Harry was amazed at the items he saw in the fix-it shop. There were self-stirring cauldrons; plain and fancy brass scales; bins of unbreakable vials; telescopes of varying complexity; wizard radios; large and old-fashioned-looking record-players; newer, fancy, small record-players; and a score of other items. And all of them were at what looked like reasonable prices! He was surprised that the Weasley family hadn’t done some of their supply shopping here.
Ron, he noticed, was staring at a wizarding radio with a calculating look. Just one of his two sickles would be more than enough for such an item, but he clearly wasn’t sure if he wanted to spend his financial boon on such an item. On the other hand, he obviously wouldn’t be spending any of it on clothes or books!
The reason he had two sickles was that Harry hadn’t needed his, he had stacks of galleons in his trunk, as did the fillies. They had decided that giving Ron, Ginny, and the twins their sickles from the Great Hall made far more sense than keeping the coins for themselves. The twins had been easily convinced that this wasn’t charity when Scootaloo said, “We’re nowhere as good as you two at pranking, so consider this as our way of participating.” Unspoken was the thought that if they provided the twins some funds, maybe the twins wouldn’t be as likely to prank them. Ginny and Ron had been harder to persuade, but threatening to give the extra sickles to the twins had changed their minds — they would take the sickles, if only to deprive their siblings of the money to buy even more pranking supplies. Of which Ron knew he would be the target.
He wandered over to join Ron, who gave him a quick look. “You know,” Harry said “it might be nice to have a radio in our dorm room this winter.” Ron had looked at him sharply. “Might make it easier to study,” he had nonchalantly added, “how about we go halfsies on it?” He had shrugged, “I mean, that way we could all enjoy it. Of course, I wouldn’t want to take it home because it won’t work there, so you might as well, right, to keep it safe? And no one could say you’re a spendthrift.”
Ron had slowly nodded, and turned to examine the radios a bit more carefully.
The red-head was just putting their radio, now shrunken, in his pocket when Dean said, “Hey, what’s that?” and pointed outside, up into the air.
The others all made their way to the front of the shop to Dean and looked up at the distinctly pinkish tinge the sky had acquired. The fillies gasped. They recognized that particular hue. The fillies exchange looks.
Sweetie Belle said, “Shining Armor?”
“I’d think so, but he ain’t here . . . is he?” said Apple Bloom.
“Well, Twilight might have gotten him to come with today,” Harry suggested.
They heard Professor McGonagall’s voice very loudly proclaim, “ALL PREFECTS REPORT IN AT THE POST OFFICE!”
“Come on, something’s up!” Scootaloo said and ran for the shop door, followed by the rest. As soon as Scootaloo hit the outside, she was off like a shot, flying to see what it was all about.
There was a huge crowd when they got to the Post Office, which they had expected. Scootaloo and Ginny were hovering over near where Professor McGonagall was talking to someone they couldn’t see. Harry and the other two fillies followed in Percy’s footsteps as he forged a path through the students gathered there, saying, “Make way! I’m a Prefect!” What they didn’t expect to see was that Shining Armor was really there, standing beside Professor McGonagall, as his pony self!
Before they could say anything, though, Professor McGonagall said, “All Prefects, we need an immediate headcount! Make sure that all students are here in Hogsmeade!”
Harry and the fillies exchanged worried looks. Something had clearly gone wrong in the Chamber of Secrets! He hoped Twilight was okay, and the other mares.
Using storefronts and nearby buildings as meeting points, the next few minutes were bedlam as the students gathered into their Houses, and then separated into their years. Scootaloo and Ginny reluctantly transformed back to people, at Percy’s insistence.
“But what about the floo-connections?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Couldn’t someone have used them to go somewhere else?” Harry and the other close Gryffindor Firsties just shrugged. However, Percy happened to overhear them. He said, “The shopkeepers and home-owners are keeping a sharp eye on who is using the floo’s. The Headmaster had the house-elves warn the villagers this morning while we were still at breakfast. Students were not to have access to them for any reason. And each one has a house-elf hiding and watching it to thwart any sneaky attempts.”
And then he explained what house-elves were to all Gryffindors who didn’t know about them. Hermione, Harry, and the fillies were not happy to learn of the slavery in which the creatures were held. Harry expected words to be said by Twilight when she learned of it.
