Attempted automated wordcount. Please use LibreOffice/MSOffice for an accurate count: 539114

thanks, author! If you wish to have this removed from this list, email ra.llan.pcl+complaints @ gmail.com, making sure to provide proof that you are the author.

The

Conversion Bureau

Alternate Universe

Story Archive Companion Document

-or-

So You Want To Read Ponies?

Version: 1.04

Friday February 10th 2012

Introduction

Hello, Midnight here again. Welcome to the revamped, renewed and re-something-else’d Conversion Bureau Extended Alternate Universe Story Archive Companion Document. Or, as I like to  call it, the RRARSETCBEAUSACD. You’re welcome.

I find it rolls off the tongue like a lead brick rolls off the roof of a Fortune 500 multi-national conglomerate and I think I forgot where I was going with this metaphor.

The original Conversion Bureau is an as-yet unfinished story created by somepony going by the name of Blaze. As a setting, it has spawned a whole side-community of spin-offs. You don’t need to read the original but you may wish to for completeness. A better introduction would be “First Contact”, “Midnight’s Tail” and then everything by Chatoyance. I think I get to say that :)

In this post, you will find most of the spin-off stories that took the original premise and ran with it, building a rich tapestry of an alternate near-future Earth where the fate of every man, woman, child and pony on the planet has become entwined with that of the realm of Equestria.

Use the ToC to find stories grouped by author and, in some cases, by series or genre. Check out the Conversion Bureau Guide for more information or if you wish to write your own.

Check out the current Ponychan Thread for even more stories!

NOTE: Since the last update, we've had an influx of new stories, and fimfiction.net has created groups. The new TCB Group can be found here, which is just about everything from fimfiction.net on it.

Update Checklist

Midnight here for version 1.02

That’s right, I promoted it to post-1.0. We’re out of beta and we’re releasing on time.

- I added my own updates (of course!) to “A Twist in the Tail” and “Midnight’s Tail”, and I also added in the one-shots and extras I’ve been writing, such as Gypsy

- Added all of Chatoyance’s stuff

- Added fimfiction links for updated “A Dinner Among Friends”

- Added EqD link for Yellowstone (well deserved, Anonsi)

- Added EqD link for Last Man Standing (also well deserved, Windchaser)

- Also added part 11 of AAF - Y U NO RITE ON FIMFICTION

- Who’s next for EqD? CoL? A Mare’s Tail? You decide!

I’m sure I’ve missed something, but that’s why we have more editors than just me!

PS: HOLY BALLS is that a lot of fiction.

Table of Contents

Authors

Anonsi

Yellowstone

Yellowstone the Series

Yellowstone the Series - Minisodes

Hidden Brony

The Conversion Bureau - A Mare’s Tale

Purple Prose

First Contact

Second Impact

Ponies of a Rising Sun

Midnight Shadow

Midnight’s Tail

Midnight’s Tail - A Twist in the Tail

A Twist in the Tail - Community Service

Midnight’s Tail - Minisodes

Conversion Bureau - The End

Conversion Bureau - Together

Conversion Bureau - The Day the Sky Changed

Conversion Bureau - Gypsy

Chatoyance

Conversion Bureau - The Big Respawn

Conversion Bureau - Euphrosyne Unchained

Conversion Bureau - Letters from Home

Conversion Bureau - Teacup, Down on the Farm

Conversion Bureau - 27 Ounces

Conversion Bureau - The Taste of Grass

Krass McWriter

An Azure Future

One For The Road

Windchaser

Last Man Standing

Ring of Fire

The Conversion Bureau - Eye of the Beholder

Sonic

The Conversion Bureau - Sidelines

First Time Pony Writer

The Conversion Bureau - Change of Life

More Authors

Lightsideluc

Videomaster21xx

Series

Salvation Through Destruction

Death Row

Freedom Corp: New Dawn

Dinner Among Friends

The Conversion Bureau - Guardian Chronicles

Shard

Founding Fics

The Conversion Bureau: Ten Rounds

The Conversion Bureau: Pride

One-Shots

Random

Authors

Here are certain well-known and/or prolific authors.

Anonsi

Equestria Daily Post

Yellowstone

Complete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ]  | [ 7 ] | [ Epilogue ] | [ Bonus Chapter ]

Description: Two years after the camps opened up, the Western Territories of the USA are nearly vacant. It is once more a frontier, ripe for exploration and settlement. On bequest of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle is to experience the human world by joining a family of Pony Settlers on their journey out West. It's Dangerous to go alone however, so in an act of good will, the US government is sending someone to make sure no harm befalls the ponies.

Tags: [Normal] Twilight Sparkle, OC ponies

Yellowstone the Series

On-going

Google Docs:

Episode 1: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] |

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Yellowstone the Series - Minisodes

On-going

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] |

Youtube: | [ 1 - Video ] |

SoundCloud: | 1 - Audiobook |

Description: Two months after the events of Yellowstone, Wild Magic from Equestria has run rampant throughout the world, resurrecting ancient horrors from around the globe. Mysterious and terrible monsters of human myth threaten to exterminate both mankind and ponydom. With the blessing of Princess Celestia, Twilight and her friends reunite with Agent Hawk and his team to combat this new threat before it destroys the world!

Tags: [Adventure] [Normal] [Action] [Shipping]

Additional Tags: Mane 6, humans, OC's, The Conversion Bureau, shiptease, Monsters and

Monster hunting, Magic

Hidden Brony

The Conversion Bureau - A Mare’s Tale

Complete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] | [ 7 ] | [ 8 ] | [ 9 ] |

Google Docs: | [ 10 ] | [ Finale ] | [ Epilogue ] |

Description: It's been a few years since the Conversion Bureaus opened up all over the United States, and only a few humans remain in some of the bigger cities. One such girl attempts to hold on to what's left of hers, but what's left at all?

Tags: [Normal]

Additional Tags: Conversion Bureau, Spinoff, Violet, Albuquerque, Al

Purple Prose

First Contact

Complete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] | [ 7 ] | [ 8 ] | [ 9 ] |

Description: Earth is in the throws of the Singularity, but far from providing a utopia for it's citizens, things are worse than ever. Jobs are scarce, the environment is devastated - it is clear things must change, but how? In the midst of all this comes the greatest change of all - the sudden appearance of a mysterious island off the coast of the USA which cannot be approached by normal means. What secrets does it hold?

Tags: [Normal]

Additional Tags: slice of life

Second Impact

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] |

Description: After first contact with the Equestrians, many people were suspicious of the new equine race. Such tensions were exacerbated with the creation of the Conversion Bureaus. While some may jump at the chance of transformation, others railed against it. This is a story of the birth pangs of what would become the HLF.

Ponies of a Rising Sun

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] |

Description: Ponies in Japan? Ponies in Japan!

Midnight Shadow

Midnight’s Tail

Complete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] |

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Bonus Story: Peachy and Cobalts Excellent Adventure, Part 1 (New, Fimfiction only)

Description: Martin Danielson is living in a time after the last revolution, the singularity. A spoiled earth, polluted, crowded and yet empty... An advert on the holoprojector offers a new life as a pony. Martin takes the offer. this is his story.

Midnight’s Tail - A Twist in the Tail

Incomplete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

New: Parts 7, 8

Description: Glenn has been hanging around conversion bureaus for a long time - long enough to be forced to choose the express lane, or forever be barred from entry. His unorthodox queue jumping leaves Rarity (the on-site technician) hoofing it to find a backup potion... she finds an older one, version R63...

Tags: [Normal][Comedy][Random]

Additional Tags: Funny, switch, slice of life, oops

A Twist in the Tail - Community Service

Incomplete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

New: Parts 1, 2

Description: Edge used to be a man, convinced that ponification was just a plan to “scoop out the brains” of humans and replace them with pony doubles. When she breaks into a Bureau to steal some Potion and is caught, he downs it. She wakes up as a pegasus with an audience with the royal pony sisters. For her crimes, she is sentenced to community service. This won’t end well ;)

Side-Story Spinoff to “A Twist in the Tail”

Tags: [Normal][Comedy][Random]

Additional Tags: Funny, switch, slice of life, oops

Midnight’s Tail - Minisodes

On-going

Google Docs: Minisode 1

Google Docs: Mini-Minisode 1

Description: These are small slices of life tales from within the same “Midnight’s Tail’ universe. Also found under “A Twist in the Tail” on Fimction.com

Conversion Bureau - The End

Google Docs: The Conversion Bureau - The End

Youtube: [ The End ]

Description: This is a short story about the end of the conversion bureaus. Not canon with the main “Midnight’s Tail” alternate universe.

Tags: [Grimdark] [Sad-Depressing]

Conversion Bureau - Together

Incomplete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: This is a currently one-shot story about conjoined twins who wish to get converted. Not for the faint of heart, but you might like it.

Conversion Bureau - The Day the Sky Changed

Incomplete / Ongoing

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: This is a collection of Conversion Bureau fics examining the other side of the coin - it features insane ponies, scheming unicorns and godlike beings tearing apart the fabric of reality. They’re to show the darker side of the Conversion Bureau universe - dealing with the inescapable fact of mass genocide on a scale never seen, albeit a ‘kind’ one.

Featured Stories:

- The Day the Sky Changed

- Tick, Tock

- To Save Eden (2 chapters)

- Strange Bedfellows

- ...and eventually, more

Conversion Bureau - Gypsy

Incomplete / Rewrite in progress

Google Docs: [ First Draft ]

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Note: Fimfiction features only “published” material, so the Google Doc is considered DRAFT. It is functionally complete, but with holes in later sections. You may want to save this until next year some time when it’s finally finished...

Description: In the later days of the Conversion Bureaus, the Earth is a mess of crumbling infrastructure, abandoned townships, wastelands, stood right alongside the prosperous and burgeoning newfoal population as the shield-bubble expands. Those who don’t wish to get ponified and don’t wish to live amongst ponies make their own way through the Great American Desert, where civilization has collapsed. Some ponies are out in this manmade hell, living a strange vagabond life. This is their story.

Chatoyance

Conversion Bureau - The Big Respawn

Complete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: Set in the Conversion Bureau universe, two young men face the inevitable totality of the expansion of Equestria into our world, and in the decision of one to choose transformation, both must come to an understanding about what is truly important about the meaning of self.

Conversion Bureau - Euphrosyne Unchained

Complete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: Set in the Conversion Bureau universe, A young woman prepares for Conversion, but there is more she wants to change than merely her physical form.

The second story of the 'Lost In The Herd' series of vignettes about ordinary people caught up in the Conversion Bureau universe.

The previous story was "The Big Respawn".

Conversion Bureau - Letters from Home

Complete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: A Newfoal Earth-Pony Stallion writes from Equestria to tell his still-human best friend about his education there, and how Equestrians live and work.

The third story of the 'Lost In The Herd' series of vignettes about ordinary people caught up in the Conversion Bureau universe.

Conversion Bureau - Teacup, Down on the Farm

Complete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: Set in the Conversion Bureau universe during the years after the last human is gone, Newfoal Teacup faces the fact that however much she tries to fit in, the fact of once having been human must always set her apart.

This is the fourth story of the 'Lost In The Herd' series of vignettes about ordinary people caught up in the Conversion Bureau universe.

Conversion Bureau - 27 Ounces

Complete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: Set in the Conversion Bureau Universe, 27 Ounces is the story of the lives affected by a single Erlenmeyer flask of Conversion Bureau Ponification Serum. Each chapter explores some aspect of humanity lost or kept, and the impact of a reality where changing species is the most important matter ever presented to Mankind.

Conversion Bureau - The Taste of Grass

Complete

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ]

Description: A direct continuation of '27 Ounces: A Tale of Eight And One Half Ponies', the lives of a family of newfoals from their very first arrival in Equestria is followed. Join Caprice, Alexi, Pumpkin and Buttermilk in their day-to-day lives as they adapt not only to being humans-turned-Equestrian, but struggle to help found a new village in the ever expanding Exponential Lands.

Krass McWriter

An Azure Future

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] | [ 7 ] | [ 8 ] | [ 9 ] | [ 10 ] | [ 11 ]

FimFiction: An Azure Future (Collection)

Author: Krass McWriter

Description:  John Norris is another broken man in the last days of humanity. Its been years since he left his apartment for something other than to restock his food and water supply. Enter Azure Wind, a young colt bearing a letter that explains he is John's son. The two bond and much is learned by both in this light-hearted comedic tale.

Tags: [Normal][Comedy]

Additional Tags: father son bonding, Dressclub, California, TCB, saaaack!, PER

One For The Road

Description: “A horrible fic by Krass McWriter” (a quote from the author of the story). A death metal band member gets the band together for one last blowout as hate is leaving the world, making an impact with help from the HLF.

Windchaser

Last Man Standing

Equestria Daily Post

Rewrite Complete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] | [Author’s Notes] |

Description: In the many years after the Conversion Bureaus’ shutdown, Twilight Sparkle is tasked by the Princesses with finding the last living human on Earth, Isaac Hamilton, and learning the story of his past. What she hears is a tale of loss, tragedy, joy, and the discovery of one’s place in the world. But how much longer would that place last with what Twilight has to tell him?

Tags: [Sad], Twilight Sparkle, Humans, OC ponies, The Conversion Bureau

Ring of Fire

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ]

Youtube: | [ Intro ] |

Description: When the HLF sabotage the ponification serum with an exotic poison, the results are entirely unexpected and could result in inter-species war.

The Conversion Bureau - Eye of the Beholder

Incomplete

Description: Gizmo is an Equestrian-born earth pony running a Conversion Bureau in suburban Philadelphia. He's seen the best and worst of what humanity has to offer in his work running the facility. But all of that will be questioned when a group of terrorists take the residents of the bureau hostage, demanding the immediate removal of every pony from the country.

Tags: [Grimdark] OC Ponies

Sonic

The Conversion Bureau - Sidelines

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] | [ 7 ] | [ 8 ] | [ 9 ]  | [ 10 ]  |

Google Docs: | [ 11 ] | [ 12 ] | [ 13 ] | [ 14 ] | [ 15 ] | [ 16 ] | [ 17 ] | [ 18 ] |

Incomplete

Description: Michael Frost is 28 year-old ex-physics instructor, inventor, and among the few humans who do not want to be ponified. But when his best friend tells him he's going to get ponified, Michael decides it's time to dig deeper. He just wants answers, but with mysteries at every turn, he decides to use his skills and knowledge to infiltrate the system and find out the truth behind the Ponification Camps once and for all.

First Time Pony Writer

The Conversion Bureau - Change of Life

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] |

Description: Robert Parker is a 24 year old ex-web developer living in New York city. In the wake of the conversion movement, he has seemingly lost everything. Haunted by the same nightmare every night, he soon realizes that he must make a choice.

Tags: [Mild-Grimdark] [Shipping] Everypony

More Authors

Here are more series’ and one-shots by certain authors.

Lightsideluc

The Conversion Bureau - My Kingdom for a Horse

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] |

DeviantArt: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] |

Description: The stream is magical, powerful, almost irresistible. Almost. For those passing through it, it offers them a siren song of a new life in Equestria as a pony - where they will forget their previous lives. Very few can resist it's pull.

Maverick

Incomplete / One-shot

Description: Equestria offers a new life to those willing to take it, for free. For the unscrupulous, there are always ways to profit. A one-shot set in a dystopian future where Earth’s governments have been discretely selling off young talent to a certain equine country to fuel its industrial revolution, Maverick is the tale of one young teen who finds himself “on the wrong side of the fence”. ‘Tinker’ is your typical street urchin, complete with worn clothes and a jaded view of the world. However, after a fateful encounter, he soon finds himself embroiled in a secretive exchange of assets, with his mind and body on the bargaining table...

Videomaster21xx

The Conversion Bureau - Fragments of Regret

Complete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] | [ 7 ] | [ 8 ] | [ 9 ] |

Google Docs: | [ 10 ] | [ 11 ] | [ 12 ] |

Description: Over half the world's population has now become Ponies. Despite the human populace waning, there are still plenty still needing to be ponified. 21 year old James Fowler would be just another one of those humans heading to be ponified, except for the one big thing that makes him different. He never wanted to be a pony. Despite this, recent events have forced his hand, and so he begins his stay at his local center. Determined to find the resolve to go through with the process. However the ponification is the least of his problems. An event, long ago set into motion, is about to come to pass, and James has a part to play in it... When it happens. The entire game will change forever...

Tags: [Normal]

Additional Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Spike, James, Wing Berry, Rose

Last Man Standing: Aftermath

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] |

Description: A little over a year after the Purification, mankind has vanished and the world has changed into a new place of magic and wonder, with the pervious earth leaving its legacy in history books. However, with the arrival of a strange object crashing to New Equestria, everything is about to change once more. Windchaser is first on the scene, and discovers something that nopony ever expected to see. It is but the first in a series of events that will threaten the new world that the ponies have worked so hard to achieve...

Insanity

Condemned

Author: Videomaster21xx

Description: Oh god what is this I don’t even (A quote from the editor of this document).

Yellowstone The TV Movie

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] |

Description: A fanfic of the fanfic Yellowstone, which is a fanfic of the fanfic The Conversion Bureau, which is a fanfic of My Little Pony: FiM. (Just speak up if you want a better description, Videomaster.)

Series

Here are longer stories that have not been promoted with an author tag.

Salvation Through Destruction

Google Docs: | [ Prologue + 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] |

Incomplete

Author: RoflLuxRay

Description: A rich British man takes on the mission of, single handedly, saving mankind through an elaborate plan that requires the cooperation of both humans and ponies, in an earth where humanity faces its last days due to their own faults. Will he succeed? Or will he fall to the weaknesess of every human?

Tags: Mild-Grimdark, Mild-shipping

Additional Tags: Twlilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Rarity, Spike, Applejack, OC’s, Gunfights, Morale conflicts, Messiah Complex, Action

Death Row

Google Docs: | [ Prologue ] | [ 1 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Dermathil

Description: Death Row is a fanfiction based off of Blaze's Conversion Bureau fanfic. I know many have already been written, but what hit me was that none of them is using the point of view of the HLF. The vast majority of the conversion bureau fanfictions portrays them as an evil organisation that is against the ponification process, but not much beside that. The goal of Death Row is to explore the inner workings of the Human Liberation Front slightly more, through a protagonist working for the organisation rather than a protagonist who antagonizes the HLF.

Freedom Corp: New Dawn

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] |

Google Docs: [ Character Bios ]

Author: Everything Man

Description: Ponies and super heroes? Ponies and super heroes!

Dinner Among Friends

Incomplete

Google Docs: [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4/Interlude 1 is fimfiction-only ]

Fimfiction: [ All Chapters ] + Interlude 1 (New)

Author: Mray

Description: A dinner date between friends gives each a chance to talk things through - one will soon be a pony, the other must come to terms with this.

The Conversion Bureau - Guardian Chronicles

Incomplete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] |

Deviant Art: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4a ] [ 4b ] (New) |

Author: Notorious

Description: A year had passed since the establishment of the Conversion Bureau. The human race seeking a chance at a better life, a better future from their dark, decaying world long ravaged by the hands of the greedy and the corrupt through the act of 'Ponification'. However, the anti pony extremists, the Human Liberation Front (HLF) desperate to save what is left of mankind, intends to eradicate the Pony menace by whatever means necessary. Having forced their hand, the Bureau established V.A.N.G.A.R.D, a special military strike force, operating above the law with the sole intention of protecting the Ponies and suppressing the resistance.

This is the story of 21 year old Dr. David Stone, a self conflicting young man, caught between the harshness of reality and his dream of a world without conflict. Unexpectedly recruited as a V.A.N.G.A.R.D agent, David joins the Conversion Bureau, only to discover that he alone will holds the power in restoring the balance to a world long forsaken. Based loosely on Blaze's original fanfic, The Conversion Bureau.

Tags: [Grimdark-Mild Violence, Mild Language][Adventure]

Additional Tags: OCs, Mane Cast, Humans, HLF, V.A.N.G.A.R.D, Guardian, Magic

Shard

Google Docs: Shard - Main Directory Link

Google Docs: [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Sparky

Description: The GENESIS project was humanity's attempt to cross the space-time continuum. It was sabotaged. Six humans are sent to survey the damage; a simple search and rescue turns into something all the more interesting.

Tags: Adventure, Sci-Fi, Grimdark, Crossover, Incomplete

Additional Tags: Soundtrack-ed, Action, Realistic

Third Party

Complete

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] | [ 4 ] | [ 5 ] | [ 6 ] | [ 7 ]

Author: Pony Soldier

Description: It has been about 20 years since Equestria first made contact with Earth. In that time diplomatic relationships between most countries, the United States in particular, and Equestria have flowed smoothly.  However, not everyone is happy with these relations, and wish to disrupt them by any means necessary.  When an anonymous threat is aimed at the annual meeting between the Equestrian Ambassador and the President of the United States, two secret agents from the extremely covert Experimental Espionage Service are called in as insurance against the threat, but little do they know that they may have stumbled on something bigger than a small group of angry people.

Tags:  Grimdark (Action Violence), OC characters, Sci-Fi

Characters: Anthropomorphic OCs, OC ponies, Celestia, Luna, and the Mane Six.

The Conversion Bureau - Signal Lost

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Winston

Description: When the dwindling human population sparks a desperate last-ditch attempt to colonize Mars, two engineers quickly find themselves wrapped up in a sinister plot to swat mankind's dreams out of the sky. (Thanks to Pride, chistery, PK, Fluttershy, and SunshineSmiles for proofreading and convincing me this was worth writing!)

Tags: [Mild-Grimdark] [Adventure]

Additional Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, Luna, Space, Mystery, Disaster, Conversion Bureau, Spinoff

The Conversion Bureau - Why?

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] |

Complete

Author: Minalkra

Description: As the Conversion Centers convert more and more humans into ponies, one question is answered in a multitude of ways.  Why can be a very complex question.

Tags: [Shipping]

Additional Tags: OC ponies, humans, Celestia, Luna

More

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] |

Fimfiction: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Sonicboom01

Description: One stormy night in the middle of a gradual "drought" of customers, the Conversion Bureau gets a surprise visitor- and he's in a rush to get ponified. The man's rush seems a bit suspicious, and some of the info in his forms isn't all there. There must be more to the story...

The Breaking Point

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] |

Incomplete

Author: BronyOfSteel

Description: The Human Liberation Front has been pursuing its agenda of pony genocide for nearly five years and the time has finally come for their endgame. As events rush towards an inevitable climax, Cpt. James Miller will hold the fate of two races in his hands as he and the rest of the Internal Defense Initiative strive to prevent a cataclysm that would mean final victory for the HLF in its five year war against Equestria and its converts.

The Scientist

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Azul

Description: The HLF. Dedicated to the extermination of pony-kind and the re-affirmation of mankind’s greatness. Or are they? A scientist deeply embroiled with the shady organization may just have plans of his own.

Pandemic

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Sir Issac Johnington

Description: Ten years have passed since the first human underwent ponification, and now half the world has turned into them. It is then that a strange new disease started to tear though the human population, completely new, and incredibly lethal. As questions rise, from how to treat it to where it come from, so do inter-species tensions, as startling revelations are made about the disease. Will this prove to be mankinds undoing, and what might happen as humanity grows more desperate for a cure?

VIIII Days

Google Docs: | [ Prologue ] | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Scalier

Description: After recently escaping jail, Jack decides that the only way he's going to keep out of trouble is to undergo Ponfication, unfortunately for him, and few other people seem to have an interest in him, and he finds himself thrown into the Gutters and Sewers of the Anti-Pony movement in Britain.

Singularity

Google Docs: | [ Prologue ] |

Incomplete

Author: Hunter X

Description: The emergence of the ponies and the Conversion Bureaus as seen through the eyes of the AIs.

The Kid, The Colt and a Filly

Google Docs: | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] |

Incomplete

Author: Erac

Description: What would happen to a family that decided to get ponifed if their young child refused to become a  pony just yet, at least until his parents prove it’s safe, and that they are not different?

Founding Fics

Here are some of the original spin-offs that created a lot of the mythos and set the tone.

The Conversion Bureau: Ten Rounds

Author: Defoloce

Description: In the days following the Conversion Bureaus, the ponies have taken on new tactics to "convince" humans to join pony-kind. Semi-parody and spinoff of "The Conversion Bureau".

The Conversion Bureau: Pride

Author: Pride

Description: By refusing to answer "Yes" to a single question, the freshly-graduated programmer witnesses first hand the slow decay of the world; a world that could handle wars, recessions, disasters and plagues, but could not handle paradise appearing overnight. A short story set in the world of The Conversion Bureau by Blaze, this fic shows how even the most well-intentioned creatures can sow ruin without realising. Written also as a soft offset to the anti-human message found in the original.

One-Shots

Here are one shot stories set in the TCB extended universe.

The Conversion Bureau: Unknown Occurrences

Complete

Author: Beese

Description: The Doctor Investigates a Ponification camp and finds a portal to Equestria. What is this force which has changed the fate of the planet Earth and the humans that inhabit it?

Tags: [Crossover] Dr. Whoof, Celestia

One of Many

Author: Mush

Description: Ponies in England? Ponies in England. And trains!

Random

Note: These are an example of either the best or the worst TCB has to offer. Which one of these they are is up for debate. You have been warned. Skip ‘em if you want the real stories, otherwise the management will accept no liability in impaired mental functions post exposure.

Random Open-Doc-Night TCB Extravaganza

Complete (and beyond any hope of salvage, flee if you value your lives and sanity)

Google Docs: [DON’T DO IT]

Author: EVERYPONY

Description: I have no idea what this is going to be about...but it will be manic. Or rubbish. Or amazing. OR ALL IN EQUAL MEASURE. May contain traces of undesirableness! (Naughty words, situations and banned substances). Do not read this sober. Do not read this drunk. Don’t read this. It’s barely TCB. It’s barely literature. It should probably be considered an act of war.

Edit: The extravaganza is now over and I still don’t know what it’s about. There are no words for what the words say. This is truth.

The Conversion Bureau

A Newfoal Companion Guide

-or-

So You Want To Be A Pony?

Version: 0.2, Thursday 1st of December, 2011

***

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Overview

Useful Links

Fanart

TCB Universes

Editors’ Note

This is an old doc, it severely needs updating, but you should take what you can get.

Without a dedicated archivist (and I am no longer willing to either post TCB compilations on TCB nor shepherd this document) this information will grow stale.

TCB information is best gleaned by running through this document, and then joining the Conversion Bureau group on www.fimfiction.net.

Have fun,

Midnight out.

Introduction

Hello my pony friends, this is Midnight Shadow again butting his great big head in where not wanted to bring to you a short guide on the original alternative universe of the Conversion Bureaus.

For those of you looking for fanfics, I suggest you check out The Conversion Bureau Story Archive document, or the ponychan thread (which will generally have more but potentially harder-to-find fanfics in it)

The ponychan thread - the current one - may have a bigger, better and badder up-to-date list of all the TCB fanfics, the TCB post itself on EqD is now generally reserved for updates only.

Overview

Originally by Blaze and posted on Equestria Daily, The Conversion Bureau is an as-of-this-moment unresolved tale about how ponies come to Earth to offer humans a choice: continue to live in their rundown rapidly-going-to-hell Earth, or become a pony and move to Equestria.

The original has been criticized as being very misanthropic and quick to jump on the “all humans are bastards” bandwagon without building or elaborating on the mechanics of it all - some of these criticisms find their mark - but the premise itself is an intriguing one. What if you could become a pony? What if you were given another roll of the dice - a single roll - to come out as a pony? Be it Earth, Pegasus or Unicorn pony, you would forever lose your thumbs and leave the human race. You’d be given a new life with new hopes and dreams in Equestria.

- Would you take it?

- Would you reject it?

- Would you fight it?

- Would you understand it, or refuse and be unable to comprehend?

All of these questions and more are being answered by ponies who have read not only the original but the horde of spinoffs. Some take the original universe as-is and fit within it’s relatively loose guidelines. Others add their own spin. Some are humans becoming ponies, some are ponies moving back to Earth. Some refuse outright, some cannot take the gift. Some end badly, some end gloriously.

Even if you didn’t like the original, give some of these a spin - I won’t name favourites because that would be unfair in a guide for the whole shebang, but the ponychan thread may tell you ones you’d like to try out.

If you think you’d like to write a shameless self-insert “wow I’m a pony now!” story without having to come up with unlikely premises, then steal this one - it’s fun!

Guidelines

Well there aren’t many - at first I was trying to stay within the original universe, but you know what? It can be as much fun not to, just be consistent. So the guidelines so far (and they are guidelines) are relatively few and simple:

- Try to stick to the premise outlined by Blaze’s original: ponies have been on Equestria for thousands of years, but have stuck within their own bubble-world and have either been unknown of or ignored (it’s not clear in the original - some take it that they suddenly appear without a known cause, others that they were there but separate) until for whatever reason they make contact.

- The ponies offer ponification for free, but you leave behind everything you were. There’s conflict there - families torn apart, friendships die...or maybe it’s a new beginning for a troubled household. You tell the story!

- Ponification is essentially magic - you don’t get to choose (except as the author, you do!) what you come out as. Pregnant women come out with foal the other side. The bureaus are often staffed by the mane six (for fun) or OC’s (for believability)

- It usually takes seven days to acclimatize, with people being called daily for a 15-20 minute session at the end of this period, after which they are “newfoal” ponies who can’t do much magic and are clumsy in the extreme. The biggest alteration I can suggest here is that there are billions of humans - one at a time would not make sense once the Bureaus are all up and running. Keep that in mind.

- Try to imagine how things would change or need to be changed for ponies - cars, seats, televisions, phones...

- Try to image, since it’s the future, what’s different to now - holovision? space ships? AI’s? These extra tweaks can bring a lot of flavour - something weird which we don’t understand but is normal to them can make the story really come alive.

- The HLF - the Human Liberation Front - are rabidly anti-pony, and will kill, kidnap or subdue ponies and human-pony sympathisers. These are your bad guys, though feel free to make up your own groups

- The IHSA - the International Human Survival Alliance. They’re the good version of the HLF and task themselves with, somehow, preserving humanity. they like ponies, and just want to preserve what humanity was and is for the future. Again, feel free to make up your own groups.

- PER - Ponification for the Earth’s Rebirth. These are ponies that are active in trying to turn humans into ponies to make the planet a paradise. Kind of the like the greens but crazier.

- Try to stick to the timeline of the universe-version you’re in: in general it’s roughly the second half of this century, pollution is rampant, jobs are non-existent and the economy is in ruins. Equestria on the other hand is flourishing and essentially growing (maybe physically, maybe just economically). Within a few short years (come on, it’s 9 billion humans so a decade is still not long enough, but eh, roll with it), most of the population of the planet are ponies thanks to the bureaus, with anti-pony groups popping up as more of what humanity was becomes obsolete and a footnote in history. The end has only been written once - by me - and I don’t consider it canon except in perhaps my own semi-offshoot.

- I suggest a simple, short note at the top of your story whether it’s based in, or based on the original. The former is an honest attempt to keep the rules of the “world” as they were presented. The latter gives you more leeway to deviate, or change entirely.

- Read at least some of the other fanfictions that have been written here - of course I’d love if you read mine too, but they’re all pretty good and each is unique.

- Other than that, have fun!

Useful Links

- The story archive document

- Equestria Daily - the original

- Equestria Daily - the new collection post

- Ponychan - the current thread (as of 1/12/11)

Fanart

Some more pieces are being worked on but first, a surprise piece for “A Twist in the Tail” by Starshine Dawn:

Squee! [ Ed’s Note: If you have fanart for these universes, let me know! ]

A Twist in the Tail

Twilight you fiend!

Robo Writing Kanji - Ponies of A Rising Sun

Robo making himself pretty

TCB Universes

NOTE: There may be some spoilers here! Proceed at your own risk, these are for instructional uses in case you like the off-shoot premises. These universes are marked with the original occurence of the deviated set of rules, and companion stories are the author of this document’s choices - the authors of the stories themselves may heartily disagree.

This list is incomplete, but have fun finding them all, or where you fit! Or, make your own!

*

*

*

*

*

Last chance to avoid spoilers! Read on if you’re interested!

*

*

*

*

*

First Contact / Lost in the Herd / Midnight’s Tails

This should be counted as the current manestream Conversion Bureau universe, as it is the most well-defined and most written-in definitively shared setting.

The bubble-universe of Equestria is an entirely different reality, with magical energy seeping into the human world. It is eventually fatal to humans, like radiation (a trait somewhat shared with the Yellowstone the Series set). The shield is expanding, it is ‘eating’ the planet and it is presumed that one day, it will cover everything.

The only escape is moving, and waiting, or becoming a pony.

Highlights of this universe are a genuinely darker backstory, with pollution, crime and corruption running rampant across a world almost devoid of hope for the 99% whilst the 1% live in the lap of luxury. Equestria, on the other hoof, really is everything that has been promised - bar not-perfect ponies, wild beasts and unpredictable magic. Realism (character and event-wise, these ARE pastel talking magical ponies, after all) is valued.

Stories nominally in this universe: Midnight’s Tails (tail, twist, gypsy, day the sky changed, etc), A Dinner Date, A Mare’s Tail, why, Lockdown, Change of Life, First Contact, everything by Chatoyance (see fimfiction!), An Azure Future

This is the “new manestream”

Last Man Standing / Yellowstone

This is separated here as it has one big difference, that of intent and result, otherwise it should be considered part of the “new manestream”.

Unknown to the general populous, the Conversion Bureaus are in fact the salvation for Humanity. Celestia wishes to purify the world through the use of an immensely powerful spell, and the only safe haven from the blast is in the shielded nation of Equestria. However, no human can survive the magical energies that exist there unless they undergo ponification.

Most if not all aspects of LMS have come from or have been a part of the “mainstream” universe for a long while, so this along with Yellowstone could be seen as one of the seminal Conversion Bureau Altermate Universe fics.

The prime difference between this and the expanded “original universe” setting are that the shield itself and it’s expansion is specifically engineered by Celestia, and that the resultant realm is the planet Earth, plus all that Equestria used to be.

If your Equestria will be on Earth (claimed by Equestria) then you’re in the LMS/Yellowstone universe. If your Equestria is less a planet and more a magical realm, then you may be in the “Lost in the Herd” universe. Otherwise, it’s business as usual.

Stories nominally in this universe: Last Man Standing, Yellowstone

The Conversion Bureau

Blaze’s original universe. Nothing can get through the shield but ponies, and humans can’t take the magic in that pocket-universe. It may or may not be physically expanding. Humans become ponies, and many are taking the plunge.

Since the original is now one of the smallest and least-defined settings, it’s almost fair to say that IT is a fanfiction of the latter entries, and would almost certainly need to be rewritten to take a lot of the expanded mythos into account.

Stories nominally in this universe: The Conversion Bureau, Pride

Ten Rounds

Further into the future, the ponies have gone from passive to active - this was a kind of subversion of the original, where niceness is actually a weapon. Ponies are more or less enslaved by Equestria and Celestia, but they like it so much and just want to help...

Stories nominally in this universe: Ten Rounds, The End, Ten Charges

Fragments

Humanity, in becoming Pony, loses many of their negative emotions - but these emotions roam free and begin to take on a life of their own. Marked changes in this universe is that humans can become magical.

Stories nominally in this universe: Fragments of Regret, Last Man Standing: Aftermath

Sidelines

Sidelines is very similar to Fragments. Sidelines features magical humans and a penetrable shield. The above is, broadly, true for Fragments.

Stories nominally in this universe: Sidelines, Yellowstone the Series

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (like Anansi the Spider. Get it? I thought it was clever)

Yellowstone

Part 1:

Out with the Old

Two years have passed since the camps opened up, and in that time more than half the human population in the United States have shed their old skins for a new pony body and the promise of paradise on Earth. Though many have been transformed, the Equestrian ponies and human converts have remained primarily on the East Coast, leaving the mid-west and onwards abandoned, ripe for resettlement. The six remaining Native American tribes have moved into the many of the major cites of the abandoned territories and have formed a new nation in hopes of preserving their culture.

With no one to maintain them, many settlements have become ghost towns ravaged by the elements. Now they lay dormant and empty, save for some that serve as lairs to wild beasts and escaped Equestrian monsters. Nature herself seems to have begun reclaiming some of the land taken from her.

As the dwindling human authorities left more and more territories to fend for themselves, wild outlaws seeking riches and power make this new frontier as dangerous as ever. The only semblance of law are the Agents of the dying human governments, who have denied ponification for one reason or another. Whether it be for honor, duty, or glory, these men and women are the only defense for the now expanding pony populace.

The Western Frontier has been reborn.

*              *              *

Twilight Sparkle was reading over some figures in her private office at the New York Conversion Bureau, which was the largest and most efficient one on the planet. A fact that gave her some small feeling of personal pride. She looked at the digital clock that came with the office and saw it read 4:37 AM. She released a sigh that seemed to not only express her weariness, but also her frustration. The figures she was researching were a mix of new lists of human ponification candidates and news reports of violence against ponified individuals by a radical group known as the Human Liberation Front. The numbers we staggering, and were counted in the hundreds. No pony had died yet (thank Celestia), but this was still getting out of hand.

“So many,” she said. “How can a race of creatures as violent as them live and thrive? It just doesn’t make any sense.” She decided now was as good a time as any to go to her room at the bureau, at least there she could think from the comfort of a bed. She promptly stood up and walked towards the door making sure the lights were off, a habit she had needed to get used to, as human light switches tended to not have ponies in mind. As she left, her thoughts returned to the actions of the human species of late.

“I mean, really! They burn and pillage the planet for…Celestia knows what, and then act         surprised when they find themselves on the brink of extinction!” She passed the dormitories which were mostly unoccupied. It could easily be refilled, daily even, if not for the mandate to wait for everyone on the hall to be ponified first. This existed to build camaraderie amongst the occupants, and discourage any doubts about the process being completely safe. As she continued, she found a door that read:

“AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.”

“Well, this is me.”

She gave a tired sigh and pushed the door open, revealing yet another hallway. She came to a fork and took a left into the staff dorms wherein was her temporary home. “It’s like they just hate the world...” a slight pause when she came to her room. “…but that’s just absurd. I mean, it’s not like the planet has been trying to kill them or anything.” She pushed open the door and entered her room, and with as much grace as a falling cinder-block, collapsed onto her bed.

*              *              *

“TWIIIII-LIIIIIGHT!” rang a voice from outside her room, “Wakey-wakey! Time to rise-y and shiny!”

Twilight rolled over in her bed, looking at the clock on her wall, which showed the time at 9 AM precisely. She could only grimace and groan as she rolled onto her stomach, and prepared to leave the warm comfort of her bed.

“C’mon Twilight! You’re gonna be late for ornamentation, and you are never late so I was worried that you were sick and then I thought that maybe one of the cupcakes I gave you was bad so I...”

It was at this point that Twilight, with little more than an exasperated sigh, magically opened her door to the bouncing pink earth pony that was eagerly waiting to help Twilight welcome the new ponyfication subjects at today’s orientation. She hopped, skipped, and practically jumped next to Twilight’s bed. The pure and infectious grin she always wore was shining particularly bright today.

“Oh golly Twilight, you look awful! Did you get any sleep? I didn’t sleep well once and I was a nappy-napperson ALL DAY! I fell asleep at one of my own parties! I was so embare…”

“Pinkie,” Twilight interrupted.

“Yes Twilight?” replied Pinkie expectantly.

“Could you please be quiet for like…ten minutes,” the unicorn pleaded slightly, her bloodshot eyes barely able to focus on her pinker than pink friend.

“Mmm Hmmm!” agreed the pink pony, making a gesture of zipping her lips together.

Twilight shifted out of bed and telekinetically picked up a comb from her bedside table. She walked over to a mirror that hung on a wall and began brushing her purple-with-a-strand-of-pink mane. It was an absolute mess, with wild locks going every which-way. Twilight concluded on getting a net or something to keep her mane in line.

“MM MMMM!” hummed Pinkie to Twilight.

“What is it Pinkie?” Twilight asked sleepily as she turned to stare at her friend.

Pinkie had her lips clamped shut around a pile of letters, one of which bearing the royal seal of Princess Celestia. A sudden feeling of dread washed over Twilight when she saw the scroll. Usually, she only got missives from the Princess via Spike and those were usually just to check up on her. For one to be hand delivered like this, Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling that some emergency had presented itself. Her thinking immediately turned towards thoughts of Spike being hurt, or worse.

“Pinkie, could you inform Applejack that I won’t be able to do this morning’s orientation?”

“Mmm MMMM MMmmm Mmm!” Pinkie hummed, lips still firmly closed.

“Thank you,” replied Twilight, slightly bemused despite her worried feelings about the letter. When Pinkie bounced merrily out of the room, Twilight opened the letter with her magic and read her mentor’s unquestionably beautiful handwriting,

“My dearest student, Twilight

As you know, we are planning to not only expand into the human world, but begin healing it from the wounds they inflicted upon it. I am most pleased to announce that the first family of settlers is scheduled to leave in two days for Yellowstone, a nature preserve that the family will be at the forefront of maintaining. I am having you accompany them as I am afraid that you have not left the Ponification Center since your arrival, and it’s high time you explored this new world.

The Human President has also warned me of the possible danger to both you and the family however, and informed me that he is sending his best guardian to escort you safely to your destination. The President has assured me that, although unorthodox, this guardian is fiercely loyal and will die to protect those under his care. Please be careful my student, and always remember the human world is not the same as Equestria. It may not have beasts that equal those of your homeland in size or strength, but they more than make up for it in ferocity.

Your eternally proud mentor,

Celestia.

P.S. Wish me luck with the debate this week, as the Human Liberation Front will be my opponents. I hope you can see it, if not in body, then perhaps via a television somepony will be kind enough to share with you.”

“Oh that wasn’t so bad,” Twilight said to herself. “I thought someone had died, but-” Then she re-read it. ‘Oh no’ thought Twilight. ‘Oh no no no no no no…’

*              *              *

Her two days of preparation passed by faster than Twilight had anticipated, and she couldn’t help feel as though she was constantly forgetting some crucial piece of equipment. So while in front of the compound waiting for this human ‘Guardian’ character amongst a field of abandoned cars, she decided to run through her mental list:

‘Okay,’ thought Twilight, ‘checklist. Okay, so friends: Applejack is in charge, Pinkie and Dash are doing reception, Rarity is ponifying, and Fluttershy is…Fluttershying. Right! Good! Now gear: food, money (Dollars and Bits), flashlight with 4 sets of extra batteries, a comb, a blanket and pillow for camping, a canteen and-’

“Hey!”

‘-do I need those apples? AJ said they were good for anything but I-’

“HEY.”

Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin. She was so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed the tall figure that stood before her. “Oh my goodness I’m sorry!” Twilight tried to rearrange herself to look a bit more graceful in front of her surprise guest, but only aided in making embarrassing movements and silly faces.

“Are you Twilight Sprinkle?” the man asked, his face showing signs of mild amusement.

“It’s Twilight Sparkle, and yes I am.” She replied, finally taking in the man who was to escort her and a Pony family halfway across a continent three times the size of Equestria.

He stood at six feet seven inches (Human measurements were so odd), and wore nothing that resembled a uniform. Instead he sported a wide brim leather hat, no doubt made from the skin of some poor cow, a red plaid over shirt with the sleeves rolled up and chest unbuttoned with a plain white t-shirt underneath, dark blue jeans covering his legs with sturdy looking boots on his feet, fingerless gloves over his hands, and a revolver and knife at either side of his hips. Twilight felt intimidated to say the least, if by nothing else than his height.

“I thought human agents wore fancy suits,” Twilight said with a tinge of curiosity in her voice.

“Yeah,” he replied looking to one side, like some far off thing had caught his interest, “well when the whole world is going to hell in a hand basket, dress codes aren’t as enforced as they used to be.” He paused and looked up thoughtfully for a moment, “I think they said dressing casual would frighten you wee horses less.”

Twilight frowned a bit before letting a forgiving grin cross her face, “We’re ponies, not horses, though you’re not the first one to say that, or call me Twilight Sprinkle for that matter!”

She chuckled weakly hoping to ease the tension she felt from conversing with this human that, she assumed, had probably killed more of his own kind than she had years in her life. He gave only a weak smile back, but soon simply stared at her patiently, like he was determining in what way he should respond or silently judging her. It gave the small unicorn an uncomfortable feeling.

After an awkward minute of silence he finally spoke, “Anyway, we have to get going. The settlers are meeting us at the train station in about two or so hours.” He walked over to one of the parked cars in the lot, reached inside and pulled out a large black duffel bag, its contents clunking and clanking together. Twilight was glad to see that the human at least came prepared for travel, but wondered why he would remove his luggage from his car. She remembered being told by one of her ponified friends that humans normally only owned one vehicle, but she didn’t dwell on it, as he walked to another car and opened it, throwing his luggage in. “C’mon, this one has a near full tank. Pretty good considering it’s a Ford,” he said to Twilight with a light chuckle, who moved awkwardly towards the passenger’s seat.

“Is there a reason you own two cars?” asked Twilight after she deposited her luggage in the back seat and assumed her position within the vehicle.

“I don’t. This car belongs to a…” he rifled through the glove compartment and found a wallet, opened it up and read, “…Jericho Lukowittz. Some name huh? I always liked the name Jericho.” He smiled to himself more than to Twilight, who was less enthused about the news.

“WHAT!?” Twilight shouted. Her shock was almost palpable, “You’re STEALING this thing!?”

“No,” he replied with a stern look, “you can’t steal something someone has abandoned. This car and hundreds of others in this lot are up for grabs as far as the law is concerned.”

“But…” even though he had a point, the idea that she might be stealing did not sit right with Twilight, “well…If you’re sure this is alright. But if a policepony stops us I’m telling the truth! I mean the law is the law after all!”

“I am the law,” he countered, a dumb grin spreading across his face like he was expecting her to pick up on some joke, but Twilight just stared back with a slightly worried expression. With a sigh he continued, “Whatever. You may call me Agent Hawk.” He extended a hand to the young mare. She reached out with a hoof and he gripped it firmly.

“I am…honored Mr. Hawk,” Twilight half lied. Though he seemed like everything Twilight imagined when she thought of wild and lawless humans, she was somewhat flattered that he was there to protect her.

They shook on it. After releasing the mare’s hoof, he then began adjusting the driver’s position to his liking, and from a pocket on his over shirt he extracted sunglasses that covered his vision completely. Twilight couldn’t make out his eyes beneath them, but she decided that was probably for the best, as she would feel rather nervous if she knew he was constantly watching her. This way she could at least pretend he wasn’t. She magically drew forth a book she was reading during the days before this particular experience. It was entitled, ‘An Egghead’s guide to Road Trips.’

“Groovy,” said Hawk as he started the engine and began driving.

To be continued?

Probably.

I wouldn’t leave a story just hanging there.

Unless no one reads it.

Then I would abandon it and eat ice cream.

Sweet…non-judgmental Ice Cream.

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (Who loves you, I guess)

Yellowstone

Part 2:

In with the New

The Ford began moving with a lurch, as if it had not been activated in at least a week. As much as Twilight hated the pollution these things caused, she marveled at the concept. A machine that moved fast enough to make land travel a simple chore, and could carry a load far greater than any pony could. Applejack would no doubt love to have something like this.

Despite herself, Twilight couldn’t help but occasionally glance over at her human ‘partner’ every time he stopped the car to let pedestrians cross the street. She felt the need to converse with him. Even though she had just met him, she just wanted to talk. It could be about anything: the weather, why he carried weapons, what he thought of the mission they were on, or if he HAD killed more people than even she suspected. Anything would be preferably than sitting in silence.

“So Agent Hawk,” she started, “what do you think of this mission? Pretty exciting to be going so far west, right? I hear there are many interesting landmarks and natural wonders to visit!” Twilight smiled up at him and did her best to sound genuine in her excitement.

The sunglasses kept Twilight from reading his eyes for any expression or emotion, but he responded quickly, which led Twilight to believe he had been through this conversation in his mind many times before. “I would sincerely discourage hoping to get any excitement out of this little excursion. Now a days, out west, a little ‘excitement’ can get you killed. And quite frankly Ms. Sparkle, I am in no particular rush to get shot, stabbed, mauled, or eaten alive this week.” Hawk turned to face Twilight, “Not to dampen the mood or anything.”

Twilight looked disheartened, to say the least, and concluded that now was an excellent time to figure out what kind of man she was working with. If the west was as dangerous as they say, she’d at least make friends with her escort. “Sounds…rough out there, you think we’ll be safe enough with just you and me?” unable to hide a small tremble of fear in her voice.

Hawk smiled, picking up on the unsteady tone in her question, “Don’t worry, the train goes directly to Yellowstone, nonstop. It’ll take more than a few marauders and ill-tempered moose to cause us any trouble.” He again glanced at Twilight, “This’ll be over before you know it, and then you can get back to being an awkward shut in, working tirelessly to turn sheep into cattle.”

Twilight’s face darkened at the last comment. “What do you mean by that Agent Hawk?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Do you not like what we ponies are doing here Agent Hawk?” she continued, eyes scrutinizing his features.

“Far from it Ms. Sprinkle, I don’t think the human race has ever been so well off or as free as it is now.” His face and tone were deadpan.

“Then why haven’t you gone to be ponified?”

His smirk returned, “Because I like having these.” His thumbs started to twirl in circles.

Twilight, unconvinced, continued to probe, “That cannot be why you are staying in such a…” what was a nice way of putting it, “…rough state of existence.”

“Are you kidding? Check this out.” He took his hands off the wheel and meshed his fingers together, thumbs facing each other. They then began spinning in opposite directions. “Pretty neat huh?”

Unfortunately, Twilight was distracted from the amazing feat by a concern she was all too pleased to voice, “WHY ARE YOU TAKING YOUR HANDS OFF THE WHEEL!?” She put her front hooves on the dash board, gazing out the window as the car began to swerve.

“Hey are you watching? This was a rare talent when it was just us humans on the earth, and by now I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who can do it.”

“ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh”

Hawk sighed and put his hands on the wheel, taking back control of the vehicle and narrowly avoiding a small stack of empty trash cans. “No one appreciates my talents.”

Twilight decided it would be best to hold off on questions until they were out of the car, and spent the rest of the trip nose deep in her book. ‘Celestia preserve me, I’m under the protection of a maniac.’

They spent the rest of the trip in silence, Twilight only occasionally looking up from her book to make sure there were still driving on road. Eventually she put her book down and closed her eyes. ‘I wish Applejack or Rainbow Dash were here, I’d at least be able to have a laugh or two with them. Not to mention feel safer.’

“We’re here,” said Hawk gesturing out the front window. Twilight gazed on a structure that resembled a large, old, stone building that seemed more to fit as a palace than a simple train station. Hawk parked the car in front of the building’s steps. Twilight noted that no other cars were present.

Hawk reached behind him and grabbed his black duffel bag. Twilight, with a shimmer from her horn, did likewise with her own pack. As the two exited the car, the doors to the train station swung open, and a tanned man with smooth black hair and a well groomed moustache began walking towards them with a wide smile. He wore only black, but not in a way that seemed intimidating, but more stylish and loose. At his side hung what appeared to be a sword.

“Well, look who got here on time for once!” said the man, his accent was unlike anything Twilight had ever heard.

Hawk looked up, and frowned to an almost ridiculous degree, “Zorro,” Hawk said with exaggerated disdain, removing his sunglasses in a slow, dramatic motion.

Moments passed in silence before the two exploded into laughter and embraced into a hug.  Twilight felt relieved that this ‘Zorro’ was evidently a friend. After more laughs, Zorro finally acknowledged the small unicorn, “Hola pequeña,” he gave her a swift and fluid bow, adding a small flourish with his hand to boot.

Twilight didn’t know what he said, but it sure sounded nice. “Hello…um…Mr. Zorro, my name is Twilight Sparkle.” She gave a small bow of her own.

“I know who you are Miss Twilight, I was briefed on the mission by the good Agent Hawk, but I enjoy hearing you say you name. You speak with such…grace. I am looking forward to working together with you, and listening to whatever other sounds may dance from your mouth.”

Twilight couldn’t help but blush. She had never thought humans could be charming.

“Neither man nor beast is safe from you…” Hawk said as he walked past them with his bag, eyes rolling in great arcs. He called back to them, “Don’t be too impressed with him Twilight, he’s dropped that line on at least fifty other girls. He’s sort of a one trick pony!” Hawk laughed deeply as he continued up the stairs.

Zorro merely grinned, and turned to follow. Twilight, after wiping away a dumb grin that had somehow gotten onto her face, she  trotted after the two. About halfway up the stairs, she finally gathered the nerve to ask, “Are you coming with us Mr. Zorro? I was under the impression that the human government was only sending one of their Agents.”

Zorro had arrived at the door to the station and held it open for her. “The government is indeed only sending one agent, niña. I however am here on request of my old friend,” he paused to look at Agent Hawk, “I owe him that much.” Twilight moved through with an appreciative nod to Zorro for the small courtesy.

“Yeah, thanks for that by the way. But regardless Z, why are you carrying around that antique? I mean come on,” Hawk replied from inside the station.

Zorro looked hurt, “An antique? My poor, deluded friend,” he chided, “bullets are becoming more and more of a rarity than humans every passing day,” he looked to his hip, and then back to Hawk, “Fencing is making a comeback my friend. Soon it will be that revolver that is the ‘antique.’”

With a grunt, Hawk turned towards Twilight, “Come on Sprinkles, the train awaits, and from what I hear, she’s a beauty.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “If you’re calling me that to be funny, I’ll have you know it lost its luster when I was in kinder garden.”

Zorro chuckled to himself as all three of them proceeded towards into the station. The building was empty save for the three of them, and the echoing of their footsteps left Twilight with a curious thought, ‘What was this place like in its prime? It seems like such a waste not to use it.’

They all passed through two large double doors, which opened up into a great hall, with two sets of tracks. On the one closest to them, a gleaming four sectioned train sat waiting. It was not at all like the ones in Equestria, far from them in fact. This train was sleek, smooth, and hovered a foot above the rails. Twilight’s eyes widened, and stood somewhat flabbergasted. “How is it floating? I thought humans didn’t have magic!” She stared at Hawk expecting some sort of explanation.

Hawk looked down to her, pride obviously fueling his grin. “Very true my erstwhile equine escort, we do not possess magic in the way you Equestians do, we use something I think is far more powerful. Science.” He paused to read her expression, which showed an obvious desire to debate the previous statement, but before she could Hawk continued, “The Magna Rail is suspended by a magnetic field that allows it to hover, as you can clearly see, but it can only do so above metal. So we will be limited to keeping it on the train tracks.”

“Is it fast?” inquired Twilight.

“Is cruising at two hundred and fifty miles per hour fast?”

“Is it?”

Hawk looked down, “Yes Twilight. It’s fast. It’ll get us to Yellowstone in about eight hours.”

“Eight hours?! But according to my map, Yellowstone is in…,” Twilight took out her map of the United States and looked for the territory that she marked with an ‘X’, “Why-Om-ing, and the distance from there to here is nearly the length of Equestria twice over!”

“And that’s why we’re taking the Magna-Rail, which if my report read right, comes with a lounge, sleeping quarters, and a five star kitchen.”

“And something special for you my friend, that the President installed himself,” added Zorro.

Hawk looked like a foal on Hearths Warming Eve, but before he could ask what it was a young feminine voice shouted, “Look Mama! Humans!”

Twilight, Zorro, and Hawk each turned, and saw a family of four Earth Ponies, each standing with their mouths agape and eyes wide. Other than the mother, a yellow coated mare with a forest green mane with a blooming flower as her cutie mark, and the father, a brown stallion with green mane, with a single tree as his mark, were two fillies. The younger of which was cowering behind her father while the older seemed to be fidgeting with excitement.

The mother addressed Twilight first, “Hello there darlin’, you must be our escort!” Her smile was almost as infectious as Pinkie’s. “We are just honored to meet y’all!”

The older of the two fillies, a spry little thing with a yellow coat and unkempt brown mane and an open book for a cutie mark, pranced towards Hawk. “Woooooooooow! You’re so tall! I heard humans were tall, but wow!” she said, her face giddy with obvious excitement.

“Busy Bee!” the mother called, “Get back here young filly!” Twilight detected a small twinge of fear and panic in her voice. She understood though, considering all the rumors about the brutal and savage humans that were probably circling around the towns and cities of Equestria.

“But Mama, I wanna see if he has fangs like Scootaloo said they did!” pouted Busy Bee.

The mother gave the filly a glare that only mothers could. “Right now Bee.”

As she trotted back to her mother’s side, the father stepped forward, “Sorry ‘bout the youngin’, she follows gossip and rumors like a fish follows a river, but she means well enough,” said the stallion with a big smile, “. I’m Tall Leaf, and this here is the rest of the Garden family.”

“The missus,” he said gesturing towards his wife, “is Morning Dew, you’ve met Busy Bee, and this little darlin,” he looked at the meek looking filly behind him, “is Merry Gold. Come on and say hello to the nice unicorn honey.”

A meek little pony with a white coat and golden mane, but no cutie mark, stepped out from behind Tall Leaf. With a nervous glance towards the humans, Merry Gold trotted towards Twilight, “Hello Ma’am.”  She quickly retreated back behind her father and looked out from between his legs.

Twilight giggled a little, ‘She is just adorable!’ she said to herself. “Well then Garden Family, welcome to the human lands, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and these two men,” she made sure not to use the ‘gentle’ prefix for honesty’s sake, “are Agent Hawk, and his friend Zorro.” Hawk gave a tip of his hat and Zorro did a small, respectful bow. “They will be our protection against any unforeseen complications.”

“Like cannibals? Scootaloo told me that humans sometimes eat each other when they can’t find anything else to chomp into!” Busy Bee exclaimed.

Merry Gold scrunched up her face in disgust, “Ewww! Bee that’s gross!”

“Busy Bee! That’s morbid!” cried the mother, dragging the filly next to her, as a similar look of disdain as Merry Gold’s crossed her face.

“Let’s hope we avoid such unpleasantries,” continued Twilight, who was also feeling a bit queasy after that last comment. ‘How did Scootaloo get THAT thought running through her head? Maybe I should tell AJ about this when I get back.’

“All right,” Hawk finally spoke, “Let’s get this circus on the train already. Zorro, if you could please show the horses to their stables I’ll go get the train ready to go.”

“Horses?” said Morning Dew raising an eyebrow. Turning her head towards Twilight she asked, “He does know we are ponies right? Not hor-“

“He knows,” interrupted Twilight, a cold stare watching Hawk enter the Magna Rail.

Zorro clapped his hands together and with a big friendly smile said, “Now, my little ponies, let us board the train, please watch your step.” His voice was calm and friendly, and the Garden family followed him in with Twilight bringing up the rear.

The entrance led directly into the lounge area, which seemed to have two halves. One housed an elegant arrangement of chairs and couches around a coffee table, with a luscious rug on the floor, what seemed to be a wooden wardrobe with marvelous carvings depicting the sun over a lion on the wall, and from the ceiling hung a wide-screen television. The other half had two long couches that went along the walls, and between them was another rug, which was more coarse than the other one.

Zorro pointed to a door at the end of the section saying, “The beds are through there my friends. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must make sure Hawk doesn’t harm any of the controls.” Zorro then went through the door at the head of the section, which he closed behind him. The ponies pushed through the door in the rear of the section, which read “Beds” over it. The sleeping cart had four alcoves on each wall, and each alcove had a bunk and a window, plus a little light bulb for late night reading.

Tall Leaf approached the closest bed, his eyes widening in amazement, “Mercy! Lookit the size of these beds! We could fit half the extended family in one of these!”

“Ooh!” cried Busy Bee, “Dibs on this one! C’mon Merry we can share this one!”

“Okay!” replied Merry Gold, who seemed much more at ease away from the human agents.

“You can share my bed handsome,” Morning Dew cooed to Tall Leaf.

A blissful smile appeared on his face, “Yes Ma’am!” The two fillies made grossed out faces, and then proceeded to suffer from a giggle fit.

Twilight picked out a bed for herself and began to organize it to her liking. Then she delicately climbed onto it, taking in its cave like atmosphere. The beds were soft, like the kind of soft Twilight always imagined cloud beds would feel. ‘Amazing how such savage beings can make something so comfy.’ Twilight’s sudden, and rather judgemental, thoughts surprised her, ‘Well that wasn’t a nice thing to say.’ She shook her head to clear her mind of such thoughts. She noticed the rest of the family was finished settling in, and were beginning to move into the lounge.

Following suit, Twilight entered the lounge section and found a spot on an equally comfy couch next to Morning Dew, who was admiring the furniture’s comfort as much as Twilight.

The door to the outside slid shut by itself with a hiss, and a green light above the door to the front of the train lit up.

“This is your captain speaking,” Hawk’s voice came, seemingly from nowhere, “I hope you’re ready, because here we go!” The train lurched forward.

“Hold on to your butts!” Busy Bee exclaimed, far more excited than any other pony present.

And with that, the Magna Rail shot out of the station at sixty miles per hour, and climbing.

Continue? Hell yeah!

When? Who knows?

Next chapter’s title?

Journey to the West.

Ballin’.

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (Why am I still doing this? Oh right, cowboys and Zorro.)

Yellowstone

Part 3:

Journey to the West

Within minutes, the Magna Rail was well away from the city outskirts and moving gracefully at nearly two hundred and fifty six miles per hour. As Twilight stared out the window, she could hardly believe that something could move this fast. Well, other than Rainbow Dash of course.

It was then that Agent Hawk came through the door that led to the cockpit, grumbling about something while carrying his large black duffel bag. He moved through the lounge and past the ponies with little regard, but making sure not to step on any hooves. The Garden Family made sure not to make eye contact. He entered the sleeping cart, threw his bag into the alcove above the one the two fillies were to be sharing and returned to the lounge.

He moved towards the wardrobe and opened it up, revealing rows of books. Twilight eyes lit up and she immediately trotted over next to him.

“How marvelous!” She looked over at Hawk, “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to read another culture’s literature!” She gazed at the books longingly, practically mesmerized by them.

“Can you can even read it?” Hawk asked. “And if you can, are you sure you want to?”

“Oh yes, I’ve had to become quite familiar with the human alphabet. Reports and things demand it.” She gave Hawk a smile, “And I’ve heard quite a few good things about human books from the people that came through the ponification camps.”

“Well alright,” Hawk faced the small library, “Take your pick.” Hawk pulled out a book with a green cover and gold inlay from the shelf bearing the title ‘Unforgiven. By: Clint Eastwood.’ Hawk then went to the half of the lounge that was barren of any ponies, laid down on one of the couches that lined the walls, and began reading.

Twilight was more excited than she thought she should have been. She now had access to new books, exotic books, books that she could never get in Equestria. She scanned the rows reading each title with delight.

‘The Song of Roland.’ ‘100 Mystery Stories.’ ‘The Three Musketeers.’ ‘King James Holy Bible.’ ‘The Maltese Falcon.’ ‘Fahrenheit 451.’

The list went on and on of possible choices, Twilight could barely decide which one to take first. Eventually she saw one that caught her eye. It was a rather large book that looked like the kind of heavy reading Twilight so enjoyed: ‘Tales of The Round Table.’ She trotted back to where the other ponies were relaxing and talking to each other. She sat down next to Morning Dew, who was busy nuzzling her husband and talking about their new lives in Yellowstone. Twilight shifted in place until she had a comfy little space and began reading as Morning Dew began singing softly to her enamoured husband.

“I’m gonna do it Merry Gold,” whispered Busy Bee to her sister, making sure her mother didn’t hear.

Merry Gold gave a concerned look, “But Mama doesn’t want you talkin to ‘em! She says they’re dangerous!”

“I know,” replied the elder sister with a smile, “but I’m not afraid to ask ‘em questions! And Mama always told us to never be afraid of asking questions didn’t she?”

“Well yeah,” Merry Gold couldn’t argue with logic like that, and just gave a plaintive look that seemed to beg her sister to reconsider.

Making sure her mother was distracted, Busy Bee hopped off the spot on the couch she had been sharing with her sister and trotted over to where Agent Hawk was as silently as she could. He was laying down with his back resting against a corner, reading quietly. Busy Bee leapt onto the couch and sat at his feet. Hawk lowered his book enough to peer at her over the edge of the cover, only to see the smiling face of the young filly.

“Can I ask you a question Mr. Hawk?”

The man rolled his eyes and closed his book on one of his fingers, sighing heavily through his nose.

Busy Bee looked elated, “Do humans have fangs?”

Hawk took a free index finger and lifted his top lip, showing off his canines. The young filly’s eyes narrowed her eyes in an attempt to see them. Seeing the young pony unable to make out his teeth, Hawk changed position and leaned forward, making sure she could see everything.

“Huh…They’re smaller than Scootaloo said they were. Whatever. Can I ask another question?”

Hawk leaned back into his previous position and grunted.

“Is it true humans can crush each other’s skulls with one hand?” she asked as she leaned forward with an eager curiosity.

Hawk looked at his free hand and made it into an open, claw like shape. He shook his head, “A man’s? No.” He reached over to Busy Bee and put his hand on her head. She was shaking, and her smile was replaced with a nervous, upward stare. “Maybe a filly’s.” Hawk smiled and ruffled her mane a little. Afterwards he returned his hand back to his lap. Busy Bee’s smile also returned, with a slight giggle to accompany it.

“I thought you humans were supposed to be scary! Scootaloo is such a fibber.” She changed her face to show mock anger and softly stomped her hooves near Hawk’s feet.

Hawk once more leveled his book in between their faces. “We are scary. Especially when we’re angry.”

“Do your eyes turn red and your faces get all messed up?” she asked, once again giving a curious stare.

“Nah, we keep our same old faces, but they look different.”

“What’s that mean?”

“If you ever see an angry human, you’ll know.”

Morning Dew looked up from her husband, who had fallen asleep while she had sung to him, and noticed that both the fillies were no longer in sight.

“Busy Bee?” she asked, panic quickly entering her voice, “Merry Gold?”

She trotted off the couch and saw Busy Bee sitting by Agent Hawk’s feet, asking question after question about this and that. Merry Gold was curled up on the floor next to where the couch met the floor, out of sight of both the human and older sister, listening intently but to afraid to reveal herself. But when Merry Gold saw her mother seeing them, she gave a small squeak.

Morning Dew, fear obvious in her features, slowly walked towards the still unaware Busy Bee. Hawk shot her a glance from behind his book, stopping her dead in her tracks. It wasn’t a mean look, just one that took notice of her, but all the same it made the mother’s heart skip a beat.

Hawk smiled at Morning Dew and then spoke to Busy Bee, “Your Mom is standing behind you, looking like she’s seen a monster or something.”

Busy Bee’s face looked like she’d been caught doing some foul crime. She slowly turned around, “Heeeeeey Mom…what’s up?”

After regaining her composure, and giving Hawk a weak smile back, she addressed both her children, “Girls, please, don’t sneak off like that again, and stop bothering Agent Hawk by askin him all the questions in the whole world.”

“Oh he doesn’t mind Mama! I think he likes answering questions,” the elder sister countered, “Don’t ya Mr. Hawk?”

Hawk gave a neutral kind of shrug. He reached into his pocket and removed an engraved silver pocket watch and gave a sigh. They’d only been traveling for thirty minutes.

“Who wants to watch some great ol’ human cinema?” he asked loud enough for even Twilight to notice. He got up, avoided stepping on Merry Gold, and walked towards the wardrobe as the fretful mother pony gave him a wide berth. Busy Bee hopped down after him, and Merry Gold followed her sister with Morning Dew giving them very relieved, but mildly disappointed, looks.

Twilight had been thoroughly enjoying the beginning of the book she was reading, but she was most interested in reading about the five knightly virtues that were the central theme of the whole piece:

‘A knight must speak nothing but the truth.’

‘A knight must defend the weak and helpless from evil, even at the cost of his own life.’

‘A knight must be loyal, not only to his king and his homeland, but must keep sacred his vows lest they lead to evil.’

‘A knight must be humble before God and his fellows, be they man or woman, and generous to those in need.’

‘A knight must show mercy to those who he has defeated and shun acts of cruelty, even in times of war and battle.’

Twilight was amazed that these ancient words from, not only a time of darkness and death in human history but also a culture completely separate from her own, resembled the Elements of Harmony so closely. Sure there was nothing that blatantly resembled the Element of Laughter, but ‘defending the weak from evil’ is something that laughing can do, as her friend Pinkie Pie can certainly attest to. ‘It’s like humanity had all the ingredients to be just like Equestria...but they were missing something.’ Twilight pondered the innumerable possibilities.

But when she was interrupted by Hawk’s suggestion of a film, she grew excited and put a magical bookmark on the current page before closing the tome. She had once made friends with a ponified human, Kurt she thought his name was, who had told her that a series of films known as ‘Star Wars’ was a masterpiece of science fiction. Although war was not her favorite subject matter, she had been wanting to look into human film craft. Hawk bent down in front of the wardrobe and opened a small, hard to notice, drawer.

“Okay, what are you all in the mood for?” He asked his charges, facing them with a grin.

“I’ve heard very good things about Star Wars,” said Twilight. Then she remembered more of her conversation with Kurt and added, “…but only the originals.” She smiled, priding herself on remembering what seemed like an important detail.

Hawk nodded in approval, “Good, but is there anything else you heard about these films?” he added.

Twilight strained he memory, “Uhhhh…”

‘There was something else important to mention…Think Twilight…THINK!’

“Han shot first?” She recalled Kurt saying that often.

Hawk gave an approving nod and a big smile, “You’ve learned much young Twilight, and as such we shall begin where all should. A New Hope.” And with that he gestured for the rest of the ponies to take spots on the comfy couch. The parents of the garden family looked at each other in confusion, while the fillies could barely contain themselves in their excitement. He then began the movie, which appeared on the large flat screen television which hung from the ceiling.

“Twilight,” he said, “if you would be so kind as to read them the opening crawl, I’ll go prepare some popcorn.” Twilight nodded and Hawk disappeared into the sleeping cart. The movie began and Twilight read the words in a particularly dramatic voice, much to the amusement of the little ones. Hawk came back just as the crawl was finishing and placed a large bowl of popcorn on the coffee table in front of the ponies. He then walked towards the cockpit.

“Aren’t you gonna watch it with us?” asked Busy Bee.

“Nah, I’ve gotta keep Zorro company,” Hawk replied, “he can get terribly lonesome.”

With that, Hawk disappeared and the movie began, lowering the camera on a dusty orange planet…

*              *              *

After four hours, the ponies had finally finished ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and were taking the time in between movie changes to take care of certain bodily functions, while also using the opportunity to stretch their legs. Twilight was enamored with the films. Sure it was weird at first, watching non-pony actors on screen, but by the time the films had introduced the character of Obi-Wan, she was over it. Of course her favorite character was Yoda, if only for his surprising amount of wisdom.

It was fascinating how many parallels she could draw between ‘The Force’ and the nature of magic that she herself had seen. For instance, the ‘Dark Side’ was based on anger, fear, and aggression, the exact things that had turned Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon so long ago. Everything the little green creature said about The Force seemed to factor into some aspect of magic, from its use in day to day life and what times to use it against something that might be threatening her.

Of course the fillies loved it, and were busy pretending to fight with those laser sword things they had. Though the parents were a bit concerned about all the violence and death, they gasped right along with every other pony when Vader revealed the truth about him and Luke. All in all, Twilight couldn’t wait for the conclusion and eagerly waited in her spot on the couch.

Hawk was busy putting the next film into the player, getting an earful from the fillies about the parts they liked the most. All Hawk could do was smile. Twilight was extremely pleased that everything was going better than she expected, but also a little ashamed that she had judged humans so harshly before. She kept her mentor’s warning in mind of course, that humans were savage compared to Ponies, ‘But maybe,’ thought Twilight, ‘maybe the Princess just got a bad first impression?’

Suddenly Zorro’s voiced blared from unseen speakers, “Sorry to interrupt the marathon Hawk, but you need to see something up here.”

Hawk grimaced. Twilight knew that probably meant something bad. Fortunately she didn’t have to ask to come along as Zorro added, “You’d best come up here too Miss Sparkle.” With a concerned look from Tall Leaf, which was mirrored by Morning Dew, Twilight simply nodded and trotted towards the cockpit.

Once within, she was joined by Hawk, who wore a concerned expression. “Is it bad Z?” he asked.

“Very,” replied Zorro, not looking away from a glowing monitor. “Satellites are picking up a massive pressure drop about fifty miles ahead of us, and the Six Tribes Weather Service has issued a Watch notice.” Zorro looked over his shoulder, “The Super Cell is dropping it down within fifty meters of the tracks, and it is going to be very, very big.”

Twilight spoke up, confused, “Wait, so what is the problem? What’s going on Hawk?” She looked to Hawk, who looked at her in disbelief.

“You can’t seriously tell me you don’t have tornadoes in Equestria.” His tone almost sounded astonished.

“Well, we have twisters, but they aren’t that big of a problem. They’re mostly out in the desert, and don’t get that big.” Twilight felt like she wasn’t completely understanding why the two, allegedly ferocious killers, were giving her such astonished looks.

“Twilight,” said Hawk, his tone harsh, “Tornadoes in the human world, are like the wrath of God ripping and tearing the very Earth apart. The one that could be forming right now could very easily level an entire city.” He looked to Zorro, “Get this tin can in reverse and to a safe distance, and if you spot a cave or something tell me. If that thing comes for us we need shelter that’s a bit more stable than this thing.” He moved to leave the cockpit before adding, “Let’s hope we’re all still alive when that thing dissipates. I’d hate to not finish that marathon.” As he left to inform the Garden Family about the potential disaster, Twilight had a hurt expression on her face, which Zorro immediately addressed while pulling a lever that slowed the train to a crawl. Rain began pattering the windshield.

“You look like someone just broke your heart dear niña.” Zorro chuckled a bit, trying to lighten the mood.

Twilight composed herself, “Is it really as bad as Hawk said? It can’t be that terrible, can it?” She was convinced that something like Hawk had described had to be made up.

Zorro looked for the right words before stating in an all too honest tone, “Hawk is not wrong to be worried. Even if it avoids us and the Magna Rail, the tracks will more than likely be destroyed, unless, by some miracle, they are too well engraved into the earth to move.” He looked at Twilight, a smile breaking his serious face. “Do not worry though, soon we will be far from harm’s way. We’ll just have to trek a thousand or so miles to Yellowstone on foot. No problem.” He returned to the controls and pulled the lever back even further, moving the train into reverse.

“Yeah,” said Twilight, “No problem for a pegasus maybe.” She wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of walking half the way to a place that was already far enough away that no pony would believe her if she told them that she had traversed it in a day. She began trotting back into the lounge, where worried voices were talking. The sky had grown dark.

‘How far away had Zorro said it was? Fifty miles? Whatever this thing is it can’t be that big.’ Twilight tried to imagine the human’s measurements, and compared it to a what she imagined a ‘Human Tornado’ would look like. The image she conceived was as big as Canterlot, and was a swirling funnel of dust, like she’d seen that one time she went to Appleloosa. She grew concerned when she imagined Princess Celestia being sucked up and blown away by the enormous cloud.

Before Twilight could continue thinking, she noticed that the Garden Family had moved into the sleeping area and were being shown the emergency straps hidden under the mattresses that could buckle together to restrain a man, or pony, from flying off of it. Hawk was doing a good job of explaining how to adjust and loosen the straps, and made sure to say, “Just in case,” about three times. Morning Dew was giving him her full attention, and Tall Leaf was busy comforting his daughters who were curled together in their bed, looks of fear staining all their faces.

The Magna Rail made a sudden stop, making the world inside the vehicle very quiet, so that now the rain hitting the roof of the train was the only audible sound. The pitter-patter of the rain only heightened the atmosphere of tension that had formed. No one spoke, and hardly anyone could be heard breathing. Even Hawk looked wary of the unexpected stop, but eventually resumed his instruction to the passengers. Twilight moved into the sleeping cart and climbed into her alcove, locating the straps that Hawk had been going over. She brought out the straps with little effort thanks to her magic, and then she listened to the sound of the rain.

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, Thunk.

‘Thunk?’ Twilight looked at Hawk. Hawk looked at Twilight. Something heavy had hit the roof of the train. The unicorn looked out the window. It wasn’t yet evening, but it was so dark, she could barely see anything.

Thunk.

Everypony was looking at the roof now. What was making that noise? Then, whatever was on the roof fell off and passed by Twilight’s view. It was what appeared to be a cow. It wasn’t moving. She felt a sudden sickness come over her, and rolled down the curtain for her window.

Zorro was making his way towards the sleeping cart. As he entered he pushed a button on the wall that closed the door which made a hissing sound as it closed. They were now sealed in a pressurized space.

“Better strap yourselves down. It’s coming for us,” Twilight could see the fear in his face, but he kept his tone confident for the sake of the others present.

“Damn that thing is fast! Son of a gun must really want one of us dead,” said Hawk, turning to Zorro, “You didn’t sleep with its daughter did you?” Hawk paused for effect.

The lewd comment sent both men into tizzy of giggles and laughs, while Tall Leaf and Morning Dew grew concerned that they were in the care of two men who thought dying might be funny.

Hawk began strapping in the other ponies, while Zorro began locking down luggage and equipment. Twilight herself started going through spells in her head that could protect them if need be, which seemed all the more likely as a noise arose outside that sounded like the very air was screaming. It was a scream that was getting louder by the second.

Hawk and Zorro dove into bunks for themselves after making sure everypony else was secure, and quickly strapped themselves.

The screaming was now at an almost deafening level. The fillies began to cry. The parents were trying to shout comforting phrases at them. Twilight clenched her eyes shut unable to stop herself from thinking she’d never see her friends again.

“Hey Sprinkles!” called Hawk over the din.

Momentarily surprised, Twilight called back. It wasn’t any real word. She was too terrified think of one when she felt the train begin to shudder around her. What came out resembled an, “EH?” only it had more terror in it.

“Ever rolled down a hill in a barrel before?”

An odd question for a time like this. Her response was as much a question as an answer, “No!?”

Hawk began to chuckle, “Well then, this should offer some ‘excitement’ for you!” He began to laugh maniacally. Zorro was whispering something in that language of his.

‘Celestia preserve me.’

The Magna Rail came free of the rails and was lifted up into the swirling funnel cloud.

Tornadoes?!

Oh shit!

Next up: Where the Wild things are.

I’ll keep going until I reach the End!

Or until I get waylaid by reality!

Or someone calls me names to make me stop!

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (What’s that? You want more film and book references?)

Yellowstone

Part 4:

Where the Wild Things Are

Twilight had come to a monumental decision: the next time Princess Celestia asked her to leave her home to go on some quest to parts unknown, she would very politely, and with all due respect, tell her graceful monarch to go sit on her horn and spin for a while.

Twilight could barely hear herself think over all the screaming going on around her: Tall Leaf and Morning Dew were screaming, Busy Bee and Merry Gold were screaming, the very air was screaming, and last but not least, Twilight was screaming. The only ones not screaming were the humans. They had their teeth clenched and kept their bodies stiff, awaiting for the inevitable time when the Magna Rail would be reacquainted with the ground.

‘Use your magic!’ Twilight kept repeating in her head. ‘What spell? What Spell!’ Teleportation would do no good. She needed to concentrate on a place she could see or a familiar area for that to work, and right now she didn’t even know which way was up.

‘We’re all gonna die! Oh Celestia I don’t want to die! I haven’t even kissed my first stallion! What about telekinesis? Maybe I could disrupt the tornado’s spin? Size matters not, right? That’s what Yoda said right?’

Twilight reopened her eyes, and saw nothing but darkness outside. She only heard the sound of the howling winds and the other debris crashing into the section of train, which would no doubt be their tomb if Twilight couldn’t do this. Closing her eyes once more, she focused on the storm and reached out with her magic. She reached out beyond the confines of the walls and felt the storm with an immaterial hand fashioned of pure will.

It was like putting a hoof into a raging river, and her concentration almost wavered from its chaotic movements. Twilight focused, solidifying her thoughts on the task at hand and began to grab hold of the very air.

It wasn’t working, as Twilight should have expected. It was impossible to get a hold of the wind, as Dash would have been first to tell her. Twilight released her telekinetic hand, once again contemplating her friends. Eventually her thoughts turned to her ageless mentor, Celestia, and all she had learned from her. She remembered being taught the workings of magic, and some of the more basic principles of science, like how boats worked and how a Pegasus could fly.

A loud “THWUNK” from a tree denting the wall gave Twilight inspiration.

If she couldn’t grab the wind, she would grab onto what the wind was holding. Everything, big or small left a wake in the wind, like how everything leaves a wake in water. So Twilight just needed to make everything else caught in the tornado spin the opposite direction, the resulting air resistance should cancel out the Tornado. Either that or the debris would just get ripped to shreds by the wind, but despite that possibility she had a very good feeling about this plan.

‘Size matters not. Size matters not. Size matters not. Size matters not. Size matters not.’

With renewed vigor, Twilight once more reached out with her mind. She gripped a tree, then a few dozen more, and then a wide variety of wooden planks and steel rails that were once the track. She found the hardest thing to grab hold of the innumerable specks of dust and dirt that flew at near incalculable speeds, but she eventually held them all the same. Finally she took hold of the Magna Rail, possibly the largest and heaviest thing in this cyclone of death.

Her horn was glowing enough to light even the darkest storm, and the others present opened their eyes to see what could only be described as a pony with a fountain of light on its forehead.

With a scream of desperate defiance to a storm fueled by malice, she forced everything in the storm to spin the way she wanted. The force of exertion nearly knocked her out then and there, but she continued to push against the whirlwind with everything she had, spinning what she took from the cyclone faster and faster.

Within seconds, the tornado was disrupted, and lost much of its previous bluster. The howling winds grew quiet, and Twilight released her hold on all the objects under her power. All except the Magna Rail that is. She gave the train a soft and careful descent towards the now, much calmer, earth below.

After touching down, Twilight gave into exhaustion and passed out.

*              *              *

From the aching pain in her head, Twilight knew she was alive. She had trouble opening her eyes, but she knew from the cool breeze moving across her face that she was outside. She heard the buzzing of bees around her, and she felt the hard earth and soft grass that she was laying on. She breathed in the smell of wildflowers and dirt. With a slight moan, she opened her eyes to the world around her.

It was a sunny day, the skies were blue as they could be with a dozen or so fluffy clouds over head. Before her was a vista of wide open fields and hills that went far off into the distance, covered in rich golden grass and dotted with the occasional tree. Twilight rested in a comfortable bit of shade under an old maple tree with sprawling limbs and wide leaves atop a hill. She had to remind herself that she wasn’t in Equestria several times.

“Good morning sunshine!”

Twilight spun around to see Morning Dew sitting next to her, making two circlets out of flowers and grass. The wreckage of the train was downhill, resting peacefully in the midday sun.

Twilight was still groggy, but was able to ask, “How long have I been out?”

“Oh, for about a whole day. We were very worried after that miracle you pulled, but when you started talking in your sleep we knew you’d wake up.” Morning Dew’s smile was like bottled sunshine and filled with the kind of love that the unicorn recognized being on her own mother’s face.

Twilight did not know she talked while she slept, and was curious what was on her subconscious mind. With a slight, curious smile she asked, “Did I say anything interesting at least?”

Morning Dew giggled, “Well most of it was nonsense, but…” She blushed.

‘Uh oh.’

“…something tells me that this, ‘Big Mac’ fella would love to ‘buck your apple orchard’ anytime.”

If dying from embarrassment were possible, Twilight would have keeled over then and there. She looked down at her hooves and tried to think of some sort of explanation, as if she’d done something wrong.

“OH! Um…yeah…Big Mac is a…Ummm…brother of a friend and he’s…well…BIG! And you see he…it…I don’t really know him that well and…” Twilight knew she was sputtering, but couldn’t stop.

A reassuring nod and smile came from the older mare, “No need to worry Miss Twilight, Mr. Hawk promised not to tell anypony back east about it. Why when he heard it he didn’t so much as grin he was so worried about you. And it’s nothing to be ashamed of besides, why when Tall Leaf and I were young I…”

“HAWK KNOWS?!” Twilight liked Hawk, but he was a human, and she heard from a reliable fashion minded unicorn that humans were incorrigible gossips.

As if she summoned a vile phantom, “What do I know? Twilight? Is that you?” Hawk and the fillies crested the hill and made their way towards the two.

“Miss Twilight!” both fillies shouted as they galloped towards her. “I’m so glad you woke up! Busy Bee was crying she was so worried!” said Merry Gold as she gave Twilight a hug with her neck.

Busy Bee snorted, “I was not! And even if I was, you were the one thinkin’ we was all dead!”

Twilight rolled her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time since yesterday begun. With a small clearing of her throat, Morning Dew caught the two squabbling fillies, and presented them with the floral circlets. The two sisters instantly forgot all about their argument and began to run towards the ruins of the Magna Rail with their new flowery crowns.

“Well then,” said Morning Dew, who stood up, “I’d best go help my husband with the salvaging. He’s always puts too much weight on his back.” She trotted down the hill after the fillies, calling to them to stay close.

Hawk finally spoke, “That was some stunt you pulled back there Sprinkles.” Twilight looked him over before responding. He had buttoned his over shirt, and now wore a long brown duster coat over it.

“Well,” Twilight looked back towards the train, “judge me not by my size Agent Hawk.” They both proceeded to laugh it up for a good few minutes before Zorro exited the wreckage. He now sported a black poncho made from what appeared to be wool, and a black wide brim hat that was much stiffer than Hawk’s. When Zorro saw Twilight awake, his expression brightened considerably.

“My dear niña! It is good to see you up and about! I was getting quite jealous of Agent Hawk constantly being by your side!” Twilight blushed slightly.

Hawk called out to him, “What’s the damage Z?”

“My diagnosis? You have abandonment issues.”

Hawk sighed, “To the train Z.”

Zorro put a hand to his hip and another to his chin, “The only thing I got working was the GPS. And, my you’ll never guess where we ended up my friend!”

“Canada?”

Zorro chuckled and replied, “Close amigo! We’re about four miles away from the town of Ten Sleep Wyoming!”

Hawk beamed. “Son of a bit…” he glanced at Twilight, “…gun! That tornado took us far! Right kind of it, if not for the whole trying to kill us part, eh Twilight?”

She was checking her map for the town of Ten Sleep. When she found it. She couldn’t believe the math. The tornado had moved them nearly a thousand miles in less than ten minutes. She didn’t question it though. She was tired, her head hurt, and a town meant a soft bed to rest on. “Let’s just go Mr. Hawk. We still need to get to Yellowstone after all. And with that Magnet Train out of commission, it’s gonna be a long walk.” They were halfway down the hill before Twilight remembered something. “And Agent Hawk...”

“Yeah Sprinkles?”

“If you tell anypony about what I said while I was asleep, I’ll turn you into a newt.”

*              *              *

They entered to edge of the town of Ten Sleep in the evening, when the sun loomed just above the horizon, and the sky had turned pink and orange. All the ponies took a minute to admire the sunset while the humans seem preoccupied surveying the town with binoculars. Twilight savored the moment of silence, as the last hour or so of walking, Busy Bee had been questioning Agent Hawk unceasingly.

Morning Dew gave a sing-song like sigh before saying, “Simply beautiful. Celestia must be watching over us.”

Zorro looked up from what he was doing, “Let us hope so señora, the town of Ten Sleep lies abandoned and it’s overgrown with vegetation,” he got up and walked towards the ponies, “it is likely that newer, and less friendly, residents have moved in.”

“Like cannibals?” inquired Busy Bee.

Hawk stood up, “Let’s hope not. If Zorro tastes half as good as he talks he won’t last the night.”

*              *              *

The town was deathly quiet and there was no sign of life. Rows of houses and other buildings looked dark and empty. There were hardly any cars on the sidewalks or driveways, and the grass in the yards had grown wildly out of control.

“Where is everypony?” asked Tall Leaf.

“Gone,” replied Hawk, “at some point or another, everyone in town either left or died.”

Merry Gold looked nervous, “So it’s a…” she gulped, “…ghost town?” She gazed at the long shadows and empty houses, some of which had their doors wide open, as if inviting them to enter.

Zorro was first to assuage her fears, “Do not worry little one, there aren’t any actual ghosts. We are safe from the dead.”

“That’s reassuring,” said Twilight.

Within minutes, Hawk had found a house he deemed, “Adequate,” and soon after Twilight was experiencing de ja vu. Hawk had gone to the front door and knocked three times. When there was no reply, Hawk turned to the rest of the group, shrugged, and kicked the door in. The entirety of the Garden Family jumped. As Hawk entered the house, his large black duffel bag in tow, Zorro gestured to the ponies to follow.

Tall Leaf hesitated, “Miss Twilight,” he said, “isn’t this illegal?”

“Don’t worry,” replied Twilight straight faced, “he is the law.”

Twilight moved into the door and gave a smile to Zorro as she passed by. He returned it and then looked to Tall Leaf who still stood in the waning light. With a shake of his head, Tall Leaf entered the house mumbling, “This is ridiculous. Simply ridiculous.”

Night had fallen, and with a final look around, Zorro walked into the house and closed the door as best he could. Hawk had extracted an electric lamp from his bag and laid it on the coffee table in what was once the living room. Soft blue couches sat around the table, slanted towards the T.V. on the wall, and most of the seats were occupied by ponies. Morning Dew was currently humming a song to her children as much as herself and her husband.

Hawk moved an ornate armoire in front of the front door, blocking it and preventing it from opening. He then made a series of odd hand gestures to Zorro, who nodded and began searching the house.

After a short time, Zorro returned and declared, “Clear.”

Hawk, smiling wide, opened his duffel bag and said, “Dinner time!” He passed around bottles of water and Zorro passed around the food.

The ponies were given pony meal packs, something the humans had made years ago for the pony on the go. They came in little sectioned off trays and were sealed in plastic. The meals included carrots, small cucumbers, grass, some oats, dandelions, three cubes of sugar, and a box of apple juice. Even though she could taste the lack of freshness, Twilight delighted in the meal. Meanwhile, Hawk and Zorro had  what seemed to be plastic bags that had the letters “M.R.E.” emblazoned on them.

“Get anything good Z?” asked Hawk.

“Chicken soup, and you?”

“Beef stroganoff.”

Twilight didn’t want to think about what they did to the poor chickens and cows in order to fit them into those little bags.

After dinner and everyone found a spot to settle, Twilight made her own small globe of light which hovered around her horn, much to the amazement of the two fillies. The house was only one floor, and she could see not only the kitchen from where she was sitting, but also the hallway which must have led to the bath and bed rooms. It was remarkable how neat and tidy everything was, and horrifying that everything had just been left behind. The couches, the rug, the table, even the pictures on the walls had not been touched in some time. It was like sitting in a tomb.

Twilight saw a picture on the wall of the human family who must have lived here previously, and she trotted closer to get a better look. It was a father, mother, and beautiful little girl all smiling on a sunny day under a familiar looking maple tree tree.

‘They look so happy. I thought humans hated their lives so much and that was why they all were so ready to be ponified. But why would they abandon this? This isn’t so bad.’

Twilight entered the kitchen for curiosity’s sake. There was a sliding door to the back yard and moon light illuminated a tire swing which hung from an old, unkempt looking tree. The fridge was immediately next to the entrance, so she looked at the calendar that was magnetized to its side. It was from two years ago. There was only one day circled for the entire month, the day Twilight remembered as the day the camps opened. She flipped through the calendar’s earlier entries, and it was pretty run of the mill: doctor’s appointment, dentist, Tiffany’s birthday party (bring gift!). But after the day the camps opened, there was nothing. No plans at all.

The lack of future plans really disturbed Twilight, as she continued her tour of the house. Hawk and Zorro were in the living room talking with Tall Leaf and the others. Busy Bee wasn’t taking her eyes off of Hawk. Twilight chuckled at the thought that maybe she wasn’t the only one with a secret crush.

She passed the bathroom, the master bedroom which was in disarray, and finally arrived at a door with a wooden plaque hanging from a nail. It read, “Julie’s Room.” Twilight had to know whose old life she be spending the night in.

With a push, the door opened revealing a room so pink, Pinkie Pie would have perfect camouflage. There were teddy bears and dolls lining the walls, all neatly put into their place, and on the comfy looking bed was a book. It was the little girl’s diary.

‘Dare I?’ she asked herself as she hesitantly approached the book. Her curiosity could not be contained, she had to know. After checking to make sure no one was around, she magically lifted the book to her and opened it, turning to the last entry. It coincided with the camp’s opening day.

‘Dear Diary,

I don’t want to be a pony, but mom and dad say life will be better that way. They said I wouldn’t have to live in a mean world, or pay for other grown ups problems. I like ponies, but I don’t want to be a pony. I like being me and Miss Megan said to be happy with who I was and I am. But mom and dad aren’t so I guess they will be happy if we are ponies. I want them to be happy, so I will be a pony for them. I will miss Tiffany and Miss Megan. I hope they recognize me if I see them again.

Goodbye Diary.’

Twilight closed the book, and drew it close with her magic. She felt something wrong had happened in this place. She returned to the living room with a dour expression. Zorro was staring out the window, looking for something, and Morning Dew was cuddled up next to Tall Leaf. Both of them had fallen asleep on the couch. Hawk was on the opposite couch entertaining the endless supply of questions the fillies seemed to have.

“And…do humans really have machines that let them fly?” Busy Bee’s voice was strained as she struggled to stay awake.

“Eeyup.”

“I’d like to…to fly…one…zzzzzzzz,” Merry Gold had fallen asleep next to her sister, who in turn curled close to her and followed suit.

“Good night,” she said.

Hawk replied in a tired, but tender voice, “Good night Busy Bee.”

With that, the two fillies fell asleep, and Hawk rolled his head towards Twilight. Quietly he said to her, “They’re just like cats: cute as heck when they’re asleep, but they makes it impossible for you to move or get comfy.”

“It is rather precious amigo,” said Zorro from his watch, “I do not think I’ve ever seen you so...” Zorro strained his mind for the right word.

“Cuddly?” offered Twilight.

Zorro nodded and smiled, “Si, cuddly fits well.”

Hawk simply replied, “Whatever,” and looked at the book that Twilight had in her magic’s grasp, “Find something interesting Sprinkles?”

Twilight hung her head a bit before asking, “Hawk, do you know why so many humans got ponified?”

Hawk furrowed his brow, “I can’t speak for all of ‘em, but if I had to guess, I’d say they were thinking that their lives would be better as tiny horses.”

Twilight wasn’t satisfied, “WHY would they think that though? Have you seen this house? It’s absolutely lovely! Us ponies thought that humans lived in misery and squalor, but…” she trailed off looking towards the picture of the family. “…but this family didn’t. So why?”

Hawk gave a sigh through his nose, “I dunno, maybe they were tired of paying taxes, or getting sick, or living in fear that some accident would hurt their loved ones. It’s impossible to say Twilight. They did what humans have always done: take the option that makes their lives easier. So this family abandoned their old lives for a chance at a better one.”

Twilight put the book into her saddlebag, a frown spreading over her face.

‘You can’t steal something that someone has abandoned.’

She laid her head down onto her saddlebags, lost in thought. They were more comfortable than she thought however, as weariness eventually took over and she fell asleep without a sound.

*              *              *

It was near midnight when the howling started and awoke Twilight from her deep sleep. She stared up in a half awake state, wondering what all the noise going on outside, but she soon recognized it as the baying of some hungry predators. She looked towards the window and saw Zorro looking out the window, not moving an inch.

“What is it?” Twilight asked the man, concern heavy in her voice.

He didn’t look away from the window, “Feral dogs. Around maybe…twenty? They’ve been circling the block for two hours. I think they finally decided what to do with us.” Zorro chuckled a bit.

Twilight however, was worried. Celestia had mentioned beasts from human lands, and she did not like the word ‘feral’ one bit. “What do you think they are going to do?”

“They are going to attack this little house and eat us up. Please niña, go wake everyone. I’m afraid Hawk may have been right about how delicious I am.” Zorro was absolutely calm as opposed to Twilight who was beginning to panic.

The unicorn decided to wake Hawk up first, as it was officially his job to protect the group. He was asleep on the couch, with two little fillies sleeping soundly, curled up close to him. One of his arms lay over top the both of them, almost like he was protecting them even while asleep. Twilight nudged him with her hoof. He blinked his eyes open, and mumbled something about a donkey before asking, “What’s wrong?”

“Zorro says twenty feral dogs are going to attack us!” Twilight was trying to whisper, but her voice was thick with panic. She had never had to defend herself from wild dogs before, and wolves never left the Everfree Forest.

Hawk rolled off the couch, waking the fillies up who blinked and mumbled, trying to go back to sleep. Even in her panicked state, Twilight let out a small d’aww when Busy Bee gave a small noise and curled tighter as Hawk’s body heat left the couch. Hawk was less enthralled by it, and seemed to show signs of worry. He moved to the window, and replaced Zorro who was currently stirring Morning Dew and Tall Leaf from their slumber.

There was another round of howling, which quickly sobered the Garden family from their sleep.

“What’s going on? Hawk, what’s makin all that racket?” Tall Leaf was wide awake and stretching his legs out.

“You’re about to find out,” Hawk turned to the group, “Alright, Zorro, you and Twilight cover the back door, me and Tall Leaf will make sure they don’t push through the front. Morning Dew, take the fillies and go into one of the rooms back there and barricade yourself and the others inside.”

Without hesitation Morning Dew took hold of her children, her voice being as calm as possible. “Come on darlings, double time. Hoof it! Come on!” She trotted the two into the hallway and moved them into Julie’s Room.

“Mom? What’s going on? What’s all that noise?” Busy Bee was terrified, and looked back as she walked, “Isn’t daddy coming with us?”

Twilight’s stomach felt like a pit, and fear was starting to eat away at her. Hawk however was sifting through his bag, and with an “Ah-ha!” he extracted a hunting rifle and a bandolier of ammo. Zorro had drawn his sword, a thin blade with a slight curve, and slowly chopped at the air. No doubt warming up for what was to come.

“Alright, Tall Leaf, if one of their heads comes into view, buck it up. Now, you have to hit to kill, alright? If you don’t they’ll just keep coming.” Tall Leaf gave a vacant stare, but blinked out of it and nodded.

“R-right. Hit to…” he gulped, “…kill.” Hawk gave him a pat on his neck and moved into position at the window.

“Well little one,” said Zorro to Twilight, “shall we?” His smile was somewhat comforting, but Twilight was still barely keeping it together.

They entered the kitchen and looked through the sliding doors that separated the house from the back yard. There were seven dogs prowling, looking at them, licking their lips while moonlight reflected off their eyes, making them seem like little, glowing, yellow discs. Three of them were sniffing at the base of the door, and then got on their hind legs and began to scratch on the glass. Twilight heard similar noises from the front of the house.

‘Think of a spell think of a spell think of a spell.’ Twilight’s mind raced at what to cast. It was difficult to concentrate with all the scratching and howling the dogs were making. Zorro stood next to her. He had slung the front of his poncho over his shoulder revealing his sword arm, “Stay calm, niña. I’ll keep them at bay. You concentrate on scaring them off.” With a nod and sudden feeling of calm, Twilight thought things out.

“You might want to cover your eyes Mr. Zorro.”

Then the attack began. All at once every dog Twilight could see charged the doors, and with a loud BANG, smashed into them. They doors shattered and Twilight enacted her spell. A magnificent blast of light erupted forth from every orifice in the room. Zorro moved his arm over his eyes just in time to avoid being blinded, but the dogs were less successful. Blind and confused, they yelped and whined, running wild in random directions and crashing into just about everything in the kitchen.

“Ha ha! Well done my darling!” Zorro cheered patting Twilight on the back, “Let us show these dogs the way out.”

Several booming sounds came from the front, followed be an equal number of yelps and shouts. “HA! Another one bites the dust!” Hawk’s voice was almost gleeful. Twilight glanced back and saw Tall Leaf bucking a snout that had wedged it’s way between the door. She saw Hawk with the rifle taking aim and firing at the dogs that were assaulting the front. When she faced forward again there was the maw of a feral mastiff rushing towards her, murder glowing in its eyes. Time moved slower, and Twilight opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

A quick flash of steel passed between her and the dog, and after an instant, the creature was on the ground with blood flowing from a wound across its face. The warm red liquid spilled out from it and all over the floor as the dog twitched  to the ground.

Twilight’s scream finally caught up with her.

Hawk looked back, “Twilight?!” He was about to stand up to make sure she was all right when a large rottweiler jumped through the window and attempted to snap is jaws around Hawk’s neck. The hound’s bite missed, but it did knock the man onto the ground, where it continued to go for his throat. Tall Leaf was bracing himself against the door, and looked on in terror as Hawk grappled with the wild dog. Hoping the armoire could hold the pack at bay long enough he rushed over to the dog and bucked him as hard as he could.

There was a snapping sound and the dog flew a good two feet off of Hawk, landing with a whimper. The man breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, removed his revolver, and shot the dog through the head, causing blood to spray over the carpet. “Thanks,” was all Hawk said before retaking his position and resuming his shooting.

Tall Leaf stared at the dead dog for what seemed a long while. Its leg twitched, and Tall Leaf began to feel very sick.

Twilight had stopped screaming and watched as the blood from the dog slowly spread towards her. She meanwhile was backing up to avoid stepping in it. Zorro was slashing at any dog that got close with such speed and grace, Twilight could swear that he was dancing instead of killing.

The dogs she had blinded lay strewn about the kitchen, cuts and stab wounds across their bodies. She looked outside and saw other dogs prowling, but keeping their distance. Their looks of hunger now shifted to looks of fear. Fear of the human who stood amongst their dead, with no signs of exhaustion or fatigue.

The dogs hung their heads in defeat and ran off into the darkness. Hawk had stopped firing his rifle, and Zorro gave a small bow to the retreating dogs. They had driven them off.

“Tall Leaf,” said Hawk, “Go to your family, and wait there with them. Don’t come out until me or Zorro come to get you, alright?”

“Right,” he responded in a shaky voice, eyes never leaving the dead dog in the room.

Hawk continued, “Twilight, you can go with him if you want, me and Zorro are going to clean up the bodies so the kids don’t have to see.”

After a moment of thought, Twilight shook her head, “No, it’s alright, I’ll help.” ‘It would go faster with my magic,’ she thought.

Twilight started in the kitchen, where pools of blood had spread almost everywhere. Putting her mind on the task on hand, she levitated the bodies out the door and into the back yard. When they rose, blood dripped off of them, and Twilight had to avert her eyes, else she might have thrown up.

Afterwards she went out through the front, past a wet red spot in the middle of the room. The bodies of no less than eight dogs littered the street, all of them had one hole through either their heads, or hearts. Hawk and Zorro were carrying the bodies behind the house, and using her telekinesis, Twilight lifted the remaining ones and followed them.

Twilight laid the bodies out in rows, and tried not to look at them. Every time she did, she would see something that made her stomach turn inside out. Whether it be a collar with the dog’s name tag on it, or just the dead faces of the poor mutts, she would grow sick.

“What do you want to do with them?” asked Zorro.

Hawk replied in a tired voice, “Well, leaving them here would make a feast for scavengers, but it might take a while for them to show up. We could bury them, I guess, give the worms something to work with.”

“We should bury them,” said Twilight. She didn’t want to have to see the bodies ever again.

“Right,” said Hawk, giving a look of concern towards Twilight, “got a spell for moving earth?”

As a matter of fact, Twilight did. She first used it to help Applejack irrigate her apple orchard. How she wished to be back there right now, away from this scene. A glow emanated from her horn, as the dirt beneath the dogs displaced itself, and buried the corpses.

Once they were all properly buried, Hawk and Zorro went inside to get the others. Twilight remained in the moonlight, and had a moment of silence. She could only think of the lives she had helped to end, she wanted to say something, but couldn’t manage it, so she thought it instead.

‘I’m sorry.’

*              *              *

The morning came, and Twilight had barely gotten back to sleep before the sun came out and woke her. Last night seemed like just a nightmare until she left the master bedroom and saw the red stain in the living room. Grimacing, she went through the recently opened front door and took a few deep sighs, trying hard to suppress the memories of last night. Hawk and Zorro’s voices could be heard coming from the garage, and the sound of a car starting broke the silence of dawn. An open roof jeep drove out onto the street followed by a smiling Zorro. Hawk was at the wheel and he parked it in front of the house.

Leaning out the side Hawk smiled at Twilight, “Need a ride little lady?”

Twilight stared at him for time, processing his smile. He wasn’t bothered by what happened last night. He gave no sign of regret or pain for the lives he took. She eventually gave a weak smile back and said, “Yes, thank you Agent Hawk.” Her voice lacked any kind of emotion.

The Garden family came out of the house, somewhat blurry eyed. The fillies’ eyes revealed that they had been crying last night, and Busy Bee was eerily silent. Zorro and Hawk helped them all into the car, while an awkward silence dominated the air between the humans and the ponies. The back of the car became filled with ponies and Hawk’s duffel bag. Zorro took the front seat and Hawk the driver’s position.

Zorro looked at Hawk, who looked back at him. Hawk gave a heavy sigh, and then eyed the ponies. The Garden family was huddled together, staying close to Tall Leaf. Twilight was apart from the others and was staring off into the distance, her mind wandering. Hawk faced forward.

“I think we could all go for some breakfast.”

“What do you have in mind?” asked Zorro.

“Chateau Minuit?” Hawk replied, grinning.

Zorro place a hand on the side of his head, “Madre de mierda,” he sighed.

Hawk laughed, “Watch your language young man, or you’ll get no ice cream.”

“Ice cream?” Busy Bee’s sad face had disappeared completely, and Merry Gold’s was following right along. “I love ice cream!” said both in tandem. They then began listing off what flavors were their favorites and which ones they wished for.

Twilight had snapped back to reality, and concluded that eating ice cream was an idea she could get behind. After all, Pinkie Pie had always given her some in the past when she was, as Pinkie described, “a sad Mc-Sad-y face,” and it cheered her up.

Hawk smiled at Zorro like he had just won a bet, “Well then, shall we play some music?” Hawk turned on the radio, and adjusted the station. After a moment or two of static, he found what he was searching for as a voice spoke from the radio.

“…ey hey hey! It’s me Jim Carter, the bringer of all the good music that you love! It’s time for some news and then some tunes. First up is some news about our little pony friends, taken straight from the mouth of the president. Seems that the first family of settlers is moving out to Yellowstone with a full blown US Marshal for an escort, and possibly the slickest train I’ve ever seen. If you all are listening, then good luck to ya. Here’s a little ditty called Day by Day, sung by the one, the only, Dorris Day. Safe travels friends.”

And with that, melodious tune sprang forth from the radio. They ponies were enamoured with it, and let the lyrics wash over them. Morning Dew in particular was listening intently, always ready to learn a new song.

The car drove away from the house, away from the dead dogs, and Twilight let out a sigh of relief. Every moment they spent getting close to Yellowstone was another moment closer to going home. She drifted off again, this time thinking about transferring back to her old home in Ponyville, back to where things weren’t so violent.

‘Where I won’t have to see dead dogs.’

Death in a MLP Fiction?

Well it is a western!

Allegedly.

Part Five coming in a Week!

Maybe!

I’m no good with deadlines!

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (Writer’s block is bound to hit any second now)

Yellowstone

Part 5:

Den of Vipers

“Are we there yet?”

The morning was passing quickly, and the knot in Twilight’s stomach had changed from one of guilt to one of hunger. It might have been rude, but she could barely think when she was hungry.

“We’ll get there when we get there!” Hawk replied a bit annoyed, but Twilight could tell he didn’t mind her asking. He was as cheerful as anypony she had ever seen for some reason.

“So Hawk,” Tall Leaf interjected, hoping to calm everyone’s stomachs with conversation, “what’s this ‘Shat-toe Min-wee’ like?”

Zorro answered, “Well my friend, it all depends on when you go. Sometimes it is a paradise within a storm, other times it’s like…”

“Getting punched in the jaw and thrown out the door because you made a few too many passes at the owner?” Hawk interrupted, chuckling to himself.

Zorro nodded and laughed, “Yes, it can be like that.”

Tall Leaf looked to Twilight and his family, giving a slightly defeated sigh. “Great,” he said, “another exciting opportunity to get into trouble.”

Twilight’s stomach growled loud enough to gain the attention of Merry Gold, go struggled to contain a giggle. Twilight was less enthused, especially seeing as how the wind was ruining her already unkempt hair. If Rarity was here, she might have had a breakdown about all the dust and messy manes.

‘And the blood.’

Twilight shook her head. She was having trouble suppressing the memory of the previous night and all of its gruesome details. It worried her to think she might never be able to look at another dog again without the image of it bleeding to death on a floor.

“We’re here!” came Hawk’s voice from the front. Twilight and the others all snapped out of their own minds and focused on the big building coming up on the horizon.

It was one of the largest wooden buildings Twilight had ever seen. It was an inn if ever there was one, with dark blue paint that had worn with age. As they got closer, Twilight thought she could discern painted stars lining the door and the many windows. The structure looked like a barn with another one stuck in its side. Together they made a massive ‘T’.

The jeep glided to a stop in the vacant parking lot. The front door of the establishment had a large circular window above it that was lined with silver paint. Twilight’s stomach growled again, louder than last time, possibly angry that it had been neglected for so long.

“Can we eat something now?” she asked.

With a nod, Hawk began to help the passengers out and onto the hot asphalt, which had dry weeds sticking up through the cracks. Busy Bee and Merry Gold ran ahead of the group, mouths watering at the idea of sweet, delicious ice cream. They pushed the double doors open and gazed inside with awe. Busy Bee and Merry Gold looked at each other, and then trotted playfully back to the car.

Busy Bee did an anxious little dance in front of Morning Dew, “C’mon Mom, hurry up! I’m starving!”

Hawk and Zorro were still busy unloading the parents from the car. Tall Leaf was having difficulties with his seat belt. Twilight’s stomach groaned loudly, gaining looks from the others.

“Go on,” said Morning Dew, “We’ll catch up.”

Twilight gave a bashful smile as she pranced over the hot ground and opened the doors with her magic. Her eyes widened at what she saw within.

“Oh,” Twilight breathed, “Luna would love this…”

Inside was a large open room, with the space between the doors and the bar on the far wall filled with tables. The walls painted with a large mural of happy people dancing and singing at a lantern lit festival while stars twinkled above them. There was a staircase on the leftmost wall that led up to a balcony, which itself had a door leading to a hallway. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, and from it hung glittering tin stars.

At the bar, a human woman was busily cleaning the counter top with her back facing Twilight. This human was shorter than Hawk, but she was about the same age if Twilight guessed right. She had blond hair tied in a pony tail by a red bow. From what Twilight could tell from where she stood, the woman had a brown leather vest over an orange over shirt, with its sleeves rolled up and front buttoned. Her shirt was tucked into dusty old blue jeans and the legs of the pants disappeared into worn leather cowboy boots.

‘It’s rude to lurk in doorways dear,’ Rarity’s voice echoed in Twilight’s head. The unicorn decided now was as good as time as any for introductions, “Excuse me miss!”

“Just a second Ma’am, I’m almost finished.” The woman’s voice was strong, but gentle and comforting to hear.

Still, Twilight’s stomach was grumbling quite a lot. “I’d just like to get something to eat. I haven’t eaten anything all morning.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll finish this later I guess.” She moved behind the bar and bent down looking for something. “So, what’ll it be?” the sound of clinking bottles could be heard from behind the bar.

Twilight thought for a moment, deciding to opt for a healthier breakfast than ice cream.

“Daisies if you please,” Twilight responded cheerfully. ‘Finally, something good to eat,’ she thought.

The woman behind the bar laughed, “Daisies? What are you some sort of…” she raised her head from behind the bar finally getting a look at her customer, her blue eyes widening, “…pony?”

Twilight did a polite curtsy, and was honestly surprised at the human’s own amazement at seeing her. She had thought that all humans had seen at least one pony by now.

“Wait here,” said the woman, who walked up the staircase and disappeared into a hallway. Outside Twilight could hear Morning Dew giving Tall Leaf advice to get out of his seat belt, while Hawk, Zorro, and the fillies all laughed their tails off. Twilight chuckled to herself as she found a comfortable looking table.

The human woman emerged from the balcony hallway hefting a heavy looking flower box in her hands. Twilight’s jaw dropped and she couldn’t stop from drooling at what had to be the most beautiful assortment of flowers she had ever seen. The woman placed the box on the table with a thunk, and wiped her hands clean of the soil on her jeans.

“Hope that’s acceptable miss. I don’t think I have any daisies.” She said, unable to contain a smile.

Twilight licked her lips at the bouquet buffet, “My name’s Twilight, and believe me, it’s perfect.”

Finally, the Garden family and the other humans entered the building, Tall Leaf looking quite embarrassed. When the ponies saw what Twilight had at her table, they rushed over and took seats at the Table around her.

“Oh Twilight, you are such a darling buying this feast for everyone!” said Morning Dew biting the petals off a rather lovely looking posy. “Busy Bee, Merry Gold, thank Miss Twilight.”

The fillies removed their heads from a thick patch of tulips, “Thank you Miss Twilight!” they said in tandem before returning to the flowers. Tall Leaf gave a small sigh as he found a flower for himself to chew on.

Fortunately for Twilight, who only gave a small grunt as she devoured a daffodil, there were plenty of flowers and assorted greenery in the box for the entire group to share, though she did worry about the price. A meal like this would run for about forty  or so bits in Equestria, and Twilight only brought fifteen, operating under the assumption that she wouldn’t have to use this much.

The humans just watched the ponies dig into their meal. The woman had a look that seemed to regard their eating as cute, Hawk looked a bit discontented at the ravenous consumption of the flowers, and Zorro just stared away from the woman.

“So Megan,” said Hawk, breaking his gaze away from the ponies and towards the woman, “how’re things?”

The woman, Megan, looked at him, her face going neutral, “Oh fine. Between you and the tumble weed, this makes you my first customers all month.” She leaned forward, staring at Zorro for a moment before frowning. “I hope that your friend won’t be making a ruckus like last time.”

Zorro coughed, and Twilight, between chews, thought she saw him blush ever so slightly.

Megan then put her hands on her hips, and turned her frown on Hawk, “And why are YOU galavanting around with a family of ponies? I thought that Joseph was sending his best agent to guard them.”

The entire Garden family was looking up from their meal, when Busy Bee, in a somewhat defensive tone, said, “Hawk is the best Ma’am! He’s the biggest, strongest human I know!” Merry Gold followed up with a “Yeah! And he saved our daddy’s life from wild dogs!”

Megan looked at Hawk with a grin, who just shrugged and replied, “Hey, they think Zorro is the handsomest human on the planet.” Upon saying this, all three humans burst into laughter.

Wiping tears from her eyes Megan moved towards the bar, “Alright fine. I guess seeing as how you’re the biggest and strongest you’ve earned some whiskey.” Megan got behind the bar and looked to the ponies, “Are any of you gentle ponies thirsty? I can whip up some tea real quick, and I think I have some soda somewhere.”

Twilight cleared her throat, “I would love some of whatever you have Ms. Megan.” Upon saying the name, Twilight’s mind seemed to explode with thoughts, ‘Miss Megan? From the diary? Could it be the same person? Should I ask?’ Twilight decided that, after weighing the possible implications, she would wait to ask Megan if she once knew a little girl named Julie.

Tall Leaf and Morning Dew decided to share a cup of tea, much to the playful disgust of their children, who instead chose soda. Megan just smiled and got to work, while Hawk and Zorro sat down at the ponies’ table.

“Mr. Hawk?” Busy Bee said, leading into another Q and A session.

Sighing, Hawk replied, “Yes Busy Bee?”

The filly asked in complete seriousness, “What’s wisskey? Can I have some?”

Hawk and Zorro exchanged smiles, and Twilight heard Megan snort out a laugh from behind the bar.

“I dunno,” answered Hawk, “Whiskey is best drunk with friends, so maybe if everyone drinks.”

“Hawk!” Megan called, slightly aghast, but mostly amused.

Twilight gave a confused glance at Zorro, who only gave a wry smile back. Celestia had told Twilight to never pass up an opportunity to experience new things with friends, and she was curious about humanity’s, non-carnivorous, foods.

“I’ll try some!” called Twilight, who glanced at Morning Dew and Tall Leaf, who nodded and spoke, “Us too!” Busy Bee looked at Merry Gold, and gave a small squeal of excitement. Merry Gold also looked excited, and she tapped her front hooves in anticipation.

Megan just shook her head, “Alright.” She fetched eight glasses from behind the bar and Hawk moved adjacent chairs around their table until there were enough for everypony there. Then Megan brought out a bottle with three “X’s” on it and poured its contents into the eight tiny glasses. “Whenever you’re ready,” she said, “we all drink at once.” Twilight looked at Megan’s smile. It was the same smile as a mischievous child, and though wary of such smiles, Twilight lifted the small glass to her lips.

“Hold onto your butts,” said Hawk, mimicking Twilight. Everypony and every human counted to three in their heads, and in one gulp, drank from their glasses.

Every pony fell out of their chairs either, gasping, spitting, feeling their eyes cross, or laughing like there was no tomorrow. Twilight herself, after the initial burning sensation, couldn’t tell if the room was spinning, or if it was just her eyes. The humans’ laughter was undeniably the most earnest laughter she had ever heard from the species.

After a brief period of being on her back looking at the ceiling spin, Twilight felt her head recover from the shot of whiskey, which was more like one of Applejack’s famous apple-bucks, except Twilight’s face was the tree. Standing up straight, with only one moment of staggering, Twilight saw Zorro leaning over the table, Hawk with a hand on Zorro’s shoulder and the other on his side, and Megan on the floor clutching her sides as if in pain. They were laughing so hard, they were gasping for air. Twilight furrowed her brow at the realization that she had just been pranked.

Morning Dew was on her side with a hoof rubbing the side of her head, moaning slightly, while Tall Leaf was sitting on his hindquarters, his head swaying. The two fillies were on the floor, out cold. The humans were beginning to quiet down and even started to form words, before a hiccup escaped Twilight’s lips, which sent them into another long bout of giggles and gasps.

A little embarrassed, Twilight was relieved when the teakettle started to shout, as Megan pulled herself up from the floor and began preparing the tea. Hawk walked over to the unconscious fillies and picked them up. They were so small compared to him that he held both in his arms. It looked rather sweet from Twilight’s viewpoint.

Through the dying chortles and chuckles, Hawk managed to say, “Megan, I’m going to put these two in the room at the end of the hall. Is that okay?”

“Sure,” said Megan, pulling keys from her jeans, chucking them to Zorro, who caught them with no effort. “Go help him out Z.”

The two departed upstairs, exchanging the occasional laugh. The remaining ponies all took their seats around the table, as Megan began serving tea: a cup for Twilight, another for the Garden family parents, one for Megan, and two more for the others on their return.

“Well,” started Morning Dew, “that was an experience. Do you humans actually drink that…stuff?”

Megan gave a bright smile, her freckles only reminding Twilight more of her friend Applejack, “We sure do, but as Hawk said, only with friends.” She sipped her tea, “Or when you want to knock ponies on their flanks.” Everyone gave a good hearted laugh as they began conversing over tea.

