A/N:

As of May 2021, I cut up the first chapter, so it's not such a daunting read.

Harry sighed as he sat out in the court yard of the Konoha Reform School. It was a school for troubled children. Located in the small town of Konoha. Usually this school was meant for older students. It focused largely on Secondary Schooling, but they did have a small wing for Primary School kids.

Harry knew all of them, and most of them were his friends... Except for Sasuke, none of the Primary Boys liked Sasuke... and it definitely wasn't because the girls kept stalking him. WHO WOULD WANT THAT!!! No, it was because he was an arrogant know it all. One that took great joy in upstaging everyone. That wouldn't have been so bad, at least to Harry, if the boy hadn't also been a sneak. He was ALWAYS telling the teachers every bit of mischief the other boys got into. It was like he was trying to prove he didn't belong here and was trying to buy favor to get out.

Harry was originally here for... legal reasons. His desk... caught fire. Obviously he got blamed despite doing no more then glaring at it. The boy was convinced it was Dudley who set him up. His bully of a cousin was always framing Harry for his own malicious behavior... not like anyone would believe him, and his relatives would beat him if he accused their "precious Dudders'" of any wrong doing.

As it was Harry's uncle had slammed the boy against a wall before locking him in the cupboard for... for "letting his freakishness get out".

Harry sighed, Child Services had gone to talk to Harry and immediately took notice of his skinny body and shabby clothes, that the boy was clearly drowning in... yet, like always, they seemed to forget the moment he was out of their sight.

At the school Harry was put in a room, an actual room. It was a small room but, to a boy that had never had such a thing, he was still marveled by it. He didn't even mind that he had to share it with three other boys... he had a room... his room... no more cupboard...

That is where he used to sleep, and still did, whenever he returned "Home"... if he could dare call it that without being reminded that he was a "Lazy good for nothing that should be grateful" his "hard working relatives give him their table scraps and a roof over his head".

The people working here may be stern, but they were much kinder then the Dursley's... maybe... maybe going to an orphanage wouldn't be as bad as the Dursley's made it out to be. Maybe they were just terrible people and the rest of the world wasn't like that.

Harry was learning of humanity's kindness at a school meant for troubled youth. Here, he was always fed. Here, people treated him like more then a freak. Here, he had friends.

Yes, here, the kids got spanked, pretty frequently actually. It was the go-to punishment of the officers and school staff, but he only ever got punished when he genuinely did something wrong... no belting for every odd or imagined thing to happen to him... and they didn't come close to the beatings his relatives gave him. Most of the kids weren't even that bad. They were constantly being watched so that left no room for bullying. The Nurse even tested Harry's eyes and got him glasses that actually worked. He could see much more clearly then the throwaways his aunt got from the dollar store.

Harry even had clothes that fit, thanks to the school uniform. Yeah... it was embarrassing to be in short trousers but he would gladly take that over the rags he used to wear.

Harry's roomates had convinced him to set fire to his old rags... which got them all a spanking, but the next day, after school, one of the officers took him into town to the local Asda. He let the boy pick out his own shirts, underpants, even socks! Then the man bought Harry more short trousers, as some kind of punishment for burning his old clothes, but Harry could not have cared less. As far as he could remember, these were his first real clothes, all his own and not hand me downs, and so that made them the best clothes ever by default.

Harry had been grinning like a loon... until he learned the Officer charged the clothes to the Dursley's, as part of Harry's bill to them for his care. Harry figured his relatives would NOT be pleased they had to spend extra money on him (though later during the summer he realized they completely forgot about it). Still when Harry tried to tell the officer that, the man simply said "then you shouldn't have burned your old clothes, you little pyro maniac". However, even that had been spoken with a strange humor in his voice... an odd form of teasing kindness.

Now... Harry had been at the School for criminals for 3 years and... he was loving it... although he was usually very well behaved... he always made sure to burn something whenever his evaluation came up. That made sure they didn't send him back to the Dursley's. The shrink here was beginning to think Harry had some kind of mental disorder. As in she thought Harry was an honest to goodness pyro. They had called a proper head Doctor to talk to Harry, sometime next week.

They kept assuring the boy that they wouldn't send him to an institution regardless of what they found... but Harry had learned long ago not to trust the words of adults. These adults might be better then the Dursley's but they were still adults and therefore, not to be trusted.

