Ch. 40. Gathering Intelligence
Anne’s Saturday had gone off the rails with a rapidity that was truly breath-taking.
They had been in a private dining room at the Leaky Cauldron, having their weekly luncheon. Sirius, in a predictably upset mood, had not been flirting with her, for once. She counted herself lucky.
“What do you mean you couldn’t stop the story! You own enough to get them to listen, don’t you?” He scowled at her from across the table, his crumpled copy of the paper flung down between them. “They have no right to talk about Harry like that!” he fumed, waving his arms wildly.
“They don’t consult with me on all the stories they run, that would be ridiculous!” she calmly retorted, stirring her tea as they waited for their meal to arrive. “I am not an editor, nor do I want to be. What they run is up to them. All I did was suggest some common-sense guidelines on how we could increase our sales . . . common-sense which seems sorely lacking in this community!” she countered.
“First, as far as I know, nothing that was printed was untrue. Was it?” She paused and stared at his angry expression, waiting for his reaction.
Grimacing, he shook his head as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.
“Second, you’ve heard him say he’s here under protest. You can’t say that you didn’t expect that to get into the Prophet at some point, can you?”
Pursing his lips, he shook his head.
“Besides, he’s twelve! How many times did you change your mind when you were his age?”
“Third, his adoption was legal, in Equestria, and is irrelevant to here. As for being influenced by a foreign power, half the Kings and Queens of England have been foreign-born and raised! Those are closer ties than adoption, right? And you don’t hear very many people complaining they shouldn’t have ruled England, do you?”
She smirked. “Besides, how many of the pure-blood families want to give up their seats in the Wizengamot if their son marries a witch from the continent — because their son or grandson might be unduly influenced by the foreigner?”
Sirius scowled and stared at the table, refusing to look up at her.
“Fourth, he’s twelve! He won’t have anything to do with the Wizengamot for five more years. Control of his seat and voting rights are all in your lap because you’re his guardian. What you say is all that matters.” She stopped and raised an eyebrow. “If you’re worried about what Dumbledore will do, that he will try to get Harry to assign his seat to one of the wizard’s followers, assign the seat to your cousin, Andromeda Tonks, or her husband. No one will accuse them of being in Dumbledore’s pocket or acting against the boy’s best interests.”
The wizard was clearly pouting, now.
She sighed. “It might even be easier to get some of those changes you want pushed through if it didn’t appear as though it were being proposed by Dumbledore and rubber-stamped by his followers. Too many of the neutrals don’t want to get caught up in one of the wizard’s long-term schemes.”
She stared at him levelly until he finally huffed and nodded.
“On the subject of the Wizengamot, Madam Longbottom was kind enough to introduce me to Mr. Scamander. I think he might be convinced to attend a Wizengamot meeting or two, and introduce some legislation for you. He has successfully introduced bills in the past, and many of the Wizengamot members seem to hold him in good regard. As a plus¸ although he knows Dumbledore, he isn’t considered a sycophant. His Order of Merlin, Second Class also gives you one more vote.” She smiled slyly. “I think he might enjoy a short vacation in Equestria in exchange for his assistance in drafting a few changes to the more onerous laws.”
Sirius grinned. “Newt doesn’t have an animagus form, so suddenly having four hooves and fur will be a great prank!” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
“You could invite him and his wife to your spa in Ponyville, maybe even introduce him to Spike. What do you think he would say on seeing a timberwolf?” She smiled back at him. The man was still a great deal like a foal — easily distracted.
“Now, then,” she continued, “how sincere is he about the girls he’s apparently dating? Tell me about this . . . herding.” When it came to bragging, Sirius was no sluggard. Just the thought that the boy was with five girls brought a huge smile to his face.
She wasn’t about to admit it, especially to a human, but she did wish she had thought to start a herding-intent when she was the same age as these fillies. Her life might have taken an entirely different direction. But she hadn’t been as socially clued-in as she should have been.
They were on the dessert course, and Sirius was still waxing poetic on the boy’s conquest of the five girls, when there was a knock at the door. She hadn’t bothered to correct him that it was the three fillies who were the leaders in the relationship, as Equestrian custom dictated.
Tom stepped in at Sirius’ “Enter!” with an owl on his shoulder.
“This owl just flew in with a message for you,” he said to Anne with a nod in her direction.
