Of Sky and Snow
Chapter 7
Day One; Private Requests
Rainbow Dash groaned as she pulled the boot from her hoof painfully slowly, cringing as her ankle twisted. “Twi, I think your spell wore off. Think I could get another dose to get these stupid things off?” She called, looking to the bedroom door, through which Twilight had disappeared shortly after they'd arrived back at the hotel.
“Sorry, Rainbow, but it's best this way. If you don't feel the pain you won't know when to stop and you could end up doing some serious damage. Just be careful and you'll be able to get them off,” Twilight replied.
With a sigh crossed with a grunt of pain, Rainbow gave one more tug and slid her hoof free from the boot holding it captive. “Finally... what are you doing in there anyway?”
“I'm looking for.... ah-hah!” Twilight came out of the room with a smile on her face and a book in her magical grasp. “This.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”
“Something I knew I would need this week; a medical book detailing spells to fix things like sprains. I figured somepony would end up hurting themselves,” she said, flipping the book open and turning a couple pages until she got to the desired spell.
“So you can fix it?”
Twilight nodded. “I should be able to. Lay on your back and I'll see what I can do,” she instructed, sitting at the end of the couch as Rainbow shifted into the requested position. “Alright, now I can't numb your ankle for this one, but it shouldn't hurt too much; it's just a diagnostic spell.”
“I've dealt with broken wings, Twi; I think I can handle- ow! What the hay Twi? My ankle doesn't bend like that normally!” Rainbow shouted, looking down to see that the unicorn wasn't even touching her hoof.
“Sorry, the spell has to mess around with your nerves, muscles and bones, so it's gonna feel pretty weird, and it'll sting a bit,” she explained, watching carefully as Rainbow's ankle glowed gently under the influence of the spell.
Rainbow huffed, letting her head fall back against the armrest. “That spell of yours felt like it was trying to break my hoof off,” she grumbled, staring at the ceiling as the magic continued to work its way through her muscles and bone. She could feel it soaking into her leg and moving around beneath her skin, inside her very flesh. It was by far the strangest thing she'd ever felt. After a few more seconds the magic seemed to withdraw, and Rainbow looked up to see it flowing in a translucent purple line back to Twilight's horn.
“Alright...” the unicorn mumbled, flipping through her book briefly before tossing it onto the coffee table and turning to look at Rainbow. “This one will hurt quite a bit, so... sorry in advance.”
“Wait wait wait,” Rainbow said quickly, waving her hooves back and forth. “How much is this gonna hurt? Like, should I be knocked out for this or something?”
Shaking her head, Twilight smiled gently. “No, nothing that bad. Normally if you sprain an ankle you just stretch your ligaments, which is what causes the pain and swelling. You've actually done some serious damage, and almost torn them. Luckily you didn't, and all I have to do is repair the damage.”
Rainbow nodded slowly. “All I understood from that was that it could be worse so... well, fix me up, doc.” With those words a not-unwanted image of Twilight in a nurse outfit flitted across Rainbow's mind.
“You know I don't even understand how you did this.” Twilight noted, preparing the spell as she ran her hooves over Rainbow's ankle to feel for any swelling.
“I tried snowboarding and crashed,” Rainbow deadpanned, shooing the previous image from her mind, though not before it managed to ignite her cheeks a deep scarlet. Luckily for her Twilight was too busy with her leg to notice.
“But that's just it!” Twilight cried, motioning to the injured limb. “Because both your legs are strapped to the snowboard, you're not even at risk of twisting your ankle. With skiing you tend to injure your knees, but with snowboarding most injuries are in your front hooves from the force of the crash. You... I don't understand how you managed to twist your ankle in those boots.”
“I'm just that awesome I guess,” the pegasus responded with a shrug. “Even when I'm crashing I'm doing something impossible.”
Twilight looked up briefly, giving a chuckle. “I suppose so. Anyway, here goes nothing. Let me know if anything feels like it's growing wrong.”
Rolling her eyes, Rainbow asked, “The hay does something growing wrong feel like?”
“According to the books, you'll know it if you feel it. Ready?”
Rainbow nodded.
“Alright. Three, two-”
“OW! Jeez Twi, I thought the point of counting down was – Ow ow ow – to wait till you got to one! Arg!” Rainbow groaned out through her gasps as a painful stretching sensation enveloped her leg. A constant pricking covered her ankle, as though she were being stabbed by thousands of needles that were a little bit too big.
Twilight kept her eyes closed in concentration as she cast the spell, but managed to respond, “Yeah, and that's why when it's something like this you do it on two. Hasn't anypony ever done that to you before?”
