Monochrome had no idea how to respond as the streak of color tackled right through the stone wall behind her. The pegasus had created a Sonic Rainboom the very second she had moved, which shook the entire tower by its very foundation. Monochrome had barely managed to regain control of herself in midair, and aimed to blast Rainbow Dash with the powerful burst of magic she could muster.
But the rainbow-haired mare once proved too fast, as she slammed her body full force into Monochrome's side, sending the evil alicorn spiraling straight into a mountainside. She immediately pulled herself out of the rubble and glared angrily at the shining pegasus. She sneered at the cocky stare that Rainbow Dash held in her eyes, which sparked with a wild passion that shouldn't even exist.
"You…" Monochrome muttered under her breath as her horn began to glow with vile red magic. "YOU WON'T BEAT ME!" She flapped her wings with tremendous force, sending herself soaring towards the young pegasus, who simply put on a serious face and did the same. Seeing this, Monochrome smirked. She instantly created a red barrier directly in front of her, which Rainbow had no time to avoid. The pegasus slammed into the shield, creating a massive explosion of power that sent them both reeling back.
Rainbow didn't stop. She stormed toward her doppelganger with that unbelievable speed of hers and once again tackled Monochrome, this time pushing the gray-haired mare further up into the sky. The rest of the Mane 6 could only watch from Monochrome's tower as the two super-powered ponies battled. They all simply continued cheering Rainbow on.
"Go, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she danced around with pompoms in her hooves. "You can do it! Beat that meanie!"
"Don't ya'll dare give up!" Applejack called out.
Fluttershy, in a rare fit of excitement, was hollering and screaming for Dash to keep on fighting as hard as she could.
Rarity was ogling the magnificent colors that trailed after Rainbow as she flew. Her cheer was basically "Teach that ruffian a lesson!"
Twilight watched with wide eyes as the great battle continued, neither fighter apparently giving an edge to the other. She had never seen anything like this before, only having read of similar events in old history books that most ponies would've considered them just to be old mares' tales. But here she was, watching as a somewhat normal pegasus fought a being of chaos while armed with the full power of the Elements of Harmony. It was simply amazing. The young alicorn smiled, her eyes filled with hope. "Fight on, you crazy pegasus," she said with a spark of admiration in her tone. "You can win. And you will."
Despite the massive g-forces in her face, and the fact that she was already at least five miles into the sky, Rainbow Dash could still hear the voices of her friends calling to her, supporting her. She had no intention of letting them down. She continued soaring higher and higher, Monochrome struggling against the pegasus's greatly enhanced strength.
The evil alicorn had no idea what to make of this. She had absorbed her fellow Aspects of Chaos and swallowed the power of Nightmare Moon, and even taken over Discord's very essence! How could a single pony even come close to matching her!? She had all the powers of chaos swirling around in her very body! This was an outright impossibility!
"How are you so powerful!?" Monochrome demanded over the waves of sound that nearly drowned out everything else. "You're just one little foal of a pony! How!?"
Rainbow smirked cockily and said, "Princess Celestia said it herself: the only thing that can beat your Treachery is Loyalty! But it's not just my loyalty to my friends! It's my friends' loyalty that's helping me! You might think that there's nothing more powerful than chaos, but you're dead wrong! There is something more powerful than chaos! It's called friendship! You should try it sometime!"
With that said, Rainbow released the alicorn and soared further into the heavens, almost breaking out of the atmosphere and reaching space. There, she stopped and faced Monochrome with that big smirk of hers. Monochrome managed to stop herself and look up at her opponent. Her expression was no longer one of shock, or anger, or confusion. It was a look of fear. She was afraid of this glowing pegasus. She was utterly terrified of being defeated. She was scared.
"You… y-you stay away from me!" she shouted out at the fiery-eyed pegasus. "I-I'm warning you!"
Rainbow ignored her copy's pleas as she zoomed toward Monochrome with enough speed to shoot off a Sonic Rainboom immediately. Before Monochrome could even react, a rainbow-colored streak slammed into her, the force being enough to crack the amulet that hung around her neck. They were both now descending from the skies at unimaginable speeds. Monochrome screamed in terror as several cracks appeared on her body, light seeping out of them as if she were a living lampshade. This didn't go unnoticed by Rainbow Dash, but she ignored it. Her only focus was the defeat of Monochrome.
