Sweetie Belle's Big Sister

by The Infinity Doctor

Chapter 9

She watched with mild interest as Twilight tore the books off the shelves, flipping through them in order to find an answer to why they'd been transformed. She peered up, and found Rarity still hovering over Sweetie Belle and herself, standing over them protectively as the five ponies (plus one dragon) aided Twilight in her search. She knew the 'ponies' were trying their hardest to find a cure, and part of her knew it was only for her two charges. She wasn't ignorant, she knew how much they feared her, they showed it on a a regular basis- there was a high chance they weren't going to change her back. Why bring a danger back when you were already rid of it?

'Oh well' she sighed to herself 'I've been through worse...'

It was true, she wasn't prepared to go through with it quite yet, but somewhere in her teeny, broken mind, it was relieving. Is that what that emotion was? Maybe...she'd have to ask Rarity later...

Relief. Such an odd emotion, she'd definitely never experienced it in Rapture- you had to always be on your toes, on the look-out for Splicers or other dangers prowling the sunken streets. She numbly felt something prod her shoulder, she looked to her right, and saw that it was the purple and green creature.

"Uh, hey" he said.
"Hello" she replied.
"Um, are you bored?" he asked awkwardly.
"I think, yes"

'And I don't think I like it...'

"Well...I have some comic books upstairs...I can lend you a few if you want..."

'What are comic books?' she wondered.

"Why?" she asked, staring at him.
"What?" he said, his expression confused.
"Why are you offering me kindness?" she clarified.
"Uh, well...you just looked kinda bored..." he said, scratching his head "I just thought you could use something to do..."
"I could" she shrugged.
He offered her a smile.
"Great! Should I go and get them, or do you want to come with me?"
"I could stretch my legs a bit"

'Did I just attempt a joke?'

She turned and looked up at Rarity before following the dragon up the stairs.

"I'll just be right there" she said, pointing up to the second floor.
Rarity nodded hesitantly, before returning to supervising the other five ponies, still searching through the numerous tomes.

Her bare feet felt warm against the grain of the wooden floor and steps as she walked, it felt lovely compared to the cold stone and steel of Rapture. She just felt...well...better in general in this candy-colored, upside-down, inside-out, strange world. Rapture was...well...to put it bluntly- insane, that's exactly what it was, constantly having to scrounge for food, while at the same time protecting Little Sisters, as well as keeping yourself safe. This was paradise compared to the drowned city- everyone was happy, no one got attacked (well, most of the time...), and no one went hungry.

She soon reached the top of the stairs, where she spied the drake pulling a number of things from a small bookshelf, sitting near a basket that contained a few pillows and a blanket.

She gazed upon the dragon in confusion, not understanding what he was doing. She approached him, and sat cross-legged near the basket, inspecting the colorful things strewn across the floor.

'These are comic books?' she thought, the dragon plopping down next to her.

"Here," he said, thrusting one of the books into her hands "this one is the adaptation of the first part of the Daring Do series"
"What's that?"
"It's a book series by A.K. Yearling, it's about an adventurer that travels the world and well...has adventures!"
"What kind of adventures?" she asked, sort of intrigued by the concept.
"I'm not spoiling anything, you'll have to read to find out" he said, stacking a few books into a few piles.
"These over here are some of the Power Ponies, and over there are some of the others in my collection, like 'The Masked Chimera' or 'Cemetery Filly', I think I've got a few of the 'Ghostbucksters' lying around somewhere, too..."

She opened the book, and came upon the first page, a yellow pony with wings, dressed in a khaki shirt and a pith helmet, waiting impatiently in an airport. She scanned the page for a few moments, and became confused when she came upon the white bubbles dotting the page.

"What are these?" she asked, pointing to the obstructions.
"They're...um...speech bubbles, it's how the characters talk..." he said, confused.
"No, these" she said, pointing to the black squiggles filling the bubbles.
"They're words?" he said, still confused as to what she meant "Can you not read?"
"I can read just fine," she snapped, quickly defending herself "that one says 'exit', and that right there says 'do' and 'not'"
"But...other than that...can you not understand the rest?"
"No, I cannot" she admitted.
The dragon stood, and exited the room, his feet striking the woodwork as he walked down the stairs.

'Odd...' she thought.

She continued perusing the book, watching the pegasus fight off some type of spotted animal in a dense jungle setting.

'Big deal...' she thought 'I could do that...'

She heard the sound of the unicorn teleporting, and looked up to see the purple unicorn, almost in her face, her left eye twitching.

