Chapter 14
Marie’s world got colder the instant her friends left her behind. It was more than just losing the colorful spots they made in the room, though that was part of it. Marie felt as though the whole world got blurry and out of focus, and staying awake was so hard.
So she didn’t try. She felt movement in her sleep, and a few dim impressions of distant voices trying to wake her. She could smell their worry and concern even while asleep, and that made her feel a little warmer. But not warm enough that she wanted to wake up.
It didn’t matter if she had asked them to, it didn’t matter that it was probably the most sensible thing she could’ve done. She wasn’t ready to be left behind. Maybe if she just stayed asleep eventually she would wake up and realize the whole thing had been a bad dream. She could get her Hogwarts letter, and everything would be perfect.
But she couldn’t keep sleeping forever. Eventually hunger stirred in her chest, forcing her to move. She shifted, opening her eyes slowly. She was resting in a pile of coats and jackets, not just her own. Apparently her friends had left those behind too.
But she wasn’t looking at the darkness of a cave anymore, which explained what had happened to the gloom.
She was in a house this time, there was one of those old-fashioned textured ceilings above her, and some old lights. Is it over? Am I home? But no, it didn’t smell like home. And what was worse, it was all gray. The walls, the coats. She could tell her own coat by the patch her mum had sewn in, and the secondhand smell. But it wasn’t pink anymore. What happened?
She was still dressed, which was good. Her bare feet were now covered in dry dirt instead of mud, and smears of it had gone all over the white carpets. There were hoofprints too, which made her wince even more. If I did this, mum would kill me.
But where was she? The room looked mild and inoffensive, with the sorts of generic pictures she might’ve expected from a model home. Plants, countrysides, one of the Union Jack with the British Isles superimposed.
They could’ve at least put me on the bed.
At least the bedroom had a mirror, though it wasn’t quite at her eye level. Still, it showed what she needed to see clearer than any phone reflection could. Her eyes looked like something out of a horror movie, and there really was a little nub of a horn poking through her hair. She reached up with one hand, spitting into it and trying to fluff up her bangs. A little… there, just like that. Now it was gone.
Couldn’t do that for her eyes, though. Or the discomfort she felt on her back. Don’t be mad. She did it to save your life. Would you rather be dead?
She tried to answer, but Marie didn’t know how.
Her stomach rumbled, and she hurried for the door. She could smell food coming from somewhere nearby, and that was the smell that had roused her.
Outside was a wood floor stained with more hoofprints and muddy smears.
Down the hall she could see two creatures, neither of which she’d seen in much detail yet. It was an absurd sight—farm animals let into someone’s flat. But there they were—a lemon and coral horse, and… no, the pink one had a beak, and claws. She was still frighteningly large either way.
She was also more observant. Her eyes widened and she pointed with a claw. “Look, Sandbar! The human is awake! Hey, human! Come in here, we want to talk!” She turned slightly to the side. “We do want to talk to her, don’t we?”
Sandbar nodded. “I mean, yeah. Of course we do.”
Marie hurried in, though she slowed as she passed into the entryway. She suddenly didn’t feel quite so hungry anymore. Had she been… no, she must be imagining it.
A little sign beside the front door caught her eye, since she recognized the logo. “Your Airbnb Hosts Lucy and Ashton wish you a pleasant stay!” There was a list underneath that failed to hold her interest, naming things like cleaning policy and where to put the towels. Guess there isn’t a lot of demand.
There were no other creatures in the kitchen, just the horse and the not horse, sitting around the table with all the chairs pushed aside and the couch cushions on the floor as seats. There were a series of books on the table—coffee table books, mostly pictures, as exciting as the dentist’s office. And from their expressions, the magical creatures were as eager to put them aside as Marie would’ve been.
“Hi,” she said, adjusting her skirt subconsciously. Her back—no, her wings—twitched, tugging on the back of her top. It hurt a little—they weren’t meant to bend like that. I need to find some scissors.
“I’m, uh… I’m Marie. I’d rather you call me that, instead of…”
“Marine,” said the bird. “I’m Silverstream, Marine, and this is Sandbar.”
“Marine,” Sandbar said. “I guess that makes sense. We are close to the beach. Lots of Ponyville ponies have plain names.”
“Marie,” she corrected, without meaning to. She could feel their confusion grow as she did, and with it some of their interest in her faded. Was she imagining things, or did the two of them seem grayer? “I mean, you can call me what you want—” she added. “If Marine is easier to say, that’s fine. I can answer to that too.”
“Merry,” Silverstream said, shutting the book in front of her with an oversized claw. It looked like she was holding a child’s picture book. And from the bits of torn paper on the table, it looked like they’d done the same thing to a few of them.
