Twilight had called a meeting in the library. She was a little flustered, and waited nervously for her friends to show up.
Rainbow Dash arrived outside, huge scaled wings kicking up dust in the street outside. Closing her slitted eyes for a moment, she changed from a dragon back into a pegasus.
The spell to turn her into a dragon for the battle against Tirek had been fairly easy to reverse, but after Rainbow had kept pestering Twilight to change her back and forth, Twilight had built a spell to let Rainbow do it herself.
Of course, letting a pony like Rainbow turn into a dragon at will was an enormously bad idea. Rainbow was still clumsy in her huge dragon form. It hadn't ended well for a few Ponyville houses. At least she was good with weather control to put out the fires her breath started.
Spike hadn't openly said anything, but Twilight could tell he was at least a little jealous. Rainbow was big and strong and she could fly. Then again, Spike could actually fit inside the library tree.
As Rainbow entered the front door, Pinkie was also arriving with Fluttershy in tow. Pinkie did not usually use her Fluttershy fetish collar and leash in public, but this must have been one of those days.
Rarity arrived moments later, followed by a sweaty Applejack.
"Did you have to run to make the meeting on time?" Rarity asked, glancing over her shoulder with distaste.
"Run? What are you talkin' about?" Applejack frowned.
Rainbow came over. "You seem sweaty a lot lately. Have you been working out more?"
"You do seem more toned," commented Rarity. She turned to head into the library.
"Uh, yeah," added Rainbow, a smidge of jealousy and maybe a hint of homoerotic appreciation in her voice.
"Sexy!" said Pinkie, giving quite a bit more than a hint.
Applejack shot her a look before continuing into the library.
"Hello everypony," Twilight called. "Glad you could all come."
"Certainly," said Rarity. "But what's this about, dear?"
"I, uh...I think I have a little problem," Twilight admitted.
"Oh no," Fluttershy said. Pinkie had removed the leash. "Can we help?"
"I hope so. I've been looking through all my books and can't find a solution. I have to say, I'm a little flustered that even as the Element of Magic I can't figure it out." Unnoticed by everyone, wisps of steam had started to drift upward from Twilight's mane and tail.
"What do you expect us to contribute?" Rarity asked. "If you're the librarian and most powerful unicorn around, what chance do we have of figuring this problem out?"
"What is this problem, anyway?" Applejack added. "I don't see anything wrong."
Somewhat more flustered, Twilight's entire body had begun to smoke. "Well, it's not something..."
"Hey, are you on fire?" Rainbow asked.
"I...yes," Twilight conceded. She ashamedly ducked her head as the rest of her coat burst into flames.
Her friends jumped back in surprise, but soon realized they were in no danger. Aside from being a little warmer than normal, Twilight appeared to be perfectly fine as a burning pony.
"Isn't this what happened when Valiant made you really angry right before the battle with Tirek?" Applejack asked.
"That's right." Twilight screwed up her face in deep concentration. Little by little, the flames died down until she was back to her normal extinguished self. She put on a worried look. "But it keeps happening more and more easily. I can sort of control it, but when I get frustrated or angry sometimes I just can't help it."
"Is it dangerous?" Rarity asked. "I can see this being an inconvenience, but is it truly unbearable?"
"Hey!" Spike chimed in. "What if you used it like a secret identity? It'd be a great superpower!"
"Well, I did create all those costumes for a reason," Rarity added. She turned to glare at Rainbow. "Although I hadn't planned on replacing quite so many."
"But it looks awesome when I bust out of the costume while changing into a dragon, then set the shreds that are still hanging onto me on fire!" Rainbow protested.
"I'm going to get you some spandex," Rarity deadpanned.
"So, getting back to my problem..." Twilight ventured.
"Are we still talking about this?" said Rainbow. "Maybe you could even get some training from Sir Win and get even more powerful. I thought that after we decided you were going to use it to be a superhero it stopped being a problem."
"That is not what we decided," Twilight countered. "I thought we were going to use the Rainbow Power."
"Do what you want." Rainbow waved a hoof. "I'm cool with just being a superhero dragon." She paused. "Although...what if I could be a superhero Rainbow Power dragon? That's got to be some kind of power multiplier, right?"
