Sparkweld was finished, he put the final dot on the talisman… “It’s done… It’s done!” He shouted, even with the notes he gathered on the flux bomb it had taken him over a year to put together the solution, but now, he had it, he had figured out megaspells! At least one type of megaspell, there were many, but this version would suit their purposes. He wired the array of talismans together, creating a five-meter by five-meter circle where objects could pass through to the other side once the system was powered up, it would be simple to make a return trip, all he had to do was create another set of talismans magically linked into the system, after making one set another set would be much easier and much faster, just a few days, those days would have to be spent preparing for the crossover.
Sparkweld went to his terminal and sent a status update to the new Elder Crescent Bolt, ironic being named Elder when she was still younger than he was. A reply was almost immediate “Going to discuss Elysium with NCR leaders,” Sparkweld didn’t like that, this was the Steel Rangers’ work, not theirs, but since they were part of the republic there wasn’t much that could be done about it, plus getting the NCR’s assistance would be invaluable.
Crescent Bolt sat at the desk, it was her first time in Junction Town, which was rapidly expanding as the capital of the New Canterlot Republic, going from old metal shacks and train cars to brick cottages and concrete buildings, purpose-built structures and not just recycled materials, it was damn impressive… With a population of a little over five hundred it was also certainly one of the largest settlements in the Wasteland.
She was inside one of these new brick buildings, and sitting with her was the Elder of the Applejack’s Rangers, and the President herself. They had just finished rereading the file on Project Elysium “So, this Harry Potter,” Steelhooves began, “Is from another world?”
“That we have confirmed, not just from her own words, but also through genetic tests… The transfiguration spells used to turn her into a pony only alter physiology, they do not adjust genetics, genetically she is unlike any pony, or mutant, I have ever encountered… As you’ve seen in the file we’ve put together gene projections as to what she looks like in her original form.
“I’ve seen, this is amazing news, another world very similar to our own, with a pre-war civilization! If they knew what we were going through they could provide us food and supplies to rebuild!” Glory clopped her hooves together, smiling.
“Or, they could be another Enclave,” Steelhooves said, pessimistically .
“True…” Glory replied, “Still, we need to do something with this information.”
“I have plans to infiltrate this world,” Crescent Bolt began, “Harry Potter can guide us, we can use transfiguration spells to adjust our physiology to match that of Humans, we can set up a hidden outpost, somewhere far from Human eyes.”
“That is an idea,” Steelhooves continued, “If I may, I would like to send a few of my own personale to help in this project.”
“Ooh! Can I come!” A pony had entered the room unannounced, she was almost like a much younger clone of President Morning Glory, “I want to do something cool and important for everyone too!”
“Lambent-” Glory began.
“I wanna come!” The foal said, giving a puppy-dog look to her older sister.
“Is it safe on this, Earth?”
“If Harry Potter is to be believed, yes,” Replied Crescent.
“Ok, fine, Lambent you can go, hopefully you’ll learn a thing or two from the Rangers. Listen to what they say and do what they tell you to do, they’re good ponies.”
“Oh, yes! Yes! Yes!,” The foal was dancing around happy and excited.
Harry Potter walked calmly into the maintenance section of the stable, Sparkweld was waiting for her. “Harry, good morning, I have some good news.”
“What is it, sir?”
“Project Elysium is ready to advance to stage two, we have successfully opened a portal to your homeworld.”
That was news to Harry, so that was what the stallion had been doing this whole time, “Why?”
“Your homeworld presents an amazing opportunity to the ponies of the wasteland, we intend to contact humanity and exchange our technology for food and supplies in rebuilding Equestria… However, we understand that this is also a danger, the humans may not like our intrusion, so for stage two we’re going to be sending through several undercover recon teams to assess the situation. Once we have a clear picture of human government and their likely responses we can work on contacting them.”
“I understand, sir,” Harry continued, yes, it made sense, but there was no way they could pull this off, “But sir, how precisely are you going to stay undercover, a pony would be too obvious if they simply appeared in the street.”
