The Conversion Bureau: Never Forget

by Cloudhammer

01 - The Dream

Year 6, Week 5, Tuesday

Nimbus kicked her legs weakly as she slept, the dark blue pegasus lost in the depths of her dream. It was the same dream she’d been having for the past few weeks, of a time from her childhood. She was still in school, getting ready to catch the morning bus. Hearing footsteps, she turned to see her father entering the kitchen. Only the face he wore was blurred, the details lost.

“What is it, sweetheart?” His voice, thankfully, had remained the same, the baritone that had calmed her when she used to have nightmares.

“I don’t know Daddy, your face looks-” She clapped a hand to her mouth in shock, the voice coming out of her mouth not her own, but rather the voice that she’d found herself with after her Conversion. As the faceless man who was her father but wasn’t took a step forward, worry etched across his blurry face, she took a step back in fright, falling through the floor into darkness. Unfortunately, that meant she’d rolled off of the bed in the waking world. Landing heavily, face first as luck would have it, the pegasus shouted in surprise and a little pain.

“Son of a-” she checked herself, glancing over at the mattress. The expected blue-green bundle was conspicuously absent. “Breaker? Where are you?”

“I’m in the kitchen Mom! Uncle Dusty’s making waffles!” The colt’s excited giggling echoed down the hallway as Nimbus got to her hooves. Rubbing her face with a hoof, she trotted out into the hallway, sighing again as she saw the multitude of boxes that had yet to be unpacked from the move in the soon to be kid’s... foal’s rooms. Entering the kitchen, she felt her mouth tug into a smile at the sight of her son sitting on his cushion at their low table, already making inroads on a plate of waffles.

“Morning Dusty, thanks for making breakfast,” Nimbus said as she settled onto a cushion next to Breaker. Despite it having been nearly eight months ago, she still found herself wincing inside at the eyepatch that covered his left eye. The doctors had tried to save it, but it had gone too long without proper treatment. He’d managed to stay in the Guard as a trainer, but his days of frontline duty were over.

“No problem. The twins woke us up early anyway, decided to get out of there while I could, make something nice for everyone. Flare and Aegis are supposed to come back today anyway, right?” Dusty’s eye narrowed worriedly as the door to his shared room with Skipjack opened and she trotted out, carrying a pair of crying foals in their carriers. One, a pegasus filly, buzzed her wings in an attempt to escape, while the earth pony filly in the other carrier flailed her hooves around

“Dusty, you had better-” Skipjack started, but Dusty cut her off

“Formula bottles are on the counter, took ‘em off the heater five minutes ago, so it’s the right temperature.” He grinned as Skipjack smiled wearily and carried the twins to the table, setting them in their highchairs. The crying was soon silenced by the bottles, and the twins were gurgling happily a minute later.

“Thanks Dusty.” Skipjack walked over and leaned against him with a smile.

“Not a problem, Skip,” Dusty replied with a smile as he draped his head over hers.

“Ewwww, gross!” Breaker made a face, sticking his tongue out at the two.

Nimbus snorted and tapped her son gently on the head. “Now now, don’t be rude, Breaker.”

“But Mooooom! It’s gross grown-up stuff!”

“Your father and I do that, and it’s not gross,” Nimbus pointed out.

“You’re right, it’s lots more gross when you and Dad do it,” Breaker replied with a huff.

Nimbus smiled and ruffled his mane. “Well, someday you’ll find a nice mare and then you’ll be doing it too.”

Breaker tossed his head. “Nuh-uh! Girls have cooties!”

“Well, you’ll understand more when you’re older.” Nimbus smiled at Breaker, who rolled his eyes and went back to eating his waffles.

Fireball, rooming alone while Aegis was away, nosed open her door and began the slow wobble down the hallway. She was ten months along with their first foal, and was ready for the whole experience to move on to the next phase. “Coffee....Coffee, now!” she called desperately.

Dusty sighed, and pointed with a hoof to the pot on the end of the counter. “Think you can spare some for me this time?”

Fireball smiled at Dusty. “Depends. Can you spare me one of those tasty-looking waffles?” While she’d managed to sleep through the twin’s latest round of wailing, the scent floating down the hallway had finally brought her around. She’d gotten used to sleeping late since she’d had no weather duties to attend to lately, thanks to moving and motherhood.

Dusty snorted good-naturedly. “Plenty more coming.” The earth pony grabbed the jug of batter and poured more onto the griddle. “Got the mix from that new shop that reopened in town, the owner finally ponified and came back to work here.”

“A mix? Pre-made? My, that’s convenient...” Aegis and Fireball had only made waffles on special occasions, as making the batter generally also meant making a mess. As she watched Dusty pour the semi-liquid substance, she gained a whole new appreciation for the way humans did some things, methods and ways of thinking they were now carrying over as newfoals into Equestrian society.

