//------------------------------//
// 64 — Letting Loose 
// Story: If Wishes were Ponies . . . . 
// by tkepner 
//------------------------------//

Harry was amazed at the items he saw in the fix-it shop. There were self-stirring cauldrons; plain and fancy brass scales; bins of unbreakable vials; telescopes of varying complexity; wizard radios; large and old-fashioned-looking record-players; newer, fancy, small record-players; and a score of other items. And all of them were at what looked like reasonable prices! He was surprised that the Weasley family hadn’t done some of their supply shopping here.

Ron, he noticed, was staring at a wizarding radio with a calculating look. Just one of his two sickles would be more than enough for such an item, but he clearly wasn’t sure if he wanted to spend his financial boon on such an item. On the other hand, he obviously wouldn’t be spending any of it on clothes or books!

The reason he had two sickles was that Harry hadn’t needed his, he had stacks of galleons in his trunk, as did the fillies. They had decided that giving Ron, Ginny, and the twins their sickles from the Great Hall made far more sense than keeping the coins for themselves. The twins had been easily convinced that this wasn’t charity when Scootaloo said, “We’re nowhere as good as you two at pranking, so consider this as our way of participating.” Unspoken was the thought that if they provided the twins some funds, maybe the twins wouldn’t be as likely to prank them. Ginny and Ron had been harder to persuade, but threatening to give the extra sickles to the twins had changed their minds — they would take the sickles, if only to deprive their siblings of the money to buy even more pranking supplies. Of which Ron knew he would be the target.

He wandered over to join Ron, who gave him a quick look. “You know,” Harry said “it might be nice to have a radio in our dorm room this winter.” Ron had looked at him sharply. “Might make it easier to study,” he had nonchalantly added, “how about we go halfsies on it?” He had shrugged, “I mean, that way we could all enjoy it. Of course, I wouldn’t want to take it home because it won’t work there, so you might as well, right, to keep it safe? And no one could say you’re a spendthrift.”

Ron had slowly nodded, and turned to examine the radios a bit more carefully.

The red-head was just putting their radio, now shrunken, in his pocket when Dean said, “Hey, what’s that?” and pointed outside, up into the air.

The others all made their way to the front of the shop to Dean and looked up at the distinctly pinkish tinge the sky had acquired. The fillies gasped. They recognized that particular hue. The fillies exchange looks.

Sweetie Belle said, “Shining Armor?”

“I’d think so, but he ain’t here . . . is he?” said Apple Bloom.

“Well, Twilight might have gotten him to come with today,” Harry suggested.

They heard Professor McGonagall’s voice very loudly proclaim, “ALL PREFECTS REPORT IN AT THE POST OFFICE!”

“Come on, something’s up!” Scootaloo said and ran for the shop door, followed by the rest. As soon as Scootaloo hit the outside, she was off like a shot, flying to see what it was all about.

There was a huge crowd when they got to the Post Office, which they had expected. Scootaloo and Ginny were hovering over near where Professor McGonagall was talking to someone they couldn’t see. Harry and the other two fillies followed in Percy’s footsteps as he forged a path through the students gathered there, saying, “Make way! I’m a Prefect!” What they didn’t expect to see was that Shining Armor was really there, standing beside Professor McGonagall, as his pony self!

Before they could say anything, though, Professor McGonagall said, “All Prefects, we need an immediate headcount! Make sure that all students are here in Hogsmeade!”

Harry and the fillies exchanged worried looks. Something had clearly gone wrong in the Chamber of Secrets! He hoped Twilight was okay, and the other mares.

Using storefronts and nearby buildings as meeting points, the next few minutes were bedlam as the students gathered into their Houses, and then separated into their years. Scootaloo and Ginny reluctantly transformed back to people, at Percy’s insistence.

“But what about the floo-connections?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Couldn’t someone have used them to go somewhere else?” Harry and the other close Gryffindor Firsties just shrugged. However, Percy happened to overhear them. He said, “The shopkeepers and home-owners are keeping a sharp eye on who is using the floo’s. The Headmaster had the house-elves warn the villagers this morning while we were still at breakfast. Students were not to have access to them for any reason. And each one has a house-elf hiding and watching it to thwart any sneaky attempts.”

And then he explained what house-elves were to all Gryffindors who didn’t know about them. Hermione, Harry, and the fillies were not happy to learn of the slavery in which the creatures were held. Harry expected words to be said by Twilight when she learned of it.

To help search the village for stragglers, Professor McGonagall called in the assistance of the house-elves. Their abrupt appearance startled many of the muggle-born and half-blood students. It took only fifteen minutes to verify that all the Hogwarts’ students were present and accounted for.

