“An… incident?” Ginny asks. “What kind?”
The strange girl that had mentioned an ‘incident’ in this second-floor passage last night shrugs. “No clue. I only know they promised it was being taken care of, and wouldn’t let me past. Seems they’ve taken care-!” She freezes suddenly.
Ginny blinks, and looks.
Then, the bottom seems to fall out of her stomach.
Last night, she’d… woken up, for lack of a better term, from another episode of memory loss. The last couple times, she’d found herself covered in feathers- and this time, there was paint all down her front. It had been a nightmare to clean it off her robes.
And there, on the wall, are foot-high words, in the same green paint.
“Ahh…” the girl mutters. “We should get to class.”
She heads straight for her class as well.
She reaches class, enters the room- and freezes.
Princess Cadence looks up from her position at the head of the otherwise empty room, then tilts her head. “Ginny?” she asks. “You okay?”
Ginny takes a deep breath. Right, it’s Charms with Cadence… the class she teaches. “Yes. Yes, I’m okay.”
Cadence raises her eyebrows. “Want to talk about it?”
“I’m okay,” she repeats.
“How about after class?”
“I’m okay,” she insists.
Cadence sighs. “You know that’s not going to work on me, right?”
“What-!?”
Nod. “I’ve had a thousand years of experience seeing through the lies of the Equestrian nobility- and wizards are so much easier to read than those po- er, people. If you can even call those creatures people.” She shudders.
Ginny blinks. Was Cadence trying to cover up almost having called the Equestrian nobility ‘politicians’? “... Oh.”
Cadence steps over to put an arm around her shoulders, sending an oddly pleasant tingle down her spine. “Hey, you don’t have to talk to me about it. I’m the Princess of Love, not the Princess of Extortion or something. But please tell me you will talk to someone about it if it becomes serious?”
“Y- You’re the Princess of what?”
She sighs. “Of Love, believe it or not.” She looks at her other hand, idly twiddling her wand. “Honestly, it’s really not all it’s made out to be. I get to hear about everyone’s relationship problems- and sure, I enjoy helping put herds back together, or helping build new ones- but more often than not, I have to tell the poor colt his dream is a no-go.”
“How… How do you do that?”
“You’ve probably heard of the Equestrians’ unique talents?”
She blinks. “Uh, I think I’ve heard it mentioned once or twice?”
“Ahh… every Equestrian has it, discovered or not: A unique ability that nobody else has. Mine…
“I can see bonds of love, whether they’ve been realized or not.”
“Then…” She blushes furiously. This sounds like the opportunity of her life- a chance to find out if she’s destined for the super-blushable, or if all her hopes and dreams are exactly that.
Cadence raises an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Can… Can you not tell anyone…?”
She smiles. “Keeping secrets is on the very top of the skill list of a Princess.”
She blushes even darker. “Then… Can… Can you tell me…” She hesitates. “Is there something between me and Harry?” she blurts out.
Then she blushes as red as the setting sun.
Cadence seems amused as she looks at her… then scowls. “Ahh… Unfortunately, there’s only one thing I can tell you about that,” she mutters.
“W-What is it?” she asks.
“That is to tell you…” Cadence looks at her sadly. “To ask Lyra about the Papa Tango.”
“... What?”
“In any case, we should probably be ready when our students start showing up in five minutes, right?”
She blinks. “Ah- Oh, right! Sorry!”
“No, I’m sorry, Ginny.”
“Um,” Ginny begins, and blushes.
She can’t help it. She can’t stop herself from thinking about why she’s here- and of course, that reason is… well, blushable.
Lyra looks up at her, then her eyebrows disappear into her hairline. “Yes, Ginny?”
Her blush darkens. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and opens them again, concentrating on the specific question she’s here to ask. The question itself is not… ‘blushable’, it’s only the reason she’s asking that is.
Lyra stands up, stepping around a couple books to touch her shoulder. “You okay?”
She lets out a small gasp, stepping backwards as her blush darkens even further. “What-!? Yes I’m okay-?” She cuts herself off, mind running wild as she tries to figure out why Lyra asked that. “Why-?”
“Oh, sorry,” Lyra shakes her head, stepping forwards to wrap an arm comfortingly around her shoulders. “It’s just… I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone blush that darkly, even in Equestria.”
