Ponies on Bronies

by Ravenmane

22 - Unexpected

If you thought the concept of having extra appendages like a horn or wings might be neat to imagine, but when you end up screaming in pain as you feel your shoulder blades realign for the added bone, muscle, and sinew that allows a pair of wings to fit cleanly, not to mention work, then we can talk.

When I finally couldn’t hear my body whine at the adjustments I only slightly regretted my choice. Then again, I was wondering if something worked…

“Al,” asked Rainbow wearily, “you look uh sleek.” I felt her hoist one of my wings. “This flesh or something here?”

My weary eyes snapped open, revealing to me Twilight’s startled gaze.

“Now those will take some getting used to,” she commented.

“Tell me,” I said bluntly.

“As I recall, Pinkie said your eyes were golden in your screen. Well, they are,” Twilight flinched, “but your pupils are slits. You know, like Spike’s are. Then there are your ears, they’re um… okay, they have really fuzzy tips.”

“Yeah,” added Rainbow as she prodded my wings. “Let’s not forget your wings here. Twi, this is flesh right? I mean I know my way around pegasus wings but these aren’t those kinds of wings.”

Twilight passed around me and examined my wing herself. “They’re like bat wings. This is fascinating, is this what Princess Luna’s guards are like up close?”

I turned my head around and spotted the sleek, fleshy bat-like wing the duo was looking over. What startled me more than the sight of my own wings was the look of surprise from Twilight alongside Rainbow’s jaw drop. “Now what,” I asked as I tried to get to my hooves.

“You uh,” Rainbow paused, “you got something on your head Al.”

I glanced around what all of my face I could see and saw only my ebony coat and charcoal colored mane but not much else. “What is it? Where is it?” Twilight hesitantly poked something above my brow. “Ah,” I said as she poked it a second time, “that hurts Twilight!”

“It’s so weird,” she commented. “Rainbow, help him out of his pants. We can figure this out later. We’ve been here too long as is!”

Rainbow snorted, but managed to restrain herself enough to help me out of my cumbersome human pants. “At least you don’t need help with your shirt,” she commented after casting my pants aside, revealing a gilded mirror on my flank.

A closer inspection of what was beneath me revealed what remained of my shirt on the ground, the back completely torn off. When I got up it must’ve remained where it was.

Getting up was one thing, learning to move on four legs was something else entirely. I figured it out quickly enough, but not before getting a laugh or two from both Rainbow and Twilight. Soon though, my motor skills were put to the test as we raced upstairs and through the labyrinthine bookcases of the first sublevel.

*****

As we cautiously slipped onto the main floor’s landing, what met us was Shining Armor quickly glancing down the hallway towards the way out.

“Shining,” called Twilight in a hushed voice as we drew towards him.

“Twiley, you’re being followed by a guard,” he exclaimed as he caught sight of me.

“Uh, you might want to get your eyes checked,” commented Rainbow as she skidded to a halt in midair. “Al here’s not a guard.”

The skeptical Capitan of the Guard looked me over carefully. “I suppose the fact that you aren’t in uniform and that you’re sporting that horn should’ve been enough of a giveaway, but you’re all running really late.”

“Alex blacked out a lot,” Twilight hissed as she began to canter away from us and towards the exit. “In case you hadn’t realized, he went through a very serious transformation.”

Shining Armor opened his mouth to say something back to Twilight before he turned to meet my eyes. “Look, I’m sorry for coming off as a bit insensitive, but we don’t have much time before Princess Celestia comes here and finds out what happened.”

I gave him a curt nod and rushed to catch up to Twilight and Shining Armor, Rainbow was close behind me.

When we reached the front door to the archives, we all stopped to let Shining check if the coast was clear. “Um, hello your highness,” he said as he opened the doors. “How was the pageant?”

