Applejack plodded downstairs from her bedroom in the darkness of the early morning. She yawned and rubbed at her eyes, moving through the kitchen, guided only by muscle memory. She wasn’t sure what she was even cooking for a while as a pan brought water to a boil and she rooted around the cupboards. As the sun peeked over the horizon and she finished waking up, she saw she was spooning hoecakes onto a skillet.

The squeak and whine of floorboards overhead punctuated the last cake coming off the pan, and she dropped a loaded plate in the middle of the table. She fetched a bottle of honey as her family settled in into their usual spots.

“Ooo!” Apple Bloom chimed as she saw the piled up hoecakes. She shoveled a stack onto her plate and yanked the honey out of her sister’s hooves.

“Hey, ya little thief!” Applejack teased as she sat, piling up her own plate fast to make sure she had enough as her brother took a generous share. Granny glanced from the hoecakes to Applejack, her brows drawn together, before she served herself.

Applejack eyed Apple Bloom’s honey-drowned plate as she took back the considerably lighter bottle. Her sister gave her an innocent smile and started gobbling down hoecakes.

They ate quickly, Big Macintosh polishing off his plate first, followed by Apple Bloom. The two headed out together. Applejack finished up and cleared the plates while Granny Smith chewed her last hoecake. She scrubbed the plates clean and set them to dry in silence, turning towards the door and her waiting chores.

“Applejack, come sit with me a minute.”

Applejack paused, turning towards Granny, who sat on the couch and patted the spot next to her. Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Alright, Granny. The cold ain’t makin’ your hip act up, is it?”

“Nah, Li’l Apple, this ain’t about me. I know my grandchild good ‘nough to know she don’t make hoecakes ‘less she’s feelin’ down.” As Applejack sat on the couch, Granny grabbed her chin and scrutinized her face. She stammered in surprise and then froze, knowing it was easier to just let the inspection happen than fight it. Granny sighed and dropped her hoof from Applejack, shaking her head. “Oh, child, somepony done stomped all over your heart.”

Applejack sat back. “Wha—”

“Don’t you be denyin’ it now, missy. I can see it plain as day.”

Her mind racing through options, Applejack let out a slow breath and sunk in her seat. She shook her head. “S’my own fault, Granny. My heart went barkin’ up the wrong tree.”

Granny patted her granddaughter’s shoulder. “Aw, that’s a cryin’ shame. You tell your granny what happened.”

Applejack started, her ears falling flat as she looked at Granny Smith from the corner of her eye. “Uhh…” Her cheeks darkened.

“Hoo, nelly, I’m in for somethin’ real interestin’, ain’t I?” Granny teased, prodding Applejack in the belly. “Go on, then, AJ. Ain’t nothin’ you could say that’d embarrass your ol’ granny. It’s ol’ folks’ job to embarrass the young’ins, not the other way ‘round.”

Her face burning, Applejack looked away and cleared her throat. “Well, erm…Ya see…I got these two friends who’ve been seein’ each other a bit over a year now…”

“They set’cha up with somepony?” As she watched her granddaughter grimace, Granny’s eyes lit up. “They set’cha up with themselves, eh?” Granny leaned back and cackled as Applejack covered her eyes, sure that her face would match her brother’s coat. “I’m sorry, child, I don’t mean to laugh at ya none; I just gotta savor them faces ‘fore ya get too old an’ wise ta make ‘em no more.” She wiped the mirth from the corner of her eye and took a breath. “So I’ll take it them messes a’ Saturdays was ya entertainin’ a couple’a ponies.”

Applejack nodded, still covering her eyes.

“Well, I ain’t judgin’ ya none, Li’l Apple; it’s been a gaggle a’ years since I was young, but that don’t mean I don’t remember it. I ain’t gonna ask for details any sooner’n you’d spill ‘em.” She poked Applejack’s belly until she got a snort of laughter out of her granddaughter. “So ya went an’ got sweet on one of ‘em?”

Applejack took a deep breath and leaned back against the couch. “I got sweet on both of ‘em…an’ stayed sweet on ‘em for a few months now.” She sighed and shook her head. “I was keepin’ it to myself, thinkin’ I’d start pokin’ ‘round town an’ findin’ somepony else I could start seein’…but Twilight took a shine to me.” She took off her hat and ran a hoof through her mane. “I ain’t lookin’ to break the two of ‘em up, and they ain’t lookin’ to break up, neither. So…we called it quits.” She bowed her head again.

