Wings

by timidfantasist

Rating: everyone
Tags: Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Equestria Girls
Length: 3581

A young scientist named Twilight Sparkle is determined to find out why a girl that looks exactly like her keeps showing up.

Twilight never really thought about her human counterpart when she was in the human world saving the day.
Unfortunately for her, that counterpart is definitely thinking about her. And how to make her stay gone.
(Note: This is my first story in five years and my first-ever MLP one. Comments are all very much appreciated! I know this might not be the most original concept ever, but a cursory search says no one else has done this particular one. Tags added as necessary- it's not totally planned out yet.)
(3/8/16: Tag changed to Equestria Girls from Human and character tag added.)

Published 2015-08-28 20:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-03-19 02:00:44 UTC

Magic

The first time a demon blew up the public school, the local authorities had some questions.

Unfortunately for Twilight Sparkle, she couldn’t answer them, and was rescued by the principal of the school, who insisted the students giving accounts of her growing wings and shooting a beam of light at the demon were mistaken. Oh, the school? Well, you know how students can be, they thought someone spiked the punch at the Fall Formal. Don’t worry, officers, they were looking into it, and Ms. Sparkle here had nothing to do with it. Would you like to call your parents now so they can take you home?

She retreated to her basement room after the second time. Somebody had gotten pictures of the Battle of the Bands (wasn’t that supposed to be a charity event? There had been posters advertising it for weeks prior), and there was a girl identical to her up there singing her heart out, complete with a pair of purple wings. She vaguely remembered seeing the others around town, but she knew perfectly well where she’d been that day. She didn’t even attend Canterlot High, and she certainly didn’t sing.

After the fourth or fifth time some blue-haired boy ran up to her, asking how long she’d be here before seeing her glasses or her bun, or a pink-haired girl who never stopped moving screeched to a halt and caught her eye before quickly moving on, she decided this mystery needed solving. Her room, always more of a laboratory than a bedroom, turned into her workplace.

Something was going on at Canterlot High, and Twilight Sparkle was going to find out what, before that winged girl came back and something else exploded.

“After extensive study of the school, especially the Battle of the Bands, observation lists, checklists for those observations, I have determined…nothing.”

Spike wagged his tail and barked, jumping into her lap as she sank in defeat to the floor. “It just doesn’t make sense, Spike! It almost looks like they’re accessing some sort of rainbow magic power that’s completely untraceable and defies all known laws of physics!” She looked at the wild ‘map’ of ‘clues’ she’d put together and groaned. “All I can see so far is that it’s clearly triggered by music- there are a few newspaper accounts of a high school band that flies up when they play. They’ve even been praised for their ‘special effects’! Why does it only happen to them when they play? Why is it happening to them at all…“ She was cut off by a surprised laugh as Spike licked her cheek, recognizing the signs of overwork in his often-overworked owner. “Thanks, Spike." She scratched his ear, and was rewarded with a tail wag.

After putting Spike down, she picked up a flute case, dusty from disuse. “I wonder…” She hadn’t used the instrument in a long time, but she remembered how to play it well enough. She gave it a quick wipe with a cloth to make sure it was clean, and then put it carefully to her mouth and played a simple piece she remembered from old lessons.

At first nothing happened, and Twilight felt silly for making such an unscientific hypothesis. Of course it wasn’t music- music didn’t trigger magic, that only happened in children’s books. She allowed herself to relax back into the simple pleasure of playing her once-loved flute, closing her eyes and letting her fingers play over the familiar notes as the piece soared into the final part of the song.

As she relaxed, however, she felt an odd tugging at her messy bun, and felt a warm wind blowing around her. It almost felt like she was being supported by the breeze, so she opened her eyes and let out a squeaky off-key note as she realized the breeze really was supporting her. The squeaks continued and the music cut off as she heard her lab coat rip, and felt two new limbs on her back that absolutely could not exist.

As soon as the music stopped, the impossible breeze lowered her to the ground, and she swayed and fell, unable to support her weight. As her eyes closed, she felt Spike licking her cheek, trying to make her get up. The last thing she saw was a huge purple wing, curving up well past her head and impossibly big. She barely had time to realize that was attached to her before she gave into the headache that was rapidly forming, and fell asleep.

Back in Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle was just finishing up a letter to Sunset and her other Canterlot High friends when she felt an insistent pull on her magic. It felt precisely like it would if she had been using her magic for an especially demanding spell. She frowned, but simply shook it off- until it was followed by a pain in her wings and her horn. She turned around to check her wings, and saw her cutie mark glowing.

