Chapter 1.

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After the long transatlantic flight, the 787-9 Dreamliner floats into a landing at London’s Heathrow airport. The wheels touching down jolt everyone that was sleeping over the seven hour long flight awake. Principal Celestia shakes her head for a moment, then looks at the students on the plane with her, she smiles as she packs away her laptop and picks up her purse. The plane slows down as the flight attendants unbuckle themselves from their own seats to start assisting passengers. It only takes a few minutes for the plane to approach the gate.

The overhead speakers crackle to life, “Welcome to London, United Kingdom. The temperature is a balmy seven degrees centigrade, or around forty-four degrees Fahrenheit for our American passengers. It’s a typically rainy late fall day, so make sure you have an umbrella. As you de-plane, head to customs for your entry. And once again, welcome to the United Kingdom and thank you for flying American Airlines.”

The plane stops as Rainbow Dash bounces in her seat, first the flight to New York, then the transfer to this big plane for the transatlantic flight has been nothing more than a source of frustration. The wide bodied jet is quite a bit bigger than the smaller jet they used to get to New York, but she’s still been fighting claustrophobia for most of the last day. Her nap during much of the flight has only made her energy levels high, she pulls out her phone and presses the button to power it up. It connects in a few moments and she looks at the time, “Is that for real, it’s only 8:15 in the morning?”

“Time change, Rainbow Dash.” Sunset Shimmer murmurs softly, “We’ve been in the air for about seven hours, but when we left, it was night, now it’s morning.”

“Oh dear, all I want to do is sleep.” Twilight Sparkle says from her seat next to Sunset.

Sunset shakes her head, “We’ve got to check in, and then we’ve got to get to the school. Jet lag sucks, but if we power through most of the day today, sleep well tonight, we should be mostly adjusted by tomorrow. Luckily we have three days before the competition really starts.”

Rarity sits forward, running a brush through her hair, “Sensible people slept through the flight, Rainbow Dash.” She folds up her sleeping mask and pushes it into her purse, “It’s a bright and…” She glances out of the window, “dreary, rainy morning. But remember, we are in London! Just think, all the shopping, all the fun things we can do here. And don’t forget all the fashion.”

Sunset smiles at Rarity, “Don’t forget, we get to perform at the end of the week. Show the kids at the Latymer School how we do music back home.” She looks hard at Rainbow Dash, “So, no ponying up. Got it Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash blushes faintly, “Yeah, we don’t need to show everyone what we can do, right?”

Sunset smiles as many of the passengers stand up and wait impatiently, Principle Celestia had told them when they took off to wait until most of the people are off the plane, it makes them getting off that much easier. It takes about five minutes for the majority of passengers to get off, then the students from Canterlot high stand up themselves. They gather up their belongings and head up the jetway into the terminal.

They line up and follow Principal Celestia, she stops at a barrier kiosk, “Principal Celestia with her students for entry.”

The gate attendant smiles and gestures to the pad, Celestia taps her visa on the pad and the bar opens, she steps in and looks at the camera for a moment, then the other set of bars swing away to let her through, the second set closes, and Sunset taps her visa as the other students produce theirs as well.

The attendant steps forward, “Sorry, Miss. Per UK rules, no head scarves or sunglasses.”

Rarity jerks for a moment, then removes her head scarf and folds it into her purse, he smiles, “Sorry, security concerns.”

The rest of the entry procedure is easy, due to them being pre-screened before they left the US. This trip is sponsored by Quiz UK, the International Academic Quiz Tournament. Several schools from Europe and the US have all gathered, and Canterlot High was among the few US schools to qualify. Soon they are boarding a bus and getting on their way.

Twilight is looking at her phone, “Oh Sunset, we have to do some shopping today, they have lots of book stores!”

Sunset smiles, Twilight in this world, Twilight at home, the same Twilight. She nods as she looks at her own phone, “We will, but I want to look at the Thames. There’s lots of fun places to go all around London.”

Principal Celestia leans over, “Will you girls stay together?”

Sunset looks up, “Oh yeah.” She looks around at the other students, “I worry about Pinkie Pie, but I think we can stay together.”

Principal Celestia smiles, “I promised Vice Principle Luna that I would get her a few things while I’m here. I’m going to trust you, Sunset.”

Sunset blushes, “they are my friends, we can do it.”

“I know you can.”

Soon they’ve pulled up to the hotel, Sunset gets out of the van and looks up at the brick building, “The Beaconsfield?”

Principal Celestia looks at the building, “Yeah, the school wanted inexpensive accomidations, five rooms here are within our price range. It will be two per room, and you girls will have to share the bathrooms.”

“It’s a bar.” Sunset says flatly.

Principal Celestia blushes faintly, “It’s a sports bar, the food is supposed to be pretty good.”

“It’s a bar.”

Principal Celestia huffs, “It’s what we could afford, it’s already paid for, and you’ll be living there for the next ten days.”

Sunset shrugs her shoulders and looks around. Rarity is taking a selfie in front of the sign, “Have fun, girls. You all have my phone number, stay in a group, and be safe.” The principle says as she opens the door.

Sunset smiles, “Of course, Principal Celestia.”

It doesn’t take them long to get their bags into the rooms. Pinkie and Rarity share their room, and it takes Apple Jack and Pinkie Pie both to help bring in Rarity’s luggage. Sunset looks at her small suitcase, “Why did you pack so light?” Rainbow Dash asks as she pulls her larger suitcase up the stairs.

“I’ve always traveled light, Rainbow. Just need some clothes, my phone charger and my tablet.” She lifts the small bag, “I don’t need much.”

“Not even a football, or anything fun to play around with?”

Sunset shakes her head, “They play a different football here, Rainbow.”

Fluttershy walks in, she drew the short straw and has a room to herself. They all agree to meet in the lobby after they get things settled in and Sunset walks slowly up the stairs towards her room.

An hour later, Sunset sits on her bed in her room, watching Twilight Sparkle move around the room, getting a few things situated, then there’s a quiet knock on the door.

Twilight bounds to the door, she opens it with a smile, “You have him?”

The young man carries an animal carrier into the room, “He just cleared.”

Twilight smiles as she opens the kennel, “Spike!” She hugs her beloved dog.

“Your dog was very quiet, but during the drive, it almost sounded like he said something.”

Twilight nuzzles Spike, “Oh, he can sound pretty human like at times.” The door is swiftly shut as Twilight continues holding Spike.

Sunset watches, “We can’t have our competition without our team mascot!”

Spike looks at Sunset, “Yeah, you try riding as baggage again. It was not fun.”

Sunset picks up Spike and hugs him, “Glad you could be here.”

Spike hops from Twilight’s arms and sniffs around the room, “So, when are we going to the school?”

Sunset smiles, “Tomorrow, we check in at the Latymer School for the competition. And today,” She stands up and opens the curtains, “We need to explore. I’ve never been outside of your home country. This is going to be fun!”

Twilight smiles, “Most American’s haven’t been outside of our nation, Sunset. Have you been outside of Equestria?”

Sunset frowns, “No…Actually, I’ve never left Equestria. Well, at least before I came to this world. I spent most of my schooling days in Canterlot. Learning from the Princess.” She smiles, “I want to expand my horizons, learn everything I can.”

Twilight reaches into her bag, pulling out a slim case, Sunset moves forward as Twilight opens is, “Oh, that’s pretty.”

Twilight blushes, “Flash gave it to me, he finally understood I’m not the same Twilight as the pony from Equestria, but it seems he likes me too.” She picks the necklace out of the case and puts it on, she twirls around with it on, “I like it.”

Sunset smiles, “I do too.”

An electronic trill interrupts them, Twilight picks up her phone, “They are ready, let’s go.”

Twilight and Sunset bound down the stairs together, the girls get together and head outside. It’s a quick walk to the Manor House station, they walk down the stairs and get onto the Piccadilly line. A little over ten minutes and they are at Holborn station, where they switch trains and they end up at St. Paul’s station. Twilight follows the GPS maps on her phone and they emerge into the day. The rain had let up, so they walk through the wet streets.

“What’s that place?” Pinkie shouts, looking at a huge building.

Twilight checks her phone, “That’s St. Paul’s Cathedral.”

“It’s pretty.”

Rarity steps forward, “Ancient architecture is interesting, but where are we going?”

Twilight smiles, “The Millennium Bridge.”

They continue walking for a little bit, then they turn the corner, “That!” Twilight says, pointing.

The Millennium bridge was completed by June of 2000, and only open for a short time before it was closed because it would sway with the pedestrian traffic. Two years of being closed, and it was opened, the dampers installed had fixed the problem. But Londonites still call it Old Wobbly. The girls troop onto the bridge, Pinkie Pie looks over the side, “It’s green.”

Sunset giggles, “Yeah, that’s the Thames River. It’s a lot cleaner now than it used to be though, Pinkie Pie.”

Rarity brings out a camera, better than her phone for most of the pictures. She takes pictures of the shoreline and all around, “This is beautiful.”

“What’s that over there?” Fluttershy points.

Twilight looks, and smiles, “That’s a place we want to go to!”

Rarity squeals, “Oh the style, the culture, the costumes! It was a hub of fashion!”

Pinkie looks at Rarity, “Huh?”

Rarity looks back at Pinkie Pie, “It’s Shakespeare’s Theater!”

Applejack steps forward, “We can go, sugar cube, but we need to compromise and do things everyone else wants to do as well. Fluttershy had said she wants to visit the London Zoo.”

“But it’s got books too.”

“Books?” Twilight looks at the building in the distance, adjusting her glasses, “They have books about plays there?”

Sunset smiles “Only you, Twilight.”

“Fine we can go there.” Rainbow Dash interjects, “But we have to visit 222 B Baker Street.”

Applejack looks at Rainbow, “Seriously? You know he doesn’t really live there, right?”

Rainbow rolls her eyes, “Of course I know that, but that is one of the places in London I’ve got to visit.”

Rarity huffs, “Fine, but the Shakespeare Theater first.”

***

It’s getting on to the afternoon when the girls are shopping, Twilight had finally drawn them to Kings Cross. She’s spent the last couple of hours going into the multitude of book stores in the area. She finally bounces out of the fourth book store, Sunset stands up, handing Spike’s leash over to Twilight.

They start walking down the street, “Oh, all the books here, I could spend days reading everything here. Such wonderful old tomes. You know they have…”

She’s interrupted by a small feathery missile impacting her head.

“Twilight!” Sunset calls as she reaches down to help her friend, “Are you okay?”

Twilight rubs the side of her head, “What hit me?” They both look at the small bundle on the concrete.

“Why, it’s an owl.” Sunset says as she reaches for the small Scops owl. The owl shakes his head and hoots at Sunset, then spreads his wings and takes off between the two girls.

“My necklace!” Twilight calls out as the outstretched claw of the owl tangles in her necklace and rips it off.

“Oh no you don’t!” Spike calls as he takes off, slipping his leash from Twilight’s grip. He bounds after the owl turning down an alley, Spike barks furiously as he runs. The other girls run after Twilight and Sunset.

The owl hurtles towards a blank wall in the alley, and the wall swallows the errant bird up.

“Oh no, you aren’t getting away from me that easily!” Spike calls as he leaps into the wall.

Spike vanishes as well.

Twilight and Sunset skid to a stop before the wall, “Did they just?” Twilight starts.

Sunset nods, “We have some walls like this in Equestria.” She says softly, “Hold my hand, everyone hold hands, we are going through.”

Sunset pushes on the wall and drags her friends through as well.

Chapter 2.

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They emerge in an alley and stop for a moment, to catch their bearings and locate Spike. While London is known for its old structures, many of these buildings seem to be antique, with wooden roofs and chaotic architecture.
Twilight looks around, then up, “Well, we haven’t gotten all that far away, the weather is the same.”
Furious barking ahead spurs the girls into action. They rush down the empty alley, then they turn the corner.

“What…is that?” Sunset asks looking on in confusion.

Spike is barking at the Scops owl, which has taken a perch too high for him to reach. The gold of the necklace dangling from his claw. Twilight rushes forward and works to disentangle the necklace from the small owl.

“This is not what you would normally see in London.” Rarity says.

Sunset smirks, “What, magic doorways?”

Rarity shakes her head, “No, after our time in Canterlot High, we’ve seen enough magic, but look at the people. What kind of clothes do you see?”

Sunset looks around, some of the people have taken notice of the girls, in their typical American dress. Yet they are mostly in long flowing robes, Sunset looks at the perch where the owl had taken refuge, “Eeylops Owl Emporium?” She looks down the street, “Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, I don’t know these places, Pinkie!”

Pinkie Pie has wandered over to a bulletin board, she’s poking at a paper with a face on it. The face seems to be screaming, but it responds to her pokes by giving her a dirty look and moving away, then it continues screaming silently, “Have you seen this wizard?” She muses, continuing to poke at the paper, “This isn’t any tablet I’ve ever seen before, it’s like paper.”

“It’s parchment.” Sunset grabs the handbill and looks at it, “Wizard?”

“Muggles in Diagon Alley?” Comes a soft voice.

Sunset glances toward the speaker, then she looks at Twilight, “Muggle?”

Twilight smiles as she puts her necklace back on, “I don’t know, but I’ve got it back. Spike! Stop barking at the poor owl.”

Spike stops and scampers over to Twilight, who picks up his leash. The owl flutters around, and starts to hoot and fly in circles around the girls. She looks around, the people seem to be moving away without making it obvious they are doing so. A few look on towards the girls with a form of aloof disdain.

“I think we had better go.” Sunset says as she grabs Twilight’s hand, four humans appear out of nothingness.

“Teleportation?” Sunset muses as one of them raises a small stick.

“Stupefy!” The figure yells and a white mass of energy screams from the stick.

Rainbow Dash lets out an ack as she sees it coming and dives to the side.

“What is that?” Rainbow asks as she rushes towards Sunset Shimmer faster than she’s ever moved without ponying up.

Another turns, his little stick points towards Rarity, who quickly backs up… and trips over one of the other humans in the odd robes. They both crash into the ground in a tangle. Falling from the stranger’s hand, another one of those little sticks bounces then rolls along the ground. As quick as she can, Rarity grabs the stick, a few diamond sparks flashing from its tip before she tosses it at Sunset as another one of those bolts flies over her head, “Here, use this! I think it’s loaded.”

“This is a stick! What am I supposed to do with it?” Sunset calls as she catches it, she flinches as another of the attackers fires again.

Cringing, Sunset holds up the stick, This would be so much easier with my horn, if I had my horn I’d just use the quarter front shield. Her mind instantly jumps to the spell she had learned many times in class. Twilight Velvet had drilled it in time and time again to where the spell forms came to her mind instantly.

After a moment, “Sunset.” Twilight murmurs.

Sunset opens her eyes, unaware that she had closed them, in front of her, emerging from the stick, a cyan colored half dome of magical energy is between her and the attacker.

She blinks and the dome disappears. One of the attackers steps forward, he pulls back the cowl of his robe, revealing the face of another human, “Wands do not respond to Muggles. Let alone unattuned wizards. Explain yourself, what did you do?”

Sunset looks down at the stick before she drops it and steps back, “Wand? Magic? Muggle? What is all of this?”

The human picks up the stick she had just dropped, “This is a wand, young lady.”

Sunset furrows her brow, “But that’s just a stick, sticks can’t project magic.”

“STICK? You are calling my beautiful creations mere STICKS?” Comes a new voice. They all turn to look at the elderly man with pale, silvery eyes.

“Mr. Ollivander, you need to head back to your shop.”

“Oh, pish posh, young man, this young lady is in need of some education,” He moves close to Sunset and gently picks up the stick from the other man, “"In the altercation, one of them knocked over Miss Pennyfeather, and got ahold of her wand. She then gave it to this young lady here." He inspects the wand in his hands, "Miss Pennyfeather?” The woman steps forward and he hands her the wand, then he turns back to Sunset Shimmer, “You would call a beautiful seven and three quarter inch willow wand with unicorn horn core a mere stick? The audacity.”

“Unciorn horn? You don’t have unicorns in this world.” Sunset snaps.

“Interesting how you think that, young lady.” He pulls out another wand, “This is my own wand, twelve and three-quarter inches, hornbeam with a dragon heartstring.”

“May I cast a spell on you? It will be quite harmless, I just want to confirm that you are a muggle.”

Sunset looks back at her friends, then gulps and turns back to the old man, and nods.

He waves his wand above her head, a thick mist emerging from the wand, it slowly envelopes Sunset Shimmer, who shivers as the mist touches her skin, after a moment, he withdraws and looks at the other men, “"She... has had her form altered but I cannot undo that, she is not a muggle, and there is, or was, magic in her. I can’t say for sure what she is. She is definitely more than she seems.” He frowns and looks seriously at Sunset, a single finger touches her chin, making her face him, “You are a very interesting person, young lady. Especially since you made a wand work. Curious. Very curious.”

“My name is William Humphries, I’m a wizard with the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, I’ll be taking you to the Ministry of Magic. There are some wizards that will want to talk to you.” The first of those that appeared says softly, “Would you come with us, miss?”

Sunset eyes the old man as he walks away, “What have we gotten ourselves into?”

“I dunno, sugarcube, but let’s follow them.” Applejack says softly.

The wizard, William, steps over to the discarded handbill, “Since there are seven of you, we’ll take you to the ministry by way of portkey.”

Sunset frowns as he waves his own wand over the paper, muttering the word, “Portus.” He holds out the paper, “Please, all of you grab it, it will take effect in ten seconds.”

Muttering, the girls all grab the piece of parchment, and in just a few seconds after grabbing, Sunset feels as though she’s grabbed just behind her navel. They fly into the air, everything around them is spinning. They feel as though they are up high in the air, though in a matter of moments they are falling, still spinning furiously around the piece of parchment.

They crash heavily to the floor, Sunset gets to her knees and holds her head, “I think I’m gonna lose my lunch.”

She can hear Rarity’s voice, “I think I just lost mine.”

“Oh, none of that,” William’s voice comes as he gently grabs Sunset’s upper arm and helps her to her feet.

“Uh, where are we?” Pinkie says, wiping her mouth, “That was worse than the time Applejack helped me make the baked bads.”

Rainbow Dash chuckles, “Those were pretty bad.” She looks around, “This building is old!”

“You are still in London, young ladies, would you follow me, please? And don’t wander off.”

The young wizard walks off, Sunset shrugs and moves to follow, along with her friends, Sunset keeps her eyes open, looking around at what is going on. She sees humans continuing to use their wands all over the place, in a matter of moments, they are at golden gate, which opens to reveal an old fashioned elevator.

“Sunset, look up.” Twilight says softly, nudging her.

Sunset looks up, pale violet colored paper airplanes are flying slowly around the ceiling of the elevator, Sunset looks at Twilight, who shrugs, but she does smile at Sunset, Sunset reaches out a hand to her friend, who grabs it and squeezes reassuringly. Before the elevator closes, a couple more passengers enter. One of them is half the height of a normal human, with a broad head, long pointed ears, and a thin growth of sparse white hair on its head, Twilight breathes in, “A Goblin, I’ve only seen them in books.”

The goblin looks back at Twilight for a moment then the elevator starts to move, soon it stops and a soft voice calls out, “Level four, Goblin Liaison office, Pest Advisory Bureau, and the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.” Twilight looks at Spike and nuzzles him for a moment, then she moves closer to Sunset, she shakes her head as though trying to clear a thought as the door closes.

The elevator continues down and again the door opens, several of the paper airplanes zoom out of the elevator and a few enter, the voice starts up again, “Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Obliviator Headquarters, and Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee.”

Sunset looks at the wizard guiding them as the door remains open, “I’d like to know what’s going on here. None of this should exist, not in this world.” She hears voices as they come closer, and two more wizards come in, one is tall, with an extremely long white beard, along with long flowing deep purple robes, the other is shorter and rounder, and his appearance causes the young wizard guarding the girls to go to attention.

“Albus, her abilities are spotty at best. Are you sure it’s true?” The shorter wizard says.

The taller wizard murmurs softly, “A bell once rung, can not be unrung. He comes, he comes, to enslave and destroy, he comes and even the Death Eaters scatter before him. He comes, with the shadow of death all about him. And no Wizard alone, can stop him.” He looks at his younger companion, “That is certainly within her abilities, Cornelius”

He is interrupted by the ding of the elevator as it stops again, the elevator’s voice calls out, “Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement”

“This is our stop.” William says as he watches the other two walk out and turn to the left, he leads the girls to the right and they walk through several corridors. He finally turns and opens a door, “If you would wait in here.” The girls file into what is obviously a waiting room. Once all of them are in, the door is shut behind them, Rainbow dashes over and tries the door, she looks at Sunset sadly and shakes her head.

“So, now we have to see what’s in store for us.” Sunset says softly as Twilight hugs Spike and the other girls look around.

Chapter 3.

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Rainbow Dash bounces around the small room, more than an hour has passed since William left them there. Sunset watches her friend as she paces around the room, checking the door from time to time, yet every time, it’s locked. The room is set up as a waiting room, rather than some sort of cell or holding area. Several wood and fabric chairs line one wall, with a low table in front. Light is provided by old oil lamps attached to the wall by decorative iron fixtures. The wall across from the tables has a painting of a large clipper ship, slowly rocking in the waves as it sails endlessly towards an unknown destination.

On the wall across from the door, the painting of a wizard imposing looking official robes stands stoically, his eyes narrowed and arms crossed as he looks out from the wall hanging. Pinkie, on the other hand, is bouncing in front of the painting, giggling and making faces at it trying to provoke a smile. "Aww aren't you supposed to smile in paintings?"

Rarity sidles over to her, “You know, perhaps you should tell them of your…” she looks at the door warily, “Unique origins. They seems to know more about magic than anyone back home.”

Sunset huffs and blows a strand of hair out of her face, “I don’t know. Perhaps I should, but I thought we were keeping knowledge of Equestria to a minimum in this world.”

Rarity leans closer, “Sunset, they have magic here. You’ve seen it. This entire place is magic.”

Sunset huffs again, “I know that, magic that is so similar, yet so different than what I knew at home. This is so weird to me. Why have we never heard of a Ministry of Magic? Or Muggles, or bloody wands?” She looks at Rarity seriously, “Did you hear what he said? Unicorn horn in the wand! I’m sorry, but them using the horn of a unicorn to make anything to make magic turns my stomach.” She hugs herself tightly, “And I still don’t understand how it’s possible for them to use a little stick to make magic. If the magic is from them, then they don’t need the stick, if the magic comes from the stick, then anyone who picks it up can use it. But they said that was impossible.”

Rarity shivers, “Well, when I picked up that one, I felt a jolt through my arm, and it sparked. There is something about those wands.”

Sunset looks down, “I remember the spell forms, if I get a chance, I’ll grab a wand and teleport us all out of there. Then we can get back to the hotel and tell Principal Celestia.”

Rarity smiles, “If I see an opening, I’ll try to help.”

Sunset hugs her friend. Then she leans over to Twilight, who has been holding Spike pretty much the whole time, “You said you’ve seen goblins before, in a book. You remember more of that book?”

Twilight nuzzles Spike for a moment, then looks up, “It was a book on mythical creatures. Giants, dwarves, goblins, trolls. All of that.”

Sunset’s eyes flick to look at the door, then back to Twilight, “What about unicorns, or pegasi, or dragons?”

Twilight’s face scrunches a little as she thinks furiously, “All of those, and more.”

Sunset huffs as she sits down and adjusts herself in the seat, “Well, given how long the portal has been in your world, all the way since Starswirl the Bearded, I can see how some of those myths came about.” She absently reaches over and scratches Spike’s ear.

Spike, for his part, is enjoying the attention, he rolls onto his back and enjoys being scratched by two humans, “This is heaven.” He murmurs softly, getting a giggle from both girls.

Fiddling with Spike’s collar, Twilight murmurs “I don’t know if it’s good for Spike to talk around these people. She looks up at Sunset, "Have there ever been stories of human mages in Equestria?"

Sunset thinks for a moment, "Not... not that I know of, there was something about a witch creature that sought ponies for their magic but she was never described, just called a witch."

Sunset stands up and continues her pacing, “I wish they wouldn’t make us wait for so long…” She trails off as the door opens. William is standing there, he gestures for them to follow, the girls dutifully rise and start walking.

The walk is in silence, Sunset looks back at the other girls as they follow meekly. Something inside her wants to flee all of this. But William’s wand is secreted somewhere in his flowing robes, and she isn’t willing to frisk him in the hall. By the looks of him, underneath those robes is a very strong man, not someone to try anything with. She sighs, perhaps some time later.

Their walking takes them through an absolute rabbit’s warren of passages, Sunset couldn’t begin to guess where this building is located. Where would she go? How would she take care of all of her friends? Her musing is cut short as William opens a door and gestures for them to enter. This room gets a small smile out of her, two other humans are in this large office, and she had seen both of them before. The tall, white haired wizard in the long purple robes, along with the shorter man in a tweed suit.

The shorter man comes forward, “My name is Cornelius Fudge. I’m the Minister of Magic. This is my associate, Albus Dumbledore.”

The tall one, Dumbledore, steps forward, “We have interviewed several witches and wizards that were witness to the altercation today in Diagon Alley. You are dressed as Americans, and we have been in contact with both the Magical Congress of the United States, as well as the International Confederation of Wizards. None of them have heard of anyone by your names, or descriptions.”

Fudge sits down in his chair, and steeples his fingers, “So, we are trying to determine what to do with you.”

Sunset tenses, “Do with us?”

Dumbledore answers, “You seem to have some latent magical abilities, as expressed by one Mr. Ollivander. You made a shield with the wand you appropriated.” His gaze turns to Rarity, “And you caused sparks to be emitted by the wand when you picked it up off the ground, something a muggle should be completely unable to do.”

“A muggle? I still don’t know what that is.”

Dumbledore smiles, “A person without magical abilities. On the other side of the ocean, they are called no-mags, but here, we call them muggles. Our goals, as wizards, is to live among the muggles, but separate from them. Concealing our magical abilities from them.”

Sunset narrows her eyes, “And you slaughter unicorns for their horns? Is that how they became extinct on this world?”

Fudge flinches, and nervously dry washes his hands, Dumbledore continues, “Actually, Mr. Ollivander related to me how that came to be about. The unicorn he had good relations with, and had allowed him to harvest strands of his tail, had been seriously injured, and was dying when he came upon the poor creature. He asked Mr. Ollivander to harvest his horn after his death, saying that the wands he would be able to make with it would be of unprecedented power. But on the whole, I would say the unicorn population of Great Britain is quite stable and very content with their lives.”

Sunset’s mouth drops open, she looks between the two other men, “How many are there?”

Dumbledore looks at his companion then back at Sunset, “I believe the population numbers in the thousands. They live in several of the forests around the United Kingdom. But muggles have trouble seeing them anyway.” He steps forward, “Mr. Ollivander also told me more about you, young lady. I believe I might be able to temporarily reverse the spell that he mentioned, that had you transformed.”

Sunset flinches, ever since coming to this Earth, she’s missed her magic. She’s been able to do a lot of things in this world, but the absolute wonder of using her horn, using her magic, has been a constant ache. It only takes a moment for her to decide, “He was right. I’m not of this world.” She flinches at the glance that passes between the two men, “I’m from a world where magic is the norm, and the pony tribes of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies live under the rule of Princess Celestia.” She looks down, “I was her protégé, and I betrayed her in a quest for power.” She continues talking for a long time, telling of the events that ended up with the girls around her becoming friends, not only with her, but Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria.

As Sunset winds down, Dumbledore steps forward, “As you know, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. May I attempt to reverse your transformation so we can see for ourselves?”

Sunset looks back at her friends, searching out for one face, Twilight smiles softly and nods almost imperceptibly, they’ve got her back here. She smiles and looks back at Dumbledore. Then she nods.

His wand is produced as he steps towards her, she closes her eyes as she hears him mumble something. She feels a cold mist envelop her body. At first nothing happens, then she feels her body slowly change shape. As she crouches down she hears a ripping sound as the seems of her jacket give way to her barrel. She touches the ground as her hands become hooves, her tail sprouts and her head changes shape, her horn growing out. She looks around her, “I liked that jacket.”

Shaking herself out of the rest of her clothing she looks up innocently. "Human clothing and ponies don't mix I guess."

Dumbledore’s mouth twitches in almost a smile as he picks up the torn leather, a muttered “reparo” has the jacket as good as new and he hangs it on a chair, then he looks at Sunset Shimmer. A few moments later and the transformation is complete.

Her friends gasp as they see her Equestrian form for the first time, she smiles and sheepishly waves, “Hi.”

Rainbow Dash giggles, “That is so awesome!”

Pinkie Pie is standing there, her mouth dropped open on seeing Sunset in unicorn form. Finally, she smiles so big she actually squee's. Seeing this, Applejack quickly grabs Pinkies arm and braces herself, leaning backwards. Pinkie holds her other arm out as far as she can and waves it up and down, Pinkie strains to get to Sunset.

"Easy now, sugarcube, remember our talk about personal space!" Applejack says firmly.

"Must... Pat... Pretty.... Pony! She needs snuggles!"

"Dear, we are amongst strangers, please try and act with some decorum of civility." Rarity chimes in.

"But she's a pony! Look at her mane!" Pinkie whines, but stops fighting Applejack and droops.

Sunset turns and looks at Dumbledore, “This is how I was born, and lived, until I came to your world.”

“This Equestria you were talking about?”

Sunset nods, Dumbledore looks at her critically, “You are quite different from the unicorns around here. While I do wonder if there is any common ancestry there.” He looks back at Fudge, “This is remarkable.”

Sunset flinches as his last words are emitted with a soft cloud, a ripple of cold makes her fur fluff up. She turns her head and snorts, a puff of fog coming from her nostrils as she looks at her friends, who are all reacting as though a cold wind has hit them, then she notices the other human’s reaction to the sudden cold. Even Spike’s fur puffs out as he starts emitting a low growl. Dumbledore looks at Fudge, “Have you summoned dementors?”

The look on the other man’s face is enough for Sunset, she whirls and charges towards the door, her horn lighting to yank the door open. She slides to a stop in the hallway, her mouth hanging open. Two skeletal creatures are floating there, one of them has William in thrall. She watches as what looks like energy is being drawn from the young wizard. Spell forms spin into her mind instantly, and she aims an energy blast at the creature. The magic slams into the creature, which disregards the powerful blast.

“Expecto Patronum!” Comes Dumbledore’s voice from behind her and a bluish white light fills her vision as a form leaps over her head into the creature.

“A phoenix.” She breathes softly as the bird battles the creature back away from the other wizard. Then she gasps, another of those dementors is rushing at her, the bird is busy with the first one. She can see the spell forms in the spell Dumbledore was using. “Well, here goes nothing,” she grunts as she copies the spell form herself, blue white magic streams from her horn, she watches as the magic coalesces into a form, causing her eyes to widen, “Huh?”

The other dementor is being battled by a blue flame version of herself. Her sunburst cutie mark in lighter blue fire is quite visible on the flank as the other spell battles the second hideous creature. She can hear the commotion of her friends coming out of the office into the hallway as Dumbledore and her battle the two creatures back.

Quickly, the two dementors retreat, streaking down the hall, Sunset shouts, “They’re getting away!” She extinguishes the spell and gallops off, Dumbledore hot on her hooves. She glances back to see Twilight kneel down to William, checking on him. That gets a sigh of relief from Sunset as she focuses on the retreating figures.

She slides through a turn, her unshod hooves fighting for traction as she watches the two dementors. They are slowing down, are they going to attack again? Then something catches her attention, causing her to skid to a stop, “No.” She whispers.

Between the two creatures stands, or drifts, something else. Something old. A creature cloaked in shadow and dark smoke, its four legs stand spread and braced, even though they do not touch the ground. Its red eyes shining through the mists. The only other splash of color in the form, is from a golden bell hanging from its neck.

Sunset skids to a stop going wide eyed, "No, it can't be..."

"An Equestrian? Here?" The savage voice echo's through the hall. "Well this will make things all the more interesting. Drain her, my servants."

Taking a step back, Sunset sees the two dementors spiral down the hall. A blue beam streaks above Sunsets head, flying between the dementors to strike the smoke and shadows, dispersing it. As it does, the dementors slow, they seem hesitant for a moment without the shadowy form, then they fade out as well, leaving the hall cold and dark.

Sunset collapses to the floor, breathing heavily as Dumbledore walks towards her, “It can’t be.” She breathes, “That can’t be real.”

Dumbledore kneels next to her, “What was that?”

She sighs, “Something that can’t be here, in your world. Something that was defeated in the last great war. It should be locked away in the shadow realms, or in Tartarus.” She looks at where the creature was and shudders.

“Tartarus?”

She shakes her head as she looks at where he disappeared, “It’s where the Princesses put those that are beyond redemption. A kind of purgatory, I guess.” She shudders again, “You’ve got to be pretty evil to be sent there.”

Dumbledore stands up, as she turns to head back to the office and her friends, she feels her hooves start to change, in a matter of seconds she’s back to the human form she’s had for the last several years, she looks down, “I think I need my clothes back.”

Dumbledore chuckles as he waves his wand over her, her clothes appear by magic, she looks up at him, “Thanks.”

His smile is more than half smirk as they walk, “Don’t mention it, young lady. Though, this attack, within the ministry itself, is very troubling.” He runs his long fingers through his beard absently as they walk, Sunset spies her friends and rushes towards them, Cornelius Fudge is standing there, more than a little befuddled, Dumbledore steps towards him, “Whomever he is, he has seen Sunset Shimmer’s equestrian form. That means he knows there are those from her world here. So, for these girl’s safety, I think we should take them to the school.”

“What makes you think they’ll be safer there?”

Dumbledore directs a withering glare at Fudge, and the other man subsides, finally he waves his hands, “The school can be protected from the dementors. As well, we don’t need the students to know too much about them. We can disguise them, for the short term, as members of the student body. Have them dressed in proper robes and given wands, it seems at least a few of them have the capability to use them. They should blend in and make it harder for this creature to find.”

Dumbledore nods, “I guess we will have to go back to Diagon Alley.”

Sunset looks at her friends, “You girls ready?”

They all nod, Rainbow comes a little closer, “Anything to get out of this ministry place.”

***

Sunset is once again standing in Diagon Alley, she looks up at the sign, then back at her friends, they’ve spent the last hour or so getting wizarding robes, she got one of them for herself, Dumbledore has been adamant that he pays for their clothing. She shrugs and walks slowly into the small store.

“Welcome back, young lady, judging by your company, you are going to all need wands?”

Dumbledore nods as he gestures for Sunset to step forward, Mr. Ollivander peers at her over his glasses, “It seems that unicorn horn wands seem to work best for you.” He continues to talk as he pulls small boxes from his wall, “I was able to make quite a few from that one horn. But for each of you, the wood selection would have to be paramount, I would think.” He turns and presents one, “This is eleven and a quarter inches in length, ash wood with a unicorn horn core.”

Sunset looks at it, and slowly takes it from him.

He smiles, “Now, give it a flick.”

She does, thinking of a random spell form, a few sparks sputter from the tip. She looks at the wand, “I feel like a foal,” She flinches and looks at the old wand maker, “umm, a child with this, I can make it spark, but I can't... focus... enough energy through it."

He nods, “Well, we can keep searching, pass that one along to your friends, see if any of them are suitable.”

After they have all tried the wand, none with any more success than Sunset, it’s gently placed on the counter. Another is presented, “This one.” He looks at the wand, then at Sunset, “This one is quite special, a true match for a beech wand will be, if young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience. Beech wands perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant. Such wizards and witches, having obtained a beech wand without having been suitably matched and yet coveting this most desirable, richly hued and highly prized wand wood, have often presented themselves at the homes of learned wand makers such as myself, demanding to know the reason for their handsome wand’s lack of power. At nine inches exactly, let us see what this one can do for you.”

Sunset hesitantly grasps the wand, as she does, she can feel a connection deep within it. The power inside the wand acting as if it were a part of her, the wand becoming an extension of her. She flicks the wand gently and the old shop keeper is lifted off the floor. Sunset’s eyes widen as she makes herself withdraw from the power, “I’m so sorry.”

Ollivander adjusts his glasses and looks at her, “I think you will surprise many with your abilities.” He smiles, “Now, on to your friends.”

Another wand is extended, “This is an eleven and a quarter inch pear wood wand, this one gives of its best in the hands of the warm-hearted, the generous, and the wise. Possessors of pear wands are, in my experience, usually popular and well respected. You, miss. I think it would be best for you.” He offers the wand to Rarity, who steps forward and gingerly picks up the wand. Sunset watches intently as she touches the wand, the soft gasp from her friend tells her that a connection has been made, Rarity flicks the wand, and an empty wand box slams into the ceiling, then spins around the shop, spitting sparks madly. Sunset smiles as she sees the look in Rarity’s eyes, she smiles at Sunset and nods.

"Oh my, it's as if..." Rarity looked at the wand in her hand.

“Excellent, I love getting it right on the first try.” Ollivander says with a hint of excitement in his voice.

"I think it's matching up with your other selves. The wands let us focus the magic we would naturally have." Sunset says as she looks at Rarity’s wand. She glances at Twilight, "That means you should be able to do it too."

Twilight steps up, bouncing on her toes, an eager look on her face, and a hunger in her eyes. He presents a wand, “This one might work, Applewood wands are not made in great numbers. They are powerful and best suited to an owner of high aims and ideals, as this wood mixes poorly with Dark magic. It is said that the possessor of an apple wand will be well-loved and long-lived, and I have often noticed that customers of great personal charm find their perfect match in an Applewood wand.” Applejack snickers as Twilight flicks the wand, a few sparks are emitted from the tip, but nothing more. A few moments of it being passed around shows none of the other girls have any aptitude for the Applewood wand.

A half dozen more wands are tried, each time, Twilight’s face falls a little bit, though Ollivander seems to be getting more determined to find a wand for her, finally he pulls one out, muttering, “I’ve had this one for a while, it was the first one I made when I acquired the horn.” He sighs as he places it on the counter, “eleven and a half inches of pure ebony, this jet-black wand wood has an impressive appearance and reputation, being highly suited to all manner of combative magic, and to Transfiguration. Ebony is happiest in the hand of those with the courage to be themselves. Frequently non-conformist, highly individual or comfortable with the status of outsider, ebony wand owners have been found both among the ranks of the Order of the Phoenix and among the Death Eaters.”

Twilight looks at the jet black wand for a long moment, “Are you sure?” She asks, her voice quavering.

He nods, “You have tried every unicorn horn wand I have made, this is the last one, if it doesn’t work, I will have to find another core for you. You have been touched by magic, like your friends here, you can do it.”

She reaches out, and the gasp from her is loud, she recoils as though burnt. Sunset frowns as Twilight again reaches out, more timidly this time, and finally grasps the wand, her hair waves as if in a breeze for several seconds and she lifts off the floor as the wand glows with a strong purple aura for her, star shaped sparks fly all over as she brings the wand closer, Twilight murmurs, “This is perfect.” As her heels gently land back on the ground.

Ollivander stands there for a few moments, then he smiles, “I’ll expect great things from you, young lady.”

“Oh, what about me, I bet my wand will be totally AWSOME!" Rainbow Dash says, stepping forward.

"Ah don't be thinkin’ it will work for us." Applejack says, putting her hand on Dash’s shoulder. "Ah don't understand all this magic stuff, but it seems like the wands respond to them because they normally cast spells. We don't."

"They should still have wands though to help disguise them, it might look suspicious if they do not." Dumbledore says, nodding to the keeper.

"I do so detest giving wands to those who cannot use them, but for you, my old friend." Ollivander produces four relatively plain wands, "These are unfinished, applewood, and cherry wood, without cores. They should work well as disguises as long as no one tries to use them."

Dumbledore steps forward, producing a large purse and he counts out the large gold coins for the wand maker. Sunset had tried to pay for her own way, so have the other girls, but Dumbledore has said that their muggle money is not needed here.

Sunset looks at Dumbledore as they continue walking, “The pegasi and earth ponies have their own magics, but tend more towards the physical. They don't cast spells, so wands don't respond with them. Is there anything we can do to help them?”

He smiles, “Don’t you worry, Miss Sunset, we will find something appropriate to help each of them.”

As they walk, Sunset is thinking furiously, “These wands worked for them, because their alternates, in Equestria, are unicorns. Which means, if they go through the portal, they would be turned into unicorns.”

Dumbledore nods, “And?”

“Well, Twilight, in Equestria is an alicorn, but she was a unicorn before. But also, that’s why a unicorn horn core works for us. It’s a natural affinity.”

"An Alicorn? I'm not familiar with the term."

Sunset grimaces, and looks down, "Alicorns are the strongest among us, the posses qualities of all three pony tribes, the strength of the Earth ponies, the wings and flight of the pegasi, and the magical abilities of the unicorns.

Dumbledore smiles, “You would do good to go to Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the US when you get back.”

Sunset huffs, “I’m happy with Canterlot High.”

They spend a while in an odd and ends shop, Dumbledore leading the way as they browse through the different items for sale. He stops, looking at a wall, thinking for a moment before he picks up a pair of heavy leather gloves. Blacksmith gloves, made for specialist wizards, but in this case. He looks at Applejack, a small smirk appears on his face, “You know, I think these would be perfect for you.”

Applejack cocks her head to the side, “leather gloves?”

He nods as he hands them to her, she shrugs and fits a hand into the extremely large glove, which shrinks to fit to her hand as it is placed in it, three bright red apples appear on the cuff. Her eyebrows raise as she notices the size difference, then she flexes her fingers, making a fist before spreading out her hand, the gloves appearing more as a farmer’s work gloves. She muses, “Ah don’t know, ah certainly feel something here.” Dumbledore pulls his wand out and flicks it at the large iron door of a pot belly stove. With a loud screech, it rips off of its hinges and streaks towards Applejack, who reflexively catches it.

“Ahh, good.” Dumbledore says, “Now bend it.”

Applejack looks at him hard for a few moments, then she sighs and, without apparent effort, folds the thick iron in half, then in half again. “Feels like I’m folding paper.”

“Impressive, those usually only give a moderate increase in strength to the user, they are normally used by wizards to protect their hands from the heat of the forge and to give them a bit of extra strength for metal work, but given your background, and your connection to your magic.” He smiles, “I think that they will be quite helpful for you.”

“Oh, what should I get?” Pinkie Pie squeals.

Dumbledore just looks at her as she bounces around, Sunset leans over, “It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t try to understand her.”

That gets a smile from him, “I’ve known a few like that.” He says as Pinkie picks up a brown and plaid satchel. As she does, its colors shift to a light pink with dark pink trim.

"That is just a camp and carry satchel, used for storing things." Dumbledore tilts his head, watching, as three balloons appear on the satchels trim.

Flipping open the top, she looks into the satchel, then a bright smile appears on her face. Reaching into the bag, almost to her shoulder she giggles, then sticks her head into the bag as well, "So that's where my party cannon went. Oh this is perfect,” comes her muffled voice.

"Well that is... interesting." Dumbledore muses.

Sunset rolls her eyes and sighs, then she turns back to Dumbledore, “Well, I think we’ve got them taken care of.”

Rainbow Dash skids as she turns into the shop, “Sunset! Sunset! You’ve got to see this shop! They sell brooms!”

Sunset furrows her brow, “Brooms? What’s so exciting about brooms?”

Rainbow laughs, “Because these brooms aren’t for the floor, they are for flying!”

Sunset takes a few moments to restart her brain, “Brooms…” She looks at Dumbledore, “For flying?”

He nods, “Let us take a look.”

Rainbow turns and runs faster than Sunset has ever seen her run, “Being around you wizards, I think has affected her, in Equestria, Rainbow Dash is one of the fastest pegasi ever, if not the fastest. It’s interesting that is somehow carrying over here.”

He nods, “The more magic around you, you girls seem to be showing some of your touches of Equestrian magic. Has this happened before?”

Sunset looks at him for a long moment, then decides on full disclosure, and talks about the ponying up that the girls tend to do, after talking for a while, and him stroking his beard, she ends with, “Though at times the change seems to be completely random.”

Dumbledore looks at her, “Not at all random, it’s when their true selves come out, when they are doing more than simply being honest, or loyal, or anything like that. It’s when they put their heart and soul into something. One reason why it happens when you girls play your music. You pour everything you have into the music, so when you girls are feeling it, your magic comes out. It’s not just an aspect of you girls, it’s your whole selves, there is quite a bit special about you girls. And I would really like to meet that Princess Twilight.”

Sunset thinks of the book that allows her to talk to Twilight across the portal, “Yeah, maybe that could happen, she would be utterly fascinated by the wizarding world, here and in America.”

He nods, as they get to the broom shop, Rainbow Dash is laughing, balancing a broom with a single fingertip, "It's called a Firebolt, it floats when I touch it and I can even make it go up and down to the point of lifting me off the ground, as long as I'm holding it."

Sunset smiles and looks at Fluttershy, who’s holding another of the same type, she moves over to her shy friend, “I know you aren’t much for heights.”

Fluttershy uses a finger to pull her hair behind an ear, “I know, but I backed into a rack of them. They all fell over but this one stayed against me. Something about it seems safe, like a butterfly's touch. Can I keep it? If... you don't mind, if it’s not too much trouble.” She looks up and her eyes sparkle, “There’s a shop for creatures, owls, and all kinds of other magical creatures. I talked to a couple of them, they are really nice!”

A hand is placed gently on her shoulder, she turns and looks up at Dumbledore, he smiles, “The train should be ready soon, we need to get to Kings Cross station.”

Pinkie bounces up, “Where are we going?”

He smiles, “To Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

Chapter 4.

View Online

Sunset stretches as a change in the sound of the steam locomotive jostles her from her slumber. She finally stands up and looks around. Her friends are distributed among the various compartments in the train. She looks at Rainbow Dash, who had joined her in her compartment when she decided to rest. Her friend had claimed an entire seat to herself and is sprawled out on it, snoring loudly. Sunset taps her shoulder, getting a snort and a hiccup, her cerice eyes slowly open and she looks around for a moment, then she focuses on Sunset and smiles. Sunset moves to the next compartment, where Fluttershy had fallen asleep with her head in Twilight’s lap, hugging Spike tightly as she lays, curled up on the bench. Twilight is sitting up, with her legs stretched out on the floor, a book over her face to block out the lights of the train car. Sunset taps a few times on the door, and is gratified with seeing them start to stir. She moves to the next room, AJ is sitting, looking out the window and yawns as she turns to see Sunset open the door. “Mornin, Sugarcube, the sun woke me, as always. We there yet?”

Sunset smiles and nods, then she turns to look at Pinkie Pie. She is sound asleep, curled into a ball on the floor with blankets and a pillow, a few balloons tied to her wrist. Rarity seemed to have crowded into the compartment as well, she’s stretched out on the other bench, a sleeping mask over her eyes, she giggles in her sleep, “Oh yes, it is work fit for a princess. Thank you for recognizing it.” She murmurs softly.

Her thoughts are interrupted as squeal of metal on metal permeates the air. The train starts to slow down as it gets close to the station, they had spent all night on the train, and a good portion of the morning. She turns and sees Dumbledore there, “I’m guessing we are here?”

He nods as the train finally stops. The girls slowly shuffle towards the train exit. Well, most of the girls. Applejack walks, trying to prop Dash up, who just seems to want to fall back asleep. Pinky Pie, on the other hand, is bouncing around, laughing, "Oh this is great, look at all this neat stuff. Sunset, did you try all the neat candies they had on the cart?"

"Pinkie Pie, how are you so active this early?" Sunset asks curiously as she watches her friend bounce around.

"Red Bull!” She pulls out a familiar blue and silver can from her bag, “it works wonders, but it says you can't give any to Rarity, you, and especially none to Twilight!"

Sunset blinks for a few moments, her brain still trying to fully switch on, "Huh? Why?"

"Cuz it can give you wings! We don't want Twilight with wings yet, DUH!" Pinkie says as she tilts her head and shrugs. She turns and puts the can back into her bag as she bounds to the front of the group again.

Sunset shrugs as she follows the girls onto the station platform, Dumbledore gathers them up, “This is Hogsmeade Station, and we will be heading to the school shortly. But first, I need to tell you some things.”

“I could have told you on the train, but you girls needed to get some rest. After your long flight, and then all the events of the previous day, a good sleep was well in order. But now, the students here can’t know of your unique origins. I have communicated with a few I trust, and the teachers that I fully trust do know of your origins. But the students shall not find out.” He looks around at all of them, “That being said, the story for your arrival is related to the Tri-wizard cup events that are happening here. The first event of which is happening in a few days. "You seven shall be here as observers from America. You may watch the events but not participate, and will also be expected to participate in classes, to keep your cover and not attract undo attention. Any mistakes made can then be justified as you being American students from a different educational system."

Applejack looks uncomfortable, “Not to be disagreein with ya, Mr. Dumbledore, but four of us can’t use these wands at all, how can we participate in your classes?”

Dumbledore smiles, “I’m not asking you, or Rainbow Dash, to take charms, or defense against the dark arts classes. In fact, many classes here do not require wands, and we’ve chosen some classes that will fit for what you girls may be interested in. For example, Miss Applejack, I think herbology would be right up your alley.”

Applejack looks thoughtful as Dumbledore turns to Fluttershy, “Hagrid is on his way, and you will be learning mythical creatures with him in his care of magical creatures class.” That gets a big smile from Fluttershy.

He takes a moment to tell Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie their other classes, then he turns to the girls with operable wands, “For you three, you will start off with charms, and defense against the dark arts, as well as transfiguration and divination.” He starts to turn away, towards the nearby town, “Hagrid will take you in.”

The girls look at each other, then they hear a rhythmic thump behind them. Sunset turns and looks, then looks up, and up some more, the massive face breaks into a smile, “Rubius Hagrid, at your service.” Comes the enormous man’s gravelly voice.

Pinkie Pie looks up at him, she shrugs, “Meh, I’ve seen bigger.”

He blinks a few times, then composes himself, “Alright, ya. Come along.”

They follow him as he walks, and soon they are at docks on a large lake, he gestures and the girls clamber into two of the small boats. As the girls get settled in, the boats take off on their own, without the sound of an engine. Sunset looks at Hagrid for a moment, then shrugs and watches as the boats make their way along the still waters of the lake. Soon, a massive castle heaves into view. Sunset finds herself leaning forward as she watches the castle get closer. Though as the boats continue, she can see a large ship is moored out in the lake. She stares as the boats float past it, before long, the little boats carry them through a curtain of ivy which seems to hide a wide opening in the cliff face. They are carried along a dark tunnel, which takes them right underneath the castle. Emerging out of the tunnel, they reach a kind of underground harbor, where they clamber out onto the rocks. It’s a short walk up the stairs into the castle proper.

Sunset looks around as Hagrid stops and then moves in front of them, “Well, alright then. We won’t be sorting you into the houses. But you girls will be staying in guest quarters that are being arranged for you.” He points to Pinkie, Apple Jack, and Rainbow Dash, “You three will start out this morning in herbology. I’ve got a student here to take you to class.” He steps aside to reveal a young lady, wearing robes like the girls are wearing, of Asian descent, with long dark hair, brown eyes, and freckles on her nose. She smiles, “I’ll take our new guests to the greenhouses.”

Rainbow Dash looks at Sunset, then comes over and gives her a hug, “We’ll see you later.” Sunset hugs her back before letting go and watching some of her friends follow the short girl. He winks at them, “And you girls will follow me.”

Sunset looks at Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy, who shrug. The enormous man walks off, moving quite spryly despite his size, Sunset moves up next to him, “I thought we were going to be in some magic classes.”

He looks at her out of the side of his eyes for a moment, “Oh, aye, ya will. But Professor Dumbledore wanted to give you some idea of what we have around here. You seemed upset when talking about unicorns, especially since you apparently are a unicorn yourself. He wanted you to see that we treat them right around here.” He thumps his chest, “A’hm the one who takes care of the magical creatures around here. So, ah’m gonna show ya aroun here.”

Sunset looks back at her friends, then up at Hagrid, “It’s really okay. I was just surprised to know that unicorns exist at all in your world.”

His voice softens, “I understand, Miss Sunset. But tis always good to see with ye own eyes.”

Sunset looks down the path, “Where are we heading first?”

“Well, we aren’t running right into the forbidden forest first thing. But you’ll want to see some of the magical creatures that make their lives on Hogwarts’ grounds.”

They walk in silence until they get to a large stable, Hagrid stands before the door, a massive hand on the handle, “Alright, these don’t really spend their time at Hogwarts. But we have several of them right now, courtesy of Madame Maxime and her school.”

Sunset’s eyebrows climb as the door is opened. She is the first inside. It takes her a moment for her eyes to adjust, but then the equine forms become clearer to her. She’s enthralled as she walks slowly towards them.

“They are real?” She asks softly as she gets to the stall door. The stallion there fluffs his wings and hesitantly steps forward and sniffs her outstretched hand, she looks up at Hagrid, “You have pegasi here?”

He smiles and shakes his head, “In mythos here, Pegasus was the name of a single winged horse. This breed is the winged Abraxan horse. Get back, you.” He growls at the horse, who dutifully steps back a few paces, allowing Hagrid to open the stall door and escort Sunset in. He looks at Sunset, “I would offer to let you ride him. He’s actually the nicest of the bunch. The others’ll likely snap at you, they are a rough and tumble sort of horse. But Madame Maxime would likely not be too keen on that idea.”

Sunset rubs a hand along the nose of the large horse, “Oh, Hagrid, I don’t need to ride them. I just want to see, and talk to them.”

Hagrid barks a laugh, “Oye, they aren’t much for conversin’. They are smarter than the average muggle horse, to be sure. But they aren’t as smart as you or I. Sorry to say.” He comes forward with a barrel, which he pulls the bung and starts to pour an amber liquid into a trough. The horse moves closer and starts to drink.

The acrid smell hits Sunset’s nose, “What…is he drinking?”

Hagrid’s eyes widen at the revulsion in Sunset’s voice, he looks down at the barrel, then up at Sunset, after a moment, he smiles, “Oh, you didn’t know!” He chuckles, “Madame Maxime’s horses only drink single malt whiskey.”

“Only?”

He nods, “Remember, a lot of things are different in our world compared to yours.”

Rarity steps forward and strokes the neck of the horse, “He’s beautiful, Hagrid, what else do you have here?”

"Well I guess I am." Comes Fluttershy’s meek voice from one of the other stalls. Sunset looks up as one of the stallion’s whinnies to her, "Yes she is too."

Hagrid stands up and gestures for the others to exit the stall. He moves over and joins her as the stallion nods, then he whickers and kicks a foreleg on the ground a few times. "Oh I don't know, I don't really do that. She does that more than me."

Hagrid looks over at Fluttershy, the stallion she is with is not normally one for company. With Fluttershy, though, he seems calm. And rather more vocal than is his norm. Walking slowly, so as not to spook the large horse with his size, Hagrid first looks down at the little wisp of a girl, then at the stallion.

"Why thank you, and I guess we all are." Fluttershy says, causing the stallion to start whickering in laughter before nodding.

"You can understand them?" Hagrid asks, a little surprised.

"I guess, to me it kind of sounds like they are just talking like you or I." Fluttershy responds, then she looks down, hiding her face with her hair, "Sorry if I did something wrong."

He smiles, “Not at all dearie. It’s rather unusual, the one here has gained a reputation as a biter, and a kicker as well.” He says, rubbing his side a bit.

Her eyes widen, and a big smile appears on her face, “He’s actually upset, he wants to be with his friends, he doesn’t like being in his own stall. I think if you put him with…” She bounces on her toes, then runs out of the stall and dashes down the barn, moments later she’s walking with another of the massive horse, “him. You’ll find they get along famously!”

Hagrid watches the two stallions sniff each other for a moment. Then both of them whinny happily, causing Hagrid to lean back with a soft sigh, he looks at Fluttershy, “I think you an I need ta get a bit better acquainted.

Fluttershy pulls her hair out of her face as she giggles a bit.

***

Applejack finishes making room in the large pot, she reaches over and picks up the baby sapling.

“Oh, be careful, that sapling can be very dangerous!” Comes the voice of the teacher.

Applejack furrow her brows, running her gloved hand along the sapling, “It’s beautiful.”

Professor Sprout moves to stand next to Applejack “I normally wouldn’t have a brand new student work with such a dangerous and fragile plant. But you seem to have a knack for it.”

Applejack gently puts the sapling into the depression in the soil. Working quickly, she fills in the depression, giving the sapling a new home. As she finishes, the top of the sapling leans over and caresses her hand, and a large vine attached to it wraps tendrils around her fingers. She watches the expression of affection from the sapling for a long moment, then she hears Professor Sprout’s voice, “We have been trying to cultivate new heirs for the whomping willow on the grounds. But the seedlings have always resisted being transferred. This one likes you.”

Applejack strokes the sapling, “We don’t have any of them around where I live.” She says truthfully.

“Well.” Professor sprout says as she stands up to check on some of the other students, “Perhaps you should have them in the states. You get a few more planted like that, and if they thrive, I might just give you one for your flight home.”

She stands up and walks around, checking on the Ravenlaw fourth years doing their assigned work. She steps up behind Pinkie Pie.

“Blah…blah.” She says to soft laughter.

Professor Sprout leans forward, “Liking your assignment?”

Pinkie giggles, “I’ve never dealt with a pitcher plant that can talk.”

Professor Sprout finds herself giggling at the enthusiasm from Pinkie Pie, “They only repeat words they hear, I’d say about as intelligent as a parrot or other bird that can chirp your words back to you.”

She turns and walks down the aisle to check on the other students.

***

Nearly vibrating with energy, Rainbow Dash slides to a stop, taking her place in a line of students. They were from one of the houses, but Dash doesn't remember which one, the only thing she had heard was 'Flying Class' and that is all that occupies her mind now. She shields her eyes with one hand as she looks up at the sky. It has been a few hours since she left the other girls but this is flight class and she is ready and so is her broom.

“Since the school has decided to cancel Quidditch for the year, that doesn’t mean your flying shall be left to the dogs. We may not have access to the Quidditch pitch for this year, but there’s plenty of open ground here at Hogwarts for you to practice your flying.”

She whirls around, “Rainbow Dash!” She calls out loudly, startling Rainbow.

“Um, yes, maam?”

Professor Hooch moves right in front of her, “You play Quidditch in the United States, don’t you?”

For a moment, Rainbow is unsure how to answer, she finally takes a stab at it, “Yeah. I guess so. Never gone to a game though.”

“You’ve never been to a game?”

Rainbow Dash shakes her head as Professor Hooch smiles, “It’s alright, not everyone gets to go to the games. But I did hear that the US national team did very, very, well. Will you do your nation proud today, Miss Dash?”

Rainbow blinks, “Huh?”

Professor Hooch smiles, “You are carrying that broom as though you know what to do with it. So…” She smiles evilly, “show me. Show me what you can do with that brand new broom.”

Rainbow looks at the broom, not willing to admit that she’d never actually ridden one of them before. She swallows a few times, then looks around at all the students looking at her. She smiles and slowly mounts her broom, “I’d be glad to.”

A quick kick off from the ground and she’s in the air. And she starts to scream. “Aw yeah!” She shouts as she takes off, she skims close to the ground as she accelerates. In moments she pulls up on the broom hard. Going vertical, her screams become louder as she spins in the air in a roll. Reaching the apex of her climb, she takes a moment to determine where she is going to go next. She can see Sunset Shimmer along with Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Hagrid walking up from Hagrid’s little hut. She smiles, this will be perfect.

A quick push of the broom forward and she’s zooming towards her friends. They remain unaware of her as she approaches, then she flies right over their heads, almost touching Hagrid’s hair as the wind of her passage nearly bowls them over. They look up, finally hearing her laughter as she again goes for altitude.

“This is awesome!” She murmurs to herself as she gets up among the clouds, she thinks for a moment, “I wonder how fast it can go.” She looks around, there’s only one way to find out. She leans forward and accelerates, diving for added speed, she’s on the other side of the castle from where she started, likely they are starting to wonder where she is. She’ll show them soon enough.

She streaks through the air, as she does so, she feels the power inside her, feeding into the broom, but also changing herself, her pony wings emerge as she gets over the castle proper, and her hair lengthens, becoming more like a mane. And two pony ears form magically on her head as she slams over the field where she took off, a quick glance shows all the students watching her flight. She pulls back hard and pulls the broom in a loop, ending up heading right for the ground, and at the last second, she sheds her velocity and lands hard on the ground, a ring of dust arising from her impact point. She stands up, and the broom hovers next to her, she turns as Professor Hooch rushes over to her, “Now that.” Rainbow smiles hugely, “That is flying!” She says as the effects of ponying up fade.

Professor Hooch extends her wand and a cool mist envelopes Rainbow, Rainbow flinches and tries to push the spell away, “Hey, hey, hey, what’s that for?”

Professor Hooch stops with the spell, but looks at Rainbow Dash seriously, “Were you aware that you just exceeded the speed of sound.” She says, “On a broom?”

Rainbow cocks her head to the side, “I guess.”