Granny nodded and wrapped a hoof around Applejack’s shoulders. “I’m awful sorry, child. It’s always a hardship when things don’t work out ‘cause of everythin’ else instead a’ just not gettin’ along. From the sound of it, I don’t think I gotta tell ya none about how this ain’t the end of the world, seein’ as you was gettin’ ready to go lookin’ for somepony different. And I gotta say that even though I ain’t keen on it hurtin’ ya, a part a’ me’s glad ta hear it happened.”

Applejack sat back and raised her eyebrow. “Whaddya mean, Granny?”

The smile she gave her granddaughter was wistful, highlighting the age and experience in her eyes. “I was gettin’ afraid ya went an’ married your work, Applejack. I know this here farm means an awful lot to ya, an’ it needs ya, too, but we Apples ain’t never been solitary folk. Now, I ain’t tellin’ ya ta hurry up or do nothin’ else but follow your heart, mind. I just know ya, Applejack.”

Granny leaned back and cupped Applejack’s face. “I know how big a heart ya got in ya. I know how much ya love the ponies around ya, an’ how happy makin’ them happy makes you. I was gettin’ sad thinkin’ you weren’t ever gonna wanna share that big ol’ heart with somepony special.”

Applejack smiled and shook her head. “I ain’t been grown half long enough for ya to be worryin’ about that yet.”

“Oh, ain’t never too soon for a granny to start worryin’, you know that.” She smirked and smacked Applejack’s shoulder, who rubbed the spot in mock pain and returned the grin. “I’m just glad you’re puttin’ all that love ta good use. I’m sure with a little lookin’, you’ll find that somepony who’ll give ya back just as much love as you give to ‘em.”

Her smile fading, Applejack leaned back with a sigh. “I think what hurts the most is I found that with ‘em both, at least for a little while. Twilight is…” She grimaced, rubbing her face.

“You go ahead an’ talk about ‘em; might help ya feel better.”

She took a deep breath and stared out the front window. “Ya know, sometimes it feels like this whole dang town’s about to fall down around me. Everypony’s crazy, an’ every bit a crazy needs my help.” She flashed Granny Smith a grin that implied her elder was just as much a part of the problem as anypony else. “I don’t mind it none, but it’s just somethin’ I figure I’m gonna have to deal with…except around Twilight. Twilight ain’t above goin’ crazy here ‘n there...and when she does, she don’t play around and goes a lotta crazy...but most of the time she’s the only pony I can really talk to.”

As she spoke her voice lightened to match her growing smile. “She don’t make me feel like I gotta be the one to fix everything. She’s more clever’n a fox, and if’n I was goin’ to somepony for help or advice, it’d be her. Bein’ around her’s just…easy.”

Applejack looked down at her hooves, grinning, a teasing lilt of laughter in her tone. “An’ if everypony’s crazy, Dash got about three extra helpings of it, but she’s nuts in a way that just leaves me grinnin’ an’ laughin’ the whole day. Everythin’s a game to her, but that don’t mean she doesn’t care. She cares about everything she does, she just ain’t about to have a bad time of it…an’ it makes me wanna have just as good a time as she’s havin’, like her happiness is catchin’.

“They both just make me feel so…peaceful. An’ it’s for different reasons, an’ it’s as much with the two of ‘em together as it is either one of ‘em alone.” Applejack’s smile gradually fell and she slouched forward, a frown creasing her muzzle. “…I miss it already.”

Granny Smith hugged Applejack around the shoulder and kissed her cheek. “I miss it for ya, just from hearin’ ya talk. I’m sorry, honey, I really am, an’ if I could take that achin’ away from ya I would. I know you’re tough as nails, though, an’ you’ll come out the other side a’ this as strong an’ sure a’ yourself as ever. You’ll find your special somepony, Li’l Apple, ‘cause that heart a’ yours is too good to keep all to your lonesome.”

