Friday evenings were usually used to cool off from the school week, get personally busy with friends and loved ones, or relax to take off of the stress and cool down. That is what most students would do once the school week was over.
Twilight Sparkle was not most students.
The high schooler was once an attendee at Crystal Prep, where she more than succeeded due to her high intellect and love for studying, which landed her in hot water with the other students for being jealous of her privileges with the nefarious principal, now former. Once she transferred to Canterlot High, she once again succeeded expectations, only this time she was treated like any other student, which is what she enjoyed more.
She spent her Friday evenings completing any homework she had not yet completed during school hours, or studying for any upcoming exams or tests, even if there weren't any upcoming exams or tests.
"Twilight?" Spike asked.
"Not now, Spike. I'm busy," Twilight dismissed.
Despite being the world's only talking dog, no thanks to Equestrian magic, Spike was still treated like he was any other dog, except this dog had a voice to voice his snarky sometimes grumpy personality. It heavily clashed with Twilight's by-the-books concentration; the moment her nose was in a book or writing up some sort of essay, she tended to forget that the outside world existed.
"But, Twilight, this is important," Spike repeated.
Twilight sighed as she dropped the textbook onto the table. "What could be so important that I had to lose concentration of studying for my history exam?"
"I was reminding you that Shining and your parents will be home anytime now, and that they need a table to eat dinner at, which is now cluttered with the failure of you recent experiment."
"Well, how was I supposed to know that there was a crack in the bowl the moment the water made contact with the sodium, and DID YOU SAY THAT MY FAMILY ARE ALMOST HOME?!!!"
Spike scratched his ear after the outburst. "Yeah, you didn't have to scream about it. Anyway, I'm off to bed. Goodnight, Twilight," and he hopped upstairs and out of sight.
Which left Twilight to panic. "Oh, no. My family's almost home, and the table cloth is covered in sodium water stains and broken glass! How am I supposed to clean this all up before--?!"
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Twilight's complete nervous system froze up.
"Now what am I supposed to do?!" she squeaked.
The doorbell rang again, and this time someone knocked on the door.
"Twilight?" her mom, Twilight Velvet, said. "Sweetie, are you home?"
"Come on, Twily, we're starving!" her brother, Shining Armor groaned.
"Now, Shining," her dad, Night Light, said, "I know you decided to cancel your date with Cadence at the last minute, but that's no excuse to snap at your sister like that."
"Coming!" Twilight cried, rushing to the door, almost tripping over the dining chair.
She rushed over to open the front door, as the house didn't have a garage, and terrifyingly threw the door open to reveal her family. Night Light was still dressed in his security guard outfit from the museum, Velvet looked the same, but Shining was dressed in his best-looking tuxedo and had his hair slicked back.
Oh, no. It was his date night, and it looked like it was postponed in the eleventh hour.
"Hey, everyone," she stammered, putting on a faux smile.
"Hey, Twilight!" Velvet said, giving her daughter a crushing hug. "How was you day?"
"Oh, it was nothing special...though," she sheepishly rubbed her neck, "I may have made a mess of the dining room."
Night Light perked up as he hung his coat. "Really? What was it this time?"
"I wanted to find out if reinforced plastic could hold a mixture of sodium and water. Unfortunately...I missed a massive crack in the structure, and it...kinda...sorta ...exploded."
Shining, undressing his overcoat, smirked while shaking his head.
"Oh, there's no need to worry, dear," Velvet comforted. "It's only sodium."
"Say, what's that noise?" Night Light said. "It sounds like someone's hammering."
Twilight flushed with embarrassment. "Oh, yeah. Heh, heh, about that..."
"All done, Twilight! I've fixed it right up!" a voice cried from the kitchen.
Twilight shrank herself from the accusatory looks from her family.
"Twily, who is in the house with you?" Shining asked, very accusing.
"Well...this, machine I built," Twilight stammered in response, "I had trouble putting it together, so I got a friend of mine to help put it together. But when testing it, we found a slight malfunction, so he was fixing it when you arrived."
"Well, why don't you introduce us to your friend?" Velvet suggested, feeling enthusiastic.
"Oh, uh, s-sure thing."
Twilight led her family into the sodium soaked dining room, only the walls were no longer covered in sodium, and there was a man scrubbing down the walls and humming a tune. He was bald with large ears, wearing a white shirt and red tie under a green sweater vest, brown trousers, and black shoes. He then turned around to face Twilight's family.
"Oh, hallo there, everyone," he greeted, smiling. "I didn't hear you all come in. I'm Wallace."
"Wallace," Velvet thought. "Oh! You're that inventor that moved in to town recently."
"That's right, ma'am."
Night Light sniggered while Velvet flushed red.
"What? Was it something I said?" Wallace asked.
"Ha, ha, ha, nah," Night Light laughed. "It was only the way you pronounced 'ma'am'."
"Is there a problem with that?" Wallace innocently asked.
"No, no, there's nothing wrong with it at all." Night Light sighed. "Looks like we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Night Light. Twilight's told me all about you."
"Dad," Twilight mumbled.
Wallace shook his hand. "Charmed, Mr. Light."
"And this is my wife, Twilight Velvet..."
"Call me Velvet, Wallace," Velvet greeted.
"Sure thing, Velvet," Wallace replied.
"Our son, Shining Armor..."
"Hey there, Wallace," Shining greeted.
"Hallo there, to you too," Wallace replied.
"And of course you know Twilight," Night Light finished.
