The Conversion Bureau: Uncharted Waters
Year 4, Week 32, Monday
It could hear Their vocalizations again, the curious sounds that meant they would be poking or prodding it soon. It felt the distant call of its family: brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. All their voices blended together into a harmonic melody that it had known all its life. It heard more of Their vocalizations and felt Them caressing its sides. It lifted its head to get a look and felt its music lighten as it recognized one of the ones touching it as its Caregiver. Looking around, it saw others it recognized, and it whistled happily to them. But one of them was something it had never seen before, standing on four legs, with a short horn atop its head. The New Thing stared at it curiously and it chirped a greeting at it. They spoke to the New Thing, and the New Thing spoke back. How curious! It pressed back against the Caregiver happily, and the caresses continued, but its Voice seemed... sad? Scared? It chattered at the Caregiver in concern, and felt its grip tighten as another came near, pressing something sharp into its side. It felt nothing at first, but then a slow dulling of the melody began to spread through its body, and its vision began to fade. It struggled, but soon it grew so tired, too tired to feel the second needle entering its skin. It gave one last twitch, and then fell into the darkness.
“Alright, let’s get behind the safe line. You can begin now, Mystic.” Dr. McCarthy said as he gave the sedated dolphin one last pat. He and his assistant Judith walked behind the line marked on the floor and waited quietly.
“Alright, here goes.” Mystic lowered her head and closed her eyes, feeling her magic reaching out and enveloping the unconscious animal. She felt the spell begin to take hold, tiny sparks of magic igniting throughout its body until the dolphin blazed like a miniature sun to her magic’s ‘eye’. She could feel its flesh begin to warp, small at first but soon expanding to where she could feel organs shifting and bones semi-liquefying to allow them to take their new places.
It was as she started coaxing the legs to form that she realized something was going wrong. The hindlegs hadn’t even started forming, and the flippers, instead of rounding out into forelegs, were extending and widening. She turned her head slightly toward Dr. McCarthy, speaking slowly so as to maintain her concentration. “Something’s... wrong...”
“Should we stop?” Judith asked worriedly, wincing as another squelching snap was heard from the churning mass of flesh.
McCarthy shook his head. “No, it’s too late now. All we can do now is hope.” His voice was calm, but he clenched his hands tightly, praying to any deity that might be listening that this would work.
It was floating in darkness, drifting upon the tides of the eternal black. But after time, there was light and it found itself able to see. But... something wasn’t right. The warm touch of the water was absent, replaced by dry and heat. It panicked, stumbling awkwardly about on the strange, hard-yet-soft surface it found itself upon. Falling flat on its belly, it could feel it vibrating, soon shaking with the force of whatever was coming. Looking up, it could a tidal wave of forms rushing toward it, as inexorable and unstoppable as the ocean.
It squealed in alarm, hoping to hear its family come to its rescue, but it could hear nothing in return. The all-encompassing wave drew closer and it closed its eyes, waiting for the darkness to take it. But the thunder soon died out and it opened its eyes to see the vast ocean of forms surrounding it, a few coming forward to help it stand.
No! This wasn’t right! It tossed its head about and Screamed, that most terrible sound that signaled danger to any who could hear it.
The herd reacted in confusion, many whipping their heads about in a search for the source of the threat. Such a sound had never before been heard, and it terrified them to hear it.
The interloper in the herd Screamed again, the sound ringing across the firmament of reality itself. And reality answered.
The ground began to vibrate again, and the herd tossed its head as one, before galloping away, leaving the interloper alone again. It lowered its head to the gently waving surface, not even having the strength to see what new doom was coming for it.
But it suddenly felt wet brushing against it, rising swiftly until it was completely submerged, floating gently in the light current. Kicking feebly, a few bubbles escaped from its mouth before it reflexively took a deep breath, expecting it to be the last. But a sudden coolness flooded its body and it exhaled, feeling a sensation of fluttering along its neck. Taking another breath, it flexed experimentally and to its surprise felt the three tails that it had earlier were a proper one again. It looked down and saw that its front limbs were wide and flat again, like they should be. With a joyful squeal it flipped over, rolling and sporting about before it surged off into the murky blue ahead of it.
“Doctor, look! I think she’s stabilizing!” Judith cried out, pointing. The writhing form on the table had settled down significantly, though its appearance was not at all what they had expected to see. The head was formed properly, and even had a mane, but the rest of the body was slender and tapered, similar to its original body. Its skin was a soft shade of sunset orange, with a mane of light blue-green hanging limply from the back of the neck. A pair of wide, flat flippers grew where its front legs would have been, and instead of hindlegs, a long, muscular tail lay coiled on the half-submerged platform. A set of gills fluttered gently with the new being’s breathing, one submerged below the water.
