Chapter 31: And Made Ourselves Guests
Summer Ray swam through the vast open gateway to the seapony palace, feeling like any moment her strange dream would end and she’d wash up on the shore somewhere. Being in a strange world was one thing: obviously that was real, she saw the evidence all the time.
But being here in Seaquestria. Everything her senses told her seemed impossible. She swam through a kingdom of fish, with a tail of her own, surrounded by a crowd of other fish. Plainly impossible things, except that she was living them.
Summer had never been scuba diving before. If she had, she imagined that what she was experiencing now would’ve made diving feel shallow and detached. If only she had come with the right quality of camera, she could’ve made a documentary to make anything on the BBC look like it was shot in black and white.
The throne room had been enclosed, lit with bioluminescent jellyfish. The rest of the world was open.
Skystar took them through the streets of Seaquestria, a city built using all three dimensions instead of just two. In a world where “flight” was effortless even for young and inexperienced citizens, there was no reason not to layer shops and homes and public buildings. They’d been built mostly from stone, with sculpted coral and bioadhesive used to hold different sections together. Some structures even had windows, though she couldn’t have said how they made the glass underwater.
For every hippogriff, there were dozens of other sea creatures, in a staggering array of colors and shapes. They went about their lives along the side of structures, or blanketing parks, the way pigeons and squirrels might on a surface city. And of course, the pet dolphins.
After an exhausting tour through the city, the distant light of sun straining down from above finally began to shift towards the gloom, and Skystar took them to an attractive apartment building not far from the palace. “Whenever we get visitors from up above, we know they don’t get to bring anything,” she said. “So if there’s anything you need, you can use that shell on the wall to ask for it.”
She did an energetic loop through the water, grinning. “I’ll give you some space. If I tried to stay away from court for too much longer, my mom would probably send the guards or whatever to look for me, so… you ponies have fun! Maybe tomorrow we can go back to the surface and see what your airship needs. Well… I say ‘we’, but probably I won’t be allowed to leave court all day like always. So it’ll be someone else. But they’ll take care of you.”
“You’ve been more than kind,” Sharp said, nodding politely. “This visit has been everything we could’ve asked for. I’m sure Summer agrees.”
Summer nodded, lifting her necklace slightly in one hoof. Some part of her was still fixated on the Pearl, and whatever it might mean for her. But after everything she’d seen, how could she regret it? “I’m really grateful for everything. I just… I’m wondering if someone will help me use this thing? I assume this is how you make yourself back into a bird, right?”
“Oh, yeah!” Sky darted back across the room towards her, circling around her once and lifting up the necklace. “It doesn’t really matter what you put the pearl in, but make sure you don’t lose it. It’s happened a few times, and… you can’t ever get another one. So don’t let it get out of your sight. I don’t know if there’s an easy way to explain how it works… you just have to be near a transition, and concentrate on your memory of being different, and… you’ll change back. But probably don’t do it down here, since there’s an awful lot of water on top of us right now and lungs don’t like pressure that much.”
“Right.” Summer let go of the necklace, blushing. Skystar wasn’t wrong, she had been starting to try without realizing. Good thing she’d stopped her.
“And if your pony friends are touching you, they should change back too. Hopefully? Some birds are better at it than others. I’ve changed visitors so often now that I can even change them while staying the same myself, but… you shouldn’t try to get fancy until you’ve had it for a few years.”
She looped around through the water one last time, waving enthusiastically to them before drawing the door closed. It wasn’t much, a curtain of braided fabric of some kind. But most of the doors worked that way.
“Well if this wasn’t a day for the diary,” Sharp said, stretching across the top of a chair. It was softly padded with textured seaweed, and just like everything else in the room was secured to the floor with metal ties around the base to stop it from drifting. “Or it would be, if I kept a diary.”
Summer did a little better swimming over to him, though she still hadn’t mastered fine control in the water. Emerald, as always, had taken to the transformation the easiest. As she’d explained, “It’s just like flying!”
“Do you think my camera would be able to take pictures down here?” Emerald asked, stopping in the water just in front of her. “There are some ponies back home who… they’d never believe it without a picture.”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “It’s splash proof, but… we’re down pretty deep. Once it gets really wet, it will never work again. And I don’t have any other ones, so… I think you’ll have to settle for telling them about it.”
