'Oh Celestia, why? Why did it have to be me?' the mare thought to herself. She had a pure black coat, mane and tail. The black mare tried as best she could to try and not shake in fear. She looked over the cloud and at the ground. 'Maybe if I cloudhop, I can still get away.' She bit her lip. Her heart sank and fear rose. There were no clouds below her. Just a straight drop. 'If I jump and just spread my wings to slow my descent, I might be able to make it with one broken leg,' she thought in sarcasm. The grey eyes in her head shrank and closed shut. Swallowing her fears, she forced back another spine-tingling shiver. She sat back trying not to make herself look as weak and feeble as possible.

"So," said a voice from behind her. "Are you nervous?" Her head turned, but she knew who it was. It was the cyan, rainbow-maned, pegasus that had come for her. The one who she hoped never to cross or to even be near. She was Rainbow Dash, and she wanted to race against her.

Now, the black pegasus in question was not afraid of heights. That would be ridiculous! Imagine, a pony who was made to travel the world by flight, but took the train because she got the chills everytime she went past 30 feet. No, this mare was not afraid of heights. She had tachophobia. The fear of moving at high speeds.

The black mare put a fake smile on and nodded, thinking about the events that led up to this very moment.

She came to the small town of Ponyville in search of some mediocre job that she could do. Something that didn't require her to fly around too much. Something easy, like tax returns or rock farming. Something that she thought this small town could provide her with. She had tried in other small towns, but never really found anything that suited her requirements. The outlook was looking bleak for this town as well. She was low on bits and had no way to contact her family, not that she would've. She didn't like having to rely on others. At that moment, she dejectedly sauntered over to the Weather Management Department in the town hall.

With a final stamp of approval on her hastily made application, she was signed up. No turning back now. The job interviewer said that she made the cut, welcomed her to the team, and shuffled the black mare out the door. She left the building looking for the nearest hotel. She got a room that was well under her price range for one night. It wasn't going to be the crummiest place she would have to sleep in. Before she could make any further judgement, she fell onto the mattress wanting to just lie there and not think. It didn't work. She sighed and decided to make a plan. First, make enough money for a train ticket home. Second, leave. An overall simple plan. It was those plans however, that always seemed to backfire.

She woke up early, reporting directly to her job to meet the co-workers. They did what any other veteran employee would do in this situation: they played "initiation" with the fresh meat. They poked and prodded, making fun of her hair, eye color, mane- she had heard it all at this point. She went into the locker room, not knowing what to do, other than make herself look like she was doing something in her locker. When it was time to get her work, she tried sneaking out, but was blocked by a lilac pegasus with a wind-whipped snowy mane and wicked grin across her face.

"So your the new blood, eh?" she asked rhetorically. "Well, it's time I tell you the rules we got around here..." The black pegasus heard hoof-steps from behind her. She bowed her head, making eye-contact with the floor. "Rule one," the opressor said pullling her victims head to meet her gaze. "You look at me when I'm talking to you." The black mare pulled her head away and backed up. "Second, I'm head pony, always." She emphasized the last word. The black mare shoved past the lilac pony. She didn't care. She would do her job, check-out, and leave. After recieving her orders from a Weather team veteran named Cloud Kicker, she began the task trying to not go any faster than the slowest mare or stallion out there with her.

The job itself, was menial enough. Bust the clouds in the northern quadrant of the town. She glided over there and began her assault.It didn't go as well as she wanted it to. There were even a couple times where she felt like breaking down and bawling her eyes out, but the day passed quickly, and soon enough it was quitting time. She left and went to bed, crying her tears out at how miserable she felt. There was a point where the slowest mare was a stallion whose name she forgot. Thunderhumper, or something like that. He would move around so quickly, and effortlessly. She tried to pick up her speed a little, but ended up needing to fall into the cloud to stop herself. It was so embarassing, and the clique in the locker rooms lead by their overlord Cloudchaser, were already snickering before she came in. She cried herself to sleep.

The next few days went along relatively smoothly, with a few bumps and obstacles along the way. She at last made it to the last work day and that's when the boss- the sky blue, polychrome pegasus made her way into the locker rooms.

"Looks like we've got a long day ahead of us today," Rainbow said tossing a towel into her locker. At that moment, the black mare had been as casual as she possibly could to not draw any unwanted attention, and then left the first chance she got. When she turned to leave, she saw a clique-pony whisper something to Cloudchaser who got a devilish grin. After the sky was cleared, the black pegasus was about to fly back to check-out, quit her job, and recieve her paycheck.

