Domain of Friendship

by Cold Bolt

Episode 4-1

"Okay big sister, hold still."

Smiling, Scarlet sat at the edge of the bed and held her hand as steady as she could. "I will do my best, Auburn."

The younger boy gently held the tiny brush in his fingers, expertly applying a coat of dark red polish to the smallest of Scarlet's nails.

"Your careful touch never ceases to impress," said Scarlet. "Have you ever considered working in a salon when you grow up? I think you would make a fine manicurist."

"Oh." Though he never took his eyes off his work, a pink blush rose to the tips of Auburn's ears. "I, ah... had not given the matter much thought..."

Scarlet giggled softly. "No need to trouble yourself, then. It was a simple musing, nothing more; you certainly have plenty of time to decide." She watched her little brother at work for a moment longer before speaking again. "By the way, will Violet be ready to leave soon?"

"I cannot say," said Auburn, dipping the brush once again in the tiny bottle of nail polish.

"Oh?" Scarlet blinked. "I assumed you would know."

At this, Auburn rolled his eyes and fixed Scarlet with a mildly annoyed stare. "That is because you continue to believe our minds as twins to be somehow linked, despite my repeated insistence to the contrary."

Scarlet hesitated for a moment as though pondering a response, but settled for laughing instead.

A few moments later, Auburn returned the brush to the bottle of polish. "There you are, one coat is done."

Scarlet held up her hand, fingers splayed to have a better look at her deep crimson nails. "Fine work as always. Thank you again."

To her surprise, however, Auburn's gaze had sunk to the floor.

Scarlet lowered her hand, careful not to smudge the still-drying polish, and gave her brother a soft smile. "Chin up, dear brother, and tell big sister what troubles you."

"Well... I just thought..." Auburn seemed hesitant. "Siblings are supposed to look after one another, are they not?"

"Without question," came Scarlet's immediate reply.

"Then why did you abandon us?"

It was as though a needle had struck her squarely in the heart.

"Wha... What a thing to say, Auburn!" Scarlet gasped, covering her mouth with her unpolished hand. "What could I have ever done to disappoint you so?"

"You left us," Auburn insisted. "You left Violet and me behind and found someone else to play with. Your new pony friends..."

Scarlet bit her lip. "No, you misunderstand! Twilight and I have been trying our utmost to find a way back! We..." She suddenly trailed off as a thought struck her. "Wait. How do you know about that?"

"But you chose to stay." Auburn ignored his sister's confusion. "You gave up."

Another needle. Scarlet shook her head in disbelief, glancing over her shoulder nervously as though expecting someone else to be there... but the bedroom was empty, save for the two of them. "Auburn, why are you saying these things...?"

Auburn fixed Scarlet with an icy stare. "He gave you a chance. You could have come home... but you turned your back on us. You chose the ponies instead... You abandoned us."

Scarlet hadn't noticed the tears until they were already rolling down her cheeks. "Please... please, let me explain! I - " Her response was cut short as she attempted to reach out toward Auburn and caught sight of her forelegs. What had only seconds ago been five neatly polished nails was now a hoof haphazardly splattered with paint... and as Scarlet stared at it, she could feel yet more tears welling up. "I, I ne... never meant for - for any of this to happen. I thought I was... was doing the... right thing..."

Scarlet reached for Auburn with her other hoof, only to realize with a gasp that she was looking at his legs; he was now standing several meters tall, towering over her menacingly.

"Auburn, p... please tell me you understand..."

Darkness enveloped the room until all that remained were the two of them and the bed on which Scarlet sat. Without another word, Auburn turned on his heel and marched off into the shadows, quickly disappearing from sight.

"No...! Brother, wait! Please...!" Scarlet leapt from the bed and tried to give chase, but her hooves missed where the floor was supposed to be, finding only empty air... and causing her to plummet into the emptiness below.

"AAAAAAAAAAA"

---

"GASP"

Scarlet's eyes snapped open as she awoke with a jolt, panting and sweating. Moonlight shone through the window, softly illuminating the room as she shoved the covers aside and slowly propped herself up on her forelegs.

She glanced about the room. Books littered the floor nearby, remnants of the past few nights spent staying up later than she was accustomed to in the hope that this time, this time she would find the clue they needed to get home.

It was a habit she had inadvertently picked up from Twilight. She had never been so avid a reader before, back when she had a choice in the matter; the life of a warrior normally expected earlier dawns than she could manage alongside such late night study sessions.

It seemed surreal, even under the circumstances, that this house not only belonged to Scarlet and her companions, but had been built expressly for them. It was so much more than they could ever have asked for, yet Twilight and the others had done it anyway. It was a gift for which she felt obligated to compensate them in some way, even as she knew they would reject the notion.

"Don't worry about it," they had said, and would likely say again if she voiced her feelings.

Were it so easy.

Yet even if she did find it in herself to accept their charity unconditionally, a dark cloud hung over the gift regardless, much as the admission left a foul taste in her mouth. Scarlet and her comrades had been in Equestria for far too long already, and the necessity of a more permanent residence meant it was likely they would be there for much longer still. The thought tainted her gratitude with an undercurrent of resentment.

