Dumbledore watched, stunned, as the alicorn plunged, screaming, at the snake.
The basilisk ducked sideways. The sword slid along the back of its neck. The spear dug deep. The alicorn herself didn’t stop with that, however. She slammed all four hooves into the side of the snake’s head. She immediately shot up to the ceiling. She screamed, “FIRST BLOOD TO ME!”
At the same time, Rarity and Applejack charged. Sparkle dove down from above. The shield disappeared. Two swords plunged into the snake’s body. Applejack spun on her front hooves and bucked with her rear ones. Impossibly, the body of the multi-ton snake slammed into the statue behind it. Cracks spider-webbed up the wall.
In the clear orange-lit Chamber he could see something dripping from four long knives strapped to Luna’s black shoes, as well as from all the swords, and the spear, pulled from the snake. How had he missed seeing those knives mounted on her metal shoes?
The snake hissed in pain and turned to face its ground attackers. A magic shield snapped into place in front of them as the ponies darted back. The snake’s open mouth slammed into the shield. The Headmaster could see at least one broken fang fall to the floor.
Simultaneously, a rainbow blur shot across his sight and slammed, hooves first, into the snake’s snout, throwing it again into the statue. As it spun to face this new assailant, Pinkie, somehow, jumped up through the shield and fired a cannon — a cannon! — into the basilisk’s face, coating the entire side of it with a glowing liquid.
Luna again charged. She sank her blade into the beast’s side and slammed her spear and hooves into the snake. It crashed against the side wall as she darted back.
“Come,” Dumbledore said to the professors, “The most powerful stunners you can manage. Target its mouth.” The three wizards and witch aimed their wands and shot their spells. Four spells shot across the Chamber.
The snake hissed at Luna, its greatest threat.
The shield disappeared as the spells reached it. One struck the snake’s eye, the other three hit the sides of its mouth and tongue.
The shield reappeared.
The snake launched itself at Luna. She dodged easily, laughing delightedly.
It fell into the shield below Luna as it missed her. It hissed angrily. Its tongue lolled to one side. It reared up and back. Its head was level with the mouth of the statue.
“Again,” said the Headmaster calmly. Four spells lanced at the snake. The shield vanished as they reached it.
At the last second the basilisk lunged to the side.
The shield reappeared.
All four spells missed it.
Again, a rainbow blur flew across the room. It smashed into the basilisk. The snake’s head bounced off the wall behind it.
Again, four spells shot across the Chamber.
Rarity, Twilight, and Apple again charged the beast. The shield disappeared. They slashed and bucked its body. The sudden pain broke the snake from its daze. It snapped down at them. And again lost a fang as it hit Shining’s shield.
Two spells hit the creature.
Luna, not to be outdone, quickly dove a third time. She drove her weapons deep into the beast’s back. Her hoof-strike drove the snake’s head to the floor.
The basilisk rose up frighteningly fast. It sprang at Twilight. Its mouth snapped closed. There was a flash of light and faint bells. She reappeared behind its head and sank her blade deep.
The snake screamed. It threw its head back to smash Twilight against the statue. Twilight again disappeared, to reappear beside Dumbledore.
They stopped a moment to see what damage they had done. Dumbledore could feel himself getting hot as the Chamber was heated by the sphere overhead.
The King of Snakes coiled low and hissed at them. Paint dripped from its face, its eyes glared at them balefully. The snake’s inner-eyelid had protected it from Pinkie’s attempt to blind it. Their sword strikes were mere pinpricks compared to its vast length, its organs too spread out to easily target, too large to truly slow it down.
Behind them came Fluttershy’s voice, “Please, Mr. Snake, don’t fight us! We just want to move you somewhere else.”
There was a single long hiss.
“He says, ‘Never will I betray the Speaker!’”
Twilight said, “This thing is too big, our attacks are little more than annoyances.”
“Huzzah!” cried Luna. A brilliant beam sprang from her horn. It struck the basilisk in the face. Twilight disappeared from beside the Headmaster. She reappeared on the opposite side of the Chamber from Luna. Her beam joined Luna’s a second later. It was a sustained blast of power the wizards had never seen — their spells were usually individual discharges. The closest they could come to continuous blasts were incendio and fiendfyre. But these were neither, far more targeted, and clearly much easier to control.
Spells once more flew towards the snake. The shield blinked to let them pass.
The snake threw itself across the Chamber, still trapped behind Shining’s barrier. Luna and Twilight’s attacks followed the snake. Abruptly, the destructive beams cut off. Incredibly, the snake was unharmed, although its scales glowed red-hot where the beams had struck it. The snake glowered at Luna. It coiled for another strike. They readied for another assault.