“It was fine,” replied Princess Celestia pleasantly as she past the threshold of the archives. “Oh my, I thought you came here for the pageant Twilight.” She turned to give Rainbow a gentile smile. “I thought you were bringing your boyfriend with you and I see Miss Dash. Did something go wrong with you two?”

“Uh,” trailed Rainbow as she scratched her head. “We uh-”

“I was showing them around and we lost track of time,” finished Twilight quickly. “We ran into um, Dusk here, who was kind enough to help us look for him.”

I tried to look the part of a stern guardspony.

“Hmm,” added the solar diarch as her eyes drew to me, “Dusk, may I have a word about your performance? Shining Armor, would you be so kind as to escort your sister and Rainbow Dash off the grounds?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Come on you two, maybe we’ll see your boyfriend on our way Twiley.” As both mares shot me pleading looks, the doors closed tightly.

“Now ‘Dusk’ what did you do to yourself,” commented Princess Celestia mischievously.

“Princess Celestia,” I replied a bit quicker than I probably should have, “I can explain.”

“I know you will Alexander, and please be sure not to leave any details out.”

I smiled sheepishly. “Okay, well the whole thing starts off with Twilight, Rainbow, and I thinking about our futures together.”

“So you and Twilight have hit a rough patch in your relationship then?”

“Well, no, actually we’ve all been together. It was a group decision. It stopped them from competing for my attention and-” I stopped as soon as I realized when I couldn’t close one of my wings. When I looked towards it, I noticed that she was examining my wing carefully. “Can I help you Princess?”

“How did you get like this,” she asked again as she ignored my growing scowl.

“The spell used to transform me into a pony seemed to have misfired a little,” I replied bitterly. I would be just fine with Twilight looking me over like a science experiment, but not Princess Celestia. I always thought she had far more control over her curiosity.

“I can tell, you have a horn as well as a lovely pair of working Nocturne pegasus wings. Such an endearing kind of pegasus, they aren’t very common but they are my sister’s favorite.”

“Well, the spell, it uh… I felt the world around me dissolve and where I arrived was a large circular room. In the room, I saw four mirrors, each displayed a type of pony. There was a straight to the point earth pony, a casual and somewhat carefree pegasus, a studious and very informative unicorn, and a… um… you see, the kind of people who-”

“What is it your people call Cadance, Luna, and myself?”

“Well, most call you three the alicorn princesses.”

“The remaining mirror showed you an alicorn then? A prince to stride among the mighty princesses,” she smirked, “is that what you are?”

“No ma’am, I’m a compromise. I wouldn’t say a completely successful compromise since I’m one of those Nocturne pegasi with a unicorn’s horn.”

“Oh I didn’t mean to mislead you; there are the Nocturne ponies, which you have several features of. The fuzzy ears, the predatory eyes, sleek dark coat and mane, these are all traits of the Nocturne ponies. One in one thousand is born with Nocturne traits as prominent as your own unless their parents were both Nocturnes themselves. So how did you compromise?”

“When I touched a mirror I would become that form of pony. The Alicorn mirror warned me that if I selected it, that I would draw danger to everyone I know like a magnet. He also said that if my powers were to grow too much, I would outlive all of my friends and family.”

“Yes,” Celestia replied somberly, “it is our fate, and our destiny. Power is a very dangerous thing, even if it’s for the good of everyone.”

“Well, I couldn’t handle doing something like that to either Twilight or Rainbow and right as I was about to pick my mirror, a fifth pony emerged. This pony wasn’t in a mirror, but simply an image. It told me that if I wanted to seriously compromise, I could touch the unicorn and pegasus mirrors at the same time. It theorized I would adopt traits of both with the inability to master all the abilities of a pegasus or unicorn.”

“I would’ve assumed that it would split you into two ponies: a pegasus and a unicorn. But what you are now is the result of your attempt to compromise and spend more time with both Twilight and Rainbow Dash equally correct?”

“Yes Princess Celestia. I love them both so very much and I don’t want one to think the other is more important to me.” As soon as I began to talk about how much I loved them I felt my wings unfurl and flare.

