When Twilight emerged from Celestia's portal she found herself in a random place in the castle. The halls were eerily quiet, and Twilight found herself unnerved by the silent castle. She quickly cast her skin color spell before she started walking.
"Hello?" she called out.
Twilight wandered down the halls, trying to find some stairs that would lead to another floor, or at least something she recognized. She eventually rounded a corner, only to nearly scare herself half to death when she walked through a white phantasm.
"My goodness!" said the offended ghost. "Another student out of bed? You're the third one I've seen tonight."
Twilight looked up at the ghost. He was dressed in old clothes, and a jagged line marked his neck.
"Sir Nicholas?" Twilight said.
"I don't believe we've met. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance, miss..." the ghost trailed off.
"Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle," she responded. "Sorry to bother you, but I lost my way to the hospital wing."
"You and every other student, apparently. I'm sorry, but as I've said before, the castle is on lockdown, and I've been ordered to not allow anyone to disturb Cedric Diggory."
"Lockdown?" Twilight echoed. "Why?"
"Why?!" shouted Nick. "Didn't you hear? Multiple students are hurt, and someone blasted a mountain! All students are to be in their common rooms."
Twilight blushed and dipped her head at his panicked words. Harry was right. Maybe I did overdo that.
"But I'm not a student of Hogwarts," Twilight said suddenly, getting an idea. "I'm looking for Harry Potter. He's in the hospital wing," she pleaded with the ghost.
"Wait a second... You're that girl he brought to the Ball!"
"I'd prefer if you all forgot about that. But, yes, that's me. Now, if you could direct me towards the medical wing, I would be grateful," she said.
That seemed to do the trick, as Nick turned around and motioned for her to follow. She walked past many more hallways and paintings, trying to map out her way until she reached the marble staircase. She thanked Nick and told him she could manage from here, and walked up the stairs herself. When she climbed at them she walked towards the doors to the hospital wing. She slowed her approach when voices were heard behind her. She turned around to see Snape, McGonagall, and one other man storming forward.
"You should never have brought it inside the castle!" yelled an outraged Professor McGonagall. "When Dumbledore finds out—"
"Did something happen?" Twilight demanded of them. The three looked shocked to see her.
"Miss Sparkle, I thought you and your company left the grounds," Snape drawled.
"My friends have been returned home. I'm here to make sure Harry's alright, we're all concerned about his condition. Sir Nicholas was kind enough to lead me here," Twilight explained.
"I don't have time for this," Fudge muttered as he barged past McGonagall, through the doors of the hospital wing. Twilight and McGonagall shared a look and followed close on his heels. "Where's Dumbledore?" Fudge demanded.
The hospital wing was mostly empty. The only occupants were the Diggory family on one side, Harry and the two Weasleys on the other. Seeing her friend, Twilight rushed past Fudge to tackle her friend in a hug. Harry, who was still half asleep, sputtered in surprise.
"Twilight?! Luna said you'd be back soon, but not this soon," he mumbled. The Weasleys jumped a little, not realizing he was awake.
"Princess Luna told you? When? Celestia just sent me to check on you," Twilight said.
"It was a busy dream," Harry said. A sudden realization dawned on Harry's face. "Dumbledore! I have to tell him! Voldemort's still—"
The hospital's doors swung open again, this time allowing a cross-looking Dumbledore to walk in.
"What has happened?" he took note of the Minister. "Why are these people being disturbed? Cedric is in a delicate state, and Harry is exhausted. And Minerva, I told you to stand guard over Crouch—"
"There is no need for that! The Minister has seen to it himself!" McGonagall screeched.
Twilight backed away a little. In the few days she had known McGonagall, she appeared as a strict but well-intentioned woman. Now she looked fit to strike out at Fudge herself.
