//------------------------------//
// Ch. 29. Queen’s Gambit 
// Story: If Wishes Were Ponies, Book II 
// by tkepner 
//------------------------------//

While not yet summer, the temperature outside was a decent improvement over what they had experienced in January. So, after lunch and their last class of the day, the herd and friends decided to go outside. With the castle walls reflecting the morning sunlight, the areas close to the building were much warmer than over by the forest or on the opposite side of the castle.

“What do you think Elly was trying to say?” Sweetie Belle said to Hermione.

“I’m not sure,” Hermione said slowly. “She did warn us that Lockhart is a fraud, which we already knew, and that Goyle, of all people, is plotting something.” She paused. “She seems to think something involving them is going to happen, would be my guess. But what?” she said, frustrated.

“Maybe she thinks the Slytherins are planning something with Lockhart as a stooge?” Ron interjected, idly kicking at a flower bed and watching as the blooms brightened and several more plants burst from the ground.

The three fillies exchanged a fierce look.

“Ah think we should practice our shield spells, doing them as fast as possible,” Apple Bloom said, squinting at the Greenhouses across the lawn.

The others nodded agreement.

“And stay as far from the Slytherins and Lockhart as we can,” firmly stated Ron, looking up at the rest.

Which would be fairly easy to do — avoiding the Slytherins, that is — as the only class they had with them was Potions, and at mealtimes they were on the opposite sides of the Great Hall from each other.

Practicing the shield charms wasn’t as easy as Harry expected. Hermione insisted that they learn and use the more powerful shield charms such as Protego Horribilis, Protego Diabolica, Protego Maximus, Protego Totalum, Fianto Duri, and Repello Inimicum. They spent the rest of the day and evening practicing the wand movements. Tomorrow, they would work on the pronunciations.


^-~-^


Elly was surprised when the Gringotts owl flew in at breakfast on Tuesday and landed in front of her. They were done with the Riddle and Gaunt estates business, right? What the letter actually said left her shocked.

Another ling had made it through the Portal!?

The four were stunned! They knew the Equestrians would have discovered the deception by the three from summer. How could they not? The Guards would inquire when the three “ponies” failed to return. Or when the Guard inquired as to what the emergency had been that had required those three ponies. Which would have led to the Guard tracking down the three ponies in Equestria and finding that those ponies knew nothing of the incident.

She took a moment to congratulate herself on changing the message outside the bank. Instead of leading directly to her, de Rippe, any lings were instructed to ask the goblins what it would cost to help an Equestrian refugee. If they answered the questions correctly, the goblins would contact her.

As they just had.

This required a lot of thought, and the four were quite distracted during their classes that day. Not that that mattered, as they knew the material forwards and backwards. The distraction did help their images as average students, though.

There were three problems. First, was this a trap? Second, how could they sneak Elly out of Hogwarts without being noticed while she was gone. The third was selecting a location that was both convenient to reach, yet wouldn’t suggest where they were. The new ling could be from another hive and hostile, after all. Fortunately, neither was as difficult as they first thought, when they devoted serious discussion to the problem. That evening, she sent of an owl to the goblins explaining the situation, and their concerns, and asking for their solution to keeping their identity anonymous.


^·_·^


It was a tradition, now, for the girls to pop out of his trunk in the mornings. The other boys in the room had quickly learned to keep their bedcurtains closed for privacy. The girls, in previous visits, had managed to teach them the advantages of keeping the room clean and neat. The banishing charm had been a wonder at dumping everything on their heads in the morning if it wasn’t properly put away the night before.

He had learned to always be ready before they appeared.

As a result, he and the room were ready when they dragged him, grumbling, down to the common room and out into the corridor. However, that Wednesday morning he saw that Hermione and the others were not happy when they came out of his trunk.

Once out in the corridor and headed for the Great Hall, he learned why they were in a sour mood. “Parvati told us, last night, about the latest rumour,” Scootaloo said. 

“And it’s a doozy,” said, Apple Bloom, shaking her head.

