Chapter 54
“Why did you agree to this?”
Ginny shrugs, opens her mouth, and catches herself at the last minute. Lyra is leading her down a few passages- down quite a few passages- to ‘a good place to test it’. “I… I don’t know,” she answers Ariel. “I… I guess I didn’t see why not. But, ahh… I might be beginning to regret that.” At least it’s still mid-afternoon, so it’s not like she’s breaking any rules.
Finally, Lyra turns into an empty classroom… and pauses, looking at the blackboard. “Oh boy,” she mutters.
Ginny catches a glimpse of the rude words written on it before a wash of golden energy wipes it clean. “What?” she asks.
“Peeves,” Lyra states. “He must have messed around in here at some point.” She shrugs. “Oh well, it is an empty classroom. Plenty of the classrooms in this castle are still completely unused- I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the ones he scribbled on over the summer… and somehow kept Filch away from. In any case, we’re not here to worry about that. Ariel ready for another little tickle?”
Ginny blinks.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Ariel informs her.
“She’s ready,” Ginny states.
“Alright,” Lyra states.
“It still tickles.”
“Okay, we’re alone,” Lyra nods. “So… how about we get started, then?”
Ginny nods slowly. “What will we be doing?” she asks.
Lyra smiles. “Depends on what happens, really. I thought that, since you were able to make an accurate prediction on a moment’s notice, we’d start with a couple little prediction-based puzzles, and go from there.”
“And go from there?” Ginny asks.
Lyra nods. “Yep! Basically, we try and find your limit. If it hurts, or you get tired, tell me- because either one of those could mean we’re getting close… and I’d hate to actually hit the limit, as doing that can be very painful. Fortunately, the particular class of magic these ‘unique talents’ belong to tends to have incredibly high limits- so high, in fact, that only one Equestrian has ever gotten close to it- and that’s Twilight, whose unique talent is her ability to violate her own magical limits. And her limit…
“Well, there was once when an Ursa Minor attacked her hometown.”
“Ursa Minor?” Ginny asks.
Lyra nods. “That’s what it’s called. You don’t have them on Earth, so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. Massive, astral beasts, with extremely high magic resistance- and this one was, oh, around a quarter the size of Hogwarts Castle. And as smart as Twilight is, she’s always had a problem with tunnel vision- so she didn’t see me standing ten feet away, and instead blew a ton of power on making trees sing. At the same time, she levitated a water tower through a barn, filling it with milk- I still don’t know how she got so much so quickly- before taking it over to the Ursa. Then of course, she levitated the sleeping Ursa, complete with the water tower pretending to be a baby bottle- Ursa Minors are babies, it’s the Ursa Majors that are the adults- back to its cave. All while still maintaining the singing trees.”
Ginny stares, jaw hanging.
Lyra nods. “Yeah. Had her limit on her unique talent been about twice as high, I wouldn’t be surprised if she would have been able to move the moon across the sky.”
Ginny looks down at the piece of parchment Lyra had offered her while she was talking. “Meaning, in theory, my… ability, is effectively limitless.”
Lyra nods. “Assuming that’s what it is, yes. And if it is, that simply means we won’t be running into power limits, simply the limit of what the ability can do- say, what kinds of problems, and so on.”
Ginny nods. “Ahh. And, it’s two hundred forty-six point three meters.” She taps the page.
Lyra nods. “Accurate. How about the other side?”
She flips the page, glancing at it. “Eighty-three days.”
Lyra’s eyebrows go up. “The second one?”
Ginny shakes her head; there’s two questions on the second side of the page, rather than the single question on the front. “I don’t understand the math.”
“Don’t understand the math, huh?” Lyra frowns, rubbing her chin. Then she shrugs. “Oh, that’s a possible experiment.” She produces another sheet from her bookbag and offers it.
Ginny takes it; there’s a whole bunch of names and equations listed- a ‘reference sheet’, so to speak. “Oh, the answer’s forty-eight and a half degrees.”
“Alright,” Lyra mutters. “How about… Oh, why not.” She digs in her bag. “I’ve been meaning to mess with this thing for a while now, but I’ve been too busy for regular puzzles like this.” She pulls out an odd, multicolored plastic cube.
Ginny tilts her head. “What is it?”
