Ch. 06. Once More, Into the Breach . . .
The Headmaster sighed, putting down the Daily Prophet. It could have been worse, he knew. All told, he was rather grateful the parchment had been so positive. The shopkeepers were ecstatic about their sales and profits from that day. The Equestrians easily had doubled the sales the shopkeepers had expected for this year.
Next year, based on what the Equestrian escorts had let slip in conversation, they expected to be a repeat of this year. The shopkeepers would be much better prepared. Most of the shopkeepers indicated that they would be hiring extra staff to handle the anticipated crowds.
The reporter had been surprised at how polite and respectful all the Equestrians were, despite their unusual hair colours. In the muggle world, only teenagers rebelling against their parents would colour their hair so outrageously, Albus knew. Rebellious teenagers were rarely polite.
The most astonishing part was that none of the adults, except their escorts, carried wands. An astounding number did, however, use silent, wandless magic. The reporter had been amazed to note that almost a third of them used their magic to pick something up rather than their hands!
The Equestrians had also admitted that every single one of them could transform into a pony animagus — even the children, who were happy to demonstrate, usually with a giggle. They also admitted that that each of them could trace their families back a thousand years or more. Several proudly claimed double or triple that. When asked about squibs, they had explained they had never heard of the concept before coming to England. Plus, to the best of their knowledge, there had never been an Equestrian who didn’t have magic, although a few of the adults thought it might be possible. Then they had shrugged and said, in an off-hand manner, that they expected that Princess Celestia would have taken care of the problem.
Oddly, the reporter said, they seemed to divide themselves into three tribes: unicorns, pegasi, and earth, based on their animagus forms.
The blockbuster question, though, had been when the reporter asked how their school in Equestria would fair with so many students going to Hogwarts instead. That had led to a discussion about how they had been chosen in a lottery of the best thousand volunteers out of forty thousand students of the right age. Which brought up the fact that there were six million Equestrians on the other side of their portal.
A separate article delved into the implications of an island with more magic users than in the entire rest of the world. An island where the ratio of witches-to-wizards was three-to-one.
That it had to be the lost island of Atlantis was without question, the parchment concluded, based on how many animals were common between their home and Europe.
He sighed and stroked his beard, reflecting on what he had learned over the summer.
The population for Equestria, the Atlantis of ancient legends, dwarfed that of wizarding England. The photos he had received of Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Seaddle had left him gobsmacked. There were more unicorns in just one of those pictures than all the wizards in Britain. In fact, all the wizards in Europe and England would not amount to the unicorns in any one of those cities.
It was an unprecedented opportunity for someone bold enough to seize it.
While he had considered the possibility that the “portal” they used truly did go to another world, he had discarded that as unlikely. The commonality of soo many magical creatures, alone, indicated otherwise.
The ancients must have worked great and powerful magics to bury the island-nation of Atlantis under the sea, given that Plato’s account made it as large as Great Britain. Then they had expanded it into something that rivalled the continent of Australia, with its own oceans and islands! He knew that with powerful enough expansion spells, in theory, it was possible to contain a continent in an island under the sea.
If they had done so, it would also explain why they “manually” moved the sun and moon.
They needed an artificial magical sun to make up the difference between what would normally be sufficient sunlight for a large island and the amount required to cover an entire continent. Otherwise, the continent would be in a perpetual near-twilight as the sunlight that was brilliantly-bright on a winter day in England was stretched to cover a much bigger continent! A dilution of over thirty-five times he estimated. While overly bright for a room, it would be totally inadequate for your average farm. And the forests would be an almost impenetrable darkness, even at noon. Especially in the northern and southern sections of the expanded island.
Well, then, if you had to have an artificial sun, then you must have an artificial moon, too, wouldn’t you? Stars would be needed, as well, or it would be immediately obvious that they lived in a cave under the sea, an uncomfortable situation for most people.
Supporting his conclusions were the statements that in ancient times teams of unicorns were needed to move the sun, moon, and stars. The numbers varied from a mere ten to a hundred or more, depending on how old the legend was, with the smaller numbers coming from more recent authorities. The older legends also said that many of the team members died early deaths from magical exhaustion. The very fact that those histories existed proved that Equestria had to be a construction, a hidden undersea continent. Otherwise, how could that world have existed before there were unicorns to move the sun?
