Twilight's Sister
It was a normally sunny day in Ponyville, and Twilight and her friends were enjoying the start of the day with a book club meeting at the unicorn's library. This was a get together that Twilight could peacefully enjoy, even if Pinkie was bringing her sphere of randomness into the house.
"Ooh, look at me!" Pinkie playfully sang as she teetered around the library floor on one of Twilight's otherwise prized globes, all the while balancing a textbook on her nose.
Pinkie's friends, not including Twilight, began to laugh at her fillylike charades. If Spike was at the library at the moment, he would of been laughing so hard that fire would've been spewing out of his mouth.
"Oh, my dear, you are so uncouth but nonetheless entertaining!" Rarity implemented as she herself fell to the floor and laughed in an "uncouth" manner.
The bookish unicorn became rather frustrated with the handling of her globe. "Pinkie!" she said in a motherly fashion. "Please get OFF of my globe before you break it!"
Pikie stopped balancing on the round object, and hopped off of it understandingly, book still balancing on her nose. "Aww, but Twilight! It's just a silly old globey wobey! I'm sure it wouldn't mind if I used it as a circus prop."
"But Princess Celestia would mind if you used the globe as a circus prop!" Twilight scolded the pink pony in a friendly yet defensive manner.
"What's so important about that dusty old globe, anyway?" Rainbow Dash's thoughts had escaped her lips, and she put a blue book down for a second to hear Twilight's response.
Twilight's instincts kicked in. "Dusty!?" she ___ said as she grabbed the large globe with her magic, and began to wipe it off with a nearby duster. "This is a globe that I just got from Princess Celestia. THIS is THE globe that the renouned Pioneer of Magic Starswirl the Bearded created as he adventured throughout all of our known, and some unknown, world!" the giddy Twilight explained.
"I still don't think that old globe is that cool, Twi," Dash commented as she picked up her Daring Do book and continued her suspenseful read.
"Ooh! So what happened to your old globe, Twilight?" Pinkie was //
"It's up in my study, next to all of my other useless materials that have been dubbed obsolete," Twilight replied, her voice pristine but less than boastful.
"That's great! So can I see your old globe then, Twilight?" Pinkie asked the purple unicorn, awaiting an authorization to indulge into more escapades dealing with globes.
"What's it wit them globes n' the like today, sugarcube?" Applejack chimed in to ask Pinkie, since she had been disrupted in her own reading of a green gardening book.
"She's Pinkie," Twilight informed Applejack. "And anyway, I don't think that you should be rolling around on my globes all day, Pinkie."
"Yeah, how's 'bout ya just go n' get a nice book to read?" Applejack added.
"Mm, okay," Pikie agreed, all the while calming down from her apparent hyperness. "I'll just find a gooood book!"
After at least an hour of Pinkie Pie looking for an intriguing book to read, and Twilight waiting for her friend to find the book, Pinkie gave up.
"Aww, Twilight," Pinkie slumped. "I just can't find a good book to read."
But this was supposed to be a book club meeting, the unicorn thought to herself. "How about you read a Daring Do book? I thought you loved those!" Twilight encouragingly exclaimed to her friend.
"Those books are way too boring for me, Twi," Pinkie began. "Besides, I wrote the Daring Do series, anyway."
Rainbow Dash shook her head in confused disbelief.
"Okay," Twilight was brainstorming for more available book options. "How about you read --"
"Ooh!" Pinkie cut Twilight off, somehow spotting a book from across the room. "I haven't checked that book yet!" With eyes locked on her prize, Pinkie skipped up the wooden stairs of the library.
"Wait, what book?" Halfway into her question, Twilight noticed that Pinkie was upstairs in her bedroom, looking at a book that was sitting atop a wooden bookshelf.
"No!" Twilight worriedly blurted at the pink pony.
"Why not, Twi?" Before Pinkie finished her question, Twilight was already upstairs, snatching the book from Pinkie's grasp with her magic.
"Um... because,"
"Because what?" Rarity now had slight suspicions upon what Twilight was hiding from her friends.
"Um... you know." The purple-coated unicorn conspicuously changed her manner and tone of voice. She now seemed slightly depressed, giving a hint that tears were going to build up in her eyes. "You know... just my memories..." Twilight sniffled, and Pinkie Pie backed off of her, silently.
