Shortly after the trolley lady had moved on, and they had had a bite to eat, there was another knock on their door. Harry was disinclined to open the door until he realized he could see an oddly-coloured wing stretch up on the other side of the cabin’s window.
Had someone dared to prank one of the new ponies?
He yanked the door open, saying, worriedly, “Are you okay?”
And then stared, stunned, at the pony before him. He heard the others behind him gasp as they, too, spotted the pony.
It was beautiful, quite possibly the most beautiful pony he had ever seen. He wasn’t the only one who thought so; he could see that more than a few other students had piled into the passageway to have a look. It had a blue coat with bronze-blonde mane and tail. Those weren’t that unusual, but the slightly protuberant silvery hexagonal eyes drew your attention. Or, they would have if not for the crystalline appearance of the pony’s coat and mane. The pony gleamed and glittered, and was almost too bright to look at.
It was a Crystal Pony.
But he had never heard of or seen a Crystal Pony with wings like the ones this pony had. Unlike pegasi wings, these were not feathers, crystalized like ponies in the Crystal Empire or otherwise. Instead, the wings appeared to be almost translucent skin — the arteries and veins were plain to see. It was a dark-blue crystalized membrane to be precise. He could see the train’s blurry wall through it.
“I believe I’m unharmed,” she said softly, in a dreamy and somewhat distracted tone as she looked back at herself. One wing was stretched upwards, and she tilted her head, slightly smiling, as she admired it, flexing it open and closed.
Harry stared at her, speechless and gobsmacked.
There hadn’t been any Crystal ponies at the Embassy, the last he had heard. There certainly hadn’t been any crystal ponies on the bus this morning! In fact, he hadn’t heard of any crystal ponies being in the volunteer list!
She turned back to look at him. “Are you Harry Potter?” After a brief pause, she continued, “He told me that you were in the middle cabin of the second carriage.” She looked up and down the carriage passageway. “And this is the middle cabin of the second carriage.”
“He?” said Harry distractedly, still staring, bemused, at the pony in the passageway.
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “A Mr. Cord told me to come to this cabin, that you would have the answers to my questions.”
That redirected everyone’s attention.
“Cord?” Harry said, frowning and a bit worried where this was going. He was no longer admiring her appearance, but staring intently at her expression.
“Oh yes,” she said. “Mr. Dis Cord.”
Two of the girls behind him gasped in shock.
“He was very nice . . . a little odd, though.” She tilted her head, thinking. “He had one blue eye and the other was orange. But his robes reminded me of Daddy, so I knew I could trust him.”
Harry had a sinking sensation in his stomach.
“He helped me carry my trunk to a cabin and put it on the rack. He wanted to know if I had seen the Equestrians running around on the platform.” She giggled. “I told him I thought they were cute and funny.”
Harry and the others exchanged worried looks.
“He told me that he thought it was very unfair that there wasn’t a single Night pony or Crystal pony in the group of Equestrians that the Princesses had selected.” She nodded to herself. “Then he asked if I’d like to help him fix that.”
She looked down at the floor of the train. “I asked him what a crystal pony was, and he said crystal ponies were very, very pretty, in a shiny sort of way, and that only very happy ponies could be crystal ponies because when they are sad, they look like regular ponies.” She looked back at them. “Then I asked what night ponies were, and he said, ‘They’re like winged-ponies, only night.’”
Harry closed his eyes and sighed. It didn’t take a genius to see where this was going. He could hear the CMC also sighing.
“Then I said I’d help him, and he said, ‘Have fun flying.’ And the next thing I knew, everything was bigger and I was smaller and I had wings and was very shiny.” She lifted her left front hoof and examined it, smiling. “And then he disappeared, but he said to ask you my questions.”
“Come on inside,” Harry said resignedly as he stepped back. Yeah, that was Discord, alright. Two ponies in one would be just his shtick.
Ginny transformed into her pegasus form and flew up to balance on the luggage rack.
Hesitantly, the witch walked in.
