Twilight Sparkle was just waking up into her own body, when the universe... bucked. She felt a shock over her entire body, as if she had just galloped headlong full into a brick wall. It all happened in total silence. She opened her eyes just in time to see and hear Princess Luna scream, white light beaming from her eyes.
Spike stood frozen, still holding the sleeping cap just above Dr. Connor's head, as the dark alicorn collapsed to the floor. "What was that?" asked the human, alarmed, but otherwise seemingly unhurt, as was the baby dragon.
"Help... the... Princess," said the lavender unicorn. She scanned the room to see whom else might be present and spotted Minister Hoofing on her foreknees. The old mare shook her head and slowly got back on all fours.
Spike dropped the hat to the side and ran to the Princess's side. Laura Connor immediately did the same and together they tried to hold Luna up as spasms shook her body.
Minister Hoofing's horn began to glow as did the Princess. The spasms immediately began to abate and the glow in her eyes as well.
"I repeat, what was that?" asked Laura.
The lavender mare who until mere seconds ago had hosted the mind of Mary Lachance replied: "I assume that was just a taste of what will happen if the universes actually touch. Spike, are you okay?"
"It was like being bumped from every direction at the same time, but not too hard. I'm okay, and you?"
"I feel like I had an argument with a wall, and the wall won," answered the librarian.
She walked gingerly over to Minister Hoofing, who was still magically tending to the Princess. The alicorn was finally able to support herself unassisted, still gasping for breath as if she had just finished racing a marathon. Sunset Hoofing's horn stopped glowing. She trembled and fell back onto her cushion in apparent exhaustion.
"Whatever it was it seems to affect magic users worse than other ponies," said Twilight looking at Luna and the Minister, "and it would seem that the more powerful are more susceptible." Twilight's eyes grew wide. "Oh my gosh! Princess Celestia!"
"The central courtyard below... Twilight, go now!" whispered Luna, eyes shut tight in obvious pain.
The lavender mare teleported away with a pop.
***
Celestia crumpled to the ground.
Rarity felt like she had been bucked in the head. Along with the other mares she was frozen in shock. Applejack was the first pony to get her wits back. "Fillies! Form a circle 'round the Princess! Dashie, get in the air and scout! We dunno who done hurt the Princess or how, but we ain't gonna let 'em get a second whack at 'er."
The white unicorn moved into position as royal guards scrambled to come protect the Princess, adding to the circle of ponies around her. Applejack saw that the security situation had improved. "Fluttershy, Rarity, see if you can help the Princess." The two mares went to the stricken white alicorn.
"She's barely breathing," said Rarity, "and I don't know any healing spells to help!" Fluttershy began to whisper in her ear. "But will that work?" The fashionista feared that an unschooled attempt at healing magic might make things worse, not better.
"We have to do something!" said Fluttershy. "I know that healing spell because I've heared it so many times. And there's nopony else here. Rarity, you have to try."
The white unicorn gathered her resolve, and her horn began to glow, its light encompassing both the yellow Pegasus and the white alicorn. Rarity gasped as pain engulfed her. She also felt through the magical link Fluttershy's bright presence and determination to help, somehow providing a huge boost to her normally weak magical abilities. Together, their effort to help the Princess began to have an effect, but it soon became obvious that the energy required by Celestia was way beyond what the mares could provide. They moaned and slumped as if under a great burden.
Just as Rarity felt her limited magical ability begin to falter she heard a pop and felt an incredibly powerful and familiar presence insert itself into her spell, shoring it up with a truly mighty torrent of magical power. The white mare opened her eyes to see Twilight Sparkle's aura sounding her, Fluttershy and Celestia. She concentrated on feeding what energy she could to the Princess.
Finally, she felt the Princess's aura awaken. It was like emerging from a dark cave into bright sunlight: too incredibly bright to bear. Rarity immediately withdrew from the spell, taking Fluttershy with her. In exhaustion they plopped down onto the dusty cobblestones next to Twilight and Celestia.
