Finally, Ginny shrugged. “Then tell the Headmaster the truth! We were here, all of us, and we saw that the corridor was blocked. Then we left. You don’t have to tell him that we came into the paintings.”
He stared back at her mutinously.
“If you must, tell him students were in your painting. Just don’t tell him they were the Gryffindors. I know there are paintings with students in them.” She paused, then grinned. “It would be a great prank wouldn’t it?”
“Filch is coming! Everyone hide!” came a distant cry.
She petrified the wizard again, and then hid behind the couch, as did Harry and Hermione.
They watched the empty corridor for several minutes before the man appeared following his cat.
“Are you sure they were here, my love?” he asked as he suspiciously looked around.
“Merow!” came the instant response, and the cat darted back and forth, clearly sniffing out where the Firsties had been standing. Then she stopped and just stared at the lone painting on the wall — right at where Ginny and Harry were hiding and peering under the couch.
Then Filch sneered and said, “Well, clearly, they’ve moved on. We’ll catch them next time.” He turned and walked off. The cat continued to stare at the painting until the old squib walked back and picked her up. He held her as he scrutinized the painting for a moment. The wizard inside said nothing, being petrified. Argus eyed the silent wizard, and sneered, “I don’t suppose you’d tell me if anyone’s been here, would you.” The wizard, naturally, remained silent and did not even acknowledge the man. “It would disappoint the Headmaster if you did, I bet. Telling a mere squib anything about his precious students,” the man sneered. “He lets them get away with everything!” he said bitterly, shaking his head. He turned and walked away, muttering to his faithful cat.
Hermione left the painting, darting to the next and following in his wake.
Not long after he left, Hermione came back and said, “He used a secret passage to head to another floor.” She stared at the two still hiding, and the painted wizard still frozen, sitting. She frowned a moment, then sat beside him and smiled. She cast a finite, and then asked, before the wizard could move, “What’s it like being a painting?”
Taken aback at her simple question, the wizard stared at her, nonplussed.
“I mean,” she said officiously, like she had back at the Weasleys when they first met. “What is it like? What happens when you go to sleep? Do you dream? You aren’t stuck here, are you? You can leave, just like we did, right? What was Hogwarts like when you went here? Are any of your friends here? What were you doing when you were first painted?”
Harry sighed and looked at Ginny. She shrugged and the two of them began to explore. The meadow that Apple Bloom had found was a simple landscape, but it was looked more like a stage that had an almost infinite backdrop. The grass and trees were like painted cut-outs at various depths from the ‘stage’ front. As they went deeper, they became smaller, to match the size of their surroundings — the painting’s front was only a few paces wide, but in the back it must have been miles.
It was really weird, Harry thought, to have a giant window as one wall, looking out into the castle.
They quickly caught up with the Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, who had waited for Harry after their first excited scramble through the nearby paintings. The other students slowly re-grouped around them.
“We should tell everyone about this,” Faye said enthusiastically, “It’s a great way to get to classes — without having to wait for the stairs!”
“No!” declared Dean, “We should keep it a secret. We can spy on the other dorms! I’ve already peeked into Slytherin and Hufflepuff — their Common rooms are very different from ours!”
“Really?”
“I wanna see”
“Let’s go look!” came the rapid-fire replies, with several students already heading for the next portrait over.
“Wait,” called Harry, “Won’t everyone rushing into the Slytherin Common Room painting to see give us away? I mean, the other people in the paintings will tell on us, even if the students in the Common rooms don’t notice.”
That stopped the rush.
“The ones who saw me all assumed I was another painting gone wandering. There are a few children and students in some of the paintings, after all. There’s even a crowd watching a Quidditch match on the ground floor,” Seamus said. “There are several hundred paintings, you know.”
“Watch for me, I want to try something,” Harry said as he looked around the meadow. He then released the spell. He was back in the hall. He stared at the picture. He had walked less than a dozen steps to get to the meadow, but he was in another corridor in the castle entirely. He shook his head in wonder at seeing all the Firsties in the meadow painting looking at him. They all looked like they had been painted into the painting.
He stepped to the side against the wall where he couldn’t be seen from the painting, and recast the spell.
“What painting did you go to?” asked Scootaloo, “We saw you step to the side, and then you came through the opening there.” She pointed at the edge where the canvas was behind the frame. He looked and it did look like an opening hovering in the meadow, like an invisible door only someone in a painting could see.
He smiled, happy. “As long as you stand against the wall beside the painting, you can’t be seen because of the frame. It looks like you came from another painting when you cast Hayscartes.” He looked at others. “Okay, let’s keep this a secret for now.” He glanced at Parvati. “I’m sure you’ll want to tell Padma, and she’ll tell her friends, so it won’t be a secret for long.”
The Indian girl blushed, but nodded.
“Still, it’ll be fun in the meantime,” he finished. “We’ll tell the other paintings that we’re a new one. That should satisfy their curiosity. And, who knows, maybe we will be a painting, someday.”
With that settled, they scattered once more, giggling.
Peering into the Slytherin Common Room was the height of their afternoon. They were all careful, of course, hiding behind the furnishings as they watched the students study and talk. Really, it was quite boring and none of them would have been interested if the Slytherins hadn’t made such a big deal out of keeping others from their dorm. Fortunately, the painting they used was a landscape of the grounds by the lake.
