<hattersgonnahat> oh! wow, that actually sounds kinda cool
<hattersgonnahat> so casually talking about your literate baby dragon is getting a feel for how somebody would talk about having a real service animal, do I have that right?
<hattersgonnahat> that's neat. If I wrote both things I'd probably try it. I dunno maybe I'll make up a character from one of my sister's settings and try the exercise for that

"They bought it! And maybe it's a terrible risk, but I am sort of curious how far I can take this—"

<intomystudies> Right. People like your teacher who pit
earthfic and fantasy literature against each other have it all wrong;
imagining other words is a complement to better understanding and
exploring our own; neither genre is intrinsically superior
<intomystudies> So if, as a writer who tends to do somewhat more
fantasy than earthfic, I enjoy talking to you as if I were, say, an
alicorn princess who is the protege of the God-Empress of the sun in a
world of ponies that I occasionally need to defend with rare artifacts
powered by the magic of friendship
<intomystudies> and ask seemingly stupid, crazy questions about
things "everyone knows" in your world
<intomystudies> I hope you'll humor me and play along, and
describe your world in as much rich detail as possible, as if I were
telling the truth and you needed to explain everything to me from
scratch
<intomystudies> it really is a powerful writing exercise
after you get used to it

<hattersgonnahat> yeah I don't hate regular stories or anything, they're just not what I do and I get really sick of people saying they're inferior
<hattersgonnahat> I love my sister's books and she writes high fantasy
<hattersgonnahat> your thing sounds cute, is it a kids' story or something?
<hattersgonnahat> I still dunno if this channel (however deserted) is really the best place for the RP thing you're doing but I'm sold, lemme look up how to do a private channel thing, pretty sure IRC can do that

"My universe is not a kid's story!" said Twilight [erroneously —the Editor]. But the resentment only lasted a moment when she remembered what she had accomplished. "But whatever; it looks like I've won the trust of this pony-analogue in this other world! I've got so much to—oh, no!"

*** intomystudies has disconnected. (Message: Leaving)

In her excitement, she'd lost, if only for a moment, the low-level focus needed to maintain the spell—and she doubted she had the energy to cast it again today. Perhaps she'd be able to find the same network in the other world again, continue her dialogue with hattersgonnahat some other time? Hopefully ...

several months later ...

"Hey Twilight," said Rainbow Dash, entering the library wing of [Ponyville Crystal Friendship Castle —the Editor]. Twilight looked up from her work with a look not so much like annoyance as sheer incomprehension; she had to remember the mundane physical reality around her before she could resent its intrusion into her studies. Some of her other friends, say, Rarity, or Fluttershy (definitely Fluttershy), would have apologized for the interruption. Rainbow Dash didn't notice. "I came to return the non-Daring Do book you recommended."

"Oh!" said Twilight, now aware enough to resent the interruption, but not resenting it, because if there was one thing the world outside her head was good for, it was sharing her love of reading with friends and hearing back about the results of said sharing. "What'd you think?" Twilight wasn't sure what to expect; Rainbow had descibed the purpose of her visit in her usual confident tone, which good have meant any number of things, from "That book was awful and now I'm going to justly complain about it", to "That book was great and I'm going to justly rave about it," to "I'm Rainbow Dash!"

"It was terrible!" said Rainbow Dash.

"What? Why?"

"It was nothing like the Daring Do books!"

"Rainbow Dash, it was exactly like the Daring Do books! I mean, it's not literally A. K. Yearling writing about Daring Do, but it's another popular writer working in the same very crowded, dare I say played out, subgenere of adventure novels."

"The protagonist is nothing like Daring Do! She's so&dmdash;somdash;"

"Yes?"

"She lacks a certain jeh neh say-is kwoi."

"Je ne sais quoi," corrected Twilight. "But Rainbow," she added, changing the subject [for all the world as if she were a puppet in a throwaway collaborative storytelling session in which one of the authors is suddenly realizing that he's taking too much time on the introductory scene —the Editor], "do you ever think about other worlds? I mean real other worlds, not fantasy-adventure novels like Daring Do."