So here Harry sat. A 9 year old boy, well... he would be in 6 months. He was leaning against the horse statue in the court yard. He was deep in thought, wondering how to avoid going to an institution. His sentence was long up, so he didn't technically have to be here anymore, but the Dursley's had decided to enroll him here permanently. That suited him just find, but he made sure not to let the Dursley's know how happy he was in these people's care.

The child still had to see those wretched people during break... he was wondering if he should give the institution a chance if it meant an end to that. If that was the case the Dursley's might do it just to never have to see the boy again and frankly that suited Harry just fine... the school for troubled kids wasn't so bad so maybe a school for the criminally insane would be better then the Dursley's to... but there were a lot of horror movies about those places.

That was another thing, this place even had a movie night every Friday after school. Where the kids gathered in the auditorium and devoured snacks while watching movies from a projector. Harry's roommates even let him watch their tapes with them on their awesome TV with a built in VCR player...

Regardless, a more qualified Doctor was coming by later this week to talk to the boy... and all this might end, depending on what the Doc told the Dursley's.

Harry leaned back, giving a startled yelp, which quickly turned into a scream. There was suddenly nothing behind him. Next thing he knew he was tumbling through a tunnel of flashing lights and swirling energy... maybe he really was crazy.

Harry gasped as he suddenly flew out of the tunnel and collided with something... or should he say, someone...

"Flash?" Harry groaned, rubbing his head as he realized he was laying on top of a similarly groaning teenager.

Flash shook his head and looked down at the child. He just stared at the child, before giving one of his weird not curses, "buck..."

Flash was an attractive boy all the girls in schools swooned for. The fact he somehow convinced the school staff to let him keep his rebellious blue hair only added to that. Despite that, he was actually a very sweet boy. He frequently helped take care of the younger children at the school. It was a wonder that such a polite boy was in a school for trouble makers... most of Harry's friends made jokes about Flash being a pedo-bear, but they didn't actually believe that given they still accepted his help and liked to play with him.

Most of the kids at that school would, at least occasionally, say things that proved they had a rebellious streak, but Flash was just so nice and charming. And as far as the Pedo stuff... while there were never even rumors that Flash was actually like that, just jokes from foul mouthed little brats that wouldn't admit they didn't actually know what that meant.

Flash might look the part of a boy seeking attention, but he didn't act like it. He was literally friends with everyone, and while he occasionally played or helped the younger kids, he spent most of his time with his fellow 16 year olds.

While besides the teasing he gave whenever someone, Okay admittedly only Harry ever bothered to ask as most didn't seem to care, asked for his real name. The teen kept insisting his name really was "Flash Sentry" and somehow even getting the teachers to call him that.

Harry heard a ringing of bells and looked behind him to see... a mirror? He was in a library of somekind... maybe a children's library, based on the bright colors... yet everything looked like it was made of expensive Crystal. The furniture, THE WALLS, even the floor.

While Harry was freaking out about his sudden change of scenery, a girl walked out of the mirror. Harry's eyes widened.

It took him a moment to register who the girl was. Sunset? Another kid that used a stage name, while insisting it was her real name and no one but Harry questioned it.

Both she and Flash had legitimately yellow skin and again, no one questioned it... not even Harry as he knew it was rude to ask about Skin Color.

"What's he doing here!?" Sunset's bacon colored hair was suddenly standing on end.

Flash glared at her, "Obviously that spell you cast to keep humans away DOESN'T WORK!!!"

Sunset glared, "My spells are FLAWLESS!!!"

Flash rolled his eyes.

"Besides," Sunset admitted, or perhaps used as a defense for her own abilities, "It's not my spell. The portal automatically creates a magical field around the statue, which should repel anything without magic. It even has notice-me-not charms to prevent non magicals from seeing anything coming in or out of the portal."

"PORTAL!!!" Harry awed.

The two older kids looked at him.

Sunset sighed, "I'll just erase the boy's memory and we can figure out what went wrong later."

"LIKE HELL!!!" Harry felt something building up inside him... something... dark, yet warm.

Sunsets eyes widened as she felt it. Unknown to Harry, the boy was giving off a threatening aura of magic. Used mostly by magical creatures to scare off predators or intimidate other Sapients. Flash's eyes widened, as he too felt it.

Sunset raised her hand, which immediately burst into light. Harry was suddenly encased in some kind of energy as he floated up.

