Friends Forever [Twilight]

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight was so wrapped up in the idea of Spike being the boy that she hadn't actually noticed Rainbow's falling until it already happened. The unicorn girl winced as soon as she realized the error of her ways, an apology already upon her lips. She tried to readjust without damaging anything, quite nearly overcompensating as she did. The table lurched a bit, but Rainbow was thankfully already on the way to the kitchen. In the brief moment the pegasus girl was off in the other room, Twilight adjusted the table, making certain it was perfectly aligned. After all, if it was one thing Twilight Sparkle was good at, it was putting things in order.

Though she forgot all about their efforts as Rainbow returned to the dragon/demon Overlord kid. The description did sound a bit like Spike during his greedy phase, but Twilight was starting to think along similar lines to Rainbow: this kid might be a dragon, but he wasn't their dragon, not the dragon that Twilight had stood up for and depended on time and time again. The unicorn-girl's heart nearly cracked at the thought, but she rallied herself enough, nodding. "He sounds like someone who got frustrated with his displacement. Lots of the VRDs lost their powers and stuff. Just look at the two of us: you lost your wings; I lost my magic. My magic seems to be coming back though, so..."

Twilight let that hang for a moment. Rainbow might not be an egghead, but she could definitely put two and two together. She certainly seemed to be doing more or less that now, with the light. Twilight moved to support her friend with her actual hands, while her magic worked to levitate the various pieces up and begin to put them in their order. She couldn't actually repair anything at her current power, but she could certainly start arranging things. They really should use some sort of glue or something, but Twilight was pretty sure they could mostly put it together for now. She hesitated for a moment, frowning as she studied the puzzle. And it really did seem puzzling... she didn't understand this electricity thing well at all...

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow nodded, glad that Twilight's magic was starting to come back. "Woah, do you think that kid's abilities are going to come back? He said he had a living scarf. I don't think that's a good idea for him to have. I mean, what if it tries to choke him or something?" She paused in her work, imagining what that would look like, and then had to snort with laughter. "I bet I know what Rarity would say." She held up a hoof...er, hand...and placed it dramatically against her forehead. In a high-pitched voice, she said, "Absolutely a fashion disaster!" Unable to keep it up any longer, Rainbow laughed heartily.

She went back to working on the light, finding that most of the wires were colored. These hands did seem incredibly useful for twisting together the wires. Red with red, white with white...but there were three black ones. How was she supposed to know which of those went with which? Maybe it didn't matter? She certainly hoped so. Biting her lip, she went to work twisting all of those threads together. As she worked, though, sparks flew out of one of the wires, burning her fingers.

"Ow!" she said, flinging her hand back and shaking it out in pain. The sudden movement caused her to wiggle the chair. It slid across the smooth surface of the coffee table, resting with one leg dangerously near an edge. "Twilight?" she called down to her friend. "Uh, I'm thinking maybe we should've turned off the lights before doing this..." Looking over at the light switch on the wall, she managed to nudge the chair the slight bit more necessary for it to fall off the coffee table, sending both Rainbow Dash and the chair crashing to the ground.

After cracking her head soundly on the ground, she laid on the ground for a moment, trying to get the world to stop spinning. "Ow," she finally said, though it came out more like a croak. "Hey Twilight? If you're getting your magic back, do you think I'll get my wings? I think I would really like that. Really, really like that." She closed her eyes, frowning against the pounding in her head. Raising a hand to where she had bumped herself, she pushed against the area. Her eyes flew open. "Uh, Twilight?" She pulled away her hand, which was slightly sticky. Looking at the redness on her palm, she searched for her friend's face with some sense of panic. "I think I'm..."

That was as far as she got. The sight of the blood combined with the head wound sent Rainbow Dash into a faint. If she hadn't been unconscious, she would have been upset that she didn't have the chance to fall dramatically, since she was already lying flat on the floor.

[Twilight Sparkle]

The spot-on imitation of their mutual friend made Twilight chuckle, at least, for a few moments. However, it brought right along with it the very real memory of a friend that she hadn't seen for some time now. Would Rarity follow Twilight and Rainbow and arrive here? What about the others? Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike... Twilight didn't want to think about it. In fact, she really couldn't, not while still focusing on helping Rainbow with the task at hand. The momentary trip down memory lane distracted Twilight long enough for Rainbow to do whatever she was doing with the wires. When the unicorn girl looked up, she caught the zapping.

