It would be a sad day indeed if it could be said that a party hosted by Pinky Pie did not go over well. The setting may have been unfamiliar to Harry, but the event was still very much enjoyable. Several times through the night he noticed that the ‘Girls’ as they were called, were giving him strange glances through the night when they thought he wasn’t looking. It wasn’t until the party came to a close sometime after ten that Harry decided that something was up. When the Faust family tried to leave, the girls asked that that they stay behind. So, with an empty shop they all sat at one of the larger booths. All of the Girls wore a serious expression; except for Pinkie, she was looking happy as always.
“Harry, there’s something we need to tell you.” Sunset started, “I guess I should tell you that I am not from around here. And I don’t just mean from out of town.”
“What?” Harry asked more than confused.
“Miss Shimmer, are you sure you want to tell him?” Luna asked, “It is your choice to tell but are you sure now is the best time?”
“Tell me what?”
Sunset looked like she was really struggling to tell him,
“You see…”
Suddenly, Pinkie let out a shivering noise and started physically shaking.
“Pinkie, what in tarnation…” Applejack started.
“I’m getting a really, really, really, really bad feeling. It feels like evil and a lion attack.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth then the windows shattered inward. The cause for the breaking was apparent immediately as two lions made of metal bore their teeth at the assembled group. Their glowing venom green eyes were sure indicators that they were under the influence of magic.
“Oh, that’s why.” Pinkie said like this was a normal occurrence. From outside they heard a man’s voice command,
“Kill him!” The voice was eerily similar to one that Harry had heard not even a month ago. In fact, there was no mistaking it.
“Voldemort!”
Before anyone could question him, the lions leapt; their target obviously being the boy. Reacting quickly Twilight threw her hand out and a magenta force field appeared between the lions and their apparent target. The two lions collided hard against the shield, the impact cause Twilight to wince in an effort to keep the shield up.
Needless to say, Harry was surprised at this display.
“You’re a witch?” Harry asked. True he had not seen magic like this before but he was still new to the world of magic.
“No time to explain now.” Celestia exclaimed looking around for an exit. It was Sunset that saw the opportunity,
“The back door, through the kitchen.”
Rarity joined in Twilight’s efforts and created a crystal barrier that she pushed the lions with, trying to force them back.
“Rainbow Dash,” The elder Faust sister looked the athletic girl right in the eyes, “Take Harry and run. Whoever is attacking is after him. Get him to safety, we’ll meet up with you when we can.”
The girl felt conflicted about leaving her friends,
“But I can’t just…”
“Rainbow!” Celestia pleaded, “Please you’re the only one who can get him to safety fast enough.”
Rainbow Dash looked pleadingly at her friends who just nodded.
“Alright, you can count on me.”
“Alright, on the count of three Rarity, Twilight drop your shields. Rainbow will take Harry out the back door. We’ll try to hold them back. Everyone ready?”
“One,” Applejack started.
“Two,” Rainbow counted.
“Three!” All the girls shouted. According to plan the shields dropped, allowing Rainbow Dash to grab Harry under the arms and take off at nonhuman speeds. The two lions catching the direction their quarry disappeared in tried to follow. Their pursuit was interrupted by an entire table breaking on top of them.
“Hold it right there yah cast iron vermin!” Applejack shouted. Her magic was flowing strong as evidenced by her pony ears and magic hair extension, “If yah’ll think we’ll just let you chase after our friends then yah got another thing comin’!”
Before anyone else could react, the front door was kicked open and jets of light shot toward the two animated lions. The lions were knocked back and thrown against the far wall. Two men in suits were barging in with what looked like sticks raised at the two faux predators.
“Is everyone alright?” One of them asked keeping his wand trained on the lions.
“Mike, they’re getting up!” His partner informed. With an angry scowl the one identified as Mike made a flurry of movements with his wand,
“Pyrhanious!” He shouted. Immediately, one of the lions stopped in its tracks and started glowing red.
His partner preformed the same spell on the other lion and everyone watched as the metal lions melted into two black puddles of molten metal.
“Standard procedure.” Agent Mike explained, “When dealing with a construct or animated object turn it to ash or turn it to slag.”
“Are you with the DoM?” Luna asked.
“I’m Agent Mike Daniels and this is Agent Fredrick Miles. We were asked to watch Miss Shimmer here.” Agent Daniels said gesturing to the girl in question, “Although I have to ask, were you aware that Miss Shimmer does not exist? And don’t think we missed the… whatever has happened to Miss Apple here.”
The conversation was interrupted by Celestia’s cellphone going off. Quickly checking she saw Harry’s caller ID.
