The good of the many

by Dafaddah

Chapter 11: Hat? What hat?

Mary Lachance stared down at the letter in her hand, a feeling of unease spreading outwards from the pit of her stomach. This was definitely weirding her out. Had she written this note while dreaming? She truly disliked things she couldn't explain, and the only way to figure this out was to study it. She took a deep breath and continued reading the letter.

... Let me assure you that I am not a dream and that I was as shocked to find myself in a human body as you were to find yourself in mine. (But probably less grossed out because your fingers remind me of snakes.)

You probably just woke up from a dream where you had a conversation with a small pink and green dragon called Spike. (Please be nice to him, he is my number one assistant and I have raised him from the time he hatched from his egg.)

As my time is limited I will be brief. Both our worlds are in danger. My sovereign Princess Celestia has tasked me to set up a way for us to communicate and coordinate our efforts so we can avoid this catastrophe. I am hoping you can work with me to do the same from your side.

Please write down your reply to this letter and place it in the desk drawer with all the blank sheets so I can find it easily next time. I hope this works!

Kind regards,
Twilight Sparkle
Personal student to Her Royal Highness Celestia, ruler of Equestria
Canterlot Castle
(but usually I live at the Library in Ponyville)

P.S. I can see that you repainted your finger nails. I like the new color better than the old one. That reminds me that I should go to the spa and have my hoofpaint redone before Rarity notices how cracked it is and I get a lecture on how to look like a lady.

This was entirely too consistent with the content of her dreams. But she needed solid proof before she was willing to admit that the Equestrian universe might be real. Feeling a bit embarrassed at doing something so ridiculous as corresponding with a talking pony from a dream, she took out a piece of paper and began to write.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I met both your very cute dragon assistant Spike and Princess Celestia during my brief interval in your universe. Spike also explained your plan for allowing us to communicate. This note is evidence of my compliance in this regard. However I must be clear that I will need tangible, unambiguous evidence of your existence before I am willing to let you graduate from 'a character in a dream' to 'a purple pony from another universe'. After we have accomplished this we can engage in looking at your further requests.

I am sorry if this makes me seem a bit cold, but I am both a rational person and a scientist of some repute. I don't usually believe in things I don't understand.

I await your further instructions, and hope you'll figure out another way for us to communicate as I don't always have the luxury of taking fifteen minute naps at all times of the day.

Bemusedly yours,
Mary Lachance

P.S. I'm glad you like the new nail polish. A also have a friend who's into fashion and tries to help me stay more publicly presentable.

She put the letter in her desk drawer as instructed by Twilight Sparkle. Mary wondered what scheme the pony would suggest to provide tangible proof of her and her universe's existence. She was still thinking about it when her eyes closed and her chin dropped to her chest.

***

With a flourish, Twilight Sparkle raised aloft in her hooves a rather tired looking hat. "This is it, my sleeping cap!" she announced proudly, to the somewhat confused faces of ponies assembled before her.

Noticing that her pronouncement had not exactly generated the reaction she expected, the lavender mare hurried to explain the hat's role in resolving the current crisis. "This hat quickly puts to sleep anypony who wears it. If that pony happens to be one in resonance with a human, they both fall asleep. Take off the hat, and the resonating pair wakes up, but now in full perceptual exchange. Repeat the process to switch back. Any questions?"

Surprisingly, it was Spike who responded first, raising a paw in the air and waving it at her excitedly. "Yes, Spike?"

"I've been thinking about this all day: what if the pony who puts on the hat is very tired? Will they still wake up when you take off the hat?"

"Uh, probably not. Gee, I hadn't thought of that!" Twilight looked alarmed at the potential flaw in her plan.

"Ahem," suggested Minister Hoofing, "one could presumably wake them up the usual way."

"Oh, of course!" said Twilight looking sheepish. "Spike's pretty good at that."

"I should be," replied the baby dragon laconically, "Twilight certainly gives me enough practice."

