Science of Sisterhood - CH01
The air smelled of disinfectants and illness even in the hospital waiting room. Velvet had been waiting all evening for an update on the girl she hit. Her children were at home with her husband, but she had opted to stay after being told that the young lady didn’t have any ID on her.
Originally they had kept her in the loop, and even let her know that there wasn’t any expectation of permanent damage at the moment, but suddenly it seemed like all information had been cut off in the last hour, with the last piece of news simply that she had woken up.
Finally, a nurse came up. “Miss Twilight Velvet? Hi, sorry for the wait. Do you mind following me?”
“Oh! Sure, one moment!” Velvet said, before rushing to pick up her belongings from the chair, and walking behind the nurse. “So, do you have more information on the girl?”
“Well, I can’t really give you more info, but I think Ms Radiant Hope get you up to speed ok?”
The nurse replied, her tone polite but curt.
“Radiant Hope? Has light blue hair, violet complexion?” Velvet asked suddenly.
“Oh! You know her?” The nurse paused in surprise, before walking again.
“We’ve met. Her cousin and my son went to high school together. I didn’t realize she worked here though.”
“Whelp! We’re here, just go on through!”
The sign on the door.
“Velvet! Small world, small world! Sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances, but young Sunset Shimmer is slated to make a full recovery, in case you didn’t know before!” The younger lady said from across the desk.
“so that's her name... Radiant, can’t say I don’t agree. Yes, the nurses did let me know that at least before they shut down on me. Can you tell me what’s going on?” Twilight replied as she sat down.
“OK, so usually we don’t share patient information due to confidentiality laws. The nurses were kind of tiptoeing the line, but since she was unconscious and you were the only adult around that cared, they could presuppose ‘Jane Doe’ and 'good Samaritan' prerogatives. Basically as long as we don't have information stating otherwise, we assume you are the guardian until the minor told us otherwise. The nurses really pushed it, but when she woke up, what she said kicked off procedures that brought me into it."
"So, she woke up, provided her name, and then stated on record she had no relationship to you. And the moment she provided that information, they brought me in and couldn’t really share more with you. However, since she stated that she had no family or guardian, it kicked it to the case worker’s office, where I am, and opened a can of worms, though it also let ME talk to YOU.” Radiant explained, before taking a large breath.
“So… she’s refusing to provide her family information, so until you find them, you can decide speak to me while you act in loco parentis?” Velvet tried to summarize her understanding.
Radiant’s expression turned a bit somber, and she shook her head. “No. Her name came up quite quickly, didn’t take more than 10 minutes to verify her identity once I had her name. She’s in the national foster AND the missing child cases registries, but… well...here…”
Velvet took the offered printouts, scanning them quickly, before gasping and reading them in more details.
“Let’s see… Mother and father died when she was 10… foster care… ran away at 12… body found matching description, presumed deceased?! Radiant, this is… are you sure that’s her?! It’s horrible!” Velvet gasped out, as tears escaped her eyes. In reply, Radiant, turned her monitor so it was facing Velvet, showing a profile picture of a little girl, with sad teal eyes, and hair like flames, with a clearly fake smile on her face.
“Velvet… that kid was in the system long enough that we have everything we need to identify her. Thankfully they hadn’t closed the case and declared her dead yet, which would have been a pain to reverse from an administrative perspective. More worryingly is the fact that there is now an unidentified death, though that’s a problem for the police department out in Marecopa county.” Radiant stopped for a moment, and both ladies seemed to take a moment of silence.
Once the moment passed, The case worker seemed to get a second wind of determination. “Look Velvet… I haven’t been doing this as long as some of the others, but if I follow the play book, that kid is going to go through all manners of hell before getting shoved back into the system, and get ruined…”
“But I talked with her a bit, and she’s not- she’s not as damaged as you would think from what’s on that paper Velvet. I was hoping to maybe... find her somewhere better to be while this goes through the system?” Radiant stared into Velvet’s eyes seriously. “That’s the reason I’m sharing this. This is me manipulating you into taking this kid in for a trial basis, cause it would help her so much more than what I could do for her any other way.” Radiant finished, looking exhausted, and with eyes far older than her face.
“Radiant… I’m… you… how would this even be legal?” Velvet let out, feeling completely overwhelmed.
