December 21st
Thirty Five Days Later
Twilight clicked absently at the computer’s buttonboard. She referred to it as a buttonboard simply because she was, in fact, pressing buttons. True, they were called keys, and for a good reason, but it felt right to put a spin on how she thought of the device. Plus, it sounded more fun.
On the computer screen and looking about as lively as she herself did, was another person with whom she was chatting on and off.
Twilight’s typing began to slow steadily, until finally she was merely staring at the screen.
Her present company saw this. “Twilight, are you alright?” the man Twilight was talking with said. His name was Jack, one of her tech forum friends. He wore heavy bags under his eyes, more than a match for Twilight’s own. Though, his were less of a sign of dedication to his work and more from just years of self-abuse by computer.
The bright screen continued to glare back at Twilight’s eyes, while in the back of her mind she somewhat registered being addressed. After some pause, she finally let out a groan of frustration and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Jack recoiled slightly. “That bad huh?”
“No, sorry.” Twilight heaved a sigh. “I’m fine, really.”
Jack hummed thoughtfully for his reply.
Twilight continued. “Sort of…” She moved her chair to the side of the desk where her letters for the princess—once she got home—were sitting. "It's nothing new."
“Nightmares again?” Jack asked out of the blue. “Hearing the voice still?” He supported his head with one hand, leaning on his chair’s arm. His other hand removed the glasses he wore to hang them over the other side of his chair.
Twilight hesitated a moment, then lifted up her notebook. “I don’t really want to talk about it. It— They are rare enough they aren’t a problem… and they’re just dreams.” She opened up her journal slash series of letters. The last entry glowed up at her, written that very morning.
“I dunno, Twilight,” Jack remarked. He sighed, still watching her fiddle with a book. “They sound more like nightmares, to me.”
Twilight winced a little, frowning at her journal entry.
“Sorry,” Jack added, seeing that.
Twilight heard the apology and looked up quickly, smiling. “It’s okay, really. I— They probably are nightmares. According to some of my studies they’re quite common for humans, after all…” She swallowed and replaced her worried expression back on her face. “In Equestria… as a pony… a nightmare is a little more serious, though.”
Jack nodded, recalling the conversation from the first time he had heard it. “Right, right. Nightmares are an imbalance of Harmony.”
“Theorized to be an imbalance of Harmony,” Twilight corrected. “Sad as I am to say it, magic isn’t a fully explored science.”
Jack burst out laughing again, but quickly settled back down. “Magic, a science. Hearing that is still absolutely incredible,” he repeated the words in his foreign accent, no less awe filled than the first time he had said them.
Twilight glared absently, but also smirked, used to that reaction by now. She very much heard him in the background her focus on studying the pages laid out before her; in them was detailed her latest ‘vision’ as she had described it. The dream had been Equestria, she thought, like always, but every time she saw it things got... worse.
Sometimes they started out alright, and were obviously fears she possessed or had once considered reiterated in dream form. It was often as though she were watching reels of things she was afraid of deep down being played out for her. The subjects typically had to do with her never returning home. Her friends were sometimes there, or sometimes not. When they were, they always treated her differently, or harshly, or as if they had given up finding her.
Altogether, they were rarely if ever pleasant. For some reason, these vivid experiences that haunted her seemed more real than other, more normal seeming dreams.
The last journal-letter Twilight had written spoke to Celestia about why she thought that was. Perhaps those things merely stand out more to me than—
Jack snapped his fingers loudly. The act caught Twilight’s attention, and she had time to briefly consider how humans did that. “Oh, I know, I have another one— Gah!” He'd sat up quickly, and fast enough in the screen’s web camera window to knock something off of his desk.
“Uhm, is everything alright over there?” Twilight asked, setting down her journal of letter entries to the princess. She put the thoughts over the dreams out of mind, for now.
Jack was brushing furiously at his pants’ leg, but he nodded. “Yes, fine, I just spilled something.”
Twilight smirked. “Alright then,” she laughed a little. Jack was a pretty good friend, and could usually help cheer her up at least as well as Alice did, but his antics seemed a bit less planned and a bit more goofy. “So, what was that about a question?”
Twilight had been answering questions for Jack on and off over the last hour or so. Before that, she had messaged him over the state of their pony-hunt, as it were. The mystery mare they were seeking out, somewhere in a ‘united state’ called Idaho, had not revealed herself again in any way through the human media.
Worse, after calling the man that had taken the video, he hadn’t been able to reveal anything, willing or otherwise. Annoyingly enough, the man from Idaho had thought he was going to have his memory erased or something, and had started calling Jo ‘Will Smith’.
Jo had been cross about having her voice compared to a guy’s for a while after that.
“Anyway,” Jack continued. “I just thought of something else to ask. It used to bother me a lot as a kid when I watched the show, actually.” He was, of course, referring to Twilight’s own television show.
Twilight gave an amused smile and leaned forwards onto her desk. “Well, again, that program is full of inaccuracies that could be very misleading, especially to children, but sure. What would you like to know?” She waited for his answer.
One of the most fascinating things that never got old with her, was the fact that Jack was literally on the other end of the world. Even sending messages via magical flame would take several minutes over such a distance. The internet however, was full video, and much faster. She had already sworn to invent new spells and devices that could do the same… When she got home, that is.
“Okay, okay.” Jack said in his odd, foreign accent. He took a breath, obviously thinking hard on how to word what he had to say. “Names.” He looked at Twilight after a second for confirmation that she'd understood.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Names?” she inquired.
“Yeah!” Jack grinned and exclaimed back. “Names, as in pony names! Back in the show, they were all— How do you say it? Perfectly prophetic of things? They always tied in with what the pony did, or who they were. It made no sense. Why was Fluttershy, well, Fluttershy? Did they know her cutie mark would be flutterbies- er, butterflies? Bleh, slip of the tongue. Learn more German, Twilight, so much easier.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, and snickered at the slip up. “I will brush up, don’t worry. Especially if I need to talk to other nationalities.” After laughing again, she continued. “Well, that’s an easy one, at least.”
Jack grinned. “Not complicated like magic, then? I was already thinking this was another ‘Harmony’ thing.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed slightly in recollection. They had spoken at length about how Harmony and magic maintained the stability of her world. Jack had been quite frantic about her claims that gravity wasn't a consequence of objects having mass, but as a result of magic being the basis for matter. Jack retorting with citations about "Higgs field" and the "Standard Model".
“Harmony might play a part,” Twilight admitted slowly while nodding. “I can’t say that I’ve heard of a study that has disproved its involvement in anything…” She was nothing if not thorough in her thought process. She also didn’t rule things out, or tried not to, at least. Pinkie Pie had given her a hard lesson in that, once. “Anyway, the simple answer is that our names, often like yours, are passed on. So, heritage and talents, which tend to lead to cutie marks, can be passed down. Pretty often this results in ponies, like Fluttershy, that have a cutie mark that very closely resembles their name in some way.”
Jack ooed in return to her. “So it’s just like human names, actually. Along with… coincidence.”
Twilight nodded. “Your name is Jack, indicating that while you may have been born and raised in Germany, you probably have a parent or ancestor from the United Kingdom. Your name can mean strong, healthy, and a few other things.”