The others and just about everypony in all of Equestria watched in awe as the rainbow streak fell to the earth, going faster and faster with every passing second. Ponies everywhere cheered as the light of hope broke through the dark veil that had covered the world. The sun was now shining past the moon, which was slowly moving out of the way of the source of all life in the world.
Their cheers stopped and were replaced by shock and awe as the streak of light doubled its speed, creating something that was once thought to be only a myth. A Sonic Rainboom: doubled. The massive shockwave spread over the entire land, forcing away the dark clouds that had gathered, and revealing more and more light.
Rainbow didn't realize what she had done. All she really knew was that she and Monochrome were now going far faster than she had ever gone before. She could barely hold her eyes open. And suddenly, they hit the ground. An explosion bigger than any mountain erupted from the impact zone, and took the shape of an enormous rainbow-colored mushroom cloud.
The sheer force of the explosion nearly blew Twilight and the others away, and they were over a mile off from it. It was like they were each being slammed with their own personal hurricane. As the winds slowly died down, they saw a wave of rainbow energy coming across the floor and walls of the tower, transforming it back into the wondrous Canterlot Castle.
Pinkie was the first to voice what they were all thinking. "She did it!" she screamed gleefully. "She beat that bully! I knew she could do it!"
"Ah reckon we should go see if she's okay," Applejack suggested, ever the voice of wisdom and common sense.
Twilight nodded. "Let's go!" she said as she galloped off with her friends following close behind.
-o-
She groaned almost inaudibly as she stood up from the ground. She had trouble remembering what had just happened, but it felt awesome. She looked down at herself, and saw that her coat had become its usual sky blue color once again. Her mane and tail had also returned to normal. She released a sigh of both relief and disappointment. She was hoping that that transformation would last at least a little bit longer. Not forever, but just a little longer.
Rainbow Dash looked around at her surroundings, found herself within a massive crater. Had she caused this while in that super-powerful form? It was certainly possible, she assumed, considering she felt way stronger than even Celestia herself. It was simply amazing. Beyond amazing even. She doubted she could ever find the words to describe it.
She heard the sound of someone waking up, and turned to see Discord picking himself up off the ground. She grinned at this. She had never been so glad to see the spirit of chaos before. His appearance could only mean that she had beaten Monochrome. "Discord!" she called out, getting the draconequus's attention.
Somewhat tiredly, Discord replied, "Hello, Rainbow Dash. Seeing as how I'm back, I can only assume that you and the others won, correct?" Rainbow nodded, to which Discord practically danced. "Woo! I knew you could do it! Now, uh, where are the others?" Before Rainbow could reply, a pink and yellow streak crashed into Discord, sending him rolling across the ground, Fluttershy gripping his neck tightly.
"Oh, Discord, I was so worried about you!" she said with tears of joy pouring from her eyes. "I thought we'd lost you! Are you all right? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, Fluttershy," Discord responded, teleporting out of the yellow mare's grip and standing next to her as the remainder of the Mane 6 arrived on the scene. "In fact, I feel better than ever! Whatever you all did must've worked wonders!"
Twilight shook her head and faced Rainbow Dash. "It was just Rainbow here who saved the day," she said with a proud grin. "Her Loyalty won out against Monochrome's Treachery."
To this, Rainbow chuckled and said, "I actually have to disagree with that. If it wasn't for you guys, I don't think I could've won. Your loyalty to me is what really kept me going."
"That is a great lesson learned, Rainbow Dash," called the voice of Celestia. All eyes fell on the new arrival, who was now back in prime shape, and accompanied by Shining Armor, Cadance, Spike, and the now-awake Luna. "You have all done well, my little ponies. You have once again saved all of Equestria from grave danger."
"Way to go, Twily," Shining Armor said proudly as he rubbed his hoof on his little sister's mane. "You just keep doing your big bro proud nonstop!"