Then there were the maps. The Equestrians clearly had the ability to map their entire world, and they had. Except those maps showed their world to be round! How could that be possible and still have Celestia and Luna move the Sun, Moon, and stars? Not to mention being in a cavern! If the world were round, the world would rotate and remove the need for Celestia to do anything — making her a fraud.
Yet, all his sources confirmed that Celestia routinely made the sun rise and set, as Luna did the moon and stars. The variations in time between sunrise and sunset did not progress evenly and smoothly, as they would if Atlantis were a separate, rotating, world orbiting a sun. Not to mention the time she had shown-off to him her control of the Sun, making it dip and move about in ways that would be impossible for a planet orbiting a sun.
Atlantis, therefore, was flat! Magic made it appear as a globe, just as his world had been thought to be flat by many when it was really a globe. It would take a lot of magical power to warp light to give a semblance of a horizon to everyone, no matter where they stood, but not too tremendous an amount of magic. For Poseidon, an ancient god, it was probably a trivial exercise.
As for the “edges” of the giant cavern that held the island? Wizard-repelling-style charms could handle that, easily! It should even be possible to construct a spell on the inside of the cavern’s walls that would act as a portkey. Should someone attempt to go around the world to prove it round, the portkey would activate on touch to send that person to the exact opposite side of the cavern. Combined with a confundus and the proper illusions, they would never suspect they hadn’t gone around the world!
Merlin! Leave off the wizard-repelling charms and there could even be a town at the cavern’s edge that was actually split to opposite sides of it. The inhabitants would never notice!
As far as the inhabitants of Atlantis were concerned, by everything they could perceive and measure, they lived on a separate world, far from Earth.
Clearly, Poseidon had done this. What Albus had seen and heard about the one they called the God of Chaos when he had visited Equestria had shown just how powerful that ancient being was. The histories in the books about the Princesses’ conflicts with him merely backed up that fact.
That the two were the same being had been proven to him during that one Royal Equestrian Ball he had attended. It was possible that Poseidon had had the help of some of the other ancient “gods” in creating Equus, but, still, he appeared more than powerful enough to do it himself. The other gods were probably still in Equestria, but not as visible to the inhabitants for various reasons.
Which, in turn, gave a clue as to why there were no muggles or non-magical plants and animals. The powerful magics needed for the continent’s creation and continued existence permeated the land, sea, and air in vast quantities. There was so much magic that non-magicals would turn into magicals after only a generation or two!
Which brought him back to his new students.
That so many were girls would pique the interest of the old families with unmarried heirs. The Atlanteans might be foreigners, but they were all from families with a pedigree that stretched back well for over one or two thousand years. Poseidon had implied that it might be as far as six thousand years ago! That would dwarf the conservative families’ own lineage. And with nary a trace of a squib!
That they would all have animagus forms, already, would enhance the conservatives’ interest greatly. Yes, it would be quite interesting to see how those old families dealt with the possibility of adding such a magical heritage to their own. They would have to revise, severely, their pure-blood pretensions when they were the ones who would be considered half-bloods! Especially as every pure-blood family in England had more than one squib in their family tree, unlike the Atlanteans.
Of course, that the Atlanteans had no problems with polygamy would draw interest even from the Heads of families, not to mention their Heirs! It might require a minor adjustment in Wizarding society, but with the magical heritages at stake? The mother or father might be a squib, but the grandchildren? Ha! Those would make the changes imperative. The Wizengamot would fall all over themselves making it not only legal, but expected!
He wondered, would spending part of a pregnancy in Atlantis be able to prevent a squib? Would it boost the power of what would be a wizard or witch? Would it be better to spend the first few months there, or would the last few be sufficient? Should they try to conceive there? With aide of a fertility potion, a honeymoon in Atlantis would always end with a pregnancy. Would that be a sufficient boost?
Some experimentation would be required, and careful study of the results.
