Starlight Glimmer, now known as Anne Bourchier, looked out the window of her apartment into the miserable weather that was England in February. Tom B. Sotted, the bartender at the Leaky Cauldron, had confided that it was a very mild and dry month. The temperature, however, barely reached fifty degrees Fahrenheit, ten degrees Centigrade — how weird was it that the wizards used the same scale as the Equestrians, but not the non-magicals? — during the days, and there had been several night frosts.
It was nothing like the frigid-cold temperatures of upper Equestria, where the winter months meant deep snows and temperatures rarely rose above freezing. And it was decidedly warmer than the cave she had had to retreat to, to escape Princess Sparkle’s unreasonable persecution after destroying her Town. So, the miserableness of it was merely a matter of interpretation, for her. She found it rather mild, herself.
On the other hoof, without a fur coat, these humans were very susceptible to the cold, she had discovered. She probably would have really disliked it more if she couldn’t cast powerful and long-lasting warming charms when she ventured outside. If the bad weather lasted much longer, she was going to put a few runes in her coat that would save her the trouble of casting warming charms when it was uncomfortably cold.
She sighed. She did miss her Town. And she was bored after the excitement of the previous weeks.
“Cleaning” Sirius Black’s home had been a challenge, and interesting. The spells she had discovered on many of the items had been intriguing and scary. Only an insane pony would have enchanted such vicious curses on items foals — children, she reminded herself — might have been able to access. They also gave her a bit of insight into just how unlike ponies these humans were. She shuddered at the thought. Their casual approach to life and death was appalling.
But, then again, so was the attitude of Griffons and Dragons, also known meat-eaters. They tended to play with their food before consuming it, and treated law-breakers much harsher than simple imprisonment in dungeons. Death was a frequent punishment. She shuddered again.
In any case, even her pedestrian apartment in the Alley was preferable to that dump at Twelve Grimmauld Place.
His home was dark and dank, almost like a cave, considering the great amounts of dust and mildew that covered everything. Why he continued to stay there left her bemused. It certainly wasn’t because he couldn’t afford anywhere else. Even an open field would be preferable. At least, that would have been her preference.
The spells on it, however, were quite impressive. Sirius had told her it was unplottable, which she had tested at her apartment. Sure enough, even though she knew where the house was after being led there, she couldn’t find it on a map. Every time she tried, she ended up looking somewhere else on the map other than where she knew it had to be.
There was a muggle-repelling charm on it, too. That one she felt as she crossed its surface. A useless spell in Equestria, but quite important to wizards. He warned her of the offensive and defensive magic’s, many were intent based. Without his presence letting her past the charms, she would have been blasted across the street. No warnings, just, boom! And waking up in a park.
And if she tried to force her way through them? Not a good idea. Not at all.
She had spent almost half-an hour just admiring how they all interacted, to his amusement. And tracing how they worked. By the end of the third day, she could recreate any of them. Although she could not ever imagine using the inside-out-charm on anything living. That was just needless cruelty. Just the sort of thing an insane Griffon or Dragon might like. Not that they would be able to cast that kind of magic, thank Faust!
The house-elf, Kreacher, was despicable. He was, by her standards, lazy, argumentative, and unpleasant both to speak to and to see. His trustworthiness, as Sirius had readily admitted, was definitely on the shady side. The only reason he hadn’t been dismissed, as Sirius had explained, was, “. . . he knows far too many secrets. Any of the Black Family’s many enemies would be delighted to get their hands on him.” So, Sirius kept him and made them both miserable.
The house-elf had made the mistake of calling her a muggle-born at their first meeting in the kitchen.
Sirius had turned red in anger, “Kreacher!” he had yelled.
Before he could say anything further, she had interrupted him. From the books she had read, she knew what the house-elf had meant.
