"Ugh..."
"I...I'm sorry."
"No it's fine sweetie. Just be more careful next time..."
"I really am."
"No more pouting okay? It's just to be on the safe side let me get things for you."
"You think I'm clumsy then?"
"I never said that sweetie. You just tend to take on more than you can handle."
Twinkle Star counted the same conversation playing between her and her older sister probably from five to eight times in the span of just one day. The purple unicorn let the younger pony sleep in until she was well and ready to get up and moving again. Still cautious from her freak out the other day, Twilight memorized the steps nurse Red Heart shared with her and played it over and over in her head. Just in case that is if it were to ever happen again. The protege was known for crazily taking things too seriously but as for taking care of a child for the next two weeks, some eyebrows were raised but assured it was to be alright.
The morning played out with a simple breakfast of the option of French Toast or pancakes. Twinkle Star could not remember when the family sat down together for a simple meal. Always got up for school and made her own breakfast of cereal or a piece of toast. Only a few times her mother or father would scrabble around the kitchen to make a quick daisy breakfast sandwich for her. The weekend was pretty much the same. Walk down to the kitchen early in the morning, try not break anything along the way but still end up making a mess from just pouring milk into the bowl. Simple enough right? Well if you count one of the shelves falling over along pages falling out of books because they were old delicate pieces of work. As well as placing no longer useful books into the trash when really they were supposed to go back onto the shelf then maybe she was going to be more than a handful.
After breakfast, Twilight rummaged through the medication pouch her mother packed for Twinkle Star. The size was about the same as if a pony wanted to carry a normal purse around, she unzip the top and used her magic to reach in. Quietly she said the names of the medication bottles to herself and checked back to the note her mother left her to make sure what goes to what. The most important pill of all, Ritalin is to contain Twinkle Star's hyper activity in check and to make sure she could focus. Twinkle knew what was coming once Twilight unscrewed the cap and pulled out a single pill. Instantly the smaller unicorn tightened her lips and stood her ground, she hated the pill no doubt. To her it made her feel, what would you say? Empty? Unfulfilled? Lack of spirit?
At first, Twinkle tried to show a little protest by keeping her mouth shut tight. Twilight Sparkle knew by her mother's note the smaller unicorn was stubborn when taking medicine. That was not foreign to her when she was younger. Often always tasting icky cold medicine every time she had a little cough or a runny nose her mother or nanny made her take it using the familiar tablespoon. Princess Cadence at least tried to make it fun by pretending the tablespoon was an airplane or a train.
"Okay Twinkle it's time to take your pill." Twilight levitated the white chalky tablet towards her sister. Still her sister would not open her mouth, the lavender unicorn figured she was just being stubborn. Not very surprising from a child her age. "Come on sweetie, mom told me that you had to take one of these at least once a day."
"Mmmm..." Twinkle moaned in protest. Her shoulders pressed forward as her eyes showed some form of resistance.
"The faster we do this it will be over." Twilight put on a warm smile to show assurance.
"I-I don't want to." Twinkle's voice started to tremble.
"If mom says you have to do it, then I'm going to make sure you do it." Twilight reminded her, "Look I know it might taste icky but its to help you focus."
At this point Twinkle crossed her fore legs in protest. "I'm not even in school while I'm staying here. So why?" The lavender unicorn scratched her chin in wonder, that was a good point an eight year old could make. Mostly this form of medication was indeed for educational purposes, but Twinkle was not in school because of Golden Spirit Week let alone along with some odd days off leading up to it.
"Well regardless. You have to take it." Twilight hated being the bad guy, let alone this was technically a first impression on her younger sister. The one she barely even knew, even at all except save for each others existence. How that was possible, it was complicated. "Come on sweetie. Be a good girl."
"Mmm... I hate taking it." Twinkle mumbled.
"Why do you hate it?" The older sister asked.
"Makes me feel funny inside." Twinkle bit her lower lip after she explained. "Makes me feel empty."
Twilight then lowered the pill onto the table to show a sign of peace. "Now this medicine here is supposed to help you with your school work. But since you mentioned you were not in school you raised a good point." The pill remained at the center, Twinkle still with a sense of dread tried to look away from it. "So here's what's going to happen. Since mom and dad are asking me to take care of you for two weeks, it's up to me to make sure everything goes right... including your necessities."
"But..." Twinkle tried to say.