Exploring the castle via paintings was different, and took the Gryffindors most of the afternoon, to the perplexity of their Prefects. Having the entire First Year group missing for hours made the Prefects, and the professors, extremely nervous.
Their relief when the Gryffindor Firsties finally appeared, unharmed, was almost tangible. That the First Years were giggling and claimed to never have left the castle restored that worry in full. What had the Gryffindors been up to, they wondered? How many rules had they broken? And how many new rules would be required to fix things?
۸- ̫ -۸
The First Years spent the afternoon Thursday brewing last week’s potion as a make-up assignment from Professor Snape. Fortunately, neither Sweetie Belle nor Neville had exploded their cauldrons.
Afterwards, they had relaxed with a birthday party for Hermione, which the twins had turned into a full party for the entire dorm after the presents were opened. Naturally, with homework settled, or postponed to Friday afternoon — otherwise called Sunday evening — the animagi spent their time being fussed over until curfew.
Except Hermione, She wanted to book-walk her new books. There was a bit of a tussle about that. They ended up compromising.
Harry had to wonder about the Common Room. It seemed bigger than it had been before the new witches began to show up. Did it make itself bigger based on the number of people in it? It made sense to do that. And there were now comfortable pillows for the ponies scattered about, too. Although Harry had seen more than one older witch creating a pillow to lounge on.
۸-_-۸
7) Students are not allowed to spend more than 5 minutes hugging/petting/grooming an animagus student in their animagus form if other students are waiting.
a) Students are not allowed to force, or guilt, an animagus student to remain in their form if they do not wish to do so.
b) All animagi students must complete their homework for the day before they can partake in any ‘petting’ or ‘grooming’ session.
For once, the new rule on the board by the Common Room entrance Friday morning had nothing to do with the previous days’ activities by the Cutie Mark Crusaders or their friends! Or rather, at least, it wasn’t exactly their doing. Which, frankly, hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary. The professors had finally started to figure out how much book-walking had helped their students, and increased the workload as a result! Their assignments were twice as long, and expected to be twice as thorough.
The new rule was actually a bit of a relief. The Gryffindor Common Room had become the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Common Room, lately. Well, at least for the witches. And the Ravenclaws were certainly starting to show up in large numbers, too. All of them insisting on petting and grooming the “cute and adorable” ponies.
The younger wizards had begun sighing at the large number of “icky” and “bossy” witches in the room, but the older wizards were intrigued by the new witches’ presence. That hadn’t stopped the Monopoly tournament, which now included some witches waiting their turn with a pony. Nor the hexing tournament. Nor the other tournament that had been started — something to do with conjuring and lifting heavy weights, Harry thought.
Unfortunately, it was Friday. That meant the Gryffindor First Years had Double Potions after breakfast, with Sweetie Belle.
Today, though, the Potions class was different, Harry saw. The Slytherins had arrived first, rushing a bit through breakfast, and had taken all the tables closest to the door. The Gryffindors quickly followed their example, leaving almost the entire side of the room farthest from the door completely empty except for Sweetie Belle and Neville’s table at the edge of the group, right beside Harry’s and the other fillies’ tables.
To everyone’s relief, Professor Snape actually seemed to approve of the new arrangement. Well, at least he hadn’t reordered the seating arrangements, except to put a row of empty tables between the two factions.
“Because of the accidental potions we’ve experienced in the last two classes,” he had swept his glance across them all, but lingered on Sweetie Belle. “I shall teach you a rather simple charm. One that will prevent any unanticipated side-effects from inhaling an incorrectly and suspiciously brewed potion.” He stared at the blushing Sweetie Belle.
“It is called the bubble-head charm,” he sneered at the class, “for obvious reasons.”
The Slytherins seemed to master it rather quickly, even Crabbe and Goyle, to Harry’s surprise. They were always the last ones to succeed at any spell, whether it be in Charms with Professor Flitwick or Transfigurations with Professor McGonagall. For those two Slytherins to get it so soon was suspicious.
Which gave Harry the feeling that the Slytherins had been told about the charm previously. And in plenty of time to practice it. Probably days ago.
Which meant Harry and the other Gryffindors had to endure the continuous complaints and derisive remarks coming from the potions’ master. Snape felt, as he said, “deeply offended that I must waste my valuable time teaching you dunderheaded Gryffindors such a simple spell.” And he let them know this, at length, to the amusement of the Slytherins.
He had used dung-bombs as an incentive for the students to get it right as quickly as possible. And while he cleared the room afterwards of any nasty smells, from the lingering obnoxious scent Harry got the feeling he didn’t clean the Gryffindor side as diligently as the Slytherin side.
Naturally, of course, almost every Gryffindor lost points for not learning it fast enough.
Then he set them to making Essence of Dittany. It was a simple enough potion, except when Neville made it, they discovered.
Harry kept a watchful eye on Sweetie Belle’s cauldron, but this time she wasn’t the one at fault. She managed to grind the leaves and stalk quite easily, she added the water at the right temperature, she was stirring it in the right direction, and at the right speed. It was thickening properly and even appeared close to the correct colour.
