Friendship is Exponential

by Flick Mare

BONUS CHAPTER - My Daddy is a Hive Mind (By Ultra-the-HedgeToaster)

One of my selves had just died.

This in and of itself was not an uncommon occurrence, one of my selves would die in one accident or another every other week these days, it was simple statistics.

This particular death had been among the more unpleasant kind; drawn out for minutes as the life left that body.
I was fine of course, I had close to a million other bodies to spare.

But Morning Dew didn't know that.

What she knew was that her father had died right in front of her, mauled by a Timberwolf, trying to protect her. That was all she knew.
She was one of my first thousand children, and I remember the day she (and two others) were born had caused a ripple of general goodwill and cheerfulness across the country, as many ponies found my then mere few hundred-thousands of selves' happiness infectious.

My nearest other self dropped what they were doing and ran out of the town, into the forest - that self didn't have an athletic body, and took several stumbles and one nasty gash across their left foreleg, but I didn't care.

I could hear the wails long before I got there. She heard the rustling as I approached, and turned, fearful the Timberwolves had returned.
I had already devised a plan on my way there. That self would reveal himself as an old friend of her father, sharing his interest in studying wild plants, venturing into the forest intending to surprise him with his visit. I would feint shock upon seeing my other selves mangled corpse, then rush to bring the filly home to her mother. From there on, I would let this self become a close friend to the family to help them get over their loss, and so I could watch after Morning Dew.

Regrettably, I would have to let go of the life as Morning Dew's father, as I could not plausibly devise an explanation for a miraculous recovery from being torn apart.

The plan was well thought-out, statistically sound, and would hold under scrutiny.

And then I saw Morning Dew's face, and none of that was important anymore.

She didn't know this body, but that didn't matter right now.

She desperately needed a hug from her daddy.

So I gave her just that.

"Shhh, shhh... It's okay... It's okay... Daddy is here... Daddy will always be here... Shhhhh..."

Two hundred and seventy-five miles away, I tapped Twilight Sparkle on the shoulder to interrupt her lecture on the hypothetical long-term effects of large-scale quantum tunneling.

"Uhm... Twilight? I think I may have a bit of a problem..."

Author's Note:

One of two contributions from Ultra-the-HedgeToaster exploring some interesting consequences of being a hive-mind.

Comments

[book_burner]

Awwwwww... that's the creepiest way to spill the beans to your daughter.

[Fistfire]

Hmm. At least she got comforted.

[Walabio]

Problem: 0-Sum-Game:

Everytime Diced Apples marries a mare, he condemns another stallion to loneliness.

I can imagine "Incels against Diced Apples". . After learning that Diced Apples is the reason that they are 40-year-old virgins, they reject his friendship.