//------------------------------// // Aunts and Sisters // Story: Unexpected Arrival // by GlitchyProductions //------------------------------// Twilight stood before the front door feeling unsure of what to do. She held onto the stroller handles tighter more than ever and felt that strange rumble in her stomach again, a slight pain, but a major twist deep inside. Aside from the birds chirping and the noise of the wind making it's way through the trees on the streets, she could hear the poorly concentrated sounds coming from Spike, who was still strapped tightly in his stroller. The Librarian let go of the handles and moved a little closer to the front of the stroller, she noticed Spike was wide awake with a happy grin plastered all over him. He kicked his feet up and down and looked back at Twilight and stuck a finger or two into his drool infested mouth. "Gha-ba-ba!" Spike let out an array of gurgles and gibberish, he soon leaned forward as best as he could and nodded his head slowly. "You want to see Aunt Rarity, huh? When we get inside, I'm gonna have to check your diaper. Since you're a stinky little guy, aren't you?" Twilight got on knee level and reached inwards and dug her fingers into Spike's soft hair. He giggled in return and reached for her arms, he latched onto them and stuck out his tongue as a response. "I know." Twilight pretended to sigh. "Silly me. I should have checked you when we were at the Sugarcube Corner." She cooed. Spike put his tongue away but kept his hands wrapped around Twilight's arm. "You want to ring the doorbell, Spike?" Twilight put her hands down to the straps that kept Spike in the stroller and started to pull them apart, he was soon free from all bonds. Spike was lifted out of his seat, his little feet dangled in the air as he was positioned in front of a big red button with a musical note in front of it. Out of curiosity, Spike lifted a hand and pressed on the red button and heard a noise come out from button. He clapped his hands and cheered for what he done and was soon put back in his stroller. Twilight leaned down and strapped him back in and also clapped her hands. "You're such a smart baby boy, aren't you, Spike?" Twilight smiled and grabbed the straps that kept Spike in place and quickly pulled them together. She got up on her feet and moved over to the back of the stroller and grabbed the handles, now waiting for someone to answer the door. ... ... ... Nothing happened. Nothing at all. Not even a single footstep or a noise came from the inside of the Boutique, this wasn't right at all, Twilight relaxed herself a little and walked over to the front door and knocked on the door again. She cleared her throat and knocked a little louder than her first attempt. "Hello, Rarity. Are you in there? It's me, Twilight. I just want to see how you were doing?" Twilight felt uncertain about knocking the door for a second time, but she soon realized that her knocks soon moved the door open slightly. Twilight back pedalled to the side of the stroller and noticed that no one was behind the door. It slowly swung open revealing the hallway, the bright light coming from the sun penetrated the room, causing it to light up immensely. "Hello?" Twilight let out a call, but she was met with silence. She looked back at the stroller and focused on Spike. "I don't know if we should be doing this, Spike. Rarity might have left her door unlocked and I don't know what to do." Spike stared at his sister for a second and tilted his head slightly to the left, giving off a look of curiosity to the Librarian which she frowned at. Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled while she grabbed the strollers handles and began to push it into the Boutique. Twilight poked her head through the first door but it was impossible to tell what state it was in or what was exactly in it. From what Twilight could understand, all of the curtains were closed which blocked out of the light from the sun, save for the small crack of light coming through from the holes where the curtains couldn't cover. Though there was one source of light in the room. A large widescreen TV was sitting on a stand in the corner of the room glowing a faint blue from the screen, all there appeared to be was static. After thoroughly scanning the room, Twilight moved in with Spike wrapped deep into her arms. He head was kept tight against her chest, Spike squirmed a little despite having a pacifier now in his mouth to keep him quiet. it was too dark to fully see what was going on, despite the little to none help with the TV, luckily the curtains were close to her. With one hand she pulled apart one of the curtains and allowed some light in and looked outside through the window for a moment. "Spike." Twilight looked downwards at her baby brother. He also looked up and stared into her eyes. "I don't think Aunt Rarity is here today. She might be outside shopping or something, maybe we need to come back later." Twilight started to turn round still keeping her eyes locked onto Spike and then slowly looked up and felt a massive shock go through her. "Gah!" Now that the room was much more brighter, Twilight could see everything, and she could see Rarity standing opposite her by the entrance to the boutiques kitchen. Rarity leaned against the doorway wearing just a rather skimpy night gown showing more of her body than Twilight needed to see. She averted her eyes and covered up Spike's eyes, despite the fact he tilted his head and saw everything thanks to Twilight's lack of direction and blind help. He giggled and smiled at the other person in the room. With a wine bottle in hand, Rarity hiccuped a little and leaned forward, feeling a pain pulse round in her head. "Oh sorry, Twilight, I didn't know you were here. I didn't hear you knock." She let out a very weak giggle and readjusted herself, she stood firmly on both feet and slowly walked over to her guests and tightened her grip on the wine bottle in hand. "Rarity? Is that you?" Twilight opened her eyes and took a good look at her friend. Upon closer inspection she noticed Rarity's perfectly combed hair had been reduced to a mess and there were visible bags under