Chapter 28: Friendship Finds A Way
When Harry charged into the maze, Twilight could feel the excitement in the air. Everyone was cheering for their favorite champion, the atmosphere was alive. And no one was cheering harder than Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
"Woo-hoo, let's go Harry!" Applejack shouted, waving her hat.
"Let's go Harry, you can win this!" Rainbow Dash cried out.
They watched as Harry ran down the maze's first pathway until they disappeared. The cheering died down a little, until Bagman called for the other boy, Cedric, to go on his whistle. Hogwart's students got very excited again for their second champion. When the next student, Victor Krum, came up to run, the Durmstrang got very rowdy. A few minutes later, the same happened with the Beauxbatons, albeit much more restrained and composed. Once all four champions were in the maze, the crowd resorted less to cheers, and more to whispers and gossip.
A few long, arduous minutes passed without any excitement. Only the faintest light from some spells illuminated the maze. Dull, all things considered.
"So... Twilight, what's next?" Rarity asked. "Do we wait for the winner to exit the maze or something?"
"I'm not sure," said Twilight. She summoned a paper, a letter from Harry inviting her to the task. "Harry never said how we would be watching them. The first task was an open field, and the second was monitored by the sea people. I guess the judges must have a way to see who gets the cup."
"What happens then— whoa!" Applejack exclaimed. As she was speaking, an incredible pillar of white light rose from the maze. Just looking at it gave everyone the odd sensation of joy, like this light was a beacon of hope. "What was that? Did someone find that cup?"
"No, that was too close to the entrance, it just have been a spell. Harry's patronus, I think. He described a similar light when he used it," Twilight noted.
"So Harry's still out there? I guess we'll just just have to wait more." Fluttershy started twiddling her thumbs. "Oh, I do hope there are no innocent animals involved. This is so scary, and I'm not even watching!" The pegasus looked ready to start biting her hooves—no—fingernails to relieve stress.
"So we just sit here and wait? Ugh, I'm going to loose my marbles!" Spike said. "Twilight, you've got to have a way to watch, right? A spell, or something?" The dragon sounded hopeful.
"Yeah Twilight, if anypony could make this interesting, you could!" Pinkie Pie added joyfully.
Twilight tapped her chin with her finger, thinking. A way to watch the task? That would require being able to find Harry in the first place, then using some vision or scrying spells. If there was a way to trace him...
"Of course!" Twilight exclaimed. Magenta magic glowed between her hands as she began to construct a spell. "In this country, the wizarding government, the Ministry, can detect the underage use of magic. It can't work on us, but I started making a counter-charm for Harry before the Ball; I can reuse parts of that spell. Provided Hogwart's wards don't block the trace, I might be able to pony-back off of its properties. This should allow us to be able to locate the only underage wizard in the maze: Harry."
Twilight continued to pull on the magic between her hands until it formed a vibrant orb. This magic was pretty delicate, however, as it didn't seem to be cast on a single object, the whole spell kind of free-floated in the atmosphere. Just a few tweaks here and there, and Twilight should be able to track Harry's position.
"What'cha doing over here?" two voices asked.
Twilight turned her attention away from her spellcasting for a moment. Two human boys were standing behind Twilight and her friends. Both had matching hair, matching eyes, matching height... okay, matching everything. Twins, obviously.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Twilight asked the twins.
"He's Fred."
"He's George."
"Oh, I'm—" The twins were quick to cut Twilight off.
"Harry's date to the dance—"
"—everyone's heard of you."
"You gave our brother quite the scare."
"Good work on that one, by the way."
The twins talked in unison, forcing the Equestrians to alternate looking between the two. Pinkie Pie looked dizzy.
"Please stop doing that! This is weirder than the time I made an army of myself using the mirror pool!" Pinkie Pie shouted. The twins looked at each other mischievously.
"So, what are you up to?"
"Come on, give us a look."
"For your information, I was trying to make a spell to track Harry so we can watch," Twilight said irritably.
The twins scoffed. "Good luck with that. But, in the meantime—"
"—we're taking any and all bets if you're interested."
The two again disappeared into the crowd, selling bets and predictions.
"Well that was weirder than apples in the winter." Applejack said. "Reminded me of those Flim-Flam brothers."
"Who were those two anyways?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I think they're brothers of Harry's friend, Ron. Identical twins," Twilight answered.
"Yeah, we could tell," Rainbow Dash added sarcastically. "Now hurry up on that spell, please! It's getting very boring over here."
"Okay, okay, stop rushing me!" Twilight scolded. "This magic is very old, delicate, and fragile. It stops working the day a wizard turns seventeen; if I'm not careful, I might break it." Twilight manipulated the magic a moment more, before the held up the magenta orb. "Done!"