Hermione just shook her head in disbelief, as Ginny said, “Get this. Lockhart likes you!”

He just stared at her. “You know,” prompted, Sweetie Belle said, “He really like, likes you.” She waggled her eyebrows.

They stared at him, expectantly.

He stared back, cluelessly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, and huffed. “Like a boy likes a girl.” She tilted her head and widened her eyes in a significant manner.

Harry suddenly stopped walking and broke into a cold sweat. “You’re kidding, right?” He felt his blood drain from his face. “This is a prank, right? Not Lockhart! No, no, no!”

Both Blueblood and Sirius had told him about how a few of the stallions preferred other stallions, and that it was . . . something that happened. However, society frowned on that. It was okay to experiment, but anything more was . . . not generally accepted by the mares.

That shouldn’t stop him, of course, if it was what he truly wanted, they had both concluded. Just that he had to be aware of the difficulties, if he did.

The thought of Lockhart, their professor, being that way wasn’t a problem. That he, Harry, might be the object of the professor’s affections? That was terrifying. Especially considering how much of a fraud he was.

Harry barely touched his lunch, when it came time. He decided the better part of valour was to complain of an upset stomach and a hot forehead — which he definitely had — rather than go to DADA class, afterwards. It necessitated a trip to the Hospital Wing, but dealing with the not-so-tender mercies of Madam Pomfrey was better than with . . . an affectionate Professor.

He shuddered.

Was this what Elly had been trying to warn them about?

He hoped not.

He put a lot of effort into magic-practice after classes as a way to distract himself. By the time curfew arrived, he was too tired to dwell on the day’s revelations. On the bright-side, though, he was the best at casting the spells they were working with.


^-~-^


The goblins were more than happy to provide portkeys to any location for a modest fee — for a generous definition of modest. The goblins suggested George’s Street Arcade in Dublin, Ireland. It was both close and would leave a false impression of where she was located, but wouldn’t require an international portkey which would draw attention.

Thursday’s schedule was the best, they decided. Elly had a free period after lunch, giving her just over an hour before she had DADA if she left lunch early. The Hufflepuff first-years had the afternoon off, so Emmie could take Elly’s place in DADA, if necessary. That would give Elly the entire afternoon to settle the new ling in place, if she decided to bring her back with her. 

Depending on the ling, that is what her specialty was, she might spend the time from now until summer hiding out at the de Rippe estate. Or they’d sneak her into the Forbidden Forest to keep her close and bring her up to speed on what they were doing. If things went perfectly — ha! Like that would ever happen — they’d have the new ling enrol in Hogwarts as a new student next year. 

In any case, for this excursion, Essie would be her backup.

Then they changed it. Emmie and Essie would get into an argument at breakfast over Essie “borrowing” some of Emmie’s things. Earl and Elly would try unsuccessfully to defuse the situation. Essie would storm off in a rage at her sister’s hostility about sharing, and skip her classes for the day. Earl, Emmie, and Elly would get into a three-way argument over who was right, and end up treating each other very frostily for the rest of the day.

In truth, Elly and Essie would swap identities. Elly would take the portkey to Belfast just after breakfast, set herself up in a quiet corner, and wait for her “appointment” to arrive at two o’clock. Meanwhile Essie would impersonate Elly in all her classes. After lunch, and another argument, Emmie would storm off to sulk, as “Elly” and Earl would loudly proclaim.

Instead, after making her dramatic exit, Emmie would take a second portkey to Dublin to act as Elly’s backup, if needed.

If everything went as they hoped, they would have a new ling installed in their hive by nightfall. If not? Whomever had tried to flush them out would be left with no clues on where to start looking for them. With any luck at all, they wouldn’t even realize the lings weren’t in the Irish isles. Or that there was more than one ling to contact.


