Where the Rainbow ends.

The unmistakeable, always grumpy voice of Ms. Harshwhinny shattered their intimacy with the discretion of a turbo jackhammer.

Rainbow immediately wanted to get up but Soarin reacted first. He grabbed her back and hugged her tightly without even breaking the kiss, making the scene even more promiscuous. It took a moment for Rainbow to catch on but after that she eagerly joined in the game.

Ms. Harshwhinny and Soarin had been viewing each other with mutual disdain ever since that disqualification incident almost a decade ago. In short, the anti-doping committee - led by Ms. Harshwhinny at the time - deleted half a years worth of achievements because Soarin failed to show up at a random drug test which just so happened to be in the middle of their honeymoon. It was a nasty ordeal that involved a lot of shouting, legal shenanigans and a light bulb that somehow ended up in somepony’s rectum. It all ended with Soarin officially retiring from competitive flying at the age of thirty-one. From that point onwards Soarin never missed a chance to cross Ms. Harshwhinny when he felt he could do it without jeopardising his wife’s career.

“You might be interested to know that Mrs Skies-Dash is exactly fifty-seven seconds late. Also my Celestia given patience will run out in approximately ten seconds… Nine.”

Rainbow reluctantly broke the kiss and staggered onto her hooves. “Sorry Soar, you know she isn’t bluffing.”

Soarin just sighed and nodded, before pushing himself up with his wings and stood. He leaned his forehead to Rainbow’s and told her, “show her what you’re made of, Rainboom.” Then turned around and with equestria’s most dishonest smile on his face he bowed before Ms. Harshwhinny. “Your Excellency.” His words were dripping with contempt fuelled hatred.

“Mr. Skies-Dash.” Harshwhinny was way too experienced to react to such obvious provocation in any way whatsoever. Especially since Soarin had been calling her that for about ten years. “Mrs Skies-Dash?” She enquired.

Rainbow reservedly nodded and followed Mrs Harshwhinny without a word. They went through several long empty hallways, listening only to their hooves silently plopping into the cloudfloor. It was a bit unusual that the head of the organisers personally came for Rainbow, but she wasn’t really surprised. She couldn’t help but smile a bit, remembering how many times Ms. Harshwhinny had to personally come for her to drag her to the starting line. One time when Rainbow and Soarin were fooling around backstage she grabbed her by the ear and literally dragged her across the whole venue, in front of every staff member and racer.

And although all their conflicts gave Rainbow more than enough reason to hate her, throughout the years she actually got quite fond of the old matron. She had this strange aura that peculiarly blurred anypony around her. When she walked through a corridor, no matter whom she walked by she got everypony’s attention, all silently praying that the unrepentant incarnation of justice wasn’t coming for them this time.

Not that this affected her. Or that anything affected her at all. She had one goal; to run the race smoothly. And if what that took was handling a national hero and sport celebrity like a 6 year old foal, she did just that. Rainbow respected her unmatched professionalism immensely. She would have never admitted it to anypony but the old mare did teach her a lot.

Under her supervision everything always ran smoothly. Rainbow never knew a more punctual pony in her life and she doubted that she ever would. It was rather spooky actually. She could always tell the time by the second without ever checking any clock. And she was always one hundred percent right.

That gave Rainbow an intriguing thought. Walking the distance between the locker room and the prep room took more than fifty-seven seconds. So she must have moved directly to the lockers without even checking the prep room if she was there. And while she might have been the most rigorous mare in the world when it came to punishing ponies for their offences, she’d never been judgemental. She never assumed somepony was going to violate the rules even if it had a pretty solid chance. Rainbow couldn’t figure out why she did that now, but she decided to keep her eyes open for other anomalies.

However not even her perceptive eyes could’ve seen what was coming. Because for the first time in their countless walks together Ms. Harshwhinny spoke up.

“It’s strange, after all these years to walk along these corridors knowing that this’ll be your last time.”

“Yeah… I guess.” Rainbow was beyond flabbergasted. Ms. Harshwhinny was smalltalking. What has gotten into the world?

Then it hit her. It hit her so hard that it made her gasp and stop as if she just ran into an invisible brick wall face first.

“That wasn’t a question.” Rainbow mumbled with utter disbelief in her voice.

Ms. Harshwhinny stopped as well and gave Rainbow a frustrated glare “Mrs Skies-Dash?” she asked with a voice that said ‘If you don’t come this instance, I’m going to disqualify your plot into retirement’.

“You didn’t ask me if it was strange to walk these hallways. And you aren’t the type of pony who would just assume my feelings which means…” Rainbow‘s face turned into the biggest-toothiest-most-shit-eating grin in recorded history.

Ms. Harshwhinny broke into a faint, sly smile. “Which means that I must be walking these corridors for the last time too,” she admitted. “I’m glad I didn’t make a tardy fool out of myself in the locker room for nothing”

“But why?”