Harry closed the door and turned to face her. It was funny watching her narrow her eyes, crouch, wriggle her butt and then jump onto the seat where Ginny had sat. Despite never having been in a four-legged form, she was quite comfortable with herself. Again, Discord.
It was odd that he hadn’t caught any of the wizards or witches out with not letting them instinctively know how to move in their new forms.
Hermione gave a big sigh and pulled out her wand. She pointed it at the door to the compartment.
Harry glanced behind himself and saw that the windows were completely blocked, bottom to top and side-to-side, with wizards, witches, and ponies trying to see inside.
The spell she cast blacked out the windows. Then she cast a second spell to lock the door and then a third to hide it. “There now,” she said dryly, “I think we can get a few minutes peace with that.” She turned to the crystal pony. “I’m Hermione Granger . . . ,” and she proceeded to name everyone while pointing them out. She ended with “Ginny Weasley,” and pointing at the pegasus with the Weasley-red mane and tail on the luggage rack.
The crystal pony looked up at Ginny and chirped a “Hi, Ginny!” as if she were greeting a long-time friend, to everyone’s perplexity.
After a moment’s silence in which they all stared at her and she stared back, Hermione prompted, “And you are?” raising an eyebrow inquisitively.
“Oh,” the other said, “I’m Luna Lovegood!”
Ginny gasped, “Luna?” She quickly jumped to the floor and turned to face the girl, twisting her head side-to-side to examine her closely.
Luna nodded and said, “Hi! I heard you could change into a pony.” She stopped and looked down at her hooves. “Daddy is going to be so surprised!”
“When did this happen?” Harry leaned forward slightly.
“Just after the train left the station.”
“But that was hours ago!” objected Scootaloo.
“Oh,” Luna said. “There was this lovely mirror in the toilet. I wanted to see what I looked like.”
“Are you wearing earrings?” asked Sweetie Belle, incredulously.
“Yes!” said Luna, obviously pleased that someone had noticed. “They’re dirigible plum earrings that my mother made for me before she died.”
Ginny sighed sadly while the rest exchanged uncomfortable glances.
“How did you get them?” Apple Bloom finally ventured, glancing down at her hooves.
Luna gave her a puzzled look. “Well, first my mother searched through our dirigible plum tree to find a perfect matching set . . ..”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, “No, I mean, did you get them from your trunk after Discord changed you?”
Luna ducked her head slightly as she tried to shrug. “No. I was wearing them when he changed me, and I still was afterwards.” She looked down at her chest. “My butterbeer cork necklace disappeared, though,” she said sadly.
“But, how?” said Apple Bloom. “Anything you’re wearing when you transform stays with the other form until you return to it.”
“Oh, goody,” Luna said, “I was worried I had lost my wand.”
Apple Bloom and Luna looked at each other a moment, before Harry sighed and said, “Discord,” by way of explanation.
Apple Bloom huffed and sat back. “Right.”
Luna had an aura of “distinct dottiness” about her, Harry soon discovered. On the other hoof, her genuine cheerfulness and odd way of looking at things — even odder, now, he supposed — was endearing. She also kept mentioning creatures none of them had every heard of — such as Moon Frogs, Blibbering Humdingers, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, Nargles, Wrackspurts, Gulping Plimpies, and Dabberblimps.
Her puzzling explanations of those creatures, and a frustrated Hermione’s countless questions, was quite entertaining. Ginny and Scootaloo spent part of the trip to Hogwarts telling the new pony everything they had learned that a new pegasus pony needed to know. Usually when Hermione buried herself in Fantastic Beasts trying to find some of the creatures mentioned by Luna
They were not, however, able to answer all Luna’s questions. One that brought the entire compartment to conversational stop was when she asked if pegasi mated while flying, and how did that work? Did they have to hurry so they wouldn’t crash? Or did one fly while carrying the other? Or did they have to synchronize their wing-beats? And how hard was that to do if one of them was upside down?
