Bonus chapter
“Welcome aboard the Hermes,” offered a cheerful voice over the intercom moments after the last arrival boarded the strange flying boat. “Pets will be located in your assigned cabins. Be advised that there will be a nullifying charm in effect to ovoid accidental magic. Please refrain from using wands while in flight. Refreshments can be found in the various lounge areas located throughout the aircraft. Be advised that Ten Forward is an adult-only lounge. Please familiarize yourself with where your cabin is. In the event of an emergency, your cabin will be your escape pod. Please do not eat the Babel fish, I’m talking to you, Lieutenant Silverwood. The Babel fish goes in your left ear and makes it possible to understand other languages. Oh, and it’s impossible to lie to someone with a babel fish in their ear because it will reveal your true intent. That includes those little white lies we tell so as not to hurt someone’s feelings so I wouldn't recommend using one unless you really need it. For those of you with cell phones, they will need to have shielding added to function properly due to thaumaturgical interference.”
“Harry!” Hermione called on locating her friend.
“Hi, Harry,” Ron called. “Wow, not so skinny anymore. I guess all that food mom gave you did the trick.”
“Oh, that wasn’t actually me.” Harry offered while giving Ginny a dirty look. Harry had gotten a full rundown of what his doubles had to go through and who they suspected to be the culprit of repeated love poisoning.
“What, sorry? Not you?” Ron asked perplexed.
“Changelings I’m afraid,” Harry offered. “Sorry, Ginny.”
“I hear they kept getting sick,” Hermione offered. “Did you find out what was causing it?”
“Oh yes, we knew what was causing it,” Harry offered. “It was love poisoning.”
“Love poisoning?” Ron asked just as the speaker over the intercom was advising everyone to find a seat and be prepared for take-off.
“More commonly known as a love potion,” Harry offered as he directed the small group to their assigned cabin. There were two rows of seats, and all the seats faced forward with the seats in the middle set up so they could be swiveled around when a latch was released.
“Wait, you’re not saying someone in our house was trying to use a love potion on, on, well the person we thought was you?”
Ginny had turned white as a ghost on hearing the news.
“It does look that way.” Harry offered. “We’ll need to put on the seat belts for takeoff just in case things get a bit bumpy.”
“But who would? Ginny, did you notice anything strange going on? Did Fred and George… oh hell, they are always up to something, but a love potion.”
“I suppose it could be seen as a prank.” Harry offered. “Give me a love potion so I fall head over heels for the first person I look at. Tricky things love potions, or so I hear. And since it was the misuse of a love potion that gave us Voldemort the ICW is moving to ban the things altogether save for breeding animals.”
“Vol-vol… what’s a love potion have to do with him?” Ron asked as the flying yacht began the process of taxiing to the runway.
“A witch named Merope Gaunt used love potions on a person not of the wizarding community named Tom Riddle,” Hermione supplied. “It was all in the papers. “She gave birth to Tom Riddle junior who would grow up to become the Dark Lord. It’s been theorized that she conceived while using the potion on Riddle senior and it somehow resulted in a baby devoid of any empathy.”
“Word is the pureblood fanatics have dubbed her the worst blood traitor of the modern era in their efforts to denounce Mr Riddle junior,” Harry offered grimly.
“So, um, what is a Changeling?” Ginny asked.
“In a nutshell, they are vaguely pony shaped giant bugs that feed off emotional energy. Usually, it’s just passive,” Harry offered. “They are extremely intelligent and can be very useful.”
“Ah, that’s it!” Ron exclaimed. “The week we were all so sure Louise had been replaced, she really had been. Hadn’t she?”
“She had,” Hermione offered and then turned to Ginny. “Louise is a horned pegasus. Which isn’t the same as a winged unicorn. A bludger got away from Fred and George and nearly hit a baby pegasus. Louise swooped in and took the hit and was incapacitated for a week only none of us knew just how bad because the Equestrians had a changeling stand-in for her.”
“Seriously?” Ginny asked with wide eyes.
“The people from Eques all seem to have an innate ability to transform into magical ponies.” Harry offered. He wasn’t about to tell her it was actually the other way around.
“Ponies?” Ginny pressed. “Seriously, ponies?”
“Yes. And when we get there you will see lots of ponies. Just remember that they are people. Treat them the same as you would anyone else.” Harry then did his best to explain pony society without outright giving away the secret that the people of Eques were in fact ponies to start. By the time he was done the Hermes was lined up and ready to take off.
“So why are the forward seats in the cabin facing…” Ron began to ask and was given his answer when the flying cabin cruiser started forward with more than enough speed to force everyone back into their seats. A few minutes later they were climbing rapidly through the clouds.
“Ladies and gentlemen we are now at Mach zero point nine five and we’ll be over the Bristol channel momentarily,” offered the voice over the intercom moments after their rate of acceleration backed off to a more comfortable level. “Our Captain will be requesting a transonic climb and acceleration clearance at which point we will climb to fifty thousand feet.”
“No way?!” Ron exclaimed as he looked out the window. He’d also yet to realize the window was bigger on the inside then it had been on the outside. “Core, I can see my house from here!” At least he could between breaks in the overcast.
