Michael was just getting into his car with the pizza when his phone suddenly started ringing. He glanced down at the screen to see the caller ID: Mike Wallace; his father.
"Oh great," Michael muttered under his breath as he answered the call. "What, Dad."
"Hey, sport. Just calling to see if you're home yet or not," a gruff voice answered.
"First off, don't call me sport. Second, I'm on my way home with dinner right now. It's pizza night."
"Got any room for me and your mom at the table?" the elder Wallace asked.
"Sorry Dad, but I think we should give our foreign friend some time before meeting more people. She and Kristy already have had some issues at home, and I don't want you and mom to cause more issues," Michael said.
"Oh yeah, the foreign exchange student. I completely forgot about that. How are they adjusting to-" Mike said before being interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing. "One second Michael, I think my package just arrived."
Michael waited while his father went to get his package, when he suddenly heard glass shatter and his father yelling.
"OH COME ON! NOT AGAIN!" Mike yelled.
"S-sorry, sir. I didn't mean to drop-" a female voice said.
"I don't care if you didn't mean to drop it! That doesn't change the fact that you did, not to mention the five other times you have! I can't believe that we actually have HORSES delivering mail now! I swear, before your kind were here, we didn't just DROP glassware on someone's porch and break it, nor did we have to deal with freaking equines taking jobs with their stupid wings and magic. Now get the hell off my property, you cross-eyed idiot!" Mike yelled as Michael heard crying and the sound of galloping in the background.
"Dad... what the hell was that?" Michael said.
"The stupid mail horse dropped the glass vase that I ordered three weeks ago for the SIXTH TIME! I know we made contact with an alien race, but that doesn't mean we need the damn horses delivering mail now!" Mike practically yelled into the phone causing Michael to pull it away from his ear.
"Dad, calm down. It sounded like it was an accident," Michael said as he tried to defuse the situation.
"Accident my ass! That is the SIXTH FREAKING TIME she has dropped it. This is getting ridiculous! Her job is to deliver mail, and she will be out of a job soon if she keeps this up. Not that I care about the job of a cross-eyed pegasus."
"Look, Dad, let's just talk about something else. What were you saying before the doorbell rang?" Michael asked.
"Oh, right. I was asking about the exchange student."
Michael went silent.
"If he finds out that Twilight is our exchange student, he's going to lose it!"
"Michael? You still there?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm here. Sorry Dad, but I just got home, and knowing Will, he will not be happy if he has to wait for dinner any longer," Michael lied as he pulled out of the parking lot of the pizzeria.
"Oh. Alright. I'll talk to you later then. Tell Lori I said hi,"
"I will. Bye Dad," Michael said, quickly hanging up. He sighed as he stopped at a red light. "It's alright Michael, worry about Dad later. You'll cross that bridge some other time. Right now you just need to get home with the pizza."
"MOM! When will Dad get home? I'm starving!" Will yelled from the living room couch.
Lori sighed. "Will, how many times do I have to tell you? You don't have to shout at me when I'm in the kitchen. I am one room away from you. Just get up and walk over if you need to ask me something. And your father will be home soon. Just be patient."
"Is he always this loud?" Twilight asked as she walked into the kitchen, rubbing her ear with a hoof.
"More often than you'd think. Especially when it involves the first-day-of-school pizza," Lori responded.
"The what?" Twilight said.
"Every year, on the first day of school, our family has pizza for dinner. Will takes it VERY seriously, mostly because he is always hungry." Lori explained.
"Oh, so it's a family tradition. Kind of like how my brother and I have the Sibling Supr- " Twilight said before being interrupted by the front door opening and the smell of tomato sauce filling the house.
"Hey gang, I'm home! And I come bearing food!" Michael said as he closed the door.
"Aw, sweet! Kristy! Jess! Pizza's here!" Will shouted up the stairs to his sister's rooms, where the sound of footsteps could be heard.
"Will! I literally just told you: no yelling in the-oh nevermind," Lori said as she gave her husband a peck on the cheek. "How was work?"
"Same old, same old. I did get a call from my father on the way home though," Michael said, walking into the dining room and placing the pizza on the table where Twilight and Will were now sitting.
