• Published 6th Dec 2012
  • 37,442 Views, 1,371 Comments

The Unicorn at Hogwarts. - Saphroneth



Chrysalis sent Twilight somewhere she could never return... just outside Hogwarts, in fact.

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Flying, Free

The next morning, Twilight got up early, and ate before almost anyone else in the castle was awake.

Kettleburn accosted her almost as soon as she finished. “Ah, miss Sparkle. Good morning!”

“Good morning, Professor,” she replied. “I'm looking forward to this.”

“Good, er, mare. Follow me.”

As he turned to go, Twilight cleared her throat. “Er – Professor, have you had breakfast?”

“Eh?” Kettleburn glanced back at her. “Oh, no – but don't mind me. If we can get you sorted out, then I can just have a late breakfast. Better to get it done sooner, in my opinion.”

“Okay.” Twilight acceded to that – she did want to try flying. That was the whole reason she'd gotten up so early, after all. “Where are we going?”

Kettleburn chuckled. “Outdoors!”


The broom looked a lot like the ones she'd seen the others using. It was a middle-aged Cleansweep, with nothing visibly remarkable about it – the handle was worn, the brushes stuck out a bit and the binding that held it together was recently repaired.

“Right,” Kettleburn said. “On you get.”

“Er... okay,” Twilight stepped over the broom shaft. “How do I do this?”

“Oh...” Kettleburn tapped his chin. “Say 'up'.”

“Up,” Twilight complied, and the broom rose to press softly against her chest.

“I think I can feel the cushioning charm,” she volunteered, prodding at it experimentally.

“Good, good. Does it feel uncomfortable?” Kettleburn crouched down to check how it was seated. “Good, it looks like it's up against your breastbone – that's automatic. Should be supporting your weight evenly, so let me know if it starts to feel uncomfortable.”

“Right. What now?” Twilight asked, apprehensively.

“Hmmm... how to do this...” Kettleburn mused. “Try clamping your legs around the broom shaft.”

Cautiously, Twilight lifted her legs one by one to grip the broom, opposite sides first. When the third leg lifted and she didn't fall over, the broom smoothly taking her weight, she let out an unconscious sigh.

“That's good!” Kettleburn grinned, as she rested entirely on the hovering broom. “Now, brooms are a bit like wands – they channel magic, and they rely on intent. Think forwards – slowly, mind!”

Twilight thought for a moment, then concentrated on the broom and on moving like she would make a telekinesis spell move something forwards. Slowly, the broom slid through the air.

“This feels very strange...” she muttered.

“I'm not all that surprised,” Kettleburn replied, pacing alongside her. “Okay, now, up – gently!”


Twilight, it transpired, was not particularly good at flying.

She could go in a straight line, though slowly, and turn in mid-air – though doing both at once resulted in a wobbly curve and a racing heart as she clung grimly to the broom.

“I don't know how pegasi manage...” she said through clenched teeth, coming unsteadily down to the snow-covered grass at a little above walking pace.

“Hm.” Kettleburn frowned. “Well, if they're at all like winged horses, they're held up by their wings – which are above the centre of gravity, not below it – and they've got muscles which attach to a flight keel. Both of those are going to make them much more stable, and then there's instinct on top of it – they're built for flight.”

“Go on,” Twilight asked, looking for something to distract her from her stomach. “What about humans? How do you all manage?”

“Some of us don't.” Kettleburn readied his wand, just in case Twilight needed assistance. “Part of it is that we have our legs down around the broom, and often crouch over it – which lowers our own centre of mass.” He broke off as Twilight skidded in the snow, then continued when she slowed to a stop. “I'd hoped the same would apply with you, but your body barrel is too large. We might need to tweak the cushioning charm...”

Twilight nodded, swallowing uneasily, and put her legs down. “I think I'd like to stop now.”

“Oh, by all means.” Kettleburn waited until she'd walked forwards off the broom, then collected it. “As I say, we'll have Rolanda work with you – obviously, flying isn't essential, but it's certainly useful.”

“Thank you.” Twilight regarded the broom uncertainly. “I think. Maybe Spike can help...”

Actually, Spike was probably up by now. Maybe he'd have some advice.


As Twilight trotted back along the corridors, she heard voices ahead of her.

“...surprised, I have to...”

Her ears pricked up involuntarily, and she continued forwards at the same pace.