"But Twilight, Daring Do is real! We met her back in [My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season 4, Episode 4: "Daring Don't" —the Editor]!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Twilight. "Anyway, I'm a little even more distracted than usual because I'm actually in the middle of reestablishing a connection to an alternate world that seems to have a strange lack of magic; they've managed to build a sophisticated communications system out of some sort of electomagnetic technology which I was able to tap into once, a few months ago before—before—" a single tear rolled down Twilight's cheek.

"Still miss the old library, huh?"

Twilight sniffled and nodded. "Yeah." Then she shook her head vigorously and put on a determined look. "Anyway, I was worried that I might never be able to reestablish the connection, but after the good practice with trans-world communication duing [the events of My Little Pony; Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks —the Editor] and that similar time I chatted to that annoying little colt and one of his superheroine gaurdians, I think I'm ready to reinitiate contact with an old—well, I don't know that were friends, yet; it was only a few minutes. But there's a pony—uh, well, a probably-not-a-pony, whose world I want to learn more about, a writer, like A. K. Yearling."

This was sufficiently weird even for Twilight that Rainbow Dash actually looked a little curious. "You can watch if you like," said Twilight.

"Okay," said Rainbow.

Twilight took a deep breath, and, horn glowing with effort, watched in awe as a quill wrote out the cryptic words—

Welcome to #earthficcersunite on Freenode! Topic is "plot, theme, and characterization without magical ponies since 2011" set by hattersgonnahat on 8 November 2014

<hattersgonnahat> it won't subtute for a trip to China but it's better than nothing
<hattersgonnahat> *substitute
<hattersgonnahat> quiz?
<hattersgonnahat> quizzicoatl did you disappear again
+++ quizzicoatl Quit (Ping timeout)
<hattersgonnahat> guess that answers that
<hattersgonnahat> welcome intomystudies
<hattersgonnahat> oh hey I remember you! pet dragon RP person!

"There she is!" said Twilight.

"Huh?" said Rainbow. "All I see are a bunch of random *words*."

Twilight sighed. "I'll explain later," and began to write back—


<intomystudies> Yes, it's me again! Sorry that I've been away so long, because
<intomystudies> because reasons
<intomystudies> How are you? Why are you considering going to China?


<hattersgonnahat> Oh, I'm not going to China, quiz might
<hattersgonnahat> but he's gone now, his internet's lousy
<hattersgonnahat> so what're you up to
<hattersgonnahat> I checked earthfic.net for your screenname one time, nothing, checked fantastictales and nothing there either but I have like forty screennames so
<hattersgonnahat> hypocritical to complain

<hattersgonnahat> crazy adventures, right.
<hattersgonnahat> you can't get that far being shy about what you write though, everybody needs feedback
<hattersgonnahat> do you at least have a beta reader?

<hattersgonnahat> hi
<hattersgonnahat> wow I have like nothing to say on action scenes I'm more quiet character pieces
<hattersgonnahat> "twilight"?


[22:27] <ImRainbowDash> my friend twilight is asking me to write on this magical paper that writes back. pretty weird if you ask me but im used to her craz


"Rainbow Dash, *no*!"

"Huh?"

"She's from another world! She doesn't know that we're ponies!"

"... as opposed to?"

"I don't know! Whatever my Canterlot High friends are maybe! Just—try to follow my lead," Twilight said, frantically running search queries on another piece of parchment, looking for more information that would make her seem like a native, as she hoped the reference to the tropes repository had done a moment ago.


[22:28] <intomystudies> what my dear friend Rebecca means is that she really liked the action scenes in the new Stephanie Meyer book


<hattersgonnahat> oh I haven't read those, my sister says they're lousy, is she wrong?
<hattersgonnahat> is the "magical paper" bit another one of your RP conceits?
<hattersgonnahat> like the series with the magic internet? I liked that one.
<hattersgonnahat> wow talk about off channel topic. whatever, quiz is gone and thad's been idle for an hour and last week I came on and everybody was talking about cybernetic penguins I don't even care anymore

