I Only Wanted to Stay your Sister

by IGIBAB

Where did Sweetie Belle go?

For Rarity, her sister got out of this alive, and she prays for her to survive in good health, to find someone that can take care of her fragile younger sister.

For her friends, Sweetie Belle has run away, disappeared without a trace. Of course, Celestia has launched a search, but everyone secretly hopes that it will lead to nothing, that Sweetie Belle will be able to live.

And finally, for the rest of Ponyville...

"Someone will have to tell her..." says Twilight sadly.

All six of them, as well as Spike, are in the library, the day after the events, as they returned to Ponyville afterwards. They are discussing the way in which they'll announce the news to Ponyville, and more specifically to Sweetie Belle's two friends.

It was agreed upon to say she was dead, and to not say anything about the fact she was transformed into a robot or that she ran away. In any case, if she comes back, she'll be deactivated...

"I can take care of it..." proposes Applejack. "Ah'll tell her at the same time than Apple Bloom... Maybe it'll go better if they learn about it together."

"I'll come with you, AJ," adds Rainbow Dash. "Scootaloo will need someone to support her."

Twilight closes her eyes, thinking. She squints her eyelids. How did it came to this? As she's thinking, she hears Fluttershy weeping. The poor pegasus is inconsolable. The death of a filly as soft as Sweetie Belle, it's more than she can bear. Next to her, Rarity is inexplicably calm. She doesn't seems very sad, even relieved. She's even trying to comfort Fluttershy. What she went through why a robotic sister is hard to relate, and Twilight knows it escapes her understanding. That's why she doesn't longer over her current expression, but rather her words and actions. If her friend says she's fine and everything leads to believe that, then all she can do is trust in her.

Twilight opens her eyes.

"Good luck Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Stay strong."

"Thank you Twilight," answers the farmer mare.

"Thanks," adds the pegasus.

"Pinkie Pie, I count on you to comfort ponies, " says Twilight, turning to the pink pony, pointing at Rarity and Fluttershy with a quick movement of the eyes, to indicate who she's talking about in particular.

"No problem Twilight!" answers Pinkie, smiling. "I just taught Gummy hilarious new tricks!"

Pinkie lifts her tail, showing the alligator hanging from it by the jaws. Gummy seems as responsive as always and blinks asynchronously.

This seemingly harmless move is noticed by Rarity. It's exactly the same one that Sweetie Belle did the day she died. However, Rarity doesn't cry when thinking about it. Her sister is somewhere, in Equestria, healthy, she's sure of it, so she has no reason to worry anymore. This resemblance with Gummy even put a smile on her face.

Twilight smiles.

"Thank you all. It's a tough ordeal, and I'd like to stay by your sides, but princess Celestia and princess Luna need my help. Since robots where found even among the guards, we can't really ask other guards to kill their old colleagues, even if they are... already dead."

Twilight looks bothered by those last two words. She knows that Celestia is right, and that they have to be deactivated because they are pony aberrations, but she fins it extremely cruel to separate them from their close ones again. Death already affected the ones dear to the robots, and they hoped they would be able to keep on living with them, and she's the one who has to tell them it was only a sweet dream, and that they have to give up on it. The worst part being the fact that the robots, for the most part, don't even recall dying. They act normally, because they think they are normal and will be able to carry on with their lives. How does one tell a pony that his life doesn't exist anymore already? And, on top of that, he's going to have to die again? All the projects those ponies might have, their dreams, it is her, Twilight, who will have to take them away.

She doesn't want to. She doesn't want to bring sadness. But she has to, because no one else will be able to, so she stays strong, even if deep down she only wants one thing: to give up.

"You gonna be alright Twilight?" asks the farmer.

"Yes, yes, don't worry," answers Twilight, not wanting to make her friends worry for her as they already have their own problems.

Applejack looks at Twilight with concern. To be honest, all have their eyes focused on Twilight.

"Spike, I give you the responsibility over the library and Owlowiscious."

"Yes ma'am!" says Spike, his claws against the side of his head, smiling.

Twilight smiles kindly.

"Good luck to you all."

"You too Twilight," answer the others together.

Twilight then goes out of the library, heading for Ponyville's station, followed by Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who are going the Apple farm, or more precisely to the Cutie Mark Crusaders' shack.

The others stay inside of the library. Spike might be able to light up everypony's mood, who knows? In any case, Pinkie will probably need some help.

---

"Sooooo... How do we tell them?" asks Rainbow Dash with a hesitant voice, flying by Applejack's side.

"I have no idea..." she answers with a sigh. "Ah'm afraid of their reaction. They're just fillies and look at what we're gonna tell them..."

"We'll have to stay by their side to support them. We must not leave them alone."

Applejack gives a half-surprised gaze at Rainbow.

"I didn't knew you were so mature."

"What do you think?" says the pegasus as she puffs out her chest. "I know how to adapt to every situation, even the hardest ones!"

Applejack can't refrain from laughing a tad bit. At least, it eases up the atmosphere a little. But she's soon brought back to reality: The Cutie Mark Crusaders' shack is in view.

Inside, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are sat down in front of their table. Apple Bloom has her forelegs on the table, while Scootaloo straight up has her head laying on it, on the side.

"For Rainbow's sake! Where has Sweetie Belle gone yesterday!" suddenly exclaims Scootaloo while straightening up, lifting her hooves in the air.

"Ah don't know..." weakly answers Apple Bloom, her head resting on her hooves. "As soon as we looked away when we decided to get cutie marks in hedge trimming, she vanished..."

"But she's late! Usually, we meet up here everyday at the same hour! It's been an hour!"

"Maybe Rarity needs her..."

Scootaloo scratches her chin with a hoof, thinking. Then suddenly, she takes on a conspirator face and leans forward, whispering:

"Or, maybe she got her cutie mark and she wants to hide it from us."

Apple Bloom rolls her eyes.

"You imagine too much stories Scoot'. Sweetie Belle would have told us... Our goal is to get a cutie mark, not to have it at the same time, even if that would be better."

But the pegasus doesn't let go of it.

"Or then, maybe that..."

But she's suddenly interrupted by Applejack knocking on the door.

"Apple Bloom? Scootaloo? Y'all in here?"

"Com'in, big sis," answers Apple Bloom, suddenly straightening up, looking way more interested by what's going to happen rather than by Scootaloo's far-fetched theories.

Applejack opens the door and comes in, followed by Rainbow Dash, who landed to pass the door.

"How was Canterlot yesterday?" asks Apple Bloom, knowing her sister went to the capital the day before.

Applejack and Rainbow exchange an awkward look. Applejack speaks first, with a voice she intends to be kind:

"Not really... Somethin' bad happened."

"It's about Sweetie Belle," adds Rainbow, trying to be the least brutal possible.

"She did something silly?" asks Scootaloo.

Applejack shakes her head in a "no".

"Something happened to her..." answers Rainbow, searching for a way to announce that, avoiding the fillies's eyes.

Apple Bloom tilts her head on the side, looking worried, imitated by Scootaloo.

"Is she alright?" asks Apple Bloom, looking her sister right in the eyes.

Applejack stares at her as well. It breaks her heart, but she has too. She takes in a deep breath, hoping it will give her a bit of courage, then announces:

"Girls... Sweetie Belle is..."

---

Dead... That's the first word that comes to her mind.

"I'm dead," she says to herself non-stop.

But then, why is she thinking? Death, isn't it the end of everything? How can she still think while being dead? And what is that weird sensation? It's not death, but neither is it life. It feels like an in-between. As if she's conscious of being alive while being dead. A strange feeling.

The strangest still is that light she can see. First blurred, then clearer. She's laying down. She doesn't know on what. She can't feel the surface she's resting on. To be honest, she doesn't have any external sensation.

Above her, tools. A lot of tools. She wants to look what's around, but she can't even move her eyes. It's as if her body isn't hers, as if she's now a simple spectator of what's happening to her. Her stare is locked on a big wrench above her head.

"I'm alive?" she thinks. "But why can't I move?"

Her memory comes back.

"The fall. I got hurt! Am I paralysed?"

With everything that happened recently, the poor Sweetie Belle doesn't recall that she's a robot. It's too recent for her to be used to it. So she still thinks like a filly who believes herself to be a filly.

And before that fragment of memory can come back, Sweetie is disturbed in her reflection by the sudden appearance in her field of view of a pony. Brown, with a red mane, wearing a hat like Applejack's. A unicorn.

"I'm sorry, little one," he says, looking at Sweetie Belle's unmoving eyes. "Tell yourself it's just a dream. It won't hurt."

The pony's horn glows brown and a blade comes out, as Sweetie Belle sees herself getting rolled on the side, back turned away from the pony.

"What is he gonna do to me!? Why did he pull out a blade!?"

Fear arises in the filly. Something horrible is going to happen, she can feel it. But she's unable to move, to run away. Her gaze is stuck on the wall in front of her muzzle.

She hears a tearing sound, something getting opened. A noise comes out from behind her, really close. Some kind of electric crackle.

"What is he doing!?" panics Sweetie Belle. "Why did he said it would not hurt!? What was he talking about!?"

The crackle intensifies. It reminds Sweetie Belle of something.

"It sounds like a... robot."

If they could, her eyes would open wide. She remembers everything. What happened with Puppet Owner, her fall, the fact that she is a robot.

"D-Did he cut me!? He opened me!?"

She tries to move, but it's no use. Her body doesn't exist anymore. She can't feel it.

"Done, it's over, little one."

Sweetie Belle then suddenly opens her eyes and straightens abruptly, panting, terrified. She is in another room, on a bed. She can perfectly feel her body and move it normally, but it's not what's on her mind right now.

What was that? A dream? A horrible nightmare? Everything seemed so real.

She tries to catch her breath and calm her racing heart.

"You're alright, little one?"

Sweetie Belle jumps and turns her head. The unicorn is here, sat down in front of the only window of the room, looking at the grey sky outside with a calm face, lost in his thoughts.

Sweetie looks at him. He doesn't seem aggressive. She tries to put some coherence back in her own mind.

"It wasn't a dream, in case you were wondering."

"What did you do to me?" asks Sweetie Belle, moving back in her bed, still frightened.

"You're a robot, well a robot-pony hybrid. You know that already, don't you?" he says, turning his head towards her.

His eyes aren't evil. They're compassionate.

Sweetie Belle thinks back to her memories.

"So... It's true?" she asks with tears in her eyes.

She was hoping it was just a dream, that her sister didn't really admitted she was a robot, that she was still Sweetie Belle, the little unicorn living in Ponyville.

"Unfortunately. You died and were resurrected, better get use to it right now because you'll stay like that until the end of your life."

Despite the fact he understands Sweetie Belle's situation, this pony doesn't do anything to make it easier for her.

"If you don't accept that now, I'll deactivate you, because your future will only be made of moments like this."

Sweetie Belle looks at the pony, mouth slightly opened, a desperate look in the eyes, ready to cry. But the last sentence sounded like a threat, and she refrains from crying with great trouble.

"You can cry. If you cry, it means you accept it. What I don't want is for you to not admit it."

Sweetie bursts into tears. She cries, again and again. She really lost everything. Her life is just a mere imitation of what it once was, her friends want to catch and arrest her. Her sister told her to run away and live... far from her. She takes her head in her hooves and sobs for many minutes, during which the pony doesn't move from his place in front of the window. Then, he speaks again:

"You died, little one... Not once, but twice. Your fall from the edge cut your batteries and you died a second time. I had to change them, then once your program was rebooted, I brought back your life once again. That's why you saw the beginning of the surgery. It was simply your program recording everything happening at that moment. You weren't even conscious, it's only a memory of something you didn't live yourself."

The pony turns his head towards Sweetie Belle, who managed to dry her tears up a bit, even if they're still flowing.

"Why am I telling you this? Because you need to realises some things. I only brought you back to life because you were already a robot. I won't do it for your relatives. Regarding your batteries, I only had an old unadapted model, so you'll have to recharge them often. They run on solar energy and, in extreme cases, on magic.

Sweetie Belle calms down slowly. She's starting to take the shock, even if it's not definitive. She will cry about those things in the future, no doubts, but for now she manages to calm down. She's even able to pronounce those words:

"W-Who are you...?"

The pony smiles, glad to see Sweetie Belle pass this first step.

"Puppet Care. You already know my brother, Puppet Owner. He's the one who brought back to life the first time. Don't worry, I don't really share his views, nor his desire to steal alicorn magic, or even to bring back the dead. What's your name, little one?"

"Sweetie... Sweetie Belle," she sniffs.

She sits down in the bed, trying to get into a position so as to not stand on her shaky legs.

