Ch. 36. Confounding the Enemy
Anne studied the Daily Prophet quite carefully every morning. She always received the very first finished copy off the press. She wasn’t so much interested in the reporting, per se, as much as the tone of what was written.
Did it read as authoritative? Did it present the details needed in a story to be accurate and truthful? Were the details actually accurate and truthful? Did it present the facts without undue coloring of those facts? Were any insinuations plausible, given the facts?
Were opinions clearly stated as such, with a disclaimer below the headline and before the author’s name? Or on the Opinions Page?
She had been surprised at how quickly the staff had jumped behind her instructions to stick to the facts. Removing the salacious libel and opinions that had formerly graced the front pages, with the authors frequently substituting their opinions for fact, had been a quite a change in outlook for most of the reporters.
It had taken a few weeks for them to understand where that line was that separated their opinions from just presenting the facts and letting the readers form their own opinions.
Running stories that stuck to the facts seemed to be what the readers really wanted. Especially when the readers realized those facts were not being dictated to the Prophet by the Ministry! Readership had grown immensely since the summer. Surprisingly, they now had a substantial number of issues going to the continent and colonies.
Helping matters was the new section for the “Society” types — almost entirely pure-bloods — labelled “About Town.” This was where they posted pictures and stories of the pure-bloods and what they were up to in public . . . and sometimes private if the story was juicy enough and they had facts to back up what was written.
One successful new feature was the “Secrecy” page. In it, The Daily Prophet now printed stories about wizards and witches getting into trouble and drawing attention from the muggles. The stories were always humorously written, but the underlying moral of the danger of not being properly prepared when venturing out of the wizarding enclaves was plain to see.
The hilarious pictures of what some wizards and witches thought was appropriate attire was a big draw for many of muggle-borns and half-bloods. The number of pure-bloods who didn’t get it was appalling, but they disliked the thought of being a laughingstock after their pictures were printed. With time, though, the Daily Prophet would educate them on what to wear. And they would wear it, if only to avoid the public attention an error would mean once the next day’s Prophet came out.
In order to survive as a society, the wizards had to take care in not being noticed right now. The ponies were going a long way in changing the non-magical publics’ perception of magic by renaming it “special technology.” Later, in a few decades, the magicals might be able to come out of hiding. In the meantime, the magicals had a long way to go in getting their attitudes changed.
When it happened, she intended to be a major player in ruling the masses. It would take work, and the selective application of magic, but she would make sure everyone was treated equally under the law. And friends could stay friends and not be separated.
That she would be rich was secondary. Nice, but secondary.
Most surprising had been Rita Skeeter’s changes. Anne had expected her to kick up the most fuss. But she hadn’t. She had readily dropped her “quick-quotes” pen for a more normal dicta-quill. Or maybe that little nudge she had given the reporter last year had been more effective than she had thought. She shrugged her shoulders. It didn’t matter, did it? As long as Rita followed her rules, who cared why?
This morning’s edition had had her pursing her lips, though, at first.
Anne shook her head wryly. That witch certainly knew how to ferret out interesting stories. Anne had nothing against Potter, he was just another person to her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. If not for him, she wouldn’t be here. She would still be on her vendetta against Princess Twilight, and who knows how that would have gone!
She shuddered. One of the books she had discovered here had described, in nauseating detail, how badly time travel could go. One little slip and she might have erased herself from history instead of the purple know-it-all. Or, avoiding that fate, might have succeeded in getting rid of the alicorn, but ended up killing herself at the same time. Or, worse, ended up in a Changeling pod because purple hadn’t been there to stop the Royal Wedding with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, and Canterlot had fallen.
Today’s Prophet was one reason why Rita was flourishing.
Anne made a special trip to the paper, before breakfast, after reading her copy. Sirius had told her a lot about wizarding society, but there were still nuances she missed.
She had a luncheon date with the wizard today where she would defend the Prophet from his righteous wrath at seeing his idols pilloried in public. Or his god-son’s life dragged into the limelight. No, she suspected, he wouldn’t be happy.
