Chapter 3
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Twilight held the phone to her ear, listening to the dial tone as it rang the other end.
“I sure hope someone answers,” Spike said as he sat on Twilight’s bed, turning to the pony on his left, who looked just as worried.
A voice answered on the other line, but it was an automated message giving her options. “To speak with an administrator, please hold the line and we’ll be with you shortly.”
Twilight deadpanned. “Great. Now I’m on hold.”
“Well, Everton is a big business,” Cadance said from her spot on the end of Twilight’s bed. “They can’t man the phone’s 24/7.”
“You’ve reached Everton Home Office,” a very bored sounding woman’s voice said in Twilight’s ear. “This is Chrysalis. How may I direct your call?”
“Oh, um, hello there,” Twilight said, feeling a little nervous. “I was wondering if I could speak with one of the students in your program. Her name’s Sunset Shimmer. I’ve a friend of hers who really needs to speak with her.”
“It’s not some fanboy or an ex, is it?” Chrysalis asked, sounding a little exasperated. “The number of times old flings call because they hear their ex’s are doing so much better after their breakups…”
“Oh, no. it’s nothing like that,” Twilight assured quickly, before blinking as a lightbulb went off. “It’s Twilight Sparkle. She needs to speak with Sunset right away. It’s really urgent.”
She didn’t have to say she was also Twilight, after all, did she? She just needed to give the name Sunset would recongize.
“Twilight Sparkle?” Chrysalis somehow sounded even more bored than before. “Yeah. Doesn’t sound like a boy’s name. Give me a moment.”
The sound of a keyboard in the background started.
Meanwhile, Twilight was frowning. Did this Chrysalis just say she doesn’t believe Sunset could be into girls? From her word choice, that’s how it seemed. She’d only been wondering if an ex-boyfriend had been trying to contact Sunset.
Granted, Twilight herself didn’t know this Sunset Shimmer enough to know which side of the fence she was on, but for the woman on the other end to just outright assume Sunset couldn’t have had relations with a girl just because she herself was a girl and girls only date boys was pretty rude of her.
“I’m afraid Sunset is busy, studying something in the field,” Chrysalis said after what seemed like half an hour.
“Can I leave her a message?” Twilight asked.
An annoyed snort came from the other end. “What am I, a messenger? If you want to leave her a message give it to her mother.”
Twilight blinked. “Um… I don’t know her mother.”
“It’s in Sunset Shimmer’s contacts,” she sounded bored again. “I’ll give you the number and you can leave a message with them.”
“Okay. Thanks you, Miss Chryalsis,” Twilight said after quickly jotting down the phone number.
A huff came from the other end and the call ended.
“So, what now?” Spike asked, the pony princess cocking her head.
“We try her home,” Twilight dialled the number and waited for the phone to pick up.
“You’ve reached the Flare residence,” a woman’s voice said on the other end. “This is Stellar Flare. I’m unable to tale your call right now, but please leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”
Twilight deadpanned. Another machine. Still, leaving a message was something at least.
Taking a deep breath, she waited for the beep before speaking. “Hello, Stellar Flare? I’m calling on behalf of one of your daughter’s friends, Twilight Sparkle. Something really urgent has come up that Twilight needs Sunset’s help with. She’s the only one who can help. Please get back to me as soon as possible.”
Leaving her number and Cadance’s as well to be on the safe side, Twilight said goodbye and hung up, turning to the room to see disappointed faces.
“I’m guessing no one was home, huh?” Spike said dejectedly, the little pony’s ears drooping.
Twilight shook her head. “No one was home. Hopefully, Stellar Flare will get either call back soon or get Sunset to contact us directly.”
“In the meantime,” Cadance looked to the pony, “we’ll need to figure out what we’re going to do about our little Princess Problem. Princess Twilight can’t go out looking like this. Even if we dressed her up like a dog or a cat or something, people would notice and ask questions. Questions we can’t answer.”
“She can always stay here at the house with me,” Spike suggested, puffing out his chest. “I’ll keep her safe.”
This made the foal giggle and babble something.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Spike said proudly.
“What did she say?” Twilight asked through a giggle herself.
“She said I remind her a lot of her Spike,” the puppy answered, smirking. “I’ll wear that statement with pride.”
“I… suppose that could work,” Cadance said, rubbing her chin in thought. “You’ll have to be sure to take care of her though, Spike. With Twilight’s parents out on business for the next two weeks, you two would be the only ones in the house while Twilight and I are at school. How’re you going to make sure she gets food and water and then there’s the issue with the bathroom?”
At this, the foal turned to Cadance, pouting, forelegs folded and babbled something.
“She says “I may be a foal, but I’m not completely helpless”,” Spike translated as the princess continued. “I can fly and use my magic just fine, thank you very much.”
“I suppose. Sorry, Twilight,” Cadance rubbed the foal behind the ears and she leaned her head into the hand, purring like a cat. “I guess, being an expected mother now, I’m just really protective of you since you’re a baby.”
“I have full confidence in Spike,” Twilight said, pumping a fist. “While we’re at school, he’ll keep the princess safe.”
The rest of the day was spent with Twilight and Cadance watching over Spike and Princess Twilight as the two small creatures played and the two humans discussed how best to approach the situation when explaining it to Sunset Shimmer.
Normally, outright telling someone “your friend from a magical world of ponies who normally turns human when coming to this world but somehow ended up a baby pony this time around with some memory issues” wasn’t exactly a normal conversation starter.
Granted, if this Sunset Shimmer and the princess knew each other so well as Princess Twilight was suggesting, Sunset would fully understand… but there was still how to word it that was important.
As the day was drawing to a close, Cadance said goodbye, promising to meet up with Twilight at school when she had some spare time to discuss any updates.
If Stellar Flare called during school, Twilight’s phone would be off, so she wouldn’t be able to answer. But Cadance would, so long as it wasn’t at an awkward time, like if Cadacne was out of her office.
As she settled into bed, Spike and the baby princess snuggling at the end of her bed, Twilight gave one quick check, only to see no messages yet.
Sighing, she turned out the light and went to sleep, hoping thing might get better tomorrow.