Abruptly, Neville squeaked. There was a sudden swoooosh! sound.
Harry looked over at Neville’s cauldron, and caught it in the middle of melting.
Which was all he managed to see, as at the same time Sweetie Belle jumped sideways against him to escape the melting cauldron beside her. She knocked his arm against his cauldron causing it to fall to the floor with a loud clang. Her collision with Harry made her drop her wand in mid-recast of the bubble-head charm. How her wand managed to land in Neville’s semi-melted cauldron would remain a mystery, because she certainly did not mean to throw it there.
By now, half of the Slytherins had managed to make it out the door, with more than a couple of Gryffindors on their heels. The rest of the students were hurriedly, and in some cases, desperately, recasting the bubble-head charm, with mixed success.
Neville’s cauldron had its open side tilted sideways towards the door to the classroom. It suddenly shot out a mist like a cannon shot a ball, and engulfed the fleeing students. Harry could see that some of the students had successfully cast the bubble-head charm, as the mist didn’t touch their heads. Unfortunately, that didn’t save them.
The mist billowed out into the hall. It easily caught the students who had fled the initial outcry. They had slowed down, thinking they were safely out of range. A mistake, as they learned.
Neville retreated to the opposite wall as Professor Snape, watched, stunned at the rapid change in his classroom. “You dunderheaded idiots!” he cried, stalking towards the melted cauldron, already flicking his wand and vanishing all three cauldrons, their contents, and any residue on the floor or tables.
But the damage had been done. Except for the professor and Neville, they were the only two not in the path of the explosion, everyone was a bright purple. And bald. Even those who had cast the bubble-head charm correctly and had managed to escape to the corridor outside the room.
The witches immediately started crying as they touched their hairless heads and they stared at their friends in horror. And then at their own robes. The wizards were no less surprised, even though they were not crying.
The bubble-head charm had worked like a, well, charm. It had prevented those in range of the mist from breathing it. Regrettably, for the students, it was a contact-mist. It had changed all of whatever it touched to the colour purple. The floor, walls, ceiling, tables, chairs . . . everything was purple. And it started in a v-shaped cone from Neville’s cauldron on his desk. With the exit to the room in the middle of the spread.
Fleeing as the students had, clumped around the door, had merely put them in the path of the mist as it exploded into the room and hall.
The only way you could tell the two Houses apart was that their badges and robes’ trim were two different colours — red and silver. The badges and trim, apparently, had been unaffected by the mist. Probably, Harry thought later, due to their original magical basis.
The new colours made people difficult to tell apart, at first. It was amazing to realize how much you relied on someone’s hair colour and shape to tell you who the person was, Harry discovered.
Madam Pomfrey was no more amused than Professor Snape when the twenty-four students presented themselves to her. Snape was much more vocal about it, however, as the point loses for Gryffindor mounted.
Fortunately, the hair-growing tonic the nurse had was sufficient to restore the witches lost locks — to a degree. The boys had to do without as there wasn’t nearly enough to treat the witches and the wizards. The wizards, naturally, thought it was wickedly funny to be bald.
Harry’s quick change to a pony was changed back even quicker. Suffice to say, as they had discovered previously, a bald pony was not nearly as cute and adorable as a coated pony was, even if he was purple.
Their colour, however, was not so easily remedied.
Again, it was decided to wait for a few days before calling on St. Mungos for assistance.
Friday was the first time since school had started that the weekend began pony-less in the Gryffindor Common Room, to the disappointment of the witches, and a few wizards. The tournaments continued, however, in a less crowded Common Room.
And the twins were disconsolate at, once again, being shown-up.
۸- ̰ -۸
Elly was getting desperate. It had taken her only a night to fly to London. But finding the way to the Leaky Cauldron? Sadly, knowing an address but not having a map was a bit of a problem. She had spent days wandering around trying to find a magical human.
The city dwarfed Canterlot and every other city she had ever heard of.
It was one thing to hear a human or pony say a city had a population of six million — as many as were in all of Equestria — but another to actually see and experience it! Flying at night over the streets that streamed with self-propelled carts of people was simply astounding. And that the traffic continued far into the night, long after most ponies would be in bed, was equally amazing.
Only Manehattan had come close to the density found here, but here it just went on and on for thousands and thousands of celestials. And up. Far higher than the ponies had ever built. Higher than most of the mountains she had seen. Tartarus, there must have been at least several dozen buildings that were taller than the tallest building in all of Equestria!
And the humans were so big, too! Her normal size was similar to a pony, but here a pony’s head barely reached their hips! On the other hoof, that made it easier to hide in plain sight as a dog or a sign post. Something small, and not very noticeable, that normally would have been big and very noticeable. A double-edged advantage, to be sure. She wouldn’t be taking any of them on in a fight!
Dogs were common, which made it easier for her to move through the suburbs during the day. Although the first time she had been seen by a human, he had been surprised at the colours on her coat.
That the humans actually searched for stray dogs had been a surprise. A surprise she had easily escaped. They hadn’t been prepared for a dog that could transform into a garbage can as soon as she was out of their direct sight.
