• Published 16th Apr 2012
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Hooves, Plush, and Magic: The Untold Tales - Harry Leferts



This is the place for side stories, origin tales and plot bunnies for my fic: "The Wizard and the Lonely Princess". So come on in,

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Nightmare's Gem Of A Plan

Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro and Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling.

"Hello"-Normal Speaking

"Interesting..."-Nightmare Moon speaking

'Huh.' -Normal thoughts.

'All mine...' Nightmare Moon's thoughts


As she flipped through an encyclopedia, Nightmare blinked as she noticed a picture of a gemstone and then raised an eyebrow at the price. "What is the deal with this price for it? I could buy a gemstone of the same size and cut for just a hoofful of bits in Equestria..."

Intrigued, Luna glanced over her shoulder as the rain outside pattered against the window. "Hmm? Oh, right, the Cullian Diamond." She then hummed as she tilted her head. "That is something that I have always found odd, gemstones in this world are worth far more then their weights compared to similar ones back home."

Having heard a slight snort, they turned to see Harry where he laid upon the bed with a book. The young human flushed as he noticed as they raised one eyebrow each at him in askance. "Um... sorry about that..."

Luna just shook her head as she got up and trotted over to the bed before she hopped up on it. "No, it's okay." She ignored the grumble from the doll at the desk before she laid down beside her friend and looked up at him. "So then, do you know why gems are so expensive?"

For a moment, Harry scratched his chin. "Well... they're pretty rare actually, even small ones." He blinked as he got disbelieving looks from his friends and shrugged. "What? They are rare."

The plush shook her head. "But that makes no sense! Gemstones can easily be grown, hay, you can't dig much without stumbling across one at least the size of my eye after some time!"

He just shrugged again. "Must be another difference between our worlds." Harry then gestured in the air. "If I remember what I've heard correctly, gemstones formed in rocks millions of years ago." The human remembered something that she said and blinked. "Wait... ponies grow gemstones!?"

With a snicker, Luna nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes." She then shook her head. "Gemstones have many uses, especially in those items that use magic." At his interested look, she continued. "In fact, gemstones are one of the types of material that can store and channel magic highly efficiently."

From the desk, Nightmare chimed in. "Back in Equestria, gemstones naturally formed in the soil there. They're so common that dragons can use them for a food source and areas hardly ever got depleted of them." She then tapped her chin. "I remember one theory that the amount of magic in the soil was what caused it."

Having given her counterpart a nod, Luna smiled. "But they can have flaws and only flawless gemstones are the most effective for magic, and those are rather rare in the natural environment. So, first the Earth Ponies figured out a way to grow a just about flawless gemstone using their magic. The resulting rock farms are usually located in locales where normal crops can't be grown except with a lot of magical help, such as extremely rocky ground. It helps that the ground in such areas have an abundance of the material for the gemstones to use to grow."

Nightmare leaned back and tapped her chin with her hoof thoughtfully. "Of course, the unicorns before unification, not wanting to be reliant upon the Earth Ponies for such a strategic material, found a way of growing their own gemstones..." She then frowned. "Granted, said way needs quite the amount of magic and can only create small numbers of gemstones at once..." Her thoughts then turned back to the encyclopedia in thought. ‘Hmm... so gemstones here are expensive enough that people will pay a large amount of money for them...’ She turned so that the other two could not see the smirk on her face. ‘Yes... I can use this...


The houses along Privet Drive were all dark as their inhabitants slept peacefully through the night, not having known what was outside darting around the bags of garbage left for pickup. Soon the small shadow stepped out into the light to reveal Nightmare who had wrapped plastic sheets around her and had a small burlap bag on her waist as a makeshift saddlebag. "Now where are you..." Her horn softly glowed as she closed her eyes and then concentrated. "Hmm... Ah, there you are..."