“I see, then only time will tell if you are gifted with either property. Please, send me a letter if you find one lacking too much and I’ll help sort you out.”

I paused, on the verge of taking a single step away from the solar diarch. No “you risked so many other ponies’ lives,” no “how could you be so reckless,” not even a condescending glare? It was actually strange when I fully realized that there was no lecture about doing stupid things.

“How about I take this one step at a time,” I said as soon as I saw Princess Celestia begin to depart. “If I asked nicely, could I get my horn back?”

She gave me the very look I had hoped to see, where she pitted me against myself. The very fact that I expected she would tease me with a moment of sanity was well worth putting everything in place. “You’ll have to earn your horn Alex,” she replied pleasantly. “Are you sure you want to fly instead?”

“If I don’t come back with a pair of sleek leathery wings then they may just kill me. Besides, mankind has never known the wonders of flight under its own power without some gimmick, I think it’s time one of us really learned what it meant.”

Princess Celestia smiled and in a flash, I watched the ebony horn fall to the ground. “It won’t be this ‘free’ next time,” she reminded as her horn lit up in its familiar golden light and I saw the horn disintegrate as quickly as it had hit the archives’ floor.

I gave her a very excited smile and practically skipped out of the archives, pausing only to open the doors. Maybe I was that one in a thousand ponies that was a Nocturne pony, maybe it was a consequence of being greedy and trying to choose both Twilight and Rainbow again. Whatever the actual reason was didn’t matter, I had stayed true to myself and that was good enough for me.

The chill of the winter air cut into my fur but I hardly noticed it as I retraced my former footsteps. My wings were itching for flight, I was outside and they felt so unused that they may as well have screamed for me to fly but I knew better. I didn’t know the first thing about flying and I could at least try and hold out for lessons.

*****

As soon as I caught up to the waiting trio of ponies, we all set out for Shining Armor and Cadance’s home. On the way, I made sure I caught them up to speed.

“So you gave up your horn,” asked Shining Armor.

I nodded. “Yeah, I thought it was for the best.”

“You sure Al,” added Rainbow. “I mean yeah, you’ve got those neat wings but you had both a horn and wings! That’s a lot of power-”

“and I should earn that much power,” I finished for her. “Between flying lessons and the curiosity that,” I made sure to pass Twilight a smug glance, “I can feel you radiating Twi, there’s plenty for us to do.”

“Just tell me one thing,” she pleaded, “I haven’t found out how there is this deviation from the other ponies. Did Princess Celestia tell you?”

“There’s a bit of a stigma about the Nocturne ponies,” answered Shining Armor. “Twiley, they aren’t very common and after Princess Luna returned they finally started to come out of their caves. It’s a touchy subject, a lot of ponies are afraid of them, like they’re bad luck.”

“Then I guess it’s really better that I let go of something,” I said pleasantly, “I’m enough of a lightning rod already.”

Twilight giggled as she pressed up against me. “That’s right.”

Rainbow casually landed beside me, parallel to Twilight. “The good news is that you’re our lightning rod.”

Shining Armor cleared his throat. “As heartwarming as this is, we’re supposed to take a left here.”

The three of us stopped dead in out tracks and laughed as we let him take the lead.

*****

“Of all the things to trot through those doors tonight this was the last thing I expected,” commented Cadance as Twilight and Rainbow nudged me forward.

“You should’ve seen him when I got my first look,” commented Shining. “He had a horn then.”

Cadance had begun to look me over, just like three other mares before her. “No offense Alex, but you’re stunning.”

“Cadance,” commented Shining hesitantly. “I think you meant not to offend me.”

Cadance had been holding open one of my wings and manually flapping it as he spoke. “I’m sorry Shining, but I didn’t want to offend Alex by invading his space like this. I mean,” she returned to flapping my wing like a toy, “when am I going to be this close to a Nocturne pony again?”