“Sirius, let me handle this,” she had said calmly. “Kreacher,” she said, addressing the house-elf, hands on her hips. “I understand that you have been with the Black family for generations, as were your parents.” Her tone had turned cold. “Sirius has warned me that you considered the Black family to be the epitome of a magical Family, with a history that goes back at least five hundred years. However, you know nothing about me. You are not as intelligent as you think, or you would know better than to make assumptions about me based solely on the company I keep, or the manners in which I dress and speak.”
She hadn’t quite glared at him. She might not be in Equestria, anymore, but she was proud of her family — even if she did have disagreements with her parents. “My parents were magical, as were their parents. And their parents, and their parents. And that situation is true for the last thousand years. Do you understand?” She had tilted her head slightly.
Sirius had stared at her. He knew she had recently arrived in England. He had apparently assumed that meant she wasn’t a pure-blood by his standards.
Kreacher had screwed his face up in anger, and mumbled something. The only word she had understood was “blood-traitor.” Again, she had known what he had meant. She had read about it in the history books she had purchased several months ago.
She didn’t support the notion that some ponies, people, were preferred to others simply because of their political beliefs and the magic they used. Ponies, people, were all equal, that was what was important, not how one used their magic. Unfortunately, there were unicorns that felt differently than her. Mostly in Canterlot.
Oh, she knew there were magical spells and artefacts that would corrupt a pony, person. Terrible things that would turn a pony into something that was the exact opposite of what they had wanted to accomplish, such as the infamous Alicorn Amulet. She wanted nothing to do with things like those.
However, to ignore somepony for the sin of using their magic differently? That was absurd! A unicorn disregarded a pegasus or earth-pony at their own risk, as any guard in the EUP forces could attest! And the reverse was true, too. They all expressed their magic differently, but all were just as effective in their tribes.
Plus, here, there were no cutie marks to divide friendships. Who cared what magic they cast? As long as it didn’t hurt anypony, it didn’t matter. And if they did hurt somepony, they should be punished for their crimes. Regardless of their societal position or desires. No one should be above the law, in her opinion. It was how she had run her Town. And everyone had been happy until Miss Privileged Princess, and her meddling friends, had ruined everything.
She had rolled her eyes. “As if that word means anything to me,” she had said. “It has as little meaning to me as pure-blood. It all bleeds red, regardless.”
There had been silence for a moment.
Sirius had finally said, “Shut up, Kreacher. Clean the bathrooms.” Kreacher had left via the elf-version of teleporting. More direct, better safe-guards, but still not as safe as teleportation, she had noticed.
After a moment, he had said, “You didn’t mention that you’re a pure-blood,” accusingly.
She had looked at him. “Then you should have asked. Should I leave?” She arched an eyebrow.
He had coloured, then said, “No, stay, I still need help in cleaning the house.” He had paused. “You just don’t act like a pure-blood, that’s all.” He had given her an evaluating look, as if he were trying to see her secrets.
“It was never important at home. And it shouldn’t be, here. Only how hard you worked mattered, there.”
He had slowly nodded. Then he grinned. “Well, if you can trace your roots back a thousand years as a magical, then that means my family is a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies, doesn’t it? Mother would be practically beside herself at meeting such a distinguished personage as yourself, wouldn’t she?” He had chuckled.
She had snorted. “Right,” she had said drily. “Where do we start?”
Kreacher had kept out of her way, after that. And while he mumbled when he did see her, he had made sure she couldn’t exactly hear what he said. That he hadn’t been bothering her was just fine, as far as she had been concerned. If he left her alone, she would leave him alone. As long as he didn’t insult her to her face, she wouldn’t complain.
She had never worried about his cooking. That was because she had always ordered take-out lunches and dinners, and sealed them, before teleporting to Number Twelve each morning.
Dipping into her account was never a problem, as Sirius made it a point to pay her at the end of each day.
She hadn’t needed the money, but it was the principle. She didn’t work for free. Nobody should. That the house-elves did, bothered her a bit. But, then, they were a totally different race. And she knew from Equestria that you shouldn’t project your expectations of manners, attitude, and work ethic on other creatures. That would always get you in trouble.