Scootaloo went cross-eyed after a moment, and ended up crashing to the floor.
It took several minutes before everypony stopped blushing and could look at each other without blushing, again.
For the rest of the trip, Scootaloo would occasionally glance at Harry, and then mumble and blush while staring at the floor.
When the announcement to prepare to arrive in Hogsmeade was made, it took a bit of work to convince Luna that she had to attend the Arrival Feast in her robes as a person. She reluctantly agreed, but only after they promised to teach her how to switch back and forth to her animagus form, tomorrow.
When she turned back to a witch, after a bit of coaching by the others, Harry was startled to see that she had tucked her wand over her ear and in her hair. She was quite pleased to find she hadn’t lost it. Nor her odd necklace made from butterbeer corks.
Harry and the CMC half-expected it, so they weren’t nearly as surprised as everypony else that Luna’s earrings carried across when she returned to being a human. Discord, of course. Harry was afraid to ask what wand she had.
They didn’t realize until after they got to the train station that Malfoy and his cronies had wasted a good deal of time looking for them.
Harry was startled to hear a familiar and disliked voice yell, “Potter! A moment of your time, please.” He had barely stepped off the train following Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and assisting his other herd mates behind him. Neville took the hint and quickly turned to help Luna to the platform — she was still pouting at having been changed back to a witch.
He turned to face the Slytherin as he walked down the platform from further back down the train. His two colt-friends were a step behind him. A second-year, like Harry, Draco had a pale, pointed face and cold, grey eyes. He wore expensive tailored robes and tilted his head back slightly, so that he could look down his nose at everyone, as if they were his social inferiors. He was always sneering at anyone he felt wasn’t his equal — and he didn’t consider anyone in school his equal — not even the professors. Except, maybe, the Potions Professor, Severus Snape.
“Potter,” Draco repeated as he came close enough to talk — without a sneer this time, Harry was surprised to see. “I fear,” he continued in a conciliatory tone, “that we may have gotten off on the wrong-foot when we first met last year.” He stopped and took a breath. “I’d like to start over.”
He held out his hand. “Hello. I’m Draco Malfoy. I believe that I, and my family, could be of great help to you,” his eyes flickered to Harry’s herd mates who were listening with varying expression of disbelief and hostility, “and your family, at Hogwarts and after. My family has considerable influence in Wizarding society, and the Wizengamot. My father told me that Hogwarts is a great opportunity to meet those who will be shaping the future of our world, and to form the bonds and links that will lead to a successful and profitable career afterwards.”
Harry tried to keep a blank expression, but could feel his eyebrows arch up. He was not stupid, merely caught off-guard. Blueblood had been very particular about the responses one should make to potential offers of friendship, even if one came from an unexpected source.
He slowly raised his hand and took Draco’s in his, giving him a hesitant shake.
Draco grinned broadly. “We will never agree on some things,” he again glanced at the small crowd that had gathered around them. “However, such disagreements will always be in the spirit of competition, without malice. With other differences, I am sure we will come to reasonable solutions. I look forward to the opportunities we will encounter with each other in the future.”
He let go of Harry’s hand. “Well, I’ll leave you to your . . . friends,” he said jovially. He looked around. “Do you know where Pansy went, Goyle? I thought she was right here.”
They watched, bemused, as he headed off towards the carriages. Harry shook his head. Friends with Draco? What had happened here over the summer?
They slowly started off to the end of the platform, and the carriages to Hogwarts.
As he watched Luna wander off, after hearing Hagrid call for the first years, Harry wondered if they had enough boats. Would they require two trips?
This time he took a longer look at the thestrals that pulled the carriages. At first glance, they looked as if they had no flesh, that they were living skeletons. However, on a second, more thorough look, they had a thin black coat that clung to their bones, making them appear starved. Their heads were more draconish than pony or horse, with pupliless, staring white eyes. Their wings were massive leathery things — much bigger, proportionally, than the wings on either pegasi or the night-ponies of Equestria. They stood eerily still and quiet in the dark. Harry could see how others might think them sinister.
