//------------------------------//
// First Night 
// Story: Earth Pony 
// by Basmati 
//------------------------------//

I stood in the doorway of the Barn, staring in, not believing what my eyes were really showing me. I decorated the Barn myself, so I know exactly what it looks like usually. I spent months planning, and in the end just decided on a simple design. With the help of my friends, I decorated the entire room with different shades of purple (that was the only colour we could all agree on), with bean bags everywhere, nerdy posters everywhere and a projector set up to watch movies on whenever I had anyone over.

But it was all changed.

Posters gone. Bean bags gone. Projector gone. Everything gone.

And in their place, tea tables and chairs. It looked sweet. Like a cottage. Like a typical English cottage. Like a typical English cottage, where the decorator had an obvious low budget.

It honestly looked like something out of a storybook.

Somehow, Twilight had managed to get rid of everything I loved about the Barn in 20 minutes and replace it with things that I didn't even know we owned. Seriously, I had never seen this stuff in my life! I had no idea where she got it from, where she put my stuff, or even how she managed to do that all by herself without anyone seeing.

I don't know how long I stood there, but I snapped back into reality when I felt my laptop slipping out my grip. Shutting the door, I looked around the room for a desk or any surface that didn't look like it was all set up for a tea party, and saw Twilight standing in one of the corners, staring at the wall.

"Twilight?" I said, my voice breaking slightly.

She whipped around and saw the look of panic on my face. "What?" Twilight said, looking annoyingly innocent.

"What the hell did you do?" I exclaimed, gesturing to...well, everything.

"Well, I had been studying home design last week; looking at the different styles we use in Equestria. Traditionally, homes have the 'traditional' style - first created in the third decade of Celestia's reign. Obviously, that is only used nowadays in towns like Ponyville and other places in or near the Canterlot province. In Canterlot, for example, they still used the same 'regal' look that the city is famous for. And in places such as Manehattan, they used a much more modernised ver-"

"Get to the point."

"Well, I thought, guessing that I would be staying here for some time, that I would at least make it look more...home-like."

A pony thought my room wasn't 'home-like', so redecorated. Facepalm. 

But seriously though - why do things like this always happen to me? Just today, I got soaked by a truck, bullied by a teacher, knocked out by a pony, then had my style insulted by the same pony. How many other people can say that?

After that comment, I just sank to the floor, with my laptop conveniently landing on my lap. I stared at the floor, not really listening to what Twilight was still saying.

"I mean, I'm no Rarity, but I thought I could at least make a slight improvement; good thing I'd studied beforehand. Can't imagine what I would have done if I-"

I noticed that she had stopped, so raised my head. I found Twilight staring at me with a concerned look on her face.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

I paused for a moment, then said, "Yeah. It's just...a lot has happened today; usually, I don't have ponies appear from nowhere, knock me out, then accompany me home."

Twilight stared at me for a while, and just when I thought she was going to argue with me some more, she sighed.

"It's been an eventful day for both of us - I'm not used to randomly appearing in a completely different world, or having to walk to a total stranger's home - I just realised something," she said suddenly. I sat up straight against the wall, looking at her when she said, "I've gone all this way, hiding in your playroom, and I don't even know your name, or anything about you."

"Ok, 1. It was a pleasure to allow you to stay here. 2. It's not a playroom; it's called the Barn, and it's a sort of teenage room, I suppose. And 3. Grace. Grace Blackwood."

"Twilight. Twilight Sparkle," she replied, raising her hoof to shake my hand. "But you already knew that...how?"

I was in a pickle. On the one hand, I could tell her the truth, that her entire life is a children's TV show, watched by millions, including 40 year old men, potentially causing her to have a heart attack and die, meaning I cause the end of a show I (secretly) love, as well as many others.

On the other hand, I could lie and eventually watch my lie spiral out of control as I get deeper and deeper into it. This has happened before, when I would tell one little lie, as a joke, and then have to pretty much create an entirely new person to keep this lie afloat. Let's just say it did not end prettily. Also, what excuse could I possibly give her? I'm a psychic? I'm from the future? I'm actually her father? 

"Right...at the moment, I feel that that is a topic that is hard to explain. I promise I will explain it to you, but later in time. But soon." I looked directly at her as I said it.

Twilight smiled. "I understand. You have your reasons - I won't rush you." I smiled back at her. This was going to be an interesting time.

***

It must have been at about midnight when I sat up in my bed, stayed there for a few minutes, straining my ears for sounds of any sort of movement. When I heard my father's snores, I knew that I was safe to get up. I threw my duvet off me, threw my dressing gown on, grabbed a torch, and slowly opened my bedroom door.

As I left my room, I shut my door again - the way I have it when I'm asleep - and began to slowly creep downstairs. In the kitchen, I finally turned on the torch, found the back door key, and opened the door. I then made my way to the Barn, as quickly as I could.

I would have loved to have taken the direct route from my bedroom window, but I felt that 'why are you in the kitchen' would be easier to explain than 'why are you climbing out of your bedroom window'.

I expected Twilight to at least be quite tired, if not asleep, by the time I got there, but no - somehow she had managed to stay up, sitting in a room all by herself for a few hours.

"Bit late, isn't it?" she said, with a smile on her face, when she saw me. I smiled back at her, then sat down next to her.

I have been in the Barn at this many times before, but this time felt different. I don't know whether it was because my friends weren't there, or because there was a fucking pony here, or something else, but it was different.

But a good different.

As I sat there, I wasn't thinking about how I'm going to keep Twilight a secret, or how long she could stay in an old building at the bottom of my garden, or even how stupid this all sounded. I thought about how, even though we had only known each other for a few hours, I felt as though Twilight Sparkle was my friend. And I hers.