“Not to mention all of Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall.” Hermione offered with a big grin.
“Hang on, if we can see everything from up here, does that mean the Muggles can too?” Ginny asked and got shoved back into her seat by the force of acceleration.
“Yes, actually, they can,” Hermione offered. “Notice me not spells have a finite range. Anyone outside that range with a clear view can see anything on the ground that would otherwise be hidden.”
Higher and higher they climbed until they burst out of the clouds. Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Harry all watched as the clouds dropped away until they were far below them. Above them, the sky was a deep almost midnight blue fading to a light blue along the edges that was very reminiscent of Princess Luna’s hair. And on the horizon, the viewers could actually see the curvature of the earth.
“ Congratulations, we are now at Mach two, fifty-three-thousand feet above sea level at a speed of one-thousand-three-hundred and ten miles per hour.” The announcer offered. “We are leveling off and you may now feel free to move about the cabin.”
“Let's have a look around.” Hermione offered.
“I wouldn't mind getting some lunch,” Harry suggested, looked out the window once more, got up, and lead the small group out into a central lounge area where they found a number of other students along with a few members of the crew behind a lunch counter.
“Guys, guys!” Fred and George called as they came out of their room.
“Excitable, aren’t they?” Hermione observed.
“It’s the sun.
“It’s not moving.” The two boys offered. “Somethings happened,
“We need to get word to Canterlot!”
Hermione wasn’t sure if she should laugh or be furious. “Where are Fred and George?”
“He’s Fred,
“I thought you were Fed?
“I thought I was supposed to be George?”
“We are presently moving faster then the Earth's rotation If you watch long enough the sun will even appear to go in the wrong direction,” Hermione offered. “Listen, here, it’s the earth that rotates around the sun. Night and day are a result of the Earth’s rotation around its axis. As opposed to, well, say an artificial environment where a small dwarf star orbits the planet.” She tilted her head and gave the two a dirty look.
“Wait?
“Seriously?” The twins asked.
Harry leaned over to the crew member behind the lunch counter and whispered, “Any chance Nova can come down here and tell us if these two are the Weasley twins or Changelings?”
Ron on the other hand had gone back into their cabin to discover that the sun really did seem to be lagging behind. “Oh wow…”
“Mr Potter,” The crew member said a moment later. “I’m told the real Weasley twins have opened a line of joke items for the Equestrian market. They will meet you at school.”
Harry just looked at them speechless. He then turned to Hermione, “Did you hear? These two are changelings, and Fred and George are in Equestria.”
“Wait till they hear Percy got an apprenticeship working in the National archives in London.
“Everything by the book Percy gets to spend the rest of his life sorting books.” The two Changelings offered.
Poor Harry couldn't keep it together any longer and just started laughing.
It took a little over four hours to get to the Islands of Eques where the flying yacht glided into a pristine lagoon where a small town nestled into a tropical paradise awaited. Their school uniforms consisted of khaki shorts, skirts, white shirts, a lightweight floral blazer, and a pith helmet. The glory of it was that no casual observer would know the school was anything more than just an ordinary school.
The ship pulled up to the dock, was made fast, and everyone was soon given the opportunity to step foot into the heat of a tropical paradise. The luggage was unloaded, and then they made their way to the dormitories where they found that the only thing that would be separating them was gender and age. There would be no houses like at Hogwarts.
“I am Princess Celestia, and welcome to the Eques Academy.” Offered a tall woman with hair colored Pink and light blue a short time after everyone had received their room assignments. She was also wearing a wispy white summer dress with an understated floral motif. They’d all formed up in a covered courtyard that had a nice breeze flowing through it. “Now I know that some of you are from Slytherin House, some of you are from Ravenclaw, some of you are from Hufflepuff, and some of you are Gryffindor alumni. You will find no houses here as we feel that segregating everyone from the moment they arrive is not conducive to friendship. And don’t worry about what you are best suited for. Part of the education process is to learn and discover the path you wish to follow. Some of you will pursue a vocation in the magical arts. Some of you may go into engineering. Some of you will go into government, while others may decide to become educators. All of you will change the world, and for the better.” She waited for a moment. “And now, for those of you with watches, you’ll need to reset them. Please stay out of the forest, we don’t want to have to go looking for you. And yes, there are things that will eat you, including the plants. Dinner will be at five, but until then feel free to have a look around. Get some sunscreen and go down to the beaches. Explore the school, explore the town. Thank you, and as that’s all I have for you now, you are free to wander about.”
“Hang on, you mean we can just go into town?” Asked someone up close.
“Yes. In fact, you are all free to go into town any time you want so long as it doesn’t impact your studies.” Celestia smiled at the ecstatic looks on the faces of the gathered students. What the new students didn’t know was that every single person in town had been hand, or rather, hoof picked with a good deal of the new townsfolk coming out of the Equestria military. Never had there been a more controlled environment. Meanwhile, letting the students go out and explore gave them the opportunity to first off, get it out of their systems so that they’d be able to concentrate on classes and two, keep them awake long enough to counter the effects of jet lag. By the time the ICW was given access to the student body what they’d see would look pretty much like any typical multi-grade level academy.
