A Cynical Pony

by TwiPON3

4: Clues (Counter to 'Contacting Home')

I sat at the table debating several things as Jake left for work.
Should I get another cup of coffee? Is it too early to call Amy? How should I get in touch with Daria's friend?
"Wait... How can I get in touch with her friend? The only time I've seen her was when she stayed with us for a few days on July 14."
"Are you okay, Mom?" Quinn said, startling me.
"What? Oh, I didn't here you come down," I said as she took two cans of Pepsi Free out of the refrigerator, "I'm fine, honey."
"It's about Daria, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"I didn't know that you drank coffee," Quinn said, noticing the empty, cream-colored mug in front of me.
"Oh, this?" I replied, "I'm just drained," I looked at my younger daughter, "You didn't sleep well, either?"
She just shook her head, yawned, then sat down.
"I've taken today and tomorrow off because of this."
"Lucky," she said, holding her head in her hands like I was an hour earlier, "I've got school."
I thought for a second, "Maybe you shouldn't go right now. I'll let you stay home today and tomorrow, and then we'll see what happens from there, alright?"
"Thanks, Mom."
"You go get some rest."
Quinn slowly walked into the living room and fell asleep on the couch.
"I guess now would be as good a time as any to take a look through these documents one more time and get them in order," I said, turning the notebook to a section labeled POTENTIAL SCHOOL LAWSUITS. The phone rang before I could look at the documents that I had typed. There was a high chance that it could've been Eric, but I decided to answer it anyway.
"Hello?"
"Helen, it's Eric! We nee-"
"I know that you don't have kids, and I told you at a quarter to six that my older daughter is missing!"
"Daria? Hasn't she left and spent the night away from your house before?"
"Listen, this is NO time for you to be calling me about a meeting! Quinn is worried sick, I've lost my child, and I don't even KNOW what's happening to Jake! She hasn't called or given us any information on where she might be! I CAN'T come in today, I CAN'T come in tomorrow, so Monday will be the absolute earliest that I can come to work! And that's only if we figure out where she is AND if she's safe! Do you understand!?"
I started to cry a little.
"But, Helen-"
"No! I CAN'T, And I WON'T!!"
"This is-"
"I don't give a damn about whatever it is right now! If you want to know how it feels, then you have children, and you come to me when you've lost one of them without lead! Then we'll talk!! Got it!?"
"Please-"
"Goodbye!" I said, slamming the receiver into the base, "Oh my."
I checked to see if Quinn was still asleep, which she was, "Oh, thank God," then cleaned my face up with a napkin, "I don't even feel like looking at that notebook right now."
I took some microwave bacon and canned biscuits out of the refrigerator, then proceeded to cook them for breakfast, "The least I could do for her is try to make Quinn breakfast," I noticed an unopened carton of eggs, "Eggs and orange juice, too. I guess."

I hurried to Ms Li's office as fast as I could when I started my first-period class's English test.
"Quinn wasn't in homeroom and Daria isn't here in first period. Ohh, I hope nothing bad has happened!"
When I got to her office, I heard Angela and Anthony in a heated debate, "I'll just make the call myself from the teacher's lounge."
I hurried there, then called Mrs Morgendorffer's extension for Vitale, Davis, Horowitz, Riordan, Schrecter, Schrecter, and Schrecter Law Firm. I didn't get her, though.
"Helen Morgendorffer, Attorney at law, this is Marianne."
"Ms Marianne, is Mrs Morgendorffer available? This is Timothy O'Neil."
"I'm sorry Mr O'Neil, but she's at home today. Do you need her number?"
"No thank you."
"Have a great day."
If Mrs Morgendorffer is at home, I thought, then maybe Quinn and Daria are just sick. I hope it's nothing too serious.
I called her at home, and got hold of her.
"Hello?" she said, sounding exhausted.
"Mrs Morgendorffer," I said, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm worried about Daria and Quinn. Neither of them are here at school today."
"Quinn is here with me. We've both been worried sick, and neither of us has really gotten any sleep."
"What about Daria?"
"She's not here. The last time that I saw her was when she was leaving for a power walk last night."
"Okay. Is Quinn doing okay?"
"I told her to get some rest. She probably won't go today, although she might be there for part of tomorrow."
Neither of us said anything for a moment.
"I'm not making any guarantees, though."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
She sighed, "Can you get Jane on the phone?"
"Sure thing, Mrs Morgendorffer."

