The Friendship Inception

by Schrodinger's Pony


Falling Into Place

Chapter Three: Falling Into Place

I get by with a little help from my friends.

-The Beatles

The six of them met in Berry Punch's house. Mark wasn't happy about leaving the safety of his bunker, but he acquiesced once he was allowed to cover the walls in jelly. Berry Punch was not amused.

She selected a sophisticated looking beverage from her stock. "Now this one is very special. It's imported from Trottingham. It'll put a pony right to sleep, but all you need to do is dunk the pony in water, and boom! They're awake, without even a hangover!"

"So, the pony who's asleep first is the one whose mind we'll be invading?" Question Mark asked.

"It's a little more complicated then that." The Great and Powerful Trixie said. "The pony who is asleep when the spell is cast will not remember that they are dreaming. Or if they do, they'll only have remember it, like a dream. We will be able to convince her that what she's dreaming at the time is reality. This holds true for every time the spell is cast, or broken. If anypony is asleep already when travelling down or up, they will be unaware of what happened previous, only half-remembering it, as if it were a true dream."

"So you're saying, if we get left behind, we won't be able to tell?" Question Mark asked.

"Exactly." The Great and Powerful Trixie nodded. "Never fear, there is a solution. You need simply find a totem – something like this." The Great and Powerful Trixie held out a whistle. "Only The Great and Powerful Trixie knows exactly what pitch will emerge when she blows this whistle. Thus, if The Great and Powerful Trixie blows it and anything else comes out, she will know that she is dreaming."

"And if we know we're dreaming how can we wake up?"

"We can kill ourselves." Then, seeing the horrified reactions of her 'friends'… "Or, we can kick ourselves. Dying is probably a bad idea. You'll wake up, but it'll hurt a lot. Don't know why I even thought of it."

"That's it?" Question Mark asked. "We just kick ourselves?"

"Yes. Allow The Great and Powerful Trixie to demonstrate a kick." She smirked, and tapped her hoof against Prince Blueblood's chair as he leaned on it.

The resulting topple was impressive. If he was flying, the tricks he did before the inevitable crash might have earned him a spot on the Wonderbolts, and he managed to bring down five windows and the kitchen sink with him.

"My royal face!" Blueblood cried from the floor. "I demand that Trixie be arrested for this grievous assault!"

"It was just a light joke your higness." Jubilee said pacifyingly. "And if I may say so… you look most handsome when you fall."

The prince blushed. "Well of course I do. I am a prince after all. In fact, I declare that I will be the only pony to fall from now on, to spare your fragile peasant constitutions."

Berry paled at the damage done to her house. "Good thing I'm insured against royalty."


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Raindrop growled in frustration as she tried to make a replica of what she saw in the dreamland. "Okay." She told herself. "One more time. I know you can do this."

She gathered the clouds together, making a small staircase with them. She crossed her hooves, focused on the cumulonimbus in front of her, and carved out a path. She took her time, carefully, taking over ten minutes to do it. Her face was fixed like granite, completely and utterly determined to recreate the paradoxical pathway.

All she got was a spiral.

"That's okay, that's okay… all I have to do is lower the angle." She wiped sweat off of her forehead. "I can do this. I will do this."

Slowly, she lowered the angle of the pathway. 30 degrees. 25 degrees. 20 degrees. Lower, and lower, and lower. Until finally, miraculously, the beginning of the path and the end of the path melded.

"Yes!" She cheered. "Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! I've done… it…" On closer inspections, she realized the path she'd made was at a perfect angle of zero degrees. Completely flat.

"Aaaaaarrgh!" Raindrop screamed in frustration and slammed her hooves down on her creation. "It should be possible! It doesn't make sense! If she can dream it, I should be able to make it in reality!"

"Yo, kid!" She almost didn't turn around, such was her frustration. But she reminded herself that she needed to speak with her boss, and so turned around to meet Rainbow Dash.

Ponyville's self-proclaimed 'most awesome pony' looked at her funny. "Your weird cloud ring is raining on Applejack's apple cart."

Raindrop looked down at the irate earth pony. "Oops." She quickly cleaned up the cloud.

"Ah, don't sweat it kiddo." Rainbow shrugs. "But hey, what are you trying to do up here anyway? You've been working on this weird cloud for like, hours."

"Well actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about that." Raindrop said. Finally, a chance to get this massive pressure off her chest, and tell Dash that her friend was in danger.