He would leave a few hints to Sirius that he should build an exclusive resort in Atlantis to cater to pure-bloods who wanted to take advantage of that possibility. It would also expose them to the innovations the Atlanteans were adopting from the muggles. Spending a few weeks immersed in a society that mixed technology with magic would go a long way towards lessening their objections to adopting some of the same advances the muggles were making.
With everything happening in Hogwarts, he would have unprecedented control over the future of the United Kingdom’s wizarding world. Every pure-blood family, whether Light, Dark, or in between, would have to follow his lead or worry about being frozen out of access to the Atlanteans. With a few words, he could cast doubt on any family and steer the impressionable young Atlanteans in the direction he wanted.
However that turned out, getting closer ties between England and Atlantis would be a long-term boon to England’s prestige. Not to mention trade, which would enormously benefit the economy. Businesses in Diagon Alley, and a few other, were already seeing vast sums of galleons being spent.
England would, once more, be the country to whom the entire world looked for leadership and knowledge. And, because he led England, they would be turning to him. He would be in the history books as the one who had led the wizarding world into a new era of prosperity and peace. His name would be ranked right beside Merlin’s. He smiled happily at the thought.
Yes, the coming school year was going to be quite interesting. He quite looked forward to it. The First Years’ Sorting would be . . . interesting.
^-_-^
After their experiences last year with the Weasleys, the herd made the sensible decision to travel with the other Equestrians from the Embassy to King’s Cross Station on September First. Ambassador Blueblood had engaged a bus transport with sufficient room for the students and escorts. The students said their tearful goodbyes as they boarded, with many promises to write on both sides. The children wouldn’t be seeing their parents until Hearth’s Warming vacation in Equestria.
Harry had discovered there was a reason for not simply flooing or teleporting to Hogwarts. The spells that protected the castle needed time to adjust to the sudden influx of hundreds and hundreds of students. The students being on the magical train, the train’s magical links and approach to the castle, and the students then taking carriages or boats to Hogwarts, allowed the spells a chance to process the returning and new students without being overloaded.
It was an eye-opening experience that morning for the students to see London getting so much bigger as they approached. While they had been taken on short excursions in Little Whinging, those had been in smaller groups and on foot. Even seeing the pictures on the television and in magazines couldn’t prepare them for the reality. Knowing that a city has a population of six million, the same as all of Equestria, and actually seeing it were two different situations entirely.
Plus, the ride drove home just how big this world was, in terms of population, and how the humans had conquered distance with machines that made everything they knew out of date. The bus, certainly, was much more luxurious than any trains or carriages back home! It rode smoother, faster, and travelled a road crowded with other vehicles. With multiple lanes each way, no less! A truly eye-opening experience for the students and parents, alike.
His mum, in her role as Princess Sparkle, had given them a pep talk before they had left, which basically boiled down to: “We’re proud of you! We know you’ll work hard, but don’t forget to play. There are counsellors available for you if you need somepony to talk to, or help with any problems. Make lots of friends, and have fun learning magic!”
The ride itself was noisy as the students moved around constantly, too excited to stay in one seat for more than a few minutes. Or the same form. They couldn’t help wondering if Hogwarts would match up to their expectations. Just from what they had seen so far, magic spells didn’t just meet those, but exceeded them!
At least, Harry reflected, they had a much better idea of what they were getting into than he and his three herd-mates had had a year ago. It was also so much safer, too. His mum had made sure of that. She had also confided in him this morning that there were three heavily armed EUP squads camping in the forest, just in case. And made sure he and his herd-mates all had a communication crystal. But they weren’t supposed to mention that to anyone, it was a secret.
King’s Cross Station was much busier than the previous year, when it had been a Sunday instead of Tuesday, a workday. As a result, no one batted an eye at the large group of children being shepherded through the terminal by a dozen adults. To avoid the non-magicals notice, they had temporarily cast colour charms on their hair. They didn’t want anyone asking questions about why so many Equestrians were at the station, nor where the children were going in such a large group. Especially as this would be the first time Equestrian children had been seen in public outside of Little Whinging. That they were carrying their shrunken trunks in their pockets helped. They would restore them to normal size with a wand-tap once they had a cabin in the train. They had all been told that their trunks would be taken to the dormitories when the train arrived at Hogwarts.
