When a portal is opened between two otherwise disconnected worlds, a few reliable spells go a little crazy- and result in a series of letter-bearing owls passing through the portal. Several times.
What could possibly go wrong?
Made it to 34 likes before the first dislike. For my first story to make it past 7, that's amazing. Thank you!
Written with the able editing assistance of Skittlebug starting Chapter 12 and Gerandakis as well starting Chapter 20.
As of today, 1/26/20, this story has been cancelled. I kinda hate to cancel a story that was going so well... But, to be completely honest, it sucks. When they talk about story 'arcs', they mean that if you were to make an outline for it, and use indentation to denote subplots and so on, each arc would form a rough arch shape against the side of the page, with the indentation. I just threw one together with this... and it looked like a list of bullet points. Random, incoherent events, tied together by nothing but SoL (No plot relevance to each other)... Not good, either by itself or for the future of the story.
Edit much later than it should have been: As of 2/25/20, the rewrite has begun publication, and is available... here: On the Implications of Parallel Worlds
Worry not, this story is staying up indefinitely, even as the rewrite inevitably develops far past it.
And this looks to be MUCH more chaotic than the others. Can’t wait to see where this goes!
9576053
Yeah, you can bet on that.
I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Okay, this is a pretty amusing premise at least not all of them said yes, that would have been especially rough for the teachers.
9576127
Yeah, definitely.
But they are also going to have some, ah, colorful students. In more ways than one.
So it's one of them "cold comfort" cases- they're still going to be nastily overwhelmed.
... Oh, and there's the part where lots of households were sending their replies to several Hogwarts letters on a single letter, so the number of yeah-I'm-comings they received is probably some much-greater-than-one multiple of the number of letters they received that carried such.
And if all of 'em said yes... I mean, both Celestia and Luna got letters. Who would rule Equestria...?
(Sorry, having fun writing the next chapter right now)
Really enjoying how this is going so far. I like that you're playing it straighter than other stories.
9578175
Straighter?
I'm afraid you're going to have to explain the term to me.
9578188
Basically the characters are taking things seriously rather than constantly building up to the next punchline. Sure there are jokes but not at the cost of the main plot.
9578203
That is true, yes.
I'm excited to see where the story goes from here, and I assume Spike will also be attending?
9578347
Very possibly, yes.
I mean, Pinkie's sure Twilight's coming, and we know Spike "got mail" too...
Very enjoyable so far, not sure I like the idea of the wands being pre-destined for there owners since it is possible to use another wizards wand or even take it for your own (Draco's wand straight up changes allegiance to Harry in book 7) and some wands get passed down through a family line not to mention repairing a wand is normally impossible so that would make things tricky for replacements.
It works well for accommodating a ridiculous number of students though and I suppose it doesn't matter too much in the long run as long as the Elder Wand remains an exception to normal rules.
Frankly, I'll give points for not just having everyone get the poor man to make them all custom wands based off their own hair. I always felt like that took a lot of the fun out of the whole process.
This seems like an error unless they decided to check out the train station after finishing in Diagon Alley.
9579352
They did. Back in Chap. 2, that letter asked that she also help them find the station... that's the follow-up, to indicate that she took them to the station and, presumably, showed them how to get in. Because an Equestrian secret service organization would obviously plan ahead better than an 11-year old boy, so they'd never be left in the position that Harry was ("How do I get to the station?"). It's also practical for plot reasons as well- just imagine trying to get a couple dozen thousand funny-haired people to disappear casually through a brick wall in even an entire hour!
And yeah, the wand predestiny isn't my favorite either, but it got the job done- and she didn't say it was a permanent bond... Or even that it couldn't redirect itself. If it couldn't, there'd be thousands of wands sitting around pointing at long-dead witches and wizards, and noone would be any the wiser!
9579390
Ah ok forgot about that, might be worth adding a line where they declare they are heading to the station before cutting to them leaving it.
9579413
Yeah, it might... But eh. I kinda feel like the story flows smoother with it there as a subtle reference, for people to either miss or go "Huh?" at, then referring to it in more detail later on. That kind of a statement really doesn't fit in that timegap.
I seem to be good at those little references
9579420
Yeah I get what you're saying, after giving it some thought maybe just a minor change to the last paragraph would work better.
From:
to something like this:
A little less jarring coming from the previous paragraph I think.
9579437
Probably, yeah...
There, little change.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Hogwarts handles the discovery that Luna is going to be only the second most powerful new student... at least for however long it takes for Discord to get bored and find something else to entertain him.
I am seeing potential for a comedy tag.
