The melancholy group walked down the stairs and into the living room. Twilight sat on the couch, still holding the weeping child in her arms.
“Are you hungry?” Twilight asked the girl, when she finally stopped crying. Twilight felt Sunset’s head shake no, “Are you thirsty?” Again the girl shook her head. Twilight sighed and glanced around the room with her friends.
Rarity moved over next to Twilight and opened Sunset’s brown backpack, pulling out the pink book, “Sunset, maybe this will make you feel better?”
Sunset turned to face Rarity, her face lit up when she spotted the particular pink book she had been reading earlier.
Rarity smiled and handed the book to the child’s waiting hands.
Twilight furrowed her brows, now getting a closer look at the book, she realized that it was a chapter book, and not a simple picture book as she had originally thought, “Sunset, you were reading this book?”
Sunset shrunk at Twilight question, quickly closing the book and leaving it to her side.
“I’m not mad at you Sunset,” Twilight reassured her, “I’m just... When did you learn to read?”
Sunset recovered, slowly meeting Twilight’s eyes, “I don’t know, I just remember that I’ve always been reading.”
Twilight blinked at her, not knowing what to make of this new discovery. Curious she picked up the book from the couch, “Let’s see, can you read this line for me?”
Sunset scooted closer to Twilight so that she can see the book, “It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs and bunions, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extraordinary, and by that I mean sensitive and brilliant.” When she finished, Sunset looked up at Twilight, waiting on her approval.
Twilight’s jaw was opened in shock. This is a difficult book to read for seven-year-olds, let alone a six-year-old! I began reading chapter books when I was a little older than her. Twilight shook out of her trace and smiled at Sunset, “Good job Sunset, you read it really well!”
Sunset beamed at the compliment, “Can... can I continue reading it please?”
“Sure sweetie,” Twilight said, handing the book back to her.
Sunset happily took the book and began intensely focused on getting back to the story that she desperately wanted to know the ending of.
Twilight watched Sunset as she flipped through the book. She couldn’t help but smile to herself, remembering when she was a filly and all she wanted to do was to be left along with a good book. The line that she read aloud definitely applied to her. Being in Celestia’s school of gifted unicorns, she had her fair share of intelligent individuals. She could see that even from a young age, Sunset was intelligent. It saddened Twilight a little. If only her parents paid more attention to her, she could have gone far. She would’ve accomplished so much. Instead, her parents chose to neglect and abuse her, leading Sunset to walk a dark path alone.
The rest of the group followed along, smiling at the little bookworm.
Sweetie Belle watched the girl with a smile on her face. She felt really guilt about what happened upstairs. She still didn’t fully understand what happened. Rarity told her that Sunset was abused by her parents when they were going to the mall but... Did something trigger her? That’s what must’ve happened. But... what? Sweetie Belle shuttered, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
Sweetie Belle looked back up at Sunset, who eyes seemed to be growing heavier and heavier by the second. “Uh, Twilight?” Sweetie Belle whispered.
Twilight turned to face Sweetie Belle and followed where the middle schooler was pointing. Twilight sighed a little, taking the book out of Sunset’s hands and laying her down on the couch.
Sunset did not protest, she let Twilight lay her down and she closed her heavy eyes, quickly drifting off to sleep.
Twilight continued looking sadly at Sunset. The episode from earlier and what happened upstairs must’ve exhausted her.
Once Twilight made sure the child was asleep, she turned to the pale middle schooler, “Sweetie Belle... do you know what happened?”
Sweetie Belle winced, not wanting to look at the purple teen, “Well, when you guys left, I asked her if she wanted to color, so we did,” she pointed to the coffee table where the crayons were, “And then we started playing hide and seek,” Sweetie Belle sighed. It was probably not the best idea... “I was counting... and then I started looking for her... and I heard a scream coming from the closet...”
Twilight glanced at her friends, all thinking about the word closet being sprawled out over and over again across the world page. Taking a deep breath, she turned to Sunset, who was still sleeping peacefully.
Sweetie Belle sniffled, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened... If I would’ve known... W-why is she scared of the closet anyway?”
Twilight meet her friends’ gazes once more, not knowing how to answer the middle schooler’s question.