^·_·^


The portkey dropped Elly into an alley that, as the goblins had promised, was just down the street from George’s Street Arcade. Someone had even written on one of the alley walls, in now-faded chalk, which way to turn as you left the alley. She could feel the slight muggle-aversion charm on it, so it was safe from being deliberately erased. Mother Nature, on the other hand, was well on her way to making the message illegible.

The building was huge, taking up the entire block, much bigger than the Quidditch stadium was at Hogwarts, almost as tall, too. Unlike the Quidditch stadium, though, the Arcade was primarily brick and completely enclosed.

Studying it, she could see that the Arcade building consisted of numerous restaurants, small shops, and stores that lined the entire perimeter. Above them were three floors of apartments and businesses. In the middle of the building, fronting on South Great George’s Street, with a large triple-arch entrance, was the Arcade part. It was basically two wide corridors running through the middle of the building. There were small shops between the two corridors, and lining the sides. At the other end of the Arcade was a two-arch exit, or entrance, depending on which way you were walking, on Drury street.

She seemed to have arrived not long after they had opened the doors for the day.

The Arcade had the feeling of having been an open-air market that had been roofed over many decades ago. It looked a bit rundown, the colours faded and the bricks dirty with their surfaces crumbling in many spots. However, it was obviously well-attended by vendors, which meant it would be well-attended by customers. That combination meant she would be well-hidden in the crowd.

She wandered up and down the two corridors, twice, looking for anything to indicate she might be under watch. However, nothing triggered her instincts that she was in danger, or being scrutinized. The people, both tradesmen and customers, ignored her beyond quick checks to see if she was interested in their wares or in their way. 

She made her way over to one wall where there was a shadowed spot, leaned back against the brick wall, and studied the as-yet light crowd. Carefully checking that no one was watching, she surreptitiously cast the muggle-aversion version of the notice-me-not charm. She waited several minutes to see if anyone suddenly began searching for someone they had been watching, who had abruptly vanished.

Once she was sure she no one had noticed her absence, she cast an illusion that she was a brick wall. She hadn’t detected any of the ling-detection spells, so she then transformed into a brick wall. If the transformation failed for any reason, she’d still be hidden by the illusion. 

When she didn’t immediately pass-out, she relaxed a bit more. Now she was prepared if the illusion should be countered or failed for any reason. She settled in to observe everything she could, and waited for a sign her “appointment” had arrived.

She drank in the appearance and accents of the many people wandering through the building — quite unlike Hogwarts and Diagon Alley. The hours passed quickly as she memorized the many details an infiltrator used in copying a target. She was getting a rich variety of voices, customary reactions, and facial and body expressions, far better than what she had picked up in Hogwarts. 

People frequently wandered quite close. From them, she was picking up more than just the appearances and speech cadences to serve the hive in the future. She was close enough to the customers and clerks to get glimmers of their personalities based on what they said and did. Her passive magic was hard at work parsing out the other details she wasn’t consciously noting.

It felt odd to not have even a vague feeling of connection to the other lings. For all she could tell, she was the only ling on the planet. It was not a welcome feeling; she had grown too used to other lings being nearby.

The Arcade began to fill up as lunchtime approached. She settled herself further into quiet. She no longer allowed her active magic more than several paces away from her position, while stretching her passive magic senses to “listen” for the approach of a ling.

At thirteen minutes after one, she felt Emmie arrive via portkey. She was rather startled to pick her up at that distance. Her passive detection skills hadn’t had such reach, before. In Equestria, she might have been able to pick up a fellow ling at the edge of the Arcade’s main entrance. Emmie was at least twice that, at the moment. 

Could it be because she was so well-known to Elly?

A few minutes later, Emmie walked into the Arcade. Elly waited until she was directly across from her before touching her lightly. It took mere seconds to transfer what had happened that morning, both ways.

Emmie began to wander aimlessly through the arcade’s corridors, imitating the many customers who were doing the same thing.

At a few minutes before her appointment time, Elly began to feel the approach of a ling’s aura — a ling from her original hive! However, she held herself back. While the approaching ling was familiar, in a vague manner, the exact ling was as yet unrecognizable. Emmie had not yet detected the new ling, bringing a mental frown to Elly. Whatever had increased her range hadn’t affected the other. She would have to test this with all three when she got back to Hogwarts.