Professor Hooch giggles, seeing Rainbow is just fine, “Let’s just say, that is something that really isn’t done. In fact, I don’t know of any witch or wizard that’s been able to go supersonic, not without a specially manufactured broom.”

Rainbow Dash giggles, “Well, that’s because I’m just that awesome!”

***

Sunset Shimmer watches as Rainbow streaks towards the other side of the castle, she leans over to Twilight, “Wonder if she’s gonna go supersonic.”

Twilight giggles as Hagrid chimes in, “Yeh can’t go faster than sound on a broom, it’d be suicide.” He flinches as the sound of a sonic boom reaches their ears, “Then again, I might be wrong.” He says, looking at where Rainbow Dash had disappeared to.

They walk through the castle, and finally Hagrid stops them before a heavy wooden door, “Your teacher for this period will be Miss McGonagall. You will be learning transfiguration.”

Sunset furrows her brow, “Transfiguration, the changing from one form to another?”

He smiles, “Exactly right. Now, go ahead. I’ll keep Fluttershy with me for my fourth year Care of Magical Creatures class coming up. Well, go on in.”

The door creaks loudly as it is opened, causing all the students to look at the door. Sunset, Twilight, and Rarity stand there, the older woman standing at the head of the class clears her throat, “I’m guessing these are our new foreign students, Hagrid?”

Hagrid looks at Professor McGonagall, “Oh, aye, they are. This is Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity.” He says, pointing at each girl in turn. He sidles closer to Sunset, “Just watch and learn. Transfiguration is a really fun subject.” He says softly. With that, he closes the door behind him, leaving the girls standing there.

Rarity edges closer, “You do realize I really don’t have any idea how to use this wand other than flicking it and having sparks come out.” She whispers.

“Something wrong, ladies?” Comes the teacher’s voice.

“We’ll sit down right now.” Sunset says as she leads her friends to a set of open chairs, she moves closer to Rarity, “The magic here feels a lot like my magic, but they have different ways to activate it. These teachers should know what they are doing, I’ll try to help with the basics, but just follow their instructions.” She whispers as they get settled.

Professor McGonagall looks at them severely, then she straightens her robes, “I shall repeat myself for the tardy students.” She stops and squares herself, “For third year transfiguration students, you’ll be learning quite a bit this year. One of those subjects is a wizarding discipline, called animagus.”

Sunset’s eyes go wide she leans over to Twilight as the teacher continues to explain, “Animagus, that means there are spells to change into other animals.”

Twilight thinks furiously, “Small ones, big?”

Sunset whispers back, “I don’t think it matters, everything from a mouse or gerbil, all the way up to an elephant, I would guess.”

“Something wrong with our new students?” A loud voice rings out.

Sunset flinches, “No ma’am.” Twilight sits up straighter as the teacher turns away and continues to talk.

“In general, once a wizard chooses his animal form. That is the form they will have throughout their lives. For example…” She stops, and Sunset’s eyes widen as Professor McGonagall’s form twists and folds, until a spotted tabby cat is standing there.

Sunset gapes, “That’s amazing.” Her words are echoed in the excited murmurs of many of the other students.

The cat prances around a few moments, then the body expands back into the form of their teacher. She smiles and looks around at her students. She looks at a student with her hand up, “Ginny. A Question?”

The flame haired young lady lowers her hand and looks intently at her teacher, “How long can an animagus keep their form?”

“Five points to Gryffindor! Excellent question Miss Weasely.” Professor McGonagall exclaims, “It depends on the type of transformation as well as the witch or wizard. For partial transformations its often best not to maintain it for more than thirty minutes due to the stress and risk of it becoming permanent." She looks around at all the students, “Full transformation can last for hours, or even days, however. Some wizards have been known to be able to hold an animal form almost indefinitely... but doing so often has them permanently take on characteristics of said animal.”

“So an animagus that has taken on the form of a rat for years will have rat like qualities after returning to their human form?” The flame haired girl presses.

Professor McGonagall looks vastly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation has taken, she finally nods and then claps her hands to end the various quiet conversations that have sprung up, “Of course, you all being third years, I won’t be teaching you how to be an animagus, but for those of you who have the aptitude, we can certainly research such capabilities. For today’s lesson…” She brings out her wand and waves it towards the back of the classroom, multitudes of potted plants float towards each student, “These potted plants are much too green for my taste. By the end of class, I want them to be statues.”

Sunset contemplates the potted plant sitting before her. She’d done transfiguration as part of Celestia’s school, in fact, much of this teaching is foals work in her view. Given the age of these students, she guesses that human magical progression is a little later than pony. She pulls out her wand, as she connects with it, she can feel that power unlock in her mind, for a moment she contemplates never letting go of the wand, just holding the power inside her, something she’s missed every moment since first stepping through the portal into this world. After a long moment, she shakes herself, she has a task to do. She listens to the other students as they chant the words to change their plants. She waves her wand gently at the plant before her, “Vera Verto…” She says, picturing in her mind the shape it’s to turn into. A blue glow folds around the wand and the plant, it slowly changes shape, and in moments she has a miniature of one of the statues in the Canterlot gardens. She smiles as she turns to look at Twilight.

Twilight, for her part, says softly, “Vera Verto.” Her ebony wand glows with her power, and her plant quickly stretches and takes on a bronze sheen. In moments she’s done and she leans back happily.

“Spike?” Sunset asks, raising a single eyebrow.

Twilight giggles, “Who else?”

Sunset chuckles as she turns to look at Rarity, who huffs. She leans towards Sunset, “I hear the spell incantation, but when I say it, it doesn’t feel right. Vera Verto.” She taps a leaf of the potted plant with her wand, the plant folds and reshapes itself into a statue of a wooden cat. The wood grain apparently polished and sanded to look like real fur, along with bright orange gems for the eyes of the cat as it reclines.

“No, that’s not right.” Rarity mutters as the statue reverts back to the plant. “Vera Verto,” and, again, the plant folds and changes its form. In moments a bronze sparrow on a wooden base is standing where the plant was. Sunset gasps as she reaches out a finger to touch it. The bronze is perfectly formed, the detail of the feathers is exquisite, even with small emeralds for the bird’s eyes. Only to hear Rarity’s tongue click and the plant again to appear.

Sunset frowns as she watches out of the corner of her eye the professor walking among the students, correcting form here, spell pronunciation there. It won’t be long till she gets here, “It’s less about the word, Rarity, and more about what that word does in your mind.”

Rarity smiles, “Exactly, I’m using the wrong word. Which makes the wrong spell form.” Her body begins to glow softly as she again reaches out her wand, “Decoris Vero.” Rarity says as her pony ears emerge and her long indigo hair extends even further, the Equestrian magic flowing through her. The plant reforms once again, this time into a beautiful silver dragon lying on its side, partly curled around an egg made of emerald, its eyes are deep blue sapphires, its horns spiral backwards, made out of cloudy pink diamond. Even the dragons face carries emotions, a mix of joy and contentment, as if it's found its place in the world. The base is chiseled obsidian, glass like in texture, but a deep black color. Rarity leans back, a bead of sweat slowly making its way down her cheek, “That’s what I wanted.” She says with immense satisfaction.

“Well, Miss Rarity, I didn’t know they taught animagi to your year in the states.” Comes the voice of Professor McGonagall, “And what do we have here?” She picks up the statue as Rarity touches a pony ear, a frown on her face. Professor McGonagall inspects the statue for a long moment, then looks at Rarity, “If you lived here, I would be asking you to be in my N.E.W.T. transfiguration class. Very well done.” She sets down the statue and moves on.

The magic slowly drains out of Rarity as she watches the teacher work with her other students…then she looks at her creation, “Oh my!”

***

After dinner, the girls are all in their set of rooms. There are seven four post beds arranged in a large room, and they have a small makeshift common room next to it. Spike barks happily as he runs around, getting attention from everyone. Sunset looks at the girls, “You know, I need to get back to our hotel room.” She pulls out her wand, “I can teleport there and back. I’ll just be gone for a few minutes.”

Twilight looks at her, "With that creature, wouldn’t it be dangerous to be away from the grounds of the school?”

Sunset huffs, “There’s no possible way it could know where the hotel is. And I just have to grab my bag.” Closing her eyes she remembers where the hotel is. The spell form comes to her mind readily and she raises the wand.

Only to have nothing happen, she looks around, “Well, that’s odd.”

Twilight smiles, “I guess they have a charm to prevent teleportation here.”

Sunset scowls, “It makes sense.” She stands up and walks over to the window, they are in a very high tower of the school, she can see all around the grounds, “But I really need my book.”

Pinkie Pie has somehow found roller skates, and is rolling around the common room, she stops next to Sunset, holding out a familiar book, “Here ya go.”

Sunset looks at the book in shock, “How do you have it, Pinkie?”

Pinkie giggled with a bright smile on her face, "It was filed under D for Diary of course.” She sticks her head into the satchel, “I think there’s a computer in here under F." After a moment, she pulls her head out and giggles.

"F?"

"Yeah, F for fun, what else is a computer for?"

Sunset smirks, “Oh, look at your phone.”

Pinkie reaches into a pocket and pulls out her phone, she looks at it, “I wondered why it was so quiet today.”

Sunset sighs, “All the magic around here, I don’t think anything electronic is going to work.” She cradles the book, “But this book will. Now all I have to do is talk to Princess Twilight.”

Twilight sidles up next to Sunset as she opens the book, “You going to ask her to come here?”

Sunset shakes her head, “Without a wand, or any other ability to use her magic, it would take her at least a day to get here. And that’s assuming the magic folk here will allow her to just come on over. But that creature recognized me as Equestrian. That means he’s likely Equestrian. She has a huge library, maybe she can help.”

She pulls out a pen, “Dear Princess Twilight…”

Author's Notes:

It wouldn't be Equestria Girls without a music montage.... so here we go, courtesy of Kitsy-Chan

Pinkie taps her drum sticks together above her head, "One, two, one two three four."

Twilight smiles holding her wand like a microphone, "How you choose to express yourself, it's all your own and I can tell it comes naturally. mmmm naturally."

Rarity twirls her wand as it glows a soft blue. She smiles brightly as she starts to get the hang of her telekinesis with the wand. The blue aura around the needle and thread matching her eye colors as she stiches an old robe back together adding some embellishments, adding some of her personality and fashion to the robe.

Sunset giggles turning to face Twilight as she holds her wand mimicking Twilight, "You follow what you feel inside, its intuitive, you don't have to try. It comes naturally... ooooooo Naturally..."

Rainbow Dash does a very tight roll on her broom hugging it tight as she shoots across the field by the trees. Making herself as small as she can she threads the needle though a bridge before pulling an insane turn. The speed and agility she has only matched by the pegasus Dash herself in flight. Climbing straight up she hits a cloud causing it to explode before doing a snap turn and dive straight down screaming with the pure love of speed and flight.

Both Twilight and Sunset turn so they are back to back leaning against each other... "And it takes.... my breath... away..."

Applejack laughs as she gives an Apple tree a kick causing all the apples to drop from it at once.

"What you do so naturally."

The griffin lowers his head as Fluttershy puts her hand gently on her beak.

Sunset Sings out holding one hand up her body glowing as her ears grow in and tail forms, "You are the thunder and I am the lightning!"

Twilight holds her wand straight out in the defense against the dark arts class, a thunder shockwave launching from the tip of her wand in a cone, blasting everything it touches out of the way. A smoking column of debris lines the sides of the channels she's cut.

Sunset unleashes a powerful lightning bolt into a static dummy that sets its on fire. Quickly the teacher extinguishes it shaking his head looking sternly at the two.

Twilight turns pointing at Sunset as she sings, "And I love the way you know who you are and to me it's exciting"

Sunset stands looking at a mirror, seeing it reflecting her unicorn self, her horn glowing, and with a smile she holds up her wand letting it glow the same aura as her horn.

All of the girls singing out in chorus, "When you know it's meant to be, Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally."

Standing with pony ears up, the girls cross their arms with their wizards robes on. Each has their cutie mark stitched on the inside of their robe coats. And each has a golden badge, a stylized blue phoenix with an American flag on it, the symbol of the wizards of America. The wind blowing back their over robes as the stand together.

"When you're with me, baby, Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally," Pinkie thumps her drums as the girls sing out, ponying up in the love of singing.

Twilight sings out, looking back at Sunset, pointing at her and the other girls, "You have a way of moving me, a force of nature, an energy."

Twilight sparkle face plants into a book in class, looking depressed. Sunset smiles as she pulls her up, and shows her something in another book.

Sunset turns and sings to Twilight, "It comes naturally you know it does, it comes naturally"

Twilight holds her hand up in class, then walks up to the blackboard, making a correction in a mathematical formula.

Both girls lean against each other again, singing, "And it takes my breath away"

Twilight smiles holding her wand like a microphone, "How you choose to express yourself, it's all your own and I can tell it comes naturally. mmmm naturally."

Rarity twirls her wand as it glows a soft blue. She smiles brightly as she starts to get the hang of her telekinesis with the wand. The blue aura around the needle and thread matching her eye colors as she stitches an old robe back together, adding some embellishments, adding some of her personality and fashion to the robe.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy close their eyes, feeling the sun on their faces, wind in their hair as they climb. Below them the castle walls and towers of Hogwarts, above them the sun. All around them, though, is the freedom of clouds. Their feet dipping into the clouds, dragging cloud matter behind them and forming it into tighter clumps.

"What you do, so naturally." Twilight and Sunset glance at each other again.

Applejack kneels on the ground, dirt on her cheeks, a she works. No sooner does she plant a seed in the earth than it sprouts up with a single leaf. Kneeling down, her teacher nods at her and claps lightly.

All the girls chip in for the chorus this time, "You are the thunder and I am the lightning"

Pinkie Pie smiles huge as she pulls a party cannon from her bag, sending an explosion of confetti off behind Twilight, causing her to jump. This causes Fred and George Weasley to start laughing and check out her cannon.

"And I love the way you know who you are and to me it's exciting!"

Rainbow Dash spins her broom in tighter and tighter circles as she dives for a thunderstorm cloud, creating a vorticeses like the tip of a sword. Straitening out at the last moment, she pierces through the thundercloud, dragging the spiraling winds behind her. As she comes out the other side the cloud explodes into sparkles, a rainbow forming in her wake.

"When you know it's meant to be"

Fluttershy walks though the stables, each of her hands on the neck of a different winged horse. Smiling she leads them to a stall, both of then whickering and laughing as Fluttershy giggles.

"Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally"

Rarity, Sunset, and Twilight sit in class writing their wands sitting in a row in front of their books as they work.

"When you're with me, baby"

All seven of the girls lay relaxing in the dorm. Papers strewn across the floor as they compare notes.

"Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally, Bay bay baby."

Sunset giggles, turning to face Twilight as she holds her wand mimicking Twilight, "You follow what you feel inside, its intuitive, you don't have to try. It comes naturally... ooooooo Naturally..."

Both Twilight and Sunset turn so they are back to back leaning against each other... "And it takes.... my breath... away..."

Applejack laughs as she gives an apple tree a kick, causing all the apples to drop from it at once.

"What you do so naturally."

The griffin lowers his head as Fluttershy puts her hand gently on her beak.

Sunset Sings out holding one hand up her body glowing as her ears grow in and tail forms, "You are the thunder and I am the lightning!"

Sunset unleashes a powerful lightning bolt into a static dummy that sets its on fire. Quickly the teacher extinguishes it shaking his head looking sternly at the two.

Twilight turns, pointing at Sunset as she sings, "And I love the way you know who you are and to me it's exciting"

Sunset stands looking at a mirror, seeing it reflecting her unicorn self, her horn glowing, and with a smile she holds up her wand letting it glow the same aura as her horn.

All of the girls singing out in chorus, "When you know it's meant to be, Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally."

"When you're with me, baby, Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally," Pinkie thumps her drums as the girls sing out, ponying up in the love of singing.

Taking a breath at the end of the song, the girls look at each other and start to laugh. Dumbledore smiles and claps his hands appreciatively, "So that is what you mean by ponying up. Intriguing."

Chapter 5.

View Online

Sunset shifts in her bed, it’s not that the bed is uncomfortable, the opposite happens to be true. In some ways it reminds her of the beds in the dorms at the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns. She flips over in her bed and stares at the book. She spent over an hour explaining what was going on. She described in detail everything she saw. She remembers something about that bell. It was something from her Equestrian Magical history class. She just can’t remember enough about that creature. She finally reaches out and opens the book,

From the desk of Twilight Sparkle. The information you have requested is currently unavailable. A messenger has been dispatched to retrieve books from Canterlot Castle, and I hope to be able to locate the information you require shortly. SPIKE! Stop eating nachos on the map table! Yours truly, Twilight.

“ARGH!" Sunset sighs and falls back on the bed, hugging the book tightly to her chest, "You are such a princess at times Twilight. All I need is a little information." Huffing, Sunset looked up at the ceiling, "It’s Equestria, Sunset, remember, no internet. Research takes time."

*tap tap*

Her eyes go wide, had she actually fallen asleep again? She glances at the clock on the bedside table. No, it’s still two in the morning. She shakes her head.

*tap tap*

She glances over at the window, there’s something there. She leans down and looks through.

*tap tap*

There’s an owl there. Sunset frowns as she opens the window, allowing the owl entry. It’s carrying a parchment envelope in its beak. She gently takes the envelope from the owl, which dutifully turns and launches back out into the night. She looks at her name written on the envelope. She shrugs and opens the envelope.

“Please see me in my office at your earliest convenience. A student will be waiting outside your rooms to take you here.”

Sunset’s eyebrows rise, she glances at the clock. She really isn’t all that tired right now. It only takes a moment to pull her robes on. She stops and contemplates her wand, the power and abilities it represents to her, just lying on the table. She reaches out a hand, mentally calling it to her hand, and it flies into her hand. She stops in shock, how much has been opened in her to allow something like that? She has been missing her magic for years now. She had thought that she would never touch her music again except for occasional trips back to Equestria. She slides her wand into a pocket in her robes and grabs the book as she walks towards the entrance to their little haven in this school. She opens the door. She looks at the student there, a young lady, a few years younger than her, with long flowing white hair and the most unusual earrings Sunset has seen in this world, a pair of radishes. She smiles at the girl who speaks in a dreamy voice, “I’ve been sent to take you to the headmasters office.”

Sunset smiles, “Thank you.” The girl leads off, and Sunset follows. After a few moments of walking she moves up next to the girl, “It’s late, isn’t it?”

She shrugs, “I was reading fairly late. Professor Dumbledore had come down to the library to get a book, and had asked me to head here.”

“Ah.” Sunset says, it doesn’t take very long until they are standing before the statue of a phoenix.

The student stands before the phoenix, “Sherbet Lemon” She says to it, causing it to rotate in place and lift, revealing a spiraling staircase. Sunset reaches out a foot, and the staircase acts like an escalator, she lets it take her all the way up, and in a matter in a moment, she’s in a very large, yet exceedingly cluttered office. On the walls are oil paintings of various wizards. Sunset stands in silence, looking at the wizards, many of them seem to be sleeping in their paintings.

“They are previous headmasters of the school.” Comes Dumbeldore’s voice.

Sunset starts, “Huh?”

“The paintings, these are the previous headmasters of Hogwarts school.” The wizard himself comes from another room in the office, he gestures, “Sometimes I find the need to talk to them. When times are troubled, as they are now.”

She sighs, she knows about troubled times, the tall wizard comes closer, “I don’t deal with muggles very often, though I have a feeling you would be a full witch had you been born here.”

Sunset sighs, “This reminds me of so much that I turned my back on.”

“Why did you turn your back on all of that?”

She looks at him sharply, he seems to have the ability to know the exactly what to say, she looks down, “Back then, all it was, everything, was a means to an end. My power, my strength, my abilities.” She hugs herself, “I was mad, magical abilities came easily to me, I was the strongest of my classmates. I was the protégé of the Princess herself.”

A chair is magically floated over and settles right behind her, she sits down as a second chair, “Tell me more about the Princess.”

Sunset can feel tears, she thought she had worked past all of this pain, “Princess Celestia is a wonderful teacher, it seems as though she knows everything. Especially when it comes to magic. She’s patient, and forgiving, and she knows how to push a student, even though that student wants to press forward even faster than is safe for her.” She looks up and sees the compassion on his face, she swipes an arm across her face, “I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize, Sunset Shimmer. You’ve learned since then, that the power you craved needs to be tempered.”

She sniffles and nods, “I needed friendship. I needed to know that the power for power’s sake is poisonous.”

He leans back and sighs, “I knew a young wizard that could have used that lesson many years ago.”

Her eyebrows raise as he continues, “His name was Tom Riddle, and he was a student here many years ago.”

She finds her jaw dropping as Dumbledore continues, talking about the first wizarding war, the Order of the Phoenix along with what has been happening the last few years. Then he talks about what is happening with the Tri-Wizard tournament, he finishes with, “And then someone did an extremely powerful confundus charm on the goblet, allowing another school, and a fourth year student, Harry Potter, to be entered. Something that should be impossible.”

“The Harry Potter that found the Basilisk and the Philosopher’s stone?”

He nods, “The same.”

She taps her chin, “I think I should meet this young wizard.”

He smiles, “You might, in passing, he has a lot of work to do, the goblet is a magical contract, he must be in the tournament, the consequences if he doesn’t would be dire for him.” He stops for a moment, “And now we have you girls added to the mix.”

The book starts to vibrate and glow, Dumbledore arches an eyebrow, “Your Princess Twilgiht?”

Sunset nods as she pulls it out. She opens it and looks at the latest page… she feels all the color drain from her face, “I do remember him. This is bad.” She holds the book towards Dumbledore, one word is written there, and it looks like Twilight nearly ripped through the page with her quill.

Grogar

Dumbledore adjusts his glasses as he reads, then he looks at Sunset, “Who?”

As he does, more writing appears, Sunset starts to read, “Oh, this is bad. Very bad.” She finds herself shaking as she reads a second page. And at the very end, she reads some more that Twilight had written out loud, “This creature is extremely dangerous. Though due to events going on here in Equestria. I don’t think I can pull myself away from my duties here at this moment. Perhaps in a few weeks?”

She looks at the words on the page, Twilight won’t be able to help. They are scheduled to fly home in about a week, and yet she can’t leave until this creature. This necromancer, is dealt with. What can she do?

“Miss Sunset?”

Sunset looks up at Dumbledore, he looks concerned, “Is there something wrong?”

She shakes her head, “No, I’m just sorta used to her being able to come and help if a problem arises.”

“And this time, she can’t. So you are concerned?”

She nods, “What if I can’t help? What if this Grogar can beat me and my friends, that prophecy you said in the elevator.” She closes her eyes, “A bell once rung, cannot be unrung. He comes, he comes, to enslave and destroy, he comes and even the Death Eaters scatter before him. He comes, with the shadow of death all about him. And no Wizard alone, can stop him.” She looks at the older wizard, “He’s powerful, your prophecies even confirm the danger around him.”

“Do you think you and your friends are going to be the only ones to stand against evil?”

Sunset looks down, “Well. No, I guess not.”

Dumbledore smiles, “Then we know that we will stand together against him. Though the prophecy does not say whether or not he is stopped, I tend to be an optimist when it comes to such things.”

She looks at the book in her lap, then closes it firmly. A whisk of her wand has the book disappear, she knows it is now safe on her bedside table. Having her magic back is pretty much the best thing ever, “Well, now we know who. But what is he going to do next?”

“What do you think he will do, Sunset?”

She sighs and shakes her head, “I don’t know.”

He cocks his head ever so slightly to the side, “Do you know what his goals were before?”

Sunset looks down, “He wanted to rule over the ponies.” She shudders, “Well, he wanted to rule over everything.”

He smiles, “Do you know any reason those goals would have changed?”

She thinks for a few moments, then shakes her head, Dumbledore continues, “Tell me what you do know about him, why he’s scaring you so much.”

Sunset thinks back, remembering her Equestrian history classes, as well as much private tutoring by Princess Celestia herself, “Grogar is a demonic ram necromancer. He was the leader of a kingdom named Tambelon, who once ruled Ponyland with an iron fist a long time ago, before he was defeated when the ancient bell was rung. This banished him and the city to the Shadow World.”

“Ponyland? I thought you were from Equestria.”

Sunset nods, “Before we were unified under the banner of Equestria with the Princesses, we had many smaller kingdoms. Much like how the United Kingdom was formed here on your world.”

He nods and gestures for her to continue, “The trouble is, he keeps coming back. It wasn’t all that long ago, Princess Celestia, along with many of the ponies, were able to drive him back. That time he was sent to Tartarus. It was believed at the time, he would never be able to return.”

Dumbledore sighs, “So, how did he end up here?”

Sunset shudders, “That’s the thing, I couldn’t even begin to hazard a guess. Though there’s something wrong with him, he looks like smoke. He wasn’t fully at the ministry. There are two possible reasons, he was either projecting his will from somewhere else.” She rubs her arms for a moment as though a chill has washed over her.

“Or?” Says Dumbledore.

She sighs, “He may not be fully in your world. And that’s all he can do to affect things.”

Dumbledore stands up, “We will prepare for the first, but hope it’s the second possibility.” He gestures towards the clock, “I’ve kept you up late enough already.”

She stands up, then after a moment, she rushes in to hug Dumbledore, “Thank you for listening to me.” She murmurs softly.

He returns the embrace for a moment, then pushes her out to hold her by the shoulders, “I needed to know all of this. Thank you for coming.”

***
Sunset stretches on her bed for a moment, the bright morning sun has woken her. The sounds of her friends stirring gets her to rotate in the bed and put her feet on the floor.

Pinkie hops up and drags Applejack towards the exit of their little haven in this enormous castle, “Food. Breakfast. Pastries. Let’s go!”

Applejack laughs as she pulls away from Pinkie long enough to grab her robes, she looks at Sunset, “You comin’ sugarcube?”

Sunset looks at the rising sun and yawns hugely, then she thinks for a moment, “yeah. Let me pull on some robes.”

Rarity just waves them away when they try to wake her up, Fluttershy has already gone, leaving a small note on her bed saying she went to Hagrid’s very early, and she was going to be deep in the forbidden forest with the teacher for most of the day. Rainbow Dash was snoring until Sunset whispered that there was lots of food ready for them. Which gets a snort and her cerise eyes open quickly.

Twilight leads the rest of the girls down the narrow tower as they head towards the great hall. It doesn’t take very long before they get to see nearly the entire school’s population. Their black robes meld in with the rest of the Hogwarts students, though there are subtle differences. Normally, each house has its own trim color, red, gold, green, or blue, as well as its crest sewn on the robe. The girls, however, have silver trim and sport the patch of the US Magical Congress. Sunset look around, a set of several girls are interspersed with the Hogwarts students, they are in lighter gray robes, and there are some young men in furs. Dumbledore had explained about the other schools in attendance. Sunset looks around, most of the students here seem to be focused on the food that had appeared on the tables.

Suddenly hesitant, the girls look at each other, “Where do we sit?” Sunset asks softly.

Applejack squares her shoulders, “Ah reckon we’ll just find a spot anywhere.” She leads off, along with the other girls, Sunset brings up the rear, just watching the student’s reactions to them. They find some room along with some students, she looks at their markings, thinking furiously, then she smiles, Gryffindor students. That one boy Dumbledore was talking about, Harry, is in that house. Maybe she’ll meet him. Looking down at the food she retches a little bit and covers her mouth with her hand. After years in this world, she has come to handle the various meat that humans tend to eat. But she had been turned into a pony, just two days ago. Even if only for a few minutes. This reversion brings with it some of her equestrian nature, causing her stomach to rebel against the whole idea of bangers, streaky bacon, and black pudding. She grabs a glass and pours a drink. She takes a sip, then drinks greedily. She sets down her cup, “What is that?” She marvels as she pours another glass.

One of the younger students leans over, “It’s pumpkin juice. Don’t you have it in America?”

She shakes her head as she downs another glass. Then she taps her wand and some of the breakfast items, tomatoes, mushrooms, and potatoes float onto her plate, along with fried eggs and toast with jam.

She looks up to see Pinkie Pie giggle as she takes a small candy from an older teen. This one with bright red hair, and is apparently an identical twin, said twin is at Pinkie’s other shoulder. The first one smiles, “It’s called a magma pepper candy.” His grin gets wider as she unwraps the candy and pops it into her mouth.

Pinkie frowns for a moment, then her ears turn bright red, steam starts to come from her ears as her hair stands straight up. Pinkie finally swallows and her hair bounces back to normal. She licks her lips, "Yummy, its spicy but not overpoweringly hot. Oh, oh, oh, I know!"

He looks at her for a long time, then he holds out a hand, “I’m George, that’s my brother Fred.” Pinkie shakes both of their hands before she opens up her bag. Giggling, she reaches her entire arm in, starting to root around, then her head disappears, finally she brings out a brown paper bag marked with an apple crossed with a chili pepper.

“I just KNEW I had a bag of these." Opening the small bag she pulls out a single reddish colored pepper and holds it out. "If you like those, then you’ll love these. They are Windigo Ghost Chili’s.”

Fred reaches over and picks up the pepper, “I don’t think so.” He laughs, “I can think of a few things we can do with those.”

Pinkie giggles as Sunset takes a bite of her food. She taps her wand on the pitcher of pumpkin juice, which floats over to Pinkie and fills a glass for her, Sunset smiles, “Try this.” Pinkie Pie drinks the pumpkin juice and giggles, Sunset looks over at Rarity and the other girls. They are trying their hands at talking with the students. Twilight is talking to a girl with long brown hair. Her accent is prim as she talks to Twilight. Twilight reaches out gingerly and touches the book in front of the girl.

“Oh, I just got it for some research.” The girl says, “You like to read?”

Twilight blushes slightly, “Yeah.” she slides over a bit as both of them look at the book, she grins, “A book of spells?”

The girl nods as both of them get absorbed in the reading. Sunset smiles as she finishes up her food. Judging by the rapt attention the girl has, a book would likely be her cutie mark if she stepped through the portal. That gets Sunset thinking, would all these humans turn into unicorns going through the portal? She shakes her head at the thought as her fork spears the last mushroom and she puts it in her mouth. As she chews she continues to think, what else is in this world is similar to hers? She sighs, that’s a question to ponder much later.

Soon enough, a loud gong sounds throughout the hall, and the students all start to get moving, Sunset looks at her empty plate, as she stands up, the plates, along with all the food simply disappear. She turns and follows the students out of the grand hall.

***

Sunset, along with Rarity and Twilight all find seats at the back of the classroom. The teacher isn’t there. Though from the clothing, she can see they have Slytherin and Gryffindor students in this class. The girl that Twilight was talking to is in there. She looks over, is that him? A young teen boy, he’s huddled and giggling with another teen boy, this one with bright red hair and his robes look like hand-me-downs. Is that the Harry Potter? Tomorrow he’s going to have to be doing some sort of task for the Tri-Wizard tournament. Her attention is grabbed by a rhythmic thumping. The door to the classroom slams open and a big man enters. Sunset gasps, tied around his head is a leather strap. In that strap is an obviously artificial eyeball. Though it seems to be moving of its own accord.

“For the new American students in my class, I’m Professor Moody.” He says as he stumps down the corridor. He gets to the head of the class and whirls around on his wooden leg, “Today, we are going to be doing some practical work. Everybody up!”

All the students rise, and the teacher thumps his staff on the floor and all of the desks and tables disappear, he smiles, “I think I’ll pick on our new guests. Sunset Shimmer, you have your wand, right?”

Sunset steps forward, “Yes, Professor.”

“Yes professor, how formal.” He chuckles, “Now, who around here would be up for trying out their wand against miss Sunset here?” He looks around, noting all the faces. Then he smiles, “Hermoine Granger.”

The girl that was talking to Twilight earlier steps towards one end of the room, Sunset moves to the other, and the students line up on each side, watching intensely. Hermoine pulls out her wand.

“That’s fair, mudblood girls are just right to go against the witch from America.” Comes a voice from the Slytherins in the room.

“Who said that?” Thunders the teacher. He stumps to the middle of the room, staring down the Slytherin boys, who shrink back at the glare from that electric blue eye, “Who thinks that this American won’t be able to beat your sorry behinds?”

Sunset gulps, she remembers dueling back at home, but this is different. They are going to have to curse each other. She watches as that disturbing eye focuses on one of the boys, “Vincent, I knew I recognized your voice. Get out here.”

The boy called slouches forward, “Aw, I didn’ mean nothin.”

The teacher points and the boy moves slowly over towards the other end as the teacher approaches Sunset, he smiles at her as he moves to the side, “Whenever you are ready.”

The other boy raises his wand in a salute, which Sunset copies. Sunset readies herself, watching Vincent intently.

“Stupefy” The other boy screams as he flourishes his wand. Sunset is ready for this, a quick shield absorbs the blast to begin with. She gathers her energy and blink teleports ten feet to the side and sends her wand from side to side, spitting out short stun bolts, all of them curve and head towards the boy. He throws up a hasty shield himself as Sunset blinks to the other side again, letting out a strong power bolt at the slytherin youth.

“Stop!” Roars Moody, his wand flashing out, deflecting her bolt into the ceiling. The section of the ceiling hit explodes violently, and Sunset automatically contains the explosion directing it away from the humans in the room.

“What the hell were you doing?” Moody continues to roar, the thump of his wooden leg loud in the silence of the room as he stalks towards her, “Is this how they do things in America? You could have killed him!”

"Sunset lowers her wand and bows once taking several steps back. "I'm sorry." She looks back at the boy who's crouching down, trembling, "I was…" She lowers her head, "I was expecting him to do a wink evade. That's why I used a concussive blast, even if he did a short wink, concussive effect would have still knocked him down."

The teacher’s one natural eye narrows, “Wink evade? Here, apparition isn’t allowed until they are seventeen. This is practice, a mock battle, Sunset Shimmer. And that did not look like a concussive blast."

"I'm sorry sir, I just... I got lost in the duel. In my class I was the top Duelist. We were expected to act and react in fluid motions. I'm sorry, I didn't know."

He turns to the boy, “Crabbe, get back in line. This American witch seems to actually know what she’s doing.” He smiles evilly as he walks to the other end of the room. A quick wave of his wand has the ceiling repaired, he whirls back towards Sunset and raises his wand, “With me, do your worst.”

Sunset steels herself as he bows, she bows quickly as well.

“Ready?”

She nods tensely, and he flicks out his wand, unleashing a bolt of power. Rather than shield this time, she unleashes a bolt of her own, both bolts meet in the air in a powerful explosion. She can feel how strong he is, so she blinks to the side, keeping her own attack open for a moment longer, the bolt landing behind him.

He smiles, “You are going to have to do better than that.” He blinks to the side himself as he throws another curse at her, she smiles as she deflects it harmlessly into the ceiling and she slides to the side and fires off a stun spell. She’s having…fun. She blinks back and fires off a fireball at the teacher, as she does so, her ears change and her hair lengthens. She can feel her connection to Equestria, to Equestrian magic. She leaps into the air to avoid a curse aimed at her feet, then she rolls as she lands, she’s not doing it for herself, she’s not proving her abilities for a teacher. She’s doing this because it’s fun, she catches a glimpse of Twilight out of the corner of her eye, she’s doing this for friendship, and for fun. She giggles as Moody’s artificial eye zips to look through the back of his head, he dives to the side as the spell she had landed earlier has finishes its course, long thick vines lashing out to where Moody was standing from behind.

***

Professor Dumbledore is walking through the courtyard, he stops at the sound of a crash and the tinkle of glass breaking. He looks up at the tower where Defense against the Dark Arts is taught. He chuckles upon seeing the massive vines curl out around the outside of the tower, “Well, looks like someone is having fun.”

***

Lucius Malfoy rushes down the stairs in this London house. He growls as he slams open the door to the sub-basement, “Alright, Thorfin, what have you done?”

Thorfin Rowle cringes at the rage in Lucius’ eyes, “I told you in the letter, Lucius. I tried to bring back the dark lord, and I got something else!”

Lucius backhands the other man, “You fool. Plans are in place to bring back our master. He has a plan, why are you messing with it?”

Thorfin wipes blood from his lip as he glares up at Lucius, “Well, some of us don’t trust that rat’s plan. This should have worked.”

Lucius growls as he turns and looks. Thorfin steps up next to him “You know we haven’t been able to find the horcruxes that he made. So, I decided to make one for him.” He points at the spell filling the room, “I used that bell in the middle of the circle, I put out one of his robes, his wand, and all of that. Along with the spell form in the floor, with goats blood to energize it. It should have worked.”

“Why is the spell still active?”

Thorfin steps up to the boundary, “It’s been like this for three days. I can see a dark form inside it. But all I can see is the bell moving around. I summoned something from the dark land. And I’ve been afraid to let it down, so we can see what it is. But I know for certain, it’s not the dark lord.”

Malfoy pinches the bridge of his nose, fending off a headache, “Of course it’s not the dark lord. There isn’t enough of an impression of him from merely his wand, or his robes.” He huffs, “I don’t know where you got that from, but we had better send it back where it came from.”

Malfoy pulls his wand from his cane and levels it at the active spell, a muttered spell and the green and blue magic coursing around slowly settles to the ground. Revealing a form which steps forward.

Malfoy looks at the other man, “A goat? You summoned…A goat?”

“I am Grogar!” The creature steps forward, his bell glows and both men stand rigid, “You have summoned me to this world.” He smiles evilly, “And now I will take it over. And I will find that unicorn, and have her take me to Equestria, so I can finish what I started with the Princesses.”

Both men stand there, their minds on pause as Grogar looks around, he steps towards them, “You two shall be my first slaves in this world.” His bell glows again, and the same glow forms around both of them. “But first, you will tell me what I need to know, you will tell me about this world.”

Chapter 6.

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The announcer’s voice booms throughout the arena, “Next up, Fleur Delacour!”

Rainbow Dash turns away from the scene in the arena. Several wizards advance on the first dragon, subduing it with magic as another wizard gathers up the eggs. It doesn’t take them very long to move off with the dragon in tow. She blows her hair away from her face, “That was pretty smart of him, turning the rock into a dog.” She glances at Spike.

“That Swedish Short-snout was pretty intimidating,” Rarity says, she turns to Sunset. “There are three more of these fights?”

Sunset nods, and Rarity sighs, “Well, if you ask me, it’s all rather barbaric.”

Sunset sighs, “They aren’t like the dragons of Equestria, that’s for certain.”

Twilight adjusts her glasses, “I don’t know why they are calling them dragons, they have only four limbs, not six. Two legs, and the forelegs are also the wings. That makes them wyverns, not dragons.”

Sunset nods as she looks around the private box that Dumbledore had set up for them. All kinds of pastries and other foods are laid out on a table in the back of the room, the open front allows them an excellent view of the arena. In keeping with their cover of being American students learning of the European magical traditions and the Triwizard tournament. More humans emerge, their wands pulling another set of chains.

Twilight leans forward, “Now, that is a dragon,” She says softly.

Sunset looks at the roll of parchment with the schedule for the day, “That’s a Welsh Green, they are natives of Wales, and actively avoid humans.” She looks up as the dragon is chained down and another wizard deposits the golden egg for the champion to retrieve among its own clutch of green and brown eggs. “That’s interesting.”

Twilight looks over, “What?”

Sunset points, “They are using nesting females for this, so they are protective of the eggs. I don’t think these dragons would be a challenge if they weren’t guarding the eggs.”

Applejack steps up next to Sunset, “There’s nothin’ more fierce than a mom protectin’ her youngins.”

Sunset nods as the crowd hushes up.

The champion for the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, Fleur Delacour, emerges. Sunset watches the small woman stand there.

Rarity moves closer to the edge, picking up Spike so he can see the action. Rarity looks at Sunset, “Wonder what is in that egg.”

Sunset shrugs, “Something for the next task, I would think.”

Fleur steps forward, it looks like the dragon notices her. She roars and spouts a gout of bright blue flames at Fleur.

“Get away, I don’t want to hurt you,” comes Spike’s voice.

Sunset looks sharply at Spike, “What did you say?”

Spike shrugs, “That’s what she said, she doesn’t want to hurt the human girl.”

Sunset looks out as Fleur darts to the side, throwing a spell at the dragon, which shrugs off the spell and roars again.

“Umm, Sunset, I think she’s getting mad,” Spike chimes in.

Twilight gapes, “You mean she wasn’t mad to begin with?”

Spike shakes his head, “Well, it seems she doesn’t like being chained down. But she was content being near her eggs.”

Sunset watches as Fleur leaps forward, another spell hitting the dragon right in the face. The dragon sneezes, then ponderously curls up and lays her head down. In moments soft snores are emitted by the dragon.

“A sleep spell. That’s interesting,” Twilight muses. Fleur moves slowly towards her goal, warily watching the dragon as it slumbers. Just as she gets close, the dragon snorts a bit, blue flames spread around, catching the hem of her skirt on fire. She keeps her composure and uses her wand to make a water jet to put out the flaming cloth. Sunset smiles as Fleur retrieves her egg. She lifts it over her head in triumph as the crowd yells and screams.

“And she’s done it! Props to Beauxbatons for the imaginative use of the sleep charm,” comes from the loudspeaker.

As Twilight sits Spike back on the floor, Sunset crouches down, “Spike, you were born here, how can you understand dragons? You aren’t a dragon.”

He takes a moment to scratch an ear, “I dunno Sunset, when I was chasing that funny rabbit, and I went through those portals, I felt all sorts of different things. Then that bolt hit me. It seemed to go on forever, but I think it changed me, more than merely being able to talk,” he shrugs. “I feel a connection with the dragons here. I don’t know why.”

Sunset looks out, watching another dragon being brought in, this one with beautiful scarlet scales and bright yellow eyes.

“Can you hear the new dragon?” she asks, looking down at Spike.

Wagging his tail Spike tilts his head to one side, listening, before nodding.

“What is she saying?”

Tilting his head from one side to the other, cocking each ear in turn, “She’s confused and doesn’t understand where she is after the long trip. She’s pretty calm having her eggs here and knowing they are safe. But she doesn’t like the chains, they’re too tight and she can’t move around a lot.” He looks up plaintively at Sunset, “They aren’t going to hurt her, are they?”

Sunset shakes her head, “I don’t think so. They just seem to want the dragons for them to test the school champions. It doesn’t look like they want the dragons harmed.”

Spike sighs softly, “I’m glad.”

“And now, for our third champion, Durmstrang’s Viktor Krum!” the loudspeaker sounds out.

Sunset looks intently at Spike, “Let’s watch this one together.” She picks him up and lets him put his paws on the edge. She can feel his tail wagging as he watches the young wizard walk out into the arena.

Suddenly Victor dives to the side and fires off a spell at the dragon. The dragon evades and breathes fire at him. He takes shelter behind a rock and throws a few spells at the dragon, which disregards them.

This goes on for a few minutes, neither side really getting an advantage over the other. Spike, though, is entranced by the action going on.

“GO Bàofēng! Get him!”

Sunset looks at him, “You know, we are supposed to root for the wizard.”

Spike giggles, "It’s more fun to cheer on the dragon. Go Bàofēng! Woohoo!” Spike shouts again, holding his paws on either side of his muzzle as he wags his tail vigorously.

Twilight picks up Spike from Sunset, “That’s enough from you.” She adjusts her glasses, “Bàofēng is storm wind, in Chinese, that is.”

Sunset nods as Twilight nuzzles her dog. Then the action on the field catches her attention, “Oh no!” She moans as the dragon flails around, a curse from Victor has the dragon blinded and angry, she flails around, smashing some of her eggs.

“Oh, that’s gonna cost him some points!” The loudspeaker blares.

Sunset wants to cry, those eggs. She shakes her head and huffs as Victor grabs his own golden egg and darts away from the flailing dragon, she looks back at Spike, “Yeah, I think we should have been rooting for the dragon.”

Again, the crowd quiets down as the dragon is led away, Sunset moves over to Twilight, “Just one more to go.”

“And with that boy, Harry Potter,” Twilight says softly as she continues nuzzling Spike.
Sunset nods, “You talked to his friend, Hermione. Is he ready?”

Twilight shrugs, “I’d say he’s as ready as he’s going to be.” She looks out, “Here he comes.”

Sunset looks out, “He’s young,” she murmurs. Harry Potter is looking at the dragon standing over her clutch of eggs.

He runs towards a rock as the dragon lets loose a gout of flame. She watches him raise his wand and scream something.

“Sunset, something is wrong, she sounds sick,” Spike says.

Sunset looks down at Spike in Twilight’s arms, raising her eyebrows.

A loud bell sounds, making Sunset put her hands over her ears.

Rarity puts her hand on Sunsets back, “Is there something wrong darling?”

Sunset looks at Rarity, then flinches as the bell sounds again, “You don’t hear that?”

Rarity looks confused, then she looks at Twilight, who shrugs, “I hear them fighting, but that’s it.”

The bell tolls again, “Something is wrong.” She gasps as Harry’s broom streaks towards him, the boy leaps on his broom and streaks off. The Hungarian Horntail flaps her wings to gain the air, but the chains hold her down.

“Something is wrong with her! She sounds drunk or ill, her speech is slurred and broken. Must kill, must kill all,” Spike says as the dragon roars as she continues to try to fly. The bell sounds again, the chain parting. The wyvern streaks into the air after the boy on the broom.

“That’s not right,” Twilight says softly, watching the two recede towards the castle, the dragon spitting flames, “The book says she should be protecting her eggs, not aggressively attacking him.”

“Isn’t that kind of dragon supposed to be aggressive?” Rainbow Dash asks as she narrows her eyes a bit, following the action in the distance.

Twilight shakes her head, “To drive him off, yeah. But to keep after him after he’s not a direct danger? She’s abandoned the clutch with others around, that’s not their instincts. She should drive him off then return to guarding.”

Sunset grabs Twilight’s hand and runs towards the exit, “Something is very wrong, that bell. Grogar is doing something here.”

Fluttershy looks at Rainbow Dash, “We need to get our brooms, if that’s ok. Maybe we can help calm her down or something.” All the girls rush to follow Sunset.

As she runs, she can hear the dragon roaring. They soon get to the long covered bridge heading towards the castle. Harry is on his broom, the dragon is still trying to attack him directly. Fluttershy moves up next to Sunset, “I saw the dragons earlier, Hagrid showed me. She’s aggressive and powerful, but she’s not savage like that. Spike is right. There’s something wrong with her.”

The figure on the broom streaks towards the bridge, the dragon in hot pursuit, and he streaks through the bridge supports. The dragon is so focused on him that she crashes into the bridge causing part of it to collapse. The dragon and contestant tumbling down into the crevasse below along with debris from the bridge.

Regaining the control of his damaged broom, Harry starts to climb out and heads off towards the arena.

The dragon though is caught in the debris. Unable to fly out, it grabs the side wall, digging its claws in and using them to slow its fall before hitting the ground.

Sunset raises her wand, “Fluttershy, you and Rainbow Dash, keep going. We’ll try to do something.” She raises her wand and brings the rest of the girls close to her. She concentrates her magic and they disappear, reappearing on the ground at the base of the bridge.

Applejack makes a fist and pulls her gloves tight with a smile, “Sometimes you just gotta grab the bull by the horns, or in this case, the tail.” With a powerful leap she reaches out with her gloved hand for the thrashing weapon. As she grabs on and pulls back, digging her feet in, getting a snort of surprise from the dragon. Applejack groans as she pulls hard, slowly dragging the dragon back from the structure, “A little help,” she mutters.

Sunset growls and raises her wand, she knows a good sleep charm herself. She fires the spell at the dragon, and watches as it bounces off the hard scales. Twilight throws a spell herself, and also gapes as the magic bounces harmlessly off the dragon, “These dragons are resilient to magic, but not to this extreme. Grogar must have done something,” Sunset growls as she fires another spell, the dragon doesn’t even react.

“I’m going to keep her focused on me,” Sunset shouts, “keep trying to slow her down!” Instead of a charm, she shoots a gout of fire at the dragon, which snorts and lunges at her. She smiles as she blink evades and throws another curse at the eyes of the dragon. The spell bounces harmlessly off as the dragon snaps at her again. She desperately teleports to the side as she screams, “We need to nullify this protection. Twilight, help!”

“I’m working on it,” comes Twilight’s distant voice. Sunset looks up, at the edge of the cliff, Twilight had teleported there, and she’s got a book open, reading frantically, “I don’t know how to dispel a charm of that strength. I’m working on it.”

Pinkie Pie giggles as she reaches into her bag and with one fluid motion she produces her party cannon setting it on the ground. With non-stop giggles, she jumps into the barrel of the cannon and fires, the shot sends her through the air and lands on the back of the dragon’s head. She grabs onto the spines as the dragon flails around, trying to dislodge her. She laughs loudly, “Hey Applejack, lookie here!”

With Applejack’s attention broken, watching Pinkie ride the dragon, the dragon flicks her tail, flinging Applejack away. Rarity shouts and raises her wand, creating a big fluffy cushion, lined with rhinestones, for Applejack to land.

Rarity turns back to the dragon, “Well that was just rude and uncouth of you. Here we are trying to help and you do that? Since direct force doesn’t slow you down, let us try something different.” She points her wand at the dragon, shooting out bright diamond sparks at the dragon, the bright lights get a roar from the dragon.

Sunset smiles, “Good idea, keep confusing it, Rarity.”

Rarity walks slowly as she holds her wand high. Brilliant flashes of colors and sparkles like a shower of diamonds pass by the dragon’s face, as she continues her assault, “Darling would you please hurry, this is hardly as easy as it looks. Please find a way to stop this dreadful beast a bit quicker.”

In one fluid motion Rainbow Dash streaks by, snagging Pinkie Pie off the dragon’s neck. She does a tight loop right in front of the dragon then turns and heads towards Sunset. She drops off Pinkie Pie and stops for a moment, “I’ll keep it distracted. Find the right magic to stop her, Sunset!” she shouts as she kicks off the ground. She hovers for a moment in front of the dragon. It lunges forward to snap at her, and then darts away laughing. Sunset watches as Rainbow ponies up as she continues her acrobatic maneuvers to avoid the dragon.

“I think I got it!” calls Twilight, getting Sunset to look up at her. She leaps off the cliff, her wand glowing as she falls, a wide jet of magic bathing the dragon as it continues to be frustrated by Rainbow Dash’s antics. She finishes the spell and blinks out, appearing on the ground, skidding as her momentum carries through the teleportation. She turns and fires another spell, getting another roar from the dragon, “I’ve cancelled the charm, but she’s still strong. We have to work together to subdue her.” She shouts.

Sunset teleports up to the bridge, she fires and entanglement spell at the wings of the dragon, the magic wraps around and binds the wings down. Rarity steps forward does the same for the legs. Twilight blinks back up to the cliff face and binds the dragon’s head.

“ENOUGH!" The voice rolls through the canyon like thunder, reverting off of the walls and carrying with it an oppressive smell of brimstone. The mere force of the word carrying with it the aura of darkness and death.

“Twilight, bind the wings!” Sunset cries out before freezing for a moment in place. The force of the word chilling her to the soul. Slowly she turns looking to its source. Looking at the creature that has caused this chaos. Standing on a ledge on the rocks, the demonic ram looks down at the puny humans. Around his neck, the bell glows ominously, as his horns do also. Slowly surveying the situation as the girls fight desperately to control the frenzied dragon, he shakes his head before turning his gaze to Sunset. Almost instinctually Sunset fires of an energy blast of concentrated magic at the goat. A blast powerful enough to melt rock and reduce a body to nothing but bone and ash. It was a spell she learned from the libraries, one not often used, as it was deemed as too violent for most ponies. The spell lanced out, forming an arrow of energy streaks unerringly for the dark creature.

Chuckling softly, Grogar simply bats the blast to the side, leaving a hole melted in the side of the canyon before he focuses on Sunset, “Really? It is funny you should choose that spell, I invented it after all. The only way you would know that spell is if you are from Equestria.”

Taking a step back Sunset looked to the others then back at Grogar as he continues to speak,
“Why would you give up your true form for that of such a pitiful useless creature as a human? You silly, stupid unicorn.” Laughing he stops, a hoof to the bell around his neck rings as he fires a spell from his horns.

Sunset swings her wand in an arc. It takes every bit of energy her wand can put out, but she erects a sloped shield to deflect the goat’s onslaught. Most of the energy of the blast is being deflected upwards away from her and the other girls. The sound of his bell and the force of the impact causes her head to ache as she looks towards Grogar. Slowly moving down the side of the canyon, the goat hops from ledge to ledge with ease. He speaks with a cold, dark voice that is far older than even Celestia, “Do you truly think you can defeat me? I am the master of life and death itself.”

Landing on another ledge he unleashes another blast from his horns, this time one of sickly green and crimson energy, that intertwine and flow into the form of a burning skull streaking towards Sunset. Had she been a normal wizard, or student, she would likely have perished at that moment, unable to get words off in time to save her. But her bond with her wand is true, as fast as any unicorn could she winks out of existence just as the skull hits the ground. The explosion turns the area where she was standing before into molten lava.

Winking back into reality, she pants as she looks at the goat, “How can I stop him? He’s so powerful…” Quickly she fires off a solar beam. She had seen Celestia do it, maybe it would have a better effect against a creature of the dark.

Lowering his head, Grogar lets the blast hit his horns, merely walking through it, rather than even trying to deflect it, “Well now,” he smiles, “there was true Equestrian magic in that blast, I remember the feel of that.” Slowly he continues walking towards Sunset. “You will serve me well as a slave. First here, then you shall take me back to Equestria so that I may have my revenge there,” he fires another beam at Sunset, who desperately raises a shield to deflect. The beam blows her back, and she lands heavily, her wand clattering away.

Slowly, Grogar lowers his head to the fallen Sunset, “It would have been so much easier if you didn’t resist, but definitely not as much fun. Goodbye little unicorn.” His bell glows as does his horn, a smile on his face. Desperately Sunset puts her arms up to shield herself, closing her eyes in fear.

The spell never comes. Sunset opens her eyes. A creature is attacking him. It looks like an equine corpse reanimated. It flaps enormous bat wings as it kicks at him. He fires his magic at the creature and all it seems to do is enrage the creature further.

A thump announces another landing next to her, Sunset looks over to see Fluttershy standing there, a hand outstretched, “Come on, he’s too powerful for you to take him on yourself.”

Sunset calls her wand back and reaches for Fluttershy, who helps balance her on the broom with her. Fluttershy kicks the broom into the air, and Sunset reaches over Fluttershy’s shoulder with her wand, firing spells at the distracted ram. She looks around, an entire herd of those flying equines are sparring with the dragon and with the ram. Fluttershy smiles, “I figured thestrals could help with a necromancer.” She glances back, “But I hope they don’t get hurt.”

Sunset looks around, “We need to get more help, Fluttershy.”

She nods and turns to streak towards the arena when Sunset notices something, she points and Fluttershy follows where she’s pointing. They land heavily in front of Dumbledore as he is heading to help with the dragon. Sunset leaps off the broom and runs up to Dumbledore, “It’s him, Professor. The thestrals are warding him off, but we need more to stop him.” She feels tears start to cascade down her face, “He’s so powerful,” she murmurs.

Dumbledore holds out a hand, and Sunset grabs it. They blink out and appear in front of the dragon. Sunset looks around and points, “He’s there!”

Grogar turns and looks, and with a sardonic smile, he slowly turns to smoke as more and more wizards start to appear. Several of them move to assist Twilight and Rarity in subduing the dragon. The Minister of Magic comes up, “Dumbledore, what’s the meaning of this?”

Dumbledore sighs, “I fear we have more than just death eaters to deal with right now.”

Fudge whirls away, “You and your fantasies, Albus. I can only tolerate this for so long.” He looks around, “These are those Americans. What are they doing here? They should be keeping a low profile!”

Sunset steps towards him, “That creature from my world just attacked, and you want to know why we were away from the arena? He controlled the dragon, he broke the chains that was holding it and enraged it enough to follow him rather than follow its instincts to protect its eggs.”

Fudge whips around to face Sunset, and raises a finger, “You interfered with the triwizard tournament. I should send you back to America and get you out of my hair.”

Dumbledore puts a hand on Fudge’s shoulder, “Since Potter had escaped from the bridge by then and made it back to the egg before these girls took on the dragon, their actions did in no way interfere with the challenge, but they instead acted in the best interests of Hogwarts, and all wizards.”

Fudge knocks Dumbledore’s hand away, “I see nothing here. What evidence do you have that this other creature attacked?”

One of the other wizards comes up, “Sir. The dragon had charms on it. We are detecting residues of unknown magic on it.”

Sunset smirks, “Told ya.”

Fudge growls, “That is flimsy evidence.” He turns to the wizard, “Can you detect the nature of the charm?” The other wizard shakes his head, he looks back at Dumbledore and narrows his eyes, “We will fully investigate what happened here Albus. But for now, I strongly suggest that you keep these girls in line.” With that he turns violently away and starts to direct the wizards leading the dragon away.

Dumbledore leads Sunset to her friends, “You said he was a necromancer. Using the thestrals to distract him seems to have been a good idea.” He turns to Fluttershy, who is sitting next to a still form, “Oh no.”

Sunset rushes over and puts a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder, “I’m so sorry.”

Fluttershy sniffs softly, “Four of them died to save us, the dragon got one, that monster got the other three.” She suppresses a sob as she reaches out a hand onto the neck of the thestral before her, “Thank you my friend,” she says softly.

Rainbow Dash kneels down next to Fluttershy, “They helped us, their sacrifice is not in vain.”

Applejack comes up next to them, removing her hat and putting it over her heart, “They fought to help us, Fluttershy.”

Two of the other thestrals come over, looking at their dead companion. Fluttershy stands up and moves over to hug one of them, she looks back at Sunset, “This one lost her mate here.”

Sunset doesn’t know what to say, she looks around, “We need to find him. He’s fully in this world. We need to catch him, and kill him.”

Twilight helps Rainbow Dash to her feet, “I don’t think it’s possible to kill him, Sunset. He’s a necromancer. Killing his body wouldn’t even slow him down.”

Sunset sighs, “It’s got to be that bell. That bell is the source of his power.”

Twilight looks back at Dumbledore, “I need to research. Can I look through what magical books you have at your library?”

Dumbledore sighs, “I imagine you’ll have to look at the restricted sections as well.” He looks at Sunset, “You coming?”

Sunset is able to grin, “Reading about arcane magical subjects with a demonic monster on the loose?” She looks around, wizards are repairing the bridge and cleaning up after the fight. She glances up, students are heading back into the school. Her smiles widens, “Count me in.”

Chapter 7.

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Sunset slams yet another book closed. She turns her attention to the next book in the pile. She wants to groan. She’s also very excited. Among the books she’s gone over, and made notes from, is an extremely advanced battle spell book. She glances over at Twilight, who has three quills writing madly as she takes notes herself from that very book. Her friends that can't use magic have retired for the evening, but her and Twilight have dived deep into the library here at Hogwarts.

Twilight rubs an arm along her nose, “Anything?”

Sunset looks up at her friend and giggles, “Twilight.”

Twilight looks up, questioning, Sunset points and giggles again. Looking confused, Twilight points her wand at a glass, transmuting it into a small mirror and looks at her face. She starts rubbing her nose furiously to get the dust off. She looks back at Sunset, who smiles and gives her a thumbs up. Sunset smiles, "You're getting good with those transmutations.”

Twilight smiles, “Yeah, at least it didn’t croak like a frog this time.”

Both girls giggle, then bend to their tasks, Sunset perks up, she’s never fully gotten used to the human ears. It’s just so natural to her to have her ears flick in the direction of a sound, but she can at least hear something. Looking up, she sees Dumbledore as he comes from the restricted sections, holding his wand. Several more books suspended next to him. He waves his wand and the stream of books divides between Sunset and Twilight. Twilight adjusts her glasses and looks down at Spike, whom she had conjured a basket for him to sleep in. He’s curled up, snoring softly, a single leg kicking.

One more girl is with them, Hemione Granger has a stack of books herself. She watches as Dumbledore bids Sunset and Twilight good night. Sunset opens the next book, but for a moment, the words are completely unintelligible to her. She smacks her lips a bit and looks over, “Tea.” She murmurs softly, glancing at a small tea cart in the library, she grabs her wand from the table next to her and waves it at the cart. Her wand glows, as does the tea pot, which swiftly boils, she adds tea to the infuser as she puts sugar in her cup. And in a matter of seconds, the cup is floating towards her, she can already smell the rich aroma of the tea.

“How do you do that?” The other girl looks at Sunset.

Sunset glances at Twilight, then back at Hermione, “Do what?”

The younger girl tilts her head to the side a bit, “Don’t try to fool me. There’s something different about you American girls.”

Sunset looks again at Twilight, who shakes her head very softly, then back at Hermione, she smiles, “It’s because we are American.”

