Undercover Brother
"Do...I know you from anywhere?" Asked a young grey earth pony, sitting diagonal from a pony covered underneath a large, bulky coat.
"Hah, me, umm *ahem*, no, not at all. I'm completely new to town, just here to go tour the capital, heh..." The coat pony replied in a forced low voice.
Dusk maneuvered around in his seat, pretending to cough as an excuse to bundle into his large brown coat further and avoid being seen by anyone directly. The redundant clackity clack of the train was usually soothing to ponies, but for him, he could hardly remain calm. He was surrounded by folks from both Canterlot and Ponyville, as well as who knows what other kinds of places across Equestria. For someone as famous as Celestia's prized student, who saved the entire land from Nightmare Moon and Discord, going anywhere was impossible while trying to remain anonymous, let alone trying to blend in.
When he finally lost all the attention he had gathered to himself, and the ponies across the train car were busy talking with their own friends or watching the majestic hills and mountainside pass by, Dusk inhaled deeply and laid his head against the side of the train car, his mind returning to science. How, what had he done wrong? The spell he had enchanted on the three potion ingredients was nothing more than a stimulant to activate control over the hormone chemicals. And, he had poured them all in the correct amount, as well. Had he simply prepared the ingredients incorrectly? Or...added them in an incorrect order, that caused the potion to react negatively?
Dusk sighed to himself, and decided he'd had enough for now. Closing his eyes, he tried his best to ignore the subtle bumps from the tracks. Some sleep might help him relax...after all, he'd need it if he planned to keep his sanity until the princess could spare the time to help him with his predicament.
~~~
"Last stop, Canterlot Station! Everypony off! Don't forget to grab your belongings on your way out, and have a great day!" Came the voice of the conductor pony over the train intercom. The ears of ponies shot up as these words echoed throughout the train cars, and the immediate hustle and bustle of all riders disembarking filled the air in the forms of friendly conversations, shuffling of suitcases and the sound of the train letting off steam.
Despite all of this, Dusk Shine remained immersed in sleep. While sleep wasn't something that came easily when he was under stress, when it did occur, not even a stampede of Ursas could wake him.
Unfortunately for him, this was not his warm and comfy bed at home.
"Hey, mister, time to get off." Came the friendly voice of a young filly, as she trotted by after her parents. Not taking her eyes off him, and noticing that he didn't budge, she stopped mid-step and turned around, looking about him and looking for a side to poke.
"Hey, mister, you gotta wake up!" She said, smiling and pushing gently against his now emerging foreleg.
"Nnmhmmm...huh-wha?" The groggy, not at all alert stallion voice grunted. Dusk's purple snout, sectioned off cut mane and droopy eyes emerged from his concealed mobile fortress of secrecy, and he blinked at an adorable face looking up at him.
"We're at Canterlot, mister," the small blue filly said. "Time for everypony to get off. That's what the conductor said."
Suddenly, it all came flooding into Dusk's mind like a bursting damn. His eyes widened, he gasped, and he wrapped his hood around the frame of his face quickly, smiling at the filly and clearing his throat.
"Oh, uh, yeah, that's right, we are! Hehe, thank you, young pony."
Satisfied, the little girl ran off to meet her parents, who were now outside the train car and fussing over a map held in a magic aura.
Not wasting any time, Dusk lit his horn and illuminated his face inside his hood, zapped himself outside the train car, and took off in a full-on trot. Though he got the few occasional looks due to his large, suspicious looking cloak, his mind was ten steps ahead the worry scale, by this point. Thoughts of the princess not being able to change him back was gnawing at his mind like one of Fluttershy's beavers with trees, and thusly, all he could think of were the inevitable consequences of his actions.
How could his friendships possibly survive? All of his friends were girls; there's no way they'd want to awkwardly have one male pony hanging out with them when they had girls nights or sleepovers or even just when they were hanging out! He'd have to find new stallion friends, possibly even move to a new town and officially change his name! His parents, brother and other Ponyville friends would be too weirded out by the bizarre and permanent change to want to talk to him anymore! He'd be alone with his books forever!
Well, the 'lonely old book pony' part would have been fine, actually...if he had never gotten to learn the magic of friendship in the first place. That was a pretty accurate description of what he had been, after all, minus Spike.
Exiting the train station and swiftly making his way down the crowded streets of Canterlot, Dusk Shine did his best to stick to the middle of the street. Amidst the moving bodies, it'd be harder for anypony to notice him, er, her, as opposed to walking along the side and risking someone who wasn't in a hurry from recognizing him. So far, it was working perfectly. Although it was the city of higher-class ponies, this seemed to be a tourist afternoon; the streets were filled with regular-class ponies as well, many of whom had far simpler, less showy clothes. All the better to blend in for a stallion sporting a big and obvious mobile fortress.