Jack stared back at her a moment, blinking, then nodded. “Heh, that's right, my mother named me. She was from England.” He sighed dourly afterwards. “Well, that’s more boring than I’d thought. I was expecting that the zebras told fortunes or read your futures or something and you had cool, alien-like naming rituals.”
It was Twilight's turn to blink in silence, then she let out a laugh. “Nothing like that, I’m afraid, Jack.” She crossed her arms and grinned back at the fellow academic-type. “It’s not all boring, though. I think Harmony may play a small part, like you mentioned. There’s an order to our world, one that makes itself very evident in the smallest of ways sometimes. From… say… making friends that you never knew you would have, to being in the right place at the right time. Although, this is not nearly as well studied as I think it should be. I wish I could continue studying in Equestria to change that…” Her look darkened, and she began to study the desktop absently.
Jack watched Twilight as she trailed off. “It must really suck a lot to be stuck here, then.” He smiled when she looked back up.
“Heh,” Twilight managed, then looked away. She picked up her notebooks and straightened them without thinking about it. “I wouldn’t put it like that, Jack. That’s a little… crude. It isn’t all bad. It is very interesting here, and I am learning things.” She paused for a moment, then straightened, returning his attention. “I want to think that all of this is leading to something that will pay off, somehow.”
Before Twilight let another pause begin, she went back to the topic at hand. “Right, but no, not all cutie marks and names correlate so well. Some of the cutie marks are too nebulous for good names to match up with them. So, if Harmony does play a part, it isn’t perfect.”
Jack patted a hand against his cheek, humming loudly over what Twilight was saying. “I still don’t think that the whole destiny thing is possible.”
Twilight rolled her eyes yet again, and reflected that maybe she was picking up Jo’s cynicism. “It isn’t destiny, Jack. It’s a force of nature, just like gravity! Water flows down a hill, but why? Because it makes sense and the world works like that. Harmony is the balance to chaos, nothing more.” She growled, scratching a hand through her hair quickly for a moment. “Princess Celestia would be able to say this a lot better than me, you know.”
The man facing her in the computer screen chuckled, and leaned back in his chair. “Maybe I will wait to ask her, then. I’ll take your word for it, Twilight. I thought of, eh, another question, though. This one is much better, and I’m interested in your explanation.”
Twilight nodded, a little happy to get off the topic. Humans, universally, seemed to have a very keen affinity for questioning or doubting anything she said, for good reason or no. “Okay,” she prompted.
“Minotaurs!” Jack tossed his arms up in the air, exclaiming. “What’s the deal with them? Half human, half bull? How does that work? Does Equestria have humans, then?”
Not for the first time, Twilight hummed a moment, then shrugged. “I don’t know, honestly.” She chuckled when the man let out a disappointed sound. “If I had to guess… though…” She watched as he leaned forward intently, like one of Fluttershy’s critter friends detecting a treat. Her snickering managed to contain itself, this time. “I would think that it’s merely another parallel between our worlds. For some reason, certain mythologies from your world are true in ours. Maybe humans did the same thing they did with the television show of my friends, or perhaps the answer goes deeper than that…” She had to shrug again, unable to help it.
Jack ran a hand over his face, a look of concentrated thought on his face. “So…” he began anew. “That means that sea ponies could be real…?”
Twilight grinned and laughed. “Oh Celestia.” She put a hand over her mouth and laughed, recalling the video that Jack had shown her first thing that day.
Jack smirked, then sang, “Shoo bee doo, shoo shoo bee doo.”
Twilight laughed harder. “I- I don’t think so, Jack.”
“Aaw.” Jack put on a disappointed look that only lasted a second, then grinned again.
“Honestly…” Twilight was already moving past those thoughts and onto new concerns, her laughter dwindling. She stared up at the ceiling in an interested fashion, almost forgetting there was actually someone else present. A thought occurred to her, and her chair clunked from the speed she leaned forward with. “If there was a direct link between—! and then—! Or what if...”
Twilight met the startled look from her friend and slowed down. ”Jack, okay, do you remember that story you showed me, the sad one?”
Jack paused a moment, then tried to answer the abrupt question. “Ah— You mean… My Little Dashie?” He furrowed his brow in thought.
“Yes! Exactly, that one.” Twilight nodded a couple of times. “Initially, I found it highly suspicious that humans had so many real world comparisons for my... situation.” She hummed briefly. “Not just that story, either. Humans are obsessed with stories like that. Well, my culture has them too, I guess, but never mind. But those stories and your world's lack of magic certainly add credence to why it’s so hard to get you all to believe a word I say.”
Jack chuckled nervously at that, trying to look innocent. “Guilty,” he admitted. "Where are you going with this?"
Twilight smirked and moved on. “It has gotten me thinking about the parallels between our worlds. Perhaps humans are actually prophetic? Maybe your people can foretell things by using some force that we’re not familiar with.”
Jack studied her a moment, then grunted and shook his head. “I dunno, if that’s true I get the feeling we’d be better at guessing the lottery. God knows I’ve been bad enough at taking a crack at it…”
Twilight frowned and glanced off to her side. “Well… maybe. It was just a thought, though. I’m not sure how it’s relevant, exactly. I suppose what Jo said about humans loving stories about themselves could be just as true as anything. I mean, my ending up here was probably just a coincidence, so why not everything else?” She let out a big, aggravated sigh and flopped back in her chair.
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Come now Twilight, that’s assuming an awful lot. That potion of yours could have brought you here for a number of good reasons, too.”
Twilight tapped a finger furiously against her desk, brow furrowed. She only half heard Jack, again. “Why couldn’t magic be the same in both our worlds, Spike? This would be so much easier then… For starters, at least everypony would believe me, no matter what.” She crossed her arms and glared at Jack, though she was glaring because of something else. “Did you know that Irwin won’t believe anything I say? No matter how right it is? Even stuff from Earth, like the weather! He’ll talk to Lex though and believe anything that he says! Even if I was the one that told it to Lex in the first place!” A hand covered her eyes and she collapsed fully in the office chair, sighing out of sheer exasperation.
From the speakers, Twilight could hear Jack’s quiet chuckling. Not at her, she was sure, but the matter stood either way.
If I had my horn, though, I would probably be home… Twilight’s thoughts kept her busy, until an outside voice grabbed her attention.
“Show a caveman technology, he’ll think it’s magic. Show a modern man magic, he’ll think it’s technology,” Jack stated. He was idly twirling a pen between his fingers and staring out his window.
Twilight peaked out from underneath her hand. “What was that about men that live in caves?”
Jack looked over. “What? I meant Irwin’s not apt to believe you about magic theory anymore than I believed you about Equestria, Twilight.”
“Ah.” Twilight searched the desk absently while she thought about the metaphor. “Well, at least you believed me, eventually. I don’t blame him for that, only the way he acts towards me.” She laughed and flourished one hand in the air. “I even watched a bunch of Doctor Who just to try and improve our working relationship! A key fundamental of friendship is having something in common initially. I mean—” she struggled for more to say, and ended up growling instead.
Jack chuckled again. “Very patient people have tried to get Irwin to act friendly, Twilight. I think Lex gets by simply because he’s always sort of been around him.” He sighed, and smirked at Twilight.
Twilight returned the smirk, but when the other man continued to stare at her, she asked, “...What?”
Jack chuckled again, but straightened his face. “You called me Spike, a minute ago.”
