Tetralogy of Transformation

by The Blue EM2

One Small Thing

Off to the seas we go once more. Wow, this is a first. Three nautical themed stories in one collection, and in a row no less. I really am going interesting places these days.

Anyways, I suppose we'd better get started, and how better to get started than to link up with our man of the hour, Thomas Elias Haddington, or as he prefers to be known, Tom (though, curiously, Katrina had a habit of using his full name on occasion, which was a little unusual). Here he was, and once more he was near the sea. Who wouldn't want to be by the seaside if given the chance? Most people, I'd reckon.

This time, he had travelled of to a small town in the Northwest of England, a place called Blackpool. This was a town best known for its seaside, the many amusements, a tower (based on the one in Paris, but a lot shorter), a multitude of tat shops and rubbish museums with misleading advertising, and, most importantly of all, trams. Tom had hopped onto a tram to travel to the beach, as there really was no other way to travel in Blackpool. Seriously, who would drive when you have trams?

As the tram rattled along the street, he started singing, as he was known to do.

"Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!
I do like to be beside the sea!
Oh I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!
Where the brass bands play, "'Tiddely-om-pom-pom!'

"So just let me be beside the seaside!
I'll be beside myself with glee
and there's lots of girls beside,
I should like to be beside, beside the seaside,
beside the sea!"

So pleased were many of the locals that he knew a classic song of the English seaside that they joined in. A passing brass band also joined in, for some reason, and the passengers were all jolly and merry.

"What a lovely day it is!" said a passenger. "Perfect for spending a day by the seaside!"

"It sure is," Tom laughed. "Seriously, who needs to go to Spain when you have weather like this?"

"It's a cultural thing," said another. "People go to Spain to bum about on a beach because they go to Spain to bum about on a beach. There really is nothing else to it, really."

"That is certainly true," Tom sighed. "Ah well, things could be worse. As for me, I do delight in the pleasures of the old fashioned English seaside, and these heritage trams are certainly adding to the atmosphere."

"Blackpool saved the tram!" said the driver, who had overheard the conversation. "When most other cities abandoned their tram systems, Blackpool kept its, and in doing so let the way in the re-establishment of British trams in so many cities."

"I live in one of them," Tom replied. "Nottingham has trams, and it's seriously good too."

The driver reached for the bell. "Pleasure Beach! Pleasure Beach next stop!"

The tram rattled to a halt, and the doors opened. Tom stepped off and thanked the driver. He watched as the tram rattled away, and then he turned to walk to the beachfront, where he could see the sea (he had avoided drinking any wine. Hence his nose was not shining, and as a result he was certain he would see what people see in the sea).

---

Tom stood by the seashore and looked down into the water. He could see sand underneath the water, and in that sense he now understood what people saw in the sea. He was very satisfied with this find, when he looked again at an object floating towards him in the water, that looked oddly familiar to him in many ways.

For a start, it was a great big sphere. It was also a pink sphere, which glowed with some form of spectral energy. Colours of orange and white bubbled inside, being barely contained by the marvellous spectacle of the object that floated before him.

"Hmm," Tom sighed. "I must admit that this object looks oddly familiar. I have seen it somewhere before, but where was that?"

Tom bent down to take a closer look, to inspect this strange thing, only to realise too late what the object in question actually was. "That's the Pearl! The Pearl of Trans-"

He never got the chance to finish his sentence. The pearl suddenly glowed, and seemed to explode, catapulting Tom outwards to sea, still fully clothed, and he hit the water with a bang, very lucky he didn't break anything as he hit the surface of the sea. As for the Pearl, it was long gone, having teleported elsewhere.

But Tom was now Under the Sea. You may make the obvious joke in the comments if you wish.

---

Tom knew something was wrong when he awoke. His clothing was still in place, and as he looked down he suddenly noticed something off with his legs. It was highly blurry, and he never questioned how he could still breathe underwater. It was what happened next that truly unnerved him.

His legs shrank in length, getting ever shorter, the bones vanishing and compressing until there was no trace of then ever being there. His lower end shifted in shape, any trace of conventional limbs there vanishing, leaving a floating torso in place. A tail emerged from the coccyx, and then moved forward round to encompass the front of the torso as well, before growing downwards and stopping after a few seconds. It was then followed by a giant blue flipper popping out of the bottom, which split apart partway down and left a gap in the centre.

"OK, so I'm now a merman. A bleedin' merman. At least I've still got tho- oof!" His manhood had decided to take his leave (seriously, how do seaponies reproduce?), replaced with something else. Another blue fin, a stabiliser if you will, popped out of her back to help hold her in place, and this corrected the balance problem.

Most of his clothing had floated off into the sea as yet more rubbish in the ocean, as a pair of translucent pink water wings popped out of her back as her chest slimmed down into something closer to an equine. Her arms snapped forwards so that the joints faced backwards compared to a human arm, and her hands ran together and melted into a pair of flippers (blue, of course).