He had started flirting with her almost immediately. And while it was nice that he thought her attractive, the idea of dating was as far from her plans as possible, at this stage. And he was human, not a pony. Their faces were just so . . . flat. And their range of expressions was so . . . limited.
Still, she had flirted back. They had both enjoyed the light-hearted bantering between them while dealing with the dangerous crap that was in his home. And they had gone to several restaurants for dinner, after work, both wizardkind and not.
It had been oddly enjoyable.
When he told her he was going to be visiting Equestria with Princess Sparkle so he could visit his god-son, Harry Potter, she had almost panicked. But then she realized that she wasn’t in any danger. There were no connections between Anne Bourchier, Bright Star, and Starlight Glimmer for any pony to find. And, if things were going as planned, no pony would even begin to suspect to look for Bright Star for several more weeks.
And she most certainly wasn’t about to reveal her unicorn form any time soon.
Thus it was that she found herself at loose ends for a week. Sirius had graciously allowed her to borrow a few books from the family library, after checking them for family curses, first. The books she had, he had deemed suitably innocuous to be allowed out of the house.
The first book had been on politics in wizarding England over the last three hundred years — up until 1920, that is, when it was published. Another, Nature’s Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy, had been on the so-called pure-blood families, and their histories for the last two hundred years. It was rather surprising how frequently the two intersected.
What was especially interesting were the notes in the margins that previous Heads of the House Black had written, Those were most informative and revealed the reasons and jealousies that had driven some of the historical events. And not a few items that had been used for blackmail purposes.
If they weren’t so set on this ridiculous pure-blood ideology, half the blackmail material would have been useless.
It would all be so silly, if it weren’t so deadly.
Wizards and witches could be just as petty as school-foals, she decided, only they tended to do more than merely hurt a pony’s feelings or chase them out of town. These . . . people . . . settled their differences with nasty spells and duels that actually killed their opponents instead of shaming them or chasing them out of town. No wonder the number of pure-blood families had dropped to a mere twenty-eight over the last three hundred years!
And while Starlight wanted to hurt Princess Sparkle, she didn’t want her dead. No, she wanted her to suffer, as Starlight had suffered when the Princess had lied to her friends, and persuaded them to abandon her without reason. They had actually chased her out of the town she had started! It made her blood boil in anger at the memory.
But kill her? No, definitely not. Humiliation that lasted for years was so much more satisfying.
The third book had been on enchantments, which had required she buy a set of four books on rune-craft from the bookstore.
Plus, after seven days of only leaving her room to acquire fresh food so she didn’t have to waste time making her own, she was looking forward to Sirius’ return the day after tomorrow.
Now with a much better understanding of the political backgrounds, she only needed a few more-modern books to get a solid understanding of the current political climate. And she was sure Sirius would be happy to regale her with his family’s participation in the important events that had occurred since those books had been published. His insights, even ten years out of date, would be invaluable in determining the real players in politics today.
Then, Sirius could begin introducing her to the current movers and shakers that would allow her to move her agenda forward.
It was so much easier to get things done properly when ponies had their own reasons to follow her plans. Enlightened self-interest was a much better motivator than coercion. Or merely convincing someone to do something.
If they had something to gain or protect, they were far more likely to do what was needed without her doing anything more than making a suggestion or two. And then they would think it their idea, if she were subtle enough.
۸-_-۸
Elly balanced carefully on the rafter as she examined the area around the ceiling where it joined the wall. Below her, easily ten yards, was the nearly empty Great Hall. The ceiling above her, as well as the rafter she stood on, displayed the night sky outside. She had a very effective camouflage of a shadow against the night. All she had to do was avoid crossing in front of the moon — it was only two days past full, after all.
She had expected it to be difficult for her to see the rafters, but their tops were unaffected by the charms. It made sense. From this angle, such a spell would be silly. All it would show would be the tables and floor below. It would look like she was walking on thin air.
And probably would have confused the owls to no end. She could imagine an owl crashing into a rafter because, by displaying the floor below, it would be effectively invisible. So, better to leave it as uncharmed wood.