Spells again shot towards the basilisk.
The Chamber was filled with smoke from the debris vaporized by the blasts and steam from the formerly damp and now baked floor. Dumbledore could hear the faint hiss as water slowly flowed back into the empty trough and evaporated as it hit the hot stones. He felt himself sweating from the steamy heat.
The shield blinked again. The snake jerked to the side. One spell struck its eye.
Twilight grimaced and faced the basilisk. A giant stunner bolt shot from her horn.
Again, the snake dodged. The spell clipped the side of its head. The spell apparently did nothing.
Pinkie jumped up beside Twilight. Somehow, she braced herself against Prince Armor’s shield. She grabbed the Princess behind the wings in one foreleg. She grabbed the alicorn’s tail in the other. Then she began to spin the purple alicorn’s tail like a crank. The four humans watched, stunned, as spells shot out of Twilight’s horn faster than should be possible. It was a steady stream of spells no human could hope to match. It was an incomprehensible impossibility that left them gaping.
The spells struck the snake. Pinkie played the stream of spells across its face like a wizard directing a torrent of water at a fire.
Luna had a ludicrously huge grin on her face. She blasted the creature with a beam of her own.
The snake screamed angrily. The sound was distorted as the stunners numbed its mouth and disappeared down its throat. It waved its head wildly, its eyes stunned and useless.
It tried to hunt them via its heat-sensing organs, and rocked its head madly. But the large hot sphere overhead blinded it as effectively as a searchlight would blind its eyes.
The basilisk twisted and twined to avoid the onslaught. Pinkie relentlessly followed it, grinning like a mad person. Finally, she stopped. Twilight looked dazed and her horn was smoking.
The snake coiled tightly at the base of the statue. Its head twisted around blindly as it uselessly sought its foes. Its tongue lolled limply, preventing it from even closing its mouth. It dodged Luna’s continuing attack as well as it could.
Once more, from behind them came Fluttershy’s voice, “Please, Mr. Snake, don’t fight us!”
The basilisk spun its head to face in her direction. A mangled hiss came forth. It stood up high. It looked as if it were about to strike out at Twilight or Luna. It suddenly turned around. It launched itself into the mouth of the statue, half its length disappearing in only a moment. It was escaping to its lair!
“Hurrah!” shouted Pinkie, echoed by Rarity, “We’ve forced it to retreat!”
“No!” cried Luna, “Snakes always have another exit from their lair! We must stop it!”
Princess Luna and Twilight tried to magically grab its tail and pull it back. They slowed it down, but too much of it had already vanished inside its lair. Its magic-resistant hide made it difficult to grab the rapidly disappearing tail. Unluckily, despite its length, it took only a few more moments to vanish inside. The statue’s mouth began to close. Princess Luna unleashed another blast from her horn and the statue’s bottom jaw blew across the Chamber in a rain of debris.
Twilight started to fly into the opening, but Princess Luna grabbed her in her magic. “We must plan what to do next!” she said urgently. They suddenly were beside the others on the ground, joined a moment later by a hovering Dash.
Oddly, Princess Luna didn’t immediately begin issuing orders. Instead, she looked at Twilight. “What should we do next?” she asked the smaller alicorn.
Twilight looked stunned at being asked such a question, and licked her lips uncertainly. Then she shook her head and stared at the statue’s destroyed mouth and her eyes narrowed in thought. She turned to them. “Shiny, I’ll take you and Fluttershy to the village. You set up another shield to protect the students and villagers in case the basilisk attacks there. Fluttershy,” she turned to face the yellow pegasus hiding behind Luna, “you fly above and keep a watch for the basilisk.”
She turned and pointed a hoof at Dash, “You and I will fly over the forest and watch for where the snake emerges.” She pointed at Luna. “Princess Luna, you take everyone else and follow in the snake’s tunnel.
“Whomever finds the snake first, contact the rest.”
She turned to her brother, but before she could act, Fluttershy said, “How do we contact anyone? We won’t know where they are.” She shrank back involuntarily as Twilight looked at her. “I mean, if you don’t mind telling me.”
Twilight stood a moment, her mouth open as she tried to come up with an answer. The Atlanteans apparently did not have an easy method of communication between themselves.
Dumbledore spoke up, “I think I know how we can keep in contact.”
Twilight looked at him and nodded, her eyebrows raised encouragingly.
“Can the pegasi carry riders?”
“Pshaw!” said Dash, “Easy as pie.” She frowned at the Headmaster. “You might be a bit much for Fluttershy, but I think she could carry the short guy without a problem.”
