As the magic of two universes continues to interweave, Sunset Shimmer and her friends begin their second year at Hogwarts.
Well over a year after a calibration fault in the mirror portal sent Sunset Shimmer to a world she had not planned for, she continues learning the magic of this new world. Between diplomatic overtures and magical endeavors, new complications arise.
Once more, Hogwarts opens its doors for young witches and wizards, unaware of an ancient threat slumbering beneath the school. Will it be awakened?
NOTE: As of right now, I find myself burned out on writing this story. The continuity introduces too many little mistakes and things add up. I may eventually rewrite the entire series and hopefully do a better job of it, but for now this is all there is.
“Are you two reading again?” Ron’s voice interrupted the peace within the upper floor of the tent where Hermione and Sunset had been relaxing, going through the memory of pages they had scanned earlier.
After the two of them had been reading for nearly a week and a half with nary an interruption save to eat, sleep and take care of other basic human needs, except when they were doing something with their friends, Emma and Dan had put their feet down and told them that the books wouldn’t be coming along on their trip to Equestria. Not that it actually changed anything.
After barely seeing the sisters for most of the year, they could perhaps be forgiven for forgetting the pesky little matter of the photographic memory the both of them shared.
Of course their sudden burst of reading wasn’t without a greater purpose. As soon as they had come home from Hogwarts, Sunset and Hermione had made good on their intention to start learning about more complicated muggle technology. Namely, computers.
Given the sheer scope of the subject, they had chosen to split the work between the two of them. Anything related to hardware and its integration with the magic of both worlds fell to Sunset, while Hermione studied up on anything related to software.
Since the plan was to adopt the idea of computers, not their exact function, it was likely that she would be forced to come up with at least one entirely new programing language, probably more. A monumental task to be sure, especially for children their age, but one Hermione was happy to throw herself into.
While she planned that, Sunset had experimented with the first prototypes of enchanted crystals that mimicked the function of a binary processing chip. Its power was minimal and it didn’t actually do much, but it was a start. Still, she felt like she was missing something.
“And? Is reading a bad thing?” Sunset inquired innocently enough as Hermione continued her own work.
“Not really, but there is such a thing as too much reading,” Ron replied, just as Ginny was coming up to join them. “Sides, you said we’d play some more chess today. I need to get you back for that last match.”
“What are you two working on anyways?” Ginny asked as she moved to lay down beside them. “I know you said you’d share it with us if you made any progress, but you do know that just makes the rest of us even more curious.”
Hermione seemed to come back to reality herself at that point. “Remember that project Sunset was working on, adapting the ideas of muggle technology but for magic?” At Ron and Ginny’s nod, she continued.
“Well, we’re trying to see if we can do the same for computers. But, well, they’re a bit more complex than what what was effectively a magical Bunsen burner.”
Sunset rolled her eyes at that. “Bit of an understatement there Sis. I don’t think even most muggles our age would be attempting stuff like this unless they were already interested in computers, or were savants.”
Ron and Ginny both had expressions that made it clear the two might as well have been talking another language. Hermione and Sunset both looked at each other, then facehoofed.
“Right… we really need to show you and the others some of the things muggles have made and come up with. Basically, a computer processes a lot of information to do all kinds of things by doing a lot of math really fast. Muggle computers are based on electronics, but I think I have a better option for a magical version.”
Ginny’s eyes lit up. “Oh, you mean like that ecletricity thing Dad keeps going on about?”
Hermione giggled. “It’s electricity, and yes. That’s what muggle computers are based on. What were you thinking of replacing it with, sis?”
“Well, the electricity itself with magic, obviously. But I was more thinking about the chips.”
“Chips?”
“Not that kind of chips, Ron. Computer chips. Basically boards with a lot of tiny switches on them. I was considering using crystal for that, but we need precision, not power, so I’m thinking glass could probably be modified to work as the base for the chips.”
Hermione rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Normally it’d be too brittle, but there is magic to counteract that. Not to mention dotted silicon isn’t exactly sturdy either. And by putting cooling charms on them you can stop the thing from heating up so much you’d need a dedicated cooler.”
“Basically, yeah. I’ll need to work on some prototypes.”
Ron rolled his eyes. “You can do that some time else. We’re on vacation.”
The sisters shared a glance. “He’s got a point,” Hermione finally admitted. “And Mum’s been getting on our case about it anyway.”
Sunset sighed and relented. “You’re not wrong on that… Mhh fine, some relaxation wouldn’t hurt anyways. Might even help give us some ideas for later.”
As Hermione stood up and stretched, very much resembling a cat as she did so, she smirked a bit as she added, “we may have to talk to your parents about taking everyone on a sort of tour of all things muggle when we get home. There is way too much you don’t know.”
Ron and Ginny shared a look at that, suddenly not sure if they should feel excited at the prospect… or if they should be worried about how much trouble their dad might be able to get into on such a trip.
A few moments later, the four of them made their way out onto the small clearing around a pond in the Whitetail Woods where they had set up their tents. Neville and Seamus were waiting for them outside. Harry and Lavender, from what it seemed, were out on flying lessons.
Seamus shot Ron and Ginny a smirk. “Finally managed to pry them away from their reading, did you?”
The two of them nodded while Sunset simply rolled her eyes. “Harry and Lavender still flying?”
“Yeah,” Neville confirmed. “She’s getting better from what I could see.”
Seamus grinned evilly, the expression quite effectively amplified by his new dark green manestyle hanging down beside his horn and over one of his eyes. “Can’t wait ‘til she tries landing though.”
Harry took that moment to glide into view over the treetops at the edge of the clearing, Lavender right behind him, though slightly lower. She just barely managed to avoid clipping her larger wings on the trees.
Harry flared and landed in the middle of the clearing beside the group, wincing as he watched Lavender flare too late, prompting her to hit the ground too fast, roll over and land on her back. Before she could hit her head on a tree at the edge of the clearing, Sunset, Hermione, and Seamus lit their horns, arresting her momentum and lifting her back to her paws and claws in a tri-colored magical aura.
Lavender rolled her eyes upon seeing the others’ amused expressions, but couldn’t keep a smirk from claiming her beak. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Landing is hard. Much harder than with a broom.”
“Well it would be,” Hermione agreed. “The spells on a broom give free control to move in any direction as necessary, flying with wings is far more complicated.”
“No kidding.” Ron sheepishly scratched the back of his neck with a hoof. “I still remember the trouble I had the first few times. Don’t worry Lavender, it gets easier with practice.”
“I sure hope so. This was my third crash. It took the first two for Harry to actually tell me that I need to flare before landing.”
Harry groaned. “I told you I was sorry. I forgot. I do it automatically.”
As the others chuckled, Lavender looked around. “Say, where’re the Twins?”
Sunset smirked. “What? Did you actually expect them to watch us like they were told to? They took off an hour ago. No clue where they went though.”
“So business as usual then?” Harry asked with a smirk.
Hermione nodded. “Pretty much par for the course, yeah. Ah well, not like we can’t take care of ourselves.”
Sunset nodded. “Not to mention there is literally nothing even remotely threatening in Whitetail Woods. The largest predator you’ll find around here is a fox, and even those are pretty docile.”
“Yeah,” Neville agreed, “we saw one of those earlier.”
“Still,” Hermione spoke up, thoughtfully, “they’re gonna be in trouble if they’re not here by the time Mum, Dad and Mister Black come back.”
“Who’s going to be-”
“-in trouble?”
The group looked over to see Fred and George land beside them, matching grins on their faces. Ginny just sighed. “So, what were you two up to this time?”
“Nothing bad, don’t worry.”
“But where would be the fun in telling you?”
Everyone shared a look, far from reassured. Still, it wasn’t like there was much the twins could get up to here that’d really get them into trouble.
“Well fine, don’t share. We’re busy anyways. Come on Sunset, I’ve got the board and the pieces over here waiting for you!” Ron declared as he made for a large stump nearby. Sunset could easily see that Ron had, in fact, set the game up already.
She smirked. “Want to get back for what happened this morning?”
Ron groaned as he watched her conjure her own pieces, but a quick glance revealed that there was no real ill will. “Mostly I just want some training.”
Sunset’s smirk quickly matured into a full grin. “Ahh, I see how it is … but I wouldn’t get my hopes up, she’s had a thousand years to practice.”
Ron smiled ruefully. “I know, she stomped me somethin’ good. Ah well, I had fun, at least.”
Sunset smiled as they got to playing, making full use of the fact that wizarding chess pieces were simply told where to move. She should probably introduce that idea to Equestria at some point. It might make the game, played as it was mostly by unicorns, more accessible to the other tribes. Though cutting down on the simulated violence the pieces engaged in might be wise.
She thought back on the day of their arrival. Once again, they had stayed in the Royal Palace of Canterlot for their first night in Equestria. From their correspondence, Princess Celestia had known that Ron was an avid chess player and offered him a match that evening.
Observing the match, Sunset had noticed that Ron had several times moved his pieces in ways that expected strategies she commonly used. That, needless to say, hadn’t gotten him far when matched against Celestia. But it had gotten her thinking.
Her and Ron had been matching repeatedly for a year now, mostly because the respective other was the only one who could offer them an actual challenge. During that time, both of them had gotten better at the game. But, after watching Ron and Celestia, Sunset noticed that they had also grown accustomed to playing each other. They were both familiar with the strategies and tactics the other commonly used and thought ahead to counter them.
Which was something she had used this morning to lure Ron into a trap. It had been fun, but she suspected that it would get boring quickly, so she’d probably tell Ron as soon as he thought to ask. Until then, she’d happily watch him struggle.
Poking her head out of the water, she watched the ponies carefully. The yellow one and the grey one were sitting at the tree stump again, like they had this morning. She didn’t understand what they were doing, but she didn’t really care either.
The two purple ones that looked the same were heading off somewhere again, like earlier. They were odd. The oldest ones of the current group, but often acting the most childish out of all of them. Pranksters certainly. Not what she was looking for.
The quiet rumbling of her stomach unnecessarily reminded her of what she needed. There were a few water weeds she could eat in the pond, but it wasn’t a large body of water and they were far and few in between those she wouldn’t be able to digest.
She didn’t have much experience, only hatched a week or so ago. She didn’t know any others like her, there were neither adults, nor other eggs or hatchlings, so there wasn’t really an example to learn from either, but her instincts had guided her well enough so far.
She knew that the list of things she could eat on her own was short. She was also aware that the number of things on that list found in her pond was quickly dwindling. Fortunately, the solution to that problem was the very thing her instincts had been telling her to do since the day she hatched.
Find a host.
Normally she would have simply found one of the larger creatures roaming the woods to host her, but fortune was favoring her.
Ponies. A whole group of them. They had simply appeared out of thin air earlier this morning. She had no idea why her instincts told her they would make better hosts than wildlife, but they did.
Sensing a shadow passing over her, she quickly retreated her head beneath the water.
False alarm, it was just the pegasus and the griffin flying off again. The pony she wasn’t scared of, another potential host. The griffin her instincts didn’t tell her anything about. Better to be careful.
But what she truly feared was the bird that was with the group. She didn’t recognize the brilliant red creature, but her instincts were well capable of recognizing a bird of prey and tell her to stay as far away from them as possible.
Carefully poking her head out of the water again, she spotted the creature. It was sitting on the head of the yellow pony. The pony’s mane almost perfectly matched the bird’s plumage with its colors. Did they belong together?
It didn’t matter. If she was to find a host, she would need them to be asleep. That wouldn’t happen until nightfall.
Until then, she would wait and keep watch.
Ron and Sunset quickly finished a game. And another one. And a third one. By the time Sunset had beaten him the fourth time in a row, Ron was growing annoyed. Finally, he asked the question Sunset had been waiting for. Between chuckles she explained to Ron what she had noticed in his game with Celestia.
When he understood, he smirked. “Oh so that’s how you were getting me. Oh it’s on. Now I know what you’re up to.”
She nodded, smirking just as much. “I know. Good thing too, I was getting a bit bored here. Can’t wait to see you change things up a little.”
By the time they finished their next game, this one going to Ron, the adults had returned. Sirius had taken the adult Grangers to introduce them to the Apples, seeing how they weren’t too far from Ponyville. Judging by their expressions, the three had enjoyed their hike. The lunch they were bound to get from their hosts probably didn’t hurt either.
Along with the adults, evening had arrived. The day length in Equestria didn’t vary with the seasons nearly as much as it did back on Earth, and it showed. The group was hardly tired at all when the Sun sank behind the trees. They had a late dinner and only thought about going to sleep hours after night had fallen.
It was then that Seamus thought of something.
“Say, why are we sleeping in the tents anyway?” He pressed his hoof on the ground beneath him. “This moss is plenty soft and it’s warm enough too.” He looked up at the cloudless sky above. “It isn’t going to rain either, is it?”
Sunset shook her head. “No. Not tonight. There’s an overnight shower scheduled for this area two days from now, but tonight should be warm and dry. Why? You planning to sleep outside?”
“Well, why not?” He looked up at the sky. “Not like we’re gonna get much chances to sleep under this kind of sky back home. The stars are amazing here.”
Sirius nodded. “Can’t argue with him there. Boy’s got a point.”
It wasn’t long before all of them decided to simply sleep outside. Some of them were hesitant about sleeping on the ground without a mattress or cover, but Sunset and Sirius, the two of them with the most experience being a pony convinced them that their coat and the soft moss were perfectly adequate to fill both functions.
A bit of magic from Sunset doused their campfire for the night and the space between it and the tents was soon filled with the curled up forms of sleeping ponies.
Half an hour after soft snoring had started ringing across the clearing, she finally dared pull herself fully out of the water. She didn’t pay any attention to the faint shimmer running along her long tail, dissolving the mud that had been clinging onto it. As far as she was concerned, that was normal.
She kept shooting wary glances at the bird that had arrived with the group, but it was perched on a branch at the edge of the clearing, just as sound asleep as the ponies. So she carefully approached closer. Taking a closer look at the group.
The large ones were intimidating, so, quite young herself, she quickly turned towards the smaller ones. An earth pony, two pegasi, and three unicorns. The griffin was sleeping with the group as well, but once more her instincts didn’t tell her anything about it like they did for the ponies.
The earth pony seemed interesting, but she wanted to see her options first. She quickly moved on from the pegasi. Neither of them could match the earth pony. The first of the unicorns couldn’t either, but the remaining two were another story.
Two fillies, one yellow the other a gentle sea green. Both looked comfortable.
Another glance confirmed that the bird was still asleep, so she took time to consider.
Perhaps it was bias, she had hatched in a pond in the middle of a forest and lived there since. She had seen green all her life. It may have only been a week, but she still wanted something different.
Her decision made, she approached the yellow filly.
The filly was sleeping soundly. Seeing that, a smile curled her tiny muzzle. It probably wouldn’t last much longer, but it was nice to see regardless. She could feel the filly’s breath on her quickly drying skin. The young pony’s mouth was open, allowing soft snores to escape.
Ripped from her dreams, Sunset suddenly jerked awake. On pure instinct, she swallowed to remove the obstruction in her throat. Her returning consciousness just barely registered the one distressing fact about the thing sliding into her stomach. She noticed that it was long, smooth and getting thinner as it went along, but that was not the distressing part.
The part that immediately brought her to full wakefulness and to the edge of panic was something else about the object.
It was moving.
On its own.
As in, the object was no object. It was a creature. A living creature. She shot to her hooves. Her panicky mind just barely managed to remind her that there were others sleeping around her. She could panic, sure. In fact, given what little she knew about what had just happened, that seemed entirely reasonable, but that would wake the others.
Maybe she really had been in Britain too long, but she didn’t want to wake them if she didn’t have to. And she was Celestia’s student. Or had been. Either way, she could probably handle whatever had just happened. After she was done freaking out. Looking around, she moved to find someplace where her panic wouldn’t be heard.
She dove for one of the tents.
One quirk of the undetectable expansion charm the wizards used, one her own version had kept, was that sound wouldn’t pass into or out of them while they were closed without a special charm to enable just that. Since she had charmed the tents herself, a simple mental command was enough to disable that charm.
The last of her self-control thoroughly gone, she broke into a panicked scream.
A few minutes of panic did wonders to get her emotions back under control and her mind working. That the sensation of the yet unidentified creature sliding down her throat kept replaying in her mind didn’t help her calm down at all. It did, however, allow her more rational mind to learn all it could about the thing.
It had been long and slender, ending in a narrow point, like the tail of a snake. But it had clearly been smooth skin, no scales anywhere.
Not a snake then. Given just how smooth the skin had been and considering the complete absence of fur, the creature was most likely amphibian. That, along with the fact that it had clearly jumped down her throat of its own volition, finally reminded her of something she had learned of during her tutelage under Celestia. Arcane biology to be exact.
Celestia had told her of a rare creature that matched all she knew about her mysterious intruder. More importantly, the lesson had come with a spell. If the creature was truly what she suspected it to be, she would know in a moment.
It took her several seconds to cast the spell. Panic, it turned out, was not exactly conducive towards the use of magic. When she finally did cast the spell, her panic ebbed off somewhat.
Her guess had been correct. The creature was what she had suspected. That also meant it would be perfectly fine, and so would she.
The lesson had taught her that what had just happened was a perfectly normal part of the creature’s life cycle. Imagining the process had, however, thoroughly grossed her out at the time, and experiencing it firsthand was, if anything, even worse.
The creature that was, according to the spell, now residing, alive and well, in her stomach, was a so-called alp-luachra. A small, magical amphibian that essentially looked like a tiny pony with a membranous fin in place of a mane and a long, serpentine tail several times the length of its body.
Given that the relevant lesson had been before her little stunt with the memory spell, Sunset was a bit fuzzy on the details. Fortunately, she had a book on Equestrian wildlife in her suite at the palace. Considering that she wasn’t exactly likely to get any more sleep anytime soon, she might as well look it up. It might help calm her down.
Hermione had been sound asleep a moment ago, dreaming of something or other. She wasn’t sure. She only knew that she wasn’t asleep anymore. She wouldn’t exactly call herself awake either, but she certainly wasn’t asleep anymore. And she couldn’t tell why.
By all means, she should still be soundly sleeping. The mossy ground beneath her was soft and comfortable, the summer air was warm, soft snoring filled the air, letting her know that the others were alright, and her sister was sleeping right next to her.
No.
Her sister wasn’t sleeping right next to her. The magical connection between the two had grown much deeper after a year spent in near constant close proximity. She had been able to feel Sunset’s presence in her immediate surroundings. It had helped her fall asleep. That said presence was now gone explained why she had awoken.
She cracked her eyes open and slowly got up. She could still see the flattened down moss where Sunset had been sleeping. Touching the area with her hoof revealed it to still be warm. Sunset couldn’t be far.
She was about to go look for her when the flap of the girls’ tent opened and Sunset came out. When she saw Hermione, she looked at her for a moment then slowly approached. Hermione simply tilted her head, well aware that talking out loud would risk waking the others.
Sunset stopped before her, lowering her head and lighting her horn with just a small amount of magic, just enough to create a faint glow. It took Hermione a moment to understand what her sister was doing, then she did the same, lighting her own horn and crossing it with Sunset’s.
Once more, the connection between them deepened and she immediately understood what was going on. More or less. Immediately, a slew of questions came to her mind, but Sunset sent back a single idea. Both of them stepped back and looked at each other, nodding. Then they both walked around the tent Sunset had come out of.
Once they were behind it, where they no longer had line of sight to any of the others, Sunset lit her horn properly and they both vanished with but a wavering of the air.