"When we told Mr. Fudge that we had caught the Death Eater responsible for tonight's events," Snape said in a low voice, "he seemed to feel his personal safety was in question. He insisted on summoning a dementor to accompany him into the castle. He brought it up to the office where Barty Crouch—"
"A dementor?" Twilight whispered to Harry. "Aren't those—"
"The guards of Azkaban, yes," Harry whispered.
Twilight shuddered. Those things, dementors, sounded like an old Equestrian myth, the kind that Star Swirl or Celestia would have thrown in Tartarus or banished forever millennia ago. The idea of something sucking out your happiness reminded her too much of the Crystal ponies and the trauma Sombrea inflicted on them.
"I didn't think he'd bring one, they're so—"
McGonagall's scathing voice cut Harry off. "The moment that- that thing entered the room," she screamed, pointing at Fudge, trembling all over, "it swooped down on Crouch and- and-"
Twilight felt a chill swoop down her spine when he realized what had happened. Crouch had been victim to the dementor's kiss, he was as good as dead or worse. His soul had been sucked out of his body.
"By all means, he is no loss!" Fudge exclaimed.
"No loss? The dead cannot give testimony, Cornelius," said Dumbledore. He was staring hard at Fudge, as though seeing him plainly for the first time. "He cannot give the reason about why he killed those people."
"Reason? Well, that's no mystery, is it?" blustered Fudge. "He was a raving lunatic! He cursed the cup! Potter was lucky to be unaffected! From what Minerva and Severus have told me, you seem to believe he did it all on You-Know-Who's instructions!"
"Lord Voldemort was giving him instructions, Cornelius," Dumbledore said. "The deaths and disappearances this year were mere by-products of a plan to restore Voldemort to full strength again. That plan almost succeeded; Voldemort was restored to his body tonight."
Fudge staggered as though someone had just swung a heavy weight into his face. Dazed and blinking, he stared back at Dumbledore as if he couldn't quite believe what he had just heard. He began to sputter, still goggling at Dumbledore.
"You-Know-Who... returned? Preposterous... Come now, Dumbledore..."
"He's not believing it," Twilight whispered to Harry.
"It's Nightmare Moon and the wedding all over again. We're going to need more proof to pin this down," Harry replied. "Luna visited me during a vision, Voldemort escaped but it cost him his body, again. Fortunately, there are several other bodies still there."
"The statues! Good idea, Harry. He can't deny that! I can teleport us," Twilight exclaimed.
"Will the aurors be able to remove the spell?"
"Should be simple enough. A simple change will allow it to reverse. The spell isn't as strong as what we used on Discord, I should be able to change them myself. I made them, after all," Twilight explained. The two tuned back into the conversation with Fudge.
"You are prepared to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, on the word of a lunatic murderer, and a child who... well..."
"Well, what?" Twilight said skeptically, looking at Fudge.
"You read Rita Skeeter's Yule Ball gossip, didn't you," Harry said flatly.
"And what if I did?" Fudge replied, looking at Dumbledore. "You're fond of them, oddities and all."
"If by 'oddities', you mean we saw him return, then yes," Harry scolded. "And we can prove it."
"How?" countered Fudge. "Unless you can resurrect the dead, I doubt you can provide meaningful evidence."
Harry scowled. What he wouldn't give for that power.
"I can take you to where the portkey took Harry and Cedric," Twilight declared, stepping forward. "There are serval Death Eaters petrified in stone. That should prove it," she challenged.
Fudge was silent for a moment, silently fuming. Eventually, a small smirk painted his face.
"Alright, let's assume you're correct, and you can take me. You will be transporting the Minister of Magic to the location of several Death Eaters, which cannot be allowed," he said in a victorious tone.
"Twilight and Dumbledore should be safe enough for you," Harry protested.
"And why is that?"
Twilight channeled every bit of pretentious aristocrat attitude she could for what came next. "Besides the fact that you will be with Dumbledore, you'll be with the only person to beat Voldemort one-on-one," Twilight chimed slyly. It was a gamble, mentioning that, but it could pay off.
