I sighed as I, once again, wondered about my life’s choices.
It had been 34 days since Hogwarts was transported to the Ponston Commonwealth, the most used term for this section of the Equestrian Wasteland. Not that there was a government, it just had been a Commonwealth as part of the old government. It was complicated given that this was a monarchy, or Matriarchy.
Anyway, 34 days of students bored and unable to leave. 34 days to get used to the rhythm of being ponies. 34 days of getting used to the new appendages and using magic in these forms.
34 days were a damn long time I tell you.
So, I, Rose Evans, aka Harry Potter, alongside Rainy Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ruby Hagrid, Argent Ambition and Myrtel Warrens, decided to set out from the school. Set out to where? We didn’t know. We wanted to explore the wasteland and we had all intentions to come back when July 31st come around, we had set our Pip-Bucks to that dating system just to be sure.
We had around a month to do this, and we had every intention to return eventually. Luckily the Crimson Caravan traders under Soaring Hopes had a Arcana-Tech device that allowed one to teleport to registered locations of the Pip-Buck, so we could teleport back to Hogwarts if we needed a quick way of teleportation. It was easier than trying our hands on the spell itself.
Naturally we were only even allowed because the six of us were probably the hardest to keep controlled in the entire student population, as we have both horns and wings, while the others had only one or neither of those two things.
Naturally, there were those who weren’t quite as welcome.
“You know, Draco, you could just stay.” I stated, looking over at the white and black filly who, along with her two bodyguards (read meatshields) had insisted on coming along.
“And let you run around while we’re stuck there? No a chance Potter.” Shot back Draco, still refusing to accept alternate names. She herself hadn’t chosen one for example.
I just rolled my eyes, I was the physically younger here and I was more mature. “Suit yourself, though you really should get yourself some weapons.” I told her, floating out my hunting rifle to inspect it one last time while we were waiting for the “Gate” of the shield to open for us.
“And lower myself to the level of a Muggle? Never.” Retorted Draco in return, she had also given up on arguing against me just calling her Draco, it made it easier not to try and strangle her when I thought of her as the Pegasus filly Draco rather than the snob Malfoy. Admittedly, the difference was skin-deep at best.
“And yet you let Crabbe and Goyle run around with them.” I retorted, my eyes on the two who had Battlesaddles on, armed with shotguns. Why they chose shotguns, I don’t understand honestly said. Damn things are inaccurate as hell and near useless at range, I knew that even before we had gone through some gun lessons from Professor Dumbledore.
“They don’t have a horn or wings, so them using these things is perfectly reasonable.” Shot Draco back as if she wasn’t basically saying they were just pony Muggles without their wands.
“Suit yourself, I guess. But don’t come to me crying because you got hurt because of your refusal to even use a handgun.” I retorted, she couldn’t use her wand freely after all, having to hold it in her teeth or her wings and given the latter left her groundbound… yeah.
“Whatever Potter.” I had to wonder who taught her that using someone’s last name was somehow a curse word. Probably her dad if I was being honest, he sounded like the kind of person who would.
“At least she isn’t the daughter of a Death Eater.” Shot back Rainy at that point, her temper was as usual rather short with Draco but I could see why, the Malfoy heir-turned-Pegasus was probably the most problematic student at Hogwarts at this point in time.
“Shut it Weasel, it’s Potter’s fault we’re here in the first place, if he had just left that stupid stone alone we wouldn’t be in this place!” Snapped back Draco and I frowned, I needed to remind myself that she was raised in this stupid “All Pureblood Supremacy Supporters are Good” kind of environment, Ruby had made that quite clear as it stands.
“Draco, you try defending yourself and not, in a panic, grab the nearest stone to smash into someone’s head. I didn’t want this to happen, but I don’t regret stopping Quirrel from acquiring the stone because if I hadn’t, we would be in way more trouble than just being female ponies right now.” I retorted, storing the magical energy pistol that I had gotten off of one of the merchants in my saddlebags before adjusting the position of my rifle.