And ponies at home were scared of Luna’s Night ponies — they’d faint at the sight of these horses! The Night ponies at least looked like normal ponies, but with leathery wings and slitted eyes. Pretty normal compared to the thestrals.
Hermione had looked up the information about the gaunt horses last year, so he knew that they weren’t really as starved as they looked. Still, they were a bit creepy at first glance. He wondered what one would look like if it went through the portal. Which also made him wonder about the unicorns in the forest.
The sorting in the castle went much faster than last year. Instead of standing in a line at the side of the room, the new students stood in a line beside the stool with the old, dingy Sorting Hat. The person being sorted simply handed the hat to the next person before they left for their new House. Even with eighty new students, it took under an hour to sort the group — for most students the hat was in place for less than fifteen seconds.
It was easily as fast as last year’s sorting.
The expression on everyone’s face when the first Equestrian went to Slytherin House was hilarious, in his opinion. That another followed only a few moments later left the entire room staring in disbelief. By the time the sorting was over, and twelve Equestrians had been sorted into the House of Ambition, everyone was looking pretty shell-shocked and confused.
Not even the three Pauncefoot siblings going into Hufflepuff made much of an impact, although two girls and boy being Irish triplets should have attracted attention.
Luna Lovegood ended up in Gryffindor.
The final numbers for the four Houses in Hogwarts were surprisingly uneven. There were twenty-two in Slytherin, the House of the Ambitious (or sneaky, slimy, deceitful snakes, to some). There were twenty in Gryffindor, the House of the Brave (some called them the stupid cannon-fodder who always charged forward without thinking). There were eighteen in Ravenclaw, the House of the Studious and Smart (condescending swots, more interested in books than people, according to their critics). Finally, there were twenty-two in Hufflepuff, the House of hard work, loyalty, and fair play (their detractors called them the house of misfits or duffers, going into that House because they weren’t good enough to fit in any of the other three).
But, in any case, they were easily the largest incoming class in twelve years!
That evening, on the way up to his dorm, Harry spared a quick look into the First-year’s dorm. He shouldn’t have been, but he was amazed at what he saw. Despite the rooms above and below theirs having just enough room for five and six beds, the new students’ room managed to fit seven beds without any sign of crowding. He would have to ask the fillies if the girls’ first-year room similarly accommodated twelve beds.
^·_·^
Second Lieutenant Castor James Searle knew something was up when he walked into the conference room at the Number Ten Downing to find Princess Twilight Sparkle already seated, with Ambassador Blueblood beside her. The last two monthly meeting had been only with the Ambassador as he brought them up to date on their progress with the commercial aspects of the portal and their plans in general.
Searle had been the initial contact between the Equestrians and the British government when he had stumbled upon their trans-dimensional (or was it merely trans-space?) portal into Little Whinging, England, last summer. He had been a lowly Sergeant in the Surrey constabulary, at the time. Retired from the SAS, he had quickly been reactivated and assigned to Military Intelligence Department Five to smooth the way between the two species as they dealt with a First Contact situation — a first for the human race, but not the Equestrians.
After a few initial bumps in the relationship, such as the discovery that magic was real, and the accidental intrusion into Britain of a species at war with the Equestrians, they were now working on making a permanent presence in both worlds for both sides. The only spanner in the works was dealing with the wizards and witches that they had discovered living in their own world. Having seen some of what magic could do, the British were attempting to play the wizards and witches against the Equestrians, hoping to prevent themselves from becoming the equivalent of serfs to the two more powerful groups. A precarious balancing act in every way.
Fortunately for the British, the Equestrians were very interested in trade and cultural exchanges. They had no apparent interest in interfering with the status quo regarding governance. Distinctly unlike the Wizards who felt they had every right to treat the non-magical humans as fourth-class citizens, lower than slaves, to do with as they pleased. Unfortunately, magic let them get away with a lot.
