Chapter 30
No transformation spell was easy.
Felicity had experienced more than her fair share of the obscure magic, particularly during this ill-fated expedition. But no number of repetitions could prepare her for the utterly bizarre sensation of being ripped from a body she understood and crammed into something she didn't.
Even when the new one was something she actually wanted. After spending so long in the body of something entirely alien, part of her resisted being restored. Spiritual inertia, perhaps. Or something colder and more clinically titled, if Harmony were to describe it.
For a split second she felt a near-infinite outpouring of pain, overwhelming her senses so completely that she lost all connection with her body and felt nothing at all. But as quickly as it came, that sensation passed.
She felt four hooves under her, felt the freezing cold refrigerated air condensing to frost against her coat. She actually shivered, an instinctive reaction she hadn't known for who knew how long. Years? Could that be true?
The fog cleared, and her hearing returned. Alarms blared, in the native tongue of the Varch'nai. Something about samples breaching containment. That was hardly her first concern.
The room was smaller, but nothing like the size she imagined. The human-height shelf was still well above her ears. Buck, I know what this is.
"Harmony, what did you do?" she asked it vocally, since that was now her only means of communication. The chemical signals that had been her entire world were now deaf in the medium of air.
"Confusion. Placement... strange. Tea? Lost. Help."
The string of sounds came from beside her, somewhere buried in the fog. Shit, I need to get her back in the tank. How she could even hear the plant-alien Felicity didn't know, but she did know she would need to act fast. They could work above the surface, using a gelatinous film that brought not-water along with it. But she didn't know if Delta could use it.
It didn't matter, as it turned out.
Curled on the ground at her hooves was a pony, not a plant. She was just a filly, with a simple river delta cutie-mark that might be freshly earned. Her coat pale green like the shoots of a fresh sapling, her mane a darker shade but coming in a few short layers.
She didn't stand, didn't sit. Instead, she flopped and twitched, limbs extending and contracting at random. Her mouth opened and closed right along with them, as though the one trying to move it couldn't tell what limbs were meant for what.
She can't. There's no such thing as heads, or legs, or any of the rest of it.
"Harmony, why did you do this?" she asked, a little louder. At the entrance, she heard pounding footsteps, before an armor suit appeared in the window. But whatever attack they were expecting, it wasn't two ponies.
It wasn't two ponies for Felicity either—it was three.
"It was not our intention," said a voice from behind her. Young, small—just like Delta's. This one was male, or she thought so. It was hard to be certain at this age. "There was extremely limited biomass. I had to recycle some material stored in the morgue and prepared for storage. This may not have gone completely as expected."
Felicity patted Delta on the shoulder, but left her there on the ground. There wasn't much she could do for her right now, barely able to move as she was.
She approached the other pony—a unicorn colt, taller than she was, and actually able to stand on his own. His coat was deep red, with orange and yellow in his mane and a little ring as his cutie mark. Equus itself, with a little heart in the middle instead of a star. You took the trouble to draw that?
"You're a pony!" she exclaimed, nudging his shoulder. He was a little taller, which had its own disturbing implications. Felicity's wings splayed to either side in embarrassment, far smaller than they ought to be. Those weren't the wings of an Alicorn. For that matter, she could sense no magic coming from her forehead. She didn't have a horn anymore.
I might not have implants, either.
"This is bad," Harmony said. Harmony, who was now a flesh and blood pony standing right in front of her. Not the life-support implant that should've been living with her beside her brain. Harmony. "I knew spellcraft under these conditions was bound to be unpredictable! We have a much-diminished capacity, and reduced magical reserves, and so little familiarity with the native biology..."
Was he about to cry?
Before she could find out, the room echoed with the sound of a crackling radio. It wasn't distorted by her strange biology anymore—now she heard it clearly.
"PONIES WITHIN THE CELL, PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELVES."
