Fallout: Equestria – The Hogwarts Chronicles

by Fanficwriter1994

Chapter 3: Development of the Lands

“Good morning my little ponies! This is DJ-Pon3 coming to you once again from Tenpony Tower! And what a beautiful day it is, even if the sun never comes through the clouds, a little bird has sung to me that something amazing has happened!

“Over way east, in the Ponston Wasteland a patch of green has appeared, one several times larger than any settlement in the wasteland! At it’s center is a school set within a castle and it’s inhabitants are magic practicing travelers from Another World!

“Yes ponies young and old, foreigners to our very reality have come here and brought their unique magic with them.” DJ-Pon3, a mysterious pony who broadcasts the most popular radio show in the Wasteland.

I had been listening to… him? Her? Well, it’s not clear, they speak in mannerisms like a she but the voice was male. At the same time how hard can voice modulating magic be for someone with such instinctual magic like a Unicorn?

“So, enjoying your radio?” Asked Seamus Finnigan, he was one of my classmates in Gryffindor and turned into a Pegasus with a gray coat and pink mane. Interestingly his tail was blue.

“Yeah, haven’t you tried your own?” I asked, knowing that we’ve been producing those Pip-Buck’s in the hundreds so far thanks to replication charms.

“Not much, it’s kind of fun at times but they only have a few songs.” Responded Seamus, fiddling with his own wrist computer. Because what else were those things? “See anything?” He asked, and I sighed.

I just had to volunteer for overwatch. Grabbing some clouds from up above and making small cushions to lay on was nice and all but being one third Pegasus meant that I was also perfectly capable of being a lookout for the school.

It had a lot of the teachers spooked how there were bandits, called Raiders, out in the Wasteland and with word apparently spreading about us, who was to say nothing would come our way? In any case I took my binoculars and checked the horizon again, sweeping my sight across the boundary of Hogwarts. “No, nothing so far. I really hope it stays this way.” I admitted, I didn’t like the idea of Hogwarts being besieged or something, even if, as far as we knew, we had the air superiority in every respect, having the largest Pegasi population below the clouds.

“Well, it’s nice we’re not getting attacked, say, how was moving into the girl’s dorm?” I almost dropped the binoculars when he asked that and turned to him in disbelieve that he would ask that. “What? You were a guy until less than a month ago, I’d ask Ron, or I guess it’s Rainy now, but the last guy who asked got written up for harassment by Percy.” He argued and I face-hoofed.

“Sean please tell me you’re not already after girls, I’m 11 years old, biologicall 8, and I’m not even sure if I even like girls, boys, both or neither.” I responded and he blinked, not expecting that. “Besides, I was more distracted with the fact that I’m stuck with a skirt for being a girl and that I can be happy to not be naked.” I added shortly after and he chuckled at that, not sure if he was doing so in embarrassment or at my expense.

“Alright, I get it. On another topic, do you think they’ll find a way home? I would really like to see my parents again, even if I’m stuck like this.” He asked, sounding worried.

“If I’m honest, I don’t know. And I wouldn’t mind staying here, sure it’s a blasted wasteland but I can stay at Hogwarts over the summer.” I responded, continuing to listen to the radio as the DJ spoke about a recent sacking of a Slaver town called Old Appleloosa in his area of the Wasteland, pretty far from Ponston from what we had gathered.

“Hey I’m curious, why don’t you want to go back to wherever you grew up? I mean, you’re famous, so wouldn’t it be kind of nice living there?” He asked and it took me a moment to realize that no, I shouldn’t shove him off the cloud for saying that. I had a bad habit of forgetting that not everyone knew of how I grew up, I didn’t like talking about it.

“Trust me, if you met my relatives you wouldn’t want to go back there. I didn’t know I was famous until Ha- I mean, Ruby showed up to give me my letter after they spent a week trying to run away from them so I wouldn’t become a wizard. They’re… honestly I can’t think of another word other than Magiphobic, or racist would probably also work. They’re, like, the Muggle equivalent of Pureblood supremacists.” I explained and that got Seamus to shudder at that thought.