“...didn't expect you to come to me...”

The voice took only a moment to recognize – it was Professor McGonnagall.

“...Professor,” a different and more male voice replied. “...serious.”

Twilight considered casting a spell to allow her to hear better, but almost instantly discarded it. She wasn't an eavesdropper, after all. What she was overhearing was entirely accidental.

The next word she heard a little more clearly, as Professor McGonnagall said 'Giblets' to the Fat Lady.

Twilight checked her stride slightly, not wanting to crowd them, and ended up coming around the corner only as the paining swung closed.

“Giblets,” she informed the Fat Lady, trotting up.

“I've been hearing that a lot lately,” the portrait replied, opening again and admitting Twilight.


“Hi, Twilight,” Spike waved. “Where were you?”

Twilight slowed to a stop next to him. “Oh – sorry, I got up early and ran into Professor Kettleburn. He wanted to check on his work with that modified broomstick.”

“He did?” Spike grinned. “Cool! So, how did you find it?”

Twilight winced. “Not great...” she admitted. “I don't really have the stomach for flying, I think. Not on my own, anyway.”

Spike's grin morphed into a frown. “Don't we go around in a balloon? How's that different?”

“Well...” Twilight blushed. “Basically, I trust pegasi to know what they're doing. I know I can't fly, and all the books I've found here are about learning to fly a broom if you're human.” She shrugged, embarassed. “So I can't do what I usually do, which is read a book.”

“Oh.” Spike digested that. “Well... can't I teach you? I did say.”

Twilight forced a smile. “You can give it a go. I might just not be cut out for flying, though...”

A snigger. “Actually, I just thought, if I had wings then I'd be more confident because I wouldn't be in danger if I fell off...”

Spike saw where she was going. “But if you had wings you'd be a pegasus anyway and you wouldn't need a broom. Right.”

“Yes.” Twilight sat down next to him. “Maybe, if this doesn't work, when we get back home we can give a broom to Dash and see what she thinks.”

They contemplated that for a bit.

“I... actually don't know how she'd react,” Spike said.

Any further conversation was cut off by a commotion from up the left stairs.

“What's that?” Twilight asked, frowning.

“Not sure,” Spike replied. “Professor McGonnagall and the twins went up there a moment ago-”

He was interrupted by the sound of the Professor's raised voice, then the sound of a spell hitting something.

“That was a stun-” Twilight began.

More shouting, and more spellfire. Red and blue light flickered in the stairwell.

By now, all the students in the common room were standing. Most looked puzzled, some warily walking away from the stairs, and a few had drawn their wands.

Twilight, for her part, lit her horn and cast some shield spells.

“What's going on?” she asked, looking quickly over at Percy.

“I'm not sure,” Percy replied, looking lost. “The Professor took Fred and George upstairs – I was wondering if she wanted to have a word with them about-”

Something small came darting down the stairs, chased by a jet of yellow light.

“Stop him!” McGonnagall shouted, hurrying down herself.

“What?” Ron asked, frowning. “Isn't that Scabbers?”

The rat scurried across the floor, through the cleared lane between chairs, making a rat-line for the portrait hole. A grey spell hit next to it, making a small crater-

“Stupefy!”

And a bolt of red light hit it squarely, sending it flying into the wall unconscious.

All eyes in the room turned to Harry, who had his wand out and levelled, and was looking rather surprised with himself.


Over the course of the next few minutes, Albus Dumbledore, Filius Flitwick and Quirinus Quirrell turned up in Gryffindor Tower. The rat was lifted by magic, placed inside the same cage Ron had kept him in for months, and then carried out of the room – still unconscious.

Once the procession of teachers had left, silence reigned for a few seconds.

“What the bloody hell just happened?” Ron burst out, breaking it. “Did they just confiscate Scabbers?”

The boy rounded on his friend. “And Harry – why did you stun Scabbers?”

Harry looked uncertain, and shifted his grip on his wand. “I... McGonagall said stop him, so I thought... it had to be important, right? And after all those reviews we've done on the stun spell, it's what came to mind...”

“He wasn't Scabbers,” Fred replied, unusually sober.

George nodded. “He wasn't even a rat.”

Ron gaped. “But... what the hell, guys?”

“I'm inclined to agree,” Percy said. “Especially if this is one of your pranks-”

“Shut up, Perce, we wouldn't joke like this,” George snapped.