"Oh boy. How'd it go?" Lori asked skeptically.
"Better than I thought. There was some yelling, but it was all directed at the mail carrier, who apparently dropped the package for the sixth time or something. Also, he asked about meeting our foreign exchange student, but I had to decline due to some things he said over the phone," he said as Jess and Kristy sat down, Kirsty staring at her phone.
"What did he say this time?" Lori said.
Michael glanced over at Twilight, a frown forming on his face as he sat down. "I'll... tell you later. But right now, let's eat!" he said, placing the piping hot box on the table.
Seconds after the box was set down on the table, Will frantically flipped open the lid. His expression quickly changed from one of hunger and happiness to one of confusion.
"Why is it half cheese? I thought you were getting pepperoni," Will asked his father while grabbing a slice of pizza from the box before quickly biting into it.
Michael cringed as Will got sauce all over his face. "I got half and half for two reasons. Reason one: it was three dollars cheaper. Reason two: Twili-"
"I can't eat meat, which is what I assume pepperoni is?" Twilight finished.
"Correct. So just save the cheese for Twilight, okay?" Michael said while the alicorn levitated two slices of cheese pizza over to her plate.
"I'm never going to get used to that," Jess said, staring at the floating pizza.
Twilight giggled. "In all honesty, I think the hardest thing for me to get used to at school is being shorter than literally all the staff and students. Especially since I'm taller than average by Equestrian standards."
"How tall are you anyway?" Lori asked.
"By your measurement system, I have no idea. And Equestria's measuring system makes zero sense, so I really don't want to explain it right now."
"Guess we're not the only ones with a measurement system that makes no sense then," Michael chuckled. "Anyway, how was everyone's first day?"
"Mine was great! I already love my teacher and I got to play on the playground with my friends." Jess said happily. She frowned and turned to Twilight. "Though none of them believed me when I said that you were staying with us an exchange student."
"Wouldn't they have seen me on the bus?" Twilight said, tilting her head to the side.
"There are multiple buses, dumbass," Kristy sneered.
"KRISTINA CATHERINE WALLACE! Language!" Lori yelled as Twilight glared at the teen.
"Ugh. Whatever," Kristy grumbled as she took a bite of pizza while glancing at her phone.
Michael sighed. "Kirsty, this is getting old. There are to be no cell phones at mealtime. Please put it away. I"m not going to ask again."
"Fine! I'm putting away the phone. Happy?" Kristy spat, cramming her phone into her pocket.
"No, I am not happy. You still need to apologize to Twilight for-" Michael said before being interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the door. "One second."
Michael got up and went to the front door. When he opened it, he was greeted by a light gray pegasus with a blonde mane and tail. She was wearing a mail carrier's cap and holding a package in her hooves, as well as a clipboard and envelope under her right wing. The thing that stuck out to Michael though, were her eyes. They appeared to be looking in two different directions, and he could see that she had some wet spots on her face, almost like tear marks.
"G-good evening s-sir. I have a package and letter that were to be delivered to this address," she said with a very forced smile.
"Thanks, but I think you have the wrong address. I wasn't expecting any mail today. Are you sure it isn't the house next door?" Michael asked, trying to avoid staring at her eyes.
"Well, the package says it's for a "Michael Wallace", and I tried the house next door and they said he lived here. Does he live here, or were the neighbors just being mean?" she said.
"Yeah, Michael Wallace lives here, considering I am him. But who would be sending a package to me?"
The mailmare glanced down at the tag on the package. "The sender would be one-" she said, her mouth dropping as she read the name of the sender.
"What? Who sent it?" Michael asked after a few seconds, causing the mare to jump and drop the package.
"I'm so sorry please don't yell at me I didn't mean to drop it!" she quickly said as she picked up the box and curled up on the ground.
"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down. Why would I yell at you?" Michael asked, kneeling down to meet her at eye level.
"W-well, the last guy I gave a package, I dropped it for like the sixth time and he yelled at me and called a cross-eyed idiot," she sobbed. "I have no control over how my eyes look! It's a medical condition!"