However, he would be a mine of information about how to expect the pure-bloods to react. He could guess quite accurately at the tactics they might throw-up to block any plans she had for future political manoeuvring. Forewarned is four-armed, as the human saying went. Although why they needed four arms, she wasn’t sure.
As she had hoped, the reporter had had all her papers properly laid out. Nothing she had printed had been fabricated. She had copious notes from her times in Equestria, backing up every detail. She had played by the rules set out, and won big.
Anne felt sorry for Potter, as she would have for any foal, child, caught up in politics. But she wasn’t going to kick up a fuss at the paper. It wasn’t their fault the boy’s treatment prior to escaping to Equestria was unconscionable. Nor theirs that the ponies took such good care of their foals.
The information Rita had found was publicly available on both sides of the portal. That each didn’t know the details the other side had was irrelevant. Anyone could have dug this information up. That it caused complications and problems for Princess Purple was all good in her book. That it would erode White Beards support was even better. Every supporter he lost, she intended to snap up.
The Sunday edition would have several articles about how dangerous muggles could be, if roused. There would be warnings to the public about “loose wands” causing trouble for everyone. It would emphasise that the last thing they needed was a series of investigations from the ICW for violations of the Statute of Secrecy.
The English were better than that!
That edition would also see the start of a new page, one devoted to pointing out information about muggles that the wizards and witches didn’t know. Such as being out-numbered by a thousand-to-one and what that meant. That, while they had portkeys for instant transport, traveling a great distance in the world was always a trial of bureaucracy. Muggles, on the other hand, had planes — effectively giant railcars with wings — that could fly across the world with ease. A witch who wanted to go somewhere new to them, where there wasn’t a floo, had to either apparate (limited to a few hundred miles for most), take a portkey, or fly a broom. None of which were pleasant experiences.
Muggles could take a plane, then hop in a car and drive there in comfort and style.
Several of the workers at the Prophet had been amazed at the stories of what the muggles could do when the muggle-born reporter started several weeks ago.
She might be the majority owner, but it was strictly hooves-off as far as she was concerned. As long as the rules were followed, her personal opinions had nothing to do with the stories that were or were not run.
Plus, she didn’t have the temperament of an editor who could decide which stories were worth printing, which ones needed more detail, which ones had the potential to attract more readers, or which ones seemed important, but weren’t.
Sirius might not like that, but all she had to do was point out that that hiding the truth was the way the Ministry had operated the paper. Did he want her to start doing that? Where would he draw the line? Should stories about his friends be ignored, especially when they did wrong things or broke the law? Just like Minister Fudge had protected Malfoy? Should she start accepting “inducements” to push one story while dropping another, as the previous management had considered acceptable?
She didn’t think he would agree with her taking bribes.
Besides, she wasn’t involved with the day-to-day operations of the Prophet, that was the editor. She would explain that the editor selected the stories to run, and when. He never consulted her.
So, as long as the stories were accurate and truthful, she had no objections to them seeing the light of day. Particularly the stories on corrupt officials. Or certain old wizards who thought they knew the way the world should run, but were woefully out-of-date. The old system of pure-bloods in control was passe. A new system, a fairer one for everyone, was on the way. A few nudges from her along the way would smooth things out admirably.
As long as their objectives aligned, she would work with Dumbledore. From behind the scenes, of course. By the time he realized he had lost control, it would be far too late. It was just beginning to start.
The articles Rita had shown, and planned for the next week were definitely going to profit the Prophet. Not to mention, light a firestorm of protest about the wizarding world’s treatment of their boy-hero and how the pure-bloods, who controlled the Ministry, could allow that to happen!
Which should put quite a few more cracks in the veneer of infallibility that old wizard liked to project.
^-_-^
The moment Goyle walked into the Great Hall, Elly knew today was going to go badly. His suspicion was like a dark stain on the froth of banality that was the rest of the student body. She gave a brief look at the entry as he came in, not displaying anything more than that her glance was probably just an accidental coincidence.
Whatever the situation was with Goyle, he clearly thought the special class Gilderoy had planned for after breakfast might have something to do with himself. That was the only explanation that seemed to fit his mood.
