The Conversion Bureau: Drops in the Sea

by Brightwater

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 4898

An instructor has to show a group of newfry how to be seaponies.

A seapony is called upon to teach a group of newfry how to be seaponies. Funny things happen.

This is a story set in an alternate form of the Conversion Bureau universe, where bureaus by the sea get a potion that has the power to transform a human into four species. As well as the classic three, there's a chance you'll become a seapony.

Published 2012-12-30 20:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-21 16:25:10 UTC

Chapter 1

Aquamarine smiled as she planted some kelp in the new area of the bluezone, then coated the roots in sand. A few days ago, this area that she was swimming in had been brownzone, a toxic, anoxic sludge that teemed with rogue nanobots. Her friends, Kelpie and Golden Sand herded in some pipefish and sea jellies.

“Hey, Aqua!” Kelpie happily exclaimed. “We found a similar area in Equestria and brought in these.”

Golden Sand pushed through his bag, woven with the tough fibres of a kind of sea grass. “I found some shellfish in the same area, as well as more sea plants. Don’t worry, I didn’t take a lot from the area.” He nudged out some brownish shells. “Any large rocks in the area?” the brownish seapony asked. Aquamarine grinned.

“There’s one over there.” she said, pointing with her fin to an area near the edge of the bluezone.

“Kelpie, you had something to tell Aqua, didn’t you?” Golden Sand reminded her. Kelpie’s eyes rolled back, like they always did when she was thinking, as if she was trying to look inside her brain.

“Aqua, they’ve got a job for you over at Wavefront Bureau. You know, the main seaside conversion center.”

Aquamarine groaned. “Are you serious? When?” she replied.

“Around noon. It’s around nine-forty now. Go now and swim fast and you’ll get there by eleven.” Kelpie told her unwilling friend.

“Why do they need me?” Aquamarine moaned. “They have plenty of seaponies over at Wavefront.”

“It’s to do with the newfry. They want a convert to teach some newfry over there, and you’re the closest one with experience.” Kelpie informed Aquamarine.

“I guess I’ll have to get going then.” Aquamarine answered, inwardly fuming. The last thing she wanted to do was swim over to Wavefront and instruct a bunch of know-nothings. “Fine.” she said glumly, spinning around and swimming off through the bluezone towards Wavefront.

***

Lily screwed her eyes shut and curled up in a ball. “Mommy, I don’t wanna be a fish!” she shrieked. At the mention of “fish”, the mother visibly recoiled.

“Sweetie, you won’t be a fish.” the peach unicorn told her child, a hint of frustration coating her voice. “Lily, I’m absolutely sure you won’t become one of those horrid creatures.”

She put her child down and led her towards the receptionist’s desk. Lily followed with trepidation, her scared look apparent to those around her. “Mommy, will it hurt?” she asked, her voice wavering.

“Of course not.” the parental figure snapped. “I’ve told you a million times that no, it will not hurt.”

Turning her attention to the receptionist, a mauve pegasus with a silver mane, she asked “Make sure my daughter doesn’t become one of those horrendous fish.” The receptionist swallowed.

“Dear, I can’t make sure of anything.” she meekly told the peach unicorn. “Are you checking your daughter in?” Lily heard her mother pause. “Yes, I suppose I must. Do your best to make sure she isn’t a fish.” Lily pulled herself up the counter.

“Hello, Miss Receptionist Pony!” she exuberantly told the receptionist, going from scared to bouncy in a matter of minutes, now that she had gotten over the fear of pain. The receptionist smiled at the bouncy youngster.

“Hi! What’s your name?” she asked kindly.

“Lily!”

“And how old are you?” she said, keeping a happy tone.

“I’m seven today.” the child informed the pony.

“Is being converted your birthday present?”

“Yes.” Lily looked downcast, her face wearing a mask of disappointment.

The receptionist seemed to sense the change in mood. “Don’t worry. Being a pony is fun!” she told Lily, with true positivity. “You know, we’re not having a busy day today. Do you want to become a pony now?” Lily thought for a moment. She had to become a pony sometime or another. Her mom would give permission for her even if she said no.

