[RVS]12 - Journeys and Journals
Chapter Twelve
Journeys and Journals
Once the three children had packed their books into their bags, Sunset and Hermione now slightly weighed down and Philomena once more disguised as an eagle, Dan revealed another surprise. With a grandiose gesture, he pulled a bird cage out from behind his back, inside was a beautiful, snowy white owl.
"I noticed I didn't get you a birthday present yet, Harry," Hagrid explained.
"And he offered to let me carry her and let him lug around the books," Dan added, a little sheepish.
To say Harry was stunned would be an understatement. It took a few moments before he had recovered from the surprise. Once he managed, they made their way to Pottage's cauldrons, where they not only got the three cauldrons they needed (pewter, standard size two) but also a small leaflet each on how to use the self stirring enchantment and how to fold the cauldron as well as three sets of crystal vials.
From there they went to the Apothecary where they got three standard potions kits and a store for magical implements where they got their telescopes and scales. The entire time, Sunset kept an eye on Harry, measuring his reactions to everything they saw. Her worry only grew. Finally she made a decision.
Medical magic had never been a subject of particular interest to her, but Princess Celestia had insisted on teaching her at least a basic medical diagnostic charm. Seeing how it wasn't too dissimilar from other scanning charms she used all the time, it only took her a few seconds to weave the charm. Her eyes lit up with magic once more and she turned her gaze on Harry. Her eyes first widened then narrowed. It only took her a few more seconds to come to a decision.
The group rounded out their trip through the alley at a stationary shop. The shop provided the parchment, ink and quills they would need. Sunset also made it a point to buy two identical journals and pay for them with her own money. Being three knuts each, they didn't set her back by much. She wouldn't tell Harry why she needed two journals.
Once they had all they needed, they returned to the leaky cauldron, where they split up. Harry was a little down at having to leave his new friends. Sure he hadn't known them for longer that the loosely six hours they had spent in the alley, but they had been nice the entire time, which was about five-and-a-half hours longer than anyone else he had met. He didn't much like the fact that he wouldn't be seeing them for a whole month. To his surprise, Sunset handed Philomena off to Hermione and followed him, Hagrid and McGonnagall towards the nearest subway station.
When Hagrid started messing around with muggle money for the tickets, Sunset went ahead and did it for him, earning a grateful look from McGonagall, she, it seemed, couldn't handle paper money either. After only a few stops they reached Waterloo station where Sunset, once more, took care of the tickets. Not long after, they bid Hagrid and McGonagall goodbye and got on the train.
When they were sat in an otherwise empty car of the Wednesday afternoon train to Woking, Harry couldn't hold back any longer. "Why did you want to come with me? How are you even going to get home?"
Sunset laughed. "Back to the Grangers, you mean? I haven't been 'home' in nearly eight years now. And remember what Hermione said at Ollivander's? I taught her to do that. And what she did there was a mid-range teleport, with a long range one, I can easily get back to Birmingham, even without a wand. As for why I wanted to come with you? Well, three reasons. I wanted to be able to teleport to you if necessary. To do that I have to have some way of knowing where to go. Normally, having been there before.
"Secondly I wanted to see where you live. There are a few things that tell me that your living conditions are far from normal and, if I had to take a guess, far from acceptable. You have clothes that are barely holding together and are much to large for you, you didn't have a bag with you, you are very thin and relatively small for your age, which, by the way, can be a sign of malnourishment. The list continues, but I think you know all of these things, and you hoped we didn't notice."
Harry winced at those words, realizing that she had more or less surmised his situation at the Dursleys' was far from normal, but Sunset put a comforting arm around his shoulder. "Well I did notice, and I'll see what I can do about it."
With that, Sunset folded out the little coffee table from the seat before hers and pulled out the two journals, pointing the backs of both at her and placing a finger on each.
After a moment, Harry quietly spoke up. "And the third reason?"
Sunset smirked at him. "You'll see."
He pointed at the two journals. "Does it have something to do with these?"
"It does." She lifted her finger off the books and Harry was startled to see the formerly blank backs of the books now bearing a darkened, almost charred, area in the shape of a compass rose. She placed the books down and opened them to the first page, placing a finger on the inside of each cover.
