//------------------------------// // Dinner // Story: Scarlet // by Skijarama //------------------------------// In time, the sun fell away from the land, and the ponies that were out and about in the fields retired to their homes for the evening. Scarlet and Lens made their way back for the home of Apple Juice and Windrain, keeping their pace slow and relaxed. By the time they arrived at the cozy little house, Luna’s moon had begun its slow, but ever steady, ascent into the heavens, shining down onto the world in a waxing crescent. The moment they stepped inside, Scarlet’s mouth watered. Her nostrils were inundated with a powerful and tantalizing aroma of a home-cooked meal. Her eyes followed her nose, and she caught sight of Apple Juice by the fireplace where a cauldron of soup was bubbling. She could also see two loaves of freshly-baked bread set off to one side, their tops coated with a thin scattering of some kind of seed. Windrain was seated not far away, her eyes trained down as she worked on something that Scarlet couldn’t quite see. She could hear water sloshing about, and the way Wind was moving indicated she was scrubbing. She was washing something, then. Scarlet’s eyes wandered briefly away from the family and settled onto a pair of shimmering eyes in one of the doorways. Her heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively went to cry out Primrose’s name, believing that the filly was finally up. But, to her shared curiosity and disappointment, the eyes were the wrong color. Instead of Primrose’s dark teal, these were an intense aquamarine color. The moment those eyes realized they had been spotted, they ducked out of sight, hiding behind the door. Scarlet raised an eyebrow curiously but chose not to pursue the matter for now. Instead, she turned to Applejuice and Windrain, watching as Lens made the approach. “Hmmmm,” the stallion hummed eagerly before adjusting his glasses. “That smells wonderful! When will it be ready?” Juice chuckled and looked back at him with a coy smile. “Not long. Just waitin’ on the ears, Ah think.” Scarlet’s face morphed into one of complete and utter scandalization. She turned to Lens, her ears drooping and her eyebrows angling up in dismay. “Wha- LENS! You did not!” she snapped in an odd mixture of accusation and defiance. “He sure did, sugar,” Wind replied for him with a wink. “We got some of those ‘elephant ears’ in the oven right now.” Lens wore a crooked, sheepish grin, scuffing the floor awkwardly with his hoof. “W-well, I just… after how hard you worked to save Prim, I just thought you’d like the treat?” he attempted, his grin growing more and more strained as Scarlet glared at him. She tried so very hard to look unamused, but eventually, she heaved a heavy sigh and looked down with a quiet chuckle. “Ugh… You know how embarrassing my favorite food is,” she droned out before hauling herself over to the table. Lens shrugged helplessly. “Hey, I know you love it,” he shot her a sly wink. Scarlet leveled a flat glare at him but chose not to say anything else for the time being. Instead, she sat down, to take the weight off of her hooves, and got comfy at the dinner table. Wind giggled merrily at the display before returning her attention to whatever it was she was scrubbing. A few seconds passed before she let out a satisfied sigh and sat upright, hauling the item up with her. Scarlet’s eyes widened as she saw her cloak, now clean of muck, mud, and blood, rising from the water basin. The fabric was dripping wet and still tattered in various places, but was otherwise clean. Wind set it down by the fire to dry before giving Scarlet a warm smile. “It was all filthy. It needed a good cleaning. I hope you don’t mind.” Scarlet’s chest tightened involuntarily, and before she knew it, she was back on her hooves and walking over. She sat down next to the cloak, ignoring Wind’s confused stare for a few seconds. She reached down and traced her hoof over the fabric where she had torn the strips off, and she felt a pang of guilt travel through her heart. Despite the increasing urge to start shaking, Scarlet maintained her composure. She gave Wind a small, strained smile. “I don’t mind. Thank you. This cloak has a lot of sentimental value to me,” she said quietly. Wind’s smile slowly returned, softer this time. “Least I could do. After everything you’ve been through, and everything I imagine you’re gonna go through in the future, it was the least I could do for you.” Lens slowly approached, a tentative look on his face. Scarlet glanced up at him, meeting his gaze. The two fell silent for a time before Lens cleared his throat and asked whatever question was on his mind. “If you don’t mind my asking… why is that cloak so important to you?” Apple Juice glanced back with a raised brow. “Ya mean ya don’t know?” “We’ve only been traveling together for a week or two,” Scarlet pointed out before focusing on the dark blue fabric in her hooves. Despite the moisture soaking it, she lifted it up to her chest over her heart and closed her eyes. “As for why… this cloak was a gift from somepony… v-very, very dear to my heart.” A silence fell