“What's wrong, sugarcube?” Applejack asked as she trotted up to her friend sitting alone on the bench. “Tough time gettin' a good night's sleep with those new wings o' yours?”
Twilight sighed into her tea and looked around to make sure nobody else was in earshot. “And here I thought I was doing a pretty good job with the whole cheerful facade thing. No, it's not that. Well, yes, it's that too, actually. I'm used to turning over a lot in my sleep, and now every time I do I pull a feather.
“But it's not mostly that. Mostly. I mean, I know you all say you're all right with this, and, for that matter, I know you all really are all right with this. You've all been really great.”
The earth pony hesitated. “So everypony's been great. Still not quite seein' the problem here.”
“Oh. Sorry. It's just that it's a big change, and everyone's been great about it now, but who really knows what will happen in the long run. I might change in other ways. I still don't look much like the Princesses, after all. Or I might get caught up in other things. Alicorn things. I...” Her voice caught and she seemed to deflate, just a little. “I just really don't want to lose everybody. I spent the last few years having friends for the first time, BBBFFs aside, and the thought of losing that, even years from now...”
Applejack patted her on the shoulder comfortingly, “Now, you know you can get a mite over-frazzled about things now and then.”
“I know. And that worries me sometimes.”
Applejack sighed. “Of course it does.”
Twilight shook her head. “But this is different. This is about, well.” Twilight searched for the right words, but when she opened her mouth it was Derpy Doo's voice they heard. “Muffin?”
After a quick double-take, Twilight smiled up at the wall-eyed pegasus. “No, thank you, Derpy.”
“You looked like you could use one. If not a muffin, maybe you could really use some advice?” Twilight raised an eyebrow at her, and the mailpony suddenly looked downcast, hastily adding, “I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I really didn't. I just came over to offer a muffin. But now I think you could use the advice a little more.”
“I know you weren't trying to eavesdrop, Derpy,” Twilight reassured her, and then gave a sad little laugh. “And if you have advice for someone who woke up this morning in a different body than she had yesterday morning, I definitely won't turn it down.”
“Ok!” Derpy cried happily, before she suddenly flew off at high speed.
Applejack looked at Twilight. Twilight looked at Applejack. “I suppose that made sense to her,” Applejack offered weakly.
“Applejack, “ Twilight asked, more bewildered than annoyed, “How completely random would someone have to be for that to make sense?”
“Hi, everypony!” Pinkie greeted them as she walked up, then stopped in her tracks. “Aw! What's wrong, Twilight?”
Twilight massaged her forehead with one hoof, “You know, I really thought I was doing a better job of hiding this. Do I have a sign on me? Like, a big, flashing sign? Is there something floating over my head?”
“No, silly!” Pinkie replied. “Not today!”
“It's just that we're your friends, Twilight,” Applejack added quickly, before either of them might have to try to figure out what Pinkie meant. “We know ya better'n most.”
“You do look a little down, don't you?” a stallion's voice interrupted.
“Yes!” a now exasperated Twilight said. “Yes, I'm having a little bit of a tough time. Yes, I appreciate a few kind words, and thank you. And, yes, I'd like to know how everypony in town is suddenly aware of it.”
“Derpy told me,” the new voice responded dryly. “I don't know about every... pony else.”
“Oh. Hi, Doctor. I'm sorry, it's just been a little crazy lately. I really do appreciate all of you trying to help.”
“It's OK, Twilight. I remember my first time. Well, not my first time being turned into an alicorn, admittedly. Or 'the first time' either, if you know what I mean. Which you probably don't because here I'm talking a mile a minute, or would that be furlong here? A furlong per fortnight? No, no, I'm talking much faster than that. I mean the first time I went through a change like you. Except for the alicorn part. New face. New hair. Never ginger, sad to say. New kidneys, too. Brand, spanking new kidneys. They're a bit uncomfortable, to be honest, first time using them. And you've got no idea what I'm talking about, do you?”
“Well, of course I... Huh?”
The pony with the odd, spiky hair and the hourglass cutie mark stepped a little closer to her, and became a bit more somber. “What I'm trying to say is, I've gone through a lot of unexpected changes myself over the years. If you'd seen me just a few years ago, you would have never recognize me. I'm not exaggerating in the least. And if you recognized me then, you wouldn't have a few years before that.
