"Windcatcher?" Triple's voice comes from the other side of the wood panel door, "Can I come in?"
"Oof," Wind responds from your right side. "Just the pony we tried to avoid."
"And no Cirrus to help us," you reply, shaking your head at fate's fun little tricks.
You take the last few steps over to the door and pull it open with your teeth.
The bustle of the party beyond it instantly invades your ears and you flatten them against the noise.
"Ah, Windcatcher, may I have a word with you in private?" Triple asks as she peers in through the opening.
"Hey Triple," you answer wearily. "What's it about?"
"I might have an actual solution to your situation," Triple Lightning states proudly, motioning to the book she has in her saddlebag.
"A situation which won't physically tear us in half, you mean?" you ask hopefully, taking a few steps back and opening the door for your friend.
Triple Lightning steps into your room, smiling broadly. "It was surprisingly simple once I found the right book in the Crystal Empire's library, actually."
"The... crystal empire? I thought you frequented Canterlot?" you ask, shaking your head. "However did you get up here anyway?"
"Oh, there's a nifty spell giving me the ability to stand on clouds for a whole day. I cast it upon myself before coming up here by balloon," Triple explains with a grin.
"Now I can visit Cirrus at her home as well. She was absolutely stoked when I told her about it; something about not having to brave the danger my dad poses..."
"Yes, we were just writing about your dad a short while ago," you point out, motioning your right wing at the desk.
Triple's attention drifts to your desk and the growing stack of papers you have written on.
"Writing your memoirs, Windcatcher? I do hope you're not expecting to leave us?" the unicorn asks with some worry in her voice.
"Not if I can help it, no," you retort.
"Not if her magic can help it either," Wind mumbles while leaning into your right side.
"Ah, good," Triple states, lifting the book from her saddlebag with her magic and making it hover in the air in front of her.
The book opens by whim of her magic and pages flip open until she arrives at the page she was looking for.
"Here," she points out, motioning at it with her horn. "This spell talks about splitting two parts of a pony off from one another to rid oneself of their evil counterpart."
"And, pray tell, which of the two of us would be the 'evil counterpart' in this scenario?" you ask wearily.
Triple blushes lightly. "Ah, no, but I can rewrite it to not latch on to the 'evil', but the 'other' within. That should allow me to magically extract Wind from your body and deposit her into her own, effectively leaving you, Catcher, in control of the body you both now inhabit."
"Oh, great, so now I have to leave my own body just so you can be alone in mine?" Wind grumbles.
"I'm not so sure Wind appreciates that idea, Triple. Can you be sure she's going to end up with a body of her own? Is there no way to pull me out instead? I'm the interloper, after all?" you posit.
Triple frowns at the thought. "Well, I would have it grab 'the other', so that is whomever is least attuned to the physical body."
You nod at the explanation, opening your mouth to ask what would decide that, but close it again as Triple continues talking.
"Given how Wind is stuck internally, and you are in control of your body at the moment, that would most likely mean that she's seen as the 'other' in this scenario," Triple answers your unasked question.
"The spell would then extract her from this bubble you've been speaking about, and put her in... a..." Triple's eyes glaze over a second and she moves the book closer to herself to read what it says on the page.
"Into a vessel of equal storage capability... Hm. That's not helpful, how would I deduce the storage capability of your body as it stands now?" she muses to herself.
"No launching spells at me until you're sure something works," you warn her. "Cirrus is in the next room over and you know she'll be pissed if we suddenly disappear or something."
"Right, right," Triple Lightning agrees, going over the text again.
"All I need is a crystal to move Wind into," she ponders to herself, but Wind is having none of it.
"A crystal? She wants to move me into a crystal?" Wind exclaims loudly next to your right ear, and it flattens against your head as you involuntarily step to the left a few paces.
"Wind is NOT going to be put in a crystal, Triple," you warn the unicorn.
"Who's putting whom into a crystal?" Cirrus wonders as she peers into the room, having walked up to the still open door.
