“S.A.S. Regimental Club.”
“Hello. Is the Colonel in? This is Sergeant Searle”
“I will see if he is engaged.” Castor waited for a minute or so for the Club’s Corporal to check, and deliver a phone if he was.
There was a loud click as the receiver was lifted. “Colonel Thiessen here.”
“Ah, Colonel? I was hoping you’d be in.”
“Have you concluded your appointment?”
“Actually, I am there right now, sir. Number Eleven Magnolia Road, Little Whinging.”
“Indeed.”
“Uh-huh, it’s much more than what we thought. Could you come out here? It’s rather important.”
“Is it now?” He could hear the doubt and annoyance in the man’s voice.
“Yes, sir. These people are, well, I can say without fear of exaggeration, that this is a matter of national security . . . and the Foreign Office.”
He heard a heavy sigh.
“And before you ask, yes. Yes, I’m sober. Very sober. Much more so than I want to be, if you want to know the truth.
“And what is it that is so important?”
It was his turn to sigh. “If I tried to tell you, you’d think I had been drinking . . . I can assure you that the Prime Minister and the Queen will have to be briefed. And it involves an Ambassador from a foreign country.”
“Is that so?” came the reserved response.
“You can have my pension if you think I’m wrong.”
“If this indeed is a matter of national security . . .”
“It is. Very, very, much so, sir.”
“Then I will need to make a few phone calls and bring some others with me.”
He turned and asked, “Can he bring some people with him?”
The Princess looked at her friends and shrugged. “Sure,” she looked around the room and smiled, “Just remember, we aren’t exactly in a lecture hall here.”
He turned to face the staircase again. “Yes, bring whom you want, but not too many, we are in a small-house sitting-room . . . and bring cameras. Lots of cameras.”
“Cameras. For evidence, I assume? It’ll be about two hours.”
“That’s correct. About two hours? . . . See you then.” He hung up and turned to face them again.
“He has to make a few phone calls, and then he’ll be right over. He’s in London, so it’ll take about two hours for him to get here. Mind if I bring P.C. Havers up to speed?”
“No. No, I don’t mind at all — why don’t you invite her in?” the Princess suggested.
He stepped outside, Miss Arrow just behind him. “Hey, P.C. Havers. I’m just checking in. This is so far out of our jurisdiction, it’s not funny. I used the phone inside to kick it upstairs. Someone will be here in about two hours.”
He turned and went back inside, Miss Arrow again following him. Seeing their questioning looks, he said, “She wouldn’t come in, anyway. Standard Operating Procedure. It might be a trap.”
They all nodded in understanding. “That’s too bad,” said the Princess. She sighed, “But I understand the reasoning. That would be something Chrysalis would do.” She looked up at him. “Set a trap, I mean. Fortunately, we have no interest in setting traps.” The little purple pony began trotting in place. “There is just so much to learn!” She spun in place.
The flying one, Lady Dash, snickered, “Don’t let her in your national Library, we’d never get her out of it!”
The orange one, Lady Jack, he thought, laughed and said, “She’s already figure’d out it would take a hunerd and fourteen years to read all yer books!” She paused, then muttered, “And I wouldn’t put it past her to try.”
The Princess stopped trotting and stomped her hoof. “Girls, that’s over twenty times the number of books in the Royal Canterlot Library! And they publish more books in a week than we do in a year!”
Lady Rarity said, “Twilight, you’ve already shipped home more books than the sociologists can read in a year!”
Lady Dash laughed again, “Yeah, I thought that bookstore manager was gonna pee his pants when you gave him that order for five thousand books. And then paid him in bits in advance.”
“But he was such a gentlestallion, delivering them to us himself when they arrived,” said Lady Rarity approvingly.
Lady Dash snorted, “And got an order for another thousand books for his trouble!”
Castor stared at them. This was terrible. They had been here for weeks and were basically looting the human world’s knowledge. Sure, they were paying for everything, but they now had far more intelligence on the humans than the humans could possibly get in return in years!
He cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind my asking, just how advanced are you, compared to us?”
They stopped their arguing over whether or not the Princess was too enthusiastic about books and turned back to him. He noticed that Prince Blood was now watching him instead of staring off into the distance.
The Princess frowned. “Well, in some areas we are clearly far ahead of you — while you know far more about viruses and bacteria and their transmission, we can cure most diseases without difficulty. Cancer, which seems to be a big issue for you, is a simple potion-cure if we can catch it early enough.” She sighed, “Although we do still lose a pony to it every now and then. We can regrow lost limbs, as well. If we can get someone to a healer fast enough, we can almost always save them, no matter what their affliction.” She smiled proudly. “It helps that we’re very durable. From what we’ve seen on your telly, you people are extremely fragile. Crashes that would leave one of us slightly dazed seem to kill you outright.”
She started trotting in place again, “However, your advances in in vitreo fertilization are simply stunning! And operating on foetuses to fix problems before birth? Astounding!”