There was another pop, and Luna appeared. "Tia! Is she okay?" asked the younger Princess.
Twilight's horn finally stopped glowing, as did Princess Celestia. The little librarian was breathing hard. "She's stable, but weak. ...Gasp... She has only partially recovered. ...Gasp... We need to get her into her quarters. Can you handle that Princess Luna? ...Gasp..."
Her only answer was a popping sound indicating that Luna had teleported herself and her sister into the castle. "Oh, good," said Twilight. She looked around at her friends in various states of alarm, attention and fatigue. "Okay, team. I need to bring you ladies up to speed and introduce you to some new friends. Can anypony help me, Rarity and Fluttershy up the stairs to my rooms?"
***
Glowball felt the universe do a cart-flip around her stomach. Everybody in the corridor froze, as various alarms started sounding all at the same time.
"What the hell was that?" asked Peter. He took out his pocket talking device and began typing numbers on its little screen. As he was talking, the alarms progressively turned off one by one until there was only an eerie silence, other than's Peter's voice.
"Ahem," said Glowball. "Maybe we should head to the meeting room and see if we can't figure out what just happened."
Peter looked at her oddly for a moment. "So now you suddenly start to feel like your normal self? Okay, let's get the departmental meeting going again." He again used his phone and they started walking down the corridor in the same direction as before the 'event' happened.
Glowball was finally starting to worry about her situation. This was no longer a game. Whatever had just happened was a serious event, something way more dangerous that a bunch of experiments and spells going awry. She felt that somehow these phenomena must be connected. But how? After meeting these 'people' today, she did have some hope that they may be able to shed some light on the situation. They had proven themselves to be very competent scientists.
They reached the meeting room and went inside. There were already several people seated, talking animatedly about the 'event'. She and Peter took seats not far from the door, waiting for the other participants who had been delayed by the initiation of alarm protocols before these had been turned off. She was still waiting when the room went dark.
***
Mary Lachance woke up in her office. She barely had time to see a new handwritten note on her desk before her when she felt what at first she mistook for an earthquake, but then noticed that there had been no physical evidence of tremors or seism of any kind. Alarms began to blare, and the PA system announced DEFCON 3 had been initiated. So much for an early evening at the White House. Now she would be lucky if she could manage to get out of the office before midnight.
Suddenly, it hit her. The warnings from Twilight Sparkle and the Princesses about an impending brane collision. She thought for a moment. It should be mid-afternoon in Europe. She looked up in her address book a contact in Sarstedt, Germany who was working with GEO 600, a gravitational wave detector, and dialed the number.
After a moment a voice answered in German. "Hello Roman, this is Mary at the White House. I was wondering if you had detected any anomalies in the last 10 minutes." There was silence at the other end of the line.
"Ya... I mean, yes, we did, Mary. But we are still working to verify it what it was. Did you feel it also?"
"Yes, we felt it here in Washington. I was actually in my office when it happened and now I am trying to determine its nature. In your best estimation, do you think it could have been a gravitational wave?"
"Ya, I think so. As I said a moment ago, this is highly speculative at this time. But it does indeed have all the earmarks of a genuine gravitational wave."
"Good. Do you think you could keep me posted? Please send the updates to my e-mail." She thanked Roman for his assistance and hung up.
Now she was really becoming worried. She wondered what was holding up the call from Laura Connor. Unless she received that call she still had no basis for trusting what the pony Princesses had told her.
***
Twilight faced the gathered Elements of Harmony along with Spike, Minister Hoofing and Dr. Connor.
"Ladies and Spike. I had a brief moment of communication with Princess Celestia, before she blacked out. This shockwave we all felt was a very close call averted only by a huge effort from Princess Celestia. This is a good news, bad news scenario." The ponies visibly relaxed at Twilight's words. At least the situation wasn't all bad.