The strange ling came into the Arcade and slowly started walking down the shops. Emmie, as they had prearranged, began to drift towards the entrance/exit arch farthest from Elly, to her left. If things went to tartarus, Emmie would act as decoy to try to draw attention away from where Elly was hiding. Or to allow Elly the time to get into position to ambush the other, and they both would escape.

Elly waited until the new ling had reached the middle of the Arcade before allowing her magic to touch the other, using Emmie as a conduit.

It was difficult to tell who was shocked more: Elly, Debby, or Emmie.

Debby was too experienced of an infiltrator to react in a physical manner, but her near instant reaction to Elly’s touch, “You’re a Queen?” almost shocked Elly enough to get her to reveal herself. Luckily, Emmie let out a startled mental “Eep,” and Debby turned to face that direction. Even though the crowd was too thick for them to actually see through the crowd, the two lings “stared” at each other.

Discovering that two hundred and nine lings had escaped from Equestria, with the aid of the muggle government, was ground-shattering to the other two lings.

That Debby perceived Elly as a Queen was equally shattering to the lings in the Arcade. Elly and her “cousins” had noticed that the three new lings at Hogwarts had always deferred to Elly and had been somewhat servile. She was also bigger than her sisters. They had attributed both conditions to her longer exposure to this new world and its magic. That it might be because she was becoming a Queen had never occurred to them.

This was impossible. The best any of the four knew was that a Queen had to be born. They had merely been making themselves a safe home until they died. For a Worker to spontaneously become a Queen was impossible, as far as the four knew. Hence, they had never had reason to look for or notice the changes.

Emmie’s obvious shock at the declaration helped convey the impression that she was the Queen, and helped hide Elly from Debby. Her reaction easily disguised Elly’s surprise as her own.

Elly had a sinking feeling as to why that rock she had found in First Year had tasted so good — and why she hadn’t eaten it all at once, nor simply ignored it. Every week, she had found herself giving it a few licks or breaking off a tiny sliver to suck on. Which she still did. It was the one thing she hadn’t shared with her siblings. She had felt uneasy with telling them about it — it was private, it was hers! She had told them of course. It wasn’t a secret, just something . . . private. They knew all about how she had acquired it. And that it was hers. They never questioned why they knew better than to touch it.

Debby was quite certain that Emmie had been a proto-queen that their Queen-Mother had been keeping in suppression with her mind-skills and limiting her food to Worker rations. Now that she was isolated from those influences, her Queen attributes had come to the surface.

Elly kept as tight a hold on Emmie’s communications-link as she could. She hoped she had reacted fast enough, and stealthily enough, to prevent the new ling from discovering that the four lings had joined together for an impromptu hive. At this point, all Debby knew was that there was one ling she was now in contact with, a proto-queen. If everything went to tartarus, Elly and the other two would still be safe.

After a moment’s hesitation, Debby told her — them — what had brought the others to this juncture. Asking for Sanctuary in the Embassy, the oath, the government’s offer to her and the others, and what they had been doing since. The reasoning was unassailable, Elly decided. 

It took only seconds to absorb everything the ling knew into Elly’s hive-mind.

Elly and the others would sift through the details when they had time, later.

Elly, through Emmie, told Debby that she was living in the witching world as a menial. She had left the message in Diagon Alley as the only place she knew where, if a ling came through portal, she could establish contact. Trying to do so in the muggle world would have been an exercise in futility — there was no central place where she knew a ling would see a message. In the witching world, everyone eventually visited Gringotts and Diagon Alley.

Anywhere close to the Equestrian Embassy was a non-starter. Any ling coming through the portal would be moving as fast as possible to get away from there. She wouldn’t be hanging around looking for a hidden message while doing so!

She had hoped that any ling that made it through would eventually notice the magic-users greater potential for providing emotional food, and end up in Diagon Alley.