several months later

It was shortly after one in the afternoon in an ordinary, undishtinguished dormatory room at an ordinary, unidistinguished American university, and history was in the process of being made; Harriet could feel it. After a moment of reflection, she decided that it was, on balance, unlikely that one could sense history being made; more likely the sensation of terrifying timeless reality building up behind her eyes was just a side-effect of sleep deprivation. But that wasn't important, just as attending classes this or the previous day hadn't been important. This certainly wasn't the first time one of Harriet's writing sessions had stretched over a timespan measured in dozens of hours, but never had the ideas in her head flown so smoothly into her fingers, the keystrokes raining heavily down upon the keyboard like silver droplets of liquid mercury, building—no, not building a world (the only legitimate work of a fiction writer, if one were to listen to Harriet's professors, but listening to them would have implied showing up to lecture, which Harriet hadn't), but reflecting the real one, recombining images of it into something beautiful and tragic and believable in a way that tales of unicorns and talking dogs could never be.

To keep from yawning, she drummed her fingers on the hardback copy of Fundamentals of Actuarial Mathematics sitting on the desk atop five pages of notes with her interview with the president of the local guide dog training association, admiring the sound. She really should get to sleep—she had been awake for some twenty-nine hours—but she wasn't done typing out everything that was in her head, and who could say if she would be in the same glorious headspace when she awoke? Then, about the protagonist's current moral dilemma, should he—

That was when the room exploded.

That's what it felt like, anyway, but when the terrible noise and light and heat and Harriet's scream of terror all subsided, she seemed to be unhurt, if quite shaken, and nothing she could see looked damaged. Warily, haltingly, she stood up, sputtering "Wh–wh–" as if working up the courage to voice a hypothesis about what had just happened (Was that a bomb?) but finding neither the courage nor any plausible hypotheses. She turned around—and found some hypotheses.

Lying on the floor, in the center of the room, looking no less shaken than Harriet and much more hurt, was a small, lavender horse, with wings, and enormous eyes, and a horn protruding from its forehead.

"Of course," said Harriet aloud. "I'm suffering from sleep deprivation! Or a stroke. And I'm starting to hallucinate. I should get to bed. Or maybe a hospital." She shook her head. "No, that's silly. Obviously I'm already asleep, and this is just an ordinary dream."

The pegasus-unicorn was leaking blood on the carpet from numerous wounds and long gashes all over its body. It was still conscious, though, and looking up at Harriet as if trying to speak. It made a noise that sounded like ironic chuckling, and then another that sounded like words. "Cntrlot heigh."

"Help!" shouted Harriet, looking to the closed door. "Someone needs to get this unicorn to the hospital!" She temored. "No—no—someone needs to get me to the hopsital. It's only—"

The horse spoke. "Hatters gonna hat?" it asked. One of Harriet's online pseudonyms.

"Yes," said Harriet.

"My name—is Twilight Sparkle," said the horse. "But you know me as Into My Studies. I have a ... consulting opportunity that I'd like to discuss with you. The fate of all the ponies in Equestria rests in your ho—in your hands."

Then they both passed out.

Harriet woke up on the floor with a headache. She groaned.

"Ugh, I feel like I've been asleep for [seven years and one month —the Editor]," she said. "And such a strange dream. There was purple unicorn, and—"

Harriet blinked. The purple unicorn was still unconscious before her.

"Um, ordinarily I would assume this is still a sleep-deprivation hallucination, but I just woke up. The sensation of being really-awake-for-real is unmistakable. Or does one always say that in dreams, falsely?"

What does she usually do in a lucid dream? Usually, get caught up in the dream again and fall out of lucidity. Seems like a good plan.

She pokes the unicorn with her foot. "Hey Studies," she says. "You all right?"

The unicorn stirred. "Yes, actually," it said. It spoke with a female voice reminicent of [voice actress Tara Strong —the Editor].

"I'm sorry for making such an abrupt appearance," said the unicorn. "And I'm sorry for deceiving you in our network chats. But a grave threat to my world's security requires an expert on electromagnetism. Given the nature of your world's communication network—creating such a thing without magic being an incomprehensibly impressive feat—I could only assume that the physical science of your world was much more advanced than mine. I didn't know where else I could seek help on short notice, so I prepared a trans-world teleportation spell—"

"Magic isn't real," said Harriet.

Twilight frowned.

"Unicorns aren't real," said Harriet.

Twilight tilted her head skeptically.