To help search the village for stragglers, Professor McGonagall called in the assistance of the house-elves. Their abrupt appearance startled many of the muggle-born and half-blood students. It took only fifteen minutes to verify that all the Hogwarts’ students were present and accounted for.
Professor Quirrell scowled fiercely, his instructions curt, and his stuttering was oddly under control. He may have looked like a joke in the classroom, but out here he was decisively in control and direct. No meandering sentences, just short curt orders issued in a no-nonsense, you-will-not-disobey, tone.
Fortunately, it was still early enough that none of the students had started to explore the farther reaches of the quaint little village. Which would have put them outside the shield Prince Shining Armor had erected.
By the time the counting was done, word had spread that the Chamber of Secrets had been found, that there had been a monster in the Chamber, that the monster had somehow escaped the Headmaster, and that it was now suspected to be in the Forbidden Forest. Hence the transparent pink dome over the village.
While that had been going on, the professors had been gathered and brought up to date. Harry noticed that Professor Quirrell now seemed to vacillate between being angry, frightened, upset, and frustrated! He was most certainly frustrated when he discovered that the shield put up by Prince Shining Armor prevented anyone from physically entering or leaving the village. Or apparating — some of the older students did have their licenses already, after all.
With that bit of excitement settled, the students scattered once more and returned to deciding how they were going to spend their remaining bounty of knuts. And gossiping and speculating about what was going on and why the wizard called Shining Armor was putting up the shield as a unicorn animagus instead of using his wand.
۸- ̰ -۸
Dumbledore found himself carefully studying the animagus ahead of them as she ran down the tunnel. Princess Luna was ably demonstrating that he had drastically under-estimated the Atlanteans.
The battle in the Chamber had been enormously illuminating. The ponies had physically attacked the basilisk instead of using magic. When those tactics had proved ineffective, the Princesses had hit the basilisk with powerful fire-beams as they hovered in mid-air.
Unlike fiendfyre, which required great skill to keep it from attacking its caster and staying on target, or incendio, which was a rather weak flame, those beams had been intense, powerful, and easily manipulated. The snake’s inherent magic-resistance had rendered the fire-beams ineffective, naturally, but, then, neither were wizards’ spells very effective against such an armoured beast.
It would have taken several dozen experts to kill the creature using their normal spells. And there would have been many injuries, or even deaths. The beast’s only weak spot was its mouth, and the snake would have quickly learned to keep its mouth closed except at the very last second of an attack.
And the pink pony had used Princess Twilight as an instrument of magic — that had shocked him to his core. He had never heard of such a thing in all his research into magic. It shouldn’t be possible to use another wizard or witch as a magical weapon! But he had seen it. Perhaps it was that their wand was their horn that allowed such a thing?
That none of the Atlanteans had tried magic first, except for Prince Armor’s shield spell, was distressing. It implied that magic was so common that physically attacking was considered the most effective first option. That was a concept few wizards could even begin to comprehend. Wizards relied heavily on their wands and magic, and almost never resorted to physical violence.
Any wizard facing an Atlantean in a duel would learn a hard lesson that magic wouldn’t always win a fight. Using your wand to defend yourself from a magical attack left you open to physical attacks. Not to mention that a flying attack from Dash, or any of the pegasi, would flatten a wizard before he could even think of a spell, much less pull a wand out of his pocket.
Moreover, the sheer power in those fire-beams would have burst through the average wizard’s shield spell in a few moments. And finally, using their horns meant that you could never summon their main weapon in a duel, but they could summon yours if you were even distracted for the tiniest moment.
It was a wonder that the Atlanteans didn’t spend all their time as their pony animagi! And they were almost irresistibly cute in that form, as well, which would trick any wizard or witch into drastically under-estimating their opponent until it was far too late.
Apparition during a duel was difficult. You had to stop whatever you were doing and perform the wand movement while devoting all your attention to the spell, or risk splinching. Teleporting, as practiced by the Atlanteans didn’t have that delay, meaning as soon as you thought of it, you were moved — no wand movements at all, no transitioning from one movement to the next. And Twilight had just gone through a series of teleports that would have taxed all but the strongest wizards, not to mention performing them in mid-air-to-the-ground and back, something wizards considered nearly impossible to master, never mind being extremely dangerous. And he knew of none in history who had mastered that skill! Even Voldemort only apparated while his feet were on the ground.