Shelving his train of thought for the moment, Dusk took in a deep sigh of relief and came to a slowed trot. The destination of his desired sanctuary now laid out before him. Standing tall and proud in the immediate distance was the vast castle of the city, bright colored towers and peaks delivering a commanding presence for miles and miles around the high mountain on which they stood. Somewhere within those familiar walls was the Princess. Dusk could only pray she had a magic 'Reverse accidental student mishaps' spell handy on her.
"Alright...you can do this." Dusk coached to himself, continuing his front towards the castle, while watching the cobblestone street below his hooves pass by. "'Princess, it's me, Twilight. I know you might not recognize me immediately, but, well, this is what Spike's letter was talking about. I was working on a hormone potion to work with muscle power and other factors, but for some reason it backfired. I was hoping you'd have a solution to-"
*THUD*
Dusk's snout collided with something brisk and hard, and with a short wince of pain and a step back, he instinctively raised his hoof to rub it. Opening his eyes, the immediate panicked reaction spilled from his mouth like a recited speech.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."
"That's fine. Do you have business with the castle, this afternoon?"
Dusk raised his view and got a look at the gruff-voiced guard pony from beneath the shade of his hood. The bright white, armored stallion stared at him with a blank expression, seemingly not at all curious why a stallion was wearing such a sweltering cloak on a day like today.
"Well, you see," Dusk said after clearing his throat a bit more, trying to change his voice to be even lower. "I've received a letter from her majesty, Princess Celestia, and would like to request an audience with-"
"I'm afraid the princess is attending an important political matter today. You may try tomorrow morning, as she shall be returning at some point this evening, but will likely remain unavailable until the morn." The guard pony recited, as if he had done so to half a dozen other ponies looking for the alicorn princess today, already.
"Oh, yes, she did mention that in our letter." Dusk said. "Would you, uh, happen to know if I can stay in the castle until her return? I've, umm...no bits to stay anywhere, tonight. I, spent it all on the train-ride here." he explained, toppling over his sentences as his mind raced to come up with a plausible story. By the expression on the guard pony, he wasn't getting an A in deceiving. The guard cocked an eyebrow ever so slightly.
"If the princess had mentioned to you of her dealings that may last until tomorrow, why did you not make preparations for a place to stay? I'm afraid the castle is not open for offering rooms, sir."
Dusk bit his lip. Heart racing and mind ever so steadily taking a cliff-dive from how relaxed and confident he had been upon first seeing the castle, he fussed around with one of his forelegs, desperately trying to come up with a non-suspicious and completely sensible response. But nothing was coming to him. His true identity would only confuse and possibly put the pony on alert for something suspicious...it's not like he'd believe his story, right?
"Well, you see, I, um..."
"Hello, there. My name is Shining Armor, I'm the Captain of the Royal Guard here in Canterlot."
Dusk stood from atop a high cliff, above an ocean of spiked rocks, and watched his mental composure take that suicidal cliff dive. No way. No. This couldn't, no, not right now! What was he doing here, right at this moment!? Shouldn't he be off doing guard pony things or something? Anywhere but here, right now! Oh Shining Armor, you have the worst timing of any older brother, in the history of older brothers with bad timing!
"Hello." Dusk managed to choke out, his voice shaking ever so slightly with worry, sweat starting to dampen his joints. Shining Armor, looking as friendly and approachable as always, looked on at the strange cloaked pony with a mixture of welcome and confusion.
"Although the castle cannot house just anyone who requests it, I'd be happy to lend you enough money to cover a one-night stay at one of our inns. Did you have any in-particular that you'd prefer to stay at? There are quite a few in the castle's vicinity."
Shining walked past the guard pony, who had begun to ignore the two of them, seeing that his Captain had clearly taken over the situation. Dusk could feel his sanity grabbing a hold of a stray branch on the cliff's edge. Phew...that was close. He could use the money to stay at an inn, and make his way to find Celestia when she returned. The princess would hopefully be able to turn him back relatively immediately, and she could return to Ponyville with no cloak and no more worries. Or, even better, she could take this opportunity to spend some time with her brother while she was here. She rarely got the chance to see him these days, after all...
"Oh, that's very kind of you," Dusk said, being careful to not make eye contact, adjusting the angle of his hood as Shining subtly tried to get a glimpse of this strangers' face. Shining of all people would nail her by just her face. "I'm not very picky, myself. The cheapest place would do just fine, I've no need for anything expensive."
"Well...alright." Shining said slowly, giving up on his attempts for a visual and, while being slightly more suspicious of this shady character than before, nonetheless levitated a small dozen bits from a hidden area inside his armor, and held it front of the cloaked pony. "There's a place just around the corner, the Defiant Dragon, that'll be happy to have you."