Her neck grew upwards in length as a red collar appeared around her neck, followed by a necklace with ridiculous numbers of shells around it. Her much longer neck now resulted in the top of her head being much closer to the surface. Her eyes turned blue as they grew in size, and her mouth and nose stretched forward to create a muzzle of some sort, giving her the look of a seahorse. The underwater equivalent of a fin popped out of her head as a blue luminescent blob, not disimilar to that mounted to an angler fish. Pink coral as an earband appeared on the left hand side of her head as a fragment of pearl appeared around her neck. Finally, her entire body was covered in yellow scales, to protect her underwater.

Princess Skystar had no sooner come to terms with her new surroundings than she suddenly teleported to be elsewhere. "Hey! This looks like a fun place to play!"

To which end, she swam along as fast and as firm as she could, towards the edge of the horizon, then swung upwards, jumped through the air, cleared the surface, and then dived to the ground. Unfortunately, she hadn't left enough clearance, and her tail got snagged on a rock.

A rock that was marked for nautical exercises.

"Oh no!" Skystar cried. "If I can't get free, I'll get blown to bits!"

She desperately tried to free herself. She wiggled as hard as she could, and flopped relentlessly as she tried to get off this blasted rock. But her efforts were all for naught, as she was too well caught.

In the distance, she could see the battleships start to aim for the target.

Suddenly, Prince Kainos flew overhead, heading for the vessels. "Hold on Skystar!" he shouted. "Help is coming!"

Skystar hoped it would, as those ships were about to commence target practice.

Seconds later, Novo and Ocean Flow popped up out of seemingly nowhere and got to work.

"Ocean Flow, you get her upper body!" Novo called. "I'll work on getting her tail free!" She switched to a hippogriff, and got her claws to grip the tail as best she could without hurting Skystar.

"Quick!" Skystar cried. "Those ships look ready to fire!"

"Let's hope Kainos gets there in ti-"

There was a flash of light in the distance, followed by a loud bang.

"Oh shit."

The shells got closer and closer, so Novo switched ends and simply pulled as hard as she could.

The shells got closer and closer.

At the last second, Novo's efforts succeeded, and she pulled Skystar clear. The pair tumbled into the water, and Novo turned Skystar over to shield her from the blast.

The flames cleared, and Skystar hugged her mother with all her might. "Thanks mom!" she cried. "If it hadn't been for you, I'd have been a goner."

Novo gently rubbed her daughter's head, having switched to a seapony in the meantime. "I can't bear to lose you," she whispered. "So why were you out here whilst the Navy was on a live fire exercise?"

"Nobody told me the Navy was drilling!" Skystar replied.

"I'll have a word with that captain," Novo said grimly. "I can only assume Kainos didn't get there in time." Her face then softened. "But I think I know where you need to go. Let's head for home, and watch the Navy from a considerably safer distance."

"Race ya!" Skystar laughed, and swam upwards. With a single blast of energy, she changed into a hippogriff and flew for the shore at incredible speed.

Novo laughed. "Two can play at that game, child." So she took to the skies as well, mother and daughter racing for the shore, happy in each other's company.

Author's Note:

I adore Kristin Chenoweth's work. So when I learned she'd been cast in the movie of my favourite TV show, naturally I was pretty chuffed. She didn't disappoint; although her acting could do with some work (and initially I found Skystar pretty annoying), the moment she opened her mouth and started singing I was blown away. I would list her as my favourite character from the film, but not my favourite seapony/hippogriff. You'll find out who that is next month.

Comments

[3-tap]

Holy moley, the movie is 3 years old?!

[The Blue EM2]

10468271
It sure is.

[Proper-Noun]

I’m guessing your favourite seapony is Silverstream, Skystar’s cousin. By the way, are all of these stories occurring simultaneously?

[The Blue EM2]

10468726
Yes, but only Novo and Skystar are directly connected.

[Proper-Noun]

Yes, I see the connection between the two. Only how can you be two different characters at once?

[The Blue EM2]

10468852
You know how the Avengers films have this concept of diverging and converging timelines?

Similar thing here; Novo is another Tom from another time.

In the stories of JimmyHook19, this sort of dimension jumping happens all the time.

[Proper-Noun]

10468864
Ok. Makes sense. Was I right about Silverstream, though?

[The Blue EM2]

10468876
Wait abs see.

[SuperSonicHeroes]

Wow, three years already? Time sure flies doesn’t it?

[The Blue EM2]

10469117
It always does.

[Proper-Noun]

10550646
Open up Your Eyes and Queen of the Seas.

[The Blue EM2]

10551024
Oh. I hadn't noticed that.

[Proper-Noun]

10551101
Actually, it’s just the first one. But still, I guess it shows how similar your interests are.

[The Blue EM2]

10551115
True.

[AvoidingFever17]

Oh...
HEHEHEHEHEH
so i may have a HUGE love for all things TF related
Ummm
I have STUMBLED ONTO DIAMONDS

[The Blue EM2]

11510929
Glad you enjoyed it. I don't publish much TF stuff here anymore (I largely put that sort of thing on my dA page these days), but I did produce a heckuva lot of it back in the day!

[AvoidingFever17]

11510947
Nice!
Dont worry i will enjoy!

[The Blue EM2]

11510954
Cheers.