“Spoken like a Blood Traitor, Potter.” Growled Draco and turned away from us, turning her nose up in one of the most arrogant poses she had. She didn’t seem to realize how this made her just look like a cute little pony strutting away.
I rolled my eyes at her before turning to the gate. We would be traveling on foo- I mean, hoof for now, seeing as there were two Earth Ponies with us and they were also assigned to pull a cart with our supplies. We also had one of the Hogwarts House Elves, Sparkle, with us. They were a type of house fey who serve wizard families, though based on how Draco was outraged by Sparkle’s friendly behavior and lack of groveling, the happy House Elf wasn’t the norm, sadly.
As the gate finally opened I took a breath and stepped forward. “Alright everyone, forward march!” I declared, setting our marching direction through the North gate, for the closest place of interest, a Stable in the area which had laid dormant for 200 years.
Stable 111.
“Attention, Critical Containment Failure Detected. All Stable Residents Vacate the premises immediately. I repeat, Attention, Critical Containment Failure Detected. All Stable Residents Vacate the premises immediately.” This loud, obnoxious, pre-recorded and, more importantly, mechanical voice was the first thing Lyra Heartstrings heard when she was unfrozen.
As the cryogenic chamber she was in opened she felt herself fall forward and just about managed to catch herself before looking up, finding Bon Bon coughing right in front of her face. “Bon Bon! Oh Celestia you’re alright!” She exclaimed, embracing her friend for the first time since they were put in stasis.
“L- Lyra? *cough* H- how long were we in there? What containment failure?” Asked Bon Bon, sounding fearful as the two turned around to see what the others were doing. What they saw wasn’t doing them any favors however.
Next to Lyra’s pod was an empty pod, they knew who had been in there but she was missing. Other pods were open, their occupants trying to stand but coughing from the unfreezing process. What was worse still were the dozen or so cryopods that weren’t opening, red lights with a skull and crossbones above them showing that something went wrong there.
“L- Lyra? Where is Snowy? What happened here?” Asked Bon Bon fearfully, trying to stand alongside her Marefriend.
“I don’t know, these ponies, they took her I think but… when did they do that? I- how long were we in here?” Asked Lyra as the two began to walk around the room they were in, one of 50 cryopod chambers, each of them containing 50 cryopods each for a total of 2500 spots inside the Stable.
When news had come of incoming Balefire Spells everypony had been ushered from the nearby town of Sanctuary Hills to the South of the Stable, into the Stable. Including the visiting pair of unicorns and their adopted daughter.
Of the 50 pods around them, 29 had failed with their occupants expiring but mummified by the frozen state. The only pod not occupied in chamber 23 had been the one in which Snowy Dreams, the little unicorn filly that was their daughter, had been in.
“Please, let Snowy be alright, just please.” Whispered Bon Bon, shaking her head as they, along with the living residents of the Stable, made their way through with various other ponies joining the growing herd. Mares, Bucks, foals, elderly ponies too. By the time they made it to the controls for the Stable’s elevator, of 2500 ponies, 794 survivors were waiting to leave the Stable, quite fearful at that.
Lyra was about to open the Stable Door that led to the elevator shaft, using a Pip-Buck she had picked up off of a dead scientist, whatever happened here she didn’t like it, when the doors began opening on their own.
“Sweet Celestia have mercy, please no monsters.” Whimpered Bon Bon as they stepped back and watched the rolling door begin the process of opening before being pulled back.
At which point voices filtered through.
“And I tell you again, this is a stupid idea, you’re stupid and I will not be held accountable when you get yourself killed. I’ll be laughing, you hear me Potter?”
“There are literally no hostiles detected on this Eyes-Forward-Sparkle thing Draco, we’re fine. Besides, who knows what is in there?”
Both of these voices were from fillies, the latter much younger sounding than the first and as the door rolled aside, the sight made quite a few of the ponies gasp, and the visitors turn around.
