Chapter Twenty-Three
Preparation
The day after their latest trip to Diagon Alley, the girls finally got around to showing Luna and the boys Parkour. Most of them had been quite reluctant to try it at first. Until, that is, Sunset switched from training to actually doing what she could, using an adaptation of earth pony magic to amplify her physical abilities.
The spell was a relatively simplistic replica of an actual earth pony's abilities and nowhere near as efficient, of course. Not to mention that her raw power, while exceptional for a unicorn, was at the lower end of the spectrum for earth ponies, the price unicorns paid for their magic's added versatility.
As such, she had been nowhere near the level of an actual earth pony, but she had gained strength, speed, agility and endurance in excess of any human.
Seeing her teleport a good thirty feet into the air and land safely had been quite inspiring and the boys had immediately asked to not only be included in their training, but to also be taught those spells. Even the normally sedate Percy had been impressed.
A week later, they sat in the orchard, once again practicing magic, reading books and generally preparing for school. Luna had joined in on their magic practice and Sunset had managed, somehow, to get a guidebook on shadow magic from Equestria. After teaching Luna contemporary Thessian – once more a simple matter of copying her own knowledge of the language into Luna's mind – the girl was often up at night, reading and practicing.
Ginny usually joined her brothers and Harry in their Quidditch practice, using Bill's broom while Harry used Charlie's. Still, it was an open secret that she couldn't wait to be able to transform and fly under her own power. Both her and Luna spent a good hour every day focusing their efforts to be able to transform.
She was, it turned out, a terror on the field, scoring more goals than Harry or Fred could, easily evading any bludgers George sent her way and flying circles around Ron. Literally on some occasions.
Only Harry could come close to matching her as a chaser, but it was clear that his real talent lay elsewhere.
Lying on the grass, Sunset watched the boys, Ginny and Luna try some of the more complex first year charms while she and Hermione were lying side by side, looking through Hogwarts – A History. After a while Harry came up to them.
"Okay, seriously, how are you two reading this fast? You barely look at a page for five seconds, how can you possibly read and understand everything that fast?"
Sunset smirked up at him. "Noticed that, have you? In short, photographic memory. We can recall everything we see. With a few seconds, we can recall enough details to simply read the actual text later."
Ron raised a skeptic eyebrow. "And you both have that? What are the odds?"
"That is rather unusual," Luna added, approaching silently.
"The odds aren't exactly important," Sunset pointed out, "we don't naturally have it. I gave it to us using a spell."
"Really?" Ginny came over as well, looking intrigued. "Can you do that for us, too?"
Sunset sat up and looked at the others that were now sitting in a semi-circle before them. She sighed. "I can. But I must warn you. It's not–" She cut off, staring off into the distance. "Hold on. I've got an idea. Maybe ... I'll be back." Before anyone could ask what she was on about, she vanished in a flash of teal.
Hermione sighed. "Oh dear. She has an idea." She turned back to the group. "I'm not entirely sure what she's up to now, but let me clarify. The spell she used on me hurt. Badly."
Ron looked at her hesitantly. "How bad does it hurt, really?"
"Bad. I haven't had a headache that bad any time before or after. The spell literally changes the brain structure. It takes about half a day before you can even think clearly again. It's not pleasant. At all. But once the actual spell is cast, the rest of the process is slightly less painful. Anyway, I think I should probably figure out what she's up to now. Good thing she was too distracted to mask her teleport."
Lighting her horn, she closed the book and vanished in a flash pale green without another word, leaving the others rather confused. Without much else to do, and unable to trace teleports as Hermione and Sunset could, they returned to the magic practice.
The two only returned late in the afternoon in a flash of flame, accompanied by Philomena. The others hadn't even noticed that Philomena had disappeared some time in the afternoon. Ginny was the first to speak up. "Where have you two been? It's been hours."
Sunset smiled a little sheepishly. "Well at first we only went back to the house to get some materials to plan a spell with, but then we needed some more things so we started by going back to Emma and Dan's place. Then we went to Diagon Alley to get some more materials and in the end we decided to talk to Princess Celestia. She was the one who originally invented the spell after all."
"And now we have a modified version," Hermione brightly added.
"And what's different about this one?" Fred asked. He and George had joined the others a few hours earlier and had been caught up on the matter of the memory spell in the meantime.
"Well it more or less does the same thing," Sunset explained, "but much slower. That way it should hardly hurt at all, maybe a bit of a headache on occasion. Of course that also means that it takes much longer to achieve the same effect. It'll take a few weeks instead of a few hours before its done, but you should start seeing the effects of it long before that, it'll just be a while before they fully manifest."
"And other than that it's the same spell?" Harry asked.
"It is, but as it is, casting it is more a matter of finesse, before it was more a matter of power. Now the tricky part is mainly to give it just enough power to work, but not so much that it works faster than intended."
"But you're sure you can do it?" Ron seemed a little skeptical.