“Usually social workers are given leeway on cases like these, since these types of situations are each so unique ok? Usually we are able to circumvent a lot of the steps for extended family or family friends since the official mission is to reunite kids with their families, so I’m still stretching things. Basically, you would be fostering her on a trial basis under my authority. Just think of it as me deputizing you as a foster parent in lieu of going through the normal screening process.” Radiant Hope took a deep breath, and continued her explanation.
“Since you’re not really family, that does mean that if anything goes wrong before you complete the screening process, it would cost my job, but I know you and Night, and you’d pass them with flying colors if you decide to take them. Otherwise, after 90 days she would be moved to another family that already has passed inspection.” Radiant finished her explanation, showing how much thought she had already put into this idea.
“Velvet, I can get you to speak to her if it will help you consider this. Will you do that at least?” Radiant Hope spoke hurriedly, looking slightly desperate.
Twilight Velvet didn’t really know Radiant that well, they had been acquaintances at best, so she was thrown off by the fact that she was willing to risk her career by trusting a stranger. Part of her was flattered that she gave such a good impression, however another was slowly growing more wary, as she realized that Radiant was truly pulling at straws to help Sunset. All very noble, but this was so much more than she expected.
“Alright, I’m willing to meet, it is the reason I've been waiting so long... but Radiant… this... I might not even be able to decide today”
In response, the social worker just beamed back at Velvet. “Don’t worry, let’s go up and meet her for now. She should be done with breakfast.”
Velvet felt unprepared as she followed Radiant Hope to Sunset’s hospital room. She hadn’t had a chance to shower or sleep, and oddly enough her mind got stuck on how bad of a first impression she may give the girl. As they finally walked in, she barely caught a worried look on the girl’s face before it was gone and replaced by a congenial expression.
“Sunset, I’m still working on your options, as I’d told you earlier, however while I do that I wanted to introduce you to Twilight Velvet here. She’s-”
“You’re the one that was in the… car… Weren’t you? You look familiar…” Sunset interrupted the social worker, having been exposed already to her habit towards long winded rambling.
“Yes, yes I am. I’m sorry we’re meeting this way, but I’m glad that you seem to be on the mend all things considered.” Velvet replied, somewhat unsure as to the etiquette of starting conversation in such an odd case.
“Yeah… they told me it should have been much worse, and I’m lucky. Actually, the nurse said you probably saved my life by slowing down the other car, so thanks I guess. I’m a bit confused why you wanted to see me though?” Sunset replied while maintaining her neutral expression, not really giving anything away. Velvet felt guilty as soon as the thought entered her mind, that the girl was probably an expert at lying with a straight face. It wasn’t fair, as she was just trying to be polite, but Velvet’s mind was busy scrutinizing her for any potential issues if brought near to her family. Velvet focused her gaze at the girls hands for a moment, frowning at how oddly she was holding them, with all her fingers curled in and her wrists bent.
“Do your hands hurt?” She asked the girl.
“What, my…? Oh! My hands, well not much… Just sore I guess? They had one in a wrap for a while, but they took it off once the swelling went down.” Sunset replied, raising her arms and flopping her hands back and forth at the wrist, almost as if they weren’t connected to the rest of her body. This was the most reaction either visitor had seen from the girl. This sparked a bit more concern from Velvet.
“Are you sure? If they hurt or you’re having difficulty using them… well it’s important to let the doctors or nurses know.” Velvet sighed, and made mental note to bring this up with Radiant and the nurses just in case the girl didn’t. She then kept looking around to figure out any other topic of conversation she could bring up that would be a bit less awkward.
“Look, do you… I mean, do you like to read Sunset? You know I’m a bit of a bibliophile myself, so I can bring a couple books on my next visit.” Velvet changed the question at the last moment. She would keep to her guns and not make any decisions until speaking with her husband on this. It was hard not to notice how small and pale the girl looked as she lay in that hospital bed however.
“I like books about magic and science for the most part, though lately I’ve been trying to get a copy of the newspaper whenever I can.”
“Ah, fantasy and sci-fi lover huh? Well, I lately have been pretty focused on the historical romance novels… Trashy I know, but it’s some mental junk food is good from time to time.” Velvet replied, getting an odd look from Sunset before she awkwardly smiled back.
Velvet could tell the young teen was feeling vulnerable behind her poker face, and a part of her just wanted to comfort the girl, but without committing to Radiant’s plan, there wasn’t much she could say that would actually help. “Look, Sunset… I’m running on fumes, and you need to rest. I heard you’ll likely be in the hospital for a day or so for observation. Do you mind if I come back tomorrow? I’ll try to bring some books for you too.”