Standing on the other side of the doors were a small group of nine. Four Alicorn fillies, which was in and of itself strange, a Pegasus Filly, two Earth Pony Colts and two spindly, bipedal creatures who looked like they were heavily deformed alicorns but had the seeming characteristics of fillies themselves.
“Dear Celestia, they’re foals!” Exclaimed Bon Bon at that point, her eyes wide as she saw them all, and all except for the Pegasus filly were armed.
“Potter?” Asked the Pegasus Filly, showing she was the first voice.
“Yeah Draco?” Asked the white Alicorn filly with the red mane and tail with one blue highlight in both.
“Didn’t you say this place was abandoned?” Asked the Pegasus, now identified as Draco.
“I said nobody has been here in 200 years according to Soaring Hope. Nobody told me about Stable Dwellers.” Responded the Alicorn filly, somewhat hollow sounding.
“Fair enough I guess. How many are there?” Asked the Pegasus who, Lyra realized was the only one in the group without a Pip-Buck of her own.
“Umm… I don’t know? The EFS is a bit overloaded.” Stated the Alicorn filly as the Pegasus stepped back a couple paces. Fishing a stick out of a holster with her wing. Weird. “Draco, I don’t think your wand’s gonna do much, and I think they’re unarmed?” Asked the filly a bit unsure of herself.
“Ah, who are you? Did you come from outside the Stable?” Asked Lyra after a moment, looking at the foals who seemed far too clean for someone who lived in a world after the Megaspells. And also those bipedal ones…
“Erm, yes and no? Sorry ma’am, I’m Rose Evans, those are my teammates were, kind of, an exploratory team from Hogwarts, a school for magic. Our school got transported to this world by accident about a month ago.” Explained the filly, Rose, clearly taking the lead there.
“Accident my ass!” Exclaimed then the Pegasus filly, glaring at the smaller one who sighed tiredly. “You smashed that damn Philosopher’s Stone into Quirrel’s head and it exploded with magic! It’s your fucking fault we’re stuck like this!” Shouted the filly angrily as the two Earth Pony’s who had stayed with her, nodded along with her statement. Clearly, there were some divisions.
“Draco, we’ve been over this! I don’t give a damn over whether or not your family thinks letting Voldemort”, here the others all flinched, “come back would be the best thing ever, he was fucking evil and killed my parents on top of that, not to mention that this whole “Blood Purity” nonsense is complete bullshit to begin with!” Shot back the filly, spinning on the older filly.
And thus commenced a rather lengthy argument that had several of the adults covering foal ears, or other pony’s ears. Like, none of them even understood what was going on here!
I sighed, after two hours, with my argument with Draco taking about 10 minutes, we had finally helped the survivors of Stable 111 evacuate the apparently defunct stable.
It was rather amazing to think that the ponies here had used cryogenic freezing to at least preserve over 700 ponies successfully, even if it had been 2500 on entry. The terminals of the Overmare had at least proven that preservation was the whole point of this Stable, no experiments. The whole cryogenic freezing angle had apparently been because of space restrictions in the area and wishing to make a Stable capable of holding as many ponies as possible for the whole area.
Well, it was a nice thought at least. There had been at least two more levels planned but those never got finished before the bombs fell.
Moreover, the Stable-Tec workers had been keeping tabs on the Stable for over a century, waking up from cryogenic freezing to check the systems and deal with pests. But the entries ended around 184 years after the bombs. It was noted that they were woken up by a signal from the Institute of Arcane Institute of Research and Education, the AIRE as it was.
There were a lot of pony skeletons all over the Stable indicating that they had been attacked by whoever had sent that signal, and from what we pieced together, they had taken a foal that was with her adopted mothers in cold storage while doing so. In the years that followed, without maintenance, errors in the machinery led to the failing of Life Support to nearly 1800 of the 2500 pods, killing their inhabitants.
This was depressing, to say the least.
“You want to help us find Snowy?” Asked Lyra in surprise, looking at me. She was one of the two mares whose daughter was missing. The other, Bon Bon, was walking next to her as we led them to Hogwarts which, apparently, sat where a town named Sanctuary Hills had been before the war.
