Chapter Three: 20 Days to Canterlot Three
The climb was steep, but not tiring. For once, Harshwhinny had decided to, quite literally, pull her own weight and give Applejack a much needed rest as they dragged their bodies up the mountain. Not far away, Applejack could see the towers of Canterlot Castle. She had never seen them from this angle. The way the sunlight bounced off the colourful rooftops was mesmerising.
It had been two hours since they had left a cleaned cabin and continued making their way up. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire had left afterwards, taking much longer to clean up their respective messes, but they had caught up pretty quickly. Applejack was glad for that. Harshwhinny wasn't much for conversation, and without a familiar face she thought she'd have gone insane.
"It's pretty sweet from up here," Rainbow said, adjusting her duffel-bag on her shoulders. "I don't think I ever bothered to fly this high above Canterlot."
Applejack imagined she wouldn't have. She pointed at some vineyards down the mountainside. "I didn't realise those were there," she said.
"Chateau Camargrape," Harshwhinny said. "They're quite famous, you know."
"I'm not much of a wine drinker," Rainbow said. "But hey, if they're that close, I'll give 'em a shot."
“You ought to,” Harshwhinny said. “They’re renowned across the entire world.”
Rainbow held her hooves up. “Hey, there’s no need to wine about it,” she said, then smiled from ear to ear. “Eh?”
Harshwhinny groaned.
“Eh?” Rainbow repeated, her smile threatening to take over her entire face. It might set up a military occupation there, even, and begin expansively conquering nearby faces in a grab for power.
Harshwhinny resisted the invasion.
Spitfire was examining something different, even further away, hidden in the shadow of the mountain.
"What are you lookin' at?" Applejack asked.
"The games," Spitfire said. "They're setting the events up. There, you can see the stadium."
Applejack squinted. "Oh yeah," she said. "Looks pretty small from up here."
"Bigger closer up," Spitfire said. She sniffed. "Louder, too."
"Yeah, they'll cheer pretty loudly when we win," Rainbow said, nudging Applejack in the side. "Right?"
Applejack didn't feel like bravado. She wondered if her parents had been as confident as Rainbow, back when they competed.
"I reckon they'll cheer pretty loudly either way," she said. "But I hope it'll be for us."
The four ponies continued up the trail. Trees were still commonplace, but they were different from the trees down below. They looked greyer. Tougher. Applejack also couldn't help but notice that it was getting much colder than down below. She eyed Rainbow Dash.
"You ain't cold?" she asked.
Rainbow shrugged. "I'm kinda built for high altitudes," she said. "Why? Are you cold?"
Applejack immediately stared dead ahead. "No." To Harshwhinny, she asked "Are we almost there?"
"Just another half hour," Harshwhinny replied. "Then we'll arrive at the hotel."
Resting on a cliff hanging over what looked like hundreds of feet worth of emptiness was a small complex. It was different from the wooden cabin further down in several ways. It was partly made of stone, for starters. It had a cleaner, neater garden surrounding it. Perhaps most importantly, however, it looked inhabited.
The sound of water on stone was omnipresent. Applejack looked around at the building and surroundings, visibly impressed. She wondered if tonight she might be able to sleep in an actually soft bed, not just a sleeping bag on a glorified hammock.
"What's this place?" Rainbow asked. "It looks like a sweet hotel."
"This location is home to several small pools and waterfalls, many of which we will be making use of," Harshwhinny said. "They're a bit more special than the stream I had Applejack canter up."
"There are hot springs here too," Spitfire said. "There's some sort of volcanic activity inside the mountain, and it can heat up some of the pools. This place is actually quite a popular resort in some circles."
Rich circles, no doubt, Applejack thought. This place looked expensive.
The four ponies walked through the large glass doors. Applejack's hooves positively tingled as they rubbed over the soft carpet. There was a large glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was no castle, Applejack thought, but it reminded her a lot of the wealthier Manehattan hotels Rarity would insist on staying at.
A pony behind a desk looked up at them. She smiled as her eyes fell on Harshwhinny and Spitfire.
"Oh, welcome back," she said, getting to her hooves. "It's been a long time since your last visit."
Harshwhinny nodded. "Yes, I had to take a break," she said. "Family reasons."
"Well," the pony said, undeterred, "We currently have three rooms free. There was a surprise booking for a wedding, you see..."
