"Will you ever give up?" asked Rainbow, landing on one of the many black crystals, which turned to blue at her touch, "You've lost so many times, do you think that it will ever be different?"
"It's much easier when you have a willing pony to work with," said Rainbow's opponent, who was standing across from her on a black crystal, "Especially if they're fine with using dark magic."
"You know, you can drop your look. I know it's you so why not be your all-powerful self right now?"
"Somepony's getting impatient, now isn't she?" a dark glow surrounded her adversary, and quickly faded away, "There. Now, that does feel so much better!"
Shadow gave Rainbow a wicked grin, and she simply glared in response. Shadow looked almost the same as in previous encounters, but the sharp red horn, red eyes, green corneas, and purple haze were new.
"How about you make this easier for the both for us," said Shadow, "And give me the Crystal Heart."
Rainbow tightened her grip around the Crystal Heart, and glared at Shadow.
"How about you just give up?" she asked.
A black crystal shot up in front of Rainbow, and she quickly flew into the air to avoid it. The blue crystal she had been standing on faded back to black. Rainbow glared down at Shadow from in midair, and clutched the Crystal Heart even closer to herself.
"You want it? she asked, "Then why don't you come get it instead of thinking that I will ever side with you!"
Shadow furiously stamped their hoof on the ground, and another black crystal launched up towards Rainbow. She flew towards the castle to avoid it, just as another on came up in front of her. Rainbow beat her wings at double time, and began to circle around the castle, slowly spiraling up towards the top. She didn't fly consistently, though, otherwise it would have been easy for Shadow to knock her out of the air with a crystal. She glanced down towards where the Heart was supposed to go, and saw that her way down had been blocked by crystals. Still, she could see ponies staring up at her as she flew, hoping that Rainbow would soon deliver the Crystal Heart to them.
"Rainbow Dash, you give me that Heart!" yelled Shadow furiously, rising up on a crystal spike, "You won't win this time, so stop your meaningless flight!"
"I'll win!" yelled back Rainbow, "Again!" she dodged a crystal, "Again!" she dodged another, "Again!" she flew up to the top of the castle, and hovered just above the peak of it, "And I don't care what I need to do to stop you! I won't let you hurt anypony!"
"Give me that Heart and I'll give little Loyalty back her speech!"
"Liar! She's get her voice back soon, anyways! You have nothing to offer me, while I'm here, holding what will stop you once and for all!"
With a roar of fury, Shadow's horn lit up with green, purple, and black magic, and they launched a beam of magic straight at the Heart. Rainbow tired to fly out of the way, but she was blocked by several crystal spikes, and Shadow's beam of magic hit the Crystal Heart, completely destroying it. Rainbow's eyes widened, and Shadow gave a malicious grin.
"Oh, Rainbow Dash!" they said with a cackle, "Looks like you were wrong! I just won, and there's nothing that you can do about it!"
Rainbow gave Shadow an icy glare, before she suddenly burst into laughter. Shadow's eyes narrowed, and Rainbow took in deep breaths to stop laughing.
"You laugh in the face of defeat?" asked Shadow.
"What defeat?" asked Rainbow, finally calming herself down, "You really think that I just flew out here holding the Crystal Heart, and casually fought you? That would be stupid! You should know by now that I don't do things alone!"
Shadow's eyes widened, and both ponies looked down to see Spike putting the Crystal Heart in its place, and it began to glow. Rainbow smirked, and looked back over at Shadow, who continued to stare in disbelief.
"You aren't going to win..." they whispered, "All you did was show me where the true Heart is!"
Shadow's horn flared up with magic once more, and Rainbow actually saw them wince from all of the power. They then blasted off a large beam of magic towards the Heart, which was just starting to glow, and Rainbow's eyes widened. Without a second thought, she switched to a diving position, and dove down towards the beam of magic. But she wasn't going fast enough. Rainbow began to pull out every bit of Starlight's magic that she still had in her, and her speed began to increase. She had to make it. But she wasn't going to make it.
"No..." whispered Rainbow, as the world seemed to slow down around her, "No!" her voice became louder, "No, no, NO!!!"
Rainbow snapped out of her thoughts as the carriage bumped down on to the ground. She smiled, and began to wave to the crowd, but her thoughts were in other places. A red serpentine tail caught her eye, and she was pulled back into other memories.