Interesting take on Lyra in this story. Usually, other fics have her as a dropout or washout from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. In this one she acts like a graduate.
9583061
Something like Discord turning the Wizengamot upside down by using a patsy to convict most of the pureblood faction like in MSD maybe?
9583061
Uh...
Luna's the most powerful.
Twilight's the second most.
Discord... Let's just say my headcannon puts Alicorn magic well beyond even him, even though they don't use it. Possibly because they're afraid of the damage even a tiny mistake can make with that much power... and Discord's not.
9583073
Yeah, I'm seeing potential for that too, but I'm not sold on that.
Yeah- that's my take on Lyra. I normally like portraying her as second-in-class behind only Twilight. As either a secret agent or an independent whatsits (see Secret Search for that), she's an Agent here.
... And my plans for Discord are a little smaller than that. The goal isn't to completely destroy Magical Britain, after all... But you can bet he'll do his level best to drive them crazy.
9583126
I can see Moondancer being a bit upset to find that she is only third or lower in the class behind Twilight and Lyra.
9583156
Yeah, me too, on second thought. That is a good point- maybe cause for friction... ("Hey, people-pony that doesn't seem to spend much time studying! How did you possibly get better grades than me, when I spent almost all my time studying? No, no, don't compare me to Twilight, I didn't lock myself up as much as she.")
9583126
Glad to hear you'll be keeping Discord under control, too many stories use him as a quick fix.
9583273
I agree.
One of the other things I've seen stories dissed on (pretty regularly, and I don't really like it either) is the everyone-becomes-everypony thing. So while you may have noticed I've already laid the groundwork for that to be eventually possible... I've also already hinted that it'll be hard, dangerous, time-consuming, or a combination of the above. Therefore giving me an excuse to let that happen on a limited scale- it seems an excellent complication to the world, to me, so long as it's not overused- without making it ubiquitous.
The other stories I've seen do the transform with rings made by a friendly Discord (Just ask Dissy for more rings, like Magic School Days) or by making a quick stop in Equestria by portal/pheonix (If Wishes Were Ponies and the lesser known A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philosophers Stone respectively)... and in any of those, there's really no excuse to limit the pony-transforms. Or other superpowerings (See A Phoenix for details). But I've designed my methods to give me a perfectly good reason to limit them- I mean, none of those methods have these little things called "negative side effects"...
Sorry. Pet peeves of mine (Drat, he's throwing chairs at me again, despite being almost completely ignored in all the other HP fics). This story's likely to be faster paced, and possibly more comedic (though that's not my plan, even if I saw it coming far enough ahead to ask in the story description what could possibly go wrong), than the others- but it's also going to be more... scientific. Less utopian.
9583309
So I'm guessing that means the ponies will have their own issues and not just be blatantly better than the wizards in every way? I mean I like If Wishes Were Ponies but I can't stand the one-sided nature of that fic.
9583336
There will undoubtedly be some curbstomping either way (as in, some by ponies, some by wizards) but yes, the ponies will have their own issues... and any that I turn into ponies will have even bigger issues.
umm... okay that seems like a bit of an extreme reaction to Lucius. Sure he's a bit shady but he didn't seem to do anything that would elicit such a violent response. This is like cops drawing their guns on you because you have a tattoo, being cautious is one thing but the ponies seemed to skip right to violent threats with no provocation.
9585475
That is true.
It's also true that the ponies are obviously looking at more than just light and sound- Lyra said so herself last chapter, talking of the 'aura'. And since Lucius happened to be a willing death eater... Well, seeing that in his aura probably caused them to overreact.
9585486
That would only justify them being cautious not straight up threatening his life. I mean the guy was with his family there was nothing indicating he was gonna try anything. Plus it was a public place it's not like he was approaching them alone in a dark alley.
Also, the whole being able to recognize bad guys at a glance is a pretty ridiculous power in my opinion not only is it not canon compliant it kind of ruins any possible tension when they can just look at someone like Quirrell and go "oh yeah he's totally evil we should do something about that".
9585505
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lucius started a fight with Arthur in Flourish and Blotts over the second-hand nature of Ginny's books, in front of Lockhart, and the two had to be pulled apart by Hagrid. And these ponies have a lot of experience with baddies walking in... and, apparently, zero tolerance.
Then... I'm also going to reveal in the future (next chapter), the aura-vision is far from ubiquitous.
9585526
Okay but considering all he did was walk up to them, not even finishing his sentence, holding a spear to his throat is way too ridiculous. This is the kind of reaction that gets you fired from a police force. It would have been enough just having the guards stand in front him and tell to not move any closer.