Fred gestured to a table. “Sit down, we'll explain.”

After a few more stares, the other Weasleys sat. Harry did as well, still looking a bit numb, and Twilight and Spike watched along with most of the present Gryffindors.

Fred rummaged in his robe pocket, and pulled out a sheet of blank parchment. “This is the Marauder's Map. We found it-”

“Well,” George interrupted, a ghost of his normal grin playing across his face, “It was found. By us.”

“Somewhere no-one else ever looks.”

“Well, Filch might, because it's his-”

Percy cleared his throat. “Fred? George?”

The twins looked abashed. “Sorry, Perce.”

“Right. Anyway, this is the Marauder's Map. Watch.”

Fred cleared his throat, placing his wand on the sheet. “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.”

Twilight watched in astonishment, as the parchment... sprouted lines from the tip of Fred's wand. The lines curled together, branched out, and formed into words.

“Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs...” she read aloud, along with several other Gryffindors, “are proud to present the Marauder's Map.”

The words cleared, turning into a large diagram showing a map of Hogwarts.

“Wait...” Ron said, uncertainly. “Are those us?”

He pointed to a collection of dots around Gryffindor tower.

“Yep.” Fred nodded. “It tells you where people are. That's the cool thing.”

Percy gaped. “So this is how you keep sneaking around all the time!”

“That's right,” George confirmed.

“Makes it easy.”

“Bit too easy, really.”

“No challenge,” Fred said, before pointing back to the map. “Anyway. Notice anything important about who it shows?”

Twilight leaned closer. Herself, Spike, Harry, the Weasleys...

“Where's my tarantula?” Lee Jordan asked.

“Spot on, Lee,” Fred said, pointing at him. “It doesn't show pets.”

Several other voices raised. “But it shows-”

“I can see-”

Spike joined in. “Peewee's right there!”

“Yeah.” George nodded. “It shows familiars. And when we were first learning to use it, there was a name we kept seeing who we thought was a familiar.”

“Stupid name for a cat or whatever,” Fred said, shrugging. “But we don't know Percy's year-mates or anyone older well enough to say.”

“And when we looked back on Christmas day,” George took up the story. “It was in Ron's room. Had been the last few times we looked, but this time it was the only one there.”

Percy paled.

“What?” someone asked. “Why is that-”

“So I went up,” Fred continued. “To make sure there wasn't a cat about to try to eat Scabbers, 'cause we were all down here and there was no-one else there. But when I got there... no cat. Just a sleeping rat in a cage.”

“But...” Ron frowned. “Scabbers isn't a familiar... he used to be Percy's, right?”

“Exactly.”

There was an intake of breath. Twilight frowned – she could almost feel the answer, just out of reach...

Fred dropped his firecracker. “He's an Animagus called Peter Pettigrew.”

Dead silence greeted that sentence.

“...what in Merlin's name...” someone murmured.

Percy had gone chalk white.

“So...” Ron gulped. “You mean that Scabbers... was a person? A man?”

“A man with an Order of Merlin,” Percy said distantly. “Who's supposed to have died ten years ago.”

“Oh, bloody hell...” Ron had gone slightly green. “I feel ill now – he shared my pillow some nights!”

“How do you think I feel?” Percy snapped. “I was the one who found him in the garden!”

The older boy took a deep breath, then sighed. “Sorry, Ron. I apologize – I just feel...”

“Yeah,” Ron replied. “I can guess.”

“Who was this Pettigrew?” Spike asked. “I mean, if he's supposed to be dead... couldn't it be good he's still alive?”

“Not when the worst of You-Know-Who's lieutenants, Sirius Black, is supposed to be the one who killed him,” Percy replied. “All they found was his finger – and Scabbers has always had a missing toe.”

“I think I'm gonna be ill,” Ron mumbled.


The common room was full of a buzz of speculation for the next few hours. Twilight didn't have much to contribute, still not being entirely up-to-date on who these people were, but what she overheard filled her in quite quickly.

And made her feel very confused.

“Excuse me,” she asked a seventh year, “but... I'm not sure who Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black were. Can you explain?”

“Oh?” The girl frowned. “Sure. Hold on, let's see... okay. So Sirius Black was a wizard from a really nasty family – Black by name, Black by nature, you know?”

