Previous Chapters
Close
Chapter 01. The beginning.2,048 words
Chapter 02. The morning after2,153 words
Chapter 03. News2,181 words

Chapter 03. News

Chapter 03

News

Harry was ready to just say: “Screw today, I am going back to bed!”, by the time he and his dorm mates finally made it to breakfast. Had it been any other day they would have had to abstain from eating breakfast all together as by the time they were finally ready to go downstairs it was already going on 9 am. So, in effect it took them a good hour to get ready. Mostly because it took Harry threatening Dean to blow the bathroom door out of its socket with lightning if he did not immediately stop with his bullshit and opened the door when he had still been intent on hiding in the bathroom after a full half hour of trying to coerce him out. And then Ron, after he had stopped looking at his “Pony”, the changeling had taken on the appearance of a fiery red unicorn colt with a light orange mane, with suspicion, had coerced them all to help looking for Scrabbers once he realized the rat was not sitting on his nightstand like it usually did.

Ron would never outright say it but they all knew he treasured Scrabbers. He treasured all that was his, even if most of his things were hand me downs. They did not find the Rat, but the fact that they also did not find any blood or other indication of the rat having ran afoul of some other pet at least meant that Ron while upset about his pet being absent was not, yet, declaring war against every cat and owl in Hogwarts.

Harry sat down with a sigh and immediately commandeered the coffee can, even outright growling at Percy when he tried to take it away from Harry stating that coffee was unhealthy for children. Percy obviously changed his mind, scared for his continued good health, and instead admonished Ron for his utter lack of table manners. From the lack of obvious bedlam, the staff and student body of Hogwarts had seemingly taken the appearance of the ponies mostly in stride. Sure, some were looking suspiciously at their new tagger on or were fawning over them, mostly girls but also some of the guys, but for the most part they seemed to be content to more or less ignore them.

Harry took a sip of his coffee, relishing the feeling of the caffeinated beverage jumpstarting his still somewhat sluggish faculties as well as improving his mood greatly. Then he looked at the staff table, Dumbledore was there, a good sign for Harry as he being here meant he was not needed with the wizengamot or the ICW, he looked worried through and was having a somewhat heated argument with his pony, an elderly, bearded, sunny yellow, unicorn stallion with a snow white mane.

Harry supposed that was to be expected, something world shattering had happened and no one knew anything, or told what they may know to others. That must really rake the old headmaster that was used to being in the know about everything. He contemplated if he should ask Lighting Strike if he could hear what they said, but discarded that train of thought pretty quickly. It was much too loud and there were to many people talking with each other for even the sharp hearing of a pony to make out what was being said on the other side of the hall. A screech stopped any further pondering, Harry turned towards it and was unsurprised to see a barn owl, leading a whole flock of its brethren, fly over the Griffindor table, similar scenes happening over the other tables at the same time, and dropping thick packages of newspapers on it. The daily prophet had apparently issued a special edition today.

He grabbed one of the papers and began to read. Once he had read the three page special edition he breathed a sigh of relieve. Apparently his fellow Bronies had acted pretty swiftly and had managed to somewhat lessen the chaos Harry had expected the appearance of the ponies would unleash by working alongside the media and government agencies to calm the populace. The muggles were, as he read this, periodically running announcements in radio and TV. Informing the populace that the ponies were harmless. They were in essence a highly advanced form of tulpa that had been gifted to humanity by an extraterrestrial race of sapient equinomorhps in an effort to ease them into peaceful first contact. Also, the existence of magic was no longer a secret, not that it really had been for some time by now, but now the governments of the world officially stated that: Yes, magic is real and so are witches, wizards and a whole other load of things. Rumors stated that they had intended to keep up the masquerade for as long as possible, but the ponies had vetoed the idea and were not willing to refrain from mentioning the existence of magic as it was part of them and their society. Thankfully they had made it clear that anyone caught attacking a magic wielder would face the same consequences as if they had attacked someone without magic. Last but not least, the Vatican had announced that the pope would personally address the revelation of magic and the appearance of the ponies in two days. Internal sources that wished to stay anonymous, stated that he would, amongst other things, inform the Christian community that anyone convicted of acting against someone gifted with magic in the name of faith would find themselves excommunicated. That would probably make several people thinks twice before they attacked wizards and witches in blind religious zeal. But not for long, of that Harry was sure. He and his fellow wizard Bronies would have to organize themselves quickly, something made way harder as they lacked the resources of their non-magical counterparts. By the stars, why had no one yet created a magical version of the internet? They would have to somehow find a way to protect their non-magical brethren from attacks by violent minorities that reject the changes brought. As the ones who acted in the name of the ponies on earth, Bronies and Pegasisters would find themselves targets of these groups. Harry did not like the feeling of hate, the all-consuming fire of this emotion was almost physically painful to him, but at this moment he hated humanities tendency to react with violence to things that they did not understand or that frightened them with all his being.