And now he had just seen Princess Luna shrink herself, and her passenger house-elf, Minnie, to a smaller size in order to fit into the snake’s tunnel that led from its lair, the tunnel being just over three-quarters as tall as she was. And she had done it while levitating three ponies and three wizards in her wake. That, again, indicated a tremendous amount of power as well as very fine control of magic. An impossible feat for a wizard as you could only do one spell at a time with a wand.
It had been a very long time since anyone had used magic to pick up and carry Dumbledore, and he found the experience to be quite odd. A feeling he was sure he shared with the other professors. That the one that still carried them was carrying a total of six beings, seemingly effortlessly, and while running through a stone-arch tunnel was astonishing.
That she did so without once having them touch the walls, nor ever looking back to check on them, was even more so. Especially considering the way the tunnel twisted side-to-side instead of being a straight line.
No wonder the others had made her one of their rulers! Or had she simply seized power and no one was strong enough to depose her? But she ruled with her sister, according to what Rarity had said, so maybe the two of them were unbeatable? But then why would they allow a potential competitor to arise, as Princess Sparkle appeared? Sure, she wasn’t as powerful as them at this point in time, but eventually she would be able to match them. And Rarity had mentioned another Princess in another kingdom, didn’t they worry that she and Princess Sparkle might join forces against them?
They were certainly going through the tunnel much faster than they could have if they had tried to follow the basilisk on foot. The low ceiling would have put the wizards in a half-crouch, an awkward position in which to try to hurry. And the gravel underfoot would have made their running all that more treacherous.
Luna was lighting the tunnel before them with her horn, giving them some light to see ahead.
He had no doubt that if this tunnel was long enough, they would catch the snake. Although what they would do then was questionable. The low-ceilinged tunnel didn’t provide much in the way of manoeuvring room, did it now?
And then there was her attitude. She seemed to be enjoying herself. She had clearly hoped that the basilisk would put up a fight. And she had not been slow to start once the decision had been made by the basilisk. Her delight at being the first to draw blood was troubling, but she plainly took no pleasure in causing pain. It was only in the execution of her strategies.
That she had turned to the other princess for instructions when she clearly was the more experienced leader had surprised him greatly. Especially because Princess Sparkle obviously considered the other to be her superior. And had appeared just a surprised as himself.
That Princess Luna was using this incident as a teaching moment was evident, now that he considered things. But why? Did they not consider her and this other alicorn a threat? The Atlanteans had implied that their ruling Princesses were immortal, or, at the least, extremely long-lived. Did that mean Princess Sparkle was equally long-lived? Harry had said she only recently became a princess, so maybe not? Maybe they didn’t consider her a threat because she wasn’t immortal?
He shook his head. He had to concentrate on what they were doing now. A distraction now, no matter how intriguing, could get one of them grievously injured or killed.
He saw that the tunnel in front of them seemed clearer than before. They must be approaching the exit, he decided. He could see that the tunnel had a gentle slope upwards, now.
Princess Luna slowed to a walk and gently set them all on the tunnel floor.
“We shall check the exit for a trap,” she whispered, carefully moving forward. Rarity moved up to her flank, sword ready. Dumbledore could see the faint shimmer of a shield in front of the two Atlanteans.
Pinkie Pie popped her head into the tunnel from the opening ahead, “Come on, you slowpokes,” she said in a stage whisper. “The snake’s gonna get away if you don’t hurry.” She giggled disturbingly.
He heard Filius gasp from slightly behind him. “How did she get out of here without us seeing her!” demanded the Charms Professor. “She was right here a moment ago!”
Before he could say anything, the three ponies in front of them broke into a run and burst out of the tunnel. They followed as fast as they could manage.
The four ponies were gathered to one side of the exit.
Dumbledore took a look around. The surrounding trees made it impossible to determine precisely where they were. Behind him, when he looked, was a small outcropping of rocks liberally decorated with grass and bushes. The bushes that had once hidden the tunnel entrance from view were smashed flat.
“Prithee thee, wait here while I scout from above,” said the dark-purple pony, now her normal size.
