Chapter 47
Nova and Scootaloo were snuggled together in the large bed inside Nova’s luggage. They’d come in late and dropped off the Horcruxes in a lab in the basement of the building where they had set up their base of operations. The mansion Nova’s luggage was in. Once that task was done they’d made it as far as the rooms, but instead of going to Equestria decided to just crash in their bed without even bothering to take human form at any point. True, the apartments in the luggage were only supposed to be temporary accommodations, but by this point, it felt more like home than anywhere else. That and as worn out as they were, they just couldn't bring themselves to go any further.
Moonie on the other hoof still had plenty of energy, so Nova gave her the Moon medallion so she could go on through and let the others know how the night went. Though as far as Nova and Scootaloo were concerned they’d hardly gotten to sleep when they’d been pounced on by foals.
“Ugh.” Nova groaned.
“Mommy Lou!” Rose and Goldwine pleaded.
“When do I get to wean these two?” Scootaloo protested wearily.
“Might as well get up, we need to talk to Sirius.” Nova offered, and slowly dragged herself out of bed. “Pity I can’t open doors across dimensions. Sure would make things easier if I could just open a door and walk right into the castle.”
“You ever try?” Alalme asked as she gave Nova a nuzzle which nearly resulted in Nova toppling over.
“Tia, is it possible?” Nova called out once she’d regained her stance.
Tia the sun horse appeared before them. “Theoretically it should be possible. After all this space is technically a separate pocket dimension anchored to a specific dimension via the front door. So long as the two dimensions are relatively stable to each other, and the relative distance isn’t too far it should work.”
“I’ll just have to check into that, and see if I can do it then.” Nova mused as Scootaloo rolled over onto her back. The two foals giving her a momentary puzzled look followed by the two climbing in under the covers.
“Talk about lazy feeding habits,” Alalme said with a bemused look.
“Her mother has some fox pony in her.” Nova offered as she ambled in the direction of the bath.
“Is that a foxy thing?” Alya asked as she watched the two lumps under the bed.
“It’s kind of a predator thing. Less of that survival instinct to be on our hooves all the time.” Nova offered just as she was vanishing through a doorway.
“She means that if you are the biggest baddest pony on the block you don’t have to worry about some other creature coming along and trying to eat you.” Scootaloo offered. “Speaking of which … Rose, take it easy will you?”
🥞
So it was that a short time later the little family found their way to breakfast in Canterlot Castle where they were surprised to see not only Luna, but Nova’s sire Lord Reynard Tanaka Silvermane. Also gathered was Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Moonflower, Sweetie Belle, and Moonie.
“Good morning.” Luna offered. “Come give us a hug, and have a seat.”
“I hear you had a productive night.” Celestia added as the foals trotted over to give her a hug first, followed by Sunset, Luna, and then on to any pony who’d give them a hug prior to getting them to sit down. And that included the staff as well.
“Two Horcrux in one night.” Scootaloo offered. Going over to Celestia gave her a hug, and then gave Sunset a hug. Nova went to Luna, gave her a hug, and a polite bow to Reynard. He seemed fine with that much recognition from Nova, at least for the time being.
“According to this mornings Daily Prophet, Headmaster Dumbledore was found wandering about town in a somnambulistic state and as there was no sign of foul play it was speculated that he’d as likely had one too many the night before.” Reynard offered as they all found their seats. “By any chance did you do something to him after the Thestrals evacuated?”
“There was the memory vial?” Scootaloo offered. “Though the thestrals all deciding they wanted out after years of neglect could have had something to do with it too.”
“The contents of the vial was just a memory of when I killed that Wyrm, and he probably doesn’t even know the thestrals left last night. Now that I think of it it’s likely the only reason they stayed as long as they did was because they had been too weak to leave and hadn’t somewhere else to go.” Nova replied. “I’d be more inclined to think he’d been fiddling with that ring?”
“Ring?” Luna asked.
“One of the Horcrux we retrieved was in his office. It was on his desk.” Nova explained. “Without our little Horcrux finder I doubt we’d have found either of them. Funny how he never bothered to mention that he had found one.”
“We only knew to look for the one.” Scootaloo reminded.
“Well, the ring was intended to go to the Gaunt house, so I guess we can scratch that one off the list. And I suppose it’s possible he’d only just recently found it.” Luna offered. “Also, don’t forget we are going to London today for Harry’s custody hearing. … There’ll be no going over to the Officer Training School to ogle at Loki this morning.”
