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.