Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies

by The Guy Who Writes

Chapter 67: Express Permission

Draco cast a locking charm on the door to their compartment. His minions stood guard outside. He cast further privacy charms, and so did Harry. Hermione simply read a book. The train had yet to take off, but he was too eager to wait any longer.

"Now you tell me what's going on," Draco stated when they were secure.

Harry leaned forward in a suitably conspiratorial manner. "You're officially an Occlumens?"

"Mr. Bester said I'm putting up a full block," Draco proudly declared.

Harry narrowed his eyes in scrutiny. "Do you mind if I test it?" he requested in a polite, yet firm voice.

"With Veritaserum?"

"Eh… just answer the question. Do you mind if I test that you're an Occlumens?"

"I don’t mind."

Harry drew his wand, pointed it at Draco- who only stopped himself from bringing his own wand to bear out of sheer battle reflex because he recognized the wand motion and was in the habit of not trying to directly guard against that particular spell- and then Harry said, "Legilimens."

Draco's inner-rock was suddenly subjected to a few questions, which it answered like a rock might, but…

"You're a Legilimens?"

"You would have known if you hadn't turned down the speediest option," said Harry. "Er, well, I guess you would have known Hermione is one, though you probably could have guessed me as well." Harry raised his wand in a recognizable stance. "Anyway, looks like you've got a decent block. Now for step two." Wordlessly, Harry brought forth his impossibly bright, impossibly shaped Patronus. "Ask Riddle if I can have a copy of that contract for Draco to sign."

The Patronus seemed to walk away as it disappeared.

Draco frowned in confusion. "Riddle?"

Before Harry could answer, a parchment appeared in a flash of green fire in front of Harry. Harry looked at it, nodded, and turned it around for Draco. "Read that, comprehend it, sign it, and I'll tell you… almost anything you want to know. Oh, and this clause-" Harry pointed his finger at the first line "-is referring to Professor Monroe too, not just me."

Draco read the clause. "…the one(s) who is/are having me sign this paper." He then read a bit more, and understood why that was necessary to point out. "I thought you were going to be telling me your secrets."

"In due time," Harry nodded. "In due time. And I am. Kind of. I'm certainly involved in the story. But for now, it's mostly his secrets I'll be telling you. Trust me, it's just as interesting and revealing, if not more so." Harry turned to face Hermione. "And I'll be telling you too, Hermione."

Hermione looked up from her book. "Me? But I already know."

"You already know half of it. I'm about to drop the other half. The major bombshell. We'll need to go into my trunk. And I'll begin by apologizing that it took me this long; before the escape, he made me swear a binding promise not to tell you without his permission as a condition for his help in reviving you. And after the escape... well, he still has difficulty allowing anyone to know at all, but he finally gave in."

The muggleborn girl raised her eyebrows, then tucked her book away in her pouch without bookmarking her place.

Draco's eyes dropped back to the contract. He read over the signatories, saw some names he didn't recognize, some he did, some written in a language he didn't know but managed to comprehend anyway, and even…

"Father knows?" he asked.

"Sort of," Harry equivocated. "Even among those in the know, there's only a handful who know the big truth. I'm not sure if your father has figured it out yet… you know what? I'll ask."

Harry sent another Patronus message to 'Riddle'.

"He figured it out a few weeks ago," said a voice that Draco didn't recognize when the Patronus returned. "As Alastor likely did, if his radio silence and assassination attempts are anything to go by."

"Assassination attempts?" Hermione said.

"Uh…" Harry said to the Patronus. "Is that going to be a problem? He's in charge of hospital security, right?"

"Rest assured," said the returned Patronus, "the Vow he took before accepting that position shall forever prevent him from threatening the Stone, the hospital, or the hospital's purpose. And truth be told," continued the Patronus in a thoughtful tone, "the assassins were evidently aiming for the obvious objective, not trying to take my life just for the sake of it. I suspect Moody goaded them, but he might not have been involved. It's mostly his lack of communication that's convinced me."

"And Draco's father?"

"I doubt Lucius is making any plans against me on his end, but yes, he knows."

"There you have it," said Harry when the message ended. "Oh, and Snape knows too – he figured it out right away."

Draco nodded, unsurprised. His Head of House (former Head of House, he reminded himself with a bit of sadness) was so cunning that Father himself often asked Snape for his perspective on important, private matters.

His eyes dropped back to the other names on the parchment. "What about McGonagall and Bones?"

"I don't think the Headmistress or the Chief Regent have figured it out yet, unless Moody told them."

Draco giggled at the 'Chief Regent' line.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up future Chief Regent," said Harry with a smile.

Draco rolled his eyes and prepared to sign.

"Oh, and that contract is magical. Trying to violate the terms will paralyze you for an hour."

This caused a brief digression in which Draco called forth his own Patronus and contacted his father. It's not that he didn't trust Harry, he explained, it's that he's a bit hesitant to be bound by magic he's never heard of before.

Harry didn't seem offended in the slightest, saying he would have done the same in Draco's socks.

When his Patronus returned, Father's voice reassured him that the contract is exactly as Harry Potter described. It is up to Draco if he wishes to sign. The truth is both significant and harrowing, though Draco may feel differently about it than Father.

