//------------------------------//
// Chapter 57 
// Story: The Gate 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

“Well, that would explain it,” Madam Pomfrey mutters irritably.  Lyra has just been forced into Equestrian form- and while her human form showed little to no visible damage, her Equestrian form has quite the opposite.  Oh, and Lyra’s no longer a unicorn, either- she’s one of the mythically powerful ‘Alicorns’ she was told about.  Either of those two factors would easily explain the trouble her spells were having on her human form.
Exactly as expected, Lyra’s right foreleg is completely boneless.  She’d spotted that in her human form; Lockhart must have vanished them.
His spell also seems to have vanished her entire right wing and a scoop out of her side to go with it, aside from punching a series of holes through her horn- such that it kinda looks like Swiss cheese.
Unfortunately, the biology of an Alicorn is so far different from the biology of a normal pony- even a kirin like Professor Flitwick- that she’s not sure what sort of readings she should be getting from her various spells…  which, at least, are able to get solid results on her in Equestrian form.
She glances up at Equin Horse, the one Equestrian that Lyra trained to use these transformation matrices…  which, of course, require an Equestrian-only facet to activate.  “Baseline?” she asks.
He shakes his horned head, having transformed himself into Equestrian form, so as to better utilize his skills.  “To my knowledge, no Alicorn has ever needed a doctor before.  I don’t think anypony knows what they look like inside.”  He scowls at Lyra.  “What they’re supposed to look like, that is.”
“What about me?” Hermione interjects.  Madam Pomfrey had been initially reluctant to let the four that brought her into this room- but Hermione, Harry, and Draco are all Papa Tangoes, so they’re allowed to know…  and when she’d mentioned Ginny, Hermione had simply called for Ariel.  Who promptly appeared as an energy pegasus, riding on Ginny’s shoulder.
Madam Pomfrey glances up at her.  “No use,” she states.
“Alicorns are too different from everypony else,” Equin finishes.
Hermione doesn’t respond verbally, rather hopping up into the air and shrinking noticeably.
Madam Pomfrey instinctively watches in the corner of her eye- that was definitely an animagus transformation- as she shrinks down into…
“And of course, you’re an Alicorn too,” Equin states flatly.  “Do you mind?”
Hermione nods her horned head, wings beating lightly to keep her afloat- something Madam Pomfrey has never seen, but doesn’t have the time to study right now.  “Go ahead.  I’m a good bit younger than she…  but healthy.”
Harry steps forwards slightly.  “If you need more than one, me and Sil-er, Draco are also alicorns.”





As it turns out, they had needed more than one; Madam Pomfrey had even commented on ideally having a few hundred at least, but that a couple would do.  She had then, with the assistance of Silver’s sheer magical might channeled through Equine Horse’ skill in Equestrian medical magic, been able to stabilize Lyra.  She’s still unconscious but, as Madam Pomfrey moves on to get a closer look at Ariel, everyone is confident that Lyra will be okay.
Hermione finally leans back in her seat.  “Well, that happened,” she mutters.
“That it did,” Draco sighs, dropping himself into the chair next to hers and leaning back as well.
Harry seats himself on Hermione’s other side.  “I just wish there was something I could do through all of that.”  He winces, even before anyone speaks.  “Uh, aside from standing still in Equestrian form.”
“Hey, that was very helpful,” Equine Horse states, just before the effects of the transformation matrices wear off, returning him to human form.  “Especially since she did something to herself to let her hold her Equestrian form on this side without those matrices.”
Hermione nods.  “The ‘Papa Echo’, she called it.  She perfected it and tested it on herself.  Apparently, it ascended her as well.”
“Papa Echo?” Horse asks.
She nods again.  “The reverse of the Papa Tango, really- it adds British facets to an Equestrian matrix, rather than Equestrian facets to a British matrix.”
He nods, then scowls.  “Yeah, that would explain the difference.”  He glances back at Lyra, still green, furry, and layered over with casts of both physical and thaumic nature.  “But something doesn’t sound right about that, either.  Unless…”  He looks at her.  “I mean, you didn’t ascend from the Papa Tango, did you?”
Hermione shakes her head.  “No, I ascended when I first Rainboomed.”
He lets out a low whistle.  “That was last year, wasn’t it?  Huh.  In any case, the Papa Tango is a much bigger change- I’d say it’d be far more likely to cause a direct ascension.”  He glances at Lyra.  “Do you happen to know if she’s tested it on anypony else?”
Hermione shakes her head.  “She probably didn’t, but I don’t know.”
He scowls, glancing back at Lyra again.  “And she won’t wake for at least a couple weeks, either.”
“A couple weeks?” Silver asks.