She sighed and stood still. “On the other hoof, militarily, we are far behind you. Most of our guards train with spears and crossbows.” She smiled. “We do have fireworks, but not rockets, rifles, or cannons. We’ve never needed anything more advanced to deal with our enemies, so we never pushed any further.” She smirked. “In fact, I know of one recent war that was settled by a pie fight.” She shuddered. “I cannot imagine needing something as terrible as one of your nuclear weapons.”
He stared at her incredulously. “A pie fight?” he repeated weakly. Was she kidding him?
She nodded. “And we do have a railroad system. It’s not as extensive as yours, and we use steam engines. As for flight, well, one-third of our population flies, so it has never really been an issue. I do have a balloon I use sometimes, though. And there are a few blimps in commercial use. Some nobles use them as air-going yachts, too. But we have nothing like your commercial jets.” She hummed for a moment. “We’ve just never seen the need for that much speed, I guess.”
“Jets, phht,” Lady Dash said disparagingly. “I’m the fastest pegasus in Equestria.” She flew up almost into his face. “I can clear a sky of clouds in ten seconds, flat!”
“Clouds,” he repeated, bewildered, “Ten seconds?”
“Oh, yes,” the Princess continued, “We control almost all the weather, with only occasional freak storms coming in from the Everfree Forest or the oceans.” She frowned as she looked over at the curtained windows. “That’s actually one of the hardest things for us to get used to here — the weather here is so random. We would never allow a tornado to do so much damage.” She shuddered. “And I can’t remember the last time I heard of a rainstorm causing a flood. We would disperse such a storm long before it endangered any lives.” She looked over and up at Dash, who was hovering just below the ceiling. “We’ll be doing the Running of the Leaves to usher in Fall in a few weeks.”
Lady Dash zoomed over to hover in front of Lady Jack. “I’m gonna beat you this year, just you wait!”
Apple Jack rolled her eyes. “You’all keep telling yerself that, honey.”
Rainbow Dash just glared at her.
“And then there’s quantum physics,” Twilight said, ignoring the two squabbling ponies. Lady Dash had landed and the two were now shouldering each other back and forth like a couple rugby rivals, as the Prince watched disapprovingly. “It sounds remarkably similar to our theories. The String theory proposed by your scientists is quite interesting and would explain some things that we’ve been puzzling over the last hundred years. I think that if we cooperate we might be able to pull together a complete universal theory of everything that will fit all the observational evidence we have.”
“And we’ve confirmed the multi-world theory, as well as time-travel.” She shuddered. “Time travel is just . . . too . . . paradoxical.”
He knew his mouth was hanging open. Militarily, they were at the bow-and-arrow era, yet their medicine out-stripped the dreams of almost every doctor in the world, and they had an understanding of quantum theory that only the most highly-developed modern countries could afford to research. Plus, they could CONTROL THE BLOODY WEATHER! A bloody deep rabbit-hole, indeed!
۸- ̰ -۸
“So, back in your home world, you’re mostly herbivories and only pegasi eat meat with any regularity?”
“That’s correct,” said Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Castor had heard of horses eating meat on occasion, but it was still a surprise to hear that these . . . ponies . . . did so, too. So, he supposed, it shouldn’t be all that outrageous to hear that while they were in their human forms, they also ate meat. They might not be completely comfortable, emotionally, doing so, but they did do it. Then again, there had been a few dishes served to him when he was overseas with the Sport and Social that he would rather not think about.
He glanced down at the two pony heads lying on his thighs. He wasn’t exactly sure how it had happened.
The two ponies had been in the midst of their continuing shoving match — to Prince Blood’s obvious disdain and disgust — when they stumbled over to his chair. Reflexively, as with a big dog, he had reached out to push them away. By accident, he had done what he would have done with any friendly large dog, He had started scratching one of them, Dash, he thought, behind the ear, as a distraction.
Her eyes had gone wide and she had immediately leaned into it. He had been surprised that she hadn’t started purring. Lady Jack had watched, puzzled, until Lady Dash had groaned and said, “Oh Celestia! This is fabulous.” And twisted her head so he could scratch the other ear.
A second later, he was using both hands. He had gone down the back of their necks, in their manes, to much moaning and wriggling in place. And startled looks from the Princess and Lady Rarity. When he started scratching at the base of Dash’s wings, he had thought she was going to melt to the floor. Followed, a second later, by her murmured, “Marry me!”
Which had led to his current predicament. Trapped in his chair by two ponies who weighed as much as he did. He would have liked a refill on his tea, but every time he stopped massaging an ear, the owner of said ear would growl. And open one eye to glare at him. Currently, the orange one had him scratching her back just below her shoulder blades.