Draco told Father he understood, then signed the contract.

Before he followed Harry down his trunk, however, he thought ahead and took a brief moment to inform his minions where he would be.

"What if somethin' happens and we need ya, boss?" asked Vincent.

"Like what?"

"Uh…" said Vincent.

"Like a prefect asks for you, Mr. Malfoy," suggested Gregory.

"Hmm… good point. Got any ideas, Harry?"

"I'll transfigure a spool of thread and a bell," said Harry, and he did. "Pull the thread if you need us."

The two nodded, looking much relieved. They hadn't quite been told to do so in words, but they were starting to treat Harry Potter almost like their fathers treated the Dark Lord: Mr. Malfoy is their master, but Mr. Potter is their master's master. That's not quite it, or even somewhat it. But Mr. Potter's idea was simple, easy to understand, and easy to remember, so they didn't bother with the 'you're not our boss, so don't tell us what ta do' routine.

When the three conspirators got to the basement level of Harry's trunk and were surrounded by muggle books, Harry pressed a button on a device that didn't seem to do anything, then suggested they sit on the floor, since (1) he never installed more than one seat, (2) they'll want to be sitting down when they hear what he's about to say, and (3) if he's about to reveal a conspiracy, they may as well look conspiratorial. A close-up, cross-legged triangle should accomplish that.

Hermione seemed bemused. "How conspiratorial are we talking here?"

"It's probably the most important conspiracy in magical Britain," Harry answered. "Hold onto your broomsticks, lady and gentleman, and brace yourselves for a bumpy ride."

"After everything," she said skeptically and a bit jadedly, "just how surprised do you think I'll be?"

"You?" asked Harry. "Extremely surprised, but also not surprised at all. Draco, you'll be downright shocked."

"Great," said Draco flatly. "Are you just going to hit us with it full-on?"

"Hm… now that you mention it, I can try to soften the blow. Draco. Hermione. What's your opinion of the Defense Professor's current character?"

They absorbed the question.

"He's cunning…" Draco began.

Harry shook his head. "His moral character. Forget his skills and abilities for a moment. Is he a good person?"

There was another brief pause.

Draco spoke again, this time more slowly. "I… don't know how to answer that."

Harry nodded. "Part of the problem is that he used to behave in such a way that suggested he would punish critiques of his character, so we have mental impulses to avoid the question. What about you, Hermione? Would you say he's a good person?"

"Sort of," said Hermione. "He's a lot like you now, Harry."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I can't tell if he's 'good' or 'bad' just by looking like I usually can."

"Would you say he's better than he used to be?"

"Oh yes," she said without hesitation. "He's not evil anymore. Now he's…"

"Reserved?" suggested Draco.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "Reserved. I mean, he was always reserved, but he's a nicer kind of reserved. He hasn't been mean lately."

"He was to the Wizengamot," Draco pointed out. "Remember his last defense class? And he doesn't even get the Imperius excuse. He did that lecture after it supposedly wore off."

"Oh. Right. Well… he's not like that most of the time anymore. Just like Harry isn't scaring people with ghosts most of the time anymore. And he can cast the true Patronus too, so…"

Harry nodded. "So, keeping everything you just said in mind, can you please not freak out at what I'm about to tell you? I didn't learn it myself until the night of the Quidditch Game at the end of the year, and… um… circumstances forced me to… um… truce for a while... and then other circumstances..." Harry trailed off nervously.

"Just get it over with," sighed Draco.

"Alright," said Harry, though first he seemed to check his device to make sure it was still on. "Here goes. Tom Riddle. Remember that name, because it's important. Tom Riddle was a half-blood who grew up in a muggle orphanage, no parents or siblings he knew about. Tom Riddle narrowly beat David Monroe for the Head Boy position in his Seventh Year, but David graduated with the better grades in the end. Tom Riddle was… probably as close to the literal definition of evil as you can get. Grew up alone. Bullied by the other orphans in his childhood residence – you couldn't really call it a home. Abused heavily by the orphan mother. No friends, no family that he knew about, no light in his life at all. The killing curse ended up being his favourite spell. And on top of all of that, he desperately wanted to avoid death, so he successfully became immortal. But after wandering the world for years, he learned of nuclear weapons, and that's when Tom Riddle turned his attention to politics to, in his words, 'prevent the muggles from ruining everything'."

"He's the Dark Lord, isn't he?" asked Draco.

"Yes," said Harry. "And he's also David Monroe – er, well, he killed David Monroe and stole his identity. And he was Professor Quirrell all of last year."

There was a pause.

"Don't panic!" said Harry at their expressions.

Hermione literally screamed. She almost fled the trunk.

"Don't panic?" asked Hermione. "Don't PANIC?! Harry, you-"

"I know!"

"-are best friends-"

"I know!"

"-with the Dark LORD!"

"I. Know." Harry repeated. "And nobody on the whole planet has kicked me for it more than I have."

There was a great deal of back and forth after that, and eventually Harry seemed to have enough.

