//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Future Call (Edited by: Moonriseoversunset) // Story: The Mysterious Forum - Anon-a-miss // by Leo Luce //------------------------------// It's been two days since Sunset's coronation, and it has been a lot peaceful since. Aiko was currently finishing writing down an equation from the board as the bell rang. Once she finished, she gathered all her supplies. Aiko made her way out with the last half of the class and made her way to her locker. On the way, she met up with Twilight. "Hey, Aiko," Twilight said, greeting the Japanese girl. "Hey Twi, you coming to the club today?" "Yeah, why not. I just read the reviews we got for the newspaper, and there are a lot of positive reviews," Twilight said. "That's great. Do you know what else is great?" Aiko asked as they arrived at their lockers. "What? Did something happen?" "Yes! I finally got to pony-up. Not just for a few seconds, but for real!" Aiko said, smiling. "Wow, really? When did that happen?" "It was yesterday when I was home. Obaasan(grandma) asked me to play my violin, and while playing, I transformed. Almost gave Kaachan(Mom) a heart attack." "Haha... congratulations." “Arigato gozaimasu,” Aiko said. "Hey, Twi? Are you okay? You look tired," Aiko said, noticing the bags beginning to appear under Twilight's eyes. "Uh, y-yeah, of course. I was awake the whole night with some experiments. I didn't get much sleep. Anyway, did you talk to Sunset yet? I wonder what happened yesterday?" Twilight asked. "No, I didn't. I was so excited after I ponied up I kind of forgot everything else, even homework," Aiko said, rubbing her neck. "Hope you didn't get into any troubles," Twilight asked. "No, no, I just got a warning," Aiko said as they arrived at the club room. They entered the room and saw that Sunset and Fluttershy were already there working on something. Fluttershy was looking at some old files while Sunset was browsing through the old hard drive. "Oh hey guys, you excited for tomorrow?" Sunset asked. "Yeah, of course. This is the first trip I'm going to go with my new friends," Aiko said, sitting with Twilight. "What are you guys doing?" "Oh, we are just trying to find out what happened to that girl in the old club. I really wanna know what happened to her," Sunset said. "Do you think we can solve that? It's been a decade since then," Twilight said. "Maybe, but I'm not going to give this up easily," Sunset said, looking at Twilight. "Wow, you look tired. Stay up all night researching again?" "Uh... yeah. Time really flies when you are doing research. Anyway, Sunset, what happened yesterday?" "Nothing interesting. I just officially met all the nobles and listened to their stupidly long, boring egocentric words. I at least got a title." "Oh, what is it?" Aiko asked. "She's now Sunset Shimmer, the Princess of Empathy," Fluttershy said dramatically. "Congratulations, Sunset," Twilight said. "Thanks, guys," Sunset said. "So, back to the matter at hand, I've been looking in this hard drive for any information, but all I've found out was some old school event photos and documents. I found this folder that is password-protected, though." "Maybe try a brute force attack. I know a pretty good software, but it will still take some time even on a powerful machine, which I don't have," Twilight said. "I might be able to use Luna's PC. That thing is a beast. I just need to find the time where she doesn't need it for any online matches," Sunset said. "I still can't believe she's a gamer. Why does she even need a powerful pc for gaming?" Twilight asked. "Oh, trust me, it's super satisfying when you see that victory screen on your giant monitor. The complete opposite also happens when you see the You Died screen," Sunset said with a faraway look. "Okay... I'll send it to you later then," Twilight said, unsure. "Anyway, did you know that Aiko finally got to pony-up?" "Really? I'm happy for you, Aiko," Fluttershy said. "Yeah? How was it? When did it happen?" Sunset asked. "Back home when I played my violin to Obaasan (Grandma). It was so great." "Well, before long, you'll be able to transform on command." "Really!!" "Yeah. Oh, by the way, you are half Japanese, right? So where's your dad's hometown?" "I think it's actually near Canterlot. Um, Cloudsdale, I guess. However, his family moved to japan when he started college. I think we had relatives here at Canterlot. But I'm not sure. I'll have to ask him," Aiko said. "I see. I don't suppose if it would be possible for them to know anything about this girl, would they?" "I'll ask. Maybe Dad will know something." Sunset nodded. "Maybe