> A New Hope
>  by Soprano Beat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harmony came home from school to hear her parents arguing again. Saddlebag still on her peach coat, she walked over to the doorway of the room the noise was coming from. Harmony Key peeked around the frame, listening to try to decipher what the fight was about. She pushed her deep-purple mane  behind her ear as she heard her father's words.
"Well, maybe I should just leave you without any money and never come back! How'd you like that?!"
"I'd do just fine on my own! I did so before I met you, so why shouldn't I be able to now?"
"You just had yourself to take care of then! How'd you like it if I left the girls with you? And never came back or sent you any money?"
"I'd be able to take care of all of us perfectly fine! And I'm sure they'd be better off without you too!"
"If you're so sure about it, then why don't you prove it? I can leave right now!"
"Fine! I'll be happy finally get you out of the house!"
"If that's the case, then goodbye! I'm out of here!"
Harmony heard hoofsteps as her father stomped angrily towards the house's master bedroom. She quickly ducked underneath a nearby table as to not be seen. Her tail swept over her black music-note cutie mark and dark blue eyes squeezed shut, the young pony waited for the sound of hoofsteps to end. Once they did, she opened an eye, looking to see if she had been caught eavesdropping. Sure she was alone, Harmony quietly came out of her hiding place and rushed upstairs to where her younger sister, Sunny Rose, was waiting for her. Skidding to a halt in front of where her sister sat in the middle of their bedroom, she started to tell her sister what she had overheard. 
Sunny was young, five years younger than her 16-year-old sister, but she was smart and understood everything her sister told her. A worried expression beginning to grow on the yellow filly's face, Harmony paused for a moment to think of something to cheer her sibling up.
Finally coming up with an idea, Harmony asked,"You want me to braid your mane?"
Sunny nodded, smiling a little in the process. Harmony led her sister to the bedroom mirror, levitating two cushions ahead of her for them to use as seats. Putting one in front of the mirror and the other behind it, Harmony sat on the back cushion while Sunny took her seat in front. As she silently started braiding her sister's light-pink mane, Sunny asked her, "So how's your day been?"
Harmony smiled as she replied without looking up from her work, "Fine, up until I got home. How was yours?"
"Not bad."
"School good?"
"Yep."
Neither of them had much else to say, so they both sat quietly, Harmony braiding the pink mane belonging to her sister, who sat relaxed in front of the mare with her eyes closed. She soon finished the filly's mane and, after tying it off with a band the same shade as the hair it was in, Harmony moved on to braiding Sunny's tail. As she finished, she looked at her sister in the mirror, her now-braided, light-pink mane and tail, soft yellow coat, light blue eyes, and black paw print cutie mark which had a pink heart behind it. 
"You should wear your hair like that more often," Harmony said.
"If you can show me how to do it well, then maybe I will!" Sunny joked.
"No problem! You can practice on me."
The two started to braid each other's manes and tails for hours. They were still doing so when their mother came in to tell them that they needed to go to bed. As they climbed into bed, Harmony promised to help Sunny practice braiding again the next day after school. 
During the night, Harmony woke up feeling something wasn't right. She climbed out of bed, careful not to wake her sister. She quietly walked down the stairs to get a drink. While passing by her parents' bedroom she noticed that the door was open. Knowing the door was normally shut at night, Harmony wondered why it was open. She walked silently over to the doorway and peeked in. The mare covered her mouth with a hoof to quiet her gasp as she found that her father, and all his belongings, were gone.
Harmony swiftly ran around the house, looking for her father. She'd heard him say that he was going to leave, but she never thought for a second that he would actually do it! Tears started to form in her eyes as she came to the last rooms in the house that she hadn't checked. Her father was nowhere to be found. She slowed her pace, eventually stopped, and stated crying. The young mare collapsed to the floor where she stood, sobbing all the while. 
Sunny heard the noise and came down to see what had happened. When her still-crying older sibling told her what had happened, she immediately ran to her mother's room. Seeing the half-empty bed, the filly shook her mother to wake her. After telling her what happened, Sunny led the mare to where her sister was still sobbing. The unicorn levitated her daughter over to the fireplace in the next room. After placing the young mare next to the fireplace and starting a fire, the mother went to the kitchen to get her daughters a small snack.
Sunny walked over to where her sister was laying, a blanket on her back and a pillow between her teeth. She lifted her Harmony's head with magic, placing the pillow beneath it. After setting her head back down, the filly put the blanket around her sister and laid down next to her as their mother came back in with the food. After they had all eaten, the mother brushed her daughters' hair until they fell asleep. Afterwards, she adjusted the pillow and blanket to fit both of them and went back to her room for the rest of the night.