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// Chapter 11: Escalation 
// Story: Aunt Millie 
// by Fluttercheer 
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Chapter 11: Escalation


As Sparkler returned home this evening, she found the house quiet. The only sounds she could hear on the way to her room were the creaking stairs under her hooves. Millie wasn't to be seen anywhere, the kitchen dark, and Sparkler was glad for it. Even though assisting Rarity hadn't been as exhaustive as on the day before, there were definitely better things for her to do than putting up with the obnoxious, unwanted mare that brought nothing but trouble into their lives. And, like on cue, she could suddenly hear Millie. Behind the door of the guest room, Millie's hoofsteps indicated that she was hectically trotting around in the room, from one side to another, always back and forth. Clearly, there was something the mare was stressed out by.
Gleefully, Sparkler snickered. “What got you into a tizzy this time, silly old cow?” she thought to herself. “Did Dinky refuse to eat your extra healthy salad?” She was going to find out eventually, once Dinky joined her for some real dinner in her room, so Sparkler did not follow the thought further.
Passing by the door of Dinky's bedroom, her ears perked up, as she heard another, unexpected sound entering them. She thought of her mind playing tricks on her at first, but stopped in her tracks nonetheless. As a few seconds had passed and the sounds still didn't stop, there was no doubt anymore:

Behind Dinky's door, crying and whimpering could be heard.

A sense of foreboding coming over her, Sparkler pressed her ear against the door. Now she could hear the cries and whimpers better and louder. They sounded desperate in a way that Sparkler could practically listen to her heart breaking. She removed her ear from the door and turned around to face it completely, then lifted a hoof and gently knocked.
“Dinks? Are you alright in there?”
A sobby gasp came as answer, then a sniff. “Sparks?” The weepy voice of her little sister rang into her ears.
It made Sparkler's heart beat a little faster. She moved her hoof to the handle and pulled it down, with no result. “Why did you lock the door, sis?” she asked, concerned.
Another sniff. “I-It's not locked.”
“It is, Dinks. Can you open the door, please?”
The answer confused Dinky. She was beside herself and exhausted as she had entered her room hours earlier, that's as much as she could remember. She even cried herself to sleep and it were only minutes ago that she woke up again. But she knew she didn't lock the door. In her distraught condition, it was the last thing she would have thought about. Unable to spot the key in the lock because of her hazy, tear-filled vision, Dinky climbed out of her bed clumsily, then approached the door.
As Sparkler could hear the hoofsteps of her little sister coming to the door, she did a step back. Another sob came from Dinky, then the handle got moved down. But once again, there was no result, and the door stayed closed.
Behind the door, Dinky's sobs intensified. “Sparks? I-I can't o-open it..... T-There is no k-key.....”
Sparkler was about to express her own confusion over this, but before she could open her mouth, the realization dawned on her and she knew exactly where the key was and why the door was locked. Utter disbelief in her face and feeling anger rising in her, she turned around at the spot and did a step into the direction of the guest room, but then stopped in her tracks, as Dinky's voice sounded into her ears again.
“Sparks! P-Please open the door, I want to get out!” There was very clearly panic in Dinky's voice now. The loud banging against the door just a moment later emphasized this panic.
Sparkler turned around and faced the door again. She looked over her shoulder to the guest room, then back at Dinky's door, her face hinting at an inner conflict.
“Screw it!” she said then, the concern for her little sister overwhelming her rational mind. She turned around and cowered down in front of the door. “Get out of the way, Dinks, I open the door now!” The banging stopped and a few clopping sounds indicated that Dinky did what she had told her.
With all her strength, Sparkler began to buck the door, creating a loud echo throughout the whole house. She let her hooves come down on the door in a barrage, but, even though the wood creaked, it did not budge. The doors in their house were made of strong oak wood, thick and robust, and soon, Sparkler realized her hooves weren't strong enough to buck in the door.
She turned around again. Thinking what to do for a moment, still motivated by her sister's crying, she then decided to go for the lock itself. Bending down, she inserted the tip of her horn into the keyhole, then ignited her horn. Her magic was building up and about a minute later, a blast left her horn, resulting in loud sizzling from inside the keyhole. Then the smell of hot metal filled the air.