Harry might have missed it the first time, but now, without a distraction, he noticed that her fingers were faintly glowing teal. Seeing nothing else happen, Harry busied himself with his owl. Interestingly, she seemed to be almost as intelligent and expressive as Philomena. He had been quite shocked to see the 'eagle' revealed as a phoenix. Not that it stood out much after all the other surprises he had endured today. None of those surprises were particularly unpleasant, which was a bit of a surprise in itself.
When he looked back to Sunset he saw that circles of glowing teal lines had sprung up under her fingers, slowly populating with symbols he didn't recognize. "What are you doing?"
"Enchanting," she answered absently. Before long, the circles had filled, pulsed teal a final time and then faded until they only shimmered a faint teal. She then placed her fingers on the opposite page and repeated the process, focusing once more.
About half an hour into their train ride, she finished that second pair of circles and leaned back for a moment, massaging her temples. Then, she stroked a finger over the pages, coating them in a pale teal before closing the two books. She reopened them to check her work and Harry saw that she hadn't opened the first page and the inside of the cover, but the second and third page. The first page had remained stuck to the cover. "Good. Half way there."
She continued to open the books to the last page, once again placing her fingers there and creating a third pair of circles. By the time they were done, the driver had announced the final stop and she packed the books away. Their interchange at Woking Station only took a few minutes and they were soon sat in a smaller train going south.
Harry wasn't really surprised to see Sunset pull the books back out and place her fingers on the inside of the rear covers, creating a final set of circles over the next fifteen minutes. With his owl – he really needed to find a proper name for her – having fallen asleep, Harry watched her carefully. She clearly knew way too much magic to have never been to magic school. Together with her allusions to not having been home in a long time, he realized that there was something she hadn't told him. Still, she wanted to stay in contact and he could always ask her later. He really didn't want to interrupt her work.
When the circles were complete, she repeated her actions from before and stuck the last two pages together. Finally, after confirming that they were, indeed, stuck together, she closed both books and placed her full hands on the covers, looking at them from the sides. After a moment she took her hands back out and pulled a pen out of her bag. She gave the right journal to Harry and told him to look at the back of it, then she opened the other journal and began to write in it.
Harry was stunned to see the little compass rose symbol light up a pale teal. Sunset then closes her journal and told him to open his. Surprised to see text on the formerly empty page, he began to read.
Hey Harry,
Pretty neat, huh? I've enchanted these journals so that everything
written in one will appear in the other as well. I get the feeling that
your relatives don't particularly like magic, or you would have known
about it. This should be unobtrusive enough to go unnoticed,
especially if you keep it on your person.
Take it as my present, it is your birthday after all.
Congratulations, by the way.
Sunset.
"How did you come up with this?"
"I didn't. I have something similar to keep in contact with my old mentor." She looked out of the window, suddenly seeming a bit sad. "I should probably write her and apologize. I said some things that weren't exactly nice before I left." She perked up again. "Ah well, I'll do that tonight. For now I have other priorities." She packed her journal away, prompting Harry to do the same with his.
Barely a minute later, they stood on the platform of Little Whinging station. "So, where do we go from here?"
Sunset shrugged. "Shouldn't you know?"
"Well yes, I mean is there some specific place you need me to show you?"
"Oh. A place where I can teleport unseen would be good."
Harry thought for a moment. "There is an alley in the estate that's hardly ever used. I can show you there."
"Mhh, yeah. If I set up a few perception filters that should work out fine. Show me."
Ten minutes later they stood in the small, shadowed alleyway between Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk. Harry leaned against a wall as he watched Sunset, her hands aglow, setting up the aforementioned wards. It only took her a few minutes. She had explained that the perception filters would effectively hide themselves, as well as any other magic in the alley.
"Just in case your relatives are home, I'll go invisible. Come here a second." He did as she asked and she waved her hand in front of his eyes. His vision shifted, though he couldn't put a finger on how. A moment later, Sunset became transparent, but he could still see her as a warping of the light, as though she was made of glass. "Now. Lead the way."
As it turned out, she needn't have bothered. The Dursleys hadn't come home yet. Not surprising, actually, considering that he and Hagrid had left them on the island without a boat. He was pretty sure Uncle Vernon wouldn't get cellphone reception out there either.
Getting in proved to be easy. Being invisible, Sunset could pick the lock without fear of being seen. Harry chose not to ask where or why she had learned to do that. Once in, Sunset dropped her invisibility and Harry's vision returned to normal. "Okay. Now that were here, tell me what actually happened here. I can guess at a lot of things, but tell me what really happened."