"Hold that thought kiddo." Rainbow Dash soared down to the ground. Raindrop followed her down to where Scootaloo was playing with a turtle.

"I walked Tank for you Rainbow!" The young filly said excitedly. "It was so slow though, and I didn't get a cutie mark."

"Of course not!" Dash laughed. "You're gonna get a cutie mark for something awesome, not taking care of reptiles."

"Excuse me…" Raindrop tried to cut in.

"Ssssh." Dash said. "Tank's about to smile."

Raindrop watched as the tortoise slowly began to smile. There was a small pause, and Raindrop groaned in exasperation. Here she was, trying to save Twilight's life…

Nopony ever said she'd be hurt.

… Here she was trying to protect Dash's friend from having her privacy invaded, and she was more interested in this tortoise. She was convinced that this slow moving reptile was more 'awesome' then she was, and thus deserved more attention.

Stop thinking about all those ponies who've done nothing for you.

Trixies words came out of nowhere. But Raindrop batted them aside. True, Rainbow was annoying. But she couldn't stop caring. True, all of her friends wanted her to do it, but she knew what was right and wrong and she wouldn't let anypony tell her otherwise. They weren't even her friends yet, and at this rate they never would be.

"Come on, let's go to Sugarcube corner. You deserve a treat for your most excellent turtle-walking skills." Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo rushed around the corner.

Like she forgot Raindrop even existed.

This has nothing to do with HER Raindrop dear. I'm simply pointing out that you have talents.

Raindrop shook her head. She did appreciate it when people enjoyed her work, but she wasn't going to start hurting innocent ponies to get attention.

She drooped a bit, before she realized Applejack was also nearby. She could tell her!

She ran over to the apple cart, but before she could say anything, Big McLargehuge stepped in front of her. "APPLEJAAAACK!" He roared.

"Yeah Bigs?" The Earth Pony asked, nonplused.

"I WILL BUY…" Moving as if in slow motion, he drew his man-purse in the most overly-dramatic way possible. "ONE! BARREL! OF! GOLDEN! DEEEEELICIOOOUUUSS!"

"That'll be thirty bits." Applejack said cheerily.

"YEEEAAAAAAAAAAH!" Bigs deposited his money on the counter, and left with a barrel full of apples.

Raindrop watched him leave with his crate of apples. She'd known Bigs as a filly. It was pretty hard not to know the enormous pegasi, who acted like ever waking moment was at its most extreme. Raindrop was an outcast, and even though she was several years younger then Bigs, she tried to make friends with him, and the assumption that he was an outcast too.

All ponies have friends. Everypony has a special connection with those friends before they even meet

She soon discovered that, even though she thought of herself as normal, even a little cuter and nicer than most, and even though he was brash, over-excited, and abnormally proportioned, he had friends and she didn't.

That was a low day for her self-esteem.

If a pony like that could have friends…

She paused at the thought.

True, Trixie was brash, and egotistical, and had nothing even remotely close to sympathy for her fellow ponies. But why shouldn't she have friends? Friends forgive their friends, right? So maybe she could give Trixie another chance.

"Hey sugarcube, can I get'chya anything?"

She jumped. Without even realizing it, she'd kept on walking right up to Applejack's stand. "Oh… um…"

She agonized. She wanted to tell Aplejack about Trixie's plan. But that would get Trixie in trouble, what with Twilight being Celestia's favored student, and it wasn't like she'd actually done anything wrong yet. And… friends don't betray friends, do they?

"I… would like to buy an apple."

"Which kind?"

"A friendly one."

"Beg pardon?"

"I mean a red one."


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Raindrop trotted up the path to Berry Punch's house. She didn't know how she got into this mess, or how she'd get out, but she may as well dive in headfirst.

A small razorback boar was resting on her front steps. It looked up at Raindrop as growled at her. She growled back. The boar considered its options, and stood aside for her.

Raindrop opened the door, and walked inside. "Berry? Berry we need to talk!" She was surprised to see that the walls were coated in a thick jelly. She went to the living room, and was surprised again to see five ponies there, surrounding… oh, she recognized that stallion. That was Canterlot's most eligible stallion, Prince Blueblood!

Raindrop felt her heart titter for a moment, before she realized that both he, and Berry Punch, were unconscious. A beam of magical light was connecting their heads through a crystal that sat between them.

"Raindrop!" The Great and Powerful Trixie smiled. "You came around?"

"What are you doing to them?" Raindrop asked.

