“Hey Twilight! You totally need to check this out!”
Twilight sighed as Pinkie burst through the doors of her library.
“What?” she asked, not looking up from her book.
That was when it hit her. Powerful magic thrummed through her body. After the last couple years, she usually would have prepared a defense spell if something that powerful activated near her. Yet she felt herself relax. It felt warm and tingly. And that wasn’t the end of it. It tasted like her mom’s blackberry pie. It smelled like Princess Celestia’s perfume. It sang to her, almost sounding like the Hearth’s Warming Carol.
She pulled her head up from the book, and her jaw dropped at what she saw. Pinkie Pie was in full Rainbow Power. A blue streak glowed through their mane, which was held back by a star clip, Glowing lines swirled around their body, and even more were in the air around them. They were even floating off the ground, the top of their head level with Twilight’s horn.
“How did you-?” she began. “What’s going on? Is there some kind of threat or-?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Pinkie giggled.
“Then what happened?” she asked. “How’d you get all… rainbowified?”
“Well, it’s Diamond Tiara’s birthday,” they explained. “And her dad’s out of town, and then her mom won’t let her have her friends over for a birthday party, so she snuck out to see them. And then all of them ended up at Sugarcube Corner, and told me what was going on and at first I was like ‘Usually your dad has one of his staff order a cake for your party so I was wondering. I thought maybe you were going on vacation this year or something!”
“After that, I pulled out the emergency Party Canon!” they continued. “And I set up the best last-minute birthday party I could. And they were all laughing and dancing and enjoying cake and smiling! It was wonderful! And then I felt something that kinda felt like downing a bowl of powdered sugar in one go, but I hadn’t even had any of the cake yet because I was too busy with the streamers and making sure Diamond smiled so I eventually figured out it was my magic working overtime and it kinda felt like using the Elements or something and then I felt like I exploded but in a good way and next thing I knew I was all Rainbowified!”
Twilight paced the room, taking a moment to think that out. Meanwhile, Pinkie floated around, managing to flip upside down, but not knowing how to get back up.
“This is weird,” Twilight finally said. “Sunset Shimmer told me how your Dimensional Counterpart could, for lack of a better term, ‘Pony Up’ when channeling the Element of Laugher and making people smile. I thought it was because they were using Equestrian magic, but maybe it’s connected to the Elements themselves?”
“So the pony version of ‘Pony Up’ is “Rainbowified’?” Pinkie laughed, figuring out how to flip back upright.
“My only concern is how you’ll stop it,” she said. “You make ponies smile all the time, so I don’t think having you be Rainbowified all the time would be a good idea. Not like I can ask you to stop.”
“I think I can control it?” they said. “I mean, like, back when I first felt it, it did feel like a switch to ‘explode’ I could probably power down, I think?”
Their brow furrowed in concentration. Slowly, their hooves set back on the ground. The streak in their mane faded, and their coat turned back to its normal pink. Their magic lessened in its intensity as well.
“There we go!” they chirrped. “Wow, I’m hungry! I could probably eat an entire cake myself! I’ll try to keep my rainbowifiedness in check! I should get back to that party! Er, a whole bunch of ponies saw me on the way here though. Should I tell them what’s going on? Because they’re probably a bit freaked out.”
“That should be fine,” she agreed. “Actually, if it happens again, could you come here? I’ve been wanting to analyze the Elements and Rainbow Power since we first used them, but I’ve never had a chance to. I’d love to collect a magic sample!”
“Would you say that getting to research that would make you smile?” they asked, a wide grin coming to their face.
“Well, of course!” she sighed, a dreamy look on her face. “No pony has been able to completely nail down exactly what the Elements are! To figure it out would be, oh stars that would be amazing.”
“Well since Smiles and Laughter are my specialty!” they giggled.
They started glowing again. Their colors returned, as did the hum of magic in the air.
“Did you just activate that purposely?” Twilight asked.
“You said you’d be happy if you could study it, so I Rainbowified myself again!” they answered. “I think I can do it if I’m making someone smile or if I’m trying to make them smile!”
“That’s interesting!” she said. “Mind if I take a sample?”
“Go ahead!” they said.
Twilight light her horn. She summoned two topazes, two glass jars, and a marker. She picked up one of the blue gems and cast another spell. Pinkie felt their magic slowly drain out of them. It wasn’t like when Tirek had drained their magic, as it replenished itself immediately. Still it felt weird to have it flow out of them like that.
Soon enough, the gem began glowing. Twilight cut off the spell and dropped the topaz into one of the jars. She screwed on the lid and wrote ‘RP:L’ on its side.
“Actually, can I get a sample of your normal magic?” Twilight asked, picking up the second gem. “I’d like to compare and see if there are any differences between your magic!”
“Oki Doki Loki!” they said.
Pinkie dropped their transformation once more. Twilight repeated the process, but wrote ‘PP’ on the jar instead.
“Thanks!” Twilight said. “I’d love to keep you to test out if it changes your physical ability, but I probably shouldn’t keep you from your party. But if you see the girls on the way, can you tell them to come here if they power up? I’d really like to test all of us.”
“I’ll be back later then!” they said. “Then you can do all the experiments you want!”
“I can’t wait!” she said.