"Look, I prepared something for both of you to watch. Rather than telling you, can you please watch what happened for yourselves? No excuses. No lies. No manipulation. Just the raw truth as it happened during the last Quidditch match of the school year, when I finally learned the truth. Then you can shout at me. Deal?"

"Deal," said Draco at once, who hadn't been doing any of the shouting, just numbly staring.

"Hermione?" Harry implored as he withdrew a parchment screen from his pouch and a vial of silver liquid from within his wand. When she didn't answer, he just went ahead and started the memory by putting the vial somewhere behind the parchment.

"Hello, Lord Voldemort," said Harry's voice.

Professor Quirrell, pointing a gun at Harry, said, "Hello, Tom Riddle."

Like muggle television, this had the nigh-magical ability of keeping all three children enraptured.

---

Harry had prepared a long memory, and it wasn't just from his own perspective, it often jumped to the perspective of Professor Quirrell. They had just gotten to the part where he started brewing a potion when a ringing bell interrupted their memory-watching.

"I'll get it," said Harry, resetting the spool as he walked.

Hermione and Draco didn't object, they just kept watching in fascination as Harry asked his first question.

Leaving the security device in the room and closing the door behind him, he climbed the stairs out of his trunk and popped his head out. "Yeah?" he asked the minions after unlocking the room.

"Dere's a firstie girl here," said Vincent. "And she won't go away 'till she asks ya a question."

"Two questions," said the girl from behind him.

"Eh…" said Harry. "I guess I'd be a hypocrite if I said 'no'. What questions?"

"Do you happen to know the Elements of Harmony, or where I can find a pony named Silver?"

Harry stared at her for a moment, a rapid calculation going through his mind. Then he threw out the calculation and went with his gut feeling. "Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, Magic, and are you looking for Silver Wing or Silver Life?" he asked in reply.

The girl brightened considerably. "Do you have a moment to talk?"

"Hmm…" he said as he mentally estimated how long the memory had left. "We can talk right now. Just give me a second. And please wait outside the compartment."

She nodded, stepped back so the minions could close the door, and without hesitation lifted a book she was holding at her side, opened it to a page bookmarked by a pencil, and began scribbling inside while she waited.

He descended the stairs, quieted the door, opened and closed it, paused the memory, told Draco and Hermione that he trusted them to not let that memory parchment out of their sights, told Hermione to use an Equestrian locking spell on the door behind him, and then asked them if they minded this arrangement, since something just came up.

They were both quite content in their horror and fascination to keep watching without him there.

Harry climbed back up the stairs and out of the trunk, then opened the newly installed compartment, the one that housed the Equestrian library. It had, of course, been filled by Twilight, and the security should theoretically be impossible for wizards not named Riddle to crack.

"What's your name?" he asked the girl after opening the cabin door.

"Autumn," she replied. "Yours?"

"Harry," he said, mirroring her first-name-only model for now. Although… "Your last name wouldn't happen to be Query, would it?" he asked, having just seen the name 'Autumn Query' on Tom Riddle's contract.

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Your last name wouldn't happen to be Potter, would it?"

"It would not," he said crisply. His last name is Potter-Evans-Verres, thank you very much.

"Oh good," the girl seemed to sigh in relief – a reaction Harry hadn't been expecting at all. "For a second I thought I was going crazy."

"Uh…" said Vincent, looking like he was about to say something-

"Quiet," said Gregory. "It's none of our business."

"Oh," said Vincent. "Right."

Good minions.

Vincent turned to face the girl. "You can go through. Just don't touch anything dat ain't yours."

"I promise I won't violate the property rights of others," she said as she passed them.

"Um… come right in, Autumn," Harry said to the girl. He could get down to the incongruities about her in a moment, when they weren't in front of possibly spying eyes and potentially eavesdropping ears.

Though first he made sure to transfigure another spool and bell, then labeled both bell ends for the benefit of the bell ends.

As he did that, the girl tugged twice on the page she'd been writing on, causing it to come free from the book without any sound of tearing, then handed it to the minions.

"Hey, we look pretty good," said Vincent in an admiring voice.

"Indeed," said Gregory.

Autumn tilted her head at their reaction.

After asking to see it himself, Harry beheld a sketch of two looming minions, wearing unfriendly scowls and glares, their features exaggerated. It was a pretty good drawing, especially for a three-minute sketch.

---

After closing the door and casting a spell with his wand, the boy pulled out a privacy button and pressed it. He definitely has connections in Equestria if he has one of those. Not to mention…

"Is your Circus name Azathoth?" was the first thing she decided to ask.

The boy paused. "Is your Circus name Enigma?" he rejoined.

There was a brief staring contest in which nothing was yielded.

"You're good," said the girl.

"Likewise," said the boy. "Would you mind telling me what all this is about?"

"I'm on a mission," said the girl importantly. "I'm looking for Silver Wing, and I have it on good authority that you know where he is."

The boy tilted his head. "On whose authority?"

"Ah," said the girl, raising a halting finger, then another. "That's two questions in a row. I get to ask the next question."

The boy furrowed his eyebrows for a moment. "I'm not sure I understand."