Sparkler lifted her head again, a smile on her lips. The lock was destroyed. Not wasting time, she put her hoof on the handle again and pulled it down. The handle felt limp now, making it easier than usual to pull it down, and once she had, the door finally opened. Sparkler stepped in, then looked right into the face of her younger sister.
Dinky's appearance was both heartbreaking and horrible. Her mane was frazzled, strains of hair sticking away from her head in all angles and directions. Her legs wobbled, making Sparkler afraid she would topple to the floor soon. Dinky was biting her lips and, worst of all, her eyes looked like somepony has rubbed them out with onions. They were red and swollen, almost like they were infected, and a stream of neverending tears was trickling out of them. Her nose wasn't in a much better condition, it was leaking and the tip of it was red, the same kind of red her cheeks were glowing with. The short hair in Dinky's face was completely messed up by dried tears and snot, nothing of its former beauty noticeable anymore.
Sparkler gasped and held a hoof at her mouth, shocked over this unfamiliar sight of her little sister. “Dinks..... What happened?” she breathed.
Dinky did not answer. Instead, she sniffed again, only interrupting her sobs for a short moment, while not retracting her eyes from her big sister. Then she did a few, wobbly steps into her direction. But before she could reach her, her legs gave in and she began to collapse to the floor.
Hastily, Sparkler darted forward and caught her before she hit the floor, then pulled her close to her. Head resting on her big sister's shoulder now, Dinky erupted into another fit of sobs and cries all of a sudden. She tried to lift her hooves and to wrap them around her sister, but it was to no avail. Lacking the strength, they just dangled down in front of her, feeling like jelly to the young unicorn.
Wrapping her own hooves around Dinky, Sparkler pulled her closer into a comforting embrace, then buried her face into Dinky's mane. “What happened, sis?” she asked again, her voice ripe with fear now. “Did Millie do this again?”
At her neck, she could feel a very weak nod. Then she could hear her little sister trying to form words. “Sparks..... M-Millie..... Lily, s-she.....” The words were barely recognizeable as such and Sparkler had a hard time identifying them, before they stopped abruptly and Dinky just continued sobbing, drenching her sister's coat more and more with tears.
There was no success to be had here right now, Sparkler realized, and so, she just let Dinky cry at her shoulder, petting over her mane and giving her the best comfort a big sister could.
They remained like this for about ten minutes, before Dinky's sobs became slowly quieter. A few more minutes, then they were gone and got replaced by very heavy breaths emerging from Dinky's throat. Only the tears continued to flow freely.
“Sparks,” Dinky finally spoke then. There was a sudden, cold clarity in her voice, although it still sounded slightly sobby.
“I'm here, sis,” Sparkler replied softly. “Tell me what happened.”
“This time she really ruined everything, Sparks.....” Dinky continued. In slow and relatively calm words, she recounted the events from the afternoon, occasionally interrupted by sobs. She told her big sister everything; how she had left the house with Millie and arrived at the playground, about meeting Lily and Noi, how Millie had freaked out about her sitting in the sand, the conversation she had with Lily and Noi right afterwards and, finally, how Millie reacted hysterical over Lily lifting her into the air and showcasing her super strength. Her voice trembling, she explained in detail how Millie had ripped her away from Lily, how the cruel aunt had hurt her friend and what she had called Millie in all her anger and frustration, followed by how she was galloping home afterwards. Dinky let out an exhausted sigh as she was finished, squeezing her big sister tighter.
With every detail Dinky described, Sparkler felt a fire blazing up inside of her more and more. Now, her face was distorted in anger and hatred. She gave her younger sibling a last squeeze, then slowly pulled away from her and looked into her face. “Do you feel better now?” she asked.
“A little,” Dinky said in a weak voice. “But, Sparks, I–”
“Don't worry,” Sparkler interrupted her, gently moving a hoof over her cheek. “I will take care of this, once and for all. It's time to have a talk.” Her voice was a mixture of warm love and cold sobriety.
