Not My Destiny

by Smayds

Chapter 02: Surprise!

"Should we send for the Princess? I really think we should. This is, well, quite unusual."

"Unusual? It's crazy! Unicorns aren't supposed to have wings! Not proper pegasus wings anyway! Those butterfly wings were bad enough!"

"Rainbow Dash, I have apologised over and over for my deplorable display at the competition, and thanked you countless times for saving my life! Why must you keep bringing those awful events up?!"

"Quit yer hollerin', you two, she's comin' round. The last thing she's gonna need is an argument right now."

Three anxious faces swam out of the blackness, fuzzy and indistinct at first, then colours and detail came flooding in. Twilight jerked upright with a start, panting a little. Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Three of her best friends.

"Oh, GIRLS!" Twilight gasped. The three ponies jumped a little, then uttered surprised exclamations as Twilight launched herself up off her couch and caught all three of them into a bone-shattering hug.

"Hey now, sugar-cube, you don't wanna be throwin' yerself around like that. Yer' unwell, is what you are, an' we're here to make sure you're okay." Applejack's familiar drawl made Twilight start sobbing.

"Y-you're here! I... I w-wanted my friends! I was d-dreaming about all of you! N-nightmares! I couldn't f-find you and I needed you and... How did... Did Spike get you?" The other three gently started extricating themselves, and each other, from Twilight's shaking grip.

"Calm down, Twilight, we're here for you," said the purple-maned unicorn that was gently pushing Twilight back down onto the couch. "Spike ran straight to the Boutique to tell me, I ran here while he went to get the others... Ah, darling, I must confess I was quite taken aback. I lifted you down here, straightened out and folded your... new additions, and got you settled in on your couch."

"Then he ran inter me as I wuz gettin' ma stand set up fer the day," Applejack said. "He ran off ter get Dash, and I ran here."

"He yelled 'til I woke up," Rainbow Dash put in, "and I raced to Fluttershy's. Then we got Pinkie on the way back, and we, um..."

"Spike's upstairs in bed, he's had a terrible shock, poor thing. And Fluttershy had to go back and check on her animals, she should be right back, and we have no idea where Pinkie Pie disappeared to. She was here a minute ago," Rarity said. "She's probably planning you a party to celebrate your... um..."

"We've all bin' waitin' fer you to open yer eyes. We wuz about to send Dash here to go fetch the doctor, but you woke up an'..." Applejack gaped as Twilight leaped back off the couch. "Hey now! You need rest! Now just you come back here, Twilight!"

The three of them raced after Twilight, straight into the library's small kitchen. Twilight, wings trailing behind her, had made a beeline straight for the fridge. Her head was jammed inside it, munching on something. Applejack stuck her own head in, next to Twilight's. "Hungry, huh, sugarcube?" Twilight didn't answer. Her eyes were closed, and she was gulping down a bunch of droopy carrots. "Hey, uh, I got fresher carrots'n those out at mah stand. I can go get yeh somethin' if yeh like?"

The sound of the front door closing floated through from the main room of the library. Twilight had finished the carrots - stalks and all - and was starting on a couple of turnips, when Fluttershy trotted into the kitchen. "Oh! Twilight, are you okay? You're up. Should you be up? Should you be" - Twilight let out a belch to make Spike proud, and started to attack a lettuce - "um, eating quite so much food?"

Well, she did just have, ya know, a growth spurt," Rainbow Dash pointed out as Applejack backed up. "Happens every moult for a pegasus. You have to regrow all your feathers in a single night, and you're just so far beyond hungry the next morning that you can go a little crazy if there isn't enough food in the house."

"Really? I don't get so hungry after a moult, Dashie."

"Well, no offense, Fluttershy, pal, but you don't really burn through the energy I do. Could be metabolism?"

"Oh! Yes, I'm sure that's what it must be," Fluttershy nodded.

"Whatta you think, Fluttershy?" Applejack asked, continuing the conversation that herself, Rarity and Rainbow Dash had been having before Twilight came around. "They ain't no pegasus wings. They can't be. Twilight's a unicorn!" She shook her head in protest. "Ponies don't just go an' grow themselves a set a' wings overnight. It's gotta be a spell."

"They ARE pegasus wings, Applejack! I would know! I'M a pegasus!" Dash pointed out, quite unnecessarily, from near the ceiling.

"Well, they can't be alicorn wings," Fluttershy offered. "I mean, the only alicorns are the Princesses."

"Ah, Twilight, darling, you're... you're not a princess, are you?" Rarity asked, a little timidly.

"They're not pegasus wings," Twilight said as she withdrew her head from her now-empty refrigerator and nudged the door closed with a back hoof. She licked her lips. "I'm not a pegasus. I can't possibly have pegasus wings. And if it was a spell, I didn't cast it. As far as I know, there's no spell that can grow feathered wings on a pony. And they absolutely positively just can not be alicorn wings, because there's no way that I could be an alicorn." A worried frown crossed her eyes, and she glanced up quickly at her horn.

Don't think about that. Don't think about that.

"Twilight, they are definitely pegasus wings. Look!" Rainbow Dash plopped to the floor and stretched her own wings up and out. "Can you do that? We'll see what they look like when you hold them up!"

Twilight looked back over her shoulder at her wings. They were hanging limply down at her sides. She tried to move them. Nothing happened. "Nope," she said. She tried again. They twitched, and Twilight gasped. "I felt something! It's like..." she concentrated, grunting slightly. Slowly, very slowly, they started to rise. "Aha! I've got to use muscles I didn't have until this morning! I think... " The feathers seemed to be straightening out of their own accord. There was a brief, slow flutter, and then the wings folded neatly against her sides. "Okay. Okay. Step one. Stay with me, girls. Keep my mind off how I got them for the moment, alright? I'll start going crazy if I... Just keep me talking, okay?" There were nods of agreement.

"Sure, we can do that. Can you raise 'em up so they look like this?" Dash asked, giving her own upraised pair a small shake.

"Let's find out," Twilight replied. Her wings flapped open. "Oh! They sure can move once you know how! Okay. Upright. Let's see..." Twilight's wings arched up until they mirrored Rainbow's pose. "Like this?"

Rainbow Dash's own wings wilted. Her jaw dropped open to mirror the looks on Fluttershy's, Rarity's and Applejack's faces.

"What?" said Twilight. "What's the matter?"

"They're not pegasus wings," Dash whispered.

"Of course they're not pegasus wings! I'm not a pegasus!"

"Oh my..." Fluttershy squeaked.

"They look like..." Rarity was even whiter than usual. "They look like..."

"Princess Celestia's wings," Applejack breathed.

The wings in question hit the kitchen floor with an audible "flooooomph."

The five best friends stared at each other in utter silence. After a very long moment, Rarity broke it.

"Your horn," she whispered. "Twilight, your horn. It's bigger. And far too sharp to be a unicorn horn..."

Twilight had started shaking again. Rarity took a step forwards to comfort her, when an explosion of confetti, streamers, and balloons seemed to erupt out of nowhere, accompanied by a cacophony of sound that hammered off the walls of the tiny kitchen like particularly cheerful thunder.

"SUR-PRIIIIISE! IT'S YOUR CONGRATULATIONS-ON-GETTING-YOUR-NEW-WINGS PARTY!" shrilled Pinkie Pie, shoving a party hat over Twilight's horn and grinning, quite literally, from ear to ear.

The party hat burst into flames, and Twilight hit the floor, screwing up her eyes, curling her legs and wings tightly into a ball, and starting to shudder violently.