A hoof poking into his side brought him back to the here and now. He looked at its owner, Lightning Strike of course, and felt the hate flow out of him at the look his pony gave him. The silent massage clear: No matter how justified, hate would not help him deal with the situation. It would only make it worse. One thing that Harry found strange, now that he was thinking clearly again, was that there was no mention of the ministry searching for the one responsible. That meant that they probably were not, or not yet, aware that the ponies were the product of a ritual spell going out of control. He would have to keep an eye on that, least they do find out and take him by surprise. It would not be easy, really more like impossible, to act as representative of the Royal Pony Sisters while rotting in Azkaban.

While he was distracted by his thoughts, some more students had entered the great hall and the headmaster had risen from his throne like chair. It seemed there would be an announcement.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, had a headache. A massive headache caused by the unexpected appearance of candy colored equines that had attached themselves to every human on earth. An unpreceded event of such magnitude that it had pretty much vaporized the status quo. Magic was exposed, and with it witches and wizards. More than a thousand years of never ending work to keep them all alive and save, destroyed in a single night. He had never been capable of killing, hadn’t been when he turned on Gellert and hadn’t been the many times Tom had left himself to far open, but today he felt like he could happily kill the Dunderhead, as his potion master would say, responsible for this catastrophe. In his mind, he could already see it, muggles taking up arms in anger over the things done to them to keep the secret, in fear of what could still be done to them and in blind religious zeal to destroy “the devil’s servants”. So much blood, death, and destruction. “Peaceful first contact, my wrinkly, hairy, ass!”, cursed the headmaster in his mind. Their emissaries arrival had doomed his people, and the damnable things had the nerve to tell him he was overreacting, that they had a plan and enough agents in place to manage the reunification with a minimum of bloodshed. If it weren’t his people on the line he would find their naivety endearing. As it was however, he just felt disgust. Right now was however not the time to stew in negative emotions. Right now was the time to tell his students that everything would be fine and that they did not have to worry. He had enough on his plate with the Wizengamot and the ICW and did not need a panic outbreak in his school on top of it. So, he would placate his students with lies of being safe and everything being in control. No matter how hollow these words would ring once the owls started to deliver black letters by the dozens. He stood up and raised his wand to his throat and after a silent sonorous he spoke: “Students of Hogwarts. As you undoubtedly have noticed have we been joined by emissaries of a sapient alien race. As you have also been informed of, this time by the Daily Prophet, is that the secret of magic is no longer. There is however no need to be alarmed, there have long since been measures in place for exactly such an occurrence. At this point in time, ministries all over the world are doing their best to coordinate our reintegration into the greater populace and make it as smooth and painless as possible for all involved. As the current happenings do in no way influence your ability to learn, be aware that classes will resume as normal tomorrow morning. For these who do not wish to share their beds with their assigned pony, you will be pleased to hear that the Hogwarts elves are already in the progress of acquiring appropriate alternatives and assured me that they will be finished by the early evening hours at the latest. Through I have no doubt that many of you will have no need for such. They are rather huggable after all”, the Headmaster ended with a smile and a good-natured chuckle that made bile rise up in his throat from how much it sickened him to pretend he actually liked the blasted things.

He canceled his spell and sat back down, leaving the students to their gossip. “You are lying to them, there are no such measures in place”, came from his side in low tunes and Dumbledore spared “his” pony a disgusted look. “You call it lying. I call it politics. I have to placate the masses or they will rise up to do something stupid”, Dumbledore returned before he continued eating. Besides him, the pony, Bumblebee, snorted, “I never liked politics. It’s the seed of chaos in an otherwise harmonic world, the tool of those unfit to lead to bring themselves into positions of leadership and satisfy their demented lust for power”, it spoke, and privately Dumbledore agreed. Not that he would give the thing the satisfaction of making it apparent.

Harry and Lightning Strike snorted simultaneously, “Measures in place. Right, and I am the next emperor of magical Germany!”, Harry said in a tone that said all one needed to know about what Harry thought of the bovine excrement the headmaster was spouting. Once the headmaster had ended his little spiel he quickly finished up his breakfast and left the great hall. The meeting was barely eight hours away and he needed to be as prepared as possible for it. There was no way he could slack off, wizardkind and the Royal sisters depended on him. Even if the first did not know so yet.

Omake: A few universes to the left

Harry James Potter, heir to the crown of magical Germany sneezed. Loudly. This brought upon him a rather annoyed look from his tutor in all matters of statecraft. The current emperor, or Kaiser in German. “Entschuldigung (Sorry)”, Harry said as clearly as he could and after a lingering look the emperor nodded once and continued teaching. Harry spared a quick thought to the question who might have been talking about him before he continued with his studies. He needed to learn this. Not daydream.

Author's Note:

Been a while since the last update. Sorry about that but i have to confess i have always been kinda erratic in my writing. Some problems at work did not help matters. I thank everyone who commented, faved, up voted, or any combination of these. You guys are awesome and I am happy you like my little story so far. As always: Have a nice day/night. depending on when and where you are reading this.

1,031 views

Previous Chapters