For once, he wasn’t focused on Potter or his friends.
Harry, his herd, and his friends, were likewise a cloud of suspicion when they spotted the Dark Trio making their entrance. His group did not have the same taint of darkness about them. Quite the opposite. While suspicious, it wasn’t consuming them. There was plenty of light-hearted banter, and ambient love.
There was a distinct air to the Great Hall this morning. Anxiety, worry, curiosity, and even traces of boredom? Yes. There were plenty of emotions wafting around. Very unlike a normal morning.
The students’ emotions spiked, mostly curiosity, when their DADA professor stood and began speaking. Potter and their friends took pains to seat themselves as far from the Dark Trio and as close to the wall as humanly possible. The Dark Trio, seemed far more relaxed, despite the suspicions coming from Goyle. She shook her head slightly. It would take a Queen-mother miracle for things not to go to tartarus.
When Lockhart mentioned possession, and then picked students to come to the stage, including Harry and Goyle, she knew this was it. Goyle was trapped in the direct attention of the entire school. He couldn’t fake getting sick and escape that way. No matter what the self-possessed professor did, there would be spells flying everywhere.
Her lings were situated too far back to be of use to her. Plus, they couldn’t interfere without giving away that they knew spells that were well-beyond the abilities of most fourth-year students. Them being only firsties would draw far too much attention to them, afterwards. Too many questions would be raised that would be impossible to answer.
She delegated them with the task getting as many ponies to safety as possible when spells started flying.
The ponies were far more prone to panic than the wizards and witches, here, were. Helping them stay calm and escape would reap benefits in the future as they showered their saviours with gratitude — and love.
Any shielding spells the lings used could be explained as the same shield charms they used at breakfast when the owls came it. They would say their effectiveness must have been from desperation and panic on the lings’ part.
Meanwhile, she slipped her wand to her desktop, and kept it pointed at Goyle. The darkened hall helped conceal her movements. She focused a close watch on Goyle.
She could feel Lockhart’s emotional reactions as he pontificated on the stage. Each time he cast a spell she expected Goyle to erupt into violence. While the professor dissembled about how a vibrating wand didn’t single out a suspect, she felt his elation at casting that particular spell. She knew it meant his wand had vibrated in response to Goyle’s possession.
That it vibrated at all confirmed his suspicions that one of the students was, indeed, possessed. Based on what Elly had told him, she assumed that meant he now knew it had to be Goyle. His elated feelings gave her all the warning she needed, and she prepped her spell for instant use. She cupped her left hand over her wand’s tip to hide its faint glow, Goyle was too concerned with the professor to glance into the audience and pick up on that clue that someone other than the professor considered him a threat.
She had expected Lockhart’s stunner. Goyle’s instant dodging reaction was not. She had thought he would raise a shield. His dancing aside meant her own stunner missed him and hit Susan.
Well, that, at least, meant Goyle would not consider the girl a threat and hurt her.
Goyle hadn’t only dodged. Even as she sent her charm at him, he had cursed Lockhart. The Professor was now at the end of the stage, tangled with the other adults. An effective tactic, she decided, to prevent them from interfering as he escaped.
The explosion over her head was a tremendous surprise.
Still, she rapidly fired another stunner, but Goyle was still moving, and quite erratically, too. Her second spell took out Parkinson, who, like the other students on the stage, was still gaping like a fish. At the same time, he, too, had sent off a second spell.
She was pleased to see that Potter and Granger were not staring, gormless, at the spells flying around them. They were shielding themselves. Goyle’s red curse was easily blocked.
She sent a third spell at Goyle, but by that time he was spraying a thick plume of smoke from his wand. He had already disappeared from direct view. His emotions had flat-lined into a calm state that didn’t give her a feeling of where he was in that billowing cloud that was rapidly covering that section of the stage.
She fired another stunner, blindly, hoping for the best, but not expecting much success. Then she cast a general confounding jinx around herself and on the half-dozen students closest to her. The beginning panic would help confuse things, she knew, as she shouted, “Who cast those spells at Goyle? They came from behind us, right?”
