Suri screamed as her hand hold crumbled beneath her hoof. Falling down the side of the cliff, she barely managed to grab the lowest hold before falling into the pit. She chanced a look down. A bright, white light shone upwards, and the harsh sound of laughter followed it. Her eyes flashed around as she tried to find something to grab onto.
Then Coco appeared over the ledge. Immediately, she pulled off her cravat and lowered it over the edge. The cravat lengthened as it lowered, until it reached Suri's side. "Grab on!" Coco shouted.
Suri stared at the cravat, a ratty thing colored dark pink. Beneath her, the laughter grew louder and the light shone brighter. She could feel the sweat on her hooves making them slippery. Finally, though, she forced herself to grab the cravat with her teeth. She shut her eyes as she felt herself rising, the light and the laughter coming harsher and stronger. Then she gently landed onto firm ground. Suri opened her eyes, then she let go of the cravat. "You saved my-"
Her eyes widened. Coco was gone. Instead there was a giant white wraith of a pony with icy blue spotlights for eyes. It scowled down darkly at Suri. "You tore my cravat," she spat. "Do you know how much I paid for that?"
Suri tried to back away, but stopped at the cliff edge. She turned and noticed that she was in the wraith's hoof, suspended over the pit. She spun back to face Coco. "I'm sorry!" she pled. "I'll-"
Suri fell forward. She quickly rolled over and raised her legs, only to watch them vanish before her eyes. The laughter peaked again and the light grew piercing. Suri rolled back onto her stomach and looked up. "Give me a chance! I'll fix your cravat!"
A long sewing needle came out of Coco's mouth. "Of course you will," she said.
Then Suri felt herself getting smaller still; longer and skinnier, too. The world went pure white, but Suri's other senses remained. She felt herself being lifted up. She felt her mane being tied into a knot. She felt herself being pulled through something narrow time and again, being held tightly in place. Finally, she could hear and feel her mane being cut off. Then there was silence.
"Pathetic," Coco spat. "It won't even last a week."
The laughter exploded, a million times more powerful. Suri tried to protest, but her mouth was gone. Not that she could move it. All that was left were fraying plant fibers, twined into Coco's cravat. Suri felt herself fall.
"I thought I raised something useful," Coco hissed. "I guess I just wasted money..."
Suri awoke to find herself panting, sweating, and tangled up in something woolly. She quickly yanked herself out of the thing, flinging it away. As she turned, a bright light shone in her eyes, so she threw her leg over them. Gradually, Suri's breathing slowed, and she came to full wakefulness.
She was on a pullout couch, beside which was a red wool comforter. A little sliver of sunlight poured into the room, which was painted off-white and well-bedecked with family photographs. In a corner was a chalkboard and against one of the walls was a large cabinet. The room itself was pleasantly warm, and Suri's legs weren't aching at all. Suri was in Coco's living room, and the smell of good breakfast filled the air.
Suri shoved herself off of the bed and trotted over to the table. A plate of hash browns and cinnamon toast was laying out, complete with a glass of orange juice. Suri shoved herself into the chair, lifted the toast, and practically swallowed it whole. When she finished the toast and looked for her fork, however, she noticed something. A note had been written on the napkin under the fork. Suri pulled it out and held it up to her eyes.
Suri,
I've gone to get you a coat and scarf; I'll be back around noon. You start work tomorrow, so just feel free to settle in today. As I said last night, the bathroom's all yours, just please leave me some of the shampoo, since we're almost out.
-Coco
Suri stared at the napkin for a few seconds. Then, all she could do was sit back, letting the napkin fall. 'This is really happening,' she realized. Suri put her head in her hoof as a few tears rolled down her cheeks. Then she sniffled, shuddered, and then she started to sob. She grabbed the plate and drew back, but stopped. Thus she nibbled at the hash browns instead, chewing on them until they were paste before she swallowed.
<<***>>
"Alright, Suri, I'm..."
Suri turned off the sink as Coco entered the apartment with her large saddlebags. "Hello, Coco," Suri said aloofly.
Coco stared at her. "Ah, Suri," she said. "Thank you for doing the dishes. You didn't have to. I would've-"
"That's alright," Suri said. "I am your guest, after all. I should be helping you around the house."
Coco kept staring at her. Then she frowned. "This isn't going to convince me you've reformed," she told Suri.
"Didn't think it would."
Coco glared at Suri for a few moments before she shook her head. "This is for you," she said, pulling a light brown coat out of her saddlebags. "I had to guess on some of it, but I think I did well enough."
Suri slowly took the coat from Coco. She looked it over; approvingly at first, but then uncomfortably. She started to give it back, but a look from Coco stopped her. Finally, she put it on. She shifted around in it, first one way, then another. "It's a little loose," Suri said. "Otherwise OK."
Coco nodded. "Good."
Suri took the coat off and hung it on the coatrack by the door. "Well," she said, "if there's nothing for me to do, I think I'll just go back to bed." Suri moved over to the pull-out couch and laid back down on it.
"Actually," Coco said, "I was thinking we could take a look at your sewing skills."
Suri looked up and scowled at her for a moment before turning away. "You saw them."
"Not recently."
"Nothing's changed."
Coco scowled. "Do you want it to?"
Suri sat still for a moment. Then she turned back to Coco, glaring into her eyes. Coco stood just as firm as she did last night, barely showing any signs of discomfort. Finally, Suri groaned. "Where d'you wanna' start?" she asked.
