Twilight Sparkle knew many things.

The degrees, plaques and awards in her office within the Castle of Friendship made this abundantly clear to all who entered. She could analyze the latest breakthroughs in quantum mechanics developed at the Manehattan Institute of Technomancy, speak on the prototype thaumaturgical cores in development in the Crystal Empire or discuss the Equestrian Cultural Society’s latest study of the symbiotic socioeconomic relationship of dragons and griffons.

Then, of course, there was her role as the Princess of Friendship, a role she constantly found herself redefining and rediscovering at surprisingly regular intervals.

A long time ago, she had considered such thoughts to be little more than empty bragging. Now, she knew better. This was a simple fact, and one she was proud of.

But as she leaned against the railing of the balcony outside her office and looked to the other side of Ponyville with a sigh, she realized for the thousandth time that knowledge and wisdom were not one and the same.

“Twilight?” came the familiar voice of Sunset Shimmer. “Are you okay?”

Twilight didn’t answer. She just kept staring out at Sweet Apple Acres. Her eyes darted between the sprawling apple orchards, the great farmhouse of generations of the Apple clan and the small cloud condo drifting at the very edge of the farm, over a barren patch of dusty earth.

“Twi?” The voice sounded somewhat exasperated now.

The sun had almost fallen below the horizon, the clouds in the west casting a purple shadow over Ponyville. It was hard to make out in the light of the setting sun, but the clouds of Rainbow Dash’s cloudominium appeared… grayer.

A knot of worry grew in her chest. That was a bad sign. A very bad sign, indeed. The clouds had returned to their formerly white and fluffy state a few days before Rainbow had come back. Now, they were like the color of an approaching storm. There was something else too… something missing from the structure that Twilight couldn’t place.

“Twilight!”

“Huh?” Twilight shook her head and turned. She blinked a few times at the concerned face of her wife. “Sorry, what? What’s wrong, Sunny?”

Sunset regarded her with a cocked eyebrow. “What’s going on, Twi? I haven’t seen you look this worried since my last magic duel with Starlight.”

“It’s probably nothing,” Twilight replied, her eyes drifting back to Sweet Apple Acres. Only one or two lights burned inside. That was wrong, too. What’s more, every window was shut and every door closed. That felt even worse.

“Twi, don’t lie to me,” Sunset said as she stepped up beside Twilight and followed her gaze. “We both know you’re terrible at it and… oh.”

Silence descended upon the balcony for a short time before Twilight spoke again. “She’s been back for what… three days?”

“Four,” Sunset replied woodenly. “If it helps, Spike just got a letter from Ember saying the dragons loved the show.”

“I don’t think it helps.”

“Probably not,” Sunset admitted.

“Probably makes things worse.”

“Yeah.”

Another silence. Longer this time. From behind her, Twilight could hear the sound of Rarity’s laughter and Pinkie’s giggling, punctuated by the occasional snort. Usually, the laughter of her friends filled her with a warm glow, but tonight, a cold chill seemed to smother the balcony, despite Sunset’s presence. As the sun slipped beyond the horizon and Luna’s moon began to rise into the starry sky, all she could see were the strange shadows created by the odd architectural flourishes of the cloudominium.

Despite the fact that no lights shone from the cloud structure, Twilight knew that Rainbow Dash was there. She also knew Applejack wasn’t. It had been months since Applejack had asked Sunset or Twilight to recharge her cloudwalking horseshoes.

“Fluttershy tried to talk to Rainbow after she got back,” Sunset offered as she leaned against Twilight. Despite everything, Twilight found no comfort in it. “Rainbow said she was too busy. Said the same thing when Pinkie tried yesterday. Then again… she’d avoided everypony for weeks before leaving...”

“Rarity tried to talk to Applejack last week when she came back for material for Princess Celestia’s newest dress,” Twilight said with a sigh. “Told me she hadn’t seen Applejack look that tired since my first few months in Ponyville.”

Sunset made a confused little noise. “And that’s bad?”

“If you consider her being so exhausted she fell asleep upside down while in an apple cart harness bad, then yes.”

“Ouch.” Sunset winced and chewed her lip for a few moments before cautiously speaking up again. “Are they still refusing to see anypony to help?”

“Neither of them seem very interested since that last one a year or two ago.” Twilight shook her head. “The rest of us have tried a few times… but it didn’t go any better than when you and I brought it up. If they are seeing anypony… I don’t think they’re doing it together. Harmony, I don’t know.”

“Oh…”

The longest silence yet fell as the last vestiges of sunlight faded and Luna's night descended over the kingdom of Equestria. The knot in her chest drifted to her throat.

“Sunny?”

“Yeah, Twi?”

“You mind me skipping dinner tonight?”