"A not-so-easy life awaits you, Sweetie Belle. You'll have to fight against this world that despise us, by fear."

The filly looks at the unicorn facing the window. She then notices his left front leg is missing a piece of skin, revealing a mechanical leg under it. That's why he said "us".

"Y-You're a robot too?" asks Sweetie Belle.

"Hm?" says Puppet, looking at Sweetie, before realising that she's glancing at his leg. "Oh, no, not really. Let's say it's more like a robotic limb. I didn't die. By the way, the piece of skin missing is on you now. I had nothing else to close the opening on the back of your neck. It doesn't show up, as long as you don't lift your mane."

Sweetie instinctively reaches for her neck. Indeed, she can feel that something is different from the rest. A texture less silky than her own coat, of course. She has a piece of someone else on her.

"Emotional overload," she suddenly says with a robotic voice.

Sweetie Belle covers her mouth with her own hooves, shocked by what she said against her will, before remembering what one of these hooves just touched. She pulls it away from her mouth with a bit of disgust.

"Here's one of the many problems you'll face. I don't know why, but the oral description of the system has been activated. So, sometimes, your emotional or physical states will be described. I tried to turn it off, but you're in a far too perfected form of my brother's system, and I can't go in too deep without running the risk of damaging something vital. I managed to lower the sensitivity, but there will be moments when the filters will trip."

Sweetie Belle removes her hoof from her mouth. Her breathing starts to quicken. She begins to panic again. Tears come to her eyes once more.

"Cry, little one, as much as you want. And when you'll want to stop crying and move on, tell me."

---

Apple Bloom is looking at her sister with her head tilted on the side, eyes squinted and mouth slightly open, as if she thinks she misheard. Scootaloo's eyes are wide open, as well as her mouth.

"Can you repeat what you just said, big sis...?" Apple Bloom asks slowly.

Applejack walks to her sister, takes her in hers hooves and holds her against her torso.

"Sweetie Belle is dead..." repeats the farmer with a broken voice and tears in her eyes.

Apple Bloom widens her eyes as tears get to them on their own.

"But... How...?" she desperately asks before beginning to cry in her sister's legs.

"An accident... A terrible accident," explains her sister, holding back her tears the best she can.

Scootaloo is completely frozen. Tears are flowing from her eyes since Applejack repeated. Rainbow Dash gets closer, begins a gesture, hesitant, not knowing how to react, then finally wraps a hoof around Scootaloo and hugs her against her. The filly then embraces the pegasus with all her strength, while sobbing against her.

---

Outside, rains starts to pour, drops splashing on the window.

"Careful, little one, you might have troubles walking."

"I-It's fine. I think..."

Sweetie Belle slowly slides towards the edge of the bed, puts a leg on the floor, then another, and finally the two front ones. Slightly shaking, she tries to walk forward a bit. One hoof in front of the other. But something is already wrong.

"I-I feel like my left foreleg doesn't move right away when I ask it to."

Puppet walks to her, magically grabbing a strange and pointy tool.

"We're going to try something. Ask your body to deactivate the nerves in your leg."

"What?" says Sweetie, not understanding.

"Do it. Just like when my brother gave orders to your programme."

The filly hesitates for a moment, then, when seeing Puppet's small encouraging smile, ends up saying:

"Deactivation of the left foreleg's nerves."

Immediately, Sweetie Belle loses all sensation in the said leg, including her stability, as she falls on the floor. She gets back up with her other legs and contemplates, with surprise and shock, her inert leg. She sits down and palpates her leg with a hoof. Nothing, no sensation. She lifts it. Absolutely flabby, her legs doesn't seem to be a part of her body anymore.

She turns her gaze to the unicorn, who's displaying a little smile.

"As I thought, your programme is made to obey your own voice. It's a good thing. I won't have to anaesthetize you to proceed to all the adjustments."

Puppet takes Sweetie Belle's inert leg and pierces the skin with his pointy tool, touching something.

The little unicorn watches the scene unfold, eyes wide opened with astonishment, seeing her own body getting pierced and modified, without even an ounce of pain or any unpleasant sensation.

"There. That should do it," says Puppet, putting away the weird tool from the leg, leaving a barely visible hole. "You can reactivate it."

Sweetie looks at her leg for a few instants, before saying with a voice showing she still doesn't believe it:

"Reactivation of the left foreleg's nerves."

