//------------------------------// // CH 1: Welcome to Ponyville! // Story: Twinkle Star // by NocturneD85 //------------------------------// By NocturneD "Just put that over there!" "What about this big box ma'am?" "Oh that has to be the priceless artifacts from Saddle Arabia!" "Careful with that!" "Sorry sir..." A little filly, about eight years old stood at the top of the stairs. With luscious light fur, perfect straight dark blue combed mane tied into a rather sloppy pony tail and small ice blue eyes she watched as her mother and father instructed their bulky mover employees to move certain crates to different parts of their house. Their huge house, to be exact. They lived in a museum in the northern side of Canterlot called the; "Museum of Equestrian History" and its been ran by the Sparkle family ever since it first opened one hundred or more years ago. Possessing various forms of art and artifacts from all over Equestria. Oh I'm sorry... I forgot to tell you her name. This little one goes by the name; Twinkle Star. She is the youngest sibling of the Sparkle family. You could say, she is a curious child but none the less, a bit of an unfocused one as well. You see, young Twinkle Star gets distracted very easily making it tough for her school work. Her parents try their best to help her but their jobs as curators of the family museum often get in the way. Even if the museum closed, Twinkle's parents would often find something a miss that needed attention on fixing, polishing, moved. Could say, Twinkle really does not connect well with her parents. She would go to school everyday and try her best, the school would sometimes call her home to report on her behavior and grades. That would sometimes lead trips to the family doctor or even a psychiatrist. She would be later diagnosed with A.D.D. which often her parents debated even among themselves. The school even recommended to transfer her to some classes that were let's say, remedial. Her parents could not understand it they raised successful and genius children before her but yet, she was the one that stuck out because of this disorder having to take pills to focus or sometimes trying other alternatives. At her age, her older sister was performing spells at an eighth grade level. Often Twinkle would always hear how great her older siblings were from her parents and relatives, even friends of the family that come to visit. Only that kept her happy were playing video games, drawing art and watching movies which her family does not invest a lot of their money and time into. At times, her parents threw parties in their museum ranging from new years celebrations to the typical benefit and charity balls. Her parents would always mingle with the guests while she just stuck herself upstairs in her room. She never liked big crowds, especially crowds that focused all of their attention on her. Fearing that if she slips up they would laugh at her, give her a mean stare or anything because the upper class unicorns of Canterlot were known for their snootiness. Sometimes she would have a panic attack from being in a big crowd. In short, she does not like parties. Her mother would always keep the birthdays small inviting only a few of Twinkle's friends and maybe a few relatives. But all those weird strangers in her home, let alone during certain hours of the day just stand around all day. Her house was pretty big anyway but it still bugged her to have art fanatics walk though the first floor and give their opinions to their followers who would eat up anything they said. "Oh honey will you just look at this!" Velvet Sparkle levitated a miniature statue of a stone unicorn with emerald eyes to her husband's face using her magic. Almost brushing it too close to his face. "Yes I see it Velvet." Orion gave the statue a light push away from his direction. "Why don't we just figure out where we're going to put all these?" "Where do you want the skeleton?" One of the movers asked. "The skeleton?" Velvet blinked. "Oh right, right the skeleton of the ancients of Saddle Arabia." Orion walked up to the tall glass display containing an earth pony's remains. "Surprised they were willing to part this." "I don't like it." Velvet felt unsure of having something that grotesque sitting in one of her exhibits. "Why would they even send us something like that?" "Well... it's here now." Orion chuckled, "Come on, not like its going to magically jump and scare you." "Er..." Velvet paced away from the glass display, "I'm putting a sheet over it until opening day of the Saddle Arabian exhibit." "Come on, putting a sheet over this beauty for two weeks?" Orion frowned, he really thought the skeleton was impressive. "Eh Mr. Sparkle they also sent over some weird piece of art that needs to be put together." Another one of the movers shoved a box towards Orion and Velvet. "Oh good." Orion smiled, "The more the better." To make the long story short, after making peace with the dignitaries of Saddle Arabia. Canterlot was privileged in showing their artifacts and art from the foreign nation as a form of good will. It was going to be the biggest events in Canterlot; second