"Spike!" The young mare blushed in embarrassment. Attempting to salvage her pride, she resumed explaining her plan. "In order to facilitate two-way communication between universes, we use the sleeping cap repeatedly over a short interval, causing a switch each time. The resonating pair can communicate by leaving written instructions to each other, or by having a third parfty act as a go-between. In this case I am exchanging perceptions with the human Mary Lachance for approximately fifteen minutes of each half hour. I am exchanging letters with her in the human universe, and Spike is relaying info between us in our universe."

Princess Luna and Minister Hoofing exchanged looks, impressed with Twilight's ingenious solution to the communication problem.

Laura seemed pensive for a moment. "Did you say Mary Lachance, as in Mary Lachance science advisor to the President of the United States, the leader of my country?"

Twilight nodded happily. "Yes, that's what it says on her business card."

"So the special advisor to my universe's most powerful leader is resonating with the special student of this universe's most powerful leader?"

Twilight nodded, blushing this time from the sideways accolade accorded her by the human.

"More interesting parallels. When is the next exchange scheduled?"

"Just about now. So when Mary wakes up in my body, I suggest you all introduce yourselves, especially you Dr. Connor." She addressed the human directly. "During her last session with us she was apparently not convinced this universe is real. Maybe you'll have an easier time convincing her."

"Perhaps. We've met once, several years ago at an NSF event in Washington DC." The human paused for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face. "Interesting! This would provide me the means to definitively prove the reality of the 'perceptual exchange' process, and of all of this." She gestured around her with a forehoof.

"Well, then. Let's get this show on the road!" Twilight passed Spike the sleeping cap and reclined fully onto the cushion. "If you please, Spike?"

The little reptile lowered the cap onto Twilight's head and she visibly relaxed into full sleep. He waited a moment, and then bared her head. Her eyes blinked open, scanned the room, and then focused on Spike.

"Hi there handsome. And just who are our new little pony friends here?" said the lavender mare. Her voice managed to sound very different from Twilight's, even though it issued from her lips.

"Aw, geezz.." mumbled Spike, pleased at the compliment. "Mary Lachance, may I present her Royal Highness Princess Luna, Minister of Science Sunset Hoofing, and a human currently in a pony body just like you are, Dr. Laura Connor."

The human in Twilight's guise rose to a sitting position. "Another Princess. That makes two today. Oh, and you also have both wings and a unicorn's horn. Pleased to meet you, your highness. And Spike, did you say Dr. Connor is a human?"

"Yes, Mary. And she says you two have met."

"Hello Mary," Laura spoke. "Forgive me for being so abrupt, but this is very important. Do you recall when we met?"

"If I'm not mistaken, it was at the NSF 'meet and greet' with the President a few months after his election," said Lachance.

"And do you remember how I introduced myself to you?" queried Laura.

Mary thought for a moment and smiled. "Yes, I do. You said 'I am the ring master, are you the lion tamer?'"

Dr. Connor took a deep breath and let it out. Looking at the other ponies present she stated with certainty: "Okay, now I am fully convinced."

"Well I'm glad for you. But I'm afraid I can't say the same." Everypony focused back onto the lavender unicorn. "But I have a proposal." Mary smiled. "I propose that Dr. Connor calls my office during my next stint back at the White House. I will give you a phone number you could not get by any other means. If you call me up at that number it will prove to me that we communicated in this universe. How do you say, Dr. Connor?"

Laura was quite pleased. "I accept your proposal." She looked to Sunset Hoofing. "Minister, do you think we can also use the 'sleeping cap protocol' to affect a similar exchange back between myself and Glowball?"

The old mare thought for a moment. "I don't see why not. It would also give us a chance to get a debriefing from Glowball, who has now been gallivanting in your universe for several hours. Even though Her Majesty assures me she is apparently in no distress, I would very much like to inform her of her circumstances and get her complicit cooperation with our plan. Spike, please get the sleeping cap for our guests. Miss Lachance, Dr. Connor, do you need more time to prepare?"

"Yes, just a moment." Mary recited a series of ten numbers, to which Laura paid careful attention. "Okay. We're ready." The other human nodded.

Spike brought over the sleeping cap. "It's best if you lie down first." When she complied he put the cap on her head. He picked it up again and was waiting for Dr. Connor to lay fully down in turn, holding the cap above her head.