She feels her face heat up some more- so much that she’s fairly sure Lyra could cook eggs on her face. “... Oh. Um…”
Lyra guides her gently back to a nearby couch, and sits down with her. “No rush, unless it’s important,” she states.
Then she waits.
Ginny stares at her hands, breathing deeply, for she neither knows nor cares how long. Eventually, she manages to calm her blush, and looks up at Lyra’s curious expression. “Um… I keep hearing about some kind of father dance?”
Lyra blinks. “Ahh… Father dance? You don’t happen to be talking about the Papa Tango, do you?”
Ginny scowls. “That’s what everyone’s calling it.”
Lyra nods. “It’s a codename,” she states. “It’s a magic spell- nothing to do with dancing. Well, unless…” She trails off a little, scowling to herself. “Anything in particular you wanted to know?”
“Um… About it, I guess.”
“Well, what about it?”
Ginny screws up her face. She’d expected Lyra to basically just dump the information in her lap. What information… she honestly can’t say. “Um…” She thinks back to her conversation with Cadence, even further to her conversation with that infinitely kind, pink-haired girl- who she now knows is Fluttershy. “Um…” She thinks back to that first day, in the common room, when Harry, Hermione, Lyra, and that Slytherin, Draco Malfoy, had disappeared into thin air. She’d freaked out and fled when they’d suddenly reappeared around her, but she remembers what she was thinking. “Um…”
“You have now ‘ummed’ a few times,” Lyra states.
“Three times,” she retorts instantly. Thank Merlin for her incredible memory. She looks up at Lyra. “How did you get your hair like that?”
Lyra scowls. “You know, that’s not related to the Papa Tango at all.” She tilts her head. “I can answer that question, though, if you’d like.”
She shakes her head. “No, that’s fine… but she said it was related. Something about…”
“Yeah, it’s one of the side effects of the Papa Tango,” Lyra agrees. “However, it’s easier and more reliable to get this effect by other means.”
“... Oh.” She blinks. “They said you could tell me about the Papa Tango.”
Lyra shakes her head. “Not if they were following instructions- they should have told you to ask me about it.”
She blinks again. “So they did. Now I’m asking. Can you tell me about it?”
Lyra nods. Her heart swells. “I can, but only if you ask the right question.”
Her heart seems to deflate like a popped balloon. “What’s the right question?”
Lyra shakes her head. “I Khan’t answer that.”
Ginny blinks. “You… Khan’t? Uh-”
Lyra chuckles to herself, waving a hand and shaking her head. “It’s a reference to some muggle entertainment material or another, I think. Moondancer mentioned it once, early last year. Don’t worry, nobody got it then either.” She scowls. “I still don’t.”
“... Oh. Then what can you answer?”
“Well, I can’t answer that either.”
She scowls. “Why not?”
She shrugs. “Where’s the fun in that?”
She pouts, but all she manages to do is to make Lyra laugh. “Alright, fine. Can you answer yes or no questions about it?”
Lyra nods. “Sure!”
“Um…” She thinks back to every encounter she’s had with someone with the funny hair, analyzes it. It takes her a few minutes to call up all the relevant details, through which Lyra waits patiently.
Then she looks at Lyra, and blinks. Most people interrupt her midway when she tries doing that. “Um,-!”
“Five.”
She gives Lyra a level-lidded glare. “Um, um, um, um. Umumum.”
“Sounds tasty.”
Both girls burst into laughter.
“In all seriousness, though,” Lyra grins, “You were asking?”
Ginny nods. “Ahh, yes. Does the Papa Tango… transform people… to give them that hair?”
Lyra blinks. “Ahh, Nope!”
She winces. It almost seemed like she was onto something for a second there. “Um… How about… Strength! Does it give people super strength?”
Lyra shrugs. “Sometimes, yes.”
She scowls. “How about… whatever that Rainboom thing is?”
Lyra lets out a snort. “Now that is extremely rare, but it is true, about one in three have the theoretical capacity to Rainboom.”
“Uh, wandless levitation?”
“Another sometimes.”
“How long does it take?”
Lyra shakes her head.
“Does it hurt?”
Another shake.
She pauses for a second. “Was… was that an actual answer, or…?”
Lyra nods. “That was an actual answer, yes. The Papa Tango used to hurt, but ever since I upgraded the matrices, it doesn’t anymore.” She snorts. “Or, technically, it does, but you don’t feel it.”