At a full gallop, Twilight burst out of her castle, running for the Everfree and the Tree of Harmony. Unfortunately, she never made it. A surge of white burst out of her eyes as an unmistakable fright filled her. Her wings suddenly felt as new as the day she’d become an alicorn, and her magic felt like a strange, overwhelming sense of power. She felt like a filly trying to hatch Spike’s dragon egg again.

She saw her friends running toward her, shouting in alarm, as her eyes shut. The last thing she saw was an image of lavender feathers, sprawled out messily over her-arm? No, this wasn’t that world. She was in Equestria, and those were her wings, covering her hoof. Equestria, she told herself firmly as she lost her grip on the world of the waking.

Deep in the Everfree, the six-pointed starburst Twilight had returned to the Tree only a few weeks before split in half with a resounding crack, spilling the white light that powered Magic and Harmony.

Author's Note

This is my very first story since some awful writing in middle school. I apologize for any errors- I don't have an editor, and I'm figuring out my writing style as the story goes along. I really appreciate positive feedback- I'm pretty nervous about submitting this.

Questions

Twilight’s eyes cracked open, and she started to her feet, but her own voice stopped her. Her mouth wasn’t moving; how was she speaking?

“Can you hear me? Twilight!” Twilight jumped, and found herself staring at a small purple pony that bore more than a passing resemblance to…well, to herself. She even had the bright magenta streak in her mane, which parted around a small horn, but otherwise fell the same way Twilight’s own hair did.

“Twilight, listen to me. I need you to find Sunset Shimmer and tell her something’s wrong with the Elements. Can you do that? Tell her the journal’s broken, the mirror’s down, it’s all…” The Twilight-pony cut herself off with obvious difficulty and bowed her head. “Just find her. Please. She’ll help you. Find Sunset Shimmer. I hope they’re all okay…And, Twilight, I’m sorry.” Her image broke apart in a haze of pink sparkles, and a moment later, the world around Twilight dissolved.

Twilight’s eyes opened, and she immediately jumped to her feet. Almost immediately, she felt an extra pair of arms flare up behind her, heard a shh-shh noise on the floor as she rose, and brought the extra ‘arm’ forward to curve around her left shoulder, where she could get a good look at it.

It was a huge, magnificent, perfect wing. Twilight closed her eyes, rubbed them, and reopened them…no luck, still there. Detaching herself from the multitude of emotions that were running through her, she allowed herself to examine the wings. Primaries, secondaries, tertials, even an alula. No tail; I wonder if these actually work. How would I steer? The tops of the wings appeared to be outfitted with some sort of metal—Twilight hadn’t noticed it was there, it was incredibly light, though it did restrain the wing’s range of motion a tad when she flexed it. Looking down, she realized the rest of her was fitted with a light set of armor as well; it was a silver color, and she could see a warm pink tint to it. A slim sword hung by her side, complete with a lavender sheath that twisted like the Twilight-pony’s horn had. The hilt, when she drew it, had an etched starburst in it.

Find Sunset Shimmer. Twilight frowned, remembering her dream. Had that been her? She had been a firm believer in alternate realities since childhood, even after outgrowing her brief obsession with the idea of magic, but the idea that a world with her as a tiny, purple pony existed seemed completely ridiculous.

…Then again, so did this entire situation. Twilight brushed a hand over the longest primary feather on her left wing, just to reassure herself that they were really still there. It felt soft, like a bird’s feather, just much bigger. Was this really her answer? Was there another version of her who had gotten into this world somehow? She remembered the little Twilight-pony mentioning a mirror—perhaps there was some way of crossing between worlds after all, some trick that the other world had mastered before this one.

Now, though, something had gone wrong. The Twilight-pony had seemed desperately upset, especially over the broken mirror she’d mentioned. Twilight had no idea how to even begin hiding the huge wings she’d sprouted—not even her school backpack would hide them, the outer primaries went down to below her knees. She could at least fix the armor, but once she got it off, she would either have to cut up one of her blouses or rig up a toga. Thankfully tomorrow was at least a weekend—not tomorrow, it’s early in the morning, she thought, looking at her clock. The sun will be up soon.

Twilight sighed. Magic, alternate universes, and possibly, tiny-pony-me. That’s…a lot to take in for one day…She gave up trying to make sense of the situation, and contented herself with flopping stomach down on her bed (the wings got in the way if she tried flopping on her back). The armor was a bit pokey, but Twilight didn’t care. She focused on taking deep breaths and letting herself process all of this information. Once she had it all catalogued, she could figure out what to do.