She raised her eyebrows, momentarily, in surprise, and glanced at Sirius to see if this was one of his pranks, but he appeared as mystified as she was.
Tom pointed to the scroll tied to the owl’s leg. “It’s marked urgent.”
The owl promptly left Tom and landed in front of Anne, sticking out one leg while balancing on the other. She quickly relieved the owl of its burden, noting the scroll was indeed marked urgent — underlined three times, no less.
“Thank you, Tom,” she said as she unrolled the scroll. “Would you please give the owl a few treats and some water, if she wants?”
Tom nodded, and held out his arm for the owl, before leaving and closing the door.
She glanced at the scroll and gave Sirius a surprised look. “It’s from the Daily Prophet’s Chief Editor.” She looked down and started to read as he watched her. “Oh, dear,” she said distractedly. “Something important has come up and they want to give me advance warning.”
She stood and started for the door. “Thank you for the lovely lunch, Sirius.” She stopped half-way to the door and turned to face the wizard. “Maybe you should come with?” she suggested. “I’m sure they would love an interview with you on your take on your godson’s future? After all, he certainly can keep up the tradition of a pure-blood son to inherit the Potter family with the Weasley girl, and naming a son from the muggle-born witch to inherit the Black family would make your mother and father rollover in their graves, wouldn’t it? Not to mention the advantages having sibling sons and daughters in the Equestrian royal family would confer on both families — and possibly their friends.”
He had no idea how much she disliked the four princesses, and the way they ran Equestria as if it were their personal property to do with as they desired. That wouldn’t stop her from using the suggestion of their clout to improve the wizards’ conditions on this side of the portal, however.
She could grit her teeth and deal with the untrustworthy alicorns if it moved her closer to bringing true equality to the witches and wizards in this world. Once all the magicals had equal opportunities, then she would have enough followers to tackle the non-magicals with some hope of actually making a difference.
Sirius gave her a blank look, before he broke out into barking-laughter. “Oh, yes,” he said and grinned widely. “I would love to give them my opinions!” He quickly joined her, chortling still. “And the stories I can tell about Harry and the girls?” He gleefully rubbed his hands together again.
^·_·^
Anne stared out the window. It was amazing that none of the children had died. Despite the ceiling almost coming down, most of the injuries were minor and from the panic as they tried to escape. Even the students directly attacked would suffer no long-term physical harm.
“Thank you for alerting me to this situation,” she said to the new Editor-in-Chief, Mr. John Jonah Jameson, Junior, who nodded while switching his cigar from the left to the right-side of his mouth. Mr. Barnabas Cuffe, the previous editor-in-chief, had left due to “differences of opinion on the future of the stalwart brand of this fine and time-honoured newsparchment.” Or, at least, that was what the article in The Daily Prophet covering his retirement had said. That he had been a die-in-the-wool pure-blood bigot and had been a secret supporter of Voldemort had not made it into the article praising his retirement.
She had had to use only a little magic to get him to decide it was time to retire and spend his remaining years at home . . . doing nothing that had anything to do with politics. He also avoided, whenever possible, meeting with his old pure-blood friends who had been as dedicated to Voldemort as he had been.
“As I’m sure you’ve already decided,” she continued, “you need a thorough examination of Mr. Lockhart’s credentials.” She paused and looked at him. “And you certainly want a special edition for this evening, but focusing on the events themselves, right?” He gave her a firm nod, his cigar tip remaining unmoved. “That should give your reporters time to find out where the Headmaster was, and what he was doing, as well as the research on Lockhart.”
Jameson took out his cigar. “I’ve already got a reporter at St. Mungo’s compiling a list of students admitted, their injuries, treatments, and prognosis. Another two went through with the healers to Hogwarts for a similar list, there, and to interview some of the students for eyewitness quotes.” He sighed wistfully. “I doubt we’ll get any kind of meaningful response from the aurors.”
She nodded. “But the speed with which Director Bones reacted, and the aurors responded, says volumes about her competence, and the way the new Ministry is taking charge. From the sounds of it, they couldn’t have come any faster. Unlike the Headmaster, who was hours late.” She paused a moment, thinking. "Just remember, though, even if Dumbledore is a revered wizard, he is still just a wizard. If Professor Lockhart isn’t as competent as he claims, then that proves Dumbledore is just as fallible as any of us. Don’t let his standing in the community defer you from fairly and accurately reporting his failings, if any, in his capacity as Headmaster.”
