TCB: The Midnight Hour
By Silvertie
Silver Tie sat at the reception desk, the suited, green unicorn floating a pen with his magic in the air above his mussy black mane, the writing implement spinning rapidly as he rocked back and forth on his chair.
It was a very quiet night. Too quiet, he would have said, once upon a time. The internet was silent, activity having dropped off sharply in the face of the imminent Purification. Equestria hadn’t actually released any information regarding the world-ending event, but enough leaks regarding contingency plans for the big day had been formed to give the world a good idea of what was planned.
And, add in the fact that Southport was a ghost city these days - not even the HLF had a presence in this area, with hardly any humans left to fight for in the first place. Silver didn’t expect to see a single pony or human pass through those doors before sunup. Well, perhaps just one. Thunder Slam would probably step out for a morning flight before taking the day shift.
And so, he’d been surprised when the front doors dinged, and slid open. He sat up, and saw a rather gaunt-looking, slender teenager lurch through the doorway. Dressed in a weathered hoodie and worn jeans, he looked like saying he’d been living rough would be a bit of an understatement. Dark hollows under his eyes suggested a distinct lack of sleep.
“You okay, there?” he asked, cautious.
“Yeah, yeah,” the teenager mumbled, nodding. “Hey. You... you convert humans to ponies, here?”
Silver subtly rested a telekinetic hand on the taser stuck to the underside of the reception desk in case of danger as he got up. “Yeah, why?”
“Do you think...” The teenager swayed a little. “Do you think you could convert me, perhaps? Like, right now?”
Silver relaxed his grip on the weapon, and nodded. “Sure... you fill out these bits of paper,” he said, levitating a prepared pen and a clipboard over to the teenager, who took the implements numbly, “And I’ll go wake up our potion technician.”
The teenager nodded, and squinting at the paper, crudely scrawled across it with the pen clenched in his fist like a dagger. Silver rolled his eyes a little, and triggered the intercom with a soft click.
“Front Desk to Null Point, come in.”
There was a yawn from the other end. “Null Point here. It’s midnight, Silver. What is it?”
“Got a human looking to convert,” Silver replied in a low voice, so the teenager couldn’t hear him. “He looks flaky as hell. Can we do him quickly?”
“Sure,” Null replied. “Got a single dose that’s I’ve been keeping warm, just for scenarios like this. When he’s done with the forms, send him into the theater, I’ll meet you there.”
The intercom clicked as it turned off, and Silver looked up. He jumped a little when the Teenager was standing right in front of the desk, presenting a tidy clipboard to Silver. Silver took it, and his eyes widened when he saw that it had actually been filled out properly; despite the crude scrawling motions made earlier, somehow the entire form had been filled out in a neat, tidy cursive, and to a higher level of completion than the form usually got filled out to.
“Is that enough?” The teenager said, wobbling. The form said his name was Thomas Wright, and Silver nodded as he popped the form free, slotting it into a folder, which he tucked inside his suit for safe keeping.
“Sure thing, Mr. Wright,” Silver gestured towards the back of the reception area. “Please, follow me.”
Silver got up, and walked slowly towards a red door marked “Staff Only”, looking behind him. Thomas nodded, and followed unsteadily, and Silver’s mane itched. Something was horribly wrong. The last time he’d gotten this feeling was when he’d gone toe-to-toe... or rather hoof-to-hoof with an earth pony in possession of a magic sword and a healing factor rated at “fucking ludicrous”. Trouble, in other words.
“You’re not going to cause us any trouble are you?” Silver asked, carefully. “Like, not carrying anything that we wouldn’t like to find in a bureau or close proximity to ourselves?”
Thomas shook his head. “No, no... nothing like that. Just want to become a pony, please.”