"WHAT IS THIS STUFF!!!" Harry screamed, trying to put out the energy as if it was fire, despite the fact it didn't burn. Felt a little warm, and moved like fire, yes but it didn't actually hurt him. Just startled him was all.

Flash gulped, "He... he sees it... he can see magic..."

"MAGIC!!!" Harry gaped, "Magic's not real!" He repeated what his uncle had, quite literally, beaten into him.

Sunset brought the boy over to her face. Her forehead began to glow as she gently touched it against Harry's forehead. Her eyes widened as she jerked away from the boy, yet still held him in her energy.

"... He has magic..."

"But... he's human..." Flash gulped.

"Completely human..." Sunset gulped back.

The way they said "human" caused Harry to scream, "Aliens!!! Please don't probe me!!!"

"We have to tell the Princesses," Flash insisted, ignoring the boy.

Sunset suddenly dropped Harry, "No!" She snapped.

Harry groaned, rubbing his now sore bum from hitting the Crystal floor.

"This is bigger then your childish need to run away!!!" Flash glared, "Humans are evolving into MAGIC!!! This changes everything!!! We might not even need to be in exile anymore!!! We can't keep this to ourselves!"

"It's probably just a fluke gene. The boy still has a primitive digestive system and he doesn't even have a focus built into his body, so he isn't capable of spell casting."

"MOST races can't cast spells!" Flash glared, "But they still have magic, it just comes out in different ways. Even if the kid has some fluke mutation it doesn't change the fact humans are becoming magical!"

Flash grabbed Harry's hand and started dragging him as he ran out of the room. At the boy's scream, Flash stopped.

The older teen bent down and put his hands on Harry's shoulders.

"You know me, Harry," Flash reminded, "Have I ever done anything to hurt you? Given you any reason to think I could?"

Harry bit his lip and didn't answer.

Flash stayed quiet a moment, giving Harry time to absorb his reassuring words, before continuing, "Yes, We aren't human, but that doesn't mean we are bad or out to get humans. It just means we are something a bit different, but we are still people."

"W-why were you at the school?" Harry dared to ask.

Flash rolled his eyes, and glared at Sunset, "I don't know. Why am I still illegally going back and forth between our worlds for a girl that abandoned me FOUR YEARS AGO!!!"

Sunset rolled her eyes, "Because you're a white knight. Besides I didn't abandon you!" she huffed that the over exaggeration, "You're the one insisting you keep a foothold in this hypocritical-"

"Anyway," Flash moved on, looking back at Harry, "I got complicated and personal reasons for going back and forth between this world and the surface."

"BUT WHY KONOHA!?" Harry snapped, "A school for troubled youths! Are you even a kid!?"

Flash blushed, "well... I really am 16, but I am technically an adult by my own people's laws. Most of our people graduate school at 15, and that's when we are acknowledged as Legally adults... Though our formal schooling starts at 3 years old. You can take an apprenticeship at any time during or after your formal schooling." Flash shook his head, realizing he was rambling. Though it seemed to be relaxing Harry, Flash continued.

"I was apprenticing as a guard, just so I could have access to the portal, that is, after my girlfriend disappeared through it." He sent another glare at Sunset, clearly her living on the other side of the Portal was causing issues in their relationship... Harry wondered, given the circumstances, why he should care about that right now.

"As for why Konoha... it's... it's just kinda what humans chose to build. It used to be an isolated forest, to my understanding. Humans just built the cities around it and dropped a school for delinquents around a 5000 year old portal. That was LOOOOONG before my time but that's what my mentors told me when they caught me researching the portal. I was trying to learn what happened to Sunset when she threw a tantrum and ran through it." Flash sent her yet another glare.

The young lady just sighed and said, "Are you ever going to let me live that down?"

"When I decide to stop enabling you is when you'll stop hearing about it!" Flash snapped. "YOU BELONG IN A TROUBLED YOUTH CENTER!!!" Flash suddenly blushed and looked back to Harry, "No offense Harry." He instinctively ruffled the boy's hair.

Harry gently smiled. The casual squabbling between Flash and Sunset, which they were known for at school, was actually making things easier to swallow... they were still their normal selves... they just happened to be a bit freakier then previously thought... which made Harry feel more comfortable around them... after all, he was a freak to, if his uncle was to be believed... maybe aliens were a whole other ballpark of freak though.

Flash smiled at Harry again, "Please Harry, will you meet our rulers. You don't have to talk, fact is it might be better if you don't. I just need them to see how special you are."