"That's fine, we only need three," Harshwhinny said, and turned to Applejack and Rainbow. "I'm sure you don't mind sharing."
"I'm sure we won't," Applejack replied. Still wouldn't have minded being asked, though, she thought.
The receptionist went back behind the desk to find the room keys. "I assume you'll also want the key to the, um, special waterfall?"
Harshwhinny nodded. "That's right."
"Okay. Just remember, stick to the opening hours unless you have a member of staff accompanying you," the receptionist said. "You're already aware of the rules, of course..."
"I am."
"We both are," Spitfire added.
"Special waterfall?" Rainbow asked.
"Here are your keys, then!" the receptionist said. "Room 201, 202, and 309. 309 is a twin single."
"That'll be ours, then," Applejack said, taking the key. "Thanks." She looked towards Rainbow. “You cool sharing?”
“Yeah, sure. You don’t snore, do you?”
"Breakfast is still from seven until ten. We serve lunch all day, and the dinner menu is available from six until eleven." She smiled. "You know where the gym is, and the indoor pool."
Harshwhinny turned to Applejack. "Today is a rest day, so head up to your room and, well, do whatever you fancy," she said.
"Same for you, recruit," Spitfire added. "We'll get to work tomorrow." She turned to Harshwhinny. "I'm going to hit the gym, though. It's been all well and good for Dash, but I've not broken a sweat this whole trip."
Harshwhinny nodded. "Likewise."
Rainbow and Applejack both watched the pair leave.
"Wonder what she meant by 'family reasons," Applejack said.
"I wonder what she meant by 'special waterfall'," Rainbow countered. "Weird. Hey, wanna' explore once we dropped our stuff at the room?"
"I wouldn't mind some food," Applejack replied.
"Come on, just a quick look before we eat, 'kay?"
Applejack sighed. "Fine, I'm game."
"Sweet! C'mon, let's go."
This part of the mountain was quite different from the very wild, untamed forest Applejack had been in until now. There were more rocks here, for starters. Trees were scarce, and smaller. The grass was very short, and there were plenty of mountain flowers. Of course, the air was much colder, and there was an almost permanent breeze.
"Jeez, you can see everything from up here!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Pretty awesome."
Applejack turned to look up towards the mountain peak. Past this point, the slope of the mountain looked incredibly steep. Too steep to climb, she thought. There's have to be a very winding track or staircase, otherwise you'd need proper cliff-climbing gear to make it all the way to the top.
"Pretty tall, huh?" Rainbow said. "Y'know, when Cloudsdale floats around here, we have to be careful we don't accidentally crash into the mountain. That's just how big it is."
"Don't surprise me," Applejack said. "Biggest mountain in Equestria, ain't it?"
"Something like that," Rainbow replied. She flew around the grassy slopes surrounding the hotel for a bit. "This place looks awesome to stay in. I bet they have the best gym equipment. Did you hear them say they had an indoor pool?"
Applejack had heard. She wasn't sure she wanted to go near water any time soon, however.
"Can we get lunch now?" she asked. "I'm starvin'."
Rainbow sighed. "Yeah, I guess." She brightened. "We'll have loads of time to explore the rest of the place anyway."
Applejack smiled. "Yeah, we will." She watched Rainbow dart inside the hotel. She paused, and looked over the horizon. Someplace down there was Ponyville. She hesitated. It must be nice, she thought, for Rainbow to be able to tackle everything with one-hundred-and-ten percent enthusiasm. Applejack always found herself wondering.
She trotted after Rainbow Dash, returning to Earth. It was time to eat, after all. As she trotted, she wondered if perhaps Rainbow wondered from time to time.
"Good morning, Applejack," Harshwhinny said. "You look, ah, rested."
Applejack yawned, rubbing her baggy eyes with lethargy. "'Mornin'," she said.
Behind her, Rainbow stretched out her back. She looked, in contrast to Applejack, very fresh and energetic indeed.
"Hey there, Ms. Harshwhinny!" Rainbow said. "Boy, those beds were comfy. I haven't slept this good since I was staying in this hotel in Cloudsdale for the Wonderbolts." She grinned. "Cloud-beds are the best."
Applejack sighed. "'Least one of us slept well," she muttered. "Some ponies had to deal with..." She shuddered. "...snorin'."
"Not me," Rainbow replied. "I slept like a log."