Ginny stares at her confusedly for a second before shaking her head. “Um, okay.” Then she turns back to Lyra. “Can you do it to me?”
“Alright, now we’re talking,” Lyra grins. “Wanna go on a quick walk with me?”
Ginny stands with her. “Uh… okay, sure.”
Lyra pats her shoulder cheerfully. “Because the answer to that last one, is yes.”
Her surroundings change. It’s so seamless she hardly even noticed- but one moment, she was in the Gryffindor common room; next moment, she’s in what looks like one of the dungeons, with all the doors locked up tight and a bunch of gold lines floating in the air.
“And this is where I can,” Lyra continues. “But before I activate it, I need to ask you a few questions.”
She nods slowly. “Like what?”
“Are you sure you want it?”
Her answer comes out instantly. “Yes.”
“You are aware it’ll give you a new, irreversible hair style and color, right?”
She blinks. “Uh, I am now. Doesn’t change my decision.”
“You are aware the result is somewhat nondeterministic, right?”
She nods. “Same.”
“You are aware the whole thing is irreversible, right?”
She nods. “As I expected.”
“And you’re still certain you want it?”
She nods. “Yes.”
Lyra closes her eyes. All the threads of golden light throughout the room suddenly burn bright, joined by hundreds of thousands more, all over the place.
Then… There’s a bang, and she’s falling… Falling…
She hears some words. They seem oddly muffled; almost like something got stuffed in her ears. She can’t figure out what anyone is saying. She’s also having a little difficulty thinking, almost like she’s only barely awake.
“G-Ginny?” someone mutters, right in her ear. It’s oddly quiet, almost like she isn’t hearing it at all. “I- I think that’s your name, at least. Did- Are you okay? Um, Ginny?”
It’s a very sweet voice. Frightened- oh yes, definitely. Absolutely terrified, about something. But possibly the sweetest, most innocent little voice she’s ever heard.
She manages to formulate a straight thought, and tries responding. Her mouth twitches, and she hears some kind of low groan; that must be her. However, somehow, she doesn’t seem to need her mouth to answer that sweet voice. “What happened?”
“You’re alive!” Relief is clear in the voice, though she’s still clearly worried about something. “I- I don’t know what happened. All I k-know… Well, I actually know nothing. Not on my own… but for some reason, I seem to have access to your memories. Your name is Ginny, right?”
She struggles to understand for several seconds, and finally comes up with an answer. “Wha… Who are you?”
“That’s the thing- I don’t know! And before you tell me to get out of your head, I’ve tried- I can’t. I think it’s just that I’m not strong enough to do that.”
It takes her only a couple seconds to understand that. “Oh. So…”
“So for the time being, I guess, I’m your imaginary friend? Er, unless you already had one?”
If her body were working properly, she would have laughed. It’s not, though, so all she managed to do was to start coughing.
“Ginny!” It’s still a bit muffled, but not nearly as bad- she can understand it. It sounds like… Lyra? Something burns gently in her chest and throat, and she suddenly stops coughing.
“Gaaah! What in the world was that!?” her… imaginary friend asks. “It tickles!”
She lets out a groan- oh hey, that works- and forces her eyes open. They seem to be really heavy- but they’re getting lighter. Her vision is crazy blurry as well, but it’s straightening out and beginning to make sense.
“Ginny, you okay?” It’s… Oh, it’s Lyra, who must be leaning over her. She’s lying on… something, what exactly she doesn’t know.
“Ugh,” she grumbles. “ ‘Mokay.”
“I’m sorry,” Lyra continues, her tone going instantly from worried to… Sorrowful? “It must have been damaged. I’ll have to check it over, possibly rip it apart and rebuild. In the meantime… I might have killed you.”
“I’m alive,” she states. “I’ll be okay.” She had to concentrate to get it to come out straight, but that’s fixing itself as well.
Lyra rolls her eyes. “Yeah, you’re alive, and that’s great- but your magic matrix is unstable! If it falls apart, you die!”
“Um… I don’t think it’s that kind of unstable. I can see it- and I don’t think it’ll fall apart. Looks like it’s growing to me.”
Ginny blinks. “I’ll be okay,” she insists.