The moment they reappeared in Sunset’s royal suite they both took a deep breath, knowing that they needn’t be silent any longer.
“What was that? I mean, I get something happened, but I didn’t get anything specific.”
Sunset shook her head. “The book can probably explain it better. I wanted to look it up anyway. Just give me a moment to find it.”
Taking another deep breath, Sunset walked up to one of the book shelves looking over the titles. “Not here, hm? Then maybe …” She walked up to another shelf. “Ah, here we go.”
“A book on the species of Equestria?”
“Yeah. You’ll see.” Placing the book on her desk, Sunset flipped it open and looked at the index. Then she started looking through the pages for a moment. “Here we go, there it is. Come.”
Walking up beside her sister, Hermione looked at the book, seeing the illustration of the creature Sunset was looking up. She only glanced at the miniature pony with the long tail for a moment before joining Sunset in reading the description.
Once she had finished reading, she took a few moments to look over it again, then she looked to Sunset. “Sis, why are you looking up magical stomach parasites?”
Sunset raised an eyebrow, looking at her in exasperation. “Take a wild guess.”
“Huh? Wait.” Hermione blinked for a moment, then glanced to Sunset’s barrel. Then back to Sunset. “You? No.”
Sunset groaned. “Yes.”
“Really? Cool. I mean, it’s weird, but it’s cool.”
Sunset’s jaw dropped. “Really?! That’s your reaction? It’s crazy, that’s what it is. There’s another being living in my stomach. That’s not cool at all. It’s gross. It’s weird. It’s … I don’t know! It isn’t normal anyway.”
“It’s normal for them. Pretty much necessary, actually. And since when do you care about what’s normal? You traveled to another dimension. That’s about as far from normal as it gets.”
Sunset groaned. “I know. I wasn’t in a particularly good place back then. And it’s not like I could just go back. It took half a year until we figured out Philomena could just take us back and by then … well, you know.”
Hermione smiled at her. “Yeah, I know. Still you always seemed to me like a very ‘go with the flow’ kind of person. I don’t know why this bothers you so much. From what I can see from this there isn’t anything dangerous or malicious about these things. They actually sound kinda useful.”
Sunset sighed. “You don’t get it. There are … implications.”
“Implications?”
“Yeah, cultural implications. These things are rare. Like, seriously rare. And with ponies living in towns and cities, further away from nature, it’s become even more rare for one of us to be chosen as a host. It’s actually seen as a great honor. At least by those who know what these things are. They’re kinda obscure.”
“Okay, I still don’t get where the problem is.”
“The problem is that there are expectations linked to being chosen as a host. And I know these things intellectually. That doesn’t mean I can just accept them emotionally. If anything, living with humans made it worse.”
“Really? How so?”
“One word. Meat.”
Hermione cocked an eyebrow. “Huh?”
Sunset sighed once more. “I’m a pony. When I came to Earth I was used to a sugar-rich, vegetarian diet. The only reason I didn’t completely freak out the first time your parents put meat in front of me was that I had prior warning. Well that and it was bacon.”
Hermione looked a bit dumbfounded at that. “Uhh, how does that-”
“It’s bacon. It’s tasty, okay?”
“Can’t argue with that. Still, what does this have to do with your new … uhm … guest?”
“I’ve just barely grown used to eating parts of other living creatures. And only because I know they were never sentient to start with. This is different. Not only are these things fully sentient, this one is also still alive inside me.” She sighed again. “Waking up with a freaky half-pony, half-lizard thing half way down my throat probably didn’t exactly help either.”
“Well, okay, I get that. Probably not the best thing to wake up to. Honestly I don’t know how you managed not to wake all of us up. I know I would have probably screamed.”
“I know for a fact that you wouldn’t have.”
“Huh?”
“I would have screamed … you know, if I hadn’t had a weird lizard thing lodged in my throat.”
“Oh yeah. That would get in the way of that, wouldn’t it?”
“Absolutely. I’m pretty sure the reason I woke up in the first place was because it got in the way of my breathing.”
“Yeah no, really not a great thing to wake up to. Still, you’re properly awake now. Why are you still so freaked out about this?”
“I … I don’t know, okay? I spent like five minutes or so panicking before I could even calm down enough to figure out what kind of crazy thing just jumped down my throat.”
“I see. Probably an emotional thing then,” Hermione remarked, frowning in thought. “Think approaching this whole thing rationally would help?”
“Maybe?”
“Okay. So what else do we know about your new guest?”
“Uhh, nothing really. Celestia taught me about these things years ago. Before the memory spell. It was sheer dumb luck that I even remembered the spell to check if it actually was one.”
“Oh. There’s a spell for that?”
Sunset actually chuckled this time. “You’d be surprised what kind of crazy nonsense there’s spells for.”
“Fair enough. I remember seeing entire spellbooks specifically to prank people when we were at Flourish and Blotts. Think you could modify the spell to tell you more about it? Weave a diagnostic spell into it or something.”
“Huh. That could work, actually. Hold on.” She sat down closing her eyes for a moment. Then she lit her horn. “Okay, let’s see here. It’s a female.”
Hermione glanced at the book again. “Uhh, yeah. They all are. It says so right here.”
“Oh right. Let’s see. She’s about twenty centimeters long if I’m judging this correctly. Not fully grown yet.”
“Hold on. Twenty centimeters? Not fully grown?” Once more, Hermione glanced at the book. “I’m still not familiar with Equestrian measurements. How long do they get?”
Sunset took a look at the book again herself. “About forty to fifty centimeters, why?”
“Wait, fifty centimeters?” Hermione glanced at the illustration again. “And that’s to scale? How would something that size even fit in there?”
Sunset sighed as she remembered the reason Princess Celestia had taught her about these creatures in the first place. “It wouldn’t. Remember how I told you most modern illusions were originally based on thessian shadow magic?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, they’re not the only kind of magical pattern unicorns appropriated like that. Now where do you think we got the basis for our spatial expansion magic from?”
“Oh! Wait? So if these things don’t have enough room, they ... make room?”
“Yeah, it’s part of their innate magic. Actually, I think there’s more to that, but we won’t find that in a book about biology. And I’m pretty sure that’s the only book I have that actually deals with them. I’d have to get one about their magic from the royal archives. And those aren’t open at this time of night.”
“Oh yeah.” Hermione let out a yawn. “It’s the middle of the night, isn’t it?” She grinned sheepishly. “Think we should head back before one of the others wakes up and starts to worry?”
“Probably best. Though I’m not sure if I’ll be able to sleep after this.” Letting loose a yawn of her own, Sunset folded the book closed and floated it back to the shelf. “Let’s get back.” She stepped up next to her sister. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Okay.”
With a wavering of the air, the two sisters vanished again, the magical lighting of the royal suite going out the moment they were gone.
They arrived back behind the tent and Sunset stepped out and back towards the others. She let out a relieved breath when she saw that all the others were still there and sound asleep. Seeing that Hermione had followed her, she curled up where she had been sleeping before and closed her eyes.
She had been right. Finding sleep would be a challenge. The sensation of the alp-luachra sliding down her throat kept replaying in her mind. She was only mildly startled when she felt Hermione cuddling up to her. She smiled softly as she cuddled into her sister’s fur.
Sunset grabbed a copy of the relevant book from the royal archive early the next morning, but she and Hermione had quite a bit of trouble actually finding time to read. Emma and Dan, it seemed, had heard of their reading the previous day and were now conspiring to keep them busy.
Either they had finally remembered the two had photographic memories, or someone else had ratted on them. It ultimately didn’t matter much.
Sunset wasn’t entirely sure if she should be glad that they couldn’t actually read the title of the book. The author was a griffon and only spoke broken Equish. As such, her scientific work was written in her native griffonian. Sunset and, after a quick application of a lingual transfer spell, Hermione were the only ones who could actually read it.
If they did, they might be more willing to give them a few moments to read. Then again, it might lead to questions she wasn’t really prepared or willing to answer at this point. She had known Hermione would be understanding, but she wasn’t sure how the others would take it if they were to hear of her latest little problem.
Oddly, she wasn’t sure who would freak out the most - the only recently turned magical Grangers, or the Weasleys. On one hand, the Weasleys were more used to magic, on the other, the Grangers had had well over a year to get used to that idea and were already quite used to their concept of ‘normal’ going right out the window.
Breakfast had been a rather... strange experience. She was well aware that she would now have to eat enough to feed her passenger as well as herself. Knowing what to look for, Hermione had also not missed that she was eating a bit more than usual, but none of the others seemed to have noticed.
Thankfully, discussion of what they would be doing not only today, but through the rest of the week, did help to distract Sunset a little from the fact she now had a pony-salamander-thing residing in her gut.
Ultimately, the tents were packed back up with a quick bit of magic and stowed back into Sunset’s bag where they usually resided. She couldn’t quite hide her amusement when she realized she had spent the last year of school carrying around what was effectively two small houses at more or less all times. And at the fact that it had taken her this long to realize.
Over the first week of the holidays, Sunset had started to teach Hermione how to use a simple long-range teleportation spell. While she was already quite skilled at managing distance, her aim, so far, had been abysmal. That didn’t stop her from simply linking into Sunset’s spell of course, allowing her sister to aim both spells and transport the entire group to their next destination without the considerable strain teleporting the entire group had put on her magic the year prior.
Said destination was not too far away, fortunately, as Sirius and Harry had offered to show them around Ponyville for the day. Keeping that in mind, Sunset guided the two teleportation spells to the sitting room of Sirius’ cottage.
Seeing how only Sunset and Hermione had visited him and Harry here during the Easter holidays, the others hadn’t seen the house yet. Not to mention they weren’t used to Ponyville’s style of architecture. As such, there was a fair bit of staring going on as they took in the house.
Ultimately, though, a house was something they had all seen before and they left a few minutes later to head into the town proper. It wasn’t a long walk, given that Ponyville was a relatively small town, but they took their time, giving those who hadn’t been here, Lavender, Seamus, Neville, and the Weasleys, the time to look around.
Before too long they arrived at town square. The circular town hall attracted some attention, but the group moved on before too long. On their way to their next destination, Sirius greeted another pony whom he called ‘Mayor Mare’ who simply nodded with a smile before walking on, muttering something about mane dye. Taking a look at her brilliant pink mane and tail, they could guess what she was up to.
They soon reached market square where they ran across Buttercup who was stood at the Apple family stall selling their usual range of products. Once again, only Hermione seemed to understand the true meaning behind Sunset buying a few apples for the road, eating one of them immediately.
Now, Sunset, Harry and the adults were sat at a table outside Sugarcube Corner, a delightful little café at the edge of the square, chatting idly as they watched the others walk about the square taking in all the different usual and exotic things the small town market had to offer. The twins had said that some things about the town reminded them of Hogsmeade, the village near Hogwarts.
Lavender managed to attract some curious gazes from some of the townsfolk, which Sunset explained was due to her being a griffin here in central Equestria. You could sometimes find some in other parts of Equestria, like along the eastern coast or in Cloudsdale, but most didn’t travel much further inland. Ponyville was, after all, located near the center of Equestria, well over two thousand kilometers from either coast.
At the Grangers and Harry’s questioning looks, her and Sirius then proceeded to explain the city of Cloudsdale, what it was, and how it functioned.
As they talked, the others gathered around as well, listening closely. The very idea of a migrating city made of clouds was completely alien to them. Sunset had mentioned the name on occasion, but never actually gone into detail.
“Wait, was that that huge cloud I kept seeing last year?” Harry suddenly asked. “The one with rainbows coming off it?”
Sunset nodded with a smile. “Yeah, that’d be the one. We could visit if you want, but I’d have to read up on the cloud walking spell. I know there is one – actually more than one, if I had to guess – but the few times I’ve visited Cloudsdale with Princess Celestia she always cast it on me. I’d guess it’s similar to the spell I used to solidify the clouds in our tents, but I don’t know for sure.”
“And if it’s the only thing keeping us from falling Merlin knows how far,” Sirius agreed, “it’s probably better to look it up first.”
“There wouldn’t be too much to worry about when it comes to falling. Cloudsdale does have lookouts, especially for younger foals who haven’t quite managed flight yet,” Sunset remarked. “Still, better safe than sorry. And it’s about eleven kilometers, actually.”
“How far?”
Hermione just sighed. “Remind me why wizards are still using the imperial system again? Oh right, trapped in the past, I forgot. A bit over seven miles.”
“Wow … that’s high,” Ron admitted.
“Yup. So probably best avoid turning back to human form there. I don’t think humans can actually breathe properly that high up,” Sunset agreed. “Not sure why ponies can, though.”
Hermione tapped a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Can just any pony breathe properly up there, or does the cloud-walking spell also make it so non-pegasi can handle the altitude?”
“Pretty sure the spell doesn’t have anything to do with it.” Sunset was looking up at the clouds thoughtfully. “And I did have a harder time breathing up there if I recall correctly, but it was still a lot easier that it supposedly is for humans.”
“So,” Dan inquired, “everyone up for visiting there tomorrow?”
It didn’t take long before he had agreement from all sides. After having spent half a year of first-year flight lessons surrounded by friends, all helping him to overcome his fear of heights, even Neville agreed, if only because he knew that he’d be literally surrounded by flyers ready to catch him should he actually fall.
“Alright,” Hermione finally spoke up, once the decision was made. “We know what we’ll do tomorrow. What do we do now?”
Sirius smirked. “Now we have lunch. I know you wouldn’t really have lunch at a place like this back home, but over here, the kind of things they sell in a café are considered perfectly reasonable food.”
As those new to Equestria looked over the menu, and then sampled the food itself, they had to agree, though Lavender found herself wishing they had some meat.
As they ate, watching the goings on around, and, to the confusion of most of the natural born humans, above them, Sunset found her mind wandering. After living on Earth for over a year it was a bit strange to come back to Equestria, to once more see a world where a third of the population could fly.
Wizards had brooms, of course, but a good number of them never went beyond basic training in their use. Then, she had heard, there were flying carpets that were banned in wizarding Britain because of some law about enchantable muggle artifacts getting in the way. Why brooms didn’t fall under that but carpets did was beyond her, but she was well aware that laws rarely made complete sense.
Still, it got her thinking. Brooms, clearly, weren’t usable by ponies. Not for flight, at least. And carpets were, if anything, more of a gimmick than an actually viable means of transportation at any time but the height of summer. Brooms had the same problem with weather, of course, but with the prevalence of racing brooms they tended to be faster, mitigating the issue somewhat.
The thing that really would be needed for unicorns and earth ponies, and humans, of course, was a properly made flying vehicle. Not a muggle artifact enchanted to fly and repurposed into a means of transport, or even a land vehicle enchanted to fly. No, a proper vehicle, designed from the ground up with magical flight in mind. Perhaps she could take inspiration from muggle fiction, or even muggle aircraft? Though perhaps not the latter, given how many parts on them magical flight simply didn’t need.
It wasn’t anything she could deal with for the moment, and, she suspected, it would become vastly easier once Hermione and her figured out magical computers, but it was an interesting idea to file away for later. She should probably make a note of it somewhere.
“So, what do we do now?”
Ron’s question pulled Sunset out of her thoughts. She had barely even noticed that everyone had eaten up and the meal had been paid for. The group was getting up and ready to move on.
Sirius chuckled. “Now I’ll show you probably the most bizarre building in town.”
Sunset looked at him for a moment, then grinned. “I know what you mean. I’ll wait for you there.” In a flash of light, she vanished.
It took the group a few minutes to leisurely walk down Manehattan Road until they reached the third large square the town had to offer. Like Town Square and Market Square, Library Square wasn’t actually a square at all. All three of them were actually circular. But where Market Square had been devoid of any permanent architecture and Town Square had held the small hamlet’s town hall, Library Square held the building that was its namesake at its center.
It was immediately clear to the rest of the group what Sirius had meant.
Golden Oaks Library was a bizarre building indeed. The entire building seemed to be formed from a single, ancient, and very much living, oak tree. A door and windows poked through the bark and they even saw a balcony atop one of the larger branches.
“And they say earth ponies don’t have magic,” Sirius said with a snort.
The others soon managed to stop staring, but they were still intrigued how one would run a library inside a tree. As such, the group entered the ancient tree through the colorful front door and looked around.
“Ah, your young friend mentioned you’d be coming by.” Turning, the group saw a unicorn mare standing beside them. Where some ponies, like Granny Smith, had seemed old, this mare looked to be truly ancient. “Prose Warden at your service, resident librarian. How may I help?”
Sirius smiled winningly. “No need to worry, I’m just showing my friends here around town. And what tour of Ponyville would be complete without visiting Golden Oaks?”
The old mare chuckled. “True enough, I suppose. So our local hero has some friends over?”
Sirius just rolled his eyes. “Has everypony been gossiping about that again? I just did what anypony would have done. I happen to have combat experience. Might as well make myself useful.”
Prose smiled wryly. “True heroes often don’t want to be called that. Part of doing the right thing for the right reason, I guess. But I’ve heard of the spells you were using there. Have half a mind to have a look at them for myself. But what use would they be to an old mare like me? I may have been in the guard back in the day, but it’s been a hundred years since. These days I just guard my books.”
Sirius smiled. “Somepony has to. They won’t guard themselves.”
An amused giggle drew the group’s attention to Sunset who had walked up beside them, a book levitating beside her. “Well now, sounds like someone’s gone native. You like it here, Sirius?”
Sirius just chuckled. “Well, I haven’t had the best experiences back home. Fighting in a civil war, seeing my best friend and his wife murdered and then being thrown in prison for a decade … I guess just being treated normally is a nice change after that. I may have been slightly biased.”
He turned around upon hearing the sound of Sunset’s hoof meeting her face, followed by her rubbing her horn after being reminded that that particular gesture was a lot more unpleasant when one had hooves, then turned back, taking note of the librarian’s horrified expression.
“My apologies madam, I tend to forget that most ponies around haven’t experienced these kinds of things.” He chuckled ruefully. “Admittedly, most wizards back home haven’t either.”
Prose Warden watched as Harry and Hermione hugged him from both sides. “Really not from around here, are you? I’ve never seen nor heard anything of the sort, even back when I was in the guard. Then again, I guess they call it the Celestial Years of Peace for a reason. Before then, oh ho ho … Those were wilder times. Though I guess there really are only stories left nowadays.”
Sirius nodded thoughtfully. “Back where we’re from things are a bit different. There’ve been smaller skirmishes over the centuries, sure, but things only went really bad in the last century or so.”
Prose nodded slowly. “Well, if you’re looking to recover you couldn’t have picked a better place. Quiet, peaceful, and if you have any business that needs taking care of, Canterlot is only half a day’s train ride away.”
Sirius nodded with a wide smile. “So I’ve found. I know I wouldn’t have recovered half as well back in my family’s old home. Or even if I’d found a place of my own. I’ll probably move back home at some point, but I’m happy here for the moment.”
The migrating city of Cloudsdale was currently not far from Vanhoover, in the far north of Equestria. As such, even in the height of summer, temperatures, especially this high up, were barely above freezing.
Most of the group were the very image of bafflement as they were guided through the city’s famous weather factory. Intellectually speaking, they had all been told that pegasi controlled the weather in Equestria. They had even seen a few weather ponies pushing clouds across the sky during their outing to Ponyville the previous day.
Still, seeing clouds, snowflakes and liquid rainbow being made in massive vats was an entirely different experience. And of course the twins just had to try the liquid rainbow. Sunset had warned them that it was spicy. They hadn’t listened. Now everyone was laughing. After Ron and Sunset had applied a quick spell each to heal what little damage had been done, the twins joined in as well.