we can take a look at old missing reports, and we might be able to find more information about her," Twilight said. "But it's been so long. Do you think they still have those?" Fluttershy asked. "Maybe. If not, we might be able to use the Wayback Machine," Twilight said to which Sunset nodded. "By the way, were there any new posts?" "No, not yet, fortunately," Sunset said. "I see. I might actually know a potential rumor. Trixie told me about it. I've heard some other students talking about it," Twilight said. "What is it? It will be great to know about a rumor before it is posted," Aiko said. "She called it Future Call. Basically, you call a particular number written in a book found on the last bookshelf in the last row on the library's second floor, at 3:33 pm. Then you can ask anything you want to know about your future, and the person answering the call will predict your future," Twilight said. "Why would anyone want to know their future? I know I don't," Fluttershy said. "Yeah. Plus, this is Trixie we are talking about. She's either probably pranking you, and there's no way to predict the future with 100% accuracy, even with magic. But maybe we should check this out before someone posts it because who knows what the forum would do to change the rumor," Sunset said, looking at the clock. "And we have 20 more minutes. If we hurry up, we might be able to find the book and make the call before it's late." The others nodded as they got up from their seats. It didn't take long for them to get to the library, and they immediately made their way upstairs to find the book. "I don't suppose Trixie said what the book is, did she?" Sunset asked. "No, she didn't. We might have to find it our self. Good thing it's just this shelf," Twilight said before they all began to open up all the books looking for the phone number. They kept looking for the number for the next 10 minutes to no avail. "I don't think it's here, guys," Sunset said. "Maybe Trixie took the book, or it's a lie." "It didn't feel like a lie. She was scribbling in a book and looked a little... desperate," Twilight said after a moment of search. "Maybe the call said something bad is going to happen to her?" Fluttershy asked. "It's possible. I still don't think this is real, bu-" "Look? I think I found it," Aiko said, interrupting Sunset. She moved closer to them and showed them the book. "Look here. There's a phone number here." "You think this is the right one?" Fluttershy asked. "Only one way to find out? So who wants to know their future?" Sunset asked, pulling out her phone. "I-I I don't." "I... don't exactly have anything to ask either," Aiko said. Sunset then turned to Twilight, who was looking at the phone like it was about to jump at her. "Twilight?" "O-Oh, what?" "You okay? Do you have anything to ask?" "M-me? Oh, n-no, sorry. I don't think knowing one's future is a good thing. What if you hear something bad?" "Yeah, you are right. I'll talk then." "You sure?" Fluttershy asked. "Yeah, don't worry. I got this," Sunset said as she looked at the time before dialing the number right when the clock struck 3:33 pm. Sunset turned on the speaker as the girls gathered around the phone, waiting for someone to answer. It didn't take long for someone to pick up the phone and a male voice answered the call. "Hello?" "Hello... is this... future call?" Sunset asked unsurely. The voice didn't answer instantly. It took a few seconds before saying, "Let me ask you a question. What would you like to know about your future?" The girls looked at each other. "This is it," Twilight whispered. Sunset nodded. "Tell me, who are you?" Sunset asked. Again, the man didn't answer for a few seconds. But what came after was something they never expected. "Haha... haha... HA HA HA HA HA!" The man laughed, confusing the girls. "Finally! Someone asked that!" "What? Why are you laughing?" Sunset asked. "Sorry, sorry. I thought no one would ever ask me that. To answer your question, I'm no one special." "So you can't predict the future?" "No, No, I can't. I'm just a normal man. My real job is being a janitor." "So why do you claim you can predict the future?" Twilight asked impatiently. "I didn't. It's a funny story, really. One day, someone called this number and asked me the same thing you first did. Am I the future call? I actually thought it was a prank and played along with it. They asked me something, and I predicted the future. After that, random kids started to call me right at this time to know about their future. And when they do, I try to go around the question and give them some advice corresponding to the question." "I