Of course, that it also happened to help hide her from view below was a bonus.
Thankfully, the house-elves took care to eliminate any spider-webs, cobwebs, feathers, and dust that might accumulate up here — wouldn’t want any of that falling down into the food! That meant she didn’t have to worry about the cascades of dust that would mark where she was walking. It did mean she couldn’t just leave the jars in the corners, she had to hide them inside something that wouldn’t be moved or opened by the elves.
She turned, about to jump to the next rafter, when she heard two Slytherin students below her. “. . . Chamber is huge!” one said, “No wonder it took them so long to canvass it.”
The acoustics up here were phenomenal.
The other sighed. “Yeah,” he said, “Too bad, too. There’s no way they didn’t find everything there was to find down there. It would have been fun searching for hidden rooms and holes. But, they know much more sophisticated spells than we do, so it would be a waste of our time.”
She paused. The Chamber of Secrets. She had avoided that place, so far. But they were right. The professors and other professionals, had already thoroughly explored it, and marked every hiding place. Which meant there had to be out-of-the-way places she could use. She wouldn’t have to worry about curious and exploring students finding her jars, because the students already knew there was nothing there or it already would have been found! And the professors had checked, so they, too, knew there was nothing to find.
What better place to hide something than somewhere people had already looked and found nothing?
She quickly made her way back to the access door at the back of the hall and slipped into the hidden tunnel that led to the floor.
۸-_-۸
Elly skipped happily across the Hogwarts lawn, heading for the castle. Success! And on the last day, too. The train from London should be here in less than an hour! She had spent all of yesterday carefully scouting the main Chamber and the rooms attached to it. There were just so many possibilities!
She had finally decided that she needed a place she could access, but not too easily or someone might find it by accident. So, this afternoon, she finally had decided on two hiding spots. One was inside the outer-chamber, not far from the slide that led from the bathrooms above in the school. An indentation was there, left by a brick — one the size of her head — that had fallen out. Two jars were there, behind a carefully-built façade of the brick that blended in perfectly. A symbol traced in one corner of a brick at floor level marked the location.
The other location was under the model of the snake they had erected in the chamber. For that one, she had had to excavate a small hole. It held two more jars. Both places were lined inside with waterproof green-resin, and spelled with runes into stasis. They would always be ready should any ling be in need in an emergency.
Again, the mark for the location was on a nearby brick. Any ling would easily find the stash after minimal effort.
Now all she had to do was leave instructions in key spots in the castle that she knew an infiltrator would routinely check. That way if any ling besides her ever came here, they wouldn’t be without resources.
And she was sure she would have a full set of jars to take to her home by the time summer arrived. She wouldn’t have to worry about scrimping for the summer hols.
If only there were another ling around, then she wouldn’t feel so lonely.
She wondered if it would be possible to sneak back across the portal and look for other lings. If she took along most of her jars, she wouldn’t have to risk exposure needing to acquire food.
But then she remembered the spell the Guards were using to detect lings. And she was sure they were a lot more careful, now, about keeping the portal isolated. Her first trip through had alerted them to a problem. Getting back would be a real effort. She slowed to a walk. No, that wouldn’t be a good plan. She would just have to tough it out — she was the last ling there, and the only ling here.
Until she started a hive. Could she start a hive? She wasn’t sure how to do that. Or even if it was possible. What little she remembered from the old hive-mind seemed to indicate it might, might, be possible.
She shook her head, trying to throw off the depressing thoughts. While there weren’t any lings around, she did have friends.
She now had a home . The goblins promised it would be ready for her to move into the week before school let out. She would have a busy summer preparing it for her permanent residence.
They had also gotten her several leads on setting up a restaurant. She had already rejected one as too close to the new Equestrian Magical Embassy Station in Diagon Alley. Too close as-in right beside it. Even though it was just a door and room, with a secretary and attached floo, she didn’t want to take chances. She was leaning very heavily towards one of two places in Hogsmeade, on High Street.
