie offered with a forced smile. The others didn't look too convinced.
"Maybe..." murmured Applejack. "But what I do know is that we've missed a lot. Twilight must've suffered for us more than we can imagine."
"Way too much," Fluttershy added, her gaze downcast. Beside her, Rarity gently brushed her hoof against Fluttershy's in comfort.
Silence fell between them for a few seconds.
"But Twilight's not here... what happened to her?" Rarity asked, carefully bringing the conversation back.
"That's something we still don't know," answered Applejack. "We'll have to ask Vainilla—err, I mean, Badwhiz—what exactly happened."
"Or we'll beat it out of him," added Rainbow Dash, slamming her hooves together in a threatening gesture.
"Rainboom!" Applejack shot her a stern look.
"What?! He still hasn't earned my trust," the pegasus retorted, throwing another suspicious glance in Badwhiz's direction.
Then a loud rumble—like pots clashing—echoed through the circle. Everypony turned toward the pink pony of the group.
"Hehe... I think we should also ask if he's got any food for us..." Pinkie giggled.
"Pinkie Pie! This isn't the time for—" Rarity began to scold, but was cut off by another loud growl, this time coming from her side. Embarrassed, the unicorn covered her mouth with a hoof and shrank under the group's amused stares.
"So next on the list is: where's Twilight... and where's the food? Anything else? Besides everything else we still don't know," Rainbow Dash declared, trying to wrap things up and resume the questioning.
Applejack, still wondering just how lenient they should be with Badwhiz now, turned her gaze toward the pony who had spoken the least. "Fluttershy? Is something bothering you?"
The pegasus, who had remained silent the entire time, slowly lifted her gaze. Her dim eyes showed a shadow of fear.
"Yes..." she whispered. "I'm really scared of finding out more..."
The ponies exchanged looks. It was clear to all of them—Fluttershy wasn't the only one afraid of what they might learn.
[---]
Badwhiz had remained silent for quite a while. He had stopped crying and now simply watched, emotionless, as his captors gathered on the other side of the room.
"What am I doing?" he asked himself, lowering his head and staring at the fallen handkerchief Pinkie Pie had left for him.
His life had become so chaotic that calling it a mere "roller coaster" felt like an understatement.
Bound, at the mercy of the princess's friends, Badwhiz seriously questioned what he had done to end up like this.
The memories didn't take long to return.
He thought back to that first chapter of his life with his family in Silver Hollow… a time of happiness that had ended in tragedy.
Then came his awakening at the end of the reign of the two sisters, and his eventual surrender to the cause of the Knights of Order.
And now, once again swept up by fate, lost in a world that still felt unfamiliar, he had fallen for the charms of the Princess of Friendship.
"I'm so weak... I've failed so many times... forgive me, grandfather," he whispered in anguish.
To him, it was clear: it didn't matter if the world turned upside down, if ponies vanished or were replaced by other creatures… there was something that would never change, no matter where he was.
He would never be able to keep his promises.
New tears began to form in his eyes.
"I must be cursed... there's no other reason..." he murmured, voice cracking. "I can't go on like this... I just want to disappear..."
In front of him, the group of ponies began to move. The meeting was over.
"They'll never forgive me... but it doesn't matter... I just have to tell them what happened and..."
That's when a voice reached his ears.
A voice that, not so long ago, he would've never considered familiar… and yet now, it meant everything to him.
"Princess Twilight?" he responded, stunned, to the call that came from beyond the non-linear sky.
[---]
It happened too suddenly.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had stopped just a few steps away from resuming their meeting with Badwhiz. They had already agreed to be kinder to him, to start the relationship from scratch and introduce themselves properly to the young pony. All with the goal of gaining his trust and learning more about what was going on. In that spirit, Pinkie had volunteered to start the conversation—quite the contrast to Rainbow Dash's inflexible stance.
However, those friendly plans would never come to pass.
Before the eyes of the astonished ponies, Badwhiz's body began to glow intensely.
"Princess Twilight?" his voice was heard one last time in the room. Then, in a flash of light, he vanished.
In front of the stunned group of friends, the ropes that had kept him restrained unraveled in mid-air, falling to the floor without purpose.
Once again, no one moved.
Just as suddenly as he had arrived, Badwhiz had disappeared.
Applejack, still dazed, was the first to react. She walked over to the pile of ropes on the floor.
There wasn't a trace of Badwhiz left…
"What in tarnation just happened?" she exclaimed, baffled.
Silence was her only answer.
Then, like lightning, a rainbow-colored blur shot past her, accompanied by a choked cry filled with rage. It was Rainbow Dash, who, furious, flew upstairs in search of Badwhiz.
Without a word, Applejack and the others rushed after her. Drawn by their friend's urgency, they galloped quickly to the second floor, arriving at what was supposed to be Princess Twilight's former bedroom.
"What the hay...?" Applejack muttered, coming to a halt with the others, unable to hold back.
The room, which at one time might have been simple and befitting a humble pony like Twilight, was anything but.
Spacious and sophisticated, lit by a soft warm glow, it was filled with elegant furniture and carefully arranged decorations. One look at the bed in front of them was enough to see that this looked more like a luxury hotel suite than the modest bedroom of their friend.
And as if that wasn't strange enough, there were more details that made Applejack frown in discomfort.
Hats and boots that could've come straight out of her own closet. Apple engravings on the furniture. Shelves packed with books about apple farming. Apple-shaped lamps. Decorative plastic apples. Apples everywhere… apples!
By then, Applejack's head felt so heavy she could've dropped like a ripe fruit.
"Aaaahhhh! Applejack, come here! You have to see this!" called an energetic Pinkie Pie from one end of the room, standing in front of a portrait hanging on the wall.
Applejack, like a runaway tractor, turned toward her friend. She stopped, looked up… and saw it.
She swallowed hard.
In front of her, an image of Twilight showed the smiling alicorn holding an apple in one of her hooves. If that were all, maybe Applejack would have felt flattered. But no. There were far too many unsettling details in the painting to ignore.
The figure in the painting… didn't look like Twilight.
The pony portrayed had a bright yellow mane and an orange coat, the color of fertile orchard soil. If it weren't for the recognizable hairstyle, the noble profile, the wings, the horn, and the distinguished crown on her head, Applejack would've thought it was an entirely different pony.
And if that image didn't belong to Twilight, then it could only mean one thing...
"Princess of Apples, Lady Applejack Sparkle?!" Rarity exclaimed, her voice rising in disbelief as she read the golden title engraved at the bottom of the painting.
That was too much for the fashion-loving unicorn. Pushed to the emotional brink that day, Rarity fainted with flawless drama, collapsing into Pinkie Pie's hooves, who gently laid her on the nearest couch.
Applejack, still in shock, eyes glazed, shifted her attention toward the bedroom's balcony.
There, Fluttershy was cautiously approaching a motionless Rainbow Dash, who stood with her head held high, gazing at the night sky.
Upon reaching her side, one glance at the strange world beyond was all the timid pegasus needed to understand how deep the trouble they were in truly went.
Overwhelmed by the anxiety born of the unknown, she asked quietly:
"Where are we, Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash, eyes still locked on the outside, replied:
"I don't know..." her voice empty. Unwittingly echoing the very words Badwhiz had spoken before...
Author's Note: There was a problem with the version of the previous chapter, which required updating. The next chapter will take a while. Thank you for your interest.