"Hello~" she said eerily.
"Uh, hi" she replied.
"Can you only read certain words?" she asked, a strand of hair springing out of her mane.
"Yes?" she said, wondering why Twilight was bothering her.

She swore she heard a faint snapping sound as the unicorn began giggling to herself. She raised an eyebrow at her behavior, and went back to leafing through the comic. Twilight still giggled to herself as she teleported back down to the first floor of the library, she tried to block it out as she read...well...not so much read as 'looked at the pictures and picked out the words she knew'.

'Crazy ponies...'

---

"There has to be an answer!" Twilight shrieked, flipping through all of her books for the fiftieth time "There has to be! It's got to be here somewhere!"

"What about this one, Twilight?" Spike said, holding up a book with green binding.

The panicked unicorn didn't hear her assistant, however, as she continued her desperate search for the answers she was seeking.

"Helloooo, Twilight" Spike said, waving his claw in front of her face "Anypony home?"

Apparently there wasn't, as the mare was currently staring into a book, possibly hoping to find some hidden message between its pages. The baby dragon shrugged, and went upstairs to check on Needles. As he climbed the stairs, he saw Sweetie Belle sleeping peacefully on the floor, Rarity still standing close. The dragon then snickered to himself as he peered closer at Rarity- and saw that she was literally asleep on her hooves.

"How's everything up here?" he asked, spying the biped laying on the floor, flipping through the the third part to 'Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone'.

"Fine" Needles responded, keeping her eyes focused on the book.

"What part are you up to?"
"This blue thing is fighting the pegasus"
"Ahuizotl? Oh yeah, he's Daring's arch-nemisis; he comes up a lot in the series"
She nodded absently as she continued to 'read'.
Her head shot up as a a rapid succession of knocks rang throughout the library, she got up, and ducked under Twilight's bed. Spike became confused at her behavior, before getting up himself in order to get downstairs. Twilight beat him to the door, however, and turned back towards the interior of the library, holding a package in her magic.

"What's that, Twi?" he called, walking down the stairs.
Needles followed him, 'Daring Do' still in her grasp.

"I don't know..." the unicorn responded, inspecting the box "somepony just left it on the doorstep"
"Open it! Maybe there's gems inside!" Spike said, practically drooling.

Twilight shot him a flat look, before setting the package on the table. She cut through the sealing tape, and opened the box. She peered inside, and set the contents of the box onto the table. Needles eyed the three bottles of purplish liquid, suspicious of what they could be. Twilight levitated a small piece of parchment out of the box last, and scanned it for a few moments before reading it aloud.

"'Be prepared'?" she said quizzically.
"What do you suppose it means?" Spike asked.
"I have no idea..." Twilight said, thoroughly confused.

Needles grabbed one of the bottles, and popped the cork off the top. The concoction fizzed a bit before settling, the syrupy mixture oozing inside. She sniffed it, and felt as if she'd seen it somewhere before...she just couldn't remember where...

Trusting her memory, she downed the liquid- it left a bitter aftertaste as the almost-sour stuff slid past her tongue and down her throat.

"Needles!" Twilight shrieked, yanking the bottle from her grasp "Why did you do that?! That could be dangerous!"

She was beginning to regret her course of action as Twilight admonished her, and was scanning her body with some sort of spell, when her stomach began to rumble, and she grew very warm.

Author's Note:

I'm evil, aren't I? I keep giving you cliffhangers

Comments

[Sirob1687]

Cliffhanger.......
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But still Great Chapter

But still ......Cliffhangers
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[TurboTheGameGuy]

It could be a vigor

[Misdirection01]

Yay an update! Hope to see more soon!

[xluferx]

Vodka it was Vodka

[Gazpacho]

Hmmm, maybe it was an EVE but instead of injecting it, she drank it.

[The Hood]

4638317 ooooooooh, but I still don't understand what they're supposed to look like.

[Dontaskaboutit]

Cliffhanger

[Epic Brony 4 Life]

Okay, the cliffhanger thing was okay the first four times, tolerable a few other times, and now it's seriously starting to piss me off.

[The Hood]

4668952 eeyup.

[insania exitium]

HOW ABOUT I JUST HANG YOU OF A FUCKING CLIFF IN HEAVEN YA BASTARD

[Brother Uriel]

4935588 Woah, calm down! Tis but a story, do not rage for un sound reasons.

[SCP-096]

4935588 Someone had their panties in a twist there.

[Eric Longtooth]

4935588 Wow, red and black alicorn OC with a name that involves 'Insanity'. I'm not even surprised that your acting like a toddler. How did you get on the internet, you should still be in Pre-Prep.
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