Applejack leaned into the embrace. “Thank you, Granny. I’m…I’ll be okay. I’m kiddin’ myself if I think I’m gonna be out courtin’ somepony new right now, but I’ll get there in time. First…I gotta mourn this a little.” She took a deep breath and sat back, smiling at her grandmother. “Nothin’ that time an’ some hard work won’t help with.”

Returning the smile, Granny nodded. “Ya got that same head on your shoulders as your daddy, Applejack. Skull as thick as a tree trunk, but nothin’ll knock ya down for too long. Just don’t go an’ really marry your work while you’re grievin’, ya hear?”

Applejack’s grin widened and she nodded. “Speakin’ a’ work, we’re burnin’ daylight an’ this place’ll fall apart without me. I better get to it.” She turned to the door, but paused before opening it. “And…thanks, Granny. I needed to get that off’a my chest.”

Her grandmother smiled. “Any time, dear.”

Applejack set her hat straight and marched out into the yard. The farm counted on her.

Rainbow scanned the endless field of clouds below her, ascending higher as she took in the whole mass, scanning for gaps to the ground. Far off to her right she could see the patch of clear sky over the lake, left open so the skating rink could open on Friday, and to her left she could see the Everfree Forest, left alone to its own weather whims. She nodded in satisfaction.

She raised a hoof and the other pegasi flew up to match her height, spread out across the town. Her hoof fell.

She spread her wings wide with the others, and they all drifted downwards together, gliding in shallow spirals towards the clouds below them. At once, they tapped down with their hooves all across Ponyville.

Rainbow leapt up and rocketed to the lake, and watched snow fall from the underside of the cloud cover. She grinned and flew back up, meeting the rest of the weather crew.

“Good work, team!” she called out with a smile. “Winter is officially here!”

A cheer rose from the group and Rainbow beamed. She waved them off as they flew away, streaming through the hole and spreading out to head back to their homes. When the sky above the clouds was clear, Rainbow sped across the expanse, looking for any new breaks in the blanket from starting the snow. She scooted a few puffs that had drifted away over the Everfree Forest back into place, wiped her brow, and streaked through the air back to the lake. The smooth surface of the water, frozen from the week of higher winds but still too thin to bear weight, glinted below her as she jackknifed through the clear section of sky and headed for town. She smirked at the trees as their empty branches filled with a new foliage of white. A barn’s roof gathering snow caught her eye, and her heart leapt to her throat.

Rainbow sped up as she soared over Sweet Apple Acres.

Clenching her eyes, she shook the gathering flakes from her mane and launched herself in the direction of town hall’s spire, away from the farm and her dwelling thoughts.

She passed downtown and settled on the balcony of her home. She shook herself free of snow like a dog and opened the door, stepping into the lower loft of the bedroom. Twilight glanced up from the desk and smiled at her as she waved, walking over to a beanbag chair by the fireplace and flopping down.

“Hi, Rainbow. Long day?”

“Nope,” she beamed, snuggling into the chair. “Long fall, but it’s over now!”

Twilight glanced out the window at the falling snow, before something caught her eye and widened her smile. “Yeah, Spike brought his jack o’ lantern back so it wouldn’t get buried.”

Rainbow sat up, following Twilight’s gaze to the balcony and the pumpkin facing inside. She snorted. “That’s Spike’s pumpkin?”

“Be nice, Rainbow.”

“It looks so doofy.” She giggled at the vacant and toothless smile as Twilight took a sip of tea. “It’s like if Gummy and Derpy had a baby.”

Twilight spit her tea on the floor.

“See?! I’m right!” Rainbow cackled as her marefriend coughed and sputtered. “It’s Gurmpy the pumpkin!”

Twilight smacked her chest as she coughed and laughed at the same time. “S-stop!”

“Not until you say I’m right! Gurmpy!”

“Okay, okay, it does!” Twilight struggled out, dissolving into laughter with Rainbow. “Just don’t tell Spike that!”

As her mirth sank into chuckles, she said, “Relax. It’s not like he’s here right now.” She took a deep breath and sunk into the beanbag chair. “No Spike around with his crazy fillies breaking stuff, no more work since I just gotta make sure the snow doesn’t stop for the next three days, nothing to do but nothing…”

Twilight floated a washcloth out of the bathroom and wiped up her spill, then took a cautious sip of tea. “I’m happy winter’s here, too. I doubt anypony will be checking out books during the first snow.” She brought the cloth to her desk and a comfortable silence fell over the room. She turned back to Rainbow, her tone dropping an octave and growing tentative. “Um…since Spike isn’t here right now…do you want to have sex?”