"Thanks, but…" Twilight stopped herself. She was going to say that it was all Rainbow Dash, but then she remembered what her close friend had said. "It was all of us. Rainbow Dash is the one who fought Monochrome, but-"
"I couldn't have without my friends backing me up!" Rainbow interrupted. "Monochrome was tough, but with all my friends cheering me on, it was a walk in the-!" That's when she heard it. She could hear the sound of somepony crying. She stopped and looked over in the direction that she heard it coming from. "Does anyone else hear that?" she asked.
"Of course we can," Rarity whispered back. Everypony moved in towards a large boulder that had apparently fallen into the crater upon the pit's creation, Rainbow Dash leading the way.
The rainbow-haired pegasus peeked behind the boulder to find the source of the crying. Her eyes widened at the sight. Before her, lying on the ground covered in dirt and little scratches, was a little filly. She was so young that she didn't even have her cutie mark. Her coat was a dull shade of blue, and her mane and tail were messy and gray. Rainbow Dash felt as though she immediately knew who this timid filly was.
"Monochrome?"
The filly perked up at the name and looked at Rainbow. The little foal's tear-filled eyes went wide with fear, and she ducked her head beneath her forelegs. As the others approached, Rainbow suddenly raised her hoof, telling them to stop. They obliged, albeit confusedly.
Rainbow slowly came closer to the filly, who was still crying and trying to hide herself to no avail. Rainbow reached out to touch her, but the young Monochrome simply shrieked quietly and scooted away. The rainbow-haired mare was somewhat taken aback by this, confused by the filly's reaction, until the gray-haired foal said, "Please don't hurt me… go away… go away…"
At first, Rainbow Dash was only further confused by this, but soon, a thought crossed her mind. She remembered that look that Monochrome had on her face as they were streaking towards the ground at those body-numbing speeds: a look of pure fear. She understood now. "I think I get it," she said to the filly, who slightly raised one foreleg to look at her counterpart. "I think I know why you betrayed everypony who called you an ally. You're afraid. You're scared of others abandoning you, so you abandon them first, to keep yourself from being hurt."
The filly looked away again, shame evident in the one eye that she allowed to be seen. She said nothing in response. Rainbow sighed and sat down next to Monochrome, who didn't move this time. "You don't have any friends, right?" Rainbow asked, earning a curious look from the gray-haired filly. "You don't know what it's like to have someone you can count on, do you?" Again, Monochrome simply looked away, feeling ashamed. This didn't go unnoticed by Rainbow, who gave a warm smile to the filly. She wrapped her wing around the foal comfortingly and pulled her a little bit closer. "Well, how about I be your first true friend?"
To this, Monochrome looked up, raiding her head past her forelegs and staring at Rainbow Dash in confusion. "Y-you want to be… my friend?" she asked, shock evident in her eyes. Rainbow said nothing. She simply smiled down at the younger version of herself. "B-but… why? Why would you want to be my friend after all the terrible things I did?"
Rainbow chuckled. "Who knows?" she said with her trademark cocky grin. "I'm kind of hard to predict. Heck, sometimes I don't even know what I'm gonna do next!" She gave the filly a comforting look. "If you let me become your friend, I promise that I'll never hurt you. I never leave my friends hangin'."
The filly looked down, suddenly taking an interest in the ground. Could this really be happening? Could somepony really want to be her friend after what she had done? Was this real? She looked back to Rainbow Dash, who was still giving her a warm, almost sisterly smile. She thought about this for several moments before she pushed herself up into Rainbow's side. "Do you really promise not to hurt me?" she asked. Rainbow nodded. Monochrome let a small, hopeful smile appear on her face. "Okay…"
With that, Rainbow let out a whistle, signaling that the others could come around the boulder now. When they arrived, all eyes went wide at what they saw. "Dashie…" Pinkie said. Even she didn't know what to say. "You… is that… Monochrome?" Rainbow nodded.
"But… how did she…?" Twilight asked, completely dumbfounded by the sight before her.
"It must've been the Elements of Harmony that did this," Discord theorized. "They must've forced out all the chaotic energies within her, even what was unique to her. And the result was her turning into a filly."
