Dinky Hooves was a filly on a mission. She had to get a pretty flower for her dear mother. Her mission led her to the outskirts of Ponyville, where a great many wildflowers grew. When she got there, she realized that she didn’t know which flower to pick. They all looked so pretty, but she needed to pick a special flower that she knew her mom would like. Would a blue flower work? No, that had red thorns. Red? Pretty, but was it good enough? Yellow? It matched her hair. Maybe Mom would like that one?
Dinky’s decision-making was disrupted by the sound of somepony falling to the ground with an “Oof!”
The little filly turned around and saw a pegasus colt sprawled on the ground, his face in the dirt. “Are you okay?” she asked.
The brown-coated colt looked up at her. His hair was black and messy-looking with bangs hanging over his forehead, while his eyes were green. His face was framed by an broken pair of glasses. He stared at Dinkie with a face that reminded her of Daddy whenever he saw something particularly strange.
“Um, hi,” she greeted. “I’m Dinky Hooves.”
“Hi,” said the colt. “I’m Harry. Harry Potter.”
“Hah-ry,” Dinky repeated, testing how it sounded. “That’s a funny name. I like it!”
Harry looked at her. “Thanks. Um, where am I?”
“You’re in Ponyville! It’s the bestest place in the whole, wide world ‘cause Mommy and Daddy live here! Ooh! Do you wanna help me find a flower? I gotta get one for my mom.”
Harry looked down at his hooves, then back up to look at Dinky. “Alright.”
“Thank you!” Dinky quickly hugged Harry, who was taken completely by surprise. “Wanna be friends?”
Harry stared at Dinky again. He then quickly looked around, as if he were waiting for somepony. “You… wanna be my friend?”
“Yeah! Now let’s look for flowers!”
Dinky trotted over to some yellow flowers, while Harry slowly followed her, putting one hoof in front of the other.
Harry Potter felt very strange. One minute he was hiding behind a tree by the school play park to get away from Dudley, the next he was a little horse in a field. He had wings now, but he didn’t know how to walk, much less fly. He was definitely far away from Little Whinging, too. Uncle Vernon was going to be furious.
When Harry met Dinky, he was in awe, having never met a talking horse, especially a unicorn, before. Combine that with her American accent and Harry had a feeling that he wasn’t in England, anymore. Then Dinky had asked him to be her friend. Nobody had asked him to be friends before. Dudley would always scare everyone away and try to beat up anyone who got too close. Now Harry was a horse, or pony, with wings and this magical unicorn wanted to be his friend. She even gave him a hug! Nobody had ever hugged him before. As he followed Dinky and slowly got used to walking on four legs, Harry felt a very strange feeling, one that he couldn’t remember feeling the whole time he lived with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. He felt happy.
The two little ponies spent quite some time looking through the many flowers. During that time, Harry started walking much more confidently and didn’t fall down so much. Eventually, they decided on a daisy for Dinky’s mother. Dinky carried the daisy in her mouth, which made Harry giggle a little.
They walked into Ponyville and Harry stopped to look at everything. He gazed up in awe at the pegasi moving the clouds, briefly glancing at his own wings. Could he do that? He saw many different shops and restaurants, Sugarcube Corner especially catching his eye. He saw unicorns lifting things with magic while regular ponies carried heavy things. He saw all the ponies going about their lives just like people. Harry knew that he was a bad boy, something Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never stopped reminding him of, but maybe he could be a good pony?
“Hah-ry, c’mon!” Dinky called through her teeth.
Harry followed slowly, his head swiveling to take in all the sights.
Finally, they reached Dinky’s house. It was yellow, with white sidings and a blue roof. Dinky opened the front door and motioned for Harry to follow her inside. Reluctantly, he complied. He had never been in someone else’s house before, except for Mrs. Figg. What was he supposed to do?
Harry followed Dinky down the hallway and into the living room. A grey pony with wings and a lazy eye was sitting on the couch. Dinky ran over and jumped up on the couch, showing the daisy to the bigger pony.
“Aww,” said the mare, obviously Dinky’s mother, “Thank you.” The two hugged while Harry looked on.
“I made a new friend!” Dinky announced when they broke the hug. “This is Hah-ry.”
“Hello,” he greeted, hoping that he sounded polite enough.
“Hi, there,” said Mrs. Hooves. She set Dinky to her side and walked over to Harry, smiling in a way that made the boy want to smile back. “I’m Dinky’s mom.” She reached out and Harry tensed. To his surprise, however, she pulled him into a hug. “Thank you so much for being her friend!” Harry found himself smiling.
“Mom, can Harry stay over?” asked Dinky, “Please?”
“If it’s okay with his parents,” her mother answered as she broke the hug. “Do your parents know you’re here, Hah-ry?”
Harry’s smile fell. “My parents are dead.”
Dinky gasped. Mrs. Hooves hugged Harry again and she followed suit.
“I’m so sorry,” said Mrs. Hooves.
Harry didn’t know what to say. People had told him that they were sorry his parents were dead, but nobody had ever hugged him over it. These ponies were giving him more hugs in one day than he had ever gotten from normal people in his entire life. Was he really supposed to be a pony all along? Had his parents come from here, but died in that crash? Were Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon even his real aunt and uncle? He didn’t have the answers, but there was something about the ponies made him feel… wanted.
Mrs. Hooves parted Harry’s bangs and kissed his forehead, which made him smile. He had definitely never gotten a kiss before. It felt so good to be treated like someone normal. He would have to earn his keep, of course, but it was well worth it if it meant hugs and kisses.
Mrs. Hooves gasped as she noticed the lightning bolt scar on Harry’s forehead. “What happened to your head?” she asked.
“I got it in the car crash that killed my parents when I was a baby,” he answered, though he suddenly found himself doubting that was what happened, especially if he and his parents were really ponies from this magical world. But if he was a pony, why didn’t he look like one back in England? If he wasn’t, why did he feel so at home among them?
Mrs. Hooves hugged him again. “Who takes care of you?”
Harry felt dread enter him and he froze. Would they send him back if he told them? Would he never see this wonderful place again? If he didn’t tell them, would that make him a bad and ungrateful pony? His aunt and uncle always said that should be grateful to live with normal people and he was bad for doing freakish thing and his parents were worthless drunks. Would the ponies believe him if he said that the Dursleys weren’t ponies? Normal people never believed him when he tried to explain the strange things that happened around him. Why would normal ponies be any different? Were they going to punish him if he didn’t answer quickly enough? If he answered, they would just call him a liar and punish him anyway. Did ponies punish bad boys worse than people did?
Harry didn’t answer, but Mrs. Hooves didn’t yell or punish him for being bad. Instead, she just kept hugging him as if he were being good. “Oh, you poor thing.”
Harry couldn’t believe it. She was being so nice to him and he’d done nothing to earn it. Didn’t she know he was bad? But her hugs felt so warm, he didn’t want them to end. He didn’t want to go back and never be hugged again. He found himself choking back sobs. “No!” he thought, “Don’t cry!” He wasn’t allowed to cry! He would surely be punished then!
The mare didn’t punish him. She stroked his hair. “Shhh. It’s okay. You can cry if you want to.”
And cry he did.