Not awaiting another answer by Dinky, Sparkler raised to full height again and, using her magic, put Dinky on her back, while simultaneously turning around. With quick steps, she left Dinky's room and motioned through the corridor, eyes fixated on her destination. She did not waste any time with knocking, as she usually would, and instead, simply barged into the guest room, startling Milly.
A surprised gasp leaving her throat, Millie's head shot around and to the door. “Sparkler, it's good you are here! There's something we need to talk about and this time even you can't–” As Millie spotted Dinky on Sparkler's back, who now gave her aunt a defiant glare from her still tear-filled eyes, she interrupted herself, a frosty expression appearing in her face now.
“Sparkler, no, I don't want that you carry her inside here! This brat is not welcome here until she has done some serious thinking. If only you would know what she called me today, in front of other ponies nonetheless!”
“I know,” Sparkler replied coldly, otherwise ignoring her complaint. Her horn glowed, then the door fell shut behind her, with a sound like roaring thunder coming from it, letting Millie twitch.
Swiftly, Sparkler approached Millie, then grabbed the other mare at the shoulders, ignoring more complaints by her. She pressed her down on the bed at the back of the small room, forcing her to sit. “We are going to have a talk now,” she said, commanding.
Sparkler looked straight into Millie's face, her eyes burning. “What happened on the playground?” she asked her with a cold voice.
Millie's face became angry, too, now. “Oh, Sparkler, don't try to tell me this little brat hasn't told you her version of the events yet. Your sister–”
“Don't call her a brat.” Sparkler moved her head forward, almost touching Millie's nose. “I know exactly what happened and I know that all of it is your fault.”
Millie huffed, her eyes becoming narrowed. “I see. I see how it is, Sparkler.” She pointed at Dinky behind Sparkler's head. “Your sister has a very innocent face, but behind it, her mind is miserable and rotten.”
Dinky's eyes broke at this statement and she looked away from her aunt, burying her head into Sparkler's coat, where she started weeping again.
“You take this back.” Sparkler snarled at the older mare now, her pupils small.
“I won't,” Millie replied with an expression of confidence that bordered on zeal. “She gives you a sad face and cries and you believe every word she says, no matter if it's true. But in reality, she only tries to get pity when she behaved badly.” Millie paused and sighed. “And it is not even her fault..... It's all just because of the environment she grows up in. She acts like this because you are irresponsible and a horrible role model, Sparkler, and because Derpy is a bad mother and incompetent to raise a foal.”
“What?” Sparkler hissed. In her head, she felt something ripping now. In a menacing gesture, she lifted her forelegs and placed them left and right of Millie on the bed, breath going strong. Her nose touched Millie's now, wrinkling the latter.
“Sparks,” it came from her back, but Sparkler barely heard it.
“You are the last one who can afford making such a claim,” Sparkler said slowly, her voice like the one of a snake. “I don't care that Dinky said this to you. You came into our life, into her life, you mess with her, you turn everything around she knows, insult and hurt her friends and call her a bad filly every time she does something that goes against your dull lifestyle.” Sparkler narrowed her eyes more and moved her hooves closer to Millie, locking her tight in this position.
“You insulted and hurt her friends, embarrassed her in front of them and then you blamed her for losing her nerves and calling you names because of that. You don't see anything, you don't see how much you hurt my sister and how you ruin her life, all because of your paranoia and your insanity. And you dare to call our mom 'bad'?”
She moved her right hoof up and stabbed it at Millie's chest, causing her aunt to whimper in slight pain. There was a tug at Sparkler's mane now, but she did not feel it.
“You are going to take everything you said back. And you will apologize to my sister for the heartache you gave her.” She gave Millie's chest another stab, almost knocking the air out of her lungs. “Or else I will make you do it.”
Another tug at Sparkler's mane, stronger this time. “Sparks..... Don't. Let's go.” Dinky's voice whimpered stronger, fear clearly audible in it.
Millie gulped, her face showing horror now. “I-I don't care. P-Punch me if you want, Sparkler, but you can't stop me from telling the truth. Derpy is giving Dinky too much freedom and this harms her, she can't grow up properly that way. I-I should take care of her, Dinky should live with me. And I will do everything to make this possible.”
