She felt guilty; watching the night sky tear itself to pieces. It was a storm. It was a bad storm. The rain drove itself into the ground, mercilessly condemning the earth underneath to a savage beating. The wind tore into itself, lashing violently into the night sky as if trying to soothe an endless anger. The lighting rippled across the sky in jagged lines of white rage and the thunder blared like some devastating war drum, promising suffering to anypony whom might oppose it. And even though she knew it might be silly, Rainbow Dash felt guilty anyway. She didn't know quite why exactly, but watching the sky, her sky, destroy itself with it's own fury was upsetting her.
Oh, she knew very well that it wasn't her fault. That it was nopony's fault really. They never really had control. They could shift the weather, yes. Could manipulate it, change it, and modify it for their needs. A sunny day here, little shower there. But to control it? To dictate to the very sky itself what it could, and could not do? The idea itself was laughable- if it weren't so utterly horrifying. Not her fault, no, but as a captain of the weather team, it tore at her.
Twilight had once mused that changing the weather to suit the needs of ponies disrupted some sort of natural flow of nature itself. Meddling with it's 'schedule' caused the random anomalies of the weather that were dangerous, and while Rainbow hadn't given it much thought at the time, now the conversation haunted her. Could she have been doing this all along? Crushing the sky itself with her weather work? No-no, these things just happened. She was sure of it, but still, asking Twilight about it couldn't hurt.
The lightning bit through every corner of darkness in Rainbow's house, flashing through the halls and doorways with a sickening crack, but she'd long been used to the sounds of storms. The endless echoes of thunder, and the volume of the lightning barely caused the twitch of an ear, and it was precisely that reason, that Rainbow caught the sound of something else. A dull thud in the explosions of the storm. Something not made from the storm itself- outside it's range of influence. Hail, perhaps- but then there it was again. Soft blue ears arched violently into the air, and Rainbow whipped her body around towards the front door. She'd been sitting in the kitchen, the power of the storm having woken her up in the wee hours of the morning. There it was again- this time three in succession. A knock. Somepony was knocking on her door. In the middle of the night. In the middle of this terrifying display of nature's power. The sound echoed through the house once more, and Rainbow bounced to her hooves. It was insanity- knocking at the door, at this time of night, in this kind of weather- so what did it say about her; she who answered the knock.
On her doorstep, stood a pony. Her mane had lost it's pretentious and arrogant spikes- tufts of gold now drooping down into her face. Her fur was ragged, the aqua colored coat drenched in freezing rain, and her eyes-those hopeful, expressive golden eyes, no longer had the spark Rainbow Dash remembered. A pony of broken dreams and savage nightmares trembled before her. A pony Rainbow Dash once considered a friend.
"Lightning Dust?" The name was sputtered and broken. Never, had Rainbow Dash expected Lightning Dust to appear on her doorstep, broken and soaked, and clearly in dire need of help. Help, Rainbow Dash was not hesitant to offer.
The voice was little more than a whisper, fractured and shredded as it trickled past her throat. "I...D-don't have anywhere go. " Humbled words. Words Rainbow Dash never wanted to say- words that made her cringe just to think about. Words she never wanted to hear from a pony like Lightning Dust. Slack jawed and at a loss for her own response, Rainbow simply nodded her head and stepped to one side, beckoning Lightning into her home. She shuffled inside, her steps were sullen and quiet, anchored by defeat and depression. Rainbow Dash hated seeing it even more. Lightning Dust was so much like her they might as well be sisters. Watching her hurt like this was a stabbing pain in her heart. Lightning Dust was just like her, before the hard lessons of Loyalty were carved out for Rainbow's destiny. Younger maybe. Reckless definitely. It was a strange juxtaposition Rainbow felt, staring at Lightning Dust. She was suddenly the responsible one in the house. The wiser one. She shivered.
"You know, I thought you were reckless, not nuts. What the hay are you doing out in the middle of a storm like that? And how did you find my house? Do you have any idea how dangerous flying is during a-" Rainbow paused, her words lost to the sight of Lightning dust having fallen asleep on the couch. Exhausted and tapped out of every last drop of energy she had. Rainbow Dash knew that feeling- track and acrobatics back in flight school had done that to her.
"Guess we'll talk in the morning. " Rainbow said quietly. Silently, Rainbow Dash opened the closet in the hallway, and rifled through what scant clothing she had to pluck out a blanket, which she gently pulled across Lightning's frame. Outside, the wind howled, and the lightning split the sky in two. Lightning Dust however, was fast asleep through it all. You could sleep through a hurricane, if you were tired enough. Rainbow knew that first hoof, and Lightning looked like she'd had better days. Gazing one last time at Lightning Dust, and pinching herself to make sure this wasn't a dream, Rainbow Dash wandered back into her room, and tried to drift off to sleep. She had the very distinct feeling that she would need it and she'd need to take the day off of work tomorrow. This was going to turn out to be an adventure.
She just knew it.