“Sure.”

She trotted into a white room and lay down on the bed. The sheets were a smooth silky kind of material. The technician smiled. “Lily, you can’t become a pony while you’re wearing clothes.”

Lily hastily spotted a spare blanket lying in the corner of the room and covered herself in it while she stripped down to her skin. The technician passed a paper cup with a cherry-flavoured syrup in it. “Drink it all at once.” she instructed. Lily gulped it down, the sickly-sweet false-cherry flavour making her wince. She had barely a chance to put the cup down when blackness engulfed her that faded into bubbles in a clear blue sea.

They surrounded her, tickling her feet and rubbing against her body. She flew out of the water, then splashed back down again, as schools of tropical fish swam past her and green kelp grew tall, almost to the top of the deep, clear, water. The princesses that she had seen so much on television were near her, but they seemed to be seahorses.

“Aren’t you horses?” she inquired. She was sure they weren’t aquatic creatures.

“My sister and I take many forms.” Celestia informed the young newfry. “We must guard the kingdom of the sea as well as the one of the land.”

Lily’s brow furrowed. She couldn’t possibly be one of the pony-fish her mother so vehemently hated. “Am I a fish?” she inquired. Luna chuckled.

“Nay, little one. You are a seapony, and a seapony is as much a pony as any pony of the earth or sky.”

“But my momma says—” Luna hushed the child, who seemed to be freaking out. “Your momma is ignorant of how important seaponies are. Perhaps when you wake up, she’ll understand.” She was being pulled away by a strong current. Her world was fading into black.

Her eyes snapped open to her mother screaming at the technician.

“What is this fish and where is my daughter?!” she shrieked, barely containing her anger. Lily shrank back in fear.

“Momma—” she began, but her mother, her only parent, the one she looked up to looked her in the eyes and said,

“I am not your mother.” As Lily’s eyes welled up with tears and the technicians and observers watched in abject horror, the lavender unicorn galloped off into the city while the technician was left to comfort the now-bawling newfry.

***

The sound of the truck’s wheels going over the bumps and the feeling of the water sloshing around in the tank didn’t agree with Mary. She made a face, but no-one saw it. It was dark and boring, as she was the only one in the tank in the truck. She recalled the events of the previous day. She had taken the serum knowing that as she was in an inner-city bureau, she’d get to be either a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony. She had been hoping for pegasus. Most of her friends were pegasi, and she was looking forwards to moving to Equestria with them. Her friends had told her about soaring through the skies in their conversion dream. She had dreamed about bubbles and kelp.

She had been informed that this was not a normal occurence. The keg that held the serum she had drunk was tested, and it was found that somehow a seaside bureau’s serum had been switched with theirs. Silently fuming, she lay at the bottom of the nanoglass tank. She hadn’t even got so say goodbye before she was loaded into a government truck headed for Wavefront, the main seaside bureau. They’d told her that swimming was like flying. Well, she didn’t care about flying. She cared about flying with friends.

After what seemed like eons, the truck’s door opened. Having only been in in dim light for hours upon hours, she reflexively squinted as an innumerable number of photons hit her retinas. She heard the click of the tank’s wheels unlocking, and it rolled over to the entrance to Wavefront.

Mary gaped at the huge building, gargantuan even in comparison to the large conversion bureau that she had gone to in the first place. She had seen layouts on the net that stated it’s size, but nothing could prepare her for just how enormous it was. It had a modern design, white and sleek and smooth with lots of glass. You could say it looked like a pebble with branches that led out to more pebbles. There was a part that floated on the water and probably extended into it. She decided that that must be the seapony temporary living spaces. The other ones that simply floated, or were in the air and had pegasi buzzing in and out would be dormitories for the other races. Before she could figure out more of the building, the glass door entrance slid open and the tank whizzed through and hit an elliptical desk in the center of the lobby, the water sloshing. Mary looked up. The receptionist stared in shock, before recognition flashed across his face. “You’re the seapony from Windbreaker, aren’t you?” Mary nodded.