Then again, Elly hadn’t really expected any lings to contact her. The ling hex-traps the muggle government had erected around the Embassy and other locations would have detected and trapped any lings as soon as they tried to transform using anything but an illusion.

Illusions which were now, she knew from Debby, also countered with special spells built into the doors as traps in both worlds.

Which was why she had moved into the witching world. It was safer. Given the wizards’ and witches’ attitudes towards “muggles”, she knew they would ignore any warning coming from the British government. Plus, based on what she had read in the library, lings were rather pedestrian when compared to vampires and dementors.

However, now that she was aware of the muggle government’s concerns, she would abide by the restrictions of the oath. Nonetheless, she had no intention of taking it herself. She would leave the government lings alone unless they were interfering with her interests for any reason. Plus, her actions in those cases would be limited to protecting herself and her endeavours.

If the British government tried to pressure her, she would flee to somewhere where they had no influence.

Just to be clear, though, she assured Debby, through Emmie, she was not doing anything that would violate the oath as told to her. Nor had she been planning to do anything like that. She just preferred her freedom, and not being beholden to another party, no matter how . . . honest . . . they seemed.

Knowing what the muggle government demanded of the lings actually made it easier for her to blend in and hide from discovery! The oath told her the things to avoid under all circumstances. She would leave them no clues.

She always had intended to keep as low a profile as it was possible to maintain. Her location was such that she could collect all the emotional food she needed from the ambiance, alone. Which meant she was not a threat to the muggles or witches of Ireland, or England. If not for the muggle government’s deal with the abandoned lings, and those lings’ subsequent knowledge of the code, the muggle government and citizens would never even have suspected she was there.

If she were their former Queen-Mother, she would have forcefully made Debby a part of her Hive, and forbidden her to disclose any of the Hive’s secrets. As long as she didn’t give any orders that ran afoul of the oath, no one would ever suspect that she had done that. 

But Elly wasn’t their mother. She also wasn’t developed enough as a Queen, she could tell, to successfully make such an attempt. If she failed? Well, then she would be in deep trouble.

Then again, if any lings wanted to join her hive, she was not averse to that, she decided. Their oath to the muggle government would not, in any way, interfere with her plans for the future. Nor hers, theirs. They could be in her Hive without fear of conflict.

Through Emmie, she made Debby aware of what she proposed.

There were distinct advantages to doing that, too. Foremost, the other lings would have access to a more versatile and expanded hive-mind. Just being a proto-queen gave their hive-mind a big mental boost, one that was increasing in its potential almost daily, anyway. 

She hadn’t realized it to be true for her little group because it had been so gradual, but it was. Even as immature as her hive-mind was at this point, what the government lings had now was a pale imitation of what it would be if they had a Queen-Mother boosting it. Or even a proto-Queen.

The knowledge of the other lings, individually weren’t any better than hers, but combined across their different expertise’s and experiences? It would be a huge improvement, for her. The queen’s innate abilities made that much of a difference. While the individual lings could delve into it for the knowledge they needed, it was a part of her. No wonder Queen-Mother Chrysalis had been so smart! 

She would have to be careful, though. Knowing something was one thing; understanding it and using it on a fundamental level was different. She had learned that from her studies in magic regarding the obliviate and confundus.

Next, there was the peace-of-mind that belonging to a hive and a queen brought to the lings. Their Queen, with her more comprehensive knowledge, would look out for them. Finally, once established, their ability to coordinate would greatly increase, and Elly would be able to assist them just by being nearby. 

With a Queen and a Hive, they would have a future in this new world. They weren’t simply marking time until they died. The lings would have a new home, and a new future.

It was, without a doubt, a win-win arrangement for both groups of lings — not that Debby knew there were two groups.

Elly could sense that Debby had made a similar series of conclusions, and wasn’t averse to joining with her — at least she wasn’t trying to disengage and run. The only downside was that by having the government-oathed lings in her hive, she had to abide by the restriction set by the government. Which, as she had already realized, was a moot point to her.