"Made the sound of one bein' sawed in half, too," Applejack said. She turned back to Harshwhinny. "Breakfast comes with coffee, right?" she asked.
Harshwhinny examined Applejack. "Yes, perhaps that would be best," she said. "Come. I will explain today's training as we eat."
Spitfire was quick to join them as they sat down at an elegant four-pony table in the breakfast area. Breakfast was croissants, fruit, and in Applejack's case, plenty of coffee.
"Today," Harshwhinny said, "We'll be doing more work with water."
Applejack groaned. Harshwhinny narrowed her eyes.
"Is there a problem, Applejack?"
"No," Applejack quickly replied. Harshwhinny had a mean streak for ponies who didn’t appreciate her training. "I love the water. Water is the best."
"This is, of course, special water," Spitfire said. She turned to Harshwhinny. "Were you going to do the ball training?"
"Yes," Harshwhinny said. "Were you?"
"Yup."
Harshwhinny turned back to Applejack and Rainbow. "The special waterfall we'll be training in is in a cave. The entire chamber is mostly filled with falling water. However, the actual water level is quite low, so you won't be swimming."
Applejack sighed. "I guess we're gonna get wet, then."
"Yes."
"Goodie."
"We'll be doing ball exercises. Throwing, catching, passing, that sort of thing," Spitfire said. "I'll deal with you, Rainbow. You know how hard it is to fly through thick water?"
Rainbow nodded. "Yeah."
Applejack knew how hard it was to throw balls through thick water. She examined her forehoof for a moment.
She needed more coffee.
Harshwhinny turned the key the receptionist had given her in a small lock. The door was rather nondescript, and looked like every other door near the pool, but Applejack knew better. Nopony else had the key to this door, and nopony else was allowed in. What could be behind, she wondered? Harshwhinny had said on multiple occasions that the falls on the other side were 'special', but Harshwhinny seemed to have a rogue dramatic streak, and she was adamant on keeping it a surprise.
The door opened. All four ponies walked in. Spitfire was holding two rubber balls.
The inside of the room was pretty much as Applejack had expected from Harshwhinny's description. A large cavern carved into the side of the mountain, with water flowing from the ceiling into a large pool, the size of a basketball court. Droplets of water were everywhere, and there were areas where the water formed walls, splashing and running and disturbing the pool below.
The water was definitely... odd, however. Applejack couldn't quite put her hoof on it. It looked just like normal water. It had the same transparency, the same reflective qualities, the same...
She frowned. The water was running slower than normal water.
"What's goin' on here?"
Harshwhinny smirked. "The water here is, believe it or not, magical. The energies inside the mountain have affected it somehow. It's quite fascinating, really." She slid her hoof into the water and slowly, very slowly, pulled a small amount out. "I like to call this 'force-dependant water'. As in, the more force you apply on it, the slower time acts on it." She tossed the water to Applejack. As it flew through the air, it slowed down to a crawl.
Applejack's jaw dropped. "That... ain't possible, right?"
Rainbow tapped the floating water. "Apparently it is," she said. She tried giving it a push. The water hardly budged. "I see why this'll be tricky."
Applejack could see too. Moving through the water efficiently would be almost impossible. If she moved slowly, the water would react closer to normal, but if she tried to pummel through, it'd be like running into a brick wall made of liquid water. It would be like falling at terminal velocity into the sea.
"And we're supposed to throw a ball through this?" she asked.
Harshwhinny tossed her one of the balls. Applejack caught it under her hoof.
"I expect you to try," Harshwhinny said. She flashed Applejack a rare smile. “We live in a magical land. You didn’t expect me to not take advantage of some of the stranger things here, did you?”
Applejack tapped the ball as hard as she could. That was the trick, she thought. If the ball stopped pummeling into the droplets of water all around the cave, it'd start to fall faster than she could catch it. She shoved her hoof into the side of the ball using as much force as she could muster.
The ball barely budged. In fact, the ball was deforming faster than the water was moving out the way. Applejack slowly fell down, the water acting as both a cushion, and a trap.
By comparison, Harshwhinny was moving efficiently. Had Applejack been able to use her full speed, she could run rings around her coach, but the older mare had obviously had practise in this strange, unreal cavern. For the first time that trip, Harshwhinny looked like she was almost having fun. Her brow was furrowed and her lips were drawn. She was completely focused.
Just pass her the ball, Applejack thought. Easier said than done.
