//------------------------------//
// 17 — Once More Into the Breach 
// Story: If Wishes were Ponies . . . . 
// by tkepner 
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It was late afternoon in Little Whinging, just as it was in Equestria. It was odd how closely things in one paralleled the other, including all those terrible pony-puns on objects or place-names — Encyclopaedia Bitannica instead of Encyclopaedia Britannica or Baltimare instead of Baltimore, for example. There must be some sort of magical leakage between the two worlds.

He took a quick look around and saw no one. He checked a couple of the branches and sticks he had left lying in certain spots to see anyone had even been close to here. Nothing was disturbed, he was happy to see. He pulled his trousers into a more comfortable position, tightened his belt, put on his sandals, and buttoned his shirt.

He had barely finished when Twilight came stumbling through, her saddlebags now on her hips like a pair of fancy bum-bags, which promptly slid to the ground. He caught her arm and quickly braced his side against hers to help her keep her balance. Immediately behind her came Spike, who tripped over her saddlebags. Remarkably enough, he remained a dragon! A well-dressed dragon to be sure — Rarity and Twilight has used their magic to readjust some of his old clothes from when he and Twilight had lived in Canterlot and had to attend formal functions there — but still a dragon! Grumbling, he grabbed the fallen saddlebags so they wouldn’t be in the way of the fillies following him.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were next, and they caught Applejack and then Holiday as they stumbled through. Then Sweetie Belle appeared and right behind her was Rarity. The fillies slipped on their sandals as their relatives adjusted their clothes.

The four mares and dragon looked around wonderingly at the strangely not-menacing forest. First Twilight, then the other mares noticed that while Scootaloo didn’t have wings, she did have what looked like incredibly detailed wings drawn on her back. She adjusted the cloth panel on the back of her dress and Sweetie Belle buttoned the two buttons to hold it down for her.

The same was true for Twilight. The mares spent a few minutes admiring the details. They could even see the ribbing on the feathers and their colours subtly shifting. Then Sweetie Belle stepped over and buttoned the buttons on the cloth panel for her. Next time, Twilight would do it herself.

The other detail was that all the females had luxurious waist-length hair.

Applejack and Apple Bloom stood out from the others. Applejack because of her very out of place light brown Stetson hat and Apple Bloom because of her pink hair-bow. Both of which were comically small on their human heads.

Harry was rather surprised at how stunningly pretty Twilight looked. He knew from what others had said that as a pony she was considered quite cute and many had said she would be beautiful in a few years. But even he could see she was going to get a lot of attention from the men in his world.

Rarity’s dress-making, although wonderful on such short notice and vague patterns, had made no allowances for the breasts the former mares now possessed. Pony breasts were in a completely different location and barely noticeable unless the pony was nursing. Even seeing the pictures in the magazine hadn’t prepared Rarity for the reality of what that translocation meant. Or that the results would be so markedly different from what they considered normal. Or vary so much between individual mares.

Rarity and Twilight were what he thought would be average while Applejack and Holiday was surprisingly large. All four women were straining the upper stitching on what had been loose clothes — some much more than others. Harry knew the dresses would have to be altered when they returned — Rarity hadn’t brought enough supplies to make changes on the spot. It also reminded Harry to mention that underwear would probably be a good idea. Although explaining the why’s and how’s would be incredibly embarrassing. It made his face hot just to think about it.

“Woah!” said Spike, looking around.

Harry pointed, “The play-park is that way about a hundred steps.” He swung his arm about one hundred twenty degrees to his left, “Little Whinging about a hundred and fifty steps that way, but you have to go around a couple of fallen trees so it’s a bit of a longer walk than that. You can’t see anything from here because we’re in a small depression.”

Harry looked at Spike and shook his head. Did Spike remaining a dragon instead of turning into a human mean there were dragons in his world and he had never known? Did that mean that because the fillies and mares coming through as girls and women that there weren’t pegasi and unicorns in his world? “Spike,” he said, “I’m sorry but you’re really going to have to try to hide. There aren’t dragons here that I know of and anyone seeing you will definitely call the Guard!”

Spike shrugged. He was small, he could do that easily.

They slowly made their way to the park. The fillies concentrated on making sure the mares didn’t fall down — they were getting better with every step, but it was still a learning experience. The uneven surface didn’t help. Nor the adults lack of shoes of any kind.

They stopped at the forest edge to watch some children playing on the slides and swings. There were a couple of housewives on a bench, talking, as their toddlers played in a sandbox not far from the swings.

A car drove down the street that bordered the west side of the park, getting all three mares and Spike to stare at it. “What’s that?” asked Applejack.

“That’s a car, a cart with an engine that makes it move and everyone rides inside the covered compartment. No magic.”