She was lifted out of the tank and placed in the moonpool at the side of the lobby. It was the perfect warmth and salinity. She did a jump-dive, like one of those “dolphins” that apparently had lived years ago, but were extinct now. “Go to the passage that is lighted with a green light.” he ordered. “It’ll take you to a waiting-area in the sea, near the beach. There’s going to be a class group forming soon, and you don’t want to miss it.”

Mary nodded, and swam down into the moonpool. This really was like flying. The hole left by leaving all her friends behind remained. Hopefully, someday soon it would be filled.

***

Herman grinned as he held the cup of potion high up in the air, his family, already ponies, snapping photos of him. To his chagrin, he had been given four ounces instead of the usual three because of his excess poundage. His younger brother was going to point it out for years to come. At least he wouldn’t when the conversion was over. Conversions burned a lot of calories and always ate into fat reserves. He was smirking, a brownish-maned, cream-furred pegasus teen standing behind his parents. Between camera flashes, Herman gave his brother a death glare. The technician stood there annoyedly. “Drink the potion already!” Herman gave a death glare to the technician, who kept a straight face. Herman downed the sticky concoction. It tasted like the medicine his mother used to force-feed him as a child when he had the flu. The world around him faded to black as he felt himself falling back on the bed, landing with a loud thud.

Bubbles. That was the first thing he felt. Bubbles. Big round ones. He floated up and jumped out of the water, but belly-flopped back down. Wincing, he dove down under the surface. Kelp was below him. He went down some more. Luna and Celestia were down at the bottom. Or, were they Luna and Celestia? They were in the form of tall seaponies. “

Greetings, new one.” the Luna-seapony boomed.

“Am I a seapony?” Herman asked in disbelief. All of his family were pegasi and unicorns. They had all been converted at Wavefront while he had been away visiting a friend. It was in their genes to be on land. It was obvious.

“You are, new one. A pony of the sea.” Herman was being pulled away by a current that seemed to get stronger and faster every second. “I have more questions!” he yelled. “I need to ask—” He was cut off by a sudden jolt back to reality. His brother stifled a giggle. The technician was peering at him curiously.

“Sir, usually when we get overweight and obese converts, they shed almost all of the excess fat during conversion. But it appears you haven’t lost a pound.”

Herman indignantly began a new exercise regime. He would eat very little, just a weird sea plant and a few minnow-sized fish. Then, he would go to the water-treadmill area in the gym area, a strong current created by water jets. He would weigh himself at the end of each day, and after about a week, he had lost a whopping one pound. The person designing this torture wanted to kick it up a notch, but he simply couldn’t swim fast enough. So at the end, he was sent off to join a training group for newfry. His family was going to be trained in flight in magic, and he was going off to be trained in the Art of Being a Seapony. Definitely not fair.

Chapter 2

Aquamarine surveyed the newfry she had been assigned. To her right, there was a young-looking seafilly. Her age estimate was around six or seven years old. The newfilly looked pitiful and miserable, as if something horrible had happened. It probably had. She decided not to delve too deep into it. The next newfry seemed to be floating almost halfway out of the water. She boggled for a moment. Conversion was supposed to strip the body of excess fat, if leaving behind a little chub. This guy, whoever he was, was shaped like a beach ball. The other newfry, a lilac female, seemed to just be average. Late teens, no strange features. Normal. She turned her attention to the one that was just out of the corner of her eye. She turned and did a double take.

It was Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn who had been on the HoloTV more times than she could count. The lavender mare was scribbling down notes with a pen on a waterproof notebook. She looked up, blinked, then continued scribbling down notes. She was wearing long, black flippers on all of her hooves. Now, it was Aquamarine’s turn to blink. She hadn’t been warned about this. She decided to get all of the newfry’s attention, the inexplicable Twilight included.

“So!” she said in a bubbly and cheerful tone. “How about we introduce ourselves, huh?” The newfry just stared blankly at her.

“Okay, let’s start with me. My name is Aquamarine. I’m your instructor. Like you, I was a newfry once—”

“Newfry?” the child interrupted. “I thought we were newfoals. Are you gonna fry us or something?” Aquamarine giggled, shaking her head.

