Act Three

To See Equestria

Chapter Twenty-Five

Palace Morning

It took a while to introduce everypony, and even longer before the new ponies managed to walk, but once that hurdle was cleared, Princess Celestia showed the Weasleys, the Grangers, Harry and Mr. Lovegood to their rooms. Sunset had invited the other three fillies to stay in her suite for the night.

The four girls, already more or less used to being ponies had a relaxing night. The others encountered some problems.

"Ow, Emma, careful where you put that horn. That thing is pointier than it looks."

"Sorry honey." Emma cuddled into her husband. While she had to admit that the fuzzy blue coat made him a lot more cuddly, she could have done without the slight headache she'd had ever since Sunset had taught Equestrian to everyone but Hermione, who already knew the language, and she had yet to work out a way to hug her husband without stabbing him with her horn.

Harry couldn't sleep. Sunset and the princess had helpfully pointed out that he would not need his glasses any longer. He had been wondering how his eyesight had gotten even worse from coming to Equestria. Suffice it to say that he was surprised to learn that it had actually improved. And improved by such an extreme margin. Out of the window of his small suite, he could see the lights of a distant city. He was sure he saw something that looked like a pony version of the Statue of Liberty.

The fact that his large wings kept itching wasn't exactly helping him sleep either.

Mr. Weasley wasn't entirely sure how he had ended up in this position. He had laid down on the bed and, just as usual, Molly had cuddled into him. The wing draped over his barrel was new, but not exactly unwelcome. But then Ron had cuddled up to his other side, the twins had cuddled up to Molly and over the course of the night, apparently walking over in their sleep, Bill, Charlie and Percy had joined the cuddle pile.

He sighed and tried to get back to sleep, contemplating why he had woken up before Molly. Then he noticed Percy's horn on his pillow, where his head was supposed to go.

Xenofilius Lovegood was faintly aware that something was off. He couldn't put his finger on what, but something was definitely odd. After a moment of contemplation he realized that the reason he couldn't put his finger on it, probably had something to do with the fact that he didn't currently have fingers. Unfortunately he couldn't put his hoof on it either. Given the rather rudimentary level of skill he currently had in using his hooves that was hardly surprising.

Carefully cracking open his eyes, he saw his suite. Though the vantage point was unusual. It took him about a minute to figure out that everything was upside-down and another to realize that he was hanging from the chandelier by his tail.

Four giggling fillies made their way through the halls of the Royal Palace of Canterlot, the first of them carrying a phoenix on her back. Sunset had stirred with the first light of dawn, as usual, but, for some reason, this time, all of them woke up when she stirred. Unable to fall back asleep, the four of them made to explore the palace.

Sunset guided them through the expansive network of halls, stopping here and there to mention an interesting bit of history or trivia or point out an especially beautiful view from a window.

The four of them turned around to see a purple filly with a deep lavender mane, cut in two by twin stripes of purple and pink. She had her magenta eyes fixed on them, looking to be a little shy. Sunset was the first to react.

"Hold on. Purple filly, cutie mark of a six pointed starburst, deep lavender mane, you wouldn't happen to be Twilight Sparkle would you?"

"Uhm, yes, I am." After a moment's pause, she seemed to reconsider and provide a more formal introduction. "Excuse me, I'm still kinda new to this." She cleared her throat and then spoke in a more formal tone. "Twilight Sparkle, born of the House of the Stars, current Student of the Sun. Daughter of Night Light and Twilight Velvet."

Sunset had to smile at the formal introduction. She knew that Twilight was about a year older than she was, but she was clearly new to this. Still, Sunset chose to reply in turn. "Sunset Shimmer, born of the House of The Sun, Daughter of Stellar Flare and Sunspot and former Student of the Sun."

Sunset considered that for a moment, then smiled sadly. "Does the term 'my Little Sun' perhaps ring a bell?"

"Oh. Yes. She did say that quite a lot, especially the first few weeks, she always did seem a little sad when she did."