Seeing the exit to this narrow and dangerous tunnel, Dusk levitated the coins from Shining's grasp, nodded a thanks to him and turned towards the far street that lead down to the Defiant Dragon. That was truly a luck-out moment. Of all the decisions Shining could have made, that was the only one Dusk could think of that wouldn't have resulted badly. He definitely made up for his horrible timing.
As Dusk made his way away from the castle entrance and Shining Armor turned to the street Dusk had originally came from, all was going absolutely perfect. No messy situations here. Or, that would have been the case...if there hadn't been any treacherous potholes in some of the cobblestone walkways on this particular street.
Gasping in surprise, Dusk felt his front hoof give out in front of him, and with a yelp, he crashed into the road head-first. Gravity took his safety cloak and took it right over his upper torso, revealing most of his back-end, including his blatantly obvious cutie mark.
Ground: 2, Dusk Shine: 0
There was dead silence for a stomach-plummeting few seconds, before the hopeful, confused and fully surprised voice of Shining came trotting over.
"But, that mark is...Twiley? Is...is that you?"
Every nerve on Dusk's body was on fire, yelling for him to run, to get away from there and find somewhere to hide until Shining moved on, to do something other than sit there with his big purple flank sticking up in the air. But he couldn't move. The coat covered his upper body and face, but not for long. Hooves concealing his face, wishing to Celestia he was anywhere but here, but not having the will or nerve to preform a teleportation, the purple unicorn listened to silence other than hooves walking across stone, followed by a cool rush of air flowing over his body as the coat was pulled off of him with a burst of levitation.
"...Twiley, but, you're...how do you have that, what..." Shining muttered out, clearly attempting to string together the completely bizarre scene in front of him. A purple stallion about as big as he was with a short, sectioned-off rectangular mane and the same cutie mark and colors of his sister was huddled on the ground in much a similar fashion that an ostrich hides itself from danger. Though, perhaps it was a bit more comical, here.
"I-It's me, Shiny..." Dusk managed to say weakly, finally mustering the strength to do something other than mimic a terrified ostrich.
"Do I even want to know?" Shining asked cooly, as Dusk shakily got to his hooves and took a deep breath.
"I-I'm trying to get it fixed, it was a backfire to a spell I was trying and I don't know what went wrong, but I don't know how to fix it, and I'm trying to locate the princess because she's the only pony around who would most likely know how to change me back, but she won't be coming back until tomorrow and I really didn't want to run into anyone I know because I don't want them to see me like this, but now you have and-"
Dusk felt a strong dark blue hoof affix itself to his mouth.
"Whoa whoa, hold on. Why are you afraid of your friends seeing you? You know they'd want to help you, right? Don't tell me you think they wouldn't want to help you out, Twiley. They're your friends, aren't they?"
Dusk averted his gaze from his brother. Mare or stallion, Shining always knew how to bypass Twilight's exaggerated fears swiftly, like Daring Do dodging through a temple's deadly traps. Dusk raised his still anxious eyes again.
"You should know that you can always come to me when you need help, too." He added. "Come on, let's head back to my place. You can wait there until the princess returns, and in the meantime you can give me the play by play on just how it is that I now have a little brother, where I should have a little sister." Shining said with a coy smile, leading the way down the road. Reluctant to follow, Dusk levitated his coat back over himself, and quickly trotted in toe after the older stallion.
"Does anyone else know about this?" Shining asked.
"Just Spike...he was there with me when it happened. Or, I should say he was actually the one who warned me not to mess with hormone magic to start with. *Sigh*...I guess he was right. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing."
"What did he have to say about all of this?"
"Well...not much. Other than giving suggestions about how I should relax, and naming this alternate self of mine 'Dusk Shine'."
"Dusk Shine, huh? Heh, that's actually not bad. I kinda like it. 'Hey mom, I've got a surprise for you. Meet your son, Dusk Shine!'"
"Shining, this isn't funny!" Dusk hissed.
"Hahaha! Hoo, heh, I'm sorry, Twiley."
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2 things: First of that picture is inaccurate representation of a (pony) brothers relationship (from my understanding) and is more of a (pony) sister-brother relationship. And second is thank God this isn't a clopfic... Now that I think about it, there is a significant lack of gay clop fics (it could be). Unless I'm being a moron
3691778 If the entire point is a sister being trapped in a male body, then the 'sister-brother relationship' feel for the picture should make perfect sense, no?
3692558 I'm glad you're enjoying it thus far :3 Thank you for the feedback!
Not bad, not bad at all.
3691778
If this turns into a clopfic of any sort, I'm ripping my gold star right off this story. Just sayin', there are too many of those stories out there.
Anyway, I'm interested to see where this goes, in the non-cloppy direction of course.
