Fallout: Equestria – The Hogwarts Chronicles

by Fanficwriter1994

Chapter 2: Tales of the Vendor

I sighed as I looked at the new uniform, or barding, that I had been given along with other students.

It covered my private bits, it was enchanted with protective wards and included what most called Saddlebags, which were far larger on the inside than on the outside and had extra wide brims for that too, and with my wings slipped through holes on the top it also felt fairly natural.

Issue was that it included a bit of a skirt. Yeah, school uniform regulations and all that, I was a girl. Yadda yadda yadda.

Hermione’s own new uniform was far more based on the original Hogwarts uniform except for armor padding, being less flowing and accomodating her wings. It was also cut for a bipedal obviously.

Ron meanwhile had almost the same uniform as myself but while mine was cut in a way to accommodate me going into bipedal mode, her own didn’t. It still left room for movement but since she wasn’t going to get up it was more enclosed than my own. The same things counted for the other three “Alicorns” as some had started calling us.

Funnily enough, the three of them had been resorted with Hagrid going to Hufflepuff this time around, Myrtle being sorted back into Ravenclaw, and Argent, who was the most vehement on her new name, had been sorted into Slytherin. So while the majority of us were Gryffindor, there were still at least one of each of the other houses present in our group.

And it was a group. We were literally the only Alicorns in the whole school.

Anyway, some other notable things included Neville finally figuring out his year long problems with magic, his wand was his father’s originally and rejected him. Now that he was a unicorn his magic was cast from his horn and it would be pretty damn funny if that one rejected him too. Ron’s own magic troubles, due to her incredibly old wand, were naturally solved by the same token. And in fact, all of us found magic just jumping to our command without much prompting.

However, shocks come aplenty these days since we had visitors.

The strangers had been first spotted htrough their entering the wards. They were made of 2 wingless/hornless ponies, 4 unicorns that were armed with a variety of guns while also wearing fairly dedicated looking armor, and 4 twin-headed cows which were pulling along a pair of covered wagons which were controlled by the ponies without wings or horns.

“Is that… some sort of caravan? And are those cows intelligent or something?” I asked, looking to Ron who looked just as confused as myself as we watched the teachers go out ot meet with the apparent traders, all of them decked out in the protective bardings that they made for themselves.

I did notice that one of the unicorns was using a scoped rifle to look around, expending a whole lot more magic than was reasonable in my books to do so. It was a mare, I think? Not entirely sure, but she was using the scope to check us out and…

“I think the unicorn with that scoped rifle just saw us.” I informed Ron and Hermione, who were at one of the windows with me.

“Geez, your eyesight definitely got way better.” Noted Ron, squinting at the obviously-a-guard pony.

I was surprised when a silvery bird suddenly flew through the window, it was clearly some sort of spell but it was Professor Dumbledore’s voice that come through. “Miss Potter, Weasley and Granger, would you mind coming down here? Our guests were interested in seeing you.” I blinked, that was a strange spell.

We ultimately made our way down, I wasn’t quite sure about flying down from the third floor and Hermione hadn’t figured out how to fly in this anthropomorphic form at all, so we took the stairs. It took us around 10 minutes to get down there but the whispers that come from the caravan were quite obvious.

“Dear Celestia, actual Alicorn fillies!” Exclaimed one of the cows with the cow’s second head nodding along, looking as gobsmacked as the first.

“Who is Celestia?” Asked Hermione curiously, looking to me of all ponies.

“No idea? Ah, professor Dumbledore, what is going on?” I asked, noting how the other three had also come out of the castle now.

“Well Miss Potter, apparently our guests have some knowledge of your current forms, or at least what pony variant you are.” Explained Dumbledore to us and I looked at them curiously.

“Well, the filly certainly doesn’t seem to know something common like that boss.” Spoke up one of the guard ponies, which admittedly was kinda an obvious descriptor.

“Well, we’re not really here to talk but if ya got some grub for us to eat we’ll fill ya lot in since you’re apparently not from around ‘ere.” Stated the mare the guard spoke to, which apparently made her the boss of this group.

“Right this way ma’am, we were having lunch when you come within the wards.” Stated Dumbledore before leading turning to lead us inside.

“I’ll unfasten Mary and Bella boss, go ahead.” Spoke up the second, I think Merchant, pony and the “Boss” nodded before following Dumbledore inside with us on their heels with two of the guards staying behind with the caravan while the remaining two come along.