“I guess... Never really thought much of it,” Dusty admitted as he closed the lids. “Just give em a little bit. Hopefully our little syrup vampire here will leave some for the rest of us.” He ruffled Breaker’s mane with a hoof as he walked by, stopping to take the bottles from the twins. “And did we enjoy our food my little angels?”

The foals responded by starting to make faces at him, and with a chuckle, he and Skipjack each picked a foal and burped them. Nimbus smiled, something about the whole situation, being surrounded by the others feeling... right. She shook her head and the strange sensation dissipated.

“Something wrong, Nimbus?” asked Fireball as she sat beside the newfoal mare. “Most ponyfolk don’t sit and shake like that for no reason.” Fireball leaned in and, jokingly, asked a question: “Is it fleas?”

Nimbus smiled a little, though her ears folded back a little. “No, it’s not fleas.” She glanced back to the rest of the room and leaned in to whisper to Fireball. “Would it be okay if I talked to you after breakfast? Just a couple things that’ve been bothering me a little, nothing serious, I hope.”

“Of course, I’d be happy to help, Nimbus. Feel free to ask me anything.” The native smiled at the newfoal. “And... I might have stuff to ask you, too. Like how could you stand being shaped more like a beach ball than a pony for so long.”

Nimbus laughed, reaching over with a hoof to idly ruffle Breaker’s mane. “Well, it wasn’t fun at times, but was worth it at the end.”

Breaker squirmed, pushing his mother’s hoof away. “Moooom! Knock it off already, you’re gonna mess up my mane!”

“Breaker, you don’t comb it anyway,” Nimbus pointed out with a smile.

Breaker sputtered, but gave up with a huff as he returned to his waffles. The remainder of breakfast passed by quickly, and Nimbus led Fireball to what would eventually be Breaker’s room once things were unpacked.

“Well, what I wanted to talk with you about may sound silly to a native Equestrian, but lately I’ve started feeling... strange,” Nimbus said with a sheepish smile “Sorry, I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I’m feeling. It’s just... like this morning, being surrounded by everyone just felt... right. I mean, I was pretty social as a kid and while I was still human, but this felt... deeper than that.” She sighed as she looked at Fireball. “I must not be making any sense, huh?”

“Well, I might know what you mean, Nimbus.” Fireball smiled as she made herself comfortable. “It’s only been you, Breaker, and Flare until now, right?”

Nimbus nodded as she settled down next to Fireball. “Yeah.”

“Well, it’s not exactly a secret, but I don’t see how a newfoal would know. Ponies, well, we’re just not meant to live like that. It’s gotten popular to do so, lately, but traditionally, there were about one male to every three or females...”

“Well yeah, I think I overheard some of the trainers talking about it-”

“...In every household.”

Nimbus blinked, suddenly glad she was already sitting down. “Really?”

“Yes, it’s true. But now we traditionalists are starting to fall out of style. Aegis won’t even think about a second mate, no matter how much I prod him about it. But this...” Fireball sighed happily. “This full household, it feels right because these ponies, you, I, everypony here....we’re a herd, of sorts.” Fireball worked her sore hooves a little. “A very strange herd, maybe, but I must say, even if you and Skipper aren’t Aegis’ mates, it still feels wonderful to have you here.”

Nimbus nodded, despite the uneasiness she felt at how all of this seemed to be making sense to her. “I’m definitely enjoying having you and Skip around too. Though...” she looked at the only open box, and taking a breath, reached in, “that’s not all that I wanted to talk about.” She held up the photograph, showing an older human male and a young girl waiting for the bus. “That’s me, when I was twelve. And, that’s my dad...” she stared at the picture for a few long seconds. “I realized a few days ago, before Flare and Aegis left, that I can’t remember what my voice sounded like as... as a human.”

“Oh, I think I see...” Fireball hesitated, forming her thoughts carefully. “You’re a little scared of forgetting other things...” Fireball gently tapped the picture, motioning to Nimbus’ father.

“Well, I’m more scared that I don’t even know when I forgot. I tried to remember it and just... couldn’t.” She sighed. “I was just so busy having to be a mom to Breaker, and keep training for the Guard...”

Fireball nodded slowly. “And time decided to play a trick, passing by like it does, yes?”

“I guess.” Nimbus leaned against Fireball with a smile. “I dunno... I just needed to talk to somepony about this, and Skip’s been so busy with the twins that...” she trailed off. “Look at that, I did it again.”

Fireball laughed lightly. “What, saying somepony? I think it’s nice.”