"That makes sense," Celestia agreed. "The Elements have many unique powers that transcend any of our understanding. Perhaps this was what was intended by the Elements. They always seem to give everypony a chance at redemption, no matter what."
"But this is the Aspect of Treachery we're talkin' about here!" Applejack pointed out. "How do we know we can even come close to trustin' her?"
"She's just scared," Rainbow Dash said in her double's defense. "She was putting on a mask. She was only arrogant because she didn't want anypony to know that she could be so easily hurt. She just needs a friend." She brushed the filly's mane with her nose, drawing a slight ticklish giggle from the foal. "We could at least give her a chance, right? I mean, we did the same for Princess Luna and Discord, didn't we?"
Celestia looked to her sister and the draconequus. She closed her eyes in thought. It was true, both of them had been given a second chance. She soon reached a decision. She approached Rainbow Dash, her eyes on Monochrome, who gave one look at the Princess of the Sun and backed away slightly. "Monochrome," the white alicorn said with compassionate authority. "Do you truly wish for a second chance? Are you willing to give up your evil ways and use your talents for good?"
Monochrome was silent for several moments. She looked up at Rainbow Dash, who nodded quietly. Monochrome returned her attention to Celestia and said, "Yes. I'll be good… Can I ask for something please?"
"What is it that you wish, little filly?" Celestia inquired, genuinely curious.
"I want to stay with Rainbow Dash from now on," the gray-haired filly replied. "Would that be okay?"
Celestia looked over at Rainbow, who said, "I think that'd be cool. Just make sure you don't break anything in my house, okay?" Monochrome nodded in reply to Rainbow's request.
Everypony, dragon, and draconequus looked at the scene with warm smiles and hopeful eyes. Pinkie Pie cried out rivers of joyful tears, wiping her eyes with a hanky that she pulled out of nowhere, before suddenly stopping and saying, "You know what? I think it's time for a party! Come on everypony! Let's go celebrate!" She dashed off, leading the others out of the crater and toward Canterlot.
Rainbow looked down at Monochrome and said, "Well? You wanna go party with us? Pinkie throws amazing parties."
Monochrome nodded quietly as Rainbow Dash laid down and motioned for the little one to climb up onto her back. Monochrome did so, and Rainbow trotted off after her friends. Monochrome honestly had no idea what to make of this change of events. First, she and Rainbow Dash were fighting to the finish, and now, they were friends.
Friends, she thought as Rainbow's movements rocked her to sleep. It sounds… nice… She fell asleep then. Treachery had surrendered to Loyalty. But she didn't care. She had a friend now.
-o-
Rainbow Dash yawned as she sat up in her bed to the sound of her ringing alarm clock. It was early in the morning, which was the only thing she hated about her job as Ponyville's weather manager. She looked over to the other bed in the room, where Monochrome still slept peacefully. It had been about two months since the Aspects of Chaos were defeated, and the little filly who had once been one of the greatest threats to Equestria ever seen was now adapting to life as a regular pony. Rainbow always had to admit to herself that her young doppelganger was rather adorable while she was asleep.
Getting the foal integrated into Ponyville was pretty easy, despite the raging suspicion of Scootaloo, who immediately thought that Monochrome was going to be her replacement. Rainbow eased Scootaloo's troubles by saying that Monochrome was just a relative from Cloudsdale who would be staying with her from now on. That seemed to calm the orange pegasus a little, but still seemed a bit reluctant to consider the filly a potential friend.
Rainbow quickly got ready for the day, left a note for Monochrome saying that she left for work, and then left her cloud house to start getting some rainclouds together.
As she worked, she thought back to how Monochrome had essentially become her little sister. It was kind of funny in hindsight. They went from bitter enemies to good friends in a matter of minutes. Life was funny like that, she assumed.
While she worked, she starting thinking about helping Monochrome to get her cutie mark. Since they were essentially the same pony, it was likely that they had the same talent. Who knows? Maybe Monochrome will someday prove to be a great rival for her to compete with. And an even better friend to hang out with.
Life was looking up.