“No! I – ow! - normally have to wait till one!”
With a final flourish of magic the light faded from Twilight's horn, and the spell was complete. “Well it's normally a lot easier if you go on two. Anyway, it's done; how's it feel?”
Rainbow slowly pushed herself up on her forelegs, examining her ankle as she slowly rotated her hoof. “Stiff... and still a bit sore, but it's not actually hurting. I can bend it now, at the very least.”
“No problems bending it or anything? You can't feel anything strange about it?”
“Nope; good as new,” Rainbow affirmed with a smile. “Thanks a ton, Twi.”
Twilight returned the smile. “Good. You'll have to keep off it for the rest of the day so it can finish healing, but by tomorrow morning even the stiffness should fade. Now, you're going to tell me all about why you told me you can snowboard.”
Rainbow's face fell. “Oh... right; that.”
“Come on, Rainbow,” Twilight said, levitating the book off the table and back into the bedroom as she stood up and motioned for Rainbow to move her legs. When she complied, Twilight sat down on the other half of the couch. “You did promise.”
“Yeah I... I guess I did.” Rainbow sighed, shifting around until she was sitting properly on the couch. “Well I guess I...” she paused. She had claimed she could snowboard to impress Twilight! How could she say that without then explaining it? It certainly wasn't something she wanted to explain now, of all times, but she had to tell her something.
“You what?” Twilight asked slowly, motioning for Rainbow to continue.
“I just... I wanted to impress you... girls!” Rainbow added quickly. “I wanted to impress you girls. I mean me; the ultimate athlete, having no idea how to snowboard? How not-awesome is that? So I just figured... ya know... I could figure it out easy enough. Guess I was wrong about that...”
Twilight sighed heavily. “Rainbow, when are you going to learn that you don't need to try and impress us? We love you for who you are and what you can already do; you don't need to improve that or show us anything more than what we already see in you.”
Rainbow's heart skipped a beat at the word 'love', but she quickly brushed it aside, reminding herself Twilight was just using it in the platonic sense. Still, she couldn't stop the blood rushing to her face. “Guess I just needed to sprain my ankle trying to snowboard to learn that one, huh?”
“Well at least you didn't have to break anything,” Twilight joked, earning a chuckle from her pegasus friend. “Seriously though, there's no shame in not knowing how to do something; it just means you need to learn.”
Sighing, Rainbow relented with a small nod. “Guess so...” Suddenly, her eyes lit up as an idea slithered into her head, and idea that rapidly formed itself into a plan. “Hey... think you could teach me? You know, give me some lessons or something?”
“That's a great idea, Rainbow!” Twilight beamed, before her face fell. “Except I don't know the first thing about snowboarding. Shining was the snowboarder of the family, not me.”
“Then I'll ski!” Rainbow offered quickly, desperately holding on to her plan.
Twilight rubbed her hoof against her chin. “Well... I suppose I could give you an the girls some lessons. We'll have to go and exchange your snowboard for a pair of skis though.”
“No!” Rainbow blushed at her sudden outburst under the scrutinous gaze of Twilight. “I mean... uh... what I meant to say was... uh.... do you think you could me... err.... separate from the girls?”
Tilting her head, Twilight asked; “You mean private lessons?”
“Yeah!”
“I don't know, Rainbow,” Twilight started uneasily. “It's not exactly fair to the rest of the girls, not to mention it'd be a lot easier to teach all of you at once.”
Rainbow put on her biggest eyes and best pout. “C'mon, Twi,” she pleaded. “Please? I don't want the girls to find out I lies to all of them when I said I knew what I was doing.”
“Rainbow....”
“Please Twi?”
“Oh... fine,” Twilight relented with a deflating sigh. “I guess I can give you some lessons without the girls knowing. I'll teach them as much as I can today, and tomorrow I'll tell them to practice while I teach you somewhere else. I'll just tell them we're going to do some longer runs.”
Rainbow grinned widely, leaning over and wrapping the unicorn in a hug. “Thanks Twilight! This means a lot to me.”
“Yeah well... that means I need to go teach them, and you need to keep off that hoof for the rest of the day.... Rainbow?” Twilight frowned, shifting slightly. “Rainbow? Can... you let go now?”
Eyes snapping wide and cheeks flaring red, Rainbow pulled back, scooting to the farthest edge of the couch she could without actually falling off. “S-sorry...” she muttered, eyes glued to the floor.
Twilight chuckled, shaking her head. “Don't worry about it. I'm serious though; keep off that hoof. I'm gonna go find the girls and get them in the best shape I can. I'll come pick you up later, to exchange your stuff, okay?”
