Present Day
I actually woke up on my own having not been forced out of sleep by the pounding on the door or being shook but remembering what today was, I wasn't too much surprised by that small fact. However, as I stretched and tasted my pallet, my stomach growled with hunger after having not been fed the night before my nose catching the tantalizing smell of cheese and peppers wafting oh so delectably just to my left. Confused having never had the luxury of being brought food and having the pleasure of eating it alone in solitude away from the scrutinizing glances and comments on my lack of etiquette, I looked over and saw the plate of tortilla chips smothered in ooey-gooey cheese topped with chopped green and red peppers.
Nachos? My mind asked recalling the memory of the crunchy snack from an outing with the 'rents a few years back, my eyes widened in surprise as my body moved by itself to devour the deliciousness that waited on the desk. I never knew how starved I was until I took that first bite savoring the slight warmth of the cheese, the crunch of the chips, and the spice added by the peppers. It was heaven and a great and unsuspected way to start my birthday. It was only after I had finished the plate of nachos and having licked every last remaining morsel of cheese did I realize the strip of light coming from the opened door to my bedroom.
My door's...open? Raising an eyebrow and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes along with pinching myself to make sure I was truly awake and this had not been a false continuation of my dream, I walked over to the door that had been left ajar and slowly pushed it open just enough so I could slip out through the crack. In the hallway I listened quietly for the sounds of Victor and Patricia but heard nothing; only the sound of the old house settling into its foundation. But then, as I tiptoed closer to the stairs that led to the lower part of the house, I caught the faint sound of voices; voices whose words I could not make out yet. Fearing that this may be a trap yet eagerly wanting to see if the house was empty plus wanting to get to Henry and perhaps go for a short run, I stood there at the top of the stairs simply weighing the cost of walking in on the 'rents. While a part of my mind tried to convince me that they were gone as they always left to place flowers on Malcom's grave on the eve of his death, another part of my mind – or rather my body – did not want to face the chances of being wrong and being punished.
“Um, what are you doing,” came a small voice from behind me. Spinning around on my heels and nearly losing my balance having caught myself by grabbing onto the railing of the stairs, I came to meet emptiness. That is until I looked down and saw a pair large, green eyes looking up at me. Large, green, puppy dog eyes of a green and purple dog. Blinking at the oddity in front of me, the puppy opened its mouth and spoke.
“So did you like the nachos? I made them myself.”
“What in the world--”
“Oh sorry, where are my manners, I'm Spike.”
It has a name? Not only did it have a name but it had told me its name, speaking English non the less. I felt like I was going to faint yet something else happened that judging by the puppy's expression, neither of us has expected. Out of the blue, with nothing having been between us, there in all her show horse glory, stood Henry who appeared out of a flash of bright, colored light. The commotion sent me rolling down the stairs in a rather comical manner, ending up on my butt looking up at the randomness of Henry standing at the foot of the stairs between me and the weird, talking puppy who was looking at me from the top of the stairs trying to stifle a snicker. Henry obviously being just as frightened as I was as about what happened to her, reared up on her hind legs and whinnied--
“Oh My Gosh, what the hay just happened?! Who the buck are you and how did I get in here?!”
Okay, my horse could speak. As could the strange dog that apparently made fantastic nachos. This was obviously a dream.
“Hey, there, where did you come from,” Asked the dog as he stood up on his – was it even a he? – hind legs and began ushering a calming gesture to Henry with his paws.
“Looks like you've got a knack for teleportation. It's a good thing I got to you before you ended up teleporting yourself Celestia knows where.”
“Telepor-what-now? Who are you?” Came Henry, again speaking as clearly as I could and as the dog did.
“Teleportation. It's a rather common unicorn ability. And I'm sorry again for being so rude. My name's Spike.” Hopping down the stairs, the dog whose name was Spike, offered me a paw.
“Need a claw—er um, paw,” Hesitantly, I eventually took it as he helped me to my knees and I got to my feet. Uncharacteristic of all the things I heard about dreams and how you weren't supposed to feel pain, my butt was a wee bit sore as were miscellaneous other parts of my body.
“Alright so Henry, like I said before, I'm Spike and I'm here to take you back to Equestria. And happy birthday, it's not often a pony turns thirteen away from Equestria. Speaking of which, where are your parents? We sent numerous letters to inform them that you'd be needing to come and get registered and all that before attending classes and well, it seems like you won't be needing to prove what school you're going to. I'd recognize a unicorn set for Princess Celestia's school any day – I mean how often do you see a full body Animagus transformation – by a pony who just turned thirteen? So let's get your saddlebags packed and we can ge--” Everything the puppy said whirled by me in a blur. My ears heard it but my brain was having a hard time processing everything.
“Wait, did you just call her Henry? Excuse me little doggy, but I'm Henry.” The dog looked from me to my suddenly able to talk horse and back to me before his eyes got big again.
“Wow, two gifted ponies. I'm impressed.”
“Wait,” I stammered out trying to get my mouth to form a coherent sentence when so much information was slowing down my brain.
“I'm not a pony. I'm a human. And Henry's a horse whose not supposed to be able to talk. This may be some weird dream I'm having but could we have some sense of consistency, please. Your name is Spike, her name is Henry, and I'm Mallory. Nice to meet you strange talking purple and green puppy.”
Spike looked at me for a long time before he sighed and shook his head.
“Well this is embarrassing, I was sent here to get a unicorn filly by the name of Henry Trotter. I wrongly assumed it was you. My apologies.” Then he turned to Henry who looked at him just as confused as I was, her head cocked to the side with her front hoof raised in question. Then at the same time, we both asked in unison:
“What's a unicorn?” A few beats passed and the puppy was simply stared at the both of us in complete silence. Then, he reached a paw to his face, closed his eyes and facepawed himself.
“Oh dear Celestia, I think we may have made a huge mistake,”
Then, breaking the silence that had fallen over us three, there was a loud thud from the front door. Fearing the worse but being unable to get back to my room in time before they saw me, unsuspectingly, the postal flap creaked open as a thick manilla envelope slid through and landed on the floor followed by a faint flutter on the other side of the door. Walking over cautiously at first, I bent down to pick up the letter before stopping cold, feeling the blood in my veins turn to ice water.
To: Miss Mallory Arantes
From: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Although I had no idea as to what the heck a Hogwart was or what the letter meant by witchcraft and wizardry, I didn't have too long to think about it before the was another sound heard from outside. The sound of squelching tires pulling into the gravel driveway and the cutting off of an old Cadillac engine.
They were back and there was no way I was going to explain a talking purple and green puppy and why Henry was at the top of the stairs or how I had gotten out of my room.
One thing I knew if I didn't know much else was that this was a rather rude and slightly weird way to start my birthday.