Dirt and other, heavier, debris began to fall around them. The explosion hadn’t just shaken the dust off the ceiling panels the trusses that held up overhead. She held up her wand and cast the umbrella shield. “To the walls,” she shouted, “The tables will protect us.” She stood up from her desk. She heard her lings echo her from behind.
As more fragments cascaded down, she heard the ominous cracking sounds as the beams holding up the ceiling started to shift. Those bombardos must have hit something important.
The Hall, she knew from research, was heavily reinforced against attack. A thousand years ago, it had been the centre of the castle. It was the place of last resort in the event of an attack. The walls and roof were heavily spelled with protective enchantments to resist any muggle siege-weapons, or attacking wizards’ spells.
Unfortunately, no one had anticipated that someone would be attacking the structure from inside. Only the insane, foolish, or suicidal would deliberately attempt to bring down the Hall on top of themselves. As a result, the spells on the interior beams were meant to buttress the spells on the roof and walls, not resist direct attack, themselves.
With a loud crash, one of the ceiling boards slammed into the floor over by the second-year Slytherins.
That was when the panic began in earnest. The screaming and yelling made it impossible for anyone not right beside oneself to hear anything one might say.
She heard through her connection as Earl cast a shield spell, and used it to herd the ponies around them to the far wall. The shield didn’t push anyone, it was more of a nudge to head in that direction. It appeared to work as she felt a group of panicking ponies head towards that wall. Their concerted movement drew others. Emmie and Essie were trying to chivvy the students who had been behind them towards the door and the walls. They had put their shields at angles to each other, forming a wedge, and were pushing straight for the doors.
Most of the second-years headed for the wall away from the Slytherin desks, where the first pieces of debris had noisily landed.
The students at the front quickly sought shelter under the tables stacked at the sides of the Hall. The others were rushing around despite her lings attempts at control. Quickly enough, the lings gave up their attempts — no one was listening to first-years, no matter how sensible they sounded. They turned their attention to seeking shelter beside her, and casting shield spells over as many students as possible.
As soon as the crush of students at the doors began to subside, the students under the tables began making their way to the doors, hoping to leave before the roof really did come down on them
The lings had barely made it to the doors when aurors began to arrive and establish control.
Once Elly and the others reached their Common Room, it was amazing to see that there were no indications of anything being wrong. Once they entered, it was as if nothing was happening in the Great Hall. Except for still panicking ponies and students, rushing around and spreading rumours of how the entire castle was about to collapse. Any missing students were immediately declared to be in comas, grievously wounded, or even dead. Until they came into the through the Hufflepuff entry. Some never came in.
The older Prefects somehow managed to keep things under control, and mostly calm. They ended up sending most of the students to their rooms.
Which was where things were when the aurors came into the Common Room and started their interviews.
As the second-years were interviewed, Elly was quite pleased that neither she nor her lings were sought out for special questions regarding anything what had happened in the Hall. She, and they, were only asked to recite what they had seen or heard.
She figured they had managed to escape notice completely. However, after lunch, a large, bronze-skinned man with bronze-hair and an exaggerated widow’s peak came into the Common Room. He spoke to Tim, the Prefect, who was standing guard at the door looking fiercely at anyone who even came close to the entry. No one would sneak out with him on duty! Tim looked around the room, and pointed her out to him.
“Hi,” he said as he came over to her. “I’m Auror Savage.” He had brown eyes were flecked with gold, a bit unusual, she thought. He held out his hand and she gingerly shook it. He looked around, then pointed to a set of chairs over in one corner of the room, and motioned her over that way. She gave him a questioning look, but only detected normal curiosity. No alarm or worry.
The chairs were already occupied, but as they stopped beside them, he said to the two students, a boy and a girl, both fifth-years, “Sorry to bother you, but I’d like a quiet word with Miss De Rippe. I wonder if you mind moving?” He smiled down at them, good-naturedly.
Even though he wasn’t being assertive and simply ordering them to move, they almost jumped out of their chairs, gathered their papers, and vacated with considerable haste.