Knitting her brow, Rainbow sat up and stared at Twilight.

Twilight fiddled her hooves together. “…What?”

“Nothing…it’s just you haven’t asked me like that since, like, the first week we banged…” Rainbow craned her neck to look at the book on her marefriend’s desk. Twilight slid it hidden behind her back and smiled innocently, but Rainbow recognized the cover, flopping back onto the beanbag with a groan. “Twilight! Not that book again!”

Twilight pulled it around and opened it, not really reading anything. “I know, I know; you think Relationships and You is useless, but it says that if I’m trying to repair damage to a relationship after an instance of infidelity, it’s important to affirm that I’m still sexually attracted to you…”

Rainbow sighed in annoyance and rolled off the chair, plodding through the room towards the door downstairs. “Twilight, you didn’t cheat on me.”

“But I have to fix this, and this is the closest thing to—”

“There’s nothing to fix!” Rainbow snapped. Twilight’s ears fell flat and she recoiled. The muscle’s in Rainbow’s jaw tightened.

Twilight rubbed her knee, looking away. Her voice came out low and frail. “Rainbow…I know you don’t like talking about these sorts of things, but I don’t know how to move past this without discussing it, or trying things in this book. What am I supposed to do?”

A beat of tension passed as Rainbow pushed down her anger. She sighed and drooped her head. “I’m sorry I snapped. It’s just that there’s nothing wrong you need to be doing stuff for.”

Twilight rubbed at her eye. “But it still feels so…damaged. I don’t know how I’m supposed to just not do anything.”

“Look.” Rainbow turned and closed the distance. Without warning, she dove in and stole a kiss, pushing past Twilight’s lips. The book dropped forgotten to the floor and Twilight fell back against her desk, one of Rainbow’s hooves on her chest, one in her mane, and tongue in her mouth. Rainbow stepped back, sweeping a foreleg around to cup Twilight’s uncertain face. “This sucks, I get it. But you told AJ you want us to work out. And…and I’m really into you, and we live together, and…and I like it—living with you, and having this life together that’s us. I know that’s what you want, and I want it, too, Twi. I…I want it now, and I want it to last for a really long time.” Her wings puffed around her sides defensively and her eyes darted away as she added, “Maybe the rest of my life.”

Twilight sniffed and held Rainbow’s hoof to her cheek. “I want that, too,” she whispered.

Rainbow let out the breath she was holding and nuzzled into Twilight’s neck. “See? Nothing’s changed.”

“…Something’s changed.”

“…Yeah.” Rainbow stroked her lover’s cheek. “But…it’s other stuff. For just you and me there’s nothing to fix. We want us and you’re just gonna have to suck it up and admit you’re stuck with me.”

A surprised giggle escaped her muzzle and she hugged her marefriend tight. She took a deep breath, her smile fading as she exhaled. “Everything just feels so shaky now. This is what I want, but I’m…I’m still in love with her.”

“I know.” She closed her eyes. “I get it. It’s only been a week. Stuff like this takes time, right? We both…erm. Stuff’ll change and go back to how it was before if we just wait.” She cleared her throat. “It’ll be okay.”

Twilight took a deep breath, snuggling in fiercely before pulling away from the embrace. “You’ve taken all of this really well, Rainbow. I couldn’t ask for anypony to be as understanding about...pretty much everything. Thank you.”

She gave Twilight a tired smile and turned back towards the beanbag chair. She drooped her wings and shook her head.

Twilight floated the book off the floor and onto a shelf, energy returning to her voice. “Everything okay?”

Rainbow rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. “Just tired, Twi. Ready for a break, you know?”

“Well, Nap Spot Number Seventeen is all made and clean,” Twilight teased.

Rainbow chuckled as she glanced up at their bed. A dull ache throbbed through her legs and shoulders, and she turned towards the bathroom. “Think I’m gonna soak in the tub. That’s something ponies do when they don’t have to do squat, right?” She flashed a smirk and crossed the floor. “Gotta wash this month off me.”