If push came to shove, however, the British government much preferred the laid-back Equestrians to the antagonistic wizards. The Equestrians had been more than willing to bring medical miracles to the bargaining table. They had provided a cure for cancer and several other diseases, as well as a way to regrow lost limbs! All things the wizards knew how to do, but had chosen not to share. Instead, they hid themselves away and removed the memories of anyone who found out about them.
He quietly took his place and waited for the Prime Minister, John Major, the Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Douglas Hurd, and the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon. Kenneth Wilfred Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking.
Those gentlemen arrived a few moments after he sat down.
After the regular pleasantries had been exchanged, Ambassador Blueblood announced, “We’ve considered the locations carefully, and we’ve decided that the best site for the second portal is in Blackpool. There is a nearby international airport, Blackpool Squires Gate Airport. With the central location of the site in Britain, the railway and bus transports systems won’t require upgrading. The population has been steady for several decades, and was larger in the past. Currently, unemployment is high, and will provide an extensive labour pool without requiring additional investment in expanding the current infrastructure.” He smiled at the others.
“By paying a reasonable wage, we’ll reduce crime while decreasing poverty. A win-win situation, I believe you call it. Just purchasing the land for the area around the portal will have an impact, not to mention the clearing and construction.
“We’ll use local labour for that, with unicorns and earth ponies doing the final check to make sure everything is set at each stage.”
He watched the others’ reactions for a moment.
There had been three other contenders, Castor knew; Southhampton, Felixstowe, and Port of Milford Haven. Of the four, Blackpool was the only city with a sizeable unemployment problem and underutilized infrastructure.
“This portal will be for the handling of freight, only. What passenger traffic there may be will all still go through the Embassy Portal in Little Whinging,” he continued. “This will help prevent any individuals who might want to sneak through, either way. Cargo will undergo an intensive scrutiny by teams of Humans and Equestrians, including killing and sterilization spells, to prevent the transmission of insects, bacterial, and other types of small life. We envision a conveyor-belt type arrangement so that no personnel will even come close to the sealed-in portal.”
He paused and waited a moment.
“That sounds . . . workable,” the Prime Minister said, nodding slightly and giving his two intelligence officers a surprised look at the rather paranoid measures the Equestrians wanted to place.
“Excellent.” Blueblood pulled up a thick folder. “Here are the advance architectural plans we have. We’d like you to go over them and approve them before we contact the firm that handled the Embassy plans.” He smiled smugly. “Although, I think you’ll see we’ve done everything possible to keep the portal isolated and safe from interference of any kind.” He pushed the folder to the Prime Minister with his magic. “Our side of the portal will be located in Manehattan, which is our commercial and financial hub. It will have similar protections against contaminations.”
The Prime Minister gave him a broad smile. “I don’t think we’ll find anything, either. Your . . . ponies seem quite efficient and detail-oriented in their work.” He pushed the folder over to Baron Baker.
“Moving on,” the Equestrian said, “Regarding your embassy personnel. It appears that non-magical humans staying in Equestria for a year do not suffer any side-effects that we can detect, going right down to the cellular levels. We would suggest that you open an embassy with the intention of rotating the personnel on an eleven-month basis until the trials for the longer term are completed.”
John Major nodded. “That’s what our doctors tell us, they can’t find anything different from their baselines, except they appear a bit healthier.” He smirked. “The doctors attribute that to the mostly vegetarian diet the volunteers encountered on the other side.”
Blueblood gazed at the Prime Minister. “Have you decided on where you would like this embassy built? Space can be made in Canterlot that should give you a rather nice presence. However, you might also want to put a larger building in Ponyville to be close to the portal, with a third in Manehattan to handle any issues that might arise there with that portal. Use of a restricted floo-connection would make the three buildings almost seamless in your people’s ability to move from one to either of the other two nearly instantly.
“Of course, you can continue to use the current buildings you’re using, if you prefer.”
The Prime Minister looked a bit surprised.