“First we’re going to open a portal in a remote and relatively safe area, then we will use transfiguration spells to make ourselves human. Your genetic data will be of great aid, but we will need more samples if we’re too copy humans, that is why I would ask you if you can gather Ghost and inform her of the situation, with her invisibility she can move among humans without detection, gather a few small blood samples from various male and female humans, and bring them back here in stasis.”
“Alright, is there more I need to know?”
“Yes, you will be acting as our guide and helping us move through the human world without being too obvious, give us instructions on how to blend in, however that will only be after we have successfully made a pony-to-human and human-to-pony transformation spell and have clothing and weapons suitable for the human world.
Ghost woke up from a strange dream. She had been having these dreams ever since the Goddess had died, but she couldn’t understand them… She was a pink and purple unicorn, she was in a laboratory… There was an explosion, a pony fell into a vat of liquid, she hid, she starved, she tried to teleport away but the magic in the walls didn’t allow it, she heard them all scream and get dragged away, one by one, then she was grabbed, she screamed, she tried to fight but her magic wasn’t strong enough, “Starlight!” One of them yelled, but then she went under-
Ghost started to wander around, she didn’t like the stable, she liked the surface, she walked around among the bushes and grass chutes that had started to sprinkle the wasteland, eventually trees would come back too, it would be a while though, she remembered trees, they always caught her kites- She tried to remember more but the memory vanished.
Then, she heard Little Mare approaching, Little Mare told her to follow, so she did, she went back into the stable, she met with the one Little Mare called Sparkweld, who told her that Little Mare was from another world, it was interesting. She was taken into a room filled with magical machines, the stallion put a circle of talismans inside another circle of talismans, hit a switch, and the inner set of talismans vanished, “There we go, that should act as your return gate, just walk into the circle and you will be brought back, you remember your mission?”
“Yes,” She replied, “Gather blood from ten humans, do not cause any permanent harm, do not be detected.” She raised the stack of enchanted needles she had been given, the spells dulled the pain when being stuck into someone’s veins, once blood was gathered it was placed into stasis, and once the needle was removed the wound would heal immediately.
“Correct, now, step into the circle, I have chosen what I believe to be a good insertion point.”
She obeyed, stepped into the circle, there was a flash, and then she was suddenly standing in a forest… Not a twisted and dark forest like the Everfree, not a dead and burnt forest like much of the wasteland, it was filled with thick trees and lots of fresh plants, it smelled so strange. She trotted out of the woods, not far away, but certainly in sight, was a small village that would be a good place for blood gathering. She turned invisible and flew low over the town, she flew into a large black tower and gathered samples from the two inside, they were strange-looking, tall and with claws on their forehooves and weird flat paws on their hindhooves, much like a griffon, but built as if to walk on just their rear legs. She moved on to the next building, with a large family, she gathered three more vials there, but didn’t risk staying for too long, it was evidently early in the morning and they would be waking up soon, judging from the sliver of light on the horizon, she arrived in another home and gathered two more, just one more vial was empty, and she took a sample from one last human before flying back into the forest and delivering them.
“Is it ok, Silver, if I were to stay a girl, eeh, filly, during this process?” Harry began, “Being turned back into a human is going to be weird enough I’ve gotten used to living as a filly.”
“Sure!” Silver said happily, “Just let me transfer some genes from subject five and you’ll be set!” Gene analysis was complete, there was one weird genetic trait they all seemed to share, an active thaumic membrane in their cranium, almost like the patches of magically-active brain tissue in a pony, but Silver put that thought away for later, there was some minor inbreeding but nothing major, she spliced and mixed the genes, giving them a semi-random appearance, it would be too obvious if they looked too much like other humans, then she added the genetic material taken from herself and the other ponies and one griffon who would be going through to the other side, it would help if they looked at least something like their regular forms. “Alright,” she said, “I’ll go first.”
She walked into the autodoc, it’s automatic spellcasting matrix fired, she felt herself change, growing larger, taller, skinnier in some places and fatter in others, she walked out, it was weird walking on just her hindhooves, Harry seemed to flush for some reason, but the others were just in awe, Silver was now a tall, human, female. She had kept her mane bright silver, but turned it from having a bluish tone to a yellowish tone, blonde was apparently an acceptable mane color for humans.