Twilight blinked in confusion, then sat back. “Oh.” Did I say that— I did. “Ah… sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Jack bobbed his head from side to side and shrugged. “It is fine. I have been called worse things than a little dragon before, heh. Take Irwin for example. Very mean fellow, calls me names all the time.” He enjoyed another weak laugh with Twilight. After another pause ensued, he continued. “How are things with them, by the way? Did you decide to show them the crystals, yet?”
Twilight laughter cut off as if by a switch, and pursed her lips in thought. She was being faced with the same difficult choice once again. On one hoof, getting help from Lex and his other ‘science nerd’ friends meant keeping quiet about it—entirely their request. On the other hoof, she had been asked by one group of friends to lie to another. A positive and a negative from one simple situation, turning it complicated.
She could understand the need for Lex's secrecy, sort of, but it didn’t make it any easier of a thing to do.
Lex, Carl—and she supposed Irwin—were trying to get her home to Equestria, a little bit. Helping with her understanding of the crystals was important, after all; and she had learned a lot... Jack, however, was trying very hard to help her track down the mysterious pony that might hold clues to how she could get home.
“No… I haven’t yet. It’s just too big of a risk, Jack.” Twilight painfully worked a weak smile onto her expression after repeating what she had for a couple weeks. She studied the other human staring back at her, taking note of the immediate disappointment on his expression at hearing the news. Maybe I could tell him all the things we’ve learned and simply say I researched it on my own? Her hands rung out the front of her shirt, a recent nervous habit she had developed over time. No, that would still be betraying Lex’s trust… Uggh, why do they even want to keep this such a big secret? It’s not as though I plan to go out and have everything published about in a newspaper… Well, a website. I can’t believe humans stopped using newspapers around here.
Twilight was quickly reminded about Alice’s little ‘discovery’ from a few weeks before, when the other girl had told both her and Jo about spying ‘just a little’—as she had put it—on the nerds. Jo hadn’t been happy—as anyone can imagine—over that discovery, and her trust of the men went back to zero in a flash. Twilight herself had told Alice she was a little upset she had been spying, but it was already done with anyway. Once Jo’s fury was somewhat dealt with, Twilight had of course confronted Lex about what kind of project they could have meant.
Lex hadn't given answers yet, but Twilight was still working on that.
“I see.” Jack replied solemnly, nodding somewhat.
“But still, Lex wouldn’t tell me…” Twilight bit the inside of her cheek and frowned, talking to herself. “I can’t refuse their help. I can’t. But why secrets?”
Jack turned his head a few degrees. “Did you say something, Twilight?”
Twilight went rigid and began shuffling papers on her desk. “I- Oh, no, haha…. Just talking to myself, Jack!” She swallowed hard and continued to act discrete. I might not be as bad of a liar as Applejack, but this is still hard!
Twilight continued to fumble with her notes absently until she came to a decision, right as Jack looked as though he was going to speak again, too. “Uhm, look, Jack, I’m going to go, okay? Not that I haven’t enjoyed talking with you, again. It’s really sort of a nice way to relax and talk with someone academically about Equestria.” She laughed a little, continuing. “I mean, the girls here are great friends and all, but Jo is rather quiet, and Alice just wants to know… weird things about ponies.”
Twilight grimaced and tried not to recall the rather specific and outlandish questions Alice seemed to come up with about her people.
“Alrighty, Twilight.” Jack continued on in his curiously Germane-like accent. “It was good to talk with you again. Anytime you wish we can conversate about Earth or Equestria.”
Twilight smiled and nodded. “Definitely. Not to give myself hope about actually getting home, or anything…” She chuckled briefly. “But, it is important that there are informed individuals on both of our sides. You know, just in case we do establish diplomatic relations.”
Jack looked thoughtful for a brief pause before speaking up in reply. “You’ll get home, Twilight. Don’t worry about that, I think.”
Twilight blinked, then smiled, feeling a bit of warm emotion from the sentiment. “Thanks, Jack.”
“No problem.” The human waved good bye to her. “Sayonara!”
Twilight waved back and smiled again, reaching for the ‘cancel call’ button on the program they used.
“Oh, and Twilight.” Jack spoke again hurriedly, leaning forward. His expression was odd, both intent yet neutral.
Twilight paused. “Hm?” She blinked, curious. “Did you remember something you found?” She was more than a little hopeful of a bit more good news of some sort.
Jack looked as though he was on the verge of speaking for more than a few seconds. Eventually, he did manage to reply. “Oh, no. Nothing like that Twilight,” he coughed. “I just, uh, wanted to say your hair looks really nice, today, was all.”
Twilight stared back through her computer screen.
“You know, the whole purple and, rosy pink thing… grown out. It’s a pretty good look.” Jack smirked, nodding appreciatively.
“Oh, thank you.” Twilight could see the purple lengths of hair in the corner of one eye. Above those, she recalled a good few inches of black hair. “I need to go now, Jack. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Jack nodded again and rubbed a hand behind his head. “Yeah, yes, sure. Talk to you soon, Twilight—"
Twilight exhaled and scrunched her eyes closed once the windowed program was shut. She sat there for a few minutes before she had a single thought come to her. Of course, it dealt with the reminder that she was no longer a unicorn.
Black hair, she mused darkly.
I have black hair… Twilight pushed herself up out of her chair and left the office room, eager to either get some food and study, or perhaps go talk to Jo and try and forget some recent things. I dipped my hair in ink once on accident… but that was hardly the same as this.
“Jo, please! Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!” Twilight continued to beg beside her friend. She was wearing sweat pants and a sweater, keen on staying warm in the cold northern weather she faced in this region of Earth.
Jo regarded Twilight with a sideways glance, while trying not to give away how difficult it was for her to refuse the other girl’s pleads. She had on a simple bathrobe, having not had plans to go anywhere anytime soon. For her, the weather outside was pretty tame for the season thus far. “We should wait a bit longer, Twilight. Spring is the way to go. And I really don’t think that it’s such a good idea to do that without knowing more.”
Alice broke in. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, not one to let weather change her habits. “Well why not? It’s better than just waiting. What’s the worst that can even happen, hm?”
The three girls were holding a council of sorts in Jo’s dining room, now a war room for all intents and purposes. Their mission: hunting a pony.
Jo thumped a hand on the varnished wood in front of her. “Guys, we’ve been over this. We can’t just go door to door looking for ponies!”
Alice sighed and crossed her arms. “You’re avoiding the question again…”
Jo shot her a flat look. “That’s because it’s a terrible question.”
Twilight leaned out in front of Jo, determined to make eye contact. “Jo, I know your world’s laws are a lot… stricter, but we won't get in trouble for just asking people! It would even be sort of discreet. We would knock, introduce ourselves and show them a picture. If we get nothing, we move on!”
Alice raised her hand. “You could disguise yourselves as carolers.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow over at the blonde girl. “A disguise would be handy… but what’s a—”
“Christmas singers, Twilight. It’s part of our Christmas traditions.” Alice smirked slightly when the other girl ooed in recognition.
Jo sighed. “Couldn’t we at least wait until after Christmas?” Her eyes traced the wall until they found the nearby window. Early winter snow was caked around the fringes of the glass panes there.
Alice folded her arms over one another. “You’ve already waited almost a month, and Twi’s friend hasn’t found anything new in days.”
“He’s been trying…” Twilight reminded quietly.