I just looked forward as a worried Mr O'Neil left the classroom.
"Jane, I need to go check something," he said, "If you need to leave, then feel free to. I don't want you to get too worried."
"Thanks, Mr O'Neil."
When he quickly left the room, I counted to 50 in my head, then turned to Jodie Landon, "Think you could do my test?"
"Why?"
"Trent and I were up late trying to figure out how Daria could have just randomly disappeared."
"Hand it over."
"Thanks, Landon," I said, giving her my test.
"What should I try for?"
"84ish. I don't want him suspicious."
"You go ahead and do what it is you're gonna do," she said, holding the tests with a smile, "I'll take care of these."
I took my boots off and left the room as quietly as I could, "I owe ya one."
"Don't mention it. I would've done it anyway."
We smiled each other before I went in the hall, tied my jacket around my waist, and put my boots between the jacket and my sides.
This hurts like hell, but it'll have to do.
I started running where I heard Mr O'Neil.
Ms Li's office?
He turned and went toward the teacher's lounge upon hearing Mr DeMartino and Ms Li arguing over something.
I'm gonna figure this out if it kills me.
"Is there anything I can do to help, Mrs Morgendorffer?" he sighed, "Sure thing, Mrs Morgendorffer."
He sat the phone down, then turned to leave, but I must've startled him.
"Jane!"
"Yeah?" I said, untying my jacket and putting my boots back on.
"Mrs Morgendorffer wants to talk to you."
I walked over and picked up the phone, "Yes?"
"Jane? Were you with Daria when she..."
"Disappeared? Yeah."
"What happened?"
"We were walking to my house, then a bush lit up. Twice. Anyway, so we ran, but Daria tripped and fell. Something made this blinding flash of light for a second, then she was just... gone."
"Quinn's been worried sick about Daria."
"Mom?" Quinn said in the background, "Did you make breakfast?"
"I found something out about your sister, I think."
"What?"
"I'm putting the phone on speaker so you can hear for yourself."
"Who's on the phone?"
"Daria's friend."
"Can I tell her?"
"Just a second," I heard her set the phone down, "Go ahead."
"We were walking to my house, then a bush lit up two times. We tried to run, but Daria tripped. Something flashed, then she disappeared."
I put the phone in the teacher's lounge on speakerphone.
"Where do you think she could be?"
"I have no-"
"Miss Lane!" Ms Li yelled, "Mr O'Neil!"
"What?" I said, looking at her. Mr DeMartino was with her, also pissed.
"Get back to your classes!"
A burst of static and a series of beeping noises came over the phone, then someone tried to talk over the static.
"What is going on with that!?"
"Can anyone hear me on this thing?" a voice said as the noise subsided to a humming noise.
"Daria?" her mom said.
"Will someone get me the hell out of here?"
"Um," a timid voice said, "I know they're, um, your friends and all, but, um, maybe you could be a little nicer?"
"Daria, because you make me want to kill myself a little less than the processed sausages who call themselves your classmates, I'll kill those imbeciles who kidnapped you!!"
"Eep!"
"What Anthony means is- Whoa!"
Mr DeMartino pushed Mr O'Neil into a chair, "OUT!!! NOW!!!"
"What's going on?" a somewhat-raspy voice said.
Our other teachers, Jodi, Brittany, Kevin, and Mack were in the room now.
"Who's that?" Daria's mom asked.
"How the hell should I know? Daria, what's it like in there?"
"I wish I was still blind in both ways."
"You don't need your glasses?"
"No. Everything is colorful. It scares me."
"And you're there without a Polaroid?"
"Don't threaten to take its life. It never did anything to you."
"What's a 'Polaroid', Darling?"
"It must be a living hell in there."
"I would read you my notes, but considering the fact that I don't have damn fingers anymore, I couldn't get any."
