Twilight Sparkle awoke to the sound of knocking on the library door. Blinking she turned to look at her clock to see what time it was. After getting up earlier than usual, she had been pretty tired last night. Unfortunately, getting kissed -- even if just on the cheek -- from Rainbow Dash made it hard to sleep.
Twilight felt her face heating up as she blushed. She could still feel her friend's lips on her cheek. It was a very unexpected move. It also caused Twilight to have dreams that were quite exciting and passionate, to say the least. She really should talk to Rainbow Dash about the kiss. Not right now though. Later. Like when Dash was feeling better. Or maybe at a time when it would feel awkward. Like never. Never sounded good. Twilight found herself leaning mostly toward never.
"Twilight," Spike's voice echoed from the hall. "Hey, Twilight. Good news. The other books you requested finally arrived." Twilight moved to sit up, looking at Spike standing in the doorway.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" she asked. "The library was supposed to be open an hour ago."
"I was going to, but you were tossing and turning all night. I thought it would be better to just let you sleep and keep an eye on things. If anything happened, you're right here."
"I suppose so." Tossing the covers aside, she got out of bed and stretched. "You said the books finally arrived?" Spike gave her a nod as she approached then moved aside to let her pass. Moving quickly, Twilight headed down the stairs and toward the main room. Her horn glowed as she approached, picking up the books and holding them. She glanced at the titles and authors where applicable, trying to mentally file them away and physically organize them in the proper order.
"Do you know when Rainbow Dash will get back? She will probably be excited to hear these arrived."
"She hasn't gotten up yet."
The statement made Twilight stop. She turned to look at Spike, blinking in confusion.
"Are you sure?"
"I checked on her room when I got up. She was still in bed. I've been in here all morning, so she couldn't have gotten up and left without me noticing."
Twilight chewed her lip a moment as she thought. Rainbow Dash had actually gone to bed early. Even without having napped, it seemed like the pegasus would have gotten up sooner. More so since she had managed to maintain her habit of rising early yesterday.
Getting an idea, Twilight went to the bathroom. She grabbed gauze, bandages, tape, and antiseptic. Carrying them with them, she went to the door to what was currently Dash's room. She gave a gentle knock, then a firmer one when she got no response. Slowly, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked as she looked in. It seemed to be as Spike had said. She could see Rainbow Dash still in bed. As she got closer and moved around to the side. Twilight could see that her friend was lying on her back, eyes open and staring up at the ceiling. When standing right beside the bed, the purple pony could see the hints of a trail leading down from the pegasus's eye to a wet spot on the pillow.
"We forgot to change the dressing yesterday," Twilight said since it had been what she had been planning to begin with. She gave herself a mental kick. "Is something wrong?"
Rainbow Dash's eyes shifted, looking from the ceiling to Twilight and back. After a moment more, she moved to sit up in bed. Her head turned to look at the far wall.
Twilight's ears drooped a little. Clearly something had made matters worse, but she was not sure how to approach the subject. It would probably be better for Dash to talk about it, but she could be stubborn. If Twilight tried to force the conversation, her friend will just get stubborn and refuse to talk. If that happened, then it might make it harder to get Dash to open up again later.
Pushing the thoughts aside, Twilight chose to focus on the matter of the dressing instead. The glow of her horn grew brighter as she split the focus of her magic; part of it keeping the supplies afloat within reach and part to remove the bandages. Pulling them off with the used gauze, she set them aside. Twilight then shifted to look at the wound, checking to see how well it was healing. There was no sign of it getting infected. She applied the antiseptic to the spot as the nurse told her, just to be certain.
"I saw Luna and Discord in my dream last night," Rainbow Dash said. The statement caught Twilight Sparkle off guard. She stared in stunned silence a moment, accidentally pouring out more of the antiseptic than she intended. Shaking her head to recover from the surprise, she righted the bottle. The spill was not too bad. A little too much on the spot and fur surrounding it with a few drops making it to the bed.
"I didn't know Discord could enter a pony's dreams," Twilight said as she continued to put fresh dressing on the wound.
"Well it looks like he can," Rainbow Dash responded, glancing at her a moment before looking away again. "Anyway, they said that neither of them could help me get my wing back. Luna said a lot, but basically she doesn't have the power to do it and neither does Celestia. Discord said he could give me a wing, but it would eventually disappear and probably and the worst possible time. So basically if you can't find a way to fix it, I'm never going to fly again."
"...Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"
"I'm sure. I've been having bad dreams every night except for the one I spent with you. If it had been one, it would have been a lot more interesting than just sitting around in a cloud and talking about the limits of their powers. Besides... It just felt real."
Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash a moment, then turned back to her work. She tried to keep her thoughts focused as she held the gauze in place and began to wrap the bandages around them. They were supposed to be tight enough to stay in place and keep clean, but not too tight as to constrict blood flow to the skin and surrounding area.
"Well I have good news on that part," the purple pony said, " the books arrived this morning."
"Yay. Books." The tone of Rainbow Dash was such that Twilight could practically see the eye rolling despite the pegasus not looking at her.
"Rainbow Dash," Twilight responded. She wanted to scold her friend for the comment, but also be sympathetic about the issue.
"I'm sorry, Twi." Dash let out a sigh, sagging slightly. "I know it's supposed to be good news since it means you can keep looking. But it seems like this is less and less likely to be a way to fix this. I might just have to start getting used to being a one-winged freak who will never be able to fly again."
Twilight quickly taped the bandages in place. She then moved, climbing onto the bed with Rainbow Dash and standing on her right. Twilight grabbed her friend and pulled her in tight, hugging her so that Dash's cheek was pressed against Twilight's chest. The alicorn rested her chin against the top of the pegasus's head, nuzzling the rainbow colored mane gently.
"You're not a freak," Twilight said, just above a whisper. "You're just a pony who had a bad accident. It's not your fault and it's not like you're the first. No one is going to think less of you over what happened." She broke the hug enough to look her friend in the eye. "If the worst happens and there's no way to fix it, then you can stay here for as long as you want. You'll find a way to get on your hooves again."
"I guess so," Rainbow Dash mumbled, looking away. "Thanks for helping Twi, but I think I would like to be alone for a little while longer."
"...Okay..." Twilight let go and pulled away, moving back off the bed. "I'll see to it that there's something in the refrigerator waiting for you when you get hungry." She looked at her friend a moment before picking everything up and heading out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
Twilight gave one last look at the door. With a sigh she turned and started walking toward the main room. She chewed on her lips as she went, staring down at the floor. Her thoughts were more turned inward and toward Rainbow Dash than where she was actually going. Fortunately she had walked the library so many times that she did not need to pay attention. Twilight made it down the stairs and into the main room with no trouble. It was when she finally walked into a pile of books and knocked them over that her attention was finally brought back to the present.
"Spike?" she asked as she looked around until spotting him. "You're on kitchen duty for the moment. Please make sure that there is plenty to eat when Rainbow Dash or I get hungry."
"No problem," the young dragon replied, puffing out his chest. "You can count on me."
"I know." She gave him a quick hug. As he went to the kitchen to do as he was asked, Twilight turned back to the books that had arrived. Her horn began to glow brightly as she lifted them up, setting them on the table in the middle of the room in stacks all of equal number of books. She then got a quill, an inkwell and some parchment in case she needed to take notes. With everything set and ready, Twilight picked up the first book and opened it.