The one across from the Three Broomsticks had the advantage of being close to another floo. And being between Honeydukes and Zonko’s Joke Shop wouldn’t hurt business. The other was on a corner across from Scrivenshaft’s on High Street. Across the other street on the opposite corner was the Owl Post Office. That one looked more promising, even if the Hogs Head was farther down that narrow street. The place was already roomy, before one even started using expansion charms. It was also cheaper. She had to wonder, though, if the Hogs Head was that disrespectable. If so, she wouldn’t want to be located too close to it.
Its other disadvantage was that it was much closer to the Hogsmeade Equestrian Embassy Station. By about half the distance. Again, the station was only a room with a secretary and floo, but . . . .
Well, she had plenty of time to decide.
There was no hurry on that project.
Plus, absolutely no one suspected that she wasn’t who and what she said she was. And there were no tracks to lead to her, either. As an infiltration, it was a perfect role. Her only downfall would be if she made a mistake and gave herself away.
She didn’t plan to make any mistakes. She did plan to avoid the Headmaster and his Deputy as much as possible. And not do anything that possibly could draw attention to herself.
No sense in courting disaster.
۸-_-۸
Once back in Hogwarts, Harry began to obsess about the upcoming Quidditch match. It was only a week away, so Wood was really pressing them in the practices, which were now every afternoon before dinner. Which Harry actually appreciated. When he was in practice, he was too busy to worry directly about the game. Unlike his classes, eating, and studying, where he couldn’t keep his mind on the subject at hand. The worst was when he was trying to fall asleep.
Harry didn’t know whether he was imagining it or not, but he seemed to keep running into Snape wherever he went. At times, he even wondered whether Snape was following him, trying to catch him on his own. Could Snape be stalking him? It didn’t make sense. Yet, there the wizard was, everywhere Harry was. Staring malevolently at him.
Harry sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.
Fortunately, the girls were always with him. And they were watching his back.
He was almost sick with worry the day of the match. Nothing his friends could do cheered him up. When they told him they all intended to have their wands ready to react the moment anything happened, that only momentarily helped. Soon, he was right back to worrying his lip and staring blindly into space until one or another of the girls elbowed him lightly to get his attention.
Inevitably, he ended up wondering if Snape was going to curse him again.
To his intense relief, in the Quidditch locker room as he steeled himself up to get out on the pitch, he heard Fred Weasley cry out, as he peered outside, “Blimey — the Headmaster’s out there!”
Harry almost collapsed in relief.
Harry laughed out loud. He was safe — no way would Snape dare to do anything!
Snape looked furious that his plans had been thwarted, as the teams marched onto the field.
It was one of the shortest games in Hogwarts’ history. Everyone was amazed and surprised. The Hufflepuffs hadn’t even been mad about losing, they were so astonished. Even Professor Snape giving the Gryffindors unfair penalties hadn’t been able to make a difference, with a game that short.
The Gryffindor party was in full swing by the time he arrived after showering. Scootaloo and Ginny decided that, in view of the nice weather outside — that is, it wasn’t raining —they wanted to fly. It was still daylight and the tension they had lived with for days was gone. The two hurried out the door, already changing to ponies and galloping down the corridor.
Harry shook his head and turned back to the pumpkin juice punch, which he was sure he had seen the twins add something to earlier. He grabbed one of the butterbeer bottles instead. He also took another slice of cake. That, at least, the elves wouldn’t have let anyone tamper with while they were cooking.
۸-_-۸
If you only knew Harry, Snape deserves a huge karmic backlash himself. Even when supposedly taking on the referee job to protect Harry, he can’t help but be unfair to Gryffindor just because. Hope he faces it like how someone pointing out that James potter became a better person while he just became worse.
nice work.
Hidden jars containing mysterious liquids tucked away into the foundations of the school, inside the exact place that any Dark Wizard would naturally be attracted to in order to carry out some nefarious plot. The only question is if Snape or Dumpledore finds the jars first, because they're certainly not going to remove them and let their little pet bug know what is up. After all, she's been a model student, excellent scores, quite helpful to the other students, and the jars don't contain anything that can go boom or uses Dark Magic. Far better to observe. By the way, where is the Maurader's Map at this point in time?