Besides ignore that voice in her head that was insisting she was the Princess of Friendship. Because normal, sane people, even ones with wings, did not hear voices about friendship being magic. That would be ridiculous.
~Equestria~

Princess Twilight Sparkle’s eyes opened, and she sighed, looking down at Sunset’s journal. Luna’s dream communication seemed to be the only way to talk to her other self, and she couldn’t connect with anyone else, muttering something about conscious links across universes. Even connecting Twilight to her alternate self had nearly drained her; she was fast asleep across the room, her flanks gently heaving up and down.

More than anything else, Princess Twilight hoped that her human self’s surge of magic was temporary, or at least not overly inconveniencing her. She’d never thought about even having an alternate self; saving the world tended to drive the natural questions out of one’s head. Now that she thought back, she hadn’t even really questioned why the Elements of Harmony-plus-Sunset could now use magic and ‘pony up’. If she’d just stopped to think, she would have realized that obviously there was another Twilight Sparkle, and obviously she would have been affected by the same magic as the others. And now, because she’d been reckless—well, okay, mostly Sunset had been reckless in introducing magic to the world in the first place, but Twilight should have realized that a shift that fundamental had far-reaching effects. She was just lucky the human version of her had sprouted wings and not a horn.

Twilight managed to stop herself pacing and worrying before she wore a trench through her castle's floor, and a pang of homesickness for the worn floor of Golden Oaks went through her. She'd done all she could; it was up to her counterpart to find Sunset and save their two worlds, now.

Author's Note

~~What do you mean I'm six months late~~
No, seriously, apparently all the motivation I need to write is having something really important due for a grade. I wrote this in two days flat, and I know it's really short, and I'm sorry! It turns out a full course load is REALLY HARD to keep up with D:
That said, I can't believe people have been watching me!! If I missed saying thank you to you, THANK YOU SO MUCH and I hope you like this chapter! I have So Many Plans for this fic, and I don't intend to take another six months to write Chapter 3!

Dawn

Hours later, the first peek of sunlight came through Twilight’s one little basement window.

Twilight herself was curled up on her bed. Her wings were wrapped around her; it turned out that they made a cozy warm blanket, and they were so huge that there was room for her and Spike, who had barely left her side all night. He was snuggled in a little cave she’d made by curving her left wing outward slightly, just enough for a little dog to lie down in.

She’d drifted off a few times, always catching herself and shaking back awake. The scientist in her simply refused to let go of this strange new world she’d discovered, even as the rational part of her argued that she would get much better observations after a good night’s sleep. The scientist part won, as always, and despite Twilight’s eyes feeling like sand, she’d stayed up all night. Now the clouds were turning a delicate pink, and Twilight smiled at her accomplishment. She took Spike in her arms, her smile widening as he whined in his sleep and snuggled up to her chest, and uncurled her wings, wincing and making a mental note to add “wings can fall asleep” to her list of notes. Originating in magic or not, they’re clearly as mortal and physical as any other part of me once manifested.

The sun was nearly clear of the horizon now, and Twilight’s wings were glowing. The brushed-silver tips of the feathers brightened until they were shining white, and then simply began to dissolve away. The process was painless, but it was unsettling all the same to see them just coming apart into floating specks of sparkling light that flew out the window as they separated from her rapidly shrinking wings. As Twilight watched, her wings simply faded away, as did her armor and her sword, leaving her in her normal turtleneck shirt and lab coat. Her sword changed to her recorder, still tucked into her belt, and as her helmet faded, her hair fell down and then arranged itself into her usual messy bun. Her glasses shimmered back onto her face (Twilight hadn’t even noticed their absence).

Two minutes after sunrise, the only indication that anything unusual had occurred in the bedroom of the scientific prodigy Twilight Sparkle was the stunned look on her face and the scribbled pad of notes on her bed. She reached back and tentatively touched her back, running her hand over her shoulder blades to check that the wings were definitely gone (her analytical half noted distantly that she’d been attaching to the wings despite trying to treat them as a separate entity), but only encountered the fabric of her lab coat.

A burning sense of loss hit her, and she gasped and staggered sideways. It felt like she’d always had those wings, like something precious had been taken from her. She felt too heavy, earthbound again, and without the weight of the armor, simultaneously too light and unprotected.. More than anything in the world at that moment, she wanted those wings back.

