Chapter 66: Just one thing after another...
Warning. A portion of this may be triggering to anyone who's ever been in an abusive situation.
Kitsumi felt the presence of the barrier as she exited the safe zone that was the Glen of the Silver Woods, her N-sid rink kicking in and hiding her horn. Only now was she aware of the slight muffled sensation as though there was a sock over her horn. She hadn’t gone far when she was all but accosted by a group of gray roan mares her approximate physical age.
“Kisu! Is that you?”
“Where’s the horn?!”
“Isla? Sky!” Kitsu protested.
“And me, Fiona.”
“Fiona and Katie. I didn’t forget about you, I’ve been on assignment.” Kitsumi had met the four while staying at Silverwood.
“Hey, do you remember Blair, he jumped into one of them thorn bushes and has gone colt crazy,” Isla announced with a laugh.
“He always seemed so quiet and reserved, well, as a colt,” Skye commented. “So what have you been up to?”
“Spying on Hogwarts.”
“Spying on Hogwarts?” Fiona asked.
“To be honest my primary task is to act as a bodyguard. And I’m wearing an enchanted ring to hide my horn from the creature hunting unicorns.”
“I heard there was another attack last night,” Katie offered.
“I know, I was out there. Saw the thing. I was keeping an eye on a friend and a person known to me when the sweep fliers picked up the unicorn. I came in this afternoon because that acquaintance went missing. The sweeps picked him up. He’d been dumped in a Salmacis Thorn bush by the half-giant Hagrid. So why aren’t you in school?”
“Home on break. It gets mighty hot in the Caribbean so they start summer break earlier,” Skye informed her.
“I don’t think I’ve too much longer. Once the present threat is dealt with I’ll be able to start school with you?”
“You never did tell us much about what you had been doing?”
“I was in Equestria.”
“Seriously?” Katie asked.
“Ya, it’s complicated.”
“Something happened to you while you were there, didn’t it?”
“Isla, I don’t think she wants to talk about it,” Fiona cautioned.
An awkward silence hung over them as they flew over the forest.
“Can you keep a secret?” Kitsu asked. They all confirmed that they could. “Well, you know how Equestria is in a different dimension? Truth is there are multiple dimensions and multiple versions of Equestria.”
“Infinite dimensions, yes we had that in class,” Isla said proudly as she and their friends shifted to either side of Kitsumi.
“I’m not from the Equestria that the gateway on Eques Island connects to. I’m literally another version of Mrs Silverwood. Just younger, that’s all. In the world where I came from I’d been framed for a crime I didn’t commit. And I spent time in Tartarus.”
“They let you go? I don’t understand?”
“They didn’t. I escaped and can never go back. And yes, there are ways to get out of that place. To make a long story short I came here to this world and Nova Silverwood took me in.”
“Hiya, ladies…” Offered a big red roan as he glided in. “Duine sam bith a-staigh airson beagan dibhearsain air itealaich, ma tha fios agad dè tha mi a’ ciallachadh?”
“Given he was doing the old wink wing, raise the eye ridge thing, and Kitsumi’s friends were just giving him a cold look, she gathered that what he’d said could only be something rude, crude, and uncouth.
“Ἆρα ἀληθῆ λέγει?” Kitsumi asked. Kitsumi couldn't speak a word of the Scot’s Gaelic and just couldn't resist using an ancient language they’d not know.
“You want to try that again?” Isla asked.
“I was wondering what 'twere he wanted. I don’t wot the language?” She tried again in old Ponish. Both the ancient and the old were to mess with the stallion who had by this time dropped back and was at that moment rapidly gaining on Kitsumi’s plot.
Kitsumi seeing what he appeared to be trying to do, folded her wings, twisted, and gave him a mighty kick in the neither region causing him to go spiraling down into the forest. He managed to regain control before hitting the branches of a tree only to be driven through the branches and into the ground by Kitsumi.
He’d survived but was in considerable pain and his wings were pinned back by her.
“Kitsumi, stop! It’s just a prank!” Skye shouted from overhead.
“Oh god, don’t kill him!?” Fiona shouted.
When the stallion looked up he saw Kitsumi’s horn no longer hidden, fangs that belonged to a predator, and white-hot energy pouring off of her.