over the room. Scarlet heard Lens sitting down before she felt his hoof on her back, and she could practically feel the confused glances that Wind and Apple Juice exchanged. Thankfully, the farmers decided not to question her answer. Odds are that they sensed the sensitive subject matter. After a short time, the sound of a metal hatch opening and a happy exclamation from Juice drew Scarlet out of her somber memories. She opened her eyes to see him reaching into the oven and pulling out a large, flat pan with a series of similarly large, flat pastries on it. “Not quite the way they’re supposed to be made,” Apple Juice apologized as he brought it out. “But Ah don’t got the equipment to do it right. Basically just flatbread with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on.” Scarlet shook her head to dismiss his explanation before setting her cloak back down and rising to her hooves. “It’s fine. Frankly, I’ll just be glad to have a decent meal,” she told him before turning and making her way back for the table, this time with Lens by her side. He kept looking at her with a worried frown, and it became pretty evident that he wanted to ask her something. She pre-empted him by giving him a small, albeit sad smile. “Don’t worry, Lens. I’m fine,” she said in a whisper before sitting down. The stallion considered her words from her side for a moment. Then, with a quick flick of his magic, he brought over an unoccupied chair from a corner of the room and sat down by Scarlet’s side, bringing the number of chairs at the table up to five. “Right, grub’s ready,” Apple Juice declared a moment later before standing up. “Wind, y’all mind gettin’ our guests served while Ah find Star?” Wind nodded and set to work while her husband left the room. With quick, practiced motions, she filled up a series of bowls with soup before bringing them over to the table. She set two down in front of Scarlet and Lens, as well as a plate with the makeshift elephant ears on them. She smiled warmly. “Don’t worry about waiting for us, you two. You especially, miss. You need the food more than the rest of us.” Scarlet went to object to the idea, not wanting to be rude in the home of the ponies that had saved her life. But her stomach had other ideas, banishing that sentiment from her mouth and swiftly replacing it with one of the elephant ears. She mumbled out a wordless response as her teeth dug in, and her eyes rolled up into her skull as the cinnamon and sugar met her tongue. “Not a true elephant ear, to be sure,” she internally acknowledged before swallowing and shuddering. “But I don’t care. I need this.” Soon enough, Apple Juice returned with a little earth pony colt by his side. He had a grayish-brown coat and a short, messy, navy blue mane and tail. His aquamarine eyes looked at Scarlet, shimmering with curiosity, but also anxiety. She gave him a friendly smile in an effort to show him that she was nice, and that did a little to make him ease up. His father nudged him from above, making the foal look up. “Don’t be rude,” Apple Juice said to the colt in a hushed voice. “Introduce yerself.” The foal stared at his father for a few seconds before reluctantly hopping up into his seat. He hesitated for a second before looking at Scarlet. “Erm… h-hello. Mah name’s Apple Star,” he greeted quietly, his eyes averting themselves partway through. Scarlet’s smile softened considerably at the timid greeting. She swallowed her mouthful of pastry before answering. “Hello. I’m Scarlet. It’s nice to meet you,” she said before holding out a hoof to him. He eyed her hoof for a few seconds before reaching out and shaking it. The brief contact finally seemed to be enough to make him lighten up, and his face lit up with a warm smile. “Nice to meet ya, ma’am,” he said with far more energy than before. “Yer the one that’s been taken care of Primrose, ain’t ya?” Scarlet withdrew her hoof and nodded. “I can’t take all the credit, but I suppose you could say that, yes.” “How has she been?” Scarlet hummed thoughtfully, her brow furrowing. “Well… she’s…” she began, but the words hitched in her throat. She looked at Star and withered somewhat at his imploring eyes. “W-well… she’s certainly been better. We’ve been on the road a lot, so she’s tired and worn out, and…” “Mama and papa said she got hurt by a bad pony,” Star pointed out, glancing over at his parents. “And they said you and Sharpy saved her.” Lens pouted at the nickname. “Hey, I’m Sharp Lens, not Sharpy!” Scarlet chuckled at his indignation before nodding her head, her ears drooping. “Heh… well, yes, that is true. Primrose was… she was hurt by a very bad pony, yes. But she’s going to be fine, thanks to your mother.” Apple Star grinned before shoving his snout into his bowl of soup and digging energetically into his meal. Or at least, he started to before his father lightly tapped him on the head with a stern look. “C’mon, boy, show some manners.” Star pouted but did as he had been told, eating with far better table manners than before. Windrain smiled softly at the two before looking back to Scarlet. “So, Scarlet, how are you feeling now that you’ve been up