episode 4 part5 Memorys, dreams, and unforeseen circumstances .
originally made with macaroni and elmers glue: kryxel
crafted into diamond: ray10k
The thing with any technology, is that it is in almost every case specifically intended for one purpose, making it a bit tricky at times to make it adapt to slightly different circumstances.
The thing with magic is that, as a force that is strongly tied to the realm of thoughts and dreams, it is often influenced by the strangest or least notable outside influences.
The ponification serum, a compound of human technology and pony magic, was therefore especially tricky. To have it work properly, one has to make sure the circumstances of its use are perfectly identical every time, and adding something to the mix only results in strange, unusual or sometimes confusing conversions.
As such, Sales’ conversion was a bit different on account of the strawberries added to his serum. But, the end result of his conversion was not nearly as unusual as the dream he had during it. For him, being accepted into the herd was not the first thing that happened. Instead, he found himself in a place he could never forget, but dearly wished never to see again.
-----------
Sales had heard other newfoals tell tall tales of dreams in which they ran with the idea, the concept of ponies, and how they accepted them into their midst. He was therefore somewhat puzzled that in his dream, he still had a human body when he “woke up”.
Confusion was soon replaced with a growing sense of unease, as he looked around. He was sitting on a somewhat low metal table, in a small room that looked as if at one time, it was made to perform surgery in, but was now showing clear signs of decay.
It was a room he could never forget. A scar on his soul, the tomb of his carefree youth. It was the conversion room he was in almost two years ago, on the day his parents were murdered.
Sales got up from the table. His motions felt slowed, as if the air was thicker and hindered his movement.
Looking at the door, he noticed that the dust in front of it was showing some marks of a struggle, a number of hoofprints surrounding a vague blob that could have been the body of a human pressed down on the ground. The ground in front of the door held a handprint, as if someone had dropped his hand on the ground in front of the door.
Sales took another look around the room. Strangely, whenever he moved his head, things got blurry for far longer than they should, as if the world just outside of his vision turned into clouds that reformed into more solid shapes whenever he looked at them.
Finding nothing besides the markings in the dust, Sales turned to face the door, and took a step forward.
"Don’t let him open that door! He will kill us all!"
Startled, Sales jumped back and tripped over the table. As he scrambled to get back up, he looked around to try and find out where the voice had come from. He found nothing.
Gathering his wits once more, Sales got off of his back and tried to approach the door again. Taking notice of the footprint he had left in the dust, he carefully put his foot down in the same place.
Nothing happened.
Relief. Maybe he had just imagined it. He took another step.
"Are they going to rush in?"
This time, Sales didn’t jump. Still, the voice that had suddenly sounded from everywhere around him had startled him, freezing him in place.
Three more steps until he could reach the door.
“Come out to play, little ponies!”
The voice was cruel this time, but muted somewhat. Almost as if he was hearing it through the door.
Two more steps to the door.
"I don’t want to die!"
The voices were young, but distorted as if played back from a low quality recording.
One more step.
"MOMMY!"
Sales froze in shock. That last voice had been absolutely clear. A voice he could never mistake.
His own.
Terrified beyond words, afraid of what would happen if he opened the door, Sales tried to think. Maybe, staying in here was the best course of action. Who knew what could be behind that door?
Making up his mind, Sales turned back around.
The room was gone.
Instead of standing inside one of the heavily reinforced conversion rooms, he was now standing on a small island of dust and plascreet, an endless black void one step behind him. He had no choice.
Sales turned back, and put his hand on the door.
Nothing happened.
He pushed the door, finding it locked. The keypad on the door was different, two buttons on the mechanism.
F O R G E T
R E M E M B E R
Sales pressed the second button. He did not know why he chose it, or what they meant, but it did not matter. He knew it was what he had to do.
The door swung open.
-----------
The hallway Sales found himself in, was much like the room he woke up in. Dusty, the plascreet showing cracks in some places, and the entire building in general breathing an air of disuse and decay.
One thing that set it apart from the small room however, was the fact that many of the walls had bullet holes.
Sales looked around. The hall in one direction had collapsed, and the door he had entered through was closed, locked down with several heavy chains and padlocks.
Having no other option, he started to walk down the hallway. Soon, he found himself on an intersection he did not remember from his time at the old conversion bureau.
In his memory, the hallway to the conversion room would go around a corner. Right now, he was standing on the middle of a crossroads.
None of the paths looked remarkable, save for the footprints in the dust on the path he had walked down.
This isn’t right, Sales thought. The hallway is supposed to turn right!
The moment he formed the thought, everything went out of focus. When his eyesight had restored, Sales now found himself on a corner in the hallway, just as he had remembered it.