Sunset smiled again, more happily this time, almost proud. "Already learning to see through her mask, huh? Good. From what she told me, you learn fast. We'll see great things coming from you, Twilight." When she heard Hermione clear her throat behind her, Sunset blushed slightly. "Oh right, I should introduce you to my friends."

She stood aside so Twilight had a clear line of sight to the three ponies behind her. "These are Hermione of the Granger Family, daughter of Dan and Emma, Ginny of House Weasley, daughter of Arthur and Molly, and Luna of the Lovegood family, daughter of Xenofilius and Pandora. We're visiting Canterlot today."

The three fillies happily greeted Twilight who kept glancing at Luna. After a few more moments, Sunset couldn't hold her giggles anymore. "Never seen a thestral out during the day, huh?" Twilight shook her head. "We'll she's only been able to become a thestral For a grand total of maybe ten hours at this point."

Twilight looked at them with a questioning look. Sunset sighed quietly. "Look, we can show you, but it would probably be best if we didn't do that in the corridor. Hold on." With a faint ripple of the air, the five of them teleported back to Sunset's suite."

Seeing Twilight's expression, Sunset giggled and pointed at the door. "It's open, have a look for yourself."

Twilight opened the door and quickly realized her position. "Oh. I know this place. The door was always locked. Is this where you lived when you were the Princess' student?"

Sunset nodded and gently nudged the door closed with her magic. "It is. Now, to explain. These fillies aren't from here." When Twilight raised and eyebrow, she groaned quietly. "Okay, let me rephrase that. They're not from this world. They're from a nation called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Located on a planet called Earth. Which is in another dimension."

Sunset nodded. "Yes. And, while were there, we usually don't look like this. We're not ponies. We look like this." She shifted into human form, prompting Hermione to do the same. "We're humans. And these three were born like this." She then pointed at Ginny and Luna. "They have yet to manage turning back."

Twilight simply stared at the two mythical creatures standing before her. She had heard the myths, of course, but she had never thought humans were anything more than that.

"This form has its advantages," Sunset pointed out. She stretched out her hand. "These things especially." She picked the still stunned filly up in her magic and sat down on the bed, levitating Twilight into her lap and gently petting her mane.

Slowly coming out of her shock, Twilight squirmed slightly. "You're right. This is pretty nice."

Sunset nodded. "Mhm, it is. Now brace yourself, for I shall show you the wonders of ear scratches." With that she put actions to words and began carefully scratching Twilight's ears. She watched in mild amusement as the inquisitive filly suddenly turned to putty in her hands. Suddenly there were three more fillies around her. She rolled her eyes. "This isn't going to work girls, I only have two hands."

"Well alright." With an artificially dramatic sigh, Hermione returned to human form and got to work on robbing Ginny and Luna of their ability to form coherent thoughts.

After about five minutes Sunset let up and switched back to stroking Twilight's mane and back. She knew from experience that, while still pleasant, doing so was of little hindrance to the mind. Still, it took another minute before Twilight was speaking coherently again.

Sunset nodded with a knowing grin. "I know, I figured that out a few months ago. To be honest, I'm kinda tempted to see how Princess Celestia would react to that."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Oh dear. I don't know if that would be a good idea, but if you try that, I kinda wanna see how it goes."

"We'll try that at some point," Sunset giggled. "But for now we should really go find the others and get them started on learning how to transform."

Sunset face palmed. "Right, you don't know about that yet." She pointed at Hermione and the two fillies who were still non-functional in her lap. "They're not the only humans here. We brought along Ginny's family, Hermione's parents, Luna's father and another friend our age. And we couldn't change between human and pony forms at will from the start. The first time takes a good bit of focus and we arrived pretty late yesterday evening, so we decided to give them a night to get used to these bodies before teaching them to control that."

"I was hoping you would." Lighting her horn again once they had all turned back, Sunset teleported them to another wing of the castle, the area that held the visitor suites. "Now, that room should be Harry's if I recall correctly."

