Chapter 3: Freak Out Time

As Sweetie Belle dusted off the last desk she heard somepony slowly opening the door, poking her head in just as slowly. Passing it off as a stray animal trying to find some food in the schoolhouse after the sun went down. When the "animal" crept up behind her Sweetie froze up completely, becoming as still as a statue, until she heard a familiar voice.

"Sweetie?" Rarity asked, allowing Sweetie to let out a sigh of relief. She turned around slowly and gave her sister a hug, not wanting to verbally acknowledge the fact that she thought she was about to die. Rarity seemed to be taken aback by the sudden hug, but she pushed it aside as she remembered why she was there.

"What are you still doing here, it's already past sundown" Rarity asked, making Sweetie look outside the window to see Luna's full moon already fairly high in the sky. Sweetie looked around for the clock, now seeing that it was quarter past eight, meaning she was supposed to be in bed within fifteen minutes, or else. In all honesty she didn't know what the "or else" entailed, but Sweetie didn't want to ever find out. From what she remembered about the punishments that Rarity would get whenever she would stay out late to work on her dresses and designs, Sweetie really didn't want to find out what would happen to her.

"Sweetie?" Rarity asked as she pushed her face right into Sweetie's line of sight, startling her.

"Oh, uh, I had to stay and clean the classroom" Sweetie said, blushing slightly but it wasn't visible in the dim moonlight, "It was the job I got from Cheerilee's duty list" Rarity seemed to accept that reasoning, so she shrugged and levitated the duster out of Sweetie's hoof, putting it down on the shelf that ran along the back wall.

"Well, you're done for now, you have to come with me to the library now" Rarity said as she turned around to lead Sweetie out of the room. Without objecting to it Sweetie followed, being sure that the door to the schoolhouse was secure before she went with Rarity. As they trotted into town Sweetie noticed a strange absence of anypony running around in a rush to get home before it became pitch black. Over the horizon there was a bright tower of light, which Sweetie knew was Twilight's library, since it was usually the only building that had every light on after eight in the evening.

"Why are we going to the library?" Sweetie asked as she saw Rarity start to turn towards it, making her turn around to reply.

"We're going to get those figured out" Rarity said, pointing at Sweetie's wings to get the point across. Sweetie looked back at them before dropping her head down, feeling as if she was somehow a worse pony because of them. She knew they made her stand out like a sore horn, but were they really bad enough that Rarity had to speak about them the way she did? It was as if she hated the wings, like they were doing something horrible to her every time she looked at them. In an attempt to cheer herself up Sweetie began to hum, and over time it grew into a little song.

"Growing wings in a day~" Sweetie sang as they came right up the front of the library. Her singing seemed to have calmed Rarity down, so when she knocked on the door she was calm and collected, instead of her original plan which was to freak out and beg Twilight to fix her precious little sister. When Twilight came to the door Rarity coughed, as if she was preparing to do a speech.

"Twilight, I have a bit of a problem" Rarity said calmly, with a sincere smile on her face.

"What going on Rarity?" Twilight asked innocently, somehow still oblivious to Sweetie Belle's presence.

"Well, you see..." Rarity trailed off as she looked over to Sweetie, who was humming again with a happy smile on her face. Twilight didn't see anything wrong with her at first, but her eyes soon settled on the two white wings protruding from Sweetie's back. Her jaw hung open as she continued to stare at Sweetie, her brain trying to remember how to ask what in Celestia's good name was going on.

"How... What... Why?!" Twilight finally shouted as her brain finally got back up to speed. Her eyes started to dilate when Sweetie looked at her, one of the wings twitching ever so slightly, meaning that they were definitely real, and it didn't make any sense. How did Sweetie Belle of all ponies get wings? Why did she get wings? How is she able to control them so easily? Why does she seem so happy about it? Where does it say a Unicorn can grow wings? Is it even plausible? How would Celestia re-

"Aha!" Twilight said happily as she realized what she needed to do, just before she disappeared into the library, the sound of somepony rummaging through stacks of papers to try and find something coming out a second later after some quick shouts at Spike to send the letter that was sitting on the desk. Rarity and Sweetie were still standing outside when Twilight came running back, her magic quickly covering them as she yanked them inside, eager to find out everything she could about Sweetie's wings before Celestia showed up and got rid of them.