One of Twilight’s saddle-bags that Spike was still carrying opened and a quill and paper floated out. Harry grabbed them. “Don’t, Twilight. People will see and wonder how you did that. Then they would come over and we’d get caught.” He stuffed them back into the bag while Twilight pouted.

Rarity was staring intently at the three houses they could see on the other side of the road. “They’re all the same,” she said disapprovingly, “and so plain!”

“Let’s head back, now,” Harry suggested. “You need more practice walking or you’ll attract unwanted attention.”

On the way back all four mares started complaining about the small sticks and stones poking their feet. They were not used to things hurting their hooves as they walked, except in the rare case of a stick or stone hitting just the right part of the frog in their hooves.

Harry stopped and balanced on one leg while holding the other across his knee and pointing at the sandal he was wearing. “That’s the other reason we need to go back. People wear shoes to protect their feet. If you don’t have shoes, your feet will get cuts that can get infected and send you to hospital if you aren’t careful. Sweetie Belle made these out of some thick scrap cloth you had at the Boutique, Rarity.”

Once they were back in Equestria, Twilight said to the Sergeant, “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to place a watch on this now that we know where the portal is. I’m sure Princess Celestia will have a full garrison posted here by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”

By now another five ponies had arrived. The Sergeant quickly assigned four to maintain watch, two on the tree and two on their surroundings so they weren’t ambushed by anything from the Everfree. They would change shifts with the other Guards every four hours until relief from Canterlot arrived.

The four mares discovered that although they didn’t have scratches on their hooves, the skin covering the backs of their pastern and cannon bones were scratched and very sore. It wasn’t a real problem, but their legs ached all the way home.

Twilight buried herself in the Almanac before the tree-portal was out of sight. Rarity, Applejack, and Holiday were quiet, while Holiday glared at Scootaloo who was doing her best to hide behind Harry and her two friends.

Spike, riding on Twilight’s back again, was the only one for conversation with them as he pestered the fillies and Harry with endless questions about what they had seen on their previous trips. The three mares listened closely, and followed the colt and fillies to make sure none of them ran off into the forest chasing something. The mares did not find the details the fillies were sharing amusing in any way, shape, or form.

Applejack dragged Apple Bloom off as they reached the Sweet Apple Acres homestead, while Rarity took Sweetie Belle with her once they reached town. Rarity had a busy evening planned, she told them, as she not only intended an in-depth discussion with Sweetie Belle, but also planned on making sandals for them all based on the outlines they had made of their feet before returning through the portal. The glare she gave the filly while saying this promised the discussion was not going to be pleasant.

Auntie Holiday led Scootaloo off with the promise that she and Auntie Loft were going to having a serious discussion with her after dinner, as well!

All three fillies had looked back at Harry with expressions of dread as their sisters and relative dragged them by the ear towards their homes — with a constant “ow, ow, ow, leggo, ow.” All he could do was give them each a mournful look of encouragement. It didn’t seem to help much.

Harry watched and marvelled as Twilight unerringly walked from the tree-portal into town and to the castle, opened the door, held it for him, and closed it, and then walked into the kitchen and started to fix the three of them a cup of tea, all without once taking her muzzle out of the almanac or making a single misstep. And making notes the entire while. It was quite impressive, actually. He wondered if it was just that her large eyes, in comparison to his as a person and not a pony, gave that much better peripheral vision? Or was she using her magic on an extremely low level that kept her from walking into anything or anypony? He would have to try that later.

While Harry and Twilight sat at the table drinking their tea, Spike decided he needed to fix dinner and bustled around the kitchen with occasional stops to take a sip of his tea (sweetened with sapphire dust instead of sugar).

Only after eating dinner did Twilight put aside her research. “A very interesting book,” she said. “Mostly statistics, but the section on your history was quite illuminating, the sports was not.” She paused and looked at Harry. “Your people are quite violent. According to this,” she tapped the book with a hoof, “Your home country, Great Britain, has had 162 wars in 278 years. It hasn’t had a peace that lasted longer than six years in that entire time. As a whole, it looks like the countries of your home-world have been at non-stop war for the last three thousand years.”

Harry nodded. He knew they fought a lot, but that still was appalling considering that Equestria had been without a war for almost a thousand years — until the last two years, in fact. Although all the Equestrian fighting involved villains and not other countries trying to invade, except Chrysalis and the changlings, of course.

“But the medicine advances they talk about — blood transfusions, in vitreo conception, vaccines, operating on foetuses . . . are mind-boggling. And your technology — you’ve been to the Moon!” She shivered in excitement. “I can hardly wait to see it all for myself!” She was trotting in place, again, and her eyes were glowing slightly at the prospects of the things she could learn.

