Everything felt so much colder to Rainbow Dash now. The slight draft from the front door of the old, wood house wafted through each of the rooms, even while it was shut, and every time it made the fur down her spine stick up as it tickled over the back of her neck. The only thing that kept the pegasus from outright shivering was the wool blanket that had been thrown over her, and tied around her neck. Combined with the bandage over her eyes, the young filly of the family she was staying with said she looked a bit like one of the heroes from Spike’s comics, if they also had only a handful of bits to their name.
Rainbow Dash had smiled then, if only to be polite to Apple Bloom. She didn’t smile now. Practically everypony was out in Ponyville itself, celebrating the holidays, dancing, skating, flying. A pit dug into her stomach at that last activity. She was alone with her thoughts, and she didn’t enjoy their company.
Early on, after she was told very adamantly by the doctor she would be unable to see for a few weeks at least, Rainbow Dash had tried her best to adapt. She was familiar enough with her home she could actually fly around most of it without needing to see, but every now and then she’d brush something, knock herself off course, or make a mess she’d only find in the morning when a hoof stepped on something sharp, or something wet.
Things went awry when Dash went to get groceries, or try and make her way to the Wonderbolts Academy. She’d bump into other ponies, buildings, stalls. She could only say sorry so much, and after a point, she just kept to herself up in her home.
Yearning for that white and blue slice of heaven, she lifted the gauze over her eyes, and then winced, sucking in air through her teeth. Light still hurt her eyes, after keeping them in darkness for so long, but after a few moments of blinding pain, they adjusted as best they could.
She couldn’t make out any details, but colours had come back a week ago. This was not her home, but it was somepony’s, and she decided that was okay. Her vision was a blurry pair of semi circles, the upper one red, and the lower one a light brown, with a big, orange blob in the middle. There was a crackle and pop, and the blob brightened for a second as the fire found a little wet spot in the firewood to boil.
She tried to focus, furrowing her brow and squinting. A few more details came into focus, a line of squarish, multicoloured blobs above the fire blob. She stared at them, trying to will her vision to come back to her, but the beginnings of a tension headache filled the front of her forehead, and her eyelids twitched and ached.
One blue furred ear twitched when Dash heard hoof falls coming toward the living room, and she quickly tugged the bandage back down over her face. Not quite perfectly, as she could see a sliver of the floor in front of her, but the way the gauze tickled her eye lashes forced her to shut her lids.
“Stop fiddlin’ with it,” said the sweet drawl of Applejack. “And you better not have been peekin’.”
Dash shook her head, and smiled toward where she thought Applejack stood. “Nope. No peeking!” She gently pressed a hoof to the gauze again, adjusting it to some unknown degree. She probably just made it worse.
“Rainbow Dash, you better not be lyin’ to your gracious host…” Applejack trailed off, letting the unsaid threat linger, but Rainbow Dash mirrored the smirk she could hear, at least for a second.
Dash’s expression then fell, and she lowered her head. “Fine, I peeked. I just miss being able to actually see, for once.”
“You remember what the doc said, don’tcha?” Applejack asked, stepping closer to Rainbow Dash. She had set something down on the table in front of the sofa, and the smell of cider and cinnamon filled Rainbow Dash’s nostrils.
Dash nodded, silently, while a hoof reached out toward the table. The blindness wasn’t permanent, though she was unlikely to see as well as she used to. She just needed time to recover.
Dash went farther than she expected, finding herself leaning forward, and then patting the table down, looking for the mug she knew was there. What she instead found was a hoof intercepting hers, and pushing her back.
Applejack sighed, pushing Dash’s hoof almost all the way to the pegasus’ chest. It was firm, not guiding her, but commanding her without words. It was a soft grip, and just as she felt all that cold before, this hoof felt so warm.
All Dash had to do was wait, and a second later she had the cider in her hooves, beneath her muzzle. Delicately, Dash lifted it up, and sipped at the edge, with an embarrassingly loud slurping sound where she tried to avoid splashing the golden goodness all over her muzzle.
Applejack laughed behind her. It stopped suddenly when Dash’s eyebrows furrowed, an expression mostly blocked by the bandages, but her forehead told the story.