She can almost feel her imaginary friend scowl. “... Strange. You seeing this too? In your head?”
She concentrates on it… and sees what her friend is talking about. It’s… confusing, to say the least. It’s a series of images- a few of something she doesn’t understand at all… and the final one is of herself, a little older than she is now, wearing one of those mugglestuff-things and group-hugging Harry, Hermione, and that Slytherin… only the first of which isn’t wearing one.
Oh, and in that image, her hair is… Is…
She’s not sure how to describe it. It’s long, all the way down to her waist, and gently wavy… but it’s most certainly not red. Almost like she got the hair effect.
Yet most of the prior images, she somehow understands she still looks just about like she does now, though maybe a little older. “What in the world…?”
“My thought exactly,” her imaginary friend supplies. “My best guess is that this is some kind of prophetic ability.”
“Are you doing it?”
“No, that’s all you. And… Those first few, are of your magic matrix. The first couple are fairly close to my prediction of what yours will look like at different points in the future… and not outside the realm of possibility. If your matrix does match each one at some point, though, none of them are impossible- and, dare I say it, pretty likely.”
While she was conversing with her friend, Lyra spouted a series of numbers that put her survival chance around six percent. “I will be fine,” she declares.
“But-!” Lyra begins.
“I will be fine,” she declares a second time. “I can see it.”
Lyra stops to stare at her. “You can… see it.”
She nods. “I can see what it will be. I think. And it’s not broken.”
“You think.”
She nods meekly. “It’s all very confusing, but with what else I can see, what could it be?”
Lyra tilts her head. “What else can you see?”
She blushes.
“Oh, ah, nevermind,” Lyra states quickly.
“That made you blush…? Oh. OH. I get it now.” She gets the distinct feeling that her imaginary friend is blushing as well- which makes her giggle.
Lyra looks at her weird. “Uh… What’s so funny?”
She waves a hand dismissively. Her body seems to be working properly now. “Oh, it’s nothing.”
“Um, okay.”
“If… If this really is the future you’re seeing, um… it should be known the future isn’t set in stone. Even prophecy isn’t. And… it might take a lot of work to make these futures come about.” Her imaginary friend pauses for a second. “And I have no idea how I know that.”
Umm...
Jesus christ do the ponies have no concept of age of consent? Or even explaining what they are about to do? This is some next level incompetence on Lyra's part.
Okay. Lot to unpack here.
Firstly, I like what you did with the Voldy Shard there. That's pretty neat and should be interesting down the line.
But I can't overlook the terrible actions committed by Lyra.
What was that? Did the de-aging reduce her competence to child like levels of no-consequence thinking again?
She just did the equivalent of subjecting a child to a radical and irreversible medical procedure while giving her only the vaguest and most circumspect idea of what she was agreeing to. I understand the need for secrecy but this is too much. The wizarding world is rife with memory spells. Pick one and use it to edit out the last ten minutes of Papa Tango explanation if they change their mind. Even if Lyras mind is muddled by the age shift, this deserves more than a slap on the wrist from Bon Bon.
so...that happened...
9867261
I agree with you that Lyra somehow easily agree to perform the potentially hazardous procedure to a girl with just her consent alone. I mean, if she has her adult mentality, shouldn't she think about asking permission from her parents before doing it?
Is this what I think happened? Voldie's spirit shard that possessed Ginny was Papa-Tangoed along side her. But since it is just a shard (not complete soul) of teenage Tom Riddle (not full Voldie), the matrix somehow destroyed it more thoroughly than Ginny's owns and re-made it into a blank state. Now the question will be whether this new soul was completely cut off from Voldie or not. If so, this means one of the crucifixes was destroyed without anyone realize what it really was.
Oh. And that's how she will get a male pony form. That herd needs a stallion.
9867337
Did you mean horcrux?
While I applaud this turn of events, I gotta say the logic used here to determine whom to put through the Papa Tango seems to not be logical, unless the questions are a farce and it's a magical scan and eagerness for complete unknown that matters more. In which case, Ginny does qualify as much as the others do. This is her own adventure, for better or worse, and she may have completely derailed the diary plot.