Michael sighed, realization hitting him like a truck. "This guy wouldn't happen to be Mike Wallace, would it?"
The mare looked up at him. "Y-yeah. How did you know?"
"Cause he's my father. And I was on the phone with him when that package was delivered. It was a glass vase, right?" Michael said, the mare nodding. "And don't take it personally, he yells a LOT. I had to grow up with him yelling all the time. It wasn't easy, trust me on that." he added, scratching the mare behind the ears, causing her to giggle before lightly pushing his hand off.
"Thanks, I needed that. Anyway, the package and letter are from Princess Celestia," she said as she pushed the package towards Michael.
"Wait, Princess Celestia, as in THE Princess Celestia?" Michael said in shock.
"Yeah, THE Princess Celestia. No clue why she'd send a package here though. But my job isn't to wonder about the packages, just deliver them. See ya!" the mare said, flying off to deliver more mail.
"Thanks. I think." Michael said as he went back inside with the mail and walked over to the table, where the entire pizza was completely gone.
"Sorry, hon. You took too long so we continued without you. What's the package?" Lori asked her husband.
"Mail from a god, that's what."
"Huh?"
"It's from Princess Celestia," he said, causing the eyes of everyone at the table to widen.
"Wait, really? Why would we get a package from the ruler of Equestria?" Will asked, picking up the letter.
A loud coughing could be heard as Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof.
"Oh. Right. We have one of the other rulers sitting here eating dinner with us," Will deadpanned.
"Let me see that," Twilight said, the letter floating right out of Will's hands, the top ripping clean off as Twilight pulled the letter out and read it.
"Dear Twilight. How was your first day of human high school? Hope you didn't get into trouble already. Not that I think you would, but you never know. Just wanted to let you know that your friends and I wanted to send you this care package. We each put a little something in here for you and I got you a prototype of something the humans are working on free of charge (for you at least). We miss you and hope that your efforts to make peace and harmony with Earth's youth go well.
Your Mentor,
Princess Celestia
P.S. Luna says hi.
Twilight opened the package and started pulling out the contents, smiling more and more with each item.
"Let's see here, a case of cider from Applejack, a box of cupcakes from Pinkie Pie, a bottle of perfume from Rarity, a brush from Fluttershy, and VIP tickets to the Wonderbolt's first show on Earth from Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, placing the items on the table.
"Aren't the Wonderbolts the pegasuses that do ariel stunts?" Jess asked.
"The plural is pegasi. But yeah, they are. And Rainbow Dash just gave me 12 VIP tickets," Twilight said.
"Yeah, yeah, you got tickets to a flight show. Is there anything else in the box?" Kristy grumbled.
Twilight looked down to see if there was anything still in the box and found Celestia's gift.
"And from Celestia, we have a pen and a smaller box-what?" Twilight said as she looked at the Wallaces, who were all staring at the small box.
"T-that looks like a cell phone. Only shaped for a pony's facial structure." Will said in disbelief. "I can't believe that those actually exist. Or that you have one."
"How would she even use the touch screen with hooves? Seems pretty inefficient to me," Kristy said, genuinely curious.
"That might not be a pen, it might be a stylus for the phone," Michael said, picking up the piece of plastic.
"Well, we can look at that later. We still need to clean up dinner," Lori said, putting a plate in the sink.
"Agreed. We don't want to attract ants," Michael said.
It was after nine-thirty when Kristy was brushing her teeth and getting ready to go to bed. Her siblings were already in bed and her parents were downstairs talking, while Twilight was sitting in their-no her- bedroom reading a book.
"She certainly is a bookworm," Kristy thought as she spat into the sink and put her toothbrush away. "Still can't believe I have to share my room with a freaking equine.
Kristy went out into the hallway and down to her room, quietly opening the door. The lights were off and her roommate had fallen asleep on the beanbag chair in the corner, curled up in a little ball with a book between her forehooves. Kristy smiled as she got into bed.
"You may look sweet and innocent now, but I know what you did. Even if you yourself don't. But I will have my revenge. Prepare yourself Twilight Sparkle, for you have a world of hurt coming."Kristy thought as she drifted off to sleep.