My tone left no place for debate.
“I want to speak with the voice actor for the new character in your My Little Pony show.”
There was a pregnant pause, as if that was not what she had expected. “Sir, we are not allowed to divulge the coordinates of our employees over the phone, or through any other means of communication for that matters.”
“I don’t care!” I threw an arm in the air, gritting my teeth together in anger. “Hook me up with him yourself, WHATEVER, but I have to speak to him!”
“Sir, please calm down,” she asked, sounding as professional as before. Clearly, she had been doing this for a while now.
“I don’t need to calm down, MA’AM.” I started pacing around the living room, stealing glances at the news on the TV. Through some cruel irony, they had chosen to display a couple of pictures of Tom, with a few of them showing how kidnappers could have altered his appearance.
I had been getting calls all day now, from my friends, from my extended family, heck even one of my teacher left a message for me on Facebook! The sentiment might have been appreciated, if I didn’t feel so goddamn irresponsible!
The most recent one had convinced me to put my beliefs to the test. For the love of crap, Hasbro couldn’t have kidnapped Tom, right? That was just beyond ridiculous. Still…
Better than nothing, right?
“Sir, with all due respect, you need to calm down.”
I could admire the kind of rock solid conviction she embodied at the moment. So, I took a deep breath and made a conscious effort not to scream in her face.
“…O-okay…” I mumbled, massaging my forehead. “I… Madam, I really need to speak to that kid.”
“The voice actors are usually credited at the end of the show. If you try to find him through social networks, like some of our other employees like to use, then perhaps-”
“No.” I cut her off, but I was not rude about it. I sounded more defeated than anything else. “I… I tried. He’s nowhere on any of them.”
“…Then I’m afraid I cann-”
“NO! PLEASE!” I shouted, frantically glancing around, as if that would help me find the right words to convince her. “My little brother went missing yesterday!”
For the first time, I could hear her composure shatter. “Oh my God…” she whispered. It was followed by a sharp intake of air. “I’m sorry, Sir. I hope they will find him soon, but I don’t understand wh-”
“IT’S HIS VOICE!” I threw myself on the couch, hiding my face into the cushion. I couldn’t... why was this happening to us? “I’d recognize it anywhere!”
There was a moment of silence. To me, it seemed to stretch on and on, but I could tell it was my anxiety and my fear amplifying it up to frightening levels.
“What is your name, Sir?” she asked, subdue.
“Samuel Miller, my little brother’s name is Tom. Check the news…” I gave a small derisive and bitter laugh. “It’s all over the place.”
“…Please, give me a moment.”
Anything, Ma’am, if you’ll help me get Tom back! “S-sure…”
The phone at my ear remained silent for a moment, instead of dishing out cheesy elevator music. Not that it mattered. I could barely hear anything over the sound of my own heartbeat.
Please, work. I just need to know he’s fine. I have to find him.
Still nothing.
I was alone. Waiting. Dad was still scouting the town, leading the searches for Tom. Mom… she had locked herself in their bedroom. I could hear her speaking to people over her phone when I passed it by.
I stayed behind because I could not look at them after this morning’s blunder. This was incredibly selfish. It made me feel worse.
That unfortunately did not mean I had the strength to do the right thing. So, here I was, grasping at straws and making up the most ridiculous stuff just to put my mind at ease.
There was still a big knot tying up my throat. NO! No angst! Focus on the task at hands, Sam!
Just as my thoughts ended, I heard some rustling and shuffling noises at the end of the lines, followed by a long sigh. Caroline was back.
Oh please, please, please!
“Mr. Miller?” She called, voice heavy and strangely rasped.
Ignoring the sudden fear gripping my insides, I replied with little enthusiasm.
“I just talked to my superiors…” She trailed off, with such a deep sadness in her tone that I needed not hear her next words. No… “I am afraid they forbid me from giving out this information.”
“NO!” I shouted, jumping to my feet and gripping my phone so hard my hands hurt. “Y-YOU CAN’T! PLEASE! I MUST KNOW IF IT’S REALLY HIM!”
I heard a sob, and it took me a moment to realize it hadn’t come from me. As monstrous as that was, it made my heart flare with hope. She understood... if I could just press her harder then she might…
“We don’t have it…”
The words cut right through my veil of delusions.
“W-what…?” I muttered, dumbstruck. What kind of sick joke was th-?
“We cannot explain how the episode that was recorded and programmed to air has been replaced.”
My blood turned to ice.