I'd disagree with the others that claim consent is required, that she cannot give it, or that she is too young for it. As for age, the other three were the same age, more or less, and had about as much information on what would happen. Insisting that Ginny be held to a higher standard is kind of weird. Unless that should have applied to everyone beforehand. That would be a first. After all, the heads of house had no warning either, and the other three children either had no choice at all, or a poor choice. Honestly, Ginny is the first to be given the option of not tumbling down the rabbit hole, and there is a fae-like quality to this all. Or rather mad scientist quality.
9867456
For the record I believe consent absolutely was required for everyone else. It honestly bugs the hell out of me that these kids keep getting put through an incredibly dangerous procedure with no thought given towards their parents.
Most places won't even give kids a tattoo without parents consent but Lyra keeps transforming people at the drop of the hat as though she was secretly from a conversion bureau universe.
Imaginary friend Tomasina? Riddelle? Marvollie?
9867456
9867474
Before anyone gets worked up on 'consent', here are the facts:
1. Draco's PT was a surprise event spurred by the foalification.
2. Hermione's PT was done to save her life.
3. Harry's PT was done entirely voluntarily, because he wanted unicorn magic. Lyra probably didn't resist because she thought of it as a way to cleanse him of Voldemort's influence... and the foalification.
4. The Professor's PTs were accidental- caused by their own nosing around.
5. Ginny's PT was also done entirely voluntarily, because she wanted it. And Lyra didn't resist her any more than she did because she knew she'd be getting it sometime anyways.
6. The PT is completely safe, as supported by the Professor's PTs with a damaged matrix still being completely safe.
7. The reason Ginny's PT didn't go like the Professor's PTs was because of Riddle's connection to her- the PT spellwork got confused about exactly who it was supposed to work on, so it ended up picking one... which wasn't Ginny.
8. The changes to Ginny's magic- and her getting knocked out- were caused not by the PT but by having a fully-fledged Equestrian matrix tethered to her.
As I'm reading this, I cannot help but think that Lyra -- even after reading the Author's notes above -- is as calculating and manipulative as CelestAI.
If she decides that you will say Yes, then you will.
Plain and simple. She did not explain anything. She did not ask "Who told you to ask", or even, "Why do you ask?".
It was "Oh heck, I want to convert her now".
So, the question becomes: Does Lyra have some sort of agenda, some sort of goal/plan? Since she's the only one that can activate the PT matrix, she could make sure that no one gets it except as a life or death issue -- and protection from the killing curse is definitely a plus for combat wizards. Heck, I can see Aurors deciding to take it just for that combat bonus, especially once the war resumes.
9867561
So now they're body-swapped and half-amnesic? I don't think that's the outcome Cadence had in mind here...
9867759
Yeah... what exactly was Cadence trying to accomplish here?
9867820
Clearly, there's nothing like a near-death experience to motivate one to pursue one's dreams. Now Ginny will know that tomorrow is never certain, and she must seize the day!
quite the development.
9867419
You're right. Sometimes you cannot just trust auto-correct function, especially when you can just partially remember it. Thank you.
9867759
To clarify...
The one it picked wasn't Ginny, but nobody bodyswapped. It picked the link to the diary- and since it was only a soul fragment, it experienced a far more thorough transformation into a brand-new PT-ed soul of its own... and, (un)fortunately, left all semblance of conscious memory behind.
9867820
Fairly simple: Cadence knew that she had a bond with Harry, and that Harry was PTed... but she also knew the PT changed their ages, and figured Ginny should probably get the PT as soon as possible, to keep there from being too large of an age gap.
She may also have been at least partly mischievous in her answer, but she didn't expect anything abnormal to happen.
9867825
This is true.
... Hmm. It may take her a few days to adapt to everything that's changed around her, though. Lyra's constantly talking like she'd doomed her and her imaginary friend's constant "That can happen, but it may take a lot of work" will (eventually) wear through the promise of that vision of a good future... and result in a rather alarming sense of impending doom, that might drive her to seek comfort in those she cares about.
9868049
Are you saying that Ghosts and soul.fragments has magical cores that can be recognized and altered by the Papa Tango?
11671078
Um... apparently I was. Four years ago.
Nowadays, with modern stories? Yes, definitely. Ghosts are magical beings, composed entirely of magic and a soul; the soul contains the wellspring, the source of magic. And a soul fragment still contains its part of the wellspring- of the magical core, which the PT in this story could see and act upon. I've reworked the PT as many times as I've rewritten the story, though, so...