And instantly, she finds back usage of her leg. She can move it and, this time, there's no delay between her will and her movements. She walks normally.

"I'll teach you how to modify yourself alone, if you want. But once correctly calibrated, your system shouldn't change."

Sweetie Belle takes a few laps around the house, practising her walking. When focusing, it appears she can distinguish a slight mechanical noise when she walks. Something light. Maybe it's just her imagination, in fact.

"And for the commands, you can do shorter. Just say the name of the limb or the part you want to deactivate, followed by the word deactivation."

Sweetie Belle examines her body, a little curious, then turns her head towards Puppet and asks:

"And now...? What am I going to do? Can I go back home?"

Puppet nods "no".

"You're an outcast now, like me. You'll have to keep your secret and stay away from those who know it. Your sister's friends have been informed, you won't be able to live in Ponyville. The princesses are hunting the robots."

Sweetie Belle remembers the words of her sister. To run, to live her own life, to find someone to care for her. Her sister. The sister she'll never see again. That she won't be able to see. Like her friends.

As she's about to cry again, something falls on her head. A piece of fabric. She pulls it away and looks at Puppet, who's putting one on as well.

"If you want to go out, put this on. I'm going to show you something that'll interest you, I think. Even though you won't probably like it."

Sweetie Belle looks at the piece of fabric. Something old and dirty. Typically the kind of things her sister would have refuse to let her wear. She has a sad smile when thinking that, and put on the piece of fabric. A tall cape, with a hood. That's how she'll have to live from now on. Hidden.

Puppet opens the door, letting in the fresh and moist air from outside. Under a heavy rain. He goes out, and Sweetie Belle follows. Maybe the hood is just for the rain, in the end?

"Where are we going?" asks the filly.

"To a place you know well," mysteriously says Puppet as they walk under the rain.

Two figures moving without a noise under the obscurity of the clouds, like ghosts.

---

All Ponyville is gathered in front of a small hole. Rarity and her relatives in first line, as well as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, respectively in Rainbow Dash's and Applejack's embrace. Many umbrella can be seen in the crowd, but those in the first row stay naked under that almost appropriate rain. Faces are dark, sorrowful.

The mayor is doing a speech.

"... And in this day, we all mourn the oh too soon passing of this brave filly that was Sweetie Belle. And our thoughts go to her family and friends."

A sob can be heard distinctively in the first row. Sweetie Belle's mother has been crying for a while now, she can't even look at the scene. Her husband tries as he can to comfort her, despite him crying as well. Rarity is by their sides and sheds a few tears as well. Even if she knows her sister is alive, she won't see her ever again. And seeing her parents in such turmoil doesn't leave her indifferent, of course.

Apple Bloom sobs, snuggled against her sister who's holding her, eyes closed, head low.

The crowd leaves room for Twilight, as she's levitating by magic a small box which supposedly contain Sweetie Belle's body.

It's empty, of course. It's to fool and make the fact that Sweetie Belle's dead more believable. Twilight feels pretty bad to have to carry, quite literally, such a lie. Being forced to lie to her parents. And what if they encounter Sweetie Belle one day? After all, she ran away. And it's the same for anyone. Amongst all the resurrected ponies, she's the only one they couldn't find.

She carefully leaves the small hollow box in the bottom of the hole, and let the gravediggers ponies fill the hole cleanly. A stone lies in front of the small clod, naming a filly which isn't beneath it, counting the brief years of her life.

Everypony mourns in silence or in sobs. The only noise that can really be distinguished is the one the rain makes by splashing on the ground.

---

A bit away from the crowd, in the shadows, two figures are observing the scene. One of them is completely shocked, opening her mouth slightly. The other one sighs.

"Here's what I wanted to show you. So that you clearly understand that you must not come back here. You can't."

"But... I'm not dead though... They didn't saw me dead, no?"

"No. I'm the only one that saw your body fall from the cliff. Look closely. Your sister's friends aren't crying. They know you're still alive."

"Then... Why are my parents crying?" asks the filly, with a broken voice, on the verge of tears when seeing her parents like this.

"They probably lied, said you were dead. In the eyes of the world, you are dead. And if someone else finds you, you will be for real."

Sweetie Belle stays here, gazing at her own grave from afar for a moment.

