I still don't really know how I managed to walk home with a purple, talking pony beside me, with no-one seeing. I suppose I am just incredibly lucky that I live in the middle of nowhere, so there were a lot of unused country roads I could take, with literally no-one on them. Not only that, but the fact that it was actually overcast and raining meant that not a lot of people were out, which again helped a lot.
But somehow, I managed to get home with no-one catching a glimpse of Twilight, and as we arrived at the house, I just hoped it would be as easy with my parents.
I suppose I am quite lucky when it comes to my house. I live in a little village called Glenroe, and I live in a former farmhouse. Basically that means that we have a hell of a lot of land to use to our hearts' content, which really means setting up a swing-set for 5 year old me, which I used for two years then broke my arm on and never used again.
But as well as all this land, we have the odd building scattered around. My favourite is the Barn. It isn't actually a barn - we have no idea what it was originally used for, but it looks like it could have perhaps been a barn. Also, I was 3 when I named it, and the name stuck. We redecorated it a few years ago, and whenever the weather's nice, and I have friends staying around, we go in there for the night. It's awesome - it's pretty much like a den in there. My parents got it connected to the mains so we can actually use things like TVs in there, or projectors for awesome movie marathons.
"Ok, Twilight," I said, opening the front gate. "I really don't know how my parents are going to react to a pony strolling through the front door, so...wait here. In that bush," I added, gesturing to the rose bush next to us.
Twilight turned. "A rose bush? Really?"
I ignored her, and started walking towards the front door. As I opened the door, I was going through the conversation in my head - Grace! What are you doing home so late? Mum, I was just wondering whether you would let a friend stay here for the night...maybe forever? Who? Twilight Sparkle. She's a magical talking pony.
What parent would say yes to that?
I pushed open the heavy wooden door, and called out into the house.
"Mum? Dad?" I shouted.
There was no answer.
I immediately began checking in the downstairs rooms, but stopped when I caught sight of a note of the fridge. I walked over to it and ripped it off.
Grace
Your father accidentally somehow managed to seriously hurt himself while making dinner, so unfortunately I had to drive him to the hospital.
Be back as soon as we can.
Mum x
I stood there reading this letter, then burst into laughter. Most people would start panicking if they heard that their father had gone into hospital, but not me. Not because I'm a horrible person - I love my dad - but because this is the 2nd time this month he's had to go to hospital. And it's been a slow month for him. usually, it's about 4 times, maybe 5. He's pretty clumsy.
Anyway, knowing that my parents would be out for a while, I quickly ran to the door and ushered Twilight in, making sure none of the neighbours saw us.
"Wow. This is nice," Twilight said, taking in her surroundings. I saw her walk into the kitchen, and freeze for a moment.
"Err...Twilight, are you ok?" I said, immediately rushing towards her, fearing the worst - I really did not want to have a magical breakdown-prone pony actually have a breakdown in my house, or for her to suddenly drop dead.
The purple pony faced me. "Yeah, I'm fine." She started walking straight into the kitchen, and stopped beside the dining table. "Just a bit hungry."
I looked at the table. Sitting perfectly in the middle of the table (my mother is quite the perfectionist) was a fruit bowl, containing bananas, oranges, kiwis and, most importantly, apples.
I think I could guess what Twilight was looking at.
I reached over and grabbed two apples. I was just about to throw one to Twilight when common sense kicked in, and I realised that being a pony, she had no hands with which to catch said apple, so instead I held it out for her to grab with her mouth.
I was surprised at first to see Twilight take it not with her mouth, but with her hoof.
"How the hell do you do that?" I yelled.
She gave me a weird look. "I just pick it up. Normally."
I was just about to question it - surely it was impossible for ponies, with no opposable thumbs or anything remotely similar, to simply pick items up with their hooves? - when I suddenly heard the dreaded noise.
A car pulling up.
"Shit."
Before Twilight had a chance to question me, I immediately jumped up and ran to the window. Sure enough, that was my mum's car pulling up outside. I immediately turned back around, looking at Twilight for some inspiration.
"What's going-"
"THE BACK DOOR!" I shouted, pointing towards it. Twilight started at me, with a slightly scared, slightly confused look on her face. "The door! Out! Please!" I added.
Twilight was still standing here, staring at me as if I were crazy, so, in the heat of the moment, I ran over to her, picked her up and started carrying her to the door.
"What are you doing? Put me down!" she screamed, as she did her best to break free from my grip. And considering that I had no idea just how heavy she would be, and was already struggling under her weight, it didn't need much for me to drop her.
"Why did you do that?!" Twilight shouted, as we lay in a pathetic heap on the floor.
"My parents...outside...can't see you..."
Twilight stood up and began walking towards the back door. "Well, you could have just said so, instead of carrying me off like some trophy." She walked over to the back door, opened it with her magic, and began walking outside. I chased after her.
"If you walk that way," I said, pointing further into the garden. "You'll find one of the buildings and you can shelter from the rain there. I'll get you in a minute."
Twilight nodded, then galloped off in the direction I pointed. I quickly turned around to check that they were no obvious 'a pony has been here' clues, like muddy hoofprints all over the floor or unexplainable purple stands of hair, and quickly mopped up the wet patches on the floor, lest my father had yet another accident.
"Grace," my mum said, hugging me when I opened the door for them. "I'm so sorry. Your dad really needs to work on his clumsiness."
"It's fine, Mum. Dad was more important. Is he ok?" I asked.
"Sure am, pumpkin." I looked behind my mum to find my dad standing there, his left hand bandaged up, with a smirk on his face.
"What the hell even happened to you?" I asked.
He walked straight past me, and sat down in the baby blue armchair in our front hall, and said, "Well, perch here on my lap, and I'll tell you the entire story."
"Dad."
"I was making dinner, and it was getting a bit boring, so I put on some music, and started dancing, which probably isn't a good idea when handling hot breakable items, and I wasn't concentrating and accidentally burnt my hand which made me drop it on the other hand, where it broke."
I stared at my dad, then facepalmed. It was no wonder why the things that happen to me happen - it seems to be genetic, and there is no question where I got it from.
"Dad," I finally said after a few moments of disbelief at my father's stupidity. "That was really stupid."
About half an hour of that occurred - where I avoided telling my parents about my wonderful day and my impending detention - and then I remembered Twilight.
"I'm going to go and do some work in the barn - that ok?" I asked.
"Of course, darling. Spend as much time as you like - just be back before its dark."
I ran up to my room, and grabbed my laptop, and ran as fast as I could whilst hugging a very expensive and essential part of my life to myself, trying to shelter it from the rain, towards the Barn.
As I got close towards it, I began to think about what is really going to happen. I mean, surely Twilight couldn't live in the Barn forever? My parents would find out eventually, or she would get bored and run off.
As I opened the door, I had on idea how it was really going to work long term. But that was quickly put out of my mind when I saw the inside of the Barn.
"What the fuck?!"