Laughter wafted out the open windows to Sugarcube Corner. None of the chortling voices made Rainbow's heart jumped, and that was how she knew that Pinkie Pie wasn't among them. Trotting by, she found it curious just how tiny the pink, ornamental bakery was up close. A place that small couldn't contain Pinkie Pie for long, so it was a wonder that she wasn't bursting out at the exact time that Rainbow Dash made her melancholic stroll.
Was it Rainbow's fault that her friends were so terribly easy to avoid?
Rainbow Dash spotted the central market of Ponyville in her peripheral vision. There, she sensed moving, wandering, conversing figures. There was no shouting... no arguing... just a domestic hush that kept the heart of the town beating, lingering, but never skipping.
It was a miracle that Rainbow Dash had lasted a single night when she first arrived there, brash and boastful, several years ago.
A mule drew a wagon across the main road. A flock of birds fluttered over head. Rainbow looked... turned... inhaled and exhaled. Her eyes caught the distant glint of a clock tower on the southwest side of town. Not far away—she knew—Fluttershy's cottage rested... a final bastion of cobblestone before the Everfree endlessness.
She took the long way around the west end of town, approaching the forest.
At last, Rainbow Dash froze in her tracks.
The edge of the forest lay before her. A mild clearing ate its way into the verdant canopy. Just a half-hour's stroll at her current speed, and she'd be at the front stoop to Zecora's hut.
She'd be one conversation away from hooking up with Noir's lunar companions.
A bright afternoon buzzed overhead. Golden rays of sunlight glinted off the leaves of wind-swept tree boughs. Rainbow was momentarily afraid that—if she took wing—she might be blinded.
The shade invited her end. She teetered... tipped forward on the edges of her hooves...
...but moved no further.
The silence in her throat had hardened into a sour lump. So much had evaporated... so much had melted and been swept away... but she was still a bundle of confused thoughts wrapped around an aching core.
She had to press on forward.
She needed to move on...
...which is precisely why Rainbow Dash didn't. Heavy hooves took her stumbling about... until she didn't know where she was going—only that it wasn't towards the Everfree Forest. It wasn't towards Zecora's hut.
And before Rainbow Dash knew it...
...she was lost.
For the first time in months, it almost felt like an upgrade.