“Wait,” said the Headmaster. He held up his wand balanced on his finger and concentrated. He cast the owl-mail spell with the basilisk as the addressee. His wand spun, then stopped. “The basilisk is that way,” he pointed in the direction indicated by his wand.
Princess Luna launched herself into the air and started flying after the King of Snakes. Once more they were all in the grip of magic as she dragged them behind her. Dumbledore found himself brought up to beside her so she could keep an eye on his wand.
It was a short flight, but it was long enough to show the Headmaster where they were. They were a mile, maybe a mile-and-a-half, from the castle, due east, and on the opposite side of the lake from the village. The students and residents of Hogsmeade were safe, for the moment.
For some reason, the snake was headed back towards the school. There seemed to be a large grey area in-between them — a collection of dead trees. He would have to have Hagrid check that out later to make sure there wasn’t a problem.
Half-way to the grey area, Dumbledore’s wand suddenly pointed down.
“HUZZAH!” cried the Princess, letting loose another blast of magic and playing it back and forth for a moment directly below them. Dumbledore felt her magic holding him vibrate while she did that. Was she casting multiple magics simultaneously? Or just switching between them at a high rate of speed? Either was an accomplishment he had never heard of a wizard achieving.
The trees were rapidly reduced to smoke and ash, and left a portion of the snake exposed. The snake quickly disappeared into the trees.
She coasted down to the clearing she had created and released everyone. She glanced over her shoulder at the house-elf. “Tell Twilight and Rainbow Dash where we are.” Minnie popped away immediately. Just as Princess Luna turned back to them, Twilight appeared at above her, coasting with both house-elves on her back. Minnie again popped away. The wait was a bit longer, but Dash came zooming in from the north with both house-elves. Twilight and Dash quickly landed.
“Twilight and I shall retrieve the basilisk,” Princess Luna said. She grinned gleefully. “Now that we’re in the open and away from the school, I don’t have to hold back!” She danced merrily on her hooves, then launched herself after the snake at a full gallop, Minnie clinging to her mane, terrified. Twilight followed in the other Princess’ wake. Squeaker clung to her mane, looking no less scared than the other house-elf.
Dumbledore and the three professors looked at each other before hurrying down the trail left by the snake. Applejack and Rarity trotted with them as Dash soared up into the sky to watch from overhead. Pinkie Pie pronked along beside them, drawing amazed looks that she ignored. She was softly singing. The only words Dumbledore made out were, “smoke on the water, the fire in the sky.” He shook his head and concentrated on not tripping over the broken debris left by the snake.
Ahead of them, they heard repeated rapid explosions. Flashes of light filtered through the trees. Dumbledore could see smoke overhead through the tree canopy. He could feel the ground shaking under his feet. Pinkie Pie, he saw, was now wearing a camouflaged helmet and vest, all in pink, with, of all things, a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth. And was that a three-day-old dark beard on her muzzle? Did ponies have beards? Did mares have beards? Had he breathed in something in the Chamber and was now hallucinating?
The explosions and flashes continued. There was a blast of light. They all ducked their heads to the side and winced, closing their eyes. There were a more explosions and flashes of light. Another burst of brilliant light. This one didn’t immediately fade. It was sustained for several seconds before dying out. Then silence.
The wizards exchanged worried looks. The ponies exchanged triumphant looks. Moments later, Rainbow Dash came flying up behind them, Mousey still clinging doggedly to her mane. Mousey looked stunned at what she had seen.
“Luna got ’im!” she declared. “It was incredible!” She hovered upright. “You shoulda seen it! Luna went BOOM!” Dash struck out with hoof, as if she were boxing. “The snake hissed and tried to run, but Luna wouldn’t let ’im. BAM! Luna hit ’em again!” She struck out with the other hoof. “He dodged to the side,” she hovered to her left. “But Twilight was ready and blew a crater where he was headed. Then he turned the other way, but Luna blocked ’im with another explosion — BOOM!” Dash continued to give them an explosion by explosion summary of the battle for almost a full minute. “Then Luna burned a big circle around the snake so he couldn’t escape — PHOOSH!” She threw both hooves up in the air. “He tried to leap up at Twilight, but she dodged and gave him a face-full of whompin’! Then Luna grabbed ’im in her magic and squashed ’im right down!” She looked at them grinning as proudly as if she had done it herself. “They’ll be here in a moment.” Mousey nodded dazedly.