to the royal wedding of course. All the important ponies were invited ranging from princess Celestia herself to Mayor Mare. It was another high society party, no doubt. The media was definitely going to be there to cover it. Twinkle Star already made her way down the stairs to look at all the artifacts and pieces her parents unboxed already. Some of them were beautiful, others were dirty, others were just meh. Stone tablets, scriptures, weapons, vases, blankets, other pottery, jewelry, even replica animals that live in the nation. "Hey mom look. They call this a camel spider." Twinkle levitated a huge arachnid to her mother to see. "AH! PUT THAT THING DOWN!" Velvet shrieked, Twinkle only raised it higher to show her it was not real. "Get! GET IT AWAY!" Velvet continued shrieking while she backed up into her husband who was trying to set aside an expensive vase. Only for him to lose focus and drop it on the marble floor where it shattered into many pieces. "Oops.." Twinkle put down the spider replica where she found it, tried to smile as her parents looked sternly at her. Later that day, Orion and Velvet were still a little sore over the broken vase. They forbid Twinkle from going anywhere near the artifacts until they were put into place and behind casing. The small violet unicorn walked back downstairs into the main hall to see crates still being pushed around by the movers. She kept a safe distance and let them work, not long she found her father standing on a ladder doing something with the prehistoric dragon skeleton they proudly owned. For a special occasion the diplomats from Saddle Arabia wanted to see the dragon remains so Orion spent a lot of nights touching it up. "D...dad?" Twinkle eased her plot on the floor and looked up. Still her father was tinkering with the dragon skeleton. Twinkle figured her father did not hear her the first time, "Dad?" Orion tightened one of the screws that kept the skeleton structure together. "What is it Twinky?" She hated it when her father called her that, but a good sign as it showed that he was not mad at her anymore. "Can... can we talk?" "Ugh..." Orion grunted as he tightened another screw this time was tougher than the last. "Sorry Twinky but can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations." Twinkle blew a piece of her hair away from her face. Left frustrated from her own father's excuse. How much he loved tinkering with that dragon skeleton and how many stories she used to tell her that it was once a threat to Equestria, burned down whole villages and now just sitting in one of the exhibits. Twinkle admitted it was cool but had her fun with it when no pony was around by making the jaw move with her magic. Even she tried to make it flap its bony arms that were once wings, only for a few bolts to loosen in the progress. Made her father go up and check now and then, made sure they were nice and tight. Until suddenly Orion dropped his screw driver by accident. "Twinky can you levitate that back up for me?" "S-sure." Twinkle hobbled over to the tool slowly and surrounded it with her pinkish purple magical aura. Only thing was, Twinkle really had trouble with a few basic spells that required tutoring as of lately. Apparently she was skipping on assignments for her own enjoyment. Slowly the screwdriver started to levitate upwards until she heard a big bang from the next room. She panicked and shot the screwdriver like a gun at her father. Orion dodged in the nick of time or... so he thought. Parts of the dragon skeleton started coming apart like a domino effect, a simple nudge from Twinkle's shot caused some bolts to loosen up and fall out of place. After most of the bones fell, Orion just sighed while he rubbed his forehead. "Oops..." Twinkle put on an embarrassed smile. "Go to your room Twinky..." One of Orion's eye started to twitch. Slowly Twinkle crept out of the room and away from her father, who she could hear a mixture of frustration and crying. Maybe she could redeem herself for the day. She stopped by the kitchen to get herself a glass of cranberry juice and carried it with her. "Maybe mom needs my help." She crept into the Saddle Arabian exhibit as it entered its first stages of being set up for the party. She found her mother sorting out the blankets she planned on hanging for display. "Oh these are going to look so nice." Velvet lifted a white blanket over her head and placed it on the wall in front of her deciding which way it should hang. "Um..." Twinkle tried to speak up. "Oh. Twinkle Twinkle my little Star." Velvet turned her head and smiled, "You talked to your father?" "Y-yeah." Twinkle let her eyes wander, "But he told me he was in the middle of some cali...calibrat... something." "Your father and that dragon..." Velvet shook her head in disapproval, "Makes me wonder if he wanted to marry that dragon instead. I swear he's in love with it, if something were to happen to it he would cry." "Yes... yes he would." Twinkle put on a poker face and let her eyes wander again. "Well I better go check on the rest of the crates. Don't touch anything while I'm gone okay?" Velvet rested the blanket