"Nopony's putting nopony in no crystal, no way, no how, no nothing," Wind objects fervently.
"Triple, er, is talking about taking Wind and me apart and putting one of us in a crystal or something," you quickly list for Cirrus.
The other pegasus' wings unfold and raise up behind her instantly like she were an alicorn princess, and she marches up to her mare still reading from the book floating in front of her.
"Triple Lightning! You put that book away right this instant and join me for the party if you know what's good for you!" Cirrus Uncinus bellows at the unicorn.
Triple's magic stuttered from surprise and the book drops down, but she recovers almost instantly and pulls it back up before it hits the ground.
"Ah, Cirrus, sweetheart, I mean, I was just talking about this spell I found. I wasn't going to actually do anything just yet," she tried to backpedal, closing the book up as she talked.
"We're either going back to the party and have fun together or you're going back down to the ground by yourself," Cirrus huffs while staring her girlfriend down.
Triple's ears and tail slowly droop down and she moves the closed book back into her saddlebag.
"I'll come back to the party," the unicorn mumbles in defeat, and you can't help but feel for her.
Cirrus casts a smile in your direction, then moves to push Triple Lightning out of the room. "Go on then, let's leave Wind and Catcher to do... whatever it is you were doing in here. They'll join us soon enough, I'm sure."
You mouth a "thank you" to Cirrus, then close the door behind the two once they're out of the room again.
"A crystal!" Wind repeats. "I'm not going into any crystal! And I'm not letting her put you in one either!"
"No, I agree. That's a bad deal for whichever one of us ends up in there," you return, walking back to the desk.
"Weren't we going to go for snacks?" Wind wonders.
"I'm not hungry anymore after that ordeal," you grumble. "I think we both need to write that mess away. Where were we?"
"Waking up in Triple's home after Luna's intervention," Wind remembers.
With Cirrus, Triple, and myself now fully awake, we gathered ourselves up and prepared to go downstairs for breakfast.
"If we're fast enough we can have breakfast and be out of the house before your dad wakes up," Cirrus told Triple.
I could hear Wind scoff from somewhere behind me to the right. "He won't wake up before noon. We have plenty of time."
"As long as we're out of the house by noon we'll be fine," I repeated her words for the other two.
"Hah, yeah. Bright Spark waking up in the morning; that's something the papers would write about," Cirrus Uncinus laughed.
"Dad says he does his best thinking at night," Triple Lightning attempted to stand up for her dad.
"I'm sure he does," Cirrus remarked, then turned to me. "Do you need help preening your wing since it's still healing?"
I looked back at my hurt wing and shrugged. "I'm not so sure I should be agitating it until it feels better."
"You should take her offer," Wind pointed out. "You can do our good wing while she does the bad one. We'll be ready for breakfast before you know it."
"Wind accepts your offer," I pointed out to the other pegasus, "I think I've been overruled."
"I know how hard it can be to get your feathers lined up right when you've hurt yourself, trust me," Cirrus suggested, turning so she could have a closer look at my left wing.
"It's not that, it's the sudden familiarity you're showing me. It's a bit awkward even if you say that princess Luna told you to take care of us," I mumbled.
"I do care, contrary to popular belief," Cirrus protested. "I have to keep up appearances around those who don't know me very well, but I'd like to think Wind knew I was doing so even before this. Luna told me you two are going to need me as a friend, and so I'm doing my best to drop that mask for you."
"Oh, don't get me wrong; I appreciate you suddenly caring so much more for our wellbeing, but... well, it's a bit of a shock," I returned.
"Less talking, more preening. Your poor wing needs to grow out its feathers again, but I will do what I can to lay them out to cause you the least amount of grief while you move around," the other pegasus decided, leaning her head in to my wing. "Stretch it as much as you can, but don't overdo it."
"I'll do my best," I answered, turning my head to the right side so I could start preening my other wing while she tended to my hurt left one.
The dream we had the other night had definitely ruffled our feathers, and I realigned them as best I could while getting distracted by each tug on the feathers at my left side.
