For the ninth time in as many minutes, Twilight regretted not calling her father to come pick her up from school. She had stayed far later than she had calculated, startled out of her work when her phone alarm went off at five forty-five, and leaving her in a rush to catch the six o’clock bus home. She didn’t like taking the later city buses; that time of day meant they were filled with people commuting home, making the ride a cramped, loud, unpleasant experience. With personal space at a premium, Twilight was always on edge by the time she arrived at her stop.

Today proved no different, and she regretted her choice when, three stops out of fifteen, the bus had filled up and the bench next to her was taken by a heavyset, middle aged man wearing mechanics coveralls that reeked of motor oil and exhaust fumes. The dark haired girl knew her instinctive desire to press herself up against the window and outer wall of the bus was irrational, that the man was doing nothing wrong, but his bulk meant he was close enough to her that she could feel the proximity on her skin. Even squeezed up against the window, she felt boxed in, with her space invaded by a presence that brought her nothing but discomfort and the threat of borderline panic.

Twilight did her best to keep her breathing even and level, focusing on fighting the fear she was feeling for no real reason. Any beneficial effects it might’ve had scattered to the winds when the man moved to retrieve his phone from his pocket, she recoiled further with an embarrassing squeak. That made her fellow passenger glance her way, one eyebrow raised at her behavior. “Relax, kid,” he grunted in a raspy, gruff voice that suggested he smoked heavily. “I’m not gonna eat ya or nothin’.” His attention then left her to zero in on his phone screen.

Shrinking in on herself, the teen scolded herself internally. You should have called Dad, she thought angrily. He would’ve come and gotten you.

She was still berating herself another six stops later when her phone started vibrating in her pocket. This time of day, it was most likely her parents—Sunny tended to call later in the evening—and they would get worried if she didn’t pick up...but her phone was in the pocket closest to the man sitting next to her, and fishing around for it would mean getting inside his personal space and possibly even bumping elbows with him....which Twilight could not bring herself to do. Even for her parents.

The phone eventually stopped, only to start up again a few minutes later. This pattern continued until Twilight had to ask her fellow passenger to let her out at her stop. The man did so with no comment or complaint, but the teen cringed and hurried away as quickly as possible, wanting off the bus and to get home somewhere in the timeframe of yesterday. A glance at her phone while she was walking down the sidewalk into her neighborhood confirmed her earlier guess—four missed calls from Mom and Dad, and one text message: Sweetheart, where are you? Are you still at school?

A spike of frustration went through her and she stuffed the phone back in her pocket. Ever since her talk with Shining, where he’d confronted her about the night she and Sunset met, her parents had been...more insistent...about knowing her whereabouts after school. It was a sure sign that her brother had told them everything, though they’d at least respected her desire to not discuss it. All the same she found it to be beyond irritating—she was perfectly fine and fully capable of dealing with anything that might happen, especially now that Sunset was teaching her to fight back. There was absolutely no reason for them to hover, and doing so just reminded her of how helpless she had been and what had almost happened to her. They just needed to stop, and let her deal with it on her own. She wasn’t a helpless little girl anymore!

Those thoughts were still swirling around in her head when she unlocked the front door and stepped inside. For once, Spike didn’t bounce around her ankles or bark to say hello...in fact she didn’t see her dog anywhere. She did see her parents though, as she hung her coat and backpack up absentmindedly, closing the front door with her foot while pondering everything she’d learned that afternoon.

“...ily...”

As if the click of the door shutting had switched a track in her mind, she could suddenly see circuit diagrams and schematics coming together, things that would help further her research, prototypes for a couple different styles of detector, even a program to help sort the data...

“...ilight?”

Automatically, her mind started running through the list of supplies she kept in her home lab, comparing it with what she would need, she felt a rush of giddy, excited energy. Most of what she needed, she already had, and what few things she didn’t, she might be able to cannibalize from the leftovers of failed projects.

“Twilight Sparkle!”

The sound of her name called somewhat forcefully by her father finally registered, interrupting her train of thought with a little surge of annoyance. Couldn’t he tell she was busy thinking? With a sigh, Twilight decided to get through the social pleasantries as quickly as possible, so she could head to the lab to get some work done before bed. “Hi, Dad,” she responded.

Night Light frowned at her. “You’re very late tonight, Twilight, and you didn’t answer your phone.”

“I had work to do for my project, and I lost track of time. I had a whole bunch of brand new data to sort through. My instruments detected a Type A event today.” She rolled her shoulders. “There wasn’t time to call—I needed to catch the bus.”