“I'm afraid I don't, much,” Twilight replied, thinking that over. “But go on.”

“Well...” the student hissed through her teeth. “He was supposed to be this big friend of the Potters, I think – not sure about that – but he betrayed them to You-Know-Who.”

Twilight nodded.

“Anyway, Peter Pettigrew confronted him about it – called him out in the street – and Sirius just... blew him up. Him and at least five Muggles.”

That elicited a frown from the Equestrian. “But... if he was the rat...”

“Yeah...” The girl looked thoughtful. “I don't know, actually. Doesn't seem to make sense...”

She shrugged. “Sorry, that's about all I know. It happened when I was only about seven years old, so I didn't follow everything.”

“Right.” Twilight turned the information over in her mind.

It all seemed to make very little sense, to her. There just wasn't enough information to tell what was going on, except that what everyone thought had happened wasn't what had actually happened.


Very little got done for most of the day. The talk eventually died out around lunch, but nothing really replaced it – a few desultorily did a bit of homework, but no-one really seemed inclined to do much.

Twilight wanted to help – especially Ron, for whom all of this seemed to be really sinking in – but... this wasn't really something she knew how to help with.

It wasn't as if she hadn't encountered problems as bad as this. Discord, who had manipulated the emotions of her friends to twist them into bad ponies, sprang to mind... but even then, he'd used magic, and magic had been part of the answer.

This was just... betrayal.

She asked Spike what he thought, and he didn't have an answer either.


Around four, the portrait hole swung open.

“Ron?” asked a short woman with brown-red hair, climbing through. “Ronniekins?”

“Mum!” Ron half-stood, startled, then blushed. “Don't call me that, mum!”

The woman – Mrs. Weasley – stood up as she got past the door, and let it swing closed behind her. “I came as soon as I heard, dear. Are you alright?”

Ron frowned, uncertain. “I... not really.” His voice trembled. “I'm still... trying to really get it. I mean...”

The woman moved quickly towards her youngest son, and swept him into a hug. “It's okay, Ron.”

Ron resisted for a moment, then leaned into the embrace. “Mum,” he whined, half-heartedly. “All my friends are watching!”

Mrs. Weasley ignored him. “It's alright, Ron. He's gone now.”

“I-” Ron began, then fell silent. Another try got no further, and then he sighed. “...thanks, Mum.”

Everyone tried to pretend they hadn't been watching.

“Mother?” Percy began.

“Yes, dear?” Mrs. Weasley replied, still hugging Ron.

“What's going to happen with... well, with Pettigrew?” Percy swallowed.

She released Ron, who sat back down with what looked a little like gratitude, and frowned. “I don't know, dear. It's all very sudden. It might go to trial – I hope neither of you will be called up, but it might be necessary.”

“What about us?” Fred – well, probably Fred – asked, nodding to his twin. “Will they ask for us, too?”

Mrs. Weasley turned towards her other two sons, and her expression softened. “I don't know that either. Sorry, darling.” She paused. “And – George, whatever else I say about you two, and I know I do say a lot – thank you. You've done the right thing, shown you do know what to do when it's serious, and I'm proud of that.”

The twins both went red.

“Arthur couldn't get away, I'm afraid,” she added, now turning back towards Ron and Percy. “He's at work, and there's been a lot of activity all over the Ministry today. But he did find time to Floo me, and he'll try to come up on Saturday. In the meantime – if you ever need to speak to me or your father, just let us know by post or by Floo and we'll come as soon as we can.”

“Thank you,” Percy said solemnly.

“Yeah.” Ron's eyes were perhaps a little wet, but he looked up at his mother with a wan smile. “Thanks, Mum.”


After Mrs. Weasley had left, Twilight saw Spike approach Ron.

“Uh...” Spike scratched the back of his head. “Just so you know, er... if you need to send a letter quickly, I can try using Peewee. He wants to give it a go, I think, so... er, it might help.”

Ron nodded. “Thanks.”

Percy put an arm around his brother's shoulder. “Thank you, Spike. I'm sure it'll help.”

Ron shrugged the arm off half-heartedly. “Gerrof, Perce.”

The elder brother dropped his arm, and didn't put it back again. “Okay. If you need me, just ask.”

“Me, too,” Lee Jordan volunteered. “Griffs stick together.”

A low rumble of approval spread around the common room. Twilight joined in as much as anyone.