"Right, we probably--" she began, turning, already beginning to extend her power. The distracted Twilight hadn't noticed the chair moving either, else she would have immediately moved to steady it. Or gotten into position to catch Rainbow. Or even possibly used her magic to try and help steady. But again, right as Twilight was aware of a situation, it was already happening. At least she was kneeling down next to her friend within moments, examining the bumped area with something akin to a critical eye. Twilight reached for her friend's hair, wanting to move it aside, but seemed to think better of it

"It's possible," she offered, answering the question. Her eyes flicked down to look at Rainbow and she nodded slightly. "You're already lighter than you were when I first ran into you. And you seem to be moving a little quicker too. If nothing else, when my magic comes back to full strength, I should be able to---" but Twilight was interrupted by Rainbow's freak out. Her violet eyes went wide at the sight of the blood, though at least Twilight actually knew what the stuff was. She also knew what to do, immediately moving to apply pressure to the wound. True, the scattered thoughts didn't quite think "put cloth down" first, and instead Twilight was pushing her hands against her friend.

"Rainbow!" Twilight yelled at the unconscious body. Unconscious with a head wound was never a good thing; that much, Twilight knew (she actually knew a lot; she'd picked up a book on human anatomy and one on first aid soon after someone had explained to her what they actually were). Twilight only knew one way to awaken a person, well, two, but she wasn't anywhere near water. Without thinking about it, Twilight brought her hand across Rainbow's face with a loud "crack."

Well, it was what all the books said to do.

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow Dash awoke with a start, her eyes jerking open and her arms flailing up as she strove to fought off what she perceived as her attacker. "Who's there? What happened? Who are--oh, Twilight..." She tried to look from side to side, but a throbbing in her head made her wince and put her hands over her eyes. "Everything hurts."

She belatedly realized that Twilight was pressing on her head and tried to swat the hands away, sure that that was the cause for her headache. "Why am I lying on the floor?" she asked. She kept her eyes shut, since it seemed to be helping with the pain a little bit. At least the light wasn't stabbing her eyes--wait a minute, the light! Was it working? She couldn't open her eyes to check.

"Did we get the light fixed? I can't...Wow my head hurts." Still, the pieces were beginning to come together. "Did...did you hit me?"

She groaned. "If I had my wings..." she bemoaned. If she had her wings, if she was fast again, if she didn't have to live in a house... "I just want to go home. I want my own house."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight winced. Okay, so the hitting thing had worked; still didn't mean it seem like a great idea. Especially with Rainbow wincing and looking very much, well, very much like someone who had just received a pretty hefty blow to the head. Before Twilight could explain, Rainbow was moving, which was par for the course. The unicorn-girl just took the swats, responding by trying to control Rainbow's flailing as best she could. Between this, maintaining pressure, listening to Rainbow, and, well, everything she'd come down to, Twilight's nerves were definitely starting to fray.

"You fell," she said, talking quickly to try and stop Rainbow from protesting, "you fell and hit your head. Then you say the blood, and you fainted," Twilight flashed a quick smile, "don't worry though: I won't tell anypony."

As for the hitting, well, Twilight was just going to tactfully step around that one, for now. She was blushing and trying to look incredibly busy, which was about as big an indication of guilt as you could get, really. The grumbling, however, got on those already frayed nerves. Twilight shot Rainbow a severe look. "Well, you don't," she said, her voice curt, "just like I don't really have my magic. We're like earth ponies now, and whining about it isn't going to change matters. It's not like I don't want to go home too, you know. That's what I've been working on since I got here. Stop moving!" the last was nearly snapped, as Twilight moved to try and get a better look at the wound. "I need to see if we should take you to somepony who actually knows about human injuries."

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow groaned. Had she been stupid enough to fall and hit her head? And why did it hurt so much? And maybe nobody else would know, but Twilight knew, and Rainbow didn't like looking any more stupid in front of her smartest friend.

She didn't notice Twilight's guilty face, being too caught up in her own pain and complaining. Besides, while being hit wasn't much fun, Rainbow did know that Twilight often knew the best course of action. She did everything for a reason, and if her reasons didn't make sense to anypony, well, that was because Twilight tended to think a little bit differently from many ponies. But then, that was why she studied under Princess Celestia, right?

So when Twilight barked at her to stop moving, Rainbow slowly moved her hands down to her sides and stopped squirming. She wiped her still-sticky hand on her jeans, hoping to get the blood off. Unfortunately, she also had rubbed her hands all over her face, meaning that she wasn't exactly the cleanest pony around. Not that she was completely aware of this, just of the sensation of being really crusty. And right after showering, too.