Alice gave her a consoling look, then shrugged after facing Jo again. “I still think you could go to put up signs at the very least, Jo. We’ll use the direct approach. We’ll wait a few more days like you said, and then try signs and asking. That wouldn’t hurt anything—”
Jo interrupted. The direct approach had been brought up already. “What, with my phone number on them? ‘Please call if you have seen this multicolored miniature horse anywhere?’ So when people feel like pranking us to giggle over how clever they felt after getting the idea we can all have a good laugh?” She shook her head in refusal and turned further away. “Twilight, Alice, I’m not saying don’t go if you want to go, but I’m staying here.”
Alice scowled, one of the rare times she would; simply because she was being forced to repeat herself. “Jo, I have work. I can’t take Twilight.” She gave her other friend a regretful look. “As much as I want to… You have to do it.”
Twilight kept the suggestion she once again formed to herself. I could… always drive myself, girls. I mean, the apparatus in your cars isn’t that complicated at all, and I’ve studied the laws of your system of roads and vehicle use extensively, and… Oh who am I kidding, they’ll never let me. She hoped that she had managed to keep any grumpiness over the matter off of her face.
Jo grunted, and looked away from the blonde girl once more. They were repeating things that had already been brought up. “Well I can’t go either with no one to feed my cats.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Of course, the cats. That is the one bar to driving to Idaho. Jo, I can feed the furballs just fine while you help Twilight—”
As if on cue, Twilight threw her head back and moaned in frustration. Jo and Alice watched as she stood up, then began to leave. She paused at the door.
“Sorry— I’m not mad at you, Jo,” Twilight turned to state matter of factly. “But I am frustrated…” Her foot tapped rapidly while she stood there in the doorway. There has to be a favorable option. I can’t take all this waiting! Solutions, though, seemed few. Maybe I should just focus on science and…. no. “Girls, we need to do something.” She floundered where she stood at the room’s entrance, hesitant to either leave or stay and deliberate further.
When Twilight managed to force out words from herself, they were as resolute as she felt on the matter. It wasn’t like her to try and push a friend like this, but she couldn’t help it. She was a little afraid. “That pony could be in serious, serious trouble, Jo. She’s at far greater risk than I am where she is. If I had to choose a good reason to do this, that would be it.”
Alice turned to face Jo again with a look of her own.
Twilight took a couple steps back into the room. “Please, Jo?”
Meanwhile, Jo was holding her head up in her hands. I can’t believe I’m going along with this. “Alright,” she relented. “Lets pack then.”
Alice’s eyes widened. “Seriously?” she turned and grinned towards Twilight who returned it.
Jo stood up and tightened her house robe absently. “Twilight can’t go without me and, well, honestly there’s no reason to hang around during Christmas for us, anyway. Besides, the roads are still clear right now.”
Twilight beamed, but resisted her urge to cheer. “Thank you,” she said simply.
Jo grunted and shrugged. “Can we at least leave tomorrow? That way you can at least get ready.”
“Deal!” Twilight already had a list of things to gather prepared.
December 23rd
Twilight shivered ferociously on her way into the hotel, even bundled up as she was beneath a shirt, her sweater, and a light coat. On her head was a poofy, wool hat with fuzzy tassels; its color matched that of her old, fur coat. Alice had told her she made it as an early Christmas gift. S-Should have accepted Alice’s coat, too, when she offered it. Even her thoughts felt cold. It was only a short walk to get inside, but the air in the late evening was far more frigid than she was used to, biting at her eyes and nostrils with its unnatural chill.
There was barely any snow on the ground at all, and yet it was both windy and freezing cold. If Jo lives in a place with such bad winters, why are her winter jackets so thin!? She glanced back at Jo, who seemed comfortable in far, far less winter clothing.
Twilight had a case with her borrowed laptop in one hand, and a wheeled suitcase for travel in the other. What I wouldn’t give for levitation right now— Or scratch that, a warmth spell. That would be terrific. Still shivering, she pulled open the glass door to the building and ducked inside.
Even indoors, her breath clouded up in front of her. Outside, she could see Jo far more nonchalantly make her way towards the hotel doors. The other girl had gotten them to Idaho as she’d promised, and in just two days time as well. Automobiles weren’t quite so fast as traveling by say, chariot, but they were impressive under the circumstances.
Twilight pushed open and held the door for her friend.
“Thanks, Twilight,” Jo remarked dully. She continued inside and began climbing the tall stairwell present.
“You’re w-welcome, J-Jo,” Twilight chattered out.
Jo stopped and turned around at the foot of the stairs. “Twilight, it’s barely below zero out, and you’re bundled up; and it’s only just colder here than it was back home.” Maybe she was tired, or maybe now that they had arrived to their destination she had calmed down, but Jo laughed.
That much alone made Twilight smile, still rubbing her sides furiously with both, mittened hands. “Well, t-that may be, Jo, but even Canterlot winters aren’t this cold! I’ve been in negative degree weather before, and this feels colder! I highly suspect that even though we both use Celsius for temperature measure, there is some unaccounted for inaccuracy going on here.”
Jo rolled her eyes and took a hold of the stair railing. “Or, you’re being a wimp without fur. And anyway, I still prefer Fahrenheit." She motioned for her friend to hurry up. "Come on, let’s get upstairs to the room where it’ll be warmer.”
Twilight nodded from underneath her poofy hat. “Oh t-thank Celestia. No arguments over that, h-here.”
Together, the two made it upstairs, before then entering a far warmer indoor hallway.
Twilight felt immediate relief once they were back in decent, indoor temperatures.
“Better already?” Jo found their room quickly; it was right by an exit.
Twilight let out a contented breath, still hugging herself and feeling the cold clinging to the outside of her clothes. “Oh yes, very much. Jo, humans and cold do not mix, at all. My fur is a hundred times better than these so called ‘winter’ clothes. Unless perhaps magic plays a part in...”
Jo pushed open the heavy door and stepped in. “Ah huh. Well, Twilight, you were a magical horse. Short answer, that’s as good as cheating. For all we know your tears can be used to cure cancer.” She dropped her backpack unceremoniously by the door. “Now look, it’s been a long day and—”
Twilight heard Jo cut off suddenly, and took a break from taking off her freezing outerwear. “Jo?” she said, approaching her friend. “What's wrong?” Jo was simply standing in the middle of the floor, staring into the room.
Without warning, a furious growl made Twilight jump.
Jo whirled around and flung a hand out to the giant bed centering the room. “Why is there only one bed!?”
“Alice, I’m only going to ask you once. Why, is there only one bed?” Jo sat, arms folded, face set sternly into a scowl, while glaring darkly at her blonde friend.
Alice laughed immediately. “That’s what this is about? Geez, Jo, don’t be such a prude-”
Jo lunged forward. “I am not, a prude,” she hissed. “It’s a simple question, answer it. Why did you book a single bed hotel room, huh? To mess me with me? I specifically told you two beds, Alice. That’s why I’m upset!”
Twilight looked on sadly from the large chair in the room. “It’s alright, Jo. Don’t be angry at Alice like that, even if she was pranking us.” She put on a slightly exasperated, slightly disappointed look, one that she often used a great deal with certain friends of hers back home.
Alice piped up again, still chuckling a little. “Guys, I was totally not pranking you. That was the only room I could get, I swear! This is Christmas season, after all. You should have waited until after it was over to go to Idaho.”
