//------------------------------//
// Chapter 01. The beginning. 
// Story: Potter-luck and ponies 
// by StoneGuardian 
//------------------------------//

Harry looked down onto the ritual circle he had painstakingly drawn across the whole floor of the long since disused ritual chamber on the lowest student accessible level of Hogwarts. The floor beyond this one being used to house the Wardstone and according to rumors, the crypt of the founders and was only accessible to the current headmaster.

Down here in the heavily warded chamber hopefully no one would feel what he was intending to do, or at least not before he was finished and long gone. Really the only thing he might have to fear were the more magically aware teachers as no one still patrolled this far down. Few people actually knew that the old ritual rooms even existed and it was not exactly a place fit for a romantic tryst, through undoubtedly more than some random broom closet, so maybe only a handful of students had come down here since the ritual classes had been dropped some 200 years ago.

Nodding to himself in satisfaction, as far as he could discern every rune and symbol was as good as they were going to get and in the right place, he stepped into the upper point of the pentagram he had used as base, the other points being taken up by tokens of the elements they represented.

A burning candle for fire, a bowl with water, a bowl of earth and a small cyclone that had picked up in its point after everything else was in place for air. The cyclone having appeared on its own gave Harry a good feeling, it showed that wild magic had acknowledged his intent to invoke her and she was willing to at least listen.

The last point, his point, was Aether or spirit as some called it. It represented the control of the mind over matter and the magic of the ritual would be channeled largely through him, making him the connection between magic and the physical world and allowing him to somewhat adjust the variables written in the circle, if only to a small degree.
Harry tried to center himself, to get rid of his nerves, if he screwed up, either while channeling or while having drawn the circle, the magic of the failed ritual would lash out. Mostly at him as the conduit which might in the best case scenario simply kill him and in the worst completely burn out his core, making him less than a squib and forcing him to return to the Dursley's. Something that was a fate worse than death in Harry’s opinion.

For a moment, he asked himself if this was actually worth it, he had not even completed a whole year of magical schooling and all preparation for this had been done by himself with no help of more knowledgeable people and in between his work as a student. The amount of possible errors in his design simply by having missed something crucial he would have known had he waited and researched longer was staggering.
An “Eeyup” from the back of his mind, spoken with a distinct southern accent smoothed out his worries, yes this was worth it even if others might disagree.

He pulled out a ritual knife he had Blaise Zabini procure for him, the Slytherin having already build up a reputation for being able to procure everything if the price was right. Of course, Blaise did not know who he procured said knife for, the entire exchange had been done via owl and the exchange of goods while wearing hooded robes and glamours. “May Celestia’s light guide me through the darkness and may Luna give me strength”, he murmured before drawing the blade slowly across his hand, drawing blood. Once the cut was long enough and enough blood had gathered in his hand he threw the blood into the center of the circle with a thunder of:” Per mannulus”.

The magic in the blood gave the initial spark for the ritual and the phrase spoken had been installed to prevent accidental activation. With both of these in place the circle blazed to life and Harry immediately felt the power of the ritual slam into him.

Thankfully the books he had read on rituals had spoken of this and so he was somewhat prepared for the influx of magic he had to guide in the proper ways, assisted of course by the circle. For the most part, he had to do nothing he just stood there, lost in the rituals magic, and let the circle do its work. Only twice he had to intervene and smooth out small problems created by confusion due to not entirely clearly drawn sigils.

But then out of nowhere something went wrong. Harry had designed the ritual to affect Hogwarts only, by anchoring the spell to the Wardstone. However, he had made a crucial mistake by not taking into account that the Wardstone was positioned exactly over the power nexus created by the crossing of every Lay line in Europe.
Instead of the spell burning itself into the Wardstone it went straight towards the underlying nexus.

It happened so fast he had no chance to do anything to stop it and the second the spell touched the nexus Harry could feel himself being spiritually ripped apart as the violent currents of magic tried to sweep him away. Or maybe not ripped apart so much as stretched far beyond his comfort zone and with this feeling came another.

The feeling of an immensely old and powerful entity that looked deep into his soul and judged him. Him and his spell that had, unintentionally as it was, come to burn itself into the very fabric of earths magic. The entity’s spiritual gaze was heavy, but tinted with curiosity which shortly after changed into incredulity, then amusement, contemplation and finally acceptance.