"Hey!" she heard her boss call. Holding her breath she turned on the last cloud left in the sky and saw her flying toward her with Cloudchaser right behind. "I heard you're the new cloud patroler," she said.

"Y-yeah..." she said trying to figure out what she wanted.

"Aren't you also the one who said that you could beat me in a race?" she looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

Before the black mare could respond, Cloudchaser said, "Oh yeah, she's definatly the one I told you about." Cloudchaser had a triumphant smirk on her face. The black pegasus' ears fell back against her head as things spiraled downward from there.

Her ears were still flattened against her head. She looked to the sky and saw Cloudchaser, contently hovering in a gloating fashion. The black mare turned to Rainbow Dash. She was doing wing-pushups showing off her clear superiority.

"Now, I know that you're the new guy and all, but don't think for a second that I'll go easy on you," she said with her eyes closed still doing all sorts of preparations for their, hopefully, short lived race. "Before I whoop your flank, I wanna know your name," she ordered.

"M-Monochrome," was all she could say. She had wanted to say that she wanted to go home. She wanted to express how much of a crappy job she had. What she really wanted to do though, is shout every single curse that her Uncle Shanty had used in the navy. She wanted to, but her voice was in the constriction of fear that was starting to bubble to the surface.

"Alright Monochrome," she said cracking her neck in confidence. "You ready?"

Cloudchaser had drifted downward behind Monochrome. "Yeah, she's totally ready."

Rainbow Dash approached the edge of the cloud and Monochrome followed suit. Cloudchaser would count them off. Monochrome shivered violently. "Ready..." Rainbow Dash crouched into a starting position in a flash, making Monochrome jump into a shaking form of it. "Set." She shut her eyes and wondered if the fall would kill her if she didn't fly at all. "GO!" Rainbow Dash rocketed off the cloud leaving Cloudchaser with the black mare. "You should see-

The bully's sentence was cut off as a pair of huge, black wings unfurled themselves from under Monochrome's body and gave a powerful 'FLAP!' Monochrome was sent shooting off like her opponent.

Monchrome's wings beat in a slow rythym. She hoped that this would make her slow enough for a landing. Her hopes were literally dashed.

"Wow! You're pretty good!" She heard from beside her. Squinting her eyes open, she saw a cascade of objects rushing past her. Buildings, clouds (that were scheduled), and other pegasi. Her eyes looked beside her, and she saw the other mare, in her element. "You'll have to be better than this to beat me, though!" She swooped downward, and Monochrome, against her will, followed. They were aiming for the ground at a steep incline. Rainbow Dash was already recovering from the dive and shot back up into the sky. Monochrome only sat and watched in fear as the ground came closer and closer. At the last moment, she gave her wings a large thrust and she recovered. She kept flapping, and was soon neck in neck with her competitor/torturer. They kept climbing high into the sky. Rainbow Dash took a lead getting some distance between Monochrome and herself. Mono looked at her in confusion as she stopped, closed her eyes and began falling towards the planet below. Rainbow, being very well versed in flight had folded her winds inward. She began gaining speed at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, Monochrome had reached the point where the blue pegasus had began falling toward the ground. She did the only thing she knew: keep flapping. With a mighty gust caused in her wake, she zoomed past Rainbow Dash her eyes forced shut, hoping that this torment would stop. She blocked out every sense she had and concentrated on the sound of her own heart.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-th-- BOOM!
Her eyes shot open as she heard the earthshaking explosion from behind her. The world came flooding back, and she saw a rainbow fly past her and level out with ease. She noticed that it was going rather slo-

She froze and realized how fast she was going. She knew this speed all too well. Panicking, she tried to correct herself but it was already too late. The air around her hooves had formed a cone- a mach cone and felt her body being pressured from all sides. Then,

KA-BOOM!!!
For the second time that day, a Sonic Rainboom shattered the sky.

Rainbow heard a boom and looking back she saw something shoot right past her. Behind it was a sight she wasn't familiar with at this angle. It was a rainbow, and creating it was a tiny black dot. It took her a split second before she realized what was happening.

