Blueblood was relaxing inside Feather's home. He didn't have dance practice today and there wasn't anything going on in town right now. This left Blueblood to completely open to do whatever he wanted.
'Now this is the kind of leisure I've wanted when I switched minds with Feather Bangs.' Blueblood thought as he took a sip of a cup of lemonade that he made for himself. Blueblood was currently sitting on Feather's bed while reading some books he found in Feather's bookshelf. Most of Feather's books were mostly about poetry and fairy tales that parents usually read to their foals during bedtime. Blueblood also found some notebooks that were filled with Feather's old poems and decided to read those as well.
'My goodness, most of Feather Bangs poems are mostly about the mares around town or gushy stuff like the 'beauty of nature'.' Blueblood thought as he gagged when he was reading certain parts of Feather's poems. The prince decided that he was done with reading and went outside to see what other things he could do in the town. Blueblood strolled down the single street while looking at the similar looking buildings. He was able to at least tolerate the bland designs of the buildings as he had seen them multiple times.
"Hey Feather," A trio of mares said saucily to Blueblood. The mares were none other than Swoon Song, Fond Feather, and Dear Darling. Blueblood had heard from Feather's letters that these three mares were Feather's biggest fans. Blueblood shivered as he remembered all the times when he was bombarded with fanmares who really adore the prince. Blueblood would normally try to avoid fanmares, but now it felt different as he was another pony that most was almost unnoticeable. So it felt sort of refreshing as he was being admire for not just being a prince.
"Ladies," Blueblood responded while winking at the mares. All three of the mares couldn't help but swoon and faint in response to receiving a wink from the stallion they admired.
'And here I thought this Feather Bangs fellow was just some pathetic pony who couldn't win the heart of at least one mare.' Blueblood thought as he continued to trot confidently on the street. The next pony Blueblood spotted was Double Diamond while he was holding his purple snow skis.
"What's up, Double Diamond." Blueblood said with some modern slang in his sentence.
"S'up, Feather." Double Diamond responded. "I was just heading over to the huge pond to join up with our other friends, do you want to come?"
Blueblood tapped his chin while thinking of an answer. He didn't have anything important to do very soon and he thought that Double Diamond's friends would feel gratitude for Blueblood for joining in.
"Alright," Blueblood said while nodding. Double Diamond lead Blueblood down by a large pond that was also on the outskirts of town. The only other ponies who were there were Party Favor and Nightglider. Party Favor was setting up what looked like a picnic judging from the large table cloth on the ground while Nightglider was stretching her hooves and wings.
"Yo, Double and Feather!" Nightglider said while waving. "Glad that you guys came!"
"It's no big deal," Blueblood with while waving a hoof. "I was really bored and I discovered that you guys were here."
"I didn't want to miss an opportunity to use these bad boys again!" Double Diamond while as holding up his skis.
"Great! Let's get everything set up!" Nightglider said as she flew away and came back with some rope.
"What are you guys doing?" Blueblood asked.
"Double Diamond felt pretty bummed that he couldn't ski until winter arrives, so we're trying to help him experience water skiing as it also involves using skis." Party Favor explained.
"This is going to be epic!" Double Diamond said as he put on a life vest and put on his skis. Nightglider attached the rope on to herself and one end of the rope to Double Diamond.
"Are you all set, DD?" Nightglider asked as she prepared herself to take off.
"Ready!" Double Diamond hollered. Nightglider flew over the pond which caused the rope to tug Double Diamond and pulled him straight into the water. Thanks to the fast speed Nightglider was flying in, Double Diamond was able to slide across the pond's surface thanks to his skis.
"Woo! This is way better than skiing on snow!" Double Diamond claimed as he leaned which caused him to turn.
"Way to go, Double!" Party Favor cheered as he watched his friends from the side of the pond. Blueblood couldn't help but think that riding across the water like that looked really entertaining. It wasn't long until Nightglider got tired and decided to stop. Double Diamond agreed and the both of them made their way back to enjoy a lovely picnic with their two other friends.
"Now that was such a workout!" Nightglider said as she drank from a juice box.
"It was so amazing!" Double Diamond included as he bit on a sandwich.
"I have to say, what you did was pretty impressive." Blueblood commented while chewing on his sandwich.
"You have got to have a turn, Feather!" Double Diamond suggested. Blueblood almost chocked on his sandwich for hearing such a risky idea.