back to where she had it before. As soon as her mother left, Twinkle started playing around with the priceless blankets pretending she was a ghost, the sheets had a couple of holes in them already somehow. Unaware that she placed her glass of juice on a nearby table. "Woooooo!" Twinkle bounced around. *BAM* Twinkle fell backwards on to the floor. The table she ran into; as it jiggled back and forth almost like it was going to fall on top of her. She got up and pushed the table back into place but only to have the juice fall on top of her blanket covered head. The cranberry juice flushed all over the white sheets. Twinkle moaned from her dumb luck. She took off the sheet and looked at the mess and gasped. Surely her mother was going to tan her behind for this. Only one solution, do the laundry! She raced to the laundry room and tossed the sheet into the washing machine and poured a lot of soap in. Set it for super wash and hoped her mother would not notice the blanket missing. She kept racing back and forth to see if her mother was back yet. The washing machine finished its job, most of the stain was out, Twinkle threw the blanket into the drier next then set it to the highest setting. She raced back outside to see if her mother came back yet, with a pleasant sigh she went back to the laundry room only for... Velvet to be standing there. "Huh... that's funny. I don't remember starting the wash today." Velvet pondered. "Uh... hi mom." Twinkle crept her head in through the doorway. "Oh hi, Twinkle Twinkle. Being a good girl and doing the laundry I see?" Velvet approached the washing machine. "Well... Yeah... Maybe..." Twinkle again made her eyes wander, not directly answering the question. She rubbed her hoof into the floor and traced little circles. This was unsurprising for Velvet, she knew her daughter was lying. Lying about something, "Alright... what did you spill juice on this time?" "Um..." Twinkle trailed off. "A... b-blanket." "Your blanket from upstairs I hope." Velvet gave the scolding stare at her daughter. "Uh... the one you... were playing with." Twinkle formed a half-smile. Velvet let a scared expression wash over her face, her dull grayish white coat probably went even whiter as she heard that. "Please don't tell me you put it in the dryer." *DING* Velvet sighed, "Of course you did." And out came the blanket that used to be white, now with pink splotches. The foreign text almost washed away now even harder to even read. The older unicorn bit her bottom lip almost to the point it almost bleed. Twinkle slowly tip toed out of the laundry room and figured it was best to go up to her room as her father ordered earlier. And waited for her fate to be sealed. She was only trying to help but often it would lead to mistakes happening. Dear Twilight Dawn Sparkle, I am writing to you to see if you are willing on short notice to let your sister; Twinkle Star stay with you in Ponyville while your father and I work on setting up the Saddle Arabian exhibit for the show. While her heart is in the right place, a few accidents happened back at the house while unloading the artifacts for the exhibit. It will only be for two weeks until everything placed and safe behind the displays. We will pay ahead in advance for Twinkle's needs and a list of what she can and can't have during her stay. Please write back if you are willing to help take Twinkle off our hooves to get this project done. -Mom "Oh I can't wait to see the little darling." The fashion white unicorn squealed. "Me too! Me too!" A younger white unicorn with green eyes squeaked as she bounced up and down. "We can make her our newest member!" "Yeah..." A cyan Pegasus smirked as she crossed her forearms, "If you don't mind me asking Twilight how many siblings do you have exactly?" A lavender unicorn with dark blue hair smiled and got all giddy, "Oh I got five brothers and three sisters. You already met Shining Armor. Then there is my big sister; Nora, then my big sister Andromeda, then my big brothers who are twins; Vanishing Star and Fade Away, you met them awhile ago." Twilight Sparkle kept tapping her hoof with her other to keep count, "Then there's me, then my little brother; Canis... you had the displeasure of him flirting with you all." "Oof..." Rarity rolled her eyes, "I hope he learned his lesson the last time." "Trust me, after the Canterlot charity ball he did." Twilight narrowed her eyes, then smiled again, "Then there is my other little brother Lucian and finally our star for this evening. My baby sister Twinkle Star." "Wow... big family." Rainbow Dash nodded, "So you close with Twinkle?" Twilight frowned, "Actually... not really. She was born while I was still at the gifted school for unicorns. I never really got the chance to bond with her because of my studies" With a bit of hope she smiled again, this time determined, "But I do plan on changing that. By the time she leaves in two weeks for the Saddle Arabian exhibit to open up, she's going to beg my mom and dad to come back here. We're going to read books together, show her how fun the world of magic can really be, we'll learn new spells and make up our