Cutie Marks.
Now there was a rather disturbing concept.
Morty remembered one particular mark, which thankfully had not followed him into his new body, that had defined him because of a singular moment in time, a rare instance of surviving a Death Curse and defeating, temporarily, the Dark Lord who cast it.
Harry James Potter had been defined by his mark, the boy-who-lived, more then the boy attached to it. It had molded him into a warrior, a leader, a sacrifice.
It was not amusing that he was going to have to deal with that nonsense again.
Still, he found that being without a cutie mark defined you even more, the term Blank Flank began being tossed his way by other foals when he reached the age that every little pony does when they started getting their mark (a little young in Morty’s opinion to discovering your special talent that played a big role in defining what you did with the rest of your life) he was one of only a few that had yet to discover their talent already, though as time passed, and time was drawing closer towards when he would have to leave for the next term at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, Morty’s fellow outcasts eventually discovered their talent, and soon, by the time he was waiting for the next train to Canterlot, his father tearfully giving him crushing hugs and his mother instructing him, yet again, on the directions to the campus, he was still bare-rumped.
Not that he overly minded he supposed.
"It's not that hard to find mum," Harry sighed, rolling his eyes, "its bloody part of the palace, its kind of hard to miss that," his mother, who had for the gazillonth time reiterated the directions to the school from the map that had been provided with his letter.
His mother huffed softly and gently ruffled his permanently ruffled mane, "alright sweetie, just remember to..."
"-write you every week," Morty finished, "and there's bits in my saddlebag for something to eat if I get hungry, and to make sure that I don't over exhaust my magic during classes...I know the drill."
Eventually, the train arrived with a cheerful whistle, It wasn't the smooth red steam engine of Hogwarts, but it had its own head-on-collision-with-a-candy-factory appeal he supposed.
he turned back to both his parents, and felt his demeanor soften at the proud look from his mother and the tearful eyes of his father, before he heaved up on his hindlegs and gave them both a hug. He wished them a fond goodbye and boarded the train, levitating his trunk behind him, his new chestnut brown saddlebags bumping on his flanks as he practically skipped aboard and found a seat.
When Hayfield and his waving parents were a long distance behind him, Morty pulled out the latest Daring Do, and settled in for a good read, alone this time since Death was currently already in Canterlot, circling a pony about to die of alcohol poisoning.
As he read, his mind occasionally drifted back yet again to cutie marks. Death had been to amused by Morty’s blank flank teasing, and had been vastly unhelpful in the matter, stating that it was not up to him if he had a cutie mark or not, when he had broached the matter with the entity, curious if he would even have one, given his unconventional background, his companion stating, "it's so obvious what your mark is going to be, and even when you do get it, these little ponies still wont know what it means!" Death'd had a good cackle at that.
Morty had nothing to say on the matter, and wasn't bothered at all by the teasing as his centuries of being stared at as an immortal being back on Earth had long inured him to the fickle gazes of others, one of the benefits of old age he supposed. Still at some point he supposed he was going to have to do something or other about it, after all there was no such thing as as an adult blank flank when your a pony.
Another problem for another time, he decided eventually, and turned his brain back to his book.
ooo ooo ooo
Harry's first impression of Canterlot was that this was definitely a place for the elite.
It was a busy city, but at the same time there was a sedateness to it that comes from a predominantly upper-class neighborhood on the level of an entire city in this case instead of just a section of it. Pony's, mostly unicorns, wandered from shop to shop, muzzles occasionally in the air, or dinning on expensive foods in little outdoor cafe's that held velvet cushioned seats and gold or silver wrought frames.
The place was also rather clean, ridiculously so, with near by trash can's gleaming in the sunlight, looking more decoration then anything, and sidewalks so sparkling it looked like you could eat off them.
There wasn't a cobble out of place or a smudge to be found, which was both fascinating and disturbing on various levels for the young Master of Death.
There were many ivory towers with golden spires that rose majestically along Harry's path, becoming more predominant the closer to the castle he came, and many waterfalls and rivers in small parks or under elegantly curved bridges with jeweled filigree through it.
There were old matrons in soft angora shawls encrusted with diamond beads feeding the many fat colorful fish and elegant sweeping cranes and swans that swam through out, or young couples enraptured more with each other kissing and snuggling.
