A Rainbow's Glow

“Woah!”

As Rainbow gazed around the room it was all she could do not to squeal in delight. Rarity had talked about how amazing the rooms were, but she couldn’t possibly have liked this, could she?

Celestia dipped her horn as she indicated the corresponding rooms.

“Over there’s the bathroom, your dining room…

Ah, I can see you're not listening.”

Rainbow flushed a bright red that matched her mane all too well.

“Don’t worry. I can understand being overwhelmed. I hope this will be comfy enough for the month you’ll be staying here before leaving on that trip to the Griffin kingdom with the Wonderbolts?”

“Oh yes! Yes! Thank you so much I- uh-” She swallowed hard.

“I mean, Yeah, It’s cool. Thanks.”

A whole month to get to know the Wonderbolts and then four months of airshows in the Griffin kingdom! They said they were just taking her along for the ride, but really! She knew what it was really about! She knew!

Maybe she’d even get to do Rainbooms and-

A thought suddenly popped into her head and, without her approval, out her mouth.

“Can you do a Rainboom?”

Rainbow clapped a hoof to her mouth as soon as she said it. No, no, no! She’d just insulted the princess of the sun, probably ruined her whole career, maybe her life! Her cheeks once again became red, but this time much brighter and redder than before.

Celestia seemed unmoved.

“What’s on your mind, my little pony? Don’t worry, you can tell me.”

Rainbow stuttered.

“Well…  Everyone knows that you’re all good with magic and stuff, and you trained Twi, but you never really use your wings.”

Rainbow simply couldn’t believe the words were coming from her mouth.

“Alright,” Celestia said plainly.

“Wha-What!”

Rainbow couldn’t believe her fuzzy blue ears.

“Well? Pick our course.”

No response from Rainbow.

“I challenge you to a race. You pick the course.”

Rainbow plopped down on her sofa and scratched her head.

“Can you give me a day?”

Celestia nodded.

“I’ll come by a 5. Make ‘em good!”

********************************************************************************************

Celestia pushed down the yellow door handle. Rainbow was hunched over the desk, muttering to herself, a mountain of discarded papers locking the rolling chair in. She heard Celestia’s footsteps and spun around.

“P-princess!”

Celestia cocked her head.

“Well? Have you made a decision yet? Because we could always...call it off?”

For the second time that day, Rainbow’s mouth spilled.

“A race around Canterlot, through the abandoned castle, and a sonic rainboom.”

Rainbow gaped and rolled on her side to puke.

                                            *********************************

Rainbow stood crouched on the starting line, next to an identically posed oddly competitive ivory alicorn. Ponies had come from all over to see the race between the fasted pony in Equestria and their princess. Rainbow gulped and looked at the hot air balloon above them. Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie hung over the side with microphones and mile wide grins.

Pinkie popped down and came back up with a  huge megaphone.

“THREE TWO ONE GO!”

Rainbow beat her wings to a steady pace, the wind rushing through her mane at unmeasurable speeds. Celestia was close ahead.

Rainbow gritted her teeth and pushed harder, yet Celestia’s wings were simply too big to hold a candle to with brute force. Rainbow felt herself tiring and falling further and further back.

Suddenly, idea struck. Rainbow knew she couldn’t catch up to Celestia on her own...so what if the made something do it for her?

Rainbow came to a screeching halt, spinning around and pushing faster and faster backward. She felt the familiar membrane of a sonic rainboom building around her hooves...and she let go.

The force through her through the air. Rainbow spun, trying to face forward. When she finally regained her hold on gravity she was a good four miles ahead of Celestia. She couldn’t help shooting a competitive sneer toward the princess.

Celestia, on the other hoof, was not doing as well. She wasn’t trained in racing, and her wings were barely used for more than short distance transportation. She narrowed her eyes and strained her wings, catching up to about a mare’s length behind Rainbow.

Pinkie and Cheese moved the balloon with uncanny speed.

“Aaannnd Celestia’s in the lead! She’s-no- now Dashie’s in the lead! Rainbow’s dashing- No, now it’s Celestia-Rainbow-Celestia-Rainbow- And they’re neck and neck in the competition!”

Rainbow and Celestia were literally side-by side.

But Twilight Sparkle, practically leaning into her magically enhanced binoculars, noticed something very, very odd. A white membrane was forming at each of the pony’s hooves. That wasn’t the odd thing, she had studied sonic rainbooms scores of times. What was odd was that...the ponies seemed to be morphing.

The membrane congealed into one thick pocket of wind and air, and the two ponies became one. Celestia’s elegant regal form turned light blue, and the ethereal mane became rainbow colored. Suddenly, the lighter-than blue horn glowed rainbow, the feathers on their giant wings beamed rainbows and their hooves broke through the white with a final ripping sound.

Giant rings surrounded the “two” ponies, repeatedly shooting out from her wings.

A sparkling, rainbow bubble encased the spectators.

A with poof, the last rainbow exploded from the “two” ponies and she drifted slowly to the ground.

The rainbow bubble popped, and Twilight was the first to take to the sky.

Twilight slapped Celestia-Rainbow’s face.

“Rainbow! Wake up!”

She slapped her again.

“Wake up! Wakeupwakeupwakeup….Oh my god. I just slapped my teacher in the face!”

Applejack was the next to arrive, clinging to Fluttershy’s yellow and pink streak.

“Wakeupwakeupwakeup!”

Applejack pushed both of them away.

“Come on now, ya’ll. She ain’t never gonna wake up with you slapping her in the face like that, you’re liable to break her jawbone! He need to get her to Zecora…If we tied her to ya’ll, do you think you could fly her there?”

Both answered at once.

“YES!”

Applejack nodded savagely.

“Let’s get the show on the road, then!”

She took charge, not missing a beat.

Cloudchaser, Flitter, go grab as much rope as you can. Tell Pinkie and Cheese to put their heads together, they can probably make some. Twilight, perform a strength spell on the oth of you. Thunderlane, take your squad of weather team and clear the skies. Ya’ll Wonderbolts fly ahead and inform Zecora of the situation.”

Cloudchaser and Flitter were back with brown and pink rope, looking very confused. Applejack thanked them and told them to go join Thunderlane.

She attached the rope to Twilight and Fluttershy around their middles, along with some in a similar fashion to how she rode Rainbow Dash the first Zecora incident.

“Yee-haa!”

                                                  ***********************************************

Zecora stood rubbing her chin with her hoff, staring at the slumped alicorn.

“This is unlike anything I've seen before. Unheard of, even in lore.”

Applejack shook her head.

“Well, can you cure it?”

Zecora stared intently at the alicorn, circling her and examining her from all sides.

“I will work on a solution, but it may take long to remove this fusion. You may wait at my residence, but it would be futile to disturb my presence.”

The three ponies nodded and sat across the room. Twilight took to the skies to recover Rarity and Pinkie Pie.