“Enjoy yourself,” Twilight giggled. “I’ll get dinner started soon; I’m expecting Spike home soon.”

“I’ll try to not pass out in the tub.” With a wink, she shut herself away behind the door, suppressing a groan as the start of a headache set in.

She glanced at her reflection and ran a hoof through her mane before stepping to the tub. She cranked the hot water and sat on her haunches as it filled, watching curls of steam rise into the air. Lifting herself up with her wings when the tub was full, hovering in the air for a moment, then sinking all four hooves into the water at once.

“Ahhhh….” The water rushed up her legs and she felt the pangs in her joints melt away in the heat. She sat and it raced up her belly, its temperature a hair under uncomfortably hot, making gooseflesh rise up her shoulders and her feathers puff out. She drifted backwards, the massage of heat coating her wings, shoulders, chest, and mane. She closed her eyes and stopped with only the tip of her muzzle jutting out of the surface, enveloped in the warmth, her mind clouding over with the simple bliss it brought.

She paddled her hooves idly, taking slow breaths in the haze and drifting. After several minutes, she sat up enough for her head to poke out and rest against the back of the tub, her mane plastered to her forehead and dripping. She slowly ran her forelegs down her sides, feeling the tension in her muscles give in to the onslaught of hot water and pressure. She sighed and closed her eyes again.

Time in the steam slowed to a crawl while all the soreness bled away, hooves kneading her muscles loose as she watched her tail swirl and dance through the ripples. Her head drifted to the wall and she swished her wings as she felt completely at peace for the first time in recent memory.

As she stopped her massaging, her hooves came to rest on her belly. Her eyes sharpened into focus when she brushed against a nipple. An impish grin spread across her face as she resumed her massaging with a lighter touch aimed at less-muscled areas. The heat of the water left her skin extra sensitive, curling her smile further as she stroked her inner thighs and sunk into the water up to her chin.

In the muggy bathroom, the fog of her thoughts gathered form with the same languid pace as her hooves across her legs, chest, and belly. She moved her right hoof down to where her legs met, brushing over her outer lips, puffy from the water and her building desire. An image coalesced into her mind.

‘Howdy, sugarcube,’ murmured the imaginary Applejack, standing over her in the tub.

Rainbow’s hoof cupped her slit, sliding up and down as she pictured Applejack. Her friend grinned down, eyes sultry and mane undone, dragging along the surface of the water. They kissed, Applejack’s mouth spiced with cinnamon, and she felt her clit grow stiff against her fetlock. Her left foreleg dragged across her chest and around her back, then down her rump. She spread her back legs and pressed against the base of her marehood, parting her lips enough for her right hoof to tease the top of her entrance.

The phantom Applejack’s stifle replaced her own hoof in her fantasy, pressing against her sex, transforming the self-pleasure to teasing. “Ahn,” Rainbow breathed out into the room, touching herself, being touched by her imagined lover, surrounded by heat as a new warmth gathered in her core.

‘Ya want a taste, Dash?’ Applejack lifted her front out of the water with a splash, propping her hooves up on the wall, and Rainbow opened her mouth, tongue hanging out, tasting water as it splashed in around her chin. Applejack’s marehood lowered over her muzzle and she could taste it again, the same as she remembered, bold and wild, dripping down her chin, slick and covering her mouth. Channels of water ran down her lover’s body, dripping from her mane, tracing her curves. Rainbow recalled the smell of Applejack’s arousal and it filled her mind as her friend looked down at her, hoof around the back of her head, trapping her against the scent and flavor.

Rainbow pushed her hoof in against her clit, kneading it in its hood as she panted huffs into the air. The water around her seemed to cool, either from the passage of time or her own temperature rising with her arousal, so she lifted a back leg out of the water, gooseflesh racing up her cannon in the sudden movement and temperature drop. She blindly kicked at the hot water faucet until the sound of a stream running hit her ears. She grunted as she propped the leg up on the edge of the tub, rubbing faster, the water rippling just as much from her hoof as the faucet.

’Don’t you stop now, Rainbow’ Applejack commanded, stroking her mane.

“Uhn.”