The crowd of students formed a barrier around the entrance to Platform Nine and Three-quarters, making it easy for the students to cross without being observed. The notice-me-not spells on the area prevented any overt reactions from the muggles. As the group got smaller, six of the Guards formed a loose screen — the other six were already across keeping the students there under control.
Harry, his herd-mates, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, and Myrtle decided to wait until last. They planned to go straight to the last car and avoid the crush that had formed at the first few cars last year, and was sure to form again this year. That they had arrived an hour early helped.
There was some confusion when Harry tried to transit the platform gate, as it suddenly was solid, causing him to crash into the barrier. His herd-mates were also unable to cross the gate. That it was only those six was confusing until Hermione made the connection that they were the only ones out of the entire bus that had had a run in with Discord. Why that should be a problem now and not last year made no sense. After that thought, it took only a few moments to teleport the group to the other side. Harry, Hermione, and Sweetie Belle did it, and took the others as passengers. If anyone noticed and complained, they would just claim a Guard had side-along apparated them. Two of the guards stayed outside to warn the other Weasleys and the Quidditch team animagi of the problem. The Guards would teleport them.
Being so early made it easy for their escorts to check the train and help the Equestrians settle into their cabins. There was some discussion as to whether they should pack them all into one carriage, which normally seated forty-eight in eight cabins of six, or spread out a bit more to meet their fellow students. They decided to take over two carriages with three students per cabin. Hopefully, that would get a few others to sit with them, jump-starting their friendships.
Not that Harry or the Guards expected the students to stay in those cabins. The new ponies were already exploring the train in twos and threes, comparing it to the coach they had taken to London, and the trains in Equestria. Several had reverted to their pony forms and were exploring the exterior of the train and the station, itself. The annoyed Guards had their hooves full chasing down the curious Equestrian students and herding them back to their “assigned” cabins. Unfortunately, there were more doors and windows to the carriages than there were Guards. As fast as they returned one wayward filly into the train, another snuck off elsewhere. The parents were of only marginal assistance, being nearly as curious as well as proud of the fillies and colts getting such a privileged education.
It reminded Harry a great deal of Mrs. Figg’s complaints about herding kneazles, and was highly amusing.
Unfortunately, Harry and the others’ plan to take a cabin in the last carriage didn’t pan out. Their escorts had other ideas. The Guards put them in the middle of the second carriage. Harry and his herd-mates were not about to split up, though. Fortunately, because they were still small children, they had plenty of room instead of being crowded. Scootaloo wanting to hover as a pegasus just made things roomier.
On the other hoof, it was also entertaining to watch the arriving regular students come through the barrier and trip over their own feet at the scene they saw. The older students expected to see the normal chaotic mess of children and pets running around, and families exchanging their goodbyes. To see ponies running and flitting around the train station with adult ponies, and humans with outrageous hair colours, chasing them back into the train was . . . unique. Their astonished parents at first thought they were seeing pets until they saw them change into humans, and vice versa. For wizards and witches who had only ever seen Professor McGonagall change into an animagus, the sight of so many students doing the same was down-right amazing.
Harry could see more than one parent casting an evaluating eye on the ponies and then on their own child. Several corralled their children and he could see orders being issued. Almost always, these were the parents with aloof attitudes and tailored clothes that bespoke wealth and privilege.
He couldn’t help but smirk. This year, his status as The-Boy-Who-Lived would take second-place to the attentions drawn by the other Equestrians. He was all for that.
Just as funny was seeing the same students’ expressions as they walked past cabin after cabin half-filled with students with brightly coloured hair, and realizing that the ones they had seen outside the train were only a few of the ones present.
The First-year muggle-borns were instantly curious and asked if they were Equestrians. Getting a “yes” answer saw them quickly taking the opportunity to sit with them — and the chance to talk with the aliens from another world. Before long, Harry knew, the Equestrians who weren’t already showing off their pony forms would be doing so in the cabins, and proudly showing off their cutie marks, if they had them yet.
Last year, the Cutie Mark Crusaders hadn’t had any cutie marks. Fortunately, everyone in their compartment had been shown the Crusaders’ cutie marks earlier in the month. If they hadn’t, he had no doubts that they would be shoving their flanks in people’s faces to show them off. Or, more likely, lifting their dresses and dropping their pants.