“Oh, you’re no fun at all.” Nova said in a mock pout. Not like she hadn’t been doing just that ever since Loki started training.
“I’ll go ogle for you.” Scootaloo offered, causing Sweetie Belle to giggle at the notion, and the foals chimed in that they wanted to go too.
“You two need to be in classes to make up for all the academics you’ve missed.” Rarity reminded Sweetie and Scootaloo. “And you three...” she gave each of the foals a stern look, “will be spending the morning with Moonflower and myself.”
“And myself as well.” Alalme offered. “We are going to do a little tour of Canterlot with Harry, Airry, and Hermione.”
“So how’s Hermione doing with the Ambassador's family?” Nova asked as she helped herself to some pancakes.
“She’s rather enjoying herself.” Rarity offered. “And she says she’s never seen Harry happier. - Is he going to go with you today?”
“Don’t be silly, we don’t know where he is.” Nova offered with a wink.
“Wouldn't lying be, you know, hazardous? Considering the spell matrix on that place,” Rarity inquired.
“This is one of those times rank has its privileges and I can honestly say that I do not know his exact whereabouts.” Nova offered. “We’ll be able to get away with little white lies, and so long as the changelings haven't blown their cover no one is likely to be asking me where Harry is. And if they do I’ll just throw it right back at them. After all, I’m not the one who is his magical guardian. The only thing we have to ovoid is out and out fabrications.”
“I thought it was wrong not to tell the truth?” Rose asked.
“Rose, this is one of those times when one doesn’t volunteer information. We tell the truth, but we don’t tell any of the wizards things we don’t want them knowing. Things that could hurt Harry.”
“I haven't filed our custody papers with the appropriate muggle government agency as of yet either.” Luna offered. “I was waiting for the custody hearing with the wizards to spring that one on Dumbledore. Wouldn't do to have him find out too soon and he can’t counter what he doesn't know about.”
“And you are doing this to help Harry?” Rose asked. The whole situation had her flummoxed. Even as knowledgeable as she was, she still had the developing mind of a little foal and the subtle nuances of when it’s permissible to not quite tell the truth was difficult to grasp.
“Yes dear, it’s a bit like when you say something nice to be polite rather than tell the absolute honest truth and hurt their feelings.” Scootaloo offered. “Only in this case saying the wrong thing to the wrong individual could hurt Harry, and we don’t want anything to happen to our friend.”
“The London Times has an oped asking about his whereabouts this morning.” Reynard offered. “What with the Dursleys being in French custody for embezzlement and no one knowing where Harry is.”
“Well there is our extra Harry at the Weasley residence so it’s not like no one knows, they just don’t know that’s not Harry.” Luna offered.
“Oh, I nearly forgot, we need to talk to Sirius. The portrait of Former Headmaster Phineus Black let us know that the Black family house-elf may have something of note at Grimmauld Place.”
“Portraits can jump back and forth between portrait locations.” Moonie offered as she took a break from stuffing her face. “I asked some of the portraits who seemed trustworthy to keep an eye out for anything anyone may be holding for Riddle.”
“We’ll have to get word to him.” Celestia offered. “Not sure he’s going to be too keen to go back though. In some ways, Ambassador James is a bit like getting an old friend back, or perhaps a brother of an old friend.”
“He is happy here.” Moonflower offered in a soft contemplative tone. “To go back … for any reason is hard to think. I would not want to go back to that forest.”
“Oh, we are well aware of how you feel about that forest, darling.” Rarity teased.
“Speaking of which, are they, that is to say, will our Potters be willing to come to the custody hearing?” Nova asked.
“Our trump card was it?” Luna asked.
“The ICW is already calling for Dumbledore’s removal from the Wizengamot. Having James and Lilly Potter show up with the explanation that they’d been out of country, while leaving out inconvenient truths, would be the final nail in the coffin. Would it not?” Nova offered.
“It’ll certainly cause quite the uproar I’ve no doubt.” Reynard offered. “And no doubt people will assume Dumbledore was supposed to send Harry on as soon as it was safe.”
“They’ve agreed to come and we’ll be taking every precaution to include vests that will block that horrible curse.” Luna offered. “Twilight figured out how it works, and now we have a way to protect ourselves from it.”
