After their thorough search of the library environs, they headed back out Main Hall and up the stairs that bracketed the library entrance.
The two banners on the next floor’s walls were of two horses, not ponies, both with wings and a horn. One had a bright, day background, with a white alicorn, the other was night themed, with a black alicorn.
“Yuh think those are supposed to be Celestia and Luna?” asked Ron.
“Their ancestors? Maybe?” said Myrtle. “This castle is a thousand years old, you know.” She stared around them, trying to take in the entire expanse of the Main Hall. It was definitely two or three times the length of the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
“And the girls said that both Celestia and Luna are thousands of years old, so probably them,” said Percy as he stared at the two banners. “Very stylized, I’d say.” He moved closer and ran his hoof along the lower edge. “These should be in a museum, not left here to rot.”
“Harry did say they were starting to renovate the place last year,” said Ron.
“Still, they shouldn’t be left here.” He glanced at his siblings. “They are history, after all. Can you imagine a banner like this of the Founders just being . . . abandoned?”
They all nodded at that.
Ginny flew up and detached the banners, with Myrtle’s help. They rolled them up and shrank them, placing them in Percy’s saddlebags. They had a gift they were sure would please Twilight. Or maybe for the Princesses, if Twilight thought them appropriate for that, and she didn’t want them.
They went through the doorways beside the banners into an enormous room with a throne at the far end. The windows looked out onto the same courtyard they had seen before. This room had seen the most damage, and not just from time. A battle had taken place here. Several, in fact, both one from long ago and one from recently. The weathering and shading on the exposed marble clearly showed the difference.
Even though the floor was free of debris, columns were broken and severely damaged. Or simply missing large sections where something had blasted the columns in two. And scorch marks were still visible. The windows had new glass, but nothing fancy. The huge divots and cracks in the floor made them wonder why the library below was in such good condition.
Whatever non-marble decorations had existed were long gone, destroyed by the fires that had clearly raged at one time.
Ron, naturally, went straight for the throne and plopped down on it. “Hey, look! I’ma king!” He struck what he thought was a regal pose. As a pony, he simply looked ridiculous.
“Get down from there!” ordered Percy as he rushed over.
“Make me,” Ron said, running his hooves over the inset gems on the arms of the throne.
There was a POP and fresh fruits appeared in a depression built into the side of the throne beside the row of gems.
“Right! I was feeling hungry,” Ron said, grabbing an apple and taking a big bite. “Hmm,” he continued, “Goog!” Juice dribbled from the side of the apple. He swallowed the rest and grabbed a second.
Percy tried to pull him off the throne, but Ron hunched down, and braced his leg and other two hooves against the thrones sides. He didn’t move except a slight pull sideways. He smirked at his brother.
“Don’t sit there! Don’t touch anything! It’s disrespectful. Who knows what’ll happen?” Percy let go of the leg he was holding and went for a body grab.
“Yeah,” said Ron. “Like I’m gonna disappear if I hit one of these gems.” He punched a different gem with his freed hoof.
The throne platform suddenly flipped over backwards, flinging Percy back into the room in front of the throne. It dumped Ron, head first, through a trap door. Then it returned to normal, with no sign that anything had happened.
۸-_-۸
Harry and the fillies had discovered nothing, so far, except empty rooms in the corridor they were exploring. Most had furniture, but it was all utilitarian in nature, filing cabinets, desks, and so forth. These were for the staff that ran the castle, obviously. They came to a cross corridor that was lined with pony coats of armour, which they carefully inspected.
They had never seen pony armour like this before. The Royal Guards had some armour, but it wasn’t anywhere near the full coverage that these ponikins sported.
It was very interesting to see that there was even armour for the pegasi. It had metal pieces that fit over the leading edges of the wings and protected the vulnerable joints at the body. The wing surfaces were left uncovered.
The armours had to be very heavy and only the physically strongest ponies could manage to fight in them. Which brought up the point of what kind of monsters had they had to fight that needed that kind of armour? After all, they knew just how much damage a pony could take.
Each of the armours, there were easily a dozen or more, were on small pedestals only fetlock-high on both sides of the wide hall. The pedestals were all half-moon shaped, with the flat part against the walls. It was all very imposing.
While they were grouped around one specimen, Scootaloo was standing on the armour’s pedestal for a closer look, they heard what sounded like an organ note play. Before they could blink, the pedestal spun on the flat side. It was now empty. They all startled back, and began to panic.