Her father glanced at her mother who stood at the doorway to the kitchen, before looking back at Twilight. “Sweetheart, when it’s that late, I’d rather you miss the bus and call us. I’m more than happy to come get you from school.”

For whatever reason, the glance only served to make her even more annoyed. She might not have been the most apt with nonverbal social cues, but she had known her parents her whole life and she wasn’t ignorant to the way they sometimes communicated without words. Normally it was just something they did, but right at that moment, it felt like so much more, and it made her angry. Something about the exchange told her they were both thinking about what they thought they knew, what Shining had told them, and their inability to just let it go was frustrating all on its own!

She found herself interrupting another of those silent conversations in a rather testy voice. “I’m fine. I can handle taking the bus home by myself—I’m not a small child anymore. You don’t have to hover.”

Night Light paused, seeming taken aback by her response, before he frowned at her, his expression becoming stern. “We are not trying to say you are a child, Twilight, and yes, you are perfectly capable of taking the bus home without our supervision. Your mother and I both recognize that. What I am saying is that we would prefer that you didn’t do so this late, or if you insist on it, that you both let us know beforehand and answer your phone when we attempt to check in with you.”

It sounded reasonable, but the way he put emphasis on some of the words made it feel more like a demand than any kind of request. Instead of being mollified, Twilight opened her mouth to fire back a blistering retort...only for her mother to interrupt.

Velvet’s voice was true to her name, but it held an undercurrent of steel. “I think,” she told them both in a level, calm tone, “that everyone is hungry and that its making it hard for any of us to think or act in a fully rational and calm manner. Why don’t we have dinner—I made Grandma Twinkle’s Creamy Parmesan Chicken that you like Twily—and we can discuss everything once we have full stomachs and have had time to cool down?”

Twilight found herself nodding to her mother’s words and not resisting when the older woman put an arm around her shoulders to nudge her towards the kitchen. “Good. It’s all hot and ready, so come fix a plate. We both want to hear about how your day went, and afterwards I have some news for you as well, sweetie.”

The food did smell amazing, and it was one of her favorites. Twilight filled her plate, and as much as she really wanted to just take it with her to the lab, she could tell by the way her mother had set the table in the kitchen that she was expected to join them. She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, then slid into her seat. Maybe she could eat quickly and get to the lab before she lost the ideas for the schematics?

Velvet gave her an encouraging smile, holding up a pitcher. “I made sweet tea with fresh oranges in it, if you’d like some instead of water,” she offered. That made Twilight pause, puzzled. That was Sunset’s favorite, and her mother usually saved it for the weekend when her girlfriend came over. What had prompted her to make it now?

Any further contemplation on that vanished as the part of her brain still going over her ideas suggested a slight design variation and she pulled a pen from her vest pocket to scribble it down on her napkin, head shaking absently at her mother.

Pen was put away a moment later, her racing mind directing her to shovel several mouthfuls of food into her mouth and wash it down hurriedly, still focused on her ideas. Twilight barely even tasted any of the food, even after rapidly clearing more than half the plate. She grabbed the napkin abruptly, hopping to her feet. “I need to work on this,” she announced. “Dinner was great, Mom, thanks. I’ll talk to you later.” Mentally she checked off the social niceties she’d observed in order, deciding she’d gotten enough of the important ones done for the evening and could now justify heading to her lab. The dark haired teen was fully intent on getting a head start—she wanted a working prototype ready in time for her first weekly report to Principal Cinch.

"...ily..."

Twilight ignored the voice calling from behind her as she turned towards the back door. Whatever it was could wait—her mother would understand soon how important her work was and why it couldn’t be put off.

"Twilight Sparkle, you will sit back down at the table this instant.”

Her father’s stern voice cut through the cloud of self absorption in much the way a bucket of ice cold water drenching her might. It was a tone that Night Light very seldom used, no nonsense, forceful, and commanding without the need for extremely loud volume that some males preferred...one he only broke out when one of them had pushed past or ignored one of the few but firmly enforced boundaries of behavior that the family had. “I don’t know what has gotten into you today, but you are being rude. What is so world-endingly important that you need to make a mess instead of eating dinner and then ignore us to rush out the door to your lab on a school night?”

That made her turn back, confused. She hadn’t made a mess, had she? Her eyes dropped to the table, and she blinked when she realized that somehow, part of her dinner had spilled onto the table and was now dripping the sauce onto the floor in a sticky puddle. How had that happened?