A loud thump echoed through the room.
Jo calmly flexed her hands beneath the desk, after landing her forehead on the top. She would have been angrier given what she had just heard, but the uncontrolled giggle fit that Alice was undergoing on the computer screen was enough to give her away as trying to be an absolute pest. Just stay calm, Jo. She's obviously ignoring the fact that you argued to stay until after the holiday. Just stay calm.
A hand rested on Jo’s shoulder, and got her to look up.
“Thank you for bringing us this far, Jo. I’m sorry I didn’t want to wait, but I’m really glad you helped, despite not wanting to.” Twilight smiled warmly; warm enough that Jo had a hard time staying upset at the other girl who was technically present.
“It’s fine, Twilight,” Jo remarked, sighing. She wasn’t showing it much, but she really didn’t mind having driven so far now that it was over. “You, however, can just button it.” She glared at Alice, who stuck her tongue out in return and laughed some more.
Alice whispered towards Jo, cupping her hands. "Hey, don't forget to give Twilight the thing, okay?"
Jo made the 'ixnay' motion, gesturing across her own neck with one hand quickly while Twilight was talking.
“Don’t worry about the bed, Jo." Twilight said friendlily. "I’ll sleep in the chair, it will be fine.”
Jo shook her head quickly and broke her staring contest with the yellow haired devil on the laptop. “No, I can try and get our room switched. Barring that, it’s not a big deal if we share.”
Twilight nodded happily, if a bit slowly. “Indeed, not at all. I… will admit, I was curious why you reacted so harshly in the first place, Jo.” She looked over the at huge bed. “I don’t think you are a greedy person, and there is plenty of space for us both.”
Alice’s eyes lit up on the screen. “I can explain! You see, Jo was—”
The program screen blipped out of existence, taking Alice along with it.
“Oh, nooo,” Jo put her hands to either side of her face and exclaimed drearily. “It seems we lost connection. How tragic.” She rolled her eyes, and trudged past a slightly surprised Twilight Sparkle. Across the room, she fell back first onto the bed and simply lay there. “So, fearless leader. What shall we be doing first thing tomorrow, hm?”
Twilight looked from the computer, now realizing Jo had hung up on Alice, then back to Jo with a bemused smirk. “Well, exactly what we’ve planned. Belsdale isn’t a very large town at all. After we drive there, we’ll try door to door, possibly as carolers… I haven’t decided on that part of the plan yet—”
“I am not caroling.” Jo interrupted, not looking over from staring at the ceiling. “I draw the line there.”
Twilight hummed, then took a seat at the computer desk. She began messaging Jack immediately about the latest developments. He was, after all, her biggest lead on the mystery pony. “Well, maybe we won’t need a disguise, anyway. So, as I was saying, we’ll go from house to house, prioritizing closer to the area Jack and I theorized to be the site of the party, all while putting up those posters I made!”
Jo grimaced after being reminded about the ‘posters’. That was all of the printer's ink, Twilight. She heaved a sigh, but made no move to chastise or tell the ex-pony what she thought about the liberal usage of her office supplies.
Jo finally sat up. “Alright, well what about—”
Twilight interrupted on accident, waving at the computer screen cheerfully. The screen was now filled with the other person's presence. “Hi Jack!” She grinned, eyes shut and perfect smile flashing towards the computer. The mood she was in overall brought her spirits high enough, that were she in Equestria, they would be aloft in Cloudsdale.
“Twilight. Good to see you. And Jo, I see is also there. Hello, Jo.” The skinny man waved again towards the shorter girl laying flat on her back over on the bed. “I’m not interrupting something, am I?” There was a wryness to his choice of words.
Twilight shook her head. “Of course not! I wouldn’t have called otherwise,” she chuckled. Interrupting… Humans and their odd, random phrases. She pressed on, ignoring the aggravated grunt from Jo, which was normal really. “I’m calling to give you exciting news. We’re in the town!” She grinned and waited expectantly.
Jack stared back, nodding a little. “Great, great. The town.” He turned his head. “The town?” he asked.
Twilight sighed, and let her overjoyed expression fall. “Yes, Jack, the town. You know, Belsdale?”
The man sat quickly, ahing in understanding. He wiped a hand over his mouth, eyes studying both Twilight and Jo at the corner of his screen from the looks of it. “Wow, so you went after all? You’re looking in person, then?”
Twilight grinned, then held up her palm and gave her fingers a wave in demonstration. “Hee, yes, we are! It’s all thanks to Jo, though.”
Jack nodded appreciatively. “Alright, well, the best of luck to you ladies. Jo, for what it’s worth from someone who only knows Twilight from afar, thanks for helping our friend.”
Jo laid there a moment, but exhaled and sat up after rolling her eyes. “Well, I wouldn’t say she guilted me into this…” She gave Twilight a rueful smirk. “But she was very convincing about why this was probably the right thing to do.”
Jack chuckled. “I’m sorry I could not at least help faster. Hunting down the fuzzy image of someone in this way is not easy. The quality and angles just are not good enough.” He frowned while making gestures with his hands, emphasizing the obstacle that he’d been tasked to overcome.
Twilight turned from Jo to face the computer again. “It’s fine, Jack. You gave us enough to start with. This might not work, but it’s something at least.” Absently, she pulled up the YouTube video once again.
Twilight, as well as her friends, had all watched the strange and mysterious clip several times. It lasted until police arrived on the scene of the party, obviously taken during Halloween, but it told very little about the pony. “If only there was more to go from…” Twilight said, staring at the video as it began to play.
Jack commented idly. He could hear the audio from the clip. “It would be nice, yes.”
Jo looked at the screen Twilight and Jack had pulled up. It was the same video they had all watched for perhaps a thousand times over the course of the last three weeks. “What about the comments?" she asked abruptly. "Are any of those useful?”
Without paused, Jack scoffed openly. “Hah, come on, girly, listen to yourself. YouTube comments, useful?” He directed a bemused smirk and raised eyebrow towards the brown haired girl. “That’s just unlikely. Besides, there are thousands of them on this video. All of them are random, rude remarks or claims the video is a hoax.” He gave Twilight a thoughtful look. “And… we know that isn’t the case.”
Twilight laughed, looking back to the slowly becoming grumpier Jo.
Jack went on. ”I’ve been trying to match the two men’s faces in the video through databases throughout the state for weeks now. If we were going to get clues, it would be from that.”
Jo narrowed her eyes a twinge further, listening patiently to the man debunking her rather idle comment. She sat up, a little frustrated and began studying the screen, alongside Twilight. “Twilight, scroll down a little would you,” she whispered.
Twilight had watched her friend approach, wondering what she was up to. “Oh, uhm, sure,” she responded, and quickly began showing off the rest of the page to her friend.
Jack was still talking, leaned back in his chair and enunciating his case. “I have not been searching legally, perhaps, but it’s for a good cause. Anyway, I doubt that the comments section would be a better resource than actual, hard clues. When I find something, I’ll let you—”
Jo interrupted Jack. “Yeah, well guess what, Jack. I think I just found something.” She stood up and turned about, satisfied she’d managed to find something with minimal effort involved. There was a too smug grin on her face, which had necessitated she turn around. "Score one, me. Score zero, super nerd."
Jack sat up, incredulity on his face. “What?” His hands began rapidly typing and clicking.