"But..." Twilight held her hoof up, "As much as I don't want to force this on you it's my responsibility to make sure you're alright. So here's what I'm going to do." Twilight proudly explained, "I want us to start off on the right hoof and to get to know you better. I just want to see how this works to see if its really necessary or not because... I believe you're a bright little girl with a lot of potential. Mom though wrote that you were having trouble in school and said you had to take this to focus better, not only on school work... but with other things." Twilight picked herself off from the ground to walk towards the smaller unicorn, to show her that she was caring on the subject. "I want you to be happy, but I can't know that if we don't trust each other. So here's the option you take the pill today and then tomorrow you don't have to. If I see a difference that you need it, then you'll have to take it."
"Guh..." The smaller unicorn gasped as the lavender pony reached around her with her longer fore leg to comfort her. "So if I take it... Today I won't tomorrow?"
"Mom and dad put their trust in me taking care of you as I'm sure they keep tabs on the pills. So..." Twilight used her magic to cover the pill and made it levitate, "We will try this once." Her face crept to the smaller unicorn, "Just... once." The thought of the quiet little filly in front of her being rambunctious was sort of hard to image in Twilight's head. Almost, a little too tempting, quizzical, and even scary at the same time.
The little unicorn could not pass on the offer yet still warned her sister what the pill made her feel like. Twilight took that into account but still made sure she held up her part of the bargain. The lavender unicorn was curious as here that sat not even a foot away was a pony she barely even knew, as well not even knowing anything about her likes, dislikes, her hobbies even her fears. Well if you count panicking in front of a lot of unfamiliar ponies. The smaller unicorn plopped the pill into her mouth, as her cheeks puffed her tongue inside was trying to wrap around the pill. Her eyes twitched from the bad chalky taste, she reached with her fore legs to grab a glass of orange juice that was still left over from breakfast earlier then gulped the remainder down. With a deep sigh of relief, Twinkle shook her head and frowned.
"You swallow it?" Twilight asked. Twinkle proved it by opening her mouth to show her sister and lifted her own tongue to prove it. The older unicorn was surprised that her sister just snapped open her mouth like that, maybe her mother used to tell her to show her mouth. As said before in her letter, Twinkle could be sneaky when taking medicine. With a simple glance from left to right, Twilight nodded, "Alright good."
It did not take long for Twilight to command... I meant ask Spike to do the dishes so she could at least try to bond. The little dragon just mumbled to himself as he wandered over to the sink area then pulled a wooden stool to give himself a boost. Twilight ignored the little back talk, well maybe it was not back to but it was one of the typical Spike things whenever Twilight asked him to do stuff while she walks away to spend time with friends. In this case, she would not be far.
The two decided to take the conversation into the next room, the main floor of the library. Something that Twinkle Star never really cared for during her time in Canterlot, to her reading was not all that exciting unless she really had to look something up. Twilight lead her baby sister to the middle where the round funny colored carpet rug was and laid down in the middle of it. With her lavender belly pressed against the rough rug, she reached with her fore leg to wave to Twinkle. Assuring her that she won't bite.
"Wha-what are we going to do?" Twinkle shivered.
Twilight picked up on this, "Are you cold?"
"...A bit." The smaller unicorn nodded. Twilight lifted one of her fore legs, slowly either it was a matter of trust or not Twinkle slivered her little body under her sister. Her little head nuzzled into her sisters neck, Twilight smiled and adored the small body pressed up against hers. There was something that Twinkled liked about the feeling. Maybe she was happy? Or maybe something felt right? Was it something she longed for? Her little ear pressed against her sister's chest, she felt her heartbeat and... it felt warming. She mumbled softly, "Mm...Like mama..."
That took Twilight a little by surprise. Sure she got the idea of her being almost a spitting image of her mother but the personalities were off. Twilight was a book worm who adored literature while her mother was more into the importance and meaning of cultural art. Sounds something like Twilight sure, but its just that her mother does it at shocking levels. Almost filling most of her time that made Twilight wonder how she could ever have the time to do what she did let alone mother nine children. Then that's when Twilight Sparkle frowned, remembered exactly how her mother was when she was her age. Always busy and finding something for her kids to play with so she could work in peace. Immediately Twilight Sparkle shook the bothersome thought out of her head.
"T-Twilight?" The little unicorn moved her face away from Twilight's neck and looked up in confusion.
"Oh... sorry. Just remembering something." Twilight smirked innocently. "Now..." She looked down at the little blue eyes as they were filled with childish confusion. "I think we should take this moment to catch up. That sound good?" Twinkle replied with a simple nuzzle against Twilight's neck for a bit of approval. The older unicorn giggled, "Alright, I take it that means yes."
Twilight started off with a simple question, "So... how's school?"
Smooth move Twilight. Twinkle frowned, "It's... alright I guess."