"So, when did you find that you had wings?" Twilight asked quickly, confusion both Sweetie and Rarity.

"Twilight, I thought you would know how to fix this" Rarity said as she gave Twilight a curious look.

"I don't. Sent a letter to Celestia. She'll fix it. Now..." Twilight slowed down for a second, "Answer the question" Sweetie and Rarity exchanged nervous looks before Twilight snapped both of their heads forwards so they'd look at her, a crazed look in her eyes.

"Uh..." Sweetie said nervously as she tried to remember, her mind in shambles right now because of how scary Twilight was being.

"That's not a good answer!" Twilight shouted, making both of them jump.

"I woke up with them in the morning!" Sweetie Belle cried in fear as Twilight stared her down, her eyes looking deep into Sweetie's very being.

"Did you also wake up with your cutie mark?" Twilight asked as she started to poke Sweetie's flank, pointing out the pink bell with a purple musical note beside it that was not resting on Sweetie's flank. Rarity looked down at it for a moment before looking up at Sweetie's scared expression, not only because she had earned her cutie mark without her friends, but also because Twilight was trying to peel it off, as though it was some sort of temporary tattoo. Just before Twilight began stabbing it the door to the library opened, revealing Celestia to be standing in the doorway.

"Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia said out of surprise, her voice snapping Twilight back to reality and making her jump far away from Sweetie Belle and Rarity. Twilight tried to come up with some sort of excuse as to why she was in such a weird place when Celestia came in, but nothing she could think of was going to get her out of this awkward situation. Celestia seemed to ignore it and picked up Twilight's note pad, reading the one thing she managed to scribble down.

"So you woke up with those this morning?" Celestia asked inquisitively. It was almost like a good cop bad cop routine, but with the bad cop being completely insane.

"Yes ma'am" Sweetie answered humbly, not wanting to upset Celestia for any reason, somewhat afraid that she might do exactly what Twilight did. Celestia slowly trotted in a circle around Sweetie, looking over every inch of the wings before looking back at Sweetie, even going so far as to sit down across from her.

"Did you notice anything strange happening around the last few days?" Celestia asked, her eyes narrowing so she could examine every detail about Sweetie's face.

"Well, I saw a feather that I found at the royal wedding start to shake every now and then, but that's it" Sweetie answere honestly, which changed Celestia's expression to one of surprise.

"What do you mean you found a feather at the wedding?" Celestia asked, an idea starting to form in her head as to what happened.

"Well, I found a beautiful white feather on the ground, so I decided to keep it for fun" Sweetie answered honestly. Celestia seemed to have an idea what was going on, but she didn't say anything until she had thought about it for five more minutes.

"Sweetie, the feather you grabbed, was mine" Celestia said sternly, "It's magic reacted to your own and caused this to happen. Or at least, that's what I think happened, based on the evidence you've given me so far" Rarity and Sweetie Belle exchanged nervous looks before turning back to the princess. Not even she really knew what was going on, she only had a vague idea, and a flimsy one at that. With no pony having much of anything else to say Celestia left, giving Twilight a look before she shut the door.

"Now what?" Sweetie asked, giving Rarity a worried look.

"I'm not sure..." Rarity said slowly as she stared at the ground, "I guess we try to make you seem like nothings changed, but if that fails..." The two sisters didn't say anything else as they got up and left, leaving Twilight to roll around in the fetal position on the floor while muttering something about "The wings!" and "Dream" Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Keep It Under Wraps Estimated time remaining: 6 Minutes