“Not like we’re ever going back there anyway,” Emerald said, her voice a little distant, pained. “Sleighsburg hates us.”
“Not you,” Sharp said, patting her gently on the head. “I’m sure if you did want to return, one of your relatives would be happy to take you. Is that what you want, sweetheart?”
She shook her head. “If Mom was still there…” She sniffed, settling down onto the other side of the couch. “But she’s not. I’d rather stay with you, master. And Summer…” Her voice cracked again. “You told the Queen you were going home. Is that still what you want to do? Go back to… the place you’re from?”
“Austria,” she supplied, knowing full well it wouldn’t translate. “It’s what I should do, Emerald. This place…” She flicked her tail, drifting towards the window. There was nothing there to separate the inside of the apartment from the outside, and it was easily large enough for fish to pass freely in and out, nibbling at the algae on the walls or at each other.
“I don’t deserve this. I don’t belong here.”
“The Pearl of Transformation says otherwise,” Sharp said. “I may not be an expert of the artifacts of other creatures, but didn’t Queen Novo say that it didn’t respond to other creatures? That a pony could’ve used it without effect. But it responded to you.
It spoke to me.
She wasn’t sure if that was the right word, though she had a hard time describing it as any other. She considered telling Sharp about what she’d seen, the vision or memory, or… she wasn’t sure anymore. At least the Pearl and its pieces no longer made her sick. “Maybe belong was the wrong thing to say,” she eventually admitted. “I like it here, Emerald. I like you, and Sharp, and… everything we’ve done so far. It feels like a dream sometimes, and any minute I’m going to wake up. I’ll get dragged back to the world I came from. But my family is there. Everything I studied… it’s all worthless here. Probably will be as long as I live. I have to go back.”
An uncomfortable silence settled between them. At least it wasn’t as tense as in the throne room. No one here wanted to arrest her. Finally Sharp cleared his throat. “You made an offer when we were still in Sleighsburg, to let me come with you. I assume that’s still good? I’d like to see the world you came from for myself. A world that can create such amazing things. That sends… joys and terrors to Equestria.”
“I…” How could she say no? He’d sacrificed everything for her. “You can come, Sharp. But you might not like me when I change back. Once I’m human again… I don’t know if our relationship will work.”
He shrugged. “That’s a bridge to cross on the other side of the Doorway, not here. And… I think Queen Novo doesn’t seem interested to leave the decision to us. I assume there are important figures on your side of the door, princesses and rulers who make these kinds of decisions. They’ll be the ones to decide what relationship Equestria has with your world.”
“They…” She winced at the idea of some of the more prominent world leaders of her day making a trip here. Though there would be something smugly satisfying about seeing them transformed into little birds like her. “Yes, we have them. Most big places in my world run on a different system than Equestria. The old monarchies are being replaced with democracies. And even places that still have kings and queens, they’re mostly ceremonial. You’d get a visit from a president, or a prime minister. Probably the former, since the doorway on my side is in a country called the United States, and they have…”
She rose from the couch, shaking her head. “I don’t want to think about it. I’ll just start feeling guilty again that I can’t stop it.”
“Why would you want to?” Emerald asked, following her. “Do you want to… shut the door? Not let any others through?”
Yes. But that wasn’t an easy thing to admit. How different was she from Kate if she started acting like she had the authority to make decisions for a whole planet? “I like your world the way it is,” she said. “It’s going to be hard to explain, but where I’m from, we have examples of what happens when a big strong country runs into a smaller, weaker one.”
“You shouldn’t be worried,” Sharp said. How had he gotten behind her? Somehow his hug translated just fine, even though they were both missing limbs. “Equestria’s a kind place, Summer. The princesses would never hurt the place you’re from.”
She stiffened, stifling a laugh. She almost told him about the sort of powers that might come up against Equestria, if diplomacy went south. Not religious determinations that the sun could be moved, but the bombs and tanks and terrible weapons.