She fell onto her bed, not even bothering with pajamas. The strange alertness that had sustained her through the night had abandoned her, and she barely stayed awake long enough to close her notebook and take off her glasses. Thank goodness that it’s a weekend…

Sunset Shimmer sighed as the sun came up, glaring at her smashed alarm clock. Better get outside...

She barely had time to pull shoes on and dash outside before her back sprouted twin plumes of flame, and her pajamas changed into a set of armor complete with a beautifully carved bow slung over her back. Sunset took a deep breath and waited—the fire didn’t hurt, but that didn’t mean she exactly enjoyed being exposed in the open with ten-foot flaming wings sprouting behind her. As her armor finished forming, the fire coalesced into a huge pair of wings, the same color as Sunset herself, fading into the bright red of her mane at the feather-tips.

As the Bearer of Friendship fades, the Bearer of Magic takes up the mantle. Sunset stopped abruptly at that—she always heard that voice, and was currently trying to decide if it was some sort of harmonic force or an agent of Chaos attempting to trick her, but it had never mentioned a Bearer of Friendship before. Twilight?

Without so much as taking the time to stretch out her wings, Sunset raced inside for her journal and flipped it open, scanning for any communication from Princess Twilight. Seeing nothing, she grabbed a pen off her desk and clicked it open.

Dear Princess Twilight,
I hope things in Equestria are better than here, and that you are seeing my letters to you. Something is wrong with the magic in this world. Rarity, Dash, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy have not been able to Pony Up in days, and I seem to have lost control over it as well. Every time the sun rises, I transform, but not into the Pony form we are familiar with. You see, as the sun rises, I grow a set of wings, and my clothing changes to armor. I cannot control this, and I’ve barely seen the girls in the last week. Of course they’re doing their best to come visit me, but I have found myself completely unable to attend school, and time away from it is highly limited. I have theorized that someone else is transforming at nighttime, as I always turn back to my ‘usual’ human form as the sun goes down, but oddly enough, they don’t seem eager to do an interview with CNN, whoever they may be, and I have no leads. Dash tells me no one else has been absent as much as me in the last week. I am afraid I need your advice desperately, Princess; I am out of places to turn.
Your Friend
Sunset Shimmer

Sunset closed the journal to send the letter and sighed, looking back at her newly grown wings. Why wings? I was never a pegasus, even as Celestia’s student, and certainly never an alicorn. She shook them gently, and they responded, rustling as they moved. She searched for her magic and found it, concentrating on her pen. Move, come on…But, born and trained a unicorn, she found herself once more trying to channel her magic through an outlet that no longer existed, and the spell fizzled again. She scowled and collected herself, determined to try until it worked.

Two hours later, as Sunset’s telekinesis spell fizzled yet again, there was a knock at her apartment door, and she froze, watching a note slide under and cautiously picking it up.

She unfolded it carefully. It looked like it had been written in a hurry, and simply read ‘CAN I TALK WITH YOU’.

Another note rustled its way under the door. The thought of calling the police did cross Sunset’s mind, but she unfolded it anyway, and nearly gasped out loud.

The note read ‘MY NAME IS TWILIGHT SPARKLE’ with an arrow indicating that she should flip over the little scrap of Post-It Note. Turning it over, Sunset saw that the writer had added ‘I WAS TOLD TO TELL YOu’ before running out of space, and she crouched down, waiting for the next note.

She wasn’t kept waiting long; the next note was poked through after a lot of furious scribbling sounds on the other side of the door. Half-smiling, Sunset picked it up and unfolded it—and then dropped it.

The note read ‘SOMETHING WRONG W/THE ELEMENTS’.

Sunset stood abruptly and yanked her door open, revealing a lavender-skinned girl with her hair up in a mess of a bun. She had huge bags under her eyes, like she hadn’t slept, and huge glasses perched on her nose, but otherwise was identical to Princess Twilight.

The girl looked up and murmured “She promised you’d help…” before attempting to stand up and falling over at Sunset Shimmer’s feet.

Author's Note

Me: I'm going to bed early!
Also me: Suddenly got bitten by writing bug, stayed up until midnight o'clock to write a new chapter.
So, uh, yeah, here's Ch3! School is still nuts and I'm supposed to be reading Crime and Punishment (Save me)...this happened instead of Crime and Punishment. Happy Friday!!
~~also I thrive on comments so if you liked it you should tell me~~