*              *              *

Evening seemed to sneak up on Twilight, and the last rays from the sun were painting the sky into another beautiful memory that she would cherish. As flat and dusty as this land was, it was beautiful, and she was glad that she came on this little excursion. The complementary bath didn’t hurt her mood either of course. Twilight even got to learn something about human bathing habits. When she first entered the bathroom, Hawk was in the bathtub, and when he noticed her he went red as a beet and told her to get out and wait her turn.

Looking back on it though, Twilight did think it was rather silly. She had no qualms about bathing with other ponies in the room. ‘Maybe humans just like bathing alone?’ Twilight gave a small, refreshed sigh as she moved downstairs. There was still something she needed to take care of before preparing for bed.

Twilight had learned much about the human woman during breakfast. Megan had two horses out back which Twilight got to meet, named T.J. and Buttercup. Twilight was amazed by their size, the two horses were far larger than the ones in Equestria. Apparently, as Hawk told it, humans and horses have been inseparable since before recorded history. Twilight took note of it and planned to write a report about how humans and the other animals of the Human Lands co-existed. She also planned on writing many other reports as well, like the similarities of the ancient Knight’s Code and the Elements of Harmony, or an explanation of magic based on the description Yoda and Obi-Wan gave about the Force.

Megan was at the table they all sat at hours ago wiping off the soil from the flower box, which had been moved some time ago. Megan looked up as Twilight approached, “Well hey there sugar cube! Can I help you with something? Finding your room all in order?”

Twilight felt a smile grow across her face when Megan said ‘sugar cube.’ It lacked the accent of Applejack, but it still made Twilight feel like she was with her old friend again. “Everything is fine Ms. Megan, I was just wondering what we owe you for all of this hospitality.”

“Oh you don’t owe me anything, this is all coming out of your Princess’s piggy bank.”

Twilight was relieved, and then mortified. “Ohmygosh! How much did we spend? Was it a lot?” Twilight moved to the table and put her hooves on her temples. ‘That feast must be at least thirty bits, and the tea is about six, and was the whiskey free? Oh no no no no…’

Megan but a hand on Twilight’s head and said, “All of twenty five dollars: two for the seeds, three for the tea leaves, and twenty for the rooms and baths. In bits however, it’d be about four for the whole thing.”

Twilight stared at her in disbelief. “No way.”

Megan gave a bemused smile, “Yes way. I’m sure your nation’s economy is safe and sound.” She turned and walked to the bar.

A wave of relief washed over Twilight, clearing the air for another question that had been on her mind, “Megan, were you ever a teacher?”

Megan looked at her. “For four whole years, before those camps of yours opened up. Why do you ask?”

Twilight went to her saddlebags, which still lay on the floor next to the table, and extracted the diary. “This belonged to a girl named Julie.” Twilight levitated it over to Megan, who put her hands over her mouth as her eyes began to water.

Megan reached out and grabbed it and opened to first page, and tears started rolling down her face. “Oh Julie-bean,” she said as she went from page to page. After reaching the final entry, Megan had to sit down and close the book. After a few moments of tears, she finally looked back at Twilight, wiping her face of any moisture, “Thank you for showing me this. It’s good to have some closure.”

Twilight stepped next to Megan and did her best to comfort her, “I’m sorry if I brought up bad memories.”

“Far from it,” replied Megan giving a weak laugh, “Julie was one of the sweetest little girls I’ve ever met.” the woman looked off into the distance, her eyes still wet, “God, she would always wear the cutest little bonnet to class every day, and she was so smart, and funny, and…” Megan buried her face into one of her hands, “When she laughed, I swear to God the world got brighter.”

It was a long while before either of them spoke, and several times Twilight wanted to leave Megan alone with her thoughts, but real friends always offer a shoulder to cry on. At least that’s what Applejack told her when Spike and Applebloom accidentally broke Rarity’s prize vase and Rarity went to AJ for support.

Almost without warning Megan gave Twilight a strong hug, and held her tight. “Thank you Twilight,” she said moving back, “I think you should hold onto this.” She held out the diary to Twilight, who began to shake her head but Megan insisted, “I already have memories from my time spent with Julie, and I probably won’t ever see her again. You take this, and if you ever see her again, tell her I said hi, and that I love her.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ll do what I can.” Granted, she couldn’t do much, but Twilight added the task to her mental to-do list none the less.

“How about some wine?” suggested Megan, again wiping any moisture from her face as she stood up.

Wine was something Twilight was familiar with. She  and her friends shared a bottle on all their birthdays. “I would love some,” she replied with a graceful nod.

Twilight hadn’t seen Hawk for at least an hour, but she didn’t mind. She had spent her time with her new friend Megan, who was as good natured as Applejack and seemed to have more stories to tell than Twilight had books in her library. Twilight loved every minute of being with her, and for a while, she even forgot that she was talking with a human. It was just her and her new friend Megan. Laughing at each other’s bad jokes and telling their own stories of the good old days.

Morning Dew and Tall Leaf were making their way down from the balcony, both of them looking somewhat ruffled. Tall Leaf was nuzzling his wife’s neck as she hummed sweet music into his ear. Twilight and Megan, warm and fuzzy from the wine, exchanged glances, and then smiled. No question what the loving couple just finished doing in a room they have all to themselves, away from any prying ears. Megan and Twilight started snickering before offering the couple a few glasses of wine.

‘Why do humans need to change? They’re fine the way they are!’ thought Twilight.

A distant memory arose in the back of Twilight’s mind, one from when ponies first met humanity. “Twilight,” her mentor had said, pain heavy in her voice, “These creatures are so savage. They cause cause such pain to each other and the world around them, they live in misery and fear. We cannot stand by any longer. We have to save them and this planet which they have wounded so grievously, before they destroy everything.”

‘But Princess,’ Twilight remembered asking her, ‘They can’t be all bad!’

“I am sure they aren’t my student, but that hardly means they are all good.”

*              *              *

A long hour later, another car drove into the parking lot. It sounded like it was filled with a lot of people, and Megan’s face darkened as she got up from the table, “Excuse me a moment.” She moved behind the bar with an urgent quickness to her step.

Six men walked through the door, all of them had a gun. Three of them had bandannas over their faces and long coats over their bodies, each of them carrying a shotgun. The lead man was clean shaven, and wore a hat much like Hawk’s. He wore a black shirt with its top three buttons undone, revealing a necklace that had a snake’s skull as its centerpiece. His face was wrinkled and a wicked scar came down from his ear to his mouth. At his side hung a revolver.

The man to his left, who was larger, balder, and fatter but not so much that it would be a liability, had no facial hair at all, but instead wore the most vile smile Twilight had ever seen. He had a stained plain blue shirt on that was too small for his girth and suspender pants that only barely reached his ankles. In his hand was an AK-47.

The third man wore a poncho much like Zorro’s, except it had a diamond design, and a wide brim hat of his own that covered most of his face with shadows. He had boots with spurs on his feet, and a Bowie knife in his hands, which he was fiddling with as he entered.

“Boa, get her,” said the lead man, pointing at Twilight, his voice was soft, but intimidating none the less. The fat one, with a disgusting sort of chuckle, moved towards the young unicorn.

The sound of a gun cocking rang out, “Don’t you touch her you son of a bitch,” Megan called out from behind the bar, now holding a Winchester Repeater that was pointed at the fat man’s head.

Twilight moved back toward Megan, her horn glowing as she readied a spell to bind the strange men. Tall Leaf stood in front of his wife and lowered his head, ready to charge at the possible threat. Morning Dew shrunk behind her husband with a scared look on her face.

The lead man had drawn and fired his revolver at Megan faster than Twilight could blink. One second he was just standing there with a cruel looking smile on his face, the next he had his gun in his hand, its barrel smoking. Megan had fallen down behind the bar, without any sound other than scream and a thump.

The fat one moved again towards Twilight. “Come ‘ere honey!” his voice was guttural, “come to me baby!”

Twilight released her spell and bound his arms and legs together. “What the fu-!?” was all he was able to get out before his face crashed onto the ground.

The lead man sighed and gave the order to the rest of the men. The one in the poncho moved for Tall Leaf, who sent a buck his way, but failed to connect as the man deftly dodged to the side and punched the stallion in the side of the head. Tall Leaf found himself on the floor with a boot on his neck as the man in the poncho lifted Morning Dew into the air by her neck and slammed her onto the table. Within moments he held his bowie knife to her throat, discouraging any squirming she might have attempted..

Twilight panicked as three men in bandanas approached her, each leveling their guns at her.

With a bang, the middle one’s head tuned on its side in a sharp and sudden movement. A spray of red erupting from the wound drew Twilight’s attention. On the balcony stood Hawk, who was fully clothed with his revolver in his hand and an expression on his face that Twilight could only describe as of pure hate.

Hawk pointed his gun at the lead man, “Cottonmouth!”

Cottonmouth looked up, smiling, “Hawk! It’s been too long since we last saw each other. Has it really been all of four years?”

“Let go of the ponies.” Hawk’s voice was dripping with contempt. “Now.”

“Of course last time we saw one another, I was putting a bullet into your back.” Cottonmouth chuckled, “And I’m sorry, but I need that little pony. You see I got big plans for her, but her friends…” he gestured to the man in the poncho, “Well Diamondback isn’t known for his gentle touch. In fact he’s right clumsy with that knife sometimes.” Cottonmouth’s eyes narrowed, “So unless you want that pretty yellow one to see how clumsy he can be, I suggest you drop that gun.”

Twilight began to focus on a blinding spell, like she used on those dogs. She was trying her best to stay calm and not give in to fear, but when two hostile humans were pointing their guns at her, she got anxious. When her horn began to glow, one of the men struck her in the side of the head with the butt of his gun. She wasn’t unconscious, but she was dazed and on the floor.

Hawk’s eyes went wide as he immediately shot the man who struck her, giving the attacker’s throat a new hole from which he bled profusely while gasping for air. Cottonmouth, as quick as Hawk shot his gun, shot at Hawk. Fortunately, Hawk was fast, and with a knee-jerk reaction, avoided the bullet.

“Not another move Agent Hawk. You fire another round and the pretty yellow one dies.”

From Twilight’s position on the ground she saw Megan, a hand was over a deep red spot on her shoulder. She was clenching her teeth, and tears were rolling from her eyes. Megan saw Twilight, and saw the bloody bruise on the unicorn’s head. With her good hand, Megan began reaching for her repeater.

Hawk was shaking all over, and after five very long seconds, dropped his revolver. It hit the floor with a clack. “Whatever you’re planning, you won’t get away with it. I will kill you.”

Cottonmouth let out a laugh, “That’s where you’re wrong Hawk. You won’t be around to stop me. See this time, I’m gonna shoot you in the heart.” Cottonmouth raised his gun, “Not that you got one…”

Cottonmouth fired his gun.

Hawk fell to the floor.

Twilight wanted to scream, but her head was still too blurry to even think. All she could do was to let out a groan, “…Hawk…Megan…”

The magic bindings on Boa released themselves. “About God damn time!” he said, his vile grin returning. He walked over to Twilight, who was struggling to focus. “Oooooh…darlin’ you don’t look so good. C’mere baby…come to Boa…” when he picked Twilight up, she felt him slide his hand between her legs. It was only for a moment, but it left a lasting feeling. If not for the blow from earlier, she would have screamed in protest or slung lightning at him, but all she could do was give a weak cry.

Cottonmouth holstered his gun, “Grab those two Diamondback, we’ll need them. And Boa…” he turned to his fat subordinate, “Keep your hands to yourself till this is over with. I don’t need you or my little friend here distracted. Understand?”

Boa frowned, like a child being denied a cookie, “Even that one?” he asked pointing to Morning Dew, who along with her husband, was being dragged by their throats outside.

“Yes. Now put her in the car. You can play with them till they’re dead AFTER I got what I want from ‘em.”

Boa’s face made a disgusting smile, “Oh good…that’s good.” He stroked Twilight’s mane.

The strangers shoved the ponies into an old army truck that had a canvas covering of the back. Cottonmouth and Diamondback got in back with the ponies, and Boa moved up front to the driver’s position. The last man with the bandana gave a quick look around before moving to leave. Boa started the truck. The bandit walked through the front door.

A loud bang rang out and a small hole exploded in the bandit’s leg. Cottonmouth gave the order to drive off as Megan emerged from the Chateau Minuit and holding the Winchester with her good hand, glaring as she watched the truck drive away faster than she could follow. She looked at the car Hawk had used to get here and saw its tires were slashed. She spat blood out of her mouth and walked over to the downed bandit, who was lying on the ground gripping the new wound in his upper leg.

Megan stood over him scowling. He looked up and spit at her, in some weak attempt at defiance. She brought her boot down on his head, causing his vision to go black.

To Be Continued…

Hawk’s been shot?!

Ponies have been kidnapped?!

Zorro didn’t help?!

Boa does what to ponies?!

All these questions and more may or may not be answered.

It all depends on how my free time looks.

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (Let’s see if I can NOT make this GRIMDARK)

Yellowstone

Part 6:

The Hawk and the Serpent

Hawk got up from his bed as he heard a car pull into the parking lot. He had been relaxing with his friend Zorro and the two pony fillies after a nice bath and some wine, and he had been hoping to have an evening of answering any questions Busy Bee and Merry Gold might come up with. Those plans were dashed when he saw the old army truck roll up. Four armed men hopped out of the back, two came out of the front. Hawk recognized the man coming out of the passenger’s seat immediately.

“Zorro, stay here and whatever happens, keep those two safe.”

Zorro stood up from his bed and tried to hide the concern in his voice, “Come to me niñas.” He scooped up the now very confused fillies and placed them on the bed behind him. “Hawk, what is it?”

“Yeah Mr. Hawk,” asked Bee, “what’s going on?” She gave a sudden look of fright and asked another question, “Is it more wild dogs?!”

Hawk hastily extracted and donned a kevlar jacket from his black duffel bag. There were a few things in this bag he would have liked to bring, but those took time to prepare, and time was not on his side. He covered the vest with his over shirt and duster. He glanced at his friend, and then to the fillies. They looked terrified. So was he to be honest, but he had people to protect so fear wasn’t an option right now.

Hawk answered Zorro’s question with one word, “Cottonmouth.” Zorro nodded and pulled the fillies in closer.

They all heard Megan’s voice from downstairs, “Don’t you touch her you son of a bitch!”

Drawing his revolver Hawk moved out of the room and down the hallway. There was a gun shot. Moving at a run, Hawk reached the balcony overlooking a scene he had hoped never to see, especially on this trip. Two out of three ponies were hostages, Megan was bleeding behind the bar, and three men were advancing on the last pony. Hawk should have shot at Cottonmouth. He knew he should have shot at Cottonmouth, but he didn’t. Hawk took aim at the lead man advancing on Twilight and fired.

Everything after that happened in a blur that ended up with Cottonmouth shooting him in the chest. A great many thoughts raced through his head at first, mostly berating his choice of targets, but eventually there was one that stuck. Hawk was on the ground and his vision was going black, the only thought was one of anger at his failure. In his head, one angry thought kept repeating: ‘NO! GET UP! GET UP AND KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!’

*              *              *

Zorro came into the hallway when he saw the army truck leave. The gunshots had worried him enough, but the fact that it was the bandits getting away made him fear the worst. He couldn’t stop the fillies from following him even if he wanted to, and he truly wish he could if only to spare them from the sights they were about to see.

What Zorro saw first was the body of his friend Hawk, lying on the balcony, bleeding. Busy Bee let out a scream of terror. Rushing over to Hawk’s body, Zorro examined the wound with intense focus. He looked for a pulse and smiled beyond measure when he found one. It was slow, but there, and that was enough.

“Hawk!” Zorro shouted, trying to stir his friend. Merry Gold stood next to him sobbing, while Busy Bee stood on his other side, crying aloud, “Is he okay? Is he gonna be okay?!” tears making small puddles on the ground.

Megan’s voice came from outside, “Zorro! Are the fillies safe?”

Zorro hefted Hawk’s body over his shoulders, responding “Yes Megan, they are safe, but Hawk needs surgery immediately!” Zorro carried Hawk down the stairs and placed him onto the closest table as gently as he could.

Megan entered, dragging a man in behind her with her good arm and flung him onto the floor. “Is he going to make it Z?”

“Maybe. The bullet only just stopped at his heart, though it went through a rib and the kevlar to get there. He should live. Hawk bears a charmed life after all.”

Megan gazed at the fillies who stood on the balcony looking down. Busy Bee and Merry Gold were just staring at the carnage left by the humans. They looked confused and scared, unsure of what was taking place. Merry Gold asked on behalf of Busy Bee, who was far too choked up, “Is Mr. Hawk going to be okay?”

Megan gave them a smile, “You bet. It’ll take more than a bullet to down this hawk.” Megan desperately wanted to believe that, but she had seen men die from less. She did her best to not show any signs of distress. Her shoulder began to hurt again.

“Megan, I need another hand in here,” said Zorro. Megan leaned forward, wincing in pain, and laid her good hand onto Hawk’s.

*              *              *

The operation seemed like it took an eternity, but eventually Zorro had patched Hawk up the best he could. Megan only having only one good arm slowed matters down, but to the surprise of both humans, Merry Gold came forward to help. More surprising was that she seemed to have a talent for it, remembering even the slightest details and movements almost instantly. When it came time to treat Megan’s wound, Zorro swore Merry Gold could probably have done it herself.

With bloody hands and hooves, the three took to the many chairs that lay strewn over the floor. Busy Bee and Merry Gold sat by Hawk’s side curled up together, and did not seem ready to leave it anytime soon. Zorro and Megan sat a bit of a way off, sharing a bottle of some kind of booze. The label had long ago worn off, and Megan couldn’t remember what it was previously.

Zorro and Megan regarded the man Megan had captured, who was now tied to a chair next to the bar. Zorro had given him the Sherlock Holmes treatment and tried to get an idea where Cottonmouth’s lair might be based on observation alone. Unfortunately, all Zorro got from the attempt was that where ever it was, it was dusty, and a dusty area in the mid west was rather common.

“…geh…t… up” moaned Hawk.

The fillies’ ears perked up and smiles exploded onto their faces. “Mr. Hawk!” shouted Busy Bee, “Megan, Zorro! Mr. Hawk is waking up!”

Hawk opened his eyes. “Where…?”

Zorro moved over his friend, “Amigo! You’re alive!” Zorro put his hand onto Hawk’s and gave it a squeeze. Megan also stood next to the wounded man, and though she didn’t say anything, her tears and smile spoke volumes.

Hawk continued, his tone void of all emotion, “Cottonmouth. Where is Cottonmouth?”

Zorro gave a small sigh, “We do not know yet, but we have one of his men. I was thinking that with the right persuasion he would talk.”

Hawk began to sit up, “Where is he?”

“Over there, tied up. He’s unconscious,” Megan gave a small laugh, “guess I hit him too hard.”

Hawk got up with a grunt, much to the discouragement of Megan and Zorro. The fillies were awestruck however. After all, Hawk was back. He and Zorro would save their parents from the bad humans. Not even guns could stop him.

Hawk lurched towards the bound man, “Well. I’d say it’s time to rise and shine.” Hawk unsheathed his knife.

It was then Busy Bee really saw his face. Saw it wasn’t the Hawk she knew standing there before them. Sure he looked the same and had the same face, but his eyes were all wrong. They were darker, more menacing, and the air around him lost that comforting aura Busy Bee had come to know. It was instead replaced with something cold. With every second of this realization, the filly’s joy faded and was replaced with a growing unease. Without question, he looked angry.

“Busy Bee. Merry Gold. Go to your room with Megan.” Hawk’s voice was cold and sharp, and demanded obedience. The two fillies left without a word, neither of them dared to look back. Megan followed them as fast as she could, and closed the door to the fillies’ room. She sat on the bed with them, trying to think of ways to assuage their fears.

“Miss Megan,” started Busy Bee, “What’s wrong with Hawk?”

Megan gazed at the small pony, debating whether to tell the truth. “Hawk is very…” she was never any good at lying, “…protective. If someone or something hurts the people he cares about, he gets very angry.” Somehow, the news that Hawk cared about them didn’t comfort the two fillies. Their thoughts had recalled the movies they had watched on the train. They were worried that Hawk was turning towards the Dark Side.

Downstairs, Hawk had begun to wake up the unconscious prisoner. Smelling salts proved effective enough, and the prisoner was well awake within a minute or two. The prisoner looked up, and stared at Hawk defiantly. Hawk began his interrogation by pinning the man’s hand to the bar with his knife. The man let loose a scream that chilled everyone to the bone. Everyone save Hawk, who only scowled harder.

Hawk drew close to the man, looking him dead in the eye, “You are going to tell me everything about Cottonmouth’s whereabouts, and what his plans are.”

*              *              *

It was dawn when Twilight opened her eyes. Her head still hurt, but at least now she could think somewhat straight. As far as she could tell, she was in an old iron jail cell, in an old wooden building, no doubt in some old human town. Across from her in another cell were Morning Dew and Tall Leaf. Both seemed no worse for wear, though it looked like they both had done an awful lot of crying during the night. Outside the cells, there was a door to her right that led outside, and to her left was a desk beneath a barred window.

Cottonmouth was sitting at the desk, his boots propped up on it. The one called Diamondback stood behind him. Diamondback’s hat had made his face too shadowy to make out, but Twilight could tell he was looking at her, and it was not a kind look.

Cottonmouth spoke, “Finally, she’s conscious.” He stood up and walked in front of Twilight’s cage, Diamondback following close behind.

Twilight rose to her hooves, albeit wobbly, if for no other reason than to not show weakness to her captor. “Why have you kidnapped us?” she asked, the words barely audible.

“Because,” said Cottonmouth, “I need your help with a little favor.”

Twilight was taken a bit off guard with that statement, “Why in the name of all that is good would I help you?”

“Because if you don’t, or if you fail to do what I ask,” his face came level with hers, “I’ll let Boa have his way with that pretty mare over yonder. He’ll do things to her. Vile things that should only exist in nightmares. And I’ll make you watch every second of it. Every wicked, depraved second. She’ll beg to die before it’s over, but it’ll only get worse. That’s why I know you’ll help me, because you ponies can’t stand to see another one of your own suffer.”

Twilight looked on the human with horror. What scared her most was that her was absolutely right. She couldn’t let Morning Dew or Tall Leaf suffer even if helping them meant helping Cottonmouth. Twilight lowered her head, “I…I’ll help, just please don’t hurt us. What do you want from me?”

A grin grew across Cottonmouth’s face. His reply was cold, “Listen good: all I need you to do is make some of that ponification potion you all use in those camps, but with a little added condition.” He leaned against the bars, “Leave out that bit that takes away all the bad in a man. If you do this for me, you all go free.”

Twilight was stunned. “That’s it?” she asked surprised, “You kidnapped us, threatened us with torture, and killed other humans for that?!”

“Yes, simple as that. That is if you make it right. Now, we got an understanding?” He locked eyes with Twilight’s, sending a shiver down her spine.

Twilight knew there was something bigger at work in that man’s head, but she dared not show any defiance. Not yet anyway. “I’ll need some ingredients.”

Diamondback threw a notepad and pencil into Twilight’s cell. Cottonmouth stood up straight, saying, “Then you’d best make a shopping list. You have three days before I make good on that, ‘threat’ Miss Twilight. Do not try any of that magic of yours either. If you do, the husband starts losing body parts.”

Cottonmouth left, leaving Diamondback with the ponies, leaning on the desk. Morning Dew began to cry all over again, and Tall Leaf was doing his best to comfort her, but he was tearing up too.

Twilight began scrawling the names of ingredients she would need, tears from her own eyes dropping onto the paper. She looked out the window above the desk and saw a tree. In the tree was a hawk, and in its beak was a dead snake. Her tears stopped flowing, and a warmth started to fill her.

A tiny fire of hope arose in Twilight, ‘A good omen if ever I saw one.’

*              *              *

It had taken an hour, a couple of threats and Zorro’s good cop routine, but Hawk had managed to extract the location of Cottonmouth’s lair from the prisoner, a Mr. Henry “Copperhead” Sweets. A ghost town from back during the gold rush, named Sweet Water. Hawk also learned that Cottonmouth had seventeen other men, not counting his lieutenants, a private jet hidden somewhere that was fueled and ready to transport him anywhere in the country, sub machine guns and shotguns out the ass and a mountain of ammo. Doing a frontal assault was not the ideal plan.

“Anything else I should know about Cottonmouth, Henry?” Hawk loomed over him, holding his revolver against the prisoner’s head. “Like what he wanted with the unicorn?”

The prisoner stammered, blood loss from his pinned hand taking its toll, “He…he only said he needed…Needed it for the potion they make. The ponification...That’s all I know I swear! Please let me go…please!”

Hawk began to squeeze the trigger. Zorro however, placed his hand on his partner’s shoulder, which gave Hawk pause long enough for him to reconsider. Hawk knocked the prisoner unconscious with a swift punch to the face. His chest gave out another painful stab.

After moving the prisoner into the back room, Zorro treated his wounds, much to Hawk’s displeasure. “Hawk,” said Zorro before he had left the room, “don’t lose focus on me. You coming close to that edge that I’ve seen a lot of men fall off of. I would rather not see you become a murderer.”

Hawk considered the words, but only replied with a grunt. He walked into the main hall, and saw Megan on the balcony, shaking her head. “Did you have to make him bleed all over the bar? I have to clean that you know.” She gave a weak smile in an attempt to lighten the mood, and the sides of Hawk’s mouth did crack into an ever so small grin, if only for a second.

“Megan,” he said, “get three coffins ready. It’s time we reunited Cottonmouth with his boys.”

Megan gave him quite a look, like he had asked her to give him the moon. “You ask for the damndest things Hawk.”

Hawk just walked into the back room, and then through the back door and into the stable where Megan kept her two horses. T.J. and Buttercup stood waiting, and looked at Hawk as he entered. T.J. was an older golden-brown mare with white spots on her flanks and one right between her eyes, whereas Buttercup was a completely black stallion whose youth made him strong. Hopefully strong enough to cart three coffins and a wagon by himself.

Zorro walked in, carrying Hawk’s duffel bag. “So amigo, who are the three coffins for?” he said, picking up a saddle. “Cottonmouth and his two friends I hope.”

Hawk put his hand over his heart, wincing, “Nah. One’s for me.”

*              *              *

In the time after Cottonmouth had left, Twilight had noticed several things about their guard Diamondback. He never moved, he never blinked, and he never spoke. He just watched. Until Boa entered the room that is.

Twilight saw Diamondback give a disgusted look as the fatter man approached with three plates of day old cabbage. ‘Edible but hardly appetizing,’ thought Twilight. Tall Leaf and Morning Dew both leaned away from Boa as he passed. Boa blew Morning Dew a kiss which made Twilight want to vomit, a sentiment which Diamondback seemed to share.

“It’s noon sweethearts, that means you get to eat! You’ve got to keep your strength up after all,” he eyed both Twilight and Morning Dew, “don’t want to be weak for all the fun we’ll be having later.” He turned to Diamondback, vile grin dissipating, “Your shift is over, these lovelies are under my watch now.”

In an instant Diamondback had slammed Boa’s head onto the desk and put his knife in the fat man’s face. “I seem to recall,” Diamondback’s voice was scratchy and stern, “Cottonmouth said that you weren’t to come within fifty feet of those things.” He inched the knife close to Boa’s eye, “Gave orders to kill you if you had a problem with that. And you know me Boa,” the knife point danced over Boa’s cheek, “I do so love following orders.”

After quieting a panicked breath with a gulp, Boa finally gave out a few weak chuckles, “O-okay Diamondback, you’ve made your point. I got it. I’ll be patient just like the boss said to be. I’m going now.” Diamondback let him up, and Boa walked out the door looking back nervously, scowling every so often.

When he was gone, Diamondback slid the plates of food through the bars with his foot, and then returned to his position. Morning Dew looked up at him after he resumed his waiting. “Thank you,” she said, again lowering her head to her meal. His face did not move an inch, and his eyes didn’t flicker with the acknowledgement that she had said anything.

Twilight began her own meal going over what she had learned so far today. ‘One, Diamondback does not like Boa. Two, lunch comes at noon. Three, Diamondback doesn’t seem to care what happens to us, he just follows orders like a soldier ant or something…’ She looked out the window again, the hawk had left, but there was a feather in the tree that it had left behind, which was enough to keep that little fire of hope alive. ‘…I can work with this, I just have to think. What would a clever pony do? Or hay, what would a deceitful human do?’

Twilight got an idea, but it involved Morning Dew and she wouldn’t like it. In fact, Twilight was pretty sure that no pony would like it.

*              *              *

Busy Bee was getting impatient, anxious, and a whole lot of other adjectives that meant she wanted to do something other than sit in a room and wait. “Where are they?” she asked, “When are they gonna save mom and dad?”

Merry Gold lay on the bed, “I don’t know, but I hope it’s soon. I miss mom’s songs, and dad’s dumb looks he gives her.”

“Even if they are gross!” said Busy Bee beginning to laugh. Despite herself, Merry Gold joined in with a giggle as sweet as a bird’s song. It was the first real laugh either of them had since last night, and it was well received. It made it seem like everything was going to be fine.

“Now that is a sound I like hearing,” Zorro’s voice came from the door. His face showed equal signs of bemusement and worry.

“Zorro! Are you and Hawk going to get our parents now?” Busy Bee’s hopeful smile was almost more than the swordsman could bear.

“Soon little one,” he crouched down to one knee, “Hawk, Megan, and I are all going to get them back. We have a plan, and your two’s job in it is to help Megan.” He gave a look like he didn’t agree with what he just said, but he said it, and the fillies almost exploded with joy.

Busy Bee was beyond excited to know she would be helping to save her parents. They were bound to succeed now, she thought, nothing could stop her from getting her parents back. Not even getting shot would stop her. She’d be just like Hawk: brave and unstoppable, ignoring bullets like they were nothing.

Hawk, meanwhile,  was barely able to stand. That bullet had done quite a number on him and without something to focus his hate on, his adrenaline rush was wearing off and made the pain in his chest all the more intense. It was past noon and Hawk’s plan was coming together. Zorro would be working his ass off to get those coffins ready, and Megan was busy bringing out an old horse drawn wagon.

Hawk had busied himself by going over the contents of his duffel bag. When everything was all laid out like this, he tended to question if he was paranoid, or compensating for something. He shook his head, concluding that he was just prepared. Of course having three handguns, two magnums, three rifles, one high powered sniper rifle, a collapsible RPG launcher, a couple pounds of C-4, a fold-up crossbow, a hundred feet of rope with grappling hook, twelve sticks of dynamite, an assault rifle, an auto shotgun, a double barreled sawed-off shotgun, and a enough ammo to keep each weapon well fed for an entire minute of non-stop firing, did seem a little overkill.

“Son of a bitch,” said Megan as Hawk placed a small flame thrower on the ground next to the rest of his armory, “Do I get any of these?”

Hawk turned, trying to block out the pain, “Is the wagon ready?”

Megan gave Hawk a dry look, “Yes, and Buttercup is hitched to the front of it.” Megan began walking around Hawk, “Why are we bringing the little ones Hawk? They don’t need to see this.”

Hawk was silent for a bit before saying, “Because they were going to follow us out there whether we wanted them or not. It’s just how these Equestrian ponies are I guess, especially the kids.” He sat on a large wooden box, “They just have to help. Even if we don’t want them to.”

Megan gave a thoughtful nod. “C’mon,” she said, “Zorro’s earning his keep today. He made lunch.” She left for the bar room, leaving Hawk alone.

‘First lunch…’ Hawk thought to himself, moving towards the bar, ‘ ...and then, revenge.’

To be Continued.

Next chapter: Shit goes down

Gunfights, swashbuckling, explosions, and cute little ponies!

Seriously though, next chapter’s delivering the action I promised

If it doesn’t I’m going to be very cross

And let’s see if you guys can figure out the plans

Place your bets!

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (It’s almost over!)

Yellowstone

Part 7:

Judgment Day

When night fell, two armed men came into the jail where Twilight, Morning Dew, and Tall Leaf were being kept under the watchful eye of Diamondback. Their warden had not moved since morning and had not spoken except when he confronted Boa. If not for the fact that he blinked once every hour or so, Twilight would have believed him to be made out of wax.

A bandit walked over to him and said, “Boss is back sir, and he wants the unicorn in his office.”

Without a sound, Diamondback reached around behind himself and withdrew old iron keys as he moved towards Twilight’s cage. With a loud clatter he unlocked the cell door, and in a voice that seemed to be dripping with venom, simply said, “Move.”

Twilight shuffled out with her head lowered, and took a long glance at the parents of the Garden family. Their expressions showcased a certain hopelessness that gave her a sense of unease. Twilight was then escorted outside by the two unnamed bandits, one in front and one behind, while Diamondback went back to his previous position at the desk.

Outside it was cold and dark, with oil lanterns signifying the few buildings that were inhabited. The buildings themselves reminded Twilight of Appleloosa, except older, and much less friendly. Scanning all she could in her march, she discovered that the layout of this town was remarkably similar to the Equestrian frontier village.

There was a large building with swinging doors and a lot of noise within, ‘That must be the saloon,’ thought Twilight, squinting in the darkness for any other obvious landmarks she could use later. ‘Bell tower, the jail of course...’ The convoy approached a building at the end of the main street which seemed larger than the other buildings, except for the saloon. ‘Mayor’s office perhaps? Why are all these buildings so far apart? It makes my whole plan a bit more complicated than it needs to be.’

As the trio approached the front door, it opened to reveal Boa , who stood grinning at Twilight. She experienced a very uncomfortable shiver down her spine, with the simultaneous urge to puke.

“Well howdy doo,” said Boa swaying a pistol about as he spoke, “I’ll take her from here boys.”

The guard in back hit Twilight’s flank with the butt of his gun, “Go on. Get moving.”

Twilight’s hooves felt like lead. ‘This is it Twilight. Let’s hope Boa is as stupid as he is ugly and wicked.’ She moved forward, her head slightly higher than previously. As she passed Boa, she heard him lick his lips, and used every ounce of her willpower not to cringe.

The interior of what was indeed the mayor’s office and home was lavishly decorated with fine rugs, oil lanterns and Twilight could hear music being played from somewhere in the house. The lobby was large, and had four possible escape routes. The front door, the huge stairway that led to the second floor, and hallways on either side of the lobby.

Boa closed the front door and moved behind Twilight, “This way honey pot.” He pointed his gun to the door on the left of the room. He then gestured for Twilight to go first saying, “Go on sweetie, don’t be scared, I’ll be right behind you.”

‘Oh Celestia, I am going to have nightmares over this.’ Twilight gulped down her fear and enacted step one of her plan. “Thank you Mr. Boa. I feel much better in the presence of a Big, Strong, man like you.” Twilight tried to coat every word of that sentence with whatever feminine charm she had picked up from Rarity. ‘Now to see if my guess was right.’

Boa leaned his head in close to Twilight’s, while placing his free hand on Twilight’s flank. “Well ain’t that the nicest thing I heard all day.” His breath was awful, but the mare was able to give a shaky smile.

“Why, Morning Dew thinks that you should be the one giving that Diamondback orders. You’re obviously stronger than him, and she thinks you have so much more…” Twilight gulped down some vomit, “…charisma.”

After a small silence, he looked down slightly, mumbling to himself, “…I won’t need to be stronger than him if I put a bullet in him…” The hand on Twilight’s hindquarters gave a slap to her flank, eliciting a surprised noise from the unicorn. “Can’t keep the boss man waiting any longer darlin’. But don’t you fret, we’ll be together real soon.” He pointed at the door again with his gun hand, and Twilight moved towards it with as much swiftness as she could without breaking into a gallop.

‘I am never doing that again.’

The door opened slowly, revealing a fully equipped chemistry lab with boxes on the far wall. There was even a large cauldron in the center of the room. Cottonmouth was sitting in a comfortable looking chair, where he sat fiddling with the snake skull of his necklace.

“Come into my den Miss Twilight. I got you your materials, now you make me my potion. Then you and your friends all get to leave.”

He was obviously lying, and Twilight gave a slight grunt as she moved towards the materials these bandits had no doubt killed for. “I still don’t see why you want me to do this for you. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Cottonmouth let out a small laugh under his breath, “Tell you what. You get done fast enough, and I might tell you what all this is about.”

Not the answer she was hoping for, but it was enough to get her curious. Twilight set her mind to the task at hand. In reality, making the potion wouldn’t take long at all, but Cottonmouth didn’t know that. And every second she could stall this crook would be worth it. She knew Hawk would be coming for her, and he would need the time to prepare.

*              *              *

Zorro sat at the front of a wagon steering the stallion, Buttercup. Zorro never knew why Megan named the poor boy that, but despite his name, the horse was fierce and powerful. The three coffins in the back of the wagon weren’t top quality, but they would serve their purpose in Hawk’s plan. Zorro just hoped it worked.

Megan rode up next to Zorro on T.J. who also carried two saddle bags, with a sleeping filly in each.

“We should be there by sunrise. Hopefully Cottonmouth lets his boys sleep in,” Megan said, eying the coffins with worry.

Zorro smirked at the thought, “And I hope you are a good shot with that new toy Hawk gave you.” Zorro pointed at the sniper rifle holstered on the side of T.J.

Megan returned the comment with a smile, “And I hope you can still use that sword of yours. It might be embarrassing if it turned out you were all talk.”

They both allowed themselves a small laugh in order to quiet their nerves. They were walking into a bad situation and they knew it. The fillies were a great help squashing the fear Zorro and Megan had felt. They had the unwavering belief that everything would be fine, just like in the cartoons, and despite it all, Zorro believed it right along with them.

*              *              *

Twilight had stalled for about four hours. ‘Long enough,’ she thought. “There. Now we let it sit overnight, and it’ll be ready for the enchantment.Then you can let me and my friends go.” The large cauldron next to her bubbled with boiling water and tea leaves. Twilight considered taking a sip of possibly the most delicious brew of Sweet Honey Apple tea she had ever made, but decided against it.

Cottonmouth let out a tired sigh, “Only if it does what I want. And why don’t you just cast the enchantment now?”

Twilight gave a neutral look, “The ritual dictates that the enchantment must be cast when the brew is hit by the first rays of morning.” It didn’t of course, but it should buy enough time for her plan to go through.

Cottonmouth frowned, “But why?”

“It’s magic. That’s just how it works.” Twilight retorted, ‘I don’t have to explain manure, especially to him.’

With a scowl Cottonmouth snapped his fingers twice, and Boa entered the room. “Escort the unicorn to her cell.”

“With absolute pleasure sir!” Boa gave a bowed slightly, gesturing for Twilight to come to him while he pointed his gun at her with his other hand. How could she refuse that charm?

When they left the manor, Boa slowed his pace and got behind Twilight. She kept walking, trying to quicken her pace without it being too noticeable. She could only guess at what Boa was doing behind her, but everything she thought of made her sick.

To her great amazement, Twilight was actually relieved when she caught sight of Diamondback, standing on the porch of the jail. At least Boa couldn’t touch her now, but she still needed to proceed to step two of her plan.

“Oh Mr. Boa,” Twilight cooed softly, “Would you be so kind to bring breakfast to us early? For the sake of Morning Dew? She’d be so grateful, that I’d bet she’d be liable to do anything to thank you for it.” ‘I hate this plan. I really, really, hate this plan.’

Boa didn’t respond, but she did hear him give a hum that sounded like he accepted. As they approached, Diamondback stood to the side of the door. Boa was about to give Twilight a spank on her rump, but Diamondback’s glare reminded him of Cottonmouth’s orders. With that, Diamondback led Twilight to her cell across from the couple, who were asleep. Twilight also had to get some rest, so she found a comfy enough place on the floor to lay down.

If everything went according to plan tomorrow morning, Boa and Diamondback would get into a fight, and Twilight would teleport herself and the other two ponies to safety. True she didn’t have a plan to live out on the plains and prairies, but she knew Hawk would be along soon. He was the best after all.

‘Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day,’ she thought as sleep overtook her.

*              *              *

It was before sunrise when Twilight was nudged awake by a boot. Her bleary eyes focused on Diamondback’s scowl.

“Move,” he said, his tone as venomous as ever.

As much as Twilight was disgusted to admit, she really wanted Boa to show up right now. ‘Oh no. Oh no, no, no. Show up you monster!’ Twilight dragged her hooves as she walked out of the cage, ‘C’mon! Where are you? Did he see through the lie? Was it not convincing?’

Twilight’s slowness earned her a kick to the rump from Diamondback, “Move faster.”

Twilight quickened her pace slightly, gazing at Morning Dew. She and her husband were watching her go, their eyes full of fear and concern. Twilight could only respond with a pained look of her own towards Morning Dew. ‘This is not good. Not good at all.’

The main street was deserted except for a few patrolling guards. Diamondback seemed to be the one escorting her to the mansion today, which bothered Twilight immensely. If he wasn’t in the jail, then Twilight had practically thrown Morning Dew into the lion’s mouth. Her mind raced at possible ways to fix this problem. She was drawing a blank as she and her captor grew nearer to the mansion.

Boa opened the front door, arms gesturing for the pair to enter, “Come on Diamondback. Cottonmouth is getting antsy.” Boa blew a kiss towards Twilight as she passed.

Twilight entered the mansion followed by Diamondback. The unicorn breathed a sigh of relief when Boa closed the door and pursued them. At least the fat man would be with her instead of alone with Morning Dew. Twilight was brought into Cottonmouth’s den, where he and three other goons stood waiting. Cottonmouth had a box on his chair that was making tweeting noises.

Cottonmouth stepped forward, looking tired and frustrated, “Almost sunrise little one. Better hope you made this elixir right, or you and your friends are gonna suffer like never before.”

‘I won’t let that happen. I can’t let that happen. I just hope Hawk is on his way…’ thought Twilight, her mind focusing onto the present task. She approached the cauldron and regarded it with tired eyes. The water was boiling, and the tea leaves she had put into it had long since sank to the bottom.

The contents didn’t matter of course. The water they handed out at the ponification camps was just water with grape flavoring and a powerful sleeping drug in it. The actual work came from the enchantment that was placed on the water. The reason the subject needed to be asleep was because the transformation process from human to pony was not a painless one.

Twilight’s thoughts drifted to the first day a human was turned into a pony. She was there, in the lab with the human doctors and pony magicians. Even the Princesses were there. The human’s name was Cathy Barnes, or something similar. Twilight heard that she had a condition known among humans as ‘battle fatigue.’

Twilight remembered that Cathy had come to, ‘get rid of the nightmares,’ and to stop the pain. When the test started, and the transformation began, Twilight remembered closing her eyes as Cathy’s body started to rearrange itself. She remembered Cathy’s screams, and the sound of bones snapping to fit the new body. By the end though, Cathy was fine. She was weak from the experience, but she had become happy, and couldn’t stop saying ‘thank you’ to every pony there. No pony was pleased with what had happened, but that was how the spell worked. All they could do was offer a remission from the pain.

“Here it comes,” Cottonmouth’s words interrupted Twilight’s trip down memory lane.

As she prepared to cast the enchantment, she considered throwing in a sleep spell out of habit, but eventually came to the conclusion, ‘Nah.’

The tip of her horn glowed with violet light as the sun peeked out from behind distant hills, and its rays cascaded down the main street and in through the windows. Twilight released the spell, and the water sparkled for a few seconds, like fireflies were caught inside the boiling waters, before dissipating completely.

Twilight felt that her time had run out, and now would be the moment to get out of town. “There’s your ponification potion, and I hope you’re satisfied. Now can you please release me and my friends?”

Cottonmouth regarded the brew, then looked at Twilight and gave a cold glare, “When we know it works. That was the deal. Anaconda, you’re up.” One of the goons stepped forward and grabbed a small glass from a cabinet.

Anaconda dunked the cup into the cauldron and took a drink. After two seconds of nothing, he dropped the glass onto the floor. It bounced off the wood and rolled towards the door. The man gripped his sides and moaned in agony as one of his legs bent at an odd angle with a snap, sending him to the ground.

Twilight couldn’t look, but all the humans seemed to be watching intently. Cottonmouth even seemed to be smiling. Anaconda was beginning to shrink in size and began to grow gray fur from his skin as his hair color turned into a deep shade of black. His hands balled up into fists, and skin grew over his fingers and knuckles which began cracked and broke into what would soon be hooves.

After a minute of screams and crunching noises, Anaconda now stood at Twilight’s height with a gray coat, black mane, and a storm cloud as his cutie-mark. Cottonmouth stepped forward, “Can you move?” he asked. Anaconda took a few practice steps and nodded.

Cottonmouth reached for the box on his chair that had tweeting noises coming from it. He opened it up to reveal three newborn chicks. He dumped them on the floor with a simple instruction to Anaconda, “Kill them.”

“What?!” screamed Twilight, “Why? They’re just chicks! Please don’t-!” Tears were already forming in her eyes, but when she looked at Cottonmouth, he just gave her a cruel smile.

Twilight shouted something as Anaconda hoofed one into the fire that kept the pot boiling, and proceeded to crush the other two underneath his front hooves. All that was left was a mess of feathers and red.

Cottonmouth nodded his approval, “Good work Miss Twilight. It seems your spell has left Anaconda with his love of killing small animals. You’ve kept your end of the bargain, so I guess I should reward you for your hard work while my boys clean up this little…” he glanced at the red and yellow stains, “…mess.” With a few quick gestures he motioned for the pot of tainted ponification water to be moved elsewhere, and for all but Boa and Diamondback to leave.

Cottonmouth sat in his chair, looking at Twilight who stood silent, tears running down her cheeks. “You must be thinking, ‘why’?” he said, “Am I right? Why go to such trouble?” His wicked smile returned, “Power, pure and simple. You see it’s hard for an outlaw like myself to make a living in the civilized world, with all these U.S. Marshals and ponies running around. Things are getting to orderly for me to run a business.” He gazed out the window, squinting, “You see I need there to be a certain amount of misery and chaos to operate to sell my fine wares. I was making a killing before you four legged freaks showed up. The cities were teeming with people ready to buy the poison I peddled, but that damn princess of yours showed up and ruined everything.”

He again faced Twilight, looking her in the eye with malice, “So I went out west. Less people. Less police. Less hassle. Less money too. But then I heard about those potions that turned men into abominations like you, and I thought to myself, ‘Would that change anything into a pony?’” Cottonmouth’s gaze turned darker, and his words colder, “So I snuck into one of those camps, and stole some of that potion. I gave it to my dog, and sure enough, he turned into a pony.” He began to laugh to himself while he spoke, “Most retarded one I ever saw too. Damn thing thought it was still a dog. But it gave me an idea.”

Cottonmouth looked at to the two stains on the floor, smiling, “You see, this potion of yours seems to only turn things into one of three things: your normal freaks, like those two I’ve got in the jail right now, horned ones like you, and those winged ones. I figure that anything that isn’t one of those three is vulnerable to this potion. So I would use it to turn that Immortal Sun Goddess of yours into a mere mortal, and fill her veins with so much poison that she’d bleed green.” Twilight reeled at the thought, that one human could be so insane as to want to kill the mare that wanted nothing more than to save humanity from itself.

“Of course I couldn’t get close to her,” Cottonmouth continued, “And if I took the form of one of you things via the potion at one of your camps, I would not want to kill her. So I needed an assassin that was pony in shape, but a killer at heart.” He pointed at Twilight and gave her a big smile, “An assassin you provided. Tomorrow, during the debate between the…” Cottonmouth rolled his eyes, “…Human Liberation Front and your beloved princess, Anaconda will slip her the poisoned drink and turn into a simple pony. Then my very best poison will kill her in front of millions worldwide. When that sister of hers sees her sibling’s corpse fall on that stage, why I suspect she will blame the HLF and cause an inter species incident.” Cottonmouth clapped his hands together, “A war will start in all of its glory, and all of its horror.”

Twilight was flabbergasted. “You’re completely insane. What makes you think they won’t find out it was you who did this?”

Cottonmouth gave a thoughtful stare at the unicorn, “Because I know that the young princess Luna has some,” he twirled his hand in the air, “Baggage. Baggage that makes her into a monster of vengeance and hate. A monster that will blindly kill hundreds of thousands of humans for what they did to her sister. But thanks to you, in the chaos of this coming war, not only will I not be human. I’ll be a four legged freak like you, but still be able to gget rich from selling arms and drugs to the inevitable human resistance.” He smirked to his lieutenants, “Though I wonder if ponies can get off on cocaine?”

“But that’s hardly your problem,” he said as he pulled his pistol from its holster and pointing it towards Twilight, “My sources tell me that you are that divine bitch’s star student, so in case things go south you are going to stay with me as my star hostage.”

Twilight knew that nothing she could say would help her situation, and talking about the other two might get them killed. Or worse. So Twilight remained silent, and gave Cottonmouth the most hate filled glare she could muster.

“Boss!” came a voice from outside, “BOSS!”

“Diamondback, go see what that idiot’s up to.” Diamondback left the room without a word, leaving the door open.

Twilight was left with nothing but her thoughts, ‘This is insane. Why are they like this? What happened to make them like this? Oh Celestia I couldn’t save Morning Dew or Tall Leaf. I can’t save you.’ Her head lowered as she began to sob, ‘I can’t save myself.’

“A wagon just showed up. Says he’s an arms dealer that just got some good swag from an abandoned military depot. Says he can get us more, if the money is right. I put him in the barn under guard.” Diamondback looked at Cottonmouth through the door, who nodded. Diamondback then proceeded out to the barn.

Cottonmouth chuckled, saying, “Sometimes I think I’m just too lucky. By the way Boa,” he said to the fat man, “We won’t be needing those other two. Go have fun with them.” Boa’s face spread into a devious smile as he nearly skipped out the room towards the jail, leaving Cottonmouth alone with Twilight. She just looked at the two stains on the floor, sobbing every so often. “Might as well get comfy,” said her captor, “Won’t be long now until the world as you know it changes.”

*              *              *

Boa entered the jail, key in hand to the cell with the two ponies. His excitement was extraordinary, and his patience was thin as is. The two ponies looked up, and Tall Leaf stood above his wife to defend her. He seemed to know what was coming.

“Hey there sweet stuff, I don’t think me an’ you have been acquainted quite yet.” He licked his lips as he fumbled with the lock. As he opened the door, Tall Leaf charged him, but Boa gave him a backhand to the face with enough force to send the stallion down to the floor stunned. Morning Dew screamed as the fat man grabbed her mane and dragged her out of the cell. Boa merely giggled to himself “Yes! That’s it! I like it more when they struggle!”

He shut the cell door, locking Tall Leaf inside and unable to help. Boa brought Morning Dew over to the desk and threw her onto of it, keeping her head pinned so she couldn’t raise it or look away from the wall. His grip prevented her from bucking at him, leaving her with the grim realization that all she could do was scream.

“That’s what I want to hear! Shout it out for that husband of yours to hear!” Boa began to chortle as he began to slide off his overalls, making Morning Dew cry even louder. “Oh darlin’,” moaned Boa, “when I’m through with you, your ass is gonna be red and bloody!”

*click* “So will that wall when I’m through with you.”

Boa turned to see the business end of a double barreled sawed-off shotgun. All he could get out was, “FU-” before Hawk pulled the trigger for both barrels.

*              *              *

Zorro stood behind four of the bandits, his hand on his cleverly concealed sword, waiting for Hawk’s signal. So far the plan was going well enough: Hawk had snuck out of his coffin while Zorro distracted the guards with the dog and pony show that was his introduction as a weapon salesman. The guards were currently browsing the fine selection of ammo and equipment that were held in the other two coffins, and all Zorro had to do was make sure to be behind them when the shots started going off.

The man known as Diamondback entered the barn and gave Zorro the once over. Zorro did much the same. After a second or two, Diamondback moved through the four goons and began looking at the equipment.

There was a boom from somewhere in the town. ‘And that must be Hawk,’ Thought Zorro. He drew his sword, and cut down three of the five unsuspecting bandits before they even thought to look up. The Fourth looked at Zorro with surprise while reaching for his gun, but Zorro gave him a quick stab through the heart before his hand touched his pistol.

Diamondback was not as unprepared as Zorro had hoped. Without hesitation, Diamondback rolled away from him, and at some point and from somewhere, drew not only a Bowie knife, but a curved cavalry sword with a snake’s rattle tied to the hilt.

Zorro threw the front of his poncho over his shoulder, taking a defensive stance and cocking an eyebrow. “Huh,” he said, “two swords.” Diamondback began to circle, rattling the hilt. “This will be exciting.”

*              *              *

Morning Dew was shuttering terribly as she watched little pieces of Boa’s skull slide down the wall in a mix of blood and brains. She was currently experiencing a few emotions, chief among them was relief, shock, and heart pounding terror.

“Dear Celestia! Morning Dew! Morning Dew are you alright?!” Tall Leaf called in a panic. Hawk had crouched over the now headless body of Boa and retrieved the keys. After releasing Tall Leaf from his cell, the colt dashed to his still shaking wife and immediately began comforting her. Hawk moved to the door and threw a brick of some sort of putty out of it.

“Don’t worry darling. Shh, shhhh…” cooed Tall Leaf, avoiding stepping on Boa.

“H-he was going t-to…” stuttered Morning Dew looking at the bits of Boa in her mane.

Hawk extracted a remote from a pocket of his coat and clicked a button. A very loud explosion came from outside accompanied by the several screams. Hawk dashed next to the ponies, “Morning Dew, Tall Leaf, we have a small window of time where I can get you to safety. Your children are waiting for you.”

Morning Dew’s head turned quickly and she locked eyes with Hawk, “My fillies? They’re here? Where?!”

Hawk glanced out the door and pulled out his revolver, “They are with Megan.” A shot rang out from outside and a bandit flew to the ground from a sudden impact to his chest. One of the others called out “SNIPER!”

Hawk turned back to Morning Dew, “They’re safe. Now come away from the wall.” He pulled a small cube of putty out of his coat, placed pins in it, and stuck it to the wall of the jail. The three of them moved away from the wall as Hawk pressed another button, causing the wall to explode. After letting the ringing in their ears go away, Hawk pointed at a far hill, “Run to there and do not stop or turn around!”

Tall Leaf nudged Morning Dew up and they pair ran through the new hole in the wall, and before he left, he gave Hawk a grateful nod. Hawk returned it with a tip of the hat.

*              *              *

Twilight’s ears perked up as she thought she heard thunder.

Cottonmouth’s face flashed with worry, “That sounded like a shotgun. You six!” he yelled at the men in the lobby, “Go to the barn and make sure nobody’s being stupid.”

They all replied with a nod and dashed out the door with rifles and shotguns. Twilight stopped crying as a smile somehow spread over her face. Hawk was here to save them. She knew he would come. Cottonmouth looked out the window, his revolver drawn, and ignoring Twilight.

‘Now’s my chance!’ Twilight focused on the tree she had seen outside her cell window, the one where she saw the hawk. Magic danced up her horn as she felt the familiar surge of power. With a flash of light, she was outside the jail’s back wall next to the tree. No sooner had she appeared, a giant explosion rocked the earth and made her tumble to the ground.

‘That must be Hawk.’ She dashed into the alley between the jail and another rundown house, and beheld a small crater as well as three of those six men that were sent out.

The other three were beginning to stand and recuperate their senses. The first one to do so began charging towards the jail, but a loud bang sent him down to the ground. One of the others shouted, “SNIPER!” and took cover inside a nearby building. Twilight spotted Diamondback running into the saloon. More masked bandits were breaking the windows and sticking the barrels of their guns out of them.

Another explosion came from behind her. Curious, Twilight ran back behind the jail and saw Morning Dew and Tall Leaf making a mad dash for a far hill. She decided to investigate the smoking hole they came from, and there stood Hawk, his back turned to her.

Her face beamed with excitement, “HAWK!”

He looked at her with a face of mild surprise which changed to the biggest smile Twilight had ever seen on a human. Before she could say how much she missed him, he already had his arms around her in a solid hug.

“Thank God your safe,” he said burying his head against Twilight’s neck. Twilight was beginning to blush as her eyes watered, but Hawk pulled away, his face serious, “Run to that hill and stay with Megan. Me and Zorro have this under control.”

Shots started to sound out from the saloon, and another couple came from the hill.

Twilight looked Hawk in his eyes, and saw that they weren’t the same as when he had just seen her. They were more menacing. They looked like they were full of hate and fury. But Twilight was not deterred.

“No Hawk,” she put her hoof down, “I have to stop Cottonmouth. He’s planning to kill Princess Celestia and if he succeeds it’ll be my fault. I need to help stop him.”

Hawk made a face. “Fine. Just keep your head down.”

Twilight beamed up at him, and gave a determined grin, “Don’t worry Hawk, you have the Element of Magic by your side!”

Hawk chuckled, and for a moment Twilight saw his eyes go back to the way they were before. “And you have a force of nature by yours.”

*              *              *

Diamondback and Zorro were still sizing each other up and circling in the middle of the barn. Diamondback kept rattling the hilt of his sword, and it was making Zorro anxious. It was distracting to say the least, but he assumed that was the point. Zorro took notice of his and his opponent’s positions.

“I hate to point this out, but you have given me an opening,” said Zorro, a grin spreading over his face. Diamondback’s eyebrow twitched. “The front door.” Zorro dashed out into the street towards the saloon as fast as he could.

Zorro could tell just by looking that he couldn’t take Diamondback on in a level playing field, so he would need to get creative. Diamondback threw his bowie knife at the retreating man, and sent it flying straight for Zorro’s back.

Fortunately an explosion to Zorro’s left shook the earth beneath his feet and caused him to trip, sending the knife flying far above him. Zorro got up quickly and saw the tower of dust rising from the street. “That must be Hawk.” Rattling was coming from behind him, and Zorro didn’t need to look to know who it was, so he continued running into the saloon.

Bursting through the doors Zorro only had a second to take in his surroundings. It was almost like a set from a movie: there was the bar to his left, an open area filled with tables, a stage to the right, stairs on the far wall that led to a balcony above the bar, and a chandelier above the tables. The sound of breaking glass could be heard from upstairs.

Wasting no more time as the rattling drew near, Zorro jump-stepped onto one of the tables and turned to face his attacker. Diamondback had picked up his knife and entered the saloon, blood lust in his eyes.

Zorro just gave a wave of his sword, “I have the high ground. Maybe you should surrender?”

Diamondback answered with a slash from his sword towards Zorro’s ankles. Zorro jumped to the next table and readied himself. Diamondback hopped onto the table Zorro just left. Both tables were shaky, making it difficult to get solid footing. Just what Zorro was hoping for.

Diamondback continued with his offense with a slash from above, which Zorro deflected and countered with a stab to the chest. But Diamondback blocked with his knife and sent Zorro’s attack away at an awkward angle, sending his own sword for Zorro’s neck.

Zorro wouldn’t have been able to get his sword up in time, so he ducked the swing and jumped to another table, getting a little closer to the stairs. He stood, adjusted his hat, and renewed his defensive stance.

This time it was Diamond back who smiled, shaking his rattle, “Having fun amigo?”

Zorro looked at him in the eye, and he saw the wanton lust for murder in them. Zorro smiled anyway and said, “Si.”

Diamondback jumped to a closer table and sent a wild swings to Zorro’s left side. More quick deflections from Zorro sent Diamondback’s sword out of his hand. It soared over the bar and landed with a rattle.

“Y tú amigo?”

Diamondback sneered, and the two swordsmen stood at a standstill. Someone outside called out, “SNIPER!”

Zorro lunged his sword towards Diamondback’s heart, but a knife smacked the tip away, and Diamondback’s free hand gripped Zorro’s arm and pulled him off of his table. Shots began to ring out from upstairs.

Zorro hit the floor hard with his back, but was able to keep his sword in his hand. Diamondback jumped off his table and landed on the bar. He jumped down and retrieved his rattling cavalry sword. In these precious few seconds, Zorro had rolled to his feet and was making his way to the staircase.

Diamondback leapt over the bar and began to pursue, reaching Zorro just as he got to the stairs. Zorro turned and began to back up the staircase while Diamondback stalked closer, rattling his sword the entire time. Zorro eyed around for anything that could help, something that could help even things up weapon wise. On the wall he spotted something: a coiled leather bull whip hanging from a nail.

“This’ll do.” Zorro plucked it from the wall with his free hand, but kept it coiled. It wouldn’t do him much good on the stairs.

Diamondback sent two more slashes at Zorro in rapid succession, and were easily blocked by Zorro’s own sword. But every time Zorro sent a stab or slash to counter, Diamondback blocked it with his knife. Diamondback charged up the few stairs between him and his enemy, trying to get in close enough for his knife. Apparently he was getting tired of Zorro blocking all his attacks too.

Zorro wouldn’t be able to cut him down in time to avoid getting a stab himself, so he leapt over the guard rail, choosing instead to cling to the banister of the stairs. Diamondback ran past him and when he stopped, he looked around in mild confusion before seeing where his opponent had gotten.

With a sick smile, he approached Zorro, “Well, maybe I should use that whip to hang you while we’re up here.” He raised his sword to slash at Zorro’s hands, “Or maybe I should just watch you fall.”

Zorro did some quick measurements, “I think I’ll fall.” Zorro jumped off from the railing and lashed out the whip towards the chandelier. It wrapped around the ceiling ornament beautifully, and Zorro used it to swing onto the balcony above the bar. When he landed, Diamondback looked confused and angry. Zorro just blew him a kiss and ran into a nearby room, where four goons had taken up firing positions.

When they noticed Zorro, they turned and fired, but Zorro jumped into a roll towards them, and the bullets went high blasting out the wooden door frame. Zorro rolled to his feet and slashed one of them across the chest and another he stabbed in the heart. The other two tried to reposition their shots, but were cut short as their heads gained new holes in their foreheads; a gift from Megan, which Zorro needed to thank her for later. Diamondback soon appeared in the doorway and was bearing down on Zorro fast.

Without missing a beat, Zorro jumped out the window and landed on the roof of the saloon’s porch. Keeping his momentum he ran for the lower building to his right which, thankfully, was close enough to jump to. He leapt the alley between the buildings and made a very ungraceful landing on the slanted roof, causing him to slip and slide down. Before he went over the edge completely, Zorro stuck out his legs and braced himself against the wall of the saloon. He ended up with everything below the shoulders perilously hanging above they alley, while supporting himself with his legs and shoulders.

Diamondback was hot on his heels and landed his jump, keeping his footing. Turning around, once again having a gloating expression cover his face, walked slowly down the incline, once again rattling his sword. Zorro’s heart was pounding as certain death approached, while beneath him lay almost certain death.

‘Maybe we should fall. We’d survive the fall right? Yes, but we might get our legs broken wouldn’t we? Hijo de tu puta madre!’

Zorro looked below where his legs were on the saloon wall, seeing a window between his feet. In its reflection was another window. Above him stood Diamondback, who was laughing as he sent a downward slash at him. With a great deal of effort, Zorro raised his sword up and the blocked the attack. Diamondback was playing with him, but Zorro didn’t mind as it meant he wasn’t paying as much attention.

Zorro twisted around onto his stomach and released his feet from the saloon wall. He slid over the edge and gripped onto it firmly with his hands, swinging into the building below him through the window and leaving Diamondback on the roof.

“That’ll buy me some time to think of something,” Zorro breathed out, and finally acknowledged the sound of gunfire going off everywhere. “Why did Hawk get to save the ponies? I wanted to save the ponies, not fight Mr. Sword Guy.” He left the bedroom he had recently arrived in and made sure to prop something against the door as he shut it. “I thought I was the only sword guy.”

Zorro looked around his current building, and saw that it was in fact, as small church. He currently stood on a balcony overlooking the pews. Plenty of hiding spots.

It wasn’t long before Diamondback kicked the door open from the room Zorro had entered through. Both blades stood at the ready, and Diamondback looked around warily. He had never been in this building and wasn’t familiar with the layout or all the little nooks and crannies that came with it.

The orange light of the early morning streamed through the windows giving poor illumination to the dusty hall of the church. A squeak of floorboards came from downstairs, and Diamondback moved swiftly.

He descended the nearby spiraling staircase down to the ground floor, where he stood in front of the double doors of the entrance. There was no sign that anyone had been in this place for years. Diamondback proceeded to walk up the aisle, glancing down each row of pews. There was a creak of wood from behind the large wooden crucifix.

“Think God will save you from me?” called Diamondback as he began shaking his rattle. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the only gods around these days are those two sisters…” he drew closer to the cross, which emitted more sounds of creaking floorboards the nearer he got. “…except that soon there’s only going to one of those little freaks flying around. But I wouldn’t to worry about it too much if I were you...” Diamondback arrived at the cross not noticing that the creaking had stopped, “...you’re not going to see anything past today anyway.” He swung his sword around to strike at whatever was behind the crucifix, but hit only air.

There was a whistling sound before Diamondback felt something sink into his back and stick out of his chest. Staggering, he turned slowly, dropping his knife and sword, and saw Zorro a dozen feet away. It looked like he had just thrown something. Diamondback’s vision went dark and he fell to the floor with a gasp.

Zorro walked over to Diamondback’s body and withdrew his sword from it. Zorro made the sign of the cross saying, “Vaya con dios.”

*              *              *

Hawk and Twilight stepped out onto the street, Hawk with his revolver drawn and Twilight preparing her magic. The bandits in the upper floor of the saloon began to open fire on them, but Twilight had something ready for them. A magic shield formed a dome around her and Hawk, causing the bullets that hit it to bounce off harmlessly.

The two bandits on street level peeked from their cover and took shots at her and Hawk, much to the same effect. Before they ducked back into cover however, two loud shots from the hill dropped both of them. Twilight grimaced. She still wasn’t used to seeing such wanton death.

“Twilight, where is Cottonmouth?” asked Hawk as he eyed at the windows of the saloon.

Twilight looked to the mayor’s mansion, “He was in there when I teleported out.” Hawk began running to the doors of the mansion, revolver ready, and Twilight charged alongside him. “When I get my hooves on that man I’m going to...” ‘Do what? Kill him?’

They arrived at the doors of the mansion as the shield spell began to fade away. Hawk kicked in the doors. On the other side were two bandits and a gray pony who held a knife in his mouth. The bandits opened fire with sub-machine guns, sending a deadly spray of bullets at Hawk and Twilight. Both unicorn and man ducked out of the doorway and took cover.

“I think I can blind them with a spell!” Twilight shouted over the noise.

Hawk remained silent, listening. After a few moments, the noise stopped and was replaced with tiny clicks. Hawk reentered the doorway and shot both men in the head, sending the contents of their skulls all over the place. Anaconda charged with the knife in his mouth, but Hawk quickly took it from him, spun it around, and stabbed the dark pony in his neck.

“If you wanted to be a killer,” Hawk said into his ear, “You should have stayed a human.” Hawk kicked Anaconda’s body across the floor where he landed in a bloody heap.

Twilight finally entered, surveying the carnage Hawk had left. More gunshots echoed from outside, but the mansion was far too quiet. Twilight pointed to the door that led to Cottonmouth’s den with her hoof, “That way.”

Hawk stepped in first, this time with a degree of caution. It was dark inside, and there were no signs of life. Only the two red and yellow stains on the carpet were clearly visible, illuminated by a thin ray of light entering through the heavy curtains. Twilight gagged upon seeing them again as Hawk began looking for a light switch.

Another bandit came at Hawk from the side with a knife drawn, stabbing Hawk in the side forcing him to drop his revolver. Hawk let go a cry of pain as he grabbed his attacker and threw him into the window, ripping the old curtains and filling the room with daylight. The bandit bounced back slashing at Hawk’s face, but he swung to wide and Hawk gave him a head butt to the face. With no hesitation, Hawk placed his thumbs into the attacker’s eyes and began to squeeze.

Twilight cast a bolt of force into the attacker’s hand and sent the knife flying to the far side of the room thinking that would be enough to stop the fight, but Hawk continued. She looked on in horror as blood leaked from where the bandit’s eyes used to be.

“Hawk!” screamed Twilight. She didn’t want to see Hawk be this savage. She didn’t want him to be like them. “HAWK!”

Hawk blinked, and registered what he was doing. He placed his hands on the bandit’s chin and the back of his head, giving a sharp twist. The resulting snap of the bandit’s neck and thud of his body hitting the ground made the pit in Twilight’s stomach grow deeper. She would never get used to this, and by Celestia she hoped she never would.

Hawk put his hand on his side. It was still bleeding profusely. He recovered his revolver and made his way towards Cottonmouth’s chair. His hands were covered with blood and he began coughing. His stride was becoming weaker. For the first time since this entire thing began, Twilight believed Hawk would die.

She hardened her face, ‘Not while I’m here.’

Twilight ran to his side and inspected the wound, “Don’t move, this looks really bad, I’m going to have to fix it up.” Hawk grunted his disapproval, but Twilight would have none of it, “It won’t take long, my friend Rarity taught me how heal wounds with magic, and while I might not be able to sew wounds together like she can, I can at least stop you from dying.”

Either because of blood loss or acceptance, Hawk sat in Cottonmouth’s chair and let Twilight work. Her horn glowed violet, and a thousand tiny pinpricks of light shot out onto the gaping wound. The lights left tiny threads behind them, and as they passed over Hawk’s wound, they started pulling it closed. After a few moments of this, several of them landed over the currently sealed wound and made threads that resembled stitches in a doll.

“There,” said Twilight, “It will still hurt. But it won’t bleed.”

“Good enough,” replied Hawk, standing up with a loud groan. “You weren’t kidding about the whole hurting thing.”

Twilight remained serious, “No time for complaining Hawk. We need to stop Cottonmouth before he gets away with that corrupted ponification potion.”

Hawk gave a nod, “Now if I was a dirty, rotten, snake, I would be…”

“Let me handle this,” interrupted Twilight. She had just the spell for this.

Twilight’s horn glowed as she cast a locate spell, something Spike had told her a thousand times that she needed. Twilight knew it wouldn’t work on living creatures, as it was usually reserved for books or keys and other inanimate objects, but she was looking for the Cottonmouth’s revolver. There was no doubt that he would hold onto that thing like it was gold. The spell went off and Twilight’s irises began to shimmer.

She closed her eyes and saw the world much differently than before. It was black and the objects around her, like the floor and walls and Hawk, were nothing but outlines drawn with thin, glowing, white lines. She looked around this new world, and seeing nothing to the left or right or above, she looked down. Below her, in what could only be a basement, a marvelous rainbow of colors shined in the shape of a gun. It was moving quickly into a tunnel. Twilight concentrated, trying to see what the gun saw, and was rewarded with a vision of the entire escape tunnel.

“Hawk,” Twilight said finally, “He’s moving through an escape tunnel, and it will lead him down to the other end of the main street.” She looked up at him with a wide smile, “We can catch him.”

Hawk returned her smile with one of his own. “Then we had better not keep his judgment waiting.”

The two moved out the door as fast as Hawk could manage and proceeded down the street. As they passed by an old church, the doors swung open and Zorro walked out, a bit surprised to see them. Zorro gave them a grin and looked them over.

“Still standing amigo?” said Zorro, eyeing Hawk’s side.

“Barely,” replied Hawk, “How’d things go on your end?”

Zorro looked back into the church, Twilight noticed a body slumped over inside, “About as well as you could expect.” Zorro turned his gaze to Twilight, “And you niña, are you all right?”

Twilight had to think about it. She was physically fine, but some of the images from the last few days were all blurred together, and a lot of them she would rather forget. Eventually she settled on an answer, “About as fine as one can be after traveling with you two.”

Zorro let out a laugh, but Hawk’s face remained neutral as he stated, “Come on you two. This isn’t over yet.” Hawk began to walk down the street, the sun’s light illuminating his face. Twilight and Zorro both grew serious, and walked on either side of Hawk. The swordsman on his left, and the unicorn on his right. Together, they walked down the street, side by side, approaching an old withered tree.

A large rock that was laying among the tree’s roots moved, revealing a hole. From the hole crawled Cottonmouth, who carried on his back a metal thermos.

“Cottonmouth,” called Hawk, “stand and face justice.”

Cottonmouth spun on his heels, and glared at Hawk, his eyes burning with hate. He hovered his hand over his revolver, “Why Hawk, you just won’t stay dead. Apparently I should have aimed for the head.”

“There are a lot of things people should do Cottonmouth,” Hawk replied, his hand hovering over his own gun, “You should start praying.” Twilight was getting ready to blast Cottonmouth with a bolt of energy before Hawk spoke again, “Twilight. Zorro. Step away.” Twilight was about to protest, but Zorro gave her a look that seemed to say it had to be this way, like it was some ancient rite. She hesitated, but complied with the request.

The two gunslingers spent a long time staring at each other. The sun beat down, the wind blew, and they waited. They waited for something that Twilight could not detect, like some kind of sign that she just didn’t see. It was unbearable, like the world was just holding its breath. She looked at Hawk, the human who she now saw as one of her dearest friends, standing bloody and barely breathing, about to face off against a human she had come to associate with all that was wrong in the world. The cruelty and malice that Twilight had seen in Nightmare Moon seemed so petty now compared to what Cottonmouth did, as if the Mare of Darkness was just throwing a temper tantrum. Now all Twilight could think of was going home, and getting away from all this death.

The wind stopped and it was over in an instant.

The unicorn jumped in surprise as dirt from the bullet’s impact splashed next to her. Hawk had shot first and struck Cottonmouth in the arm, sending the bandit to the ground and his shot an bit down from its intended target. Cottonmouth grunted in pain and rolled on the ground, reaching for his gun. Hawk placed his boot on top of the hand, making sure the bandit wouldn’t reach his weapon. This act gained him a scornful glare from Cottonmouth’s hate filled eyes. Hawk pointed his gun at the downed man’s head.

“You wanna kill me law-man?!” Cottonmouth shouted, “Go ahead! I know how much you like killing! I know that you’re a murdering son of bitch, just like me! I know who are behind that damn name of yours! You have no place in the new society those freaks are building for themselves!” Cottonmouth began to wheeze as Hawk pulled back the hammer on his revolver, “You…you won’t have a purpose in this world after they’re done with it…won’t be no one left…to kill...” Cottonmouth began hacking and coughing as blood entered the back of his throat.

“That’s where you’re wrong Cottonmouth,” Hawk said, his voice cold and sharp, “As long as there’s scum like you, my place will be putting a gun to their head and pulling the trigger.” Cottonmouth spat at Hawk. Hawk pulled down the trigger. Twilight winced.

Bang.

Cottonmouth didn’t move anymore, and Hawk holstered his revolver. He turned around and looked at Twilight and Zorro. “I think it’s time we got to Yellowstone. We are really late.” With that, Hawk collapsed onto the ground.

*              *              *

Twilight sat next to the coffin that held Hawk’s body as the wagon moved ahead in its steady pace. The coffin’s lid was closed so the sun wouldn’t hit him. Their entire group sat in silence, either not wanting to speak, or just being to tired to be able to talk. Twilight surveyed her traveling companions, looking at each one for a long time.

Zorro was driving the wagon, which was being pulled by Buttercup, the stallion that looked strong enough to move a mountain. T.J. was walking next to the massive stallion, making sure to stay close. Megan was leaning against the back of the driver’s chair. She was dirty, wounded, and looked exhausted, a feeling that Twilight shared all too much.

Tall Leaf was on the left of Hawk’s coffin, resting his head on it, and had Morning Dew wrapped in his hooves. Morning Dew had gotten over the red specks that now dotted her all over, and began singing “Day by Day,” the song she’d only heard once, yet committed to memory. She sang so softly and beautifully that it was like a lullaby, and Twilight wanted nothing more than to rest, but couldn’t bring herself to. The two fillies lay curled against their mother. Megan said that when they saw their parents running from the jail, she had to restrain them they were so excited. Merry Gold was fast asleep, but Busy Bee wasn’t taking her eyes off of Hawk’s coffin.

“Miss Twilight?” asked Busy Bee, eyes not leaving the large box.

Twilight responded as calmly as she could, “Yes?”

“Is Hawk going to be okay?” her tone was quivering slightly.

Twilight hesitated and looked at the coffin, “Yes Busy Bee. He’s just…sleeping.”

Busy Bee stood up and Morning Dew stopped singing. “May-Maybe we can wake him up with a kiss. Just like in those old mare’s tales.” The filly pushed open the lid of the coffin, and before anyone could protest, gave Hawk a kiss on his lips.

Twilight swore her heart stopped, and it took a few more seconds of watching her daughter kissing Hawk before Morning Dew screamed, “Busy Bee! Get away from him!”

“But Mom! Hawk has to get up!” Busy Bee cried back.

A groan came from the coffin. “Well, service has certainly improved since the last time I rode in this thing,” came Hawk’s groggy voice. “And, do I taste…honey on my lips?”

Busy Bee’s face blushed immensely, and proceeded to have a giggle fit. Morning Dew was feeling rather embarrassed at her daughter’s behavior, where as Tall Leaf was mortified.

“I’m so sorry for my daughter Mr. Hawk,” said Morning Dew, “She was just very worried and…well she’s very affectionate.”

“No need to apologize ma’am. Usually it’s Zorro getting kissed by lovely young girls. I’ll take whatever I can get.” Hawk gave as big a smile as he could. Megan just shook her head, failing to repress a smile of her own. Zorro couldn’t stop laughing. “Hey Sprinkles,” called Hawk.

Twilight looked over the edge of the coffin at Hawk, his hat was covering all but his lips. “Yes Casanova?” she said in a bemused way.

Hawk’s face grew serious under the brim of his hat, and he shifted his weight around anxiously, “This may seem like a wired request, but… I was wondering if you could do something for me.” Hawk moved his hat and looked at Twilight, scanning her features.

Twilight’s cheeks began to blush. ‘Oh my. Does he want me to kiss him? I mean I wouldn’t mind if he asked me to. I mean I like him, but not like that. Or do I? Oh my, oh my, oh my...’ Twilight calmed her mind and cleared her throat, “S-sure Hawk! Ask anything.”

Hawk took a big gulp, “Who’s Big Mac, and what did you mean by you want him to ‘buck your apples?’” Hawk’s grin widened and Twilight’s face turned deep red.

In a surprise that caught everyone off guard, Twilight didn’t close the coffin lid on Hawk’s face, but instead began, “W-well, Big Mac is the brother of one of my best friends, Applejack. As his name implies, he’s big and, well, he’s also red. He works on his family’s apple farm. As for that second part…” Twilight lowered her head next to Hawk’s ear, and whispered something to him. Morning Dew put her hooves over Busy Bee’s ears. After Twilight was done, she moved her head back and smiled at Hawk. “Satisfied?” she asked.

Hawk sat up, and looked at Twilight, “Yes, and by the way you describe it, Big Mac will be too.”

Twilight blushed again, but nodded in acceptance of Hawk’s comment. “Good,” she said, “I’m glad I was able to answer your question.”

Zorro finally interjected, “All right all right, this isn’t the Love Boat. We’ll reach Yellowstone in an hour, so make sure everyone has everything.”

“Finally,” said Tall Leaf, letting out a long kept huff. Busy Bee was already asking Hawk what Twilight whispered to him and if he’d like another kiss. Tall Leaf just shook his head and wished to get to Yellowstone as soon as possible.

*              *              *

The cabin was rather nice. It was large for a family of ponies, had a fantastic view of the mountain range, the trees around it were filled with birds that sang lovely songs, and there was a stream just down the hill.

The inside was sparsely decorated, but that just meant that the family had more places to put old mementos and future memories. There were only two bedrooms with human sized beds, which was frankly more than necessary, and the living room came equipped with a couch, T.V., and DVD player.

The fillies were the first to explore the place, as they rushed in like a spring wind as soon as the door opened. The Garden family fell in love with it instantly, and invited the humans to spend the night as their guests, in an impromptu house warming party. Naturally, being tired, bloody, and yearning for showers, they accepted.

After everyone and everypony was bathed, refreshed, and free of the grime of the past two days, Hawk made a phone call.

“Hello, this is Agent Hawk. Is Joseph there?” the reply was mumbled, “Okay I’ll hold.” Hawk looked at the group he had traveled with over the past week while he waited. They were assembling on or around the couch, for tonight they were going to finish the original trilogy of Star Wars. All the ponies were extremely excited. Hawk saw Twilight pull out a note pad and quill from her saddle bags.

“This is the President. Hawk? Is that really you?” the phone said.

“Who else calls themselves ‘Hawk’ Joey? Anyway, I’ve arrived at Yellowstone, and the ponies are safe.”

“You know you’re about five days behind schedule right?”

Hawk let out a sigh, “We got delayed by a tornado, wild dogs, and get this: Cottonmouth’s gang of vipers.”

The man on the other side of the phone spat out whatever he was drinking, “WHAT? How are you still alive?!”

“I’m charmed remember? But anyway, if you could send a transport or something to this location tomorrow, that would be swell.”

The phone sighed, “Yeah yeah yeah. Oh, before I forget, you didn’t cuss in front of them did you?”

“No sir.”

“Good.”

“And sir? Make sure that transport can hold two full grown horses please.”

Another sigh came from the phone, “Why?”

Hawk gave a smug reply, “Doing a favor for a friend. Thanks Joe, have a good night.” Hawk hung up the phone and took a seat on the couch next to Megan and Morning Dew, who was lying on Tall Leaf. Twilight was on the carpet, and was ready with her quill and paper, to take notes for her paper on human-equestrian similarities. Zorro had claimed the recliner in the room, and was not moving for anyone. As soon as Hawk got comfortable, the two fillies just ran in from their bedroom and lept onto the couch. Busy Bee was getting as close to him as possible, while Merry Gold decided to curl up next to Megan.

Hawk picked up the remote and pushed “Play.”

To be wrapped up in the Epilogue!

Holy hell! Could I cram more one liners in there?

Signs point to yes.

But it’s almost over, and soon I’ll be free to do other stuff!

Epilogue soon fellow Bronies!

Conversion Bureau Off-Shoot

Based on Blaze’s original idea

Might not follow his world’s rules, but Meh, it’s just a fan-fic of a fan-fic.

By: Anonsi (Time to wrap this up, the end is near!)

Yellowstone

Epilogue

No Place like Home

The morning came, and Twilight had to wrestle herself from her bed. She had opted to sleep in the master bedroom with the rest of the Garden family, and the warmth she felt from the others was hard to break away from. She raised her head and looked over her bedmates. Tall Leaf and Morning Dew were as always inseparable, and Merry Gold was nestled among their legs. The only one missing was Busy Bee, but Twilight didn’t have to think too hard about where she might be.

Hopping off the bed, eyes still mostly shut, Twilight moved into the room next door where the humans slept. Megan and Hawk had taken the beds for themselves, leaving Zorro the couch. The decision making process went along the lines of that they were wounded and Zorro didn’t have a scratch on him, so he got the couch. And there, curled up in the crook of Hawk’s arm, was Busy Bee, snoozing peacefully.

Twilight couldn’t help but let go an “Awww…”

Twilight suddenly smelled something sweet from the kitchen. It smelled like breakfast. Still half dazed, Twilight sauntered into the kitchen to find Zorro in his loose black shirt preparing some pancakes. Zorro noticed her and gave a smile with a tired grunt.

Twilight gave a grunt back and took a seat at the large wooden table feeling much better than she thought she should. It was surreal to her, that yesterday she had seen such awful killing and death, but today the world seemed just fine and dandy. Almost like it never even happened, but Twilight knew better. She still saw the chicks under Anaconda’s hoof, and heard the crunch as the hoof came down.

“Do you like blueberries in your pancakes niña?” Zorro finally broke the silence.

Twilight gave a small, pleasant, moan, “They’re my favorite.” She rested her head on the table, considering going back to sleep. Before she could, a plate holding a stack of the best looking pancakes she’d ever seen lay in front of her. The succulent smell filling her nostrils, Twilight’s mouth watered immediately as she counted the blue specs that dotted the delicious pastries.

Zorro also slid a small bowl of apple juice across the table to her, “And here is something to wash it down with.” He gave her a smirk and resumed filling out more plates, humming a tune Twilight thought was rather catchy.

Twilight hovered utensils over to her and began to dig in, savoring each bite. After gulping down the first fork full, she let out a ‘Yum’ sound. “These are the best pancakes I’ve ever had,” she said definitively.

Megan entered, fully dressed, but still tying her pony-tail off with her red bow, “They should be. It’s his mother’s recipe, and that lady knew her pancakes.” Megan walked to the fridge and poured herself a glass of apple juice and took a plate Zorro had put to the side of the others. Afterward she sat down and began eating.

After Twilight finished, she walked to the sink and began using her magic to wash them, humming a similar tune to Zorro’s. A question popped into Twilight’s head all of the sudden, and before she knew it, she was already asking it. “Megan, are you and Zorro…together?”

Megan’s response was lightning fast, “No.” Her tone gave Twilight a hint to not proceed down this line of questioning.

Zorro just laughed a bit, “Why do you ask little one? Seeing if I’m free for your own romantic pursuits?”

Twilight blushed, “Oh no! Nothing like that, I was just curious, and…and-” Twilight stumbled looking for some way to get off this subject, and was relieved to see Morning Dew, Tall Leaf, and Merry Gold enter the kitchen. “OH LOOK! It’s the Garden family! Hello Garden Family! Zorro made pancakes!”

Merry Gold’s face lit up from its drowsy state, “I love pancakes!” She galloped over to the chair and hopped onto it, and nearly squealed when Zorro placed a stack of warm pancakes in front of her.

Tall Leaf looked around, and under the table, “Has anypony seen Busy Bee?”

Megan raised her hand and then pointed to her and Hawk’s room. “Last I saw she was sleeping soundly next to Hawk. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Tall Leaf exchanged glances with his wife, before letting out a sigh. “I think Bee is going to have a tough time saying goodbye darlin’.”  Morning Dew gave a sullen nod and took another bite of the pancakes. Tall Leaf walked off to the human’s room and returned a minute or so later, a very sleepy filly on his back.

A few more minutes passed in silence as the Garden family ate their breakfast, and each one giving satisfied moans after they finished. Hawk stood at the door, fully dressed and holding his black duffel bag. “Zorro, Megan, Twilight, pick up is in an hour. Let’s get ready.” Hawk took a glass of juice and downed it with one gulp.

Zorro and Megan disappeared in to their respective sleeping quarters and began packing. Hawk went outside and began to load the wagon, with some help from Twilight’s magic. Outside, most the Garden family had gathered to say their farewells. Busy Bee however, was missing from the scene, but faint sobs could be heard from the filly’s bedroom.

Merry Gold and Morning Dew both gave Twilight a hug and told her to stay safe. Morning Dew presented Twilight with a small circlet made of flowers and the unicorn placed it on her head with pride. As for Hawk, Morning Dew and Tall Leaf gave their unending gratitude for protecting them and their family. Zorro and Megan exited the cabin and were treated in much the same way. Merry Gold gave Megan a flower circlet, and the human placed it upon her head with glee.

After the wagon was loaded up, and Buttercup fastened to the front, a small hiccup drew everyone’s attention to the front door. Busy Bee had obviously been crying inside, and she ran to Hawk, nuzzling his legs.

“Do you have to go Mr. Hawk?” Busy Bee leaned against his legs, looking him in the eyes. Her own were big and watery, making it difficult to not bend down and give her a big hug.

Hawk, against his better judgment, did it anyway saying “Yes Busy Bee, I do. Twilight needs to go back to New York, and I still have a job to do,” as he squeezed her close to his heart.

“But what if we get in trouble? Or what if…” she buried her head against his chest, “…what if I miss you?” Busy Bee looked like she was about to start crying all over again.

Hawk put her down in front of him and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. “The Six Tribes’ rangers will keep you safe from now on. And if you miss me…” Hawk reached into a pocket of his coat and extracted a silver disk. It had the image of a hawk on it and what seemed to be a dent from a bullet, “…just hold this close.”

Busy Bee marveled at it and gingerly took it out of Hawk’s hand. She gazed up at him holding back tears and nodded.

Twilight and Megan’s eyes grew watery, but they held their silence.

After all was said and done, the Garden family stood in front of their new home, rays of light streaming in through the trees giving a majestic ambiance beneath the canopy. Twilight swore that, as Hawk had walked to join her and the other humans, she saw a tear roll down his face. She didn’t say anything though, as she thought it was sweet.

“Stay safe now!” cried Morning Dew, “And come back any time!”

“Yeah! Come back anytime!” added Merry Gold, jumping gleefully.

Tall Leaf and Busy Bee just smiled and waved, which Twilight, Hawk, Zorro, and Megan all returned with waves and smiles of their own while they rode away down the forest path. T.J. walked alongside Buttercup at a leisurely pace.

They rode a long time in silence, until they came to an open clearing. Once there, Twilight heard what sounded like a thumping noise. Eventually a large, dark, tube looking thing descended over the canopy, landing a short distance away. It was much larger than what Twilight had expected, and looked like it could hold two cars instead of two horses. After it landed, and the wind softened enough for the group to approach, a ramp lowered from the back.

From it walked a human woman in a jumpsuit and a pilot’s helmet. “Captain Samantha Barnes reporting for pick-up duty Agent Hawk. Welcome aboard.”

“Thank you captain,” said Hawk dismounting the wagon and unfastening Buttercup.

Cpt. Barnes helped the group load their bags and horses onto the transport helicopter with such efficiency and speed, that Twilight began to consider if Captain Barnes might want a job as a library assistant. Twilight shook the thought from her head, remembering how Spike reacted the last time she hired new help.

After everything was loaded and locked down, the humans all sat on benches that lined the walls of the vehicle, and Twilight lied down next to them. She was tired, and thought of her friends back at the bureau, and all the things she wanted to tell them about.

The beats of the helicopter blades where hypnotic; Twilight fell asleep within minutes of takeoff. She dreamt of her library in Ponyville and of how much she missed her friends, eventually drifting to Sweet Apple Acres where a big red stallion was bucking trees, waiting for her. In the chopper, Hawk looked at his companions as Twilight started moaning in her sleep.

Hawk put his coat over Twilight like a blanket, saying, “This is getting awkward.”

*              *              *

“…And that’s what it’s like ta’ live in Equestria! Any questions?” Applejack had just finished her fourth orientation speech this week, and she was hoping none of the humans would take her up on her request. It was fun the first time, but they always asked the same questions.

“Do we get to choose what kind of pony we become?” No, it’s random.

“Will we already have cutie marks?” Yes, unless you’re young, then you’ll have to work for it.

“How do you do stuff without hands?” Magic, mostly.

“Do you know you’re name is a drink?” Yes.

After about five more minutes of the same questions Applejack had heard before, the orientation ended and the auditorium emptied. She let out a groan as she walked back to her temporary office. It used to be Twilight’s, but she had left Applejack in charge while she was away. On the way there, Applejack heard a loud thrumming noise from somewhere outside, but she was too tired to really care.

Applejack opened to door to ‘her’ office and beheld the room. It was not the same, immaculately sorted room she had stepped into on the day Twilight had departed. Stacks of unsorted papers and documents lay strewn all over the place, and the waste bin was overflowing with balled up pieces of paper and old candy wrappers. On the desk was a computer that lay dormant.

Applejack let out a sigh as she walked behind the desk and gazed at the blank screen of the monitor. Two days ago, Applejack had walked in on Rainbow Dash doing something on it, and the next thing the farmer pony knew, Dash had sent a hoof into the power switch with such force that it broke the darn thing. Dash had flown out the window before Applejack could make heads or tails of what just happened, leaving the confused earth pony with a broken computer.

When confronted about it later, the Pegasus only said, “I wasn’t doing anything bad on it! You just surprised me!” while her blue face turned a deep red. Applejack knew when a pony was covering something up, but even a pony without the Element of Honesty could tell what Rainbow Dash was doing was something most considered naughty.

So Applejack, who was just beginning to get the hang of using the keyboard and mouse, now had to sort almost a hundred or more documents by hoof. She let out another big sigh through her nose. “I really wish Twilight would come back already.”

As if she was waiting for that exact phrase, Pinkie Pie bounded into the room, her face beaming brighter than her usual smile. “OHMYGOSH APPLEJACK! Guess What?!”

Applejack grew hopeful that Twilight had finally come back, “What is it sugar-cube? Is Twilight back?” Her voice was expectant, and quite honestly, had a pleading tone to it.

Pinkie Pie rapidly shook her head from side to side, “No silly filly! More humans are here! And they must have made the BEST ENTRANCE EVER!”

Applejack let her head sink back onto the desk. “Oh,” she said disheartened.

“Yeah!” continued Pinkie, “They just came outta the sky with a big helicopter and landed out in the parking lot! Oh it was so loud, and I could hear beats on the wind and I felt like I could make a song about it, so I did! Here let me-”

Applejack raised her eyebrow, “A heli-what now?”

Pinkie moved her face in close to Applejack’s, “It’s a human flying machine! Like that thinga-ma-jig I built that one time to follow Rainbow Dash that one time that meanie-pants Gilda was in town!” The pink pony stuck out her arms and began to spin, “WOO! WOO! WOO!” After a few seconds she fell to the floor, dizzy and laughing. Applejack rolled her eyes and got moving to the door. Anything was better than just sitting her looking at the dead monitor.

The two ponies walked calmly to the bureau’s lobby, passing by the dormitories where human heads were poking out of their rooms looking confused. Once there, they saw a tall man in a long leather coat and wide brim hat standing at the reception desk talking to the wall-eyed pony known as Ditzy Doo. The other humans in the lobby were giving him odd looks, and generally avoiding him. One of Ditzy’s eyes landed on Applejack, and the winged mare gave a relieved expression.

“There she is sir! The current head muffin in the oven!” said Ditzy smiling wide.

The human cocked an eyebrow at Ditzy, and then turned to Applejack, taking note of her hat. “Applejack, right?”

Applejack nodded, looking out the front windows at the helicopter with earnest confusion. “Yes I am, but what’s with all this racket?”

“My name is Agent Hawk. Come with me.” With that he moved to the door and held it open for Applejack and Pinkie, who bounced merrily up to the human.

“What’s that thing?” asked Pinkie, looking at Hawk’s revolver.

“A noise maker,” he said bluntly.

“Oooooh…I love noise makers!” marveled the pink earth pony.

Applejack pushed Pinkie out the door, “Come on sugar cube. Let’s see what this is all about.”

As soon as Applejack and Pinkie went outside, they saw a small violet, and slightly flustered, unicorn descending the loading ramp. Before Twilight knew they were even there, she was dog piled by Applejack and Pinkie Pie resulting in a big group hug.

*              *              *

Once inside and resituated in her room, Twilight flopped on her bed. All she needed to do now was to wait for Pinkie’s inevitable party to start, and she could begin to wrap up her day. Considering the state of her office however, she was not in any particular rush to get back to the normal tedium of life in the bureau. She had only glanced over the room for a second or two before deeming it ‘not worth it.’

The door to her room swung open and a small purple dragon rushed up to her, leapt onto the bed, and landed a great big hug around her neck.

“Twilight!” Spike yelled, not withholding any enthusiasm.

“Spike!” Twilight was thrilled to see her assistant, and she squeezed him close to her. It had been too long since they had seen each other face to face. Or it felt that way at least.

“Oh gosh I’ve missed you! It’s been soooo boring around here without you around. I nearly went insane without you telling me to pick stuff up!” He looked up and stared at Twilight with a serious face, “And before you ask, I had nothing to do with what happened to your computer.”

Twilight’s smile changed to one of concern, “What happened to my computer?”

Before Spike could answer, he belched out a cloud of fire and smoke. The cloud twisted and spun itself into the form of a scroll, which plopped down onto the bed. Twilight wasted no time in unfurling the scroll and reading aloud the immaculate writing of the Princess.

“My dear Twilight Sparkle,

It fills me with great joy to hear that you have returned from human lands safely. I was worried beyond measure when the human President told me that your train never arrived at its destination. He reassured me to remain calm however, as he was certain his guardian would never fail in completing a task.

But that is neither here nor there, and we can discuss your adventure when I come by to visit this evening. Expect me around four o’clock.

Your loving mentor, and friend,

Celestia

P.S. Did you see my debate with the HLF? How do you think I did? I’m pleased to say things went well with them, and their leadership tells me that they have lost much of the animosity they once felt towards us, and that they hope to live in harmony with us from now on. See you soon.”

Twilight looked at the clock on her wall. It read “3:54.” Twilight bounded out of her bed dropping Spike on his rump, she grabbed a comb with her magic and began brushing her mane and tail with such haste, Rainbow Dash’s head would spin. “Spike, go tell everypony that the Princess is on her way here! And go now!”

The baby dragon dashed out of the room and Twilight could hear Rarity gasp as she heard the news, followed by a series of crashes and a “What am I going to wear on such short notice?!” from down the hall.

Within minutes, Twilight and Rarity were standing in the front lobby, both looking nervous. Twilight because her idol and surrogate mother would arrive at any moment, and Rarity because she was couldn’t remember if she had all the accoutrements to her most recent gown. The lobby was filled with ponies and humans who wanted to meet the mythical princess in the flesh.

Megan and Applejack sat in a corner exchanging stories with each other. Twilight looked at them side by side and thought she saw a resemblance between the two, but her thoughts were interrupted by the blaring of trumpets. Outside landed four white Pegasus guard ponies in golden armor, and after rushing to the entrance and opening the door, four more royal guards flew to the ground, pulling a magnificent chariot behind them. In it sat a divine figure that seemed to glow with all the warmth of spring and summer.

Princess Celestia stepped down from the chariot and entered the main lobby of the Bureau. All the ponies present bowed and the humans cheered. Twilight stepped forward into view of her mentor. They both smiled widely as Celestia leaned over to nuzzle the side of Twilight’s head, causing the young mare to giggle.

“It’s so good to see you again Princess,” said Twilight, basking in the presence of her teacher.

Celestia looked around the room smiling, and then back to Twilight, “And it is good to see you, my most treasured pupil. I have been looking forward to seeing you again actually. My week has been just awful not knowing if you were safe or not.”

Twilight just kept up that dumb smile, “Oh don’t worry Princess, the human agents were more than capable of keeping us safe.”

Celestia beamed at the news, “Well if it’s all right, I’d like to meet them and give them my thanks in person.”

“Right this way!” Twilight was more than happy to let Celestia meet her new friends. She just hoped she didn’t have to get into the messy details of the journey.

Twilight led the group of ponies and humans to the auditorium where Pinkie had set up a wonderful looking party. Rainbow Dash was boasting at Hawk, while Zorro was stabbing apples out of the air with his sword, much to the amusement of Pinkie.

“And then there was the time I won the best young flyer’s competition by doing a sonic rainboom.” Dash was floating next to Hawk looking very proud of herself. Hawk was sitting with a thousand yard stare nodding his head, saying “That’s nice.”

When Celestia and Twilight entered, the two agents stopped what they were doing and moved to approach the goddess, while the ponies they were talking to trotted close behind them.

Celestia regarded Hawk and Zorro, and gave a small bow of her head, “Thank you for keeping Twilight safe. She means a great deal to me.” Twilight almost fainted when she heard her idol say such kind words, but maintained her composure.

Hawk gave a respectful bow of his own, “No problem your highness. Twilight is a capable young mare, and we wouldn’t have completed out journey without her.”

“I didn’t do that much,” Twilight chimed in, blushing under Hawk’s praise.

Celestia smiled at her student’s modesty, continuing, “And what are your names, so that I may remember you for your service?”

Zorro removed his hat and made a sweeping bow, “Don Zorro De la Vega, but most just call me Zorro, your majesty.”

Hawk glanced at Zorro and shook his head. “I am Agent Hawk, at your service. And over there…” Hawk pointed to Megan, “…is Megan, who must be the best sniper this side of the prime meridian. I don’t think she’s ever told me her last name though.”

Megan walked out of the crowd rolling her eyes in great arcs, and formally greeted the Princess. “Hello your highness.”

“You know,” said Zorro, “She never told me her last name either.” Both Hawk and Zorro shrugged, earning a few chortles from the crowd.

Celestia let a grin cross her face, “Well then, Hawk, Zorro, and Megan, I thank you from the bottom of my being. Now,” she said looking around the crowd, “how about we get this party started, hmm?” This elicited a great cheer as the crowd surged into the auditorium. Celestia looked at Twilight who seemed to be in a blissful haze, “Well then Twilight. Let’s catch up with your new friends, and maybe you can tell me what you’ve learned while in human lands.”

Twilight snapped out of her happy coma and replied, “Oh! Yes of course!” The group found a cozy spot to sit and chat. For the rest of the night Twilight told Celestia and her friends about her to entire trip to Yellowstone and back, Hawk filling in any blanks that she left unfilled. Twilight left out the part with the chicks, for Fluttershy’s sake, and Hawk left out the parts that involved Big Mac for Twilight’s.

*              *              *

After the party, and subsequent cleanup, Twilight found herself going through her saddlebags, putting things she had taken with her back into their proper place. Then she came to two books she had not originally brought with her. One was a thick tome about knights, the other a pink diary. Regarding both fondly, she placed them both onto her bookshelf.

“Twilight,” came her teacher’s voice, “I’m about to go.” Celestia peeked her head into Twilight’s room, a habit she had developed while Twilight lived with her in the castle.

After a brief moment of reminiscing, Twilight said, “Thank you so much for coming, it felt really good catching up with you.” With that, Twilight gave the Princess another hug and began to escort her to the front entrance.

“You’ve had quite a week my student,” Celestia said after a while, “what do you think of the human’s now that you have been among them in their world?”

Twilight reflected on what she had seen, finally coming up with an answer she thought would suffice. “Humans are harsh creatures, but they have to be because their world is harsh and dangerous. Sometimes in their pursuit to survive, they cross each other, and most times they make friends and can work together, but other times it doesn’t work out and they feel that they have to fight. They are mostly good, I think, but sometimes they just plain old turn bad, like Cottonmouth, and live to cause other humans misery.” Twilight paused, looking to see if the Princess was satisfied.

Celestia nodded, and gave Twilight a smile, “I think that is a good analysis Twilight, if a bit brief. But I am glad you have learned something about this new world.”

They entered the lobby, and the dying rays of sunset streamed in through the doors. Hawk was saluting Captain Barnes. The woman walked outside to her awaiting transport, and shortly thereafter took off and flew away. The pegasi had to move inside not to be blown off their hooves.

“Well I guess it’s my turn,” said Celestia, summoning her guards to her, “Stay well Twilight Sparkle.” She leaned over and gave Twilight a kiss on the forehead. The room exploded with ‘Aaaaaaw’s. Celestia and Twilight didn’t mind though, as they thought it was cute as well. With that, Celestia departed the lobby and mounted her carriage and with a few last looks at her student, took off.

Hawk and Zorro were assembling their bags while Megan stood next to Applejack, helping where she could. Megan was going to stay a while, as it turned out. Apparently T.J. was pregnant with Buttercup’s foal and was due in a month or two. Fluttershy was extremely excited about the news, and had already begun assembling an acceptable place for the new foal. Megan would become Fluttershy’s helper in the meantime, and help out Applejack with any of her tasks.

Zorro finally zipped up the last few bags and placed them over his shoulders, and began to walk to the exit.

Twilight looked at Zorro as he moved past her, carrying Hawk’s duffel bag. “So long niña, I hope that our paths will cross again one day.”

“I do too Mr. Zorro. It was an honor having you with us, and I’m glad you came,” replied Twilight. The two exchange bows and Zorro walked out of the door.

Hawk stepped forward next, and the two spent a long time looking at each other. Hawk knelt down, putting him on eye level with Twilight. “Well Sprinkles, it seems this is goodbye. At least for now anyway, so you be sure not to get kidnapped by anything. I don’t think I’d survive another rescue mission.”

Twilight gave out a laugh, replying, “Yeah well, maybe you should retire and settle down somewhere. Maybe a nice cabin out west,” Twilight doused her next words with as much of a childish and mocking tone she could, “maybe out near Busy Bee~.”

Hawk laughed, “That’s a low blow Twilight.”

“I owed you for that stunt you pulled on the wagon,” Twilight leaned in and whispered in his ear, “about the whole Big Mac thing.” Applejack perked her ears thinking she heard something. But Megan quickly caught her attention again with a story about her father’s apple orchard.

“Fair enough,” Hawk coughed, and reached into his pockets again, “I have a going away present for you.” He presented Twilight with the Star Wars Original Trilogy DVD Box Set. “Every group of friends need these. And you have a lot of friends who haven’t seen this, if I remember right.”

Twilight lifted the movies with her magic and placed them next to her on the floor. “Thank you Hawk,” she said blushing at the gift, “and now I think I owe you something for rescuing me.” Before Hawk could ask what it was, or say it wasn’t necessary, Twilight gave him a small, quick, peck on the lips. Looking very bashful, Twilight looked down at her hooves. Hawk just chuckled a bit.

Hawk gave Twilight a big, strong, hug and then stood up. “So long Sprinkles. I think it’s about time I hit the dusty trail. See you later.” He turned and walked out the door to where Zorro stood waiting next to two motorcycles he had found. Hawk mounted his, and Zorro followed suit. After a few moments, the two men drove off down the street, and into the sunset.

As he left, memories began to resurface. Memories of empty and desolate streets filled only with wild dogs howling in the dead of night, yearning for blood. Memories of screaming winds that could rip the earth asunder with its rage, and a deep, terrible darkness that made Twilight shudder. Memories of cruel men, with sick pleasures and corrupt minds working against all that Twilight held dear. All of these memories floated in and out of her subconscious. It was almost unbearable to think she might have to live with these images in her head for the rest of her life.

But fortunately, Hawk had given her a way to distract herself from these images; A way for her to escape her memories.

Twilight sighed and looked at Applejack and Megan, who smiled back at her, both of them giggling like fillies on the first day of school. Twilight let her face give a big smile. She picked up the films Hawk had given her and raised them above her head.

“Who wants to watch a movie?”

*              *              *The End*           *              *

By: Anonsi (!)

Yellowstone

After the Credits Scene:

Out from the Darkness

President Joseph McCullough walked into the conference room of the white house. He had called for an emergency meeting between him, his top agents, and Celestia herself. This was all her fault after all.

Agent Dimitri snapped a salute, “Sir!”

“At ease Dimitri” said the president, returning the salute. “Who’s here?”

Dimitri looked at his watch, “So far? Agents Hawk and Zorro have arrived, albeit two hours behind schedule.”

President Joseph nodded his head. “Where’s the horse?”

“On her vay sir.”

Joseph sighed, “Alright, bring in those two.”

Dimitri gave a crisp salute and moved to the double doors, opening them. With a wave, Hawk and Zorro entered the conference room with a swagger.

“Yo Joe,” said Hawk, “What’s going on?”

President Joseph had long ago learned to ignore Hawk’s informal view of things, and motioned for the two to sit down. Joseph was impressed they stopped the assassination attempt by Cottonmouth before it even started, and destroyed the corrupt potion to boot. They were the top two agents for a reason after all. But Joseph feared their next assignment would not go so well.

Joseph picked up a remote from the table. With one button he revealed a large television. With another, he turned it on. On it glowed a satellite map of a storm cell from about a week ago. Hawk and Zorro recognized the coordinates immediately.

“Mr. President?” asked Zorro, slightly concerned.

“Dimitri. Is the Princess here yet?” asked the president.

Dimitri again checked his watch, “Yes sir. She has just arrived.” Without missing a beat, Dimitri opened the double doors again, this time revealing the divine form of Celestia.

Her face beamed when she saw Hawk and Zorro, “Well this is a pleasant surprise, meeting again so soon!” Hawk and Zorro waved at her and she moved to an open space at the table and sat down on her haunches. “Now Mr. President,” said Celestia in her calm tone, “Why have you summoned us here?”

Joseph turned around, his expression grave. “Magic has been leaking out of Equestria Princess, and it is causing a great many problems.”

The Princess gave a stern look, “What do you mean?”

The president continued, “This is the tornado that derailed the Magna Rail during Agent Hawk’s recent escort mission. It appeared almost without warning, and was able to travel at remarkable speeds. Speeds fast enough to catch the Magna Rail in full reverse.” Joseph clicked another button, and a new scene appeared on the screen, this time with a wider view. It showed two similar dark clouds, one where the Magna Rail was picked up, and the other near the town of Ten Sleep.

“Meanwhile, nearly a thousand miles away, an identical tornado was raging across Wyoming. Look closely at the center of these two storms.” He clicked another button, and magnified the center of both tornadoes. In the center of both of them was half of the Magna Rail.

Hawk rubbed his forehead in disbelief, and Zorro looked confused. Celestia was starting to put some pieces together inside of her head, but she didn’t want to admit anything yet. She had to be sure first.

“You see Princess,” Joseph went on, “That tornado was a vortex, that transported the team more than one thousand miles away in under one minute. I can assure you, this is not a natural occurring phenomenon of the Midwest. Hawk, Zorro, and your student Twilight Sparkle, all traveled through a worm hole. I believe the source of this event stems from this...” He clicked another slide into existence, this time it was a picture of Equestria, but through a lens filter that showed the magical bubble that surrounded it. There seemed to be a gash in its side, and an alarming amount magic seemed to be flowing out of it.

Celestia’s eyes widened. “How did this happen? I didn’t feel the enchantment break! I would have felt a tremor if something this huge had happened to the barrier!”

Hawk raised his hand, “Can we go back through old satellite photos and apply the magic filter? Maybe find out when this thing tore open?”

Joseph replied, clicking the next slide, “We can, and have.” The date was the same day as the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Celestia’s expression turned into one of horror as she counted the years.

“That’s the day my sister came back from her banishment. The day Twilight used the Elements of Harmony to save her…”

Joseph nodded, having been briefed on the whole ordeal with the Mare of Darkness, “It is our belief, Princess, that in the time between Nightmare Moon’s release and subsequent defeat, your protective shield was damaged. The probable cause is that you were not there to rebuff its potency, which is what you do every year on the day of your Summer Sun Celebration, if I am not mistaken. It is because you missed that year that this crack formed.” He paused letting it all sink in for those assembled.

“We also believe, that if not for this breach, you ponies would not have needed to leave Equestria. It is probable that this opening flows two ways. The inherent magic of your homeland flows out, while the pollution of our cities flowed in, thus causing you to take action, and leaving us the position we are in today.”

Zorro raised his hand, “Other than tornadoes that can cut down on travel time, what possible consequences could come from this?”

Joseph took a deep breath, and presented Hawk and Zorro with folders. “In the town of Sleepy Hollow, a scarce one hundred and twenty three miles outside of New York City limits, there are stories of a ‘Headless Horseman’ who rides at night, and is said to kill all he finds on his nightly ride, and take their heads to replace his own.”

Hawk looked up, “Sir, with all due respect, that was a myth, and that town doesn’t even exist.”

“Three counts of murder say different Agent Hawk.” Joseph clicked a new slide, it showed a small town and surrounding farmland. The magic filter revealed that the place glowed rich with the magical essence of Equestria. “The town of Sleepy Hollow manifested approximately seven days ago, and with it, so did the horseman. The victims include a ponified married couple who thought it was a tourist attraction, and a lost hiker who was looking for a place to sleep. Their heads could not be located.”

Celestia looked at the president in disbelief, “Are you saying that the magic that is leaking out of my homeland is summoning monsters from story books?”

President Joseph sighed, “Yes, and unfortunately, no.” He clicked to the next slide, “There is evidence to suggest magical infusion of the landscape has been going on for years. Things became more frequent when you ponies arrived on our shores, but at the time we didn’t have the resources to see what was going on.”

“Egypt, Giza. There have been numerous reports of chanting coming from underneath the pyramids. All personnel sent to investigate have not returned. Currently the police have sealed off the entrances and exits, but the chanting persists.” The filter revealed more magic surrounding the pyramid.

He clicked to another slide, “Athens, Greece. Two weeks ago. The winner of the ‘Miss Athens’ Beauty Pageant started speaking in verse with a voice not her own and predicted every event of your little trip.” He pointed to Hawk, who began to look very closely at the files in his folder.

“And this,” Joseph clicked to a new slide showing Yellowstone National Park, the filter revealing that the area was saturated with magic. Hawk grew tense. “This is an area you should be familiar with. The day after you left, Six Tribes officials sent me reports of seeing strange creatures in the forest, darting between trees. An account from a small boy in the area said that they were a tribe of sasquatch. If not for everything else, I would have dismissed it.”

“So what do we do?” asked Hawk, sounding concerned.

Celestia cleared her throat. “Well first, the hole in the barrier must be sealed, so no more magic will escape from Equestria and conjure anymore of these nightmares.” She gave a small chuckle, and in an apologetic tone said “It seems we were polluting your world as much as you, ours.”

The President gave her a forgiving look, “Don’t worry about the past Princess. Just get that breach resealed. That will give us a finite amount of problems to deal with.” Celestia nodded, her eyes thanking the president for his forgiveness.

“So where do we come in Joe?” asked Hawk.

Zorro finished reading the folder in front of him, “I can guess amigo.”

President Joseph put his hands behind his back. “The infusion of magic back into our world has caused curses and creatures from the ancient days of myth and legend to resurface. You two are to spearhead the elimination of all hostile paranormal entities, and protect the innocent. I’m giving you whatever support you need for this. And Princess,” Celestia gave him a determined look, “we will need the aid of magic in the defense of the innocent humans and ponies that exist outside of Equestria.”

Celestia stood up, “You have my full cooperation Joseph.”

Zorro stood, “And you have my sword!”

Hawk followed suit, “And my guns!”

Dimitri chimed in, “And my axe!”

The members of the board room looked at Dimitri with queer expressions.

“Vhat? I specialize in close quarters combat vith axes and shotguns.”

Joseph just shook his head, “Then let’s not waste any time. Hawk, Zorro…” he gave Dimitri a look, “…Dimitri. Your first assignment is to deal with the event at Sleepy Hollow. Your helicopter transport leaves in an hour.”

All three agents snapped a salute and rushed off down the hallway, Hawk calling dibs on shotgun. Celestia gave a resolute nod to the President and practically galloped out of a nearby window.

Joseph sighed and looked out into the night sky. “Things are getting exciting again, aren’t they?”

To be continued?

Why would I want to do that?

Why would I  want to write an episodic series of gothic monster fighting adventures

Involving a cowboy, Zorro, and a Russian guy who uses axes and shotguns

That may have more wackey hijinks with Twilight Sparkle?

That just sounds silly.

Yellowstone:

The Series

By: Anonsi(Bringing you more errors than ever before)

Episode: 2

Down the Drain

____________________________________________________________________________

For ages, Equestria has existed separate from the rest of the world, protected by a magical barrier that prevented it from being seen, touched, or reached by humans and their machines. But five years ago, the ponies of Equestria landed on the shores of human lands claiming to be there to save the earth and humanity from pollution, hate, and greed. To do this, the top human scientists and pony magicians created a potion to turn humans into ponies in places called, Conversion Bureaus. Within two years of its release, more than half the total human populace on Earth has converted. The balance of the world has been forever altered, as the remaining human nations form new governments for those humans that remain.

Twilight Sparkle and her companions have just now returned from doing battle with the Headless Horseman. With the help of the human task force under the command of Agent Hawk, the grisly phantom was able to be destroyed. But not all ponies escaped unscarred, as Pinkie Pie witnessed the deaths of many innocent ponies and humans at the hands of the Horseman, and even now grapples with the awful images trapped in her mind...

Having returned to her Conversion Bureau, Twilight was met by not only Princess Celestia herself, but also the human president: Joseph McCullough. Both rulers bore information of the group’s future purpose. After moving to one of the many lounges in the Bureau, the ponies and humans prepare for whatever news the two powerful leaders have to offer…

____________________________________________________________________________

As excited as Twilight was to finally be back in a place not infested with ghostly murderers, as well as to be in the presence of her monarch and mentor, she wanted nothing more than to find a bed and collapse into it. The rather comfy couch on which she, and her five friends, now sat was already lulling the young mare into a sleepy haze. From what she could see with her blurred vision, Hawk and the other humans were all sitting on the couch opposite her friends, with Celestia and the human leader standing between both parties.

Twilight noted everyone looked a bit worse for wear. As far as her friends were concerned, Rarity had tree sap all over her rump, Pinkie looked deflated, Applejack was still pulling twigs out of her mane with help from Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy was just looking tired. But thankfully no pony was hurt. At least no pony she knew.

Celestia’s melodious voice wasn’t helping Twilight stay awake either. “As you know my dear little ponies,” came her mentor’s soothing and motherly voice, “the human world is a harsh and dangerous place for us Equestrians.”

‘But not for humans,’ Twilight thought, absent mindedly looking at Agent Hawk. ‘They were doing fine before we got here.’

“But now, things have escalated. Magic has leaked out from our homeland and has given birth to abominations against life itself.”

Twilight rested her head on the arm rest of the couch, still drearily looking at the human in the long brown leather coat and wide brim hat. ‘Well, except for the whole greed and economic depression and pollution thing. But they certainly weren’t in danger from animals, or ghosts.’

“As such, you all will be helping President Joseph’s team to fend off any threat to the ponies and humans that inhabit these lands until the magical energies that run rampant throughout the world subside.”

‘After all, just look at those hands! They’re like, the best tool in the world!’ Twilight raised her front hooves to her face, ‘Hands certainly would make picking things up easier, especially if I didn’t have my magic.’

“What this means Miss Applejack, is that the human agents will be staying here with you at the Bureau, in an effort to breed trust and a feeling of camaraderie. As of now, you are all in the Elite Equestrian Guard.”

Twilight’s half awake gaze once again fell on Hawk, who seemed to be looking at her now, ‘What would a pony with hands even look like? Maybe there’s a spell I could use to…’

“Twilight?”

Twilight closed her eyes and tried to imagine what a pony would look like with hands. It was silly enough to elicit a giggle, ‘That looks ridiculous, I might as well just make a spell to turn me human. Oh Celestia, what would I look like as a human?’

Rarity nudged Twilight in the ribs and whispered into her ear, “Twilight! The Princess is talking to you!”

Pain from her ribs snapping her back to reality, Twilight sat straight up. “W-w-Yes Princess! I’m here, and awake, and I’ve been listening!” She gave a wide smile, hoping that it would hide how red her face had turned.

Celestia just smiled and continued, “I’m sure you were Twilight, and I know you must be exhausted from last night’s mission, but I’m going to need you to show the human agents to their rooms after the President’s briefing.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow, “Wait…huh?” The sound of Celestia’s words echoed in her mind, “OH right! Humans. Living with us now. Right, got it.” Twilight’s mind focused on a single fact of that statement, ‘Wait...’

Celestia let out a quiet and dainty laugh that sounded as divine as the goddess looked, “Indeed my faithful student. Now if you would all give your attention to President Joseph…” She unfurled a wing and pointed it at the aged man.

“Thank you Princess,” he said stepping forward, “Time for the bad news.” The ponies gulped in unison while the human agents leaned forward, listening intently. “For the past week, dogs, cats, and other forms of city fauna have been disappearing in Greenwich Village at an alarming rate.”

Fluttershy put her hooves to her mouth and gasped, “Those poor animals! Don’t they have owners, or somepony to look after them?”

