After finishing her cinnamon twist and mocha latte, Twilight left the bakery and returned to the school. Earlier, when she first arrived through the portal, she tried the doors but they didn't budge. The building was clearly locked up tight, with no signs of anyone present. She tried banging on the doors, yelling, even running around the hedges and jumping up, pounding and glancing into the classroom windows. There hadn’t been a single soul there. At that point she decided to make the quick trip to SugarCube Corner, recalling Pinky worked there and it was only a short walk from the school.
On her return, things looked slightly better. There was an old pickup truck in the parking lot. Through the glass doors at the front of the school a light was clearly visible. Running up to the doors, Twilight tried once again opening them. They were still locked. Frustrated and emotionally drained, she banged on the doors hoping someone, anyone, would hear her and let her in. Nothing.
With a groan of frustration, Twilight again made the rounds of the building. After her second pass, she slumped on the steps to catch her wind.
“So frustrating! Why can’t anyone hear me!” she groused. “I swear, where is everyone? Are they all still on vacation? They have their own holiday, I remember. Called it something else though…” Sighing, she sat and waited.
As the evening wore on, the sun set. The air started to get chilly. Twilight briefly considered going back through the portal to fetch something warmer to wear, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk. What if she left, and whoever was inside came out? She would miss her chance to talk to them, and find out where Sunset was and what was going on. No. No, she couldn’t risk it. It wasn’t worth it. She was an Equestrian Princess, darn it. An Alicorn. The element of magic for pity's sake! She could stand a little cold. She would be fine.
Twenty minutes later, and that much colder, she felt she had more than adequate reason to rethink her decision. Shivering, she wandered over to the old truck hoping she could climb inside it to warm up. At least then she would be out of the wind that was picking up, robbing her body of warmth with every gust. And, she thought, congratulating herself on her cleverness… ‘If I’m in the truck, they'll certainly see me! And then I can ask them all my questions!’
Her clever plans came to a crashing halt when she reached the truck. Both doors were locked, and the windows were fully rolled up.
“Ah sugar plums!” she swore, then blushed profusely at her indiscretion.
She was about to give up hope and head back for the school, when she noticed a large tarp tied down in the truck's bed. Climbing into the truck bed, and pulling the tarp from its ties, saw, thank harmony, not only was there a wonderful tarp she could use to keep the wind off, but beneath were two blankets she could wrap herself in to keep warm! Delighted with her find, she wrapped herself up in a blanket like a pupating moth. She wrapped the tarp around that and sat in the bed of the truck, waiting for whomever would come back. A while later, Twilight was still shivering. The wind was freezing her exposed face and head. She really didn’t want to wrap her head in a blanket - how would she see then? Instead, she decided to lie down using the second blanket as a pillow. That put her below the wall of the truck bed, protected from the chill gusts.
Smiling at her cleverness, she snuggled into the second blanket - and promptly fell fast asleep.
Hours later, Granny Smith emerged from the school, locking the doors behind her. She’d come in for a bit to get things ready for the breakfast crew. Students were returning from break tomorrow, and for many of them, breakfast and lunch at school were an important part of their daily nutrition. Everything had been stowed and locked down for the holiday, so she wanted to ensure everything was prepped and in working order for the breakfast crew when they showed up bright and early.
As often happens, it was more work than she thought. So it was several hours later - in fact, darn near midnight - before she finally finished. With everything ready for the morning’s breakfast, and a good start on the preparations needed for her shift with the lunch crew, she was proud of her work. And rightly so… but powerfully tired too. She stumbled to her truck, unlocked the door and climbed into the cab. Powering up the engine, she headed home.
Not once did she notice the little bit of tarp whipping up occasionally from the back of the truck.
When Granny got home, she pulled the truck into the barn, and shut everything down. She slid the barn doors closed, and entered the old farmhouse.
Her oldest grandson, Big Mac, was dozing fitfully in the living room rocking chair by the front door.
“Mac!” Granny yelled. “Mac! I’m home! Go to bed, you big galumph. Ya didn’t have ta stay up ta babysit me. I’m a big girl ya goof! I can take cara myself!”
Blinking, looking around in a daze, Big Mac focused on Granny. “Oh, hi Granny. Yeah, okay. Good night. Glad ya made it home safe. See ya in the mornin’.” Granny went up the stairs. Big Mac almost followed her, but decided he’d make a quick check before he tucked in for the night. Wouldn’t be the first time Granny forgot to take care of something…
Heading out the door, he crossed to the barn and slid the barn door open. Granny had parked the truck in the middle of the barn. That was fine. He went over to check it and noticed the tarp, unfolded and laying in the back of the bed.
“Consarn it, Granny! Whadja have ta mess with the tarp for…” He pulled on it, and felt it weighed down by something. Bending over, he pulled back the top of the tarp and saw a girl’s face.
“WHAT THE SAM HILL!” he started and swore, then bent down and looked again.