and about for a few hours?” she asked. “I’m still tired, but I’ll manage,” Scarlet replied before taking another bite from the elephant ears. When she swallowed, she continued. “This is hardly the first time I’ve suffered grievous injuries, after all.” Wind hummed quietly in response to that before returning to her meal. Apple Juice was next. “So, Scarlet, Lens. What are y’all plannin’ to do now?” he asked, looking between the two with a raised eyebrow. “Ah don’t imagine yer gonna be stickin’ round here.” Scarlet went rigid with the spoon halfway to her mouth. What were they going to do? If she were being wholly honest with herself, she had not given that question much thought yet, either. They couldn’t stay here forever, obviously. Silent probably thought Primrose was dead, but without the lamp, his mission would only be half-finished, meaning he would be after them again before long. His injuries needed to heal first, of course, and that would take time. But that only gave them time, not options. They couldn’t stay here, obviously, they would only be putting the lives of innocent ponies in danger if they did. But what other options were open to them? Scarlet sighed and lowered her spoon. “...I don’t know yet. We can’t stay here, but I don’t know where else we can go,” she admitted regretfully. “Ya can’t stay?” Apple Star asked, quirking his head to one side. “Why not?” Scarlet turned to him. “Because… we’re being followed by the same bad ponies that hurt Primrose. If we stay here too long, they’ll just hurt you and your parents, too. I can’t allow that to happen, no matter what you’ve all done for us.” Star wilted in his seat, but despite his disappointment, he seemed to understand. He nodded his head quietly. Lens cleared his throat then, leaning forward to speak. “Well, it’s a bit of a risk, but we could try to get to Newcanter.” Scarlet’s ears stood up in alarm. She turned to Lens incredulously. “What?! Go to the capital, are you mad?!” she demanded, a million and one ways that plan could go wrong flashing through her mind. Lens leaned back from the outburst. “Hey, we need to learn more about the lamp, don’t we?” he reminded with a frown. “I went to the academy in Newcanter before and after the war. The teachers there know and trust me. They’ll let me use their facilities to conduct my research.” “Yes, but that’s the capital,” Scarlet pressed in a low voice, mindful of the young foal in her midst. “We don’t want to get too close to that if we can help it. There must be somewhere else we can go to get the tools you need!” “What about the Sanctuary?” Scarlet’s expression shifted from exasperation to confusion. She turned to the speaker to find Star looking back with a quizzical look on his face. Scarlet cleared her throat. “Ahem. Excuse me, but what?” Star glanced towards Primrose’s room. “Primrose used to tell me ‘bout this place her mama told her about. A sanctuary where ponies like her could go to be safe. It’s got two powerful guardians who protect it from anythin’ that might attack it.” “A sanctuary?” Lens echoed with a raised eyebrow. He looked to Scarlet. “I don’t know anything about that. Did Primrose ever mention it to you?” Scarlet turned and looked back at the closed door, a whole new barrage of questions about the young foal running through her mind. She slowly shook her head. “No… no, she didn’t.” “Well, it sounds promising,” Lens admitted before turning back to Star. “Did she ever mention where it was?” Star shook his head. “Nope. She always said she didn’t know where it was, but that she was always gonna keep lookin’ fer it, just like her mama and papa.” “It was probably just a little foal’s story her mother told her,” Apple Juice said, his eyes downcast. “Somethin’ to keep her happy and optimistic. Like a fairy tale.” Star turned to his father with an indignant pout. “Nuh-uh! Her Sanctuary is real! I know it! Her mama believed it! They were lookin’ 'fore she lost ‘em!” Scarlet’s eyes lingered on the door while the ponies argued back and forth about the veracity of this so-called Sanctuary. But after a time, she shook her head and turned back to the table, cutting the argument off before it could carry on. “Whether it’s real or not doesn’t matter. We cannot risk our lives on something that might only be a fable, especially if we have no idea where to even start looking. We need another option.” “I still think we could go to Newcanter, even if only for a short time,” Lens pressed, his brow furrowing. “It’s our best shot at getting answers about the lamp.” Scarlet shook her head. “Forgive me, Lens, but I’m more interested in making sure we’re somewhere safe before anything else,” she told him before closing her eyes and going into thought. The conversation around the table carried on for a while as she ran through a range of options, most of which she was quick to shoot down for one reason or another. Her train of thought was interrupted when Apple Star suddenly spoke up. “Mama, Papa? Is… is Primrose gonna leave again?” Scarlet opened her eyes and looked to the foal. All eyes had turned to him, and he looked around with an uneasy look on his face. He