“How did we get here?” she asked, wishing she still had shoes. “When we talked to her, Ocellus didn’t recognize a smartphone. You guys rented an Airbnb?”
“Rented,” Sandbar repeated, wincing slightly. “That’s what the sign said outside! We, uh… picked this place mostly because it didn’t have any other houses around to see us.”
Wasn’t there something on TV about a tsunami, or evacuations or something? Marie’s hands tightened on her skirt, and she shivered. I want to go home. She no longer cared if she would get in trouble, no longer cared that she wouldn’t be able to get to know some magical creatures.
She walked over to the sink, turning on the cold-water tap and filing her hands with enough to splash her face. Maybe she was still dreaming, and she just needed a little help waking up.
But no, when she opened her eyes, she could still see their completely gray reflection in the glass. And outside, dense trees, rolling hills, and a tiny little carpark with nothing in it.
“There’s a shower here!” Silverstream offered, her voice suddenly close. Marie turned, and found the gigantic horse was right in front of her, that sharp beak only inches away from her face. How are you all so big? “Sandbar found it. He said this place looked like a little pony cabin, not like a griffon nest or a yak yurt. And he was right! It’s like being back at school again, with warm and cold water.”
She did feel disgusting—the dried crust of slime covered her in a thin film that a towel hadn’t been able to dislodge. But Silverstream’s concern for her, Sandbar’s obvious worry—that was better. The hunger she’d been feeling was fading fast.
“Maybe in a minute,” Marie said, pulling over a chair and turning it over the wrong way. She climbed up on her knees, leaning over the front and watching the two of them. Maybe I’ll feel it again if I stay with them. “There are more of you, aren’t there? A dragon, a unicorn…”
“A dragon, a yak, a griffon, and a changeling,” the horse corrected. “Smolder and Gallus are out hunting.” He shivered once, then went on. “Yona has gone almost three whole days without smashing anything, so she was getting restless. She went to find some dead trees or something nopony was using.”
“There’s a lake not far from here,” Silverstream went on. “I was thinking of going fishing there later. Do humans like fish?” The bird made her way back to the table, sitting beside the horse. The two of them could barely fit there, even though the kitchen had obviously been designed to fit a family.
“Some do,” she answered. “I’m a bit of a picky eater, so I’m not so much a fan. Less you got chips and vinegar…” She trailed off suddenly. “Is it okay if I ask you questions too? I’ve never met a… horse who could talk before. Or a… are you a griffon too?”
“Hippogriff,” Silverstream answered. “And Sandbar is a pony.”
“Horses look different,” Sandbar said. “They’re taller, different colors, don’t have cutie marks…” He shook his head. “Sure, Marine. If I learned anything in school, it’s that friends are easier to learn from than books.”
“Oh, but it’s only fair if we get to ask you questions too!” Silverstream cut in. “We weren’t there when you met Ocellus the first time, and she didn’t talk to you for very long.” She held up one of the books, which was long and unusually shaped. Canal Boats of Europe. “The books in here aren’t very helpful to visiting creatures.”
“That’s because we don’t get visiting… creatures,” Marie said. “I saw your dragon friend on TV, and it was so crazy I had to see for myself.” She reached up, adjusting her hair so that it covered the horn. “Guess I’m the biggest idiot in England.”
“Biggest hero maybe,” Sandbar corrected. “You brought us food when we were hungry, helped us stay hidden. Assuming that’s… what we should be doing. Still not so sure hiding is such a good idea. Ocellus said you have a princess, is that true? I think we should walk straight up to her and ask for her help. I just know Celestia would be more than helpful if a human got lost in Equestria. That’s how princesses are!”
Silverstream nodded. “I’m not happy we’re hiding either. But Ocellus convinced Smolder, and she’s usually the one who decides what we do in situations like this. But I bet she’d listen to you!”
“Which princess?” Marie asked. “Anne? Beatrice?” Her eyes fixed on Sandbar. “With your accent you probably mean Catherine, even though she’s a Duchess.”
“I, uh…” For an animal so big, Sandbar acted like a kid not much older than she was. She could easily imagine that expression on one of the upper-years before asking out a girl. But it was making him uncomfortable, which made the whole room feel colder.
“Do you mean the queen? I think Ocellus got confused the same way. We have a queen. There’s also the prime minister, she’s…” She wasn’t a person her mother had much nice to say about. But magical creatures probably didn’t care about politics, so she left that out.
“Hah!” Silverstream grinned. “They’re not all evil but ours, Sandbar. I told you Ocellus was wrong.”
“She… could be evil.”
Marie laughed. She couldn’t help it. “That depends, is it evil to keep about a dozen corgis? If dogs are evil, then we’ve got the evilest queen there is.”