She smiled at the editor. “Well, I think I should probably go rescue your reporter from Sirius. He’s either ranting like a madman, or trying to get a date.” She stopped at the door and looked back at him. “There are also a few people I need to talk to before the special edition hits. Build up a little . . . anticipation, right?”
Jameson gave her a vicious and anticipatory smile as she closed the door behind her.
After retrieving Sirius, and bringing him up to speed on the events at Hogwarts, she would unleash him on the Ministry. One, to reassure their friends and allies that the Ministry really was working on the problem, and to criticize Dumbledore for not being at the school when he should have been. Perhaps the school would be better served if he gave up one of his other duties?
Meanwhile, she would be doing the same for those friends and acquaintances who were not currently at the Ministry . . . like Madam Longbottom, the MacDougals, and the Turpins, to start with. They would be quite interested to hear how close their children came to being injured while the Headmaster was . . . not present, when he should have been. Whatever was happening elsewhere couldn’t take priority over the children in the castle.
Then she would move on to the other influential witches, peddling the same concerns.
^·_·^
Castor escorted the Princess up to the “official” apparition/teleportation room at the top of the building. It was the only room in the building that was excluded from the protective anti-apparition/teleportation spells. It also had an armed squad in the next room and observing through a one-way-view illusionary wall. They were armed with wands, pistols, and a machine-gun. The muggle weapons had bullets enhanced with magic — the pistols used stupefy and the machine-gun used bombarda’s. Anyone arriving with hostile intent would go down. Depending on how hostile, they would go down hard, if necessary.
Then he headed for Sir Walker’s office.
An awful lot of things needed to start happening, and happening quickly. His first call would be to the Brunton Airbase. They would need every advantage they could for this, so they needed to recall as many changelings back to base as possible. But he had to run it by the Director, first.
He nodded to James Wootton as he entered the main office. The man was already on the phone to Field Marshal Sir Chapple, he realized, arranging for the Special Technology people they would need.
“I’m not sure how many agents you can free for this,” Patrick was saying to Colin as he walked into the director’s office and sat down.
“I think,” McColl said, “that the best I can do is get the Dunkirk, Calais, and Dieppe ferry-ports, and the Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfort, and Madrid international terminals covered by morning.” He shook his head. “That’s about it for Special Technology people in my division . . . and they’ll be stretched really thin.”
“That’ll do, I suppose, for the morning,” said Patrick.
Colin looked over at Castor, “Is this guy as deadly as she said?”
Castor sighed. “Think of him as an IRA terrorist who’s carrying a machine gun that shoots grenades instead of bullets and never runs out. Plus, he can perfectly disguise himself as anyone he wants. The psychological profile on him is that he’s a highly-functional sociopath with delusions of grandeur. He considers torturing people ‘fun.’ He would think nothing of crashing an airliner, sinking a ferry, or causing a building to collapse to create a diversion for him to escape. All of which he is capable of doing with a wand, which he has.” He nodded at the folders they had out. “It’s all in the folders, including accounts from surviving witnesses the last time he was active — when there were any survivors.”
He took a deep breath and let it out. “I think we should deploy as many Changelings as we can. Their ability to sense emotions may be the only way to detect him. From what I’ve been told by the Wizards, and what the Changelings have said about their ability, he should stand out like a red floodlight among candles.”
The other two frowned as they considered his words.
“How many can we field?”
Castor shrugged. “Out of the three hundred and fifteen we have? I think we could get nearly three hundred if we paired the . . . less-skilled ones with Special Technology agents and told them they were on-loan from Equestria to explain any mistakes they make in regards to interacting with others. From what I’ve been told, the others are . . . what we would deem unsuitable for military service.” He grimaced. “It’s not that simple actually, it’s just that they are so specialized that they can’t do anything outside their hive duties.” He shook his head. “She told one . . . tunneller could carve her way through a kilometre of solid rock in a day and leave a tunnel that could withstand an earthquake without damage. But if you told her to count her fingers and toes three times, she would end up with three answers. Expecting her to cope well in the none-Changeling world . . . would be unrealistic.”
Patrick sighed. “An idiot savant?’