“A prank?! A prank?! For sure I didst regard he intended some harm done to myself! Wot that I am a daughter of the night and shall not be made a trifle!” She took a breath and let it out slowly. She was furious. Kitzumi's gut felt like it was tied up in a knot, horrified that these friends of hers thought such a thing a prank, and frightened by what she'd nearly done to him. “Neigh, not even the most uncouth of rogues in the lands of Equestria would have done such a thing, nor attempt, nor even make such an ill-begotten jest! A prank you say? See that such deeds never come to my attention again.
"I have business to attend to.”
Kitsumi vanished in a flash and a pop. She reappeared high overhead, circled, and sped away far faster than any ordinary pegasi could hope to follow.
“I told you it was a bad idea!” The colt shouted up and then froze as a dark mare slowly emerged from the shadows. “Mistress Selena?”
“See to it that my mistress, her mother, never hears of such goings on,” Selena warned. And yes, she was Nova Silverwood’s Moonie. Having felt Kitsumi’s magical surge she came out to investigate.
“Pray I do not recruit you into the Horse Guards,” Warned a second Nightmare who’d joined the first.
“She means gelded,” Offered a third Night Mare, followed by the stallion shrinking into his crater as tight as he could go.
Kitsumi found herself circling high over Hogwarts a short time later willing herself to calm down. A prank? Even so, it was an ill jest and she knew that the moment had now soured her relationship with those mares for she’d not likely trust them in the future.
Kitsu had not come down by dinner when Aerie went to talk to Hoshiko.
“I’m sorry Aerie, she’s up there riding the thermals.”
“Could it have something to do with what happened to Draco?”
“No, Moonie says it’s something else. She said not to worry about Draco. Something about Draco not being Draco anymore but otherwise fine.”
“Right then. I guess if she hasn’t come down by the end of dinner we’ll just have to go up and talk her down.”
“You sure she hasn’t simply lost track of time though? What with the days getting longer and longer?”
“If she’s not down by the time it gets dark, we’re going to need to go up after her. Can your Moonie age herself?”
“No idea?”
“I thought I’d have my Moonie cover for me.”
“Alright, I can meet you at the top of the Ravenclaw tower if she doesn’t come down. For now, we’d best get to our tables.”
“Alright then, I’ll check in with you later.”
“What’s going on?” Padma asked Hoshiko as she sat at her table.
“Aerie wanted to talk to me about Kitsu. She’s riding a thermal and hasn’t come down. We might have to go up after her.”
“Lovely.”
“Any news?” Aurora asked as Aerie sat down at their table.
“Kitsu is riding a thermal and hasn’t come down. If she doesn’t come down on her own… anyway, we’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it.”
“Is it about Draco, do you think?”
“Moonie seems to think it’s something else. And they are being cryptic.”
“If I may have your attention…” Dumbledore said as he stepped up to the podium at the front of the school. He waited a moment or two for the room to quiet down. “As you are all aware by now, last night’s detention for Draco Malfoy and Aerie Potter did not go quite as planned. Miss Potter received an injury from a crossbow bolt and I’m to understand is healing nicely.”
“Madam Pomfrey called me in after classes to check,” Aerie whispered, and Idda nodded.
“Regarding young Mister Malfoy,” Dumbledore continued. “I’ll be away from school following dinner to discuss the matter with his parents. We hope to make a statement on this matter tomorrow evening. Thank you. Now, what say we get started with dinner.”
“Hermione,” Ron hissed.
“Yes, I heard,” Hermione hissed back.
“Leave it alone,” Aerie cautioned and then started filling up her plate with food.
Dinner that night was hardly quiet, and people kept asking Aerie about getting shot and a great deal about Draco. Unfortunately, all she could tell them was that she’d been separated from him and had no idea what had become of him.
The way Hermione, Ron, and occasionally Neville kept whispering at each other did not help either. She knew that with Dumbledore gone for the better portion of the evening, there was a high possibility that Quirrel might make an attempt on the stone. Which was not something she had to worry about, but… she also knew that there was a strong possibility that the trio would go after him. They still thought it was Snape as well and ignored Aerie’s attempts to dissuade them. For whatever strange reason, in Hermione's mind, Quirrell's diminishing condition had been Professor Snape's gain.
“Moonie, is Kitsu still riding thermals?” Aerie asked the cat as she went up to her room. She let out a sigh when Moonie nodded in the affirmative. “Fine then, can you cover for me? Yes, alright then… Aurora, I’ll be upstairs.”
