Chapter 8
Eventually, the ceiling has darkened to show the deep, starry black of night and more than a few students stomachs have begun growling when the end of the line finally arrives, and “Zest, Zero” goes to Hufflepuff. It’s at this point that Lyra finally returns the scroll to Professor McGonagall with a bow, and heads for the Gryffindor table herself. Everyone had paused again for “Potter, Harry” when that came up, though there had been no bowing nor swords, just exactly what Professor McGonagall had been doing.
And of course, a repeated call of “We Got Potter!” from the Weasley twins.
“Hello everyone!” Lyra greets cheerfully, trotting up to take her seat at the Gryffindor table, a couple seats away from Harry but right next to the Weasley twins. Most of the non-Equestrians had clumped together. “How’s the food?”
“The food?” Percy asks. He opens his mouth to say more, but she continues without him.
“Yeah, it’s imaginary. How is it?”
“Uh…” Harry mutters, looking at his plate.
“Awesome,” Fred declares, quickly stuffing the tip of his empty fork into his mouth and making as if he had just taken a massive bite of something.
“Papa tango.”
She blinks, one hand flashing up to her mic to depress the button. “Already?” she asks.
Hermione takes one look. “You know that won’t work here, right?” she asks.
“No,” she promptly answers, even as the answer comes back over her definitely working headset.
“Yep, three of them.”
“Three of them?” she states into the mic. “And the term hasn’t even started yet?”
“Well it won’t,” Hermione scowls. “Electricity goes haywire here. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History.”
“Which was written by wizards that haven’t a clue what electricity is,” Lyra answers shortly as she waits for her reply again. “I bet they were thinking about lightning. Which is electricity, and doesn’t behave any differently at Hogwarts than anywhere else.”
“Yep, one primary and two lackeys. Remember the Dodger?”
She chuckles, and depresses the button. “Yeah.” They’d nicknamed the youngest Malfoy ‘dodger’ after he’d dodged his father at the Leaky Cauldron. She hadn’t gotten a good look at him, though- so none of her people know what his real name is.
Or at least, knew. She’d been up when “Malfoy, Draco” was sorted into Slytherin.
“That’s the primary.”
Hermione is staring at her, the gears working visibly in her brain.
“What is that, anyways?” Fred asks her, pointing at the mic. “I don’t remember seeing it in Diagon Alley.”
“A very good question,” she answers, before leaning forwards to look at both twins. “So, Gred and Forge, you up for a prank?”
“Uh-oh,” Ron mutters.
“Sounds like a plan,” George answers.
Percy groans.
“So who, what, where, and when?” Fred asks.
“I-know-who, not sure yet, donno, and in a few days once we figure out both of the above.”
“That’s… disconcerting,” Hermione states.
George blinks. “Specifics?”
She smiles. “Food now, planning later. I’ve gotta work on my technique for a couple days anyways.”
“That’s the primary.”
Moondancer lets out a sigh. She had been out shadowing a bully when the kid they’d christened the ‘dodger’ had been first spotted; she doesn’t know who he is, aside from a general description she was given later. Judging by who had announced the ‘dodger’ to be a papa tango, he went to Slytherin- and knowing Lyra…
As usual, she disapproves of the energetic mare’s approach. Had she herself been the one doing that research, she would have waited and brought it up to Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore- or, since she was sorted to Ravenclaw, Professor Flitwick. She would have presented the fully worked-out solution to the problem, proposed a follow-up, and negotiated an experiment- both the nature of the experiment… and who to do it on. With the subject’s agreement, of course. If she couldn’t work out the solution first, she’d do as much as she could- then go to one of the Professors to get their input, perhaps negotiate for a planned time when she could take whatever scans or readings she needed to finish.
But she’s not doing that research.
No; Lyra’s the only one that understands what it’s all about. She’d had the minty mare explain, but had been forced to admit she didn’t understand a word of it- and, in the end, forced to agree that the crazy musician would be the best pony to continue that research.
At least Twilight isn’t involved. That mare might have accidentally killed somepony in the attempt, but unlike the purple laboratory disaster, Lyra keeps her head on straight at all times- even with as energetic as she is- and safety is her number one priority, always.
She glances up at the head table in time to spot Professor Dumbledore spreading his arms to the Great Hall. “Welcome,” he begins. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And, here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you.” Then he sits down.
“Does… Does that mean anything?” the girl that had sat next to her while she’d been internally cataloguing who was sorted where, and associating names with faces- “Turpin, Lisa”- asks.
She glances back; yes, Lisa is talking to her. “Sounds like names to me,” she answers. “A bit strange, but not inconceivable.” She glances down at the table, sensing the spellwork coming to completion on the same, and selects something at random to offer the girl. “Potatoes?”