Monochrome's worst fears had come true. She broke the sound barrier, shattered the light spectrum, and had no idea how to slow down. All she wanted was a quiet job. That was all she asked for. She wanted a job to earn her money honestly. She even thought of getting one story house on the ground in a nice little neighborhood, maybe even getting a basement. Did the universe really hate her this much?Should she just give up? Yes. That was it. She just had to give up. In response she folded her wings underneath her belly and dropped. She saw in the blurred images a brown stallion with an hourglass cutie mark coming up very, very quickly. Monochrome recovered barely. She wanted to die, but not at another's expense. She sighed. She couldn't even get suicide right. She looked up and saw in the distance of the ever-moving horizon a chain of mountains. Maybe she could just crash into it, and maybe she could land in a dragon's horde where the reptile could get a nice little bite to eat. With her luck though, the reptile would get a stomach-ache. She rubbed her temples, trying to drown out that voice-

Voice?! She turned her head and saw a very overworked Rainbow Dash buzzing her wings like a humming bird. She was shouting something. She concentrated on her. "Slow! Down!" The other pegasus said.

"I can't!" Monochrome shouted back. A lump began materializing in the back of her throat. History was reapeating itself.

"What?!" Rainbow said, her eyebrows the only thing that indicated confusion.

"I CAN'T SLOW DOWN!" She cried. Tears now were rolling down her face, making her vision more blurry. "I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" she repeated over and over.

"What?!"Rainbow Dash shifted between surprise and worry to determination. "Hang on! I'll be right back!" The rainbow pony disappeared from Mono's view and she cried once more at the destruction she would cause.

Rainbow Dash drastically dropped her speed as she aimed herself for the Golden Oaks Library. She landed running up to the door hammering on it with a flurry of knocks. She was panting heavily and sweat pouring from every inch of her body. Twilight answered and was about to say "Hey Rainbow Dash. What's up?" but changed it to "Rainbow, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

Dash in between breaths said, "Black pegasus... Racing... really...really good... I... totally winning... Rainboom... Another rainboom... out... out of..."Twilight's horn lit up and from in her libray's kitchen came a glass of water. It floated a few inches from Dash's face. She took it and gulped it down. After a few deep breaths, Rainbow looked twilight in the eye inhaling a for a long time.

"IwenttoworkthismorninglikeanynormaldaywhenCloudchasercomesovertomylockerandsaysthatanewponyintownwantstochallengemetoaraceandsoIsaid"Idon'tknow"butthenshesaysthatthisnewguycandoasonicrainboomandsoafterworkIconfrontMononchrometheonewhowantedtochallengemeandweraceallovertheplaceandsheisgoodTwilightImeanreallyreallygoodlikeshecankeepupwithmegoingsonicrainboomgoodwhichshedidbutIwasstilltotallywinnigbuthenshedoesasonicrainboomandflesrightpastmebutIcaughtupandtriedtellinghertoslowdownbutshesaysshecan'tandstartscryingaboutitImeanwhywouldshedoasonicrainboomifshecan'tslowdownandnowshe'sflyingallaroundtownwithnowayofstoppingandwe'reallinreallybigdangerbecauseifshecrashes, I don't know what will happen!" She threw her forlegs into the air to illustrate her point.

Twilight stood aghast. 'I wish Pinkie were here. She would've understood that,' Twilight thought. Pinkie was at her families' home visiting and would be back tomorrow. She was about to ask something when overhead, she saw a rainbow zig-zag over the rooftops of Ponyville. Then she understood, and before she could say, she was interrupted by a different rainbow.

"C'mon Twilight! I need your help to make this plan work!" Rainbow turned to look at the rainbow overhead. Her eyebrows arched up in worry.

"Uh... plan?" Twilight raised a skeptical eyebrow. Rainbow Dash wasn't the greatest when it came to making a plan.

"Yeah! I'll try and slow her down, and then you stop her with magic!" Rainbow flew off the ground a few feet and watched the rainbow zoom off.

"Rainbow, I don't-Wait..." She thought for a moment. "Actually, that might work."

"So, you'll help me?" Rainbow turned to her unicorn friend who nodded. "Great, you concentrate while try to catch her." With that, Dash took off after the rogue pegasus.

Monochrome was trying so hard to try and fly straight at the mountain, but it proved difficult to manuver at this speed. She thought about then to just nosedive and let her body liquify on impact. Her thoughts were interrupted by another boom and she looked around, fearing that she had done a double. She breathed in a moment of half-relief when she saw a familiar blue approaching fast. Soon, they were once again necak and neck.

"Okay, I'm going to try and slow you down!" Monochrome watched. "Do exactly as I do!" Rainbow Dash barely lifted her wings up and she instantly faded from view. A few seconds later, she appeared at Monochrome's side. "Got it?!" Monochrome nodded, and attempted to do what Dash did moments before. She barely angled her wings and slowly she began to spin.