There coffee shops where the delicious smells of freshly ground beans and hot pastries filled the air tantalizingly, a high-class restaurant in which Harry swore he spotted the infamous rising star Sapphire Shores, still so young to have become so famous already, dining on spaghetti, sports arenas were excited sounds of some sort of event or other was taking place, a theater, currently closed in preparation for a show later that evening featuring a mare in a half mask and a faint stallion in her grasp, and art galleries of every imaginable art form sowed through out every corner.
Not to say that it was all dreamlike utopian excess, there were a few things that did remind one that this was the royal seat of the country, such as the occasional patrols of winged or hoofed royal guard sighted on the streets, the shadows of the many matronly statues and busts of Princess Celestia, diplomats, wizards, or a few war heroes from bouts of half-forgotten turbulent times in history.
Then of course there was the castle itself.
During his first decade while on the run from the Wizarding World, he'd had a chance to come across both the books and the movies based on the books, by J. R. R. Tolkien called Lord of the Rings and thought that if it weren't highly impossible, that the architects of the castle that stood before him had read those books and kept them in mind during its construction. It reminded him strongly of the depictions of Minas Tirith, with its sprawling glowing white walls and spires, though this one was perhaps more colorful with its etchings of purples, golds, pastel blues, and pinks, big enough to fit several Hogwarts comfortably, and it was was even carved into the side of a mountain!
On his way up towards the castle, there were a couple of times in which Morty had to get through the various check points at the entrance to the inner walls. The lands surrounding the Castle was divided into three sections separate from the outermost ring of Canterlot:
The first outermost area being the various businesses and parks that catered to the elite of the elite and high end merchant class, as well as where the libraries, museums, primary schools, non-magic academies, and grand parks existed. Then the second tier, where the distant royal families and few notable elites had properties. Then the third tier where the castle entrance was, including the courtyard, banquet halls, seat of parliament, labyrinths, and personal quarters of the immediate royal family as well as the Guard barracks resided.
Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns straddled the second and third tier, as it was literally built part-way into the dividing wall, with the front most in the second tier. This was in part, according to the book Morty had perused about it, so that Celestia herself could easily traverse from the castle proper to the school, as well as for the ease of the occasional foal from the immediate royal family, who automatically attended without need of going through the application processes that many unicorns have to go through.
"Great Me! what is this place and its obsession with purple?!" a voice groaned from Morty's immediate right.
Morty snorted as Death pulled a face at the decor, "nice of you to join me," the colt huffed, though he could see Death's point. The school was almost entirely purple, and had a look like a cross between a mini castle and the birthplace of William Shakespeare from his previous life.
"Well, someone needed to see you off to your first day of magic school," Death hummed, its dark smoky body vibrating with amusement.
Morty huffed again, neatly sidestepping Death's half-hearted swipe at his vulnerable fluffy tail (hair usually came back slower then a bit of flesh and bone for some reason), as being tailless was certainly not the image he wanted to present in this posh place as a first impression and walked up to the imposing steps to the dark violet doors with the name of the school etched in gold and silver, and rang the door bell with a flick of magic at the amethyst handled silver pull chain.
There was silence from inside of course, obviously the door bell was spelled to alert the proper heads further inside without disturbing the rest of the school.
A few minutes later, the sharp clip-clop of manicured hooves approached the doors, and they opened.
This is an excellent story so far and definitely a cut above the rest in regard to most other crossovers.
I am rather curious as to where in the timeline Harry/Mortis is in. Chances are he will be attending the same testing as Twilight is my guess.
Great so far but the story picture missing something
7090057 he is actually older then Twilight. I had considered having him already be in attendance for a year or two at the school before twilight enters, but now i have considered that he will be much older, about Princess Cadence's age perhaps.
7090061 i did notice it, but have decided to keep it up, the person who did the cover art did a pretty good job, just pretend that his mane covers his horn.
So if Harry is around Cadence's age, I'm wondering if he'll meet not only Shining Armor, but Sunset as well. If you have the human world in this version be the exact same human world Harry is from, harry might try to keep her from traveling to that abandoned world.