The other girl stands up, “Don’t patronize me, you may be older than I am, but I can see there is something very different about you girls.” She starts to walk back and forth, “First off, wands don’t glow. Yet yours does. I watched you, just now, making tea. If you are students, you should still be verbalizing your spells. Silent spell work isn’t until sixth and seventh year. Also, it’s only you three that I’ve seen use magic. I watched Applejack in herbology, she’s got gloves that seem to give her more strength, but she’s amazingly strong without them. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash fly on brooms like they were born on them, and I’m not even going to begin to try to explain what that Pinkie Pie does. It’s little wonder why Fred and George are so enamored of her.” She huffs as she turns back to stalk the other direction, “And then we have your performance with Professor Moody. You fight like a natural. Like that wand was born in your hand.” She stops right in front of Sunset Shimmer, “Yet, with those other girls, with all they can do, I’ve never seen them even pull out a wand.” She slams both hands on the table, “And then you add in that crazy creature that Professor Dumbledore said attacked Harry, using that dragon. Something is seriously wrong here, and you girls are at the center of this.” She’s nearly screaming now.

Sunset raises both hands to fend off the witch, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Her wand whips out and ends up millimeters from Sunset’s neck, “Don’t lie to me.” Hermione growls through clenched teeth, “I’m so tired of not being old enough for the information. Then having to fight to get to be updated about anything. You are going to tell me what is going on, right now.”

Her hand glows violet and is pushed away. Sunset looks over at Twilight, who has her own wand in her hand, glowing brightly as she focuses on Hermione’s wand. Hermione looks over at Twilight, “See, a witch would use the expeliarmus charm. You don’t think like witches and wizards here.”

Sunset narrows her eyes, “Because we are American.”

“Bollocks!” Hermione shouts, “Magic works the same in America as it does here. Most mages in America, their families came from Europe. A few hundred years wouldn’t make anything that seriously different in casting magic.” Her face changes from angry to pleading, “I know there is something different about you girls, I could tell from when I first saw you. But you need to tell me the truth.”

Sunset looks at Hermione, then at Twilight. She sighs, “Twilight, let her go.”

Twilight furrows her brow, but she lets the magic fade, though her wand remains glowing. Hermione, in response, puts her own wand away, “So…talk.”

Sunset looks at Twilight and nods softly, getting the other girl to put away her own wand.

“You are right. I’m not originally from America. I’m not even from your world.”

Hermione’s eyes get wider and wider as Sunset continues. She finally drags a chair over so she can sit as Sunset completes her tale. Finally, she looks over at Twilight, “So, your counterpart in Equestria is an alicorn? As in a pony with the wings of Pegasus, and the horn of a unicorn?

Twilight nods, and she continues, looking back at Sunset, “Yet you are completely different from the unicorns of my world, smaller, and as intelligent as humans?”

Sunset nods slowly, “Remember, this must be kept a secret, away from even your friends Harry or Ron.”

Hermione smirks, “Oh, I can keep a secret.”

Sunset furrows her brow, “I’m sure you can.”

Hermione stands up and moves over to her desk, “You say Grogar was sent to Tartarus? That’s a kind of limbo? Where they are kept away from the rest of society?”

Sunset frowns, “Yes.”

Hermione points at a book she has opened, “Then I have an idea how he was summoned.”

Sunset leaps up, and the younger girl turns the book so Sunset can read. “Hmmm, blood, the right runes written in sand.”

Sunset scans the text, “This might be it, but why would some wizard…”

Hermione growls, “A Death Eater.”

“…fine, a Death Eater, do something like this?”

Hermione looks at the book, “I think they were trying to find some way to bring He Who Must Not be Named back.”

Twilight shudders, “The dark wizard.”

Sunset continues looking at the page, “It might have worked. Had they access to any of his blood. They would have been able to summon him. But they didn’t use his blood.”

The younger woman looks up, “They had to have used goats blood, and they somehow got him, that Grogar.”

Sunset nods, “Is there any indication how to send him back?”

Hermione flips the page, scanning quickly, then she slams the book closed, “We would need access to where the spell was performed, and the blood, and a half dozen other things. I don’t think any of that will be possible.”

Sunset sits down in the chair, and slowly lowers her head to the table, “So, we can’t stop him?”

Twilight growls, “We have to stop him, we’ve stopped the Sirens, we’ve stopped everything they’ve thrown at us from Equestria.” She stops and looks at Sunset, “You stopped Midnight Sparkle.” Tears glisten in her eyes, “Together, we can do anything.”

Sunset moves over and hugs Twilight, “Yes, we can do anything.”

Twilight hugs her back, choking back a sob, “Together.”

Hermione clears her throat softly, getting Sunset to look at her, “Remember, it isn’t just you six girls touched by the Equestrian magic. I will help, we all will help you.”

A loud shrieking gets them all to clap their hands over their ears, after a few seconds the shrieking cuts off as abruptly as it started. Twilight looks around, “What was that?”

Sunset points and the girls rush through the library, finally stopping before a white haired girl with a golden egg sitting before her.

The girl is sitting there in shock, “I juss wanted to open zee egg. To ‘ear what it ‘ad to say.”

Rarity sits down, “Fleur, open it again.”

She shakes her head, “I couldn’t understan’ eet. It’s…” Her eyes narrow, and she flails her hands around a bit, “What is zee word?” She shakes her head a couple of times, “Gibberish.”

Rarity smiles, “I know, but something about that gibberish was familiar.”

Sunset moves next to Rarity, “You may be onto something Rarity,” She looks at Fleur, “Go ahead and open it again.”

Fleur frowns as she looks at the other girls. She looks back at her other school mates sitting at some of the different tables, then she opens it again. The moaning wail fills the library once again. Sunset closes her eyes, concentrating on the sounds washing through her. After a long time, she nods at Fleur, who closes the egg again with a relieved sigh. Sunset looks at Rarity, “Sounds like the sirens, after their magic was broken.”

Rarity nods, “That is exactly what I was thinking.”

“Zee Sireens?” Fleur asks hesitantly.

Sunset shakes her head, how to explain Equestrian monsters here, “We had to deal with them a while back. Sea creatures, they had magic to make their singing beautiful. They used their magic to enthrall our school. We had to sing a counter spell, one that could break their power. We broke the crystals they were using.”

Fleur nods slowly, “Sea creatures?”

Sunset nods, “They had fins and bodies like dragons living in the water, I guess.”

Fleur smiles and picks up her egg, “I have an idea.” She says, “I need to take a bath.”

Sunset furrows her brow as the younger girl runs off, she looks at Twilight, “A bath?”

Twilight shrugs as Rarity stands up, “Well, it’s past time for dinner, I don’t know about you three, but I’m hungry. Maybe we can get something late in the kitchens.”

Twilight follows Rarity out of the library, and after a few moments, Sunset follows as well.

***

Breakfast in the grand hall of Hogwarts is turning out to be something special. In some ways, it reminds Sunset of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. When she was there, she had never taken the time to just sit with the students and talk, it was always about studying. She always had a book with her, always avoiding the other students. Looking up at the enchanted ceiling she smiles, something like that could be done in Canterlot. The floating candles acting in counterpoint to the bright blue sky and clouds that drifted across the fresco just make this place feel…wonderful. A soft chirrup catches her attention.

One of the boys breathes in softly, “Time for the post.”

Indeed it is, dozens of owls are flying through the hall, dropping packages and letters for the various students. To her shock, a large barn owl lands in front of her, an envelope clutched in its beak. It gestures with the letter at her, she spies her name on the envelope. She gingerly reaches out and the owl sets the envelope in her hand. It shuffles off as she opens the envelope and draws out the sheet of parchment.

Dear Miss Sunset Shimmer,

Ministry wizards have visited various places on your planned itinerary and have performed memory modification. As well as that, a few wizards knowledgeable of muggle computer systems have adjusted your plane tickets for when you return to the States. As we are still trying to figure out how to deal with the creature you described, it is thought best for you girls to stay at Hogwarts for the time being.

Best Regards,
Percy Weasley
Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic

Sunset clicks her tongue, “These Brits, how formal.” She smiles.

“Oh, really?” Then chiming laughter from Fluttershy. Sunset looks over, Fluttershy is leaned down, talking with the owl that had just delivered the letter to her.

Hermione looks at Fluttershy as well, her mouth dropped open.

“You see a lot? Since you work at the ministry. Do tell.”

The Owl chirrups softly, Fluttershy’s eyes widen, “Oh, really?”

Hermione looks at Sunset and leans forward, “Zoolinguism is actually a spell, and she’s not using a wand.” She whispers fiercely.

Sunset shrugs, “That’s just something Fluttershy can do.”

Hermione looks down for a moment, then back up, “More of this influence from Equestria?”

Sunset giggles, “Hey, the witches and wizards here bring it out in us.”

Hermione shakes her head slowly as she continues watching Fluttershy have an animated conversation with the owl, after a long time, Hermione leans back over to Sunset, “You know, owls are literally everywhere in the magical world here. Perhaps she should go to the owlerly and see if any of the birds there have seen anything happening with that Grogar. Maybe they can give us an idea of where he is.”

Sunset nods as the bell tolls throughout the grand hall. She gulps the last of her pumpkin juice down and grabs her bag, this morning’s class is going to be different. She runs to keep up with some of the other students and checks the piece of parchment, her teacher’s name is Sybill Trelawney. It’s not too long before they make it to the classroom. Sunset gets settled down with Rarity and Twilight. She takes a moment to look around, the students seem to be a year or two older than Harry, Ron and Hermione. She spies two Gryffindor students standing by the door, their wands out, and judging by their red hair, they are the twins related to Ron. A bucket is levitated by magic and is suspended above the door, and a small flash shows the door is connected to the bucket. Sunset smiles for a moment, the twins are getting ready to prank the teacher. She starts to stand up, pulling out her wand, but is stopped by Rarity, “They are having a bit of innocent fun, darling. No one is going to get hurt.”

Sunset subsides but she keeps an eye on the door as the two boys rush back to their seats.

“Good morning class.” Comes a voice from the other side of the room. Apparently, the teacher had come in via another door. The looks on the twin’s faces show their guilt, but the teacher seems oblivious to their reaction, and to the bucket hanging in the air, she continues, “For some reason, I decided to check something in my office before I came in.” She shakes her head a little bit. Then she waves her wand as books fly across the room and land in front of Twilight, Rarity, and Sunset. She clears her throat, “I see our American students have decided to join us.” She looks down at a piece of parchment and adjusts her very thick glasses, she looks up at the girls, “Well, most of them did. Where is…” She looks back down at the parchment, “Pinkie Pie?”

Sunset looks over at the door as it swings open wide, the hyperactive Pinky Pie bouncing in, full of energy and exuberance. The speed at which the door opens causes the bucket to drop straight down towards the student. Caught off guard, Sunset doesn't have time to get her wand out, and the Weasley brothers turn their heads in shock. Mid-bounce without even looking up, Pinkie reaches up, catching the bucket with both hands and brings it down in front of her chest as she continues to bounce over to her seat.

"But... but how..." Sunset asks in shock.

"Pinkie sense silly." Pinkie replies as she sits down in her chair. She grabs her bag and opens it, putting the bucket inside. She looks over at the twins, "Thanks guys, I'll need that bucket of water later, to put out the fire."

Sunset sits there for a long moment, “But Pinkie…” Only to get her finger across her lips.

“Pinkie Sense, if you watched season one, episode fifteen, you would know.”

Sunset narrows her eyes as the teacher comes up, “My dear girl, you are most certainly gifted with the sight.”

Pinkie cocks her head to the side, “No…it’s Pinkie sense. It’s like Maude sense, but for Pinkie.”

Sunset buries her head in her hands as the teacher sputters out a response.

***

Sunset pats her belly, the lunch here was spectacular, Hermione had told her house-elves do the cooking for all of the students. Though the younger witch has been talking about the plight of the house-elves, and while her argument is quite compelling, Sunset is far more worried about Grogar. She glances back at Fluttershy, who is listening to Hermione’s idea of the Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare with rapt attention. Though a race of completely subservient creatures that can be freed by simply giving them clothes, she shakes her head. Sunset looks down at Fluttershy’s hand, “What is that?”

She lifts her hand, showing the snake wrapped around it, “Oh, Rupert? I found him earlier today.” She pets the head of the snake, which seems to enjoy the attention, “He catches rodents around the castle. But he doesn’t like Mrs. Norris.”

Sunset narrows her eyes, “Mrs. Norris?”

“The caretaker’s cat.” Hermione supplies helpfully.

Fluttershy smiles, “Yeah, well.” She gestures with the snake, “He seemed lonely, slithering along, so I decided to bring him along for a while. He’ll get hungry in a while and go off on his own. But for now, he’s happy with me.”

Sunset shrugs, she’s seen Fluttershy with her animals. Though this is the first non-magical animal she’s been talking too since they’ve gotten here.

Hermione moves closer to Sunset, “You need to watch out for Professor Snape.” She glances over at Harry and Ron, along with the other students, “potions is a pretty hard class.” They stop as they get to the door to their classroom, she gives Sunset a meaningful look as she heads to a table. Sunset and the other American girls find seats, and they look to the front of the room. The teacher is there, dressed in flowing black robes.

“I do dislike having to introduce myself multiple times.” He murmurs softly, “But I am the potions master for Hogwarts. I trust you Americans have your potions books with you.”

Sunset grabs her potions book, and watches as her friends pull out theirs as well, Snape’s face twists into a smirk, “At least some small consolation there.” Sunset frowns, he seems to be disappointed that they are prepared. She glances at Pinkie Pie, who seems to be fascinated by reading pages in the book.

He looks at all of the students, “Today is going to be a fairly simple potion. I want a Pepperup potion by the end of the class.”

As Sunset flips though the pages in her book she shakes her head slowly. Potion brewing was never big part of the Gifted Unicorn School as spells were so much more convenient. The potions teacher she, Mr Brewworth had was an earth pony who had studied abroad with the Zebras. There are also the stories of the deer and their potions, but that is mostly legend. As Sunset looks across the page at the ingredients, she lets a slow smile slip. She can do this, a few of the ingredients look strange, but she can do this.

Fluttershy, on the other hand, seems to be lost, looking at the page before her, she begins to play with her hair, hiding her face. Sunset slides over to her, "What's wrong? She whispers.

“I don’t even begin to know how to do this, Sunset.” Fluttershy whispers back softly.

Sunset draws her up to join the other students heading to the stock of ingredients, “It’s a lot like cooking, just follow the recipe. You don’t have to do perfect on it.”

Fluttershy pets Rupert absently, “Okay, if you think I can do it.”

That gets a smile from Sunset as they look over the stock. She picks up two vials, then turns when she hears Fluttershy squeak. Her arm is being gripped by the teacher, pulling her away from Sunset, “How are you talking to that snake?” He snarls at her.

Fluttershy opens her mouth, only to have nothing come out as he pulls her away from the shelves of ingredients, “Talking to snakes is not something just anyone can do. Only very special Slytherin members have that ability.” He releases her and produces his wand, “Draw your wand,” He sneers, “Show your abilities.”

Sunset reaches for her own wand, when all the potion’s books glow blue softly and whip into the air, they form a circle, speeding around Rarity, who has her wand pointed at the teacher, “Give me an excuse.” Rarity growls, “That is my friend right there you are wanting to fight. You’ll have to get through me first.”

The teacher looks at the dozens of books whirling around Rarity, and the deadly concentration in her eyes, “It seems you girls are more versed in magic than I had thought.” He says softly, “Well, a visit to the headmaster will teach you some manners.” He smiles darkly, “Or a week or two of detention down in the dungeons will work.” His own wand disappears as he whirls away, clearly expecting them to follow. Rarity moves over to the trembling Fluttershy and puts a hand on her shoulder as the books whirl back to where they were taken from.

The trip to the headmaster’s office is undertaken in total silence. Sunset looks back at Fluttershy, who is being comforted by Rarity as they walk. She turns and glares at the teacher’s back. Though the castle is quite large, it isn’t long before they are once again in the headmaster’s office.

“Ah, Severus, what do you have for me today?” Comes the voice of Dumbledore, then he steps into the room and sees the girls there with the potions master, “Oh, the Americans.”

Snape reaches down and grabs the snake right behind its head and yanks it from Fluttershy, who flinches at the touch. The snake struggles in his grasp, “She’s a parseltongue, this snake is highly venomous, and yet is acting like a pet. It’s very possible these students are affiliated with the Death Eaters. Yet you allowed them…”

Snape is interrupted by a Jolly laugh from Dumbledore, "Oh Severus, sometimes I think you see the dark arts everywhere. These girls are actually more special than you know." A red and orange bird swoops down and lands on Fluttershy’s shoulder before he nuzzles her fondly.

Dumbledore looks at his phoenix, "Miss Fluttershy has a bond with animals, in some ways it is akin to the shamans, but much more powerful." He draws his wand, and with a flick levitates the snake from Snape' grasp, "She lacks any affinity with dark magics, and in fact does not use magic as we understand it at all." The snake floats to Fluttershy, who opens her hands for the snake to land on.

Snape looks at the snake winding itself contentedly around her hand, then back at Dumbledore, “And yet they use magic, if they are not witches, why are they here?”

Dumbledore sighs and presses on the bridge of his nose with two fingers, “They are being kept safely here because of a danger that knows of their origins.” He moves over to Sunset, “You girls may leave, apparently I need to let Professor Snape into the fold regarding you girls and your abilities. As a head teacher he should know.”
Sunset looks at Dumbledore, then over at Snape, “Yes, professor.” She says softly as she gathers up the other girls and they slowly file from the office.

***

Lucious Malfoy looks at the ram standing before him. A small part, in the back of his mind, is screaming that everything is wrong, he’s serving the wrong master, yet his mouth moves of its own accord, “Yes, Master. House Malfoy is behind you.”

Grogar smiles, “Good. Now we need to gather more of you pure blood wizards.” The ram turns and walks towards Thorfin, “Have you also been recruiting more wizards to gain power here?” His bell chimes softly and magic fills the room, “As you can see, I have more power than your dark lord.” He looks back at Malfoy, “All of those muggles, all of the mudbloods shall become slaves.” His smile turns, and it chills Malfoy’s soul, “Or they shall burn.”

“That Potter cost me a good slave.” Lucious growls.

Another ringing of the bell by the ram and he levitates into the air, coming close to Malfoy, “You are following me now. You serve me faithfully, and your house shall have as many slaves as you desire.” The bell tolls again, intensifying the pain in the human’s head.

Lunara, the greater sooty owl, slowly blinks before turning her head. She spreads her wings wide, she flies from her normal perch in the Malfoy study. She takes to the air outside, her wings working silently. It is rare for her to go out without a message. This, however, is important.

Chapter 8.

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Applejack’s eyes open of their own volition. With a glance at the clock she smiles before stretching out in bed. She’s always been used to waking up early on the farm, and even though this isn’t her farm, today is no exception. She reaches over into the pocket of her school robes, she left them hanging on the chair beside her bed, and finds a lighter. She’s always prepared, since she can’t make fire with a wand like some of her friends. She flicks the lighter open and runs a thumb along the striker wheel. She reaches over with the lighter and touches the flame to the candelabra. Lighting one candle causes the other two to light as well and she flicks the lighter to close its lid and extinguish the flame. She shakes her head, the magic in this world, it’s everywhere. She sits up and looks down at herself. The dressing gown is a bit warmer than her usual pajamas, she finds she likes it. She stands up and pads down the stairs to head to the toilet. A few minutes later, she emerges and walks slowly up the stairs back to their bedroom.

She glances over at Fluttershy, who somehow has two cats, an owl, and a dozen other birds are snuggled up with her in her covers. In stark contrast to Fluttershy’s peacefulness, Rainbow Dash is snoring loudly, she’s kicked off her covers and is spread eagle on the bed, wearing boxers and a t-shirt, completely passed out. That gets a smile from Applejack. All the rest of her friends are sleeping peacefully except for Sunset, who seems to be having a bad dream, she’s muttering in her sleep and tossing and turning. Applejack moves over and places a hand on her friend’s shoulder. The contact causes Sunset to relax and snuggle into her covers, Applejack takes a moment to pull the covers over her flame haired friend and she moves back over to her bed. She pulls one of the books from the library out and opens it, she may not understand all the magic here, but she does understand the plants in herbology, and some of the creatures she’s learning about with that giant teacher. She leans back to read. Her eyes scanning over the pages as the world around her slowly awakens.

“Hmpf…g’morning.” Twilight says as she slowly puts her feet on the floor, and in a matter of minutes, the rest of the girls are, for the most part, awake and functional. Applejack tosses aside her covers and takes a few minutes to get dressed, she pulls on her silver trimmed black robes and helps her friends getting ready. The cats from Fluttershy’s bed are joined by two ferrets and a fox that apparently were under the covers with her. Fluttershy opens the window to allow the birds to fly off. It’s time for breakfast, and Applejack can feel her stomach calling.

The walk to the grand hall is generally uneventful with several of the paintings nodding and saying ‘good morning’ as Applejack walks by. Finding an open seat, she sits down on the bench she’s been using the last couple of days for meals. Apparently, breakfast isn’t quite ready yet, even though the chatter of all the students has started. Applejack watches the bleary-eyed night owls stumble to their own seats while the morning people either sit and chatter, or nudge their tired brethren. Soon a small chime sounds and piles of food appear on the platters. Used to good ole country breakfasts, Applejack looks at the offerings and sighs. This fancy British food just doesn’t cut the mustard. There’s no grits, or dumplings and what they have for gravy just is wrong to her for breakfast, watery and dark instead of the silky cream of southern white. She pushes up the arms of her robes and grabs some bacon, though she prefers side pork bacon rather than the back bacon they have here. The fried tomatoes and mushrooms make their way onto her plate, along with thick cut toast and several fried eggs. She looks over at Rarity, who has a single poached egg along with a big glass of pumpkin juice, “That’s all you are eating, Rares?” She asks jovially.

Rarity sighs and picks up her fork daintily, “One mustn’t gorge themselves, Applejack.”

Applejack shrugs and takes a bite, watching her other friends pile on the food. Her meal disappears quickly and soon enough, the gong announces the early morning class. Most of the students get up and shuffle off for their morning classes. Those without an early class either head off for their house common rooms, or stay in the great hall. Applejack stands up after she watches most of her friends leave. She’s going to explore this strange old castle. She heads out of the great hall and walks around, looking for stairs. Finally she finds a set going in the direction she wants. She walks slowly down the stairs a couple of levels and finally walks down a narrow hall. Lights up ahead and the sound of work being done draws her forward. She blinks as she gets into a large room. Judging by the smell, it’s the kitchen, she marvels at the rows of tables all down the middle of the enormous room. The food that had disappeared from the great hall is now down here. Twilight had told her a little about the kitchens work here.

“May Dobby help you miss?” Comes a small voice. Applejack turns and looks, a short creature is there, he’s a little over two feet tall, with a big head and very large eyes, topped off with two enormous ears sticking out the sides of his head. He’s dressed in what looks like an old discarded pillowcase. She glances back at the table, and dozens more of the little creatures, all dressed in what seem to be tea towels are scurrying around, picking up the platters of food and are cleaning up after breakfast.

Applejack kneels down, “Ah’ve been told this is where the vittles are rustled up for the studen’s here.”

The creature smiles uncertainly, he shakes his head, causing his large ears to flap, “Dobby thinks he understands you mistress, are you asking if the food is prepared here? These are the kitchens for Hogwarts, so yes, it is.”

Applejack smiles, “Great, do ya do the cookin’?” She keeps trying to remember what exactly is living down here.

The creature nods, “If Dobby may ask, Mistress, you talk very different than the other students here.”

Applejack sticks out a hand, “Tha’s because ah’m from America. Name’s Applejack. Nice to meetcha.” Dobby hesitantly reaches out his hand and Applejack grabs it and enthusiastically begins to shake his hand, which has the unfortunate side effect of lifting the poor creature off the ground. Applejack flinches away, “Sorry.” She flexes her hand, quite aware of the gloves that are folded and resting in her back pocket, “Still getting used to the new magical strength.”

Dobby holds his hand with the other, “Oh, it’s quite alright, miss.” He turns and walks towards the rest of the kitchen. He goes up to another of the small creatures and pats her on her shoulder, he looks up to her with mournful eyes, “Dobby has been trying to help Winky here. But tis the life of a dismissed house-elf.” He sighs.

Applejack’s eyes widen, house-elves. That’s what they are. She kneels down, “Ah wuz wonderin, do ya house-elves know how to cook American vittles?”

Dobby cocks his head to the side, “Vittles?”

She smiles, “Food.”

Dobby shakes his head slowly, “I’m sorry mistress Applejack, but we can cook all kinds of food, but Dobby has never heard of…” He pauses for a moment, flicking his ears back and forth, “Vittles.”

Applejack stands up, “Well, I can certainly help y’all learn how to do some differen’ cookin ‘round here.” She walks up to a stove, “First thing, y’all need to learn about a little thing called gravy.” She grabs a big frying pan and sets it on the stovetop and cranks up the heat, “Let’s start with some sausage. And some milk. I’ll find the right seasoning for the gravy.” She says as one of the other house elves comes up with a package of pork sausage wrapped in white butcher paper.

***

The gong tolls as Applejack makes her way towards her first actual class of the day. The house-elves down in the kitchens have been extremely kind, and most seemed to be quite keen on learning a new kind of cooking. The half dozen recipes that she showed them all came off quite well. She was even able to find some corn meal to coat the tomatoes before they fry them. She grins as she thinks of the students here trying some down home southern cooking. She’s looking forward to heaping full bowls of sausage gravy. She stops at the top of a set of stairs, this Grogar that Twilight and Sunset were talking about. The creature that scared Sunset so badly is still out there, and she’s thinking about food. She shakes her head softly, she’ll be ready to deal with him if and when he shows up again. Though Dumbledore has assured them that the school itself is quite safe, she keeps her gloves with her all the time, just in case they are needed. She glances over to watch Pinkie Pie bounce along another corridor, followed by those twins, Fred and George. She shakes her head and heads towards her class.

Applejack sits down and pulls out the stack of books for this class. Five books for one class. She opens up ‘Ancient Runes Made Easy’ by Laurenzoo and flips through the pages. She loves to read, mainly fiction though. And runes have shown up in quite a few of the fantasy stories she’s read. Especially some of the Norse books she’s read. She mumbles as she reads, “Thor is so cute.”

Her reading is interrupted by the slamming of the door, she glances up to see a portly older witch greeting her students as she walks past them, she stops in front of Applejack, “Well, good morning. It’s good to see one of the American students has decided to show up to my class.”

Applejack finds herself blushing faintly, “Runes does seem to be an interesting subject, I’ve always liked old mythology.”

The teacher smiles, “Well, we have plenty to learn about that mythology, I’m Bathsheda Babbling.”

Applejack holds out her hand, “Applejack.” She’s careful to not use too much strength with shaking the teacher’s hand. Though the older woman does flex her hand a couple of times after letting go with a faint wince. Getting Applejack to sigh, this strength is actually somewhat of a hinderance since she’s gotten around all these witches and wizards.

Professor Babbling moves to the front of the classroom, “Good morning, students.”

“Good Morning Professor Babbling.” The students intone solemnly.

She smiles at the students all around, “Time for a history lesson today. In ancient times, the veil between worlds was much thinner than it is now. It was far easier for humans to see, and to accept, the magical world. But the magical world was only the beginning. For mages and even humans could travel to different realms. To realms of darkness and death, to realms of never ending light.”

“It was from these realms, creatures were summoned to act as guardians, to act as warriors, or to control vast territories. One such case was a powerful mage known as Minos from the Mediterranean. Minos discovered one of these portals, and through it, summoned a great beast. A humanoid bull the humans called a Minotaur. This creature could not speak or understand human tongues, but it was extremely cunning and strong.”

She paces slowly back and forth as she continues, “Minos trapped this creature below his castle, to act as a guardian of treasures, and at the same time, to strike fear into the muggles who worshiped him.”

“To access these other worlds took a portal, often viewed as a mirror, or some reflective surface. Even a pool of water at times. And with the right spell in the right location, a portal could be opened. Though there were cases of naturally opening portals... where during certain alignments of the planets, doorways would naturally form. These were rare, and often lasted only a few days until the alignment ended. Then one would have to wait months, years, or longer for the portal to open again. In modern times, however, no such portals are known to exist. All have been sealed by mages for security reasons.”

Applejack leans back as she listens, a bit of worry settling in her stomach, portals that are only open a short time. And then are closed for an extended period, and then others that are made by mages. Her mind flashes back to home, and the reflective surface of the portal that Sunset Shimmer had used. Could there be a connection?

***

Applejack pokes her head into the great hall. She’s not all that hungry, but she wants to see what’s going on with her friends. With her connection to the Earth, and her love of herbology as they call it here, she finds herself naturally drawn to the house in this school called Hufflepuff. She’s read up on the founder of the house, Helga Hufflepuff. And from what she’s seen, herbology is a big part of the house. The herbology teacher is also the house leader, she’s found out. Just like that detestable Snape is the head of the Slytherin house.

“Oh, just shut it!” Comes a voice, getting Applejack to perk up, she watches a younger red haired girl get up from the Gryffindor table. She runs off towards the main entrance to the school. Applejack looks back at where she was sitting, the other kids look a bit abashed, but no one gets up to follow. A couple of boys laugh as they walk back to the Slytherin table. One of them has bright white blonde hair. Applejack growls, those boys have been disgusting plenty of times, then she moves towards the entrance.

She turns and heads towards the long covered bridge that heads to Hogsmeade, she has a hunch. Not too much walking brings the soft sobs of despair to her ears. The girl is sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her legs.

“Hey.” Applejack says softly.

“Go away!”

Applejack sits down next to the girl, “I’m Applejack.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I said go away.”

Applejack sighs, “Those Slytherin boys can be real jerks. I’ve only been here a few days, but it didn’t take long to discover that.”

The girl looks up, “You are one of the American girls.” Applejack can see the tear streaks down her cheeks. The girl looks down, “I’m Ginny, Ginny Weasley.”

Applejack giggles, “I’ve met your brothers.” She nudges Ginny, “I know what you are going through.”

Ginny rubs her robe along her nose, “We don’t, you know.”

Applejack raises her eyebrows, Ginny continues, “We have enough money for real food. We don’t eat horse meat.”

“That’s what he said to you?”

She nods, Applejack looks over at Ginny, her robes seem to be a bit older, hand me down likely. Though she takes a moment to swallow a couple of times. Knowing that Sunset has equine origins, the thought of eating horse meat turns her stomach. She nudges the younger girl, “Let me tell you about someone that reminds me of that Slytherin boy.”

“Malfoy”

“Yeah, that darn scoundrel, Malfoy.” Applejack says then sighs, “Ah have a younger sister, just the cutest kin and she’s a couple of years shy of you. But there's another girl her age at school. Goes by the name of Diamond Tiara. Her kin is rich, I mean filthy stinkin' rich buy a farm just to build a shopping mall rich.” She shakes her head and huffs, “And this 'daddy's lil' princess' thinks that having all that money makes someone better than everyone else.” She looks down the length of the bridge. “She’s been making life for ma sister pretty rough ah tell you. So, ah keep telling ma baby sis that she needs to ignore the other girl. We are a farm family, simple folk, we can’t always have all the best things, or money we need to get all the fancy stuff in life. But we work hard with what we have.” She smiles at Ginny, “Ah keep telling her, more money doesn’t make someone better than another, it simply means you have more things. But money doesn’t guarantee what really matters. Now don't get me wrong, I ain't against money or the finer things. Ah have family that lives in the big city, with huge TV's, fancy cars, and all the fru fru stuff. But sometimes ah just think that all gets in the way of who we really are. You, your a nice girl. Malfoy, he's the stuff that comes out of the south end of a north facing cow. Useful, but you just don't wanna hang around it too long.”

Ginny looks at her, her tears starting to abate, “Then what matters?”

Applejack’s voice softens, “Family, and friends. Thems what matters most. When yeh have that kind of money, you have acquaintances, you have people paid to be around you. Those are not friends. Her dad is working all the time, in reality, Diamond Tiara is a very lonely girl. While she has Silver Spoon, but Silver is in the same spot that Diamond is. They are both very lonely girls.” She leans over and elbows the other girl very gently, “Which is similar to that Draco I would think.”

Ginny sniffs and offers a watery smile, “Thank you Applejack.” She says softly.

The loud gong sounds, it’s time for students to head to their next class, “What class do you have next?”

“Care of Magical Creatures.”

“What a coincidence, so do I!” Applejack beams, “let’s head over to that Hagrid’s hut, k?” She stands up and offers a hand to the younger lady.

Ginny takes the offered hand, and Applejack pulls her up easily. Ginny flexes her hand a little, “Boy, you certainly are strong.”

Applejack nods, “Yeah, it’s from being around all you magic folk.”

Ginny frowns, “But you’d be around magic folk living as a mage in the US.”

Applejack thinks furiously for a moment, “Well, muh parents were non-magical folks.”

Ginny smiles, “Here, in the UK, we call you muggle born. I think in the US, muggles are called no mags?”

Applejack nods, “That’s what I’ve been told.” She says truthfully.

They turn and walk out of the castle towards Hagrid’s hut. The enormous man is standing there, Fluttershy is standing next to him. Once all the students assemble, he leads them into the forest. Fluttershy moves over to Applejack, “I think you’ll like today’s creature.”

Applejack nods, “I’m pretty sure I will, Fluttershy.” She winks at Ginny, “most of the magical animals I’ve seen around here are pretty nice.”

They walk in silence into the forest, following their teacher. Before too long, they are in a clearing. Hagrid moves forward spryly, despite his size. His voice floats back to them, “Today you are in for a treat.” That gets a giggle from Fluttershy, “They much prefer girls, but ya gotta remember to show them respect.”

Applejack looks around at all the students, she notices one white blonde head standing a bit taller among the other Slytherins. All the Griyffindores are standing and watching. She nudges Ginny and gestures subtly towards Malfoy, the fourth year student among the third years. Ginny looks over and giggles softly.

“Alright, what we have today is a creature that inhabits many of the forests of Europe, along with Hogwarts own Forbidden Forest. They do prefer to interact with human females, and they can be rather skittish. They are also extremely fleet of hoof, and any human tends to have a lot of trouble catching them.” His voice gets closer, “They are also fast enough to outpace werewolves with ease.” He emerges with a pure white creature.

“A unicorn.” Ginny breathes softly.

"That's right Ginny, now, remember these are majestic creatures so you can not touch them unless you have permission." Hagrid smiles as he motions to the unicorn, "As you can see, their coats could make even snow look dull and grey in comparison, so tell me. Who knows what color unicorns are when they are born?"

With a smile on her face, Fluttershy moves over to Hagrid. Taking note of the girl, the unicorn nuzzles Fluttershy’s arm. With a soft giggle, Fluttershy hugs the unicorn back, wrapping both arms around its neck and rubbing her cheek against it.

Ginny holds up her hand, waving it energetically, when Hagrid points to her, she calls out, "Gold, they only turn white after the first year."

"That's right, ten points for Gryffindor." Hagrid says, "Now as I said, these creatures are very skittish and do not usually come near people."

The Unicorn looks around at the assembled students, then it seems to focus on Applejack. The horned equine lets out a squeak and high steps towards her, the other students shrink back as it stops right in front of her. Sniffing the air, the unicorn tilts her head and softly speaks, “You are Eponese?”

Applejack looks around, wide eyed. She opens her mouth, though nothing comes out. She takes a moment to swallow, “Beggen' yer pardon? Eponese?”

“Like Fluttershy, you have Equine magic in you? I can feel the harmony of it.”

Applejack looks around, she tries to read the looks on the faces around her, she considers how to respond, and finally she settles on the truth, “I’ve been touched by that kind of magic, but I don't be havin’ any of that stuff myself.”

The unicorn nods then puts her muzzle against Applejacks shoulder, so her horn is over the girls neck, “Not true, just like with Fluttershy, I can sense powerful magic in you. Your soul is Eponese.”

“What’s it saying, Applejack?” Says Ginny.

Applejack shakes her head, “I know she's talkin’ a little softly, but still. She’s talking, plain as day, like you or me. You're close enough that you should hear her just fine.” She says softly.

Ginny frowns, “I hear whickers and neighs, Applejack, not English.”

Applejack’s eyes widen even further, she looks over at Fluttershy so see her standing, eyes wide as saucers in shock.

“Well, isn’t that interesting.” Ginny says louder.

“It’s not interesting at all, its bloody boring.” Draco Malfoy says as he pushes the younger students out of the way, "Oh come on, how bright can this animal be? All you need to do is whinny to it and it walks over... No smarter than a horse. Right?"

The unicorn turns her head to face the boy, she flattens her ears stiffly against her neck as she does. Her face wrinkles almost into a scowl as she sticks her tail straight back and scuffs at the ground with a foreleg. A defiant snort of something neither Applejack nor Fluttershy cares to repeat was given

Hagrid quickly moves between the boy and the unicorn before speaking sternly, “Perhaps if you paid attention in my class, Mr. Malfoy, and had learned what I’ve tried to teach you, then you wouldn’t have to repeat some of these classes when I’m quite certain you would much prefer a free period today.”

Malfoy directs a dirty look at his teacher and moves away, muttering fiercely, Applejack makes out something about his father taking care of the big oaf. With a shake of her head she moves over to Fluttershy, she leans forward and whispers softly, “You can understand her too?”

Fluttershy nods, “Well yes, but I thought it was just because I can understand all the animals here. I’m surprised you can understand her, I’m guessing we can because we have used the elements of harmony.” She whispers back, “I’m going to have to tell Sunset about this, if they can talk to anyone that’s been touched by the magic of her home, there might be something more to unicorns here than we know.”

Applejack nods as she watches a Slytherin girl move cautiously forward under Hagrid’s instructions. The unicorn looks at Applejack, then she whickers softly as she nods her head, Applejack can hear that it was a whicker, but she also understood it’s meaning. The Slytherin girl extends a hand and the unicorn allows itself to be petted.

“Excellent.” Hagrid says, he looks around at the other students, “As I said, unicorns do prefer women, though the younger ones tend to be a little more open minded. She’s just over a year old, so…” He looks around and points, “You’re next.”

The Gryffindor boy shuffles slowly forward. Applejack watches the unicorn’s ears flick back and forth as she thinks about the boy, she looks at Applejack. Applejack looks at the boy, who seems more scared than anything else, and nods very slightly, the boy pets her gently, mentioning how soft her mane is before he backs away to the rest of the students.

Hagrid spends the rest of the class explaining more about the unicorns and their lives in the United Kingdom. Both Fluttershy and Applejack are enraptured to learn about these magnificent creatures. Every so often, Applejack would look over at Ginny, noting that she seems to be just as enthralled with the information as well. Before too long, Hagrid dismisses the class, and Applejack bids Fluttershy good bye, they’ll meet again for the Astronomy lab during the night. Dinner will be soon, and since she skipped lunch, she’s looking forward to the planned supper that she had discussed with the house-elves, chicken fried steak with cream gravy and all the fixins. She grins as she enters the castle, today has been a wonderful day.

Chapter 9.

View Online

“Goooooooooooood Morning Fluttershy!” Comes Pinkie Pie’s voice right next to her ear. Fluttershy’s eyes open wide, seeing nothing but pink. Pinkie is hugging her. She shakes off her dream, it was so peaceful, and to wake up to Pinkie Pie’s exuberance, is a bit jarring. She rubs the ear of the ferret down by her hip before dragging her hand out from the covers to wrap around Pinkie and hug her back.

Two of the owls on the edge of the bed hop towards her, hooting a greeting. She smiles at them as Pinkie stands up. Then Pinkie rips off her covers while yelling, “Time to wake up!” Fluttershy watches some of the birds take to the air, and she clutches her arms around herself.

Pinkie cocks her head to the side, “You aren’t sleeping nude, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy giggles, “Oh yeah.” She looks at her pajamas, a creamy yellow onesie, the ends of the sleeves and the cuffs look like hooves. And soft wings hang from the back. She puts her feet on the floor and gives Pinkie Pie another hug, “Thanks.”

Pinkie bounces away as Fluttershy heads down out of the bedroom so she can freshen up for the day. And before too long, she’s dressed along with her friends in the Hogwarts robes that they had gotten at Diagon Alley. One of the smaller owls is perched on her shoulder, a small scopes owl that had been the source of all of this. He bounces up and down on her shoulder as they make their way through the old castle.

“Got a new friend there Fluttershy?” Applejack says as they walk down the stairs.

Fluttershy looks at the small owl, “His name is Pigwidgeon. And he’s rather hyper.”

“Now, that’s a name.” Applejack says.

Fluttershy nods, “Oh, he’s really sweet. He’s supposed to be in another tower, in the schools owlery, but he would rather be where people are.”

Her friend hip checks her as they walk, “You mean, wherever you are, Fluttershy.” She says gently.

Fluttershy nods as they make it into the great hall. The food doesn’t seem to be ready yet, so her and the rest of the American girls find seats. Though before too long the food magically appears before them. Fluttershy smiles as she grabs some fried eggs, along with bacon and some fresh fruits. She slices a fried egg into quarters and gives a piece to the little owl, who gobbles it down greedily. She takes a sip of her pumpkin juice and continues eating, the ferret hanging out in the hood of her robes getting a morsel from her every so often. Soon enough, she’s done eating. And an owl’s call announces the incoming post. Dozens upon dozens of owls make their way into the great hall, dropping their burdens to the different students.

One owl hops up in front of her, a copy of a newspaper in its beak. She picks it up and thanks the owl, which doesn’t immediately leave, but instead pecks at a second owl dropping something off for her. She glances at the addressee and it simply says Hogwarts student. Her eyebrows arch as a third, then a fourth owl all hop up and down in front of her, vying for her attention. “Now, you have to do your jobs first,” she admonishes the owls, where a couple hop down the table to give their parcels to other students.

A loud call gets her attention, a large winged owl is gliding right above the table, he extends his talons, and hits a pitcher of pumpkin juice, spilling the juice and causing the owl to flip end over end and finally come to rest in front of her. She reaches out, “Oh you poor thing,” she murmurs.

Ron Weasley leans over, “Poor thing? Blimey, he’s a bloody menace.”

Fluttershy takes the letter from the owl’s beak, the owl flips onto his talons and chitters a few times. She turns on Ron, her face red, “You should be ashamed of yourself, he can barely see, and he works so hard to take care of his family. But he has eye problems, they really should take better care of him.”

Ron flushes, “That’s my family’s owl, Errol.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widen, she turns to the owl, who blinks and hops over towards Ginny. Errol then chitters a bit, getting Fluttershy to look at the envelope in her hand. She glances at Ginny, who smiles and waves for her to open it. She slides a finger underneath the flap, and pulls out the note. She looks up, “It’s from your mother.”

Ginny giggles, “I gathered that, since Errol brought it, go ahead.”

Fluttershy clears her throat, “Thanks so much dearie for the photos from the first challenge. Those dragons were scary, though I was aware that Charlie was involved in acquiring them for the Ministry. I didn’t realize how threatening they really were. Make sure to congratulate Harry on his success in the challenge. And Ginny, make sure to keep an eye on Ron. Him and Harry tend to make a mess of things when they are together, so they really need you to hunker down and keep them on the straight and narrow.” She looks up at Ginny, who’s smiling. She hands the letter over to the younger girl.

Ginny looks at the letter, “I sent mum some pictures I took of the challenge.” She glances at Harry, who is busy shoveling food into his face, “I’m glad she likes them.” Her face turns bright red as she puts the letter into robes. Fluttershy rubs the owl’s cheek for a moment then stands up as the loud gong finally sounds, she can’t wait until the afternoon class she’s got coming up with that wonderful Hagrid. But this morning is going to be quite different.

She walks with Rainbow Dash through the main stairwell, then they start climbing, once they get into one of the taller towers, then they start climbing the tower itself. As they climb, small windows are spaced in the stairwell, and Fluttershy watches how high they are getting. Though she can see the astronomy tower, which is even higher, this one is pretty large by itself. Finally they get to a wooden door, Rainbow pushes the door open, and they move into the large class room. Circular in shape, with a high ceiling. That ceiling is enchanted similar to how it is in the great hall. The bright ascending sun is quite visible, and the various desks for the students are placed around the room. Rainbow and Fluttershy settle into adjoining desks as the other students make their way into the classroom.

“Good morning students.” The teacher says jovially.

“Good morning Professor Thalumanimbus.” The students intone solemnly.

The willowy slim witch with bright white hair, yet a very youthful appearance prances around the classroom. She smiles wide, showing beautiful white teeth, “Remember students, wand work is going to be far later in the class, so don’t bother pulling out your wands right now.” She doesn’t notice Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s soft sighs as she continues, pulling out her own wand, “Now, you’ve learned about the basic cloud types, but I’m going to show you some of the basic ways to manipulate the weather.” She points her wand and white wisps start to form in the room. She twirls her wand and the wisps grow and move in response to her gyrations, and in a matter of minutes the cloud she’s building ends up gray and ominous.

“Now students, this is a thundercloud, you’ll likely encounter it on fairly long distance flights on your broom. Note the airflow patterns, the upwells and downdrafts. All of this can make flying very dangerous for broom flight.” She points, “Today, we are going to be closely examining one part of the cloud effect, the microburst pattern here.” The cloud continues to roil darkly in the room, “This type of wind has caught many a wizard unawares.”

Slowly, she walks around the cloud, holding her wand like a pointer, "The cloud itself stores massive amounts of energy. Air from around the edges is drawn up like this." With a flick of her wand, she highlights the airflow patterns, then continues, "If however... Fluttershy, wand away, this is informational not practical."

Fluttershy jumps, “I wasn’t.” She squeaks.

The teacher steps forward, “Then what do you have in your hand?”

Fluttershy holds out her hand, holding a tuft of cloud, “I…just…” She stammers.

Rainbow Dash giggles as she reaches out and grabs a sizeable chunk for herself, "Yep, they’re clouds, soft and fluffy." Balling the cloud matter up a bit, she smiles, "Almost like a cross between cotton candy and silk thread..." With a glance around at the other students, Dash clears her throat, "Not that I have much experience with silk."

The teacher arches an eyebrow, "Well this is unexpected." With a glance towards the other students first, she looks back down to Fluttershy and in almost a mothering voice, "Continue what you are doing, lass."

“Yes, professor.” Fluttershy says softly, she starts to fold the water vapor of the cloud, molding and shaping it. She can feel the power inside her as folds the shape to form wings. In a matter of moments, she’s formed the cloud into the shape of a sparrow. She holds the cloud before the wide eyes of the teacher as a pegasus pony shaped cloud floats by. She glances over at Rainbow Dash, “Showoff.” She mutters, getting a giggle from her friend.

"Mon Dieu, this is incroyable. How you do this?" Says the girl sitting behind Fluttershy, she looks back at the girl. She’s actually slightly older than Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. She has white blonde hair and is extraordinarily beautiful, Fluttershy takes a moment to identify her accent.

Fluttershy reaches out and draws some more of the cloud material to her, "There's sort of an energy... in the cloud, or a difference of energy. I guess... you can sort of feel it, when you’re holding it... It’s different than the feel of the air around it. Because of the water I think." She plays with the cloud material, and pulls on the energy inside her as she does so, the cloud slowly grows as she plays with it, though it stays puffy and white as she makes it larger.

Drawing her wand to help her, Fleur tilts her head, "Ah, I see, it is, how do you say, subtil."

Fluttershy smiles and nods as she holds up the cloud for the other girl to work on it. After a few moments she puts her wand down and holds out a hand, “"I am Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons Accademie."

Fluttershy grasps the proffered hand gently, "Umm… Fluttershy of... Canterlot Academy... I guess... umm, and this is Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy stammers quickly as she motions to Dash.

"Mmmm.... Fluffy..." Dash mumbles. She had formed a piece of cloud tuft into a pillow and was now resting her head on it on top of the desk.

"Canterlot? I have not heard of dis."

"Its a small school in America." Fluttershy squeaks.

The teacher’s voice comes from across the room, “Well, it usually takes a wand to be able to make something as insubstantial as water vapor to be shaped and molded.” She draws out her own wand once again, “Let’s show some of the students without a natural aptitude to handle this. Remember, students, this class is about affecting the weather, and in ways to keep muggles unawares.” She gestures with her wand, drawing a piece of the cloud to her, “For most mages, you need to use your wand to affect the clouds. And muggles do sometimes notice when a mage has spent time forming a cloud into a pleasing shape.” She giggles as she forms the piece of cloud she had brought to herself into a kitten. She taps it with her wand and the cloud kitten scrubs it’s ear and licks it’s paw. “But one must always be careful to not be too detailed when it comes to cloud forming. Though, it can be a very fun pass time.”

Fleur looks at the snoozing Rainbow Dash, "Your friend, she is not one for class?"

"She's, more the athlete, action adventure type. She'd rather be on the cloud than reading about it."

Fleur giggles as she plays with the cloud with Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash is snoring softly as the two stretch the cloud and wrap it up into fanciful shapes.

***

Fluttershy and Fleur walk slowly towards the Great Hall, Rainbow Dash had taken off for places unknown after the first class of the day, but Fleur had joined her in her second morning class. Though her grumbling tummy is telling her that food is a really good idea right now.

Her and Fleur sit together, Fleur smiles as the lunch food appears before them, grilled cheese sandwiches, along with thick tomato soup. She pulls a sandwich to her, along with a bowl full of the soup. She picks up the sandwich and takes a bite.

Fleur nudges her, “That odieux petit boy again, he is, how you say, up to something?”

Fluttershy glances up, Draco Malfoy has a few of his friends flanking him as he slowly walks over to the table, he settles down before Ginny and a couple of her friends. He reaches over and picks up quarter of a sandwich and stuffs it in his mouth, swallowing quickly, “So, little miss Weasley.”

She looks down, “Malfoy.”

“Must be nice to have real food at school.”

She cringes.

He looks at one of the boys next to him, “I wonder if her clothes are hand-me downs from her brothers.”

“Shut it Malfoy.” Ginny growls.

That gets a laugh from him, he looks over at Ron, who’s oblivious to what’s going on, “Well, given how much of a man Ron is, even his nickers are likely hand-me-downs,” He looks pointedly at Ginny, “so everything you wear must be.”

Tears sprout in her eyes, “I said shut it.”

Malfoy raises his voice, “Their mother must be so happy for them to come to school. That means she doesn’t have to spend the galleons feeding them while they are here.” He picks up another sandwich, “Feed them,” he laughs, “This is probably the first real food she’s seen.”

Fluttershy cringes and Fleur tenses.

Malfoy finishes his piece of the sandwich, “At my house, all of our meals are prepared by a proper chef.” He picks up another piece, “Something she will never understand.”

The tears start to fall from her eyes, he leans forward, “What do you do for meat back at home? Horse?”

“Oh, just shut it!” She screams and leaps up from the table, Malfoy smirks as he walks off. Fleur leans over, “If his father weren’t who he was, I’d beat him senseless.”

Fluttershy looks up, Applejack is walking in the direction that Ginny had gone, she nudges Fleur, “Applejack's going to help Ginny, if anyone can make it right she can. She's a true true friend at times like this.”

“How cruel, it is, incroyable that this is allowed.”

Ron Weasley had gotten up and is walking with a purpose towards the Slytherin table, and with a loud bang, he’s covered in confetti. Pinkie Pie bounces up to him and puts an arm around him, Fluttershy smiles and shakes her head.

***

Fluttershy walks towards the forbidden forest. Being called forbidden seems to be simply the name of the forest rather than its status. She giggles as she walks through the knee high brush at the very edge of the forest. Hagrid is seeing the young unicorn back to her herd, and will be catching up to her in a bit so they can see something he’s really excited to show her, then they can have some tea. She almost wants to skip, all the creatures all around this magical area has been such a thrill to her. And talking to them has been a wonderful experience.

A slight rustling ahead of her gathers her attention. She stops in her tracks to look. A glance around shows she’s alone. She cocks her head to the side, “Hagrid?” she calls out.

There is no answer.

Keeping her eyes on the rustling she walks to the side, Hagrid has warned her that there are plenty out here that would not be friendly towards her. Though even the centaurs running through this forest have been quite nice to her. A small explosion causes her to gasp and freeze. She looks around, then back at the rustling bushes, what’s going on here?

One of the bushes moves, could it be some animal in distress? She takes a tentative step forward, then a second.

The bush moves back and a black form slides towards her, and another slides out of the bush to trail behind. A loud rustle gets her to whirl to look back at the school. There's nothing there. Perplexed, she whirls around again and Applejack is standing there, Fluttershy puts her hand to her chest, "Oh, Applejack, I'm so glad to see you."

“Oh, it's just you Fluttershy. Who needs you anyway?” Comes from Applejack’s lips, she sneers, “You can’t even do anything to help your friends.”

Taking a step back Fluttershy blinks, "What? Why would you..."

"Not even worth our time. We should have dumped the dead weight long ago." Applejack goes on darkly.

“No!” Fluttershy whispers as she turns away, a dragon is coiled before her, ready to strike.

Applejack’s voice rings in her ears, “You are such a failure, Fluttershy, useless.”

"So many fears, so crippled, you can't even save yourself. All the animals you help end up dead anyway." Applejack goes on, stepping towards Fluttershy.

"Its not true!" Fluttershy says, putting her hands over her ears.

"And one by one your friends will die too...or leave you...but who cares?” An evil grin shows on Applejack’s face, “you like to be alone."

“No, my friends will help me, carry me through.” Fluttershy mumbles, she shakes her head, hard. There’s something wrong here, this isn’t Applejack, this isn’t her friend.

“Useless Fluttershy, afraid Fluttershy, terrified Fluttershy, you are nothing, you are a failure.” Hisses Applejack as Fluttershy whirls around on her.

“No!” Fluttershy screams.

She turns towards the vision of her friend and extends her hands. Her body glows as her wings shimmer, a magical wind tossing her mane and filling her with energy. She can feel the power, the equestrian magic that first touched her not all that long ago. She draws deeply on it and the power extends from her hands, and it coalesces into a form. Fluttershy opens her eyes, and watches a yellow pegasus pony made of light and magic leap towards her friend, its own wings spread wide as light forms a dome in front of it like some kind of magical shock wave. The creature that was Applejack loses its ability to keep its form and fades into black mist.

The screech of an owl heralds the arrival of her friends and in a moment the sky darkens with birds. Owls from the roost meet up with crows from the wood and fields. The birds flock from everywhere, attacking the dragon, each bird with its own fears. Alternating attacks so fast that the creature has no time to fixate on one. No time to find a single fear to drive them away.

The first form slinks away morphing and changing constantly as it disappears into the woods. Fluttershy now turns towards the dragon, the pegasus head turning to face it too. With no words, no need for them, the form lashes out, flying at the dragon, the birds scattering just as the energy hits the creature.

Caught between the energy of Fluttershy's attack and the relentless birds the dragon does its best to hold its form and ground turning to snarl at Fluttershy again, "You can't defeat me, your fears are to strong."

In that instant a raccoon leaps onto Fluttershy's shoulder using her as a spring board to fly towards the dragon. Several smaller animals, badgers, skunks, and even rabbits charge from the woods followed by a large brown bear. Rearing up the bear uses his front paw like a massive club on the dragon.

Unable to concentrate, to focus, or even see its primary target, the dragon looses its shape, reverting into morphing mists and flees into the forest in the direction the other went. Even then, several of the animals pursue it, continuing to harass and make sure it doesn't return anytime soon.

The pegasus pony turns bright blue and fades away as Fluttershy collapses to her knees, the birds start to take off to where they had come from, and the bear comes up an nuzzles her momentarily before shambling slowly into the woods.

“A patronus. Without a wand.” Come’s Hagrid’s voice. Fluttershy looks up to the big man, he kneels down next to her, “You didn’t even say the spell.” He says in wonder.

“Please, Hagrid. You can’t tell anyone.” Fluttershy sobs as her magic fades, “Not even the headmaster.”

Hagrid frowns, “But why? That was wondrous.”

Fluttershy looks up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks, “Please, I’m not a mage, you know that.” He nods, she continues, “I can’t do your magic, but I’m different than the muggles, they don’t need to find out about this.” She gathers herself, standing slowly and drawing out the fake wand, “I can’t use this. I’m not a witch.” She shoves it back into its pocket in her robes as she looks around at the animals slowly leaving, the racoon comes up sits down next to her reaching out with its claws. She picks it up, “I will do whatever I can here. But, I’m no mage. Please, Hagrid, keep this to yourself.”

Hagrid scratches the racoon behind an ear, “Fine lass, I’ll keep your secret.”

***

Fluttershy reclines in her chair, flipping idly through a book. She’s still working to calm her nerves after the boggarts from earlier. Hagrid has been explaining them to her for the last hour or so.

“Are ya feelin better” He asks softly as he refreshes her tea.

She nods, “Thank you Hagrid, if you hadn’t come along. I don’t know what I would have done.”

He almost chokes, “What you would have done? I’ve never seen anyone take on two boggarts without the riddikulus charm. And you made a patronus work against them.”

She pulls her hair behind her ear, “Well, I did have help.”

He chuckles, “In about a thousand birds, a bear, squirrels, a racoon, and a half dozen other creatures.”

She nods, scratching under the chin of the racoon, who is happily munching on a scone. “Animals are important to me, they make me happy.”

“And what about the ears, and the wings?”

She looks down, “You know how Professor Dumbledore has said about Sunset’s origins, and the magic we’ve done?”

He nods.

“Well, when those things were attacking me, I knew I needed help, I couldn’t do it all on my own. So, I felt that magic, and I called for help.” She giggles, “I didn’t know how many around here would answer my call.”

Hagrid snorts, “Probably about half the forest.”

She giggles.

“Magizoology” Hagrid says as he leans forward.

“Magi what?”

Hagrid smiles, “Magizoology. That book you are holding was written by one of the best magizoologists in history. One Newt Scamander.”

She flips through the pages, “There are so many.”

He nods, “Newt was pivotal in cataloguing so many creatures. Before he pushed for us to care for the magical creatures in our world, they were either used for what they could do, or worse yet, neglected and allowed to simply fend for themselves. Woe be it to any muggle that came across a centaur or a boggart.”

They both sip their tea, finally he puts his tea down, “I’ve got something to show you, Fluttershy,” he says as he stands up, “I think you’ll find it interesting.” He offers her a hand to help her up, then recoils as the snake wrapped around her arm hisses at him, “Boy, a bit touchy isn’t he?”

She giggles, “Just a little protective.” She holds her arm out and the snake slithers off, Hagrid keeps an eye on the venomous reptile as he exits the cabin, “He’s hungry anyway, but he likes body heat.”

Hagrid shakes his head, “Well, the dragons are just about to be shipped back home. They couldn’t find anything more with the one Harry was against.”

Fluttershy sighs, “I saw Sunset battling Grogar, Hagrid. He scared me.”

Hagrid’s eyes widen, “Oh, I have no doubt in what you girls have told me, along with what Professor Dumbledore has said. This monster is dangerous. I just hope we can stop him.”

Fluttershy takes his proffered arm, “I have faith in Sunset and Twilight. And also your Professors here. Together, we can beat him.”

“I hope you are right, Fluttershy.”

She nods smartly, “I know I am. Together, we will win.”

Chapter 10.

View Online

Curling her forelegs under herself, Pinkie Pie looks up at the sky. Clouds drift by above, the sun is warming her back, the wind plays with her mane and tail, “This is nice,” she murmurs.

Rolling over onto her back, Pinky watched a sundae shaped cloud drift by, “No responsibilities. No pressure. No expectations for me. Sometime you just need time to recharge.”

A butterfly lands on the tip of Pinkie Pie’s muzzle. Tilting her head, Pinkie Pie goes cross eyed looking at it, “Twilight’s got a magic map now that shows her trouble all over the place.”

Curling her toes, Pinkie watches as a candy apple shaped cloud drifts slowly by. “Oh, a magical map, that could be useful around here. Sunset and Twilight are having so much fun using their magic, I think Sunset’s feeling like she’s back in Equestria. She’s just so happy teaching Rarity and Twilight to do all that they can do.”

Shaking her head, Pinkie Pie laughs, “Maybe that would help Twilight, a student. Someone to share her magical knowledge and friendship lessons with. So, how are you doing with magic?”

“I don’t really have magic.” Pinkie says, looking over at the pony.

Pinkie Pie shakes her head, “Well other than our ability to ignore the laws of reality at times. Oh, and our Pinkie sense.”

Pinkie nods slowly, “Well there is that. So, what’s on the board for today?”

“Decorating the castle for a party.” Pinkie Pie says as she stands up and shakes herself out before sitting and looking up at the sky. “And you?”

“I want to explore the castle somewhat, see what I can find about this place. Also need to find out more about this goat.” Watching a cloud in the shape of a stack of pancakes drift by, both look at each other. “But first...”

In stereo Pinkie’s say the one word. “Breakfast!”

Sitting up quickly Pinkie listens to her stomach grumble loudly. She looks around the dorm and grabs herself an apple before hopping out of bed to begin her day.