“I think a lot of people back home, muggle and wizard alike, would love to be able to do this,” Seamus murmured as they passed a room where they overheard a weather team planning out some light storms for Baltimare and Manehattan the following week.
Beside him, Lavender chuckled. “What? See how weather is made? Walk on clouds? Watch weather systems being planned?”
Seamus looked at her for a moment, then chuckled as well. “All of it, I guess.”
“I think he meant they’d love to be able to control it like they do here. Weather back home would be considered wild and untamed, which, well, it is,” Sirius said, his own voice full of awe. “Though knowing some folks, it’s probably a good thing we can’t control it.”
“Knowing wizarding history, and even muggle history, yeah, probably for the best,” Sunset agreed. She then smirked when she realized where their tour guide was leading them. “Oh, I know what’s coming next. This should be fun.”
Soon enough, they reached a door – it really was odd how quickly they had gotten used to seeing doors installed in a cloud – labeled ‘shipping’. Pushing it open, the worker giving the tour led them into a large room opening up to a hole in the wall leading out into open sky. He led them up a set of stairs on the side of the room onto a catwalk that overlooked the area, giving them an excellent view of the pegasi compressing raw cloud matter into larger, hollow clouds to use them as transports to supply the smaller weather offices throughout Equestria with the raw materials for their weather systems.
The natural born humans were quite baffled at the sight. They had understood that weather manipulation was a complicated matter and the pegasi had it down to a science, but this was something else. More than any other part of the tour, seeing this room made it clear that this was a large industry. Supplying a nation as large as Equestria with the raw materials for all its artificial weather was a colossal task.
They had been just as surprised to learn that the ponies of Equestria had to manually change the seasons as Sunset had been when she had found out that the seasons on Earth changed on their own. That surprise was also shared by their tour guide whom nopony had thought to warn just who it was he was showing around the factory.
After well over two hours touring the factory and a trip to the gift shop where both the twins and Hermione bought a bottle of liquid rainbow to take along, the group finally returned to the city proper. When asked just what they were going to do with their souvenirs, Hermione explained that she was going to give her sample to Professor Snape so he could see what he could do with it. It was, after all, an entirely unknown magical substance.
The twins, meanwhile, refused to tell. Privately, Sunset suspected they too intended to experiment with it. She had heard the explosions coming from their room back at the Burrow when she’d been visiting during the summer.
After having lunch in a restaurant not too far from the factory, the group continued on their trip through the city. Sunset, who was not only the one most familiar with the city by virtue of having been there before, but was also the one carrying the map, led the way at a relaxed pace giving the others plenty of time to look at Cloudsdale’s unique style of architecture.
She had to admit that it was quite a sight to see. Often times paths, buildings or even entire city blocks were just floating on their own with no solid connection to the rest of the city. Of course, seeing how the entire city was held together by clouds and magic, one might say that the same was true for the rest of it.
“I take it they’re not used to tourists from the ground,” Neville mused aloud as he and the others looked towards one of those very buildings just floating a short way off from the thoroughfare they were walking along.
Sunset nodded. “Yeah. The cloudwalking spell isn’t particularly difficult to cast, especially if you have somewhere to look it up from, but it’s like I said, most unicorns don’t bother learning more than half a dozen spells. Places like Las Pegasus even have unicorns on staff to cast those spells on visitors and refresh them regularly.”
“Wait,” Ron inquired, “that’s their entire job? Just casting that spell over and over all day long?”
Sirius shrugged. “I could think of worse jobs. It’s easy to do, probably a lot of free time between groups of tourists, and responsibility pays so they probably get a good chunk of bits too.”
When the other two adults in the group nodded, Ron just shrugged and continued looking about.
Before too long, the group reached a cloud formation shaped into a long bridge, leading to a large, roughly cylindrical building. Sunset led them across the bridge and turned around, smiling widely. “Welcome,” she said with an expansive gesture to the archway behind her, “to Cloudsdale Coliseum.”
The others slowly walked past her. Sunset noticed that everyone was still quite awed by the sight of such a structure, but the ones from a muggle background seemed more interested with a similarity she herself had already caught onto.
“Reminds me of the Roman coliseum in Italy.” Hermione said, with Harry nodding in agreement.
Seamus snorted a bit and said, “If you haven’t noticed, this place seems to have a lot of the Roman style in their buildings. Makes me kind of wonder again if somewhere, someplace, there’s been other visitors from our world to here, or here to ours.”
Sunset nodded. “Entirely possible. That would also explain why so many magical and non-magical creatures match in both worlds. But it must have been thousands of years ago. Maybe more than that.”
Harry walked a bit further into the large structure, to the edge of the balcony and looked down. “Huh, well there’s a difference. Pretty sure the coliseum in Rome has a floor.”
As the others approached to look down at the massive hole in the place of a floor as well, they started hearing a faint whistling noise from below. The source was revealed mere seconds later as a group of pegasi wearing blue flight suits came flying up from below through the hole before splitting apart and flying through a series of complex maneuvers, their flight paths crossing and interweaving in impressive patterns.
Sunset tilted her head. “Oh yeah. There were posters in town mentioning a Wonderbolts show here soon. Guess they’re practicing.”
“Yeah, we’re practicing right now.” A pegasus stallion in a suit like the ones the flyers were wearing came up to them, gesturing to the group who were now repeating their formation again. “That’s why they keep flying the same formation over and over. And we’ll have enchanted satchels to leave a trail of clouds with us during the show. Add to that a bit of lightning from our own magic and it’ll look much better than this. I’m Soarin’ by the way, nice to meet you.”
Sirius arched a brow. “And why aren’t you training with them?”
Soarin’ smirked. “Well, me and Misty Fly have our own part of that formation, separate from the others. And we’re currently on break.”
“Were on break you mean.” The aforementioned pegasus said as she stepped into view. “Our break’s just about over and then it’ll be our turn to practice our bit.”
Soarin’ blushed a bit. “Hey, we technically still have another two minutes left. I checked!”
Misty Fly shook her head. “How did you manage to end up second in command again? Whatever.” She turned to the visitors, pointing a wing at the flyers practicing above. “Like he said, this is nothing. If you want a real show you’ll have to … well, come to the actual show.” She tilted her head towards a door. “The office is that way. Pretty sure there should still be some tickets left.”
With a wink, she jumped over the railing, spreading her wings as she fell and gliding out across the arena. Soarin’ just grumbled something unintelligible before taking off after her.
Sunset gently stroked her chin with a hoof. “Well, this wasn’t part of the plan …”
Hermione, beside her, snorted. “We have a plan?”
Sunset shot her a glance and smiled. “I guess we don’t, do we? I mean, I figured I’d properly show you around Canterlot at some point this time around, but other than that, not really.”
“Soo,” Fred fell in, “anyone else up for watching this show they mentioned?”
“Me!”
“Figured you would be, brother.”
“Why of course, anyone else?”
Ron glanced to his side. “How about it Harry?”
Harry nodded eagerly. “Sure, who else?”
One by one, the whole group nodded their agreement. Finally Sirius and the Grangers turned to Sunset. “This cloudwalking spell of yours, how long does it last?” Sirius asked for the three of them.
Sunset tilted her head slightly, staring into the distance as she ran through some mental math, greatly simplified by a bit of arithmancy. “Probably about fifteen hours, maybe sixteen. But I can just refresh it, so it’s no real problem so long as one of us remembers.”
Fred chuckled at that. “I’m sure the threat of some of us plummeting down to our deaths-”
“-should be plenty of motivation for someone to remember to speak up when we start sinking through the clouds,” George finished, no less amused.
Emma rolled her eyes at the twins’ comments, but nodded. “Alright good. And I take it there are hotels in Cloudsdale?”
Sunset nodded in turn. “Sure. I mean, most visitors are pegasi and griffins, but there are still plenty of them. It’s not a tourist hotspot like Las Pegasus, but then again, most places aren’t. But yeah, we should be able to find a hotel no problem.”
“So then,” Sirius piped up. “Which way did she say the office was?”
Sunset smirked as she watched the rest of the group ooh and ahh at the aerial display. She had been to Wonderbolt showcases before. Sure it had been a few years since, but the routine hadn’t changed that much. She watched the new stunts with as much awe as the rest of them and nostalgically remembered those that had been removed from the program, but the rest of the time she found the expressions of those around her to be much more entertaining than the display above and below.
Emma, Dan, Hermione, Seamus, Neville and Sirius, had similar expressions of awe, though tinged with a bit of worry in some cases. Sunset found, however, that the others’ expressions much more closely matched the rest of the audience.
Seeing how they were in Cloudsdale, almost the entire audience was made up of creatures capable of flight. As such, like them, the pegasi of the group, as well as the one griffin, had a much better understanding of just how impressive the things the Wonderbolts were doing up there truly were.
The others could fly on brooms, of course – most of them anyway – but that was nothing compared to flight under one’s own power with actual wings. It was, she had to admit, something Sunset couldn’t understand, and likely never would.
Still, she was content to watch. Not only was it amusing, it also gave her time to think. And she had much to think about.
In flashes of teal and green, the group appeared on the grounds outside Canterlot Palace. Once again, Sunset had been guiding Hermione’s teleport, enabling them to take the entire group at once.
Another flash of light, golden this time, caught their attention. Those that had been momentarily confused by the sudden shift, especially because a teleport couldn’t perfectly adjust for the pressure differential after having spent two days up in cloudsdale, quickly turned their attention in the direction of the castle.
Sunset smiled widely and raced up to Princess Celestia who readily wrapped a wing around her just as another flash of light, this time it was magenta, heralded the latest new arrival and prompted her to smile benevolently at the filly that had appeared behind her. “I see you traced me, Twilight. Good. I thought this was a good opportunity to test your skill.”
“A test?! How did I do?”
Celestia chuckled lightly, joined after a moment by Sunset, Hermione and Ginny. “You did just fine, my pupil. Now, I believe you have some friends to catch up with.” She got up and let go of Sunset, letting her and Twilight talk, soon joined by Ginny and Hermione, as well as Lavender a moment later. Meanwhile, she turned to the rest. “I have had the same rooms prepared for you as last time. I hope you can find your way around?” When the others nodded, she smiled and turned to Sunset again. “Sunset, I would talk to you in my study later, if you don’t mind.”
When Sunset simply nodded before returning to her conversation, Celestia lit her horn and vanished in another flash of light.
Celestia looked up from her usual stack of paperwork when she heard a knock on the door to her study. She smiled. She hadn’t actually heard Sunset’s knock in well over a year, but her memory, honed over generations, recognized it all the same.
The wards told her that Sunset wasn’t alone. If she had to guess, the other filly with her was likely Hermione. She hadn’t missed just how inseparable the two of them had become. With her gentle smile, just a tad wider than usual, firmly in place, she lit her horn to open the door and got up from her desk, watching the two fillies enter.
“Ah, Sunset, there you are.” Celestia’s smile turned mischievous as her horn and eyes lit up with a pale golden glow. “I see you’ve brought a most unusual guest.” When Sunset glanced to Hermione, Celestia giggled lightly. “Not your sister, your other guest.”
Sunset followed Celestia’s gaze and looked down herself. “Ah, when did you notice?”
Celestia’s smile widened. “I noticed you come by a few days ago without saying hello, so I wondered what you were doing. You left the book open. After that, checking was simple.” She laid a gentle wing over Sunset’s back. “It’s a great honor, you know? Even if it feels wrong. You get used to it and before long you come to rely on having another mind to fall back on. Once you work out how to talk with her, that is.”
Hermione looked at Celestia curiously. “That sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
Celestia’s smile fell. “I am. I was a host myself once, centuries ago. Velaria was a true friend. Alas, she turned out to be less resistant to the ravages of time than I was.”
Sunset looked up to her former mentor and teacher. Most would have only seen a calm, perhaps slightly melancholy smile, but Sunset had known her for years, she didn’t miss the tears glistening in the corners of those ancient eyes. Whether it was because she was simply observant, or from the connection they shared, Hermione didn’t either. As such, they both walked up and gently hugged the much larger alicorn.
Celestia couldn’t help but smile sadly. Like ponies, alp-luachra were long-lived creatures, but they couldn’t match Celestia’s immortality. Velaria had been her companion for nearly three and a half centuries starting not long after she’d had to banish Luna. She had been an invaluable help in keeping Celestia from despair in those early years.
Losing her had hit Celestia hard.
It was an old and well-healed wound on her spirit, but it was still painful to remember. Still, without uttering a word, Sunset and Hermione had reminded her that it was a pain she didn’t have to bear alone.
So, for the first time in decades, Celestia let go of her mask and let herself cry over those she had lost throughout her long life to death, banishment or other, more mysterious circumstances. It wasn’t just her old friend Velaria she cried for. It was also Luna, the many students that had come and gone before Sunset and Twilight, and those she still missed from her early years, like Starswirl, whose disappearance was still a mystery to this day.
Once she had started crying she had a hard time regaining control of herself. She gently curled around the two fillies as she cried. It took almost fifteen minutes before she calmed down and sat up straight again, drying the fur beneath her eyes and bringing the two fillies’ manes back in order with a touch of magic. A shake of her head was all it took to get her own ethereal mane to behave.
She took a deep breath to reassert her usual calm. “I thank you both. I didn’t have a chance to do that in a while.”
Hermione looked at her for a moment. “Define ‘a while’.”
Celestia tilted her head slightly. “Oh half a century, give or take a decade or two.”
The three of them shared a laugh. Then Celestia took it upon herself to drag the conversation back to the topic at hoof. “Anyway, that wasn’t the only thing I wished to discuss with you, Sunset. Though if you have any questions about your new companion I can certainly answer them readily enough.
“You know that I intend to establish official first contact with Wizarding Britain not long after your holiday here ends. I’ll need to ask Philomena for transport, of course, but I would also like to ask you to accompany me.”
Sunset looked at her with a raised eyebrow for a moment. “Why? I mean, I may have some training in politics, but I’m no diplomat.”
Celestia’s smile was once more as serene as ever. “Because I need to know what to expect. I have spent a few hours around humans, you have lived in their world for over a year. I need an insider’s perspective and I need somepony I can trust for it. At least until we can get a proper ambassador in place.”
Sunset thought on that for a moment. “Well if what I know of their history is any indication, you probably know a lot more about foreign diplomacy than any of them do. They contacted every magical community on the world to form the International Confederation of Wizards when they agreed on the Statute of Secrecy. That was centuries ago. Nowadays, from what I’ve read, the Confederation regulates any world moving things and the rest is left to the individual magical governments to figure out. Any agreements about all of that are centuries old.”
Celestia nodded thoughtfully. She had suspected most of that from what Professor Dumbledore had told her, but it was good to have confirmation.
“I also did a bit of digging,” Hermione spoke up. “You’ll probably mostly be dealing with the Department of International Magical Cooperation. They might even open a new office specifically to deal with dimensional affairs, now that they know it’s a possibility. From what I read, the head of that department is Bartemius Crouch.”
Celestia had just turned all her attention to Hermione, listening intently, when Sunset spoke up again.
“Oh yeah, I read about him in the history books, too. So that’s what he does these days. He used to be head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, like Madam Bones is now. He sounded pretty ruthless to me. A stickler for rules. He had quite a few supporters back then, but there was something with his son being part of the Death Eaters and being sent to Azkaban not long after the war was over.”
Hermione nodded. “Yeah, he and a few others attacked two aurors trying to find out what happened to Voldemort. He apparently died not long after he was sent to Azkaban. And his wife died not long after, too. That messed up his public support quite badly, especially because he was the one that sent him there, so he went on to lead the Department of International Magical Cooperation. It’s considered the least important department by many, from what Ron and Ginny told us. Their father works for the Ministry.”
Celestia listened intently. It was good to know that Sunset had done some research, but she had been expecting that. That Hermione had done the same, and independently so, it seemed, came as more of a surprise, but it was a welcome one.
She idly recalled some of what she had seen of Hermione, and heard from Sunset, and realized that she shouldn’t be that surprised. She had seen Hermione interact with her own student several times, after all. She really should have seen the parallels.
She was quite amused that the Department of International Magical Cooperation was considered the least important of the departments. That would be changing soon enough. Mister Crouch sounded like he might potentially be a problem. A strict adherence to laws and rules was all fine and well so long as those laws were just and sensible.
With people like Professor Dumbledore making them, Celestia was certain most of the laws that would apply to her little ponies, should they want to visit the human world, which wasn’t a major issue for the moment as Phoenix travel appeared to be the only reliable way of transit for the moment, were at least mostly just. Some, however, like their Statute of Secrecy would simply be nonsense in Equestria. There was no point in hiding from a non-magical community that plainly didn’t exist.
She would have to see how much Mr. Crouch would be sticking to the rules of his homeland. She only hoped he wouldn’t be trying to get their laws to apply in Equestria. She could stop any such attempt easily, of course, but she would prefer it if she didn’t have to.
After a moment of contemplative silence, Celestia decided to speak up. “Thank you. Both of you. I see you’ve been a good influence on each other.” She tilted her head slightly. “Maybe I should talk to Mister Weasley myself.”
“Hold on,” Sunset began and it was clear from her expression that she was referencing the schedule. Celestia was well aware that, whenever Sunset made a planned trip to Equestria from the world that had so quickly become her home, she made a schedule to keep track of the temporal drift for the duration, just to keep such spontaneous visits to the other side from happening at inconvenient times. It wouldn’t do, for example, to bother Mr. Weasley during work hours or in the middle of the night. “There, assuming everything goes as normal he should be coming home from work about three hours or so from now.”
Celestia chuckled lightly. “Should I perhaps not question how you know his work hours so exactly?”
Sunset grinned. “We spent enough time around their house to get a sense for it. Then I just visualized it.”
Hermione gasped. “And your photographic memory kicked in!” Her eyes widened in realization. “That’s the trick you told Neville. I forgot all about that.”
Celestia giggled. “Perhaps you should have used it to remember it?”
“Of course, that’s a great idea. Thanks, your highness.”
Celestia suppressed a sigh. “Please, Hermione, call me Celestia. I have enough of my little ponies insisting on my titles as is. It makes me feel old.” Seeing the beginnings of Sunset’s grin, Celestia knew it was time for a preventative measure. “Yes, yes, I know. I am old. That doesn’t make me feel any better about it.”
Sunset’s beginning smirk instead turned into a softer smile and she once more came up to the alicorn. This time she shifted to her human form making her appear much larger and putting them at a far more even height with Celestia lying down at the table as she was. She wrapped her arms around Celestia’s neck and enclosed her in a gentle hug. “You know you’ll never be old.”
Celestia managed a smile. Not the normal smile of her royal mask, but a genuine one, the kind that didn’t come any easier even with a thousand years of practice. “Not so long as I have such young minds around me.”
Taking the hint, Hermione followed Sunset’s example and came over in her human form, gently running a hand through Celestia’s ethereal mane. It didn’t need care, of course, which unfortunately meant that it also didn’t get it particularly often. As such, it was all the more pleasant for the ancient alicorn. “Though if there is anything else either of you can think to add…”
Hermione tapped her chin, then grimaced slightly. “There is one thing I can think of. I haven’t done as much reading on it, but I probably should, now that I think about it. The Wizarding world, or at least Britain, has laws that handle interactions and in some cases regulates the affairs of some other magical creatures that aren’t just beasts.”
That caught Celestia’s attention, even as Sunset gave Hermione a bit of an incredulous look.