Just thinking about it made him shake his head. They hadn’t been home in Equestria all that long before they became embroiled in schoolhouse politics and helping a friend get elected school student president. That he had been running against Diamond Tiara merely made them more determined to win.
^-_-^
“We did! We did it! We did it!” The three Cutie Mark Crusaders carolled as they danced in front of the school. Harry sat quietly, at first, but then the Harmony song drew him into the celebration as it made its way through town, getting the attention of their sisters.
It had taken them years of hard work, but they had finally succeeded in getting their cutie marks. The ironic part of the whole thing was that they got their marks after helping their perennial enemy, Diamond Tiara, defy her tyrannical mother, and not their friend who won the election. With their help she had asserted what she wanted to do! Their success had shown them that their talent was to help others get their cutie marks — to help them succeed in life!
All three cutie marks featured a shield split vertically into three colours — red, pink, and purple — to match their manes. Apple Bloom’s had the silhouette of an apple with a heart inside it. Sweetie Belle’s had the silhouette of a five-point star with a musical eighth-note inside it. Following the theme, Scootaloo had a silhouetted wing with a lightning bolt in it.
The next day, Pinkie Pie threw a cute-ceñera that lasted almost all day. With Harmony songs. And another filly getting her cutie mark! Helping others get their cutie marks had taken most of the fours’ attention the rest of the hols.
Harry thought that all the cutie marks on his herd-mates were rather predictable.
The best part was that they ended up with far fewer incidents of being restricted to home for their disruptive antics. Harry appreciated that.
^-_-^
The older Hogwarts’ students also noticed the large number of firsties, and the smarter ones took quick advantage of meeting the new Atlantean students. They hoped to convince them to join their Houses, so that Gryffindor couldn’t continue their monopoly on pony-petting! Or, at least, get in on the ground floor of making connections for the future. While they might be too old — a fifteen-year-old courting an eleven-year-old? Ugh. — many had younger siblings. Better to plan now then scramble later.
The wizards and witches also noticed that the Atlantean students were taller than their eleven-year-old human equivalents by nearly a head. They were closer to third-year or fourth-year students in size. A few seemed actually to have rather curvaceous figures! On the other hand, the adult Equestrians were all taller than the adult wizards and witches, and generously built, too, so maybe it was an Atlantean trait . . ..
Of course, they didn’t realize they were dealing with Equestrian eleven-year-olds, all of whom were more like thirteen or fourteen years old in outlook. Many of the older students would find themselves caught flat-footed when the eleven-year-old Equestrians started chasing them!
The older Ravenclaw students, and a few from other Houses, observed the number of students with such brightly coloured hair. It didn’t take a genius to see that the incoming class was much larger than any in recent memory, which would have a great impact on the school. Not to mention the rest of their society in the not-too-distant future if the numbers stayed the same for following years.
The fact that the Equestrians had all arrived so early in the morning, compared to the others, had another effect, too. All the older students, who traditionally liked to congregate in the front carriages, were displaced. Having three firsties in your favourite cabin meant you had to move on. One upper-year couldn’t force three other students out of their cabin, that was bullying, plain and simple.
So many adults wandering around was a deterrent for the more brazen students.
Malfoy, with his two boyfriends, might have done it, but by the time his and their families arrived, the first four carriages, not including the carriage for the Prefects, were nearly full. And as the morning went on, the rest of the train rapidly filled.
Harry had noticed on the train ride home at the beginning of summer hols that many students visited between the cabins, saying goodbye to friends and arranging meetups for the summer. The train ride to the castle was similar, except friends were bragging about what they had done over the hols.
He was surprised at the number of students who dropped by their cabin to say hello. There were quite a few from the upper years, such as Bole and Derrick, the Slytherin Quidditch team Beaters. Many he barely recognized. He definitely didn’t remember most of their names. But they all said hello, made some small talk, and then asked why there were so many students from “Atlantis.”
