Chapter 69: Scales
When Parvati woke up far later than she usually did on Saturdays, it took her a couple minutes to recall what had happened. The Yule Ball had been on a Wednesday- and when Hailey had talked to her Thursday afternoon, she had requested the fast method. Hailey had subsequently revealed that she had gone through the fast way herself, during her Goddess of Reports phase, and insisted that they go see Madam Pomfrey before attempting it.
Up in the infirmary that evening, Madam Pomfrey had helped them test her pain tolerance and mental fortitude, whatever that was… and finally come to the conclusion that they could allow her to take the fast way. Exactly why they had kept talking about huertz, kilohuertz, and megahuertz, and what on Earth an ‘ouchdammitometer’ was, she had no idea. But, she had understood the nurse’s instructions rather clearly.
‘If she’s still recovering after twelve hours, bring her to me.’
So on Friday, she had completed all her homework for the weekend in record time and even had all her students’ papers graded before nightfall, which promised her a relaxed weekend with very little to do.
And Friday night, per her request, they had done it.
As promised, the pain had been excruciating. She didn’t know how long she’d laid there, covered by her blankets, staring at the ceiling as the pain slowly wore off… but eventually, it had faded, and she had fallen asleep.
And now, as she stared at the ceiling, she realized she could feel something she couldn’t before. Well, a few things- it seemed her hair was a lot longer now, but that wasn’t the only thing.
So she sat up, very slowly, and looked.
“H-Hailey?”
Hailey glanced over as she entered the dormitory to check on Parvati; it was right about twelve hours after they had cast the Papa Tango. “Parvati?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
Parvati’s voice still trembled with terror. “I-I think it went wrong.”
Hailey trotted over. “How so? Um, do you mind if I…?” She tapped the closed curtains gently.
Parvati’s hand suddenly slipped into the gap, and swept the curtains aside.
Hailey blinked. The night before, Parvati had chosen to do it naked, despite Hailey’s and Hermione’s assurances that her clothes wouldn’t be an issue, and had sat up in bed, so it was almost stupidly easy to tell what had happened. Her hair had turned two shades of blue, such that it resembled some sort of blue bonfire on its way to her waist. She was also clutching at a gleaming deep blue wing, not too dissimilar from Hailey’s own wings… and there were scales up her sides and all around her lower body.
“Interesting,” Hailey muttered, sitting on the bed next to her and wrapping an arm comfortingly around her shoulders. “But it looks like it completed properly, so there’s no reason to be afraid.”
“B-But-!” Parvati took a deep breath. “Why do I have wings?”
“Because you’re an Aethr,” Hailey answered, extending her own wing to wrap Parvati gently. “The Aethr Tribe’s main power is that of flight. None of them are powerful enough on this side to actually achieve flight, even the most powerful, so the magic of the worlds omits their wings on this side.”
“A-And-!” Parvati gasped, and put a hand down to her hip. “Scales?”
Hailey shrugged. “Who knows. We’re still learning about a lot of this- so for right now, we can only assume you’re something we just haven’t encountered before.” She scowled. “I’d say an Equestrian mer, but your colors don’t line up with that.”
“An… Equestrian mer,” she repeated. “Only my colors?”
She nodded. “Yeah. They’re hippogriffs on land- but their manes are almost all single-color, and none of them ever approach the patterns of the ponies of Equestria- that’s what the Equestrians are, on the other side- and your hair pattern would be extremely rare even for a pony.” She smiled. “If it was all scarlet and gold, and feathers instead of scales, I’d say you were a phoenix-born like Angelina or Sunset.” She shrugged. “Angelina told me she’s got feathers on her lower body as well, in human form.”
“... Human form,” Parvati muttered.
“Yes. When we cross into Equestria, we also become ponies. Angelina is a pretty ordinary pegasus, if a little exotically colored- and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same was true for you, scales or not.”
“Even if…?”
She nodded. “Even if that would cross out the only logical conclusion from the information that we have,” she smiled. “Besides, Equestrian merponies actually don’t have scales- they have a tough, almost sandpapery skin instead, like sharks. But yes, those scales are making me wonder if you might have an affinity for water or something.”
“But are you sure I’m supposed to be this…” She looked down at herself, then back up. “Abnormal?”
Hailey shrugged. “The verification charm comes back positive,” she told her. “And once you put your clothes on, you’re going to look just like you used to- just with a little more exotically colored hair, and a much more… chiseled physique.”
“Chiseled-?” she gasped, looking down at herself and her arms.
“It’s natural,” Hailey told her. “Aethrs are the most active of the three tribes, so the magic grants them a toned musculature in addition to wings. I expect that means you’re also going to be a lot stronger than you’re used to- though not nearly as strong as I was, back when I was an Etrah.” She chuckled. “The Etrah Tribe’s main power is strength, so as you can imagine…” She sighed. “Anyways. Feel like some flying lessons at some point?”
She looked at her. “Flying lessons?”