Next went Victory Flame, she came out smaller with a brown mane, and very skinny. Next went Lambent, then Rosemary, Lighting Striker, Aria Night, and finally Harry. Harry spoke up, regaining her professionalism after the shock of being in a room full of naked male and female humans…
“Alright, we’ll need acceptable aliases and backgrounds if we’re to fit in on Earth, I will still be Harry Potter, my relatives kicked me out of their house and I ended up taking shelter with the rest of you, got that?” Everyone nodded, clearly a little uneasy in their new bodies and at having to take orders from a filly. “It would be a little weird if all the foal- err, children were orphans, so Victory Flame your new parents are Silver Heartstrings and Rosemary, and Lambent, your new parents are Lightning Striker and Aria, understood?” Everyone nodded again.
“Ooh, this will be fun, pretending you’re my parents!” Lambent said.
“Finally, names, as I said, we will need acceptable aliases, Harry Potter works fine for me, it’s a human name… Here’s a list of human names I’ve put together, feel free to mix them up or change them slightly, but don’t change them too much, we still want to sound vaguely human.”
Victory settled on “Vicky Themorre,” with Silver being “Celeste Themorre,” and Rosemary taking “Lance Themorre.” Lambent was now “Lucius Kriegsworth,” Lightning was “Mac Kriegsworth,” and Aria stayed as “Aria Kriegsworth.” They weren’t perfect human names, it was likely that Petunia and Vernon would think them to be some weirdos, at the very least, but they were suitable.
Everyone practiced their new names as Harry, feeling weird walking around as a human girl, went to talk to some of the unicorn scribes about putting together some acceptable clothing for everyone. She was given odd looks by the rest of the ponies, but they had been warned in advance, so they didn’t attack or restrain her thinking she was some mutant.
In a few hours, everyone was used to their new human names, a few small 10mm pistols had been modified with handles better suited for human use, and they had been outfitted with some rudimentary clothes, they were mostly patched together from raider gear and pre-war outfits, after being washed thoroughly, they were messy, patchty, and didn’t fight quite right, but they would do, at least until they could buy some proper clothes. “Money will be a problem, we can exchange gold or gems, but caps won’t do, gather up some pre-war coins, they’re gold, we can sell them. We don’t have merchants where we come from, you might be able to sell some stuff at pawn shops, at least I remember Petunia saying something about pawning off some of Dudley’s old stuff, but most places only sell, they don’t buy.”
With that final point made and understood, they were given one last piece of utility, Sparkweld walked in, carrying seven small padded devices, “These are pipbucks,” He said, “I’m sure most of you have at least heard of them, they’re rare, but the stable as a nice large supply, you wear them around your forelegs, in your case, your arms… They are extremely useful and I wouldn’t allow you to leave without them, they are able to identify hostiles and map your surroundings using a range of scrying and divination spells. As well as vitals monitoring, poison detection, radiation meters, all sorts of useful spells.” Everyone fitted one to their wrist, they were a bit less bulky on a human than they were on a pony, but they did stand out, Harry didn’t like it, but she had to admit that they sounded useful, the adults had managed to hide theirs under their clothing, one or two of them wouldn’t stand out, the humans would probably think them just some weird wrist-watches, even if they were a little large.
With that, they stepped through the portal… It was weird, for a second Harry was in a stream of magical energy, and then suddenly she was standing in a forest, an earth forest… Everyone checked their pipbucks, there was one non-hostile nearby who wasn’t with their team, but they didn’t see anyone, or did they hear running or shouting, so they doubted the human had seen them yet. “Alright, check the perimeter and make sure it’s safe to begin transforming this location into a proper Steel Ranger outpost,” Mac Kreigsworth began. Everyone fanned out, while Mac went back through the portal to inform the ponies on the other side to begin moving material through and set up some illusion spells and magical barriers to keep the area safe and concealed.
Harry was walking down a hill when she came across the non-hostile on her EFS, a young human girl, sitting on the hill, wearing a sparkly and kinda tacky dress, brilliant blonde hair, in a voice that reminded him somewhat of Fluttershy but with an english accent, she simply said “Hello, I’ve not seen you around before. I’m Luna Lovegood.”