Twilight and everypony else winced as they awaited another temper tantrum from their rainbow friend. It never came. She sat on the bed, motionless, while everypony simply stared at her, awaiting her reaction. At first the rainbow pony sat there for what seemed like forever, staring off into space. Then she slapped her face, like she was slapping the very thought of a horn from her mind. Then she began laughing hysterically.
“Look, everypony!” she said, giggling crazily. Everypony exchanged unsure and worried glances.
“I’ve got a unicorn horn! And it is SHARP!” She repeatedly tapped the very tip of her horn and gave a crooked smile.
“She’s in shock,” whispered Rarity to Twilight.
“Looks like it.” replied Twilight.
“Rainbow, dear, how about resting your head on the pillow, yes? It will, um…make you feel less, uh… jumpy.” said Rarity, trying to be reassuring.
“Okay!” said Rainbow, giggling.
As soon as she sat on the bed, she began breathing extensively. Twilight exchanged glances with her friends, and they too looked worried. Rainbow's eyes bugged out, and she focused all her attention on her bare back, in the same location her wings would have been. She curled up into fetal position and began breathing harder and quicker. Her breathing became in short bursts and sharp intakes as Rainbow breathed. Finally, Applejack went over to Rainbow, and gave her a slap on the back, as if she were trying to stop Rainbow from choking.
"Let's just calm things down a bit, now." she said, softly, and everypony murmured agreement.
"There's no need to hyperventilate.
Instead of calming, Rainbow had begun to ignore her friends and had begun to whoop at the top of her lungs, much like Applejack had done when she was tired. This time, Pinkie resisted the urge to join in, and stayed on the sidelines watching her like everypony else.
“Whee! I’m a pencil!” she cried, as she stuck her horn into one of Twilight’s many books and shook her head violently.
Twilight couldn’t take much more of the hysteria, so she went over to where Rainbow was ‘drawing’ and faced her. Rainbow’s eyes looked as they had the first time around, much like their friend Derpy’s eyes. Twilight breathed in deep, squeezed her eyes to slits, and raised her hoof.
*SHLAP!*
The slap rang out like a gunshot. It took only a moment for Rainbow to stop shaking and stand on all four of her hooves. She appeared to look wide awake and surprised at where she was.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“What are you all doing here?”
Applejack gave it to Rainbow straight.
“Ya went into shock hysterics when ya discovered your wings were gone and they were replaced by a unicorn’s horn,” she finished.
“My wings are gone?” asked Rainbow again, eyes widening.
“Yes. They are.” said Rarity, softly.
“But we are gonna get them back for you, Rainbow. Don’t you worry.” said Twilight, kindly.
“I’ve got a HORN!?” she wailed, looking up and remembering the bump on her forehead. Right before she went back into the land of hysteria, another loud slap rang out. Rainbow shook her head for a bit, before finally focusing.
“Okay. How long will this dopey horn be here, anyway?” inquired Rainbow.
“Well…you might have to tolerate that ‘dopey horn’ for a while until I find a cure.” explained Twilight, carefully.
“What?” asked Rainbow, her voice squeaking like Sweetie Belle’s.
“Yes. I’m so sorry, Rainbow Dash, but…it is what it is.” said Twilight, and went briefly into the other room to retrieve the potion book to read the warning.
“However, this book might have a cure. Spike must have accidentally put some clouds in the potion when he came in covered in them.” babbled Twilight, and she levitated the book off the shelf and began feverishly flipping through it.
“Did you notice anything unusual about the potion, Rainbow? It was supposed to be lemon yellow and orange marble.”
“Well, it was lemon yellow and orange. But there was a pink streak in the middle. I thought it looked like a unicorn’s horn.”
“Well, there you go.” said Twilight, and sighed.
“AHA!” she said triumphantly.
“Here it is.”
If you accidentally added cloud to the Healing Potion, read here.
The potion you have brewed is something called a Cloud-Resistant Potion. What this means is that the potion cannot have cloud in it or else reversal or increasing effects will happen. If a limb was trying to be healed and cloud was added, the subject should feel pain in all limbs. If a wing was trying to be healed and cloud was added, the subject’s wings will be replaced by a unicorn’s horn. To remove pain in all limbs, refer to page 142. To reverse the unicorn horn back to wings, refer to page 156.
“Apparently you’re supposed to have a unicorn horn because somepony, or should I say some DRAGON added cloud."
explained Twilight.
“Well, at least we know that what accidentally happened was supposed to, and there’s a cure.” said Rarity, sighing heavily in relief.
Rainbow sighed as heavily as she could manage. The tension in the room relaxed.
“Rainbow Dash, do you still feel alright?” asked Fluttershy quietly.
“No I do not! My wings are gone! And instead I have this awful THING!” said Rainbow, not trying to mask her anger and hurt.