“It’s a muggle puzzle, called a Rubik’s Cube.” Lyra shrugs. “Though, this isn’t exactly a regular Rubik’s Cube- it’s a larger, more challenging, six-by-six-by-six cube. The goal of the puzzle is to get each face of the cube to only hold faces of the same color, rather than this, the ‘scrambled’ cube.”
“How does it get there?”
“By moving it,” Lyra states, indicating the lines- the tiny gaps in the plastic- with one finger… then gripping one side of the cube and twisting it. It splits smoothly, instantly becoming a set of flat planes linked at their centers. Lyra completes the twist, straightening out the planes in a different position, before turning the cube and twisting it in a different direction. “The rotations work in any of the three axis. Think you can solve it?” She finishes that twist, aligning the sections once again.
Ginny shrugs. “Only one way to find out,” she mutters, holding out her hand.
Lyra tosses it into her hand, giving it a bit of a spin on the way over.
Before it even touches her hand, Ginny knows exactly how to solve it. She catches it. “Oh, that’s easy.” She starts twisting the various sections, flicking them around with almost dizzying speed.
It takes her less than a minute to finish her solution, at which point she turns the cube over in her hands. The gaps in the plastic are still there- but for a muggle puzzle, she figures, that’s to be expected. But she’s done- each of the six sides only displays one color. She hands it back to Lyra.
Lyra accepts it, looking thoughtful. “Hmm…” She absently scrambles it again, spinning the various sections randomly, before returning it to her bag.
“Is this where things get interesting?” Ariel asks.
“Um,” Ginny begins. “Is this where…?”
Lyra nods. “Yeah. It’s like they say, go big or go home.”
Ginny blinks. “How big?”
Bonbon frowns slightly to herself as she approaches the door. About five minutes ago, Lyra had called her on the radio and summoned her to this classroom, on Priority Nine- which means, it isn’t all that important, but she might want to come see.
She knocks gently on the door, before letting herself in and looking around.
There are two people in the room. Lyra, and a redheaded Gryffindor first-year… Ginny, was it? She can’t see the girl’s nametag from here.
The entire classroom is flooded with papers. And of course, there’s a series of glowing golden circles on the desk between the two girls, Lyra’s hand on the circles. As she watches, the rings flash bright, and a veritable tower of papers appears in one of them, right up to the ceiling.
The tower then, under the influence of Lyra’s golden glow, flips down to flash past in front of Ginny, one sheet at a time but very fast and closely spaced, before restacking on a nearby desk.
As soon as the last one is past, the ballpoint pen in Ginny’s hand comes down on the page in front of her, and she starts drawing cryptic symbols on the page, making first one circle, then a second, and finally a third, before pushing it over to Lyra, who studies it for a second.
Then Lyra closes her eyes, concentrating on something… Oh, that’s the book she’s tethered her experimental version of the Papa Echo to- the new name for the spell to add British components to an Equestrian matrix. It hasn’t worked yet.
Lyra doesn’t move for a couple minutes, before she finally raises an eyebrow… then the book suddenly glows sharply golden, exactly like the Whiskey Tango book did each time she activated it.
There’s a blinding flash of white light, and the book stops glowing.
Lyra doesn’t open her eyes, though, concentrating on something. She looks a little exhausted, particularly after the flash- did she burn through all her reserves or something?
“Um… what was that?” Ginny asks.
Lyra then manifests her magic aura around herself for some reason, growing in intensity. It gets stronger- then Lyra’s expression suddenly becomes excited.
Then, in a bright flash of golden light, Lyra disappears completely.
“What the-?” Ginny asks, looking around. Then she spots Bonbon, and blinks. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there. Um…” She glances back forwards.
Bonbon steps up next to her, looking at the page she’d given Lyra. This close up, she can recognize the symbols on the page- three full, interlocking circles, stuffed densely with runes. A moderately large spell matrix.
She glances around at the stacks of papers scattered about the room. “I take it you’ve been, ah, studying, with Lyra?”
Ginny shrugs. “Kinda. We’ve been trying to find the limit of my, um, she called it a ‘unique talent’.”
Right on schedule, Lyra appears out of nowhere in a matching, bright golden flash, eyes wide. “Oh, shoot. Um…” Then she seems to notice Bonbon, and gives a small jump. “Oh, Bonbon! How long ago did…?”