Castor nodded. “Apparently, their queen liked to tailor Changelings into specialities so they wouldn’t be unhappy with what they did. As long as they could do their job and were fed adequately, they were happy.”
McColl frowned and sighed. “A serf class that would always be happy with their lot, follow orders perfectly, and never revolt,” he said flatly.
Castor nodded in agreement. “Most didn’t survive after the battle. They couldn’t cope by themselves. The ones that did survive, did so by joining a group of other Changelings and making themselves useful to them in exchange for food and protection.”
“Still,” Patrick said, “In this situation, I think we can certainly use their talents.” He sighed. “We’ll just have to pair the less-experienced ones up with our people and selected members of the constabulary.”
James poked his head into the room. “They’ve started collecting the videos from the different locations. They expect to be through them all by midnight.”
Castor stood, “I’ll call Brunton and get them organized, then start calling in the Special Technology people in Em Eye Five. If you can get the list of airports and ferries to check, we can start on making portkeys to get everyone to Brunton, assigned a partner, and then to their destination. With any luck, we can have every location under surveillance by six in the morning, tomorrow.”
Patrick looked at Colin. “I don’t want to send any of the Changelings outside the U.K., just yet. I don’t think they’ve had enough training on the European countries, yet. They’re still having a few problems with understanding British culture.”
Colin nodded his understanding as he, too stood, “I’ll get started on my end, then.”
The two left as Patrick picked up his phone.
^·_·^
They were lucky. They had managed to comb through the videos for all the locations by midnight, as promised, using several dozen playback units “borrowed” from the BBC. One recording from outside of The Leaky Cauldron had been the critical one. The agent reviewing it had noticed a wizard exiting the pub in the late midmorning, and stopping almost immediately to rearrange his appearance.
That had seemed odd, but only a little. However, before the man had walked out of view, he had haled and climbed into a taxi. That had made the agent take a closer look. A wizard who was unfamiliar with modern clothing styles, but was familiar enough to call a taxi and, presumably, pay with modern pounds? What was wrong with that picture!
Given the time stamp on the video tape, they built-up a rough timeline. The time of the incident at Hogwarts and the wizard’s exit from the pub left just enough time for an organized person to make the trip with a few minor brief stops on the way.
He could have used one of the “secret” passages from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade and apparated to a location with a private floo. From there, he could have gone to Diagon Alley, visited Gringotts, removed money in both galleons and quid, and left via the pub.
Goyle would have had a terrible time accomplishing all those things, given his age, especially the apparition. Therefore, it couldn’t have been Goyle. It had to be this Tom character that they had been warned about. It was easily believable, based on the person described in those books Twilight had described.
Which made Tom/Goyle very dangerous, indeed.
It had taken few more hours to get a Crown Judge’s Production Order, track down the taxi company, and get an answer as to where that taxi had taken its passenger.
They weren’t positive this wizard was Tom, but they didn’t dare risk treating it as a standard investigation. Thus, Castor and his team had wasted more time canvassing Bexley High Street in both directions, and the side streets. Unfortunately, it had been very early in the morning, the sun hadn’t even risen when they had arrived. Which meant Tom/Goyle could be in any of the houses, rooming houses, or hotels in the vicinity . . . if he hadn’t apparated elsewhere.
There certainly weren’t any known wizarding residences or businesses in the area, so he really was going off the radar as far as the wizards were concerned.
Castor and Debby were on Bexley High Street, some distance from the Post Office, now. Four other Specialists were across the street — two lings and two government wizards. Two other pairs were keeping watch on the back alleys on both sides. Six pairs had headed in the opposite direction when they first had arrived at the taxi’s drop-off location.
The Changelings had each been paired with a Special Technology officer, and appeared to everyone as normal P.C. bobbies making enquiries. The photo from the camera at the Leaky Cauldron had been grainy, but the picture was clear enough to show the people they met. The Changelings had been carefully monitoring every house they passed for any signs of troubled, anxious, or scared people, with no success. The businesses were vacant, and the people in the flats were sleeping that early in the day.
Now that it was getting into the workday, things had picked up in the flats, and some people were already heading for their offices.
Castor walked in the front door of the hotel and looked around the small check-in area. This hotel was clearly a repurposed flat-house from the last century. The clerk behind the desk looked up, and straightened quickly on seeing their uniforms. Castor didn’t need Debby to signal him that the man was slightly alarmed at their entry.