Fluttershy is the first for her to wake up, all of those animals sleeping with her. It’s hilarious! She giggles as she bounces around the room, and soon enough, everyone is awake and shambling downstairs. Pinkie was the first dressed for the day, though the boring black robes aren’t all that fun, she does like the silver trim. Walking down the stairs is always an experience. She greets the various paintings as they get past them. One of the large paintings is an old battleship, she flicks a wave and it washes over the bow of the ship. Pinkie giggles as several crewmembers shake their fists at her.

“Boy, there are plenty of stairs here!” Pinkie says as they finally get to the ground floor. She darts towards the great hall, food is calling her. Once the food appears, she digs in. As she eats, her pinkie sense starts to go off. Though her pinkie sense has been going off all the time here. She knows what this one is, she reaches into her magic bag.

“Hi there.” Comes a voice in her right ear.

“Pinkie Pie.” Comes a voice in her left.

Pinkie giggles, she looks to her right, “Hi Fred.” She turns her head to the other side, “Hi George.”

“I’m Fred!” says the twin to her left.

As the twin to her right says, “I’m George!”

Pinkie giggles and looks at the twin on her right, “No, you are Fred, George is the cute one.”

Both twins smile, “Our mother can’t do that.” They say in unison.

Pinkie Pie cocks her head to the side, “Why? It’s totally obvious!”

They both laugh and they both sit on each side of her, “Well, we came over here because we have a proposal for you, Pinkie Pie.” George grabs some fried eggs and puts them on a plate.

Fred continues, “Do you have any more of those Windigo ghost chili’s?”

She giggles, “Maybe.”

“We’d like to make a trade.”

Pinkie Pie perks up, “What could be valuable enough to give you the last of my peppers?”

Fred pulls out a folded stack of paper. When Pinkie picks it up, on the face of it words start to appear.

Messrs Padfoot, Prongs, Wormtail and Moony welcome Pinkie Pie to the Marauders Map, we know you are up to no good.

George looks at the map for a long time, then up at his brother, both of them say in unison, “Wicked.”

Fred shakes his head, “We have a couple of them, we…” he giggles, “borrowed one from Filch’s office, we gave that to Harry. This one belonged to Wormtail, and it was at our dad’s office.”

George picks up the conversation, “We liberated it from there. And we are giving it to you for the measly small price of.”

They say in unison, “One bag of Windigo ghost chili’s.”

Pinkie reaches into her bag and hands over the small paper bag to George, “Deal.”

After the post arrives and the loud gong sounds, signaling the beginning of classes for the day. Pinkie bounces with her friends to class. Sunset, Twilight, and Rarity all follow more sedately. It’s not all that long until they get to the seventh floor classroom, Pinkie skips into her class and sits down before her friends even get in the room. Pinkie pulls out her book and opens it up.

When Sunset gets through the door she stops for a moment, looking at Pinkie Pie, she moves over to her table next to Pinkie’s. She leans over, “Why are you dressed like that?”

Pinkie looks down at the purple scarf, and reaches up to touch the purple turban with a red gem on the front, a lavender feather sprouting up from the top, “What? Look at what we have to work with today!”

Sunset looks at the crystal balls on the various tables, she looks at Pinkie, who smiles brightly at her, then she shrugs. The teacher bustles into the front door. Pinkie winks at Fred and George as all of the students bend to their learning.

“Good morning class!”

The class responds in sullen unison, “Good morning Professor Trelawney.”

“Today, the mysterious and very useful crystal ball will be used.” She glides across the room, “With one, you can see the future, you can see the past, anything that’s relevant to what your subject needs.” She turns and heads towards the girls. She comes up to Pinkie Pie, who’s staring intently into the ball on her table, “What a beautiful getup you have there young lady.”

"What do yo see Miss Pie?" Professor Trelawney asked leaning down a bit.

"I see, I see...." Pinkie blinked slowly moving her head to the side a bit, "Oh, I see my teacher looking over my shoulder!"

Professor Trelawney stands up abruptly, “That’s merely a reflection, I’m asking you to look with your third eye.”

Pinkie blinks up at the teacher, “But aren’t all visions just reflections of things to come?”

Professor Trelawney huffs and points at the crystal ball, “Miss Pie, please be serious. Now tell me what you see.”

"I see... I see...Nope don't see anything." Pinkie says blinking. Then a shiver goes up her spine, her ears wiggle, her hair poofs out...squeaking, her leg vibrates and then she sneezes." Wow that one’s a doozie... that’s totally unexpected and unbelievable!" She says solemnly.

"What is?"

"I don't know exactly.” She looks up at the teacher, “But when it happens, it’s going to be unexpected, AND unbelievable."

“And you saw that in your crystal ball? What exactly did you see?”

Pinkie cocks her head to the side, “I didn’t see it in the ball, I felt it. It was my Pinkie Sense.”

Professor Trelawney opens her mouth to speak when a loud scream gets her to whirl around towards Sunset Shimmer, Sunset recoils back from her own crystal ball, and her hands glow briefly, the ball blasts across the room to shatter against the wall, shards of the crystal spray everywhere.

Twilight puts her hand on Sunset’s shoulder as Sunset pants softly, “It was him, he’s looking for ways to…” She hugs herself and shudders.

Professor Trelawney moves up to put a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “Sometimes the sight can bring about disturbing visions.” She draws out her snow white wand and gestures at the shards of crystal. With a muttered spell, the ball reforms and flies back towards her. She brings the ball around to set it back in front of Sunset, she kneels down, “Look into it again, dearie.”

Sunset shudders for a moment, but finally looks, after a long moment, she flinches away, “No…” She mutters, “I can’t do this.”

Professor Trelawney puts a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “It’s alright young lady, some cannot initially handle the sight. You will be able to see more. In time.” She moves over to Twilight as Pinkie Pie looks intently into her own ball.

After a long moment, Pinkie pie sighs, “I see the wall, upside down, that’s it.” She huffs and turns to watch the others as they struggle, if it’s not immediate, Pinkie Sense has its limits.

***

Pinkie skips down a hallway, the map in her hands, exploring this old castle has been totally fun. Although, right now, she’s not certain which is more fun, skipping down this hall for the second time, or watching her footsteps as she skips on the map. She turns down another corridor and stops. There’s nothing fun right here. She whirls around and walks slowly down the previous corridor once again, then she stops in her tracks. There’s a door there, she didn’t see it the last two times down this corridor. She moves slowly towards the large, ornate, wooden door. The door opens easily and she pokes her head in. Then she stops in wonder.

“I knew there was the perfect room here.” She giggles as she meanders around the room. With a glance to the map, she notes that her name has disappeared from it, which causes her eyebrows to rise. This room, however, is absolutely perfect! The full kitchen with a bulging larder makes her fingers twitch, she hasn’t baked anything in forever! The rest of the room, however, has stuff she's only ever seen in her dreams. Bouncing over to one of the filing cabinets, she pulls a drawer open, and with a quick look she grabs one of the many folders inside.

"Starswirl the Bearded, Battle spells and Defense. Collection 6." She reads aloud, then opens the folder and blinks at the parchments inside, hand scribed with diagrams and strange terms. Pinkie closes the folder and puts it back in the cabinet before starting to look around again. Pony statues line the walls, some standing on all fours, others reared in different poses. A large mirror with gold trim and gems in it stands on a pedestal, and above her, hoops hang from the ceiling at different levels.

Touching one of the statues she feels a... connection. Equestrian magic flows through here, she can feel it flowing through her as well. A connection to herself, her magic and with a big smile, her ears sparkle into existence as her mane forms. She turns her head slowly, looking all around the room taking everything in, her head turning a full revolution before she floats off the ground squeezing. Her body spinning to uncurl her heck.

"Eeeeeee! The girls have got to see this!" She says then darts for the door, leaving an after-image of herself standing in the room that slowly fades into dust.

***

Pinkie Pie beams with joy and happiness after spending even just a little time in that room. The other girls won't be able to see it until after their classes though, so this is one secret she'll have to keep for now. The room, though, is so totally perfect it is as if it has been made for them. She hums happily as she prances down the stairs towards the great hall, she isn’t super hungry, but the house-elves here make awesome food. She’ll have to trade recipes with them some time.

She sits down at the table just as the tureen’s show up, along with stacks of grilled cheese sandwiches. Pinkie wastes no time in grabbing a sandwich and taking a big bite. She closes her eyes in pleasure, pepper jack cheese and cheddar in the sandwiches, not that awful processed stuff they have at school back home. She munches happily as she ladles some soup into a bowl. She focuses on the eating, all of the food is just so good. Then something grabs her attention.

“Oh, just shut it!” Comes Ginny Weasley’s voice in a loud scream, getting most of the conversations in the room to stop. Pinkie looks around as Ginny darts out the door. Applejack is following her, so she knows that Applejack is on the case. Then…uh oh.

Pinkie reaches into her bag as she bounds up from her seat, she places the canon and pulls the string, covering Ron Weasley in confetti. She bounces over to him, “Hiya Ron!” she giggles.

“Not right now, Pinkie Pie.” He growls. Apparently, the Malfoy boy has turned around, he’s right behind her.

Pinkie brings out a tray and puts it in front of Ron’s face, “Have a cupcake.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Malfoy says as he grabs the cupcake off the platter, he strips the paper covering off and shoves the entire pastry in his mouth.

Pinkie looks at the platter in dismay, “That was my last Windigo Ghost Chocolate cupcake!” She glares at Malfoy, who’s face is starting to turn red, she turns back to Ron, “Well, my Triple Chocolate fudge brownie overload cupcake with molten core and chocolate truffle shavings are really good too.” She shoves the pastry into his mouth, pulling the paper out. She giggles as Ron starts to chew. His eyebrows raise and a smile spreads across his face as he tastes it.

A gagging sound gets Pinkie’s attention. She turns around to see Malfoy bent double, “Now Draco, don’t waste food.” She admonishes. He slowly levers himself up, his entire face bright red. As he swallows, flames start to come from his ears, and he rushes over to his table. He picks up a pitcher of pumpkin juice.

"Oh no you really shouldn't take that without asking." Pinkie says, only to be met by a glare from Malfoy, who proceeds to start drinking it.

"Because Dash wanted a bit more kick in hers, we added ginger, cloves, and tabasco sauce. I didn't know tabasco sauce was such a big thing over here! You can find it everywhere though, Ron, and it just goes great with everything!"

Malfoy gags again as he throws the pitcher across the room. Now more flames are coming from his nose and mouth. He puts a hand over his mouth and rushes from the great hall. Ron gives Pinkie a hug, “That was brilliant!”

She giggles, “He wasted it! Oh well, I’ve got more for Rainbow Dash.”

***

Pinkie Pie is ahead of her friends as they all troop down into the dungeons for their potions class. She knows this Snape is a grumpy guss, but she knows she can put a smile on even his face. The door to the dank dungeon classroom yields as she bounces through. The teacher is at the front of the classroom facing the black boards, in his ever-present black robes, his greasy long hair draped down the back of his skull. Pinkie moves over to her cauldron as the other students slowly file in. Before too long, everyone is ready. Professor Snape waves his wand casually over his shoulder at the door, which closes dutifully at his command.

Pinkie looks at the different vials sitting before her cauldron, she picks a couple up, reading the labels as the professor starts to speak, “Good afternoon students, today we will work on two potions. One of them will take a month to fully prepare, you will be working on them each time you come to class.” He taps his wand and a name appears at the top of the board, “Polyjuice potion.”

He taps it again and instructions appear on the board, “The Polyjuice Potion, which is a complex and time-consuming concoction, is best left to highly skilled witches and wizards. This potion, as many of you know, allows you to change your appearance to that of someone else. Useful at times if used properly, dangerous and criminal if used wrong." With just the slightest smile, "This potion is incapable however of changing your species so be careful not to get any animal hairs, such as cat, mixed in."”

He walks back and forth in front of the boards, “this may be anything, toenail clippings, dandruff or worse, but it is most usual to use hair. The idea that a witch or wizard might make evil use of parts of the body is an ancient one, and exists in the folklore and superstitions of many cultures. The effect of the potion is only temporary, and depending on how well it has been brewed, may last anything from between ten minutes and twelve hours. You can change age, sex, and race by taking the Polyjuice Potion, but not species.” He stops and stands before the class, steepleing his fingers, “This, class, is your term project. You will each get enough materials to make one, just one single dose of this potion. If you lose it, if you make a mistake, if you fail to brew it properly, there will be no starting over. And you will most likely fail my class.” He looks around, “Am I understood?”

“Yes, Professor Snape,” The students say solemnly.

Pinkie Pie looks at the ingredients and the instructions on the board, it’s just like cooking she’s done countless times. She picks up the first ingredient, fluxweed, and puts it into her small copper cauldron. She keeps an eye on the other students as she adds in the knotgrass. Stirring is easy, but then she’s stumped. Her wand doesn’t work, so waving it over the cauldron will do exactly nothing. She wants to whine as she looks around. Sunset Shimmer glances up at Professor Snape, who is working with one of the Slytherin students, she extracts her own wand and waves it over Pinkie’s cauldron, causing the brew inside to change color and start to boil, Pinkie grins at Sunset as Twilight does the same for Rainbow Dash, both of them keeping their eyes on Snape as they help their friends. Before too long, all of the students have completed the first part of the potion. Professor Snape walks to the head of the class.

“Now it is time to set those aside until near the end of class, where you will complete part two of the first section of constructing the potion.” He waves his wand, and another recipe appears on the boards. “This one will be a little different.”

Pinkie Pie’s smile widens as he continues, she’s done something similar back at home, for her super sweet sugar cookies. Making concentrated super saturations of sugar. This is magic? She glances at the bottom of the board, ah, that’s what makes this magic. She giggles as she looks around, the other students, even her friends, seem to be at a loss.

“We have a supply of liquid nitrogen in the back, we will lower the temperature of the sugar before adding it, we can get a tighter crystalline structure, and a greater concentration. So, we will create a simple syrup with the sugar first, then drop it in the liquid nitrogen to create dense pearls. That way, we can more easily control the infuse rate so long as we control the size of the pearls.”

“Here you go.” Pinkie says as she flounces up to Professor Snape.

He looks at her, “Miss Pie, this potion takes a minimum of forty minutes to make.”

She giggles and jumps up and down in place, “Not if you know what you are doing.”

He holds out a hand, “Let me see your efforts young lady.”

She hands him the small cauldron, he draws out his wand and waves it over the clear brew, he looks at her severely, “Very interesting.” He looks at it and mutters a spell, his wand glowing like a black light, he looks up at her, “you pulverized it after you froze it?” He gestures to the brew, which is glowing bright green in the light.

Pinkie giggles, “Of course, sugar, when it’s super chilled, you are actually changing its properties and crystal structure. That’s why it’s UV absorption index skyrockets. And you get it to fluoresce bright green under a black light.”

Snape’s eyebrows have risen quite high, he looks up at Pinkie Pie, “And what would you do with that?”

Pinkie cocks her head to the side, “This is like super sugar right now. I make it at home for my super sweet sugar cookies.” She looks down, “Though…”

Snape frowns, “What is it?”

Pinkie looks thoughtful, “If I were to add liquid caffeine to it, I think I can make a really good pick me up.”

She ignores the shudder that runs through her friends, Snape allows a small smile for her, “I don’t usually do potions that are intended for simply eating. But let’s see what you can do in the time we have left.”

Pinkie grabs her cauldron and skips back to her table, “Oh, don’t worry, Professor. I think you’ll love it.”

***

Pinkie bounces up the stairs from the dungeon, she’s got one more class for the day, and she thinks she’s going to love it. Right now, though, she’s running behind because she trailed behind the other students leaving potions. That Professor Snape isn’t so bad a guy, she thinks. Dour on the outside, but he’s quite brilliant. She hums happily as she skips along. Muggle magical studies is going to be fun.

She opens the classroom door, looking around at the students, there aren’t all that many here. But something draws her eyes the moment she gets in. The drum set sitting in the middle, three toms, a snare, a bass drum, and six cymbals along with a hi-hat. That’s going to be fun to play with. She walks slowly over towards the set, when the bass drum starts a beat. Two sticks become visible, playing short riffs on the toms before crashing the cymbals. Pinkie frowns in confusion before she hears a voice.

“Now students, a lot of modern muggle music uses the drum set. Originally designed to be used by multipods, muggles have somehow adopted and adapted this instrument to their own needs. A single two armed performer may produce multiple drum tasks without magic. In the past, this would have taken an entire percussion section in a typical orchestra. Smaller bands play music for smaller groups in tighter locations where an entire orchestra may not fit.” The drum sticks move out of sight, then a most curious creature walks from behind the set. She had seen him a few times during meals, but… “Ahhh, our new American student, I’m Professor Flitwick. I’ve got a couple of your friends in my charms class.” He trundles over and offers a hand.

“Pinkie Pie.” She says as she takes his hand, “A pleasure.”

He smiles, “The pleasure is all mine.” He looks around the room, “There is a lot of modern music the muggles listen to; such as Rolf Harris, Ringo Star, and of course Elton John.”

Pinkie Pie twitches, he continues, “Now of course, muggles, being rather barbaric, use other humans skins for their drum sets. From the lyrics of a song,”

“And with his very last gasp, he says...
Tan me hide when death comes chums
Rolf coughs a bit and says oh dear
Tan me hide when death comes
So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde,
And Ringo's got it on his drums!”

He nods smartly, “Ringo, the most famous muggle drummer, has the tanned skins of a human on his drums.”

He gestures towards the drum set, “Do you play?”

She finds her hands twitching, looking at the drum sticks set side by side on the snare, she smiles, “Indeed a doodly I do play.”

He claps his hands, “Oh that’s wonderful. We are just starting to teach about some of the more modern music the muggles are listening to.” He adjusts his glasses, “Given how well some of you American students seem to do when it comes to the various magical studies here at Hogwarts, I think you’ll like this class. Would you show my students here a bit on how to play?”

Pinkie Pie beams as she very nearly teleports to the set. She settles on the small stool and grabs the sticks, “Oh yeah, what do you want me to play?”

He looks around at all the students watching raptly, “You spend a lot of time with the no-mags back at home?”

She nods, getting a smile from him, “So, you know a good deal of their music.”

She nods, “I’m in the Rainbooms, all of us play.”

His eyebrows rise, “Perhaps I should have you all come to class one day and play together. But for now, why don’t you…” He frowns, “Make some noise? Is that the term?”

"Well I don't know, drums alone are boring, music is meant to be a harmony, meant to be sung, played, and enjoyed together. I really like playing with my friends, but I suppose I could do something..."

She points at an electric guitar, “Anyone play that?”

One of the other girls comes out, by her robe trim color she’s a Slytherin, she picks up the guitar and puts the strap over her head. She smiles shyly at Pinkie Pie, who grins.

Sitting down at the drums she starts tapping out a beat lightly and nods at the Slytherin girl to start playing.

Picking up the beat the girl starts playing as Pinkie starts to sing, "My name is Pinkie Pie, and I am here to Sing, I'm gonna make you smile and I'll brighten up your daaaay."

With her right foot on the pedal for the bass drum keeping a steady beat, she uses her left to get the hi-hat moving. She relaxes into the music flowing through her mind. She smiles, this is exactly what she needs after a long day of school. Her hands become a blur as she moves between the different drums, weaving a beat that reverberates throughout the room. Her ears once again sparkle to life, and her bushy mane appears as she continues to play. The teacher moves over to his desk and picks up his tea as Pinkie Pie lets the magic flow through her. She laughs in pure delight as she plays.

She nods over to the other girl to keep playing. She bounces from her stool towards the other students, grabbing the bass guitar, an acoustic guitar, and some maracas. Grabbing some students, she shoves the instruments into their hands and leaps back down to the drum set. She brings up the beat as more voices start to sing. She glances off at the corner, the brassy notes of a trumpet roll in, she can feel the magic between all of the students here. They aren’t the Rainbooms, but, they’ll do. She takes a deep breath and rolls into the chorus, “Come on everybody, Smile, Smile, Smile. Fill my heart with sunshine sunshine.”

“Uh oh.” She murmurs as she glances over at the teacher. She leaps from the chair and reaches deep into her bag. Pinkie brings out the water bucket she had stashed there earlier and flings the water at the teacher, extinguishing him.

Professor Flitwick sits there, sopping wet, he looks up at Pinkie Pie, who glances back at the Weasley twins, who are laughing like mad. “Sorry, Professor.” She says softly.

The professor sets down his tea, “Well, I’ve never expected tea to set me on fire, dear. So, I must say thank you.” He coughs as he brings out his wand, waving it over his tea cup, “Boys, I don’t mind a little spice. But that was a bit excessive.” He waves the wand over himself, ending up completely dry, he looks up at the Weasley twins, “I’ll admit, you got me good there. But a week of detentions sounds pretty good to me as well.”

Both the boys find their laughter caught in their throats, they attempt to don innocent looks as Professor Flitwick turns back to Pinkie, “How did you know?”

She giggles as she cocks her head to the side, “Pinkie sense.”

He shakes his head, “Well, that was pretty impressive, I must say.”

Pinkie Pie giggles.

Chapter 11.

View Online

On the eastern horizon, the sky slowly turns from the deep indigo of night to the bright blue of the approaching sunrise, as the sun rises slowly, it illuminates the tower room that the girls are using at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rainbow Dash is having a peaceful morning. Sprawled out on her bed, her thick duvet has made its way to the floor sometime during the night. She’s lying on her back, a colts t-shirt covers her muscular frame, along with a pair of boxers. She turns her head slightly and her mouth flops open, and she emits a loud SNERK. She inhales easily and emits another loud snore. Applejack looks over and kicks her bed, getting her to turn onto her side, where the snores are muted. Applejack shakes her head as she goes back to her book.

Rainbow snorts as Pinkie Pie’s voice rings out, “Goooood morning Fluttershy!” She opens a single eye to look at Pinkie holding tightly onto Fluttershy, who is hugging back. She’s got some more time, she flops her head back and closes her eye. Just five more minutes, she’s got plenty of experience ignoring Pinkie’s insanity first thing in the morning. “First you see me riding on a sonic boom, got my guitar shreddin' up the latest tune”

Rainbow twitches in response to the music right next to her head. She reaches around her pillow, feeling frantically, finally she huffs and pulls out the tennis ball sized device, it continues, “There is nothin' you can do to beat me, I'm so good that you can't defeat me Yeah!” She grumbles as she glances over at Sunset, who had enchanted her alarm clock so it would work even with all the magic around here. Her arm flashes back and then she heaves it. The ball bounces off the wall, shutting down the music, it bounces on the floor then lands in Rarity’s bed.

Rarity jerks to a sitting position, with a loud scream of, “NO!” She takes a moment to take off her sleep mask. She looks around, her face red as she mumbles to herself.

Rainbow Dash turns her head to look at Applejack, who smiles at her over her book, “Is it morning, already?” She grumbles.

Applejack nods as Rainbow Dash scrubs her hands over her eyes. Morning always comes way too quickly. She heaves her feet over the edge of the bed and recoils as her feet touch the floor. She shivers as she sits cross legged. She glances over at the wardrobe next to her bed, she slowly extends a foot and uses her toes to grab her duvet, which she slides over so she can stand on it. She grabs her clothes and turns to the bathroom with a yawn, scratching her hip over her sleep boxers as she enters. She looks at herself in the mirror and opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out, "Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Man, I'd kill for some American food right now. I swear this British stuff is putting fur on my tongue. And seriously, bangers and mash, pigs in a blanket, can't they just call the food what it is?"

Striping down, she throws her sleepwear out of the bathroom before she steps into the shower and scrubs herself quickly. Using one of the thick towels, she dries herself off in a matter of moments, though leaving her hair wet as she hastily pulls her uniform on. She looks at her silver trimmed robes, fingering the MACUSA patch on the breast of the robe then the stylized rainbow lightning bolt and cloud that's sewn on the inner pocket against her hip. Rarity's work obviously. She pulls on her robe and walks back into the bedroom.

Rarity takes one look at her and yelps, “Oh, Rainbow Dash, that just won’t do. We are here to represent our country and our school. You can’t go around all slovenly like that.”

Rainbow glances down at herself, she’s got most of the buttons of her blouse done, and her slacks are clean. She furrows her brow at Rarity as she comes forward, Rarity reaches and fastens the top button and tightens the tie, she adjusts Rainbow’s collar and smooths the blouse over her hips. She grabs the robes and adjusts them as well, then she smiles at Rainbow, “Now, that’s so much better, isn’t it?”

Rainbow huffs and runs a finger along her collar, “It’s a little tight.”

Rarity snickers, “A lady must at times be uncomfortable to look presentable.” She taps Rainbow’s flat stomach, “try to have some pride in yourself Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow pulls away from Rarity, “I’ve got plenty of pride in myself,” she loosens her tie and undoes the top button. She then tightens the tie a little bit and smiles at her friend, “but I don’t really care about all this fancy clothes and uniforms and dress up stuff. Running shoes, shorts, and a sports shirt is fine.”

"Not here darling, here we must abide by their rules, and that includes their fashion choices. I can make adjustments of course, but even then, they must conform to the rules. Pity that, I could see a whole fashion line of robes, with far more interesting colors then just grey." Rarity huffs.

Rainbow grins as she heads towards the door. Sunset leads them down the stairs, and Rainbow shambles down the stairs with her friends. She giggles when Pinkie plays with the various paintings as she passes by.

Rainbow looks up as they enter the grand hall, the enchanted ceiling shows a bright blue sky and a rising sun, only a few wispy clouds show that today is going to be a beautiful day. She growls a little bit, she’s got three classes today, and she’d much rather spend more time outside on a day like today. She looks around and finally joins her friends at a table.

Before long, the food shows up, and Rainbow smiles, of the food they have here, the breakfast is the most edible. Toast, scones, muffins with jam, banana oatmeal, porridge, berry pancakes with extra maple syrup. She finds a big bowl full of Greek yogurt. She fills her bowl, dumping oats and bran and mixing it. Smiling brightly, Fluttershy looks over at her, “Are you sure it’s enough there, Rainbow?”

Rainbow grins back, “Nope, but it’s a start.” She points, “Could you pass the scones? And oh, oh, gotta have some shaved almonds.”

Fluttershy rolls her eyes as she passes the plate and the small bowl over to her friend. Rainbow then dumps several spoonfulls of berries on the top. Another plate gets a thick stack of pancakes with butter, which she drenches in maple syrup. She fills her goblet with the pumpkin juice, and as she downs a glass, she sincerely wishes that she could get that back at home, it’s truly amazing.

She keeps an eye on Fluttershy as she’s eating, that girl has a ferret in the hood of her robes. Rainbow has to giggle as Fluttershy gives it little morsels to eat. Though the food is done quickly, the post comes in, and many owls vie for her friend’s attention. Rainbow reaches over towards one that is hopping up and down in front of Fluttershy. And gets nipped for her trouble. She recoils and glares at the owl, which fluffs its wings at her and turns back to Fluttershy.

“Jerk.” She mumbles to herself as she takes a swig of her pumpkin juice.

The owl fluffs out its wings and squawks back at Dash.

With a grumble, Dash looks back at the owl, "You heard me just fine, I called you a jerk, there was no reason to..." Blinking Dash looks at the owl for a moment. "Great, now I'm arguing with owls. God, I miss caffeine."

With a look back to the pumpkin juice she huffs, she likes it, a lot. But what she wouldn’t do for a nice Coke. It seems the mages here haven’t heard of newer drinks. She hasn’t seen a sports drink, or protein shakes since she’s come to this school. It’s not too long, though, before the food disappears and the big gong sounds. It’s time for class. She sighs as she trudges up the stairs with Fluttershy. The first class of the day, she finds out, is weather control. It’s not that it’s totally boring, it just lacks any form of action or excitement. It also contains more than a few books to read and reference. Why couldn't they just fly and learn that way by being in the storm?

Reaching out, she sighs and grabs a piece of the cloud and fluffs it a few times. Feeling its texture, she half smiles and shapes it into a stylized pegasus pony, lost in her own world. A few shapes here, a few tweaks there, and its ready, now if only she could turn it blue. With a flick of her finger she sends it floating on its way towards Fluttershy before she grabs a larger chunk of cloud. Rubbing her cheek against it she smiles before she fluffs it into the shape of a pillow and lays her head down on it..."Mmmmm so soft...so fluffy. So....nap timey..."

The bell ringing wakes her from her nap. She wipes an arm across her mouth, “Huh, what now?” She mumbles.

“Dash, you’ve got a free period, I’ve got my next class, have fun.” Fluttershy says softly as she puts her bag over her shoulder to walk out. The ferret pokes its head up out of her robe’s hood and chitters at Rainbow. Rainbow sighs as she grabs her own bag. A free period, well, maybe she can work out outside. It’s a quick walk to their tower where she drops her bag on the bed, she takes a moment to look at her brand new broom sitting next to her wardrobe. With a grin, she grabs it and heads down stairs. Might be able to make use of the broom. She heads out of the main gate at the castle and looks around. There’s a group of students on the expansive field, some of them are fiddling around with small posts. To Rainbow’s amazement, the posts grow into three large rings a good fifty feet off the ground. Two students then walk slowly, pacing out measurements another set of posts floating behind them.

“‘sup?” Rainbow asks of the tall boy who is floating a large crate that is suspiciously vibrating.

He stops and looks at her, “You’re one of the American girls, right?”

She nods and offers a hand, “I’m Rainbow Dash.”

He smiles and shakes her hand gently, “What a name, I’m Seamus.”

That gets Rainbow’s eyebrows to rise, “Seamus is an odd name too.”

He rolls his eyes, “Well, they are using the quidditch pitch for the Tri-wizard cup, so we are making an unofficial pitch, so we can play anyway.”

That gets a grin, “Can I play?”

He cocks his head to the side, “Do you know the rules of Quidditch?”

She shakes her head, “But I’m a fast learner, especially when it comes to sports!”

He looks at her, then at the other students as they are stripping off their robes and grabbing brooms, he sighs, “Well, we are one light.” He stops for a moment, “Aren’t you the girl that did a sonic boom over the castle the other day?”

Rainbow nods, “None faster.”

“Know what a seeker does?” She shakes her head and he continues, “Well, the seeker’s job is to find the snitch.” He drops the case and opens it. He opens a small compartment in the lid and brings out a small golden ball, two feathery metal wings snap out and it tries to fly away, “This little devil, it’s stupid fast, and maneuverable like nothing else. You have to be fast to get it.” He looks at her over the snitch, “Think you can do it?”

“Oh come on, all I have to do is catch that little thing?” She crows, “Not a problem.”

He chuckles, “Yeah. Just remember you are going to have to be avoiding the bludgers as well. So, it’s not all that easy.” He points at the two balls that are chained down. Even under restraint the two balls are trying to escape, causing the entire chest to shift. He pulls out four clubs and hands them over to four of the students. Rainbow looks at them lined up, okay, two beaters for each team. She glances warily at the iron balls continuing to fight their restraints. Then there’s three more standing there, the chasers, she finds out. And the goal keep, and the seeker. She looks at the other teams seeker. He’s powerfully built, though thin, with short hair and a fine goatee.

She marches up to him and offers a hand, “I’m Rainbow Dash.”

He reaches out and takes her hand in a firm grip, which she returns, “Viktor Krum.” He says in an accented voice.

She cocks her head to the side, “You don’t sound like everyone else.”

“I’m not a student of this school, but of Durmstrang Institute.”

One of Dash’s teammates comes over and leans close, “Rainbow, he was Bulgaria’s seeker in the Quidditch World Cup this year.” He stage whispers, “He caught the snitch.”

That gets a smile from Dash, “So, I’m up against the best.”

He smiles, “You are one of the American’s, da?” She nods, he chuckles, “I will go easy on you, I know how slow Americans can be.”

Rainbow grins, “You are so on.”

The players hop on their brooms, one team doffs their robes, Rainbow tosses her robe next to the chest and mounts her broom. Kicking off the ground she joins the other students racing around the makeshift pitch. Taking easy turns, and changing her altitude to get a good feeling of her broom. She glances around, noting that she already knows where the other players are before she even looks. One of the other students flies up, holding the ball called the quaffle. She glances down, they are about to release the balls that can fly on their own.

Rainbow grins savagely, it’s go time. A kick to the box has three objects flying into the air. For the moment, she ignores the bludgers, they aren’t after her as of yet. The student with the quaffle tosses it into the air to signal the start of the game. Rainbow narrows her eyes and shoots off like she was launched from a catapult. Crouched low on her broom her hair flapping back in the wind, it’s almost like she leaves a rainbow contrail as she moves. Rolling inverted she passes another player by mere inches, broom to broom as she reaches out. “Gotcha!” She crows as her hand closes on the snitch.

“What the hell?” Comes from one of the beaters on the other team. The iron balls are recalled quickly and all the players head to the ground.

Seamus comes towards her, “That was fast!”

Rainbow giggles, “No, I got it in ten seconds flat. I think I can do faster next time.”

He shakes his head as she hands the snitch over to him. He puts it in its place in the chest. After securing the walnut sized ball, he stands up and looks at Rainbow severely, “It’s good to get the snitch fast, the game isn’t over until the snitch is caught.” He looks around at the other players, “But let your team mates play too.”

Rainbow giggles as Victor comes up to her, "You are not the typical American. You take to the broom like you were born on one."

She puts the bristles of the broom down and leans on it, “None faster.”

His eyebrows rise, “I’m beginning to believe it.” He holds out a hand, “Again?”

Rainbow looks at her team mates, then back at Viktor, “Yeah.”

Once again, they get into the air, Rainbow focuses on the chest as the other players ready themselves. Again, the chest is kicked and all three balls fly into the air. Rainbow keeps her focus on the small golden snitch. Madame Hooch is on the broom this time, playing referee. She blows her whistle and tosses the quaffle into the air. Like a spring, Rainbow flashes forward, she dodges Viktor with a half barrel roll as he crosses in front of her, though she can feel him turning to follow her. She grins as she leans forward on her broom, getting even more speed out of it.

Her pony ears emerge and lay back as her mane grows, she rolls onto her back going inverted again and pulls the nose of the broom down in a half split s, diving towards the ground. The snitch seems to be having a mind of its own this time, is zig zagging around, evading. From the corner of her eye she notes the bludger heading for her, almost instinctually she pulls up and over in a coffin's corner turn to keep her speed up but reposition herself on the the snitch in one graceful maneuver that even Spitfire would have been proud of. As she finishes her last bit of the turn she reaches out and wraps her hand around the golden ball again. Pulling up, she goes vertical laughing out as she loops up high then speeds back down to the ground dusting it with her broom as she touches down with a loud smack. She holds up the snitch high and jumps, screaming out, "Oh YEAH!"

The other team mates land, and the looks on their faces end her happy dancing. She looks around, then puts a hand behind her head, rubbing the back of her neck, “Oh.” She chuckles awkwardly, “Sorry.”

Seamus stalks towards her and holds out a hand, which she places the snitch into gingerly, “Well, we won, right?”

He shakes his head, “Yeah, we won, but the only one doing anything is you.”

Viktor comes up, “She has plenty of skill here, but I think she’d be better suited for a different position.” He gestures at Seamus as he draws Rainbow away from the rest of her team. He grabs both of her shoulders, “You have situational awareness like I’ve never seen.” He reaches up and flicks a blue ear and touches her extended wing protruding over her shoulder, “Though I don’t think transfiguration is allowed in Quidditch.”

She fingers her ear for a moment before looking over her back and flexing her wings, “Umm sorry. It’s not actually transfiguration, we call it ponying up.”

At his confused look, she taps a finger on his cheek, “Something I’ve done at my school. It’s different than what you mages do.”

He shakes his head and looks over at Seamus, “I think she’d be best as a beater, with situational awareness like that, she’d be a terror, but she wouldn’t end the game in less than a minute.”

Seamus looks at her for a long time, finally he looks around the pitch, nearly every student with a free period has made their way to the makeshift pitch, over a hundred students are watching, finally he looks back at Rainbow, “Okay, one more game, but you are going to be a beater, like Viktor said.”

Rainbow grins, “I can do it, just keep them off ya, right?”

Seamus nods, handing her a club, “And send them towards the other team.”

She reaches out her hand and her broom flies up into it. She looks over at the bludgers, that are once again attempting to escape being chained down, then at Seamus, “I can do that.”

Once again, they all power into the air, only the seeker is allowed to get the snitch, so she watches the two bludgers intently as they circle the field once again. Seamus and Alicia Spinnet square up together in the middle. It’s time to really fly. With a kick, the balls are once again released and the quaffle is tossed into the air. Rainbow doesn’t really worry about the snitch anymore, only the bludgers are her concern. She flashes forward, her club primed and ready, Seamus has the quaffle and is diving towards the ground, a glance tells her that one of the bludgers has bounced off the ground and is heading towards him. She grins as she streaks towards the young Gryffindor, she turns on her side as she passes him with inches to spare as she slams her club into the heavy ball, the impact reverberating through her arm as she sends the bludger at one of the opposing chasers. She glances back at Seamus as he does a quick spiral to get up to the level of the ring. Her ear flicks as she notes another bludger heading towards the girl that replaced her as seeker. The girl is up high and motionless, keeping an eye out for the snitch. Rainbow glances around and spots the small golden ball then she lifts the nose of her broom and flashes straight up, it’s going to be close.

“Awww yeah!” She crows as she sends the bludger on it’s way, directly at Viktor, who is diving for the ground, forcing him to change course. He gives her a dirty look as he evades, and Rainbow responds with a raspberry as she streaks past him. Rainbow glances down, the first bludger is after one of the other beaters, so she looks up and watches as another bludger heads towards one of the opposing chasers, another beater hot on the ball’s trail. She grins as she streaks forward, she taps her seeker’s shoulder as she flashes past, getting the girl to pay attention to her, the girl looks at Rainbow in confusion, and Rainbow points at where the snitch is. The girl looks in the direction, a look of confusion on her face. Then Rainbow groans, Viktor is diving towards the snitch. Thinking fast, Rainbow turns hard and intercepts a bludger that had just come off the club of her teams other beater. She slams the heavy ball downward. Her aim is true and the bludger misses Viktor by inches, but also causes him to abort his run for the Snitch. Rainbow sighs as the golden ball repositions itself. Neither of the teams seekers seem to be aware of its position now. But Rainbow can’t tell her own seeker that, because then Viktor would know. Rainbow fends off both bludgers, that have been sent towards her by the opposing beaters, her smile evident as she sends one right back at the other beater, and the other straight up.

She’s intent on one of the bludgers that’s been targeting Seamus for most of the game, she is just getting ready to slam that bludger once again when she has to check herself, she rolls her broom to avoid Viktor as he crosses right in front of her, sticking out his tongue at her as he does so. Seamus goes vertical and misses a pass because of that, and the other team gets the quaffle and score rapidly. In frustration she darts to the side and smacks the bludger after the seeker. He avoids it easily and turns. Rainbow glances at the small score board, two fifty to one hundred, in her team’s favor. That gets a grin out of her. Her ear flicks as she looks up, Viktor has leaned forward and dived his broom. That gets a confused look from Dash, the Snitch is orbiting the opposing team’s goalpost up high at the moment. She groans when her teams seeker dashes after Viktor. He’s messing with her. Rainbow’s shout is lost in the noise of the crowd of students and the players as her seeker streaks past Viktor, who pulls up savagely on his broom. That’s lost on her teams seeker as she finally realizes her mistake, she pulls up on her own broom, but not enough, as she slams into the ground and rolls.

“Damn it!” Rainbow moans as she watches Viktor leisurely bank around her teams goal post, then he leans forward on his broom, flashing towards the opposite goalpost. Did he know the snitch was there? Rainbow casually slaps a bludger that was aimed at her head towards the ground as she watches the opposing seeker chase after the miniscule ball. A quick glance at the score board shows that the score is unchanged. Why is he going after it? The best he can do at this point is tie the game. Rainbow notices the other bludger has bounced off the ground and is heading towards the opposing chaser that has the quaffle tucked in the crook of her arm. Seamus and the other two chasers for her team are hot on the girl’s tail. Rainbow glances at Viktor, who is chasing the snitch towards the ground. Does he think he can get it right after she scores? Rainbow streaks to the side and closes on one of the bludgers, she’s going to fix that. She puts her all into the smack, breaking her club as she sends the bludger towards the chaser with the quaffle, it smacks into her broom, sending her for the ground. One of the ground referees catch her in his magic as Viktor’s hand finally closes on the snitch.

All the players head towards the ground, Seamus comes up and claps her on the shoulder as her wings and ears finally disappear, “You stopped them from winning. Good job.”

Rainbow huffs, “I don’t like ties, I’d rather trounce them.”

She walks over to Viktor as he hands the snitch over to Madame Hooch, “Why did you do that?”

He grins sheepishly, “She should have gotten the goal. I was timing it right.”

Rainbow frowns, “I disrupted her score. Why didn’t you just abort until you guys scored.”

He huffs, “I’m usually better with the timing.” He looks back at the castle as the gong sounds, “It’s lunch time.” He says as the students start shuffling towards the school. Rainbow mounts her broom, he looks at her, “Not hungry?”

She shakes her head, “I had a big carb load this morning. I’m good.”

He grins and mounts his own, “So am I.” He floats off the ground, “You may be fast, but I can still fly circles around you.”

She kicks off the ground, “In your dreams.”

“Prove it!” Viktor says as he kicks off the ground as well, pulling down his goggle.

Dash streaks off and goes vertical, her hair forming a rainbow trail behind her with Viktor hard on her heels. She glances back and smiles as she leans tighter on her broom, accelerating. He’s right with her. She pulls up and sheds her speed, at the apex of her Immelmann, she streaks towards a big cloud, shattering it with her wake as she banks to head towards another. She spirals around this second cloud, drawing the vapor with her, shaping the cloud. She glances back and howls in delight. Once again, her wings and ears come into existence. This is her. This is what makes her Rainbow Dash, the pure delight of flight, the speed, the thrill.

She glances back, Viktor is hot on her trail, so she leans forward and speeds up further, howling her joy, she’s flown with the wings before when ponying up, but that had its limitations, she’s still trying to understand them. Here though, there’s just something special about flying on a broom as responsive as this one, it was like it was a part of her.

Narrowing her eyes, she dives heading for the Whomping Willow, she rolls and dodges the branches, cutting an inside turn just inches from the tree trunk. Viktor cuts a wider path turning on the outside of the trunk as a few branches lash out towards him as well. Their speed is high enough, though, that they are out of its range before they can get hit.

Glancing back Dash sees Viktor point to the bridge. With nod, she dives low and starts a slalom course, flying under the deck, through the pylons. The narrow space between pylons forces her to slow down a little as she rocks side to side, zipping past. Viktor had missed the first pylon, so the two pop out on opposite sides of the bridge at the same time. As she approaches the cliff face she accelerates, waiting to the last possible moment before pulling up as hard as she can.

She again goes for height, spiraling up through the air. To her surprise, Viktor joins her in the spiral, so they end up in a corkscrew as they rise through the atmosphere. She reaches the apex and levels off. Viktor levels off beside her as they orbit a central point looking at each other. Slowly they both narrow the radius of the circle and slow down till they are just a few feet apart.

“Dash…” Viktor says softly.

Shaking her head, Dash smiles, “Oh my gosh, a fluffy!”

“Fluffy?” Victor responds and blinks as he watches Dash zip over and hop off her broom onto a cloud tuft left over from the cloud busting.

Bouncing on the cloud tuft a bit she smiles. “I don’t know why, I just call small cloud tufts like this, fluffies.”

Viktor hovers above the cloud, looking at her bouncing gently up and down on the cloud. “Cloud walking?”

She looks back at Viktor and grins, “Yeah.” She flops down onto her back, feeling the firm support of the cloud. Viktor moves closer and kicks at the cloud material, and his foot passes right through it. Getting a giggle from Rainbow Dash.

He frowns for a moment, then his face brightens, he brings out his wand and brings the tip of it to touch his chest. His body glows briefly and dark gray wings extend from his body, his human ears disappear and gray furred pony ears come from the top of his head, his hair changes color to a red gray, with lighter gray streaks, he smiles and steps off his broom onto the cloud, he flops down next to her.

“If anyone asks, you are helping me train for the next task.”

She raises an eyebrow at him, then reaches up to stroke an ear, “Oh those look good on you, you should definitely keep them.” Dash says with a laugh before going on, “You are pretty fast yourself, what was that earlier?”

He cocks his head to the side, his ears flicking back and forth.

“Where you acted as though you were going for the snitch. It was on the other side of the pitch.”

“You could see where it was from up there?” He chuckles, “It’s called a Wronski feint. If it works, you can at least delay the other seeker for you to get it.”

She sighs, “She crashed pretty hard. You are lucky nothing was broken.”

He huffs, “It’s a part of Quidditch. More than one player has had to spend a day or three in the infirmary bed while their bones are mended.”

“Three days in a bed? I’d go nuts.” She nods, “So it really can get rough and tumble?”

He nods and she rolls back onto her back, the softness of the cloud lures her, her eyes slowly close as the comfort of the fluffy cloud lulls her gently towards a nice nap. Though, Viktor rises up on an elbow, looking at Rainbow, his voice brings her back to the present, “So, Rainbow.”

She snorts, opening one eye to look at him, “I was just about to fall asleep, ya know that, right?”

He shakes his head, “Sorry, but you know the Yule Ball in a few weeks?”

She turns her head to look at him, “Ball? As in a dance thingy? No, sorry.” She scratches the back of her head gently, “I’m pretty sure I was told about it, but I was probably thinking about something else at the time.”

That gets a laugh from Viktor, “It happens.”

She nods, “So, I’m guessing you are going to go?”

He nods, “Yeah, as a champion for my school, I’ve got to go. It’s kinda required. But the problem is, I need a date for it.”

Rainbow whistles softly, “Oh ouch, yeah, that sucks. All that primp and protocol junk.” She narrows her eyes, “There’s got to be some girl here that can handle that. They have to be pretty, good with magic, and able to at least act partly respectable.” She taps her chin for a moment, then she brightens, “Oh, how about that Granger girl?”

He recoils, “Hermione? Hermione Granger? The Gryffindor girl, who’s friends with the other champion, Harry?”

Rainbow nods, “She’s perfect, she’s scary good with spells, and she has an actual personality.”

He cocks his head to the side, “As opposed to?”

That gets a giggle from Rainbow, “As opposed to most of the Slytherin girls.”

That gets a laugh from him, “I guess I’ll have to think about it.”

Rainbow glances at her watch and stands up, she flexes her wings, slightly surprised that they are still there. She taps him on the hip with a shoe as she walks by, “Well, while you work up your nerve to ask her, I’ve got class coming up.”

“Uh, Rainbow.” He says as she walks to the edge of the cloud, she turns around and looks at him.

He points at her broom lying next to him, she reaches out her hand and the broom flies to her, getting his eyebrows to rise as the broom smacks into her hand. She giggles and waves as she falls backwards off the cloud. As she falls, she keeps her wings tight to her sides. She’s got over three thousand feet to fall before flying is actually necessary. Flipping to where she can see the ground, she grins as finally she extends her wings, the magic within her at her beck and call. She draws on the magic as the wings finally take her weight, that gets a howl from her as she flies quickly towards the old castle. Lunch is almost over and she has a class down in the dungeon coming up.

Landing in the courtyard, she rushes inside, she’s huffing and puffing as she drops her broom and grabs her bag in their room. She slings the bag over her shoulder as she dashes down the stairs into the basement. She slides into the dungeon classroom just as the teacher uses his magic to close the door. He looks at her severely as she slinks to sit next to Twilight Sparkle.

For the next hour and a half, she finds it hard to stay awake, potions are incredibly boring, though she keeps an eye on Pinkie Pie as she ignores the teacher and uses the liquid nitrogen. Though pretty soon she’s got her second potion ready to go. Her super sugar mixture gets Rainbow to grin, she’s had Pinkie’s cookies with that mixture. That’s yummy. Rainbow looks at her own attempt to make the super saturation and sighs. Baking has never been her strong suit. She glances at Twilight, who is bent over her work, it looks almost as good as Pinkie Pie’s. Twilight helped her getting her own version of the Polyjuice potion started as well. Though it probably isn’t up to snuff, she sighs as she continues her own work.

Potions class is finally behind her. She can’t wait for the school day to be over. Just one more class, and she knows it’s going to be a snoozer. It’s so boring that the teacher is a ghost, and from what she’s been told, he died in the staff room while taking a nap, and showed up the next day as a ghost and continued his class as though nothing had happened. She walks into the classroom and looks around with a smile. She’s the first one here, early but she is the fastest around. As she moves over to her seat, the specter floats into the room, nodding to the first student there. Rainbow looks into her bag, flipping through her texts, before pulling out the book for this class. She smiles as she draws it out, then she blinks, tilting her head as she looks at the cover. An ivory inlayed pony or horse head, with flowing and curled mane, with a Greek pillar column on either side of it. She runs her finger over it and she shakes her head and grabs her notebook. The students here prefer a quill and dipping it into the ink. She can’t stand that. She pulls out one of the ball point pens that Twilight gave her. She has a roll of parchment ready as the other students file into the classroom. Sunset and Twilight would be so proud of her.

***

Rainbow bounces out of the castle, she had caught up with some of her friends, Pinkie Pie had found a room for them to practice in, and she promised she’d join them later. But first, it’s time to be outside, the sun will be setting soon, need to enjoy what time she’s got. The makeshift Quidditch pitch is still up, and there are more students out there on their brooms, playing impromptu games together. She turns and heads down the hill a bit, she saw there was a lot space within the grounds for other sports, and… she skids to a stop with a big smile on the face. This is still Europe, and soccer rules. Well, she knows they call it football, but to her, it will always be soccer. Several students are running around the pitch. As she gets closer, she notices a familiar form sitting on a bench and tying his shoes. She tosses her bag onto the ground and grins, “Ready to have your behind wiped across the field?” She unclasps her robe and throws it on top of her bag.

“Dash, wow.” Viktor says with a soft whistle.

She looks down, frowning, “What?”

He comes forward, “Not wearing very much, are you?”

That deepens her frown, “I’m playing soccer, I’m wearing shorts.”

He chuckles, “I’m not talking about your shorts.”

She looks down at her form fitting crop top with Wondercolts emblazoned on the front, “What’s wrong with my shirt?”

Viktor just shakes his head as she kneels down to tighten the laces on her running shoes. She looks up at him as she finishes, “You ready?”

He nods as she grabs a ball and they work their way to the middle of the pitch. She places the ball in the ring and squares off with Viktor, she grins, “Ya ready?”

He squares himself off, ready to do, “Yeah.”

She places her foot on top of the ball, pulling it behind her, and she flips it up onto her heel, “Gotta be quick, Viktor!” She bounces the ball up and flips, her hands planted firmly on the ground as she kicks the ball over his head. She laughs as she completes the flip and races off after the ball.

Viktor is pretty quick himself as he scampers off after the ball, beating Dash to the ball by a hairsbreadth, his kick sending it back the other direction. He can feel Dash on his heels as he heads towards the ball, as he rears back a leg to kick the ball again, Dash’s foot flashes out and reverses its direction. He overbalances as he tries to check his kick and ends up on his back, her exhilarated laugh in his ears as he turns and watches her dribble the ball as she heads towards the goal. He growls as he gets to his feet and races after her. She puts on more steam as he starts to close in.

She screams as she lines up her kick, it hits the back of the net dead center. She prances around, her arms up in the air, “GOAL!” She crows as Viktor retrieves the ball. He chuckles as he sets it down again, smiling at her. He gets the ball first this time and he streaks down the pitch, controlling the ball firmly. She comes up on his side as he runs, she slams her shoulder into his, stealing the ball, and he skids as he turns to catch up with her, they jostle against each other all the way down the field, neither getting a good advantage against the other. Getting close to the goal, she stops the ball and breaks hard to the left, Viktor runs past then skids to a stop as she lines up her kick. He leaps at the ball as it streaks past him and into the upper left side of the goal. He groans as she shouts once again.

Viktor finally picks himself up off the ground and goes to retrieve the ball, he tosses it to her, “Again?”

***

Viktor’s arm blurs as he brings it forward, he releases the missile and it arcs through the air, landing in the water with a loud splash. A moment after the splash reaches their ears, Rainbow’s own arm blurs as she releases her own rock. It arcs through the air, and lands in the middle of the splash his own rock had made. He raises an eyebrow as he lets loose another rock, it lands nearly dead center of the splash from Rainbow’s own rock. That gets a giggle from her. He reaches down and finds another rock, this one flat and about half the size of his hand. He throws this one sideways and watches as it skips over the water. He watches at it skips and finally stops, “Six times!”

“Oh, I can do better than that.” Rainbow says, grabbing another rock. She skips her own rock across the surface of the water, bouncing on her toes as the rock skips. When it finally sinks, she looks over at Viktor, “Beat seven.”

Viktor searches around the shoreline and finally finds another suitable rock. Again, his arm blurs as he tosses the rock. As it finally comes to rest a green form heaves out of the water.

“Holy Moly!” Rainbow shouts as more of the form becomes visible. Gray skin on a vaguely human like though quite fish shaped face, bright yellow eyes with green hair. The creature speaks in a very odd pitched language as it waves a webbed arm at them, after a moment, it’s apparently scolding done, it vanishes under the water. Rainbow turns to Viktor, “What the heck was that?”

He grins, “There are merpeople in the lake, we saw them when we were coming in.”

Her eyebrows rise, “That ship is yours?”

“It’s the school’s, yeah.”

She looks at the disturbed water, “I’m guessing they aren’t liking us throwing rocks into their home.”

He thinks for a moment, “Would you?”

She shakes her head, “Okay,” she glances at the castle in the distance, “Race ya!” She takes off.

***

The sun slowly sets in the west as Rainbow Dash and Viktor lie on the ground outside. Both are breathing heavily, long wooden staffs are on the ground next to each of them. Rainbow takes a moment to feel her side and wince. He got a couple of really good smacks on her. Viktor is nursing a couple of nasty bruises himself, one of his eyes is swelled nearly closed. He looks over at her with his good eye, “You are savage.”

She nods, “If you are going to do it, do your best.”

He nods, gasping a bit as he works to control his breathing, he pulls out his wand and mutters softly, two water bottles fly from his bag into his hands. He slowly heaves himself into a sitting position and untwists the top to drink deeply. He offers the other bottle to Rainbow Dash, who accepts gratefully. She fights to control her own breathing as she levers herself up, “You are quite intense yourself.”

He nods, “It takes a lot of training to be a champion.”

She nods, “I know.” She slowly gets to her feet, “My friends are expecting me in the castle, I’ll see ya tomorrow, right?”

He nods, “Definitely.”

She grabs her robe and throws it over her arm as she grabs her bag and slings it over her shoulder, as she walks back past him, she taps him gently with a foot, “It’s good that I found someone who can keep up with me.” She looks at him, “On the ground, and in the air.”

He nods, “You are a rare one, Rainbow Dash.”

She nods as she heads into the castle, “You know it.”

OVA Equestrian Creatures and Where to Find Them

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“Look out!” The unicorn guard calls out as he slides across the floor, his hooves trying to find purchase on the polished marble.

It runs with the scepter in its mouth, using its wings to help corner on the slick floor.

A large gray unicorn teleports to the far end of the hall, “Drop the scepter and you won’t be hurt.”

“I’ve got it!” A pegasus calls as he dives towards it, folding his wings against his body, he holds his forehooves out.

It is too fast, its small size lets it weave around quicker than the pegasus expected. In a flash, it is through another doorway. It looks for a way to escape, a way to hide.

“ENOUGH!” Celestia says, “This is disrespectful. Drop it now!”

Luna blinks, “Sister no!”

Lighting her horn, Princess Celestia sends her magic towards it, towards the scepter. The Scepter is old though, extremely ancient. Her magic interacts with the sceptre’s. In a moment, there is a flash, sending both the scepter and its little bearer in one direction, and Celestia in the other. The flash is blinding, causing Celestia to shake her head, smoke rising from her horn.

Luna had shielded herself with her wing, lowering it slowly, she looks at Celestia, then at the mirror portal, “Oh sister…” she moans.

Equestria Girls: Equestrian Creatures and Where to Find Them.

Apple Bloom lies on her back on the grass, looking up at the clouds, a bottle of apple juice in her hand as she sighs, “We could try cooking again.”

“Can’t.” Sweetie Belle moans, “Mom said if she catches me in a kitchen again I’m grounded till my twenty-first birthday.”

“Ouch? Was it really that bad?” Apple Bloom asks as she turns her head.

“I didn’t think so, but the firemen had other things to say. We still haven’t heard back from the insurance company. How was I supposed to know that the oil would do that?” Sweetie Belle moans.

Skidding to a stop Scootaloo hops off her scooter board and sits down, cross-legged. “So, what’s up for today?”

Turning to look at Scootaloo, Apple Bloom smiles, “Finally, were still trying to figure out what to do today for our mark.”

“I know, how about white water rafting?” Scootaloo says.

“I can’t swim.” Sweetie Belle says softly, “Knitting?”

“Boring.” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo say in stereo.

“There’s just gotta be something.” Apple Bloom growls.

Scootaloo props up her chin with her hand, “Maybe we’re just not meant to.”

“That’s quitter talk, and the crusaders NEVER quit.” Apple Bloom says firmly, “We’ll find a way to make our mark on the internet somehow.”

Sweetie Belle smiles, “There’s just so much to try yet, eventually we’ll find something we are really good at that will rack up the followers on the internet.”

Standing up, Apple Bloom holds out one hand in front of her, striking a pose, with her other hand on

Scootaloo stands up, forming a triangle with the three of them, each adding their hand in, “Crusaders!”

“We’ll make our mark,” Sweetie Belle starts in a singing voice, “and the internet will see.”

“We’ll make our mark,” Scootaloo joins in, “Just you and you and me.”

The explosion from the gate is massive. The light is blinding, and the sound is so loud it sets car alarms off and shakes windows all over the school. Starting a song in front of the magical portal isn’t a bad thing normally. In this case, though, the girls are thrown to the ground by not just energy, but by the impact of the creature.

The collision sends the scepter flying and bouncing off the ground, before clattering to a stop near the street.

It takes a moment for the girls to get their wits about them, but it’s already on the move. The creature grabs the scepter and takes flight with it.

“What hit me?” Sweetie Belle whimpers.

Scootaloo sits up and groans, “Something that came through the gate.” She stops, her eyes widening, “Wait, it came through the gate, that means it was from Equestria?”

“Scoot! You’ve got wings?” Sweetie Belle says in shock.

Looking over her shoulders, Scootaloo walks in circles a few times, trying to see her back better as she spreads her wings. Stopping, she looks over at Sweetie, “Aw Yeah! We’ve ponied up!”

Sweetie Belle puts her hands to her ears, wiggling them. “I’ve got ears!”

“I…I can’t feel my hands, or my feet.” Apple Bloom whimpers, “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Looking over, Scootaloo blinks, “Apple Bloom…”

Sweetie Belle blinks, “Oh my gosh!”

Weakly, Apple Bloom tries to lift her head, the pink bow tied to the back of her mane blowing in the wind.

Sweetie Belle runs up and drops to her knees beside her friend, her hands trembling as she looks down. “Apple Bloom… you’re… you’re….”

Apple Bloom’s head wobbles a bit as she tries to focus on Sweetie Belle.

“Aww come on, this sucks.” Scootaloo says, jumping on the spot and flapping her wings as hard and fast as she can. “Dash makes it look so easy…. How come I can’t fly?”

“This isn’t about you Scootaloo, look at Apple Bloom.” Sweetie Belle snaps.

Looking over, Scootaloo lets out a soft, “Dawwww.”

“Isn’t she adorable as a filly?” Sweetie Belle says, “The ribbon, the tail, oh, I really love her mane!” She squeaks.

Shaking her head vigorously, Apple Bloom looks down at herself, “What? Why?”

“I don’t know, but you look so cute and cuddly!” Sweetie Belle says, grabbing Apple Bloom and hugging her tightly.

“Ah am not!” Apple Bloom says defiantly, as she flattens her ears and puffs out her cheeks with a grumble.

“Nope, she’s right, you are totally cute.” Scootaloo says.

As Sweetie Belle hugs Apple Bloom tighter, pulling her up. The filly changes back to human form, well nearly human, she keeps her pony ears and tail.

“Hey hey, nuf of that.” Apple Bloom says and pushes Sweetie Belle away gently. Then she blinks, looking at her hands. “Hey, I’ve got fingers again!”

“Hey what’s this?” Scootaloo says and kneels beside the other two girls, looking at a green crystal that Apple Bloom had been lying on. The crystal, or gem, is about the size of a golf ball and multi facetted cut into a teardrop shape. It is larger than any gem, by far, that Scootaloo had ever seen.

Rubbing her side, Apple Bloom looks down, “So, that’s what I was layin’ on, ah figured it was just pain from being blown up. I ain’t never seen a crystal that big.”

“Maybe that creature dropped it.” Scootaloo says and gently picks it up.

The moment Scootaloo touches the crystal, her form changes, her clothing vanishes as she instantly becomes a little pegasus filly. Wobbling a bit, she sits down quickly, rocking side to side. “Head rush. Everything just started looking funny, and I can’t focus on things.”

