//------------------------------// // 27 - Winsome Falls // Story: A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philospher's Stone // by gerandakis //------------------------------// Chapter Twenty-Seven Winsome Falls The new arrivals looked around in wonder. The area was gorgeous. They were on a large, roughly circular island on a crystal clear lake. The outer edge of the lake surrounding a good third of the island was a massive waterfall. Several more islands dotted the lake, the space between them sporadically covered with water lilies. The islands themselves were relatively flat and sparsely populated with deciduous trees among the sprawling, grassy fields. The clouds in the distance that had liquid rainbow cascading off them were just overkill. While she had never been here before, Sunset had at least seen pictures. As such she was the first to recover. "Welcome to Winsome Falls." More quietly she added, "beautiful, isn't it?" Slowly walking over to her, Hermione nodded. "You don't usually find this kind of untouched nature in Britain anymore. Well, outside the Highlands, that is. And nature there is usually not quite as colourful as this." "That's an understatement," one of the Twins began. "Hogwarts is in the Highlands." "And nature there is nowhere near-" "-as pretty as here." "It's too busy-" "-trying to hit people." Finishing in unison, the twins had clearly recovered from their shock, though they, too, were still marveling at the gorgeous nature around them. After she had spent a few more minutes enjoying the reactions of the group, Sunset left them to enjoy Winsome Falls and teleported back to Canterlot. She had some work to do. Arriving back in the hallway she had left minutes earlier, she found the guard who had spoken to her and let him guide her into a room where a team of five craftsponies, three unicorns and two earth ponies, were waiting for her along with several crates of supplies and two fully set up, luxurious two-pony tents. One advancement in magic she hoped to share with not one, but both worlds, was her progress in the field of spatial distortion, or, as the wizards of Britain called the type of spell, undetectable expansion charms. Both worlds had their own methods to create items, vehicles, even entire buildings that were larger on the inside than they were on the outside. The Equestrian method simply created a pocket of compressed space inside the item, allowing it to simply be larger on the inside than on the outside. The method used on earth was entirely different. Items enchanted in that way were not actually bigger on the inside, the wizards of earth achieved that effect by, for lack of a better word, cheating. The object simply served as an entry portal to a pocket dimension and an anchor to the spells keeping it intact. The bigger the anchor was, the larger the pocket dimension could be. The objects were not, however, bigger on the inside, as the bigger space they created, was not actually inside them. Sunset was quite giddy to get started, she had originally requisitioned more tents from the princess, but the night before their departure, she had managed a breakthrough. Taking the methods from both worlds, she had managed to combine them. It took her nearly half an hour to weave the spell on the first tent, but when she finished, she was quite proud of her work. She had created a compressed space inside a dimensional pocket. And she had improved her time as well. When she had enchanted her bag in that way, it had taken more than forty-five minutes. With her improvements, the tent's interior was easily the size of a family home. And she hadn't made it even a quarter the size she could have made it. This new spell was more complex than either of the two she had crafted it from, but it was efficient. The Earthen method would have struggled achieving an effect of this magnitude, while the Equestrian method simply couldn't have done it. Her new spell could have created an effect five times larger without issue. Now that she had a pocket space created, the craftsponies could start furnishing it. After giving them instructions on the basic layout she intended, they got to work on putting in the walls, floors and ceilings, the earth ponies focusing on preparing the wood for installation while the unicorns, with generous application of permanent sticking charms, placed them on the transparent walls of the spacial pocket within the tent. First came the floor. The floor of the dimensional pocket was completely smooth. Pretty, certainly, but not exactly easy to walk on, especially using hooves. For those not well versed in it, walking on an invisible plane of force that was little more than a window into subspace could also be highly disorienting. For the skilled and experienced ponies, a wooden tiled floor was quickly made. The walls, made of lighter wood were quick to follow. The brightest wood they had available, northern Equestrian Snow Birch, Sunset had reserved for the ceiling. They even installed windows. Some were simple glass panes, looking into the depths of subspace, others were basically illusory screens displaying the world outside, as seen by tiny glass pearls woven into the fabric of the tent. Sunset had seen fit to magically harden them when she anchored the scrying charm into them. She was glad that glittery materials were currently 'en-vogue' in Canterlot. Furniture was not much harder to install. Tired of the windows being the only sources of light, The craftsponies first added a ceiling lamp. Rather than a crystal, they used polished glass to hold the enchantment. Adding a switch on the wall to toggle the enchantment on and off was foalsplay. This, Sunset had decided, would be the boys' tent. As such it would need ten beds. After separating off two bedrooms on the upper floor, each with room for five beds, the crafters got to work on making them. The frames were easily made. Sunset had advised them that she would deal with the mattresses later, she'd need Ginny's help for those. The final space on the upper floor was used for a common room with two large windows, one into Subspace, the other showing the view from a pearl above the main entrance, and a bathroom. On the lower floor they installed a kitchen, toilet, and living room, as well as a storage closet. After the furnishings were complete Sunset, having long since finished the enchantment on the girls' tent, got to decorating. While some could spend hours staring at the colorful weather patterns of subspace, others