own language." Twilight clapped her hooves together excitedly, "Really my parents could use the spare time to shape up the museum without Twinkle running around breaking things." "My word." Rarity gasped lightly. The four ponies heard the train whistle blow as it pulled into the station. The doors opened up and a slew of random ponies started to pour out. Many ponies of different shapes and sizes from really tall to really small. Some dressed nicely, others dressed not so nicely. Some with hats, some with glasses, some with slacks, some were fat, some of them with jewelry, some of them looked at you rather crudely. "Um... Do you girls see her anywhere?" Twilight poked her head out of the crowd, looking left and right. "What does she look like darling?" Rarity tried to squeeze past the crowd as well. "Like a miniature version of me. Jus with..." Twilight tried to explain. "A better haircut?" Rainbow Dash hovered over her friends. "Hey!" Twilight frowned, then fiddled with her bangs, "My hair isn't that... bad is it?" "Oh no darling..." Rarity reassured her unicorn friend, and then mumbled, "Could use a new style though..." "What was that?" Twilight turned her head towards Rarity. "Nothing." Rarity put on her best poker face. "So is this her?" Rainbow Dash while flying held up a small violet filly with blue straight hair and blue eyes. The filly was around Sweetie Belle's age, she looked around confused and wondered why some random flying pony picked her up. "Rainbow Dash put her down!" Twilight demanded. "Pfft... fine." Dash floated downwards and let the little filly down easily. "Sorry kid." "I guess its okay." The filly frowned, "I'm here to stay with my big sister and I don't know where she lives." "So you're young Twinkle Star Sparkle?" Rarity asked. "Uh huh..." Twinkle nodded. Twilight wasted no time as she stepped forward to get a better look at the filly, "It's been awhile Twinkle." The older unicorn threw her fore legs around the younger one for a good welcome, "Big sister Twilight is going to show you how fun it is in Ponyville." Twilight was expecting the younger unicorn to hug back but felt an absence of little fore legs around her. Twilight eased away from her little sister, "Come on I bet you know the Sunshine Sunshine dance." Giving herself room, the older unicorn sister performed the dance, "Sunshine Sunshine ladybirds awake, Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" Twilight turned her rear end up in the air and waved it. But Twinkle just sat there, dumbfounded. Almost like she was not impressed but also not paying attention. "That's for babies..." Twinkle blinked. "Oh..." Twilight turned around disappointed. "Well... I guess Cadence never taught you that..." "She did..." Twinkle blinked again. "Baby stuff." Twilight chuckled while a blush ran across her cheeks, "Yeah I suppose. Come on, I want to introduce you to my friends." Rarity stepped forward, "This is Rarity, she runs the Carousel Boutique downtown. She makes dresses and deals with all sorts of fashion." This caught Twinkle's attention, "Fashion as in art?" "Oh yes, all my works are like art." Rarity giggled. "I'll happily show you during free time." "And I'm Sweetie Belle!" The white unicorn squeaked, "I'm Rarity's sister, we're the same age huh? You're going to have so much fun here that you are never going to want to leave." "Yes. Calm down sweetie, I'm sure Twinkle will need companions to show her around and play with." Rarity reached with her foreleg to reel in her younger sister away from Twinkle to give her some breathing room. Twinkle took a deep breath in relief, "Than-thanks." "And this here is..." Twilight was about to introduce her flying friend. "I'm Rainbow Dash. Fastest flier in all of Equestria." Dash entered show off mode again as she zoomed back and forth across the train station. "You might have heard of me." "N-nope." Twinkle blinked. "Well we're going to change that." Rainbow eased herself back on the ground and chuckled. "Welcome to Ponyville by the way." "Oh you're just going to love it the tree house." Twilight squealed, "It's going to be like a slumber party. Come come! I already got your room all set up!" "You're going to like the cutie mark crusader club house too!" Sweetie Belle squeaked again. "Um... Okay." Twinkle went along with the four. So far they seemed very nice. With an interest in art, Rarity should be a big help. A filly her age is a good start in making friends in the area. Rainbow Dash, she could already find having fun with. Twilight was really the only pony she was familiar with, family yes, friends no. And for the next two weeks she's going to be living with her. Twinkle brought a few duffel bags and a suitcase with her to stay with, filled with clothes, toothpaste, toothbrush, socks, crayons, paint set, Nintenpony 3DS and secretly her Ponybox 720 with a few games and other things to keep her tided over. The walk from the train station to the library was not far. Twilight must have pointed that out a few time. Twinkle gasped about suddenly remembering that she was supposed to give her sister something. She nudged herself against her older sister