“I know right?” Apple Bloom says, “It’s like everything’s not where it should be. And who’s the cute one now.”

Looking at her sides and wings Scootaloo growls, “Ah heck no.”

“Oh, oh, oh, Let me try!” Sweetie Belle shouts and grabs the stone from Scootaloo’s hoof.

In an instant, the two switch forms, Sweetie Belle as the filly, Scootaloo as the pony upped human. Wobbling, Sweetie Belle giggles and shakes her head, “How do I look?”

“Just too cute for words.” Scootaloo says, “Almost as cute as Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom puffs out her cheeks, narrowing her eyes before blinking, “How are we supposed to carry this if it turns us into ponies, we can’t just leave it sitting here.”

Sweetie Belle rocks side to side, giggling and starts singing softly, “Oh I’m a little pony, short and stout, this is my tail and this is my snout.”

“I know!” Scootaloo gets up and dashes over to a tree, she breaks off a straight branch, and runs back over into the school, as she gets into one of the classrooms, she finds a big roll of duct tape. She looks over her shoulders and she notices her wings are gone, “Well that didn’t last,” she says softly.

Running back out the door, she skids to a stop and checked her back, her wings extend out, and she can feel them. “There’s a range on the change. If you’re about thirty feet from here, you change back.”

“Whatcha got there?” Apple Bloom asks.

Scootaloo wraps some duct tape around the end of the stick, then she lays a strip of tape down on the ground. “Okay, Sweetie Belle, put the crystal partly on the tape.”

“Awww, do I have to?” Sweetie Belle whines and drooped her ears.

“Come on, you can’t walk around as a little unicorn. With our luck, we’d end up in the pound.” Apple Bloom says, “Crusader Kennel Buddies doesn’t sound good to me.”

As she puts the gem down and moves her hoof away, Sweetie Belle turns back to her pony upped state. She watches closely as Scootaloo proceeds to roll the stick and gem together in the duct tape and smiles.

“Okay, as long as we don’t touch it directly, it seems we can move it around.” Scootaloo says and lifts the stick with the gem on the end.

“So now what?” Apple Bloom asks as she looks at the girls. “We can’t just sit here ponied up all day.”
“We need to tell the others, we need to tell Sunset about this, and that something came through the gate!” Sweetie Belle squeaks.

“Oh right? And what are they going to do? Hop a plane and fly back from England? They are at that challenge, they won’t be able to come back for at least two more weeks.” Scootaloo says with a huff.

“Oh right. Well how about our parents? We could ask them for help.” Sweetie Belle says, “My mom said if I ever had a problem, come tell her, no matter what it is.”

“Have you or Rarity told her about ponying up yet? About Equestria?” Apple Bloom asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, no… not really. I tried to, but they said it was a nice story, then Rarity said it would be improper to talk about such things.” Sweetie Belle says with a sigh as she lowers her head.

“Then it’s settled.” Apple Bloom says, “Until the girls get back, this is our problem. We’ll have to find the creature and get it back to Equestria!” Her eyes widen as what she just said hits her, she looks down, “somehow.”

“Yep.” Scootaloo says with her arms crossed, giving a slight nod before shaking her head. “Wait what? Us?”

“Well who else is there? Snips and Snails?” Apple Bloom says, “We are the crusaders, its our duty! Crusader Equestria Creature Wranglers!”

Scootaloo nods, “Crusader Equestria Creature Wranglers!”

“I don’t know about this.” Sweetie Belle says softly.

“Ok, well, where do we start?” Apple Bloom asked and hums as she taps on her chin.

“Well the creature flew off that way.” Scootaloo says, pointing towards the big city. “I think. So maybe there’s something on the news about it.”

“Sweetie Belle.” Apple Bloom says with a sigh, covering her face with a hand.

Sweetie Belle looks up with one hoof on the gem, wiggling her tail, “What? I think this is GREAT!” she squeaks as sparks pop from her horn for a moment.

“Its not a toy, and it could be dangerous.” Apple Bloom says, “Your house is closest, so we’ll go there.”

“Oh great, it could be dangerous so let’s take it to my house.” Sweetie Belle huffs and watches as the other girls start running. Getting up, she starts running too, “Hey wait for me!”

The streets are pretty clear of traffic and pedestrians, so the girls are able to make it to Sweetie Belle’s house without any trouble. An actual rare situation for the Crusaders. The Crumbles house is a fairly typical two story suburban home, complete with a two car garage, large basement, and open plan ground floor. Running inside, the girls charge into Sweetie Belle’s room.

“What if mom and dad were here?” Bell says panting a bit, then she blinks, looking at the other two. “Oh, come on! How come you girls aren’t even the slightest bit winded.”

“Cuz we’re in better shape?” Scootaloo says with a smirk.

“Says the pegasus that can’t fly.” Sweetie Belle grumbles and sits down on her bed to turn on her radio.

“Yeh, what’s with that?” Apple Bloom asks, sitting in front of Sweetie Belle’s laptop and starting to search the internet.

“No idea, Dash and Fluttershy make it look so easy, but their wings are huge compared to mine. Maybe its cuz I’m a not as old as them.” Scootaloo says, giving her wings a buzz. The force of the blast sending her chair rolling across the room.

Sweetie Belle puts on her head set, listening to her radio and kicking her feet, “Oh, I love this song.”

Apple Bloom blinks and snaps her fingers a few times, “Focus Belle. We need the news.”

“I know. I know.” Sweetie Belle says and switches stations.

Scootaloo can’t help but laugh as she zips around the room on the chair with her wings buzzing. The wheels rumble as they move across the wood floor, followed by her thumping into a wall, and spinning to start zipping across the room again. “This is silly, I can zip around like this, but I can’t fly. I gotta ask Dash how she does it.”

“I’ve got nothing? Anything on the radio?” Apple Bloom asks, looking over at Sweetie Belle with a sigh.

Sweetie Belle is laying with one hoof on the stone, her headphones against the back of her mane as she listens, looking up, she wiggles her tail again, “Nope nothing about monsters or such, all that’s on the news right now is something going on at a building in the downtown area. Something about possible terrorist attack, chemical weapons causing hallucinations, and the police blockading the area. Thank gosh we don’t have to go there. Someone is holed up on the top floor.”

Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo and blinks slowly, “Hallucinations?”

“If I didn’t know about ponying up, that would be my guess.” Scootaloo says, “And if it was a flyer, it might feel safest getting as high up as it can.”

“Now we just need a way to hide our ears.” Apple Bloom says.

Sweetie Belle squeaks and bounces up, changing forms again as she runs for the door, “Oh, oh, oh, I know! My sister has just the things!” Charging into her sister’s room she searches, then she comes back right away, dropping her prize on her bed.

“Hair bands, well, Rarity insists on calling them Alice Bands,” Sweetie Belle says, sitting upright and wiggling a bit to impersonate her sister, “As they are not some uncouth fabric one wears while playing sports.”

“How are these supposed to help?” Scootaloo asks as she pokes one with a finger.

Giggling Sweetie Belle pulls one on, angling it and she smiles as she moves the band against her ears. “There just like the Wondercolt ears. The colors match our ears, but stand out against our hair, so people will think we’re just wearing fake ears!”

“Now we need to get to town, we can’t just call a cab or take a bus.” Apple Bloom says and huffs.

Scootaloo looks at the gem, “Even if we are disguised, if we are to close to others they will change too.”

“Well, dad does have that old car he doesn’t use. But I can’t drive.” Sweetie Belle says sorrowfully.

“I can!” Apple Bloom says quickly, “I drive the tractor and the hauler we have at the farm all the time.”

Scootaloo laughs, “Got you beat. I drive the gas powered go carts all the time, 79cc, four speed automatics. Those things rip up the dirt tracks.”

Apple Bloom hums, then she holds out her hand, making a fist, “Hoof, horn, wing to see who drives.”

Nodding, Scootaloo makes a fist, “Lets do this, one, two, three, shoot!”

Both girls quickly throw out the signs with their hands on the word shoot and look down.

“Wing covers hoof, I win.” Scootaloo crows.

Huffing, Apple Bloom picks up the stick with the gem on the end and walks down to the garage. The car is under a large cover so it takes a bit of time to get it into the light, but once done, the girls all blink.

“Wow, that really does look old.” Scootaloo says.

Painted eggshell white, with three blue diamonds behind the engine vents on the sides of the hood, the Morgan Roadster almost glitters. With chrome spoked wheels, chrome headlight casings, all wood dash board and leather interior, the car is absolutely beautiful.

“Your dad’s giving that to Rarity for her birthday?” Apple Bloom says in awe, “Wish I could get something like this.”

Scootaloo opens the driver’s door and looks inside before closing it and walking around to the passenger side with a sigh.

“Something wrong?” Sweetie Belle asks as she climbs into the back seat.

“Apple Bloom, your driving. It’s a standard, I can’t do standard.” Scootaloo says and climbs in.

“Ah KNEW all that time with the tractors would help somehow.” Apple Bloom says, smiling and hands Scootaloo the stick. Getting in, she fastens her seat belt and starts the car.

Opening the garage door with the remote, Apple Bloom carefully moves it out of its shelter. Once outside, she smiles and turns out onto the street, heading for town. Leaning down, Scootaloo turns on the radio, searching for local news.

“Don’t forget your turn signals,” Scootaloo says as she nods and leans back.

“Ah knew I was forgetting something, oh and headlights.” Apple Bloom says as she flicks them on too.

“A ten block region of the down town core is being evacuated, residents are being asked to leave their homes and places of work in an orderly fashion…” Comes over the radio.

“Does anyone ever listen to that? Sweetie Belle asked, “I mean really? A seven foot tall fire haired she demon shows up and everyone screams and runs. There was no order there.”

There was limited traffic flow towards the town center, the majority of it is heading away. People fleeing, looking for a safe place. A few news trucks, ambulances, and police pass them as they head down town, but aside from that, no one seemed to want to brave the supposed terrorist attack.

“This is easier than I thought.” Apple Bloom says, smiling, “We should be there in no time.”

“Yeah, seriously, why would people run towards the bad stuff?” Scootaloo says and chuckles as she leans forward, looking up at the building. Dark storm clouds had formed around it and began to circle slowly.

“Especially when there are big road blocks in place, and police to prevent entry.” Apple Bloom says as she stops the car, looking at the police check point.

“Do you know how to park?” Sweetie Belle asks.

“Normally I’d say no, but around here.” With most of the cars gone it was easy for Apple Bloom to simply pull off to the side of the road. They could see the building clearly from where they were, only a few city blocks from it.

“Now what?” Scootaloo asks, looking at all the police, “There’s no way we can get past all of that.”

“She’s right, we should probably just head home.” Sweetie Belle says, “It can probably wait till our sisters are back.”

Crossing her arms, Apple Bloom sighs and lays her head on the steering wheel, “There’s just got to be a way past everyone and in there, they can’t deal with something from Equestria. They don’t know what it is, or about magic.”

“And we do?” Sweet Belle squeaks, “Its not like we have some magical ability that will let us get in.”

Four massive lightning bolts streak down from the clouds. They run parallel to the building, arcing and fanning out as they get close to the ground. On impact, there is a bright flash of light and energy explodes outwards, washing across everyone and everything.

As the wave passes over people, they fall to the ground, unconscious. Lights go out on the police cars, and sirens go quiet. Huddling together, the girls watch as the pulse wave approaches the car before hitting the area of Equestrian magic that the stone is generating. The two magical fields dance and glow in a rainbow of colors and the pulse wave passes over them and continues outwards.

“What… What was that?” Sweetie Belle asks.

Getting out of the car, Scootaloo runs over to one of the officers and checks. “He’s still breathing, just unconscious.”

Looking at each other, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both turn their heads to look at the gem.

“It must have been a magical pulse of some kind. We know one thing though, the gem will protect us from it. So we can get close to the creature safely then.” Apple Bloom says firmly.

Getting back into the car, Scootaloo looks at the girls, “That stun blast looks like it knocked out at least a quarter mile or more. I don’t know how long they will be out for. It looked like a wraith stun bomb.”

“A what?” Sweetie Belle squeaks in fear.

“Never mind, just a sci-fi thing.” Scootaloo says and leans back as Apple Bloom starts the car again.

Driving around the road block, she parked the car across the street from the building. It is a lot trickier than she had thought, because she had to avoid several bodies on the ground. Police, FBI, Swat, and even news crews are all laying on the ground.

Exiting the car, they looked up at the huge tower. Apple Bloom takes the lead as the group walks inside into the ground floor of the tower. Their eyes wide with awe. The power is off, except for some of the emergency lighting that casts the entire building in a strange glow. Several large stores make up the first few floors of the building, ranging from fashion and clothing, to electronics, and even a Toys'R'Us. Cellphone kiosks dot the walkways, though all have been left empty. Shattered glass from a DeBears store litters the entry way with the occasional gusts of wind from outside causing its door to swing.

“Well at least they have elevators.” Sweetie Belle says cheerfully.

Apple Bloom shakes her head, “Nope, powers out, we need to walk.”

“Walk? Do you know how many stairs there must be!” Sweetie Belle says looking shocked at the emergency stair well.

Leaning against a display pedestal, Scootaloo runs her finger along it, reading, “Nine hundred and seventy-two.”

“Oh, you can just keep information like that to yourself.” Apple Bloom says, shaking her head. “Let’s get walking.”

It is slow going, Sweetie Belle having to stop a few times on the way up to catch her breath. As they get higher though, the crystal glows brighter. It’s the only sign the girls have, so far, that they are going in the right direction.

As they are climbing a loud crash sounds above them an the entire building shakes. The girls look at each other, Sweetie Belle is the first to recover, “What was that?”

Apple Bloom looks down the stair well, then up, looking at the cloud of dust above them, “Ah dunno, but something happened.”

Scootaloo puts a hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder, “We are almost there, let’s go.”

Finally, as they get to the top, “I hate you two.” Sweetie Belle whimpers and puffs, her face showing her exhaustion.

“Why us?” Apple Bloom says as she sits down on the top step, looking down. “And keep your voice down a bit.”

“Pegasi and earth ponies are athletes, unicorns aren’t. You two are getting all these benefits, making it look so easy, and me, I’m exhausted.”

“Well, unicorns get like, magic, don’t they?” Scootaloo says and leans casually against the top banister.

Sweetie Belle lifts her bangs, “No horn, remember? Pony upped unicorns don’t get horns. Means I can’t do magic. Not like I’d know how if I had one.”

Apple Bloom nods and holds out her hand, helping Sweetie Belle up the last few steps, “Yeah, not like there’s a school that teaches magic, I mean real magic, not that Mind Freak stuff.”

Opening the door slowly, the girls peek out of the stairwell. The top floor of the building is dedicated to a massive skyline restaurant, with a central area for dancing and a live band. The tables are arranged around the outer sides though, with many having clear views of the windows.

Several of the floor to ceiling window panes had been smashed, some from the outside, some from within. Others showed large scratch marks in them, cracks, and impact points where the glass had been hit, but not totally given way because of the safety coating. The openings did, however, let wind pass through the restaurant. And it looks like some of the structural steel is missing, and the edges seem to be melted.

“I said leave me alone!” A voice calls out, and a gout of fire shoots across the room towards one of the emergency exits, melting the door slightly.

“It can talk?” Scootaloo says, then shakes her head, “Of course it talks, almost everything from Equestria can talk, according to Sunset.”

“It sounds like it’s scared,” Sweetie Belle says, poking her head out a little and crawling forward on her hands and knees, “And young.”

“We’re not gonna hurt you.” Apple Bloom calls out. “I know this place must be confusing, but we’re here to take you home.”

Lifting her head above a server’s trolley, the little dragon narrows her eyes. “What do you know about my home?”

Looking back at the girls, Sweetie Belle holds out her hand, “Gem, please.”

Scootaloo looks down, then hands her the stick. “Careful.” She says softly to her friend.

Sweetie Belle sits down, putting her hand on the stone, then shakes her mane and tail out. “I’m Sweetie Belle, I know about the portal to Equestria, about the ponies.”

“You’re just a little filly.” The dragon says, “Why would you know?”

“A unicorn, Sunset Shimmer, taught me all about it, or at least some of the stuff about it.” Sweetie Belle says, “But I was born on Earth, this world.”

The dragon looks at her, and then looks down, “I’m… I’m Princess Flicker Flame, the youngest of my dad’s family.” The dragon says, “What about your friends? Are they safe?”

Looking at Scootaloo, Apple Bloom nods and crouches down beside the little unicorn and touches the gem, “I’m Apple Bloom. Mah sisters Apple Jack.”

She kneels down and reaches out, Scoots finds it hard to get a touch on the gem with two other ponies touching it, but she manages it. “Scootaloo.”

“You’re all just foals?” The dragon sighs softly, “I’m just a baby dragon, too.” Looking at the doors again the dragon shakes her head, “My dad and sis told me I could hold and play with the Dragonfire Scepter while I was waiting, but then the grownup ponies started trying to take it from me.”

“Yeah, grownups don’t often listen to us either,” Scootaloo says softly.

“That stone, it’s… its part of the scepter, it must have broken off when I came here.” The dragon says.

Sweetie Belle leans down and bites the gem to pick it up, then she slowly walks over to the dragon, trying to get used to the feel of crawling, or walking, on all four legs. Once she is closer, Sweetie Belle notices several partial circles and strips of gold laying behind the cart with the dragon. Gently she puts it down in front of the baby dragon and shifts to human as she lets go of the gem, then she backs up and sits down. A moment later, the other girls come forward and sit down on either side of her.

“It’s got a lot of Equestrian magic in it, but it belongs to you.” Sweetie Belle says softly, gesturing to the gem.

Apple Bloom nods, “It’s yours, take it.”

Picking up one of the gold circles, Scootaloo looks at it curiously.

“But its broken.” The baby dragon puts the gem against the bottom of the scepter then lets it go, the gem falls to the floor.

“It needs some duct tape to hold it.” Apple Bloom says.

“Or glue.” Sweetie Belle says.

“But we don’t have either,” Apple Bloom murmurs.

“Is this real gold?” Scootaloo asks, looking at the dragon.

“I… I guess, I got hungry.” The dragon says, looking down and blushes a little.

Collecting a few pieces of the gold, Scootaloo drops them on the hooks at the bottom of the crystal. “Just breath some fire on that, then stick the gem against them, it should stick.”

Looking at Scootaloo for a moment, the dragon breaths fire in a small gout against the gold, melting it slightly. Once done, she wedges the gem back into place and looks at it as the gold sets, forming a tight friction bond. Giving it a little shake the dragon smiles, “It worked!”

“And Cheerilee said you never learn things on TV.” Scootaloo says with a laugh before acking as she is hugged by the dragon, her form shrinking down to pony again. Blinking she shrugs and buzzes her wings, hugging the dragon back, “Friends now?”

Letting go, the dragon backs up and nods, “Yeah, you’re a lot nicer than the other ones.”

“The other…” Apple Bloom starts before the partly melted fire door on the far side is blown off its hinges.

Turning quickly the three girls watch a pair of older men walk in. Both seemed to be in their thirties or forties, and both wear suits and ties, as well as dark fedora style hats. Most notably, both wear long trench coats down to their knees, and while they are open at the front, they still move with them as they walk.

“Why are there children here? Everyone should be unconscious.” One man says.

The second man reaches into his trench coat, “There shouldn’t be, blasted no-mags. Stupefy!”

A blast of light shoots out from an object one of the two are holding and flies across the room towards the children. In a moment, however, the dragon is in front of the girls, holding the sceptre in front of her. As the blast hits the scepter, a loud thunderclap can be heard, as the energy bounces back in a wave, blowing over tables, shattering part of the wall, and knocking the two men back into the stairwell.

In the next moment, the fire extinguishers starts raining water down as the concussive force breaks all the caps, as well as destroying all the windows on one side of the building. Above, part of the ceiling gives way, crashing down.

In the chaos, the girls scoop up the dragon and run for the stair well they had used to ascend.

“Who were those guys?” Sweetie Belle asks as she takes the stairs three at a time going down.

“No idea, maybe something banished from Equestria? Like the Sirens?” Apple Bloom says, running down, keeping the dragon curled up against her chest and making sure not to touch the staff.

Scootaloo buzzes her wings as she takes the lead, almost jumping from landing to landing, only stopping long enough to check the door to make sure they aren’t being followed. “Or other humans tracking magic? Like Twilight was? I don’t know, but we have to get her back to Equestria.”

“Who ever they are, they are dangerous.” Sweetie Belle said. “Are you okay, Flicker?”

“A…a….I… Think…. So….” The little dragon responds as she is bounced in Apple Bloom’s arms.

Busting through the door Scootaloo skids to a stop. “Umm girls, we have a problem.”

Apple Bloom stops beside Scootaloo, “The men?”

Shaking her head, Scootaloo points out the doors.

“The car!” Sweetie Belle says with a squeak as she looks at the Morgan, partly crushed under debris from the building, a large support beam going right through the hood.

“Ouch. That’s not going to buff out.” Scootaloo says and starts looking around, before running into the toy store, “I’ll be right back.”

Apple Bloom puts her hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder, “Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks, sides, sis says there’s not much a little sweat, nails, glue, and duct tape can’t fix.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Sweetie Belle says, “If we can get it back, maybe a little paint…”

A moment later the car is engulfed in flames, leaking fuel ignited by the damaged electrical system causes a small fireball under the engine before it settles into an even burn. Dark smoke rising from the wreck.

“A little glue, a little….” Sweetie Belle says, squeaking higher than usual. Standing in total shock, Sweetie Belle watches as the car burns.

A buzzing motor sound catches Apple Bloom’s attention as she glances over and watches Scootaloo zip out of the store riding on a black scooter with heavy off road tires, wearing a helmet and elbow pads. Tied to the back of the scooter is a semi-covered red wagon, made of wood and steel. The wagon also has heavy duty wheels on it, looking like it was made to be part kids toy, part garden tool.

Skidding sideways a bit, Scootaloo stops in front of the girls, “Hop in the wagon!”

“Both of us won’t fit, with the dragon.” Apple Bloom says, shaking her head.

“You will if you are pony sized, just touch and keep a hold of the gem on the scepter.” Scootaloo says, looking across at the other fire escapes. “They could be coming any moment.”

The girls nod to each other, getting into the wagon. Their smaller pony size making lots of room in the wagon for the baby dragon. Buzzing her wings, Scootaloo shoots out of the tower like a bullet. Weaving and dodging bodies on the street she laughs, “Maybe not being able to fly isn’t so bad, if I can get speed like this on a scooter.”

It feels like it takes less then half an hour for the girls to reach the school. Pulling up by the statue Scootaloo falls backwards onto the grass panting, “Phew…new record!”

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both stick their heads out of the wagon, looking around before looking up and gulping.

Walking down the steps of the school, Luna smiles and kneels down, “Well hello there my little ponies.”

“Umm, Principle Luna, we can explain!” Apple Bloom says quickly before covering her muzzle with a hoof.

Scootaloo sits up quickly, “Principle Luna…”

Shaking her head slowly, Luna kneels down, “Flicker Flame, accept my apologizes, my sister and the guards didn’t know you were entrusted to protect the item during the talks.”

Apple Bloom lets out an eek and climbs out of the wagon, changing to human before bowing deeply to Luna. Sweetie Belle blinks and follows suit.

“Ah’m sorry Princess, I didn’t know it was you.”

“It’s okay Apple Bloom, it’s quite understandable.” Luna says with a small smile.

“You know her name?” Scootaloo says in shock.

“I know all your names, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle. I know three very special and brave fillies back home, that share your names. And bringing back Princess Flicker Flame is something they would do too.” Luna says then she looks down at the dragon, “Are you ready to come home?”

“Y…yes ma’am,” The dragon says before being picked up by Luna.

“Equestria is in your debt girls.” Luna says softly before turning and walking through the portal.

The moment she leaves, all three girls’ ears vanish, as the magic returns with her. Sighing, Scootaloo looks up at the sky. “Well there go my wings. Man, its too bad we didn’t get any of that on film, we’d have made or mark for sure.”

Flopping on her back beside Scootaloo, Apple Bloom looks up at the sky too, "You know, as much trouble as we get into trying to figure out how to become famous, how to make our mark on the internet. It seems like the most enjoyable, most memorable times are, when we help other find their way."

Sweetie Belle sits down cross legged and looks at the portal, "Yeah, maybe its okay if we never make our own mark, because the lives we touch, the people we help, can then help others."

Scootaloo sighs and sits up, "Being unknown isn't so bad I guess, because we know each other, and our friendship is all that really matters."

Sweetie Belle smiles, "Crusaders forever?”

All the girls hug tightly in the fading light of day before a glow of light illuminates them. Blinking, the three girls cover their eyes for a moment before seeing the car approaching with its high beams on. With a sigh, Scootaloo shakes her head, “It would still be kinda nice and fun to have a million followers though.”

As the car pulls up Apple Bloom laughs, "I know, right? we can try something else tomorrow, for now, we can relax, unwind, and be happy that we saved Equestria and Earth."

Scootaloo nodds, "And just think, no one got hurt."

Rolling down the window, Sweetie Belle’s mom leans out, "Sweetie Belle, where's your father’s car? It’s not in the garage."

Gulping Sweetie Belle looks at her friends, then at the portal, then she whimpers, "Yet."

Chapter 12.

View Online

Rarity steps lightly to the music in the ballroom of the Ingatestone Hall. She works to be feather light in the arms of the heir-apparent of Barron Petre. The young man moves with practiced grace as they both twirl among the dancers in the huge ball room. The string quartet at the edge of the ball room is playing beautifully. She looks into the deep blue eyes of her partner and smiles demurely. She’s gratified by him smiling nervously back, looking back towards his father.

“Rarity?”

She flutters her eyelashes, “Yes, William?”

“Would you like to sneak away from this boring place?”

She puts a hand to her chest, “Oh, you find me boring?”

His face reddens and he stammers a bit, “Nothing of the sort, I would simply like to…” He is stopped by a single finger of hers placed on his lips. He smiles in response to hers.

“Say nothing more.” She whispers into his ear, “We can certainly take a walk together.” She holds out a hand, which he graciously accepts and she allows him to lead her from the ball room. They giggle together as they walk through the massive building and finally exit out into the cool evening. He opens a door gallantly for her, and she steps through.

A musty smell hits her, she looks around, they are in a horse stable, “William, what is this?”

She turns and somehow he’s changed clothes, he’s wearing tight riding pants along with a trim jacket, a riding crop tucked under his elbow. In his hands is…

“William, No.” She says as she steps backwards. She looks down, that sounded different, a brilliant white flank greets her eyes, along with her three diamond cutie mark. She looks back at William as he advances, holding a bridle, “No, William, I don’t like this.

“Why not, you will love living in the stables and sleeping on hay, but first we have to get you ready to play some polo.”

“William…” she whimpers as she backs away from him, as he gets close, she screams out, “NO!”

She’s awake, she’s wearing her sleep mask. She takes a moment to take off the mask and look around at her friends. Picking up the tennis ball sized device off of her bed, she looks at the time display on the face of it and shakes her head. Rainbow Dash and that little song of hers. She glances out of the corner of her eye as she watches her friend take her turn at the restroom. She rolls her eyes as her friend’s boxers and tee shirt are tossed from the room as the door shuts. She reaches over and pulls her wand out of her robes and points it at the discarded clothing. The wand glows and the sleepwear zips past her into a small hamper. Rarity pulls the sheer pink robe with lavender trim over her own sleepwear, a beautiful red silk one piece with spaghetti straps. She smiles as she moves over to her bureau. All the girls have pretty much the same dreadfully dull wardrobes. She has been able to do a little to personalize the robes. All her friends have their marks on the inner pockets of the robes, next to their hips.

Rarity chooses her clothing with care, while the slacks, ties and blouses are pretty standard uniforms, Rarity fingers the different choices she has today. She glances back, Rainbow and Twilight are busy cleaning in the bathrooms, everyone else is getting dressed. She looks back into her bureau and bites her lower lip. She is quick to don the white blouse, it only takes her a moment to decide on the sleek gray skirt over the slacks. She buttons the skirt and pulls out her shoes, she has to walk quite a bit throughout the halls of this school, and as much as the high heels are appealing, she chooses some attractive looking flats. Before pulling on her robe, she reaches on top and pulls out an electric blue scarf, which she ties on precisely. She looks at herself in the mirror on the door of the bureau and smiles. No drab uniform is going to stop Rarity from shining through. She turns around as she closes the door and stops dead, “Oh Rainbow Dash, that just won’t do!” She walks towards her friend, who has an absolute deer in headlights look about her as Rarity advances on her.

***

Rarity walks with Sunset Shimmer. The poor dear is still shaking from what she had seen in the crystal ball. Rarity shakes her head, all she saw in the blasted thing was an inverted view of the rest of the room. No deep meditation, no pinkie sense, no nothing had changed her view through the ball. She glances back at the door of the divination classroom, the teacher had proclaimed her imminent death. Hannah Abbott, one of the Hufflepuff girls, however, had whispered that Professor Trelawney had made this kind of proclamation in nearly every class. Though with that Grogar creature on the loose. She shudders to think how accurate that woman’s proclamations just might be. Watching Sunset get blasted by that creature, only to pop up elsewhere, had shaken Rarity to her core. Even though she had been busy trying to distract the beast, she had felt the icy cold glare of that ram. The power he contained dwarfed everything they had dealt with in the past, even Sunset Shimmer herself while holding the power of the Equestrian Element of Magic. Rarity shakes her head as Sunset starts to get more steady on her feet.

“Darling, whatever are we going to do?”

Sunset gasps, “I don’t know, Rarity.” She looks down, “If I had some way to train you. The defense against the dark arts class here is a help, but I need to put you and Twilight through some serious magical battle training.”

Rarity huffs, “How can us three with Equestrian magic even begin to hold a candle to him?”

A tear runs down Sunset’s cheek, “He’s gathering those Death Eaters, he’s using a version of compulsion on them.” She sighs, “I don’t know how to break it.”

“What about the mages here? Hermione knows a lot of wonderful charms to help with mind control.” Twilight says, adjusting her glasses.

Sunset shrugs off Rarity’s help with a grateful look, “I think I can handle it, thank you.” She looks over at Twilight, “The mages here use magic that is very different than what I use.” She draws out her wand and looks at it, “I know they can help, but teaching you…” She trails off as the wand glows softly, “I’m going to have to help you learn magic. And quickly.” The glow fades as she puts her wand away. She looks around at her friends, “Thank you.”

Rarity starts, but Twilight joins in and both of them hug Sunset Shimmer tightly, “To the end, darling.” Rarity says softly.

After a few moments, Twilight speaks up, “I’ve got Transfiguration with Hermione and her friends. I’ll see you.” She vanishes up the stairs towards the classroom.

Rarity looks at Sunset, “Charms?”

Sunset smiles brightly, “Charms it is.”

They walk together into the charms classroom, the diminutive teacher is holding his own wand and pointing it at the chalkboard, where writing is appearing on the green slate boards. He looks back and smiles at the two American girls as they find their own seats.

“Good morning students!” He says jovially as the final few decide to make their way to their seats. “Oh, you all are in for a treat today.” He say, clapping his hands, “We have lots of new charms to work with today. Open up your spellbooks to useful everyday charms.” He smiles, “That’s chapter five.”

Rarity opens the book and looks around. Doing dishes, dusting, sweeping floors, could this get any worse? She looks around at the other students. Most of them are looking at the pages with a bit of trepidation, one student, sitting next to her, is reading with rapt attention. Rarity leans over, “Don’t these look rather pedestrian uses for magic?”

He smiles shyly, hunching a bit in on himself as he looks up at Rarity, then over at the teacher. That gets a smile from Rarity, he’s shy, that one. She giggles and leans a little closer, “It’s all right, I don’t bite.” She offers a hand, “I’m Rarity.”

He blushes profusely, "N... ne...Neville Long Bottom, ma'am." He whispers softly, taking her hand for a moment, a quick shake, then he retreats.

Rarity grins, keeping her voice low, “Well, Neville, I’m looking around and most of the students here seem to have the opinion that the teacher is off his rocker when he’s talking about today being a treat. But you seem to agree with Professor Flitwick.”

Neville looks at the teacher, then back at Rarity, “These charms aren’t glamorous, they aren’t throwing fire, or fighting off dark mages.” He smiles, “But you are going to use these more than anything else.” He draws his wand out, “Any opportunity to use your magic to do things, even pedestrian, easy things, is a joy.” His blush returns, “Don’t you like using your magic?”

Rarity frowns, “I…”

“Miss Rarity, mister Longbottom, it’s time to pay attention to class.” Comes the teacher’s voice. Jarring both of them to the present, and getting a snicker from Sunset Shimmer. Rarity gives her friend a dirty look as the teacher launches into the lesson.

She lets his words wash over her as she thinks. It was almost a joy to touch magic, until a matter of days ago, she had no idea that she could do magic like this. She had felt the magic of ponying up, felt Equestrian magic flowing though her, changing her and tying her to the other world. Even then, however, something always seemed to be missing, disconnected, as if something was just beyond her grasp or understanding. AJ’s strength, Dash’s flight, Equestrian magic always gave them so much power. Though that power was actually a part of them, part of who they are. For her, though, it felt like something was blocking her.

At the teacher’s prompting, she draws out her wand, along with the other students. She looks down at the light colored and elegantly sculpted wood. The wand is a work of art unto itself, but is it the power? Does it hold the magic she’s been using? Or does it come from inside her?

Over the last few days, Sunset has talked about the magic coming from her, that the wand was just a conduit. Yet to do even the simplest trick, for some reason, she still needs this little piece of pear wood. Without it, the power was lost to her. Touching the power within it, when she connects with that power inside of her, it glows, as does Sunset’s wand. Yet none of the other students seem to have their own wands glow. She says the words just as the other students do, her own spell appearing to do the exact same as the other student’s spells, yet it feels, different. Does it mean something different?

Sunset had told her that her magic is more in line with Equestrian magic, and it’s less about the spell words that she says, in fact, unicorns don’t have to say any words to initiate a spell. It’s about the formula, the shaping of the magic into patterns. If it’s more complex than simple levitation, the spell forms are what the unicorn must learn, though some spells come instinctually for the unicorns, part of their cutie marks. The basic spells, what she is learning here, the words the human mages use help form those patterns in her mind. Sunset had told her to pay attention to the feel and shape of the magic. The energies other students are using, that will give her the spell forms for the more complex spell she will craft later. She looks at Sunset, her brow scrunched as she focuses on the multitude of simple spells the teacher is offering at a rapid rate. Even with the intense concentration of her friend, she can see the joy, the happiness of working with magic.

The joy of magic? Rarity sneaks a glance at Neville, he has the same look of joy on his face as Sunset does. Looking back to her wand she wonders quietly “What does this mean for me?”

She closes her eyes as she feels the magic flowing through her. Even doing such simple tasks, switching or hopping between charms, feels so liberating, so free. Much like the endorphin rush she has felt after intense exercise, or the joy she feels when she finishes a dress. This is exercise, of a sort, she’s using muscles that she didn’t even know she had before, had never touched before. She starts to smile as she adds an extra flick to the wand as she levitates a broom. Picking up multiple things at once seems to be a breeze for her, a dozen dust pans propped against the wall zip into the air, glowing with her magic.

“Rarity.” Sunset whispers fiercely as she flicks her wand at a several stacks of clean clothes, she pours the magic into them as they start folding themselves. She glances over at the big tubs of water that the teacher had set out. The brushes attack the crusted on food on the various plates. Rarity hums as she looks around the classroom for more to do, a small smile on her face.

“Miss Rarity!” Comes another voice, snapping Rarity’s attention.

She focuses on the teacher standing before her, “Oh my.” She’s able to mutter, “I’m so sorry, I just…”

Professor Flitwick pats her on the shoulder, “I can see you have a large amount of raw power right there.” He looks around at the carnage from her spells sputtering to a stop, “And a tremendous amount of fine control right here.” He smiles, “But could you let the other students also join in on the learning today?”

Rarity blushes deeply, “Oh dear, I’m so sorry sir.”

Neville leans over as the teacher walks among the tubs and the various brooms and other cleaning equipment, his own wand out as he cleans up, “That was amazing.” He murmurs softly.

Rarity looks at Sunset, who is now looking at Rarity, her eyes narrowed. Rarity looks back at Neville, “That was just so…” She looks around, trying to find the words, “exhilarating.” She says.

“Exhilarating for a common cur maybe,” the girl sitting behind the two huffs. She’s about Rarity’s age, maybe a shade younger, but her hair is raven black, cut short around her neck. She sneers, “Or one who shows little to no pride or ambition in their work.”

Rarity blinks, “Now see here…” She starts before being cut off by the Slytherin girl.

“I am aware that social standards across the pond are rather lax, but do try and remember, you are in our country now. Magic, is not for, how do you commoners put it? Horsing around.”

Glancing back Neville shook his head, “Millicent Bulstrode, house Slytherin.”

Rarity closes her mouth in a mix of shock and pain. Looking back down at her wand, her dream comes flooding back to her. ‘A… horse.’ Her hand trembles slightly.

With a gentle touch, Neville places his hand on hers to help steady her wand.

Sunset jerks and looks down, a jelly bean has bounced off her head, she picks up the small candy bit and looks around, Pinkie Pie is nearly vibrating as she stands at the doorway, Sunset looks at Rarity then slides out of her chair.

With a single nod to Sunset then a second to Neville, Rarity turns her attention to the teacher. Sunset quickly heads over to the door and whispers to Pinkie. Glancing towards her friends, Rarity tilts her head but is unable to make out the words. In moments, Sunset is back and Pinkie has disappeared, even without spells, Pinkie has always seemed to have the innate ability to just vanish when she wished.

Sunset turned her attention to Rarity with a big smile on her face, then whispers quietly as she leans over, “Pinkie found something, and it might be very helpful for us. I told her we will check it out after classes are done for the day.”

Rarity frowns as the teacher turns back, she leans over to Sunset, “Pinkie found something?”

Sunset nods, “That map that the Weasley twins gave her this morning has helped her find something that may make things a lot easier for us. So, we’ll meet after classes are over and check it out, okay?”

Rarity nods dubiously, “Okay.”

They both focus on the teacher as he turns back around, a somewhat forced smile on his face, “Okay students, let’s try this again.

***

Rarity walks from the great hall after lunch. The food was actually quite excellent today, with an interesting variety of treats she had heard of, but not yet had a chance to sample, such as Turkish Delights. Applejack, had taken the time to warn her, however, that she had talked with the house elves down in the kitchens about food preparations. It was quaint how Applejack had put it, ‘down home cookin’.” That means some American dishes will be showing up soon, starting with tonight. Given this, the Turkish delights might have to wait. After that, she had gone to talk to the young Weasley girl. Rarity leans back as the gong announces the end of lunch and the beginning of the first after lunch period. She doesn’t have another class for a while now, she has to admit, the scheduling for a boarding school like this is actually quite nice. Things are at quite a relaxed pace than back at home.

She closes her eyes as she thinks, usually free time would be spent working on new clothing designs, or trying to find more gemstones outside of town. She’s got a few ideas for her friends to wear if they ever get the chance to perform their music here. Though it seems the mages typically don’t care for more modern music. It’s quite nice for her, though, that some of the children here had lived in the muggle world, some being half-bloods, or even muggleborn mages. That means that some are at least exposed to the outside world, not stuck back in the middle ages.

Rarity sighs as she decides to get up, she turns and walks slowly out of the great hall and turn to head down the covered bridge that leads to the path to Hogsmeade. She gets to the middle of the bridge and looks out and down. When the mages were cleaning up, they neglected to repair much of the damage that Grogar had done to the rock face. With a shudder, Rarity looks at the place where Grogar had nearly killed Sunset Shimmer. The rock had been blasted hot enough to melt, then had solidified like that. She can see the claw marks in the rock that the wyvern had made as it was trying to climb away from them. Rarity closes her eyes, seeing again the frenzied creature attempted to gain purchase to get high enough to fly away. Or failing that, attacking her and her friends. She can remember the spell forms she had used instinctually, making blinding bright flashes of light, even using a spell that solidified the air to bind the creature. After the influence of Grogar was gone, it had calmed down quite a bit. She looks off towards the forbidden forest, hoping that the poor creature is happy back at home.

“I heard about your fight with Harry’s dragon.”

Rarity flinches and turns, Neville is there, he comes up next to her, “That was a Hungarian Horntail, one of the most vicious types of dragons.”

Rarity nods, “Yeah.” She says softly. “We nearly died there.”

Neville looks down then up at her, “But you didn’t.”

She flinches and looks at him, “I’m sorry?”

“You didn’t die, Rarity. You survived, you beat the dragon. Even I’m not brave enough to face one of those, let alone strong enough.”

She sighs, the students here, with very few exceptions, don’t know about Grogar, “You are right, there. But it was very scary.”

He nods, then he looks closer at the wall. “Just look at that blast mark. No Hungarian Horntail could do that.” He shakes his head, “The amount of heat, the concentration. No dragon at all could do that on its own.” He looks over at Rarity, “Something else happened here, other than you girls fighting that dragon?”

“I…” She looks down, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

He huffs, “That’s the teachers for you, something happens, and they don’t tell the students. They don’t want to scare us but at the same time, they just let Harry and his friends take care of it.”

Rarity looks up, he brings a closed fist down on the railing, “Our first year here, I found out that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were going to go down to look for the Philosopher’s stone. I tried to stop them, they needed to get the teacher’s help. They had already gotten in so much trouble that year. But Hermione put a curse on me so they could go.”

“You stood up for your friend’s safety, you did what you felt was right.” Rarity says softly.

He barks a laugh, “But I was wrong. If I had been successful in stopping them, He Who Must Not Be Named would be reborn now. And we would be in a lot of trouble. They were right to stop me. What happens if the next time I make things worse?”

"Trust me, I know terror." Neville sighs as he crosses his arms on the rail looking down. "Both my parents were driven mad by Death Eaters, and all everyone did was lie about it. Now they are just locked up in prison. For their protection as much as for the protection of others."

"Neville..." Rarity blinks, looking at him. He’s looking down, but it seems he’s looking inside himself more than out. "They were strong mages and they couldn't even protect themselves." Shaking his head, Neville sighs, "They’re still out there you know."

"Who?"

"The Death Eaters. Every time I see them, every time I hear about them all I feel is terror and dread. But that's not the worst part. There's something else with them. I saw it once, and now when I close my eyes to sleep sometimes I see it."

"What?"

"Some... some goat creature with eyes that can see into your soul. Even the Death Eaters are scared of it. I told Professor Dumbledore, but of course, he said I must have imagined it." Neville shakes his head. "Maybe I'm just going crazy like my parents. Or maybe I'm just not worth telling the truth to."

Rarity’s eyes cloud, she remembers the fight, distracting that dragon, that demonic ram hopping from rock to rock, his voice cold enough to freeze the sould, “Grogar.” She whispers.

Neville jerks, “That was the name in my dream.” He looks intensely at her, “How do you know the name in my dreams?”

Rarity blinks and shakes her head, “I…I don’t know.”

For a moment, Neville’s face twists in anger, then he relaxes back, “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me the truth.” He looks down, “I’m the one who keeps losing my frog. I’m the one who melted Seamus’ cauldron in potions.”

“Neville.”

He stops his rant and looks at Rarity, she sighs. They aren’t going to be able to defeat Grogar by themselves, otherwise they would have when he appeared just a few days before, she looks into his hazel eyes, “I’m sorry Neville. We came to this school to stay away from Grogar. Your dreams are right, he’s a demonic ram. He’s a necromancer from Equestria.”

His eyebrows rise, “Equestria?”

She nods, “It’s a world outside of ours. Sunset Shimmer is from that world. They are inhabited by intelligent ponies, unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, and the fantastically rare alicorns.” She looks at him, “This needs to be kept close, Neville, you can’t tell anyone.”

He looks inward for a long moment, “You can count on me.”

She smiles brightly, “Thank you, Neville.”

***

Rarity bids Neville goodbye as she heads to her final class of the day. Defense against the dark arts, she climbs the stairs and finally gets to the door into the classroom. She smiles, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle are standing there along with some of the other students. She smiles at her friends as the door is opened to admit the students. Rarity finds a seat between her friends. Before long, the rest of the students have found their seats. Rarity flinches as the door slams closed. The rhythmic thunk of the artificial leg of the teacher resounds through the room.

“Alright you all, time to open your books to chapter twelve.” He shouts as he gets to the front and whirls around to look at the assembled students, “blocking and counter curses.”

Rarity joins the other students in opening her book.

Professor Moody draws out his wand, “In a duel, or in a full on battle, curses will be sent at you, to bind your limbs, to blast your wand from your hand, you must be prepared for them. The trick is, though, what blocks a locking leg curse will do nothing to stop a redactor curse, or fiendfyre.” His bright blue fake eye whirls around, settling on the students, ““You have to think on your feet. Adapt and change. These things are not learned from a book, these are learned through practice.”

Flinging his wand in a wide arc in front of him, Professor Moody puts up a glowing shield in front of him. “While some full on shields will help with multiple different curses, they also use more energy, and must be dropped for you to be able to attack.” He smiles as his eye locks on Sunset Shimmer, “That is, unless you are gifted with enough strength, and the ability to split the flows.” He looks around at the other students, “You need to learn to block, move and attack. It needs to become instinctual.” Rarity sneaks a glance at Sunset Shimmer, who is nodding with a smile.

Sunset leans over, “Equestrian dueling is somewhat different here,” she whispers, “but the basics are sound.”

Rarity gulps before she nods as the teacher continues his lecture. Holding out his wand, he shows forms and grasps, talking as if every battle is life or death. With a glance to her side Rarity watches as Twilight pulls out a pen and takes notes. She leans back and listens, how can they all be so calm about this? This is magic, this could be life or death, one miss step and….

“Rarity.” Comes the booming voice of the teacher, jerking her to attention.

His smile sends a chill down her spine. Something about him tells her he’s seen more death, more darkness, “Come on up.” His false eye whirls around, “And now a proper challenger, Millicent!” He barks, getting the Slytherin girl to get out of her own seat.

As both girls come forward, he has the rest of the students move to the walls of the classroom, and with a wave of his wand, the desks disappear and the floor rises to form the dueling platform. Looking around Rarity trembles slightly as she’s lifted off the ground with the other girl on the six-foot-wide arena.

Taking a deep breath Rarity tenses, practical instruction, something she desperately needs. Against Millicent though? She remembers that girl from earlier. Professor Moody directs the Slytherin girl to the other end of the Arena, and positions Rarity opposite of her.

“Draw your wands, and bow.” He says firmly.

Drawing her wand Millicent smiles, “Come now Rarity, bow, the niceties must be observed, you wouldn’t want to forget your manners would you?” The girl says offering a sweeping yet dark bow.

Rarity looks to the professor then draws her own wand and watches as the professor moves to stand between them.

“I’m not looking for a big fight like the other day.” He says loudly, his eye again finding Sunset Shimmer, “But I want you to think on your feet. Block and counter curse, keep moving, keep your eyes open.”

Rarity bows slowly and the other girl nods her head slightly. Professor Moody flashes his wand once before stepping off, “Go!” He shouts.

Before Rarity is able to think she’s on the ground, vines wrapped around her legs. Moody moves over and counters the curse, bringing Rarity back to her feet. While his voice is still gruff, he says softly, “Think, girl, some casters are much faster than you will ever believe.” He steps back as they square off again.

She watches the other girl as she takes a step, she sidesteps the first curse and cries out “expelliarmus!” The spell is blocked by the Slytherin girl, who slides to the side and yells the same spell. Rarity’s wand is jerked from her grasp and it clatters against the wall behind her. Holding her stinging hand, Rarity trembles, backing up a step before she kneels to pick up the wand

“What’s the matter, do they not partake in dueling on the other side of the pond?” Millicent snarks, getting a huff from Rarity as stands back up, her wand ready.

“Again.” Moody shouts.

Millicent shouts out a spell, this time Rarity is able to block the spell, she moves a step to the side to avoid a second curse sent at her as she sends her own curse, which is neatly avoided by the Slytherin girl. Rarity finds herself needing to dive to the side to avoid a curse, but another curse hits her chest, making it impossible for her to breathe. She tries to gasp for a few moments then the curse comes off.

“On the ground gasping like a common animal. Unable to move.” The Slytherin girl sneers. “You might as well stay down and accept defeat.”

Rarity growls as she gets to her feet. She keeps an eye on the teacher, who smiles and nods for them to go again.

Rarity steps back as several rapid fire curses need to be blocked, she whirls around and shouts as she attempts to disarm the other student. In response, Millicent shoots a gout of fire, which singes her hair as she rolls to evade. She glances at the teacher, who is grinning as another curse is sent at her.

“Well, I have had just about enough of this.” Rarity huffed as she draws on her magic deeply, she first fires the same blinding lights spell at the Slytherin girl. Rarity smiles but another curse hits her legs, making the muscles completely loose. Rarity crashes to the floor.

“Ahh, a good use of the jelly legs curse Miss Bulstrode.” He says as he stumps over to reverse the curse. He offers a hand to help her up, which she accepts. He leans close, “You’ve shown you are learning, you can let another student have a go.”

“Now we see what kind of a failure she is, unlike her friends, she has no talent. All she does is let them down.” The Slytherin girl sneers in a cold voice.

Rarity shakes her head, “I will never let my friends down,” she mutters. Struggling to her feet, Rarity thinks back to all the times she’d been there for them. “I can’t, they count on me. They need me.” Wrapping her fingers around her wand tightly, Rarity lifts her head to look at the Slytherin girl. “I would give anything for them, everything.”

“Oh, the American seems to have some guts, I’ll give you that.” Millicent says, “But I still think you are an uncultured cur, a mule.” she says with a sneer.

When the teacher signals for them to start again, Rarity steps forward, raising her wand and for a moment blue diamonds spark outwards, then a blue-white light comes from her wand, fanning out at first it quickly forms into a pony. In a moment, the form coalesces into a bright white unicorn with an indigo blue mane, three diamonds on it’s flank. Rarity’s holds her wand towards he girl and the image lowers its head. Eyes filled with determination Rarity thrusts her wand and the unicorn charges at the Slytherin girl.

“Crucio!” the Slytherin girl shouts and a gout of energy emerges from her wand heading for Rarity. Without even flinching the unicorn takes the spell form head on, its horn flashing once as it scatters the spell before it. Without slowing the unicorn image slams into Millicent, throwing her against the wall. The entire room shakes and Rarity hears Sunset yelp before Professor Moody steps out with a shout.

“Attempting an unforgivable curse!” He shouts, “I should be calling the Aurors for that.” He continues as he stumps towards the prone girl. Then he stops and chuckles, turning back to Rarity, “You knocked her clean out. And I think she’ll have a hell of a headache when she wakes up.” He points his wand and she lifts off the floor, “I’m going to take her to the hospital wing.” His eye spins around, “Though for doing so, she has earned Slytherin a fifty point deduction.” He growls, getting groans from the other Slytherin students, “Just in case any other student gets the bright idea to use such a curse, especially in a classroom situation.” He stalks from the classroom with the girl in tow.

Panting a bit Rarity lets her hand drop, her wand trembles in her grasp as she watched the girl being carried off. “What have I done?”

Sunset turns to Rarity, “You did a patronus? I recognize the spellform, but it’s different than before.” Her eyes narrow as she considers Rarity.

Rarity looks back at the unicorn and watches as the pony walks towards her. Looking up at her, into her eyes she can almost feel a mix of love, pride and generosity. Nodding once she lets off the magic and the pony turns back into blue-white light and slowly fades, “I don’t know, I’ve never done it before.” She turns to look at Sunset, “I’ve never done or felt anything like that before.”

Sunset steps up and hugs Rarity, “You did well.”

“I… I could have killed her.” Rarity murmurs softly, shaking her head slowly.

With a smile, Sunset shakes her head, “I don’t think so, you have greater control of your magic than you think.” Letting go of Rarity, Sunset takes a step back and rubs her temple for a moment.

Forgetting her own doubts for a moment Rarity looks at Sunset with concern. “What is wrong? Do you have a headache darling? You sounded as though you were in pain at the end of the fight.”

Sunset shakes her head, “When she crashed into the floor, it sounded like a bell ringing to me. A massive church bell.” She pulls her hand from her temple and shakes her head, “We need to be extra careful, Grogar may not be able to get into the castle, but that doesn’t mean he can’t enchant people to do his dirty work for him.” She glances back at the door, “I don’t think she would have used that curse otherwise.”

Rarity thinks for a moment, “She was exceedingly rude to me in an earlier class.”

“Oh, that’s the same girl from charms?”

Rarity nods and Sunset frowns, “I thought I had recognized her.” She glances at the other students, most of them are gathering their things for the end of the day, “I wonder if she’s related to any of those Death Eaters.”

Rarity shudders as they move to pick up their own bags.

***

The Great Hall has been set up for dinner with its long tables filled with drinks, the food is yet to arrive, apparently. Candles float by the hundreds, scattered across the room in neat rows to give illumination. Rarity walks in and immediately her stomach grumbles at the sight of the tables as she realizes just how famished she is. She didn’t think spell casting was that intensive.

Sunset Shimmer has been working her and Twilight to the point of exhaustion today. Putting a hand over her stomach, Rarity does her best to restrain herself from running to sit down. She glances at Sunset Shimmer, who is humming happily as she walks. In her hand is a binder, Rarity knows quite well what’s in that binder. Homework. She finds her seat and relaxes for a moment. She stifles a giggle as Twilight sits down just as heavily, huffing and puffing just like Rarity. She glances around, her friends are all here.

“Rarity.” Comes a now familiar voice, getting Rarity to turn.

“Oh, hello, Neville.” She chirps.

He gestures to the seat next to her, “May I sit with you?”

Rarity looks around, Rainbow Dash is huddled with that Viktor guy she was talking about earlier, Hermione is sitting down next to Twilight, she looks up at Neville, “I would be most delighted if you did, my dear.”

He eases down into his seat, “She’s going to be okay.” He says softly.

Rarity flinches, “Millicent?” She whispers.

He nods, “I talked to Madame Pomfrey after classes. She doesn’t remember the fight, but she’s otherwise okay. Just a hard knock on the head. Did you really summon a patronus?”

Rarity breathes deeply, “Thank you, Neville. And, I believe I did, I’m not sure how.”

He smiles as a chime sounds through the room and the food appears. Rarity looks down at the food, then up at Applejack, who’s rubbing her hands together, a big smile on her face.

“Applejack, what is the meaning all of this?” Rarity asked as she raised an eyebrow at the selection of foods.

She looks at Rarity, “Well wrap me up and call me a fritter, they done and got us a real southern feast here. For those who don’t know, what we have here is…” She points, “Chicken fried steak,” She moves her hand, “Pan fried chicken, both with cream gravy, or black pepper gravy.” She points at another platter, “That’s a hash brown casserole, the mushroom gravy’s optional of course, and we’ve got green beans, and there’s collard greens, cooked with bacon. They even managed to wrangle us up some corn on the cob, sweet potato pie, and of course apple pie.” She reaches over and picks up a clover roll and pulls it apart, smelling the steam from the hot roll as she reaches for some butter, “Golly this is awesome!” Applejack grins before letting out a final, “Yea HA!”

Rarity shakes her head, she looks around at the students, many of them are looking at the different foods in shock. The American girls are happily piling food onto their plates. Sunset Shimmer even takes a small piece of chicken to go with all the greens she’s piled on her plate.

Twilight leans over to Hermione, “This kind of food is what we get when we spend time at Applejacks house, it’s all really good.” She glances over at Applejack, “I guess she talked to the house-elves.”

Absently Rarity begins filling her plate as she looks back at Neville, “I was worried that I had hurt her badly.”

“From what I heard, Slytherin is in hot water over her using a forbidden curse.” Neville says as he gets some food as well. “She needed to be taken down a step though. Thank you.”

“I… Your welcome but it wasn’t my intent.” Taking a bite, Rarity smiles, the casserole is actually really good.

Looking down at Rarity’s plate, Neville lets out a slight chuckle, “Sweet tooth much?”

“Pardon?” Rarity finds herself shocked at his statement before she realizes she had loaded her plate with almost anything with starch or sugar on it, “I… I don’t usually eat like this. I do apologize.”

“I didn’t mean to insult you.” Neville said, worried.

The utter silence in the room soon gets Rarity’s attention. The students are all looking at the food. Rarity feels a bead of sweat form on her brow, will all the students hate the food? She looks up at the teacher’s table, apparently the headmaster has noticed the silence. He clears his throat and stands up, “As our American guests have been so kind as to partake in our food. I felt it would be nice for all of us to try some of their foods. Tomorrow night, in honor of the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, we will be having French cuisine for dinner. Finally for the Durmstrang Institute, a true Scandinavian feast the following evening!” He raises both hands, “Enjoy.”

Hermione looks at Professor Dumbledore as he sits down and slices a piece of his chicken fried steak. He takes a bite and smiles at the students around the hall. She finally grabs a spoonful of the hash brown casserole and puts a serving on her plate, she puts the serving spoon back and looks around. Half the Gryffindor’s are watching her like hawks as she picks up her spoon and takes a small bit of the food. She glances over at Rainbow Dash, who is stuffing her face as fast as she can, and sighs as she puts the spoonful in her mouth. Her eyes widen as she chews, she looks at Applejack, who’s smirking at her. Hermione swallows, “Okay, your food is pretty good.” She reaches out for a big slab of chicken fried steak as many of the other students start reaching for the new foods themselves. What Hermione has done is being repeated at the other tables, even many of the Slytherins seem to be opening themselves up to the new foods.

Applejack nudges Twilight, “I toldja, food is what brings everyone together.” She takes a bite, “And when it’s good ole southern comfort food, it’s even better.” She giggles as she swallows.

***

The sun has been down for hours now, they had spent the whole evening, with the exception of supper, in the room of requirement, as Hermione has named it, as well as the astronomy tower for a late night class. Her and Fluttershy had joined Applejack for the astronomy lesson which had gone fairly late. Rarity smiles as she crawls into her bed, the beds here at Hogwarts are incredibly comfortable, and it’s been a pleasure for her to sink into the luxurious mattress. She glances around at the other girls, Pinkie is snoring softly, Rainbow Dash is curled up under her own blanket, Sunset is reading an Equestrian spellbook, as is Twilight. Fluttershy is sleeping peacefully, a large cat is perched on her shoulder, growling at anyone who comes close, and Applejack is passed out in her own bed. Rarity pulls her sleep mask over her face as she settles onto her pillow with a soft sigh, today has been a beautiful day.

Chapter 13.

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Twilight Sparkle follows her new friends into the Divination classroom. Pinkie Pie bounces over to her table as Twilight sits down next to Sunset Shimmer. Rarity takes her own table behind both her and Sunset. She looks at the crystal ball sitting before her. Sunset has one sitting before her like for every other student in the classroom. Twilight puts her bag down and looks up. Pinkie is sitting there with some kind of purple turban on her head, a big jewel on her forehead with a lavender feather sprouting up from the gem. She’s even got a deep purple scarf around her neck. Twilight opens her mouth to say something when the teacher comes in and greets the room.

Twilight joins the other students in responding to the teacher, who starts to talk to the students about the mysteries of the crystal ball. Twilight watches intently. Before finding out that magic was real, she had always thought crystal balls were a bunch of malarkey, but now, after being exposed to both Equestrian magic back home, and the magic here, she is finding her attitude on many things she used to ignore has changed. She listens to the teacher speak of the crystal ball. She again is drawn to Pinkie Pie, who seems to be struggling to see anything through the ball. Then she glances at Sunset and she gasps softly. Sunset’s eyes are pure white and glowing softly. Her breathing has stopped for the moment, and her entire being seems to be focused on what she’s seeing. Twilight reaches a hand out to get Sunset’s attention when her friend suddenly screams out and her hands glow, launching the crystal ball across the room like a cannonball

Twilight moves over and hugs Sunset as she tries to recover from her vision. The teacher attempts to get her to try again, but Sunset refuses. After a bit, Sunset offers Twilight a softly comforting smile and gestures for her to take her seat back. Twilight reaches out her hand to touch the ball, only to be stopped by a sharp sniff from Professor Trelawney, “You never touch the crystal ball with your bare hands; you could easily smudge it. You either use magic or the black silk that I’ve provided you all.” She comes up to Twilight, “Your friends seem to have some modicum of the Sight. Let’s see what you can do.”

Twilight gingerly picks up the ball with the silk. She cradles the ball as she looks through it. After a moment, a sheen of opaqueness slides across the surface of the ball, making it seem milky white to her eyes. She gasps as she looks closer.

“Tell me what you see.” Comes the professor’s voice.

Twilight stares for a long moment, “Colors...” Twilight murmurs.

“Oh, that’s wonderful, tell me, are you seeing some nice greens or blues? Perhaps violet?”

Twilight shakes her head, her eyes still glued to the ball in her hands. “Yellow, red, orange,” she says, “in waves, alternating.”