Twilight glared at the blue pegasus, and turned to the Headmaster. “Certainly, we can use a feather-weight charm if we must.”
He nodded. “Skiffy,” he called firmly.
“Skiffy is here Master Dumbles,” came the squeaky voice a second later. The house-elf looked around the steam-filled and smoky Chamber with wide eyes. Condensed steam began dripping off the cooler stone ceiling, creating a disconcerting mild drizzle. You didn’t expect it to rain inside an underground chamber.
“Skiffy, I need you to bring me the five smallest Hogwarts house-elves,” ordered the Headmaster. “Adults,” he added quickly. The house-elf nodded and disappeared.
“The house-elves can be sent to tell the others, should one of us find the basilisk first,” he explained to the others.
He had no sooner finished speaking than Skiffy returned with five elves whose heads barely reached the ponies’ shoulders.
“Skiffy is back, Master Dumbles,” declared the house-elf. He turned to the five smaller house-elves. “These be Minnie, Tippy, Tiny, Squeaker, and Mousey.” Each one bowed deeply as he or she was mentioned. They stared at the Headmaster with wide eyes, clearly having never thought they would be called on by their Master. There were, after all, hundreds of house-elves at the school.
“Excellent,” said the Headmaster. He stared down at the five elves with a kindly smile. “There is a basilisk loose and the Hogwarts students are in danger. I want you five to obey these . . . ,” he looked at the ponies for a moment. “. . . these ponies as if they were me.” The five nodded solemnly. “Squeaker,” he said, “you go with Princess Sparkle.” Almost before he had finished speaking the house-elf was lifted, with a squeak of surprise, and placed on Twilight’s back.
“Tiny, you go with Miss Fluttershy.” Tiny was deposited on Fluttershy’s back just as quickly. “Tippy, you go with Prince Armor; Mousey, you go with Miss Dash; and Minnie . . .”
Princess Luna interrupted, “If I find the snake, verily, ye will know by the explosions and fire!” She gleefully danced in place for a moment.
Twilight looked at her. “But you might need to send us a message before you find the basilisk.”
Luna rolled her eyes and her magic snatched the tiny elf, depositing her on Luna’s back. “Fine.” She turned her head to speak to the elf. “Stick tight, and go when I give thee leave.” Minnie nodded so hard her ears were a blur.
“Wait!” Dumbledore said as Twilight turned to her brother and Fluttershy. “Take Professor McGonagall with you to the village. She can warn the professors, Prefects, and villagers about what is happening and why.”
Twilight nodded and the seven of them disappeared.
Twilight returned with her passenger a minute or so later, then disappeared a second time, taking Rainbow Dash and her passenger as well.
Princess Luna grabbed everyone who remained and floated them behind her as she flew into the dark tunnel that was the Statue’s mouth, an orange-haze in front of them.
۸- ̰ -۸
“Sorry to disturb your day, Prime Minister, but as I told your secretary, this will only take two minutes, and it’s something that you hold confidential.”
John Major nodded.
“You mentioned something about magicians when speaking with the Princess the other day.”
He had Major’s full attention, now.
“I believe something has come up regarding the, uh, magic users. Princess Sparkle cancelled all her appointments and meetings for the day this morning, without any explanations.” And he proceeded to tell the man what had happened so far this morning.
“Based on what the Ambassador said, I don’t think it’s anything the government needs to worry about, but it clearly involves these magicians. I suspect we don’t want to do anything that might reveal the Equestrians are talking with us. So, maybe you should warn the Foreign and Home Secretaries, and Sir Walker and Sir McColl, of the possibility that there might be native Earth magicians? So we don’t accidentally do something that draws their attention? At least the Equestrians are being somewhat upfront with us. Who knows how these . . . magicians . . . will react? Right?
“And perhaps we could use the Equestrians as a way to . . . watch the magicians?”
Major stared at him before slowly nodding. “Thank you for you bringing this to my attention.” He turned and left the small meeting room they were in.
That . . . probably went as well as could be expected. He hoped.
Now all he could do was wait and see what happened. He headed back to his office. There was paperwork that needed filling out.
۸-_-۸
Shortly after breakfast and arriving at his post, Corporal Steady Charger watched the unicorn mare slowly coming up the road towards the Portal Check-in building. She was looking around and taking in everything she saw, from the newly paved road, to the tall wooden rail-fences separating the road on one side from Sweet Apple Acres and the park-like grounds of the former Everyfree forest on the other side.
