Not My Destiny
by Smayds
Chapter 1 - Good Morning, Goddess
Groan.
Twilight wasn't a morning pony - never had been, as a matter of fact. But on this particular day, she probably wouldn't be an afternoon pony either.
Maybe an evening pony? What a night.
Tossing and turning for hours, she just couldn't get comfortable no matter how she contorted herself. Some point after she'd finally dropped off, she must have got all twisted. Her body was full of cramps. Maybe she'd finally have to take Rarity up on her regular offers to visit the spa.
Sure could do with a massage right about now. My back...
She was far, far to sore to fall back to sleep. She was sure her joints actually creaked as she flopped out of her bed, hooves hitting the wooden floor of her bedroom with soft thuds. She arched her back in an effort to work the worst of the kinks out.
OW! OW OW OW OW OW!
Okay, enough stretching. Stretching could wait until after breakfast.
Breakfast. Oh my. Breakfast.
She was so hungry. She couldn't ever remember feeling this hungry before. She wobbled over to the nightstand, feeling around with her magic for her hairbrush.
I'll just get this hair out of my eyes, then breakfast. Breakfast!
The hairbrush cracked, the sound like a whip. Her head jerked up, hair flying out of her eyes. She was holding the pulverised remains of the carved wooden handle. She'd crushed it. The head dangled sadly in her telekinetic grip.
Whuh... What? How did THAT happen? So HUNGRY! Augh. Forget my hair. I need breakfast.
She glanced at the mirror to see her tremendous bed-head.
Spike's gonna be laughing about this all week, the littl-
The remains of the hairbrush fell to the floor. Her hunger fled. An icy ball of horror replaced the gnawing pains in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes had opened so wide, her eyelids stung. The pony staring back at her from the glass looked aghast, the mouth agape, the colour draining rapidly from its lavender face. Above the terrified eyes, sticking out of the rumpled mess of indigo mane, a horn protruded. It was half as long again as Twilight's horn, its tip needle-sharp. The spiral fluting glistened like mother-of-pearl, and small motes of light were winking in and out all around it.
The pony in the mirror moved its eyes, just as Twilight did. Left, then right, the pinprick pupils shifted, as Twilight gazed at the ruffled feathers sticking every which way out of this strange and terrifying pony's wings.
Twilight's heart stopped for a few beats. She didn't notice. She wasn't breathing. She didn't notice this either. For nearly a full minute she gaped at the shocking reflection, the trembling in her chest spreading throughout her entire body until her hooves rattled quietly against the floor. Then, suddenly, she tore her eyes away from the mirror, whirled around, and stared at her messy bed. Full of lavender feathers.
She started to pass out. Her knees hit the floor, blackness crept into the edges of her vision, huge rolling waves of nausea pulsed through her. Her heart beat so fast and hard that it ached, the blood pumping through her ears sounded as loud as a train. She started breathing again, great, wracking gasps of air that burned through her throat and chest.
"Spike..." she choked out.
Come on, Twilight, get a grip. Just breathe. Breathe. That's it. Nice, deep, even breaths. Don't think. Just breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
"Spike," she whispered.
Breathe, damnit! Slow, steady, calming breaths. Good. That's it. One more, deep, hold it in, aaaaaaand...
"SPIIIIIIIIIIIKE!" she yelled. "SPIKE SPIKE SPIKE SPIKE SPIIIIIIIIIIIKE!"
The rushing sound that was filling her ears muffled the patter of quick feet running up the passage. She staggered to her hooves in a daze, lurched sideways, and fell out of her bed-loft with a shriek, collapsing in a heap on her main bedroom floor.
The door opened. "Twilight? What's wrong? Twilight? Twilight! Did you fall? Are you hurt? Why are you covered in... feathers..."
Twilight opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry, but she could make out Spike holding up a wing, near the tip. His eyes were dilating, then they rolled back into his head. Spike toppled gently over onto his back with a soft thump.
This was far, far too much to deal with for one morning. Twilight felt her grip on reality finally snap, and as her head hit the wooden bedroom floor, she joined the little dragon in blissful unconsciousness.
Seems promising! Tracked.
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Excellent start for this story the shock of the change was well done. The only problem I saw was when you described her horn. "It was half as long again as Twilight's horn" this would mean that it was half the size of her regular horn. Is she growing a new horn? Oh well next chapter!
So far so good, looking forward to spend the last minutes before christmas reading this story :D
only 17 minutes to go LOL
... okay, this looks GOOD. *keeps reading*
83990 "half as long again" means one and a half times as long. the "again" on the end. I agree, it's not really in common usage... I'll see what I can do about that.
Thanks for the feedback, everypony!
83990
I think it means that her horn is now longer by half the original size
Good morning sunshine!
Oh my goodness, she's mutated into an alicorn now!
Shredder, Krang... get back here with that mutagen now!
Oh no you don't boys, no escaping in the Technodrome for you any!
Hmph, she took that well.
84310 Screw these punny neo-noobs!
I love the way you worked that 'old-fashioned' phrase in there, by golly!
But seriously. Simp- It's Elementary, my dear Watson. 'it was half as long again...'
1 + (1 x 0.5) = 1.5 {1/2 again.}
oooooh this looks promising *tracks*
Somewhat short, but let's see where this goes...
-Glassed
This NEEDS to become a novel. The person who wrote this is a fuckin' genius! I can see this becoming my favorite book of all time, if your willing to write it. I depend upon you to write a novel based on this so I can have a happy Christmas after all!
wow thats one of the most craziest start of a story ever!!!!!
Thaz waz very interesting.
Me gusta
I glomp you Smayds. That is all.
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/123/620/Oh-boy-here-we-go.jpg
84310
Perhaps the syntax is what was so confusing. Try "Half again as long". It sounds more natural, at least to my mind.
84778
Technically it means that it is ONCE AGAIN half as long as it normally was implying that it was half as long in the past and now it is that same size only sharper. If he had said something along the lines of it growing half it's normal length then it would mean that it added half of the original length to the horn. unfortunately this might not even matter since he's since moved onto this story's sequel.
732642 no, you are incorrect for the simple reason that it is an antiquated manner of saying 'it is longer by half its original length'. You are thinking more in modern terms. If it were to be in a meaning as you say, then she would have barely a horn at all, for I would guess it to be around 4 to 6 inches long normally, and 2 to 3 inches is, in all reality, a bit short for an Alicorn, wouldn't you agree?
>Twilight wasn't a morning pony - never had been, as a matter of fact.
Seriously? I know it's a nitpick, but it goes against literally everything the canon has ever said on Twilight's sleeping habits.
83990
Half again as long means it is about 50% longer.
Just gonna roll with the punches on this one...
It would be better to say "longer by half"
Found the sequel but thought I should read this first. Opening was short and sweet though I'm eager to learn what caused her ascension if she was, evidently unaware of it before she got out of bed.
This is mentioned in reviews along with another Alicorn Twilight story currently on my Read Later list, so I thought I'd take a look. Promising beginning!