see. Did you, by any chance, have a call from someone called Trixie? She talks in the third person and has a huge ego," Sunset asked. "Oh yes, I did. She asked me if she would win a magician competition. I figured she had doubts about her skills. Otherwise, she wouldn't actually ask me that, especially if she has an ego, as you told me. So I told her if she didn't have enough creativity so she would fail." "So that's what Trixie was doing. She was thinking of new acts," Twilight said. "Well... you don't sound like a bad guy, and your intentions seem good. But maybe you should stop this. People take your word seriously, and what if they took it the wrong way?" Sunset said. "Yes, maybe you are right. It's been a while now. I'll stop and cancel this number," The man said. "Great, that's all I ask. Good day to you, sir," Sunset said before stopping the call. "Well, that was unexpected." "At least he was trying to help," Fluttershy said. "Hai (yeah), and we were able to solve this quickly. So if someone posts this now, we can stop the rumor before it's going to cause any harm. Maybe we should address this in our wall newspaper. That way, no one would have any problems," Aiko said. "That's actually a good idea. Let's do that," Sunset said as the girls all left the library. While walking back to the club room to close it for the day, Sunset grabbed Aiko's hand and fell behind the other two. "Aiko, did you feel anything weird about Twi?" Sunset whispered. "Yeah. Something's going on." "Maybe try talking to her? You two leave school together, right?" "Yeah, I'll ask her," Aiko said to which Sunset nodded. Once they arrived at the club room, they cleaned up the room before closing it for the day and left the school. Sunset and Fluttershy part ways with Twilight and Aiko once they reach a junction. Taking the chance, Aiko decided to talk with Twilight. "So... how was the school today?" Aiko asked to start up the conversation. "Hm? It was okay?" Twilight asked unsurely. "Well... you didn't look like?" "What?" "Twilight, is something bothering you?" Aiko asked. Twilight tried to answer, but Aiko interrupted. "Don't say no. I know something's wrong. You looked tired. Even while in class, you didn't pay attention like before. Even Sunset noticed it." "I... I don't want to talk about it," Twilight said, looking away. "Twilight, we are your friends, right? You can talk to us. Whatever it is, I wouldn't think any different of you. I- I mean we," Aiko said, quickly correcting herself. Twilight kept looking at Aiko without saying anything for a few seconds contemplating whether she should tell her. When Twilight didn't say anything for a while, Aiko looked down in defeat. "It's okay. But pl-" "Do you remember what happened to me? At the friendship games?" Aiko looked up when Twilight talked. "Uh... y-yeah, I do. You told me about it." "Well... I keep having nightmares about it. Nightmares where she comes to me and turns me into a m-monster," Twilight said in a shaky voice. "I-I was a little s-skeptical about joining the b-band first. I-I thought I'm g-going to turn i-into her again if I touch m-magic again. I-I'm afraid, Aiko," Twilight said, finally breaking down. Aiko moved closer and hugged the distraught girl, giving her a shoulder to cry on. "Hey hey, it's okay, Twilight, it's okay. You are not her. It was not your fault. You know that," Aiko said, rubbing Twilight's back. "B-but what if-" "No, Twilight. Don't think about it. It's not going to happen. I don't actually know what it was like, but if Sunset was able to get past what happened to her, I know you can too. You are really strong and smart. Are you really going to make something like this get in your way? Don't think you are alone. You have friends with you. If you can't fight alone, then fight with us. We will stand by you no matter what," Twilight moved away from Aiko and looked up at her. "*sniff* You are right. I-I'm not going to give up... I c-can do this," Twilight said, wiping her tears. "Yeah. You can do this," Aiko said. "So... are you going to talk to the girls?" "I... not yet... I need some time..." "It's okay, Twi. Take your time. Just know that we wouldn't leave you, okay?" Twilight nodded. "Good. Now let's go home," Aiko said as they started to walk back home. "Um... Aiko... wanna hang out for a while? I-If you can... you have to pack and-" "I already did. Maybe we can have a sleepover. I'll ask dad to bring my stuff." "I-It's okay. I don't want to bother you." "You're not bothering me, Twi. You need someone right now. I'm more than ready to help," Aiko said, fishing out her phone and calling her mom.