“I know a bit about those laws… you can’t seriously think they’d try to apply those laws to us?”
“I think it’d be pretty apparent that trying is pointless, considering that without a phoenix, there’s no way for other wizards or witches to get here. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some in the Ministry who might not want to try, especially among the purebloods,” Hermione said, a bit of a sour tone entering her voice. She did smile a bit though as she remarked, “though, those kind of folks might be a bit more busy getting in a tizzy about being able to change non-magicals into magicals.”
Sunset nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “In that case you might have to deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It’s led by Mister Diggory.”
Hermione nodded. “Didn’t Luna mention that the Diggorys don’t live too far away from them and the Weasleys?”
“Yeah, Mister Weasley should be able to tell you more about him, just in case.”
Celestia nodded thoughtfully. “Three hours, you said?”
Sunset nodded. “Give or take a bit, yes. Don’t worry, I’ll keep track of it and send Philomena to pick you up at the right time.”
“Thank you, Sunset.”
After chatting for a little while longer – mostly a matter of Hermione and Sunset telling of what they had gotten up to during their holiday. And guessing what the twins had been up to – the two girls resumed their equine forms and made their way back down to rejoin the rest of the group.
They soon encountered a problem not only the two of them but also Celestia had forgotten to consider.
Celestia had arranged for the same distribution of rooms as when they had stayed at the palace for the first night after arriving in Equestria, like they had the summer before. Like then, Sunset had gathered up the other girls, Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender, and offered to let them sleep in her suite.
The issue was that said suite was heavily warded and magically locked. And the wards were keyed to only two magical signatures, Celestia’s and Sunset’s own.
So it happened that Sunset and Hermione found Lavender and Ginny sitting in the corridor outside the suite with Philomena perching on the former’s back, and waiting for them.
With a slight chuckle and a sheepish smile, Sunset lit her horn to unlock the door and swing it open. Lavender shook her head as she walked in, resuming human shape, much to Philomena’s dismay. “I still can’t believe that you have a suite in a royal palace just sitting here, waiting for you.”
Sunset grinned. “What can I say? Being Student of the Sun does have its perks.”
After having already been in the room several times, Ginny and Hermione had less of a reaction, though they did still look a little incredulous. Like Lavender, the both of them and Sunset took human shape and pulled out their luggage. They didn’t have particularly much of it, but they were aware that they hadn’t actually taken a shower or put on a new change of clothes in human form in over a week.
The day was still young and Sunset was planning to give them all a proper tour of Canterlot, so they took the opportunity to freshen up.
Like any city atop a mountain, Canterlot tended to be rather chilly for most of the year. The summer months were the one marked exception to that. Sunset took full advantage of that as she led the group through the town she had once called her home.
It wasn’t home anymore, but she still knew her way around. Much like in Cloudsdale, the first attraction the group took in properly, now that it was pointed out to them, was the architecture of the city itself. Marble was a common sight in this city and golden trim – usually brass, only in a few cases was it actual gold – was everywhere. Anywhere else such opulence might have seemed out of place, but in the capital of a nation ruled by an embodiment of the sun it somehow seemed entirely appropriate.
All of that, of course, the group already knew. They had spent a night in the city before, after all. What most of them hadn’t realized was that the city wasn’t actually on the mountain itself, but on four platforms attached to its sides at different heights. Each of those platforms, Sunset explained, was its own district.
Their tour started, unsurprisingly, in the Royal District. They were already familiar with the palace quarter which, as the name implied, held the Royal Palace, the palace grounds, and precious little else, but Sunset quickly took them to the small park at the center of the platform from where they could see the other three parts of this district.
The academy quarter to the west was the first part of their tour. The clear main attractions were Canterlot University and Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but while both were certainly artistically built, all of them had seen a school before, so Sunset spent most of the time regaling them with stories from her own time at Princess Celestia’s school.
The next part of the tour sparked significantly more interest. The military quarter. Unsurprisingly, the big thing to see was the Royal Guard Headquarters. The Grangers were familiar enough with the idea of a military base, but had never actually been to one. To the others, the entire idea was more or less foreign. Seamus had a muggle father, sure, but he had only heard of an organized military a few times.
Sunset found herself a bit curious to how the young wizards and witches would react to it, given that all that the wizarding world seemed to have was the Auror’s who were akin to an elite police force rather than an army. The irony that Equestria had an army and hadn’t been involved in a war in millenia while wizarding Britain had none and had been part of two wars in the last century alone wasn’t lost on her.
The only other building of any real interest was a small Wonderbolt outpost. Their main base was, of course, in Cloudsdale – or rather on a smaller cloud formation that migrated throughout Equestria alongside cloudsdale, but wasn’t technically part of the city.
Their last stop in the Royal District was the Diplomatic Quarter. Among all the white and gold of typical Canterlot architecture, the Griffonian and Zebrican embassies stuck out like a sore thumb, though the former more so than the latter.
The Griffonian embassy was effectively a large tree constructed out of stone by pony engineers with several smaller buildings on its branches, partly hidden in the stylized metallic leaves. It was apparently a classic buildstyle in the border city of Griffinstone and beyond, though the griffins used actual trees there.
The Zebrican embassy, on the other hand, was carved into the side of the Canterhorn itself. Colorful paintings covered the walls of the larger central cavern and small tunnels led into various offices and chambers. The group was quite startled to learn that each of the paintings was actually an old Zebrican folktale rendered in a traditional way.
Hermione, especially, seemed to be fascinated. The group easily saw her looking over all of the images carefully. It didn’t take a genius to realize that she was making full use of Sunset’s gift to commit all of them to memory. She would be asking for written versions of the stories later, of that there was no doubt in any of their minds.
While the group was keeping themselves busy staring around the large central chamber, Sunset summoned a piece of parchment and a pen to her and quickly wrote down a short letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
assuming my time keeping is accurate and he didn’t have to stay for work longer, Mister Weasley should be having dinner about now. Feel free to borrow Philomena for the afternoon. And maybe send a letter ahead, British wizards tend to not like unannounced visitors from what I’ve heard.
If you need something to keep Twilight busy while you’re gone, she’s welcome to join us on our tour of Canterlot.
Take care,
Sunset
After a quick mental call to her familiar, it took only a few seconds for a flame to flare up beside Sunset and resolve into a rather sleepy looking Philomena. Apparently she had been napping back at their suite.
Once she had taken off with the letter, it only took a minute for an answer to materialize before Sunset.
Dear Sunset,
thank you for your note. I’ll be sure to send a warning ahead and visit soon. Twilight is actually visiting her family today. Her brother is off duty for the week so I’ve given her some time off to spend with them. If she will actually take time off studies is another question, but I can’t really forbid her to study, can I?
I guess I could, but I’d never be able to tell her not to study.
Her family lives at 17 Clover Lane in the Upper District if you want to invite her.
Have fun showing your friends around Canterlot,
Celestia
Sunset smiled as she read the message. The Upper District was already the next planned stop on their tour. Once she managed to get her sister away from the paintings anyway.
The Upper District of Canterlot was, somewhat counter-intuitively, not the highest of the four stone platforms the Equestrian capital was built upon, that was the Royal District. No, it was found on the second highest and second smallest of the four platforms.
A long, slender staircase that curved around the edge of the Royal District platform, partly cutting through the mountain by means of a tunnel in the process before releasing into midair, it’s curve changing direction halfway down to switch from matching the curve of the Royal District’s outer edge to matching that of the Upper District.
Built completely of magically reinforced marble, from the steps itself to the beautifully carved hoofrails, the staircase was held up not by any kind of physical support, but by completely invisible magical tethers that spanned between the platforms. A single, inlaid line of gold separated the staircase along the middle, cleanly dividing it into two halves, one for ascending to the Royal District, the other for descending to the Upper District.
From the staircase it was clearly visible that the road layout of the Upper District mirrored that of the Royal district, only with a five-pointed star rather than a four-pointed one. The pattern, Sunset assured the group, continued in the Middle and Lower Districts as well.
The Upper District was traditionally inhabited by nobles, mostly the unicorn houses of the infamous Canterlot nobility, though several old lines of pegasi and earth pony clans had holdings here as well. The House of the Stars, spread out as it was, owned several buildings in this district, from simple houses to luxurious mansions. The villa at 7 Clover Lane was somewhere in between said extremes.
Clover Lane itself was one of the ring roads that ran all the way around the district. Specifically it was the outermost one. And number 17 was among the line of buildings separating the road from the edge of the platform, affording the villa a beautiful view over the lands beyond Canterlot.
Sunset quickly realized that as the de-facto tour guide it fell to her to knock. Or it would have, had the house not been equipped with a door bell. The system was, in truth, little more than a pair of enchanted crystals, one in the house to make the sound, the other outside to serve as the trigger, but it worked perfectly well. Simply pressing her hoof on the crystal beside the door, Sunset set it off and took a step back, much to the envy of most of her companions. They had mastered quadrupedal locomotion reasonably well, but walking backwards down a staircase was advanced.
The door opened to reveal a young white unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane. He looked over the group and then focused on Sunset. “Good morning. How can I help you?”
Realizing that Twilight had never actually mentioned her family, Sunset could only guess that this stallion was her successor’s older brother. He just seemed to be a bit too young to be her father. “Hello, is Twilight in? I’m taking my friends on a tour of the city and figured I’d ask her if she wanted to come along.”
The stallion raised an eyebrow. “And you are?”
“Oh right, Sunset Shimmer. I was the previous Student of the Sun, Princess Celestia introduced us.”
The stallion nodded. “Ah, I see. Shining Armor, Twilight’s brother, pleasure to meet you.” He turned around back inside. “Twily! A filly called Sunset is here and wants to talk with you.”
The entire group turned to the side as a flash of magenta beside them heralded Twilight’s arrival. “Sunset! It’s been way too long.”
Sunset nodded as she closed Twilight into a hug, Hermione quickly coming up beside them and joining in as well. “Yeah. Almost a year. We really should meet up more often.” She smiled as the group separated. “I’m just giving my friends a proper tour of Canterlot. Figured I’d ask if you want to come along.”
Twilight turned to look at Shining Armor, but he just smiled. “Go ahead. I’ll still be here when you come back.”
Sirius smiled. “Or you could just come along as well. I’m sure you know some interesting places in town as well.”
Shining looked at Sirius for the first time and his eyes narrowed. “Why do I feel like I should recognize you. It’s like I’ve heard your description somewhere.”
“Sirius Black. I guess you probably know of me because I occasionally train the unicorn guards in Ponyville some combat magic I know. Princess Celestia mentioned you were in the guard.”
“Ah yes, your name was in an incident report, I remember now. Something about Timberwolves on a farm?”
“Yes that was me.”
“And you tutor the guard in combat magic? Sure, I’d love to come along. Who knows what I might learn from you.” Once more, he turned to face inside. “Mom, Dad, Twily and I will be out for a while. We’re taking some friends of hers on a tour of Canterlot.”
“Are you taking Spike along?”
Shining snorted lightly. “Sure we are, you know how fussy he gets when he’s away from Twily for too long.”
“Sure thing Shiny. Just make sure to bring them back before dinner,” the answer came from inside as Twilight blushed. “And be sure to keep your shields ready, Spike still isn’t the best with his flame control!”
As they toured the Upper District, once Twilight had fetched Spike along with a special carrying harness for him, one of the distinct disadvantages of Canterlot’s distinct architectural style became readily apparent. Once they’d seen one impressive noble manor, they might as well have seen them all. As such, they quickly moved on to the Middle District where things became much more interesting.
The Middle District was the commercial center of Canterlot and contained, among other things, the city’s single train station, seeing how a city atop a mountain didn’t lend itself well to being a traffic hub, and the main airship harbor. The group actually had lunch in a charming little restaurant overlooking the harbor after Sunset and Shining alike had warned the group to avoid Restaurant Row at all costs if they intended to have an actual meal.
The group quite enjoyed watching airship’s come and go as they ate, so there wasn’t much conversation with the exception of Shining Armor and Sirius who got into an animated discussion on combat magic. Twilight, Sunset and Hermione made sure to listen closely. None of them had much experience with that type of magic.
Watching the two discussing battlemages absently nullify a gout of light green flame every once in awhile was enough to keep the rest of the group entertained.
Continuing their tour across the third of Canterlot’s four platforms, Sunset and the Grangers were quite amused at some of the wizards’ reactions to things they considered perfectly mundane. They were familiar enough with grocery stores and the like, but most of them had never seen something like a dedicated flower shop. The only part that truly confused them was seeing Sirius break into laughter upon seeing the flower salesponies.
Once they grew tired of seeing shops and factories, Sunset led the group to yet another of the long staircases and down to the Lower District, the city’s main residential sector. They didn’t expect to see much of interest there, but both Sunset and Shining Armor insisted there were things worth seeing here.
After exchanging a few quiet words with Sunset, Shining Armor had taken over leading the group and Sunset had fallen back to walk along beside Hermione. When her sister shot her a questioning glance, Sunset simply smirked. “I asked him if he happened to know where we might find a friend of mine.”
Hermione looked confused for a moment before her eyes lit up in recognition. “You mean-?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, figured I should catch up with her. Twilight’s brother knows where we can find her.”
“Here we are,” Shining Armor’s voice came from the front of the group. The two sisters looked to see and recognized the place before them as a nightclub. Seeing how it was barely a few hours past noon, the club wasn’t open yet. “She should be in there setting up by now. Not sure how you’re going to get to her though…”
Sunset smiled. “No worries. I’ll take care of that.” The others, with the exception of Hermione, were startled when she vanished into thin air.
Once she had teleported into the club, Sunset realized that her invisibility spell might have been just a bit overkill. The club was deserted save for two ponies at the DJ pult. The first was Vinyl Scratch, easily recognized by her usual pair of purple shades. Standing beside her, the second, looking to be a few years older, had light gray fur with a darker gray mane. If her cutie mark was anything to go by, she was also a musician.
Sunset casually approached the pair until she was standing on Vinyl’s other side before letting the invisibility fall off her. It took a few moments before either mare noticed her.
“Sweet Celestia! Who are you!? Where did you come from!?”
Vinyl turned to the second mare in confusion, then followed her gaze back to Sunset. She jumped as well, but didn’t say anything before she had calmed down again, then she smirked. “Did I ever tell you that all this sneaking is a terrible habit of yours?” She chuckled and turned to the other mare. “Tavi, the filly who likes giving others heart attacks is Sunset Shimmer, formerly Student of the Sun, now lives in another world. Sunny, may I introduce Octavia Melody, my stepsister.”
“You have a stepsister?”
“Yeah, I mentioned that my old stallion was getting married again, right?”
Sunset nodded, prompting Octavia to continue. “Apparently both our parents neglected to mention that the pony they were marrying already had a daughter so we only learned of our relation a few days ago when I was visiting Father. I decided to extend my stay by a few weeks and get to know my half sister better.”
Vinyl smirked. “And to plan how to get revenge on our parents for not telling us.”
Octavia rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Yes. And that.”
“Anyway Sunny, what brings you here? On vacation again?”
“Yeah, I’m giving my friends a tour of the city. Thought I’d introduce you and catch up.”
Vinyl looked at the DJ pult before nodding. “Sure, I’m done setting up here and we were only chatting anyway. My set doesn’t start for a few more hours.”
Sunset, Twilight, Vinyl, Octavia, and Shining Armor collectively decided to take the group to Doughnut Joe’s once more, where they spent well over an hour catching up. Shining Armor, Spike, Vinyl and Octavia were quite startled when Sunset lit her horn, prompting Hermione to do the same, and the two of them teleported the entire group back to the Middle District, just outside the café.
None of them had ever been teleported before. Twilight, it seemed, had interrupted her studies into teleportation in favor of other subjects and had yet to gain the ability to take others along with her. Judging by her slightly jealous expression and side-glances to Spike, that likely wouldn’t be the case for much longer.
Octavia was quite startled to learn that several of the ponies she was having tea with personally knew the Princess. Apparently she hadn’t made the connection when Vinyl had introduced Sunset as the former Student of the Sun.
Vinyl's sister, they learned, was a musician, much like Vinyl was herself, but their preferred styles of music couldn’t possibly be more different.
The two of them listened to the tales of Hogwarts and the human world, wizarding and muggle alike, with great interest. After all, it isn’t everyday you get to hear stories from another universe.
The two of them and Shining Armor were rather startled by Philomena arriving, though an equally startled Spike sneezing and breathing green flames on her only for the firebird to turn green and purple in response set them to giggling along with the rest of the group.
Rather put out, Philomena settled down on Sunset’s back and cuddled into her mane, dropping a scroll into her magic in the process. Sunset smirked, but still leaned her head back to let Philomena find comfort more easily before unfurling the scroll.
While she read, the others watched with great interest as sparks danced across Philomena, slowly returning her to her normal coloration. Only when she’d finished did Sunset notice the change and point it out to her familiar, prompting the bird to once more sit up proudly.
Seeing how evening was quickly approaching, Sunset rolled up the scroll and stored it in her mane, before pointing out the time to the others. Vinyl and Octavia were rather startled to realize that the prior’s set was to start in another twenty minutes and quickly made to stand and hurry back to the club.
Sunset shared a glance with Hermione, then she walked up to the two of them and teleported them back to the club while her sister returned Shining Armor and Spike to their family villa. Twilight gave her a quick hug and a round of greetings to the others before teleporting after them.
Finally, Sunset asked Hermione and Sirius to guide the group back to the palace. She took out the scroll, read through it again and nodded. Putting it away again, she vanished in a flash of teal. She had business to attend to.
In one of the dorm rooms of Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, a filly sat down after an exhausting day of classes. She’d been studying at the prestigious school for almost three years now, but there was still much to learn. It was still a few more weeks before the summer break would start and a few final tests still remained in the schedule.
She had been relaxing for barely a few minutes, daydreaming about her favorite topic, when a knock on the door brought her back to reality. Too tired to use her magic, she instead pushed herself up and walked up to the door, pulling it open to reveal another unicorn filly with a bright amber coat, a red and yellow mane and, for some reason, a phoenix perched on her back. She looked vaguely familiar.
The other filly looked at her for a moment before nodding and smiling. “Lyra Heartstrings?”
Cautiously, Lyra nodded, prompting the filly’s smile to widen. “Sunset Shimmer, may I come in? I have an offer for you from the Princess.”
Lyra’s eyes widened. Now that she had a name to put to the face, she remembered the previous Student of the Sun. She quickly stepped aside and let Sunset enter, closing the door behind her. “What exactly are you offering?”
Sunset smiled. “Well, let me put it this way: Princess Celestia has taken note that you have some rather, shall we say, unusual interests.”
Lyra frowned. “Well I don’t care what she thinks. Humans are real, and one day, I will find them.”
Sunset smiled yet again, more softly this time. “Indeed. Sooner than you might think.”
Without any further warning, the filly transformed into a human girl wearing a black leather jacket over a light blue dress, with a messenger bag bearing her cutie mark symbol slung over her shoulder.
Lyra simply stared at her for several seconds, then launched herself at the girl before her, knocking them both onto the bed with a squeal. “I knew it! You do exist! I have so many questions.”
Sunset drew her wand and lifted the excited filly off her with a light chuckle, clamping her muzzle shut in the process. “And you’ll get answers to all of them in time.” She smirked when she saw Lyra stare wide-eyed at her hand and her glowing wand and simply sat up on the edge of the bed, depositing Lyra in her lap rather than beside her as she’d planned.
Letting go of the filly, she put her wand away and started gently stroking a hand over Lyra’s back, prompting her to instantly relax. Given she needed the filly coherent, she carefully avoided her ears.