Meanwhile, he had time to reflect that the ponies didn’t need high-tech weapons to conquer humanity. With those soulful eyes, fluffy coats, and overall adorable appearance, people would walk into their cages without complaint, all the while cooing at how adorable and cute their captors were. Of course, the humans could retaliate by refusing to give tummy rubs and ear scratches unless the ponies capitulated, in turn. It would be a Mexican Standoff — or would that be a stalemate? — situation.
A woman walked up behind Miss Arrow and whispered in her ear. Miss Arrow then went to the Princess said something. Princess Twilight nodded and looked over at the Detective Inspector. “Your friends should be here in a few moments.” She gave him a tight smile. “They seem to have brought reinforcements, who are waiting just outside the neighbourhood.”
He nodded slowly. “I kind of expected that.”
She gave him a wry smile. “I suppose I did too.”
“Excuse me, Ladies, but I’m needed,” he said looking down at his two lap-weights.
“Aww,” Lady Dash said disappointedly, “Do you have to? You can wait a few more minutes . . . .”
Lady Jack just sighed deeply and said, “Come on, Dash, might as well change back to people again.” Suiting actions to words, he had a young woman leaning against his legs. Unfortunately, he now had his hand very inappropriately partway down the back of her dress. He jerked his hand back, and felt his face turn hot as he blushed. She gave him a questioning look, clearly not understanding the impropriety of where he had had his hand.
He hoped no one ever mentioned it to his wife — he doubted she would be as blasé about the incident. She was rather territorial.
Dash sighed in turn and slowly straightened before turning back into a person, as well. “Oh,” she said contentedly, “That was wonderful! Twi, you have to hire one of these guys as official ear-scratcher at the palace!” She sighed again.
“Y’all mean wing scratcher, don’t ya?” snarked her friend.
Castor blinked as he watched Lady Dash turn a bright red.
“Hay,” she said in embarrassment, “it was nothing like that!”
Lady Applejack snickered, “You keep tellin’ yerself that, honey.” In a softer undertone that only the three of them could hear, she added, “I heard you propose, there, sugarcube!”
Dash flushed an even darker shade of red that began to creep down her chest and out from under the short sleeves of her dress.
Castor gave them both a wide-eyed look, then stood. “Well,” he said, then cleared his throat, “I should probably meet them outside. It might be a good move to open the curtains, as well.” He headed for the front door, Miss Arrow behind him.
When he glanced back inside as he stepped outside, he saw a guard taking her previous position. When he looked back at his car at the curb, he saw a man leaning casually against the side of the house across the street, a woman beside the house to the left, and another standing at the path into the forest. It looked like the Equestrians had called in a few reinforcements of their own. Or decided to let him see the ones they had had already in position.
He had to be careful. They were cute and adorable, but clearly the top predators of their world — despite looking and acting like a prey species — and therefore must be dangerous in their own way.
He heard an excited babble of voices from the sitting-room as Miss Arrow closed the front door behind them.
The Landrover that pulled up behind his car fairly screamed that oxy-moron, Military Intelligence, at him. Probably M.I. 5. However, because this involved a possible ambassador, it might be M.I. 6. Maybe both.
The Colonel had some high friends indeed. And they had actually listened, for once!
Four people climbed out of the Landrover, one of them festooned with cameras. The Colonel had taken his suggestion to heart, Castor was pleased to see. He met them half-way down the garage drive.
“This had better be good,” the Colonel half-growled.
Castor gave him a weak smile. “Good afternoon, Colonel, gentlemen,” he said. “Before we go any further I must say that my radio link to my associate, P.C. Havers, cut out the moment I stepped inside the door. So, if any of you have transmitters, they will fail.” He gave them a moment to consider that. And the listeners on the other end to finish cursing. “I’ve asked them to keep the curtains open.” They all looked over to the front windows were they saw the five women looking back at them, and waving when they saw the men looking at them. Castor noticed that Miss Arrow, by the front door, had partially turned to look into the forest at the end of the street. Which just so happened to keep an ear in their direction, He half-smiled to himself. She would have to have exceptional hearing to learn anything. He faced the Colonel, again. “And they told me you were almost here when you drove into the estate.”
That made the newcomers exchange looks.
“With reinforcements.”
The looks exchanged were a bit more alarmed.
“Here’s the problem. These people are aliens. As in, not from our world.” He ignored the mild snort of disbelief from one of the two men he had marked as M.I. agents. The other merely rolled his eyes and stared at him.
“We don’t want to cock this up, we’ll only have one chance at it, I’m sure. They can prove it, and did to me.” He looked at the man with the cameras. “Do you have a video camera?”
The man nodded.
“Get it out and get it going.” He looked at the Colonel, who had raised his eyebrows. “Trust me, you’ll want a full record of this.”
He waited for the man to get the camera running. “They want to establish an Embassy with us. That’s why they invited me to meet them. I’ll let them explain the rest.” He turned and led the small group to the house.
Miss Arrow opened the door for them and ushered them inside.