Almost on cue, after a brief wait, the two ponies came trotting back down the snake’s trail. Princess Sparkle looked tired, but Princess Luna looked exhilarated. Between and above Luna’s folded wings was a sphere of energy not quite as big as Rainbow, and almost thick enough to be opaque. Inside it could barely be seen the form of a coiled snake, obviously hissing wildly, furious at its containment. Minnie was so tightly pressed against the Princess’ neck to avoid touching the sphere that she almost disappeared into Luna’s mane. Squeaker, still on Twilight’s back, had the same stunned look that Mousey displayed.
“We haven’t had such fun in ages!” Princess Luna declared. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She turned to the Headmaster and stared at him intently. “Perchance, dost thou have any other monsters with which We might joust?” she asked hopefully.
Dumbledore stared at the trapped basilisk. He had expected it to be dead. He cleared his throat. “Not that I am aware of, your Majesty.” And tried to imagine how much magic it took to overcome the basilisk’s natural magical resistance to make it possible to use a shrinking spell on the beast.
“Oh,” she said, clearly disappointed and her cheer deflating a bit.
“What will you do with the basilisk?” he asked carefully.
Princess Luna shrugged dismissively. “Place it in Tartarus with the other dangerous monsters. In a nice, large, cool chamber inside a much larger ice cave it cannot cross, so it won’t be inclined to mischief. Fear not, he shall be well cared-for,” she said, nodding.
He slowly nodded. “I see.”
The Ministry would have quickly killed it and harvested its corpse for the valuable materials it contained. A basilisk of its size had never been seen before, and the profit from its venom alone would make a wizard rich. Never mind what hit-wizards would pay for the hide!
He looked at the Professors, all of whom were inspecting the snake’s enclosure closely. “Then,” he said, “we should probably head back to Hogwarts.” He turned to the Atlanteans. “Do you wish to stay in your animagi forms?”
The six ponies exchanged glances, then, one by one they returned to normal, their house-elves dropping down beside them. Except Rainbow Dash. She said, “I’ll, uh, go tell Fluttershy we found the basilisk and everything’s okay.”
She shot up through the trees’ canopy before anyone could point out that they could easily send one of the house-elves. And carried Mousey off with her.
“I swear” Rarity said, shaking her head, “if she could figure out how to fly while sleeping she would never stop flying!”
“It would appear to be so,” said Dumbledore, looking up disbelievingly at the fading rainbow streak the blue-coloured pegasus had left in her wake. He shook his head slightly, then looked down at the ground. Bending over he picked up a broken branch. The ponies watched him curiously. He smiled and lightly tapped the wood with his wand. The stick glowed briefly.
“Now, if everyone would place a finger on this, it’ll take us straight back to my office.” They crowded close and each followed the instructions, even the house-elves.
Except for Princess Luna, all the Atlanteans ended up in a pile on the floor. “What was that!?” demanded Miss Applejack. The rest muttered incoherently. Both Miss Rarity and Miss Applejack were holding their stomachs and looked a bit green. “Can we do it again?” said Pinkie Pie, giggling and staggering a bit as she stood.
Princess Luna was restraining a laugh.
“Ah.” Dumbledore said, eye twinkling kindly. “I thought you knew of portkeys.” He held out a hand and helped Princess Sparkle back to her feet. “There is a trick to them when landing. As you see the ground approaching, start walking and you will be fine. Otherwise you will end up tripping as the spell stops and you keep moving forward. Plus, your first time can be quite disorienting, as you have discovered.”
He tossed the stick into his fireplace. Princess Sparkle hopped excitedly, and a bit unsteadily, from foot to foot, “Could you do that again?”
He looked at her, mildly surprised. “Make a port-key?”
She nodded eagerly as her friends regained their feet behind her.
Smiling, he picked up a small paper. “I must tell you first, however, that making portkeys is strictly regulated by the Ministry. However, as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, I am empowered to make them as long as I restrict myself to Hogwarts, or in cases of dire emergency. There are special charms, however, in effect around every country to redirect international portkeys to specific controlled locations in those countries. And redirected portkeys can be extremely unpleasant.”
The Atlanteans exchanged looks and shuddered.