Twilight’s own expression was scrunched up in concentration, busily reading over what Jo had highlighted. It was a recent comment, made a few days past. “She’s right! There’s a comment by someone called… ‘TheAustralianSensation’... I don’t get it. That doesn’t even rhyme.” She sat back face twisted in confusion from the name. After shaking her head, she continued. “Anyway, he says that-”
Jack interrupted excitedly. “You’re right! Yeah, yeah, listen to this comment,” he said excitedly.
Twilight deadpanned at him, but it was obvious he wasn’t paying attention any longer.
“It goes like this. ‘Oh man, I remember that night. I called that punk’s parents to come and get him. Bobby got his...’” Jack coughed, and looked up at his screen briefly. “Well, it goes on for a while with a lot of trash talk, but they drop a name, ‘Bobby’.” He went back to scanning his screen again, then looked up once more. “A couple of these commenters are saying that the person in the horse costume knocked out one student, then kidnapped or ran off with the other. It says the name of the man who was knocked out, too, but we knew him already...”
Jo had retaken up a seat at the foot of the bed, bouncing idly while she listened. “So you have a name now. A common one, but that should help a little, right?”
“No way.” Jack shook his head adamantly.
Twilight turned to face him, a downcast look on her expression. “Why not?”
Jack gave her a wry smirk. “Because, that will help a lot. I can work with that. That town is small. In fact, I don’t even need any special program for this at all. This stranger might just be only a Facebook search away from being discovered, now.” Jack was obviously navigating websites now, clicking absently at his keyboard and mouse.
“Here we go.” The man said a moment later. “Three results. Only one of them is in the age bracket we’re looking for.” Jack clapped his hands loudly and celebrated with a triumphant phrase that wasn’t English. Or Equestrian, if you were Twilight.
“I don’t believe it! Jo!” Twilight’s feet were drumming the floor in excitement. “This is it! We found her!” More celebrating entered the room as she began laughing. “Yes yes yes!”
Jo interrupted. “Twilight, calm— Twilight!”
Both Jack, who had been congratulating the purple haired girl present, and said girl herself, calmed down.
“Jo?” Twilight's face creased in confusion.
“You might have found the boy that pony carried off for some reason," Jo insisted. "We don’t know what’s going on yet, still.” She laid a hand consolingly on Twilight’s arm. “Just… don’t get your hopes up yet, okay?”
Twilight blinked back at her friend, then smiled wanly. “You’re right. I shouldn’t consider the experiment a success until the results are published and accepted by the scientific community.”
“Ah, yeah, that.” Jo chuckled at her friends analogy.
“Thank you for finding this clue, Jo.” Twilight turned to face the computer. “Jack, thank you for finding the video in the first place.” The man nodded, and Twilight went on. “But I guess we still need to find where this Bobby—”
“Morris.” Jack interjected, grinning wickedly beneath his wide rimmed glasses. “His last name, it’s Morris. I pulled up the phone registry, already. There are three Morris families in this town. Only one has children. Lucky us, the father is a cop and is in the local files.”
Not for the first time, Jo narrowed her eyes at Jack again. She didn’t much approve of this stranger’s methods. For that matter, she knew Twilight didn’t, either, once she had found out it wasn’t allowed. There had been issue taken by both sides over the matter, with Twilight asking he didn’t do that to help her. It ended in a stalemate though, with Jack professing that Twilight would have to force him not to.
Of course, Twilight admitted, she could, but doing so would distract her from her goal… In the end there wasn’t much to be said about the whole thing.
Jack went on. “Here’s the first number you can try.” A ten digit phone number, with area code, appeared in the video chat’s text box. “Well, this is exciting. You might get some answers now, Twilight.”
Twilight, for her part, was grinning maniacally up at her friend. “Jo, can I borrow your cellphone?”
Jo sighed, reached into her pocket, then pulled out the cellular device requested of her. Twilight’s eager hands caught the little portable phone as it dropped, and opened it up. “Oooh this is so exciting! So, okay, I just button in the numbers here…”
“Punch in, the numbers, Twilight. You punch in the numbers,” Jo corrected, rolling her eyes.
Twilight glance up with a frown. “I’ll never understand why humans have violent terminology for absolutely everything. I’m dialing a phone number, not beating somepony up!”
From the computer Jack chuckled, earning a glare from Jo.
Twilight began bouncing in her seat, drawing all eyes in the room to her. “Oh my Celestia,” she murmured, then looked to Jo with shock. “It’s ringing.”
Jo returned a flat look to her. “Phones tend to do that, Twilight,” she sighed.
Twilight laughed again. “This is just so great! I—” Her eyes widened suddenly and she cut off. The ringing noise had ended in the middle of its tune abruptly. She froze, unsure of what to say at all. Should I say hello first? Or will the person I’m calling? Ah, I should have read about phone etiquette after last time! She gave Jo a worried look, who returned it with a confused one.
“What’s wrong?” Jo whispered.
Before Twilight could respond with ‘I don’t know what to say!’ a voice spoke into Twilight’s ear.
"Hello...?" The human on the other end called out tentatively. "Is there anyone there?"
Twilight panicked for a moment, hand waving about, then slapped it over the speaking part. “It’s a mare! I mean, a woman. It’s not this ‘Bobby’ guy. Is it the wrong address?”
Jo mouthed words without making a sound, while Jack was making calming motions on the computer screen.
“It’s fine, Twilight, It’s fine. Bobby has a mother… named Mary. Ask for her, then ask for Bobby.” Jack spoke quickly, keeping his voice low.
Twilight quickly put the phone back to her head, hard enough it slapped her a little. In a strained, hurried sounding voice, she finally responded. "H-Hello? Hello? Are you still there?" she asked nervously. Off to Twilight’s left, Jo was leaning forward, hands gripping her own knees as she watched on.
Twilight heard a couple odd sounding thunking noises, then the woman on the phone replied. "Yes, may I ask who is calling?" She spoke in a nice tone of voice. Maybe a little too nice, Twilight thought. Sure, Equestria was a very friendly place in general, but she recognized condescension and frustration when she heard it. Sweet sounding voices or not though, she had to continue.
Twilight took a deep breath and continued. She gave Jo one final glance before answering the mother of their only clue. "Uhm... I'm just somepony who needs to know something. Are you... Mary Morris?"
The voice didn’t respond until after a long pause, and Twilight thought the person on the other end of the line might have hung up.
"Who is this?" the voice asked Twilight.
For her part, Twilight opened her mouth to answer the stranger excitedly, then snapped it shut, already panicking. Her eyes widened to their fullest and she lunged over at Jo. “She wants to know my name! What do I say!?” Her hand, of course, had cover the phone once again.
Jo tried to settle the frantic pony-girl down with settling motions. “Alright, calm down, Twilight.” Meanwhile, in the background, Jack was asking questions hurriedly.
“What did she say? Did something go wrong? Your name? Oh shoot—” Jack was cut off when Jo jabbed a finger his way.
“Be quiet, you," Jo growled. "The adults are talking.”
Jack frowned and faced Twilight again.
“Jo, I think Jack’s older than us—” Twilight began to correct.
“Twilight—” Jo sighed. “That isn’t the point. Look, use your alias, Emily or whatever.”
Twilight stared a moment, then recognition dawned on her face. “Oh, right.” Quickly, and fearing the stranger may have hung up, she raised the phone back to her ear.
