//------------------------------//
// 70 — Disclosure 
// Story: If Wishes were Ponies . . . . 
// by tkepner 
//------------------------------//

Steady Charger was surprised to recognize the unicorn mare slowly coming up the road towards the Portal Check-in building. It was the same mare from this morning. He hadn’t expected her until tomorrow at the earliest, if ever. She must be desperate for a job.

“Back again?” he asked as soon as she was close enough for conversation.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I’ve been thinking, and I talked to a few ponies in town.” She paused a moment and took a breath. “I think I want to apply for a job, here. Who do I need to see?”

He smiled back at her. “I’ll take you right to her. But first,” he pointed his horn in her direction and a spark jumped between them. Nothing more happened. Charger nodded, “Sorry about that, but we have to check.”

She sighed. “Yes, I know, I’ve been checked a dozen times in the last few days.”

He grinned at her. He took one long look around his post, and then said, “Follow me.” He turned and opened a door beside the gate. She followed him inside the building and down a short corridor past a closed door to a large room. The large room was set up for a long queue, with a row of unoccupied counters separating the front of the room from the back, which had an open door that led to the path to the portal

“Hey Sarge,” he called out as he headed for a room to one side of the larger room they were in. “We have somepony interested in working here.”

He led her into the room, “Sergeant, this is . . . ,” he stopped and looked at her.

She stood straight and said, “Bright Star.”

“Bright Star,” he repeated, nodding. “She’s the one I told you about who stopped by this morning.”

The mare behind the desk nodded, “Please take a seat, Miss Bright Star.”

Almost as an after-thought, a spark flew between the two Guards. The sergeant nodded. A spark flew from Steady Charger to the sergeant. They both nodded. Steady backed out of the room, and returned to his post outside.

“I’m Sergeant Rapid Dash,” she said as Bright Star sat in the chair across from her desk. “Why do you want to work here?”

The unicorn looked at her blankly for a moment, then said, “I just came to Ponyville and I need a job. It sounds like you might have a lot of openings.” She shrugged. “And it sounds more interesting here than a job in town.”

The Sergeant nodded. “We only have low-level jobs at the moment. Clerks, maids, kitchen help, janitorial, that sort of thing. We have a lot of researchers and teachers from Canterlot here, and they need looking after. Later, as the embassy becomes functional, there will be other openings. Still interested?”

She nodded firmly.

“As part of any job, here, you will be required to meet true aliens, and go through the portal itself for training in how to interact with those aliens. Going through the portal will change your form to match that of the aliens, although with practice you will be able to revert to your normal form while over there.

“Did Corporal Steady Charger show you what the aliens look like?”

“He showed me an illusion of one of his squad mates as a . . . human?”

Rapid Dash nodded. “Good, so you have an idea of what they look like. Still interested?”

She nodded firmly.

“Your cutie mark?”

She stood and showed off her cutie mark, a four-point star with a very long blue and green swirl above it.

“What does it mean?”

She shrugged. “I’m good with spells, especially modifying them.”

The sergeant sat back. “Did you attend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?”

“No,” she said, sighing. “I grew up in a small village near the Smokey Mountains. Getting to Canterlot wasn’t easy for us. And if I had been accepted, I’d have to move there alone as my parents couldn’t leave their jobs — seniority and all that. Plus, mom and dad didn’t want me to go away during what mom called ‘the best years of growing up.’ She wanted to be there for all my ‘firsts’ as she called them. So I made do with the local library, which didn’t really have much. I sorta had to improvise a lot with my magic. It was while doing that one day that I got my cutie mark.”

She gave the sergeant a half-smile. “My parents were so proud.”

Rapid Dash nodded in understanding, returning her smile.

“Well, I think we can put you in the spell research division as an assistant worker. Which means you keep things neat and clean for the researchers, and provide any help they might need. If your spell-skills are as good as you think, the researchers will rapidly discover them and you can get promoted. And if you want to transfer to the Embassy later, you can do that. How’s that sound for a start?”

Bright Star smiled broadly. “It sounds wonderful!”