"Well, it has been a pleasure meeting you all. Oh, I forgot to introduce you all to Gromit. Gromit!"
A dog walked in on two legs at Wallace's call.
"This is my dog, Gromit. He helps me with most of my inventions, but is also my best friend."
Gromit shrugged as he waved a hand/paw.
"Well, Wallace, and Gromit, since you're both here already, why don't you two join us for dinner?" Velvet suggested.
"We would be honored, ma'am. Oh, that reminds me," Wallace exclaimed. "Since your all here, why don't we help you with dinner?"
"Sure, of course you can."
"Very well, then. Alright everyone, you may take a seat at the table."
Wallace moved off a bit while the family looked incredulous at the table. Twilight chuckled with embarrassment.
"We'll need to clear off the table," Night Light said.
"No need to worry, everyone," Wallace said. "You're all just in time for the official test run of Twilight's latest invention. No longer will you need to waste hours waiting by in the kitchen, and you won't need to worry about the food overcooking."
"You built it, Twilight?" Velvet asked. "What's it called?"
"Well, yeah," Twilight replied. "I call it the Turbo Diner, but you helped me with it, Wallace."
"Nonsense," Wallace dismissed. "It was your genius that designed it, Twilight. The honor belongs to you alone."
Twilight flushed with complete embarrassment.
"Alright, everyone. We will now show you how it works," Wallace explained. He took a coin out from his pocket and then inserted into a box built nearby into the wall. To its side was a slit like the ones on gumball machines, two sets of spinning dials with a dial in the middle, which Wallace turned, and the meter moved from "Low" to "High", lighting up the four indicator lights.
Everyone got into their seats. Velvet and Night Light sat on one side, while Shining and Twilight sat on the other side, with Wallace and Gromit sitting at each end of the table.
"We just top up the meter," Wallace continued, "take a seat and let the machine do all the work."
Suddenly, each person in the chairs were subjected to having both of their arms and legs clamped to the seats, and then a rope pulled the chairs, now on wheels, closer to the table.
"Ready?" Wallace said.
"Twilight, what's going on?" Shining asked.
"It's alright, just...part of the procedure," Twilight replied, smiling sheepishly.
"Are you sure these are necessary?" Velvet asked.
"Twilight said that these are meant to hold you back," Wallace answered.
Just then, a compartment in the ceiling opened up and a large upside-down copper tub lowered down just above the table. When it stopped, it began emitting a huge suction force that completely sucked in all of the clutter from the table. It also pulled the attendees forward, in Twilight's case her glasses being attached by a small chain around her head. The first indicator light darkened, and the lights flickered a bit.
"What is going on?!" Shining cried.
"Wohoh! That's three-hundred horse power of pure suck!" Wallace shouted. "Not bad, eh?!"
"The clamps are meant to keep you from being sucked up accidentally!" Twilight added.
Once the suction stopped, and Twilight's glasses flopped back down, missing her nose, the tub shot back up into the ceiling and another large tub came down and slammed down onto the table, darkening the second light, and emitting a whirring red glow. Velvet caught scent of the food.
"Mmm, something smells good," she smiled.
Once the glow stopped, the tub lifted up and away to reveal an entire meal akin to Thanksgiving. A turkey in the middle surrounded by vegetables, a basket of buns, another basket of potatoes, a cake for dessert, readied tablemats with plates and silverware, and teacups and glasses for drinking.
"Oh, my word!" Night Light exclaimed. "Now THAT is a dinner. Well done, Twilight."
"Hohoh, what a spread!" Wallace added.
"Thanks, guys," Twilight grinned. "And now, for the finishing touch."
Lowering from the ceiling was the final device. It was a metal orb that had a long tube out the back with a hose that had a small flame attached to it, like a flamethrower, and under the orb was a claw that placed a three-piece candelabra onto the center of the table. Turns out, the orb was a flamethrower, and it aimed its nozzle right at the candlesticks, and dangerously close to Gromit's seat. It melted the candles low, the stopped, leaving them alit.
"Twilight, what have I told you about playing with fire?" Velvet chastised.
"Sorry, mom," Twilight apologized. "I'll just shorten the burst for next time."
"Well done, Twilight!" Wallace congratulated. "Smashing job!"
"Alright, dinner's on!" Night Light smiled.
Just then, the meter on the wall returned to low, stopping the flamethrower from returning to the ceiling. It then popped up a tab that read "Insert Coins", right before the entire house lost complete power, leaving the attendees clamped shut to their chairs.
"Oh, dear," Wallace grimaced.
"I don't suppose that was meant to happen?" Shining asked with a frown.
"I think the timing's a bit off," Wallace thought out loud.
"I-It's alright, everyone. I've got an idea!" Twilight said, on the verge of another panic attack. "SPIKE!! SPIKE!!"
Spike the dog either ignored her calls, or was fast asleep. Either way, he never answered.
"Well, that didn't work," Shining deadpanned.
"Don't be so negative, Shining, dear," Velvet chastised, keeping a smile. "After all, we're here together, and this atmosphere's very lovely."
Just then, the candle wicks went out, enveloping the entire house in complete darkness, leaving only for their eyes to see each other in the darkness.
"This feels exactly like my workspace," Night Light said. "Only this time, I smell good food instead of day old donuts."
Twilight was on the verge of shameful tears.
"It's all right, everyone!" Wallace declared. "I've got a great idea!"
"If it's about shouting for the police when none of can reach our pockets, then shut up!" Shining snapped.