"Oh, really? That was fast," Fluttershy said. "So, uh, how does it work?"
"Like this."
Twilight reached into the orb with one finger, and the tip of it was coated in magic when it returned. She then dragged the finger under her eyes, leaving glowing marks behind.
"This should allow us to see the trace charm being triggered by Harry's magic, the more he casts a spell, the more frequently his position appears to us," Twilight said proudly. She repeated the process on her friends, marking their faces with twin pink stripes. "Now we just look for Harry's magic."
The seven looked out over the maze for any sign the spell was working, anything at all. After a minute or two it did get rather boring.
"Twilight, I don't mean to insult your magical prowess, but are you certain this will work?" Rarity said as she squinted her eyes.
"I mean, it should, but I've never tried anything like this. A trace spell like this can't function in Equestria, there's simply too much ambient magic for it to work," Twilight said. "Of course, I—"
"Oh, oh! Over there, over there!" Pinkie Pie shouted, pointing strongly at the maze. "It's working!"
Everyone looked into the maze and was surprised when they could see something. There was a faint wisp of illusory smoke rising from the maze, constantly on the move. It appeared Twilight's spell was a success!
"It's working alright. That has to be Harry. He's getting closer to the center. Good job, Twilight," Applejack complemented Twilight's work.
"He should take a left next!" Rainbow said, noting how the left path looked like a more direct route, from the stand's view, at least. "Left, left, left..." Harry's magical trail took a right. "No, left! Left! Horseapples, he's going the wrong way!"
Fluttershy covered her ears.
"He can't hear us, Rainbow." Rarity said. "He can't see what we see."
"What you see?" a voice said behind the group. The seven turned around to see Ron and Hermione behind them. Ron had a pair of binoculars over his eyes, while Hermione was looking at the Equestrians. "What's with your eyes?" she asked curiously.
"Twilight invented a nifty tracking spell so we can watch Harry! It's so cool! Twilight is so good with magic, probably better than anyone I know!" Pinkie Pie couldn't resist bouncing up and down as she said this.
"Pinkie, stop, I'm blushing." Twilight hid her face behind the orb. "This is a magic school, I'm sure someone here could have pony-backed off the trace spell."
"Yes, well, none of them are Celestia's student, are they? Admit it Twilight, it is rather impressive, even if this shade of magenta is contrasting with my eyes," Rarity said, nudging her friend with an elbow.
Hermione was understandably confused.
"How did you do that?'
"I modified your people's tracking charm for underage wizards. We can see everything magical Harry does now, and—more importantly—where."
"Dad said the ministry can detect anything we kids do." Ron said suddenly. "They don't exactly do much if you're below school age, and many old wizarding families can get away with ignoring it. It's very powerful magic, lots of old magic is."
"But how did you do it? I read the Trace is an incredibly complex spell—"
"Like the wards?" Twilight countered. She pointed to the magical stripes on their faces. "These marks allow us to see the trace. It's outdated, if I'm being honest." She didn't mean to brag, but it was obvious that the spell hadn't been altered in several centuries. Even Celestia upgraded her magical defenses every few years, especially after the whole Discord fiasco had proven they were insufficient.
"So you're spying on him?" Hermione said pointedly.
"Of course not, he asked us to keep an eye out. Besides, we can only see him when he's casting magic. Speaking of, how's he doing, Pinkie?" Twilight brushed off the comment. She looked back over the maze, only to realize she had lost track of Harry's magical trail.
"He's getting close to the center! I think he's going to—" Pinkie Pie stopped talking.
"Going to what?" Fluttershy asked.
Pinkie didn't respond. Instead, she stayed rooted to her seat. Then, her ears wiggled, her body vibrated, and her hair stood on end, all at once. Everyone knew what this meant.
Her Pinkie Sense was tingling.
"Oh no, what now?!" Applejack said, looking up and covering her head.
"I-I don't know! This combination is only when really bad things happen! Really really really bad things!" Pinkie stuttered.
"Everypony, keep an eye on Harry!" Spike shouted. They all searched the maze, eventually locking it onto Harry's location: the center of the maze.
"He's made it! That should mean he can get out, right?" Applejack said hopefully.
"Unless it's booby-trapped," added Rainbow Dash.
"It couldn't be all that bad. Harry said they were being careful," Rarity countered.
Twilight rapped her knuckles against her head. What was she missing?! Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense hadn't registered once before now! Maybe the tournament itself wasn't the threat? But if there wasn't a trap, what was it!? Twilight thought back to every warning and sign she had received this year.
