As darkness continued to slowly overtake the village, Twilight wandered mindlessly through the streets with a thoughtful frown. Her pensive stare bored mercilessly into the ground.
“Why would Pinkie be so upset with me? Pinkie’s never upset! Unless... did I break a Pinkie Promise somehow? No, if that were the case she would’ve outright told me.” Twilight reached the outskirts of Ponyville but still kept walking, unaware. “There’s something strange going on with that pony... stranger than usual. Maybe one of my other friends will know what’s wrong. But who should I—”
“Twilight!” cried a familiar voiced. The sudden sound broke Twilight’s thought process and she quickly realized where she was. Looking around revealed that she was on the dirt path which led to the Everfree Forest, and a large house made of clouds floated unassumingly to her right. It was this particular site that made her aware of precisely who had called her name.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called, noticing a cyan creature hovering in from of the cumulus structure. “I need to talk to you. I was just talking to Pinkie Pie and she seemed really upset with me, but she wouldn’t—”
As if this sentence had been the gun to signal the start of a race, Rainbow Dash bolted straight towards the ground-bound unicorn and shoved her face against her friend’s. Only now could Twilight see that Rainbow was scowling menacingly.
“You’re darn right she’s upset! Everypony’s angry with you! What you did today was totally un-awesome, un-radical, and uncool. I didn’t even know something could be all three of those at once!” Twilight had backed away slightly during the pegasus’ tirade, but Rainbow made sure to keep close.
Her expression aghast from yet another angry outburst from one of her friends, Twilight stammered, “W-what did I do?! I went to Canterlot for the day! How could everyone be so mad at me when I never even talked to any of them today?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Twi. It’s because you weren’t here that we’re all so mad at you, and you know exactly why!”
Twilight racked her brain as hard as she could. All she had done was go to Canterlot on a day that would’ve otherwise been spent studying and running errands. There was no reason for all this aggression, she was sure of it... but then why were two of her best friends so dead set against her?
“I’m sorry Rainbow, I have no idea why you’re mad at me. Why can’t you just tell me? I’m starting to get upset with you!”
The rage in Rainbow’s features intensified, accentuating the red in her mane. “You’re upset?! Do you even realize how upset—” Some sort of pain seemed to come to the ranting pegasus’ memory as she stopped. She bit her lip and turned her head violently to one side, slamming her eyes shut as if her eyeballs were about to fall out of their sockets. The only sound between the two friends for a moment was that of a summer chinook which whistled gently across the path. Then, just as suddenly as she had stopped her verbal assault, Rainbow turned and slowly flew back towards her cloud home.
“Rainbow...” Twilight called, gentle and desperate. “Please, talk to me. I can’t fix whatever I did unless I know what it is, and the only way I can find out is with the help of a friend. Please don’t just turn away from me...”
The homebound pony paused, the only motion on her body coming from the wind gently tossing her mane. A seemingly eternal moment of silence took hold before she replied. “Loyalty’s a two way street Twi... remember that.” Rainbow let her message sink is as she vanished into the entryway of her sky home, leaving Twilight alone in the gaze of the sunset.