A Whole New World

My vision was blurry as I regained consciousness. The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was a familiar one: soap and rubbing alcohol. I'm back in the hospital aren't I?

I sat up, and saw Nurse Redheart leaving the room, confirming my suspicions. I felt a throb of pain from my forehead upon resting myself on my arms, and reached up to feel a large, tender lump under a bandage. I'm going to have to keep a tally of how many times I've been unconscious. That must've been my fourth.

I took this opportunity to look around. I was in the exact same room I had been in after the manticore attack. It was still empty except for the bed I was lying in and a machine in the corner I had never seen before. My chest was bare, but I could feel my trousers under the bedsheets, and I got a sudden urge to stand up. As I did, I felt something hanging off my back, giving it extra weight.

I turned, and remembered part of what had happened. Twilight had used a lucid dream spell on herself and I in order to test out her magic and to make up for judging me too soon. We had gained wings in the dream and enjoyed flying around in an empty sky to our hearts' content. We woke up some time after that, but somehow, I had been in the library, and the wings on my back had followed me. I didn't remember much after that, but another quick look over my shoulder confirmed that the wings were still attached to my back.

As I pinched myself to confirm that I was in fact, actually awake, I heard multiple voices coming from the hallway, slowly approaching my door.

"So what is actually wrong with Dutch?" I recognised that voice as Rainbow.

"Ah'm sure he's alright, RD," Applejack replied, "He's a trooper. Takin' on a fully-grown manticore is no mean feat, so a simple case of faintin' ain't gonna keep him down."

"Guys, he's fine," Twilight interjected, "It's just that I thought it would be better if I showed you, rather than trying to convince you something that even I can't get my head round."

"I hope I don't have to throw him a Get-Well-Soon Party," I heard Pinkie say, "I mean, it's not like I don't enjoy throwing parties. In fact, I love throwing parties for everypony, because I love seeing everypony smile, but those parties are for super-duper happy fun moments, not sad, 'My friend is in the hospital' moments."

At this point, all six of the ponies walked into the room, followed by Lyra and Scootaloo. My first concern was what Scootaloo was doing out of school, but after checking my watch and seeing that the time was 3:27, my thoughts changed to, How long have I been out?

As the ponies entered the room and noticed my new appendages, all of them except Twilight put on the same expression of shock she and Spike had been wearing in the library. After a moment of silence in which you could hear someone blink, Rainbow spoke up.

"That. Is. Awesome!" She said, a huge smile apprearing on her face. Lyra had broken out of her trance too, and her stare had changed from shock to one of admiration.

Slowly, each of the ponies began to regain their senses. Pinkie Pie bounced over and began to examine the wings up and down, occasionally going, "Ooo,". Applejack and Scootaloo were prodding and pulling at them, and despite never having them before, I could feel nerves reacting from the touch. Everyone else just seemed content to remain where they stood, but the ones messing with the wings were interrupted as a white unicorn wearing a doctor's coat entered the room.

"Alright everypony, that's enough," said Doctor Whitebone, "I still need to examine these wings to see what they will do. Miss Sparkle informs me that they just appeared on his back during the spell, so I'll need to run some tests to find out if they are functional or even permanent. Dutch, I'd like you to stay here. Everypony else will need to stay out of the room until the procedure is complete."

Everyone groaned, but followed his orders and left the room. They were replaced by two nurses, and Whitebone said, "Dutch, could you turn around and show me the wings please."

I turned, and heard the hum of unicorn magic as a light cast my shadow on the wall. After a few seconds, it faded, and I felt the two nurses grab the tips of the wings, pulling them out to full length. As this happened, I turned to look at one of the nurses, noticing the look on her face as she wondered how far the wings would actually go. They eventually reached full length after two and a half metres each; the same length they had been in the dream. Whitebone's horn glowed once more, and as it finished, the nurses lowered the wings and left the room. The eight ponies immediately came back into the room.

"Well?" Twilight quickly said, "What did you find?"

"Hang on a second," Whitebone said impatiently, "I may be good, but I'm not that fast."

He walked over the the machine in the corner and wheeled it next to the bed. He plugged his horn into a hole in the side, and it immediately lit up. A small lens began projecting images onto the wall, and I recognised them as the human anatomy. At first glance, it would seem normal, but it was quite easy to see the anomalies of the wings.

As more images appeared on the wall, Whitebone was commenting on what they showed, "Interesting. It seems that the wings not only have feathers and skin, but also contain bone, muscle, blood vessels, and even a complete nervous system. I don't know how you ended up them but, theoretically, they should be fully functional."

I thought for a moment, and closed my eyes, imagining them opening like I had in the dream. I didn't feel anything, and no one else reacted, so I opened them, to find the wings still pinned to my back.

"You won't be able to fly straight away," Whitebone explained, seeming to read my thoughts, "But I don't see much reason to keep you here any longer. I'm sure one of your friends here can show you how to use those."

Even though I couldn't see her, I could sense the grin on Rainbow's face growing as she floated right behind me. My instincts were proved correct as I heard her say, "I'll do it!"

