//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Spells and Rainbows // by 6-D Pegasus //------------------------------// "I told you already, I'm fine!" Rainbow squirmed in place while Twilight continued to poke and prod her with her horn. Starlight Glimmer stood off to the side, silently observing, a piqued expression on her face. The three ponies were now back to where it all started: the library in Twilight's castle, where Starlight first showed off the speed spell. "Well you certainly look fine, but we have no idea how this spell may have altered you!" Rainbow glanced over to Starlight with a pleading look, who let out an awkward laugh before turning to Twilight. "Twilight, I scanned her through with every magical scan spell I know. As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with her." Twilight ignored her, attempting to inspect every individual feather on Rainbow's wings. Her horn began to glow with its familiar violet aura. "Maybe if I-" She was interrupted as Starlight reached up with her hoof and gently tapped on her Twilight's horn, breaking her focus and halting the spell charge. "Check her inherent magic aura? Way ahead of you, Twilight. Everything is in working order." "Hey, I'm not a ma-" Rainbow's remark was interrupted with a lavender hoof shoved on her mouth. "I think maybeee a bigger concern right now would be the current panicked state of much of Ponyville right now." All three ponies stopped talking for a few seconds, taking in the faint, but clear, sounds of the residents of their local town freaking out over the mysterious pranks that supposedly appeared out of nowhere. Piercing shrieks of "the horror" could be barely made out among the mix of voices. Every now and then, a small explosion shook the ground beneath their hooves, and small trails of smoke were already beginning to rise from their little village. Twilight sighed and closed her eyes. "Yeah, you're right." She stuck her head right in front of Rainbow's. "But if you feel anything weird at all-" "Yes yes yes, I'll let you know, Twilight!" Rainbow backpedalled a little from the sudden intrusion of her privacy. Twilight flashed a brief smile before disappearing in a burst of purple magic. Moments later, her voice could be heard in the distance enhanced by a voice amplification spell, addressing the citizens of Ponyville. "Well, now that that's out of the way..." Rainbow unfurled her wings and launched herself for the door, only to be stopped by a teal, translucent wall in her way. "Now now now, Rainbow, I'm not done with you yet!" Starlight trotted over to Rainbow, who was rubbing a hoof on the now-sore spot on her head. "I'm doing you a favor here." Rainbow froze and looked up to Starlight, a confused look on her face. "What do you mean by that?" Starlight gently lifted her pegasus friend to her hooves with her magic. "You see, I told Twilight that there's nothing wrong with you, and that I did a complete magic scan of you, including your magic aura." Rainbow cocked her head before nodding. "Yeah... isn't that a good thing?" "Yes, but it's not the full truth." Her eyes widened. "Wait, what?! Am I dying or-" Starlight frantically waved her hooves in front of Rainbow in a desperate attempt to calm her down. "No, nothing like that! Everything I said is true; there's nothing wrong with you." After a few seconds to calm herself, Rainbow looked back at Starlight with a very inquisitive expression. "So what did you mean by that then?" "Well, your magic aura is a little... different now." "Different? Different how?" "It seems slightly more... sporadic." Rainbow stared. Starlight smirked and rolled her eyes. "It's more excited in a sense. Your aura was already constantly in motion, but now it's even more so. And what's weird is I can't find any trace of the speed spell in your body, which means the spell has ran its course and likely dissipated through latent energy, as expected. But it isn't supposed to have any sort of lasting effect on its user." Rainbow pondered over it a little, unsure of what to make of the news. "So... what does this mean for me?" "Right now? I'm not sure. Other than the extra energy in your pegasus magic, everything else about you is back to normal." "Great!" Rainbow began to take off again, but was stopped one last time with a hoof on her back. "Rainbow, please, let me know if anything, anything, feels weird or different. While everything is fine at the moment, I can't guarantee that this won't have some sort of effect on you in the future. I was the one to prepare the spell, so I just don't want to see you get hurt because of me..." Rainbow flashed back a comforting smile. "Don't worry, I'll be over the moment anything feels weird!" Starlight opened her mouth once more, but paused for a second before closing it and glancing away briefly. She closed her eyes and sighed. "Alright Rainbow, just... be careful, alright?" Before Rainbow could respond, Starlight vanished in a burst of teal magic. She rolled her eyes. Sheesh, a little warning next time before flashing a bright light directly in my face would be reeeaal helpful. The cyan pegasus rubbed her eyes with a hoof and gave her head a quick shake to clear the stars from her sight. She gave a quick glance over to Ponyville, admiring the fruit of her labors as the sounds of utter chaos and pandemonium rang out from the town. A small smirk grew on her face and she gave herself a brief chuckle before turning her head back to the clear, blue skies above. The last traces of the cloud track she created was already burning away in the heat of Celestia's sun. Rainbow shifted her gaze over to the floating city of Cloudsdale in the distance; she was supposed to meet with Spitfire and a few of the other Wonderbolts about plans for the next aerial show. She opened her wings once more and, with a powerful boost from her forelegs, launched herself in the air towards her target. As a small cloud of dust filled the air where the pegasus once stood, a few sparks of cyan lightning danced from her hoofprints, disappearing in moments like they were never there.