Rainbow Burst was walking on air. Not literally. She was still on the ground physically. There were no spells that would literally let her walk on air. Although there was one that would let her walk on clouds, and a theory that light could by compressed enough to walk, allowing a pony to literally walk on sunshine. She had not used the former, however, and had not even experimented with the latter. Yet.
Still, she was in quite a good mood. Walking along with a slight bounce in her step. Her head was up high as she hummed to herself.
"You're really proud of yourself," Spike said from his spot on Rainbow back.
"Of course I am," Rainbow replied. "We blew up a cloud, Spike. A cloud! How many ponies can say they've done that?"
"None?" Spike guessed, giving a shrug. "I doubt a lot of them have tried. It's doesn't really do anything useful."
Turning to look at him, Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
"It's not about practicality," she declared. "It's about awesomality."
Spike shifted on Rainbow's back, brow furrowed as he looked at her more.
"Is that a real word?"
Before Rainbow could answer, a pair of unicorn colts ran by. One bumped into Rainbow Burst, sending her stumbling to the side and knocking Spike from her back. As the young dragon fell, he managed to catch sight of the colts, recognizing them from around town.
"SNIPS!" he called out. "SNAILS!"
Oblivious to their names being called out or the slight mayhem in their wake, the two of them kept on running. That was until rainbow colored magic grabbed a hold of an ear, causing them to yelp out as they were pulled back.
"Ow! ow! ow!" the two of them cried out as they were led by their ears to where Spike and Rainbow were standing. Although she was the one doing it, Rainbow Burst could sympathize with them. She herself had been on the receiving end of it, often to be brought before Princess Celestia after one prank or another.
Some ponies just had no sense of humor.
Once the two were back and she was sure she had their attention, Rainbow Burst release her magical grip on their ears.
"So, what's got you two so excited?" she asked.
The short, chubby, blue colt with a scissor cutie mark -- who she figured was probably Snips -- answered.
"There's some big show happening in the center of town."
"Yeah," the gangly orange one -- Snails -- said. "There's a wagon there and everything."
A glance passed between Rainbow Burst and Spike, both of them raising an eyebrow.
"What kind of..." Spike started to ask, but the two unicorn colts had already taken off again.
Instead, he turned to Rainbow, hopping up onto her back again.
"Well, I'm curious," he said. "What about you?"
"Yeah," Rainbow answered as she continued on toward town, basically following the two colts. "I don't have anything else planned for today. I already did what I wanted most." She grinned at the memory of the explosion.
As the two of them got closer to the town square, they could see that other ponies had collected. A small crowd had formed, with more still arriving. The ones that were already there mumbled among themselves, most looking in the same direction. Rainbow could make out that something was there that had not been before, but could not make out too much of it.
A pink hoof appeared through the crowd, wrapping around Rainbow and Spike.
Next thing they knew, the two of them were suddenly up front, standing next Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack. Rainbow blinked and looked around, trying to figure out how they had gotten there. Clearly Pinkie Pie had been involved, seeing as they were beside her and there was only one hoof in Ponyville that could be that pink. But how did she do it? There had been no unicorn magic involved. It was like Pinkie had just stretched her leg like a rubber band, reached through the crowd, grabbed them, and pulled them to the front as it snapped back into place. Except there were not any spells that would let a unicorn stretch there limbs like they were elastic.
...wait... were there? What if there was? Probably be really useful and lots of fun. Rainbow would have to look into it later.
That was beside the point though. Besides, even if there was, there would have been some indication of Pinkie Pie using her magic, but there was none. No glow of her aura, and -- in the case of Pinkie -- no sound of noise makers or anything. Plus, Rainbow had no recollection of passing through the intermediate space between where they had been just a second ago, and where they now were. It was almost like they were teleported, which was something that Pinkie could do.
At least, Rainbow thought it was. Pinkie Pie's magic did not always seem to work the way it typically should.
In front of them stood a wagon. It looked to be a very light, pastel green in color, broken up by the occasional bright orange lightning bolt. At the bottom of each bolt was a series of glittery yellow spots.
"Wonder what's goin' on," Applejack said.