She quickly crossed the street and stopped in front of a garbage bag which she ripped a hole into with her magic. Nightmare grumbled some as she winkled her nose at the smell, but then a what looked like broken shards of a mirror drifted out encased in her magic. With a wave of her horn, they settled into her saddlebag, though she soon frowned as she sensed more of what she needed inside the bag. 'Great... going to have to come back once I drop off my current haul..." Nightmare rapidly made her way to where the park was before she headed to a rock pile. With some effort and grunts, she squeezed through the rocks to a small cavity inside the pile of boulders where she dumped out her bag, small and damaged earrings, a bent fork, and shards of a mirror fell out.

Nightmare looked at it in thought and then looked at the other bits of metal that she could only see due to her being able to see in pitch darkness. "Hmm... Not bad for a few weeks worth..." She then took a sniff of herself and recoiled. "Ugh... disgusting..." The plush then shook it off as she sighed. "This will be worth it though..." She then readjusted the strap for her sack and back out as she had many streets to cover before she had to call it quits as the pre-dawn light began to creep over the horizon.

As she climbed up the waterspout, having hidden the sack, Nightmare grunted. ‘I can’t wait for my bath... it’s a good thing that I do not shy away from using my own hooves if needed... though I wish that I didn’t in this case...

The next night, Nightmare brought the various metallic items and mirror shards to the top of the pile and slowly floated them as she looked first toward where she could sense the New Moon below the horizon before she turned the shaped stone bowl before her and sighed as she closed her eyes. ‘Now then...’ She felt the familiar power of her magic as she channeled it. Unseen by her, the various bits and pieces floated up into the air surrounded by her aura. Over the next few minutes, they began to glow as they heated up until they were melted. Nightmare grimaced as she concentrated, her felt tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.

They slowly congealed into a small orb before it began to spin. Slowly, a layer formed around it which was scraped off by Nightmare’s magic and placed onto a large, flat rock where it ran down its surface as smoke rose from it. Finally, whatever she was aiming for was finished as she had an orb the size of her head of faintly glowing metal. The plush then let out a sigh of exhaustion as she opened her eyes to see it and shook her head to fight off the exhaustion that gripped her. "Come on then... one last spell..." She cast it and the orb flashed purple before she slowly set it down onto the stone bowl, the metal slowly becoming silvery as it cooled still farther, but stayed in a semi-molten state. ‘Good... the hard part is now finished...’ Nightmare then leaned back and her eyes closed as she rested. ‘That was much more difficult then I could have imagined originally.’ With a sigh, Nightmare leaned back and stared at where she could sense this world’s moon was despite it yet being below the horizon as she ignored the slowly cooling molten metal as well as the stone bowl.

Shortly before the pre-dawn hours, Nightmare brought the bowl back into the rocky hollow inside the pile. And each night after that for the entire lunar cycle, she would bring it out and heat it up as she left it in a semi-molten state under the moon using her magic.


A full lunar cycle had passed and the now slightly exhausted Nightmare down from the rock she stood on to the molten metal in the stone bowl. ‘Ugh... damn those Elements for taking away so much of my power...’ She then looked at a small bottle of water which seemed to glow softly in the night next to a larger bucket. Water that through her magic, Nightmare had had absorb the distilled moonlight. ‘And that was even harder.’ Getting up onto her feet, Nightmare let out a breath as her horn began to glow. The molten metal slowly rose up and formed a sphere that floated in the air before her. Then, ever so slowly, the metal began to spin and was shaped within the magic, a small blob coming off it and floating to the side. Eventually, it formed what looked like a vase.

She waited until the metal cooled down more before she lifted up a small nail and dipped it into the water contained in the bottle as she tilted the ‘Vase’ and showed that it was hollow. She then bit her tongue in thought. ‘Now then... what were those arrays... right!’ With a nod, she pulled the nail from the water and maneuvered it into the metal object and pressed it against the metal on the inside where it hissed as she drew a symbol. She continued this for the rest of the night, the metal kept at a temperature where it was soft enough to gouge, but not molten enough to fall apart.

Nightmare suddenly blinked as she started falling forward before she shook it off and looked inside. "Hmm... yes, that seems about right..." She then turned to the other piece of metal and shaped it before she used the nail on it. It was around the time when the moon set that she was done and she sighed. "Finally... it’s done. And not a moment too soon!" Nightmare picked up the bottle and dumped it into the larger bucket before she slowly lowered the two metal objects into it with a hiss of steam.