“Somethin’ wrong?” Applejack asks the boy that sat beside her shortly after Lyra started her song and dance.
He looks up at her. “Um- no?” he begins.
She raises an eyebrow. She’d missed the signs when he arrived; he’d just been staring up at the ongoing sorting, and applauding for Princess Luna, ever since he arrived. But now, his nervous glances up and down the table while he only gets food from the closest platters to him looks very much like somepony too nervous to say anything.
And, even without her gift for lie detection, his refusal sounded very much like Twilight does when she denies being worried about a major test.
“Somethin’s botherin’ yah, Ah can tell,” she states, resting an arm over his shoulders. Lyra had warned her- and all the other Equestrians- of all the Equestrian behaviors that simply don’t in this world, and this is one of them- but she can feel he needs it. “What is it?”
He doesn’t even seem to recognize the gesture, instinctively- and unthinkingly- leaning into her. An effect of her harmony magic Lyra had warned her to be careful with- but had not said to avoid. “My dad’s going to kill me,” he mutters.
She raises an eyebrow, and hugs him gently. “Not literally, Ah hope?”
He snorts. “That… That might actually be preferable.”
“Well, what’s the problem?”
“Uh… Well, he tells me Hufflepuff is a whole lot of duffers. Wanted me in Slytherin.”
She snorts. “Well, Hufflepuff ain’t a bunch o’ duffers if Ah landed here. Want me to come with to convince him?”
“How is it not?” he asks. “What makes a Hufflepuff… well, not a duffer?”
She fills her lungs, opening her mouth- then stops, closing it, and casting her gaze up and down the table. “We’re… Uh…” She glances at the Equestrian that sat on his other side. “Help me, Minuette.”
The girl glances up, and smiles. “Sure, Applejack. Wayne, well… Hufflepuff is a great house to be in. I’m honored to be here, actually.”
“What?” he asks. “But-! Aren’t hufflepuffs… Well, pussies?”
Minuette lets out a good laugh. “Not even close!
“For one, Hufflepuffs are very hard workers. Slytherins may be powerful, but all that power is only available as a surge. A Hufflepuff can maintain a far higher sustained power output for far longer- be it magical or physical- than any other house. For example, Applejack, how long does it take for you and Big Mac to harvest every apple on the farm, without help?”
Wayne looks back at Applejack, blinking.
“Ah,” Applejack mumbles, thinking. “It took ‘bout a week and a half last time.”
Minuette smiles. “Then, how much of that time was spent working?”
“We were carrying buckets of apples back to the barn from dawn ‘till dusk each day.”
His jaw drops.
Minuette chuckles. “Not just anyone can do quite that much sustained work- Applejack and Big Mac have had time to practice and train for it- but no Slytherin could ever do that, even if they trained and tried. They simply don’t have the endurance. We do, and we’re not afraid to use it.
“For two, Hufflepuffs are patient. That comes in bigtime with music- or, say, potionmaking. Say, Applejack- how long is Granny Smith willing to wait on the porch for you to get home?”
Applejack puts a hand to her chin. “Well, when we had that business with Starlight’s town, she stayed up and waited for three nights in a row.” Scowl. “She mighta gone to bed if Ah’d warned her we were going on a ‘nother adventure.”
“What-!?”
Chuckle. “Another edge case- Granny is more patient even than most Hufflepuffs- but no Gryffindor would wait even half that long. I mean, it takes the Crusaders- they went to Gryffindor- what, five minutes? To get bored.”
Applejack snorts. “Not even that. Five seconds might be pushing it.”
Wayne almost giggles.
“And last but not least, Hufflepuffs are the most reliable. Between our unwavering loyalty and solid honesty, if we say we’re gonna do something, we’re going to do it. And we won’t leave you hanging.” Chuckle. “Wanna tell him about that time Big Mac broke his leg in time for Applebucking season?”
Applejack puts a hand to her face, turning away with a blush. “Ahh… Ah’d rather not. Things… didn’t exactly go too well. But Ah did what Ah said I would, no mattah what!”
“So, I believe we can agree Hufflepuff is a great house to be in, right?”
Wayne smiles back at her, reaching his arms around their shoulders to hug them both simultaneously. “Yeah,” he states. “Hufflepuff is awesome!”
Then he blinks, blushes like a tomato, and quickly withdraws his arms, causing both girls to laugh. And hug him in return.
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Starlight I see in Slytherin, Sunburst in Ravenclaw, Daring Do...maybe Hufflepuff, most Canterlot nobles in Slytherin, Sunset Shimmer i'm on the fence between Ravenclaw and Slytherin...huh...alot of the ponies I remember seem like they should be in Slytherin. Ponies like Cozy Glow, Flim and Flam(or maybe put those 2 in Gryffindor just for the sake of putting them with the Weasley twins), Filthy Rich, Diamond Tiara...Silver Spoon I may see going to Hufflepuff.