“There are several variations to the Portkey charm,” Albus lectured. “You can set it to activate at a specific time. You can make it activate when touched. You can make it activate only to a specific person. You can make it respond to a verbal command. And, you can combine these.”
Princess Sparkle nodded eagerly, and Princess Luna watched curiously.
“In operation, it is quite similar to apparition. First, you determine the destination — and it has to be somewhere you are familiar with — and then decide which activation triggers you want. Then, keeping all that in mind, you tap an object with your wand and say, portus.” He illustrated by tapping his wand on a blank sheet of paper on his desk.
He handed the sheet to Princess Sparkle. “This will take you directly to the Hogwarts front gates and then back here when you say ‘front gates’ and ‘office,’ respectively. It will work only once for each of those. And only for you.”
She took the paper gingerly, staring at it, her lips moving as she ‘read’ the charm.
“You may use that to go to Hogsmeade and retrieve your companions.” He smiled again as she looked up at him. “If you could be so kind as to return with Professor McGonagall, I would appreciate it.”
He turned to Princess Luna. “I would suggest you go with her to Hogsmeade so you can teleport home with your prize.” He looked up at the sphere hovering over her left shoulder. “I am not sure that you wouldn’t lose it if you tried to take it through the floo.”
She nodded as she looked at the sphere thoughtfully.
۸- ̬ -۸
And thus the main threat of the second book is ended. Though I imagine there will still be trouble during the second year.
Harry is already noticing something about Professor Quirrell, how long will it be before he and the CMC decide to investigate him for a Cutie Mark?
Watching Dumbledore's thought process with trying to figure out the "Atlanteans" is funny. It's so over-complicated compared to what the actual truth is!
Awwww poor Luna just sounds so cute and hopeful when she was asking for more, I just imagine her with her ears back and teary eyes asking, "Please sir, can I have some more monsters?" like an adorable oliver twist pony.
Well, it's the first thing you've got right so far, Dumbs.
And thus, Luna returned victorious from her hunt! She would love the Bloodborn universe.
A fine chapter but I admit to being disappointed at the ponies once again curb stomping their way to victory.
Why do you insist on making wizard magic inferior? Apparating is never described like that anywhere in canon it very much works how you expect a teleport to work. You think where you want to go and just go, no complex wand movements or complicated steps just the ability to maintain focus on your destination long enough to arrive there safely.
The only reason children aren't taught to do it is that they generally aren't powerful enough yet and that its kind of unreasonable to expect a child to focus on only one thing for an extended period of time without getting distracted.
I generally use Fantastic Beasts as a good example since they apparate all the time in that film.
Silly Dumbledore, there is a perfectly logical reason for why the Princesses are not in conflict!
See, Cadance was adopted by Celestia. Then Cadance married Shining Armor, who is Twilight Sparkle's brother. Afterwards Cadance came to rule the Crystal Empire, after which Twilight experienced her own apotheosis. Therefore, the two nations of Equestria and Crystal are bound by blood and with bureaucracy being what it is, Celestia and Luna are MORE than happy enough to have some additional help in the ruling department!
Are we going to keep seeing into Dumbledor's mind as he thinks about the ponies? It's basically established that he cannot guess the truth about them with the information he has right now, and the cultural constraints on his mind. It's getting old at this point to basically keep re-reading what is effectively: "The wizards were in awe of the ponies!"
It's cloudy and grey in central oregon, so this has brightened my day.
9255913
wrong, in the books the magic the students learn is wide and varied, it is stated that specific schools of magic have to have entire lifetimes spent learning them, the only ones that master all of them or at least are adequately talented are aurores, but even then there aren't that many, since a lot of them die trying to catch or kill dark wizards who spent their entire life learning that one school. the ponies, on the other hand, don't have these problems since they can practice magic 24/7, use it for everything, and fight creatures of this magnitude daily.
How far north are you if you're seeing snow?
Personally I am loving the Dumbledore's perspectives as he tries to figure them out I am disappointed that we missed the fight though. And that there was no Sonic Rainboom involved!
9255913
Eh, this battle made the basilisk appear far more of an actual dreaded menace than the one in the book.
9255976
Yeah but in the books it got immediately blinded by Fawkes and even then was still a serious threat. It's treated as so much of a non-threat here it got taken down off screen.