He nods.  “Yep.  Too much conscious activity right now- especially of the sort she’s prone to- can do permanent damage to her horn.  She’s under one of the strongest sleeping spells I’ve ever set- thank you, by the way, Silver- specifically to protect her against that eventuality.  Don’t worry, I won’t need a power boost to cancel it, and plan to do so as soon as it is safe.”  He pauses for a second.  “I take it all the Papa Tangoes can transform at will?”
Hermione and Draco nod in tandem.  “Every British matrix has the capability to self-transform,” Draco supplies, “called the Animagus.  The Papa Tango seems to simply give us something else to transform into.”  He shrugs.  “Even Lyra doesn’t understand the details.”
More nodding.  “And I don’t suppose you want to keep that ability secret from the rest of Equestria?”
All three nod in tandem.
Then Ginny steps up next to Equine, while Madam Pomfrey heads back out to the rest of the infirmary.  “And, um,” she begins.
Hermione tilts her head.  “Yes?”
“Um…  Harry,” Ginny mutters, seeming unsure of herself.
Harry blinks.  “...  I’m listening.”
“How…  er…”
Equine tilts his head at her.  “Not sure how to say it?”
She nods, blushing.
“Give it a shot,” Harry suggests.  “I’m sure I’ll understand.”
She blushes a little darker.  “Um…  Okay.”  She takes a deep breath, and looks at Harry before speaking nervously, but smoothly.  “Harry, how are you alive?”
“How am I…  alive?” Harry asks confusedly, tilting his head.  “Was there something that should have killed me or something?”
“Ohh, yeah, I was wondering about that too,” Silver states suddenly.  “Back on the Quidditch field, when Lyra did her exploding magic thingy, you cast a nice blast shadow for me to take cover in.”
Hermione nods.  “Yeah, I saw that too.  Then…”  She looks at Harry.  “Lockhart got burned and thrown some fifteen feet away, but you were even closer and unharmed?”
Harry blinks.  “Wait, that light hurt people?”
Ginny nods.  “Had Lockhart not been thrown back, the sheer magical overload could have killed him,” she states.  “As it is, it should have killed you, at least twice over.”
“You…  didn’t even feel it?” Hermione asks.
Draco shifts in his seat.  “Okay…  How about this, Harry?”  A small bolt of magic flashes from his hand into Harry’s arm.
Harry watches it disappear.  “Um…  what was that?”
“No pain or anything?” Draco asks.
“Um, no?”
He scowls.  “Okay, how about…  this?”  A much larger bolt of magic.
Harry blinks.  “Um, still nothing?”  He looks at the other three for help, but they’re all staring at him.
Draco then rises to his feet, turns to face Harry, and takes a deep breath.  “Alright, let’s see if this gets through to you,” he states, before conjuring a stack of bricks in front of him, concentrating his magic, and blasting it at Harry, through the bricks.
Harry stares.  The massive bolt of magic didn’t just disintegrate the bricks; it vaporized them explosively.
Then it…  disappeared against his skin and clothes.
“What-!?” Harry begins.  “Wait.  Does that mean I’m-!”  He cuts himself off, staring at the bricks.
Moments later, he floats in the air for a second, surrounded by his emerald green magic aura, before dropping back down.  “What the…?”
Draco rubs his chin.  “So that’s happening for you too?  Huh…”
Equine Horse, on the other hand, seems to be trying to hide a laugh, without much success.
“What?” Hermione asks him.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” he chuckles.  “It’s just rather clear you’re not familiar with Equestrian magic.  You know what we’ve been calling our ‘unique talent’?”
Hermione nods, head tilting.  “Yeah…?”
“That’s what that was.  Manifesting itself.”
Hermione lets out a gasp, and turns to Harry.  “Harry, transform.”
Harry blinks, and shrinks.  “Okay…?”
Hermione squeals, than pokes at Harry’s flank.  “Oh, it is!  Harry, you just got your cutie mark!”
“Her cutie what?” Ginny asks.
“Hold on a second,” Draco mutters, and shrinks in the middle of hopping back onto his armchair, before looking at her own flank.  “Huh, yeah, I’ve got one too.”  She puts a hoof to her chin.  “Hmm, must have been when I was playing that flute last year, just before Harry’s first Papa Tango club meeting.”
“Hmm, yeah, musta been,” Hermione agrees, before shrinking and examining her own…  blank flank.  “Dang!  I guess I’m the last one.”
“Not necessarily,” Ginny states.
Hermione glances up at her.  “What?”
Ginny blinks, and blushes.  “Sorry, my…  ability got ahead of my mind again.  Those…  pictures on your flanks, are these…  ‘cutie marks’, right?”
Hermione nods.  “They appear by magic at some point, usually accompanied by an epiphany, and represent something we’re really good at.  What, do you have one?”