“Your Highnesses, Ladies,” Castor said as soon as they were in the sitting-room. He turned to the Colonel. “May I present Colonel Jayson Thiessen, Retired. Colonel,” He turned back to the Equestrians. “I would like to introduce Her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle, His Highness Blue Blood, Lady Rarity, Lady Apple Jack, and Lady Rainbow Dash. And this gentleman is their solicitor, Lin Yueshi.”
The Colonel gave him a long look, then turned to the waiting Equestrians and bobbed his head in an abbreviated bow. “Your Highnesses, Ladies, it is a pleasure to meet you. These three gentlemen with me are Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel, and Charles Dodgson.” Each gave a similar bob of their head as they were named, murmuring cordial greetings.
John had his video camera held in one hand, running, and was glancing occasionally at the tiny display turned to one side.
“Your Highness, I think we should first demonstrate that you really are not natives to this world,” Castor suggested to Princess Twilight.
“Oh! Me! Me!” shouted Lady Dash leaping to her feet.
They all noticed Prince Blood rolling his eyes and sighing deeply, Princess Sparkle face-palming, and the others all shaking their heads.
The Princess nodded, “Yes, Dash, go ahead,” she said with an annoyed sigh.
“YES!” shouted Dash jumping up and transforming back into her native form in mid-air. She swung around to face the astonished newcomers. “Bet you didn’t expect that, did ya?”
She laughed. “It’s me — Rainbow Dash! The fastest pegasus in Equestria!” She zipped around the room almost too fast to see, banking around the walls like those motorcycle daredevils who race on horizontal tracks, as Castor had once seen on the news. How she missed clipping one of them with her wings as she did so, he couldn’t figure out. He shook his head. He had seen some people with massive egos, but this pony would give them a real run for their money.
The newcomers couldn’t take their eyes off of her as the Colonel muttered, “They’re flying horses?”
Castor cleared his throat and, speaking softly, said, “Uh, no, sir. Only some of them are flying ponies. The rest are either regular ponies or unicorns.” The Colonel was smart enough to catch his emphasis.
The Colonel gave him a sharp look, as did Carroll and Dodgson. Tenniel was keeping the camera focused on the pegasus. “Unicorns?” Their expressions ranged from a controlled blank to surprise, and even a bit of fear. But they were professionals and kept themselves under control.
“Yes sir, and Princess Sparkle has both a horn and wings. She calls herself an alicorn. She said there are only four of them in her world,” Searle concluded, still in an undertone.
The next half hour was spent with the Princess explaining how they had gotten here, how they had tried to present diplomatic papers, and what they hoped the humans could do for them today. And posing for pictures for Tenniel, both with and without the humans. And both as humans and ponies.
Castor was sure that it wasn’t until the others had actually touched the ponies — Lady Dash had insisted they scratch her ears — that they began to believe it was all real.
The Colonel sat with his elbows on his knees — three “aliens” had brought in additional chairs from the dining room. He was thinking as he watched the four ponies sit and talk the two intelligence agents while Prince Blood watched them disapprovingly and Tenniel filmed them.
“Can you show us this portal?” he finally said.
Princess Sparkle looked over at him. “Why, certainly.” She looked over at Miss Arrow, who stepped back into the hall for a moment. No doubt to pass the word so nobody . . . no pony . . . was caught unawares, Castor figured.
“Come along girls,” she said, transforming back to human. “You, too, Blueblood.”
With the heartfelt sigh of someone from whom much has been demanded and no recognition given for his efforts, the man stood and waited patiently, leaning ever so slightly on his cane. His expression of boredom seemed to be his default expression. He hadn’t smiled or done anything else except frown and roll his eyes the entire time Castor had been watching today.
The Princess stepped past them and out the door held open by Miss Arrow. The other aliens followed her. The humans came last. Tenniel said, “Could you give me a moment to drop off the exposed film cartridges and pick up new?”
“Hurry,” instructed the Colonel.
The man almost ran to the car and popped open the back door to rummage in a bag inside. The Equestians, stopped and watched intently. He looked up at them and asked, “Uh, you don’t mind if someone picks these up and develops the film?” He held up a small bag.
The Princess shook her head.
“Thanks,” he said with a broad smile. He shoved more film cartridges into his pockets, then set the bag on top of the car and closed the door. “They’ll be waiting back at both your offices,” he half-whispered to the two M.I. agents as they caught up with him.
Searle was amazed at how much the path across the street changed in a few short meters. Abruptly there was a wooden deck, barely ankle high above the dirt and with waist-high railings, but looking as if it had been there for years. The deck had the most complete camouflaging coat he had ever seen. Only when you were within couple of feet did you even notice it. If he hadn’t seen the aliens stepping up onto it, he might even have tripped on it. The man and woman standing to either side of the deck as they passed showed him he hadn’t been imaging things yesterday when he thought he had seen someone.