“Sure go ahead.”
On the ride home, Velvet found herself trying to strategize how she would bring Nightlight up to speed about Radiant Hope’s request to go along with fostering Sunset for the month. She knew he would be much more ambivalent about it than her, since he didn’t see that child laid out on the car roof. She was self aware enough to accept that a big part of this was her guilt, and Radiant’s convincing argument.
Velvet hadn’t really realized when exactly she had decided that she wanted to help Radiant Hope and bring Sunset home, but between her thoughts about how to convince her husband, tell her children, figure out the best novel to bring back to the hospital and how she would redecorate the guest room, it had become an assumed conclusion.
Her husband had listened quietly as she had gotten him up to speed while she ate left over takeout in the kitchen. Nightlight was a thinker, and while smart, he tended to need a couple minutes to absorb new ideas, and make an opinion. Usually Velvet appreciated this, as it made him very level headed, however tonight, the minutes of silence as he thought about what she had said were torture. He stood up, and made himself some tea, silently offering to also pour some for her, which she declined. Finally he sat back down at the table, and seemed to have come to a decision for the most part.
“Vel… This girl is a complete unknown, and she has a really tragic story… But, on the flipside, you know that it means she will have huge issues. Do you really think it will be safe to have her in our home? Around Twily?” Nightlight asked Velvet. Funnily enough, this calmed Velvet down. Nightlight was doing what he commonly did for any large decision, he tended to play devil’s advocate against the choice he thought best of. A little bit of reassurance was all that was needed.
“Night, if we don’t take her in, she will be ruined by the system. As a runaway, they'd treat her as a delinquent. We’re her last hope honey. We have the room and funds, especially now that Shiny has left home. She’s Twily’s age, no one that young deserves what she’s gone through.” Night glanced at his wife at her impassioned declaration before once more focusing on his tea cup. With a deep sigh, he rocked himself back to his feet, and asked the question he usually ended up asking whenever he capitulated an argument.
“Alright. What are the next steps Vel?”
Twilight was nervous. The last couple days had been a whirlwind at the house. Her brother’s visit had been overshadowed by the accident, and then her parents’ rush to prepare the house for their new guest. It had been bittersweet having Shining Armor help her pack up so much of her stuff to make way for a second bed in her room. Twilight always thought it would be the other way around, that she would help Shining finish taking his belongings once he went to college. Instead they were shifting her stuff between the attic, the den, and the garage.
It was frustrating, and she wasn’t sure why her parents didn’t just turn the den back from an office into a bedroom. She supposed her mom’s need for a home office to work from made sense. At least the reorganization gave Twilight a chance to inventory all her books and equipment.
She knew her budding resentment was unfair, and part of her mind kept flashing back to the accident, when she had seen the other girls limb dangling from the roof of the car. She had had nightmares about it, and she wasn't the one hit, so she couldn't imagine how Sunset felt.
She heard the sounds of people arriving home. The front door opened and her mother called out. “Kids! Come here, I want you to say hi to Sunset!"
Well, there was no more putting this off. Time to go meet her new foster sister.
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I am interested in Science of Sisterhood
8951443
Thanks Andres! I appreciate the thought. I really like the idea too! the major hurdle I've realized on stories happening this early is that we don't have a lot to go on in writing Sunset, which makes writing her a challenge.
She's bad enough that she ran through the mirror, but she must have been humbled for a while early on until she got a handle on being human. 2-3 years before the start of EQG, and we can assume she started off not so bad, and got worse based on the progression in the Princess pictures shown on the wall.
So, I want to write her the way I imagine her, but that means that she may end up being too out of character... There's also the fear of ending up recreating stories that had similar concepts, and inspired this story, such as Second Chance to find home.
I definitely plan on writing more chapters though!
8953165
the similarity you can have with Second Chance to find the home would be more or less at the beginning when the Sparkle family takes care of it, but from there it can take a totally different turn, because it is known that Sunset was alone in the human world since her escape from Equestria, which allowed her to do what she wanted without limit, but with the accident and that the State knows that she exists, she can have the opportunity to start a new life
you really need to make this a full story and dont do the conspiracy theory thing it would be in character for twilight but it would kinda drag the story its self down
8992327
I do want to get back to this story and flesh it out at some point! I'm not sure what you meant about the conspiracy theory comment? I'll be honest, if I did it, I would focus mostly on the interpersonal development.