Once they were seated, and he had put up the privacy charms.
“First, thank you for your help, Miss De Rippe. The reason I’ve come to you is because Mr. Potter, in Gryffindor, told us that you had said something interesting to him, back at the end of Spring Break. He told us that you had warned him that Misters Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle — he called them the Dark Trio — were up to something that involved him.” He paused and studied her. “You remember that,” he asked
She had thought Potter might say something. If he hadn’t, she was sure that Granger would have, if only to explain why they were so prepared with a shield charm.
She nodded slowly, frowning, as if surprised at being approached.
“Good, then I’d like you to tell me as much as you can recall about when you first became suspicious of them, and why you felt it necessary to tell Mr. Potter.”
She sat back, pretending to think. She had worked out this contingency the night after the Professor had first announced his “special” DADA class.
“Well,” she started, “I guess it was some time before Christmas . . .,” she paused and squinted at the table. “It wasn’t anything definite,” she said haltingly, picking her words carefully, as if she wasn’t presenting a painstakingly prepared speech.
He still seemed to be only curious.
She stopped, sighed, and looked back up at the auror. “You need to know that Malfoy was the leader of the group. Crabbe and Goyle always did whatever he told them to do. Last year, Malfoy and Potter got off on the wrong foot. Malfoy apparently took that to be an insult, and never forgave Potter. As a result, Malfoy is always insulting and disparaging anything Potter does. Malfoy goes out of his way to interfere with anything that Harry is involved with.” She pulled her mouth to one side and rolled her eyes. “Slytherins are supposed to be sly, sneaky, and ambitious. Malfoy doesn’t seem to know what the words mean.”
She sighed. “This year, the arrival of the ponies threw everything into a spin. However, Malfoy still liked to annoy Potter whenever he could.” She looked away and shook her head. “But around Christmas I noticed that it was Goyle who was glaring at Potter, much more frequently than Malfoy. Which was odd, you know?” She tilted her head slightly. “Because I don’t think Potter has said three words to Goyle in the last two years. What could he have done that earned him Goyle’s ire?” She shrugged. “But it wasn’t all the time. Sometimes he would act like he always had. But then, a few minutes later, he was glaring at Potter as if the boy had insulted his mother a few seconds before. It was really weird.” She shook her head.
“Then, after Christmas, it seemed to get a bit worse. Well, not worse, but more . . . intense?” She glanced into the auror’s eyes for a moment.
“It just struck me as . . . odd. This sudden change in attitude in mere minutes. It was like he was two different people.” She paused and shook her head, then looked at the auror curiously. “I don’t know if you know, but last year the DADA professor, Professor Quirrell, was possessed by an evil spirit.” She paused and shook her head again. “I don’t understand what that was all about . . ..
“It happened during our year-end tests. During the DADA test, I noticed that the Head Boy — who was substituting for Professor Quirrell because he was supposed to be in the Hospital Wing sick with something — was acting very strange . . . listless, for some reason. He had his N.E.W.T.s to prepare for.” She paused a beat. “But he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get the practicals done as soon as possible so he could go back to his studies.”
She suppressed a smile. She had him convinced in her story, she could tell. His curiosity had definitely peaked when she mentioned Professor Quirrell from last year.
“Instead, when I finished the test, he seemed sluggish, quite the opposite of what he just had been like, which was very business-like and focused. He just . . . did nothing. He didn’t seem interested in calling in the next student. It was like he was deliberately stretching out the time between students, for no reason I could see. I mean, he could have used that time for last-minute studying, if nothing else.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So, when my test was over and I left the exam room, I mentioned it to one of the pony Guards that were escorting the students after the scare that a monster was loose in the forest.”
The auror raised his eyebrows.
Did he not know about that?
She nodded firmly. “He decided to take a peek at the Head Boy, and then they discovered that Potter had been kidnapped earlier. And then everything went into lockdown. I heard Potter had been badly hurt, but he recovered quickly. He even thanked me for noticing how strange the Head Boy had been acting. Potter wasn’t sure he would have survived if no one had noticed he was missing for much longer. Princess Twilight even came to thank me,” she said in a wondering tone. “Just because I mentioned the Head Boy was acting odd.” She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe it had happened.