Jack spoke up quickly. “Oh, and Bobby is his nickname! Call him ‘Robert’!”
Jo looked over, face twisted into a grimace. “What? Oh, whatever,” she whispered.
Twilight nodded, and managed to speak, but in a tone and voice far more squeamish than she’d intended. “Oh, uhm, my name. I’m… Amelia? I go to… school with… Robert. I am calling about him. Yes.”
Jo slapped a hand against her forehead. “Smooth, Twilight,” she hissed.
Twilight ignored her and threw her hand over the phone—still held to her ear—and leaned over to face Jack. “Jack, Bobby goes to school, right? Er- When do humans graduate academy?”
Jack nodded, then shrugged. “I am not really familiar with American schools. I just know they are some of the worst in the world.”
Twilight went wide eyed, then looked at Jo.
“Eh, it’s true.” Jo shrugged as well. “Yeah, he’s still in school I think.”
Twilight was relieved when she heard the woman’s voice respond to her without any suspicions raised, apparently.
“Alright,” she began. Her tone did sound a twinge tentative, but still relatively calm. “I take it you’re calling to speak to my son then, Amelia?”
Twilight swallowed hard and spoke back to the mother of their clue. "Er... yes... I'm trying to talk to Robert about... stuff. Is he home?"
Beside Twilight, Jo was busy being a little worried, herself. After all, they were three adults, all calling to speak to an underaged minor about… something no one would ever credit them over. Geez, I hope Twilight doesn’t sound too old… I don’t think she does. Don’t worry, Jo, you’ll be fine. No one’s going to prison…
On the phone, Twilight heard Mary’s response come through clearly. "Yes, he’s home. What did you need to talk to him about?”
She sounds a bit curious now, and maybe, protective? Twilight cupped her chin and considered things carefully. Okay Twilight, you can do this, she thought.
Feeling a little more confident now that things were going sort of alright, Twilight responded more evenly. “Oh, nothing super important.” She laughed, and just like that her confidence was shot again after realizing how weak the laughter was. Her hand covered the phone piece again and coughed, then continued. “I just needed to ask a question about an assignment is all.”
Twilight grinned over at Jo, who returned her own congratulatory smirk.
The mother came back over phone, sounding a little bored. “Give me one minute, dear. I’ll go and fetch him for you.”
Twilight had to try hard to resist bouncing and replied happily, “Great! Thank you so much Mrs. Mary—” She stopped when Jo hand rested on her shoulder and held her still all of a sudden.
Twilight cupped the phone again and tilted her head questioningly.
“It’s ‘Mrs. Morris, not Mrs. Mary. Human names use the last one for that. And stop bouncing you’re shaking the whole room!” Jo gave Twilight a hard look, while Jack was busy snickering on the computer.
Twilight gave Jo a thin-lipped, flat look, then hurriedly corrected herself. “I mean, Mrs. Morris,” she said promptly ended with.
“Of course, dear.” The voice replied, with quickly, followed by the clunking sound of what was probably the phone being set down.
Strangely, there were a couple more loud clunking sounds that came through the phone, which caused Twilight to furrow her brow. Huh, that woman sure has loud shoes.
Jo tapped Twilight’s leg and acquired her attention. “What’s up?” she asked plainly.
Twilight gave her a confident smile back. “She's getting her son, be patient.”
Jo blew a small raspberry whilst rolling her eyes. “I’m plenty patient, tell them to hurry up.”
Twilight frowned at the other girl with one corner of her mouth, listening absently to the snickering that Jack continued to take pleasure in at the computer.
Jo shrugged and laughed a little. “I’m kidding, Twilight. Anyway, do you know what you’re going to ask? He might not talk, like that last guy that took the video. Not that I think that jerk knew anything…”
Twilight hummed, still listening eagerly for someone to pick up the phone again. “I’ll just be straight forward. I’ve thought about this a lot, and I think if we’re honest, I say who I am, and ask to speak to a pony, we’ll be fine.” She passed her hopeful smile between both Jack and Jo.
Jo, however, returned it with a worried look, then sighed. She fell backwards onto the bed, as she had earlier. “I dunno, Twilight… That’s kind of like throwing a Hail Mary…”
Twilight blinked, thinking twice about the term she'd just heard. “I— wait, I’m confused. I think I’m missing something here.”
Jack was laughing again at the computer, but spoke up through it. “Hail Mary is an American football phrase, Twilight. To throw one means putting all of your eggs in one basket. Funnily enough, we like to call American football, 'hand egg'. Huh, I wonder if that's connected... Uh, anyway, if you fail, then this is it.” He looked over at Jo. “But I don’t think this is the case, Jo. I have their address, after all…” He grinned wolfishly at the shorter woman present.
Jo let her head fall back again and grunted. “Great…” she replied darkly.
Twilight groaned restlessly. “It’ll be fine, guys. I’m sure this Bobby kid is really nice and helpful. We have no reason to think otherwise, anyway.”
For a while, the line was silent, until finally a drab, male voice spoke.
“Hello?” they asked simply enough.
Twilight grinned at Jo, and nearly began hyperventilating.
“Uhm, hi! Oh my gosh, I’m— sorry, are you Bobby?” Twilight asked eagerly.
The voice on the other end of the line came back quickly, and sounded decidedly excited now themselves, too. “Haha, easy. Yeah, yeah, babe. That’s my name, you’ve heard of me?”
Twilight blinked, and covered the phone’s mouthpiece a moment. She looked over at Jo with confusion evident on her expression.
“What’s wrong?” Jo asked, eyes studying both Twilight and the phone.
Twilight scrunched up her face. “Uhm… I’m not sure, exactly.” She shrugged and decided to continue, despite getting a weird, annoyed feeling from the stranger.
Twilight continued. “Uhm, yes, now, sir, this is going to sound crazy, but my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I—” The voice on the other end of the phone cut her off abruptly.
“Wait. Twilight? Seriously? That's not even a real name.” There was a really, really long pause on the other end of the phone from the stranger, and Twilight almost spoke up.
Finally, though, the male voice returned. “Wait, so are you like, a stripper? Or a prostitute?” He proceeded to laugh as if at a funny joke, or something terribly clever.
Twilight slowly held the phone out at arm’s length, staring wide eyed at it. She could barely hear the voice continuing.
“Cause, I don’t have a whole lot of money, but, I’m game if you do door to door.” He was barely able to speak, laughing in an out of control way. Twilight recognized it well from various villains she’d helped take down, or rare, rude ponies.
She looked over at Jo, a little confused, and covered the earpiece after muttering, “One moment, please."
“Jo,” Twilight began.
“What’s wrong?” Jo was giving Twilight a worried look.
Twilight swallowed, and prepared to double check her intuition. “You recall the… incident, with the internet, a few months ago, right? The one with the— the p word?”
Jo furrowed her brow for a moment… then responded quietly. “Yeah…”
Twilight took in a measured breath. “Is a stripper somepony- er, a human that removes clothing in order to stimulate… amusement in males?”
Jack chose that moment to pipe in. “Hey now, women watch male strippers, too.” Both women present shot him deadly glares each. “I’ll keep quiet, then…” he whimpered in his gravelly accent.
Twilight went on. “And prostitutes. They sell…”
Jo stopped her there. “Yeah, Twilight, you’re right.” Her eyes were stuck solely on the phone; her seething stare did not let up from the device Twilight held.