The Great and Powerful Trixie looked confused. Then she looked to Prince Blueblood and back again. "Oh." She laughed. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is merely educating our soon-to-be-friends on proper dreaming form." She pulled Blueblood's face into a funny face.

"How did you get past Rassilon?" Question Mark asked.

"Rassilon… izzat that boar you had out there?" Raindrop shrugged. "I dunno. I guess he must've liked me."

"So you have decided to return to The Great and Powerful Trixie for your friendship?" The unicorn asked.

Raindrop shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But I'm only here to make sure nopony gets hurt." She stuck her hoof out at Trixie. "I still think this plan is crazy."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is not crazy." She let go of Blueblood's face. "Unless of course you mean crazy awesome!"

"No, I mean crazy." Raindrop said. "Let's just get this over with, okay?"

"Certainly. In fact, you are just in time." The Great and Powerful Trixie grinned wickedly at Blueblood. "Watch as The Great and Powerful Trixie demonstrates a 'kick'."


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The six of them stood in the middle of Ponyville square in a dream. "Allow The Great and Powerful Trixie to demonstrate proper dreaming technique." She said, and suddenly there was a jar of jelly behind her.

"Let us say, that you have a jar of jelly." She motioned to the jar. Inside the jar you place two things… Let's say a cat and some catfood." She took Rarity's pet cat Opalescence, and a bag of cat-food bigger then she was out of the folds of her cape. She tossed them inside the jar and closed the lid.

"Now, what do you suppose will happen?"

"Obviously, the cat will eat the food." Prince Blueblood said, nonpulsed by the fact that Trixie somehow had a cat and a sack of food for it hidden in her cape.

"Wrong." The Great and Powerful Trixie smirked. "Nothing will happen because we cannot observe it."

"I'm pretty sure that it doesn't work that way." Question Mark said.

"Of course it does." The Great and Powerful Trixie scoffed.

Jubilee had a thoughtful look to her. "Bunsen was talking about this… oh I remember! You're talking about Schrodinger's cat theory!"

The Great and Powerful Trixie beamed. "Exactly! Look; if you can't observe the cat, or the food, then they do not exist. Thus, if The Great and Powerful Trixie opens the door and finds the food eaten…" She did open the jar, and the food was eaten. She closed it again. "Or if The Great and Powerful Trixie opens the door and finds the food uneaten…" She opened the door again, and the cat was lying down, food untouched.

"You made the cat un-eat the food!" Berry Punch gasped.

"As far as the pony mind is concerned, if you cannot observe something, it does not exist." The Great and Powerful Trixie explained. "Thus, whether the cat ate or not is entirely dependent on whether you dream it. As a rule, as long as you're not looking, anything can happen. For example; the cat and the food could merge together into some sort of cat-food based superhero."

She opened the door again, and the cat was indeed wearing a pink superhero costume, complete with a cape, a large 'O' on the front. She hissed, and prepared to swipe at The Great and Powerful Trixie with a claw, covered in a protective layer of cat food, before she hurriedly shut the door.

"The cat could disappear entirely, giving way to a black hole, a portal to another dimension." She opened the jar, and the cat was hanging on for dear life as the black hole attempted to suck her in. The Great and Powerful Trixie shut the door immediately when she heard the claws scratching on the glass.

"There is no limit to what could happen. The cat could be replaced by some horrible cosmic abomination! A monster the likes of which nopony has ever seen!" She opened the door again and –

"SURPRISE!" Pinkie Pie burst out of the jar, confetti flying through the air.

Prince Blueblood let out an extremely girly scream and hid behind Raindrop.

Raindrop rolled her eyes. "That's no monster, that's Pinkie Pie."

"Au contraire!" The pink pony laughed. "I'm actually a horrible-cosmic-abomination-in-training!" She pulled out a badge. "Discord has the millennium off, so I'm filling in for him."

"I knew it!" Question Mark cheered.

"Well, I better get going now, I'll leave you all to your dreams." She waved goodbye. "Cthulhu fhtagn bronies!"

The six of them stared after her. "Which leads us into a lesson about controlling our subconscious. Mark." The Great and Powerful Trixie said, glaring at the conspiracy Pegasus.

"You can't prove that wasn't real! That was authentic proof that Pinkie Pie is a Great Old One!"

"Mark…"


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"Hello darling."

Rarity knew that voice. She spun on a dime, as Cherry Jubilee entered her boutique. Oh, she'd have to wash the slime off the floors when she left.

