Chapter 3: You Blasphemous Lout
Rowle growled to himself for his own stupidity. How could he have been sent away so esaily by such weak creatures? But beneath that grumbling exterior lay a strong curiosity about the sentient ponies. They were more than just sentient. They seemed almost...human. Rowle shuddered; a hippogriff might exhibit human qualities at times, but never would one talk or banish a human to some...where was he again?
Rowle looked around and saw that he had been sent to some mountaintop. The clouds rolled lower than the actual summit, so he couldn't see the land beneath the mountain. All he noticed was a large opening to what appeared to be a cavern. Rowle decided to investigate the cavern and was surprised when he stumbled across dazzling piles of gold and jewels. His avarice eyes darted about as he inspected all the specimens, his greed blinding him to any rational questions, not the least important of which was to whom the gold belonged.
As Rowle rolled in the jewels, completely forgetting his predicament, he felt a tremor in the mountain that stilled his movement. Another tremor struck, this time just a little bit louder, and the ground began to shake more and more as the tremors progressed. Rowle hadn't the faintest idea of what was occurring beneath him, but soon he started hearing growling and heavy breathing that accompanied the tremors. Rowle grew more and more terrified as the growling became louder, and he soon surmised that the tremors were really the steps of some massive creature. As smoke began to plume into the cave, Rowle finally recognized the growling as that of a-
Wham! Rowle was struck by a heavy object and tumbled off of the gold pile. As he came to and looked up, he stared right into the smoking snout of a large, sapphire dragon. The dragon's pale yellow eyes peered menacingly at Rowle before he let out a blast of fire. Rowle barely had enough time to whip out his wand and repel the flames with a Shield Charm. The dragon then lunged at him to bite him, but Rowle leapt out of the way and hit the cold floor of the cave with his shoulder. Groaning in pain, Rowle rolled to his feet and cast a Conjunctivitis Curse at the dragon. The dragon howled in pain as he covered his eyes with his claw.
"You abhorred intruder!" the dragon cried. Rowle was stunned to hear the dragon speak, knowing full well that dragons in the wizarding world definitely lacked that capability.
"I'm...sorry?" Rowle said meekly. The dragon roared.
"Sorry? Remove this blasted curse and let me throttle you if you want me to accept an apology from you, you blasphemous lout!"
"Afraid I can't do that," Rowle said.
"Well, who was I kidding, anyway?" the dragon said, finally giving in to his predicament and slumping on top of one of the gold piles. "What do you want?" he asked.
"I wouldn't say no to all of this gold," Rowle said, "but it'd be a terrible burden to lug about in this strange land."
"You're right," the dragon said. "I've only seen a human like you once before, so I know you're not from around here."
"When was this?" Rowle asked.
"Maybe one, two millenia ago," the dragon said. Rowle's mouth dropped open in shock.
"You've been alive for that long?" Rowle asked.
"Of course, what do you think I am, a Hydra?" the dragon asked with a chuckle. The dragon then groaned. "Look what I've gotten myself into... How did you even get up here, anyway?"
"Oh, um..." Rowle said, recollecting how he had arrived at the mountain. "A unicorn teleported me up here. Wait a moment!" Rowle suddenly remembered his ability to Apparate, and tried doing so by focusing on the village square in Ponyville. He spun and toppled over, still in the same dragon's den, and groaned.
"What was that noise?" the dragon asked.
"Nothing," Rowle said with a grimace. "I was sent here by a unicorn, is all."
"Odd," the dragon said. "What kind of sadistic unicorn would teleport you to a dragon's lair without warning? Then again, judging how you humans treated the ponies so long ago, I guess I'm not surprised."
"Oh, really?" Rowle asked. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
"You wouldn't understand," the dragon said. "In any case, humans and ponies didn't get along then, so why would they get along now?"
"I'm not sure," Rowle said. "Hey, whatever happened to the humans in this place, anyway? The unicorn seemed pretty surprised to see me, so I imagine we didn't last long in this wretched land."
"The humans were all killed off," the dragon said. "It was bloodshed the likes of which Equestria has never seen since. Some say that Discord was behind the invasion of the human populus, but I'd say more mysterious forces were at work."
"Never mind," Rowle said. He'd been hoping to hear a way out of his predicament. "Now listen. Do you want your eyesight back?"
"I'd give my left claw for it," the dragon said.
"Do you know of a village called Ponyville?"
"Aw, yes! Some ponies there kicked my brother right out of his hut! I know the place, all right. My brother convinced me not to incinerate it when I'd heard of his humiliation. Do you need to go there?"
"I need directions at least," Rowle said. "A ride would be nice, but you're much too conspicuous to make it unseen."
"Aw, so you don't want anyone to know you're coming," the dragon said. "Well, I can certainly take you there covertly, provided you do as promised and restore my eyesight first."
"Hold on," Rowle said. "How do I know you won't incinerate me the moment you can see again?"