“Okay. Now, the Princesses are very intent on working with these aliens. There are a lot of things they can teach us in areas we never thought to look at. There are two main tribes that we know of. The non-magical and the magical tribes. Both have numerous items and artefacts that will revolutionize our world. For example, did Corporal Steady Charger mention telephones to you?”

She nodded, “Yes, he did. He said they make it possible to instantly communicate from here to Canterlot.”

“That’s correct,” Rapid Dash said. “Every day, I use the telephone to report to Canterlot everything that has happened here, so they are never left in the dark as to our current status.” She glanced out the office door. “That is rapidly expanding to include every city, town, and village in Equestria. The plan is that every business and home in Equestria will have one of those. Those are from the non-magical tribe.” She shook her head, still amazed at the idea.

“And then there is the floo-network that the magical tribe uses.” She smiled at Star’s confusion.

“The floo-network is a magic that you use on fire-places that lets anypony instantly travel from one location to another.” She nodded at Star’s shocked expression.

“No longer is instant travel just for powerful unicorns. If two places have their fireplaces on the floo-network, then travel between them is available to anyone, It’s so simple, even fillies and colts can do it.” She paused, then continued. “That means I can walk into the communications room here, right now, and a minute later walk out of the Guards’ Facility in Manehattan or Canterlot.”

She grinned at Bright Star’s awed expression. “I’m sure you can see how that would revolutionize travel once it is completely set up, especially for the Guard to respond to disasters or attacks. Not to mention commerce and post.”

“And those are just two of the things we’ve had come out of this portal. There are many others that are being explored. And the magical tribe has magic sticks that let anypony cast magic, not just unicorns.” Bright Star’s mouth dropped open and she stared at the Sargeant. “So, you can see why the Princesses think it is so important to establish a good relationship with the aliens, both human tribes.”

The sergeant opened a drawer and pulled out some papers, as Bright Star just gaped at her. “You’ll need to fill these out. Just bring them with you tomorrow morning and I’ll send you through orientation — that’ll take about a week.”

Bright Star shook her head, obviously clearing her thoughts and trying to get back on track with her purpose here. “May I fill them out here?” she said after a moment, “That way, if I have any questions, you can answer them.”

Rapid Dash shrugged. “Suit yourself. Just pick a desk out front.”

“Thank you,” Bright Star said, nodding politely and picking up the papers in her magic as she headed into the larger room. She stopped at the nearest desk and checked the top drawer. It had the ink and quill she needed. She settled down and started filling out the paperwork.


۸- ̫ -۸


Harry and the other Gryffindors were starting to get bored, and tired. They had been to all the shops, and had managed to spend the last of their allowance — some a bit sooner than others. As promised, the twins had taken the group back to Honeydukes and Zonkos to spend the last of their knuts, those that had some left. But, after leaving those, well, it had been an exciting and long day.

They had tried to go back to the Three Broomsticks, but they weren’t the only ones with that idea, and it had been too packed for them to get inside. Instead, they had decided to head back to the turn-off for the Shrieking Shack and settle down there in the trees’ shade.

Which is where Rainbow Dash found them as she came diving down out of the sky. She stopped and hovered over the group, who were taking turns petting and being petted as ponies.

Scootaloo had immediately bounced up to join her, excitedly asking, “Well? What happened? I bet you were awesome!”

Dash was more than happy to reprise the battle to them, both in the Chamber and in the forest, which kept them enthralled for the next half-hour. By the time she had finished, the group had grown to include students from the other Houses, and years.

She concluded by saying, “Oh, yeah,” and looking a bit sheepish. “I almost forgot. The Headmaster said that the gates to Hogwarts are now open and for everyone to start heading back. Dinner will be at the usual time, he said, about half-an hour from now, I think.”

Several of the other students laughed, and one said, “We know, the Prefects have been telling everyone to finish what they’re doing and head back.”

Another said, “We just stopped to listen to your description of what happened.”

“Was it really the Chamber of Secrets?” asked one suspiciously.

“And was it really a basilisk?” asked a fourth.

Dash rubbed the back of her head with one hoof. “Yes, to both of those — I’m not exaggerating, that thing was huge! But the Headmaster said he’d be letting the students take a look at the Chamber as soon as he and the professors check it out, so maybe next weekend?”

That got a cheer from the students.

The group began to drift towards the gates.