But even she had a hard time imagining that. Equestria was too perfect, and even speaking about that would taint it somehow. “I’m sure the president will be happy to hear that,” she said instead. “And maybe… maybe I’ll be the one to tell him. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll be able to just slip back into work and pretend nothing happened, like I planned at first. I’ve been gone for almost two months now, and you can’t survive in the cold like that. I’ve probably been declared dead. My parents think I froze to death. They might’ve had a funeral…”
She settled on the apartment floor, which had started as smooth stone but was now covered with a thin layer of barnacles and other sea life. Apparently that wasn’t considered dirty, because Skystar had been proud of the place when they first swam in.
“All the more reason to let me come with you,” Sharp said, resting a foreleg on her shoulder. “We’re your friends, Summer. You shouldn’t have to face it alone.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “It’ll be really dangerous. We might not… it might be hard to get back again. There’s a chance they’ll be fighting us on that side, just like Feather fought us here.”
“I’m coming too!” Emerald said, settling into her lap. “I know Master Sharp won’t want me to, but that doesn’t matter. I’m his apprentice now, it’s my right. And if you might be in danger on that side, then… you’ll want as many friends as you can get!”
How could she refuse? “Sure, Emerald,” she said, before she could let the guilt weigh her down too much. “I’m not sure you’ll enjoy it much, but… I guess it would be wrong to keep you here waiting too. If Sharp goes, you can go.”
We still might not make it. Portal might not open for us. At least if she made it all the way up there, and she couldn’t get home, then she wouldn’t have to live out the rest of her life in guilt. She needed to do her due diligence. Maybe that would lead to her being able to present Equestria to the world under her own terms. Terms that would see it protected, instead of exploited.
Or maybe she’d drown in the ocean somewhere.
“I will say, I hope they have accommodations on the surface,” Sharp went on. “Seeing this city is a wonder. But I’m beginning to wonder how they deal with being fish all the time.”
“It’s growing on me,” Summer answered, without thinking. “It was disorienting at first, but… now it’s not so bad.”
Sharp folded his forelegs, grumbling. “Well, there’s… the libraries to investigate tomorrow, anyway. I’m interested to see how they manage keeping knowledge without paper. I’d be a fool not to investigate the origin of the Doorway and your contact with our world in the library of the ones who built it. After that… I think I’ll catch my breath. So to speak.”
Summer slept uneasily beneath the waves. It wasn’t just that every slight disturbance awakened some long-strangled aspect of her gag reflex, and she would cough and splutter for a moment before realizing that she could still breathe just fine. But while she slept, Summer played back the strange things she’d seen when she came into contact with the Pearl.
Snowy waves crashed down over frozen wastelands, and ancient hunters in leather and fur were swept up into the aurora. Some part of her wondered on their relation, but of course there were none left to ask.
She stirred groggily from her bed of seaweed and algae-covered rocks, shaking herself awake and trying to make sense of her surroundings. The little apartment had its own bedrooms for each of them, the most privacy she’d had since base. The Horizon didn’t have the luxury of private rooms, even if Sharp had yielded the bed to her and Emerald.
Maybe I’m just having a hard time sleeping alone. It didn’t seem to be something ponies did very often, and now that she had to do it too, it wore on her.
Of course, underwater life meant some things were different. There was no shower in the bathroom, just a brush and a gritty paste that was probably meant to act like soap. No sink either, and no beverages anywhere for that matter. Probably isn’t the right time to start obsessing over the biology of saltwater creatures.
A stranger thought crossed her mind as she scrubbed down with the brush, holding herself in place with an occasional flick of a fin. What would happen if she brought the necklace back with her to Earth? She’d have to, if Sharp and Emerald were coming. She was learning more and more of their language every day, but was still limited to common phrases and other “tourist” type stuff. There was no way she’d be fluent before they got back to the North.
Assuming Kate didn’t have better assassins waiting for them on the return trip. She doesn’t have to scour the ocean to find us. She’ll be waiting at the door. She knows where I’m going.
Summer could hope that Kate had given up on them, of course. Or maybe she just didn’t have the resources to send a kill-team into an arctic wasteland.
I don’t have to go.
