Chapter 13
The time that was left before Rainbow would have to change back was unfortunately short, or so they felt. But as they got ready to leave for Hogsmeade to act as if they were returning Rainbow to the Muggle world, someone showed up at her room they hadn't expected and who wished to speak with her.
"Mr. Bagman, how may I help you?" Rainbow said, after seeing who was outside her door.
"Miss Revese, I am here because I would like to see if it is possible for you to remain at the school for the rest of the Triwizard Tournament. We would work with the school and pay for your stay here," Ludo asked.
"Wait, what? Why would I be allowed to stay here?" Rainbow said, the surprise easily noticeable in her eyes.
"Well, say a special request to see a Muggle's viewpoint on the Wizarding world," Ludo said.
Rainbow blinked, that reason seemed rather a bad one even to her. But she was not completely sure, what she needed was some help to know if this was true. But what she really needed was to talk with Hermione and Harry first, as well as Luna and Night. But the look on Ludo Bagman's face, and the way he seemed to be acting suggested that he needed an answer now.
"I don't think that would be a problem, just ask a first year," Rainbow finally said, countering Ludo's statement.
Ludo's smile seemed to slide just a little bit, but then returned, "Yes, that's true. But to a young kid, anything can amaze them and interest them. Someone older and more grown up would provide a new insight."
Rainbow frowned a little bit. Feeling she would not be able to get out of saying yes she answered, "Fine, I will check with my mom and dad to see if I can stay."
"Excellent," Ludo said before walking off.
"Well… okay," Rainbow said, watching him walk off.
Rainbow shook her head and closed the door, before turning around and leaning against it. This was all so confusing, she wanted to be back in Ponyville where things were much simpler and she only had to worry about joining up with the Wonderbolts. But then again, having met up with Harry had already made this trip worth it. Slowly she shook her head again before she set back to packing what little she had left to pack.
It was at this point that Twilight and Applejack came into the room, having hid when they heard the knock on the door. Twilight looked very thoughtful, while Applejack looked worried. But neither of them spoke for a few minutes while Rainbow finished packing up all the clothes into the bag Hermione had let her borrow. Finally as Rainbow closed the bag did Applejack actually speak.
"I don't like this, not one bit, RD. He is up to something, I'm sure of it," Applejack said, walking over to the door and bumping the lock shut with one of her forehooves.
"Agreed, but I don't think it is out of greed. I think it has to do with the tournament," Twilight said.
"I already guessed as much. But should I remain a human is the question," Rainbow said.
Twilight sighed, "I really don't think you should. Remember we set this entire lie up quickly; it would not take much for someone to realize the whole thing is being faked."
"So you're saying I should change back then, and not stay in human form," Rainbow said sighing.
"Yes. Though I will be the first to admit, I am interested to see why they really want you to stay," Twilight said.
"I bet it would be awesome, if it was to help in the tournament," Rainbow said, grinning at the silly idea of how she would do so.
"I doubt it would be awesome, probably would be more dull and boring," Twilight pointed out.
"Oh, why's that?" Rainbow asked confused.
"Remember. Each and every task from what records have shown, always has the champions getting and grabbing something or someone before returning to some point to complete the task. Meaning if you're being asked to stay, it could be you will be placed in the lake for Harry to retrieve," Twilight said levelly, "Of course we don't know what the clue says yet, so this is only a guess right now."
"Wait, how could I live underwater even long enough to be saved?" Rainbow said confused.
"Not quite sure, I am still unfamiliar with this world's magic," Twilight said.
"Well that is… less than awesome," Rainbow said.
"Yes, so if that is anything to go by it would be a good idea to 'leave' before the second task," Twilight explained.
"I guess I should change back then, but can we talk with the others on this first?" Rainbow asked, as she really wanted to remain a human for a while longer. And while she'd never admit she was prone to doing stupid stuff at times, she was willing to listen to her friends when they all thought it was a bad idea, most of the time anyway.
Twilight nodded, at least giving Rainbow that much. Twilight was sure Rainbow would listen to her, but having the others around to help convince Rainbow would help a lot. Twilight was also sure she was right about why Mr. Bagman wanted Rainbow to remain around, but that still left one question. If she was right, then who would Harry have to 'save' if Rainbow Dash was not around anymore? Thankfully, by the end of the day, they had convinced that Rainbow should change back into a pony.
But the next morning as they set out to change Rainbow back, something came up that they had not expected. It seemed the large burst of magic had caught the Ministry of Magic's attention, leading to many employees scanning the area for what had caused the large magical burst. They had learned about this from Fred on the way over to Hogsmeade. Harry quickly led the group through the town to the old Shrieking Shack so they could talk without being watched. Once inside, Harry turned to look at Luna and Night who had appeared.
"Okay, first question, how did they find out about that magical burst? I thought you had warded off the area so no magic could be felt. Secondly, what should we do now, as changing Rainbow back into a pony might not be possible," Harry asked, before waving his hand, causing the door they had entered through to seal shut.
Luna looked confused as she said, "It was warded off, but it might be possible the wards were not strong enough to hide the spell."
"No, the warding should have been more than powerful enough to hide more powerful spells than the one we used," Night said thoughtfully.
"Or maybe they sensed the warding spell itself being set up," Twilight said, causing both Night and Luna to look at her in surprise.