He knew they were close when they entered a depression and the trees spread out a bit as grass carpeted the ground instead of the normal forest debris. He doubted even the most sophisticated examination of a high-altitude picture of the area would reveal anything different from the rest of the forest. Thermal imaging should find the decking, though, as it was certainly a different temperature from the ground. Especially as wood cooled off at a different rate than the forest floor in the night.
The tent, when it came into sight, was large, expedition-sized, and blended in perfectly with the forest. It was easily six by ten meters. He saw that several trees went straight through its roof. He wondered how they had managed to do that without destroying the roof lines. Or having any cuts or zippers through the fabric that he could see.
Standing to either side of the tent’s entrance was another set of guards watching them closely as they approached. Castor took several long looks at the surrounding area. He made sure to point out to the Colonel the, no-doubt, artificially placed blockades that protected the tent from all approaches except this one.
The inside had a wooden deck floor, a continuation and expansion of the decking from outside. The front half was a single open area of about six-by-five meters, with a table to either side. The roof of the tent was translucent, making the inside of the tent extremely well-lit. There were a dozen men and women standing at attention beside the tables, watching them. Oddly, there seemed to be three times as many women as men.
He heard Princess Sparkle sigh. She said, “At ease.” The soldiers relaxed only slightly, keeping their eyes on the humans. There were no weapons of any kind in sight.
Dividing the tent in half was a cloth wall with three canvas door-flaps spaced equidistant across it.
Princess Sparkle turned to them. “This is only temporary until we get the ambassadorial papers, then we’ll start building a more permanent facility.” She pointed at the middle door-flap. “That leads to the portal itself.” She pointed to the right, “That one leads to the male’s changing room.” She pointed to the other. “And that leads to the female changing room.”
She stopped and looked at them. “We are ponies. We don’t normally wear clothes except as decoration. When we go through the portal, it changes us to our normal selves. Which means, if we’re wearing clothes as people and go through it, the clothes would get dirty, mussed, and ripped up on the other side because of our smaller size as we tried to move around in them. Not to mention the trouble to take them off and put them back on without the assistance of hands. And trying to wear the clothes for this side on the other before coming through? We have the same problems. So we come through and then get dressed. Thus, the changing rooms.”
She looked at her friends. “Dash? Would you like to demonstrate?”
The young woman darted through the wrong door, causing the Princess to sigh. She went to open the centre flap, but one of the soldiers hurriedly ran over and opened it for her. She rolled her eyes, and waved the men forward.
The hallway was about a meter-and-a-half wide, he saw as they entered it. The Princess followed behind them. The end of the hallway was blocked by the tree, which had a small sign suspended against it and hanging from the hallway walls.
Halfway down the hallway, he could see two more door-flaps, one on either side.
Lady Dash came through the one on the right. She waved at them, then turned and jauntily walked straight into the tree. And disappeared.
۸- ̰ -۸
The names of the officials... Nice. Unless they were using pseudonyms?
9114414
And just look at how many people just walk up to animals they have been TOLD are dangerous and try to pet them!
I had a park ranger tell me about a time how he had to order a woman and her child back into their car and threatened her that if she got out of the car again he would have her arrested. She had wanted to get a cute picture of the 1,000 pound wild bear, a few meters off the side of the road, licking her son's face. Not only did she try to get the scared kid to walk up to the bear, she had smeared peanut butter on his face! If the Ranger hadn't been there . . . .
And, almost daily, you can see pictures of people getting out of their cars in "Safari" parks and nearly getting eaten by the animals when they've been told, repeatedly, to STAY IN THE CAR!
Aw man, Searle's married. Guess he's not getting shipped.
I find it interesting that they will have brought several regular humans to Equestria (if only briefly) but no wizards or witches yet. (We can be pretty sure that any human with magic that passes through would turn into a pony like Harry did, though. I will find it amusing if one of the government guys does.)
Also, I really wish this story updated more often and with longer chapters, I love it so much.
It begins, now to wig out the Wizarding World with THE POWER OF SANE DIPLOMACY!!!
Brought to you by Harry Potter! Harry Potter, if Voldemort cannot stop him from being a living baby, what makes you think you can stop him from endorsing Diplomacy?
…..as in naked......in front of the soldiers?
9114447
Well, it's unlikely any wizards work within the muggle government but that doesn't discount muggles with wizard family members or squibs from being government officials.
Yay diplomacy and politics I do not know how many people can say that non sarcastically
9114455
Or as a pony, since she's already shown the ability to change back.
A part of me can't wait till the wizards try to cover this up. They've done huge scale memory wipes before in canon HP such as the case of a dragon attack if my memory serves me right. The problem for them will be how the ponies and Discord deal with it when they try.
9114455
One would think they would notice her tattoo wings
Oh goodness! This is progressing so fantastically! The world is going to be ROCKED! Amazing how this went from a Harry Potter crossover to a full diplomatic world incursion! This is AWESOME! MORE! Need so much MORE!
9114447
I can't write any faster than about 8-12K a week. Any faster and quality drops faster than slamming a beer on the counter.