"Emotional conflict," says the robot's voice, but she doesn't care about it.

After a time of remembrance, ponies start to leave. Some stay, to talk with the "deceased" relatives, offer their condolences, that kind of things.

Rarity's friends leave gradually, Applejack getting her still troubled sister back to their home, Rainbow doing the same with Scootaloo.

After a long moment, during which Sweetie Belle didn't moved a hoof, only her family is left in front of her grave. Puppet had expected her to move, to try and go see them, but she stays here and calmly waits. As if she had understood that she's now some kind of ghost. And if one was to forget the sentence pronounced by her system, she seems to admit it pretty well.

"In the end... She got nerves, that little one..." Puppets says to himself with relief, as he had been afraid to stumble on a spoiled child.

Finally, Sweetie Belle's parent go away as well, the mother being supported by the father. Only Rarity stays in front of the grave, alone, standing still, eyes fixed on it, as the rains is starting to fade.

She dries the tears she shed with her parents and begins to have a tender smile. Thinking back about her sister, wishing her the best for her new life. She knows well that talking to this grave makes no sense, since her sister isn't dead. But weirdly, it's as if Rarity was sure that her sister could hear her. So she speaks, not even caring about her wet and unkept mane.

"I realised many times that you were really dear to me, Sweetie Belle. Despite all our arguments, all disagreements... We are sisters. You are my sister, and probably the thing in the world I cherish the most. I just hope you don't blame me... I couldn't explain it to you, but your death is my fault. I don't know if you recall, when we argued for the last time and you went towards the Everfree... You died that day... And if I hadn't yelled at you for that silly costume... None of this would have ever happened."

Her sister marks a pause, drying real tears this time. She still smiles, and her sister, further away, is hanged on her every words.

"I'm sure you're doing well... That you followed my advices. Don't come back here. People will mean you harm. Go, and live a beautiful life. Goodbye... Sweetie Belle."

With a heartache, Rarity turns around to go away and sees in the distance two silhouettes. She stops, surprised. The two figures seems to be looking in her direction. One of them, the smallest, probably a filly, walks forward. The fabric covering her, which is of very bad quality, let the mare's legs appear with each step she takes. Legs that she knows.

The other figure walks forward too. The filly stops by Rarity's side, without looking at her. She's staring at the grave.

"Thank you, big sister... For everything you've said, and done for me."

Rarity's heart skips a beat when hearing that voice she would recognize among a thousand. She turns her eyes to the small hood hiding her sister.

"I think this is the last time we see each other."

Sweetie Belle removes her hood and turns to Rarity, looking at her with her big watery eyes. A look similar to Rarity's. They fall in each others hooves, hugging with all their strength.

"Take care of yourself Sweetie Belle!" says a Rarity filled with emotion.

"You too Rarity! And of everyone, dad, mom, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo..."

"I will, don't worry!"

Puppet stays away from this reunion, watching the surroundings, so that no one surprises them.

"You found someone trustworthy to take care of you?"

Sweetie Belle nods.

"As you asked me to, Rarity."

"Good," Rarity smiles kindly. "I'm going to miss you..."

"Me too..." says Sweetie, sniffing.

Rarity looks up and sees Twilight, observing her from afar. She looks at her, sorry, and Rarity understands. She gently puts the hood back onto Sweetie Belle's head, releasing her embrace.

"You need to go now."

The filly let go of Rarity, takes a few steps back as to better see her in her entirety, one last time. Engraving this ultimate picture of her sister in her now robotic mind.

"Picture saved," says the robot.

The two sisters look at each other a brief moment, then Sweetie Belle looks away.

"Farewell..." she says while heading towards Puppet, who also spotted Twilight.

"Goodbye," smiles Rarity.

The two figures slowly go away, without looking back. And Rarity stares at them, still smiling, until they disappear from her view.

Once the last little bit of her sister isn't visible anymore, she raises a leg on her torso to rub it slightly. A shivers goes through her. From the cold and the rain, probably, but also from something else. This feeling, which is more than an impression. A feeling of having lost something very important, and mostly, of being now alone.

"She's officially dead..." says Twilight, walking to Rarity. The latter doesn't look away from the horizon behind which she saw her sister disappear. The purple unicorn comes by her side, turning in the same direction. "If she lives with enough caution and far from Ponyville, all will go well for her. The only guards that knew her face were robots. So they were deactivated. There's only Ponyville's citizen and the princesses who know how she looks. And her family."