Ginny shakes her head.  “No, no, I don’t!  I…  I don’t know if I even can get one, being…  ah, not transformed yet.  Thing is, Ariel doesn’t have one either.”
Ariel, seated on Ginny’s shoulder, scowls at her.  “Way to throw me under the bus!”
Ginny looks up at her.  “What?  Unlike me, you’ve got a proper Equestrian matrix- and should at least be capable of getting one.”
Ariel blushes and looks away.  “Oh, Madam Pomfrey!”  She spreads her wings, taking off from Ginny’s shoulder.
Hermione blinks; she must not have noticed the nurse’ return with the heavy book.  “Does she need Ariel for something…?”
Ginny nods.  “She wanted to try one of the more obscure sensing spells- one of the ones she hasn’t learned by heart.”  She picks Harry up and takes her seat, holding the filly on her lap, and looks up to watch Ariel and Madam Pomfrey.
“...  Huh,” Harry mutters, sprawling herself out across Ginny’s lap.  “This is…  surprisingly comfortable.”
“Um…  Okay,” Hermione blinks at her.
“No really,” Harry states.  “You’d think a human lap would be real uncomfortable, with all the lumpy bone and muscle- but it’s actually really comfortable.”
Ginny blushes.
Right on time, Madam Pomfrey turns to face them, and Ariel flies back to join Harry in Ginny’s lap.
“Well,” Madam Pomfrey begins.  “Ariel isn’t a ghost.”
Hermione nods slowly.  “Yeah…  and I take it we aren’t going to like what she is?”
Madam Pomfrey’s mouth twitches in a smile before she resumes.  “No, she’s a spirit.  The problem…
“Well.  You probably know how she can’t manifest herself with a physical body, right?”
Ginny nods.  “Is that why she can’t become human?”
Madam Pomfrey nods.  “I suspect it is, yes- she has the animagus magic.”
“You’ve figured out why she can’t, ah, become real?” Ginny asks.
She nods again.  “I have.  The same thing also makes her, for all intents and purposes, immortal.”
“What-!?” Ariel squeaks.  “I’m- I’m immortal!?  But- But I don’t want-!”  She looks almost desperately between Ginny and Madam Pomfrey.
Madam Pomfrey holds up a placating hand.  “As near as I can tell, your bond with Miss Weasley is also making her effectively immortal…  Though,” she looks up at Ginny, “it’s a bit of a screwed up immortal.  You can still die- just when you do, you become trapped in this world as a spirit, not unlike Ariel is now.”
Ginny tilts her head.  “What…  What happens if my magic matrix falls apart?”
Madam Pomfrey shakes her head.  “That’s not possible.  Ariel’s matrix will keep yours stable, no matter if it would be stable on its own or not.”
Ginny lets out a breath and leans back against the armchair.  “Whew.  So I’m not about to die.  Nice to know.”
“So, ah, what is this thing?” Hermione asks.
“As near as I can tell, Ariel used to be a horcrux.”
Silver tilts her head.  “A what?”
Hermione blinks.  “Oh no.”
Madam Pomfrey nods.  “A Horcrux is…  Well…
“If a wizard wants to make themselves immortal…  there are a few ways to achieve that, all involving powerful dark magic.  Horcruxes are perhaps the most effective of those ways- to create one, a dark wizard fractures his soul apart and binds a fragment to an object.  That creates…”  She gestures towards Ginny.  “That effect.  They then can’t be truly killed until all their horcruxes are destroyed.”
Ginny winces.  “You mean…  if Ariel was one…”
Madam Pomfrey nods.  “That’s exactly what I mean.  As nearly as I can tell, Ariel used to be one- and not one tethered to you, Miss Weasley- before that Papa Tango nabbed her.  She’s a fully-fledged, unbroken soul now- but I could still find horcrux connections.”
“There’s multiple?” Hermione asks, eyes wide.
She nods.  “I found six active links.  Only one of them seems to be stopping her from taking corporeal form… probably the original, fractured soul.”
“Six!?” Hermione shrieks.  “How badly must she have damaged her soul to do that six times!?”
Madam Pomfrey holds up her hand once again.  “Calmly, Granger, calmly.  Ariel didn’t create any of them- and as I just said, her soul is completely undamaged.”  She looks up at Ginny.  “That being said, in order to create six horcruxes, the dark wizard in question would have had to be extremely powerful to have survived even half that with his sanity intact.  And, there’s only a few known dark wizards strong enough to do that.
“You-Know-Who was one.”
“Voldemort,” Harry, Hermione, and Silver state simultaneously.
Ginny gasps.
Madam Pomfrey blinks, then nods.
Ariel blinks, looking between everyone and everypony.  “Who?”