However, after a few hours of observation, she had realized that the coat colours for all the animals was rather simple — primarily dirt tones. She had adapted her colours to match.
But it had curtailed her exploring during the day. Giving her plenty of time to actually observe the humans as they moved about and to listen to their conversations.
Which led to her current predicament. Where was she in London? And where was The Leaky Cauldron?
“Excuse me?” she said politely, stepping in front of the businesswoman hurrying down the street.
The woman stopped and stared at her, surprised at being accosted. She saw a woman as well-dressed as herself.
“Could you tell in which direction I might find Charing Cross Road?”
The woman had frowned. “It’s on the tube,” she said, “just look at the map.” Then she had hurried off.
That didn’t help. At all. She sighed.
The non-magical humans barely provided her with sustenance. Unlike the pony-love on other side, the love here was much more difficult to detect. More difficult than the humans had provided on the other side of the portal. Hiding as a rock in a play park for two days hadn’t been as fruitful as being a rock in Ponyville for only half a day. And that was despite the fact that there were more little ones and their parents running around, here! So, overall, she had garnered a set amount of love in quadruple the time it normally took. A hive would have to work very hard to acquire what it needed to survive.
On the other hoof, the humans were completely unsuspecting.
So there was that in her favour.
Still, she hoped that the magicals were more . . . generous with their love. If not, then she would just make do. At least here she didn’t have ponies looking for her at every turn. Or to worry about that ling-revealing spell.
She waited for sundown, and, again, accosted a human. This time it was a man — and they were by an alley. She came at him from behind, a quick two steps to catch up and grasp his opposite shoulder. She leaned close, smiling as if she knew the man, and hurriedly bit him. While he was still surprised at her actions, she dragged him into the alley for the venom to work.
A few minutes later, he hailed a cab for her and left her the paper contents of his wallet. He strolled away with a vague idea of having helped a woman in distress. And feeling very happy with himself — even if he couldn’t remember exactly why. Or what he had been doing before he had “helped” the woman. It would take a good half-hour before he remembered what he had been doing and hurried off. And she would be long gone by then.
After having paid the cabbie, she headed for the nearest alley. Once hidden from prying eyes, she turned into a yellow signpost — one of many she had seen all over the city. She slowly made her way to the street again. It being night helped considerably. She watched and waited through the night and the next day.
It was odd, but watching the people as they walked by gave the impression that they couldn’t see the dingy little pub just across the street. They would be looking at the bookstore, then they would look to the record store on the other side, not even noticing the pub sitting right in-between. That must be the magicals’ muggle-repelling spell that the instructor had mentioned. It was so odd to see it in action.
There were very few customers for that pub, she noticed. Barely one or two the entire time she watched. She knew there were more people in it than that, she could see them moving inside the pub through the windows. Late the next night, she edged back to the alley and transformed again. She crossed the street to stand outside the door for several minutes. Eventually, she steeled herself, figuratively speaking, and walked inside.
The inside was no more attractive than the outside, and she immediately felt out of place in her appearance as a “normal” human. She resisted the instinctive urge to modify herself to fit in with the small crowd.
It was very dark and fittings and furniture were very scruffy. The man behind the bar, and handing a drink to a woman, had brown hair and a rather pasty complexion, like he rarely was out in the sun. The bartender looked up and frowned at her. The clothes she wore, a business suit, were way out of place considering the clientele she could see around her.
She smiled uncertainly at the man, and barely avoided bolting back out the door. She made her way to the bar.
“Wat’ll it be, lady,” he said, leering at her, one arm on the bar.
His emotions were stronger than the others outside. She could easily pick up his irritation and desire to see her out the door. It was quite different from what she would expect a servant to project at seeing a customer.
For a moment she was perplexed, then she realized he must think she was a muggle — a squib? — and wanted her to leave as fast as possible. She smiled at him in what she hoped was a charming manner. “Hello, I’m visiting here. Could you show me the way to Diagon Alley?”
He leaned back, surprised and startled. Most magical travellers came from the ministry through the floo.
The woman just down the bar gave her a long evaluating look. Elly could easily pick up her interest. It was a simple interest. No one was suspicious that she did not have a wand.
The barman frowned, then sighed and gruffly said, “This way.”
He walked to one side and then through a door at the back of the bar. It opened onto a shabby walled courtyard. For a brief moment she prepared herself for battle. He didn’t notice her change of expression or stance, fortunately.
He took a stick, his wand, and tapped a brick three times. “It’s three up and two across,” he said. She felt the small flare of magic at each touch as he did so.
“That’s the sequence, really simple,” he said. He smiled toothlessly at her, “I’m Tom, by the way. If you need a room, we rent by the hour, day, week, and month.”
She smiled and murmured a quick “Thank you.”
He nodded and turned without another word to go back to his bar.
۸- ̬ -۸
Okay, really?
9346658
Well many of Voldemort's more fanatical followers are dangerous Crouch is just the only one to escape Azkaban thanks to his parents. Wormtail is also pretty dangerous when he wants to be but thankfully he's a coward.
But honestly I'm not expecting any of the Harry Potter villains to pose a threat to the Pony Master race. It seems clear only pony villains will be taken seriously in this fic.
