She stood there staring at the gate and the palace for a while till I snapped her out of it.

“Heeey, you’re still here?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I just got dragged away for a second.”

“OK then, let’s get in.”

I opened the gate and walked inside. She followed me and started looking around the Scarlet Rose garden. It was easy to see its beauty impressed her. We got to the main door but before we headed inside, I reminded her about our deal.

“OK, just like we agreed: no talk about magical stuff, nothing about being kidnapped. You got it?”

“Yes, I get it.”

I opened the main door and walked inside. She followed and started looking around again.

“Hello, I’m home!” I said loud and clear. Not much later Alfredo showed up and greeted me.

“Hello there, young master.”

“Hi Alfredo, we got a guest. Treat her well.” I winked at the end to make sure he understand that I left her to him.

“Alright, now follow me Ms …”

“Sunset,” she said, “just Sunset.”

After that I went upstairs to my room to change. But by the time I headed back down Sunshine was sitting on the sofa near the fireplace. She was still looking around and I was too, because I couldn’t find Dad anywhere near there; he’s usually there by the time I get home but I guessed he was in his room. I could hear Grandma Rose snoring from her room, but where were the others? I went down and checked on Sunshine and to see if I could find Grandma Butter and Grandpa Star.

“Is everything fine?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine, I uh … I think we should start working on the project soon.” I was going to say something but Grandpa Star showed up in his wheelchair and beat me to it.

“What’s goin’ on in here? Huh?”

“Hi, Grandpa. How are ya doing?”

“I heard we got guests so I came to check it out. I see you finally brought home that new friend of yours!”

“Yeah, I did, and we’ve got plenty of works to do, so we need to go work on our project.” I needed to get her upstairs and do the project together just so we could be done with all of this but it didn’t seem like I could.

“What! You mean you’re not gonna introduce your new friend to your own grandpa?”

*SIGH* “Yes, of course. Grandpa, this is Sunset Shimmer. Sunset, this is my Grandpa, Star Ace.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Grandpa said. He extended his hand and leaned forward, which was as close as he could do to rising.

“I’m happy to meet you too, sir.” Sunshine said. Before Grandpa could say anything else I pulled her away and took her upstairs to my room.

“OK. Down to business.”

There we started putting our thoughts and ideas about the things we wanted to talk about in the presentation. We argued a little at first but in the end we agreed on what we wanted to talk about. We discussed the evolution of music and how it became what we know now. Naming great musicians and giving information about them as we moved on, the different types of music that existed and finally the conclusion: how music shaped and changed our lives as well as how it changed.

We were almost done, we just needed to organize our talks, make a slide show and practice the presentation. It was then that Alfredo came in and said that dinner was ready.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editor Daniel Drazen.

Make sure you read other chapters too.