After a moment, she spoke up again. “Now, I guess I should explain a few things.”
“Like why you can turn into a human?”
Sunset smirked, once more running a hand through Lyra’s mane. “Among other things. You see, I spent the past year and a half in a different world. There aren’t any ponies in that world. Or ... well … there are, but they aren’t the dominant species. They’re not even sentient. Instead, the main species running society there is humans.”
“And they don’t have magic? Everything I’ve found suggests that humans don’t have magic.”
“Well, no, most humans don’t have magic, some do. And I really do mean some. Maybe one in five-or-six-thousand. Those humans that have magic call themselves witches and wizards and have a sort of secret society.”
“Oh wow! I so want to visit.”
“Well, that’s kinda the idea. You see, this secret society also had their own, secret schools for magic. One of those schools is Hogwarts where I’ve been going for the past year. Students start at that school in the year after they’ve turned eleven.”
Lyra raised her head to look Sunset in the eyes. “Wait, I turned eleven two months ago.”
Sunset smirked. “So …?”
Lyra’s own eyes grew wider, and a big smile spread across her face. “Are you saying that you want me to go to this school too?”
Sunset gave her a sly wink. “Oh I don’t much care one way or the other, but it could certainly be arranged.”
This earned Sunset another excited squeal as the excited Unicorn jumped up and threw her forelegs around her neck. “Oh! Thank you!”
This time, Sunset deliberately did run her hand over Lyra’s ears to calm her down. The effect was immediate. The little unicorn dropped back into her lap calmed back down. Sunset could practically feel her thought processes slow down, so she only stroked over her ears a few times before returning to stroking her mane. “Don’t thank me. Princess Celestia was the one who put two and two together. She knew of your little … well I guess it would be fair to call it an obsession, and when she realized that you were about to turn eleven she brought the matter up with the headmaster of Hogwarts. And, well, here we are.”
“I’ll have to thank her personally. Oh, and I’ll have to write a letter to my parents. And thank the headmaster of Hogwarts too…” Lyra started to mumble as she went through all of the things she would need to do before going. She stopped however as something occurred to her.
“Uh… how will I be getting there if it’s in another world?”
Sunset hummed for a moment at that. She had originally planned to simply tell Lyra that they’d go by phoenix but given such a perfect opportunity she might as well have a little fun. Lyra’s exuberant enthusiasm was quite endearing, after all.
“Well, I could tell you … or I could show you,” she said with a sly smile and a twinkle in her eyes. “Which would you prefer?”
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was not surprised by the flash of phoenix fire that appeared in the center of his office. Ever since he’d been taken to Equestria, Fawkes had been able to sense Philomena approaching from the other world and vice-versa, so he’d had a moment’s warning. He was not surprised by the presence of two young witches now standing before him either, one of whom he was fast beginning to think of as a friend.
He was a bit … bemused, however, by the look of absolute joy and awe on the face of the unknown witch as she stared at her fingers, almost frozen in place with a smile so wide he idly wondered if it was causing her any undue pain.
“Good morning Miss Shimmer,” he gently spoke up, getting a smile from one of the two and a startled noise followed by a stare and a mildly worrying grin from the other. “It is always a pleasure. I would ask to what I owe your visit so early in the morning, but I suspect that may be redundant.”
He turned to look pointedly at the slightly younger witch. “Might this be the prospective new student Princess Celestia mentioned?”
Miss Shimmer suddenly seemed embarrassed for some reason, quickly glancing out of the window into the pre-dawn gloom. “Oh right, I’m so sorry, I forgot all about the differential between our two worlds. Just how early in the morning is it?”
“About quarter to five in the morning, I believe. I was about to go have an early breakfast with some of my professors. Most of them prefer to wake up later, but Minerva and Filius are incorrigible early risers. I suppose they infected me.”
His humorous smile was met with a baffled stare from the younger which to whom he still hadn’t been introduced and a groan from Miss Shimmer. “Tell me about it, I know the feeling. The joys of being the personal student to the Princess of the Daystar.” Her expression spoke of annoyance, but he could easily sense that there was no true malice behind it.
“Well, if the two of you are already awake anyway, might I invite you to join us for breakfast? I know Filius would enjoy getting to see you again, Miss Shimmer. And both of them are always happy to meet prospective new members of their houses, so you would certainly be welcome as well Miss?”
Miss Shimmer actually facepalmed this time, much to his amusement. “My goodness what is wrong with me?! Why am I so scatterbrained today? Right, of course, sorry. Professor Dumbledore, allow me to introduce Lyra Heartstrings, she’s been studying at Princess Celestia’s school for three years now with a focus on more … exotic electives.”
Albus raised an eyebrow upon hearing that, but didn’t interrupt. “Lyra, this is Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore; Order of Merlin, First Class; Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot; Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”
Albus blushed slightly and softly cleared his throat. “Hmm, yes, I believe I see now what Princess Celestia meant. Having all of my titles listed for a casual introduction is indeed flattering in a somewhat embarrassing manner.”
“It is?”
He chuckled again. “Wait until you have a few titles of your own, I’m certain someone will do the same for you.” He shook his head ruefully. “Regardless, Miss Heartstrings, it would be a pleasure to have you join us for breakfast.”
He looked at Miss Heartstrings expectantly. From the corner of his eye he could see that Miss Shimmer was doing the same. Finally, the younger witch let out a high pitched squeal that left the other four occupants of the room wincing and prompted the two avians to hastily depart in two flares of golden fire that conveniently served to make Miss Heartstrings aware of what she was doing.
She smiled sheepishly for a moment before breaking into a wide grin again and starting to ramble a mile a minute. “Sorry, sorry, yeah, I’d love to. Sorry, Sunset literally dropped all of this on me five minutes ago and I kinda thought traveling between worlds would be a bit more involved, so you caught me a bit off guard, but this morning all I had were theories from small bits and pieces of evidence and now I’m here and you’re here and you’re real! And-”
“Lyra!” Miss Shimmer interrupted forcefully though with amusement clear on her face. “Breathe.”
Miss Heartstrings took a comically deep breath before starting up again. “Right, sorry, sorry, I’m just excited. I mean I knew humans were real, they just had to be, but then Sunset just turns into one and tells me I can go to a school full of them and now I’m here and you’re here and now I’m suddenly a human too and-” She paused. “And I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”
Albus and Miss Shimmer nodded.
“Right, shutting up now.” Miss Heartstrings fell silent, but she was still grinning widely.
Albus still took a few more moments to parse through everything she’d said, giving Miss Shimmer a rather curious look, then he smiled once more. “That’s quite alright, Miss Heartstrings. I shan’t judge you for your passion. It’s better to get it out of the way now instead of doing so before the other students who likely would judge. Now,” he looked between the two of them, “will you be joining us?”
The two young witches shared a glance, then nodded. “Sure,” Miss Shimmer agreed, “I could go for a quick snack before dinner.” For a moment, he almost thought there was more she wanted to say, but as quickly as the feeling came it was gone again and he shook it off.
Seeing Miss Heartstrings simply nod, he smiled. “Very well then, do make sure to follow us Miss Heartstrings, this castle can be quite confusing for those who are not familiar with it.”
Sunset shared a relaxed late afternoon snack with Lyra while the three professors had breakfast. Eating in the Great Hall when it was so empty was bizarre to her. Sitting at the head table was more so. She had only seen the Hall from something approaching this perspective once, on her first evening at Hogwarts, as she was waiting to be sorted. Glancing at Lyra beside her, she couldn’t help but smile mischievously. She suddenly understood why the sorting was such a well kept secret. She certainly wasn’t going to be spoiling the surprise.
Conversation, when it wasn’t focused on Lyra and her questions about humans, mainly revolved around the school’s need for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. It was that topic that reminded Sunset of something.
“Say, Professor Dumbledore,” she chimed in when there was a lull in the three teachers’ conversation. “I’ve heard the stories, but is there actually a curse on that teaching position?”
Dumbledore sighed wearily. “I have never found a trace of any spell, curse, or jinx on the position. I have found nothing in the classrooms for the subject, nor in the teacher’s office and living quarters. For several years I moved one or the other to a different location, just to see if it would have any effect. I even had the name of the subject changed in a number of ways in some years. None had any effect and I never found any other indication of magic acting on the position or the one holding it.”
He sighed again. “And yet, for forty-six years now, no teacher has held the position for more than a year at once. And never more than once for the same reason. Some returned to teach the subject for a second year some time later, one even did so twice, but no teacher ever held the position for two consecutive years. If there is a curse, I have not found it, but if there isn’t one, we are dealing with an unprecedented chain of misfortunate coincidences.
“I cannot find it in myself to believe the latter option over the former.”
As Professor Dumbledore returned his attention to the other professors, Sunset and Lyra found themselves discussing the implications of that admission. None of them were specialists on the subjects, but the basic mechanics of curses were covered in the first year at Princess Celestia’s School.
The curse, assuming there was one, was manipulating chance to ensure no teacher kept the position for more than a year. Sunset had read Hogwarts: A History and several of the reasons teachers had left over the years were truly contrived. The way things came together spoke of planning, almost as if there was some level of sentience to the curse. But a simple spell shouldn’t be able to do that.
It would, at the very least, require a powerful anchor. Sentient magical items were not unheard of, in a school where talking portraits and hats were a possibility, a magically created sentience controlling the curse’s actions didn’t seem too far fetched. But such a curse would still have to be powerful dark magic. And there were rather few places at Hogwarts where one could hide such a thing.
The keystones that maintained the wards came to mind, but Sunset had studied them all carefully during the previous year’s upgrades, if the curse had been anchored in one of them, she would have certainly noticed.
But if it wasn’t anchored in the wards themselves, any dark magic powerful enough should easily be picked up by them. The two of them found they could well understand the Headmaster’s lack of success in finding the curse or even confirming that there was one. The very logistics of it should be impossible.
Perhaps they should ask Princess Celestia. She was still a good bit older than the school and its wards. If anypony could help them figure out where or how the curse could be hidden, it would be her.
To say the rest of the group was surprised when Sunset and Philomena suddenly appeared beside the table where they were having dinner with Princess Celestia would have been an exaggeration. Some of them jumped at the sudden burst of fire, sure, but they had all been expecting the two of them to make an appearance some time soon. That they had brought another unicorn filly with them was less expected, but also not entirely surprising given recent trends.
When said filly ran up to Princess Celestia with a yell of ‘Thank yooouuu!’ they were a little more surprised, but given the Princess’ only response was to reach out a hoof to forestall the young filly for a moment while she put down her fork and swallowed the bite currently in her mouth before smoothly flowing into her human form, sitting down on her cushion once more and letting the little mint green unicorn curl up in her lap after hugging her fiercely, they all assumed that she, at least, understood what was going on.
Sunset and Philomena simultaneously rolling their eyes before sitting down at the table themselves also helped calm them.
The princess introducing Lyra while gently stroking the ears of the filly that was now practically melting in her lap, much to her amusement, was met with polite greetings that soon stopped when they realized Lyra wasn’t hearing any of it. The announcement that Lyra would be joining them at Hogwarts for the next year of school sparked great enthusiasm from the group.
They all speculated if she would be joining them in Gryffindor, but ultimately decided it would be alright so long as she didn’t end up in Slytherin. At least the Weasleys said that, the others agreed either noncommittally, or to appease them. Lavender’s idle comment that Slytherin green would clash terribly with Lyra’s mane color sparked a round of laughter.
Sunset nervously glanced at Hermione’s reassuring smile. Her sister simply gave her a nod. Suppressing a sigh, Sunset turned to the two other girls. All of them, Lavender, Ginny, Hermione and Sunset, were lying on the bed in Sunset’s suite, yet there was still plenty of room for them. Truth be told, Sunset wasn’t sure why her suite had such a massive bed. She would have understood it being sized to an adult pony, but it was sized to fit at least three adult ponies comfortably, four of five if they squeezed a little.
Why she would ever need such a large bed for was a mystery to her. Unless … Of course! Princess Celestia. Thinking about it, Sunset could actually think of multiple occasions the princess had slept with her in this bed, comforting her through her very presence. The first time she’d been foalnapped, for example.
Sunset shook her head forcefully, prompting confused glances from Lavender and Ginny and another encouraging nod from Hermione. She was getting distracted. Magic required a lot of mental control, so she recognized her own thoughts getting away from her as she was instinctively trying to think about anything but the matter at hoof.
Hermione had pointed out to her that this would be an ideal opportunity to finally read up on her new … friend. She had agreed, but felt the need to point out that Ginny and Lavender were staying in the room with them.
Hermione, always reasonable, had simply pointed out that there was no way she’d be able to hide something like that forever anyway and that these girls were their friends. She could trust them. Intellectually, Sunset knew she was right, but that didn’t make it any easier. She never had been the best at controlling her emotions.
After their hushed conversation, Hermione had told the others that there was something Sunset wanted to tell them, so they had all settled on the bed. Now the other two were looking at her expectantly.
“Alright,” she finally spoke up. “Sorry, this is a bit hard to explain.”
“Do you think the book you used to show me might help?” Hermione asked gently. Sunset thought the idea over, then nodded, sending her sister rushing off to quickly fetch the book. Feeling the comforting warmth of the connection the two of them shared fade as she got further away didn’t help keep Sunset calm at all. At least the other two were now staring at the corner Hermione had vanished around rather than at her.
Before long, Hermione was back, the book held in her magic.
“Equestrian wildlife?” Sunset didn’t need to look at Ginny to see her skepticism, her tone was quite clear.
Apparently deciding to help Sunset, Hermione spoke up. “A few days ago, the night before we toured Ponyville, I woke up at night and realized Sunset was gone.” In a few concise sentences, Hermione summed up the events that had brought the two of them to this suite that night, finishing with, “when I looked, she was reading this book.” She poked a hoof at the tome before folding it open with her magic. “Opened to this page.”
The two of them gave Ginny and Lavender a few moments to read the entry. They could see their eyes flashing back and forth between the text and the illustration, occasionally looking over to shoot Sunset a confused glance. After a few minutes, both of them looked at each other, then back at Sunset. “So, any particular reason you were looking up that in the middle of the night?” Ginny asked pointedly, prompting Sunset to groan and Hermione to giggle. If anything, the skepticism in her voice had grown more pronounced, and this time Sunset actually was looking at her.
“You know, I asked her the same thing.”
Sunset threw Hermione a pained glance before focusing back on Ginny. “Why do you think?”
Ginny looked at her for a moment longer, then glanced back at the book for a split second before looking back at Sunset. Slowly, her gaze drifted from Sunset’s eyes down to her barrel. “No. Are you telling me-? You know, you have been eating more these last few days.”
Sunset simply nodded.
“Really?” Ginny grinned. “Oh just wait until Fred and George hear about this. Just make sure I get to see their expressions. You wouldn’t believe how many of their plans to prank you involved giving you something to eat.”
Sunset stared at Ginny disbelievingly. “That is the thing you focus on? Seriously?”
Lavender just shrugged. “I can see why. These things are kinda tame compared to some of the other magical creatures we’ll get to deal with if we take that subject for third year. Trust me, I know, my mum has a NEWT in that.”
Hermione simply smirked at Sunset. “And here you were worried about how they’d react.”
Sunset snorted. “Sorry, I’m just the unicorn from another dimension with a mini-lizard-pony-thing living in her gut and a phoenix for a familiar. I guess I’m not used to being the normal one here.”
The others looked at her for a few moments, then broke into giggles, accompanied by a series of musical trills from Philomena’s perch. After a few moments, Sunset joined in herself. Her situation was just too surreal put like that.
“Have you told any of the others yet?” Lavender asked after a moment… then smacked herself a bit as she said, “Wait, dumb question. You wouldn’t have been so nervous if you had… think your parents are going to be bothered when you tell them?”
“My parents?” Sunset snorted. “Lavender, I haven’t talked to my parents in over eight years. Of my biological family, my brother is the one I’m closest to and I haven’t talked to him in two years.” She sighed. “I probably should at some point. But that isn’t the point anyway. I know they’d be fine with it. Alp-Luachra are pretty uncommon and somepony being chosen as a host is rare. Seriously rare. Culturally it’s actually seen as a great honor by those who know about it. Though that doesn’t make it feel any less weird.”
“You know,” Hermione idly pointed out, “I think she was talking about my family.” Lavender just nodded pointedly. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll make sure they don’t freak out.”
Sunset nodded and sighed as she got up and quickly shifted to human form to reach into her bag and pull out the tome she’d borrowed from the royal archives. Ginny’s eyes widened in recognition. “Wait, isn’t that the book you two have been trying to read for a few days now?”
Sunset nodded as she settled back onto the bed, not bothering to shift back. There was something nice about lying on the bed as a human surrounded by small ponies. “It is. There should be something more about their magical properties in here. We just haven’t gotten any chance to read it yet.”
“And we knew you’d ask,” Hermione pointed out logically, “hence why we told you now.”
Lavender flapped her wings to settle on Sunset’s back, careful not to harm the girl with her claws, and looked into the book over her shoulder. “So what language is that now?”
“Oh, that’s Griffonian.” Lavender stared at the back of Sunset’s head for a moment, before flapping again and landing before the girl to stare pointedly at her. “And you didn’t think the griffin of the group would like to be able to speak that language?”
Sunset chuckled ruefully. She placed a glowing finger against her temple and, when she removed it a few seconds later, pulled an orb of teal light from it. Rolling over to free up her other arm, she brought her other hand up to the orb and pulled them apart a few moments later. Suddenly, she held two identical orbs, one in each hand.
She grinned as Lavender and Ginny eagerly came up and gently dropped one of the translation matrices into each of their heads. Seeing them wincing, she was reminded of the momentary, stinging headache learning a language this way always brought with it. Sitting up, she pulled the two of them into a gentle hug to keep them distracted until the unpleasant sensation faded. Then, after seeing Hermione’s expression, she rolled her eyes and lit up her magic, pulling her sister into the hug as well.
“I don’t think I’m going to ever get used to that.” Lavender groaned after a moment. Ginny nodded even as she seemed to recover a little more readily.
“Still, it beats having to learn a language yourself,” Ginny pointed out, visibly growing more excited by the second as the pain continued to fade and her mind assimilated the information. “I remember when I tried to learn French once. Merlin, that was confusing.”
Sunset chuckled lightly. “Want me to teach you French as well?”
Ginny stared at her for a moment, narrowing her eyes. The expression of suspicion was somewhat undercut by her still being curled up in Sunset’s arms as a little white pegasus. “You’re not joking, are you? You actually could do that. Just how many languages do you speak?”
“Eight, I think. I don’t really keep count.”
Lavender stared at her for a moment, then gently used her wing to push Sunset’s arm aside and disentangle herself from the hug to turn back to the book. “Moving swiftly on, any idea where in this book I need to look?”
With a giggle, Hermione lit her horn and opened the book to a specific page before her and Ginny also extricated themselves from Sunset’s arms to look at the book. Sunset watched them in amusement for a few moments before shifting back and joining them.
So they read. They all looked over the book page by page before curling up beside one another and closing their eyes to actually process what they’d just seen. It certainly cut down on issues with one person reading faster than the rest and having to wait before turning a page.
After half an hour of silently going through the text, Ginny finally stirred and turned to look at Sunset. When Sunset turned to meet her gaze, she smirked. “So... when do we get to meet her?”
When Sunset simply stared at her uncomprehendingly, Ginny rolled her eyes. “What? You read it too, didn’t you? It said that finding a magical host increases their intelligence. You seem pretty magical to me so I’d say she’d probably be able to understand you.”