“Sometimes my friends had a tough time of it, to be perfectly frank. But they came around. And yours will, too. My friends and I had been through a lot together, after all. Again, just like you and your friends. Well, not exactly like that, but close enough. You've all had trials a lot rougher than a couple new limbs and some feathers. While some people might have a harder time accepting change...”
“Trukk not munky!” shouted Pinkie gleefully. “Ruined... wait for it... FOREVER!” She looked immensely smug for some unfathomable reason.
“Er, yes.” the Doctor continued. “What she said. Maybe what she said. Come to think of it, I don't want to know what she said. As a matter of fact, next time I go through the chameleon arch, I'm leaving half what of she says out of my watch.”
Pinkie looked at him, puzzled. “You know, sometimes what you say just doesn't make any sense at all.”
“Point to you,” he admitted cheerfully. “Back to the subject at hoof. Trust your friends, Miss Sparkle. I trust them, and I'm a wonderful judge of character, if I do say so myself. Not convinced? Like I said, you've all been through a lot together. Sure, they've made mistakes. People make mistakes. 'Mare Do Well,' for instance -- she might have been avoided entirely if everyone was perfect, but then again where's the fun in not leaping from rooftop to rooftop? Or me, for another example. Just yesterday I put too much starch into a collar. Fascinating story, that. But for all their people-y non-perfectness, they've delivered time and again.
“The truth is, Twilight, you can trust your friends and yourself to hold onto what's important, and to keep a level head.
“Twilight!,” Rarity exclaimed frantically as she galloped up, “Your wings! This is the Worst! Thing! Ever!”
“Well, maybe not an entirely level head exactly all the time,” the stallion averred quietly. “I never said all the time.”
“Rarity?” Twilight asked.
“Darling, I woke up this morning in a cold sw... feeling of dread! I just realized that your new wings ruin everything!”
“But...” Twilight started to object, really starting to worry.
“No, everything! The formal outfit for the Grand Galloping Gala! That little black number I made for your astronomy to-do last fall! The velvet ensemble I threw together last month for our trip to Fillydelphia! Everything! They'll never fit right, not now!
“It's. All. Ruineddddddddddddddd!” she wailed.
“How do you even drag out a 'D'?” Pinkie wondered aloud.
Relief flooded Twilight, but she tried not to let all that into her smile. “Rarity, could you possibly...?”
“But of course! You simply must let me begin the alterations immediately!” Rarity galloped off delightedly, her previous despair already forgotten.
“What's her problem?” a concerned, azure pegasus asked from just above them. “Is something wrong?”
“No, it's all right,” Twilight said. “Hi, Dash. Hi, Fluttershy.”
“Hello,” the butter-coloured pegasus replied quietly.
“Twilight was worried everypony was going to hate her now that she has wings!” blurted Pinkie.
“Pinkie! I was not...”
“Aw, Twilight!” Dash laughed “Truth is, I think they make you, oh, about nineteen percent cooler.”
Twilight had to chuckle at that, “Really, Dash? Only nineteen?”
“Don't knock it! Now that you've got your wings, I'm nowhere near as embarrassed to be seen with you!”
Applejack looked sourly up at Rainbow Dash. “You know, off all yer fine qualities, sugarplum, it's yer quiet modesty I admire the most.”
“Yeah, I know, right?” Rainbow Dash agreed.
Twilight laughed and relaxed a little. “Thanks for the advice, Doctor. I really do understand what you're saying. I'm still worried, but not as much now.”
“No charge for the advice,” the Doctor answered. “And it'll take a while for the worry to fade but give it time. Now if you should wake up some morning with, oh, say a celery stalk stuck to you...”
“Or as Transmetal Twilight!” Pinkie interjected.
“... then come see me right away. Derpy will know where I am. And if you'll pardon me, I have a hippogryph to get out of a jam with some bonaccons – without startling the bonaccons in any way, mind you -- and a collar to unstarch before the volcano explodes.” He left quietly for who knows where.
“How do ya feel?” Applejack asked, hopefully.
Twilight stood and stretched all her limbs, unselfconciously. “”Hungry. All right, girls, who's for a muffin?”
Author's Note
This may not fit in with the actual alicornation storyline. I won't know for a while yet.