"Grace?" Twilight broke me out of my trace.

"Yeah?"

"I...I still know nothing about you. And I feel bad about that. You pretty much saved my life-"

"Twilight," I interrupted. "You're sleeping in the Barn. In my garden. I wouldn't exactly say I 'saved your life'."

Twilight's look instructed me to shut up, and she carried on. "You left me into your home, after I...assaulted you, and scared the living daylights out of you, but I don't really know anything about you."

I was slightly stunned. I am used to being the person that no-one talks to, that everyone ignores, that everyone hates. And here was someone wanting to know all about me.

"Where would you like to start?" I finally said.

"Well, just stuff about your daily life - your friends, family, hobbies, anything."

"Erm...I don't really have many friends," I started. "But there is Lydia."

I looked towards Twilight, who was smiling at me encouragingly.

"We met about 5 years ago, on the first day of secondary school in a French lesson.  We sat in alphabetical order, but because our teacher wanted to be different, she did it in a really weird order, so I ended up sitting next to Lydia, even though I'm Blackwood and she's Smith. I can still remember it, because the teacher said I had a 'flair for languages' and Lydia was half French, so the both of us kept getting all the questions right, and not letting anyone else answer them."

"Any others?"

I laughed. "Absolutely not. I am one of the most hated people in my year."

"'Hated' is a bit strong, you think?" Twilight said. "I mean, you seem lovely to me."

"Thank you, but everyone is my year is a bitc- a not nice person, and all they do is make fun of me." I looked over at Twilight, who had a shocked look on her face. "Oh don't worry, I'm used to it - it doesn't bother me anymore."

Twilight still looked slightly disgusted at what I told her, so I quickly tried to change subject. "Family-wise, it just me and my parents. My wonderful, slightly dysfunctional parents. They're great, just crazy. Mainly my dad; he's a klutz. I have never known anyone to get into some many accidents. We're on first-name-basis with the nurses at the hospital." I paused to watch Twilight laugh at that. 

"My mother, on the other hand, is a lot more serious than my dad, which isn't really hard - this is the man who dressed up as Slenderman and hid in a bush at the bottom of the garden for 3 hours just so he could scare me. Granted, it did work; I have never been so scared before in my life than when I turned around to find Slenderman just standing at the bottom of the garden, watching me.

"My mother - she is lovely. She's the kind of parent that knows I'm not going to do anything wrong, so doesn't really 'parent' me. I'm not the rebellious type - I do my homework, I eat my vegetables, I don't come home at 3 in the morning. I don't even go to those sort of parties! So my parents don't really see the need to give me loads of rules and a curfew and things like that. Really, it's just 'come home' and 'don't do anything stupid that'll kill you'."

"You know," Twilight added. "You sound a lot like me when I was a filly and in my teenage years."

"I'm not surprised to hear you say that," I said, sitting back on a bean bag.

"Well, you don't really get to be the Private Student of the Princess by having fun. No, I worked hard to get where I am today - most ponies my age aren't as determined as I am. Hours of studying, day, weeks even! Friends weren't important to me - my studies were my life. And they still are, but so are Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity. And of course Spike."

"You ponies are so lucky, you know. You have cutie marks that tell you exactly what you are good at. Me - I have parents that are bad at lying."

Twilight turned towards me. "They must be something you're good at. Everypony has their one special talent - it's just hard to find sometimes."

"Writing." 

I looked down at the laptop resting in my lap. "This is Vinyl, and she is my entire life. I have around 5 years of writing on here - from the first story I wrote for Year 7 English to all the short stories I write in my spare time. I remember last term I got the highest mark in the year for my short story. But still I wasn't amazing. It's more of a hobby, with the occasional strike of luck. I'm no author, or anything." I looked up, my hand resting on the cover. "Singing wasn't much better either."

"You sing?"

"Of course I do. I've been singing since before I can remember. In primary school, I was known as the singing one. The one with the amazing voice. The one who kept getting solos. Not anymore. Now, people can't even seem to remember that about me. The number of times I'll mention me singing and people say, "I didn't know you sang!"" I could begin to feel the tears forming in my eyes. "Music was the only thing I ever felt good at. And now I don't even feel that."

I put Vinyl down on the floor next to me, my head turned away from Twilight. I didn't want her to see me like this - she had just met me, and now I was crying because people don't compliment my singing anymore? I felt so pathetic, which then made me even sadder.

I can remember how long I sat there in silence, but after a while I felt someone standing next to me. I turned to see Twilight standing right beside me. I wiped my eyes, and suddenly found myself in an embrace with the purple pony.

"Don't let anyone let you down. You are a lovely person - always remember that."

I laughed bitterly through my tears. "You hardly know me."

"You took me in," Twilight said, her beautiful violet eyes staring into mine. "You vowed to keep me safe, let me into the comfort of your home

"Twilight, I didn't vow any-"

"Am I not in your property? Am I not here at your suggestion? You allowed me to come here, and you are keeping safe. You don't know me. You let a complete stranger into your house. There are not many ponies who would do that, and I'm sure even fewer in your society. But you still did. And that makes you a wonderful, wonderful person."

We spent the rest of the night chatting about all sorts of weird stuff. She told me some gossip about some ponies in Ponyville (and, before you ask, my lips are sealed), and I told her all about Bella and Mrs McFarland and everyone else who hates me. Needless to say, I had more to talk about.

We began to eventually get really sleepy, and lay down on floor after I got a bunch of pillows and threw them down.

"Grace?"

"Yes, Twi?"

I could see her deep purple eyes looking at me through the darkness.

"Thanks."