to get her attention and levitated a note to her face. "Oh the list mom wanted to look over." Twilight unfolded the letter and read it through, "Twilight, your sister can be very sensitive at times. So please, avoid leaving her alone in large crowds as she has a mild case of agoraphobia meaning no large parties either. If you ever find yourself in a situation where she loses control, try to reassure her of her happy place and give her support. Twinkle also needs to take a daily medication to help concentrate and keep focus, she takes other forms of medication too as sometimes she gets headaches now and then. If you would ever happen to lose her medication. Please write to us ASAP! We will send another bottle as soon as we can. Also be careful, Twinkle sometimes tries to be sneaky and doesn't take them, make sure she does!" As she finished the letter, she looked down at her little sister. Hard to believe in a family filled with scholars, her younger sister was the unfortunate one that had to be subjected to taking pills to help her along. Subjected to a life in high expectations and yet she can't do to the expected levels the Sparkle family was known for. She looked at the letter again, "No large parties... Fair enough, we'll just have to warn Pinkie Pie so she knows this. I heard of agoraphobia before. It's a condition where the pony becomes anxious in unfamiliar places, large open spaces, crowds and sometimes traveling which could lead to a panic attack." Rarity and Rainbow Dash froze in place. They were right in front of the library as Twilight was ready to turn the knob, "Surprised Pinkie didn't come with us to welcome Twinkle. She loves meeting new ponies." "Uh Twilight..." Rainbow Dash, "Oh no..." "Twilight darling maybe you should wait ou..." Rarity was about to cut Twilight off from walking into the library but the lavender unicorn went in any way with Twinkle in tow. "Welcome to my home Twinkle." Twilight smiled, "Now where is the light switch?" "Twilight!" Rarity and Dash shouted from the doorway trying to make her come back outside with Twinkle. "What? What's wrong?" Twilight looked back at the very well illuminated doorway that the sun still poured out compared to the very dark room she was in currently. "It's really dark in here Twilight." Twinkle shivered. "Here I know where the light is!" Sweetie Belle raced to the light switch. "Sweetie Belle wait!" Twilight realized finally what Rarity and Dash were trying to tell her. She tried to stop the little white unicorn but ended up falling over a displaced stool. "OW!" "What?" Sweetie Belle flipped on the light switch. *Click* "SURPRISE!" A loud shrill came from a bubbly pink familiar party pony. As well as other ponies she invited to welcome the new filly, she must have invited over fifty, sixty, maybe almost seventy ponies from the area. Party cannons fired off in front of the poor little filly, she was shaking from all the loud noise and felt trapped. A lot of unfamiliar ponies surrounded her, in an unfamiliar area that felt small to her. *BOOM* *BOOM* Another couple of rounds from the party cannon fired off. Pinkie was in the middle of singing the annual "Welcome to Ponyville" song she recently made up on the spot. Yeah I know how could it be annual if she started doing it now. Twilight tried to make Pinkie to stop but the party pony was having so much fun with waving sparkles and throwing streamers. "PINKIE!" Twilight shouted. "Please stop!" Twinkle tried to say, sweat started to drip from her forehead. "I don't want to be here!" "Pinkie darling!" Rarity tried to help. "Stop it..." Twinkle's pupils shrunk, "Please..." She slowly lowered herself to the floor and started shaking. "It's happ..happening ag...again... I don't want...to be here." "PINKIE STOP PARTYING!" Dash shouted as well. By now... young Twinkle Star was on the floor, curled up in a ball, shaking. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she was breathing irregularly. Pinkie blew one last time on the party kazoo but then finished in a sad tone. "Give her some room every pony!" AppleJack raised her voice. The guests backed as much away from the filly as they could. "Wha-what's happening?" Fluttershy asked. "Mommy!" Twinkle heaved and cried fiercely, "MOMMY!", trying to kick away any pony who got close. "Oh no! No!" Twilight tried to support her younger sister as she cradled the smaller unicorn with her fore legs but was still trying to get loose, "I think she's having a panic attack!" In no time, nurse Red Heart eased herself out of the crowd of guests and raced over to the little filly. But to Pinkie Pie with the kazoo still in her mouth, felt terrible as she backed away as far as possible. Never did once her parties ever scare some pony to extreme fright, sure she scared a few ponies now and then. The pink earth pony lowered her head in shame while the guests either left to give the filly room or to just watch the spectacle unfold. Only thing Twilight could do is reassure her little sister was in a safe place as nurse Red Heart told her to relax and held her hoof, showing a form of trust. First day of Ponyville... a disaster...