“That bad huh? You sure you’re not exaggerating?” He asked and honestly? He was asking me to shove him off the cloud.

“No I’m not, before the letters I was forced to sleep in a closet under the stairs, they only moved me into the spare bedroom that had been Dudley’s toy dump because of them fearing what happens if someone actually read the address these letters were sent to. And less said about Margory Dursley and her hyper aggressive Bull Terriers the better.” I responded, flipping onto my back with a sigh, closing my eyes.

“Why am I imagining them being hit by a colorful nuclear explosion?” I asked, blinking for a moment to realize, I may have been a bit too interested in the idea of Balefire Bombs and how well they would go with Privet Drive #4.

“Man you got some issues, I wonder if anyone on the faculty is good with psychology.” Muttered Seamus, giving me funny looks as I tried to calm down, he had a point on that but still.

“I wonder if they can get a radio transmitter going, would be nice if we could report in without flying over.” I changed the topic, yes. To be fair, seeing as we were in a situation where our survival was on the line if everyone didn’t do what they could to help, made this whole thing a bit complicated. We had the means of production for our own weapons and ammo, after all replication works here, even if magical batteries had to be recharged manually, and repairs were easy.

More over the teachers had raised the old fortifications of the castle and erected a barrier around the school, which was for the moment taking the form of a high wall with small gateways into the territory, including a large, by Pegasi standards, hole above the Quidditch pitch if we ever got in contact with any Pegasi and they weren’t hostile.

Not a high chance, but a chance nonetheless.

Naturally that meant that we were mainly watching the gateways on the ground, which made things a lot easier on our part let me tell you. And if you wonder why I say territory, it’s what Hogwarts had basically turned the area into, our territory. We maintain control of it, it’s the school’s wards that maintain the grounds in their current state, we inhabit this place in general.

Basically we’re a faction here, a sort of bridgehead of Magical Brittain in a sense.

“Well, it would help a lot. Especially with that caravan heading our way.” Stated Seamus and I almost fell off the cloud before rolling over the other way and getting my binoculars on.

Sure enough, another caravan had gotten to the gate, it was a visible gatehouse for the barrier basically with a smaller barrier holding it closed. “Well, can you go report it? I go see who they are.” I told Seamus before taking my own rifle, slinging it on my back and flying off to where the caravan, which as far as I could tell wasn’t Solid Matter’s caravan, was looking at the barrier.

I wondered what they had with them, trade would be nice.

Soaring Hopes stared at the strangely made barrier before them, it was quite obvious that this was the famed “Hogwarts” she had heard about, the otherworldly school that had claimed this area where they had landed.

The fact they had erected a barrier as a sort of fortification, additionally to more traditional stonework walls and fortifications, spoke a lot about the dedication to the defense of the area they showed.

“Flier on 12 o’clock!” Reported Starry Swirl, her second in command as he stood atop the caravan cart he was piloting, the unicorn buck holding his binoculars with telekinesis.

“A Pegasus or one of those Alicorn Fillies?” Asked Soaring, turning to him and wondering who this may be.

“Hmm… Eyup, it’s a alicorn, white with red mane and blue streaks in it. Got a nice little rifle too.” Reported Starry Swirl, which Soaring soon enough saw for herself as the filly come close enough for her to see well before landing and trotting over, her wings tucked in at her sides.

“Hi, erm, can I help you?” Asked the filly, she was tiny! She had to be incredibly young.

“Yes, I’m Soaring Hopes, we’re traders from the Crimson Caravan company and heard that the ponies here had some interesting services to offer. We have quite a few items we can offer in exchange and a lot of spare caps for trade too.” Explained Soaring, smiling at the small filly who, if she were to go out on a limp, had been keeping guard over this entrance.