“Upstairs as in talking to Alice Mouse, or upstairs as in getting some airtime without me?”
“Talking to Kitzumi. I need you to keep an eye on Quirrell. With Dumbledore out he might make his move. Heaven knows he should have the traps figured out by now. Look, even if he makes it all the way, don’t worry about it. There’s nothing there for him.”
“You know that for a fact?”
“I do at that. I’m more concerned about the three idiots getting it into their heads to stop him. If that happens we'll be forced to implement our contingency plan.”
“Alright then, I’ll either come looking for or send a pony to you if there’s anything you need to know.”
Aerie climbed up on top of the canopy bed that was closest to the trapdoor, opened that, and climbed through.
“Something I can do for you Miss Potter,” Mouse asked. She was presently in her pegasus form.
Aerie transformed into her pegasus form. “Sorry, I need to go see what’s going on with Kitsumi. She’s up there riding thermals and showing no signs of coming down.”
“Oh… you want me to come with you?”
“If you want. I’m going to go get Hoshiko first.”
“Well then, let's go.”
“The two ponies went out through the attic window, circled around, and landed on the veranda of the Ravenclaw observation deck. They pushed their way in through the outer door where they found Ailena, the pegasus they’d met at the Quidditch game. She looked like she’d just bed down for the night.
“Um, hello. Alice, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, we are here for Hoshiko.”
“At this hour?”
“Kitsumi doesn’t seem to want to come down.”
“Oh… oh dear, it was her then.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Some of the teenage ponies like playing games. Miss Kitsumi downed a stallion pretty hard.”
“Ah, what sort of games?” Aerie asked. “And it’s OK, I’m actually a lot older than I look. It’s complicated.
“Mid-air games that should only happen between two ponies that really like and trust each other. Nothing happened, and the Colt claims he wasn’t going to do it, but there was no way Kitsumi could have known.”
“I see.”
“In Equestria, they call that X-winging. Something that's normally only done by two ponies with complete trust in each other and their abilities,” Mouse offered. “We trusted her to keep an eye on Hoshiko in her fox form because she’s seen combat. She can hold her own against the worst that can be thrown at her.”
“She might be upset because of how she reacted,” Aerie offered.
“Sorry I’m late,” Hoshiko called as she made her way from the stairwell room. She dropped to all fours transforming on her way down. She’d only gone a few feet when the door behind her flew open with a seventh-year boy behind it. Such was the violence of the door slamming open that it caused Hoshiko to spring forward along with every pony in the place who’d been reclining to spring up and glare at the boy their wings partly extended to make themselves look larger than they truly were. Even as Hoshiko looked back at the boy an adult pony placed themselves between the two.
Aerie let out a whistle to remind Hoshiko that they were there.
Hoshiko remembered she was presently a pony and not likely to be recognized by the boy who seemed to delight in ordering others around. And no, he wasn’t a Prefect or even Head Boy for that matter. Just a Seventh year named Brayden Hunter who’d gotten it into his head to lord over anyone he could. She gave a snort of laughter and started for the others.
“Alright, who’s in there!” Brayden shouted.
Aerie motioned with her head, Hoshiko followed, and the group was out in the clear night air a moment later.
“Brayden, what the hell are you doing up here!” Robert Hilliard, the boy’s Prefect, demanded from the stairwell.
“I saw a firsty come up here. I think it was that new one.”
“So what if she is? If the ponies are willing to put up with someone they can come up here. There’s no rule that says they can’t. Now, I would suggest you shut up, mind your own business, and get down from here. We all know how they feel about you.”
Aerie, Hoshiko, and Mouse slowly made their way higher and higher.
“Fillies, I’ll hang out here. You two go up and talk to her without me.” Mouse offered after about five minutes.
“You sure about that?” Aerie asked.
“I’m sure.”
“Alright then.”
“I’ve found a thermal… whee!” Hoshiko called out as she began moving upwards at a much faster rate. It was still early in the evening, it had been a warm day, and the heat rising off the land hadn't died off just yet.
Aerie quickly jumped onboard and followed.
“Kitsu!” Hoshiko called a few minutes later as she slid up along Kitsumi’s left side. “Hi… um, you going to come down any time soon?”
“Why?”
“Kitsumi, we heard,” Aerie called from behind Hoshiko. “And quite frankly, I’d have fried him.”