He explained that the Princesses wanted to learn more about magic and had asked for volunteers. Out of the many thousands, these were the ones selected. With both adults, as Professorial Aides, and children learning the magic, the Princesses hoped to have an adequate understanding of wanded magic and how to teach it back in Equestria. Which meant these students were almost universally the absolute best students in Equestria, and definitely not just the richest or most influential. Which was unlike the witchery world, where it wasn’t your skill, but who your parents were that determined if you got a promotion or job.
He didn’t say it, but he expected that the Equestrians would dominate all the test scores at the end of the year. Which would either infuriate the conservative wizards, or drive them to be more determined than ever to add that prowess to their families.
Hermione had to clue him in that they were fishing for information on the new students, such as who was rich, or who had powerful parents. Yes, any Equestrian might enrich the family lineage, but it was just as easy to fall in love with a rich person as a poor person! So why not make sure you hang around with the rich ones? Only if none of them seemed worth your while should you consider one outside the group.
It put a big damper on his mood and they finally just locked the door and refused to answer until the trolley lady stopped by. Still, by the time they played a few games of gobstones he had restored his good humour.
^-~-^
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Poor Dumbledore. Totally wrong for all the (mostly) right reasons.
I caught up to this story just over the weekend, and I must say that I am absolutely loving it. There's so much good stuff here; however, I think the Atlantean misunderstanding is starting to really drag. I hope it gets resolved out soon because it's starting to become more of a nuisance than anything interesting.
If the sun and moon were on preset tracks, then how did Celestia do her little demonstration?
10581102
Dumbledore wasn't there for that, remember? I don't think he's even been to Equestria.
Man Dumbledore's an idiot. He's like a flat earther, creating all sorts of elaborate explanations to a pre-determined conclusion when the truth is right in front of his face. There's no way he can possibly be wrong. Him and the rest of Wizarding Britain are really starting to creep me out, is it bad that I kind of want Equestria to cut all ties to them once they learn how wand magic works and just stick to the muggle world?
The fact that the Equestrians had all arrived so early in the morning, compared to the others, had another affect, too. -- effect
How many of the new Equestrians are we going to learn the names of?
10581081
He is trying to fit new facts into his worldview without breaking it.
Oh, and Discord would get a right laugh at being called Poseidon.
"You really need to learn your own mythology better, old fool, as well as my name." said Discord as he suddenly appeared next to Dumbledore. "I am Discord, not Poseidon. Poseidon controls the seas. I am Chaos! Eris and Loki and Coyote share my domain. I am actually hoping to meet at least one of them someday."
10581102
Preset tracks cover the ceiling of course, just like a rail-yard has dozens of preset tracks. You just switch between them as you need.
10581167
Except, by every test he can imagine, there is no proof he's wrong. Unlike flat-Earthers, who go bonkers when they try the simplest test to disprove the Earth is round, and then fail.
10581100
Except he's logic himself into a corner. How can you prove something when magic is being used to fool your senses? The rest of the wizards are just going with whatever Dumbles suggests -- just like always.
Dumbles, dumbles, dumbles....
Such a heady mixture of right, almost right, and dead wrong...
At least he's realized that they aren't lying about their situation... but he's jumping through a lot of hoops to keep his preconceived notions valid.
Yeah Dumbledore is so wrong about Equestria
I thank you for the excellent chapter
10581181
Remember that Discord was the one that 'proved' the theory when he appeared as Poseidon to Dumbledore.
10581189
I get that, really I do. I just feel like as part of the story, it's stuck around past the point where it's an enjoyable ruse. It feels like a chore to read through these logical roundabouts to continue to believe they're Atlantian. I get why it's there, but I feel like it's run its course. I just hope that it stops in this book at some point.
I'm fairly sure the travel times we see in the show have been drastically truncated for convenience's sake. At the same time who's to say tunnels aren't actually portals set up to speed traffic along. Like a tourist map, the maps of Equestria we've been given are by no means accurate leaving us to have to decide for ourselves just how big Equestria is. It's also been suggested by many that Equestria, not counting any of the other kingdoms, is roughly equivalent in size to the US, which would make it about the same size as Australia. Various parallels to US cities in pun form are kind of hard to dismiss. My own personal headcanon is that a true to scale map of Equestria would show us a very large kingdom.