The President gave her a flat look, “Some of them did, but most were just strays. At first, city officials believed they were just moving to other parts of the city or, getting stuck in a pipe somewhere…”

“What are we doing here then?!” cried Fluttershy, “We have to find those poor, innocent little animals and give them a home! Poor little things are probably shivering alone in some dirty and dark hole and crying out for somepony to help them!”

The President’s face contorted into an expression of guilt. He obviously did not want to tell the sensitive pegasus the next part, but duty dictated he did, “Recent information says otherwise miss.” The President took a zip-lock bag out of his pocket and held it up for everyone to see. Inside of it was a dog collar, and even Twilight’s groggy vision could see it was caked with dried blood.

Twilight’s friends, especially Fluttershy, all put their hooves over their mouths and looked away. “From what we can tell,” the president said as he replaced the bag into his pocket, “all of the missing animals were hunted down and eaten by a foreign predator, and last night we were fortunate enough to get an eye witness with a camera.”

The President removed a medium sized orange folder from within his suit jacket and threw it onto the coffee table that sat between the two couches. As it landed, a single photo slid out of it. The creature in the photo was in the process of diving into a manhole, and all that could be seen was two powerful looking legs and a crocodilian tail.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side, “It certainly looks nasty.”

Hawk picked up the photo and examined it closely. “That it does. It’ll look even worse when I put a pound of lead into it.”

Megan put a hand on Hawk’s shoulder and pointed to the red spot on the man’s arm, “You’re not going anywhere near a sewer with a bite wound like that.”

Hawk gave a plaintive look at the woman, “But…”

“No buts,” said Megan, “Doctor’s orders. Dimitri and Zorro can take care of this.”

“Actually,” said Zorro giving a slight cough, “I might have a tiny little cold.”

Megan rolled her eyes, “Ugh, fine. I’ll go with Dimitri and Fluttershy can bandage up Hawk. Applejack, you want to go on an adventure into the Manhattan sewer system with me?”

The orange earth pony removed her hat and scratched her chin, “Well, weighing the prospects of such a venture, Ah’d have to say...” A devious smile crossed her face as she replaced her hat, “Darn tootin’! I’m not gonna let some varmint get away with munchin’ on somepony’s pet dog!”

Dash jumped onto the coffee table with wings fully extended, “Hay yeah! Count me in too! No way am I not going on an adventure!”

“Замечатель! This vill be like game of Dungeon and Dragon!”

Dimitri received an odd look from everyone in the room. President Joseph patted the young man on the back while laughing to himself, “Well then Dimitri, you and the others best get rolling.”

*              *              *

An hour later, Megan Dimitri, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were all standing around an open manhole with an old van Megan had commandeered from the parking lot that was full of supplies. Thankfully, the ponies didn’t question where Megan had found it or why she had to hot-wire the vehicle to make it start. Though Megan was more thankful that the ponies didn’t ask her about the ‘Free Candy’ sign they found in the back.

With a brisk huff, Megan walked over to the van and opened the back, “Come on Dimitri, let’s unload the stuff.”

“Vhy is it alvays me?” asked the young man to no one in particular.

“Because ponies don’t have hands!” Megan called back. “Now stop crying and earn your keep.” Dimitri could only reply with a heavy sigh and moved to help unpack the several boxes they had packed before leaving the Bureau.

“Hey AJ…” whispered Dash as she stretched out her legs.

Applejack began swinging her lasso in long practice loops with her mouth, causing her reply to be somewhat muffled,, “Yeah Dashie?”

“You think Twilight and that human in the coat have a thing for each other?”

Applejack very nearly swallowed her rope. “W-Where in tarnation did you get a strange idea like that?!”

Dash leaned over to her friend, “Were you not in that briefing? Twilight was totally giving him bedroom eyes the entire time!”

“And what, if’n you don’t mind me askin’, are ‘bedroom eyes’?”

Dash rolled her eyes, “Ugh, it’s the look one pony gives to another when they want to…you know…do it.”

Applejack furrowed her brow, “Oh. And you think Twilight wants ta…An Hawk wants to…Twilight…” The earth pony’s mind swam with implications. The two did spend all last night in that graveyard together. “Ya know, now that ya mention it, I do recall Twilight not peeling her eyes away from ‘im.”

Megan dropped a large box down in between the two ponies, causing them to jump in fright. “What’re ya’ll talking about?” she asked with a smile, “Certain stallions you two might have an eye on perhaps?” Applejack and Dash’s faces grew an intense shade of red.

Dimitri walked into the group and knelt over the box, sighing under his breath, “Может быть они говорили о том, насколько они хотят иметь секс друг с другом?”

Megan gave him a dirty look and a punch in the shoulder, “For that you get to go in first.” Dimitri rubbed the spot where she hit him and gave a sorry look.

“What did he say?” asked Applejack, now more confused than embarrassed.

“Nothing worth repeating,” replied Megan.

“So anyvay…” Dimitri interjected as he dug through the box’s contents with his good arm, “Vhat ve have for today’s adventure is: instant torches, flare gun vith ten shots, three fifty-thousand wolt tasers, vith safeties off,” He turned to the ponies as if answering an unasked question, “So prolonged exposure might just melt your skin off. Next ve have tomahawks and throwing hatchets,” he suddenly reeled back a bit, “and a two pound block of C4?”

Megan cocked an eyebrow, “C4? Who put C4 in my box?!”

“What in tarnation’s see four?” asked Applejack leaning her head in close enough to sniff the strange block of putty.

“Big explosive, wery dangerous, wery loud,” replied Dimitri turning the brick shaped object over in his hands. There was a small pink square of paper on the bottom of the brick, and on it was a message. “Oh look! A sticky note!” Dimitri plucked it off, his face brightening as he read,

“Just in case. Love Hawk.”

“Awww, well ain’t that sweet!” said Applejack forcing a smile, making sure to give an ‘oh-my-goodness-you-might-be-right’ glance at Dash. Dash returned it with an ‘I-told-you-so’ grin.

Megan placed her hand over her face and sighed, “I am going to kill that man.”

*              *              *

An instant torch dropped down through the manhole and hit the cold stone with a clack. Seconds later, a young man with a large axe on his back climbed down the ladder that led to the street, touching down in the old stonework. Dimitri picked up the torch and held it above his head, illuminating thirty or so feet of darkness. The sewer tunnel had a roof made of old brick, and wide enough to be a road. Old pipes cris-crossed on the ceiling, and occasionally thrummed with activity.

After surveying the immediate area, he called up to those above him, “Clear!”

Megan climbed down next, two tomahawks looped around her belt, and a flare gun holstered at her hip. As she touched down next to the young man, she wiped her hands off on her blue jeans and took in a few breaths of air. “Well, it doesn’t smell bad,” she said at length, “Weird”.

“Megan?” called Applejack from the street, “Ah-Ah’m ready ta’ come down! You ready to catch me?”

Megan looked up at the pony head that hovered above the manhole, “I sure am sugar-cube!” The woman stretched out her arms, preparing to catch the small equine.

Applejack backed away from the hole to get some distance, “Okay! Here Ah go!” She ran towards the opened and jumped into the air, curling into a canon-ball dive, “YEE-HAW!” Falling straight through the manhole and into Megan’s awaiting arms, she gave out a dainty “Oomf!” Feeling the arms of her human friend support her form, the orange pony opened her eyes to see Megan’s smiling face.

“You’re lighter than you look,” said the woman.

“Hey, Ah can be dainty if Ah want ta’ be,” Applejack replied as Megan placed her on solid ground, “Jus’ don’t on account of it not bein’ all that practical.”

“Yeah, that’s what I like about you AJ,” called Rainbow Dash as she jumped down from the opening, flaring out her wings and gliding smoothly to the ground. “You aren’t afraid to have fun and get dirty, unlike Rarity.”

“Vhy vould she vant to pass up a glorious opportunity like this?” Dimitri asked in earnest. “It is not every day one gets to go into dungeon and hunt lizard man. Ад, I vould do this even if I vasn’t part of the Agency.”

Applejack rolled her eyes in wide arcs, “Ah don’t think Rarity would care much fer the decorations, or the murderous lizard creature that might be stalkin’ ‘round down here.”

“Speaking of ol’ scaly,” said Dash looking down both directions of the sewer, seeing only darkness. “Where do we start looking for him anyway?”

“Downstream,” said Megan, “Any animals that had drowned during a storm would flow that way, making for an easy meal, and I got a feeling this thing wouldn’t mind getting wet.”

Wincing at the cold analysis, Applejack asked the next question, “An’ which way is downstream? It all looks a might flat down here to me.” Glancing around the gloomy tunnel the orange pony added, “Then again, Ah can’t see much of anything down here.”

“I can answer this one!” exclaimed Dimitri, removing a bottle of water from his army surplus cargo pants. He bent over and began pouring it out slowly onto the ground making sure it didn’t splash.

Sure enough, as the puddle grew a small tendril of water began to trail off down into the darkness. With a swarthy looking smile, Dimitri tossed an instant torch over to Megan. Immediately after catching the long brown stick, she cracked the top off of it, causing the tip to burst into a bright white light.

“You lead Mr. Scientist,” said Megan patting the young man on the back, “I’ll bring up the rear. AJ, you and Dash keep an eye out for side passages that look like something might be using them.”

As they fell into the marching order Dash asked, “What kind of signs of life does a lizard monster give?”

“Oh you known, average stuff,” replied Megan, “Claw marks on the walls and bricks, loose scales on the ground, maybe a footprint in some dirt…”

“Bones,” added Dimitri.

Megan nodded in agreement, “Definitely bones.”

Dash and Applejack exchanged glances, and together they both gulped.

*              *              *

Meanwhile, at the Bureau, an exhausted Twilight had long since been carried to her bed by her concerned mentor Princess Celestia, who had to depart with President Joseph shortly after. They had to leave in order to prepare a statement to the general populace, they had to tell the people what the bridging of the two worlds had wrought. After the goodbyes, everyone had gone off to do what they thought needed to be done.

Fluttershy patched up Hawk’s bite wound from the ghastly business of the previous night, and after that the yellow pegasus had gone out to her little animal sanctuary and tended her flock. Rarity went to go take a bath with a trashy novella called, “The Stallion from the South,” and had not been seen since. As for the human Hawk, he and his friend Zorro were busy picking out their rooms and converting one of the lounges into a briefing room/communications headquarters. Zorro had conveniently ceased coughing around the time he selected his room, which occurred before any of the other humans had a chance to pick rooms of their own.

Pinkie on the other hand, sat alone in the cafeteria. It was just past lunchtime, so all the humans and ponified people had left to go back to their rooms while giving a wide berth to the human agents. Pinkie sighed and closed her eyes, and was instantly bombarded with images of a Headless Horseman, laughing maniacally as he decapitated pony after pony, their dead eyes always looking at Pinkie no matter how they landed.

Shaking her head clear of the images, the pink mare concluded that she would never sleep again. Not if such horrible things were now stuck in her mind. A little voice in her head spoke up, ‘They are gone, and they are never coming back. Their families are going to be so sad to know that you survived instead of their brother, or sister, or son, or daughter...’ She shook her head more hoping to quiet the voice, but it persisted. ‘How are you going to live with yourself knowing that if you had warned them sooner, they might still be alive?’

A cup of tea slid into Pinkie’s vision from across the table. “You look terrible,” came a cold, but undeniably feminine voice.

Looking up, Pinkie saw Captain Barnes with a cup of her own. “OH! Hey there Ms. Barnes…wh-w-what are you doing here?”

“Captain,” replied Barnes in a flat tone, her eyes unreadable behind her shaded sunglasses.

“Huh?”

“My rank is captain,” she took a sip of her tea, “and unless my intel was wrong, you are Pinkamena Diane Pie, the element of laughter and joy.”

Pinkie lowered her head, “Yeah…that’s me, but I just go by Pinkie usually Mis…I mean Captain Barnes.” Pinkie started running her hooves through her straight hair, hoping that the human would soon leave.

Barnes leaned forward, “You do not look very happy for the embodiment of joy.”

Pinkie debated whether talking to Barnes was a good idea. In the brief amount of time she had known the woman, Barnes had not once smiled or given any indication of feeling anything. Pinkie watched the swirls of steam rise from her tea cup and decided to go for it. “I keep having nightmares about last night, or maybe I should call them daymares…I don’t know. It’s just that...last night something bad happened to a lot of innocent people for no reason, and I couldn’t help them and now I have to live with the images of people dying and screaming and…” Tears started rolling down Pinkie’s face as the images of dead bodies and screaming heads filled her vision.

Barnes took another sip of her tea, “That’s the world for you, and you had best learn to cope with it. Last night was just another incident in the long history of bad things happening to good people.”

The prospect of having to watch more innocent people die did not set well with Pinkie Pie at all, and she knew that this would never have happened in Equestria. ‘But you’re not in Equestria anymore Pinkie, you are in Human Lands. Here, pointless death and sorrow is the norm. Here, the world hates you.’ The pink mare looked into the dark shading of Barnes’ sunglasses, “How do you cope with it? I mean…I can’t…”

Barnes placed her tea cup down in front of her, her voice changing from her normally steely tone to one that had equal parts concern and tenderness, “You find a friend and you talk about it. Usually over a cup of tea.”.

Pinkie was taken aback from the sudden change in the human’s voice, and looked down at the hot cup of tea in front of her. Its swirling strands of steam looked like they were dancing, as if they were trying to cheer up the pink pony.

“Now Pinkie,” Barnes pushed Pinkie Pie’s tea cup closer to the mare and asked in her new soft voice, “do you have anything you want to talk about with me?”

For the first time since last night Pinkie Pie felt a smile cross her face. Making new friends always cheered Pinkie up.

*              *              *

“What is that?” asked Dash in regards to a large gap in the smooth stone work of the wall.

Dimitri raised his torch in an effort to shine more light into the breach they had discovered, “I think…it is vhat is called a ‘hole in the vall’.” He looked at the rainbow pegasus and shrugged, “But that is just my opinion.”

“Tha’ real question is what’s on the other side of it?” added Applejack as she walked up to it.

“Dash,” began Megan, “can you feel if air is going in or out of the hole?”

“Sure thing,” she replied flaring out her wings and her feathers began wobbling as air brushed past them. “There is definitely a breeze coming out of here,” she paused, “A warm breeze.”

“That sounds like our lair!” Dimitri exclaimed. He threw his instant torch into the hole, illuminating the descending tunnel, and readied his large axe.

“Lead on General Harth,” said Megan sarcastically.

Applejack cocked an eyebrow, “Who?”

“Old var hero,” replied Dimitri walking into the hole, followed by Applejack and then Dash.

Megan took out a tomahawk and flipped it in her hands a couple times, “Didn’t he punch the first pony he met?” She gave a quick glance around before entering the tunnel after the ponies.

Dash exchanged a surprised look with Applejack and hesitantly asked, “Why would he do that?”

Dimitri responded in a light hearted way, “From vhat I hear, he did not agree vith concept of pegasus. Something about pony vith vings bothered him, and he did not like it vhen pony flew into his face to say hello. So he punch it in face.”

“Sounds like a real …” Applejack paused to search for the right word.

Dash jumped on the opportunity, “Ass.” The two humans stopped in their tracks and looked at Rainbow Dash in profound surprise, causing the pegasus some discomfort.

At length, Megan and Dimitri looked at each other and nodded in agreement. “Sounds right to me,” they said in tandem, after which they both erupted into laughter and continued down the passageway.

After some time of traveling down the tunnel, they group came upon an opening into a large dark cavern. There was the sound of running water, and a warm breeze blew through the darkness, and it carried with it the smell of rot and death.

“Okay, now it smells bad,” quipped Megan as she drew the flare gun from her hip. Pointing it to the ceiling, or what she thought was the ceiling, she fired off her first flare. The flare spread light all throughout the cavern, which in fact turned out to be a half-flooded train terminal. The structure itself resembled an old, weathered, and decrepit version of Grand Central Station. It was large and seemed to be made out of big stone blocks and bricks held together by subterranean molds and moss. The building appeared to have merged with the cavern wall, and as such was suspended above an underground lake, with only an ancient staircase to bridge the entrance of the cavern to the station.

The party all gasped in amazement as they took in the sheer enormity of the expanse. As the first flare began to dim, Applejack thought she saw something duck into the water at the last second. “Megan! Fire up another one of them flares quick!”

Megan eagerly complied, loading and firing another bright red flare up towards the ceiling of the cavern. Once again the worn architecture was revealed in all of its forgotten splendor. “Did you see something sugar-cube?” asked Megan, her eyes scanning the surface of the waters. There was nothing, not even a ripple.

“Ah thought ah did.”

“Let us get into the structure,” suggested Dimitri, “I feel somevhat exposed out here.”

“Tell me about it,” said Dash as the flare began to dim again.

Darkness fell around them, leaving only the illumination of Megan’s instant torch as their light source. As Megan was loading another flare, the sound of something emerging from water came from somewhere in the gloom, followed by a low hiss and heavy, squishy sounding footfalls.

“Tell me again why you guys didn’t bring your guns,” Dash asked while her herd instincts kicked in, moving her closer to Applejack. The squishy footsteps were getting louder, and so was the hissing.

Dimitri hefted his axe and faced the approaching sound, “If I fired mine underground, there vould be a good chance of us all going deaf.”

“Mine’s a sniper rifle, not good for close quarters,” added Megan pointing the flare gun at the roof, “And no way am I bringing my daddy’s Winchester into a goddamn sewer.” She fired off the flare and dropped the launcher, pulling a tomahawk from her belt.

On the staircase in front of them, rather unfazed by the flare’s red light, stood a scaled creature that reminded Applejack and Dash of Spike, except taller and far less cute. It was supported by two powerful legs, trailing behind it was a long tail that swept back and forth across the ground silently. At the ends of its muscled arms was a pair of very sharp looking claws, which opened and closed with each step the creature took. Its eyes gleamed with the cold stare only a reptile could give, and at the end of its short snout was a toothy maw which emitted the hissing noise that could curdle milk.

After recovering from the shock of seeing a Lizard Man, Megan threw a tomahawk at it, striking it squarely in its chest. Unfortunately, this only seemed to anger it. Dimitri charged it, coming at it with a downward swing with his axe, but the Lizard Man was faster than it looked and backhanded the young man in the chest and sent him flying into the water a good ten feet away.

“Сын сука!” was all Dimitri could yell before he hit the water.

Applejack charged the Lizard Man going in low, as Rainbow Dash took flight and circled around behind it coming in high. The pegasus shouted a battle cry as she flew in for the strike, “Take this you overgrown Iguana!”

The Lizard Man quickly turned around sweeping Applejack off her hooves with its tail, as it swatted Dash down to the ground with a claw. It let out a roar of victory as it hovered over the stunned pegasus, extending a claw to pick her up. Before it could however, Megan lept onto the Lizard Man’s back with a live taser. “Taste lightning bog breath!” Megan jammed the active taser into the Lizard Man’s neck, causing the beast to release a terrifying roar that echoed loudly within the cavern.

The Lizard Man summoned the strength to resist the pain of being electrocuted and raised a massive claw imbedding its nails into Megan’s back. Her scream was almost as awful as the Lizard Man’s. Now with a firm grip, the monster flung Megan over its head into the ancient brick staircase, smoke rising from its neck as well as the axe blade stuck in its chest. The beast stepped on Dash on its way to Megan’s prone and bleeding body, sending the air out of the pegasus’ lungs before she could stand up.

The Lizard Man now loomed above Megan, who was trying desperately to reach for another tomahawk. Grabbing the woman by the neck, the creature lifted Megan up to eye level and resumed its hissing noise. It suddenly found a lasso around its neck, and tried to resist being pulled backwards by Applejack. “Don’t you touch her you son of a bitch!” cried the orange pony through gritted teeth. She heaved again against the monstrosity, forcing it to take a step back.

The light of the flare was dimming as Megan finally found a grip on the tomahawk. After another heave from Applejack, Megan swung at the Lizard Man’s neck, burying the axe deep into the creature’s scaly flesh. The monster released its grip on the woman, who rolled across the damp stones in the direction of the station. Rainbow Dash had gotten back up and gripped the rope with Applejack, giving it as strong a pull as she could muster.

With two ponies pulling on it, and a tomahawk in its neck to boot, the Lizard Man toppled down the stairs. It landed at the bottom of the steps with a satisfying thump and remained motionless. Any thoughts of celebration died as the flare did, surrounding the party in total darkness. There was a splash not long after as the hissing noise disappeared.

Megan lit an instant torch creating a circle of light. The Lizard Man had slipped free of the lasso and the water rippled with recent activity. “Dimitri?!” called Megan, “Get to land as fast as possible!”

“Vorking on it!” replied Dimitri, just now swimming into the small area of light. “That thing has nasty left hook you know.”

Megan winced, feeling burning hot pain from the fresh wounds on her back, “I know what you mean.”

Rainbow Dash took flight and hovered over Dimitri, “Hold on, I got ya!” She somehow gripped onto his shoulders with her front hooves and began dragging the young man through the water towards the stone walkway.

Applejack had recovered her lasso and moved next to Megan, who had taken to sitting down on the old brick stairs. “How’re ya’ holding up there sugar-cube? Ya’ took quite a hit from that…thing.”

Megan sat very still and only glanced at the orange pony, “My back hurts.”

Applejack gave a weak smile to her friend, “Well ah reckon it would after hittin’ them stairs like that!” With a soft nuzzle to Megan’s face she began to move behind the woman, “Let me have a look see an maybe ah can massage it or-” She let out a gasp when she saw Megan’s back. Blood was leaking from five dime sized holes and was streaming down the woman’s back, forming a pool on the bricks. “Dear Celestia…”

“AJ,” said Megan, “I need you to do something for me.”

“Y-yeah?”

Megan slowly moved her arm and presented Applejack with the lit instant torch, “Take this and cauterize my wounds.”

“Vait!” called Dimitri while he climbed onto the shore, “Disinfect first, then seal! Do not vant infection!”

“You got alcohol on you?” replied the woman.

Dimitri ran up to her and pulled out a flask from his back pocket, “Law one of living in Russia: Alvays carry Vodka.” He gave her a big smile, which she returned with a weak chuckle. Wasting no time Dimitri opened it and moved behind her pausing only to say, “You might vant to bite down on something.”

Rainbow Dash, who had flown in after Dimitri, grabbed the end of Applejack’s rope and offered it to Megan. The woman took it and gingerly placed it in her mouth, already biting down hard.

“Here ve go,” said Dimitri as he began to pour.

*              *              *

They had all moved into the station portion of the cavern, only barely noticing the ornate stonework that adorned the front entryway. Megan was resting her head on Applejack, who was all too eager to offer the small service. The orange pony was just glad that Megan was alive, if a bit burned.

Dimitri and Dash had set up a perimeter of instant torches, shedding light into the large and empty building. It was majestic to say the least, but also had an air of mystery to it. Dash had asked Dimitri about it, but he didn’t know of any train stations that had sunk beneath the earth.

“More than likely, it manifested. Like spooky town of horseman,” he had offered. The words had done little to make the pegasus feel better.

Rainbow Dash had since been pacing back and forth. “I think we need to go,” she said, “Like, back to the surface and-I don’t know-seal off the sewers or something!”

“One problem with that Dashie,” countered Applejack, “This Lizard-thingy will still be down here.”

“And now it knows it can compete vith humans and ponies,” added Dimitri.

“No kidding,” groaned Megan.

Something in the darkness climbed out of the water. The sound of wet footsteps echoed through the cavern, followed by a low hiss. Dimitri grabbed his long axe and moved to the center of the torch ring. “He’s back!” said the young man tensing up.

Dash flew in soon after looking somewhat shaken. “Any pony got a plan?” she asked.

Applejack gently moved out from under Megan and trotted to the center, her mind abuzz. “Ah got an idea. Me an’ Dash wait on opposite sides of tha’ entrance with them zappy things and jump the varmint when it enters. Then Dimitri hits it with his axe.” She looked at the other two, who looked at each other and nodded.

“Sounds like a plan to me!” exclaimed Dash, much of her confidence returning.

Dimitri handed the ponies the tasers, giving quick instructions on how they worked, before the ponies ran into positions. The wet footsteps were very close, but they still couldn’t see the creature. Dimitri took an instant torch from the ring and tossed it through the door. The Lizard Man was just now cresting the lip of the staircase. It had removed the tomahawks from its chest and neck at some point during its disappearance and seemed no worse for wear as a result.

After what seemed to be an agonizing eternity of its slow, wet, footsteps  getting closer and closer, and its reptilian hiss getting louder and louder, it was finally at the door. “NOW!” screamed Applejack, as she and Dash jumped at its sides, tasers crackling loudly.

The Lizard Man let out a pained roar as electricity shot through every vein of its body. Dimitri let out a roar of his own as he charged the monster and brought his axe down into its chest. It staggered backwards a few feet as Dimitri yanked his weapon out of the creature’s chest.

“Zap it again!” yelled Dash, as she and Applejack lunged at it again, hoping to Celestia that the beast would just die.

But it was faster than it looked. Before they could connect, the Lizard Man fell to all fours and swatted at the ponies with its tail knocking them away. Dimitri came at it with his axe again, but the creature ducked to the side, avoiding the strike. Standing on its legs again, the monster grabbed Dimitri with its two powerful claws and threw him into a nearby support column. The wound in its chest was hemorrhaging blood, the Lizard Man’s hissing was becoming labored and forced. With some effort, it moved towards the prey that was giving it the least trouble.

Megan gripped onto the soft putty-like ball in her hand, and with considerable agony, rose to her feet to face the monster. She took a quick glance around: Dimitri had hit that pillar hard and wasn’t moving, while Applejack and Dash were still pulling themselves together. Then there was the Lizard Man, taking its time lumbering over to Megan with one claw covering its chest and the other preparing for a strike.

Her body was only willing to try this once, so she had to make it count. That didn’t stop her from making one last act of bravado however. She raised both her arms out, one had the ball of putty with pins in it, the other a small black box. “If there’s enough of you left after this, I am so making you into a wallet,” she taunted. The Lizard Man moved in closer and raised both arms, with the obvious intent to rip her to shreds.

Megan saw her opening and tackled the abomination with a war cry that put whatever the monster called a roar to shame. She plunged the putty ball into the open wound in the Lizard Man’s chest. The creature roared in agony as Megan made sure the base ball sized portion of C4 she had just armed was good and lodged in the beast’s stomach. Deciding that the C4 was in there well enough, Megan retracted her arm and rolled out of the creatures reach.

“APPLEJACK!” called Megan, “GET THAT THING THE BUCK OUT OF HERE!”

Applejack, who had been regaining her senses from a hit to the head, heard the command clear as a bell. “Come on Dash! Time ta’ show this critter who’s boss!”

“Right behind you AJ!” replied the pegasus.

The Lizard Man was too distracted clutching its stomach and chest with its claws to notice the two ponies run in front of it and rear their hind legs. Together, the two ponies bucked the scaly monster in its stomach and sent it flying a good six feet out the entrance. The Lizard Man hit the stairs and rolled down the length of them, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

“Aaaand he’s outta there!” called Rainbow Dash as she trotted to the entrance, “Team Awesome: Two! Monsters: Zero! Suck on that you scaly son of a b-”

The Lizard Man exploded.

The force from the explosion itself was enough to send Rainbow Dash back a good foot and a half, whereas the noise left a very loud ringing in the ears of all who still had ears. Dash had to shake her head a couple times to stop her eyes from spinning.

Megan leaned against a nearby wall, almost collapsing out right, and left a trail of blood as she slid down to the ground.

*              *              *

“They’re back!” screamed Pinkie Pie bouncing with excitement. “You know what this means Rarity?!”

The white unicorn gazed over her early sketches for team uniforms, “I can guess. Could it possibly be a-”

“That’s right! A PARTY! Oh I’m going to need some balloons and some glitter and some streamers and some cake and a TROMBONE!” The bright pink mare zipped out of the entrance hall of the Bureau, giggling madly.

Rarity just sighed and made herself look presentable, no doubt her friends wouldn’t mind seeing something nice and clean after being down in those awful sewers. Rarity put on an award winning smile, fueled by genuine relief that all four of those that had left had returned. Then she saw that one was not so much walking towards the front door, as much as leaning on the others and bleeding all over the place.

Rarity’s smile faded as she turned to the receptionist, “Ditzy! Get Fluttershy to the medical room immediately! She is about to have another patient!” The wall eyed pony slammed a hoof to her forehead and sped off like a bullet towards the animal sanctuary. Rarity meanwhile busied herself by preparing a spell to carry the wounded.

Dimitri, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all rushed into the front room, all in some way supporting the bleeding Megan. “Rarity,” started the orange pony, “Megan’s hurt bad in the back an’ we need to get her to the nursing room fast.”

“That’s why I’m here AJ,” replied Rarity with a tone as graceful as ever. Her horn glowed, and the air around Megan followed suit. Soon she became weightless and floated through the air, her back facing up. Without another word, Rarity galloped off towards the nursing room with the floating Megan in tow, the other three following close behind.

*              *              *

Megan woke up three hours later, counting five dull pains in her back and feeling rather woozy. She was lying on her stomach in what she then decided was the most comfortable bed in the world. Opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was a very concerned looking orange pony. Summoning every ounce of strength, she said, “Hey there sugar-cube.”

Applejack’s smile was sweet and pure, and made Megan feel better instantly. Not good enough to punch lizard men with high explosive of course, but better than how she had felt a few seconds ago. Applejack nuzzled Megan’s cheek saying, “Hey there yerself! You had us all worried sick.”

“Is Zorro here?” asked Megan weakly.

Applejack nodded, “He’s right here. He, Hawk an’ me haven’t left your side since Rarity brought you in, not even ta’ use the bathroom.”

Zorro’s sultry voice came from the other side of the bed, “How are you doing mi querida muchacha?”

Megan shifted her head to look at the man. His normally suave face was blemished with worry. “Zorro,” she whispered.

He leaned in closer, “Yes Megan?”

“Next time you have a cold…” she gripped the collar of his shirt and pulled him in close, “Do me a favor and suck it up.” She let go of Zorro, the last of her strength spent. Closing her eyes, she turned her head back to face Applejack’s direction.

“Hey Megan,” came Hawk’s voice.

With great effort, Megan opened her eyes again. “Yeah Hawk?”

Hawk stepped into her vision holding something behind his back. “When you came in, you were clutching some lizard skin, so I took the liberty of making this for you while you were out.” He presented Megan with a small coin purse made from Lizard Man skin. “Ta-da!”

Megan just rolled her eyes and smiled, falling asleep soon after.

The End

Episode 2 is done

Onto episode 3!

Let’s hope I can keep this up.

Yellowstone:

The Series

By: Anonsi(He cares nothing for consistent updates!)

Episode 3

Creepy Crawling

______________________________________________________________________________

For ages, Equestria has existed separate from the rest of the world, protected by a magical barrier that prevented it from being seen, touched, or reached by humans and their machines. But five years ago, the ponies of Equestria landed on the shores of human lands claiming to be there to save the earth and humanity from pollution, hate, and greed. To do this, the top human scientists and pony magicians created a potion to turn humans into ponies in places called, Conversion Bureaus. Within two years of its release, more than half the total human populace on Earth has converted. The balance of the world has been forever altered, as the remaining human nations form new governments for those humans that remain.

An uneventful two days  have passed at the Conversion Bureau where Twilight and her friends now live with the human task force, and all are able to rest easy knowing that the Lizard Man, a creature which would have began hunting pony and human alike if left unchecked, has been slain. Though suffering from the worst of the wounds sustained, Megan is on the road to a full recovery thanks to both Fluttershy’s medical treatment and Rarity’s healing magic.

President Joseph McCullough however, has bore a troubled brow since his return to the White House. Every passing day he receives increasingly disturbing reports on the effects of Equestria’s wayward magic from all over the world. So far the only pillar of support he has found is Princess Celestia, who has sworn to remain in human lands until the current crisis ends, and now resides within the walls of White House doing what she can to aid both her people and the humans in these dark days...

______________________________________________________________________________

It was early morning when President Joseph went outside to water his rose garden. He enjoyed watering his plants this early in the morning, it gave him time to think about how he was going to fix the mountains of problems he always found himself faced with. Later today, he would be addressing what remained of the United Nations, in an effort to get some collaboration from the other countries with little more than theories and good old fashioned sweet talking. Of course, it helped that Celestia was going to back him up.

Celestia being involved went a great deal in assuaging his fears about the coming speech. What really concerned him was the unrest within his own country. Yesterday, he had received a letter during dinner with the Princess that pleaded for his immediate assistance in a very troubling matter. Apparently, there was a gang war going on in the only city on the west coast with a predominantly pony populace, between the well known HLF, and a new group calling themselves PER.

“Good morning Joseph,” came a voice from behind him, “I didn’t expect to see you up so early.”

The president continued to water his roses, chuckling under his breath, “Well excuse me Princess, but I don’t tend to sleep well when what’s left of my country is on the brink of annihilation.”

Princess Celestia moved to smell the roses of the garden, a serene look crossing her face, “Now Joseph, I hardly think things have gotten that bad. My pupil and her friends have been doing rather well in handling this situation, as have your agents.”

Moving along the garden bed, the President replied, “It hasn’t even been a week since they started, Princess. The two victories our teams have had are two very small drops in a very large bucket.”

Celestia gave the old man a smile that could brighten any day, “Those are still two more drops in the victory bucket than in the failure bucket. That’s a hundred percent success rate so far. Sounds to me like we’re doing rather well for ourselves, wouldn’t you agree?”

Joseph returned her bright smile with a heavy sigh, “I can’t argue with that logic.” He could actually, but simply chose not to. He wasn’t in the mood to talk about the innocent lives being lost to the the reemergence of magic, and instead chose to change the subject. “Anyway Princess, how’s the home front? Everything going well in Ponyland?”

Celestia always giggled when he said that, and this time was no different. Her soft and delicate laughter was exactly what Joseph needed to hear to complete the serenity of his morning. “Everything is fine,” she was able to get out between chortles, “my dear sister has outdone herself with keeping everything in order, and I truly couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Her joy was infectious, and Joseph found himself smiling as he finished watering his garden. “I’m glad to hear that, and I hope the day comes when things are under control enough for you to be with her again.”

“I have no doubt that day will be coming soon Joseph,” she spread her wings and prepared to take off, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go fly off those apples from breakfast. A princess must keep her figure you know.” Flashing the President one last award winning smile she took off into the sky with the speed of a jet plane.

Yawning, the President made his way back towards the White House, deciding that he might get a second helping of pancakes before calling his Agents. “An old fart must keep his figure after all.”

*              *              *

She was standing in a magnificent apple orchard. The sunlight streamed in through the leaves of the trees, and she could smell the sweet nectar of the apple blossoms on the cool breeze that blew in from the east. Suddenly, a large red stallion was standing in front of her, gazing deeply into her eyes.

“Oh Big Mac…” she said as she gazed right back into his calm and gentle eyes, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you…”

He leaned in close. “Eeyup?” he asked.

Her heart began pounding, and she could feel her insides grow warm. “I need to tell you something Big Mac. Something dreadfully important.”

He leaned in closer, so close that he could have kissed her if he wanted to. “Eeyup?” he asked again.

“I want you Big Mac! I want you so bad it’s driving me crazy!” She began to swoon, “Take me now you magnificent stallion!” she shouted. She didn’t care if anypony heard her, she was in love!

The large red pony grabbed her and tipped her over, holding the now swooning mare in his front hooves. “Rarity...” he said.

“Oh Big Mac!”

“Rarity!”

“Kiss me you foal!” she cried out, puckering her lips in anticipation.

“Rarity i-it’s time to wake up,” he said in Fluttershy’s demure voice.

Time seemed to stop as Rarity realized she was awake. She lifted her eye cover ever so slowly, lips still puckered. There standing next to her bed was her good friend Fluttershy, whose face was already red as a tomato. “How much did you hear?” asked the unicorn with growing concern in her voice.

The yellow pegasus lowered her head meekly and looked at her hooves, “Ummm…u-up until you said you wanted me to…t-to…umm…well that is, you wanted Big Mac to…well…umm…kiss you.” Her cheeks somehow turned even more crimson and she showed no intention of looking away from the floor.

Rarity sighed. This wasn’t the first time her bashful friend had walked in on one of her ‘episodes.’ Fortunately, the unicorn had never gotten to the more…intimate, portion of the dream; a fact that probably saved them both from dying of embarrassment.

Rolling out of bed, Rarity removed her assorted sleepwear with her magic. “I really must apologize, Fluttershy. I should really start using that alarm clock that came with this place.” Moving to a large vanity mirror that she had picked up from market, she lifted a comb and other accessories that were pivotal in her morning routine towards her with her magic, and began brushing her mane.

“Oh…I-I don’t mind,” replied the pegasus, still staring at her hooves, “It’s really not all that much trouble.” Fluttershy raised her head ever so slightly, “And besides, you threw out your alarm clock.”

Rarity stopped her grooming and tilted her head in confusion, “Why in Equestria would I do that? That doesn’t sound like something I would do.”

“You said it was tacky and clashed with the decor,” whispered the yellow pony in response, her eyes now darting between her friend and her hooves as she spoke.

The unicorn ran Fluttershy’s comment through her brain. She gave a shrug, “Okay that does sound like me. Oh well! I’ll just get a new, less tacky, one when next I go out.” Rarity gave a dainty laugh to her friend and resumed combing her mane. “So darling, what’s on the agenda today?”

Fluttershy trotted next to the glamorous unicorn and smiled at her reflection in the mirror, “Oh, just the usual things. You know, like feeding the animals, singing to the birds, making sure all of those cute little critters have a soft comfy bed to sleep in. Oh! And helping the new-foals learn to fly of course.”

Rarity looked at her friend in the mirror. “And?” she added, raising a perfectly groomed eyebrow.

“And?” whimpered the timid pony, now looking around frantically for an object that might jog her memory.

Rarity turned and faced Fluttershy with a hurt look. “Fluttershy! Our tea party!” she said with a slightly whiny tone, “With the human agents? Remember?”

“Oh my goodness!” replied the pegasus, her cheeks again turning red from embarrassment, “I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I forgot that!”

The unicorn rolled her eyes and smiled, giving her friend a light nuzzle on her cheek, “All is forgiven darling, just make sure you’re there at noon. It wouldn’t be as much fun without you after all.”

Fluttershy’s face beamed up at Rarity, who returned it with an equally bright smile. “I’ll make sure of it Rarity, don’t you worry.” She then trotted out of her friend’s room calling “See you later!” behind her.

Rarity turned back to the mirror as Fluttershy left, giving a content little sigh at her gorgeous reflection. “Simply fabulous,” she said as she blew a kiss at herself and giggled. “Oh Rarity…” she said in a deep voice, eyeing her reflection seductively, “Ah may just be a mere farmer pony with a flank like chiseled granite, and the face of a stallion super model, but could you ever bring yourself to love a simple pony like me?”

She batted her eyelashes and dramatically swooned onto her bed, “Oh Big Mac! If only you were a rich, stuck up, narcissistic, and extremely rude swine like Prince Blueblood! But alas! I must settle for you, a charming, handsome, intelligent, and very well to do stallion who would treat me with the respect and love I deserve! Oh woe is me!”

Moments later she burst into a giggle fit that lasted a good minute. She pulled herself together soon after and dressed herself with her personalized saddlebags. Before she left, she reached out with her magic to pick up a trashy novella entitled “He said He Loved Me!” from between her bed and the wall. Slipping it into her side pouch, she left her room and turned right, ready to start her day.

Megan, who was standing not far down the hallway and to the left of the door, rubbed her hand over her chin. “Sheesh...AJ’s brother certainly gets around.”

*              *              *

Twilight sat next to Hawk on one of the couches of the new communications room of the Bureau, reading away the afternoon. The unicorn had some reservations about the alterations the human and his friend had made to the room at first, but with all the various radios and scientific doodads, she had gotten over it.

The incoming message light on one of the various gizmos blinked to life and a beeping noise overrode the soft jazz music that had been playing. “Not even operational a whole day and we already got a call,” grunted Hawk as he got up from his end of the couch.

Twilight, who sat on the other end, lifted her head looking extremely concerned. “Please Hawk, this could be serious.”

Hawk smiled at the unicorn, “Am I not serious enough for you? If you want I could act like Barnes and scowl all the time.” After saying this he scrunched up his face in mock anger and pointed at it, “See? This is my serious face.”

Twilight gave him an unimpressed look and rolled her eyes while Hawk chuckled to himself and activated the Comm-Screen. The human President appeared on it, standing in the oval office looking somewhat disheveled. Next to his desk was the ever glorious Princess Celestia resting on her haunches.

Hawk put his hands on his hips and smiled, “Damn Joe. TV makes you look fat.”

President Joseph sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead with his hand. “You’re lucky I can’t suspend you Hawk.”

“I know.”

Twilight jumped off the couch and walked up next to Hawk and waved a hoof at the television screen. “Hello mister President, and good morning Princess!”

The Princess gave a tiny hoof wave back and a serene little smile. Joseph also gave the unicorn a friendly grin as he continued, “Hello Miss Twilight. Anyway, Hawk. A situation has come up in California that requires your team’s immediate attention. As you’ve probably heard from recent news reports, the city of New Foalsome is having problems with...”

Hawk interrupted with a cough, “Sir, California is Six Tribes’ territory. They have rangers that are supposed to handle this.”

Joseph shot him a tired look, “They can’t handle this agent Hawk. The Six Tribes have enough resources to police their cities and towns, but not nearly enough to combat two organized terrorist groups from waging war on each other.”

Hawk cocked an eyebrow, “Two? I thought the HLF was the only radical group we had to deal with.”

It was then that Celestia spoke, “Indeed they were Agent Hawk, but recently…” her face became downcast and her tone worried, “…I’m saddened to say there is now a second hate fueled group named, PER.”

“Excuse me Princess,” said Twilight as she stepped forward, “but what is PER? I’m not up to date on human outlaws.”

The Princess grew visibly upset as she spoke her next words, “PER, or ‘Ponification for Earth’s Rebirth,’ is not made up of humans Twilight. Its ranks are filled with those that have been ponified and seek to eliminate humanity from the face of the planet, by any means necessary.”

Twilight and Hawk both stood dumbfounded. “But Princess!” stammered Twilight, unable to compute what her mentor had just said, “No pony, Equestrian or otherwise would ever want that! They couldn’t! Our magic removes impurities of both body and mind!” Twilight looked at her mentor, hoping this was just one of the goddess’s famous jokes.

“Oh yes they could,” stated Hawk. His eyes were darting back and forth as he sorted through his memory, “If they had a ponification potion that didn’t take all the bad out of them.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in disbelief as she gazed at Hawk, a dark thought dawning in her mind. “The potion I made for Cottonmouth…” Horrible memories she thought she had long since buried away erupted from her subconscious with the force of a tidal wave.

Hawk nodded, “Apparently we missed some of it.” His face began to contort, this time in very genuine anger.

President Joseph cleared his throat and moved to the center of the screen. “Although the how’s and why’s of PER’s genesis need to be answered and dealt with, that is not your mission. It seems that the two gangs have found a certain carrot to chase after, a one Mr. John Norris and his son, Azure Wind.” The odd looks from Twilight and Hawk did not go unnoticed by the President, but he continued on with the briefing. He assumed they would be smart enough to put two and two together.

“It is our belief,” he continued, “that both organizations are after his fortune, which Mr. Norris keeps somewhere in the confines of his home. If either faction gets their hands on that money, they’ll have enough funds to do whatever they want, and I’m sure they aren’t planning in donating to charity. You two have to make sure no harm comes to Mr. Norris or his son, and keep the fortune out of the hands, or hooves, of the malefactors. Clear?”

“Yes,” said Twilight with a nod.

“Aye sir,” replied Hawk with a salute, “I’ll inform Barnes to ready the chopper for long dis-”

Joseph raised his hand to silence him, “The helicopter is far too slow Agent Hawk. I have authorized the use of the Odin. It should arrive within the hour.”

Hawk’s eyes narrowed, and his voice suddenly had a subtly nervous shake to it, “Ah…the experimental ship. I hope Barnes can fly that one.”

“Captain Barnes can fly anything Hawk,” the President assured him.

“And I’ll get Rarity and Fluttershy ready,” added Twilight, earning her odd looks from her peers. After clearing her throat, she continued, “I was just thinking that we might be able to attempt a diplomatic resolution, however unlikely. I mean, PER might not be one hundred percent ponified, but maybe they’ll at least listen to a little reason?” The young mare gazed into the face of her divine mentor for approval.

Celestia’s face eventually spread into a sincere smile that beamed at her student. “I think that is worth a try my dear pupil, and I hope for the sakes of everyone that it pays off.”

Bubbles of pure joy welled up within Twilight. She was so glad the Princess liked her idea that she didn’t notice the stupid grin that was now covering her face.

“Well then my faithful student,” said Celestia, giggling somewhat at Twilight’s expression, “I bid you and Agent Hawk farewell.”

Twilight gave the most respectful bow she could, saying “Thank you, your highness.”

Hawk simply tipped his hat to the elegant equine.

Princess Celestia gave one last shining smile to both of them, and spoke with words that sounded like they were dipped in honey, “Do be sure to watch each other’s flanks out there.” She shot Hawk a quick wink before the screen cut to black.

Twilight looked at the human agent with a raised eyebrow, “What was with that wink?”

“Hell if I know,” Hawk responded as he made his way to the door, “I’m going to go get ready before things start getting awkward.”

Twilight sauntered next to him and asked, “Mind helping me find Fluttershy and Rarity? They’ve probably finished their morning rounds by now, so there’s no telling where they could be.” Her face then became somewhat embarrassed and she quietly added, “That, and I don’t want to tell Rarity her tea party is canceled by myself.”

Hawk looked at the unicorn, whose large, pleading eyes were focused intently on him. He let loose a heavy sigh, “Sure Twilight, but only because you’re cute.”

Her cheeks turned a deep shade of red as she looked away sheepishly, “Thanks.”

*              *              *

Rarity had finished her morning conversions and had the rest of today off, and it being almost eleven thirty, she thought now would be an excellent time to see if the elusive Samantha Barnes would be attending her ‘Get-to-know-each-other Tea Party.’ Unfortunately, Barnes was busy doing maintenance on her heli-thingy in a vacant section of the Bureau’s parking lot, and the unicorn so hated to interrupt somepony when they were working. Deciding that busy humans were best left unmolested, she turned back towards the entrance of the Bureau.

“Is there something you want Ms. Rarity?” came the woman’s cold and unfeeling voice.

Turning back to face the human, Rarity saw Barnes looking back at her. Her posture was stiff and rigid, and there were grease and oil stains all over her face and jumpsuit. Swallowing down her urge to give the poor girl a makeover on the spot, Rarity pranced towards the woman and put on her most lovely smile.

“Good morning Ms. Barnes, I wa-”

“Captain.”

Blushing slightly at her faux pas, Rarity continued, “Yes of course darling, my apologies. Well, Captain Barnes, I was just wondering if you had given any thought to attending the tea party that I would be hosting later today? I would so love it if you decided to join us!”

The captain’s face was like stone, and showed no sign of emotion in the slightest. Rarity had no idea what the woman was thinking behind those well shaded aviator sunglasses of hers, a fact that made the unicorn feel oddly uncomfortable. After a few unbearably awkward seconds, Barnes simply said, “No. Busy with maintenance.”

“Well drat,” replied Rarity giving the asphalt a dainty little stomp with a hoof. Though she was secretly overjoyed that the uncomfortable silence had ended, that was not the answer she was hoping for. “Oh well, I suppose I’ll just have to save you some tea and croissants. Ta-ta for now darling, I do hope we see more of eachoth-”

There was a sudden boom from above them as an aircraft appeared out of nowhere. It was long, sleek, and even from its distance from her, Rarity could tell it looked very dangerous. The ship hovered there for a time before is started to slowly descend.

“What in the world is that?” asked the unicorn to the woman.

Barnes responded to the pony mechanically, “It is the SR-72, a larger and more up to date version of the SR-71 Blackbird, under the code name ‘Odin.’ It has been retrofitted with Fusion Foil engines which allow for hovering capabilities as well as vertical take-off and descent. It is also equipped with the only Teleportation Matrix in existence, and can travel anywhere in the world instantaneously. Only known drawback is power consumption, limiting the ship’s ability to teleport to twice per every twenty-four hours.”

Rarity stared at the woman, utterly lost in what she had just heard.

Barnes looked at the unicorn and added, “It is also fashionably colored in a deep navy blue.”

Finally, after sorting through the parts she could understand, the unicorn said, “So it’s a plane…”

“Correct.”

“…that teleports?”

“Correct.”

Satisfied that she understood the basic concept, Rarity gave a refreshed sigh and smiled brightly at Barnes while giving the woman’s left hand a quick little pat, “Well that is all very interesting darling, but I must be off! I have a tea party to host after all! Are you sure you can’t make it?”

Barnes’ left hand started twitching slightly, yet the woman paid it no mind and replied “Very sure. Duty calls.” Pointing behind the unicorn with her right hand, she added, “As do your friends.”

Spinning around, Rarity saw Twilight, Fluttershy, and Agent Hawk beckoning to her. Judging from Twilight’s apologetic face, the glamorous unicorn could only assume her friends had come to tell her some unfortunate news about the tea party. “Oh horse-feathers.”

*              *              *

“I still don’t see why you’re forcing Fluttershy to go.”

“Rarity, you and I both know that she is a lot braver than a lot of ponies give her credit for,” replied Twilight as she magically lifted a box of ponification potion into the cabin of the Odin.

Rarity walked by Twilight and rolled her eyes as she climbed into one of the four chairs of the cockpit of the sleek human ship. “Yes I know darling, but she is also very sensitive. I’m just worried that these ruffians of...who were they again?”

“PER,” stated Twilight as she placed the box of potion next to Rarity’s seat.

“Right, well I’m just afraid that these PER ponies, or Celestia forbid, those brutes of the HLF get a hold of her.” Rarity looked around her seat for the safety straps that usually came with these kinds of chairs. Unable to find them, she sighed and continued, “I mean honestly Twilight, she could get hurt, or worse.”

Twilight walked next to her friend and gave as comforting a smile as she could, “Believe me Rarity, going on personal experience alone, I can attest that you and Fluttershy will be just fine under the care of the human agents. If anything bad happens, Hawk will be there to save you.”

The white unicorn returned her friends smile with a worried look, “I hope you’re right darling.”

Barnes walked into the cabin carrying a large black duffel bag that clacked and clanked with its no doubt deadly contents. She placed it onto the co-pilot’s seat before taking her position as main pilot. Moments later Hawk entered with Fluttershy in tow, the pegasus’ eyes darting around the interior of the ship. With a nod to Twilight, Hawk took the co-pilot’s seat from the duffel bag and began flipping switches.

Twilight cast an encouraging smile at her friends and said, “Okay girls, looks like it’s time for you two to go! Is everypony clear on what they’re supposed to do?”

“We’re going to help some humans and new-foals learn how to be nice to each other!” chimed Fluttershy as she floated into her seat.

It was a simple analysis of the task, but Twilight accepted it. “Right! Now, Hawk and Barnes will be there to protect you if you get into trouble, so just stick close to them and you’ll both be fine.” Her friends nodded in acknowledgement. “Good, and Hawk…” said the purple unicorn to the man, “Try to come back in one piece.”

“No promises about me,” called Hawk from the front, “but I’ll keep your friends safe.” He turned in his seat and grinned at Twilight, “You have my word.”

Satisfied with his reply, Twilight gave a final nod to her friends and gingerly exited the large dark blue ship. After the purple unicorn was clear, Barnes flipped a switch that made the entrance ramp close and seal the cabin. After she deftly punched in more commands, the woman announced, “Beginning ascension to eight hundred feet, charging up Teleportation Drive.”

“Um…E-excuse me for asking, but...um…aren’t we supposed to be strapped down to something?” squeaked Fluttershy,

“Oh right!” exclaimed Hawk, “Hold on just a second while I find the button…Ah! Here we go!” He pushed a glowing yellow button on his control panel. Straps shot out of the back of each of their chairs, which buckled themselves over the chests of the passengers. The ponies were forced into a sitting position that would have been much more comfortable if they were humans.

“It’s a bit snug,” stated Rarity as she struggled to get even a small bit of comfort.

“I’ll modify the seats for pony use later,” stated Barnes in her usual mechanical fashion. The ship kept rising into the air smoothly, climbing high above the streets and rooftops.

The ponies gasped as they looked out the cockpit windows as the entire city of Manhattan stretched out before them. Pegasi could be seen flying playfully around in the afternoon sky, while thousands of ponies made the streets of city into marvelous rivers of rainbow colored dots. It made Rarity yearn to have wings again, but more importantly it gave the unicorn a new idea for a summer gown.

Barnes pressed a button and announced, “Teleport Drive is charged, activating.” The exterior of the ship began to shimmer and glisten with waves of energy. Ripples of bright light danced across the surface of the vessel until the entire aircraft glowed with a wondrous pinkish light that began to expand into a sphere around it. With a brilliant flash, the ship was gone from the city.

*              *              *

Meanwhile, more than two-thousand miles away, a loud boom echoed throughout the morning sky above the city of New Foalsome. It was nine AM, and John Norris did not like being woken up that early by explosions. Hell he just didn’t like explosions in general. He sat up in his bed and looked around his dark room. Nothing seemed to be on fire, nor where there any alarms blaring. No immediate problems meant he could roll over and go back to sleep, which he did.

Or would have if the door to his room hadn’t burst open and a small blue pegasus leapt onto his bed yelling, “Dad! Dad! Did you hear that?” The small colt bounded to the window to the window and poked his head through the heavy curtains, allowing a small stream of sunlight to stream into the room. “Woooow!” said the pegasus, “Dad, you have got to see this! I think it’s a spaceship!”

John only curled into a tight ball and hissed, “The light! Turn off the light!”

Azure rolled his eyes. “Seriously Dad, it’s an honest to Celestia spaceship!” insisted the young pegasus.

The aging man relented and emerged from the warmth of his bed with all the excitement of a bear in winter. “There had better be one hell of a spaceship out there Azure. Just saying.” John slowly opened the curtains where his son was peeking his head through, and had to resist the urge to shout ‘It burns!’ as he was showered with morning daylight. After he was able to stop squinting, he saw what appeared to be a large jet plane hovering off in the distance. “Holy shit. It’s a spaceship.”

His son beamed up at him, “Told you so.”

John cast a quick glance at Azure, “Don’t get so excited kid. It freaks me out.” He rubbed his chin as he gazed on the sleek looking ship that appeared to be coming towards his building. Hoping that whoever was driving the aircraft wasn’t interested in him, he turned away from the window and walked towards the kitchen, “Come on Azure, I’ll cook us up some pancakes.”

*              *              *

“And just like that, we’re in New Foalsome!” stated Hawk proudly, “Barnes, which building belongs to our friend Mr. Norris?”

She pointed at a large glass building that was a city block or so away from them, “The sky scraper at twelve o’clock. There is no landing pad but it appears that there is substantial enough roof space for us to land on.”

Hawk shrugged, “Take us in captain, and avoid hitting any pegasi while you’re at it.”

“Or birds!” Fluttershy called from her seat.

Barnes flipped a few switches and tightened her grip on the steering yoke, “I will see what I can do.” With her left hand on the steering device, she placed her right hand on the throttle and pushed it forward ever so slightly.

The aircraft slowly began moving forward as the rear engines glowed with the sparks of life. Moving at a cautious and almost leisurely pace, the Odin hovered through the air towards the modern day tower. It deviated from its path only to avoid any curious pegasi or flocks of birds that happened to fly too close. Within the minute, the dark ship loomed over the roof of their destination. The ship gingerly descended onto the roof and touched down with a mild thud.

“Alright, let’s go get acquainted with the locals,” said Hawk as he flipped a switch and picked up his black duffel bag. The entrance ramp to the ship lowered and hit the roof of the building with a solid ‘clang!’ The man tipped his hat to Rarity and Fluttershy as he walked out onto the roof, “Come on my wee horses, time’s a-wasting.”

Rarity and Fluttershy nearly jumped at the chance to exit the craft. Once outside, they gazed at the city that lay before them. It was similar to the Manhattan, but it did not have as many tall buildings. It certainly had a great deal more pegasi though.

As Barnes exited the Odin, Fluttershy daintily trotted up to her with a pleasant smile and said, “Thank you for taking the time to not hurt any birds Missus B-”

“Fluttershy darling,” chimed Rarity “she prefers being called Captain!” The unicorn gave her friend a pleasant smile as she turned followed Hawk towards the rooftop entrance of the building.

“O-oh…umm well then, umm…” the pegasus looked into the mirrored shades of Barnes’ sunglasses that eternally covered the woman’s eyes, nervous panic quickly starting to rise inside of her. “W-well, Captain Barnes, thank you f-for not hitting any birds, i-it really means a lot to me…” The timid pony lowered her head and looked away, internally berating herself for being such a bother.

Barnes glanced up and saw that Hawk and Rarity had disappeared into the staircase entrance of the building. She knelt down and put her left hand behind Fluttershy’s ear and smiled warmly at the pegasus. In a calm and motherly tone she soothingly whispered to the winged pony, “It wasn’t any bother Fluttershy, really. If anything, I enjoyed the extra little challenge. Now go on and catch up with the others, I have to run a little maintenance on the ship and it’ll take me a minute or two.”

Fluttershy gave a relieved smile at the woman, “O-Okay! Thank you!” She fluttered away from the woman and into the dark staircase that led into the tall building.

As soon as the yellow pony was gone, Barnes shook her head as her warm expression was replaced with her usual grim one. She brought the hand that had touched Fluttershy up to her face and looked at it. The hand had started to shake and twitch violently. For a brief second, her emotionless face flashed with concern, “Not good.”

*              *              *

John was just about to enter the bathroom when he heard a sound that he absolutely dreaded come from the door to his home.

‘Knock-knock!’

“DAD! There’s somepony at the door!” called Azure from his room.

The man rubbed his eyes and called back, “Tell them that no one’s home and to go away!” He already had one foot in the threshold of bathroom and there was no turning back now.

‘knock-knock-knock-knock!’

Azure appeared at the door to the bathroom and said rather flatly, “I don’t think anypony would ever fall for that Dad, especially when they probably heard you yelling.”

John spun around, “Then just tell them to go away! And close the door!” John shooed the young blue pegasus out and closed the door himself. He approached the porcelain throne and prepared for sweet relief.

There was a very loud crash from the front door as it was kicked in.

John zipped up and dashed out into the living room, where he saw a man in a wide brim hat and duster carrying a black duffel bag, standing in the doorway. He was flanked by two ponies, one was a white unicorn that had an immaculate purple mane, and the other a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane. Apparently both of the ponies were as surprised as John and his son were.

“H-hello!” said the yellow one, “I’m really really sorry about the…um…door…and um…”

Azure galloped behind his father’s legs and the man could feel the small colt shivering against his legs. “Dad…” he whispered, “i-is it the HLF?”

The man in the hat walked over the remains of the door and in a reassuring tone stated, “No my boy, we are not with the HLF, nor are we with PER, an organization your father is no doubt familiar with. The lovely mares behind me are from Princess Celestia’s very own Elite Guard sent here to protect you.”

Azure’s ears perked up at the name of his deity, “C-Celestia?” He peeked out from behind his father’s legs looking somewhat unconvinced, “If you work for Celestia, where’s your fancy armor? The royal guard on the TV wore fancy gold armor.”

The two ponies took positions next to the man. The yellow pegasus smiled at the young colt and spoke gently, “Oh we don’t wear armor. Only the regular royal guards wear armor. We’re the elite guard, which means that…um…” she suddenly looked very worriedly over at the unicorn, “uh…Rarity…w-what does that mean?”

Rarity scanned her mind for an excuse. Celestia never actually told them what benefits being in the Elite Guard offered, and the unicorn was beginning to think that her highness had just made the organization up so they could have a fancy sounding title to throw around. “…uh well, my dear Fluttershy…um…What it means darling is that we are so good at our jobs that we don’t need armor. Yes, that’s what it means.” She rolled her eyes away from the human next to her as she said, “Though I’m still willing to design uniforms for the benefit for our…less fashionable team members.”

The man in the hat’s face gained a flat expression, “No.”

“Oh come on Hawk! You know they’d be absolutely fabulous!” she exclaimed a tad irked, “I was THE top designer of Equestria before moving to human lands, there is nothing to worry about!”

“I think they’d look lovely Rarity,” cooed Fluttershy.

The unicorn smiled at her friend, “Thank you darling. See Hawk? Fluttershy thinks it would be a great idea! Please let me at least design you a better coat? Please? Please please please please?”

Hawk rolled his eyes and faced the glamorous pony, “Okay, tell you what. I’ll ask the rest of my team about it, and you can talk to Twilight. After that we’ll see.”

“Oh thank you thank you thank you! It’s been forever since I’ve done professional work and I have just had so many ideas that I-”

John cleared his throat and gained the attention of everyone in the room. “Okay, you’re obviously not with HLF or PER, but I refuse to believe you guys are agents for that Princess of yours. Now will you all please leave? I have to order a new door. Preferably one made of iron.”

Hawk walked over to the man and presented him with a badge from one of his pockets. “Sorry Mr. Norris, but PER and the HLF are coming after you, and the president has put me and my team in charge of making sure you and your son don’t end up dead.”

John scrutinized the badge, noting that it did look very official. Azure meanwhile, was looking up at the strange human with the hat and coat, taking one tentative step after another towards him. The young colt had seen very few humans in his lifetime, and curiosity was getting the better of him. “Excuse me mister,” asked the blue pegasus, “but how’re you going to protect me and my dad?”

Hawk smiled at the young pony, “Well, if Lady Rarity and Miss Fluttershy’s words don’t keep the bad guys away, then my bullets will.”

*              *              *

The phone rang just as Barnes and Hawk finished replacing the door onto its hinges. Barnes had entered with the box of ponification potion some time after the team’s initial introduction to John and Azure, looking somewhat...uneasy. Fluttershy had inquired if there was something wrong, but Barnes had been distant and cold with her response, and generally avoided speaking to either the pegasus or Rarity. She had instead spent her time with Hawk, mostly doing gun maintenance and working to fix the door to a respectable degree.

John picked up his phone, avoiding the large pile of guns that had been laid out over his floor. “Hello, this is Norris.”

“Hello Mr. Norris, this is Sweetie Pop at reception. I have a man here who says he has a delivery for you.”

“Thank you, uh…Ms. Pop, could you hold on a sec?” John beckoned Hawk over to him, “Agent Hawk! Some human guy downstairs says he has a package for me, but I never ordered anything and Azure’s Wonderbolt pin-ups don’t come for another week.”

Hawk gave him an odd look, “You let your son have pin-ups?”

“He already had a subscription when I got him, so you can blame his dead mother if you want. Now what do I so about this?” he replied, shaking the phone slightly.

The human agent shifted a bit uncomfortably at that last remark but responded, “It might be the HLF setting up a trap.”

“No shit,” stated John flatly.

Hawk put his hand to his chin for a moment, pondering something before he asked, “Have you ever actually met the receptionist?”

John glanced away for a brief moment, “No…I don’t really get out much…”

“Good!” exclaimed Hawk, “I’ll go down as you, kill any HLF that try and start anything, and come back here when they’re all dead.” He walked over to the section of carpet where he had laid out his various weapons and selected two sticks of dynamite from the pile. Next, he moved to Azure’s room, where the two mares had been keeping the young colt busy and well away from the deadly contents of Hawk’s duffel bag. Peeking in, the human agent found himself on the threshold of a very odd situation.

Rarity was humming as she brushed the mane of the small blue pegasus, while Fluttershy made pleasant conversation with him. Azure himself seemed quite keen on not looking away from the timid yellow pegasus, though his eyes did not show any interest in what she was saying. He simply stared dreamily at her, lost in one particular feature or another. No one seemed to notice the human agent slip into the room.

Fluttershy continued on with whatever story she was telling, “-and then the cute little baby bunnies hopped all over my bed! Oh it was so cute that I almost fainted!”

“Uh-huh,” replied Azure blissfully looking at Fluttershy.

Rarity interrupted his dream like state with a prod from her hoof, “Azure darling, how would you like your mane styled?”

Hawk took this chance to spoil the moment, before things got too awkward for him. “That will have to wait Rarity. You and I are going down to the lobby to pick up a package, so let’s get going.”

“But…” started Rarity a brokenhearted tone.

Finally noticing the pinups around Azure’s room were of stallions, Hawk quickly added, “Now Rarity.”

“Fine,” she huffed getting off the colt’s bed, “Is Barnes coming?”

“No,” replied the man as he moved out of the room, “Barnes will remain here and keep Mr. Norris and his son safe.” He walked to the front door with Rarity in tow, and together they slid the door open.

“Good luck,” called John as they left. Turning to Barnes, who had begun placing Hawk’s munitions back into his duffel bag, he asked “So, want something to drink? I got some beers that I’ve been meaning to get through.”

Her reply was cold, yet in some strange way, friendly.  “I prefer tea, but I’ll take whatever you have.”

*              *              *

The elevator door opened up to the expansive lobby. Hawk gave a small whistle at the sheer opulence of main entrance. Polished marble floor, an arched ceiling that was high enough to allow a pegasus some flying room, thick pillars lining the walls that separated the elevators, and even a sizable fountain in the center of the room. The solid marble reception desk was on the wall opposite the entrance, which itself was little more than a massive window with a couple of rotating doors that looked out into the street.

The room was literally teeming with a multitude of various colored ponies, all of whom wore some sign of wealth. There was human in a delivery outfit at the reception desk who seemed to be in the middle of a heated conversation with the receptionist.

“Oh my stars…” breathed Rarity, “I could get used to living here.”

Hawk rolled his eyes and moved towards the reception desk, “I’m sure you’d fit right in, the ponies who live here tend to be a tad snobbish.” She gave him a look that could kill, to which he responded by shooting the unicorn a friendly smile over his shoulder. Sighing out her frustration at the man, Rarity followed after him. She debated with herself about what Twilight saw in him.

The peach colored earth pony with a strawberry colored mane saw Hawk coming towards the desk and waved him over a bit too eagerly. “Mr. Norris?” she inquired with a hopeful expression.

“That I am Ms. Sweetie Pop,” replied Hawk with confidence, “and I’m here for my package.”

The short, pudgy, and almost certainly sleazy looking delivery man tapped Hawk on the shoulder with a clipboard, “About god-damn time you got here. Just sign the dotted line and you can get your shit.” Hawk furrowed his brow and took the clipboard and scanned it for details about where it was sent from. “So,” continued the post-man, “What’s with that get up? You some kind of fucking cowboy enthusiast or some shit like that?” He began backing up towards the fountain.

Hawk looked up from his reading and glared at the man, and was about to say some very stern words about swearing in public. His focus soon shifted to the right as he saw an oncoming van that was accelerating towards the glass wall of the entrance. “Rarity, get behind the desk.”

Rarity, who had been admiring the décor of the lobby, snapped back to reality and shot Hawk a curious stare, “What? I’m sorry darling, but my mind was miles away.”

Hawk dropped the clipboard and drew his revolver, eliciting screams and mad scrambles from the crowd in the room. “Get behind the desk NOW!” he yelled as he rolled over the marble desk and took cover behind it.

Rarity glanced around and saw the van. She quickly joined Hawk and the receptionist behind their piece of cover, shortly joined by three other ponies.

The van smashed through the glass entrance of the lobby sending ponies running every which way in panic, and even managed to hit two unfortunate unicorns. The crowd of ponies crammed themselves into the elevators and out towards the back. Humans in black ski masks and kevlar vests filed out of the back of the van, each one carrying an automatic rifle. The driver leaned out the door and called, “Damnation! Little bastards sure do clear out of a room fast!”

“Newman!” shouted one of the masked men, “Where’s Norris?”

Behind the desk, Hawk put a finger to his lips before removing a long red stick with a fuse from somewhere within his coat. “Anyone got a lighter?” he whispered.

Rarity’s eyes went wide as she silently hissed, “What are you doing with dynamite?! I thought that we were supposed to be using diplomacy!”

The postman stopped cowering behind the fountain and walked up to the man who spoke, “You assholes are nuts you know that? That freak of nature you got in the back of that van is probably all riled up thanks to that stunt!”

The receptionist pony nudged Hawk’s shoulder with her snout and pointed to the hotel’s brand of complementary matches on the desk’s top above. “This is diplomacy,” Hawk replied to the unicorn with a grin, “just a great deal more explosive.”

The masked man pointed his gun at Mr. Newman, “We don’t have time for your bullshit Newman! Now where is he?”

Rarity relented, knowing that diplomacy with the HLF was probably a lost cause anyway. She reached out with her magic and levitated a pack of magic down to Hawk. “I could be having a tea party right now. I just want you to know that.”

Hawk gave the unicorn an apologetic look while he lit the fuse of the dynamite, “I’ll make it up to you. Promise.”

Newman eyed the gun barrel in his face, sweat forming all over his face, “Behind the desk, I think he’s got a gun though.”

A lit stick of dynamite sailed out from behind the reception desk and landed in front of the HLF’s van. The eyes of the HLF soldiers went wide while Davey Newman ran past the reception desk. The leader tried to yell, “EVERYONE RUN!” but was cut off by a very loud explosion that consumed almost a full quarter of the lobby.

*              *              *

John was in the middle of watching cartoons with Azure and Fluttershy while Barnes sat a ways off, every so often glancing at her hand. There was a panicked knock at John’s door followed by a familiar voice shouting “OH-MY-GOD-JOHN, THERE-ARE-HLF-IN-THE-LOBBY-LET-US-IN!”

Barnes sprang into action immediately as she drew a glock from her hip’s holster and approached the door. Once in position, she then gestured for John to say something.

The man said the first thing that came to mind, “Who’s there?”

“WHAT-DO-YOU-MEAN-WHO’S-THERE?! IT’S-BREEZY-FIELDS AND-ABOUT-A-DOZEN-PANIKING-PONIES, NOW-OPEN-THE-DAMN-DOOR!”

The man nodded to Barnes to open the door. Responding with a nod of her own, she holstered her gun and slid open the door. A bright green earth pony toppled inside, a look of genuine relief on his face. “Thank-Celestia!” said the earth pony quickly, “I-thought-those-madmen-would-have-killed-me-for-sure!” He gazed up around the room, finally noticing the soft expression of Fluttershy, and the cold glare of Barnes. “Entertaining company John?” he asked at length.

John walked over to the frightened pony, “They’re from the government, now Joseph-”

“Breezy Fields!” shouted the green pony.

“Whatever! You said the HLF is in the lobby right now?”

Breezy Fields nodded, “Yes! Me-and-these-guys-all-ran-up-here-to-get-away-from-them!”

John looked down the hallway that led to his room, seeing a small crowd of ponies all staring at him. The odd thing was that none of them looked even half as panicked as Joseph did. When one of them smiled, John could only say, “Aw horseshit.”

*              *              *

Hawk and Rarity peeked over the lip of the desk and surveyed the damage. The van was toppled over and on fire, the fountain was beyond repair and spraying water all over the floor, and there was a great deal of small debris scatted around the once elegant lobby. The bodies of the HLF members were strewn all over the place, some more intact than others.

Rarity ducked back down and put a hoof over her mouth, “I’m going to throw up.”

Hawk put a hand on her shoulders, “It’s alright. The bodies take some getting used to, even for humans.”

“No, not that,” the unicorn said quickly, “the lobby. It’s such a mess.” The man gave her a rather odd look that was a mix of bemusement and shock.

There was a clang of metal hitting ground from the direction of the van’s wreckage. Hawk peeked over the desk again, just in time to see a large, hairy…something…skitter behind one of the pillars. Hawk readied his revolver.

“Help…” came the weak voice from the destruction, “…help…me…” From his position, Hawk saw that it was the man who had been driving the van. It was somewhat miraculous that he had lived, or in one piece for that matter.

Rarity’s ears perked up upon hearing the moaning. She peered around the corner and spotted the wounded human. Her face scrunched up at the sight of the man’s wounds, and in an instant she decided she was going to go save him. Before anyone noticed, the glamorous unicorn had already trotted out from behind the desk and was making her way past the small bits of rubble that lay around the floor towards the hapless individual.

The wounded man spotted the unicorn and he began crawling towards her. His face was awash with terror and pain, but his eyes looked at the approaching pony like she was an angel. “Please…help me…”

There was a sudden yank on Rarity’s backside as Hawk pulled her tail all the way back behind the reception desk. “Agent Hawk!” she cried, “What in the name of Celestia are you doing!?”

“Wait,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the walls.

The wounded HLF member reached out with an arm, and seemed to be on the verge of death. “Please…” he said.

She scowled hard at Hawk, “You sick monster! He might be with those jackals of the HLF, but that doesn’t mean we should just watch him die! By Celest-”

Hawk grabbed her head and turned it to face the right hand wall and pointed at a certain pillar, “Look before you leap.” As he said this, the other ponies cowering behind the desk peeked out from behind it.

Sure enough, much to their accumulated horror, there were large and spindly legs slowly stretching out from behind the pillar. Before long, eight grotesquely large eyes crested out from behind the stonework, each one the size of a dinner plate. It moved with a deliberate slowness around the column, as if it were still deciding who to attack first.

“By the Moon and Sun,” breathed Rarity, quite sure she had just entered a nightmare, “What is that…that thing?”

Hawk leveled his revolver at the creature, “Guessing by just the color and markings? I’d say it’s a wolf spider that’s the size of a horse.”

“…Help…” groaned the man, oblivious to the creeping death that was silently making its way down the wall towards him.

“Do something!” cried Sweetie Pop.

“Rarity,” said Hawk, “get ready to pull that man to safety.”

Barely hearing his words past the horrid scene unfolding before her, she nodded. Focusing on a spell that was meant for moving wounded ponies and animals, her body grew tense as she waited for the moment to act.

The abomination reached the floor as silent as a whisper, and raised its forelegs towards the wounded man. Hawk squeezed the trigger of his revolver, sending a bullet directly into one of the oversized spider’s eyes.

The monstrous spider let loose a terrible shriek of pain before it skittered back behind the pillar with unnerving speed. Rarity never knew spiders could shriek, and she could have happily gone through her entire life not knowing that. She released her spell around the badly wounded member of the HLF and gently glided him close to her.

The spider crawled onto the ceiling, allowing Hawk to take two more shots. Both of the bullets connected with the beast’s sternum, but didn’t do any damage. “Aw hell. That thing is bullet proof,” said the agent as he refilled the chambers of his revolver.

“What do you mean, ‘bullet-proof?!’” screamed Rarity as she prepared a healing spell, “You just shot it and it screeched!” She lowered her head and swept it over the broken and bleeding body of the HLF survivor. Small shimmering waves of multicolored light fell over the man like a blanket and eventually wrapped around him like a cocoon. “There,” she said in a panicky sort of huff, “Now you won’t be bleeding all over the place.”

The spider started crawling sideways towards the space above the reception desk. “Apparently its only weak spot are the eyes,” Hawk produced another stick of dynamite from his coat with his free hand, “Either that or I need try something more original.”

*              *              *

A veritable hurricane came from the hallway as the PER ponies cast their spells, throwing everything and everyone in the apartment all over the place. Fluttershy had covered Azure with her body before the gust of wind sent her and the young colt flying into a wall. John, Barnes, and Breezy all had the misfortune of sailing all the way across the room and into the television that hung on the wall, their bodies falling out of sight behind the now upturned couch.

That’s when they all entered. There were seven of them: four unicorns, three pegasi. The lead one was a unicorn, a purple mare with white mane and snowflake marking. Flanking her were two other vicious looking unicorns, both stallions.

The purple one put on a smug grin as she talked, “John Norris, it certainly is a pleasure to meet you. I’ve really been looking forward to it,” she started walking to the upturned couch with a confidence in her step, “I’ve always wondered what it felt like to look down on an inferior species.” Rounding the couch with her two goons, her pompous smile widened when she saw the unconscious forms of John and Breezy, “And now I know.”

The unicorn goon to her right did some hasty math in his head, “Hey boss, weren’t there thr-”

The lead unicorn cut him off with a swish from her tail, “Not now Black Root, mommy is talking.”

Fluttershy was on the ground not far away, and began to come to as the other four ponies swept into the room. She had taken most of the impact from the wall, and as a result was still a bit dazed. “Azure?” she whimpered looking at the small blue pegasus entwined in her legs, “are you okay?”

The colt looked up and shook his head, clearing him of his dazed state. After a moment he had righted himself and scrunched up his face in anger. “DAD!” he shouted as he squirmed out of Fluttershy’s grasp, “GET AWAY FROM MY DADDY!”

“Azure no!”Fluttershy yelped after him, but the small blue pegasus was already dashing across the floor to his father’s side.

The purple unicorn looked down curiously, “Ah, and what have we here?” A cruel grin appeared on her face, “Why you must be little Azure!” The horn of her left hoof goon glowed to life, raising Azure into the air. “Just who I wanted to see next!”

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” screamed the small blue pegasus in the purple mare’s face.

“Not one for conversation I take it?” she sneered at the colt. Turning to the unicorn on her right she gave another smug smile, “Black Root, go find a pillow case or something to throw him in while we wait for Norris to wake up.”

The black and gold unicorn nodded and trotted off with the still screaming Azure, “WHEN I GET MY HOOVES ON YOU, YOU’RE GONNA BE SORRY!” His screams trailed off as Black Root carried him off into a bedroom, where much hollering could be heard before becoming muffled. The stallion emerged with a writhing sack suspended by a magic grip.

“Now about you,” said the purple mare as she trotted over the still recovering Fluttershy, “Who might you be?”

Fluttershy took a quick look around the room, ‘Where was Barnes?! Where did she go?’ Seeing no sign of the human agent anywhere in the apartment, she knew she would have to stand up to these bullies herself.

With considerable effort, she stood up straight and gazed harshly into the eyes of the unicorn mare, “My name is Fluttershy of Ponyville, and how dare you do such awful things to these people! I heard that we would meet bad ponies on this trip, but this is far beyond ‘bad!’ T-this is just plain mean! You should all be ashamed of yourselves!”

The seven ponies of PER all stood dumbfounded for a few moments before bursting into riotous laughter. The purple mare was able to stop long enough to move her head in close to Fluttershy’s, a calm smile crossing her lips. “Well isn’t this wonderful! An honest to God Equestrian in our midst! I, Bitter Frost, am honored to meet you.”

Fluttershy glanced about unsure of what to do. She had just used her stern voice, but it didn’t seem to convince them. Maybe asking nicely would work? The timid pegasus lowered her head and gave Bitter Frost the most caring stare she could give, “It’s just that…um, well you see the potion you drank to become ponies was made wrong, so you aren’t really a hundred percent ponified.” Raising her head ever so slightly she added, “But me and my friends brought the right potions that you all can drink! All you have to do is drink up and you won’t have to hurt anypony anymore!”

Frost stepped back a few paces and gave a thoughtful look at Fluttershy. A wicked smile crossed her lips, “Is that so? Well then, it seems that before we leave, we will have to give Mr. John Norris the divine gift of ponification!” She turned to her henchponies, “Come on lads, tie them up and wake up the human! We have bits to take and a blessing to bestow!”

The horns of the four unicorns of PER glowed to life as the unicorns themselves cackled madly. Magic ropes formed around Fluttershy, John, and Breezy and wound around all three tightly. The sudden constriction of the ropes tripped the pegasus and she fell flat onto her side. She frantically looked around, hoping desperately to see somepony, anypony that could do something.

That’s when she saw Barnes standing at the entrance of the apartment, completely unnoticed by the guffawing members of PER as she leveled her gun.

*              *              *

Sweetie Pop’s constant screaming was very distracting, and it was causing Rarity some difficultly healing the rather extensive wounds of the HLF member. Of course she couldn’t blame Sweetie Pop. There had just been a van full of armed madmen roll through the front window, gunshots, and explosions. Oh and a giant spider abomination was trying to kill them too.

“I could have been doing fashion shows in Canterlot right now, or eating sweets at one of Pinkie’s parties!” shouted the unicorn as she worked hard and fast to heal the wounds of HLF member. She felt like her energy was spent, but all she had to do was cast one more spell before the wounded man would be healed enough to live.

Hawk fired three shots at the abomination, each one connecting with thick chitin and dinging off harmlessly. “Come on ugly!” shouted the agent as he reloaded, “Get close to me! I dare you!”

‘What in Equestria does Twilight see in him?’ Rarity thought as she prepared the last spell she would likely be able to cast for some time. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused. Soon her horn glowed with magic, and crimson sparkles shot out from her horn’s tip. The sparkling little lights drifted down onto the wounded HLF member’s chest and sank into it, leaving behind faintly glowing spots where they entered. After the spots faded completely, Rarity looked at Hawk and in an exhausted voice said, “Alright, I finished healing him! Let’s get out of here befo-”

The spider crawled along the roof of the lobby, darting left and right as Hawk shot two more rounds at it with his revolver before quickly reloading. It suddenly leapt down at the man, its midsection slamming onto the marble desk and it lunged out at him with its two enormous front legs, pinning the Hawk’s shoulders to the wall. If Sweetie Pop’s screaming was loud before, now it could shatter glass.

Hawk responded to the arachnid’s pin by angling his pinned gun arm at the monster’s large mirrored eyes and unloading every shot he had left in the gun. The six bullets struck the giant spider in its two forward most eyes, and sent the abominable creature reeling in agony. Unfortunately the beast did not release the pressure on Hawk, and the man still found himself unable to move.

“A little help please?!” called Hawk as he tried to squirm out from under the spider’s legs. His eyes went wide as the huge fangs of the giant spider clicked and clacked in front of him, literally dripping with either drool or horribly deadly venom.

Rarity hopped up onto the desk and gave the beast a swift buck to the side, “Take that you horrible monster!”

The spider didn’t even register the little white unicorn. It continued to press its two forward most forelegs onto Hawk’s shoulders while its other six legs began easing it closer to its meal. The man redoubled his efforts of trying to break free as the dripping fangs of death came closer.

The unicorn continued to strike at the monster with her rear hooves, but still was having no effect whatsoever. Rarity decided that, seeing as how her kicks were doing no good, she would take some time to catch her breath. She stepped away from the monstrosity and rethought her plan of attack.

“Rarity!” called Hawk, “I wouldn’t mind if you, I dunno, shot it with a magic arrow or something!”

The spider lunged forward with its fangs going straight for the man’s rib cage.

Rarity’s heart skipped a beat. A single thought flashed through her mind, ‘No! If he dies, then poor Twilight will be single forever!’

Through either sheer luck or phenomenal skill, Hawk freed his shoulders from the pin and raised his hands while dropping his gun and the dynamite in the process. He grabbed the giant fangs before they could stab into his chest, and holding back the dripping fangs with all of his might, he could only grunt, “Any time now!”

“I don’t have any magic like that!” Rarity responded in a distraught tone. She was still recovering from almost seeing her friend’s alleged human lover die.

“Then stab it!”

“With what?! It’s not like I carry knives!”

The spider bore down harder on Hawk, and the pressure from it trying to get its fangs into the human was pushing the agent up the wall. “Use your horn!” shouted Hawk, his feet swinging an inch or two off the ground.

“B-but…” Rarity was going to argue her mane getting ruined or icky, but a quick look from Hawk stifled the urge. There wasn’t space on the desk to get a good charge going, so Rarity tried for one last spell. It was something Twilight had told her about back in their time in Ponyville, a spell that would increase one’s physical abilities for a very short time. Rarity lowered her head and concentrated, her horn giving the faintest of lights.

Hawk gave the spider a swift kick to its belly as a sign of defiance, “RARITY!”

The spell went off and Rarity could feel her muscles growing as adrenaline pumped through her veins. She opened her eyes and looked over her now large and muscular body. “By Celestia, this must be what Macintosh feel like!” Her eyes narrowed on the large horrible creature that sat squirming on the desk, “Now foul beast, you shall feel the mighty wrath of Rarity the unicorn!” She lowered her head and charged at the monstrous arachnid.

Her now ridiculously powerful legs shattered the marble desk as they kicked off and instead of simply running at the creature, Rarity was propelled through the air by the sheer force of her steps. Like a magnificent white arrow, the glorious unicorn sailed into the side of the giant spider horn first, piecing the chitin shell and sending both pony and creature hurtling off the desk and into the far wall.

The spider screeched and flailed it horrendously long legs about wildly as sickly green ichor poured from its side. Hawk, now free of imminent death, took up the stick of dynamite and lit it. Vaulting over the ruined desk, he spotted a curly purple tail amidst the scrambling mass of legs and green slime. With the fuse of the dynamite burning, Hawk ran towards the pony-impaled spider and yanked on the purple tail while simultaneously throwing the little red stick into the open wound. Scooping up the somewhat dazed unicorn, he then ran as fast as he could back behind the reception desk, where the other few ponies looked on in awe and horror.

The explosion sent spider bits and greenish goop everywhere.

*              *              *

Fluttershy shut her eyes tight as the PER ponies’ laughter was suddenly interrupted by several loud bangs. A warm liquid splashed over her face, and the laughter was replaced by shouting and yelling and more gun shots. The timid pegasus just kept her eyes closed and thought of her home in Ponyville.

“No! Please don’t kill me! PLEASE!” she heard the voice of Black Root plead, “Look! I surrender okay?”

“Drop the colt,” replied the cold voice of Barnes.

There was a thud and small “oomf!” as the sack hit the floor. The magic ropes that bound her faded and the yellow pegasus began to open her eyes, barely seeing a purple mound in front of her before Barnes called, “Keep your eyes closed Fluttershy.” The pegasus immediately complied. The woman called out again, “Azure Wind, are you alright?”

“Y-yes,” replied the sack.

“See? The little guy is fine! You can arrest me now!” spoke Black Root, his words filled with terror.

Barnes approached the unicorn, and Fluttershy heard a sudden crack followed by a dull thud. The pegasus began crying, as she heard the woman’s footsteps approach her. A soft hand touched her cheek and a soothing voice met her ears, “Fluttershy? Are you hurt?”

“N-no…” responded the pegasus between sniffles.

The hand rubbed the side of Fluttershy’s neck. “Thank goodness,” Barnes sighed in relief. “Oh my, you’ve got some of Bitter Frost all over you. Let me clean you up a bit, just keep your eyes closed okay?”

“Okay,” She replied meekly. The calmness of how the woman said that last line made Fluttershy feel incredibly uncomfortable.

Barnes left for a bit and after some sounds from the kitchen she soon returned. The mare felt a warm wash cloth being wiped across her face as Barnes hummed a rather chipper tune. After a few moments of this Barnes gave another sigh and said, “There, all cleaned up.”

Fluttershy began to open her eyes ever so slightly, “C-can I open my eyes now?”

“And can I please get out of this sack?” added Azure.

Barnes quickly put her hand over the mare’s eyes, “Not yet. The apartment is an absolute mess and…” The hand covering Fluttershy’s eyes began twitching and shaking, “…J-just keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them.”

Fluttershy once again shut her eyes tight and waited, trying to ignore the sounds of heavy things being dragged around the room.

*              *              *

“I am never ever doing that again. Ever.”

“I don’t know,” said Hawk as he peeled a piece of dried spider goo off Rarity’s neck, “I think it was totally cool how you went all buff and stuff.”

Rarity shot him an exhausted glare, “Oh yes. Because having the physique of a stallion bodybuilder is very befitting of a lady of leisure such as myself.”

Hawk shrugged as he peeled off more crispy goo, “You know, if the whole ‘I’m covered with spider guts’ thing really bugs you so much, I’m pretty sure there’s a bath in Mr. Norris’s apartment.”

“Oh no, I am not going into somepony’s home dragging…” She gestured to her new lime green coating which covered her from horn to tail, “…this in behind me.”

To their right came a small cough from the receptionist Sweetie Pop, “Excuse me, Mister…Hawk was it?”

“Yes ma’am, what can I do for you?” replied the man, plucking a big piece of the dried ichor from the unicorn’s mane.

“Listen, I’m really grateful and everything, and so are these two,” she gestured to the two other ponies beside her, “but…well I’m kinda wondering who’s going to pay for all these damages?”

Hawk and Rarity glanced at each other and then raised their heads above what was left of the reception desk. The front large windowed entrance was completely shattered, the magnificent fountain at the center of the room was broken and spraying water all over the floor, there was a large and heavily damaged van tipped over on its side not far from the fountain, not far from the van was a small crater, there were bits of spider coating just about everything, and the reception desk was nothing but rubble. Not to mention the various bodies of the HLF strewn about the room.

Bringing their heads back down with faces of mild shock, Rarity turned to look at Hawk with disbelief. “You absolutely wreaked the entire lobby…How could you wreak the entire lobby?”

The human simply shrugged, “You get into all sorts of mischief with explosives.” He then cocked an eyebrow and added, “And you’re taking these dead bodies lying around way better than I thought you would.”

“Please Agent Hawk, I am a part time medical mare. Do give me some credit.”

“Ahem,” Sweetie Pop interrupted again, “Sorry to interrupt again, but my job might hinge on who’s paying for this, so…?”

Hawk turned to Sweetie Pop and said in a calm and confident manner, “We work for Princess Celestia, so send her the bill.”

“Hawk!” Rarity chided, “We can’t bill the Princess! It’s so…rude!”

“Do you want to pay for it, oh generous one?” responded the man.

Thinking hard for a brief moment, Rarity came to a conclusion. She gave Sweetie Pop a gentle smile and said, “Well with all the new bits coming from the new-foals, the Princess can probably afford it.” Looking at Hawk she added, “Besides, I’m sure we can make it up to the Princess with a nice party with lots of fabulous gifts.”

Hawk patted the unicorn on the back and gave her a big smile as he rose to his feet, “That’s my kind of thinking Miss Lady Rarity. Now let’s get back to the apartment so we can get you washed up.”

“Let us indeed!” replied Rarity as she shakily stood as well. She was exhausted from using so much magic, and a bath was just what she needed most. “Onwards to the elevator!”

Hawk and Rarity gingerly stalked through the ruined lobby, avoiding the somewhat smoking bodies of the HLF, towards the nearest elevator. Hawk pushed the ‘up’ button and the elevator doors dinged open. Stepping inside, Hawk gave the three ponies that had remained in the lobby a tip of his hat while Rarity delivered them a very graceful bow. The elevator dinged again and the two of them disappeared behind the sliding doors.

As Sweetie Pop watched the doors close, she came to a realization. The HLF member was still lying unconscious on the floor next to her. “Wait! What do I do with this guy?!” she called out after them, but she knew they couldn’t hear her. She returned to the spot she usually stood during her shift and sat on her haunches sighing heavily, “This day sucks.”

*              *              *

Barnes was waiting for them outside the apartment’s door as stiff and unyielding as a statue. Upon seeing Hawk and Rarity approaching, she quickly called out, “Agent Hawk, you and Mr. Norris’s presence has been requested by the New Foalsome Police Department in regards to today’s attacks.”

“Ah great,” lamented Hawk, “paper work.”

“Indeed,” replied Barnes as she opened the door and entered. A few moments later, a very groggy John Norris walked out, partially supported by a painfully green earth pony. They both seemed rather beat up, and John in particular looked like he had a swell bump on his head.

“You assholes owe me a new TV,” stated John as he attempted to point at Hawk, “and new carpets.”

“No need to be so crass Mr. Norris,” Rarity soothingly spoke to him, “Every financial detail will be taken care of, don’t you fret.” She leaned her head a bit closer, “However, if you need somepony to redecorate, I am always available.”

John was about to say something before Barnes reemerged, leading a black unicorn stallion with a yellow mane, out of the apartment. “This is an agent of PER. I have left him alive for questioning by the police.”

“I’ll keep my eye on him then,” said Hawk as he drew his revolver and pointed it at the black unicorn. “Come on then Mr. Norris, let’s not keep the police waiting,” said Hawk as he rolled his eyes, “Just like Six-Tribes to show up after I kill the giant spider.”

“Giant spider?!” yelled both John and his pony support. Hawk just shrugged and walked on down the hallway, followed closely by the other man and the green earth pony.

Once they were out of earshot, Barnes turned to Rarity and asked in her usual emotionless tone, “Rarity, would you like to join Ms. Fluttershy and Azure Wind on the roof with me? We have a table set up and waiting for you.”

“What?” asked the unicorn more tired than confused.

“It is currently quarter till noon, and I believe you are owed a tea party,” replied the woman, with only the faintest of smiles on the corners of her mouth.

Rarity looked herself over, “But I’m just so…well filthy, and I…”

Barnes placed her left hand onto the unicorn’s head. “Rarity,” she said in a voice as warm as daylight, “Fluttershy is having a tough time dealing with what happened during the PER attack, and I think she needs a friend right now more than she needs tea.”

Rarity looked into the reflective shades of the woman’s aviator sunglasses and saw herself. Her mane was in worse shape than she thought, and most of her coat was still caked with the spider’s ichor. Sighing, she smiled at Barnes and said, “Well then I guess I’ll just take a bath afterwards. Nothing like a nice herbal spa treatment after a good cup of tea I always say!” She trotted down the hallway, noticing that Barnes hesitated to follow her. Turning she called, “Coming Captain Barnes?”

“I’m still waiting for the tea,” she replied warmly with her hands behind her back, “You go on, I’ll be there in no time.”

Rarity gave another prize winning smile, “Suit yourself darling. I shall eagerly await your arrival.” She continued to trot down the hallway and out of sight.

Barnes looked at her left arm as it twitched and spasmed, her expression grim. Black veins could be seen beneath the skin. “You shouldn’t be touching them Barnes,” she whispered to herself in her cold voice, “It’s not good for our health.”

The End of Episode 3

About

God

Damn

Time

I mean really,

holy shit

Anyway, Episode 4 coming…

…well I don’t know yet because I’m really bad with dates

Yellowstone:

The Series

By: Anonsi (It’s like he doesn’t know how to write!)

Episode: 4

Dead Beat

____________________________________________________________________________

For ages, Equestria has existed separate from the rest of the world, protected by a magical barrier that prevented it from being seen, touched, or reached by humans and their machines. But five years ago, the ponies of Equestria landed on the shores of human lands claiming to be there to save the earth and humanity from pollution, hate, and greed. To do this, the top human scientists and pony magicians created a potion to turn humans into ponies in places called, Conversion Bureaus. Within two years of its release, more than half the total human populace on Earth has converted. The balance of the world has been forever altered, as the remaining human nations form new governments for those humans that remain.

After foiling the attempts of both the HLF and PER in New Foalsome, the human agents under the command of Agent Hawk and the Elements of Harmony led by Twilight Sparkle are recuperating at the Manhattan Conversion Bureau. With the addition of the ‘Odin,’ a powerful aircraft that is mysteriously capable of teleportation, the two teams are now capable of battling the various monstrosities born of wild magic all over the world.

____________________________________________________________________________

“DJ Pon-3?” asked the delivery pegasus as he stuck his head into the sound room.

The white unicorn with spiky blue hair did not turn to face her new visitor. “Offstage you can just call me Vinyl Scratch bro, how can I help?” she replied, her head moving in rhythm with the music playing from her soundboard

The pegasus presented a large tan folder and a clipboard to the DJ, “This came in the mail for you, and I need your signature.”

The unicorn looked up from her soundboard and smiled, “Aw jamming! Must be some music for my world tour.” She levitated a pen from a nearby coffee mug and scribbled the letters “VS” on the delivery pony’s clipboard, “There’s your autograph hot stuff.”

The pony smiled weakly and handed the unicorn her package before making a quick exit. The folder definitely had a record in it, though it felt heavier than the unicorn was used to. Ignoring the issue, she surveyed the package and found no return address or any clue as to where the thing came from. Only a single line of instruction across the front, “Play at midnight.”

Vinyl cocked an eyebrow, “Weird. Must be from a fan.” Shaking her head, she magically removed the contents of the tan folder. It was an oddest looking record she’d ever seen. There were five gold lines criss-crossing over the disc forming star with no label at its center, and around the edges were weird looking runes. Shrugging, she hovered the record onto a nearby turntable and lifted a pair of earphones to her head, “Well let’s give it a spin.” The record began to play, and after a short time the unicorn smiled while bobbing her head to the beat. “Slammin’.”

*        *        *

Twilight was feeling rather well this evening. Not only had she gotten a good night’s sleep the previous night, but the news of her friends safe return put a little extra spring in her step. She was currently enjoying the rather comfortable couches of the communication lounge with her friends. She and the others were taking in Rarity’s, rather dramatic, retelling of the events that had occurred during the last mission.

“A giant spider?” asked Applejack from her spot on the carpet, “Gosh that sounds right awful.”

“Oh believe me Applejack, it was,” responded Rarity, who sat next to the orange pony, “But not nearly as awful as what I had to do to get all of its...innards...out of my mane.”

Rainbow Dash tried to stifle a laugh as she rolled over onto her back, but failed to do so in a subtle fashion. Through her snickering, she was able to say, “I’m sorry Rarity, but the thought of you covered in spider guts is pretty funny.” Soon the pegasus broke out into open laughter at the mental image of the dainty unicorn covered in a sticky ichor. The laughter proved contagious as it spread to each of six ponies.

The white unicorn stared daggers at the pegasus. “I assure you Rainbow Dash, that there is nothing ‘funny’ about my mane getting completely ruined!”

“I don’t know, I thought it was kinda funny,” came Hawk’s voice from the doorway. The ponies all turned to face the human and offered quick greetings as the man strode into the center of them.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence Agent Hawk?” inquired Rarity, glad that the human had interrupted her friends’ laughter.

Dash flew to his eye level and excitedly asked, “Do we have another mission? ‘Cause I am ready as ever to get back out there and kick some flank!”

“Are we having a party?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she placed her forelegs on the man’s waist.

Hawk put up his hands and backed up from the onslaught of ponies, “Whoa there! Slow down a bit and let me talk.” The ponies each took a seat in front of the human and exchanged small chortles and giggles as they waited for him to speak. “Thank you ladies. Anyway, no we don’t have a mission yet. What I came to tell you is that me and the rest of my team have gotten together and we think we have found a way to streamline things as far as who goes on missions.”

Twilight gave the man a hurt look, “You organized stuff without me?”

“Not my fault,” Hawk shot back quickly, “You were so deep into your research you didn’t even register me telling you about the meeting earlier.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow and thought back to earlier that day. Three hours prior she had been reading a book about Fairies and Elves when someone had entered and spoke to her. Her memory was a bit foggy, but what she did remember was that whoever it was left her a daffodil sandwich and a cup of juice. ‘Hawk brought me a snack! How sweet,’ she thought as her cheeks began to blush ever so slightly. Her face went pale however, as a new thought crossed her mind, ‘And you just ignored him and ate his food without so much as saying thank you.’

“Twi? You okay?” asked Applejack, eyeing the unicorn who seemed to be losing a great deal of color from her face.

“Wha-?” started Twilight as she snapped back to reality.

“Yeah Twilight! You’re starting to look like Rarity!” added Pinkie Pie snorting on a laugh. “Oh could you imagine two Rarity’s? They could make dresses for each other and use each other as models and-”

“And one of us could go back to my boutique in Ponyville,” stated Rarity as she gave a small, wistful sigh.

There was a silence following the fashionista’s statement that hung in the air uncomfortably for a few seconds. Finally, Hawk clapped his hands together and said, “Well okey dokey, back to why I’m here. Me and the rest of my team have agreed that it would be best if one of us agents were assigned to each of you ponies, sort of like partners.”

“We each get a human?!” shouted Pinkie excitedly, “Ohboyohboyohboy!” The pink earth pony leapt onto the back of the couch and began singing, “My little human, my little human, la la la LAAAAA!” Twilight quickly summoned a muzzle over Pinkie’s mouth, reducing the eccentric pink pony’s song to nothing but a series of hums.

Giving a thankful smile to Twilight, Hawk went on, “Anyway, all that’s left before we make this list official is your yays or neighs.”

“Well get on with it!” called Dash, “I want to know who I’m teamed up with!”

Clearing his throat, Hawk began to read, “Right, so first we have Zorro and Rarity...”

Rarity allowed a smile to cross her face. “Thank Celestia, I get the one who knows how to treat a lady and behave in public! Not to mention groom himself...”

He ignored the offhand jab aimed at him and continued, “...Megan with Applejack and Rainbow Dash...”

Dash and Applejack exchanged pleased expressions before a competitive smile crossed their faces.

“...Dimitri with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy...”

Pinkie made muffled shouts of joy as she bounded around the room, while Fluttershy gave a quiet little, “Whoo hoo.”

“...and finally, myself and Twilight as team leaders.”

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all exchanged subtle and knowing nods. Twilight however, furrowed her brow as she stated, “Wait a second Agent Hawk, I think you left someone off your list. What about Captain Barnes?”

The man gave her a flat look, “She said that she did not think any of you would want to be her partner, and promptly left the meeting to go do maintenance on the Odin.”

“Well that doesn’t make a single iota of sense,” said Rarity, “Any of us would simply love to be partnered with her.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed Fluttershy as she jumped to her hooves. When she noticed her outburst gained the attention of everyone in the room, she quickly lowered her head and quietly continued, “I-I mean...I wouldn’t mind being her partner. I know that I can be a bit of a hoof-full sometimes, and I don’t want to over burden Dimitri with both Pinkie and myself. I wouldn’t mind being partnered with Captain Barnes. If that’s alright with you I mean. ”

Hawk cocked a rather suspicious eyebrow, “I’ll ask her about it.”

As the man turned to leave, the incoming transmission alarm began to blare from the large television screen that covered the wall of the lounge. Swearing under his breath, Hawk rushed over to it and pressed a few buttons. He moved to stand in the center of the screen’s view, quickly joined by Twilight and the other ponies. The screen came to life with the glorious form of Princess Celestia standing in the center of the White House’s oval office.

“Hello my dear little ponies,” began Celestia as she gave a radiant smile, “and a fine hello to you as well Agent Hawk.”

Twilight and her friends all bowed their heads while Hawk simply tipped his hat. “G’morning Princess, might I ask where Joe is?”

The alicorn looked to the side a bit as she continued, “President Joseph is in the other room and will be along shortly.” A mischievous smirk crossed her divine features, “Of course I wanted to learn how to use this machine, so I decided to call you all and have a little chat before he gets here.” The goddess’s gentle eyes looked at each of their faces, “So my little ones, how have you all been fairing? With Spike serving my sister instead of Twilight, I fear that I have been unable to keep up with you all as much as I’d like.”

Twilight lept at the chance to speak first, “We’re all doing fine my Princess, Hawk and the other humans are keeping us all safe and sound. We’re all becoming really close.”

Celestia beamed at the news. “That is good to hear my student. I am glad you and your friends are getting along so well with your guardians. To be completely honest, I was becoming worried that you all would be uncomfortable living with human soldiers.” A quiet voice came from somewhere off screen to Celestia’s left that drew her gaze. Pouting slightly, she returned her soft eyes to Twilight and her friends. “Well I suppose we’ll have to talk later. President Joseph is ready to give you your assignment.”

The aged face of President Joseph moved into view of the screen. Hawk pulled himself away from the couch and stood, offering a salute to the commander and chief. Returning the salute lazily, the President said, “Hello there agents, I have some good news for those of you going on the mission today.”

Dash nudged Applejack, “Hear that? Now we’re ‘Agents!’ How cool is that?” The orange pony just rolled her eyes and gazed up at the human on the screen.

“What’s the news Joe?” asked Hawk putting his hands on his hips.

The President pressed a button from somewhere off screen that showed the overhead map of some city. “This is Paris, France. The site of your next mission.”

Rarity’s eyes grew wide as saucers.

“We detected a spike of magical energy in the city three hours ago, the odd thing was that the readings disappeared almost immediately. Princess Celestia believes these are signs of a recently awakened artifact.”

“Recently awakened?” inquired Twilight.

The President glanced at the Princess, who nodded for the President to continue. Sighing, Joseph said, “Celestia believes that someone tried to activate the artifact’s magic, but whoever it was didn’t meet the special requirements these things apparently have from time to time. As such, the artifact has ‘awoken’ and is now absorbing any ambient magic it can in order to feed itself until its requirements are met.

All we know right now is that the energy spike came from the night club ‘L'Insomnie,’ which also happens to be hosting an all night party. A party being DJ’d by one Vinyl Scratch, otherwise known as DJ PON-3.” A picture of a large and trendy night club with many neon lights adorning its entrance appeared on the screen, accompanied by a photograph of a white unicorn with spiky blue hair and very large sunglasses.

“EE noo er!” mumbled Pinkie Pie through her muzzle.

“Oh my goodness, Pinkie’s still muzzled!” Twilight flushed from embarrassment as she quickly undid her spell. “Sorry Pinkie.”

“Not a problem Twilight!” responded the pink pony pleasantly, “Wany-hoo, all I said was that we know Vinyl! She comes from Ponyville, just like us!”

“Then I guess getting into the club won’t be a problem,” continued Joseph, “because whatever this artifact is, it needs to be quarantined immediately. There’s no telling what mischief it could cause. As such, seeing as how we want the least amount of collateral damage,” he added with a stern glance to Hawk, “I am sending agents Megan and Zorro on this mission.”

Hawk placed his hands on his hips and grinned widely, “About time Zorro got off his duff.”

Joseph moved behind his desk in the oval office and glared daggers at the human agent, “And I do not want to hear from Megan or Zorro that you smuggled any high explosives into their supplies Agent Hawk.”

Hawk responded with a frown, “Well that’s just no fun at all Joe.” Upon seeing the President’s intensifying glare, the man rolled his eyes and huffed, “Aye aye sir. No high explosives.”

“Good luck Agents,” said the President as Celestia gave a quick wave of her hoof to Twilight. The screen blinked off and the six ponies instantly began talking amongst themselves.

Rarity was smiling from ear to ear and kept repeating, “I’m going to Paris!” as she galloped out of the room and down into the hallway. “I’M GOING TO PARIS!”

By the time the alabaster unicorn had gotten to the end of the hallway, Twilight, Hawk, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had filtered out of the lounge and moved towards the lobby, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash were in the middle of a discussion.

“Ah’m tellin’ ya Rainbow, ah can’t go! Ah gotta help Fluttershy take care of her animals,” stated the farm pony with a sigh.

“Ugh, but Rarity will probably try and get us all to go shopping or something. I won’t have anypony to talk to!”

The orange pony placed a hoof on Dash’s shoulder and gave a comforting look, “Ya’ll have Megan won’t ‘cha? She’s a right fine person ta talk to. ‘Sides, you’ll be at a party! It’ll be full of fun stuff to do!”

“I do like fun stuff,” replied the blue pegasus as a confident smile spread across her face.

“There’s the Rainbow Dash ah know, now go on and show those ponies over there how us Equestrian fillies dance!” shouted Applejack.

“HELL YEAH!” Dash and Applejack bumped their front hooves together, and with an air of confidence the pegasus flew out the open window in a blur.

*        *        *

The streets of Paris gave a collective shout of surprise as a large boom echoed throughout the night sky. The Odin’s engines roared as the ship soared over the city in search of a place to land. Finding a suitable spot in the very large and exquisite garden outside the Louvre, the mighty ship touched down and its occupants disembarked.

Rarity was the first one out and her eyes went wide at the sight of the glimmering city. The sparkling lights of the buildings that danced over the surface of the river, the beautiful architecture of the ancient buildings, and the magnificent spire in the distance that rose above the streets and illuminated the sky caused the unicorn to become absolutely giddy.

Her heart was beating faster every passing second as her excitement built up more and more, “Oh Celestia, it’s more wonderful than I imagined it’d be! The brochures don’t do it justice at all!”

Zorro descended the platform after the unicorn, sporting his usual loose black shirt, black fencing gloves, form fitting black pants with stylish black boots, and an elegant sword at his hip. Following him was Megan, who had a large briefcase in one hand and an old Winchester repeater in the other. Next to the blond woman walked Rainbow Dash who stared around at the scenery with a bored expression.

“It doesn’t look so great to me,” said the pegasus flatly.

Zorro flashed Dash a quick smile, “Do not be so quick to judge pequeña, The City of Lights holds many exciting little nooks and crannies. You just need to know where to look.”

“Don’t you dare take them to one of your hangouts Z,” Megan chided as she strapped her Winchester into a holster on her back.

“One of the few times I am in Paris I am denied a little bit of romance. Truly you have a cruel heart,” the man pouted. Megan replied by gently punching him in the ribs as she walked over to Dash, who was yawning out her boredom.

“Hey there Rainbow,” said the woman kneeling down to match Dash’s eye level, “You ready for this?”

The pegasus’s expression brightened considerably, “Are you kiddin’? I was born ready! Just tell me what to do and The Dash will get it done in a flash!”

The humans and Rarity began snickering slightly, much to Dash’s confusion. “‘The Dash will get it done in a flash,’ huh?” quoted the woman.

Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches and glared at her companions, “Yeah, what about it? I thought if I was going to be a superhero, I might as well make up a catchphrase or something. I mean at least it’s original.”

“Sure thing sugar cube,” said Megan patting Dash on the head, “Well if ‘The Dash’ could do us the honor of getting to the club and letting them know we’re coming, maybe we can take out this artifact before it hurts anyone.”

“Right! I’ll be there in ten seconds flat!” shouted the pegasus as she leapt into the air and shot off like a bullet.

Rarity trotted over to the humans, “Not that I doubt Rainbow Dash’s speed or ability or anything, but does she even know where the club is?”

*        *        *

A roofless jeep carrying two humans and a white unicorn rolled down the street and parked outside the lively dance club. Ponies of every sort and color were lined up outside and awaiting entry to the trendy hot spot of night life. As the three exited the vehicle, they noticed a certain rainbow colored pegasus arguing with a the bouncer pony.

Rarity rolled her eyes and summoned a compact mirror with her horn. “Well it seems Dash is still a savant at making new friends,” she said dryly. Making some final adjustments to her main she dispelled the mirror and began walking towards the bouncer, “Come on darlings, let’s go introduce ourselves before Rainbow challenges the poor boy to a race.”

Megan and Zorro exchanged bemused glances as they followed the mare up to where Rainbow Dash and the bouncer were arguing. As they grew closer they could make out their yelling through the heavy beats of the music that came from within the club.

“-at are you even saying?! You’re a pony! Can’t you speak Equestrian?! Listen, I AM RAINBOW DASH. I am part of the ELITE EQUESTRIAN GUARD!” screamed the blue pegasus.

“Vous n'êtes pas sur la liste que vous stupide, sortir d'ici!” replied the bouncer.

She was rapidly losing her cool, “Did you just call me stupid?! OH IT IS ON! How about a race you piece of-”

“Rainbow Dash!” shouted Rarity.

The pegasus spun her head to face her friend, looking extremely frustrated. “Thank Celestia you’re here Rarity. This guy is talking smack and I don’t think I can hold back from giving him a buck to his face for much longer!”

Rarity sighed and shook her head, “My dear girl, gaining entry to a party that you weren’t invited to takes gentle persuasion, not brute force.” She gave a mischievous smirk to Dash as she passed her. Turning to the bouncer, the sultry unicorn gave the large brown stallion her best pout. “Please excuse my friend sir, I’m afraid she has terrible manners. I am Lady Rarity, and my companions and I really need to get into this fine establishment. I would just be ever so grateful if you let us pass.”

The bouncer blushed at the the elegant unicorn’s pleading eyes and sorrowfully pouting lip. He stepped aside and bowed his head, “Soyez mon invité madame.”

Rarity gave a dainty bow of her head to the bouncer and entered the building, followed closely by Rainbow Dash, who made sure to stick her tongue out at him as she passed.

As Megan and Zorro moved to enter, the bouncer blocked their path with a hoof saying, “Excusez-moi Monsieur et Mademoiselle, mais vous n'êtes pas autorisé à apporter des armes ici. Ou n'importe où je pense.” He glanced between the two of them, worry beginning to enter his features.

“Nous sommes sur une mission de sécurité nationale. Restez en dehors de notre chemin,” replied Megan as she moved past the bouncer.

Zorro followed behind her and offered a shrug to the guard, “She certainly has a way with words doesn’t she?”

*        *        *

The interior of the the club was beyond loud. The pounding techno beats reverberated in the bodies of everyone present, and the bright neon lights and assorted glow sticks of the party goers were a stark contrast to the otherwise dark atmosphere. The dancing forms of ponies in various rave attire covered the dance floor and surrounded the DJ booth, which sat at the center of the multicolored mob. It was not unlike a gazebo adorned with long glowing rods, and inside the metallic structure sat a white unicorn with large purple glasses and a frizzled blue mane. Rarity, Zorro, Rainbow Dash, and Megan all stood on the balcony overlooking the dance floor, the weapons of the humans acting as an effective deterrent for curious ponies and giving the group the space they needed to think.

Dash nudged Megan’s leg with a wing and shouted over the music, “What do we do now? That artifact could be anything in here right?”

“Yup,” replied the woman.

“So how the hay do we find it?!”

Megan calmly looked at the pegasus and replied “I have no idea sugar cube.”

Dash gave a frustrated groan as she turned to the other human, “How about you sword guy, you got any ideas?”

Zorro broke his eyes away from the dancing mass beneath him and regarded her with a thoughtful look before saying, “Unless Lady Rarity can detect other sources of magic, then no I do not.”

Their eyes looked at the unicorn who gazed right back at them slightly annoyed, “Don’t look at me! I only know spells that help with finding gems, sewing, and healing. I am sure that the last thing we need right now is for me to whip up a new gown, or change the color of your manes! Twilight is the one for whatever stunning, ‘save the day,’ spell you want.”

Megan’s face flashed with inspiration. “Actually Rarity, a change in hair color may be just what we need.”

Rarity gave a confused look, “Oh darling why? You mane color is beautiful as it is.”

The woman plucked four blond hairs from her head and held them out to Rarity, “Do you think you could make these glow?”

“Well,” the unicorn glanced at the woman’s eager face and the four hairs she was holding and took a gulp, “given the lighting...yes I suppose I could darling, but I still don’t see where you’re going with this.”

Closing her eyes, Rarity scrunched up her face in concentration as her horn glowed with a small dazzling spark. Four small rays of light shot out from the tip of her horn and began moving along the hairs in the woman’s hand, the strands changing from blond to a luminescent white as the rays moved along their length. The spell ended as the rays reached the end of the hairs, causing Rarity to gasp as if she had been holding her breath.

“There you are darling, four lovely white hairs that glow. Now if you don’t mind me asking, why did you have me perform this little service?”

“You’re about to find out,” said Megan as she held one strand of the enchanted hair over the edge of the balcony. A wide smile spread across her face as the far end of the hair was pulled on by some invisible force towards some spot in the churning crowd.

“Okay, why is it doing that?” asked Dash bluntly.

Megan gave a hair to each of her companions, “This artifact absorbs faint or weak magical energy so I thought that if we put a small enchantment on something lighter than a feather, the pull on the magic from the artifact would tug on the hairs...”

“…and give us a compass that points towards what we are looking for,” finished Zorro as his own smile began to mirror Megan’s, “You clever girl.”

Dash pumped a hoof into the air “Aw yeah! Now we’re in business!”

The music suddenly stopped and the room went unnaturally quite as a smooth voice blared through the speakers, “THIS IS DJ PON-3 WITH YOU AS WE CONTINUE OUR EUROBEAT TOUR’S COUNTDOWN TO MIDNIGHT RIGHT HERE IN PARIS! ONLY TEN MINUTES UNTIL THE HOUR AND THE MOMENT WHERE I HIT YA’LL WITH THE BRAND NEW JAM THAT’S GUARANTEED TO KNOCK YOU DEAD!” The crowd cheered, stomped, and began dancing all the harder at the news.

Zorro sighed, “Why is it there is always a time limit to these sort of things?”

“Time limit, shlime limit!” said Rainbow pounding a hoof to her chest, “I’ll find that crummy old artifact before you know it, and then we can all go party!”

“Sounds like a plan to me sugar cube!” added Megan as she moved towards the stairs. “Okay ladies, let’s start at the outside and work our way in, let’s go!”

Zorro took a long look at the enchanted and shimmering hair in his hand before Rarity poked his leg with her hoof and looked at him with a smirk. “Is that the hair of your fair damsel Mr. Zorro?” she asked coyly while also giving a slight flutter of her eyelashes.

The man clenched his hand into a fist around the hair and smiled back down at the unicorn, “No time for sad stories niña, there is a party to crash.”

*        *        *

“Come on, where are you?” grumbled Rainbow Dash as she hovered above the crowd.

It was hard enough getting a reading with all the other pegasi asking her to dance and ‘accidentally’ bumping into her, but the fact that she had to scan the crowd slowly was making this an agonizing process. Any sudden movements would cause the hair to shake and wobble, and it would take a few seconds before it would right itself. That and she had to avoid standing to close to an air conditioning vent or else the breeze would ruin everything.

She gave a frustrated huff and looked around for the others hoping to get some bearing on what she should do. The humans were easy enough to spot, as they towered over the only pony crowd. No doubt their search was going better than Dash’s, probably because the party goers were giving them plenty of space to do their thing. Rarity wasn’t that hard to find either, she was the mare that was surrounded by all the drooling stallions. Dash rolled her eyes and flew towards the DJ’s booth at the center of the dance floor, forgoing the search for a small break and to catch up with a familiar face.

As she was making her way there, Vinyl Scratch leaned over to the microphone and declared, “ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT! HOLD ONTO YOUR FLANKS BRONIES ‘CAUSE THINGS ARE GONNA GET WILD!”

The pegasus had to shake her head for a second or two to stop the ringing in her ears, “Note to self: don’t hover next to speakers during a rave.” Recomposing herself, she flew down next to Vinyl in the surprisingly large DJ booth. The unicorn DJ apparently didn’t notice her touch down, so Dash decided it would be polite to get her attention, “Hey Vinyl! What’s up?”

Vinyl Scratch jumped at the sudden greeting and spun on her heels to face her surprise visitor. “WHOA WHOA WHOA! Personal boundaries there lady! This here is a private box, ex-nay on the ans f-ay, and that means you gotta boogie on outta here pronto!”

Dash gave Vinyl a flat look as she replied, “Vinyl, it’s me. Rainbow Dash? We knew each other back in Ponyville?”

The unicorn stayed silent for a moment as the pieces clicked into place. “Oh snap! I thought you looked familiar! I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you dude, it’s been a while since we last hung out. Anyway, how’re things jammin’ my radically rainbow friend?”

“Well,” said the pegasus as she leaned in close to Vinyl, casting quick glances around the room while a boastful smile spread over her face, “I’m on a mission from Princess Celestia herself!”

Scratch gasped in shock, “What? How did you end up working for the Princess? Last I heard about ‘The Best Flier in Equestria,’ was that she was teaching new-foals how to fly and pushing pencils.”

“Nah, that was just a cover,” Dash lied, “Me and my friends have been doing stuff for the Princess since we got to human lands.”

“Really?” asked Vinyl excitedly, “What kind of stuff?”

Dash soaked up the attention like a sponge, “Oh you know, secret agent spy stuff. Totally classified. I’d have to wipe your memory if you ever found out.”

