//------------------------------// // Magic // Story: Wings // by timidfantasist //------------------------------// The first time a demon blew up the public school, the local authorities had some questions. Unfortunately for Twilight Sparkle, she couldn’t answer them, and was rescued by the principal of the school, who insisted the students giving accounts of her growing wings and shooting a beam of light at the demon were mistaken. Oh, the school? Well, you know how students can be, they thought someone spiked the punch at the Fall Formal. Don’t worry, officers, they were looking into it, and Ms. Sparkle here had nothing to do with it. Would you like to call your parents now so they can take you home? She retreated to her basement room after the second time. Somebody had gotten pictures of the Battle of the Bands (wasn’t that supposed to be a charity event? There had been posters advertising it for weeks prior), and there was a girl identical to her up there singing her heart out, complete with a pair of purple wings. She vaguely remembered seeing the others around town, but she knew perfectly well where she’d been that day. She didn’t even attend Canterlot High, and she certainly didn’t sing. After the fourth or fifth time some blue-haired boy ran up to her, asking how long she’d be here before seeing her glasses or her bun, or a pink-haired girl who never stopped moving screeched to a halt and caught her eye before quickly moving on, she decided this mystery needed solving. Her room, always more of a laboratory than a bedroom, turned into her workplace. Something was going on at Canterlot High, and Twilight Sparkle was going to find out what, before that winged girl came back and something else exploded. “After extensive study of the school, especially the Battle of the Bands, observation lists, checklists for those observations, I have determined…nothing.” Spike wagged his tail and barked, jumping into her lap as she sank in defeat to the floor. “It just doesn’t make sense, Spike! It almost looks like they’re accessing some sort of rainbow magic power that’s completely untraceable and defies all known laws of physics!” She looked at the wild ‘map’ of ‘clues’ she’d put together and groaned. “All I can see so far is that it’s clearly triggered by music- there are a few newspaper accounts of a high school band that flies up when they play. They’ve even been praised for their ‘special effects’! Why does it only happen to them when they play? Why is it happening to them at all…“ She was cut off by a surprised laugh as Spike licked her cheek, recognizing the signs of overwork in his often-overworked owner. “Thanks, Spike." She scratched his ear, and was rewarded with a tail wag. After putting Spike down, she picked up a flute case, dusty from disuse. “I wonder…” She hadn’t used the instrument in a long time, but she remembered how to play it well enough. She gave it a quick wipe with a cloth to make sure it was clean, and then put it carefully to her mouth and played a simple piece she remembered from old lessons. At first nothing happened, and Twilight felt silly for making such an unscientific hypothesis. Of course it wasn’t music- music didn’t trigger magic, that only happened in children’s books. She allowed herself to relax back into the simple pleasure of playing her once-loved flute, closing her eyes and letting her fingers play over the familiar notes as the piece soared into the final part of the song. As she relaxed, however, she felt an odd tugging at her messy bun, and felt a warm wind blowing around her. It almost felt like she was being supported by the breeze, so she opened her eyes and let out a squeaky off-key note as she realized the breeze really was supporting her. The squeaks continued and the music cut off as she heard her lab coat rip, and felt two new limbs on her back that absolutely could not exist. As soon as the music stopped, the impossible breeze lowered her to the ground, and she swayed and fell, unable to support her weight. As her eyes closed, she felt Spike licking her cheek, trying to make her get up. The last thing she saw was a huge purple wing, curving up well past her head and impossibly big. She barely had time to realize that was attached to her before she gave into the headache that was rapidly forming, and fell asleep. Back in Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle was just finishing up a letter to Sunset and her other Canterlot High friends when she felt an insistent pull on her magic. It felt precisely like it would if she had been using her magic for an especially demanding spell. She frowned, but simply shook it off- until it was followed by a pain in her wings and her horn. She turned around to check her wings, and saw her cutie mark glowing. At a full gallop, Twilight burst out of her castle, running for the Everfree and the Tree of Harmony. Unfortunately, she never made it. A surge of white burst out of her eyes as an unmistakable fright filled her. Her wings suddenly felt as new as the day she’d become an alicorn, and her magic felt like a strange, overwhelming sense of power. She felt like a filly trying to hatch Spike’s dragon egg again. She saw her friends running toward her, shouting in alarm, as her eyes shut. The last thing she saw was an image of lavender feathers, sprawled out messily over her-arm? No, this wasn’t that world. She was in Equestria, and those were her wings, covering her hoof. Equestria, she told herself firmly as she lost her grip on the world of the waking. Deep in the Everfree, the six-pointed starburst Twilight had returned to the Tree only a few weeks before split in half with a resounding crack, spilling the white light that powered Magic and Harmony.