He had first noticed her when she had stopped at the corner where the Everfree Wall descended in a graceful wave-shape down to meet the road. She had spent a few moments looking and walking back and forth, comparing the wild appearance on one side to the carefully manicured lawn on the other.
He waited patiently. She wasn’t the first pony to come inspect the new addition to Ponyville. Nor would she be the last.
She was a young mare with a light-blue coat and two-tone purple mane and tail.
When she was close enough for comfortable conversation, he said, “Good morning, miss. How may I help you?”
“Oh,” she said quietly, barely loud enough to hear. “I’m new in town and everypony’s been talking about this portal-thingy, so I thought I’d take a look, if you don’t mind.”
He gave her a friendly smile. “Sorry, but unless you have legitimate business, you can’t go any farther than here.”
“Oh.” She frowned prettily. “Well, can you tell me what it is or what’s going on?”
His smiled broadened a trifle. “It’s not really a secret, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s just that for the untrained it can be quite dangerous. Like the way it’s dangerous to wander around a train-yard if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
She blinked a few times and sat down on the grass beside the building’s gate.
“You see,” he pointed into the passageway through the building, behind the gate, and at the brick path that continued into the park-like setting. “There’s a portal to another world up the path.”
“Really?” she said starting to get excited.
“Oh, yes,” he answered. “It’s a lot like here . . . grass, trees, squirrels, chipmunks. No monsters though, unlike the Everfree.” He glanced over at the trees that could be seen before the wall curved up enough to hide them.
He sighed. “Unfortunately, when you go through the portal, it changes you to a bipedal creature called a human.” He frowned and looked up the path. “You have to learn how to walk all over again, which means you’re pretty helpless until you learn how to do that.” He looked back at her.
She was frowning, with a distant look in her eyes. She was probably trying to imagine what that was like.
“Here, let me show you,” he said. He concentrated. An illusion slowly came to form beside him. A tall, well-muscled creature, wearing a short pleated skirt and boat-necked armless blouse, took shape. It had bright-green hair that reached to the skirt and positively towered over him.
The mare gasped and involuntarily shrank back.
He snickered. “This is Sharp Point, one of my squaddies, as she appears on the other side, and the creature she appears as is a female, a woman. Yeah, she looks intimidating, doesn’t she? But if you stand on your rear legs, you’ll be just as tall, so she’s really not that much than bigger you. Go on, you’ll see. She’s the same size as you are, normally, only with everything re-arranged on the other side of the portal.”
Slowly, awkwardly, the mare stood and balanced on her rear hooves. It was true, standing on her rear hooves, she could look Sharp Point in the eyes.
“What are those?” she pointed at the bulges in the blouse with one hoof before dropping to all fours.
“Those are where your teats end up when you go through the portal. Don’t know why the mares end up with such big ones, though.”
She reflexively twisted to look at her belly. “Huh.”
“And, as you can see by the clothes, the inhabitants of the other side of the portal are intelligent, and clever. Quite so, from what I ‘ve seen.”
She gasped. “You’ve been there?”
“Oh, yes, we’ve all been. Everypony posted here gets rotated through the portal on a regular basis. The Princesses are quite intent on establishing relations with the humans. We’re actually building an embassy on the other side, and there are plans for them to have an embassy on this side. And, they are very willing to share what they know with us — Princess Twilight Sparkle has already brought back over twenty thousand books, so far.”
He almost didn’t notice the look of distaste at the mention of Princess Sparkle, but it disappeared immediately as her eyes widened in shock.
“Twenty thousand books?” her jaw hung down in shock.
He nodded. “Oh yes, and we’ve already learned a bunch of new magic spells from them, and other stuff, too.” He tilted his head slightly, “Have you heard about the new telephones?”
She blinked at his question, returning from where her mind had gone at the thought of so many books. “I think so, the Mayor did mention something about soon being able to . . . tellyfoon? . . . directly to Canterlot instead of relying on mail for banking information when I asked about an apartment or house in the area.”
He nodded, “Yep. That was an idea from them. Every home and office has one, there. You can call and talk to anyone in their country almost instantly — as long as they’re at home or in the office, of course. We have one here, now,” he said nodding at the building behind him. “So if we have a problem, we can call Canterlot and alert them in seconds instead of the hours it would take a pegasus to fly the distance.”
She blinked a couple of times at that. “Oh, my,” was all she said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Can’t you imagine the convenience of Manechester being able to call Canterlot if there’s a big accident and they need help? Or even being able to call your mother in Manehattan, from here, to wish her a happy birthday?”
She nodded slowly.
“And then there’s the new Undetectable Expansion Spell!” He trotted in place delightedly. “Look,” he said, turning sideways to her and pointing with a hoof. “See that small pocket?”