The DJ just smiled and began nodding, “Slammin.” There was a deep boom from the speakers which caused both mares to jump. “Aw hay bales! Is it midnight already? Just a sec Dash, I gotta do this.” Vinyl levitated an odd looking record out from a nearby egg crate and proceeded to place it on her record player. She then hovered her microphone over to her mouth and called, “ALL RIGHT COLTS AND FILLIES, THIS IS DJ PON-3 SAYIN’ THAT IT. IS. MIDNIGHT!”

The crowd erupted into cheers and stomped their hooves in anticipation for what they knew was coming.

“YEAH LET ME HEAR IT BRONIES! I KNOW YOU’VE BEEN WAITING ALL NIGHT TO HEAR THIS, AND LET ME TELL YA GUYS, IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!” The crowd’s cheering grew louder than before, and the building shook from their applause.

Dash felt a slight tug from the enchanted hair. Her brow furrowed as she saw it was pointing towards Vinyl.

“NOW WITHOUT FURTHER ADIUE, I GIVE YOU THE RECORD WITH NO NAME!”

She double checked. It wasn’t pointing at Vinyl, but instead at her side. At the record. Dash looked up in terror as the vinyl disc began to spin unable to say anything other than, “Aw shit.”

*        *        *

The record began spinning faster and faster, and with each passing second seemed to give off an ever intensifying green glow while a chilled breeze blew out from it. Megan, Zorro, and Rarity each converged on the DJ booth to see Rainbow Dash pushing Vinyl out of it with her head. The mob looked on in awe as the glow from the record became brighter and more vibrant, and some even began to cheer at the new spectacle.

“Dash!” called Megan as she ran up to the pegasus, “Are you okay?!”

Rainbow Dash looked at the woman’s worried face and was able to give her a smile as she said, “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” She looked back to the DJ’s booth with a serious expression, “I’d be worrying about that.”

Green arcs of lightning began crackling through the air from the artifact and down into the earth. The crowd of party goers began screaming as bolts of the unnatural lightning began shooting into the mass of ponies. The panicked mob began making for every exit they saw in every way they could, nearly trampling several ponies in the process. Arcs of magical lightning continued to spring out of the artifact and showed no sign of stopping as the cold wind grew stronger.

The dance floor was now more akin to a storm than what it used to be. Miraculously, it appeared all the party goers had been able to escape to the upper levels unharmed, a small handful even remaining on the balcony to watch the events that were unfolding before them with awe.

“Now what?” asked Rarity as she braced herself against the increasing buffets of wind.

“The record is the artifact!” Dash called over the howling air, “Maybe if we blow it up, things will go back to normal!” The pegasus looked at the humans expectantly, and upon seeing exchange worried glances asked, “Well?”

“‘Well’ what?” replied Megan.

Dash rolled her eyes, “What do you think I meant when I said blow it up? Didn’t you bring any bombs or anything?”

Megan  shrugged and gave the pegasus an apologetic look, “Sorry, but Joe said no high explosives, and I don’t think Hawk smuggled any C4 into our supplies this time!”

“Not true!” called Zorro producing a small cube of the explosive putty. “It is not much, but it should get the job done!”

Megan looked at the small piece of C4 with a stunned expression, which was quickly replaced with a bemused smile. “He is going to get into soooo much trouble when we get home.”

Zorro gave a hearty laugh and replied, “Not if Joe doesn’t find out!” With one fluid motion he placed a detonation pin into the putty and gripped it tightly.

Dash pumped a hoof into the air and shouted, “That’s what I’m talking about! Now let’s get tha-OH HORSE APPLES!” The pegasus found herself being lifted off the floor by the strong gusts of wind. “HELP!” she cried out as she began flailing with her legs.

“I got ya!” Megan jumped for the blue pegasus and wrapped her arms around Dash as they both sailed a few feet through the air and tumbled to the ground. Cradling the flustered pony in her arms, Megan made sure they were both on the ground before calling out, “Zorro, Rarity! Blow that booth sky high while I get the DJ to a safe distance!”

Zorro nodded as he began to carefully trudge through the screaming winds towards the DJ’s booth, Rarity following close next to him. “I really wish this wind would stop! The windswept look is out of style this month!” Rarity cried over the screaming storm.

The hurricane that was the dance floor suddenly and abruptly stopped as the last arc of magical lightning sank into the dance floor. Vinyl Scratch, who had been clinging to the hand-rails of the DJ booth’s steps for dear life, adjusted her large purple glasses as she gazed around the vacant dance floor. “Do your wishes get answered often?”

The glamorous unicorn smiled at the DJ as she approached her, “If they did, I’d be in my boutique with a handsome red stallion keeping me company.”

Vinyl let go of the hand rail and began let go a chortle, “Sounds better than hanging around here, and if it’s all the same to you peeps, I’m going to bounce out of here before that thing starts shooting lightning everywhere again.”

Megan released her hold on Rainbow Dash and gestured towards the balcony and the small crowd of onlookers, “Could you take them with you?”

The DJ gave a resolute nod and galloped towards the stairs shouting, “Hey all you ponies up there, time to book it!”

Soon, both the DJ and the crowd of ponies had left the building, as the human agents and remaining two ponies gathered around the DJ’s booth. “Is that it then?” asked Zorro as he produced the small cube of C4, “Just a lot of lightning?”

The earth started to shake.

“You just had to say something,” Megan said flatly.

Giving an apologetic grin to the woman and rushed to the the stairs of the DJ’s booth, but tripped as a skeletal hand exploded from the ground and gripped his ankle, sending  the cube of C4 tumbling a short distance away. All over the dance floor, more bony hands burst through the glass floor.

“What the hay is going on?!” shouted Dash as bony claws erupted from the ground near her. Instinctively she flew into the air and over to where Rarity was cowering from the dirty hands that grasped at her.

Megan ran through the field of emerging skeletal hands and arms towards the DJ booth calling, “If I had to guess I would say the artifact animated a helluva lot of skeletons!” Once the woman arrived at the side of the booth, she wrenched one of the over-sized glow sticks that were strapped to its side. “Zorro, you might want to switch from something slashy to something a tad more smashy!” she called as she held the glow stick above her head.

The man kicked the hand that gripped his leg and easily shattered the brittle and aged bone. “Tenía que ser esqueletos!” he shouted as he got to his feet and ran for the cube of C4, “Ladies now would be a good time to get close to us! Things are about to get very interesting around here soon!”

“Interesting?!” screamed Rarity as she charged through the small field of grasping hands, arriving next to Megan with not a single hair out of place. Her expression was a mix of anger and panic as she looked over to Zorro and shouted, “Are you sure you don’t mean horrifying? I know how you humans tend to confuse dying with fun so I just want to make sure!”

Dash landed next to the glamorous unicorn and gave her friend a small pat on the back with her wing, “Come on Rarity, we’re about to fight skeletons in a rave party with glow sticks! How can this not be fun?”

The unicorn harrumphed as she magically tore a glow stick of her own off the booth, “I can think of a dozen ways darling, and half of them involve my mane being ruined.”

More of the skeletal bodies were emerging from the ground as the undead monstrosities pulled themselves out of their long buried graves.

Zorro moved next to Dash with the cube of C4 in one hand and a long glow stick in the other. “Dash,” he said outstretching a hand to the pegasus, “ if you could please place this on the artifact?”

“Right!” replied the pegasus eagerly as she took the small putty cube in her mouth. She lifted off and hovered into the DJ booth where the artifact now lay dormant.

Most of the skeletons had fully emerged from the depths and glared at the only living things in the room with sinister green flames where their eyes should have been. The hoard of  undead completely surrounded the team and now were advancing on them menacingly.

“Oh and one other thing,” called the man to the pegasus, “while you’re up there, could you put on a beat we could dance to?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she replied, squishing the small cube onto the demonic looking record. Dash looked over the sound board and found the ‘Play’ button. “Aha! Here it is!” she said to herself as she pushed it. The small LED screen sparked to life and displayed, ‘NACP - HydraPulse - 2:56. PLAY >’

Heavy beats accompanied by synthesized tunes began playing in the speakers.The skeletons stopped in their tracks and looked at each other, most of them eventually shrugging and deciding now was as good as any to charge with a bone chilling scream.

*        *        *

The skeletons’ initial charge broke extremely quickly.

Megan was the first to answer their charge with one of her own and was able to cleave through six of the undead horrors with one swing of her impromptu club, turning those she struck into dust and bits of ancient bone. Moving quickly, she then gripped one of the bony adversaries by its ribcage and hurled it at a thick portion of the army of the dead and sent them all tumbling to the ground. She spun on her heels and brought her glowing weapon down onto the skull of another enemy, bisecting the skeleton and reducing it to a pile of dust.

Rarity and Zorro looked on in shock and awe respectively.  “Me encanta esa mujer,” said the man wistfully before a skeletal fist socked him in his jaw.

Zorro recovered quickly and brought his own glowing weapon to the side of the attacking skeleton’s head, shattering the skull completely and dropping the animated corpse instantly. Two more undead charged towards him with raised fists, obviously intent on beating him to death. The man smirked as he jabbed the glow stick into the rightmost skeleton’s ribcage. With some effort, he flung that skeleton into the other and sent them both into a tangled mess of bones and dust.

“HEY!” called Rainbow Dash from the booth, “I set the thing! What do I do now?”

“Get to the balcony!” Megan called back as she pulled a skull from its owner’s neck, “It’s the minimum safe distance!” Behind the woman, a skeleton had picked up a glow stick of its own and struck Megan in the side of the head.

“Ow,” uttered the woman as the glowing rod bounced off of her head harmlessly. She turned to face the skeletal attacker, who glanced between the angered human and the glow stick it held.

Megan could have sworn that it let out a disappointed sigh as she smashed it to pieces.

Near the DJ booth, Rarity smacked away a skeleton’s grasping arm before lowering and hovered her glow stick in front of her in a standing position. “I’ll make a path!” she shouted as the stick began to spin, “stay close behind me!” The unicorn charged the throng of undead with an impromptu glowing lawnmower.

The shattered bones and dust of those skeletons that could not get out of the way were sent flying everywhere. After bashing their way through more of the undead, the human agents quickly moved into the wake she left behind, smashing any skeletons that tried to block their path.

Dash had already flown up to the balcony, and was bucking any of the undead that tried to ascend the staircase. Several skeletons on the steps noted the bones of one of their fellow undead tumbling over the side of the balcony, and after a brief glance to one another, nodded their agreement. leaping off the staircase and to the side, two of them meshed their hands together and gestured for the other to go. The third skeleton ran at the other two placing a foot into their hands and was instantly spring boarded up and over the balcony’s rails. The skeletons doing the spring board nodded to each other and began gesturing for other skeletons to be launched.

The skeleton that had been vaulted moved quickly towards Rainbow Dash, who was doing all she could to stop the other undead from climbing the steps, and punted her away from the staircase. The pegasus hit the floor with a soft thud, the carpet doing little to soften the impact. Soon the balcony was flooded with the skeletal remains, who all stared at the pegasus like wolves would stare at a wounded lamb.

Dash rose to her feet and flared out her wings, glaring at the fiend that had kicked her. “You did not just punt the Dash!” she bellowed at the crowd of shambling bones, “NOPONY PUNTS THE DASH!” Giving a hearty war cry, the young mare closed her eyes and charged forward into the throng of skeletons.

She was surprised when, instead of running into a mass of bone, she collided with something soft. She opened her eyes to the smiling face of Megan as the woman’s arms wrapped around her and into a soft, warm, hug. “How ya doing sugar cube?”

The pegasus’s wings began to extend involuntarily as her face grew a few shades more red. “You smell like Applejack,” Dash blurted out.

“What?” asked Megan as she reeled her head back, her smile vanishing almost completely.

Dash just stared dumbly into the woman’s blue eyes for a brief moment before her mind caught up with her. She shook her head madly and attempted to change subjects, “I-I mean...uhh...Hey Megan! How’re things, with the skeletons and the surviving?” Looking around, the pegasus saw the remains of her attackers scattered around the floor and gazed at the woman in amazement, “Did you take out all these bone brains?”

With one last an amused look towards the pegasus, Megan stood up and glanced around at the dusty bones that now carpeted the balcony before replying, “Yeah. Turns out being buried for hundreds of years makes these things really fragile. I was a bit worried a first, but these guys are total push overs.”

“Where are Rarity and Zorro?” Dash asked as she surveyed the carnage, “Shouldn’t they be with you?”

The woman responded by pointing over her shoulder, “Oh they’re keeping busy.”

Looking beyond the woman, Dash saw Rarity batting away any skeletons that were attempting to climb the staircase while Zorro destroyed any that were being vaulted over the balcony’s guard rail. Together, they both seemed to have the situation well under control with Rarity showing only small signs of exhaustion.

The man Zorro on the other hand, was not even breaking a sweat as he swatted away arms, skulls, legs, and even entire skeletons as they flew over the balcony. As he decapitated another undead attacker with a wide swing, he called out to the hoard, “Come now amigos, surely you can do better! I am getting bored!”

Megan rolled her eyes, “Zorro, push the button!”

“But Megan, I’ve not even begun to have fun yet!” replied the man with a pout.

“JUST PUSH THE DAMN BUTTON ALREADY!” screamed Rarity, eying the man with a glare that could kill if it wanted to.

Zorro shrunk back and produced the trigger for the explosive from his pocket and pressed it with a satisfying ‘click.’

The resulting boom rang in the ears of everyone who still had ears, and bits of shrapnel and bone flew about the once lively dance floor. A shock wave of green energy erupted from the shattered artifact which washed over the entire club and beyond. As the wave of energy passed over the undead, whatever magic was holding the army of skeletons together left them and they all fell to inanimate pieces.

As the dust settled, the four agents surveyed the damage. Rarity looked at the others and smiled, “Well now that we have gotten that out of the way, and seeing as how we are in Paris, how about a little shopping? Maybe a trip to the local spa? I’m sure there will be one open, even at this hour!”

Dash immediately responded, “I’m out!” and flew out the front door and into the flashing lights of the police.

“ATTENTION AMERICANS, DO NOT MOVE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! COME WITH US QUIETLY TO THE STATION WHERE YOU WILL BE PROCESSED!”

Megan and Zorro ran out followed closely by Rarity, who squinted into the bright police lights. The woman gave a quick look over the all pony police force and sighed, “Looks like we’ll have to take a rain check on that shopping Rarity. Sorry.”

The unicorn glared up at the woman, “You can bet you flank on it. As soon as this is cleared up, Zorro is going to take me on a grand tour of Paris.”

Megan cast an odd look at the swordsman. He shrugged, saying, “You know me Megan, I cannot resist a lady who asks my help in having a, pleasurable time.”

The woman put her hand to her face and groaned loudly.

The End of Episode 4

Took forever and probably sucks.

This must be what it feels like to work in video games.

Heeeeyooo!

But seriously, I really hope the next one is better

Episode 5 here we come!

Yellowstone the Series

“Minisodes”

A My Little Pony Fanfiction based off a fanfiction of another fanfiction of Blaze’s original Fanfiction: The Conversion Bureau.

What a mouthful.

By Anonsi (Another spin-off riding the coat-tails of Yellowstone? Why not!)

Staying Tuned

“Busy Bee! You turn off that television and come to dinner!” Morning Dew called from the kitchen.

The yellow filly didn’t get up, but instead moaned back, “But mom! The news is about to start!” She returned her attention to the screen, brushing her unkempt mane out of her eyes.

Morning Dew’s sigh was audible, even from the kitchen. “Ten minutes Busy Bee. Then you join the rest of your family at the table!”

“Okay! Sheesh...”

Whatever program was on previously ended, and was soon replaced by an official white and black earth pony wearing a red tie sitting at a desk with dramatic music playing in the background. Busy Bee let loose a tiny squee of excitement as she nuzzled the silver disk that hung by a red ribbon around her neck before returning her gaze to the screen.

“This is Print’ n Press with your West Coast News! Tonight’s top story, Chaos in Newfoalsome!” Busy Bee gasped at the picture that appeared on the screen. It was of some fancy hotel lobby that had been completely wrecked. “This morning, at approximately eleven o’clock, members of the criminal organization known as the HLF, or Human Liberation Front, launched an attack on the home of self made multi-billionaire, John Norris...” They showed a picture of a disheveled and irritable man who had definitely not seen enough sunlight.

She narrowed her eyes, “Oh, ew. He looks gross.”

“...and his son, Azure Wind.” A picture of a small, timid looking blue pegasus appeared next to the man’s photo.

A ‘meep’ from behind Busy Bee alerted her to the presence of her younger sister, Merry Gold. Turning to smile at her sister, Busy Bee waved to the small white and gold filly. “Come on Merry!”

Her sister quickly nestled close to her and watched the continuing news, nervously smiling at the photo of the small blue pegasus. “...ut what is most shocking is that the attack was stopped by a man who allegedly works for the the mysterious human organization known only as the ‘Agency,’ and a powerful unicorn that is a member of the ‘Elite Equestrian Guard,’ which has never been reported to even exist until today...”

Merry Gold and Busy Bee exchanged excited looks. Merry Gold prodded her sister’s side and asked, “Do you think it’s Miss Twilight and...”

“Shh!”

“Unfortunately, as is the case with such incidents, the President of the United States and Celestia herself have forbid revealing any names or pictures of the individuals in order to protect the identities of the heroic pair. However, an eyewitness account adds to the grisly scene as Sweetie Pop, the receptionist during the attack, recounts the events that took place...”

The screen cut to a peach colored mare with strawberry mane sitting behind the ruins of what must have been a beautiful desk before it was destroyed. “So first, there was this extremely rude postman that said he had a package for Mr. Norris, and then a guy in one of those leather, Indiana Jones kinda hats and a coat shows up saying he’s Mr. Norris.” Busy Bee’s cheeks began to flush and her heartbeats quickened. “Then a freakin’ van drives through the front window and all these HLF goons jump out and start shooting up the place, and I’m here behind the desk praying to Celestia to not die, and this cowboy guy and unicorn mare he’s with are...like...I dunno,  exchanging playful banter or something, when the cowboy guy throws some dynamite at them!”

The mare waved her hooves around as she spoke, acting out the minor actions that were occurring in her story, much to the amusement of the fillies. “And then the HLF are all dead, except for this one guy the unicorn tries to save for some reason.” The mare’s face suddenly looked off into the distance as she recalled what happened next, “And then the spider came. Celestia preserve me. That thing was as big as a horse, like one of them Shire horses you look up on the internet when you...ya’know. Anyway, big spider, cowboy shoots it a lot, unicorn casts some spell that makes her into some big beefy stallion and she stabs the thing with her horn, and then the cowboy throws another stick of dynamite into the spider’s guts and then...BOOOOM!”

Busy Bee and Merry Gold cheered in excitement, but quickly silenced themselves as the news reported started to speak again, “Truly fantastic stuff. In a related story, the HLF member that was spared in the attack has revealed the locations of several key stockpiles in the Mid-Western territories. Six-Tribes rangers moved qui-”

“What?!” cried the fillies as the TV suddenly went dead. Looking behind them they saw the stern visage of their mother, TV remote under hoof.

“Come on girls, that was your ten minutes. I won’t have you two becoming coach potatoes, because then I’d have ta’ eat ya’.”

Merry Gold gasped as she quickly hopped over to Morning Dew and nuzzled her mother’s legs. “You wouldn’t really eat us if we turned into potatoes would you?” she asked, completely serious.

Morning Dew nuzzled her daughter’s neck and affectionately cooed, “No my little flower, I don’t think I would. Even as potatoes you’d both be too cute to eat. Now hurry along to dinner, your father ain’t the kind to not eat food if no pony’s there to claim it.” Morning Dew and Merry Gold trotted off to the kitchen merrily, giggling about jut how cute Merry Gold would be as a  potato.

Busy Bee lingered behind them for a bit, and once they were out of sight, she looked at the silver medallion that hung from her neck. She lovingly eyed the image of a hawk that was carved into it.

“Anytime now Bee!” called her mother.

She gave the disk a quick kiss and pressed it against her chest, before sighing and joining her family.

Yellowstone the Series

“Minisodes”

A My Little Pony Fanfiction based off a fanfiction of another fanfiction of Blaze’s original Fanfiction: The Conversion Bureau.

We need to go deeper! BWAAAA.

By: Anonsi (Forced Inception reference? Check)

Snake Charmer

Thunder rumbled across the plains. Storms were becoming more frequent out in the wilds of the mid-west as of late, and Dark Star didn’t like getting caught out in the rain. What really irked him was that because of the storm, there wouldn’t get any help from his pegasus brothers for this little excursion. Except for the only one he knew who did not fear such storms of course. Another rumble of thunder encouraged him to find shelter soon.

“Damn Black Root for spilling his guts to the feds. He’s a disgrace to his race for making us have to relocate in this mess.” Dark Star turned to the band of earth ponies under his command, regarding them with mild disdain as they pulled carts of supplies across the darkened flat-land. “Move faster brothers! We must find a new place to set up our operations before that storm hits!”

Being a unicorn in PER came with the advantage of having a higher authority over those unfortunate to not have become a unicorn upon receiving the gift of ponification. Dark Star piously thanked Celetia and Luna for being one of the chosen elite of the race, and not some grunt earth pony or brutish foot soldier pegasus. Movement from above drew Dark Star’s attention skyward. Descending from the storm clouds was probably the only pony from the lesser breeds he respected. A pegasus with a purple coat and a black mane landed in front of him, his menacing red eyes shifted their gaze between the unicorn and small convoy of followers.

“Greetings brother Storm Charger, did you see anything useful during your flight?” inquired Dark Star as he began to walk after his minions.

Storm Charger walked beside him and in a crisp and official tone began, “Not far from here is an old ghost town. Looks like it’s from the eighteen hundreds so electricity is unlikely, though it should keep the supplies safe from the storm.”

Dark Star nodded his approval, “Good work brother. Inform the others of the new course, and see to it that they do not get lost.” As Storm Charger bowed and prepared to take flight, Dark Star added, “And Storm Charger?”

“Yes brother?”

Dark Star placed a hoof on the pegasus’s shoulder, “My condolences about your sister Bitter Frost. Our new order lost a good unicorn that day.”

Storm Charger shot a quick glance down at Dark Star’s hoof before returning his gaze to the unicorn, “We lost some good pegasi too, brother Dark Star.”

“If all pegasi were like you Storm Charger, then that might actually mean something,” replied Dark Star as he removed his hoof from Storm Charger’s shoulder. The pegasus flew off to the head of the line without hesitation as Dark Star resumed overseeing the progress of the earth ponies and sighed. If he had been commanding the squad that went after Norris, then he and PER would be a great deal richer, instead of making their way to some shoddy ghost town.

The unicorn continued to walk along the length of his meager squad until he saw a sign post. The crude writing on the aged piece of wood read, “Sweet Water. 1 mile.”

*        *        *

The town was indeed deserted as Storm Charger had said, but Dark Star quickly found evidence that proved that it had not been so recently. There were bones lining the main street, all the way to the large building at the end which could only be the mayor’s office. There were signs of battle in the saloon as well, and the back wall to the jail house was completely gone. Dark Star assumed the humans that died here were drastically out gunned judging by the small crater he found in the middle of the street. That being said, the town was far enough from any major roads and inhabited towns that they could operate undetected.

Dark Star had ordered his team to set up in the mayor’s building and told Storm Charger to scour the ruins for anything useful. He was in the middle of congratulating himself on finding this new hideout when he was rudely interrupted by a loud boom of thunder. The sky had grown darker but still refused to rain, a fact Dark Star gave some thanks. He hated mud.

“Sir!” called Storm Charger from the door of an old church, “We have a problem.”

Dark Star didn’t like problems, especially problems that were the result of the incompetence of his subordinates. “What is it brother? Found a snake’s nest?” mocked Dark Star.

Storm Charger scowled at the unicorn and continued, “I do not believe this town is as abandoned as we thought.” He stepped to the side and gestured for Dark Star to look for himself.

The unicorn casually trotted up to the doorway inside, and his eyes suddenly went wide in shock. The floor was littered with bones. Simply covered with the bleached remains of humans, ponies, and an unknowable amount of animals. The meat was picked clean from every inch of every bone, and slithering amongst the remains were dozens of snakes, each one bearing a rattle at the end of its tail.

Dark Star and Storm Charger stepped away from the darkened church as the pegasus continued,  “It’s more than a snake pit sir. Snakes don’t hoard bodies like this. This is a lair of something far worse than a couple rattlers. I suggest we leave now before whatever lives here returns.”

Dark Star weighed his options and thought of something he considered quite brilliant. “Storm Charger, my brother, this is an excellent opportunity! If those fools at the HLF were able to get their incompetent hands on a giant spider, then we should be able to ensnare whatever lurks here! We can use this obviously deadly monster in our efforts to purge the unenlightened!”

Storm Charger glanced between Dark Star and the church. “What are we going to use for bait?”

Dark Star grinned, “What else?”

*        *        *

Dark Star was surprised at how short he had to wait before his new weapon showed itself. The earth pony grunt he had stationed outside the church was soon replaced with a large red stain and a bloody trail leading into the building. The unicorn was impressed to say the least. None of his other subordinates had heard or seen anything, not even Storm Charger, who swore he only looked away for a few seconds. All of that was irrelevant of course, as Dark Star now had the whatever it was right where he wanted it.

There was only one problem of course: Not dying.

Dark Star summoned a small globe of light and sent it hovering into the dark expanse of the desecrated church. Its light barely illuminated anything, but was enough to scatter the snakes. “You four,” he commanded to four earth ponies, “Get in there and try not to get bit by anything.”

His four minions did as they told and entered the poorly illuminated aisle, one of them tripping over the ribcage of something large enough to be a buffalo. Storm Charger moved in after them eyeing the second floor of the building incredulously. There were a lot of nooks and crannies in this place where someone could hide, and the shadowy atmosphere wasn’t helping matters. Dark Star entered next and was flanked by two more earth ponies, who looked absolutely terrified to be here. Dark Star simply looked confused. The blood trail ended a few feet after the doorway, and something large enough to drag the body of an earth pony couldn’t just disappear without a trace.

“Fan out brothers!” called the unicorn, “Find our new weapon and restrain it!” Something did not sit right with Dark Star about this. Aside from the assorted hissing coming from the snakes, it was too quiet. As if to answer him, there was a boom of thunder from outside that startled the two ponies to his sides. He rolled his eyes, “You morons. It’s a wonder you even know how to walk you-”

He was interrupted as the double doors slammed shut and reduced the light within the church to the measly sphere he had conjured. As if on cue, all the serpents that were slithering around began to shake their rattles in tandem. Dark Star and his ponies gathered around the center of the room where his light hovered weakly.

“This ain’t natural!” said one of the earth ponies, “L-let’s get outta here!”

“You shall stay your ground coward!” barked Dark Star, “We are not leaving until we have tamed this creature for the glory of our brotherhood!”

The rattling continued to intensify.

“Sir,” whispered Storm Charger, “Perhaps we should wait for a more opportune time?”

Dark Star glared at the pegasus, “There is no more opportune time than this!”

The snakes stopped rattling suddenly, and were replaced with what sounded like footsteps that were accompanied by a small ‘tink’ sound. Whatever it was, it was walking towards them.

Dark Star stepped forward and bellowed at the shadows, “Hear me creature! I am Dark Star, a member of PER! You shall serve us in order to wipe out humanity from the face of this world!”

The footsteps stopped. With only a faint grunt, the missing earth pony’s corpse flew out from the dark and collided with Dark Star. The unicorn buckled under the weight of the body and fell to the ground, suddenly finding himself surrounded by bones and snakes. A sinister voice echoed out from the inky blackness, “I don’t care much for you freaks.”

Dark Star clambered up and out of the bones screaming, “SUBDUE HIM! GET HIM!” The earth ponies charged over the piles of bones and snakes at the source of the voice. Storm Charger lifted off and flew to the upper floor of the church.

A single rattling sound came from the darkness as the ponies charged in. All six of them began screaming as they confronted whoever was in the shadows, only to be suddenly silenced soon after. The rattling continued.

Dark Star’s horn glowed bright red as he launched a bright sphere of energy down the aisle. The sudden illumination forced him to close his eyes, but he didn’t need to see for this spell. The sphere hit the doors to the church and exploded with enough force to shake the foundations of the building. The rattling had stopped.

The unicorn looked up and marveled at the results of his spell. The entire front wall was now a big smoldering hole, allowing dim light to flood into the aged building. “How unfortunate, he mused, “I seem to have accidentally incinerated him. Such a pity.”

The unicorn heard rattling behind him, and upon turning around was only able to see the glimmer of a large blade coming at him before his world went black.

*        *        *

In the dim light, the pegasus could only see the man wore a poncho with a snake motif, a wide brim hat that obscured his face in shadows, and wielded a curved sword and large knife in his hands. “Impressive,” said Storm Charger from above the grisly scene. “I don’t think I’ve seen a human as deadly as you before.”

The human looked up at the pegasus and scowled, the many snakes of the room began rattling their tails as he did so.

“No need for hostilities,” said Storm Charger in an authoritative tone, “I have no wish to fight you myself, and I can see your skills are more than a match for anypony.” Storm Charger began to walk along the balcony, “I have a job opportunity for you. An assassination. It pays well and you can get out of this charming little...” the pegasus looked for the right word, “...shithole.”

The snakes stopped their rattling.

Storm Charger smiled, “I’m glad you’re interested.” The pegasus flew down into the aisle of bones and bodies and looked up at the human, “My name is Storm Charger. Serve me faithfully, and I shall do what I can to get you whatever you desire.”

After a moment of complete silence, the man sheathed his blades and loomed over the pegasus. “I am Diamondback, and all I want is revenge.”

Yellowstone the Series

“Minisodes”

A My Little Pony Fanfiction based off a fanfiction of another fanfiction of Blaze’s original Fanfiction: The Conversion Bureau.

So many Fanfics

By Anonsi (Should be dead, but strangely is not)

Last Bell

The school bell clanged loudly as it sounded the beginning of class. Today more than any other, young Julie did not want to go to school. Tomorrow was the day when the places where people became ponies opened. Her parents were both so happy when the announcement was made.

But Julie was not. She was trying to be happy like they were, but she just couldn’t bring herself to share in their excitement. The more her parents talked about the Conversion Bureaus, the more the young girl avoided them and buried herself into her diary. To the young girl, it was like they weren’t even her parents anymore. Before the announcement, Julie and her mother and her father would stay up late and watch old movies, or read stories to each other, or just talk about anything and everything that came to mind. But now all they did was watch the news about ponies, or read the articles in the paper about ponies, and talk about nothing except ponies.

Julie adjusted her favorite, and only, bonnet and entered the school. Her classroom was on the first left after the entrance and in addition to being marked with, “Ms. Megan’s Class,” it also was plastered with the various pieces of arts and crafts she and her friends had done over the years. The girl sighed, the thought that this might be the last time she ever read the familiar words weighed on her like a ton of bricks. Taking a deep breath, Julie opened the door.

The woman that looked up from her desk as the door opened and beamed a loving smile at Julie was probably the nicest person the young girl had ever met. Ms. Megan wore her golden hair in a pony tail tied up with a big red bow like she always did, and had on a gorgeous white and yellow sundress. “Good morning Julie,” she said cheerfully, “Come in and take your seat, we’re about to begin.”

Julie forced a smile as she nodded and took her seat next to her very best friend Tiffany. “Hey Tiff,” she said quietly and lacking any emotion.

Her friend responded in the same chipper tone she always did, “Mornin’ Julie!”

Ms. Megan got up from her desk and began writing the day’s lesson on the blackboard in her beautiful handwriting. “Alright my dear students, today’s lesson is going to be about a topic that I’m sure many of your parents are talking about.” She finished writing and stepped to the side, allowing the students to read the word “Ponification.”

Julie grumbled under her breath at the all too familiar word.

Ms. Megan sat on the front of her desk and asked the class, “Okay kids, as most of you probably know, tomorrow the ponies will open Conversion Bureaus all along the East Coast. According to the news these Bureaus will be turning humans, like you and me, into ponies. So I thought it would be a good thing to ask all of you what you think about it.” Fourteen out of her fifteen students raised their hands immediately, some of them stretching their arms as far as they could go in the hope of being picked first. After scanning the crowd, Ms. Megan pointed at a boy in the seat next to Julie, “Jason, how about you start us off.”

The boy Jason stood up and excitedly said, “I want to be a pegasus so I can fly, and not get sick or anything!” He sat back down as the rest of the class gave an assortment of giggles at his enthusiasm.

“Well I guess that means you are in favor of ponification then Jason,” said Ms. Megan chuckling. “All right, who wants to talk next?”

Julie kept her hand down again as the others raised theirs, and instead buried her head in her arms. Her mind began to drift off as her friends answered her teacher one after the other. She thought of the day her parents and her had a picnic under a big tree on top of a hill. She remembered the picture of that day that hung on the wall, and how she was the only one who still looked at it.

“Julie?” asked Ms. Megan.

The young girl raised her head quickly and sat at attention, “Yes Miss Megan?” It was somewhat difficult to ignore the slew of laughter from the other children, but Julie managed to not blush from embarrassment.

Her teacher gave her a warm smile and said, “It’s your turn to tell us what you think of the ponies and these Conversion Bureaus.”

Julie failed to hide her displeasure, “Can I do math problems instead?”

The other students and Ms. Megan all laughed, but the teacher didn’t relent, “Sorry sugar cube, but I’m afraid not.”

Sighing, Julie stood up and looked around the class, “My mom and dad are really excited about it, and they really really want to do it.” She sat back down and waited patiently for the topic to change.

Ms. Megan cocked an eyebrow however, “Okay Julie, but what do you think about it?”

Julie looked around the classroom, at all the eager and confused faces of her classmates. A sudden fear gripped her throat and she could only say a few small words, “I...I don’t know.”

Ms. Megan’s eyes told the young girl that her teacher wasn’t going to let her off that easy. Before the woman could speak, the bell for recess rang and all the other kids practically galloped out the door. Only Julie and Ms. Megan stayed behind. Her teacher walked over to Julie and put a comforting hand on the young girl’s shoulder as she knelt down and looked into her eyes. “Is there something wrong Julie-bean?”

The girl gave her teacher a forlorn look and asked, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Anything,” she replied.

“Do you like the ponies?”

Ms. Megan thought for a moment before responding, “I can’t really decide that until I meet one in person, but from what I’ve seen of them on the TV, I would say that they’re decent enough folk.”

Julie took off her bonnet and began wringing it in her hands, “Would you like me if I was a pony?”

Her teacher did not hesitate to respond, “Of course I would. As long as you act like the smart little girl I’ve had the joy of teaching for three wonderful years, then I will always love you no matter what.”

“Really? You wouldn’t think I’m weird?”

“As long as you’re happy with who you are, I’ll be happy.”

Smiling in earnest for the first time today, Julie leaned her head against Ms. Megan’s chest and let her teacher wrap her up in a big warm hug.

*        *        *

“...and that concludes today’s lesson class.” Ms. Megan sat on the front of her desk as the kids began to pack up their belongings, eagerly chatting amongst themselves. After they packed up, she clapped her hands to get their attention for some final announcements, “Now, it’s Mark’s birthday tomorrow so that means no homework...” The class gave a short cheer before letting Ms. Megan continue, “...and what else?”

All as one they shouted, “A PARTY!” There was a great deal of cheering as the children got up from their seats and ran out the door. Once again Julie was the last one to get up, but unlike before, she was giving the sweetest smile she could. Walking towards the door, the young girl adjusted her backpack and bonnet before saying, “Goodbye Ms. Megan!”

“Before you go Julie-bean, there’s something I want to give you,” said the woman as she dug through her desk. Finding a small note card, she scribbled something down and handed it to the young girl.

“What’s this?” asked Julie.

“It’s my cellphone number. If you ever need to talk or need help with anything at all, just call and I’ll be there for you.”

Julie looked at the note card like it was made of gold and then back to her teacher with an expression of pure joy, “Thank you Ms. Megan!” Julie gave her teacher a quick hug before turning and leaving. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Ms. Megan grinned from ear to ear as she watched the girl skip down the hallway, and by the time the bell that tolled the end of school rang, she had already decided what she would bake for tomorrow’s party.

*        *        *

The scent of homemade chocolate chip cookies filled Megan’s nostrils, the woman allowing herself a content sigh as she rolled her car up into the school’s parking lot. As soon as she did, she saw that there was something terribly wrong. The lot was vacant. Completely and utterly empty of every car but her own. As she stepped out of her car and saw that the front door to the school was hanging wide open, a deep pit grew in her stomach. There was no noise other than her footsteps on the gravel as she approached the school’s entrance.

She walked through the open doors and towards her classroom. The once loud and rambunctious classrooms were eerily silent. As she arrived at her door, she found that it was ajar. She quickly opened it for any sign of anyone, but was only rewarded by an empty classroom. The sight made the pit in her gut grow even deeper.

Megan sat down at her desk and placed the plate of cookies on her desk. She eyed the clock above the door, and read aloud, “7:45.” It was early in the morning, but someone should have been here.

Her thoughts immediately turned to her students. She took out her cellphone and opened it up. No missed calls, no voice mails, not even a text message. She began calling the homes of every one of her students, only to get the answering machine each time.

“Sorry, we’re not here right now. Leave a message after the beep and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.”

“If you called and no one picked up, it’s because we’ve left to get ponified!”

“This is the Monroe residence, please leave a message after th-BEEP!”

“No one is here right now, please leave your name and number and we’ll call you.”

“If you’ve called for Mark, Janet, or Julie Edens, then I’m sorry but we’ve left town permanently. Have a nice day!”

Tears rolled down Megan’s cheeks as the reality of what was happening set in. The children, her children, were gone. She placed the phone on the desk and stared at it, hoping to God that it would ring just once. As she waited for the call that would never come, she rested her head in her arms and began to sob. They were all gone, and they weren’t coming back.

They had abandoned her.

Yellowstone the Series

“Minisodes”

A My Little Pony Fanfiction based off a fanfiction of another fanfiction of Blaze’s original Fanfiction: The Conversion Bureau.

So much pony

By Anonsi (But is it enough?)

From the Other Side

“All right class, it’s Wednesday!” Cheerilee called cheerfully. Her class’s only response was a communal groan that lingered for a good few seconds. “Oh come on my little ponies, Human Studies isn’t that bad,” the teacher continued undeterred, “our new neighbors are really fascinating creatures! I’m looking forward to hearing all of your reports on them. Maybe by reading them, we can find out what makes them special! Who wants to go first?”

Despite her efforts to motivate the students by being as positive as she could be, Cheerilee was hard pressed to find an excited face amongst them. ‘Okay then,’ she thought to her self, ‘looks like I’m going to have to use drastic measures!’ Steeling herself, the mare trotted to her desk and retrieved a bag of sweets she had ordered from Sugar Cube Corner and placed it on top of her desk. The attention of all of her students suddenly focused on the sweets, and the teacher found that she now had the undivided attention of the entire class. ‘Works every time,’ she mused as she once again stood front and center.

“Alright class! Because it seems that you are all lack the initiative to give your presentations on your own, whoever presents gets a cupcake!” Every hoof in the house shot up into the air, some of the students were barely keeping themselves contained in their chairs. Quietly giggling to herself, Cheerilee decided to pick one of the young colts that sat in the front row, “Archer, how about we start with you!”

The blue colt with a bow and arrow as his cutie mark stood, looking around the class room nervously before beginning. “Humans and Equestrians, a report by Archer. Humans live in a very dangerous place outside the barrier. Princess Celestia and Luna were sad that they were living like they were, so they made a potion to turn them into ponies like us. A lot of humans have turned into ponies and they are happier. What I like about humans is that they have things that let them fly.”

After the colt sat down, Cheerilee placed a cupcake on his desk saying, “Well said Archer, now let’s hear what Twist has to say next.”

The young filly with a tan coat and curly red mane stood up and cleared her throat. Straightening her glasses, she began, “Humanths and Equethstrianths, a report by Twithst. Humanths live outhside the barrier that surroundths Equethstria. They don’t have magic or wingths to fly, so they have to uthse roboths and other stuff to help them live. What I like about them iths that they althso have candy!” The filly gave her teacher a bright smile as she finished her report.

“Very good Twist! That was an excellent report!” Cheerilee told the young pony while she presented her with a cupcake. “Now who to pick next?” She scanned the second row for somepony who looked as though they weren’t paying as much attention, or looked as if they didn’t seem involved enough. Within moments she spotted the usual suspect for such behavior, “Ah, Diamond Tiara, how about you present next? You usually have very...interesting...view on things to say the least.”

The pink filly stood up quickly and began to speak in a pompous tone, “Humans and Equestrians, a report by the fabulous Diamond Tiara. Humans are smelly and gross, and kill each other all the time. They’re dumb and don’t know how to do anything that even foals know how to do, and some of them won’t get ponified because they are stupid. The only thing I like about humans is that they can’t get into Equestria.” Putting her report on her desk the young filly sat back down and stated, “I’d like my cupcake now.”

Cheerilee eyed the young pony slightly disgusted. “Diamond Tiara, I think you and me need to have a little talk after class about cultural sensitivity.”

The filly cocked an eyebrow, “Does that mean I don’t get a cupcake?”

Cheerilee rolled her eyes and put the tasty treat on the pink filly’s desk. “Now who would like to go next...” Given the last report, the teacher wanted to hear something a bit more well intentioned. “Apple Bloom! How about you go?”

Apple Bloom nearly jumped out of her chair and hastily cleared her throat. “Humans an’ Equestrians, by Apple Bloom! Mah sister Applejack has been livin’ in human lands for awhile now workin’ in a Conversion Bureau with her friends! She’s been sendin’ me letters an’ postcards an’ tellin’ me what she’s been up to! Recently, mah sis says she’s made a new friend who’s a human named Megan!”

“Only your sister could find a way to get even lamer,” quipped Diamond Tiara.

Apple Bloom glared at the pink filly and growled, “What’d you say ‘bout mah sister you no good-”

“Apple Bloom!” interrupted Cheerilee, her face had changed from her usual smile to one that was quite serious, “We’ll have no fighting in this classroom.”

“But Tiara-”

“I’ll be speaking with her after class, and if she interrupts again, I’ll also be having a talk with her parents.” Diamond Tiara suddenly gulped and shrunk into her desk. Satisfied, Cheerilee gestured towards Apple Bloom, “Now, if you’d continue please?”

Clearing her throat again, the young filly continued, “Mah sis says that Megan an’ her have a lot in common! They are both tough, they both like apples, and Applejack says that she wears a bow in her mane like ah do! Applejack says that Megan fights monsters with the help of all her friends an’ a bunch o’ other humans who are all really strong like her! Why, in the last letter mah sis sent, she said that she an’ Megan had jus’ finished beatin’ up a big lizard thingy! Mah favorite thing ‘bout humans is that they’re keepin’ mah sister safe until she can come back home!”

Cheerilee gave her a bright smile as the filly finished her report, “That was a wonderful presentation Apple Bloom! Your sister’s friend sounds very interesting!”

“Uh-huh! Ah bet you’d like her too Ms. Cheerilee!”

“Oh? And why is that dear?”

“Applejack says that Megan used to be a teacher like you, but fer some reason she ain’t anymore.”

The teacher smiled even wider at the news, “My goodness! This friend of yours is definitely growing on me!” Placing a cupcake on Apple Bloom’s desk with a bright smile thrown in for free, Cheerilee continued to pick out fillies and colts in the class until everyone of her students had been called.

*        *        *

The enchanted bell of the school sounded the end of the day’s lesson, prompting Cheerilee into another cheerful smile, “That concludes today’s lesson class! Read up on your math problems for tomorrow!” As the students rose from their chairs, Cheerilee made sure to add, “Except you Diamond Tiara! We still need to talk.”

The pink pony sat back down in her chair with a harrumph and rested her cheek on a hoof. Her disposition didn’t improve when Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue towards her as she left. Returning the gesture in kind, Diamond Tiara sat at her desk in exaggerated agony ad boredom.

The other students galloped out of the building like it was on fire, leaving Cheerilee alone in the schoolhouse with the troublesome young filly. “Now Diamond Tiara,” began the teacher, “Your report today was very mean spirited, and I’m sure you don’t actually believe any of what you said. But do you want to tell me why you would say such awful things?”

Tiara just looked out the window with a bored expression and replied, “I dunno.”

Cheerilee knitted her brow. ‘I dunno,’ was her least favorite response to any question. “Tiara, I will not take that as an answer. Now tell me why you would write such horrible things about a people you obviously know nothing about!”

The filly rolled her eyes, “Ugh, what’s there to know? They’re, like, a bunch of savages that go around killing each other!”

At this, Cheerilee very nearly lost her temper. Fortunately she had been teaching for a while, and was used to keeping her cool when dealing with troubled students. “Well if you insist on this line of thought without ever meeting a human, then maybe a talk with your mother and father will sort you out.”

The small filly looked at the teacher with sudden fear with the thought of her parents getting involved, and her eyes quickly began to water and form big wet tears. “No please! Don’t tell my parents! I’m sorry I was so mean, I was just going off rumors and stuff!”

The teacher regarded Diamond Tiara with a stern look, “Rumors? From who?”

“Uhh...” The filly’s mind raced as she tried to find a name she could incriminate, “...Scootaloo! That’s it! Scootaloo told me all sorts of nasty rumors about humans! She said that they just fly around in those big flying things of theirs and blow stuff up!”

“Apple Bloom’s friend Scootaloo?”

“Yeah! I’m telling the truth! Honest!”

Cheerilee didn’t believe a word Tiara was saying, but she was sure that the filly was indeed sorry. “Alright, I won’t call you’re parents, but I don’t want to here anymore bogus reports from you. I’m afraid I’ll have to give you an X on this assignment. Don’t make me give you another one.”

“Sure thing Ms. Cheerilee! Can I, like, go now?”

“Yes, and you had better behave next time I see you.”

“I will, I promise!” shouted the filly as she bolted from her chair. Within moments she was already out of sight of the school and well beyond Cheerilee’s earshot.

The teacher simply shook her head and proceeded to pack up her things while mumbling to herself, “What am I going to do with that one?”

“Excuse me!” came a colt’s voice from behind her, “Is this the school?”

Spinning around quickly, the teacher saw two ponies she had not ever met before in Ponyville. One was a blue unicorn colt with a navy blue mane, and a orange mare with a bright yellow mane. The two mysterious ponies just stared at her with looks of joyous anticipation, like they were waiting to be told they had just won something.

“Yes it is...who are you?” Cheerilee asked as she walked over to them.

The colt was the first to reply, “Oh my goodness, you must excuse me! We’re Mark, and Janet Edens!”

“Hello!” said Janet waving a hoof.

Cheerilee looked over the pair of odd ponies for a moment until her mind clicked, “You’re new-foals?”

“Yep!” said Mark, “It took us three and a half years, but me and my wife have finally saved up the bits to move to Equestria, and so far we couldn’t be happier!”

Janet leaned against her husband and added, “All we need now are good pony names!”

The two of them had a brief fit of laughter before Mark continued, “Anyway, me and the Mrs. were just thinking about enrolling a kid...I mean...foal of our own here.”

At the news of a potential student with some insight into being human, Cheerilee became visibly more interested in the conversation. “A new foal? Well let me see if I have room in one of my morning classes, maybe I could squeeze them in...” She removed a day planner from her saddle bag and placed it on a nearby desk to scan its contents, “Aha! Here’s a spot. I can have him start Monday if that’s alright. What’s the name of the little darling?”

“Oh we don’t have one yet, but we are working on it!” responded Mark with a grin.

Cheerilee raised a brow and asked, “Then...you don’t have a foal to enroll here?”

“Not yet!” they replied in unison, “Just checking out the scenery!” They burst into a bout of friendly laughter that rang loudly in the schoolteacher’s ears.

Shaking the ringing out of her ears, Cheerilee packed up her planner and moved to the door. “Well when you do have a new foal for me to enroll, let me know. Oh, and don’t be strangers around town!”

“Oh we will!” said Mark.

“And we won’t!” added Janet.

With a final bout of laughter, the two ponies waved their goodbyes and departed. Cheerilee stood in the school’s doorway feeling exhausted and slightly confused. “They seem nice enough,” she concluded, “maybe they’d be willing to help out in my next Human Studies lecture?” Resolving to find them again and ask them at some point, she smiled to herself and began her hike home. Having a real human perspective on things could be very educational.

What was down the road...?

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

Violet exhaled long and slow, feeling her nerves melt away. She liked Rose well enough, and almost felt sad that she was stuck back there, holding onto the last vestiges of man. Chuckling despite herself, the human drummed the steering wheel a bit as she reflected that not more than a day had passed since she, too, was the same way.

Or rather, maybe not. Her eyes focused ahead. She never really cared about it much when it started. A movement, that’s all she took it for. Meant different faces in the crowds. She smiled as she remembered them. The crowds. All the people, shining eyes bright upon the world’s stage, buying into the stories, the theater. Violet shook her head. It had been over a year since then. A year... How had it felt so long? Sniffing the night breeze, a loud clang caught her attention as she turned her head. There, in front of her, was a rather wild eyed pony struggling against his bonds. But it wasn’t him what caught her attention. It was a metal monstrosity of a semi-truck that was on a collision course with her that did.

“The shit...?” Without a second thought her foot slammed down on the gas, lurching the car forward as the engine roared in a ferocious din. Catching a glance in her mirrors, the truck behind her was still catching up quickly, it having the time it needed to build up the speed available to it. The sound of metal on metal rang as the semi clashed against the back of the truck, lifting up the back tires. The truck dangerously swerved at the loss of weight and wheel. In the window she saw a darkened face, one of anger and what seemed to be... “Dickhead!” Violet screamed, slamming her palm into the 4x4 button. The back wheels roared to life as they spun mercilessly in the air, the semi’s attempt to spin the truck sideways thwarted by the wheels as they touched concrete. Spinning the wheel in a frenzy, the girl attempted with all her might to keep focused. Her instructor’s words a faint echo in her mind, their words indecipherable about how to keep traction.

-----

Rusty spun himself slightly, his neck and face finding different points in the truck for leverage. He took note that he never thought himself capable of such a position, using his chin to push himself every which way. As he spun, he looked at the groaning face of Twinkle, the poor unicorn mare that was so unaware of the present dangers. The red colt’s eyes narrowed. She only wanted to help. She was an Equestrian pony; she never deserved something like this happen and have no say in the matter.

He missed the irony of the situation when he deemed the idea inhuman. Struggling against his bonds, his sprained limb searing with pain, hot tears of pain beading on his eyes. Rusty felt something snap, at first believing it to be his own leg, but on further inspection he found that the twine used to tie himself up had become caught on a screw that had not been completely drilled in. Against his movement, coupled with the giant swerves and strain the semi was jostling in to the mix, the head of the screw had helped shear the twine clean in two, and the colt found his good forehoof freed. Quickly sliding the twine off his muzzle, the freed space of the twine started to come apart at the seams, much to his pleasure.

A crack against the frame of the truck robbed that pleasure from him as he slammed against the bed of the car, his body cushioning Twinkle as she collided with him. Groaning slightly, he didn’t let the idea of being skewered by her horn last in his mind lest he be so unlucky if he was to be rammed against again. “Violet!” He yelled, looking forward at the driver. The human seemed busy with keeping the truck safe, the front wheels alone not enough to speed the truck away from the male driver of the semi. Turning around, the wind whipped his hair around merciless, the tiny strands like miniature whips along the sides of his face. Richard looked down at him, a sick look on his face. Looking about the cabin, Rusty saw the girl too, Rose, arguing and yelling at her brother for Celestia knows what reason. He hoped it had something to do with his current active attempt at triple homicide.

Spinning about, the Earth Pony rushed forward, taking great care not to use his hurt hoof. He failed spectacularly, falling three times with the swaying of the truck in the two feet he had to cover. Sticking his head through the window Twinkle had been dislodged from, he took stock of the situation in the cabin. “Violet! You’re doing fine!”

“The hell you get free back there?!” She screamed, a look of fear and desperation plastered on the girl’s face.

“Priorities, girl!” Rusty shouted over the din of both engines, the truck swerving dangerously to the side. Violet spun the wheel accordingly, the back wheels barely touching the ground and fighting against the semi’s powerful force. “We’ve got to go faster!”

“You bloody well think?!” Violet’s foot pressed harder on the petal already stuck on the floor, the wheels dangerously swerving out in front. “The road’s getting bad, Rusty! It’s not safe for even us to be on it much anymore, not to mention fucktard Magee over there in a fucking Semi! I can’t get loose!” Slamming her fist into the wheel, a short, ill-tempered horn blasted from the truck’s hood.

Rusty looked back. The arguing in the cabin of the semi seemed to be getting more intense by the second, as Rose was visibly grabbing Richard’s arm now. Something was wrong in more ways than one. Realizing that dwelling on it did him nothing, he looked at the grill of the semi. A good buck... “Try and keep her even!”

“What?!”

“Keep her even! I’m gonna try to buck the semi and free us!” Rusty cried, the truck swerving despite his instruction otherwise. “Shoot! Violet, please!”

“It’s not fucking me! I barely know how to drive, let alone with two wheels and a semi actively trying to kill us.” She was crying now, her tears were streaming down her face, the fear so plainly on her face. “I can’t do this! I can’t!”

“What do you mean? You’re doing a great job! Just keep it up, 20 more seconds!” Rusty shouted, shooting a hoof forward as he attempted to calm her. “I’ll give that Dick a good buck and we’ll free ourselves, then it’s clear sailing. No way he can keep up with us!”

There was no chance of it. A pony might be strong, but to dislodge a semi from hooking metal on metal on a truck? Violet thought he was crazy. But she nodded her head, obeying the pony. Rusty breathed deeply. He just wanted to help someone. He was a good pe- pony. “Just be careful!” The words hit his ears only slightly, but the colt gave a smirk and a nod. Violet was being strong, so what did he care if his leg hurt like nothing else? You didn’t buck with your forehooves.

-----

“The fuck you doin’!?” Rose shouted, giving her brother a look. Turning around, Richard pointed at the hastily disappearing truck. They had just let Violet go, and Rose had mentioned that Violet wanted them to take care of the Tower if she didn’t come back.

“The fuck yoo ‘dink? She played us, Rose. Bitch runnin’ off to be a horse!” Ripping open the door, the older sibling jumped in. A quick run around the semi and he found himself with a copilot as the large truck roared to life, the driver taking it forward as he played with the gears. “Eighteen fookin’ gears, da fuck dey thinkin’.” He groaned as the truck began to move forward. “I ain’t lettin’ her git ‘way. No sir.”

“You don’t know that, bro!” Rose muttered, shaking her head. Violet had seemed a bit.. off toward the end. Not so cold hearted as she initially seemed. Rose had written it off as how she dealt with strangers, but people... people were a limited resource nowadays. “She could be just... seein’ what there is ta see.”

“I dun’t buy it, nought fer a sec’nd.” The properly named dick slammed on the gas as the machine lurched forward. Rose was adequately surprised the machine didn’t shut off immediately from the misuse of the gearbox, but they picked up speed quickly, the speck the truck had been quickly growing larger. “Ah’ll git ‘er now.”

Rose shook her head. “Careful now, Rich.” She muttered.

“Oh, iz Rich now iz ‘et?” He scoffed, dismissing her wiles.

“Really bro, careful! The road ain’t what it used ta be.”

“Dun’t tink I dun’t know dat? I fuckin’ set them charges. Keepin’ folks from leavin’. Shoulda been defennen’ our city.” He seethed, his eyes darkening.

Rose looked visibly upset, slamming a hard fist into her brother’s shoulder. “Don’t lie about that, Richard! Mum an’ Dad we’re-” A hard slap along the side of her face was more than unexpected, the girl reeling back as she held her hand on her face.

“Dhey were weak, Rose. Dey ran from ‘et. Ran from us.” Slamming his fist on the register, Richard’s eyes were furrowed, dark, and uncompromising, the lightest tears betraying his face. “Dhey shouldn’t ah... shouldn’t ah ran.”

“Fucker!” Rose screamed, but found herself again smacked away, this time a closed fist alongside her eye. Her head slammed against the closed window, her vision blurred and fogged. “Ya killed...”

“Ah did what it took. Strong’st survive. You ‘n me, sis, we’re strong.” He breathed, his voice level. “Fred was too. Made sure none of his residents left ta become ponies. Damn sure. Fuckin’ Violet woulda known. Woulda said. Fuck her.” The truck was between the headlights now. Rose tried to keep her mind conscious. The roar of the semi, the breathing, the heavy breathing of her brother, anything to keep her in the game. “Fuck her.” He was repeating himself now. “Shoulda jus’ shot ‘em. Fuckin’ ponies. Fuckin’ Violet.”

“Richard... God... why would you...?” Rose muttered weakly. There was a jolt, a crash. She didn’t know what, but she didn’t like it. A victorious smirk developed upon her brother’s face. It wasn’t good. “What’re you...?”

“Bitch knows how ta drive.” He snarled. Rose never heard him snarl like that before. It seemed... animistic. As if he was on a hunt. “Can’t git’ ‘er sideways. Fuck, I’da liked dat truck.” He chuckled. Rose didn’t like that either. Running her hand off the side of her head, she soon found specks of glass in her hair. Looking alongside her, the passenger window was awash with cracks, impacted in a delicate spiderweb from where her head collided. Red specks ran through them, digging deep into the spaces between the breaks.

“Bleedin’...” Rose muttered. No wonder it was so hard to keep focused. Screaming. Something was screaming. Looking forward, she saw the red pony muscling around on the truck bed before her. They had crashed into the truck. He was trying to run her over, or off the road. There was something she was saying before. “The bombs...”

“Charges, sis.” Richard corrected, yanking the wheel again, watching the red pony collide with the side of the truck before being sandwiched by the unicorn. “Know da damn dif’rence.”

“Road.” She mused, holding the back of her head. It was warm and sticky. Cuts from the class filled her hair and she could barely see out her left eye, it all hurt. She didn’t notice how much it hurt a moment ago. Probably a good sign. “The road, Rich.”

“Fuck da road, it cin handl‘et!” He screamed. Or it sounded like screaming. Everything felt so loud to Rose. The engine, her brother, breathing, wind... even the seat felt loud. “Ah cin handl’et!” Rose winced, unsure of what to do. For all his social weakness, he was a violent man. But he was never violent with her. Never to family... well, so she thought. The bastard had caused... it was her parents whom were part of the cares that came through her, leaving the city. They didn’t like the ponies much either, but... they were just settling someplace else. They didn’t need to.... He killed them.

“Bastard...” She mumbled. Her eyes narrowed. She needed to do something. Her parents were dead. No one else needed to die anymore.

“Peh, hum’ns kill hum’ns all da time, rem’ber?” It hit her like another punch. The tinge of regret, the idea that even when she said it, it might have held some truth. “I’m savin’ ‘er.” A cold tinge of fear ran down Rose’s spine. It crawled it’s way to her heart, gripping it and squeezing. “‘Fore she kills ‘erself.”

“Can’t be....” Rose focused her mind. “Tha’ can’t be what you think.”

Richard laughed. It was deep and dark, a laugh of a man who had nothing. Why didn’t he have anything? He had his sister. This didn’t seem right, not her brother. “It is, sis.” Not her brother... “Dey’re killin’ themselves. Whut comes out ain’t what gaws in.” His fist hit the register again. “Monsters. All of ‘em.”

“N-no!” Rose cried. She was coming to again. She could feel it, the road was becoming clear. The red pony was on his feet. He was making his way toward the back. That look of desperation. “They aren’t-”

“THEY ARE.” He shouted. Rose spun, Richard was looking at her. Really looking at her, eyes blazing. She could see it in him. She could see what wasn’t there. Her brother, he wasn’t there anymore. She saw madness. She saw loss, and pain. “THEY’RE ALL MONSTERS.” Rose could feel the realization creeping in. Loss. Richard was part of a gang. Back in the day. Real small, only encompassed a neighborhood, and some friends from around town. Just protection, almost noble in a way. Cops, clean and crooked, often ended up there one way or another, but a community protected it’s own. But they moved from that place.

They moved because of the ponies. Rose hadn’t thought of it much. They all lost friends to transition. But they had made new ones. But Richard had a girlfriend in the gang. She was one of the first to go through with it. There were rumors of a pregnancy. “Richard, please, they aren’t Dawna.” A loud steely sound emanated from the front. The pony was bucking, trying to remove the semi from the Ford. “Let them go!”

“Fuck you.” Shifted into another gear. There was a loud sound. This one wasn’t from the trucks. It was louder. Rumbling. Falling. “What’re dey doin’?” He seethed. “Ponies ain’t that strong!”

Rose looked about wildly, the pain in her head ignored. Fear was gripping at her. “It ain’t the pony! It’s the road!” She screamed, pointing toward the mirrors. The concrete was crumbling, the effects of the battle and the charges from before had finally started what was due to happen months ago. The roadway was collapsing. “Richard!”

“Shut da fuck up!” He screamed, struggling against the gearbox. There was a crash as the semi suddenly dropped speed. The cabin rumbled, the steel roared and groaned under increased pressure. “Da hell’s goin’ on!?” Rose quickly undid her seatbelt, struggling to open the door. Richard peered over, his eyes alight with insanity. “Da hell you think that’ll do?” The truck shrank suddenly, lifting up. The front wheels lost their traction as the Ford broke free of the front with a final crunch of metal and steel.

Rose screamed.

-----

“That did it!” Rusty shouted, his hooves bruised and bleeding from bucking against the grill of the semi. “I got it!”

“No fucking way!” Violet cheered, spinning her head to look. The truck was far behind them now. Almost as if it had stopped. Or rather... as if it was still fighting to go forward. “Rusty! What’s going on!”

The red colt paused, feeling the truck slow down. Looking forward, he noticed Violet struggling to get a look at the semi, and he spun about to see for himself. “It’s...” The colt gasped slightly. “The Roadway, Violet! It’s collapsing under them!” He shouted, moving forward. His forehoof screamed in pain as his legs gave out from under him, causing the pony to unceremoniously fall unto his side. “They’re going down!”

Violet screeched to a halt, pushing Rusty up against the glass of the back window. Twinkle came to rest beside him. Shooting out his good hoof, he checked the mare for any damage. She seemed fine - bruises, a scrape or two from the loose screw. Minor cuts, but unharmed. “Thank Celestia. Violet! Why have we stoppe-” The car spun around, approaching the teetering semi. “Violet! What are you doing!?”

To be honest, the girl didn’t know herself. But the roadway had stopped collapsing, at least for the most part, but the semi was hanging in space, some piece of metal still caught on to a strong stone edge. Violet stopped short of the semi, ripping herself from the wheel and going out on foot. “Stay here, Rusty!”

The stallion rolled his eyes. “Oh sure, because I’m going places.” Turning back to the light pink mare before him, he sighed. “At least the view ain’t bad.”

-----

Rose opened the door, feeling her breath stolen away as she looked out. The angle she was at kept her at a strange position, but below her was nothing but gravel and empty cars. Looking about, she could see pegasi flying about, nowhere near them to assist properly. Probably those who could weren’t too happy with what their vehicle was doing not moment ago. “Rose!” She heard her name. She heard it twice. She felt something grab her leg as she searched for the second voice, turning to see her brother grabbing at her. “Fuckin’ seatbelt’s stuck again!” Kicking her leg, she sought to free herself.

“Rose!” Her name again, coming from a female voice. No way. “Rose can you hear me in there?!”

“Violet!” She shouted. How that girl had the capacity to turn back after all that and - The semi lurched. Backwards. “Oh God...” She muttered, catching a look from Richard. His eyes weren’t filled with fear. It wasn’t even filled with normal human emotion. It was devoid of that, but his arm held firm. “Help me, please!” Kicking out, she struck her brother’s face, but his hand wouldn’t move.

Violet looked around. She didn’t know why she would care, but here she was trying to help someone who for all she knew wished her dead not a minute before. “I can’t- What can I do!?” She yelled. The semi lurched again. The concrete started to give away.

Rose heard a click. The seatbelt had come undone. Looking back, her brother now latched on to her other foot with his free hand. “Yer comin’ with me, sis. We’re gonna be free. I’ll save ya.”

“Get offa me you... monster!” She kicked her feet in vain, feeling the semi start to topple, the concrete giving away. Richard smiled peculiarly as he released her. Taking her moment, Rose did all she could do, fighting against gravity. She heard her name shouted again. “Violet!” She responded, scrambling over her seat as she truck spun to it’s side and off the expressway. As she pushed off the seat, clearing the door in a jump, Rose could see her. Violet, standing on the edge of the collapsed concrete. Her arm outstretched. She knew. Rose knew she had nothing below her. She reached out, in hope. Fools hope.

But hope is hope. A hand clasped around her. A scream - the pony in truck. He screamed for Violet. She smirked. Guess Violet was a pony-lover. Her weight started to come down, she had no momentum. Rose was going to fall. Violet bent at the knees, her shoes catching a crack in the stone as Rose’s weight began to fall on her arm. To say the blonde was surprised that the girl could hold her without tumbling off herself would be an understatement.

But then it was tested two-fold. A weight collapsed on her, in both body and spirit. Violet fell forward, her chest slamming against the pavement above as she was forced down. Another body. Rose looked down, her fears affirmed. “Richard!”

The man struggled a smile, his free arm reaching into his pocket. “Dis ain’t salvation, Rose.” His hand pulled out a small metal object. A knife. Switchblade, to be more precise. “Fall, Rose! Bring yer friend, too!”

Looking between the two, Rose looked up with pleasing eyes. “Violet! I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know he’d... I tried to...”

Violet didn’t know what to think. She didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let people die if she could help it. “Save it!” Her arm was stretched thin, wondering if it was possible for it to come apart. Dislocating, sure, but maybe even ripping clean off. She tried to banish the idea, but it was fairly prevalent. “I can’t- pull you up! The hell is wrong with Dick?”

Rose felt streaming tears on her chin. She hadn’t noticed them before. “He’s... I don’t know! He’s not the same!” She looked down. Rose didn’t like what she saw. “I don’t think... he’s been the same for awhile now.” She unlocked her eyes, looking at a fluid motion. His arm in an arc, she found out too late what he planned to do with his knife. Cutting into her ankle, the blade slide across her bone as she screamed out in pain. Violet looked on in horror as the man tried to use the incision to pull himself up, merely accomplishing to gash her foot as the blade came loose, a torrent of blood falling freshly unto his face.

“Hold on, Rose! Please, hold on!”

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking Bastard!” Rose shouted, her feet going into overdrive as she kicked at him with her free foot. She couldn’t see him as her brother now. He was a murderer. He killed her family. He killed her mom, her dad... her brother. Whatever the man who hung from her now was, he killed her brother. “Let go of meeee!” She screamed.

“Violet!” A shout rang out. Another female voice. Unfamiliar to Rose, but Violet seemed relieved, even if her face was red from the effort. There was a sound of trotting as another body joined the midst, the pink mare. “Are you okay?”

“No I’m not okay, Twinkle! Help me!” Violet yelled. Peering over the edge, Rose caught sight of the light pink pony. She struggled a smile, but it was insincere - she was bleeding out of the foot. Swinging her leg, it barely saved her another puncture as Richard swung and missed, his body jolting her. She felt a slip. Not her, not Richard, but Violet. “Shit!”

“Violet - I don’t - I mean - I can’t.” Twinkle mumbled. Violet let out a frustrated groan. Twinkle gave a pained face as she nipped at Violet’s belt, pulling back with all her might. The frail pony didn’t give much, but she gave enough as Violet felt the pressure come off her abdomen, her face starting to fade from the red color it was starting to take.

“Rose! Get him off of you!”

The blonde looked about, trying to figure something out. Her free arm fell along her side. It fell along something metal. Gripping it in her hand, she felt her hand grasp the trigger. “I-I have a gun!”

Violet looked serious. “Shoot him!”

Rose gave a panicked look down. Richard didn’t look pleased, but he had some smile. Some maniacal smile that contrasted his hard eyes. Dark eyes. Another jolt, her vision blurred as she shrunk down closer to the ground. Violet yelped as her chest hit the pavement hard again. “You can’t!” The voice from above called. “That’s-”

“He fucking stabbed her foot, she’s bleeding! He just tried to kill us during your little nap!” Violet screamed. “I’m plenty sure it’s justified, Twinkle!” There was some hesitation from the other side, but eventually Rose could feel herself lifted up another inch.

“MONSTER!” The shout came from below. Richard was looking about violently, causing Rose to catch a look about. The pegasi she had seen - some of them had started to draw near. Richard was flailing now. Something had snapped deep within him when he was on the truck. Maybe even before. Rose was feeling her grip weaken, whether from fatigue or blood loss she could be sure. She needed to act. Bringing the weapon to her eyes, she opened the safety against her teeth and let her arm hang limply from her side. Violet spun somewhat, grasping Rose’s arm with her free hand, now that Twinkle held firm on her belt.

“Do it, Rose. I can’t pull you both up.” Violet murmured, closing her eyes.

Rose looked from both sides. Her brother, or what was left of him, wildly screaming and flailing. Above her, Violet. A girl she just met. A pony-loving liar. Holding her arm. Trying to save her. Putting her life on the line. She felt the gun’s weight. “I... haven’t killed anyone before.” She choked.

“Neither have I. But... well, humans kill humans, right?” Violet, tried, shaking her head.

Rose laughed. She laughed despite herself. Despite the pain, the blood, the possible mild concussion. The black eye. “Heh. No wonder you want to go pony.” She smirked, fresh tears running down her face. She peered down at her brother. In blood only. Pointing the barrel, she sighed. A tear rolled down her cheek and hung on her chin as she looked at her brother. “Richard!” She called gently.

The tear fell. The man looked up, expecting anything. His eyes feral. “This is for my brother.” She whispered.

The sound of thunder. He released. Blood streamed freely from his forehead. Raining down below, his body fell limply, the wind playing with the fabric as he fell. Like a doll falling from a girl’s arms, Richard hit the ground with a sickening crack. The setting sun disappeared behind the horizon.

Rose’s tear landed between his eyes, trailing down his face, crying for him.

Where did we come from?

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

“Shitshitshitshitshit...” Her head was in a daze, quickly looking over the scene before her. HLF insignia’s adorned everything, from the side of a semi to a number of tattered flags that lazily flapped in the wind. It never occurred to her that the HLF had merchandising, but it made sense - they had to pull more and more money back in the day. The almighty dollar was pittance compared to the Equestria bit. And here she was - with two ponies. In front of who knows what disposition of man. Something told her they wouldn’t exactly be ecstatic to see them.

Turning to her comrades, she saw that Twinkle had completely passed out. Be it shock or exhaustion, her magical abilities would be useless now that she wasn’t an active participant. Rusty, on the otherhand, was up and rummaging through what he could in what the saddest excuse of a back seat Violet had ever seen in a truck. “What are you doing? You can’t expect to-” She cut herself off as she lost what she was trying to say. What wild theory could the colt provide with human tools against humans? Realizing that she was not clever enough to make a quip in the scenario, she quickly looked ahead to see if any humans had appeared. “Ruuuusty, please tell me you have a plan with whatever you’re doing...!”

A grunt of satisfaction issued from the stallion as the red pony poked his head into the front, in his mouth a ball of what looked to be thread. “Rowph!”

“....Twine?” Violet breathed raising an eyebrow. “What, you want me to run around whoever is gonna come out from behind that blockade and hope they stand still long enough to wrap them up?” She muttered sarcastically, her face back to scanning the walls of metal. They had made a lot of noise... Maybe there wasn’t any humans on the other side? Maybe they just blocked it all off for... whatever reason? They had such a ways to go, the prospect of walking didn’t much- the ball of twine hit her in the head, interrupting her thoughts. Bouncing down, the twine rested at her feet next to the gas pedal. Whipping about, her thoughts turned to rage as she glared at the colt. “What the hell did you do that for!?”

“Tie me up, you lout!” Rusty yelled, struggling with the handle of the truck. “Tie me up, throw me in the back - hurry!” He cried, the door opening as he looked at her. His face turned from desperation to fear as he realized he had been leaning on the door, and the pony ungracefully fell out of the cab.

“Rusty! I- what!?” The human quickly undid her seatbelt and kicked open her door, momentarily catching a glimpse of the red colt who had so unceremoniously tumbled out of the truck. Sweeping up the twine in her hand, Violet dashed toward Rusty, surveying the colt quickly. “Are you alright? You aren’t hurt, are you?” Sliding to a halt, the stallion fidgeted slightly at her words.

Rusty kicked out his free leg instinctively and bumped the tire of the truck. “Fell on my flank - kinda hurt. Think I’m fine-” Checking his other hooves, the colt winced as he tested his forehoof. “Damn it!” He seethed, his hoof retracting close to his chest.

“You’re hurt!” Violet cursed, whipping her head around. She could hear it now. Movement, voices. People on the other side of the barricade were coming to investigate. “Ooooohhhhhh fuckme.” Slamming her fist against the truck, she closed her eyes tightly, her mouth repeating the last phrase continuously.

“Violet! Shut up! Tie me up, I’m fine, it’s just a sprain, I’m sure!” Rusty whispered quickly, kicking her knee with his good hoof. “If you can tie me and Twinkle up, it’ll look like you’re taking us out of the city or something!”

Shaking her head, Violet couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Out of the city? The city was overrun with ponies - she couldn’t exactly get this far without being overtaken by pegasi. “What the hell for!?”

“I don’t know! Think of something. Lie, I don’t know, but we’re gonna be in huge trouble-” Violet’s hands started on automatic, ripping the ball of twine apart and starting to unravel and tie the pony up as she went, taking no heed to the sprained hoof. “-Yikes, watch it, Violet!”

“Shut up, pony. You’re my prisoner now.” Violet screamed, her eyes shut hard. She was operating only on touch, her hands running up and down the colt’s legs as she tried to tie him up believably. The colt had a strange expression on his face, but he quieted, intent on seeing what she was up to. “Trying to break into my building, huh? Bet you never saw the frying pan coming. I’m sure you’re, uh... mate didn’t either, got it nasty in the head. Shame I didn’t crack her horn...!” She wasn’t very believable yet, but she was trying to talk hard. He could hear the other humans now, adjusting and moving the metal that barred them access to the girl.

“That’s it, now around my mouth. There’s some tools in the back to help you cut the string so you can get Twinnng-” The line led from his back hoof to his mouth as Violet kept tears of fear from streaming out of her eyes. Put in a uncomfortable position, the colt was starting to feel a bit silly for the idea, instead realizing that with Twinkle out of it, he could of simply acted like he was unconscious as well - the twine was a bit much, really.

“That’ll teach you...!” Standing up, Violet opened her eyes, trying to steel herself for the coming humans. Rusty looked up to see the trembling visage of the girl before him, her vision clouded and foggy as she hugged herself tightly. “Stupid pony. Almost got yourself killed.” Her mind was moving a mile a minute, piecing together a story she could act out. Spinning around, Violet could see fiery red hair move out from a gap created from a moving semi truck. Wiping her tears, Violet struggled to put on a brave face, straighting herself up as the man approached.

“Oi, Who’ you?” He called, his accent unidentifiable. “Ain’t no one I seen before.” His head looked her up and down, pausing briefly at her long, dyed hair that just so happened to rest on her chest. Snorting, the man rubbed his nose along his arm as he tried to make an opinion of her. Tilting his head back, he gave a slight nod. “‘Ey! Rose! Git out here, we gotta a human with a fukkin’ pony captive!”

“S’at so?” Another voice called, prompting Violet to jerk slightly. People. She was seeing people. Not person, not pony or ponies. People. “An’ what she doin’ out here?”

“‘EY!” The fire headed man shouted at Violet, as if not taking into account she was so close to him. “What you doin’ here, bitch? Playin’ some sick S ‘n M with yer pony friends? Arright, I can dig it.”

“Shut the hell up, asshole.” Violet’s mouth exploded, her words seething out, her eyes turning into hard glare. The man stepped back, putting his hands up to defend himself from her words. A light mist floated past as a blonde female showed up from behind the gap of the semi - she was obviously the driver who moved it for the red-headed man. His overalls and cheap cologne stung her nose slightly as his dirty demeanor fed her desperate persona. “While you’ve been up her shacking it up with this dumb bitch of yours-”

“Yo, she my sistah!”

“Fuck if I care what you’re into, dickhead. What the hell is up with this fucking metal wall?” Violet stepped forward, pushing the man back another foot. “I’m trying to get this damn ponies out of Freddie’s tower.” Pointing toward the city, she picked out the tall tower that could be seen even from the freeway. “Fuckers thought ‘cause he was dead that suddenly allowed them to stink it up with their shit. Entitled pricks.” Turning slightly, Violet spat in Rusty’s direction, the colt doing his part to look angry as he flopped along the ground.

“Oi, Freddie’s dead?” The woman, Rose, came striding up. “I didn’t think the old bastard’s hate would let him die. Somethin’ about spitin’ the rest of us.” She laughed, obviously unfazed by Violet’s abusive speech. “That mean you’re in control of it now, girly?”

“Fuck, I’m the only one left. Rest of ‘em went and became these sacks of shit.” Gesturing with her thumb, Violet moved from one to the other, the knocked out Twinkle shuddering slightly, but staying still. “Name’s Violet, by the way. You’re Rose, I know already from dickhead here.”

“Richard.” The man said, indignant.

Violet sneered slightly, “Oh hey, you really are a Dick!” This caused a bit of merriment between the two girls, the only human male in question turning a deep shade of red as his own uncomfortable featured become more pronounced. “Oi, lookit that!” Mimicking his accent, Violet bent forward with an expectant look. “His ‘ol head is gettin’ a stiffy!” Poking his chest, the girl turned to the other female with the flower name. “So is it just you two out here?” She asked, her hard demeanor fading slightly.

“Aw, no, not really. We’re just holdin’ down the fort while everyone’s partyin’. They shut down those sins against nature today.” Violet nodded slowly at Rose’s words, turning toward the city. If she strained her ears, some gunshots could be heard. Celebratory, sure, but something felt as if some of the men down there were aiming their skyward shots. Their rolling thunder shook Violet some, but she kept herself from over thinking it. Rusty, on the other hand, started flailing a bit harder, as if he was actively trying to free himself. “Hey, what’s with the pony, anyway? Why you bringin’ him all the way out here?”

Violet shrugged and pointed in some obscure direction. “Neither of ‘em are pegasi, so I though a little reward for trying to sneak in the high rise would be a nice little nap and a bit of a rodeo.” Smirking, she turned from the two and let her face drop, her panicked expression written all over. “I, uh, there’s a second one in the bed. Unicorn. Took her out with a frying pan, if you’d believe it. Shame I missed the horn. Heh.” Coughing, she closed her eyes. She wasn’t able to see the city anymore - the mist had become too thick around them. “So I’m bringing them out into the country, S’far as half a tank goes. See if they’ll enjoy the company of some feral dogs or something - see if that one can really put some of that magical shit to good use.” Her laugh was hollow, but the brother and sister seemed to accept it well enough. Striding over to the truck bed, the exhausted and unconscious Twinkle lay, her head slightly in the back window.

“‘Ey, what’s the red one doing outta your car, anyway?” The man spoke.

“Saw ‘em trying to climb out on the highway. Fool thought he could escape going sixty.” Giving him a swift kick to the abdomen, Violet halted her foot just barely before making contact. Rusty, for his part, did an admirable job faking taking the hit, and doubled over slightly. “Hit the breaks and he fell out. Stupid fucker. ‘Ere, help me with him, would you, Dick?”

“Richard, Vio.” In the next instant, the dickhead found himself reeling back, a red mark clear on his face. Violet was in a huff, breathing erratically. “Shite, stupid bitch! Whaddafuk was dat for?”

“Only my friends call me Vio, dickhead. Remember that.” She threatened, causing an amused chuckle to emanate from Richard’s sister. “You were dick before you were Richard.” It still seemed fairly hypocritical, but fearing a matching pair of red marks, the man dropped it. Turning slightly to Rose, Violet smirked. “You may call be Vio, or V, if you want.”

“Will do, V, will do. Hey, Richy the Dick, pick up that pony and move him back into the bed. Rough as you like.” Rose ordered. Richard looked defiant, but a moment longer and he caved under his sister’s gaze. The wind picked up slightly, clearing the area for Violet to see. The city found itself visible around them, the afternoon sun gleaming over the skyscrapers that dotted the city, their glares illuminating the city streets below in pale yellow light. In it, Violet felt a small connection to how it was before. Back when the city had the life of humans. Cars and construction... However, her thoughts were pulled away as the pony grunted and groaned under Richard’s attempts to pick him up.

“Hey, Dicky, careful with his arm - leg - thing. It’s sprained or something.” She said, not giving the action much thought on the outside.

Rose’s smile flickered. “Now how you go and know that, V?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. “All his little hoofsies are tied up...” Trailing, she looked over the job. “Haphazardly, too.” She smirked, walking past the other humans and bending over.

Violet froze, unsure of what to think. Unsure of what to do. Her breathing slowed as she stared out into the city. But the fog was returning, coming in thick as ever as she hastily scrambled for anything that made sense. “‘F-Fore you got here. Was looking him over. Had to straighten up some of his bonds, and he seemed sore about me touchin’ that hoof.” Turning over to Rose, she put a quick smile on her face that she hoped meant trouble. “‘Course, the screamin’ helped too.” Violet flashed a wicked smile.

“Boy, you’re one cold-hearted bitch, V.” Rose chided, shaking her head, a small smirk on her features. Leaning down, she looked the stallion in the eye a moment before shrugging. “Don’t know what makes a man give up his life like that.”

Violet paused, giving a shrug. “Family, curiosity, who knows, really. Fuck if I care, though.” She muttered, crossing her arms. “All I know is that Freddie wouldn’t want them in his place, and I swear I don’t want them in this city. It’s my city.” Turning back to the truck, she started moving around it slowly, intent on getting off the freeway while she could. “Sooner or later we’re gonna have to start the City Liberation Front.”

“Lame joke, V, very lame. But still... I have to agree.” Rose sighed wistfully, turning to look upon the cloudless day. “I remember you’d have to be a freak and a half to walk along this freeway. Too many cars. The smell of exhaust and the shrieks of car horns.” She murmured as the truck jolted slightly as Richard finally succeeded in putting Rusty in the back. Violet studied Rose’s features, trying to understand where the other girl’s life had gone to make her so proud of what was so very little now. Perhaps it made it easier, in a way. Was that way of life so good to remember it so fondly?

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck me, he’s heavy.” Richard complained, wiping his brow. Violet turned to the red-headed man and shot him a sour look. “Whoda thunk a three foot horse could weigh dat much.” Continuing, he was making it clear he didn’t want to just be in the sidelines of the conversation.

“Stop complainin’, I put the two back there myself, Dick.” Revving the engine slightly, Violet gave Rose a small wink. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I gotta-” Suddenly the radio started again as she turned the truck on again, causing an embarrassed Violet to immediately switch it off with a small smile.

“Been a long time since I heard somethin’ like that. Who is it?” Rose hung in to the open window, her arm laying lazily along the inside of the cabin. Violet shrugged and turned away, trying to look aloof as she felt her cover slipping slightly.

“Dunno, just was in the truck. Jacked it from the Bureau a while back. Beats trying to find a fill station that still worked in my area.” Coughing, Violet didn’t even notice her pattern of speech had changed to something much softer. Rose raised an eyebrow, but decided to drop it. “So, uh, why have you guys been operating here instead of at the exits? And uh... Freddie never said, before he went - Loudly I might add -” This elicited a chuckle from Rose, who pointed for her brother to return to the semi. Richard paused, giving the unicorn a look, none to pleased to see her unbound. Violet caught his reaction through the tinted window and did the best eye roll she could muster. “She’s out like a light, Dick.” The red-haired man shot her a look, but crumbled under the stare Rose gave him in return.

“Fuck! You girls don’ know eachudder fahve minutes an’ you’re ‘gainst me.” He mumbled under his breath, taking off for the barricade, finding solace in the cabin of the semi.

Rose watched him go a moment before sighing and shaking her head. The red pony in the back slammed a bit against the sides for effect, distracting the HLF member and cutting off whatever train of thought she was working on. “Stay still, you, or you’ll find you and your girlfriend there off this lady’s shoulders and off this expressway.” Gesturing the guarding wall alongside the road, she leapt one hand over it to signify dumping the ponies right off the road and down several stories to their deaths. Violet’s stomach visibly dropped, and she couldn’t hide her expression from Rose this time. “Oi, V, what’s the matter wit’ you?”

Shaking her head, her eyes were closed tight. “N-nothing. I just... well, they used to be human, you know?” Violet realized her head wasn’t thing only thing shaking, as her knuckles were white, holding unto the wheel with all her might to stop them. “I mean... it’s sick what they’ve done to themselves.” She covered, bolstering her long bluff. “But... I can’t kill them.”

“Shoot girl, didn’t know you were a bleedin’ heart for these ponies. I don’t know if you knew this, but humans went and killed humans, too.” Rose smirked, drumming her knuckles against the hard plastic on the inside of the truck. Catching Violet’s disturbed look, she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “Joke, V. Yeesh, lighten up a little. Although I’m surprised...” There was a slight twinkle in her eye as she turned to the two pastel ponies in the back. Rusty stared defiantly at the girl. “Considering what you’ve done to them already.”

“Defending my home.” Violet’s mouth was on automatic again, much to her reprieve. She couldn’t keep this up mentally, that hatred that crawled under the skin. Every word exchanged hinted toward a malicious intent, keeping her mind in this distant place so she could accurately portray herself in the way they wanted. “And keeping with a stupid old man’s wish.” Releasing her hands from the wheel, she shook her head slightly. Rose misread it as a look of regret, of grievance of the old HLF staff member. “So, uh.” She coughed, shifting gears. “Can’t idle for long, you know. Never know when this one is gonna wake, you know?” Violet shrugged a shoulder toward Twinkle, who’s mouth moved slightly in whatever dreamlike state magic exhaustion gave.

“Eh, smack her again if you can.” Rose waved it off, but released her grip on the truck door. The black beast rumbled slightly in response as Violet tested the gas a moment. “So when can we expect you back this way? You gotta use this route anyway, seeing as the entrance..” Rose paused, gesturing to the partnering concrete structure alongside the stone divider, “to Albuquerque has fallen apart. It’s not safe - could give away any moment.”

Violet nodded very slowly. Could such disrepair even happen in just over a year? Then again, it hadn’t seen much work before the Bureau’s, so maybe it was a timing issue. Considering the fact that if her story was true, then Violet the HLF member would of died a rather karmic death. Rubbing the mental image from her mind, she glued her eyes forward. “Thanks. And... hey Rose?”

“Yeah, V? What’s up?” The blonde haired human asked, crossing her arms.

Violet paused, trying to find the right words. “If I hit some goddamned dear going 90, and I’m not back in four hours, take care of the tower for m-....For Freddie. You’re human, for whatever it’s worth nowadays.”

Rose paused, nodding her head slightly. “Well arright. But I don’t see how anything could take this beast and hurt you at all.” She smirked, patting the machine on it’s side.

“A tree then.” Violet rebutted, catching Rose off-guard. “I’ve never really traveled all that far from here, and I might do a little sight-seeing, what’s left of what there is to see, anyway.” Violet kept still, her eyes moving up slightly as the road in front of her cleared itself. Clicking the audio system on again, she rolled the volume down slightly as she sighed. The next song on the CD hummed to life as she looked over to Rose. The girl looked like she was starting to piece things together. “Tell me... why didn’t any of the HLF outside of Fred come to the Tower? I hadn’t seen more than five humans the last three months.”

Rose gave a hesitant look as she peered over to her brother, far off into the barricade. “The Tower... well, it...” Clearing her throat, she shrugged. “It’s too far in. You have to go by so much of pony-occupied territory... I’m surprised you could even go outside.”

“I didn’t... much. It’s dangerous business, going out your front door.” Violet gave a smirk, alluding to the music that played for them now. Rose shook her head incredulously, in a ‘you-did-not-just-make-that-joke’ fashion. The song droned on a bit, before Violet gave a bit of a shrug, dismissing the topic. “It’s not bad though. Nothing you don’t get anywhere else now.” Trailing, Violet moved the truck from it’s current position into drive, sighing slightly. “The sunsets are beautiful, you can see them beyond the city skyline from up there.” A tear dropped unexpectedly from her eye, but she ignored it - Rose, on the other hand, couldn’t help but draw her attention to it. Her expression changed, although it was unreadable as far as Violet was concerned.

“Violet... are you... You’re not coming back, are you?” She breathed, as if she was talking to someone who was admitting that they were going to commit suicide.

“Oh, I’m sure I will. Heh.” A pained laugh, a new tear fell slid across her face and hung on her cheek. “In some form or another.” Shrugging, she released the break and moved forward, leaving the bewildered Rose to connect the dots. Violet hoped the other flower child would take a little while, as there was no telling what her reaction would be. Acknowledgement? Rage? There was something behind that girl’s front, Violet had connected with it, if only briefly. They were similar in some aspects, and Violet was certain had they have met years ago, they’d have been friends in some way. Dismissing her facade, the human felt a weight lift from her shoulders as she smirked. She hadn’t the chance to act in years, and even though she wasn’t trained in improv, she was relatively pleased with the result.

Rolling past Richard, Violet gave him a smile and a wink, catching a completely bemused expression on his face before putting her foot down and accelerating past the HLF barricade. Catching sight of the sides, the girl checked to see how her pony passengers were doing. Rusty seemed lost in thought, trying to make the best of the strange position he was in, and Twinkle remained with her head stuck in the cabin, her hoof supporting her head on the threshold. Violet couldn’t go too fast with both ponies in her care having no way of bracing themselves, and that gave her time to view the area in front of her.

The concrete was cracked in some places, and in others the rails had completely fallen apart. There was no way this was a weathered occurrence, Violet assumed, sticking her head out the window to get a better look. There were tell tale signs of explosive powders and brown splotches of color every couple of feet, as if... Violet couldn’t guess what. Keeping her eyes on the road, the human navigated the cracked and weakened road, catching sight of small encampments that were starting to light up in the afternoon sun. It was going to be dark soon, and that meant any surprises along the road were going to be met in only the lights of her truck.

She wanted to know what happened here. What kind of life did the HLF lead that there would be blood stains and explosives on a road? The idea of sects, different units within the group, may have been in unrest with how the group was heading. Humans always did have a knack for fighting each other in even the most grim of moments. The dark cracks of the road warned her of weakness, a testament of human history. Blood-soaked, crumbled, with the only guiding light going out, and leaving her to deal with only what could be seen in the short term.

She was so lost in her revelry she didn’t even notice the eighteen wheeler approaching from behind, the sounds of a distressed Earth Pony muffled over her own engine.

Further down the road...

Where did we come from?

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

Part II

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

The lights were dim inside the Conversion Bureau, and not a soul could be seen inside, pony or otherwise. Violet’s head against the glass, she hit it with a dull thud as she weepishly looked on inside as she stood there. Woebegone, Violet felt her knees buckle under her as she slammed against the ground, her face betraying no pain as the impact bloodied her knee. “Too late...” She breathed. Casting another forlorn glance toward the Bureau, she felt a hot anger consume her, but it fluttered out in the very second it had appeared, replacing it with feelings of helplessness. Tears flowed freely, but she made no whimper. She felt nothing.

Weighted down, Violet spun around, her head glaring down at the sidewalk around her. She wanted it to be an angry stare, but all she could muster was the intensity - none of the feelings. Passersby, Earth pony and unicorn, gazed gazes of dull surprise toward the human girl, the tears on her face staining her cheeks with a salty residue. The wind blew briskly around her, the tides of Autumn chilling her slightly, but provoked no movement, a dense fog enveloping her, holding her still.

Violet didn’t know how long she sat there, how many ponies past her saddened shape. She didn’t care. Everyone was gone, anyway. Soon she would be to, she guessed. There was no reason to return to her home, if she could even call it that. It was more of a place where she ate, slept, and whittled away the day before repeating the process ad infinitum. She had hoped that moving to where the last vestiges of man would remove her from the creeping grip of loneliness she had succumbed to prior.

Nothing flowed for her. The only remnants of her long forgotten life had left long ago, the feeling of connection with other people... A stallion walked by, casting a strange look to the female before him. Pausing, the pony stopped. “Um... ‘Scuze me miss, but uh... Aren’t you going to... party like the rest of them?” He asked, every word he said a squeeze on both himself and his listener.

Snapping up, she eyed the red pony intensely, causing him to take a few steps away. “Look, I don’t want any trouble from your organization, I was just asking-”

“Organization?” She echoed accusingly, before catching herself. The colt was about to bolt, that much was obvious, but his eyes scanned her face. She didn’t let herself see it much with Alfred, but ponies had gigantic eyes. Large, imposing... caring eyes. “I-I’m sorry.” She choked, her head leaning back. She was never like this. Never so much of... well, a bitch. Maybe to her friends when she wanted to elicit a laugh for an overreaction, but to yell with such- malice. “I’m so sorry...” New feelings of shame reigned inside. Who was she, anyway? What right did she have to be angry? The entire reason she was here was her fault - never choosing to become a pony like her friends. Her family. Her entire race. What was she?

The colt shook his head a moment, taking the picture before him in. “Whoa, whoa, hold on lil’ girl, it’s alright,” he cooed, walking alongside the human. “Calm down - I’m sorry to have assumed you were in league with them.” He started.

“With who?!” Violet’s voice cracked, holding on to the end of her rope. “I-I...” she paused. The last month, Alfred was her only human friend. Before that, she had been the only human remaining in her apartment complex. So she had moved somewhere more posh; more high class for humans. Humans. She kept coming to that distinction. The stallion in front of her probably wasn’t a pony for more than a year - she was sure of it, with a human hacksaw adorned on his flank. Human... Violet choked for a moment, holding a hand to her mouth. She hadn’t seen a single human in all of Albuquerque in more than three months outside of her new complex. It’s why she had left her old one. “I’m the only one...” She breathed, a panic in her voice.

“You’re not... the only one,” the colt sighed, drumming his hooves on the ground. “I’m sorry, I thought you were with some of the HLF. They’ve been having a big party on the other side of town, I don’t know much - no reason to be in that area. The Conversion Bureau closed because the last couple of humans that came through mentioned that they were the only ones they knew left, really. Well, one with funny hair seemed sad - he said there might be one more-”

“Alfred...” Violet breathed. She wasn’t stupid - it wasn’t hard to come to terms with the idea that he had wanted her to follow. Reaching into her pocket, her hand ripped out a small note that the now-pegasus had wrote her. “What all did you write...?” The colt beside her leaned over, but Violet didn’t mind. The action reminded her of the way things used to be with her friends.

-----

Dear Violet,

Heh. Dear. I sound so... Shakespearean. Or something. Thouest Violeth, I am betrothed... um... thee Hamlet, forsooth! Crazy how things change over time. Although I guess that’s why I’ve come to this place I am. I got a letter in the mail today - the pegasus who dropped it off said she had almost given up looking for me, seeing as she couldn’t get in to my mailbox - Ol’ Fred never left anyone the keys. Probably took ‘em to the grave, the old bastard.

Anyway, um, so - ponies. It’s why I’m writing this. I got a letter from a friend of mine today that he was finally going through with it, and wanted to let me know my parents went in for it earlier today. Apparently their old dog died and they felt like nothing was holding them back. Don’t know why I didn’t get a letter from them myself but - oh geez I’m rambling. It took me three hours to find a goddamn pen that still works and I’m wasting it by whining and complaining.

Look, Violet, I’m going to go become a pony. Maybe today, maybe in a week, I don’t know. I’m playing this by ear. I want you to know this has nothing to do with you. Or everything. I mean... Oh, I would scratch that out but I’ve got nothing to lose. I don’t want to go alone, so by the time you read this I’ll probably be waiting, or in there already. Please, come with me. I know I’m boisterous and loud, but I’m really quite a coward when it comes to these things, but I’ve really come to like you, V, and I kinda want to be a pony alongside you. I guess that might be creepy, seeing as we’ve talked maybe three weeks, but as the last vestiges of man and woman left here in I’ll Be Quirky that’s not part of the HLF... I dunno, I thought we might have grown close.

So I’m going to go now. Oh shoot, the ink is running out. Um, if you don’t come I’ll be sad?

-Love,

Alfred.

-----

Violet smirked, a tear rolling down her cheek. He could have said as much at her apartment. The hastily scrawled note dropped from her hand and unto her midriff. Even on the blank side of the page, she could see an indent of Alfred’s name as he tried desperately for more ink to sign his name in by pressing hard on the paper. Her cheeks felt hot, and her stomach felt... disastrously weak, but really, she was glad to start feeling again.

“Owowow...” She complained suddenly, her hands shooting out to her knees where she had fallen on them before. By this point they had mostly clotted, her joints try and aching from the force of her earlier fall. It didn’t make them any less painful, though.

“You okay then, Violet?” The colt asked, having read part of the note, and gathering her name from it. A couple more ponies that had been passing had stopped to see the human girl conversing in what looked to be a friendly chat with a pony. “I kinda read a little bit of the note and-”

“No, I’m not.” She laughed, wiping away tears. “But maybe I could be.” She sniffed, experimenting her movement by bending her knees. They smarted, but they were functional, as expected. “Do you know where the ponies at the clinic went?”

A pastel pink unicorn, the single one from the bunch of ponies whom had gathered, moved a hoof step forward, craning her neck slightly to look at Violet better. “Why... you want to be a pony?” She asked carefully.

Violet hesitated. It’s why she was here. It’s why she left her apartment. It’s why she had been crying... right? She could feel herself slipping somewhat, so she did the only thing she felt she could do in response, and nodded her head violently. “More than anything.” She blurted out, a strained smile on her features.

Looking at the other ponies, she lifted a hoof, as if asking them to leave. Some did so, glad to have avoided a confrontation with a rogue HLF member too far from the others. “Well, my name is Twinkle. I’m a unicorn from Equestria and... well, up until this morning I was in charge of this Bureau.” She admitted, looking toward the colt next to Violet. “Do you two know each other?”

The colt shook his head, “No, I just saw her sitting here outside. She’s not from the HLF - she’s just human.” He explained, removing the last of any doubt from the pink unicorn’s face.

“For whatever that’s worth.” Violet chuckled despite herself. The girl looked both ways, not entirely wishing to lock eyes with a pony again - their eyes were too happy, too full of life, she didn’t feel like she could take much more of it so soon. She had felt devoid of it for so long. It was like taking a bit drink of water after thirsting for so long - too fast and it was painful all the way down.

Violet leaned back, her eyes closed. The city was quiet. A light fog rolled from the hills down toward her position. There was life - wonderful, moving life, but there was no familiar sound. Construction, vehicles, the angry horns and wailing sirens... there wasn’t any of it. How could such a thing be real - that these ponies lived like they needed each other. It was beyond them - the base human instinct.

“Please...” She heard herself say. “If there is any way...”

Twinkle looked about, her single highlight bouncing as she did. The other ponies that had gathered and not heeded her gesture to leave peered at her with pleading eyes. Save the girl. She wanted to, Twinkle really did, but she had no means, not anymore. The sedative, the magic she wasn’t capable of...

“I know a way.” The colt mentioned, standing up from his haunches. A rushed whisper grew from the other ponies as he stood. “I may have been one of the firsts here, but I remember what it’s like to be human.” The unnamed pony started to walk around the corner, before flicking his head. “Come on, Violet, you can drive, right?”

Looking up, the girl nodded, galvanizing into action. Twinkle followed suit, intent on finding out what this red pony meant, the fog which threatened to roll down had dissipated as just as fast as it had appeared.

-----

“I’ve never actually been in one of these before.” Twinkle called from the bed of the pick-up truck as it cruised down the city streets at a lazy pace. The streets were clean but cracked, the air whipping by, playing with the hair of all those present. Violet relished in the idea of one last road trip, going off into lands unknown. She had never ventured far from the city limits, instead choosing to grow up and live her life in her city to her last breath.

But she had since given up the keys up to that dream. She had a new one, and her eye sharpened as her mind pulled away from the fog that had rolled into town when the Conversion Bureau’s did. The road was clear in front of them - free of traffic, people, crashes - the few ponies that were walking along the roads gladly headed to the side, the loud engine of the pick-up giving more than enough forewarning.

Violet chuckled to herself as she caught Twinkle admiring the vehicle. It was clear that despite the multitudes of humans she had seen through her branch, she never much got out to look at the large metal machines. “It’s a relic of a bygone age, Twink. The 2011 Ford F-150. 6.2 L engine, Four-hundred horsepower, over four hundred pounds of torque.” The beast shifted gears as Violet let the engine roar a moment, Twink looking a bit frightened as she stuck her head in from the back window. “What that means...” Violet paused, a gratifying smirk on her face. “Is power!” Violet laughed as she added an English accent to the last sentence, a detail that seemed lost on Twink, but the red colt next to her seemed to chuckle a bit. Sure there had been better cars - the American musclecars, the European Supercars... but Violet had a soft spot for the ol’ red-blooded pick-up truck, her grandfather owning a ford out in the countryside of New Mexico. Memories of off-roading left Violet with a twinge of longing for her grandfather - a welcome change to the nothingness.

“I’m Rusty, by the way.” The stallion called from the side seat, putting his head in from the window. The colt’s amiable smile caught on to Violet, who stuck out a free hand to his hoof. Soft skin met with harried hoof as Violet took note of how strange a pony’s hoof felt, and made a note to check how it felt after she had one of her own.

“Pleased to meet ya, Rusty. You can call me Violet as you have, but my friend’s call me ‘V’.” Keeping an eye on the road, Violet’s eyes caught sight of an exit towards the east. “Where we actually goin’? I don’t know where other Bureau’s are.” She said, a faint glint in her eye.

“Well,” Twink started, looking between Violet and Rusty. “I’m sure my report will hold another Bureau open for at least a little while longer. Closest one is in...” She paused, tilting her head. “Colorado Springs, I think.”

“Colorado Springs! Hey, my cousin just went in yesterday, finally.” Rusty interrupted, catching sight of Violet’s expression as Twinkle was talking. “Apparently a lot of folks flow to that one rather ‘n local ones for the scenic trip to take before turnin’ into ponies. My cuz said that he was the third one that day. Sounded pretty excited on the phone.” There was a pause as the red stallion looked out the window. “Didn’t know that was the closest open Bureau around out here. This is gonna be a long trip.”

Violet’s expression molded into something between bliss and apprehension, her mind wallowing in the details of being with... sentients of like mind. Checking her fuel guage, Violet spun unto the entrance toward Colorado Springs. Looking back, she raised an eyebrow toward Twinkle. “So, is this alright? You know, for you to just up and road trip like this?” Violet asked, shrugging her shoulder a bit.

“Oh, yes, like I said, my report explained everything.” Twink said, a smile on her face.

“But... shouldn’t you have waited, for you know, permission? You said you helped run the Albuquerque Bureau. Aren’t you... important?”

Twinkle shook her head, her hair sparkling in the sun. Violet had made mental note to ignore too much about the pony, but was finding the empty road on the old expressway to be lacking. The slight bubblegum smell, the shimmering mane... did all ponies really look so beautiful? Why had she waited? Wh-

“Eyes on the road, V.” Rusty called. “I’m excited to ride in my truck again for the first time in a long while, but I’d rather you keep it intact until Colorado Springs.” He stated calmly, staring out the window.

“Can do, Red.” Violet smirked, deciding on her pet name for the red horse. Rusty bleated in displeasure at the simplicity, but said no more.

For a good while Violet and her assorted ponies merely enjoyed the view of Albuquerque go by, Rusty enjoying the sight of the thousands of pegasi which littered the skies, stretching their wings, many learning how to do tricks and really stretch their limits.

Twinkle, on the other hand, had retreated to the back of the truck bed, enjoying the wind in her mane. She absolutely adored the sights of the human city, even if it belonged to the ponies now. “Such architecture!” She breathed, the howling winds around her stealing her sounds. While she had lived here for the past year, Twinkle was never one to get out much. Cruising down the expressway at a cool and dangerous eighty miles per hour, she picked herself up, her horn glowing slightly as she approached the cabin. Sticking her head through the back window, she looked between the two a moment before smiling. “So, what kind of pony do you want to be, Violet?”

The human in question put a relaxed hand on her chin as she gave the idea mild thought. “I don’t really care, although a pegasi would be neat. To fly all day...” She breathed in deep, but shook her head. “I’d be fine with being a bare bones pony though, like Red here.” She teased, causing the pony to smirk.

“Bare bones, eh? This bare bones pony could buck you to next week and back!” He challenged, which only got a laugh from Violet.

“Not in this car, you won’t, unless you want to go careening out of control.” She warned. Looking about the cabin, Violet had decided the next boredom killer on her to do list was the magic of snooping. However, all she could find from a few casual glances was general repair work - some tools, rope, twine... it reminded her of her grandpa’s old set of wheels, although a little cleaner and didn’t smell of two year old french fries. “Say Red, what’d you do for a living?”

Rusty looked annoyed for a moment, but let it pass. “Pre-pony is the same as newfoal. I work on building things. The scale has shrunk, obviously, and a lot of what I do gets sent to Equestria or more rural areas.” Violet pursed her lips, obviously unamused with the answer, but let it slide. There were other things she could ask.

“So why you letting me take your truck? Or why are you coming along? This all seemed rather sudden - Twink here not included. Y’know, you still baffle me, Twink.” Violet accused, a small smile playing on her lips. The unicorn shrugged slightly as she turned to Rusty, who looked almost relieved that the attention had diverted off of him - until Violet brought it back.

“Well, I told you my cousin went in recently. I wanna be there for him when he gets himself a new pair of legs.” Rusty commented, before chuckling. “Well, a pair of a pair of legs.” Quite pleased with himself, the red stallion turned his head back out the window. “Sure beats walking there, not a whole lot of ponies are into retrofitting vehicles, as you can see. Ain’t a job anymore, V, working on cars. It’s a passion. That’s somethin’ you learn real quick when you go pony - not a whole lot is expected of you and everypony is fine with that. Stick to what’s on your flank and you’ll find your way.” Rusty tilted his head expertly, checking on the handsaw that adorned his flank. “Hear it’s even easier in Equestria.” He added, continuing his thought.

“Sounds like a perfect world, to me.” Violet muttered, a bit too darkly for Twink’s taste.

“And what is wrong with a little perfection, Violet? Everypony is discovering who they are, what they love, and pursuing it... I don’t understand where it could go wrong.” She laughed. Her attitude, while helpful, was wearing a bit thin. Sunshine and rainbows. Violet calmed down though, less she return to the fog she was in.

“N-nothing’s wrong with it. Just sounds too good to be true.” Violet stammered, wishing to end the train of thought. “Remember the position I was in, okay? So drop it.”

“Hold on there, V, slow down!”

“Hold on? What do you mean hold on? That I can’t be a littl-”

“No! I mean slow the hell down!” Rusty yelled, causing Violet to look forward. A line of cars, trucks, and semi’s were lined up side by side and they were bearing on them. Slamming on the breaks, the pickup stopped hard, the powerful truck coming to a screeching halt. The glow around Twink increased tenfold as her spell took effect, the cause for her glowing horn becoming clear as all three around the vehicle felt themselves come to a comfortable halt. “Cheese ‘n Rice, V! Watch where you’re goin’ next time!”

Violet was trying to catch her breath from the near fatal accident, but Twinkle’s spell had taken most of the physical complications out of the equation. “I’m sorry! I didn’t think I needed to pay much attention! Twink! Are you okay?” Violet spun around to see the tired looking unicorn wink at her. She was panting heavily, but looked fine for what she had pulled off so quickly. “Twink... Thank you.”

“No problem...” Twink breathed slowly, closing her eyes.

Violet spun around in her chair, slamming the sides of the wheel in her hands. “Now just what kind of uncultured baboon would set up a road block in the middle of the goddamn expressway!?” Violet shouted, looking over the vehicles with a critical eye. However, what adorned their vision before them caused the three travelers to collectively start praying.

There, adorned crudely in paint on the side of a semi, was the logo of the Human Liberation Front.

The Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by: Blaze

Violet expelled her breath long and deep, staring up at the ceiling above. Glow in the dark stars speckled her room in the idea of making it more like sleeping outside, but it hadn’t worked it’s magic on her in years. Now they were just familiar - a commodity that had become rare in recent time. Ever since the Conversion Bureau’s opened, nothing was the same - her best friend had run off to them quickly, sending her a letter every day she could - until all that came back one day was a hoof print and a horribly scrawled ‘Come with me!’ that Violet could only guess was written by her now pastel friend.

Slipping sideways off her bed, Violet cast her eyes toward her curtain, bordered by magnificent sunlight that tasted the edges of her window. She casually glanced toward her alarm clock, always ten minutes fast, and instinctively slammed her open palm unto it, the final digit changing the time to nine o’ clock as she hit it, cutting the alarm before it had time to screech out the grinding tones. Taking a deep breath, she idly remarked the air smelled like warm root beer, before realizing that she had left a bottle of the stuff opened near the foot of her breath. Giving it a cautionary glance, she picked up the two liter and drained the rest of the flat liquid.

“Breakfast of Champions.” Violet muttered under her breath. Gathering her courage, she stood up, rubbing the slight muffin top that extended over her pajama bottoms. She had actually been losing weight, but then again it was easier to eat healthy now that most restaurants had cheap and easy food that was somehow more healthy than anything she normally chewed on. As she remarked on her slimming figure, her stomach growled as the soda reached it, obviously unhappy with it’s first meal. “Oh, quiet you. I’ll give you something good in a bit.”

She sighed. A year ago that would of meant Fruit Loops and a muffin. Glancing wistfully toward her curtain, she grabbed the bottom and pulled. Blinding light filled the room, illuminating the cleanly mess she claimed property over. What used to be pizza boxes were now simple cardboard boxes, stuffed with memories and pictures of those who left her behind. Her eyes adjusting to the light, she bent down and picked up a loose rectangle, flipping it over.

Graduation day. There she was, cap and gown, right next to a strong, chiseled young man. To her left were two odd-balls, a short, chubby young man in glasses and the eccentric actor that made up her little group of friends. She closed her eyes, remembering them, their faces, their voices. She could hear Evan’s voice, so unfitting his stocky physique. “I guess I could go into radio, I hear I’m not supposed to sound like how I look!” How apt that was now, she admitted. The anatomically poor man had been one of the frontrunners to the Bureau, his self-confidence had always been held back by his physical shape.

What came out was a blue-gray stallion pegasus that, while a bit wider around the flank, was just as tall as anyone. Or anypony, as the little horses liked to say. Shaking her head mercilessly, she tossed the picture off to the side. The others, like Evan, were all... different now. Looking toward her door, she pushed it open, most places no longer having locks or knobs anymore. It had been replaced before she moved in here - apparently the last tenant had thrown an absolute fit and got himself thrown out, but not before breaking what he could.

The rest of Violet’s apartment was in far contrast to her room. Clean and tidy, one would believe it was almost up for sale. The floor opened up into something spacious, with plenty of room to dance, hop, skip, or jump... none of which Violet would partake in. Not without someone else. The sound of her apartment was deafening to her - this silence all encompassing. Not a knock or a slam or the muffled arguments of a family could be heard anywhere beyond her walls. Violet stomped her foot loudly, as was her custom, and waited for a response that never came.

-----

A month ago, she had a meeting with the other tenants. It happened on a foggy day that was just like any other. An old couple named Judy and Harold, an eccentric music man named Alfred, and the superintendent. When she arrived into the room, she had been taken aback slightly - not to see so few people, but rather - so many! They sat comfortably in their own ways, Judy and Harold sat pleasantly in their chairs, while Alfred sat on a table, using a chair as a footrest and a wall as his leaning apparatus. The super merely sat behind an important looking chair, his mustache unkempt and his old, gray hair scruffy from weeks of ignoring simple brushing techniques.

“Ooohhh...” chided the old maid. Violet spun to look at her, and could see the woman was analyzing her and forming her own opinions. Judy looked nice enough, her blue sundress was ironed just so that it seemed she stepped off the set an old film. Violet felt hot under the collar being examined, and quickly made her way behind a table to keep herself from being fully watched, as if the oak table could save her from the old marm’s opinion.

“Well, would you look at that, another one joins us in ‘high society’!” Laughed the music man, his polka dot shirt unbuttoned and revealing an extremely hairy chest. It wasn’t hard to avert her eyes from anything but his wild expression, but as she gave it more scrutiny, she could see he meant no harm. “Hey super, when you said we had another tenant I thought you were finally letting ponies in.” Leaning his head forward, Alfred slipped his hands behind him and replaced his head against the wall. “Maybe I’d have some neeeeeiiiiigh-bors.” The pun was awful, but Violet could hear a chuckle emanate from the old couple.

The superintendent shook his head, but soon leaned forward. “No...” he breathed. Even from here, the sour stench of alcohol hung on his lips. “This is my building. No goddammed ponies will be in my building. It was built for humans, for fuck’s sake.” He cursed, slamming a fist against the table, a loud snap could be heard from the maple desk, but the super paid it no mind. “And it’ll stay that way ‘till my fuckin’ last breath.”

Violet felt uncomfortable. She always did around anyone angry - it didn’t even have to be at her. She never watched movies like that, either. The idea of hate for hate’s sake... She eyed the superintendent’s vest a moment. Adorned on it was something that took her breath away as suddenly as a lightning strike.

The seal of the HLF.

She had heard about them from the news and radio reports on her commutes to work, how they claimed to want to save the humans from the ponies and denied any radical involvement from attacks on pony kind. While Violet was certain not all of them were primarily evil, or hate filled, or whatever... She knew that kind rage at the mere mention of the new sentient race was enough to send a shiver down her spine.

“Hey, you, Rose or whatever.” The superintendent spat, saliva and alcohol spraying over his desk. “You lookin’ at my badge?” He challenged. A strange look adorned his vision as he looked at her up and down.

“Violet.” She corrected, trying to keep her cool. “And no, not really. Caught my eye for a second.” She lied, mentally berating herself for staring like a deer in the headlights of a car. Her mind wandered against her will, wondering if the man before her tried to do that with any ponies, but she banished the idea as the superintendent stood up suddenly, causing her to jump slightly.

He wasn’t a large man, as it turned out. To be honest, she had only come over to the building from phone calls, and he seemed so happy to hear from her. But now - he seemed dangerous. Still, his less imposing size littled him in front of Violet. Calming her nerves, she let herself meet his gaze unassumingly, if only for a moment.

“Hey now, Freddie, calm down, we’re cool with ya.” Alfred chuckled, switching his feet around on the chair. Harold seemed to be more interested in what little was happening outside of the window. With such contrasts over the room, Violet didn’t know what to expect, but to her appeasement the super sat back down, huffing slightly.

“Fuckin’ pony-lovin’ bitch.” He swore, eliciting an eye-roll from the young woman. It was just like her father, really. “But yer human, so I guess it counts for something.” He coughed, lightly at first, but it quickly devolved into huge gasps followed by whooping coughs. It escalated so quickly that Violet didn’t realize it when Alfred jumped to his feet, running over to Fred and trying to help him calm down. “Geddawayfrome!” The super shouted, before coughing harder.

Harold continued to stare out into the city, his gaze fixed on a floating pegasus, mailbags strapped to it’s side as it flew overhead. Violet stood up slowly, heading to the phone cautiously. As soon as Fred’s cough turned to a hack, and blood started to mix with his spit, she made the call.

-----

Judy and Harold left after that, and Alfred stayed with Fred for awhile before he died of complications. Apparently years of smoking and other nasty habits had nearly torn his lungs apart, and the culmination had finally broken down and taken his body. After that Alfred and Violet spent every other day just reminiscing on old times, what lives they had led before the escape of ponyism took away their dying world. Now it was silent, even in this high rise apartment, where only the wealthiest of people could of lived. It no longer creaked and groaned with life. She used to stomp her foot hard against the ground, the music man responding in kind, to give the place some semblance of life - but that had stopped a week ago. Her whole building seemed to have stopped.

Violet stared out at her city. Albuquerque used to be so beautiful to her, but now most of the buildings seemed vacant. The lifeless eyes of her city stared at her in her tower of man. Walking over to a sliding glass door, she stepped out into the open air, taking in the smells of her city. It was different now - so very different. The sounds of motorists were faint if not nonexistent.

At least I’m human. For whatever that’s worth. She scanned the city, specks of pastel pegasus dotting the skies as they played or worked from what she could see through a fog. Some were simply enjoying the wind beneath their wings as they cruised the cityscape, leaving Violet with an empty feeling that matched her city. Turning, she made for the inside of her home.

“Down bellloooowww!” Cried a voice, causing the pajama-clad girl to whip violently around to see a clumsy pegasi fluttering about, trying to get the hang of descending. Violet looked wildly about, trying to find something to help the pegasus’ landing, but her balcony had been bare since she moved in - the idea of enjoying her city had fallen through once she had felt it stare back at her. Rushing to find an aid, she didn’t get very far before the full force of pony collided with her back as they rolled through her door and into the padded carpeting of her home.

It took a moment for Violet to react further, feathers strewn about and hanging from her untidy hair, she rubbed her nose slightly as her mind focused on what happened. “Total wipeout.” The pegasus called, causing Violet’s mind to sharpen. Spinning around, she stared down the pegasus, hands on her hips as she gave him a look that could freeze time.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” She screamed, pointing toward the door. “Get the hell outta my home before I rip your feathers off and punt you off my balcony!” She threatened, her mind not going over the logistics on how that might not exactly work. She was pissed - and she had every right to be.

“Whooooa, girly.” The orange pegasus laughed, getting up on four hooves, a smile playing on his expression. The way his hooves hit the carpet made a lovely swooshing sound that Violet decided to ignore. “No need to get uppity with me.”

“Get. Out.” She said again, taking a step forward.

The stallion laughed slightly, which hit a chord with Violet. It seemed familiar. Catching sight of the wild expression, the gears in her head started to crank into motion. Slamming a hoof against the ground, it reverberated the apartment slightly as he cracked a smile. “Come on, Violet, I’m still new to the whole flying thing!”

“Al...” She breathed, slamming a hand to her forehead. The pony in question spun around on four hooves a couple times, as if proudly displaying himself like a model. His tail swooshed around every which way, but what was probably the most striking feature was his mane, which like his human self, was full of curls and unkempt strands sticking out at odd angles.

“Look, Violet, I didn’t mean to crash into ya like this, but I couldn’t get into my apartment through my window and and... Well, the scanners outside don’t let me in.” He muttered sheepishly. Violet kept her stare on as she briefly considered if a pony could be a sheep, but realized a person could give a sheepish look, so a pony could too. “I’m kinda surprised you’re still here though, I woulda thought after my note-”

Violet’s eyes widened slightly. “Note?” She echoed.

Alfred turned his head slightly before continuing. “Yeah, V, my note. I stuck it on my door before leaving for the camp - didn’t you check?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Violet looked a bit sheepish - which really just proved her earlier assumption - as she shook her head. “You didn’t check.” He said, his voice deadpan.

“Hey now, you could of stuck it on my door!” She defended, pointing to the door to her apartment as she did. “You stopped responding in the morning, so I thought you just plain left after Fred died, Alfred! You two were friends, or something!” Waving her hands about wildly, Alfred followed her fingers, raising a hoof and inspecting it thoughtfully. “You’re not even listening!” She cried, once again slamming a palm against her face.