Solid Matter had been to a lot of places in the Wasteland, including this particular area on Route 44.

There were no settlements around here, just a straight road. Or at least it had been. Instead now sat a completely out-of-place castle surrounded by green fields, a healthy forest and inhabited by ponies, mostly foals though. The young mares and stallions in charge were also interesting, as they included Pegasi alongside Unicorns and Earth Ponies. But the biggest surprise were the Alicorn fillies.

Four of them looked like normal ponies while two were tall, gangly creatures with monkey-like hands and a clearly made-for-bipedal-locomotion body. Being led inside the castle so casually also spoke of their unfamiliarity with the Wasteland, though she was kind of glad that she was an honest trader, not a Raider or Slaver, that would be bad.

She also saw a lot of moving paintings, they weren’t screens since they weren’t glowing from within and the castle looked extremely old-fashioned with candles and no electricity. What was however even more interesting were the ponies depicted within, or the lack of ponies. While there were some pony-like creatures in some of the paintings they weren’t the focus of it, but the mount of a bipedal creature in flowing garments or armor in some cases. They looked like the bipedal foals were all a mixture of their species and ponies.

The Alicorns also didn’t draw anywhere near the attention that her own party did, with all the foals wearing the same basic uniform with colored highlights in four patterns, red and gold, green and silver, blue and copper and yellow with brown.

“Say, ah, what’s with the colors?” Asked Sure Shot, one of her Caravan guards as he looked to the white filly with the red and blue mane who blinked a moment.

“Huh? Colors? Oh wait, you mean our house colors?” She asked and the wording seemed off, but on a nod she shrugged. “They represent what house we’re in, students at Hogwarts get sorted into one of the four houses, those being Gryffindor, that red and gold, Slytherin, which are Green and Silver, Ravenclaw who have blue with Copper, and finally Hufflepuff, which are yellow with brown.” She explained, which helped explain the pattern, but not why there were those “Houses”.

“So, and what are those houses for?” Asked Sure Shot, again. He was a curious Unicorn but that helped them more often than not.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I think they’re mostly hold-overs, as they were established by the Hogwarts Founders. The sorting happens based on characteristics or something, like Gryffindor are brave, Slytherins are cunning and prefer Purebloods, Ravenclaws want knowledge and Hufflepuffs value loyalty.” Explained the Potter filly as she didn’t seem to worried.

“What do you mean “Pureblood”? Some kind of selective breeding?” Asked Trigger Strike, her other guard, looking at the filly with a raised eyebrow.

It was, however, the white with red filly who spoke up. “Not really, it’s this weird believe some families got that marrying Muggles, that’s our word for non-magical humans, degrades their “Blood”. My own family is technically pureblood too but that’s just because we haven’t had a Muggle-born for a few generations.” Explained the filly, not at all perturbed sounding.

Then the bipedal 2 shades of brown girl spoke up. “Mind you, it had some effects on us when we got here, all the Purebloods are fully turned into ponies and can’t get up onto just their hindlegs while Muggle-born like myself remain mostly humans and Half-Bloods like Harry can stand on two legs but look the same as Purebloods.” She explained and the first filly, as if in demonstration, stood up and continued walking on two legs, which was surprising.

“Man, so you were like the ponies in those paintings? Or humans I mean?” Asked Sure Shot, which was a good question.

“More or less, though we didn’t run around in that kind of clothes. Also, Ron, Hagrid, “Argent” and myself weren’t female before this mess, Hagrid and Argent also were faculty members.” Added Potter and got a dirty look from the blue filly.

“I take it Argent doesn’t like remembering that? What were their roles? Were they teachers?” Asked Trigger Strike as the blue filly raised her nose and pranced a bit away. Sure had some problems that one.

“No they weren’t, Argent was a Squib, that is someone who is born to a magical family but has no magic, and worked as the Janitor here basically. And Hagrid got kicked out of the school because he was framed for Myrtel’s death because he had a giant spider for a pet.” Explained Potter and then stopped when the three Wasteland Ponies tripped on their own hooves.

“Wait, I think one of the Alicorns was supposed to be named Myrtel, how is she alive?” Asked Solid Matter, speaking up to the filly finally who flinched a bit.