“There is no voice actor.”
That was precisely the moment I dropped my phone.
Tom…
--
“Unreal, unreal, unreal!” I repeated, holding my head within my palms. That just couldn’t be true!
And yet what if it was? There were so many freaky hints pointing toward that mad conclusion. Regardless of the clusterfuck that was the inexplicable answer I had gotten from the company that aired the show, there were still some truly creepy coincidences.
Like Blade Darkblaze character design. I knew I had seen it before, drawing aside, Tom had shown it to me, real proud of his work.
For the shortest of seconds, a smile was brought to my lips by the memory.
“SAM! I DID IT!” He ran up to me, waving a sheet of paper wildly, in my face.
It was only mildly endearing at the time, because I was in the middle of playing a racing game. And fell off a cliff.
“Did what?” I asked, only halfway concentrated on my little brother.
“Design the perfect character!” He crossed his arms, after putting on sunglasses.
Okay, I’ll admit I laughed. That was rather epic.
“So, what’s his name then?”
“Blade Darkblaze,” I whispered. “He’s like a super nephew of Princess Celestia and can do this really cool magic with big boulders and he’s really great at handling monsters. Kinda like Fluttershy but a lot more badass!”
I buried my head into my pillow and let out a scream. This was madness! H-how could it have possibly happened?!
I slowly lifted my head from the comfortable thing. It was no use. I could not deny it any longer, I actually believed my little brother was in Equestria. And he was an alicorn.
So far, he had only earned the ire of about sixty percent of the fandom, the remaining forty percent split between those that thought he wasn’t so bad and those that just wanted to forget that mess ever happened.
“So much for perfect design, Tom…” I whispered dejectedly.
What now? Do I tell Mom and Dad? Right, that will go swimmingly. ‘Hey, remember how we all thought Tom was kidnapped? Well, apparently, he was magicked into a kid’s show and is currently doing stuff like the resident god-empress.’ Can anyone say asylum?
No, of course not. I could not tell my parents. Great. I would only slowly go mad seeing them search for him everywhere when he was right under our nose. And in a completely different dimension.
What could I do about this? WHAT?!
No answer came to me. I just rolled over and looked at the ceiling of my room.
--
“-and as such, I would like to inquire about this new alicorn. Respectfully, your faithful student, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
For a second, one could only hear the scribbling and scratching of a quill against a scroll, then a fine pressure.
“Done,” Spike declared. “Do you want me to send it right away?”
“Yes, please, Spike.” Twilight nodded, pacing around the library. She did not flinch when a brief green light illuminated the room. “This is simply too strange. Princess Celestia would have told me if there were more alicorns around. Or is this a test?”
“Hu oh.” The little dragon grimaced.
“Oh gosh! If this is a test and I was supposed to find out by myself… Spike! Take the letter back!”
“W-what?” He tilted his head to the side. “I can’t do that.”
“Oh noooo…” the lavender alicorn moaned, accelerating. “She said I would learn in different ways, she told me about this. How could I have been so blind?”
“Come on, Twilight. Princess Celestia wouldn’t fail you on a test you didn’t know you were taking.”
“Would she?” Twilight got up to her assistant’s face, eyes wide and iris shrunken.
“No,” he said with absolute sincerity.
The reply was enough to get her to pause.
“I…” She blinked. “You’re right.”
“You’re becoming reasonable with age, Twi.” Spike chuckled, obviously amused by her reaction.
“And you, very wise, Spike,” she responded by nuzzling his head.
“Aww, Twilight! That’s embarrassing.” The little dragon tried to push her off, but without success. Not that he was trying very hard.
Though he found out it might have been better he had, as he soon belched up green flames, right into his big sister’s shoulder.
“Sorry!” he yelled, jumping on her back and batting the flames away.
“Oh, no, that’s okay, Spike. I should have seen it coming.” She rolled her eyes and levitated the letter they had been sent. With a magical pull, the seal was undone and the scroll unrolled. “My dear Twilight, I am most trouble by your reports of events…”
--
“Sam…” The voice of my father brought my out of my reverie.
“Dad?” I asked, cracking under his gaze.
“I wanted to check up on you. You’ve been quite a bit…” He paused, looking away, as if uncomfortable. “Out of it, tonight.”
“Haven’t we all?!” I lashed out, bringing myself into a sitting position. “Mom’s locked herself in and we haven’t been able to coax her out at all!”
This was hard on him too. Likely more than it was on me. Why was I doing that to him?