Bonbon raises an eyebrow at her. “I walked in right before you made that last stack of pages,” she states. “Was it just me, or were you actually running out of magic?”
Lyra nods. “Yep! Takes a lot of power to synthesize paper, even with my advantage, but that spell came in real handy when I ran out.”
“I understand you’re trying to find the limits of, ah, Ginny, right?” She glances down at Ginny, who nods. “Of her unique talent?”
Lyra nods. “Yep. It’s like she’s got unlimited subconscious processing power, and the ability to consciously command it.”
Bonbon nods slowly “Uh-huh.”
“Compounded with memory like mine.”
Bonbon raises an eyebrow. “Well, I daresay we know what to offer her,” she states. “But we can take care of that in a minute. What did that last one do?”
“Oh? Thanks to her, I’ve finally perfected the Papa Echo. However, there seems to have been one little… ahh, side effect.”
Bonbon’s eyebrow climbs a little higher. “Side effect? Like what?”
Lyra doesn’t reach for her walkie, or activate it, and speaks softly. “Alpha Oscar One.”
Bonbon facepalms. “Of course it did.” Then she looks up. “Any chance that happened to the Papa Tangoes as well?”
Lyra shakes her head. “Nah, we woulda noticed if Silver had… uh, that, when she visited. And we know that it hadn’t happened to Index Eye when she joined us, nor has she reported it, right?”
Bonbon nods. “True. Must be because our matrices are so much stronger to begin with.”
Lyra shakes her head again. “No, that’s not it- I think it’s because it takes so much more power- in addition to utilizing my unique advantage- to penetrate the Equestrian matrix to the required depth.”
“Ahh. Well, see to it that the Papa Echo is locked in the Vault, then we’ll discuss what to do next in, what, an hour? Sierra Alpha.”
Lyra tilts her head. “Yeah, I can do that in an hour, no biggie. Especially with the Alpha Oscar, that’ll probably make it easy.” She glances down at Ginny, who is staring confusedly between the two of them, and back up at Bonbon. “You wanna offer it while I’m gone, or no?”
Bonbon shrugs. “Sure, why not?”
“Okay,” Lyra continues, before turning to Ginny. “Ginny, meet Bonbon, the mission leader for the Royal Equestrian Secret Service of which I am part.” She taps her radios. “She’ll have a couple questions for you- then I’ll be back soon.” She steps back to the Papa Echo book, picks it up, and vanishes into thin air.
“Uh…” Ginny mutters, seeming uncertain.
Bonbon steps around to and sits on the chair Lyra had been using. “Well, Ginny, it’s nice to meet you,” she begins, offering her hand.
Ginny seems confused. “Um… Nice to meet you too?” she asks, taking it gingerly.
“So then,” Bonbon states, getting into her business tone, and fixes Ginny firmly with her gaze. “How would you like to join the RESS?”
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Is Alpha Oscar One alicorn acension?
9881221
9881483
Yes, it is. As a matter of fact, that code has already been used once before, as well.
As per why Bonbon is so calm about it, it's probably because she already planned with Lyra what to do if that happened... meaning to her, the actual event wasn't even an eyebrow-raiser... though the news that the "Papa Echo" would cause it would be the killer.
Neither are aware, of course, that it wasn't the Papa Echo that did it.
9881708
Well, Bonbon reacted by ordering it locked in the Vault... The same vault that we found out in chap. 10 contains not one but three Philosopher's Stones!
9881221
If it is, then what is the different between normal alicorns and the Papa-Tangoed ones?
Equestria is surely quick to acquire the valuable resources.
I say, the entry requirements for their little organization are surprisingly simple to navigate. i suspect that the USSS would be just a tad bit more discriminating.
9881835
That they are, certainly.
9881861
Well yeah... probably because there's a lot more requirements we aren't seeing, because the RESS has already processed all of them... (I mean, how else would they know who to offer teaching positions to?)
So...how many new alicorns do we now have? I'm going cross eyed trying to figure it out from the text. <^U^>
9882191
Five.
1. Fluttershy in chap. 22
2. Hermione in chap. 31
3. Harry in chap. 39
4. Draco in chap. 39 (Harry was first, by a matter of seconds)
5. Lyra here.
Let me see if I'm understanding this correctly.