She tried to accelerate, pushing on her rear hooves to catch up with the ball, now rolling at a snail's pace through the water-saturated air. The little droplets all pinned her down like nails. Applejack grunted.
The worst was the water that hit her eyes or got in her nose. It was like the insides of her were trying to evacuate it, but it wasn't working. No wonder Harshwhinny had wanted her to practise hard before going into the water chamber, the next step in her training.
"Don't jump," Harshwhinny shouted. Her voice sounded distorted and wrong. "Focus, and you'll do fine."
Applejack remembered, but her acceleration was already broken. She could only slowly, ever so slowly, push through the water. Harshwhinny darted (comparatively speaking) under the ball, and caught it using the bridge of her nose.
"Catch," she said, and rolled the ball through the water, giving it a strong spin.
Harshwhinny must have managed her effort and muscles perfectly, because the ball didn't slow down nearly as fast. Applejack tried to slide through the water with minimal effort. She tried. Instead she felt like she was stuck in quicksand. Stuck. Paralysed, even.
She rolled her hoof out to try and scrape against the ball. Those were the rules, she remembered. Don't let the ball drop. Pass it continuously.
In the end, she could barely scratch the sides. She could barely input enough force to get it to move upwards. Most of her effort just gave it a spin.
Just a tiny spin.
Harshwhinny's lips pursed, and she dove through the water, her muscles working with such poise and precision that most of the time, she seemed to barely brush against the droplets. Where her hooves hit the water on the floor, she hit it hard, causing it to act almost like a solid.
Applejack tried to absorb Harshwhinny's movements, to learn them. But then she'd lose sight of the ball, and...
Shoot!
Her eyes fell back on the ball, which Harshwhinny had just about managed to send back to her, albeit with great difficulty. Applejack needed to get into position. She needed to figure out where to go...
Her hooves wouldn't move. They had sunk too far into the water, and the more she tried to pull them out, the harder it was...
Her balance lost, she tried to absorb her fall using her forehooves, but it wouldn't work. It was like nothing was responding any more. It was like she was tangled and tied up in ropes, and not in a fun way.
"Crud!" she heard from Rainbow's side of the chamber.
"Ponyfeathers!" Applejack shouted once the ball hit the water on the floor.
"Never mind. Get to it, and throw it back," Harshwhinny said. "Three passes is a good start."
"I just can't move right," Applejack said.
"You'll learn," Harshwhinny said. "I did."
Applejack drew a long, pained breath, and continued sluggishly moving towards the ball. Today would be another long day.
As both Applejack and Harshwhinny rested by the side of the pool, Applejack discovered a new complication that stemmed from the magical water. Drying out took forever. She dripped with painful slowness, adding to the somewhat miserable feeling she had. She felt powerless.
Harshwhinny, by contrast was in remarkably high spirits.
"We'll work on adjusting your speed next," she said. "Your movements are minimalistic and controlled, which I was hoping would happen after our previous training. You just need to control your acceleration more, and you should be able to move through the water even better."
Applejack said nothing. She hadn't expected anything to slow her down quite that much. Lifting weights, running distances, sure... but getting past that accursed wall of magic water was not only like trying to swim through mud, but it was painful. The droplets all felt as solid as ice when she hit them. It was like sprinting through hail.
Harshwhinny caught her grumpy expression. "You're making excellent progress. When I began this training with Spitfire, we almost drowned."
"Breathin' gets tough in there, that's for sure," Applejack replied. Her lips were still curled in a frown. She looked at Rainbow Dash, still struggling away in the chamber. It must be even harder for her. She couldn't gain enough speed to fly properly, and had to use her wings as a third pair of hooves to push up on the falling droplets. Despite that, she was still training. "Will this really make a difference?" Applejack asked, nursing her foreleg.
Harshwhinny nodded. "It had better," she said. "I'm putting you through training that no normal pony goes through."
Applejack's eyebrow raised. "Why's that again?"
Harshwhinny hesitated. "I confess, I have a somewhat ulterior motive for wanting you to participate and win in the Canterlot Three." Harshwhinny adopted a haunted look. "Last games, I mentioned that there were... complications. I was still riding the high from the games before then." Harshwhinny smiled. "I was never very close with my family, but we always used to say that sport ran in our blood. We competed against each other often. It was the last time before they settled down." Harshwhinny's eyes narrowed. "What came after was a bit of a shock by comparison."
"Oh?"
