//------------------------------// // Daydream // Story: First Draft // by Cherry Rie //------------------------------// All the King’s Horses A Conversion Bureau story. Chapter Fourteen: Daydream Someway above the unknown chaos, Dizzy had been dosing comfortably on the old reclaimed sofa that occupied one corner of the common room. Deep in her pony dreams, oddly misshapen bubbles blossomed from her hooves, changing into entire worlds waiting to be explored. One wobbly sphere was filled with sentient cars driving around a city of matchsticks. Stepping through the membrane of fractal rainbows, the little pony found herself trotting amid the natives of this strange universe, every one boasting a unique and profound story of their own. She had to be careful though, for a city inhabited by cars needed no sidewalks. At the corner where one-street met two-street she came across a most peculiar sight. A tiny Robin Reliant was parked in its parent’s garage, the bright orange automobile blowing tiny bubbles from its vent and giggling happily at the whimsical fun. Trotting closer, the little pony stared at the masses of floating bubbles, marvelling at their beauty and the worlds within every sphere. For the briefest moment it all made sense, every world a window into a fractal of worlds. Every world boasting something unique but familiar, another you staring at the possibilities of the imagination. There came a tipping point where, if she had looked any closer, Dizzy would have tumbled down and down through the myriad of realities, until she no longer existed in any one place. And so it would have been that Dizzy the pony, who had once been such a narcissist in her human life, would have ascended to the infinite, the magnitude of the revelation she had uncovered elevating her consciousness beyond the bounds of mere mortal flesh. This would have caused no end of trouble for the infinite, being that the curious mare was likely to poke every atom in the multi-verse three millimetres to the right just to see what would happen. Thankfully this was never to be, as just before the revelation could strike, the whole world around her shook violently. Yelping in surprise, the now very awake earth pony leapt almost a foot in the air as the crash of an explosion rocked the silent clinic. Landing on all fours, she rushed out through the double doors that led into the corridor searching for the source of the loud interruption. As she galloped down towards the clinic entrance, rows of groggy faces appeared in doorways, asking the usual ‘how-what-whens’ of the generally confused. “Please-everypony-stay-inside-your-rooms-everything-is-fine-kaythxbye!” Skidding around the last corner, the frantic pony caught sight of a thin plume of smoke creeping up from the lower floors beyond the clinic entry. Blackmesh guards rushed along the balcony, their own stationed watchman standing just outside watching some scene of brewing chaos below. Were they on fire? Curiosity grabbing her by the ears, Dizzy trotted through the open door and joined the guard at the rails. One story down, guards had collected every fire extinguisher they could rally and were pouring into the stairwell at the far side of the welcome hall. Whatever disaster had befallen the lower levels was clearly all but over, the acrid black smoke now just a trickle of hanging mist around the crowded entrance. “What happened?” She asked worriedly. The guard shook his head “Not a clue. Got a shout about radiation then next thing I know stuffs exploding. We should be evacuating if you ask me, but the AI’s said-“ “Attention Bureau residents.” Harvey’s voice interrupted over the intercom, “There has been a malfunction in the engineering level of the building, for your safety, do not leave your assigned quarters until instructed to do so by a member of staff. Thank you and have a pleasant evening.” “Speak of the devil.” Said the man, glancing down as a parade of black clad guards came out of the stairwell carrying what looked like several bodies. Medical staff rushed across the floor, a doctor kneeling down next to each to quickly determine if any life could be found among the remains. Though she had been doing fairly well up till then, Dizzy felt her stomach turn as a guard came out of the doorway carrying a severed arm. Compassionately, the faceless guard stepped between the fragile equine and the grizzly scene. “Ya’d best get back inside.” Nodding, the orangey mare walked back into the clinic and sat down behind her desk. At the very least if people came asking there should be someone out here to reassure them. Several long minutes passed with agonising slowness, Dizzy’s sensitive ears listening to the argument of emergency personnel. It was just as well that everyone seemed to be heeding the wise word’s of the AI, given that the pony knew virtually nothing about the unfolding situation. Beyond the glass doors, the nearby elevator binged with the arrival of precious cargo. Moments passed with a lot of shouting and rattling of medical stretchers before the crowd of medical personnel and guards came into sight. Between them they pushed two rolling gurneys, each baring an unconscious body of some unlucky soul caught in the disaster. The majority were buzzing around the one with a large black man, tubes already inserted through his bleeding neck and nurses attaching lifesaving tech to his exposed chest. But second carried a far gaunter figure. With part of her jaw missing, face burnt along one side and skin shredded by shrapnel, it was only the jade eyes that conveyed who this second victim was. Dizzy’s world shrank inwards as the gurneys rolled past, distantly hearing the staff shouting for someone to fetch a unicorn medic. Without remembering how she got there, the little pony found herself racing down the dorm corridors, skidding to a halt outside her winged friend’s room. Pulling the bit handle hard enough to nearly snap the cord, the equine pounded her hooves against the door even before the bell had finished its chime. A groggy looking Katrina finally answered the frantic bashing, squinting at Dizzy as though the earth pony had grown a plant on her head. “Dizzy?” Murred the groggy Pegasus, rubbing a hoof across her sleep encrusted eyes, “Wat’sup? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” “You’ve gota come quick!” Dizzy blurted, prancing on the spot in trepidation “Its Sarah! Sarah’s been hurt!” -- Charging along the maze of corridors, the two worried equestrians finally found themselves on the medical wing of the clinic. Despite their earlier presence, none of the blackmesh guards had remained with the medical team, all hands on deck required with the catastrophe downstairs. Two of the conversion rooms had been taken over as makeshift operating theatres, the open door to one revealing Soothing Salve working calmly alongside many human nurses as they fighting to save the security chief’s life. Comparatively the operation was calm and collected, their voices only raised to compete the yelling from across the corridor. Following the sound of frustration to another operating room, the pair found Sarah laid out on the commandeered conversion table with Doctor Malcolm and two nurses buzzing around her still form. “Get that Monitor line in, we need those stas!” “We’re losing pressure.” “Fuck she’s leaking like a sieve, get the clamps on that feed! Fuck it, Clamp Everything!” “Random platicates are forming over the IV drip sir. They’re rejecting it.” “DAMN IT ALL! She needs a Mechanic, not a doctor-” “Her nanites are going ballistic, they don’t know what to healing anymore so they’re just clotting everything!” “Vitals monitor showing flat line on her life support, sir. Cognitive readout is failing too.” “Fuckit. Lost cause anyway. Mark the time and let’s help with Jessop, maybe we can at least-” “You can’t just let her die!” Katrina struggled to bring her erratic breathing under control as she ran up to the edge of the table. Silence fell upon the theatre like a heavy fire blanket, all eyes turned to the small shaking Pegasus who had interrupted the procedure. Disturbing in its familiarity, Sarah’s wrecked body lay broken upon the harsh metallic bed. An arm appeared to have been blown apart by some violent explosion. Heavy coat discarded by the hurried medics, a honey comb of entrance wounds had been revealed, perforating the stretched ribcage like a morbid connect the dots game. But far worse was the mass of twisted metal and synthetic flesh where her ever peaceful face had once been. Between the burns and gaping holes, she was barely recognisable. Malcolm snorted as a spray of biofluid erupted one more from an open wound. “How the hell did they get in here? Ugh never mind. Look kid we don’t have the kind of equipment we need to fix this. There’s nothing that we can do." “Kat.” One of the attendants let out a little shriek as the faint skin bound speaker crackled from the operating bench. Dumbstruck, hope flared in the filly’s heart as her lost sister seemed to recognise her. But the eyes were still blind to their surroundings, the voice merely a repetition of words assembled some time ago. “What is it like to fly?” Blinking in confusion, the distraught newfoal choked back her tears and drew together every ounce of composure she could find. “-Convert her.” “Not an option,” said the doctor harshly, diving back in to seal another leek manually, “Trans human’s aren’t covered by emergency R24 protocols for a damn good reason. There’s no telling what effect the two nano-techs will have on each other. Nurse, mark TOD as zero onehundred and call it done.” “Doctor… Malcolm,” Kat started, turning an earnest face to the tall surgeon, “I know why you don’t like your job here. You’ve worked really hard for years to get to where you are, but now the most miraculous events in medical history is taking place and you don’t feel like you’re a part of it. It’s like you’ve wasted all your life just to become a dispenser for magic goop that does everything all for you. Well here’s your chance to do something unique, the first doctor to convert a tras-human! It’ll be your name on the records when they document this. Just… please try.” “I’m sorry,” one of the nurses said, stepping forward between the doctor and the distressed filly “but you can’t be in here right now. Please, just wait outside.” At first refusing to budge, it took Dizzy’s plea of intervention to draw Kat from her grief, the young mare gently nipping at the other’s withers and urging her back towards the door. Turning from the departing pair, the doctor retrieved a small key from his top most pocket. For a moment he considered its size and weight, wondering if it represented a greater accomplishment then anything he had ever achieved in a long successful career. Slowly, Malcolm turned on heal and walked up to a recess in the lab’s wall, swiping up a beaker from the desk as he did so. “Just under two hundred millilitres per bag, so eight hundred total.” Muttered the doctor, sliding the beaker into the alcove and unlocking a hidden control panel with his key. “Huh, ironic but that should do the trick.” “Nurse.” He announced carefully, measured voice indicating a great deal of thought ticking over behind his words. “Prep four IV’s of generic Bio-Fluid. We’ll introduce R24 through rapid drips in different key areas.” Turning a look of utter confusion on the doctor, the shocked nurse struggled to find the words for how wrong this was. Not only would they be braking protocol, but ethical codes too. They could be arrested, or worse, sued! But her raucous complaint was quelled by Malcolm’s icy glare. “That wasn’t a suggestion.”