Chapter 101: Never corner a frightened earth pony.

Aerie hesitated when it came time to board the train to Hogwarts. Not only was Lucius Malfoy on the loose, but Peter Pettigrew had also managed to escape.

“You going to be alright?” Aurora asked from behind her.

“Just have a lot on my mind,” Aerie replied and climbed aboard.

“The escapees from Azkaban, Isolde? That item you want but can’t seem to find?” Aurora asked as she followed.

“All of the above. Isolde’s been quieter than normal.” Aerie stopped and opened the door to a compartment. “Here, let’s take this compartment.” A moment later the two girls were stuffing their trunks into the overhead compartments.

“May I join you?” Hoshiko asked as she poked her head in. The Patil twins were right behind her.

“Come on in,” Aurora said, turned, and offered to help with their baggage.

“Hermione is with Ron and Neville,” Parvati offered as Lavender came down the corridor.

“Hi, did you save me a space?” Lavender asked.

“Come on in,” Aerie replied cheerfully.

“Thank you. By the way, how is Isolde?”

“You noticed it too, did you?”

“She’s Draco’s sister. Isn’t she?” Padma asked as she sat down.

“Let’s just say there is some truth to that particular rumor,” Aerie began slowly. “Her alleged estranged father gets himself thrown in Azkaban and somehow manages to do what no one has done before. I’d imagine that if she is indeed related to him, she’d be nervous.” She thought for a moment. “I don’t think that’s it though. I think something happened over the summer that she can’t tell us.”

“Having something we want to talk about but don’t dare would drive me to distraction,” Lavender announced as she sat down.

“Aerie!” called Mrs Weasley from outside.

“Yes,” Aerie replied as she opened the window.

“Promise me you won’t go looking for Mr Malfoy.”

“Now why would I go looking for him?”

“I… I don’t know, I just felt like I needed to warn you.”

“I Doubt very much he’d come after me, or come anywhere near Hogwarts. To be honest I’m more concerned with the fact that the keepers of Azkaban are using Dementors like bloodhounds.” The papers had of course been full of the news. They even had a picture of Mr Malfoy while at court where he’d vowed vengeance.

“Swear to me. Please. For my own peace of mind.”

“I will not go looking for him. I promise.”

There was a short blast from the engine's horn followed by a warning bell.

“Swear.”

“I swear to nothing. I will not bind myself. But I can promise you that I have no intention of going looking for him any time soon. If I am indeed fated to be the Dark Lord’s undoing I dare not bind myself to promises best not made.”

The train had begun to move, and Mrs Weasley stepped back, a look of astonishment on her face.

“Ah, Aerie, how are you?” Lupin offered from the train’s corridor.

“I’m fine. Listen, if you were thinking of protecting me,” Aerie began even as Moonie the cat jumped up onto her lap. “I am about as safe as anyone can get who dares to set foot outside of their door.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Listen, if you’ve got a mind, perhaps you might keep an eye on Isolde and our Musketeers.”

“And you have no intention to go looking for Mr Malfoy or Peter?”

“If we should cross paths it’ll be by their doing. Right now I’m more concerned with Dementors boarding the train and helping themselves.”

“Fair enough, I suppose. Fair enough. I imagine I’ll go check up on the Musketeers as well. We’ll see you later then.” He turned and headed for the end of the train.

“Everyone seems rather worried about you,” Aurora mused.

“I am the chosen one, aren’t I?”

“The chosen one?”

“Harry Potter?”

“Oh right. The whole you somehow survived an attack by He who must not be named.”

“So what did you do over the summer?” Hoshiko inquired.

“I spent most of my summer with Luna Moon’s family. There’s an old mine complex near the house and I got to be on a team that did some exploration.”

“You get a new set of daggers then?” Aurora teased.

“Of course I did.”

“Daggers?” Lavender asked in astonishment.

“Made from true silver. The pair I had were used to blind that monster that showed up during the Quidditch game.”

“Ah… so they were something for defense against the dark arts. Can’t say I blame you for wanting to have something like that. Pretty sure McGonagall will have a fit if she ever finds out you were wearing daggers at school. But why would you want them in the first place?”

“In truth, I was half hoping for something I could use on a dementor if one were to show up. As to why I had them in the first place, I knew there was a possibility that they'd be needed.”

“Speaking of dementors,” Hoshiko interjected, got out a couple of slips of paper with Japanese writing on them, and affixed one to either side of the entrance to the compartment.

“You get those from Fushimi?” Aurora asked.

“Technically. One of the priestesses there gave me a bunch of these after I mentioned your concerns. What about you?”

“Oh, not much, local magician got a hold of a magical artifact.”