"Oh. Sorry, I thought you knew. It's a game called Questions. I ask a question, then you ask one, then me, then you, and back and forth. The first one to not answer a question they do know loses, unless you match a question you don't want to answer by asking a question they don't want to answer."

The boy looked interested. "Alright. Just so long as you're fine with keeping to that ruleset for the rest of the conversation."

She grinned. "I've been doing it all my life. Think you'll be able to keep up?"

"Yes," said the boy. "That's your question. Now mine. On whose authority do you have it that I know Silver Wing's location?"

"Bad framing," she said. "I do not have it on good authority that you specifically know, just that someone on this train did. But you did throw my exact words back at me, so you don't suffer a penalty question."

"Hm… interesting. So, to reiterate, who told you that?"

Autumn paused. She had been instructed not to reveal certain things to her new peers… but this case was clearly exceptional, right? Still, better safe than sorry. "Prince Excelsior, of course." Which was still true.

"Of course," sighed the boy.

Now it was her turn again. "So where is he?"

"Don't know."

"Nice try. You're a good liar," she complimented. "But lying is against the rules. Unless we explicitly allow it." She was used to being able to play the game in a way where lying is impossible.

"I'm not lying," the boy grinned. "I honestly don't know exactly where Prince Excelsior is at the moment."

Autumn narrowed her eyes. So it's going to be like that is it? Well, she can play the mean version too.

"My turn," said the boy. "Why do you care about Silver Wing?"

"Oh that's easy," said Autumn. "I want to meet him. Now, where is Silver Wing?" she asked directly, no ambiguous pronouns this time.

"Hm…" said the boy, getting a thoughtful look. "At the moment, Silver Wing is nowhere. Why do you want to meet him?"

"He's one of my biggest inspirations," said Autumn. "What do you mean 'he's nowhere'?"

"I mean exactly what I said. How did he inspire you?"

The girl shook her head. "When asked a clarification question, you have to actually clarify. I'll ask again. What do you mean by 'Silver Wing is nowhere'?"

The boy adopted a thoughtful look. "I mean that if in this exact moment you could simultaneously search every inch of the universe, including the magical areas, you wouldn't be able to find the pony Silver Wing… or at least I think that's how it works."

The obvious interpretation jumped into Autumn's mind, and she suddenly felt a pit in her stomach. But… he couldn't be dead…

"How did he inspire you?" asked the boy.

"Um…" she said, no longer all that enthusiastic about the game. "I've seen a bunch of memories about him. Did you know you sound like him?"

"Yes," said the boy. "Whose memories have you seen?"

"Mostly Twilight's and… um… Excelsior's. Did… um… what happened to Silver Wing?"

"I know I'm about to ask a question out of turn, but can I ask questions about the rules of the game without using up a question?"

"You just did, but go ahead," said Autumn, not really caring much about the game anymore.

"Am I allowed to answer with a metaphor?"

"So long as I'd agree with the metaphor if I knew the full truth."

The boy nodded. "Then I'll tell you what I told someone else. In order to understand what happened to Silver Wing, imagine a time machine that only goes forwards in time. Go ahead and take as long as you need to process that, I'll continue when I think you've got it."

"A… forwards time machine…" she echoed. She thought about it. "So… like the science fiction stories about cryogenic freezing?" Or like a certain other thing, but she's not sure if she's allowed to talk about that either.

"Exactly like that," said the boy. "Except without the cryogenics. But running with that metaphor, Silver Wing was 'frozen' after his second series of pegasus magic lessons, which was... not quite a year after his debut in Flight Week. And he only just recently thawed out. He's actively done some things since then, but the 'freezing' is the biggest thing that happened to him, which was what you were asking about. In other words, he's not as old as you might think he should be. I know I'm wasting a question on it, but just to avoid a problem I've already encountered, how old do you think he should be?"

"Forty-five-ish," said Autumn.

"Yeah, he's definitely not that," said the boy.

"I'll go ahead and waste a question in return. If he's not that old, how old is he?"

"My age," shrugged the boy. "So, what about him inspired you?"

"A lot of things," said Autumn. "But if I had to sum it up in one word, I'd say his 'brain'." The boy smiled at that. "So… you said he's done a lot of things since he was trapped. What's he been doing?"

"A lot of things," the boy echoed. "If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I'd say he's been using his brain." Autumn smiled at that. "Though perhaps," said the boy in a suddenly reflective tone, "Not as much as he used to. But enough about him," said the boy. His gaze became very intense. "Who are you, Autumn?"

Autumn blinked in surprise. A number of responses flashed through her mind, the kind that are appropriate for the naughty version of the game – the version of spies and lies and secrecy, which they were currently playing. But she got the impression that the boy had just offered to switch to the nice version of the game, the version of true Honesty and Friendship. The problem was…

"We aren't nearly good enough friends for me to answer that question in any meaningful way," she said.

Without hesitation, the boy brought forth a Patronus which said, "I promise that everything we've said so far, and everything we will say in the privacy of this trunk, will be kept secret by me so long as you promise to do the same. And I'll keep that promise as long as you do."

"Promise that you'll keep everything I show you a secret too."