“Sorry, I got so used to people knowing about this kind of stuff. Back on Earth, when a wizards or witch died a sort of imprint of them was left behind, what we call Ghosts. Myrtel was one of those after she was petrified by some monster. When we got sent here, all the ghosts got kind of reincarnated as ponies around the same age group as the teachers, except for Myrtel who become the same as us. Funny we come up with that Alicorn term here too.” Commented Potter, quite a chatty one there.

“Well, I have to say I’m glad for them if that happened. Being a ghost probably isn’t fun.” Commented Sure Shot with a grin of his own. “By the way kid, what’s your full name? I only know the headmistress called you Miss Potter so that’s your family name, right?” Asked the guard and, yeah, that was a good question.

“Ah, my first name is Harry, though I’ve been told I got a second name based on my dad, James so it’s Harry James Potter.” Explained the Filly and even in Solid Matter’s ears that name sounded masculine, definitely not one that you would give a filly.

“You’re not going to keep that name are you? I mean, no offense but it just doesn’t seem to fit with you being a girl and all.” Stated Trigger Strike and the filly pulled back her ears, a clear sign of her discomfort.

“I don’t want to change it, aside from the fact I hope we can go back home at some point it’s one of only two things I’ve got from my parents, the other is my dad’s invisibility cloak.” She responded and that took Solid Matter by surprise.

“Wait, are you saying you’re an orphan?” Asked Solid Matter, surprised by this but the filly nodded.

“Yes, my parents died when I was a year old because some evil wizard, calling himself Voldemort”, at the mention of that name almost everyone within earshot flinched, “wanted to kill me. For some reason his spell rebounded off of me after he killed my parents though and last I saw him he had possessed our old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Who’s dead now.” Explained Harry and that sounded… strangely well informed.

“How did you find that out? Did they just tell all the students?” Asked Trigger Strike, and Solid Matter had to wonder if their conversation was going to be just with the filly.

“Nope, we were there! Well, Harry was at the last bit.” Spoke up the white filly with the red mane, coming up beside them. “Hi, Ron Weasley, youngest son-turned-oldest daughter of Molley and Arthur Weasley.” Added Ron, still a bit awkward on the whole girl thing though she did at least keep it in mind.

“So, you saw who did that professor in?” Asked Trigger Strike and Harry had to giggle at that. It was kind of telling what was actually the truth.

“Sorry, no. Professor Dumbledore got to where we were only after I smashed a Philosopher’s Stone into his head so hard it broke. He- Ah, I mean she, said it vaporized him on the spot when it exploded and we think that may have been what sent us here.” Explained Harry and that was quite a tale there.

“Philosopher’s Stone, like that old legend about how the Zebra had been trying to use their alchemy to make some kind of stone to give them an elixir of life?” Asked Solid Matter, she had been to enough Ministry hubs to have read on the espionage reports regarding this.

“I guess so.” Answered Harry, cocking her head to the side. “It was made by a man named Nicholas Flamel, a French Alchemist who worked with professor Dumbledore on a few things. He’s been around for centuries but I’m not sure how much longer he can live without the stone. It’s also the only one ever made from what we found out.” Explained Harry and wasn’t that a nugget of information.

“Heh, and you used it as a bludgeon? Why didn’t you use magic?” Asked Trigger Strike and then got a flat look from the filly.

“I’m a first year student who was raised by non-magical relatives who hate anything that is in any way shape or form different from them, especially magic, and I wasn’t exactly average in height for my age of 11 years either.” Responded the Alicorn filly and, given that all the portraits were obviously of adults, that made it quite obvious that she wasn’t in any way able to do that.

“Touche. So, you said this is a school, a school for magic, right? What do you guys learn around here?” Asked Sure Shot, changing topics to something else.

Harry, deciding obviously to drop the topic too, looked to the ceiling in contemplation. “Well, I only know what first-years learn. There is Defense Against the Dark Arts, which basically deals with defending in magical combat but we weren’t learning much from professor Quirrel. And we don’t have a teacher for it anymore either.” Began Harry and this made them flinch a bit.

“We also have Charms, which deals with non-combative magic spells, like the Levitation Charm, Wingardium Leviosa and the light making charm, Lumos as well as it’s counter spell the Nox charm. There is also Transfiguration, which deals with transforming things from one thing to another, so like making a rat into a teacup for example but those are temporary.” Explained Harry and that sounded a bit defensive.