"It's possible," Twilight theorized. "In fact, perhaps I could also get a boost that way from stacking that power with, ah, flamingness."
"Could I get a boost from my flamingness?" Pinkie asked.
"I hope not," Fluttershy whispered.
"Well, it is an uncharted ultra-powerful system of magic," Twilight said. "I suppose anything is possible."
"Could the Rainbow Power get me some snacks?" Spike asked.
Twilight shot him an impatient look.
More reasonably, Rarity asked, "Could it make our outfits more fabulous?"
"It's possible," Twilight repeated.
"What about a detox and full body cleansing?" asked Applejack, a little more earnestly than the other questions.
Twilight appraised her farmer friend. "You don't look unhealthy to me. In fact, you look like you're in better shape than I've ever seen you." She frowned and then took a few steps closer to Applejack. "Are you taller? Yes, I think you might have even grown a little. You're almost as tall as I was as an alicorn, which makes you an inch or two taller than you were before."
"How did you do that?" Rainbow demanded. "Are you taking some kind of exotic workout-boosting gain-enhancing supplement?"
"Why did you do that?" Rarity demanded. "Now I have to refit your outfits!"
Pinkie wiped a hoof along Applejack's back, making the farmer flinch. "Are you still sweating? Is it getting hot in here? Are we going to take off all our clothes?"
They were already naked, of course. They had been the whole time. Psych.
"I, uh," Applejack stammered.
"Well, tell us," Twilight prodded.
Applejack gulped. She faltered, but began. "It started a few months ago, just before Valiant left. He convinced me to go on that stupid trip to Shrieking Peaks."
"Brr, I get cold just thinking about it." Rarity shuddered. "At least they have holiday decorations year round."
"I know you came back and swore off snow," Twilight observed. "We all guessed that had been pretty bad experience, but we thought it was just an unpleasant trip."
"Unpleasant don't even begin to cover it," Applejack muttered.
"But you got jacked," Rainbow said. "Come on, tell me your secret to bulking up."
"Well...I think it's more just a side effect." Applejack shifted her hooves nervously.
"Go on, continue the story," Rarity said.
"So Valiant and me were up in the Shrieking Peaks," said Applejack. "He was on about something for one of his projects."
Twilight had started taking notes. She looked up from the pad of paper. "What was it?"
"Some rock or something." Applejack frowned. They all knew what trouble rocks could bring. "Anyway, it started snowing hard and we got trapped in one of the passes. We were up above the vegetation line and there was nothin' but snow and ice. Most of it was blowing and fallin' out of the sky.
"We were stuck there for days. The blizzard was so bad I thought maybe the Windigos had come back." Applejack hesitated, and then added, "We were running out of food. I thought for sure we were going to die. Even our mountain guide said she had never been in a situation so bad."
"But you didn't die and now you're going to tell us why not, right?" said Pinkie.
Applejack paused as if that was exactly what she didn't want to do. Rainbow prodded her. "Come on, I want to know why you're stronger than before. You're the Element of Honesty - you have to tell us!"
"Um, I guess I do." Applejack cringed. "So, there we were, Valiant, me, and our guide, in a little snow cave. We were starving and had to do something. The three of us drew straws. Fruitcake lost."
Cries of revulsion went around the room.
"I can't even imagine!" Rarity shrieked.
Twilight made a face. "How could you? That's...that's unequine!"
Rainbow stuck out her tongue. "That's disgusting. But did that really help you bulk up?"
"I don't know why it would," said Pinkie. "The average fruitcake doesn't have any protein in it. Fruitcake isn't even made with apples."
"Was Valiant okay with his nut allergy?" asked Fluttershy.
"Hey, I actually like fruitcake!" Spike protested.
"I suppose that faced with starvation, anypony would do the same," conceded Twilight. "You did what you had to do, Applejack, even if it was something like eating an icky holiday fruitcake."
Applejack's head sank even lower, her hat slipping down over her face to hide her tears of shame. "Y'all misunderstand...Fruitcake was our guide."