Sunset stared at Ginny for a moment longer while the other two turned to face them as well.
“Now?!”
Lavender nodded slowly. “Why not? If I were to have another sentient being living inside me, I’d sure like to actually get to know them, y’know?”
Sunset tried to find fault with the argument, but realized that she couldn’t. After getting encouraging looks from the other three, and even from Philomena, she sighed. “Okay, yeah, you’re right.”
She gingerly lifted a hoof and placed it over her stomach. Lighting her horn, she used her magic to gently poke the little creature inside. She could feel it immediately jerk before gently pushing back against her hoof. Knowing she had her guest’s attention, Sunset gently spoke up.
“Would you mind coming out, little one? I’d like to get to know you properly.” When she felt the little lizard shift uncertainly, she let out a longer sigh. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you back in afterwards.”
She shuddered as she got an immediate reaction, bending over as she felt the little creature move back upwards. The experience was less disturbing than what she remembered from the first time, but that may have also been the shock.
The others all watched as the small creature fell out of Sunset’s mouth. She looked around at each of them, then her eyes widened suddenly and she curled around Sunset’s foreleg, quickly using her surprisingly stable grip to climb up onto Sunset’s head and hide in her mane.
Hermione looked at the little head carefully poking out of Sunset’s mane and followed the fearful little eyes to Philomena. Sunset followed her sister’s gaze and turned her head, spotting her familiar as well.
She could feel the weight of the little creature in her mane shift as she moved to track the Phoenix who was sitting on her perch, looking on curiously. It didn’t take much to put two and two together. “You’re scared of Philomena?”
When the alp-luachra nodded, Hermione sighed. “Don’t worry about that. Philomena won’t hurt you. She knows better than that.” She turned to pointedly look at the phoenix. “Don’t you, Philomena?”
Philomena drew herself up proudly upon her perch before nodding solemnly and spreading her wings proudly. Then, for some reason, she brought a single primary feather of her right wing to her chest and drew two lines there, flapped her wings, taking off momentarily, before settling back on her perch and placing that same primary over one of her eyes.
Sunset didn’t understand what Philomena had done anymore than any of the others, but the little creature in her mane immediately relaxed. “Okay.”
Sunset’s ears twitched upon hearing the voice. It was rather quiet and high pitched, but nowhere near as high pitched as it should have been with a voice box that small.
Sunset gently brought a foreleg up to her head and let the little creature jump on it, gently lowering her down to get a good look at her. Sunset had been scanning her for the last few days, so she already knew that she had grown half again as long as she had been that first night, now coming in at just under thirty centimeters. Her slightly glossy and, thanks to her magic, completely dry skin was a very pale tan, her mane, looking to be made of a strange, membranous material rather than actual hair, was a rich burgundy and flowed smoothly into a fin running along her back all the way to the tip of her tail. There was a streak of dark orange running underneath all of it, almost hidden by the voluminous mane, but clearly visible beneath the fin.
Now that she had stopped fearfully staring at Philomena, she was looking all around the room with her light jade eyes reminding Sunset of Lyra’s coat.
Sunset felt her muzzle curl into a gentle smile. She couldn’t help it. Just for a moment, she didn’t care that the little creature sitting on her foreleg was a tiny, sentient parasite that had chosen her stomach as its preferred habitat. The little critter was simply adorable.
Judging by the noises they were making, the others agreed with her assessment.
After a few seconds, she got her mind back on track. There was something she needed to do. “Alright. If you’re gonna live inside me I at least want to get to know you a little. I’m Sunset Shimmer.”
“Hello,” the little equine replied, staring back at her with a smile.
“I’m Hermione.”
“Ginny.”
“Lavender.”
“It’s so nice to meet all of you. So how do I know what to say here?”
Sunset chuckled. “Those were our names. But I guess you don’t have one of those yet, do you?”
“A name?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so, no. Where do I get one?”
Sunset smiled. The way this conversation was going served well to remind her of the fact that the alp-luachra before her was probably less than two weeks old. “Well, you could pick one for yourself, or ask someone else to give you one.”
The expression of deep thought made Sunset giggle again. She carefully got up from the bed and set the little lizard down on her back, something she didn’t even seem to notice. With a slight shake of her head, she indicated to the others that they should follow her.
When she arrived in the main room of her suite, she carefully scooped her passenger back up onto her hoof and sat her down on a couch cushion. She curled up, coiling her long tail around her, but otherwise didn’t seem to take note.
When her little guest finally looked back up to her, Sunset quite enjoyed the look of confusion on her face as she took in her new surroundings. “Huh? When did we get here?”
“I carried you here while you were thinking. You ought to pay a little more attention to your surroundings. You’re worse than Twilight. Did you come up with a name?”
“Well, I don’t really know anything about names. Would you give me one?”
Sunset blanched. “Me?!”
She was quite startled to have the little creature suddenly jump up at her and gently curl around her neck like a strangely designed necklace. “Well who else? You’re my host.”
Sunset still paled slightly at the thought, though she was slowly getting used to the idea. “Well yes, I guess I am. Alright, lemme think.” As she thought the matter over, the others came in behind her and joined the two of them on the couch, though Sunset paid them no mind.
Her eyes were fixed on the little creature before her, wandering from the dark orange stripe running along her body to the deep red mane and fin atop it. “Garnet,” she said finally. “I think that fits you.”
The others had missed a part of the conversation, of course, but they could guess the context easily enough. “That doesn’t sound a lot like the name Princess Celestia mentioned,” Hermione pointed out.
Sunset snorted. “I hope not. That name was in Old Ponish. It was fitting for the time but …” She sighed. “Well let’s just say there is a reason ponies stopped talking like that. I can speak Old Ponish but it’s just so … I guess stilted is the best word. Everything you try to say takes half again as long or longer to say than in modern Equestrian. And for the record, the name of Celestia’s symbiote translates to ‘Citrine’.”
Hermione giggled. “Alright, point taken. It fits perfectly.”
“Yes,” Garnet confirmed, “I think I like that name.”
“Good. That’s settled then,” Ginny spoke up, turning to Garnet. “Now say, how do you like Sunset?” The filly in question found her mischievous smirk to be more than a little disquieting.
Garnet, however, smiled eagerly. “I like her. She’s really comfortable. And her magic feels nice. It makes me smarter.”
Though she could clearly see that Ginny was trying to tease Sunset, Hermione couldn’t help herself. “So that really works? Having a host with strong magic makes you smarter?”
Garnet nodded. “Yeah. Before I found her, I was mostly acting on instinct. Instinct told me what I could safely eat, so I did. Instinct told me to look for a host, so I did. I was almost ready to settle for a fox or something like that. Then you all showed up. And my instincts told me that ponies made better hosts. I didn’t know why back then, but now I know it’s because of the magic.”
She smiled at Sunset again. “That’s also why I picked you. My instincts told me that someone with stronger magic would make a better host. So I had to choose between you,” she turned to Hermione, “you, and the colt without a horn or wings.” She turned back to Sunset with a sly smile. “Call me superficial, but I liked your colors best.”
Sunset managed a giggle, but Hermione looked at Garnet with renewed interest. “You know, you’re surprisingly eloquent for being barely two weeks old.”
Garnet shrugged. “Well, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t talk before. I must have learned that from somewhere. I guess I got that from Sunset. It’ll be even better once we’re properly bonded.”
Sunset looked at Garnet again. The book had mentioned that as well. Alp-Luachra were uniquely suited to form thaumo-harmonic bonds, like the one she shared with Hermione, if slightly different. They could bond with anyone, but only once. She knew she should feel honored that Garnet wanted her as a host, but she actually did feel honored that she wanted to form that kind of bond after such a short time.
After another moment of silent contemplation, she made a decision. “Alright,” she said, focusing Garnet’s attention back on her. “But before we do that, there is something you should know about me.” Without further ado, she got up from the couch and shifted back to human form.
Garnet looked at her with wide eyes. “You can shapeshift?”
Sunset nodded. “In fact, I did that several times while you were living inside me. You never noticed?”
Garnet shook her head as Sunset sat back down, picking up the cushion the little lizard was sitting on and placing it in her lap. She had expected Garnet to answer, maybe ask more questions, but she simply leapt forward, moving to explore Sunset’s clothing. Not too surprising, given that was probably a foreign concept to her.
Still, Sunset found, it was rather startling to suddenly have an alp-luachra crawling up her sleeve. And wandering all around and under the rest of her clothes. Only the fact that she knew what it was crawling around under the fabric kept her from squirming too much. That and the fact that Garnet seemed to know, if by instinct or from her, she couldn’t tell, that certain areas were off limits. Still, she was squirming quite a bit and struggling to contain her laughter. The tail wasn’t so bad, but the mane and those tiny hooves were tickling her quite badly.
After a few more moments, Garnet poked her head out under the collar of Sunset’s dress, her tail wrapped around her shoulder. “Alright, I like you.” She turned around to the other three who were watching and giggling on occasion. “You too. You’re nice. But I think I should go back inside now. Sunset and I still need to bond properly.”
Sunset cleared her throat. “Uhh, yeah. How exactly do we do that?”
Garnet smiled brightly, sitting down on Sunset’s shoulder so the girl could actually see her. “Oh that’s simple, just focus your magic inwards, I’ll focus mine out. My instincts will do the rest.”
“Well okay then.” With a sigh, Sunset opened her mouth. She still wasn’t quite comfortable with the idea, but she was getting used to it. “Go ahead.”
Garnet waved a hoof to the three fillies she could look down on from her perch, then hesitantly waved to Philomena who had sat down on another of the numerous perches set out among the suite. When Philomena waved a wing back and the others had given her waves and smiles as well, Garnet climbed around Sunset’s neck, using her long tail for grip and dove back in.
Reflex took over and Sunset swallowed, feeling her new friend sliding back down her throat and curl back up in her stomach. She smacked her lips a few times, trying to get the bizarre non-taste out of her mouth, then closed her eyes. “Alright, here goes nothing.”
As she focused her magic inward, she could feel another force pushing back from inside her. Suddenly, there was a jolt and she felt a second set of emotions that clearly weren’t her own. They were weaker than her own, but the link wasn’t particularly deep yet. Given that physical and magical contact tended to deepen thaumo-harmonic bonds and that both of those were more or less inevitable in this case, that would sort itself out soon enough.
For now, she simply let Garnet’s feelings of contentment wash away her own discomfort at the bizarre sensations. She likely would have found the emotions of another in her head to be strange, but after sharing such a connection with Hermione for so long, she didn’t.
Sunset yawned, only now realizing what a long day she’d had, and made her way back to the bedroom, followed by two little ponies and and equally small griffin. They were yawning quite a bit too. Looking between herself and the bed for a moment, she began switching into a nightgown. “I’ma sleep as a human tonight,” she declared sleepily.
“You do that, sis,” Hermione answered, already curling up on the bed and levitating the large tome aside. Ginny and Lavender weren’t far behind. Sunset joined them the moment she was fully in her night clothes.
A snap of her fingers and a slight pulse of magic extinguished the lights.
The group spent several more days in Canterlot before Harry and Sirius headed to the train station to return to Ponyville and Philomena took the rest of the group back to Earth. Over the week, Sunset had felt her connection to Garnet slowly deepen to the point where she occasionally thought she heard fragments of thoughts over the constant background of emotion.
Sunset had calculated their vacation to both start and end when the day-night-cycle of both worlds was aligned, so they’d spent twelve days in Equestria while eleven had passed on Earth. She’d also made plans with Celestia to set the first contact with the Ministry in motion when the next alignment was two days out. That way, Earth would be only four hours ahead of Equestria and they’d have five days with a differential small enough not to be much of a hindrance.
That left her eight days to prepare things on her end. Mostly a matter of keeping Mr. Weasley and Professor Dumbledore in the loop. That, in turn, allowed her to keep up to date on matters at Hogwarts and in the Ministry.
Professor Dumbledore, it seemed, had just taken a day with his heads of house to dismantle the security measures around the Philosophers’ Stone. With Voldemort trapped, there was no reason to keep it so tightly locked up. Besides, with Sunset distracting him, Quirrell never did figure out how to get the stone out of the Mirror of Erised. Whether he had realized it was stored within the mirror in the first place they weren’t sure. Apparently the five of them had had quite a bit of fun dismantling Sunset’s laser defense system and Professor Sinistra’s star chamber.
The headmaster had then moved the mirror, and the stone within, to a hidden chamber he had created with the help of Sunset and Professor Flitwick. They did most of the heavy lifting, of course, but they wanted to also include some of the spells she’d placed on her hidden practice dojo she’d been using with Crabbe and had asked for her input.
In the Ministry, it seemed to be more or less business as usual, though there were hushed words and quiet preparations that were clearly visible if one knew to look. There was always someone watching the atrium, unspeakables were out and about far more often than usual, quietly making arrangements with high ranking members of other departments and the minister himself was seen around the Department of International Magical Cooperation remarkably often.
As was his first undersecretary. A woman named Umbridge whom Mr. Weasley had warned the Princess about.
What Mr. Weasley had also reported, apparently with great amusement, was that reporters from more or less any wizarding publication with even a cursory interest in political matters, from The Daily Prophet to Witch Weekly, had picked up on these signs and were trying to figure out what was going on. Most of them had, apparently, put things together and figured out that the Ministry was preparing for something to happen. But they could only guess at what would be happening and when. The only publication notably absent from the round of speculations was, of course, The Quibbler.
Luna and her father had returned from their own holiday a few days after they had returned from Equestria. He already had a special edition lined up to be published on the morning of the first contact. Apparently, he was quite giddy about it.
Meanwhile, she’d gotten word from Crabbe. After some consideration, it seemed, Goyle had chosen to accept her proposal and, tentatively, so had Malfoy. Their three families would meet for dinner in about another two weeks, so they could have a proper conversation then. Assuming the first contact didn’t interfere with that.
All these things were nice to know, but they didn’t take up most of Sunset’s and Hermione’s time. After returning from their holiday, the two of them had jumped back into their project with renewed vigor. Hermione was starting to grasp more advanced concepts in programming, and Sunset had begun experimenting with simple glass-based chips.
“Aha!”
Hermione tore her attention away from the book she’d been reading and opened her eyes, focusing on her sister who was working at the table beside her. Sitting in front of Sunset was a small plate of glass, held on four pieces of wood that she’d had handy.
Several places in the glass were glimmering in the light of the lamp above the table, signifying that there had been something done to them, though it was impossible, at first glance, to tell what. These spots were connected by a series of lines that were faintly glowing with the teal of Sunset’s magic, supplied by the small storage crystal attached to the chip on one side.
A series of spots, running across the glass in a straight line, was blinking in various colors in a complex but obviously repeating pattern.
With a smile, Hermione watched the pattern repeat again and again. Sunset was watching just as intently, her eyes glowing with magic. Following her example, Hermione quickly cast her own visualization charm. Technically they weren’t supposed to be using magic outside of school, but with the wards set up around the house, it wasn’t like anyone would be able to tell.
Sunset had been experimenting with this chip for a while now. She’d been trying to work out how to make simple electronic components in such a way that they worked with magic instead. Modifying the crystal structure of the glass so that a part of it worked as a capacitor had been easy enough. So had making parts of the glass inhibit the flow of magic and act as resistors. Lights had been a simple matter of a small lighting charm set up to activate whenever it was fed magic without any further triggers.
But she’d been struggling getting transistors to work. The tiny switches meant to be switched not physically, but with a signal, normally an electrical one, but of course magical in nature in this case, had been giving Sunset quite a bit of trouble. The enchantments kept falling apart from the constant switching on and off.
But now it looked like she’d found a way to stabilize it.
The enchantments in what Hermione knew to be the magical transistors from the many failed attempts over the past few days looked to be stable this time around and showed no signs of degrading. The lights kept happily blinking away.
The two of them shared a glance. Hermione may have been focusing on the software aspect of their project, but she knew what had to come next just as well as Sunset did.
Seeing how it was already fairly late, the two of them went to bed.
The next part Sunset had to accomplish was to see if her current design would keep working over longer spans of time. The little circuit had plenty of power to work with in its small storage crystal. They’d be back to check if it was still going in the morning.
The circuit, as it turned out, failed overnight after all. But the remaining charge in the power crystal, after a bit of arithmancy, revealed that it had lasted well past midnight and only failed somewhere around four in the morning, so it still lasted orders of magnitude longer than Sunset’s previous best which had still fallen short of a minute.
Fortunately, when the circuit finally failed, power was cut to some of the transistors before their enchantments could wear to the point of failure. That way, Sunset could study them and analyze just where the enchantment had failed.
With that knowledge, she managed to further improve on the enchantment pattern and create a version of the circuit that, after running non-stop for four days, was still going the morning of the first contact.
Eric Munch was not a stupid wizard. His job might not be the most exciting, but it paid well enough and it gave him plenty of opportunity to partake in a hobby of his, what the muggles called ‘people watching’.
From his post at the security desk in the atrium of the Ministry, he had been able to see the unusual activity over the last few days. Something was going on. Or would be soon. He didn’t know what, but he could make an educated guess just by seeing who all was involved.
The most obvious part, clearly, was the number of unspeakables outside the Department of Mysteries. When so many of them were around, a matter of unknown or experimental magic was usually at hand. Then there was the Department for International Magical Cooperation. The diplomats. Their department was widely regarded as a bit of a joke and certainly nothing that was their responsibility would usually involve the unspeakables. Still, just by their involvement, he could tell that some foreign magical community was probably involved.
Beyond them, a number of aurors had started quietly taking positions throughout the atrium and watching everything carefully. Whatever was going on, Director Bones was clearly worried something might go wrong to the point where defense was necessary.
And then there was Minister Fudge himself as well as Undersecretary Umbridge. They were checking up on proceedings in the atrium at least once a day and, from what he’d heard, were also running around the rest of the Ministry half the day checking on one thing or another. They would be doing a lot of that anyway, of course, but normally they wouldn’t be visiting the atrium other than when they came to work or left for home unless there was someone of importance to greet.
They were clearly involved as well, which meant that whatever was happening was important and high-profile.
And now, this morning, activity seemed to have gotten even more noticeable. The aurors whom he’d been careful to keep an eye on seemed tense, unspeakables and diplomats alike more frantic than the past few days, whatever they were preparing for would clearly be happening soon.
He was pulled from his musings as a wizard walked up to his desk. The man traded in magical creatures, so he commonly had dealings at the Ministry. “Morning Eric,” he greeted cheerfully.
“Morning Mike.” Eric greeted back as he took the man’s wand to fulfill his duty. As the machine between them did its work, he continued on.
“Did you see the special edition of the Quibbler yet? They’re getting crazier everyday there, I tell you.”
“Can’t say I have. Here you go,” Eric added as he handed the wand back.
“Well they,” Mike stopped. “You know what? No. You have to see this for yourself. I’m done with it anyway.”
Eric took the rolled up newspaper with a nod and a quiet ‘thanks’ and watched the man walk off. Then he tried to return his attention to the atrium at large, but without much success. After a few moments, curiosity got the better of him.
When he unfolded the paper, the words ‘First Contact Today’ jumped in his face. He raised an eyebrow at the headline, but continued on. The picture for the article showed a portrait of a woman that looked to be wearing a dress, though it cut off to high up to really be able to tell.