9114515
Who knows how they'll react. The Equestrians aren't wizards, after all, and scientists would be loathe to call what they can do "magic" regardless and would probably scoff at the idea that humans could do what the ponies do. Therefor the Equestrians revealing themselves doesn't directly challenge the wizards secrecy, especially as the ponies have already decided to respect the wizards' choice to hide from the muggles. The wizards could reasonably decide to do nothing and just watch the muggles' reaction to the ponies to see how modern attitudes towards magic have changed.
OTOH, the Ministry in Harry Potter isn't well known for making well considered rational decisions.
9114552
Funny, you already stole my counter argument.
Interesting; a wonky monitor. Not too often you see one of those, really. Also good to see someone accepting they're wrong and taking steps to fix their mistakes - we need more of those people in the world...sigh. Pitchford, Molyneux, Price, Sarkeesian, etc. can and should (but almost certainly won't) learn from your example.
Yeah, by complete bucking accident. The first time travel was a simple "go back a week for a minute" spell, the second may or may not have been a magical mirror (that's often not brought up in ponies-meet-humans stories; I'm guessing this is so Twilight can be surprised), while the third was a vengeful unicorn trying to tear apart Twilight's friendships before they could ever form - and dooming the world multiple times in the process.
Neither of which Twilight knew about until she had already blindly jumped in.
...Just like a certain wolf goddess would do; leap before you think. And look at where that got her; in a tussle with a Spider Queen, a really nasty stomach virus Blighting the Emperor, and a false fox god. Some beings never learn...
Castor, you ain't seen nothing yet; just wait until a changeling comes in. They're able to disguise themselves as either ponies, a draconequus or different objects; why wouldn't they be able to turn into a human? Oh, and the draconequus in question is far more powerful than almost anything else - save for a bunch of rocks, of which six are now part of a tree and a seventh used to be a throne. Also a certain magic-absorbing centaur, hydras and chimeras.
Ponies? Pffft, helpless.
Used to be only one of them; then a second ascended sometime, a third returned from a millennium-long banishment, a fourth ascended because she bucked up her friends' lives and proceeded to fix it, and soon a fifth will be very literally born.
Quintupled in the last few years, the alicorn population has.
9114455
My thoughts exactly.
Somehow I think I might like the muggle interactions even more than the wizarding ones. Or at least damn near as much. Excellent work.
9114570
Yeah. But its never really shown me true white. I thought it was an artifact of the lights in my room. There should be a way to adjust it, but I'm not versed well enough to know which controls will do the job. White comes out every-so-slightly sepia.
9114497
I don't think there was anything specifically keeping magic users from having mundane jobs, though I do remember the earlier books much better than the later ones.
9114585
If you're ever in doubt regarding colors, the MLP wiki (mlp.wikia.com) has the exact colors of practically every pony.
Edit: For instance, people often refer to both Rarity and Celestia as "white", where Rarity is actually light grey (as is Sweetie Belle) and Celestia is very light pink.
9114612
There is certainly nothing stopping a wizard from working in the muggle world but living and working in the muggle world means concealing your magic on a daily basis and most wizards don't want to deal with that.
9114622
They also wouldn't have the education records to get anything but the lowest class of jobs.
9114515
Hoo, not well I'd expect. Mass memory wipes would mean the wizarding world is sabotaging all Equestrian diplomatic efforts, which they would take serious umbrage with. You don't spend several weeks/months of money and effort trying to get diplomacy started only to shrug it off when all that effort goes up in smoke and you're back to square one.
Good thing Twilight has a handy-dandy memory retrieval spell.
9114545
8-12K a week is already damn impressive. I barely manage 4K a month.
9114585
That... sounds familiar. What type of monitor is it?
9114612
There's actually a reason for that: Pure white is a terrible colour to work with. It clashes with almost anything if you use a bright colour palette like MLP. It's always better to get a slightly off-white, it almost always looks better with far less work.
Same for black. Which is why all those black and red OC's tend to look so terrible: Pure black is far too powerful a colour to use as the main colour.
9114628
I guess it depends, many wizards do attend muggle school before going to Hogwarts after that well I suppose a wizard could attend a muggle college or university. Does Britain have a GED that you can get?
9114631
at that speed he'd have a book done every 6 to 9 weeks at around 70k words a book. That for a book writer is sheer impressiveness.
Here we go, theres no stopping things now on the wizarding side of things
Here's a thought, the opening of Order of the Phoenix, or was it Half-Blood Prince, reveals that the Ministry actually fields very capable infiltrators. To the degree that they can place people on the Prime Minister's staff with apparently little effort. So what if the government's first experience with the wizarding world, (aside from the Prime Minister) is when one of the colonel's staffers suddenly turns into a pastel unicorn for no good reason? That could make future diplomacy, difficult.
9114444
Simply because of one simple unadulterated fact: Some people are idiots
9114515
I want to see that
9114545
So... give you juice instead?