“Oh, well, alright. Can you please wait a moment? My partner has gone to the castle to get someone here, I’m just the scouting party basically.” Explained the filly and that got some giggles from Boistrous and Betty, a Alicorn as a scout was quite a bit heavy.

“It’s alright dear, what’s your name?” Asked Soaring, noting that the filly was quite mature in her mannerisms, being quite calm for her age.

“Well, I’m supposed to say Rose Evans, changing my name because of the whole gender thing is still weird.” Muttered the filly, now identified as Rose albeit it was apparent that she hadn’t been a filly before coming here. The rumors had been talking about some of the students and staff turning into ponies of the opposite gender for example.

“Oh? What was your name before then?” Asked Soaring, settling down in her seat, a bit of conversation would be quite nice while they waited, the castle was quite a ways off after all.

“Harry Potter, the whole Rose Evans thing was because my mom’s family had a habit of naming their girls after flowers and, well, Evans is my mom’s maiden name.” Explained Rose with a shrug, not bothering to take her rifle into a guard position. She was quite confident, it seemed, in the barrier between them.

“I see, are you adjusting well at least? I heard some rumors about the race the people here were before coming here and it sounds like quite a change.” Asked Soaring, hearing the Brahmin twins settle down themselves.

“It’s been fine, walking on all fours is quite easy for me but I like to at least try and not be that far down most of the time so I do tend to get on two legs when I talk to most people.” She explained and that got a raised eyebrow, which she noticed.

“Ah right, you probably don’t know that. Well, there are three distinct levels of pony form we all assumed. Those of us who come from families with very few non-wizard relatives or very distant one at least, are basically pure ponies, so they are obligate quadrupeds.

“Those who have come from entirely non-wizard families but have been born with magic, Muggle-born, are almost entirely human but their bodies took being a pony and sprinkled it all over the form basically so they have the heads of ponies, any related appendages and their feet are hooves too. Also, fur.

“Finally we have those like me, who are half and half basically. Half-Bloods, got the same anatomy like Purebloods but we can get up on our hindlegs and can walk easily on them.” Explained Rose and Soaring found that one quite interesting. It also tickled her curiousity on how that difference actually come about, the whole Pureblood, Half-Blood and Muggle-born thing sounded awfully racist to her.

“But otherwise you just have a mixture of all the pony races?” She asked the filly, curious about that.

“Yup, though it does make figuring out how we can play Quidditch a bit complicated, what with most of us having hooves instead of hands. Half-Bloods actually are the majority among us students you see?” She asked and that was an interesting tidbit of information. She didn’t seem to be concerned with keeping that secret at all, which was kind of funny.

“What is Quidditch?” Asked Starry Swirl and, yeah that was a good question.

“Oh, it’s a sport. Two teams, seven players on each team, and there are four balls. The teams are divided into 1 Keeper who guards the goalposts, three chasers whose job it is to try and throw one of the four balls through one of the three goal post rings, the one called the Quaffel, which scores you ten points. There are also two Beaters who use a club to beat off two other balls, the “Bludgers” which are wooden balls covered in an iron shell, into the other team.

“Finally we have the Seeker whose entire job it is to find and catch the fourth and final ball, the Golden Snitch. The game only ends when the Snitch is caught by one of the Seekers and it awards 150 points to the team that caught it. I myself am the Gryffindor Seeker, though I haven’t played more than two games since I’m a first-year student and, well, there are three games each house participates in, one against each of the other house teams. The third for us was kind of canceled when we got here. Like all the classes for the rest of the school year.” Explained Rose and Soaring had to wonder just how brutal that sport had to be if there was something like this.

“By the way, can I ask you something miss Hopes?” Asked Rose and Soaring blinked, wasn’t that a polite little filly.

“Sure, but call me Soaring, Miss Hopes is my mother.” She responded, chuckling at that bit of a clishe statement.