“Twilight?” he said. Shaking his head, he laughed. “Darn it all Granny. You might have mentioned you’d left Twilight Sparkle in the back of the darn truck!”
Carefully pulling the tarp aside, he gently lifted the snoring Princess of Friendship, still wrapped in her blanket, and carried her into the house. Taking her to the guest bedroom, he pulled back the covers, and tucked her, blanket and all, into bed, then turned out the lights. “Good night Twilight,” he said at the door.
“Good night Spike…” mumbled the bundle of blankets. Big Mac laughed, then shut the door and went to bed.
Despite being up late, Granny Smith rose with the sun. A lifetime of early rising made the habit hard to break. She started making a nice farmers breakfast for everyone. While the biscuits were baking, she made the rounds, knocking on doors to get her kidlins’ keisters up and pointed in the right direction.
“Up an at em girls! Back ta school today! No shirking! Up up up!”
As she passed the guest bedroom she could have sworn she heard a girls voice say “Five more minutes Spike…” Shaking her head, she continued back to the kitchen to finish making breakfast for her hungry family.
Big Mac drifted out of his room, pulling suspenders up over his woolen shirt. Scratching the back of his head, he headed downstairs, but seeing breakfast wasn’t ready yet, decided to finish cleaning up the tarp and blanket from last night.
Back in the barn, while folding the tarp and blanket and putting them back under the tie-downs, he noticed the feed still out from yesterday. “Applebloom!” he muttered, then decided he may as well get an early start on feeding the animals, seeings as it was already out.
Grabbing the feed bag, gloves, and scoop, he headed out.
Back in the house, Applejack and Applebloom came down the stairs, drawn by the wonderful smells coming from the farmhouse kitchen. “Come and get it girls!” cackled Granny, serving up plates of biscuits and gravy with links and sausage to her granddaughters. “Where’s your brother?” Granny asked as the girls tucked into the delicious food.
“Ah think ah saw him heading out earlier,” answered Applejack between mouthfuls. “Must have decided to get an early start on the chores.”
“That’s Big Mac,” smiled Granny. “Always thinking ah others.”
The phone rang. Yes. The farmhouse had a wall phone. They really do still exist some places, I swear. And Yup, they had one. Anyway.
Granny banked her cooking, and reached across to answer the phone. “Hello!” She nodded a few times, then answered. “Okay, just hang on. I’ll head on in. Go ahead and start serving up the rest of them. I’ll sort it out in a bit when I get there. Okay, bye.”
She hung up the phone. “AJ, I gotta head on in now. You and your sister ready to go?”
“Yes, mam!” answered Applejack. Applebloom just nodded as she stuffed her food into her mouth, swallowing as quickly as she could.
“Alrighty, girls. Get yer stuff and get in the truck. We’re heading out as soon as I set this grub aside.” Granny quickly scraped everything into a tin, placed it in the fridge, then scribbled a note on the whiteboard by the sink. She grabbed her purse and keys and headed out the door.
Upstairs, a very confused and tired Princess of Friendship drifted out from the guest room, still wrapped in the truck’s blanket. Smacking her lips and yawning, she looked down. Realizing she was still in the blanket, she returned to the room, carefully folded it up, and placed it on the end of the bed.
Rubbing her eyes, it dawned on her exactly where she was. “AJ?'' she called softly. She stretched, then headed down the stairs looking for everyone. “How did I get here?” she wondered aloud. The last thing she remembered was being in the school parking lot, and laying down in the back of a truck to stay warm.
The kitchen looked like it had recently been used. There were dishes in the sink, the stove was covered in pans, and the smell was heavenly. No food though. She must have missed them. She wondered why no one had bothered to wake her up.
She walked out the front door, looking for anyone. “AJ!” she called out, heading towards the barn.
Big Mac, finished with the morning feed, was on his way back to the barn to put the feed away. Rounding the back of the barn, he noticed Twilight wandering around, looking out of sorts. “Twilight!” he called out, waving when she turned toward him.
“Big Mac? Big Mac! Where is everyone?” She headed towards him.
“Just a sec Twilight! Lemme put this feed away and I’ll meet you in the kitchen.” Twilight nodded, turned back to the farmhouse and went inside.
Putting everything away and quickly cleaning up, Big Mac joined Twilight in the farmhouse kitchen. “Get you anything princess?” asked with a smirk.
“Coffee. Please,” groaned Twilight, face buried in her hands. “Ugh… feels like I could sleep for another few hours.” Taking the proffered caffeinated gift from the gods, she scooped in some sugar, poured some cream, and stirred. “You wouldn’t happen to know how I got here would you?”
Big Mac laughed. “Nope. Found you in the back of the truck last night when Granny got home. So I tucked you into the guest bedroom. I guess you were plenty tired, you slept through the whole thing.”
Both hands wrapped around the mug, Twilight slurped her coffee, slowly waking. “Ugh. Thank you. Is AJ still here?” she asked.
“Nope.” Big Mac replied. “Ya just missed her.”
Twilight groaned.