30 - Holiday Stories
Chapter Thirty
Holiday Stories
In a flash of teal, Sunset reappeared at the beach where her friends and their families had gathered to watch the setting sun. Emma was the first to notice her return.
"Sunset! Where did you go? The twins said you read something in a book, suddenly got all serious, said something about teaching ponies manners and teleported away."
Sunset slipped her wand back into her pocket and turned back to her equine form before answering. "I did. Princess Celestia wrote me and told me that Twilight had been foalnapped. She asked if I wanted to join in the rescue. I did."
"Ignoring the term 'foalnapped' for a moment" Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes. "How are you so calm about this?"
Sunset smirked. "Because Twilight is the Student of the Sun. Getting foalnapped is basically part of the job description. Happens all the time."
"Wait you got ... 'foalnapped' too?"
Sunset nodded, "Of course. Princess Celestia even mentioned it in one of her letters. I know you saw that."
"Right. She did. Huh. I didn't think of that."
"They tried seventeen times." Sunset giggled as all the others gasped. "Only actually managed it eight times, mind you, but still. Those were some real amateurs today."
"Seriously?"
"What? They were! Anyways, what've you been up to while I was gone?"
"Not much, really," Emma explained, "you weren't even gone for half an hour. We were about to invite the boys over for dinner. You did make the table large enough for that."
"But before that," Dan chuckled, "we were going to watch the ... well, sunset."
Sunset herself giggled as well. "Y'know, I've watched Celestia raise and lower the sun thousands of times over the years I was her student. But it's still a sight I never grow tired of. You'll see it for yourself in a few days." She tilted her head slightly. "It should be time any second now."
Everyone turned their heads back to the sun. Only seconds after, it quickly slipped below the horizon.
Hermione turned to Sunset. "How d'you know that?"
"Good sense of time. Come on, let's have dinner. Tomorrow I'll get to show you around Fillidelphia."
Late morning the next day, the tents were disassembled and placed back in Sunset's bag. The entire group had gathered in the clearing. "Philomena, if you would."
A flash of flame later, the group stood on the roof of a building several stories tall. Sunset pulled a scroll out of her mane. "Alright, this should be our hotel for three nights. I have our reservation here."
They pressed the button on the elevator. The natural born humans were surprised for a moment, both that Equestria had elevators, and that one would go all the way to the roof. Then they remembered that a third of the Equestrian population could fly. Of course most buildings would have rooftop access.
The elevator brought them to the lobby in short order. The receptionist was quick to give them the keys to their rooms, though she seemed slightly baffled by their lack of luggage. And by the phoenix. Obviously.
She couldn't know that everything they needed fitted into the three bags Sunset, Hermione and Harry weren't visibly carrying. They had, after all, flowed into their very magical essence when they had assumed pony form.
They were quick to claim their rooms and head out, eager to see the city. Before they did, however, Mrs. Weasley insisted they have lunch.
Sunset was guiding the group on a tour of the city, showing them the various tourist attractions Fillidelphia had to offer. The city was one of the older ones in Equestria, having been founded nearly nine-hundred years ago. It had long since become a focal point of art and culture in Equestria, second only to Canterlot.
It thus came as no surprise, when Sunset showed them Court Bard Institute of Music, one of the most renowned conservatories in Equestria and the only one to match Canterlot Conservatory, despite the latter being nearly two centuries older.
Many in the group were intrigued by the modern style of architecture on display in the next building Sunset showed them.
"Now this," Sunset began, pointing at the modern building, "is Camel Hall, the home of the Fillidelphia Orchestra."
The group was staring at the wide, arching roof, many of them feeling instantly reminded of Kings' Cross Station, though it had only one arc, not two. The panes of glass were several yards wide each and spanned across the entire arc as a single, bent strip of glass.
"Wow," Emma spoke quietly. "I don't think humans could even make that kind of glass structure, especially not in that size."
Sunset nodded. "Probably not. From what I've seen, the technology of muggles on earth compares to that of Equestria much like the magic of wizards on earth compares to Equestrian magic, different states of advancement in different fields. Equestria is far behind in such things as transport or electronics, heck the entire field of Information Technologies doesn't even exist here, but in things like Chemistry and Material Sciences, Equestria is decades ahead."
"Uhh," Ron began, before voicing the Question most of the group were asking themselves, "what's Information Technologies?"
Rolling their eyes, Sunset, Hermione, Emma, Dan and Harry led the group to a cafe as they began explaining the concept of computers to the Weasleys and Lovegoods. Mr. Weasley was highly enthused, to say the least.
His wife simply sighed and rolled her eyes. Still she couldn't completely hide her interest.
The tour continued after their stop at the cafe, taking most of the remaining day. The humans still hadn't quite adjusted to days being shorter, so the excitement of the tour on top of that, made the day seem to pass in an instant.
Before long, they had returned to the hotel, turning in for the night. The four girls had offered to let Harry and Ron join them for the night, an offer that would have certainly turned heads, had they been a few years older. As it was, it was seen as adorable and accepted without issue. If anything, it was one less pony in the pile that would inevitably form in the room the Weasley family had taken. They still weren't entirely sure why that kept happening.
The four fillies and two colts arranged themselves in a circle, each resting their head on the neck of the one beside them, cuddling into their mane.
As such, the night passed quietly.
The next morning, after breakfast, the Weasleys and Harry once more began a game of Quidditch, this time in a nearby park. They didn't start out with two full teams, but that issue fixed itself rather quickly once passing pegasi noticed them and started joining in. Sunset ended up conjuring a second and later a third set of balls for another four teams that formed.
She was quietly grateful that Cloudsdale wasn't on their itinerary. Fillidelphia was a city founded by earth ponies and, to this day, they made up about half the population, much like over half the population of Canterlot were unicorns. Tradition was a powerful thing.
A city of more or less exclusively pegasi would completely lose their mind over Quidditch. It would certainly be an interesting social phenomenon to study, but one she preferred to watch from a distance. Though she had the feeling that she would be somehow involved anyway.
She was right.
It only took about two hours before one of the pegasi asked if they had a rulebook. Pegasi were rarely the bookish types, that personality archetype was far more common among unicorns and earth ponies, but it was still only a matter of time until they found one that was.
Of course, they didn't have a rulebook. This led to an immediate issue. Acquiring a rulebook was a simple matter of asking Philomena to take them to Diagon Alley and buying one there. The problem was that those rulebooks would be written in English. A language completely foreign to Equestria.
Sunset suddenly smiled. "Guys, I have an idea. I'll be right back." The unicorn vanished in a flash of teal.
She reappeared at the entrance to the Royal Archives in Canterlot, recognizing her, the guard at the door nodded and lit his horn to open the door for her.
She walked through the rows of shelves with intent, certain of her destination. It was a path she had taken countless times. After a minute of walking through the expansive hall, she conjured a platform of force beneath her, letting it lift her like an elevator. The books she was looking for dominated the upper half of the shelf she had reached. She smiled in nostalgia.
This was the Book of Magic, a comprehensive and encyclopedic index of spells sorted, for some strange reason, alphabetically by subject. The whole work took up nearly half of the several stories tall shelf by itself simply because of how complete it was. In total it was more than seven-hundred books long, describing in detail over sixty-thousand spells.
After a moment of search, she found the thirty fifth part of the series.
Book of Magic
(35)
Bol - Bop
Pulling the tome from the shelf in her magic, she opened it and put it down on the platform which she absently lowered back to the ground. It only took a minute for her to find the topic she had been looking for: Books.
"Let's see here," she quietly mumbled to herself, "book comprehension, no, book manifestation, what's that? Heycartes' method? Huh, something to look into later, but no, book replication, here we go." She took a few minutes to carefully read the spell, then she closed the tome and cast the spell on it.
It was fascinating to watch as the spell first created a new binding and then floated the two books across from each other and copied the original, page by page by page. In only a few seconds, the entire tome was copied and she carefully placed the original back where she had found it, high up on top of the shelf.
Momentarily taking human form, she stowed the copy in her bag. Once she had, she teleported back to her friends. "There, I have a spell that I can use. Now we just need a book. Who's coming along?"
After a few minutes it was decided that, Ginny, Ron, Harry, Luna and Hermione would be accompanying her, with Emma and Dan to chaperone them, the two needed wands anyway.
A few words later, Philomena had taken them to the warded alleyway once more. Sunset disguised her again and lead the way to the alley.
A few minutes later, they stood in a section at the back of Quality Quidditch Supplies. The shop, Ron remembered featured several sections one might not initially expect, including one that handled the sale of used equipment and one that carried Quidditch literature. It was, unsurprisingly, far more comprehensive than the section Flourish and Blot’s had set aside for the sport.
After a few moments of looking through the books, they found something interesting, a comprehensive rulebook, including a full list of fouls with a voice controlled search function. The list was not complete, of course, as the ministry had never released a complete one, but the book did include the great majority of the seven-hundred fouls the game knew.
Once they had acquired the book, it was time for them to head for Ollivander's yet again. While some of them appeared a bit startled, none of them jumped when Ollivander stepped from the shadows with a jovial. "Ah, it's time already? That was sooner than I expected. Welcome once again and my sincere congratulations. You have made history."
Emma smiled happily. "Thank you. But really this was all Sunset's work. She's the one who cured us."
Ollivander raised an eyebrow. "Cured? Are you suggesting that being a muggle is a medical condition?"
Sunset smirked. "Well it is. I couldn't have cured it otherwise. Though it is excessively common here."
"Remarkable. But that's not why you are here, is it? I take it the two of you will need wands?" Emma and Dan nodded. "Which are your wand hands?"
After Dan indicated his right and Emma her left, they were both assailed by measuring tapes while Ollivander, in his typical manner, flitted through the store to find prospective wands.
It took several minutes each, but before long, Emma held a twelve and a quarter inch wand of sycamore with a phoenix feather core. Ollivander had remarked that it suggested she had great potential to learn and grow.
Dan was, in turn, chosen by a fourteen inch, aspen wand with a unicorn hair core. Ollivander's pronouncement that he was likely to bring great change was met with gazes that unanimously said 'No! Really?! Whatever gave you that idea?'
After they had left the store, Ollivander scratched the back of his head in thought. In retrospect that really hadn't been much of a revelation. Regardless, Miss Shimmer had managed to turn two muggles into a wizard and a witch. It seemed another letter to Albus was in order.
Not even an hour after leaving, the group was back in Manehattan and Sunset took the rule book. She looked to Hermione with a smile. "Now this might come in handy later. I've found a spell that can copy a scroll, book, letter, you name it. I've compiled my knowledge of English and Modern Equestrian into a translation matrix. If I link that matrix into the spell, we should get a translated copy. After that, I just have to enchant it with a modified version of the search spell and we'll be golden."
She lit her horn, firing a beam of teal at the book. Within moments, the book was copied over. They took a few minutes to skim various passages in the book to confirm that it was, in fact, written in coherent Equestrian, then, once Sunset added a slightly modified version of the search enchantment, they took it back to where the pegasi were still playing Quidditch.
The stallion that had asked for the rulebook was ecstatic at the gift. He was, it turned out, from Cloudsdale – Ginny simply rolled her eyes – and visiting family for the local Summer Sun Celebration.
With more and more pegasi coming over to see what the commotion was and even some Earth Ponies and Unicorns joining in, the group was quite busy for the rest of the day. Sunset taught Hermione, Mr. Weasley and Percy a simple cloud walking charm. Any of the pegasi of the group that weren't currently playing were put to work molding clouds into seating.
Of the many things the group had expected to do today, building an impromptu stadium, out of clouds no less, was not among them.
The next day was similar, only with Emma and Dan practicing magic in their hotel room under Arthur and Hermione's supervision.
The pegasi failed to notice the repeated flashes of colored light coming from one of the hotel's rooms, too engaged in their game. Only Harry, who was taking a break from the game, and focused on gaining the ability to change shapes at will, noticed the lights coming from their room.
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why is everything in bold ?
That letter ought to be interesting
"Hey old coot, forget the Potter boy, the bacon girl's going to be a riot."
Quidditch in equestria. How long until a Pegasus team asks to play against humans?
I don't really like the idea that muggles can just become wizards, it would have been better if the Grangers had just been squibs.
9611397
Fimfiction goofing on the formatting?
9611411
plz let this happen at some point
9610994
Well of course, they're outliers. But that still suggests a period of time between infantile magic surges and conscious magic use, even if it's not normally (nearly) as long as Sweetie's.
9611439
No actually, author missing a symbol ... Another thing I need to get used to checking before I publish these ...
9611429
I'm pretty sure they were squibs, but second or third generation so not even they knew. Otherwise, are we to assume that Hermione just got witchiness from nowhere?
9611543
following your logic then it could be said that all muggles are just squibs...just many generations of them.
9611461
pretty sure the weasels plus harry can supply an almost full team on their own.
Can't wait for the clash between Quidditch and Buckball fans. Buckball is far more far as it needs members of all three tribes, but I half expect brooms, or other objects, to be used for the other two types. Well that or Unicorns will start using their magic like Starlight just to play the game.
Read this all in one sitting. Should have been asleep 4 hours ago but someone had to write a captivating story! Take your like and follow, I'll be keeping an eye on this one!
Amd after a couple of days when Sunset return to Canterlot she will find that all Equestria is playing the new Quiditch, and how some griffons and dragons are making teams to play...
9611543
It's not that simple. Genetics do affect magical aptitude and power, but not alone, several other factors also play a role, chief among them the strength of the ambient magic field during praenatal development. It's a complicated mess, really, so it's hard to pin down one reason why any particular muggleborn has magic while others, even in their own family don't.
9611762
Sunset's gonna end up "fixing" Filch later, isn't she? Also, I wonder what her take on finding a broken wand is gonna be: will she try (and possibly succeed?) in repairing said wand? Asking for a half-giant groundskeeper friend of mine...
Then there's the house-elf magic... And I'm not sure how I'd take it if Dumbledore makes it to Equestria and winds up as an Alicorn: got mixed feelings there. I'm certain he'd definitely hit it off with Starswirl if the two ever met, though that'd require some major fiddling with the show's timeline...
PS: Hogwarts when?
FTFY
Addendum: if Sunset can clear up blocked thaumic channels in a being, can she reverse the process as well?
The Sunset giveth, and the Sunset also taketh away (from Draco!)...
9611154
I'm more pissed off at the fact that you refuse to face facts. You're stubborn to a T just like my sister and that frustrates me to no end.
It is canon. I'd like you to actually consider everything they do. NONE of it can be explained as "that's not magic". They use their wings like HANDS ffs!
I'd like to refer you to Lauren Faust, THE CREATOR OF MLP HERSELF, who said, and I quote, "Earth ponies have a magically ingrained connection to the earth that makes them better at working with plants and animals."
You have 0 sources that say it's not magic except your own goddamn stubbornness. It's NOT fanon. ITS CANON!
9612667
If by 'fixing Filch' you mean his inability to use magic, she may or may not have a hand in that ... if you mean his personality ... She's a sorceress, not a psychologist ...
Hagrid's wand ... well, she doesn't know about that so far, and if she did she'd probably want to inquire why it was snapped in the first place ... following that line of investigation she'd likely figure out the whole 'Chamber of Secrets' connection, at which point the very reason for him not to have a wand anymore falls apart and it would be much simpler just to get a new one.
As far as artificially blocking the arcane channels (kinda like what Sombra does to Shining Armor in S3E1) She could probably figure out a way to do that based off the same principle ... But an uncooperative subject might make the matter a bit more complicated. And Malfoy being knocked out by someone twice a week might be noticed ... just a hunch
This chapter felt very rushed. So many time skips and it was very fast paced.
9612867
Noticed, yes, but likely overlooked by most since he's a prat, and that's putting it nicely.
9612877
But his father does care about him. And if Draco writes him that he keeps waking up with a headache and doesn't know why, you can bet Lucius is going to do something about it.
9612687
If it's never stated in the show it's not canon that is a fact. Heck, it's not even stated in other places like the comics so you can't even consider it B-canon. Earth Ponies and Pegasi did not lose their abilities in the season 8 finale nor is it ever mentioned as being a possibility that to me is confirmation that what they do isn't actually considered magic in show canon.
9613048
Then again, the magic drain in the season 8 finale never completed fully ... Somehow I get the feeling someone at CHS get's some kind of sick fun out of making sure they don't confirm this either way.
At least ambient magic deficiency doesn't come with as bad of symptoms as vitamin C deficiency. Consider the percentage of the population that … uh … unknowingly suffer, from ambient magic deficiency.
Another great chapter!
lose
9611429
I suspect it might turn out that there are degrees of 'muggleness' where some cases itd have no effect. At least I hope that winds up the case, Earth doesn't have a strong enough magical field for everyone to become a witch or wizard.
9611543
I looked it up once, and the answer is... sort of? Its suggested that some families can go generations without a muggle or a magic gifted child, and that there is a gene involved but that it being a magic gene makes it... well, fickle i guess is the word.
9612876
I share that feeling a bit here as well, but I can tolerate it because this story seems to mostly be a cute slice of life adventurish crossover. It so far hasnt tried to be anything else.
*glances angrily at another particular story.*
wow... just wow. these wizards are a way to out of touch with the muggle world
9874482
I mean, in 1992, most twelve year-olds probably wouldn't know what IT was ...
ok, so i got to the part about the 'Book of Magic'. and my brain goes; "hold up! why keep reading the fun story when you can spend 10 minuets doing maths?" now, im not great at maths. i'v struggled with it since collage. but if i have got this right, then book 35 being BoI-BoP means that book 1 would start at BeQ and end on BeY.
not sure if autism, adhd, just weird, or all of the above.
9899669
Your math may certainly be correct, but it assumes that every letter of the alphabet is equally filled with names assigned to it. Take any list of names and sort them alphabetically and you'll see that that is not the case.
Copyright violation.
This upsets me because a lot of witches and warlocks put a lot of effort into making that quidditch rulebook.😒
Edit: and before people bring up the fact that she didn't sell the book to the Pegasus. And it's a translated equestrian language copy.
It is a word for word, including spell Matrix, probably illustrations, cover art, everything, exact copy.
With absolutely no consideration verbal written or otherwise to the original author.
We all know that this one quidditch rulebook will be copied thousands of times with zero compensation to any of the original makers.
But hey, I guess it's easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. Am I right?
9904944
Copying the rulebook is perfectly acceptable here. Copyright law does not apply.
First off, looking at the Harry Potter wiki, it looks like the existence of the Quidditch rules and the 700 fouls significantly predates any conception of copyright law. I'm seeing a reference in the wiki to the 1473 Quidditch Would Cup where "all 700 fouls were committed", while copyright law didn't exist in a form that we'd recognize until at least 1710. 1662 if you're feeling generous and consider a legally enforced monopoly of published works to be copyright.
Also, as it so happens, copyright law does not protect game mechanics and rules. That falls squarely under the domain of patent law, and the protections for patents only last 20 years, even today.
In short, the entirety of Quidditch is public domain in the Harry Potter world, no matter how you measure it.
10150618
On the other hand, despite there having been a game where all 700 possible fouls occurred, the full list of fouls is (according to pottermore) not known ... somehow ...