That promise was honestly made as well.

"Okay." Autumn took a deep breath. "Instead of telling you who I am, it'd be easier to show you. But if I do, I'd really like to know more about Silver Wing. I'm answering a big question, so I'd like you to answer my big question."

"Maybe. It depends on how big your answer is."

There was a blur.

"Big enough?" she asked.

The boy was not as surprised as she had been expecting him to be. A blink and raised eyebrows were all she got from him.

"Okay," he said. "You got me. That is pretty big. Bonus points for the statistical outlier. A deal's a deal… but first, do you have any way to prove that you won't tell anyone about all this?"

Like him, she brought forth her Patronus – it was far easier to do as she currently was – and said the same promise he had. "Now will you please tell me about Silver Wing?"

"I'll do you one better," he said after a brief pause to stare at her Patronus. "Showing is easier than telling, right?"

And then there was another blur.

She was significantly more surprised than she had been expecting herself to be. She wasn’t paying too much attention to her own facial expressions, but her habitual self-awareness informed her that her mouth was gaping, so she closed it.

Two ponies stared at each other in the room of Equestrian literature. One wore nothing, the other wore a suit. One was white, the other was dark grey. One had a mundane mane, the other…

"So," said Silver Wing, who turned out to also be Prince Horizon and the human Harry all in one. "What's your royal name?"

"Um…" said the unascended alicorn across from him. "I… haven't picked one."

She felt the urge to dash forward and introduce herself, or start gushing, or something other than just staring. But she had a firm control over herself in social situations. She also had a habit of not asking questions with obvious answers like 'You're Silver Wing?' or anything like that.

"Do you mind if we do a do-over greeting?" she decided on saying.

"Sure," he shrugged. "I'm Silver Wing. Now also known as Event Horizon. Or just Prince Horizon for short. Pleased to meet you."

"Hi!" she said with a smile. "I'm Autumn Query. I don't want to pick out my royal name until I earn it. So… when did you become a humanmagus?"

Silver seemed to blink a few times, then thought about her question. "About seven months ago from my perspective. You?"

"A year and a half ago."

It had taken a great deal of time and effort, but after knowing about humans for so long, and after learning that only humans can attend Hogwarts, and after being told she could probably become one too, she went through the process of learning the Animagus transformation, which of course meant learning Potions and Transfiguration in general (which she had already been doing, but she had to step up her studies), and after that she had to learn how to be human, which was a task in and of itself. She's still learning that. Much of her effort had gone into just learning how to control her fingers, helped immensely by her hobby of drawing.

"And it wasn't easy," she summed up. Now for her question… "When did you ascend?"

"I fully ascended immediately after the Time Machine thing, but I think I had the potential to do it any time I wanted when I first became an alicorn. That was just before Hearth's Warming, right after my first set of classes at Cloudsdale. What about you?"

"I haven't ascended yet, but I've been an alicorn as long as I can remember. I was born this way."

"What?" asked Silver. "That's not fair! Why isn't everypony born that way? Why wasn't everyone born that way throughout pony history?" He barely stopped himself from asking why isn't everypony that way, if good-Riddle is capable of turning anypony into an alicorn at will.

"Because it wouldn't have been good."

Silver stared at her. "How can you cast my version of the Patronus and still say that?"

She sighed sadly. "Even ignoring the fact that evil ponies could have done a lot more damage in the distant past if everypony was ageless, it's complicated," she answered. "This," she gestured at herself, "isn't a defense against mental illness. The only defense against that is to keep thinking and doing new things all your life, or having a really important purpose that keeps you going. And you have to be truly happy, of course. But most ponies… aren't like that. Sorry, I mean they weren't like that. They eventually went off the deep end, unless they were really careful about all the different ways you can go insane, or they were really lucky. And the brain can't be fixed by magic when it goes wrong in natural ways, so…"

"Where did you hear all that?" asked Silver skeptically.

"Twilight did a lot of research," Autumn explained. "There have been unascened alicorns before."

"Oh," Silver said. Autumn wasn't sure if he had accepted her answer, but he seemed to move on to a new subject. Sort-of. "So… if you're born that way… what, does the universe- I mean, does 'Harmony'-" (the Mirror, he thought to himself) "just… I don't know, randomly decide that some ponies aren't likely to go crazy if they're born alicorns?"

"Not randomly," she said. "But now it's my turn for a few questions. You've had three in a row." When he didn't argue, she asked, "Can you tell me more about the 'forwards time machine'?"

He shrugged. "Just what I said. I got sent forwards in time from the Equestrian perspective, and here I am."

"How did that happen?"

"That's probably classified."

"Classified?"

"Confidential. Hush-hush. Need-to-know. 'I can't tell you for reasons that I'm also not allowed to tell you'," he clarified. "Unless you prove that you have security clearance, but I don't know what that looks like, so I have to say 'no' for now. If Prince Excelsior gives me the go-ahead, I'll tell you. Or he could tell you himself, if he thinks it's not risky."

"Oh. Um… okay…" said Autumn. "Then can you tell me why it happened?"

"Eh…" Silver sniffed. "To save the world."