“Hay, Scoots,” Rainbow Dash said, “Do ya think you can set up a quidditch game between the pegasi and one of the House teams?”

Scootaloo gave her a big grin. “I’m sure we can work out something. Right, George, Fred?”

Harry sighed. Keeping Dash out of the game would probably require tying her to the stadium seats.

The line at the Hogwarts’ Gates was a bit unusual, according to the older students. Usually it was Mr. Filch at the gate and carefully scanning returning students looking for contrabrand. This time there were three professors there greeting the students and assisting Mr. Filch. Of course, this time the number of students present was nearly a quarter more than usual. And most of the students were returning at the same time instead of being straggled out over the late afternoon.

The Gryffindor cohort managed to make it through the line without anyone losing anything they had purchased, to both Percy’s and Professor McGonagall’s relief. Other Years, and Houses, were not so fortunate. The pile wasn’t very big, but there was a pile.

Oddly enough, though, Harry noticed that the twins were carrying a good deal less than what he knew they had purchased. He wondered what they had done with the rest. Had they stashed it somewhere and planned to pick it up later? But how? Anytime someone left the school, Mr. Filch was always waiting at the gates to confiscate forbidden items.

Harry and Scootaloo had to bring out their trunks. Professor McGonagall had wanted to take a quick look to make sure they hadn’t hidden anything in them that would have been shielded from outside spells. Which Harry could understand perfectly.

Harry and the fillies were over-joyed to see Twilight and their sisters at the gate waiting for them. Twilight and Rarity were a bit distracted though, Harry saw. Almost immediately, he realized they were helping the professors scan the students, so the line went very rapidly.

Dinner had started right on time. Being able to talk with Twilight at dinner had been the highlight of the day as far as he was concerned. And from their smiles, the three fillies had felt the same way about seeing their sisters, counting Dash as Scootaloo’s.

During dinner, Harry saw that more than a few witches stared at Twilight’s brother and licked their lips. He wasn’t sure why, but it made him feel a bit worried for Shining Armor. Shiny didn’t even notice as he talked with some of the other Gryffindors about his home in the Crystal Empire.

Fluttershy mostly hid behind her long hair and huddled between Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo on one side and Applejack and Apple Bloom on the other. Rarity, naturally, sat across from Fluttershy with Sweetie Belle on one side and Harry on the other with Twilight and Shiny beside him.

Pinkie Pie? She seemed to be sitting at four different tables as she darted around the room at her normal hyper-speed, dispensing cupcakes, muffins, and cookies from the apparently bottomless supply in her hair.

When the desserts started appearing on the tables, Dumbledore started tapping on his Goblet as he stood at his place at the Head Table. Once silence had settled on the Hall, he said, “Just a few announcements to make, and then you may return to your repast.

“I trust you all had a good day today in Hogsmeade?” He calmly waited out their enthusiastic response, smiling all the while. If he was disappointed that the Equestrians were not sitting at his table, he hid it well.

“Excellent! I am glad to hear from the professors that there were few, if any problems, and that the shopkeepers and other citizens of the village were quite pleased with you all. I know it was difficult because of all the long lines, today, so thank you all for your patience.

“Next, the professors and I will be exploring Salazar Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets over the next few weeks, so you might find it more challenging at times to reach us outside of your classrooms. As soon as we determine it is safe, we will begin conducting tours of the Chamber, starting with the upper years first.”

There was a mix of applause and dismayed groans from the students.

“It seems that there was a monster in the Chamber. However, it has been dealt with and is no longer a danger to the school or anyone in it.”

The uproar over that was a bit louder.

“I wish to thank our guests,” he had nodded at the Equestrians seated at the Gryffindor table, “For their kind and competent assistance in resolving this matter. We are very fortunate that Princess Sparkle came visiting yesterday and that her friends came to visit their relatives today. It made exploring the Chamber much simpler and safer.”

He started politely applauding them, and coaxed the entire Hall into joining him.

“And finally, to make up for the lost day, classes for Tuesday through Friday this week will now take place on Wednesday through Saturday.”

A wave of unhappy complaining swept the hall.

Dumbledore raised his arms and “patted” the air to bring to noise level down.