"She'll get through it. She's full of life, excitable. And most of all, determined. When she wants something, she never gives up. That's why she'll get through it."

Rarity turns her head and looks at her straight in the eyes, with a confident stare. Her friend smiles and closes her eyes before adding:

"You're right. She won't have any problem."

---

"Try to memorise what you can from the path, little one. Your memory is more precise now, make use of it."

Sweetie slowly nods.

"Attention focused," says the robot.

"I feel like I'm talking like this more often..." notes Sweetie Belle.

"There must be an error in the tuning I've done. By the way, this is going to be the first thing I'll teach you: fine-tune yourself."

"You mean... Like you did with my leg?"

"Precisely. You're body is malfunctioning, so you'll have to learn about dealing with that first and foremost."

"Deal with that..." repeats Sweetie Belle, a little scared.

The prospect of being able to modify her own body by herself is a little weird. To pierce her skin to then modify "mechanical stuff and things" as she qualifies them, in lack of a better term, inside of her. She looks at her own leg as she walks, the one that Puppet modified right under her eyes. So she too would do such things? When thinking about her body, a question then comes to her mind as she's still fixated on her leg:

"Will I grow up?"

Puppet has a little smile under his hood.

"The parts of your body that aren't robotic, yes. The others no, you'll have to adapt them yourself on the regular. But from what I know about my brother's models, the legs can be deployed, so you shouldn't have to change them.

"Your brother... Why was he doing this?"

Puppet's smile fades. He sighs.

"It's... an old story. He wanted to resurrect our little sister, Puppet Doll. She died when she was six, she was the youngest of us. My brother always found it unfair that she died so early. He thought that each life should have the same length, for everyone. So he looked for a way to change things. He already had a gift for mechanism and such, he could make little dolls move from a distance, that's where he got his cutie mark by the way. So he pursued that path."

Sweetie Belle abruptly stops. Puppet does the same and turns to her.

"What's wrong little one?"

"A cutie mark..."

Instinctively, those words make her think about her friends. The Cutie Mark Crusaders. They wanted to obtain their cutie marks, it was their goal. Their group of three friends. Never would she see them again, never would they discover their cutie marks together. In the end, it was all for nothing. Everything they did together is only now increasing the pain her friends are feeling.

"My friends..."

Her breath gets heavier. She starts to panic again. Puppet comes closer, sits down and takes her by the shoulders, looking at her straight in her eyes darkened by the hood.

"The worst is over now. Calm down. Yes, you won't be able to see your friends. Yes, they are sad right now because they think you are dead, and it's a good thing you feel bad for them, it shows that you truly are their friend. But that's no reason to think that your friendship is over."

Sweetie looks up to him, about to have a break down once more.

"A friendship stays forever. Is it because you won't see them again that you're going to stop loving them? To see them as important ponies for you?"

Sweetie hardly swallows her saliva to answer clearly:

"No..."

"Exactly! They are still your friends, and everything great that you lived them will stay forever engraved in here," he says will tapping her forehead. "And that goes for them as well. They won't forget you anytime soon, and you'll still be their friend."

Sweetie calms down a bit, breathing in a couple of times to gain back some composure, sniffing heavily, rubbing her eyes. With a lumpy throat, she asks:

"Will I be able to have a cutie mark?"

Puppet laughs a bit.

"But of course you'll get a cutie mark, like everypony!"

The filly laughs as well. A laugh muffled by her emotion, but a laugh nonetheless. Puppet smiles when seeing that progress. She managed to laugh. For a brief moment, the pony with a robotic leg sees in Sweetie his own deceased sister, but he quickly erases that memory from his mind. It's another filly he has in front of him. And now, he'll have to take care of her.

Author's Note:

Almost 9 years ago... Where did time go...?
BTW, I'm open if anyone wants to be a beta-reader to help me improve my english.

Comments

[KingSombraTheTyrantRuler]

I would have been heartbroken if Sweetie actually died this time...

Great chapter, by the way! I'd offer to be a beta reader for you, but school takes up a lot of time. However I recommend Myrkur as one for you. He's good.

PS: He's been offline a lot so you might have a hard chance of getting him to be your beta reader.