Her eyes narrowed skeptically. "Really? Which one?"

"Both, in a way. Mostly the human world. Have you heard about what happened to the Dementors?"

"That was you?"

He smiled, his mane glowing a little brighter. "With help, yes."

"Is that your special talent?" she asked, unable to help herself.

"I don't like that ponies are only supposed to have one," he remarked. "I have at least three big ones, and I'm getting more all the time. Plus all the little ones."

"Three?"

"Science, promotion of Life, and predicting evil," he listed. "With Life being the one that ascended me."

"So… not pegasus magic." She never believed the ponies who said they 'Knew it for sure!' and 'It's obviously pegasus magic! How could it be anything else?', but it's great to know what's true, and not just speculate (i.e. argue) with her friends about it.

"Right, not pegasus magic," Silver finally clarified. "I've seen lots of pegasi and a certain thestral who can use my techniques better than I can-" (probably because they've been doing it all their lives while he's only been doing it for a year) "-even though I invented them. Do a bunch of ponies think that's my 'special talent'? I didn't have time to read the exhibits in my museum."

"Nopony knows your special talent," said Autumn. "That's why I asked. Your cutie mark is totally not a pegasus magic cutie mark. A bunch of ponies have tried to guess what it means, but nopony knew for sure."

"Prince Excelsior knew. He didn't say?"

"No," she grumbled. "Well, not to me. And not to Equestria either."

"Good."

"My turn to ask a question," said Autumn. "Can we be friends?"

There was a brief pause.

Silver's eyebrows rose. "Isn't it a bit early for that?"

"It's never too early to start a friendship," said Autumn. "We already have a lot in common."

"Hm…" said Silver. "I guess we do already know some private things about each other. Sure, we can be friends."

"Yay!" She stepped forward and wrapped her neck around his in greeting. The warmth of the Patronus mane tickling her nose made her giggle, and feel a bit happier too. She stepped back. "It'll be a 'secret pony' friendship!" she declared. "We'll be the only 'secret pony' students in Hogwarts."

"Not the only ones," Silver corrected her after a pause. "Oh, and I should probably check up on my friends. It might take a while, though."

"I've got ways to pass the time."

---

Professor Quirrell had just finished answering Harry's third question when Harry re-entered the room and paused the memory.

"Quick note," he said. "I'm talking with a firstie in a different compartment of my trunk. If you finish the memory, or if you need me for anything else, I set up another bell-and-thread. Unless you need something right now?"

"Got it," said Draco. "Don't need anything," he added quickly, not seeming to care all that much, in the sense that humans don't tend to care about minor relationship curiosities when being chased by a tiger. Or, more accurately, when watching a close friend be chased. Even knowing they'll escape, it's hard to think about anything else until you see how. "Can you continue the memory now?"

"Hold on," said Hermione. "Before I forget, I want to say thank you, Harry. And I'm sorry for blowing up earlier. Seeing you hurting in the memory… I remembered what I told myself to say to you when you finally learned Professor Quirrell was evil. I... guess the whole Voldemort thing made me forget that part."

"I was expecting it, so it's fine," said Harry. "What are you thanking me for?"

"Even when you were talking with the Dark Lord at gunpoint, you found a way to defend me and get him to admit you were right... no, that I was right. Enough to make him reference one of his rules in order to accept it for himself and not be stubborn about it like most Dark Lords would be. That's…"

"Even I have to admit that's impressive," Draco offered.

"I think you're the impressive one, Hermione. I always intended to tell you that even Lord Voldemort couldn't tempt you to do wrong, and that's why he killed you."

Hermione's face was a series of interesting expressions, but she didn't say anything in reply.

"Now can you please continue it?" asked Draco.

Hermione didn't object to Draco's pleading, so Harry obliged.

---

"So," said Silver once he'd returned and turned back into a pony. "Please tell me more about the research Twilight did on mental illness and extended life."

Long story short, there have been other unascended alicorns in the past. Most of those were random genetic anomalies, some were not-so-random, and some were true candidates for full ascension, but not a single one lasted longer than three hundred years. Celestia had known each of them, and although each case had been unique, each case except three ended the same way: death by mental-illness-related problems. One pony stopped eating one day, saying she had lived long enough. Another became utterly incomprehensible. He was constantly talking to ponies who weren't there, who weren't alive anymore, muttering and arguing with himself, constantly pacing and completely ignoring the outside world. Eventually he didn't respond to real ponies at all anymore, and one day he simply disappeared. He likely wandered into a nearby forest and was killed by a predator, or died of illness or starvation, but nopony knew for sure. A third – a reclusive researcher who spent most of their time in their tower – had what sounded like Alzheimer's. There were similar stories for the others.

"What about the three who didn't die to mental illness?" asked Silver.

"One died in war," said Autumn. "One was an accident; she died in her thirties from a flash flood. The last was a plague; she died in her sixties."

"Okay…" said Silver, absorbing that. "And what about ascended alicorns?"

Autumn smiled. "Good so far. It's impossible to say for certain with only three examples who've lived long enough to be data points. Maybe you can only ascend if you don't have those mental problems, or maybe ascended alicorns can still go crazy and we just haven't seen it… well, we have, but it was a targeted dark mental attack, so that doesn't count. It's possible the ascended alicorns have just been lucky."