“I’ve used the floo-travel, sir,” Castor interrupted. “It’s a bit disorienting the first few times, after that it becomes just another method of travel that one must endure.”
At the Foreign Secretary’s raised eyebrow, the Ambassador interrupted with a brief explanation, “Unfortunately, if you were to use that with any sort of regularity on this side of the portal, the magicals here would quickly discover you doing so. Especially if you travelled outside the country. They have spells to alert them of ‘unsanctioned’ international floo-connections.” He gave a wry grin and shook his head. “They trust their neighbours as little as you do.”
He looked back at the Prime Minister. “I don’t have to tell you the trouble that would cause with their Statute of Secrecy. Plus, unfortunately, the wizarding world is currently the only source of floo-powder, the activating agent. We are importing quite a lot of it to Equestria.” He sighed and shook his head. “Until we have our own supply arranged on our side of the portal, we couldn’t supply you any. Meaning you’d leave a paper trail for them to follow and discover that ‘muggles are using our magic!’ And then we’d have a problem.”
The Prime Minister nodded. Until the non-magicals could figure out a way to initiate portkeys without needing magic, they would just have to deal with the delays inherent in normal, mundane travel methods.
“How are the air pollution tech-spells working?”
All three politicians smiled broadly. “We’ve replaced all the mufflers on all the government vehicles and busses with your advanced-tech mufflers that render the carbon and sulphur into solid form for simple retrieval. The remaining oxygen and hydrogen molecules are released as either water or O-two. All new vehicles are being equipped with the tech-mufflers. In a few years, the older cars will be a minority and air pollution will be a thing of the past!
“We’ve already forced the industrial polluters to install tech scrubbers that do the same, releasing only oxygen and water vapour into the air,” Baron Baker added. “The coal plants have discovered that the selling the sulphur, chromium, manganese, copper, zinc, lead and cadmium waste will more than make up the cost of installing the scrubbers in a few years — which were all interest-free government loans, anyway.”
“Just doing the buses has made a marked improvement on the air quality,” Major remarked. “People are very happy with the results we’ve given them this last year. They are quite impressed that we’ve been able to clean up polluters without disadvantaging the economy.”
“Not to mention that we’re doing a brisk trade in after-market vehicle muffler retrofits to other countries!” the Home Secretary said with much satisfaction.
“Hmm, yes,” murmured Prime Minister Major. He looked at the Princess as he said, “The cancer cures, limb replacement technology, and pollution solutions you’ve given us has won you quite a few kudos, you know!” He gave a self-satisfied smile. “The yanks and ruskies are practically frothing at the mouth to get hold of those. It’s doing wonders for our balance of trade.”
Castor knew that every other nation in the world was hurriedly trying to puzzle out how these various ‘advanced technology’ devices worked. It would be a futile effort. They would never realize that while the electronics — mostly unidentifiable — did do a minuscule part of the job, the runes designed into the stamped logos, and others hidden by welds, did the real heavy-lifting.
The meeting continued for another hour as they went over various projects that were in the works. Such as the finding, retrieving, and recycling rubbish tip plastic and rubber, and turning it into raw plastic for their manufacturers. That was an astonishingly simple series of spells they were trying to turn into an ‘advanced tech’ machine. The recovered metals were just another by-product! Which was another game-changer in terms of pollution and industry.
About the only thing that the Equestrians or wizards hadn’t delivered a game-changer on was energy generation. Britain was still stuck with crude oil, natural gas (both gas and liquids), coal, nuclear, wind, solar, hydro-electric, and bioenergy and waste burning. While the Equestrians helped with the pollution end of things, they had nothing to decrease the use of limited resources.
Finally, just as the meeting was wrapping up, Princess Sparkle started to look nervous. Ambassador Blueblood sighed and just looked at her.
Castor knew the reason she had made an unscheduled appearance was about to be revealed. Normally, she didn’t bother. Just as the Queen wouldn’t bother attending a regular Ministry meeting.
“We think there’s been another incursion from our side of the portal,” she finally said.
^-~-^