Downstairs, Applejack noticed the sudden shift in her friend's emotions.
"Let's just let Twi to herself, gals," Applejack said to the other four ponies, while trying to soothe a saddening Twilight with her soft words of kindness.
Fluttershy, who had been in the back of the library reading to herself, had also taken notice in Twilight's feelings at the moment. "Yes, girls," she added on to Applejack's words. "Let's all just leave Twilight alone right now."
Rarity was stubborn in empathy. "Oh, but Twilight can not keep her tears bottled up like that; she must tell us what is wrong. We are her friends, by the way."
"Yeah, Twilight," Rainbow Dash was now giving in to the sad moment. "Tell us what wrong, we're your friends," she said non-aggressively.
All the while through her friends soothing speeches downstairs, Twilight just clenched the little hardback book up to her chest. She couldn't let go of the little book that caused such a commotion in her friends and a stir of feelings in herself.
Twilight just sat on her bed, clinching the book as if it were little filly, turned away from her four friends that were downstairs.
Pinkie Pie put a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Twilight," Pinkie softly said to Twilight in a sympathetic way, standing beside her friend that was on the bed. "Whatever it is, we'll always love you as your best friends, no matter what."
Upon hearing those words of hope, the silent unicorn turned to face Pinkie, revealing streams of tears running down her cheeks. After seconds of Twilight looking up at her heart-warming friend and around at the other four, a hug ensued between Pinkie Pie and Twilight.
The four downstairs ponies had now made their way upstairs, ready to comfort their friend as well. Rarity took a cloth from an idle tissue box that was on a table, and handed it to Twilight with her magic.
After successfully wiping away the buildup of tears in her eyes, but unsuccessfully wiping away the inner pain, Twilight cleared her throat through silent sobs to speak.
"I just can't live like *sniffle* this. I've been trying hard all of these years to just make it never happen, but... *sniffle* I just don't have enough time... enough magic."
After letting out the series of slightly unintelligible words, her friends were staring at the poor pony, confused.
"I... I don't understand..." was the mutual response from the group.
"Then... *sniffle* I'll tell you..." Twilight cleared her throat again, flipping open the small book slowly with her magic. Her friends gathered around.
Upon opening the book, pictures were revealed on the first page. Pictures of her family. Sure, the pictures were crudely drawn in crayon, some with paint, but Twilight's friends could definitely tell who the ponies were.
"You have one big happy family, Twilight!" Pinkie concluded from the series of pictures and photographs.
"Thank you," Twilight replied.
"Um, but who is that pony?" The pink pony was pointing at a drawing of Twilight's family. The drawing seemed to have an extra filly in it, one that looked almost identical to the purple unicorn.
Twilight, on the other hand, was aware that Pinkie had created confusion in the rest of her friends. They wanted to know who the filly was.
"Yeah, who is that?" Rainbow Dash asked, standing to the right of Twilight.
"That... that..." Twilight closed her eyes tightly, making sure all of her tears were gone before proceeding. She took a deep breath and continued.
That is my sister.
Upon hearing this, Pinkie Pie and the rest of her friends would have exploded with so many questions. But, to their better judgement, they kept quiet, listening to the unicorn.
Please don't be mad at me, girls. I have reasons why I didn't tell you this before, trust me. But If you all wish, I could tell you more about my sister now... She then peered at the drawings. "I should have told all of you."
Looking around, she caught a sight of all of her friends nodding. She breathed again, and turned back to the levitated book.
Back when I lived in Canterlot with my family, we were a family. They loved me dearly. And I loved them back. I spent my heart with my mother Twilight Velvet, my father Night Light, my brother Shining Armor, a-and my twin sister, Twilight Sunshine...
Twilight caught a stutter. After clearing her mind, she continued reading the memories that emitted from the book.
Twilight Sunshine was the best sister I could ever have. We were the best of friends. Every day we would play in the beautiful sun, tell stories, sing songs, draw -- Heck, we even combed each others hair.