Ah, Discord. Being of chaos and disharmony. The labyrinth had been such a cruel trick, and still didn't appreciate it when he had "discorded" all of her friends. It was just awful having to deal with a grumpy Pinkie, a cruel Fluttershy, a constantly lying Applejack, an insanely greedy Rarity, and a sad and dejected Twilight. When they returned to Ponyville where the Elements actually were, they didn't work. Spike had tried to make her feel better and find some sort of way to restore everypony to how they had been, but then she had become "discorded", too. If it wasn't for Luna sending back her reports and friendship letters, Rainbow would have just let Ponyville forever. With Loyalty's help, she "undiscorded" her friends, and he had been sealed back into stone. At least he had been reformed by Fluttershy after the Changelings.
And the Changelings. That had been just so confusing. Rainbow didn't really know all that much about Princess Cadence or Twilight's brother, so it had looked like Twilight was being insanely possessive and that "Cadence" was just having pre-wedding jitters. But after Twilight's accusation of "Cadence", and everypony walked out, Rainbow knew she couldn't just leave her friend like that. So she walked back in just in time to see "Cadence" surround Twilight in a wreath of green fire and cause her to vanish. She would have gone to get the others, but "Cadence" saw her, and sent Rainbow to the caves, too. Twilight had been so happy to see that Rainbow had come back for her. They made it out with Cadence and stopped Chrysalis just in time. Apparently her story about Rainbow and Twilight being gone was that Twilight had run off in guilt and Rainbow had chased after her. Too bad she'd forgotten that she sent two winged ponies into the cave and made it far easier for them all to escape.
But Sombra-
Rainbow came out of her thoughts, again, as the carriage stopped at the doors to the castle, and she stepped out. The doors swung open, and Rainbow walked in There might have been music playing or something, but all Rainbow could see and hear were her friends cheering for her, and watching her. Fluttershy was actually cheering louder than the others, which was rather funny.
She stopped in front of the three Princesses, and everypony silenced. Luna began to speak first, but Rainbow was once again dragged back into her memories. Of Sombra and Shadow.
"NO!!!" screamed Rainbow, wrenching out all of Starlight's magic to increase her speed.
She suddenly streaked forward towards Shadow's beam of magic, a rainbow-colored line of magic behind her. She was just inches away from the Heart, and the beam of magic was behind her. She quickly pulled up out of the dive, and a rainbow explosion dissipated the beam. As Rainbow flew up, she saw the Crystal Heart lit up with a light blue glow, and a large flash of magic followed. A rainbow barrier flew out from the Heart, and Rainbow quickly turned in the air towards where Shadow was. She pinned Shadow down on the crystal they were standing on, and whispered just before the barrier came up.
"And if you still come back, I'll win again." she said coldly, just as the rainbow destroyed every bit of dark magic.
Rainbow hovered in the air for a moment, before she was engulfed in a ball of red magic. She looked at the magic in shock, when a familiar voice came to her.
It's fine. said Loyalty.
Rainbow simply closed her eyes, as she felt magic rush both around and through her.
"And we are pleases to announce the newest Princess in Equestria!" said Luna, "Princess Rainbow Dash! Princess of Loyalty!"
There was a huge applause, and Rainbow smiled with joy. She didn't know what the future was going to hold, but she knew that there would be more villains to fight. More hurtles to overcome. More friends to be made. There was still a certain unicorn in the desert that she needed to visit, which was more important to her than anything else at the moment.
Still, the horn on her head just felt so relaxing to have.
Dear Starlight Glimmer,
I haven't kept my promise to you, yet, but I won't wait any longer. You may be wondering how I managed to send you this letter, and it's because your magic should be returning to you. I lost it stopping Shadow one more time. But I'm not sad. I finally was returned to just having one magic: mine. And that combined with a certain act turned me into an alicorn. So thank you, Starlight. If you hadn't let me keep your magic, I probably wouldn't have even become an alicorn! Magic is strange like that.
I just want to say one more thing: thank you. I know I said it earlier, but I need to say it again. You may have created alternate timelines with outcomes that are less-than-ideal, but you also created my timeline, and I wouldn't exist without you. Good will prevail in the other timelines, I'm sure. After all, Friendship is Magic, and you can't stop either from happening.
You made me exist, Starlight, and I'll never forget that. You're not a bad pony. In fact, you might be the most amazing pony I've ever met. The version of you in my timeline won't top you. You helped make me who I am. But I'm not just the second pony in space, or the first pony to time travel without a spell. I'm your friend, which is more precious to me than the other two combined.
Maybe I'll see you again someday.
- Sincerely, Rainbow Dash.