//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: On the Implications of Parallel Worlds 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

Dear Hogwarts Staff,
We, of Equestria, would like to thank you for the invitations to your school.  We believe this is most fortunate; however, this may also prove to be a challenge.
The thing is, Equestria has been and still is magically isolated from your world.  We’ve recently opened a gateway, and expect that is how your letters found their way to us; however, all non-Equestrian humans, magical and non-magical alike, are magically barred entry to our lands.
This could present a significant problem, as none of our number know where to get any of the equipment on the list, nor where Hogwarts might be, and our scouts through your lands have not been able to find any.  Fortunately, though, we have observed the formation of magical bonds upon any given Equestrian accepting attendance, and have been able to trace these bonds on our end.  As such, it is our intention to assist with the process as much as possible- in moving our people through our Gate as required, so as to acquire supplies and reach the school.
To that end, given the relatively close start of term and even closer acceptance deadline, we find that negotiating by mail may not be fast enough.  So, while fully willing to negotiate by mail, we will also be making ourselves available in person, at Renfrew Skatepark- look for the blue-and-white-striped hair, her name is Lyra Heartstrings- from dawn ‘till dusk, starting immediately.
While on the topic of negotiation, there is one other thing that will require negotiation:  Currency.  Our currency bears little or no similarity to many of the currencies we’ve been able to identify across your world; if any purchasing is to be done or payments to be made, an exchange must be negotiated.
Signed,
Agent Candy Stripes, Royal Equestrian Secret Service
Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria
Spike, Assistant to Princess Twilight Sparkle
P.S. I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Spike, my assistant, have both received invitations as well and wish to accept them.  I will be accompanying Lyra in Renfrew.