Harry bit his lip, "But... I'm not special. I'm Harry, just Harry..." he was the freak that lived in a cupboard most of his life... the freak that never truly felt at home until he was sent to a school for troubled youths... the freak that couldn't even get his own family to treat him like a human being, let alone get them to love him back... he was a freak... not anything special...

Flash gently parted Harry's hair, accidently getting a glimpse of the lightning bolt scar on his forehead, "Harry Potter... you might very well be the most special and important child ever born. You're the bridge that could very well bring our two worlds together. The very fact you exist will throw tidal waves through our civilization. A human... with magic." Flash held his fingers in front of Harry's face and wiggled them. Sparks of electricity zapped between the digits.

Harry looked at his own fingers and wiggled them. He got a concentrated look on his face and tried to make the sparks come out. He groaned as he focused... but nothing happened.

Flash just smiled, "You will learn control... with time," he promised.

Then... Flash suddenly turned into a bright yellow horse, no bigger then a large dog (maybe a great dane). He bent down and stretched his wings to the sides, "Climb on."

Harry felt numb, but did as he was told... feeling the fur against his fingers and bare legs. It felt more like kitten fur then horse hair... not that Harry knew what horse hair was supposed to feel like but he assumed it was rough.

Sunset suddenly looked very uncomfortable as she said, "I better cast some mental magics on the school staff so they don't think to look for Harry."

Harry's eyes widened, remembering she also said she could erase memories and now alter how people think. While he should be horrified, he asked, "Can you also make the Headmaster cancel that shrink from the Asylum!!!"

Flash raised an eyebrow, "I don't know champ. I mean, if you legitimately have a compulsion that makes you want to burn things. The Doctor could help."

Sunset just smiled, "Sure kid, I'll cancel the shrink." Before stepping through the mirror portal.

Flash rolled his eyes, before stretching out his small wings. With just a few flaps he was off the ground and bloody well FLYING out the door, then through the hall.

There were a few yells from more horses, wearing silver armor, telling the "colt" to slow down.

In his years going back and forth between the portal, Flash had picked up a lot of human terminology. However he occasionally slipped back into his pony accent and slang, even while in the human world.

Not thinking long on that, or paying attention to his fellow guards, Flash flew faster and faster. He didn't stop until he burst into Princess Cadence's throne room... but the sight caused him to completely freeze up. His eyes went wide and his ears pinned... he had forgotten she was in session. It was the very reason he opened the portal to let Sunset through. Because they would have time for some privacy while everyone was busy with the summit.

"Cadet?" Shining glared from his seat by his wife. Dozens of races were seated with their own kind at large tables that now filled the throne room. The national leaders, of all Sapient species, were glaring at Flash as well, "What is the meaning of this?" Shining demanded.

Flash gulped. He slowly landed and began walking through the alley at an equally slow pace. He completely stopped whatever it had been they were discussing. While it might very well be a good thing all the nations' leaders where here for this revelation... he wished he didn't have to be the one to deliver the message.

Reaching the front of the room, Flash now stood before the 4 Alicorns. The sole Alicorns in their land. They were in their pony forms for this meeting, sitting on thrones. All the shifters were in there beast form. It was considered more formal and just polite for the races that couldn't transform, like the Centaurs.

Shining Armor, Captain of the Guard and husband of the Crystal Princess, sat on a pillow beside her throne.

The Crystal Empire was still not caught up with modern social norms. Stallions were seen as status symbols for females, little more then trophy husbands. To be seen, not heard. The fact Shining was effectively the commanding general of all Equestria's armies made little difference to the Crystal ponies... if anything they were offended at the concept.

Shining was a Stallion and so should be kept sheltered and safe and treated more like a pet then a spouse... the Crystal ponies were extremely traditional and while most Equine races viewed males as the weaker sex, they had long since earned completely equal rights...

The Royal guard was originally just a Harem for the Princesses, and the Crystal Empire still had that mindset. Cadence was trying to give them a more active role, much to the outrage of the nobles, but it was a slow process.

If it wasn't for the fact the Mirror was brought here, Flash never would have requested a transfer when they were looking for volunteers. This place might be beautiful but it was so traditional and stuffy it put the unicorn city of Canterlot to shame.

No, despite effectively being general and king, Shining still didn't get a proper chair, much less a throne of his own.

Shining was the face of equal rights in the Crystal Empire. So he had to show Stallions could be just as strong as Mares, while still respecting Crystal Pony traditions.