"And the unascended alicorns aren't lucky?"

"Not the ones born in the past," she answered. "But only because they were born in the past. The general accepted theory is that, since mental illness makes ponies weak to certain kinds of stress later in life, and since mental illness is borne of trauma or neglect or too much stress, especially in foalhood – which was way more common in the past, and not just because ponies were worse parents on average, nature was more dangerous back then too – most alicorns in the past simply couldn't handle a long life. Inner demons eventually catch up with everypony, and most ponies back then didn't have the support structure we do today. Basically… you need a happy, mentally healthy population before you start the 'eternal life' thing. If you don't, you're going to have a lot of severe mental cases that die early anyway for different reasons than old age. Like murder. And suicide."

Silver felt himself frowning. "So what's your opinion about the immortality efforts going on right now? Or have you not heard about them?"

"Oh, I'm all for it," she said. "Equestria is mostly good now, even if it wasn't in the past. The Stoners are fine so far. Being Stoned until the Future is also fine so far. There was a big controversy about fertility at first, before ponies knew that the clinics simply couldn't restore it, but that's the biggest issue we've seen."

"I meant on Earth."

Autumn paused for a long moment. "It's better to err on the side of life," she said slowly. "Better to catch the few that can make it all the way. The contract to sign up for eternal life should hopefully prevent the mental health cases from becoming a problem, no matter how many there are. Not to mention it'll solve a bunch of other problems. Hopefully."

"How?" asked Silver.

"Have you read it?"

"No. I'm now realizing I should have. What's it say?"

"It's… basically a magical contract that forces you to not violate property rights or abuse foals- sorry, young sapient life, if you want Stone services in the first place. If your behaviour constitutes an unintentional or habitual risk to yourself or others along the metrics outlined in the contract, you agree to go to therapy. Pony therapy, of course. We're preparing for an influx of human cases on our end… or, well, by 'we' I mean the clinical psychologists of Equestria are preparing for it. And the princesses are preparing too, of course."

"And if therapy doesn't work?"

"There's also a clause that signers might need to swear an Unbreakable Vow to maintain Stone services in the final extremity, and the Vow would basically force you to not do the thing that you're doing which violates the terms of service. We imagine a lot of ponies- sorry, people will go for that one."

"And if the Vow doesn't work because someone literally doesn't have the mental capacity to not do the behaviour anymore?" You can't Vow somebody out of epileptic seizures, unless Harry really missed something about how they work.

"We haven't really seen that," said Autumn. "If I had to guess, most humans would opt out at that point."

"Opt out?"

"You can opt out of the contract at any time."

"What happens when someone opts out?"

"Your body is put back to your natural age. Free of any physical health problems, of course. Twilight set it up that way in Equestria, too. That way, ponies can live out a natural death by old age if they really want to. Free Will means you have to let ponies make that choice if that's what they want. It also means it's their choice to sign up in the first place. The centaurs- earth's centaurs were all for it, but a lot of wizards and witches and goblins and mermaids refused to sign when they realized all the things they wouldn't be allowed to do anymore, and that's their choice."

"And you really think that's the right thing to do?"

Autumn frowned. "Is it right to force someone to live forever if they don't want to? Is it right to grant extended life to someone just so they can go on abusing others for a lot longer than they normally would have? Equestrian philosophers have had to address a lot of important questions recently, when it came to sharing Stone services with the other nations of Equus, and even when it came to a few ponies in Equestria."

Silver and Autumn went back and forth on this. Silver was particularly interested in the problems that have already been encountered in Equestria, since they've been 'Stoning' for some time already. They hadn't been doing it for long enough to encounter the kinds of problems seen in historic unascended alicorns, but prospects are looking good, even according to ponies whose job is to be as deliberately pessimistic as possible and read a lot of ugly history and ancient studies on abuse.

The prediction from those same pessimistic ponies, unfortunately, is that vastly more problems will be encountered outside Equestra, where mental health problems will be much more common, and they'll have to play future policy by ear. They're treating earth as if it were pony society during and after the Three Tribes period, which means it'll be extremely difficult and tedious and require a lot of caution – significantly more so than Equestrian policy, and Equestrian policy was difficult enough for the philosophers to work through. But life is worth minor annoyances like that.

Eventually the bell rang and they had to put their conversation on pause.

Autumn turned around to leave the room, but-

"Don't forget to change back."

"Oh. Right."

She still felt slightly awkward in her human form even after a year and a half of on-and-off practice, but that was one of the conditions she needed to meet to attend Hogwarts.

"Hermione, Draco," said Harry's voice from above and in front of her. "I know it's not the best time, but I'd like you to meet Autumn."

Hermione and Draco?

When her own head emerged from the trunk, and even a little before, a massive note of confusion rang in her mind, one that she simply could not overlook any longer. She recognized the faces somewhat, to the extent that she could recognize human faces. But her uncertainty about human facial recognition was the problem. She shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with the two humans, but before she could ask-

"I remember you from the movie theatre," said Hermione.