“Whar’d she go?” demanded Apple Bloom.
“Scootaloo!” yelled Sweetie Belle.
Harry, after the first moment of shock had started looking for the magic that had to have been responsible.
“Scootaloo!” repeated Sweetie.
This time there was a thump from the wall behind the pedestal.
After a period of yelling at the wall they got the answers they needed. While she could hear them, they couldn’t hear her — so they resorted to one thump for “yes” and two thumps for “no.” Yes, she was okay. No, she hadn’t touched anything. Yes, she had heard a sound that she thought was a musical note. No, she didn’t see a way back. No, she couldn’t find a lever.
Meanwhile, the others had been scouring the vicinity for clues. They were now considering how to kick the wall down.
“Stand back,” Sweetie Belle shouted, bracing herself in front of the wall.
“No! Stop!” shouted Harry. “If you do that, the residual magic will hide the trigger!”
She sighed, but sat down and waited.
It wasn’t obvious, but eventually Harry found a tiny spot of magic on the wall. However, his touching it, either physically or with magic did nothing.
“Scootaloo, can you hit here?” he called out. There was a thump two hooves to the right. “No, move to your right!” he called out. It took several tries, but, as she later told them, “Just as I lined up for a kick, the stone under my right fore-hoof shifted and then the door opened.”
The four of them stood, staring past the ponikin into the dark and narrow corridor.
“Well,” said Sweetie Belle.
“A very deep subject,” Apple Bloom interjected quickly.
After a dirty look at the filly, Sweetie Belle continued, “Hidden corridors lead to hidden rooms, don’t they? One of which is bound to have books in it. And if they weren’t hidden, Twilight would already have moved them, right?”
Sweetie Belle lit her horn and started into the corridor. The rest quickly followed. Scootaloo was annoyed that the narrow space ruled out flying and she had to walk. Harry went last and kept a look out for anything behind them.
۸-_-۸
To the twin’s relief, the trap-door was to a slide that dumped them into an underground room.
“Well,” said George, “That was unexpected.”
“Indeed,” came the muffled response from under him.
They untangled themselves and took a look around. They weren’t really worried. They were unicorns, after all, and knew the teleportation spell well enough that they could easily escape any time they wanted. The front steps to the castle couldn’t be that far away.
And with their horns lit, they could easily see everything around them.
The room wasn’t a dungeon by any stretch of the imagination. It was rather cozy, actually. There was a sofa by one wall, a small bookcase on the second with a reading table. A fireplace occupied the third wall. An unlit torch was in each corner of the room. The bookcase was sparse, with only a few books in it. A quick look revealed several intriguing titles: Cutie Marks: Discovering Your Talent; The Order in Chaos; and Greece: Land or Cooking Oil? There was another book, How to Turn a Castle into Demented Funhouse in 37 Easy Steps, but it seemed to be more of a diary with lots of hand-written . . . hoof-written notes and drawings.
The other books in the bookcase covered more pedestrian topics such as Modern Farming, Construction Techniques, and Plumbing Essentials.
The twins quickly shrank and stored all the books. It would be easier to convince Twilight to keep a few if they handed . . . hooved . . . her a bunch.
The Demented Funhouse they saved for last as they wanted to see what the current castle might have in store for them. The placement of an organ caught their attention, and they decided to look for that. Which wouldn’t be all that difficult as they could now hear very faint notes being played.
But that could come later, after they read the book.
۸-_-۸
Immediately after Ron disappeared, Percy jumped onto the throne. He looked at the two girls. “No way I’m leaving Ron alone,” he stated. He punched the same gem the other red-head had hit, and just as suddenly disappeared.
The two girls looked at each other, wide-eyed.
Myrtle shook her head. “If they were renovating the place, there can’t really be anything dangerous here,” she said looking at Ginny.
Ginny looked around the room. “Well, no reason to hang around here,” she said. She headed from the throne. The two of them squeezed themselves onto the seat, then Myrtle hit the gem.
It was very disorienting, at first. Ginny tried to use her wings to control their descent after she grabbed Myrtle in her legs. Myrtle lit her horn and they could see the walls rushing by them. However, they could see light below them rapidly getting closer.