Coco walked over to the cabinet and pulled out an embroidery hoop, a needle, a pallet of thread, scissors, and cloth. "I'm going to draw out a pattern and I want you to copy it." Coco walked over to the chalkboard, erased the design on it and drew a star. "You can use whatever thread you like and you can take as long as you want. Also, if you wanted to go in a bit of a different direction with the pattern, that'd be fine."
Suri frowned at Coco and the chalkboard before picking up the cloth and snapping it into the hoop. She picked up some blue thread, but stopped, put the thread down, and unsnapped the hoop. Coco watched as Suri pulled at the edges of the cloth. Then she snapped the hoop closed again. Then she picked up the thread with her mouth, stopped, and looked back at the hoop. She stared at it for a good five seconds before she turned back to the thread. She threaded it through the needle on her first try, then picked up the hoop with her hooves.
Then she stared at the cloth. Then she looked back up at the chalkboard. Then back at the cloth. She moved the needle over the cloth, but pulled it away. This went on for thirty seconds, then forty, then fifty...
Coco cleared her throat. "Don't rush me," Suri growled. Then she stuck the needle into the back of the cloth. Turning the hoop around, Suri looked back up at the design, then pulled the needle through the next hole in the cloth. Then she looked back up and pulled again. Look, pull. Look, pull. Look, pull. Eventually she made it to the end of the first line. Then she took a good, long stare at the design on the chalkboard before starting the next line. On and on, she kept stitching out lines in the same fashion of constant double-checking.
Finally, she dropped the needle. Before Coco could speak, Suri put her hoof up. She pored over the stitching, doing everything but smell every line of fabric. She tilted the hoop this way and that, then turned it over to look at the back. "There," she proclaimed. "I believe that should be AGH!"
Suri flung the hoop away and rolled to face the window. Coco caught the hoop with a scowl. "Please be careful with my tools," she said. Then she looked the star over and her scowl vanished. "You've been practicing," she said admiringly.
Suri got up and turned around. "Don't you tell me you don't see it," she snapped as she stomped over to the kitchen, keeping her eyes off of Coco.
"You didn't do anything wrong," Coco told Suri. "OK, the thread's a little tight, but-"
"Thank you," Suri spat, opening the refrigerator. "Maybe you should cut to the point next time, okay?"
"I'm not cracking the whip over you for that," Coco said. "I do that all the time."
"WELL, I'M NOT YOU, AM I?" Suri slammed the refrigerator door and spun around, all but frothing at the mouth. "I don't sew threads too tightly! I don't cut fabric crookedly! I don't make stupid mistakes!" Suri stopped, breathing heavily. "But then, this happened, didn't it?"
She held up her leg, showing Coco the side with the scar. "That doesn-"
Suri sighed, cutting Coco off. "Coco, just stop," Suri snapped. "My time is over. You win; they want you now. I'm just some disgraced has-been who doesn't..."
Suri stopped. She was scowling, but the scowl didn't quite reach her eyes. Coco moved closer, but Suri turned away from her and stomped off into the bathroom, firmly pushing the door shut. Then Coco heard the sink come on. She looked down at the embroidery hoop again, then back up at the bathroom door. Then she put the hoop down and walked over to the fridge.
When Suri came out of the bathroom, there were two tall glasses of cider sitting on the table, at two places right next to each other. Coco was seated at one of them and patted the chair at the other. "Please, sit down."
Suri scanned Coco's face. Despite the pleasant look of indifference, Suri could tell this wasn't going to be pleasant for her. Suri sat at the other end of the table from Coco, pulling the glass of cider towards her. Suri took a long pull on it before setting the glass back down. "So, what're we testing next?" she asked.
Coco cleared her throat. "Actually, I don't think we'll be testing anything else," she said.
Suri looked up at her. "Really?"
Coco nodded, then swallowed. "I... think the day would be better spent talking about you. Or rather, how we're going to move forward here."
Suri frowned. "And how do you intend to do that?" she asked. "Going to make the Princess of Friendship lecture me?"
"Actually, I don't think I'm going to do anything."
Suri's frown dropped as her eyebrows raised. "I've tried holding your hoof and that's just made you bitter so far," Coco continued. "Plus, you did wash the dishes and swept the floor without me asking, so I have some faith in you. However, you're also going to be paying for half of the rent and any food you eat as soon as you get the money. How does that sound to you?"
Suri looked Coco in the eyes. Coco slowly took a drink of her cider. Suri kept watching her. Finally, Suri made a noise and nodded. "That sounds alright."
Coco nodded. "OK." She sat silent for a moment. "Want to help me put up the holiday decorations?"
"Alright." Suri finished her cider and got up from the table. "Where do you keep them?"
"You don't have to start right now," Coco said as Suri walked down the hall. "We can talk some-"
"Found 'em."
Coco quickly finished her cider as Suri pushed the box into the living room and opened it. "Alright," Coco said, lifting up a menorah and placing it on the windowsill. "Just feel free to set stuff down-"
Coco stopped as she noticed that Suri was just staring into the box. Suri quickly noticed Coco staring, though, and grabbed a string of lights to untangle. "Do you still have any adhesive hooks?" she asked.
Coco hovered over her until Suri frowned at her again. "I think we might need some new ones," Coco admitted. "We can go get them after lunch. Come to think of it, we need to get you a new toothbrush."
Suri snorted. "After going up against the bathroom of horrors, that's for darn sure."
"I still can't believe it dissolved like that."
"I told you what the bathroom did to my toilet brush."