“Of course not.”

“Thanks.”

Sunset gave Twilight a small hug, looking resigned. It was an expression Twilight had seen a lot on all her friends lately whenever the pegasus and the earth pony had come up in conversation. Seeing it right now on Sunset’s face made it almost unbearable.

Some tired piece of herself told her that nothing good would come out of any further attempts at meddling. She shoved the thought aside. What kind of friend would she be if she didn’t try and help? She had to, if only to listen.

They were her friends. Both of them. But of the two, she could make a pretty good guess who needed her more right now. After all, Granny Smith had come down to visit Applejack a couple weeks ago. And with Scootaloo off with the rest of the Crusaders in Baltimare...

Twilight leapt off the balcony and flew through the clear chilly autumn night. She made it halfway to the cloudominium before rain started to fall on the swath of dry dirt beneath.

The mere sight of the tiny pocket of rainfall twisted up something inside of her. She put on a little burst of speed.

As she got closer, she took in the details. The entire exterior of Rainbow’s old house now consisted of steel-gray stormclouds. Twilight could even feel the thrum of electric potential coming from the structure. Pegasi with high levels of innate racial magic, such as Rainbow Dash, could influence the weather with their moods as a direct byproduct of their natural affinity for cloud manipulation. However, for a pegasus to be able to shift an entire cloud structure from construction clouds to stormclouds… that was a rare thing indeed. It spoke volumes of Rainbow’s emotional state.

She considered taking a different approach and contacting Dr. Peony to make an appointment for the two mares. He had been critical in helping Twilight and Sunset in handling their issues, both with themselves and one another.

Twilight knew that wouldn’t work, despite her own personal successes with the doctor.. Not yet, at least. They needed to build up to something like that.

Besides, Peony could be… prickly at times.

She gingerly alighted on Rainbow’s front patio. She paused there for a moment, concerned that her presence might trigger an electrical discharge. It didn’t. The clouds hummed away to themselves. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, and took her first real look at Rainbow’s cloudominium since she’d help moved it to the farm so long ago.

Luna’s moon shone upon the wooden door, and the lack of any traditional pegasi crest above the doorframe. The moonlight simply added texture to the dark grey clouds around her. She remembered when the place had rivaled the size of the farmhouse below. Now it was little bigger than her office.

That’s when it hit her. The thing that had been nagging at her the whole time. Now, standing on the cusp of Rainbow’s gray home, she found it astonishing she hadn’t seen it from her balcony.

The rainbow waterfalls were gone. In fact, all the rainbows on the structure’s exterior were gone, as if they had never been.

With that sudden realization, Twilight realized just how… impersonal the place had become. The few design flourishes remaining were simply… not Rainbow. Twilight suspected somepony else, perhaps Fluttershy or maybe a member of the Ponyville weather team, had added them instead of Dash herself.

A hole opened in Twilight’s chest and she swallowed. Then she forced herself away from studying the structure of what remained of Rainbow’s home. She was delaying the inevitable.

She only hesitated once before knocking at the door.

There was no answer. Twilight frowned slightly, but she wasn’t that surprised. She tried again a few minutes later. And again. And again.

She always forced herself to wait at least five minutes before each knock. After all, Rainbow Dash could be rather stubborn when she wanted to be left alone. Then again, Twilight wasn’t all that different. Twilight also knew that—most of the time—when she hid from the world, she wanted ponies to break through the shields she put up. It wasn’t healthy, but a tiny piece of her still clung to the idea that the ponies who really cared were the ones willing to fight to get through to her.

On the eighth knock, she heard the first grumble.

“Rainbow?” Twilight called. “It’s Twilight.”

A grunt was the only response. It conveyed a sense of ‘obviously.’

“Can I come in?”

Silence.

Twilight swallowed. There were also rare times when Rainbow legitimately wanted to be alone. However, Twilight had held the title of Princess of Friendship for over fifteen years. She had known her friends for even longer. That had to count for something.

Still, she hesitated once more. Her friends did continue to surprise her. Quite some time ago, she realized you never finished getting to know somepony. It was an ongoing process that lasted one’s entire life, even for one’s closest friends.

It was reasonable to assume the same concept held true for married couples. In fact—

Twilight frowned. She kept letting herself get distracted by philosophy and theory. This was not the time for theory. This was the time for action.

Twilight turned, took a deep breath, lifted her right rear hoof and bucked the door so hard, it actually cracked in its hardened cloud frame.

Somepony inside yelped. Then came a few crashes accompanied by sputtering and cursing. Then an incoherent growl rumbled through the entire structure, echoed by the rolling of thunder.

“Rainbow, please,” Twilight pleaded. “I’m your friend.”