Then they shot into a large room only moments before they plunged into warm water. They quickly surfaced, pony-paddling, and looked around. Ginny wrapped her wings tightly to her body to reduce their drag.
The castle clearly wasn’t on level ground as they saw they were in a huge swimming pool bordered on one side by windows. Ginny’s brothers were in the shallow end shouting and waving at them. The two girls made their way to the boys. Oddly, half the room’s wall at the shallow end came to the edge of the pool. Except for that one part there was more than enough room to lounge or walk around on. As they went closer, they saw the corner of the pool had steps to let them climb comfortably from it to that area.
Percy had climbed out and was looking around. “This is almost as big as two classrooms.” He looked up. “And the ceiling is nearly as high as the one in the Great Hall at Hogwarts.” He looked over at the others as they climbed out to join him. “You two just fell from the hole in the ceiling, there.” He pointed up at the ceiling at far end of the room over the pool. There was no sign of an opening. They stared and frowned. It had to be a trapdoor that only opened when trigged. Which was why they hadn’t smelled the water in the pool while in the throne room.
After a quick look, the others climbed out, and shook off as much of the water they could. A few drying charms took care of the rest. Wand holsters were certainly worth the expenditure, if one had the money, they agreed.
The room was in amazingly good condition. In fact, it looked as if it had just been prepared for them. The water was clear, filled the pool, and was actually warm! An open cupboard had towels in it. If they didn’t know better, they might have thought someone had prepared the pool and room just for them. And this was in a ruined and abandoned castle? The spells on this must be very powerful.
They turned and looked out the windows lining one side of the room, trying to figure out where they were.
The windows overlooked a small park dense with bushes and trees. If it had had a plan or walkways, they had been overgrown long ago. A high wall enclosed the park, limiting their view, but revealing nothing more of the castle.
The four headed for the door on one wall of the room. Ron was pouting at the dressing down his brother gave him for being a berk and just punching buttons willy-nilly. “You could’ve been killed!” Percy had concluded angrily.
The door led to a room with three doors. Two doors led to what had to be royal restrooms, each as big as a Hogwarts classroom. One was decorated in a motif that emphasized the moon, the other the Sun. The third door led to a set of marble stairs and another door. The stairs went up and led to several rooms, one room per landing, culminating in a large bedroom — with attached bathroom. All the rooms were empty, and included what were obviously maid quarters, a study, a small library, and another room for receiving guests. They did find a book that had apparently been knocked behind the bed in the bedroom — Dream Walking for Dummies. It looked more like a diary than a published book, though, with numerous hand . . . hoof-drawn images and notes.
From the windows, they could see they were in the northern part of the castle. The throne room was on the opposite side of the tower from the pool. Myrtle inadvertently discovered there was a slide that went from the bedroom bathroom down to the pool. Ron discovered another one that went . . . elsewhere.
Once more, the other three had to follow blindly.
۸-_-۸
Harry was surprised that the corridor led them to the castle kitchen. The exit was hidden behind a dishware cupboard. Even looking, it was hard to see that the fillies came from behind it and not the doorway beside it. You couldn’t tell the tunnel was even there unless you were specifically looking for it. And a moveable cupboard could easily hide it from detection.
The kitchen was huge. And well stocked. Both equipment wise and with food.
Considering it was nearing lunch time, it seemed only natural for Harry to start fixing them lunch. Being ponies, almost everything was vegetables and fruits, with a few hay-based items. What really surprised them, however, was what they found in a storeroom.
“Are those cakes?” asked Scootaloo.
“It’s huge!
And it was. Nearly as big as the food storeroom beside it. Harry could only shake his head. The preservation spells on the storage rooms had certainly done their jobs!
The fillies were not slow to pillage the fruit bin — not that they could make much of a dent it. After all, it had been designed to store food for an entire castle’s worth of ponies. All the fruit was as fresh as the day it had been placed there.
After their early lunch, they began exploring the rest of the rooms they could reach. All of which were clearly support rooms for the kitchen or staff. And just as clearly vacant of anything interesting.
Just as they were about to leave the area and search the rest of the castle, they heard, “Aha! There you are!” coming from Fred. George was right beside him.
“How’d you get here?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo flying over to them. “We were watching the door to outside, and you didn’t come down the stairs from the dining hall above. We were just about to go there again.”
“And the kitchen staff quarters are through the door over there,” added Harry.
“We came through there,” George said, pointing at one of the empty storerooms.