Professor Quirrell scowled fiercely, his instructions curt, and his stuttering was oddly under control. He may have looked like a joke in the classroom, but out here he was decisively in control and direct. No meandering sentences, just short curt orders issued in a no-nonsense, you-will-not-disobey, tone.

Fortunately, it was still early enough that none of the students had started to explore the farther reaches of the quaint little village. Which would have put them outside the shield Prince Shining Armor had erected.

By the time the counting was done, word had spread that the Chamber of Secrets had been found, that there had been a monster in the Chamber, that the monster had somehow escaped the Headmaster, and that it was now suspected to be in the Forbidden Forest. Hence the transparent pink dome over the village.

While that had been going on, the professors had been gathered and brought up to date. Harry noticed that Professor Quirrell now seemed to vacillate between being angry, frightened, upset, and frustrated! He was most certainly frustrated when he discovered that the shield put up by Prince Shining Armor prevented anyone from physically entering or leaving the village. Or apparating — some of the older students did have their licenses already, after all.

With that bit of excitement settled, the students scattered once more and returned to deciding how they were going to spend their remaining bounty of knuts. And gossiping and speculating about what was going on and why the wizard called Shining Armor was putting up the shield as a unicorn animagus instead of using his wand.


۸- ̰ -۸


Dumbledore found himself carefully studying the animagus ahead of them as she ran down the tunnel. Princess Luna was ably demonstrating that he had drastically under-estimated the Atlanteans.

The battle in the Chamber had been enormously illuminating. The ponies had physically attacked the basilisk instead of using magic. When those tactics had proved ineffective, the Princesses had hit the basilisk with powerful fire-beams as they hovered in mid-air.

Unlike fiendfyre, which required great skill to keep it from attacking its caster and staying on target, or incendio, which was a rather weak flame, those beams had been intense, powerful, and easily manipulated. The snake’s inherent magic-resistance had rendered the fire-beams ineffective, naturally, but, then, neither were wizards’ spells very effective against such an armoured beast.

It would have taken several dozen experts to kill the creature using their normal spells. And there would have been many injuries, or even deaths. The beast’s only weak spot was its mouth, and the snake would have quickly learned to keep its mouth closed except at the very last second of an attack.

And the pink pony had used Princess Twilight as an instrument of magic — that had shocked him to his core. He had never heard of such a thing in all his research into magic. It shouldn’t be possible to use another wizard or witch as a magical weapon! But he had seen it. Perhaps it was that their wand was their horn that allowed such a thing?

That none of the Atlanteans had tried magic first, except for Prince Armor’s shield spell, was distressing. It implied that magic was so common that physically attacking was considered the most effective first option. That was a concept few wizards could even begin to comprehend. Wizards relied heavily on their wands and magic, and almost never resorted to physical violence.

Any wizard facing an Atlantean in a duel would learn a hard lesson that magic wouldn’t always win a fight. Using your wand to defend yourself from a magical attack left you open to physical attacks. Not to mention that a flying attack from Dash, or any of the pegasi, would flatten a wizard before he could even think of a spell, much less pull a wand out of his pocket.

Moreover, the sheer power in those fire-beams would have burst through the average wizard’s shield spell in a few moments. And finally, using their horns meant that you could never summon their main weapon in a duel, but they could summon yours if you were even distracted for the tiniest moment.

It was a wonder that the Atlanteans didn’t spend all their time as their pony animagi! And they were almost irresistibly cute in that form, as well, which would trick any wizard or witch into drastically under-estimating their opponent until it was far too late.

Apparition during a duel was difficult. You had to stop whatever you were doing and perform the wand movement while devoting all your attention to the spell, or risk splinching. Teleporting, as practiced by the Atlanteans didn’t have that delay, meaning as soon as you thought of it, you were moved — no wand movements at all, no transitioning from one movement to the next. And Twilight had just gone through a series of teleports that would have taxed all but the strongest wizards, not to mention performing them in mid-air-to-the-ground and back, something wizards considered nearly impossible to master, never mind being extremely dangerous. And he knew of none in history who had mastered that skill! Even Voldemort only apparated while his feet were on the ground.

And now he had just seen Princess Luna shrink herself, and her passenger house-elf, Minnie, to a smaller size in order to fit into the snake’s tunnel that led from its lair, the tunnel being just over three-quarters as tall as she was. And she had done it while levitating three ponies and three wizards in her wake. That, again, indicated a tremendous amount of power as well as very fine control of magic. An impossible feat for a wizard as you could only do one spell at a time with a wand.