"This is worse than being an earth pony," Rainbow couldn't keep herself from saying. "Applejack and Pinkie Pie never get hurt like this. And they all get their own houses. I just...I really..." She sighed. What more was there to say? She didn't like it here, she knew Twilight didn't like it, and they were already doing a lot to try to get home. What was left?

The bleeding was beginning to slow. There was still bruising and a fairly hefty bump, but the cut was relatively small and had been largely staunched by the pressure of various hands. Much of the purple streak in Rainbow's hair and a part of the blue was still looking pretty matted, but the damage was contained mostly to her left side. There was enough blood loss, though, to make Rainbow begin to feel a little woozy.

"Twilight," she said, blinking slowly, "did we get one of those spinning lights?"

[ooc: I am faking the whole injury thing. I don't even know well what head injuries look like, esp. on people with hair. Feel free to change or adapt as needed.]

[Twilight Sparkle]

Head wounds always bled more, some argued that they bled too much. Something about human anatomy meant that any wound upon the top meant blood absolutely everywhere. Twilight was certain of this, certain that blood did not mean that the wound was bad. She also kept telling herself that things also looked worse because Rainbow kept smearing the blood everywhere. The red smears were not appealing, though, thankfully, they didn't seem as thick and... gelatinous as they had a few moments before. Twilight kept applying pressure, and she was really thinking it worked.

Even though Twilight was wrapped up in all these thoughts, she still listened to Rainbow. Paying attention to her friends in the midst of a crisis was a trick that Twilight had mastered some time ago. She nodded along to the assurances, wincing slightly at the thought. "Things are getting better though. My magic's coming back; you're faster. Pretty soon we'll figure out a way out of all this... this mess. Then we won't have to worry about blood or Shifting or anything."

Twilight nodded. The words were obviously half said to convince herself and, worst of all, they really weren't working. Twilight adjusted, trying to get a better look at the actual wound. The blood had matted the hair all around it, and Twilight wasn't sure she could move Rainbow yet. She could, however, use some magic to drag water toward them. Though given how stressed she was... well, at least the whole moving things bit was really, really easy. Twilight lifted a hand, working on pulling over a bowl of water, all the while keeping her eyes on her friend.

"No, the light doesn't spin, Rainbow," she said, frowning for a moment. She glanced up to confirm, nodding. "Even if you did give it a nice pull. I think we about had it fixed," Twilight took a deep, calming breath, forcing down the anxiety that threatened to bubble over, "so just... relax. Focus on... on my voice. Yeah, focus on that. And talk, talking is good. Talking is great..." Twilight bit her lip, trying to think of something to talk about, and possibly fighting again against that aforementioned rising anxiety. Just maybe.

[Rainbow Dash]

"I know you'll figure it out." Rainbow resisted the urge to nod or turn her head or move, even though she felt strange not having any motions to accompany what she was saying. "Zoro and I have been talking about getting one of the suits, and you and those other people are talking to everyone..." She sighed. "It's just taking forever. I hate waiting."

Twilight seemed a little distracted, but that was all right. She always seemed a little distracted, what with Celestia knows what that happened at home plus making time for friends and helping around the town...You just sort of got used to talking to Twilight and knowing that she was listening to you but also doing ten other things at the same time.

"You know, I think you need to relax a little," Rainbow said. "I mean, I know I think that about just about everypony, but you are always busy rushing around. You need to take more days off. Like, what all did you do today? I bet it was too much again. You sound even more stressed than you always do. I mean, what could have happened...?" She paused and gasped. "You found out that I was the one who hid the jumping jacks under your dresser!" Then she giggled. "I'm just kidding, that was Pinkie Pie." Okay, so maybe she wasn't quite thinking coherently.

"My eyes hurt," she said with a frown. "Are you sure I can't just take a quick nap? I think it might help my headache."

[Twilight Sparkle]

"I certainly hope so,' muttered Twilight, biting her lip. She wasn't even entirely sure which problem she should be figuring out. They all seemed to chase one another around in her head, each chewing at the heels of the one coming before it. Judging by Rainbow's followup assertions, however, they were talking about the whole Shifting problem in general. Twilight clung to her optimism with a drowning person's desperation, and let it show through a smile that was perhaps too broad, and likely to be seen through by someone who knew her as well as Rainbow.

"I relax!" Twilight protested, smile and concerns vanishing in that instant. She nearly put her hands on her hips, and she certainly narrowed her eyes. "I read and, and, I try new things! There's a lot here to resear----err, experience! A lot to experience, and I've been taking it all in," Twilight paused. She blinked. "For fun," her eyes flicked guiltily toward where one of her (many) notepads lay, before looking back to her woozy friend. Reference to Pinkie Pie. Great, that boded well for Rainbow's sanity and state of being.

"If you need to close your eyes for a moment, you can," allowed Twilight. "Did you need us to move? Maybe get you on the couch? Oh, ice! I could get you some ice! I don't even have to leave; I can definitely get ice without moving," she extended a hand and her focus, and the sounds of ice rumbling through their freezer could soon be heard. As well as what sounded like something decidedly heavier than ice tumbling to the ground. Twilight winced and offered Rainbow a sheepish smile, before rising, extending a hand to try and get Rainbow to the couch and resting.

Because they both knew that always turned out well.

[Rainbow Dash]

"Maybe the couch..." Rainbow said, closing her eyes and letting her thoughts drift away for a moment. When she heard the clatter from the kitchen, though, she squinted up at Twilight. "I thought we just cleaned," she said, half-joking.

"What about my bedroom? I like my bedroom. Don't worry, I can make it myself." She batted away Twilight's hand and struggled to sit up on her own. "See, that's part of your problem. You're always so busy worrying about helping everypony else. Why don't you just, I don't know, take care of you for a little bit?"

She was busy clutching at the furniture near her in order to find purchase and scrabble her way up, determined not to need any help. "And research isn't fun," she said, finally managing to sit up, flopped forward to keep from falling right back down. "Even you get stressed when you can't find the right books. You only like doing research when you're learning things. What else do you do for fun?" As far as Rainbow could remember, the only reason Twilight ever got out of her library was because her friends dragged her out. At least, that was the way it felt.

"You go check on the ice. I can get onto the couch. Don't worry about me." She grinned up at Twilight, squinting against the glare of the light in the room. "It sounded like it made a real mess in there."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight gave Rainbow a severe look for the crack about cleaning, opening her mouth slightly to begin upbraiding her friend for it. The words even started to form before Twilight remembered that, in fact, her friend was rather hurt. Blushing then, Twilight turned, figuring it was best to keep focusing on the task at hand instead of something she had absolutely no control over. Well, little control over, and don't think that wasn't grating on nearly all of Twilight's fragile nerves. it probably helped that Rainbow had the strength to bat away Twilight's hand and start working on the whole couch thing by herself.

"No, you shouldn't move there yet. Stay," insisted Twilight. She gently nudged Rainbow toward the couch, hoping that her friend couldn't put up much of a resistance. In a straight battle of wills and strength, the two were evenly matched... when Twilight had all her magic. Without it, Rainbow was definitely at an advantage, even with her current woozy state. Disorientation rarely meant a lack of physical strength, unfortunately.

Twilight started moving, heading to check out exactly what had happened in the kitchen. She heard Rainbow's comment and this time, she had to fire back: "Research is so fun! And... and I don't have that much trouble finding books! And I read! A lot! Other stuff! Like, like Daring Do books! And I played a game!" once, and did horribly at it, though she did still have the stuffed toy up in her room. Twilight paused as she entered the kitchen. The ice cube tray floated in the air, but what looked suspiciously like a frozen... frozen burrito? A very large frozen burrito had landed on the floor, and it still sort of spun. It had knocked aside a few things that Twilight had held to the fridge. She quickly hurried to pick them all up, putting everything back into its place. while she was there, she also grabbed a towel, emptying the ice into it like this was something she did everyday, instead of something she'd just read about and was essentially experimenting with.

"Alright, here's the ice," she said, coming back into the living room. "Hold this to your head, and if you don't get better in, like, an hour, we'll have to take you to the medic," Twilight frowned, "actually, we should probably take you to the medic anyway. Head injuries are quite serious. I remember reading something in a book on basic human anatomy... I'm not sure where it is though..." she started looking around the house, her expression one that would no doubt be very familiar to Rainbow.

[Rainbow Dash]

Thinking about navigating stairs didn't make Rainbow feel very good, so she decided to listen to Twilight and aim for the couch. She busied herself doing that while Twilight went to check on the kitchen.

"One game hardly counts," she called back. "And I know you read fun books, too, but most of your books look really boring. I mean, not every book you read can actually be fascinating and give you useful information. I've looked at some of those books. They are totally boring."

She turned so she was facing the couch, putting her hand on the cushion to steady herself. She pushed herself to her knees and then onto the couch, sitting up and cradling her head in one hand. Glancing at the floor she saw a red stain, and she winced. That didn't look particularly good. Thankfully, Twilight came in and distracted her from the mess.

Rainbow held the ice to her head, hissing when she first pushed it. "Ow," she said, putting only slight pressure on the area. "Find the book later, Twi. You never forget anything you read, anyway. I trust you remember it right, I'm just not sure I trust the book. I'm sure I'll be fine. Look, I'm feeling better already." And she gave a big smile just to show how great she really was feeling. It even almost looked real.

"You know what, Twilight? We should play a game to pass the time. You need to play more games, and I need something to do to ignore my head. Do we have any games around here?" She looked around, turning her head carefully in case jostling it might cause the pain to come back full force.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"I played it for a really long time though," muttered Twilight, referencing the game. Again, definitely not a memory she wanted to dwell on, and something that she figured was better left unexplored. Rainbow definitely did not need to know that her friend had spent the better part of a day obsessively attacking a crane game in the hopes of winning a near duplicate of a stuffed toy that she may or may not have cast an extreme love spell on in a moment of... desperation, yes, let's go with that.

Twilight helped Rainbow get the ice into place, frowning as she did so. She was tempted to launch back into what the book said, remembering all the more ghastly details all too well. It had not been pleasant to learn that their bodies were quite fragile and had a tendency to suffer all kinds of wounds and the like. Though, if Twilight really stopped to think about it, it did seem that the Shifted had a slightly better endurance than most. One would almost think that some portion of their previous vitality had transferred over with them; that was, at least, what Twilight secretly hoped. Obviously some portion of their true selves came with them; you only had to look at Twilight's or Rainbow's hair to see that.

"A game?" repeated the unicorn girl, wrinkling her nose. "But.. you're hurt. Wouldn't you rather have me read to you or something? Oh, there is that thing, the, the, tee-vee," Twilight looked around for the unfamiliar box. Nothing about it appealed to her, but she had to admit, it was right up Rainbow's alley. Strange that they'd made certain that every house had one of those, but couldn't seem to provide them with personal libraries or anything. "Maybe you could use the tee-vee..."

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow was already rolling her eyes over the idea of being read to. Maybe if it was the right book...but no, she still preferred to read those on her own. Twilight never got the voices right, not in Dash's opinion. But she perked up at the idea of using the tv.

"All right, sure. I was browsing on there a while ago and I found this really weird show. They were all speaking in a funny language, and they were crying a lot, and the girls were always changing into different fancy dresses, and I think that one of the guys was dating one of the girls and her sister. I think I might have understood it better if I could speak the language, though. We should see if we can find that and maybe you'll know what language it was."

She straightened up on the couch. "I'm not too sick to play a game. We could have played cards or something. I did that when I was in the hospital with my wing. I don't think it would be any different." She reached for the television remote. "All right, now I just have to find the right buttons...it's some weird combination. They showed me once, but I keep forgetting. Augh!" She had turned on the tv, but the volume was up insanely high. She quickly turned it down a couple notches, though it was still absurdly loud.

"Sorry," she said loudly to Twilight. "I had it up really high before because they had this music station and I was dancing. Now, what do you want to watch?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight didn't have the faintest idea what show Rainbow was describing. She avoided the tee-vee if she could manage it; the thing intimidated her. The computers were bad enough; if Twilight hadn't needed them for research, she never would have bothered. But she was sure that she could get quite enough of her information from books and direct research without having to turn on some machine to show her images from places far away. Though there was some part of her that was just intensely curious about the whole process. Just a small part though.

"Well, if you'd like to play a game or something, we might be able to. I think they gave us a deck of playing cards when we moved in. They're not the same as the ones from--" Twilight began, before being cut off by the television. The sheer volume of it made the unicorn girl squeak, jump, and promptly flip over the couch, landing on the other side. Through some luck, Twilight managed to roll and come up without doing more than dizzying herself. Soon enough her violet eyes were peering over the edge of the couch, darting between Rainbow and the tee-vee as if not entirely sure which she should be blaming for that.

Rainbow solved that issue. The unicorn girl frowned slightly, pulling herself upright and eying the tee-vee. "I'm not sure I really want to watch anything..." she looked over at Rainbow. She couldn't leave her friend along, not without checking to see if she was alright. Twilight sighed, coming around the couch. While she walked, Twilight worked her fingers in her ears, hoping that the ringing wasn't permanent. She plopped down next to Rainbow, looking hesitantly toward the tee-vee. "Whatever you want to watch is fine by me. Maybe there's a program that can teach us about humans?"

Because of course the first thing Twilight Sparkle wanted to do with the tee-vee was use it for research and learning.