Harry was hesitant for a few moments, but she already found out most of what was going on with the Dursleys, he might as well fill in the blanks. Not to mention that, if Aunt Petunia's shows on the telly were accurate at all, talking about it might actually help. And so he led her to the living room, unnaturally pristine as usual, and began to tell her.
The strange things that happened around him, she identified them as magic surges, and the Dursleys' reactions thereto, the gluttony of Dudley and Uncle Vernon, and how they made sure he got little more than the bare minimum, how he'd only ever gotten the clothes Dudley didn't want anymore. When he told her about their reactions to the letters from Hogwarts, he mentioned how they told him to move to Dudley's second bedroom.
"Wait, you didn't sleep there before?"
"No." He got up, walking out into the hallway. "I slept there."
She followed his gaze to the cupboard beneath the stairs. "You're not serious. Are you? Oh sweet Celestia, you are serious." She placed her hand on the lock and it clicked open. Seeing the small mattress inside she scowled. "That is absolutely appalling." She turned back to him, holding out a hand. "Give me your hand, I'll make sure we have a plan b, just in case."
After a moment's hesitation he placed his hand in hers, prompting her to place one finger on the back of it. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the finger began to glow, followed a moment later by a glowing teal symbol. When she took her finger off and let go of his hand, he could still feel the tingle of her magic from the glyph, even as it faded into a faint, discolored outline. He looked at the flowing lines of the alien letter with slight confusion. "What is that?"
"An alarm spell. You can feel it right?" He nodded. "Good. If you ever need me, if your relatives do something too egregious, or something like that, focus on that feeling. It'll trigger the spell and I'll know where you are and that you need me. I'll come as quickly as I can." She smirked. "The glyph is ancient Thessian. It means 'contingency'. I thought it was appropriate. We can see it as a faint outline, but only because I'm the one who cast it, and you're the one I cast it on. Anyone else will need an aura sight spell to see it at all, so don't worry that your relatives will find it."
Harry couldn't help but smile. "Thanks."
"But know that it's an emergency measure. If it isn't absolutely necessary, use the journal to contact me instead. That glyph is single use."
They sat down in the kitchen and talked for a few more minutes. Then a car came down the road. Harry looked up, recognizing the vehicle. "It's the Dursleys. You gotta leave. They can't find you here."
"I see." With a sad expression, Sunset got up and hugged Harry which he returned after a moment. Then she took a step back. "I'll be in touch." She waved a final time, the air around her wavered and she was gone with nary a sound.
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9528247
About the age RD is in her and Fluttershy's stories during 'The Cutie Mark Chronicles'. I.e. eleven.
Oh the Dursleys are in for a surprise
Aww, Sunset discovered the power of friendship. Shame it took going to another world for her to do it.
Well, at least Celestia will be able to not worry too much over Sunset, and probably see her again in a couple years.
9528295
Too bad that she already had nearly half a year to worry about her then, isn't it?
9528342
Better to worry for only half a year, and not the, what, 20+ until she came back and contact was made again? (considering that she stopped being her student before Twilight appeared).
9528358
For the purposes of this continuity, Sunset left Equestria three cycles of the portal before the events of canon EQG. One cycle is 2.5 years, thus 7.5 years total.
sigh... the chapter was fine but I'm really getting sick of Sunset constantly pulling magical solutions out of her ass. Magical surveillance crystals, Really? The journal would have been enough and is at least somewhat plausible.
She can't just have a solution already prepared for problems she didn't know she'd have to solve, she's not Batman.
9528381
Wait, so how old was Twilight when she became Celestia's pupil, and when she fought nightmare moon? Because those numbers don't add up (unless more time passes in equestria than in EQG universe, that is).
9528577
Twilight was twelve when she became Celestia's pupil and eighteen when she fought Nightmare moon (and twenty by the time of EQG 1)
9528394
Scrying is a thing on many magic universes, including Harry Potter. It’s not too much of a stretch to assume that MLP has them too. The crystals could be a power source for the spell, or an anchor to find them. She’s been the pupil of a goddess for eight years and been independently studying magic for another half year. It’s not outside the realm of possibility
9528633
Okay true it is plausible but it's still ridiculous that she always has these things prepared.