They didn’t seem to understand the joke—if anything, they only looked more confused. That feeling didn’t taste very good at all. “I’ve heard the queen is really nice. I think we may’ve had an evil queen or two a long time ago, but they’re all dead.”
“So, should we see her?” Sandbar asked. “You know her better than we can—will she help send us home?”
Marie had barely been awake when she first woke in this strange body, but she remembered that video on David’s phone, with a huge chunk of land smack in the middle of the North Sea.
“I mean, maybe…” She looked away awkwardly. “It’s really hard to see her. You’d have to get into Buckingham Palace. Guess you could go on a tour or something and—” What was she thinking? She was talking to a magical talking horse and a flying horse-bird.
And what are you now, Marie?
Disgusting.
“I… dunno,” she eventually said. “The queen always seems nice on TV, I’m sure she’d help you if she could. But there’s some kind of national emergency right now. Some kind of… new land, or…” She looked around. Was there a TV in this place?”
Yes, obviously. The other room had a flat screen mounted to the wall, and Marie hurried over. She could hear the huge animals following her—they couldn’t help but make noise with those hooves on wood, even if they didn’t mean to.
She turned it on, and there was no need to change channels. “PUBLIC EMERGENCY BROADCAST” was printed at the top of the screen, as it probably was on every channel right now.
“You’re a wizard!” Sandbar exclaimed, stopping dead in the doorway. “That’s a really good scrying spell.”
“I wish I was a wizard,” Marie said, but then she felt her wings against the couch behind her and regretted saying anything.
“Then what is it?” Silverstream asked, climbing over the couch from behind. Wood creaked and strained at her weight, but didn’t give out.
“It’s the BBC,” she began. But all she felt was more confusion, so she just went on. “It’s how old people get information. They sit in front of a big noisy box and listen to it all day.” She held up her hand, as though it held a phone. “Young people use their phones, but mine broke when my head broke so…” She quieted down to listen.
Both alien creatures settled down beside her, staring in open fascination at the television.
A reporter stood in front of a row of suburban flats, except that the water had risen above the first floor window, and dozens of people had climbed up onto their roofs. “The devastation here in Edinburgh represents only some of what we’ve seen since…”
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If Edinburgh still stands with pretty much only severe flooding then the dislodged water was some orders of magnitude less than Equestria appearing would, if it only came without any exchange. I'd guess most of the water went to Equs, and only small "rounding errors" were left as extra on earth. Else, well, as many already said pretty much the whole of Great Britain, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and a bunch of Germany and France would be destroyed.
I wonder, what impacts did Equestria suffer? I severely doubt they arrived unscathed.
If Equestria dropped into the north Sea over Dogger Bank, pretty much all of that was above water during the last iceage, even so, its 150 vertical foot of water to swap over at best, making the waves more like gravity shocks from having more land which is denser instead of water. Something about a 2 million ton iceberg causes the sea level to rise around it by a fraction of a mm because it sticks up? Land is nearly three times denser and can be sticking up a lot more.
All that North Sea cod breeding ground now getting irradiated in Equestrian magic. Seen what happened to the Crayfish? Shrimp?
Ah, mutual incomprehension. Not that either side really knows what questions to ask. Ocellus getting back to Marie and coaching her through her pastel metamorphosis is a priority, but going to be incredibly difficult given Marie's mother. And, of course, there's the whole "suddenly, a landmass" situation everyone's dealing with. This will get a lot more complicated before it starts getting any simpler.
Looking great and all the more interesting. I wonder how that Airbnb got rented so fast by Sandbar and Silverstream?
Guess the government wasn't that bad after all.
The sudden loss of color vision might be an issue.
To be fair, from what I've been hearing in the news, British politics is a bit of a hot mess right now anyway (and debatably an unneeded one, but that's neither here nor there right now
).
Liked this chapter, as it gets back to the "trying to figure out each other" business the story started out with.
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I'm guessing Equestria simply didn't displace as much water as one would expect...maybe it's just sort of...floating on the water? I mean, sure, that'd still displace water, but not nearly as much. Or there's always the "it's magic" explanation, but that would seem like a bit of a cop-out given the setting.
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I don't think they rented it at all. They just saw an empty habitation and...occupied it.
Always excited to see a new chapter in this story pop up in my feed.
Can't wait for the next update.
I've been binging NCIS recently. I see Sandbar calling her Marine and I imagine Gibbs yelling at a grunt.
I'm reminded of a quote from A Sparkle-Ling Perfection (an AU fic; what you need to know for this scene is that Shining Armor is a changeling and Sunset Shimmer's mind has temporarily been transferred into a changeling nymph):
So in this verse an adolescent pony is already as tall or slightly taller than an average height human?
Strength differential?