She looked up at the auror Savage with a frown. “For some reason, after Christmas, I was getting the same . . . feeling of unease about Goyle. Then during Easter Break — most of Slytherin stayed, as did I and my cousins — he was very unlike himself. He was more . . . alert, he was quicker to move. He seemed to be looking for something.” She gave the auror a quick smile, “Last year, I heard one of the Ravenclaws say ‘You had to get up pretty early in the afternoon to beat Goyle in wits.’” She paused. “Well, adding in his unusual animosity towards Potter with that change, and what happened last year, I thought I should mention it to Potter and his friends when they got back from Break.” She looked away, then back. “It wasn’t anything I could mention to a professor, you see. It was just a . . . feeling.”
Savage gave her a long look. “You are a very observant little witch,” he said softly.
She forced herself to blush at his compliment.
“Noticing subtle changes in behaviour like that is just the sort of thing we search for in aurors.” He smiled. “Perhaps, in a few years and with a bit of study, you might consider applying to the force.” He raised his eyebrows enquiringly.
She deepened her blush. “It wasn’t anything that great,” she murmured, as if embarrassed at the suggestion. “And I’m only an average student.” She looked down at the floor, as if too shy, now, to meet his eyes.
If she had a few more lings, she might have detailed one to do just that. Having a ling in the Ministry Aurors would be quite the direct link to their safety. She could also map out who was corrupt, and who wasn’t. With careful manipulation she could work in the background and control the government from behind the scenes without fear of being discovered.
He laughed. “There’s nothing wrong with being average,” he said.
She gave him an incredulous look. There was no way anyone would call him average.
He gave her another smile. “With the proper training, even an average person can be an auror. Once you complete the training, there’s no way anyone would ever call you average, again.”
She gave him a slow nod, keeping her incredulous expression. He believed her completely, not a trace of suspicion or doubt in either her or her story.
“Well,” he said briskly, slapping his hands together. “I think we’re finished here. And thank you, again, for your cooperation in our investigations.” He stood up, taking his wand out and dismissing his spells as he did so.
He nodded to her again. “I hope you have a pleasant rest-of-your-day, young lady.”
She nodded back and murmured a soft, “Thank you,” as he turned and headed back out the entry to the Common Room.
She made a show of collapsing back into her chair and looking relieved that the ordeal was over. There was probably a good deal more real relief in that then faking, but only her lings could sense it.
She wondered if Earl might be interested in joining the Aurors. It would give him a purpose, after all, besides simply surviving.
^·_·^
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The plot thickens
nice work
It's hard to believe that we're about 750,000 words in, and it's still just year 2.
10898174
Has Celestia been eating Cake again?
I'm not too familiar with Doc Savage as a character, but I like your characterization of him here.
(Edited to remove grammar commentary.)
So, two former Equestrians have taken an interest in manipulating the magical government. Sooner or later, those two are going to meet and it'll either be a clash or the potential for an alliance that will result from that meeting.
Kinda hoped to see more of what Tom was up to, but this is still real good, haven't gotten a good look at Elly or Starlight in a bit.
10898196
In the actual books, that many words would be partway through year 6.
10898195
Graphene sheets are basically nanotubes that have been rolled out and flattened into a flat sheet. They're even more durable and could theoretically allow us to build huge structures like space elevators or orbital rings without the fear that they would break apart. They also have interesting electrical uses, we already use low-quality graphene to triple the capacity of lithium-based batteries, and theoretically a battery made entirely out of pure high-quality graphene could have twenty or thirty times current storage capacity, there is also some evidence that graphene could act as a room-temperature superconductor, not to mention being monomolecular a graphene sheet is about the sharpest blade you could produce.
Here's a good video if you want to learn more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pocV0wKzEw
And now for something completely different.
10898203
Good point.
10898217
Oooooh, I like that!