Fred frowned back into the storeroom. “Forge,” he said, “There’re only empty pots and pans in there. I don’t see a door.”
They spent a few minutes fumbling around. Many pots and pans were “accidentally” knocked to floor with a great deal of noise. The twins concluded the secret passage they had used was hidden on this side. And they couldn’t find it. The others were on the other side of the kitchen, covering their ears.
“On the other hoof,” George said, “we did find a bunch of books in a hidden room.”
After showing the others their discoveries, and having a bit to eat themselves as the two groups shared information, they headed up to the dining room. There was still plenty of castle to explore!
۸-_-۸
Meanwhile, Myrtle and the other Weasleys found themselves in a windowless room that wasn’t a dungeon. It was rather cosy, actually. There was a small and empty bookcase by one wall, a sofa by the second with a reading table, and an unlit fireplace. An unlit torch was in each corner of the room. Disturbingly, the room appeared as if it had been recently cleaned. That is, no dust was anywhere.
They checked the room carefully and found Faust, Fact or Fiction? behind the bookcase. Then they found How to Move the Sun, which was stuffed under a cushion on the sofa.
With those stowed in Percy’s saddlebags, they headed out through the only door in the room. After a short walk, they found themselves entering the castle kitchens. They heard voices coming from an exit with stairs. And discovered the rest of their exploration party about to leave.
After catching up with each other, and scarfing down food from the kitchen below, the much larger group left for more exploration. And to find the source of that mysterious music they could occasionally hear. Was there a music spell breaking down?
It didn’t take them long. Once they decided it wasn’t their imagination, they quickly homed in on where the music was originating. To their surprise they found a room with a massive organ in it! And, even more surprising, the pony sitting in front of the organ and playing the music was Pinkie Pie!
“Well,” she said, “I couldn’t let you wander through the castle without proper supervision, now could I,” she said. Setting aside that she hadn’t been actually watching them, it did make sense. When they told her about the slides and pool, she vanished so suddenly they didn’t see her move. Only a pink outline remained in the air as the shed fur slowly drifted down. A moment later they heard an impossibly loud “Wheee!” followed by a splash.
With an almost constant, distant, “whee!” in the background, punctuated by faint splashes, they once more resumed their search for books.
The rest of the day was interesting, in that they explored almost the entire castle. And they discovered two more slides, three more trapdoors, six secret passages, and a spring-loaded section that tossed the pony on it from beside a door on a patio to a balcony two floors up.
But one additional book was found, A History of Paradise Valley. They found it in a partially destroyed room that once had been a barracks for the castle guards. It was under a bunk that had been crushed by falling debris. By the scorch marks on the walls and the discarded weapons on the floor, the owner hadn’t survived the battle to retrieve his reading material.
Naturally, they were subjected to a lecture from Twilight about running off to the castle, even if they hadn’t trekked through the Everfree Forest. Then they were the recipients of profuse thanks for retrieving ancient books that others had missed. And the banners. They managed to convince the bookworm to let them give their other bookworm two of the recovered books: Cutie Marks: Discovering Your Talent and The Order in Chaos.
They knew Hermione would be thrilled to have two books over a thousand years old that no one on Earth had ever seen. Or read. Or even dreamed about.
And Harry discovered that sleeping in Twilight’s bed made for wonderfully restful nights. And even more wonderful mornings waking up with company instead of alone. It made the nights warmer, too.
۸-_-۸
Dumbledore sipped his glass of fire-whiskey as he watched the fire in his fireplace and reflected on the events since the start of school this year.
Foreign students from Atlantis, a late student from overseas, a troll allowed into the castle, and an attack on a student. And the discovery of an actual horcrux in the school. Then there were the uncommonly common potion accidents that yielded usable potions.
There hadn’t been this much commotion in Hogwarts since the end of England’s Great Wizarding War.
Fortunately, right now, the castle was almost completely empty of students. None of the Gryffindors or Slytherins had stayed behind, and only three students total from the other two houses. They said they needed the quiet time to study for their NEWTs. Most of the Professors had returned to their family homes, as well. The Christmas hols, as usual, made for a very relaxing time in Hogwarts.