"Yes, Ron, I'm sure. I know plenty of spells that are much harder to cast. Hmm, actually, some of those have a similar difficulty ... If I can repurpose a regulatory matrix from one of those I should ... Yes. That would make it much easier. Hold on." She stared off into space for a few moments as she did some mental calculations. "Yes. That works. I got this."
Hermione turned to Luna and the Weasleys. "But if we're going through with this, we should probably ask your parents for permission first." She chuckled quietly. "I know mine would have appreciated that."
"I don't think Daddy will mind," Luna idly observed. "But asking him first is probably better."
"Yeah," Ginny agreed, "Mum will probably want to know about this."
Getting Molly and Xenofilius to give their okay wasn't too difficult after Sunset and Hermione demonstrated the effects. Still, they had some questions. "So this won't harm them?"
"No. Don't worry. Hermione and I both have it and we're fine, aren't we? And that was the original version that was far less ... gentle."
"So it won't disrupt their days?"
"No. It's designed specifically to speed up while they sleep and slow down while they're awake."
"That part was my idea," Hermione happily chimed in."
"So it was," Sunset agreed with a chuckle.
Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Well alright then, go ahead."
Ginny took a deep breath and spoke up. "I'll go first."
With matters settled, the group moved to the living room and Ginny sat down in one of the armchairs. Sunset, meanwhile, shifted into pony form and jumped up on the table, lighting her horn.
For a good minute, very little happened. The unicorn sat on the table, breathing calmly, her eyes closed and her horn softly glowing. She had mentally gone over the spell while modifying it countless times, but this was her first time actually casting the new version. She had to make sure not to make mistakes.
She could always get faster later.
Finally, she opened her eyes and faced the girl before her. Entirely unlike the original version she had used on Hermione, the spell manifested as a cloud of teal light that flowed off her horn into the air and over to Ginny before seeping into her head.
Sunset was glad to see that Ginny's expression spoke of nothing more severe than mild discomfort. Once she was done casting, she replaced the spell with a specialized scanning spell designed to work with the conceptual magic the memory spell, both the original and the modified version, was based off.
She was glad to see that the spell was working as intended, though the actual changes it had made thus far were negligible. What was more important to her was that the magic had formed properly and was functioning as planned. "Good, that should do it. I'll need to check back in an hour or so to make sure the magic is stable. Assuming it is, I can take care of the rest of you then."
And so they waited, Hermione joined Sunset in assuming equine form and jumped up into Ginny's lap, successfully distracting her from her slight headache. Seeing how they had some time to kill, the boys went back out into the orchard to unwind from their afternoon of study by playing some Quidditch.
Noting that Luna wasn't straying from Ginny's side, Sunset hopped over into her lap, mirroring Hermione in Ginny's. Under the girls' gentle hands the two of them quickly dozed away and only woke up when Mrs. Weasley came to check back on them an hour later.
Seeing how the magic was still as stable as it had been an hour before and that the changes it was making seemed to be going to plan as well, Sunset cast the modified spell on Luna, only taking half a minute to prepare this time, while Hermione went out into the orchard to fetch the boys.
Before she could bring them back, Percy requested to have the spell cast on him as well. Mr. Lovegood and his mother, it seemed, had filled him in while she'd been asleep.
Half an hour later, she had finished casting the spell on the last of the boys. As she lay beside Hermione who had returned to pony form once she was back in the house, she thought about things. She was happy to see that Hermione was so comfortable with spending time as a pony. She wasn't exactly surprised, her sister had long since proved to have an open mind – part of what made such a talented magician – but it was nice to see regardless. Not to mention cuddly.
She thought back on her day. Modifying the spell had been a great deal of fun. The difference in time between Earth and Equestria had worked in her favor. Seeing how it was the late evening in Equestria, Princess Celestia had found time to help them with the modifications.
It had been fun to, once more, work on a complex spell with the princess. Just like old times. Despite the advanced subject material, Hermione had also kept up admirably well, even if she only understood the broadest strokes of what they were actually discussing. Her suggestion of making the speed at which the changes took place depend on whether the subject was awake or asleep had been brilliant.
It was a pity that they hadn't gotten to meet the Princess' new student. As it was it had already been past Twilight's bedtime.
As she thought back, one suggestion Celestia had made didn't let go of her though. "Why don't you show your new friends around Equestria? It should still be a few weeks before school starts, right?"
It was a good idea, but the planning was a bit trickier. She would have to coordinate with the adults at the very least. If at all possible she would like to keep it a surprise to the other kids. Looking at the time, she got up and returned to human form. Drawing her wand, a glance at Harry was enough to get the message across. He got up from the couch to stand beside her. A moment later the two of them were back in the small warded alleyway in Little Whinging.
After a hug goodbye, Sunset watched as Harry walked back off to the Dursleys'.
The Dursleys. There was another thing that needed to be addressed before her ideas even became an option. Deep in thought, she teleported back to the Burrow.
There were plans to make.