There's something Harry could bring up to Twilight. I bet she has some nifty charms to counter legimency or other psychic attacks…
9574112
Unlikely, mind reading is something ponies can't do and learning occulmency requires having someone attempting to invade your mind and that isn't a skill you can just learn from a book.
9574076
Nah James was always kind of a jerk, he's not an awful person he just has a nasty tendency of pissing people off. Harry is just like his dad in that regard.
9574122 not really, from what what I can tell emus said he grew out of it especially when he and lily started dating
Well this is going to get interesting. I wonder just what damage Starlight is going to do and if she will live through the consequences of her actions. As she still doesn't see as what she did was wrong. I also hope she doesn't break Sirius’s heart in the process.
As for Elly I hope her head f house finds out the truth and is able to help her. Seeing her this way is sad as she is so close to understanding why Chrysalis was a monster.
Now here is a good question. If the jars of concentrated love were to spill over Voldemort, what would happen? Such undiluted love might have some very adverse affects on him.
9574115
Incorrect in the chapter where they purchase their school books Harry purchased a book about this very subject and how to prevent it. It does say it will probably be beyond him but better to be prepared then unprepared. It just hasn't come back up since that point, hopefully Harry will remember soon and start studying that book in more detail.
9574131
Perhaps it would have the same outcome as pouring molten lead on the average person?
9574133
It's one thing to learn the techniques its another to put them into practice. Without having someone invade your mind so you can practice you'll still be completely defenseless against a skilled legilmens.
It's like thinking you can beat up a skilled fighter just because you watched some instructional videos online.
Okay, honestly, is this story ever meant to end? Some stories on this site don't end, just keep going on and on, endlessly. Are we even going to finish year one by the one million word mark?
Goddamn man. If you have Starlight come back around as a redeemable character, please don't do what the show did for it to happen. Not only was that utterly insufficient, given what all she did, but it would be that much worse with what she is probably going to do here. This crazy bitch either needs Tartarus, Azkaban, or whatever maximum security prison our muggle friends can jury rig to suit an delusional, megalomaniacal Equestrian. At least for a time.
9574127
Well, there's your problem. Never believe an emu.
9574115
Wouldn't there be a new branch of magic dealing with psychic attacks after The Changeling Invasion of Canterlot? I'm pretty Twilight would be all over that like white on rice. One would think the Equestrians would be feverishly seeking means to counter a charm or psionic attack that might render a pony under another's influence. Wouldn't want any of the Princesses ending up brainwashed, right?
9574165
What’s an emu
9574166
Brainwashing is different from mind reading. Brainwashing involves forcing your will on another and the other is just stealing information. In both cases you need to be aware its happening to defend against it.
Not to mention only Chrysalis could do it. They also can't read minds otherwise Chrysalis would have done a better job impersonating Cadance.
9574177
OK, salient points. Still, there's a lot of history within Equestria that we simply don't know. (Think you, Hasbro, for that.) So there's no saying that somepony like Starswirl the Bearded might not have been concerned about such a thing and divined such a need (in spite of it being a an solution seeking a problem,) then crafted such a countercurse/disenchantment. Starswirl seems like the kind of pony that would operate like that…
9574177
You are forgetting that Discord can brainwash others as he did to at least Fluttershy and Twilight does have a spell to counter that kind of mental intrusion, also knowing Twilight the simple fact of knowing that wizards can read minds, as she learned when Harry obtained that book would likely be enough to convince her to look into it and develop effective countermeasures that are simple to learn and use, that's just the type of thing that she would do.
9574167
A large flightless bird, somewhere between an ostrich and a cassowary. I was gently poking fun at your typo:
9574190
Yes I fully expect Twilight Sue to pull something out her ass to counter it but at this point the only way to learn how to counter mind reading is to get someone to invade your mind so you can practice resisting.