Nimbus snorted sarcastically. “Yeah, just great.” She looked at the picture again, and took a deep breath. “Well, I’m not going to sit around any more. Gonna go see my dad, probably have a huge fight with him, and settle things out.”

Fireball blinked. “Wait, what?”

Nimbus slumped, some of her enthusiasm fading. “Yeah, me and my dad kind of stopped talking to each other when I decided to get ponified. We never were on the best of terms, he’d opposed me going into the Army, swore I’d get hurt. Turned out he was right about that.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds. “I thought about taking Breaker to see him, let him know he’d actually gotten a grandson, although a pony instead of human.”

“Oh, I had no idea... From the way you spoke, I thought he’d passed...”

Nimbus laughed. “No, that old buzzard will keep right on hanging on until he really makes up his mind about Conversion. Who knows, maybe seeing Breaker will help...” she mused.

“Won’t know unless you try,” Fireball said with a giggle, only to twitch an ear. “Aegis is home.”

“I still think you’re just making a blind-” Nimbus was cut off as Breaker’s squeal of happiness echoed down the hallway.

“MOM! DAD’S HOME! MOM! MOOOOOOM! DIDJA HEAR ME?”

“Yes Breaker, I think the whole neighborhood heard you.” Nimbus laughed as she got to her hooves, offering a leg to Fireball. “Well, let’s go welcome them back.” The two mares walked out of the room and down the hall toward the front door, where Flare was flat on his back, Breaker giggling on top of him. Aegis was standing behind them, a wry smile on his face, which broke into an even wider smile as he saw Fireball trundling down the hall toward him.

“Now there’s a sight for sore eyes!” Aegis stepped around Flare and eagerly trotted to meet his marefriend. “How are you? Everything ok? Do you need anything?” Fireball remembered that Aegis’ latest assignment was also a bit of a vacation... for her. She shut him up with a kiss, stopping the wordflow.

“Everything is fine, Aegis. The little one’s kicking like crazy, mind, but Nimbus says that little Breaker was even worse.” She wrapped her neck around Aegis’ in a hug. “And we both missed you very much.”

Aegis returned the ponyhug, then leaned down to Fireball’s very round belly. “And I missed the two of you, more than you can imagine.”

Nimbus smiled at the bulky captain as she slid past him. “Careful there sir, the recruits’ll sniff out you being such a softie in less time than it takes for me to say it.” She turned her eyes downward to Flare, still laughing as he held Breaker. “And you! Just what do you think you’re doing down there?”

Flare grinned sheepishly up at her. “Sorry dear, I just wasn’t fast enough, he got me this time.”

Nimbus scowled at him, but couldn’t hold it as Breaker added his own smile to the mix. “Alright, this time it’s forgiven. Now come on up here, you still owe me.” Reaching down, she scooped Breaker up onto her back and hauled Flare up a second later, the two giving each other a short kiss and a nuzzle. “Now, how was your trip, you two?”

“Sorry, can’t talk about it. But just glad it’s done for now. Got a nice couple days off, looking forward to some relaxing on the beach,” Flare said with a smile, before he noticed Nimbus’ expression. “Something wrong, sweetheart?”

“Well, it’s got to do with what I found before you left. But we can talk about it later. Now come on inside, I think there’s still some waffles left, unless Dusty’s eaten them all again!” She shouted back toward the kitchen.

“Nimbus! You wound me so! I’d never steal the last waffle!” Came Dusty’s mockingly indignant reply.

“Alright... if you’re sure...” Flare said, levitating Breaker off of his mate’s back and ‘flying’ him along as they entered the kitchen, Fireball and Aegis following them a few seconds later.

“...Because it’s not the last waffle if I make more real quick...” Dusty muttered as he poured more batter onto the griddle.

Comments

[Da Bunnana King]

Feels are being prepared.

[TheFallen]

O_o My Story name has been reused xD
I wrote a story called Never Forget

[Cloudhammer]

1835932
Cool Might try to find time to give it a look

[TheFallen]

1835936
Thanks if you do read the description first xD

[imagonerbyeeveryone]

[Cloudhammer]

1835998
You sir, win an official internet for this

[imagonerbyeeveryone]

1836010 I saw the cover of this story and automatically thought of this song so WTHN

[Cloudhammer]

1836023
Funny story on the art, that's actually my counter, and one of my parent's old photo albums

[Feurisson]

This actually sounds like an conversion bureau story worth giving a try. I stopped reading them after I couldn't find any more that didn't have that much misantrophy in them, but this sounds like it goes into a different direction, and will not include any "Humans should be exterminated by the superior ponies"

[Gratuitous Autopsy]

1836327
Quite possibly the single most common comment on Cloudhammers TCB fics.