Castor smiled broadly and walked over. “Top of the morning to you, gov’ner,” he said jovially. “I wonder if you could help us.”
Debbie quietly held out the photo they had.
“This gentleman,” Castor continued, “is a possible witness to a crime. We are trying to locate him to ask a few questions. Have you seen him?” He paused, then added, “He would have checked in yesterday at about noon.”
The man took the photo and studied it carefully, frowning. Then his expression cleared. “Why, yes,” he said, “I think I do.” He looked up smiling. “He’s in room twenty-four, I believe.” He glanced over down at the guestbook on the desk. He flipped it open and ran a finger down the page. “Yes,” he said, looking back up. “He’s in room twenty-four, and he’s booked it for a week.” He looked over at the staircase and frowned, then looked at the clock on the wall opposite the desk, behind Castor. “You could go right up, but since its seven-fifteen, I believe he’ll be down shortly. He told me yesterday that he expects to take breakfast before eight, at the Chislehurst, in the Chislehurst Clinic building, up slightly beyond the post office. Just like he did yesterday. I recommended it to him when he asked.” The clerk returned his attention to Castor. “He spent all day yesterday in his room. He said he has some work to do and expects to spend most of his time in the room.”
Castor gave a sidelong glance at Debby. She just maintained an even expression of polite interest, but she did touch her belt with one hand. That was the signal that the man wasn’t stressed or upset. He was probably telling the truth — as he knew it.
Castor hadn’t missed that slip about the man taking breakfast at the Clinic as he had yesterday when he hadn’t arrived until lunchtime. Tom was definitely here.
Castor nodded genially, and glanced back at the staircase. “No need to disturb him, just yet. We’ll wait outside. Thank you for your help.” He turned and led P.C. Debby back out the front door.
He signalled across the street as they exited. One of the two pairs crossed to meet them to one side of the hotel. The second pair moved down the street so that they could watch the hotel without being obvious about it.
“I think we found him,” Castor said. “Call the others here. You watch the front-counter for our man to appear. He’s apparently upstairs at the moment.” The front windows gave a clear view of the front room and the bottom of the staircase.” He looked at the other Changeling, Ally. “You keep alert for any signs of panic, anger, anything out of the ordinary.”
She nodded and fixed her unblinking gaze on the second floor. Debby softly sighed. Allie blinked, then pretended to examine the brickwork along the roof’s edge.
He turned back to the other agent. “Make sure we have several teams covering the back, and the others, the front. We don’t want this to go tits-up.”
Castor had led Debby down the street to an alley, where he pressed the panic button Twilight had supplied.
The response was gratifyingly quick. A team of six Aurors popped in beside them. The one taking the lead was a large, bronze-skinned man with bronze-hair and an exaggerated widow’s peak. He glanced at Castor, who was holding up the panic-button box in one hand.
“I’m Auror Savage,” he said, nodding to Castor. Castor introduced himself as a Chief Inspector and Debby as his P.C. for the day. There was a brief series of introductions for the rest of the aurors, then Castor told them what they had so far.
He did not tell them about the special technology pistols the other “constables” carried, nor the one he had been cleared to carry. If things went well, they would never be used.
If things did go tits-up, they would find out if bullets carrying blasting curses could punch through the shield that this wizard would undoubtedly be using. He doubted the wizard would be expecting magic-enhanced bullets, and would put up a shield to stop ordinary ones. It might be their only trump-card.
“There haven’t been any signs of a vampire, here,” Castor said, maintain the fiction that the “boy” was being remotely controlled. “But the one we think is his renfield was identified by the clerk in the hotel just down this way,” he pointed. “We have agents covering the back,” he gestured, “as well at each end of the street.”
Savage nodded. “That’s good,” the wizard said. “We’ll take it from here. Your people can be our backup in case he manages to slip away from us.”
Castor stepped in front of the man when he started to move. “No,” Castor said coldly.
The Auror stopped and raised an eyebrow.
“If he sees any of you, he’ll either flee or start fighting. So, first, we’ll evacuate the civilians from the ground floor so he won’t be able to take any hostages,” Castor said flatly. “We’ll use the excuse that the IRA has a bomb nearby. Then we’ll do the buildings to either side. You can seal off the second floor while we pull everyone from the first. If we can, we’ll get everyone from the second floor, too. Then you can move in.”