"How could that be possible?" Luna asked.
"This is just an idea, and I cannot confirm it. Either way, let's look at setting up warding spells in Equestria first. The entire world is filled to the brim with magic in everything that lives, and breathes, even the earth itself. So when somepony casts any spell, it is impossible to detect unless it is something massive like creating tornadoes causing the moon to move, or other such big things," Twilight said, explaining the first part.
Luna though was more than able to catch on to the idea from there, as she continued, "And you think this world is not filled with enough magic to hide a warding spell designed to hide magic?"
"Very possibly," Twilight said.
"There is another possibility," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"Which is?" Harry asked, looking at Hermione.
"Well first of all, we know that Harry and myself can cast spells in the Forbidden Forest without anyone being aware. Harry even cast one of the most powerful spells to date. But it is all magic the Ministry knows about, and therefore does not care to look at, after all it is Hogwarts. But now you use magic, which is different from our own, possibly enough for them to detect it. As such bringing them here to find out the source," Hermione explained.
"Possibly," Luna said, thinking about it.
"Either way, that does not matter right now, we need to figure out a game plan right now," Rainbow said, she was getting a rather bad headache listening to all these weird and complicated ideas.
"Okay, so let's look at our options to change you back, where can we do it safely," Hermione asked.
"Well, we could try and do it farther away from the castle, but then we will not be protected from people spotting us or teleporting to us," Harry said.
"We could try doing it here, but we still have to deal with everyone searching the woods," Night commented.
"And hiding in the other parts of the woods might not be a good idea either, as they might have people around the entire forest," Applejack said, "setting up a search ring or barrier if you would."
"We could try down in the Chamber of Secrets," Night said.
"There is no way in the world I am going back down there, even if that beast is dead," Harry said, giving Night a glare.
"But it would keep us all safe, and besides you went down there before without even knowing how to face down something that is made to kill," Night countered.
"What are you talking about?" Rainbow asked confused.
"During my second year here, I ended up facing down a creature known as a Basilisk. Its venom can kill a person in seconds, seeing its eyes through any sort of object you will be petrified till a potion is brewed to undo the effects. And looking at its eyes directly will kill you instantly. This snake was close to a hundred or so feet long, if you need a reference it could wrap around this building at least twice without a problem," Harry explained.
"That… is big," Rainbow and Applejack said, backing up.
"Why the buck was it in the school to begin with?" Twilight asked in near shock.
"It was left there by one of the founders of the school to remove what he saw as filth form the school, or at least that's what the legend suggests," Hermione said.
"Either way, I don't care to see it again. Plus it's not like I left it in good condition," Harry commented, "Its body is probably still rotting so the smell alone down there would… well yeah."
"Okay, point taken," Night said, giving on that point, "But the rooms outside the main chambers should still be clear of smell, since the door is likely air tight."
"Maybe," Harry said, still not wanting to go down again, even if he didn't have any good reason.
"Yeah, so what are our options for remaining human then?" Luna asked.
"Well, I could just live at Hogwarts and act like I'm still taking classes till we leave and change me back then, along with Harry and Hermione," Rainbow suggested.
"Not a bad idea, but not the best," Luna said, just thinking of the Owl nightmare they would have, making it look like papers were coming and going.
"She could just live with us in the unused classroom till a time opens up when the ministry leaves and we change her back or when we leave fully from this world," Applejack pointed out.
"As much as that would be nice, I'd rather not. Sleeping on anything but a cloud or bed in this body would be a very bad idea for a long period of time," Rainbow said, not wanting to have her body aching every day.
"We can get a bed for you, you know," Twilight pointed out.
"No fighting right now. Any other ideas?" Luna asked.
They fell silent as they thought, trying to figure out other ideas, but in the end there was none. They had touched upon all ideas that they could use.
"So nothing else then?" Night said finally.
"Looks like it," Twilight said nodding.
"Okay, this leaves us with four ideas really. Leaving Rainbow human for the rest of the year, looking for a place far enough away we can perform the changes, changing her back if the ministry leaves, or going down into the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said, listing at least what he thought were the three best ones.
The group fell silent again at this point as they focused their thoughts onto which idea was the best. Even the ones Harry had not pointed out. But as they thought about it they began to realize that there was no one perfect idea, at least not in this case. There was no safe route and in the end the best option currently was to just keep Rainbow the way she was.
Finally after nearly ten minutes of thinking and talking amongst themselves Luna finally spoke, "Rainbow, I am leaving this choice in your hooves. As a group we can only guess which is the best, but in the end you must make the choice this time."
Rainbow was a little taken aback by this, but nodded in understanding. It was now all on her to pick what to do. She felt some pressure on her much like she had felt when she had partaken in the Young Fliers Competition. But as she paced about the room, the worry and dread began to slowly grow much like it had back then; what if she messed up and got herself and the others caught.
Twilight and Applejack could see the signs of Rainbow's fear slowly growing in her eyes. Twilight moved forward and touched her muzzle to Rainbow's hand. Rainbow almost jumped as she looked down at Twilight, only to see a very reassuring smile. Rainbow looked at the others and sighed. They all were willing to go with her choice even if they were caught by accident.
With this in mind she made her choice.