As he read, he grew ever more nervous. Sure, Mike had considered it to be a hoax, but Mike didn’t know what he did. A magical community from a different dimension planning to establish first contact would certainly be a good reason for the Department of International Magical Cooperation to be on high alert. The ‘different dimension’-part also explained the presence of the unspeakables as, as far as he was aware, dimensional travel wasn’t known to be possible.
One had to consider that such a foreign magical community might be hostile, or that the locals might be hostile towards them, so the presence of aurors made perfect sense, especially given the claim that they were apparently involved in fighting the Dark Arts in some capacity, though the article didn’t go into detail on that. That would also explain the minister and his undersecretary taking interest.
On their own, the pieces of evidence could be dismissed.
On its own, the article sure seemed like a hoax.
But it all just fit together too well. Just as Eric finished reading, the hands of the clocks mounted to the walls in several places moved to the full hour. Ten AM.
Eric’s eyes, like those of everyone else in the atrium, were immediately drawn to the flash of golden fire by the Fountain of Magical Brethren.
There, appearing out of a wash of phoenix fire, stood six people. Easiest to recognize was, of course, Albus Dumbledore. The chief warlock wasn’t an uncommon sight at the Ministry. His phoenix Fawkes was perched on his shoulder. The sparkle of amusement in his eyes was not entirely reassuring.
Beside him stood a woman of incredible beauty wearing a long, flowing white dress. Her colorful hair seemed to not entirely obey gravity, floating off her shoulders and sparkling slightly. There was no mistaking her. He had only seen her in black and white before, but the gentle smile and flowing hair made her very recognizable. This was the woman the article in the Quibbler had talked about. This was Princess Celestia. Her eyes were, if that was even possible, sparkling with more amusement than Dumbledore’s.
On the princess’ other side was a girl he recognized from that time she had appeared in a very similar location alongside Madam Bones, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and another Hogwarts first year. He didn’t know her name, but there was no mistaking her either. Her fiery hair made sure of that. And, to his great surprise, perched on her shoulder, wings spread proudly and clearly basking in the attention they were getting, sat a second phoenix.
On Dumbledore’s other side was a man in a smart business suit with a purple bowtie and monocle. His pale blue hair wasn’t as notable as that of the witches in the group, but would stand out in almost any other group of people.
Finally, rounding out and flanking the group stood a pair of men wearing, of all things, pure golden platemail with a purple star inset on the chest of each. They were clearly guards of some kind, but their stern expressions couldn’t quite hide the curiosity in their eyes as they looked about the room.
Princess Celestia shot a glance to the girl beside her, then smiled slyly and opened her mouth.
As the entire hall stared at the group in silence, Sunset couldn’t help her smile. Celestia’s delivery had been perfect. After a few seconds, a few wizards here and there began to smirk, especially at seeing the confused faces around them. One of them, evidently, had had a few too many confused faces around them as she soon heard a single witch start to laugh. She was quickly followed by several more, only causing more confusion.
When Dumbledore finally began chuckling, Sunset couldn’t stop herself any longer and began giggling as well. Soon, as muggleborn and a few halfbloods here and there began explaining the reference, more and more wizards and witches began to join in. Laughs, chuckles, giggles and chortles were soon filling the atrium with a sound it had rarely heard in such abundance over the centuries it had seen.
Still, between the merriment someone had apparently gotten word out as it only took a minute before an elevator rattled into place on the far end of the hall and four people came out of it. Sunset had only personally met Madam Bones, but she had seen enough pictures to also recognize Minister Fudge and Barty Crouch. The woman wearing the pink abomination rounding out the group could only be Undersecretary Umbridge.
The laughter died down a bit as the group approached them. Dumbledore smiled idly. “It would seem our leaders have already arrived.”
His comment startled another wave of laughter from the gathered wizards, garnering a raised eyebrow each from Bones and Crouch, a confused smile from Fudge and no response at all from Umbridge.
Finally, the two groups came face to face and Fudge spoke up. “Princess Celestia, welcome to our Ministry of Magic. It’s an honor.”
Celestia smiled gently and nodded. “Since your world continues to be of interest, I’ve decided that proper diplomatic first contact should be made.” She looked at the group before pointedly glancing at the aurors around the room. “I see you are prepared.”
“So are you,” Madam Bones pointed out, glancing at the two royal guards beside their group.
Celestia giggled lightly. “I know. My Royal Guard always get so nervous when I go somewhere without an escort. It’s almost like they think I can’t take care of myself.”
Sunset snickered a bit at that, glancing towards the guards to see if they had reacted at all. Celestia and her had once nearly made a game of trying to catch the subtle shifts of their faces and bodies, only stopping when it had become clear it was making at least one of the throne room guards a bit embarrassed.
She didn’t see anything this time, but perhaps that was because of the situation. No matter how subtle, such a small thing might be perceived by some as a sign of weakness, and she knew the Royal Guard prided themselves on their stoicism.
She returned her attention to the Minister as she heard him speaking once more. “We’re glad you have decided to open a dialogue. From what Dumbledore has told me, there is a great deal both our communities can learn from each other, and that it is our Ministry that you have chosen to contact is both an honor and a privilege.”
“I must admit, some of that honor falls to my former pupil, Sunset Shimmer here, who was the one that helped make it possible for this meeting of worlds to even take place.” Celestia remarked, causing Sunset to blush just a bit.
“Yes, I have been made aware of what this young witch’s contributions have been. I daresay that, after today, there will be many people watching you with great interest, Miss Shimmer.”
Something about the way Minister Fudge said that had Sunset feeling a little uncomfortable. Still, she schooled her expression and affected a polite smile. “I know,” she said firmly, "but I already knew that when we decided to stop hiding Philomena’s true nature.”
There was quite a bit of muttering in the crowd as the phoenix in question spread her wings and trilled proudly.
Minister Fudge nodded and turned towards several Wizards off to the side that had just hurried into the atrium and started making their way through the crowd. When he waved for them to come closer, they rushed over and brought out cameras. Sunset relaxed and let a small smile on her face, still concealing most of her mirth. The press, it seemed, had arrived.
For the next few minutes, pictures were taken with the lot of them, both with Fudge’s group and Dumbledore, and without, and a few of them tried to ask questions. Princess Celestia had been prepared for that, of course. She gave friendly but vague answers, noting that this meeting was mostly meant to make contact official and see about future opportunities. She made a point of mentioning that at current, the only way to travel between their two worlds was with the help of the two Phoenixes that were with them.
This, of course, brought attention back to Philomena and Fawkes, both of whom preened and let out quite the smug trills to the members of the press.
After getting a promise to have copies of the pictures taken forwarded to her via Dumbledore, the Equestrian party followed after Minister Fudge and his entourage. Small talk quickly picked up between Fudge and Celestia as he started telling her a bit more about the Ministry. Celestia nodded politely, even though Sunset knew that she had likely heard most of this already from Professor Dumbledore and Mr. Weasley.
Speaking of which … Sunset noticed that the former had fallen into step beside her, and decided now was as good of a moment to sate her curiosity.
“Headmaster,” she began in a hushed tone, “What exactly did the Minister mean by ‘people watching me with great interest?’”
The twinkle of amusement in Dumbledore’s eyes didn’t reassure her much as he gave a little hum. After a moment, he smiled and simply said “Oh, nothing major … just that you might find some of the more powerful and influential families trying to arrange a marriage for you.”
Sunset’s eyes widened for a second, then narrowed dangerously. “They’re welcome to try,” she said quietly and had to suppress a giggle when she saw Dumbledore raise a brow at the flames dancing around her fingers.
The rest of the walk to the conference room was rather uneventful. The initial discussions were quite interesting though, especially as it seemed that the Minister was growing quite excited about … well, everything. If the amused look on Dumbledore’s face was any indication, this was perhaps the most animated that he had seen the Minister.
Everything from talk of potentially establishing an embassy office here in the Ministry and what it might need, talk of what goods the Princess thought Equestrians might be interested in, to even a small exchange between Celestia and Madam Bones about possible cooperation of the Royal and Night Guard with the Aurors seemed to excite the Minister. Crouch also seemed most interested at that bit, but for the most part seemed to be keeping quiet… whether it was because he was observing like her, or was there simply because he was the head of his Department, she couldn’t say. Perhaps he would become more active in follow up meetings when Fudge wasn’t present.
It seemed quite clear to Sunset, who spent the entire time simply listening to the exchange while watching the expressions of the other wizards and witches, that the fact this was going to make history was driving that excitement. The Minister to establish relations with another world of magic users? His name would doubtlessly be something you’d read about in Hogwarts history classes. Unless those classes remained focused on goblin revolts, of course.
However, Fudge’s excitement was not shared by all. Or rather, by one. Namely, in the form of the very woman they had been warned about.
The toady woman was wearing that kind of fake smile that Celestia had helped Sunset learn to see through very early on when it came to her lessons about politics. Her eyes had a cold fire to them as she sat and listened, every so often nodding to something the Minister would say to her.
The fact that he seemed to be talking with everyone else more than with her was only adding to the irritation she was working quite hard to keep contained.
It was only when a moment of inspiration struck the Minister that her limit seemed to finally be struck. As Minister Fudge was making the offer of seeing if any of the Unspeakables would be willing to volunteer and study the mirror that had first allowed the connection, with the idea of trying to find an easier way for the two worlds to interact, she let out a loud, artificially sweet cough that drew everyone’s attention to her.
The smile on her face widened a bit, and somehow, managed to be even more disgusting in just how obviously fake it was.
“Minister, as happy as I am to see you this ... excited over what is truly a historic moment for the wizarding world, I’m afraid that I need to put a bit of a damper on your enthusiasm.” She looked to the other wizards, purposely ignoring Princess Celestia and the Equestrians' gazes as she continued.
“But it seems that all of you are missing the elephant in the room. Or, to be more precise, the equines in the room.”
Princess Celestia’s smile was just as sweet as Umbridge’s, though a lot more convincing. “Ah yes, Madam Umbridge, I was warned of your … misinformed bias.”
Sunset had to admit that this woman was quite skilled at controlling her emotions, because she was rather certain she was nearly ready to explode as she asked, “Misinformed bias? And what, pray tell, does that mean?”
Fudge’s look of excitement quickly morphed into one of concern, yet he seemed unwilling to say anything as he looked at his undersecretary. Madam Bones simply rested her face in her palm and rubbed her temples. Dumbledore was watching with quiet interest, doubtlessly curious as to just what Celestia might say. Crouch seemed more amused than anything, his eyes flicking from the Princess to Umbridge herself. It was a bit surprising to Sunset, but perhaps he simply enjoyed watching the political maneuvering.
“Well, it’s no surprise when some things haven’t been communicated as properly as they perhaps could have been. For example, while yes, we are Equines back in our own homeworld, we are just as human as you are while we are here. If you, in turn, were to visit Equestria you wouldn’t be anymore human there than we are. So as you can see, while we are not human in the strictest technical sense, we are your local equivalent in our own world and so long as we remain in the same world, there is no difference of any kind between us. And while, with practice, it is possible to assume the natural shape of the respective other world at will, that form is always secondary.”
Umbridge didn’t seem to be swayed by that, but Celestia continued before she could even offer a retort. “On top of that, from what my former pupil has shared with me, those who visited our world and took on a form native to ours have had their magical strength improved or made more flexible … or in some cases were given advantages they would not have had previously. One of her schoolmates has begun to easily master wandless magic by growing more used to channeling magic in her unicorn form, something I have been told is rare amongst most wizards.”
Now Celestia’s smile became more sincere. “So, this meeting of our worlds, provides our world with a fascinating new one to explore and new friends to make… and while it does the same for your people, it also offers something much more tangible. Something that I’m sure you can see the benefit of.”
“Indeed, I myself have seen evidence of this firsthand at Hogwarts.” Dumbledore interjected. “And what Equestrian magic Miss Shimmer has already shared has also made her fellow students more adept at learning our own. I daresay that if this spreads to the rest of the students in her year alone, Hogwarts would have one of the most advanced and skilled classes of wizards and witches that we’ve seen in a few generations.”
Umbridge now looked somewhat torn, the smile having faded from her face, lips pulled into a thin line as she mulled over what was being told to her. Madam Bones, who was now giving the Princess her full attention, had an almost predatory glint in her eyes as she joined in.
“The Princess makes a good point, several actually, and we’d be fools to let something like the laws on magical creatures be what stops all of Wizarding Britain from benefiting from this. Just imagine what the Ministry could do with so many talented young wizards and witches coming into our ranks. I’m sure with the right words said here, a few whispers there, that even many of the older families wouldn’t raise a fuss over the ‘technicalities’.”
“As the Former Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement,” Crouch chimed in, the look on his face suggesting, at least to Sunset’s trained eyes, that he was enjoying this. “I must say that you should know Madam Umbridge that there are times when some laws need to be taken less seriously… or stretched a bit to fit an unprecedented situation. I don’t think the laws regarding non-humans ever expected something like this.”
Sunset was again having to contain her mirth. It now looked like Umbridge had bitten into a sour apple, but she had yet to say anything else. And she was not surprised when Celestia decided to offer the repugnant woman a way out.
“I would however, like to commend you Madam Umbridge, for bringing this up now. Doing so lets us clear the air and remove a major hurdle to cooperation between our two governments, and shows that you are thinking ahead for what issues could arise as our worlds conduct more business with each other. It is good that Minister Fudge has someone like you to watch out for these sorts of things lest they cause trouble later.”
That brought the excited smile back to Minister Fudge. He turned and beamed at Umbridge as he said “Quite right, quite right indeed! Thank you so much for bringing it up so that we could conduct this and future meetings without that hanging over our heads.”
Umbridge blinked a bit, caught by surprise, it seemed, for the praise she was receiving from the Minister and Princess on this matter. She adapted quickly however as a… well, maybe not nicer but a more polite smile came to her face. It seemed she was smart enough to realize when she had been outmaneuvered and was backing down… for now.
“But of course, I was merely looking out for the Ministry after all, and having this historic moment be overshadowed by political outcry without being prepared could have been disastrous.”
Fudge, it seemed, had not really thought about that in the excitement. His smile thinned a bit, but he quickly regained it as he said “And speaking of future meetings… Barty, how quickly do you think we could arrange a temporary Embassy for the Equestrians?”
Crouch frowned a bit, thinking. “That depends, Minister, on whether you want us to convert a few older, unused offices into one, or want something that will be the beginning of something more permanent.”
“I have no particular preference.” Fancy Pants said, having chimed in only a few times during the course of the meeting. “There is no rush, after all. We weren’t really expecting things to happen overnight.”
“Not to mention that I suspect you’ll be heading back home for the moment Mr. Fancy Pants, so I suspect we have time to figure things out.” Madam Bones remarked, earning a nod from the man.
“Yes, without a Phoenix of my own or an easier means of transportation, I admit that at first it will mostly be short visits where I borrow Fawkes or Philomena.”
Fudge grinned at that. “All the more reason then for me to send any volunteers from the Unspeakables back to Equestria with you! If, of course, you do not mind your Majesty.”
Celestia smiled. “I think that would be a marvelous idea. Headmaster Dumbledore told me a bit about some of the things they do, and I think they’ll find the experience of travelling to another dimension in of itself quite fascinating.” She turned to Fancy Pants and added, “And do not worry … I will be looking into seeing if we can find another phoenix who might be agreeable to helping us.”
That earned raised eyebrows from all of the others save Dumbledore, who gave them a serene smile as he said “It seems we have laid the groundwork here. I don’t think there is much more to discuss here at this time.”
“True that … for once I’m going to actually be doing something more worthwhile than approving cauldron measurement standards.” Crouch snorted, earning an amused look from the Headmaster and Madam Bones.
“We will need to convene the Wizengamot and inform them of everything.” Umbridge chimed in, giving the minister and Dumbledore a smile as she added “I suspect we are going to be in for a long night as word of this gets out from more… reputable sources.”
Dumbledore smiled. “Indeed, I suspect there may be another multi-day session in our future. We haven’t had one since shortly after the end of the war, have we? Though might I suggest,” he added thoughtfully, “leaving this matter for the regular monthly session? I believe I might end up tied up in dealing with the Confederation’s response to this unprecedented situation.”
As Sunset, Celestia, Fancy Pants and the two guards returned to the Grangers’ home where they’d prepared this morning, Sunset couldn’t help a smirk. “We just turned their world upside down, didn’t we?”
Celestia smiled in response. “I suspect so, yes. You might want to see about getting a subscription to one of the local wizarding newspapers. The fallout should prove quite entertaining.”
In the days after First Contact, Sunset resumed her work with the magical computer circuit as Hermione delved further into computer programming. Their pet project was taking up much of their free time that wasn’t already devoted to something else, despite some poking and prodding from their friends and parents.
Granted, some of the work involved stretches of time where she just kept an eye on her circuit, and, having taken up Celestia’s suggestion, she had plenty to read.
To say that they had turned things upside down was a bit of an understatement.
The Daily Prophet was the primary source of news for most Wizards, with the Quibbler being among the other, smaller papers or magazines all of which focused on the news that was dominating Wizarding Britain. The Prophet’s first edition after that day was probably one of the longest.
FIRST CONTACT! VISITORS FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION MAKE OFFICIAL APPEARANCE AT MINISTRY!
There was still a fair bit of incredulousness among many wizards and witches, it seemed, with many wondering if they were being played for suckers or if the Ministry was trying to make some big prank. A few wondered if the Quibbler had somehow taken over the Daily Prophet.
Hermione had found the most amusing take in the early days though to come from a journalist named Rita Skeeter, who pointed out the irony that it was the Wizarding world to make contact and prove that aliens did in fact exist, rather than the Muggles.
Only two days afterwards, Sunset had learned from Luna that her father was getting swamped with new subscriptions and letters wanting to know even more about Equestria and especially the Princess. It seemed that, as it became clear it wasn’t a prank and that the Quibbler had been the first to cover it, that it couldn’t be as much of a crazy rag as many had seen it to be.
Later editions were filled to the brim with interviews of those who had been involved in preparing for the big moment, as well as entire pages of opinion pieces both from journalists at the Prophet and from those regular readers were sending in.
Sunset had found a fair bit of amusement reading some of the ones in the following days that were matching a trend she’d sometimes seen in the muggle and Equestrian papers- readers responding to the opinions of fellow readers. Said amusement had been tempered a few times though by some of the less … pleasant ones the Prophet had chosen to print.
Speaking of which, Celestia had been sending her some of the papers circulating in Equestria as word spread there as well. Most of the responses across the realm were of curiosity and excitement at the prospects of what this new world offered. Only a rather cynical paper from Cloudsdale seemed to suggest that this could be the beginning of dark times for ponykind.
One side effect of all this, though, that Sunset could have done without were the letters from various journalists, who now wanted to interview Hogwarts’ first Interdimensional student. She consoled herself that so far, no one had tried to arrange a marriage for her. She was fairly sure, at this point, that Dumbledore had been joking.
Soon however, the day arrived that forced Sunset to divert her attention from one project to another. Specifically, one she had been looking forward to resuming.
She had received a response from Crabbe. It was time for her to pay a visit to the three Slytherin students and see if she could expand the work she’d started with Crabbe to the other two.
Draco Malfoy would have never admitted it, but he was a bit nervous. This dinner between his family and those of his two, well, after what he’d learned on the Hogwarts Express home, he would hesitantly call them friends, had been planned for weeks.
Political first contact with a nation of magic users from a different world had been … disruptive, but ultimately hadn’t changed the timetable. The plans to meet with the Gryffindor who had been secretly training Crabbe for the better part of a year, much to his surprise, were a relatively recent addition, but once his parents and the adult guests retired, it really was the perfect opportunity to talk with all three of them at once.