Still, it's a relief to hear you won't take this whole aura vision too far.
9585532
That is a good point. That was a bit quick for him to have "missed the hint" prior to the blocking him with the spear...
One point still isn't quite clear to me. Are the physical ages of the Equestrians regressed to 11 year olds in the human world? The way the wizards and witches address them makes it unclear on this concept.
9585717
They are, yes- regardless of their age on the other side of the portal, they're all 11-year-olds here. A little quirk I stuck into the portal logic- and the quirk, actually, that fooled the Book of Acceptance or whatever it's called. And no, their ages in Equestria aren't effected. And the little little foals, like Pound and Pumpkin Cake (or Flurry Heart) didn't receive letters, either; they're not eleven yet in Equestria, so they'd cross as their true age. No, I have no clue how old the Crusaders are in my story; but apparently, they're eleven or older.
... Yes, they will age while on the human side, and double-crossing the portal won't reset them back to 11-year-olds. So down the road, we won't have the spectacle of several thousand eleven-year-old seventh years. That'd just be... Well, too broken. And it'd have implications in immortality, which I'm not willing to give to anything that isn't an alicorn or draconequus.
Anyways, nice catch! That's one of the less-obvious-but-pivotal points in my world structure.
9585532
There, rewrote the Malfoy scene. It's a lot longer now- and while the end result is the same, there's a little less overreaction.
9585850
Definitely much better. Not sure how likely it would be for Lucius to start a fight with his fist rather than his wand or how likely it would be for Luna to have any knowledge of hand to hand combat (not like such a move works with hooves) but it ultimately works better than the first version.
9585908
Well... Mr. Weasley started that fight in Flourish and Blotts in the second book with his fist, and Malfoy answered with the same...
And as for Luna, she probably has zilch in terms of human fighting skill, yes. Walking around and such is something that may or may not have been instilled by the portal's transformation (like the rings in Magic School Days), and Luna being who she is, she's undoubtedly spent some time practicing her hand-eye coordination (to familiarize herself with her new form), giving her an accurate enough reaction (her reaction time is still leagues ahead of Malfoy, that remains from Equestria) to catch his hand. Then, with the earth pony facet of her Alicorn magic... Well, he really didn't stand a chance. Not unlike Magic School Days' Dumbledore-vs-Rarity battle, though in a different format.
9585980
What Rarity did with Dumbledore was the equivalent of a sucker punch. He couldn't defend himself because he never had a chance to. Not really comparable, not to mention that story focuses alot on Dumbledore bashing to begin with.
My point was Lucius is a proud pureblood and physical violence is a muggle move, defending himself in kind is one thing but I doubt he would try to start anything with a physical attack.
Not that I'm saying you need to change it or anything it doesn't matter much in the long run.
9585987
Yes, that is true. Not a very good comparison.
And yeah, Lucius would normally go wand-first... Here, he probably did fist-first because he didn't think she'd be anywhere near strong enough to resist him- and she seemed too weak and blood-traitor-loving to be worthy of his spellwork. Add that he might have left the wand someplace (Not sure if that's entirely in character either, but I don't think I've ever seen him use the thing in the first few books), and we get why he backed off instead of going magic.
9585998
Well, he definitely has his wand with him, it's cleverly concealed within his walking stick. Not to mention no wizard would be caught walking around without a wand.
9586008
That is true.
So maybe he didn't feel like brandishing his walking stick, and chose to back off because he didn't want to cause that big of a scene in front of his son?
9586012
I mean if he wasn't looking to cause a scene constantly accusing strangers of being blood traitors then trying to punch one would be a bad way of doing it. Plus don't they all look like children? That just makes him look even more pathetic.
9586017
Yeah... That would explain how Lyra describes him next chapter.
I'm gonna say no on Ginny, as I hate that trope. Mostly because Ginny is never important enough to the plot to justify bringing her into the story early it's always just a way to add another girl to Harry's herd (fingers crossed that isn't a thing here).
So... they know about Quirrell and Voldemort but aren't doing anything about it? Why... I mean what's the point of that? It's already problematic they can just see who the bad guy is but if they already know about Quirrell you might as well toss the book 1 plot out the window right now.
As for Dumbledore at the end yeah it's a little OOC this is a guy who often looks for excuses to make jokes or just be a little silly it's McGonagall's job to worry.
Unless you have plans for Ginny that rely on the time of admittance, I wouldn't care one way or another if she was admitted yet.