would get sick of them after a few minutes, and the tents were likely to be used in Britain and Equestria alike, and, in the former, unpleasant weather wasn't uncommon. As such, curtains were a must. Once all the windows were fitted with royal blue velvet curtains with beautiful golden patterns stitched into them, she took a step back from her work and took a moment to walk around the house. She had no illusions that it was anything less. They had just built a house inside a tent. Satisfied with her work she nodded and stepped outside. They had worked on the boys' tent for several hours, but she figured they'd still have plenty of daylight to finish the girls' tent today. They had just built a house inside a tent. Now she would give the craftsponies a few minutes' break, maybe teleport back to the others for a short swim, then she would return here and do it again. The second tent had only taken her twenty minutes to enchant. Once she mastered it, she estimated, she would be able to cast the spell in under five minutes. This time she added red curtains with silver patterns. Another two hours later, their work was finished. The work was far from done, but she could beautify the houses later. For the moment she needed to deal with something essential. Thanking the craftsponies, she packed up the tents, still amused by the fact that the subdimensions they maintained wouldn't be damaged in the process, and teleported them and herself back to Rainbow falls. A quick scan of the area revealed a suitable clearing on another, more densely forested island and she teleported to its beach to walk to the clearing. A magical scan wasn't enough for a safe teleport. It took her magic mere minutes to set up the tents and get everything ready. A few simple cleaning charms got rid of some loose sawdust and other remnants of the work. Soon enough, the tents were ready. Returning to the lake she used a quick spell to read the magical signatures in the area. It only took her a second to find Ginny. Another quick spell later, she was walking towards the pegasus filly. Across the water. Dan, it turned out, got rather cynical when he was annoyed, and he found his current headache to be highly annoying. Seeing Sunset walk across the lake, he snorted. "Why not? It's not like she hasn't done the impossible a few dozen times at this point. Raised in a magical family, Ginny was only mildly startled when Sunset trotted over to her across the lake. "Hi Sunset, done with the tents?." Sunset pointed a hoof over to the forest island. "Almost. I kinda need your help for something. Do you think you could fetch me some clouds?" Ginny was confused at the request, but took wing regardless. "How big? How many?" Sunset projected a shape into the air beside her. "At least this big, I can cut them down if necessary. And sixteen if you don't mind." Ginny didn't. She went to fetch the first cloud, then brought it over to the clearing Sunset had indicated, seeing two tents that should be far too small to house sixteen ponies. She saw Sunset outside them, in human form, ready to receive the first cloud. "Here you go. Now what exactly are you gonna do with those?" "I'll turn them into mattresses. Wanna watch?" "Cloud mattresses. Sure. Why not? I'll have a look." Ginny ended up not seeing much of the process from the first cloud. She was to busy walking through the house, looking around the place in a daze. The tastefully furnished living room right across from the entrance was only the first sight that stunned her. When she was finished with the first mattress and, for that matter, the entire first bed, pillow, comforter and all, Sunset made her way through the house, looking for Ginny. She found her in the common room, looking out into subspace. "Pretty isn't it?" Ginny jumped, when Sunset spoke up. Seeing the girl's raised eyebrow, the little pegasus blushed and jumped out of the comfortable armchair from where she had been looking into subspace. "Sorry, I got distracted." Sunset giggled, sitting down in the now vacant chair and levitating Ginny into her lap to administer calming strokes along her red mane. "Don't worry. I suspect you won't be the last." Calming slowly, Ginny smiled a little. "Probably not. I can't believe you built all this in – how long? – five hours? Six?" "Around five hours. The days here are two hours shorter, remember? And I did have some craftsponies to help me. I didn't do all of it alone." She set Ginny back on the ground as she began walking back to the stairs. "We better get back to work so we get done before sundown. There are fifteen more beds to do, after all." It took the two half an hour, but the beds were soon completed. Sunset returned to pony form and they took a leisurely stroll through the forest, walking towards the setting sun. When they reached the beach they found most of the group there. They were all gathered around Dan, his face was screwed up in concentration and his daughter's horn on his forehead. Just as they passed the treeline, Hermione took her horn away and Dan opened his eyes. "There, that should get you started, now you can focus on it whenever you have time." Moments later, the Sun touched the horizon, sinking behind it within moments. Sunset giggled. "What did I tell you? Before sundown." She smiled widely at the man. "Congratulations. You are now a wizard." "Sunset! Where did you go all afternoon?" Ginny smirked at her Mother. "Don't worry mom, She was just getting the tents ready. Ginny had expected the reactions of the other girls to be priceless. She was not disappointed. She leaned next to one of the windows into subspace and watched the group wander into the comfortable living room with stunned expressions. Sunset had sat down on the couch, also watching the reactions amusedly. Hermione, Luna, Emma and Molly took a few moments to get over the room they had just entered. Then Luna discovered the window into subspace. "Oh. That's pretty." "If you think that tiny window is pretty," Ginny grinned, "wait 'til you see the panorama upstairs." All four shot around at the word 'upstairs'. "And just wait for the cloud mattresses," Sunset added with a smirk. "Are you sure?" "Of course I'm sure. She comes to the royal library every Sunday, and she passes through that alley every Sunday. She will do so again tomorrow." "Good. And when she does, we got her." "That we do." "Make sure every creature is ready." "Don't worry. Everything will be in position." In a basement somewhere in lower Canterlot, two voices laughed in glee.