They stared at each other a moment; the Savage sighed. “My orders are to work with you, so we’ll do this your way.” He shook his head, clearly disagreeing with what he had to do.
Castor nodded, and pulled out his radio. He clicked it twice, the said, “Team five, evacuate the building on the east of the hotel, Team seven, the building on the west. Use the excuse of an IRA bomb in the hotel. Teams One and three will take the hotel. Teams two and four, send the civilians east on the street.” After getting the acknowledgements, he turned to Savage. “P.C. Debby, here, will signal you to come into the hotel when we’ve cleared the ground floor.”
Savage nodded, frowning slightly, and clearly unhappy at not being in charge. But at least he was willing to follow his orders from the Ministry.
Things went surprisingly smoothly. Castor re-entered the hotel and corralled the desk-clerk. “We suspect there is an IRA bomb in the hotel, please go outside and follow directions.” The man gaped at him, and then looked past the four out the door to see the waiting officer and his P.C., Ally.
The man looked back at Castor, then hurried out. It took only a few minutes for the Castor, Debby, and Team three to clear everyone out of the ground floor, not speaking in anything over a whisper. Castor kept a close watch on Debby, who was on alert for any changes from the rooms above to indicate alarm, or even curiosity. When Team Two started clearing the first floor, Debby signalled the aurors. They quietly took positions on the staircase.
Once the first floor was finished, Castor went to Savage. “Now put up your anti-portkey and anti-apparition spells.”
Castor and Debby went to the far end of the floor and started knocking on doors. One of the wizards went with the two and surreptitiously cast a silencing spell on the civilians’ shoes as they came out of the rooms. Team Three handled hustling the civilians by room twenty-four and started them down the stairs.
Just as soon as the last person disappeared completely down the stairs, Savage cast a silencing charm and blasted the door open, his team-mate following that up with stunning jinxes as fast as possible.
Goyle’s lifeless and cold body told them that their quarry had probably fled long before Castor’s people had even arrived on Bexley High Street. The condition and placement of the body convinced the aurors that they really were dealing with a rogue vampire.
Castor was quick to send the alert that their target might be attempting to flee the country, if he hadn’t already done so.
^-_-^
Stats
Page generated in 0.045 seconds
Total duration
1,007 users online
253,908 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
nice work
J. Jonah, Jameson. Heh. I find myself quite in support of "Anne's" plan to create a moderate third faction, and I'm not certain why. I know that "The Villain Has A Point" is a trope, but it's still amusing to find her taking the reasonable, middle-of-the-road position.
10932530
All she does at this point is splitting the vote. On related note, I wonder if she is even redeemable in this story. She seems to be too successful and too invested in this political scheme to give up without things going terribly, horrifyingly wrong, especially if you consider that original Starlight gave up only after witnessing end of the world caused by her actions.
Alas poor Gregory Goyle, we never knew ye.
10932530
I'm loving Starlight's plotting, definitely rooting for her, even if she's technically a villain in this story, I predict she'll end up some kind of anti-hero, or perhaps a "good guy" whose methods and beliefs differ from the regular heroes.
That said, LOVED the scene with Castor and his raid on the apartment, wonder how Twilight got the Aurors to work with Muggle police.
I found myself thinking about the idea of a ling teamed with a special force trooper.
I don't want to compare the Lings to animals, but I could not help think of a K-9 pairing. And the affection the human partner has for his canine, if he's any good at this job that is.
Not only can the human help the ling function when spycraft is not their speciality, they can supply them with edible emotions. I think it would be cool if a few permanent partnerships formed out of this situation. For internal policing. The anti-terrorist potential alone would be great.
Plus, even though it likely would not get any real play, the odd-couple pairing potential is the germ of an interesting side-story line.
I am sorry but WHY THE BUCK did you add a Spider-Man reference now? Doc Savage is a bit of a deep cut but can work with the setting. JJJ just doesn’t fit he is just too tied up with the Web Head to work in this setting. You should have just created an OC.
10932530
I would be more supportive of Starlight's plans if her methods weren't only a few spaces removed from Death Eater tactics.
10932670
Her tactics are kinda required to make any real progress in a society like the Wizards, the alternative would be outright revolution, but that would be a HUGE gamble, especially where the muggles are concerned.