That was spectacular! Alas poor Snape, even after taking the time to train his students in extra safety measures, things still go wrong. He may as well start taking preemptive doses of felix felicis, that's probably the only way he's going to get a peaceful class.
And our intrepid bug once again demonstrates the value of common sense and patience. All she really wants is anonymity and security, if she manages to find some form of employment she'll be all set.
So if Snape vanished the contents of the Cauldron, does Sweetie need a new wand? It fell in Neville’s Cauldron and she didn’t get it back before Snape vanished everything in them.
Curious as ever to see where Elly’s subplot is going!
Tom (Jim Tavaré)was (at least in the third movie) one of my favorite background characters. Very funny guy.
I love the story, it’s so difficult to wait, but it makes it all the better when the chapters come!
9346743
It was mostly because Dumbledore asked him to. Remember he was in deep cover as one of Dumbledore's most trusted allies that meant he couldn't do anything to reveal he wasn't who he was pretending to be.
9346730
Naps are very important for magic users.
9346743
I think he figured that a forth years defense education would not be enough to fend off Voldemort so he probably thought there was no reason not to do a good job and besides he had to stay in character and the real Moody would have done the job right.
9346738
Again you are showing how ignorant you are about the Canon, the dude is the only Death Eater to ever play Dumbledore for a fool and the only reason his plan failed in ANY capacity was because Voldemort was too stupid not to kill Harry immediately, Barty is easily more competent, effective and dangerous then the rest of the Death Eaters put together and could easily be a major threat to Twilight simply due to his hypercompetence.
Okay at this I am really going to stop talking to you for a while, and I would like to ask that you refrain from responding to my comments unless they are directed at you.
9346738
Peter is apparently a pretty powerful wizard being an animangus. Sure it was james and sirius who did the research but just him learning to do it is very indicative of his capabilities.
9346787
Dude Voldemort had Harry dead to rights, he had no reason not to take a moment to torment the boy who ruined all his plans. Harry only escaped thanks to a literal miracle it had nothing to do with stupidity.
Besides it doesn't matter because the author's blatant favouritism towards the ponies and tendency to do whatever MSD did ensures no Harry Potter villain will be treated as anything more than a joke. Just look at how Quirrel has been treated so far, the guy was pretty damn capable as far as villains go but I don't think he's gotten a single line of dialogue in this story. Though to be fair that could just be because the author doesn't want to have to deal with writing his stutter.
9346802
Oh yeah, he was pretty dangerous when he wanted to be and resourceful. Not just anyone could have managed to hide as a pet rat for a decade. If he wasn't such a coward he probably could have been one of the biggest threats in the series.
Are we still doing this thing with Sweetie Bell in potions class? I hope this is the last time this gag happens, any more and it will have overstayed its welcome.
Also, it's feeling like there are too many sub-plots being crammed in here. While there has been reasonable relations between all of them, it's getting harder and harder to track what is happening where, and even harder to keep a cohesive timeline. I legit don't even know what month it is in the story at this point.
Go Elly! Also, is Sweetie's wand gone or what? Anyway, nice chapter.
Meh.
Seriously, at one point I expect Sweetie Belle and Neville to be banned from Potion Class or something like that, at first it was funny, but it gets kind of repetitive and provident that the 'Sweetie Belle is a living failure and bad luck charm when it comes to cooking aka potion making in extension' trope strikes like Every. Single. Time, when they have this class.
There are not enough minus points to do such stupidity justice, at this point Sweetie Belle and Neville are not even trying to follow Snape's instructions. NOBODY can be that much of a klutz, if not cursed by mental or physical restrictions.
9346730
Meetings run by the hour. And any place that rents rooms does it by day, week, and month, and has meeting rooms
I wander what plotline Elly will have, considering that Hogwarts updated defenses will include changeling exposing magic. Most likely she will try to replace a celebrity. It will be fanny if she replaces Gilderoy Lockhart, that would make her the impostor of impostor.
To be serious, so far as I can see, the eventual three-sided collision of the Mundane Earth, the Magical Underground and Equis is the only serious potential conflict in this story, I really doubt that Starlight's and Elly's subplots (and even canon plotline of Voldemort) are more than catalysts of this this eventual tripartite concussion. However, I already can see how this will be treated: Mundane Humanity will be shown intellectually superior and holding middle ground in morality, Equestria - morally superior, Wizardkind - both bigoted and stupid. Uh...
CMCs antics and relatively decent Dumbledore portrayal is the only things that keep me reading.
9346836
I would love to see Elly find her way to Hogwarts and eventually given shelter by Dumbledore when he realizes she means no harm. This could provide some very interesting conflict between the Equestrians and wizards that doesn't revolve around the wizards being stupid.
She could stay with Hagrid, his love of magical creatures would provide plenty of food for her.
With the whole potion class accident gag can we invoke the rule of 3 or are we past that? I honestly don't remember if this has happened more than 3 times or not but regardless it's happened at least 3 times which means it's time to give the gag a rest for a while.
9346842
Talking about overused gags, why every fic about CMCs uses tree sup running gag, because of that single scene in the single episode?
Cause this potion gag is based on the "Sweety Bell is bad at cooking" gag that also based on the single scene in the single episode.