“Oh, alright, then call me Rose or Harry, only the teachers call me miss insert-last-name-here. Though most have already changed to Evans.” Soaring chuckled at that response herself, she liked the girl. “Anyway, ah, I was told that Pegasi aren’t normally down here, how come you’re not above the clouds?” Oh, that question was a good one, Soaring had to admit.

“Well aren’t you asking the good questions? To answer you, I’m a “Dashite”, a Pegasus who abandoned the Enclave. Couldn’t stand sitting around on the clouds all day or to endure their stupid propaganda. Got my Cutie Mark burned off for the troubles.” She explained, turning a bit to show her flank which bore the burnbrand in the shape of Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark.

This made Rose flinch. “Ow I, sorry if it’s a sore topic. I also got a scar but mine’s nowhere near that big. And I’m not sure if I still have it in this form.” Explained Rose and got curious glances from the Caravan members. “When I was a year old my home was attacked by an evil wizard, calling himself the “Dark Lord Voldemort”. He killed my parents and then tried to kill me too but the spell rebounded on him, destroying his body. From that I got a scar on my forehead, it’s in the shape of a zigzag line.” Explained Rose and that was quite interesting to hear.

“Sorry for your loss kid, must’ve been quite traumatizing.” Stated Soaring but Rose shook her head, which was odd.

“I can’t remember that night, don’t worry. My life until I come to this school was worse. I don’t know how it is with ponies but baby humans can’t form long-term memories until we’re around 3 years old so, to me? That isn’t even a memory.” Explained Rose with a shrug and Soaring couldn’t help a small smile at the irony. Not remembering your own parents would be a curse, but here it was also a blessing in disguise.

“That’s a mighty long time to mature enough for that.” Commented Boistrous Bellow’s secondary head, looking to the filly while her primary head was looking around for raiders.

“Well, yeah? Humans are kind of some of the slowest aging animals back on Earth. It takes like 20 years or so for someone to mature fully and in the modern era the average lifespan is like 90 years with 120 years being the oldest I know of. I’m 11 and at my age we’re not even hitting puberty usually though I heard there are outliers there.” Explained Rose and got some raised eyebrows, because this filly looked quite a bit younger.

Naturally she wasn’t dumb and could tell their thoughts. “Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, says me and the others were regressed to around 8 years old, like all the students were turned back to 11 and all the faculty members are now something like 17.” Explained Rose and yeah, that about fit her size and physical development too.

“Well, how old were the teachers?” Asked Starry Swirl, raising an eyebrow.

“Um… I don’t know? I think professor Dumbledore fought someone named Grindlewald around the time of World War 2 which happened in the early-1940s or something and when we got here it was 1992? And he, ah, she was an adult back then already?” Explained the filly, and wasn’t that quite a leap.

Suddenly, before any more questions could be asked, a gout of fire errupted behind the filly who jumped up before the fire went out again, depositing three beings. First was a young pegasus colt with a gray coat, pink mane and blue tail, next to him was a young unicorn mare with her own gray coat but both mane and tail being long and white. The third was, however, a bit shocking. That being a red and gold bird with flames still licking at it, though the bird was quite old looking.

“Ah, hi professor Dumbledore, how did you get here?” Asked Rose a bit surprised and Soaring Hopes had to wonder too, that wasn’t any teleportation she had seen so far. But that was unmistakeably a phoenix. Not a Rad-Phoenix, a normal, proper and healthy phoenix.

“That my dear girl, is thanks to Fawkes here, phoenix magic is quite potent, particularly in the healing and apparition department. Phoenix apparition can even bypass the wards of Hogwarts.” Explained the unicorn mare, now identified as the old man-turned-young mare to the filly. “Now, I understand that you are our visitors? I hope miss Evans hasn’t been rude to you?” Asked the mare and Soaring couldn’t help a chuckle.

“Not at all, she’s been most entertaining while speaking with us, and very polite. Anyway, I am Soaring Hopes, leader of this caravan. We’re part of the Crimson Caravan company and come here to, well, trade.” Explained Soaring, indicating her fellows with her wings.