It had been a very long time since anyone had used magic to pick up and carry Dumbledore, and he found the experience to be quite odd. A feeling he was sure he shared with the other professors. That the one that still carried them was carrying a total of six beings, seemingly effortlessly, and while running through a stone-arch tunnel was astonishing.

That she did so without once having them touch the walls, nor ever looking back to check on them, was even more so. Especially considering the way the tunnel twisted side-to-side instead of being a straight line.

No wonder the others had made her one of their rulers! Or had she simply seized power and no one was strong enough to depose her? But she ruled with her sister, according to what Rarity had said, so maybe the two of them were unbeatable? But then why would they allow a potential competitor to arise, as Princess Sparkle appeared? Sure, she wasn’t as powerful as them at this point in time, but eventually she would be able to match them. And Rarity had mentioned another Princess in another kingdom, didn’t they worry that she and Princess Sparkle might join forces against them?

They were certainly going through the tunnel much faster than they could have if they had tried to follow the basilisk on foot. The low ceiling would have put the wizards in a half-crouch, an awkward position in which to try to hurry. And the gravel underfoot would have made their running all that more treacherous.

Luna was lighting the tunnel before them with her horn, giving them some light to see ahead.

He had no doubt that if this tunnel was long enough, they would catch the snake. Although what they would do then was questionable. The low-ceilinged tunnel didn’t provide much in the way of manoeuvring room, did it now?

And then there was her attitude. She seemed to be enjoying herself. She had clearly hoped that the basilisk would put up a fight. And she had not been slow to start once the decision had been made by the basilisk. Her delight at being the first to draw blood was troubling, but she plainly took no pleasure in causing pain. It was only in the execution of her strategies.

That she had turned to the other princess for instructions when she clearly was the more experienced leader had surprised him greatly. Especially because Princess Sparkle obviously considered the other to be her superior. And had appeared just a surprised as himself.

That Princess Luna was using this incident as a teaching moment was evident, now that he considered things. But why? Did they not consider her and this other alicorn a threat? The Atlanteans had implied that their ruling Princesses were immortal, or, at the least, extremely long-lived. Did that mean Princess Sparkle was equally long-lived? Harry had said she only recently became a princess, so maybe not? Maybe they didn’t consider her a threat because she wasn’t immortal?

He shook his head. He had to concentrate on what they were doing now. A distraction now, no matter how intriguing, could get one of them grievously injured or killed.

He saw that the tunnel in front of them seemed clearer than before. They must be approaching the exit, he decided. He could see that the tunnel had a gentle slope upwards, now.

Princess Luna slowed to a walk and gently set them all on the tunnel floor.

“We shall check the exit for a trap,” she whispered, carefully moving forward. Rarity moved up to her flank, sword ready. Dumbledore could see the faint shimmer of a shield in front of the two Atlanteans.

Pinkie Pie popped her head into the tunnel from the opening ahead, “Come on, you slowpokes,” she said in a stage whisper. “The snake’s gonna get away if you don’t hurry.” She giggled disturbingly.

He heard Filius gasp from slightly behind him. “How did she get out of here without us seeing her!” demanded the Charms Professor. “She was right here a moment ago!”

Before he could say anything, the three ponies in front of them broke into a run and burst out of the tunnel. They followed as fast as they could manage.

The four ponies were gathered to one side of the exit.

Dumbledore took a look around. The surrounding trees made it impossible to determine precisely where they were. Behind him, when he looked, was a small outcropping of rocks liberally decorated with grass and bushes. The bushes that had once hidden the tunnel entrance from view were smashed flat.

“Prithee thee, wait here while I scout from above,” said the dark-purple pony, now her normal size.

“Wait,” said the Headmaster. He held up his wand balanced on his finger and concentrated. He cast the owl-mail spell with the basilisk as the addressee. His wand spun, then stopped. “The basilisk is that way,” he pointed in the direction indicated by his wand.

Princess Luna launched herself into the air and started flying after the King of Snakes. Once more they were all in the grip of magic as she dragged them behind her. Dumbledore found himself brought up to beside her so she could keep an eye on his wand.

It was a short flight, but it was long enough to show the Headmaster where they were. They were a mile, maybe a mile-and-a-half, from the castle, due east, and on the opposite side of the lake from the village. The students and residents of Hogsmeade were safe, for the moment.

For some reason, the snake was headed back towards the school. There seemed to be a large grey area in-between them — a collection of dead trees. He would have to have Hagrid check that out later to make sure there wasn’t a problem.