3693404 No clop to be found. Nothin' but bro love born from bro/sis love
Sibling love is best love.
3693480
Good to hear, it's nice to finally find a fic like this that has no clop. Very refreshing.
Anyway, so far, so good.
Can't wait for a new chapter, only two chapters and you got my follow, bravo, only two have managed to do that.
3693404
There's way too many GAY clopfics out there. We could use more of the regular kind.
For that matter, we could use a separate gay shipping tag to differentiate from regular shipping.
Oh my god
rule 63 Twilight Sparkle with shining armor and it ISN'T a clop fic?!
YES PLEASE
Oh, I really like this. Following this story.
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This has potential for great dawwwws.
Please proceed
OMG this was to funny
OH MY GOD!! HEART ATTACK FROM THE CUTENESS!!!!
3693480 That was what intrigued me. Guylight/Shiney with no clop? MOARPLZKTHX
sees cover art
checks groups and tags
Well...I don't see incest anywhere.....you have my attention
3693480 Lol who disliked this comment?Nice fic btw.
Oh this is going to be good!
Nice work so far, the writing and the story are both great
I like it. When comes next chapter
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I am expecting fully-blown crowning moments of heartwarming in this fic. It's off to a very nice start. Won't say if I like or dislike since it is too early to tell.
Heeeyyyy CD, it's Shift from MLP Forums. Just wanted to say, I approve of this fanfic and i'm waiting for more.
More Luna, that is3695583 Thanks for the word correction
And yeah :P All I have to say on the matter of 'Too Panicky' is, 'Lesson Zero' xP As for quarantine, she did so with her magic, but as the potion's mist was expanding and couldn't be contained, quarantine wasn't possible :3
3695724
Rule of funny: plot holes for the sake of hilarity are permitted. And this is already hilarious. Do continue, my good sir
3695926 Hilarity is about to turn into feels, prepare yourself
3693868
Get out.
3695938
My body is ready.
3697387
Maybe Spike's just mastered the art of being a guy.
3693868
3696321
Yeah, seriously. No need to say it like that. You can almost always tell by the description or by the first chapter is there is no picture. And if you somehow end up in a yaoi clopfic, and you aren't looking for that, just leave the page and your done with it. Nothing else to it. Besides, this isn't even a clopfic! Do even you check the ratings? It says "Everyone" for a reason.
3697703 There's also no 'Romance' tags or such
Not sure why people would assume there'd be clop or heavy relationship stuff in a story with nothing but 'Slice of Life' and 'Alternate Universe' as the tags.
What's this? A Dusk Shine and Shining Armor fic that DOESN'T involve sex? Holy shit is this real life??
Might give this a read at some point.
Hehehe. that's sibling love right there^^ Oh I can SO relate to Shining in that last scene^^ I'd react about the same way if something like that happened to my little sister^^
3698121
Oh, wow... totally missed that one... Probably my cue that I should have gone to sleep a while ago
3698366 Same
Nightowls for the winfail 
You know, everyone's saying they're glad this isn't a clopfic, but frankly I have NEVER seen a clopfic of this scenario.
Sure there's tons of Twilight x Shining, but absolutely no Dusk x Shining. Sort of disappointing.
3691778
Maaaan, what kind of rigid gender and familial roles are you subscribin' to? Cause I don't think anyone else here is.
I might be remembering wrong, but I'm fairly certain that the apostrophe after the 'its' is not needed. "It's" always stands for the contraction of it-is or it-has and "its" always is the possessive form. Don't take my word for this though, I could be wrong.
Congratulations Twilight, you now have the advantage of peeing while standing.
3698126
Yes. Not really an issue, this isn't clop or shipping, and people are welcome to whatever fetishes or shipping charts they might have, I feel.
3698450 ...you know, that's true. I don't think there is a pairing of that exact sort. Rule 34 violation detected? Interesting...
...almost tempting to rectify...
On topic though, this is coming up quite adorable, and within two chapters you have earned a like and a fave. Keep even this current level of quality and feels going, and I truly believe you'll have acquired several watches as well--mine will certainly be among them.
3698777 I have seen a fic of it
There are also a few pictures 
3698518
I don't mean to sound rude... Or sexist for that matter, and looking back my original comment is kinda stupid. At least the first part... I swear if this becomes clop...0
Oh shit, I'm being one of those guys right now?!
3698530
No, you're not wrong, love.
Possessive pronouns ("his", "hers", "theirs", "yours", "its") don't get apostrophes. You get a gold star from Miss Cheerilee. 
(Why is there no Miss Cheerilee icon?)
I just don't know what went wrong!
You so should have named chapter 2 "Undercover Brother".
OH, I KNOW THIS IS STRANGE BUT IT'S AWESOME!!!