"I already tried that didn't I?" the dragon asked. "And then you'd curse me for good. Nah, I'm not an idiot. I'll do as you asked."
"Perfect," Rowle said. "Perfect..."
***
Professor McGonagall had had the entire school looking for hours to find Harry Potter and his friends, but the search had turned up nothing. She was beginning to worry that the Death Eaters had gotten them somehow, but she fought to push these fears from her mind.
"We can't give up hope, Professor," said the minute Professor Flitwick, who had sensed Professor McGonagall's misgivings.
"You're right, of course, Filius," Professor McGonagall said. "But I can't help fearing for the boy Potter and his friends."
"Aw, but Mr. Potter has no doubt proven himself far more than a boy, hasn't he, Minerva?" Professor Flitwick asked.
"I suppose so," said Professor McGonagall, "but that doesn't mean a dark group of wizards couldn't still overpower him."
"Begging your pardon, Minerva, but he out-dueled the most ruthless sorcerer of our time. That's got to count for something."
"I don't mean to imply that Potter isn't a capable wizard...I just fear for him, is all."
"There is nothing to fear, Minerva. Mr. Potter will triumph again, if he should be captured."
"Professors!" Neville cried, running up with Ginny and Luna to Professors McGongall and Flitwick. "Any news on Harry?"
"Nothing to report," Professor Flitwick said, "but chin up, fellows. I'm sure Mr. Potter will see both himself and his friends home safely before you know it."
"I hope so," Ginny said. "I can't bear the thought of losing Harry..."
"You won't lose Harry Potter," Professor McGonagall said. "You have my word on it. Even if I have to duel five Death Eaters at once, I will save Harry Potter."
"Wait," Neville said. "You're not saying that Harry was..."
"No, not at all," Professor McGonagall said, catching her mistake. "I don't mean to imply that Mr. Potter was captured. I just mean that if he were, that would not be enough to stop me from looking for him."
"That's a relief," Neville said.
"I think we'll find Harry soon enough," Luna said.
"What makes you think that?" Ginny asked.
"The lights in the night sky tell it," Luna said, sounding remarkably like a centaur. The other wizards chose to ignore this and continue searching for Harry.
***
Harry, meanwhile, was by no means in any mortal danger. He, Ron, and Hermione were sleeping on sleeping bags that Rainbow Dash had flown over from the houses of her friends. As the morning rose, however, the three were awoken by Twilight.
"Get up, sleepyheads!" she cried jubilantly. "It's an early breakfast and then we head off for Canterlot!" Ron groaned, mumbling something about five more minutes, but Hermione prodded him until he got up. Harry threw on his glasses and stared at the giddy Twilight skeptically.
"Why are you so excited?" he asked the unicorn.
"I love Canterlot!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's where I grew up. I'll get to see my brother and my parents and visit the Royal Canterlot Archives! Ever since I learned about time travel there, I couldn't wait to go back, and this is the perfect opportunity to do so!"
"Still," Ron said, "did it have to be so early?"
"Don't you want to find a way out of here?" Hermione asked.
"I suppose," Ron said.
"Well then let's get moving!" Twilight said, waking up Spike and asking him to start making breakfast. Spike looked about as rested as Ron, but he dragged himself to his feet and went to the kitchen anyway.
As the five of them began to eat breakfast (after the wizards had said no to any kind of flowers in their meal), they began to talk about what they were looking for in the Royal Archives.
"Transportation, it's got to be magical transportation," Hermione said. "We were transported here, after all, so it makes sense that we need to be transported back."
"We were teleported here, Hermione," Ron chided. "We need a spell about teleportation."
"I still agree with Twilight that we need to consider interdimensionality as our primary index," Harry said, surprised at how eloquent he sounded. "That's definitely our best bet."
"Um, excuse me," Spike said, "but wouldn't it be easier to talk about this when you get there?"
"What do you mean you, Spike?" Twilight asked. "Don't you know you're coming, too?"
"I am?" Spike asked.
"Of course you are," Twilight said. "I'll need my number one assistant to help me sort through the scrolls. What, did you think you'd just sit around and flirt with Rarity while I was gone?"
"What's Rarity?" Ron whispered to his friends.
"All right," Spike conceded, "I guess I'll come, too."
"Good," Twilight said. "Now let's finish our breakfast quickly. The faster we finish, the faster we can set off for Canterlot, and the faster you humans get to go home."
"Will we really find a way out of here at that library?" Ron asked.
"I should hope so," Twilight said. "Why do you ask?"
"It's just that libraries have kind of screwed us over on more than one occasion," Ron said.
"What...?" Twilight asked, unable to conceive of a time when a library had ever screwed her over.
"I didn't mean to offend you..." Ron muttered. Hermione elbowed him and glared.
"Ronald, if you can't trust the sanctity of a library for finding information, then what in this world can you trust?" she asked.
"I suppose you're right," Ron said. "We'll just have to wait and see, is all."
"We certainly will," Harry said.