"No no no no no no!" Mono chanted as she spun faster and faster. Meanwhile, the ponies of Ponyville looked up and saw a rainbow twist around and around and dart every direction in the sky. Some stared, others applauded, and some took pictures. Monochrome eventually leveled out and she shouted, "Bad idea! Bad idea!" Her terrifying reality was just made worse.

Dash rolled her eyes, and soon was directly above Monochrome. "Alright, I'm going to grab you!" She shouted below her. "I need you to fold your wings in as soon as I get a hold on you!"

Monochrome, terrified, slowly nodded. Rainbow reached out with her forlegs, wind fighting against her. She took hold of the black pegasus. In response, Monochrome folded her wings in. Dash grunted as she felt the wait of Monochrome in her grip. They soon straightened out.

On a hill, just outside of town, a house sat overlooking Ponyville. The house was in neither good or bad condition, but looked fairly used. A stallion, who had an odd shaped leaf for a cutie mark took a step outside of his door. Under his eyes were large dark, circles that would normally indicate lack of sleep. He looked at the town, hoping he could make it to the market. He had the munchies for some celery chips. Before he could his eyes widened and jaw fell. His eyes were transfixed on the sight above the town.

"D... double rainbow all the way!" he said his mouth forming a smile. "Oh my Celestia! Look at that rainbow!"

Rainbow felt the incredible strain on her wings, but she didn't care. She looked for Twilight. Something caught the corner of her eye and in the distance, she saw a bright familiar magenta glow eminate from the library. She made a wide turn.

"At the count of three!" Rainbow began. Monochrome turned her eyes upward. "I'm going to let go and I need you to NOT, I repeat, do NOT pull up! Okay?!"

Monochrome thought for a moment. Was she really aiding in her suicide? Although it was strange, she didn't turn her down. Swallowing back her fears, she closed her eyes and nodded. Rainbow acknowledged this and turned her wings upward slightly. The two began to slow down. Rainbow Dash gradually lifted her wings up and the soon left Rainboom speed. The target was approaching fast. "One!"

Monochrome tensed up."Two!"

Twilight concentrated all her magic into forming the pillow charm. Although useless in any other situation, in this case, she found a use. She waited expectantly, watching the two cascading color streams moving at her with great velocity.

"Three!" Rainbow let go and shot upward into the sky. Monochrome flew right into the middle of the spell and created a dent in it. Twilight rocked back. Her body tensed up as she tried holding the pony. She couldn't let go, not at the expense of somepony's life. She then heard a crackling ripping sound. The spell was breaking. Hastily, she poured more magic into it, but, like many things today, was too late. A sound of breaking glass was heard and the black pegasus flew out of the other side. Twilight fell forward, hearing a thud followed by another.

Rainbow Dash recovering looked down expecting her plan to have worked. Her enthusiasm was dashed away when she saw Twilight lying in the dirt with two large craters behind her. She went to help her friend first.

"Twilight! Are you... okay?" Twilight rubbed her temples. She had the worst headache she has had in a long time.

"Yeah. I'm fine, but..." She stood up and turned looking back at the craters. What she saw over after second crater was a black hing leg sticking upward. The two bolted to the other mare.

"Oh my-" Twilight placed a hoof in front of her mouth. The horrible, disfigured form she saw could only be barely recognized as a pegasus. All over the ground were black feathers. Rainbow looked in horror, her lunch wanting to escape from her stomach. She flew down towards her. "I'll get her to the hospital-

"NO!" Twilight stopped her by grabbing her tail with magic. "Don't touch her!"

"But she'll die if-

"She might get worse if you try to move her."

Rainbow hovered. She looked from the body to her friend. "Well, what are we supposed to do?!"

Twilight bit her bottom lip. Her horn sparked to life once more. The magic released from her horn and struck Monochrome.

"What'd you do?"

"Her body is now frozen in place, and I'm going to see if I can't teleport her." The black form floated in Twilight's magic. After concentrating for a second or two, they both disappeared into a bright flash of light. Rainbow Dash only stayed there for a full minute before jetting off in the direction of the hospital.

Author's Notes:

I had the thought of making a character that was parallel to Rainbow Dash in terms of Personality and physical traits. To me, Dash is the sort that will assume whatever makes sense to her. She's a speed-demon, an athelete, determined, competitive, social, egotistical, hot-headed, short-fused, obsessive, and of course, loyal.

With the exception of loyal, Monochrome is supposed to be the opposite.
(And, yes. The cutie marke is based off of Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side of the Moon")