"First the good news. Princess Celestia's intervention has prevented the end of the world as we know it and reversed the momentum of the universe collision, at least for a short while. This gives us a bit of time to work on a more permanent solution."
"You said 'a short while'. How long do we have, and what do you mean by a more permanent solution?" asked Laura Connor.
"Well, that's the bad news. We don't really know how long we have yet. Nor do we know what was causing the universes to converge in the first place. So what we have to do is the following:" she pointed at a chart that had appeared behind her, " A- as quickly as possible find the focus of the convergence in both universes, B - identify and stop whatever is causing the convergence, and C - concentrate sufficient energy at the focus to permanently drive the universes apart." She turned back to the group.
"The Princess gives her profound thanks to Rarity and Fluttershy. They may have saved her life. If they had not intervened when they did she might have depleted her magical energy to the point where she was not able to regenerate it, ever. As it is, there is no telling if Princess Celestia will have recovered by the time we need to push the universes apart, so Equestria might have to rely on just us and Princess Luna to get the job done. Any questions?"
"You have more resources available than you let on Twilight Sparkle," said the human. "We in the human universe may also be able to help. But for that to be possible, I need to be returned to my own universe immediately, as I am sure the shockwave must be causing some consternation there as well. I need to get back and ride that wave, as well as to fulfill my agreement with Mary Lachance. That may get us the cooperation of the most powerful nation of my world, and It seems to me we may need all the help we can get."
"You're right - I forgot all about Mary! Okay, let's do the same regular switcheroo type of arrangement with you and Glowball," said the lavender unicorn.
"Good, but give me an hour before my next switch, so I have time to contact Mary and get the lay of the land."
"Okay. Spike, please get me the sleeping cap. Dr. Connor, please recline so we don't give Glowball a concussion doing this."
The human lay down fully on her cushion and Twilight placed the cap on her head. She immediately went to sleep, to the amazement of the other Elements of Harmony who had yet to see this process. Twilight removed the cap and placed it on the floor beside her.
***
Glowball woke up with a start. She looked around her in amazement, surrounded by a group of ponies she ddidn't know, a baby dragon, and her boss, Sunset Hoofing. She immediately focused on the latter's serious face. "Oh, hi boss." She tried to play it cool. "So, like, I was doing an experiment in my lab this morning when..."
"When you fell asleep!" interrupted the old mare severely.
Glowball cringed. "But I can explain! I was in another place...and..." Glowball hesitated as she suddenly realized how silly her explanation would sound. She was thinking hard when the Minister continued.
"And you were at a place called CERN, surrounded by humans, and you were a human yourself."
Glowball's opened her mouth to defend herself, when Hoofing's words reached her forebrain and she froze again.
"And you found out that they also were having anomalies this morning just as we were at the Ministry," said her boss.
"Uh, yes. How did you know?"
The Minister summarized the events of the day so far, described the crisis, and outlined the plan to resolve it.
"Whoa, cool! It was all real! Oh, and I have to tell you about these things they have in the human universe. Computers and the internet and the world-wide-web. It's absolutely amazing!"
"Very good, Glowball. I would like to hear it all, but we have only an hour and I want to properly debrief you. Twilight dear, would you terribly mind if I and Glowball could speak privately in your bedroom for a bit?" asked the Minister.
"Please, be my guests." Twilight pointed to the door with a hoof. The Minister and her staff member exited the room.
"Finally, it's just us." She heard a thud as somepony dropped to the floor. The lavender unicorn took a deep breath and covered her face with a hoof. "Spike, please keep the sleeping cap away from Pinkie Pie. And by the way, whose bright idea was it to try to save Princess Celestia using a veterinary's spell?"
***
Laura Connor woke with a start. She felt a familiar hand on her shoulder, turned to see Peter on her left. "Yo, that almost looked like you nodded off for a second there."
"Give me a moment, I need to make a call." She took her cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number she had only heard in another universe.
***
In Washington DC, Mary Lachance picked up the phone with a smile and said "Hello, Laura."