At that second Harry felt himself expand, not stretched like before but as if he had grown over himself, had attained a level of existence so far beyond his current one that there was no compare. He could feel every bit of magic and all things connected to it everywhere on the planet and his reach seemed to expand increasingly fast.

First the solar system, then the milky way, the surrounding galaxy's, further and further, occasionally taking note of some entities in the great void so massive that they lived in so many dimensions that even as he was now he could barely comprehend them in their entirety.

One of them looked surprisingly like the description of Cthulhu, that one, as if sensing his attention gave him a jaunty wink. He was not going to think on that any further, that way lay madness he was sure.

Lastly, he came upon a familiar system. A geocentric system on which he could feel four immensely powerful beings. His senses stopped expanding then and suddenly he was standing on glittering clouds of various soft shades of red, once again his scrawny eleven years old self instead of a massive universe spanning entity. And then out of the clouds stepped two individuals of such grace that even had he not known who they were Harry would have fallen to his knees. They came to a stop before his kneeling form, and he looked at their hooves as he dared not raise his eyes to gaze upon their forms before they did not permit him such honor.

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. I am honored”, he spoke reverently. The princesses said nothing, and he could feel their gazes burning into his bowed head.

Finally after what seemed like an age to Harry the darker pairs of hooves belonging to Princess Luna came towards him and her commanding voice rang out: “Harry James, Heir apparent of house Potter. Rise thine head and gaze upon thine princess”.

Harry did as he was bidden and focused his gaze on Princess Luna, the one who he had sworn himself to only weeks after he had found himself drawn into the fandom. The princess meanwhile looked at him with the perfect poker face before her lips formed a self-satisfied grin. “You have traveled far and the magic that carried you here also carried a desire”, the lunar diarch began before her solar counterpart inserted herself into the conversation.

“One we have decided to grant as your world could greatly benefit from our teachings of friendship, love, and tolerance", the solar sister began before continuing: "When you set out to create the spell that brought you before us you intended to create simulacrums of our citizens, one for each student, mimicking that student’s personality but still ultimately following our teachings. Your desire could be seen as selfish, maybe it is selfish but it carries with it a deep love for all we and our race stand for.
Something you wanted to share with your peers even if you had to endanger yourself for it. This generosity and your loyalty to our teachings have ultimately swayed us to consider your wish instead of dismissing it out of hoof. Harry James, Heir apparent of house Potter know hereby that from this day forward our worlds are linked. Once you return your spell will take effect but different from what you had in mind.
Instead of just the students of Hogwarts all Humans shall be granted a pony companion that mimics him - or herself. These companions shall start out as nothing more than specters and become more real with time. These companions will grow alongside with their counterparts so far as this is applicable and all newborn humans that come after the spell takes effect will also be affected.
After some time, connections that allow travel between our worlds will appear, know that it will be your responsibility to inform your worlds governments about this and that all military actions against Equestria will be answered in kind. We hope such will not be necessary but we will be prepared for the eventuality.
We know that this is an enormous task we have set before you, so we will let you know that you will not have to shoulder it wholly alone. At this moment all equestrian citizens on earth, those you call your brothers and sisters and society calls bronies and pegasisters, are informed of the changes coming. They will help you, who you have brought about these changes and are to be our herald on your world, in thy task”.

Harry had become more and more wide eyed at what he had heard as each bombshell came after the other and was by now worried his eyes may fall right out of his head, if Discord where there they probably would have already. The last bombshell was the Herald comment, which was punctuated by his robe changing into somewhat heavy plate armor that was a mix of Celestia’s golden and Luna’s dark blue guard armor with a cloak that was held together in the front by a yin-yang styled broch depicting the sun, moon and the two royal sisters connected to them.

He was speechless, completely flattened by what had become of his spell, but also determined. There was no way in hell he would not move heaven and earth before he disappointed his rulers.

“I will do my best, your Highnesses. I just hope it shall be enough”, he spoke and the two sisters smiled warmly in answer.

“We are sure that you will, and you shall know that no matter what happens, as long as you do your best we shall be proud of you, our little Pony. Now go, there is much to do for you tomorrow and a young stallion like you needs his sleep”, the darker sister spoke for both of them.

With these parting words Harry once again became one with magic and shortly after was once again deep under Hogwarts in his own body. A tired body that was barely capable of moving with the heavy armor he now wore. He distractedly destroyed the rest of the now inert ritual circle and left the room. The next day he would be unable to say how he got into his bed in Griffindor tower, but by then he would have bigger problems on his hands and decide just not to think of it.