Once the water stopped steaming, she pulled it out and looked at it as she turned over the two and then fitted them together to show that they looked uncannily like a small silver urn with the hollow part the size of her head. The plush then nodded as she yawned. "Ugh... I feel like I am going to sleep for days from this... should be worth it though..."

Later that day, Harry frowned as he picked up the obviously tired Nightmare and ran his hand along her mane. "Are you feeling okay, Nightmare?" As she glanced at him, he frowned as his eyes showed his worry for her. "You’ve been pretty tired lately..."

With a cough, Luna looked away. "Yes, we’re both worried for you."

For a moment, Nightmare was struck with a warm feeling in her chest before she chuckled a bit and shook her head. "Neither of you two need to worry. I’ve just been working on a project of mine that is all..."


After she heard the door slam shut as Petunia left to go gossip with the neighbours, Nightmare got up from the bed and made her way downstairs. She looked out the window and nodded. ‘Good, she should be gone for about an hour or two.’ The alicorn then made her way to the medicine cabinet and opened it to look around as she muttered to herself. "Now then... where would... ah! There we go!"

With her magic, Nightmare pulled out an old medicine container which was empty. She then walked over to the sink and washed it out as she whistled a tune to herself before she stopped and dried it out. Once that was done, she hopped down from the sink and made her way to Harry’s room where the plush pulled out a loose floorboard which contained what looked like drill bits and the urn from before.

As she picked up one of them, she brought it close to her face as she placed a piece of paper on the floor. "Rather nice for Harry’s... relatives... to have these. As well as let me have them." She then felt her lips twitch in dark humor. Nightmare then focused on one of the shiny specks in the drill bit and, using her magic, pried it out. Once she had finished with each speck, she folded the paper to make a funnel and slowly shook the specks into the container. She then put the bit back into the floor hollow and pulled out another.

The alicorn then brought the container up to her eye level and looked inside as she gently shook it while each speck inside sparkled. "Yes... this will do nicely indeed." That night found her outside the Dursleys with a tin can and some newsprint. As Nightmare felt the slight chill in the air, she chuckled while her forehooves rubbed together. "Ah... the perfect night for this..." She then went back inside and brought out a small bottle of water as well as a match. Setting the match down, the plush stuffed the tin can with the paper before she pulled out the match and struck it. She the dropped it into the can, which caused the paper to catch fire. The rest of the night involved her feeding the fire bits of paper and putting out the few bits that drifted out.

That morning, once Harry had left for school with Luna, she brought out the metal container, the can full of ashes, and the small container. Nightmare poured some of the ashes from the can into the metal container before she unscrewed the lid for the container and pulled out three specks.

These should do for now...’ She then laid them on top of the ashes in the container before she covered them with more ash. Once it was full, her horn glowed until the ashes did themselves and then she put on the top and hid it. ‘And there we go...


"NIGHTMARE!"

The plush jumped a bit from where she had been sitting in the Gryffindor dorms before she turned with a shaky smile. "Luna, how... unexpected..."

Luna just raised an eyebrow as she stood up on her back legs and tapped one hoof on the floor as she stared down her darker counterpart. "What exactly is it that you’re doing..." And before Nightmare could have done anything, she snatched away what looked like an urn and brought it up to eye level. "What the hay...?" The alicorn shook it and raised an eyebrow as she heard something hard bounce around a bit inside. "What is in here?"

It was then snatched from her grasp by Nightmare’s magic before the plush brought it down to where she could hold it. She then looked looked around suspiciously. "Can you keep a secret?" Luna just nodded and Nightmare removed the cap before she brought out what looked like a lump the size of an eye. And then in a flash of magic, the soot that covered it vanished to reveal a rather large diamond. "There, happy?"

For a moment, Luna was too shocked to do anything before she then looked closer at the urn and felt her eyes widen. "That’s an old style Unicornia Gem Urn, isn’t it? But how..." She then frowned. "And it’s made from... Moonsilver!? Where the hay would you get the silver to transmute in the first place!? And we can’t concentrate enough moonlight to imbue the silver in the first place!"