9114552
With that imbecile Fudge in power theres no telling what bollocks they will come up with
9114585
These days it should've come pre-calibrated
9114690
I see where this is going, and the hilarity when theyre suddenly unable to cast properly is going to be astounding
9114631
Samsung 19" LED 1440 x900.
Now that I think about it, is it bad that I want to see Ms. Harshwhinny vs that witch from the Ministry?
9114697
I did some research and apparently the wording of the statute of secrecy is that the Ministry is responsible for concealing the existence of all magical beings "dwelling within its territory's borders." The Equestrians would definitely qualify as magical beings, and though the portal may call into question the part about dwelling within its territory's borders that would be a matter for debate (since the actual events are happening in England).
So I guess, technically, I was wrong and the ministry is legally obligated to conceal the Equestrian's existence, at least under some interpretations of the statute. The fact that they're aliens and therefor aren't really endangering the wizard's secrecy (as people will assume they have special powers because they're aliens and not because magic is hidden) just wasn't considered when it was drafted.
It’s almost sad that the normal humans have better first contact procedures than wizards (though given they have never met an alien lifeform or society you can see the gaps in their security. Nevertheless they do have reinforcements on standby if things don’t turn out well.) it probably both helped and made them wary that the Equestrians freely admit their strengths and deficiencies compared to humanity’ Society.
Does the wizarding world keep an eye on their counterparts intelligence agencies and major government departments? (And potentially memory wipe all those present in first contact [and what would Equestrians’ reaction to this or how would they try fighting against it?])
Or would the first they hear of this first contact be someone reading the mundane newspaper or tv broadcasts? (Could they ignore even that as some ‘muggle’ thing and not worth their time to investigate?)
Are any other wizarding countries’ governments more on the ball with their counterparts developments? (And how would they chastised the British MoM for this irresistible break of the stature of secrecy?)
Will any of the first contact group refuse the enter the portal? Are any of them squibs, muggleborn or unknowingly magical? Are any of them part of a group that is aware of the wizarding world and either keeps tabs on it or to fight them if the worst comes to passed?
So exciting
Well things are going very well for the, and somehow I thing it's going to turn bad by the wizard who I think they will do everything in there power to block the ponies opening dialogue with th muggles and force them to deal only with the magical world. I wonder if like in many HiE stories the pony magic is going to impersonate the non magic humans to start fogging up the line between the magic uses and non-users, which they probably think it would take away what makes them Special.
9114414
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9114177
Ok, I am writing this at home and not from my smartphone so I can hopefully convay my feelings towards the last chapter I read. If something is revealed in the chapter that was released today or later on that invalidates this issue or any other issue I have...well I stopped reading the story.
But before I begin I want it known that I don't hate the story or its author. The story had a good premise and is well written (sort of). If you are enjoying the story that is fine and I don't think any less of you for enjoying something that makes you happy. I hope all of you can show me the same respect.
In regards to my last comment, most people seem to be taking it as though I think the detective should have pulled a gun out or it should have gone in an action senerio. Let me start off by saying that I don't know what the gun laws are like in England, if everyone is allowed one like in the US or if only officers are allowed them like in Japan. That's, however, is not the issue. Rather it was the actions of the D.I. Given the fact that we are reading things from his point of view and we know he has reason to believe something is going on (not helped by him losing communication with his back up) I would like to think that he would be more alert in case something went wrong. Then, when the Equestrians say that they are aliens, At that point I would be considering that their were either some sort of cult trying to set up shot or a bunch of crazies who had military training. Or at least a few. Either way is cause for alarm in my book. Then one changes before the D.I. and the reaction is "Ah, ah, ah...A pony. Cute." This drives me up the wall since, you know, she transformed right in front of him. While military training might help, he could have shown some sign of freaking out. Gripping his chair, jumping out of his set, swearing. Just something. Heck, I would have taken a mental thought process of him trying to keep himself together so he can then alert the rest of the police. Remember that they are claiming to be shape shifting aliens who are buying up property in this one area. This is cause for alarm or, at the very least, something to keep a careful eye on.
Why? Because there is no way for him to know if this is the only other form they can take. They could tell him otherwise, but would you believe someone just because they turned into something cute? This could be the beginning of an alien invasion and this is ground zero for all he knows! And for those saying 'They're cute alien ponies. There's nothing to be afraid of.' Well, just because something is cute doesn't mean its not dangerous. Horses and ponies have powerful kicks after all. I also watched as a small dog ripped off part of my sister's cheek and ate it as well as witnessing a cat claw through a man's arm so badly that he wasn't able to use it again for several months. And again, he thinks they are alien ponies. He has no idea if they are dangerous or carrying an diseases! The same thing that happened in War of the Worlds could happen to us.
I honestly wouldn't be raising that big of a stink over this except that it feels like I have seen this played out before...and I have with the Weasley family and ( to a much lesser extent) the first human they revealed themselves to. While the first guy did take it pretty hard, he is still working with them and keeping the secret. However, in the case of the Weasleys its much harder to ignore. Made all the worse when someone reminded me that magical users are used to that sort of thing. They were shocked at first but quickly got over it just like this one non-magical human did as well. It just bothers me.
But what makes it all the worse is that it felt pointless in the end. I mean, what impact did it have on the characters? Did they feel like their backs were against the wall or was there any consequence for them showing him? Sadly no. There were no witches and wizards from the minstery appearing in their house to arrest them for breaking the international decree of wizarding secrecy while modifying the muggles mind. The D.I. isn't planning a move against the Equestrians. There's just no conflict or problems for our heroes to overcome. From all accounts, I'm even strating to wonder if having Harry on earth is even worth it. Wizarding magic seems to be both very easy and far behind Equestrian magic to the point were he has learned all the first year spells in a month. His future team will now have three players with the best brooms money can buy and they all know how to play the game. Ginny has come out of her shell in record time and it would be laughable given how easy every situation has been dealt with thus far that she will become jealous or bitter that she can't be with Harry. Looking at it right now it'll be far more likely that she'll be added to the herd on the train ride to school. Also master detective Harry with his Godfather's case.
This is where I'm going to leave off. I have more I'd like to say, but I think I have made my point more clearly. I hope.
9114585
Start by checking the colour temperature setting. It's meant to reconcile your monitor with the lighting in the room, but it's possible you've got it pushed way into the "incandescent bulb" end of things and it's trying to match the colours you'd see if you looked at a picture of Rarity under candlelight.
(Colour temperature is measured in kelvin, because it refers to the temperature you have to heat a black-body radiator to for it to glow that colour. Stars are a good example of black-body radiators, actually. The sun's photosphere has a temperature of 5,772 kelvin according to Wikipedia (but the hydrogen isn't burning because it lacks an oxidizer. It's just glowing.) and that's the colour temperature of the light we get off it.
6500K is the standard "normal" monitor colour temperature setting you'll find if you explore your monitor's menus.
9114585
I had this same problem with my old monitor (a Samsung Syncmaster 2233sw 21.5" Wide LCD monitor). It didn't really bother me, but it was kind of weird. When I finally replaced it (because of other issues, not the color thing) everything on my new monitor seemed really bright for a while.
Humans petting ponies is always compared to humans petting dogs. For once I'd like to see them react to it with something like irritation.
Of course it's not a complaint, I just think it would be more interesting. Keep going.
First time doing this on my mobile and I think I'm missing comments. Anyway...
Loved the Dash/Applejack pile up and her "Marry me" in response to getting her wings scratched.
I can see it now high stakes diplomacy "We're agreed then we will withhold scritches until they agree to supply 500 cancer curing potions a year."
Shame we don't get to see the colonel/agents response to the ponies transforming in front of them and that we need to wait till Monday to see their reaction to Equestria.
Her friends warning not to let Twilight in the national library or they won't get her out for 114 years and her reactions were adorable. Of course if they are immortal she could pull it off she just needs a time Turner to be in two places at once.
9114570
Fortunately given their attitudes I doubt if any Equestrians will take the increase in Alicorns to be a warning about the dangers of humans.
9114622
What I'm wondering is whether one of these first contact agents are actually a squib. Aside from the whole awkwardness of explaining why they turned into a pony themselves. If they turn into a Unicorn who can use magic in that form it's really going to throw a wrench into the wizarding world. Imagine how many would be lining up to immigrate for the chance they could use magic afterall.
Unless they have a wrecked mane.
To quote from Death Battle,
I think I got that right, anyway
9114729
That would be supremely dangerous, for a reason covered in another Harry Potter story called "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Less Wrong. It basically revolves around the wizards unknown ability to conjure anti-matter being discovered, and having world ending results.
9114836
It would certainly have world-ending results for the wizard doing the conjuration! Unless he did at a distance of many, many kilometers.
9114836
and how does that concern my statement?
9114508
🙁
9114876
Well, nomages are raised knowing of the rule of e=mc^2. Basically, this rule states that conjuring 1 Kilogram of mass is the same as doing about 300,000,000,000 joules of work. If a nomag were to suddenly gain magic, and thus, gain the ability to conjure matter, they would know that they could release that much energy by conjuring anti-matter, and letting it interact with normal matter. While I'm sure most sensible people wouldn't do this, there would always be someone who would.
9114714
ALL MY YES!
9114772
I have seen it referenced as petting in the sense of "heavy petting"; basically sensual massage.
9114772
I recall one story where a human was told he better stop unless he wants her to make a mess from the pleasure shes feeling
I was halfway through this chapter, and enjoying it immensely, when I suddenly remembered it was a Harry Potter crossover. I mean, it's good as that; it's just funny to me that it's also one of the best first-contact stories that I've read.