Except for the Ministry parties in the evenings he had had plenty of time for his research. That was thanks to the Equestrians’ suggestions about assistant teachers. The new policy was working out quite well, as were the suggestions put forward by the other professors. They all reported that having exceptional sixth and seventh year students take some of the load had allowed them to concentrate on those students who needed help. And both the exceptional and the lagging students had produced a noticeable improvement in their magic.
It was a policy he wished they had implemented decades ago. But Headmaster Dippet had been a traditionalist. He had spurned anything that hadn’t been done for a hundred years, at least. And the professors had all learned the futility of trying to change things. There had been many missed opportunities that it had taken Princess Twilight’s forceful suggestions to restart.
And that fresh look had even extended to the muggles. The Atlanteans had been quite clever with their approach to the muggles. They had taken advantage of the muggles’ gullibility and recent fascination with “technology.”
The Unspeakables, at his request, though Minister Fudge’s thought it was his, had taken a look at what the Atlanteans had been doing with their “cures.” It wasn’t all that difficult, the primary information was in the newspapers, after all.
The amputees had been easy, the wizards and witches had merely pretended to be reporters and talked with the muggles. The muggles, to a man and woman, said they had been taken to a muggle hospital and the missing limbs regrown with special medicines and technology. While they alluded to it being “like magic,” they had insisted it wasn’t. All they had seen were machines, medicines in bottles, and doctors — just as you would find in any muggle hospital.
The only surprising thing they had seen had been some of the doctors had unusual hair colours. Which, now that the Equestrian Embassy had been announced, they understood to be the alien doctors. No visible magic at all.
The Unspeakables hadn’t even needed to obliviate the interviewees. “A refreshing change,” Broderick had said. “A simple glamour, a few questions backed by legilimency, and we were done.”
It had taken the Unspeakables a bit more effort to “acquire” one of the Equestrian cancer-cure machines. But they had. And then disassembled it to find its secrets. Their conclusions were that it was a marvellous feat of ingenuity in using rune-based magic but fooled the muggles into thinking it was technology at work.
Even if a muggle were to take apart the device to plumb its secrets, they wouldn’t notice the magic at work.
The real discovery, as far as the Unspeakables were concerned, was that the Atlanteans had somehow managed to get magic spells to work without destroying the electrical items. The two seemed to work together seamlessly. In fact, when the Unspeakables removed some of the electrical stuff, the device quit working. Which made it seem as if the electrical parts were integral to the machine functioning properly. No one would look inside and think, “This is not right.” And even if someone did suspect it to be magic, there wasn’t anything they could point at that conclusively proved it was so.
۸-_-۸
Why do I think that one of the books given to Hermione will enable humans that can become ponies to get Cutie Marks? Hopefully Harry gains one as I think he would be the most appreciative of gaining one. Plus wow I am starting to think that the wizards will never get the full picture, unless they get forced out into the open.
So uh, does this mean we're going back to the muggle side of the story next chapter? The ending of this one seemed very abrupt. It just sort of stops mid scene.
Ayup. Atlantis.
I can't see humans gaining Cutie Marks. I mean where would it appear?
On their buttocks like in the Main show?
On their cheek like in the Equestria Girls series?
On their forehead like in Sailor Moon?
Or perhaps on the back of their dominant hand like...? Ok I can't seem to recall any series that did magical tattoos on the back of the hand. But that sounds like the most sensible place to have them appear.
9432711
You mean Legend of Zelda?
...wait paradise valley? …..I smell a wild megan about to appear
9432711
Back of the hand is Odd World
9432711
The holy grail marks in fate/stay night. Not exactly talent related but they are personalised by the servant class but also the magus magic specialty.
9432668
I’m more interested in what mayhem might be caused by How to Move the Sun not to mention The Order in Chaos.
I had a thought what if Ginny ends up using "Dream Walking for Dummies" and ends up as a bat pony?
Also I bet the twins secreted away the "How to Turn a Castle into a Demented Funhouse in 37 Easy Steps" with plans for Hogwarts.
9432668
In one of the early episodes Fluttershy refers to "French Haute cotueur"
9432711
Probably on the Flank in Pony form and wherever it appears/doesn't on the ponies in human form. Thinking on it we have mention of wing tattoos for the Pegasi but not any reference I can recall for the ponies.
9432760
How to move the sun is dangerous as we know it's burnt out ponies in the past with the exception of Starswirl.
While this was a good chapter, it's funny to think that the most plot important part of it was a book title.