“I know, I know,” he said, “it takes away a day of rest. However,” he continued, his eyes sparkling, “I think it is a fair trade; one day in Hogsmeade in place of an ordinary Saturday stuck at boring old Hogwarts, don’t you?”

Despite the grumbling, Harry had to agree with that assessment.

Then Dumbledore sat back down and they returned to finishing off their desserts.

Harry noticed, now that he looked, that the professors who had accompanied them to Hogsmeade all looked tired, while Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Flitwick looked both tired and relieved. Professor Quirrell, on the other hand, looked disgruntled and unhappy.

Harry could sympathize with him a bit. The wizard had suddenly fallen in the street while they were in Hogsmeade. He had said, to those that had hurried to help him get back up, that he thought someone had hit him with a tripping jinx. And he had glowered at every student in sight. Fortunately, that had not included any of the Gryffindor cohort, they had been in Honeydukes at the time. Harry thought Quirrell might have also hit his head, because for the rest of the afternoon, every time Harry had caught sight of him, he had been reaching up to touch his head and turban and looking quite pale.

The Quidditch match after dinner, this time with the Ravenclaws, went about as expected. While the pegasi still won, at least the score wasn’t as terribly lopsided as previous games. The Ravenclaws were adapting to the faster ponies. That that would bleed into the games against the other houses was clear to everyone. The ponies were, unintentionally, improving their opponents’ reflexes. The regular quidditch matches might not be as skewed in the Gryffindor’s favour as they had thought.

Twilight and Rarity managed to keep Rainbow Dash from leaving her seat in the stands, but only just barely. Harry knew she would be reporting to the pegasi at home just how the “experienced” quidditch players had adapted their tactics to being pegasi.

And watching as Ron set up his new wizarding radio and listening to the broadcast after curfew was a great way to end the day. Especially as they had completed the assignments due tomorrow yesterday.

All-in-all, he would rate today as quite satisfactory. Not only had they had fun, seen and heard interesting things, and not had to think about classes or assignments, there hadn’t been any sap involved! If he wasn’t so tired, he would dance on his hooves. Instead, he fell asleep.


۸- ̬ -۸


It was late in the evening when Castor entered the meeting room at Number Ten Downing. Sir Walker had briefed him just after dinner-time about what had happened during the day while he was escorting the two Equestrians at first at Beretta Gallery and then back to Little Whinging. And told him of the meeting scheduled later that evening with the Prime Minister and the head of M.I. Six, Sir McColl.

Sir Walker was behind him, having arrived by a different car. Sir McColl came through the door only a minute behind them, as did, surprisingly, Field Marshal Sir Chapple.

The head of MI Five handed all three a set of folders, identical to the ones the two of them had — pictures of the day’s intelligence.

What Searle found really surprising, though, was to see Ambassador Blueblood follow John Major into the room not long after the rest had sat down.

They each closed their folder without undue haste, and tried to make it look as if they were doing so in deference to the Prime Minister coming in. Castor wasn’t sure if the Ambassador bought that.

“Welcome. Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Major started as he sat down.

After a moment’s hesitation, Sir McColl shifted over one seat to allow Blueblood to sit beside the Prime Minister.

“In light of the events of the day, I find that I have to take you all into my confidence.” The other three officials watched the Prime Minister closely. 

Castor softly sighed. 

“That this is a state secret of the highest order I cannot stress enough,” the Prime Minister continued. He studied them all carefully. “You will notice,” he said, “that there are no paintings or pictures in this room.”

At his declaration, they all looked around and noted that, unlike many old government offices and meeting rooms, there indeed were no painting of any kind, either landscapes or portraits, nor any photographs. There were slightly brighter coloured areas on the walls that showed where such items had previously been hanging.

“When you return to your offices, you will tell your staffs that the Government Property Agency is reviewing all the paintings and pictures in government offices for their historical value. The GPA will be replacing some of them, cleaning them all, and returning them if it is proper to do so. I expect you to remove any such items immediately, with documentation attached as to their placement and age, if known, and remove them to any convenient storage closet that is not close to an office or any meeting rooms.”

He frowned, “I must include personal photographs, as well. There are to be no personal photographs on the walls or desks, anywhere, until the GPA gives them clearance.”