Fandom just can't let gags go.
9346846
Yeah not sure who came up with that gag but I agree it's pretty overused in CMC fics.
I suspect that by the end of the year, Snape and possibly Pomfrey, will have reached a new level of mastery in potions, and made great strides in creating a unified theory of potion brewing, due to all these wacky potions they're being forced to reverse and reverse engineer. They've probably never had to work so hard on potions in their life.
9346007
That is how everydaygamer tends to work. Either that, or just constantly moving the goalposts.
"The Wizarding Government is perfectly legitimate and fully in its rights to do whatever they want to muggles because of Muh Statute of Secrecy!"
"No, no, no, the Wizarding Government is a COMPLETELY SEPARATE government from the British government, therefore is fully in its rights to do whatever they want to muggles!"
"No, no, no, the Wizarding Government is just a No Muggles Club, so therefore they are perfectly in their rights to do whatever they want to muggles to keep them out of their club!"
"I don't know why everyone agrees with you that the Wizarding Government isn't free to run roughshod over the entire muggle population! I DEMAND PROOF OF YOUR STATEMENTS WHILE NEVER GIVING ANY FOR MINE. No, I won't accept anything in the actual story as being evidence!"
They never actually refute any arguments because they know they have no leg to stand on. Simply put, everdaygamer is not an honest actor in an argument, so interacting with them in any way is a bit pointless.
Good, this is really the only proper response. I don't even bother to read everydaygamer's posts any more, just the responses.
For whatever reason, everdaygamer wants an audience to their constant whinging, so they will never take this (honestly good) advice.
I am becoming increasingly convinced they get some kind of sick thrill out of attempting to ruin the story for others. Their uncoordinated flailing in attempting to criticize the story doesn't prevent me from enjoying If Wishes Were Ponies, but that might be the ultimate goal of the person and the reason they do nothing but complain about the story and disparage every creative decision of the author. Jealousy might also be a factor.
9346846
To be fair, Sweetie Belle burnt juice and liquified toast.
She isn't 'bad' at cooking. She is talented at cooking abominations.
Some thoughts have come to mind:
When Hagrid gets his new wand, do you intend to use one of Fluttershy's feathers as the core? Given their similarities, I would think a wand from her feather would be a good fit for him.
In the case of Elly, I can see her being hired by Dumbledore either as a means of keeping an eye on the more mischievous students, or as a means to observe the Ministry to stay ahead of whatever possible plans they may set in motion against him. Either way, the food would be good since there are usually a few snogging students around the school.
Paintings are asked about painting walking.
8: No students may enter paintings under any circumstances.
a. This includes fast travel around the castle.
9346929
Not when she comes along.
"Questions, questions! Too many questions!"
When mentioned how the changeling could not change size, I was not expecting to manage to turn fully into a human, I was not sure of the size but I was expecting a teenager or a kid as it could have less size.
Is that a British spelling I spy?
Elly is still my favorite. Can't wait for her to meet up with Dumbledore(if she does). Also, I'm curious if Discord will ever show up again.
9346998
b. Even during exams
I love the stuff with elly. Hope the little long goes far.
If there is a rule put up about no painting walking, could Harry use his invisibility cloak ((when he gets it) to hide from everyone
9347151
Most likely a commonwealth spelling... as in "everywhere but the U.S."
I know we write "colour" here in Canada and, of all the commonwealth countries, we're the ones who use American spellings the most, regardless of what is officially correct. (Admittedly, it took me a while to pick up "colour" because all the programming languages and libraries I used in my youth followed the American spelling.)
9346136
I think you mean a nineteenth century mindset as that would between 1800-1899. War of the Worlds came out during the 1890’s and I could see Dumbledore reading it after all the hysteria it has caused during radio broadcasts.
9347232
Was that hysteria reported in Great Britain? We do know that Dumbledore reads Muggle Newspaper but would he even know about that?
9347275
I have not been able to find out if it was covered internationally or not but according to Snoops most of the hysteria was overblown and exaggerated. So possibly not.
9347375
It may not matter speculation about extraterrestrial life dates back to at least the late 1600s so Dumbledore could have come across the idea in his youth and he almost certainly came across the idea at some point but with the knowledge that he has on the situation even I probably wouldn't really consider the extraterrestrial idea to seriously, though given recent events he is bound to find out within a few weeks through the muggle newspaper, but by that point the floodgates will open and once the ministry realizes what happened will enter into instant panic mode.
9346738
Some of your complaints are starting to become grating, fyi, and I say that as someone who has on a few occasions agreed with you. You don't HAVE to read this if you really have as many problems as you do with this.
I suspect that chances are good we'll have surprises of all kinds. I personally expect it's likely we'll see muggle, equusian, and wizarding villains all end up getting a share of fun later down the line.
Alternatively, the main conflict of the story as it progresses further onwards is just going to be the social, cultural, and political conflicts that arise from the colliding of worlds that is Equus, Muggle Earth, and the Wizarding World.
9346816
I'm half tempted to suggest the author should do things that Eric Flint's Ring of Fire universe did, which was both have a side thing for stories related to the main and in the same universe, but not of the same importance as the main story, and of course, to allow others to submit (with thorough vetting) their own chapters.