"What would you say describes it?"
"What am I doing here? How am I going to get through this? Dear God, help me. I hope this is a really bad nightmare brought on by my dad's Kitchen Sink Stew. I'm slowly losing my mind, and my humanity."
"Come on. It can't be that bad!"
"He forgot the number for 911."
A call-waiting beep sounded on Daria's home phone, "This may be Amy. She's worried, too."
"Lovely. I'm talking to my friend, teacher, principal, and earlier, my mom and sister from a different reality over a plastic slab with Gorilla Glass across realities, I have a growth out my ass, I'm losing everything that makes me exist, and I'm stuck in Happy Land with no way of getting home. Not to mention that it's almost two decades in the future here, and yet they don't have TV. Not to mention something I can't say the name of, let alone describe. They say they're ponies."
"Daria?" another voice said, resembling her own, "Quinn called me at 01:30, and I figured that I'd come in from Delaware and help out with this."
"Aunt Amy?"
Another voice come on the phone.
"Hi, this is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship-"
"Oh God," I said, putting my face in my hand. Everyone in the room began to wonder what was going on, and I'm pretty sure her family was the same way.
"There's a portal that opens to a city called 'Canterlot' in your world. The link is down right now, but I estimate that within two weeks, I can have her back."
"I live in Lawndale, Maryland."
"Twilight?" someone else said, "Canterlot is in California."
"So? I'm sure that it's not that far to walk. I mean, we can both go with her!"
"No!"
"Twilight, California is 2700 miles away from Maryland."
"Daria, I'm going to go ahead and go to your house. I'll be there at around 10:30. Is it okay if I get your friend from school?"
"Please do," Mrs Morgendorffer, Quinn, Daria, Mr O'Neil, Mr DeMartino, and I said, essentially at the same time.
The phone started making the same sound that mine does at home when Wind comes over and uses the Internet as a marriage-fixing guide for a minute.
"Daria," Quinn said, "Can you hear me? Are you alright?"
"Judging by what color my arms are, based solely around the normally unusually-weak cone cells in my eyes that are actually working for once, I'd say I'm getting hypothermia."
"What!?"
"Hy-po-ther-mi-a."
"What's that?"
"I'm blue."
"I'll have some cocoa steaming hot for when you get back! Or if we find you first, I should probably have a thermos or two with me," Quinn said as the Fashion Club came in the already-packed room.
"Quinn," Sandi, I think that's the abusive girl's name, said, "Why are you at your house moping? She wasn't even popular."
"Go away. She's my sister."
Her statement was met with Sandi's laughter.
"I'm sorry, Quinn!" Stacy said, beginning to cry.
"It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. It was Sandi that was a heartless bitch. Can you and Tiffany come over?"
"Sure, Quinn," the third member replied, slowly.
"I'm going to regret going, but I'll do it. Amy, I'll wait for you at Daria's."
"Alright," she said before hanging up, "I'm leaving my house now."
"Now to get Mom and Aunt Rita to quit fighting for twenty-five minutes."
The phone made that same noise again, then the line returned to how it was before we were able to talk to her.
"Daria?"
"Oh no," Mr O'Neil said, as Ms Li ran to her office. Two minutes later, she made her announcement.
Attention students of Lawndale High, one of your fellow students has gone missing, so your teachers are doing an investigation. School will be canceled until further notice. Mrs Morgendorffer better not start a lawsuit that could cause me to lose my very pants.
"Should we tell her it's still on, Jodi?"
The intercom clicked.
"I think she knows."
"We'll go in my car," Mr O'Neil said.