“Foals are pony babies. Fry are seapony babies.” she explained. “Anyway, I was once a newfry like you. I was converted here, too. I’ll be showing you exactly how to be a seapony!” she told them, trying to be as exuberant and happy-sounding as possible. “After everypony introduces themselves, I’ll explain what we’ll be doing.” The aquamarine seapony pointed to the flabby orange beach-ball with her fin. “Your turn first.” He visibly gulped.

“My name is Herman. I like food. I didn’t want to be converted to a seapony. All of my family are pegasi and unicorns. I guess I’m weird.” he muttered. “Do I have to say anything else?” he asked.

“If that’s all you want to say, you don’t have to say anything more.” Aquamarine replied. “Does anyone want to volunteer to go next?” she asked. The lilac one raised a fin.

“My name is Mary. I lived in the middle of the city and was converted at Windbreaker Bureau. Unfortunately, there was a potion mix-up with one of the seaside bureaus and they received a keg of potion capable of turning people into seaponies.” She paused, looking around at the shallow, almost-enclosed bay area that they were in. “So, after a long truck ride, here I am.” She glanced around again. “Uh, why is there a unicorn in flippers over there?” she asked. Aquamarine bit her lip.

Directing her attention towards Twilight, she explained that it was her turn to tell them something about herself. The prodigious unicorn had obviously not anticipated having to explain anything. She blinked a couple of times, probably mentally preparing something to say.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m here to study how newfry adapt to being seaponies.” she informed them. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a spell that lets me breathe water.” she continued. Aquamarine raised an eyebrow, then looked around her smallish group. She pointed her fin at the last one, the child.

“Would you mind going next?” she asked the small, snow-white newfry. The seafilly gulped.

“My name is Lily, but I wanna be called Waterlily.” she began. “I don’t want to be a seapony.” She paused, her eyes welling up with tears. She dunked her head underwater, probably to wash them away, then popped back up, her previously dry cyan mane plastered to her head with water.

“My mom hates seaponies. She’s afraid of fish. She works in a lab. Someone found a piece of rotting ancient shark fin—” she made a face “—and they speed-grew a shark. It bit her hand off. I think she sees all things in the sea in the same way as that shark.” Waterlily informed everyone. “I like cheese.” she finished.

Aquamarine took a mental note- everyone here was not hoping to be a seapony. “So,” she said, flashing a grin, “I’ll explain what we’re going to be doing.” She glanced around, searching for any positive facial expressions from the newfry. Frankly, they all looked bored. “You’d better be paying close attention,” she reprimanded them. “I don’t want to have to repeat this.” The newfry looked up with less-than-rapt attention, but that was close enough.

“All of you—” she pointed with her fin in the three newfries’ general direction “—are going to be learning how to be seaponies.” Pointing her fin towards the flipper-wearing lavender unicorn, she told her “And you do whatever you do.” Focusing her attention back on the newfry, she continued with what she had been saying before.

“Don’t worry about swimming lessons. Swimming is instinctual. As seaponies, you already know how to do that. No training involved. However!” she felt her words end in a sharp point, “You need to learn how to harness seapony magic. We have magic, just like pegasi have weather magic, unicorns have magic-magic, and earth ponies have growing magic. You need to learn how to tend to the seas, how to clean them. But, most importantly...” she said, building suspense for something that was utterly undeserving of it, “You need to learn about seapony society.” Twilight Sparkle, still standing at the side, was swiftly scribbling down notes. “Today, we will be learning about magic.” she told the former humans. “Before you can clean the seas, you must learn to harness the water.” She led them deeper and out of the enclosed area, each seapony subconsciously swishing their tails to keep themselves floating.

“As a seapony, you can breathe, see, talk, and hear properly underwater.” she informed them. She dived underwater, the newfry following. Herman, the beach-ball pony had a significantly harder time staying underwater than the other two, who were happily floating neither up nor down, but she ignored it. Most of seapony life was spent below the waves, and he was going to have to get used to it.