(EDIT: Apologies for three comments in a row, a habit I've picked up from a fast moving thread on another forum.)
9346832
I do agree that this should not happen any further, or at least, not for a while. In fact, I'm actually starting to think a timeskip might be in due order soon. EVen just something as short as a month, with highlights of any small but interesting things, would help move things along.
9346836
I'd say that that three way conflict is actually a bit more than that now that I think about it.
Consider that, so far, we've only had the Equestrians reacting to these spreading events. Elly is the first non human, non wizard, non equestrian we've seen involved (I don't count Discord, and Spike pretty much is an Equestrian)
What's going to happen if some of the other nations of Equus don't take to kindly to Equestria being the only point of entry to this new world? How much will Equestria share? How will the other powers of Earth, particularly China and the now collapsing Soviet Union, end up dealing with things? What of the United States, with it's many issues and the fact that Evangelicals still play a very influential part in it's politics, especially when it becomes revealed that their 'tech' is magic?
This story is, and one reason I do in fact love it, more about the conflict and clash of societies, using Harry Potter and his school years as part of the conduit for showing it.
9347443
At this point, Equus countries don't really care to establish any political landscape, each nation is living in the semi-isolation not really caring about their own world, let alone others, I don't expect much reaction in Equus, so except from conquerors such as Storm King and Chrysalis.
Many Soviet republic already declared independence by this moment, and country as whole USSR will officially dissolve by the end of December, while I don't expect ponies go official yet by that time. China is strong, but not as powerful as in 2000-s and experiences its own inner crisis at this point, so no real threat to Britain.
USA is the single biggest threat. White House will be very suspicious and jealous of the fact that aliens chose Brits as their mediators, instead of the most democratic, glorious and God blessed 'Murica. And they have all levers of the influence they need to make things not so comfortable for UK.
As for Evangelicals, I pointed out for TKepner, that after learning about either Equestrian or Wizards' magic or both, Bible Belt folk will turn USA into witch-hunt hell, but he really doesn't seem to think that Protestant fundamentalists are issue, I yet to hear his justification for such position.
9347464
I hope that the ponies make it clear that they made contact with Britain first because that just so happens to be where the portal opened up and that Equestria wanted to get their feet in the door somewhere before expanding relations to the rest of Earth. While Britain wants to keep the ponies to themselves I would imagine that Equestria has every intention of joining the U.N. given the repeated statements about their desire for diplomatic relations with Earth as a whole and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the United States is at the top of their list of non-British Earth nations Equestria wants to ally themselves with based on the America's status as a cultural, economic and military superpower a status that is in focus in 1991 and 1992 more then any other time given the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Given his history and time in Equestria I'm surprised Harry didn't pick up on the fact Filch is hurting.
Snape better hope Twilight doesn't find out about his actions this kind of "Teaching" could easily see Harry and the fillies pulled from Hogwarts which would also upset Dumbledore. Putting aside his teaching his house secretly first he's penalising students for not learning fast enough in a subject he's not in charge of teaching. That's a good way to turn students off learning as they're not getting things wrong they're being punished for not getting it right fast enough. Which given Twilight has just spent a year teaching Harry about the joy of learning for learnings sake and Celestia is the headmistress of her own school and a teacher in her own right is a good way to alienate the Equestrians.
9347474
I just finished getting through Goblet of Fire which is why I brought him up and the book makes it clear that Junor knew about Voldemort's father and from what I gather he joined the Death Eaters not out of bigotry but out of a desire to belong and to rebel against dear old dad but his time in Azkaban and under the Imperius Curse drove him mad.
Aside from Crouch there are still numerous threats and problems from the Harry Potter Universe to deal with, Sirius is still locked up, Umbridge is free, Peter is still masquerading as Ron's pet rat, Lucius has yet to be neutralized as a potential threat, the dementors are still in charge of Azkaban, Bellatrix is still alive, Quirrell is still Defense teacher, Lockhart is still a fraud who needs to get exposed for what he really is and while the good guys are on to him and revealed the truth about his heritage Voldemort is still out there with a number of still intact Horcruxes with the heroes currently having no idea where to find them or knowing how many there actually are. Did I miss anything? And that's on top of Starlight and whatever plan she may be concocting, the situation with Elly (the problem there is more how other would react to her then how she would act) and the inevitable shattering of the Statute of Secrecy at least regarding the existence of magic and possibly even the public exposer of the entire Wizarding World.
By the time Dumbledore learns about the embassy in the paper, the existence of magic would be world news and by the time the various magical governments find out what is going on hundreds of millions of muggles if not a few billion would know about magic, there is no way anyone could fix that breach. It would be such a massive change to the status quo of the entire planet some might even liken it to a technological and political singularity absolutely no one in universe can predict what is going to happen after the reveal, Equestria likely has the best idea followed by Muggle Britain but neither group can guess with any kind of accuracy what is going to happen and that is when things should get really interesting.
9347450
The problems here are two fold in regards to that last bit, because you might have noticed that I stated I sometimes agree with your criticisms.