Harshwhinny nodded. "In the Earth pony events, I tended to win. I suppose I must have been overconfident, because last games, there was another pony who was better... far better than I." Her hooves clenched. "He didn't just crush any record I, or anypony else, set, but he'd break equipment whilst doing so. You know Ponyball?"
"Yeah. Six players against six, a net ‘round the court, one hoop each, two ponies of each tribe on each team?"
"That's the one. I didn't play, because I competed alone. He, on the other hand... he competed alone, too, but he still entered. He played each of the six positions all alone." Harshwhinny sighed. "Many ponies gave up. I saw others refuse to take their medals if they won second place because he was so far out of their league. In some races, he'd dash past the finish line before others got to the halfway point. He'd destroy targets outright in throwing competitions and archery." She sighed. "I didn't stand a chance. Haywire Hoofit is likely the least of your worries."
Applejack frowned. "What's this got to do with me?" she asked. "Or are you just tryin' to scare me off?"
"Not at all. I'm too old to stand much of a chance no matter how hard I train... but you might." Harshwhinny prodded Applejack's chest, her expression changing. "If I can get you to be as tough and as strong as me in my prime... or better... you might be able to wipe that smug smile off his face for once in his life."
Applejack didn't say anything. Harshwhinny pat her on the back, and got back to her hooves.
"Well, that was nice to... get off my chest," Harshwhinny said. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask why I was making you train twice as hard as most ponies for twice as long."
Applejack wished she had. She got up and trotted after Harshwhinny.
"What was that pony's name?" she asked.
"His name," Harshwhinny said, "Is Victor Valiance." She gestured towards Rainbow Dash. "Now, shall we get back to it? I'm sure you don't want your friend to outperform you."
Harshwhinny and Spitfire had both left to go to dinner. Applejack rubbed the towel over her fur slowly, in order to carefully squeeze the water out. She wasn't sure how the older ponies had managed it so fast.
As she walked down the corridor, she heard a strange clicking sound. She frowned, and turned her head left and right to identify the source. She knocked the door of one of the pool cubicles. Nopony else was still near the indoor pool.
"Hello?" she asked.
"W-w-what?" came Rainbow's voice. "A-AJ?"
Applejack prodded the door open. Rainbow Dash was wrapped in three towels, and her teeth were chattering loudly. She was shivering.
"What the hay happened to you?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow was still dripping wet.
"T-the water isn't coming out," Rainbow said. "C-c-cold."
Applejack stood there for a moment. "You want a hand?"
"I-is this just an excuse to g-get your hooves all over me?” Rainbow asked. “Because I don’t like m-mush…”
“And what if it is?” Applejack asked.
“I could s-say no.”
“You gonna?”
Rainbow sighed in-between chattering teeth.
“No.”
Applejack sat next to her friend on the bench and started slowly squeezing the water out of Rainbow's coat. The pegasus’s body felt cold to the touch, even though Applejack wasn’t exactly warm herself.
"You shouldn't have had this much trouble," Applejack said.
"Y'know I s-said that pegasi are warmer at high altitudes?"
"Yeah."
"It's c-cause we have more f-fur, right? So..."
"I get it," Applejack said. Now she looked closer, she realised that Rainbow's coat was acting like one big sponge. She must have absorbed twice as much water as her. "So y'all just threw more towels on?"
"Wh-why not?"
Applejack shrugged. "Dunno. Could've just asked Spitfire." Applejack rubbed the magic water out of Rainbow's back. "She seemed to get it out easy enough."
"I don't want Spitfire squeezing water out of my wings!" Rainbow retorted.
"Why?" Applejack said with a smirk. "Embarrassed?"
"N-no," Rainbow replied. "She has a grip like a vice. She'd tear my wings off!"
Applejack chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She moved on to Rainbow's foreleg. "Saw you workin' real hard today," she said.
"Yeah. My wings are killing me."
"It was impressive."
"Yeah, I bet." Rainbow nudged Applejack. "You were pretty cool too."
"I weren't that cool," Applejack countered. "I had to take twice as many breaks."
"Yeah, but you're an Earth pony. You're not used to moving through stuff, and feeling the currents and things."
Applejack frowned. "What d'you mean?"
"Well, like, when I fly, I can feel the way the air moves against me, right?" She dislodged her wing from the pile of towels. "See those little feathers? They're kinda like sensors, I guess. Wings have to constantly move to absorb rogue currents. The water was kinda like that, but one million times worse."