her eyes. "Oh yes, Twilight. How have you been?" Rarity politely asked. "How have I been?" She replied back quickly "How have YOU been. What in Abbacus' name happened to you? Are you sober right now? It's only ten in the morning." Rarity let out a short laugh and then walked over to the couch opposite the TV and sat down. She put the wine bottle on the floor and put her hands up to her head and sobbed loudly. Twilight's jaw dropped, she quickly rushed over to the couch and plopped Spike down beside her and wrapped her arms around the fashionista. "Rarity. If something bad has happened to you then we can talk and sort it out. I'm your friend, please, tell me what's so troubling." Twilight held her friend tight and pulled her head up to get a good look at her, but Rarity moved her head at the wrong time and kept in down on Twilight's shoulder, where she could rest it. "Oh Twilight... You have no idea how wonderful it is to see you! I feared something bad happened to you!" Rarity lifted her head off Twilight's shoulder and leaped forwards, wrapping her arms around the Librarian causing both of them to slightly fall back and lean against the back of the couch. It didn't help that Twilight felt Rarity's strong grip and her head was placed next to her chest, making this more than uncomfortable. "W-What?!" Twilight yelped. She turned her head to the side and saw Spike happily watching them hug each other. He carelessly sucked on his pacifier, keeping his eyes on Rarity who now sat on top of Twilight. Rarity got up and took a spot on the couch and blushed a little, her cheeks went slightly red and she tended to her hair. "I'm sorry, Twilight. It's just... Well... I haven't seen you in a very long time and I got myself a little excited there." She tried to let out a little chuckle, but Twilight got up and frowned. "It's okay, Rarity, I was a little worried about you since the front door was unlocked and the curtains were shut. Naturally I assumed the worst and came rushing in to see what was going on." Twilight reached out for Spike and picked him up by his sides, he was soon placed on her lap, causing him to immediately squirm and fidget. "Grr. Sweetie Belle." Rarity hissed. "She's been careless with the front door as of lately and I've been warning her so much about the dangers of thieves and burglars coming into the Boutique. She's the most scatter-brained child I've ever had to deal wit- Sorry, Twilight. I shouldn't ramble on. I apologize, it's just... Since your absence, things haven't been going that great." "What?" Twilight's mouth dropped wide open. "What happened?" Rarity let out a discomforting sigh and rubbed her eyes slowly. "It isn't all that important now that you're talking to me." Rarity shrugged. "No." Twilight replied calmly. "I want to know what's been going on. I've had quite a lot of problems looking after Spike and I just managed to fix my relationship with him, not to mention a few things happened with my family-" "And that is the precise reason why it doesn't matter anymore, Twilight. We've all been anxiously waiting for you to come out of your library and tell us that everything is going to be okay, but you've spent three months cooped up inside your home without a single letter or a single reply to one of our messages. We've all been worried sick, Twilight." Rarity leaned back a little and rubbed her eyes some more, allowing more tears to escape and run down her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't know." Twilight now felt awful. "I've just been so busy I didn't realize that-" "It doesn't matter, Twilight." Rarity sniffled. "You're outside the library, which is good news. We can talk about this later, I doubt you've come over here to see me cry." She wiped the tears from her face and pulled back her hair to show off the rest of her tired face. Twilight on the other hand sighed and rested into the chair and inhaled through her nose, she rubbed her forehead and nodded slowly. Spike had other plans, his eyes were kept on Rarity, who was still sitting up tending to her hair and all sorts. He started to crawl over Twilight's legs and managed to reach the space inbetween the two of them, he reached out and tapped the fashionista on her leg. Rarity looked down and let go of her hair and put her hands down on her lap. "Ooh! Spikey-Wikey!" She cooed. "How could I forget such a cute wittle face like yours, huh?" "Gha-Ba!" Spike giggled, as if to reply to what she said. He wiggled his bottom from side to side and let out a big goofy smile. Rarity reached out for the infant and wrapped her hands around his sides. Spike was slowly lifted up into the air within arms reach of Rarity's face. "I bet you missed Aunt Rarity. Did you have a great time with your big sister, Twilight?" Rarity placed Spike down and bounced the baby boy up and down on her lap. He then proceeded to let out a repeated cheer for every time he was bounced. "Oh, Twilight. Spike is just so adorable, he's gotten so much bigger. Oh, haven't you? My little Spikey-Wikey!" "Gwahaha, ja-ja!" Spike replied back to Rarity, he happily reached out for her chest and struggled in her arms. "Does my wittle Spikey-Wikey want a big huggy-wuggy?" Rarity pulled the infant into a big hug and wrapped her arms round Spike and kept a tight grip on him. Twilight on the other hand wasn't paying attention to the scene at hand right next to her. She had her head turned thinking of the rest of her friends, thoughts and ideas popped into her head causing her to naturally assume the worst, as usual. But her day-dreaming soon broke when she saw someone enter the living room, coming in from the door that both her and Spike came in though. Sweetie Belle entered the living room looking mildly cautious, scanning the room slowly for signs of life and found her sister sitting down with Twilight. But her eyes soon locked onto Spike, who was wrapped so tightly around Rarity's bust she didn't know whether to laugh or peel him off her. Rarity looked up and spotted her little sister slowly entering the room and gave a little frown. "Sweetie Belle!" She snapped, which got her sisters attention. "Where exactly have you been this morning?"