“Your mother’s taking it very hard… I know that…” He sighed, looking every bit as lost as a man whose youngest son had disappeared, whose family was starting to unravel.
I felt a pang of guilt pierced through this blank state of mine. If I convinced them…
“She refused to speak to me…” Dad continued. “She wants to remain alone.”
So did I, but this…
I stood up, walked to him and gave him a hug. It stunned him. We hadn’t hugged since I was twelve, which made this all the more significant.
I-it felt good. I sunk into his embrace, leaning against him more than he did with me. We both needed this.
“I… I’ll make it right, Dad. I’ll find Tom,” I whispered.
Instantly, his arms closed harder against me. That had been a blow to the heart. I could tell.
“Just stay with us, Sam…”
“I’m not going anywhere, Dad.”
He let go and, albeit small, his smile was genuine. He left my room without another word. There wasn’t much need for some anyway.
His departure did not leave a void. For the time being, part of the hole in my heart had been patched. It wasn’t much, but it made me feel a lot better.
I shot a glance at my laptop. Some of my anxiety returned at the idea of what I could see on it, but it ultimately did not matter, I had a better idea.
With a glance, I confirmed my father had left for the living room, allowing me free reign toward the one place I wanted to go: Tom’s room.
“Knock knock,” I whispered, pushing the door open.
No answer, no surprise there.
The room was just as messy as before. No one really wanted to clean it up. That, at least, was not a jump from before. Good. I needed it as close to before as possible.
There had to be a clue in here. There HAD to be.
I just did not know where to start. It was not like Tom had placed a big leather-bound tome of evil magic on his bed, the place was exactly as normal as it ever was. Nothing conspicuous. No lead.
I scanned the room, looking for at least one element out of place. I found one. …Where’s his drawing? I could have sworn I had left it in here.
Following an intuition, I started looking around the tablets and the drawers for that sheet of paper which might hold some proof of my crazy theory. To my growing distress, I could not find it. It was not in sight and I could not remember where I had put it the last time I came here. The panicked, crazed exit helped.
Come on. I know you’re in here somewhere… I sat on the bed, heart heavy with my lack of results. This was the last place we knew he had been. It had to count for something, right?
With a sigh, I let my arms fall to the side of my body. My hand brushed Tom’s pillow and the familiar contact jolted something inside me. The drawing had been in his pillow sheath!
With a frantic shake, I threw the pillows off the bed, sparing a glance to the emptied spot they had occupied. Nothing. But no matter, I was focused on more important things.
I kneeled on the ground, picking up the two objects delicately, as if they were fragile and precious. To me, they were. They might be one of the key elements to getting my brother back.
Methodically, I picked them apart, examined them under every angle and probing them for anything. Slowly though, my hands started searching more roughly, as little results were obtained.
In the end, they were just pillows.
T-that shouldn’t feel like being punched in the guts. The fact that there was nothing weird about pillows should not hit me so goddamn hard!
I swallowed back my tears. Come on, I just need something to work with here! I just want to get my little brother back!
I punched them as hard as I could. This wasn’t fair! Everything was turning this into a dead end! What chances did I have to save Tom?!
I hit them, again and again, to the point my knuckles were feeling numb. This offered me no relief, but, breathing heavily, I let myself fall face first into them.
So… all that hype for nothing? I just wouldn’t be able to help. What now? Would I be forced to watch as my little brother goes on a power trip as a little brat and becomes hated by the rest of the fandom? With my parents fanatically looking for him, yet having no idea they would never get the chance to see him again? Was that what the future looked like?
Prey to a crushing despair, I turned my head around, at least avoiding to smother myself in that useless pillow. That’d be the last straw…
Though, from the corner of my eyes, I caught glimpse of a pale object under Tom’s bed.
Curiosity overtaking me, I slid down closer, the object, seemingly a bundle of paper, now in reach. I stretched my arm, but to my surprise, my hand first closed on a conic object. The thing was moist and fragile enough to give out under my grasp, with a quiet crunching noise.
A (thankfully) unused ice cream cone.
“Seriously?” I grumbled, shaking the crumps off my palm. “Tom, it’s winter!”
Annoyed, I grabbed the bloc of paper in a hurry and sat against the wall. Flipping the cover page, the one with a big "SECRET” written on top, I gave the whole thing a look. Let’s see…
My eyes widened in shock.
“S-stuff to try to… ‘Go to Equestria’?!”