There was a brief pause, during which Harmony itself seemed to tense with concentration. Then the moment passed, and he spoke again. He—that would take some getting used to. "I have communicated with the aspect of myself left within this vessel, and all others. I... no longer have the capacity to understand how it works. But I know that Harmony would not allow an expeditionary ship to cause potential lasting harm to its subjects. It will not permit the captain to ignore us now that we are ponies, and not aliens of an unknown species."
"But they could ignore us before?" she asked, voice low. Of course she couldn't whisper quietly enough not to be overheard, not now that she had lost access to chemical communication. The instinct was there anyway. "We saved their lives getting the reactor working. Almost killed us, and they just sat there."
Harmony shrugged one shoulder, its gesture as clear to her as it would've been from anypony else. But this Harmony was no god, not the one that ruled her world. It was, as it had said, a creature of a much-reduced capacity.
"Recognizing a creature as intelligent life is the key," Harmony said. "Your old body was nearly identical to the cultured biomachines already in our records. It would be easy to dismiss you under that context. Now we have given them security keys, and a demonstration of magic. Given how little magic seems to be on this planet, it should work to convince them. Eventually."
"I am... confused," Delta said. She sounded it too. Though how could she even speak the language? Felicity had actually learned the plants' chemical tongue, but the same couldn't be said in reverse.
"Tea, are you there? Where am... no more water. Poisoned, I think. Can't feel... myself. Lost control. Doesn't make sense."
Felicity walked slowly around the room, shivering more vigorously now. But Harmony would have it the worst—unicorns had far less insulation than the other tribes. Maybe bats too. She dropped down directly in Delta's line of sight, but far enough away that she wouldn't get kicked by mistake.
"Delta," she said, speaking as slowly as she could. There was no saying how a creature who hadn't even had a sense of sound a few minutes ago would perceive her words. Would she be able to tell that Felicity was the same person?
"I am right here. Tea." She waved one wing, settling down on her haunches. Delta twitched again a few times, rotating her limbs to the point of obvious pain, before stopping again and relaxing back onto the floor. She watched the grim cycle repeat itself a few times before putting one hoof on her shoulder. "Delta, don't try to move like that. You don't have tentacles anymore. You have four legs. Four... legs. See?" She lifted one demonstratively. "Like this. They have joints, bones, like a predator. You have to move them deliberately."
"May be a fruitless endeavor," Harmony said, voice grim. "I didn't intend to change her at all, just tried to insulate her in some of the remaining fluid. Obviously that prospect failed. Like you, she is lower than the requisite complexity to understand a radical shift in body plan."
"Shouldn’t being a pony be easier for her? We only have a few limbs—if she can make sense of all those tentacles, this has to be simpler. Eyes on everything, talking in chemicals..."
She had her memories to lean on now—some part of her remembered being like this. But as Felicity stood there, she realized even she was missing part of it. The weightlessness of water, the touch of the sun on her leaves that brought warmth that passed through her in all directions. Already, she could feel the first pangs of hunger. Faint, but growing. She would have to eat again. Plants, or animals maybe.
"Do not understand," Delta said. Her body still moved, though her motions amounted to little more than random twitches and contortions. Unnatural looking, perhaps, but not terribly useful. She still hadn't managed to sit up, let alone stand.
"Predators everywhere, Tea. Is this the flame? Is this the darkness up above? I can't feel the light anymore, but I see light all around me. Why?"
Why can you talk but not use your other limbs?
She almost asked that exact question, but then the radio hissed again. Thankfully, the voice Felicity heard now was far kinder, and more familiar.
"Came back as soon as I could. Felicity, are you in there? Celestia, why didn't you tell us you could do this sooner?"
Felicity shivered, struggling to get her tongue to move. Hot breath fogged in the air in front of her. She could smell it too, and it wasn't pleasant. Ammonia might be the literal blood of the native species, but her head was already starting to spin from the smell. Maybe she'd actually breathed some.
