“We’ve got a breakthrough!”
“What the—?! What’s the big idea, startling me like that?!”
“We don’t have time to debate this! We have to get those mares out there now!”
“Calm down. Remember, time works differently between here and there; by the time we’ve finished deliberating what to do, at most, only half a minute will have passed.”
“And they could be using that half-minute to actually be doing something!”
“Then why don’t we actually start figuring this out instead of wasting time talking about how important it is that they go somewhere?”
“Ugh, fine.”
“Now, what is so urgent that you’d start raving like a lunatic?”
“Well, remember back when they first found the map and you suggested Manehattan as their first mission?”
“And you said we should wait until the situation changes in our favor.”
“It’s changed in our favor.”
“Oh. Details, please.”
“Remember that fashion mare they all met during that Fashion Week thing?”
“Suri Polomare?”
“What? No. The other one… The Fluttershy-esque one.”
“Coco Pommel.”
“Yeah, sure. She’s organizing a community theater performance. It’s the perfect opportunity.”
“I don’t know. I mean, I kinda wanted to get the girls to the Smoky Mountains as soon as possible after the Griffonstone mission.”
“But this won’t last forever. We only have a small window of opportunity. If we don’t send someone there soon, at best, Pommel will likely cancel the event. Who knows how long it’ll be till the next chance arises?”
“Okay, yeah, you make a good point. It has been on the backlogs for quite some time. And it is a whole society, one of the biggest cities in Equestria. I guess we could call that a priority. So, what are you thinking? Maybe send the whole team in?”
“Hmm. Actually, that doesn’t sound like a good idea.”
“Why not? More ponies means more hooves to help out.”
“Maybe, but the whole point of this mission is to get the Manehattanites to start taking a more active role in their community. If they see four to six mares working on this one project, they may think the whole thing is being taken care of.”
“I guess I can see that. So, who did you have in mind for this?”
“Well, Rarity is the obvious choice. Worse comes to worse, she can probably find her way around Manehattan better than any of them. Plus, Coco might be more receptive if Rarity is with them.”
“True. I was thinking maybe Applejack, too. It may have been a long time ago, but she used to live in Manehattan. That’s an advantage we can’t afford to waste. But besides that, she’s a hard worker; her example may lead others to start making better choices.”
“Great, got that taken care of. Let’s send ‘em out!”
“There is still one thing that concerns me, though.”
“Ugh, you just enjoy making these things longer than they need to be, don’t you?”
“This is important. Like I just said, Manehattan’s a big city. How are they going to know where to go or what their objective is? We’ve been doing pretty well at giving the girls missions with fairly obvious signs of what’s wrong and where to start, but there is a chance that neither Applejack nor even Rarity might even think to check in with Coco.”
“…Okay, you may be right there.”
“…”
“…This…may not be the answer you want to hear, but…”
“But…?”
“…what if we were to allow for some… intervention?”
“I’m… not sure I feel comfortable with that. Even if we had such power, the whole point of this map is to point ponies in the right direction towards friendship and let them work out the rest.”
“I’m not saying we beam ourselves to Manehattan and yell out, ‘Get your acts together!’ or something like that. But like you said, our job is to push them in the right direction. Well, what if we do just that?”
“I don’t follow.”
“Simple. We give them a hint, a sign, a clue, if you will, of what to do. And it would only need to be done as a last resort. Trust me, I don’t want to do this either; it feels like cheating. But I’d rather cheat and produce an overall positive result than do nothing and watch this society crumble.”
“…You may have a point. What’s the plan?”
“After they get to the city, we’ll wait and see what happens. If they don’t figure it out after a certain amount of time or, dare I say it, threaten to give up, we’ll send a little something their way to let them know. And it’ll seem like a complete accident.”
“Hmm. Now that I think about it, I may be able to use some of my connections with the Winds of Fate. They might give the girls the edge they need if things aren’t looking too good.”
“Best bet we have. Now can we please get this show on the road?”
“If that was a pun…”
“Calling Applejack!”
“…Calling Rarity.”
“Your mission begins here.”