“Those are dangerous colors to see when gazing into the crystal,” Professor Trelawney hisses as she recoils away from Twilight, “Those are the colors of pain, and death.”

She stands up, her eyes rolling back into her head for a moment, then her hand flashes out, “You,” she opens her eyes to see that she’s pointing at a very surprised Rarity, “You shall die a death most violent.”

Twilight looks up at her, “I am not seeing my fate here, Professor, but that of another.” She gazes back into the ball. “I see a boy, become man, hardened by war, strife and suffering. A boy who has seen death. He is known to us, but unknown to himself.”
Closing her eyes for a moment, Twilight shakes her head before her wand glows brightly enough to be visible through her robe, opening her eyes, they begin to glow bright white as a vision fills her mind, “The scales are balanced on the point of a sword, once light, now dark, the arms tip towards. A choice to be made; to stand, or flee, a life or a death may not be free. Two must choose, their fates intertwined. To stand and fight, or run and hide. For in this test of fire and death, if one doth fail, the other shall not draw another breath.”

Twilight blinks several times and shakes her head vigorously, “Death, destruction, ruins of a castle, its walls fallen, its gates destroyed. The helix rises around the staff, in that moment choice, a life… or all our lives.” She stops and shakes her head slowly in disbelief as the glow in her eyes slowly fades, “I’m sorry, that’s all I know, all that I saw.”

Professor Trelawney pats Twilight gently on the shoulder, “That is a very good attempt for someone new to touching the Sight.” She stands up, her voice rising to be heard by the entire class, “The colors she mentioned were important, though if you ever see black when you are scrying. That is death, destruction, pain, hatred, it is the most grave of omens.” She moves towards another student.

Twilight nudges Sunset. “Are you okay?”

Sunset nods. “I think so.” She glances at the crystal ball before her, then up at the teacher, “I think I will try again. Maybe we can learn something about Grogar?”

Rarity leans forward, “Darling, if it’s too much for you, maybe you should leave it be?”

Sunset smiles gratefully to Rarity, then she turns back to the crystal ball, “I’ve got to know what is going on here.” She sighs and uses the silk on the table to pick up the ball, Twilight watches intently as Sunset gazes through the ball for a long time as the teacher continues talking about the history of its use, both in muggle history, and in the wizarding world.

Twilight touches Sunset’s shoulder, getting a very short yelp from her friend. Sunset looks at her. “I was concentrating,” she grumbles.

Twilight shakes her head. “The first time you were able to make it work, you were looking at it on the stand, not holding it. It didn’t work for me just looking at it, I had to hold it. Maybe that makes a difference, remember, you are Equestrian, not of this world.”

Sunset shrugs as she puts the ball down. “You’ve got a point there, Twilight.” She says softly. She leans forward and looks into the depths of the ball while Twilight watches her. After a long moment, Sunset’s eyes cloud a bit, but it only lasts a few moments. Sunset grabs her jacket from her bag and pulls it on. “Did it get cold in here?”

Twilight shakes her head. “What did you see?”

Sunset shivers for a long moment, her blue eyes showing her fear. “Paying attention isn’t just for the students from here, Miss Sparkle.” comes Professor Trelawney’s voice, getting both girls to look at her, “I need everyone in class listening to what I have to say.”

Both girls look down as the Professor continues.

***

Twilight bounces into Transfiguration class. She glances around. Hermione is already sitting at her seat, two books in front of her, a feather quill in her hand hovering over parchment. It seems most of the other students haven’t made it in yet. She slides quickly into the seat next to the frizzy haired girl. Hermione glances over and smiles at Twilight, but quickly returns to writing.

“Class hasn’t even started yet, Hermione,” Twilight says.

Hermione shrugs her shoulders.“Just finishing up my thoughts on my notes from Care of Magical Creatures.” She stops and looks at Twilight. “Have all of your friends been touched by Equestrian magic?” Twilight nods as she starts to pull her own materials out of her bag. Instead of parchment, she’s got a thick notebook, along with several ballpoint pens. She offers one to Hermione, who smiles before shaking her head. “I’ve gotten used to using a quill.” She continues writing as other students start filing into the classroom. A redheaded boy, along with a dark haired boy with round wire rimmed glasses take up position in front of their table. The redhead turns back and looks at Hermione and Twilight.

“Blimey, Hermione, don’t you ever stop?”

“Ron,” She huffs, “If you would take your own notes, then you wouldn’t have to borrow mine all the time. Then maybe I wouldn’t have to be so thorough.” She looks up, “And if you paid attention in class…” She trails off at the grin on Ron’s face, finally settling on a dirty look as she gathers up some of her work and sends it into her bag with a flick of her wand.

The other boy, Twilight takes a moment to remember his name, Harry, turns and smiles at her. “I’ve never met an American witch before.”

Twilight smiles, “Well, it’s good to meet those from new places, right?”

He nods. “Twilight Sparkle.” He chuckles, “Now that’s a name, do all of you have names like that? Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy. Talk about some unusual names there.”

Twilight glances at Hermione, then back at Harry. “I don’t know, some of us have unusual names, and some of us have more common names, I would guess.” She smiles, “Though after spending time here, some of your names are very odd to us. I guess it’s just a difference from being an ocean apart.”

That answer seems to mollify him for a moment, then he looks at Hermione. “So, do you spend a lot of time with muggles back home?”

Hermione looks at Harry and then Twilight, worry in her eyes as she speaks with feigned shock, “Harry! That’s not a polite question to ask.”

Twilight stiffens slightly before responding, she had actually read up on this the night before, “Well, since we aren’t from Ilvermorny, we do spend much of our time with no-mags. Rappaport’s law was repealed in 1965 and since, the American magical community has done much to modernize and normalize relations, much like how the United Kingdom witches and wizards operate. Live in peace among the no-mags, concealing our identity, but trying to be a part of society.” Letting out a quick breath, Hermione nods to Twilight in approval of her answer, even if it was a bit textbookish for the situation. Twilight takes a moment to look at Hermione before going on, “In reality though, before I met Sunset and the others, I didn’t really hang around No-Mags, I spent almost all my time alone, locked up in my room or lab studying. It’s because of them, their trust, their friendship, that I’m here now.”

Ron smiles and claps his friend on the shoulder. he looks at Twilight. “I’ve seen you use magic, I’m still wondering why your wands glow, but what’s odd is that you girls do a lot of silent spellwork. That’s only supposed to be near the end of your schooling.”

Twilight is at a loss for words; she doesn’t even have the beginnings of enough knowledge to understand why, though Hermione saves her. “Words are patterns of thought given sound. Magic is patterns of thought given form. If you are magic, if you are one with the magic, the words no longer become necessary,” she says primly.

Twilight suppresses the desire to look gratefully at Hermione. Instead, she watches Ron intently, he nods thoughtfully, “You have a point there, Hermione, you don’t say the spells nearly as much as we did first year.” He turns back as the teacher comes into the room.

“Good morning, class.” Minerva McGonagall says in her customarily stiff manner, looking around at all the students. She walks to the head of the class. “Today is going to be busy.” Her wand comes out. “Many of you have your own familiars.” She looks around. “You have fifteen minutes to retrieve them.” Twilight joins many of the students in a dash for the door. She’s heard enough about how merciless Professor McGonagall can be when it comes to tardiness. She pounds up the steps to the door to their dorm room.

“Spike,” She calls out as she slams through the door. She looks around to see her dog is curled up on her bed, his head slowly perking up.

He smiles sleepily at her. “What’s up?”

She scoops him up, answering, “Act like a dog, okay?” she says as she rushes back down to the classroom. As she retakes her seat, she sees Harry has a white owl, Hermione has an enormous orange cat sitting before her. At the sight of Hermione's large orange cat, Spike stands, raises his tail, and bares his teeth.

Growling low, he narrows his eyes at the offending predator before looking at Twilight and moves up to nuzzle her cheek whispering to her, "What? You said act like a dog. And you know how well I get along with Opal." He whispers into her ear, getting a scratch and a hug from her.

A loud bang has the door shutting and the professor walks to the head of the class, a raven on her shoulder. “As we are hosting the Tri-Wizard tournament at Hogwarts this year. We are going to have some spells that have been used during some of the events. This spell was used to animate simple wooden structures so the champions could choose their dragons.” She taps the raven on the beak with her wand and says, “Draconifors.”

The raven sneezes and turns into a small dragon, inky black scales and a vicious looking beak. She reaches and offers the dragon a small bit of meat, which it gobbles down, then it spreads it’s wings wide for a moment. She looks around at the students, “Your turn.”

Twilight draws out her wand, looking at the other students as they perform the spell. The professor hands out more ravens to the students who don’t have their own pets, or familiars. She glances at Hermione, her cat is now a very feline looking dragon, wings folded at his sides as he walks back and forth in front of her. Twilight looks at Spike, whose eyes have gotten very round, looking at all those being transformed around him. She extends her wand and taps him on the nose. “Draconifors.” Spike’s eyes cross as he looks at the wand and he quickly reforms into a dragon himself, complete with deep purple scales and a green ridge starting above his forehead and going all the way back to his tail. He shakes his head and stands on two legs. That gets a gasp from Twilight, he looks exactly how Sunset said Spike from Equestria looks as a baby dragon.

He sits down heavily. “Wow, that was weird.”

Twilight looks up. Professor McGonagall is standing there, her mouth pursed in a frown, “Excuse me, Twilight, but is ‘that’ what dragons look like where you come from?”

Twilight cringes, does Professor McGonagall know about Equestria. Spike stands up and puffs out his chest. “Eeyup,” he says proudly, getting the professor to take a step back.

Ron looks back at Spike? “Where are the wings?”

Spike turns to him. “I’m an earth dragon; we’re stronger and tougher than fliers. We may not take to the air, but few can match us in brute force and firepower.” He drops to all fours, digging his claws into the table a little before he says, "Rawr." Not an actual dragon roar, but he's still a baby dragon after all. As if to prove his point, Spike breathes out a green gout of flames that swirls and puffs all of about two feet.

The professor moves on, praising Hermione on her work with her cat, who is now curled up around her shoulders, snoring softly. Twilight looks over at Harry, who’s owl is now a large snow white serpentine dragon. She glances at Spike. “Where did you get that thing about earth dragons?”

He shrugs and sits down on his rear, his tail waving back and forth. “Don’t know; it just came to me.”

Twilight sighs as Professor McGonagall steps to the front of the class. “And now, how to reverse that particular spell.”

***

Twilight walks down towards the lake after lunch. Spike, once again restored to being his canine self, bounces around her as she walks. She finds a shade tree that’s not too far from the water. She has a full load of books in her pack, as well as a few in her arms as she walks. There’s a nice tree not thirty feet from the water. She shifts the books to one hand and draws her wand. She looks at her wand a moment, smiling at what it means to her. Some of the spells come to mind as she waves the wand over the grass. It quickly grows and weaves itself into a thick mat. She doesn’t have to sit on the bare ground, so she takes a seat with a smile, then giggles, as Spike splashes through the water, barking furiously.

“May I join you?” comes a familiar voice.

Twilight twists to see Hermione sitting there, a pile of books in her own hands. Twilight gestures for the other girl to sit. Hermione extracts her own wand, and with a muttered spell, expands the mat a bit for herself. Her own cat nuzzles her and gallops off to chase Spike. Who, for his part, yelps a bit, but soon seems to enjoy playing with the large orange cat.

“What’s his name?” Twilight asks.

Hermione watches the two play back and forth for a moment. “Crookshanks.” She looks over at Twilight, “I suspect he’s half-kneazle.” She smiles at Twilight’s confused expression, then she pulls out a book, flicking through the pages, then she hands the book to Twilight. “He’d been in the Magical Menagerie for a long time. He was rather choosy when it came to who bought him.” She points to the entry about Kneazles “They tend to have a very high level of intelligence,” she explains, “they are exceedingly independent, and have an uncanny ability to detect suspicious and distrustful people, even if they are transfigured.” She takes a moment to tell Twilight about Peter Pettigrew.

Hermione brings out a parchment and a small writing case, in addition to a couple of books arrayed around her. She thinks for a moment. “There’s much more to Spike than him being a dog, isn't there?” She looks up at Twilight. “When you turned him into a dragon, that’s an Equestrian dragon, wasn't it? I know almost every type of dragon there is from the books, and he is something different.”

Twilight nods, “They actually really different. My counterpart, the Twilight Sparkle who lives in Equestria, well, has a baby dragon named Spike. I suspected there was some kind of connection between her Spike and mine, but I didn’t know how deep the connection really was.” She glances at the two playing. “But I found out today.”

Hermione “The learning never stops, does it?”

Twilight shakes her head with a big smile. “Nope.”

Both girls lapse into silence for a while as both of them get into their classwork. Before too long, Hermione stops and looks at Twilight. “You are taking this magic well. The only one to really use magic before was Sunset herself, right?”

Twilight rubs her arms for a moment, then she pulls her wand from her robes. “I’ve been studying this for a long time. I didn’t know about the portal to Equestria, and how is used to open every thirty moons, but the magic of that portal touches our world, and it has lasting effects throughout the city.” She looks down. “I didn’t know what it was at first. I had to nearly destroy the world in the quest to know more to find out what that magic meant.” She holds herself as though the world has suddenly become colder, “It took Sunset, with her knowledge and power, to bring me back.”

“I doubt the MACUSA would have allowed all of that to happen.”

“That’s the thing, the general amount of magic there, and it being benign for so long, I don’t think they even realized it. I stole the magic from my friends using technology I built in the science lab at Crystal Prep. Every taste of that magic was so enticing. So much power, so much life.” She curls her lips into a guilty smile and shivers like a reformed problem gambler recalling long nights hunched over the poker table. “I didn’t fully understand it then, but I craved it. I wanted it all. It was like I was so starved before that, I was drinking from a rushing river.”

“How did Sunset show you?”

Twilight sighs, “She was able to use the same tech. She had her friends willingly give her their magic, and she used it on herself. She became as powerful with magic as I had become, and she used it to show me that there was another way -- a better way, to touch the magic, and to have friends. Those that would be much better giving of themselves to each other and to me, rather than me taking what they had. I didn’t have friends before that. I was a bookworm who spent all their time reading, studying, learning. I had no concept of what friendship truly meant.”

Twilight looks over at Hermione. “She saved me, and I don’t know what I would have done without her help.”

Hermione looks at Twilight for a long time. “Let me ask you a question.” At Twilight’s nod, she continues, “The power within you, did you gain it from them? Were you still connected to them?”

Twilight shakes her head, and that gets a smile from Hermione, “I think you are reading it wrong, you had that magic within you already. What you did with your technology, you used the magic you had taken from them, and used it as a conduit to the power already within you.” She pulls out her own wand. “Much like how a wand works, it allows you to touch the power within you. Advanced mages can use magic without their wands. Those who don’t know about their magic but when put under duress sometimes do. That’s how we find wizards and witches. Harry did, before he came to school, he made things happen.” She smiles. “I did too. Both of my parents are muggles. They were immensely surprised to find out their daughter was a witch. But the point is that power that you touched then, it was already a part of you. And by your learning, by your searching for that knowledge, for that power, it was the magic already within you. The MACUSA should have found all of you girls well before this.”

Twilight huffs, “But Rarity had never used that magic before. She’s ponied up, she has used Equestrian magic directly. But never magic like this.” She flops onto her back on the mat. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy can grow wings, and they are born naturals when it comes to flying around here. Applejack and Pinkie Pie are super strong, though Pinkie is able to do things that I don’t think I could ever do with a wand.”

That gets a laugh from Hermione, “Maybe I’m wrong, but for you, I can certainly see a pent up magical frustration in what you were saying happened. You had potential, it was trying to come out. And when you were able to touch it, with that technology, was it the most beautiful thing you had ever experienced?”

Twilight nods, “It was like touching light, it was like touching pure heat without being hurt by it. It felt normal, it felt natural.”

“It was natural, Twilight. You should have been at Ilvermorny; you would have been a fine student there.” Her face darkens, “That you weren’t able to learn the way a witch should learn. And you searching for it on your own, there is another term that applies to what happened to you.” She shudders softly as she continues, “That creature that came out with the magic, that seemed a part of you and was hungry, perhaps even desperate to be able to use the magic, was an obscurus.”

“A what now?”

“When a young witch or wizard is unable to use their inborn abilities, their magic, it manifests as pressure inside them at first. And that pressure builds, it can take years, or even decades, for the pressure to get high enough. And sometimes, the young mage bursts, and what comes out is an obscurus; it’s a manifestation of their magic.”

“Are the others in danger of that happening?”

Hermione shrugs, “I’m not certain, I’ll have to read up more on that, but I don’t think so. You had said before that when Sunset wore the Equestrian element of magic on her brow, she changed, too, also into a demon?”

Twilight nods. Hermione bounces a little. “She had been in our world for years of years and couldn’t use her magic, right?” Again, Twilight nods, “So, that was the first time, after a lifetime of using magic, then being unable to use her magic for years?”

Twilight nods. “Yes, she hadn’t used it since she came through the portal.”

Hermione claps her hands together. “She had almost the same problem, that was a manifestation of an obscurus. And she wanted to use that magic, but the other Twilight was able to use, what was it called?”

“The Elements of Harmony.”

“Right, she was able to use them to disperse the excess, and also clear up the influence that was having on her mind.”

“It can damage the mind?”

Hermione nods seriously, “Oh, most certainly it can destroy the mind of the mage. You were lucky, having friends, especially those like yours, saved you.”

Twilight glances at her watch and yelps, “I’ve gotta get to Defense Against the Dark Arts!” She draws out her wand and the mat where she was sitting is reduced back to the grass it was before, as well as all her books stacking neatly and making their way into her bag. In a matter of seconds, she’s able to put her wand away. She looks at the wand before shoving it into the pocket in her robe. “That is really easy to casually do with magic.”

Hermione nods as she does the same with her own books. “I’ve got class, too, and yes, it’s very easy, not to mention good practice.”

Twilight bids her friend a fare welland rushes into the castle, Spike following behind her.

***

Twilight walks slowly into their dorm room. She pulls out some of the dinner to feed Spike, dumping it into his bowl as she grabs her sleepwear. She’s been told that house elves clean the clothes and clean up their rooms. Hermione has been knitting hats to put around the Gryffindor common room, as giving a house elf clothing is what frees them. Twilight doesn’t know what to think about that. She hangs up her robe and tosses her uniform into the hamper. She pulls on her pajama pants quickly and pulls out the freshly laundered pajama shirt. It’s a Rarity original, the yellow and orange top is emblazoned with a solomonic magic circle on the back with mathematical formulas in the middle of the circle. In the front is E=MC2 is magic. She smiles as she pulls on the shirt. A quick yank has her covers down, and she snuggles into the bed, pulling her duvet up.

She glances over at Sunset, who’s already working on a new spellbook from the room of requirement. Twilight grabs the spellbook she was reading at supper. She gasps for a moment, a small smudge of gravy is on the cover. She flicks it off with a finger, and offers her finger to Spike as he hops up on the bed. He licks the gravy off and comes over to snuggle with her. She smiles, for it’s been a pretty good day, though Rarity’s clash with that Slytherin girl was rather disturbing. She shakes her head as she continues to read.

Her attention is grabbed by a bright light from Sunset. She glances at her wrist, she’s been reading for two hours now! She glances over at Sunset, who has her wand out and is practicing spells quietly. Her four poster bed brightens again as Sunset does another spell. It seems to be a success, judging by the smile on Sunset’s face. Twilight looks at the spellbook she’s got. She’s too tired to try any new spells right now, but she does commit a few to memory. She can’t wait to try them out tomorrow! Her first period of the day is going to be open; she’ll be in the room of requirement right after breakfast.

A rustling gets her to turn her head. The end table has a platter on it now, full of cupcakes. She glances over, Pinkie Pie’s covers are slowly settling to her form. And shortly, soft snores are coming from her energetic friend. She reaches out and grabs a cupcake, glancing over and seeing another pile of cupcakes next to Sunset. Twilight taps the metal platter to get Sunset’s attention. When Sunset looks up at her, she points at the cupcakes, getting a soft laugh from Sunset, as well as a glance from her at the now sleeping Pinkie Pie. Sunset Shimmer shakes her head as she grabs a cupcake herself. While they are accessing the energy around them as they use magic, they, are also using their own energy, and simple carbs and sugars are needed to replenish that energy. She won’t be eating enough to give her a stomach ache, but three cupcakes rapidly disappear. She finally puts down her book and extinguishes her light. She gets comfortable with a happy sigh. Meeting these girls has been the best thing to happen in her life.

Chapter 14.

View Online

Sunset shimmer opens her eyes. The dimly lit interior of their dorm greets her, her friends are all waking up. She pulls the book off of her covers and places it on the bed stand. She takes a moment to throw the covers off and sit up. She reaches forward and holds her head.

“You okay there, sugar cube?” Applejack asks gently.

Sunset nods, “I had a dream.” She’s able to mumble. She shakes her head the memories of the dream fading quickly, she sighs, “It was scary.” She mumbles.

"Aww, there ain't no need to fuss over 'em. We're in a strange place with strange people, I reckon we all had some mighty strange dreams." Applejack says with a smile before giving Sunset’s hair a tussle, "It's like mah old granny says, dreams can teach, and dreams can scare, but in the end they’re all just dreams we wake up from."

Sunset nods as she throws her covers off and stands up, she had taken a shower the night before, and dressing this morning is a simple affair. The school uniforms are not too uncomfortable, though she has found out something. She hates clothes. It’s been quite well expressed to her that humans need to wear clothing for inclement weather, though in the relative comfort of the castle, she doesn’t see the need. She sighs as she pulls the robe over her uniform. She turns around to see Rarity fussing over Rainbow Dash’s usual slovenly ways. That gets a grin from her as she joins her friends to head to breakfast.

Breakfast this morning isn't too bad, her time being a pony again, no matter how short, has messed with her stomach and food preferences a little. The bacon and other breakfast foods don't seem to cause her problems, though she does find her mouth watering at Applejack talking about the food at home. She’s had food at Applejack’s home several times, and she’s always happy to join the Apple family for a down home meal. Before too long, the post has arrived, and the girls troop off to their first class of the day.

Sunset looks at the doorway to the divination classroom, ponies don’t really have much magic to look into the future, though there are items like the legendary Crystal Heart which can give glimpses of possible destinies. It is also said that Celestia can see possible futures. And then there are the stories of Star Swirl, though some said he actually traveled though time to find out things, rather than merely having visions.

The humans don’t seem to know much about divination either, judging by her couple of times in this class. Their teacher doesn’t seem to have much abilities in foretelling, despite her words to the contrary. Sunset lets everything else wash over her as she gazes into the crystal ball before her. Colors wash over it as she watches, red, green, yellow, violet, purple, gray, black, all the colors flash within the ball. Slowly the mists inside the ball take form, a grey skull its mouth opening slowly as a serpent slithers out of it in a long s pattern. Deep in the skulls eyes though, there is more. Voices, smells, rotten wood and brimstone. Yelling.

“There are merely twenty of you!” The demonic ram screams. Sunset glances around, they are all in a large underground room. Those twenty men all stand before him, in identical robes. Their faces uncovered.
One of the others steps forward licking his lips, greasy hair dangling down around his head and sticking to his face.

Rubbing his hands, he smiles as he licks his lips reflexively. “Master, there are students that would be quite amenable to your cause with very little effort. We’ve already been successful with a few Slytherin, I'm certain more will join us with just a little incentive, a little taste of power. And there is always the teacher, Snape.”

"NO!" The white haired man snarls, "He has taken their side."

Licking his lips again the other man shakes his head, "Has he, or you simply dislike him for not taking better care in your son's training?"

"The school." Grogar smiles, "The equestrian is there, we will get her."

The scene shifts…

Grogar walks through Knockturn Alley. Four death eaters are walking with him, their wands out. Sunset follows them, the ram gestures at different mages. In response a wand is raised, and a muttered spell shoots forth. Those hit with the spell get a small smile as the move to join the growing number of those following the ram.

“This imperius curse is quite useful.” Grogar says, “We will gain more here, and wherever your dark mages congregate.” He stops, looking over his shoulder, “YOU!” He growls at Sunset.

“Agh!” Sunset screams as she draws on her magic, her hands glowing briefly as the ball is shot across the room.

Professor Trelawney comes up and puts a hand on her shoulder, “Sometimes the sight can bring about disturbing visions.” She says softly as she pulls out her wand. She mutters, “reparo” and the crystal reforms itself as it floats back towards sunset. As it settles into its base, the teacher moves on.

Sunset takes a long time, letting herself recover as she watches Twilight bring her own ball up. To Sunset’s eyes, the ball remains perfectly clear, but she watches as Twilight’s eyes turn white. Sunset leans forward a bit as she can see Twilight’s wand activate within her robes, glowing brightly as Twilight speaks her own prophecy. Sunset shakes her head, this isn’t some inborn vision, she’s using a spell, one she has never seen before. As the spell looses its grip on Twilight, the other girl slumps back, her energy drained for the moment.

Sunset looks back at Rarity, who has lost complete interest in the class, nothing of this is working for her. Sunset shakes her head and looks back at Twilight, who is panting softly as she regains her breath. Twilight back home is an alicorn, and they have magic that even the strongest of unicorns can’t match. Was this spell a manifestation of that magic? How close are these girls to the magic of their counterparts in Equestria?

She watches as Professor Trelawney moves to help another student, Sunset looks at the ball again, “I think I will try again. Maybe we can learn something about Grogar?” She picks up the ball with the black silk, staring through it. What she had seen before is fresh in her mind, if he’s strong enough to be out in public among the other mages, to influence them like that. They are in trouble.

A hand landing on her shoulder gets her to emit a sharp scream. She glances back at Twilight, who has a worried look on her face. “I was concentrating.” She’s able to grumble.

As Twilight explains her reasoning, Sunset agrees and puts the ball back on its stand. For a long time, as she watches, the ball remains clear. Obviously mocking her after her initial success. She hadn’t felt a pull at her magic as she used it before. She tries to pull on her magic, even though her wand stays safely in her robes. She shakes her head as a cold chill makes its way from her head to her toes. She takes a moment to grab her jacket and put it on. The comfort of the warm leather is short lived though as she continues to attempt to feel the magic again. Finally the class ends and Rarity comes up to help her up.

***

Sunset has to stare in wonder, in her conversations with Twilight in Equestria, she’s gotten to know some of what Twilight’s friends are capable of. Rarity has excellent fine control of her telekinesis. And Rarity here, seems to have the same abilities. Her friend is lost in the magic, picking up several things at once, and controlling everything individually. Her wand glows bright blue as she continues to work with simple things, like hot irons, and brushes, and various other cleaning appliances. Then Sunset gets a look on the faces of the other students. They aren’t here to stand out too much. She leans closer to her friend, “Rarity.” She whispers fiercely. But her friend is lost in the magic flowing through her. The teacher quickly steps in to stop her, and everything falls to the floor in a crash as Rarity loses a grip on her magic.

When Professor Flitwick moves away to help the other students, Sunset leans over to talk to Rarity, but is distracted by a candy bouncing off of her head. She looks down at the candy for a long moment, then over where it came from, Pinkie Pie is nearly vibrating at the entrance to the room. Sunset glances at the teacher, Rarity notices what is going on as well, she nods to Sunset with a knowing smile. Sunset slides out of her seat and quietly moves over to the door.

“I found something wonderful!” Pinkie says, pitching her voice low so the teacher doesn’t notice.

Sunset smiles, “What is it?”

“It’s a room. It has Equestrian stuff in it!” She hands Sunset a scroll.

Sunset unrolls the scroll enough to read the title, then she stops, looking up at Pinkie, “How did this get here?”

“Dunno, but you need to come and see.”

Sunset shakes her head, “We have classes, we have to keep up appearances right now.” She gives the scroll back to Pinkie and thinks furiously, glancing back at the teacher, finally she comes to a decision, “At the end of the day, show me where this classroom is. We’ll go and find out what is going on.” She glances back again, “I’ll see you at lunch.”

Pinky nods and skips away as Sunset makes her way back to her seat. A set of Equestrian battle spells, written by no less than Starswirl the Bearded? That’s impossible. There is no way this could actually exist in this world. The only portal from Equestria to this world is back home, in the United States. They are thousands of miles from the portal.

The teacher clears his throat, getting her attention. She glances at Rarity and pulls out her own wand, it’s time to get her head back into classwork.

***

Sunset puts her wand back in her robe, this potion is quite interesting. It takes a long time to make, and the effects of it are rather short lived. She had taken potions in Celestia’s school. Though much of them are far more complex than what she has to deal with here. Pinkie Pie sighs gratefully as she continues with her own cauldron. She keeps an eye on the teacher as they move their cauldrons to a large cupboard, Sunset takes a moment to write her name in flowing script on a small card to identify her work. She looks back at the teacher, they mentioned his name. Why did they do so?

She shakes her head as she starts working on the second potion of the day, a sugar concoction that is more in line with Pinkie’s talents. And in a matter of minutes, Pinkie is bouncing up with completed work. Sunset watches Snape as he evaluates the work. What is he up to? Is he a dark wizard? Would he fall under Grogar’s influence? They are now looking to have a presence in the school. But the only teacher mentioned is Snape. Sunset watches as Snape moves closer, checking on the other students. She hazards a quick glance at Pinkie, who is busy with her own work. The vision she had experienced in Divination is still hanging with her. She shakes her head and stands up. She ignores the looks of the other students as she goes into the potions closet.

She looks at the meticulously labeled ingredients, some are quite familiar to her, she was quite good at potion work back home. She grabs a vial, glancing at the label she puts it back. A small stoppered vial gets her attention, she pulls it out and smiles. The zebras had some really powerful magic in their potions. She grabs a second vial and puts it next to the first.

“You have your own potions work to be doing, Mizz Shimmer.” Comes the teacher’s voice in a slow drawl.

Sunset glances back then reaches up and grabs a third ingredient. She puts that down and closes her eyes, thumping her head with her hand, she’s nearly half way there. "How do you convert that... Just give me a moment, I need to do this." She turns back towards the ingredients looking up at the lists.

“With what you are taking, young lady, you would likely melt the mind of whatever poor soul you choose to inflict that concoction on.” He sneers.

“I’m not planning on giving it to anypony else.” She says absently, “I’ll be taking it myself.” She sets down a fourth ingredient, in a large beaker, “I need to know what is going on.” She picks up another vial, “I can’t lean on Twilight back home for help. I’ve got to do this myself.” She murmurs softly as she puts the vial back.

“That being said, far be it for me to get in the way of you harming yourself.” He starts as she slams down another ingredient. He looks at all she has gathered, “This is exceedingly dangerous.” She turns back and continues her search.

She nods, “I know, but if the spell is charged by an alicor…” her words stumble for a moment, she glances up at him, “An exceedingly powerful magic user. It can be used to view events of centuries, if not millennia before.” She looks down, “I only need a few days. This potion can help me save my friends lives. Save lots of lives.”

He looks at her, “Exactly how much potion work have you done, young lady?”

She whips out her wand, summoning the ingredients to fly through the air to her cauldron. She walks past him, only to be caught by his hand closing around her wrist, “This is not your personal time, young lady.” He sneers, “You need to work on your assignment.”

She jerks her arm away from him, “You don't understand! He’s gathered the Death Eaters.” She looks into his eyes, the pain and fear filling her own, “He is gathering more, converting more, it’s going to be a war. I see nothing but death and destruction because of him.”

He stops for a moment, looking back into the classroom, the students seem to be paying attention to their work, he looks back at Sunset, “I am well aware that the dark lord is coming. I am very well aware that this will bring another war. Your creature can’t do all that much. The Death Eaters will stop him.”

Sunset shakes her head, “Stop him? Stop him? I know about Grogar, they are already enslaved by him.” She looks at the busy students, “He’s controlling the Death Eaters and he’s using them to gather more. This has nothing to do with your Dark Lord.”

He leans down, his greasy hair flopping in front of his face as he hisses coldly, his eyes narrowing, “No creature from your world could do that, gather the Death Eaters.”

She looks up at him defiantly, “You would know, wouldn’t you?” she snarls as she reaches up and grips his left forearm, “I’ve done quite a bit of reading since I’ve gotten here. The Death Eaters talked about you by name in my vision.” She turns away, “I need to find out more. I am the Equestrian here. I am the only one who can do this.” She ignores tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes, “My friends, the mages here, all those that live here are in danger. You have to see that.”

He glances back into the classroom, then back at Sunset, “I don’t respond well to attempts at coercion. The headmaster is quite aware of the past, and of my allegiance is to him.”

She sniffs, “I don’t doubt that, Professor.” She turns away from him, folding her arms, “But as you are likely quite aware, he is out there. Even if you don’t believe me, I had some success in divination this morning. He is a creature of dark magic, of darkness, of chaos and death, he summons the dead to fight for him. And he wants me.” She can’t prevent her voice from shaking, remembering her vision in the crystal ball. “He wants anyone connected to Equestrian magic.”

“Professor Trelawney couldn’t teach her way out of a paper bag.” He growls.

She nods, “That seems to be the case, but I was able to use the crystal ball, and was able to get some information. I need something more concrete. The zebr…” her words stumble again. She lowers her voice to a whisper, “The zebras from my home have potions that might help, but you need to be an exceedingly powerful magic user.”

“Or your mind will be permanently damaged by the potion.” He glances back at the class, then he draws himself to stand taller, “You know the risks of this?”

She nods, “No one else has the knowledge. I'm the only one who can do this. Ever since... I've been trying to keep my friends safe, they don't know the dangers of magic, of an evil like this."

His mouth quirks in a half smile, “You would be surprised what knowledge is out there, young lady. Judging by the ingredients that you’ve gathered, I know that potion. It’s similar to a peculiar mix of the drought of peace, along with veritaserum. Not exact, mind you. But similar enough.” Her eyes widen, “I believe the final potion will be a quite vivid purple, am I right?”

She nods, “It takes the magic to turn it pure white.”

“I will work on that potion for you, Miss Shimmer. Do you have the magic necessary?”

She sighs, “I’m not certain. But I need to try. If not, I know who might.”

“It should take three days to make.” He says softly, “We will check it out then.”

She nods as she follows him into the room, he gathers up the ingredients and takes them to his desk. Dumbledore trusts him, though she still is dubious about him. She has to trust the headmaster’s judgement here. She gets back to her sugar based potion, keeping an eye on her friends as they work.

Rainbow leans over to her, “What was all that about?”

Sunset sighs, “Hopefully we will be getting some answers.”

***

As they walk from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Sunset gets to return the favor from the morning. She holds Rarity’s shoulders, keeping the other girl walking in a slow march, “It’s alright.” She says for what seems like the hundredth time, “You have the strength, you are needed as much as anyone here. You can do the magic.”

“But what was that thing? It looked like a pony from your world, it almost looked like you darling, well the pony you became when you were changed by the headmaster.”

Sunset sighs, “That is what an equestrian pony looks like, Rarity. Each has their own colorings and markings, that one didn't have my cutie mark. It had yours, well your counterpart’s. That's how your counterpart looks, I only saw her briefly but the mane and tail look just like your hair.”

Rarity shudders, “That was a patronus?”

Sunset shrugs, “I think so, the magic felt right. I think the patronus is a mirror of who we are in side, for the mages, it’s an animal, a deer, or a phoenix. But for us it’s... It’s an embodiment of our Equestrian magic, which comes out as our pony image.”

“Are you ready to go?” Comes a new voice, Sunset turns and smiles at Pinkie Pie with a nod. Pinkie moves over to take up Rarity’s other side, “You need sugar.” She says, stuffing a cupcake in Rarity’s mouth.

Rarity’s eyes bulge under the onslaught as she struggles to chew. She is soon able to swallow a few times, and finally accepts a cup of milk from Pinkie as well. She takes a long sip and when she’s done, “Pinkie, while I appreciate the sentiment…” she trails off as the sugar hits her blood stream, she shakes her head. She looks at the cupcakes and cookies on a small platter in Pinkies hands, she smiles, “Thank you, Pinkie Pie.”

“No problem.” Pinkie chirps as she makes the platter disappear.

Sunset looks at her energetic friend, did it go in her hair? Or where? She shrugs, “So, where is this place?”

“Follow me!” Pinkie giggles as she bounces off quite literally. Sunset is surprised to see her feet actually hit the ground as she bounces through the school. They head down the stairs from the defense against the dark arts classroom. She looks around, trying to figure out where in the school she is. It seems as though the interior of the school follows a different plan than the exterior. She sighs when Pinkie Pie turns the back the opposite direction for the third time.

“Pinkie, we’ve been down here.” Sunset says, then she stops dead. There’s a door there, it wasn’t there before. Pinkie gleefully skips to the door and opens it. Sunset follows gingerly, Twilight and Rarity in tow. She pokes her head into the room, Pinkie is at one corner, she’s already gotten two ovens working, the smell of baking is nearly overpowering. She looks around, “What is this?”

Pinkie comes up, with two dozen cookies, “I found out the name. It’s called the room of requirement.”

Sunset glances around as she grabs a cookie, “Amazing.” Memories of guard training rooms surface. She looks to see that Rarity has recovered enough. She moves over to the file cabinets and looks at the printed labels, she slides over and pulls a drawer open. She fingers through the folders and pulls one out. Thick parchment sheafs are inside. She pulls one out, instantly recognizing the script, “This is impossible, there is no way this could be here.” She says softly. She moves over to the large bookcases, she pulls out a book, “This compendium, there are three copies, one in Canterlot, one in the Royal Library in Manehattan, and the third was sent to Ponyville. That’s it, three copies, and I’m holding it.” She opens the book, inspecting it, “What magic is this?”

Twilight looks up, she’s got a half dozen books pulled out, “All of this is from Equestria. I don’t recognize any of the titles, and the authors…” She looks at the spines, “I don’t know any of them.” She opens a book, “This is common household spells.” She opens a second book, “Practical pegasus magic.” She opens it up and reads for a moment, “Well, that’s logical, their magic is centered in their wings.”

Sunset grins, “This is perfect, Pinkie, thank you!”

Pinkie brings a book to Sunset, “Of course, we need to find the rest of our friends, but we need to start really learning magic.”

“Even you, Pinkie.”

Pinkie cocks her head to the side, “I’ve got the magic I need.” She hip checks Sunset, “You girls are the real magic users here, I’ll keep you guys going.” Sunset looks down for an instant, then she looks up, Pinkie is in the kitchen, mixing something.

Sunset sighs and looks over at Twilight and Rarity. “Let’s get started!”

***

Lashing out with her wand, Sunset lets out an acid green bolt at the pony form, blowing it’s head off as a green slime starts eating away at the target. She spins and lets out a deep purple bolt, causing the barrel of the form to implode. Dodging side to side, she slides to the right and stretches out her arm, unleashing another blast from her wand, this bolt is electric blue, and causes another form to burst into flames. She stops and pants hard, rubbing her forehead and bangs. It has been over an hour of training, and the new battle spells have been very productive.

“Sunset, I’m pretty sure we’ve got this basic stun spell down.” Twilight says softly.

Sunset turns and looks at Twilight, “Show me.”

Twilight nods once and points her wand at one of the pony forms taking aim. Flinching at the clearing of Sunset’s throat.

“No! At me.” Sunset says firmly.

“What?” Twilight blinks several times as she looks at Sunset, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, you need to practice attacks, and I need to practice defense, now begin.”

Taking a breath Twilight shrugs and backs up a few steps. Sunset has insisted they focus on the spell forms, not worrying about vocalizing the spells. She sends a half dozen bolts at Sunset, who bats them away easily.

Sunset shakes her head speaking sternly, “Faster, learn these spells so they come as second nature, s reflex, they could save your life.”

Twilight nods and turns back to work. Sunset picks up a new sheaf of parchment, she riffs through the pages, “I need something a bit more advanced here.” She says softly as she reads.

“Darling, I do believe we have this spell down. It may be time for us to learn something a bit more than the stun spell.” Rarity looks at Twilight, who is sending a spell down towards a pony form, “You did witness me in the class.” She reaches to pick up a folder, only to pull her hand back at the glare she receives from Sunset.

“You are NOT ready for those yet, Rarity, they are far too dangerous for you, and I don’t want you to get hurt.” Sunset says, going back to her own reading.

After a few moments, Sunset feels the couch shift as Rarity sits next to her. Shifting through parchments she compares notes before she looks at her wand.

“Sunset.” Rarity says hesitantly.

“Mhmm?”

A protracted silence finally gets Sunset’s full attention, she looks up, to see Rarity sitting there, looking conflicted. Finally, her friend grasps her wrist, “Dear, you are shaking.”

Sunset looks down at her trembling hand. Taking a deep breath, she makes a tight fist and steadies herself before relaxing her hand, “Sorry, I guess I’m just hungry. Low blood sugar.”

Rarity sighs, “It’s more than that and you know it!” She looks up at Twilight, “We’ve been working for a couple of hours now. You’ve tried probably thirty different spells, and all Twilight and I are doing is a basic stun spell.” She snorts, “Honestly, what use would a stun be against that ram?”

Sunset shivers, “You don’t need to worry about him. He’s gathering an army, and that spell will knock a human out for hours if you put enough power into it.”

Rarity grasps her hand, drawing it away from the book, “Sunset Shimmer, we all have to deal with him. You can’t deal with him all by yourself.”

Sunset flinches and reflexively pulls her hand away, “I’ve got to.”

Rarity reaches forward and grabs her hand, “No, you don’t. Twilight and I will help you on the magic side.” She glances towards the door as it opens, bringing in Pinkie with Fluttershy. “We all will help you.”

Sunset slams the folder onto the table, “You can’t!” She shouts, “You aren’t Equestrian, you don’t know what this magic is like,” tears are falling hard and fast now, “You don’t have the years of experience necessary or training necessary. I can't let you get hurt. Not again.”

Rarity slides over and wraps her arms around Sunset, “We are stronger together, dear.”

Another set of arms grab onto Sunset, Twilight adds herself to the hug, “We will do this, we will beat him. Together.”

Sunset comes back to herself with a jolt, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack have all joined in, hugging her. She reaches up and wipes away the tears, “I’m sorry.” She’s able to mutter.”

“There’s nothin ta apologize for, Sunset.” Applejack murmurs softly, “We will learn. And all of us will help where we can. We beat the sirens, we will win.”

Sunset sniffles again, “I don’t deserve you.”

That gets all of them to hug her harder, after a long moment, she sighs, “Thank you.”

Applejack sighs and stands up, “It’s time for supper, and I think you’ll like it.”

***

Sunset walks back into the Room of Requirement with all of her friends. The dinner break had really done her well. She had even enjoyed a piece of chicken to go along with the carbs she had just consumed. Magic is energy, and it takes energy to wield. She sighs contentedly, Twilight and Rarity are going to be able to work on their magic with her.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash will be working their brooms on the rings attached to the ceiling, working on their maneuverability. Applejack is helping Pinkie with fighting training. She’s got her gloves on, though Pinkie is showing that she’s quite strong as well. The two practice sparring, Applejack grappling and throwing her friend onto the padded cushions, though Pinkie is giving as good as she’s getting. More than once, Applejack is the one flying through the air as Pinkie uses Applejack’s strength against her. Both girls are laughing as they practice.

Sunset once against settles in to read the spellforms. Though she’s interrupted by Rarity standing before her, her friend playing with the end of her hair as she stands there, a conflicted look on her face.

“Is there something I can help with, Rarity?” Sunset says, setting down the parchment.

Rarity sits down next to her, Spike takes the opportunity to hop into her lap, she absently scratches him behind an ear as she gathers her thoughts, “How did you do it, Sunset?”

Sunset furrows her brow, “Do what?”

If anything, Rarity starts to look even more uncomfortable, “You gave up your magic, when you came through the portal.” She looks down at Spike, who’s reveling as her fingernails scratch his fur, “You gave up your magic. You spent years not being able to use it. I’ve had mine for a matter of weeks, and I’m terrified of losing it. If we make it home, I won’t have my magic anymore. And that scares me.”

Sunset stops for a long moment, “When I first got here, I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be able to call on my magic. I came through in the middle of the night, and I had to explore, to find out what your world offered.” She’s able to chuckle, “I nearly got arrested, some crazy naked girl prowling around.” She looks at Rarity seriously, “I had to adjust to it.” She glances up, Twilight has pulled up a big cushion and is sitting down, she looks back down, “I was able to suppress my desire to use my magic by replacing it. Replacing that desire with something attainable here. I was power hungry when I came through the portal the first time. I ended up mad with power.” Again, tears cascade down her face, “I nearly destroyed the school in my quest for power. I divided all of you up, any friend group had to be broken up, for me to have control over them.”

“Like how you maneuvered us apart a few years ago?” Rarity asks gently, getting a sob and a nod.

“I was evil. And it culminated in me getting that tiara on my brow. And look what it caused.”

“An obscurus.” Twilight says.

“A what?” Comes from both Sunset and Rarity.

Twilight explains for a few moments, Sunset shakes her head, “I’ve never heard the term, but what you are describing is pretty accurate for a surge. I finally had the magic, but it was corrupted.” She shivers, “I corrupted it. My hunger for power did it. Though I will admit, I did not realize until that moment that I was so starved when it came to using magic.”

“Starved?” Rarity says, paling.

Sunset nods, “I hadn’t used magic for nearly three years at that point. I thought I had put that ache behind me. But then I was able to touch magic, and I’ve been touching magic with you girls for a while now. I never realized how much it hurt to not use it. Not to feel the energy inside me.”

Rarity flinches, “But we aren’t magical, right? We aren’t from Equestria like you are.”

Sunset sighs, “I don’t think that matters anymore Rarity. You have touched the magic, it’s a part of you now.

Rarity looks down, “We are magical beings now?” She says barely audibly.

Sunset nods, “I am no less magical than I was back in Equestria. Touching the magic from there, and now the magic here. I realize that now. The magic is part of me, part of this world, of life itself. I can no more deny this than I could deny that I breathe.”

Rarity sniffles, “But darling, what... What if I don't want to let the magic... what if I can't let the magic go? I don't want it to define who I am.”

“Does your arm define you? Your hair? Your magic is a part of you. It makes you special, but it is intrinsically part of you.”

Rarity slams her hand down on the table, "But what happens if I go crazy and become some kind of a...” she flushes, “no offense.” She stops and takes a few deep breaths, “Or worse what if the magic takes over me and turns me into a unicorn? No offense."

“You won't go crazy. Do you go crazy with your other natural abilities? Fashion? Gems?”

Rainbow Dash is sitting on her broom right behind the couch, "Hello, have you met her, All the time,” she chirps.

Sunset grabs both of Rarity’s hands in hers, “Crazy as in excited, crazy as in passionate.” She gives her friend an encouraging smile, “There is nothing wrong there. Crazy as in destroying the people around you. No. That is not you.”

"Unless her sister gets into her diary.... then then she does that whole 'I will destroy her!' with flames coming out her eyes!" Pinkie says bouncing by.

All the girls giggle as Pinkie settles down on the couch, Sunset smiles, “You girls saved me.”

A sob comes from Twilight, Sunset looks sharply at her, “You saved me too, I had never known how much I wanted magic until I had it within me.”

Sunset smiles, “How does it feel to be using it now?”

Twilight looks at her through her tears, “It feels right.” She pulls out her wand, “After this is over, what are we going to do? I’m with Rarity, I don’t want to give this up.”

Sunset shivers, “I don’t think that decision is up to us.” She guides Twilight’s wand back into her robes, “But no matter what, we will deal with that future together. But first, we need to end the threat that he represents.”

The all nod, and Sunset calls out, “Let’s get back to work.”

***

Sunset snuggles into her covers, she looks at the platter of cupcakes and cookies and other baked goods that Pinkie had somehow left on her bedside table. That girl knows exactly what hits the spot. Tonight has been extremely productive. Though she knows how much power that Grogar represents. What is she going to do? Can they defeat him? How would they do so? He’s been able to control so many of the Death Eaters, what can one Equestrian and her friends do against that kind of power?

She flips over and closes her eyes, “Together, we can do anything.” She’s able to whisper as sleep overtakes her.

Chapter 15.

View Online

Sunset Shimmer walks slowly towards the potions classroom. Even though it’s the weekend, or perhaps because of it being the weekend, the halls are relatively quiet and bereft of students. As she rounds the corner, she stops short, looking at the door. Rather than being locked, or even closed, the door is partly open though the room is still dark.

“Professor Snape?” Sunset says softly as she opens the dungeon door the rest of the way to the potions classroom. Usually the teachers lock their classrooms when they are not present. In this case however, someone has been here. She glances around the dark room, “The root I’m looking for is usually found in the Everfree forest, but I don’t know what your equivalence is.”

She listens for a moment, but all she can hear is soft bubbling and crackling sounds. She glances around, on Saturdays, the teachers usually have the time to get caught up on paperwork, so they are usually in their classrooms or offices. The potions classroom is curiously empty though. Professor Snape isn’t there, though a few potion stands sit bubbling quietly, long term brews that do not require constant attention. She steps into the classroom, her head rotating around, the sounds of the equipment, of liquids slowly bubbling, the smell of burning coals...

Slowly, she brings out her wand and lights the room with it, the light spilling out as if she was using her hornshine. She walks over to the closet where the potion ingredients are kept, the large doors stand closed. Standard lock picking spells wouldn’t usually work here, but she knows a few more advanced techniques. Touching the door, however, she finds it unlocked, carefully she opens the door and starts looking through the different ingredients in the expansive closet. She takes note that a few bottles are already gone. A rustling from the door to the classroom gets her attention, turning she extinguishes the light and draws the door nearly closed silently.

“He’s not here,” comes another voice.

Sunset can’t hear this voice clearly enough to recognize who is speaking, but she can tell it’s a male. She brings her wand close and flattens against the wall. Who else would be here? She hears soft footfalls against the stone floor. Electric currents run up her spine, they are getting closer! She clenches her wand, thinking of what spellforms she would need. Her eyes focus on the door knob as it rattles. Time draws out as she gets ready to deal damage to whomever is trying to steal from here. If it’s the thief returning she could be in real danger.

“Hmm, it’s open. Professor Snape usually doesn’t keep the supply closet unlocked.” Comes the voice, much clearer. Sunset trembles as she points the wand at the door as it opens, revealing two figures.

Sunset steps forward, her brightly glowing wand leveled at the nose of the intruder, who’s hands fly up, “What the heck?” The boy shouts as he stumbles back, landing on his rear.

“Sunset Shimmer, what are you doing here?” Comes a familiar voice, time slams back to normal as the spellform in her mind suddenly dissipates and she takes a step back, pointing her wand straight up.

“Rarity?” She looks down at the boy, who’s trembling on the floor, “You are…Neville, right?”

He nods. “What are you doing here?”

She sighs as she shoves her wand away into her robes, “I need a root that I can usually get…” She glances at Neville, then back at Rarity, “at home.” She looks at both of them, “What are you two doing here?”

Rarity reaches down to help Neville to his feet, he straightens his robes, “Rarity, Applejack and I were in the greenhouses, there’s a new crop of mandrakes. But the crop will be lost to flesh eating slugs if we don’t get any repellent.”

Sunset cocks her head to the side, “Flesh eating slug repellent?”

Both of them nod, “I told Professor Hagrid about it, and he went to London. He wasn’t able to get any, though. He said Knockturn Alley is nearly deserted.” He doesn’t notice Sunset gasp softly, but Rarity does, her eyes narrow as Neville continues, “I thought professor Snape would have some in his supply closet. But he’s not here, and I know that Hagrid left again.” He shakes his head. “Borgin and Burkws never closes, but it’s closed right now."

Sunset shudders, “There’s more going on than we know,” She says softly, glancing over at Rarity, “Would you come with me, to London?”

“Students can’t leave the school without permission from a house head,” says Neville.

Sunset closes and locks the supply cabinet door, then she grabs Rarity’s hand, “We aren’t traditional students, Neville.” She stops and looks back at him. “Head back to the greenhouse; Rarity and I will find out what is going on.” He nods as Sunset breaks into a run, dragging Rarity along.

“But, Sunset, how are we going to get to London, this Knockturn Alley?”

“The fastest way I know how.” Sunset puffs as she pounds up the stairs. “Teleportation!”

“But the school is warded! You can teleport within the ward, but your teleportation can’t cross it.”

Sunset smiles grimly, “Every ward has a boundary.” They break out onto the ground floor and rush through the halls, Sunset nearly skids as they turn down the corridor heading towards the bridge to Hogsmeade. Rarity finally shrugs off her hand and runs beside her. In moments, they are running across the covered bridge. As they reach the end of the bridge, Sunset stops cold. “Did you feel that?”

Rarity puffs a bit, trying to catch her breath. “Feel what?”

Sunset looks back at the entrance to the bridge, she walks slowly over to the threshold and reaches out a hand. “Yes, that’s the ward.” She says softly and turns around. She grabs Rarity’s hand and raises her wand, “Let’s go,” She says firmly and the wand brightens. In moments, the magic takes hold and they wink out of existence.

***

Rarity stumbles a couple of steps as she tried to get her bearings. “Is teleportation usually that…” she shudders, “extreme?”

Sunset nods, “It takes some getting used to. Though there are some unicorns that can do that over and over, jumping from location to location in a fight rapidly.”

“I saw you do that in your duel,” Rarity says softly.

Sunset nods, “It’s a bit different with a wand compared to having a horn, but the basics are similar.” She glances around, “This is Diagon Alley. it looks pretty quiet here.”

Rarity glances around at the storefronts, “It looks like most of the stores are closed on the weekend. Is it some sort of holiday? I doubt most businesses would willingly close if they had a chance to make sales.” She starts walking slowly down the street looking up at the signs, “Where is this Knockturn Alley?”

Sunset shrugs, “I’m not exactly certain, Professor Dumbledore said it off this street somewhere, so we will just have to find it.”

Rarity takes a deep breath trying to settle her stomach. “Well, let’s get going.” She walks off, her steps getting steadier as effects of travel start to wear off. Sunset walks behind her, keeping her eyes peeled.

After some time, Rarity falls back to walk next to Sunset. “There are people here.” She nods her head towards an open window, a small face looking out. When the child notices Rarity and Sunset looking at her, she disappears. “A little skittish, I think, though. I know my robes are just ghastly but I did not think they were that out of fashion.”

As they go deeper into Diagon Alley, a few more people seem to be out and about, visiting the few shops that are open. Many of the mages eye the girls in their school robes, the MACUSA patch quite visible on their chests. Sunset looks around, “Something is wrong here.”

“That vision you had a couple of days ago, dear?” Rarity says softly.

Sunset nods as she leads them to a corner, “This looks familiar to me... I think Grogar was here.”

She takes a turn, this area seeming somewhat…darker to her. A few denizens are here, their robes usually black or a dark gray, and many of the wizards and witches remind her of Professor Snape. Long, greasy hair abounds among them. Rarity moves closer, holding to her sleeve. “I don’t like it here, Sunset,” she murmurs softly.

Sunset feels her friend shudder against her, she points at a sign. “Here we are.” They look at some of the different storefronts, before Sunset motions to Rarity, “Borgin and Burkes. This is the place.” The large store is closed, and this entire area is devoid of people. “There is something really wrong here,” she murmurs, her eyes flicking back and forth.

After a moment, they both stop short. “Did you hear that?” She asks softly, Rarity’s wide eyes answer her question easily. The both look towards the sounds coming from further down the alley. “Let’s go," She growls as she dashes down the alley.

“Darling, are you certain we should be running towards that?” Rarity gasps as they turn the corner. Both stop, Hagrid is sitting behind a stack of crates. Professor Snape is next to him, firing spells at a trio of masked figures on the rooftop. Sunset takes off, putting on speed, her wand coming out and glowing brightly as she fires spells at the different figures. She skids to a stop next to Hagrid and reaches over the crate to fire a spell at one of the figures, getting him to duck.

She looks over, “Are you using a..” her eyes fasten onto the pink umbrella in the huge man’s hand.

Hagrid shrugs as he uses the umbrella to fire off more spells, he slumps back, “It’s a long story.”

Sunset glances at Rarity for a moment, without prompting Rarity draws her own wand and takes a breath. Silently, the two girls look at each other before nodding. As Sunset steps out, she raises her wand high, creating a unicorn shield dome, the light opal glow taking solid form above them.

Sweeping her own wand low, Rarity’s wand glows cornflower blue as she gathers up debris from the ground, unsatisfied with merely flinging garbage, she snaps her wand firmly, transforming the debris into sharp shards resembling large cut gems. As Rarity raises her wind Sunset creates a hole in the shield though which Rarity unleashes a burst of stones that cut through the air towards one of the cloaked figures, cutting through his cover and sending him staggering backwards before he dissolves into smoke and flashes off. A second figure quickly relocates himself to the other side of a chimney for protection. A few seconds later, they can see the figures dissolve in a teleportation of their own.

Sunset lets down the shield as Rarity walks up next to them.

“Students are not permitted off school grounds, Miss Shimmer.” Snape growls.

Rarity huffs, “We aren’t exactly Hogwarts students, as you know, Professor.”

Snape glares at her, “To maintain your cover as American students visiting, you should follow the rules of Hogwarts.”

Sunset rolls her eyes. “Write a letter to Princess Celestia.” She points up at the rooftop, “Those looked like the ones I saw in my vision -- Grogar and his new minions.”

Hagrid looks at Snape, “I thought you said they were Death Eaters.”

Snape looks uncomfortable, “They are, but they are acting differently. They immediately attacked me when I approached. I don’t think they are in full control of their faculties.”

Sunset steps up, “That’s Grogar. He’s a necromancer, he’s also exceedingly powerful at mind control.” She stops as a breeze starts to come up, blowing trash around a bit. “I don’t think we are done here; I think they went for reinforcements.” She whirls around, and as she does, black smoke streaks in and one by one, a dozen forms slam to the ground and coalesce into humans in black robes. Sunset flashes a shield into existence around her friend and the professors “Run!”

Several of the humans raise their wands.

Sunset turns and follows her friends as the first spell impacts her shield. She flicks her wand, turning her shield into a barrier, normally a barrier like that could last a few hours. But under this kind of attack, they will take a few moments to blast through it without her sustaining it. It does give them the crucial few seconds to get into the smaller part of the alley.

Blood pounds into her ears as she skids through a turn. Rarity’s voice cries out, “Here they come!” In a fluid move of Rarity’s wand, several windows shatter and the shards of glass fly like daggers in the direction of the pursuers. In response, one of them lifts his wand creating a shockwave that reduces the shards to dust. This doesn’t stop the Death Eaters from being sandblasted for a moment, however, causing them to cover their faces.

Sunset points her wand behind her blindly, shooting binding spells as she rushes down the narrow alley. Rarity skids to a stop, her wand glowing brightly as she again gathers debris from around them with her magic. She points her wand at the advancing humans and her wand flashes even brighter as the debris turns into compact packages that she fires like shotgun blasts at the advancing wizards. One is caught in the chest and flops back onto the ground, screaming. Rarity raises her wand again and blasts at another death eater that decided to take to the rooftops, she blasts the board he’s standing on. His loses his balance with a scream as he starts to fall to the ground, before turning to dark smoke.

Snape stands up next to Rarity, firing curse after curse himself with sharp flicks of his wand as they both walk slowly backwards, explosions of Death Eater blasts and bolts flashing by them or exploding against Hagrid’s umbrella. Sunset gasps and quickly puts a chest high shield in front of the two, letting their spells pass over as the shield deflects several curses directed at her friends.

Rarity huffed once as she continues her attack, “This is so undignified. Could you not just teleport us out of here? Preferably to somewhere more civilized?”

Sunset growls, “There’s too many of us, I don’t trust myself trying to take more one with me.” She pants for a moment as she brings up another shield to deflect another attack from above, “and there’s some kind of static around the alley. I don’t want to risk it.”

Reaching out, Hagrid picks up a loose paving stone with one hand and heaves it, taking out a chunk of a rooftop, causing a death eater to turn to smoke in a teleportation to another roof. “We can’t keep this up forever; we need to get out of here!”

Snape growls, “And I thought Potter was insufferable. Do tell me you at least let someone know you were coming here.”

Sunset angles her shield to let Rarity ‘machine gun’ the debris along down the alley, “Nope, didn’t want to make it too easy for a former dark arts master and duel instructor. We’re too exposed here, we are going to need to move, to make it back to Diagon alley.” She stands up and moves next to her friends, her shield shimmers as she diverts some of her magic to attack, “I’ll be right behind you, get going!” She shouts. They move back as she steps forward, she fires off a spell and the death eater she was aiming at avoids it easily. The smile on his face gets a grin from her, she creates a human sized shield and sends it at another death eater as he tries to take advantage of her apparent distraction. It catches him and blows him back. Sunset grins and fires off spells at three others that are trying to advance.