When you do seem to praise the story, it's in short and very isolated bits. I have to actively LOOK for such posts of late if I'm going through the comments after a new update. Compared to your posts criticizing things, which are both more frequent, often harping on the same points, and then the phrasing or structure of it seeming like your whining, it really comes across less as venting and more ranting when it's a constant drumbeat.
When something is so constant, so vocal, of course all anyone is going to end up noticing is that which your being most vocal about, and what I've seen of your comments is you being vocal about the same things bugging you.
Even if someone agrees with you, and some here might, it just get so damned fucking OLD. Sure, at first you tune it out, but then eventually you just can't ignore it anymore and it starts ticking others off.
1- You do care. Otherwise you wouldn't take time to respond to them. You'd just share your opinion and ignore everyone else.
2- This is the internet. When anyone, anywhere, comments/posts/says something, it's fair game. Whether that's good or bad is irrelevant- it simply is how it is.
3- You make the assumption some here ignore the flaws. I'm rereading this and am seeing flaws and noticing things that do bug me. But I love the story more than those things bug me, so I'm able to tolerate and handle the fact they bug me.
I'm not telling you to stop reading a story because I don't like what you have to say.
I'm suggesting you should stop reading it because it seems the things that bug you about it more are of greater concern and issue than your love for it, or at the very least, stop making the same complaints all the time. You've done it enough that those who actively comment on it don't have to even read your entire comment to know what your ranting about.
9347464
True. And some of that is due to the nature of the show focusing on, well, Ponies. But that doesn't mean the author has to stick to that. As word spreads, it could be the trigger for other nations to actually start reevaluating their priorities.
And the likes of someone like Chrysallis could end up using whats going on as a way of trying to forge an Anti-Equestrian coalition. Sure, that could probably be hard given Chrysallis's reputation, but it might be doable.
This contact is going to be transformative for all three worlds, and create problems no one would think to prepare for.
Oh certainly, but I'm looking at this from the long term perspective.
What happens if say, China, somehow manages to steal some of the research into portals and stuff the British and their Allies will no doubt begin to experiment with, and they make contact with other parts of Equus... or even, more worryingly, establish an outpost on the other side and seek to take advantage of modern weapons and Equestria's overall smaller population?
Or what if a terrorist organization, like say Al Qaeda, ends up developing a chemical agent and smuggles it into Equestria and does some major damage? How will Equestria respond? How might Equestrians end up dealing with at home and abroad any conflicts or entanglements they could get drawn into on Earth?
And of course, there's the interesting query of how they'll react to things like Dictators and humanitarian crisis.
I think the White House (George HW Bush is the man in the office at this time) would end up understanding once they learn the nature of the portal, and the fact that Equestria is an aristocratic nation fits more with them on that front in a government sense. Plus, given that relations between the two are great and the special friendship has frayed any, I don't see those at the top wanting to do anything to hurt that.
The evangelicals however, could and will be a problem. Not necessarily immediately though. While they are active and a force to be reckoned with, they've still got another decade to go to finish solidifying their vice grip on the Republicans. And knowledge of witches and wizards and it being actual magic might still be something that takes a bit to be revealed/realized.
I could see Some, note, some segments of the Fundamental Christians end up, especially with the ability to cure cancer, rationalizing that this is something that God has gifted the world with and this is all part of God's plan. But those are likely to be a minority.
It is possible that the issues with the fundamentalists, and those in the Establishment more concerned about taking advantage of this opportunity, will create an early break and send American politics into chaos.
They aren't going to be relevant now though, and not immediately until a bit after the reveal happens, but this does bring up something I am feeling just a bit annoyed by.
I don't mind the sub-plots. If anything I really am enjoying the different perspectives. However, I am starting to really, really feel that things have slowed down, that everything is starting to move at a very glacial pace.
In fact, as an analogy, I'd say it feels like this fic is becoming a long youtube video on slow/bad internet connection. Having to sit and buffer for five minutes to play another ten seconds of video.
I may have the passage of time a bit off or wrong, but we're almost at 80 chapters, and I don't think we're even a quarter of the way through Harry's first year. I'm currently on chapter 46, that's 39 chapters ago, and the story hasn't even reached the new year in the story.
I really am starting to think that this story could use a nice timeskip or two, to move onto a new part as well. It's stretching things out and annoying some with the usage of repeated gags and retreading of ground.
It is entirely up to the author of course what path he takes, but I do think that, perhaps, maybe it would be useful to allow others to contribute in a fashion, or to find a way to bring things to a good stopping point as a launch point into a sequel that continues onwards. Or to simply start cramming/summarizing some things and getting the pace back into a more trot like speed rather than the sidling it kind of feels like its doing.
I'm going to continue loving and thinking this is a great story either way, but I was thinking about some of this while doing dishes a bit ago.
9347475
Isn't that in Magic School days? Or am I confused?
9347488
Without a doubt, I can fully agree with this. The Equestrians will want to make friends with the United States, which is going to make things difficult for the establishment elements and their fundamentalist Christian voting blocks (the Democrats still have some at this point, the GOP simply has more) It'll certainly make things interesting for the politics of the US.
I do hope we end up getting someone from America though commenting on how strange it is that Equestria almost comes across as a ponified US with it's name placements.
9346923
Dude, you have, like, no idea.
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