Elly could tell that Debby’s magical oath to the government didn’t even twinge in response to Debby’s desire to join a hive with her as the Queen. Magic was all about intent — it knew she didn’t intend to violate the oath or ask any of her lings to violate the oath.

Fortuitously, the muggle government had made a mistake in not considering that Debby, or any of the lings, would be willing to join with Elly in a new hive. They could have issued an order not to do that, and the oath would have kept the lings separate from her — it wasn’t an unreasonable order, after all. The muggles lack of knowledge and ensuing foresight about lings meant the lings could establish a true hive before the government’s non-ling agents realized it was happening.

With a bit of work, they never would know, either.

All the oath did was prevent the lings from disobeying legitimate orders, stop them from knowingly harming the citizens of the nation when they collected food, and not defecting to other nations regardless of the incentives offered. In return, the government made them citizens, and promised they would be treated as any other citizen who worked for the government in the armed services.

Having a Hive here would certainly prevent them from wanting to defect to another nation! That would be equivalent to betraying the hive. By joining her Hive, the lings were actually obeying the oath!

Plus, Elly’s Hive could no more be considered a nation than the Church of England. Except she was paying taxes!

In other words, nothing in the oath prevented Debby and Elly from forming a hive, they both realized.

Mere seconds had passed since Debby had walked into the Arcade.

Any casual mention of a hive would lead the muggles to think they meant the base they had converted. In the absence of the knowledge that Elly was a proto-queen, any other possibility shouldn’t even occur to them.

Debby requested Emmie to let her join her hive.

Elly’s new home would be the airbase, she decided. The new de Rippe estate, when the goblins finally found a likely prospect, would be a secondary location and a source of revenue in both worlds. Essie, Emmie, and Earl would stay there and provide a “presence” to keep any of the witches or wizards from getting too curious as to where Elly was during the summer hols. She could rotate other lings there, too, so those three wouldn’t feel left out.

The big plus, for her, was that now she had more lings to help her restore the old estate and hide their brief presence in it before the buyer took possession of it.

Elly had no intention of interfering in the muggle government’s schemes, but she would look out for her lings. There would be no missions that needlessly endangered any of her lings. Not without a very good reason. Nor would she abandon any lings as inconvenient.

Elly could feel Debby’s relief at joining her hive, and her astonishment at discovering the other three “intruders” were members, already. She was even more shocked at discovering Elly had been just a regular infiltrator trainee, not a proto-queen.

It had never been known to any of them that a Queen could spontaneously appear. Apparently that rock Elly had found was special in a way no one had ever considered. Debby hadn’t made that connection, yet.

They decided that Debby would inform the other lings as to what was happening, and that a Hive by Elly was theirs to join. Both were sure none of the other lings would want to be left out. They would not tell the muggles of their new alliance unless directly asked by their handlers or superiors. Besides, it wasn’t as if they were violating their oath — joining the new Hive actually made it easier for them to do their jobs and fulfil their governmental obligations, as the oath demanded!

Plus, even if Elly wanted to do something the government considered harmful, the oath the lings had taken would prevent them from following her orders, no matter how much they might want to do so.

Elly would sneak out of Hogwarts tomorrow afternoon, she decided, and visit the lings’ “formerly abandoned” air base. Then the lings could properly meet her and merge into the Hive-mind, which, at this point, was more for her benefit than theirs — their combined knowledge was greater than hers, except for magic. Tonight, the tunnelling lings would extend a section to the border of the airbase to facilitate her sneaking past the human soldiers patrolling the base’s perimeter. Once she was in the tunnel, no muggle would ever be able to detect her — she was just a regular ling, to them, only slightly larger than most but smaller than some of the warriors who had survived. It would be especially helpful that she could illusion herself as one of the other lings, without transforming, to help the deception should a muggle happen to see her. They would never suspect a ling in their base knew how to cast magic.


^-_-^