“Next is Astronomy where you study the stars and constellations, which honestly is the most Muggle thing in the curriculum.” Explained Harry and some snickers were her answer for that statement. “Um, then we also have Potions which, well, it’s about making potions. Kind of like what I heard Muggle schools do later than what I attended in science class. Mind you the teacher there is Professor Snape, he doesn’t like me at all. We actually thought HE was the one after the Stone.” Explained Harry and Solid Matter got the impression that there was something rather nasty between them.

“To be fair Harry, he’s been a lot more mellow recently with you, though I don’t know why.” Spoke up the brown colored biped filly Hermione.

“Well, yeah but I’m not sure why. Anyway, moving on we also have Herbology which is about the study of magical plants. Our friend Neville excels at that and… well then there is just Flying lessons with Madam Hooch, which used to be about flying on an enchanted broom. I kind of skipped ahead to playing a sport on said broom. A year early.” Stated Harry and Ron snickered at that.

“Yup, youngest Seeker in half a century’s worth of Hogwarts history, I was there when Harry dove for a falling Remembral and caught it without crashing into the ground on his first lesson.” Added Ron proudly for her friend, which was sounding quite impressive given they weren’t natural fliers.

“What’s a Seeker exactly? And what is that sport?” Asked Solid Matter, interested in hearing such a bizarre word, but then they finally reached the doors of the Great Hall.

“Maybe while we eat we can talk about it some more?” Suggested Harry and was met with agreement from the others.

Entering they were told to sit where they wanted and seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione heading for one table which was decked out in red and gold while the other three split up to the remaining tables, they headed there themselves.

“Haven’t changed the furniture here have you?” Asked Sure Shot, eyeing the clearly made for the non-ponies benches and tables.

“To be fair we had other concerns, like getting clothes for everyone.” Admitted Hermione as she sat down herself.

As Solid Matter turned her gaze from the humano-form pony back to the table she was startled to see food there where there had been none before. “Where did that food come from?” Asked Solid Matter, looking at them suspiciously before a chorus of “Locomotor” droned around the hall and various eating utensils flew into the air to work on getting food on the plates.

Looking over she saw Harry taking a number of different things, including a rather impressive helping of meat. “You’re not perturbed by the food just appearing?” Asked Solid Matter, looking at the filly, and wondering if she was at all concerned with the meat.

“Not really, I figure whoever cooks just teleports them up here for us or something. Luckily they can replicate the ingredients or we may have had a problem here.” Explained Harry and that caught her attention, they had a way to replicate fresh food stuffs?

“Actually it’s the House Elves of Hogwarts who do it.” Spoke up another young stallion who looked similar to Ron and sat next to another who looked identical to him but while one was white with red mane, the other was red with a white mane. “By the way, I’m Fred Weasley, this is George Weasley.” Introduced the colt himself and the one next to him.

“Stop joking you two, we all already know it’s the other way around, thank god you got color-coded.” Rebutted Ron, before stuffing her mouth with a way too large piece of steak. And not in any dignified manner befitting a Alicorn. Nope, like a colt brought up by a feral tribe of Hellhounds instead of ponies. Or what he imagined a Raider eating something would look like.

“Don’t mind Ron, she doesn’t know manners.” This statement come from Hermione, who looked and sounded defeated.

“I can see that.” Muttered Solid Matter and looked around again, seeing quite a lot of students using the same trick, including the two apparent twins except… “Wait, how are you using a spell? You’re an Earth Pony.” Asked Solid Matter, looking at one of the twins, the one called Fred, who had the same spell going.

“Hey, just ‘cause I don’t have a fancy horn doesn’t mean I can’t use my wand to cast spells.” Shot the colt back, lifting up a hoof and showing that, put there with some tape, was a clearly ornate stick. A wand, if the colt was right.

“Wait, you mean everyone who isn’t a Unicorn here can cast spells with sticks?” Asked Solid Matter in surprise, not having expected something like that.

“No, everyone here owns a specially made magical focus known as a wand, made of a combination of magically imbued wood with a core made from a magical substance, generally a part from a magical creature. Most of us have stuff like Unicorn tail hair, the kind you find in the Forbidden Forest, they’re pretty big but not sapient, Tail Feather of a phoenix, the headmistress for example has a phoenix familiar, or the heartstring of a deceased dragon.” Explained Hermione as way of explaining to them.