9255913
Can you imagine the pony that can move the moon (even if it is a small moon above Equestria) having a problem with handling a monster on the ground? She can literally move mountains with her magic, a small monster wouldn't be a problem. A tank with a six-inch cannon looks like a mighty powerful weapon until you match it against 18-inch cannons on a battleship. The battleship barely notices the hits, but even a miss from the battleship will destroy the tank.
9255963
New Hampshire, about 100 km north of Boston.
9255986
I get your reasoning but that doesn't make the whole thing less disappointing. I would have preferred Luna not be included if she was just gonna trivialize the whole thing.
Hahaha, woohoo! Awesome chapter. Mr. Basilisk is en route to an all expense paid trip to a relatively cushy home in Tartarus. Not a bad alternative compared to what he would've received otherwise. And Dumbledore managed to track the nasty bugger better than the ponies could have themselves, so it's a good thing he and the other professors came along. Excellent chapter!
So how long till the cat is out of the bag? Its almost certain that someone herd all of the explosions.
9255984
A serious threat to single twelve year old with no combat experience and no real idea what he was going to face. In that context, yeah the basilisk was a threat. But in this scenario, the basilisk was facing some of the most powerful veterans of both Equestria and the wizarding world, prepared and ready to fight. Book basilisk wouldn't have stood a chance.
9255699
Hagrid wand is incorporated into his Umbrella. So he doesn’t need a wand.
9255897
Its a year too early but I want Luna to meet Luna cause ... reasons ..
9256020
I'm not disagreeing with that but I was hoping for some epic cooperation between the wizards and ponies as they deal with the snake. What we got was the ponies handling everything while the wizards provide backup.
What we got is fine but I was hoping for something more interesting. This could have been a great moment for the wizards to finally shine but apparently they are doomed to always be pathetic compared to the ponies.
...Why is this dooshbag still alive? Someone get Harry to burn him already!
With the basilisk, actually.
9255984
A serious threat to a 12 year old. by himself.
Would that same snake still be a "serious threat" to any wizard over 12? with 5 or 6 allies as backup? one of whom is a Moon Goddess?
i am thinking not so much ...
Slightly disappointed the Equestrians managed to completely dominate the fight with the basilisk. Overall, however, a great chapter, though, part of me feels kind of bad for Dumbledore. He keeps trying so hard to form some kind of logical conclusion surrounding the Equestrians, but every time he does, the reality of the situation ends up figuratively slapping him in the face as it just continues to fly in the face of everything he thinks he knows about the 'Atlanteans'.
The worse part is that it really isn't Dumbledore's fault. He made the best conclusion he could with what little information he was presented with and given that that conclusion was "Atlantis," you can only imagine just how little he was going on. Then again, when all possible explanations fail, then the impossible must be the answer. Unfortunately, even when thinking outside the box, as it were, he literally can't imagine just how extraordinary the truth is.
Here's hoping Dumbledore gets some solid answers soon. I don't think his sanity can take much more. Maybe Discord could show up to throw a wrench in things by lending Dumbledore a hand in discovering the truth. A surprise trip to Equestria, perhaps?
9255905 Luna would love being stuck in wherever Bloodborne takes place, the Soulsverse or possibly Tamriel.
*snrk!*
Careful, there. If New England being socked in by bad weather means we get more chapters, you'll soon have every witch, shaman, and pegasus on the site working to bring you Eternal Winter.
I think that Dumbledore is starting to fear the ponies. I hope that sooner or later he can have his fears given a rest.
9256101
He better be, ponies the most dangerous animal on earth.
9256039
Because he is not an idiot.
And thanks for the copyedit. Fixed.
9255992
Yes. But that would require the ponies being stupid, wouldn't it? You have someone with centuries of dealing with huge monsters and here you have a huge monster -- so let's send someone with only a bit of experience to handle the problem instead. Which is the failing of every villain in every fantasy. "Oh, no! The hero is coming? What should I do? Send the absolute best and most powerful detachment to deal decisively with the hero? Or send weaklings who are barely as powerful as him and allow the hero to gain experience and confidence, and let my people see that I make poor tactical decisions all the time and therefore the hero might win and they should support him?
Which would you do?