It was clear that Cirrus, as a pegasus herself, had experience not only preening her own wings but those of others, as I only felt the gentlest of pulls from her teeth.
It is difficult to describe how weirdly familiar, yet alien the experience felt to me.
Windcatcher's body acted as if it was the most natural thing in the world, but somewhere in my head it was just the strangest of things which I had no memory of having had done to me before.
Like, I could recall my mother combing my mane in the past and it was just about the closest I could get to a previous situation.
With me focusing on the right and Cirrus on the left, we were done realigning my feathers in no time flat.
When I turned my head back to face her, she even gave me a knowing smile and wink after.
Clearly Pegasi had an unspoken bond just over their need to care for their wings, just the same as I would imagine Unicorns had a special bond because of their magic.
"Are you two done yet?" the Unicorn in the room asked as Cirrus pulled away from me, and I folded my wings to my sides again while putting my focus on her.
"I am," I started.
"we haven't brushed our mane out in days... might as well as Cirrus for help with that as well," Wind pointed out.
"Although Wind would like some help brushing our mane out," I voiced for the others. "I've been too distracted with this whole ordeal to even think of such things."
"There's a brush to your right," Triple offered. "While you were doing your wings, I used it for my own mane. Just slip it on your hoof and run it through your hairs."
I looked beside me and found a brush placed on a shelf set against the wall, a number of Triple's yellow hairs still sticking out from it.
A backpack with a big book in it laid resting against the wall underneath the shelf, while assorted smaller books and some trinkets were placed on the shelf as well.
The brush was simple; just a hard plate with a strap mounted to it, and a bunch of hairs coming out the other side.
I stuck my right forehoof through the strap so the brush was held in place on the inside of my leg, then moved my hoof up awkwardly in an attempt to get to my mane.
I had to lay my ear down flat so it wouldn't get in the way, but then I just carefully moved the brush over my head in an effort to get a picture of where the hairs were most entangled.
Just like while preening my feathers, I sought out these entangled spots and gently combed the hairs out until they were aligned beside one another again.
The brush was perfectly suited for the task; staying to the side of my leg by way of the strap which sat comfortably around my limb.
By the time I was done with my mane, Cirrus was done preening herself and just stood watching me from my left side.
I put the brush back on the shelf beside me, noting the slight difference in coloration between Triple's yellow hairs and my own as they were now both found stuck to the item, and then dared a smile back at the others.
"All done, I hope?" I suggested. "I'm not going to lie, that was easier than I was expecting it to be."
"You forgot your tail," Cirrus pointed out, walking around me to grab the brush in her own left forehoof and rounding back on me. "Allow me."
"Yes ma'am," I spoke in shock at her forwardness, looking back at her sitting down on her rump behind me to the right.
She pulled my tail hairs up with her free right hoof, then ran the brush through it with her left.
It was an even more intimate feeling than her preening my wing, mostly due to how close she was to my own rump, and I felt my cheeks heat up from a blush.
"Don't get any funny feelings about her now. She's Triple's girl and there's no way she's going to date either of us," Wind warned.
"This is normal for ponies like us," she explained further, her voice coming from my left side. "I've combed out other tails just the same as she's doing ours now. Unicorns might be able to do it with their magic, but it's a bit of a reacharound for the rest of us, you know?"
"Still," I muttered under my breath, trying to suppress my blush. "It feels intimate in a way I had not expected it to."
"You humans don't have tails, do you?" Triple wondered, walking up and drawing my attention to her.
"No, no we don't," I agreed. "I think the closest we humans come to someone tending to our rumps is when our parents wipe us down after we've gone potty when we're still very young. Our bodies allow us to reach down there a little easier to wipe ourselves once we get of age."
"Don't expect me to do that one," Cirrus chuckled from behind me.
"I won't; I've had to go to the toilet a few times already and know how the plumbing there works, thank you," I threw back as my cheeks burnt a deeper shade at the thought alone.