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// Skating [Sad; possible shipping] 
// Story: Friendship Harder: Collected Microfiction 
// by KwirkyJ 
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Applejack scarcely registered the frigid winter air. How could she, when Twilight had finished tying up her skates, smiling brightly, asking, ‘where do we start?’ Those amazing, brilliant eyes.

She was careful to take things slowly, make sure that Twilight had her balance before guiding her through how to press one’s weight to the side, and use that pressure to glide forward. She stayed very near, should Twilight slip. Though Twilight nearly fell a couple times, she always managed to catch herself. Twilight would still offer a word of gratitude for the rush to help.

Applejack couldn’t have been happier.

All autumn, when not absorbed in the harvest and all the hullabaloo that came with it, Applejack had been secretly wishing for winter to hurry up and arrive; to freeze the lakes and hush the hills. Applejack would then trot up to Twilight’s library and whisk her off to ice-skate, just the two of them.

Twilight was now taking her first real strides on the skates, starting and stopping, untangling her legs, hesitant and awkward, but not failing. A pair of hooves would reach out and reassure her, urge her on with praise.

Applejack would have been sure to not enjoy the telltale warmth beneath her fur too much.

Applejack watched as Twilight completed her first tenuous lap around the small lake, beaming, laughing in delight at her small success.

Applejack watched, powerless, as Pinkie Pie bounced over to Twilight and took her for another lap.

Applejack watched, some distance away, hidden by the trunks of a clutch of trees. It wasn’t far from the path from the Acres into Ponyville; where Applejack had been on her way to the library when she heard the two crunching through the snow.

Applejack lay there, simply watching. Applejack could do nothing but watch.

Twilight slipped a few times, bringing a startled ‘whoop,’ and Pinkie Pie’s encouraging chuckle.

Applejack thought she should join them; be infected by Pinkie’s smile and Twilight’s dazzling eyes.

Applejack didn’t join them.

Applejack didn’t say long.

Nearby, buried in craters of powdery snow where they had been tossed aside, two sets of skates lay, forgotten.