“Well, I never!” said Rarity, turning up her nose.
“Horns aren’t dorky! At least you have one!” said Pinkie hotly.
“Simmer down, ya’ll. It’s been a long mornin’. Twilight will find a cure and then this whole mess will be over.” said Applejack, calmly.
“I vote for calm.” said Fluttershy, softly.
“Applejack’s right,” said Twilight, looking up from the potion book that she was flipping through.
“Right now all we can do is wait for something to come up in my research. Rainbow, you can’t go home for a while, so you can stay here. Everypony else, to avoid tension and fights, you all need to get some real sleep. I’ll call if anything comes up, but right now I just need some peace and quiet.”
Everypony exchanged glances. There was careful silence while Twilight eyed everypony.
“I have been needing some beauty sleep…” said Rarity, her voice trailing off.
“We aren’t leaving Rainbow,” said Applejack, firmly.
“But what about Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack? Big Macintosh can’t do it all himself.” said Twilight, carefully. After a brief pause, Applejack spoke.
“Alright, ya’ll. Let’s give Twilight some space.”
One by one, each pony slowly left the room after casting sympathetic glances in Rainbow’s direction.
Once they were all gone, Twilight instructed Rainbow to take a nap. Like their friends, Rainbow needed some serious shuteye. Though Rainbow resisted, Twilight turned off the light and shut the door tightly. Now she could be alone with her research.
She opened the potion recipe book to page one fifty six and sat down on the wood floor to read. As she turned there, she only saw pages one fifty-four and one fifty-seven. One fifty-five and one fifty-six were gone, and all that was left was a few jagged edges still sewn in the spine. The pages had been ripped out. Fear etched itself in Twilight’s heart and she frantically skimmed pages one fifty-four and one fifty-seven for any evidence to reverse the spell. There was none.
It was yet another beautiful day in Equestria. Now, in Discord’s mind, it surely wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough. Here he sat on his favorite sofa that Fluttershy had been ever so kind to let him borrow, eating a bowl of his favorite snack, shredded paper. It was actually a lot of fun to read a bit of each piece of paper he was about to consume. He pulled one out, it was an advertisement for Hay Fries. Discord popped it in his mouth and chewed. Delightful taste, he had to say. He pulled out another random scrap of paper. On the top of the paper, the title read: “Cure for An Accidental Unicorn Horn,”. He shrugged, speared it with his fork and stared at it. This probably wasn’t important; Twilight wouldn’t mind if he had taken a few random pages from her books. No big deal.
“Uh-oh.” said Twilight, and called out for Spike. He came, clutching a feather duster and wearing a bandana, looking slightly disgruntled and covered in a thin layer of dust.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Have you seen page one fifty-six in this book?” she asked, shoving the copy in his face.
“No. Why would I rip out a page?” he asked, and disappeared to dust more.
“This is bad. This is really bad.” said Twilight, almost on the verge of going nuts.
“It’s okay, Twilight. You’ll find something. Rainbow can’t stay a unicorn forever, after all.” she reminded herself, and started to pull several books off the shelves.
Rainbow wouldn’t stand for sleeping. She was too keyed up, too upset and angry and hurt to sleep. A million thoughts were zooming about her head like racecars. First, she was beyond hurt that her wings were gone and she didn’t know when they would return. Second, she was angry that they were gone, and she was angry at herself for not going to the place she could trust. Thirdly, she was gloomy, because now that she was grounded, there seemed nothing to do. She was in a library, she was grounded, and worse, she was bored. She had already read all of the Daring Do books three times each, and though Twilight persisted over her reading, Rainbow didn’t think much of reading in return. What was always on Rainbow’s mind was Soarin’, Scootaloo, the Wonderbolts, and new tricks that seemed impossible. The fast way of life was Rainbow’s sanctuary, and Twilight’s way of life seemed boring and unfulfilling. Sure, reading extensively made Twilight extremely intelligent, but little else came out of reading in Rainbow’s opinion.
“Ugh!” she said aloud. Surely things couldn’t get any worse.
“Rainbow!” Twilight singsonged happily as she opened the door.
“What? Have you found anything yet? Can I go back to my normal self?” she asked, enthusiastically.
“Well, no…but I was thinking maybe instead of keeping you cooped up here, maybe you’d enjoy a walk in the sunshine. It’s a lovely day, and I know how you hate sitting around.” replied Twilight.
A walk sounded like a fine idea. At least it was something to do.
“Yes, but what will everypony think when I walk around without wings?” asked Rainbow.
“Nopony will notice. But here,” said Twilight, and levitated a sapphire satin blue cloak over to Rainbow and tied it around her.
“This should hide your predicament. Besides, I don’t really think many ponies will notice.”
Rainbow sighed heavily.
“Fine. I’ll go.”