“Twilight, focus,” Spike said sharply. He pointed a claw across the table, “Harry!” Now that she was out of the current binge-reading there was hope he could get her back on track. “Hogwarts! Remember?”

She gave Spike a blank look, then glanced at Harry. She blinked and Harry could see her mentally shifting from one topic to another. “Oh, yes.” She blushed. “Sorry about that, Harry. It’s just,” she glanced down at the book, “you know, knowledge!”

She shook herself. She pulled a checklist out of her saddlebag. “Alright. Go to Guard Post at the edge of the Everfree? Check. Check in with the Guards? Check. Explain why we’re there? Check. Request more guards? Check. Follow Harry to Portal? Check. Find Portal location? Check. Survey area around portal for dangers? Check. The portal still exists? Check. The portal is still accessible? Check. The portal hasn’t moved? Check. The portal can still be used? Check. . . .”

Harry and Spike sighed. This would take a few minutes for her to catch up.

“. . . Return to Library? Check. Fix tea? Check. Spike fixes dinner? Check. Eat? Check. Start new list for the evening?” A blank scroll floated out of her saddlebag and unrolled beside her. “Check.” She set her list down and sighed, satisfied at completing her list. The quill started scribbling in the new scroll.

“Alright, Harry, we know you can travel safely back and forth. The next question is, do you want to go to this Hogwarts school?” She looked at him intently.

Harry looked up, startled. “Go to the school? Why would I want to go there? I like it better here. Besides, what would it cost? How would I pay for things? Where would I live?”

She nodded, her quill flying across the scroll. “All good questions, I’ll check with Princess Celestia about those things. As for why? Why, to learn about your world’s magic!” Her grin had a slightly manic look to it, wider than normal with her eyes also a bit wider. Her in-place trotting picked up speed. “Just think of all the things you can learn there that we don’t know here! A whole new world of magic! You’ll be able to teach me so much when you come back. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime!” Her grin now stretched almost to her ears.

He stared at her a moment. “Do I have to?” he asked softly.

She stared at him as if he had grown a second head. Spike was staring, too.

“I mean,” he continued just as softly, staring at the table-top, “I’ll be gone for nine months.” He drew a circle on the table-top with a hoof. “I’ll have to leave my . . . friends. I’ll be there and . . . Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom will be here.” He looked up at her. “I don’t want to leave them. They’re special. I’ve never had friends before.”

Twilight leaned back. This was a completely unexpected development. Harry could see that turning down the opportunity to learn new magic — the magic of his home world — left her perplexed. She couldn’t understand it.

She stared at him. He sighed again, looking at the table-top dejectedly. She had told him last fall all about how Princess Celestia had taken her under her wing as her personal student when she was only eight, younger than him, and he would be eleven next week if he had calculated things right.

But Twilight hadn’t left everything behind, her parents had been right there in Canterlot. She had spent many evenings with them after they got off work and she finished her studies. Not to mention the family outings on weekends and holidays. As she had gotten older and the Princess had taken a more active role in her education, she had moved into the castle and visited her parents and brother on weekends, whenever she wanted. And he knew this.

He would be leaving everything behind. He didn’t want to do that. He was loved here, he knew it. He didn’t need to learn magic back there, he was perfectly content with the magic here. And his friends were here, not there.

Besides, she had said she would never force him to go back. Unless that was a lie. He felt the beginnings of panic rear up.

After a few moments, her expression slowly changed from puzzled to contemplation, to understanding. She smiled reassuringly at the colt. “No, Harry,” she softly, her affection clear in her voice, “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” She paused, thinking. “Perhaps we can ask the ponies at Hogwarts if your filly friends can go with you. Then you wouldn’t be alone.” She sidled up to him and wrapped a wing around him, cuddling him.

Harry looked up at her hopefully. “Really?” If the girls came with him, well, then, he wouldn’t care where he was. As long as it wasn’t with the Dursleys.

She shrugged, still smiling, “We can only ask. When we send your reply, we can state in it that you will only attend if your friends can, too.”

“But they’re not unicorns, will they be able to do magic?”

Twilight laughed. “Pegasi certainly have magic, how do you think they fly and buck clouds? And earth ponies make things grow! That’s certainly magical. You know that!

“And if the school says no, then you stay here.”

Harry ran a hoof through his mane, thinking. “What will Applejack, Holiday, Lofts, and Rarity say? What if they say no?”

Twilight hummed to herself a moment. “I’m sure that I can convince them to let the fillies go with you.”

Slowly he nodded. Right. When a Princess, one of the rulers of your homeland, asks a favour, few are willing to refuse. 