Author's Note:

I'm well aware this is quite a risk...

I can't explain it in story, because it doesn't make sense to compare with a timeline they don't know about.

Here's roughly what happened: due to the presence of Twilight and Spike, as well as how Percy's slightly more involved with his family due to that, the group opened their presents on the ground floor instead of in the 1st year room.

As such, when Fred and George checked the Map, they knew for certain there was no-one in the 1st year room, so when they saw the name Pettigrew (of a familiar, or so they thought, and one belonging to someone in a higher year) in Ron's room, they wondered if it was a familiar trying to eat Scabbers, so they went up to check. (Normally, they'd have assumed that the one or more kids in the room could prevent something like that.)

And when the Twin actually got there, he saw the only living thing in the room was Scabbers, and realized it must be "Pettigrew". Only, they also know Scabbers isn't a familiar (if he was, Percy would still have him), and therefore there's something fishy going on.

So they went to their head of house.

Comments ( 278 )

... All of a sudden, I have a mental image of a horde of Gryffs running and on broomback charging out of a portal, Twilight and Spike in the lead (and flanked by Ron and Harry), to meet the Changelings head-on.

Well, that is a bit of canon going off the rails.

And I'm guessing Sirius Black is free by the next chapter. Awesome.

This is a daring route to take the story--- a REAL alt history. I approve.

Well, if you're well aware of the risk you just took, then go ahead. One thing I should point out, however, is that you did manage to completely throw off the original story just by including Twilight and not Hermione, so, you taking a few liberties with the story is to be expected.

Oh hell yes. Just saw that this updated.

Fuck.

Yes.

I actually find this an interesting twist to the original plot. And I'd love to see Dursleys' faces when Sirius comes to them to 'discuss' their ways of 'raising' Harry for all those years he was away!:pinkiecrazy:

Okay, are you going to explain how this happened in this story even though Twilight and Spike didn't bring this plot point across? I mean, I don't see how they figured out Wormtail 3 years early without Sirius or Remus being there!
4673813 Don't know if Harry will be flanking her, he isn't on the Quidditch team and thus doesn't know his talent with a broom.

This is quite the interesting twist there :)

Thanks for not falling in the easy path of just re-writing everything with another character :twilightsmile:
Though I suspect the chamber of secrets will also have quite the twist :twilightblush:

Keep it up my friend, I'm enjoying it a lot :)

Yes, I eagerly await the fallout from this. If you planned out the consequences, I'm sure things will turn out well for the story.

Though now that I think about it, I don't know what made the twins notice Pettigrew this time. Does it stem from Twilight's presence? Is it an unknowable butterfly effect thing?

good chapter.
i like that you had destroyed another plot hole using reality.
just don't free Sirius in a few seconds, at least mention that there was a bit of investigation or something in a court.

4673813 this has got to happen :rainbowkiss:

I'm well aware this is quite a risk...

...but the priiiize :derpyderp2:

4673962 I can't explain it in story, because it doesn't make sense to compare with a timeline they don't know about.
Here's roughly what happened: due to the presence of Twilight and Spike, as well as how Percy's slightly more involved with his family due to that, the group opened their presents on the ground floor instead of in the 1st year room.
As such, when Fred and George checked the Map, they knew for certain there was no-one in the 1st year room, so when they saw the name Pettigrew (of a familiar, or so they thought, and one belonging to someone in a higher year) in Ron's room, they wondered if it was a familiar trying to eat Scabbers, so they went up to check. (Normally, they'd have assumed that the one or more kids in the room could prevent something like that.)
And when the Twin actually got there, he saw the only living thing in the room was Scabbers, and realized it must be "Pettigrew". Only, they also know Scabbers isn't a familiar (if he was, Percy would still have him), and therefore there's something fishy going on.
So they went to their head of house.

4673970 That's what I so confused about!! I don't see any foreshadowing or buildup to this scene! It just seems to pop out of nowhere and I would just like an honest explanation how Pettigrew was found out this early compared to the real series? Saph can you please do that in an author's note if you aren't going to explain what caused this to happen in the story? I mean I like the fact that Pettigrew was found out, (I really, really do like that) I just want to know what caused him to be found out 3 years early, what difference involving back or foreground events caused this to happen?