“We do have a surplus of wands nobody uses anymore, since, well, unicorns and us six.” Stated Harry at that point. “Though it took most of the others a while to figure out how to cast with their horns, it was harder for the six of us to figure out how not to.” Added Harry a moment later and that got some laughter out of the Caravan workers.

At that point the remaining members of the caravan, including the two Brahmin, come into the hall and while the latter two were somewhat perturbed by the meat here, one of the older ponies from the school come over with bails of hay and Alfalfa for them, very healthy Alfalfa, the kind you see in some old pre-war textbooks rather than the stuff that grew after the Megaspells.

“Hey boss, I think I want to quit and settledown here.” Said Trot Alot as he come over.

“I doubt anyone wouldn’t.” Responded Solid Matter before remembering something. “Oh right, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet, right? I’m Solid Matter, I own the All that Matters Caravan. This is my employee Trot Alot, the two Brahmin over there are Mary Days and Bella Takes. As for our guard friends, they’re Trigger Strike, Sure Shot, Kaboom Alot and Alpha Strike.” Explained Solid Matter and got plenty of weird looks for it.

“Okay, you have some of the weirdest names I’ve heard in my life. And I attend a school called Hogwarts.” Stated Ron at that point and got laughter from the six Wastelanders.

“You’re ones to talk, Ron Weasley, I can’t figure out what your name even means.” Responded Solid Matter, all too amused by the disparity between naming conventions.

“Her full name’s actually Ronald, it’s a common name in English speaking countries actually. Same for Harry.” Spoke up Hermione at that point, which meant that it was just a name the parents liked.

“And Ron’s parents were kind of fishing for names I guess.” Spoke up Harry, drawing their attention. “She has five older brothers and one younger sister, two of her brothers have already finished school while her younger sister is… She’s supposed to attend Hogwarts next semester, isn’t she?” Asked Harry, turning to Ron who nodded with a frown.

“Yeah, no idea how mom and dad are doing right now, with all of us missing and stuff.” Stated Ron with a frown on her face.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure professor Dumbledore will find some way to bring us back or at least make a portal home or something.” Assured Hermione her friend who nodded, though not looking all that happy about it.

Somehow, Solid Matter felt that this would be a very strange trade hub soon.

It was an hour or two after we had gotten to lunch when I was outside, with a lot of other students, looking at all the wares that the caravan had been carrying.

They ranged from various firearms, a lot of them looked very much like what Muggle would use though some were older “Magical Energy Weapons” as the labels put on them said. There were laser and plasma pistols as well as rifles, a lot of pistols and rifles, ammo of all different kinds, and so on.

“Man, the ponies around here use a lot of Muggle-like tech don’t they?” Asked Ron as she used Locomotor to lift one of the guns up and-

“Ron don’t point that at your face!” I exclaimed and caught the handgun before she could drop it, or fire it accidentally into her own eye.

“You kids never had any gun control lessons?” Asked Mary as she trotted over to us, she was one of the two-headed cows, or Brahmin, who were part of the caravan.

“No, we’re just kids and unlike the US, the UK has some very strict gun control laws. Not to mention that wizards generally don’t use guns at all even if they’re adults.” Explained Hermione as she took the gun from my own Locomotor and put it back where it had been.

“Sounds heavenly, and if this grass is anything to go by probably should be called Paradise.” Stated Bella with a chuckle, and I could believe her. She and her kind were what had become of a normal population of cows over generations in the magical radiation of the Wasteland. There was none of that but naturally the genetic mutations of her kind wouldn’t go away.

“Yeah, unless you’re near Number 4 Privet Drive, then being anything but Dursley-tier normal makes it hell.” I responded, to me this place was a lot better, I didn’t need to go back like I would have at the end of the school year.

“What is a “Dursley”? Are they a Raider gang?” Asked Mary, both heads cocking to different sides and I realized it was the second, smaller cowhead who had spoken.

“Erm, I don’t know what you mean with Raiders but… They’re my relatives, and legal guardians. Namely my maternal Aunt Petunia Dursley, her husband Vernon Dursley and my cousin, who is their son, Dudley Dursley. And they hate magic. I don’t think even the Witch Hunters in Salem Massachusetts or during the Witch Hunts in Europe hated it anywhere near to how much they loathed it.” I explained, sighing at the memory of them. Sure they hadn’t done anything that could be proven later on, but it was abuse, I knew that.