"What are you—" Fudge cut himself off, freezing up. His mouth opened and closed like a fish. "Y- You- You-"
"Yes, I did. He's gone for now, but his followers remain. Now, will you come along and see the truth or not?" Twilight demanded.
When Fudge barely reacted, Twilight stepped away from Harry. Twilight walked over to where Dumbledore and Fudge stood. Fudge backed away in equal measure, fear present in his eyes.
"You- You will n-not be taking me anywhere!" he stuttered fearfully. "This is coercion of a Ministry official, I will not stand for it! I will not tolerate being intimidated into following your commands!" Fudge sounded hysteric.
"We are not trying to strong-arm you, Cornelius! We are trying to warn you!" Dumbledore roared. "The Dark Lord is coming back, whether you'll believe it or not! You must see reason."
It seemed Fudge could think of no answer to this. He stumbled backward on his small feet for a moment and fidgeted with his bowler hat in his hand.
Finally, he said, with a hint of a plea in his voice. "He can't be back, Dumbledore, he just can't be..."
"The proof is there, if you will allow yourself to see it. Action must be taken," Dumbledore demanded.
Fudge's anger exploded. "All I see is a child convinced his parent's murderer is running amok!"
"He was alive! I saw it, Harry saw it, my friends saw it! We fought him to get back here, Harry's telling the truth," Twilight shouted back.
"And- and she's claiming to have fought You-Know-Who! This is outrageous! Do you hear me? Outrageous! Dumbledore, I'm clearly the only one who can see reason here!" Fudge declared.
Snape rolled up his sleeve, showing his Dark Mark. Swirls of darkness flowed in the dark mark, neither faded nor black. Fudge visibly recoiled from it. "The Mark is getting darker, surely you cannot deny that. It has been doing so for the past year. Karkaroff fled because of it, even he knew what it meant."
Fudge stepped back from Snape too. He was shaking his head. He seemed terrified by every word Snape said. He stared, apparently repelled by the ugly mark on Snape's arm, then looked up at Dumbledore and murmured. "I don't know what you and your staff are playing at, Dumbledore, but I have heard enough. I have no more to add. I will be in touch with you, Dumbledore, to discuss the running of this school. I must return to the Ministry."
Fudge turned to leave before he dropped a heavy sack of what sounded like coins. "The winnings. If the two tied in grabbing the Cup, Harry wins by points alone. We should have a closing ceremony, but under the conditions..." Fudge trailed off, leaving his sentence open-ended. He crammed his hat on his head and stormed out the door. Dumbledore turned back to the group around Harry.
"There is work to be done," the old man said.
"I'll help however I can," Twilight announced. "I may not be a part of this, but my friend is. What can I do?"
Dumbledore looked at her warily. "I will not draft you into this war. But, the Death Eaters you turned to stone, are they still there?" he asked. Twilight nodded, as did Harry.
Harry sat himself up. "Voldemort's statue broke and left nothing behind, but his spirit remains; he's going to try and come back. I saw it in another vision," Harry revealed. "The others all remain in the graveyard, it's deserted of living people."
"But I can change the spell," Twilight said. "After that, you can turn them back."
"Not yet," said Dumbledore. "I have several connections with reputable aurors. I can arrange for them to arrive at the graveyard at a later date—"
"Where they'll find the statues! I'll go fix them soon and weaken the enchantments enough to allow for your counter-spells to work." Twilight finished.
"If Minister remains unconvinced, the Wizengamot can still put them in Azkaban, or at least under suspicion," Snape said as he rolled his sleeve back over the mark. "The dark lord's servants will not deny his return a second time."
"For now, that is all we can hope for," Dumbledore said grimly. "The next few days are crucial, let's use them wisely."
"I want to help," Harry said firmly.
"Absolutely not," Mrs. Weasley said. "This isn't a place for children to get involved."
"Voldemort won't care!" Harry rebutted.