“Hmm.” Silver kept half an eye on Thomas as they made their way through the empty bureau to the conversion room. Once, they’d had a staff of thirty to keep up with demand. Chefs, maintenance crew, security, trainers. Now, it was a crew of three; himself, Null and Thunder. Just wasn’t demand for the staff, and while the Equestrian treasury was vast, it was not without limits. Costs had to be cut.
The pair entered the conversion room; one simple operating table sat in the middle of a pristine, white-tiled room; on the far wall, a counter rested, lined with vials and jars, and boxes of syringes, folded blue gowns to protect modesty in a human’s final moments. In short, everything a body needed to convert a human to pony.
“If you would care to strip your clothes off, don one of those gowns on the counter, and sit down on the bed, there,” Silver motioned towards the operating table, “the Potion Technician will be with you shortly.”
Thomas nodded, and did as he was bade, vanishing behind a convenient screen to strip off and put on one of the offered gowns, before staggering over to the table, hoisting himself up onto it awkwardly and sitting there, legs swinging. Silver watched him still, and made sure there were no surgical tools easily accessible. He rubbed his side thoughtfully as he did - that had been a rather unpleasant lesson to learn, and he still had the scar.
The door clicked as it opened again, and a pink earth pony with a purple mane walked in, nudging the door aside with his head as he yawned around a vial clutched firmly in his mouth.
“Evening, Silver,” Null Point said.
“Morning, actually,” Silver pointed out.
“Oh Celestia,” Null groaned. “It’s way too early for this. It really is.”
Silver extracted the folder and handed it over to Null without a word. The earth pony adjusted his glasses as he put the vial of potion down on the ground before accepting it, looking over it blearily.
“Right,” Null yawned. “Mr. Wright, we are about to commence your ponification. This is a process in which you will consume three ounces of Ponification Serum, or “potion”. After a period of time, you will be polymorphed into a form which is commonly referred to as “pony”. You may be a Pegasus, Earth Pony or Unicorn, and we do not control which race you will be. The transformation is permanent, and cannot be undone or changed. Do you still give consent to become a pony?”
“Yes,” Thomas said, firmly. Silver blinked. That was probably the strongest thing the teenager had said so far. He resisted the urge to grip a weapon, and remained still.
“Very well,” Null yawned. “Please, take this and drink up. Don’t spill any, drink it all. Yes, we know it tastes like grape. We tried chocolate, but it didn’t take.”
Null closed the folder with a thap, and picked up the potion once more, walking over to Thomas. Null held the potion within grabbing range, and the human took it, almost reverentially.
The vial was small in the human’s hands; three ounces of purple fluid, flecked by sparks of pure magic, drifting lazily through the solution. A fusion of human engineering and Equestrian magic to save humans from the unpleasant death that was thaumic radiation. Some called it salvation, others called it the devil’s poison.
Silver just called it potion. Good or bad, he didn’t care. Potion was just like any other dangerous item, like guns or hammers. It wasn’t the item, it was the pony wielding it.
And right now, Thomas had it. He carefully worked the cork out of the vial with a pop, and held the potion up to the light. A smile creased Thomas’ face, his face lighting up with the first true emotion Silver had seen all night.
Only hesitating to savor the moment, Thomas brought the vial to his lips, and drank, tipping the vessel back as he did. It seemed to take an eternity, but he finished it, handing the empty vial back to Null point. Silver noted that even now, Thomas seemed stronger, as if simply drinking the potion had been enough to revitalize him.
“You may wish to lie down,” Null said. “The transformation will begin shortly.”
Thomas nodded, and still smiling, lay down on his side. His eyelids flickered, and slowly closed as he went to sleep. The potion began to take effect at this point, and the two bureauponies watched as his flesh began to bubble and move. Legs and arms shortened, and became stumpy appendages as Thomas’ head began to lengthen and pale even more. Hair sprouted, spectral white. A bulge forced it’s way out of Thomas’ forehead, a horn growing into place.
It took two minutes, and by the end of it, the human was gone. A pony laid on it’s side, still smiling. Null’s pen scratched as he took note of the results; a white unicorn with a white mane, and surprisingly, no cutie mark. An uncommon, but not unheard of phenomena.