Flash gulped, as he realized one of Shining's guards barging into a summit for all the magical leaders... might not make him look very good.

"My apologies," Flash bowed, "But I knew the entire council would want to hear this immediately." Giving a little white lie, as he hadn't remember the summit was in session.

Celestia, The ruling matriarch of Pony kind, smiled at him. A smile of an amused mother at her child's immature antics. Flash was far from related to her, but as far as ponies were concerned, Celestia was mother to all. "What is so urgent my little pony? Could it really not have waited a few seconds to let your little brother crawl off your back?" She teased.

Flash blushed, and imagined it would look like that to the world leaders, "This is Harry Potter, your majesty. He... he is from the other side of the portal."

There was a gasp from across the crowd.

Celestia frowned and stepped down from her throne. Flash could hear the child gulp as the giant winged unicorn walked over to them. Thankfully, the boy followed his advice and stayed quiet. She was easily a few feet taller then a real horse... and she had lost her teasing grin, looking far more serious.

"Is there a reason you foalnapped a human child from the surface world?"

"I DIDN'T FOALNAP HIM!!!" Flash yelped, standing back up, momentarily forgetting himself.

Flash gulped and informed, "He came through the portal on his own... he... he has magic your highness."

There was a sudden uproar, large declarations of "impossible" and even one of "Blasphemy!" from the Yaks.

Celestia raised her hoof. When the crowd settled, she gently nuzzled the child. Both to calm him and to use her horn to sense his magic...

A moment later she stood up. "He is indeed a human," she confirmed the crowd, "And he, in fact, has magic." There was a large uproar from the crowd again.

While the world leaders freaked out, Celestia looked at Flash, "You did the right thing bringing him to us. Now, I need you to take him to my Anthropologist and get him a complete medical check up... my medical scan revealed some... disturbing things I need answered."

Flash nodded his head, bowing once more, before turning and leaving the room.

Throughout all this, Harry was just sitting on the winged horse, trying to make himself appear so small he was invisible. While they were leaving... he actually did will himself invisible. While not exactly. It was more like you could see through him but there was a trace of himself, like a sketch in a cartoon. Some of the strange creatures screamed, with some more outraged roars throughout the hall.

Horse Flash looked back and realized the boy was gone. He jiggled his wings a little to feel the boy was actually still there.

"It's okay!" Flash called as he walked down the hall, acting very frantically as he wanted to get out of there. "I still got him. He just cast a minor chameleon spell on himself. I'm sure it's just a magical surge from his nerves, like any other child, nothing to worry about." He assured as he quickly walked out the room.

The moment Flash was out the doors, he started hyperventilating.

"Blimey that was scary!!!" Flash declared, as overdramatically as possible, for Harry's benefit... "Sorry to just drag you along like that, but this is BIG!!! Imagine, humans with magic! I wonder if there are more of you."

Harry looked down at his see through hands. They glitched out and turned visible again... the fire on his desk... that one time he turned his teacher's hair blue... disappearing and then reappearing on a roof top... magic... was real... more so, if magic was real, and based on his relatives reaction to whenever something strange happened around him... they knew... the Dursley's knew Harry was magic... it's what made him a freak... it's what Uncle Vernon was attempting to "Stomp out" of him... magic was the reason his relatives could never love him... because he really was a freak...

"Where are we?" Harry dared ask. "Your space ship?"

Horse Flash snorted, "We aren't aliens. We evolved on this planet. Hummmm, how to explain?" he asked himself before inspiration clicking in his eyes, "You know all those stories of an island nation with advanced technology and magics? It sunk to the bottom of the ocean a few thousand years ago."

Harry's eyes bugged out of his head, "Atlantis..." he whispered.

"The continent is Atlantis, but your currently in the country of Equestria, in the City State of the Crystal Empire" Flash explained, "I would like to welcome you-" Flash walked over to a window and set his front hooves on the window seal, so the child could get a better look.

Outside... was the ocean. No, it was miles and miles, maybe thousands of miles, of land. However, just over their heads, miles into the sky... were fish. There was some kind of dome with swarms of fish swimming just outside of it.

"To the magical world." Flash grinned, finishing his sentence... if Harry wasn't so stunned he would tell the horse he waited too long to say that, as Harry had forgotten how that sentence started and had to think about it a moment.

Clearly dramatic pauses weren't the horse's specialty.