9432711
Chances are that they would appear on the buttocks like in Magic School Days.
Last I saw a magical mark on the back of a hand was in the anime/manga Fairy Tail.
9432928
I think the equivalency is due to them containing a similar around of gold and with Equestria having more gold they were able to produce more bits then wizards could produce galleons as a result inflation meant that a bit would go a lot further in the wizarding world then it would in Equestria.
Typo in last paragraph:
the Unspeakables were concerned, was that they Atlanteans
s/they/the/
Isn't this consider 'stealing'? And why the Equestrian didn't notice one of their machine was stolen?
9432947
Thanks. Fixed.
My chapter posts usually get on the “Featured Stories” list for between 4 and 6 hours. How interesting that this time, it didn’t even make it one hour. I wonder what else is going on? Comparing views, only one of the three listed are higher than mine.
9432955
It would be funny if they did and this is what outs the wizards. Because the Equestrians anticipates someone stealing it.
9432955
It's only stealing if you get caught. Just like spying, cheating, and trespassing.
9433039
And the Equestrians would no doubt notice and probably figure out the truth about who took it quite easily, I could see Twilight confronting Dumbledore about it and warning him against letting the Ministry steal anything else that Equestria has given to the muggles, telling him that if the Ministry wanted the Cancer machine to examine they could have just asked or even just paid for one.
9432955
You mean like how wizards “stole” the Hogwarts Express? They don’t seem to be very remorseful about that. And Number 12 Grimmauld Place, was formerly a handsome Muggle townhouse built in London. At some point, an early member of the wizarding House of Black coveted the beautiful house and managed to "persuade" the original Muggle occupant to leave, and put the appropriate spells on it.(according to JKR)
Clearly, the wizards have no problems stealing from muggles.
And who said the Equestrians didn’t notice?
9433080
You mean JK Rowling did say the Hogwarts Express is a stolen train? Color me surprise!
9433080
And like I just said it is likely that Twilight would confront Dumbledore about it with a warning to think twice before the Ministry steals anything else the Equestrians give the muggles, Equestria is after all an independent magical nation that isn't bound by the Statute of Secrecy and thus has the right to deal with the muggles in any way they see fit even if that means the exposure of magic and since the Ministry fancies itself to be a separate government (though we know they aren't even a legitimate one) they have no right to interfere with Equestrian foreign policy even if it does involve British Muggles, being completely separated from the muggles will almost certainly backfire on the wizards here especially considering that the Statute of Secrecy would actually hold the Ministry of Magic responsible for any breach on British soil even if Equestria was responsible as the Statute's biggest flaw is that it only works if every magical country is a signatory.
9432726
FILLY TRIXIE is eighth most adorable filly.
9433107
If the ponies don't have to listen to wizard laws, wizards don't have to follow muggle or pony laws.
I love how you think the wizards being illegitimate means that they would have to bow to the Equestrian's authority. Until they decide to conquer the wizarding world they have to recognize the authority the ministry has over the wizards.
Also, let's not forget this all started with the ponies taking wizard magic and giving it to the muggles.
9433223
but they didn't. all the magic they gave to Britain was Equestrian magic not Nazi Britain (yes, the ministry of morons are Nazis and all the death nibblers are too) magic.
9433232
Nope the dimension expansion and limb regeneration stuff came from the wizards. When the ponies first met with the muggles government all the magic they shared was taken from the wizards and presented as Equestrian magic.
9433252
you are joking, right? while the space expansion (which had nothing to do with the limb regrowth or cancer treatment) did indeed come from the idiots, cancer treatment and limb regrowth was all done initially on the other side of the portal in Equestria. you need to go back and read the relevant chapter. even the expansion charms were only used on the embassy and given to squibs and no-majs who were already aware of magic.
9432726
A History of Paradise Valley
well gen 1 was in dream valley.
i need to find my DVD set of G1 MLP
9433266
The author himself confirmed that stuff came from the wizards. Not sure about the cancer cure but definitely limb regeneration.
9433252
I think you are getting confused about what came from where. Dumbledore thinks that it is all Wizarding stuff not knowing that the Equestrians have their own stuff. The whole cancer healing machine is already throwing them for a loop because of the technology in it.