The first one levels his wand at her, she looks him in the eyes, and he stops for a moment, a confused look on his face at the expression on hers. Then he’s yanked off the ground as the spell that landed just behind him completes. A large group of vines intertwine and grab his legs. She grins as she fires off another spell as she sidesteps a vivid green spell sent at her. She whirls around and aims a stun spell at the death eater that tried to get her from behind. Something tickles the back of her mind and she drops and rolls on the cobblestone to avoid several spells aimed at her. She glances back and sees Rarity duck out of the alley and starts to walk back slowly, her attack spells start to abate as she has to focus more on defense. Several strong spells come at her, and only a quick shield thrown up at the last second deflects them. nut it’s not enough. Her shield shatters and she’s blown back. She thinks quickly and rolls as she lands. She darts backwards and fires several spells blindly as she turns the corner her friends took.

“It’s Diagon Alley!” She murmurs as she looks at the few people walking along. She growls, “Get to your homes!” She shouts as she runs. She makes it to her friends and turns around, setting up a shield. “I can’t do this much longer,” she pants as she crouches behind cover that her friends have also ducked behind. Rarity is looking worse for wear as well. Her normally immaculate hair is hanging limply as she drips with sweat. Her movements are sluggish, far slower than they were in the duel the other day. This can’t go on.

Snape stands up and fires off several spells himself, then he ducks down, panting. “We can’t continue like this, we’ll get overwhelmed.”

Sunset nods grimly as Hagrid grabs two barrels, he stands up and throws them at the advancing death eaters. Knocking one flat and another is slammed into a wall. They fire back as Hagrid ducks back down, his hair smoking. Snape takes a moment to blast a cooling jet of water, extinguishing the enormous man. Hagrid offers Snape a smile as Snape moves to the side, blasting more spells at the other mages.

The death eaters, for their part, keep advancing. Two young mages rush across the street, only to get cut down by a spell from one of the death eaters. Sunset shudders as she watches the two bodies tumble bonelessly along the alley. She takes advantage of the distraction to blast the death eater that had fired at the innocents. Her rage enhances the spell, blowing him into a wall, the shotgun sound of bones breaking reaching her ears. She shifts to aim at another Death Eater, but she has to duck as another spell comes close enough to nearly singe her hair. She crouches down. “I think I can teleport, can you?” She asks Snape. He nods and grabs Hagrid’s arm. Before he raises he wand, though, a thundering voice booms across the square.

“ENOUGH!”

Sunset cringes as a bright flash of light slams to the ground, then when the light fades, she finds herself smiling. Albus Dumbledore is standing there, his wand raised at the Death Eaters. Flames erupt from the end of the headmaster’s wand. Moving his wand in slow circles, he raises it to his lips and blows, the flames rushes forward towards the alleyway, taking the form of a giant flaming bird, trailing pure fire. The heat from its wings causing glass to melt and turning loose newspaper pages to ash instantly. With a brutal screech, it slams into a Death Eater, wrapping its wings around the poor soul before exploding outwards in all directions. The headmaster steps to the side and throws a vivid blue rope of energy at another Death Eater, who tries to bat the spell away. The rope entwines around the man’s body getting him to scream as he fall over, before he dissipates into smoke as he teleports away.

The other death eaters try to press their attack, though swiftly, their advance falters under his onslaught. Professor Dumbledore’s face is grim as he continues to attack. Sunset smiles and stands up, she whirls towards the enemy and fires off more spells as she moves from behind cover. Rarity stands up next to her, along with the two teachers. Together they march slowly forward, driving them back.

Sunset risks a glance back at Dumbledore as they continue to press their advantage. One, then two additional Death Eaters end up crumpled on the ground as spells find their marks. Dumbledore bats away their spells easily as Sunset continues to make shields to deflect the faltering attacks towards them. She begins to smile grimly as the death eaters continue to lose ground. Finally, one fades to black mist and rockets off, then a second dark mage teleports away signalling a mass retreat. In moments, the field is clear of combat. A total of four of those in black robes are on the ground, dead or dying. Dumbledore steps up to one of them, the one Sunset had blasted into the wall. He lies on the ground, gasping for air despite a nearly crushed chest.

The death eater spits up blood, “The necromancer will end you all,” He hisses. He brings his wand up, “Avada kedavra,” he mutters before anyone can do anything. Unbeknownst to him, the tip of his wand is broken, exposing the core. A green blast of energy blasts back into him, his head flops back, his eyes already unfocused in death. Sunset takes a moment to look around at the devastation. She glances quickly at the bodies of the two young mages cut down, then turns away with a shudder. She looks at the dead Death Eaters.

One of them is sprawled on his back, his mask laying on the ground from when he fell. She looks at his long bright white hair, the face of a middle aged man, she's seen that face before. Behind her, Dumbledore curses softly as magic comes from the sky, retrieving the bodies of the fallen death eaters. She looks at him as he turns away, “We need to go,” he murmurs softly. He gathers them close and waves his wand. Sunset stumbles, they are at the gates of the school. “Come with me,” he says firmly as the gates open before them.

Sunset looks around at the others, Professor Snape is bent over, his hands on his knees as he breathes heavily. Professor Hagrid is panting softly as well, he glances at his umbrella shaking it out once, before he shoves it into a fold of his jacket. Then her gaze falls on… “Oh, Rarity!” Sunset cries as she rushes to her friend. She uses her finger to wipe the blood off of her friend’s face, “You’re hurt!”

Rarity’s eyes widen as she reaches up, when she touches the gash that starts at her cheekbone and goes to her hair line, she winces when her fingers find the injury, she pulls her hand back, looking at the blood on it, “Oh, dear. They did mean business didn’t, they,” Rarity says softly, “I’m sure it will be okay, Sunset.”

Sunset blinks tears from her eyes, “I went there without thinking, Rarity. You could have been killed. This isn’t some game anymore.”

Professor Dumbledore’s voice comes from behind her, “It will be just fine, child. We will take her to the infirmary where it can be fixed very quickly.” She looks back at him, he has a gentle smile on his face, completely different than the grim look he had while fighting the death eaters, he reaches out and gently touches Rarity’s cheek, “I sincerely doubt there will even be a scar.”

Rarity heaves a breath at those words, “Oh thank goodness, facial scars so went out with spandex. I have absolutely nothing to go with one.” She holds a handkerchief to her cheek, then smiles tremulously at Sunset and the Headmaster before following him onto the castle grounds.

Sunset puts her wand into her robes gingerly, looking back out at the expansive lake and the ship moored there. Just a matter of minutes ago, she was fighting for her life, and now she’s safe. She sighs and shakes her head as she walks back onto the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Chapter 16.

View Online

The gates close behind the mages. Sunset follows her friends through the main entry. She wraps her arms around herself to prevent herself from shivering too much. Just a matter of minutes before, she was fighting for her life. She had watched two young mages have their lives snuffed out so casually by those Death Eaters, and now she’s as safe as anyone can be in this stone fortress. She watches as Fluttershy comes out from a hallway and descends upon Rarity. With gentle resolve, Fluttershy directs Rarity towards the infirmary.

In a matter of moments, she’s alone with the teachers. Professor Dumbledore walks rapidly through the castle; she knows his destination. She quickens her step to move up next to him. “Professor.”

They turn the corner and are at the entrance to the headmaster’s office. She glances back at the other two teachers as he says the password into his office. She shakes her head as they all end up inside the large and cluttered room. He whirls around on her, “What were you doing there? Did you know you could have been killed, child?”

Sunset bristles, “I’m not a child, I’m older than most of the students here, I’m a senior at home with years at home beyond that.”

That gets a grim smile from Professor Dumbledore. “So, you think you have enough life experience to not be considered a child? Would your princess Celestia, whom by your own admission, is far in excess of a thousand years old, consider you a child?”

That gets her to falter, “Yes, she likely would.” She’s able to bark a laugh, “But I’m thinking she would refer to you as a child as well, Professor.”

“Indeed, you may be right, but you should not have jumped into a combat situation like that.” He raises a hand to silence her when she opens her mouth to object, “If it had not been for a quick-thinking Mr. Longbottom, I would not have known that something was wrong.” He whirls around on Snape and Hagrid, “And what kind of teacher leaves without informing others of the situation!” he stalks towards them, “When you discovered that things were not as they should be, you should have come immediately to me! You know that Sunset and her friends have this necromancer that is intent on gaining power in our world.” He spins away in a huff, “The ministry must be informed, and we need to get more information on what happened to those mages.”

Sunset steps forward. “I believe I have a way to get more information, if Professor Snape has completed his work on the potion.”

Snape clears his throat, “Based on what you have told me, and the information I’ve been able to glean, the potion is as far as I can take it.” He looks Sunset up and down, “I doubt you have the necessary power to turn it white. You can try at your leisure.”

That gets a grin from Sunset, “I’ve been thinking about it. I’ll be down in your lab later and we can work on that, okay?”

Snape nods as Sunset turns back to Dumbledore. “Grogar is a real threat to all of us. I need to see what happened, why he’s here, how he got here, and how we can banish him again.”

“Banish?” Dumbledore asks, arching an eyebrow.

She nods, “He’s a necromancer; I don’t think killing him is possible, but we need to seal him away, permanently if possible, so he can never threaten your world again.”

Dumbledore nods as he moves over to his desk. He takes a moment to settle into his chair. “Do what you must to find out the information you need. But do it quickly, for I fear that with such an open attack, he will be emboldened.”

Sunset nods grimly, “We are on it, Professor.” She turns on her heel and heads from the office.

***

Sunset Shimmer contemplates the Erlenmeyer flask sitting on Snape’s desk. Inside the flask is a deep purple liquid. She looks up at Professor Snape with a smile, “That looks right.” She glances at Rarity and Twilight. “Are you girls ready?”

Twilight Sparkle fiddles with her wand, running her fingers along it’s ebony length, “Are you sure, Sunset?”

Sunset nods. “I can direct the magic, we just need to form a ring. “I'm used to doing this with a hoof, but..." stamping her foot, a magical circle flares into existence, spreading out from her foot impact. The center of the circle is the flask itself. She directs her friends to stand equidistant around the circle.

She looks at Twilight, “You know how to touch your magic, what I need you do to is open yourself to that magic, not actually at the point of the touch, but on the cusp, and I will reach through you and touch it for you. Okay?”

Twilight holds out her wand and stands ready. She can feel her friend reach out to touch her magic, and she moves quickly, pulling on the magic and linking the two. Twilight’s wand glows mutely as they both turn to Rarity.

Rarity holds her wand. “It’s just that simple?”

Sunset nods and Rarity steels herself for a moment. “Ready,” Rarity says softly as Sunset reaches out again and draws her into the ring.

She looks at the two. “Now, the ring has a buffering effect, you cannot draw more magic than you can handle while in a ring. Though it can get close. Let us do this.” She turns to the flask, her own wand already glowing. She glances over at Professor Snape, who is watching them with a contemplative look. She reaches out with her wand and the other two copy her motion, all three wands glow bright white as Sunset pulls deeply on all of the magic in the ring. An alicorn’s magic, that is what it is supposed to take. What do alicorns have other than amazing strength?

Sunset releases the magic into the flask, light from all three wands converge on the liquid within. The entire dungeon room lights up brightly as the power from the three girls plays through the flask. Sunset grunts as she pulls harder, getting grunts and gasps of effort from herself and her friends. Despite how bright everything is, she can see the bright purple of the flask is remaining unchanged.

“Come…on…” she murmurs as she reaches a hard wall, she’s pulled everything she can from the girls. The magic circle is glowing brightly and the girls have floated off the floor. With another murmur, she focuses the energy as tightly as she can on the flask before her.

“Sunset!” Twilight gasps, “I can’t…”

She feels Twilight’s presence in the circle start to fade, Rarity’s own grasp of the power is starting to falter as well. They wouldn’t be able to lose the power fully, but they can lose focus. And that could be disastrous. Sunset pulls back on the power quickly and feels her feet settle onto the floor. She takes a step forward and puts a hand on the desk. As she does, she releases the other two and they also collapse to the floor.

Sunset pants softly, “That should have worked. That was more power than any alicorn that I know in existence.” She looks at Twilight and Rarity, who are both struggling to get up from the floor. She moves over to them, “It’s nearly dinner time, let’s get some food in all of us. We will figure this out, but later.”

“Miss Shimmer, a word.” Professor Snape says as her friends retreat from the dungeon, Sunset puts a hand over her growling stomach, that much magic use in such a short time, with the fight and then this attempt, has her feeling like she’s running on empty. She looks up at the professor questioningly. He leans forward, “You have said that the alicorn possesses the traits of all three pony tribes.”

Sunset looks thoughtful, “The strength and magic with life of the earth ponies, the flight and magic of the air and sky of the pegasi, and the elemental magic of the unicorns.”

Snape tilts his head, “Would it not be best for your potion to have you incorporate the magic of all three tribes?” What you just attempted seemed to be along the lines of trying to brute force it.”

Sunset shakes her head, “Their magic isn’t expressed the same way, I don’t know how to draw it out so it can be added to,” she gestures to the flask, “that.”

Snape turns away. “I’m certain you will find a way, young lady.”

Sunset walks slowly up the stairs, her mind back on the potion. She’s been able to learn the castle well enough over the last few weeks that her feet automatically take her to the grand hall. With a blink, she sees her friends all sitting at their usual tables. Pinkie Pie is huddling with Fred and George, Rainbow Dash, and that student from Bulgaria, Viktor Krum, are talking animatedly about something to do with flying, it looks like. Fluttershy is up by the teacher’s table, talking with Hagrid. Twilight is sharing a book with Hermione. Applejack is sitting near Pinkie, another of the Weasley children is sitting next to her, their heads together as they laugh and eat. Rarity is even sitting with one of the other wizards, Neville Longbottom, as they chat and eat.

They are so very different, yet are able to get along so well together. Sunset sits down and grabs a serving spoon. Though it’s not very long until her own plate is empty, and she’s leaning back, patting her stomach in contentment. She sighs softly, an alicorn combines the attributes of all three pony tribes. She glances at Applejack, who is drinking her pumpkin juice from a large goblet. Though looking close, Sunset can see how her fingers are deforming the metal even though she’s being careful. Pinkie Pie has nearly as much strength.

A shift of her glance brings her to Fluttershy, who has a half dozen owls sitting around her, and apparently quite a few of the other student’s familiars are on friendly terms with her shy friend as well. She’s now holding an enormous toad in her hand as she talks with the French witch from the tournament, Fleur. She and Rainbow Dash are both creatures of the air. Even here on this Earth, they gravitate to flight. Even songbirds are flitting around Fluttershy’s head, accepting food scraps as Fluttershy focuses her attention on her new friend. Sunset Shimmer leans back and closes her eyes.

“Ahh, my faithful student.” Comes a very familiar voice. Sunset looks around, though that feels very odd. She looks down, a pristine yellow-orange hoof greets her eyes, she closes her eyes and can feel the magic within her. She has her horn back!

“Princess Celestia?” Sunset calls out, trotting forward, everything around her is blackness, but she can feel the warmth and strength of her teacher and mentor.

“I am here, child.” The voice gets Sunset Shimmer to whirl around. There she is, lying down, her wings folded at her sides, “Come sit with me.”

Sunset happily scampers to her teacher, she crawls in close to Princess Celestia, “Oh, Princess, how I’ve missed you!” And she is nuzzled by the princess.

“You seem troubled, young one, what can I do to help?”

“You are an alicorn, and you have so much magic, you can move the sun itself.” She looks down, “There are no alicorns in this world, I need to get more power, but Rarity and Twilight are the only two others who can use magic the way Equestrians can…” She trails off at her mentor’s chiming laughter, “Princess?”

She gets a nuzzle for her trouble, “Oh Sunset Shimmer, my ever faithful student.” Celestia’s wing comes forward and the stiff primary touches her snout, “You think I move the sun across the sky through sheer strength? The sun is pure energy. No one pony, no matter how powerful, has the ability to make it move across the sky.” She leans closer, “It has a volition of its own, it wants to cross the sky, I simply facilitate it in doing so. I am attuned to the sun, as Luna is attuned to the moon, as the pegasi are attuned to the sky to make the rain, and the earth ponies are attuned to the earth, to make the food that sustains us all.” She nuzzles Sunset softly, “All ponies are needed to make the world work as it should.”

Sunset gasps and nearly falls out of her chair, “I need all of you.” She says to Pinkie Pie, who’s looking at her curiously. She stands up, “All of you girls, I need you with me. We can find out how to get this magic to work.”

Pinkie stands at attention and salutes as Sunset rushes towards the dungeon room of Professor Snape. As big as the castle is, it doesn’t take long for her to get there. She slams through the door, “Professor Snape, you were right, we need to bring those with Equestrian attributes into the ring.”

Professor Snape stands up and glides over to his store room, he quickly grabs the flask and again sets it down on the bench in the middle of the classroom. With a flick of his wand, the rest of the desks disappear. Sunset pulls out her own wand, once again conjuring the magic circle. She gets busy getting everything ready, she can hear her friends entering, but she doesn’t really pay attention. Finally, she’s ready and she turns around.

“Pinkie, I meant all of us from America!” She glances around at everyone in there, even Professor Hagrid has squeezed his frame through the door.

Pinkie steps forward, Fred and George flanking her, “I got everyone we need, Sunset. We all have made new friends here at Hogwarts. They are just as important.”

Sunset huffs as she pulls her Canterlot friends closer. “Now, we are going to form a ring. Using the magic of that ring, I’m going to change the color of the potion so it can be safely used.” She looks at Twilight and Rarity, “I tried before, but we needed the aspects of what truly makes an alicorn, the connection with the magic of all three pony tribes, to make this work.”

Pinkie cocks her head to the side. “Twilight back in Equestria is an alicorn -- why can’t she here help?”

With a sigh Sunset glances at Twilight, who is trying to draw into herself, she reaches over and hugs Twilight gently, “Pinkie, No. She’s not skilled or experienced enough to focus that kind of magic as of yet. It takes years of training, practice, and skill to do so.” She squeezes Twilight tighter, “In a few years, she might be able to.” She looks at Pinkie seriously, “None of you have enough of a handle on your magic as of yet. I need to focus this.”

Sunset’s friends array themselves around the circle, everyone drawing their own wands. Their friends from Hogwarts stay back, quietly watching. Everything hangs on this working. First off, she brings Twilight and Rarity back into the ring. She smiles as she pulls Twilight in. “The easy part, the unicorn elemental magic.” She turns to Rainbow Dash, “Now for the pegasus…”

Rainbow Dash looks at the wand in her hand, “I don’t know what to do? I don’t know how to use my magic like you girls do.”

Sunset smiles, “I’ve got a few ideas.” She leans close, “First, close your eyes…good.” She whispers in Rainbow’s ear, “The flight, the thrill of being in the air, out maneuvering everyone around you. Being faster than anything else in the air. The feel of the G forces as you make a hard turn.” She continues talking softly as she reaches into her friend with her magic. She can feel the spark of that Equestrian magic within Rainbow, pulsing slowly, but there, nonetheless. She can feel her friend’s excitement growing and the magic inside her grows as well. Finally, it’s close enough and Sunset pulls on it, crossing her wand with Rainbow’s. Rainbow’s magic comes out and she ponies up, her wand glowing a bright cerise. “I knew you could do it.” Sunset says softly as Rainbow opens her eyes, looking at her wand glowing. Her eyes widen, and a big smile plays along her lips.

Sunset moves over to Fluttershy, this time she talks about what makes Fluttershy the woman she is, her kindness, her love of all of life around her. In a matter of moments she’s also ponied up, her wand glowing a very pretty teal. Soon she’s got Pinkie Pie and Applejack drawn into the ring as well. She can feel the power coursing through the ring. She can do this!

Turning, she stands in her place in the circle around the potion, it’s time to make this work. Her wand is already brightly glowing from everything from her friends. She points it at the flask and starts to pull on the magic, drawing deeply from Rarity and Twilight, then she starts to pull from Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Their magic pulses brightly, but she can’t get the magic to do anything but pulse. She tries to draw deeper, starting to pull from Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Sunset focuses on the potion, it must turn for her now. She draws on the magic with everything she has.

And is promptly blown backwards as the ring falls apart. She ends up on her back, smoke rising from her body as she lies prone for several seconds. What happened?”

Fluttershy was the first to get next to her. “I don’t know, Sunset. I felt you try to use the magic, and I really wanted to give you everything I’ve got.” She pulls her hair from in front of her face as the inspects Sunset for injury, “But something blocked it. I was surprised you were able to even pull on the magic at all.”

“I was able to draw it out…” Sunset grumbles, “Never actually pull and use any of the magic.” She flops back down, “I don’t think I can make it work.”

Twilight kneels down next to Sunset, “What if we use the magic ourselves? Instead of this ring? Why not have us all do this together?”

Sunset mutters for a moment, finally she looks at Twilight, “It takes years of practice to be able to do something like this. This is very dangerous magic, trying to get a potion like this to work. You could be hurt, or even killed, in the attempt. That’s why it usually would take an alicorn to do that.” She shakes her head, “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do this, you simply are not ready. I can’t let you get hurt.”

Another face moves into her vision, “One thing about learning, Miss Shimmer, is the making of mistakes, and possibly getting hurt in the process.” Professor Snape leans forward, “Your friend does have a very good point there.”

Sunset closes her eyes, though the tears continue to fall, “It’s all my fault, I found the portal, I brought my magic into this world.” She flops her head back onto the stone floor. “I need to fix this.”

She finds herself being drawn up, into a tight hug, “Oh, darling, we are never going to be able to learn, if we don’t try.” Strong fingers direct her head slightly, and she opens her eyes to see Rarity’s big blue eyes, “We trust you to teach us, can you trust us to learn?”

Rarity’s hand is extended, Sunset stares at it for a long moment, finally she reaches out and lets her friends haul her to her feet, “Be careful. But we all need to do this. But I don’t know how to bring the magic out from you girls.”

Applejack comes forward, putting a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “I’m just from a little ole apple farm, we don’t use much magic there. The magic that you mages use is like comparing apples to pears, and just as volatile when mixed. I wouldn’t be knowing where to start.” She smiles, “But together, we have been able to use magic in the past.” She squeezes Sunset’s shoulder very gently then she turns towards the other girls.

“Once upon a time,” Applejack starts to sing, “You came into my world and made the stars align.”

“Pfff. Is this really the time to start singing?” Professor Snape says with a snide huff.

Applebjack continues to sing out loud and true, as she does everyone finds the energy within them start to stir.

“Uh yeah it is,” Rainbow Dash says excitedly and nods at Rarity.

Holding her wand like a fencing saber in front of her face, Rarity smiles and steps forward. She lowers her wand to the side and it begins to glow as she starts to sing herself, “Now I can see the signs, you pick me up when I get down, so I can shine!”

Sunset’s smile brightens, they’ve sung this song before, and now she can feel the power in the room being amplified, she adds her voice in as they launch into the first chorus, “Shine like rainbows.”

Quickly all the girls cheer and join in, “Shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows!”

“Oh, oh, oh,” Pinkie squees and opens her bag. In one fluid motion, she pulls out Rainbow Dash’s guitar and hands it to her. A moment later Pinkie has her drumsticks in her mouth and her drum set sitting on the floor in front of her, though the fact that the bass drum is larger than the mouth of the bag doesn’t seem to raise many eyebrows.

Strumming her guitar, Rainbow Dash sings out, “Friends, you are in my life, and you can count on me to be there by your side,” With a swing of her hips, she gives Sunset a little thump.

Sunset smiles and gives her head a light shake, Pinkie somehow knew that she wouldn’t need her guitar for this, though she can see Applejack strumming her bass. She finds herself adding herself to this magic. It was clear, it was her time to sing, “And when the music comes alive, you sing us songs to lift us up so we can shine!”

As if taking a life of its own, the music and magic begins to intermix. The magic starting to swirl around all of the American girls like a storm of energy, the colors as though they are using the elements, though this is not the elements themselves, this is something different, something more. They all lift their voices in unison, “And the sound that we hear in our hearts makes a crescendo, and the light that ignites in the dark, It makes us all glow, And shine like rainbows.”

Looking at each other the girls smile, their pony ears perked upright as they sing out with all their joy, “We shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows!”

Sunset looks at the flask, it’s not enough. A fantastic amount of magic is coursing through the room. A new voice pipes up to join them. Looking confused for a moment Sunset glances across the room.

“Together we stand, As the rain begins to fall,” Hermione joins them, a flat screen tv akin to a karaoke machine, is sitting beside Pinkie who’s angled the screen for the others to see. The tip of Hermione’s wand glowing as a glowing otter appears at her feet, adding to the magic.

Fleur moves up to stand next to Hermione, her French accent joining the voices. “An oldin' our heads up high,” holding her wand between both hands, the tip glows bright and true, the ghostly image of a unicorn appearing in front of her.

A moment later a glowing horse appears beside the unicorn looking at it and nodding, as Ginny joins in the song, stepping up beside Fleur and looking up at the older witch, smiling brightly to her as her words fill the air too, “As the sun shines through it all.”

Soon male voices come into the song, Fred and George, along with Hagrid and Viktor, and to Sunset’s absolute shock, even Professor Snape is singing, the magic expands even further, a magical coyote and a hyena appear, their own light adding to the brightness of the room. Sunset glances over as a large magical golden eagle perches on the bench. It adds its own magical light to the din of the room, and the colors coalesce on the flask, “And the sound that we hear in our hearts, makes a crescendo, and the light that ignites in the dark It makes us all glow.”

A magical doe timidly moves up on the other side of Fleur's unicorn, looking up at the two equines it lowers its head. Gently the unicorn looks down and nods, smiling. The doe looks up, gaining confidence, spreading its legs a bit for a more stable stance and stands proud beside the equines.

She can feel the pull of the magic, the potion is taking every scrap of magic everyone in the room can produce, sucking it down like a black hole. Her eyes fasten on the purple liquid as it starts to glow with energy of its own.

“And shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows!” The group sings out almost laughing, the joy and excitement as strong as the magic.
The song ends, Sunset finds her feet settling gently onto the stone floor of the dungeon. She looks around, motes and sparks of light from the magic they had used fly randomly around. She shakes her head. Rarity puts her fingertips to her temples as though trying to suppress a headache. She blinks several times, “Sunset, it worked.” She says through her exhaustion, she moves over to a chair and sits heavily.

Twilight Sparkle sways a bit as she puts out a hand, Hermione grabs her hand and they both steady each other, Twilight looks at Sunset. “That was brutal.”

Sunset nods, “Alicorn magic.” She moves forward and reaches out to pick up the pristine white potion. A black robed hand reaches out and grabs her wrist.

Professor Snape leans close, “Not…A…Word…” He whispers fiercely.

Sunset smiles tiredly, “We call it the magic of harmony back home.” She reaches and picks up the flask, it now weighs almost nothing to her, she glances around. Nearly every eye in the room is locked on her.

“Do you need anything else to be able to use that effectively?” Twilight asks, touching the glowing glass.

Sunset shakes her head, she glances around once more, “Well, no time like the present.” She brings the flask to her lips and tilts her head back.

Chapter 17.

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Sunset finds her eyes closing as the potion touches her lips. She brings the tasteless liquid into her mouth, and she quickly swallows. After several gulps, she finally sets the flask back down on the bench. She smacks her lips, glancing around at all the eyes fastened on her every movement, Hermione steps forward, “Well?”

Sunset sighs and shakes her head, "Nothing, it didn't work. All of that time and effort for..." Sunset’s eyes glow bright white as reality distorts and shifts around her.

***

Sunset staggers as though she’s landed from a great height. She blinks several times to clear her vision and looks around, trying to get her bearings. She almost feels like she just had a bad teleport. With the first question being; where is she?

She glances down slowly to see her orange furred forelegs, the switching between human and unicorn is starting to affect her equilibrium. Judging by the buildings around her, she’s in Ponyland, sometime before the great Windigo attacks that had forced the ponies to move further south. The dreary gray sky tells her she’s around the right time. She walks forward and rotates her head back and forth, “But where is everypony?” She whispers to herself. She smiles as her ears flick to the side; she can hear something. She gallops forward and rushes through the narrow streets.

Digging her hooves in, she almost sends herself tumbling as she comes to a stop under the copula of a portcullis. Several other ponies are cowering and taking cover here, along with some odd-looking type of brownish goblin creatures. The goblins look like those she’s seen pictures in the Hogwarts library with big ears and scarce hair, as well a pair of orc like creatures cowering against a wall. Both the orc and goblins are wearing some sort of Viking style helmet as well as a leathery armor. Even though they all seem scared, they are actually singing! She steps forward, following their line of sight, there is a pony, a pegasus, flying through the air, on her back is a human. Sunset shakes her head. What? A human girl!? She gallops forward, then bounds backwards as a lightning bolt explodes at her feet. Trembling a bit, she slowly looks up to see him standing on a balcony, his forehooves on a parapet as he snarls, Grogar. His horns glow as he fires his magic again, but it’s not directed at her. The ponies seem to be keeping a step ahead of him. A light purple pegasus with a white mane flies past her before she hovers in front of a large wooden gate, almost dancing in a taunt. Grogar obliges the mare by firing a beam at her. She scampers out of the way as the beam knocks the gate down. Sunset glances around franticly trying to find the girl and the pegasus again. In the commotion, she’s lost sight of them! She looks at where she last saw them and she concentrates her magic, winking to the top of a large tower. Quickly scanning around, Sunset can see the two do a barrel roll and bank into a large cave. The sounds of thunderous blasts and lightning fill the air as Grogar ties to blast the ponies out of existence. Sunset Shimmer shakes her head, the ponies are risking everything to keep him distracted. Looking back to the cave, Sunset winks out again.

This time, she finds herself reappearing inside the cave. Though it seems to be part of some larger castle complex with old beams and supports. The tunnel is narrow, yet the pegasus and her human rider seem to be able to fly through it almost as well as Rainbow Dash could. At the end of the passage is a large, ancient bell hanging in a window. The pegasus with the girl riding her flies as fast as she can, determination on her face as she veers towards the bell. The pegasus rears up, kicking the bell with all of her strength. The bell tolls loud and clear. Sunset grips her head -- it feels like her ear drums meeting with a mallete. She shakes her head and looks over at Grogar. The look of shock evident on his face as the bell on his collar melts away. He’s vulnerable! The girl jumps off the back of the pegasus, and picks up a large piece of wood. She swings the wood with everything she’s got. Slamming the wood once again into the bell gets an otherworldly scream from Grogar. Sunset watches as the demonic ram slowly turns to smoke, which dissipates agonizingly slowly, his scream continuing until the last wisps of the smoke have disappeared.

***

Sunset shakes her head, looking around at her friends, “...nothing.” She moves over and sits in a chair.

Rarity comes up, offering Sunset a big glass of water. “That was most certainly not nothing, darling.”

Sunset drinks gratefully. “I saw a human girl and a pegasus vanquish Grogar, send him back where he came from.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know if it tells me enough.” She reaches over and grabs the flask once again.“I need to try again.” She tilts her head back, letting more of the white liquid flow down her throat.”

***

Sunset shakes her head, her whole body wobbling a bit as she looks around, she’s in the past again. She can feel it. The sky is dark, ominous, with the sounds of thunder rolling across the heavy air, though she is unsure if it is actually night, or just the oppressive clouds blotting out the sun. Wind whips through Sunset mane and tail lashing them as she looks around, her ears rotating as she listens intently. She doesn’t have much time to learn. She leaps forward, galloping as hard as she can. Lighting is crashing in the distance, she needs to see what is going on! She focuses ahead of her, she can see where the lightning is originating. She looks forward and gasps, that is Canterlot! And there’s some kind of shield around the city. She concentrates her magic and winks out.

She winks back into existence next to Princess Celestia herself. Her mentor’s multihued mane is wafting in an ethereal breeze as she strains, her horn is lit and glowing brightly, her face fixed in intense concentration. She’s doing everything she can to maintain this field all by herself. A glance tells her why. Hordes of dark creatures are assaulting the shield. And proudly standing on a cloud is the demonic ram himself. His horns glow and the bell on his neck tolls as he sends bolt after bolt of power into the shield. Celestia, however, stands firm against the assault...

“Give up, you will never be able to outlast me.” He says mockingly.

Princess Celestia stomps a hoof. “I will never surrender to your evil.”

That gets a rich laugh from the demonic ram. “You call me evil, yet you have taken possession of the moon and the sun. A moon that you have banished your own sister to!” He swaggers back and forth, sending a few more bolts at the shield. “And all must pay homage to the great Princess Celestia, bringer of light.”

“It’s not like that.” She stops for a moment, standing tall, “I don’t have to explain myself to you!”

“No, you don’t, because you have already lost. I know full well what is happening here.”

“We will never lose, as long as there are ponies that will stand up to tyrants like you.

“Like your sister? Or how about your prized student, Gusty, was it?” Grogar turned starting to walk away from the shield his minions continuing to attack the barrier. “You shall weaken, the shield will fail, then your subjects shall die. There will be no one left to fight. But before I leave you to your demise, are there any last words you have for Gusty?”

“It’s me you want, Grogar!”

“You shall fall, but first, your student,” Grogar said as his horns glow brightly, and with the ring of a bell he vanishes.

“Grogar!” Celestia yells then takes a step back, her ears drooping as the dark creatures double their attack, shot after shot hitting her shield, her horn slowly starting to dim under the constant pressure. The dark army advancing against the barrier as shot after shot land against it. With tears in her eyes Celestia lowers her head.

“I’m not going to cower like some foal!” A filly called out as she appeared beside Celestia, her own horn lighting and adding to the shield.

A moment later, other cries come, “For Equestria!” “For the princess!” “For freedom!”

Unicorns, Earth ponies, and pegasi stream from the gates, the unicorns lending their magic to the wall. Pegasi creating gusts of wind to drive back projectiles, and Earth ponies charging any of the creatures that broke though.

Looking down at the light blue unicorn beside her with black mane, she smiled. “All we need is time.”

Sunset’s ears fall. Grogar had a reason he was leaving. She glances at Princess Celestia, she would much prefer to stay next to her former mentor. She shakes her head, she needs to find where his bell is. She can see him in the distance. His apparent calm demeanor broken by the urgency with how fast he is whipping up the cloud. She winks along, keeping pace with the cloud. At times, she wishes she could wrap herself in her magic to allow her to fly. But that is not a spell she’s learned. Soon, she’s able to see a cave entrance up ahead. Ponies are arrayed around that entrance. More of the Royal Guard! She winks ahead, behind the ponies as they start attacking Grogar.

Sunset flattens her ears as she gallops into the cave, the screams of the guards following her as she works her way deeper into the cave. Hoofsteps ahead of her spur her forward.

“Gusty! There it is!” comes a male voice. Sunset winks forward, two ponies are galloping towards another bell. It’s hanging in the window.

“Not this time, you aren’t!” Grogar roars. The guard must not have been able to do much to stop him. A lightning bolt flashes through the cavern, landing just in front of the bell. The demonic ram is standing there, a sneer on his face.

“Gusty, go for it!” The stallion calls out as he lowers his head, crashing into the ram. He starts to scream as the mare darts for the bell, tears in her eyes. Her horn lights and a large rock is wrenched from the wall. With all her strength, she shatters the rock on the bell, which tolls loud and true. Grogar looks up from the now prone stallion, a look of shock on his face. He shakes his head as the bell on his collar fades away. He turns and rushes back the way they came.

“Feather!” Gusty calls out, she scampers over to the stallion, picking him up and cradling his body.

Sunset moves closer as the stallion coughs, “You defeated him, he’s lost his power.” He glances over at the direction the ram had disappeared, he looks back at her, “You beat him, little sister.”

She runs a hoof along his cheek, tears falling from her eyes as the world swirls around Sunset, and she ends up back in the chair back at Hogwarts.

***

Sunset shakes her head, “The bell, that is the source of his power.” She takes a moment to wipe the wetness off of her cheeks. Did that stallion survive?

Rarity scrunches her face. “You mean that awful ugly thing he wears around his neck?”

Sunset shakes her head, “No, he uses that to channel his magic. He has one, likely hidden away. It’s got to be somewhere in the UK, though.” She shakes her head, “Though I couldn’t tell you where,” she sighs, “I’m going to have to try again.” She picks up the flask and sloshes the liquid around, “I think I’ve got enough for one more try.”

Twilight speaks up. “You sure you want to do that, Sunset? These are taking a lot out of you.”

Sunset shrugs, “I’ve gone this far.” She tilts her head back, draining the flask. In a matter of a few seconds, her eyes once again glow and the entire world around her warps and twists.

***

Sunset blinks her eyes. Everything is blurry. She takes a moment to rub her eyes, then she looks down, she’s remained human this time. That must mean they are in this world! She looks around to discover that she’s in a large room. Though the lack of windows in the large space tells her this is underground. There’s Grogar, yelling at the humans gathered around him. Nearly a hundred humans seem to be his new army, though with all of them having magic of their own, they can be a very effective army indeed. Sunset knows little of mundane war and firearms, but she knows that magic can turn even a small force into a threat to be feared. She stops and looks at one of the humans, the last time she had seen that face, he was dead. She glances around. Is this today? Was it some time ago? She steps forward, everybody here ignores her, a fact she’s grateful for as she searches around.

She draws her wand, there is a source of annoyance in having to depend on this stick to be able to access her magic. But she has to deal with how things are. “A bell, a bell, my kingdom for a bell… Where is this place?” She couldn’t even hazard a guess as to where this place is, even if it’s in Scotland, or England, or Wales, or what? She grips her wand tighter and surges her magic through it, winking away from the other humans. She closes her eyes and pulls deeply on her magic, feeling the area around her with it. She winks from room to room, looking around, and finally she stops.

She stands up straight and pushes her wand into her robes. “That’s not what I expected,” Sunset murmurs, now seeing that the bell is a lot smaller than she thought it would be. It is brass, though. Two snakes are embossed along the surface, culminating in a crest she knows quite well. Salazar Slytherin’s crest. She reaches out to touch it, but she recoils at the feel of the magic rolling off it. It’s a lot smaller than the bells she had seen before. She shakes her head. “But how do we get here?” She again pulls her wand from her robes, it lighting as she raises it up to teleport.

***

And suddenly she’s sitting in the chair back at the school. “NO!” She screams. “It took me away too soon!” She reaches over and grabs the flask, only a few drops are left of the potion. She looks over at Professor Snape, “I need you to make it again.” Her head sinks down to be cradled by her hands. “I saw it!”

Professor Snape folds his arms, “I’m perfectly willing to make the potion. Unfortunately, I will have some trouble getting the necessary ingredients. It may be a few weeks.”

Sunset moans, “He could win in a few weeks. We need to find out where his base is!”

Hermione crouches down next to her, “Did you see what the place looked like?”

Sunset shrugs, “Nothing I could recognize. Even the bell was different. It doesn’t look like Grogar’s bell. How it was in the other visions. This time, it’s not very big, not like a big church bell, but bigger than a hand bell.” She shakes her head, “It had two snakes embossed on it, along with…”

“Slytherin’s crest.” Snape finishes. Every eye in the room turns to him. He frowns, drawing his wand. With a flick of his wrist a book comes flying of the shelf and lands on the table opening and flipping pages on its own, to stop at a picture of four wizards, each with a bell in front of them.

“That’s it!” Sunset says pointing at one of the bells.

Snape shakes his head, “Remember the Death Eater was trying to manufacture a horcrux to bring the Dark Lord back. This bell was originally placed in Hogwarts when it was founded. It was the bell for the Slytherin house dorm, placed there by Salazar Slytherin himself. It was stolen by the Dark Lord himself sometime ago. He found it amusing to summon the Death Eaters with it.”

“What happened to it?” Twilight asks as she looks up at Snape.

“After the fall of the Dark Lord I don’t know. One of the Death Eaters likely sequestered it away so as to keep it safe for his eventual return. it’s not like we could ask them, however.”

Rarity comes up and places a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetie, it’s getting late. Perhaps we should retire for the night…”

Sunset shrugs off her hand. “We need to practice. I need to train you all.”

Twilight adjusts her glasses. “Sunset, it’s been a long day, and, well, we’re tired.”

Sunset looks at all of her friends. “I never thought you of all ponies would say no to neurotic panic study in the face of sleep deprivation; that’s not like you.” Soon, Sunset Shimmer deflates a bit, realizing that she’s lashing out unfairly. “You’re right; let‘s hit the hay.”

***

Sunset collapses into her bed and sighs as she feels the warmth of the sheets envelope her, she’s not ready for sleep just yet, there’s just so much going on. Her mind is churning with the visions she had, in some cases the created more questions then they answered. It was frustrating her to no end.

Rarity opens her drawer and pulls on her one-piece, blue silk this time. She reaches for the complimenting robe, “I really should have packed more. Maybe I can get some materials to make more outfits while I’m here.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Pinkie bounced, “A whole line of Rarity pyajamas -- Rarity’s Secret’s!”

With a blink, Rarity quickly shook her head. “I think not darling, that would be, unmentionable – those are for far more, um, social sleeps…” Rarity quickly looked to Sunset, hoping to change topics. “So, tell us more about your visions, darling.”

Sunset leans back, pulling off her socks, recounting, “Well, there was a pony. It took me a while to remember her name, Northpoint. But I’m still trying to understand something. There was a human girl riding her. In fact, the human girl rang the bell, actually defeating Grogar and banishing him.”

Every eye in the room latches onto Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow Dash steps up, “Humans, like us, in Equestria?”

Sunset nods, “She couldn’t have come through the mirror, first it would have turned her into a pony,” the thought of a human in Equestria was just strange. She reaches over and runs a hand along her school robe, “Second, I think I was back in time before the founding of Equestria, before Starswirl was even born, so he couldn’t have even made the mirrors. The problem is, her clothing was very different from what we wear back home.”

That gets Rarity’s attention instantly. “Darling, you simply must tell me everything you remember. Color, cut, accessories, everything.”

Sunset frowns, looking inwards, “She was blonde, probably in her tweens. It all happened so fast, I remember a blue jumper, frills, pink shirt.” She continues looking inward as she recounts the details. Rarity pulls out a sketch pad, and a set of colored pencils. She starts drawing as Sunset closes her eyes, filling in the details as she runs over everything in her head over and over. Finally, she opens her eyes. Rarity smiles and turns the pad towards her. Sunset grins, “You have an eye for detail, Rarity.”

Rarity smiles, “Well, of course, I wouldn’t be able to make fashion without it.” She turns the pad and sits it on her lap, “This certainly isn’t the most modern of dressing styles.” She taps her chin with a slim finger, “First off, that jumper is out of the dark ages.”

Sunset frowns, “Well, it was fifteen hundred years ago.”

Rarity looks up sharply, “No, I’m talking about fifty years ago, those came into fashion in the middle fifties, and were pretty popular up to the eighties.”

Sunset blinks, “That’s impossible! This girl helped defeat Grogar well before the Windigo exodus, it had to be about 1500 years ago.”

Rarity looks at the sketch. “That gaudy heart in the middle of the jumper…” She shakes her head, “I’d have to say middle fifties to early sixties for this. Especially with that big pink bow holding back her ponytail.”

Sunset gets up and moves over, tracing a finger along the sketch, “Starswirl only began researching the portal about a thousand years ago, but it never says what started his research,” she looks at her friends, “What if there were other portals, not created by any mage, but some natural connection between our worlds.” She frowns, “Some kind of unstable portal, really hard to use or reach, and they go through time and space.” She moves over and sits heavily on the bed, “Oh, that’s just great.”

Pinkie Pie bounces in her bed, “Oh, oh, oh! Like a lost valley? Or the land that time forgot? Ohio? Those portals come out of Equestria’s ancient past!”

Sunset thinks hard, “Well, they wouldn’t have been made with Star Swirl’s spell to act as a control or buffer, so they wouldn’t have been changed.” She giggles, “That means ponies from my world could have been flying around your skies. And humans from your world came to ours. And stayed human.” She flops back onto the bed, “This is too much! Humans in Equestria, the idea’s almost laughably absurd.”

After a while, the room quiets down as the other girls bed down. Sunset finally finishes getting ready for bed, she pulls a spell book from the stack next to her bed, “Natural portals… beyond amazing.” Sunset reaches over to draw her wand from her robes.

***

Fluttershy tosses and turns, her dreams all night have been stormy. It’s actually so bad, most of her critter friends have decided to sleep elsewhere. Though Hermione’s cat has decided that her pillow is the perfect one to share this night. Fluttershy opens her eyes to a dim bedroom, she looks over at Sunset, “Sunset.”

Sunset looks up from her book. Fluttershy plays with her hair for a moment. “Can we win? He is so powerful.” She looks around her four poster bed, several owls are perched on it, sleeping, one of them shifts his wings for a moment, “The fight yesterday, some of the other wizards around London are scared. Some even want the children brought back from Hogwarts until this is over.”

Sunset’s face twists in fear for a moment, the she leans back and sighs, “I don’t know, Fluttershy. It’s certainly not going to be easy. He’s got a lot of humans under his control. The ponies were able to defeat him before. We know what his weakness is. We must prevail, or this world will be lost.” She growls the last, “And you know he will turn on Equestria next. And bolstered by the magic here, he will be nigh unstoppable, especially with his vulnerability safe here in this world.”

A loud tapping at the window gets both girls attention. Sunset draws her wand, and the window glides slowly open. A large owl steps through, she hops over to Fluttershy’s bed, chirruping softly. The owl bows. “Oh my, how formal,” Fluttershy says softly.

“What is it saying?” Sunset says, perking up.

The owl continues, Fluttershy listens intently as the owl identifies herself, and continues on with her story. She glances at Sunset, who seems to be getting a bit frustrated. She holds out a hand to forestall her friend. Finally, the owl finishes her story and Fluttershy smiles at Sunset.

“This here is Lunara. She profusely apologizes for the delay in her arrival. The Ministry of Magic is monitoring all magical forms of communication, especially the owls, and she apparently has no real love for the ministry.”

Sunset huffs and throws off her covers and sits up on the bed, the large owl regards her warily. “Why would they do that? They don’t really believe that Grogar is a threat.”

Fluttershy shakes her head. “Not Grogar, but an escaped wizard by the name of Sirius Black.” She smiles, “Lunra here is not at all happy that any human in the ministry thinks that she would associate with a known criminal like that.” She shakes her head. “Well, she had heard from some of the other owls that there was a human that could communicate with owls as easily as they communicate with each other.” She stops and blushes, “I’m guessing she means me.” She shakes her head, “Her master has changed. He is now being controlled by this evil and dark creature. One that makes the Dark Lord at his worst seem mild by comparison. She had tried to let her master’s son know, but without a letter, he never understood her, so she came to me.”

Sunset gasps, “Grogar!”

The owl chirps, Fluttershy shudders, “That’s the name she heard.”

“Who is her master?”

“Lucius Malfoy.”

Sunset stands up and crouches down to be close to the owl. “Lunara, is Grogar at your master’s home?”

The chirping response needs no translation, Sunset leans close, “Where is that?”

A few quick chirps has Fluttershy saying, “Malfoy Manner.”

Sunset squeals softly, “I should hug you, Lunara! Thank you!”

The owl offers a talon, which Sunset shakes gratefully, “We need to go on the offensive, but we need to know more first. Twilight and I will head out in the morning. And we will figure out how to stop him.”

The owl hops back onto the window ledge. She chirps softly before taking flight, her wings silent in the night. Sunset crawls back into her bed, “Sleep well, Fluttershy.” She waves her hand and the candelabra extinguishes.

Fluttershy settles back into her squipper, reaching up to scratch Crookshanks’s cheek. Having animal friends all around her really does make life so much better. She lets her eyes drift closed -- tomorrow will probably be very busy.

Chapter 18.

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The chair is almost a William Mary style with a soft quilted cushion seat, fabric and cushioned arm rests curling up and around on either side of the central pad, and a high, Victorian back that could make someone sit bolt upright even with their hands chained to their ankles. The chair almost has a farm-like smell to it, and while it is old, and seems to have seen much wear, it still feels safe. Its legs, though, are much too low to the ground for Sunset to sit with her feet down, instead she had curled up in the chair, an almost undignified position to sit for a young lady.

Stroking her binder with one hand, she glances up at the back of the chair. It so reminds her of the chairs back in Equestria, in the castle and library, where she could read and study in safety and comfort. The room of requirements really can have anything you require. Even something simple as a chair to be safe in.

The sound of the door opening brings Sunset back to reality and she looks up from the binder in her hands. She smiles brightly at her friend entering the room. “Good morning, Twilight.”

Twilight yawns strongly, putting her hand over her mouth as she stretches her other arm. After a moment, she puts both her hands on her lower back and bends backwards, a soft moan escaping as she glances to Sunset. “You’re up early.”

Sunset looks at the clock. “It’s over an hour till breakfast; I’ve been up since about three.” She covers her own mouth as she finds herself yawning. When she’s finally done, she glances at Twilight, “those are contagious.” That gets a giggle from Twilight.

Walking over to a small table, Twilight picks up a carafe from the coffee machine and pours out a mug for herself. Placing the carafe back, she holds the cup in both hands and inhales deeply before smiling. “Wow, actual coffee?”

“Sort of, it’s a coffee-hickory blend, with a touch of dandelion root, I think. It’s something we, or I, used to have back in Equestria. The local donut shop sold it. I think the room is trying to make me comfortable.”

Spike bounces up on the table, “So, whatcha doin?”

Sunset picks up a scroll, pulling out her wand. “I’m learning new spells.” She places the scroll down and places the tip gently on the words. As she does so, the words glow golden, and she closes her eyes, feeling the shape and pattern of the spell as she works through it in her head. After several seconds, she opens her eyes, seeing a wide-eyed face staring up at her. She giggles, “I know kung fu.”

“Oh har, dee, har, har. That method is good for some more complex patterns. But it’s not the only way to learn spells. Sometimes, you have to really feel it, though it does work quite well at times.” She pulls out her own wand, running the tip along the spell on the parchment, getting the words to glow.

“I only taught you that absorption spell yesterday, and you’ve gotten it down already?”

Twilight giggles, “I’m pretty good at figuring out new spells. It just comes naturally for some reason.”

Sunset nods. “Either way, that’s quite impressive. Let the girls know we’re setting out after lunch.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

Sunset looks up. “What?”

Twilight’s wand lights and a map flies towards them, she manipulates the wand as the map settles onto the table. Buildings pop up, and the map takes on a fully three-dimensional aspect. She leans forward, pointing at an enormous building in the middle of the map. “This is Wiltshire. Malfoy Manor is here.”

Sunset leans down, looking at the map. “I don’t know exactly where the bell is in the building, but it should be easy to get it; we’ll teleport in, find the bell and ring it, then get out. Grogar will be vulnerable then.”

Twilight looks up. “Sunset, do you know anything about the floor plan of this building?” At Sunset’s shaken head, she explains, “Well, you don’t want to apparate into a wall, or with your legs fused to the floor. I believe the wizards here call it a splinch – it’s where not all your body parts end up where they are supposed be to when you teleport.”

Sunset snorts, “They must somehow have different methodology for teleportation. Well, we are going to have to come in from here.” She points outside the grounds of the Manor house. “it’s not going to be easy, but we can use the shrubbery for cover to get close, maybe get a good enough read to teleport in.”

“I agree, let’s not do this on an empty stomach.”

Sunset starts to stand before her stomach makes a rather ominous rumbling sound and quivers visibly. Blushing, she looks at her side before nodding to Twilight, "I might be a little hungry."

Sunset follows a few steps behind Twilight as they walk out of the room of requirement. She yawns expansively as she continues to walk. They make it to the main stairwell of the castle, more students are heading down to go to breakfast. Sunset nods to Ginny Weasley as she comes up next to her. They walk together as they get down to the first floor.

“Hiya, Harry,” Ginny says, getting Sunset to focus on the young man walking the other way. He seems to have a bemused expression on his face as he walks by without acknowledging them. Sunset turns to watch as he heads off, then she looks at Ginny, whose face falls a bit.

She smiles at the ginger. “I think he’s got a lot on his mind.”

She nods. “Probably.” They turn and finally enter the Great Hall. As they enter Sunset greets some of the students as she finds her customary seat. In a matter of moments, the food appears with the sound of a dinner bell ringing softly, “Ugh, seriously?” Sunset murmurs. The house elves of Hogwarts seem to be on a meat kick at the moment, or are still following their cultural rotation. Bratwurst with sauerkraut, kernbrot with slices of pork, schnitzel with Schweinfleishwurst, and brown bread with slices of cheese, and other strange dishes appear on the table. Sunset is happy about one thing quite common with breakfasts here. She picks up her plate and piles a big helping of baked beans onto it, along with several fried eggs, as well as the potato and onion hash. Even though her being pony again was in the past, it still makes her stomach queasy looking at the meats and sausages on the serving platters.

Looking around slowly at the other students, Sunset watches as more and more students start digging into their meals. In many ways, this place felt like Canterlot’s School For Gifted Unicorns. All of the students here. With their magical talents, with affinities for potions, spells, herbology and raw magical power. It was almost as if she could see the cutie marks on each of them. Hundreds of unicorns.

If Grogar captured them, turned them, each and every one would likely become a unicorn after going through the mirror. Each one would have the magical power and training. He would have an army under his hoof. A town like Ponyville would fall in moments, ad all their residents would turn to serve Grogar or be destroyed. It would be an invasion.

Gulping and almost choking on her food, Sunset quickly grabs her journal and starts writing frantically. They have to be warned;

Dear Princess Twilight,

We are going to try to stop Grogar tonight. If you don’t hear from me in the next few days. I would like for you to do something to protect Equestria. Destroy the portal mirror. It doesn’t matter if I’m stranded here, if he takes over here and comes to Equestria, he will be unstoppable. Without you being able to attack the bell that sustains him, there is no way to stop him.

She closes her book and continues eating. Though after only a few minutes, her book starts to vibrate and glow softly. She glances around quickly as she opens the book. Twilight’s flowing script is appearing on the page.

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

Under no circumstances will I destroy the portal mirror. It provides a vital link to not only you, but to learn about the humans that occupy the realm on that side of the mirror. That being said, precautions will be taken, including turning off the device keeping the portal open all the time. So when the thirty moon cycle takes effect, Equestria will be ready if he does attempt to invade. I have consulted with Princess Celestia on this, and she agrees with me fully. We have discussed this quite often over the past several days. If you need, some of our best mages can come through the portal and join you on this quest of yours, and yes, I would join them.

Sunset sighs and picks up her pen,

Princess,

I cannot overstate the danger he represents, our friends and I have already fought him once, and I don’t think he was serious about destroying me, for he fled as more humans arrived. He has quite a few mages under his thrall and without access to his bell, I don’t see how his power can be overcome. I do appreciate your offer of Equestrian mages to join us. But they would have to acquire wands here, and would have to be trained in how to use their magic in a human setting. I fear the time necessary to bring them up to speed would be too great. We will have to deal with him with the mages we have here. I will let you know what is going on after what happens tonight.

In only a matter of moments, the response appears,

We will wait, and continue planning. If you fail, we will have to take action ourselves anyway. He is too great a threat. You had mentioned there is a school for mages in America. We will have to reach out to them if necessary for the protection of both our worlds.

Sunset grimaces. Well, if they do fail, somepony will keep trying. She closes her book. Today is not going to be fun.

***

Sunset sits quietly in the room of requirement, everyone is here, but one. She had gone through her classes today with mechanical regularity. Even closing her eyes, she can’t remember even one lesson the teachers have tried to teach today. She shakes her head. The sun will be down soon.

Finally, she huffs, stands up, and starts to pace.

“Relax, Sunset. She will be here,” Rainbow Dash says. Despite her outward calm demeanor, Sunset can tell that Rainbow is just as tense as she is. Her friend is playing with her broom, running her fingers along its length, and straightening the bristles at the end of it.

“I’m here!” Rarity announces. “I’m so sorry for the delay…”

Sunset gestures to the other girls, “Alright, let’s go.” She had spent over an hour during lunch memorizing the map of the Manor. The girls silently rise and follow her. She keeps an eye out at each crossing, making sure that no one is watching them leave. She pokes her head into another corridor and puts her hand out, stopping the other girls. She has them back up a bit as the soft sound of footsteps echo down the corridor.

It’s Harry Potter, and he’s got the golden egg in his hands, as well as a towel slung over his shoulder. He turns and heads up the stairs. He seems to be so intent on what he’s doing, he doesn’t seem to notice them. Well, whatever he’s doing, he won’t notice their exit. When he’s out of sight, Sunset gestures for the girls to follow her. They are soon outside the teleportation ward.

Sunset gestures to Rarity and Twilight, and they both draw their wands, “Let’s go.” She raises her wand with the other two girls. With a surge of magic, all of them wink out of existence.

***

Sunset gestures for the girls to follow her. They are exactly where she planned, an alley between two streets. She didn’t want to come in where they would be too visible. The sun is down in the western horizon, only glimmers of light are there. The girls walk down the street, keeping away from the relatively sparse street lamps.

Twilight steps closer as they walk, fingering her wand. “It’s quiet, too quiet…”.

Sunset nods. “I’m scared, too.” She glances around. Two muggles, as the wizards around here call them, are walking down the street with a dog. They don’t seem to notice the girls as they continue walking. Sunset watches intently ahead, the manor has a large wall around the entire compound, though there is a large gate up ahead.

As they get close, Twilight holds up her hand. “I see a ward here. It’ll take me a few minutes to unravel it.”

Rainbow Dash crouches down as Twilight works, glancing around, “We are really exposed here – hurry, Twilight…”

“If I want to just let everyone know someone is messing with their protective ward, I could just… -- got it!”. The gate opens silently. “Come on, I can’t keep this open for too long without raising an alam.

The girls rush through the gate, Twilight keeping her wand glowing softly as they pass through. The gates close.

“Avada Kedavera!” Sunset doesn’t even have time to gasp as she embraces her magic as quick as a thought and a shield dome appears around all of them. The spell impacts the shield and she drops it instantly, sending a bolt of energy back the way the spell came from.

“Take cover! She shouts, sending off a second spell at the advancing mages. She can see them clearly now, two robed figures are advancing, their wands out as they spit out more spells at the girl They hurl to ground, making themselves the smallest targets possible..

Applejack implores, “What do I do?”

Sunset blocks another killing spell, sending out a response as she screams, “I don’t know; didn’t you bring a gun or something from stateside?”

“Nah, should’ve, though! Well, I reckon these wizards won't let me get close enough to punch them, especially with their wands! Lemme try something.” With a glance to where the mages are, she takes a knee and slams her fist into the ground, for the first time letting out her full fury and strength. The punch causes a shockwave and the ground splits open along her line of punch, buckling and rolling, forming a jagged tear right up to the mages, throwing them both back and away from the centerline of the eruption. With a smile Applejack laughs, "Well I'll be, that caused about as much damage as Granny’s line dancing at the church!" Brushing off her hands, she sees a spell bolt heading for her and reflexively bats it away. The shot slams into the dirt and kicks up debris. Giving her hand a quick shake, she narrows her eyes. Then, retaliating, she picks up a rock and hurls it with all her might.

Sunset smiles as she sends another spell at the two mages, knocking one of them down. She follows through with an entrapment spell, large vines grow from the ground covering the mage thoroughly. She can hear the loud cursing from the entrapped mage, she steps forward to send another spell at the other mage, only to let her spellform go as the mage tumbles to the ground from an impact from Rainbow Dash. Dash does a loop in the air and comes down with both feet on the mage, quieting him.

Sunset runs up to her friend, Rainbow grins, “Well, that was easy.” Black smoke fills the air as more mages start to appear. In moments, over a dozen black garbed and masked mages are standing there, their wands raised, the grin falls off her face, “Spoke too soon!” She leaps into the air, getting her broom under her as several spells converge where she had just been.

Sunset, for her part, ducks the first spells and winks back a bit, sending several spells at once at the mages. Rarity, for her part, seems to shake herself out of her initial stupor, her wand glows brightly as she gathers rocks from the gravel path, her magic changing them from mere rocks to sharp projectiles, she blasts the projectiles at the mages, who teleport away quickly, only to reappear elsewhere and continue to attack. She yelps as she has to throw up a hasty shield to deflect their attacks against her.

Sunset’s entire existence becomes one big duel, sliding from defense to offense, back to defense. She keeps an eye on her friends as they battle for their own lives as well. “Pull back!” She shouts as she takes a step back, then a second. Before she knows it, she’s directing a quick spell at the gate for the manor. She glances up as she hears a scream, Fluttershy is falling, the front of her broom splintered as she falls. Sunset sends a fusillade of spells at the advancing death eaters as she screams, “Rarity, catch her!”

Rarity, for her part, moves behind Twilight for a bit of cover and she conjures a large glowing cushion. Fluttershy bounces on the cushion before Rarity extinguishes it, then enfolds her friend in magic and yanks her closer with a yelp.

Twilight is yielding ground slowly, her eyes are glowing as she screams in defiance, sending spell after spell at the Death Eaters. She’s wrapped herself in a spell that has her floating off the ground slightly, loud explosions sound with every flick of her wand, scattering the death eaters, even though they continue to attack. Applejack has grabbed a fence pole, yanking from its concrete reinforced base and is using it like an overlarge baseball bat, even knocking the occasional spell as it’s directed at her, her face set in a snarl as she yields ground herself.