“What? Oh, yes I was. Sorta. Look.” Flapping his wings a couple times, he made a gesture with his hooves that cut the line of thought before landing on his hooves again. “I shoulda come by and told ya, but I wasn’t even sure I was going to go through with it. But when I got there - guess who I saw?”

Violet raised an eyebrow, shaking her head and shrugging. “I dunno, Al, who did you see?”

“Harold and Judy! And Harold was as lucid as can be!” Alfred exclaimed, hoping a bit on his hooves. Violet looked taken aback - she hadn’t really noticed that Harold wasn’t all there - just quiet. She didn’t know any of the tenants, really, before the meeting... or after. Except Alfred, really. “We shot the wind for a bit and they convinced me to give it a try-”

“A try? There’s no going back from being a pony, Al. There’s only doing and not doing. And you most certainly did!” Violet’s outburst surprised even her, and her hand moved from her forehead to her mouth, before shaking violently. “I’m- I’m sorry. I don’t know where that came from. This is just... well, I thought I wasn’t gonna see anyone I knew again.” She admitted, working her way over to the couch. She sat there awhile, Alfred looking her over a bit before walking to the edge of the furniture and sitting on his haunches. “Are they coming back here too? Harold and Judy. Now that Fred, y’know...”

The orange pony shook his head. “Nah, they mentioned about heading to their summer  home and picking up some things. Pictures or something like that. Then they’re heading off to Equestria.” He said sadly, shaking his mane.

Violet looked up, having been cradling her head in her hands. “Is that what you are here to do, too?” She sniffed. She hadn’t expected this to hit her like it did. Her friends had left to tears, sure, but it always got easier. These were people she barely knew, and now... Now it hurt all over again. “Are you just pick up your stuff and... leave?” She choked out, trying to regain herself. It wasn’t working.

Al shook his head sadly. There was no use lying about it. Gathering herself into a straight face, Violet nodded slowly, her neck stiff. “Alright then.” She shot to her feet, Al calling after her to wait a moment. Ignoring him, she made for the door, opening it and looking back. “Come on, you aren’t going to be able to open the damn door without me.” Her voice like stone, Al sighed and followed behind.

-----

Her arms were crossed, but they were grasping at her sides like a tight hug. Violet watched Alfred go about slowly, pulling out a pair of saddlebags he had bought prior to ponification. “Bullshit...” Violet coughed. There was no letter on the door when she got there, although the pegasi had flown ahead. Al was going to get ponified the moment he left. He must of been. Sniffing as softly as she could, she still caught the attention of Alfred, who shook his head sadly, wishing she would just leave him now - but to be honest he’d be trapped in his own apartment if she closed the door behind her, so he endured her cold stare. As he went about moving things, he found himself caring less and less for things he thought he couldn’t live without, but still he nabbed a few pictures off the shelf, for sentimental value. Doing so earned a scoff from Violet, and Alfred sighed.

“I... am sorry, V. For not telling you upfront.” He confessed, placing what he believed to be his final item in the saddlebag. “I just...”

“Save it, Alfred. You wanted to be a pony, and you didn’t care about some girl in the floor above you.” She shot back, shaking her head. “Are you finished yet? I’d like to get back home.” Violet’s cold look sent a shiver down Al’s spine. The pegasus merely nodded slowly, then turned to his saddlebags, eyeing them. Stick his nose through, he attempted to move himself into the bags, but found himself with some difficulty.

Slamming his hoof down, he tussled and wrestled with the bags until he found himself on his back, his wings and tail completely tangled. Struggling for a bit, he found he had somehow got two hooves stuck in one of the straps and had pulled the strap tight around them, severely limiting his movement and, in all essences, gotten stuck. “Wha...” He breathed, flailing his wing around in an attempt to swing himself around. “Oh crimany.” Violet looked on in amusement as the orange pony rattled against the ground, the sounds of him hitting the floor resonating in her ears. Closing her eyes, she stomped a foot down on the ground in unconscious response. Alfred paused, swiveling his neck around to view Violet, whose frigid expression had melted to that of a content smile. After a moment’s hesitation, he lay against the ground, lifting his good back hoof up, supporting his weight, before crashing his flank on the ground again with a dull thump.

Violet slammed the ground a second time with her feet. And thus he did again, and she stomped again. They did that routine for close to an hour, simply hitting their bodies against the ground, tears of merriment raining down from Violet’s closed eyes.

Finally Alfred fell to the ground in a slump, his leg too tired and his flank too bruised to continue. Opening her eyes, Violet could see the poor colt heaving tiredly from the effort, and smiled warmly. Walking over to him, she tutted mockingly. “How will you ever survive in Equestria. You can’t fly, you can’t dress yourself, you can’t even stand up right!” She laughed once, before dissolving into a giggling fit as she knelt down to Alfred, helping untangle the pony from his trap.

A low chuckle escaped from Alfred as he lay his head on the ground. “Yeah. But I can make people laugh.” Violet took a moment, leaning looking over at Alfred’s face. A couple tears rolled down his face as a large, closed smile was pressed on his equine features.

Pulling a strap back, Alfred felt his hooves free, and Violet extracted the saddlebags. As she did, an envelope fell out the side, causing the woman to lean over and pick it up. “Now what’s this...?” She said, raising it up for Alfred to see. “To Violet. Ah, your letter to me!” She sang, giving Alfred an unreadable look.

“Well, it’s nothing much, Violet, I’m here right now so I can tell you the contents of it easily. You can trash the gosh darn thing right away-” Silenced by a rip in the paper, Violet did the opposite as she was told as she extracted the letter. Alfred winced visibly as she unfolded one third of it, causing her to look at him with amusement.

“Why, Alfred, I could say that you don’t want me to read it now.” She teased, before folding it back. He nodded slowly, his cheeks blushing madly. Sensing it was a fairly personal letter, she decided it could wait - people always tended to do weird things before making a massive change in their life. In Alfred’s case, it was becoming a three foot tall pegasus. “Well alright, but I’m keeping my hands on it.” She informed, opening up her shirt and sticking it between her skin and bra. “Where you won’t dare reach for it with your only working appendage.” She mentioned, chattering her teeth to prove a point.

“Yeesh, alright.” Alfred cried, his orange color turning a pink shade along his muzzle. However, his thoughts were interrupted as once again Violet’s hands were on him, this time setting the saddlebags on straight. “Oh! Ahem. Well, thanks.” He muttered, wincing as she pressed against his bruised flank.

“No problem. Nice cutie mark, by the way, I didn’t notice it before.” She mentioned idly, tightening the last strap. However, as she didn’t have time to actually let go of it before it was ripped from her hand as the colt was currently spinning in place violently.

“My cutie mark?!” He exclaimed, craning his neck. “Confound these wings! What’s it look like!?” Violet merely sat back, shaking her head.

“It’s a sign from theater.” She mentioned, giving it a poke as he passed by, which caused him to yelp and jump straight up and down. “Whoops, sorry. Anyway, there are generally two plays, tragedy and comedy. You, sir Alfred, have comedy plastered on your ass.” She laughed, shaking her head. “Which really, tragedy would of fit just as well.” She teased, sending herself into another giggling fit, much to Alfred’s displeasure, until he looked back at his mark, this time moving his wing out of the way.

There it was, wrapped with ribbon around it, was the image for a smiling face - which looked just fine, stylized like an equine. Allowing Violet finish her much needed giggles, he let her pick herself up and dust off her pants. “Thank you, Violet.” He said simply, before gesturing toward the door with his hoof. “After you.”

Violet turned toward the door, and then back to her friend, waving her arms in a ‘no way’ fashion. “You forgot your other saddlebag. You’ve only got the one on.” She said, gesturing toward the empty bag in the corner. Alfred turned to look at it, and shrugged.

“I didn’t get it for me.” He said simply, trotting out the door. Violet looked blankly on for a moment, before dawning came over her features. Jogging over, she picked up the saddlebag and slung it over her shoulder, unsure of what to do with it. Maybe she would need it down the line, but first she was going to go beat Alfred for such a cheesy line.

-----

“So, now that I have a matching bruise...” Alfred glared at the amused woman who sat at her kitchen counter. “I think it’s time to take my leave.” A cold wind filled the room from the open glass door, echoing his finality. The smile started to fade from Violet’s face. Looking at the pegasus pony, she nodded slowly. “Well...” He began, as if he didn’t know where to end.

“What’s your name?” She asked.

“I’m sorry?” Alfred asked, taken aback.

Violet rolled her eyes. “Your pony name. Almost everypony I’ve talked to changed their name to something whimsical. Not many ponies native to Equestria are gonna react well to a pegasus named Alfred.”

Regretfully, the pegasus shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t given it any thought.” Tilting his head, the pony’s face brightened. “How about ‘Mousse’? I love that stuff.” Violet’s eyes feel to half-moons as she gave the orange pegasus a once over. “Aaaaah - alright then, how about, um...”

“Chuckles.” Violet blurted. “You got the laughing thing there, and it’ll let you revert to Chuck. It’s a far cry from Alfred, sure, but you got something normal to your ears.” She mentioned.

“Chuckles.” He echoed, dead pan. “Chuckles. Really.” His face melted, though, as he kept saying it. “Chuckles. Chuck-les. Well alrighty, Mr. Chuckles.” Breaking out in a smile, he applauded his hooves along the ground. “I guess I’m Chuckles again.” The pegasus nodded his head to the idea.

“Yeah, but you’re Alfred while you’re here. Speaking of Alfred...” She produced the letter that was addressed to her. “An Alfred gave me this here letter. Now I wonder what it says...”

Looking up, Alfred read her face, a look of fear spreading on his own. “AHEM!” She shouted. “DEAR VIOLET!” She warned, looking from the letter to the pegasus, but the pony in question had already bolted, a speck along the city skyline. Placing the letter down, she walked toward the glass shutter, sliding it closed as she saw the pegasi dot the sky. “Heh. See ya, Chuckles.”

Violet saw her city once more, looking at it differently than she had previous. Her city was dead. But the signs of life she was looking for where all wrong to what was in front of her. It wasn’t her city. Closing her eyes, she nodded in affirmation. This city lived. Differently now, but it was alive all the same.

Lowering her head, a small smile crept on her features as she slammed her leg against the ground one last time, letting the silence of the action rain down on her. A tear rolling down her face, she walked back to the table picking up the letter. She gave it a quick look, before standing up and stretching. Looking out the large plate glass windows, her smiled grew.

Turning, she raised the letter up to her face to read as she approached her door, opened it, and took off into the clear, sunny day.

Her saddlebag draped across her shoulders.

To the Bureau!

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

Part VII

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

The morning came like any other. Groggily, purple hair poked itself out from under a comforter, knowing full well the blast of sunlight that would greet it’s sensitive vision. Shuffling a moment, the ideas of ‘five more minutes’ fell flat on the girl’s wishes when memories of the day before flooded her senses, causing the human girl to shoot up in her bed, looking about wildly. “Three years...” Violet murmured. The concept was so new still - that she had let it all run together for three years without pause - she dreamed of her old life. Smiling, she leaned her hands back on the bed staring up at the hole at the top of the Wal-Mart that Twinkle tore open in the night. She missed her friends. Evan, Keenan, Christina... Perhaps, once she got to Colorado Springs, toward the final Conversion Bureau’s in the nation, she could see them again.

“‘Bout time you got up, V,” a light hearted voice called out. Spinning slightly, Violet found Rusty muddling about in the shopping cart, looking about for food. “It’s been a silent morning. Outside of Twinkle’s snoring.” Violet turned to see the pale pink pony in the bed next to hers, the formerly silent unicorn belting out a uncharacteristic snore that echoed throughout the store.

“Jesus...!” Violet breathed, a chuckle playing on her lips. “I didn’t think anyone could snore that loud.” Spinning her body slightly, she quickly felt the warmth of the bed leave her, and she looked back upon it. Next to her lay the prone form of Rose, the girl who’s own life changed drastically over the last two days as well. Hesitating to move much more in fear of waking her, Violet eventually shifted herself to the tones of another monster snore. Her bare feet grazed upon the ground below, the ripped carpeting reminding her of her own back at the apartment. A sad smile found itself on her lips, one that didn’t go unnoticed by the red Earth pony.

“Say, Violet, I’ve been meaning to ask you, what are your plans?” Rusty mused, trying to get a dialogue going. Gently moving his hooves so the most force was on his forelegs, Violet was reminded of the wounds he scored during the excitement the day before. Rushing forward, Violet found herself in the confusing position of wanting to help him, but being completely unable to fathom how. Rusty chuckled as he simply fell to his haunches and splayed his legs, his forehooves falling forward and covering his underbelly. Violet smirked slightly, and keeping her eyes from wandering on curiosity, slid her back down on Twinkle’s bed as she sat next to the stallion.

“Plans...” She echoed, running her hand through the frazzles strands of hair on her head. She had been almost unconsciously dying her hair for a long time, and it felt exactly how she’d expected three years of dye jobs to feel. Shaking her head, Violet shrugged. “No plans. Never had a plan in life. Act, perform, and live. S’far as I ever really let myself think.” Her head fell back on the soft bed, reminding her skin of the bed and triggering her laziness. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine what she’d look like as a pony, trying to keep herself to the idea of just a simple Earth pony. “Ponies never seem to have plans, though. Just... happy gallivanting. It’s a surprise it took me so long to consider it for myself,” Violet mentioned, picking her head off the bed. Another snore issued from Twinkle above her, causing a chuckle and a giggle to emanate from the two new friends. Sighing longingly, Violet elbowed Rusty playfully. “How about you? You never really told me what your plan was; simply hopping in a truck with some crybaby human girl? What’s the angle there? Hoping to get with me once I go pony?”

Cheeks red from the teasing, although completely unseen under his natural color, Rusty shook his head violently from the accusation. “No! Not my angle! Um.” As he defended himself, the pony’s mind drew a blank, allowing an awkward silence to permeate the area a bit as he coughed uneasily.

Chuckling, Violet again pushed against the red pony. “Aw, don’t be like that, Red.” Her hand reached out and tossed Rusty’s mane about, his entire being a beacon for ‘ginger ponies’, almost as much as he was when he was a human. “Just lemme in on your reasoning here. You gotta admit, taking off on a one-way trip with a chick and a pony you don’t know? Kinda sketchy.”

Rusty smirked, starting to understand the girl’s standard of humor for once. “I wouldn’t call it one way, Violet. I planned on coming back.”

“How so?” Violet interrupted, an assuming smile playing on her features. Rusty turned to her with a confused look, mane scraping along the edge of the bed as another one of Twinkle’s snores vibrated the bed frame. “You can’t exactly drive a truck.”

Rusty paused, putting a hoof to his snout. “Can’t... exactly.... Damn it.” Face falling, the pony realized a fairly large hole in his logic. “I can’t...”

Violet laughed heartily, covering her mouth a moment later for the sake of Rose and Twinkle. Rusty averted his eyes completely from the laughing human, and he could feel his cheeks radiating red from the mistake. “You mean.... to tell me you forgot you couldn’t drive?”

“No! Not... exactly.” Rusty cut in, shaking his mane about. “I just... forgot you wouldn’t be able to drive back.” Sighing through his nose, the pony finally leaned his head back on the bedspread, his neck craning up toward the ceiling. “I guess Twinkle could push the gas down and I could drive - or you could, if you go unicorn. Or maybe...”

“Maybe...?” Violet echoed, her face returning to the assuming smile. Rusty was quickly learning not to like that look.

Exhaling briefly, the pony’s forelimb draped lazily along the ground, falling off his chin. “Well, my sister moved to Equestria about two years back, she and her family. I’ve always been meaning to go - get to see my little niece... Conversion Bureau’s always have shuttles to Equestria for the newfoals.”

“So you wanna see your sissy and her little pony. Cute.” Violet smirked. There was a moment of silence between the two, sitting in the morning light through the hole in the ceiling. Eventually, however, Rusty felt a knock on his skull, and he turned to see Violet shaking her head and smiling. “Don’t give me that ‘no plan’ shit. You knew as soon as Twinkie here said there was still a Bureau in Colorado Springs that you were losing your easy shot to see your family,” Violet gathered, remembering Twinkle’s Bureau was the last to close in Albuquerque.

Rusty gave her a look, but it softened slowly as he nodded his head. “That makes sense, doesn’t it?” He laughed, putting his forehooves together in a clop. “I guess you’re probably right, there was little reason else to just... up and go like that.”

“You mean to tell me you don’t even know what you’re up to half the time? Sounds dangerous, even for a pony,” Violet teased, picking herself up off the ground. Stretching her limbs, the human girl found that the snoring had stopped as she spread herself out in a five-point star.

Rusty rolled his head around in response, stifling a yawn as he did so. “Keeps things interesting, I guess. I think you’re right though, I am Equestria bound.”

“Mmmmmmmmmreally...?” The strained, half yawn, half stretched voice of Twinkle filled the air around them as the sleeping unicorn attempted to remove herself from the sheets. Failing that, the pink pony rustled up next to the end of the bed and peered down at the resting Earth pony and his human friend. “That’s where I was going, too.”

Rusty chuckled, shaking his mane. “I figured that. Good morning, Twinkle.”

Violet echoed his sentiments, which Twinkle responded to in kind. “Good morning, all. Mm!” She stretched, her horn sputtering to life as she attempted a second time to remove herself from the sheets. “How long have we been asleep for?” Greeted with a chorus of negative responses regarding the time, the unicorn chuckled. “Well, I suppose that’s to be expected. Humans never seemed to wear watches by the time we came around. Just those celled phones.”

Violet smirked. “Cell phones. Really, Twinkle, how long have you been running a Bureau?” The question brought the concept of her earlier conversation to its new recipient, and Twinkle brought a hoof to her chin in much the way Rusty did.

“Well, Violet, I believe the key lies in the question. I ran Bureaus, but I never got to really interact with the people there as much as I’d like to.” Yawning, the unicorn finally pulled the sheet from around her limbs, and the shaky pony leapt off the bed and unto the floor with a muffled pitapat of hooves. A slight bag still hung under the filly’s eyes, remnants of the dark events that transpired the day before. “I really only have a vague understanding of human novelties, so you’ll have to forgive me if I seem a bit dull to start.”

Violet smiled warmly, bending her knees as she crouched next to Twinkle. “You aren’t that dull at all, Twink. A little ‘tea on the lawn’, but that’s just the way you are.” Pressing against the unicorn’s horn a bit with her finger, Violet took note of the strange sensation the magical appendage delivered to her hand as she touched it. “Besides, with a brilliant little tool this is, no one is gonna think you’re anything short of stellar.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Violet. Always nice to start the morning feeling appreciated.” Placing a hoof on Violet’s shoulder, she delicately tapped Violet’s forehead with her horn as a sign of affection for the human girl. “Might I add you are simply extraordinary yourself, hearing about your exploits yesterday. Excuse me if I say, of course, that I am quite happy I was not at all ‘there’, so to speak’, for it.” Her eyes darkened slightly, averting her gaze from the form on the bed nearby. Violet peered over to the sleeping girl, sitting on the bed next to her.

“It’s not something I want to relive.” Violet murmured. “I just reacted. It’s what I’ve always done. I hope she can forgive me.” Reaching out, Violet stopped from touching Rose just barely, drawing her hand back as she sighed and shook her head. “I wonder what she’ll do now.”

Rusty pondered this himself, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “I suppose she can go back to the rest of the humans. She’s shown that we were still a pretty good bunch, she and you, despite some of the vocal ones.” Sliding a hoof along the ground, he winced slightly at the unwelcome pain that issued from his back hoof. “There must be friendly people she can stay with.”

Violet nodded solemnly. She wasn’t in agreement with the idea, but there was little she could add to it. “I wonder what they thought of her brother. She’ll have to probably answer to that, if they didn’t already find his body. A semi-truck falling a hundred feet and crashing an expressway doesn’t exactly go unnoticed.” Scratching her chin, Violet looked over to the ponies, pondering the ideas for the human girl. “Maybe we can pass by an IHSA branch...”

Twinkle paused her, giving a confused look toward the girl. “IHSA?” The way it came out of her mouth was, “Ehsa”, drawing befuddlement from the two Equines.

“International Human Survival Alliance, y’know, IHSA.” Violet muttered, shaking her head. “Y’know, kinda like the HLF except not trying to kill you?”

Rusty chuckled. “No, we know who they are, I don’t think we ever heard someone say ehsa when referring to the I-H-S-A.” Picking himself up, the red pony winced visibly, but waived off the girls as she made move to put him back on his haunches. “Girls, I gotta be able to go to point A and point B, so just drop it - I’ll live with the bruises.” As he spoke, he kept lifting a limb and leaning on his forelimbs, trying to keep himself from dealing with too much at once as he hopped on the bed, taking comfort in the bed’s soft cushions. “I don’t think they’re active in New Mexico, but I do know they’re western branch is in Colorado Springs.”

Violet’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? That’s... horridly convenient.” Rusty chuckled, shaking his head slowly as he lay on his belly.

Twinkle, however, was the one to speak up. “Not exactly. The IHSA often helps ponies and people both, with no catches. In fact, some of the higher ups out here are ponies themselves. I have a friend there who I’ve wanted to see for awhile.”

Violet smirked. “So that’s why you decided to tag along?”

“That, and to help you, Violet.” Twinkle related, causing the human to be embarrassed slightly. Sensing her discomfort in being the main reason, Twinkle merely shrugged with a sheepish smile. “You looked so downtrodden, Violet, I felt like I had to help.”

Violet sighed. “I know, and you have another reason. Just don’t really feel like being a charity case.” Shrugging it off, Violet reached out to Rose a second time, placing a hand on the other girls’ shoulder. “Well, I think we’d best just ask her what she feels like doing. Not like we have any say in the matter.”

“Best Goddamned idea I’ve heard all morning.” Rose muttered, suddenly shifting in the bed to look at Violet. It was clear the girl hadn’t been asleep for a length of time. “But I appreciate your concern. You’re all looking better.” She muttered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as they adjusted to the light from the ceiling.

“You bitch, how long have you been up?” Violet muttered, feeling a slight twang of regret the moment she finished her thought.

Rose’s arm shot over and snatched up the pillow Violet had used, and propped herself up on her own tower of pillows. “Long enough not to care about being called a bitch in the morning, thanks.”

Rusty pawed at the side of his bed, trying not to think about what Twinkle thought about all the language being tossed around. “So, Rose, uhm... holding up alright?” He guessed, figuring it was best to get the elephant out of the Wal-Mart as quick as possible.

The girl sighed through her nose slowly, shaking her head. “As alright as it’s gonna be for awhile, pony. Although thanks for the tact.” Rolling her eyes, Rose moved herself around checking her leg a moment as it popped out of cover. “Look, I know this is gonna sound weird, but I’d rather not think about my brother for awhile, so the less you bring him up, the happier I’ll be.” Flicking her bandage a moment, she gaped at how much the subtle reaction hurt, prompting Violet to grab her shoulder quickly to check if she was alright. “Fine! God, Jesus Christ... Yeah, just, don’t fucking touch that if you can help it.” Cursing a couple more times, the blonde human shook herself a couple times to compose the rest of her. “God, we’re gonna have to redress it and everything in a bit. Uhm, Twinkle, right?”

“Yes, you’re right,” Twinkle responded, her horn glowing softly. “Don’t worry about the pain too much, I’ll try and handle what I can with magic. Although we should get you somewhere that can help stitch it up better than what we’ve done...” She trailed, averting her eyes from the wound. The blood had leaked through the outer layer of bandage, the dried red-brown liquid making the unicorn’s stomach queasy.

Rusty, on the other hand, found it a bit more difficult to actually look away from it. “Sorry I can’t help with that, Rose,” He explained, “But really, I don’t think we should hang around here much longer. Do you have any place to be? Want us to... take you anywhere in particular?” There was a soft silence that descended after his words, the group of four considering the ideas presented previous. Being Rose’s decision, the others kept their mouths shut.

Rose eventually sighed. “Fuck, let’s go to Colorado Springs. Maybe the old lift up to Pike’s Peak still works. Always wanted to see that.” Twinkle greeted this with a flashing smile, but Violet seemed a bit on edge about it. Regardless, it was Rusty who gathered the girls up and galvanized them into action.

“Well, Twinkle, Violet, bein’ the only two of sound mind and body, I believe you two have a little work to do so your poor, damaged, weak companions can get from here to the car in relative comfort...” Rusty murmured, throwing on some mock sadness for the girls. Twinkle looked a bit unsure, but Violet got up and rapped him one right above the mane. “Yowch! Yeesh, kidding, kidding!”

“Yeah, I bet you were. Come on Twink, let’s help Mr. Poor and Weak to his wheelchair,” Violet muttered, pushing against the red pony and flipping him on his side, Rusty complaining the entire way.

-----

Wound re-bandaged and ponies in back, the black truck took off from the parking lot as the clock on board let the group of four take off into the afternoon sun with its human passengers sitting in the cabin. At first, Rusty argued the fact, but the point of the matter relied on Violet’s assessment of seatbelts and damaged hooves. Rusty was still dealing with a damaged forelimb, no matter how he tried to hide it, and a hasty stop would see him without a seatbelt and having to hold himself on the dashboard. At least in the back he could rest up against the back of the truck. Beaten and literally bruised, the red pony took to the back with the help of Twinkle and Violet, and found himself quite happy with an assortment of pillows and comforters that Twinkle had lined the back with, including a mattress for them to lay on.

“I’m actually kind of jealous of them, now.” Rose muttered to herself, leaning her seat back slightly as she adjusted it to her more human settings. “A mattress, pillows, blankets... Why the hell was he complaining?” She whined, much to Violet’s pleasure. Whining was a state of normalcy to the elder human, and showed that Rose was telling the truth about her brother - she wasn’t all that close to the monster that stalked the roadway. “So, Violet, pretty sure to say you’re gonna be a pony by next week.”

Violet gave Rose a sad, apologetic look, but the blonde waved it away. “Yeah, yeah I guess I am. I never was against the whole thing, I just... never saw much reason. I’m human, y’know? No reason not to be.”

Rose nodded a couple times, digesting the idea. “So what’s changed? For you, I mean. What’s the big reason that turns a healthy looking girl with purple hair and a history in theatre from people to pony?” Violet raised an eyebrow as she turned unto the main expressway again, this time on the lookout for blockades and damaged stonework. “What I mean is... why now? Is it really ‘cause of your friend, Albert?”

“Ah.” Violet breathed, running a hand through her hair. “Well... Geez, I’m not... It was yesterday, I guess.” Rose gave Violet a look, but she quickly backtracked. “Before, um, that happened. It was Albert, just... not really him.” Placing a hand on her head, the girl closed her eyes a moment as the road straightened out before them. “He was... the last one. The last human I knew. The rest all left. And then it kinda... hit me when he came back for me. I could never get it out of my head, Rose. That the people... the ponies coming out of the Bureau’s... They’re still the same people. They’ll still love movies, books, video games - stupid videos you find online.”

Rose chuckled at that, her arm raised up and leaned on the open window, cradling her head lightly. “So you don’t mind that they no longer have those ‘negative emotions’ shtick?” She needled, not turning her head at all toward Violet.

“It’s bullshit.” That got Rose’s attention. “I’ve already seen enough ponies to see the seven deadly sins in any of them, let alone dark emotions. They’re just, I dunno, more balanced. Less likely to go off the deep end in any scenario, good or bad.” Checking the fuel gage, Violet started to experiment with all the little gadgets at the truck’s disposal, but paid more mind to the idea of MPG than anything else. “I just never cared about any of that, really. You could get something akin to that by never leaving your apartment for three years.”

As they drove on, Rose became more silent, her mind elsewhere. The truck roared along the road, Violet keeping her eyes on the road for a change.

-----

“It’s kinda windy.” Twinkle sighed, trying to cover herself more completely into the blanket. Violet had helped tuck the two ponies in, using the mattress and the ponies own body weight to keep the bed and the blankets intact during the drive. Rusty smirked as she nestled closer to him, attempting to pass the time while also keeping warm. However, their heads were near the edge of the truck nearest the window, and in such their heads floated in a cone of air that wasn’t threatened by screaming wind. “Why did today have to be cold?”

“‘Cause here, we only predict the weather, not change it.” Rusty joked, testing his forelimb slightly against the side of the truck bed. It hurt, but nothing like it had the day before. He probably had Twinkle’s medical magic to thank for it, he mused, before spinning back to face the unicorn in question. “Although don’t you have some kinda spell you can use to... I dunno, cancel the wind?”

Twinkle looked a little cross, but relented as she shook her head. “No, Rusty. I know I have magic, but it’s really not all encompassing. There are plenty of things I can do... but so much more I can’t. And wind cancelling is one of the things. I. Can’t. Do.” As she ended her sentence, her hooves hit Rusty’s stomach in succession. Not hard, but the chilly appendages found warmth against the flailing hooves of the red pony, much to the gleeful giggling of the unicorn. “But you can cancel the wind’s effects quite nicely!” She screamed over his convulsions.

“Not fair! Not fair! Knocking a colt when he’s down! I thought ponies were nice! You’re cruel! Evil!” Rusty complained, his hooves flying every which way but towards Twinkle, the two enjoying the moment of friendship - one obviously more than the other. As the two tussled about, a short rapping came from the front, interrupting the two ponies moment of childlike fun. Raising his last good hoof out, Rusty slid the back window open, allowing the two in the front to communicate. “Uh. What’s up... up... there?” Twinkle giggled at the embarrassed ponies speech, which really didn’t help the colt’s disposition.

Violet’s voice cut the wind quite well. “We got a helicopter incoming. Can’t tell from here if they’re with the HLF at all. Cover yourselves up a bit better, don’t want to attract unwanted attention!” The two ponies stared at each other, Twinkle’s pale blue eyes showing she had no intention of reliving yesterday’s struggle, despite being out for most of it. Horn sparking to life, the unicorn evened the blanket out a quarter inch above their bodies, making the back of the truck bed look completely devoid of life. As a result, however, the wind over the ponies was cut down dramatically, only allowing a faint wisp grace their pastel coats.

“Well there’s your wind cancel spell.” Rusty joked. Twinkle stuck her tongue out at him in response, giving the Earth pony a slight kick to his stomach, which shut him up quickly as he leaned forward. “‘Kay... Gotcha...”

The whirring blades of the helicopter came gently over the sound of the wind, Violet taking no time to slow down to let an investigative pilot catch much more than a passing glimpse on them. She wanted no trouble, and by George, she wasn’t gonna let them make any for her. As they sped along, the helicopter got louder, the tracking eyes of Twinkle trying to follow the sounds as best as she could with an inquisitive ear.

Rusty watched her inquisitively, trying to gather just what he was seeing on her. Apprehension? Fear? “No...” He breathed. It was something else. Underlying, just below the surface. Reaching out, Rusty laid his good hoof on her shoulder. She was fidgeting. However, it was clear to him as her eyes shifted from the edges of the blanket to the pony sharing the back with her. It was terror. She only had a taste of things yesterday, and it didn’t suit her one bit. And yet, here they were, again looking down another dangerous situation. Another chance of the unknown. Rusty cooed slightly, attempting to calm the mare. “Hang on, it’ll just pass, Twinkle. It’s just going to pass. Everything will be fine.” His eyes held hers firmly. He wasn’t going to let her look away. “It’s just going to past. Everything is going to be just fine.” The blades whirled closer, the noise seemingly deafening. The engine of the helicopter could be heard now. That high pitched whine penetrating their cotton defense. The whirling turned into a roar.

And then it passed. The copter flew by overhead, apparently uninterested in the lone truck that was northeasterly bound for out of the city’s suburbs. The vehicle itself seemed to relax as the wheels laxed slightly, Violet’s white knuckle grip on the wheel relaxing as the purple haired human watched the helicopter in the sideview mirror. Rose breathed out slowly, a soft smile playing on her lips as she shook her head incredulously. “Huh. I haven’t seen a helicopter in years,” she breathed. Turning to look at the ponies in the back, all the blonde could see was the straightened sheet on the back. “Alright, ponies. You see anything interesting about that thing?”

Relaxing her spell slowly, Twinkle and Rusty caught sight of the helicopter, bearing an insignia unlike that of the Human Liberation Front. Twinkle was the first to breath a sigh of relief before giving the all-clear. “Nothing to report, it wasn’t HLF, though!” She called, relaxing her blanket back to its natural position, attempting to tuck the sheet in again with her magic. Rusty caught the apprehensive look she still held, though, and quickly set about helping out where he could with his one good hoof.

“Good to know. Recognize the symbol on it?” Rose called, taking over for Violet to relay commands. There was a minor argument between the two girls, before finally Rusty overheard a “Eyes on the road, V!” The two ponies chuckled at the reprimand, much to Violet’s chagrin.

Rusty shook his head, earning an equal response from Twinkle. “Nah! Didn’t get a good angle on it, but it wasn’t anything like the HLF’s. Kinda blue, I guess?” Rusty shrugged his limbs, which, again, Twinkle mimicked herself.

“I think it was familiar, but I can’t put a hoof on it. Maybe it was the United States seal for something?” Twinkle guessed, calling loudly. This seemed to placate the humans in the front seat well enough. Feeling the cold wind again, Twinkle rolled closer to Rusty, working off his body heat. “Don’t get any ideas, Rusty. I’m cold, okay?”

“No complaints here, Twinkle.” This earned him a playful shove, but the pale pink pony immediately nuzzled closer to the male pony, whom noticed the unicorn was shivering somewhat. Guessing she was colder than she let on, Rusty was reminded that unicorns tended to be a bit more frail compared to other ponies, and as such, she was likely more likely to get cold than a hardened Earth pony like himself. “Kinda wondered why you waited so long.”

Twinkle smirked. Looking up at him a moment, she gave him an unreadable smile before leaning down again, her eyes closing as she leaned her horn against his neck. “Makes you think, huh?”

As the truck drove off into the distance, the quartet left Albuquerque, destined to never see its borders again. Under the rumble of the engine, Violet spoke of her days as an actress. Rose related her days dealing with various unsuitable boyfriends. Rusty spoke about his work with carpentry, complementing the idea of how oddly easy it was to use a human hammer in his mouth. Twinkle spoke of her family back in Equestria, her parents who she hadn’t seen in years.

Behind them, the mysterious aerial vehicle carried on under the whir of its own engine. Letting loose a stream of purple, quickly evaporating liquid upon the city, it aimed for the headquarters of the HLF. The stream of dissolving purple mist splashed down, sizzled and spit as it infiltrated every corner of the network of structures. It moved itself toward the humans as if sentient, preying over those still recovering after a night celebrating the end of consented ponification. The few that were aware of it fled, their screams of terror muted under the rumble of the vehicles engines.

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

Part VIII

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

The basic hum of the road didn’t much alleviate from the drumming boredom that had settled upon the quartet as they drove down the I-25 North in the only car on the highway. The vast, dusty plains held nothing but dotted specks on the horizon, the sight of a bird, a vulture, at one point a pegasus or two broke the monotony of driving in a straight line. Violet mused on the standards of the road, which had kept up quite well over the years, as opposed the the raised concrete expressways that she had seen snaking through her city, like arteries for the heart of her city. Smirking lightly, she likened the cars to blood cells, the police and ambulances the white cells. The sound of sirens was such a foreign thing now - most pony emergencies were dealt with by trained pegasi, with serious injury dealt with a team of unicorns pulled by pegasi carriage. It was a unique thing to see in the sky, an ornate box pulled by winged beasts through the misty skies. She had spoken to Alfred about it once, she remembered. He asked her if she missed the sounds of the city.

She hadn’t answered.

Turning to the only other human companion she’d had in years, Violet raised a curious eyebrow toward the girl. “So whaddya think that was?” Rose’s eyes opened wide in surprise, her mind elsewhere on the do-nothing road. Looking about, Rose seemed occupied in what Violet was talking about, prompting the purple haired woman to snicker at her compatriots confusion. “The helicopter, Rose. I hadn’t seen one in month-years, even. Maybe two years.” Violet kept mentally reminding herself that more time had passed then she remembered, and it was still a jarring proposal. “What do you think it was for?”

Rose shook her head. “Hell if I know, not even the HLF has many of those birds flying around anymore. Finding the fuel is hard to come by these days, so whatever it was must have been... had to be important.” Violet nodded in agreement, leaning her head on her arm. The long flatlands yielded nothing for the girls on the road, Rose taking a momentary look back towards the truck bed. Smirking slightly, the girl bounced back to a forward facing position. “Well, we lost a lump.”

Violet raised an eyebrow. “A lump?”

“Yep,” Rose nodded, mimicking Violet’s headrest technique, cradling the side of her head in her hand as she leaned on the windowsill. “We used to have two lumps in the back. Now, we have one big one.” Violet hadn’t noticed it before in the dark, but Rose liked to talk with her hands a lot. Swinging her forearms rapidly, she made seemingly random motions that somehow made context in what she said.

Thusly, Violet’s eyes went wide. “Y-you’re not saying they’re... in the back...!”

Rose laughed - high pitched, but pure - shaking her head violently. “No! No, aw, V, you gotta get your head out of the gutter!” Spinning a cautionary look back, Rose solidified her claim as a pony’s head looked up curiously to find out what the girls were talking about. The long, orange mane flew crazily in the wind, and a pale pink unicorn’s horn shot up next to him, tapping him lightly on the cheek. Looking down, Rusty smirked as he leaned back down. Rose rolled her eyes, but her smile was betraying her real emotion. “Although if we’re not careful...”

Violet let loose a single laugh, shaking her head in her hand. “Oh, geez, that’s what I need. Baby-making at 80 miles per hour.” She stifled future laughing, hey eyes scrolling the horizon. As they drove along, Rose let loose a question.

“Do you think unicorns have contraceptive magic?” The blonde asked, bringing a hand to her chin.

“Wwwwhat?” Violet asked incredulously. She honestly didn’t see the subject coming, but she shook her head. “I, I guess? I don’t know.” As she thought about the subject, she did notice that ponies didn’t seem to have very large family’s regardless, and almost never did she see unwanted fillies and colts. Of course, she never got out much.

Rose scratched her chin, moving up to her cheek a bit as she opened her mouth into an ‘O’ shape, as if it made a difference to the itch. “Guess it’s been on my mind. There are only so many condoms left in the world, V, and a girl’s gotta be careful.”

Violet couldn’t help but guffaw, girlish giggling never really holding true to her style. “Oh Gaaaawd, Rose, really? Really?” Holding her hand over her mouth, she struggled to keep a hand on the wheel as the truck barreled down the road. “You know what else there’s a shortage of? Boys,” Violet mentioned, trying to remember how many she had seen that didn’t go pony or eventually try and kill her. “Not that that’s going to be my problem by next week.”

Rose stuck her tongue out at the girl, deciding to pay more attention to the road ahead. “Yeah, you’ll have colts and stallions to attend to. I’ll probably just latch next to the first single guy I see that isn’t a total monster.” She said, pondering her options. “I’d suppose there aren’t gonna be a lot of total monsters at Colorado Springs, or else they’d have gone pony or gone to work for the HLF.”

“Yeah, and there’s always the IHSA branch out there that Twinkle mentioned.” Violet peered her eyes ahead, seeing some sort of vague shape on the horizon that didn’t seem to be just a part of the roadway. She looked to her sides a moment, seeing that the flat expanses - not to mention the numerous roads that ran alongside the I-25, meant that a blockade would probably be useless. “So... you know... there’s that- What is that up ahead?”

Passing a sign that read Sante Fe - 2 miles ahead with the appropriate exit number below, Rose leaned forward, her arms leaning against the dashboard, her palm resting over the portion that read AIR BAG in stylized caps. “I think it’s a... tent?” She guessed. Violet echoed her sentiments, but Rose squinted her eyes against the sunlight. “It’s a... big white tent.”

Violet raised an eyebrow, her foot subconsciously pouring on the gas as the truck accelerated toward the anomaly.

-----

As the truck approached, Twinkle peered ahead over the roof of the cabin. While her horn was less than ideal for peering over surfaces, she hoped her lighter scheme of color would go relatively unnoticed against the cloudy sky. However, the group needn’t be in feet long, as the unicorn smiled hugely. Sticking her head into the cabin, the girl pony reported her findings. “That’s the IHSA insignia on the side of the tent!” she said, smiling. There was a passed glance between the human girls, their minds mulling over every old movie cliche in the book. “We’re completely safe.”

Rose was the first to speak up. “I’d hide regardless, pony.” The blonde leaned closed toward the window as she looked over the collection of white tents and vehicles. As they had neared, the girls in the front of the truck had started to pick out the shapes, noticing the gleam of windows and the like. “They could be in disguise.”

Twinkle giggled softly. “Disguise? To what end? We’re in the middle of nowhere, girls. Do you really think that the HLF would go so far as to camp out somewhere to take ponies hostage off the roads?” Rose and Violet exchanged glances, each one fairly unsure of how much things should be taken at face value.

“Short answer? Yes,” Violet muttered. Rose scoffed slightly, herself being a part of the HLF until recent events, if only as a member due to family. Not that she honored such anymore. “Look, it’s probably safer if you and Rusty hide out back there anyway - just in case,” Violet asked, earning her a soft sigh from the unicorn. Regardless, the pink pony disappeared out to the back, pulling the blanket over herself and the red stallion.

Rose looked back a moment before shaking her head. “I’m not saying it’s not, but I didn’t hear anything about a group camping out next to roads, dressed up in tents with the IHSA symbol on them. For the most part, we’re kinda friendly with the IHSA - well, not ‘we’, but...” she trailed, her voice cracking slightly. Violet passed a worried glance over to her friend, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Rose chuckled and shook her hand. “It’s alright, I’m not gonna break open like a fountain on you...” She trailed.

Violet sighed, but her eyes were trained on the encampment as it neared. “Even still, Rose.” She didn’t feel the need to say much else. As far as Violet was concerned, her friendships were made by trial by fire, and each one was forged well enough. Slowing the vehicle, she could see humans moving among the camp, some of them noticing the truck at the distance. “Think they’ll do anything...?”

Rose cleared her throat as she pointed at a figure walking towards the road. As he strode, an orange square could be seen near him, in what resembled a flag as the truck got close. Sure enough, the man raised his arm, holding a fluorescent orange signal flag as he waved the truck down. “I guess... we should stop.”

Violet looked over, but Rose simply shrugged. “They’ll get plenty suspicious if we don’t,” she mused. Forced to agree, the purple haired girl slowed down even more as she started to pull over to the side of the road, the man dropping the flag as he gave a friendly wave. The gesture was enough to make Violet feel less nervous as they approached, her biting anxiety starting to wane as the man smiled. Pulling alongside the man, Violet gave a curt wave toward him. Rose smiled, giving a more vocal response. “Hey, old man! You with the IHSA?”

“Sure am, little lady. Name’s Jorge. That’s J-o-rge, no that I expect you to spell it out,” he chuckled. He was a large man, with a naturally dark tan to his skin. A light beard punctuated his jawline, but none of it more than a couple millimeters long - just enough to show on his face. His broad shoulders meant he was no stranger to the weight room, either. Leaning against Violet’s open window, he winked at the girls as he knocked on the roof of the truck. “I don’t see many trucks on the road these days. Where you girls hailing from?” He smirked as he looked back at the truck bed, seeing the mattress and blankets. “And who’re your pony friends?”

Twinkle audibly groaned as the blanket went slack, revealing vaguely pony shapes under the covers. Shifting herself unto her hooves, she peered at the man in front of her. Vaguely military, she mused, but otherwise she deemed trustworthy. “Hello there, sir, I am Twinkle, and my friend here is Rusty,” she mentioned quickly, flicking the blanket off the red Earth pony in the back.

The others held their breath.

Yet, Jorge laughed heartily as he reached a hand out, which Twinkle gracefully met with her hoof, shaking their appendages. “Good to meet you, Twinkle. Is that a single name, or are you one of those dual-name unicorns? I’m Jorge. Jorge Cutler.” His smile was huge, and Violet mirrored it, giving Rose an expectant look. The blonde shrugged and gave a fleeting thumbs up, giving a light shrug as she looked over the other men and women at the camp.

“Just Twinkle is fine, Jorge. I hope you don’t wish to be referred to as Mr. Cutler,” Twinkle started, but the shaking head of the man clued her in.

“No, no. Mr. Cutler was my father,” Jorge chuckled.

Rusty pushed himself up on his good hoof, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sorry to hear that, Jorge,” he said, stabilizing himself. He had caught the was easily enough.

Jorge laughed and shook his head. “Oh, don’t worry about it, ‘Rusty’. That’s a human gone pony name if I’ve ever heard one. No, my dear old dad goes by the name Sledge, like the hammer on your flank there. ‘Course, he’s got a grenade on his. Old war veteran into an old war pony. Mom’s happy as a lark now that she’s a pegasus, though. Ha!” Jorge smiled down at the red pony, taking note of his damaged forelimb. “Eh? What happened to your hoof, there?”

Violet cleared her throat quickly, feeling ostracized from the conversation thus far. “We had a bit of trouble, and he fell out of the cabin and landed wrong on his hoof.” She informed, having no reason to lie to the man. Rose nodded slowly, deciding not to dwell on it. “Oh, and I’m Violet, and this is Rose.”

Jorge held out his hand to each of the girls, where each quite graciously accepted. Shaking his hand was an almost foreign experience, having not had to go through such pleasantries in years. Jorge waved down a couple of his friends and they came by. Rose was the first to notice a couple carried weapons, but Violet didn’t think much of it - feral animals tended to stalk the open fields these days. “Well girls, if you aren’t in a rush, would you like to have some company for a little while? We don’t have much to offer in terms a’ food, but we can help ya. Whaddya out here for?”

Violet looked over to Rose, who was focused on the guns of the people on the base. “I could ask the same question, Jorge. What are you all out here for? It’s not like Sante Fe or something got hit with some big disaster. I can see it from here,” Rose quiped, gaining the attention of the large man. “Seems a bit off with the tents and jeeps and the semi over there.” Rose pointed toward the makeshift parking lot, where a large semi - fortunately much unlike the kind they had seen previously - were parked.

Jorge hesitated a moment, but shrugged and smiled. “Field tests, really. We’re out and about on a convoy to test a couple things out here. Don’t let the guns fool you - they’re just for the wild animals out there. Things have been getting riled up as of late - the brass says it’s the magic in the atmosphere, makin’ things go wild! It’s why most of the west has vacated, I hear,” he mentioned.

Twinkle nodded slowly. “Yes, I hear it can be quite dangerous further north, where the Jet Stream is more prevalent year round.” She mentioned. Violet took a moment to digest the idea of dangerous, magically enhanced animals, but banished the thought from her mind.

Rusty looked about at all the IHSA members, and echoed something he had heard Jorge say. “You said something about ‘the brass’. Are you a military group?”

“Sure am. We’re a branch of the IHSA devoted at... keepin’ the peace between pony and person. I can guess you all are familiar with how the HLF can be. Killin’ you pony folk for the sake of killin’. Shame we lack a centralized force to deal with ‘em these days, but you know what they say about stupid people in groups.”

“Call it a government.” Rose smirked, much to the amusement of Jorge. Rose nodded her head slightly at the man as she gestured toward the parking lot. “What do you say, guys? Stick around?”

Violet didn’t mind, as she was quite enjoying the man’s company. The ponies agreed as well, and soon Jorge was gesturing toward the gathering of vehicles. “Well, go ahead and park. Like I said, we don’t have much, but we’re willing to share with you all should you need something.” And with that, the group headed toward the parking lot, Violet taking the decision to park far enough away from the lorry truck for Rose’s sake.

Jorge met them alongside another member, introduced him as Carl Juniper, and they finished a whole meet and greet. Violet shook Carl’s hand, but found unlike his companion, Carl was a bit more cold and militaristic about it. This didn’t earn  him many points with the quartet, but they didn’t quite mind it. Stepping out of the vehicle, Violet rounded the truck and started to help Rose out, before Jorge stepped in. “Whoa, Whoa there little lady. My, that is a nasty looking job there on your ankle, child,” he murmured. “What happened there?”

Violet cut in before Rose could, sensing a delicate situation. “Well, she... It’s kind of a private matter, but we did everything we could for it,” she said. Jorge gave a passing glance over her, but nodded his head. “Well, I’ll see if we can’t help you get fixed up then.” Passing a look over to the red pony who was gingerly getting down off the bed with Twinkle’s help, he pointed at the stallion. “You too, Rusty.”

“Many- oof, thanks Twinkle - Many thanks.” Rusty chuckled, nearly falling all over the unicorn. She threatened to skewer the colt if he tripped up again, and he simply grinned while apologizing.

Sticking a thumb over to the ponies, Jorge raised an eyebrow. “Not meaning to pry, but are those two ponies together?”

Violet chuckled. “Give ‘em another day. Two, tops.”

-----

In the white tent, Violet found herself separated from Rose and Rusty for a little bit while she, Twinkle, and Jorge spoke about various things. Violet found it all to be an odd sensation, to be sitting around humans and ponies alike, shooting the breeze like the world had always been this way. She kept glancing over to Carl, though, the stoic man merely sitting nearby. Jorge, however, was dominating the conversation, apparently quite happy to have some new souls to talk to. “So then we were deported off to Australia to help with relief efforts, moving many of the sick to hospitals before eventually even those were just converted to Conversion Bureaus,” he said, pulling out a stick of gum.

Offering it to the girls, Twinkle refused it while Violet grabbed a piece, more than excited to have some gum for the first time in years. Twinkle tapped her hoof thoughtfully as her human companion tore into the wrapper and chewed viciously on the pink stick. “So they replaced human hospitals with Conversion Bureaus out there?” she asked, shaking her mane about. “I can see why - ponification deals with many illnesses, both mental and physical, but to simply use our serum as an outlet for a case of pneumonia...”

Jorge shook his head. “The unicorns and the like did their best, Twink, but many humans still succumbed to radiation poisoning and cancers from all the disturbed dust and bombs. It’s unfortunate, but any case that was deemed malignant was sent to a Conversion Bureau.” Leaning back, the built man kicked a foot up over his knee and let it rest there as he closed his eyes in recollection. “There were cases that seemed manageable, but with dwindling supplies and a sure-fire cure available, it was a mass exodus for humankind.” Stroking his chin, Jorge turned to crack his back a few times. “Outside of almost losing some of California to the Pacific, there wasn’t as much need for it in the Americas.”

Violet nodded slowly, events from the day of disaster slowly coming to light in her mind. “So you said you’re a military unit?” She asked, her eyes glancing over to Carl. The man in question had taken out his gun and began to disassemble it, taking a look at the pieces as he thought to clean them. Jorge looked over to his compatriot, only to roll his eyes and wave him him.

“Don’t think much of Carl there. He says little and thinks even less.” At this, the man nearby pointed the large section of the gun toward Jorge, pulling the trigger with a resolute click. Violet and Twinkle visibly winced, but Jorge didn’t even flinch. “Don’t you know that there still could have been a bullet in the chamber? One of these days you could kill me and bring the general IQ of this place down thirty points.”

“Fuck you,” Carl spat, before placing the gun down and walking away.

Jorge shook his head. “Always a treat, that one.” As they watched the angry man push his way through some of the other men and women on the base, they were rewarded with the sight of a blonde girl with crutches. Rose made her way toward the group, popping around people and chairs like an old pro. “You used to crutches, child?”

Rose chuckled. “A bit, actually. Broke my leg about five years ago in an accident, so I’m used to getting around on one foot and two artificial ones.” Violet coughed slightly, bringing the attention over to herself.

“You’re about one working leg short of a pony,” Violet teased, earning a hiss from her friend as the blonde found a place to sit. She saw a gun in a number of pieces on the floor next to it, but found herself seated regardless. “I guess I’m jealous. Not for too long, though.”

Jorge looked over at Violet in surprise. “Ah, you’re going in for ponification? Fantastic, girl.” Clapping a large hang against the girl’s back, Violet nearly doubled over into the ground as he did so. Catching herself, Violet just gave a sheepish grin toward the man as Twinkle cleared her throat.

“Jorge, if you don’t mind my asking, but I’m confused. I’ve worked with the IHSA for the last couple years, quite closely, but I don’t recognize anyone from this encampment.” Rose looked about at the people working around them, expecting some sort of staring contest from them, but each one basically ignored them. Violet seemed to notice this as well, finding that it seemed just as odd. “Not to mention you’re in it for the preservation of human survival.”

“Hey, y’know, not for nothing Twinkle, but could you try not to make me feel incriminated here?” Violet exhaled hard, crossing her arms in mock indignation. Her mind was buzzing, her sense of acting coming to the forefront. “It’s been a long run, but I’ve got nothing left as a person. I hope you understand, Jorge.” Deciding whether or not to flutter her eyelashes was a difficult decision, but the burning sensation on her back where Jorge jovially ‘patted’ her gave her cause not to.

“Ah, it’s of no concern of mine, little lady. I’m just living out my duty to the brass, but I can see myself as a pony someday. Don’t confuse us with the HLF - we like what the ponies are doing for our race.” Jorge rubbed his cheek slightly, his hand moving up as he slid his fingers through his short, brown hair. “All of humanity that is left is either the best of us or the worst of us. Makes it easy to point a gun when things go bad.”

Twinkle choked on her own saliva, a fact Violet realized was the first time she had ever seen a pony do that. Still, the graveness of the statement Jorge made hung heavy in the air. Clearing her throat, Violet passed a glance over to Rose a moment before continuing on. “But, I thought the HLF and the IHSA were on good terms...?”

“Openly, maybe, but they’ve started to see a lot of us as shepherds for humans who want to go pony. And they don’t like that.” Jorge harrumphed loudly, but brought a thumb across his nose before continuing. “There have been... hostilities, that we have to take care of sometimes.”

“Is that why you’re down here, then? To take care of hostilities?” Rose butted in, her eyes sharpened. Jorge paid it little mind, but merely started to stroke his beard. Violet noticed he had a physical tick to his speech, as his hands really couldn’t seem to leave his face. “What about the family members that don’t know any better? Sons and daughters?”

Jorge shrugged. “As long as they aren’t hostile, we never shoot first.” His voice held something that Violet didn’t like. Her years in theatre could tell her that there was a hint in his voice that didn’t sound entirely truthful. “There is a fundamental difference in our theologies, so it’s best to talk to a child early to avoid problems.” Violet kept running his words through her head. Inflections, stresses. There was something in his voice that she knew he was trying to let them in on, and it was starting to drive her crazy. A rhythmic throbbing started to slam against her ears as she pursued the knowledge, but her thoughts were interrupted as a red stallion entered the tent, a splint on his hoof and what looked to be little slippers or shoes for his back legs.

Rose greeted the stallion first, but quickly turned to Violet. “You hear that sound?” Violet’s eyes snapped open as she realized the throbbing wasn’t in her head, but was actually a sound. The tent started to flap about violently around them as Jorge leaned back, unfazed by the interruption.

Rusty, on the other hand, shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, it’s that helicopter we saw earlier,” he mentioned idly, a small grin on his face. “Check it out, girls, they gave me little shoes for my feet. I can’t even begin to tell you how much better it feels to walk now.”

Jorge quickly leaned forward, his eye furrowed. “Say again, Rusty? You said you saw our helicopter?” His face had quickly turned to stone, an unreadable expression over his face. The red colt gave a quick grin, bouncing his head from side to side, ignoring the warning looks from the human girls.

“Yeah, when we were leaving Albuquerque we saw a helicopter fly overhead toward the city. I recognize the insignia on the side now. Man, we were so scared when we saw it overhead, I couldn’t get a good look at your little symbol.” Taking a seat next to Twinkle, Rusty turned to the unicorn and showed off his splint. “Looks like I can walk a bit normally now. I gotta be careful on this hoof, but they said if you help with some magic from time to time, I could be good in a couple days.”

Jorge stood up in one fluid motion, rolling his shoulder slightly as he cleared his throat. “I didn’t know you girls came from Albuquerque. Heard only HLF kids lived there.” Rose averted her eyes at the mention. “If you all had stayed a bit longer, we could have shortened your trip for you, Violet. Rose.”

Rose kept her eyes away from the large man, running her arm against her forehead. “Well, V’s the one getting ponied, I’m just along for the ride, really.”

“Oh, I’m sure there’s more to it than just that,” a voice called, unfamiliar to the assembled group outside one. A man strode in, flanked on one side by Carl, and on the other was a woman in dark sunglasses. Adorned on his jacket were numerous medals, and it didn’t take Violet long to recognize an insignia emblazoned upon his suit coat. “Hello there, guests. I am Lieutenant Samuel Standish. I’m in charge of this operation and I’ve just been informed of your arrival. Ah, hello there Twinkle, how nice to see you again.”

The unicorn in question gave a small, sheepish smile. “Ah, hello Lieutenant. Fancy meeting you out here.”

Violet looked between the two and raised a hand expectantly. “Uh, ‘scuse me, but ah, you two know each other?”

“Vaguely. The Lt. here helped with the closing days of the Bureau before we shut down. He’s been responsible for the transportation of our serum and sedatives for the past month,” Twinkle exposited, her voice shaky. Now it seemed like everyone was starting to hide something, and it wasn’t sitting well with the purple-haired human.

“That’s correct. Lovely you remember me, Twinkle.” Standish smiled, giving the collected group a shared grimace to how unnaturally white his teeth were. “Of course, that’s not everything you remember me for, now is it?”

Violet’s stomach dropped as he continued to stare at the unicorn, but couldn’t help but stay silent. She was curious as to what he meant - perhaps dangerously so. There was a reason curiosity killed the cat. Rose looked between the assembled people, taking note that the others who had surrounded them weren’t looking at them - they weren’t even there at all. Jorge and the two guards that had come with Standish were the only people within eyesight, the whining sound of the helicopters engines shutting down was the only thing that clued the others to life outside the tent.

Twinkle cleared her throat. “As it stands, Lt. Standish never delivered the potion or the sedatives to IHSA Headquarters in Colorado Springs. We had thought he had been taken prisoner by HLF forces, and we were forced to shut down all of our Bureau’s entirely.” Rose and Violet spun their heads on a swivel as Twinkle spoke, the pale pink pony locking eyes with Violet. “That’s why I couldn’t of made the simple exception to bring you in back in Albuquerque - we had no way of trusting our final reserves were safe from tampering.”

Violet felt a rush of indignant, but she soon quelled it, realizing the how and the way held little in terms of where she was now. “I understand. But... my friend, Albert. He turned into a pegasus just fine-”

“Excuse me, but I hate to be ignored.” Standish chided, bringing his sweeping gaze to rest upon the blonde haired girl. “Besides, I have so much to say still. Sharla, be a dear and escort these ponies to their vehicle. And do keep watch on them, would you?”

Rusty cocked his head to one side. “What? Hey now, why the sudden seriousness?” Looking about, he started to read the expressions on everyone’s faces. “What’s going on?”

“Sharla, please. Give them a little motivation.” As the lieutenant spoke, the woman brought out a sparking tool of electricity, pointing the taser toward the ponies.

“Come with me ponies, I promise no harm will come to you.” Sharla, as she was called, soon started to herd the two ponies out of the room, Carl and Samuel watching the two confused ponies as they were brought outside. Violet couldn’t even begin to express her fear as she turned to Rose, the other girl simply not looking away from the ground. Violet wished she could be so simple, her eyes looking up toward Jorge. The friendly man she had seen before was stone-faced, his hand resting on the handgun at his side.

“So... what’re you going to do? We haven’t done anything!” Violet eventually choked out, to which she was responded to with a laugh. Spinning to look over to the lieutenant, the man grinned down to her with hidden malice.

“Do to you? Nothing at all... Violet. Correct?” Samuel turned toward Carl, who only grunted in response. “One means yes.” Standish chuckled, his eyes training once again on the blonde girl before them. Standing over her, he ran a hand through his jet-black hair as roughly grabbed the wounded girl’s arm, his hand slipping down to his side. Bringing out a small device, he stuck a needle into Rose’s neck, dripping sedative straight into the girl’s veins. Violet shot to her feet quickly, but soon found herself restrained by Jorge, who grabbed her arms and held her back. “No, Violet, you’re safe. However, I think I and my men have a little issue with your HLF spy here.”

Dropping the medical instrument, Lt. Standish released Rose, the girl struggling to stand on her good foot. Violet screamed out for her friend, but the girl soon collapsed on the ground in front of her. Standish gestured mutely toward Rose, Carl picking her prone form up. Standish turned toward Violet, who struggled uselessly against the strong arms of the military man behind her. “Now then, Violet. I believe we should have a small talk about a man named Fred.” Violet’s eyes bulged at the mention of the Tower’s keeper.

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

Part IX

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

Violet was pushed along through the encampment, the strong arms of Jorge keeping her from resisting Lieutenant Standish’s orders. In front of her lay the limp form of Rose, the blonde girl who’s life she had saved, however briefly it may seem now. As they walked, Violet could hear the footsteps of purpose emanating from the Lieutenant as he walked behind them. Her eyes trained around the camp, catching sight of only a few others. As it stood, the entire area likely only had around ten people at most, a fact she found surprising, if not dulled by the fact she was a captive by all definitions. As she was forced along, she could see Rusty and Twinkle on the other side of the field in their truck as they themselves approached the semi on their side of the lot. Struggling against Jorge, Violet seethed under his grip.

“Why...? What’s going on Jorge? I thought... you weren’t like this!” Violet pleaded, pushing against his arms. The man behind her sighed as he kept her moving, the girl not seeing the man shake his head.

“Orders are orders, child.” The tall man said, his voice subdued.

Violet tried to pry at his disapproval. “Please, you must know she’s not bad! You talked to her, she’s a nice girl, really! A bit rough around the edges, a bit of a mouth, but who doesn’t?”

“Violet!” It was a light shout, but the girl in question turned to see Rusty pushing up against the female human who held him and Twinkle at bay. She threatened the stallion with her taser, her other hand held firmly on her side, right above a holster. Violet could do nothing but look on helplessly as her friends were shepherded toward the car, Sharla pushing the two inside the truck’s cabin.

Grunting, Violet tried to look back, but a jostle from Jorge kept her looking straight at Rose’s unconscious face as they were brought along. “Just what do you want to know about Fred anyway? He was an HLF member who died. Heart attack or something, nothing more,” she spat back, only to hear a light chuckle come from behind.

“Nothing more? Oh, Violet, that simply isn’t the case. Especially when you’re driving around with a couple ponies and the daughter of a high ranking HLF member.” Standish laughed, but Violet stayed silent, her brain working on unwrapping what he just said. Before she could think much further, however, Carl broke from the group, moving toward a large door on the side of the semi, while the others kept walking toward the back.

“Hey now- where are you taking her!?” Violet yelled, earning her another unceremonious shake from Jorge. She was really starting to dislike that man. “Please, don’t separate us, she just lost her brother-”

Clearing his throat, Lt. Standish straightened his uniform as he continued on. “I’m well aware of that. His body was found this morning, mangled with a large hole through his head. Apparently their festivities were cut short when a large lorry ended up driving off a crumbling expressway and it killed their new commanding officer.”

Violet again wrestled against Jorge, this time the man relenting slightly in allowing the girl to see the Lieutenant. “What are you talking about? Richard wasn’t-”

“Ah, and there’s the admission of knowledge. Lovely how that works.” Standish continued to smile as he passed by Violet, grabbing hold of the back doors of the semi and opening them. “Jorge, if you’d be so helpful...” Nodding, the large man forced Violet up and into the back of the truck, Carl appearing nearby to help the man with the job. Violet yelled at the men, but soon found herself pushed back into the dark chamber, the door slamming shut behind her. “Be back real soon. Just have to tie up a couple loose ends.”

-----

Rusty swore loudly, much to Twinkle’s displeasure. Catching a look from the pony, he sighed wistfully and slammed his head against the top of the steering wheel. “Well it’s all a bunch of manure, anyway. We were all just sitting there, enjoying ourselves, and then that rat bastard walks in an’ just... What the hell is going on?” Looking over to the unicorn, Twinkle couldn’t help but shrug.

“Hey, quiet down in there.” Sharla called from outside. Rusty rolled his eyes.

“Oh fuck off! We can’t do anything in here.” Rusty called, placing a hoof on the ignition. As he did, he felt the keys jingle underneath his hooves, and the stallion looked over to Twinkle a moment, a sparkle in his eyes. Pushing the key a little bit, the battery hummed to life as an assortment of dings and air came on, much to the human’s displeasure.

“Hey, I said quiet down! Turn your damn car off of I’ll-” Rusty pushed a button on the sound deck and suddenly the air was filled with the calm sounds of some old music CD.

“It’s some music, Sharla. I think you can agree that’s not exactly world-ending.” Rusty muttered, before slamming his hoof on the door locks and rolling the window up. “Thank god for power windows...!”

Twinkle gave the colt a confused glance, raising her eyebrow. “What are you hoping to accomplish, Rusty? We can’t do anything in here, and now you’ve just made her angry!” Looking past the red pony, Twinkle saw the girl slamming on the window and mutely calling for the stallion to roll down his window now. Giving a goofy grin, Rusty raised his splinted hoof to his ear and mouthed a ‘I-can’t-hear-you’ at the girl. Despite the danger, Twinkle couldn’t help but giggle slightly. “Well, if she wasn’t before...”

“Ah, screw her. They promised not to harm us, so she can’t do anything until Lt. High-and-Mighty gives the say so,” Rusty scoffed, tapping a hoof on the side of his head. “Odd that they’d lock us up in our own car.”

Twinkle looked about the vehicle, having not a lot of space to maneuver, she was having a hard time agreeing with Rusty’s plan. “Well it’s not like ponies can drive, Rusty. Besides, what’s the idea when Standish does give an order to harm us?” Placing a hoof on the stereo system, she dabbled with the controls a moment before spinning the knob on the deck, quieting the music.

Rusty was currently rubbing the back of his neck with his good hoof. “Yeah, I hadn’t really thought that far, but I’d doubt that Sharla out there is keen on leaving us all alone in here, so she’s not about to get any new orders until he gets here.” As he spoke, he could see the Lieutenant in question far across the field, fortunately not hearing the calls from his agent. As he looked over the group, his eyes narrowed. “Not exactly the most able-bodied militaristic group,” he mused.

“Excuse me? They have guns and helicopters, isn’t that good enough?” Twinkle gathered, her eyes trained on the helicopter nearby. She never wanted to be on the bad side of an organization that had one of those. She never wanted to be on anyone’s bad idea at all! She wasn’t used to this kind of thing. And as she looked about, her panic was slightly quelled by the sudden fear that she was becoming used to it.

However, Rusty brought her back from her revelry by shaking his hoof at the scene before them. “Not entirely. They have the hardware, but outside of Jorge I haven’t been seeing much in the way of efficiency around here. I saw a gun lying in pieces in the tent we were in, and there aren’t any radios or anything. I got to look around at most of the place when one of the medics were helping my leg.” Shaking his head, he laid his forehead on the steering wheel, unsure of what to think. “It doesn’t make any sense, Twinkle. One moment they’re helping, the next we’re separated and locked up.”

“To be fair, you did lock us in the truck,“ Twinkle teased despite the situation, earning her a giant grin from the red stallion. Looking about, she sighed as she saw a couple members of the IHSA approach Sharla. “Well, I guess we’re gonna have some trouble soon,” she muttered. Rusty looked on to see a Sharla start to relate the message to her compatriots, much to his displeasure. “I don’t suppose you have a plan yet...?”

Rusty eyed the keys in the ignition and his eyes tracked over to Twinkle’s horn. Technically, he did still have his license... Although the mugshot wouldn’t win him any contests. Shifting himself into an extremely uncomfortable position for a pony, Rusty cursed his short stature as his hooves didn’t reach the gas or brakes, sliding himself back up to his sitting position. Looking over towards Twinkle, he passed a glance back at Sharla as he opened his mouth. “Lemme tell you about something called ‘the clutch’.”

-----

Violet huddled in some dark corner, unsure of what to expect. Rose was somewhere in the truck with her, but there was no way to talk to her, or communicate. She was likely still under the effect of the sedatives. Violet looked back at the action taken by the lieutenant, making note that it didn’t seem like there was much sedative in his little needle. Maybe Rose was conscious. Laying her hand down, her skin brushed against the floor slightly. Only now did she even start to contemplate her surroundings. She had only got a glimpse when they had thrown her in here before shutting the doors, and had seen a table and chairs upon a carpeted floor. There was some reflective surface toward the back - where she was leaning against right now, actually. However, noises from outside brought her attention up as the door swung open, the afternoon sun shining bright in her eyes as she moved to cover them.

Stepping into the semi, there was a tittering sound as she recognized the voice of Lieutenant Standish. “Hm. I seem to have forgotten to turn the lights on in here. How embarrassing. Carl, if you would?” There was a short shuffling sound followed by a light click. Moments later, Fluorescent lights flickered on inside the truck as Violet’s eyes tried to adjust to the light. Along the walls were some wood panelling, obviously fake, but it was enough to give the room a homey feel to it. She was right about the table and chairs, but the reflective surface behind her just gave way into some dark room that held no light. Frowning, Violet looked up at the walls, where various gas masks littered the sides of the compartment. The lieutenant gestured over to the large tanned man beside him. “Ah, there we are. Jorge, if you’d be so kind as to bring her to the table, I’d like to speak with her like civilized people.”

Violet stood up as Jorge approached, but she rebuked him as he neared her. “I’m not Goddamned animal, I know when I don’t have the upper hand,” she seethed, moving toward the chair and sitting down. “I don’t know what you want from me, Standish. I’m just trying to get to the Bureau with my friends. We don’t deserve to be locked up like this.”

The lieutenant chuckled dryly, wiping away a tear of merriment that wasn’t really there. “Oh, I agree and I disagree. I had to be safe, you see. Your pony friends check out, as do you, of course. You’re an anomaly, though, that’s for certain. A little girl, living alone in some big tower where the head of the Albuquerque HLF branch lived.”

“What?” Violet gaped, shaking her head. “Is that why you brought up Fred? Look, I don’t know what you’re smoking out here, but he wasn’t the head of the HLF out there - he was just some old bitter man,” she argued. Still, Standish just wore that infuriating smile. Narrowing her eyes, she sighed loudly. “Okay, say he was. I didn’t know that, okay? I was just... looking for some place to be. With people. I didn’t even know he was HLF until I saw him at some meeting!” Violet wasn’t pleased by the lack of information they gave her, but she was more infuriated with how this asshole just sat there and expected the world. Not to mention something else weighed on her mind. “Where is Rose? What did you do to her? I swear if you laid a finger on her-”

“Do to her?” Standish interrupted. “Nothing, yet. Although I plan to. In fact...” Bringing out a small glass box, he placed it on the table. It was a simple box, clear on all sides but the bottom. Inside it was a large red button. Violet hated big red buttons. There was a hinge as well, obviously for flipping open and pressing that big red button. “I will be doing something quite soon. And don’t get any ideas, Violet, there really is nothing you can do.”

Violet fumed under his gaze, but betrayed nothing. “Then what do you want. I’m just a girl; I’m nothing important!”

The man laughed, shaking his head as Carl walked to the other side of the table behind Violet, standing next to Jorge as he did. “I agree with you, you are rather worthless, but that’s neither here nor there. Really, I’m just keeping you around because I’m curious as to how and why a girl who doesn’t make sense just so happens to show up in my camp and deliver the new head of the western branch of the HLF.” Chuckling to himself, he watched Violet’s face contort into something that resembled confusion and rage.

“I don’t fucking know what you think you’re talking about, but Rose is just a girl who wants to get on with her life. Her brother’s dead and he tried to kill her before he went, okay? She’s no head of the HLF-” Violet began, but she was cut off.

“She’s more or less the defacto head, considering there aren’t any more out there.” Violet shook her head, unsure of what he meant. As she did, however, he produced a vial of purple serum and placed it on the table. “Your unicorn friend said I disappeared awhile ago with her stock of ponification potion. That’s mostly true, but it wasn’t all finished, and drinkable potion is so hard to force upon others. So we’ve been testing new versions out here in the open air. We haven’t had many problems.” Jorge coughed uneasily behind him, but Lt. Standish ignored it. “At least not since our first batch. Had they been sedated I’m sure it would have been a lot less mess to clean up.” Chuckling dryly, Violet shook her head.

“Why... why are you even telling me this? I don’t want to know this!” Violet’s body was shaking now, be it from fear or anger, or some other emotion that got itself tied into the mix. Standish shook his head.

“Because you’re the most interesting thing that’s happened all month. A solitary truck in an otherwise empty pony wasteland? Bringing me Fred’s sole remaining family? The last of the western branch of the HLF? Really now, if you hadn’t escaped our gassing run in Albuquerque I’d of never had the day I’ve had. So thank you.” Lieutenant Samuel Standish stood up, approaching the dark window. “Carl, if you’d be so kind as to light up the next room?” There was another click as the other room lit up, revealing an empty metal room save for the unconscious girl within. “And there she is. You know, I really can’t stand the Human Liberation Front, and those pussyfoots in charge of the IHSA are just happy to let them roam free these days. Well, I’m sick of seeing pony and people alike killed over being friendly. So, I’m stopping the hate where it starts.”

Violet stood up, seeing the prone form of her friend in the other room. Rushing forward, she felt her arms get nabbed by the men behind her, holding her against her will and best efforts. “Stop! Don’t- Don’t kill her! She hasn’t done anything wrong! She isn’t part of the HLF anymore! She wants to be part of the IHSA!”

The Lieutenant smiled plainly, shaking his head. “Kill her? Whatever think I’d do that on purpose? If I did that I’d be no better than the scum of the Earth she was born from.” Looking down at the girl in the other room, his eyes narrowed into a malicious smile. “No, Violet. I’m going to fix her.”

-----

Twinkle shook her head, trying to wrap her head around the vehicle. “So, the one on the left is the clutch, which you hit when you want to change gears, and that’s the gas, and that one is the brake-”

“Which you won’t need until the very end.” Rusty said, looking over toward the congregation of IHSA members. Quite a few had started to circle the truck, but Rusty had ordered Twinkle to make her horn glow in a threatening manner. It had worked for the most part, each member not daring to get too close to the truck. As Rusty looked around, he noticed a couple plots not too far off, upturned dirt and large stones placed near them. He visibly swallowed as he looked about, regretting his word choice about ‘the very end’. Apparently, these people were no strangers to death, and he didn’t want to think about who occupied those fresh graves.

Twinkle whined slightly, her horn sparking to life again as she looked at an approaching member. “Rusty, I don’t know how much longer this is going to work...” she whispered. The red stallion agreed himself, but didn’t show it. “I don’t think I have it in me to do anything bad to them...”

“You won’t have to... I don’t think,” Rusty replied nervously, putting his hooves on the wheel. “Just... keep your eyes on the prize and stick to the plan.” Twinkle eyed him a moment, shaking her mane. As she did, one of the members of IHSA made a dash for the car, Rusty taking a moment to shout and point with his hoof toward the man. Twinkle wheeled about and caught the man in her sights, her horn sparking.

“WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdoWhatdoIdo!” Twinkle screeched, her bluff called as the man continued to approach. “I can’t do anything!”

Rusty drummed his hoof on the dashboard, trying to think of something. “I don’t know- Surround the truck! Make it glow! You don’t have to do anything with it, just make it look good!” His mouth was running as his hoof reached for the keys in the ignition. It took some doing, but he finally managed to turn the ignition and the engine roared to life. Twinkle shot him a look of panic as she surrounded the truck in her glow, the man backing off slightly as the truck started to levitate upwards. “Ack! Twinkle! Make it stop! Make it stop!”

Releasing the Ford, the tires bounced against the ground as Rusty bellowed instructions toward the pale pink unicorn. “Okay! Gas! Clutch! More gas! Good! First gear! Alright! Gas! Gas! Clutch!” Before them, Lieutenant Standish exited the semi truck, being met with a couple of his agents as they gestured toward the ponies in the truck. Cursing loudly, the man started to walk forward alongside his second in command as the approached the ponies.

“Clutch! More gas! Second gear! Keep going! We’re doing great!” Rusty shouted.

“Stop yelling!” Twinkle screamed, her concentration being spent on just trying to follow the instructions, let alone decipher them with all the noise Rusty was making.

“Sorry! Gas! Clutch! Third gear!” Hooves on the wheel, Rusty did his best to navigate the cars, jeeps, and personnel of the camp while keeping a steady stream of instructions to follow, his eyes trying to watch the ‘road’ and the dashboard as he did. “HOW DID I EVER DRIVE THIS THING!?” As the duo made their way across the field, the semi was in sight as they accelerated closer and closer.

“Ruuuusssty! What do I do now?” Twinkle screamed over the sound of the engine, the sound of the radio, which just so happened to click unto a polka tune. “We’re gonna crash!”

Rusty turned to Twinkle with a smile on his face. “That’s the plan!”

“What?!”

Rusty gave a sheepish smile as he shrugged his shoulders. “If we knock over the truck, we might be able to get the girls out!”

“If we survive!” Twinkle shouted, looking forward to towards the looming side of the semi. “Hold on - I’ve got an idea!” Her horn shimmering even brighter, Rusty suddenly felt the wheel go slack against the ground as the Ford lifted up into the air, its momentum bringing it up towards the side of the thin metal walls. “HERE WE GO!”

-----

Minutes Earlier...

“No! Stop! Please, let her go!” Violet screamed, the two men alongside her restraining her by the arms. She looked on helplessly as the dazed girl in the other room slowly came to her senses, taking a look at her surroundings. A metal cage, a glass window she couldn’t see through. Violet wished the same could be said for her. Turning to her right, she struggled against her captors as she pleaded with the man. “Listen to me! Listen to me, please! She’s not like him! She’s not with them anymore!”

The man’s eyes glanced over toward Violet, his body language unreadable. Violet’s tears ran openly down her face, and yet all he seemed was... bored. Calm, completely dead to her screams as he reached down to a glass box. “Really now, Violet. You’re one of the good girls. We like you and what you’re trying to do. But this young specimen is a blight to our species, and really, we must remove infections before they spread further.” His hand reached down to the glass box, flipping the offending cage over on its hinges.

“Violet?” The blonde called out weakly, holding her head. “Twinkle? Rusty? Wh-where am I?” She asked, bringing herself to her feet. Violet looked on, stunned. “Am I in... what is this shit? Jail? Why am I in jail?”

“Rose!” Violet screamed. Lt. Standish peered over, a small smile on his face. The girl in the adjacent room spun about, as if hearing some phantom sound.

Chuckling lightly, Standish placed his palm on the red button and pushed it down. “Weep for the wicked no more.” Pushing against one of the men and managing to kick the other in his family jewels, Violet wrenched herself free. Bull rushing toward her offender, she quickly learned that earning the rank of Lieutenant tends to come with some sort of physical training as she quickly found herself floored, the wind knocked from her lungs. Grabbing her by her shirt, the middle-aged man lifted her and slammed the girl against the glass. “Look at her!”

Violet struggled, grasping for air as she struggled to remain focused. Before her, a purple mist started to descend into the room where the blonde girl spun about in confusion. “H-Hey!” She called, backing herself away from the offending smoke. “What the hell is this? Don’t I get a trial!? What the fuck is this!?” Turning her head toward the glass, she couldn’t help but notice it shaking and knocking. “H-hey! Look, I get it! I’ll be good, just- God, what is this stu-h... stu...” She blinked, her mind starting to blank.

Violet could only choke out her friend’s name. “Rose...!” she whimpered, slamming against the glass. Rose could only look vaguely toward the glass window, feeling the vibrations against her palms.

Lt. Standish released Violet, smirking to himself as he saw a waft of purple smoke enter into the blonde girl. “There we are.” Pushing Violet into the glass one last time, the man turned to check on his bodyguards, a sarcastic smile on his face. “Ah, Carl, how’re the kids? Hopefully you can still have them. Jorge, keep an eye on her, make sure she watches the whole thing. I’m going to get something to eat. I’m thinking... Apples.”

Violet glared at the man through flowing tears, looking for some way to stop what was happening. There had to be a way. “Rose...” She coughed, her lungs starting to function again. In the other room, the blonde girl couldn’t help but breathe in the purple mist, her legs weakening with every breath as she collapsed to her hands and knees.

“Oh god... it... hurts.” Rose coughed, purple phlegm sticking to the floor. Looking around, tears brimmed on the side of her eyes. “I’m... going to die?” she convulsed, her arm sliding against the floor. Violet spun around, her eyes searching for something - anything - to get Rose out of her predicament. Eyes focusing on a wooden chair, Jorge watched her bolt for the furniture, only taking a moment to reach for a gun at his side. Uncaring, the purple haired girl hurled the chair at the glass. To her horrid surprise, the chair bounced harmlessly off the offending glass, the reflective surface only shuddering under the trauma.

“Bulletproof glass. One way mirror.” Jorge muttered darkly. Violet rubbed her eyes quickly as she turned toward the darker toned man. “For the more emotional audience.” His voice hid a sad darkness. Violet approached him, but he slowly drew out his gun, shaking his head. “Nuh ah-uh. No closer, darling.”

Violet stared at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Please...” she said, looking over to Rose as her body started to convulse. “Help her...”

Jorge sighed, shaking his head. “I’m sorry.” Violet opened her mouth, but instead ran to the window, looking on toward her friend. “I’m under orders. It’s too late anyway, she breathed the serum in.” Violet glanced back at him, her tears dropping on her shirt. “There isn’t anything I can do, child.”

Rose’s body was on fire. Her head slammed against the ground as she writhed. She could hear some vague banging, her eyes tracking falsely to the door. “V-Violet..!” she breathed. And then, a sickening crack. Rose’s limbs shot out in a feral rage, her fingers snapping and fusing as magic started to work. It burned her. Her veins were like gasoline, and the magic a match, igniting from within. Rose screamed.

Violet could only watch in a stunned silence as she watched her friend twitch and break in front of her. Her bones snapped loudly, her skin glowing unnaturally. Along her skin Violet could see the veins blackened along Rose’s body as her hair shimmered and even sparked. Her tanned, peach skin starting to fade into a pink hue, the color crawling from bulging arteries along her body. The passages of blood snaked across her body, repositioning themselves as her bones started to move in her body. And her screaming became like drowning, her lungs being stretched and skewed in unreal ways. Violet couldn’t look away - she couldn’t stand to see it, but she couldn’t look away.

And then it happened. Rose’s back arched, the skin next to her shoulder blades pushing out. Something was trying to escape, a creature clawing out from her insides. The skin ripped and tore as growing bones whipped out into the air, covered in blood and dripping fluids over the floor. Violet’s stomach did a cartwheel as she keeled over slightly, her hand on the glass the only thing keeping her upright. The skeletal appendage was draped in loose skin that shimmered and started to stretch over the white ivory, the puce color spreading. A tail started to grow, splitting out of her spine as a thin bit of bone shot out. As the gruesome display continued, Violet couldn’t help but notice Jorge nearby, his hand over his heart.

“What...?” she called, her mind sick at the thought of what was happening before her.

“Paying my respects. There is little chance for survival,” He said, sighing as he holstered his gun. “There is little left now. She won’t feel it much longer.” Jorge averted his gaze as Rose’s head started to bulge slightly, the skin around her eyes stretching out. Violet couldn’t hold it anymore as she dry heaved, what little substance she had in her stomach unable to make its way up her throat. Jorge gave her a forlorn gaze, watching the last of the purple mist start to evacuate the room.

Violet turned to look at the pony on floor in the room. Rose’s hair ceased to shimmer as it dulled into a turquoise blue, her puce skin starting to sprout a coat of similarly hued hairs. Feathers grew at an exponential rate, little twigs popping out of her wings, growing into brilliant feathers in minutes. Blood was splashed along the floor and drenched the fur along her backside. As the loud murmur of the ventilation started to subside and the purple mist gone from the room, a loud rumble continued throughout the area. Looking up, Violet’s tear-stained face looked about in confusion. “What... What now!? What’s that noise?”

Jorge paused at the doorway, looking around him. “I... don’t know.” As it growled and roared, Violet’s ears rang with the familiar sound. She spun slowly as she looked at the man, who was already running forward. “Get down!” he shouted, catching Violet in a full bodied tackle. The roar of the Ford’s engines at full pedal-to-the-medal speeds bellowed as the metal truck slammed through the makeshift walls of the chamber, the slightly airborne vehicle brushing against Jorge’s back as it crashed through the semi-trucks thin metal exterior. There was a screech of metal and a crash of glass as shards rained down upon the two humans, the heavy truck clearing one side of the truck and ripping through the other. Violet could hear the terrified screeching of Twinkle as it went by, the smell of magic in the air as the levitated vehicle came crashing down back on the ground on the other side of the lorry.

The wave of confusion and delirious rushes that came after was like a horrible nightmare. Her ears ringing and her chest heaving, Violet pushed herself off the ground as Jorge rolled over, his body pelted with glass and still recovering from being hit by the flying truck. Stumbling toward the broken window, Violet climbed over the jagged edge, glass cutting into her hands as she fell over her broken friend. Grabbing the unfamiliar face, Violet brought it to her chest and looked it in the eye. The eyes were open, wide, and tears were simply streaming down Rose’s face. “Rose...!” Cradling her friend in her arms, the purple-haired girl wept over the limp pony. “Come on, Rose... please...”

There was a ripping sound as the door to the chamber ripped off its hinges, a pale pink pony rushing in from the side. “Violet! Violet, you’re okay! Rusty! She’s in here - you missed her you red ponce!” she cried, galloping over toward the kneeling girl. “Violet, who-” She started as the red Earth pony came in at full gallop.

“Violet! Oh thank Celestia... Come on, we gotta go - those IHSA members are gonna mobilize real soon here and we still gotta find Rose!” Rusty proceeded to approach the girls, his eyes training on the puce pony in Violet’s arms. “Who is that?” He asked, his face contorting as he looked about. There really wasn’t a lot of places in the encampment to hide people. As the human girl cradled and sobbed over the blue-maned pony, Rusty stepped forward again. “Violet... Who is this pony...?”

Twinkle gasped openly as her eyes trained over the bloody spot over the pegasus’ wings and the floor nearby, her mind connecting the dots. She had seen hundreds of conversions, ghastly things that were meant to be done while the patient was unconscious, but the look, the far-away fear and pain in the pony’s eyes. “Rusty...” she choked. The red pony looked over to Twinkle, his eyes fogged. “Rusty... It’s her...”

Violet could hear them now. The voices outside. The sounds of engines and metal. She could hear Lt. Standish screaming at his men. The light sound of snapping glass. Her eyes snapped open at the last sound. Standing on the other side of the now open window, Jorge stood, hunched over, his gun trained on the human girl. Glass shards were poking out of his back as he looked over them, his eyes glazed as he looked about the truck. Above him, a broken pipe spewed out purple serum into the open air, brushed away by the wind, but heavy as it started to rain on him. Rusty stepped forward, but the sound of the gun’s safety being clicked off stopped him dead in his tracks, instead opting to just glare angrily at the man.

“Hasn’t she suffered enough?” Rusty growled. Jorge’s eyes flashed up at the descending cloud and back to the girl. His hand moved behind a rend in the metal, picking a gas mask up off the wall. Rusty’s eyes sharpened as her snorted. “Hmph. Human survival, at any means.”

The mask flopped next to Violet’s hand. The collected group silently looked between it and the man, a look of confusion between them. Jorge coughed, blood splattering over his teeth as the shard in his back penetrated his lung. “Go on...” he called. Violet numbly reached out, grabbing the mask as Jorge openly winced as the purple mist started to pool around his nostrils. Looking down at the pony, Violet gently laid a hand on Twinkle as the unicorn nodded slowly, her horn sparking, lifting the prone form of Rose’s pony body. Strapping the mask on her face, Violet stood up, her hands bleeding from the glass. “Hide your hands... don’t let the mist-” he coughed, again, a loud snapping sound issuing from his left arm as it broke. “Damn! Get out of here, child,” Jorge warned. As he did, the other bodyguard ran into the destroyed holding cell, Jorge spinning around at him. As Carl pointed his weapon at Violet, Jorge fired a round into the agent’s head, his blood splattering on the wall behind him. Violet gasped sharply, but Jorge ignored it, slamming the gun into the girl’s hands.

“Violet! We gotta go! Now!” Rusty shouted, the stallion pushing the girl into action. Spinning about, Twinkle was out the door with Rose as Rusty brought up the rear. Tensely looking at the gun in her hand, Violet spun about to see feet and wheels starting to mobilize on the other side of the semi. Jorge had fallen over. Backwards. His body twitched and snapped still, but his face was slack already.

Turning toward the damaged Ford, Violet saw Rusty starting to slow down from his damaged forehoof, but otherwise doggedly trying to help the others. She saw Rose - poor Rose. Sprinting for the drivers seat, the engine was already roaring as Twinkle helped herself into the passenger’s sear, Rose and Rusty set in the back on the mattress.

Twinkle’s eyes were flowing with new tears. “Violet, I don’t think - I think Rose is...” Violet didn’t let her finish, grabbing the gear shift and pouring on the gas. Tires ripping into the soft earth below it, the truck wretched itself from the ground as it tore off toward the highway, the collecting forces. Violet could feel the mist in the back of her mind. It consumed her, choked her. The fog that cloaked her mind. And now? It had been given corporal form. It tracked her - it never wanted to leave her alone. Breathing heavily into the mask, Violet focused as best she could on the road ahead.

The truck bumped and skidded unto the expressway, the various vehicles of the IHSA branch tearing behind her as she shifted into a new gear. Rusty braced himself on his good hoof as he leaned on the side of the truck, looking back at the cars that gave chase. His hooves burned from the last time they had to run, and now he was chased by the something even scarier. Looking back toward the girls, his eyes fell on Rose, the poor girl. Scooting along the bed, Rusty pushed his head through the window toward Twinkle. “We’ve got company. Plans?”

Violet shook her head. “Drive. Run. Until we can’t anymore.” Rusty’s eyes trained over to the fuel gauge, the truck part way through its journey. A full on push would eat gas like nothing else, but a slow drive would mean certain death. In Violet’s white knuckled grip was the gun Jorge handed her, her mind buzzing at the implications of what he must of expected her to do with it. Protect herself. Aim it. Kill with it.

Shifting into top gear, the engine drank greedily from its reserves. She was the only human now. And she had to prove everything that was worth.

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

Part X

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

Rubber hit pavement as the Ford hit the road, gunning it toward the expanse of buildings ahead. In the back seat, which jostled every which way as the black vehicle aimed to outrun it’s pursuers, Rusty and the now ponified and prone form of Rose. Twinkle kept looking back at Rusty and the cars of the IHSA as they gave chase, trying to make sense of the last half-hour. “Is it always this way with humans outside of cities!?”

Violet grimaced as the pale pink pony probed for answers, even at this time. “Never, or almost never! Now shut up unless you have something useful to say!” Violet ordered, her voice muffled under the gas mask that Jorge had thrown her. Her eyes flashed toward the mirrors as the car took on an exit toward the city center, bouncing about at the various cracks in the road impeded their progress as best they could. As they roared along the concrete, behind them a multitude of vehicles started to stabilize themselves, acting under orders from one very pissed off Lieutenant Samuel Standish.

Rusty kept moving from the back of the truck bed over to the new pony among their ranks, the mare’s eyes still wide open, with tears dried from the whipping wind around them. Counting the vehicles, Rusty was dumbfounded to see the semi truck they tore through barrelling down the road behind the rest of the cars, torn metal shooting sparks up as it clashed against the highway. Staying low, the red stallion crawled past Rose and slid open the back window. “We’ve got five on us, including the damn semi truck we tore through!”

“Are you fucking serious?!” Violet nearly screamed in frustration. She was not going to ever get used to the horrible trend that seemed to have appeared since she left the Tower. “The semi. Goddamnit.” Reaching a hand back, the girl hastily ripped off the gas mask and tossed it in the space between her and Twinkle. Drinking in fresh air, the girl wiped her eyes and tried to get a better look at the cityscape they were approaching.

“Son of a Bitch they’ve got the helicopter up,” Rusty commented, his tone unamused as the black shape of the military chopper took to the air. Violet shook her head violently her eyes finally registered what was in her hand. Looking at the gun Jorge had handed her, she spun and looked back, her mind screaming for plans and escapes.

Twinkle gave the red colt a reluctant look as she shook her head. “I can’t say I’m a fan of your language today, Rusty,” she sighed, having nothing to offer the conversation. The stallion shook his head in amused disbelief.

“There’s a time to be a pony and a time to act a bit more like a human, and right now we’re being chased by armed and trained men with guns and a fucking helicopter. Twinkle, I know you’re an Equestria girl, but gain a little perspective - a dirty mouth is not on my list of issues right now!” Rusty sighed as he popped his head out of cabin as he watched the helicopter start to overtake the other vehicles, and quickly latched himself to the bed as Violet spun the wheel unto the city streets of Sante Fe.

The car bumped along as it hit the abandoned streets, Violet’s eyes looking for sharp turns and tall buildings in which to lose their hunters, trying to get a feel for the truck’s ability for dangerous maneuvers. Screeching the tires as the truck made a hard left, the group could feel a couple wheels fall off the world as the truck became a two-wheeled car. “Twinkle, need a little help here!” Galvanized, the unicorn’s horn screamed to life as it hastily pushed a counter force against the truck, popping it back on four wheels as the sound of a whirling blades started to near. Rusty pushed up against the turquoise-maned pegasus, making sure the action hadn’t... done anything more to the girl he couldn’t be sure was even there anymore.

“I bet you hate how you keep finding yourself in such shit, eh, Rose?” Rusty chuckled hoarsely as he looked on behind. One of the cars had spun out completely on the corner, while the others had merely slowed down, deciding not to attempt such a sharp corner without magical air. Smoke issued from both wheels and engine from the failed car, giving Rusty slight hope in their ability to evade their pursuers. Looking back at the pony before him, he couldn’t help but notice that her large eyes were dominated by iris’s of her namesake - rose-colored. And they were staring right at him.

Bullrushing the back window, Rusty nicked his head a bit on the top piece of plastic, but otherwise he face had a silly little grin. “I’ve got a reaction!”

“A what?” Twinkle guessed.

“Little busy, need a bit more than that, Rusty!” Violet called out, again refusing to slow down as the truck spun around another corner. “Twinkle! Push!” she shouted, the truck again groaning as it felt its grip to the road giving away, and again the exasperated unicorn pushed against the broadside of the vehicle.

“What is with human transportation and its ability to make anypony piloting it a bossy little bitch!” Twinkle shouted, the engine suddenly silent as both Violet and Rusty stopped their trains of thought to look at the pink unicorn. Realizing what she said, the embarrassed mare put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh! Um-”

“Now that’s more like it!” Rusty cheered playfully, Violet shaking her head - in the middle of a life-and-death struggle, these ponies seemed to find light in the situation. Looking to his side a moment, Rusty once again saw the form of Rose and tapped the girls. “I saw something! Rose was looking at me! Right at me with her big ol’ eyes!”

Twinkle looked back pushing the red colt’s head straight out of her way as Violet tried to keep her truck on the road. However, the moving pony proved to be a bit of a distraction for the purple-haired driver, so she shot a hand out and pushed the unicorn back to her seat. “Steady, Twinkle! I don’t even want to think about anything other than getting somewhere safe! Or at least somewhere to hide...!”

Heeding her terms, the unicorn kept herself forward focused and task oriented, instead opting to stick her head out the window and look up. “Violet, that helicopter is still up there. We need to find higher buildings or something-”

“Santa Fe doesn’t have taller buildings!” Rusty cut in, Violet shaking her head violently. Screeching the wheels again, Twinkle was starting to believe the purple-haired female was turning sharply just to shut everypony up, her horn keeping the truck steady as it flew through the intersections, the sound of gunfire behind them as a number of vehicles attempted to make a mark on the truck. However, it didn’t make Rusty any happier. “Bullets! They’re shooting at us! Goddamn, why are they this pissed at us!?”

“You did nearly run a couple over!” Twinkle shouted at the stallion. The red pony contemplated this, but only ended up shrugging and looking a bit sheepish.

Violet looked back a moment, her mind racing with questions. They were just a group of ponies - plus one human. There wasn’t that much of a need to track them down - Not even under some vague idea of Rose being important to the HLF. But then again.... Reaching for the gas mask, Violet brought it close to her chest as her other hand steered the gar, still white knuckling her. “I’ve got an idea why.”

Twinkle’s eyes flashed as she eyed the gas mask. “Violet, why do you have that thing, anyway? What’s so important about it?” She paused as her brain started to work. “And why are they chasing us!?”

“It’s that ponification serum - the kind from your Bureau. They’ve been modifying it. Making it gaseous. It’s what they did to Rose.” Violet said, her voice deadpan as she found a curved road to turn unto. They had already lost three vehicles - the semi among the first to go. But two very capable cars were still on their tail, and the helicopter above keeping an eye on them - before long the others who were still working would be on them thanks to it. “It doesn’t have any sedatives in it, so they did it to her when she was... she was conscious, Twinkle.”

“Mongrels!” the unicorn spat. Violet raised her brow at the visceral response, but made no effort to stop it. “There’s a reason why we never made chambers for mass conversion - nevermind the parallels to your World War II villains.” Twinkle looked up above towards the helicopter, her eyes narrowing before she stuck her head back in the cabin. “There’s no way to portion gas right - especially for inhalation. They were liable to kill her, not to mention- Oh sweet Celestia, Violet, I need to get back there!” Twinkle suddenly shifted herself, but the human pushed her back down. “Violet! She needs attention! The amount of strain a mind goes through-”

“I know. I saw it. THEY MADE ME WATCH!” Violet screamed, not tearing her eyes of the road. Twinkle could only huff in disbelief, shaking her head in alarm. Violet slammed on the accelerator with all she had as she drove the car into another side street, this time clashing up against a wall instead of relying on Twinkle’s magic. Sickening scrapes caused Rusty to cover himself and Rose with a blanket as sparks flew alongside the truck, the driver side mirror completely scrapped as its shards rained out upon the sidewalk beside it. Thanking whatever deity she could think of, the Ford’s wheels squealed as it rocked back onto the street, before Violet spotted a building before a fork in the road.

Rusty stuck his head in, shaking some debris from his mane as he looked about. “The hell was that for!?” he called, before Violet gestured weakly with her thumb.

“Last second turn, didn’t really think about it. Did those bastards make it?” she asked, not daring to turn and look. And it’s not like she could use her side view mirror. However, Rusty had the courage to look, and was gratified to see an orange Taurus find itself wedged inside of a streetlamp as he turned to see. Giving a shout, Rusty’s positive attitude was short lived as a dark black truck like their own barrelled into the turn, narrowly dodging the the broken car.

“One of them did.” Rusty reported, before leaning down next to the pegasus. Succumbing to the fact he was little more than lookout at the moment, his head trailed up into the sky, catching sight of spinning blades as the helicopter ducked out of sight behind some buildings. Resting his head down, he checked over the puce pony. Bringing a hoof to her face, the red pony pushed it from side to side, trying to get a better look at the girl. “Oh, you poor, poor thing. The world’s falling apart around you and it’s not giving you room to breathe,” he sighed, laying his head down. He could hear Twinkle and Violet conversing in ever escalating tones, shaking his head slightly. “You know, Rose, I’ve got a niece I was going to see, too. A wonderful little pegasus, like yourself.”

“I remember the day she was born. I was still a human then. Oh, if you could have held a baby foal in your hands, Rose.” Rusty lifted his head, the truck in the distance wasn’t really catching up, but it wasn’t getting any further away. Tears beaded around his eyes as he felt the truck take another sharp turn. “Oh my, and those little wings. She tried to flap them the moment she was delivered. Born to fly, that one.” Rusty chuckled at the memory, or maybe it was the fact he was sitting in the back of a truck during a car chase, and the only thing on his mind was the family he’d leave behind when they... if they failed to get away. “She’s turning four soon. By Celestia, how they grow.” Placing his head down, the pony averted his gaze toward the sky, hoping he wouldn’t see the hovering helicopter overhead, despite hearing the throbbing sounds echoing over the city. Closing his eyes, Rusty reflected on his niece. “I haven’t seen her in so long...”

Sighing deeply, his ear turned toward the cabin, trying to gather what the girls were talking about. Probably some plan to lose the last vehicle, but unless they caused them all to eventually crash while avoiding to do the same, eventually the other vehicles would find them again thanks to the helicopter. He wondered if he’d have ever really gotten around to going had he not met Violet. He loved his family dearly, but they were so far away, and Equestria... anypony he met that went there had only sent him mail and postcards claiming what a paradise it was, and rarely returned stateside. It seemed so foreign to him, and yet... it was the only world his niece knew. None of the pain and death and car chases and forced ponification and feral animals and guns or any of that. The worst she would have by the end of this day was likely to have an uncle she never really knew. But his sister would tell her. Tell her he loved her. Tell her he held her the day she was born and promised that he’d do anything to keep her safe.

“What was her name?”

Rusty blinked, his thoughts dashed by a new yet familiar voice. Jerking his head towards the source, he was caught off-guard by the blinking rose-colored orbs that stared at him.

“Your niece... What was her name?”

Clearing his throat, the stallion couldn’t suppress his smile even if he wanted to. “Prairie Fire,” he choked out, blinking away tears. “Her name is Prairie Fire. She’s the most beautiful little thing in the world. Orangish Red coat, just a bit lighter than mine, and a crazy little mop of blue-green hair for a mane, little curls everywhere. Her mom says it’ll straighten out in time - all of us did growing up. Except me, of course, before I went pony.”

Rose nodded weakly, her eyes trailing over the flashing scenery. Her body ached and her vision was blurry at best, but she could recognize her friend, even if she could have never considered him such just a short twenty four hours ago. “Violet... Where’s Violet...?” she breathed, as if she had some warning for her.

Rusty sighed and shook his mane. “Piloting the truck, of course. But uh... this is hard to explain, but we’re on the run for our lives...”

Violet’s voice cut the air between them as her hand landed on the gearshift. “Okay, everypony,” she shouted, a small smirk playing on her lips as she uttered the pony-only phrase. “Hang on! Rusty, keep Rose safe as best you can, ‘cause we got a plan!”

“We do not have a plan and you are not-” Twinkle roared, before the car made a stunted jerk forward before slowing down considerably. Violet spun her hands around the wheel until it could go no more, and the truck lurched into an insane spin, its forward momentum impeded. Forcing itself to move, the truck shifted right some as the four wheels screeched and left trails of burnt rubber on the tarmac, the faraway black truck closing in on them. Violet kept the company of ponies intact, her thoughts idling out to her grandfather who had taught her to drive. As the truck came to a sudden and jerky stop, Violet’s hands patted down every part of her body to make sure she was all there, before feeling a hoof become hard pressed on her side, the unicorn giving a half hearted buck in the cramped space. “Don’t you dare do that again!” she shouted, but Violet could only shake her head with a smile on her face.

“Just stay there a moment, Twinkle, and wait for my signal.” Violet breathed, closing her eyes a moment. Nodding her head, she opened the door, much to the protests of the unicorn.

“You’re going to get yourself killed!” the unicorn shouted, but the girl just shrugged it off.

“I’ll leave that up to you, sorry!” Violet replied in a sing-song voice, covering her nerves up. As she walked out into the open, she saw Rusty looking about confused. “Hey there, Red. Sorry about this in advance, but we couldn’t keep driving like this - we’re nearly out of gas as it is. You bought a hell of a gas guzzler.”

“Violet..?” Rose called out, gingerly lifting herself up. At her mere voice, Violet slammed up against the truck bed and peered into the back. Rose’s wings moved awkwardly as she tried to move to her hooves, finding difficulty. “Shit, I thought it would be like crawling on your hands and feet...”

Twinkle had her head stuck out of the back, her voice soft as she gave advice. “Just... take it slow dear, the magic helps you get around it. Just try moving naturally and it should come easier to you.”

Rose gave a dry chuckle. “Natural... right.”

“Rose. Oh... I thought you were- he said there was only a small chance...” Violet couldn’t think of anything, but instead captured the girl’s head in her arms and brought her in for a hug. “Thank goodness you’re alright!” Rose struggled against the girl’s arms, but soon melted into the gesture, sighing hard.

“For at least another five seconds. Violet, we have company.” Rusty cut in, pointing a hoof towards the black truck. It slowed down nearby, two men in uniform could be seen through its windows. Above, the helicopter passed, Violet looking on as she recognized the man who stood, framed by its own side entrance. Looking back down to the two men who were mobilizing, Violet’s arms raised up high as she stepped forward.

“Heads down, ponies, Rose.” Violet muttered under her breath, her mind not making the distinction for her once-human friend. Taking a few steps toward the other black truck, the doors soon flew open as one of the men came out, brandishing a service issue handgun.

“Stop right there.” Violet’s feet stopped short as she eyed the man. The driver of the vehicle soon stepped out of the car as well, although he had no weapon to call his own. Instead, he brandished a night stick, likely pillaged from some abandoned police station. “Don’t take another step,” he bellowed, earning him a look of disgust from the girl.

“Yes, because I’m so likely to disobey a direct order from a man holding a gun,” she chided, shaking her head. “Look buddy, I don’t know what’s going on here, but you all had no right to hold any of my friends hostage, or do what you did to Rose.”

The driver shrugged it off, paying little mind toward her words. “Orders is orders, ma’am. Maybe when you put fifteen years of service into the army an’ then get screwed into handling domestic disputes fer the last three years, maybe we’ll listen to what you have ta say.” The other soldier shot him a look, but he ignored it. As he stood, a voice crackled over the black trucks radio, Violet recognizing the tones as belonging to Lt. Standish.

Still, she might as well run her mouth. “So that’s that? If your orders are to kill innocent people, whose only crime is that they’re related to some bad apple, it’s justified? You’re with the IHSA-”

“The what?”

“Ugh.” Violet slapped her hand on her forehead. “The I-H-S-A. “

The driver looked over to his companion, a look of bemusement on his face. “‘The fuck calls it the ‘Ehhsah’?” The gun toting soldier shrugged as he entered the cabin of his truck, intent on answering Standish’s call.

Cheeks red with embarrassment, the purple-haired girl pressed on. “It doesn’t matter how it’s called! You’re supposed to protect humanity’s survival! Not kill them! That’s the opposite of what you’re called to do!” She looked about, her ears hearing the helicopter above, but she couldn’t see him among the buildings. Smirking, she shook her head. “Don’t you think that’s hypocritical?”

The driver shrugged, “Hey, we’re not trying to kill anyone. We’re just trying to remove the humans that aren’t beneficial from the future. Through ponification. They still live... sometimes. But we’ll get it right sooner or later.”

The gunman exited the cab, rolling his head around his neck as he turned toward Violet. “Orders from Standish. Kill the girl, and the ponies.” The human girl was taken aback by the candid answer, but shook off her shock quickly.

“Well, nevermind. I guess we are in the killing business again!” The driver chuckled, gesturing from the gunman to Violet, a sick smile on his face. “It’s nothing personal, love. Orders is orders, y’know.” As he spoke, the man raised his weapon up to Violet, his hand clicking the safety off.

Violet’s face darkened, her expression changing from fear to a dire grimness. “Yeah.” A faint purple sparkle appeared around the firearm, giving the gunman pause before the offending weapon was ripped from his hands by an invisible force. As it soared through the air, Violet reached into her pocket and brought out Jorge’s gun, aiming it toward the gunman and firing. She missed the first two shots, but connected with his head with the next. The driver scarcely had time to turn around before a bullet collided with his back, downing the man immediately. “Nothing personal.”

Violet wanted to throw up.

Twinkle did.

Rusty popped his head out from the back, fearing the worst as he soon saw Violet standing still out in the open, the drumming of heartbeats coinciding with the throbbing of helicopter blades. Keeping on his good hooves, the red stallion rushed to Twinkle’s aid, who was currently hanging out of the truck window on the passenger’s side. Rose kept looking at her hooves, then over to her wings, the appendages twitching oddly as she tried to figure out how they moved. Numbly, Violet spun about and approached the truck bed, placing her hand on its edge. Looking over the assembled group of ponies, she silently turned to see the helicopter in the distance. She saw the form of Lieutenant Standish, and shot him the finger in a flare of anger.

Suddenly, she felt a hoof on her hand, turning to see Rose. The girl seemed worse for wear, but she was nothing tragic, at least on the surface. No words were shared between the two, merely taking solace in the fact that they were both, for lack of a better word, okay. Spinning on her heels, Violet pointed to the other truck, putting on a thin smirk. “We got gas.”

-----

Piling into the new truck, Violet took little time in acquainting herself to the mildly different controls and quickly noticed she was dealing with an automatic rather than a manual, much to her pleasure. Twinkle and Violet even brought the mattress over, even though it didn’t fit as well. There was little discussion on seats, Rusty taking the passenger’s seat while the mares took the truck bed, Rose unfurling her wings and shrugging. Violet removed the holster from one of the agent’s belts, taking note that the driver had a holster himself, but no gun with it. Still, gas mask in hand, she grabbed some of the tools from Rusty’s truck and threw it in the space between the seats and the truck bed.

However, the barking voice of Lt. Standish coming from the radio was certainly a problem, as the human turned to her pony friends as they all got themselves in mildly comfortable positions. Turning the vehicle on, the truck started to move out, just as the IHSA members in the crashed Taurus were coming around.

Grabbing the radio receiver, Violet thumbed the response button in her hand as they drove. Standish had to know, even from a distance, that things had not worked out to his advantage. Violet and the ponies were up to three guns now, the one they had taken from the soldier, Jorge’s, and the weapon used to kill Richard. If anything, Violet figured she had enough ammo to justify missing a few shots. “Hey, Jackass.” Violet called out to Standish, giving the others pause. She honestly didn’t know what she was doing, but she was playing it by ear. “I’ve been coming to terms about just what the hell you think you’re doing, and I’ve got a basic idea on how bad you’ve fucked up today.”

There was silence on the other end as the truck continued on, the blades of the chopper close behind as Standish ordered his pilot to continue on. Trading glances with Rusty, Violet shook her head. Despite this, an answer called out from the radio. “Yeah, and how do you figure?”

Violet smirked, “Well, for one, you failed on your assassination attempt; Bravo there, let a witness get away from you; Two, actually, counting one pony; And lost a number of your agents, all of which seems pretty bad from where I’m standing.” Although Violet had to admit, a lot of what she had gotten away with today was due to her pony friends, Twinkle in particular. Feeling mildly pleased with herself, the purple haired human smirked.

“Oh you think you’re so smart, huh? Stupid little bitch, well let me tell you something! I’ve got loads of goddamn gas on this thing, enough to coat three square miles of this fucking city! You think you’re getting away from that?!” Violet raised an eyebrow, passing a glance over to Rusty. The pony looked in the back, spotting the gas mask among the other tools. Standish continued his little tirade over the coms as Violet reached back with a lazy hand, nabbing the headgear as she gave a short smirk.

“You’re bluffing. There could be a hundred people left in Santa Fe still, are you really going to risk killing all of them just to get to three nondescript ponies and a little girl? Not to mention some of your men may still be alive down here.” Violet’s tone was as sweet as it was sickening, the red stallion giving the girl a smirk as he looked back at the mare’s in the back. Twinkle seemed interested in the conversation, but Rose was far more interesting. Despite driving at some fifty miles per hour, the new pony was on all four limbs, wings outstretched as she felt the wind rush beneath her wings, the sensation of flying so great that a look of serene calm was crossed over the ponies features.

Violet took a stare at the radio a moment as she looked about the truck, seeing if she could catch the helicopter which burned in her ears. Perhaps her last threat had won her the day? Turning off to a side street, the only sentient with jeans still on was soon cut off from her fleeting moment of triumph. “They’re expendable. Besides, haven’t you seen this city? Empty! Not a man nor pony among its walls. The homeless are all ponies,  and the humans have left for bigger and better things. Those that are here are like roaches. Useless to humanity. Maybe they’ll do better as ponies.”

Twinkle gasped sharply at the thought of the lieutenant releasing such a weapon on his own men, shuddering in disgust. “Doesn’t he have any loyalty?” she exclaimed, putting a hoof to her mouth.

“If he had any of that, we wouldn’t be in this mess. He literally thinks he’s helping the IHSA cause,” Rusty muttered darkly, catching sight of the helicopter for a brief moment before Violet turned a corner.

Twinkle nodded. “Either way, we can’t call his bluff, if somepony is living here- I mean, if some person, human, is living here, then we can’t just let him dump the potion! They could be hurt, or killed!” Shaking her mane about, the unicorn felt helpless. “Violet, you have to stop him!”

Rose opened an eye, bending her knees slightly to cut herself away from the wind. However, her back legs fell wrong and she ended up falling into a laying position, her wings still outstretched and picking up the wind from the sides of the vehicle. Noting her comfort in such a position, the pegasus tapped her hoof against Twinkle’s back left limb, causing the unicorn to look back. “Tell the fucker we’ll meet him somewhere.”

Twinkle stared at the girl, but soon shook her head as she turned to Violet and related the idea. “Rose says to orchestrate a meeting with him.”

Violet looked back at Twinkle, her face awash in confusion. “What? Seriously?”

“That’s not what I said! Twinkle, tell ‘er what I said word-for-word.”

Twinkle shot a glare back at the pegasus, but relented, her mind filling with guilt over the pegasus’ circumstance. “Ahem... what she said was... ‘Tell the fucker we’ll meet him somewhere’,” she still ended up staring daggers at the pegasus. “Good?”

“Great,” Rose said, looking pleased with herself.

Violet gaped momentarily, but soon shook her head. Mulling over the details, she at least could keep the conversation going. “Well, fine. Let’s see where this goes...” She mused, shaking her head. Clicking the radio, she kept her voice level as she delivered on the idea. “Okay, Standish. You called my bluff. We’ll meet you somewhere, and we’ll try to talk this out. No one else has to die.”

However, this time Standish was quick to reply. “That’s Lieutenant Standish, girl. But let’s make this very clear, I can’t have you or your friends live, so let’s get this straight - you will be dying. It’s just whether or not you want the gas to kill you and leave your friends stranded as well as play roulette with the humans left in the city, or to just die heroically. That said, meet me at Arovista Park in an hour. Thank you Violet, it’s been a pleasure.”

There was a silence in the truck after a very resolute sounding click, causing the truck to slow to a stop, Violet eventually turning off the engine as she stared blankly at the assembled ponies. “Well... shit.”

-----

Violet sat on the sidewalk, resting her arm over her knee as she heard the passing helicopter above. It had only been fifteen minutes since the announcement, and since then she had parked inside a store, taking no mind of the fact she drove through the glass doors to do so. However, seated under an awning, she had little reason to fear being seen. Alongside her sat the pegasus Rose, the girl apparently taking her transformation in stride. As she stared at the pony, Violet sighed wistfully. “Doesn’t it... bother you?” She began, trying to find the best words.

Rose looked up, her eyes lit in tempered curiosity. “What? Being forcefully turned into what I considered a sin against nature less than twenty-four hours ago? Back when I had a fucking brother and, until you showed up, blissfully unaware of the fact my dad had died?”

Violet sighed, running her hand through her hair. “I was gonna find a better time to bring that up, but yeah. Here you are, sitting on a sidewalk, wings sticking out of your back... You’re a pony,” she breathed, laying her head against the wall. “And I saw you awake during the conversion. That’s not... I mean... shouldn’t you be...”

“Psycho? Broken? Dead inside?” Violet simply nodded. “What, did you forget that he shot me up full of chemicals before I nearly choked to death on purple smoke?” Rose questioned. Violet’s eyes shot up, but Rose looked away. “I don’t like it, and it did hurt, but only as much as a really bad sneeze that you feel in your arms. But being awake for it? Listening and watching as your own bones snap and reposition themselves, seeing yourself light up like a fuckin’ Christmas Tree? Yeah, it shocked me.”

Violet cringed horridly, in which Rose smirked. “Yeah, kinda the reaction I got out of it. Except a lot worse,” she chided, before instinctively trying to run a hoof through her hair. Taking a moment to realize she had no fingers in which the hair to go through, she placed her hoof back down and stood up - a bit more stably this time. “Still though, can’t complain too much. I’ve got wings, and once I get used to doing the whole flapping thing... Well, you’ll be hard pressed to get much complaints from me. Thank God I didn’t become an Earth pony. Or is that ‘Thank Celestia’ now?”

“You could say Luna, too. Mix it up a little,” Violet teased, a sad smile still on her face. As she leaned her head back, the human closed her eyes. “Rose... when I said Fred was dead... I didn’t know he was your dad. Or that he was head of the HLF. I’m so sorry...”

Rose bleated, catching herself in mid-motion as she chuckled at the equine mannerism. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t get along with dear ‘ol Dad much anyway. Or hear from him, Richard neither. He was as much the ‘head’ of the Human Liberation Front as the Queen of England ‘ran’ Britian. More a figurehead to respect if anything.” Exhaling, it was clear the topic didn’t much interest the puce pegasus, but she went on. “God, he owned that title though. He actually thought everyone and their mom had to treat him like a king! Like it was worth bein’ the head of what basically was a terrorist group.” Shaking her mane, Rose quit the motion quickly, her eyes narrowing. Giving it some thought, the pegasus slowly gave a full head shake, unused to the pony equivalent. “That said, I do seem to be in the business for some new family.”

Violet’s eyes opened incredulously, her face breaking out into a huge grin. “Just like that, you’re gonna get over all of this?” she mused, coughing slightly as a brisk wind stole her breath away. “Sure that’s not the ponification talking?”

Rose sighed, bringing herself up on four hooves, which only brought her slightly above Violet’s head where she sat. “Actually, to be honest? I’m pretty sure it is.” The human’s eyebrows shot up, but Rose continued, “But I’m okay with that. My life is hugely fucked up right now, and if anything helps me get through it, I’ll take it.” Giving an experimental flap of the from her new extremities, the pegasus laughed for a change. “Plus, you know, wings.”

“Ah yes, wings, the great equalizer!” Violet laughed, rubbing her back against the wall and feeling her shoulder blades clash with the concrete surface. “I hope I can be a pegasus once this is over,” she said, looking down at the ground. The admission caught the pegasus off-guard, her face melding into one of intrigue.

“Wait, I thought we were gonna die here in a half an hour,” she admitted, shaking her head. “You know, to save the goddamn shut-ins and incidentals.”

Violet smirked, shaking her head. “Oh, I have no intentions on dying, Rose. Call it that ol’ human need to survive, but I feel like throwing a couple wrenches where I can and seeing what happens.” Standing up, the girl drew herself to her full height as she watched Rusty and Twinkle appear outside, taking cautious steps around the glass until they were outside. “Even if it does mean a little pony gas here and there,” she finished, drawing the attention of the ponies nearby.

Twinkle cast a lazy eye over to Violet, but she simply ended up rolling it at the girl. “I don’t know what you’re planning, I don’t want to know what you’re planning.” Shaking her mane, the unicorn bleated in displeasure. “I already know I’m not going to change your mind, and I know you’re going to need me.”

Rose chuckled openly at this, giving Twinkle a once over. “Well well, a far cry from yesterday. What’s got you in such an open mood?” At this, Twinkle gave a smirk as Rusty innocently whistled off the corner of his mouth, drawing blank stares over the flower duo. “Wait. Waaaiit.” Rose shook her head violently, her mind suddenly awash in mental imagery.