Learning that that same Gryffindor had been from a different dimension had come as a shock. That the eagle she’d been carrying around for the last year was actually a phoenix, really hadn’t surprised him much more after that.
He’d been caught completely off guard, he was pained to admit, by the creeping changes to Crabbe’s behavior over the past year. He hadn’t done anything rash, but, simply sprinkled into normal conversation, he’d said small things here and there, sowing the seeds of doubt in him and Goyle for most of the year. He hadn’t thought the boy capable of such subtlety. It truly proved that he was suited to be a Slytherin.
It also left him wondering about Sunset Shimmer herself. After all, it had been her who had set the changes in Crabbe in motion. He’d need to keep his eye on her regardless of if this training that she wished to share with them paid off.
There was another matter. The training. After learning his secret, Goyle had challenged Crabbe to a sparring match in their dorm. Physical contact only, no magic. The result had been ... impressive.
He could easily see Goyle profiting from the same training. But unless she had some other tricks up her sleeve, the only thing he could see himself gaining from this was figuring out just how she’d gotten Crabbe to actually use his brain.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The training itself would supposedly help improve his magic, at least from what Crabbe had told the two of them. Something about being physically fit allowing the magic to flow better. He would have to see that to believe it. After all, if there was such a simple way to improve one’s magical strength, more wizards and witches would do it, right?
“So you’re sure she can just come here?” he asked Crabbe as they sat down in their room on one of the upper floors of his family’s expansive manor.
“Don’t worry about that. I just told her to wait for my signal.” Crabbe pulled out a piece of paper, the same he apparently used to communicate with Sunset Shimmer, and his wand. He tapped the latter against the former and its tip glowed a soft yellow. In turn, four complicated magic circles in the corners of the paper lit up, flashed for a second and faded again.
“There. She’s coming.” With a smile, Crabbe took a step back and sat down in one of the chairs at the edge of the room.
Draco was about to ask him what he was on about when the air where he’d just stood warped and a familiar girl appeared out of nowhere. She gave Crabbe a smile and turned to the others. “Hello. So you’ve decided to give my training a try?”
Draco watched her carefully. With her clothes she could have passed for a muggle without issue, he suspected, though he didn’t actually know enough about how muggles dressed to be sure. She still wore the same bag she had been at Hogwarts, but now matched with a black leather jacket of all things and a short dress beneath, matching the summer temperatures. He was surprised she hadn’t brought her phoenix along. Though Malfoy Manor was warded against them, perhaps she’d known or at least suspected.
When he managed to focus back on what she’d said, Goyle had already nodded, so he gave a tentative nod as well. She smiled at that, and said “Now, first, if at any point you decide you're done with these training sessions, just tell me and we’ll stop. As long as we are doing them, do your best to follow what I or in some cases Vincent say. He’s been doing this with me for a while and can help you two catch up.”
“And don’t worry about getting it perfect the first time.” Crabbe said, smiling a bit as he stood up and stretched. “You’ll make some mistakes, it comes with the territory. I know I did. If you do, just take a deep breath and try again.”
“Alright, hold up just a second.” She got up and looked around the room. “I take it your parents are in the house as well?” When she received a round of nods, she gave them a sly smile. “And I take it you don’t want them to know we’re doing this?” Another round of nods. “Alright then, hold on a moment. She drew her wand and waved it around the room for a few seconds. “There, that should last for a few hours. What we’re doing here might get a bit noisy and we wouldn’t want them to hear. Now for a bit of space…” Without even moving her wand, she lit its tip and several pieces of furniture were surrounded by a teal glow and floated aside.
“There we go. Vincent, can you help Gregory? I’ll help Draco.”
“Sure thing, Sunset.”
And so they got to training. Sunset, as she quickly insisted they call her, wasn’t a terrible teacher, he had to admit. She was always pleasant, but still quick to point out any mistakes they made. And they made plenty. At several points she complained under her breath about wizarding children ‘not even knowing basic physics’ but quickly explained concepts like leverage and momentum. It wasn’t difficult, really, just not something he’d thought about as useful before. Or at all, for that matter.
But still, he couldn’t deny that the training was exhausting. He was certainly the most exhausted out of all of them by the time they finished, but Goyle wasn’t doing much better. Crabbe was hardly sweating at all and if Sunset had been sweating, he couldn’t tell. Though perhaps she had also been using the charms she quickly used to clean the three boys of sweat and bring them and the room back in order. It was hard to tell, really.
When they’d all sat down again and she had floated the furniture back to where it belonged, she gave him and Goyle a piece of paper each. “These,” she explained, “are linked into our messaging system. That way you’ll be able to talk to each other without having to wait for owls and to me without your parents getting suspicious. If there’s another time we can meet up like this, let me know. Otherwise, we can continue this back at Hogwarts.”
With a wave of her wand, she canceled the charms she’d placed across the room and only now did he notice all the noise from the rest of the house they’d held away, mostly their parents talking elsewhere in the manor. Apparently their discussion had become a bit heated at some point.
Sunset chuckled lightly. “Oh dear, I guess I can see our little first contact being a bit disruptive. Let’s hope they calm down soon.” He could only agree, shouting around like that was unbecoming of a Slytherin. Why his father had lost control like that, he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t like it. “Oh well,” Sunset continued with a smile. “Probably time I got going. I’m still expecting a guest later tonight. I’ll be in touch.”
With that, she snapped her fingers, the air around her warped again and she was gone.
He wasn’t sure what to think of her, but he was sure that he’d have no trouble sleeping tonight. He was exhausted.
When Sunset returned home that night, Philomena hadn’t returned yet. She had been helping Princess Celestia for the last few days. A quick check on their shared bond was enough for her to know that she wouldn’t be much longer.
Sunset decided to look over her circuits as she waited. There wasn’t much to do there, but she checked them over anyway. Perhaps she should try seeing if she could miniaturize them more?
A wave of flame heralded Philomena’s return. Sunset turned around with a smile.
“Hey there Lyra. How’re you doing?”
The question wasn’t really necessary. She could tell just how excited Lyra was to be staying with them. They had decided that would be the easiest way to ensure her Hogwarts letter could actually reach her. Owl mail didn’t go across dimensions, after all.
“Oh this is so exciting! So this is how humans without magic live?”
“Well sort of,” Hermione chimed in. “Mom and Dad have had magic for a few months now. A few things have changed around here. But most things are still as they were.”
“Oh, and the majority of humans don’t know magic exists,” Sunset pointed out. “So unless you’re somewhere with none of them around, don’t use it, okay?”
Lyra nodded happily. “Sure. No problem.”
Sunset had to suppress a groan when she saw the excitement on Lyra’s face if anything only grow. Getting her to sleep would be a trial.
It had been trying getting Lyra to actually sleep that first day. And the second day. And pretty much every other day that first week. But by the time the week was over, Lyra had somewhat adapted to the human world. They had gotten her a full wardrobe, so she could have something more to wear than the clothes she got from traveling between worlds, as well as a few more basic necessities. Sunset had also enchanted another bag for her.
Then, one morning, there was a clicking on one of the windows. Sunset watched with a smile as Emma opened it with a swing of her wand and let the owl in. It immediately turned to Hermione, Lyra and her, and stretched out a leg with three letters.
Knowing what would be expected, they had already had Lyra’s answer prepared, stating that she would be attending, which she was now tying to the leg of the owl with a bit of magic. Lyra still had trouble using magic without her horn, but basic telekinesis was well within her ability.
When the owl fluttered off, satisfied, the three of them opened their letters. After skimming over the letter itself, Sunset looked over the materials list and giggled.
“Well, looks like Professor Dumbledore found a Defense teacher after all.”
With their letters in hand, the three of them made preparations for a day in Diagon Alley. Sunset teleported to the Burrow where she found not only the gathered Weasleys, but also Luna and her father. They’d apparently been waiting for her. They were quick to coordinate with her, confirming that they would be meeting up with her group in the Leaky Cauldron at noon.
That gave her some time to get everything prepared.
When she arrived back at home, she was surprised to find Harry and Sirius waiting for her there. Evidently, Professor Dumbledore had sent Harry’s letter through Fawkes. She wondered how Philomena had known to come fetch them.
The answer was simple. She hadn’t. But Princess Celestia had called her to help with something.
Like she’d said she would on the day of the first contact, Celestia had used her connection to the Sun to reach out to Equestrian phoenixes and request their aid. It had taken a while, but one had finally answered.
Of course, Ferana had needed Philomena’s help to gain the ability of traveling between Equestria and Earth. Apparently that had happened the day before and no one had thought to tell Sunset about any of it.
As such, this morning it had been Ferana that had taken Harry and Sirius to the Grangers’ abode before flaming back out to take the newly appointed Ambassador Fancy Pants to a meeting with Mister Crouch.
With everyone gathered, the seven of them then flamed over to the Leaky Cauldron. After all, Sunset and Hermione were the only ones of them able of teleporting, and neither of them were technically allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts until they turned seventeen. It wasn’t an issue when traveling to a warded home like the Burrow or Malfoy Manor, but while the alley near the Leaky Cauldron was warded against detection by muggles, it wasn’t warded against detection by the Trace, the spell construct used by the Ministry to monitor underage magic.
When they arrived, more or less exactly at noon, they weren’t too surprised that the Weasleys weren’t there yet. Something about too many of them being together seemed to stop that family from being punctual. Ever.
When they did arrive five minutes later, they were accompanied by Luna, being her regular, ever calm self, and Xenofilius, who seemed to be mildly amused at their antics. Ignoring the usual stares Harry gathered as well as the newer ones focused on Sunset and Philomena, the group quickly set out into the alley and to the traditional first stop of anyone doing their Hogwarts shopping. Gringotts.
While the others went to withdraw some funds to make their purchases, Sunset gave her coinpurse to Hermione and took Lyra to one of the tellers to get her an account set up. And to pass along a letter from the Princess.
The teller at first didn’t seem to be interested as they approached … then he took a second glance and his beady eyes widened just a bit. After a moment, he leaned forward and asked “What do you need?”
“First, I am here to help my friend open a vault here at Gringotts,” Sunset said and Lyra brought up a small bag of gems. “This is what she has brought to trade in.”
Sunset then pulled out the Princess’ letter. “And this is a letter from Princess Celestia of Equestria that I have been instructed to present to the head of this bank. You may read it if you wish to check its authenticity and sincerity.”
“So … the Princess from another realm …” the Goblin said, taking the scroll and unfurling it. The pouch that Lyra had placed down went ignored for a moment. As the Goblin read, his eyes grew bigger and bigger, and as soon as he finished it he quickly rolled it back up and called out.
“Groak! Groak come over here and take care of this exchange!” The teller said, then pointed to Sunset and said “You, follow me.”
What followed was a short walk to the bank director’s office. The exchange that followed was short, mostly the director seeking to confirm that Princess Celestia was serious about arranging a meeting and opening relations with the goblins just as they were doing with the Ministry.
After assuring him that the Princess was sincere, the Chief Goblin spent a moment scribbling out a message. Rolling it up and sealing it with a rough stamp, he stretched his arm over the desk to give it to her.
“Give this to your Princess then. I can tell you now that we will be able to establish a vault for the use of your Royal crown, but we will need to discuss more terms with her, especially to ensure that only those with your princess’ permission may access it. Anything else will be between her and our representative at the Goblin Liaison Office.”
Sunset nodded, and, recognizing the waving motion he made as a dismissal, stepped outside where she found a goblin waiting for her and was escorted back to the main hall. Lyra was already being led over to one of the doors leading to the many vaults, so Sunset hurried over to regroup with her.
“So, you all set?” she asked, and Lyra gave her a wide grin.
“Yup! The appraiser was quite amazed at some of the gems I gave him and said I should be good for all seven years at Hogwarts. He’s going to send an offer for most of them in a few days. How about that letter from the princess, how’d that go?”
As they made for the railcar that would take them to Lyra’s new vault, Sunset told her there wasn’t much to say. She presented the letter, and was given some information and a letter in return before being shooed out.
Of course, then came the cart ride, which Lyra thoroughly enjoyed.
More or less going by the same order Professor McGonagall and Hagrid had taken her, Harry and Hermione the year before, Sunset found herself once more headed to Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions. Lyra was, of course, the only one who didn’t have Hogwarts robes yet, but Ron, Ginny, the Twins and herself had all gone through growth spurts over the last year that left their robes a bit short in places.
Lyra was quite impressed when the grey trim on the robes instantly shifted to red the moment Madam Malkin put them on them. The explanation of the four houses of Hogwarts, prompted by the questioning glance she shot Sunset, became a rather communal thing as not just the rest of the group, including Xenofilius, Molly and Sirius, but even Madam Malkin and Erica Hops, one of the contacts Sirius had mentioned helping out with feeding Quirrell the information to get past Fluffy who was still working at the store, joined in and lasted them through most of their stay.
“Sunset, I think I found something about human society I don’t find fascinating.”
Sunset and Hermione shared a soft giggle at Lyra’s discomfort. Seeing how she hadn’t mastered the transformation yet, Lyra was, of course, in her human form. That being said, her face was still making a rather valiant effort at matching the color of her coat.
They were in the apothecary to restock their potion’s kits and get a new one for Lyra. While they still found the sheer amount of bizarre potion ingredients to be a bit disgusting, Sunset and Hermione had gotten far too much experience dealing with the various substances over the past year to be too bothered.
Lyra was lacking that experience and seemed very relieved when she got to leave the store behind her.
Next on the list of their places to go was Flourish and Blotts, the alley’s largest bookstore. While Sunset and Hemione were set to get their own books, the pair decided they would help Lyra get hers first. Seeing the line of people, most of them seemed to be witches around Mrs. Weasley’s age, all trying to enter the store, gave the group pause.
Then they spotted a rather noticeable banner announcing that Gilderoy Lockheart was signing his autobiography inside. As they approached, they noticed a single, tired looking wizard standing at the door, calling out for patience and reminding the witches he let inside to mind the books.
The fact that some of them had rather obvious books was enough to signal to him that they were here for their regular Hogwarts shopping and not for the book signing, so he let their group squeeze inside after barely a glance. And they really did have to squeeze as the queue continued on inside, weaving through between the shelves all the way to the other end of the store where Gilderoy Lockheart was signing his books. They couldn’t actually see him through the crowd, but most of them had seen his likeness on several books in the kitchen at the Burrow.
Mrs. Weasley looked to be a little distracted, but the rest of the group focused mostly on picking up their books. Given that the Lockheart books were right beside Lockheart himself, they went around the store to first pick up everything else on their list before having to deal with the crowd. They mostly moved as a group, picking out the second year books, while Sirius helped Lyra find her first year books and Mrs. Weasley was … otherwise occupied. Fred and George, as well as Percy, predictably also struck out on their own to find the books they would need.
When they did finally come into view of Gilderoy Lockheart they found him sitting at a table surrounded by portraits of himself along with examples of all his books, which likewise all included his portrait on the cover one way or another. All of the images, of course, were magical and winking at the crowd in a way Sunset could describe only as ‘obnoxious’.
Bouncing around him was a small, rather irritated-looking wizard with a camera that kept releasing clouds of colored smoke whenever the flash went off. Several of the group actually found him more entertaining to watch than Lockheart himself as he kept trying to shoo the nearby witches out of the way of his photographs announcing that he was from the Daily Prophet. The witches, naturally, didn’t think about moving from their spot in the queue.
That entertainment lasted precisely until the wizard took another picture from right in front of their group before leaping away again. Lockheart, however, was still looking in their direction after smiling for the photograph. He saw their group. His eyes widened slightly when he saw Sirius. Then his gaze fell on Harry, Sunset and Philomena.
“Well if it isn’t Harry Potter and Sunset Shimmer,” he called out, jumping up. Unlike the photographer, the gathered witches seemed all too happy to let him pass, whispering excitedly. Lockheart hurried over and grabbed both of them pulling them forward by their arms. Philomena squawked in protest and departed in a flash of golden fire, startling Sunset enough to get her wits about her. She twisted her arm out of Lockheart’s grip which was surprisingly easy, all things considered, and stopped for a moment before deciding to humour the man, if only to not leave Harry alone with the man. Sirius would never forgive her if she did.
So they shook hands with Lockheart before the amazed audience and the photographer who kept taking pictures. Sunset made sure that no picture showed her face without making it clear that she was rolling her eyes. Lockheart kept talking to them through his teeth as the matter went on. Something about the three of them making it to the front page, but neither of the two was really paying attention.
He then put an arm over both their shoulders and dramatically announced, to none of their surprise, that he would be assuming the role of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year of Hogwarts. Finally, he pulled out two stacks of books, each a full, signed selection of his autobiography and put them in their arms before finally returning to his table. The crowd was cheering and, thankfully, focusing on Lockheart for the moment, allowing Sunset and Harry to sneak their way back out of the limelight.
The two of them shared a glance and, seemingly, both came to the same decision. Lyra’s new vault notwithstanding, the two of them were the wealthiest members of the group. If any of them should buy their books themselves, it was them. In short order, they handed them off to Ron and Ginny who seemed a bit startled, but ultimately didn’t argue.
“Funny to meet you here,” they heard a familiar voice from beside them.
Sunset turned and raised a brow when she laid eyes on Draco Malfoy. “Oh, also here?”
Malfoy nodded and turned to Ron and Ginny. “Your father also here?”
They shot him skeptical glances, but inclined their heads to point in Mr. Weasley’s direction. Malfoy looked in the direction and spotted him, then turned his head in a slightly different direction. Following his glance, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Sunset and Hermione who had also showed up beside them spotted another man that had Draco’s pale blonde hair and long face and could only be his father. Draco glanced between them for a moment until the two of them spotted each other. Then he leaned against the side of a bookshelf as they both stopped and stared at each other.
“Good. This should be entertaining.” When Sunset raised a brow he smiled. “Father has been rather on edge since your stunt at the ministry. That isn’t a good state of mind for a Slytherin. I figure if he gets a chance to vent a bit it’ll only be good for him.”
“You know,” came the voice of one of the Twins. “Dad has been a bit stressed himself lately.”
“Yes, he might have a point, brother dear, it might help them both.”
Sunset giggled, putting an arm around Hermione’s shoulder as they all turned to watch. Sure enough, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy had been talking to each other with gradually increasing volume while the group had been distracted. Just as they returned their attention to the two, Mr. Weasley threw the first punch. Much to their surprise, Mr. Malfoy didn’t seem to even consider drawing his wand and returned in kind.
“Not how I expected that do go, to be honest,” Sirius remarked from beside the group.
The entire shop had by now turned their attention to the two men. A man they could only guess was the store owner tried unsuccessfully to get them apart. The photographer was bouncing around them taking picture after picture and Lockheart repeatedly swung his wand to reposition his table out of their way, but made no actual attempt to get them to part.
“Alright, fun though this is,” Sirius finally decided, “this has gone on for long enough.” He turned to two women standing not far from each other at the edge of the crowd. “Molly! Narcissa! Time to end this.”
Mrs. Weasley and the other woman who could only be Mrs. Malfoy looked to him, then to each other, nodded and drew their wands, reining their respective husbands in with a few well placed spells.
“Oh well, I best get going,” Malfoy remarked as he watched his mother start to drag his father out of the store. “See you at Hogwarts.”
“You know,” Lyra remarked from beside the group as she watched the Malfoys leave the store, “I wonder why that man tried to sneak this into my books.” When they turned to look at her, she held a small diary in her hands. “Pretty sure he didn’t want me to notice.”