1. Ginny has a combination of "Instant glance-comprehension" plus "If I know how to solve it, I solve it instantly" -- effectively giving you NP solutions in under 3 seconds.
2. She can do high-end equestrian spell crafting after studying (glancing at) equestrian spell theory
3. Wizards turned PT/pony get cutie mark/special abilities that are MASSIVELY OP.
4. The big threat is now that Voldy will get PT'd and no one will be able to deal with his new cutie mark.
5. They accidentally stumbled on a way to turn any equestrian into an alicorn.
Is that a good summary?
I wonder how far could Twilight go if she tried to check the limit of Ginny...
9882200
Is it a good idea to have Lyra ascended? No, scratch that, I am positive it is a bad idea.
But Fluttershy ascended? Rainbow will have a fit over that. I must have missed that. Need to go back and re-read it now.
9882290
Ginny's ability remind me of the Answer Talker ability in Gash Bell manga.
And I don't think Voldy will get PT anytime soon. I believe his fragment (Tom) in the Diary was destroyed by PT's matrix before re-assembly into Equestrian's format. But since the fragment is an incomplete soul, it lost everything and the result was a blank Equestrian-ied soul. Therefore, the link to Voldy's main soul was already lost on this one.
Oh, you misunderstand me.
The big bad is not going to be a normal Voldy. No.
The Big Bad will be a Voldy that has figured out how to activate Lyra's PT matrix.
After all, if you give Harry a light saber, you have to give Voldy the Death Star :-)
9882290
1 & 2: No, but at the same time yes, that's how her ability is manifesting right now
3: ...
Harry didn't. (He is the only one, though...)Nevermind, he did. It's just not revealed yet.4: Possibly
5: Nope, they just think that's what it is.
9884307
Probably about as far as Lyra did... to the point of running herself out of magic, that is.
9884384
No, actually, it was never destroyed, only... upgraded. Which may or may not include making it into the primary fragment.
9884495
Hmm... True. The Gate is a bit well-covered for something to come from Equestria to help him, after all.
Hopefully.
9886091
Stardust was an awesome fic. Didn't like the sequel as much as the other spin-off.
9886149
What the necklace did was unique to the necklace. The soul fragments themselves do nothing, the various things the Horcruxes could do were separate spells placed on them for added protection. Harry was never a true Horcrux so no, the soul fragment didn't affect anyone nor could it. Even if it did have such a power the protection on Harry would have kept the fragment from being able to do anything harmful.
This is a common theory that has long since been debunked as even Rowling has said he was never a true horcrux merely an accidental one.
9884495
I don't think Voldy will ever cast PT on himself. Because doing so would make him no longer a British wizard but an Equestrian instead. If he no longer human, how can he convince the pureblood fraction to follow him?
9900912
Considering that he isn't pure blood to start with, I suspect that just some illusions to hide his changed hair will suffice.
9900921
Only few know his actual birthright. Every Deatheaters believe he is pureblood, and he constantly tell everyone (and himself) that he is pureblood. With ego like that, I doubt he would risk to become a lowly animal just to get more powerful. You know how they view Muggles, what would you think they view non-human races? Plus, with Dumbledore now an Equestrian, he could easily use this fact to gather more purebloods to purge the 'impurities' from British Wizard world.
9900925
The point is, just like he hides the fact that he's half blood, he would hide the fact that he becomes equestrian.
9900931
I know he is really good at hiding secret. However, I doubt his ego would even consider using a spell that would turn in into an animal. Not to mention what would the unknown spell does to his link to horcruxes. They are his trumpcards, so it is unlikely he would try to do something that might negate his advantage.
9908511
... Yes.
All of it.
... I left plenty of clues around Flutters’ ascension for people to know right away...
9908536
huh, so how did that go down when flutters went home?
im pretty sure i didn't catch any clues, or if i did i just failed to make the connection.
9910667
That's a good question.
As for the clues, there was the glow-float-vanish-reappear sequence- and of course, when she got back, she immediately looked at her hand and put it to her forehead, before announcing a code ("Alpha Oscar One") and passing out.
9911002
ah, so i did catch them. i just failed to connect them.
9884591
i mean, excluding the main one that Harry deals with in canon, it technically already was. it was the first Horcrux tom made so the biggest fragment of his soul it is. even the one running around is far smaller than this one.