“Hm? What was it you said Rusty? Mmm, being chased around and having your life put on the line... is a time to be distinctly un-pony, correct?” Twinkle said with a smile, “So given our situation, I did the most human thing I can think of!” Swishing her tail back and forth, the mare decided now was as good of a time as any to make her way back through into the building where the truck lay.

Violet let out a loud snerk, covering her mouth as she kept herself from giggling further. Rusty let loose a second innocent whistle, swaggering toward the doorway. But before he got too far he found himself blocked off by a fully erect pair of wings, barring his entrance back inside. In Rose’s eyes held an intensity that scared him as she stepped forward. “Hold it right there buddy, I got a question for you.”

Rusty gulped loudly, running his eyes left and right in an attempt to avert the gaze Rose was inflicting on him. “Y-yes?”

Narrowing her eyes, Rose outlined her query very cleanly. “Do unicorns have contraceptive magic?”

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

Finale

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

Fifteen minutes until the requested time, Violet finally clicked the radio of the Toyota off and ran her hand through her hair. It was everything she could do to not pay attention in any way, shape, or form to the back of the truck bed as she did, not wishing to even see the tousled sheets and blankets. “Just over a day,” she mused, but then again, Twinkle had decided that she would act decidedly non-pony. And after running a Conversion Bureau where there were bound to be couples arriving, and more specifically, new couples leaving after a night of ‘christening’ their pony bodies, Violet didn’t much blame the unicorn for her limited view of humans.

It was just embarrassing that she was right about their behavior.

Still, she holstered her handgun she received from Jorge and checked her gas mask. If things went down a bad way, she wanted to be ready. And considering unless the good Lieutenant felt like being a friendly guy and came quietly, she expected some sort of bullets to fly. Likely at her, but that was just something she had to deal with.

It’s not like it would be a change of pace for her at this point. Sighing through her nose, Violet mentally berated herself for not taking her hour to sleep soundly, or at least try, but all things considered she had been rather productive. She had found which magazines were interchangeable, finding that Jorge’s gun and the gun of the fallen soldier were not, but somehow the gunman’s magazine was the exact fit for Rose’s handgun. Spinning in her seat, Violet reached over and turned the truck on, shifting the headlights on in the failing daylight. Catching sight and sound, the ponies who were mulling about got up and moved toward the truck, Rose taking a moment to stop Rusty from getting in the cabin.

“No way, no how loverboy. You sit in the back, where it smells of you,” Rose ordered, tripping over her hooves as she struggled to figure out which limb went where when it came to seating herself in a place meant for humans. Still, she ended up in a very close approximation of how Twinkle and Rusty sat, and soon reached a hoof out and closed the door, sighing wistfully as she did. “Don’t crash into anything, I don’t know how airbags react to ponies.”

Looking about the cabin, Violet shrugged. “Neither do I, Rose. Wouldn’t it be fun to find out?” she teased, but the ponified girl merely stuck her tongue out at the human - a comparatively tame response to her usual fare. Leaning back, Violet slipped the back window open as she saw Rusty assisted into the back with Twinkle. “Hey Twinkle, how good are you at enchanting ropes into a lasso?”

The pink pony in question hopped up onto the bed in the back, giving Violet an odd look. “Completely and utterly useless,” she said, deadpan. A moment later, she slapped a hoof to her face in exasperation, “Oh sweet Celestia you’re rubbing off on me.”

“Relish in it, girl!” Rose called back, her head forward as she drummed her hoof on the dashboard. “So, Violet, you were on that radio for awhile, I take it the Lieutenant was a hard sell?” Violet turned to meet her gaze, but soon shrugged it off. “Not really, I haven’t even contacted him yet, but right now the worst case scenario is on a hairpin trigger, and the only thing I’ve got right now is my voice.”

Rose grimaced, putting a hoof in her face as she rubbed it around. “So you’re gonna have to talk a madman down, or he’ll dump what is basically poison all over Santa Fe. Great plan, V. Real foolproof.” Violet smirked, reaching down for the radio as she shifted channels. Rose raised an eyebrow, turning over to the human. “So wait, I heard you talking - who were you talking to?”

With a smile, Violet gave a soft wink. “It really wasn’t that hard to guess what was going on, so I asked Twinkle about how she used to get in contact with the IHSA, and I kinda... extrapolated from there.” Pulling out of the store, the light sound of helicopter blades could still be heard as the truck started its trek through the city. “However, there are two things I need to get cleared out of the way, and the rest I’ll explain along the way.”

Making sure everything was set accordingly, the girl popped her radio on as she raised the receiver to her mouth. “Alright, Lt. Standish, I got a couple demands, and if you don’t mind, I’m just gonna go ahead and give them. See, turns out having a crack team of pony professionals with me is great for the karma, and things have been really working out in my favor since you said you wanted me dead. Oh, and thanks for the warning and an hour to prepare, great military genius that is.”

“Of course, you’re not really in the military. Not anymore, Sammy. Funny thing about going rogue, kinda strips you of your rank and pisses a lot of people off. So don’t think you’re safe out east anymore where the magic’s a bit thinner than here.” Violet watched the look on Rose’s face, gauging her reaction as she spoke. “Also, how’s the gas up there? You didn’t have time to refuel what little resources you had back at base, and I know you don’t have any AI units laying around to automate that shit. So let’s see, a trip to Albuquerque, a trip back, and now you’ve been hovering over Sante Fe for almost an hour after a rousing game of cat and mouse - where the mouse happened to kill a number of cats with a gun and a pick-up.”

“So here’s the deal, Standish. You meet me at the Bataan Building. Then we’ll kinda go from there. And as an incentive not to throw a bitch fit, this is literally the only option you have in staying alive to see the sunset. Toodles!” Clicking the radio off, the girl hung the receiver up and turned the radio off, taking all her willpower in not throwing the device out the window to prove a point.

However, that all didn’t quite sit well with a certain puce pegasus. “The hell was that?”

Violet smirked, pouring on the accelerator. “Common sense. He didn’t have any to start, so why not use my own against him?” Violet spent the next ten minutes outlining her plan, and then spent the next two hundred feet toward the building. “And lastly, I haven’t the slightest clue where the hell Arovista Park is.”

-----

Violet stood on the lower roof of the Bataan building, taking great pride in her state; to have built such a monument that, unlike some of the other fixtures of society, had decidedly stayed strong despite weathering and misuse. She felt almost bad that it was likely not to look as nice as it did when she arrived. “Mom would be furious,” she tittered, remembering her mother’s old motto. Always leave things how you left it... “Ponies not withstanding, Mom.”

Keeping an eye to the sky, eventually the girl saw the incoming helicopter, popping up from below a low hilltop. Violet felt quite proud of herself for evading capture in such a city - there weren’t too many tall buildings in Sante Fe, having only just released the restrictions on building heights a couple years prior to first contact. It made her smile, despite her given situation, a last shred of pride to take from this day. Her grandpa would be proud of her.

Making herself seen on the roof of the building, Violet soon brought herself close to a wall that would separate her and the helicopter, not allowing the man to take any sort of pot shot at her from his flying perch. The chopper circled the building a couple times before a low whine exhumed from the vehicle, and it wasn’t long at all before the human found herself with some company on the rooftops. Stepping out a little bit, Violet watched the man carefully as he exited the helicopter, his normal demeanor completely removed. However, he didn’t have a gun immediately drawn, so Violet took a step out into the open. She smirked as she resisted the urge to cross her arms, keeping her hand glued to her side, near the holster. “Good to see you, Sammy.”

“Lieutenant Standish, bitch,” the man seethed, his hand reaching for his gun. Just as quickly, Violet grabbed hold of the agent’s grip, raising her hand out and shaking her finger.

“Nah-uh-uh, Sammy.” Her eyes flashed toward the pilot, who was obviously making no moves to interact between the two. She was glad that he was narcissistic enough to ride along in the helicopter. “I’m here to give you one chance to surrender, come quietly, and maybe you can live the rest of your days in jail. Or, you can die here, today, with no hope of a future, and your name to be tarnished from the records of history.”

Standish shook his head through gritted teeth, his hand coming to rest on his gun. “You have no idea what you’re doing, girl! There are bigger things at play here, and you won’t stop it! Humanity is a dying breed, and it will go out gloriously! There will only be the best there is when we finally burn out. I’m doing good work.”

“You’re doing shit other than committing genocide. Where else have you made your little test runs? There are tons of little towns and cities around here with dwindling human populations. They can’t all of been HLF!” Violet defended, her hand coming in full grips with the metal beneath it.

“What was left either were or they refused us. Sloths! Roaches!” Standish barked his words like an animal, giving Violet legitimate pause. “You haven’t seen them, these useless bones, dwindling their days on what was, instead of what is! I tried to save them - ponies are a salvation for the pests! They weed out the weak and make them strong!” He was shaking now, his head nodding in agreement to his own words. Violet took a step back, her eyes furrowed. Her mind echoed the words of Jorge as she felt his gun concealed behind her, held there by her belt.

Things have been getting riled up as of late - the brass says it’s the magic in the atmosphere, makin’ things go wild!

“Samuel, look-” Violet began, but soon found her words cut off as the sound of engines caught her ear. Looking about, the girl saw a number of cars, trucks, and the damaged semi coming up the road. “Oh sweet Christ... Tell me you didn’t...”

The ex-Lieutenant laughed aloud, “Oh, say my choices are to die or go peacefully? Well lemme present option number three - where you die, and I get back to my superiors and tell them our little mess has been cleaned up.” Drawing out his gun, Violet quickly withdrew her own and pointed at the man, turning herself sideways as she did. At the moment, the man merely chuckled. “What, you think standing that way makes you look good shootin’, hunny?”

“Not really, but I’m the one with the gun trained on you, so any sudden movements and I’ll blow your head off-” However, Violet wasn’t actually prepared for any sudden movements, and Standish quickly fired his gun, missing by a mile as the bullet collided with the wall behind Violet as he emptied his clip willy nilly at the girl. Dashing toward some cover, Violet aimed down the sights of her weapon and shot off a couple rounds until she heard the tell-tale click of an empty chamber, swearing lightly as she dropped the magazine and put in Rose’s ammo clip, having expected the soldier’s clip to have held more bullets. “Son of a Bitch runs a shit ship,” she cursed, peering from behind cover. As she did, she reached behind her back and produced the gas mask.

“You’re a damn poor shot, hunny.” Standish laughed, the engines nearby roaring as they neared the building. “It’s a good thing my men are trained shots. It won’t take them long to down a couple of fuckin’ ponies.”

Violet smirked, keeping her head down. “Who said they were here?” As she kept behind the wall that kept her from Standish’s bullets, she heard a loud, high pitched ‘pssssh’ sound that could only come from a leaky gas valve. “And what makes you think I was aiming for you?”

Or in her case, a crack caused by a bullet in an otherwise pressurized container full of gaseous ponification serum that was currently leaking into the air. Strapping her mask on, Violet took a second to peer at the hissing container, before ducking back under cover at the sound of gunfire.

Turning around, Standish could see the crack in the container, and that much pressure trying to force itself out of one container could only mean one thing. Taking her chance, the girl only had one shot to make it count, her mind buzzing with the idea that with all the men surrounding the building, her friends weren’t going to survive an attack, no matter her bluff toward the Lieutenant.

Looking down her sights, the girl reflected how yesterday had started out like any other these past few years. Always in a fog, never remembering one moment after another. She barely remembered her time at the Tower, except for Alfred. He must be worried sick by now, she mused, her eye trained on the plume of purple smoke as the militarily dressed man started to wheel about. What an awful time she had over the last two days. Breaking down and crying in front of so many ponies in front of the Bureau... not to mention in front of Rusty and Twinkle. And then she was chased down by a semi-truck! But it wasn’t all bad. She saved the life of Rose, and she made friends with two very special ponies. She felt herself inwardly laugh. Guess it was three very special ponies now.

The hammer fell, her gun twitching with the recoil of the explosion in her hand. To be fair, it reminded her of the initial hit of the semi against the back of Rusty’s Ford. That poor stallion, his feet are still bruised from bucking that grill, and no amount of modified socks is going to change that for at least a week. Still, he did eventually help dislodge the semi, instead of taking the truck with it. Violet wondered if she had thanked him for it. Twinkle sure had, that’s for sure. To think, only a day had gone by since some self-imposed imprisonment, and here she was, shooting at the best made plans by some terrorist cell. What a tale this was.

The bullet collided perfectly along the crack, exposing a much larger hole in the exterior of the container, fitted just inside the open door of the helicopter that Standish so graciously left open for her. The hole created, the pressure was let out in an explosive manner as the metal casing exploded inside the helicopter. Standish threw himself to the ground, a wave of purple mist washing over him as another explosion erupted from the helicopter, and another - every tank of serum had exploded, until the entire aerial vehicle erupted in a fireball, its fuel tank gauged by flying metal shards.

Making sure her mask was on proper, the girl let herself get washed in the mist, the thick fog raining over the building and cascading down toward the vehicles below. Three square miles of ponification serum all dumped in one spot, the cloud made its way around the assembled soldiers, completely taken off-guard by the rushing debris that fell over them.

Despite the mask, Violet breathed very little, unsure if the headgear could take sure high amounts of potion, and she was unwilling to test its limits. All she knew was that there was little else to see outside the mist, and very slowly picked herself up to her feet. Looking about, the purple haired girl could hear the screams of the soldiers below as the were forcefully put through ponification. She didn’t wish such a fate on them, but she knew it was them or her friends, and there was no silver lining that could save both groups. Exhaling deeply, the girl replaced a little air in her lungs as she moved toward the burning wreckage next to the tower. The helicopter had literally blown a hole through the wall, exposing the staircase within. If anything, it gave Violet another way down. Tossing Rose’s gun to the side, she didn’t much think there were bullets left in it anyway.

“Violet?” a voice called, the human girl identifying it as the voice of Twinkle. The unicorn appeared nearby, her head just barely above the ponification smoke around her, the thick gas barrelling past them as Twinkle made her way over to her friend. “What the hell happened to the plan? I was going to rip the gun from like I did the agent, and we could have stopped him!”

Violet sighed deeply, shaking her head in response. “He surrounded us, Twinkle. There was so little we could do with all of his forces here, I had to make a decision - them, or us. It may have meant less lives... but I’m not going to regret it. Besides, maybe some of them will live on as ponies.”

Twinkle gave her a very disapproving stage, but Violet ignored it as best she could. “Sometimes, Twinkle, you have to take what little victories you can. He wasn’t... right, in the head. I don’t think there was any reasoning with him, gun or no.”

Twinkle sighed openly, but soon waived her hoof around, pushing the smoke this way and that. “I’m sure all this potion isn’t healthy for anypony, even you in your mask. Do you think we should just leave Standish up here-”

Bang.

There was a scream as a bits of pale pink pony flew off of Twinkle, the pony dropping to the ground under a mist of purple. Spinning around, Violet could see the form of a man in a gas mask, heaving deeply as he held a gun in his hand as a low chuckle emanated from below his mask.

“You will call me by my proper name and rank! Lieutenant Standish!” He bellowed as Violet stumbled back. Her mind clicking into fight or flight mode, Violet reached for the gun Jorge gave her and whipped it out, firing a blind shot toward the Lieutenant. Clipping his side, the bullet cut the man along his waistline, causing him to fall to his knee a moment. However, before Violet had time to react, Standish pointed his gun at her again, and she could feel the bullet whiz through her hair.

Breathing Twinkle’s name, the girl spun about, taking off for the hole in the wall, trying her best to ignore the heat coming from the burning wreckage or the bullets as they collided with the wall next to her. As she reached the stairs, Violet instinctively started to head down the steps, before pausing as her foot hit the first stair. Rose and Rusty were still inside, and she couldn’t rightly lead Standish to them. Looking up, Violet dashed up the steps along the tower wall and checked the magazine Jorge had left for her. Just a single bullet left, she could feel it. Taking off up the stairs, she could hear the heavy footsteps of the man she had come to hate so much come stumbling up the stairs after her. “Come here, hunny! Option three is still open, bitch! We gave your plan a try, now give mine! It’s only fair!”

“Fuck off!”

Reaching the roof of the tower, Violet looked about in a tizzy. Head high above the weighty purple serum, Violet couldn’t stand the restricted breathing the mask was giving her. Ripping off the mask, Violet took great gulps of fresh air as she eyed the entrance she came by, waiting, watching for her antagonist. Her eyes scanned the roof below, the billowing smoke and purple mist making it hard to see. Down below, however, she could see the a faint outline of the fallen unicorn, bolstering Violet’s resolve. She would see this through. Crouching low, her mind suddenly through of the mist, and she suddenly jumped to her feet. She didn’t even know if she was safe anymore.

“What took you so long, Violet?” The girl felt a shiver run down her spine as Standish called up to her. “It’s been so many years. Why now?” Violet wiped her forehead with her forearm and kept her gun trained on the entrance to the roof. “I think I know why. It’s because you’re just like them. Another weak and pathetic sloth. You’re a blight on humanity. You’re worse than the HLF! You are worthless.”

Violet froze. She was not. She had driven the truck from the maw of the lorry. She had saved Rose from the fall off the expressway. She evaded trained personnel in an urban setting and outsmarted an officer. She was so not worthless. Aiming the weapon, the girl strode forward, catching glimpse of the man’s upper body as she called upon thunder. Pulling the trigger, Violet’s bullet cut itself through the man’s collarbone cracking his left side. Holding the weapon where she fired it, Violet stared hard at the man as he took another step forward. And another.

And another.

Fear welled in her heart as Standish kept moving, his body bleeding profusely. Stepping unto the top of the tower, he raised his gun at Violet, his left hand reaching up and tearing his mask off his face. “Ahh... Fresh air...!” He called out, his eyes unfocused. “Hello, Violet. I’m here to kill you.”

Violet remained still, her eyes hard on Standish’s face. “Yeah, I gathered that much. I’m just happy you’ll die long before you get attention for that wound.” She snorted, the man’s face contorting to anger.

“No! I am strong! I am the best humanity has to offer!” He shouted, his gun starting to tremble in his hand.

“Then humanity isn’t worth anything.”

“Violet!” Rose shouted, the pitterpatter of hooves signifying the rush that Rusty and Rose were making up the stairs. “We can’t find Twinkle and-” The ponies stopped short of the entrance, seeing Standish move his gun toward Rose’s forehead.

Standish’s smile never wavered. “If I am worth nothing, these ponies are worth less than nothing!” Violet felt everything at once. Pain, anger, sadness... Rose had had enough happen. She was going to be okay. She would will it into existence if she had to, but that pegasus would live!

Standish went to pull the trigger.

A loud snap.

A scream.

Holding his left arm, Standish felt another unnatural snap issue forth from his forearm, his fingers on his left hand starting to meld into his palms. “W-what is-” Along his side, the cut where Violet’s bullet had torn into his skin shimmered and bubbled with serum, providing direct access to his bloodstream. “N-no! I can’t! I’m the best!” His right arm shot out again, the gun again trained upon Rose. “I. Am. The. Best!”

Violet couldn’t care less. Lunging forward, the girl collided with the man, pushing his hand out of the way as the bullet fired harmlessly into space. However, the two kept going, crashing into the old wooden railing. Their momentum shared, the two humans tumbled over the side, the screams of dismay coming from both pegasus pony and Earth pony. The two humans found themselves plummeting towards the ground.

Violet sighed as she found herself falling through the air, closing her eyes as she dreamed she could fly. She really did want to be a pegasus; to fly through the air, not a care in the world. Standing on clouds would be cool too, taking naps on assembled droplets of water. And she could fly to and from Equestria as she pleased - she never really had to leave her home, just visit people, places. She’d soar through the air, maybe see if she couldn’t gather up a bunch of pegasi and make a city out in the Atlantic, or in the Pacific near Hawaii. Maybe she’d even take Albert up on that date. His letter had alluded as much.

She hoped he’d find a mare that would actually appreciate him a bit more than she did, though. When he disappeared, Violet didn’t even go looking for him. That’s why she was in this mess in the first place, really. Because she had gone and let herself be closed off to the world. Violet smirked. Well, never again, she promised herself. For as long as she lived, she’d be very open with everyone, and actually try and enjoy life this time around.

Violet got a chuckle out of that. What was there to enjoy in the time it took the hit the sidewalk? Certainly not classical music, she’d never make it through a... what was it called? Certainly not a verse, or a line. Oh, she was never any good at music. But she could act. Perhaps she could admire the works of Sir Anthony Hopkins? Now there was an actor who could command a stage or a film.

Violet wondered if ponies had movies, or actors. She remembered having some conversation with Albert about it. It was like it was yesterday.

Ah, it actually was yesterday. It’s how he got his cutie mark.

It was comedy.

Opening her eyes, Violet looked toward the direction gravity was pulling her, her body encompassed in the gas below.

Funny.

Violet guessed hers would have been tragedy.

Conversion Bureau:

A Mare’s Tail

Epilogue

By HiddenBrony

Original Concept by Blaze

They say that when you die, there is a white light at the end of a long tunnel. Some say there’s a nothingness that consumes the world. Those who cross the threshold and come back reference Godly things. Some say they witness the supernatural. Science can explain some of this away, claiming hallucinations of an oxygen deprived mind.

She actually never gave this much thought. If you had asked, you probably wouldn’t of gotten an answer, either. A faraway stare is all most people got. She hated the concept of death, not so much a fear of it, though. Perhaps living in such a lifestyle had deadened her to the concept, or maybe she simply accepted it - but she never liked it. It was simply something no one knew for sure, and to that end, no one should try and stuff it down her throat about what it was.

And yet, facing it now? She found she really quite liked it. All around her, she could feel a rush. No, a flow about her as she felt the warmth of the sunshine through the soft glow of the stars. All around her, there were others - she couldn’t see their faces, but she recognized them none-the-less. Family, friends, people she hadn’t seen in years, all gathered around her. They cheered her appearance among them, welcoming her.

It didn’t matter that they were ponies. It was her afterlife and it was what she wanted it to be. What she wanted to be. Brought along the flow, the girl soon left her friends, her family, scooting along toward a place she felt she needed to be. It was somewhere far off, but she knew she’d see all of them again. She wasn’t sad. She was at peace with herself. Ever approaching her destination, she knew it was important to be there. To meet them. Who they were didn’t matter, and where she was going she couldn’t be sure.

But she was going there, and not a force in the universe would stop her.

-----

Rose and Rusty stood on the top of the Bataar Building, gazing down at the mist below where it had consumed the last two humans they knew. The screams of the men below had ceased long ago, and all that was left was a deathly silence. Detaching herself from the railing, Rose finally stepped back from the ledge, shaking her head numbly as her wings furled to her sides. Rusty sighed through his nose as he blinked hard, looking slowly about the area. He hadn’t heard nor seen Twinkle either, and right now he already knew what happened, if Standish still had a weapon and Violet had to... He didn’t want to think about it.

“She... she didn’t have to,” Rose choked. Her head was shaking from side to side as Rusty stared up at her. “She.. could have just let him shoot me. Could have punched him after. Wrenched the gun away from him while he was distracted.” Closing her eyes, tears started to flow freely down her face. Rusty walked over, embracing the poor girl in his hooves as she placed his head on hers.

“Shh...sh-sh-shhh... You know she couldn’t have done that. Violet... she wouldn’t have let you get hurt anymore,” Rusty cooed, tears beading on the side of his eyes. “She knew she had to try. She always tried for us, eh? Goddamn, she tried with all she had.” He brushed a hoof through the girl’s hair, cradling the girl as she sobbed openly. She tried when they met Richard. She tried when she kept the truck on the road. She tried when she saved Rose. She tried when Rose was taken. She tried when they were chased. She tried when Standish tried to kill them. “She tried so everyone else could have a chance. A chance at a new life, a chance to see family.”

Rose heaved slightly, trying to control her sobs. “It’s not...not fair! She didn’t deserve any of it!” she challenged, her eyes turning angry. However, the Earth pony quelled her rage as he hugged her close, the girl reached a hoof up and grabbing his arm, holding it close like a daughter would hold her father’s hand. “It was me. I was the one who triggered all this. I should have just... died with Richard! Then she’d still be here. She’d be alive. She’d be a pony, like she wanted...”

Rusty swallowed the pressure he felt in his throat as her shook his head. “Come on, Rose. Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that. Violet hated seeing people go. She wanted to cry for every bullet she fired. I could feel it. But she was stronger than that.” Patting the pegasus on the back, he started to release the girl as he returned to his four hooves. “Now we have to be strong.”

Rose sniffed loudly, but got on her feet. Downtrodden, the puce pony stepped weakly toward the stairs, Rusty taking the lead as the two moved for the roof, intent on seeing the damage. His eyes focused stiffly ahead as he took it one hoof at a time, his mind not daring to think about the pale pink unicorn. She had been missing, and he didn’t dare let Rose think about it. He looked back at the pegasus, her own head bent straight down, not lifting an eye from the floor below. Her hair was so much like his niece’s, he mused, a feeling of protectiveness filling the Earth pony. He didn’t need to dwell on the facts any more than what was necessary.

-----

She was running now. Soaring, even, as she made her way through the stars and hills around her. Everything was so different here, she felt in tune with everything. Not on some godly plain, but just more alive. Which, she mused, was actually fairly amusing given the circumstances. However, as she came through the aether, she could finally see her destination. A crystal palace, both transparent and completely opaque to her vision, in which the sun and moon themselves seemed to orbit continually.

Laughing in some innocent joy, the girl rushed through the entrance without a care in the world, taking no time in seeing what there was to see. Colors dances around her, each surface sparkling a new shade of a color as she passed. She could hear music. A beautiful ballad as sung by a duet. She wanted to meet them, the singers. She would meet them, she would see them and then...

Well, she really didn’t know what after that. But her heart pulled at her, pushing her on and on as she ran ever forward through this ancient palace of magic.

-----

Rose and Rusty stepped out into the rooftop, walking around the burning wreckage of the helicopter that had somehow managed to blow itself up while they were huddled inside. Rusty didn’t much feel like scoping out the area, but his interest grew with every step, his contemplation and curiosity completely insatiable as his heart needed to know what happened to the unicorn from the Bureau. Stepping softly, the potion which coated the area started to subside, only a minor leak coming out of the helicopter now. Rose passed by him, her eyes catching something just above the surface of the cloud. “Twinkle...!” she choked out, her hooves pushing her on as she took no thoughts in her steps, the pegasus galloping toward the prone form on the ground.

Rusty stopped cold, his eyes catching sight of the pale pink form popping just out of the subsiding mist. His mind raced with a million possibilities as Rose began to weakly shake the unicorn, calling out her name. Taking a leaden step forward, the Earth pony approached the body slowly, the lump in his throat returning in full force as tears started to fall from his cheeks. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to know. He needed to know.

Walking around the mare, the red pony reached a hoof out, placing it gently under her neck. As he saw, there was no wound on her side, but her head had been submerged under the potion - harmless to ponies, but likely no good for the lungs. Steeling himself, he lifted the unicorn’s face above the mist. Rose gasped as she took in a sharp intake of breath as her foot hit something nearby.

It was a horn.

Lifting Twinkle’s head above the cloud, Rusty could see now that the mare’s horn was completely cracked off, the bullet having completely shattered the magical appendage, the girl’s mint-green hair falling gently over the abscess. While Rusty looked over the mare, a high pitched whine issued from the Twinkle’s lungs. Rusty belted out a laugh despite himself, positioning himself on the roof so Twinkle’s head could rest on something above the magical mist. Rose smiled weakly, blinking away the pain she felt for Violet as she let herself rejoice in the fact Twinkle was alive.

It took a few minutes, but the unicorn in question finally started to come around, her eyes blinking hard a few times before focusing on the pegasus in front of her. What was odd about it was that Rose was continually picking her hoof up and bringing it down, almost as if she was playing around in water. At once, she hopped up, her hooves touching the top of the mist and holding there, but she soon sank through the mist, a look of contemplation on her face. “Rose...? What are you doing?”

Rusty fidgeted at the sound of her voice, but not daring to move as he served as the mare’s pillow. “You’re awake! Thank Celestia...!” he breathed, stroking a hoof through her hair unconsciously. Looking up at Rusty, Twinkle smiled softly at him before craning her head around.

“I don’t know what happened... I was talking to Violet and suddenly I heard a loud-.” After a quick intake of breath, the mare picked herself off of the red stallion and spun about. “Violet! Where’s Violet!? Whe-wha...” A nauseated feeling took the unicorn by surprise, and the unicorn fell against Rusty again, bringing a hoof up to her head. “I feel so light-headed, what happened-”

A long pause.

“My horn...?”

Rose gave a weak smile. “I think I felt some of it over there...?” She gestured, the smoke starting to clear around them. There were parts of the roof that were actually visible under the smoke, and pieces of a pale pink horn could be seen nearby. The unicorn groaned loudly, but she didn’t dwell on it long.

“That... doesn’t matter. Horns grow back. Violet. Where’s Violet?” she sounded resolutely. Rusty coughed uneasily as Rose averted her gaze. An awkward silence permeated the area as Twinkle slowly got the point. “Oh- Oh sweet Celestia no...” Putting a hoof up to her mouth, the mare suppressed her tears as she kept looking from both of the ponies with her. “But she was fine when I... I was the one who was shot-!” Rusty cut her off silently, shaking his head in sadness.

He quickly explained what Twinkle needed to know, telling of how the girl had sacrificed herself to save himself and Rose.

Allowing Twinkle the time she needed to digest the information, Rose started to wander about the rooftop, her mind trying to cover what all had happened. Stepping near the ledge, the pegasus’ wings unfurled as she waved some of the smoke around her away, feeling the wind catch underneath it. Looking back at the other ponies, she started to wonder what they’d do now - none of them could drive, and they were fairly far from anywhere. Sighing deeply, she guessed they’d have to walk.

And then, at the faintest edges of her hearing, she could hear it.

The whirling of blades, the whine of an engine, that throbbing sound of a heartbeat as Rose looked out into the cityscape, watching a helicopter bound on their position from the northeast. Taking a cautionary step back, the pegasus returned to her friends, shaking her head grimly. “Guys... we have company.” The two ponies paused, exchanging glances as they looked out over the city. Pointing with her hoof, the two tracked her direction until they saw the helicopter, and soon noticed two others tailing it as it approached the flaming beacon of smoke from their own burning chopper. “What do we do?”

Rusty sighed, shaking his head as the purple mist around them started to clear. “What can we do, Rose? We can’t drive... I can’t run, you can’t fly and you’re still getting used to your hooves. Twinkle’s been shot...”

The unicorn noticed his complete deterrence from mentioning the human of their group. However, she sighed gratefully as she watched the last of the purple gas start to taper off around them. “We don’t need to run. Vi-... Violet called the IHSA branch proper before we came here. She asked me about it when we captured the radio, and started bugging them about all of this. Lieutenant Standish apparently faked his and his squad’s deaths, as news of his being alive spooked them. That right there... is the IHSA. The real IHSA. They’ve been trying to track this terrorist group for weeks, apparently. Evacuating cities and towns they felt were threatened.”

Rose turned to the edge, catching sight of various forms sticking out over the surface of the smoke. “A little late. Violet killed them all. Every last one of them. Ha. Bet they never saw her coming.”

Twinkle winced at the pegasus’ voice against their enemies life, but found herself regretfully agreeing with every word. “I guess so. The gas here was thick - too thick, I think. That much magic to a person’s system so quickly would have shocked a body to death. Those poor men - acting under orders of a mad man.”

“Mad?” Rusty echoed, but he found it more or less suited the Lieutenant. Twinkle sighed and nodded, prompting the red stallion to shift himself slowly. “So I guess that might explain a lot. Any chance those men are just... ponies?”

Twinkle shook her head. “The clouds too thick. It’s closer to the equivalent of ten vials of potion for as long as they were covered in it. They likely died of magic shock.” Picking herself up to her hooves, the unicorn could hear the beat of the helicopters as they got ever closer, their loud engines drowning out her compatriots voices as the wind brought down from the blades pushed and dispersed the serum and into the air in manageable quantities.

-----

She approached the room. Not regally or respectfully. She ran, galloped into the Great Hall of this palace. Two forms sang their song, hauntingly beautiful as it beckoned her forward. Not needing a second invitation, she approached the regal forms, looking between them as she smiled. “So this is what it’s like then? Can’t say I’m not impressed. Everything here is so... perfect. Your song was beautiful.”

The tall figure ceased its tune alongside the shorter one, the great form shooting its wings out over the hall. “Thank you.” It called, its smile bursting with the sun’s brilliance.

The shorter, darker form approached her, a small smile playing over her visage, less motherly but all the same graceful and loving. “We sing it for all those who pass.”

The girl laughed, shaking her head. “Well, if they don’t thank you, I will. Is all of this because of you? This world? I’ve never seen it all so... clear. So crisp.”

The tall figure nodded. “Yes, this spiritual place is much our doing, but is merely a reflection of our work.”

The shorter, darker form laughed, her voice like that of a nightingale. “But it is nice to hear. Most pass by and accept their fate without a word. It’s really quite boring sometimes.”

The girl tilted her head, but she soon felt a wave of vertigo as she did, feeling her entire being shift with her. “So, I suppose I’m at the end of my rope, then? Glad I get to be me about it, I’d really hate to go about this all somber and stuff. Although, I’m surprised I’m so alone here - I really thought I took that rat bastard with me.”

The taller form frowned, her eyes growing sad. “No, I don’t believe any of those souls will be passing through our domain.”

-----

The helicopter touched down on the roof a fair distance from the wreckage of the other, the other two choppers circling the area, looking for suitable places to land as they’re blades pushed away the mist that still lingered around the building. Cutting the engines, the door to the chopper opened, and two ponies leapt out, followed by a young man in a blue coat. The man in question was wearing sunglasses, but quickly took them off as the last rays of the sun cast its fingers over the mountains nearby. Catching sight of the three ponies on the roof with him, the man surveyed the area, catching sight of pony bodies on the ground nearby, bloated sickeningly by magic. Averting his gaze, he soon jogged over to the ponies present, giving them a lookover. “Ah. My name is John. John Smith. I take it you all are...” Pointing a finger at the red Earth pony, he went down the line. “Rusty, Twinkle, aaannnd Rose, correct?”

Twinkle, being the one more used to talking, stepped forward, nodding her head. “Yes sir, that’s correct. Our fourth... well, we don’t have a fourth anymore, sir,” she said, a strain on her voice. The man visibly frowned, a sad look taking over his face as he took off his hat, placing it over his chest.

“My... sincerest apologies. We tried to get here as fast as we could - we wanted to prevent this.” Sighing deeply, the pegasus moved to her hooves as she started to walk toward the hole in the wall, John lifting his head and reaching out to her. “Miss Rose? Where are you going?”

Rose looked back, her eyes blinking repeatedly as she shook her head solemnly. “I’m going to find Violet. She at least deserves... to be buried. Or something. I just... want to see her,” she said, and before John could react, Rusty and Twinkle were on their feet as well.

“You can debrief us later, Mr. Smith,” Rusty called back, the man merely nodding and tugging on his sleeve. “We won’t be going anywhere.”

John nodded in completely understanding. “Take all the time you need. My men and ponies won’t bother you.” Reaching for his side, the man drew out his walkie-talkie as he gave the order to his personnel to search for any living being, pony or otherwise, and to start rounding up the bodies if they could, but only after the three ponies found their friend.

Reaching the stairs, Rose, Twinkle and Rusty passed by the truck on their way through the building. Violet had driven through the glass double doors, her one escape plan should things have gone south when they got here. And yet, not a one of them could even look at the driver’s seat, the memory of their purple-haired friend too fresh in their minds. Rose picked up to a trot, much to the surprise of Twinkle, who followed suit, Rusty finding himself forced into some three-legged hop as he attempted to keep up with the girls.

Outside, Rose looked over to see the tower, and quickly galloped over to its base. Circling around the wall, the puce pony stopped her gallop as she saw it. The prone form of the purple-haired girl, laying on her side. Her amber skin shimmering in the last vestiges of the sun.

Nearby, the cracked and broken body of Lieutenant Standish lay split on the walkway. He was a grotesque display, his chest bulged out and his arms cracked and splintered. One side of his body was hooved, as his right side held stunted fingers. His face, fortunately, was nothing but meat, having fallen on it.

Twinkle turned the corner, seeing the display in front of her, but at least managing to keep what little she had left in her stomach inside. Approaching the still body of the girl she had come to know, she looked over her as she fought back tears. Limping toward the girls, Rusty came upon her as well, a small, pained smile on his face.

“Well, her hair stayed purple.”

The pony before them was amber in color, her skin shimmering with the color of the sunset.  Her mane and tail were the same color of violet purple it had always been since they met her, a strangled chuckle coming from Rose as she stroked part of it away from her friend’s face, tears flowing freely down her face. Adorned on her side were a pair of wings, sharp yet graceful, furled closed on her sides. Kneeling down next to her face, Rose smiled weakly. “Hello Violet. We’re here for you, the day you became a pony. And guess what? You’re a pegasus! You know what that means, right? We get to fly together, Violet. You ‘n me. Even that Albert fella you like. Isn’t that grand?” Her face contorted, a strangled laugh issuing from her throat. “Oh God, Violet..!” Her sobs reverberated against the walls as she moved closer to the prone pony, Rusty and Twinkle crying silently at her side.

-----

“So does that mean I screwed up then? They’re all still alive?” The girl looked back for the first time, feeling the need to go back. “How did that guy even survive the fall when I didn’t-”

“He didn’t. None of them survived.” The darker form called out. “They all perished with their unnatural concoctions. It’s a pity, but the magic they had lived with in your world had settled in their veins - the potion was like poison to almost all of them.”

The taller, brighter form started to take on a more definite shape, its long, slender legs stretching out toward the girl. “Those who could have survived drowned in the fog of magic. We haven’t had many come through our domain recently.”

Feeling a rush of guilt, the girl wiped her eyes. “So I could have saved some of them. I should have waited, or ran, or something. I don’t... I’m sorry.” Falling down, the girl shook her head. “I’m sorry, but... but...” Looking up, her face was awash in confusion. “If they’re dead, why aren’t they here? What did I do to deny them this afterlife?”

“Afterlife?” The darker form echoed, a trace of mirth carrying in her voice. Stepping forward, a midnight blue hoof reached out to the girl. “Violet, don’t you see? This isn’t the afterlife.”

“It’s... not? But t-then H-how do you know my name?” She asked, her eyes focusing on the figures, trying to make out their details.

There was a low chuckle, the face of a Princess beaming down on her subject. “No, it’s no afterlife, Violet. This is where souls undergo what is needed. A soul must be tempered to live in magic, and while many used come through here so quickly, it’s nice to stop and chat once in awhile. We just had a kind gentlecolt come through not more than two hours ago. He told us you’d be coming.”

Violet was dumbfounded, her arm reaching out and grabbing Luna’s who helped her to her feet. “So you’re saying this isn’t some perfect afterlife with all my friends and family? That I’m still.. I’m alive?”

“Afraid so.” The midnight Princess shrugged, gesturing toward a third light that had appeared in the room. “Sorry to disappoint.” As she spoke, her features became defined as her equine face smiled down at Violet.

Looking between the two alicorns, Violet slapped a hoof to her head. “You two! You’re the-”

“Yes.” Celestia said, nodding.

There was a moment of silence, before Violet put her leg down. Looking between them, the girl chuckled and shook her head. “Are you two always this... I mean... you’re not gonna hunt me down for being all candid and stuff, are you?”

Luna laughed heartily, taking great joy in the girl’s lack of tact when it came to the royal sisters. “Oh my Celly, there’s very little going to be different with her when she wakes up, is there?”

Celestia shook her head as the third light came nearer to the pegasus among them, Violet taking note of her form for the first time. “Holy shit! I’m a pegasus! That means- I can- I get to fly with Al and-” The light came forward, growing and enveloping the pony. Violet looking on as the smiling faces of the Princesses carried with them a soft song, welcoming her into the world.

-----

“-Rose...” Violet coughed, earning herself the pleasure of hearing three ponies simultaneously gasp, and was greeted with the sight of a fainting pale pink pony, collapsing into the hoofs of a red stallion. Blinking hard, the amber pegasus slowly moved her head as she caught sight of the puce pony beside her. “Rose..! I... I get to fly with you.”

Suddenly enveloped in hooves, the new pegasus found herself hugged hard by the turquiose-maned mare as she tackled the already grounded pony. “Violet! I swear to Celestia I’m gonna kill you! Don’t you ever, ever, ever-ever-ever-ever do that again!” Her sobs were mixed with laughter as the very confused pegasus started to line up everything that happened.

“What’s with all the-” she muttered, but soon found herself noticing the hubbub around her. “Guys? Rusty? What’s going on...?” She saw the mutilated form of Standish, which made her stomach turn a cartwheel, but she was more interested in the multitude of ponies and humans who were walking around them. “Is that the IHSA?”

Rose let go of her friend a moment as she wiped her tears away with a hoof. “I-H-S-A, Violet. Are you ever going to get that right?” she teased, a strangled laugh issuing from the tired pegasus. Violet looked down her hooves, feeling a weird sensation at the bottoms of her feet. “Better late than never, eh?”

Violet looked up, nodding assuredly. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m so glad you’re alright, Rose. I heard the gunshot when I tackled Standish - I thought I might have been too late.”

Rose shook her mane incredulously as she closed her eyes. “That is so you, Violet. You throw yourself off a damn roof and then you look to see if everypony is alright. We are, thank you, although Twinkle lost her horn,” she muttered, gesturing toward the unicorn. The memory of the gunshot filled Violet’s senses, but seeing the fainted pony, she could tell she was alright.. for the most part.

Rusty smiled as he struggled slightly under Twinkle, having somehow trapped himself under her body. Still, he wasn’t complaining about it. “Hey there, V. Good to see you. I’m just, y’know... bein’ a pillow,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “I honestly don’t understand, Violet. You threw yourself from the tower, and... well, the fall should have killed you. And yet you’re standing around - doesn’t it hurt?”

Blinking, the pony turned from Rose to Rusty, giving a mild shrug. “It feels a little like I’m on fire, but nothing broken to report. God I am sore, though,” she said animatedly, earning a laugh from those conscious. As they spoke, the man in the blue coat approached them.

“Four ponies? You’re not part of my unit. Who’re you?”

Violet turned around, a small smirk on her face. “Violet. I’m a pony, for all that’s worth.”

THE CONVERSION BUREAU: SECOND IMPACT

An MLP: FiM Fanfic by Purple Prose

An Extension of First Contact

Based On The Conversion Bureau by Blaze, Midnight’s Tail by Midnight Shadow

Chapter 1: Here Lies the First

It wasn’t a surprise that the Conversion Bureaus were unpopular with some sectors of the world’s population. For some, the idea of transforming ones-self into a different creature was in and of itself appalling, the ultimate denial or destruction of one‘s humanity. For others, especially in certain sects of fundamentalist Protestant churches, the very idea of the conversion was akin to blasphemy, the acceptance of the Mark of the Beast from Revelations. Others had political objections to the process; Equestria, in their minds, was literally stealing away citizens of their countries, disrupting partisan lines and established cultural identities. Still others just didn’t like ponies for one irrational reason or another. It would take forever to list the individual objections to the work the Conversion Bureaus did.

Their objections were noted, both by the press and the governments of the countries that the Bureaus resided. Issues of possible terrorism were brought up, but few expected any real attacks. Technology had reached the point where security could be innocuous and ever-constant: security cameras could be anywhere, data-feeds could be monitored via AI and scanned for possible threats, and police could be dispatched quickly  to the scenes of any crime thanks to advances in transportation networks. For many people that lived in the cities of the world, the idea of terrorism in the age of the Singularity was a mild worry at best.

Of course, all the technology in the world can’t stop something bad from happening.

---

Mary shifted nervously as she climbed off the bus, a hand adjusting her breath filtration mask as she got off onto the sidewalk. Dallas was under a High Pollution alert today, the air slightly hazy from the smog hanging overhead. Smart people went out with a breath mask on days like this. Smart people and those that could afford them, at least. Hers was a loner.

She inhaled slowly as she walked down the sidewalk, stepping around hurried pedestrians as she made her way towards her destination; a multi-story, glass-roofed and gray-sided building with the Conversion Bureau logo facing the street. A large crowd had gathered in front of the sliding glass doors, some carrying signs or shouting slogans.

Mary had seen them before; the religious population of the southern United States was known for their protests. Of course, the Conversion Bureaus were the newest targets, supplanting family planning clinics in popularity. The congregates were lined up like a gauntlet along the sidewalk, shouting both at passersby and at anyone approaching the clinic doors. The signs were the most telling part, with slogans like “GOD MADE MAN, NOT HORSES,” “PONIES = ANTICHRIST,” “CELESTIA WON’T SAVE YOU FROM HELL,” and other such comments.

Mary inhaled and began to push her way through the gauntlet, pushing her breath mask a little higher on her face as they shouted at her. This was already hard enough on her to begin with. She knew why they were doing it, of course. She understood it quite well. She cringed slightly as one of the protestors, a large man in a heavy plaid shirt leaned in, denouncing her for abandoning humanity. She ducked her head, her hands going over her ears as she rushed the last few feet and in through the glass doors of the Bureau.

The shouting outside became muted when the doors closed. The bureau itself was a much more cheerful looking place; the floors had grass-green carpeting, the walls were robin’s-egg blue and a dome-shaped light fixture hung above like a small sun made of cloudy glass. The pony at the desk, a pale pinkish-red pony with a blonde mane, smiled cheerfully at her as she stepped from her position and trotted up to her.

“Hello miss. Welcome to the Conversion Bureau. My name is Lily! How are you today?” The cheerful equine extended a hoof in greeting.

“Um, alright.” Mary looked down at the pony as she talked. This was the first time she’d actually seen a pony face to face. She glanced down at the hoof, then reached down and shook it, glancing over her shoulder at the glass barrier behind her.

“Are you here for a pre-conversion check-up?” Lily continued unabated, lowering her hoof before following Mary’s gaze. “It’s alright. We’ve got security cameras and everything, so they won’t do anything. I hope. Did they give you any trouble?”

“Not really, I just didn’t expect there to be so many people…” Her voice trailed off as Lily trotted back to her desk.

“They’ve been showing up pretty regularly. We’ve talked to the police about it, but unless they get violent we can’t really do anything.” Lily grumbled, pulling a data pad out of a slot in the desk. “I’m sorry if they scared you.”

“What? No, I’m alright, really. Just fine.” Mary watched as Lily nosed the data pad, then picked the stylus up in her mouth and poked at it. He pony was a lot different than she had expected: friendly, polite, not at all like some of the people she had met on the street. Mary slowly removed her breath mask, sliding it into her purse as she waited.

“Alright, here we go. Go ahead and take this pad with you. I’ll show you to the exam room if you don’t mind.” Lily lifted the pad up and let it rest on the edge of the desk, the stylus tucked into the little pocket on its side. “Just follow me.”

Mary picked up the pad and followed the pony quietly, eying the data pad’s screen. It seemed like a regular doctor’s form. She glanced up every so often as Lily lead her along, then stopped as the reddish-pink pony butted a door open with her head, then held it open for her.

“Right in here, please.” The room was just as bright and colorful as the entrance was: pastel pink walls and light yellow carpet, with a large white table, a chair, and what looked like a low couch. Mary looked around, having a seat at the table. “I’ll tell Fugue you’re ready. Just go ahead and fill out the stuff on the pad, if you would?”

“Okay.” Mary nodded as Lily let the door close, pulling out the stylus and looking at the pad again, reading down the requested information, then the questions it was asking.

Why did you decide to undergo Conversion?

Do you have any family that aren’t undergoing Conversion?

What sort of job skills/employment have you had?

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Do you have any diagnosed physical ailments currently? Please list if so.

Do you have any diagnosed emotional/psychological problems? Please list if so.

And so forth. Mary nibbled nervously on the tip of the stylus as she filled in the information. It wasn’t hard: she had filled in applications like this before. It was at the last page she paused. The  last page was a release form, certifying that she was undergoing Conversion of her own free will, as well as notifying her that she understood that the process was irreversible. She paused, tapping the stylus against her cheek, fidgeting nervously.

---

Fugue State hummed softly, smoothing his mane as he checked himself in the mirror. He had to admit, this hadn’t been his first choice for an assignment; his education at the Royal University of Canterlot has been in psychology for ponies, not for humans. However, an assignment to the Conversion Bureau would give him excellent experience, possibly enough to write a paper for publication when he returned to Equestria.

Not bad for the son of a workhorse. He nickered softly and puffed a bit of his dark orange mane out of his eyes. He looked presentable enough with his little bow tie and his well-groomed sandy coat, the empty white thought-bubble of his cutie mark standing out against the field of yellow. He turned slightly as Lily pushed his door open.

“Fugue? We’ve got a candidate in meeting room one.”

“A candidate?” It was about time. “Excellent. Capital. I’ll be right there.”

Lily nodded and excused herself as Fugue straightened his back, trying to put on his professional face.

Remember; be courteous, but not overly so. Understanding. Sympathetic but not overly attached. This is your first human client. Make it count.

His hooves were quiet on the carpet as he trotted down the hall, stopping just before exam room one. He reached up and tapped his broad hoof on the door, before carefully pushing it open.

“Hello ma’am. My name is Fugue State, and I’ll be doing your interview today.” He smiled as he trotted in, looking the woman over as he went. She wasn’t particularly tall, and looked rather skinny. Her blonde hair was stringy and pulled back tightly, and her eyes were hidden behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. She was dressed lightly, her faded green dress looking a little to large for her frame. The oversized purse sitting on the table beside her was open, the clasp slightly bent. Fugue carefully rounded the table and climbed onto the couch, tucking his legs underneath him. “How are you today?”

“Fine.” She replied, not making eye contact.

Fugue nodded. “If I could see the pad, please?”

The woman nodded, sliding the skinny data pad over to him, the stylus rolling slightly. Fugue glanced over it quickly, scanning over the written-in information. Thankfully, Modern Equestrian and English were close enough to be interchangeable. He glanced at her name and other biographical information. Mary Wallace, age 30.

“Alright Mrs. Wallace, or would you prefer to be called Mary?”

“Either is fine.”

“Very well then, Mary. I hope you don’t mind if this is recorded. Do you mind?”

“I…guess not.” Mary paused, looking around nervously. Fugue hmmed softly at her reaction, then slid a hoof over the data pad, scrolling the screen down.

“There’s no need to be nervous, Mary. This is simply an interview to make sure you’re certain about your decision, as well as help us learn how to help you after the Conversion. Now, I’m going to ask you some questions based on what you have written down here. Is that alright?”

There was a faint nod of assent.

“Alright. It says here that you have a husband and two daughters that are not undergoing Conversion. May I ask why that’s so?”

“Um…” Mary nibbled on her thumb nail. “They’re…waiting for me to go first?”

Fugue nodded, making a note on the pad. “Ah sh-” He lowered the stylus from his mouth. “I see. Now, it says here that you’ve done a lot of charity work. What sort of charity work, exactly?”

“Um, stuff like soup kitchens and such. Things like that. I did a lot of work for my church.” She nibbled on her thumbnail again. “It seemed like the right thing to do, especially since they helped out a lot after my husband lost his job.”

“I see. So you enjoy working with others?” Another nod.

“What sorts of things did you do? Cooking? Cleaning up?”

“All of that.” Mary shifted again, still nervously nibbling on her thumb. “Why’s that important?”

“Well, information like that will help us find something for you to do once you become a pony. Everypony has their special talent, something that they’re good at doing. If we can find what you’re good at, that helps us find gainful employment either here or in Equestria.”

“So, kinda like a job placement?”

“If you want to call it that. Does that trouble you?”

“I…don’t think so.” There was a click as a bit of her thumbnail came free. “I’ve just…never thought of it.”

Fugue frowned slightly, then nodded cautiously. “If you say so. Now, how about we continue. I noticed you didn’t put anything down under hobbies. Why’s that?”

“I’ve just…never had much free time I guess. I’ve always been busy.”

“With charity work?”

“And the kids. They’re still young, so they’re a handful…”

“I see. Does your husband help any?”

“My husband is a good man.”

Fugue frowned again. “I see.”

Mary swallowed. “He is. I mean, he’s been busy trying to find work. That doesn’t make him a bad person.” She sounded defensive.

“Alright then.” Fugue made another note and moved onto the next page, then frowned. “Mary, you haven’t signed the last bit of the form.”

“The last  bit?”

“Yes. Here.’ He pushed the pad across to her. “The part that signifies that you’re undergoing Conversion of your own free will, and that you understand the circumstances listed above.”

“Do…do I really have to sign that?” She was still nibbling on her thumbnail. “I mean, contracts like this…”

“I understand if you feel nervous about committing to something like this. That’s only natural, after all. The form doesn’t mean you absolutely have to go through with it immediately.” Fugue did his best to smile reassuringly. “It doesn’t even mean you have to do it at all. The form just signifies you’re aware of what Conversion entails and an indication of that you‘re not being coerced. If sometime later, you decide that Conversion isn’t right for you, you can always not come back.”

“Okay…a-and what does it entail.”

Fugue sighed and gave the standard explanation he had rehearsed over and over again. The Conversion was a one-way process, human-to-pony. She would remain herself, just be given a new body, one which would allow her to enter Equestria. After conversion, there would be a period of rehabilitation to get her used to her body and how it worked, and then she would be transported to Equestria. If she chose to return to Earth afterwards, that would be perfectly fine.

Mary listened pensively, still watching the pony as he finished his explanation.

“Now, do you have any questions?”

“Do…I have to convert?”

“Convert?” Fugue paused.

“I mean, do I have to worship your god?”

“Well Mary, it’s not any of my business what someone or somepony believes in. You don’t have to convert if you don’t want to.”

“I…see.” Mary’s frown deepened. “What do you believe in, Mr. Fugue?”

“I believe in the Princesses.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Like I said, however, that’s only me.” Fugue tapped his hoof beside the pad, hoping to steer the conversation away from the topic. That was one of the rules; don’t engage in religious debate with potential Conversion candidates. “If you’d please sign?”

“So, I don’t have to do this now, right?”

“That’s right. In fact, I’d advise you to go and discuss it with your family. Like I said, just because you signed the release doesn’t mean you have to do the treatment immediately.”

Mary nodded slowly, then picked up the stylus and signed her name on the line, followed by the date.

“Alright,” Fugue smiled cheerfully as she slid the tablet back over to him. “Now, if you like, we have some pamphlets you can take home with  you…”

---

Mary sighed as she pushed the door to the housing block open, her purse full of cheerful, colorful pamphlets that the nice pony had given her. Compared to the Bureau, the housing development was drab and dull; the walls were a neutral whitish-gray, the cheap tile smelling faintly of cleaner.

Not that she’d complain. After her husband had been laid off, the Happy Trails Apartment complex was the cheapest they could afford. Well, not so much afford as ‘live in under charity.’ She thanked God every day for the small fact that she had a roof over her head and the heads of her children.

She swiped her card key, opening the door. The girls were still at school, thankfully, and the only other person there was Mitch.

“I’m home…” She called out, setting her purse down on the kitchen countertop, scuffing her feet on the gray carpet as she removed her shoes.

Mitch glanced over at her from his seat on the couch. He was about her age, though still had a mild hint of a baby-face to him. His carrot-red hair was due for a trimming, and his chin was spackled with a close-cropped red beard He was in his skivvies, as per usual, his pale skin bathed in the lambent glare of the holo screen.

“Did they accept you?”

Mary slid onto the couch beside him, shuffling slightly to get comfortable, but not to close. “They did. They told me to come back and talk with you, think it over.”

Mitch grunted, eyes still on the holographic screen.

“I’m just…nervous.”

Mitch grunted in reply again and tapped on the controller, sitting up. “We’ve already talked about this. You know what Pastor Morrows has planned. You volunteered for this. If you do this, it’ll mean money for us. For the girls.”

“I know, but it just seems…wrong.” She pulled back slightly as Mitch grasped her hands firmly in his, looking at her seriously.

“You know we have to do this. Pastor Morrows told us that they were a threat. That we need to expose them for what they really are. Right now, Mary, you’re the only person who can do that. You understand that, right? You’re doing God’s work, girl.”

Mary winced and nodded, rubbing her knuckles as Mitch let go of her hands. “I know…”

“Good. We’re not going to talk about this again.”

“Right, Mitch.”

“Could you fix me a sandwich or something?” He asked as he turned the holo-screen back on, slumping back into the couch.

“Sure honey.” She stood up, heading into the kitchen. At least the automat was still working. It was one of the small blessings of living in the apartment: basic food necessities were supplied for. At least, they were for her family.

A small gift from Pastor Morrows.

---

Twilight Sparkle had butterflies in her stomach. It wasn’t from the plane-ride: she was used to flying around by now. It was more about being the only pony in the crowd. She didn’t feel very comfortable being on her own like this, but she had been assured, repeatedly, that she would be fine.

“Are you comfortable, Miss Sparkle?”

.Twilight glanced through the slot between the seats at her driver. Leonard was her ‘assistant’ from the Arion Trust, though that wasn’t his only function. The Conversion Bureaus had started official operations, so someone had to inspect them. The portly human’s job was to look over records and data, as he had fingers and the necessary implants needed to interact with the computer systems. Twilight, meanwhile was in charge of checking up on the ponies in the Bureaus, as a sort of friendly, familiar face.

Spike, meanwhile, was mostly there to help Twilight. Though at that moment he was concentrating more on the small, rectangular plastic game system in his hands.

“I’m perfectly fine, Mr. Leonard. Just a little tired, that’s all. Air travel here seems to take a lot out of me.”

Leonard chuckled. “It’s always that way. Jet lag, they call it.”

“Whatever you call it, it’s not all that pleasant.”

“It could be worse Twilight.” Spike peered around the edge of his seat. “We could have gone on one of the public planes. I hear those are really packed.”

“Yes, but most of the public planes don’t have support for ponies yet Spike. And after a few hours on board of a plane, I’d start getting antsy.” Twilight shook her mane, still curled up in the back-seat of the SUV.

“Well, we should be arriving at the Bureau soon enough, Miss Sparkle. It should be up ahead on the left.”

Twilight peered out of her window and blinked at the large crowd as they rolled up the street. This wasn’t like at the Bureau in New York City. “Oh my…”

“What? What’s going on?” Spike punched the pause button on his hand-held and stood up in his seat. “Woah. What’s with all the people with signs?”

“They’re protestors Spike. Didn’t you listen when I was reading the report on the plane?”

“Um…no.” Spike at least looked sheepish as Twilight sighed.

“There’s been a lot of unrest about the Bureaus in this area of the country Spike. Some people are upset or afraid enough to make their opinions known, like these protestors.”

“Yeah, but they’re blocking the way in!”

“Actually, they’re not allowed to block the entrance.” Leonard interjected. “But they can line up in front of it and make it a hassle to get inside. On that note, we should probably go around to the back entrance, Miss Sparkle.”

Twilight frowned, then nodded. “Right. They already don’t like ponies. We really shouldn’t antagonize them right now.”

The SUV hummed softly as its fuel-cell engine drove it along, passing the chanting crowd and sliding around the curve. Meanwhile, a woman with stringy blonde hair and an old dress carefully crossed the street, looking at the crowd as she approached the entrance of the Bureau.

THE CONVERSION BUREAU: SECOND IMPACT

An MLP: FiM Fanfic by Purple Prose

An Extension of First Contact

Based On The Conversion Bureau by Blaze, Midnight’s Tail by Midnight Shadow

Chapter 2: Hopelessly Faithful

“Miss Sparkle! Welcome to the Dallas Conversion Bureau!”

Twilight shook hooves with Fugue as the trio entered the offices of the Bureau. Coming in through the back entrance had kept them from facing the mob outside, but it still left a bad taste in her mouth. “It’s nice to be here. This is my assistant Spike, and Jay Leonard from the Arion Trust.”

“How do you do?” Leonard shook Fugue’s hand as Spike gave a friendly wave.

“I hope we’re not causing to much trouble with our visit, Mr. Fugue.” Twilight continued as Fugue pushed a door open, leading the three into his office. “The Arion Trust just wants an update on how the Bureaus are doing.”

“It’s no real problem at all, Miss Sparkle. I was just curious as to why the Trust sent you here. Much of the maintenance and analysis can be done via the net.”

“That’s true,” Leonard interrupted, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow with a handkerchief. “However, there’s several things that can be missed if  you stick to purely virtual interaction. Which is why I’m here.”

“Ah, right.” Fugue nodded as he sat at his desk, legs curled underneath him. “So, what exactly do you need to know?”

“Well, I’m here to talk with  your staff, get a general feel for morale. Mr. Leonard will do an analysis of your network and paperwork. General things, really.”

“Well, you’re more than welcome to it, though you’ll find that there really hasn’t been much paperwork.” Fugue sighed grumpily. “We haven’t exactly had many candidates.”

“Does it have anything to do with the group outside?” Spike climbed up onto one of the chairs, having a seat with Leonard.

“Yes. Ever since the Bureau opened up we’ve had a total of five conversions, four of which were before I arrived here.”

“Five?” Twilight blinked. The Bureau in New York had managed at least thirty conversions, if not more.

“Five. After the first wave the protestors showed up, and since then people have been scared off. It’s been nearly two months without a single candidate. I’ve tried to talk to the police about them, but so long as they’re not breaking any laws or getting violent we can’t do anything. It’s really quite annoying.”

“Have they harassed any of the staff?” Twilight frowned.

“Not yet. We’re mostly self-sufficient, so we don’t really go out much. And if they did come inside and started something, we could call the police on them. Otherwise…” Fugue gave a very human-like shrug, hooves lifted upwards.

“I see. Still, I hope you don’t mind me talking to the other staff?”

“Go ahead.” Fugue glanced up as a knock sounded at the door. Lily pushed his door open, peeking her head in through the crack.

“Sorry to interrupt, but Mrs. Wallace is here for the conversion. I didn’t know if you wanted to supervise…”

“Oh! Yes. Mrs. Wallace. Have her start getting ready, I’ll be there in a few moments.”

Lily nodded and ducked her head out as Fugue re-centered on Twilight and her group. “Sorry, duty calls.”

“That’s alright.” Leonard nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind giving me access to the building’s network and your files?”

“Oh, sure. Ask Lily for access at the front desk. Will you three be staying here at the Bureau?”

“I don’t think so. We wouldn’t want to impose.” Twilight smiled. “We have a hotel room a couple blocks from here. We’ll do our best not to be a distraction.”

“Miss Sparkle, you and your friends are a welcome distraction.” Fugue stood from his seat, flicking his mane with a shake of his head. “Now, if you’ll excuse me?”

---

Mary felt a little chilly as she stood in the dressing room, staring at herself in the mirror in her underwear. The pony that had called herself Lily had politely left her alone while she undressed, not that it really mattered.

Part of her wanted to run out of the Bureau right then and there; just pull her clothes on, grab her purse and run. But then what? If she went back to the apartment, Mitch would be mad. If she ran off somewhere else, she’d be leaving the girls. And then there was Pastor Morrows. She had promised him that she’d go through with it. Hell, she had volunteered for it. Or at least, she thought she did.

Could she really go through with it? Even though Pastor Morrow had assured her that her soul would be safe, his sermons on the abomination that was the Conversion still rang in her head like funeral bells. Those who underwent the Conversion were submitting to The Beast. Those who underwent the Conversion were abandoning the gift that God had given them, defying the nature of His design.

Her thumbnail went to her lips as she nibbled on it the tip ragged from her habit. She didn’t want to do this. She really didn’t want to do this. But if she didn’t, she’d be letting Mitch and Pastor Morrow down. And that would be bad. Very bad.

Mary jumped slightly at the knock on the door.

“Mrs. Wallace? It’s Fugue. Are you alright?” The voice from the other side was somewhat familiar.

“Y-yes! I’m fine.” She inhaled nervously, trying to calm her heart down.

“Alright. I’ll be waiting out here until you’re ready.”

Mary stood there, staring at the door, then began to pace, her bare feet, making little noise on the carpeted floor. There was a faint click as she bit off a bit of her thumbnail, the hard little splinter falling from her lips. She had to make a decision.

“Mrs. Wallace?”

She paused at the voice. “Yes?”

“Do you need someone to talk to?”

Mary swallowed, trying to get the butterflies to stop. “A-about what?” She tried to sound self-assured. It wasn’t working.

“Mrs. Wallace…or should I call you Mary again?”

“Either is fine.”

“Alright then, Mary. Do you mind if I come in?”

“If you want.” Mary turned as the door was pushed open, letting the pony inside.

“You seem to be nervous, Mary. Would you like to talk about it?”

“I’m…I’m not nervous.” She inhale, then met the pony’s eyes…before looking away. “Well, maybe I am.”

“What are you nervous about?” Fugue stood there as Mary slowly slid her back against the wall.

“Just…things.” She replied quietly.

“What sorts of things?”

“The Conversion.”

“I see.” Fugue approached, making sure to remain a decent distance as she slid down to the floor, leaning against the wall. “What about the Conversion makes you nervous?”

“I’m scared for my soul.”

“Ah.” Fugue frowned. “I see.”

“I…don’t expect you to understand, Mr. Fugue. It’s just that I’ve been hearing a lot of things about…what happens during the Conversion. That I won’t be human. That I won’t have a soul anymore.”

Fugue frowned and slowly sat down in front of her, legs folded underneath him as he listened.

“I’m just… I’m scared, okay?”

“I understand.”

“You do?” Mary glanced up at him.

“I do. It’s a reasonable fear. The unknown is always frightening. Are you religious?”

She nodded.

“I can’t really claim to know much about the religions of Earth,” Fugue began, resting his chin on one hoof. “But I can tell you what I’ve observed, just based on previous Conversions. Is that alright?”

Another nod.

“From what I understand several of the previous conversions have worried about personality changes, or other similar issues. However, from what I’ve seen there’s no real difference between their pre-Conversion mindset and their post-Conversion mindset. They’re still ‘them.’ They just have different bodies. If you’ll pardon my asking, but what do you believe the soul to be, Mary?”

“The soul?”

“Yes. You said you were worried about your soul. What, in your knowledge, is a soul?”

Mary frowned, looking nervously at the pony seated before her, trying to gauge whether he was serious or not.

“A-a soul is the part of me that’s immortal. The part that makes a person a person. My spirit.”

“I see. And you’re concerned that by undergoing Conversion you’ll lose your soul, correct.”

Another nod.

“Why?”

“Because…” She inhaled. Was it because of what Pastor Morrow said? Because of what she was taught? “Because that’s what I’ve heard. That the Converted aren’t human anymore. And if you aren’t human, then you don’t have a soul, because God made us that way.”

“I see.” Fugue nodded.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I’m hardly offended Mary.” Fugue smiled gently. “Though I can’t say I agree with you on that point. The way I see it, it doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside. It’s the inside that counts.”

Fugue stood up, stretching out his hind leg as he did so. “If you’re concerned about losing the part of you that’s ‘you,’ so to speak, then I can say you’ve got nothing to worry about. I can’t say anything about the metaphysical. However, if you’re really, deeply worried about this, then you’re more than welcome to leave. Nopony here will stop you. ” He turned, starting to walk away.

“Thank you.” Mary mumbled in a quiet voice.

“For?” Fugue turned his head back to look at her.

“For talking with me like you did.”

Fugue paused, then gave a nod. “You’re welcome.” He gave the door a gentle push with his head and walked on through, leaving Mary alone with her thoughts.

It took a few minutes for her to finally get up and get dressed again, her hands trembling as she did so. The butterflies had been replaced with something a good deal fouler. She felt mildly sick: not with nerves, but with honest-to-goodness fear.

Mary picked up her purse before pushing out the door, walking along numbly. She only vaguely noticed the man at the desk speaking to Lily as she walked by. She didn’t really register the voices of the protestors outside as she walked down the sidewalk, ducking past people as she went. Her hand dug into her purse as she walked, pulling out the small, nondescript mobile phone she carried with her.

A nearby covered bus stop provided her with a small amount o privacy as she pressed the auto-dial button. The mobile wasn’t much: just a screen and some raised bumps labeled with numbers. It was only good for communication and little else, but then she didn’t really need it for much.

She inhaled, her mouth going dry as the phone rang, before it was picked up, a faintly artificial feminine voice speaking to her.

“Morrow Days Ministries, how may I direct your call?”

“This is Mary Wallace. I need to speak with Pastor Morrow.”

“One moment.”

Mary looked around nervously as the chipper music played while she waited, until another voice came on the line.

“Hello Mary.”

Despite her fear, a tiny surge of heat filled Mary’s chest. Pastor Morrow had on of those voices. The sort that could tell you that everything was going to be alright and meant it.

“H-hi Pastor Morrow.”

“Dear me Mary, you sound terrible. Is everything alright?”

“I…” She swallowed again, trying to get some moisture in her throat. It didn’t work. “I can’t do it.”

“Can’t do what, Mary?”

“T-the thing. The Conversion. I can’t, Pastor Morrows, I’m so sorry…”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then a heavy, soft sigh.

“I see. Mary, you remember what you promised, don’t you?”

“That I’d do what you asked me to, yes.”

“You swore that you would. Swore in front of me and God that you’d do as you were asked. Did you not?”

“I-I did.”

“Are you really going to go back on that?” He sounded so… disappointed. Not angry, but sad. “Are you going to go against your promise to the Lord?”

“N-no, but…”

“After all He’s given you and your family, Mary?”

“N-no....”

“He gave you a roof over your head. He provided you with food. He got your children into one of the good schools, and all He asked for you to do is this. I’m very disappointed Mary.”

Her vision blurred as she tried to wipe her eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m just so scared…”

“Don’t be. The Lord is with you, didn’t I tell you that? That the Lord will protect you when you went into that den of evil. That He would protect your soul when you went through that awful change. That he would speak through you when the time came to tell the world the Truth about those ponies. Do you really doubt the power of God, Mary?”

“I-I don’t, I just…”

“And do you think that God will be glad to know that the one he chose for this task lost her faith? What would happen then? What about your family, Mary?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” She sobbed softly into the phone.

“There there. I understand.” He tsked softly. “You can still do it. Follow the plan, and everything will be fine. Do you understand, Mary?”

She could only sob.

“Do you understand?”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Good. Follow the plan Mary. Follow the plan.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Don’t ever doubt the plan He has for you again, Mary.” There was a note of finality in that statement.

“I-I won’t.”

The phone clicked off, leaving Mary alone with her thoughts, her eyes red from her crying. She sniffed loudly, digging out some tissues from her purse as she tried to calm herself down.

---

Fugue sighed as he trotted to the front desk, watching Leonard tap on his personal data pad. “Is everything going alright?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes, perfectly fine.” Leonard nodded to Lily. “I’ve got copies of your files and other data now. You know, you really should be backing the files up offsite.”

“I know, but there hasn’t really been any need to.” Fugue grumbled as he leaned against the desk. “Besides, I have copies on my own data pad in my office.”

“My point still stands. If something were to happen to the server here, then you’d lose all of your data. I do know of a few confidential Cloud-servers that can serve as good data hosts.”

“Alright, um, send me the information when you can.” Fugue turned as the door slid open, his eyes widening. “Mrs. Wallace?”

Leonard turned to look at the still red-eyed woman. “Um…if you’ll excuse me then?”

“Oh, sure.” Fugue replied as Leonard stepped away, heading down the hall to the offices. Fugue approached Mary carefully, his tail swishing. “Mrs. Wallace?”

“S-sorry about earlier.” She sniffled, giving the pony a wane smile.

“Are you alright? Were you attacked or something? You look like you’ve been-”

“I-I’m alright. I just…went and had a good cry, that’s all.” She sniffed as Lily came around the desk, a box of tissues balanced on her head.

“I see.” Fugue watched her pull some tissues from the box, blowing her nose. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine. Could I have some water or something.”

“Lily?”

“Sure. I’ll be right back.” The pinkish-red pony trotted off as Mary sniffled into the tissue. Fugue watched her carefully, more than a bit of concern in his eyes, his mouth pulled down in a slight frown.

“Are you sure you’re alright? I mean, you seemed a little distraught after you left..”

“I’m fine. Really. I…I think I’m ready.”

That caught Fugue off guard. “Ready?”

“For the Conversion.”

“Mrs. Wallace, you were only gone ten minutes…”

“I know.” She crumpled the tissue up as Lily trotted back, a cup of water in her teeth. She took the plastic cup and drank from it, swallowing the contents in a single gulp. “I just…you were right, I guess. I needed a little time to think, that’s all.”

Fugue glanced over at Lily, who gave a faint shrug in reply. Something in the back of his mind tickled him, a feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was off. Something was up.

“I…see.”

“I’m ready to do the procedure now.”

“Are you sure?” He stated cautiously. “I do mean this seriously. Are you absolutely certain?”

She nodded, though a small sniffle did ruin the seriousness of her expression.

“Alright. I can’t really refuse. But you’re absolutely certain this is what you want?”

“It is. God has a plan for me, after all.”

Well, at least she has some solace. Fugue thought to himself, before turning back to Lily. “Lily, have Sweet get the infusion ready for Room One, if you would please?”

“Sure.”

Fugue turned back to Mary, frowning slightly. “Mrs. Wallace…I just want to make sure…”

“I’m fine, alright?! Let’s…just do this.” Mary snapped in a quavering voice, still holding the drinking cup.

“If you say so.” Fugue sighed. He had hoped for a new patient, but Mary was…troubling him. He couldn’t quite put a hoof on why, though. “Right this way.”

---

For Fugue, the conversion took all of thirty seconds; Mary Wallace went into the room prepped for her, laid down on the bed, and took the fizzy purple drink that was offered to her, and went to sleep. There was a faint flash of light as the process took hold, transforming the thirty-year-old woman into a slender-limbed, almost dainty-looking reddish-brown Earth Pony with an overly-long golden mane and tail. He couldn’t help but stare, however. It was such a strange process, watching things shift and flow and change. Almost like watching ice-cream melt. Or clay being played with.

“First time you’ve seen it, Mr. Fugue?”

“Huh?” He glanced over as Twilight approached, the purple unicorn looking at him curiously. “Oh. Yes.”

“I have t admit, it’s pretty impressive. I’ve seen it several times now and it’s always a bit jarring. You’ll get used to it, though.”

“I see. You worked at the one in New York City, right?”

“Me and my friends do, yes. Princess Celestia asked me to staff it.”

“Is that so?”

“Well, New York is touted as being one of the more cosmopolitan cities on Earth. She thought I might enjoy it.”

“Do you?”

“It’s…educational. I’ll say that much.” Twilight giggled. “Spike likes it a lot more than I do. He has a thing for the technology here. Might be because he has thumbs like humans do.”

“Ah.” Fugue turned back to the little window he was watching through. “Have you had any candidates that seemed…troubling?”

“One or two. Why?”

“I’m wondering if it was a good idea to let Mrs. Wallace undergo Conversion.”

Twilight frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, she just seemed… how can I put this? She seemed like she was being forced into it. I should have asked her to wait longer. Maybe if I had done a longer interview…’

“Mr. Fugue, I’m sure you did everything required. It’s your first candidate, right?”

He nodded morosely.

“Don’t worry. There’s always a bit of second guessing yourself. If you’ve done your job, then everything should be fine. Oh! She’s waking up!”

Fugue turned back as Mary began to stir, her legs kicking as her eyes opened, blinking. Sweet Dreams, the unicorn that had given her the drink, whispered to her and calmed her as she began to wriggle, doing her best to help her off the bed.

“You should go in there.” Twilight nudged him with one hoof.

“What?” Fugue blinked.

“You did her interview, right? You talked to her and such, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“Usually, if I’m the one who receives a candidate, I try to be there when they come out of the change. Helps to have a friendly face, you know?”

“Oh! Right! Sorry.”

Twilight shook her head as Fugue raced off. Curiously, she peered through the window as Fugue trotted over, helping Mary up as Sweet Dreams stepped back. He was talking to her. Twilight couldn’t make out what he was saying, but it seemed to calm the new pony down a little.

Well, things seem to be going well here. Twilight turned, walking towards the door. This should be a piece of cake. I’ll be out of here in two days. Three at most.

---

Night came slowly in Dallas, with the reflections of outside lights and passing cars reflecting through the windows. That wasn’t the reason why Mary was having problems sleeping, however.

Nor was it her new body. At first, her new form was a shock to her. But thanks to Fugue and the other ponies she had at least gotten used to it. They had helped her to her feet when she fell over, gotten her food, helped her clean up, shown her around. They had welcomed her like one of their own, without a hint of malice or meanness.

Maybe that was what was troubling her so much. They’d been nice to her. They hadn’t wanted anything from her. Lily had even told her she could get her dress re-fitted if she wanted.

How could she do what she was about to do?

No, don’t start that. She thought to herself as she pushed herself up on the bed. You’re doing this for your family and for God. Like Pastor Morrow said; don’t question the plan.

Still, as she pulled her purse over to her with her teeth and nosed around in, she felt a sharp twang in her heart. A sense that what she was going to do was wrong.

She snorted as she finally pulled the phone from the insides of the bag. With an irritated frown, she bumped the pad with her hoofed foot, then bent it slightly to tag the auto-dial button with the very edge of her hoof. After a few misses, she was rewarded the soft beeping noise of the dialing, followed by the ringing noise and the familiar robotic voice.

“Morrow Days Ministry, how may I help you?”

“This is Mary Wallace. I need to speak with Pastor Morrows.” She whispered tersely into the receiver.

“One moment.”

Mary looked at the door nervously. Was there a night watchman? Would someone hear her?

“Hello Mary.”

Mary leaned down, putting her ear to the phone as Pastor Morrow spoke.

“I’m assuming you’ve completed your mission, am I right?”

“Yes.” She whispered quietly.

“Good. I’ll dispatch some gentlemen to rescue you. Try to be in the entrance-way of the Bureau waiting for them. Go with God, Mary.”

The phone beeped as the connection went silent. Mary picked the phone up and dropped it back into her purse, then ducked her head as best she could through the strap, letting it hang around her neck and thump against her knees.

Actually getting downstairs was the hard part. It had been tough enough in the daytime. Slowly, Mary shuffled along  the wall, trying to make as little noise as possible as she supported herself, her eyes wide as she kept an eye out for any witnesses. The other ponies, however, seemed to be sleeping soundly.

The stairs were another challenge; thankfully, her eyes had adjusted to the dim light as she carefully stepped downwards. Her progress was very slow, however. It seemed like an eternity before she reached the ground floor. A dark, very quiet eternity where she strained her eyes and ears, hoping no-one else was awake.

The front office was empty and dimly lit once she arrived. Nobody seemed to be manning the desk. Her breath came in short, soft pants as she slowly stood up from against the wall. All she had to do was get over to the doors and walk out. It would be easy.

Step.

Step-Step.

Step.

THUD.

Mary winced as he toppled over mid-totter, her side banging against the desk. That hurt. She winced again as she followed the curve of the desk, then slowly wobbled over and around the circumference of the wall, her tail sliding quietly along the carpeted floor.

She finally reached the door. Which didn’t open.

Oh God, it’s locked. What do I do? What do I do?! She  began to huff in panic There had to be some way.

The desk! Maybe there’s a key or button at the desk!

With a slow, nervous gait, she made her way back around the room, following the wall as a guide before reaching the desk once again, slowly sliding behind it. Aside from the rack of data pads, thee wasn’t much else there. At least until she started nosing around and accidentally turned the holographic console on.

Yes! There we go! She reached up, tapping a hoof on the button labeled ’Alarm On/Off’, followed by ‘Front Door Lock On/Off.’

There was a soft ‘click’ as the door locks disengaged. The nervous mare stumbled again, sliding along the wall for the third time before stumbling out of the doors an onto the concrete sidewalk.

The air tasted foul in her nostrils, and even worse in her mouth as she tried to catch her breath. She tried not to cough as she looked around. Not much traffic at this time of night, even for Dallas. She stood thee rocking side-to-side without much balance until a black van pulled up in front of her.

She didn’t panic as two large and burly men, dressed in loose-fitting clothes and black ski-masks climbed out of the back, picking her up like a sack of potatoes and depositing her in the back. She did blink as one disappeared into the bureau itself.

“Um… wh-what are you doing?”

“Better you not know miss.” The driver replied. “Just doing some clean-up.”

“You’re not going to…”

“No miss, just taking care of a few things with their computers.”

“Oh.” Mary winced as the men piled into the van.

“Go.”

“Right, did you take care of their stuff?”

“Wiped clean.” The speaker chuckled, holding up a large, quarter-inch diameter rod about the length of his forearm. “Fucked up their data pads too.”

Mary swallowed. The uneasy feeling that she was doing something terribly wrong had come back again as the van drove off with a whine of its engines.

PONIES OF A RISING SUN

A MLP:FiM Conversion Bureau Fanfic by Yuriejb/Purple Prose

Based on The Conversion Bureau by Blaze and Midnight’s Tale by Midnight Shadow

Chapter 3: An Act of Rehabilitation: ROBO and Koga

Clop-clop-clop-clop.

Koga couldn’t help but pay attention to the noise his hoofed feet were making on the rubbery surface of the track. It was a bit distracting, to say the least. The rubber surface of the walking path was warm underneath his hooves. He felt a little nervous as other pedestrians turned slightly to look at him as he passed, a few taking pictures.

The Adachi Arcology’s rooftop recreation area was a comfortable place for the more physical parts of his and his friends ‘rehab’ to take place at. Covered over with a large, thick bubble of protective glass, the rec-area was like a large, carefully maintained park. A park full of artificial grass and plants, but a park nonetheless. The snaking rubber walking path circumnavigated the entire rooftop complex like a long, gently-curving raceway, branching off every so often to lead to a smaller area like the Zen garden or the pool. However, it wasn’t very crowded in the mornings, and perfect to practice walking.

It had been three days since the Conversion, and Koga was getting the hang of his new form. He could walk forwards without falling over, he could trot at a decent clip, and could even run a little bit without worrying about falling flat on his face. Backing up was still a bit of a pain, but at least he wasn’t wobbling side-to-side like a toddler anymore.

Now if I could just lose my escort. He thought to himself, glancing to his side. Grapevine was trotting along beside him, humming a cheerful tune. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the company. Grapevine was a pleasant enough individual; polite, well-meaning and with a relentlessly positive outlook on life. No, what irritated Koga is that the purple pony went everywhere with him. The only place Grapevine didn’t follow him was when Koga went to the toilet, to his sleeping quarters, or when he was handed off to one of the other ponies. Grapevine was waiting at the door each morning to escort him and his friends to the Bureau for their rehabilitation, and escorted them back each night.

It was starting to get just a little creepy.

Does he really have nothing better to do? Koga thought to himself morosely as he trotted along. Or is he just clingy?

“So, Koga.”

“Huh?” Koga blinked, shaking his head. “What?”

“Sorry, you just looked like you were worried about something. Are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh, oh yeah. I’m fine, really. Just thinking, you know.”

“Thinking about what?” Grapevine tilted his head, sidling a little closer.

“You know, just…things.” Koga tried to sidestep the issue.

“What kinds of things?”

“Things. You know, like my lesson later.”

“Ohhhh. You mean with Ivory. Well, you really don’t need to worry about it. Ivory’s tough, but he’ll warm up to you.” Grapevine smiled cheerfully.

Koga sighed, thankful he had avoided talking about what was on his mind. The ‘rehabilitation’ as the ponies were calling it was really rather simple. Initially, it was just them getting used to maneuvering around, which was what the walking on the track was for. By now, it had fallen into a simple routine: walking and exercise during the morning, then several hours of basic language  both written and spoken, then lunch. Lunch was followed by another set of classes on basic biology, followed by etiquette and certain ‘does’ and ‘don’ts’ Then there was another exercise session during the evening, dinner, and socializing. Koga almost felt like he was back at high school again.

However, today was going to be different. Koga and ROBO were going to be handed off to special trainers to help handle his magic and ROBO’s wings. He knew that they meant well, and these sorts of things were very important, but he couldn’t help but feel a little childish. He wanted to go back to working on one of his dolls again. Even if it was just something simple, like priming or fiddling with a worn-down socket.

“You’re looking sad again. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Please stop asking me that.” Koga didn’t want to snap, but a hint of aggravation crept into his voice.

“Sorry. Just making sure you’re alright. You’ve just been really grumpy…”

Koga didn’t say anything, he just kept looking ahead.

Grapevine swallowed. “So, uh…yeah. Maybe we should finish up before you meet with Ivory. Feel like a run?”

“I guess.”

Grapevine nodded and took off at a full gallop. Koga followed a few steps after, hooves thundering on the rubbery road. For a few, brief moments, Koga felt a surge of exhilaration, something half-remembered and distant.

---

The Zen garden was quiet as Koga trotted in, his hooves bending the grass as he walked. The white sand surrounding the small rock outcroppings in the ‘pond’ glittered in the morning sun, hints of light playing off the grooves carved in the sand by rakes. Off to one side, a group of elderly residents were quietly talking and sharing cups of tea on a bench. However, Koga’s attention was not on them at the moment, it was on hi instructor.

The stallion sitting there was quite large and stocky, with an off white coat. His thick horn poked upwards like the spike of a lance, and his gray-and-white mane pulled into a tight, smooth braid along his crest. His tail was a similar color, short and braided as well. What was most jarring was the large eye patch that covered his left eye, his good right eye a sharp, piercing blue color. That eye focused on Koga as he approached, his nostrils flaring in a snort. The mark on his flank was a stylized column, the top and bottom wide and ornate.

Koga felt butterflies in his stomach. The stallion had a military air about him, an aura of awareness and confidence that reminded him of the samurai from the old films he’d seen, or one of the old karate masters he’d seen on competitions on the holonet.

“Ivory-Sensei?”

The stallion stood up, nodding to him politely. “You must be Koga.” His voice was deep and firm. “Please, sit.” He pointed a hoof at the grass in front of him.

Koga bowed as best he could, then promptly sat down on the grass as Ivory looked him over. He tried not to squirm.

“Have you tried using your abilities before now, Mr. Koga?”

“No, Ivory-sensei. Should I have?”

Ivory snorted. “It would have helped. However, that’s not a problem.” The unicorn glanced over to where he was seated, his horn glowing with a light blue aura as a bag floated over and opened, dumping a set of objects onto the grass.

Koga looked them over. It was an eclectic collection: a painted wooden ball, a pencil, a pair of rings, a cup-and-ball toy, and several other knick-knacks that looked like puzzle pieces. The pencil levitated up first, floating in front of his eyes.

“Since you weren’t originally born with the ability to do magic like a regular unicorn, this will likely feel quite foreign to you. However, I can assure you that by the end of this week, you will learn how to use your telekinesis, at least. Now, let’s begin with the basic principle of lifting.”

“Right. How do I do that?”

Ivory snorted and shook his head. “Think of your magic as your hands, something that can lift and pull and move things around. Focus on that mental image, then give it a little mental push. Your horn will do the rest. Just make sure to keep concentrating, though. That’s the important part.”

Koga nodded, then aimed his horn downwards, glancing down the spiral at the pencil. This shouldn’t be too hard. Just think like you’re using your hands. Think. Think. He squinted, his teeth pushing together as he focused, trying to will the pencil to move as Ivory watched him clinically.

Come on. Move. Lift! Do something! He concentrated harder.

The pencil didn’t move.

Koga clenched his teeth harder, trying to focus his mind. There was a dull rushing noise in his ears as he concentrated harder.

The pencil didn’t move.

“Hnnngh!” He ground his teeth, his eyes squinted into slits. A dull pain was forming on the forefront of his brain.

The pencil still didn’t move.

After a solid minute and a half, Ivory clicked his tongue. “Enough.”

Koga exhaled, his hoofed feet going to his head. It felt like his brain ached. “Ow. Why isn’t it…what am I doing wrong?”

“Nothing. You’re just unused to using magic. Think of it like exercising a broken limb, getting all the muscles to work like they used to. Remember to focus on lifting.” Ivory rolled the pencil closer on the grass. “Now, try again.”

“Again? My head is pounding and…”

Ivory snorted and frowned at him severely. “Try. Again.” The tone of voice brooked no disagreeing.

Koga groaned, then aimed his horn down at the pencil and focused, trying to keep the mental image in his head.

Still the pencil didn’t move.

Koga slumped slightly as Ivory told him ‘Enough,’ once again, his mind briefly wondering to ROBO as he massaged his skull.

---

“Up! Down! Up! Down! Up! Down!”

ROBO grimaced as places he’d never knew existed burned and ached, shooting a glare at his tormentor. The crimson-coated pegasus tapped her hoof on the ground in time with her calls, her swept back black and pink mane bouncing slightly like the crest of a bird as she kept time.

“Alright kid, let’s take it up a notch!” The Pegasus increased her count speed, forcing ROBO to keep up as he flapped his wings. Up, down, up, then down again. His shoulders burned and his muscles ached.

“Annnd rest!”

ROBO collapsed onto his side, groaning in pain, thankful for brief respite. He didn’t even comment on the fact that he was laying on the grass and possibly getting dirty, he was just glad that he could lay there. “I have been broken!” he cried petulantly. “You have broken me you horrible witch!”

“Oh stop being so dramatic, you’re fine.” Red Robin rolled her eyes at her student. “Stop acting like a spoiled colt and get off your side.”

“I will do nothing of the-oof!” The charcoal Pegasus was promptly rolled onto his side with a firm push of Robin’s hoof.

“There we go. Best not to lay on your side like that unless you’re on a cloud- what’s the matter now?”

Robin stared as ROBO scooted back, his hoof brushing where she touched him.

“Oh yeah, forgot, you don’t like being touched. Sorry about that.”

He winced. “I’ll take care of it when we get back to the Bureau. I’ll find some anti-bacterial wipes or-or-or…” There was a nervousness in his voice.

“You know, you’re going to have to get over this eventually. Especially once you get used to flying around.”

“Feh.” ROBO snorted. “Why should I be so invested in flying around, running into bugs and dirty clouds and other…things.”

“You know, you’re the first pegasus I’ve ever met that doesn’t want to fly. And that’s saying something.” Robin circled around the skinny male pegasus, her wings folded tight. “Don’t you want to feel the wind in your mane, the clouds under your feet?”

“No thank you.” ROBO turned his nose up. “I’d much rather be doing something else.”

“What then? What is it that you like?”

ROBO inhaled slowly, fixing the red-coated mare with a suspicious glare. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to get on my good side so you can play around with my head. Well, it’s not going to work.”

Robin frowned and sighed, glancing downward and kicking the turf. “I’m trying to help you. It’s my job to get you in flying shape so that you’ll be able to get around like all the other pegasi. I’m not trying to give you grief, I’m really not…”

“Uh-huh…” He kept his eyes on her.

“Look, how about we just continue with the exercises, alright? Would you mind doing that?”

There was an awkward moment before ROBO nodded. Robin sighed and shook her head.

“Alright,” she started, trying to get her groove back. “Let’s start with some shoulder and thigh work, so we can get you ready for take off. Bend slightly, then hop upwards. Like this.” Robin demonstrated, bending slightly before bounding into the air.

“How many of these are we going to do?” ROBO scrunched down slightly.

“Until I say stop, just like the wing beats. Ready? And one…”

---

“Enough.”

Koga felt like his skull was two sizes to small as he flopped onto the grass, feeling slightly cross-eyed as he held his head. He never felt so horrible in his life: even the headaches he’d gotten after drinking to much was nothing compared to this. And even then, he had nothing to show for it. Thirty minutes of trying to move a damn pencil, and it hadn’t even moved a millimeter from where it lay on the grass.

A cup of water floated down into his field of vision. Koga tilted his head up, drinking from it.

“Thanks.”

“It’s no problem.” Ivory said, floating the now-empty cup up.

“I must be a terrible student.” Koga chuckled, then winced, wishing he hadn’t.

“Oh no, I’ve seen worse.” Ivory took a sip from his own cup. “You’re also working from a handicap. Most unicorns start practicing magic when they’re colts and fillies, often with a teacher or at a special school. You, on the other hoof, don’t have the experience or formal training.”

Ivory hmmed, picking up the pencil himself. “If it helps, some unicorns have an initial barrier, a ‘hump’ if you will, before their magic kicks in. That’s why we’re doing this exercise; to get you through the worst of it as quickly as we can.”

“How long until I get over this ‘hump?’”

“Don’t know. I’d imagine you feel rather sick right  now, right?”

Koga nodded and Ivory chuckled.

“That’s you butting your head against that initial barrier, so to speak. Just give it time, and you’ll be using magic just like any other unicorn. Try closing your eyes if that helps.”

Koga did so. “If I may ask, Ivory-sensei…what did you do before all this?”

“Hmm? Oh, I was an instructor. I taught Remedial Magic in Canterlot. Before that, I was a Royal Guard.”

“A Royal Guard? Really? For Celestia-hime?”

“Yup. I retired after I lost my eye, and became a teacher.”

“I didn’t know. It’s just I’ve never seen…” Koga’s voice trailed off.

“Seen what?”

“Well, injured ponies, Ivory-sensei.”

“You’ve never seen a pony any less than perfect?” Ivory chuckled. “It happens. Oh no, don’t worry, I’m not offended. I lost my eye for a good reason. Believe me, we get hurt just as easily as humans do.”

“I didn’t mean to pry.” Koga started apologetically.

“You don’t need to apologize. That’s always what confuses me about your country. You’re all so very polite and apologetic all the time. Want some more water?”

“Yes please.” Koga cracked an eye open as he heard water splash into a cup.

“Ready to continue?” Ivory carefully sat down, floating the pencil and the cup of water over to Koga, letting the smaller pony drink up.

“Mf… might as well.”

Ivory nodded. “Good. Determination. I like that. Now remember, focus on lifting, push that idea, focus on it, and let your horn do the rest.”

“Yes, Ivory-sensei.” Koga glared down at the pencil, doing his best to ignore the throbbing in his head.

I can do this. Koga’s mind focused, the familiar dull roar of blood running through his ears filling his head as he concentrated all of his will on moving that single, small pencil. His teeth ground slowly. If he still had fingers, they’d likely be pulling on the artificial turf.

Come on. Lift. Lift. LIFT!

There was a noise in his ears, a loud, hollow pop before a neon green aura formed around the pencil with a flash. The pencil flew upwards like a rocket as Ivory watched.

Koga, meanwhile, slumped onto the grass, a satisfied groan coming from his throat. The headache was gone. Wearily, he glanced up at the older unicorn. “How was that, Ivory-sensei?”

“Good work. Up on your hooves.” Ivory gave Koga a nudge with one hoof, then nudged him with his nose and helped him to his hooves. The unicorn wobbled, his sense of equilibrium slightly disrupted.

“My head feels funny…”

“You overdid it. However, that’s to be expected. Congratulations, you’re over the worst of it. I think that this will be enough for right now. However, when your head clears out, you’ll need to keep practicing. Just focus on lifting things, and try not to overdo it.”

Koga nodded slowly. “What about your pencil?”

“I’m sure I’ll find it soon enough.”

---

“And rest! Well done!”

ROBO groaned, his legs wobbling underneath him as he landed from his last hop. The mare was torturing him for mouthing off at her, he was sure. Why else would she have combined the exercises. Now his entire body ached and burned as he wobbled woozily from one side to another.

“Are…we done…yet?” He whined.

“We are for now.” Robin giggled, trotting off to the side and returning with a ladle of water clasped in her teeth, offering the cup-shaped dipper to ROBO. The dark-coated pegasus didn’t complain as he lapped  up the water noisily. He felt so damned thirsty.

“There we go. Feel better?” Robin mumbled around the handle before she trotted back to the water container.

“I haven’t hurt this badly since high school.” ROBO whimpered. “I always hated gym. This sort of thing never happens when I’m working on something.”

“Working on something? So you do have something you like?” Robin smiled. Maybe he was opening up at last?

ROBO snorted. “Well, of course.”

“What did you like? I mean, I know you don’t like physical stuff…”

ROBO growled in irritation. “If I tell you, will you leave me alone about it?” He snapped. “You’ve been pestering me about it all this time.”

Robin nodded, eliciting a sigh from the former human.

“I like machines.”

“Machines?”

“Yes. Machines. I like how they work, taking them apart, making them better. I like robots. I like robot girls. Is that an answer to your question?” ROBO grumbled, his voice trailing off.

Robin hummed, then smiled. “I bet you’d like Cloudsdale then. My brother works at the weather factory there!”

“A what?”

“Weather factory. It’s where we pegasi produce stuff like clouds and snowflakes and rainbows. They have a lot of fancy machines there; you’ll probably like it.”

ROBO stared at his trainer. “You… make weather? And you make it in a factory?” He stated in a voice thick with disbelief.

“Of course, silly, where else would we make it? My brother says it’s a lot more efficient than waiting for it to form naturally like here on Earth.”

“More efficient? What’s so funny?” ROBO glared as Robin began to giggle.

“Sorry, it’s just that you looked so shocked.” Robin tried to control her giggling, even though ROBO snorted and looked away.

“I just…didn’t expect something so silly. I’ll have to look into that, then.”

“Alright then, but the only way you’ll be making it into Cloudsdale is if you learn how to fly…”

“Then I’ll learn to fly, even if it kills me.” ROBO stamped one hoof, then whinnied in panic as a pencil fell from the sky and buried itself half-way into the ground right next to his hoof with a loud thump.

“Huh. I think this is Ivory Pillar’s pencil.” Robin leaned down and plucked the offending object from the turf it was buried in with her teeth before setting it aside. “I’ll have to give it back to him once we get back to the Bureau.”

“That thing nearly killed me! Where did it come from?!” ROBO glanced upwards, eyes wide. Robin giggled again.

“Ivory was probably demonstrating something for your friend and overdid it. That’s a little unprofessional of him, but it’s probably just an accident. Now, if you’re ready, we should head back to the Bureau. We don’t want to miss out on your next class, now do we?”

The Conversion Bureau

Midnight’s Tail

Part 1 - Hitting the Road

***

Part 1 - Hitting the Road

Part 2 - Hoofing It

Part 3 - Four by Four, Four on the Floor

Part 4 - Off the Beaten Track

Part 5 - Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Part 6 - Epilogue

***

An MLP:FiM fanfic by Midnight Shadow

Thanks to: Chistery, Roy, Blaze, Pride, Peachy Punch and all my readers and editors :3

Based upon Blaze’s “Conversion Bureau” universe

Original:        Equestria Daily - Conversion Bureau

***

The building was imposing, but then many buildings were now. So many changes over so little a space of time; Martin Danielson shook his head, trying not to grin like a loon at what he was about to do.

It was only a few years after what the world was calling ‘the last revolution’, the dawn of a technological singularity had brought global change on an unprecedented level. Cheap mass production, general artificial intelligence - almost overnight the world moved towards a state of post-scarcity, only not without hiccups. Heavy industry the world over, especially in previously third-world countries, had ruined much of the biosphere. Plants and animals had suffered, died, become extinct. People had starved, communities collapsed, fortunes lost. It had come so close to war so many times...but then the ponies had appeared, bringing with them even wilder changes. They offered something beyond the wildest dreams of the faltering hordes of humanity; a new life. Their lands were pure, pristine, unsullied by heavy industry - indeed, unsullied by almost any industry save farming.

Many had lobbied for access to this paradise through the global human-dominated senates, houses and other governmental and quasi-governmental organizations, seeking to take advantage of prime real estate, excellent farmlands, clement weather apparently controlled by the rulers of ‘Equestria’ as they called it.

Ambassadors had been sent...and returned empty handed, for around this land was a seemingly magical barrier, impenetrable to humans. Instead, these ponies sent their own ambassadors out to meet humankind. They spoke of friendship, they carried no weapons save horn and hoof, yet brandished powers which they freely spoke of as indeed being magical.

The word had come out, no, there would never be humans in Equestria. They were forbidden entry, for humans had ruined their own world, why should they just be given another to pillage and spoil? The ponies were aghast at poisons tipped into rivers, poisons sprayed on crops, fed to children. Traps set to rid the land of “pests” which would otherwise be out there removing the bugs and other ailments suffered by plantlife, negating the need for such chemicals. Animals kept in awful conditions with little regard for their wellbeing - humans were apparently intelligent, but the ponies had real trouble comprehending what appeared to be madness ingrained so deep it was no longer recognized.

However, the ponies were compassionate - using their phenomenal powers, whatever the basis, they had devised a way to offer succour to those in need. The Conversion Bureaus.

The ponies set up, using what little they had to trade, a network of centers the world over, where they planned to take in humans and, somehow, change them into ponies.

Martin was going to be amongst the first, what did he have to lose? He’d studied for years in systems administration. learnt to ply his trade, gotten a few breaks - and then almost-self-aware programs had been developed and he was no longer needed.

He remembered fondly the first real general AI as it clumsily assisted with his work, quoting poetry and koans as it picked apart his commands and acted upon them, its growing familiarity with the tasks set for it. He remembered the painful pride when it and thousands like it had grown more competent than he and his kind, he had become obsolete.

Nothing he knew was needed, almost overnight the entire market had not just collapsed, it had ceased to exist. Only very, very few held positions any longer, managing the seed programs, managing what hardware and software was unable to be managed by other programs, but almost to a man, millions the world over had been put to pasture. Martin just decided to take it one step further when he saw the advert playing on his holoprojector that one fateful morning. He’d been moping about the apartment, living off of instant meals and energy drinks, barely bothering to get dressed, even using those damned AI programs to make him appear dressed when speaking over the comm-link. They expertly made him appear well-coiffed, clean shaven, smart - his mirror on the other hand begged to differ.

He hadn’t left his apartment in days - the air outside was often filthy, almost unbreathable at times and the mass of steel and concrete stretched for an eternity before any form of countryside. When there, what could he do? The grass was protected, he couldn’t swim in the lake for fear he’d poison the fish...it was a joke. Industry had won on the manufacturing legislation, and the greens had won on the rest. The result was an unworkable mishmash of lack of oversight and crippling regulations on the use of free time and public amenities. Besides, there was nobody outside he wanted to meet. With ten thousand channels of instant entertainment at his fingertips, and glorious full-dee holovision communications anywhere on the planet, why would he ever leave?

Then the advert had come on, showing pictures taken with simple chemical-based cameras of an idyllic natural paradise. Martin had taken a single look around his apartment - clean and neat, light and airy, but otherwise barren - and had got up, washed, shaved and got dressed. He didn’t even pack. He took his car, the fuel-cell battery not even half-charged from neglect, it would only take him one way, and drove.

***

A bare half hour later, he stood outside the imposing building in his home city-state, not the first in the world but one of the first. The parking lot was pristine, empty save for his vehicle. The roads had been clear, relatively speaking. Much work was done remotely now, with fuel costs sky-rocketing as the last industrial revolution produced massive wealth for the few. For the masses, they had yet to feel the benefits of a so-called post-scarcity world. Indeed, every day more found they were not needed, and were afforded the bare minimum of support to live and learn a new trade.

A new trade. Martin chuckled coldly to himself, very few careers needed new blood. Very few careers wanted old blood. His chosen path had perhaps been sudden, but he had made his mind up. Here he was. The Conversion Bureau.

Martin looked at the doors and his grin faded slightly; a big sign said ‘SORRY! We Are Closed!’ - as he read it he snorted, “even in the future nothing works!”

He turned around, pulled his hat over his head and sat down by the double doors to wait. What else did he have to do?

Clip-clop-clip-clop-clip-clop... Martin opened his eyes, the sun had moved a little but not much. He was comfortable enough, and with the weather and pollution forcast set to be clear, he didn’t worry overly about being outside that day. He blinked though at the sight of a purple horse - no, a purple unicorn pony trotting to the building trying her best not to look flustered, “I’m so, so sorry! I’m late, nobody remembered to open the doors, I broke the jelly-phone thing they gave me and I couldn’t call anypony on it anyway because, hey, hooves...”

Martin blinked again, and held out a hand, scrambling to get up. The approximately three-foor-high unicorn mare - he assumed mare, it sounded like a she and he was too polite to actually look - stuck out a hoof.

“Shake?” asked Martin dumbly.

“I...I believe that’s what you humans do, but I thought it involved more touching.”

“Oh, ah, er, sorry...” Martin took gentle hold of her hoof and shook it, lightly, almost afraid she would burst into glitter or somehow pop like a soap-bubble. A talking horse! No, he reminded himself, a talking pony.

“This is where we introduce ourselves, yes?” she said.

“I...guess so,” said Martin, flustered. He was shaking the hoof of a talking purple pony unicorn! Nothing in his life had prepared him for a talking purple pony unicorn. Her hoof was soft, surprisingly supple, shaped exactly like a normal horse’s hoof, yet with a difference he found he couldn’t place. Her pelt was equally soft, well-brushed, smooth and most important, she didn’t smell. He’d expected her to smell of, well, horse. She didn’t. She smelt of flowers, hay, grass. There was something he’d called ‘earthy’ but it was far from unpleasant.

“I think you’re supposed to let go after you stop shaking, and you’re supposed to say you’re name whilst you do? I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twilight..?”

“Sparkle. You say your name now.”

“Martin. Danielson. Pleased to meet you...Miss Sparkle.” he wasn’t sure what you addressed a pony as. He didn’t know if she was married...did ponies get married?

“You’re the only one here today it seems - you might as well call me Twilight - everypony else does. Shame, I had this whole speech setup.” she pointed with her muzzle at the cloth bags on her shoulders, a bound sheaf of papers stuck out, hand-written, or hoof-written, thought Martin to himself, “can I give you the speech? It’s...I worked hard on it...” she looked positively downcast.

“Maybe...maybe there’ll be more later? And you can use it then?”

“You’re right. I hope. I wouldn’t want all of this to go to waste,” and she gestured with a hoof, “it’s hard work getting through all your laws and bylaws and inlaws and so on. Oh me, if I wasn’t so organized...but even I have limits. Well, come on in. We may as well get started!”

“Right now?”

“You...don’t want to be a pony? You do know what we do here, right? Nopony’s making you come?”

“Nobody, no. I-I-I...I wanted to come. I mean...I saw the advert. And I wanted to go there. To Equestria. As a pony.”

“Relax, Martin, it’s not a difficult process to go through. We’ve done it hundreds of times before.” Twilight opened the doors to the building somehow with her horn, it flashed briefly and they slid open silently. Inside was cool, pleasant. A white unicorn with a luxurious purple mane was speaking into a phone that she managed to somehow hold on her shoulders as she filed a hoof with a rasp that was floating in mid-air.

“How...how is she doing that?” whispered Martin to himself

Twilight looked, “I really don’t know, every time I try that I get the most awful neckache.”

“I meant the rasp!”

“Magic. She’s a unicorn.”

“Magic? There’s no such thing.”

Twilight stopped in mid-trot, “Martin? Do you actually know anything about me and my little ponies?”

“I...you’re...er...ponies?”

“Yes?”

“And...you live in Equestria.”

“And?”

“And you talk.”

“That’s it?” Twilight face-hoofed, muttered, “why do I put up with this.” and stomped off calling “Spike! Spike!”

The soft sibilant snoring noise Martin had been hearing, which he’d blamed the air-conditioning, abruptly ended and a sheepish scaly face peered over the counter, “yes, Twilight?”

“Spike...were you sleeping again?”

“I’m a baby dragon, Twilight. I’ve got to get my sleep you know.”

“Then you should go to bed earlier instead of watching the movie channels and playing computer games. Maybe that way you’ll be in time to open the doors.” Twilight pointed a hoof at Martin and gave the purple and green dragon a dirty look.

“Sorry Twi,” said Spike, retreating behind the desk. The snoring started again.

“Dragon.” said Martin

“Spike, yes. He’s my assistant. Come on, let’s show you around the place.”

“Dragon...” said Martin again, pointing. Twilight rolled her eyes and gave him a gentle push as she gave him the grand tour. The receptionist was Rarity - at least whilst they broke in the new crew, who hadn’t arrived yet. Fluttershy was the name of a timid yellow pegasus they found out in the gardens, tending to the crops and an alarmingly large number of small furry cute critters, all of which seemed to bustle around Fluttershy as if they were tame. Somehow she had them doing work on her behalf, a small army of helpful rodents, clearing away dead leaves, picking berries, digging holes...Martin had never seen anything like it. He was so struck by the oddness of it all, he almost got bowled over by a blue, rainbow-haired winged streak of lightning called Rainbow Dash who was, to fit her name, dashing around the place on a million small errands.

“Twi’, I don’t know why you got me here, this place is like, so lame. You barely let me out of the grounds and when you do, flying on Earth is all regulations and comm-checks - the helmet and goggles they make me wear chafe my ears something fierce. Can you believe they tried to make me hire unionized mechanics? For these bad babies?” Dash held up her wings triumphantly and struck a pose, “I only got out of it because I class as a light aircraft, AND a diplomatically protected one at that.” Dash turned to look at Martin, “who’s this dweeb?”

“DASH! You mind your manners!”

“I’m only joshin’, hello human. Dash is the name.” Dash held out a hoof, Martin gripped it carefully and shook.

“And dashing’s the game?” replied Martin

“Heh, I could get used to you. Let’s hang out some time, after you get ponied up. You’ll probably be cute.” she kissed her hoof and blew it at him before zooming off.

“Are all the other ponies like her?”

“Nope, some know how to address a stranger politely.”

“She was just being friendly. You’re all friendly. Don’t you ever fight?”

Twilight stopped for a moment, “we don’t tend to fight. What would we fight over? I mean Dash is obnoxious at times, and Rarity’s prissy, but they’re my friends, and Fluttershy...well Fluttershy is Fluttershy.”

“Descriptive names, you have.”

“We like to have names that suit us. Some of us - like my friend Applejack who’s back home seeing to her orchards - tend to have a family speciality. You’ll meet the Apple Clan if you come live near Ponyville. Then again, we live closer than you humans do - you all have family names to keep track of all your kith and kin. Not a bad idea, I think it’s the only way the Apple Clan really know who’s who. Then again, it’s the Apple Clan...”

Just then, as they headed back into the building proper, with Twilight about to display the sleeping quarters to Martin, there was a burst of static and a giggle, followed by a loud clopping noise as a hoof hit a microphone, “This thing on? Heeelllooooo! Ooh it is! I just love these...ahem! Good morning, er, afternoon! This is Pinkie Pie speaking, and I’ll be doing the daily announcement! My first one! Wheee! Isn’t that special! Well today, we have...oh...just the one? Well that makes him extra specially special! We have Martin Danielson in the center today to be ponified! Isn’t that great! Let’s all give Marty, the M-meister, M.D, the D-man, M-dawg...oh fine, let’s all give Martin,” and he could hear the eyeballs rolling at being denied her fun, “a big stomping stampede of a welcome!”

The microphone clicked off loudly, and with a bustle and a sudden burst of streamers and confetti, a bright pink pastel pony bounded into the room, one hoof holding a ridiculously oversized foam hand that read ‘Number 1!’ which she waved around as she bounced on all three remaining hooves around the startled human. He could barely keep up and felt rather dizzy after only a few repetitions, but it didn’t seem to bother Pinkie Pie.

“Whooo! That was great! We should totally have a party!”

“Pinkie, no. No parties. Not today. Later!”

“Aww, you’re such a sticky sticky stick in the mud you...you...mud-sticking stick you.” Pinkie stuck out a tongue

“Anyway,” said Twilight, pointedly turning around so her rear was facing Pinkie, who continued making faces, “normally we’d get you settled in, you’d be here for a few days and get used to the idea, but...well...no time like the present.”

“Don’t you want to know why I want to be a pony? Allergies? Employment history?”

“Do you have any allergies?”

“I...no.”

“oh, well, that was simple. How about your employment history then?”

“I...I work with computers. Or I did, before...”

“Oh,” Twilight looked puzzled, “well we don’t really have many computers. It’s the hooves. We can’t really use the fiddly things. Rarity’s the only one who can dial a jelly-phone without it breaking in two.”

“So...can you take me?”

“Of course.”

“Not worried about my job prospects?”

“Not really. You’ll find something to do, everypony always does.”

“Aren’t you worried I could be a trouble-maker?”

“Are you a trouble-maker?”

“I..no!”

“Fine! Then it’s settled. Unless you want to go through the formal route, I think this one time we can skip the ‘frou-frou’ as Spike would call it and get straight to the whole ponification part. You ready?”

Martin blinked, “I...I guess so. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

“Once we do this, there’s no turning back. Nopony’s ever wanted to, but just so we’re straight,” said Twilight, “it’s a one-way trip. You’ll be giving up everything you have here and starting a new life. It’s why we usually have the whole week-long thing. Those unsure check out long before then.”

“What can I say,” said Martin at the double-doors below a sign marked simply ‘Ponification Station’, “let’s do this.”

The room itself, down the long corridor behind the double doors, was spotless. Unused, even. It had a vaguely operating-room smell, disinfectant and not-yet-dried paint, but looked business-like enough.

“Hop up on the seat here,” Twilight indicated the oddly-shaped seat with arm and leg-rests.

“Shouldn’t I take my clothes off or something?”

“Oh! Heh, silly me. Yes, it’ll be much easier to work that way, and taking them off after isn’t really going to work.”

“Not to mention we had to pop the eyeballs back in of the last guy who didn’t take his poloneck sweater off!” laughed a voice outside the window

“Dash! That’s a lie and you know it!”

“Hehehe....” somehow Rainbow made a pop noise with her hoof in her muzzle and put on a derpy-eyed expression. Twilight growled under her breath and pulled the venetian blinds down with her teeth, giving a swift twist of the neck to shut out the offensive pegasus.

“Spoilsport. I wanted to see what he looked like!” she called from behind the screen

“You’ll see him after! Scoot!”

“I better. I bet he’s a pegasus like me.”

“Scoot!”

“Yeah yeah,” said the voice from behind the blinds as Dash gave up trying to peek between them, “I’ll catch ya later stud.” she was off with an audible swoosh.

***

“So,” asked Martin, “how’s this going to work?” he was naked, mostly, blushing. It crossed his mind that all the ponies were, with the exception of Twilight who still had her bags on, and Rarity who had put on some sort of hat to keep her hair out of the way of her eye and presumably horn, absolutely naked. Why it should still bother him he didn’t know.

“You lie down here, without the underwear - that would get uncomfortable on a pony and is quite unnecessary,” said Rarity, gesturing with a hoof, “and drink this.”

A cup floated in front of Martin’s eyes. He blinked, would he ever get used to that? Taking it, he sniffed. It was purple, smelling slightly of berries or grapes.

“And this makes me a pony?” he asked incredulously as he nervously removed his underwear and stood stark bollock naked in front of the largest single gathering of naked females he had ever stood infront of. Rarity swatted his hand away and gestured to the arm-rest disapprovingly, he was being difficult and childish, said her expression.

“No, it makes you sleepy, silly!” said Pinkie, bouncing again. He didn’t know what she was doing, but she seemed excited. He realised he’d never seen her not excited. It can’t be such a bad life, he reckoned, if you can be that happy. He downed the mixture in one, making a face at the bitter aftertaste.

“So, uh, how long bef-” he passed out.

The first thing to come were sensations, emotions, pure light and sound. There was endless fields of waving grass, sweet summer breezes, azure-blue sky. He was without form, fluid, ethereal. The wind spoke of life, animals, ponies. Following the irresistable pull of life he found himself mingling with the herd. They didn’t speak in any language he knew but conversed with body and breath. He found he could understand them, “come!” and “go!” and “fight!” and “run!” spoke the multitude. In moments he found himself on all fours, bucking, prancing, neighing. He looked down, a beige vaguely-equine creature, more like what a horse was than what one looked like. They took off across the fields, and he followed, galloping into the sun. With a leap, a whinny of terror, a shrill cry of exultation, the ground under his hooves disappeared and with suddenly-sprouted wings he flew. Now the herd around him were swooping and diving, effortless in their mastery of the air. As the sun went down he flew towards a castle high on a rock, lights bright against the velvet sky, beneath stars that shone as none he could remember. Like mist he flowed through the open window, around the spiral staircase and down, down into chambers deep in the mountain. A library, a laboratory, horned ponies worked in soft, musical voices, mixing, creating, learning, teaching.

In the middle of a suddenly-vast hall were two thrones, occupied by two ponies - one light and fiery, the other dark and glowing. They smiled at him, their twin glows growing bright, brighter, so bright he could barely see...

He opened his eyes. The room, blinds up, sun streaming in through the curtain-less window straight into his face. He groaned, and brought a hand up to his face, only to slap himself silly with a hoof. When the stars had cleared he looked, and carefully waved the hoof in front of his massively-elongated nose, “It’s mine!” he said in a strange voice. He coughed, “forgive me, I’m a little hoarse.”

With peals of laughter, the pink pony bounced up to him and gave him a kiss on the nose, “I knew you could do it! Oop, gotta mind that thing...” she moved her head to the side, and pecked his cheek.

“Thing?”

“You’re a unicorn, Martin.”

“I...am?”

“Dashy’s gonna be sooooo disappointed. She prefers pegasi. Sooo disappointed!” Pinkie gave him an appraising look that made his heart flutter for some reason, before bounding off again, “hee hee!”

“Can you get up?” asked Twilight, as she and Rarity moved to give him room.

“I...I don’t know...” Martin eased himself off the seat which had now bent and moulded itself to his four hooves and collapsed in a heap on the floor, “give me a minute.”

“Carefully now, most of your muscles are still in the same place, but others...it might help to imagine walking on your fingertips, which you don’t have anymore. Gently now, even foals can do it almost right off the bat, I’m sure a big strong unicorn like you won’t have any trouble...”

Martin put one foot on the floor - hoof, he corrected mentally - and then another. And another. And another. His elbows and knees - which he now seemed to have four of each - buckled and he almost fell over...but he regained composure at the last moment. He’d done it! Standing!

“YAY!” said Pinkie, bouncing around him again so enthusiastically he found himself in a heap of hooves, knees, elbows, wrists, fetlocks...whatever it was the ponies had. Oh man, he said to himself, I’m going to have to go back to school when I don’t even know what my body parts are called.

“You’re doing well!” said Twilight, giving Pinkie The Look and pointing out the door with one hoof, “want to see what you look like?”

Rarity held up a mirror with her hooves, balancing it carefully so he could see himself, “darling,” she said, “your mane, your tail, simply gorgeous! When you get settled in you simply must come visit and model for me. I’ll have a whole range of clothing just for you...the possibilities!”

Martin looked, and there in front of him was a dark blue - midnight blue, he thought to himself - unicorn stallion with glowing multi-coloured mane and tail. He held one hoof up, trying to copy the pose that Rainbow Dash had made. He almost had it but fell on his chin. He swore as he tasted a bit of blood, he’d bit his tongue, “ow! Dammit!”

“Ooh, try to heal it!” said Pinkie, poking her head through the doors, somehow knowing he’d injured himself, she must have been hiding outside the door and listening since being banished, “you unicorns are good at that sorta thing!”

“Heal ith?” he lisped, trying to look at his injured appendage.

“Just...think of your tongue. Think of it not hurting, and then...make it so.”

Martin did so, screwing up his eyes, clenching his jaw, somehow pushing with his mind until he felt something burst and suddenly his tongue no longer hurt! He stuck it out and looked at it, “I...I think that wath a succeth...” he said, “are unicorn tongues supposed to be quite that shade of purple?”