Knocking on the door with a hoof rewarded her with a mumbled 'come in'. Using her magic to open the door, she stepped in, followed by the other four fillies. The deep purple colt on the bed cracked open one of his slitted green eyes and looked at the intruders. "Oh. G'morning Sunset. Is it time for breakfast yet?"

Sunset smiled at the sleepy colt. "Not quite yet. You were just the first one we reached. We're fetching everyone. Breakfast should be in half an hour or so."

"Oh. Okay. Let me just get dressed." He stopped when four of the five fillies before him broke into giggles. "What?"

Sunset managed to stifle her giggles long enough to answer. "You can skip that step Harry. Ponies don't usually wear clothing. When we do it's either for work or purely decorative. And your human form is still clothed. Or do you remember taking them off?"

"Oh. Right." Harry shook his messy mane and got out of bed. "Sorry, I'm not quite awake yet." He yawned. "Had some trouble sleeping. Too much to think about."

"For example. I think I saw something that looked like the Statue of Liberty, but as a pony."

Sunset stared at him, stunned. "You managed to see all the way to Manehattan? Wow."

Hermione giggled. "For some reason, most Equestrian city names seem to be horse-based puns on the names of places on earth. In fact I'm pretty sure Canterlot is just a pun on Camelot."

"Wow. I didn't even notice." Harry had to suppress a chuckle of his own. "I take it you haven't gotten the others yet?"

"Nope, we got to you first," their new companion piped up. "I'm Twilight, by the way, Twilight Sparkle."

"Uh, Harry," Sunset piped up. "That's not really how introductions work in Equestria. If you say it that way, Ponies will think 'Potter' is part of your first name. The correct way to introduce yourself would be as 'Harry of House Potter, son of James and Lily'." She shook her head slightly. "At least that's the formal way, in informal contexts it's enough to just introduce yourself as Harry."

"Oh. That's good to know actually, thanks Sunset." When she simply smiled, Harry tilted his head. "We should probably tell the others about this too, shouldn't we?"

The group left the room and made their way down the hallway. Twilight studied the colt walking along before her with interest. She had never met a raptor before. Walking, as he was, beside Ginny, his eyes weren't the only obvious difference. His wings seemed longer and narrower, more like those of a bird of prey. Suited for long, enduring glides and quick dives.

Before long, the group arrived at their next stop. Hermione was the one to knock on the door. "Mister Lovegood? Are you awake?"

"Yes. Is that you girls? Do come in." The girls pushed the door open, and saw an empty room. They looked around for a moment, before a voice called out to them. "Up here."

Looking up, they saw the thestral dangling from the chandelier by his tail. "A little help would be nice. I'm not sure how I got up here. Or how to get back down."

Luna giggled. "Don't worry daddy, that apparently happens sometimes. It's instinctive. Just spread your wings and focus on letting go."

Following her advice, Xenofilius only took a few moments to glide back to the floor. A quick cushioning charm from Sunset prevented an unpleasant landing. "Thank you. I was getting rather bored up there. Though it was a lot more comfortable than I would have expected."

Rolling her eyes, Sunset led the group out of the room. It wasn't long before they reached the room Princess Celestia had given Dan and Emma for the night. Once more, Hermione knocked. "Mom, Dad? Are you awake yet?"

After a moment, Emma's voice came through the door. "Yes Hermione, I'm awake. Give me just a minute to throw your father out of bed."

A minute later a slightly subdued Emma came out of the room to join the growing group, followed by a very tired Dan. Hermione looked at her worriedly. "Mom? Are you alright?"

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Sunset turned around, lighting her horn. "A headache, you say?" Her eyes lit up with magic and she looked at Emma intently for a few moments, then a wide smile spread across her face as she let her magic fade. "Don't worry. That should go away soon." Without another word, Sunset turned around, leading the group to the last room they had yet to visit.

With a shrug, Ginny pushed the door open, stopping after a few steps. She looked at the various beds strewn around the room, then at the pile of ponies on the biggest.

A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philospher's Stone

by gerandakis

25 - Palace Morning