"I wasn't sure I could," she answered. She flapped her wings once, pushing the air away from her mouth. Anything to try and kill the odor. It helped, though her head wasn't feeling any clearer. "This room was made to contain a cryogenic alien. We're going to freeze and suffocate in here if we stay too long."
"Right, sorry! We're really short-staffed over here, just trying to get air flowing to the corridor. One ship really isn't meant to function on its own. The Varch'nai usually don't even bother with rescue, you know. They just transmit the minds off and detonate the wreck."
"Short on people?" She made her way to the door, shivering again. "How can you be... I thought there were hundreds of thousands on every ship. This thing is ungodly huge."
That wasn't a marine on the other side of the glass anymore, but the civilian suit with Escape Gear's face visible inside. Human enough, but still not a pony. Too bad she wasn't still a changeling.
"There are hundreds of thousands on every ship," Escape corrected. "That's how the swarm works. Whatever ship needs people, you send the minds over. But the bodies those minds are copied and transmitted from live in real pods on real ships, they aren't purely digital. Our ship has nine pods, including the captain. That means we have nine people. Well, twelve now."
She hesitated for another second. "Looks like we got the recyclers back on, but only for this section. We're going to walk to some quarters. Can I open the door?"
"Sure." Felicity took a step back. "My friend, Delta—she needs someone to carry her. Can you do it?"
Escape Gear leaned up to the glass, staring at the sprawled pony. "Damn. Think she might need a doctor too, while we're at it. Looks like maybe a spine implant."
"Her problem is too much spine, not too little," Harmony said. "That will not help. It is possible nothing will, other than an increase in complexity. Unfortunately, she is a new consciousness, only one lifetime younger than Felicity here. She cannot be a higher level of complexity, because she is not. And may not ever be, if we cannot get this vessel back into orbit."
The door hissed and squeaked as it began to rise. A wave of hot air rushed in through the crack, pushing aside the cold that condensed near the floor. Finally, something brought the warmth back to Felicity's lips.
She turned, hurrying over to Delta's side. She lowered carefully beside her, speaking quietly and cautiously. Like trying to speak to an ailing relative. "Don't worry, Delta. We'll get somewhere better. Then maybe I can help you."
How she'd do that without magic, Felicity couldn't even guess.
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Dear lord, definitely wasn't expecting that.
Oh wow, Harmony just turned them into spacefaring Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Oh dear, that was a most chaotically unexpected develpment.
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Delta got it worse. For her, this is the equivalent of becoming a werewolf without even being able to shift back.
and now poor Delta is going to have to be a cannibal.
I'm just picturing a young foal flopping around on the ground like a beached fish.
Didn't expect a 3-in-1 deal with the transformation spell. Felicity must be the only one having any sense of normalcy. Harmony just got hit hard with the reality of not being a god and Delta... at least she can breathe.
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Worse, werewolves still have the right number of limbs and control.
This is more of, going from a Human, to a Centipede, with the thoughts and feelings limited to a Centipede
Sounds like Harmony has had the magical ability to do almost anything for such a long time, that Harmony has forgotten the concept of physical therapy.
Delta has all the nerves, muscles, and ligaments in the right place. She just needs to learn how to use them, not an impossibility. Delta is more like a stroke victim than anything else at this point.
Yeah, that's certainly one way to get the crew's attention... though at a heavy cost for all involved. Harmony didn't really think this one through, and that's before it stuffed itself into a meat body. Still, as it noted, the crew certainly can't ignore that kind of flagrant evocation. What they think of it, that's a different matter. At least Escape has some ideas on where to go from here.
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Cutie Mark Crusader Xenobotanists! AHHHHH!
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Ideology of Evokers. They seem to consider and classify soul ability but ignore inherent wetware.
I was acgually getting used to the plant POV, it was fascinating! Almost disappointed to see it go. I wonder what this change will affect?
Yeesh, this Harmony fragment was already running on reduced complexity, and now "he" has to deal with being a Pony. Could be worse, of course. Delta could have wound up the Unicorn.