As for convincing Dumbledore, as entrenched as he is, trying to convince him he's wrong may well prove about as fruitful as convincing a Flat Earther that the world is round.
Maybe a telescope? Maybe use a ship with a spell to tell you his location so Dumbledore can't use the excuse of portkey?
10580632
Yep, that's about what i figured. However, the engines on the Buran are 8800kgf, each. It would not be difficult to maintain an average thrust of 9.8m/s, which makes the trip to the moon about 2 hours, with turnover. The manoeuvering thrusters, with some improvements, would be good enough for a vertical, helicopter-like landing on it's wheels.
10581161
well, he wen to the gala in equestria, and even went to a balcony to see outaside, but that is all he did, then he just have maps of equetria to look at.
10581265
How does he explain all the various other species, nations, and continents is what I want to know.
Ah, Dumbledore, you are extrapolating quite a bit with data you do not actually have. Although he does bring up a few good points. According to him, Equestria has to have been created since there can't be a system that evolved where the sun needs to be raised every day,
Then again, I do have my own theory for why the sun and moon need to be raised, but since it has nothing to do with gods or creators, it feels like a bit of a mundane slap in the face to whoever prefers to see Equestria in religious terms, so I don't typically go around sharing it.
Alright, let's see what kind of mess this causes XP
Nice chapter
Looking forward to that sorting and the lack of prejudice upstaging the house rivalries
I like your funny words magic man.
I can understand Dumbledore's logic as it fits the what he already known about mankind and wizard.
However, his reasoning was solely based on his belief that Earth came first, before Equestria. That magic originated from Earth, and then it was spread into Equestria (whether created or naturally originated).
He never considered the opposite hypothesis that, maybe, magic was originated in Equestria and some of it was leaked into Earth via random natural portals. This would also explain (in the other way round) why Earth has so little magic compare to Equestria, and why so many mythical creatures that had been seen for some short period of time on Earth are still alive and kicking on Equestria. Because Equestria was their originated habitat, and only a small amount of them got lost through a random portals in the past.
10581290
does it happen to involve the worlds' sun going supernova and the worlds' soul harnessing six of its original moons to change the planets trajectory towards a more stable star system while transforming its two remaining moons to create a day/night cycle so the planets biosphere can thrive?
10581364
No, it does not. You won't guess it. It's too simple.
10580451
too be fair I'm not convinced snape didn't give harry the tear at the end because he was already dieing he might as well screw Voldemort over in the process. he could have easily been playing both sides the entire time just planned to settle with whoever won.
10581167
THANK YOU .
i am wondering if Dumbledore can find his own plot with a map and both hands.
and we know how he ends up.
Dumbledore is nothing more then a power hungry little person hopping to be a big person.
I'm not sure about this, as i don't remember if it was mentioned or implied in the previous story, but, does the world in the mirror is cannon to the story? because the ponies met earth AFTER tirek, so twilight already has to have meet sunset, if they exist, i wonder why they haven't made contact with them, or at least call sunset chimmer to help, and if we also considered that THAT human world is actually 2 decades ahead of this earth, that could benefit all parties involved, but then again all this IF the mirror portal is a thing here, if not, then this comment is for nothing XD.
10581249 Constant Boost plays hob with your mass ratio, even over the relatively short distance to the moon.
At 1 G (10 m/s for ease of calculation) it would take 3.5 hours, one half accelerating, the other half deccelerating. The turnover velocity would be 63 kilometres per second. using our calculation from before, even with effectively zero mass fuel, it would take 198 tons of fuel for the 11 tons effective mass vehicle to reach that velocity, and you have to do that 3 more times. Call it 800 tons plus another 100 tons for take-offs and landings. 900 / 14.5 gives an volume of 62 times normal, or a linear expansion of 4 (64) in all dimensions.
So it is doable, but requires over 3 times as much propellant. Having a total delta-v budget of over 260 kps would be pretty awesome though. It would mean you could reach Mars at it's closest in around 12 days (matching velocities is trivial when you're playing with these kind of delta-v numbers) with enough fuel to return afterwards. So they might consider it worth at least having the capability, even if they don't fill the tanks all the way for a moon mission.
There's also the issue of running the engines for 7 hours continuously, which is probably 10 times the entire expected working lifetime of the engine. But Impervious charms on the components could probably fix that.