“Okay,” he said. Getting the girls to agree would be easy — all he had to say was ‘we might get our cutie marks.’ Plus they would jump at the chance to see his world without having to sneak past their relatives all the time. They were especially interested in seeing those things called films. If they were there officially, they’d have money and could do things like that. He wondered what they would think of a human amusement park.

“Spike,” Twilight said, interrupting him cleaning the dishes, “Would you take down a message for Princess Celestia?”

“Sure thing!” the young drake said hopping down from his stool and waddling over to the table. He pulled a quill and blank scroll from Twilight’s saddlebags.


۸- ̬ -۸


Dear Princess Celestia,

Harry and the fillies, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, were kind enough to show me, Applejack, Holiday, Rarity, and the Guards the location of the portal. It was right where we thought it should be! To open the portal you first have to want to go to Little Whinging, and then step through. That’s why we didn’t find it! We were looking for a portal, not a portal-to-Little-Whinging (see enclosed notes and drawings, Appendix A).

It’s a lovely world! The forest around the portal is welcoming and quiet, although the air has a very mild but distinct taste of badly burnt cooking oil. After a few moments, though, I didn’t notice it anymore. Harry says there are no dangerous wild animals anywhere nearby. We took a short walk of about fifty celestials to the park where he said his cousin accosted him last year. Based on preliminary measurements the distance measured as a “mile” in the “almanac” is about a thousand celestials, and a “kilometre” is about 700 celestials (see detailed notes and drawings, Appendix B).

While we were there a car, an enclosed conveyance for carrying ponies, drove by. It had neither ponies pulling nor magic moving it, and made quite a bit of noise! Nothing too objectionable, but we could easily hear it from over several hundred celestials. It was also made entirely of some shiny metal and had glass windows completely encircling it (for sketches and details of the car, see Appendix C).

One important discovery I have made is that their “feet” are extremely sensitive and the smallest pebble or thorn can bring instant pain. Shoes, as Harry has told us before, are a requirement (see enclosed drawing of the sandals Sweetie Belle made for them, Appendix D)! 

In the park we saw two adults watching their children play on the swings and in a sandbox. As Harry has said about his people, they were all wearing clothes that completely covered them from neck to knees for the “girls” (fillies) and the “boys” (colts) wore shirts with trousers that were either very short or reached to their feet. They all wore shoes (see enclosed notes and drawings of both the shoes and the play-park equipment, Appendix E).

On the subject of Harry attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he has decided that he will not attend the school by himself. He sees Equestria as his home and has little interest in leaving. In addition, spending nine months away from here, bereft of his friends — when he has never had friends before — is not something he desires to do. However, he has said that if his friends, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, were allowed to attend then he would be willing to enroll with them.

We intend to ask about that possibility when we send his letter to them.

I can hardly wait to hear what he can tell me about their magic! This is just so exciting! (See Appendix F for miscellaneous drawings and details about the other things we saw while there.)

Your Faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle


۸- ̬ -۸


After watching Spike incinerate the missive with its accompanying scrolls, Harry sat back and thought about what this really meant. Up to now, he hadn’t had the time to dwell on what it might actually mean to return to Earth — he no longer considered it his home. Home was here, in Equestria, with his filly friends. Learning what magic could do there might be interesting, it might be fun, but he could learn magic here. It was fun here. He would never be as powerful or as good at it as Twilight, but if you had all the spells you needed to do what you wanted, why did you need to know more?

“Twilight?” he said quietly, “would you teach me the Book Manifestation Spell?”

“Hmm?” came the tinny reply. She was already into the almanac.

“The Book Manifestation Spell?” he repeated, louder.

A moment later, she was back. She looked down at him for a moment, frowning. “Why?”

He looked up at the ceiling, choosing his words carefully, “If I’m going to learn Earth’s magic at that school, I won’t have such a good teacher as you doing it, so I’ll need to study harder to learn the stuff.” He dropped his gaze back to her. “At least, based on what I remember of my primary teachers, you’re much better than they were. You care more. You’re more patient.

“Which means it’s easier to learn from you. And you won’t be there to teach me or to answer my questions. So, I need some way to study better, really to understand what the book is trying to tell me. And you’ve told me ‘you’d be amazed what you can pick up when you’re actually in a book.’”

She blushed at his praise. “Well, I’m not sure if you can do it. It is a fairly complicated spell compared to the ones most colts your age can cast.” She stopped and smiled at him, “But your levitation, teleportation, and illusionary spells are coming along nicely. I don’t see why we can’t see if you can master it.”

A book flew off a shelf and landed in front of them, opening to a page near the middle. “Here’s the spell,” she said, pointing with a hoof. “Read it and let me know when you’ve got it.”


۸- ̬ -۸