Yes. She was probably my favorite pony in all of Equestria. She was smart, too. Smarter than me, by far. She was already using magic at four, while I watched and admired her every time she levitated a book. Sunshine even helped me with my magic, or my studying, whenever she found me in need of help.
It was kind of awkward how your own twin sister could have been your first teacher.
Even when I said I couldn't do it and gave up, she would hug me like any sister would and tell me that I'm her best friend, and I can do it for her. That's the motivation I received when I magically lifted my first book.
She was my role model.
Twilight held back a whimper.
Sunshine and I always used to play in the woods behind our house -- I still lived with my family then -- and we played hide and seek or whatever it was that we found interesting that day. Well, one day, we were out running in the woods, and she was running her little heart out as we chased each other.
We were so young back then.
Well, while running through the woods, I tripped on something, falling hard on my body. I fell hard into the ditch. I was pretty bruised up, and filled with a lot of pain.
Twilight couldn't hold back the whimper. Her bottom lip trembled.
I... I just didn't know. I though... I though it was Sunshine who tripped me and made me fall. I was so young and ignorant back then. I let out all of my anger on her. I thought she tripped me.
I was so scared and mad because I got nasty scars all over my body, scars I never got before. Actually, that incident had been my first real non-superficial physical scaring. And it made me hurt worse thinking that Sunshine would do that to me.
If only I had known that she didn't trip me. Such a simple bruising... that was enough to change my life.
By now, Twilight needed another tissue.
I was angry. So angry. In the woods, I just yelled at her. I told her I hated her for tripping me. She told me that she didn't trip me. I told her to go away. She was sad and told me that she didn't want to go away. I told her that I never wanted to see her again. She cried and ran back to our house. I just stood there, covered with marks and bruises, looking stupid.
Why did I react that way towards her? Why did I hate Sunshine?
The rhetorical question struck Twilight hard in the front of her head.
I didn't know why I had said those words to her. I was just angry. I didn't love her at that moment. I though she hated me, and I hated her.
I was so wrong.
I didn't talk to her at all for the rest of the day. When I reached my -- I mean our house, I didn't talk to anypony. I was so mad at Sunshine; I didn't even care about the marks on my body anymore.
Twilight strangely nodded to herself through narrating this part of her life, and kept on reading the memories flowing from her book.
The next day, I was tired and still angry and stinging from the day before, though my mother had fixed me up. I stepped outside in the fresh sunlight, breathing deeply in my small huffs of breath. My sister had been swimming around in our backyard pool, but I paid none to her. For some reason, I could spit rude remarks towards her if we caught eye contact.
I just don't know why...
"So what happened?" shortly after asking the question, Dash covered her mouth with her hooves as if what she said had been totally //spontaneous//.
Twilight nodded again, cleared her throat again, and continued. She levitated the crayon drawing to her eyes.
I remember her words, she... she said, "C'mon, Twi! The water's good!" in her little voice. And all I said back was... I hate you. I shouldn't have said that. I hated myself.
I turned my back to her, the last thing I saw was her hooves up on the poolside, looking at me. She was just sitting still in the water, like I had shocked her with what I had said. I did shock her. I went into our house's kitchen and slumped down at our table. I banged my hard head against the table, and put my head in my hooves. I was so angry at myself.
Then I heard Sunshine... she was yelling for me from our backyard. I ignored her. I just sat at the table, my face in my hooves. She kept yelling, and I yelled back.
I told her to shut up, you... you stupid little filly. I didn't want to be bothered by anypony at that point, so I was glad that my parents were asleep and my brother was up in his room, studying.
Sunshine kept on yelling, at the top of her lungs. Until the sounds faded. It scared me, and I though something had happened to her. But I was still mad at myself. I charged through the door, ready to say the meanest thing to her...
Twilight's expression plunged into an endless pit of sorrow, more like depression. She stared hard at her book, eyesight blasting through the walls of tears that had constructed themselves, using her self-hatred as bricks and her pity as cement.
I tried so hard to help her... I didn't know that she... she drowned. I didn't know that she was calling out to me for protection, for me to save her... and the last thing I said to her was... was... "Shut up, you stupid little.."
Twilight couldn't stop the raging river of emotions, and let them rip through the barrier of her heart in flowing tears.