Fluttershy and Rarity would both end up in Hufflepuff in my opinion. No idea for Pinkie.
This is a really dumb explanation and hope she was just trying to avoid telling the truth.
Why are they following Draco around? Why is he being labeled a bully already I don't think he has actually done anything yet at this point.
Anyways good to see an update.
9618457
They haven’t been following him... rather, they gave him the nickname after he refused to catch his father. At this point, the train sequence has happened similar to in the books- and Bonbon’s probably witnessed his behavior at the Slytherin table before making that decision to call him in as the papa tango.
Rarity I could see being in Slytherin or Hufflepuff. She has a lot of ambition and cunning, but also puts in a lot of hard work and emphasizes friendly gossip for information gathering and minor blackmail material, though she uses it to help the pony in question instead of hurting them.
Pinkie might actually fit in for Slytherin or Hufflepuffs for similar reason to Rarity, and I like the idea of Pinkie's behaviour being a facade to forward her ambition to make everyone smile and get along together. She puts in an incredible amount of work setting things up and information gathering to the extreme, all in secret.
9618795
Yeah, but it's still annoying to see it even when it doesn't actually happen.
Might just be my dislike of Ginny as a character though, as she probably the flattest character in the books after Crabbe and Goyle.
9618838
That is true, she is pretty flat. Hmm... I'll probably just leave her completely out of my story. Let her do her own thing, you know.
Slytherin:
1. Cozy Glow, Starlight, Sunset, Chryssie if you have her here, ...
All the "villains" go here. Obviously. Anyone that is ambitious, or who seeks power for the sake of power.
Rarity is ambitious. She (season 1) sought to marry into power. By season 8/9?
Fluttershy ... Not the knowledge, not the power. Perhaps the "loyal friend", perhaps the adventurous. Perhaps not -- she doesn't seek adventure/danger, but she will do it for a friend.
Pinkie: Wants to be the best party pony. Wants to be the best baker. Wants to be the best at what she does. That's pretty clearly Slytherin.'
Twilight: Does she want knowledge for knowledge's sake, or to use it? She doesn't even want to be in charge of Equestria, but she does want to run her school her way. Kinda clearly Ravenclaw to me. Power for the sake of knowledge.
Honestly I'm more interested in what happens with Spike. Almost every ponies in Hogwarts story ends up using a lot of the same tropes or gets somewhat predictable after the first few chapters have established how much ability the ponies have.
9620837
Yeah, I do kinda expect this one to become predictable at some point, and eventually fall off its stride (I can't believe it still doesn't have a dislike, for example)... and unfortunately, I've really never written Spike. Sure, he's shown up in a couple of my stories- but always as a background character, serving in his capacity as a telephone or something. I can't say either way, just yet, whether the same will happen here or not.
As of this posting: 27 likes, 0 dislikes. PARTY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!
Is it weird that I wanna see this?
9629102
See this... as in, Applejack in Hufflepuff?
All I can say is "Bangarang!!!!"
Huh, Applejack as a Hufflepuff. That makes alot of sense. The Apple family is known for its loyalty.
Actually, this brings up an interesting question. Without Harry being part of it, which would be their stronger trait, the CMC's courage or their loyalty?
9631610
Courage, definitely. Yeah, they're loyal to each other, but they are the Ponyville adventurers. So they always crash, burn, or get in trouble? No biggie, they'll try again next time. If that's not Gryffindor, I don't know what is.
9631700
I'm sure you already have everyone sorted, considering I'm posting this two weeks later and there are plenty of chapters after, but just in case, I wanted to say that I've always thought Pinkie would be best in Ravenclaw.
Two reasons:
A) Ravenclaws are seekers of knowledge. Note that it does not specify what type of knowledge, however. Pinkie may not be interested in normal book smarts, but you can bet you pants that Pinkie is going to try and learn everything there is to know about every single one of her new schoolmates, in order to better plan them a party. She is a seeker of people-knowledge.
B) Ravenclaws are seekers of knowledge. How Pinkie works is the biggest mystery of Equestria. This would either be a huge gift to the Ravenclaws, or an amazing prank to them, either of which Pinkie would approve of.
Rarity might be Slytherin (cunning, ambition, lineage). Twilight is Ravenclaw (smart intelligent nerd). Rainbow is Gryffindor (brush, arrogant, heroic). AJ and Pinkie are Hufflepuffs (honest, cheerful friendly) Fluttershy might be Hufflepuff as well.