McCarthy panicked briefly, before realizing that whatever the dolphin had become, it was breathing fine, even with half its air intake underwater. “Are you seeing this Mystic? Mystic?” He turned to the unicorn and froze.
Mystic’s horn was still lit, a thin line of amber light still connecting her to the transformed dolphin on the table. Her mouth was moving, almost as if she were singing... something.
“Can you hear what she’s saying Judith?” McCarthy asked quietly.
Judith focused, but shook her head. “It’s not words, not in English anyway. What little Equestrian I know isn’t enough to tell either. I definitely heard the word for ‘sea’ in there somewhere.”
McCarthy sighed. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait until one of them wakes up, see if we can get some answers.”
It had thought the water to run on forever, but it eventually found itself inside a strange environment, with peculiar vertical rock formations spaced regularly. It made its way through a large archway formed of something that looked and sounded like coral, but shone with its own light. Inside, a massive cavern greeted it, again formed of straight lines and delicate shapes. In the center of the room a pair of massive rocks grew from the floor, forming into throne-like spires. Atop them floated two.... essences, the interloper decided. One was bright and warm, like the sun on the surface of the water, while the other was dark and cool, like the lowest edges of the deep.
The bright one Sang suddenly, a sound of curiosity and wonder. The interloper was startled, but Sang in return, a warbling melody of confusion and worry. The cool form gave a Song of its own, reassurance flowing around the interloper’s body and stroking away its fear like its mother used to.
The interloper sang a Question, the notes carrying all the past, present and future worries within it, and the two presences resolved themselves into shapes. The bright one was purest white, its magenta eyes filled with compassion as its multicolored mane flowed gently in the current of the water. Its body was strange, having four limbs like the one the interloper saw before, only this one had a pair of wide flippers growing from its back. The other form was similar, though its body was a brilliant sapphire blue, dark mane the night sky captured. Its cyan eyes were stern, yet a twinkle of amused wisdom sparkled in their depths.
Both forms spread their flippers and opened their mouths, no bubbles emerging. From them a deafening Song the interloper had never heard before blasted out, the very force of it hurling it back through the archway and into a glowing white light. But the Song was not one of rejection and anger. It was one of Welcome, and the interloper held it close to its heart, never to be forgotten.
“...can you hear me? Mystic! Wake up!”
Mystic groaned as she felt herself waking up. The last thing she remembered was telling Dr. McCarthy something was going wrong with the transformation, but then... that music... With a jolt she rolled onto her stomach, head swinging wildly. “The dolphin! Is she...?” She gulped nervously, looking toward the platform the dolphin had rested on.
It was empty.
Mystic hung her head in dejection. “Then we...” She trailed off as Dr. McCarthy lifted her muzzle with a hand.
“Why don’t you come see for yourself?” He helped her get to her hooves and walk down the gentle incline to the viewing window. She looked around carefully, but couldn’t see anything.
“Dr. McCarthy, if you’re trying to pull a joke on me, I’m afraid I don’t quite get iiiiiii-WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME?” She shrieked, skittering a few steps back as the strange form came racing up through the water, before coming to a gentle stop just on the other side of the glass. Mystic took a few gasping breaths and rubbed her eyes with her hooves before looking again.
The transformed dolphin floated serenely before her, its large fuchsia eyes tracking her curiously. It cooed at her, the sound vibrating right through the glass and wrapping itself gently around her brain. She literally felt it soothing her anxiety, and with a small start she realized her horn was resonating with it too.
“What in the world happened? Was it a botched serum sample?” She breathlessly asked, trotting forward to put a hoof delicately on the glass. The creature looked curiously at it, and then put one of its flippers on the opposite side of the glass.
“Well, we called the CDC to make sure, that batch number was certified by their unicorns. I don’t know if we’ll ever really understand what happened.” He smiled as the transformed dolphin bobbed excitedly in the water. “Although, we can’t really call this a pony, now can we?”
Mystic tossed her head with a snort. “Of course we can! She’s still a pony... just one of the sea is all.”
McCarthy chuckled. “So a seapony? Why not? And if the results are the same for the rest of them,” he inclined his head as more shapes became visible, other dolphins investigating the familiar newcomer in their midst, “we may well have given birth to a new species of pony here.”
Inside the tank, the transformed dolphin smiled, closing her eyes as she began to Sing the song of Welcome that she’d heard from the Sun and the Moon.
“Shoo Be Doo....”