Interesting. I've always been of the opinion that if you introduce a cross-over character into an existing story line you are going to get changes, even if the character in question is not directly involved, and the longer the time spent, the more the changes pile up.

Sort of like the old Time Traveler stepping on a Butterfly thing.

Glad to see you're prepared to alter the main timeline.

Only quibble I have here is Molly Weasely not seeming to even notice Twilight. Of course she must know about her, but to not even say hello.
Hope when Bill shows up, if he does, you don't have him ignoring Spike. Actually, for that matter, shouldn't some experts in magical creatures have come to at least check out Twilight and Spike out, if only for their own curiosity. Maybe under the guise of guest lecturer.

4673998 Thank you!! This really does help, alot really.

YEAH! They should have noticed! Seriously, it was a plothole! And I LOVE this derailing.

4673998
Alright, bravo on you for thinking of that. Hope you can keep up that kind of thinking for later divergences.

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised they hadn't noticed it before now...

Though I guess with a bunch of people covering the name they might not have ever seen it as important, and with Twilight giving them a new and interesting thing to try out, I'm not surprised they'd pull the map out to find the quickest way out to test them.

4674022 I think you mean Charlie, not Bill. Bill worked for Gringotts and Charlie was the one who studied dragons. I do agree with you, however.

4673998
4674076
Okay, so I was almostly correct, as in both almost and mostly correct.

Backstabber caught, but can Harry get Sirius (snerk!) as his official, free to roam, godfather? Is that a question?:pinkiegasp:

Twilight really should bring the Illustrated History of Quidditch and a rulebook back for Rainbow. Along with the balls, obviously. She'd probably spontaneously rainboom.

Hmm.. what gifts for the those left behind?

Pinkie: A barrel of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Bean
Applejack: House elf
Rarity: Spandex. Mountains of Spandex. Along with an Illustrated History of Spandex.
Fluttershy: Hagrid.

Scootaloo: A broom(Or carpet if Twilight can smuggle one in past customs)
Apple Bloom: Entry level Alchemy set, complete with self stirring cauldron
Sweetie Belle: A wand


And canon exists to be derailed and then bent over like a two bit prostitute! Just ask any comic book writer.

4674146
Probably not straight off. Apart from anything else, Sirius probably isn't mentally competent at this point, given he's had basically a round decade and change of torture.

I'm glad FimFiction saw fit to notify me of this update, considering that it apparently didn't for the previous chapter :pinkiesad2:
On the other hand, double update :pinkiehappy:

What a big risk, I LOVE IT! This can either go really bad for you or really good for you!

Fascinating. Cant wait to see where this takes us.

While everyone else is pondering the implications of Pettigrew being found out two books early, I'm wondering about something else. Twilight is now aware of magic in this world that allows humans to turn into animals. Could she and Spike use this to turn into humans themselves? Or could it somehow be useful in dealing with those changelings once they get back?

I'd also like to see Twilight try to comfort Ron and Percy about the whole Scabbers thing. After all, she was kind of in a similar situation with Chrysalis impersonating Cadance. Sure, it hasn't exactly ended too well for her yet, but she's probably the only one there with some sort of idea of what this all feels like.

4673861
What rails?

I see no rails, and frankly I find it hard to imagine there ever were rails around here, in plain sight or otherwise.

While I agree that twisting the events like this are going to have huge ramifications later on, it does fill in the plot hole that Rowling left in the series, which was that Fred and George should have spotted Petigrew long before Harry was given the map.

Hey, a key villain was captured before he could cause any damage. This might turn out for the better.

4674294 I must agree with you on this. Especially because the fanart of Twilight dressed as a witch would be amazing to fit to this, and also cute and stuff. Plus, Spike shouldn't be a DOG. Like... seriously. Human Spike would be awesome.

I don't think she'd quite gotten to the Changeling Queen part of the wedding, though. All she knows is that her babysitter has gone evil for some reason.

... Though she HAD gotten hit pretty hard by the Betrayal Train, what with her friends and Celestia getting mad at her, and apparently forgetting lesson "0," on top of that.

4673941
Yesss! I loved that line in the third book where Harry states that his guardian is a mass murderer. I can just imagine the scene...