Oh.... my gosh. HAHAHAHAHA!
10932670
While I don't support her tactics, I like the texture that they give to her character. It's an interesting look at the question of "Do the ends justify the means?" Compare it to Dumbledore canonically setting up Harry to sacrifice himself to kill Voldemort. She's a well-intentioned extremist. And it occurs to me that in canon, even when she had reformed they had to spend a couple of episodes getting her to stop using magic to solve her problems.
10932708
Plus, you do kinda need a bit of subversion and subterfuge to make any progress in a society so thoroughly corrupt as the wizards, the only alternative is to burn the society to the ground and start over, but that's a big risk because to start a revolution you need a large following of people willing to fight and die for change, you need to keep the people you're trying to overthrow from figuring it out, and in this particular instance, you need to do it without foreign powers getting involved, in this case, Equestria and the Muggles... So with pure force of arms not feasible, a bit of blackmail and mind-control is the only real option to change things.
10932656
I suppose you hate cameo appearances in movies, too, then.
Excellent chapter.
10932808
Agreed, that would be very interesting.
10932738
No I actually like them. My issue was with just how out of place JJJ is in this setting. I think Tintin or Spider Jerusalem would have been better choices. Both have dealt with magic and with at least Tintin more internationally well known to many readers.
10932738
Will Proto-Queen Elly be able to tailor Changelings?
Would Elly feel motivated to create jack-of-all-trades to handle both Muggle and Wizard societies?
Possible humor if you have dual-specialty Changelings where their two core talents have nothing to do with each other or have ironic juxtaposition: dentistry and interrogation/torture, baking and poisonmaking, seduction and childcare, etc.
Please don’t use a well-known marvel character as the editor for her newspaper. Use an OC, or maybe if you want to be cheeky, use JK Rowling’s editor.
O,o my Newt Scamander in Equestria , just introduce him to Fluttershy and he will never leave.
sorry Castor but you are a day late and a dollar short.
the hunt is on and is going to be a bug hunt to find there quarry.
10932738
For me, it depends on how they're accomplished. I don't think it was a good idea here. In movies, it works if it doesn't require a distracting amount of thought to try to shore away how/why a character recognizably connected to the original would exist in such a setting.
For example, an actor cameo in a movie works for the same reason that it's been said that cartoons are even more suited to musical theatre than film. Different media have different expectations associated with them. As for a character cameo, cameos within a shared setting are always acceptable as long as it doesn't require something like an idiot ball moment to achieve them, while cameos not between co-inhabitants of a shared setting (eg. HP - Marvel) are very difficult to pull off properly because it's distracting and immersion breaking to inject a name that's so implausible to happen by chance and so plausible as "author wanted it" that it acts like a botched 4th-wall break.
(Fundamentally, it's the same immersion-breaking/quality-sapping/
chokinghazard as anything else that draws attention too strongly to "This is ridiculously implausible/random in-universe, but makes a good way to tickle the author's fancy" and, in doing so, sabotages the attempt to build the illusion of a view into a world with its own internal life.Nice Chapter and you are very much a day late and a dollar short.
10932954
interrogation/torture and flower arranging, perhaps?
10933397
I knew there was something suspicious about the flower trio...
10932738
If it were Batman - costume and all - in Lord of the Rings, it would be pretty bad.
As others have said, it's jarring.
10932954
The antagonist from The Graduate.
Cooks being cover for assassins is time honored.
Every babysitter fantasy porn ever...
10932954
Well, lots of those professions actually are tangentially related. Dentists can be very good torturers if they didn't have to try and inflict as little pain as possible (I remember once, when I was a child, I went to this one shady dentist who didn't give me any anaesthetic before pulling a tooth, it was a fucking nightmare). Baking and poison-making are both forms of chemistry, one is blending together chemicals for nutrition, the other is blending together chemicals to deal damage to the body. Seduction and Childcare are both social skills and require a good understanding of other people and their emotions.
10933397
10933977
10934144
She uses "the language of flowers" to make rude insults in bouquet form.
FYI, there was a crack story where Applejack had an existential crisis when somepony points out "apples and honesty don't have anything in common". After attempting to brew a truth-serum cider juice, Applejack finally calms down when Pinkie Pie goes Zen Buddhist and says "you are what apples and honesty have in common" (i.e. in a venn diagram, Applejack is the middle overlapping section between apples and honesty).
