As the lights dimmed Sunset reacted in an instant. Her magic might not be useful in immediately dangerous situations, but she had come prepared. Reaching into her purse she found the comforting weight of pepper spray.
It was only paranoia if you were wrong, right?
There was a clatter as all the cutlery took flight. Beside her Twilight had clenched her fist under the table, setting the utensils to orbit it as she nervously fumbled for her scanner. And Rarity had stood, a determined expression on her face, scanning the room for any threats. The amulet on her wrist was glowing white in preparation for a shield.
“Cell phones,” she muttered. “Why did it have to be cellphones? I had just gotten over them, this isn’t fair at all.”
“Telephobia is fairly common among our generation, even without magic,” Twilight answered distractedly, fiddling with the sensors settings one handed. “But this...what’s wrong with this thing?” She whacked it hard against the table, making Rarity jump. “I don’t think this is magic, unless something is very wrong. The only energy I’m picking up is ours.”
“That can’t be right,” Sunset said. “Sparks here may be the hacker, but I’m pretty sure that remotely setting the ringtone of dozens of phones at once isn’t exactly trivial.”
Around them the other patrons were standing in confusion and annoyance, or trying in vain to turn their devices off.
“Well, if you hijacked the restaurant’s wifi to reroute to a different webpage, if the phones had poor security it might be possible to...
“Twilight love, I think you’re missing the broader picture” said Rarity.
"...Love?" Said Twilight blushing brilliantly. Despite everything, Sunset chuckled.
“...Figure of speech dear," said Rarity, blushing herself. "But as I said, the question isn’t how they did it.”
“It’s not?”
“No,” Rarity said with a grimace. “The more important question is why someone would spend so much effort to put on romantic lighting and serenade the restaurant with Every Breath That You Take.”
“Oh. Ohhhh. You’re right Rares, that could be really bad.”
Twilight looked at her in confusion, so Sunset explained.
“Twilight, Every Breath That You Take is the mistake of a love song. It sounds romantic but it’s about a stalker. Which could be an honest mistake…”
“...But given the effort involved and the psychological effects of Equestrian magic that isn’t safe to assume,” Twilight finished, nodding.
“Especially given the way our lives seem to work,” Rarity added. “Oh dear, I do hope we don’t have to deal with someone invisible today.”
“Or who can see through walls. Or detach their body parts to crawl off on their own.” Rarity and Twilight both stared at Sunset with horrified expressions. “I...may have read a bunch of horror stories to plan for worst case scenarios.”
“...Ah. I see. Well in that case, I may have to borrow Sweetie’s Crowned King books for you.”
“Thanks, but that doesn’t really help much just now. Just give me a second, I want to try something.”
Sunset concentrated on her amulet, feeling the magic flow through her. She did actually have a plan for something like this. She focused on her love for Twilight and her growing feelings for Rarity to attune to Harmony, and expanded her senses to the emotion in the room. Hopefully she’d be able to feel the ugly knot of obsession, jealousy, and strife that the words would imply.
But there was nothing, or at least nothing meaningful. She caught a miasma of confusion, nervousness, and irritation. But there was nothing nearly so toxic to be found. Not even a misguided romantic impulse, beyond the aura around their table dispelling rapidly in a cloud of fear.
“No, never mind,” she said as she opened her eyes. “I can’t find anything. Maybe it’s just a prank? We don’t even know who the song was for.”
At that moment, every phone in the place went silent at once. And then Sunset's rang. They all jumped, and Sunset scrambled to answer as everyone turned to stare at them. Sunset didn’t normally suffer from stage fright, but she felt the eyes boring into her in the suddenly silent room. And once she fumbled it out, she gasped.
“Rarity...it’s from your phone.”
Rarity couldn’t pale, but she and Twilight did stare as Sunset nervously switched her phone to speaker and answered the call.
“I...Love...You...Sunset...I...Love...You…Twilight...”
"Who is this? What are you doing?
“I...Love...You...Sunset...I...Love...You…Twilight...” the phone said, over and over. Sunset shivered. The words were spoken by a human, but chopped up from other recordings. And it was familiar.
“That’s my voice. Twilight where did they get my voice!?” Rarity asked, a tone of panic creeping in.
“Where did they get your phone?” Sunset added. Buck it to Tartarus, what even was this? Her hand clenched around the pepper spray. They'd broken into Rarity's house, and had clearly been planning this for a while. Someone was going to pay.
“They probably got the words from your voicemail. It’s not exactly a sophisticated fake.” Twilight answered. “What worries me is that they knew when to send the call. They were listening.”
“I want...you...I need...you...I can’t...live...without you…” Rarity’s voice chimed in. Twilight paled.
“Right,” said Sunset decisively. “They’ve compromised our phones, and they’re listening to everything we say. Twilight, can we trust the antivirus on yours?”
“No,” she said grimly, turning the screen to them. The background had been changed to an image of Rarity framed in hearts. As they watched it switched to Sunset and then back.
“Alright, that settles it. We’re leaving the phones behind and getting out of here. We’ll head somewhere they won’t think of, probably out of town.” And hope they can be tricked, she added to herself. And don't have a magical way to track us or something.
“No need to leave the phones,” said Twilight, pulling a silvery bag out of her pocket. “This will cut off their signal.”
“Why do you have an EM isolation...never mind, I shouldn’t even have to ask. Just get them sealed up and let’s get out of here.”
Twilight nodded, shoved them in, and then ran the scanner over it to ensure there was no signal leaks, then they all got up and headed for the door. Sunset thought it was lucky she at least had cash for the meal. This would show Twilight next time she got on her back about not trusting electronic currency.
Funny how when you’re in a crisis the smallest thoughts can leap out with absolute clarity.
Really funny how well I know that.
Twilight and Rarity were showing their own experience too, in their ways. Rarity was still scanning the room and leading the way, Twilight behind with her sleeves full of silverware. Just like O&O really, except the whole party was the squishy wizards. Sunset reached out with her Empathy again, but there was nothing new beyond a note of sympathy from those who had overheard the call.
She half expected her bike to be sabotaged, but it still started with a roar as Twilight scrambled into the side car. Of course, that left a problem.
“Rarity, sit on behind and hold me,” she said. “Hold on tight, okay? We’ll be going a bit fast, under the circumstances. And we don’t have an extra helmet.”
“Yes we do!” Twilight said, wrestling a white helmet to Rarity from the compartment beside her. “I had this ready, you know, just in case…” her voice trailed off, blushing.
Despite everything, Rarity smiled and reached out to hold Twilight’s hand. “How wonderfully thoughtful dear, thank you. We’ll finish that sentence later. For now, though, I think it’s best we depart.”
“Right, let’s get out of here.” Sunset pulled out of the parking lot at full speed, and headed off directly away from her destination. Hopefully, is anyone was watching from a distance, they wouldn’t realize she planned to double back to home.
As soon as the motorcycle was away, seven glowing lights flitted away from the restaurant’s still sparking electrical box. They swirled for a moment, like fireflies in all colors of the rainbow, and then shot down the street in pursuit.