"Ms. Jubilee." Rarity acknowledged her in the same, dangerously polite tone she was using. "What are you doing in Ponyville?"

"Oh, the usual." Jubilee shrugged. "I'm in town for business, and I thought I'd drop by. Visit my pen pal, or should I say, threatening messages written in quilting pal."

Rarity's mind took in every facet of Jubilee's attire. She noted a mark on the trim of her dress, where somepony had unsuccessfully tried to remove a jelly stain. Blueberry, if she wasn't mistaken. Her hair was done up simply, pulled back in a manner which would be appropriate to keep the hair out of her eyes. Her clothes were sub-par, but elegant to the untrained eye. She was in town, staying with somepony who was either a sloppy eater or had copious amount of jelly, and working on something that required more than just mental exercise, but physical. She was, no doubt, scheming against Rarity and Applejack as usual, but she was letting Rarity know she was in town, which didn't make any sense unless…

Unless she was using herself as a distraction.

Rarity smiled, disarmingly, as her mind raced through the possibilities of what she was being distracted from. "Oh, well it is nice of you to visit, Ms. Jubilee. But I'm rather busy at the moment."

"No time to make a dress saddle for your old employer?"

"No time to make a dress saddle for my old adversary." Rarity decided to bluff, pretend she didn't know Jubilee was trying to distract her, as she made her way to her work desk. "Although, I might be tempted to make a work of art for you if you'd tell me why you're really in Ponyville."

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know what I have in store? But that doesn't seem like a fair exchange to me, a dress for a master plan."

"I suppose I could figure it out myself." Rarity lit up her horn and began to sew up one of Cheerilee's chapeaus, while surreptitiously using her magic to write a note out in the next room. Applejack insisted on ensuring she learned to write blind. As she scribbled out a short warning of Jubilee's presence in town, and fixed it onto Opalescence to take down to the farm, she continued talking. "After all, your schemes aren't very imaginative."

Jubilee laughed. Rarity might let herself be provoked even when she knew she was being provoked, but Jubilee would not lose her cool. "If they're so unimaginative, why didn't your dresses feature in Hoity Toity's fashion column this morning like he promised?"

The momentary distraction in Rarity's focus, was enough that she slipped the note into Opalescence's collar to tightly, and her cat let out a yell.

Jubilee grinned at the evidence of Rarity trying to pull an unseen magic trick. "It sounds like you should go check up on your cat." She said, knowing that Rarity wouldn't keep her eyes off of her if she sounded like she wanted the opposite.

"Opalescence will be fine." Rarity said, dismissively, urging her cat to leave and warn Applejack before dimming her horn. "How did you manage to snare Hoity Toity?"

"Oh, I didn't. I merely snared Prince Blueblood, and had him talk to Hoity."

Rarity's jaw dropped. Jubilee smiled the most condescending smile she could. "I heard about that fiasco at the Gala. You should have tried harder for him dear."

Rarity pulled her jaw up. "Oh dear." She said, making an amused face. "Jubilee, you don't know what you've gotten into. I know we're enemies, but honestly, I would not even wish Prince Blueblood upon Discord."

"You just don't know how to handle a stallion properly." Jubilee winked. "Of course you realize, with a Prince on my side I won't have to worry about those incriminating photographs you have. I'll be leaving town in one week. I'll be taking one of your friends with me. Try and stop me."

She left, without another word spoken between them.

Outside, Jubilee went a distance into the forest, into a secluded grove where she was sure nopony could hear her. There, she met up with a young pony in a black catsuit. "Did you get it?" She asked.

"Yes." She said sadly. She pulled a large emerald out of her bag. The emerald was cut in precisely the way Trixie would need it in order to cast the spell on all seven of them. Jubilee nodded with satisfaction. "Well done Coconut dear. I believe you'll find Mr. and Ms. Sprinkle in your home when you return to it."

This was a lie. When she returned home, Coconut Sprinkle, an orphan, would find Flim or Flam ready and waiting to enchant her to believe that she had parents, and that Jubilee had kidnapped them in order to make her do what she wanted. Coconut would demand her parents as payment for one job, as usual, so Jubilee would squeeze multiple jobs out of her by replacing her memories after each one. She didn't know why the filly insisted on being so difficult. Her cutie mark was stealing, she should be happy for Jubilee to give her some work. She lied to Rarity too. She wasn't in town to steal one of her friend. She was in town for revenge. She just wanted Applejack and Rarity to scurry around, worried needlessly, while she stole a gem from right under Rarity's nose.