"No, he will not care," Dumbledore agreed with Harry. "However, it would be ill-befitting of my position if I allowed a child to join his parent's war. Your time will come, don't be so eager to grow up."
"Yes sir," Harry muttered.
Twilight sat down on the edge of Harry's bed. She reached for one of his hands and felt how cold he still was.
"In the meantime, Harry, you should get some more sleep," Twilight said, looking down at Harry.
Harry sighed heavily. "No objections there, Twi." Harry let his head fall back onto his pillow. It was less than a minute before Harry's breathing leveled out as he dropped into sleep again.
Twilight stood up and drew her crown out. She turned to face Dumbledore.
"I can take you to the graveyard now, if you want," Twilight said, holding her hand out.
"Do that," Dumbledore said swiftly, taking her hand. "The rest of you, we'll reconvene in my office in ten minutes."
Twilight cast her teleport spell, and the two of them were whisked away from the castle.
"Here we are," Twilight said as she stopped the two of them off in the graveyard.
Dumbledore looked around the place in shock. It looked less like a graveyard and more like a battlefield. Smoke was rising from nearly every patch of grass left and several large holes pocketed the land. The most obvious feature was the numerous stone statues all over the place. Several were in the midst of casting spells, but some looked terrified beyond measure. The largest detail was the massive crater that looked like a meteorite of immense proportions had struck with devastating force. The ditch stretched far beyond the graveyard, ending where it had disintegrated part of a nearby manor.
"If I might inquire, what happened here?" Dumbledore found himself asking.
"This was where Harry and Cedric were summoned," Twilight responded. She moved over to the only unburnt patch of grass. "This is where we were standing when we arrived."
"Did the Death Eaters do all of this?"
"Oh, no, that was mostly me and a little of Voldemort. Any lightning marks you see are probably Rainbow Dash's work. I will admit, I might have gone overboard. I incorrectly scaled Voldemort's power to Nightmare Moon's or Sombra's level. I didn't know what he could do, so I went full blast at him. That," she pointed at the largest crater, "was my first attack," she said, sounding rather embarrassed.
Dumbledore turned around in circles, looking at the damage. It was like an image taken from muggle warfare propaganda of the two wars. It was simply unimaginable how much damage this little girl had inflicted in a matter of minutes.
"So what do we do with these guys?" Twilight shouted from a few feet away.
Dumbledore walked to stand next to her, looking at the same statue she was inspecting. This statue was beyond perfect. The details were hidden by the terrible light, but Dumbledore was sure that this was Lucius Malfoy.
Twilight pulled out her tiara and waved a hand over the nearest statue, and the surface seemed to warp before settling. A similar change rippled across the other statues.
"Okay, you should be able to change them back. What's the next step?"
"The aurors arrive to arrest them soon," Dumbledore said simply.
"Shouldn't we, I don't know, pose them or something? Make it look like they were actually doing something illegal? Some of them are casting spells, sure, but most of them looked scared witless," Twilight noted. Dumbledore thought quietly to himself. Yes, that was a devilishly simple idea that would be useful. "Just looking suspicious isn't enough, else I would have gotten Queen Chrysalis arrested way before her wedding," she commented offhandedly.
Dumbledore looked at her, confused. She tried to arrest royalty, and succeeded? How does one do that, and why? Power? Twilight said she served Princess Celestia, so perhaps this "Queen Chrysalis" had been overthrown at her wedding, and the princess had taken her place. This might explain why the monarch was called "Princess" instead of "Queen". That could also explain Twilight's tutelage under royalty, raw talent aside: loyalty for a coup against the crown.
Dumbledore stopped that train of thought to focus on the statues. That can be addressed later.
"Form some of them in a circle with runes," he suggested. Twilight moved six of them into said shape. After a quick gesture, she changed how the statues stood so they appeared to be amid a chant.
"Use seven," Dumbledore said.
"Why?"
"It's a magical number."
"So is six."