"Come on, school can be fun." Twilight smiled, Twinkle's lips were not moving nor her sad eyes. Her cheerful voice then turned to sympathetic, "School is not your thing huh?"
"N-no... I'm not smart enough some ponies tell me." Twinkle lowered her head. Her chin supported by the tacky rug, felt rugged and rough against her fur.
"Now who would say that?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"Basically every pony back at home." Twinkle moaned.
"That's impossible, you're probably a smart filly underneath." Twilight raised her sister's chin with her hoof. "You just need to find a certain area to shine in. And... if I picked up already I heard you like to draw."
"In... in my spare time." Twinkle sighed.
"I noticed you brought a sketch pad." Twilight smiled, "Think I can take a peek at it?"
"I guess..." Twinkle trailed, "It's in my bag by the bed."
"Oh don't worry, I can get it." With a simple spark from her horn Twilight used a spell that worked as combination of a tracker and fetching spell.
Twinkle watched as her duffel bag floated down the stairs engulfed in a glitter filled purple glow. The bag slumped down in front of the two mares as the aura died down. Twinkle this time, tried to show off her magic of.. fumbling with the zipper. With a tug and pull, it still did not come loose, the little unicorn gritted her teeth and focused with all of her might on what should be a simple task. With a loud grunt, the zipper finally undid itself. Twilight took a minute to examine Twinkle's fault in magic.
Twilight thought, "Well she is young still. Probably around the same age when unicorns should start getting the feel of how levitation works." With a quick excuse, she put on a proud face, "You're the best... zipper undo-er I ever seen at your age."
Twinkle knew sympathetic praise when she heard it. All the time whenever she struggled with something that should have been simple, some pony would tell her "good job," or "you're getting better". Those would not be bad, if it were not for the half cracked smile. She knew she was horrible and she never really fought it. She knew where her faults were and never really exceeded to quickly fix them. How could she? She was diagnosed with a disorder that often caused her parents to sometimes fight over about, let alone the schools wanted to put her in classes for children who had certain needs. Let alone any friends that she had were never there with being in different classes, sometimes she was lucky enough for them to even come over to her house. All that, was pretty damaging for a child's self esteem. And most of the time, she let it go to go play video games by herself.
Twilight took over and started pulling various objects, mostly books and pencils. "Let's see. A video game magazine, another game magazine, magazine about Japonies cartoons, Japonies comics, oh a stencil set, another Japonies comic... Another comic..." Twilight started to frown as she levitated a very thick book and thought at least her sister was trying to read something interesting, "A strategy guide for Pony Fantasy sixteen?"
Twinkle pushed her little head into her duffel bag and bit down on the thing she wanted to find. With an easy pull of her neck the sketch pad wiggled from her mouth. Twilight set down the rather large game book and pulled the pad out of her sister's mouth. "This is it huh?"
"Yeah." Twinkle answered quickly.
Twilight placed the sketch pad down in front of herself. With her magic she flipped the cover and onto the first page. A sketch of an earth pony, female doing yard work, "Oh... Is this some pony in particular?" It was... actually pretty well detailed with the pencil markings and shadowing effect.
Twinkle shook her head, "That's Mrs. Tall Grass. She really likes working on our lawn back home."
Twilight flipped to the next page, "Oh right. Did not know mom and dad hired a lawn car mare. It was nice by the way, oh. Another pony." The older unicorn flipped through some more pages, more ponies as Twinkle explained who they were. Again they were in pretty good detail for an eight year old. "Do you draw often?"
"Pretty much when I'm lonely..." Twinkle lowered her head to have her chin once again be supported by the rough rug.
"Oh sweetie it doesn't have to be like that here." Twilight pulled her sister closer to her larger frame. "How do mom and dad feel about these?"
"They don't know about them..." Twinkle said sadly. "I try to show them but they're always busy doing something."
That was so typical of her parents Twilight thought to herself. Always putting the family museum as a high priority over their own daughter's hobbies. Then again, Twilight's own childhood was bound to reading books as she pretty much preoccupied herself.
Twilight flipped to another page to find instead of ponies there were now sceneries. From meadows, to certain parts of the park back home, to old stone buildings. Giving them more of fantasy vibes to them instead of realism, then again when you live in a world with flying dragons and sorcery everything is basically fantasy.
"Oh. Is this of the museum?" Twilight blinked.
"Actually, yeah the main hallway mom likes to call it." Twinkle tapped on the picture.
"Yeah I just call it the lobby." Twilight rolled her eyes and giggled.