Also Discord didn't brainwash them he just Twisted their personalities all Twilight did was use a memory spell to remind them who they are.
9574192
Yeah sorry I did mean Remus, I did look up emu and jsut have realised the typo afterwords
9574148
However we have the over powered book walking spell. That would give Harry a better understanding and give him a leg up when his mind getting invaded and give warning.
9574219
Again I don't care how much reading you do about self defense without practice you'll still get your ass kicked in a real fight.
9574200
He did brainwash Fluttershy because he couldn't manipulate her like he did the others. Take a look.
Also how is Twilight a huge bookworm and researcher known for being overprepared to the extreme for any potential problem she can see coming pulling a solution to mindreading out of her ass when she has known that mind reading could be a problem for Harry and the fillies for half a year? She is not being a sue, she is being in character, if she can spontaneously come up with a solution to an unforeseen problem without "twilighting" about it for a while, then you can call her a sue, but her having a quick solution to a problem she has known about for a while? Not so much as she has had time to obsess about it behind the scenes.
9574225
When everyone automatically assumes Twilight has a solution to every problem you've turned her into a Sue. The only character that can get away with being prepared for every possible situation is Batman and Twilight is no Batman.
Maybe the more accurate term is that she has been flanderized in this story.
9574220
Except when the type of self defense in question is a mental one, having a thorough understanding of the theory (something Snape never really gave Harry in canon simply telling a hormonal and emotional teenager with a lot on his plate to "clear his mind" without giving advice as to how) is likely 80% of what is needed, yes practice is necessary but having a really good understanding of the theory for a mental martial art would be a massive help and likely is even more important than simply practicing.
9574235
Theory only gets you so far. A skilled mind reader can get in and out without notice, to counter that you would need either some experience in order to recognize that its happening or be so paranoid you just never let your guard down.
9574250
Yet the only “skilled” mind reader we have in canon for Harry Potter was Voldermort. Who was doing this to a hormonal teenager who didn’t know it was happening or being fed false information. Snape did basically two things in teaching Harry, jack and crap. Notice how Harry was easily able to do it to Voldermort in the last book during the last third of that book. I am sorry but if Harry where able to study that book he would have the ability to understand that jay someone is trying to get into his mind. He may not be able to stop them but he could sound the alarm.
9574115
Indeed. I've seen mind control and the memory recall effect to counter discord's corruption. Admittedly that second one might well involve mind reading. Same with the magical mystery cure recovery
9574076
Snape is . . . complicated.
He's a huge dick. A jerk. An asshole.
He's also a hero, willing to sacrifice his life for a worthy cause.
So yeah. Complicated.
9574232
Yet Twilight here is a mother so it makes sense that she would be invested in the safety of her son and his friends and your right Twilight is not Batman, Batman can plan for every conceivable situation no matter how unlikely or absurd and Twilight can't do that I'm not assuming she has a solution to every problem she faces just the ones she has been made aware of and thus can plan for, like the possibility of someone who can read minds, which again is something Twilight was made aware of half a year ago in universe. She has not been flanderized, the problem is that as she is not a PoV character in this story almost all of her planning and "twilighting" happens behind the scenes where we can't see and unlike in the show here she has time to research the situation and plan things out adequately so she is rarely faced with a situation she hasn't been able to handle with ease so by the time we do get to see her do stuff she is right in her element doing what she does best acting on a carefully thought out plan.
9574250
I did say that practice is important, but for a mental martial art like occlumency a thorough understanding of the theory is likely even more important (I'm of the opinion that Harry failed to learn the skill in canon despite plenty of practice because he didn't get to learn the theory), by book walking in that book on mental protection Harry can gain the information he needs so that he can start practicing, learning a mental martial art is all about training your brain and one of the best ways to do so is by reading, so their is no reason that Harry can't learn a good deal of the practical knowledge by looking in a book, he would still need to practice but it would be a good start. Who knows it may just be able to hold off whatever it is that is happening with his thoughts, that ought to be good practice.