It felt like defeat.

Groaning, she laid back down with a soft wumph and closed her eyes, but to no avail - her mind buzzed with worries she thought she had learned how to shelve. Though it would be hours yet before Celestia raised the sun, Scarlet climbed out of bed and stretched.

Reaching out with her magic, she lifted a long strip of red fabric from an otherwise empty clothing rack and quickly wove it into her mane, tying it into her signature bow. In hindsight, she might have done better to find a hairbrush first, but she wasn't of a mind to care at the moment.

Slowly, she made her way down the spiral staircase, across the hallway rug (so as not to wake her pegasus companion with the clip-clop of her hooves on the hardwood), and down another flight to the ground floor. Resigned to an unwittingly early start, her efforts in the kitchen soon filled the room with the distinct aroma of a fresh pot of coffee.

It was going to be a long day.

---

"Good morning, Scarlet!"

Twilight smiled as her friend entered the library.

"Good..." Scarlet's reply was interrupted by a rather drawn-out yawn. "...Good morning, Twilight."

Her smile quickly inverting into a frown, Twilight closed the book in front of her and stood up. "Is everything alright?"

"Hm?" Scarlet took a seat opposite Twilight, used her magic to grab a nearby book, and plopped it open on the table in front of her. "Do you have reason to believe otherwise?"

"Yes, I do." Twilight leaned forward, folding her forelegs on the table. "This is the third day in a row you've shown up looking exhausted. You haven't brushed your mane, and your ribbon is crooked."

Scarlet's eyes widened. "Ah, er... is it?"

Twilight magically grasped the fabric of Scarlet's ribbon. A moment of fiddling later, it stood up proudly once more.

Scarlet patted it with a hoof. "Thank you."

"But back to the point..." Twilight sat back down. "This isn't like you. Are you not sleeping well? Is..." She raised a hoof to her muzzle in thought. "Is there something wrong with the house? We double- and triple-checked to make sure it passed inspection, so..."

"No, nothing of the sort!" Scarlet shook her head, perhaps a bit more vigorously than she had intended; a wave of mild dizziness struck her as she stopped.

"Then what is it? Did something - " Twilight gasped. "Discord!"

Scarlet blinked. "Er?"

A lavender glow enveloped Twilight's horn, but for a moment, Scarlet couldn't tell what she was doing... until she realized that an identical glow now surrounded her as well.

After a moment, the spell ended.

Twilight sighed. "No, there's no trace of chaos magic on you." She fixed Scarlet with a gentle stare. "But then, you never actually told me what happened to you in the maze..."

That was by design, of course. The memory was still too heavy in her heart; she hadn't even told Tank or Waterwing. Scarlet stayed silent and turned away in the vain hope that Twilight would drop the matter.

"Scarlet," Twilight began, "if whatever happened to you back there is keeping you up at night, then please, talk to me! I'm your friend, and I'm always here to help."

There it was.

"I appreciate the offer," said Scarlet, "but I could ask no more of you than I already do. Please, think nothing of it."

"Don't think of it that way," insisted Twilight. "I want to help. I can't stand seeing you like this."

Scarlet swallowed hard. Her voice shook a little, her words slower and more deliberate. "I promise I will be fine. I would rather not discuss the matter."

Twilight bit her lip. "But if it's affecting you this much, we have to do something! Maybe I can - "

"Twilight, please...!"

In an instant, she knew she had pushed too hard. Tears poured down Scarlet's muzzle as she stared at Twilight, her eyes full of... well, tears, but from what? It was like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle, but somepony had glued some of the pieces together the wrong way.

"I..." Scarlet did a poor job of wiping the tears from her face with her foreleg. "I should - I need to go."

Before Twilight could object, Scarlet whirled around and bolted for the door, slamming it shut behind her as she went.

"..."

A diminutive pair of feet marched down the stairs, carrying a small purple dragon with them.

"Twilight? What's going on?" Spike didn't stop until he was by Twilight's side. "Is everything okay?"

Twilight trembled. "No, Spike." She took a deep breath. "Something is very, very not okay."

Author's Note:

And we're back!

I was going to include a short to explain the house, but changed my mind and just referenced it here in the chapter proper in the interest of getting back into the swing of things faster. Here's a floorplan!

Comments

[bonberjean]

post Discord already?

[Cold Bolt]

8585553
As it's my first fic and I started writing it barely a month after catching up on the series proper, this ended up being of the predictable "the show, but with OCs" variety, but I didn't want to touch on every single episode because it was more than I wanted to write and I figured it would get tiresome and predictable. Unfortunately, what I ended up with instead was these big awkward time skips - Episode 2 was early to mid season 1, and Episode 3 was late season 1. This one is early season 2, just after Return of Harmony.

People seem to like it well enough and I'm still enjoying working on it, so I intend to continue with what I have planned, but if I could go back and start over I would do things pretty differently. Still, I plan on using what I learn from this fic to improve others I'm working on or have planned.