It would be easier to justify a few months more in Equestria if it wasn’t for the timeline. The Aurora Observation Experiment would run its course, and any chance of returning home would go with it. Maybe not going back is how we keep our worlds separate. If the experiment ends and I’m not back, they’ll never connect the two. It was just a freak storm that happened while I was servicing it. Not even related.
She wasn’t prepared to give up just yet. I’m not ready to never see my family again. Even if I was going to stay here, I’d want to say goodbye.
Finally she swam back into the common room, letting the momentum of her first few strokes carry her towards the kitchen. Sharp and Emerald were already there, struggling to prepare what passed for seapony food.
There was a closed box of fresh… something. It looked a little like fruit, along with thin cuts of fish wrapped in a salty-smelling leaf.
“You’re awake!” Sharp called. “Now you see us butting heads against the biological realities of an underwater life. Look upon the powerful reasons to return to the surface, whatever… this is.”
Emerald wrinkled her nose. “This range is really weird. You put the stuff into this part here, and it heats up the water… but it’s heating up the whole room.”
“We’ll get it,” Sharp said. “It’s heat transfer. Obviously there’s something simple to let us isolate both sections.”
Summer poked her head over Emerald’s shoulder, staring down. The range included two metal containers, one significantly larger than the other. She squinted at them, then noticed what her companions hadn’t. “There are seals along the bottom. I think we need to… clip the big one in there.”
“Right, right!” Sharp snapped the waiting clips into place. “That does make sense.”
“We could just go out for food,” Emerald said. “Dinner last night was pretty nice.”
“We don’t have the princess with us,” Sharp said. “I don’t think she left us with their currency. We’ll have to do an exchange next time we’re on the surface. Let’s just finish breakfast, and… Summer, are you interested in joining me for a trip to the library?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “I want to know their history on Earth as much as you do. I have a hunch that… I might know why none of the birds want to talk about it.” She lowered her voice to a whisper, though she didn’t think anyone would be listening. Even if their window was just a big opening to the rest of the city. “I think maybe birds settled in my world? Or maybe humans settled here? One of the two. Whatever it is, they don’t want to think about it. We’ll have to be… tactful. So we don’t scare them away.”
She settled down into a sitting position behind the counter, nodding to herself. “I don’t want them to stop me from going home. Even if…” But she couldn’t say it. It would be cruel to torment Sharp with hope that Summer herself wasn’t even sure about. “We don’t know if we can make the doorway work yet.” She said instead.
It was a convincing lie.
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I'm with Sharp and Emerald about going back to earth. Humanity has long moved past our countries dominating each other. The world's coming together would largely be beneficial for both. And would be good for a sequel.
That's if Summer can actually get home. The Gateway might be damaged beyond repair after what happened to it.
My theory is that the hippogriffs are all descendants of those ancient human travelers. That there was no such thing as a hippogriff in Equestria before humans were pulled through and transformed.
I'm reminded of The Tail of Emily Windsnap, where mermaids read from scrolls suspended from the ceiling.
Also, I'm going to reread the prologue to refresh my memory.
Species traitor! (This is mostly a joke)
Oh you poor, adorable fool.
9857478
Better than the alternative: that ancient human hunters ate hippogriffs.
Which would be a thing you'd not want to remember if you lived in happy-go-lucky-pony-world.
9857420
Eh... I dunno about that. The Middle East is pretty well and truly screwed up because of a singular resource the rest of the modern world craves like an addict, oil. If Equestria has some miracle resource to rival oil then you can bet on Earth trying to strongarm, browbeat, and up to aggressively negotiate a means to secure it. Thankfully this gateway is mostly controlled on the Equestrian side.
But it's not all rainbows and candy for Equestria. There's certain elements that would, if they could, gleefully pounce on the idea of new lands, ripe for the exploiting. Changelings would be a primary example (assuming they're not the basis for vampires here already). And there's supernatural beings that could sow untold levels of grief if they escape Equestrian forces where no one and nothing could stop them-- Sirens, windegoes, and other types of demons. This isn't also including the smaller but no less disastrous stuff like invasive species (parasprites) and foreign disease (cutie pox) making the planetary jump.
Taking all these nightmares in, it's little wonder if most people and ponies wouldn't immediately reach for the nearest sledgehammer.