"Meet our first guest, A Unicorn! Now, this one made itself quite the nuisance, so we snapped its horn off. Actually, we did that with all of the little devils, but let’s not split hairs about that right now"
This time, the cruel voice came from further down the hallway, rather than from everywhere. Sales however, found himself frozen in place once more. He knew that voice. The voice that tortured him in his nightmares. The voice of the Man who had killed his parents.
Minutes passed, Sales’ mind going a thousand miles per hour. No! He can’t be here! This can’t be real! What is happening!?
Eventually, Sales managed to calm down a little, barely enough to start moving again. As he walked, he noticed the hallways being as he remembered them, aside from most of them being blocked in one way or another. Some were collapsed into rubble, others looked as if they were hastily sealed down, the plascreet not even smoothed out yet.
Suddenly, the hallways ended into another void. Turning around, Sales noted that once more, he was stuck on a small island of flooring, entirely surrounded by the void.
Again, there was a single wall with a door on it. The door was green, with a square on it a bit brighter as if something had been there for a long time. Right now however, the door had nothing on it, just a green door on a plascreet wall in the middle of literally nowhere.
I know that door... Right! The cafeteria had one like that! But that one had a little sign on it...
As he thought back, Sales recalled the sign. A pony eating an apple.
Sales blinked, and when his eyes opened the door had the sign once more.
"I want you to beg. Plain and simple, just beg for your life."
The cruel voice had gotten louder, Sales knew he was getting closer.
-----------
Sales stood still for a moment, eyes closed and waiting for the voice to return.
Nothing happened.
Sales looked around the room. The tables were mostly broken, the remains strewn around the place. The posters on the wall were all faded, as if they had been hanging there for a long time, and what little food remained was covered in thick layers of mould.
Sales cautiously stepped forward into the cafeteria. Again, a quick inspection told him that all exits had been sealed off or locked, save for the entrance to the announcement booth. Having survived following the most obvious path so far, Sales carefully approached the door.
He knew what would happen.
He knew what he would find there.
He remembered, never even having the hope to ever forget.
He pulled the door open.
-----------
“N-never.”
*bang*
The room was empty. Not just without anyone in it, but also with most of the equipment missing. The only thing in the room, was a single table, illuminated as if a spotlight was focused on it.
Sales took a step.
“Commercial break is over, folks!”
The cruel voice was back, but this time it sounded muted, as if the speakers were blocked by a pillow.
Three more steps until Sales could reach the table.
“Seems like your kid does*fzz* like you a *kchzz* lot, so any last words?”
Sales could barely make out the voice now, as static started to replace some of the words.
Two more steps to the light.
“Three words.”
Sales stopped. The voice was clear, almost as if the one speaking was right behind him. Tears blurred his vision.
One last step.
“We love you, son.”
Sales was standing next to the table. On it, was a single heart-shaped locker, opened to reveal three images.
On the left, the face of a pony mare, a kind smile on her muzzle.
On the right, the face of a man, his eyes beaming with joy.
In the middle, an image of the two together, hugging a little boy.
“We love you.”
Sales didn’t flinch, as he felt a pair of hooves embrace him from behind.
“We love you.”
The words echoed through the void, as two human arms joined in the warm embrace.
“We love you.”
Sales felt the world around him fade away, only those three words echoing through his head. And for the first time since he had woken up in this desolate place, he spoke.
“I love you too.”
-----------
Sales felt his body change, his hands becoming hooves, his hair becoming a messy mane, his face stretching into a muzzle. Around him, only light for a moment.
Then, the light faded into a meadow. The meadow all newfoals know, the place where they were accepted into the herd.
He ran, as around him forms appeared. They were like ponies, but rather than physical forms, they were ideals, thoughts and understandings of what ponykind was. Sales ran among them, with them, AS them.
They ran for what seemed to be ages, until the herd reached a tall cliff over a truly endless ocean. As one, they leapt off, becoming a bridge of clouds across which Sales ran, ever going upwards until he reached a light, as brilliant as the sun itself, inviting him in.
-----------
Sales found himself inside what seemed to be a long hallway inside an ancient castle. The walls between which he stood stretched on towards a wall with a single door, far off in the distance.
He started to walk, when he noticed the colours of the light as it passed through the windows. Looking up, he saw that the hallway was decorated with large stained glass pictures, each showing a moment of his life.
Here, there was an image of his mother singing him to sleep.
There, there was an image of his father throwing a ball towards him.
He slowly walked, taking in the images surrounding him, until he found himself between two identical windows of his parents hugging him, with only the door in front of him.
Sales pushes the door open, and walks into what appears to be the throne room of the castle.
Despite the throne being empty, the room itself is not. Behind a tea table, the sibling rulers of Equestria are calmly sitting, giving Sales inviting smiles.