Hagrid sighed as he parked his motorcycle in the parking lot of a skatepark.  Ever since the acceptance letters had started coming in, the teachers- and Dumbledore- had all been swamped by them, and they’d been having him run around to introduce the muggleborns.  Unfortunately, though, the first one had taken him almost three full days for the full process- reach, introduce, take through Diagon Alley, and return.  So, he’d made a request when he got back to the Castle the night before; much of that time was traveling to and from the castle.  That morning, Dumbledore had granted his request…  and so he’d set out with his motorcycle.
He pulled the letter he was answering today from the pocket in his overcoat that he’d decided to use for the day’s letter, right next to the one holding all the other letters and notes from students he needs to visit, and read it through again.
It still struck him as odd to find a P.S. on what is, ostensibly, an official communication, but it’s not his job to be picky.  He double checked the sign, just to be sure- yes, this was Renfrew Skatepark.  And he was looking for…
He looked up, just in time to see a girl with blue and white hair and a skateboard fly at least fifty feet off the top of a ramp, doing some fancy trick in midair, before vanishing back down behind the wall.
He sighed, checking the description on the letter, before dismounting his bike and walking into the park to find the girl.
He got a better view of the girl when she next flew high into the air, and decided that that had to be Lyra.  A quick glance around the park then revealed a large number of helmeted boys with skateboards, simply staring at her as she raced around the park; there were also a few other skateboarders on the ramps, but none flying nearly as high as her.
He watched her fly up a third time, and scowled.  He didn’t particularly want to put himself in harm’s way by descending into the bowl-like ramps, and he also didn’t particularly want to startle her into a potentially fatal crash…  so he ended up stopping to wait.
She didn’t stop, though, repeatedly flying high into the sky.
A few minutes after he arrived, a dark blue haired girl, with twinned pink and purple stripes down the middle, drew his attention.  He’d seen her moving more slowly around the skatepark earlier, wobbling on her skateboard- but she hadn’t drawn his attention like she did then, by falling off her skateboard.
Lyra promptly stormed down a ramp…  and made her board jump over the blue-haired girl’s board, before launching herself into the sky again.
So the blue-haired girl scrambled back to her feet, snatched her board, and ran across the park to the edge, where she then scrambled out of it…  and looked up at Hagrid.  “Well Hello.  Looking for something?”
He snorted.  “Yeah.  Waitin’ for Lyra.”  He gestured towards the girl in question.
The blue-haired girl blinked, then facepalmed.  “I should’a guessed,” she groaned, before turning to the park, putting a hand up to her mouth…  and yelling.  “Lyra!”
Lyra, mid-trick on the opposite side of the park, glanced up briefly, landed on the slope, and made a very fast and snake-like path over to the nearest slope.  She then flew up only about six feet, did a flip, and landed solidly on her board, on the flat bank next to them.  “You know Twilight, that wasn’t very polite to the other skaters.”
The blue-haired girl- apparently Twilight- winced.  “Sorry.  But, uh, we’ve got visitors.”  She gestured towards Hagrid.
“Duly noted,” Lyra muttered, before looking up at Hagrid.  “So, who might you be?”  As she spoke, she stepped off her board and flipped it up into her hands, where it seemed to disappear tracelessly.
Hagrid blinked, realizing that Twilight’s board had also disappeared at some point.  “Er…  Lyra Heartstrings?”
Lyra noded.  “That’s me.”
“And…”  He turned towards Twilight.  “Princess Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight blushed, for some reason.  “Ah, heh heh…  Yeah.”
Lyra grinned.  “She’s a bit of a new princess, and she doesn’t like it much.”
Twilight rounded on her.  “What-!  Why do you say that?  I’ve been liking it well enough!”
Lyra folded her arms, raising an eyebrow.  “So you’ve been enjoying the duties and the titles and the formalities and the bowing and the-!”
“No!” Twilight screamed, at vastly lower volume than she had when calling Lyra.  “Nonononono!  That stuff is terrible!”
Lyra shrugged.  “Because that’s most of what princesshood is, and what I was talking about.”
“...  Oh.  Then I guess you’re right.”
“Ahh…” Hagrid muttered.
Lyra glanced up at him.  “We’re old friends,” she stated, by way of explanation.
“Old friends?” Twilight asked promptly.  “I’d say we’re current friends!”
“Twilight, how long have we been friends?”
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, paused, and closed it again, counting on her fingers.  After a few seconds, she shrugs.  “I…  I don’t know, it’s been too long.”
“My point exactly.”  She grinned up at Hagrid, before turning back to Twilight.  “Eff wye eye, depending on when you consider our friendship to have started, it’s anywhere from twenty three to twenty seven years ago.”
Twilight gave her a level-lidded glare.  “Really?”
Lyra shrugged.  “What?  Photographic memory can be useful.”  Scowl.  “Sometimes.”  She glanced up at Hagrid.  “More often than not, it’s dead depressing.”
Twilight facepalmed.  “Rrrright.  Forgot about that.”  She looked up at Hagrid.  “Soo, ahh…”
“Shall we, ah, go somewhere a little more private?” Hagrid asked.
Lyra promptly bowed genially.  “Lead the way,” she offered- while Hagrid suddenly noticed that neither girl was wearing the helmets and various other pads they’d had on earlier.
They must have put them in the same place as the skateboards.
“Ahh,” Hagrid muttered, glancing around for someplace suitable.  Normally, the introduction was supposed to happen in the student’s home, not in a public park.
Lyra then solved his quandary rather simply.  “Or we can set up some privacy spells in a corner of the parking lot.”
“Ahh, yes, let’s do that, then,” he stated, before leading the way back to the parking lot, to the corner he’d parked his motorcycle in.
Once there, it took the girls only a couple of seconds of strange gesticulations to set up their privacy spells.  “There, that should keep anyone from realizing what we’re up to,” Lyra indicated, before glancing back at the skatepark.  “We’ve been keeping our magic down to magician trick and ‘sleight-of-hand’ levels, so far- since the general population we’ve seen doesn’t have it…  or seem to know it exists at all.”
“Ahh,” Hagrid muttered.  “Yeah, about that.  I don’t know that I’m the right one to tell you this, but…
“Well, wizardkind is kinda secret from the muggles- what we call non-magical folk.”
Twilight nodded.  “So, magic in general is being kept secret from those not capable of it?”
“Er, yeah.  Statute of Secrecy.  There’s some exceptions, but they’re mostly for relatives of a witch or wizard.”  He scratched his beard with one finger.  “And with the, er, isolated magic thing…  The Ministry o’ Magic watches for rogue magic use- including any underage stuff.”
Lyra ahhhed understandingly.  “So maybe that is what that ambient flux detection network we saw was all about.  Wouldn’t be very effective against any but the most powerful of our spells, though, being innate in nature.”  She rubbed her chin.  “It’d detect any kind of self-powered enchanting we might do, though.”  Shrug.  “Our Gate draws its power from our side, not this side, so it won’t show up on that network.  Good thing, too, as we don’t yet know if it’ll be safely possible for someone not from our side to come to our side.”
“But anyways,” Twilight injected, before gesturing for Hagrid to go on.
Hagrid nervously fingered the top of the pocket the Princess’ letter was in; Professor McGonagall had informed him that Lyra’s reply had come in a different letter, which he has in that neighboring pocket.  He read Lyra’s letter earlier, though- it’s a very straightforward ‘yes we’re coming’ message, for her and someone called Bonbon, with no additional details.  “Er…  for the, ah, negotiations…”  He scowled.  “You need to go to Gringotts for the currency negotiation, the rest is just shopping, so…”

Lyra looked at Twilight.  “So, if we just go get our stuff, and negotiate that currency exchange with Gringotts, then we’ll know where to take everyone else to get their stuff.”  She rubbed her chin.  “Leaving only one unknown, where we take ‘em on September First.”  She glanced up at Hagrid.  “But that can be taken care of later, right?”