“How about when we start talking marriage,” muttered Rainbow. The comment caused Twilight to giggle and my face to light up.

“Shining, if you really want to know for yourself then I’ll just say it. If I could go back and pick either you or this slice of the night, I’d still pick you. He’s just got this effect.”

“Sorry Shining,” I said nervously, “it’s the exotic look. It can really affect some.”

“Or the bad boy look,” commented Twilight.

Rainbow agreed with an approving growl. “The exotic bad boy combo’s a nice match for this, what did you call him?”

“A slice of the night,” recited Twilight.

“Can we uh,” I gulped and tried to draw everyone else deeper into the house, “can we stop talking about how I look?”

No sooner had the question escaped my mouth when the doors opened up to show Twilight’s parents entering. “Twilight Sparkle,” huffed her mother, “what are you doing with this bat? I thought you were into humans or something.”

“Mother,” said Shining Armor sternly, “this is Twilight’s boyfriend. You need to sit down, relax, and let them explain everything.”

My eyes met Twilight’s fathers and neither of us had to say anything. His questions seemed reflected in his eyes and the fire in my own probably spoke volumes. “He’s a handsome stallion in his own right,” he said to try to placate his wife. “Well groomed, well mannered, far less imposing as any Nocturne pony I’ve seen. He’ll turn some heads, maybe shed some light for the Nocturne ponies. No offense intended Alex.”

“None taken,” I said pleasantly. “Can we all just enjoy a nice dinner tonight?”

Author's Note:

For those who are curious about their wagers, I will clarify for you. Pegasus (Bat Pony)

Comments

[the other sans]

Uhh... Uhh... UHH... I won?

Does it matter that I won the bet? No, it matters that you pulled a trump card on us that many of us failed to notice; becoming a Nocturne pony.

Some have called them Sarosians (mainly from Background Pony) but Nocturne is... more common I believe? I want to say much more than I can but right now, my head is a jumbled mess and I'm just spewing out what comes to my head.

Will he get his horn back lat- oh wait... he might just yes, actually he will. Just in a matter of time. Now for flying... wait... scratch that, Nocturne ponies in your story... are they sensetive to light? Do they have sharp canines? Do they have cat vision?

ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS!! I need a drink...

[Ravenmane]

2191413 Ahem, let's see where I begin here...

Yes, congratulations you got it right this time. Well, close enough at the very least.
I have no idea, I wrote what I thought sounded nice in my head. I mean 'nice' as a writer, thought I should clarify.
Your partial/proto question has an answer actually. It's a nice, vague, maybe.
Last three questions will be answered in a chapter on the horizon, but not the next chapter.

[Morphy]

The exotic bad boy look, eh? Next he'll be riding a Harley around Ponyville...

d.facdn.net/art/baroncoon/1313641489.baroncoon_pony-needs-speed.png

d.facdn.net/art/baroncoon/1344880085.baroncoon_cruz-to-canterlot-wallpaper.jpg

...wearing assless chaps. (Hay, what've you got against Donkeys?!)

[High_Wind]

memecrunch.com/meme/DS4M/what-a-twist-m-night-shyamalan/image.png

Bet you didn't see that coming did ya?

[Eclair the Pegasus]

Um, so will he earn his horn in the future?

[Ravenmane]

4632019 I decided to go back and re-read everything I've written and all the comments once more. I really can't believe that I wrote this a few years ago

Anyways, there was a time where I considered returning the horn, but I really didn't want to do something like a pseudo-ascension variant of Twilight's own alicorn ascension. Not really quickly at least. After seeing Tirek, I thought that might've been a neat opportunity to make it temporary at least based on the trust of their marital status and his own rationale that all the alicorn magic shouldn't be in a singular source, reasoning that it was a poor plan but with reasonable intentions. I would've used this as a temporary thing since it would have to return to its proper source after Tirek's defeat but allow the consideration of making a degree of permanence (as more of an ascended pegasus) up for consideration.