9433223
You clearly don't know the first thing about international politics, I'm talking about how Equestria is a sovereign nation conducting foreign policy and trade with another sovereign nation, the muggle British Government and the wizards regardless of whether or not the Ministry of Magic is a legitimate government, no country has the right to steal from each other, I have no doubt that Equestria would have sold a cancer curing machine to the Wizards if they made an offer but they didn't they just stole it, sure stuff like that is done all the time but espionage is still illegal almost if not absolutely everywhere. Also I'm not holding the wizards to Equestrian law I'm holding them to their own, the Statute of Secrecy holds each wizarding nation responsible to police the use of magic in their (stolen) land and they would thus be responsible and punished for any breach that would occur there. On top of that international law like the Statute of Secrecy are technically treaties between nations and thus only apply to nations that agree to abide by them, the fact is Equestria is not a signatory for the Statute of Secrecy nor are they a member state of the International Confederation of Wizards which enforces the Statute so Equestria can't be punished should they decide to reveal magic to the world given that they have never agreed to hide it in the first place in the realm of international politics you can't be punished for breaking a treaty you never signed, but given the way the Statute is worded the British Ministry of Magic would be held responsible by the other wizarding nations for not stopping Equestria from not following the Statute given that they have no legal way to punish Equestria aside from expelling four students (including the famous Harry Potter) from Hogwarts which wouldn't be much of a problem given that the CMC have other ways to learn magic and Equestria already has thousands of wizarding books including spell books.
Regardless wizarding law is invalid given that they are shadow governments operating in secrecy on land already governed by much larger governments that are operating in the open and they are not recognized to exist by any actual proper government aside from other shadow governments thus the wizarding governments of the world are illegitimate governments better described as being special interest groups that have long deluded themselves into viewing themselves as proper governments. the wizards are lucky that Equestria has so far chosen to respect their wishes to remain hidden from the general public even if Equestria does not see them as a proper government given how they are only dealing with Dumbledore and for the most part only in his capacity as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, personally I feel the wizards have been doing an absolutely terrible job trying to win the favor of the "Atlantians" and Equestria has every right to ignore them and do what they want to do in their capacity as a proper legitimate sovereign nation even if it throws the wizards under the bus.
9433274
i agree with badninja. when did the author say it came from the idiots? i distinctly remember people being brought over for treatment before anypony outside of the foals had learned any Earth (note: our world as opposed to Applejack) magic. also, pretty sure that besides the one the Nazis stole, all of these "devices" are still in Equestrian hands.
Yep, the evidence mounts.
9433274
Another thing unlike how the wizards stole the cancer cure machine, Equestria paid for and bought the spell books teaching them wizarding books legally, Equestria is actually doing being more moral about this then some real life countries, for example the main reason the United States were able to catch up and surpass the Soviets was because NASA "borrowed" a Soviet spacecraft that was on tour in Mexico while it was in transit, reversed engineered it and returned it before the Soviets would have had any idea it was missing, true it helped win the U.S. the Space Race but it was still an illegal move and it would have had plenty of consequences if NASA had been caught.
Equestria is acting entirely within its rights as a sovereign nation to use the information that they obtained legally (given that they bought that info in a book store) to their advantage by sharing it with the muggles and it is also entirely within their rights to hide where that information came from and I don't remember any pony ever stating that they came up with things like expansion charm, it appears to me that they just shared with the muggles what they can do and let them come to their own conclusions about where the stuff came from.
9433361
Well if anything it supports Twilight's theory that portals from Equestria to ancient Greece did exist in the past, as for whether this means the Greeks mistakenly thought that Equestria was Atlantis well that book is sadly nothing more then circumstantial evidence that won't convince anyone, at least based upon the title alone, who knows inside it might contain a reference to the Greeks calling Equestria Atlantis.
There is also one thing the title of that book is also strange considering that Greece is the modern English name for the nation and is derived from the Roman name for the area "Graecia" which literally means "the land of the Greeks", the ancient Greeks themselves actually called their land "Hellas" and in fact the official name for the modern nation of Greece is actually Helliniki Dimokratia or the Hellenic Republic.
Nice update!
9433364
The problem lies in the fact that they claim these spells as their own that is what makes it theft. Yeah they can't give the wizards credit without violating the statute of secrecy but what the ponies did is still wrong and the best thing to do is not share it at all. Them being a legitimate government doesn't matter. Theft is theft no matter how you dress it up and is a completely out of character move on the ponies' part.