“Harry are you- Harry slow down. What’s going on? Where are you?” As the conversation progressed Celestia’s expression grew more worried. “Harry? What happened to Rainbow Dash? Harry… HARRY?!” Horror plastered the Principal’s face, “The line went dead.”
-Short while earlier-
Harry’s world blurred passed him until he and the older girl came to a stop. Taking in the surroundings Harry recognized the park that he had first met the Girls.
“OK, I think we’ll be safe here.” Rainbow said drawing his attention back to her. He let out a startled yelp when he saw that the girl had grown animal ears on top of her head and had a pair of feathered wings sticking out her back, not to mention that her hair had grown significantly longer.
“Wha… what just happened? What happened to you?” Harry blurted out. Rainbow noticed her transformation and let out a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of her head,
“Well… It’s kind of hard to explain. But the girls and I have these awesome magic powers that make us Pony-up and we save the day.”
“What…” Any conversation was cut off when a sinister laugh cut through the air. Harry was suddenly caught in a green magic aura and he was pulled through the air and deeper into the park.
Rainbow Dash looked in the direction that Harry was being pulled and hardened her gaze when she saw a guy dressed in a gas station uniform pointing a glowing hand at the struggling boy. It didn’t take an egghead to connect the dots.
“Hey! Leave him alone!” Angrily she shot forward as fast as her enhanced speed allowed her and delivered a sucker punch right to the man’s jaw. Unfortunately, she failed to process Newton’s third law and her hand received the equal force of the impact traveling at superhuman speeds. She may have fractured his jaw, but in the process, broke more than a few of the small bones in her hand.
“Ouch!” She cried out cradling her broken hand. Her sacrifice was enough for the man to lose his concentration and let Harry free of the magic holding him. Unfortunately, the attacker recovered quickly,
“Foolish girl!” With a wave of his hand Rainbow Dash was hit by an invisible force that sent her reeling through the air. He didn’t even wait for her to hit the ground before turning his attention back to Harry who was talking rapidly on the phone talking to Celestia. With a flick of his forefinger he sent the phone from Harry’s hand where it crashed against a tree.
Harry was caught in another aura of green magic and dragged towards the possessed Sombra. Harry was forced to his knees and his head jerked up to look at the possessed man.
“I am going to enjoy killing you.”
“You… You aren’t Voldemort.”
“No. No, I’m not,” The possessed man forcefully grabbed Harry’s head and started forcing his magic into the boy causing the preteen tremendous pain, “I am called Death Flight. I terrorized the cities of Equestria until I came across a prophecy that predicted that a mere foal would be my undoing. I sought out the colt who best fit the description in the prophecy and was about to do him in when I was forcefully torn from my body. I was rendered to nothing more than a specter, robbed of my magic and mortal frame. But now, Ihave a chance to get my revenge against the one that caused my undoing and…” Death Flight’s eyes went wide, “What?! What is…”
“Toro Taurus!” A new voice cut in followed by a stream of red light. The light made contact with Death Flight and sent him reeling away from Harry. Free of the painful magic Harry fell to the ground breathing raggedly. A hand on his shoulder helped Harry look up,
“Pleasure to meet you mister Potter. Professor Colton Smith, American University of Magic. Though I wish we were able to meet under better circumstances.”
An angry yell from Death Flight alerted the Professor in time to throw up a shield spell that took the force of a beam of green energy, “I suggest you go check on your friend and I will hold off this fellow.”
Without waiting for a response Professor Smith advanced between the young wizard and the attacker, making himself the more available target.
“Foolish wizard. You are meddling in things that are beyond your understanding.”
“Oh I have a pretty good idea of what is going on. Your name is a giveaway. You call yourself ‘Death Flight,’ and you are targeting mister Potter. Voldemort, ‘Flight of Death.’ You come from the reflection world, don’t you? You want revenge against mister Potter’s reflection and to do that you intend on using the soul link between them.”
The possessed body grinned,
“So, you do know what you are dealing with. Not that it will help you any. You are horribly out…”
A sudden slash from Professor Smith’s wand sent Death Flight through the air once again,
“Professor of Magical Theory, seven-year reigning champion of the Inner Office Anything Goes Dueling Circuit.” The scholar grinned before engaging the possessed man.
Harry and a revived Rainbow Dash looked on at the fight with awe,
“Wow, I guess Twilight was right. Earth does have its own magic.” Rainbow then looked at Harry, “Can you fight like that?”
“Erm, no. I just started learning magic last year. I can’t do that.” Harry replied gesturing to the fight where the professor was sending park benches and trash cans at the alternate version of the man who killed Harry’s parents. The dark Equestrian would blast the projectiles apart with blasts of his poison green magic.