9858682
Considering how well controled the portal seems to be or at least could be. And also lso because the portal is pretty far away from everything. I think if they stay careful with everything nobody should have to worry about an invasive species. Pluse this is all after Discords reformation and betrayal from Tirek so if something like that does happen it probably won't be to hard to get him to fix it with a snap of his fingers. Also the main thing screwing up the middle east is radical islam. That and also the english and french terribly mismanaging the place after world war 1. Thats why america needs a presents out there to establish and maintain peace and order. We succeeded at that once under george bush but then obama pulled our troops out allowing for isis to form and things to go to hell again. Also were not talking about some newly formed country here on earth. This is first contact everyone is going to want to be on their best behavior to give our new penpals a good impression of humanity. And any world leader who isn't probably won't be around much longer.
"What about that sun symbol next to it?"
"Oh, that's for higher-level manipulation of the simulation."
"The what?"
"Nothing!"
Hmm. One pearl per person, period. Makes sense, given how unearthly this portrayal of it is.
Oh, you sweet summer child.
Though to be fair, I'm not sure how well transporting munitions through the Doorway would work. Tanks and larger explosives seem out, and there's adapting to the new, smaller body to consider.
As for weapons of mass embarrassment, they'd definitely send an ambassador through the ancient, decrepit, unstable dimensional doorway before shoving the commander-in-chief through it, no matter who he is.
Good. The less time I have to spend thinking about all the problems with "fish oil tea," the better.
Or maybe the Sleighsburgers will take them out. Make that xenophobia do work for you!
You know, I don't think our protagonist has thought of herself as Theo since she got her piece of the pearl. She has a hard choice ahead of her, even after all the secrets and conspiracies. I don't envy her one bit.
Not necessarily a good argument, for all we know it would work just as well for a pony if you first transformed that pony into a hippogriff.
Heh.
I have a feeling that the people who are behind the project to observe the aurora know exactly what they're really looking for, and probably won't be just giving up and going home.
It occurred to me while reading this chapter that this entire story could be one giant Water Ape joke, and if it is I don't know whether to laugh or be outraged.
9862150
Oh, well, whaddya know. I've read that one too, a while ago haha. I suppose rehashing the same plot point over and over could get tedius.
Regardless, I like where this is going. The pacing feels good, too. The metallurgy side quest might have slowed everything down too much.
I actually hope she doesn't turn back into a human if she returns to Earth. But much easier to convince people on her part that it's real if she does.
9862502
...Unless a patron pays for it.
9857841
Characters recounting the histories of Conquistadors and their ilk, and the inevitable comments, reactions and debates about how easily Humanity would run roughshod over Equestria without any sort of opposition always remind me of:
9858682
Everyone always over estimates the threat equestria's supernatural forces possess. Outside of maybe Tirek, Sombra, and Discord, a brick to the back of the skull is sufficient KO or kill damn near every powerhouse in their Canon.
i.imgur.com/ODLQaJt.png
9857420
Boy, this really didn't age well!
9857420
The problem is the timescale. For them, 70 years of relative peace is but a blink of an eye. If Sharp Edge implied that he had lived 300 years, that's like... He's born before the US Declaration of Independence.
Equestria itself had been in peace for at least a few hundred years. The problem with Equestrian "dangers" is that they are single major events that emerged every hundred years or so, and some of the damages are reversible. Dangers in Earth-side is the people themselves, and the "minor-scale" terribles like famine, disease, and the likes.
If Earth operates like Equestria, I believe we can also reach the same kind of utopian peace Equestria has, what with humanity's headstrong tendency to unite under a common enemy.
Also, no romance until Aris.
They're on Aris, now, so start romancing!!! :D
does this guy not know anything about NATO? as an American I know that Equestria would be defended by America.
unless they have oil.
(2542) DID I HEAR OIL - YouTube
this reminds me of the classic sci-fi story "surface tension", involving tiny people living in a puddle.
when one guy tried to set up a forge, it exploded.
enough heat to to turn water into steam, deep underwater, is VERY dangerous.
10480952
such a giant place just appearing could start ww3 if nations like russia or China would want a piece of it