“Sure.”
“Alright. I'll see you later, Rainbow,” Twilight called, once again gathering her stuff and heading to the door. “Read your book or something.”
Rainbow didn't so much as move her eyes from her hooves until she heard the door click shut. Letting out a long, so breath, she flopped onto her break and spread out across the couch, staring at the ceiling. “What did I just get myself in to? Oh right, I just got caught red-hoofed lying to all my friends.”
She sighed, flipping onto her stomach. “On the other hoof, Twi's gonna cover for me, and I even get some along time with her out of the deal!”
Groaning, Rainbow sat up, rubbing her hooves through her mane. “But alone time with Twi hasn't exactly worked out in my favour so far... is this time going to be any different?”
“Probably not,” she admitted, falling onto her back again. Rainbow cursed under her breath as she folded her forelegs over her eyes, welcoming the darkness. “Just take it one step at a time; get alone with Twi, then take it from there. It'll all be fine, right?”
Pictures of her planned encounter going horridly wrong filled her mind, the worst of which involved an avalanche caused by a shouting match brought on by Rainbow's confession. She sighed, the familiar feeling of anxiousness once again balling up deep in her gut.
“I'm never gonna tell her the truth, am I?”
“Heh, you girls coming or what!?” Applejack shouted, looking back over her shoulder to the top of the ski hill, where two other ponies on skis wavered unsteadily as they slalomed down the slope.
Rarity huffed indignantly as she came to an unsteady halt a few feet ahead. “Not all of us can be naturals, Applejack. Besides, I have no doubt you'll make a mistake sooner or later; even Rainbow Dash hurt herself, and she actually knows what she's doing. Unlike some ponies.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “I ain't fell yet. This snowboarding thing is a piece a cake.”
“Wee!” Pinkie giggled as she reached the bottom, not even bothering to stop as she continued sliding for several more yards.
“Hey girls!”
All three turned, smiling as a purple unicorn crossed over the snow, skis held in her magical grasp as she dodged a few other ponies mulling about the base of the slopes. “How's it going so far?”
“Well, there were a couple tumbles-”
“Speak fer yourself,” Applejack said with a smirk directed at Rarity.
“A-hem... well, aside from Applejack, there were a few tumbles, but we've managed. How's Rainbow Dash?”
Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “She's alright, but she'll need to stay off her hooves for most of the day to make sure everything heals properly. Luckily she didn't do all that much damage and should be back out tomorrow.”
Smiling, Rarity motioned to the hill behind them. “Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but I think we may be ready to tackle something a bit longer. Or at the very least Applejack is.”
“Hmm... well, let's do one more run on this slope; I wanna see how good you girls are. The next slope is a lot steeper than this one so proper control is very important.”
Pinkie pushed herself past the group, moving towards the chairlift. “Last one to reach the bottom's a lazy cupcake!”
“Lazy... cupcake?” Twilight asked, blinking and turning to her friends for an explanation. Rarity and Applejack just shrugged.
“Well, she might have a point,” Applejack said slyly, a challenging smirk upon her lips. “Race to the bottom, anypony?”
Twilight's eyes narrowed as she clicked her boots into her skis. “You've been at this one day, AJ; do you really think you can beat me?”
“Only one way to find out!” Applejack took off towards the lift, dragging her snowboard behind her. Twilight reared up and grabbed her poles, sliding herself easily across the snow and falling into line at the chairlift before Applejack made it even half way.
“What's the matter, Applejack?” Twilight called over her shoulder as she was scooped up into the chair lift. “Can't handle a little race?”
Applejack growled, hurrying across the snow and finding her own seat on the chairlift, Rarity managing to fall in with her. “This don't count, ya hear!?”
Chuckling, Twilight waved a hoof over her head, shouting back; “I know. We'll start from the top. I warn you, though; you won't stand a chance.”
“Well, somepony's been spending a little too much time with Rainbow Dash,” Rarity tutted with a smirk, elbowing the farmer next to her. “If this keeps up we may have two daredevils on our hooves.”
With a relatively short ride the chairlift dropped them off at the top of the hill, Twilight and Pinkie already lined up at the top of the slope. Applejack quickly fell in next to them, strapping her other hoof into her snowboard and lining herself up. Only two other ponies were on this hill, and they were still on the lift as Rarity unsteadily joined the other three.
“On three?” Twilight offered, rearing up onto her hind hooves and grabbing her poles.