Also, using the RCS for landing is not practical without some sort of levitation charm to reduce the force of gravity. Each vernier RCS motor would only put out about 400 kg of thrust, so 4 of them would be insufficient to support, let alone lift an 11 ton vehicle, even in lunar gravity. Replacing them would mess them up for the primary purpose of the RCS, attitude control and translation since they'd be unbalanced compared to the rest of the RCS motors. You could add dedicated underjets, but that requires additional internal tankage, piping, control systems and a suitable rocket engines, not to mention additional holes in the heat shield.
It could be done, doubling the number of negative z axis RCS motors would give a total of 3.2 tons of thrust, enough to lift the effective 1.8 tons of weight under lunar gravity. But it wouldn't work for Mars with over twice the gravity. So some sort of levitation spell (such as is used on Equestrian airships, since there's no way they could lift themselves on those balloons alone) would be a more practical solution. Or wizarding world brooms, bludgers or flying carpets.
Don't change the RCS system, just inscribe runes on the hull under the heat tiles. Yes, it would require magic to power it, but you'd only need it for a few minutes on take-off and landing as once you're clear of the ground, you can use your main engines. Surely you could devise storage crystals or something to provide power for those durations.
I wouldn't. I would ask him to prove his theories instead. It's easy in debates for burden of proof to be shifted, sometimes even unintentionally, but should I ever have a debate with Dumbledore on the subject, he's the one who is claiming the world functions differently from how everyone living on it believes it does. When someone claims there's a tea kettle in orbit around the sun, it is up to that person to prove the tea kettle is there, not for the other side to prove it isn't. So I'd ask Dumbledore to show me this ceiling, show me these wards making the world seem round, show me where 'Atlantis' is supposedly located on his world.
Then again, if I were an Equestrian the disbelief of wizards wouldn't be much of a concern for me. Oh I'd get involved in a discussion if it starts, I'm too much of a sucker for debates to avoid them, but much like the ponies in the story I'd be much more fascinated with the new magic, new technology and completely different laws of physics of Earth. I'd correct them on the name every single time (regardless of what you believe, my nation has a name, thank you very much) but for the most part their belief on what or where Equestria is should be mostly irrelevant.
It's not until the wizarding governments try to enforce their laws on Equestrian soil that the issue of where Equestria is located actually becomes relevant.
10581390
yes but he also is a chessmaster not realizing he's playing with several grandmasters at once. if Celestia hasn't clued in to what type of person he is I'm pretty sure Luna has.
and honestly i think discord planned on it.
10581360
would also explain why in equestria many of them are fully sapient beings well on earth they were rarely better then feral.
10581186
except much like faking the moon landing would cost more then the actual moon landing.
by his own logic the magic required to create this world within the earth would be monstrously more then this simply being a separate world.
10581167
honestly i think Celestia is enjoying milking them dry well feeding them false information. there is no way she is unaware of Dumbledore's inner thoughts she deals with nobles all the time.
10581430
O i am sure discord is playing the long game and Dumbledore is nothing more then the Pawn pretending to be the king.
Dumbledore better be careful, less his (at this point theoretical) new-found power goes to his head.
10581423
Oh ho ho, that is a very good point.... I forsee some very interesting and rather hilarious political fireworks.
10581451
Even the King's still just a piece.
10581529
And Discord is the Chessmaster.
Have discord play with earth’s sun and moon
10581575
He already did while visiting the Prime Minister he plucked the Sun out of the sky shrunk it down and held it in the palm of his "hand".
Here is a fun theory...the author is pulling a fast one on us. We readers are all primed to believe dumbledore is wrong....Just think for a moment how ironic it would be if he ends up for the most part being correct! The equestrians have forgotten their origin and the really are in a cave under the ocean, Discord might know and is having a laugh at all of them.
10581605
Yeah, but not in front of wizards, Also how do you know he didn’t just make a sun connected to the real one that if something happened to one it would happen to the other, That’s what I thought he did, Though it could be what you said.
Somebody at least suggest a hollow-earth theory to Dumbles so he doesn't need the silly portkey-and-confundus thing.