"Then it's settled," Whitebone concluded. He pulled a notepad out from his coat and quickly examined it, "I have other patients to attend to now, but you're free to leave."

Rainbow grabbed my wrist and began to pull me out of the ward, much to the entertainment of everyone else. I tried to get her to slow down, but she refused to stop for anything, "Are you kidding? Those wings are huge! They're bigger than Celestia's. I want to see them in action, now come on!"

She pulled me out the door of the hospital just as Twilight caught up. Ignoring Rainbow's pleas, I turned to her as I walked.

"Any idea how I got these?"

"No," Twilight replied, "We woke up and they were just... there. You fainted, and as you fell you hit your head on the table. It sounded like it hurt, but it didn't seem like a concussion, just a lump and a really big bruise."

I reached up to the tender lump on my forehead, "Well, that explains the bandage."

"I am going to try and find out how you got those wings though. There must be a book or two in the library about how magic affects different creatures. I'm sure they'll shed some light on what's going on."

I looked to where Rainbow was dragging me, and saw the same field we had used to practice hand-to-hand combat. I wasn't going to complain, it was quiet, and wide open enough to practice potential flying. We walked out into the middle, and Rainbow took me to one side so she could go through the basics with me, while everyone else formed a crowd a few metres away from us.

"Well, we're here," I said, "Shall we get started?"

"Sure, um... hang on a sec," Rainbow seemed so eager to be my instructor that she had forgotten what she was going to actually instruct me on, "Ummm, let me take a look at those wings."

She flew around behind me, and pulled one of the wings out to its full length, "Ok, see if you can move that wing. Try starting with your shoulders and back, then move through to where the wing attaches. If that works, we can move on to the rest of the wing."

"Wow, you sound so professional now. Who are you and what have you done with Rainbow Dash?"

She gave me a deadpanned expression, "Do you want to fly or not?"

"Ok, fine," I started to work my back and shoulder blades, trying to focus the movement of the muscles towards the wings. After a few minutes, I felt something new move, and looked over to see the wing moving up and down with the muscles in my back. It was only small though, so I kept at it.

After another ten minutes of focused back movements, I managed to move the entire wing. It felt great to move these new limbs, so I turned my attention to the other wing, moving that one a few inches at a time too. After another twenty minutes, I was able to move both of my wings in unison, and I was rewarded by cheering from the ponies in the crowd.

It wasn't enough though, I wanted to do more, "Rainbow, do you think these things are flight worthy?"

She tapped her chin with a hoof, "That depends on whether you can flap them fast enough, and if they're strong enough to support your weight."

She moved round to the front of my to avoid getting hit by the wings, "Ok, when you flap them, you need to catch as much air under them as you can. Just try to move them up and down at the moment, I'll give you a few extra pointers when you get there."

I focused on moving the wings again, and they responded by swinging downwards. They could already move fine, so I tried to put a little purpose into their movements. I closed my eyes and made them move more forcefully. I felt them flap with more force than before, strong enough in fact, to make me take a step back to catch my balance. I looked around again to see Rainbow approach me.

"Pretty good, but now you've got to get in the air. Easier done than said really, just jump as you flap your wings, then keep flapping."

She flew a few metres above me to act as a target to reach, and I positioned my footing for the jump. I bent my knees, and as I jumped, my wings flapped with the same strength they had before, lifting me a good few metres off the ground. My heart leapt, but I reminded myself to stay focused, or end up faceplanting painfully into the ground. My wings beat faster, and Rainbow slowly came in line with me. When she did, I heard everyone on the ground cheering for me. Rainbow extended a hoof to offer me a high-five, but as I took it, I briefly lost concentration, and dropped a few feet before clumsily flying back up to her.

"I think that's enough flying for today," she remarked, "I would knock a few points off you score for that last part," wait, what score? "But since this is your first time flying, I'll let you off the hook."

We slowly descended back down to the rest of the group - going down involved slowing the rate of flapping and letting gravity take over - and were immediately hit by another round of applause.

"That looked so cool!" Lyra said.

"This is going to make quite a letter to the Princess," Twilight added.

"Woohoo!" Fluttershy cheered, albeit quietly.

Pinkie could barely contain her excitement, "This is the greatest day ever! We need to celebrate your 'I just got wings and I can already fly' party! We can hold it at Sugarcube Corner, we'll have cake and ice cream, and balloons and games. We can invite everypony in Ponyville, and it'll be the bestest of all best parties yet!"

Rarity sighed, "Honestly Pinkie, you've said that about every party you've hosted."

"And every party was better than the last one!" Pinkie replied, bouncing around the group in ecstacy.

I caught her mid-bounce, and set her down on the ground, "Calm down Pinkie, we can have the party in a few days' time."

"Huh? Why not now? It would be super-duper fun to have a party now."

A sudden realisation hit me, "Oh, that's right! I've got so caught up with everything happening recently that I never told anyone."

"What's happening?" Twilight asked.

"It's my birthday in about a week. I'll be 21 years old."

The gasp of joy that escaped Pinkie's lips would have been impossible to replicate by anyone else.