Rarity took a shaky breath and walked over to her sister, “Sweetie Belle,” she began, “Sunset...” she took another shaky breath, “Remember how I told you that Sunset was abused by her parents?”
Sweetie Belle furrowed her brows, “Yeah...”
Rarity took a deep breath, thinking how to tell her younger sister the evil acts of the person Sunset was forced to call father, “Well, we’ve made the assumption that... her father—her father would... h-harm her in the closet...”
Sweetie Belle stared at her older sister for a while, her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, trying to figure out what exactly she was trying to tell her. Her father? What could he possibly... The middle schooler’s eyes widened, tears began brimming her eyes as the realization dawned on her, “You don’t mean...”
Rarity sighed hugging her sister as she softly cried.
Sweetie Belle looked down at her lap, “I’m sorry! If I would’ve known, I wouldn’t have—“
Twilight shook her head, “No, it’s not your fault Sweetie Belle, you didn’t know...”
The whole room went silent after that. Everyone was either looking at the floor or at the sleeping girl. After a couple of minutes, Twilight grabbed the notebook on the side table, flipping to a blank page, she grabbed a pen and jotted some notes down.
“What are you doing Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, carefully trying not to make any loud noises.
Twilight didn’t look up from the notebook, “I’m writing down what’s been happening these past few days. Also, I’m taking note of her uh... symptoms today. Let’s see about 30 minutes ago her temperature was at 45°F. But right before that it was at 50°F—”
“Woah, woah, woah,” Rainbow interrupted, furrowing her brows together, “Her temperature was at 45? That’s like... not normal.”
Twilight shook her head, “My thoughts exactly. I don’t know why she was cold all of a sudden. She was colder than average.”
“And... what does that mean?” Pinkie hesitated.
“I don’t know Pinkie,” Twilight said, running her hand through her hair, “I... I really don’t know what’s going on,” Twilight sighed and put the pen to the paper again, “Rarity, do you have an idea of what her temperature was?”
Rarity bit her lip, trying to recall the moment, “Well, I’m not sure darling. She did feel warmer than a child usually should be.”
Twilight tapped the pen to her chin, “Okay, let’s say she was at higher temperature than normal, and that was...” she mentally calculated in her head, “About two hours ago? Maybe three?” Twilight looked up at both Rarity and Rainbow Dash, “How quickly did the... veins grow?”
Rainbow Dash sighed, “Pretty quickly. And she looked like she was in real pain.” Rainbow shut her eyes, trying to drown out the memory of the child’s screams of agony. I hope I never have to hear those screams again... Rainbow opened her eyes to look at the sleeping child. Somehow, deep in her gut, she knew that she was wrong.
“I’d say about two minutes? Possibly three?” Rarity added.
Twilight wilted at the observation, “Okay,” she jotted it down, “She also had nausea when her temperatures as at 50 and at 45... she said she had a headache when she woke up...”
Rarity put a hand to Twilight’s shoulder when her friend looked down in shame, “Darling, all that matters is that she’s fine now—“
“But she’s not fine!” Twilight cut her off, “She’s not! Look at her! She’s getting worse and I don’t know what it is! I don’t know...”
Twilight was suddenly embraced by Fluttershy. Taking a deep breath, Twilight returned the comforting embrace, “I’m sorry.”
Fluttershy shook her head, “We all want to help her. Remember that we’re all in this together.”
Twilight sighed again before remembering something that she’s been wanting to do, “Can someone pass me the journal? I’ve been meaning to message Princess Celestia about Sunset’s... condition.” I should have messaged her sooner, instead of trying to figure this out on my own.
Pinkie Pie handed the book over to Twilight, who began flipping to the next blank page of the book. Twilight took a deep breath before grabbing a pen and began writing.
Spike,
I need you to send this letter to Princess Celestia. Tell her that it’s urgent. Okay? Don’t read it!
The message sent. A couple of seconds later the book began to glow and a new message appeared.
Alright, I won’t read it. Is everything okay over there? Do you need me to come over?
Twilight sighed, putting two fingers to the bridge of her nose. Though she appreciated her loyal assistant’s concern, it was not the best idea for Spike to come.
No. Everything’s fine. I just need to ask the Princess something. Alright the next page will contain the letter. DON’T READ IT SPIKE!
Dear Princess Celestia...