"I-I'm not sure if I have the same capabilities as you to ride on the skis, Double Diamond." Blueblood said in attempt to avoid doing something dangerous.
"Come on! It will be fun!" Double Diamond pleaded. "If you want, Nightglider could take it nice and slow if you want to be safe." Blueblood thought that it not actually a bad idea as he won't be at risk of getting hurt if the speed was slow.
"Alright, I'll have a turn." Blueblood said with a small smile.
After lunch, Blueblood had on his life vest and he wore Double Diamond's skis on his hooves. Blueblood also held the rope that was attached to Nightglider. She was currently flapping her wings above the pond.
"Are you all set, Feather?" Nightglider said from the air. Blueblood made one last check before he was going to 'ride the waves'.
When Blueblood confirmed he was all set, he yelled "I'm ready!" Nightglider began to fly forward while pulling Blueblood into the water. Blueblood's heart raced as he was actually doing something stunt related for the very first time in his life. He would normally just watch athletic ponies compete in sports and what he was doing was way out of his comfort zone. Although Blueblood felt extremely terrified in the inside, he couldn't help but feel excited from feeling the wind blowing through his manes and the rocking motions from him riding on each wave of water. To Blueblood, this was the most fun he had ever had since he could remember while as a prince. He turned to see Double Diamond and Party Favor cheering for him as he water skied across the pond. Nightglider, however, wasn't pleased of flying at such a slow pace even though she is doing it for a friend.
'Ahh! This is taking forever!' Nightglider complained in her thoughts. She suddenly formed a wicked grin on her face as an idea came to her. Nightglider prepared herself as she flew faster and Blueblood was getting pulled along with her speed. The prince was starting to get a bit worried as he felt like Nightglider was going faster than usual. What's worse was that Blueblood was starting to jump from each time he was riding up the pond's waves. As Nightglider began to turn, Blueblood rode along in the same direction. The rope end Blueblood was holding snapped and Blueblood flew up on a big wave. He panicked as he flew away from the pond and his mind blacked out when he reached the ground.
Blueblood slowly woke up to see blurs of colors. Blueblood's sight began to get better and the blurs of colors were actually three ponies standing above him. Blueblood could easily recognize two of the ponies as Double Diamond and Party Favor. The other pony was an elderly, unicorn stallion who was dressed up like a doctor. Blueblood also looked around to see that they were all inside of Feather's bedroom.
"Feather! Thank goodness you're safe!" Double Diamond said in relief.
"W-what happened?" Blueblood said as he tried to get up. He yelped in pain on one of his hindlegs. Blueblood looked down to see that his right hindleg was covered up in a cast.
"You're a lucky pony for surviving such a fall like that." The doctor pony informed.
"It was my fault!" Nightglider yelled as she flew up to Blueblood. The prince saw that Nightglider's face showed lots of sadness and guilt. There were even tears streaming down her face to show that she was crying earlier. "I-I wanted to go a bit faster and I did! But I didn't know that the rope would snap and you flew! I'm so sorry!" Nightglider yelled as she cried on Blueblood's side.
"It's quite alright," Blueblood said as he patted Nightglider's mane.
"B-but I was the one who caused your injuries." Nightglider said while her lips quivered. Blueblood would've indeed demanded that Nightglider should be sent to the dungeons for attempt of murder on a member of royalty. He would do that to any servant or common pony who would harm the prince because of an accident. But now Blueblood doesn't feel like doing that as he saw how sad the mare was for accidentally hurting him.
"True, but you had no idea that I would fly up from the pond. Besides, at least I'm still alive." Blueblood assured. Nightglider couldn't help but smile as she was glad that one of her friends wasn't angry at him.
"The only downside would be that you have to stay in bed until your leg is all healed up." The doctor informed. "Don't worry about paying me, your bill was already paid for." The doctor said as he exited Feather's home.
"Welp, I guess I'll have to lay here for a while." Blueblood said as he slumped back on his bed.
"It's alright, Feather!" Double Diamond said. "We can all take turns taking care of you until you get better!" Blueblood just looked at the ponies in bewilderment.
"You really don't have to do that." Blueblood said while waving his hooves.
"It's the least we could do to make up for what happened. Besides, you're a part of this town and we all help one another so our community can stay strong!" Party Favor said. Blueblood felt a bit uncomfortable for having a bunch of strangers taking care of him until his leg was healed.
On the plus side, it wouldn't hurt to be treated like royalty once again.' Blueblood thought as he was actually glad that he had this accident.