4674358
Good point. I reread some of the last chapter before this reading this one, and I saw that she referred to "the read Cadance" and "the imposter," so I was thinking that she already knew about changelings. And I suppose that she doesn't actually know for certain that Cadance has been replaced as opposed to turning evil, but maybe this will get her thinking about that possibility, for what it's worth. And even if she doesn't know yet that it might be useful for dealing with changelings when she gets back, she still might learn it anyway and then end up putting it to use then.

And to be fair, the episodes don't necessarily take place in the order they're aired, so the wedding might have happened before Lesson Zero. Though they still should have listened to her anyway.
And it's not like that's the only time that somepony's forgotten a lesson they learned in another episode. Rainbow has had to learn not to be a shallow jerk in most of her episodes, Fluttershy has leaned several times that she needs to be less shy, and Twilight had apparently forgotten everything that happened in "Swarm of the Century" by the time "Bats!" rolled around.

4674440

Becoming a friend is hard, and you don't automatically never make a mistake again because it was pointed out once.


Also, Twilight knows that Cadence was replaced, but not exactly by what. Only that it has green magic, whereas her babysitter has a different colour.

4674454
True, but I still don't think that excuses the awfulness that "Bats!" was. But that's enough of that little rant. On to happier things. Like Cadance being replaced by an evil impostor.

So Twilight has figured that much out then? Good to know. Clearly it has been too long since I read some of the earlier chapters of this story.

4673813 no WHAT I see is Voldy being blasted by a rainbow bean with Twilight, Harry, Luna, Ron, Neville, and Fred (or Gorge) controling it

"I'm well aware this is quite a risk..."

A necessary one, and one I think is working well.

One of the biggest failings of a great many crossovers like this is they stick too close to cannon, and the story becomes "It happened exactly like in the source material, except Bob was there too". New characters cause new things to happen, and that should have major repercussions in how the story unfolds.

with percy being closer to his family, it makes me wonder what he will do in the order of the pheonix

I'm all for certain bits of canon being thrown out of whack

4674558 to be fairer, Fluttershy learns her lessons about different things. Standing up for your friends (dragonshy), standing up for yourself and not taking it too far (Iron Will episode, though she seemed to have forgotten the stand-up part by MMC), don't be passive aggressive if the truth and being forthright about something would be better (Green isn't your color), etc. Dash's episodes were all the same, though.

A "risk" maybe but a welcome one. The story is already noticeably different because of Twilight's actions/presence (as it should be) and this is just continuing that. As with all of the chapters so far I eagerly look forward to where you go from here.:twilightsmile:

There is a little thestral in the back of my mind sometimes. When Wormtail appeared, I was in shock before the thestral batted me with his hat and said, "Hey, this time he was revealed in public! And before Fudge started hating Harry! Maybe this time Sirius will get amnesty?"

Now I will be disappointed if anything else happens. I think Sirius's death hurt me even more than Dumbledore's when I was a kid, so if Twilight can make things work out for the better in this reality, then I will be a very happy pony.

I'm definitely interested in seeing a major plot point change.

Added bonus: It might make it so that you don't have to write seven novels' worth of fanfiction to reach the same resolution.

But on the other hand, then Hollywood can't make eight movies to milk the property.

What is a risk? I haven't read the books in a long time...

4674603 Are you sure you are replying to the right post? Because at no point did the books ever have it blocking sound and in fact showed that it did NOT on several occasions. Which is what my post was about.:ajbemused::facehoof:

4673998

So they went to their head of house.

Hogwarts students went to an authority figure? I'm not sure that I believe you.

I am totally fine with any reorganization of continuity or plot. I primarily read fanfiction for the characters so as long as you keep those believable and true the rest is just a fun ride taken down a new road with old friends.

I would just like to say I am very interested to see were this is going. Based off past experience, somewhere awesome.

4673813
Well that would be cool.
4673970
What made the Twins not notice him the first time? I mean really, you'd think they'd have noticed an extra name in the dormroom of their younger brother at some point.

4674584
Twilight-Magic, but Harry fits well to
Ron-Loyalty
Luna-Honesty
Fred&George- Laughter
Neville-Kindness
Harry-Generosity, but he fits magic rather well to.
Some are rather more a stretch than I would like

4675010 Actually, if you're super obnoxious about details (like me), Twilight kept worrying about how she could help because it was supposed to be done without magic.

Which, honestly, should mean that NONE of the ponies do crap and just let it melt naturally, but apparently the show likes to point out that Earth Ponies have magic only when it's not relevant to the plot.

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