“What?” Parvati asked.

“How come we didn’t hear about it?” Padma asked.

“Auror managed to get it from her, and the whole thing was hushed up. I only know about it because I was there.”

“Trixie?” Aerie asked.

“The one.”

“So what was that with Mrs Weasley?” Lavender asked. “And Professor Lupin.”

“Seems to have gotten it in their heads I might go looking for Mr Malfoy.”

“And Peter Pettigrew,” Aurora offered.

“After what I did to him I’d think he’d stay as far away from me as he can.”

“All the way to Akkadia, do you think?”

“Mrs Silverwood would roast them on a spit if either of them were to show up on the islands. Mom’s got a heavy guard present at the house in London. No, I think those two will lay low for a while. Try to recruit former Death Eaters to their camp. To their cause.”

“Wonder how they got out?” Aurora mused quietly.

“The papers think it was help from outside,” Parvati said, her tone equally quiet.

The group fell into a silent contemplation as they watched the landscape go past.

Lavender was the first to break the silence. “Aerie… is that an airship?”

Aerie looked quickly and sure enough, there was a Firefly class airship shadowing the train. “Might be the Firefly.” Her attention was momentarily distracted by a chime from her phone. She pulled it out of her purse, looked at the message, and smiled.

“Care to share?”

“Brightstar has the Dauntless.”

“Dauntless?” Hoshiko asked.

“She’s a destroyer. Drumlinhay class.”

“No Arcadia?”

“It was discussed. If the Ministry doesn’t want to back off she might just make her presence known.”

“Who’s Arcadia?” Lavender asked. “Or should I be asking what?”

“The Arcadia is a battleship. A space battleship.”

“A what?”

Aerie went to her phone again and pulled up a photograph. “There you go,” she offered as she handed over the phone.

“It’s real?!” Yes, Lavender had seen the anime. One of the benefits of straddling two worlds was being able to have what you wanted from both and her family had a state-of-the-art television.

“Hang on, let me see,” Hoshiko asked. “I’ve heard about it, but never got to see it… that thing is enormous.”

“Would it be too much to hope for a nice quiet year?” Aerie asked.

“Father almost said no to signing my permission slip to go to Hogsmeade,” Lavender admitted. “We are finally old enough to go and we may be stuck in the school because of those stupid dementors.”

“Everyone get their permission forms signed?” Aurora asked.

“Dad signed mine,” Hoshiko replied.

“We’ve got ours,” Parvati chimed in.

“Luna signed mine, Lily Potter,” Aerie informed them to shocked silence. “Fortunately I spotted it and had Flora sign it so I should be good to go.”

The girls talked about the various shops they’d like to visit as the train rolled ever northward. Outside the windows was mostly rural farmland now and the cart lady came trundling down the corridor around one in the afternoon. Crabbe and Goyle came by shortly after and Aerie gave them each a cauldron cake having bought far more than any of the girls intended to eat.

“You knew they’d come buy didn’t you?” Lavender whispered as the two boys went on their way.

“And gives them treats every year,” Aurora reminded the girls.

“It’s not much and they aren’t as antagonistic as they were in the first year,” Aerie offered as the rain began to fall outside.

“I hope they are alright out there,” Aurora said as she too looked out the window at the ever-increasing gloom.

“It’s getting dark,” Padma stated.

Moonie decided to get up at that point and jump up to the luggage rack, her tail swishing in agitation.

“Train’s slowing,” Hoshiko reported.

“We can’t possibly be there yet?” Lavender offered as she looked out into the gloom. “Can you see anything out there?”

“Rolling out onto a bridge,” Aerie informed them. She quickly pulled out her phone as the train stopped, and hit speed dial for one of her contacts. A moment later the phone was the only source of light.

A sense of some unknown dread began to creep into their hearts, and outside ice formed on the windows.

“Aerie?” asked Sunset’s voice from the phone.

“They’re here…” Aerie said softly unaware that she’d just mimicked a line from a certain horror film.

As for Hoshiko, she’d begun to chant softly, “Kakemakumo kashikoki Inari Ō Kami no ō mar ni Kashikomi kashikomi me maosaku. Yo no mamori. Hi no mamori ni mamori…”

Somewhere overhead they heard the soft strains of music as the windows on the corridor side of the room iced up. A moment later a dark cloaked figure appeared in the corridor. Its movement was more like a drifting cloud.

“Your love is lifting me higher,” drifted out from Aerie’s phone but she wasn’t hearing it. Aerie was starting to tunnel vision, the sounds of Princess Celestia fighting Nightmare Moon echoing in her head.