"Greetings Sales Kital," Luna said with a smile.
"Greetings to you two as well," Sales said, sitting down.
"We noticed something... Odd about your dream, Sales," Celestia said with a sip of her tea.
"It was no dream. It was a nightmare. One I lived. One I wish I did not have to..." Sales said solemnly.
"Well, We wanted to ask thou if thou would like a second chance?" Luna said with a twinkle in her eye.
"Luna, what are you...?" Celestia started before Luna held up a hoof. "All in due time, dear sister," Luna said before turning back to Sales.
Sales, in the meantime, had thought about the offer for a moment. "A second chance... well, I guess so. Sounds good."
Luna smiled. "Very well. Drink, and it shall be thine."
Sales nodded and drank the tea before him. "Wait, second chance at what?"
Luna only smiled as the dream faded away...
-----------
"He’s coming around! Make sure everything is ready in the nursery. I don’t know how much his muscles are developed so let’s assume typical development for his apparent age..." Colgate said as Sales slowly opened his eyes.
"EYES! Fillies and gentlecolts, he opened his eyes!" Surprise said, standing in the corner and wearing a conical hat with the word “dunce” on it.
"Right! Sales? Can you hear me? And can you understand me?" The Doctor said, shining Sales in the eye with a strange looking blue flashlight.
Of course I can hear you, Sales thought.
He tried to say it out loud, but for some reason all that he heard was "abagabaoo." Another thing that worried him a little, was that while the voice sounded a little like his own, it was far higher, almost squeaking.
Wait, was that me? Sales thought in wonder.
"Okay, for now I‘ll assume that you can hear and understand me. So, good news, your conversion was successful. Bad news is, due to some unforeseen circumstances, your conversion proceeded a little different than intended. But rest assured, you’ll be cared well for, I can assure that much,” the Doctor rattled in what Sales assumed was a light panic.
"Ba?" Sales said. He stood up, and looked over at the mirror that had been set up.
Standing on the conversion table was a 2 year old Pegasus foal with a grey mane and a white coat.
The light blue eyes widened in surprise, as he looked all around. The foal in the mirror did the same, destroying the last possible doubts.
He was a foal now.
Sales mind reeled.
if I am a foal, then is that why I can’t talk? who will take care of me? what will I have to relearn? what if I don’t? is this a permanent thing? what is this thing around my fla...oh Tia... is that a...?
Sales blushed as a very familiar sight greeted him.
Looking past his flank, he saw Rainbow Spring, levitating the last pin in place on his new diaper.
"Hello, little Sales... I see you finally joined the daycare."
///////////
Ray10k here.
Original version: Sales says, “whoa, creepy.”
Final version: why bother with making him say it?
Also,
Me + one tiring day of preparing my new house + 2 beers = this.
Finally, :flutteryay: new wordcount record!
------
Kryxel here:
looking good. glad we have a new wordcount record. dreams are always fun.
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Personally I liked the
"sales froze and turned around.. seeing the conversion room still void of any life but himself.
"w-woah.. creepy." he said opening the door."
better than
"He pushed the door, finding it locked. The keypad on the door was different, two buttons on the mechanism.
F O R G E T
R E M E M B E R
Sales pressed the second button. He did not know why he chose it, or what they meant, but it did not matter. He knew it was what he had to do."
It gave the place a more creepy feel, like remembering the events, rather than feeling like being inside a machine. Another reason to keep the "w-whoa creepy" is because I really would say that in said situation.
That was a twist. I'm not sure Sales is better off for that or just set up for a special kind of horror; a relatively mature mind trapped in an infantile body.
289333
he is better off. i talked it over with sales (the real one. the owner of the OC) before hand. but i thought "why not" it was cause enough to add to the mythos that is TCB with something unique and unusual.
289197
In my opinion, needing a character to tell the audience (the reader) that something is creepy/funny/sad/etc. is generally a sign that whatever happened is none of those things.
290326
however having the character not comment at all sometimes makes the character seem, bland, unfeeling, ect. this is one of the times when it makes it seem like you tried to make "me" seem bland, unfeeling, ect. To be honest, I felt that the Doctor Who esque buttons completely defused the situation making it like a "confused wth?" rather than a "ok that was creepy"
Without the button, it is creepy, and the character saying so just means that they notice it. If they are talking to the audience then they are breaking the 4th wall
I've only just read this, and I can only say that I am glad that both of you have kept at this - you have improved in leaps and bounds. The nightmare scene where he has to confront what happened - both times, in the dream and in the flashback - were both uniquely moving. The twist was amusing, so I can only assume it was either the strawberries, or Luna playing a prank of pranks.
311446
who knows maybe it was the strawberrys with luna being ready to stop that change if the person said no.. but now it is there if others want to use it.
*grins*