“I swear you’d be happy with that stuff dripped straight into your veins, Dash,” Applejack said, and another gentle laugh echoed deep in her throat.
“Not sure the doc’ll sign off on that one, AJ.”
“Yeah, well-” Applejack leant close to her friend, and two hooves tugged at the gauze, ensuring it sat entirely over her sockets. “-if you actually did what he told ya, he might be willin’ to make an exception.”
The pair giggled at the idea, and then fell quiet not long after. Dash’s ears turned fully toward her friend, at Applejack’s breathing. Did she always breath this much, this loudly? The frown returned to Dash’s face, and she lifted the mug in front of her muzzle.
“You alright, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, keeping a hoof held out to rest on Dash’s shoulder.
“You should be out with your family, AJ,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice so quiet and soft it cracked almost badly enough to cut her off. “Not with some buckup who nearly ruined her life showing off.”
The hoof on her shoulder came away, and Dash tensed up. She turned her head away, not that she needed to do so to not look at her friend. She was about to take a breath, to say sorry, when that hoof came back, and firmly prodded Dash in the middle of her chest.
“Don’t you dare call yourself that, Rainbow Dash.” Applejack’s voice sounded firm, almost angry. “You are a cocksure, foolhardy, showboutin’ lout, but a buckup you ain’t.”
Rainbow Dash just held her head down, ears lowered. “I’m blinder than a bat, AJ. Every time I break a bone or hurt myself you’d think I’d learn but I don’t, I keep being the idiot I always am.”
“Yeah, and?” Applejack snorted, and that hoof reached around Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, pulled her firmly to the side. Her firm grip on her cider didn’t keep it from spilling, and some of the warm, sticky, sweet fluid sloshed up and over the rim, and onto Dash’s hoof.
“You are my idiot. One of my idiots.” Another small laugh, and Applejack squeezed Dash tightly, as her neck rest over Dash’s. “And I’m as much of an idiot as you can be. Yeah, I’d rather be outside havin’ fun with the rest of our friends and the town, but not if you’re not able to enjoy it.”
“AJ, please-” Dash started.
“You need your rest, and somewhere calm and cozy to have it in. Only other option involves me draggin’ your sorry butt into town, and after the last time, do you really wanna do that, even today?”
Rainbow Dash imagined the chaos of most Hearth's Warming Days, the throng of people in the streets and the crowds. She had already panicked on a normal day of typical routine when none of the routine went as she expected. Not to mention to have everyone fussing over her, giving her their pity. She had snapped at Fluttershy then.
Rainbow Dash choked up, and shook her head. “No. No parties, no crowds.”
“Then that settles it, don’t it.” Applejack held Dash close, both hooves now wrapped around her shoulder and back. “Granny, Big Mac and Applebloom will be out most of the day. We can have a proper friends-only shindig a little later. I’m sure Twilight can shake the crowds off her before then.”
“And what about now?” Dash asked. She gently pushed at Applejack’s shoulder with an elbow, and the farm pony loosened her hold, though she kept her hooves on Dash’s shoulders.
“For now, relax. ‘S’what you’re supposed to be doin’ anyway. Enjoy your cider, and if’n ya need me, just holler. I still gotta finish bakin’ anyway.” Applejack started to peel away, and the warmth with her, only to be stopped by a grasping limb, and a few words.
“I think I need you,” Dash admitted. “Just for a little bit longer. It’s so much colder than it normally is.”
Applejack remained silent, leaving Dash to cringe again. Now that silence was broken with something put on her head, and her blanket-cape being removed, just for a moment. Dash reached up as Applejack sidled up beside her, and she felt the brim of the farm pony’s hat on her head as that blanket was pulled back over the pair. Dash couldn’t help but lean into Applejack, athletic bodies pressed against one another, though the earth pony’s fur felt a little thicker than Dash had expected. That breeze flowed over her neck again, but this time, she didn’t shiver, and the fur on her back stayed flat and tame.
“Thanks, AJ,” said Rainbow Dash, and fell silent again, smelling her cider, and listening to the crackle of the fire and Applejack’s breathing.