The illusion dissipated.
She looked at the flap on the side of his armour. It wasn’t much wider than two-hooves.
“Watch this!” the flap opened and a spear came out, one longer than his body. Another followed it, then came a bedroll, a knife, and a dozen of what she recognized as sealed meal-packs. Then they started floating back in. “I can carry enough equipment for heavy combat, food for a week, extra equipment, and all without having to carry anything! And the best part is, it’s spelled to weigh no more than a single meal-pack! No more hauling wagons around with our supplies or carrying packs that weigh as much we do!”
She sat silent for several minutes, stunned.
“It’s kinda of odd, though,” he finally said, frowning, and thinking. “Very few of those humans can do magic. In fact, from what we’ve been told, there are less than 100,000 magic users in the entire country on the other side, out of fifty-seven million humans.”
Her jaw hung down again. “F-fifty-seven million?”
“Uh-huh,” he said, nodding. “And, what’s really odd, is that the magic users are hiding from the non-magic users.”
“Hiding?”
“Yeah. It seems that several hundred years ago the magic-users, they call themselves wizards and witches, terribly abused their magic against the non-magic users. And the non-magic users began to call them monsters and killing the wizards and witches in retaliation.” He shook his head sadly. “So the wizards and witches went into hiding.” He sighed. “Which means, when we go there, we can’t use magic unless it’s a life-or-death emergency.” He shook his head sadly. “It’s really difficult getting out of the habit of using your horn, you know?” He looked at her. “No to mention that it’s harder to do magic there.”
She again nodded, “Yeah, I suppose it would be.”
He perked up. “Oh, and you know what the weirdest thing is? The wizards and witches? They don’t have cutie marks! None at all!”
She stared at him, eyes wide, again. “No cutie marks?”
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head, “None at all.”
She stared at him for several moments, her eyes narrowing in thought. She looked down at the ground, then looked up and frowned at him, squinting slightly. “Are you pulling my leg?” she said suspiciously.
He laughed, “Much as that would be a great prank, no.”
“Then why are you so willing to tell me all this?”
He shook his head. “As I said, it’s not a secret. Right now, only researchers and guards are allowed to visit the other world. But in a month, when the embassy is open, others will be allowed to visit as well.” He grinned at her. “To set up trade and other things.” He paused a moment.
“The Princesses know that there’s no way to keep a secret like this for very long, so they aren’t even trying. In fact, that seems to be working better than trying to keep it a secret.” He laughed again. “Ponies hear strange stories coming out of Ponyville all the time; they just put this one down as another tall tale. If we tried to keep it a secret, well, everypony would want to know what the secret is.” He stomped his front hooves. “I imagine a reporter will get here soon enough, then everypony will flock to take a look. That won’t be fun.” He took a deep breath. “In the meantime, though, it’s really boring, so having someone to talk to is a nice way to pass the day.”
They spent another half-hour talking. He showed her how they had learned to walk on their lower legs by putting their hocks to the ground, and how that had felt as compared to actually having feet to walk on. He explained that they had two barracks, a hotel, and an administrative building finished up the path, preparing for when things were more active.
“You know, if you don’t have a job yet, you could apply for one here,” he said. “It’s a really nice working here. Everypony is really focused. But you have to be comfortable with working with non-ponies. And willing to go through the portal and learn about the humans.”
She nodded, clearly thinking it over.
That led to a discussion of the humans’ obsession with wearing clothes, and other topics about the other side of the portal. Eventually, she asked what they used for bits, he had said, “I’m not too clear on that, as Princess Sparkle and the Element Bearers took care of all that. I did hear, though, that they traded gems, both magic bearing and not, to the humans and wizards. Apparently they’re far rarer there than here.”
Finally, she thanked him profusely for entertaining her for the morning, and giving her so much to think about. “And I’ll consider applying for one of those jobs you mentioned,” she said as she turned and trotted off back to town.
As she did so, he noticed her cutie mark was a four-point star with a very long blue and green swirl above it. He decided she had nice flanks. He wondered if he would see her in town tomorrow, his day off.
Once she was out of sight, he turned and went inside to the guards’ office. While a nice conversation, he now had to log their conversation, leave a synopsis of what they had talked about, and note down her cutie mark for the official record. It was the security part of the job he liked the least, but it was necessary. They did have to worry about changelings, after all. That would become a nightmare once the crowds started to come over.
He stopped a moment and thought. It was odd that she hadn’t offered her name. Most mares did. Nor tried to find out if he was single or looking.
۸- ̰ -۸