"A whole million?"
"A whole million. Really." Rainbow put her hoof on Applejack's side, and began pushing. "What you have to try and do is not fight the water, right, but kinda just absorb it, and move with it. You gotta move like a pegasus, not an Earth pony." Rainbow grinned. "I bet Ms. Harshwhinny doesn't even realise she's doing it." Rainbow kept prodding Applejack. "See, you're tensing up."
"That's. Cause. You're. Poking me."
Rainbow stopped poking Applejack.
"Thanks."
"That's my point, anyway," Rainbow said. “It’s about continuous motion, not just digging in and fighting it.”
Move like a pegasus, Applejack thought. She continued to wring the water out of Rainbow's coat. "I'll keep it in mind."
"If you want, I could try showing you," Rainbow said. "Y'know, when I'm not tired, wet, cold, and hungry."
"Right." Applejack nodded. "Sure, why not?"
"Cool." Rainbow shook her mane. "I think I'm mostly dry-ish, now. Food?"
"Food."
The next morning came quickly. Harshwhinny danced on the slowed water, her hoof cupping the ball.
"You look a bit more awake today," she said, lobbing the ball at Applejack.
The farmpony slid her hoof through the water and rolled her hoof around the ball. "I found a trick to deal with Rainbow's snorin'," she said, and tossed the ball slowly through the water, trying to give it a strong spin. The water quickly absorbed that spin, but it moved through the air better than yesterday. "If I put a pillow over my head and stick tissue paper in my ears, it ain't so bad."
Harshwhinny rose up over the ball, and caught it on the bridge of her nose. "That's good to hear," she said, and threw it straight down.
"'Sides," Applejack went on, moving through the water to intercept, "I was pretty tired yesterday. I don't think any amount of noise could've woken me up last night." She tried headbutting the ball back, but it didn't work as well as planned. For starters, she hadn't gotten under the ball fast enough, and secondly, the ball stopped halfway through her movement, leaving her with a sore head. "Ow!"
Harshwhinny, still slowly falling through the water, tried to angle her body to dive under the rapidly falling ball. She even used her rear hooves to push against the water still falling to gain more speed. After Rainbow and Applejack's discussion the night before, Applejack realised that the movement was very similar to a pegasus dive.
Harshwhinny's hoof managed to just barely angle the ball upwards again, but it was just a tap, and the water made it almost impossible for the ball to move upwards without a continuous push. Moving the ball was like pushing a fridge. You couldn't just throw it: you needed to push it and hope it tipped over in the direction you wanted it to.
Applejack tried pulling her legs in, to minimise the contact surface between herself and the water, and push herself towards the ball, but she was too slow, and it hit the pool of water below. Harshwhinny moved backwards, gaining some distance between them.
"Pick it up, and start again," she instructed, but there was no anger or disappointment in her voice. Just a businesslike dedication to continuing.
Applejack nodded. Water hit her in the eye.
"I should try'n get some goggles next time," she grunted. "Water in my eyes is darn uncomfortable."
"I remember. I seem to have gotten used to it," Harshwhinny said.
"Speaking of uncomfortable, I don't suppose there's some trick to gettin' dry, is there?"
Harshwhinny's eyes widened. "Oh, I forgot to mention. If you just move away from the cavern far enough, the water begins behaving like normal water, and it just falls off on its own."
Applejack scooped the ball up out of the water. She sighed.
"Would've been nice to know," she muttered. "I'd better tell Rainbow."
"I can't believe all I had to do was just leave," Rainbow grumble as she followed Applejack up into their room. "I was freezing."
"I noticed," Applejack said, rolling her neck. "Water hurt less today."
"Yeah, I'm getting used to it too," she said. They both entered their room, and Rainbow closed the door. "Okay, pegasus one-oh-one, I guess." She trotted over to Applejack. "When we're in the air, it helps to make yourself as small as possible."
Applejack nodded. "I tried that in the water," she said. "I couldn't tell if it helped or not."
"It helped," Rainbow said. "The more space you occupy, the more air... or in this case, magical weird water, I guess... gets in the way and slows you down. It's why I often put my hooves in front of me when I fly super fast."
Applejack nodded. "So, if I put my hooves out in front of me..."
"It might help," Rainbow said. "Although... you kinda need those to stand up, right?"