“I hope she wasn’t testing it with any of the wands that are taken into the human world? They test wands to see what people have been doing with them. That’s why we all locked ours up.” Nova cautioned. “They can’t fault us for using magic if we never use our wands.”
“She made some throwaway wands.” Reynard offered. “Which is a good thing as the curse damages the wand as well. I imagine the soul of the caster as well. She couldn't get the spell to work on even something as insignificant as a little fungus. She just doesn’t have it in her to do it.”
“It worries me that you could though.” Luna offered.
“We are wired differently.” Nova offered. Her tone was soft with a touch of regret.
“What she means is we can in need, dispatch prey or defend ourselves from dangerous creatures without it weighing heavy on our hearts,” Reynard explained. “The spell on the other hoof is the sort of thing a mad dog does. It requires the intent to destroy. It requires hate of the target, and a lust for … well, you know.” He paused a moment not wanting to come right out and say it with three young foals in the room. “I found it difficult as I really haven't it in me to want to just outright destroy anything for no reason.”
“Personally, I think it’s a cowards way.” Nova offered. Celestia gave Nova a concerned look. “There’s no mess. It’s all so nice and tidy with minimal risk. Blood magic. Though I can at least give them some begrudging respect in that they face their victim instead of destroying lives from afar. Still, though I can’t help but wonder if they’d be so ready to do such a thing if they had to get their hands dirty in the process?”
Scootaloo stretched out a wing and gave her a hug followed by Goldwine climbing out of his chair and up into Nova’s to sit by her side a moment later.
“What kind of creatures keep inventing new and better ways to kill anyway?” Nova asked softly. She gave Goldwine a snuggle.
“At least they aren’t all like that.” Reynard offered. “Most just want to live out there lives in relative comfort and stability. And perhaps it best we table this conversation in favor of more lighthearted fair?”
“Indeed.” Scootaloo seconded. “In fact, I think we should all go over to the Officer Training School so as to liven up our morning.”
“Nice try, but you won’t have time if you want to make it to class on time.” Sunset informed her. “And if you’re lucky you might spot his class at the academy today.”
“They’re at the academy today?” Nova asked sounding as though she was a little disappointed.
“I’m giving an ethics lecture.” Sunset offered. “The lecture by Sunrise Shimmer.” She gave a wink as if no pony in the room hadn’t already known about her dual identity. Her use of the name Sunrise to keep certain ponies in the dark as to her true identity had become something of a joke among the friends who knew.
“Well, say hi to him for me if you get the opportunity,” Nova suggested as she stabbed at her pancake. She let out a sigh wishing she’d be able to go too, but she had to be at the hearing as a member of Princess Luna’s family.
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i would love to be watching this hearing, this is going to be good.
Yes Sunset your secret identity is the best well kept secret.
10098452
I've always pictured Sunset as being considerably older than Twilight. At the least, she would have been college-age when Twilight took her entrance exam. This means all her Canterlot pears are now considerably older then Sunset due to Sunset's time in the human world. Even though it should be obvious, the ponies she wronged would assume their sunset would be just as old as they are and even if they did put two and two together they'd never let themselves believe it.
10098605
It might be unrelated because I don't remember if Sunset jumped mirrors in this story, but when it comes to her age it would have made more sense for me if Sunset was old enough to be a school teacher at CHS rather than stay as a high school student and be in Twilight's age group.
10098829
I was going with the same basic them from my other stories where she returns to Equestria to find that she's now an Alicorn, but has to lay low to ovoid ponies that still hold a grudge.
10098829
I think I may have mentioned or made references to sunset's time at Canterlot high. As for the age difference, the comics have put Sunset's age as being in her early teens while Twilight is still in Magic kindergarten. So we are talking at least a ten year age difference and the way the show is set up with the Dazalings who were banished by Starswirl well over a thousand years ago... The only way to reconcile the inconsistencies would be to surmise that the human world was traveling through time at a much slower pace, but speeding up to the point where the two worlds have synchronized by the time Twilight figures out how to open the portal any time she wants to. In the end, we end up with Sunset being around the same age as twilight. For the in-story canon, I have Sunset being in the human world a lot longer, going home after being made a fool of by a
Mister Amus Anon, and then getting sent back where she finds she is still a teenager in the human world. Whether or not I ever develop that idea into its own story is kind of up in the air right now.