“I thought so.” Twilight put on a delighted smile, bottling everything up, and spoke into the receiver once more. I have never sold pizza in my life, darnit.
Twilight again spoke into the phone, and in a calm, measured voice. “Bobby, I am calling about something very, very important.”
The voice came back over the phone to her quickly. “Look, lady, I don’t think I know you. Now, if you want to know me, well, that can be arranged. Do you like music?”
Twilight suppressed a growl and decided to move on, and quickly. “I’m cutting to the chase. I’m searching for a pony. Specifically, an orange coated, blue and tan maned mare. She was seen with you at a party, possibly during this year’s Nightmare Ni- er, Halloween festivities, and quite recently. I have been looking for you, and need confirmation of this. Do you understand?” She sucked in a shaky lung full of air and waited.
Laughter came back through the phone.
Twilight’s eye began twitching. “What is so funny!?” She couldn’t help it; she burst out with the exclamation loud enough to do Princess Luna proud.
The laughing on the phone died down slowly. “There’s no such thing as talking ponies, lady. Alright? You’re crazy, and need help. Go get some drugs or something, get a life, and don’t look into… fairytales like that. I mean, come on. Magical ponies being real? Really?” The voice chuckled again, full of unashamed mirth. “Just stay away from my family.”
The line clicked off, and a steady stream of dull beeps and electrical sounds met Twilight’s ear.
Twilight set the phone down on the desk. Beside her, Jo was still looking just as darkly at the device.
Jack, meanwhile, slowly descended out of view on his screen.
“Of all. The insolent. Spoiled rotten. Rude. Lousy, no good jerks!” Twilight’s hands gripped at the arm chairs to either side of her. “I cannot believe the manners that— that boy had! He just started treating me like— and then he made those assumptions— and he ignored me! Outright! AUGH!”
Jo frowned, but kept quiet on the matter. She knew what she thought about it, and merely gave Twilight a consoling look while she vented.
“I take it that the call went poorly then?” Jack commented, still mostly out of sight.
Twilight relaxed after hearing someone speak, then looked over at the computer. “That’s one way to put it…” After a moment, she smirked, and began chuckling.
Jack raised an eyebrow, and traded a quick look with Jo. “Twilight, what’s so funny?” he asked the girl in stitches.
Twilight ahemed and straightened up from her angry slouch in the desk chair. “Well, the call did go... badly. But that’s not to say it wasn’t informative.” She smirked ruefully at Jo, then Jack, and finally snatched up her notebook from the desk. “He’s protecting her.”
Jack’s expression became shocked in an instant. “You’re sure?”
Twilight nodded. “The way he acted, though rude and… just horrible, was definitely conducive of what I’m thinking. More than that, he mentioned the pony talking. I never said that…” She trailed off, grinning and obviously thinking. “Plus, if the pony is still around, possibly in his home? He would be this protective.” She hummed a second, pausing in her scribbling, then sighed. “Although, he could just be traumatized. Perhaps he’s in denial. But… no, he didn’t sound scared.”
Jo stood up quickly and both of the other two humans looked up in surprise. “Either way,” Jo began, cracking her knuckles. ”We’re paying ‘Bobby’s’ house a visit tomorrow.”
Twilight cheered.
The sounds of Jo gargling and spitting after brushing her teeth were the only ones that filled the single bed hotel room.
Twilight lay tiredly beneath the covers, tight against one side of the room’s bed. Sure, it wasn’t common for ponies to share sleeping arrangements that much, but it would certainly never be misconstrued the way that Alice or Jo apparently had earlier, back in Equestria. Twilight had enjoyed tons of sleepovers with her friends, and something like that had never come up. Of that she was certain.
It was a little early yet, only around seven, but Twilight couldn’t wait to investigate things tomorrow. She felt she was ready for anything. “Except maybe that colt…” She harrumphed indignantly and rolled over at the memory of the boy. A good thing Rarity hadn’t been the one to meet him. She’d have stormed over there the second he opened his mouth and…
A couple snickers escaped her, picturing Rarity holding the human over her knee and giving him a paddling. That, or perhaps administer a bar of soap. She rolled over again, facing the far wall now. A couple shadows danced on the wall from Jo’s movements in the bathroom.
It had been a long day. The two of them had left very early, and driven non stop across half of the country, before finally reaching their ‘middle-of-nowhere’ destination. Tomorrow could very well be a long day, as well.
A plaintive breath of exhausted air left Twilight. I wonder what Rarity’s doing right now… Her friends image floated by through her thoughts. Probably sewing. Probably. The perfect smile her friend had always had glimmered, then faded. She wouldn’t even be able to recognize me right now. None of them would.
Twilight chuckled, not for the first time, at the thought of Pinkie Pie encountering her as she was. No doubt the other mare would be completely dumbfounded and confused by the strange, two legged creature claiming to be one of her bestest, oldest friends.
Twilight could feel the strangeness of her body constantly. But, she especially noticed it when lying in bed, waiting to go to sleep. Unable to help it, she pulled the blankets and sheets off of herself.
The room was cool, but not cold. The temperature control that humans used was quite good. Fueled by the fossils of old and decaying life—which was highly suspect—but good.
With the covers pulled back, and the faint light from the bathroom, Twilight could clearly see the thing that was plaguing her thoughts at that moment; and her worries.
Twilight took in a slow breath, then exhaled just as slowly. Her eyes became locked with something, or rather, the absence of something; her cutie mark, something she had been proud of for so many years, was long gone from her person.
Her flank, blank as the day she was born, stared back up at her; in fact, it was arguably even blanker, considering the lack of a lavender coat.
Twilight absently studied the empty spot on her body that had once held the pointed stars of her special talent; Magic. As a filly, she had never been very graceful, or well spoken, or outgoing, and was rarely one to fit in. She read well, and did alright in her studies, too. Though, nothing exceptional.
That had all come later. That had all been brought about after she discovered who she was; Twilight Sparkle, whose special talent was magic itself. She just wouldn’t be who she was to that day if it weren’t for her cutie mark.
Twilight ran a hand over her naked side with one hand, and sighed. “Am I different, without my cutie mark?” After a moment, she ugghed and slapped one arm lazily against the bed. Of course you’re different, Twilight, you’re not even the same species. After another sigh, she looked back to her flank. “Am I the same on the inside, though?”
Only ponies had cutie marks, and most races thought they were silly or unnecessary. Truthfully, Twilight had never imagined going a day without hers, before. She had thought a lot of thoughts over the weeks on the subject. When I’m a pony again… If I can become a pony again, will I even be able to get my cutie mark back?
Twilight’s face quivered slightly, thinking over things, but she stilled it quickly. You’re still you, Twilight. The Princess would be shouting that at you right now if she were here… After a pause, she added to the thought aloud. “Well, Luna might, but I guess Celestia would simply be telling you you’re a silly filly. Special Talents don’t define the pony, the pony defines the talent.”
Jo walked into the room, scrubbing her head absently with a towel. “Did you say something Twili-”
Twilight hummed and rolled over partially to look at Jo. She sniffed, running a hand under her nose quickly. “Oh, hey Jo. Ready to go to bed?” She chuckled slightly, hoping her sadness was well hidden.
Jo dropped the towel. “Twilight,” she began. “Put. On. Some clothes!”
Then, a phone rang.