Dusk had to be Rainbow Dash's absolute favorite time in the day. That time in which light of the sun began to wane, yet still cast its warm glow throughout the world. She especially enjoyed the varying colors reflected throughout the sky and in the clouds, stamping the region with unique hues that changed not only every night, but every few moments. At times Rainbow Dash would take to the air and climb higher and higher as the sun sank lower and lower so that her eyes could savor a particular moment of beauty just a little bit longer.

Then, once she could climb no higher, and the moment had past she would let herself fall. Neither gliding nor diving, she would let her body relax, basking in the last of the sun's warmth so it could caress her body while gravity pulled her down through other lesser moments of beauty. This was the time when she truly appreciated being born a Pegasus. Having been given the chance to view the world from many different perspectives and enjoy its natural beauty in any way she chose. Rainbow Dash’s speed and agility were what made people notice her and called her gifted for. But this choice in moments of beauty and bliss where the true gifts that life had provided for her and her alone.

Normally she reserved such a practice to end days that were particularly stressful, which required the special relaxing time to unwind. However, she would also do so on days that were exceptionally good too, punctuating it with one last occasion to make the day distinct. With all the ups and downs of recent times though, Rainbow had begun to simply turn it into a daily practice. There was no reason to deprive herself of it. Besides, every day was special in its own way.

Tonight’s view was particularly gorgeous. With the wide scattering of clouds she’d set up for the next day there were so many shades of oranges, purples, blues, pinks and yellows she almost wanted to go ask Princess Celestia to hold the sunset where it was for a few more hours. Yet, like all other moments, this one was eventually forced to pass and Rainbow Dash tumbled back to terra-firma, letting relaxation consume her body for a few extra moments than were technically safe. As the ground approached she pointed her head down into a dive and snapped her wings open, and pulled up as sharply as she could. It was only then she realized that Twilight’s massive oak library was looming directly in her path.

The Pegasus turned sharply to avoid a collision, but in her haste she’d forgotten to steer to the lee side and was promptly smashed through an upper story window by a gust of wind. After shattering the window events were a jumble of indistinguishable flashes, but she did recall annihilating a table and bouncing off of at least 3 walls before pin-wheeling wildly into a bookshelf. It was fortunate she felt the weighty shelves behind her lean otherwise she wouldn’t have managed to scramble from beneath its crushing trajectory (Twilight’s writing desk was not nearly so lucky). As the dust settled Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief that she’d made it out unhurt. Unfortunately, the chaos the room had suffered in her stead probably set a new personal record.

Twilight stormed up the stairs to investigate the commotion. “What in the wide world of Equaaaa….” If the room hadn’t been given a busted window the purple unicorn’s gasp at that moment would have created a temporary vacuum. Her eyes darted back and forth around the room taking in every detail of the devastation done to her precious office, her personal sanctuary of study, the place where she kept her most advanced works and materials. “I-i-bu-bu-bu-bu-b-y-y-yo-y-y-m-m-my.” Unable to form a coherent thought to voice any portion of what she felt, Twilight shut her mouth and took a sharp breath of air.

Rainbow Dash afraid for her own wellbeing tried to head the unicorn’s retribution off with an apology. “Twilight, I am SOO sorry. I-I-I can fix this, really!” But instead of rebuking her flying friend Twilight turned and left the room, closing the door almost as if nothing was wrong at all. Confused by this action Rainbow Dash took a few tentative steps toward the same door. “Umm .... Twilig-”

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” The force of Twilight’s scream nearly forced the door off its hinges. “This can’t be happening, this isn’t happening. My desk, oh my precious desk; my parents bought me that desk and now it’s just a pile of splinters. I had all my own personally invented spells written in that desk. I’ve been working on those since before I came to Ponyville. And my latest report to Celestia was right on top. And the bookshelf was destroyed. Most of those books were on LOAN. And not just on lone. They were on loan from the ROAYL ARCHIVES. Starswirl’s ancient texts and scrolls were in there. I’ve never damaged a book before; I’ve never even folded a page. Okay, there was the time I fell asleep and drooled in the middle of Clover the Clever’s account of the Saddle Arabian Uprising, but everyone knows about that.”

Hearing Twilight freak out to herself like that seemed even worse than if she’d just take it out on her. She hadn’t meant to crash into the office like that. She hadn’t even been doing anything all that crazy like was normally the case when she crashed into somepony’s business or residence. Rainbow Dash opened up the door and timidly made her way down the stairs into Twilights bedroom. Spike, having taken up the habit of sleeping with ear-plugs had somehow managed to not awaken. Rainbow Dash stopped behind Twilight who had now begun what seemed to be deep breathing exercises on her bed while clutching a pillow with an increasingly frightening desperation. “Twilight I-”

“Get out.”

Though spoken at a near whisper, those words carried the weight of an anvil on Rainbow Dash’s heart, causing her head to drop in shame. “Please, Twi just-”

Twilight turned her head, revealing the tears streaking her face. “I said get out.”

Seeing her friend in tears like this nearly clamped a vice around her own throat. “I’m sorry Twilight, I-”

“No.” she commanded, interrupting her friend for the third time in a row with a tone in her voice that would chip flint. “You don’t get to be sorry right now,” she declared as she rounded on the cyan pegasus. “You just destroyed my study; my sanctuary. The one, singular place I have in this entire town where everything is always perfect, just for me.”

“I didn’t me-”

“No. No talking,” she demanded. “You listen. Not only did you ruin my study, but you probably damaged at least a dozen ancient texts from the Royal Archives. I realize that may not mean anything to you, so I’ll spell it out. Royal Archive texts don’t get handed out to anypony. In most cases they are only permitted to be read within the walls of the Royal Library itself. And none of them are permitted to leave the castle, and are protected by several enchantments to prevent their theft. The only reason they can be sent all the way here, an entire day’s journey from Canterlot, is because Princess Celestia herself removes those enchantments so I can keep up with my studies.”

Rainbow Dash now had to fight back tears under the assault of Twilight’s passionless, icy diatribe. She felt smaller than Applejack after they all had their run in with Poison-Joke so long ago. She didn’t dare look up into the unicorn’s hard, tear-filled eyes because she knew it would probably break her. How could so much go wrong after a day that had felt so right?

Twilight turned away and trotted back up to her demolished study. Rainbow Dash followed to help clean up some of the damage, but just before she made it to the doorway Twilight used her magic to slam the door. Peeking through the keyhole she watched Twilight curl up on the back broken bookshelf and sob to herself.

Rainbow Dash wanted nothing more than to go and comfort her friend; to apologize for the hurt she’d caused. She wanted to beg and plead for forgiveness she knew she didn’t deserve. She wanted to help try and fix at least some of what she’d broken. But she also knew that Twilight didn’t want anyone right now, least of all her.

However, she couldn’t bring herself to leave either. Even after being told to ‘get out’ Rainbow Dash couldn’t bring herself to turn away from the unicorn she’d caused so much pain. So she did the only thing she could do. She curled up on the stairs as best she could and waited. Though a slight draft in the air gave her chills she didn’t move to get a blanket. She didn’t even try to wipe the tears from her eyes. She didn't deserve any of those small comforts a person gave themselves when they felt this way. So she just lay there on the steps just outside the door holding back her sobbing until her body couldn’t take the stress anymore and passed out just to force its owner to stop punishing it.

Author's Note

So ... Rainbow Dash's crashing into things finally turned into something more than just a "hehe, oops, sorry" and everything's all better ... This turned a bit sadder than i'd hoped for it to be but hopefully things will get better in the morning ... hopefully

Comments Questions and Critiques are all greatly appreciated