“Why did I decide to retire?” Harshwhinny finished Rainbow’s question. “Despite what athletes think they aren’t the only ones who work their plot off every season. How many seasons have you had? Eighteen?” Only Ms. Harshwhinny could raise her left eyebrow in such a way that instantly made anypony’s accomplishments seem completely trivial. “Minus the two you missed due to having a foal. You probably don’t want to know how long I’ve been doing this… I certainly wouldn’t if I had the chance of not knowing it.”

She rolled her eyes, “I just grew old. Times are changing and the old guard must step down to give way to the new one.”

“A truly touching story.” Rainbow‘s voice was slightly sarcastic despite the fact the she was indeed touched that she saw the unexceptionable, unapproachable Ms. Harshwhinny so vulnerable; so like a normal pony. But Rainbow respected her far too much to offer her compassion like she would for any other pony. Harshwhinny would just get mad that she tried to treat her as a foal. Sarcasm was a much safer option. “But why are you telling me?” Rainbow gave her best impression of the trademark Ms. Harshwhinny eyebrow raise.

“Asking the right question… I like it.” Ms. Harshwhinny was clearly uncomfortable with the situation. She had enough mental fortitude not to fiddle about with her hooves - or scratch the back of her neck. Even most of her face was frozen in it’s neutral-annoyed expression. But her eyes, her eyes gave her away. They looked at the window, the ceiling, the floor, anywhere but Rainbow. Watching this tyrannical vanguard of rules acting so flustered was surprisingly… cute. In a brutal, horribly uncomfortable sort of way.

“62 days ago,” She began after a long and tired sigh, “It was around 4:07 pm. I was sitting in my office, my office hours about to end and I had mostly finished my work for the day. Only one document was left on the table: My new contract. Two seasons, nice pay, my favourite position as Chief Organising Director and not some foolish Anti-Doping supervisor or something”

Rainbow made a mental note about sharing this with Soarin later because she felt this was the closest thing they’d ever get to an apology

“When a colleague stormed into my room looking like he just flew the mustang marathon. He asked if I heard the news. Of course I asked what news, because that wasn’t too specific. And then he told me that you had just announced your impending retirement. We exchanged a few words after that and then he went away to do his own job.” Ms. Harshwhinny took a big breath and hesitated a few seconds, unsure whether she should go on but ultimately decided it was too late to turn back.

“I looked back at my contract. It only missed my signature, but suddenly it just didn’t feel right for me to sign it. You probably didn’t know, but that Equestria games in the Crystal empire was a first for me too. As the head of the organising committee that is. There I saw a rainbow maned little mare barely more than teen, but already the topic of rumours among the sports fans. A mare that almost did the unthinkable and single wingedly beat the three fastest wonderbolts of the time. From that point on I had the privilege to see you develop into that indescribable wonder you were in your peak, and then turn into the legend you are now.” Ms. Harshwhinny stopped once more to pry any reaction out of Rainbow, who tried her best to keep a straight face in this most extraordinary situation. She had no idea whether she succeeded in her attempts or not, but Ms. Harshwhinny continued nonetheless.

“No matter what it looks like, we organisers do like sports. Passionately, if I might say so.” That cheeky little smile appeared on her face again, signalling that she was fully aware how ridiculous this sounded from her. “Many of us have failed to have sporting careers of our own. We ended with our dreams escaping, stifled, crushed - call it whatever you want. But the knowledge that despite our failures, our work facilitated all those spectacular feats by those remarkable individuals. To see them better themselves, pushing the boundaries of pony capabilities gives a little back of what we lost. And I was unbelievably lucky. I don’t think any of my predecessors had the chance to work with a champion like you. You gave meaning to my life’s work in way nopony could have. So as my career - in a way - started with you it only felt right it also ends with you.”

Ms. Harshwhinny finally looked up to Rainbow, her eyes filled with a plethora of emotions and broke into a deferential mumble. “So, thank you… I… Thank you… Just, thank you.”

That was it. Rainbow couldn’t restrain herself anymore. She just walked up to Ms. Harshwhinny embraced her so tightly that Ms. Harshwhinny felt her head was going to pop right off her shoulder. “Thank you for making me the pony I am today.” She told Ms. Harshwhinny without letting her go.

“You’re welcome, but if you don’t stop invading my personal space I’m going to make you regret you ever tried competitive flying.” Ms. Harshwhinny deadpanned.

Rainbow quickly let her go. She had no doubt that Ms. Harshwhinny could and would make this threat a reality. After all she never bluffed, or talked big without reason.

The rest of the walk to the prep room went by pretty normally. As Rainbow expected, Ms. Harshwhinny quickly returned to her usual restrained self, looking as if nothing had happened a few seconds ago. But knowing her for longer than a decade and a half Rainbow knew that it was the little things that told the most about her. Like the fact that throughout the rest of their walk she never even once mentioned how terribly late they were even though they must have been pretty damn late.

When they reached the door of the prep room Ms. Harshwhinny noded briefly at Rainbow and said, “Mrs Skies-Dash.”

Rainbow returned both the nod and the farewell.“Ms. Harshwhinny,” and reached for the door.