Half-way to the grey area, Dumbledore’s wand suddenly pointed down.

“HUZZAH!” cried the Princess, letting loose another blast of magic and playing it back and forth for a moment directly below them. Dumbledore felt her magic holding him vibrate while she did that. Was she casting multiple magics simultaneously? Or just switching between them at a high rate of speed? Either was an accomplishment he had never heard of a wizard achieving.

The trees were rapidly reduced to smoke and ash, and left a portion of the snake exposed. The snake quickly disappeared into the trees.

She coasted down to the clearing she had created and released everyone. She glanced over her shoulder at the house-elf. “Tell Twilight and Rainbow Dash where we are.” Minnie popped away immediately. Just as Princess Luna turned back to them, Twilight appeared at above her, coasting with both house-elves on her back. Minnie again popped away. The wait was a bit longer, but Dash came zooming in from the north with both house-elves. Twilight and Dash quickly landed.

“Twilight and I shall retrieve the basilisk,” Princess Luna said. She grinned gleefully. “Now that we’re in the open and away from the school, I don’t have to hold back!” She danced merrily on her hooves, then launched herself after the snake at a full gallop, Minnie clinging to her mane, terrified. Twilight followed in the other Princess’ wake. Squeaker clung to her mane, looking no less scared than the other house-elf.

Dumbledore and the three professors looked at each other before hurrying down the trail left by the snake. Applejack and Rarity trotted with them as Dash soared up into the sky to watch from overhead. Pinkie Pie pronked along beside them, drawing amazed looks that she ignored. She was softly singing. The only words Dumbledore made out were, “smoke on the water, the fire in the sky.” He shook his head and concentrated on not tripping over the broken debris left by the snake.

Ahead of them, they heard repeated rapid explosions. Flashes of light filtered through the trees. Dumbledore could see smoke overhead through the tree canopy. He could feel the ground shaking under his feet. Pinkie Pie, he saw, was now wearing a camouflaged helmet and vest, all in pink, with, of all things, a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth. And was that a three-day-old dark beard on her muzzle? Did ponies have beards? Did mares have beards? Had he breathed in something in the Chamber and was now hallucinating?

The explosions and flashes continued. There was a blast of light. They all ducked their heads to the side and winced, closing their eyes. There were a more explosions and flashes of light. Another burst of brilliant light. This one didn’t immediately fade. It was sustained for several seconds before dying out. Then silence.

The wizards exchanged worried looks. The ponies exchanged triumphant looks. Moments later, Rainbow Dash came flying up behind them, Mousey still clinging doggedly to her mane. Mousey looked stunned at what she had seen.

“Luna got ’im!” she declared. “It was incredible!” She hovered upright. “You shoulda seen it! Luna went BOOM!” Dash struck out with hoof, as if she were boxing. “The snake hissed and tried to run, but Luna wouldn’t let ’im. BAM! Luna hit ’em again!” She struck out with the other hoof. “He dodged to the side,” she hovered to her left. “But Twilight was ready and blew a crater where he was headed. Then he turned the other way, but Luna blocked ’im with another explosion — BOOM!” Dash continued to give them an explosion by explosion summary of the battle for almost a full minute. “Then Luna burned a big circle around the snake so he couldn’t escape — PHOOSH!” She threw both hooves up in the air. “He tried to leap up at Twilight, but she dodged and gave him a face-full of whompin’! Then Luna grabbed ’im in her magic and squashed ’im right down!” She looked at them grinning as proudly as if she had done it herself. “They’ll be here in a moment.” Mousey nodded dazedly.

Almost on cue, after a brief wait, the two ponies came trotting back down the snake’s trail. Princess Sparkle looked tired, but Princess Luna looked exhilarated. Between and above Luna’s folded wings was a sphere of energy not quite as big as Rainbow, and almost thick enough to be opaque. Inside it could barely be seen the form of a coiled snake, obviously hissing wildly, furious at its containment. Minnie was so tightly pressed against the Princess’ neck to avoid touching the sphere that she almost disappeared into Luna’s mane. Squeaker, still on Twilight’s back, had the same stunned look that Mousey displayed.

“We haven’t had such fun in ages!” Princess Luna declared. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She turned to the Headmaster and stared at him intently. “Perchance, dost thou have any other monsters with which We might joust?” she asked hopefully.

Dumbledore stared at the trapped basilisk. He had expected it to be dead. He cleared his throat. “Not that I am aware of, your Majesty.” And tried to imagine how much magic it took to overcome the basilisk’s natural magical resistance to make it possible to use a shrinking spell on the beast.

