Cotton spotted the door as she rounded the corner. The hallways of the school blend together, but with how many times they've come to get tutoring for Aqua, she's remembered the path. Mainly through muscle memory. Approaching the door, Cotton began to push the door in only to get interrupted by a blur rushing out of the room. Said blur rushed towards the filly on cotton's withers. She had to forcefully stop herself from rearing up so Aqua didn't fall off.
The blur stopped on Cotton's right side and spoke quickly. "Aqua! Are you okay? How does your horn feel? Does it hurt?"
Cotton turned around and saw Aqua leaning away from a far-too-close Inkwell. "Woah, there. Hello to you too, Raven. You drink too much coffee this morning?"
Ears flattened. "Not... not too much."
"You sure?"
Cotton shook her head with a smile. "Be careful there, Aqua. Others can hear that grin."
"But are you sure? They don't have ears like me." Aqua threw her nose up and spread her ears in a pose.
"With your tone, they could be deaf and hear it." Both Aqua and Raven started giggling.
"Good." Aqua suddenly made her voice deeper, "I am the main character, after all." Cotton joined the two in giggling.
"Sure you are, Princess."
Winding down from the laugh, Aqua turned back to Raven. "Anyway, yeah, Raven. It's okay and I'm fine. Horn is a little bit sore and I think I need to re-learn my spells, but otherwise good."
"What do you mean you need to learn the spells again?" Raven's eyebrows raised and walked back into their private room, "Oh, right. come on in."
Cotton followed Inkwell in as Aqua spoke, "Well... The best way I can say it is that after the thing, organizing the spells has become harder..."
Raven looked concerned. "Is the pain that bad?"
Aqua paused halfway through getting off Cotton's withers. "Huh? Oh, nah. I can visualize the spell in my mind just fine. And the soreness isn't that bad. It's... It's almost as if when organizing the spell in my horn, I need to..." Aqua Scoffed. "It's hard to explain but it's as if I need a smaller brush when painting. If that translates to magic at all. You get me?"
Raven nodded before humming to herself. "That's weird. Very weird. Do you mind if I look at it?"
"Uh. Yeah sure."
Raven got up and rounded the table towards Aqua. "Sorry, this is going to be a bit awkward."
"Wait what?" Aqua started before Raven grabbed her head with her hooves to hold it close.
After a few seconds of silence, Raven let go and spoke. "From what I can tell, it looks fine." Raven walked back to her seat. "It would be a good idea to avoid casting anything extensively and tiring yourself out until your- Wait, you two already got a Doctor's appointment set up, right?"
"Yeah, Cotton did... Which reminds me," Aqua turned to the pegasus in the chair next to her, "Thanks, Cotton."
Cotton smiled. "No problem!"
"So, yeah. I wouldn't say my horn changed because that's absurd, but it certainly feels like it got up and got someone else to fill in for it." Both the adults let out a chuckle. "It's really annoying, honestly. I could probably, eventually learn how to cast them again considering I've done it before... Oh! I did want to ask a question, Raven. With that in mind, is it possible to create new spells by essentially thinking them up? Like, obviously, taking a while to calculate it all and all that, but is it possible?"
"Oh, yes! A few of the higher ranks of researchers do that for a living. It's very dangerous, so it's not encouraged, but It is possible. I want to do that in the future, myself." Raven began to almost whisper to herself, "Though my casting ability isn't that good."
"Well, if it's any consolation, you're better at it than me."
Aqua's smile was contagious as it spread to Raven.