Twilight flipped more and more pages to find some pretty well drawn pictures. She grew more and more excited with each turn almost like it was a book. Then she got to a certain page. One she rather found strange, it was of a pony, an alicorn to Twilight's amazement but the detail was. Something else. The mouth was stretched, smiling from ear to ear but there contained no teeth just a black void. The eyes contained no eyeballs, just complete darkness. Something rather disturbing for a child to draw, let alone any pony to draw.
"So what's this one?" Twilight asked.
"Oh... That's Ebony." Twinkle smiled, "I named her that because mommy describes it as black and that's what her eyes are, black."
"I can see that. But..." Twilight tilted the sketch pad to its side. "Why would you draw something like this?"
"Oh..." Twinkle puckered her lip, "I drew it because I saw some sad picture in mom and dad's art storage. I really liked her but mom said the picture gave her the creeps."
Twilight raised an eyebrow, "In that case I would no blame her." She turned her head to look down at her baby sister, "And dad?"
"He said he was holding it for some pony who might want to buy it someday." Twinkle frowned, "I heard something about I guess..." She let her eyes wander, "Said the painting was haunted so that's why they keep it in there."
Twilight rolled her eyes, "Yeah don't let whatever the movers mom and dad hire get to you. Mostly just dumb stuff and gossip." Her eyes went back to the ink sketch, it was pretty morbid for a kid to draw. What stumped her is that she only knew of three alicorns, why this sketch was an alicorn she did not have the slightest clue. "So in the original painting was Ebony an alicorn?"
"Yup..." Twinkle nodded. "She was very pretty too."
"Huh..." Twilight frowned, "I'll have to ask mom and dad to let me see it sometime." Plus if it was really haunted that struck her curiosity. She looked up at the round clock above the doorway, "Oh shoot... Sorry I'm going to have to cut this short I need to get started setting up for my book club tonight."
"Oh... alright then." Twinkle lowered her head in disappointment and slid her books back into her duffle bag.
"How about you go play your games while I get the place ready?" Twilight suggested, "It's going to be awhile..."
And that was it?
Twinkle Star did not argue, she knew her sister was the busy type. She wandered back upstairs to pull out another duffle bag to bring back downstairs, with permission she asked her sister if it was alright to plug in one of her game systems to the television. Only problem was that the only television in the library was something you would find in a school and the TV would be on a giant rolling cart. Twilight asked if she knew what she was doing but Twinkle assured her she knew everything about hook ups. She often moved her game systems around and switched them out from time to time.
"Wow... This place is like a mix of home and school." Twinkle sighed, "Just my luck..."
She unzipped the duffel bag with her teeth and dived in to pull out random wires and controllers. Finally one of the few game consoles she decided to bring with herself. An original Nintenpony console with a good few chose select of games. Then there was a Nintenpony 3DS, Ponystation 2, a Ponybox 720 and a Pony Dreamcast. Sure it seemed like a lot but Twinkle knew at least a few spells that worked to her advantage, a compression spell to make things smaller. Something she rather keep secret to herself so she could easily sneak things into the house. She had to admit to herself, if she did not have five older brothers she would have not ever found a love for these types of things. How much she loved watching them play when she was younger, sometimes one of them would sit her in their lap and pretend she was playing too.
*CLICK*
*CLICK*
"Just snap that into place." Twinkle mumbled with the wire in her mouth.
*CLICK*
"Tighten the adapter cable." She grunted.
"Need any help?" Spike asked as he approached from behind, curious to what the little unicorn was doing.
"I think I got everything. Ah done." She sighed in relief, "Does this TV run on a video option or do I have to put it to channel three?"
"Uh..." Spike scratched his head.
"Never mind I got it." She pushed the power on button and set it channel three anyway. With success, "IT WORKS!" The screen was filled with eight bit music blaring out the small speakers with a catchy tune. "Wanna play?" She held up a second controller to the baby dragon.
"Well... Maybe for a little bit.." Spike smiled.
And then the two played together. What would seem like sheer enjoyment of minutes, really numbed down to hours. Twilight soon stopped behind the two children who were busy playing.
"Alright you two its been a few hours. Time to take a break." Twilight smiled.
"Just five more minutes." Twinkle asked.
"No way you two. I've came here about three times and you asked the same thing. It's been like a couple of hours already." Twilight frowned, "We're going out for a late lunch as I scored maybe a couple hours of free time."
"Can you bring mine back?" Spike tapped on the buttons with his fingers.
"Yeah me too." Twinkle mumbled.
"Come on. I know a good place you would like." Twilight smiled.
"Eh..." Twinkle frowned.
"It's got an arcade." Twilight smirked.
Twinkle paused the game, "I'm listening..."
Twilight sighed, if this was the only way to get her sister's attention she might have to resort to tricks.