“Oh,” she said, clearly disappointed and her cheer deflating a bit.

“What will you do with the basilisk?” he asked carefully.

Princess Luna shrugged dismissively. “Place it in Tartarus with the other dangerous monsters. In a nice, large, cool chamber inside a much larger ice cave it cannot cross, so it won’t be inclined to mischief. Fear not, he shall be well cared-for,” she said, nodding.

He slowly nodded. “I see.”

The Ministry would have quickly killed it and harvested its corpse for the valuable materials it contained. A basilisk of its size had never been seen before, and the profit from its venom alone would make a wizard rich. Never mind what hit-wizards would pay for the hide!

He looked at the Professors, all of whom were inspecting the snake’s enclosure closely. “Then,” he said, “we should probably head back to Hogwarts.” He turned to the Atlanteans. “Do you wish to stay in your animagi forms?”

The six ponies exchanged glances, then, one by one they returned to normal, their house-elves dropping down beside them. Except Rainbow Dash. She said, “I’ll, uh, go tell Fluttershy we found the basilisk and everything’s okay.”

She shot up through the trees’ canopy before anyone could point out that they could easily send one of the house-elves. And carried Mousey off with her.

“I swear” Rarity said, shaking her head, “if she could figure out how to fly while sleeping she would never stop flying!”

“It would appear to be so,” said Dumbledore, looking up disbelievingly at the fading rainbow streak the blue-coloured pegasus had left in her wake. He shook his head slightly, then looked down at the ground. Bending over he picked up a broken branch. The ponies watched him curiously. He smiled and lightly tapped the wood with his wand. The stick glowed briefly.

“Now, if everyone would place a finger on this, it’ll take us straight back to my office.” They crowded close and each followed the instructions, even the house-elves.

Except for Princess Luna, all the Atlanteans ended up in a pile on the floor. “What was that!?” demanded Miss Applejack. The rest muttered incoherently. Both Miss Rarity and Miss Applejack were holding their stomachs and looked a bit green. “Can we do it again?” said Pinkie Pie, giggling and staggering a bit as she stood.

Princess Luna was restraining a laugh.

“Ah.” Dumbledore said, eye twinkling kindly. “I thought you knew of portkeys.” He held out a hand and helped Princess Sparkle back to her feet. “There is a trick to them when landing. As you see the ground approaching, start walking and you will be fine. Otherwise you will end up tripping as the spell stops and you keep moving forward. Plus, your first time can be quite disorienting, as you have discovered.”

He tossed the stick into his fireplace. Princess Sparkle hopped excitedly, and a bit unsteadily, from foot to foot, “Could you do that again?”

He looked at her, mildly surprised. “Make a port-key?”

She nodded eagerly as her friends regained their feet behind her.

Smiling, he picked up a small paper. “I must tell you first, however, that making portkeys is strictly regulated by the Ministry. However, as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, I am empowered to make them as long as I restrict myself to Hogwarts, or in cases of dire emergency. There are special charms, however, in effect around every country to redirect international portkeys to specific controlled locations in those countries. And redirected portkeys can be extremely unpleasant.”

The Atlanteans exchanged looks and shuddered.

“There are several variations to the Portkey charm,” Albus lectured. “You can set it to activate at a specific time. You can make it activate when touched. You can make it activate only to a specific person. You can make it respond to a verbal command. And, you can combine these.”

Princess Sparkle nodded eagerly, and Princess Luna watched curiously.

“In operation, it is quite similar to apparition. First, you determine the destination — and it has to be somewhere you are familiar with — and then decide which activation triggers you want. Then, keeping all that in mind, you tap an object with your wand and say, portus.” He illustrated by tapping his wand on a blank sheet of paper on his desk.

He handed the sheet to Princess Sparkle. “This will take you directly to the Hogwarts front gates and then back here when you say ‘front gates’ and ‘office,’ respectively. It will work only once for each of those. And only for you.”

She took the paper gingerly, staring at it, her lips moving as she ‘read’ the charm.

“You may use that to go to Hogsmeade and retrieve your companions.” He smiled again as she looked up at him. “If you could be so kind as to return with Professor McGonagall, I would appreciate it.”

He turned to Princess Luna. “I would suggest you go with her to Hogsmeade so you can teleport home with your prize.” He looked up at the sphere hovering over her left shoulder. “I am not sure that you wouldn’t lose it if you tried to take it through the floo.”

She nodded as she looked at the sphere thoughtfully.


۸- ̬ -۸