She shrugged. “Those wings won’t be of much use if you don’t know how to use them,” Hailey told her. “I had a truly excellent teacher named Rainbow Dash, and I’ve since taught Hermione, Ginny, and Norberta to fly, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Especially if we do it in Equestria, where Rainbow and the rest of the Wonderbolts can help out if they need to.”
“Wonderbolts?”
She nodded. “The finest fliers in all of Equestria,” she answered. “Rainbow is their captain, and the only Equestrian non-Ascended to have ever broken the speed of sound in independent flight. Which, thanks to Equestrian magic, is a fun little event of its own.” She chuckled.
Parvati sighed, staring across the lake from where she had sat on the shore. It was Saturday afternoon, a week after she’d gained her wings. Exactly as Hailey and Rainbow had promised when she got to Equestria, flying was mostly instinctive- so after only a few sessions, Rainbow had called her a ‘pretty darn good flier’ and asked if she wanted to train up to be like the Wonderbolts someday. She, still in shock over how much better of a flier she was- and at how much more enjoyable it was- with her wings instead of a broomstick, hadn’t given her an answer.
Over in Equestria, she was an ordinary-looking deep blue pegasus. Not as dark as Hailey; no, she was more of a royal blue, like the stripes in Silver’s hair, perhaps a little lighter, to Hailey’s almost-black navy blue.
She hadn’t tried swimming or anything yet. She had never learned to swim… and she knew that the Hogwarts lake wasn’t a very good place to try for the first time. It was teeming with life, and Professor Lupin’s Defense Against the Dark Arts classes- she had been one of the very few lucky enough to study directly under him- had taught her enough about what could be down there. Completely aside from that, the lake was also covered in a sheet of ice that, judging by the few holes in it near the edge, wasn’t quite thick enough to reliably support her weight… making it plenty thick enough to trap her underwater, nevermind cold enough to freeze her to death.
Unfortunately, the only other option was the Ponyville Lake or the shower. She had shied away from that lake as well, at least in part because the ice was over a foot thick… and the shower wasn’t much use. Sure, she could dry herself off with a thought instead of a towel, but according to Rainbow, that was pretty typical for a pegasus; their fur and feathers naturally rejected water, and their magic allowed them to boost that effect at will.
Fortunately, it had turned out that her scales were just as resilient, and just as sensitive, as her human skin had been at those points, despite being hard little pieces of armor protecting her hips. She could safely scrub them the same way she usually did, though doing so seemed to shred the scrubber a lot faster than only scrubbing down along her scales did. It was almost like the scrubber was actually getting caught on them when she pulled it up… But she- and her scales- were simply too strong for it.
She also hadn’t seen Padma since the Ball; since they were in different houses, and taught different subjects, it was difficult, at best, to meet with her on a regular basis. That hadn’t stopped Padma from running excitedly to her after Ron had asked her to the Ball, but it did make it difficult to keep in touch.
Weekends were often the best- and sometimes only- times available for them to meet up… Then of course, many of the more recent weekends had been subject to storms, so neither of them had much excuse to leave their dormitories.
Today was, hopefully, different. It was a nice sunny day out- though of course, Parvati never knew where her sister was going to be at any one time. Frequently, she could be found in the library- but usually not on weekends. Today, a good number of students were out on the grounds, enjoying the sunny weather- and at least a couple were having snowball fights.
For some reason, the snow didn’t really feel all that cold to Parvati- neither did the air- and even when she sat in the snow, her robes refused to get wet. So, blaming that effect on strange Equestrian magic, she had rolled up a large snowball on the shore for her to sit on.
She glanced to the side when she heard someone straining on something, and saw Padma shoving another snowball up next to hers.
She smiled. “Well hello,” she greeted, dismounting her ball to help her sister.
Padma chuckled. “Same to you, General Kenobi,” she answered, before giving the snowball one last heave. It thumped neatly into place, at least partly because Parvati helped to guide it there, and Padma straightened up to take a deep breath. “Whoof,” she gasped. “That was exhausting.” She looked at Parvati. “I like the new hair, by the way.” She heaved herself onto the new snowball to sit down.
Parvati raised an eyebrow, and returned to her own seat. “Did it surprise you at all?”
“Not really,” she answered, grinning. “Morning told me you got the Papa Tango, said your hair looked like a waterfall.”
She paused. “... Huh.” She put one hand back to pull her hair over her shoulder; she’d heft her hood down, with her hair hanging down the outside of her cloak. “Huh,” she muttered again, looking at it as she let it fall down her chest. “You’re right. It does look like a waterfall.” She brushed some snow out of it, then looked up at the lake. “I wonder what Mom’s going to think?”
Padma looked at her. “She’ll probably go nuts when she sees just how dramatically her daughters have changed this year,” she grinned.
Parvati looked at her. “Both of us?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
She nodded. “I’m getting the Papa Tango tonight,” she answered. “Would have been last weekend, like you, but apparently I’m not quite as pain-tolerant as you, so I’ve been regularly making Madam Pomfrey scowl with ‘pain training’- and as of this morning, I passed the tolerance threshold for the fast mode.” She took a deep breath. “It’s going to hurt, but it’s going to be worth it.”