The other problem is there is no reason for Sunset to involve herself in Harry's personal life like this. She only just met him, staying in contact makes sense but wanting to fix his home problems does not. Even the nicest person in the world wouldn't decide there is problem to fix just based on casual observations.
There is no logical reason for her to involve herself like this only hours after meeting him.
9528609
But then she's older than Sunset (three cycles would make Sunset 18/19 by the time of EQG). Celestia didn't lose any sleep over taking a new student, it seems. That also doesn't mesh well with how small Twilight seems to be...
This is not to say this can't be what happened, I'm just trying to understand. Not to mention there's absolutely no way Twilight wouldn't have heard of Sunset (and possibly have quite the "I'm the hasty replacement" complex).
9528732
You shall see soon enough ...
9528761
That's not even it, not only is the imperial mile one of many miles that are all of different length, not only is it's length a completely arbitrary amount of feet which are again subdivided into inches, no, inches also subdivide into lines which, in turn, subdivide into points. Logic!
So now she's a detective and a doctor, is there anything she can't do? I suppose being less than perfect is the only thing beyond her at this point, I bet she'll just go through all the trials first try and walk away with the stone as well.
Seriously I like this story but Sunset is starting to be too much, she's just a borderline Mary-Sue at this point.
9528990
No. She is neither a detective, nor a doctor, but foal abuse is a severe crime, and - in a peaceful land, such as Equestria - a rare one. So when it does happen, it goes straight to the highest authority. And ... to her student ...
9529018
Yeah that's not an explanation.
She's known Harry for only a few hours and yet she instantly picks up on Harry being abused, something that nobody else could have possible picked up on after such a short amount of time. Then instead of bringing her concerns to the adults or even trying to confirm her suspicions she just immediately confronts Harry and decides to handle things herself. Meanwhile Harry just instantly trusts this stranger when anyone in his position would have told her to back off and mind her own business.
This is something that should have been tackled after they had been friends for at least a year, it's not something to be tackled in the fist few hours.
Please stop writing Sunset like some self-insert who knows everything that happened in the books.
9529113
Now, now, I think you're getting a little presumptuous ...
I don't mind criticism, I'm well aware that I'm not perfect. I'll gladly take good suggestions, and I try to keep complaints in mind.
But this is still my story.
Don't try to tell me how to write it.
I am putting in the effort to write this story for no reward other than my own and other fans' enjoyment. I don't presume to tell you to read it, you in turn don't tell me how to write it. If you don't like the way the story is going, you are free not to read it.
I warned all readers from the start that the story would be starting slow and that Sunset would be bordering on OP. You continued reading regardless, don't complain about finding the very things I told you you would find if you kept reading.
Now I apologize for my tone, but this needed to be said.
If you do choose to keep on reading, enjoy.
Otherwise, it was a pleasure to have you regardless
9529161
I'm sorry if I came across as harsh but this is a serious problem.
You keep rushing through all these plot points with no attempt to build any tension. Being OP is one thing but Sunset literally fixes every problem the moment she comes across it regardless of if it makes logical sense. There is simply no logical reason for Sunset to tackle the Dursley situation hours after meeting Harry for the first time nor does it make sense for the Grangers to offer her a home like it's the easiest thing in the world. You say you're going slow but really you have been rushing through at a break neck pace, you need to slow down or this story will lose steam very fast which I would hate to see.
9529198
Oh, don't worry about me running out of plots to tackle ... I have plenty to go through.
9529198
Kind of going off of what you've said in prior comments. It seems odd to me that Harry would consider Hermione and Sunset friends even though he pretty much didn't interact with them at all during their shared trip to Diagon Alley. We were shown what was essentially a "Plot with minor background snark" scenario that really didn't do much to show that they were ever going to interact with one another, other than the fact that we know they do in canon (Minus the crossover character). And yeah, gotta agree that Sunset solving every problem like a magical batman is bordering on Mary Sue rather than just OP as the author indicates.
Don't get me wrong, I love it when there's OP crossover characters. But there also needs to be some form of struggle/conflict for the character to achieve some of the things they want. If the character is just going to solve all their problems in a split second, then why would anybody read it? Certainly not to find out what happens, because at that point we already know what's going to happen: Sunset will win, solve all her problems and "correct" the issues of canon.
9529198
I think it crosses Emma's mind that Sunset could be a friend for Hermione in ways she hasn't had someone for before. Believe me, Mothers do think like that.