But unbeknownst to her, Rarity had come away from the conversation with something too. As soon as Jubilee had left, Rarity closed her boutique for the day, and began to compile a list of ponies in Ponyville who were excessively sloppy eaters, to cross reference with every blueberry seller in town to discover who Jubilee was staying with.


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"The horror! The horror!" Berry Punch screamed, as she hid behind Question Mark's jar.

Raindrop grunted as she bucked a royal canterlot guard. "Mark, did you dream these ponies up? Could you tell them to know it off?"

"These are projections!" The Great and Powerful Trixie yelled over the swarm of pegasi trying to pin Raindrop so the ponies on the ground could get to her. "They are representations of the dreamer's subconscious!"

"I didn't do this!" Berry Punch yelled, watching in horror from behind Mark's jar.

"Of course not. They are simply natural safe-guards of the mind! When they sense a foreign pony, they attack without question, and cannot be stopped by Berry Punch telling them to stop!"

"Why weren't they attacking until now!" Raindrop grunted, as a pair of pegasi behind her were crushed by an anvil that inexplicably fell from nowhere. She was getting good at dreams.

"Because your manipulations were more subtle earlier!" The Great and Powerful Trixie explained. "As the architect, you set down the parameters of the dream before you enter the dream proper, but the more you manipulate it after that, the more aggressive the projections become! This is why The Great and Powerful Trixie needs stealth in order to gain the Element of Friendship, not just brute tactics, and why unless the projections start a fight, you shouldn't manipulate the dream!"

"Oh, thanks for telling me now!" A pair of poles burst from the ground, and she corkscrewed through them, a feat which the other two pegasi were unable to replicate. The twin thuds were impressive.

"It's your fault for missing the earlier briefing! If you want to wake up, just make it rain, okay?"


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"I need a second architect." The Great and Powerful Trixie mused.

Cherry Jubilee strolled beside her. The pair of them were walking through a dream where the two of them were royalty. They were in the royal palace, and everypony around them was bowing. "Of course. Raindrop is the most necessary for our plans, and yet the most reluctant to go along with them. Even if she cooperates fully for Twilight's mind, there's no way she'd agree to invade the other element's minds."

The Great and Powerful Trixie raised an eyebrow. "How long have you known we were going for all six of them?"

"Oh, it's obvious Trixie." Jubilee laughed, and her laugh was at once as beautiful as bell chimes and dangerous as a hyena's warning. "I am very good at reading other ponies."

"Was it so obvious the other ponies might suspect?"

"Question Mark suspects, but he has no less proof then he has of the 'secret cabinet making factories beneath Ponyville'. And I've been leading him along, focusing him so much on Twilight's mind that he has no time to look elsewhere."

The Great and Powerful Trixie paused. "You mean you knew he knew? And you led him away from the thoughts?"

"You say that as if it was difficult." Jubilee preened. "Making sure ponies cooperate even though they're not friends, nor even friendly, is something of a specialty of mine. It's a subtle art."

"Really?"

"Of course. Take Blueblood. His attitude is the same towards each and every pony; that they are inferior to him. He only lets you run the show, because he imagines that he's ordered you to run the show. But the other ponies reactions to him differ drastically. Raindrop was infatuated with him at first, but now she can't stand him, and she can't stand him even more for the fact that she used to be infatuated with him. Mark avoids him at all costs, which is generally easy as long as he's in his tub or Rassilon is by him, but when they do interact, neither of them hold back their contempt. Berry Punch gets along with him fine as long as she's not sober, I tolerate him for the sake of the mission, and you don't like him but you like the idea of liking him." Jubilee laughed again. "He's just one pony, and yet he makes it almost impossible for us to work as a team. And this isn't even going into the rest of us, and the way our group dynamic changes from day to day. It's not even going into the wider range of emotions and motivations that might make this group fall apart at any moment, chipping away at them. Even I don't have a full grasp on those little things."

Jubilee realized that while she had kept on walking, while The Great and Powerful Trixie stood still, so she turned around. "Darling, while you've been plotting and scheming your petty vengeance, I've been doing my level best to make sure we don't drive each other more insane than we already are. Believe me when I say, I am the only reason your plan is thus far working. Did you think I wouldn't know every facet of this plan?"