It's like the war joke the Russians had:
If you come upon an unknown group that may or may not be the enemy, shoot over their heads.
If you get a volley of well-aimed rifle-fire, it's the British.
If you get a steady blast of machine-gun fire, it's the Germans.
If you get wildly inaccurate fire and screaming, it's the Italians.
If nothing happens for several minutes and then your position is destroyed by extremely accurate artillery fire or by successive air strikes, it's the Americans.
Nothing says competence like obliterating the enemy on the first strike without risking your personnel at all.
9256033
If Dumbledore was Smart ( and I would like to give him credit for being Smart) then it would be a Very Good idea to watch his Atlantean/Pony allies until he gets a better understanding of who they are and what they are capable of doing.
Dumbledore knows what he and his professors are capable of doing. The limits and abilities of Atlantean Princesses? And their close friends and families? THAT information is worth more than gold and is much more valuable than an ego boost from doing more damage to the snake would grant.
IMHO that is
Who knows ... Dumbledore just may have been Smart enough and Fast enough and Sneaky enough to place a tracking spell on snake boy ... a tracking spell that could show him that Equestria is in fact NOT Atlanta ... I mean Atlantis.
still waiting for Luna to decide it's best that equestria have some eyes in Hogwarts and therefore assign twilight to stay on as history of magic teacher, i want to see the look on Dumbledore face when he tries to refuse only to receive a royal order from the crown days later, i mean the British crown not the equestrian one.
9255913
actually they do go over it in the books and it's described as being not only exceptionally difficult but incredibly dangerous.
If only you knew dear Albus, if only you knew.
9256137
You mean like in the episode Dragonshy? The ponies aren't stupid but that doesn't mean they always understand the severity of the threat.
Would it really be so bad to write the ponies as they are in canon? You know as actual characters with real flaws that impact the direction of the story. Things have been really easy for the ponies so far so it would have made sense if they had gotten a little arrogant and believed that Twilight and her friends could easily handle the Snake even without the wizards' assistance. After all the wizards are so pathetic that surely whatever they consider a threat can't compare to what the ponies deal with in Equestria.
It's not interesting to see the ponies written as overly competent, unstoppable beings who are so far detached from how they are in canon they might as well be completely different characters.
9256168
Instead of shoehorning Twilight into a history class she really does not know IMHO Dumbledore and Hogwarts would be much better off creating a higher year class ( maby 5th year to 7th year) based around Spell Creation and Spell Adaptation.
A class like that would really use Twilights abilities to their fullest and possibly do the most good for Hogwarts Students.
assuming that Twilight has any time off from her regular duties or enough time to part time as a teacher.
9256180
doesn't know? really? twenty thousand books my friends, twilight sparkle, she probably knows more about the wizarding worlds magical history then Dumbledore does by now.
9256174
Dragonshy wasn't really about capturing or slaying the monster though.
9256201
There's a huge difference between having read a history book and teaching history.
9256129
They are like a friendlier version of the Borg. They will allow us to continue on our way they just want to be our friends.
9255987
That puts you really close to me, I live in NH too, about 20 minutes outside of Concord.
[outside was -> outside she was]
Pay no attention to my grammatical quibbles. I'm really enjoying your story.
9256213
Internet provided me with another word that fits even better. They came to an impasse. Starlight wanted to alter history and Twilight wanted her to not.
9256039
I just wonder what would happen if Harry were to 'accidentally' palm (or hoof) sQuirrel's forehead during a classroom demonstration?
°U°
9256050
Maybe not being stuck, but I'm sure she'd enjoy visiting.
Noice
Methinks the Brits will take exception to Luna teleporting back onto the future embassy property with a giant freaking snake trapped in a bubble. Let's also hope that video and images do not transmit it's ability to paralyze or kill with a glance should any said cameras capture images of it's eyes.
aww Luna finally get to really cut lose and discord missed all the fun.
9256201
Knowing the history book does not make her a history teacher.
If that was all they needed they could just recruit another ghost to be as bad a teacher as the one that just departed.
No. Hogwarts needs a Real history teacher who understands and has a passion for .. history. That unfortunately aint Twilight.
Now Magic. Twilight has a passion for Magic. THAT she can do. Anything else is a waste.
Have you tried
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Incendio_Tria