The clouds stopped quaking, but grew darker. She could feel the rain pouring down from them, the chill seeping up through her hooves.

The door slowly opened. Twilight’s eyes went wide as a pegasus stepped out from the darkened interior of what had once been her home.

Rainbow Dash had never been the most fastidious of ponies. Despite Rarity’s claims that Rainbow secretly adored having her mane brushed or braided by Applejack, it tended to run rather wild. So seeing Rainbow’s mane in even more of a disarray than usual only made her vaguely curious. Everything else… that was a different matter entirely.

After Twilight had earned her wings, Rainbow had lectured her—at length—about how important proper coat and feather care was to maintain proper aerodynamics. After Rainbow had become the second-in-command of the Wonderbolts following Soarin’s transfer, she had become downright obsessive about her appearance.

Apparently, aerodynamics was not presently on Rainbow’s priority list. Rainbow’s coat was matted with sweat and smudged with dirt and dust. Her feathers hadn’t been preened in at least three or four days, as if she’d flown around the world a few times without a single stop. Both her mane and tail were stringy and limp. Enormous bags hung under her eyes, as if she hadn’t hadn’t a good night sleep in weeks… maybe even months. And while that was the most telling, it wasn’t the most disturbing.

Twilight had been troubled by the lack of rainbows at the cloud home. That sensation increased exponentially at seeing the dull depression—no, resignation—in Rainbow’s eyes. It was as if the spirit of the pegasus had flown to some distant land, never to return. Since the moment all those years ago when Rainbow had slammed the two of them into a mud puddle, there had always been a fire burning in the pony’s eyes.

Now, Twilight couldn’t even see the flicker of an ember.

“What?” Rainbow’s voice was about as dynamic as her eyes.

“Rainbow…” Twilight whispered. “What happened? Why are you up here?”

Rainbow stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I thought you only used this place as your office for official Wonderbolt work.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, “well, that changed a few weeks ago. Needed to happen.”

Twilight’s wings flared.

“A few… a few weeks ago?” Twilight sputtered. “You mean before you left on the last tour?”

Rainbow shrugged. “So what?”

“So what? Rainbow… what’s going on? Why aren’t you down there?” Twilight pointed a hoof down at the great farmhouse below. She couldn’t see any lights on inside. The whole place was dark now. “That’s your home.”

“Yup.” Rainbow’s complete lack of emotion twisted the knife in Twilight’s chest. “Better for everypony if I’m not there right now, though.”

“But… AJ!” Twilight sputtered. “She’s running the farm all by herself now! With Big Mac living up north with Sugar Belle and the new baby, not to mention Apple Bloom’s—”

“I know, Twilight, okay? I know she’s alone.” Rainbow leaned against the door frame. For a moment, her eyes seemed to drift downward before they slid back up to not quite meet Twilight’s gaze. “AB’s doing her CMC tour with Scoots and Sweetie Belle. Granny’s too old to do much in the way of helping out. It’s why she moved out there with Big Mac, to help with little Amber Apple. Old news.”

“So why aren’t you down there helping AJ?”

Finally, a bit of fire ignited in Rainbow’s eyes. It wasn’t any sort of friendly fire. It was a smoldering, ugly thing. Twilight stepped back at the sight of it.

“I’m helping just fine from up here. I do what she tells me… whenever she bothers telling me.”

“Rainbow!” Twilight snapped. “She’s your wife!”

“Oh, really? I had no idea.”

Rainbow shook her head, her ears flickering in annoyance. Twilight blinked and for the first time, realized the pegasus wasn’t wearing the cutie mark ear studs Applejack made for her ten years ago. Twilight had helped in their creation and spent days researching the old tradition to make sure they turned out perfect. And they had been, even the Princesses had said so. If Rainbow wasn’t wearing them…

“Thanks for the pep talk, Twilight, but I think it’s time for me to turn in.”

Rainbow moved to close the door, but Twilight jumped forward and shoved a hoof in before the pegasus could shut it.

“No, Rainbow, you need somepony to talk to,” Twilight insisted.

“Oh yeah, and that’s you? I should talk to the mare who married her former archnemesis?” Rainbow laughed in her face as Twilight recoiled. “What do you and Sunset argue over, huh? Which syllable to stress in a some stupid spell? You don’t have a clue what I’m going through. You don’t have a clue what she’s going through. So, just leave us alone!”

Twilight refused to take the bait. Instead, she went with a rather Rainbow-style solution: repetition. “Why are you up here, Rainbow? Why aren’t you down there?”

“None of your business, egghead. Go. Away.” Rainbow tried to close the door on Twilight’s hoof. Twilight winced but refused to move. “What’s your problem? Get out of here! Go back to your perfect life!”