Cold fear grabbed Dinky's heart now. “NO!” she yelled at Millie. “You can't do this, I'm not going with you!” Fresh tears left her eyes
Finally, Sparkler noticed her little sister again, her anger slightly subsiding. Although, she put more pressure on Millie's chest instinctively now.
“Oh, I can,” Millie answered, unimpressed. “So the princesses will, I can. What happened on the playground is enough for me to prove how bad the influence of your mother and your big sister is on you and to get you taken away from them and brought into my care.”
“NO!” Dinky yelled again. Completely controlled by her deepest fear now, her voice had become the epitome of desperation. “You won't take me away from them, I'm not going with you, you can't, you can't!”
Sparkler felt her neck getting wet once more as her little sister buried her face into it, having another nervous breakdown. “You can't, you can't.....” she whimpered muffled.
Sparkler looked on her back, teeth bared. Reluctantly, she removed her hoof from Millie's chest. Then she looked at the unbearable mare again.
“Because of you, Dinky isn't feeling well again and I need to take care of her. So I'm letting you off the hook for now, Millie. But this isn't over.” The threat in her voice was audible.
Millie just huffed as Sparkler was motioning backwards. As she felt the door at her flank, she turned around rapidly, opened it and slipped through it, then smashed it shut behind her.
Out of Millie's room now, Sparkler shuddered herself. She did not feel fear like her younger sister did, but the cold sincerity Millie had shown in there made her feel uneasy nonetheless. She turned around at Dinky and gently touched one of her hooves. “Let's go and fix you up, sis,” she said, as calm as she could.
She trotted the few steps to the bathroom door and went inside with her sister. Sparkler sat her on a small stool, then took a towel and made it wet. While Dinky was constantly shaken by her crying fit, Sparkler carefully cleaned her face from the tears and the snot, then flung the stained towel into the laundry hamper as she was finished. She used her magic again and lifted her sister on her back, then left the bathroom and approached her own room. Having pulled the key out of her saddlebags, only noticing now that they had been hanging over her back the whole time, she unlocked the door, then locked it again once they were inside.
It had been a hard day for her sister, so Sparkler didn't waste any time and let Dinky down into her bed, then spread the blanket over her. New tears had replaced the old ones by now and Dinky looked at her older sister with the deepest frown Sparkler had ever seen on her face.
“Sparks? I can stay here, right? She can't do this, right?” Dinky whimpered, then sniffed.
Sparkler moved a hoof over her mane. “Don't worry, sis. Millie is just blowing things out of proportion, as always. Everypony in town knows how well mom takes care of you. And you saw what she did on the playground and a lot of other ponies saw it too. If that old hag should try anything, we have something on her. There will be much more things that speak for us than for her, then.”
“A-Are you sure, Sparks? What if she–“
Sparkler booped her. “I am, sis. Don't think about this now and leave it up to me and mom, if anything should happen. You better eat something now, you need it.” She ignited her horn and let a muffin float out of the box on the table that stood there since the evening on the day before. It got carried across the room, then landed directly in Dinky's shaking hooves.
Sparkler stroke over her mane. “I'll be here in a moment, sis. I just need to take care of a few things.”
While hesitatingly eating away on the muffin her big sister gave her, Dinky heard Sparkler taking something out of her saddlebags, then tampering with it. As she had just finished the muffin, Sparkler returned.
She removed the blanket from her, then slipped under it and nestled against her little sister, which got reciprocated by Dinky with an instant embrace. Sparkler could feel that her body was still shivering.
“Everything's going to be fine, sis,” Sparkler said, embracing Dinky as well. “Just let me take care of a few things tomorrow.”
Groaning in the comfort from her big sister, Dinky snuggled closer, clinging tightly against the older unicorn's body. Sparkler was holding her, occasionally rubbing her back. As Dinky had closed her eyes and calm breaths showed Sparkler she had fallen asleep, she ignited her horn again and switched off the light.
Leaning forward, she gave her sister a tender kiss on the forehead. “Sleep tight, sis,” she whispered, then closed her eyes as well.