The Prime Minister paused, then added, “If you have difficulty removing any of them, desist at once and notify me via memo immediately.”

He took a deep breath and softly let it out.

“As you know, the Equestrians can do what we call magic. That is, they can manipulate their surroundings using only their minds.”

He looked down at the table for a moment, then looked back up.

“It appears, that there are also humans capable of doing this, and that they have been doing so for centuries.”

That pronouncement made the men in the room sit up straight.

“Not only that, but they have their own society, hidden from the rest of us by the use of, for lack of a better word, magic spells.”

The other three were stunned at the revelation.

“It appears that the Equestrians have been in extensive contact with these . . . wizards and witches, as they fashion themselves. Ambassador Blueblood has agreed to tell us what he knows of them.”

The next two hours were very informative. Especially when he revealed that there was a hidden wizards’ school in the Scottish highlands.

That prompted Sir Walker to open his folder and hand Blueblood the pictures and seismographic trace.

Which was when he revealed the reason for Princess Luna’s presence and trip through the trunks.

In essence, Castor realized, the Equestrians had been the cavalry riding to the wizards’ rescue in an untenable situation. Or, at least, what a reasonable person would call untenable. Castor had to shake his head in disbelief at the wizards’ willingness to leave their children in a school at risk from a ticking time-bomb underneath it.

That the trunks could be used for instant transport, unless there were specific spells blocking them, was a wrenching discovery that made a mockery of any country’s borders and attempts at security.

The explanation for removing the portraits and paintings was more than a little creepy, to Castor’s mind. And a huge security breach.


۸-_-۸


For Dumbledore, Wednesday was off to a terrible start. He had expected that he would have a nice uneventful day to mull over what he had discovered yesterday about the Atlanteans.

Princess Luna was a very powerful witch, clearly much more powerful than he was. And if the claims that she was over a thousand years old were true, she had to have an understanding of her magic that transcended conscious thought. Not to mention the other skills she must have picked up over that time. He knew that he had not been nearly as savvy regarding politics when he was only twenty-one, compared to what he knew today. How much more had she learned in a thousand years of navigating those treacherous waters, and watching others fail and succeed over that time in their manipulations?

Princess Twilight was no light-weight either. Especially with her rapid and apparently effortless teleportation abilities. And he was still unsure if teleportation was stopped by the Hogwarts’ anti-apparation charm, as the Chamber of Secrets lay outside their extent. Moreover, he had removed that charm from his office for the day. Yes, he could teleport, now, but the wards automatically yielded to his movements. He needed someone else to learn that skill. Perhaps he would have Filius test it for him.

And Prince Armor’s shield had been enlightening. His control had been exceptional, dropping and raising it much faster than a wizard could manage. And its flexibility was extraordinary.

His decision to hold himself and the others back and act as backup in case the Atlanteans had over-estimated their abilities had been quite fortuitous. He would have learned far less about them if he had fought beside them. Plus, the fact that they were clearly well used to fighting together led him to think his participation might have interfered instead of helped.

All that and more, he had intended to contemplate and order in his mind. That the Atlanteans would be a major player in England’s politics was a given, especially once the old families realized just how powerful these foreigners were. Sure, some would put their noses in the air and decry, “those foreigners,” but most would look at the sheer power they had and want to add that legacy to their bloodlines. Especially because the Atlantean pure-bloods could accurately trace their lineage back well over several thousand years, putting the English pure-bloods’ own claims to shame.

Those were his thoughts as he woke and prepared for his day. And planned to explore the Chamber of Secrets. He had spent several hours immediately after dinner last night placing alarm spells and blocking spells over the entrances so that should Tom Riddle’s follower attempt to gain access to the Chamber — there was no way he didn’t know about it by now if he hadn’t known about it before — he would be trapped by Dumbledore.

Those thoughts were blown to smoke as he descended the stairs to his office to hear “Headmaster Dumbledore? Are you there?” When he looked over at his fireplace, he saw Minister Fudge’s head.

“Yes, Cornelius, I just walked in. What may I do for you?”

“Ah, um, yes. I just heard the most disturbing news that a basilisk was found at Hogwarts. May I come through?”


۸-ꞈ-۸