“Rainbow, we’re friends! And you know my life isn’t perfect! I’m not just going to leave you to—”

In an instant, Rainbow was in Twilight’s face, less than half an inch away. That same ugly fire in her eyes raged like an out-of-control inferno. It took everything Twilight had not to back away, especially when she realized just what she was seeing.

Hatred.

“Back off, Princess. You don’t know anything about this. I don’t need you to just make things worse and remind me of everything I’ve done wrong!”

“What? But I never—!”

“You would! Everypony else has! And they’re right!”

Below, Winona barked a few times as Rainbow’s voice echoed over the sleeping farm. Rainbow blinked and backed away.

“Actually…” she said slowly in an eerily calm voice. “There’s something you can do to help.”

“What?” Twilight asked eagerly. “What is it?”

Rainbow stepped into the shadows of her cloudominium. Twilight couldn’t quite see in the gloom, but she didn’t have to. Only a few seconds passed before Rainbow dropped a scroll on the doorstep before Twilight.

“Just drop that off in the mail, will you? Don’t really feel like doing it myself. Too tired.”

The scroll had a wax stamp, but it wasn’t sealed. Twilight frowned as she lifted it in her magic. She had to tilt it to see in the moonlight, but when she did, her frown deepened.

“This is… this is the Wonderbolt Executive Seal,” Twilight said slowly. “It’s only used for letters of acceptance or letters of…”

Twilight’s eyes drifted up to Rainbow’s. There was a small, mirthless smile on Rainbow’s muzzle.

“Hey, maybe it’ll help.”

Twilight felt a spike of fear. Ignoring the faint sense of displeasure at invading her friend’s privacy, she unrolled the scroll and read it in a flash. It was only a few lines long.

Dash didn’t even try and stop her.

“You’re retiring?” Twilight shouted. “Are you insane? Dash, you became the Wonderbolt’s second-in-command only nine months ago! You’ve worked your entire life for this!”

“And I stopped caring about it over a year ago,” Rainbow said with an apathetic shrug, her eyes distant. “Maybe it’ll be enough to show her I still care. What I’m willing to do…”

“By giving up on your lifelong dream?”

“Hey, you’re the one who told me compromise is a big part of marriage. Or something like that. You said it fancier.”

“Does she know?”

“Nah,” Rainbow smiled that same mirthless smile. “It’s going to be a surprise!”

“Rainbow, you can’t…” Twilight swallowed, took the letter in her magic and concentrated. In a flash, the letter vanished.

“Huh. Teleported it over? Nice.”

“No,” Twilight replied. “It’s back at the castle.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “Twilight…”

“Talk to her first.”

“You don’t get to make that call, Twilight!” Rainbow shouted, her wings flaring into a full-blown battlestance. “It’s my life!”

“No!” Twilight snapped. “It’s your life and hers! Together!”

“Don’t give me any more of this stupid therapist babble!” Rainbow spat. “I don’t want it. I don’t need it!”

“You haven’t even told me what’s going on!” Twilight shot back. Her own wings were flared. She wasn’t about to back down, not in the face of Rainbow being ready to throw away everything. “You haven’t told anypony what happened. AJ isn’t talking. Both of you are tearing yourselves apart, ignoring all your friends who are trying to help you! And nopony knows why!”

“Maybe because this isn’t something you can fix, egghead!” Rainbow bellowed. “Maybe because it’s my fault and there’s nothing I can do and I screwed up so badly that I’m not about to let all of you girls take pity on me! I don’t want anypony’s pity! I don’t need it! I don’t deserve it! Because… because…”

She trailed off and slid to the ground, her voice trailing away into choking noises.

There were some in Equestria—even some in Ponyville—who thought that Rainbow Dash only existed for competition, speed and the occasional bout of showboating. Twilight knew better. When she had first met the pegasus, Rainbow had often grated on her nerves. And Dash could still be a bit dense from time to time. But she’d grown up. From taking on Scootaloo as her adopted little sister, to that critical moment at the Wonderbolts Academy and so many other times… well, Twilight knew that Rainbow was more than just her name.

Even with all that, there was only one time she had ever seen Rainbow anywhere close to this: the day she’d been confronted with the fact that Tank needed to hibernate through what would have been their first winter together.

This wasn’t quite as loud. It wasn’t quite as dramatic. But the pain… the pain was the same. The look of abject misery. Tears streamed down Rainbow’s eyes, falling just beyond the doorframe into the clouds below, creating little puffs of gray stormcloud with every drop.

Right there, Rainbow fell apart.

Twilight Sparkle knew many things.

But at that moment… seeing one of the most confident ponies she had ever known collapse in on herself like a black hole… she realized there was nothing she knew that had prepared her for this.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."

- 1 Corinthians 13:4