Applejack sighed. "Oh. Right."
“It’s also about your muscles, right?” Rainbow said, and moved closer to Applejack. “Here, lemme show you…”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed.
“This just you tryin’ to get your hooves all over me?” she asked.
“Might be. What you gonna do about it?”
“I could tell you not to,” Applejack replied.
Rainbow smirked. “You gonna?”
Applejack sighed.
“No.” She narrowed her eyes. “For real, though, are you flirting?”
“It has been weeks since I’ve been on this mountain.”
“That ain’t a no.”
“Yeah, well, you’ll feel the same way in a minute,” Rainbow said. “There isn’t a pony alive that can resist these hooves.”
Applejack snickered. “We’ll see ‘bout that.”
Applejack darted to the left, pulling her hind legs up as she jumped to the side. Her left hoof shot out through the water to reach the ball, and she pulled it into her centre.
"You're taking up less space," Harshwhinny commented. "That's good!"
"Real tirin'," Applejack countered. "My sides are killin' me!"
She fired the ball towards Harshwhinny using both hooves, taking care to move it slowly through the water to provide height.
"That's also good," Harshwhinny said. "Good exercise is when you get aches and pains the next day."
Applejack grunted as she tried to absorb her landing quickly, before jumping in the air again. It was always strange how she could float in the air due to the droplets of water suspended around her. "I guess," she replied. "If trainin' was just pain, I'd be ready to beat Victor Valiance whenever!"
Harshwhinny didn't reply immediately. Once she caught the ball and deftly threw it back, she said, "Let's hope!"
Applejack felt like squirming. Rainbow kept on adjusting her posture using her hooves. Every time Rainbow poked, prodded, and adjusted her body, she jabbed at one of the fresh aches Applejack had acquired during the day.
"Stop being so tense!" Rainbow instructed. "This is how you move in mid-air, okay?"
"With another pegasus touching me all the time?"
"Only when they're Earth ponies who can't chill." Rainbow pulled Applejack's forehooves in. "Tight corners mean you've got more air pushing down on your back, so you can't throw your hooves forwards. You have to move your head up like this..." Rainbow adjusted Applejack's head, making her look directly into the ceiling. "You have to look where you're flying. It'll adjust the rest of your body. See?" She ran her hoof down the back of Applejack's neck and along her back. "In a turn, the air will push your back and flanks in line with your head. You straighten out, and... there."
Applejack rolled her neck. "I, uh, see."
"It's a lot of small things that make up proper movement. When you're just running on the ground, you have less of that."
"I guess," Applejack said. "It's all a bit weird."
"It's not that weird."
"I meant you puttin' your hooves all over me," Applejack said.
Rainbow frowned.
"That's just you making it weird," she said, and jumped into her bed. "Besides, you did it first.”
“You were freezin’!”
Rainbow shrugged. “Anyway, I'm beat. More tomorrow?"
"Sure," Applejack said. "More tomorrow."
Applejack flattened the pillow over her head, sighing. Rainbow sounded like a steam-train and a combine harvester had a foal together. She had thought she was getting used to it, but now it was like Rainbow was getting worse.
Applejack tightened her eyes as Rainbow made a sound that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a lumber-mill… then silence.
Applejack held her breath.
Rainbow snorted in air like a balloon exploding backwards, if such a thing made sense.
“Are you serious?” Applejack grunted.
There was a pause in the snoring. Momentary, but there. Applejack’s eyes opened, and she peered under her pillow.
“RD?”
The snoring resumed at a different pace.
“You’re awake, ain’t you?”
“No.”
“Are you snorin’ loudly on purpose?”
“No.”
Applejack breathed in, and sighed.
“Okay, yeah. But only because it’s hilarious.”
Applejack snorted and rolled over onto her side. “I need t’sleep,” she grunted. “If you wanna snore, snore for real, would’ya?”
The room went silent for a moment.
“Hey,” Rainbow began. “You still awake?”
“No.”
“I’m real glad you’re here,” Rainbow said. “Spitfire… doesn’t talk as much, y’know?”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I’d probably have gone nuts on my own with her for a month.”
“You think she’s bad, you should try Harshwhinny. I can count the times she’s said anything other than instructions on two hooves.”
Rainbow snickered. “Yeah, she seems like a bundle of fun.” Rainbow rolled onto her side. “Anyway, g’night, I guess.”
***