“Is this the extent of your power? Simple parlor tricks? You will never defeat me with such paltry efforts?” Death Flight gloated.
“And who ever said I was trying to defeat you?” This revelation puzzled Death Flight,
“If victory is not your aim then why fight?”
“Oh simple.” Colton Smith grinned as a nebula pf orange magic slammed into Death Flight from behind, “I was just waiting for back up.”
The park suddenly came to life with agents of the DoM appearing out of nowhere. Each one pointing their wands at Death Flight who, when he saw he was out numbered put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
“Agent Hankinson, glad you could make it.” Professor Smith greeted.
“Professor, I’m surprised that you engaged the hostile by yourself.” The lead agent responded.
“What? Just because prefer contest of reason and research doesn’t mean that I can’t hold my own.”
As the adults debated and the agents scoured the area doing clean up procedures a black SUV pulled up and out spilled the group that was left at Sugar Cube Corner. Needless to say, Harry’s cousins were in hysterics over his wellbeing and Rainbow was showing off her injured hand like it was her new trophy. Their conversations were interrupted by Agent Hankinson and Professor Smith.
“Excuse me but I think this is yours.” Professor Smith greeted handing the broken phone back to Harry. Harry was saddened by the state the gift from his cousins had ended up in and apologized to them.
“Harry, it’s just a phone. A phone can be replaced, you cannot.” Celestia assured.
“Professor Smith?” Twilight Sparkle asked in surprise when she realized who it was that was standing there.
“Ah, miss Sparkle. How are you tonight?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Those anomalies I was investigating were in direct result of someone, or some persons, using magic from an alternate world. But you knew that when I introduced myself at your home, didn’t you?”
“Speaking of investigation,” Agent Hankinson interrupted, “Miss Sunset Shimmer, I must place you into my custody for questioning.” That was a bomb shell for the girls who demanded a reason.
“On paper, she is a minor with no record of her even being born. That is enough for me to get Social Services involved. Secondly, she has been at the heart of every event of unidentifiable magic that has been going on since fall of last year.”
The girls and even the Faust sisters started to argue with the agent who argued back that she was simply doing her job. Meanwhile, a couple of agents were leading Death Flight to a vehicle. The spectral Equestrian saw the conflict going on close to Harry and the distraction it provided.
Everyone’s attention was grabbed when the agents surrounding Death Flight cried out in agony. Barely any time was given before a blur plowed into Harry and lifted him into the air. Death Flight held Harry by this throat and was channeling his magic into the boy again, intent on finishing his task of killing the young Potter. The agents reacted by casting spells at the offender but this time Death Flight had the foresight to cast a barrier around him, shielding him from their attacks.
“Now boy, you will suffer. I will end you and the only force that stands between me and my victory will be gone.”
The area was suddenly engulfed by a rainbow of color. The source came from the seven friends that were now holding hand with each other. Their image was quickly lost in the intensity of the light they were generating. The charged power reached its apex and fired a rainbow of Equestrian magic at the shield. To the credit of Death Flight’s abilities, his shield held up against the magic of friendship for a few moments before it blasted through. But instead of hearing the anguished cries of the darkness being purged from Sombra, the cries were Harry’s.
The Friendship Blast faded, revealing the girls in very different clothes from what they were wearing before. The focus, however, was on Harry who was falling lifeless to the ground. His descent was slowed and impact softened by some well-placed charms. He hadn’t even made it to the ground when he was swarmed by agents and the professor. The scene was chaos as voices were shouting over one another, competing for dominance; one cry rose above the others though,
“We need an ambulance!”
In the midst of the mess no one took notice that Death Flight had vanished.
-Outside Canterlot City Limits-
In a flash of green fire Death Flight, still in possession of Sombra’s body appeared in a slump.
“Curse those girls for interfering! I was so close! At least I didn’t leave empty handed.”
Death Flight opened his left hand and gazed at a bottle cap sized piece of black crystal in his hand.
“Just a piece, but it’s enough. Enough to show me the cause of my own downfall.” With deliberate force, he clenched his hand around the crystal, “That idiot! Was he so afraid to die that he would do such a thing to himself? Did he think that this method would give him immortality? He only made himself vulnerable.”
A thoughtful expression crossed the borrowed face, “Perhaps I can work this to my advantage. Yes, yes this can most definitely work to my advantage. I just need to find the others. And you my little fragment are going to help me.” With new purpose Death Flight stood and shook off his weariness, “Now, to find out what I can about this… Voldemort.”