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Sweet deal this! I was not expecting a bonus chapter and it was quite entertaining, thank you for adding it!!!
not only a bonus chapter but a grate one with a small time skip.
just totally amazing.
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Thank you.
And it's not really a time skip. It's meant to start out shortly after they all boarded the flying boat at the airport. I kind of got to feeling like I really had cut it off too soon, and that it needs a bit more. At first, I thought I'd just add a little to the last chapter. But by the time I got finished, there was enough for a whole new chapter.
10307731
So is this story really over, or you just posting a sequel chapters?
10318505
I was working on something, but it'll be a while before I post any of it. I've been going back and forth between different ideas. Posting the stuff that seems to be working. That being the new story I've been posting in increments.
I find having read it twice since the bonus chapter was released this story is a great one I wouldn’t mind rereading a dozen times because it never fails to make me laugh when the world makes me want to cry, smile when the world makes me want to frown, and be positive when all I hear on news mainstream or otherwise is trying to rain on my mood...so thank you for this rainbow of happiness your story has given me. It’s currently one of my top 3 favorite fimfictions, the other two being past sins and dear princess sunbutt.
10403080
Thank you.
Im really glad I finally got round to reading this, intresting takes, especially Peryton etc.
The thing last that reall got me though was the ship.
Made me sad that the 3D paper model I built over 30 years ago got destroyed or lost. The only difference was style, I used edge emmiting WIGE/Hovercraft ground handling, and a pulse fusion reactor. Because I beleived that was possible.
Yes, At Mach 7 airbreathe , you can achieve orbit pretty easily on a diesel/LOX V2/Mercury aluminium rocket engine, never mind the more efficint versions.
Hope you got through.
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I got the idea for the airship from a digital image I ran across online. Someone had taken a cabin cruiser and put swept-back wings and a tail fin on it. The fan-less main engine was inspired by fan-less cooling fans. The use of Ion engines to super-heat the air going through eliminates the issues with the moch-wake snuffing out the ignition and gives limited propulsion in orbit. Would it actually work? No idea. Might still need the cone to slow down the air going into the engine. If they ever invent an ion drive that can generate enough heat it might be possible. The starter engines and vectoring engines can use biofuel to eliminate a need for petrochemicals. The positron drive is just technobabble based on real-world science. :)
I made Harry a Peryton because I didn't want to do the same thing everyone else has done (pony of some sort), and I wanted something akin to his Patronus.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed what I wrote.
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Dysons fanless fans are a varient of jet augmentation, an idea so old, there used to be kits for model aircraft solid fuel rocket engines back in the 1970s or so. Jetex name?
I liked the idea of Thunderbird 2 for passenger modules, where the arrival and departure louges are the modules and the aircraft is the cargo hauler between the two. Fuel tanks on the underside of the module means the craft doesnt have to wait for all the refueling etc. Got the idea from thinking on how fast acting robotics could grab and replace external fuel tanks on flyby fighters, given back in the 1980s, the optical head on a CD player had microsecond responses to an accuracy a fraction the wavelength of light.
For the diesel, I was considering the 1970s idea of closed loop algae production for diesel equivalent hydrocarbon, due to various physical and chemical reasons, the main one being it takes a lot of air to burn a given amount of diesel, which takes high temperature to do so, so giving lots of thrust for a given amount of compact carried fuel. That, and if youre going through an atmosphere full of fuel for the engine, why not save launch weight and tank up on the way out. SABRE would be great for that.
For the VTOL RCS AI computer landing system, theres a prototype supersonic Harrier down in Bristol that had such a system installed, and demonstrated blind night time landing on a carrier. I cant remember if they stated what weather conditions were, but MIMO UWB radar in the last decade is far more capable than the origional system.
The stranges thing about engines, is that although Hubless designes have been around for years, hidden underwater on ship thrusters and ocean turbines, everone in SciFi/Fantasy goes straight from standard blades, to magical rings. MHD drives can be fun, to me, the main difference between ion drive and plasma, is just the density of the exhaust. Theyre both fully ionised particle flows.
What Im waiting for now, is that given Apples new processor has a very similar design philosophy from their greatest enemy back in the late 80s, early 90s, Im waiting to see if they implement a similar design philosophy in the kernel, OS, software for it. Its already totally crushing the Intel chips, I want to see what happens if they implement CAOS.
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The last thing I wanted to do was go straight to magical. I wanted engines that at least sounded like they might actually work. Now if I wanted to be silly just for the sake of it I could have used tubes with wands stuck in them. XD
As for the Positron drive, you bet it's powered by FM, and I ain't talking frequency modulation. ;)
this is the 4th time i have read this story and it just keeps getting better.
i am so hopping that when KittyrinnAiko gets free time she / he can start work on the sequel as it is long over due.
Awesome story!! Absolutely loved it.
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Thank you.
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I may have been using Open Office at the time. I'm using LibreOffice now, which is only slightly better. I augment with Grammarly and use text-to-speech in an effort to catch anything that was missed.
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yep i know. even a dim bulb on a dark night is better then no light at all.
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You made me laugh from the video.