10898141
Carbon nanotubes have the highest tensile strength known to science, for now. Tensile strength means it resists tearing when stretched out, such as a rope holding a weight against gravity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_tensile_strength
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIif11QOsRI
There are a lot of fascinating applications, but the one I was thinking of for competent Tom is garrote wire.
At first, I was going to call that a spelling/word choice error.
Then I finished the sentence, and it hit me. It's clearly a Starlight-ism. 
Definitely need more of this type of pony-isms in this story.
Starlight actually managed to turn the Daily Prophet from a trashy and gossipy paper filled with yellow journalism to a serious newspaper of international repute. I'm genuinely impressed. Say what you may about her... less than ethical methods of management, at the very least they clearly produce results.
Elly is really good at covering her actions. She crafted a plausible and convincing lie and then sold it to an experienced Auror.
But what happens now? Time will tell...
Elly is playing the vary long game and it is working really good for her.
from research
out this contingency
Not really. If she had there would have been a mysterious trilling sound of indeterminate origin.
Seriously though, Doc's unconscious trilling whistle when he starts to put the pieces together would not be out of place during this interview.
Just as an aside. It is also a trait common in abused children.
You know, if this were the real Doc, he might have had suspicions about her from his interview with Harry, after all, I'm sure there are witches with empathic abilities, not to mention that possession is on the table as something that seems to be happening. With his control over his emotions he'd be Elly's worst nightmare in some situations. This might be one of them. For all her abilities she is still very young and inexperienced. And maybe a touch overconfident?
10898321
The problem with producing graphene is that you're basically trying to arrange a perfect 2d plane of carbon atoms, it's possible but insanely difficult, the slightest contamination of non-carbon atoms or an atom out of place can ruin a graphene sheet. This is made even harder because a single atom thick sheet of graphene would be too fragile to use for anything, so to make a usable block of graphene you need to layer these sheets on top of one another without the sheets bonding together. Again, we've done it and proven it's possible, but we've never been able to produce enough to really experiment with...
The graphite used in pencils, arc furnaces, nuclear reactors, and as a fuel source for blast furnaces is basically just huge piles of defective and flawed graphene mashed together, and it's kinda infuriating that we have this potentially amazing resource that we use practically everywhere, but actually refining the graphite into graphene is so incredibly hard... Doesn't help that the methods of producing high-quality graphene are jealously guarded behind legal bs, since the people who discover the methods just want to profit off of it instead of sharing the technology to better the world. Honestly, if it wasn't for the legal bs we probably would have functional fusion reactors thanks to graphene's potential high-temperature superconductivity. Not to mention how useful it would be for cybernetics, since it's non-toxic and in fact bonds to flesh rather readily since it's basically made of the same stuff your body is, that combined with its electrical properties means it could be possible to make artificial nerves out of the stuff.
*his
Great chapter. I'm still not sure how to feel about Starlight. She's making great changes to the Daily Prophet, and is genuinely helping out, but she's also pre-reformation Starlight Glimmer, and has less than great morals and priorities. I can only hope something happens which makes her friends with Twilight Sparkle in this timeline.
10898321 10898203 Little wonder Doc Savage magazine series written originally in the 30s and 40 after a little google-fu leading to wiki there was some later magazine in the 70s and some new novels along with a movie in 1975 that they hoped to make a sequel. I only really knew about it from the movie which I saw later on TV
Great chapter!
10898335
I've definitely seen carbon nanowire garrotes in fiction about cyperpunk settings, I was going to bring it up last chapter's comments before i saw this one was up lol
Maybe they're kinnies like me :p
Speaking of which, do you have any plans for more fantastical optional prosthetics like my dream world or other posthumanist stuff, via 'special tech'? Imagine making pony-magic wings normal for humans, hence letting pegasi aliens fly while looking like angels...
Nice PoV chapter from Elle even if she is continuing to be dumb. Won't it be quite the shock to her when Thorax reforms.
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Thanks. And interesting thoughts. However, it's fairly certain that Dumbledore never shared the fate of Professor Quirrell. Before he had a suspicion of her, he would have to check on what had happened to Quirrell.
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Thanks.
Last sentence is a bit off with extra words.