The first shockwave impacted Canterlott.

***

Twilight had found and read Mary's reply to her letter just where she had asked her to leave it. She loved it when things were going according to plan, especially so when it was one of her own plans.

The young unicorn sat in thought, considering Mary's challenge. Her face suddenly lit up. "That's it!" she exclaimed out loud. She had an idea to convince Mary. She would have Mary give a piece of information to Dr. Connor, who would then communicate it back to Mary in this universe. She just hoped that this could be done expediently, wondering if the humans had some equivalent of the 'fire post' system used to correspond with Princess Celestia.

Twilight wrote down her suggestion in a letter to the human as she had done previously. She just managed to place it on the desk when her eyes began to droop and the lights faded to black.

***

Celestia was satisfied with her afternoon's work. She had managed to collect several dozen 'objects of power', each a repository of the energy that might be needed to make the two approaching universes repel. Key among them were the Elements of Harmony.

She observed as her carriage approached Canterlot Castle, landing in the courtyard. Out of it disembarked five very special mares from Ponyville. She had sent for them immediately after her lunch meeting, as it appeared things were progressing even faster than she had feared. Immediately, she could tell something was wrong.

With a look of concern the Princess approached the five. "Hello, ladies. I hope there were no problems in your flight to Canterlot."

The ponies bowed to the Princess, and Applejack spoke, looking more than a bit spooked. "Hi there, yer Highness. We don't know fer a fact that thur's a problem, but ya see it's Pinkie Pie. Her Pinkie sense has been going off like gangbusters in the last few hours."

"I've got knocky hooves and twitchy fetlocks, and flappy ears AND a pinchy tail, and I've never had all those at the same time before! Something tells this one's a real doozy. It's gotta be the doozyest doozy that's ever doozied!" offered Pinkie Pie, quite obviously frightened.

"Yes, and we have learned to exercise the utmost caution when Pinkie Pie gets these strange feelings," said Rarity.

"Is there anything that maybe we should know about?" asked Rainbow Dash, with Fluttershy trying her best to stand inconspicuously behind her.

Celestia looked at the group of brave young mares. "Yes, there is, and we shall discuss it inside the Castle as soon as we can assemble everypony together. Thank you so much for having come on such short notice, my little po..."

The shockwave hit.

Celestia screamed.

Comments

[Dafaddah]

Hello readers,

Will the resonating humans and ponies be able to magically become friends, or will SCIENCE come to the rescue? Can this meeting of minds prevent the meeting of branes? WIll the sleeping cap become a fashion item in Canterlot Castle? Will Spike be emotionally confused for life if Mary Lachance's affection in the guise of Twilight continue to heat up? Is Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense predicting the mother of all doozies?

Tune in and find out!*

Dafaddah

*NOTE: the author reserves the right to resolve any of these or any other issue in any possible or potential future chapters of TGOTM, or not, depending on his whims and moods. If you experience any discomfort in the reading of this fic PLEASE GIMME FEEDBACK and add a comment. And if you like it please tell me and my ego using the same mechanism. We thank you for flying Dafaddah Airlines, 'cause we know you had a choice!

[jillswift]

*raises hand*

Hello! I'm feeling some discomfort here. I ran out of story to read - could you please correct that at your convenience? 'Cuz it's really a fabulous read, yus yus!

[Dafaddah]

294321
Sorry it was a shorter chapter. In response to your request I added one or two lines, which I have already edited into the text. More words in a new chapter later this week. I promise.

Dafaddah

[jillswift]

294655 You are a God among Ponies, sir.

[Dafaddah]

Dear fellow hippotextivors,

As the February Write Off contest has now ended with the glorious victories of other writers, I can cry in my beer while re-editing my submission "The Vacation Crew". I will be doing so spradically over the next week or so, but all changes will be minor. So, if you are enjoying "The Good of the Many" then I humbly request that you take a gander at "The Vacation Crew", and let me know what you think of it.

I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I did writing it.

Dafaddah of two (so far).

[BenRG]

If one is sensitive to the flow of magic, being hit by a quantum wave-front is probably unpleasantly like a napalm bath.