Link: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/14777/contraptionology
After rereading this, I really think you overdo the exposition at times.
10934728
Was that really a conspiracy of Mi6? I just looked into it since I didn’t exist at the time of the crash, and I’m not seeing much information.
You know, I realize something... With Tom's newfound respect for the Muggle world, it's fully possible that Tom, still seeking immortality, may opt to try a slightly more 'Muggle' approach to immortality.
10934741
Just a tiny bit, wish there was more dialogue and things were shown rather than told, but I don't really mind it all too much.
10935211
After the recent meghan markle interview with oprah a lot of comments from other members of the royal family were like 'hey Harry please Remember Your Mother and the Tragedy that occured' which is like heavily coded for 'she crossed us and died, hint fucking hint'
well, this got dark faster then the books did...
New Account! Old reader!
I loved the first volume! The progression of the plot was well balanced and was able to keep readers interested.
.... Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Harry suffering a bit too much in this one?
I mean his angsty, self-sacrificing, keep everything bottled up, and martyr like nature was ramped up in this one.
Also from the previous volume are you planning on somepony telling Dumbledore and that Unspeakable off for basically illegally entering the place where they keep the 'special technology' and taking it to be examined. I mean I'm not the best with politics and such but I'm pretty sure Dumbledore and that Unspeakable had no authority or at least their actions had no approval from anybody in the ministry.
Plus didn't anybody/pony put up some kind of security measure there.
On another note doesn't Harry have any say in exactly "who" joins the herd.
Or does he actually not know exactly what a herd implies. I mean with Twilight (now a PRINCESS) as a mother, Prince Blueblood as an uncle of sorts, and the rest of the Mane SIX who all came from different social circles someone must have explained it to him.
If not this version of Harry who seems at least smarter(more than Ron at least) should have overheard bits and pieces about the subject and throughout his years from the grown-up ponies and put it all together.
But if you finally want to alleviate a major part of Harry's burden off him give him a CUTIE MARK. From what I could sense a major part of Harry's psyche that's differentiating him from the other ponies is that he could never have a CUTIE MARK because he was originally a human(or were you actually ever planning on letting him have one).
10938022
Hey, Trevor, nice to here you're still reading.
A. Regarding the Unspeakables, Why reveal that they found them out? If they did, the Unspeakables might be harder to detect, next time.
B. Now he knows, but he's never really had much choice in his life. The CMC accepted him, and he owes them in his mind. He likes them, too. That they want him to marry them is . . . astonishing! Him? Why him? He's nobody!
C. If they want to add others, that's their choice. He'll go along simply because he'll do what they want. He might object if the new addition is intolerable, but in the books neither girl was intolerable, so that is unlikely.
D. He is unlikely to suggest an addition himself, as he is clueless on his feelings. Does he like the person? Or is he in love? He doesn't know the difference.
10932708
The issue I have with it is in canon that magic use generally backfired on her horribly, here it's all going smoothly and according to plan.
I love jjj being in here. But only if this one is a muggleborn or a half blood possibly from the states. He’ll toss in some vigilantisims from equestria and we good. Aka power ponies
Missing starting quotes
Their
oh, this reminds me of a different harry potter/mlp crossover, where Sirius wound up with a herd!
Bloody fine chapter, even if the Victim has bleed out...
There is a family soon mourning son and fortune as well as riches ...
11368541
👍
Good times... Good times...
10932530
Better safe than sorry, plausible deniability
10932537
Unless her mind is blown, like see her action doom a world or the more humanity friendly variation that has lead blow her brains out, i don't see her surrender alive...
10932565
Noone important or unimportant was lost
10932691
Isn't that the guy screaming for more Spider-Man pictures?
11368541
and the fillies have 5 boys lol and make twilight pass out when she finds out. also almost everyone in that story that is of age is knocked up lol even Bones
OUCH.
this made me think of the latest "Honor Harrington" novel, where the genetically-engineered super-villains covered their tracks by blowing up their own subjects with NUKES!
I doubt Voldemort will find loyal supporters, he used fear, compulsive orders and greed to keep them in line. The first are weaknesses waiting to turn on him, the third can be turned with a higher offering.
Voldemort had nothing to sustain his followers that only followed to be unlikely in his wands pointing directors.