"Oh, oh!" Pinkie cried out, hopping up and down in place. "Maybe it's some sort of new science exhibition. Or maybe a puppet show about how we defeated Nightmare Moon and brought Princess Luna back. Oh, or maybe it's a wax museum filled with horrible monsters and criminals, but each actually uses an item from the subject, imbued with a portion of their life force and dark magic, making it so that each display is actually a gateway to a pocket dimension where it tries to pull ponies in to be its victims, and once all of them have collected a sacrifice, all the monsters and evil things will come back to life to try and take over Equestria."
She let out a gasp, eyes going wide.
"Or maybe it's a raffle for a cotton candy machine. I always wanted my own cotton candy machine. I could make all I want, and not only could I eat it, but make sculptures out of it. Like Princess Celestia. I bet she would love a hundred foot tall statue of herself made out of cotton candy. Have to be really careful not to get it wet though, or the whole thing would dissolve into a big gooey pile. Ooh. Or maybe I could put levitation spells on them, then we would have cotton candy clouds. Although that would probably--"
A flash of lightning shot out from the top of the wagon. There were gasps from the audience as their attention was drawn to the display, conversations -- and random tangents -- stopping.
"Fillies, and colts!" a voice boomed out. "Mares and stallions! Get ready for an amazing and awesome show like you have never seen before!"
There was another series of lightning flashes, followed by an explosion to create a massive dust cloud that hid the wagon from view. As the dust cleared, the wagon had opened up, turning into a stage. Standing in the center was a unicorn mare with light green fur and a dual-toned orange mane and tail. She had a wide grin on her face as she stood with her side toward the audience, one hoof raised up to her chest.
"Behold! The most amazing stunt unicorn: LIGHTNING BLAST!"
Near the edge of the stage, an orange unicorn filly was moving closer, purple eyes wide and mouth hanging open in awe. Moving closer, she pushed up to look over the edge of the stage, watching as close as she could.
At the same moment, the stage mare's horn lit up yellow with magic. A bolt of lightning exploded behind her, followed by a series of more, each striking further out from her and moving toward the corners. Including one where a fascinated filly stood staring.
At a lightning bolt coming right at her.
Just before she was struck by the raw energy, a blur of sky blue and rainbows suddenly filled her vision.
A blinding flash and deafening crack filled the air. The noise of the strike drowned out a yelp of shock and pain.
As the lightning struck Rainbow Burst's horn sending a flare of pain through the mare. Quickly turning the energy into her own magic, she shot it back out as a harmless light above her.
Gasps and cries of excitement escaped the crowd as they the lightning transform into a rainbow and shoot up into the sky.
Although she had been able to channel most of it, some of it had still hit Rainbow Burst. Especially when it first hit her. Rainbow's entire body felt numb and tense, muscles twitching in little spasms. Her mane and tail stuck out in nearly every direction, the tips burned and smoking. The inside of her nose stung, and all she could smell was the stench of electrified air.
As the spasms and pain passed, Rainbow Burst could just hear what Princess Celestia would say when she heard about this: "Now Rainbow, your heart is in the right place, and I am proud of your desire to protect another, but you really must think before you act." She could not help but smirk at the thought.
"You okay?" she asked the filly.
The filly stared up at Rainbow Burst, eyes wide and glittering as she nodded mutely.
"HEY!"
Lightning Blast stomped to the edge of the stage, stopping to glare down at Rainbow Burst.
"What's the big idea?" she yelled, stomping a hoof. "Are you trying to show me up or something?"
There was a moment where Rainbow stood there, confusion crossing her face as she tried to catch up with what was being said. She had not really thought about the performing unicorn when she made her move, but if she had, she would have expected fear and maybe gratitude, not anger and accusations.
When it finally all sank in, Rainbow Burst's own temper flared up.
"Are you bucking SERIOUS!" she snapped, ears pulling back. "YOU nearly hit a kid -- " she pointed at the filly " -- with your bucking lightning show, and you have the nerve to get pissed at me?!"
Lightning Blast turned, looking at the filly that was still staring wide eyed at Rainbow. A snort escaped Lightning as she returned her attention to the other mare.
"She would'a been fine!" she declared. "Maybe a little singed, but that would'a been the worst of it."
"You don't know that!" Rainbow snapped. "Besides, that's not the point. She still would have gotten hit."
With a grumble in her throat, Lightning rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." Turning around, she headed back toward the center of the stage. "I have a show to do."
With a snort of her own, Rainbow Burst turned away and started to walk off.
"Where you going?" Spike asked.
"You can stay if you want," Rainbow answered, "but I've lost interest already."