So at this point I'm hoping that Starlight finds the locket horcrux and gets possessed by it. Mostly because I really hate villain Starlight, since at her core she's acting on extremely petty reasons while screwing with stuff which she doesn't understand(or possibly care) about the consequences as long as she gets her way.
Also because Starlight getting possessed would both derail her plans and get Voldemort back into the plot.
I see Starlights reinventing her past and ignoring that she kidnapped, imprisoned and removed the cutie marks from Twilight and the others without their consent.
9574167
A large flightless australian bird that s defeated an army in the past (literally look up australia emu war).
9574356
That would be epically appropriate. She gets out gambited by a truly evil person and she can learn the hard way that she was but a foal acting out.
I wonder when Hogwards students are going to take a school field trip to Equestria? That would be a great way to open up the wizard world to the rest of the world.
God damnit Starlight. It's amazing how contradictory and hypocritical your rationale is here. You can't force other creatures to your ideology? You were forcing Twilight and her friends with fucking brainwashing techniques from the FBI's integration hand book! I hope Harry has a hoof in stopping her, and helping her. And dont you dare try and get to Twilight through Harry and Sirius!
i should point out given the way Sirius is written... he's going to find starlight out, sooner then later likely, frankly she's possibly worse then Voldemort in alot of ways.
9574356
I really like this idea but unfortunately the author has a real hate boner for the wizards to the point that Voldemort has no chance of becoming a serious threat.
That said only the diary possessed its victim the necklace merely amplified a person's negative emotions.
9574457
Only the diary really had a chance to do so. We don't know if possession was an ability inherent to the diary or something all horcruxes in general can do given the right circumstances. In any case, if vanilla Starlight is capable of bulldozing the timeline for petty revenge, imagine what Starlight hopped up on horcrux would do, possessed or not.
9574457
And villain Starlight isn't full of negative emotions? I would not be surprised if that locket drove her ax crazy.
9574468
I'm sure it would but it would still be Starlight doing it not Voldemort.
9574474
I never said it would be, though as it would be his horcrux Voldy would still be at least partially if not mostly responsible for Starlight's actions while under the influence of the locket.
9574433
Voldemort was an egomaniac who wanted to rule over a magically pure society where anyone deemed inferior (mostly muggles) would be killed. He sought to accomplish this through mass murder and fear mongering.
Starlight wanted to create a society where everyone was considered equal because she genuinely thought it would be better and while a little aggressive at times she never set out to hurt anyone.
So in what way is she worse than Voldemort?
heheheheheheheh. he forgets who brings in the bottles and assumes all of the cakes came from the elves.
I am interested in what agenda Starlight want with wizard world. Since her base belief is equality, which is one thing that wizard world could not conceive. And she cannot preach it to human world since almost all of human do not possess magic - not to mention the religion negative view on anything magical. If she aim to create her utopia society, I just hope it won't end up as Jonestown.
9574512
Because equality was her excuse. Her real reason was because she never got over Sunburst going away to school. Everything she did was because she couldn't grow up and be a big girl. And even then she had a self-centered recklessness that led her to do incredibly dangerous shit like mess with the timeline to get revenge on one person. Heck even after she reformed she still had a tendency to mess with magics that probably would have gotten her sent to Azkaban in the wizarding world.
9574512
The issue is how she went about it. She forced ponies who didnt want it to conform to the lowest denominator in every aspect of their lives. Look at how every time Pinky gets a little happy her = mark pulsed and forced her back to apathy. Alternatively how the 3 ponies who wanted their talents back for a little while where terrified of spies and informants and also got locked up and reconditioned to conform to ideals she enforced on others but not herself. It wasnt "anyone can do anything" but "no one is allowed to be betger at anything than anyone else." I don't know how to cook, sorry Gordon Ramspony you must stop cooking food any better than i do at home in your restaurant or even for personal enjoyment.
9574599
No she genuinely believed that if everyone was equal then Sunburst wouldn't have left. She truly believed her vision for society would stop anyone from losing their friends like she did. Even then it's still not worse than anything Voldemort did.