“Ruby! Ru-by!” I slammed the door behind me. Where was that colt? I looked all around the big kitchen-cum-living room of the house's ground floor, but nopony was there.
Had he left? Hanging out with Snips and Snails again?
I caught a slight whiff of sour stench. Of course. Locked up in his room again, doing his thing.
I shook my head. That colt was bad business, but I owed it to Bella to give him a talking to. I stormed up the stairs and down the hallway, right up to his door.
Crudely suggestive drawings of mares and posters for second rate punk bands littered the outside of his door. I could smell the tang of burning locoweed wafting through the wide cracks around the door frame.
I hammered on the door with my fist, right through the posters, making the old frame rattle. “Ruby, I know you're in there!”
Nothing but a faint giggle came back from inside.
“Ruby Sheen, I need to talk to you.” I slammed the door a few more times.
In response, loud, angry music blared from inside, quickly increasing in volume.
I grit my teeth. This wasn't working at all. I rattled the doorknob, shaking it back and forth, but I soon noticed that it moved a little too freely. Was it really not locked?
I turned it. It clicked, and the door edged open. That was easy.
Swinging the door open, I was assaulted by the blaring music from an oversized stereo on the right side of the room, even louder now that the door was open. A moment later, the smell hit me. The burning sour stench of locoweed didn't quite cover the stale sweat, dirty laundry, and overtones of spray-on deodorant.
“Hey, hey!” Ruby rose up to a sitting position on his sloppy bed. “You can't do that! It's locked!”
I raised an eyebrow. “Not so much.”
He squinted at me, his bloodshot eyes narrowing to slits. “Bro, I don't even wanna–”
“I am not one of your 'bros'. I'm here about what you did to your sister.”
“Fuck.” His mouth curved into a frown as he flopped back down onto the bed. His eyes remained mostly closed, or were they closed entirely now? It was difficult to tell.
I stalked over to the stereo, punching the biggest button I could find, and the blaring music suddenly cut away to a tense silence.
Ruby rolled over in bed, turning his back to me.
“What do you think you're getting her into? Do you even know what happened last night?” I stalked over close to him. “Do you even care about her at all? That junk you gave her could have killed her!”
He just snorted and reached for the still-smoldering joint on the windowsill above his bed.
I slapped it out of his hooves. “I think you've had enough of that for now.”
That finally seemed to rouse him. He jumped up, frantically searching through his rumpled sheets. “Aw, shit man, where'd it go? Where'd it fuckin' go?” After flipping his pillow over, he finally found it, already blackening a spot on his sheets. “Fuckin' asshole!” Grabbing it up, he carefully put it back on the windowsill. “You trying to burn the fuckin' house down or something?”
I rolled my eyes. He might have a point, but I wasn't in a reasonable mood. “You need to stop messing around with your sister. You're going to ruin her life!”
“Well it's her Epona-damned choice, now isn't it? I just do what she wants me to.”
“No.” I stepped even closer, looming over him. “You gave her that poison, you told her she should take it. You told her to go in the first place!”
He jumped up, standing on his bed and meeting me nearly eye-to-eye, despite not being fully grown yet. “It's not my business what she does!”
“Oh, it isn't is it?” I sneered at him. “Do you even know what she does? Did you know that last night, she had herself a three-way with a stallion and another mare right in the middle of the rave? Did you know she got pregnant?”
His eyes opened wide, showing all of their redness. “What? Dude...” He flopped back down on the bed. “Lame.”
“So, are you going to stop being a bad influence on her?”
“Fuck that.” He shook his red mane out of his eyes. “It's not my fault she's too dumb to use a rubber. She's just got her feelings all fucked up after finding out about her real mom and shit.”
I spun on my heel and stormed toward the door, shaking my head. It was useless arguing with this druggie, and I couldn't take the smell anymore. I turned to look over my shoulder at him. “Don't give her any drugs while she's pregnant.”
“Fuck you.”
“I mean it!” I slammed the door behind me. “If she gets any drugs while she's pregnant, it's coming out of your hide!”
If he made any response, I didn't hear it as I stomped toward the stairs. There was nothing more I could do here.