9529764
Thank you ... Fixed
9529787
The first one isn't wrong as it is, the second one needs to be as it is and the third one is corrected, thanks.
It seems extremely odd for Sunset to be doing this. She barely knows Harry, and she has no reason to help.
9531499
Exactly; the first EqG movie showed Sunset to be an absolute bitch, tearing down any competition or potential threat without mercy, ending up with her essentially ruling the school - she even used Flash to help her reach this goal.
Yet here? She's nice, kind, and willing to help anyone who needs it - without first needing a rainbow to the head. The heck? That's definitely OoC for Sunset.
I do enjoy this story, but this does make no sense whatsoever. Will Sunset even come back for Twilight's crown? Doubtful, it seems, which also means there'd be no reason for Twilight to come over.
9537751
It isn't actually OOC. If you look at the pictures on principle Celestia's wall, you can see that Sunset didn't actually start out as a bitch. It was a gradual decline.
I detest this idea. For starters, it makes redundant or obsolete plenty of medical technology that we know that Equestria uses. For another, it makes Earth Ponies and Pegasi explicitly inferior doctors. For a third, unless the spell is literally feeding her text-descriptions of past injuries Harry's had, she should have no better idea of what she's looking at than any other 11-year-old looking at a magical MRI.
Also, why does she care? Seriously, she's already so far off-base from where we see her in the movies that she's practically a different character entirely, but that still doesn't explain why she's doing this. If she found school as trivial as this story made it sound, she would have picked up on this sort of stuff from her classmates when she was at muggle school. Was she just ignoring these things up until now, or does her concern only apply to Main Characters?
9599689
My personal headcanon is that she left in a hissy fit, mad at Celestia, but with no actual hate. The decline came from associating the frustration with being stuck in a magicless world with her previous anger at Celestia. Plus, she probably had a similar problem with her education with Celestia - that she was kept away from any potential friends. That's Celestia's mistake. So she didn't make a friend in that high school that would mitigate that anger or give her a healthy outlet for it.
Sheesh! British money is color coded, not all one color like US money.
I remember playing Monopoly with my younger siblings. You can always say “Two greens & a pink” (or whatever)
9765919
That may be so, but it's canonically established that wizards have no clue how to deal with paper money, regardless of color.
Seems like you missed showing the development of Sunset's character that would lead her to make that statement. Of course, I can presume the things that led her there, it seems obvious enough, but it's not really shown that she's changing, so the beginning of the story is lacking some punch. And knowing the potential makes the absence pain me more than it otherwise would. In isolation it might be an okay build up so far? I'm not sure. The potential would still exist unfulfilled, but it wouldn't be as visible.
All that is not to say that I'm not enjoying the story up to this point. It just could stand to have a little more action/drama during the declared "slow start" period. Believe me, I love good setup chapters, it just seems like (from what I've read so far) that opportunities for character development and excitement might have been overlooked in zeal to simply set the board for whatever you had planned for when the story actually kicks off. It's mostly been straight lore and world building so far with the plot barely creeping along and characters almost stagnant in some ways.
I did say I'm enjoying it though, because there are redeeming qualities. The interplay of Sunset and Hermione has been the highlight with a few little subplots set to spice things up later. And the explanations of spell craft are well thought out.
Despite reading many fanfics, only a handful give me the giddy excitement of wanting to know what happens next. By this point I have read around 100 mlp fanfics but as you see, many weren’t moved to my favorites or tracking list for reason. Many were good but not favorites and really only good for the one read. Outside lap I have read hundreds more fanfics and even fewer were as good or as enjoyable. Good job. Obviously your world building elements provide a solid foundation along with good editing and much to be anticipated events that so attracted me to this story. As well as the foundation allowing a sense of realism and like I said, a foundation many fics don’t even bother creating. It is these stories that keep me searching thru fanfics like a madman possessed. As you also see I am to busy reading chapter to chapter non stop to leave many comments, and I saved most of it all up for this one. Onward I now go!
9537751
kindness is privilege of the fortunate
eg sunset is alone. she doesn't have magic. she doesn't have much wealth(no car). and she's stranded alone in world of meat-eater without a lovely adopted family.
11116878
As shown in Monday Blues, CHS is in walk distance with Shugar Cube Corner inbetween. And as shown in Friendship Games, there's public transport with small interval. In this scenario car is waste of money.