The first thing that she showed her class how to do was a simple piece of magic that created a current. If you kept focusing on it, it would last as long as you needed. “When are we ever going to need to use a measly little current?” Herman complained, directing one towards the ground, suspending sand in the water. Aquamarine stole a glance towards Twilight, who, despite the reduced visibility, was still writing things in her notebook. “You may only be able to make a measly little current now, but with practice and the help of others, you will be able to do a lot more things than kick up sand.” she explained to the impatient orange newfry. He grumbled out something that Aquamarine could not understand, then went back to directing currents at things..

The newfry seemed to be decent at creating currents now. Mary, the lilac one, seemed to be experimenting with curved ones. She gulped. She hadn’t really expected them to progress this fast. She was going to have to think of a new lesson plan, and fast. Twilight seemed to have gotten bored with her previous captivation, taking notes, and was attempting to make currents with her horn and failing. “Everypony!” she shouted. All four others froze. “Do you want to learn more magic, or do you want to learn how to clean the seas?” The vote was unanimous, Twilight not participating.

They wanted more magic. She was pleasantly surprised by this- herding muck around was not one of her favourite pastimes. Unfortunately, after she had demonstrated countless things, they eventually got around to dealing with a practical application for all this magic. The aquamarine-coated seapony gritted her teeth. She began a short speech to explain what they were going to do, planning to drag it on for as long as possible before she had to deal with the icky brownzone. Her favourite part of cleaning the seas had always been reintroducing life to it, not removing muck.

“You’ve learned how to control the waves. Now, I’ll show you how to put it to good use.” she told them.

Waterlily yawned. “I’m tired.” she sleepily muttered, her eyes glazing over with sleep.

“I concur.” Mary agreed. She looked as if she was about to doze off any second. She probably was. Seaponies could sense the time of day from the water, and it was exceedingly late.

“Oh!” Aquamarine’s eyes widened in shock. “I didn’t notice the time. Here, let me show you the best aquatic sleeping position...” she trailed off, noticing that they were already adopting the position when she hadn’t even shown them. Instinct. The tiny pod of seaponies lay in the sand at the bottom of the ocean, gazing off into the blue above them.

Chapter 3

The sea never stays still for long. Aquamarine awoke with a jolt as she hit a rock that she had not been next to, let alone seen before she fell asleep. Aquamarine stretched and started to look around. When her sleep-addled brain realized where she was, her eyes widened with shock.

This wasn’t the nice, calm place where she had dozed off, with the crystal clear water, the sand that went from brown to gold to white, the tall kelp copses and the low lying seaweed, and the rocks adorned with shellfish. This was somewhere entirely different. Suddenly, she snapped her eyes shut as soon as she had opened them.

This wasn’t a good thing. In fact, it was quite possibly the worst thing that could happen. Here she was with a group of newfry who barely knew the ropes, floating out so far into the brownzone that it was impossible to see more than a couple of feet in any direction.

The only things Aquamarine could see were murkiness and vague shapes. Checking the kelp attachment she had made to keep the newfry close to her, she followed the line back until she reached a group of three seaponies and one unicorn. It was very hard to tell who was who. However, after a moment of observation it became apparent. One obviously had four legs. Twilight, the researcher. Another was obviously rounder and more buoyant. Herman. One was smaller than all the rest. Waterlily, the poor kid who was separated from her mother by an unfortunate potion outcome. The seapony-shaped blob in the middle would have to be Mary.

Miraculously, they were all sleeping. The blueish seapony tugged hard on the kelp rope, and all ponies but one woke. With a second tug came bleary complaints from the ones who had already been woken, but nothing from the one who hadn’t.

Making sure no-one became detached from the rope, Aquamarine forced her voice to sound calm.

“CLASS!” she yelled. All heads snapped to attention.

Except one.

Aqua’s mind went into overdrive. Was she dead? Unconscious? Barely clinging to life? Stay quiet, mind. If they were going to get through this, then there was only one pony who could lead them. Her.

“It appears that we were caught in a current.” she informed them. Their faces remained blank. “We are now in the brownzone.”

That did it. All ponies’ faces froze in an expression of abject terror.