“Definitely, I mean, I can’t help too long, school is supposed to resume on the usual date, but I want to help. Ro- I mean, Rainy and Hermione also want to.” I explained, smiling a bit knowing I had their backing me up. We hadn’t spoken about it with the other three yet, they were kind of busy helping to herd the survivors along from the rear rather than the front, but I highly doubted Ruby would decline.
“Thank you! We’ll need any help we can get to find Rainy, I don’t care how much older she is now, she’s our daughter!” Declared Bon Bon and Lyra nodded seriously, it made me smile, it kind of hurt given my own upbringing but if I could reunite them with their daughter, make a family whole that was ripped apart for no reason? Yeah. I wouldn’t dream of anything less.
“I just realized something, you guys never told us why you were let out of that school like that, I mean, you’re just foals, right?” Asked Lyra at that point and I blinked, what kind of question was that?
“Well, we have Summer Vacation and strictly speaking, the teachers don’t have much say outside of that. Not to mention it was driving some of us kind of nuts to be cooped up in there with a whole world to explore.” I responded shrugging as it seemed to me like a pretty normal thing to say.
“But what about your parents? Aren’t they going to be worried about you?” Asked Bon Bon, she sounded pretty worried about me, though I suppose that’s to be expected.
“I don’t know about Rainy and Hermione’s parents, Myrtel, Argent, Ruby and myself all don’t have any. Those three are all really old already, Myrtel got revived when we come here but was a ghost who died, like, 50 years ago, Ruby was a student at the time and I don’t know how old Argent was before she become a filly.” I explained, I never really asked them about any family if I was honest. It just seemed so… private.
“What about you? What happened to your parents?” Asked Lyra and I honestly didn’t hear quite how worried she sounded. I guess I was kind of used to nobody talking too much about it.
“I said it when I argued with Draco, didn’t I? Voldemort killed my parents, I was only a year old back then and can’t remember a thing, but yeah, I’m an orphan. It’s been almost 11 years now actually since that happened.” I explained, closing my eyes to think back to the image I saw in the Mirror of Erised, maybe I should ask the professor if I could have it, if it wasn’t broken by the magical explosion. I would like having the ability to see them.
“Wait, what about adoption? Snowy lost her parents during a Zebra terror attack so we adopted her. I can’t think why nobody would adopt you, you seem so a nice filly.” Asked Lyra, sounding worried as I realized only later.
“Not really, I was raised by my aunt and her husband, though I can’t say I look forward to the idea of going back to them. Even if we can transform back, I really don’t want to see their reactions to me coming back after a year of magic school.” I admitted, trying not to think of them, really trying hard.
“How horrible is that? What sort of ponies mistreat a foal just because they don’t like something that foal can do?” Asked Bon Bon, sounding livid at the very idea of something like that.
“Well, it got a bit better when they started freaking out about the acceptance letters. They didn’t want someone coming to make sure I was alright with them and not being abused. I actually got to move out of the cupboard under the stairs to that second bedroom my cousin was using to store stuff he didn’t want anymore.” I explained, a small smirk forming at the memory of how hard they scrambled to change the address from what it had been.
Suddenly I was scooped up in the hooves of Bon Bon, which was quite surprising to me. “Sweet Celestia Lyra! We can’t let that happen again! I won’t let that happen again! You’re staying with us!” Declared Bon Bon which really threw me for a loop because, what?
“You’re right! No foal should go back to people like that! Don’t worry Rose, if your aunt can’t be your mom, we’ll just be! I bet Snowy won’t mind a little sister either, we can be a family!” Declared Lyra with just as much vigor as Bon Bon had just done.
“Wait what?” This was the most intelligent thing I was able to bring out because, well, what am I supposed to say? Someone wanting to adopt me? What? I swear my brain just short circuited at that point from sheer amount of confusion I felt at the idea.
How much does it say about my relatives that I don’t know how to handle the idea of adoption?