cleared his throat. “Ah just… Ah’ve really missed her. And now she’s back home, and Ah don’t want her to go again,” he elaborated before turning back to his parents. “Can she stay with us, mama, papa? Please?” Juice and Wind shared a hesitant glance. “W-well…” Wind began slowly. “I, uh… I don’t know, dear…” “We’d all love for her to stay,” Apple Juice eventually said, adjusting his hat on his head. “But she’s been gone a long time, and she’s been with Scarlet here fer quite a while… she might wanna stick with her.” Star’s ears drooped, and he leaned forward in his seat to protest. “But papa! She’s part of the family! Ah don’t wanna see her go! It sucks missing her! And what if she forgets us?!” Scarlet chose this moment to cut in, lowering her head to be closer to Star’s eye level. “Hey,” she called out to him, drawing his attention. She smiled. “Primrose really missed you. All of you. She missed you so much that, when we were desperate for somewhere to go, she suggested we come here to you.” “Yes, she was rather insistent on that point,” Lens concurred. “And because we knew about you and where to go, we got her here when she was hurt so you could save her.” Scarlet’s smile grew. “She left for a good reason, little colt. She left to protect all of you from some very bad ponies that would have hurt you to get to her. And she missed you all so much that, when it mattered, it saved her life.” Star was quiet. He slumped back in his chair, his eyes shifting sporadically as he processed Scarlet’s words. Eventually, he looked up at her, his ears slowly lifting back up. “...Promise me you’ll keep her safe if she goes away again.” Scarlet sat upright and placed a heart over her chest. “I will protect her with my life as if she were my own. I swear it,” she said solemnly, and she meant every word. A silence fell over the table after that, everypony’s moods significantly diminished. Scarlet closed her eyes and took a deep breath to settle her nerves and just relax. It was easier said than done, sadly. That was, of course, until she heard the soft ringing of a magical aura fill her ears, followed shortly by something stiff and sweet-smelling poking against her nose. She cracked open one eye to glare in irritation at who she knew the culprit to be. Sure enough, there was Lens with a hopeful smile on his face. “Come on,” he urged her lightly. “This is dinner. Let’s eat before it gets cold, huh?” Scarlet let out a long, quiet whine of absolute humiliation before opening her mouth and letting Lens slip the elephant ear into her mouth. She took a bite before glaring at him. Then she heard Star giggling, and couldn’t help the tiny smile that spread on her face. Lens smiled back at her. She swallowed her mouthful of food and turned back to the family. “Lens is right. Enough sad talk,” she decided. Nopony at the table had any objections, and they all quickly began to dig into what remained of their respective meals. The atmosphere quickly brightened as the subject of discussion shifted from such dire things and meandered to the mundanity of farm life. For the duration of that meal, Scarlet allowed herself to finally relax and feel like she was just living again. As she ate and talked with the kind strangers before her, she found the idea of someday settling down in a small community becoming more and more appealing.  Scarlet stepped into the room she shared with Primrose. Lens had since departed back for the shed, where he had managed to throw together a bed for himself. He had insisted that Scarlet take the bed across from Primrose’s, citing that she was still recovering from her own wounds, and the comfort would do her some good.  She let out a quiet sigh as she closed the door behind her. She looked across the dark room and was just able to make out the soundly sleeping form of Primrose in the occupied bed. Scarlet stood still, listening to her breathing and watching her rest before pushing away from the door. She sat down on her haunches by the bedside, her horn lighting up so she could see the filly’s face. Primrose’s eyes were still closed, her mouth hanging open a little. She shifted slightly under the light, and her expression tensed with the movement. Her wounds were probably causing her pain from even that slight change in position. Scarlet smiled and gently ran her hoof over her mane. “...You’re going to be just fine, Prim,” she whispered. “You’re going to live, and I am going to keep you safe, no matter what… I promise. I won’t let Silent or anyone else hurt you ever again…” Primrose didn’t respond, although her open mouth slowly closed and morphed into a weak smile. Scarlet’s heart fluttered at the small motion, and she leaned down to give the filly an affectionate nuzzle. “I hope you wake up soon… Apple Juice, Windrain, and Apple Star are all really eager to talk to you again. They’ve missed you very, very much…” Scarlet stayed like that for several minutes before pulling herself back to her hooves. She smiled down at Primrose one more time before turning and slipping into bed. In no time at all, her eyes drifted closed, and she felt herself falling into the world of dreams.