Sunset risks a glance behind her the road seems pretty clear, “We need to go!” She shouts, they need to get just a few moments of peace so they can teleport out of there. Sunset pushes Pinkie Pie, who is holding Fluttershy over her shoulder, “Go! Go! I’ll suppress!” Sunset sends a few spells behind her as she starts to run, her other friends follow. Twilight is the last to flee, though she stumbles a bit as she starts to run, her earlier magic use seemed to have taken a lot out of her.

“We need to find a safe place!” Sunset shouts as the death eaters teleport to attack them from each side. She finds herself having to wink back and forth, keeping the spells flying as she keeps up her attack. Twilight is doing the same thing, keeping the death eaters unbalanced and giving Rarity the best chance to keep the rest of their friends safe.

Sunset skids to a stop as a white light slams to the ground, another wizard stepping forward, his wand held high as he starts in on the advancing Death Eaters. Then a second form appears, then a third. Shortly nearly two dozen wizards are attacking the death eaters. Their attack falters quickly in the face of those superior numbers, and they dissolve into black smoke and streak off.

“Oh, thank you, we need to-”

“My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt; I’m an auror with the Ministry of Magic.” He flicks his wand and Sunset’s wand is jerked from her hand as her wrists are bound with some kind of magical energy. “And you all are under arrest, under the authority of the Minister of Magic.”

Sunset is barely able to sputter anything as each of the girls are gripped by an auror and they all flash out of existence.

***

Walking through the corridors of the Ministry of Magic is jarring for Sunset Shimmer. This time, she’s got her hands bound, her wand is tucked in the robes of the wizard leading her, and she can hear her friends as they add their own voices of protest as they are taken down the hall. Though Applejack and Pinkie are both having the roughest time, both are completely suspended in magic, with conjured manacles and shackles keeping their hands and feet occupied. Applejack was now sporting a gag over her mouth, though her muffled shouts can still be heard as they turn into an office. Sunset looks around, this office is rather large, and quite a few other wizard are here.

“What the hell were you thinking!?” You were seen by muggles!” He whirls and storms around the room, “After the debacle with the first task. I should have done something more drastic. But no, I had to be accommodating to our American guests.” He whirls towards Professor Dumbledore, “And you were supposed to be keeping tabs on them!” He stabs a finger right into the headmaster’s face.

“We have to stop Grogar, he’s gathering power…” Her mouth is suddenly magically closed, causing her to glower at the auror standing next to her.

"You had to? YOU! HAAAD TO!!!?” He explodes, “You are children, schoolgirls! There IS no Grogar, no plot to bring the dark lord back, no massive evil conspiracy!" Turning away his robes flair out behind him. “What you girls did was start a fireworks show that could be seen and heard for miles!”

“But there were Death Eaters!” Twilight blurts out, only to have her own mouth suddenly closed rather forcefully by the auror next to her.

"Death Eaters? The Death Eaters are all in Prison and have been there since the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-named. You children were fighting figments of your imagination, running scared from boggins and the lies you heard at school."

Sunset takes a moment to calm herself, she knows where her magic is, where that wand is. She closes her eyes and concentrates, then she snarls. “Minister, I know what I saw. They were at Malfoy Manor, where HE is!”

Fudge whirls around and glares at her, then another wizard steps forwards. “I can assure you, Minister, there are no Death Eaters on my property.” Sunset’s jaw drops, the last time she saw him, he was lying on the ground, his body broken. He continues, “Any attempt to impinge upon my family’s privacy would cause me to… reconsider who I support for Minister of Magic.”

Fudge blanches a bit, waving his hand, “Of course, of course, Malfoy Manor is respected property, there is no need for any intrusion there.”

Sunset growls low in her throat. “You were dead. I saw your body, you were dead.”

“As you can see quite well, child, I am very much alive.”

“Thanks to a necromancer.”

Fudge tuts, “Lucius Malfoy has a long history with the ministry. He’s quite trusted among the ministers here. I have already made my decision. You are to have your wands confiscated, and you will be confined to your tower in the school. No more classes, no more polluting the students there.” He turns towards Dumbledore. “And once this business with the Tri-Wizard tournament is done with, we will see about having some more direct ministry oversight over how the school is run.”

“Minister, you have to listen to me!” Sunset shouts.

“Listen to you? Listen to you? My dear girl, several muggles are having to have their memories modified due to your actions tonight.” Fudge growls, he turns away, “Just be glad I’m not having you sent back to the states and have the MACUSA take care of you.” He finishes in a huff as Sunset and her friends are dragged from the room.

***

Sunset tries to stop sobbing as she lies on her bed, they have failed. The ministry doesn’t believe them, and now they are essentially under house arrest. She looks out the window at the blackness, then she collapses into her blankets, renewed tears flowing down her face. They are lost. Once Grogar has taken over the mages here, he will take over her home, Equestria.

Her mattress shifts slightly as weight is added, a hand strokes her hair, and rests on her shoulder, “Darling, we knew there were risks when we decided to go with you.”

Sunset looks up at Rarity, “I’m fine with risks, but we failed, badly, Rarity. We will never get another chance, and he will have two worlds.” Snot and tears flow.

Rarity scoffs and produces a handkerchief from somewhere, she starts to gently clean Sunset’s face, “Oh darling, I do not think we are defeated just yet. We are still alive and we do still know the truth after all. And while that detestable troll of a minister doesn’t believe you, I watched the other ministers there. I do not believe they are as unified as Mister Fudge would believe. I could see it in their faces, not all of them are behind him on this. He’s terrified of losing face before them. And having not only their Dark Lord come back, but having a demonic necromancer threatening them, he is under enormous stress. We will find a way to fix this, and we will finish what we started.”

Sunset leans into Rarity’s gentle ministrations, and soon her friend pulls the soft cloth away with a smile, “Oh, Rarity, what are we going to do? This cost us our wands... Not just mine but yours too. I know I can do a little without my wand, but neither you or Twilight have any experience in wandless magic. And Fluttershy’s broom is broken, so she can’t fly anymore. Rarity, face it we are doomed.” Her face crumples, but she’s able to avoid more tears, but then none will flow.

Rarity smiles softly, “Far be it for me to collapse and proclaim that the bad guys have won. We shall find a way." Sunset offers Rarity a watery smile, and reaches up to bring Rarity closer for a hug. “Though the loss of the wand does hurt.”

“Ah don’t know much about all this magic ho he, but ah do know that when you girls are using it you look happy. Even under the hardest of times and toughest of spells,” Applejack said as she walks up and stands by the corner of the bed.

Twilight is next to come over, hugging Sunset and Rarity, “We will find another way, we have to. I trust you Sunset.”

“But without magic,” Sunset started then looked at Rarity and Twilight gulping, “Oh Celestia what have I done? In my rush I’ve cost you two your horns.”

Twilight found herself flinch once, “I know I seemed to have at natural talent with it, but that wasn’t real. Our friendship and safety is what matters. Friendship always finds a way.”

“Princes Twilight in Equestria’s talent was magic, you share that with her. For the first time, you were getting to feel that.” Sunset starts crying again, “I’ve cost us everything.”

A knock at the door gets all of them to look at it. It’s been solidly locked since they had come back to the school. Applejack glances at Rainbow Dash, who rushes to the door to open it. It opens easily when she pulls on it. A young witch is standing there. “I just came from the Headmaster’s office.” Hermione Granger pulls out three very familiar looking wands, “Dumbledore left these. We need to finish this, tonight.”

Sunset reaches out her hand, her wand flying into her hand, its tip glowing brightly as her cutie mark appears in the air above it. “Thank you, Hermione. But they overwhelmed us so easily!” She looks down, “I don’t know how we can beat them.”

Rarity gently picks up her wand, its tip flaring to life as three diamonds appear above it. With a smile, Rarity gives her wand a hug holding it over her heart.

Twilight wraps her fingers around her wand, the tip sparking to life with her cutie mark. Stars twinkling and spinning above the tip, she her whole body glows for a moment her eyes shine with white light as the tears vanish.

“This time, you have more help. We can do it, Sunset Shimmer.” She tosses Sunset a small teddy bear, “You’ll know when to use it.”

Sunset shakes her head, these wizards, at times. She gathers up her friends. “Are you ready to go again? They shook us off once, they think we won’t do anything more. They are wrong!”

“This time, we have friends.” Twilight says smiling.

“Friends!” The other girls call out.

“Umm, yay.”

Sunset stands up and leads her friends out the door and down the tower, in a matter of minutes they are outside the anti-teleportation ward around the school. She raises her wand once again, letting it glow brightly as she calls on her magic, declaring, “Let’s go!”

Chapter 19

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The outer wall of Malfoy Manor stretches out for hundreds of meters in both directions. The gate itself is forged from dark iron into elaborate twists and forms, with each side of the gate having a gargoyle’s head on it. Blocking the gate, however, is a single house elf, his arms spread wide.

“Girls must wait,” the little creature says pleadingly, “Dobby help, Dobby know better way into Malfoy Manor.”

“Dobby?” Applejack asks and gives her head a little tilt as she kneels to Dobby’s level.

“Dobby make promise to Harry Potter. Dobby promise not to save him again. Girls going to defeat the ram. Ram wants Potter dead, and helping girls isn’t helping Potter. If girls defeat ram, then it girls who save Potter, not Dobby!”

Stepping forward quickly Sunset takes a knee as well. “Wait, you know a way into there?”

“Servants’ entrance, that way,” Dobby says as he points off into the distance, “Masters not look there, not watch there. Servants’ below masters so masters not want to see them.”

Applejack smiles. “Tarnation, that’s mighty nice of you to come help.”

Smiling, the house elf holds out his hands. “Come close, take Dobby’s hands.”

With a nod, the girls quickly put their hands on Dobby’s. With a quick check to make sure the girls are holding on, Dobby nods before starting to fold reality in on itself. Apparition, unlike the winking the girls use, distorts reality making it look like everyone’s being sucked into a pinhole at the center of the spell then spat out somewhere else.

Wobbling a little, Sunset puts her hand to her head. “Wow, that’s old school.”

“Old school?” Twilight asks as she gives her own head a quick shake.

“That teleport, unicorns used to use a spell like that for winking in the old days. Very few still use that version, the one I taught you though is the modern day winking we use in Canterlot. Dobby’s style dates back to the tales of Fizzy.”

“That all be mighty interesting now, but we are on a time crunch.” Applejack said.

Turning, Dobby points to a small gate. In reality, this wouldn’t even be considered a postern gate. Instead it is little more than a quarter-sized gate with bushes on either side of it to keep it out of sight. Almost akin to a doggy door, it is obviously only meant to be used by house-elves. The idea that such creatures would use the front gate and door must have been offensive to some mages.

“It still warded, but Dobby have faith in you. Must go now. Evil Malfoy’s do bad things to Dobby if they find him here.”

She gestures for Twilight to start on the ward, her friend moves over and her wand lights as she starts to untangle the energy around the door. Sunset glances around, what seems to be decorative crystals would have to be focusing points for this ward. She can feel the energy in them, maintaining the barrier. “Hurry.” She whispers.

Twilight grimaces. “They may not be expecting us to be back, but they did upgrade the security here.” She groans softly, “Sunset, I need help here.”

Sunset whips out her wand, letting it glow softly a circle with Equestrian runes appearing on the wall and ground around the door. Once complete, she joins Twilight in disentangling the mystical energy field over the portal. Twilight was right, this ward is an order of magnitude more complex than it was before. She grunts as she keeps the magic tunneling a hole into it while the circle is keeping the vibrations from being felt inside. After what seems like an eternity, she gestures for her friends to move through the barrier as the tiny gate slowly swings open. Her and Twilight concentrate as they step through the barrier one at a time, and the gate closes as they slowly let the hole they had created close without causing more disruption. Sunset can feel the sweat run down her face as the spell is finally left whole. She turns to Twilight and smiles brightly. “That was not easy.”

One by one the girls begin to line up in a small rotunda, though the low ceiling and the narrow walls are better sized for a house elf rather than a human. Rarity mutters softly and her wand is illuminated with a bright, white, concentrated beam. She plays the beam around before stopping to look at Pinkie.

Pinky tilts her head, wearing a black body suit that looks somewhat like a cross between a ninja costume and SWAT gear, on her head is what looks like a steampunk version of night vision goggles, with thick leather bands attached to a pair of goggles and an infrared emitter eye on the center top. She has combat webbing and police body armor on with Manehatten S.R.U. written across the front.

Covering her face at the fashion offence Rarity turns and starts to lead the group further inside.

Sunset keeps an eye behind them as they walk, the cobwebs gets her flinching from time to time. “I’m guessing they don’t clean the servant areas very much.”

“I would say the servants should clean their own areas as well,” Rarity said firmly as she picked a cobweb out of her hair, “Being slaves is no reason to live in a pig sty.”

Fluttershy leans back a bit. “This is a good thing, Sunset,” she whispers, “I would be concerned if these areas were clean, that would mean they have someone to maintain them or enters them often. Though I don’t think even house-elves have been through here in… Eeep,” She squeaks as she almost runs into Pinkie Pie as all of them stop abruptly.

Sunset moves up, sliding closely past her friends as she ends up next to Rarity. “What’s going on?”

Rarity plays her wand light beam over the wood in front of her. “I think it’s some kind of door, but I’m not certain how to open it.”

Sunset reaches out her hand, extending her senses while trying to keep her impingement on the world around her to a minimum, she inspects the apparently blank piece of wood before them. After a few moments she smiles as a nearly imperceptible click announces to her the unlocking of the door. She glances back at her friends. “It might get hot quickly; be ready.” Twilight and Rarity nod, holding their wands at the ready. Sunset draws her own and holds her breath as she pushes the door open.

Apparently, the hidden hinges are kept well oiled. The idea of listening to a squeaky door opening and closing might draw attention to the servant, and thus would not be tolerated. Out of sight, out of mind, seems to be the motto of the Malfoys. It opens silently, and she steps into a proper corridor. She glances to each side. Seeing nobody somehow only makes it worse as the dread of discovery weighs on them all.

She turns back and helps her friends through the small doorway. Looking around really doesn’t tell her where they are, and where she needs to go. She closes her eyes, calming her mind as much as possible before she opens herself and embraces her magic. She knows her wand is glowing even with her eyes closed. She still doesn’t want them to know she’s here, so she simply observes. She can feel some magic being channeled…there. She opens her eyes and gestures for her friends to follow. There is a presence she can feel, but it seems to be human, and she doesn’t think it’s Grogar. In fact, she’s pretty sure Grogar isn’t in the manor at the moment. That’s good news; if they can destroy his bell without raising any alarm, they can end this.

Sunset ducks through a doorway, leading with her wand, she turns and nearly sticks her wand in a young wizard’s eye. He recoils back, raising his hands. The terror on his face is only amplified when Sunset embraces her magic, more accurately snatching at it. With a flash of her wand, she calls for a pair of potted plants to grow, lashing out and wrapping round him, leaves covering his mouth in an instant. The branches pull him to the ground holding him as tight as steel chains. It would take some advanced spellwork to get him out. But it’s the only way to prevent him from being a danger without actually killing him. Sunset finally lets go as she watches him struggle, she leans down, “Be glad you aren’t dead -- be silent and you might live through this.” She whispers in his ear as she lets the binding cover his mouth.

Rainbow Dash whistles appreciatively, “That was pretty awesome, Sunset.”

Sunset flashes a smile as they continue on, though loud footfalls get gasps from the girls, “I’m guessing someone felt that.” Twilight snarls as she moves up next to Sunset, “Are we ready?” Applejack and Pinkie dart up to the door and flatten themselves against the wall next to it. Rainbow and Fluttershy flank on each side of Rarity, Twilight and Sunset. The three with operable wands stand ready as the footfalls get closer.

The door bursts open and five wizards burst through the door. Applejack and Pinkie tackle one of them as Sunset moves forward, entangling spells bursting forth as she slams her magic into them, and in a matter of moments, all five are bound and sunk half into the floor of the manor.

“Oh, my dear, you realize you do not have to do this all on your own Sunset,” Rarity says softly as her wand glows, summoning all the fallen wands to her hand.

Sunset grimaces. “They have to know we are here; any mage within a mile could feel that. We need to be quick!” She darts through the door, her friends hot on her heels, “Oh no! There’s a whole herd of mages in there. Scatter!” She shouts as she rolls and pulls the teddy bear that Hermione had given her from behind her belt and tosses it at the floor. She doesn’t know what to expect, but when the bear just lies there, she groans and deflects a spell aimed at Rainbow Dash. She takes a moment to gather her magic and unleashes a fire spell, several mages disappear and pop in elsewhere, continuing to defend as the girls continue the assault.

“Stupefy! Stupefy!” Comes a voice next to her, Sunset glances as Hermione Granger fires a spell, knocking two of the mages back. She glances the other direction, and both Fred and George are laughing as they press ahead.

Pinky, has pulled out a party cannon and somehow is firing it like a fixed machine gun, putting out cupcakes at a rate of ten per second into the mages. “Surprise! Try some Chocolate lava cupcakes with Raspberry and Reaper Chili icing!” The impacts of the cupcakes leaves nasty burns on the mages as they fall back against her assault.

Ginny lets go of the bear and moves up beside to take a position behind Applejack, back to back. Applejack is smacking spells aimed at them into the ground with her gloves, her face showing intense concentration as Ginny smoothly moves from one spell to another, deflecting and attacking almost in one move.

Fleur Delacour is moving slowly protecting Fluttershy as the pair of them advance on another group of mages. Rainbow Dash flashes forward with Viktor at her side. Even Neville Longbottom is with Rarity, they are combining their magic and presenting a unified front. All the Death Eaters and their acolytes are falling back. Sunset grins as she helps to press their advantage.

“Where is the bell, Sunset?” Comes Snape’s voice, he’s in a classic dueling stance, keeping up the attack next to her.

“I don’t know exactly. It’s in this building.”

He blasts another Death Eater back with a slash of his wand, “Well as interesting as this is, I suggest you do something to actually find it.”

Sunset groans as she gets a telekinetic hold on a wizard. She flings him at a group of other mages, some are able to apparate out of the way, but he still connects with the others, knocking them to the ground. She gathers herself and leaps forward, she remembers the feel of the bell from the vision. The evil and hatred, the smell of death, “This way!” She shouts as she darts through another doorway. “There it is!”

“Oh, I shan’t be defeated so easily,” comes a voice from everywhere. Sunset finds herself bound in a telekinetic hold. She tries to reach towards the bell, her body doesn’t move. Lightning flashes across the room and coalesces into Grogar. He strides forward, “You puny Equestrian!” His horns flash, and the bell on his collar tolls. She falls to the floor, her wand clattering away. She glances down and moans, she’s a pony again. A quick glance around confirms all of her friends are now copies of their pony selves. She struggles to her hooves, struggles to embrace her magic, her horn sparks and sputters as she shakes her head. Another toll of the bell has her groan as she’s forced to the floor. Judging by the sounds, the other girls are also being forced to the floor as well. And some of the human mages that made it into the room with her.

Heavy hoof steps announce him coming closer, she tries to lift her head, but it feels as though it weighs tons, “Why are you doing this?”

She can feel his fetid breath on her cheek. “Because Equestria belonged to me. It was my kingdom and you ponies and your Princesses, have taken it from me!” Grogar states firmly, his dark voice filled with pure hatred, “I was the rightful ruler of Tambelon.” Turning, he moves away, “And your kind took that away and renamed my home, you take and take and take. You make other creatures your slaves. Sheep, goats, cows, so many others are lesser species to you. Your subjugation and rape of the donkeys! Mules do not exist in nature! They don’t deserve the same respect, they can’t go to school, they are slaves to you ponies.” He stops, glaring at Sunset, “And why is that? Because ponies have the more powerful magic, so you rule the world. And who rules you?” He very nearly spits, “The Princesses, because they have the strongest magic of all the ponies.” His horns light and his bell tolls, picking Sunset up and slamming her into the wall. Before she lands on the floor, he’s got her in his magic once again, and she’s zipping across the room, slamming into another wall. This time, she’s allowed to collapse to the floor.

She lies there, trying to breathe, though it feels as though something just might be broken at the moment, each breath produces a sharp jab of pain. His hoofsteps impinge on her consciousness, she looks up and she finds she’s nose to nose with him, “Well, guess what, my little pony. You don’t have the strongest magic anymore. Your Princesses don’t have the strongest magic anymore.” He smiles as Sunset coughs hard and suppresses the urge to cry in pain, “I have the greater magic now.” Again, she’s picked up and thrown across the room, “Your Princesses solution is to banish those who present a threat. Let’s see them try to banish me now.”

His horns light again, and a blue beam of energy slams into him, knocking him sideways. Sunset glances over, Professor Dumbledore is there, wielding his wand as he throws spell after spell at the demonic ram. Grogar growls as he absorbs the human’s attack and sends magic back. Sunset turns her head, the bell. She can end this right now! She levers herself to her hooves and limps slowly towards the bell.

“Oh no you don’t!” He growls as he diverts from his attacks on the Hogwarts headmaster. He turns into lightning for a moment and appears right in front of the bell. “I’ve learned to deal with stupid ponies that find my bell. I was summoned here, and here I shall stay, until I choose to go back to Equestria. Where I will take my rightful place.” His horns light up brightly, and with a loud toll of the bell on his neck, he’s gone. Along with the mages with him.

Sunset coughs, yes, something is definitely not right, judging by the blood she’s leaving on the floor. “Sunset!” Twilight’s voice urges. In moments, her hands pull Sunset’s head into her lap. She opens her eyes to see Professor Dumbledore tap Rainbow Dash’s head with his wand, returning her to her human form. The former blue pegasus runs her hands down her body, her eyes wide.

Professor Dumbledore comes and kneels down before Sunset. “I’ve never been all that skilled at healing. I think you should be taken back to the school.” He says as he taps her on the head with his wand. Instantly she’s back to her human shape. Though she finds it hard to not curl up into a ball. She coughs again, Rarity produces a handkerchief from somewhere and wipe’s Sunset’s face with it. Sunset gets a glimpse of more blood as her friend folds the cloth to dab at Sunsets chin and cheeks, helping to clean her up.

“Twilight, I need you to bind my ribs; this isn’t over.” She can barely speak. She can barely describe how much this hurts.

Twilight sighs, “We need to get you to the infirmary, he’s escaped.”

“I need you to heal me, or at least stop this pain. He’s not gone far. I can feel his magic, the Equestrian components to it. We are close enough, I can still feel him. He can’t teleport through the ward just like we can’t. We have the exits covered. He’s trapped in here with us. We need to press this attack. Please, Twilight. Bind my ribs so I can breathe, and we need to get back in this fight.”

Twilight chews her bottom lip for a long time, glancing up at Dumbledore and the other girls, then back down at Sunset. Finally, she makes her decision, she pulls her wand and runs it’ along Sunset’s ribcage. As she can feel the bones moving back into place. She screams, her nervous system ablaze. Twilight turns pale. Finally, Sunset collapses as Twilight pulls her wand away, “This is a temporary fix, at best, Sunset. You really need to be seen by a real healer. I have very little skill with this, just basic anatomy.”

Sunset gasps for air. “You did good, just didn’t expect it to hurt quite that much.” She rolls off her friend and gets to her knees. “Thank you all; you pulled our rears out of the fire by showing up.”

Hermione picks up an identical teddy bear from her belt, “You just had to set the portkey for us to arrive. I knew we would have to deal with a ward against apparating in here.” She draws her wand again, “Where is he then?”

Sunset closes her eyes, feeling with her magic as best as she can, finally she points, then opens her eyes, her finger is pointing at the ground. Fleur flourishes her wand and points the tip in the direction that Sunset is pointing, she brings that tip onto the floor. Sunset can feel the magic surge within the witch as her eyes flutter closed. After a few long seconds, she opens her eyes. “They are in a sub-basement, though it seems there is an escape route that goes underground. We have to hurry before they get outside the ward!”

Sunset groans as she works her way to her feet. She holds out her hand, summoning her wand to her, “It’s not over, Grogar.” She growls as she joins the rest of the mages in winking out in a mass teleport.

They appear in a large underground chamber, and Sunset’s heart drops to the floor, a good hundred mages are here, flourishes her wand, and a shield springs into place before them, she grunts as the mages start to assault it. She glances around, where is he? She growls as she has to pour more energy into the shield. There he is, she watches as he ducks through a door. She glances around, no one here can keep up the shield like she can. She looks around, “Applejack!” Her friend’s head whips to face her, “He went that way, please, get him! All you have to do is ring the bell!” She points.

Applejack nods as she grabs Ginny’s shoulder. She whispers into the ginger haired girl’s ear and she raises her wand and both of them wink out, only to appear next to the door. Applejack rips the door off its hinges and throws it at the other mages as she drags Ginny through. Sunset grimaces as she opens small portals in her shield for the other mages to fight back, this is not going to be easy.

***

Applejack can hear the fleeing ram ahead of them as they run. A few of the Death Eaters have joined him in this as well. Ginny is huffing as she runs next to the farmer. They both skid through a turn, Ginny snaps her wand up. “Stupefy!” She shouts as she points her wand at one of the fleeing humans, his wand flies from his hand as she follows up with a jellylegs curse, dropping him. Applejack makes a point of stepping on his wand as she passes by, his groan as the wood snaps under her boot is satisfying. A large steel door is before them, she sprints forward, leaping into the air with a strong kick. The door doesn’t stand a chance and crashes to the ground. Ginny looks at the crumpled steel. “Wow.”

“Aw shoot, tis nothing to someone who’s been harvesting apples most of their life,” Applejack says as she moves through the door, then she stops. Grogar is there, apparently, they decided to make a stand here.

One of the death eaters, Applejack remembers him from the ministry office, pulls his wand from a swagger cane he was carrying, he points it at Ginny, “One of the miserable Weasley children, go back where you came from girl.”

Applejack moves to stand before Ginny. “Ya’ll better hold on there, partner. She smacks a spell sent at her into the ground. “I may not understand all the magic here, but I know that monster needs to be stopped.”

Emotions war across the pale haired man’s face, he glances back at Grogar for a moment. Grogar’s horns light momentarily, then he turns back to Applejack, “He is my master, and I will protect him with my life.” He points his wand at a statue in the room, then at a second. Both of the statues stand. “Guardians, defend your home!” He shouts as the two statues draw wicked looking swords and heft their shields.

Applejack simply smiles as the large stone statues lumber towards her, she adjusts the gloves on her hands, she can hear Ginny backing off behind her. The red headed girl calls out, “Watch out, Applejack!”

“Aw, don’t you fret none,” Applejack says with a farmgirl smile as statues finally get closer. Slapping her hands once, she leaps forward, punching the first one, which explodes as her fist hits it, she uses that to deflect herself into the second one, her gloved fist destroying it as well, she flips and lands on her feet. She stands up slowly. “Ye-haw! Rocks are more a Pinkie and Maude thing, but I figure that’ll do.”

Ginny puts her hand on Applejack’s shoulder, getting the farmgirl to move to the side quickly as Ginny shouts out a spell, Malfoy is caught as a giant slug slithers from his mouth. He falls to the ground, vomiting a second slug. Applejack ignores the other shocked Death Eaters as she strides up to him, she grabs him by his collar and his belt and throws him across the room, where he slides along the floor and crashes into the wall. She turns to the other mages. “Who’s next?”

Several wands are raised, but no spells shoot forth. Applejack smirks, “I thought so.” She turns to Grogar, smacking a spell sent by him into the ceiling. She glances at her smoking glove, “You are powerful, but you don’t belong here partner.” She steps forward, and the ram takes a step back, “I know you are protecting your bell, but it’s a futile gesture. You…” A shouted spell from Ginny slams into Grogar, knocking him sideways a bit. But most notably, his magical grip on the bell ceases. Applejack leaps forward and grabs it, planting a boot on his head for a moment to leap away. She holds the bell up, “Now to get rid of you!” She brings the bell down onto the concrete floor with all of her might. At first the bell makes a short ring, but the force crumples the metal. As the bell is deformed beyond recognition, a wind comes up, blowing hot everywhere. She grins at the look of horror on the demonic ram’s face as the bell is ruined. “There, now git back to where ya came from!”

The ram stands up, looking at the ruined bell as Applejack drops it to the floor. Then he looks at her, “You stupid, stupid human. Destroying the bell doesn’t send me back.” He smiles and charges his horn, blowing Applejack back, “You don’t have enough in you to send me back!” He slams another beam at Applejack, but Ginny leaps before her, wand active with a shield spell. She deflects the spell into the ceiling.

“Come on, slaves! We are leaving.” Grogar looks around at the Death Eaters, many of them are dropping their wands and backing away. “Now!”

One of the other mages steps back, “I’m done. Did you see what she just did?” He turns tail and runs.

“Stand! Cowards!” He shouts at the fleeing Death Eaters.

With a loud pop Sunset Shimmer, the rest of the girls, and the Hogwarts mages appear. Sunset looks around and darts to Applejack's side. “Where is he?”

Applejack turns and looks, only an open door greets her. “He just ran that way!” She gets up and joins her friends as they press on after the ram.

***

Sunset leads the rush down the corridor. She holds one arm over her chest, trying to keep her damaged ribs from hurting too much. This is miserable! A set of stairs is before them, she charges up and slams through the door into the dark night. They are a good distance away from the manor now, out in the countryside. She skids to a stop as a spell misses her by inches. She throws a spell back and is gratified by hearing it smack into the demonic ram.

“If we had the Elements of Harmony, this would be over by now,” Sunset growls, deflecting another spell as the ram advances, throwing spell after spell at her. She’s been casting for well over an hour now, she’s exhausted. A blast from an unexpected direction shatters her shield and knocks her to the ground. In an instant she’s enfolded in magic. She struggles against the magic, but it’s too strong, she’s too tired.

“Oh, the poor pony has magical exhaustion?” comes Grogar’s voice. She’s able to turn her head a bit, he struts towards her, “You may have destroyed my bell. But you can’t defeat me. I’ve had too much time here to be destroyed by the likes of you.”

“Not alone, you don’t!” Come’s Twilight Sparkle’s voice. Grogar looks up and the satisfaction on his face turns to fear. Twilight continues, “Alone, we are tough, but we can be defeated. As a group though, a herd, we become something else. Together, we are a force of nature, and none can stop us.”

Sunset finds herself being lifted off the ground feeling a warmth and safety envelop her. She looks over and looks at Twilight, who’s eyes are glowing pure white, her pony ears have sprouted, and her wings. She’s showing the true power of an Equestrian alicorn. The power of her connection to the Twilight back home. Twilight’s magic surges as she raises her ebony wand, the magic washes over all of the mages. Hermione, Fred and George gain pony ears and their hair lengthens into manes. The Equestrian magic flowing and expanding further, Sunset gasps as the magic of friendship flows from her, a ghostly form appears in front of her, her pony self! A quick glance shows the same has happened to her friends, a ghostly apparition of their pony selves stands before each of them.

Another surge hits, and a magical otter frolics in front of Hermione, a hyena and a coyote snarl at Grogar, standing before Fred and George Weasley. A horse stands before Ginny, who is fingering her pony ears in wonder, her long red hair has expanded to brush the ground. A ponified Fleur looks on in wonder as her own patronus, a unicorn, steps forward aggressively. Viktor seems to not have been ponified, but he’s been altered as well, large wings have grown from his back and his face has taken on a more gryphon like appearance, as his hands have turned into claws as well. His patronus is standing before him, a golden eagle. Even Professor Snape has been changed, with the ears of a deer peeking out from his greasy bangs as his patronus snorts and paws at the ground. A loud cry of a phoenix rings out and Dumbledore’s patronus appears as well, the Hogwarts headmaster also having grown red glowing wings as he joins the other mages in flourishing his wand.

Grogar takes a step back as he watches the magic from all the mages coalesce and shoot skyward, the entire sky lighting up as clouds move around, revealing an enormous alicorn, made of pure magic, standing in the cloud. The shape tosses its head, its massive horn lighting and its magic slamming into the demonic ram. Grogar screams as the magic binds him, magical chains forming around his body as the magic rips a hole in reality. Sunset gasps as she recognizes where that hole leads. The magic again surges as the bound ram is shoved through the rip in space and time, leaving him to be stuck in Tartarus, for all eternity. His screams fade away as the rip closes, leaving the mages to all fall to the ground in exhaustion. Sunset’s eyes close as the pain and exhaustion of the last several hours catch up to her. Her consciousness fades to nothingness.

***

She was in pain, it hurt to breathe, she was so damaged, what happened? Now, she doesn’t just feel fine, she feels good, comfortable, happy. Sunset takes a moment to feel that lack of pain, of worry, of fear and stress, before she opens her eyes. Twilight Sparkle is there, sitting on her bed, smiling at her. As Sunset smiles back, her friend lets her wand quiet and she puts it back in her school robes.

“Hi.” She’s able to croak weakly.

Twilight smiles and gestures, in moments, all of her friends are around her, she furrows her brow, “What happened?”

The bed shifts as Rarity sits on the bed next to her, “You were, by far, the most injured. We got you back to the castle for you to heal. The healers fixed up your ribs, and did you know you had a punctured lung? And several other internal injuries! It took Madame Pomfrey hours to get you fixed up. But she’s one of the best healers at Hogwarts. So, she got you fixed up lickety split.”

“But the Death Eaters, the mages that Grogar was able to take...”

“The spell he had on them was broken. Most of the death eaters fled. A few were captured, and have been sent to Azkaban. That’s the wizarding prison,” Twilight says softly as she adjusts her glasses. “The mages he was able to take with his magic, they are being treated in London. They should be released before too long.

“That Malfoy person?”

Twilight shifts uncomfortably. “He claims he was controlled by a spell from Grogar, which the ministry now believes. He also ratted out a couple other Death Eaters, so he’s just fine, sadly.”

Sunset grimaces and pounds a fist onto her bed. She glances around, not just her American friends are here. But everyone involved with the fight against Grogar. Professor Dumbledore smiles, “We are just about to go out and handle the second Tri-Wizard Tournament task. Do you want to join us?”

Sunset tries to sit up, but sharp jabs of pain get her to gasp, “I think I need a few more hours.”

He smiles, “That’s just fine. We have informed your Principal Celestia that the threat has passed, you all will be reunited, and you’ll be able to take your plane home. Possibly as soon as tomorrow.” He looks at all of them. “You all have done a great service to the wizarding world here in the United Kingdom. We will, of course, get you back home. The Hogwarts Express will be on its way back to London tomorrow, with you on it.”

Sunset smiles, “Thank you.” She leans her head back on the soft pillow, all feelings of pain forgotten as the soft bed just enfolds her body. She almost feels as though she’s lying on a cloud. She closes her eyes and drifts off to a comfortable slumber.

Chapter 20.

View Online

Sunset Shimmer’s wand glows as her clothes and other valuables float into her suitcase. She came here with a minimal amount of luggage; she’s going to leave with a minimal amount. Though having the Hogwarts house elves to take care of the day to day needs of all the mages has been quite nice. Her magic closes the suitcase and the latches click. With a flick, it’s onto the luggage cart that has been brought up to their room.

Clothing from another bureau began lining itself up in rows and folding in on itself, the azure glow around each piece guiding its actions in a fluid motion. Dresses, gowns, and outfits forming lines and each taking its own place in different suitcases. A parade of fashion and form, only matched by the level of control.

"Showoff," Applejack said as she rolled up another shirt into a tight wrap, and tosses it into her own case.

Rarity sticks her nose in the air. "Far be it from me, to allow such wonderful clothing to become creased. I see no need to roll my delicates up like that, just so I can fit everything into one case."

Rarity walks among her suitcases, inspecting how everything is packed in. She starts closing them, one by one. Finally, she gets to the biggest one, she closes it, but the zipper isn’t even close to being able to close. She climbs on top of the suitcase, grunting as she pulls the zipper around. Though she doesn’t seem to be all that successful.

Applejack groans, "You've been too pampered; you're weak as a little filly at the country fair, Rarity," she says with a laugh as she uses one hand to squeeze the suitcase down. With her spare hand she reaches over and grabs the zipper to pull it closed.

Rarity, for her part, sputters and her cheeks puff as Applejack gets the suitcase fully closed. With a yelp, Sunset swings her wand around as it starts to glow. The zipper glows in response as the slider, puller, and tape are all reinforced with magic.

Almost yanking the zipper off and jumping back a step Applejack looks at the zipper then at Sunset. "Whoa nelly, warn a lass before you do something like that. Whatcha do, anyway?"

"Reinforcement spell, also called the Rarity Over Pack spell, I didn't want you ripping the zipper straight off the bag." Sunset replies with a tap of the wand to her forehead.

“Geez, Rarity, we spent most of our time here at Hogwarts, how did you end up with so much more than we arrived with?” Rainbow Dash snickers as she closes her duffel bag and grabs her laptop case.

Rarity sniffs, “One always finds opportunities, even in dreadful circumstances, to find room for their passions.”

Pinkie Pie leans over, looking on as Rarity uses a decorative lock to tie the zipper together, "Oh can you picture the surprised look on a border security officers face if he opens that?”

Rarity rolls her eyes, "Please, Pinkie, I'd rather not think about some guard looking through my unmentionables."

"Let alone your unmentionables going up in the air like confetti from a party cannon...”

"Oh, darlings, for all its dreariness, I do believe I am going to miss this place," Rarity says, looking around and picking up a scarf from her bed and wrapping it around her neck.

Applejack giggles, "Me, ah can't wait to get back home, see mah family again, get back to some semblance of normality."

"Normality?" Twilight mutters, looking down at her wand. "You realize this is our last chance with these things."

Applejack perks up, "What do you mean, sugarcube?"

"We were banned from using magic by the minister, our wands confiscated, ordered to leave those mages alone. Our wands were stolen back, yes, but do you really think they will let us keep them?"

Rarity looks bleak, holding her wand close to her body. “No more magic?”

Twilight looks down at her wand slowly, and runs a finger down its length. In response, the wand glows in fits as she starts to embrace her magic then releases it. "Sunset... I- It’s strange, I used to be scared of magic, but now I don't want to lose it. I've learned so much with it, about it. It’s given me insight not just into the magic of Equestria, but of who I am. Who I am inside, who I could be, like it’s my...special talent." Gulping, Twilight wipes a tear from her eyes. "I know it sounds stupid, but I can't really explain it better than that."

Sunset sits down beside Twilight and gives her a tight hug. "You've finally earned your cutie mark, or at least come to understand it. Now you have to let it go. I'm so sorry, Twilight. I wish there was something I could do. I wish we could just talk to that minister, reason with him."

“That stuffy old man? I do believe he is only concerned with himself and what little power he really has. We are nothing to him!” Rarity seethes as she puffs out her cheeks, looking a little red.

Sunset glances around, and all her friends seem to be ready. With a flourish of her wand, Twilight Sparkle opens all the curtains in the various windows, letting the morning light into the room. She looks at her wand for several long seconds before tucking it into the pocket in her school robes. A knock at the door gets all their attention. Sunset nods to Pinkie Pie, who opens the door with a flourish.

Many of the mages they had met are standing in the corridor. The Weasley twins smile wide. “What, you thought you were getting away without us?” Everyone starts chattering as they make their way into the room.

Twilight moves closer to Sunset as Hermione comes up. “You know, we will need to keep in touch.”

Twilight glances at Sunset, "umm, how? I don't see many in the wizarding world with email addresses, or even cell phones."

Hermione giggles as Fred, George, and Fleur crowd forward. "Well that's where my..." Fred starts

"Our" George interjects.

"No, it was my idea."

"We both came up with it and..."

"Garçons! Boys, zat will be quite enough from ze both of you!" Fleur says firmly as steps between the two brothers. Turning, she smiles facing the girls. "Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy turns. "Ummm, yes?"

"Since we might not be able to stay in touch with email or standard post, I'd like to present you with this." Granger moves over to Fluttershy, a big smile on her face. From behind her back, she brings out a small covered cage, winking as she does. As Fluttershy leans forward curiously, she draws back the blackout curtain on the cage, getting a gasp from Fluttershy.

“It’s an owl!” Fluttershy squeals as she opens the cage and a beautiful brown and white Scop’s owl flits out and lands on her shoulder, looking up at Fluttershy with wide eyes.

"She's small but tenacious, she may not be good for package delivery, but she'll do letters without a problem, and she's an incredible navigator, even with no address.”

Ginny reaches up and strokes the owl gently, she looks back at Twilight, “This is actually Pigwigeon’s sister.” She giggles, “Younger sister, but same parents. We all chipped in, Fred and George contacted Eeylops with the special request and she arrived last night.”

Fluttershy smiles at the small owl. "Oh, she's adorable, I think I'll name her Gylfie..."

"Gylfie?" Fred and George say in unison.

"Yes, she looks like a Gylfie." Fluttershy reaches over and strokes the owl, which chirps happily.

A dark figure moves over to her,.“I will say, you are excellent when it comes to potions. I’ll have to meet your teacher back at home.”

Sunset giggles, Professor Snape hadn’t ponied up, but had gained the characteristics of the deer back at home. So very likely, he would turn fully into a deer upon going through the portal. She offers a hand. “If you get a chance to go through the portal and visit Equestria, I’ll make sure you meet her. Though the deer of the Everfree forest would likely surprise you with their abilities in potions.”

He smirks, “Indeed.” He stands there silently for a long moment, shifting his weight, finally he opens his mouth, “It was a pleasure.” He offers a hand.

Sunset reaches out and takes it. She looks into his eyes as they shake firmly. Then he quickly retreats from the handshake.

Professor Dumbledore steps through, with some of the ministers in tow. He stops before Sunset Shimmer. “Good morning, I trust you are ready to get home?”

Sunset looks at Rarity and Twilight, she steps forward, straightening her robes around her form. “Professor Dumbledore, Minister Fudge. I know what we did was against the rules, but we were trying to protect all the mages here. If you want to punish someone; punish me, please. They have just started to find out what magic means to them, and I know how it feels to have it then lose it. I can't do that to them…” She stumbles to a stop at the look on Professor Dumbledore’s face as she tries to fight back tears.

Holding his hand up, Dumbledore looked at her sternly. "Silence child. Cringing and gulping, Sunset steps back with the girls, casting a quick glance back and forth between Rarity and Twilight. In a stern yet noble voice, Dumbledore speaks calmly and clearly, the walls almost vibrating in response. “Young ones, as you are not traditional witches, nor have you officially completed any classes at this school, the members of the Ministry have arrived here to confiscate your wands.”

Sunset reaches her hands out, touching Twilight and Rarity's arms gently. Both of whom look down at their wands. The tip of Twilight’s is glowing softly, an image of her cutie mark floating above it. Shaking her head, Sunset starts to open her mouth but is stopped by Dumbledore, “I, however, have discussed the issue with the ambassador and this will not happen. Sunset Shimmer, while your use of magic is rather unconventional, you and your friends are just as much a mage as any one born in the United Kingdom or United States. Therefore, in accordance with the International Magical Agreements Act, with MACUSA treaties regarding mages travelling between our two nations. You are hereby granted license to keep your wands.” Drawing three cards from his pocket, he nods as they slowly float up to and hover in front of each of the girls.

Reaching out, Sunset gently grasps her ID card to look at it. Not only does it have her photo on it, which turns side to side occasionally, but it also has the image of a sunburst, half gold, half red, with a gold and red ying yang symbol in the center. She looks up with a smile. “Thank you so much, Professor. But I miss the muggle world where I live. My old school, my phone, the mall, all the different things I was able to do. Not to say that your world isn’t interesting, it is. But I miss... home.”

"Equestria? Or the United States?" Dumbledore inquires in a fatherly voice.

Sunset looks down. “I miss Equestria, sometimes so badly it hurts. It’s where I was born, where I grew up, but it’s not my home anymore.” Her friends come up and join her in a group hug, “It's their world, where I found out who I really am, and now it’s mine, too. My friends are where my heart is, and that is where my home will always be.”

She stops for a long moment, inspecting the card before putting it in her pocket. “Thank you, Professor.” She leaps forward, wrapping her arms around him. After a long moment, he returns the embrace.

“Are you ready to go? The train will be here soon; the carriages are downstairs to take you to the station.”

She glances at her friends, who all nod. Rarity brings out her wand, and all the luggage is picked up and gently floats to the cart, loading it down. Professor Dumbledore flourishes his own wand and taps the carriage, which disappears with a flash. He looks back at them with a smirk, “Your possessions will be loaded aboard the train. Time to head downstairs.”

They walk slowly through the castle that they’ve called home for a surprisingly long time now. Some of the students are walking through the corridors, but with it being a weekend, they are more likely in their house common rooms, or finding fun things to do with their time off. Getting to the first floor happens much sooner than Sunset realized, she’s leaving this place, possibly forever. She holds back tears as she gets into the carriage. The rest of her friends crowd in as well, except for Fluttershy, who takes her time with the two thestrals pulling the carriage. She hugs them for long moments before she finally joins them in the carriage and the skeletal creatures walk slowly towards the wizarding town of Hogsmeade and the train station there.

***

The big Four-Six-Zero engine of the Hogwarts Express trails steam as its wheels screech against the steel rails. The massive train slowing to a stop as it pulls into the Kings Crossing station in London. Sunset Shimmer is the first out of the cabin. She walks down the steps and onto the platform. She looks back at the train and the workers pulling their luggage from the dedicated car. Then she turns to look at her friends as they join her on the platform.

"Come now, girls, lets not stand around and dally here," Professor McGonagall says as she starts walking. "Follow me though the portal."

"Portal?" Sunset inquires as she walks up beside Professor McGonagall, holding her carry-on in her hands in front of her.

"Of course, one does not park the Hogwarts express on a platform where muggles can see," Professor McGonagall states as she steps through the barrier onto the normal platform.

Stumbling through Sunset quickly checks her hands and hips before breathing a sigh of relief.

Raising an eyebrow Professor McGonagall looks at Sunset, then back at the other girls who don't seem to have the same reaction as Sunset. "Is something wrong?"

"Nope, just making sure I still have hands and not hooves. Magical portals and all. You can never be sure," Sunset says, looking up with a smile.

"Indeed," the professor states softly. Sunset follows the signs to a local train. And before they know it, the girls are pulling up to the airport.

“Sunset! Sunset Shimmer!” The voice was unforgettable, she would recognize it anywhere, however she didn’t have time to turn before the arms wrapped around her in a surprise hug. Principal Celestia squeezes her tightly as if holding on for fear of losing her again, before, after a long moment, she lets go and leans back to look at her.

“Principal Celestia,” Sunset says with a bright smile.

“When the Scotland Yard officers said you had been taken by the Protective Command, I was ready to panic. Officers or constables, I think, kept me in the hotel saying it was for my own safety,” Principal Celestia says, “I’m just so glad you’re alright.”

Sunset shrugs. “I’m sorry, but we didn’t know everything going on.” She looks back at the other girls, “They didn’t tell us much, and wouldn't even let us use our cellphones or computers. I guess they didn't want us tracked.” She reaches up and hugs Principal Celestia again, “I’m just glad they were able to figure it out.”

Principal Celestia ends up with an arm around Sunset’s shoulders. Lowering her voice, she looks down at Sunset. "I was scared it was something like another Friendship Games fallout. I'm not sure if I have it in me to take another power crazed demon from Equestria incident.” She stops for a moment, glancing at Sunset, “No offence.”

Sunset rolls her eyes as they head towards airport security. “None taken.”

"Pardon me?" McGonagall asks curiously, raising a single eyebrow as she looks at Celestia's hair.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are we in your way?"

"Principal Celestia, this is Miss McGonagall. She's been looking after us while we were in protective custody."

"Oh, thank you so very much, I know these girls can be a handful at times. I apologize for any trouble they caused."

"No, they were not any trouble for me, although I do hope they learned a few things, such as how to carry themselves as proper ladies in public," Miss McGonagall said shifting her glance to Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. "I do hope all of your students are not this… energetic."

Looking down at the girls Celestia smiled, "No, these ones are special, but every student has their own needs and we try and help them at Canterlot High. Especially Sunset here."

"How so?" Miss McGonagall inquired as she raised an eyebrow.

"Sunset is... a foreigner, a refugee of sorts. She's here without any family, parents, and had a hard time adapting. My sister and I take turns looking in on her to make sure she's doing ok. As do a few other parents now. ALL of their parents are rather worried however," Principal Celestia says with a smile. "Hurry up girls, we have to get through security for our flight home."

"Ugh, I used to think it would be fun to fly on a plane, but now, I just think it’s boring," Rainbow Dash says. "Honestly, I wish I could just go on my own and meet you there."

"Tut, tut, girls, listen to your principal, and I hope you have a nice trip. Since I am in London I may as well do a little shopping," the professor says as she turns and heads out of the station.

"Bye, professor!" he girls call out in chorus.

***

The early morning breeze dances and plays with the grass and flowers, lifting and carrying dandelion seeds into the air. Small gusts of wind play with Sunsets hair as she closes her eyes for a moment leaning back against the statue. She places her hands on the book in her lap, the last journal entry had carried the end of their trip to its Equestria counterpart.

Looking around she smiles at Rarity who's laying on her side, a plush blanket under her as well as a pillow. Twilight looks down at her glasses as she cleans them, sitting behind Rarity. It feels strange to be home, to be able to relax, and not to see magic being used by everyone around them.

"Argh, that trip was so boring!"

Fluttershy blinks. "But I thought you love flying."

"Yeah, when it’s me doing it. After you fly on your own, on a broom, an airliner might as well be a bus. Slow, crowded, can't walk around, and Equestria forbid you consider opening to door and going out for some fresh air," Rainbow dash says with a huff.

"Sorry, Dash, but people don't jump out of airlines at 32,000 feet for fresh air. I do agree, though, economy class is no way to fly," Twilight says with a giggle and takes her glasses off starting to clean them.

With a deep thrum, the statue glows briefly as Princess Twilight steps through the portal landing on her hands and kneels on the pathway. With a quick look around she see's the others already here, "Sorry, sorry, sorry, I got here as fast as I could, you wouldn't believe the friendship problems I've been having."

"Two legs," Sunset chirps with a smile.

"Four legs is so last world, darling," Rarity says and offers Twilight a finger sandwich.

"So, what did I miss?" asks Princess Twilight as she settles down and starts to eat.

"Not much Sugarcube, just Rainbow Dash actin as twitchy as a hen with a fox near the coup. All she be wanting to do is to go flying and bust clouds," Apple Jack says before taking a bite of her apple.

"What can I say, flying is just so awesome. The speed, the exhilaration, I just love it," Dash says and huffs as she looks at the others, "Oh you wouldn't understand."

Pinkie Pie sneaks up and sits behind Applejack giving Princess Twilight a wave.

"Wouldn't understand?" Twilight says more than asked, "I think me, Rare, and Sunset understand wanting, no needing to do something, and having it taken away."

"Okay, point taken," Dash says and falls onto her back, looking up at the sky.

"Ummm, so I take it you had a rough time," Princess Twilight says looking between them.

Sunset looks down. “Yeah.”

Pinkie Pie quickly grabs Applejack’s cowgirl hat putting it on and holds it tight to her head as she runs out into the field. Touching her bear head AJ narrows her eyes getting up and charges after Pinkie, “Give that back!”

“Ok, you want to tell me what you learned from all of this?” Princess Twilight asked with a smile and a slight head tilt.

Sunset looks up sharply. “Oh really, you learned that look from Princess Celestia, didn’t you? Was this all some kind of test?”

Princess Twilight shakes her head, “No, Sunset. You’ve had a pretty rough time with all of this, based on your writing to me. I just want to know.”

Twilight puts her glasses back on and looks down. “Princess, I.... I was always good with science, good with chemistry, math, and even electronics. I don't know if I can explain it but, when I started learning spells, it was like my eyes were opened. Like everything else was just a small part preparing me to learn magic, or a substituted for it. All my studies were just a means to and end that was missing...”

"That was missing the magic, like everything else was just a way to help better the understanding of spells."

"You, you understand?" Twilight said looking up at the princess wide eyed.

"And when you started when you touched your magic, I mean your own magic, you felt something deep inside, in your heart and soul." Closing her eyes, princess twilight holds her hands over her heart.

Nodding slowly Twilight blinks. "You felt that, too?"

"The moment I got my cutie mark, and every time I felt the joy and excitement of learning a new spell."

Pinkie waves AJ’s hat at her bounding back and forth trying to keep the goal post between her and the farm girl, the two laughing as they burn off some energy.

Rolling onto her belly, Rarity props herself up on her elbows and bends one leg at the knee and swinging it in the air. "Ponying up was always special, was always fun, but I always felt something missing. Fluttershy and Dash had their flight, Applejack and Pinkie got their strength and well, whatever Pinkie does. Twilight, Sunset, and me however felt like we were missing something."

Sunset nods, "We never got our horns, our magic. You know what it’s like to be a unicorn without her magic. It, feels strange, almost wrong."

"You feel trapped, cut off. You're almost willing to do anything to get it back before you lose your mind," Twilight says softly then looks at Sunset. "No offense."

"It's ok, its... Well,” she looks down, “it’s like being crippled. In a way. Being paralyzed, seeing something, knowing you used to be able to pick up but now, you can't even feel it, you can't touch it." Sunset looks at Rarity, "It’s not something I ever want them to suffer through."

She glances over at Pinkie Pie and Applejack, both of them are wrestling. Though with both of their advanced strength, which seems to have carried over from England, they are tossing each other surprising distances. And landing without incident too. She smiles and looks at Princess Twilight, “We made friends over there. And that friendship was invaluable in defeating Grogar.”

“Friendship truly is magic,” she murmurs softly. She looks at Sunset. “What about Grogar?”

Sunset shudders, bringing her legs up and folding her arms around them, “He had more power than I could ever believe possible. And some of what he said, that I told you in my message, disturbed me.”

Princess Twilight laughs softly, getting a sharp look from Sunset. She leans over and elbows Sunset softly, “Well, he was not above lying to you. Since you told me all of that, I did some research. Tambleon was not taken by the ponies. We did not take it from him. Those in Tambleon actually revolted against him. And then when the ponies arrived during this revolt, they joined with the ponies to defeat an evil dictator, him.”

Pinkie had somehow secreted Gylfie’s cage in her bag for the flight back. The owl in question is sitting on Fluttershy’s shoulder as she plays with her bunny. Though the white bunny has a few marks from being nipped by the little owl. Apparently those two are not fast friends.

Princess Twilight glances as a tabby cat sits patiently by the door to the school. Her eyebrows rise as the cat smoothly slips into the school when the door is opened by a student exiting. "So, what are you planning now?"

"A trip to Disneyland?" Pinkie yelled as she bounded by only to get tackled by AJ.

"Get back here, you little varmint!" Applejack says and grabs her hat back.

"Actually, I was thinking about teaching the girls about Equestria. About its history, cutie marks, and of course, magic."

"Starting your own school for gifted unicorns?" Princess Twilight asks and perks up at the thought.

"Nope nothing so grand, just a club." As she looks around Sunset sighs, "The world just got a lot more complicated and a lot more dangerous. And I can't help but feel we all need to be prepared. It’s like there's a war coming, and I don't know if friendship alone will keep us safe."

Fluttershy and Twililight hug Sunset. "But our friendships will help see us through what's coming."

***

Principal Celestia lets out an exasperated sigh and leans back looking at her in and out boxes. The paperwork from her being gone is quite extensive, with piles starting to take up a life of their own. A stack of invoices is currently threatening to invade and annex a pile of notes to the parents, seeking to expand their domain on the Principals desk. She scrawls her signature on yet another invoice when there is a knock at the door.

She glances over to her sister, who is doing some computer work. Luna had pulled the short straw and got to do the design for the school’s newsletter for the upcoming parent teacher schedule. Looking back at the door, Celestia smiled. “We really do need a secretary. Come in.”

“Am I interrupting anything?”

Celestia’s brow furrows; the last she saw of that woman was back in England. And she didn’t get on the plane with them. She glances at Luna again, then she smiles. “Not at all. I’m just handling paperwork.”

Minerva McGonagall steps fully into the room then closes the door behind her. Turning she walks up to the desk and places a long black box on the desk, silver crest on the top emblazoned with the name ‘Ollivanders’.

“What might that be?” Principle Celestia inquires as she looks at the box then Minerva.

“It is something I acquired from a little shop in London.” She carefully opens the box and pulls out a carved dark wooden stick of some kind then offers it to Celestia. “Would you please hold this for me for a moment?”

Confused, Principal Celestia reaches out and holds the stick. To her surprise, it glows with a bright golden glow. From the end, a small form appears, looking like a bright stylized sun. Professor McGonagall nods once before she retrieves the wand, turning she offers it to Luna.

Luna looks back at her sister, but finally reaches out and takes the stick in her hand. Again, the stick glows, but with a dark purple aura, a crescent moon floating at the tip. The older teacher nods firmly before taking it back and putting back into the box.

"What was that about?" Celestia asked.

"It was a simple test based on what I learned from the girls, I needed to be sure. I'm Professor Minerva McGonagall, from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Are you familiar with Equestria?"

Luna nodded slowly, "Somewhat, sister?"

"I know of it, one of our students is from there," Celestia says looking a little worried.

"A creature from Equestria ended up in England. Without the help of your girls, we could have been looking at a war."

Luna covers her face, "Another one? Last time this happened we had to rebuild the entire front of our school. I apologize for any damages. We do our best to contain such matters.”

Celestia tilts her head. “Wizardry and witchcraft?”

"No, no, the girls are heroines. I am aware they have missed some time here because of this, and I do not wish their marks to suffer because of it." She brings out the wand again, and a chair floats across the room. “I’m here to let you know what happened. Since you passed the test, I can give you the details of what happened when Grogar entered our world. There are things you will need to know…”

***

The two men should normally stand out of place in the halls of the school, though most of the students ignored them. The fact that some did not made them less the comfortable about their task. Both wore almost typical off the rack, Sears basement business suits, basic ties, and full length crimson leather trench coats.

Moving through the halls they watched the students laughing, talking about their day. Some were listening to music, while others playing on cellphones. Shaking his head the elder man turned own an almost empty hall except for one student.

"Trixie Lulamoon," the man says flatly.

"That is the great and…" Trixie starts with a flash, then she stops and goes pale as she recognizes the two men. "Yes, sir."

Flipping open a note pad the younger of the gentleman looks down at the page then at the student, "You were stripped of your wand for the loss of, or destruction of, William Boots’s Pendent while attending Ilvermorny?"

"I... I just tried to vanish it...I don't know what happened." Trixie gulps, looking down at her feet.

"You have been allowed to live with the No-mags as long as you obey the rules." The older man says firmly, yet flatly, in almost a monotone voice.

"I did, I obeyed the rules, I did everything." Trixie says with tears in her eyes almost pleading. "I didn't associate with any witches or wizards, I didn't use any magic, or try to brew any potions. I didn't expose our,” She flushes then gulps, “Well…your world."

"And yet, when magical goings on started to happen you did nothing, you stood by and did not make any attempt notify us." The younger man said, “In clear violation of the laws of wizarding. Risking exposure.”

"Magical goings on?" Trixie blinked through the tears in her eyes and sniffles, "You mean Sunset, Twilight and her group? None of that was..."

"It was magical, and very public, and yet you chose not to call." The older said cutting her off, not letting Trixie finish.

"I didn't... I didn’t, know I was supposed to... I didn't want to get in trouble for contacting you when I was only supposed to associate with No-Mags after the accident." Trixie shakes her head crying, “Don’t take me away, I can’t live there without magic.”

The two men look at each other before looking back at Trixie, "Well now, now you are going to tell us everything you know about these girls,” Turning pages in his book the younger man pulls out a wand, “And Equestria.”

Author's Notes:

Thank you all for reading this story. It's been a joy to work to bring this story to life.

One big thing about this story is the contributions from another author on this site, one Kitsy-Chan. This story is as much her creation as mine. We worked together to build the world and storyline. She worked hard to make the characterizations work with each character getting their moment to shine. Without Kitsy's input, this story simply would not have happened. So, give her a shout out for her hard work as well.

How much of this story went, I would frame the basic scene in accordance with our discussed plans. Then I would send it to her, and she would add the embellishments to make it a 3 dimensional, character driven story. Her research into Harry Potter lore as well as older MLP stories made this into the story it is. And my thanks go out to her. Let her know how much you liked her work as well. And thank you all for reading.

A big thing about writing a crossover between such different genres as Harry Potter and My Little Pony is having the story be able to fully use elements of both universes without nerfing one to oblivion or buffing the other to make the story. I tried to tread that line carefully, but it wouldn't have happened without Kitsy's input and advice on making the two worlds mesh as well as they did. Thanks so much for the great input on the story!

Equestria Girls and The Golden Bell

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 1.

Chapter 2.

Chapter 3.

Chapter 4.

Chapter 5.

Chapter 6.

Chapter 7.

Chapter 8.

Chapter 9.

Chapter 10.

Chapter 11.

OVA Equestrian Creatures and Where to Find Them

Chapter 12.

Chapter 13.

Chapter 14.

Chapter 15.

Chapter 16.

Chapter 17.

Chapter 18.

Chapter 19

Chapter 20.