Also while the ponies technically never said it was theirs they never claimed it wasn't and they intentionally lead the muggles into believing they created those spells.
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9433274
We, the United States, have also stolen a jet fighter this way. We intercepted one that was being secretly being shipped from Russia this way. They took it apart fully documenting everything reassembled it and sent it along its way. This gave us a good look at what their fighters could do.
Heck after the Cold War the USA discreetly purchased several then current MiG’s. They where purchased to keep them out of enemy hands but so we could see how they would fare against our fighters.
9433391
Equestria couldn't say either way if they created them or not since if Equestria said someone else created those spells then that would cause the muggles to start to think about who else could use magic and could easily lead to the discovery of the wizards, in situations like that it's best to present things like that without any explanation of where they come from and let the muggles come to their own conclusions and Equestria could not exactly hide the existence of those spells given that they were using them themselves, they looked at the situation and decided that the best course of action would be to neither confirm nor deny where those spells come from, Equestria can't be considered steeling given that they legally bought that information from a bookstore and while they are sharing that information freely and aren't denying credit they currently aren't claiming it either. either way don't call Equestria out on this kind of thing when they are actually acting better then most other government with any kind of scruples would under the a similar situation.
Also at this point with what the Muggle government knows about the wizards I would not be surprised if some of them suspect that some of the things that Equestria has shared with the muggles actually originates from the Wizarding World, especially the stuff the Equestria has never actually claimed credit for.
9433385
According to what I saw, Aristotle was the first to use the name Graeci (Γραικοί), in his Meteorology. He wrote that the area around Dodona and the Achelous River was inhabited by the Selli and a people, who had been called Graeci but were called Hellenes by his time.
That’s back at least 2300 years, maybe more.
9433400
Yeah compared to some of the morally questionable and downright illegal moves that real governments like the U.S.A. have done in the past and continue to do in secret, Equestria sharing information they legally purchased in a book store from the wizards with the muggles and never outright claiming credit for that information is absolutely benign and completely legal, true they are letting the muggles think that Equestria came up with that information on their own, but the facts are that they let the muggles come to that conclusion themselves and didn't really have a choice if they wanted to make use of those spells and respect the Wizarding World's request to stay secret. Plus Equestria taking credit would actually be to the wizards benefit since it would allow them to be more lax when it comes to using magic since the muggles would attribute anything magical to Equestria.
9433419
Well it's still strange that the modern English name for the country would appear on that 1000+ year old book and especially for said book to make a pun on it.
9433428
No stranger than some of the other spelling and words we see in MLP. I mean, according to when Twilight was reading Luna’s book in the Two Sister’s Castle (the episode where they were looking through it to update it), the book was written at least a thousand years ago, but the words written are in modern english, not the correct bizzarre stuff that was actually in use.
9433436
Honestly at this point I'm convinced Luna was the only one who ever talked that way.
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9433457
I actually agree with everydaygamer on this one about Luna being the only one to ever speak that way, and even if Twilight were to read something in an ancient language she might actually translate into modern "ponish" as she read because adding that extra bit of challenge to learning is totally something she would do. It would still make a little more sense if the title of the book used on of the ancient names for Greece simply because no one was calling it that in the ancient world. not that I'm complaining or anything it's just a little weird but now that I pointed it out I think I will move on now to other things.
(I'm just going to leave this here.)
Equestrians have given humans these revolutionary machines that can cure cancer, medicine that can regrow limbs, and many other amazing things. What is the response from Human Scientists and Engineers? I understand the machines are a very convincing and elaborate face/sham/hoax that ONLY works on magical principles, and that they need to be made exactly to specifications to work correctly, but what about Scientists that don't know the secret who are now studying these new things? All the false conclusions they are getting to because they start from the wrong perspective? I mean, if they think there is a Machine that can do all that, then they have to make theories on it. Since they are grounded in a lie they aren't going to get very far, but they won't know that.
What I'm trying to get at is you now have a bunch of Scientists and Engineers trying to guess at alien first principles, and Twilight is one of the people responsible.
I wonder how that's going to go over when she realizes she's wasting hundreds of researchers time when she could just tell them the answers and speed up scientific knowledge in (effectively) three whole worlds by just sharing what she knows, and the only real thing that's getting in the way is a handful of logical arguments (Which I can think of a couple of dozen resonable ways around), and the Wizards Secret Club.