She lifted her head and swept her tongue through the air, tasting Applejack’s clit, feeling the firmness and urgency, pulling it between her lips to suckle. Applejack arched against her, her imagined lover’s arousal a pace above her own, growing closer to climax as her hooves worked. ‘That’s the spot, Dash, right there.’

A spurt of juices decorated Rainbow’s chin and she opened her mouth, tasting Applejack’s orgasm again, wanting it on her lips, craving it like she was dying of thirst. Applejack writhed against her as she splashed water with her hoof, her core tight and hot to match the water, a rise of pressure begging for release, almost there, almost at its height.

‘I love you, Applejack!’ she shouted in her mind, her muscles clenching, back arching and dunking her head underwater. Her hindleg slid off the tub lid and back into the heat, her whole body clenching and relaxing, waves of bliss wracking her nerves. She sputtered up to the surface, whimpering as she pushed her hoof in against her marehood, twitching and spasming with the explosion of pleasure, her mind losing grip on the image.

The words echoed through her head as the weight of her body’s need and release tried to pull her under the surface.

‘I love you.’

A sob tore its way out of her throat.

Twilight climbed the stairs back to her room as Spike took charge of cooking. On the lower loft, she glanced out the window at the snowy evening air, a smile on her face as she turned to the bathroom door, lifting a hoof to knock. She paused right before rapping as her ears perked up. The splattering of water, dulled through the wood, made her frown; it didn’t sound so much like a running faucet or draining tub. The noise was too small and random, and she pictured a soaked towel being rung out, pattering on tile or hardwood.

“Rainbow, dinner’s almost ready,” she called through the door, her voice more tentative than she expected. Through the sound of running water, Rainbow answered her with a grunt. Twilight opened her mouth to say more, snapped it shut, and pulled the door open.

A puddle covered the floor, streaming off of Rainbow. She stood in the middle of the room, hunched over and shaking. Twilight rushed forward, raising a hoof to touch her but hesitating, feeling a layer of heat radiating off her coat. “Rainbow, what’s—?”

She flinched at Twilight’s voice, looking up through reddened eyes that were strained half shut, teeth locked in a grimace. A beat passed and a choked back sob came out of her.

Twilight fought through the corona blazing from her lover’s coat, but Rainbow slid back from her comfort, spreading the puddle across the floor. Rainbow’s grimace widened, eyes clenching, chest shaking, and all at once she forced out, “I miss Applejack!”

She stared at Rainbow, mind racing with confusion. “Rainbow, I knew the threesome fantasy was important to you, but—”

Shaking her mane and flinging water around, Rainbow grunted in frustration. “I never had a damn threesome fantasy! I just said that because I thought it’d get you to stop bugging me!” Twilight’s mouth fell open. “Now I’m in love with her, too, and I feel like shit! I just wanna forget about it, but I can’t!”

She shut her eyes again, cringing away, her body shaking. “It’s all just there when I think about her—that smile she makes, what she smells like, how she says my name, what she looks like kissing you…and I tell myself it’s over.”

Rainbow slammed her hoof against a drawer under the sink, a crunch of wood splintering from the force echoing out, and she skidded on the wet floor, barely keeping from falling. “But I don’t want it to be over! I don’t want that! I told myself I could deal with feeling like this, but Celestia damn it, I don’t want to deal with it!” Rainbow’s voice cracked as she said, “I just want Applejack.” The vehemence fled her and she sunk to her haunches, shoulders slumping, soaked and miserable like an animal pulled out of a violent river. “Why did this happen, Twilight?” She looked up, and Twilight could see the bags under her eyes. “Why’d we both have to fuck this up so badly?”

Twilight’s head felt full of cotton through all of Rainbow’s yelling, her jaw relaxed and body frozen with one hoof still raised towards the spot her lover’s shoulder had been. Slow and mechanically, she turned towards the mirror, fogged up with steam, but clear enough to see herself in it. The silence that fell stifled the room, magnifying the pattering drips from everything wet, Rainbow’s heavy breaths, and her own heartbeat in her ears, which grew faster and faster.