"Only in your country, apparently. Voldemort is superstitious, even by wizard standards."
"Fine." Twilight added one more Death Eater to the circle. "I'm not a fan of the idea of curses, but how about some form of summoning circle?" she asked. Already she began to form a solid stone platform beneath the Death Eaters' feet. She scratched out several symbols on the ground inside the ring of petrified dark wizards.
"What do those symbols mean?" Dumbledore chimed curiously.
"Oh, absolutely nothing, they're just scribbles. But, pour a little of Sombra's shadow magic over it, and your aurors won't spot a difference," she responded slowly. "Although, it feels like desecrating a graveyard, doing this."
"We do what is necessary, even if we don't like it," Dumbledore said.
"I suppose. That doesn't mean I like it," she said reluctantly.
Dumbledore watched with morbid curiosity as Twilight's hand glowed black, green, and purple. The magic from it weaved around the Death Eaters, sinking into their clothes and the stone around them. Little black crystals sprouted from the statures. Dumbledore was shocked. She has access to dark magic, as well as that tiara?
"There, that should work. Now we just need to clean up." Twilight tapped her foot against the ground twice and the landscape slowly shifted to how it looked before Harry and Cedric arrived via portkey. The craters and burns healed and the grass regrew. With a flick of her wrist, the gravestones were repaired to a pristine state, probably better than when Harry arrived. "I'd feel bad leaving graves in this state."
Dumbledore looked at the Death Eaters. Several were gathered in a circle, wands raised above their heads. A ring of unidentifiable runes was laid in the ground with unknown magic heavy in the air. Yes, this would do nicely. Once Kingsley and the other aurors found this, the Death Eaters would be under heavy investigation. It might not convince Fudge that Voldemort returned, but the public would grow wary, especially after the Quidditch World Cup. Deadlock at the Ministry was preferable to denial.
"Alright, we can go," Twilight said, dusting her hands off.
She took off her Element, placing it back in her bag. She held up her right hand and reached her left hand into her bag, still touching the Element of Magic. Dumbledore placed a hand on her shoulder as her spell was weaved. There was a flash of light as she returned the two to the safety of Hogwarts. Dumbledore realized Twilight dropped them at his office.
"Alright, that's done," Twilight said, dusting her hands off again. She turned back to the door, before she stopped herself, seeming to have forgotten that Dumbledore was still there. "Headmaster, I'm going back to check on Harry before asking Celestia to send me back. And speaking of Celestia, she has a request to make."
"The princess?" Dumbledore asked, surprised.
"Celestia wants to make a visit on the last day of the term. Is that agreeable?" Twilight asked.
Dumbledore was a little stunned. The princess was requesting an audience with him? Sure, many members of the Ministry requested his presence every once in a while, but this was the sovereign of an entire nation. Why would she talk to him? There was no doubt she had heard Twilight's news about Voldemort, so perhaps the princess was choosing a side.
"I— Yes, that's agreeable."
"Thanks. I'll be sure to tell her when I get back," Twilight said as she opened the door to leave Dumbledore's office.
Dumbledore waited a few minutes, then plopped down in his chair.
These Equestrians were unlike any people, magical or otherwise, he'd ever met. Having unique magic wasn't too surprising, every species had their brand of it, but Twilight had more than any wizard he'd ever met. Dumbledore couldn't tell if she was above average or if this was normal for her people. Further, two of her friends gained wings when they transformed, which posed questions as to whether that was by choice or if there were sub-types of Equestrians. Of course, that hardly mattered right now.
Dumbledore pulled out his wand and spun it in his hand idly. He would be fighting a battle on two fronts: Voldemort and the Ministry. He would need allies, and Equestria's magic had already set back Voldemort once. Dumbledore looked over to a shelf, where the last copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art rested. There was a race against time to stop Voldemort.
Harry needed to be ready; but for now, he was a child, and he deserved his rest. Dumbledore, however, had much to prepare for.