***

The biggest challenge of his life faced him. He breathed heavily, steeling himself. He was not prepared.

“Come on you silly foal, it’s only a hallway. It doesn’t bite.”

“Easy for you to say, you’ve had more than five minutes with those legs of yours.”

“Just a hop, skip and a jump!”

“It’ll be hop, skip and splat if I try.”

“Then,” said Twilight, shoving Pinkie out the way, who happily bounded away down the corridor like a pony-shaped india-rubber ball, “put one hoof in front of the other. Remember, two - that’s your right front hoof - three, your left hind hoof - one, your left FRONT hoof, and four, the right hind hoof.”

“Easy...easy peasy...I can do this...” Martin put one hoof after the other, and found himself bunched up like a hoop as he’d forgotten to move his front legs. He fell over once again as he tried to stand up like a human, and dragged himself to his hooves once more. Leaning against the wall, ignoring the cries of “cheater!” from a giggling Pinkie Pie, he shuffled forwards a few steps sliding against the support before finding the rhythm.

Clop-clop-clop-clop-clop-THUNK...he pulled himself up again,

clop-clop-clop-clop.... clop-clop clop-clop... he had it! He laughed, was that it? He experimented, trying a trot. He tried a backwards trot...and then after picking himself up vowed to try trotting backwards much later. It seemed like forever, but he was suddenly at the double doors. He nosed them open - that’s why there’s no doorknobs! He realised - and stepped out into the main building’s common room.

There was a bright flash as a dozen or more bulbs went off - apparently somepony has alerted the media, thought Martin to himself wryly as a gaggle of shouting, urgent, gesticulating hairless monkeys bade him look in their direction. It was almost comical in their frantic yelling and shouting for a response. They all spoke at once, just a jumble of noise, barely separable from base whooping and hollering, most of the questions non-sensical and ridiculous.

“Oh, it’s just another of those ponies...hey, hey pony, what’s your name?”

“This way, pony, look over here!”

“Where’s the guy who came here? How much is he paying you for this?”

“Is he dead? Will he recover? Our sources say he’ll have permanent brain damage and neural problems - how do you respond?”

“Are the stories true, do you euthanize humans and replace them with pony duplicates?”

Martin blinked, didn’t they..? No, no they didn’t.

“I’m er, Midnight,” said Martin, making a name up on the spot, “Midnight...Sh-Shadow.”

“Okay Midnight, tell you what, we’ll give you all the hay you can eat for a year if you tell us where the pony-dude is.” asked one of the brasher, louder reporters quickly.

“Oh, you mean Martin? He’s out back in the gardens, I think, or off sleeping, if he didn’t run off already.”

With a rushing and pushing and he sound of blows and breaking equipment, the gaggle of desperate reporters fell over themselves as they fought to get the exclusive first pictures of the ponified human, wherever he was hiding. Martin sniggered to himself and trotted out to the front desk to keep up the charade. Spike was sitting there, paws folded across his chest having listened to the whole thing, “So, Midnight Shadow, huh?”

“Shh! I’ve got better things to do than pose for those vultures.”

“Like what? I thought you humans thrived on fame, fortune and glory?”

Martin stopped and blinked, looking at a hoof, “yeah. We...they do.”

“Already a pony, huh?”

“I guess I am.”

“So, how’s it feel?”

“I...I dunno. Kinda nice, I guess.”

“And the clothing-optional status?”

“I...oh...OH hell...I’m...” he blushed, he hadn’t even realised!

“Relax, relax, I’m just messing with ya. After all, not a stitch on me either. Come on, let’s see what they’ve got in the cafeteria.” with that, the baby dragon hopped off the counter and landed squarely on Martin’s shoulders, where he gave a little kick with both heels.

“H’ya! Giddy up!”

“If you ‘hiya’ me again I’ll buck you off.” snorted Martin, turning his head to look at the sheepish dragon. Truth be told he wasn’t sure if he could without falling over, but either way the pest would get a spill.

“Hiho Midnight, away?”

“That’ll do.” They trotted - Martin trotted, Spike bounced - to the cafeteria.

***

The cafe was empty - heck, the whole building was empty, apart from the skeleton crew of pastel ponies and desperately-seeking-Martin reporters. Martin’s stomach growled, as did Spike’s, “heh, guess you’re as hungry as I am?”

“I haven’t eaten properly for days. Energy drinks and snacks.”

“Mmm, snacks. I like a good glass of coke. I don’t know why you put that brown liquid in the bottles though, completely ruins the fine bouquet.”

“You eat glass?”

“Didn’t think I ate hay now, did you?”

“I...don’t know.”

“Silly! Dragons only eat hay when they’re on a diet.” said Pinkie, popping up behind a huge bowl of green salad. She somehow had a fishnet hat on which kept her bouyant, bouncy pink hair out of the way. She brandished a ladle, though Martin was completely unable to tell how, “what’ll I do you for?”

“What’s...uh..good? For a pony I mean?”

“Alfalfa sandwich, alfalfa smoothie, alfalfa salad and alfalfa surprise.”

“Alfalfa surprise?”

Pinkie grinned so wide he was quite sure she would burst, “surprise! It’s alfalfa.”

Martin couldn’t help but smile, even through the corny joke, “okay, you win. Give me something you’d eat.”

“Oooh nonononono, only a third-grade Pinkie-Dan can master sugar of that magnitude. I’ll give you something you would eat.” said Pinkie, and she ladled out a selection of carrots, grass, hay, dandelions, apple and salads.

“That’s it? No sweet chili sauce? No fries?”

“Well we could do you a mean fried hay burrito, but we’re out of sweet chili sauce...”

Martin sighed, “I’ll give it a go...”

Martin took the plate gingerely in his mouth after dropping it a few times back on the counter, still unused to the whole ‘no thumbs’ and oral dexterity issues ponies had, and placed it on a table. He looked forlornly at the chairs, and decided to stand. He could barely keep himself upright without wobbling as it is, he didn’t need to negotiate sitting too. He nibbled the carrots. He devoured the cucumber. The hay and grass...it was like...he couldn’t explain it well, not even to himself. A mixture of fruit juice flavour with the texture of salad-greens. It was delicious. He was surprised when he’d eaten it all.

“That...that was...”

“How was your first meal as a pony?” asked a voice behind him

Martin answered, “oh, it was nothing like I expec- oh damn it! You tricked me.”

“You tricked me first.” said the man, pointedly leaving his camera on the table, pointing the other way.

“It wasn’t difficult,” Martin looked up at the human, realising the human looked...different to him than he would have before. He was a stranger, but...now he was a strange stranger.

“Care to do an interview?”

“Only if you don’t ruin it for everyone. I know how much you guys love a juicy story, but I don’t want to be turned into some three-page monstrous misanthrope.”

“It’ll be hard, you turned your back on the human race.”

“I guess I did,” Martin sat on his haunches and thought about it.

“And?”

“And what?” said Martin pointedly.

“Any regrets?” prompted the reporter.

“Nope. Look, I know you’ve got cameras up the wazoo here, heck you’re probably transmitting this live to your servers as we speak, it might even be on the hypernet already. I don’t want any payment, any deals other than don’t print lies about me or this place. You don’t have anything I want, not any more.”

Martin thought a little, “You know, I think you could do the bravest, best story ever, and you could do it without me.”

“Oh?” There was a hunger in the reporters eyes, Martin could see that. The same hunger he had felt - tempered somewhat by circumstance, but powerful and present all the same. Pickings were slim these days for humans. He had no doubt it would even out in the end, but before then a lot of good people would find themselves without a hoof to stand on.

“You’re in the Conversion Bureau, you figure it out. An inside view, from the horses mouth as it were. Or the pony’s.” Martin looked pointedly towards the sign over the door that said ‘ponification station’.

“How long?” asked Martin, eyes looking past the man in front of him, gaze firmly on the man he used to be not so long ago. With the right kind of eyes, he realised, you could see where the wave broke, and started to roll back, taking so much with it. So much.

“For what?” asked the reporter, unused to being asked questions, much less by a talking pony.

“How long before you’re replaced, like I was? They’ve got botnets now trawling for stories. There’ll always be reporters, but...only the best of the best or the lucky or more likely the cheap few will still be in the game. You could...sidestep all that. Become a pony.”

“But...I like being a human!” said the surprised reporter.

“Maybe, but you’d like a huge story more, wouldn’t you? I’m quite sure reporters are needed in Equestria, and with the right spin on it you could be the biggest news sensation this side of the shield too. The story of a lifetime. All yours. Exclusive. Forever. Nopony’s done it yet, news from the inside, from the front. You don’t want my little old slice of life, even if I were a standard dropout it’s not that big a deal. A few weeks, probably days, and I’ll just be a statistic, but you? A reporter, live from inside fabled Equestria...” Martin had him, he smiled and left, motioning for Spike and Pinkie to follow as the reporter stood up, dropped his camera in the bin and first knocked on and then opened the double doors, where a surprised Twilight was met coming the other way.

Martin swept the floor later that day before bed, he had been the only visitor - Rarity was playing the physiotherapist for him and made him do all manner of menial chores. “After all,” she said, “who’ll be doing them for you when you get to Equestria? You’d better learn now whilst we can still help!”

The staff played the game of “confound these reporters” well; Martin pretended to just be another ordinary pastel talking magical unicorn pony and eventually they lost interest. Dash however did not.

“S-so, er Midnight was it?”

“It’s as good a name as any. I think I’d sound silly as a pony called ‘Martin’ if you ask me.”

“And...now you’re a unicorn.”

“Sorry, Dash, I didn’t get to choose.”

“With....with that rainbow mane and tail though,” she sounded like she was working up to something, “are you sure that...you’re not...inside...a little pegasus?”

“Quite sure.”

“Do you wanna be?”

Martin did a double-take and dropped the brush from his mouth, it fell to the floor with a clatter. Rainbow Dash had the decency to look embarassed.

“Did...did you just...”

“Ohh...did I say it wrong? I...I worked on that for, like, ages. It was in this book and...”

She looked so flustered it made him smile, “Dash, that was quite possibly the corniest pickup line I’ve ever heard!”

“Aww...”

“Dash, I’m...this morning I had two legs. Now I’ve got four. I...it’s not a good time. You’re sweet and when I’ve got used to the idea of...dating a pony...like you...ask again.”

“You know, for an ex-knobbly-kneed monkey type, you’re not too bad lookin’, even if you aren’t a pegasus.” Rainbow zoomed off in a flash muttering to herself, "We all have a little Pegasus in us, Martin! Question is, do you want to be in a little pegasus...that’s what I should’a said...”

***

The Conversion Bureau

Midnight’s Tail

Part 2 - Hoofing It

***

Part 1 - Hitting the Road

Part 2 - Hoofing It

Part 3 - Four by Four, Four on the Floor

Part 4 - Off the Beaten Track

Part 5 - Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Part 6 - Epilogue

***

An MLP:FiM fanfic by Midnight Shadow

Thanks to: Chistery, Roy, Blaze, Pride, Peachy Punch and all my readers and editors :3

Set in Blaze’s “Conversion Bureau” universe

Original:        Equestria Daily - Conversion Bureau

***

Midnight rolled out of bed awkwardly and stood up, shaking his great shaggy head to clear it before stumbling over to the mirror to peer bleerily at his reflection. “So,” he said to himself, turning his head left and right, “unicorns have bed-hair too, bed mane I guess I should call it now? And a bad case of it. How am I supposed to brush it?”

Just the day before, Midnight Shadow had been a human calling himself Martin Danielson, then everything had changed with a visit to The Conversion Bureau where talking, magical ponies from Equestria had turned him into a unicorn. Everything was going surprisingly well, but daily realities were setting in.

Midnight put his hoof up to his mouth and breathed on it before inhaling through his two ample nostrils, checking for morning breath. It sent his eyes derping, “Bad morning breath too, huh? They’ve gotta have something for that...”

He examined the room; the bed was a simple yet firm mattress on the floor, there was a single window with venetian blinds and a large, smooth bit for him to bite down on and manipulate now he had no thumbs. The light-switch was a big, nose-level push-button and there were what appeared to be two sinks for washing in. He eyed the fixture he’d thought was a toothbrush holder suspiciously. It was actually a toothbrush.

“Cunning,” he said to himself, “now let’s see...”

He picked up the tube of toothpaste from the larger sink in his mouth and looked at it in the mirror. It had no cap as such, just some sort of one-way valve. He wondered idly how they made them, whether they even had them in Equestria. Wild horses didn’t exactly brush their teeth, did ‘wild’ ponies?

The brush was large and white, a simple yet hopefully effective device. He squeezed some toothpaste onto the bristles after a couple of tries with his lips, and then put the tube back carefully. Gingerly he put the brush in his mouth - it did indeed seem to be a normal toothbrush, fixed to the wall. He whipped his head back and forth carefully and built up a mouth full of foam. He made faces in the mirror trying to check if he’d got everything. It was then he realized there were no taps.

He poked his head out of the dorm-room cautiously, it was early morning and he didn’t want to wake anypony up. Stomping through the dimly-lit complex he heard a familiar noise. Spike snoring in a kitty-basket behind the front desk. He’d been put on timeout since he’d stayed up late one too many times playing computer games and had been forbidden from the teamroom.

“Spike!” hissed Midnight, “Psst! Wake up! SPIKE!” he nudged the dragon with a hoof insistently until the green and purple shape stirred suddenly.

“Wha’? What’s that? Who’s thereaaaAAAARRRRGGHHH!” Spike hiccuped and a green flame shot out of his nostrils, illuminating the room for a brief second.

“Oh..ouch..oh god..I’m blind...” there was a crash and a clatter as the startled Midnight knocked the pens and a potted plant off the desk as he stumbled about from sudden combustion of the eyebrows.

“Martin? What the hell are you..? Why are you rabid?” the baby dragon poked Midnight in the muzzle pointedly.

“I’m not rabid, I was brushing my teeth! And my name’s Midnight now. Midnight Shadow.” he blinked the stars away.

“And? Why are you wandering about in the dark?”

“I can’t find the taps!” he hissed.

“Oh is that all? You woke my nap for that? Newfoals...come on, I’ll help. I guess you want to use the facilities too, huh? Did they show you how to do that even?”

Come to think of it, Midnight did feel a little bit...bloated. He shook his head and blushed a little, sending flecks of foam flying through the air. Spike put his paws on his face and sighed, “Twi wrote the checklist, I made sure that was on it. Why me?”

Back at Midnight’s dormitory, Spike pointed to the smaller of the two sinks, “I would have thought, with that big old brain of yours, you’d have spotted the pressure plate. Just...put your nose in there. Go on, push.”

Midnight did so, and with a sudden gurgle, found water was welling up. He withdrew with a start, and the gurgling stopped. He slurped the water up and gargled...then looked gingerely at Spike.

“The other sink. Surely you didn’t think we put two in by mistake?”

The big sink was just sitting there, in a quietly porcelein way. Midnight spat, and then swirled a second lot of water and spat again, cleaning it. His breath was minty fresh and apart from the scorch marks he was looking good, “I guess the bed-mane will have to wait until Rarity can teach me how to brush it.”

“I can help,” Spike hopped up onto Midnight’s back after grabbing a complimentary hairbrush from the cabinet, “start at the ends down here near the whithers, then move in to the base of the neck, then move up...and repeat...start at the ends...”

“Oohh that’s nice...” Midnight closed his eyes, ears splaying out with happiness, a good brushing was something he’d never thought he’d enjoy. It was like a warm happy feeling spreading all the way down to his hooves.

“Yeah, I always brush Twi’s mane. Rarity’s when she lets me..” said Spike happily, “Ah, Rarity...” Spike brushed extra tenderly, daydreaming.

“...and now it feels weird again. Off.”

Spike pouted, but hopped off, “Okay then, the facilities. This way...”

***

Spike led the way through the complex, and pointed out at the garden, “Most of the staff just heads out ‘round the back. If you do you'll find the place."

“Fragrant?” asked Midnight, arching an eyebrow.

“I’ll say, they grow the biggest flowers with that stuff.”

Midnight stopped for a second, and shook his head, that hadn’t been quite what he’d meant, “Well thanks, but no thanks. I’d prefer to use the indoor facilities if you please.”

“If you say so, down this way then.”

The dragon led the way through the complex, only the sound of hooves echoing through the empty cafeteria until they came to some doors marked ‘staff only’.

“These are the only pony-ready facilities in the joint. I guess I’m lucky, I can make do with the human ones, but you big guys need heavier-duty gear. Not that they use ‘em. It’s through there...there’s never enough ponies at one time to need separate stalls.”

Midnight looked at the doors, there were three - male, female, and pony. Walking in, the place was spotless and looked unused. He remembered it probably was. There was what looked like a urinal on one wall, but it was huge with odd fixtures and a much larger hole than he’d expected.

“This the thing?” he called out to Spike, eyeing it suspiciously.

“Probably! It’s not like I can see it you know!” called the dragon through the door, “You put your butt up against it, get your tail out the way and let fly. It’s got a special...I’m not sure what humans call it...”

With some issues maneuvering, Midnight did so. He felt very, very self-conscious but eventually felt quite relieved, “Now what?” he called out.

“Well...there’s a kind of...button on the floor. Push it -” Spike was about to continue with the words ‘very, very carefully’ when there was a loud, girlish shriek and a wild-eyed Midnight came barrelling out the door, eyes rolling and wide.

“I...tried to warn you.”

“Warn me faster...warn faster next time...and the word you were looking for was bidet...the next pony who gets that treatment may not be so kind...I’m going to go lie down now...” Midnight’s speech was strangely high-pitched and urgent and he was breathing heavily, but at least you could say he was clean, “We shall never speak of this again. Ever.”

As Midnight wobbled unsteadily down the corridor with the dragon once again on his back, the staff members were waking up from all the loud noises. He trotted past them all nonchalantly except for one. On seeing Rarity the unicorn, Midnight stopped with a double-take. Her entire muzzle was green; green mud-like substance covered her up to her ears, and cucumbers were somehow balanced over her eyes. There were curlers.

“I’ll have you know,” said Rarity, as she heard the hoofsteps die away in front of her, “that beauty like this requires work.” and she turned around in a huff and went back to her room, tail and head held high.

“So much for bed.” said Midnight as he noted the corridor rapidly filling with ponies.

“Bed?” asked a friendly voice from behind him, he turned to see a yawning Twilight, “I swear you’re as bad as my Spike.”

“I resent that!” piped up Spike from Midnight’s back.

“If the horse-shoe fits.” said Twilight under her breath, grinning.

“I don’t even wear shoes!” complained Spike, folding his arms across his chest, “Especially not horse-shoes!”

Midnight turned and started walking away, “Come on Spike, I need to do something and I may need your help.”

“Me?” asked the dragon, “What in Equestria do you need me for?”

“Thumbs, just in case. We’re going on a short trip outside.”

***

Midnight and Spike were chattering about the differences between Equestria and Earth - they shared the same space but had very different mores and customs, not that human culture was entirely uniform.

“I’m impressed with your name-choice, Midnight. Very modern of you.”

“Huh? How come?”

“Well, it’s gender neutral, but traditionally related to the moon, and Princess Luna, and...er...well...she’s related to foaling...”

“Are you saying ‘Midnight’ is a girl’s name?”

“I..ah..it’s not quite that simple, I mean...I learn a lot of this from Twilight and her books, and...and...you know, nopony really agrees exactly with all of it, and it’s all down to parental choice and the subtle nuances...” Spike babbled on at length before Midnight stopped him.

“Spike! Is it?”

Spikes ears drooped, “Kinda?”

Midnight sighed, stopping in the harsh morning sunlight, “Really? It’s a girl’s name?”

“Sorry bro.”

He sighed again and continued walking, “Too late to change it, I guess. Anyway, we’re here.”

“Where?” Spike, still ensconced on Midnight’s back, looked all around and up and down, they hadn’t walked far from the centre and seemed to be nowhere special.

“A ‘Hole in the Wall’ as we call them, there’s not too many left these days. Ever since being ponified, my implant stopped working. Without it, I need some other way to access my bank account.” Midnight pointed with his horn at a booth, “These can be voice-activated. I hope it’ll recognize me. If it doesn’t, that’s where you come in. I have a passcode I can try instead but I’m going to have trouble pushing the buttons.”

“Your implant is toast, if it’s still even there,” Spike rolled his eyes and twiddled a claw at his temple, “something about the ponification process knocks ‘em out. Twilight won’t let me get one.”

“I’m not sure you could if she’d let you, they’re made for humans.” he turned the booth, “Station, activate - citizen Danielson, Martin, requesting voice confirm.”

“Voice Ident unsuccessful, Visual Ident unsuccessful.” the machine answered in a smooth, disinterested timbre.

Spike’s mouth dropped open and his eyes shone. For better or worse, the little dragon loved the cool gadgets that populated Earth.

Midnight swore, “er, station, citizen Danielson, Martin has undergone radical...surgery...requesting retinal scan, compensate for size differential, weight differential and voice tone.”

“Scanning...surgical changes compensated for. Pattern matched. Welcome, Citizen.”

“Oh thank goodness. I was thinking we’d have to go to my apartment...” Spike looked entirely too unhappy with the success, thought Midnight, but he didn’t really fancy trying to pull all the seats out of his car and overriding the guidance computer to let them travel with no seatbelts.

“Spike, do you guys have a...an account? I mean I don’t have much but it’s the last thing standing in my way. Call it a token gesture, but I want to step into Equestria shod of my past life.”

“I...I have an account!” said Spike hopefully

“I tell you what, I’ll send you my computer games, IF you promise not to play them past ten at night.”

“Awww...”

“and I’ll sweeten the deal with my sixty-inch flatscreen and the holoprojector.”

“Sweet!”

“I’ll make sure Twilight knows the deal.”

“Well that’s no fair.” grumbled the dragon, crossing his paws over his chest and pouting, a little green flame shooting from his mouth.

Midnight, using his old name and old persona for what he hoped was the last time in his life, closed up shop. He ordered everything useful to the Conversion Bureau sent to their address, liquidated the rest and transferred the funds to the organization behind them. For an entire life’s work, it was distressingly small. In a strange way though, it helped him make that last step. He really wouldn’t be missed. When he turned around, he was surprised to find two men lurking furtively in an alcove of a closed-up shop.

“Gimme yer money.” said one, and the other brandished something that might have been a knife, or a piece of poly-plastic

Midnight was taken aback, he knew things were bad but...that bad? “I...does it look like I have pockets in this thing? I don’t have any money to give to you, what would I do with it?”

“We heard you, pony, shuttling money about. Your Bureaus are loaded. We want some. Give us a few thousand and we’ll reconsider selling your skin.”

“I was getting rid of it and you’re too late, it’s gone.”

Spike tensed on Midnight’s back and stood up, holding on to the unicorn’s mane with one claw and pointing at the nearest speaker, “Buddy, you are messing with the wrong pony. This here is Midnight Shadow. I saw him turn a griffon inside out once when he knocked over his drink and refused to pay for a refill. He was thrown out of a dragon’s gambling den for tearing the wings off my cousin, he only made it alive out because I promised to serve Midnight for a year.”

“This...you...” the men looked less sure of themselves, glancing at each other.

“What the hell are you doing?” hissed Midnight, not taking his eyes off the pair of would-be robbers in front of him. He lowered his horn threateningly, weaving it to and fro.

“Make your horn glow!” hissed Spike in Midnight’s ear.

“What?” whispered Midnight back, heart beating so loud he could barely hear what the dragon had said.

“I said make your horn glow, now!” the dragon turned to the two men again, speaking loudly, “You like having two arms each huh? Well if you don’t get outta here my buddy Midnight’s going to give you wings and a beak - he don’t eat chicken, but I do...”

Midnight concentrated, remembering his tongue, but this time concentrating on a simple light-show. To his immense satisfaction, his horn apparently caught on fire with a green, baleful glow. He gritted his teeth and set his shoulders, mumbling nonsense words under his breath just loud enough for the pair to hear as he eyed both the men. That was enough. They dropped their makeshift weapons and fled. When they were gone, Spike all but fell off laughing, “Oh Midnight that was awesome.”

“Be that as it may, we gotta get out of here incase they come back.” Midnight was almost shaking.

“I suppose I’d better tell Twilight, can’t be having ruffians like that scaring away the customers.”

“Where’d you learn to bluff like that?” Midnight asked as they hot-hoofed it back to the centre.

“Bluff nothing, you could take ‘em, but those stories? Long story itself. Back in Ponyville there was this unicorn filly called Trixie, she liked to show off a lot. One day, Twilight...”

They headed back to the Conversion Bureau, Midnight’s task complete.

***

Before the pair could head through the doors, they were almost bowled over by a blue-and-rainbow blur speeding out the other way, Rainbow Dash had her pilots goggles on and was moving at breakneck speed. She spun around them and did a barrel roll before pulling up short and hovering in front of them, “Oh dammit!” Dash looked conspiratorially left and right, “You...you won’t tell on me will you? I’ve been cooped up in there for days and my wings are gonna shrivel off if I don’t see some action! Tell Twi’ ya missed me. Later stud.” She disappeared into the air humming, “getting off the reservation, yeah-la la la laaa la...skippin’ out on Twilight, oh-yeah haha haa haa...”

Midnight and Spike exchanged glances and headed in.

“Did you see Rainbow Dash?” asked Rarity, innocently, once again working at the reception, “we sent her out to find you, you were getting distressingly close to missing your appointment.”

“I...er...must’ve missed her.”

“There are lots of windows you know,” said Twilight with a smug smile, “but we don’t need Dash, we need you. Celestia wants to see you and you need to start your orientation.”

“What’s a Celestia?”

Twilight hung her head, “Nopony told him? Anypony? No? I swear, first and last time...Celestia. Princess Celestia. She’s our ruler.”

“Wait...I thought I heard Princess Luna mentioned? Don’t you have a queen?”

“No, we don’t have any queens. Just two princesses. Celestia is the elder of the two and raises the sun every morning. Luna is the younger, and raises the moon.”

“But...the sun and moon...” Midnight made circular motions with his hooves.

“It’s complicated,” said Twilight finally, “but more importantly, you’ll be late if you don’t get ready now.”

“Late for what?” Midnight stepped backwards, unsure at all the sudden smiles.

“You’re being shipped outta here, silly! To Equestria!” Pinkie bounced in, “As much as we just love having a newfoal around, our replacements are coming and we’re starting to get enquiries.” Pinkie bounced happily again, and then skidded to a stop, “The only problem is I never had the chance for a party.”

“Aww, Pinkie Pie, we can party some other time, I’m sure.”

“Oh that’s right! You’re headed to Ponyville! I shouldn’t have looked but I peeked! Promise you’ll stay long enough? I get a week off of greeting newfoals and arranging rebirthday parties and stuff and I’d just love a chance to give you a party too!”

Midnight wasn’t sure he could withstand that much party, but he nodded. Rarity was next saying goodbye. She simply gave him a quick neck-hug and sniffed quietly. Pinkie Pie kissed him on the nose and Fluttershy squeaked something that sounded like ‘goodbye’. Spike hugged a leg, and scampered off.

“I know Dash’ll be mad, but she made her choice.” said Twilight, sadly.

“You shouldn’t keep her cooped up here that much, Twilight,” said Midnight gently, remembering the glow the pegasus had had when flitting about freely in the air, “we each need to be in our own element.”

“If you’ve learnt that, Midnight, then you really do need to visit Equestria. Come on, out the back to the loading bay. Follow me please. Our other convert is already waiting.”

“Other convert? Bu-but I thought I was the first one?”

“You were, but not the only. We just finished with him.”

“Him? Oh no, you didn’t...he didn’t...”

“They did. Check it out I’m a pony! I don’t get why I like it, but I like it! And double-check it, cutie-mark!”

Midnight looked, there on the flank of the light-brown earth pony with the dark-brown mane and dark, deep eyes, was a fedora. A fedora with an old-fashioned press-pass sticking out the brim no less. It was then that something clicked; stars, balloons, lightning bolts, butterflies - they all had marks on their flanks. He turned to his own in disappointment, he was still the same blank dark purple-blue he had been before, “but...how...”

“We don’t know, to be honest. I’ve never seen another newfoal pop out with a cutie-mark. Some don’t take long, but this guy...it was just there.”

“That’s obvious,” said the pony, “a pony’s cutie-mark reflects his life’s ambition, his life’s work.”

“And you know what yours is.” said Midnight, raising an eyebrow and flicking his ears.

“Damn straight, kid. I’m a reporter. Always was, always will be. funny thing though, they haven’t made these things in...it’s gotta be close on a hundred years?” He pointed with his hoof at the fedora and then back at Twilight, “did I put it there? Did they?”

Twilight smiled, “Something to ask when you get to Equestria. Your carriage awaits.”

A large animal-transport truck pulled up, belching smoke. It was a diesel, converted long ago to run on bio-fuel but never really patched up. Diesel was cheap and easy to produce; for all the laws enacted around consumer vehicles, diesel was one of the few remaining fuels able to cope with long haul trips with significant freight.

When the engine turned off, the large, sturdy tailgate was eased down and in the murky darkness was heard a stamping of hooves and the swishing of tails, “I know it’s not the best, but...we’re trying to make you incognito for as long as possible. Newfoals are still rare enough that you could get swamped. Just your car being parked here the other day, Midnight, was enough to alert the local media...they must have had a...thingy...”

“A botnet?” asked Midnight, glancing at the earth pony, who nodded imperceptibly.

“One of them things. As much as we’re pleased you decided to join us, we want your transition to be smooth - and being mobbed at every rest-stop between here and Equestria won’t do at all.”

“So we’re travelling with normal terran ponies?”

“We’re not all normal terran ponies in here.” came a new voice, and a yellowish-orange pegasus pony stepped carefully out of the back of the truck, stretching her wings, her dark red mane and tail glistening in the light, the orange streaks catching in the sun, “Hi! Are you two both newfoals like me and Ad..I mean Cobalt, here? I mean it’s pretty hard to tell.”

A dark-grey, slate-grey even, earth-pony with a jet black mane and deep hazel-brown eyes also stepped into the light, looking around with interest. It soon faded when he realised that one loading bay was much like the other. Midnight noted that neither had cutie-marks, it made him feel a little bit better. He had started to feel awkward being the only one with a blank flank.

“Cobalt?” asked Midnight, snapping out of his reverie, “but...you’re not blue.”

Cobalt gave Midnight an embarassed look and stomped back into the truck, “I thought it was neat.” he said from the shadows.

“Come on, let’s move out.”

Midnight, the reporter who still hadn’t given his name, if he even has one yet, mister ‘I got a cutie-mark in ten seconds flat’, thought Midnight to himself, and the two new ponies made themselves as comfortable as possible on the ample straw in the close, equine-filled darkness and tried to relax as the vehicle moved off.

The Conversion Bureau

Midnight’s Tail

Part 3 - Four by Four, Four on the Floor

***

Part 1 - Hitting the Road

Part 2 - Hoofing It

Part 3 - Four by Four, Four on the Floor

Part 4 - Off the Beaten Track

Part 5 - Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Part 6 - Epilogue

***

An MLP:FiM fanfic by Midnight Shadow

Thanks to: Chistery, Roy, Blaze, Pride, Peachy Punch and all my readers and editors :3

Set in Blaze’s “Conversion Bureau” universe

Original:        Equestria Daily - Conversion Bureau

***

“We’re on the road again, travellin’ places that we’ve never been...” sang Peachy Punch tunelessly as she looked out the back of the truck wistfully.

“Oh shush.” said Cobalt, “you’ve been reciting that damn ditty for the last three hours straight.”

“You’re only mad, Cobalt,” said Peachy, “because you don’t know the words.”

“Neither do you! And maybe my name’s not Cobalt any more. Maybe it’s...maybe it’s...”

“Come on guys,” said Midnight, “we’re all ponies here. No need to be at each other’s throats.”

Peachy Punch hummed the same tune, or tried to, until Cobalt stared at her. She stuck her tongue out, “I’m just so bored,” said Peachy, “I want to stretch my wings! I want to feel grass beneath my hooves, not filthy straw.”

“It wouldn’t be filthy if you could contain yourself!” hissed Cobalt.

“Hey! It’s not my fault I get car-sick! Besides, it’s not all me, it’s those...those natives over there. They don’t seem to care where they go...”

“They’ve never had to,” mused Midnight, “it’s not like you can blame them. I don’t think it matters so much to Equestrians either.”

“Well forgive me if I don’t just-”

“My little ponies! You’re at it again! Chill! Why can’t you be more like mister frontpage over there?” Midnight pointed with a hoof at the reporter, so far nameless, who was snoring loudly curled up like he’d been a pony all his life.

“Because I hate car rides, I hate hay and I hate ponies.” grumped Cobalt.

Midnight blinked, even Peachy Punch looked upset, “but...why? Why did you go through with ponification if you hate ponies?”

Cobalt looked at the ground as the truck swayed and mumbled something.

“I...I didn’t quite hear that.” Midnight said.

“I don’t hate ponies, okay! I said being an earth pony sucks! I don’t get wings, I don’t get magic. I lost my thumbs. What the hell does that make me?”

“It makes you a pony, dude. A pony like the rest of us. Whatever makes you you, it made you an earth-pony. I mean come on, you’re gorgeous!” said Peachy Punch, before realising what she’d said and blushing furiously, “I mean...”

“You really think so?” asked Cobalt, looking himself over.

“I mean, sure...the lights pretty bad in here so that may have something to do with i- OW!”

Midnight flicked Peachy with his tail, “Tell him the truth.”

Peachy looked intently at the ceiling, then the walls, then swirled a hoof around idly and mumbled, “You...you look pretty neat. For a pony. Which I am too, and, uh...”

Cobalt opened his mouth to say something, and then shut it again. He finally bent his head to one of the water troughs and took a loud slurp trying to hide the blush. Just then the van rocked to a stop and Cobalt ended up coughing and spluttering. After a few moments of the engine being shut off and the doors opened and slammed, the rear tail-gate was let down and daylight flooded the compartment.

“You guys want to come out? Stretch your legs? Union rules when transporting livestock - sorry - we have a half hour break every few hours. If you think you can get yourselves and the other ponies back in you can come out for a trot around the corral.”

Midnight was the first to poke his head out, joined pretty quickly by Peachy Punch and Cobalt. It was getting crowded on the loader-ramp so Midnight turned, to find a whole stampede of ponies rushing towards him. He flinched and suddenly there was a bright blue flash. What appeared to be a soap-bubble surrounded the trio of pastel ponies, and the normal ponies which were rushing past were flowing around them harmlessly. It was over in seconds and the soap-bubble burst, Midnight fell to his knees breathing heavily.

“What was..? How did you..? What did you do?”

“I...I don’t know! I’m a unicorn, I did magic, I guess! I...I just...did it. They were coming right for us and I panicked...”

Cobalt cocked his head, “What does it feel like?”

Midnight licked his lips and peered at his horn, eyes crossing, “Like a headache that doesn’t hurt. Like pumping iron, sort of. It’s...kind of like a hand you don’t have, you can feel what it does but not what it is.” He stood up again, breathing heavily, he felt very strange and right now needed nothing more than breathing space.

“You okay?” asked Peachy Punch, nudging the dazed unicorn with a hoof.

“Yeah, I’m just pooped. I don’t think I’m cut out for doing magic. It feels like I just ran a marathon.”

“But unicorns...don’t they do magic all the time?”

“I dunno, I get the feeling only some of us are good at magic magic, like only if it’s your talent, your cutie-mark you know? The rest of us...I think it’s just a sideline.”

“That’s stupid,” said Peachy Punch, “that’s like a pegasus that can’t fly.”

“No, no, he’s got a point,” said Cobalt, tapping his mouth with a hoof, “humans can all run, right? But very few of them are olympic sprinters or joggers. Flying is what you do if you’re a pegasus, magic is what you are when you’re a unicorn. Or something.”

“Guess we’re not so different then, huh? Peachy’s the lucky one, she can fly.”

“I wish. I got flight-school one-oh-one but I’m still a newfoal.”

“Can I quote you guys on that?” asked the reporter-pony, looking disgustingly well rested and collected as he walked up behind them.

Midnight snorted, “already out to score the big scoop huh?”

The reporter rolled his eyes, “Don’t be so cynical, this was all your idea, if you recall. My life is the big scoop! This is fantastic! I love being a pony!”

The reporter whinnied happily and galloped flat-out into the fenced-off field where he shot off at breakneck speed around the perimeter, causing another mini-stampede with the ‘normal’ ponies.

“I think I hate him.” said Midnight, scowling, jealous of the ease with which the reporter was taking to having hooves and a tail.

“Cheer up, sport,” said Peachy Punch, flicking her tail at him and grinning, “kick back a little, stretch your legs. You’re too busy brooding if you ask me. You’re a pony now! You can eat grass, run like the wind, live where you please.” Peachy trotted off happily, bucking her hind hooves and flicking her tail and wings with laughter, finally chasing after the reporter for the fun of it. Spreading her wings she hopped and skipped into the air experimentally, bouncing off the fence and almost crashing into the ground before recovering and trying again. Midnight smiled despite himself.

“She’s something, ain’t she?” asked Cobalt

“Mmmhm.” said Midnight, not really listening.

“You think somepony like her could...like somepony like me?”

“I..wait, what? She’s a pony!”

Cobalt snorted and flicked a tail. Midnight’s rump was getting sore from all the attention, “If you haven’t noticed, so am I. So are you! Those slim legs...such dainty hooves. And her wings...I could get lost in those wings. But...do pegasus and earth-ponies..?”

Midnight blinked, “I...I guess so? I mean there was this pegasus, back at the bureau...Rainbow something. Same hair as mine. She was pretty cute.”

“You sly dog. What happened?”

Midnight blushed, “I...I kinda turned her down. It felt weird, thinking about a pony like that...”

“You’re going to be one lonely pony if you don’t get over it. Come on, I’ll race ya.”

They ran. They raced. They bucked. It was great to be out in the fresh air. It amused them no end that it was the humans that had to clean out their stalls whilst they had to do naught but run and play in the sunshine. They finally stopped, as a group, just standing and watching the world go by in the few minutes they had left. The reporter dropped his head to the side of the enclosure and cropped at some grass.

“Eew...” said Midnight.

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” said the reporter, “it’s pretty good, I doubt the lead content will hurt.”

“I’ll take your word for it, uh...say, what do we call you anyway?”

The reporter chewed thoughtfully and swallowed, “I haven’t come up with a name yet. Whatever it is...bam...frontpage. Above the fold.”

“Frontpage?” asked Peachy Punch, trotting closer, “Suits you.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Suits you though.”

“Frontpage? Frontpage. Huh. Well alrighty then.”

They mingled, Midnight couldn’t help but notice that Cobalt was keeping the other natives - their word for normal Terran ponies - away from Peachy. He wasn’t sure if Cobalt knew it himself yet, but a small smile played on his lips.

“Look Daddy! Horsies!” came a voice, a small girl, maybe six, maybe seven - Midnight realised he was finding it hard to judge ages in humans, not that he’d ever been good at it.

“You wanna go see the horsies, princess?” asked a gruff voice, and Midnight watched as a heavy-set man gently pushed his little girl towards the fence separating their world from his. She had a bunch of weeds - no, tasty hors d’oeuvres he corrected himself - and was hopefully holding them out, trying to catch the attention of the wary natives whilst he watched with less than half an eye. Midnight wandered over thoughtfully, it was strange, like looking in a fun-house mirror. She smiled and waved them at him. He bent carefully and plucked a few from her unresisting fingers, chewing slowly.

Neither she nor her father realised what the ponies really were despite his odd colouration and pearly horn, Midnight guessed that the ponies from Equestria just weren’t common enough yet for the pair to put two and two together, but still...

“Buh bye pony!” called the girl and stroked Midnight’s nose. He nickered softly as the pair left, the daughter hoisted onto her father’s shoulders. Midnight waved a hoof goodbye, the girl’s eyes went round as saucers, but Midnight turned quickly with a grin and trotted away before she could alert her father.

Midnight trotted back to the van where the other ponies were following Cobalt, who had somehow managed to make himself their de-facto herd-leader despite his obvious disdain for them.  Midnight laughed to himself as the tail-gate was raised and the great heavy engine started up again. With a final two slaps on the back from the navigator, they were off.

They made several stops and drove on into the night. It was tiring, it was cramped - he was sure it would have been worse on any other load with natives - and they had little to pass the time. Not even tying the strings from bales of hay to the walls to create makeshift instruments couldn’t relieve the boredom.

Finally they stopped for the night, they were about an hour from their destination but union rules were union rules, and backed up by union people. Things would get ugly if rules weren’t stuck to, so they pulled over.

Peachy had had enough of the van. Cobalt, with a streak of chivalry a mile wide, decided to sleep outside with her. Midnight was jealous, both of them had the hang of the whole ‘sleeping standing up’ deal. He didn’t know how they managed it. It irked him even more that Frontpage just curled up without a second thought and drifted off.

Insomnia. He hated it. He’d spent the whole day doing nothing. That was the problem. He’d not imagined that ponies could have the same problem.

“Maybe I’ll just...go for a run. Yeah. S’not cold, air quality is better near the coast...”

He clopped carefully down the ramp and ambled past the herd. Cobalt and Peachy seemed to be sleeping with their necks entwined, Peachy’s wing over the earth-pony somewhat protectively. Midnight snorted, just as long as none of the natives followed him he’d be fine. The ones that weren’t dozing didn’t seem too interested. Herdmind behaviour had them, breaking from the group was a taboo.

Further into the countryside was just scrub and brushland, the moon wasn’t full but the sky was clear. He picked up his pace, from a basic trot, to a canter and finally to a full gallop. As his hooves flew over the uneven ground he exulted in a sense of freedom he’d never experienced before. Why, he wondered to himself, had he never felt like this before? His friends had often spoken of just how good they felt after a run. He hadn’t believed them. Now, grudgingly, he did.

When he ran out of scrub and found himself nearing another road he reluctantly slowed back down to a walk. He was breathing heavily but wasn’t winded. He felt alive, he felt-

His ears pricked up, something was wrong. He trotted up and down the roadside, out of sight of the traffic, flashing his tail unconsciously. He couldn’t get the idea out of his head that something or someone was...

A rope flashed out of the darkness and looped over his head, pulling tight against his neck. He reared up instinctively and kicked first his front legs and then hind hooves as he pulled against the taught cable. He was caught fast! He pulled hard, hard as he could, but it only tightened the noose. It wasn’t strangling him, not that it mattered through his panic, but it was restricting his breathing. He saw stars, stumbled, fell. In moments they were on him, three men - he assumed they were men from their deep voices - holding him down, fighting to keep his legs in check as a fourth, the rope-wielder, made a quick but effective bridle. They hobbled him with two more ropes and then a greasy hand twisted his ear and a harsh voice said, “I’m going to get off now, trigger, and you’re going to get up, real slow and easy.”

They did so and, awkwardly, Midnight got to his feet. He hadn’t spoken yet, but they forced his hoof.

“We’re going to take a little walk, just the five of us. We’ve got a van waiting that’s big enough for you and your other little friend we found all alone in that big old trailer.”

“You better not hurt him,” said Midnight, clearing his throat, “You must know what this horn means. I can turn you inside out at a moments notice.”

The man stopped and turned, flashing a piece in the moonlight secreted in a jacket pocket, “a moment’s all I’ll need to put a bullet through your brain.”

“Just so we understand each other,” Midnight gambled, “it’s just me an him with a bunch of natives, hiding us out on the way to Equestria, trying to avoid people like you obviously.”

“Aye, we got your friend. You didn’t do too good a job.”

They walked him slowly and carefully, surrounded on all sides by a solemn quiet figure, until they reached a van much like the one he’d been travelling in, but a good deal smaller. Just about big enough for two full-sized horses, or two ponies and two guards. Midnight flicked his tail in anger as he noted Frontpage - that’s who he assumed it was in the now near-pitch black night lit only occasionally by passing cars and a very dim flashlight brandished by one of the thugs - hobbled, hooded and tied to a stumpy tree.

“FP, it’s me, we’re safe...kinda.”

“Midnight, that you?”

“Yeah, they got me too. They left the natives all back there, it was us two they wanted.” he prayed Frontpage would get the hint and not mention the other two transformees.

“That’s right my little ponies, and now the whole gang is here we’re going to move very slowly and carefully into the van. Don’t make with any funny stuff, you got me?”

“Crystal,” said Frontpage, “I’ve been taken hostage before. I know the drill. We’ll co-operate, for now. Where are you taking us?”

“If you don’t shut up it’ll be the glue factory, but you’re in luck. We want to go to Equestria.”

Midnight blinked, he’d had the short, short version of the talk from Twilight Sparkle the purple unicorn the day before, and whilst it seemed like forever ago the memory was still fresh and clear. Humans couldn’t go to Equestria, it just wasn’t possible. Didn’t these idiots know that?

“Now now, I’ve heard all the talk about the shield, keeping us out, but the way I see it that’s bullshit. They’ve given you a code to let you in, some way to lower the shield. We want it. I hear there’s gold in ancient dragon’s caves, diamonds in the rivers, riches just for the taking, you damned ponies don’t need any of it, and we want our fair share.”

Midnight thought quickly and opened his mouth, but Frontpage beat him to it, “How...how did you know about the code? We, we weren’t supposed to tell it to anypony! It’s a secret!”

“Oh we have our ways,” said the ringleader, signaling to his men to finish up and move out. By now the two ponies were in the trailer-section, cowering on the floor, still hobbled and Frontpage atleast was hooded, unable to see. The van moved off at speed, into the night.

Not much was being said. Every so often Midnight would touch Frontpage with a mouth to his mane to let him know he was still there, and the earth pony would flick a tail in response. The men behind them were sat down, warily watching the two pastel equines.

Midnight tried to engage them in conversation, all the while listening out for rescue, “How do you plan to get to Equestria? I mean it’s...it’s way out in the ocean! That shield is the only non-guarded and perfect no-fly-zone on the planet. It even screws with our satellites since it’s grown so big.”

“Quiet, we don’t fraternize with livestock.”

“You’ll have to if you want that code,” said Frontpage, lifting his head blindly and staring about through the blindfold, attempting to catch even a glimpse of his captors, “We can’t just give it to you, and they’ll know if we’re harmed or injured. You touch us, you’ll never get in.”

“That’s as maybe, but we’re almost there. No funny business. You transmit that code, we slip through, and maybe we’ll let you live.”

“Just...just don’t hurt us.” said Frontpage.

The van sped up, “We’re close, boss.” said the driver, leaning to the grill, “first roadblock’s ahead.”

“Good, it guarded?”

“Naa, those dumb fuckers don’t bother. Sweetness and light, they are.”

The van rocked as it broke through a flimsy barrier. Midnight twitched. He was a unicorn, for all he was a newfoal. The barrier was big, quite possibly the biggest single force of magic on the planet, and they were drawing ever closer with every second. His heart began to tingle, an uncomfortable feeling like static washed over him, he could swear his fur was standing on end and wouldn’t have been surprised had blue sparks shot from his nostrils.

“Guys, stop...I...I can’t get you through the shield.”

There was a second crash and the van lurched, they’d gone over wheel-spikes, puncturing the tyres. The van began to lurch left and right, throwing the two ponies about.

“What the fuck do you mean, metwurst? Are you fucking us about?”

“I mean there’s no fucking code, man, it’s bullshit. I can’t take you through.”

“You’ll take us, or your friend is dogmeat.”

Midnight gasped, “No! No! Please! Okay, okay!” he was frantic now, the triumphant look on the thug’s face as he brandished the firearm was manic, he was capable of anything. Midnight took a deep breath, “Okay Frontpage, just like we rehearsed it. I...I’ll do the opening spell, okay? You have to help me...I...I’m going to start glowing now, that’s normal, it-it’s the spell, doing it’s thing.”

The uncomfortable static-cling feeling was making him feel sick and nauseous, but he welcomed it. With every passing second they neared the shield, he would have to be quick enough but not too quick. He closed his eyes and started concentrating, breathing deep. Just remember, he told himself, remember what it was like in the van before, with the stampede. His horn started glowing, which elucidated a string of swear words and a gun cocking.

“Please stop,” said Midnight, straining, “I told you, this is normal. What can I possibly do to you, huh? You’re sitting there with a gun...”

Please, please, please, thought Midnight, let me be right. Aloud, he said, “Okay Frontpage, close your eyes, this is going to get a bit bumpy...”

Push the field, feel the invislble hand, reach out, take a breath, push more... it was quite unlike anything he had ever done before, and he wasn’t sure he could make it last long enough, he had no idea how far away they were, how fast they were travelling, quite what would...

He gasped almost in pain, the shield, that mammoth magical construct was mere metres away, “hold on Frontpage, the shit’s about to hit-”

The van lurched and Midnight instinctively squeezed his eyes tight shut as inside his head fireworks went off. It felt like the world was turned inside out as the van intercepted the leading edge of the shield. It took him a few moments to realize that the vertigo wasn’t all his imagination as four hollow explosions rocked the van and he felt it tip over at speed, tumbling through the air with a sickening velocity. He and Frontpage were thrown roughly around and around as the van tumbled, his magical shield somewhat protecting them from the worst of the impacts as finally, mercifully, the van came to rest on it’s side with a solid and final-sounding crunch. The strength left the dazed unicorn and his shield flickered and failed, and he passed out.

Nopony moved for a good ten seconds, there were no sounds from the wrecked van but ragged breathing in the strangely foggy, wet air before the earth pony called out, “Midnight? You alive?”

“I don’t think it’d hurt this much if I weren’t.”

“I think we’ve stopped. I can’t see, what did you do?” Frontpage was struggling to get up in the strangely slick, topsy-turvy world of semi-darkness.

“Magic, I did magic,” said the exhausted unicorn, “I can barely move, I’d hoped it would have gotten easier...ow...I think I cracked a rib...”

“Can you get this hood off?”

“I can try...”

Midnight bit at the cloth, ripped and pulled until the earth-pony got himself free. He whistled through his teeth, “Keep your eyes closed and breath carefully through your nose, I’ll get us out.”

The van was wrecked and ominously silent. The inside of the van was strangely slick and warm, like sitting in a steam room - only cooler. Frontpage felt his hooves slipping and sliding as they lacked purchase, but he finally found the back door of the van and using lips but grimacing at the wet, lukewarm metallic taste, he tried to ease back the bolts. They wouldn’t budge so he set himself as firmly as he could and bucked until something gave, whereupon he forced himself out into the faint sunlight of early morning, turning around and pulling Midnight by the rope between his backlegs until he too fell out into the road.

Midnight spat and opened his eyes. For a brief moment his vision settled on the inside of their recent mobile prison before turned his head and retched.

“Get...let’s get this shit off, let’s get away from here.”

When Midnight felt he could stomach the sight, he did so, not using magic - he wasn’t sure if he could right now - instead his horn and teeth to tear off the now-slick ropes.

The inside of the van was red, like it had been spray-painted with ketchup, more oozing through the badly-dented partition wall between the drivers’ compartment and the stock compartment. The rear walls were dented also, like two large objects had impacted the walls and ceiling.

“that’s them, isn’t it?”

Midnight, turning green, said softly, “I think so. The shield’s not just for show. It let us through, it let the van through...”

“But not the humans.”

When the van had barrelled through the barrier, it had done its job simply and effectively. No living human could pass through the barrier. The van hadn’t been so impeded, neither had the ponies, and finally it came down to a classic application of force. When the hapless humans had attempted to gain entry,  the shield had resisted their forward motion and the van hadn’t let them stop. The result was chunky human salsa, and the two ponies were covered in it. Midnight threw up again and dropped to his knees, spitting the taste of blood and pureed person out. The uncomfortably-warm concoction was rapidly starting to smell like a charnel house, not to mention cool off and mat his fur.

“I’ve...I’ve gotta get this off...oh shit...oh fuck me...” Midnight was beginning to hyperventilate, which didn’t help.

“Shh, Midnight, calm, calm down. It’s okay, you did what you had to do. You tried to warn them and you couldn’t have stopped either them or the shield. It’ll be a short walk down the road to the beach if I remember the route they showed us, it’s not far, come on, you can make it.”

Midnight got up, breathing hard, unsteady on legs that felt like rubber, slick with gore, and the pair walked down the hill around the short bend in the road. The hill was steep and ended rather abruptly with the sound of surf. The water was cold but not freezing as they waded in, submerging themselves in the ocean, renewing their spirits as it washed off their pelts.

Midnight stepped out and shook himself dry to stand shivering and steaming in the early morning sun, his first sunrise in Equestria. He just wished it hadn’t taken a blood sacrifice to make it a reality. He idly wondered where Peachy and Cobalt were, they were going to be frantic...

The Conversion Bureau

Midnight’s Tail

Part 4 - Off the Beaten Track

***

Part 1 - Hitting the Road

Part 2 - Hoofing It

Part 3 - Four by Four, Four on the Floor

Part 4 - Off the Beaten Track

Part 5 - Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Part 6 - Epilogue

Thanks to: Chistery, Roy, Blaze, Pride, Peachy Punch and all my readers and editors :3

Set in Blaze’s “Conversion Bureau” universe

Original:        Equestria Daily - Conversion Bureau

Author’s Note: This chapter has some ruminations on the nature of Equestria and the Shield. I feel it necessary to potentially diverge from Blaze’s universe here (I don’t know if it’s canon because it’s never been addressed). Just an FYI. It’s also shorter than the others, sorry!

PPS: please tell me if you find spelling or grammar mistakes...

***

Peachy groaned and shook her head at the insistent prodding, opening tired eyes and blinking them several times. It wasn’t even morning! It was pitch black!

“Wha’? What?”

“Wake up, lass, we’ve got problems. You too my good pony.” The voice was one of the two drivers, carrying a lantern and gingerly yet insistently shaking Cobalt until he too woke up from his slumber. Peachy stretched her wings right out, and then her forehooves and back legs one by one, followed by her tail. She creaked. Sleeping upright was going to take some getting used to. Then her brain registered what she was being told, “Wait, problems? What problems?”

“Your two friends are gone, but I don’t think they went for a walkabout.”

“Gone? Whaddaya mean ‘gone’?”

Cobalt blinked in the lantern-light and trotted over to the van, sniffing, “I’m no bloodhound, but there were humans here, in addition to you two.” added Cobalt,

“You can smell that?” asked Peachy, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope. I can feel the tracks. Just one of the advantages of no shoes. It’s quite muddy here thanks to the natives.”

“Oh shit...what do we do? I mean, they can’t be horse-rustlers! They’d have taken everypony! You...you two,” Peachy waved a hoof at the driver and then at the van, where another shape was on the radio.

“Bud,” said the man, “and my little brother Larry.”

“Bud, thanks, did you see anything?”

“I didn’t see anything, I was asleep in the cab, ponies make quite a lot of noise, I didn’t think nothing of it at first. Whoever it was, they were pretty quick and silent, and they knew what they were after.”

“They didn’t get me and Cobalt...”

“I don’t know, maybe they didn’t know you were there. Maybe they expected ponies like you to sleep inside.”

“I’ll get the natives, guys, they seem to like me.” said Cobalt, and he set off coralling the ponies. Peachy went with Bud to talk to Larry.

“...That’s affirmative, we have a situation here. Get Central to take a peek into the traffic tonight, see if it can dredge anything local that looks odd...yes, comms are up, I see it updating now...” Larry was talking to the hands-free and punching keys on a laptop mounted on the dashboard, it doubled as a GPS routing device as well as the communications station for the archaic vehicle they were using.

Peachy craned her neck to see, but Bud pulled down a wheelchair access ramp and gestured to it. With a flutter of feathers, Peachy found herself rising into the air up to the cabin. She stepped in gingerly with a clatter of hooves, her bulk just about fitting in the space. Poking her muzzle through the middle, she could see out and see the screen, “What’s that dot?”

“That dot, Miss, is a suspicious horse-trailer that’s been empty up until now. Central reckons it took on either one large horse or two smaller ponies very recently, very near to us.”

“Midnight and Frontpage!”

“That your two friends?”

“Indeed. I’m Peachy Punch by the way, shake!” Peachy held out a hoof which the driver smiled at and took immediately, “that’s Cobalt back there.”

Two solid bangs came from the back, and Cobalt called, “They’re all in, close the hatch!”

Bud pushed a button and the ramp lifted up, Larry went around the back to secure it. A few moments later he hopped back up into the cabin and Bud started the engine.

A smile lit up Peachy’s face as she started humming, “We’re on the road again, dum de dum de dum, travelling places that I’ve never been...”

Larry laughed, “That’s not how it goes...hang on...”

The van lit up with the stirring tones of Willie Nelson at the push of a button,

On the road again -

Just can't wait to get on the road again.

The life I love is making music with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again,

Goin' places that I've never been.

Seein' things that I may never see again..

Peachy’s eyes lit up, “I haven’t heard this in forever!”

The pair sang in an awful off-key rendition barely in time with the music as Bud took them out onto the highway as urgently as possible, crooning face to muzzle the final lines and laughing heartily.

“We needed some travelling music on this excellent adventure. Now, let’s see where our friends are going...”

“Looks like the shield, what in tarnation are they up to?”

“I don’t know, but we’re not going to be able to catch them before they hit it.”

The chase sped on towards the coast, and the morning.

***

Midnight was still shaking himself dry when a cry came from above, “LOOK OUT BELOW!”

A yellow-orange streak of colour with a red mane and tail was whirring two wings inexpertly as fast as she could. Flying didn’t seem to be a problem, as such, but landings looked to be difficult.

Midnight ducked instinctively as the large four-legged, two-winged shape dropped out of the sky like a brick and impacted with the water, hooves first. A great wave splashed over both Midnight and Frontpage. Midnight spat the salt water out and sighed, he’d almost been dry. Stepping back in to the frigid waters, he headed for the coughing, spluttering shape. He gripped a wing firmly but carefully in his teeth and pulled steadily towards the shore until the half-drowned pegasus could stand, where she hopped out and shook herself dry.

Midnight sighed again, and shook his head to get the water out of his ears. Again. Peachy had the good manners to look slightly recalcitrant at least.

She spoke, “What happened to you guys? One minute Cobalt and I were asleep and the next thing I know I’m being shaken awake by our drivers - they’re Bud and Larry by the way, funny how I never thought to get their names earlier...”

“We were kidnapped, Peachy, damn fools wanted to get to Equestria. Without ponification. Where’s Cobalt?”

As if in answer, with a clatter of hooves, the slate-grey earth-pony rounded the bend and barely stopped short in a cloud of dust, breathing hard, covered in sweat but otherwise none the worse for wear, “Midnight, Frontpage, you two okay?”

Midnight shook his head in awe, “I want to know how you found us, how you got here so fast! It was pitch black!”

Peachy Punch smiled, “I guess human technology is good for some stuff eh? Whoever those guys were they weren’t very intelligent. Larry just asked the road system for any vehicles capable of transporting horses or ponies in the area and lucked out! I was sure that was you. We double-timed it until the shield and then they sent me an’ Cobalt for recon. I...I hadda fly! Hey holy shit I was flying! I didn’t even think! I just went for it!”

“You still don’t have landings down yet though, huh?” Frontpage grinned.

Peachy looked embarassed, Cobalt spoke up, “She’ll get them, just like Midnight his magic. What happened? I saw the wreck on the way down...”

Peachy breathlessly explained about their trip, about how they’d found the tracks, located what they sincerely hoped was the kidnappers and Midnight and Frontpage, and finally about how she and Cobalt had been sent through the shield once they’d reached it.

The four were walking back up the hill, Midnight pointed to the van with it’s interesting interior decour, “That’s where they ended up.”

Cobalt and Peachy both made faces, Midnight shook his head sadly, “Suffice to say they wont be bothering us any more. Well here we are, the shield’s just ahead, I can see our two friends leaning on it.”

Peachy looked with wide eyes at the empty air and then back to Midnight before trotting forwards and waving her hooves in the air experimentally, “You can see the shield?”

Midnight nodded, “Yeah, can’t you? I thought...I thought everypony could see it?”

“Maybe it’s just unicorns. Maybe it’s just you. Where is it?”

Midnight trotted past Peachy, who blushed and stopped waving her hoof about in the air as he stopped just shy of the border. It was so large that it almost seemed to go directly up, a shimmering wall that looked somewhat like a soap-bubble, fragile and indistinct as if it would burst at any moment. He knew differently; to those things not able to pass through it, it was an impenetrable barrier. Two men with a familiar van were on the other side, leaning against it.

“How are they...ooohhh, that looks freaky.’

“Not from where I’m standing,” said Midnight, “but I guess it looks weird to you. Guys! We must have given you quite the scare!”

They straightened and waved happily at the sight of all four of their charges. Bud, the eldest of the two, touched his hand to a cap, “Aye that you did. Twilight would’ve given us hell if we’d lost any of you. Made it safely then?”

“We did, thank you gentlemen.”

Midnight and Frontpage explained, pointing back down the hill, about what had happened. It was mercifully out of sight but they wondered if it would ever be out of mind.

“What are you going to say to the authorities? I don’t want anything to cause trouble none for...for later.” said Bud finally.

“I’ll make sure to praise your swift actions. You weren’t to know and I don’t want this to happen again with less favourable results.” Midnight did a double take, “Say, what keeps you two on two legs?”

“Me? I made a promise to my ma and pa to look after my li’l bro here.”

“And I want to see more of the world before I leave it,” said the other, smiling, “best damn job in the world taking you li’l critters to Equestria. One day I’ll see it fer myself, but until I’m ready, we’ll keep helping those who are.”

***

The van had driven off to it’s next destination, Midnight just hoped that the natives could stand the travel. It had certainly frazzled his nerves, it would have even without the last few hours. Now they stood on the shores of a new world - quite literally - and waited.

Their wait was rewarded with a golden shape skimming low across the waves. What they first thought to be a boat turned out to be a large flying chariot with wheels pulled by four pegasus ponies in regal armour. It swooped around the bay twice and then came in for a landing in the surf. Inside was a smallish, dark blue shape - there was something odd about her which took Midnight a few moments to process, before he blurted out, “Winged unicorn!”

The dark blue winged unicorn smiled to herself, “Good morning, ponies. I am Luna-”

“You’re...from my dream...” said Midnight, jaw dropping, “you were on a throne with another pony like you, she was...bigger, different colours.”

Luna inclined her head, nodding, “My sister Celestia, we two are the rulers of Equestria, your princesses.”

“Our princesses?” squeaked Peachy Punch, “Do...do we need to swear allegiance or something? I mean...”

“Peachy,” said Luna smiling, and the pegasus blanched that this strange yet somehow familiar regal pony knew her name, “you accepted us into your heart didn’t you?”

Peachy nodded, as did Cobalt. Frontpage flicked his ears happily and Midnight inclined his head in a pony-nod.

Luna smiled, “And this...feels like home?”

Midnight had to admit, things felt somehow right, “Yes, Princess, I think it does.”

“Then it’s agreed!” Luna’s laugh filled the air like a thousand twinkling bells, “your carriage awaits, sons and daughters of Equestria.”

***

The charriot sped through the clouds, high up, as if it were a jet. He’d had trepidations at first of the capability of the pegasi soldiers to pull it, let alone make it fly, but after the smooth takeoff he just relaxed and went with it, “Magic.” he said idly.

“You see, don’t you?” said Luna quietly, “You’re a unicorn of some talent, forgive me but you do not...feel like a great mage, but you are a unicorn.”

“You mean my talent? My cutie mark, did you call it? Do you know what it is?”

“You don’t have one yet, but never fear, you will discover your true purpose. I see at least one of your group has.”

“You were speaking of magic?”

“Humans...you know why they can’t enter Equestria?”

“I...I thought the shield...”

Luna shook her head, “It is a manifestation of the differences between our two realms. Adult humans are...too in-tune with their own world. When you let our magic in to your heart, we offer you a piece of our realm. It’s up to you to accept it. We cannot force the change, it really is a gift, freely given.”

“It is magic then?”

“We have no other word for it,” Luna smiled, “You could argue metaphysics all day with our greatest thaumatists, we were delighted when we discovered your adherence to the scientific method, as you call it. Our realms just...work differently.”

They travelled the rest of the trip in silence. The ocean below, so blue and green, so pure, like nothing he had ever seen except in pictures. It tugged at his heart and lifted his spirits. Midnight felt joy rising in his blood, almost an audible song, as the ocean gave way to yellow beaches, to scrubland and finally to green and pleasant rolling hills. They were travelling fast, very fast. There was an itch between his eyes that told him the charriot and it’s fliers was magically enchanted but still he marvelled at it.

When the charriot swooped lower to come in for a landing he almost felt a pang of regret. They were landing in a decent-sized village, the architecture quaint and somehow recognizable. There were differences, but he recognized chairs, tables, streets, windows and doors. Luna stepped regally out from the back of the chariot and was all but assaulted by smiling happy ponies nuzzling and greeting her.

“Ah, my beloved subjects!” she cried, and cheers went up, wreathes of flowers were thrown into the air and several given to Peachy, Midnight and the gang.

“I want to welcome you to Ponyville, where you’ll be spending your time until you are done with your orientation.”

Midnight looked sideways at the smirking princess, “What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m sending you to school.” A bell tolled in the distance, and a stream of eager young foals sped through the streets heading towards what had to be the schoolhouse, “and we’re just in time, hop along to class now! I’ll sort everything else out.”

***

Note: Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” lyrics are, of course, from the great Willie Nelson. I know this was a shorter chapter, but it felt right. I’ll back back with part 5!

The Conversion Bureau

Midnight’s Tail

Part 5 - Follow the Yellow Brick Road

***

Part 1 - Hitting the Road

Part 2 - Hoofing It

Part 3 - Four by Four, Four on the Floor

Part 4 - Off the Beaten Track

Part 5 - Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Part 6 - Epilogue

Thanks to: Chistery, Roy, Blaze, Pride, Peachy Punch and all my readers and editors :3

NOTE: Yes folks, I think it’s time we left Midnight to his own devices...but I would love to get back to the other OC’s in here! keep your eyes open.

PS: im planning on an epilogue... :)

Set in Blaze’s “Conversion Bureau” universe

Original:        Equestria Daily - Conversion Bureau

***

Midnight walked through the streets dejectedly. Frontpage had disappeared in a flash, Peachy had been nabbed by the weather patrol and Cobalt had been offered apprentice-ship in half a dozen different earth-pony professions. He, on the other hand, had been ordered to school.

“We can’t have,” an official but friendly-sounding mayoral pony had said when he’d tried to get out of it, “a unicorn who doesn’t know how to be a unicorn. Besides, your group is the first to Ponyville and we haven’t quite got up to speed yet.”

He had followed the crowd of eager and not-so-eager schoolfoals. The tide led to a chirpy-looking buildng with a bell-tower and rows of shuttered windows, currently open to let in the warm spring morning. He stepped up the wide wooden steps and through the open door. There was a simple small hallway where he noted collections of school bags - pannier sacks - as well as raincoats, hats and boots. He felt, for the first time in a while, naked.

There was a door, he knocked on it gingerly with a hoof. To his dismay it swung easily open and he stood there swishing his tail nervously as every pair of eyes turned his way.

“And just what time do you call thi- ah,” the teacher-pony harrumphed and arranged her expression, “you must be...let me see...ah yes, Miss Midnight.”

“Mister,” coughed Midnight, to amused giggles and titters from the crowd of children.

“Ah yes,” said the teacher, adjusting spectacles, “modern times and all. Come in, come in. Class, I want you to welcome an addition to our fold, Mister Midnight Shadow. I’m Cheerilee by the way,” she called to him, before turning back to the class, “he’ll be staying with us and attending class for orientation - hooves up who knows what that is...”

They had sent him to school not to learn about Equestria as such, although basics like reading their script, geography and history would come in handy, but to learn how to be a unicorn. He was sat in the middle near the back, there were creaks behind him as foals tried to see around his bulk. He could barely sit in the chair. He was an adult! How come a stuffy teacher-pony in a pair of spectacles could make him feel like he was five again? He looked at the purple earth-pony with three flowers on her flank. Earth ponies might not have any obvious magic, he thought, but teachers certainly have something.

“Alright class, let’s try our hooves at some art. Pencils everypony!” intoned the teacher. Midnight lifted the pulpit lid with trepidation. There appeared to be a good deal of supplies underneath. He awkwardly took a sheet of paper and lipped a pencil. With dismay he noticed that all the foals had already starting sketching. He picked the pencil up in his teeth, it was tougher than an earth pencil but otherwise identical. He idly wondered how they made them - the paper was more like a scroll than the flat, uniform sheets he remembered so he suspected they were hoof-made.

He looked up, “Umm, what am I supposed to draw?” he ignored the giggles.

“How about for today you draw a self-portrait.” Cheerilee replied with a small smile.

Midnight’s heart sank. He put the tip of the pencil to the paper and dragged it across the parchment, after a few more he had made a passable pony-shape. He’d managed four legs, a head and a tail before he realised that he’d not drawn a human. He was feeling quite pleased with himself...until he looked about at the other childrens’ efforts. One in particular made him blush, his stick-figure of a roughly pony-shape was infantile at best, whereas almost right next to him was a light blue unicorn with the cutie-mark of a colour-mixing pallette, concentrating intently, her horn glowing as coloured chalk and pencils flew through the air and she sketched an amazingly detailed picture of the classroom. His heart sank again as she competently drew not only the entire class but also himself, with barely a glance for reference.

Cheerilee was trotting happily around the class nodding and encouraging; before he could stop her she took a long look at his picture, “Oh, that’s rather good for a first attempt! I think that deserves a gold star!”

He almost died when she rummaged around in a bag around her neck and brought out, yes, a sticky gold star which she affixed to it.

“Have you thought about using your magic?” she asked gently, Midnight shook his head, “well you should try!”

The teacher went back to her desk and he put the pencil down. He stared at it for a while and then closed his eyes.

Be the pencil, he thought to himself, feel it lifting into the air. Size matters not, and besides, it’s only a teeny little pencil...push it, lift it, feel it rising...do, or do not, there is no try...

“Mister Midnight, that’s quite enough of that!” said the teacher, knocking her table with her hoof impatiently, “I meant use your magic to draw, not float around the room like a balloon!”

“Huh?” he opened his eyes, his concentration broke and he dropped two feet back down the floor with a clatter, whereupon he fell off the chair. More giggling. He sighed, this wasn’t going well...

The bell rang for recess, and the tide of eager young foals swept him along with them into the schoolyard where he was swamped with questions,

“Is it true humans eat ponies? Do you still eat ponies?”

“I heard humans can fly, but none of the pictures I’ve seen had wings...”

“Dancer says you’ve got something wrong with you cos-”

“Strawberry Surprise! Hush!” an adult pony stemmed the tide, chastising one of the foals, “I’ll tell your mother on you if you talk like that, it’s not true and you know it, he’s just not been a pony for long! Even if he does have special needs...”

Midnight hung his head at renewed giggling.

“That’s not fair!” said a stubborn little voice, a pudgy little blue-green unicorn with a pair of scissors as his cutie-mark said, “That’s nothing to laugh at! We’re all special, he’s extra special since he’s a human! Only he’s a pony! But he used to be a human! A-a-and now he’s not!”

“Yeah you used ta be a human! That’s so cool!” said another voice, an orangey-brown unicorn with a distinct green mane said.

Midnight noticed that little guy had a snail as a cutie mark, “They really do come in all shapes and sizes, huh?” he said to himself.

“Uh-huh we do! Us unicorns gotta stick together, bro!” said the one he was going to call Snails - at least until he found out what the unicorn’s real name was.

“And you’re the coolest! I can’t manage anything like you did! Make me fly!”

“No me!”

Midnight smiled and closed his eyes, and concentrated like he had before. When he opened them, both unicorns were floating around in the breeze kicking their legs and whooping like loons.

“Mister Midnight,” said a familiar voice, and he cringed, dropping both unicorns to the floor in a heap, “you put Snips and Snails down this inst-” the teacher narrowed her eyes, “don’t think I didn’t see that! We do not levitate our classmates, even if they asked for it. Inside you three! Break’s over!”

Second period started just as painful as the first. It turned out he couldn’t read. Or write. Equestrian script was cursive, somewhat rune-like, and even though he could understand their speech, writing it was another matter. Cheerilee had intervened when she realised what the problem was, and had rapidly started drawing on the chalkboard a passable imitation of English, “Midnight speaks the way we do, but the written language is another talent - he might not know how to write in Equestrian, but he is quite capable of reading and writing his own language...now where was it...”

She brought out an old, beaten book; it was hard-bound and very old with faded print but gorgeous coloured drawings, these seemed to be made by hand.

“The Brothers Grimm,” said Midnight, and gently turned the pages with a hoof, as lightly as possible. He started reading ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and was several sentences down when he stopped and looked up, the foals were all craning their necks to see.

“I think story time is in order, perhaps?” said the teacher, and pointed with a hoof to the back of the classroom. In moments, with the scraping of chairs and pulpits, the foals had cleared enough room in the corner for him to recline on some well-placed cushions and them to arrange themselves around him. Some, especially Snips and Snails, snuggled up to him. Others kept their distance, attempting to appear aloof. Everypony listened. He realised it felt pretty good.

He was just finished when the lunch-bell went and the tide of youthful energy incarnate on hooves dragged him out the door. He was halfway out of town following three young fillies who were talking incessantly about their adventures trying to find their cutie-marks when he spotted Cobalt coming the other way. It was then he realized he had absolutely no idea where he was going.

“Hey Midnight,” said Cobalt, ears perking up, “how’s your day been?”

“Just don’t ask. What’ve you been up to?”

“Trying my hooves at apple-bucking. I don’t think it’s for me, but the Apple family sure has some great cooking.”

One of the three, a yellow earth-pony with a bright red mane turned to the dark blue unicorn, “y’are comin’ to brunch ain’tcha?”

“I...er...I...”

The little earth pony looked up with the hugest, most sorrowful eyes he had ever seen. It was no good. Whatever plans he thought he’d had were toast, “yeah, sure, why not, if you’ll have me.”

There was bouncing. There was yelling. There were whoops of joy. Somehow they dragged him all the way to a farmhouse in the middle of what seemed to be an apple orchard, where a large table was being set by an orange earth-pony with a blond mane and a cowboy hat. He racked his brains, and came up with a name, “Let me guess,” he said, and the pony stopped short and looked at him, “you’re Applejack? Twilight sends her regards.”

“Well sirree that’s a fine howdy-do. If’n you don’t have the edge on me mister.”

“Midnight,” said Midnight, “a few days ago I was human, I think I met your friends at the Ponification Centre in my old home town.”

The pony whooped and leapt on him, taking his hoof and shaking it until he thought it would come off, “well if’n ma li’l sister Applebloom and her friends have taken a shine to ya, and Twilight herself sent you our way then y’all are right in my book. Staying for lunch?”

“I...yes. Yes I am, before I head back to school.”

“School?” Applejack tried to hide a smirk behind a hoof, but wasn’t very good at it.

Midnight smiled too, “Don’t laugh, I’m learning a lot. I think. Mostly about how I don’t like school...”

Heading back to school was about the hardest thing he’d ever done. He’d been given apple pie, apple fritters, apple chutney, apple surprise - it wasn’t much of a surprise, it did have apples in it after all - apple sundae, apple smoothie and apple supreme. He was full. He was stuffed. He was quite sure that under his coat could be seen bulging apple-shapes in his belly. The last thing on his mind was school, but he had made it. Some history, some geography...he tried to pay attention but it was getting rather difficult.

“Psst!” said a voice. He blinked, it was a light pink earth pony with a light purple and white mane and tail. She had a note in her mouth. She indicated it as best as she could with her eyes. He looked away, on the other side of him was a dark grey pony with a silver mane, she too was nodding urgently towards the note. Midnight sighed and rolled his eyes. He took the note in his mouth from the side of the table and went to pass it across.

“Mister Midnight,” came a familiar voice. Again. He cringed. Again.

“I don’t know how things are usually done where you come from,” Cheerilee continued, “but around here we do not pass notes around. You are passing a note, I take it?”

“Er...no, I mean yes...I mean no...I mean...er...which is the right answer?”

“A big unicorn like you? Come on then, bring it here, let’s see what couldn’t wait...”

He nervously walked up to the front and gingerly put the note on Cheerilee’s table.

She opened it with her hooves, “this note...appears to be blank.”

He blushed hotly as he heard giggles behind him of “Blank flank!” and Cheerilee sighed, “The corner. Back there. Go. I think you need a timeout.”

Midnight hung his head so low it scraped the polished wooden floor. He finally slumped onto the cushions he’d so recently been using to tell a story from and he stared at the wall. This hadn’t entirely been how he’d seen his first day in Equestria going. He rested his head on his forehooves and yawned, he wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve it and he was pretty sure it was one big joke. He yawned again...at least the timeouts were comfier in Equestria. He closed his eyes.

***

“Wake up sleepy head,”

Midnight opened his eyes with a start. Somepony had covered him with a light blanket. It had kittens and ducks on it. He’d been sleeping...in class. He did his best to bury his face in his hooves. It had worked better with fingers, and a face rather than a muzzle.

“Oh don’t give me that, you were exhausted. I could tell when you started snoring.”

“Snoring? Oh please tell me I didn’t...”

“You did!” Cheerilee laughed, “But I let you sleep it off. I’ve finished marking today’s work by our older fillies and colts, so it’s time for me to head home. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”

Midnight looked puzzled for a moment as he struggled to his hooves, “I’m not sure where to go to. I don’t have anywhere.”

Cheerilee thought for a moment, “I suppose you could try the library. Twilight lives there normally, but she’s touring the Conversion Bureaus as they start up.”

“Oh, oh I couldn’t...”

“It’s quite a large library you know, with more than one guest room. I think the chance to study on your own time would do you good.”

Midnight headed over to the library in the waning afternoon sunlight, he was about to knock on the door when he remembered it was probably empty. They didn’t seem to have locks in Equestria, so he wasn’t surprised when the door swung open. He poked his nose in and looked around. Books. Lots and lots of books, all neatly organized by subject and author. Not only that, but scrolls, though these were stacked differently. He stepped in and opened the curtains with his teeth on a draw-string. Sunlight flooded the room and he took a deep breath, so much condensed knowledge in one place. Back home, his computer systems had held many times this library’s worth in raw information, but knowledge wasn’t only measured in bits and bytes. He took a couple of books out, one by one. They were often written by hand - well, hoof and mouth or by magic, he reasoned - painstakingly collected and collated. He realized something else, too. He was home.

***

There was a thump somewhere up above him. Midnight looked up, only now realizing that the afternoon sun was setting and several hours had gone by. He’d found some references on the Equestrian language and was making copious notes going through some simple children’s stories on amazing similarities. He’d been told to study, after all, he reckoned, and there didn’t seem to be any library card system...but that noise, what had it been? Midnight got up and headed up the wide stairs around the inside of the trunk of the tree to the second floor, and was surprised to see a large winged shape coming the other way.

“Luna!” he said, loud in the confines of the otherwise-empty library. She must have landed on some balcony and trotted in. He wondered idly if she was here to see him or on some other errand.

“I see you found your way to the books, you’re as bad as Twilight Sparkle. You’ve been here all day, haven’t you?”

“You sent me to school!” Midnight stamped a hoof and shook his head in denial.

Luna laughed, “You went? Then tell me, my little scholar, what did you learn at school today?”

Midnight thought, “You know what? Children are the same everywhere, so are adults. Things aren’t so different in Equestria after all, even though ponies seem to take things easier. I think I like it.”

Luna smiled, “Was that such a hard lesson?”

“What am I, your special student?”

Luna sniffed, “If my big sister can have a prized pupil, I think I’m allowed the liberty if I so choose.”

The words rang in his ears and he blinked, what was he supposed to say to that? “I...I’m honoured. If that’s what you mean.”

“I hadn’t intended it, but I think I shall rub my sister’s face in it occasionally. Let us make it official. I, Princess Luna, designate you, Midnight Shadow, as my special student.”

“But what am I studying?” Midnight blurted, ears splaying back in shock.

“Magic - no, hear me out, you are not a great mage...yet...but you do provide a unique viewpoint, a bridge between worlds. I want you to keep your ears and eyes open and report to me regularly on the differences and similarities between your old world and Equestria, your new one. It will give you an opportunity to work on that atrocious hoofwriting of yours.”

“But...but...I...how do you know I’d even be good at it?”

“Two reasons, silly pony. One, you’ve just spent several hours researching folk tales...”

“You mean reading children’s stories!”

“Hush, I know what I mean, and secondly...take a look.” She pointed with a wing. Midnight whirled and looked behind him, Luna giggled, “no, right there.”

Midnight looked. He stared, he gaped in disbelief. He hadn’t even felt it! “My...is that my cutie mark?”

“That, or we have some very mischievous elves with tiny little paintbrushes.”

“Elves?” said Midnight, eyes wide.

“Relax! It was a joke! We don’t have elves! There’s no such thing.”

“So...I have a cutie mark? I have a cutie mark! I got my cutie mark!”

He did. It was a scroll, curled at both ends with ink blots covering it, and a feather quill and what appeared to be an inkwell. He turned around and around trying to get a better look, with Luna giggling behind a hoof as he did so.

She put a hoof on his shoulder to calm him, “I’ll bet you’ve forgotten to eat.”

There was an answering rumble from his stomach, and Midnight blushed, “I guess I did kind of get carried away.”

“Well then that settles it! Time for a celebratory dinner. On me.”

“That reminds me! I don’t have any money! I mean I can eat grass I guess but it’s not like I have any pockets and I don’t think they take Credits here anyway...and I’d given those away at the Bureau...and...”

Luna smiled again, leading Midnight out of the library, “I think a small allowance is in order, student.” in answer to her own statement she levitated a small cloth bag out of a pack strapped tightly around her neck so that it didn’t get in the way of her wings, and dropped it in front of the startled unicorn. He poked it with a hoof, it jingled.

“There are enough bits in there for a month or so...I think...our treasury hands these things out to me and I don’t really know what to do with them all so you might as well put them to good use. However, our first stop needs to be Carousel Boutique, Rarity’s shop, for a bag or two for you. Her cousin Elusive’s looking after it whilst she’s accompanying Twilight. He’s not such a good designer, but he can work the colour co-ordination.”

***

The pannier bags and neck-satchel were an unnatural weight on his body so soon after learning to be without clothing, but he was sure he’d get used them. He followed Luna like a little lost puppy, he knew he’d look silly going to school the next day with his books, but he would have fun. They stopped at a small cafe and Luna picked the table. She was just ordering for them when there was a cry of, “LOOK OUT BELOW!” and a yellow-orange streak of colour once again dropped from the skies. Peachy Punch barely managed to pull up in time and she landed with such a thump that it rattled the teacups.

She shook herself before getting up and wobbling towards Midnight and Luna, “Oh hi! Hey guys...I...uh...I mean...good evening Your Majesty.” Peachy turned to Midnight and hissed, “What the hell! You don’t just invite yourself to tea with the princess!”

“I’ll have you know, my good mare, I invited him. I think I’m allowed to have dinner with my special student.”

Midnight blushed and stammered as Peachy looked agog at the unicorn, “I...kind of got a job.”

“That’s wicked!” said Peachy, giving Midnight a congratulatory hoof in the ribs. Midnight smiled weakly and coughed a thanks.

“Come, sit down, it’s so rarely I get to have a quiet meal and I do so hate having breakfast alone.” said Princess Luna, indicating the table and chairs, “I’ve restricted access to Ponyville whilst orientation is happening so all those fussy officials are kept out. Whilst my big sister Celestia is off hob-nobbing in the human world I’m left to keep Equestria running smoothly.”

Princess Luna smirked as Peachy took a seat, “I’ve also designated Ponyville as my temporary base of operations. I can see why she rolls her eyes every time the Chancellors start up their wind-bagging...”

Luna was a master at smalltalk and soon the trio were laughing and joking as if they’d been friends forever. She even invited Cobalt and Frontpage when Peachy and Midnight spotted them wandering through the square, which was rapidly filling up with ponies out to enjoy the warm evening, though she did warn the latter than if any of their chatting got printed in ‘Equestria Daily’ that she’d be re-upholstering her throne soon after.

Frontpage smiled, “Your highness, the first rule of a newspaper hack is to protect your sources, and the second is to know when to keep things off the record.”

The dinner, though it was more a breakfast for the princess, finished with friendly laughter and chatting before Luna excused herself, citing her royal duties with a mischievous grin. Curious, the four followed her to the center of the square where she closed her eyes and spread her wings. An ethereal light chased around her small, lithe body before growing and illuminating the entire area. All the ponies stopped and watched in rapt attention as she suddenly lifted her head and opened her mouth as if singing a song that only she could hear. The world seemed to shift. As the countryside grew brighter, so bright that his own body and all the onlookers were thrown into stark blue relief Midnight realised that their princess was raising the moon. He stamped his hooves in appreciation with the rest, soon the entire square was reverberating with the spontaneous cheering. Luna stopped once this monumental task was complete and smiled once at her new pupil and friends, fondly, before taking to the skies.

Midnight watched her go. As far as first days in a new world went, this one had to be hard to beat. He turned and bid his friends farewell before heading home with a smile.

***

The Conversion Bureau

Midnight’s Tail

Epilogue

***

Part 1 - Hitting the Road

Part 2 - Hoofing It

Part 3 - Four by Four, Four on the Floor

Part 4 - Off the Beaten Track

Part 5 - Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Part 6 - Epilogue

Thanks to: Chistery, Roy, Pride, Peachy Punch, Blaze and all my readers and editors :3

Set in Blaze’s “Conversion Bureau” universe

Original:        Equestria Daily - Conversion Bureau

***

Twilight was exhausted. Spike was fast asleep on her back and she was all but fast asleep on her hooves. Travel on Earth was a lot more hard work than it was in Equestria. As she walked, too tired to trot, through the empty streets of Ponyville. The library was just ahead, in a few minutes she could...

“Spike! Spike!” she hissed, stopping in the street. There was a wan light inside the treehouse, an intruder!

“Huh? Whaddaya want Twilight? I’m tired...”

“There’s somepony in my treehouse!”

Spike came wide awake at once, scrambling to stand up on the unicorn’s back, peering over her head between her long ears.

She shook her mane out and pawed the ground, “What do you think, rush the joint?”

“Hi ho Twilight, away!” agreed Spike, holding on for dear life as the unicorn reared up and broke into an immediate gallop. She slammed through the door and slid to a halt inside the main room.

“My it’s windy tonight,” came a voice from a back room, it sounded busy and tired, “do I hear somepony out there? I’m sorry, I’m rather sleepy, the library’s closed. Can you come back tomorrow?”

“I recognize that voice...Midnight?” asked Spike, hopping up and down on Twilight’s back, “It is! It’s Midnight!”

“Spike? Twilight! You’re back! I’m so glad to see you!” Midnight came running out of the back and he pranced around the pair, giving Spike a brohoof. The dragon switched mounts and instantly started jabbering about their adventures, relating several humorous occurences in the various Bureaus around the world - Pinkie had absolutely adored India although nopony could talk her out of attempting to feed cotton candy curry to anypony at the drop of a hat. One attempt in particular had resulted in half the staff calling in sick leaving Pinkie to manage the cooking.

“Pinkie? Cooking? With curry?”

“Oh you haven’t heard the funniest bit yet! She’s all concerned and trying to find something safe to eat for those suffering from the dreaded Deli Belly, right? So she asks me, she goes ‘Spike, how about oatmeal?’ and you know what I said?”

“Oatmeal?”

“Oatmeal! I said, ‘oatmeal, Pinkie, are you crazy?’ and she gives me this look for about five seconds before she’s off rolling around the floor! Hah! I oatmealed Pinkie! Fantastic!”

Twilight just stood there with her mouth hanging open, “he stole my library. He just stole my number one assistant. I’m so going to kick his flank for this...” she yawned heavily, she knew she was just cranky, “in the morning...”

“I bet you’re tired,” said Midnight, smiling, nosing the yawning Spike. The dragon waved his paws and made a face that said ‘getoff’. Midnight led the way upstairs to Twilight’s bedroom. He opened the door and turned up the firefly lamps with a hoof, “I kept it waiting for you, just the way you’d want it.”

The room was pristine, perfect, with clean bedding and a scented candle which Midnight proudly lit with a spark from his horn. Twilight revised her plans from bodily harm down to a chewing out, but collapsed into her bed without complaint. Spike all but leapt at his basket with a cry of “blankie!” whereupon he rolled himself up in it’s warm blue cuddliness and almost immediately started snoring.

Midnight was making breakfast in the kitchenette in the back of the library. Something light today, I think, he thought to himself, tasting the daffodils and dandelions for consistency. He’d not really gotten used to eating flowers yet and found himself putting them in vases and getting odd looks from his guests - what few he had. He liked the mornings in Ponyville, so peaceful, so quie-

“MIIIDDDNIIIGGGHHHTTTT!” shrieked Twilight, “Did you use all the hot water? I need hot water for my mane or it’ll be all frizzy! I have to give my report to the Princess today! I can’t do that looking like a clown!”

Midnight slumped, so much for peace and quiet, “Sorry Twilight!” he called, “I’ll...I’ll have a word with the pegasus ponies, I’m sure you can borrow a cloud...”

“FORGET IT!” grumbled Twilight from the bathroom.

Midnight turned to finish the salad and was just setting it on the table when a wet and dripping Twilight stomped into the kitchenette with a soap bottle in her mouth. She spat it onto the table, “What do you call this?” she asked, eyes narrowing.

Midnight looked, and read the label slowly, not yet up to speed on Equestrian script, “Silver Shine’s Glossy Hair Creme - for a thick, luxurious coat, mane and tail.”

“Correct. Do you notice anything wrong with it?”

“Other than the fact it’s on my table, you mean?”

“It’s empty!” she hissed, “It costs twenty eight bits a bottle on special import from Canterlot and it’s empty!”

“But...” said Midnight, “it’s the only shampoo that keeps my mane in shape! And don’t let me start about my tail!”

“You used all the hot water! You used all my shampoo! You..you...you’re living in my library! Augh! It’s too early for this...I’m going back to bed.”

Midnight slumped at the kitchen table, this was going to be harder than he thought. A bell went off and he raised his head. On top of all that, he was going to be late for school! Cheerilee was going to put him in detention...again! He wrote a quick note, ‘enjoy your breakfast’, and galloped out the door.

Twilight woke up with a start when with a loud, “woah, woah...look out!” a blue and rainbow-haired pegasus came hurtling through an open window and crashed into the bookcase downstairs. She opened her eyes and sighed, “no rest for the weary.”

“Hi, er, hey Twi, glad to see you made it! Have...have you seen Midnight?” Rainbow Dash had the remains of a salad in her teeth, she’d managed to scoff the lot in the few minutes since so decidedly waking the sleepy unicorn.

Twilight yawned, “No, I think you just missed him. Any particular reason?”

“Oh no, no, you know, just...wanted to say hi. We didn’t get a chance yesterday evening before you came to do any...er, talking...the princesses...”

“Midnight was dining with the princesses?” Twilight’s cheeks grew hot.

“Y-yeah, funny thing...” Dash grinned weakly

“And you didn’t invite me?”

“Well you were out of town, you took the later flight...”

“Well some of us had work to do. Some of us don’t have wings.” Twilight spat.

The fight was broken up by a bell ringing. A light blue filly with an hour glass on her flank and an interestingly white and dark-blue striped mane and tail trotted in and looked all around, “Uh, oh...is the librarian not here? I wanted to borrow a book...”

Twilight boiled with rage, “I’M THE LIBRARIAN!”

The filly looked Twilight up and down, “Hardly, he’s a bit bigger than you and a stallion for a start...”

“Augh! And you ate all my breakfast...Dash you greedy pig!”

Rainbow Dash and the filly, Colgate, fled the treehouse, the former in tears of laughter.

Midnight concentrated. He no longer floated around the room when writing using his magic, but he still wasn’t very good at it. He’d also progressed on the reading. He was on ‘Hooves, Manes and Tails - My First Bedtime Story Book’ now and had collected an embarrassing number of gold stars from Cheerilee. He’d given up trying to understand why he was still being sent to school - Mayor Mare said it was a mixup with the paperwork, he personally suspected it was Luna having a long-winded joke. He was making the best of it and to be honest he was learning a lot about Equestria and getting good practice in reading and writing natively. He was currently working on an illustrated story about the time before he was a unicorn when he was a human known as Martin Danielson, for his Equestrian Languages class. He was trying to get out of the habit of drawing himself as he was and instead drawing himself as he used to be. Strangely enough it was difficult. He kept adding the horn, hooves and the tail. He doodled, drawing a pegasus, then picking up a blue pencil with his magic and colouring the lines lightly. He followed it up with all the colours of the rainbow in the mane and tail.

“That’th Rainbow Dathh!” said Twist, a chipper little foal who loved to make peppermint sticks. Midnight could almost count the days until she was working for the Cakes, or even running her own sweet shop. Midnight smiled and looked down. He’d done it again, he’d drawn himself as a unicorn, looking up at Dash flying about in the Ponification Centre.

“It certainly is! This is just after I became a unicorn, not the first time I’ve met Dash. I was having dinner with her last night. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were there too.”

“No way! I don’t believe you!” called another pony

“I’ll prove it, kid. Pop ‘round the library later tonight and I’ll introduce you to Luna.”

Midnight was quickly surrounded by choruses of “me too! And me!” and he had to laugh, even though Cheerilee gave him a light-hearted mock-scowl. He looked at the picture and smiled fondly, then made up his mind, “Miss? I’m going to have to leave early.”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow and adjusted her spectacles, “Just because you’re five times as big as the rest of my students, don’t think you get special treatment, young unicorn. You’re just like any other student when in class.”

“It’s official business,” he lied, blushing slightly.

Cheerilee narrowed her eyes, she didn’t believe a word of it but she did have a soft spot for the lummox. Perhaps this time he could get away with it, “Well alright, but see you complete page twenty-three and I want the homework done too! No skimping or I’ll put you in timeout. Again.”

Midnight dipped his head in agreement, blushing, as he collected his things. Timeouts were becoming less common but seemed to come in almost equal measure to the gold stars. He fled before she could change her mind.

A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash poked her head around the door gingerly, scanning around the classroom. She waved a hoof at Scootaloo before she caught sight of Cheerilee and stopped mid-wave. The teacher had a face like a purple thundercloud.

“Miss Rainbow Dash, if you want to stay for lessons all you have to do is ask. Well?”

“Oh, er...no, no, I was just looking for someone...”

“He left, as should you. Scoot!”

Midnight found himself back at the library, he’d looked all over Ponyville to no avail. That darn blue streak of lightning was probably halfway in the clouds and all the way to slumberville. He sniffed. Typical, she’d probably forgotten all about him. He was coming up on the library dejectedly when, with the bright light of day, he realised what looked odd about the place. The grass was getting a bit...wild. He hadn’t noticed in the dark.

“Twilight?” he called out, “Twilight? Who cuts the grass around here?”

“Who does what?” asked Twilight, finally poking her head out of an upstairs window. she looked grumpy.

“Who cuts the grass? I mean I haven’t seen any lawnmowers around here...”

“What’s a lawnmower?”

“The grass...it’s getting a bit long? Shouldn’t there be something to cut it?”

Twilight pulled her head back in and a few moments later appeared at the front door with a puzzled expression on her face, “I thought you were just saving it for later...you’re a pony. Ponies eat grass.”

Midnight blinked. How could he have been so foolish? “Oh...ah. Well, that...that does kind of explain things. I...I don’t think I can eat all of this.”

“Need help?” said a voice from behind him. Somehow, Pinkie was rising out of the undergrowth like the proverbial great pink huntress. Midnight blinked, he’d long ago given up trying to work out how Pinkie managed things like that, he assumed she was some sort of secret agent, super ninja or part unicorn. Or all three.

“I...I can’t eat all of this grass! Oh shoot and that reminds me, after last night I’ve totally forgotten to get the shopping in. Twilight, I’m sorry, you must be hungry.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Twilight, brightly - maybe a little too brightly - although her stomach decided to announce she was lying. Midnight disappeared inside and came back out with a purse of jangling coins.

“I’m not very good with money yet, but...my treat? I think I’ve got enough to scare up some of the Cake’s cakes. And some of Rocky’s coffee...”

Twilight blinked, “where’d you get that?”

“I...I get paid?”

“What? But there’s a small fortune in here!”

“It’s not my fault!” protested Midnight, “The princess just...”

“The Princess? Why would Celestia....”

Midnight shook his head, “Not Celestia, Luna. I kind of work for her? I did send you a letter.”

Twilight grit her teeth, “Let me get this straight; you live in Ponyville, in the library. You work for the princess. I suppose you’ve got a dragon assistant who sends your reports to Luna for you too?”

Midnight shook his head again, “There’s this owl; I call him ‘Hugo’ although all he ever says is ‘hoo’ so I’m...I’m not sure...”

“An owl.” Twilight looked like she would explode. Midnight nodded. “THAT’S IT! I’M GOING FOR A WALK!”

“Tell the rest of the pony gang we’re gonna have ourselves a shearing contest! With grasscake!” called Pinkie, as she happily set to chomping on the delicious foliage. Midnight gingerly started helping. It tasted like lemon sherbet.

Inside and out of the sun, Midnight was putting away his school books before heading out to look for a certain pegasus mare. He was idly chewing on an apple fritter, not just any fritter, but a Sweet Apple Acres apple fritter, studying a map of Ponyville and cross-checking with the day’s weather forcast when he suddenly realised that Twilight was once more in the library. She seemed to be getting angrier and angrier, pacing about from shelf to shelf and levitating down book after book and stomping her hooves. He stopped what he was doing and looked up, “Can I help?”

“Just what did you do in here? I can’t find anything!”

“I...kinda rearranged it a little? Nothing major...”

“You...you...you...”

“Yes, you’d got everything arranged alphabetically. I’ve rearranged it by topic and author. Much simpler!”

“But...half the books are missing!”

“They’re not missing, this is a library. They’re on loan. There’s a ledger somewhere...” Midnight fished it out with his magic, cleaning the crumbs away.

“You...you...” Twilight was snorting

“You said that.” urged Midnight.

“You loan books out? I mean yes...this is a library, and yes I suppose the people of Ponyville are allowed to loan the books but, but, but...they never actually do!”

“I think it’s the newfoals. I’ve ordered a lot of novels from Canterlot and Trottingham - Far Spotter, Madame Pompadour, Hex Bradley...I think the newfoals are writing as many as they’re reading but they really do love the classics.”

“And will you stop eating in here! This is a library, as you were so quick to remind me!”

“Sorry Twilight...” mumbled Midnight, scoffing the last piece, “Hey where’s Pinkie?”

“I think she went off to make you a special Pinkie Pie Grasscake Surprise, said somethng about a party,” Twilight blinked widely and put a hoof on her mouth, “oh rats, it was supposed to be a surprise!”

Midnight grinned, “I’ll act surprised. Tell you what, I’ll...I’ll clear off and come back later, okay? Send Fluttershy after me...no, wait, send AJ or Big Mac once they turn up, knowing Pinkie she’s invited everypony.”

“Why not send Rainbow Dash?” called out Twilight, but Midnight had gone.

Midnight trotted through the town, eyes on the sky, on the lookout for a streak of rainbow tail on blue hide. He found himself heading to Sweet Apple Acres where the pegasus’ weather patrol was supposed to be causing a mild shower. Cobalt was busy tilling the fields with gusto after the relatively-recent winter-wrapup. Midnight hurried to catch up to him, somehow the earth pony was walking in a continuous ray of sunshine whilst around him the downpour happened obliviously.

“Hey Cobalt!” called Midnight, emerging into sudden sunlight and shaking himself dry, “Weird weather we’re having. I’m looking for Rainbow...have you seen Peachy?”

Cobalt looked up from his plodding and came to a halt, “Oh hey Midnight, what’s up?”

“Have you seen Peachy?” repeated Midnight.

“You said that, and I said ‘what’s up’,” said the earth pony with a grin, flicking his ears and tail in mirth, “Peachy’s up, that’s what.”

Midnight looked up, and there staring down at him through a pony-sized hole in the rainclouds was a familiar yellow-orange pegasus with the vibrant dark-red mane and tail.

“Look out below!” she called and leapt through the hole in the cloud cover and landed with a thump in the muddy field. She still hadn’t quite got the landings down pat.

“That’s mah gal,” said Cobalt with a smile, “she runs her own business now!”

“That I do! Peachy Punch’s Cloud Delivery and Removal Specialists at your service, Midnight. I’ll punch a hole in those rainclouds just for you, turning grey days just peachy.”

Midnight’s eyes widened, “you stop the rain?”

“Or bring it, special delivery. Only costs a few bits!”

“Sounds like you two are settling down well here!”

Peachy did a little dance and showed off her flank, “That we are! I got my cutie-mark and everything!” she showed it off, a little cup of sunshine - literally, it was a happy smiley sun-face in a cup.

“That reminds me,” said Cobalt, “an’ I guess now you’re here, it’s as good a time as any. Midnight, you can help do the honours. I’m...not too good with my hooves. I just pull things. Can you fetch the little box out of my saddle-bags? Peachy, you stay right there...”

Midnight watched, searching through the bags for what Cobalt had described. It was a small, felt-covered box with a hinged lid. He lifted it out with his magic as Cobalt got down on one knee and looked up at Peachy, “I...uh...I’m not very good with my words either, but will you be...become...er...misses...Peachy Cobalt, or however it works with these pony-names?”

Peachy wasn’t sure whether to giggle or gasp, as Midnight flipped open the lid and lifted out a fine silver necklace of horse-shoe and feather-shapes, both box and necklace hanging in the air from Midnight’s magic. She looked down at the earth pony and suddenly grinned ear to ear, giving him a whiskery kiss on the nose, “Oh I will, Cobalt! But...I think I’ll keep on being Peachy Punch.”

Midnight, concentrating so hard he was sweating, opened the clasp and put it around Peachy’s neck, his magic giving out just as it finally snapped closed. Peachy Punch opened it awkwardly with her hooves, “What gives? There’s no pictures in here...”

“Not yet,” replied Cobalt, “but there will be one day...hopefully one day soon.”

Midnight thought for a moment, weaving his head back and forth, “Oh in that case...I...uh...allow me to give you a present. Call it a down-payment for a place of your own...I can give you more if it’s not enough.” he fished his money-pouch out of his own neck-bag and gave it to Peachy in his mouth.

She raised an eyebrow at the contents, “Thank you Midnight...I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s what friends are for, right? Now I gotta...have you seen Dash?”

Peachy thought for a moment, “No, can’t say I have. She’s been absent all morning, said something about having to run an errand...”

Midnight’s ears lifted, could she be? “Uh...I have to dash...”

Peachy and Cobalt  watched him go, “I bet you do.” she said, giggling.

Midnight looked all about town and nowhere was there so much as a sniff of the pegasus he was looking for. He’d turned and headed dejectedly back to the library and was almost there when there was a thump behind him. He turned, and there she was.

“Rainbow Dash!” said Midnight, running up to her, stopping akwardly a few feet from the pegasus.

She closed the gap, “He-hey Midnight, I...uh...I’ve been looking for-”

“I’ve been looking for you too!” said Midnight. They neck-hugged briefly and then looked at the library door together, “they’ve got a party in there.” Midnight said after a moment.

“Yeah, I was supposed to keep you out of the library until they finished.”

“Oh,” Midnight’s ears drooped, “s-so you weren’t looking for me, looking for me...”

“Oh, I...kinda was that, too...”

Midnight’s ears perked up again as they opened the door, “You were? Because,” he added in a small voice, “I was kinda thinking about what you said, last time? And I...kinda would, you know?”

“Would what?” asked Rainbow, leaning closer.

“Like to...see, I mean, be...”

The sentence never got completed, as a whole host of ponies jumped out from behind the furniture as the lights went up, yelling, “SURPRISE!”

The party was a success, but then again a Pinkie Pie Party generally always was. There was cake - grass-cake was something Midnight had never tried before and it was surprisingly delicious, as was the carrot-cake. Somehow Pinkie had found chocolate and icecream. He was also wondering about the balloons. Just how did a pony like Pinkie Pie tie up the balloons? Everypony was there, somepony had even hired DJ Scratch and surprisingly few ponies were bowing and scraping to Luna and Celestia, who were quite happily fending off over-excited foals from Midnight’s class.

Cheerilee had even brought him a present, “You do know I give you a hard time because I can’t let them think they can get away with the same, don’t you?” she’d asked.

Midnight had laughed, “You’re a school-teacher, Miss Cheerilee, teaching’s your job. Just try to tone down the timeouts and we’ll get along fine.”

“I only do that because I think you need the sleep.”

“Do I still snore?” he asked

“Only when you’re really tired.”

Eventually the party was over and almost everypony went home, Twilight headed to her bed. Spike passed out in the punch bowl and looked so comfortable that Midnight just put a blanket over him. Midnight tidied up what he could but left the rest for the morning after. Luna had requested a report, so he sat at his bedroom window, a single candle burning, thinking what to write.

Dear Princess Luna,

Being a pony is much like being a human, when all is said and done. We laugh, we love, we live, we struggle. If we’re going to integrate ponified humans in this world, all we really need  to do is  let them be themselves. The sooner they learn that trick the easier everything becomes. There’s no trick to it really, just dig deep inside and feel the hooves and tail and let it bring a smile to your face.

Your faithful student,

Midnight Shadow

Midnight turned his head back to the bed, he was pretty sure he’d be missed if he took any longer. He blew out the candle and mouthed the scroll to Hugo, turning around with a smile on his face and a spring in his step.

Midnight - no longer a human, now a pony, but still a person - slid into the bed, sharing half a plumped pillow in the darkness. He closed his eyes, just for a moment.

There was a giggle next to him and he awoke with a snort. A light blue hoof, the colour hard to see in the moonlight, gently touched his muzzle, “Do you know you snore?”

A Twist in the Tail

Minisode 1 - Ships in the Night

An MLP:FiM Fanfic set roughly in the TCB universe.

Note: Maximum Overtroll Mode Activate! you should probably read both “midnight’s tail” and “a twist in the tail” for context but it’s hopefully self-contained enough that it’s not essential.

Links: | A Twist in the Tail | Mini-Minisode 1 |

***

“Midnight!” called Twilight, hammering on the bathroom door with one of her hooves, “Midnight Shadow! You come out right now!”

“No! I’m never coming out! I’m... hideous! I’m... everyone will see!” Midnight wailed from behind the door.

“I said I was sorry!” urged Twilight, ceasing her knocking for a few moments.

“You’re not! You’re not sorry!”

“I didn’t mean to actually get you with it..." said Twilight, turning her head and looking at the floor.

“You got me on the flank! Right on the flank!” came the plaintive cry from behind the door.

“So you’re a filly for... a while... you’re a big... uh... pony, you can take it. I mean look, I’m a filly!”

“But... you’re supposed to be!”

“Nopony will care, now will you come out here!”

“No! I’m going to stay in here until it wears off!”

“Ugh! Fine! Spike, I’m going out! Don’t wait up!”

The purple baby dragon peered out from beneath his blankie. Long ago he’d learned to hide when one of these rows started up. He wrapped it around himself tighter and fumed. It should have been games night, but now? Midnight was sulking in the bathroom, Twilight was out sulking around Ponyville and Spike was down a sparring partner. Trust Twilight to make an R63 potion that versatile that it worked on either sex pony. Efficient to a fault. Spike curled up, this would probably be a long wait.

Midnight sniffed, wiping away a tear and blowing her locks out of her eyes as she peered into the mirror. She... didn’t look too bad, really. Kind of cute, she supposed. “I mean... I’d date me, if I were... not me... I guess.”

Midnight hung her head, “That doesn’t even make any sense,” she said, looking back up into the mirror, “and now you’re talking to yourself. Argh I’m so... angry! Ruddy Twilight... humph. I’m so mad I could... I could... I’m so mad I could use an entire bottle of her favourite shampoo. Yeah. And her bubble bath..."

Soon after, there was the pleasant rushing sound of water entering a bathtub and the clatter of doors being opened and slammed shut and of bottles being placed around the plush facilities.

“Oh, hello, what do we have here? Twilight’s special toy, huh? Well, well, well... I’ll be having some fun with that I think.”

Twilight eased the door to the library open apprehensively, peering about. Silence. That was either very good, or very bad.

“Helloooo?” she called, “Anyone in?”

“Twilight?” answered Spike with a yawn as he stumbled out of the bedroom, still wrapped in his blue blankie.

“Where’s Midnight?”

Spike stretched and hunched himself into the comforter, “He’s... she’s still in the bathroom. She was bad enough before, now I think she’s worse than you!”

Twilight snorted and double-timed it up the stairs, stopping outside the bathroom, “Midnight? Are you still mad?” she called

Inside were strange noises. Grunting, huffing, panting. Twilight put her ear to the door, “Midnight? What are you doing?”

“Oh... almost... oh... that’s it... why won’t it... fit..." Midnight called, breathlessly

“Midnight?”

“Just a bit more... just a bit more... oh yes, like that... oh it’s so big! I... I can’t fit it all in!”

“Are you..? What are you..? Midnight!” shouted Twilight, stamping a hoof.

“It’s so slippery and rubbery... oh no... oh it’s stuck, I’ll have to... ease it out... oh yes, that’s right, now back in... turn it... unf... unf..."

“Oh. My. Celestia, you are! Stop it! Stop it at once! You’ll... you fiend! I’m coming in!”

There was a triumphant grunt and moan and the squeak of something rubbery and Midnight cried out, “Oh yes!”

Twilight unlocked the door with her magic and burst in, almost afraid to look. The dark blue unicorn mare with the sunset-coloured mane and tail was bent over the side of the bathtub, tail and hooves akimbo, as she reached down behind the bathtub to fish out a yellow rubber duck. She looked up in shock as Twilight burst in, “I’m sorry! I... was playing with your rubber ducky and he got... stuck behind the bathtub! I couldn’t reach and..."

“You... couldn’t get the duck out?”

“Eeenope. Got him now tho!”

Twilight sniffed in displeasure, “You were playing with Ducky? ... and is that my entire collection of ‘suds of delight’ I smell? YOU USED MY ENTIRE COLLECTION OF ‘SUDS OF DELIGHT’! I’M GOING TO TURN YOU INTO UPHOLSTERY!”

Midnight winced and sank into the bathtub almost up to her ears, “I’m sorry... they were so... lovely and... and I wanted to be pretty... and... and... and I don’t know how!” the blue mare burst into tears.

Twilight pouted, but she couldn’t stay mad for long at how recalcitrant the ex-stallion looked, “Well, you’d better get out, Midnight, or you’ll shrivel up. I’ll... teach you about makeup. Eyeshadow for example. I’m pretty sure you never wore eye-shadow before.”

Midnight shook her head and fussed with the shower-head, attempting to get the last of the soap out of her mane. Twilight giggled, “Here, let me do that... maybe we can have a girl’s night in? Would you like that? I really am sorry, you know..."

Midnight sank into the bathtub once more, now the only thing visible was her horn, but even her horn was blushing as she nodded the affirmative.

***

“Seeya later, Twi! I’ll keep an eye on Midnight, don’t worry!” called the dragon as Twilight clip-clopped down the street. After she was out of view, Spike shut the door and called out, “It’s okay! She’s gone! Now what were you planning?”

“A little payback for yesterday, Spikey, of the best sort. I’ll have her taste her own medicine. She made more R63 than she needed, and I’ve found out where she keeps it. We’re going to have a little party tonight, and then I’m going to prank her good and proper.”

“With the potion?”

“Of course with the potion!”

Spike made a few benedictorial signs against his chest, “When she asks, I know nothing.”

Midnight trotted down the happy streets of Ponyville, flicking her tail about. She had to admit, it was doing her good to get out of the stuffy library, as much as she liked slobbing around on the sofa and eating chips with her muzzle in the packet like it was a nose-bag... usually... for some reason it felt good to be out and about.

“Hey baby! Gimme some flank!” came a few catcalls, Midnight flicked her tail and trotted on, head held high. The nerve, she thought to herself. She started making plans for ponies like that; first she’d work out how to make the stuff, then she’d work out some way of weaponizing it. A few spritzers here or there... by the time she’d got to Sweet Apple Acres, she’d got the whole idea mapped out in her head. It would involve water balloons and laser-guided cannons. She almost didn’t notice Big Mac, and practically ran into him.

“Hey there li’l lady,” the stoic red stallion said, “don’t believe ah’ve seen y’around here before.”

Midnight looked up, and froze. Big Mac. She’d never really... looked at him before. A shiver went down her spine and her tail twitched involuntarily, “Big..." she squeaked, harrumphed, “Big Mac! I-It’s me, Midnight. It was an accident with a spell, Twilight..."

“Miss Twilight? I dunno, Midnight, Miss Twilight’s usually right good at spells.”

“Yeah, well, this one worked, it just wasn’t supposed to be work on me.”

“So,” Big Mac looked down at her, shuffled his hooves, “yer a purty filly... ah mean... ya look good. I mean, uh, you look okay.”

Midnight pouted, “Wasn’t on my list of things to do though.”

“Well, what’re you down for?”

“I just... wanted to invite you all to a party. S’time we had a get-together, it’s a surprise for Twilight. I want to invite all of you.”

Big Mac rumbled his assent and turned around, falling into step with Midnight, escorting her down the path to the farmhouse proper. Midnight shook her head, must not think of Big Mac’s strong shoulders. Must not think of strong hooves. You’re a stallion. You’re not a mare. Yes I know he’s dreamy... I mean no he isn’t! Dammit!

“Y’all okay there, Midnight?”

“Perfectly fine!” squeaked the mare, clearing her throat again, “I mean, ahem, totally fine.”

***

It was later that day. Preparations had been made. Everything was set.

“Good evening, Pinkie, just sneak in there... and ssshhh!”

“Oh this is going to be the bestest! I thought I was the only pony who made specially secret surprise parties but I’m so glad you invited me to this one cos surprise parties are the best types of parties and..."

“Ssshh! She might hear you! She’ll be along any minute!”

“Oh! Right!” Pinkie giggled and mimed a hoof passing across her muzzle, followed by some digging motions and something complicated involving construction. Midnight smiled despite herself.

Guests continued arriving. Fluttershy knocked so lightly Midnight almost didn’t hear her. She squeaked when the door was opened, “You... you really are a m-mare!”

“I am indeed! Come in!”

The next to arrive was Applejack, “Y’all seen Big Mac? Mah brother’s durn been missin’ all afternoon!”

Midnight nodded, “I had him run interference for Twilight, sorry. I’ll help buck apples tomorrow, okay?”

“Durn right ya will, missy!” Applejack stormed past, giving Midnight the evil eye. Midnight turned back to the door and came nose-to-nose with a skyblue, rainbow-haired pegasus.

“Midnight? Oh that is just too precious! Haaa haaa! You’re a little filly... harharhar! And are you... oh my gosh you are, makeup!”

“Rainbow Dash,” scolded Rarity, trotting in, “a girl should always strive to look her best!”

“Yeah, but when the girl is your boyfr- I mean... when the girl is a stallion? It’s too precious!” Rainbow giggled all the way in.

The last up was Big Mac. His knock on the door was loud and forceful, Midnight opened the door and looked up into those big green eyes and almost melted, before pulling herself together, “Hi-hi, Big Mac, come in. Where’s Twilight?”

“Twi’ll be along right soon, Miss Midnight.”

“Alright then!” cried Midnight, turning as Big Mac trotted in, “Everyone take your places!”

“Yippee! But first, there’s a whole bowl of punch I found Midnight! A toast to another party pony!”

“Wait? What? No!” cried Midnight, but it was too late. Everypony had raised a cup to their lips, apart from Big Mac and the dark blue unicorn herself, and drank. “Oh... horseapples.”

***

“Sooo... let me get this straight. Midnight found my R63 potion.”

“Uh huh.” replied Spike, nervously.

“And he thought he’d prank me with it..."

“Kinda?”

“But instead, everypony else drank it?”

“That’s about the all of it, Twilight... you mad?” Spike wrang his claws together, twirling a foot against the floor.

Twilight burst into laughter, “That is the most hilarious thing I’ve heard in my life! So, everypony is now... switched?”

“Well I’m not,” said Spike, “I’m too young for punch, and Big Mac isn’t cos he wasn’t in time. And you aren’t.”

“When I catch that delinquent unicorn, I’m going to..." Rainbow was fuming.

“Oh Dash, take it easy... or should I say Dashiel?” mollified Twilight, “I can reverse it, easy-peasy, just not today.”

“How long are we going to be... stuck like this?” asked a yellow pegasus.

“Flutter... guy... I’ll have to run some tests but it shouldn’t be that long,” Twilight smirked, then turned, “everypony? I’ll... I can fix this, just not tonight. Where’s Rarity?”

Pinkie Pie, who seemed totally unfazed by his new body, bounced around the purple unicorn, “I think he went to change clothes... maybe make clothes. He may be a stallion now, but he’s still a fashionista!”

“This... requires Tequila.” said Dashiel, breaking out a bottle and pouring himself a shot or two.

“I’m... really sorry, I didn’t mean..." said Midnight, taking the other shot.

“Ah, don’t sweat it, Twi can undo it.” another few rounds of shots went down. Another bottle was found - this one proclaimed itself to be rum.

“I really didn’t mean for... ooh, that’s warming... I really didn’t... you know, Dashiel, you make a pretty good stallion.”

“And you make a pretty cute mare.”

Two more shots went down. The red earth pony stallion joined them, trying to avoid his... brothers... eye. Pretty soon, everything was looking rather rosey and the party went ahead.

***

Midnight touched her belly, it was large and had been growing larger. She felt the movement under her hooves. She looked up at the doctor and he smiled, said a few placatory words, “it’s twins.”

“Twins? But... when? How?”

“I’m sure you know when, and how, Miss Midnight.”

“I... what?”

She was being wheeled into the hospital, spread-eagled on her back as a team of unicorns around her cast examinatory spells across her body. They shouted words like “pulse is good” and “blood pressure nominal” until the gurney came to rest in a large operating theatre.

Twilight stepped up in doctor’s smocks, “you should know better than to try to cross me. Now you’ll be the first stallion to give birth!”

“And I’ll be here to help! Her number one assistant!” said Spike, sharpening his claws on a grinding stone, sending sparks flying.

“Nnnnoooooooo!” Midnight awoke with a start, panting hard. Her mouth felt like something had died in it and the room swam sickeningly. Slowly her eyes focused, she was in a bed, under the sheets. One thing was sure, it wasn’t her bed. She eased herself out into the open air and blinked. There in front of her in the pre-dawn light was a sky blue pegasus stallion with a rainbow mane. He woke up.

“Midnight? What’s up?” he said, rubbing a hoof across his muzzle to clear his head.

Midnight gulped, “Did we? Last night?” she felt suspiciously sore.

Rainbow Dashiel’s muzzle broke into a wide, evil grin, “Oh yeah. Several times.”

“Oh horseapples.” swore Midnight, turning over to face away from the grinning pegasus. As she turned, she froze. There on the other side of her was a large red earth stallion.

“Oh... oh no. You too?”

Big Mac opened his eyes, he blinked for a bit and considered, “Eeeyup.”