7090665 yep, that's about right, Harry/morty is about their age and likely to meet them further down the road. I was uncertain if i would include the Equestria girls in this story or not, but after some thought, decided i would, though their dimension will be different from the one Harry inhabited. I go under the assumption that humanity inhabits a wide variety of different dimensions, existing in different points in time and development.
7090164
OK; interesting considering this is something that will largely effect the story overall.
7091487 yep, i will make sure to note it down in the next chap i think for clarification, thanks for asking about it.
7091501
Glad to help.
7092041 what do you mean?
any character's past has relevance to the present and future development of a character, unless you mean that he becomes emo or something because of his past? or that people from his past will chase him into this new world? because none of that will happen in the fic.
7094937
thanks for the comments, and as for the bit with the phoenix, i am pretending that Philomena has that ability to transport much like Fawkes form HP-verse.
he might not have at first, but he had nothing better to do, so decided to give it a shot, perhaps out of nostalgia.
As for the romance part, he will have a few relationships and flings here and there. If he settles on someone it would have to be one whom can keep up with morty as well as possibly share in his immortality.
It's not important, but to see them reading an other random book would be nice too.
To be honest Death could take a break from showing up once in a while.
7093308
more or less that was what I meant.
So the next things are just something I woud prefer, not that it would make more sense.
1. Maybe Death shouldn't be in every third sentence.
2. I would like it, if he doesn't let himself be manipulated as much as Twilight from Celestia. If you should have planned something along the lines of him being an Alicorn that would be fine, but I would like it if he would maybe even confront her about this if he should find out about it.
3. Maybe he even should question why he would have to do some certain task, which could be easily solved otherwise.
( I know that is depending on how people see it, but in some fanfictions and how I saw it at the beginning I started to watch, that Celestia decided for Twilight to be an Alicorn, never asked her if she wanted all that, and always Twilight had to fight against everyone, and do stuff Celestia could do herself.
I know if was for the sake of the show, in the show it isn´t supposed to look like that and everything, but if we would think about it and maybe even take it more seriously it could be seen like that I guess. Which means that I would like it if he in a way, would notice her attemps, and confront her in a way about it.
Just tell me if I should try to explain something a bit more, sometimes it works better for me if others just ask again.
7094989
ok then.
As for death, it kind of comes and goes, depending on its own whims or if called by Morty outright. i Will likely not have Death around quite as much because Death is likely to be bored just hanging around Morty while he goes from class to class, though he wont be out of altogether.
there will likely be some form of Celestia manipulation, but not to Twilight levels of extent. most of it in part is that she is intrigued by his ease around her and his magic. The most manipulation was the invitation to try out for the school and that's about it. Her interest in him so far is somewhat passive, more of a observe to see where it all goes stance.
7095099 Well like I said, I would prefer it, if he doesn´t just take it, but that he fends against it. (sorry for the poor grammar didn´t know if I used fends correctly.)
I just don´t like it if Characters let themselfe be used like punching bags/slaves or whatever. It are mostly Humans that I have seen like they aren´t even allowed to rule about their own body,...ahhh I just hope you know what I mean.
Then I still would like to know if I was right, when I said he didn´t wanted to go to that school, I would have really liked it to see him trying not to go if it really was because of Celestia which it looked like a little bit. (on the party)
Maybe it is only the fact that I like it if Celestia and her aura of obedience/ sympathy always get's what she wants. I guess you can blame some fanfictions for me thinking like that, or some discussions I had, I don´t remember what it was in the end.
For death.... I get that he is a part of the story, I just thought maybe it would be weird if he would show up every chapter, every sentence, would comment every part of his live and whatever, like a stalker or something like that. Since I know this is something what I usually don´t prefer, I only ask you to reduce his appearances.
7096749 is okay, i get what you mean.
just to assuage your worries, death wont be in every chapter since i want Morty to start developing relationships outside of death and his parents (which also wont be mentioned as much). i will have him in the next chap or so briefly so i can neatly set him aside for a time.
Celestia also wont be featured prominently, and while she may manipulate twilight as per cannon, which again wont be a prominent feature in this fic, Morty is not the type to let himself be lead around so to speak. he's nearly as old as Celestia, and is the master of death.
although she might get one up on him a time or two for comedic or plot purposes, but it will be a minor.
. . .
7151845 like it when i leave people 3 dotted.
7152540 …
I am looking forward to seeing Death meet Discord.