//------------------------------// // Leaving the Land of Equines // Story: A Horse at Hogwarts // by ponygirl825 //------------------------------// Please don't throw up in front of the humans Hue thought to herself as she double checked her bags for Hogwarts. The fact that her stomach was in more knots than when she went to meet the Princess didn't make it easy to concentrate though. "Oh good, everything's here," she said stepping back, observing her small stack of bags. "Not everything," said a voice from behind. Hue turned around to see the Princess carrying a cage on her back. Using her magic, Celestia gently place it on the ground, and took off the cloth that was covering it. Hue gasped as she saw a beautiful barn owl. Its back feathers were a mocha-brown, its stomach and chest covered with feathers of an off-white color dotted with spots the same brown as its back. Its face was rimmed with a thin line of brown feathers that got gradually darker as they went down to its chin, and its face was a snow-white. "She's yours. Give her a letter and she'll know just where to take it. I expect letters about how your magic studies are going." Hue nodded and turned back to the owl. "Ivory," she said. "I'm going to call her 'Ivory'." The Princess chuckled. "I think that's a great name for her." "Y-your highness," stammered a voice. The Princess and Enchanted Hue both turned to see a small colt about Hue's age. He was grey with a mane with two different shades of orange, not to mention his horrible acne. "Where are the bags you wanted me to get?" Hue looked from the colt, to the bags, back to the colt. He was really small, she didn't know how he managed to carry ponies' bags up all those stairs, much less down them. "They're right here," Hue said, pointing a hoof at the small stack of bags. "But I insist you let me help you." "A-are you sure miss? I can get-" "Positive," she cut him off, throwing two of the biggest ones on her back and grabbing the ring at the top of the owl cage in her mouth, leaving only three medium sized ones for the colt. He walked over to retrieve them. He managed to get two on his back, and the Princess helped him put the last one at the top of the stack. The bags were placed in the back of a chariot pulled by two pegasus royal guards, and the Princess and Hue stepped inside. What happened? Hue thought to herself. I'm sitting in a royal chariot with the Princess of Equestria headed to Canterlot station, where a train is going to take me to a school full of these, human creatures. She looked at Celestia who gave her a smile. "Nervous?" she asked, already knowing the answer from the look on the young mare's face. "A bit," Hue mumbled. "Don't be, I'm good friends with the headmaster there, he'll help you as much as he can, and if anything goes wrong, you can always talk to him about it. Did that help your nerves at all?" "Yeah, actually, quite a bit," she said, honestly surprised that it had. "Good." ~~~~~~ "Here's your train ticket," the Princess said, handing Hue the small piece of paper. Hue looked at the ticket confused, then at the Princess. "Princess, it says the train leaves from platform '9 and 3/4', there's no such thing, is there?" she asked. Her trolley turned a bit to the right and Hue quickly tried to regain control. "Of course there is, they wouldn't put it on the ticket if there wasn't," she replied. "Follow me." Enchanted Hue obeyed and followed the Princess to an area between platforms "9" and "10". "You see the wall between those two platforms?" Princess Celestia asked her, pointing to the wall in question. "Yeah," "Run straight at it, and you'll find yourself on platform '9 and 3/4'." "You want me to run at a wall?" she asked, thinking the Princess had finally lost her mind. "Hue, do you trust me?" Celestia asked. "Of course Princess-" "Then you'll run at the wall, I'll be right behind you, I promise," she ordered, and gave Hue a reassuring nod as she lined up the trolley to go straight at the wall. Hue pulled her head down close to the handle of the trolley and ran as fast as she could. When she got inches from the wall she closed her eyes and began to slow down. When she opened them, she was in a place filled with the humans. She stepped away from where she assumed she came out, and soon saw the Princess materialize out of the wall. "Woah," was all she could say as she looked with amazement at the wall. She turned the trolley so she could load her things on the train and passed the platform sign. "9 3/4". ~~~~~~ The whistle for the train sounded as Hue said one final goodbye to the Princess and hopped aboard. She almost passed out when she realized she'd have to find a place to sit, and probably she wouldn't have the luxury of sitting alone. Which meant... "I'm going to have to talk to the humans," she whispered, but inside she was screaming. She carefully stepped up the stairs in front of the train door and glanced through the windows of the compartments. She finally found a compartment that wasn't completely full. Inside sat a dark haired boy with round framed glasses, a red haired boy, and a frizzy haired girl. Ears folded back, and a rock in the pit of her stomach, she slowly opened the door a crack. "Um, I-I'm so sorry to bother, but d-do you mind if I s-sit here? E-everywhere else i-is f-full." she stuttered, sounding a bit like Fluttershy. They stared at her in shock for a moment, or maybe it was amazement, Hue couldn't really tell. Finally the dark haired boy spoke up. "O-of course, miss?" he asked waiting for her to finish. "M-my name's Ench-chanted Hue," she continued to stammer. "Lovely to meet you, I'm Harry Potter, he's Ron Weasley, and that's Hermione Granger." he extended a, well it looked like a hoof, kinda, but it was like it had little arms on the end of it, she counted five, to shake. She accepted it and placed her hoof on top of his, "Hoof-with-Arms" and shook. "Pleasure," Hue said managing not to stammer this time. The Red haired boy opened his mouth to say something. "S-so miss, Enchanted Hue, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you?" he asked, trying to be as polite as possible. "Ronald!" shouted the girl, Hermione, as she glared at him. "I-I'm a pony, I live in Equestria and I'm coming to Hogwarts so I can learn magic." Hue sated. "I-I'm a fourth-year," she added. "Is this your first year going to Hogwarts?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Y-yes," "That must be nerve-racking," noted Hermione. "Definitely, every other person knowing the ins and outs of the school and you stepping in for the first time-" "What Ron means to say is," Harry interrupted seeing the panic grow on Hue's face, "if you need anything, just let one of us know." "Absolutely," chimed in Hermione. "Sure, anytime," Ron added. Enchanted Hue was so glad she had chosen this compartment, and she was a lot less nervous now that she had someone to help her break a fall if she had one. This wasn't going to be as bad as she thought it would.