“Don’t worry. All we need to do is get into the bluezone as fast as possible. I doesn’t matter where in the bluezone we pop out. Just that we get there. Remember, we have an unconscious fry here. Now let’s go.”

The equines snapped out of their daze. They could feel the other’s anxiety and fear through the water, and it put them all on edge.

“I think fresher water is thataway.” Mary said, pointing her fin towards where she sensed the water becoming clearer. Aquamarine poked her head towards where Mary was pointing. The water did seem to have less goop in it, but only by a smidgen.

“Are you sure? It does seem that the water becomes clearer, but...” Aquamarine paused, swimming downwards. “I think you’re actually onto something. It does appear that there is a current leading from the bluezone.” Emma dove down, copying Aquamarine.

“It’s pretty weak. We should be able to swim up it.” Calling down Herman and Twilight, and strapping Waterlily to the lavender unicorn’s back, they began the slow progression upstream.

As they got closer, the water got fresher, but the current grew stronger. It was obvious that they were making progress, but the progress was slow. It seemed like they were starting to go backwards, that their efforts would go to naught, the pushing of the water was stronger than the pushing of their flippers. The water wasn’t so thick, and it was easier to see now. Aquamarine glanced at Waterlily. Her breathing had gotten better.

“Full speed ahead!” she ordered. The others in her group followed the orders, but it became apparent that they either couldn’t follow them for very long or wouldn’t.

“Aquamarine, we are swimming against a strong current. We have been for the past twenty minutes. Do you really expect us to swim faster?” Mary pleaded. Aquamarine didn’t answer, but only gestured over to Waterlily. The unspoken message was understood and the group pressed on.

As the water became lighter and lighter, the current only became stronger and stronger. Aquamarine suspected that there was some kind of large bluezone expansion group going on nearby. Creating a strong current to push away the brownzone was a well-known and easy method of pushing away the brownzone, and there really wasn’t another logical explanation. Seeing as the group was nowhere in sight, and water-pushing groups usually started just where the water became tinted brown, they had obviously made great progress. Darting to the side to escape the push, the bright blue seapony tugged on the kelp rope, sending the unsuspecting seaponies and unicorn flying towards her.

Acting quickly, she untied Waterlily from Twilight’s back and called for help. Waterlily sank limply to the seafloor. A cloud of smooth sand rose up, then sank back down again as she hit the bottom. changing her position so she could reach over to Lily, she checked her vitals. She had a pulse, but it was weak. Her white skin was turning slightly blue. Cyanosis. Calling out for help as loud as she could, Aquamarine cried out until her lungs were hoarse. Nopony called back.

Nopony came. They decided to swim in one direction until they saw somepony. There wasn’t really much else they could do. Fortunately, by an immense stroke of luck, the group spied the start of a continental shelf. Herman swam forwards, looking around. A little beyond them, a coral reef started. There would have to be seaponies around here. Coral reefs on earth didn’t plant themselves, and they definitely had not crossed the bubble barrier.

“Aquamarine! There’s structures!” Herman cried out. He swam a bit deeper down, trying to take a closer look. “It looks like there’s a city! The houses are strange tho-OW!” he yelped, swimming backwards while simultaneously attempting to nurse an angry red mark on his tail fin. “I think something bit me!” he yipped. Aquamarine took a glance at his injured fin. “It’s a jellyfish sting. Luckily, not a very toxic one. You say you spot a city?” she said, glancing around. Herman took a second look. “There is a city.” he told them. “Swim ahead a little more. It’ll come into view.”

Aquamarine did not need to be told twice. Swimming forwards as fast as she could while holding Waterlily in her right fin, she saw that Herman was right. A city lay ahead of them. She checked the white fry’s vitals once more. She was actually a little better, a bit less blue. However, she couldn’t get the young seapony treated until she found a hospital or a bureau. Cities of the size of what lay ahead of her usually had a hospital. Checking behind her to make sure the rest of the group were with her, she sped into the city.

Author's Note

Apologies for the long wait and short chapter. I actually don't have an excuse other than I had a case of writer's block and couldn't think of any ideas, then sorta forgot about the story. Chapter four coming soon! I promise!