"I saw a parchment of you riding Prince Excelsior," said Draco. "Do you think you'll be going to Gryffindor?"

"No," said Hermione. "She said it was between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, right?"

"Right," Autumn said absently. "Um… sorry, but I have to ask. Are all three of you named after your parents?"

"No," said Hermione. "Why would you think that we are?"

Autumn took a moment to find a way to get the information she wanted to know without revealing anything. "Um… just to check," she pointed her finger at each human sequentially, "Hermione, Draco, Harry, General Sunshine, Dragon General, General Chaos." Belle, Light, Azathoth, she did not say out loud, for that was not the important question, not to mention what it would needlessly reveal. "Is that right?"

They all nodded.

"Do you have an older sibling in Hogwarts?" asked Draco.

"Um…" she said. "Not quite…" She put her head in her hands, a gesture she hadn't tried yet, but which felt completely appropriate. "Sorry. My brain is hurting. Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Your last name?"

"Potter-Evans-Verres. Wizards tend to leave out my full last name."

Her hands stayed on her forehead, a position that felt natural for frustration. "The forwards machine thing," she said. "That wouldn't happen to apply to…" she trailed off.

"Yes," Harry answered confidently. "It does."

"Forwards time machine?" asked Draco, while Hermione gave her an intensely searching look.

"It's the last secret," Harry said to Draco mysteriously. "The how of redemption. The piece that brings it all together. Including the bank account and royalties you wanted to know about. But…" Harry looked out the window, then at his watch. "I'm not sure if there's enough time to cover it before we get to Hogwarts. We arrive soon. And… do you think you can handle any more shocks today, Draco?"

"I'd rather not. Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow I'd like to address any complaints or concerns that either you have. And the following days too, if we don't get to everything, which I'm sure we won't."

"That's fair," said Draco, and Hermione nodded.

"So how about this. Next weekend, I explain the last secret. Better yet, I'll show you. It'll be a field trip to Equestria. Autumn, do you want to tag along?"

Autumn glanced at the other two nervously. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Good question," said Hermione.

"If it's just the four of us, and we're all sworn to secrecy, then I'm sure it'll be fine," said Harry. "Don't worry Hermione, she's in the know." He turned to Autumn. "You don't have to come with. Or before you agree you can ask… actually, can you ask an authority you trust?"

She nodded firmly. "Good idea. I'll ask him. We'll need official permission anyway."

"I was going to get official permission on my end, but the more the merrier. Does that sound like a plan?" he asked everyone.

"What's 'Equestria'?" asked Draco. (For he had not spent too much time in conversation with ponies, during his outings at Circus.)

"The answer to life, the universe, and everything," Harry quoted. "Including Atlantis. Think of the etymology. If you can't figure it out on your own by Saturday, it should be obvious enough when we get there."

Comments

[Fireeaters]

Nice chapter

[keybounce]

Is it right to grant extended life to someone just so they can go on abusing others for a lot longer than they normally would have?

This sounds like a question I just gave an answer to in an earlier post of mine :-)

[Greenhorn]

"That's not fair! Why isn't everypony born that way? Why wasn't everyone born that way throughout pony history?"

Shining Armor: Surely no parents want holes in their house's roof.

[Booster Spice]

Though first he made sure to transfigure another spool and bell, then labeled both bell ends for the benefit of the bell ends.

Im sorry, but this had me literally alomost falling out of my computer chair laughing. Im very glad I hadnt made midday brew at the time otherwise Id have needed a Lot of wet wipes.

At least that was one way to handle the long steam train journey without having to resort to hoardes of tooled up steam nerds swarming the engine at choke points, like the viaduct etc.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11625359
That's why I gave you the smiley face, for seeing the answer in advance.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11625802
Ah... surely any parent who prioritizes the health of their roofs over the health of their children don't make good parents. Barring circumstances where roof health is more pivotal to family health than alicornhood, of course.

Anyway, it's not like the parents have a say. Harry was more questioning why the Mirror wouldn't insta-grant all Atlanteans agelessness when it clearly possesses the built-in capability to do exactly that.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11625811
Honestly, I was considering cutting that line, because calling those two "bell ends" is actually just a bit unfair to them based on what we see in HPMoR. I'd sooner have Harry use that name for Ron than Draco's minions in his internal narration. But hey, it's British slang and it was a good line, so I thought what the heck, why not.

[harts fire]

and now Draco knows most of the story.

awesome chapter.

[Skulltan]

After this chapter I re-read HPMOR chapters 105 through 110 from the perspective of Hermione and Draco. Highly recommended. As a side note, this chapter made me realize that the Patronus is supposed to be white. For some reason I'd imagined it as a translucent electric cyan. I think I prefer my version.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11630744
Sounds like Doctor Manhattan.

[Black--Soul]

"Twilight did a lot of research," Autumn explained. "There have been unascened alicorns before."

unascended

My over 90 year old neighbor is tellingly me in the past conversations that living long isn't a blessing necessarily. Parents, siblings and friends dying, leaving her life a hollow experience.
Guess everyone is different, some can cope, other don't.