She looked at her “How so?”
She giggled. “Oh, don’t think I didn’t notice when you and Hailey got so giggly over a sundae,” she answered. “I even overheard most of her explanation, then Morning filled in the gaps for me the following afternoon.” She sighed. “Aren’t you getting cold out here? Some of the snowball players said you’ve been out here for hours, and I doubt your cloak is that good. Especially when you’re not wearing the hood, or your gloves.”
“It’s…” She sighed, looking down at her hands. She’d removed one glove some time before so she could reach inside her cloak for her wand to cast a timekeeping charm and, after noticing that the air didn’t really feel cold and her hands didn’t seem to be getting stiff or anything from the cold, removed the other and left them off. “I don’t know,” she muttered, resting one hand directly on her snowball. “It’s almost like it’s room-temperature snow, but it’s not. It just… doesn’t feel cold at all. Well okay, it’s comfortably cool, but that’s exactly it. I’m comfortable in all this cold, and my body heat isn’t melting it.” She sighed. “I don’t get it.”
“Maybe you’re like Angelina?” Padma asked, looking behind them.
Parvati looked as well, at where Angelina was participating in a very energetic snowball fight while wearing no more than she would in the summer- and periodically removing the snow from her robes with bursts of crimson flames. She chuckled. “No, I’m not,” she answered. “When I came out here, it was cold, but then…” She sighed. “Usually, it feels colder and colder when you don’t move around, but it didn’t. Instead, it just…” She paused.
“Got more and more comfortable,” Padma observed- then removed a glove and reached over to take her hand. She only touched it for a moment before flinching away.
Even Parvati flinched, pulling her hand back. “Wow,” she muttered. “That was…”
“Surprising?” Padma suggested. “It was like ice.”
“Really?” Parvati asked, tilting her head, then held out her hand again.
Padma took it gingerly- and only held it for a few seconds before letting go like she’d been burned. “Ow ow ow,” she muttered, blowing on her hand and shoving it back into her glove. “That hurt.”
“F-Felt almost like an open flame to me,” Parvati muttered.
Padma tucked her gloved hand under her other arm, underneath her cloak. “Ow ow ow. Yeah, you could probably make ice in your hands right now.”
She looked down at her hand, and flexed her fingers. “... Huh. Cold fingers usually…” She scowled. “Whatever. I guess we know I’m resilient to cold temperatures- though judging by how it happened, I can probably still get burned by, say, dry ice.”
“Probably not now, though,” Padma observed. “At least, not very bad. The air out here is already halfway down to the temperature of dry ice.”
“Is it?” Parvati asked, drawing her wand again. “Thermus. Oh, wow, it is.” Then she tilted her head, and pointed her wand at her chest, through the gap in her cloak. “Thermus.”
There was silence for several seconds.
“You’re right,” Parvati muttered. “By all rights, I should be a block of ice right now. According to that spell, my core body temperature is all the way down to minus ten.”
Padma chuckled. “Really was nice of Twilight to invent that spell for us, wasn’t it?”
She laughed. “Yeah,” she agreed.
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Ooh, both twins are turning to pones! But curious, very curious about the scales
I thought maybe a Kirin varient, but with ice powers, an opposite and alternative to high thermal kirin? When she gets Angry though, she could bathe in the Shuttles main fuel tank?
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The Space Shuttle's main fuel tank was filled with liquid hydrogen, chilled to a whopping -252C- the dry ice mentioned is about -80C. The twins are chatting in air somewhere around -15C... Which is cold enough most people wouldn't go playing in the snow without some really good thermal protection, such as magically enhanced cloaks. Or being part fire.
If she just jumped into a tank of LH2, or even of the Space Shuttle's oxidizer, LOX (at -183C), she would die pretty close to as quickly as an ordinary human would. Completely aside from how she can't breathe either medium, and both gasses are light enough in liquid form that floating is basically impossible.
But there is a condition that would allow her to wade & dunk in either one safely (provided some way for her to breathe), yes. I won't tell you what it is, though you can probably guess.
Yes, at that temperature, you would probably be able to drive a truck across the Lake... but judging by the holes, perhaps there's magic keeping the depths a lot warmer, making it a lot harder for the surface to freeze?
Maybe Parvati is part Windigo?
Almost sounds like Parvati is something like a Wendigo
11237523
Oh geez!!!
I hadn't thought of that!!!
That would be awesome!!!
I really enjoyed this chapter.
As it had a nice bit of character interaction
11237523
That would make her a perfect agent for cold territories like Frozen North or Antarctica.
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11237592
that was my guess as well :P loving the story
11237523
That's definitely what it sounds like.
Heck, maybe it'll turn out that Windigo are just another variant of Pegasus super-adapted to cold conditions, which is why she looks like an ordinary Pegasus in Equestria.
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And if General Kenobi needs somepony to visit Hoth...