Discord said nothing would go as planned. Harry was warry of this from the start, he assumed he was entering because it could kill him because it was dangerous. But what is the danger that didn't come from the tournament?
Harry said he had a dream where the wizard, Voldemort, had said "Harry Potter will be mine" and that he "still requires him", but he couldn't have been on campus, right? Then how could he get Harry like this?!
"It's a trap," she said. "He wanted Harry to win. We've been going about this all wrong!"
"Twilight, what are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"This whole time we thought the tournament was the danger, that it was a ploy to end Harry's life, but we were wrong! It was to keep him out of out sight! He's trying to get Harry!"
The whole group gasped aloud, finally realizing what was going on.
"Look!" Rarity yelled, pointing at the maze.
Everyone followed her gaze. The mist that showed Harry's magic was in the center of the maze, he had made it to the cup! But after of moment of elation, Harry's magic went up in the air and vanished. The trail disappeared completely! In mid-air!
"Where'd he go?" said Applejack. "He was right there!"
"Something is wrong! Spike, find Dumbledore! Come on girls, let's go!" Twilight commanded, getting out of her seat, the other Equestrians followed behind.
"Where are you going?!" demanded Hermione.
"We're getting Harry out of there!"
Spike weaved between the feet of the people to get to the judges' box as fast as possible. He called out more than a few "excuse me" and "sorry"s while trying not to bump into anyone. He arrived and took note of the four humans inside. One was a very old and wrinkly male with a long grey beard, there was a slightly younger human with a stern look about him, a very tall human female, and a human with a bowler cap. Spike ran straight for the oldest. That made sense, right?
"Hey, you! Sir!" Spike shouted.
The four adults turned back to look at Spike.
"A dog?" the woman asked.
"I should be a dragon," Spike said, then shook his head. He had more important things to do. "I need to say something important! Harry's in danger!"
"Danger?" the eldest man echoed. "How do you know?"
"Twilight was tracking Harry from the stands. He was going fine, then he just disappeared! He got to the center, then vanished!" Spike revealed.
"Vanished? Are you certain?" the old man asked.
"Albus, are you talking to a dog!?" the man with a bowler cap demanded. "This is obviously a student's prank to get us all riled up."
"A very poor prank," the stern man replied.
"Karkaroff is right, this would make a very poor prank," the tall woman said.
"Does Twilight know where Harry is?" the old man, Albus, asked.
"No, but she's going to go after him," Spike said. "She's probably gone already."
"Then someone is already interfering with the task," Albus said. "Regardless of whether he is right about Harry, someone else is already interfering with the third task. We must contact the teachers, they have to find the champions before anything else goes wrong."
"Agreed," Karkaroff said.
"I agree," The tall woman said.
"Fine," The bowler cap man said.
The six girls ran until they were far out of sight of the assembled audience. They formed themselves into a loose circle. Five necklaces were revealed, and Twilight pulled out her crown-tiara thing.
"Alright, what's the plan?" Applejack said.
"We use the Elements, get to Harry, and bring him back." Twilight placed the Element of Magic on her head. "Ready?" Everyone nodded. "Here goes nothing." The Elements activated.
Light erupted upwards, engulfing the six. They could feel the magic of the Elements of Harmony surrounding them, changing them. The illusion over their skin shattered. Their ears changed into pony ears, they gained tails, and the two pegasi regained their wings. When the light faded, the six took note of their appearance.
"Whoa," Applejack said.
"I've got wings again! Yes!" Rainbow Dash fluttered in the air.
"Focus! We need to find Harry!" Twilight interrupted. Her eyes began to glow with magic beneath her closed eyelids. "Hang on, I have an idea." Twilight's crown glowed, tendrils of magic sparking out of it. If I can summon with that spell, could I send myself to him? There was a tense minute of silence as her magic did its job. "I found him!"
A rainbow stretched from one Element to the next, creating a magical circle. The group was lifted off the ground and surrounded by a rainbow of magic, then vanished.
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Heimdall better watch out because Twilight just put a reverse call in on the Rainbow Bridge.
Great sruff. It's 5:24. I shoud be up by 9 and do exams in 10. Totally worth it.
The way you handled Potter-verse unicorns is unique, haven't seen such before.
Don't worry, Harry, cavalry is coming!
With orbital friendship canon.
11593764
It's the only one of its kind and it's mine
Third
You missed the obvious: ", said George". i.e. -- presenting themselves as each other to this new group.
Ohhh ... please don't let this pair into Equestria.
s/don't/do/ :-)
EqG forms, activate! :-)
Looks like the girls did the Sailor Moon Teleport.
Nice!