Null put the pen down and nodded. “We’re done here. Silver, if you would kindly take him to his room to recover? I’m going back to bed.”
Silver looked at the body, and picked up the newfoal with his magic, slowly and gently.
“Sure thing, Doc.”
======
Silver sat back in his chair, tapping his chin. Thomas Wright was an enigma. No known associates, no links to anything even remotely off the straight and narrow. Straight C student, no misdemeanors... at least, none that the police database Silver had tapped into knew about.
Silver closed the webpage with a snort, and looked at the time. A whole hour had been killed since Thomas had arrived, and not a single peep out of the newfoal. Usually they woke up by now, confused. But Thomas had remained in a deep slumber ever since.
Silver spun his chair, and looked at a bank of security camera feeds; few were active, but of the ones that were, one was of Thomas’ room. Silver scanned the feed, and blinked.
He got up, looking harder, and shaking his head slowly. Thomas was gone! He turned to door access logs, perimeter alarms. Nothing. It was a sealed room, and the pony had... vanished!
Silver grabbed his taser, and galloped for the stairs, running up them two at a time, headed for Thomas’ room. He’d known that boy was trouble, he shouldn’t have...
The door flew open with a loud bang, and Silver jumped in, gun swinging around with his head as he looked for threats or anything unusual. Bed, table, chair, dresser, closed and locked window. Nothing. He spun and looked at the camera itself, in case Thomas had somehow crammed himself into the blind spot.
Nothing. He put his gun away, as the sound of running hooves filled the air, and a yellow pegasus with a build akin to a sturdy building ran to the doorway.
“Silver?” Thunder Slam asked, anxious and sleepy. “What’s going on?”
“He’s vanished,” Silver muttered. “Thomas Wright, the newfoal I put in here about fifty minutes ago. He’s just... gone.”
Thunder yawned. “You sure about that? I didn’t hear you come up here in the first place.”
“You sleep like a rock.”
“Point.” The wrestling-affectionado pegasus looked around. “Huh. It’s like he wasn’t even here. Are you absolutely sure you put a pony up here?”
“I know I did,” Silver growled, eyeing a rumpled spot on the bed where he’d definitely put Thomas. “Ask Null Point. He administered the potion in the first place.”
“Eh,” Thunder yawned. “I’m going back to bed, then, if you don’t need me.”
“You do that,” Silver said. “When you go on your morning flight, though, I’ll have something for you to pick up from the local PD. A dossier. Something’s wrong with that Thomas kid, can’t put my hoof on it.”
Thunder nodded, and yawned. “Okay. See you later this morning.”
======
Silver stared at the dossier blankly.
“I don’t get it, it doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered.
“What doesn’t make sense?” Thunder asked, walking into the reception area. The pegasus looked a great deal more awake now, having gone for a brisk morning flight in the cold city, and showered up.
“Thomas Wright,” Silver said, tapping the paper. “He’s real, alright. Photo ID and description matches the kid I saw, same person. Here’s the problem, though.”
Thunder walked over to the desk, and saw what Silver was pointing at. “What’s that date got to do with anything?”
“That’s his time of death,” Silver said, slowly. “The kid died months ago, caught in a bureau riot. Stray round from the HLF put paid to him, and testimony from friends and family says he was intending to go pony that day. Said he’d always wanted it, but he’d just turned age of consent recently. Could have gotten his parents to sign it for him, but he just wanted to be his own pony, right from the get-go.”
“Wait,” Thunder said. “If he died that long ago... then who did you ponify?”
Silver shrugged. The conversion room had been just like the bedroom; devoid of evidence. Even Thomas’ old clothes had vanished, only the gown which had been theirs from the start remained.
“I don’t know, Thunder,” he said, putting the dossier down, and staring at the clock. “I don’t know.”