“I see, well I believe miss Evans can very well be trusted, so if she seems to like you I’ll allow it. Please wait while I lower the gate, since I have to go to the Wardstone of Hogwarts to adjust the shield.” Explained Dumbledore before erupting again into fire of the phoenix.

“Ouch, my eyes.” Muttered Rose, rubbing at her eyes and shaking her head.

“You okay there Har- I mean, Rose?” Asked the colt, going over the younger filly as she stood up. He was a pegasus and that just made it this whole endeavor more interesting.

“Yeah I’m fine, just looked right at him when that fire flash got off.” Explained Rose but moments later the barrier holding the gate closed vanished. “Ah, looks like you guys can come in. Seamus can you go back to the guard post? I think I’ll handle leading them to the market place we set up.” Asked Rose and her companion nodded before flying off to what appeared to be a cloud.

“Well, using a cloud as a watch tower is quite a good idea for Pegasi.” Commented Soaring as she jumped from the cart, with Betty leading her sister inside and Starry Swirl come down to ground level too before the little congregation moved forward.

“So, how come you guys don’t have any guards? Solid Matter and her caravan had four of those.” Asked Rose, sounding curious.

“The road between here and Novac are controlled by the Blood Trotters Tribe, they keep Raiders at bay if you can pay their toll so we don’t have trouble going around here. I heard though they want to send a representative here at some point.” Explained Soaring, not seeing trouble to share this with the student of this school who kept to the ground with them.

“So ponies live in tribes then?” She asked, curious about that bit of info.

“Basically, most larger settlements belong to a tribe or two. After Equestria went to hell 200 years ago society basically went to tribalism for survival.” Explained Starry as they followed filly along the rather hilly countryside of the other world that had been transplanted here.

“Huh, that makes sense I guess. Makes me wonder why everyone we’ve met so far speaks English though.” Admitted the filly as they crested a hill and saw a small collection of tents not far. There were a number of fillies and colts there, supervised by a handful of older ponies. Not that many to be honest, nowhere near the number of foals.

“Well that’s a nice little tradestation you guys made here.” Noted Soaring with a smile as they began to trot down to the nestled together tents and tables.

“Thanks, we still want to make some more permanent stuff but security has priority.” Explained the filly with a small smile on her face as they trotted down and then between the stalls. “Hey Hermione, can you help us here? These guys are more caravan traders and they’ll need to set up their wares, I think?” Called Rose, looking to them for a moment and getting a nod.

From further in the tent collection come at that point another being, bipedal, fairly tall, with dark brown coat and bushy, lighter brown mane and tail. She, for that was quite evident from her face, also wore a form appropriate version of the same uniform as Rose and had both a horn and wings.

“Sure Rose, and- oh you’re a Pegasus right? I thought outside the school there were none under the clouds?” Asked the humanoid filly as she come over, notably her equivalent of saddlebags were white with a red cross on them.

“I’m basically a rogue, Soaring Hopes is the name by the way. These are my partner Starry Swirl and our transport assistants Boistrous and Betty Bellower.” Explained Soaring as Rose got up on her hindlegs, gaining the same kind of gait as her friend. Naturally the mild popping of her spine rearranging itself was heard too by the fine ears of the ponies and Brahmin.

“Glad to have you miss Hopes, let’s get you set up.” Stated Hermione with a smile before waving her hand and speaking “Locomotor” as she did so, causing fold-out tables and chairs to come from a storage area.

Neat trick indeed.

“Guns and Bullets? What kind of magazine is this?” Soaring chuckled, maybe she already had a little trade coming up for her.

Author's Note:

Level-Up!
Barter: +5 (30), Guns: +10 (30)
Obtained: Guns and Bullets (Guns +3 (33))

If anyone wants to ask any questions to a character or to me, I’ll add it at the end of the following chapter in an answer to it, either writing for the character or for myself depending on who you ask.

Note, I'm using a Fallout New Vegas Character Planner for the kinda mandatory level up tracking here.