She shook her head. “I’m sorry for the mess, Dad, but I need to work on my project. You know how important it is, and Principal Cinch is putting a lot on the line—I have to do this right! Especially after I signed that big contract this morning. I want to have at least a working prototype of the Anomalous Electromagnetic Energy Detector for my first project report next week.” Irritation bled through into her voice, but it couldn’t be helped. Besides, they’d known about her meeting. Her father had even made a big deal about wanting to be there with her! Why was it suddenly an issue now?

It was her father’s turn to look confused, his brow creasing with worry-lines. “Twily?” he asked carefully. “What do you mean about a big contract and project reports? I’ve read over the independent study project papers; they never make any mention of necessary reports, and you’ve never had to do them before.” Golden eyes studied her for a long time, his expression morphing into something she couldn’t read. “I think you need to set aside your project for the night, Twilight,” he told her firmly. “We have more to discuss than just your behavior.”

For a long moment, there was nothing but a very pointed, very uncomfortable silence...And then...

“No.”

Twilight almost didn’t recognize her own voice, and it took her a few heartbeats to realize she was the one who had spoken. The entire time, the word’s harsh echoes hung in the air between her and her parents, and once spoken, she could not take it back. In the end, she folded her arms defiantly and repeated herself. “No.” She could hear her Principal’s words from earlier, and held her ground. This was more important than a pointless conversation that would change nothing. Her future, and all that she wanted in it was something she was willing to fight for.

Night regarded her coolly before nodding. Turning in his chair, he picked up his phone and started tapping on it, the actions accompanied by a series of blips and beeps. Twilight recognized them a moment too late: the security program for the house. “If this is how you wish to behave, Twilight Sparkle, then so be it. I have engaged the security system on your laboratory and set it into lockdown mode, something I will not be changing until you have sat down and had a calm and rational discussion with your mother and me.” Each word was like the pronouncement of a death sentence. “You do not need to have this discussion tonight—in fact, you are welcome to take as much time as you need to reflect on how you are acting, but the lockdown will remain and I will not be releasing it until said discussion has taken place.”

With that, he calmly placed his phone in his pocket and returned to his dinner as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Her mother’s eyes flitted back and forth between the two of them, before she sighed and took a long sip of her tea.

“You can’t do this to me!”

The shout rang through the house with such volume and intensity that it really did echo, and Twilight could barely believe it came from her own throat. She sounded so angry...no...no... She corrected herself sternly. She was just projecting confidence, like Sunset had been encouraging her to do when she felt threatened, not giving into weakness in the face of adversity. She would face an uphill battle in academia as a woman, particularly with her preference for her own gender, and she needed to do what Cinch had been telling her since her freshman year and learn to not let others see her falter. She needed to be strong against anyone standing in the way of her success, even if it was against her parents.

Gathering her resolve, echoing Sunset when she had attacked the boys that first night, the way Abacus Cinch commanded a room, she put everything she had into her words. “I demand that you unlock my laboratory this instant! You have no right! It’s mine! Give me access!!”

Night calmly set his fork down. “I’ve told you what it is you need to do in order for that to happen, Twilight. Your private home laboratory is a privilege, not a right.”

Twilight could feel something nasty churning in the pit of her stomach. Why wasn’t it working—she was doing everything right, being confident and assertive and not backing down—so why, why weren’t they recognizing it? It had worked on Silver Dollar when he’d crossed a line.

Anger and frustration bubbled up unpleasantly from within, and she snatched a glass from the drainer by the sink, hurling it furiously at the wall as tears of injustice burned in her eyes. “This is the most important event to ever occur in my life and you’re both too ignorant and small minded and overprotective to see it! Your short sighted idiocy is going to cripple my future in the realms of academia and science—how dare you do such a thing?! You have no call to ruin my life just because you have emotional complications that you insist on impressing on me! I—I—” Her voice was a scream now and she lost her train of thought before a wall of emotion, reduced to putting the hurt and anger and frustration into a verbalization that tore through the house like a violent wind. “I HATE YOU BOTH!”

The dark haired girl emphasized the declaration with a heavy stomp of her foot, taking vicious pleasure in the sound it made. Then, with angry tears in her eyes she turned on her heel to storm upstairs.

So. That happened.

Twilight is unhappy. Extremely unhappy.

And still has no idea Sunny is at her house.