As far as the Equestrians are concerned, there are far more dangerous things in their world than some psychotic Lich wannabe who is only dangerous because he knows an instant kill spell. Things like an angry Celestia or Luna, Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek or Grogar (I don't count Cozy Glow because she is clever but not powerful on her own).
9588226
The reason they aren't afraid of Voldemort is that they never lived through his 10 years of terror, similar to how the Crystal Ponies were the only ones afraid of Sombra. If you weren't there at the height of his power you're obviously not gonna view him the same way. The only reason most kids are scared of him is that he's basically become the Bogeyman of the wizarding world, no one knows if he's even still alive but the idea that he might be still lurking in the shadows is a scary thought.
I hate the idea that Voldemort doesn't stand up against the Saturday morning cartoon threats of Equestria who lose as quickly as they show up. The guy lead an army filled with murdering psychopaths and monsters who dragged families out into the streets to kill them and they did this over the course of a decade. The ponies may have no reason to fear him but they should still take him seriously.
I meant to bring this up before but forgot. This isn't how the protection works, it can only be cast when someone willingly sacrifices themselves to defend another and even then they have to be given the choice of dying or living. It has nothing to do with being a mother or how much you love the person (though obviously you probably love them if you're sacrificing yourself), for example, Harry casts it on everyone at Hogwarts when he allows Voldemort to kill him.
9588034
You're right, that is a little overpowered... Probably want to remove that part of the aura-vision. They should have no reason to suspect Quirrel (save his deceiving them), since at this point, he doesn't have two faces (and thence two auras) yet.
9588226
On the Ginny side of things, I think I will be leaving her out. No reason to pull him in- and I'm not going to be focusing on Harry's harem. I mean, he might get one... but so might a whole lot of other people, given how many Equestrian ladies there are.
9588270
Yeah, that is a little unusual, isn't it? Sure, perception is everything- but especially for the seasoned Agents...
Though, the said seasoned Agents have probably read up on his past and observed the state of wizarding society... and may be deliberately making light of him in an effort to get everyone to stop fearing him and maybe be able to stand up to him (or the next guy that claims his name, Celestia knows when that might happen) instead.
9588284
Well yeah, that too. I'm on an AU here, so...
I don't see why they can't both exist. Dying to save another is all well and good; this "love envelope" is just another one, so specific as to be so extremely rare in the wizarding world that it's ill-understood, or even mistaken for something else. I don't remember Neville's parents' story, or even whether or not they were killed- only that his more distant relatives (gran, uncle, etc.) brought him up- but to my knowledge, he's the only other canon HP character that could have gone through that very specific situation and gotten a "love envelope".
Yeah, I know, canon HP is a little different than that- my "love envelope" is perpetual, while in canon, the protection of his mother's love required the regular annual maintenance of living in the same home as her blood relatives.
And while I do plan on throwing out some of the canon plot arcs- not sure which ones just yet, I haven't reread the series since I last read it years ago- the Sorcerer's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets both host good plot arcs I may want to reuse. So... Yeah, I think I will remove that particular ability from the aura-vision. Lyra's seeing Voldemort's curse/fragment in Harry's scar is not aura vision, but magic scan- and besides, nothing like that should ever be there, so it's independent- and the main topic of that conversation is safe. I'm thinking horcruxes shouldn't have auras of their own, you?
9588562
There, edited- no longer suspects Quirrel (and because the conversation was shortened, Harry stopped on Diggle's second handshake instead of his third), good-evil alignment is no longer visible in the aura... and Dumbledore's reaction to the news Lyra's a Gryffindor-to-be is different.
This is why I need editors...
9588562
I think the important thing is that they don't stand out. I feel like Horcruxes are kind of pointless if they are easy to identify. I mean he gave one to Lucius and another to Bellatrix (he didn't tell them what they were of course) I feel like that would be monumentally stupid if they could be easily detected.
As for Neville's parents, they actually are still alive just insane and staying at St. Mungo's. It always surprises me how despite other stories attempts to quickly fix everything no one ever tries to save Neville's parents. I guess because a huge chunk of his character goes out the window if he has two loving parents.
I get what you're saying about 'Love Envelope' and I don't disagree it's just that having some other unbeatable protection is kind of unnecessary when something just like it already exists in-universe. Plus if they both exist does Harry have both? and if so what does that do for him versus just having the one like in canon?
9588562
Well, it's not like no one stood up to him that's usually what got you or your loved ones killed. It's why Dumbledore founded the Order of the Phoenix so that those who wanted to fight could do so without fear of putting their loved ones in danger.
Of course, being a secret society probably means the ponies wouldn't know about them.