“Oh dearie, it’s alright, if you’re here they can’t hurt you right?” Asked Mary, her big meaty nose pushing into me and I chuckled, nodding. I liked the Brahmin, they were smart like, well, ponies I guess, but they were also big and had that friendly big animal vibe to them.

“Yeah, as bad as the outside world from the Wards is, to me this is like paradise, I’m stuck here, and here is nowhere near the Dursleys.” I stated, smiling at the idea, a life without the Dursleys. I could live as a girl if it meant being far away from them. With my friends, even if I found it kind of funny how much of a 180 degrees turn Argent had made in personality, she was a friend now too.

“Say, Bella, do you think maybe...” Mary interrupted my reverie, looking to her, as I had heard, cousin and herdmate.

“Maybe, they have some weird magic here, maybe they can make use of it.” Agreed Bella, the two of them seeming to know what the other meant.

“Say, dear, can you look in my saddle, there should be a Arcana-tech device with a big screen and a band to fasten it to your leg in it.” Asked Mary, laying down so I could get up easier.

“Um, okay?” I asked, not sure about this but I climbed up on her and opened it. It took me a moment to find what she meant but the description was kind of unique to one item inside. “This one?” I asked, holding out the strange leather and metal device in my Locomotor spell, showing it to her.

“Yes, that’s the one. We’ve been searching for someone who would buy this old Pip-Buck 3000 but the thing is damaged, barely even plays the radio. It mostly just takes up space to be honest but maybe you can repair it?” Suggested Mary and I jumped down, looking at the thing.

“Okay? Hey, Hermione? How did that spell go again you used to repair my glasses on the train?” I asked and Hermione blinked, then smiled.

“It’s Reparo, wait a moment.” She come over, looking at the device before drawing the wand motion with her hand. “Re-Pa-Ro.” She chanted, a burst of magic coming from her horn.

As it hit the Pip-Buck, the damaged screen mended itself, the various cracks in the device did too, and soon after the screen lit up in green. “Whoa! You got the Pip-Buck working?” Asked Solid Matter suddenly and I jumped in the air out of surprise.

Turning around I found the mare, an Earth Pony as we had been informed was her kind of pony called, looking at us. “Ah, yes miss Matter, the mending Charm is a second-year charm technically but, well, I got a bit excited before school started.” Explained Hermione, walking over to have at least one person who was on eye-level with the mare.

“Well, I did promise myself I’d give it to whoever can make it work, kind of useless junk to us, so I’d say you can keep it. Heh, you wouldn’t also have a replication spell would you?” Asked Solid Matter and I looked to Hermione, and she looked to me.

Two hours later I stood with a Pip-Buck around my right foreleg/arm, Hermione the same, and Ron and Ruby, Hagrid decided to go with that name from now on, yes, were handing out more to the students while in the background professor Flitwick stood, dusting off his left forehoof with his breath, quite satisfied with himself.

Meanwhile the Caravan was now leaving, with over 200 Pip-Buck 3000s in mint condition, various enchanted pieces of armor, warded foodstuffs and their saddle crates expanded to the size of a warehouse with featherweight charms. Not to mention various books for first and second year spells.

Yeah we had traded a lot. I won’t lie.

Author's Note:

Pip-Buck obtained!
Level-Up!
Barter: +2 (20), Energy Weapons: +4 (20), Explosives: +4 (20), Survival +3 (30)
Perk Obtained: Intense Training (Charisma): Barter +2 (22), Speech: +2 (37), You’re quite a People Person, Harry.
Perk Obtained: The Vendor: Barter +3 (25), You’re a Trader, Harry.

Comments

[isheepzu]

And yet Hogwarts came out ahead...for the cost of a few spells cast they acquired one of the most important pieces of tech in the wasteland.

Plus, you know Flitwick used this as a teaching opportunity.

[uis]

“Hey, just ‘cause I don’t have a fancy horn doesn’t mean I can’t use my wand to cast spells.” Shot the colt back, lifting up a hoof and showing that, put there with some tape, was a clearly ornate stick. A wand, if the colt was right.

This could be much better. “Hey, just ‘cause I don’t have a fancy wings doesn’t mean I can’t use my wand to cast spells.”