Missing word here.
Extra word here.
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Theres a couple tricks to start with for production of atomic level builds. the first is to throw out standard machining, you are tring to build atoms up, not machine down to atoms. This means the first thought is chemical processes, such as what sort of preparation is needed on what sort of surface so that what chemical reactions can deposit one atom thick layer and self terminate vertically while adding horizontally. The trick then is the continous production method, as in continous coating tape sputtering oven maybe?
Carbon nanotubes would likely be made using the similar methods as maiden hair frost or straw stalagtites, flowing atmosphere of carefully controled vapour densities and composition, given variations as structure is deposited.
Once you have one small sample though, making it a lasing medium makes further optical lattice condensation far easier. Pretty sure that basic method can be extrapolated from 1970s technology. Given the A level physics book I was looking at.
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Or something happens that makes her institutionalized into asylum, like many people argued she deserved. Hasbro's writers gave her so many contradictory and hyperbolic disturbing personality traits that it can be easily argued that she is mentally inadequate.
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I don't think it's dumb to work with what information you have while highly paranoid. Elle is one of my favourite characters, and she's quite nice to put the information out there to help despite her fears imo
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She may be slightly mentally unstable at times but that's honestly what makes her character great, and relatable, I'm autistic so I'm a little mentally unstable myself.
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If being mentally stable was necessary for being a hero of Equestria, none of the Elements of Harmony would be fit for duty.
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She is not slightly unstable. Nor is she autistic. No one else in the series, aside from full-time villains like Chrysalis and Tirek, acts like sociopath. Mane Six have an episodes of exaggerated freaking out, but literally not one of them would start a totalitarian cult over childhood friend moving out; or mess with timeline to screw with one person, constantly doubling down till your homeland is postapocalyptical wasteland; essentially murder Discord for just being annoying, etc. She really needs professional help before becoming anyone's friend.
Changeling aurors would be experts in stealth and tracking. I can't wait to see what comes next!
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Thanks.
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Yeah it came online on Easter Sunday march 30 1997 :-)
Extra bit here.
Quiet
i really love Anne and Ellie's POVs, getting to hear their plans unfolding is just so fun! Anne making the Prophet actually a factual and informative newspaper that disparages dumblesnore AND purebloods? excellent! having a actual OPINION section, and a section dedicated to statute of secrecy fuckups? brilliant. giving the wixarding world the facts about how the muggles have the upper hand by numbers and technology? a stroke of genius.
as for Ellie, its too bad she will be busy being a Queen, i think she would be an amazing auror! she deffo ought to get one of her Lings on that path, as well as one in the Prophet tbh....
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i wouldnt call starlight mentally unstable, but i would call her tramaticed and prone to reacting from a place of pain. her hatred for the purple princess comes from the ruination of her perfect town, a place she created in order to cope with the childhood turmoil of losing her best friend. she built her whole identity around "Our Town", and the destruction of it left her unmoored. shes also a bit of an idealist, and is a tad too smart for her own good, as she is able to put her dastardly plots into action... but thats what makes her such an enjoyable character in this story!
Now I am looking forwards, to see what Ellie de Rip is capable of, and not just what her capabilities are. on the account of her position.
Makes me feel, as if she is starting to gear up, towards becomeing a Shark amongst the Movers and Shakers here.
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maybe modern England is a betterplace, for our poor Unicorn of Equality?
Extra word here
Once more Changelings to the rescue!
♡
Changelings make everything better ♡
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👍
The has the brains, curiosity and patience to become a great leader. Eventually a Aurora placement will giver her Hive vital information how to pull strings to get gears rolling for benefits.
Starlight Glimmer will probably get in the way sooner or later...
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When do she not? Not being available don't count
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Named Savage being most reasonable, awesome
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Probably both making a Alliance while trying to find dirt on one another since Blackmailing is a thing...
But Glimmer is one, while the Hive is many.
They - are - Legion !
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Common knowledge of earth, isn't as commonly known
I think Earl should become a three star chef.
If Changelings joined the Aurora, that's it. It would always hit the criminals unexpected ♤