“On three.” Applejack affirmed.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three!” Pinkie shouted, shooting down the hill in a fluffy pink blur. Twilight was off almost instantly, digging her poles into the snow and propelling herself over the edge, vanishing in a haze of purple. Applejack couldn't help but let her jaw drop as Twilight shot down the hill at speeds she'd only ever seen from Rainbow Dash. A dainty chuckle drew her attention.
“Well, it seems you have some competition,” Rarity snickered before pushing herself off and flying down the hill with gravity;s aid.
Applejack leaped into action, rearing up and throwing herself off the edge of the hill. Her board carved into the snow as she held a steady balance, not even bothering to slalom as she struggled to regain the time she's lost. It worked a little as she passed Pinkie and Rarity, but Twilight was little more than a dream. The unicorn hit the bottom of the hill and skidded to a stop in a flurry of kicked up snow while Applejack was barely half way down.
Removing her goggles, Twilight turned and looked back up the hill with a victorious smirk; even at her top speed Applejack failed to even keep up. Smile shifting to a frown, Twilight noted the slight wobble of Applejack's board as she shot down the slope in a straight line. She waved her hooves, hoping to gain the mare's attention. “AJ! Applejack! Slow down!”
“Slow down?” Applejack asked herself, tilting her head. “Why would I- whoa!” Her snowboard gave a violent shudder and she was sent reeling off balance. Struggling to regain control she tried to turn and bleed of some speed, but instead the leading edge of her board caught in the snow and she was flung forward, somersaulting through the snow until coming to a stop at the base of the hill.
Twilight held a hoof to her mouth, stiffing a giggle. “You okay?”
“I... uh...” the world around her was spinning violently, but most of it cleared with a violent shake of her head. “Yeah... I'm fine.”
Offering a hoof, Twilight helped her up as Pinkie and Rarity slid to a rough stop at the bottom of the hill. “Honestly, you did a lot better than I thought, especially since you haven't had a teacher.”
“Guess I'm just a natural. Still can't compare to you though.”
“Well you really shouldn't try; I have been skiing most of my life. That being said, I think you were right when you said you were ready for the bigger hill. As long as you aren't trying to race,” she added with a pointed look.
Applejack chuckled. “Fine fine; point taken. Still, I wish Rainbow Dash could give me a few pointers or somethin'. I'll have to talk to her next time I see her.”
Twilight stiffened slightly, but before anypony else could notice four calls rang out.
“Hey girls!”
“Hey sis!”
“Howdy!”
“Hey!”
Fluttershy, joined by three small fillies, trudged through the snow towards the group, with the Cutie Mark Crusaders a few steps ahead of their caretaker. Scootaloo was the first to reach them, looking around expectantly. “Where Rainbow Dash? Is she still on a run somewhere?”
“Actually she's back in our room,” Twilight explained slowly, shifting awkwardly. “She managed to crash and hurt herself on her first run.”
Scootaloo looked befuddles. “Rainbow Dash.... crashed?”
Applejack snickered. “It ain't exactly somethin' new.”
“But she's too awesome to crash!” The filly protested. “She's alright, right? Nothing can keep her down for long!”
“Just a sprained ankle, but she needs to stay off her hooves the rest of the day,” Twilight said, earning a slight pout from the filly.
Fluttershy caught up to the group at her own pace as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom ran up tot heir respective sisters to start badgering them with questions about their skiing or snowboarding. “You said Rainbow fell?”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah, guess she was a little rustier than she thought. Little too much speed and not enough balance. She'll be fine tomorrow.”
“Y-yeah... rusty...” Fluttershy shifted awkwardly, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the unicorn.
Suddenly, Pinkie slid past them on her skies, Scootaloo sat atop her back. “Come, Scootaloo!” She announced, bringing her voice as deep as it would go. “To Dashie's room!”
Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “Well, I think it's about lunch time anyway.”
“Oh yes! That's why we came to find you; the girls and I found a nice little cafe that we thought you would all enjoy, and it's almost noon.”
Nodding, Twilight turned to rarity and Applejack. “What do you thin, girls? Go gather some stuff and have some lunch before tackling the bigger hills?”
“Sounds good to me,” Applejack agreed.
Rarity, stepping out of her skis, looked up. “Well, it seems I myself have worked up quite an appetite, so a little lunch sounds wonderful.”
“Then it's agreed. Let's drop our stuff off at our room and go get something to eat. We'll pick up Rainbow and Pinkie while we're there.”
“Oh, Twilight,”Fluttershy called quietly as the group set off. Twilight turned her head, the call going unnoticed by the other mares. “Can I talk to you a moment? If you don't mind?”