//------------------------------//
// Apologetic Shoulder Blades 
// Story: Cerulean 
// by Cherax 
//------------------------------//

She yelps again, wing expanding on instinct - the bandage unravels, pushed out of position by the unfurling feathers, and falls daintily to the floor once more. "Gahhh! What are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The bandage begins to glow a beautiful shade of blue and lifts itself up off the floor, levitating towards the furrowed brows of a mildly frustrated white unicorn. "As I told you already, Rainbow, I am decidedly not a doctor - and quite frankly, I don't know why you aren't seeing one right now."

"It's just a teensy bit of fabric, isn't it? That's, like, your whole thing! I figured I'd save him the trouble…" She gingerly retracts her aching wing, and fights the impulse to unfold it as her friend begins wrapping it again.

"The trouble of devoting seven years of his life to medical school, you mean?" Rarity mutters.

Rainbow grunts dismissively. "Look, you can send me packing if it's really that much of a hassle, but if you're not kicking me out, could you please just set the ohhh sweet Celestia not there!"

Rarity only rolls her eyes, and adjusts the position of the wrapping. "What in Equestria did you do to it anyway? It wasn't this bad last time I saw you…" She squints, gives an accusatory hum. "You haven't been flying again, have you?"

There's a pause. Rarity's magic quietly twinkles away in the room. Two ponies walk past outside, their muted conversation tracing their progress past the Boutique's front door. Then-- "It wasn't my fault, alright?" (Rarity scoffs under her breath.) "It's that Dizzy Twister! I mean, I was just casually walking through the marketplace, and I can't help but notice there's this huuuge storm-cloud hanging right over the Sweet Apple stand! Smack bang in the middle of Dizzy's side of town! This thing looks set to burst any minute, and y'know, AJ's trying to lasso it down or whatever, but it's just out of reach..."  She raises her foreleg above her head for emphasis. "And Dizzy's gone completely missing in action, who knows where she wandered off to, the cloud-brain... so I figured I'd just-- well." She gives a weak little laugh. "Old habits, eh?"

The gauze hovers still for a moment, as Rarity sighs deeply. "I only wonder if that crash didn't damage that brain of yours as well! Remember, Rainbow, our good doctor told you to keep off that wing for at lea--"

"At least a week, yeah yeah, I heard him," Rainbow finishes, her voice tinged with resignation. "Luna above, what am I going to do for all that time? What do you ponies even do down here?"

"Oh, we've managed to invent a few ways to pass time besides flapping about the place," Rarity deadpans. "Life is tough for us grounded ponies, but we persevere." She resumes wrapping the wounded wing.

"I don't know how you do it! It's been two days, two freaking days, and I'm already bored out of my mind!"

"How about you, oh, I don't know… haven't you got some Daring Do you can read?" she offers hopefully.

Rainbow smirks. "What, for a week straight? Please, Rare. You must have me confused for Twilight."

Rarity's eyes light up at that. "Ah! Well, speaking of - Applejack and I are heading over to Twilight's tomorrow night for a little slumber party. It's something of a tradition for us girls, but I'm sure I could convince those two to let you join us." She lets out an excited little squeal. "Oh, it's an absolute blast, let me tell you! We stay up all hours playing parlour games and swapping our best stories and doing each others' manes and--"

Rainbow cries out in pain, a sharp, sudden moan that startles Rarity into dropping the bandage from her telekinetic grip. "Oh! Did I press too hard again?"

"No, it's just…" Rainbow can barely suppress her wicked smile. "That sounds terrible."

Rarity rolls her eyes, picking the trail of gauze up with her magical grip. "Oh, really now, Rainbow Dash…"