“No… stop it. Please stop,” Aerie whimpered as the corridor door began to slide open. Up in the rack, Moonie was growling up a storm.

“It’s not enough!” shouted a voice somewhere in Aerie’s phone. “Do it!”

The room grew deathly silent.

“Im… I’m…” said a voice from the phone. The Dementor stuck its head in the doorway.

Suddenly blue arches of energy danced between the two talismans on the doorjamb catching the Dementor like a bug in a zapper.

“I’m a Goofy Goober!” Belted out the voice from the phone to be echoed outside over loudspeakers.

Aerie wasn’t quite aware of what she’d done, but for whatever reason, she transformed into a pony, willed up a massive ball of magic, and let loose.

“ROCK!”

The energy blasted forth from her horn like some kind of massive anime laser, caught the Dementor, forced it back against the wall for a brief moment, and disintegrated it even as the outer wall gave way.

“You’re a goofy goober!”

“ROCK!”

Meanwhile, the Musketeers plus Ginny Weasely had been similarly cornered in their compartment.

Never, ever, ever corner a frightened Earth pony.

Apple Bloom transformed and began bucking that dementor with rapid-fire bunny bucks just as hard as she could, and had even backed the thing against the far wall.

Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!

“We’re all goofy goobers!”

“ROCK!”

Sweetie, Scootaloo, and Isolde all transformed and somehow managed to fire off a burst of energy which harmonized with Apple Bloom's magic using her as a focus.

“Goofy goofy goofy goober!”

“ROCK!”

“Get me down there!” Sunset shouted on seeing the blasts of energy lighting up the sky. “Fire the sun flares, Air Guard, move, move, move!”

Pegasi in Equestrian armor carrying what looked to be short combat rifles began pouring out of the rear gate of the airship. Sunset not to be left out, hooked up a repelling line and dove out the door of the pilot gondola.

The Dementor that rose to meet her did not expect the white-hot flaming sword that appeared in her free hand. Did not expect it to cut through like a hot knife through butter, and did not comprehend that its existence had just ended as it fell.

Sunset swung out, let go the end of the line, cutting down two more dementors as pegasi guards began firing at dementors, and landed on the top of the second to the last coach. From there she ran forward while white hot energy bolts shot down dementors all around her.

At the front end of the train, up on the locomotive stood three dark-robed wizards who watched in utter disbelief as a figure blazing with golden light ran towards them cutting down any Dementor that dared to approach. From above an airship blared out rock and roll on top of which stood a wizard playing an electric guitar that shot beems of energy at any dementor that dared to approach. One man regains his wits and casts a spell at her only to see the spell batted away. The other begins casting spells, each bolt of energy being deflected by the flaming sword.

One by one they panic and apparate away. Moments later Sunset is dropping down into an open doorway. There is a wizard there with a dementor. He attempts to cast a spell, gets his wand cut in half, and freezes in shock as the flaming sword bites deep into the chest of the dementor.

“Do you know what happens when my good memories are taken away,” Sunset asks him in a tone that inspires dread beyond any a dementor could manage. She twists the blazing sword and the dementor drops with a rattling sound. “I get angry.” There is a gouge melted into the train’s wall from the sword.

The man drops the remnant of his wand and backs away.

Meanwhile, Aerie’s blast has combined with the Harmony magic that the four Musketeers had created. Back it swoops turning into a giant fiery phoenix, races for the train, turns, and sweeps down one side, up, over, and down the other as it seeks out dementors missed by the guard.

Sunset looks at the wizard, holds up her left hand palm forward, and pushes, and the man is slammed against the wall with enough force to knock him out even though she hasn’t touched him. From there she bursts into the engine compartment, works her way around the prime mover, and into the cab where a wizard tries to hit her with a spell only to find himself being knocked back. A moment later she lifts him up telepathically, force chokes him, and slams him down.

“Drive this train!” Sunset orders the remaining two as the stricken man lies in a heap on the floor. There is a moment of hesitation, the cab being lit up by the harmony phoenix as it swoops past the front. It would continue to orbit the train until they were well on their way at which point the magic swooped down into the cab to engulf Sunset. And then she was gone.

Author's Note

Now I've done it, blown all my action in one go. LOL

But wait, what's become of Sunset Shimmer?

OK, I've two and a half chapters at this point. And it's looking like, maybe I should take a break. In truth I'm kind of already kind of sort of in break mode. I've a lot to do over the summer and that includes doing nothing while relaxing in a hammock. Plus I'm rebuilding a cover over a porch along with the steps. This I expect will take all summer because I can only manage short bursts of activity before I have to take a break. Wish me luck.

I'll go ahead and post the next two chapters, but no guarantees after that.