“And what if I do that to one of the students!” Kitsu’s tone suggested that she was still angry, and quite possibly more with herself than at that colt and her former friends. “I could have hurt him.”
“If any of the students tries to mount you I will hurt them,” Hoshiko stated firmly. “Especially if you are a fox at the time.”
Aerie moved up to Kitsumi’s right. “Listen, as jokes go, they went way too far. Did those ponies know that you have a horn?”
“Most horned English pegasi can’t use their horns.”
“Oh…”
“Kitsu, I need you back. I… I’ve kind of gotten accustomed to having you nearby.”
“Like the dutiful pet?”
...“Let me get back to you on that.”
“You did agree to be her familiar,” Aerie pointed out.
“Only until Riddle is gone.”
“That may be, but he’s not gone yet. Is he? You can’t hang out up here forever either. Seriously, you can’t hang out up here forever. The sun is down and sooner or later you’ve got to come down. This isn’t Equestria where you can live on a cloud. Oh, you could try. You’d go drifting along and next thing you know there’s a seven-thirty-seven coming out of the sky.”
“Won’t you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride…” Hoshiko began singing.
“Hoshiko? You aren’t helping.”
“You started the earworm.”
“OK, maybe it is helping I can see a smile.”
Meanwhile down in the dorm Idda had just come up the steps to the top room where Aerie, Aurora, and Lavender Brown stayed. “Hey, I know it’s late, but is Hermione up here? Aurora?”
Aurora had been sitting on her bed studying. “She’s not downstairs?”
“Isn’t it kind of late for a head count?” Lavender asked.
“I forgot to do it earlier. Not up here?”
“No, she’s not. Maybe she’s downstairs?”
Aurora had become unfocused as she began to access the wards.
“Aerie, you wouldn't happen…” Idda began but stopped. “So where is Aerie?”
“What makes you think I’m not Aerie?”
“Your scar is backward.”
“Who notices that sort of thing?!”
“Aerie’s upstairs, that’s Moonie,” Aurora offered hoping that would be enough.
“That where that cute filly is?”
“She’s at home… son of a bitch! Just once, just once I wish Aerie could be wrong.”
There's a showdown coming up.
Like I need to say it. 
The real question is, what are they going to do Voldy?
and will they be in time to save the three idiots?
All that and more, coming up in the next couple of chapters.
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quick give me the next chapter, I want to know how those idiots are going to ruin dumbeldores plan even more.
You need a way to creatively punish those three. I would say have some sort of mental link between Ron and Hermione. I don’t know who you would pair Neville with.
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that colt can be really lucky that Kitsumi did not turn him in to a pile of slag.
this chapter is a real builder of things to come, i love it.
Right, so I’m slightly confused. In which continuity did Kitsu get locked up in Tartarus for crimes she did not commit?
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This Kitsumi is unique and has a different time line and was introduced during the Christmas vacation arch. She moved to Earth and was adopted by Nova Silverwood.
Right now we have Kitzu, who is the Kitzumi Nova who got locked up in Tartarus, Aerie, Mrs Silverwood, Hoshiko, and Bright Star Nova. Obviously I can't keep calling them all Kitsumi Nova as that would really get confusing.
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Okay, so will we get a more detailed look at her backstory eventually? I am most curious as to what crime she could have been accused of to send a child to literal pony heck. And yes I am aware that that is exactly what happened to cozy glow in cannon, and looking back upon I find it to be a most disturbing and questionable decision to imprison a child in a general population prison like that. She should have gone to a juvenile detention center where she could have been at least granted an opportunity to turn her life around. But more on topic to kitsu, what exactly was she accused of committing? High treason?
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That's in the introduction to her. She was coned into helping Cozy Glow and had the entire operation pined on her.
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Yeah, okay, but surely someone would have objected to such a thing, such as her mother, perhaps? I apologize if I am being a pedant here, I simply desire more background about these characters. Will there be more eventual side stories a la “Not Quite Canon?”
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I had thought of having her get pulled back into her world by Discord to be one of Grogar's stooges. If I've got the energy to do it. In that world, Celestia put her in Tartarus just as Cozzy was put in Tartarus in the show. And her mother, Princess Luna, couldn't stop it. Only now, Kitsumi is armed with knowledge. Knowledge that Grogar is actually Discord, and how to stop him.