With a snort, Nightmare shook her head. "As for the first, you would be surprised at how many items humans use even small amounts of silver in. Or what they would throw out."

She ignored Luna’s eyebrow as it twitched. "You know... I suddenly remember about how the summer before last had a bunch of garbage bags ripped open on Private Drive a number of times. From memory they blamed cats and homeless people... Tell me that you didn’t..."

Nightmare just coughed into her hoof. "Right, no comment." She then gestured out the window. "As to where I got the magic, the moon in this world is just as magical as back home." The plush alicorn then frowned in thought. "It was actually easier for some reason as the moonlight here seems to allow for transformations to occur easier then back home with it..."

With a sigh, Luna sat down and shook her head. "Why am I even surprised..." She then looked at the diamond in thought. "Why did you even do this? You know that selling diamonds would catch interest that could get Harry in trouble."

As she grinned, Nim shook her head. "Well, I had figured that having a nice nest egg might be worth it." She then chuckled. "However, I found out while we were in the alley that goblins don’t care where the gemstones that are sold to them come from. In fact, they would rather that they did not know."

The lighter blue alicorn raised an eyebrow. "One, you are selling to the goblins? And two, why?"

While she shook her head, Nightmare looked around in order to make sure that none were nearby who could overhear. "That has to do with the second reason that I am keeping this a secret right now. Especially with how I am selling to the goblins, though it’s less selling and more using them as payment." She then leaned forward. "What do you know of goblin weapons?"

Already having guessed where this might be going, Luna frowned. "I know that they’re highly prized by wizards and that they are highly effective weapons... not much more then that." She then looked around before she leaned down. "You’re getting one for Harry, aren’t you?"

With a grin, Nightmare chuckled. "Yes, a dagger in fact." She then frowned. "It’ll be highly useful for him to use if he gets attacked again and loses his wand. Also, it would be easier for him to use then a sword." At Luna’s interested look, she continued. "As for Goblin weapons, they are made from a substance known as ‘Goblin Silver’. From what I read, the metal repels dirt and blood while it takes in that which can only make it stronger. For example, an apparently old trick of the goblins was to dip their armor in the blood of dragons to make it magic resistant, which allowed them to shrug off spells to an extent. They’re also considered to be nearly indestructible as it takes powerful magic to destroy a blade, such as some spell called ‘Fiendfyre’. That attribute also makes sure that the blade never needs sharpening."

Luna thought it over before she slowly nodded. "You’re right... that is rather useful and should make for a good backup weapon incase he loses his wand." Suddenly, she frowned some. "But Harry already has his dagger, and it is rather effective as it is."

There was silence for several moments before Nightmare sighed and rubbed her head. "Yes, you are right that the dagger he already has is rather effective, but due to that it's unlikely that Harry would be comfortable using it even if he lost his wand unless there truly was no choice." Having seen the expression on her other half's face, Nim grimaced. "Remember, from what we know due to the fight with Quirrel just a week ago, just a cut from it can lead to death... rather horrible death at that. So the chances that Harry would feel comfortable using it outside of having no choice..."

Slowly, Luna nodded with her own grimace. "Is very low. So having a normal dagger to fall back onto would be preferable to not having him armed in some way or hesitant to use a weapon he has..." She then gave Nim a questioning glance. "Do you have a design ready for it at the least?"

As she smirked, Nightmare chuckled. "Oh? I suppose that you wish to give me a helping hoof?" At Luna’s nod, she thought it over and smiled as she gave a nod. "I see no issue with that, it can come from us both..." Nightmare then looked around and ducked into the trunk, Luna following. She then trotted over to a book and opened it to reveal a folded up piece of parchment which she unfolded to show a dagger design similar to the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife. "Now then, I was thinking..." The two soon settled into a discussion as they added their ideas and thoughts as well as opinions as they worked...

Author's Note:

And part three of this three part update. Hope that you all enjoyed them!:twilightsmile: