The Gate

by computerneek

Chapter 49

Dumbledore bows his head. “Good evening, Lyra.”

“Good evening,” Lyra greets, nodding her head to him and all four heads of house. More than one of them looks a little uncomfortable with the golden swirls floating all around the room.

“Is there a reason you wanted to meet here?” Flitwick asks, eyeing the symbols nervously.

Lyra glances at them. “Yes, actually. Don’t worry, these matrices are safe- they won’t activate on a random magic discharge or anything. Besides, they wouldn’t do anything to any of you- or me, for that matter- anyways.”

Dumbledore smiles, taking his seat at the round table Lyra had placed in the middle of the room. Or, more accurately, kneeling on one of the cushions she’d laid around it. “So, you wanted to meet us here?”

Lyra nods. “Yes, actually. About, well, this.” She gestures at the symbols. “You know what it is by now, right?”

Dumbledore bows his head.

“It’s the spell you used on Miss Granger, is it not?” McGonagall asks.

Lyra winces. “Ahh… yes and no, actually. It is true, this is a permanent emplacement of my Papa Tango spellwork- but unfortunately no, it was not ready when I did Granger’s transformation. For that, I built a temporary version, whose matrices burned out with only one use. This one affords instant, painless transformation, with an age spell specially tuned to last almost indefinitely after the transformation. Only…” She sighs. “You know what happened, right about a month and a half ago?”

“Ahh… Yeah,” Professor Flitwick mutters, brushing his long, glistening golden hair back with one hand. “Kinda hard to forget that.”

“Well, about that,” Lyra nods. “I’m mildly curious how you’ve been dealing with the age problem.”

“Age problem?” Professor Snape asks, raising an eyebrow.

Lyra nods, and reaches out a hand to point, towards a very suddenly brightly-glowing patch of airborne squiggles. “The age spell was damaged, such that it would have been deadly. The three safeties tied to it-” three separate neighboring patches of squiggles suddenly glow a brilliant red- “were also damaged, preventing them from shutting down the entire matrix, but they did successfully prevent the age matrices from doing anything.” She lowers her hand. “I’ve repaired them already; I rather suspect the damage was done by your efforts to identify the matrices in the first place. But, with that matrix not running during the transformation, you should have found yourselves suddenly eleven years old.”

“We did,” Professor Dumbledore nods. “We’ve been regularly using an age spell to keep our ages appropriate.”

Lyra scowls. “I bet that’s a British age spell?”

He nods. “Yes?”

“And I bet it’s lasting around a quarter as long as it’s supposed to?”

Flitwick raises an eyebrow. “Right about. You know why?”

She nods. “Because it’s designed for British magical cores, which you don’t have anymore.”

“What-!?” Professor McGonagall blinks.

Lyra nods. “That’s what the Papa Tango does. It takes the magical core and expands it to match an Equestrian magical core. There’s very few facilities- including animagus transformations- that British magical cores have and we don’t; those are not removed… but all the qualities of the Equestrian core, including our comparatively amazing magic resistance and natural wards, will have been added. As such… Well, age spells are one of very few spells that are even ten percent as effective on an Equestrian as on a British wizard.”

“You mean to say we’re magic-resistant?” Snape asks.

Lyra nods. “We found out last year that the Equestrian magic matrix is immune to the Killing Curse- which works by shattering the magical core. A British wizard would be killed by that- but the inner layers of the Equestrian core are flat-out immune to that attack. It takes several hours to restore the damaged layers, during which the subject is unconscious, but still.” She shrugs. “I can apply the age spell separately if you want, even now; the logging section was undamaged.” She gestures around as a golden ring around the entire room glows briefly. “This age spell would last a maximum of about eighty years, and automatically collapse whenever you actually hit the same biological age as it’s targeting. It’s also effective against magical age detectors, unlike any British age spell we’ve been able to find.”

“Sure,” Professor Sprout volunteers. “Should be easier than reapplying every night, right?”

“Yes, much,” Lyra nods. “It’ll even hold through animagus transformations- though it’ll go to standby anytime you’re not in human form.”

The rest nod as well.

“Okay, now that that’s over with, I’m kinda curious how well you’ve managed with your Equestrian magics.”

“What Equestrian magics?” Professor McGonagall asks, head tilting.

Lyra shrugs. “There’s three types- one would manifest as super strength and an affinity for plants.” She smiles at Professor Sprout, who nods. “The second- and the type I have- would first manifest as something like a telekinetic ability.” She glances around at them, holding her hand out over the table as it floats slightly up and down. Nobody moves. “Nobody? Huh. I would’ve thought… Whatever. The last one has been known to most noticeably manifest, on Papa Tango subjects, as wings.”

“Any… particular type of wings?” Flitwick asks.

Lyra shrugs. “I’ve only seen one on this side of the Gate- but with a sample size of one, that’s not hard. Go to the other side of the Gate, though, and Hermione doesn’t even have the most common type of wings. Over there, I’ve seen full feathered wings, I’ve seen leathery bat wings, I’ve seen scaly dragon wings. I can even name one with each that’re attending Hogwarts- though their wings don’t manifest on this side of the Gate.”

Flitwick stretches one wing out. “Any like this?”

Lyra looks at it critically. “Kirin, probably.” She smiles. “Midnight Blade, in Slytherin, is one. Mighty good fighters- part dragon and everything.” She shrugs. “Not very common in Equestria, but I figure it’s probably how your Goblin heritage manifested. Goblins don’t exist in Equestria, after all.” She rubs her chin. “Makes me wonder what’d happen if one got papa-tangoed.”

“So the wings are normal?” Snape asks.

Lyra nods. “Yep. You get them too?”

Snape turns his head away and stretches one wing out towards her.

She peers at it critically as well. “Hmm… That’s interesting.”

He looks at her, folding the wing before she can do anything to it. “What?”

“You’re a very rare form of that third type of magic, called Raptors. Optimized for high speed and such.” She rubs her chin. “It’s so rare, in fact, I only know of one Equestrian raptor- and that’s Fluttershy, in Gryffindor.” She looks up at him. “But you’re only the second Papa Tango to be a raptor.”

“What about that Gryffindor with the Rainboom?” Dumbledore asks.

“Rainbow Dash?” Lyra shakes her head. “Nah, she’s a run-of-the-mill pegasus. Makes her Rainboom all the more impressive- even Fluttershy can’t do that.” She scowls. “Not that she’s tried.”

“Pegasus?” they all ask- Flitwick and Sprout in alarm, McGonagall and Dumbledore in confusion, and Snape in curiosity.

Lyra nods. “Yeah. Unfortunately, the magical core is intrinsic to the form- meaning that, for a change of this scale, the form also has to change. Which of course means that it also physically transforms you into an Equestrian.

“But our Equestrian magic automagically transforms us into humans in this world, which lets you keep your human forms. That’s what this part does.” A rather large tangle of squiggles glows suddenly. “It keeps your original human form around rather than letting it get wiped out and replaced by one based on your new Equestrian form… which is based on your personality.” She glances at it. “Unlike the age matrices, this bit was also present in all my temporary setups, even before I knew it would physically transform. It seemed fairly important that I not risk completely destroying anyone’s identity.”

“So all Equestrians are… pegasi?” Snape asks.

Lyra lets out a snort of laughter. “Nah- the Gate wouldn’t exist if I were a pegasus. All- or, to be more accurate, most- of the Equestrians are, however, ponies. Three main types- the earth ponies like Bonbon, unicorns like myself, and pegasi like Rainbow.” She shrugs. “Then there’s the odd ones out, like Spike is a dragon, and all the Princesses are Alicorns, with the strengths- and magics- of all three tribes. In any case, I’m kinda curious what your Equestrian forms look like- if you feel like sharing that, of course.”

“If we feel like sharing?” Snape asks.

“How would we…?” Flitwick asks.

Lyra shrugs. “Fairly simple. Unlike us plain Equestrians, you transformed Equestrians still have your animagus magic- which will let you shift between forms at will. It takes a pretty big matrix for me to be able to assume my Equestrian form on this side of the Gate- and I’ll only hold that form for as long as I keep the matrix active.” She scowls, and a series of lines, squiggles, and runes glows dimly on the table. “Too bad I can’t anchor it to anything movable.”

“That’s-?” Dumbledore begins.

Lyra nods. “Yes. That is the matrices that I need to take my Equestrian form. Unfortunately, I can only hold it in this room.” She scowls. “I haven’t yet found a way to expand an Equestrian magical core to include animagus capabilities.”

“Great,” McGonagall mutters. “It’s Finding your Inner Animal all over again.”

“Um,” Lyra scowls, rubbing her chin. “Not really. Hermione did it in two seconds, without even knowing what she looked like. The way she described it, just try thinking of yourself as an Equestrian.”

“Um…” Dumbledore begins.

“Think talking shiny silver unicorn,” Snape states, grinning evilly at the rest.

Lyra looks at him for a second. “You’ve figured it out already, haven’t you?”

He nods. “Much easier to get comfortable.”

Lyra nods. “Yeah, Hermione told me she had that problem too. Only, she was deathly afraid of getting stuck in her Equestrian form for most of the year.”

Snape and Lyra watch the other four screw up their faces and concentrate for a few seconds.

“Five galleons says Minerva gets it first,” Snape mutters to Lyra.

Lyra chuckles. “No game, that’s my bet too.”

Six seconds later, Professor McGonagall draws her wand to cancel her age spell. She’d noticed before that it was a lot harder to assume her feline form with it active than without- and of course, shifting forms breaks it anyways.

Then, she very promptly finds herself much shorter than her eleven-year-old form- and lets out a gasp. She’s also not in her feline form- and this feels like what her human form used to, before the change!

Lyra and Snape high five each other. “Now if only someone bet against us,” Lyra chuckles, before turning to McGonagall, who is staring at her purple forelimb. “By the way, Professor McGonagall, you make a cute unicorn filly- and you look almost like Twilight did as a filly.”

McGonagall looks up. “What?”

Lyra nods. “Yeah. The stripes in your mane are on the wrong side, and your manestyle is a little different, but other than that, you look just like her.”

She blinks. “Oh...kay.” Then she reaches one hoof up to find her horn. “Ow!”

Lyra winces. “Yeah… the Unicorn Horn is pretty sensitive, though amazingly resilient.” She squeezes her eyes tightly shut- and instantly, the dim circle on the table shines brightly. That lasts only a second, before it’s back to a dim glow- and Lyra is replaced by a mint green unicorn with Lyra’s hair and a golden glow floating around her horn. “There… This is what I look like in Equestria.” She glances up, towards her horn. “Though, without the glow on my horn, unless I’m doing something with my magic.”

Snape then draws his wand, banishes the age spell, and instantly transforms into his pegasus form. He’d taken some time to look at it the day after he’d first discovered it.

Dumbledore blinks.

“The age spell is complicating things, isn’t it?” Flitwick asks.

Lyra nods. “Yep! Any animagus that’s used age spells or potions will know it’s a lot harder to morph through those effects than directly. And since the transformation breaks the spell anyways…”

Thirty seconds later, the other three have also become ponies.

“So, two unicorns, an earth pony, a kirin, and a pegasus. Interesting.” She grins, and looks at Dumbledore. “And you, Professor Dumbledore, look just like old Starswirl. If you value your sanity, do not let Twilight see you.” She snorts. “Actually, you all probably don’t want to let any Equestrians- er, other Equestrians- see your Equestrian forms on this side of the Gate anyways. There’d be a lot of jealousy.” She scowls. “And possibly some fighting. Some of them are stuck up old pricks that think they know better than anyone younger than them.”

Professor McGonagall winces, and glances up towards her horn- the one she’s still rubbing. “So, I suppose this means we can use Equestrian magic?”

Lyra nods. “Yes! Though, unlike this world, Equestrian magic is ubiquitous to everyone. Unicorn magic is just the most complicated.” She glances towards Snape and Flitwick. “For you two, flight should be instinctive, and cloudwalking as well.” She looks forwards, at Sprout. “Earth pony magic manifests mostly as ridiculous strength and stamina, and I don’t know enough about the rest to properly describe it. Somepony like Applejack should, though.” She glances at McGonagall and Dumbledore before turning back to the table. Her horn pulses, and a small, red brick appears on the table in a momentary flash of light.

“Does that mean-?” Dumbledore begins.

Lyra nods. “Yes, teleportation falls within the bounds of unicorn magic. In any case.” She picks it up with a hoof. “The hoofgrip is ubiquitous to all tribes- including rare breeds like Thestrals or hybrids like the Kirin.” Finally, she turns back to Dumbledore and McGonagall. “Have either of you noticed any new telekinetic powers?”

“New telekinetic powers?” Dumbledore asks.

The brick floats in the air, surrounded by a glowing aura like the one on Lyra’s horn. “Yeah. Simple levitation is instinctual- and until and unless you’ve manifested conscious control of your Equestrian magic, there’s no point in trying to study more.” She drops it back to the table, and glances at it. “Your magic auras probably aren’t the same color as mine, though.”

---

Ginny shudders briefly as she contemplates what she’s about to do.

Harry isn’t here, in the Gryffindor common room. Neither is his friend, Hermione.

Neither also is Lyra, or anyone else she recognizes, including her own brothers.

It’s a very rare opportunity.

She picks a random girl, sitting away from everyone else.

She prays briefly that she isn’t about to stumble upon one of Harry’s friends that she doesn’t know about, and starts towards the girl.

She doesn’t know how she’s going to explain her question.

She hopes the girl doesn’t ask.

“Um… Hi,” she greets.

The girl looks up from under her long, pink hair, and speaks softly. “Hi.”

“Um…” Ginny sits down, reiterating the prayer in her head. “How… How did you get your hair like that?”

The girl tilts her head. “My hair…? Um…” She glances up at the nearly empty common room, and back at Ginny. “I just… took care of it. Any reason why…?”

She blushes. “Well, I…” She trails off, trying to think of the right words.

“Is it about Harry?” the girl asks.

Ginny blushes darker. She must have run into one of Harry’s friends.

The girl chuckles softly, and pats her back gently. “Hey, don’t worry, I won’t be telling anyone. But if you want hair like ours… you’ll have to ask Lyra about the Papa Tango.”

She blushes even darker, if possible. “But- Can-!”

The girl shakes her head. “I can’t. The hair is actually a side effect of the Papa Tango- at least, for non-Equestrians, like yourself and Harry… and Lyra’s the only one that can do it.”

She blinks. “What?”

The girl smiles. “I’m an Equestrian,” she supplies. “I was born with this hair. So was everyone else- except Harry, Hermione, Draco… and all five senior Hogwarts staff members.”

Comments

[keybounce]

First: Fluttershy is a speed-optimized raptor?

Second: Fluttershy just spilled the beans about the staff being transformed?

[RDDash]

“You’re a very rare form of that third type of magic, called Raptors. Optimized for high speed and such.” She rubs her chin. “It’s so rare, in fact, I only know of one Equestrian raptor- and that’s Fluttershy, in Gryffindor.”

Fluttershy is a raptor? No freaking way.

[keybounce]

... You missed a wonderful opportunity for Fluttershy to, after the transformation, be a bat pony :-)

[Skittlebug]

9836076
Hurricane Fluttershy.

EDIT: Oh, and she caught up to Rainbow going at full speed while tugging a balloon behind her in Return of Harmony Part 2.

[RDDash]

9836213
Well, that just means she can pull a fully loaded balloon, but I see your point.

[Skittlebug]

9836303
Yea. Faster than Rainbow at full speed.

[Greenhorn]

9836029
Not sure if that girl was Fluttershy. But, again, the fact that Harry, Hermione, and Draco got their hair turned after a run-in with the Equestrian is barely a secret at this point.

[Adenbadens]

So I had this thought of an Omake a few chapters ago where the gate doesn’t get reopened for, let’s say until the epilogue of book seven. And when it is reopened, we find that Hermione, as the only member of the RIA on Earth and thus the one with seniority is granted control of the magic in it by the wards, and has rebuilt it on the Earth side using the Hogwarts Papa Tango room.

[borgvicugna]

9836076
Wonder if the "Stare" is an inborn manifestation by a raptor? ⁰U⁰

[computerneek]

9837610
That would be interesting, certainly.

[raw19]

9839862
Fair point. I sure hope she does have something fun and nasty up her sleeve and shall look forward to seeing such.

[raw19]

Gah! I ran out of chapters.

Will definitely be following this one. All the unique changes keep me riveted.

Most excellent.

[Shooting Star1234]

I was wondering what would be the equestrian Patronus be.

i think it would be there original forms

[JOEBLACK]

9843418
The Mane 6 are my Patronus. I just love watching them trounce Windigoes.

[keybounce]

9843512
That's the point :-)

Rowling had no idea about writing any sort of security.

Look at the real world. Security measures go into place, and never leave -- it just becomes "safer" over time.

Unrestricted access to Hogsmeade with no wards? People running off on the winter holidays to any old town?

[computerneek]

9843418
That is a very good question.

And while the obvious answer is to make it just be their equine forms... I'd rather not be that simple if I can help it, and have each with their own, meaningful patronus. Which would be a lot of design effort... and means that very few of them will likely produce corporeal patroni, like in the books.

... I can just imagine Bonbon's patronus being her Equestrian form, wearing a suit, tie, and black glasses...

[Shooting Star1234]

9844247
Twilight's produce would be a book

[computerneek]

9844644
I wasn't aware that they could be inanimate objects...

If so, though, yeah, something like that.

[Shooting Star1234]

9844661
it's twilight what do you expect.

[computerneek]

9844682
Hmmm... Maybe Twilight's patronus is... Sci-Twi.

[everydaygamer]

9844661
From my understanding, a patronus operates in a similar way to an animagus where its meant to be your inner animal which is why a person's animagus often matches their patronus.

[Shooting Star1234]

9845551
so Twilight will be an owl

[Kichi]

9846214

What if the patronus of all Equestrians is the pony form?

[Shooting Star1234]

9852878
I made that suggestion already,
read the ninth comment from this one

[Kichi]

9852890
Sorry then... What about Princess Celestia as their patronus? In theory the patronus represent their hope, and with how they think of Celestia for everything...

I just imagine hundreds of Patronus with the face of Celestia and she looking with a smile while her left eyes seem to be in a nervous thick

[Shooting Star1234]

9853048
I like it