Twilight’s voice held no power, barely above a whisper. “You…you were just trying to get me to stop needling you…”

Rainbow groaned, slicking her bangs away from her eyes. “Twi, that was months ago, it’s not impor—”

“I’m always doing this with you. I don’t know when to leave you be until it’s too late, and it always does this, it always makes things harder, it—” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Oh, Celestia, I did this to us! This is all my fault, because I kept pushing you, and I made you do something you didn’t even want to do! I—I…”

“Stop it,” Rainbow snapped. “Just stop it. You always blame yourself for things that are nopony’s fault, and I don’t wanna deal with it right now.”

“But this wouldn’t have happened if—!”

“I don’t care, Twilight! It happened and here we are!” Rainow jumped back to her hooves.

Twilight’s gaze never left the mirror, locked with her own reflection, her mind looping back months before. She had asked her lover for fantasies they could explore, and she heard the mumbled response of ‘I dunno,’ as clearly as if Rainbow had just said it out loud. Dismissive. Uninterested.

She had pressed further, and Rainbow responded, ‘I like the stuff we do; it’s always a lotta fun.’ Disquieted. Wanting the conversation to be over. ‘Not really, I just like the stuff we do,’ flat and direct, moving past a lack of interest. She could hear the frustration setting into Rainbow’s tone, but she remembered her own curiosity, her own need to delve into her marefriend overriding that recognition of comfort. She could hear herself listing off possible scenarios, burning with a need to know what Rainbow might be wanting.

‘I wanna have a threesome.’ Rainbow blurted it out, no excitement, no relief in saying it, just a bare statement. Out of the haze of her own inquisitive nature, Twilight saw the sentence for what it was: a distraction, a line she wasn’t supposed to cross, but instead scoff at. She heard the subtext in the sentence, as plain as if Rainbow Dash had actually said it herself.

‘Stop asking me about this.’

Twilight stared at herself in the mirror, the weight of realization keeping her still, months of lust turning to heartache for herself, and worst of all heartache for the pony she shared her life with, all thrown in sharp relief. It was all her fault. She pushed and prodded, forcing Rainbow into a situation she wasn’t asking for and stomping all over both of their hearts like a careless foal, all because she didn’t know when to shut up.

“…My fault.”

“Stop it, Twilight!” Rainbow snapped.

A pulse of magic flashed from her horn. A keening screech bounced off the walls as the mirror spiderwebbed into jagged fragments, still held together in its frame. Rainbow shrunk from the noise, pinning her ears back and falling into an aggressive crouch. Twilight’s breaths hitched as she stayed locked with her reflection, severed into a distorted picture of herself, eyes wide and wet, muzzle crinkled and pulled in dismay, horn sparking light brighter and brighter.

“It’s all my fault!” she cried, trying to pull her eyes away from the shattered mirror, unable to move from the spot.

“It doesn’t matter!” Rainbow shouted, slamming her hooves down again. “Stop making this all about you!”

The anger in her lover’s voice fueled her emotional spiral, her head swimming as she breathed too fast and too shallow, her joints shaking and eyes watering. Still she couldn’t look away, the shards of her reflection staring back, bleeding guilt between the cracks, carrying the accusation with them, and she knew it, she knew it was earned.

A flood of energy shot from her horn. The mirror exploded from the wall, showering the room in glittering fragments. Rainbow yelped as the force of the magic flung her from standing and against a wall as the mirror fell. The tinkling smash reverberated out of the bathroom and every window in the entire tree shattered, cacophonous and deafening. Twilight’s scream was barely audible over the din, and she tore her eyes away as the mirror fell, shielding her face with her forelegs and collapsing to the floor.

Twilight sobbed with shame, curled up against herself, ignoring the little cuts from the glass. A silence just as deafening settled over them in the wake of the explosion until Rainbow struggled back to her hooves. Her voice came out raw, a muddy combination of bewildered , angry, and upset. “Twilight, what the fuck—?”

“Just leave me alone,” Twilight cried into her hooves. “Just go, before I ruin something else.”

A gurgling and strained growl poured out of Rainbow’s throat, and she flung her wings open, blazing out of the bathroom and through the broken skeleton of the balcony door, a trail of water following her and disappearing into the snow.

As Twilight heard Spike’s feet scrabbling up the stairs, she swung the bathroom door shut and latched it.

Author's Notes:

tl;dr

When Spike carried Gurmpy the pumpkin home, he didn't notice the mailmare flying by overhead. Derpy avoided getting within sight of Sugarcube Corner for weeks.