The Great and Powerful Trixie nodded. "Very cunning. And that's why The Great and Powerful Trixie wants you to be the second architect."

"I'm no artist deary." Jubilee warned her. "I weave webs and words, I craft traps and snares, I always place the highest importance on function, not fashion."

"You can borrow Raindrop's mazes for Twilight and adjust them for each pony." The Great and Powerful Trixie said. "When we didn't have Raindrop, and we tested everypony for architect ability, the only thing wrong with yours was your lack of imagination. Whereas Mark's subconscious ran amok. Prince Blueblood exploded everything. Twice. And Berry…"

"I don't need to be reminded of Berry Punch's turn, thank you." Uncharacteristically, Jubilee shuddered. "Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I can't refuse. But may I ask… you're the most knowledgeable of any of us when it comes to dreaming. Why couldn't you be the second architect?"

The Great and Powerful Trixie glared. A second later, mocking laughter was heard. The two of them looked around.

A bright lavender unicorn, with plain straight hair, laughed at The Great and Powerful Trixie. The Great and Powerful Trixie grimaced, and pulled the forces of the dream around her. She sent a powerful blizzard at the unicorn, but the laughing continued. She crushed the frozen unicorn under a hundred ton anvil, but the laughter continued. She tore through the fabric of the dream itself, bringing the sun down from the heavens to rain a fiery death upon the landscape.

And as the world burned around them, the laughter continued.

"I cannot dream any more." The Great and Powerful Trixie snarled. "I have not been able to dream, since SHE humiliated me in front of all of Ponyville. SHE haunts my every sleeping moment."

If Jubilee were The Great and Powerful Trixie's friend, she would have said something. She would have commented on the unhealthiness of her obsession. She might have given her a shoulder to cry on. She might have even given her a gift to cheer her up.

But The Great and Powerful Trixie was not her friend. Just a pony in a special place in her collection. So she offered flattering words, and egged on Trixie's obsession, claiming not to doubt that The Great and Powerful Trixie would conquer Twilight Sparkle. Making sure that, friend or no, The Great and Powerful Trixie would be absolutely loyal and trusting of her.

And she was rewarded when, with tears in her eyes, The Great and Powerful Trixie asked her for a favor.


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Raindrop put down her tools and breathed a sigh of relief. "Done."

In her hands was her own personal totem; a Cloud Key. Cloud Keys were used a lot by pegasi; a small, hoof-held cloud, which would emit a miniature weather combination when struck. Usually they were used to lock Cloud Locks, but only Raindrop knew the combination that this particular Cloud Key used.

Thanking her dad for teaching her how to do this, she finished painting the cloud blue and stuck it in her mane.

"Hello."

She spun around, startled. It was only Cherry Jubilee. She relaxed, and trotted up to her. "It's a bit late. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just putting the finishing touched on my totem." She said coyly. "I probably should have finished it ages ago."

"I know." Raindrop blushed. "I was just doing the same thing myself."

Of course you were. I watched you, and I just hinted that I watched you, but you're still so clueless. Cherry Jubilee smiled at the naïve little filly in front of her. "Oh Raindrop darling, aren't we all so clueless sometimes?" She laughed, and Raindrop joined in, not knowing she was laughing at her.

"You know Raindrop…" Jubilee began. "You and I seem to be the only sane ponies here at times."

"I know." Raindrop agreed. "This whole plan… to be honest, it's crazy."

"Oh there there darling." Jubilee hugged Raindrop. "Take it from somepony who's had to work with a wide variety of ponies before. We all have our little quirks. Everypony is irrational in some way. The key is to get along with them because of their differences, not in spite of."

"Even if getting along with somepony means invading another pony's privacy?" Raindrop asked.

Jubilee chuckled. "Oh, I wouldn't be too worried. Trixie can be… melodramatic at times, but she doesn't want to see anypony get Twilight's mind is just the way she does things, and I'm sure she'll come around somewhat once she's been exposed to the elements. If it makes you feel any better, I doubt she'd object to you sharing our little totem trick with Twilight."

"Really?" Raindrop asked, with wide eyes.

"Of course." Jubilee patted her on the back. "If she does object, just tell her I told you to. I don't expect it to be necessary for Twilight's safety, but if it makes you feel any better about invading her mind, you should do it."

Raindrop let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Jubilee. I've been so worried about this, ever since I came on board with it."

"Relax Raindrop." Jubilee smiled in a way that the younger pony couldn't see. "Everything's going to go according to plan."