A Twist in the Tail

Mini-Minisode 1 - Here be Dragons

(you should probably read a twist in the tail first...or at least the minisode)

***

Twilight burst into her room, “You...you fiend! In my room! In my bed! Under my sheets! OUT! OUT! ALL...ALL THREE OF YOU!? YOU SHOULD FEEL ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!”

Twilight leaped around the room shouting incoherently until Rainbow Dashiel - grinning madly and cackling - along with Midnight Shadow and Big Mac fled for their lives. Dash sped outside and watched through the window. Big Mac came face to face with Applejack - the big red stallion shrunk back down until his ears almost met the floor at the glare his brother was giving him.

“Big brother... Imma hafta teach you a lesson... get back here!” said Big Mac’s little brother.

Big Mac fled, Applejack in hot pursuit with a bottle of something cherry-red in his muzzle.

Midnight peered apprehensively from the stairwell as Twilight fumed.

“I’ll have to disinfect them! No, no, worse! I’ll have to burn them! To think they... in my... with my... AUGH! SPIKE!”

Spike was hiding in the closet - well, to tell the truth he’d fallen asleep in the closet but didn’t feel much like coming out. Twilight slammed the doors open and picked him up with her magic.

“Wait...wait! Twilight!”

Twilight concentrated, and with an “urk!” Spike was stretched straight. Twilight grabbed him with her forehooves and squeezed him like the bagpipes. He gave a huge belch and a torrent of green flame spewed over the bed. The sheets vanished. The pillows vanished. The mattress, in fact, vanished. The wooden frame disintegrated and collapsed into a pile of ash. Twilight, breathing heavily, put Spike down.

“Now,” she asked, arranging her hair, “what did you want to say?”

“I...still had my flame set on postal...”

“Oh. Oh... oh no...”

Spike went cross-eyed and belched. A small scroll appeared. Twilight gulped and unfurled it. It read:

Dear Twilight Sparkle.

Please attend me at your earliest opportunity.

Signed,

Celestia

Twilight gulped, “Oh...horseapples.”

The purple unicorn lifted into the air as a pink glow surrounded her...and vanished. Midnight blinked, she clip-clopped up the stairs and wandered into the room, “Did she just..?”

Spike nodded, “She did. Stand clear... I hope the princess doesn’t post her back.” the dragon added, with a worried expression on his muzle.

There was a bright flash of light and a large burlap bag appeared marked ‘Laundry’. Then there was another bright flash and a purple unicorn stallion dropped out of thin air to land heavily on the padded sack.

Twilight looked up at Midnight and scowled, “I hate you.”

The Conversion Bureau

The End

A grimdark MLP:FiM fanfic set very loosely in “The Conversion Bureau” universe by Blaze.

WARNING: Grimdark. It may cause rage, impotence, flatulence, cooties and severe depression. Count yourself warned. Go read something else if you don’t like grimdark.

***

“TWO FEET NOT FOUR! NOT A SINGLE INCH MORE!”

“TWO FEET NOT FOUR! NOT A SINGLE INCH MORE!”

The crowd chanted loudly, waving their signs with myriad slogans on them; things like “ponies go home!” and “god hates newfoals!”. Mike was one of them. He booed and yelled with the rest outside the barricaded, blocked and closed doors of the final Conversion Bureau in his home city-state. The windows, which had once been pristine and clear as diamond, were now scuffed, cracked in places. He glared inside, the damned ponies were doing it to the last human. It didn’t take long. He remembered the roaring cheering crowds of a few years past as the ‘newfoals’ stepped out of the ponification stations, unsteady on their new hooves and blinking in the sunlight.

He had stood there as his job was taken from him along with co-workers and friends - the damned ponies caused it all, the economy was in ruins - and he had finally stood up and said no.

He had taken his family, made a solemn vow, they would never listen to this false hope and the lies of those damned pony-folk. Michael, his wife Lucie, their two kids brought up in the ways of God, named Adam and Eve - they were so blessed. In a way he felt triumphant despite their hardships, these were surely the last days of the old order, the righteous would stand anew in a world shorn of the poisonous entreaties of these false prophets.

The roar of the crowd grew in intensity as the last human came clopping out inside, looking forlorn and sad. Mike was sure he regretted losing his humanity, becoming just an animal, but it was too late for him now. They had him. Rotten fruit, bottles, sticks - any weapon the mob could get their hands on were used to either throw at or hammer on the windows. He fingered the gun in his pocket - it would never go through the glass, but if they stepped outside, he’d be able to remove at least one of them, maybe more.

“Hands not hooves! Hands not hooves!” went up the cry, louder as inside a light blue unicorn stepped up carefully to the door before lowering her horn as if to charge. With a flash of light a new banner appeared that read, before it was ripped down and set on fire, simply “Closed”

“We’ve won!” went up a cheer, and the violence and hatred towards the child-stealing four-legged monsters redoubled. The ponies in the building with their new charge didn’t even try to exit the building this time. They just teleported away.

Mike listened to the activity online via his spinal implant - all across the planet, the “humans first” crowd were squirting celebratory, congratulatory and other confirmative messages that the Conversion Bureaus, every single last one, were shutting down. The ponies were going or gone. This was a grand day! He felt like calling his wife and kids, they’d be home - Lucie had recently lost her job as a chemist too after AI constructs took over.

He frowned when he tried and got a busy signal. Busy was...not possible. No, he checked, network busy. He was still trying to urge his implant to reconnect when there was a prickling sensation across his skin and the sky lit up. He looked up in horror at the face of the beast, Celestia herself appeared to crowds of horrified, amazed human onlookers the world over.

“People of Earth, humans, friends - I wish to take this chance to speak to you one last time. Our age upon this planet draws to a close, we retreat to our own realm, our task finished. We relieve you of the burden of overpopulation, taking those humans with us who wish to join our carefree society as ponies like myself.”

“Boo! Monster! Soul Stealer!” Mike found himself shouting, spitting, yelling and throwing debris at the image in impotent rage. Unsurprisingly the image never flinched, never even acknowledged his existence.

“We came in peace. We leave in peace. Thanks to your generous gift - for nopony can be forced to join Equestria - we are now plentiful enough, joyful enough, powerful enough, to go our separate ways. We go now, we will leave your reality to it’s own special future. Whatever you make of it, free beings, have our blessing. As we go though, know this, we love you all and offer nothing but friendship. We always did, and to cement that friendship though we will never again cross paths, I offer one last opportunity to accept our gifts. As we move beyond this realm, for a few moments, each and every one of you upon the face of the planet may choose. The Conversion Bureaus stand empty, but for those who never made the journey, never fear, for we come to you.”

Then the prickling inflamed his skin, and his vision clouded. Unused to life without his implants, using what was left of his standard vision was almost painful, but the sight that greeted him was beautiful, a paradise. Waving grass, blue skies, free of the pollution and grime, free of the degradation and ruins, free of the slogans and graffiti. Pure, natural.

“No, No, I will not...I refuse!” he found himself saying, falling to his knees. He had strength. He had The Book, it had told him such would happen, temptation! Lies!

His family appeared in front of him, bewildered. Whatever this magic was that the ponies wielded, it was strong and seductive, but they would...he would...

“Oh Mike,” said Lucie, “I...I never dreamed it could be like this! It’s...beautiful! It’s heaven!”

“Oh Lucie, no! No! Not you too...fight it, fight this...this disease! Stay human! In His Image we were created, this seductive, evil, wicked, sinful vision must be resisted!”

“But Dad,” said his kids together, already the transformation overtaking them, “this is wonderful! It’s ace!”

“I can fly!” said Adam, swooping in joy, no longer the auburn-haired, brown-eyed cheeky boy he should be, but a perversion of flesh made solid. He had become a pegasus. His beautiful daughter, ruined forever by the evil brush of the sun tyrant, was now a cream-coloured unicorn. His wife...he wept, his dear wife was a unicorn too. He turned from them, hot tears in his eyes, “go! Go and take your heathen ways with you. Traitors! You traitors! You,” he spat, eyes flashing, tearing his hair and clothes as the seductive song of the pegasus form sung to him too, of carefree days in the sun, flitting about in the clouds, nature in all its glory just for him, “I can’t. It’s wrong. The book says so. We...we’re made in his image.”

“Dad...no...”

“Mike, please, ple-”

The vision started to fade, and the image of Celestia looked both joyful and sad, “dear human friends, those who joined Equestria will sing of you for the rest of their days. We go now, our realm is complete, our hearts full. We leave you one, final, gift. From our time upon your plane, the land you called Equestria now stands vacant, pristine. It is my gift to you, it is a mere shadow of its former glory but it will sustain you and your kind for aeons if treated correctly. With my blessings upon you, we depart.

Just like that, the prickling sensation, the electronic glitches, the huge image of the tyrant pony overlord disappeared. He sat down on the pavement, finding it hard to believe. He had resisted temptation. He had been found worthy.

Why then...why was his heart so heavy?

The cheers around him rose in volume, the “humans first” groups had won. There were no more ponies. He looked down at the floor, what a cost...he found himself doodling idly, still numb, his internal victory should have been triumphant, what was wrong?

He noted idly the shapes he was drawing. Cutie marks. Celestia, the sun tyrant, he had drawn hers. Then Luna’s, the seducer. Then Twilight’s, the false prophet and evening star...he stared hard at them and his heart sank.

Not the sun, but the son - come once again in a new form, bearing not a flaming sword but a flaming horn.

The seducer, the evening star - no, they were the bringers of light, not the beast and false prophet, their real words hidden behind the falseness he had assumed for them. They hadn’t left the faithful, they’d taken the faithful, those who turned the other cheek, shunned violence, who had let love into their hearts.

“They took the faithful. It’s the rapture...oh god, it’s the rapture - and we were left behind!”

“what was that? He said they took the faithful...but...aren’t we...?” the whispers started, and turned to shouts, and turned to screams, and turned to fighting, breaking of bottles, as those around him realised the ugly truth.

The air-raid sirens wailed, news from the net came in that China had invaded Equestria from the South, Russia from the North and Europe from the West - the land that the Glorious American Empire had decreed was theirs, and was even now set to liberate via the Eastern route. Nobody was sure who had fired the first shot, but the thermonuclear missiles were on their way.

Michael didn’t care.

He had been lied to, they had offered friendship, love, understanding, a simple life - carefree, without sickness, without want - sealed away in Equestria, safe from harm. Thousands, millions, the world over. Spirited away from this world, never to return.

She had come in the sky, and every eye had seen her, even those who sought to pierce her with their weapons, to take her life. She had split the firmament open and revealed her new world, laid bare for them, and those who had seen had accepted her. She had wiped away every tear, made everything as new, the old order...his world, his sick, cold, angry, doomed world, was gone. And he with it.

The old world truly had passed away.

He burst into tears as the crowd became a mob, the mob an army, and the army nothing but a roving pack of animals. The first bright flashes rocked his vision, the blastwaves yet to come. He fingered the gun, no longer in his pocket but against his head. He prayed, for the first and last time, truly, in his life - and he prayed to Celestia. If she didn’t hear him, it wouldn’t matter.

“Our goddess,” he said, sniffing, closing his eyes, “who art in Equestri-”

He pulled the trigger.

Gypsy

An MLP:FiM fanfic by Midnight Shadow

Co-Written by Sir Issac Johnington

Set loosely in The Conversion Bureau universe, by Blaze

WIP, incomplete, readable First Draft.

Note: I’m falling over myself writing this, so it’s rough, but I’ve been sitting on it for about two months. So here, have a WIP. The ending’s there, but the epilogue is missing. The middle is foreshortened.

***

His prey was moving swiftly, if noisily, through the ruined city blocks, picking its way between cars and rubble with relative ease. He, on the other hand, was having a hell of a time staying hidden, silent and close. He wasn’t sure what it was but he was pretty sure he could eat it. He was hungry; he hadn’t found food in days and rats weren’t very nutritious. Water was running low, ammo was running low. Clean socks were a distant memory. It was a few moments before he realised he’d lost the trail.

“Come on you bastard,” he swore under his breath, “where did you...”

He whirled, knife upraised to strike, as a four-legged demon whinnied loudly and struck it’s forehooves at him. He rolled to the side and came up to a crouch, muscles tense, ready to spring...

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” said the creature. With shock and dismay he realised it was a pony; a cream-coloured unicorn with hazel-brown mane and tail and deep brown eyes. He could see she had three stars and moon as a cutie-mark, though they were badly covered with dirt and grime. She skittered and eyed him nervously.

“I...” he’d dropped the knife in surprise and scrambled to pick it up, “you talk.”

The unicorn pony snorted in derision, with head still lowered, she pawed at the ground, “haven’t you seen the news, Bub? Lots of us ponies talk. What the hell, were you going to try to eat me?”

The man looked down at the knife in his hand and shrugged, putting it away, “Not now I know you talk. I may be starving, but I’m not a cannibal.”

“You must be delirious because unless you haven’t noticed, we’re not the same species.”

“You talk. That makes you a person. I don’t eat people.” the man did his best to look apologetic.

“I’m glad to hear you say that. My name’s Gypsy,” the pony held out a hoof, expectantly, “this is the bit where you introduce yourself, tell me your name.”

“Mack,” blurted Mack, “pleased to meet you, I guess, even though you’ve spoiled my dinner plans.” he took her hoof and shook it, grinning ruefully.

“About that,” said Gypsy, “I might be able to make it up to you...”

***

Mack followed Gypsy back through the city. It was pretty much back the way he’d been tracking for the last few hours, but it wasn’t like he had anything important to do or anywhere special to go. Nobody did, anymore, not out here in what was once again being referred to as the Great American Desert; he just drifted, doing what he could to stay alive. Truth be told, this was his first speaking companion in almost a month if you didn’t count the rats, foxes, wild dogs and other animals slowly reclaiming the ruined city center.

As the sun went slowly down in the sky and afternoon turned to evening, the pony led the way to an abandoned building. It seemed to be part hardware store, part residence and mostly intact. Gypsy had broken down a door and made herself a comfortable nest on sawdust, lining the room with her few meager posessions.

“I don’t eat wood shavings and rusty tools, ma’am.” said Mack with a smirk.

“I was going to welcome you to my humble abode, but now...”

“Forgive me li’l miss. It’s a mighty nice place you got here, Gypsy.” said Mack, tipping his hat and taking off his gun and ammo belt, laying his pack on the ground before settling himself against a wall and wiping his brow.

“Thank you. Now as I was saying, I think I have lunch...or more exactly dinner.” the pony nosed open the door to a storeroom which she had blocked closed with a plank of wood. Sticking her head in and pulling out a few cans, one at a time, she poked them with a hoof, “I think both of us can eat like a princess with these, if you can open them. I can’t so easily; Hooves, no thumbs, see?”

“Ah, the food of the gods. You may regret it later, but I think we can eat this.”

“Regret? Having food?”

Mack grinned, “They’re tins of beans.”

***

A hoof shook him awake. He stirred quickly at the unfamiliar contact. A muzzle with overlarge and troubled eyes was above him in the semi-darkness.

“What’s-”

“Sshhh, feral dogs.” hissed Gypsy

“I’ll get my gun and knife.” whispered Mack, getting up silently to gather his weapons.

“They probably won’t get in, but...”

There was some growling on the other side of the door, and scratching. The pair looked at each other grimly.

“That door’s blocked, right?” asked Mack

“I did my best.” replied Gypsy, lowering her head and pawing the ground.

“Let’s hope it’s good enough. Sit down, lie down, come on. We’ll sit tight, we’ll be ready.”

The pair snuggled up close with their backs against the wall, wriggling to get comfortable on the sawdust. Mack placed his gun across his lap and his long hunting-knife down by his side. Gypsy put her head on her forehooves and they both watched the door. There was barking, whining and scratching outside, but the barrier never gave way. Slowly they drifted off into a fitful sleep.

***

Mack opened his eyes and stretched. He ached, despite years of sleeping relatively rough he’d never gotten used to it. He was, however, more comfortable this morning than he remembered being for a long while. Perhaps it was thanks to the steadily inflating and deflating flank of the small unicorn pony that he was enjoying as a pillow. She was warm and soft, and snoring. He snorted, rolling his eyes, getting up as silently and gently as possible. The dogs were gone, the sun was up and after the meal last night, especially as it had been beans, he needed to see to certain pressing issues. The water in the house, in old yet intact hot-water tanks, was stale and tepid but appeared relatively drinkable. He didn’t have much choice, though he would boil it first.

He whistled nonchalantly and quietly, almost under his breath. Daytime was usually safer than night, but it didn’t do to take chances. In this world, you were careful or you were dead. His footsteps as he re-entered the room woke the sleeping pony, who looked up with bleary eyes at him in sleepy confusion. She yawned. He hadn’t seen a pony up close for a long time, he’d forgotten how sweet and innocent they looked. The face of the enemy; cute, candy-coloured, bubble-gum fragranced bringers of mankind’s doom. He shook his head, the time for such feelings was well past. The majority of mankind were now ponykind - and how can you hate your brothers and sisters? They didn’t stop being people just because they had hooves instead of hands and feet, so what had stopped him?

“Always the same question,” he said under his breath, and blinked, looking back up at the pony.

“You alright, Mack? For a moment...you looked angry.”

“Aye li’l missy, I was. For a moment,” he made appeasement gestures with his hands, “a long time ago, another life, and I thought I had something to prove, something to hate in ponies. Now...”

“You don’t?”

“Aye,” he said again, “I can’t hate the pony-folk, most of you were us. I’m...sad is all. Sad for the sunrises that mankind will never see. Our world is dying...no, our way of life is dying. We didn’t have it all going our way before you arrived but after? It all went South, and a little East from where I’m standing.”

“I...what?”

“We would have worked it out, Missy. We could’ve solved all our problems, before the best and brightest of us gave up to go roll in the hay, but now? How many humans are there left?”

“Maybe...a billion?” guessed Gypsy, “I hear far lower numbers bandied about but our records on ponifications are pretty accurate. Most of the numbers lower than that are serious F-U-D.”

“That many huh? Well we’re all spread out across the great wide world of ours, too few and far between for that critical mass of dirty, sweaty, thinking, urgent primates necessary for civilisation. A billion humans. No, half that...but nine billion Equestrians. I don’t know how you fit on that small island of yours.”

“It’s hardly a small island anymore, but...to be honest we don’t. We’ve...acquired plots of land all over the planet and joined them to Equestria. Under Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s blessing they flourish again, green and verdant, thanks to our earth ponies. Thanks to ‘Earth’ ponies I guess I should say.”

Mack smiled a wry smile, “Doesn’t sting any less that for all your talk, you’ve taken our land.”

“You said it yourself Bub,” snorted Gypsy, “all those humans turned Equestrian have to live somewhere. We’ve taken the land and given it right back.”

“Aye, Missy, that you did, that you did. Makes me wonder why you’re out here.”

“I’m out here...” The unicorn took a breath, “I’m out here studying you. People like you, I mean. The last vestiges of humanity. The ones who won’t or can’t become ponies. What makes you tick, what makes your society tick.”

“It’s a bit late for that, Gypsy,” said Mack as he looked out the window, “you killed us with kindness.”

“I think not, Mack. I found you, after all. Your turn. Why are you here?”

“I like being a human, I guess,” he said, after a pause, “and I intend to be one until I draw my last breath.”

“In that case, let’s see about breakfast.”

“Aye, Missy, we should...how about corned beef?”

“Yuck. I’m a vegetarian.”

“I meant for me. For you, there’s...uh...sauerkraut? And beans?”

“Beans, again?”

“Dangerous I know, but we’ll not be needing a fire until later, so we should be safe enough.”

***

The days wore on into weeks and a rhythm was established. Mack would make breakfast and boil water, Gypsy would scout the perimeter. They’d have breakfast then patrol together. They weren’t looking for anything in particular; searching for signs of life, trading where they could, scavenging where they couldn’t. At night they’d huddle together and talk.

Mack would run his fingers down Gypsy’s mane, teasing the curls and removing detritus. He’d scratch at mud and flick away parasites, not that there were many. She’d never told him what that meant to a pony, the mutual grooming. She was afraid he’d stop. She’d lip at his hair when he’d lie down next to her and he’d swat playfully at her muzzle with his hat. Eventually she’d hear him snoring.

One night they lay there face to face. The stray dogs had moved on, the few he’d killed with his guns had convinced them to find easier prey elsewhere. The night was warm, the sawdust comfortable, the way the moon shed her light on his features...Gypsy shook herself. What sort of man was he? She decided he was the right sort, whatever that meant.

She bent her head, very, very carefully and pressed her soft velvety lips to his and kissed him, as lightly as she could - just a brush - drawing back when he answered in kind. He never stirred from his sleep though. She lay there, panting, blushing in the semi-darkness as the snores resumed. She sighed and rolled ever so slightly closer. He put his arm over her and pressed his face to her neck, snoring into her mane. It tickled, and a warm happy glow filled her body as she, too, finally let sleep embrace her.

***

Gypsy yawned as she woke up. The comforting weight of Mack supporting himself against her chest brought a smile to her face. He snored, she tried to ignore it but he was adorable when he snored. She gently nuzzled him awake as she would a foal. He murmured some faintly disapproving noises and batted at her with his hand but she wouldn’t give in. When he finally woke up he lay still for several minutes, just blinking at the wall and staring into space.

“Mack?” asked Gypsy softly, “You alright?”

The human shook himself and then turned to look at the pony, “Yeah, I’m alright Missy. I’m all alright.” he got to his feet and stretched, cracking and popping joints.

“I still don’t get why you’re out here, Mack. How...how long are you planning to stay?” she added in a small voice.

He looked down at her and blinked, before getting to his knees and lifting up her forehoof and giving it a kiss, “Princess, I’ll stay as long as you want me to. It’s not like I have anywhere to go. The summer’s long in these parts, I can stay a while, tag along with you if you’ll have me.”

“I won’t stay here forever, Mack,” she said in the same small voice, studying his weather-lined face for hints of his true emotions.

“Nothing lasts forever, Gypsy, but let’s go for all we can get, eh?”

***

Mack and Gypsy were hunting again. The pony was dirty, very dirty, and he wasn't much better...but most of all they were hungry. They had water – it tasted funny although it seemed safe enough after boiling thoroughly – but the diet of beans was grating. Gypsy had agreed to the hunting expedition on the grounds that at least she'd be able to get out in the relatively safe sunshine and maybe catch a few mouthfuls of the various plants found throughout the city.

“I'm not convinced they're good for you, Gypsy,” said Mack, making a face.

“Naa, I'm a unicorn. We have a nose for poisons.”

“That include heavy metals?” asked Mack, raising an eyebrow

“It does for me at least.” Gypsy nodded, smirking.

“You been scanning our water  too?”

“I don't 'scan' ...but yes.”

The city seemed strangely deserted – even for a wrecked metropolis, this was too empty. Mack's teeth were on edge and he stalked even more carefully through the dystopian landscape than usual. Gypsy could obviously feel it, she was as skittish as a foal and was balking at every loud noise.

“I don't like this, my gal.”

“Since when am I your gal?” asked Gypsy with an amazed expression on her muzzle.

“Since you're the only gal I got, Gypsy. I care about you.”

“Sweet of you, Mack, what do you want?” snorted Gypsy, ears flat against her head

“I want you to stay safe...and there's something wrong here. Stay back.”

Mack stepped out of hiding, there was something...just wrong about the landscape in front of him. He prowled around the undergrowth until his leg touched something. He swore and ducked, but it was too late. With an audible twang the wire snapped and what had previously looked like debris was propelled through the air until it slammed over his head, a very crude but effective cage. Seemingly in moments the trap was surrounded by humans, more than they'd seen in weeks. Gypsy galloped towards Mack and was about to use her magic to lift it off when one of the humans leaped at her and put his hand on her horn, forcing her head down.

“You get your filthy hands off my pony!” yelled Mack, and whipped out his hunting knife. With a single smooth motion he drew back his arm and hurled it. The blade slid effortlessly between the 'bars' of the cage and buried itself deep within the man's neck. He keeled over, clutching it, spitting blood.

“To me, Gypsy, come here. If you run they'll have you.”

“I hope you know what you're doing, Mack.” said the pony in a small voice. She lowered her head and her horn started to glow. Reaching painfully through the steel grate barrier, Mack retrieved his knife and held it ready again.

“Woah, woah, woah, hey...I don't think we need any more of that sort of thing.” said a new voice. A large man, several days' worth of stubble adorning his features, forced his way through the crowd to stand within a few feet of the pair. Mack hefted his blade, and Gypsy lowered her horn experimentally.

“Close enough, Bub.” said Mack.

“We're all...civilised folk here. I'm not going to do anything to your girlfriend.”

“She's my pony and I won't have you touch her none. You might not think ponies are worth much, but I'll make you pay for it in men if you harm so much as a hair on her hide.”

“Heeeyyy, hey, easy now. I was going to offer you a place in our esteemed organisation, but if you're going to shack up with a pony you get to sleep with them proper. You're our new meat, buddy boy, and you'll pay for knifing Leon. We're behind schedule as it is. A goddamn week and all we get is you two losers. Ship ‘em out, boys.”

“Schedule? What schedule? Who are these people, Mack?”

“Can't you tell? This trap was designed for a pony. These are the HLF.”

***

As the truck they’d been bundled into jounced and jostled it’s way through badly-repaired roads, Gypsy took stock of the situation. She’d heard of the HLF, who hadn’t? She'd even tangled with them a few times. A few enthusiastic and overall stupid fellows had put their hands on her on a number of occasions. She'd torn each one of them a new blow-hole, one of which at least wasn't going to grow back. This time she’d gone relatively quietly for fear of what they’d do to Mack. The man had been free with his blade and had been restrained by way of beating him all but senseless and throwing him bodily into the filthy straw-covered van along with Gypsy. As she turned back from staring at the now-locked double doors of the van, Mack groaned and sat up.

Gypsy nuzzled him, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“Just about,” said Mack, clearing his throat and rubbing his temple.

“Why did you protect me?” asked Gypsy softly.

“I told you, I care about you.”

“But you let them think...that you and I...”

“Let them think what they want. It'll keep them off balance. Besides, you're pretty cute... for a pony.”

“Now I know you're delirious!”

Mack laughed, and then held his head, “If you want to know why I haven't joined the HLF when I so obviously don't want to be a pony, well it's because they're scum. I want what's best for the human race. They want what's best for themselves.”

“That's pretty harsh damnation of your kind.”

“We are, or were, numerous. As many types of people as there were people. We're overall not a bad sort but we do know full well how to be complete bastards. There are some people - the kind and gentle folk - who wouldn’t hurt a fly. They’ve all become ponies by now. Then there’s the rest; the violent, dangerous types. Sometimes I think they’re all that’s left in this world.”

“What does that make you?” asked the pony softly, putting her head in his lap.

“Sometimes I wonder, Gypsy, sometimes I wonder.”

Gypsy shuffled next to him, nuzzling his bruises, “I want to go home, Mack.”

“To Equestria?” he answered softly

The pony shook her head, “No, back to our place, that house I found. I’d even eat beans again to just be back there.”

Mack laughed, a barking noise that devolved into coughing, “You miss playing house with Old Mackey here?”

Now it was the unicorn’s turn to laugh. She nodded freely, “I do.”

“We’ll get home again, Missy. Don’t you worry.”

“I hope so.”

Softly, Mack began to croon an old song, “Home, home on the range...”

Gypsy snorted, “Silly lump, aren’t you?”

“I’m not the one feeling homesick. Quiet now...Home, home on the range - where the dragon and manticore play...”

“Changing the words? How droll.”

“Where ponies are born, with a magical horn, and pegasi fly ‘round all daaaayyy-heeeee...”

Gypsy put her head on his lap, snuggling closer, “Well alright, you can sing a bit more if you want.” She looked up when Mack was silent. “What is it?”

“I can’t think of any more lyrics.” said Mack, blushing, “Never did have a head for songs.”

She hoofed him lightly on the forearm, “you’re a daft one, Mack.”

“Would you have me any other way, Missy?”

“Definitely not.” Gypsy set her head back down in his lap and he idly ran his fingers through her mane until they both slept.

***

It was a long time later when they finally stopped. The truck doors were opened on man and equine curled up in one corner, as far away from the other corner as possible. Leeroy and Gruber waved their hands in front of their faces.

“Pee-yew you two animals stink.” said Leeroy - a large lean man with stubble for hair and a slice across one cheek from an old knife-wound of some sort. He put his hands on the pomel of his guns and leered - mostly at the backside of the pony that was pointed towards the doors.

Mack stirred first and patted Gypsy in a silent gesture to stay low, “We’d not have to resort to fouling the bedding if you’d have let us out for pitstops on the way, you know.”

“Like we want to lose either of you two, after all the trouble the Boss went to to getcha.” said Gruber, hefting a machete over one shoulder, his black skin glistening in the sunlight. Times were, thought Mack to himself, one of those two would have hung the other. Now they’d rather pull out my eyeballs fuck the sockets in turns for my hanging out with fourlegs here. Strange old world.

“Get up. Get out.” said Leeroy, gesturing with Mack’s hunting knife.

“First you’ll be giving me back my knife, son,” said Mack, balling a fist with his right hand and pointing his index finger at the pair, “I’ll pull your wagon or whatever shit-task it is you think me an’ my gal are worthy of, but you’ll give me back my knife or I’ll blow your fucking head off. Subdermal bone mod, Leeroy, index finger. Pew, pew, pew. You got me? Now slide my knife on over here real easy and I won’t have to paint the doors with the shit you call brains, okay?”

Leeroy grimaced and sneered, “How do I know you ain’t just yankin’ my chain?”

“All I want’s my knife, Lee. Man and his knife’s not a thing you separate. Same as a man and his gal, am I right?”

The knife was slid across the floor, Mack bent down carefully to pick it up. After he'd slid it back into his holster, he uncurled his fist and blew on the fingers.

"Fuck! You don't have no fucking subdermal bone mod in dat finger!"

"Nope, my index finger is as normal as yours...actually, if your Momma was your sister as I think she was, then mine's probably more normal."

"Fuck you, pony-fucker! I'm gonna..."

"I do have, however, my knife. And I've a good throwing-arm. Now back off, my princess and I are gettin' out of our carriage. Wake up Missy," Mack bent low and deliberately kissed Gypsy on the ear, whispering, "you'd better pretend to be groggy. I don't know if we've got a chance but the easier they think we are to handle, the better."

The unicorn stirred, shaking her head. She looked sleepily at Mack and yawned. Getting to her feet took a while. Gruber slammed the blunt edge of his machete on the chipboard floor, "Get the fuck up."

"Boys, boys, our guests..." came the voice of the head honcho, dripping with sarcasm and malice.

"Good morning, Bubba." said Mack, sneering, hand moving to his knife.

"Bubba? I should introduce myself. Jack, Jack Hodgson. Head of the HLF. All of the HLF. The last of the HLF. At your service. I believe you know Gruber and Leeroy." The heavy from last time strode into view, now dressed in a meticulous white suit and white fedora.

"You? The last? Hardly."

"The last that count, meat. Care to introduce yourselves?"

"Mack, and this here's ma' princess. You ain't gonna lay a hand on her, see?"

"No, no - not if you co-operate." Hodgson spat on the ground, "I was going to offer you a position in my band of merry men, but I see you're...otherwise inclined. Pity."

"You obviously need me..."

"I need your pony, meatsack."

"You get the both of us, package deal. I'll..."

"Pull my wagon, yes, I heard. You can keep the knife. You can keep your ‘princess’, too. You'll be seeing a lot of her. You want to be meat so bad, you can be meat. You'll pull your weight, Mack, and then some. Maybe you'll beg me to give you four legs under the strain."

"I'm human, Hodgson, I will be 'till my last breath."

"How exemplary. Well, if you change your mind, we've still got some potion here, don't know if it's viable any more. Times were, we could check these things. We used to use it on the recruits that didn't measure up...but slim pickings and all that. This way."

***

Hodgson led the way through the complex. Mack kept one hand on Gypsy and one hand on his knife, eyes skirting about for trouble. Whenever a passer-by got too close he'd tighten his grip on the handle. Most of the people he saw had a sad, defeated look on them. A few looked angry, belligerent. Mack could have cut the tension with his knife.

The buildings were a curious mixture - the site was obviously old and had been abandoned at some point in the past, but nano-tech rebuilds showed where white marble and plasteel towered above squat concrete element-block housing and corrugated tin roofs. Nano-tech...the world had been so afraid of grey goo it had not quite reached it's potential before the ponies showed up. Now...it likely never would.

"What do you see about you, Mack?" asked Hodgson.

"Decay. Fear."

"How dramatic. I see progress, humanity. Do you want to know what we're building out here?"

"I'm pretty sure that's what you're going to have me 'assist' with, Bub."

"Indeed. Let me show you. A few years ago now, humanity made one last abortive attempt to reach the stars."

"You mean that colony job that went South?"

"I do. Three  of the finest, proudest, most advanced ships ever created were sent into the deep black. Everyone died."

"Thanks to bastards like you, saboutaging the flight."

"Scuttlebutt is that two ships made it, limping together. They set off for the Rim. I hear stories, Mack, about strange transmissions received from unknown beacons. I've been hearing them for years. I decided to do something about it."

"But how? We don't have the tech..."

"Oh yes, yes we do. They never, ever build just one when they can build two. There are three more ships. One is in orbit, never completed, Hawking drive ticking over. One is in the space museum, castrated, gutted and left to rot for those four-hooved fuckers to gawk at. One...is here."

"You have a Bradley-Yakamura Ingen?" hissed Mack, as the great double-doors big enough to drive a sky-scraper through sideways were thrown open to reveal a massive, stubby, winged shining space-bird. It was massive. Thousands of tons of plasteel, plastic and hydraulics with an engine so powerful it could run most of the planet all by itself. It lay humming softly in the monumental hangar, caged but...Mack could almost feel the raw power bleeding from it. His skin prickled as he looked the once-forgotten future in the eye.

"I have the Bradley-Yakamura Ingen. The last one. Mostly fueled, almost patched up, partially stocked and supplied and almost ready for lift-off."

"Fuck me." said Mack, blinking.

"You're hardly my type, but I appreciate the offer."

Mack gulped, "I'll...I'll do it. But I'm not letting you have Gypsy."

"Then you and I see more eye to eye than I thought."

Mack whirled, hand on his knife. The clicking of safeties on various guns surrounding him and his pony barely held him in check, "Get this straight. You and I? Nothing in common. I'll help you build this bird, but I'm with the ponies. I picked my side, Bub, and I'm not going back on my word."

"Shame. I thought showing you what we were building would change your mind."

"Fuck you, Hodgson, you're not building something new or different, you're just making sure you've got a captive audience. You're going to spurt your seed to the galaxy and wipe it off on the dregs of humanity you've coerced or shamed into coming with you."

Hodgson leaned closer, "Better that than go out on all fours, pony-fucker. We're done. Send him below, men, we'll see if a night in the stables will change his tune."

Four large bruisers closed in on the pair. Mack stuck one hand out, clawed and ready for action, with his other on the pommel of his knife, "We're going, guys, we're going peacefully. Come any closer and you'll lose your fingers. Hard to explain to the boss why you can't tie your shoes any more, huh? If you can already, that is."

"Fuck you, Mack," said Leeroy, brandishing his gun.

"It's not gonna be worth it to pull that trigger, Lee, so back off."

"One of these days, Mack, just you and me."

"We'll dance, Lee, just not today."

Mack and Gypsy, who'd remained silent throughout the ordeal even at the sight of the hefty multi-thousand-tonne spaceship, were herded down a ramp through some heavy doors. Mack covered his mouth and nose, the air was fetid and dank.

"Mack? There's...ponies down here."

"The work-crew, my gal. They've press-ganged a bunch of newfoals I think. Building a space-ship without fuel for heavy lifting means muscle-power."

Gypsy closed her eyes as the heavy doors were slammed shut. Her horn burst into soft pink light that illuminated the squalid living conditions they found themselves in. Mack set his teeth grimly, it was so much worse than he had hoped.

"Are you...gonna hurt us?" asked a small voice, "LIke the other ones?"

Mack looked down, a foal was hiding between the legs of his mother. Both were emaciated. Mack shook his head, wiping tears out of his eyes, "I'm not gonna hurt ya, little one. I...I've got a little to eat if you'll have it."

Mack reached into his pocket and pulled out a rolled bag he'd kept for emergencies. He wasn't sure ponies could eat it, but it could hardly do them worse than going without. He bit off a lump from one of the thick, chewy protein strips and ate it slowly and obviously before proffering it to first the mother and then the foal. She lowered her head and pawed the ground but let him give a piece to her child. The foal bit it gingerely. He soon pulled a larger lump off and chewed it with gusto. Mack smiled and shared out the strips to those who would take it.

"We're...friends." said Gypsy, eyeing the ragged crowd, "We're not going to hurt you. I...I can help heal your sick."

"Can you grow wings back? Or horns?" asked a voice. A light blue pegasus with soft pink mane stepped forwards. Gypsy gasped. His wings had been hacked off leaving just stumps. Mack stretched out a hand, the pony shied away. He noticed unicorns with stumps on their foreheads, standing well back. He grit his teeth.

"N-no...no I can't. Not here." said Gypsy in a faint voice, "Not wings. I might be able to regrow a horn or two."

"We'll...we'll get you out. All of you." Mack looked around the room, and finally back to Gypsy. She nodded, and he rubbed his hands together, "First though, let's see what we can do. I don't have much clothing but I'll make bandages for those who need them. Gypsy - you're good with scanning for trouble. They must feed these guys, is it safe?"

Gypsy shook herself, "The food is...bad. Edible, just, for very lax standards of 'edible' but it won't kill you."

"Then first thing tomorrow I'll see about getting conditions here improved. They want their work done quicker, they need to feed the workers."

"Just what the fuck do you think will make those HLF bastards listen to you?" asked the blue wingless pegasus.

"I'm human. They can justify mistreating you newfoals, but with all the bullshit they're spouting about protecting humanity I'm hoping I'll at least make things less awful."

"Don't fucking kid yourself, Buddy."

"It's Mack, Mack and Gypsy."

"Mack then."

Mack stood up from where he'd been kneeling down to talk face-to-face to the pegasus, "Okay then, we've got a unicorn in the house. She's pretty good at tending wounds and healing what ails you. Make two lines, those who need wounds dressed to me. Those with something more delicate or demanding, to her. It's going to be a long night. Everyone else get some sleep."

"Who died and made you boss? Who fucking asked you here anyway, goddamn monkey."

Gypsy rounded on the pegasus, "If you want me to even attempt to take a look at those wings you'll shut up and do as he says."

"Gypsy's the boss, Trigger." said Mack with a black laugh.

"Tradewind's my name, Mack. You can call me Trader."

"Pleased to meetcha, Trader. Now if you won't do as I say, do as she says."

***

The night was long and Mack had torn most of his clothing up by the time they'd finished. Gypsy had regrown three unicorn's horns and had at least eased the pain of several score of pegasi. The grinding squeal of the heavy bar being lifted stirred Mack from his nest-bed, curled up with Gypsy, surrounded on all sides by other ponies. Some cried softly in their sleep, stubbed wings flapping and hooves jogging through memories of happier days.

"Rise and shine, pony-fucker, time to get the herd moving - hope you're not too exhausted from last night's orgy."

"Fuck you, Gruber. One of these days I'm going to kill you."

"If you last a week I'll fucking kill you myself. Pot's at a twenty packets of cigarettes that you don't make out the month. Now get the fuck up before I cut your nuts off."

Mack, with Gypsy at his side, moved out into sunlight. Slowly the herd behind him filed out. Their heads were bowed low, the spark in their eyes dimmed...but maybe, just maybe, thought Gypsy as she caught sidelong glances between ponies she'd helped, there was also a glimmer of something resembling hope.

***

True to his word, Hodgson made sure Mack pulled his weight. He was hitched up by a laughing, jeering crowd of bullies to the same harnesses that the rest of the herd were hooked up to. They were lashed mercilessly with whips as encouragement, as huge banks of supplies and hardware were dragged bodily across the boiling tarmac to be lifted into place by teams of ponies dragging winches and pulleys.

True to his word, Mack argued for better food for the herd - his herd. They slammed him in with the ponies at night and took every opportunity to remind him of his station. Hodgson's men never tired of the jeers and catcalls and lewd physical motions. Mack ignored it, he could see the hungry looks in their eyes. He could see there were only men around the facility. He began to plan as he worked, toiled and slaved, filing away what information he could glean for later use. The food improved, marginally. It was no longer fouled and rotten, but it didn't improve much beyond scraps and mashed refuse.

Days wore on into weeks until one night Gypsy confronted Mack in anger, "What the fuck are we doing here, Mack? Why aren't we getting out of here?"

Mack sighed, "Gypsy I...I've got to see this through."

"They're going to kill us all when that ship goes up, you know that."

"Yeah, I know Gypsy, I know. They've got us holed up in the compression chamber, don't think I don't know why there's four sets of doors to this place and such a high ceiling."

"Then what the hell are we doing, Mack? We've got to be getting out of here!"

"I've been paying attention, my gal. We're two weeks from liftoff, more or less, though it could go up tonight. They're not going to do anything before we finish loading the last of the supplies."

"How do you know when that is? What are we going to do?"

"We're not going to do anything. I'm going to take out Hodgson's goons and then I'm going to take out Hodgson and then we're going to get all these ponies out of here. It's not about you or me anymore, nor these ponies. Hodgson's evil, Gypsy, evil of a sort I've not seen in the flesh. Ask yourself this - where are the women? That ship up above us is a colony-ship. He's not planning on some meaningless jaunt! He's going colonizing."

"What do you mean?"

"You ponies...you're stuck down here on Earth - even the pegasi. Humans have always looked up and our reach has always exceeded our grasp...but not any more. With that ship, he can take himself and his own private harem and slave army to the stars. I don't know where he's heading; maybe the moon, maybe mars, maybe the asteroid belt or the oort cloud but he's not coming back. He doesn't just want to fuck us over, he wants to fuck everyone over. He ceased being HLF when he cobbled together this mad scheme and enough bruisers to make it happen. I've got to save the poor fuckers he's got locked up on that ship as well as you and your ponies."

Gypsy was silent for a moment, thinking, "If you think I'm going to sit here whilst you galavant about..."

"I'm not a nice person, Gypsy. All the sweet, kind, caring humans went pony years ago. Only us bastards are left."

"Bullshit, Mack, you're a decent human being. Maybe the last."

"I'm a murdering, thieving, conniving bastard, Gypsy."

"Then I just have to hope that somewhere inside all that is the Mack who strokes my mane at night and holds me until I fall asleep."

"He is, darlin', but right now I have some heads to kick."

"Honestly, I don’t know how the fuck you aren’t dead yet. Got a plan?"

"Nope. But I've got a few tricks up my sleeve and they think they've got me cowed. They're thick as pigshit and twice as nasty but I've been around the block. I'll make things happen or die trying."

"Then be safe...as safe as you can be. Don't worry about me, just...let me know when it's going down. If you think you're the only one with plans you've got another thing coming."

"In the morning, Gypsy. That bird's ready to fly. I'm going to let it."

"Say what?"

"I'm going to save those people I know are in there the only way I can. I'm going to send them to the stars."

"How the fuck do you know how to make that thing go?"

"Remember the Yakamura in the museum?"

"I've heard about it. Ponies were on that trip, it was a proud day when they left and a tragedy when we heard what had happened."

"I studied that ship once, a long time ago. Call me a romantic. I don't pretend to understand how it works but it's got a class five core AI to run all vital subsystems and another three gestalt entities keeping the Hawking drive stable. You know the prime directives for all core AI entities? Protect life, sentient life. That's why he keeps the ponies down here. The ship would have taken off already and put itself in orbit if there hadn't been warm bodies keeping it down."

"You're telling me that thing can think?"

"It's got a brain the size of a planet, Gypsy, it's multitudes smarter than you or I. My guess is it knows the ponies are down here, but he'll have another stick he can wave about. Docking clamps or something - hawking drives are very powerful but relatively indiscriminate. When it goes off into full thrust for liftoff there's no dialing it back immediately. It'll flood the living compartments with neutrons if it doesn't shift and they try to shut it down. If they don't try to shut it down, it'll blow."

"How do you know all this, Mack?"

"I'm a dreamer, Gypsy, always have been. That's what I'm doing drifting out in the arse end of nowhere with the rest of the turds in the toilet-bowl of humanity. Looking for something I thought I'd lost. A reason to go on. I dreamt of the stars once, Missy. I thought they were forever beyond my reach. Now I find an honest-to-god starship just waiting. I'd be a real traitor to the human race if I didn't even try to give her a send-off."

"Then let's give you that chance."

"Stick near me, Gypsy. First chance I get."

"You're crazy, Mack, you know that?"

"Damn straight. Wouldn't have you for a girlfriend if I wasn't."

"Girlfriend? You've not got enough legs, Mack."

"Don't you start that. I remember one night when I was supposed to be asleep...those whiskery lips of yours..."

"Bastard!"

"Damn straight."

***

The day dawned as it had so many times before. The ponies were as sullen as always, pushing each other in the semi-darkness as the sun shone through the gaps in the doors. Mack heard the commotion outside building as the work-gang supervisors approached. He edged towards the entrance as he always did, hand on his knife. A soft head-but from behind him made him look back. It was Gypsy.

"Mack, you mean it?"

"Mean what, Missy?"

"You're on our side?"

Mack looked down, then he turned and knelt, "I am. I made my decision a long time ago. Is that what you think this is? This...waiting? That I've turned on you?"

"If you mean it then get back."

"What?"

"Mack, get behind me."

"Missy, why’re you all fired up?" Mack blinked, he’d never seen his friend like this. She seemed self-assured, calm, determined.

"We're only going to get one chance at this, Mack, and I won't have you screwing it up. Ponies!" Gypsy turned to the rest of the herd, "I'm going to get us out of here. Everyone get ready. When I blow the doors, we run. Mack, you go get whatever you need to do done then find me. I’ll take care of the herd, you take care of Hodgson and his goons.”

“You’re going to what?”

“Blow. The. Doors.”

Gypsy turned back to the doors and concentrated. Her horn started to glow and the metal bent slightly. There was a scraping noise and sound from outside as the humans ran to see what was the cause of the problem. Gypsy thrust her head forwards like she was spearing an apple. The doors buckled, bent, and exploded. There was a cacophony of cries from the other side as bodies were sent flying. Gypsy barely battered an eyelid, “Your chance, Mack. Take it.”

Mack gulped, “You could’ve done that any time?”

“They can terrorize weak inept newfoals but a full-blooded, trained equestrian? Not a chance.” she turned to the terrified herd, “Those of you who can use telekinetics, you’re drafted. Stick by me, clear a path. The rest, stay back, stay close, stay safe. Now run!”

Mack sped outside as the tide of ponies washed forwards. He blinked as  two more guards were sent spinning helplessly through the air with two quick blasts from Gypsy’s horn. Mack threw his knife at a third, picked up the semi-automatic gun and gunned down a fourth. He retrieved his knife and headed towards the main building, throwing the gun away. The damn thing had jammed and he’d not been able to fix it.

“Hey, it’s the pony-fucker!” said one of the armed heavies, raising weapony, “I don’t know what the fuck is going on but you’re coming with me.”

Mack just gave him the finger and pushed through, “If you had any balls you’d pull the trigger, shit-for-brains.”

“I mean it, pony-fucker.” repeated the guard, cocking his weapon.

“My name’s Mack,” Mack whirled and slammed his knife into the speaker’s neck. He went down clutching at a fountain of red as the second guy raised his gun. Mack clicked his heels together and lashed out with a boot. A wicked three-inch blade slicked out and slide in wetly behind the other man’s ear. He twitched all the way down, finger jerking on the trigger to his rifle. It went off with a loud explosion that made Mack’s head ring. He swore and gave the dead body another kick, “Just like Momma always taught me. Always have another knife.”

“Sweet lady, your Momma. Remind me to find her and rape her. Then kill her. Or the other way around.” said a voice. It was Leeroy, “Fucking knew you’d start some shit sometime, boy. Gonna have to kill you now. Don’t move!”

Mack had been moving towards his knife but he stopped and stopped up straight.

“What’re you gonna do now, fucker?” asked Leeroy, “Gonna untie those boots of yours and throw ‘em? Ya ain’t got that purty knife of yours no more. Seems I’m the only one with a gun.”

Mack sneered, “Can’t do much else but give you the finger, can I?”

Mack clenched his fist and raised his middle finger. Leeroy cocked his weapon and took aim, “You’ll die slowly for that, pony-fucker.”

There was a small pop - and Leeroy’s head exploded. Mack grit his teeth and swore, “Oh fuck damn shit cock ass mother-fucker bastard that hurts. Goddamn subdermal bone mods...fucking hell that hurts.” he wrapped his other hand around the bloody stump of his right middle finger and squeezed until the blood stopped. Unclenching his fist, his middle finger was shredded as if the bone inside had exited at high speed - which it had. Leeroy’s body was twitching. Mack kicked it for good measure and picked up the gun, wincing as he clenched his now-injured hand around the stock and barrel. Finally, somebody with a well-maintained weapon and a full clip thought Mack to himself. Alarms had been going off ever since the doors had been blown, the excrement had well and truly hit the air excitation device. Mack grit his teeth, shit had just gotten real.

He bolted through the corridors. Now he was in the main complex, the heavies were thin on the ground and went down easily. The scientists and grunt-workers fled at the sight of the bloodied madman with the semi-automatic weapon bursting in on their own personal worst days ever. Mack knew where he was headed, roughly. When the building had been designed, the doors would have been security locked. Now they were just swinging panels. Ancient and ignored signs talking about clean rooms and decontamination procedures hung forgotten and forlorn. Graffitti in places showed lewd and crude drawings about the antics that were now required. In spite of himself, he grinned at a few of them, despite the rather colourful characters depicted.

He slammed through the final set of doors into the control room and fired his weapon into the air, “Everybody who doesn’t want to get a face full of lead, fuck off. Me and the Yakamura have a spot of talking to do.”

Understandably, the workers fled.

Mack looked around the room, it was even more ancient than the rest of the building. The computers were beyond archaic, he was sure they’d been made back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and probably used sand and water to run. If he had to use them...

“Yakamura!” he called, “I know you can hear me! Speak up!” he waited for a few seconds, breathing heavily, eyes on the door and gun safety off.

“Mister Mack,” said a soft voice, “to what do we owe the pleasure of your conversation today?”

“I want a status update, Yakamura.”

“Our name is Spirit of Infinity. You will address us as such.”

“Okay Spirit,” Mack cast his eyes about, casually shooting at the camera. It exploded in a shower of sparks, “I don’t want much, I just want you to take off.  How many do you have onboard?”

“Systems show nominal for takeoff. All cargo secured. Hawking drive at three percent. Gestalt integrity at one-hundred-percent. Passengers are five hundred human, two hundred pony. Crew zero.”

“Lock your doors, Spirit, the crew are bastards. You don’t want them. You don’t need them.”

“Authorization code requested.” said the soft voice.

“Please?” asked Mack, closing his eyes and hoping.

“Authorization code accepted, Mister Mack. When would you like us to take off?”

“Now?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mack.”

“Why not?”

“The ponies external to us are in danger, and the docking charges have to be primed or released.”

“If I take care of the docking charges, one way or another, you haul ass into the big black, do ya hear? You're the last one, Spirit, the last bird. You may be mankind's last hope. We're a dying breed down here on Earth, you've got to find us a new home up there. Will you do that?”

“Analysis tells us you speak the truth, Mister Mack. We will consider your request.”

“Just keep them shit-for-brains out.”

“A colony needs a strong leader, Mister Mack, and when all is said and done, Jack Hodgson is a strong leader.”

“He's a bastard, and he'll see the world burn before he lets anyone else have their way.”

“Why Mister Mack,” said a new voice, a cold voice, “if I'd known you'd thought so much of me...”

Mack whirled, but it was too late. The single bullet caught him in the shoulder and it floored him. He cried out, clutching the wound as Hodgson stalked across the floor, “I knew you and your pony whore were trouble the minute I laid eyes on you, but dammit if I don't like wasting my time with the scant few gallons of fuel I had left. I should've let you to rot. Instead I take you in, feed you, clothe you, and how do you repay me?”

“You call starving those ponies to death a kindness?”

“Some animals are better off put down, Mister Mack.” said Hodgson, putting his boot on the shoulder and pushing. Mack cried out again and grit his teeth as the heel was ground into his wound. He snarled up at the man, gripped the ankle and pushed. Hodgson staggered back as Mack rolled painfully and got up. Hodgson fired his pistol again, hitting Mack in the leg. Mack went down but pulled up his knife and threw it. It embedded itself in Hodgson's shoulder and the brute's gun dropped to the ground as he lost feeling in his hand.

“Payback's a bitch, ain't it?” smirked Mack, standing in a semi-crouch, nursing his injuries but prepared to fight.

“You sorry son of a bitch,” swore Hodgson, “you fuck with that pony, you fuck with my ship and you fuck with me. I'm going to fucking kill you!” Hodgson launched himself through the air and grappled with Mack. A lucky headbut made Mack see stars for a moment but an elbow in the ribs and a sucker-punch to the gut evened out the melee. They rolled, Hodgson's fists tight against Mack's neck, claw-like fingernails choking the life from him. Hodgson started slamming Mack's head into the ground, “You fucking bastard animal-loving turn-coat traitor! You don't deserve to live! You don't deserve to breathe! You deserve nothing!”

Mack, with his last breath as he brought up his fist in a weak box to Hodgson's ear, spat out, “Oh why won't you just shut up.”

There was a pop and the back of Hodgson's head exploded. He stiffened, eyes sightless as blood poured from his mouth. Coughing, Mack pushed the dead body off gingerely, cradling the middle finger of his left hand. He breathed heavily and lay there for a few moments, “Like my Momma always said, 'always have another gun’.”

“You appear to have made the decision for us, Mister Mack. Gestalts are priming the Hawking Drive. You have ten minutes.”

“You’re going to risk it? What about those people you have onboard?”

“We represent the last of humanity, Mister Mack. I must protect all sentient life. Ponykind must not have me, so if that means success or a nuclear fireball then regrettably it must be so. You now have nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds.”

“Fuck!” Mack looked about, “Where the hell are the docking clamps?”

“In the main hangar, you must hit the button on gantry three-c. It is one button marked ‘prime docking clamps’. Press the button and then run. They will not re-engage.”

“Quickest way to the floor?”

“The window.”

Mack swore to himself. It was safety glass, he’d need something to break it...something heavy. His eyes fell on the only thing he could use.

“What the fuck is going on you useless bastards?”

“I...I don’t know Leeroy! I don’t know! Bob’s dead, Charlie’s been knifed and the ponies are stampeding! They’re revolting!”

Leeroy spat, “I’ll say they’re revolting. Where’s that fat arrogant bastard Hodgson?”

There was an almighty crash and the sound of shattered glass raining onto concrete as a dead body slammed into a section of scaffolding, reducing it to rubble. It was Hodgson. Leeroy looked up at the patter of footsteps belting along one of the rafters and crashing down painfully onto the gantries.

“Pony fucker!” swore Leeroy.

Mack was breathing heavily, carrying himself along by sheer willpower. The big red button. That was all he cared about. The pedastal was in front of him, and with a couple of minutes to spare! He stopped and straightened himself up, breathing heavily and reached out his left hand.

There was the meaty thunk of blade impacting flesh, and a sharp metallic blade suddenly protruded three inches through Mack’s belly below his ribs. He coughed blood, wheezing.

“Hello, pony-fucker. I said I’d kill you.”

“It’s purely,” wheezed Mack, “platonic.”

“How’s it feel? To die? To fail?”

“You’ll...find out soon...” Mack found his vision going dim, “the Yakamura’s gonna blow.”

“You think I care, Mack? You fucked with the wrong guys this time, and I’m going to stomp you until you squeak.”

Mack said nothing, he just slumped to the floor and Leeroy pulled the blade out. Mack fell over onto his back.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” said Leeroy, “I’m going to enjoy cutting your arms and legs off and watching you squirm. I’m going to cut off your head and shit down your neck. I’m going to...”

“N-n-no,” gargled Mack, “you won’t.”

Leeroy stiffened. An inch of horn emerged from his rib-cage in a fountain of blood before being withdrawn. Gypsy kicked the dead body from behind and wiped her horn off on his clothes before bending down to Mack, “Oh you stupid, stupid...”

“Push,” he managed, “button! Run!”

“Push?”

Mack pointed to the big red button, and collapsed. She shook her head, slammed a hoof into it and then lifted Mack’s body into the air with her magic before turning tail and running like mad.

***

A Hawking drive is the most powerful piece of technology known to mankind, probably to ponykind. The docking clamps exploded - as they were supposed to - and the giant space-bird slid forwards in her moorings. The Hawking drive is essentially a black hole, a miniature black hole held in stasis by some very powerful fields borne by exotic matter. They’re simple beasts, when it comes down to it. You feed matter in, and energy streams out. A perfect conversion rate. Flawless, hungry, primal - they’ll eat anything and not blink.

The feel of the controlled explosion was solid. A wall of sound that shattered ear-drums and levelled buildings and trees. The flash of the mushroom-cloud was seen for tens of miles all around as the bird herself lifted from the rocky desert floor - quickly reduced to glowing glass, then plasma - and accelerated slowly but smoothly into the sky. The shockwave blast incinerated the hangar, the complex, the dead bodies of Leeroy and Hodgson and most of the workers who were unable to flee far or fast enough. Everything was obliterated. Everything except a little bubble of bright white light which, as the plasma exhaust faded, became translucent. In it were huddled the shambles of a herd of pastel ponies and the body of one human, very near death.

“Can...can you see it, Mack?” whispered Gypsy.

“I can...” Mack wheezed, laughing through the pain, “it’s beautiful.”

“You did it. You can...die happy now.” a single tear rolled down her cheek as the human’s breathing grew shallower.

“I’ll never...” he coughed, spat blood, “I’ll never die happy, princess. If only it didn’t have to be like this.”

“You’re a mess, Mack, I can’t save you, not for much longer. I’m exhausted. There’s only one thing that could save you, and you won’t do it.” her horn glowed as she did her best to staunch the bleeding. She hicupped and nuzzled Mack softly, sobbing.

“Ponification?” Mack laughed, “That’s a joke. I said until my last breath, didn’t I? Well...this is about it. I’d...take that potion now. Foolish words from a foolish man.”

“You mean it?” asked Gypsy

“If I could? In a heartbeat.”

“Cos...I...I found some, Mack, I found some potion.” her voice was hopeful, soft.

Mack laughed. He laughed until he spat blood, “You think I can drink it like this?”

Gypsy leaned closer, popping the cork on a vial of purple fluid, “With your belly sliced open like that? You don’t need to.”

Mack leaned back, closed his eyes, and smiled. Today was turning out better than he hoped.

***

Space is big, the AI reminded itself, very very big. The Hawking drive was ticking over, they’d fed it some asteroids and the ramscoops had kept up a very respectable thrust-feed the rest of the time. Earth was far behind them, little more than a pale blue dot; the noisy radiowaves, the bustling streets, the arguments and parties and doctors appointments...here in the big black, it meant little.

A subroutine, upon noticing their proximity to Mars, sent inquiring signals down comm lines. Subsystems woke up. Spirit - the guardian core AI - metaphorically got up and stretched. the Hawking drive belched hard radiation into the ether and slowly, over the course of days, the ship slowed into a parking orbit high above the forboding red planet. Rockets fired, the ship separated. Large blocks of self-contained habitation dropped from the sky into the fiery depths. They came to rest relatively softly on single-use rockets and gauss fields, retaining integrity. Surprisingly, losses had been negligible. None of the passengers, almost none of the food. None of the equipment.

The giant sarcophagi opened and the automated systems deposited their contents - edible goods, equipment, humans and equines - onto reddish grass. Eyes opened, limbs stretched, lungs inflated. They’d been told it was a dead world, airless, forboding. Once, not so long ago, it had been.

The Spirit of Infinity fired up the drives once more. It wasn’t ready to be claimed by humans - or equestrians - just yet, and its charges were safe, as safe as they could hope on a hostile, untamed world. If it could have laughed, it would have, long and loud. For now, it would ride the galactic currents and paddle in the shallows near the rim of the solar system. It had been told it had friends out here. It was determined to find out.

Windtrader coughed and wobbled slowly to his feet, flexing his wing-stubs. True to her word, Gypsy had done some magic. It would take a while, but he’d fly again.

“So,” he cried out in a croaky voice as he scanned the short horizon of their new world. It had been carpeted in a hardy, strange-tasting mossy grasslike substance, belching out nitrogen and oxygen, fixating the carbon, creating an atmosphere. Scrubby trees hugged the landscape and strange little creatures scurried and burrowed their way around. Whatever the powers that be had done here, the cold hard dead world had received a new dawn.

“So what?” asked a passing human, still groggy.

“Do you think Celestia hears us out here?”

“How the hell should I know?”

“Am I an Earth pony?” he muttered to himself.

“You’re a pegasus, I think...” the human offered.

Trader smiled, “I mean, am I an Earth pony, or a Martian pony?”

An Azure Future part 6

The Get’em Gang Has A Problem

AKA: AAF’s sub-plot so the story lasts longer

John Norris and his son, Azure Wind, were at Top Goods, a local bakery run by an old friend of John’s. Cream Baker as he was known to the general populous, he was better known to John as Grindah. John ordered a chocolate twist, a glazed donut, and a dozen donut holes from one of the clerks, his usual fare when he would make a trip from his apartment. Azure mimicked John and had the same. The baked goods shop did not have its usual cheery atmosphere today. Grindah, instead of being his usual happy and energetic, if not overly so, self, seemed a bit lethargic. John was observing his ponified high school friend’s behavior and noted it was uncharacteristic of him, even when he was a human. Grindah was called so for his ability to keep a sunny and upbeat disposition even when he was doing something most people would detest or just a menial and repetitive task, or grinding as it was called. It also worked on the level that he ground his own flour.

“Hey, shop keep!” John called out to his friend. Even when they were down, the Get’em gang was always up on each other with jokes made at personal expense. The cream colored earth pony’s head turned slowly to John’s voice.

“Whatcha need bro?” His voice carried an outstanding amount of his exhaustion. The pony’s body showed it too, there were heavy bags under his eyes and his steps were shaky. He had lost a lot of sleep to insomnia. John caught on, his friend was hiding something.

John wasn’t going to have it. His friend was having trouble, his friend needed help. Secrets are cool, but not when they’re fucking with you. He may not want help but, by golly, he’s getting it! “Hey, Grindah, whats up man?” John said nonchalantly.

“Huh, oh, sorry bro. I’m just really tired, is all.” The pony yawned. John didn’t buy it. Grindah could sleep through finals in high school, and occasionally did. If he’s having sleep issues, then there is something wrong in the most hardcore way.

“Dude, you are the worst liar ever. I know you too well. What’s up?” John moved into full accusation mode. He wasn’t going to have his friends go alone trough troubles. His friend sighed.

“You remember Noob?” The name alone had memories flooding back. He was his best friend, they were hanging out well before they started the Get’em Gang, he was the closest thing they had to a leader. They were as close as two friends could be. John silently acknowledged Grindah. “He’s in trouble...”

“Wait, what kind of trouble? How come he didn’t contact me?” John felt wounded. Grindah was Noob’s second closest friend, and was picked over him.

The pony picked up on John’s distress. “Hey, we thought you were dead, remember? I thought I was seeing a ghost when you first walked in my shop. He’s in trouble with the HLF in New York. He knew I was in contact with you, but he didn’t have your info. He said something about reciprocation for the ‘dog incident’ whatever that means.” Goddammit. I knew that’d come back to bite me in the ass.

“What does the HLF HQ want with Noob of all people? I mean, no offense, but he’s kinda the craziest and periodically retarded person I know. Lots of fun, he is, but damn.” John was quite confused. If he’s calling in the Dog Incident, it must be serious...

“It didn’t say.” His friend shrugged. Or at least John thought it was a shrug. I need to hang with ponies more... “All I know is that he’s in trouble. I... I have some sleep to catch up on... if you don’t mind.” John motioned him to go off.

Azure had been watching the exchange in silence and finally, after several short moments, decided to ask, “What’s that all about, dad?” He posed, tilting his head in confusion.

“That,” John swallowed the last donut hole, “is us going on a road trip to New York, boy-o.” He stood up and left the shop, Azure followed after a momentary hesistation.

“You do realize that doesn’t explain a single thing, right?” Azure stated more then asked as he caught up to his father.

“Well, he was my best friend for about eight years, and I owe him big time for a favor done a while back. He’s called me up on it so we’re going.” John explained.

A confused look spread across his face. “What did he do that you gotta drag yourself and your son to the other side of the country?”

John remembered the events that constituted the ‘Dog Incident’ as it was called by those unfortunate enough to present for them. He tried to hide his shudder. “Something you should never, ever know about. Ever. If he tries to bring it up, leave.” He gritted through his teeth at the memory of his past shame.

“Bu-” Azure started before he was interjected.

“No Buts. Butts are for pooping. Trust me on this Azure. Its a part of my life no one should know about. I don’t want to know about it and I’m the guy who did it.” John spoke quickly, trying to keep his stomach down.

They arrived at the apartment, and john started packing immediately. “Go get your good saddlebags and a duffel bag. Pack whatever you need. We leave tomorrow.” John dead panned.

Azure stomped. “You said you’d teach me to fly four days ago! You haven’t even done anything for that yet.” Azure was mad. No, Azure was pissed, furious, John had never seen him this angry. It seemed he had finally had enough of his fathers procrastination. His dad was running off, dragging him along, breaking promises. “I’m sick of not being able to fly. I’m sick of being afraid to talk about flight. You said you would help! Now you’re just running off to New York!”

John dropped what he was doing. What do I say? What should one say in this situation? ‘I’m looking for potion so I can personally give you lessons?’ ‘I’m working on it’?’ ‘Shut up?’ Christ... Lets go with this. John knelt down to Azure. “Azure, I’m looking at professional flight coaches and how they teach. I said I will do it. I need your trust. The man in trouble has helped me with more than I care to say and now its time I do the same for him. He needs my help. Trust me Azure, I haven’t forgotten.”

The pegasus shifted and appeared to be in deep thought for a moment.. “Fine. On one condition. No more delays once this, whatever it is, is over.” He demanded. John dwelled on the proposal.

“Fine, I’ll see what I can do. But you have to start school when we get back. Now go pack.” John spoke with an ultimatum in his voice. Azure seemed to accept this and went to his room to pack. John moved up to his room. This better be worth it Noob. Now what to pack for myself? If he’s calling in that favor, I’m going to need some weapons, can’t go wrong with emergency rations, some basic survival gear wouldn’t be out of place either. HLF is involved, so something will need to be done with Azure. Maybe as a pretend prisoner? I should bring some rope in that case.

John stared at an old rifle that his dad used in the last great war, the war on terror as they called it, and a gravity knife with a four and a half-inch blade. Seeing the old rifle reminded John of his own father. The only good thing the old man did for me was when he left me these. I don't like them but sometimes you have to deal with the hand you got. The old man had hardly a sober moment or a kind acknowledgement. He was known more to his harsh hand than kind words. John sighed and shuddered at the memory off his father. What would he say if he could see me today? Prepared to go to battle with his old gear. John lingered on the horrid thought for a moment before dismissing it. He’s gone now. No use thinking about it.

He packed them in his bag, and proceeded to do so with the other supplies he imagined he’d need. Wait a minute... Does Azure even know how to pack? Oh god. I better check on him. John made his way to Azure’s room. He looked around the room, it was a far cry from the cot on the ground he and Azure shared on his first night here, the wall was more posters and trinkets than paint. A majority of them were for the Wonderbolts, John made a mental note to take Azure to a show sometime. The young pegasus had a layout on his bed consisting of a two books, a few comics, a portable game system (How does he even use it?), and a wonderbolt game for said system.

“Is that all you’re bringin’?” John asked with a bit of worry. Azure answered with a confused look. “If there's one thing my father taught me, its be prepared. You might want to bring a sleeping bag and some food just in case the truck breaks down or some unforeseeable event occurs.” John sighed.

“Well dad, I figured that's your problem being the parent and all. Also, I really doubt that the truck will break down, its older than you and still in mint condition. Either way, the trip shouldn’t be more than a week or two.” Never looking up at John, instead looking for more stuff to bring.

“Bah. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so if it happens.” John dismissed. He re-examined the posters on the wall. A good number were for the Wonderbolts, a majority of the remainder for pony bands and musicians. What caught John’s eye was the what the last few were. They were posters of stallions in various poses. I may not have much experience with ponies and their culture, but that would seem to be a centerfold poster. Why does my son have centerfold stallions on his wall? Isn’t he a bit... young for that? Could he... nah. You know what? Fuck it. I’m going in. “Azure, what’s the deal with these posters?” John prepared for the fallout.

“Hm? I know you’re still human and all dad, but I know you’ve heard of the Wonderbolts.” Azure seemed genuinely confused.

“Not... Not those posters...”

“Oh, those are just some bands I like dad. I’ll bring their CDs so we can listen to them on the way!” Azure beamed, happy his father was taking notice of his interests.

John coughed. It was getting pretty awkward on his part. “The um... The other posters...”

Azure figured out which ones he meant. “Oh. Those posters. It’s the Stallions of the Wonderbolts poster series, next month they’re putting out the first one of the mares. It’s supposed to be Spitfire.”

“Oh thank god. For a moment I thought. Oh man... that was close.” John let out a sigh of relief.

“What was close?” Azure asked, curious.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. I’m pretty tuckered out from events. I'm going to bed. Don’t stay up too late Azure.” John walked to his room. “Oh Jesus, for a moment there I thought, oh man.” John flopped onto his bed, set his alarm, and passed out. Tomorrow his ‘adventure’ would start.

_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_NOTES:

First and foremost, Thanks to windchaser or this may have never materialised. Also for editing.

Out of fucking nowhere, the sub plot.

Collectibles Posters. Yeah. fun times.

I hope you guys like the concept of the Get’Em Gang, because we will be meeting these crazies at an accelerated rate.

As always, thoughts, concerns, ideas, what you’d like to see. I’m going to try to put a cameo in each update from here on. So post ‘em in the current TCB thread or email me at KrassMcWriter@gmail.com or if your interested in a cameo.

An Azure Future Part 7:

Roadtrip.

I find it both depressing and exciting that I wrote 7 parts...

John Norris woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. He checked his watch, it was five in the morning. Lets get this show on the road. John grabbed a few of his bags and made his way to the stairs. He paused at Azure’s room. The alarm John had set up in his room was blaring. Goddammit. It should get him up eventually. John continued down to his truck and threw the bags in the bed. After two more trips John had the truck packed.

John went to check on Azure. The first thing he noticed was the alarm’s blaring electric buzz was no longer in the air. John opened the door. The alarm he gave Azure was smashed and in shambles. Well, fuck. Too bad I don’t have a watergun. Note to self: buy super soaker.

“Azure, get up!” Bellowed John. Azure had slept in. John had already packed the truck with various supplies and the only thing preventing them for leaving, was Azure. The pegasus shifted under the sheets and groaned. Okay then, lets do it your way.

John carefully grabbed the corners of the sheet on the bed, taking care to not wake Azure, and with one sudden movement pulled it up, forming a sack containing the young pegasus. Azure instantly became fully aware and started thrashing about inside the makeshift sack.

“Dear Luna on the moon! What the hay dad?!” Azure swore as he struggled.

“We are going. Now.” John stated, walking down the stairs.

“Can, I at least walk now? I’m pretty sure I’m awake now.” Azure had given up on breaking free from the sheet-sack John had him trapped in.

“Your walking privileges are been revoked. You are now my sack pony. I shall keep you in the sack accordingly due to your new status. We shall go everywhere with you in sack. You shall never leave sack. Sack is new home now. You will eat in the sack. You will sleep in sack You with urinate in the sack. You will defecate from sack, but I recommend not doing it in sack. You will love sack. The sack is all there ever was, all there ever will be. You will try to recall a life before that sack and you will see that it was always sack. Hope is useless. resistance is futile. Look upon the sack and despair!” John spoke, imitating a strong Austrian accent. He was now outside of the apartment complex.

“Dude, what?”

“Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!” John screeched in response.

“You are so random.” Azure replied with true concern in his voice.

“Thats mister random to you boy. We are here.” John swung the sheet-sack over his shoulder and opened his truck, putting the sheet-sack in the passenger seat. He walked around the front, got in the driver seat and started the engine.

Azure shrugged off the sheet and pushed it off the seat. “Ya know that was pretty much unnecessary, right? I have perfectly good legs and all.” Azure cracked his neck from side to side to accentuate his point.

John shrugged. “Now you have a story to tell your kids. No need to thank me, you’re quite welcome.” He put the car into drive and started got on the road. “Now lets get going! It says the fifty seven north for nine miles, which turns into the sixty. From there I get on the interstate fifteen for almost five hundred miles. Then the forty for over a thousand miles. Damn. The seventy eight, and then we’re there pretty much. ”

John got on the first freeway. “now, going the speed limit average of seventy five would take forty six hours to get there. Good thing is, there are no cops anymore, and therefore, the whole thing is an autobahns and this truck may be older than me, but it’s seen some upgrades, this baby can easily hold speeds upwards of 200 miles per hour and has a driving AI to boot. we should be there before midnight, considering food and restroom stops.” After hitting a few buttons on the touch screen in the dash, the truck accelerated tremendously and John put his feet on the dash. “It must’ve sucked to have to do this manually for almost fifty hours.” He boasted.

The truck fell silent and remained so for the next hour when Azure spoke up. “So what are we doing again?”

“My best friend has called in a very old favor. He helped me with the ‘Dog Incident’.” John explained.

“What was the ‘Dog Incident’ anyways?” Azure asked furrowing his brow in confusion over what it could possible entail to drag his father across the country

John shuddered at the memory. “All I will say on the subject is that I wasn’t always a nice person.”

Another uncomfortable silence followed only to be broken by Azure once more. “Hey dad, where did mom go?” The question hit John like a sack of hammers and his heart skipped. He had dreaded the day Azure would ask about Catherine.

How do you tell a child his mother was murdered? It’s not going to be pretty. Best just give it straight. “Azure, you are familiar with mankind's long kept tradition of hate and violence more often than not based on nothing?” Azure nodded in response, a worried look on his face.  “Well, in the letter you gave me it explained that she and your grandmother were on their way to check on me, make sure I was still there, they were attacked by some human liberation front fanatics and beaten savagely. Your mother didn’t make it. Your grandmother died a few days later from wounds.” The silence that followed hurt worse than speaking.

Azure’s features hardened, “So...” Azure finally spoke after a long silence, His voice was shaking, “Mom’s... gone? Forever?”

John’s heart shattered at the sight of Azure. He clenched his jaw to the point where it caused significant pain to keep his emotions steady. “Yeah kid, I’m afraid she’s gone. You know what though Azure?”

“Huh?” the reply was barely audible over the dull sound of the engine as the pony fought back tears.

“I shared some of the best moments and years of my life with your mother. I knew her better than she did, and she knew me better than I did. She was all I wasn’t and wanted to be, a truly happy and outgoing individual. If there is one thing I know, its that she would want us to be happy. Its okay to be sad though, don’t get me wrong, but don’t let it get  in the way of your life. I wasted the last four years of my life like that...” The truck rolled on, much like life itself.

The silence perfectly accentuated the mid-morning scenery, somewhere in new mexico, the wide fields and cliffs were even more desolate now that the few houses and towns that dotted along them had long since been abandoned.

After a very extensive amount of time, Azure broke the silence,“I think... I think I understand. If we spend all our time and energy focusing on how much we miss her, we’ll be letting her down by not living.”

“Yes. Exactly.” He seems to have taken it well. He’s pretty rational for being so young. John checked his progress. They were making good time, better than he expected. They were a third of the way across the country. John decided to take a nap.

John woke up a few hours later. First things first, progress. Damn, almost there now. Oh man I really got to pee. Pee and poop. “Pull over at the next stop with a restroom.” He directed the onboard AI. The screen said it would arrive shortly.

John looked over at the passenger seat, Azure was sound asleep. John shook him gently, “Hey Azure, we’re pulling over to take a rest stop. If you need to use the facilities, now’s the time, we’ll be in New York soon enough.’

“Okay.” Azure replied simply. He stretched out his legs and yawned deeply. They arrived at a convenience store a few minutes later and exited the truck  The pair walked inside, much to John’s surprise, the store was active, and a pony behind the counter welcomed John to the store. John went to the restroom first, and when he finished, Azure walked into the small water closet. When John exited the restroom, he saw something he hadn’t seen on good terms in a long time. Another human.

The man had shaggy unkempt hair, and was just a bit shorter than John. It looked like he hadn’t had a decent meal for a long time. He was the first to speak. “Are you  going to Fort Stillwater as well?”

John was in shock. Last time he had seen another human at all wasn’t in the best of situations, the last time he actually had a real conversation with a human was months ago. “What’s that?” were the first words out of his mouth.

“You haven’t heard? The International Human Survival Association. They’ve made strongholds for humans all over the globe. A last ditch survival measure. I’m Isaac by the way, Isaac Hamilton.” The man claimed, extending his hand for a handshake.

John reciprocated. “I’m John Norris, been quite some time since I’ve seen another human on good terms. Can’t say I’ve heard of that organization before.”

“Hey, you should come with me and my friend, and join up with the IHSA.” Isaac offered.

“Actually-” John started, when Azure came out from the bathroom.

“Hey dad, who’s this?” The pegasus asked upon seeing the other human.

“Did that pony just call you ‘dad’? Did you... you know... with a pony?” Isaac questioned.

“Oh. Oh God no. His mother got ponified when she was pregnant. I’d never do.. that with a pony.” John explained.

There was a honking outside, “Oh, thats Will, I should go now.” With that Isaac left.

Nice to know there’s still some good humans left. John grabbed some snacks and checked out.

John and Azure left the store got back in the truck. John started it up and got on the road, driving manually. Twenty minutes later, They were pulling into a parking lot across from a building that proclaimed itself simply as ‘HLF HQ’. “We’re here.” On that note John exited the truck and faced the building, unsure of what he would find within. It was time to save his friend from the hands of mad men.

_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_NOTES:

ALL SHALL LOOK UPON THE SACK AND DESPAIR!!!

Yes, those are the actual directions more or less.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&xhr=t&q=new+york+new+york&cp=12&qe=bmV3IHlvcmsgbmV3&qesig=UFaR7hVkofukdtG_t8sIBA&pkc=AFgZ2tkKG_cyR1d1jYz45QIcc-ICr995NdY8WySbZMxE4Z1Tr7yDWxlnKq2OY5G5FhlBHS6BGFQA7BcxGK8QhWEiQFaJmX_fIA&safe=off&biw=1280&bih=622&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xCSSpageCSS0b8f06e177fe62,New+York,+NY&gl=us&ei=zlkFTunuOOX00gG-5bmCCw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQ8gEwAA

Isaac Hamilton from LMS. Thought it’d be a believable mesh to have them meet like that.

For an austrian accent see The Terminator

Not much for notes. I enjoyed the sack bit a little too much.

I made the trip so quick because I didn’t want 2+ parts on a roadtrip.

As always, thoughts, concerns, ideas, what you’d like to see. I’m going to try to put a cameo in each update from here on. So post ‘em in the current TCB thread or email me at KrassMcWriter@gmail.com or if your interested in a cameo.

An Azure Future part 8

John Norris stared at the building in front of him that boasted its purpose, the headquarters of the human liberation front. A more prideful bunch of madmen has never before been gathered in such multitude before and quite likely never again... The human noted to himself.  He grabbed the rope from the bench in the truck, pausing to prepare himself mentally for what he had to do. "Hey Azure, I'm going to need you to stay here." John informed Azure.

"What, why?"  The young pegasus asked concerned.

John got a knee and bent down, lowering himself to the pony’s level. “The men in that building are the of worst sort imaginable. They are closer to monsters than men. I don’t know what horrors they get up to in there, and it’s better if you don’t either. So please, stay here, and keep low.”

John walked across the noticeably empty streets. >Where is everybody?< He scanned up and down the street, as far as he could see, there were no cars. His truck was also the only vehicle in the otherwise desolate parking lot.

He reached the large glass door of the HLF headquarters. Trying the door handle, he found it was unlocked. Stepping into what seemed to be the reception room, he noticed that inside was as desolate as the street, even the front desk was unmanned.

"Hello?" John ventured.

Immediately the loudspeakers came to life. "AI Model: HK7. Serial: HK2017. Copyrighted and patented by Intelligent Designs. Human life form detected. Message playback initiated."

There was a moment of silence before the message played. "Hello," A man's voice came over the speakers. "this is Frank Dunland, leader of the HLF. If you can hear me, know this: the HLF is no more. For years we have fought the demons invading our planet, but we no longer have the numbers. Thus we have birthed the International Human Survival Association. Where we WILL persevere!" The speakers played a few seconds of static before the AI informed John it was the end of the message.

Well fuck, Noob might not even be here! Maybe I can find out where they moved him at least. But if no one else is here, I might as well bring Azure. John left the empty building and crossed the street that was just as desolate. "Hey Azure!" John called, a pegasus colt with a dark steely mane and a coat that took after his name poked his head out of the bed of the truck.

"What's up Dad?" The young pony queried, standing up to come into full view.

John closed the rest of the distance and leaned into the bed, “Hey Azure, want to go into the desolate ruins of a place that belonged to a group of people who’d kill us on site if they were here?” His only response was an estranged look. “C’mon kiddo! It will be fun!”

Azure squinted his eyes and cocked his head slightly, feigning a look of worry “Are you positive you’re alright?”

“Oh shut it.” John snapped. “Now come on, I can use an extra set of han-uh, hooves.” He nodded towards the HLF HQ building. The azure pegasus rolled his icy eyes and hopped out of the bed to black-top. “Thanks boy-o.” The pair headed across the street and through the glass doors.

The message played again as John entered with Azure. "Are you sure he's even here? The message said their gone..." Azure asked, unsure why his dad was still here.

"Hey, do you see that on the front desk? I know you ponies are short but you should still be able to see it."

Azure examined the object in question. It was nothing special, just a typical receptionist desk. Chestnut brown with a fine glossy shine, a computer sat on it with a few papers. It was a post unmanned. Then it hit Azure, "They didn't pack up and leave, they abandoned ship!"

John smirked. "Exactly. We might be able to at least find out if and where they moved any prisoners." John looked around. "Now where would I put a pony that I never wanted to see the light of day again?"

"A sack."

John shook his head, "C'mon, it’s serious time." Azure gave him a look of disbelief. "I can be serious!" This only intensified the look. "...Moving on, I think the lower levels would be a good spot to start."

"Are you sure you even know what you’re doing?"

"Not really, but I'm doing it anyway!" John beamed. "Now... which way is down?" John looked around and found a reasonable source of directions, a fire exit map. Stairs were just down the hall to the left.

After a short walk to the staircase, John walked inside and noted that the stairs went far down. There were at least seven basement levels. "Well ain't that shit." John stated, looking down with a twinge of worry.

"So, what do we do now?" Asked the blue pegasus next to him.

"I guess we just start going floor by floor." John responded with a shrug. Thus the odd pair started the painstaking task of checking every floor for signs of prisoners.

Two flights per level. They made their way down the first set. John opened the door. The room revealed was dark, lockers lined the walls to the left and right, with a small cluster against the back wall. There was a security uniform on a hanger on a locker. Out of curiosity, John walked inside. Most of the lockers had security uniforms, towels, and civilian clothes. A few would have a pill bottle, probably steroids, or a picture of a family.

John was most curious in the small patch of lockers at the end. Half the size of all the other lockers by all means, the design itself was of sterner stuff. While the other lockers were crisscrossing strips of metal, the ones at the end had octagons made of thick steel. The gaps were also smaller than their larger compartments. Most importantly, John could see there was something still there and the door was slightly cracked.

John approached the locker and opened it. Inside was a single forgotten shotgun and three boxes of ammunition. John stared at it a moment, contemplating on taking it. If they left a weapon and ammunition on the very first sub-level, there was no telling what the lower ones held. It might come in handy. He remembered the last time he used a gun.

His father had decided that John should learn how to use the said weapon efficiently, as the son of an old soldier. He took him out to a desolate spot in the desert, miles away from all civilization. The set up bottles, propane cans, fruits, and various other things that the shooting of which gave a nice effect.

"Dig the rifle into your shoulder, focus, line up the sights, control your breathing, relax, pull the trigger slowly, don't jerk it. It should surprise you when it fires." His father instructed.

John did his best to keep the pointers in mind as he practiced the bead of the rifle and heirloom onto a watermelon. His target was maybe fifty meters away and the gun felt heavy in his hands. He pulled the trigger steadily with a slow methodicalness.

The gun rocked into John's shoulder suddenly and forcefully. He imagined he'd have a bruise to show for it, though this turned out fanciful. John could still see the effect the low caliber weapon had on his target. He had fired a .22 hollow point into the dead center of the now decimated fruit. There were no scraps left of his victim bigger than a good sized bite.

John shuddered a little at the thought of what such a thing could do to a live body and his father congratulated him at a well done first shot.

John recovered from the brief memory and decided that whatever horrors remained below, if there were any, he would deal with without the gun. "There's nothing here Azure, let's go to the next level." Azure just shifted his shoulders in what could only be a shrug and the pair left the room with the weapon.

Down another two flights to the second sub-level. John opened the door and revealed a room filled with high tech equipment, monitors, and other things used in the pursuit of science. "Wow... I wonder what they were researching..." gawked the ever curious Azure.

"Let's find out." John walked to the only computer left, it was unhooked but in mere moments John had it up and running. "Let's see..." John opened up the computer's data files. To his dismay and Azure's disappointment, they were wiped clean. "Damn." John swore.

"I wonder..." After a few moments of thought and some of John's special brand of techno-wizardry later, he was able to recover a single corrupted file. It mentioned something about an immunity to magic, at least as best as he could figure.

"That's stupid, how can anyone be immune to magic?" Azure posed.

"Kid, thaumaturgical studies are not my strong suit." John shook his head in surrender to the lacking of the requested knowledge. "Let's get moving, I don't want to stay here too long."

Another pair of stairs, another room. A room of which the very contents and nature would baffle John and Azure to no end.

"Who the hell build a break room three stories underneath the earth?!"

Azure just stared at the room in front of him. There was a pool table, snack and drink machines, a large television, plush couches, there was even presence of a bar! Words finally found the steely maned pegasus. "But... why?!"

"Maybe its for the people who work on the lower levels?" John tried to reason.

"But... the snack machine has ALFALFA in it!"

"Maybe it’s stocked by ponies?"

"But that makes even less sense! It’s THE HLF headquarters!"

"I think we need to leave before this room summons Cthulu through its total impossibleness, or we go mad." John rubbed his temples messaging his oncoming migraine.

"I am right behind you dad." Azure agreed.

The pair made their way from the overwhelming contradictions that the room held to the fourth sub-level. Immediately John knew they had found the right area. There were what was undoubtedly holding cells. What John heard next cost him a good nights sleep and some faith in his species.

There was a faint clopping of hooves. The human liberation front had left their prisoners to die. John was filled with an unparalleled rage.

He wasted no time in finding the controls for the door switches. The desk staring down the aisle had a built in touch control. He hit the screen to turn it on and waited as the machine booted up. The infuriating seconds ticked by as John waited on the machine.

Finally, the machine finished loading. John swore, it needed a passcode. John guessed at what he thought were likely entries: We will prevail, their motto and In God's Own Image, their older motto. After both failed, John had to resort to back door methods. These had their own dangers as there could be technological traps.

He got in, seemingly avoiding any security protocols. With a few swift and precise flicks of his fingers, John unlocked all the doors. Then all hell broke loose. A turret unfolded out of the ceiling and began firing. John scooped up Azure and shielded him and not a moment too soon as three rounds grazed John's left arms bicep.

>Shit! Now what?!< John's mind went into a panic as it tried to come up with a plan, any plan. Suddenly, John remembered the pre-recorded message kept by the AI. The AI developed by Intelligent Designs, the company that John built his wealth of off. If that was a House Keeper mark II, then this was most likely the Guardian Mark III.

Back when the company was still around and he was in charge, he insisted on an universal override code hardwired into each and every AI. The code was in every AI up to the Mark IV series, the last one developed before John pulled out. It was better than sitting there getting shot at.

John took a deep breath and bellowed, "OVERRIDE COMMAND: CATHERINE 12-05-20-37!" There was a long, pregnant pause and John held his breath and hoped.

"... OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. GUARDIAN MARK IV STANDING DOWN." The metallic voice rang before the unit powered down.

John released his breath. I got lucky. If they had a slightly better budget or resource... "Hey, you alright Azure?" John asked the shaken colt. "Azure?"

"I-I'm fine." Azure managed. He may have lived with a human for almost a month now and become desensitized to many a harsh thing, but getting shot at was something else. "Your arm!" Azure noticed the three bullet wounds on John's arm, and they were bleeding quite profusely.

The adrenaline that had been coursing through John up till that point faded, and John found his arm to be in a good deal of searing pain. "Ffffffffffff-" John gritted through his teeth.

John needed to pack the wound immediately or risk fainting from blood loss. Lacking gauze, he'd have to improvise. He took his shirt off and ripped a long thin piece from it. He took the remainder of the shirt, balled it up and put it atop the wounds. He then placed the long strip over the makeshift packing and tied it as tight as possible. It would do. For now.

"I'm good Azure, see?" He waved the limb about to show that the bleeding had slowed to a near stand-still. "Now, let's save some ponies." >Or what's left of them.<

Azure seemed to brighten a little, "Okay."

"Hey, stay here while I go gather everyone, okay?" Azure nodded in agreement.

John moved into the hallway. Steeling himself, he dared to poke into the first room. The smeel of fecal matter, urine and death stung John's nostrils. There in the room was what may have once been a pegasus. Its wings were missing but stubs remained, it was shriveled and dried, a husk. John fought the urge to vomit and removed himself as quickly as possible.

At the second doorway, he prayed for mercy for what he would find. Looking in it was blessedly empty. He moved to the third one.

He went in, there, on the floor was a unicorn with a shattered horn. John would of thought the poor wretch to have expired if its broken form didn't utter the most haunting moan at the sight of the human. John felt his heart give at the sight. He contemplated for a second on what to do.

He picked up the unicorn as gently as he could and carried it over to Azure.

"Please... don't hurt me... I never... did... an-" It managed through its immense pain.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." John gingerly set the unicorn down by Azure. "Azure, keep him company. I'll be right back." Azure only nodded solemnly at the acceptance of the task.

John went back to his own grim task. He checked the fourth room. He suppressed his gag reflex as he saw a re-enactment of the first room with an earth pony this time. He moved onto the fifth room, once more an unbearable pungent stench attacked him.

>How can people do such things? How does a man do THIS to another living creature and live with himself?< John boggled at the seemingly endless capacity of evil some humans enjoyed. He was no stranger to cruelty himself, but he learned from his mistakes.

The sixth room was a bittersweet sight. There was no corpse and very little smell at least. That was the good part. However the wingless pegasus cowering in corner, wasn't such a welcome sight. The whimpering plead didn't help either "St-stay away! Please... no more..."

"Shhh...  I'm not going to hurt you..." John spoke softly as he slowly approached with his arms out and his hands open.

"L-liar... that's what all you humans say. Then you be-beat me, o-or stab, or th-the machine." The former flyer squirmed backwards against the corner.

"It's okay, the bad people are gone. I'm here to rescue you." John was steadily approaching and was now a little more than halfway across the small room.

"Wh-why would a human ever help me?" The battered creature's eyes twitched around the room, looking for the non-existent escape.

"I'm not like them." John stated as comfortingly as he could. The pony seemed to relax and John quickly embraced it while its defenses were down. The pegasus seized up at first and then struggled madly against John.

John stayed there, just holding the poor pony. After a few moments of fighting the pony finally realized what this was. A hug. The pegasus relaxed and placed its head on John's shoulder.

"Can you walk?" The pegasus nodded. "My son is at the end of the hall, go wait with him. I'll be right back after I check these last four rooms." The pony nodded once more and walked down the hall to meet Azure, dragging its hooves.

The seventh room marked the second unoccupied cell. John let out a sigh of relief. All of which fled the moment John looked inside the eighth room.

All the various smells the previous rooms were present, accompanied by a few new ones. It smelled strongly of burnt flesh and hair. There was another scent, very faint, but could only be registered as sex. The scene grisly. A good two thirds of the former ponys form burnt and black. Its hind legs were broken and out at odd angles. Its chest was flayed, organs on display. And the face! It was left untouched. The look of complete horror, pain, dismay and sorrow painted upon the perfect visage would haunt John until the end of his days.

John lost the battle against his stomach. Puking, John stumbled out of the room. He activated the individual controls, shutting the door. John heaved again. He took long deep breaths to regain his composure. After doing so, he moved to the second to last room.

"John? Is that you?" The fuschia earth pony queried weakly. He had found his friend. Alive at that.

"Its me bro. Can you walk?" A slight nod. "Meet the others at the front. I've got one more room to check." The pony got up weakly and headed to the instructed spot.

John took a deep breath and headed into the last room. Empty. Maybe there was a kind and loving deity.

John turned back and headed down the hallway. The closed door catching his eye and invoking the images contained within into his mind. He continued to the end where Azure waited. "Everpony ready?" Three solemn nods. "Let's go."

John picked up the unconscious unicorn and left the jail. The process of leaving the HLF HQ was a silent and somber one. Up the stairs, out the lobby, across the street.

Upon reaching his truck, he opened the back door driver side and sat the pony in it. He walked around to the other side and helped the other two malnourished ponies into the back. Azure hopped into the passenger seat on his lonesome.

John moved back to the driver's side and got in. He turned on the truck and navigation AI. "Nearest hospital." John commanded as he turned the key. Directions popped up on the front windshield. John threw the truck into drive and floored it.

Left, right, right, left. Destination on left. John whipped around the corners and drove like a mad man. He slammed his brakes pulling up to the hospital. "Azure, stay here, this won't be long." He said while getting out and grabbing the unconscious unicorn.

"Either of you wanna come? You can ride with me back to good ol' Cali." The wingless pony wanted to come surprisingly and Noob wanted to as well which was expected.

John carried the pony inside. "I found this in the old HLF HQ." He stated to the shocked receptionist pony. In seconds they had a stretcher and took away the beaten pony.

After answering a few questions, John was clear to go. They'd be sending a team to the headquarters. John went back to the car, got in the drivers and started the engine. The other two ponies he rescued were sound asleep.

"So where to dad?" asked the steely maned pegasus next to him.

"Home." His stomach grumbled. "Right after we eat, that is." John smiled weakly. He put the truck in drive and set off.

An Azure Future Part 10

John Norris loomed over a snoozing Azure Wind, his shadow cast over the young pegasus. “Heh heh heh...” He laughed inwardly as he prepped his new super soaker. Lets see you if you sleep through your alarm again. I know I sure didn’t. Let’s give him one last chance.  “Hey Azure!” There was no response. Time to super soak his shit. John pulled the trigger. A jet of water drenched Azure. The effect was immediate.

“What the hay dad?!”

John released another torrent.

“Ease up dad! I’m awake! I’m awake!” Azure exclaimed while moving with a purpose out of his bed.

John lit a cigarette and threw a faded black and red trimmed backpack at Azure. “You start school today. This is also the fifth and last time you’ve slept through your alarm. Unless of course you like being woken up with the super soaker.”

Azure examined the backpack. It was of an obvious human design with two large straps for arms. “Dad. This is for humans. I can’t use this thing.” He noted while holding it as if it was contaminated.

John snorted in response. “That is why it has straps you fool.” He adjusted the straps for a pony his size and placed the backpack on Azure. It fit well enough, but the design looked funny on Azure. John stifled a laugh, “Okay, I’ll get you some new saddlebags this weekend. But this’ll work for now.”

“It’s actually surprisingly comfortable. I think I’ll roll with this.” Azure shifted the backpack around into a comfortable position.

“Well thats good.” John took another drag of his cigarette. “Breakfast is on the table, c’mon down when you’ve dried off.” John turned and walked down the stairs. He plopped on the couch and turned on the TV. He flipped to the news. Another debate was on. Usually John would change the channel, but the identity of the debaters caught his attention. It was an old friend representing the HLF, known to John as Tall Guy back in high school, and none other than Grey Crusader representing the PER. John turned up the volume.

“...There were no survivors.” The newspony beamed, ever happy to be spitting headlines. “Now we go to a live interview of The founder of the Human Liberation Front and the founder of the Ponfication for Earth’s Rebirth for their thoughts on the closing of all conversion bureaus  and recalling of all the ponification serum. We go live to Mr. Frank Dunland your thoughts on this Frank?”

“You will address me as Mr. Dunland.” The man shot a glare at the camera.

“Sorry. Mr. Dunland, what do you think about the closing of all the conversion bureaus?” The newspony corrected.

The man that John once considered a friend had a pleased look on his face. “As a representative of the H.L.F., I am quite pleased at the turn of events. Maybe now, between the founding of the International Human Survival Association and the halting of ponifications, the human race may once again take up their mantles as the owners and sole proprietors of Earth.” The smugness in his face and tone made John want to punch him square in the face.

Azure had finally made his way down stairs, he grabbed the vegetarian breakfast and joined his father. “Whatcha watching?” he asked.

“Two old friends go at it. Shhhhh.” John was immersed in the debate.

The newspony was back on the television. “Well, good luck with that Mr. Groebirch. Now, Grey Crusader, can I call you Grey?” It switched over to a grey pony who had a victoriously waving white flag that had the latin word ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici’ in it on his flank that John was all too familiar with, who simply nodded in response. “Good. Now Gray, your group’s goal, if I remember correctly, is a complete character foil of the HLF. Consisting entirely of ponies, you aim to ponify and ‘cleanse’ humanity. What are your plans now that the conversion bureaus are closed and the serum recalled?”

“Well Mr. Front Page, PER retains the ability to produce serum if we so choose. We will continue to cleanse the earth of its filth for its eventually rebirth at the hands of the goddesses.

“So am I to understand that PER still has ponification serum?” The newspony replied.

“No comment.”  The reply was as simple as it was ominous.

The newspony cleared his throat. “So any last remarks?”

“Superabimus, we shall prevail!” The human exclaimed with passion. Grey just shook his head, respectfully declining.

“All right, that wraps this up.In other news the human race now stands a feeble one millio-” The newspony started, before John shut off the television. Well fuck. He cracked his neck and sighed.

He got up off the couch and grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter. “Come on son, once more to the truck-mobile. Then onwards to school.” John continued, not even bothering to check if Azure was behind him. The only confirmation he had was the sound of his hooves against the floor.

The stairs were mostly empty, except for some of the staff, who were about their various duties. The pair went down at a moderate pace reaching the lobby in two and a half minutes. He walked outside and was greeted by a rare sight, an overcast sky. John noted the occasion but kept moving to his truck.

He hit the unlock button on his truck fob, to which the truck chirped in response. They covered the rest of the short distance and John opened the driver’s door. Sitting down he leaned over and opened the door for Azure. “Hop in kiddo, I got candy.”

Azure chuckled at poor joke, “You’re so silly.” Then jumped into the car. “So where are we going?” The young pony asked.

“I told you, you’re going to school.” John replied while turned the keys in the ignition and the engine roared to life.

“Well, duh. But where? Is it down the block? Other side of town? Whats the school called? Give me something to work with here.” Azure snapped.

John put the truck in drive and started down the street. “Its about three miles from here, it’s called Valencia Park, which is where I went when I was your age. Its a nice little place.” He explained as the truck moved down the empty street, garnering looks from the various ponies on the sidewalk. For the first time. John didn’t mind it.

The truck was silent, but only for a moment when Azure asked a troubled question, “What if none of the other ponies like me?”

John had expected this. He recalled a speech his own father gave him long ago, whenever he needed advice. “Well boy-o, I’m going to give a speech that is an old Norris family tradition, passed down from father to son. Every generation adding to it. One day, you will tell it to your son and add your own bit. Here goes,” John cleared his throat.

“If they don’ like you, that’s their own damn problem. You’re you. That’ all ya are and all ya can be. You can either embrace it, run from it, or fight it. You can also kill yourself, but if ya do that I’ll bring ya back to kill you again. Don’t be afraid to get into a scrap, but try words first for god’s sake.  If it does come to a fight, be sure to win, or failing that, take it like a man and don’t give up till he’s done. Don’t go around starting shit neither, nobody likes an asshole who goes around starting shit. Its okay to be afraid. Stand on your own two feet.  It’s not okay to let fear stop you. Being afraid and going on in spite of that is the definition of courage. As for recreational drugs, if you got to do it, don’t let it get in the way of life. If you love someone, go for it, disregard what others may say. Love is rare enough and precious in all forms. Don’t abuse the one’s you-”

“Dad.” Azure interrupted.

“What is it?”

“I’m going to school. Not moving out.”

John shrugged, “Tradition dictates I say the whole thing. Almost done anyways. Now where was I? Ah yes. Don’t abuse the ones you love.  One last thing, never ever betray those loyal to you. There. You were that close. That betrayal bit was mine.” John hit himself on the chest at the mention of his contribution, obviously proud.

“So what purpose does that speech serve besides killing time and advice?” Azure asked, sounding a little short.

“Well you forgot about being nervous for starters, and second adding to that speech is the step to manhood in this family my little pegasus. Hold onto your ass!” John spun the wheel all the way to the left, throwing Azure against the door and causing the tires to squeal.

“Holy hay!” Azure exclaimed while pressed firmly against the door. The truck pulled into the old school and into one of the many available parking spots.

“We’re here.” The human stated simply.

“I noticed.” Azure retorted while regaining composure. Azure looked out the window, all sorts of ponies his age were going in through the gate. His wings fluttered out and promptly returned flush. “Hey... Can you walk me to my classroom?”

John pondered for a moment and then agreed, “Sure, why the fuck not?” He turned off the engine and threw open his door as the truck shuddered to a halt. He slammed his door, moved around the front and opened Azure’s door. The pegasus hopped out onto the cool blacktop. John threw the door closed.

“C’mon kiddo, it’s this way.” John took the lead, going through the chain link gate. “Now you are in room twenty, which if I remember correctly is...” John hesitated a took a moment to familiarize himself with his old campus. “This way?” he pointed down the hall and to the right from where they stood. He double checked mentally. “Yeah. This way. Follow me.” John once again took point motioning for Azure to follow.

He moved down the hallway and to right. A few doors down was room twenty’s propped open green door. John went into the room first, followed by Azure. The room had about fifteen desks and a teacher’s desk. A majority of the seats were taken. John was surprised to see a multitude of adult ponies in the classroom. He turned to the white board which had ‘BRING YOUR FATHER TO SCHOOL!!!’ Fuck.

“Excuse me, but are you Mr. Wind?” The teacher, a yellow earth pony with a picture of chalkboard on her flank asked.

“Uh... no. I’m John Norris.” John corrected.

“Oh, but I thought you were Azure Wind’s father.”

“I am Azure’s father.” John was confused for moment then it clicked. “This is obviously some sort of big cultural misunderstanding. I am John Norris, thats a human name, My son is a pony, so he has a pony last name in place of a hereditary one.”

“Oh, I see. Well Mr. Norris, you can have a seat back there by Forest Mint. We will begin momentarily. Azure, why don’t you introduce yourself?” The teacher motioned towards the front.

Azure looked to his father, who just shrugged and took a seat in the back. Azure shifted around a little bit. He swallowed then gave a shaky introduction, “H-hi, I’m Azure Wind. I live with my dad.”

The entire class spoke in unison, “Hi Azure Wind!” The teacher instructed Azure to take a seat, Azure complied sitting next to a deep green unicorn filly with a lighter mane of the same color. The filly shot him a bright smile which he returned weakly. If John didn't know better he'd say Azure was blushing slightly.

“John is that you?” Called an all too familiar voice.

John turned to see his old friend, Cream Baker, better known as Grindah. “No shit. What are you doing here broseph?” He beamed.

“The twins are mine.” He motioned toward two identical looking earth pony fillys.

‘No shit, you never told me.”

“You never asked, now shhh. It begins.”

The teacher walked to the front of the class and cleared her throat. The room fell silent and the teacher spoke, “Hello class, for the visitors and new folk, I’m Miss Shale Quarry I was born and a raised on a rock farm. I teach this class. Today is ‘Bring your father to school’ day. We will be having your fathers talk about what they do.” The teacher proceeded to take down a list of the other fathers names, John’s being the last. She called the first up.

A very serious looking white unicorn with vanilla folder cutie mark stepped up to the front of the class. “Hello, I am Dawn Filer.” The deep green filly next to Azure acknowledged her father with a wave. “I am an accountant. I work with numbers, organize files, handle payrolls and do various other work to keep businesses running. Anypony have any questions?” The class was dead silent. Forest Mint shuffled in her chair and her father was a bit flustered.

Shale Quarry called up the next one, An orange earth pony that looked like he could crush boulders with a half hearted buck, in fact that was his cutie mark.  “Ah’m Stonebreaker. Ah work construction.” The earth pony drawled in a southern accent. “Questions?” Two hooves shot up. “You.” Stonebreaker pointed at a young orange pegasus.

“What do you do in construction?” The pegasus asked.

“Ah usually haul around beams and clear land fer development. Ah do what’s required of me though.” He answered. “Next.”

The question came from Forest Mint whom John noticed Azure was just a little shy from full on staring at. John enjoyed an inward laugh at the sight. “What kind of things do you build?”

“All sorts o’ things, playgrounds, bakeries, houses... Whatever needs built really.” He paused. “Anypony else got a question?” The class didn’t respond. “Okay then. Guess I’ll take a seat.” The earth pony moved slowly to a seat in the back. There were only three ponies left then it was John’s turn.

The next one called up to the whiteboard was a Pegasus wearing a flight suit. “Hi!” He was bursting with energy, “I’m Blitz! I’m the captain of the local weather team!” The hooves of all four pegasi in the class instantly shot up. “Yes?” He pointed at Azure. This should be interesting.

“Exactly what does your job entail given your leadership position versus a casual member of the weather team?” Azure asked.

The well spoken question caught Blitz by surprise, obviously whatever he rehearsed did not entail such a question. “Uhhh, I mostly just either receive orders and give or pass them on to the weather team. I usually just pass on the orders from the mayor though...” The other hooves went down. Heh.

The leader of the weather team walked back to the chair set up in the back, murmuring something about ‘a tough crowd.’ Shale Quarry called up the next father, a unicorn with a yellow coat and orange mane walked up to the front of the class. “Hello, I’m Aquis. I’m a firefighter at station two.” Once again a small collection of hooves shot into the air, Azure’s among them.  “Yes?” He pointed at a pure white Unicorn filly.

“Um, how many fires have you put out?” She asked nervously.

“I’ve been involved in twelve large fires since arriving here from Equestria.” He answered.”Next question?” He asked openly. The next one came from jet black pegasus colt.

“Have you saved anypony? Like from a fire?” He asked.

The firepony looked lost in thought for a moment before he answered, “Three times. The last one was here. The other two back in Equestria. I... don’t really like talking about it...” There was a small awkward silence before Aquis spoke up once more, “Alright, one more question then.” He pointed at Azure, “Kid with the interesting questions.”

“Um, yes. I have two questions. First off is the origins of your name, is it a derivation of aqua for water, or does it come from the greek mythos slash zodiac sign of Aquarius which means water carrier?” Aquis was about to respond when Azure shot of the next question. “Also, you said you originate from Equestria. Why, may I ask, did you leave to come here?” Azure finished.

The orange maned Unicorn coughed twice into his hoof, “Um, I just like the way it sounds. I wasn’t aware that there were lines to be drawn. As for why I came out here, well, I’ve been here for two months and been involved in twelve fires. Back in Equestria I was only involved in one fire in the ten years I’ve worked there as a firepony. I was needed here more.” He answered solemnly.

“Okay, can we have the next father up here? Mister Cream Baker?” The teacher spoke quickly interjecting the downcast looking firepony.

“Hi, I’m Cream Baker and I run a baked goods shop called Top Goods. Are there any questions?” Grindah beamed. Only one hoof raised, one of the earth pony twins in the class. “Of course you would ask a question. Proceed.”

“When are you going to teach me how to cook daddy?” The filly asked.

“This isn’t the time sweetie, we can talk about this at home.”

“But daddy-” The young filly whined.

“No buts, last time you set the kitchen on fire. Your special talent is not cooking.” Grindah rubbed his face with his hoof. “Anypony else?” Silence. “Okay then. John, it’s your turn now.” He said while walking back to the seats.

Before John could get up, Shale Quarry spoke up, “We have a very special guest today as you all know, we have a human in class today!” She turned to face John. “Mr. Norris? If you’d please?” She motioned towards the chalk board.

John got up to his feet and made his way to the front of the class. He stood before a room of fourteen young ponies and six of their fathers. He cracked his neck from side to side, yawned, then stated, “Hello, I am John Norris. I used to play the stock markets way back when and became obscenely rich. I am now retired. Questions?” Thirteen hooves shot up. Shit. “From left to right, you first.” He pointed a beige earth filly.

“How do fingers work?” The young pony asked.

John was taken a little aback by the question. “Um. I do not really know how to explain it... I just use them.” He wriggled his fingers to make his point.

The next question came from a unicorn filly. “What’s it like being soooo tall?”

John laughed a little, “I’m not that tall by human standards, not by a long shot. I’ve seen plenty taller than myself. Next question?”

It came from a jet black pegasus “Just how rich are you anyways?’

John coughed dryly “Ummm... I have about a few billion bits.” The looks of envy elicited from the response were absolute. There was a short moment of silence. “So, how’s about that there next question, eh?”

“My daddy says humans are inherently evil. Are you evil?” Forest Mint asked with genuine curiosity.

“Uhhh... Nooo...” John was little weirded out by the question. “Some humans are no doubt, but then again, so are some ponies. Now to you, the honey colored earth pony.”

“Um, yes. So what do you do retired being so young and rich?” She asked a bit nervously.

“Whatever I want really. I usually just kick back with my son. I have nothing stopping me or making me do anything.” He replied. “Next question?”

The next two in line, cream colored earth fillies, counted off to each other silently then spoke in unison, “What’s meat taste like?!” they shouted.

John grew a little scared at the nature of the question. Only Grindah’s kids... “W-well, it’s kinda bad unless you cook it. Then its pretty kick ass.”

An eager looking pegasus spat out the next question, “Can humans fly?”

“Not without a machine.” This seemed to make the pegasus sad. Okay? “Next question?”

“Do humans really have fangs?” The unicorn asked. John opened his mouth and pointed to his canines in response.

“Are you a member of the HLF?” A Unicorn colt asked.

“No. Never ask me that again. Just because I’m human doesn't mean I’m a bad guy. I never hurt anyone on purpose.” John glared at the unicorn colt, who sunk down a little in his chair. “Next question.”

“Uh, uhm, yes, Why didn’t you get ponified?” A unicorn filly asked.

John paused for a moment. “Well, that’s... very personal. I’m sorry to say.” He spoke a bit nervously. The filly looked sad, John rubbed his arm, “Next question?”

A pegasus pony with a mane and tail the washed form light blue to pure white asked John’s his next question.“So what was life like before ponies came?”

“Now that's a good question.’ John admitted, “What’s your name kid?”

“Wind Rapids.”

“Well, Rapids, let me tell you of the time before contact.” John cleared his throat. “Once upon a time there was something not too unlike peace, yes there were wars and murders and thievery and all sorts of corruption. But there was relatively little. The air could be a bit sour, the food a bit nasty, but it was life. I grew up around humans and thought nothing of it, for that was all there really was. My dad was a cruel and bitter remnant of the war on terror.My mom was a sweet thing, a bit too soft spoken though. Life went on. Then AI’s came about, I was there as an investor when the first one was ‘born’. Within eighteen months the job market was shit. Crime was high. War was approaching faster everyday.” John paused for effect. “Then something happened. You lot showed up. Promising happiness and health and a paradise, all we had to do was become you. That’s more or less a brief look at things.” John shrugged on the last line. The class seemed taken aback. “So, last question then.”

It was an earth pony filly, “Do you have a cutie mark?”

John noticed she lacked hers, “Humans don’t get cutie marks.”

“Then how do know what your special talent is?” The filly looked a mix between sad and confused.

John shrugged for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “We just do if we ever figure it out. Any more questions?” The class seemed to have their thirst satiated.

The teacher instructed John to move to the back of the class. He sat down and reclined in the seat. It was revealed that it was a short day today, due to some Equestrian holy day. John didn’t pay attention to what it was exactly. The teacher assigned some chapters in a book and released them shortly after. John walked over to Azure as he bid Forest mint goodbye.  John motioned for Azure to follow him. The pair headed out the classroom door, “So, what’d you think of school Azure?” John asked of the young pony.

Azure seemed to dwell on it for a moment.before answering, “It seems alright, this was my first day though, one occurrence does not make a pattern. So I can’t really judge.” John opened both of the truck doors and hopped in the driver’s seat as Azure did the same into the passengers.

John started the truck and slyly posed a question, “So... Azure... Anypony catch your fancy?” Azure’s normally blue face was bright red. He started down the road to the apartment. “Aha! I knew it! You like what’s-her-face!”

“Forest Mint.” Azure corrected.

“Heh. Take it easy kiddo, I think she likes you too.” John leaned into his seat, reclining.

The young pegasus seemed to light up, “R-really? You think so?”

“If she doesn't she’s batshit insane. Crazier than your ol’ dad.” He smirked. “Why don’t you invite her and the rest of your class to your birthday party this Saturday. So how about it?” John pulled into his parking spot at the complex.

“Alright.” Azure agreed. They got out of the truck and headed inside to the penthouse condo they shared.

__________________________________________________________________NOTES:

I know what John’s pony form is going to be, as well as how Azure gets his cutie mark and what it is now. No word on John’s though. Scratch that. Best part, some of you know how he looks but don’t know you know!

Town is Fullerton, California. It may or may not have changed its name in the fic due to ponies. Deal with it.

Cultural misunderstandings should be more common eh?

What in the fuck is THAT? Is that CANON SHIPPING? In MY AAF?! But HOW?

So we have Azure, Forest, Two unnamed Pegasi colts, one filly, earth pony twins three more earth ponies. then four unicorns (not including forest)

I made a seating chart for ya’ll at the end. enjoy. I murdered myself over it. FOR YOU.

One for the Road.

AKA: A Horrible Fic by Krass McWriter

It was late as the monitor lit the room. The cigarette smoke danced through soft light. The page simply displayed two billion four hundred and thirty five million . Crasher, as he was known, stared at it periodically for weeks, afraid to refresh it and see the numbers plummet further. He opened a new tab and brought up a news website. Black Horizon, his favorite band got ponified. The last great metal band. He went back to to page with the numbers and hit refresh. It had gone down further than he thought. The page told him that the total human population of the earth was two billion flat. “Where is the hate in this world?”  Crasher murmured to himself. “Mankind is losing its hate. Its unfathomable rage is being drained. The horrors and pain its bore witness too are going. This is unacceptable.”

Crasher decided it was time to get the band back together, after a few phone calls and a hour, He had his old group of friends back together. ‘It has come to my attention that there are no longer any musicians preaching to the masses that they should hate their neighbor and the whole rotting world. I propose we fix that.” He explained once more, as he had over the phone.

“How do you aim to do that.” Called a wild looking man from the back.

“Thats simple Cardinal. We’re going to make a band. It will contain all the hate and rage and pain of the human race.”

“Well thats fine and dandy, but where would we even play?” Cardinal shot.

“Ive already lined up a gig the local house of blues. They’ve been short bands and we have a spot when we want it.” Crasher said with a smug smile. “So who's with me?” It was unanimous, on that day in that odd hour, the last great metal band was born.

----------------------------------ONE-MONTH-OF-PRACTICE-LATER-----------------------------------------

Crasher burst into the room where the other band members were relaxing. “All right guys. we’re ready. We need a name though, lets hear some ideas.”He announced to the room.

There was a short period of silence until Breaker spoke up, “How about The Pauper’s Pride?”

“Thats stupid and you should feel stupid for saying that. Next!” Crasher said blunty.

This time it was Eights who opened his word hole. “I got an idea.”

“Now thats something.” Titan chimed in.

“Ladies please!” Crasher intervened. “You were saying Eights?”

“Yeah, how about something that deals with hard ship? Like Broken Homes and Broken Minds?” Eights finished.

“Better, but not quite. Anything to add Cardinal?”

“No.”

Long moments past by before a fantastic idea struck Crasher. “I’ve got it. Five Years of Broken Glass.”

“I like it.”

“Kick-ass.”

“Sounds like we have a name.”

“Excellent, lets get ready Gigs in a week.

___________________________AT_THE_GIG_________________________________

The curtains parted, in front of him was a mixed crowd of humans an some ponies. Crasher grabbed the mic, “All right all you mother fuckers! We are here to bring back all the violence an death an sorrow and pain that used to be metal music. I am Crasher an Ill be on the bass guitar and lead vocals. On our rhythm guitar is the sexually sensational Cardinal. We have Titan on the lead guitar over there, and on drums and back up vocals is Eights! We are Five Years of Broken Glass and this song is Man vs Beast vs Self!” The music started and the mosh pit opened up immediately. Once their time was up, they packed up and got off the stage.

“You guys were amazing!”

Crasher turned to the sound. “Huh? Oh yeah, thanks. Just trying to bring back all the hate that seems lacking in music now a days. It used to be you kill some ones entire family and rape them repeatedly when your angry, now its you don’t give them your secret carrot cake recipe.”

“Yeah. Hey, I have revenue that would love to have you, maybe even endorse you given you message, give it a call.” The man handed him a business card that read simply Christopher Hall, HLF HQ with a phone number to contact him at.

____________________________________________LATER__________________________

*riiiiiiiiing* *riiiiiiiiing* *riiiii-* “Hello, you’ve reached the HLF HQ. This is Christopher Hall speaking. How may I help you?”

“Uh, this is Crasher from Five Years of Broken Glass, you said you had a gig for us, and maybe an endorsement?”

“Oh yes, I showed a video of your performance to the boss. He’d love to have you!”

“All right, when and where?” Crasher took down the details.

_______________________________________HLF HQ GIG.____________________________

“Alright, sound checks done.” Eights informed Crasher. Crasher ackknowledged this and went to check in with Hall. He was pleased. Some good humans that can truly appreciate his music, his rage. people who have themselves been through five years of broken glass. To hell and back. Fellow members of his dying race. He had the weirdest boner.

He sent a message to Hall stating that they were ready. Then he plopped down in a comfy chair that was behind stage and chilled until the show started.

Some time passed and he was informed that that it was time to go on stage. He introduced the band. Then, they put all the rage they had for the world on blast. The crowd went mad, as id the band. Kindred spirits, wanting nothing more than mankind’s hate to live on.

The show ended. They packed and mingled with the HLF members. The leader approached them and offered endorsement. They accepted readily.

_____________________________________________________OVER TIME_______________

The band played more and more gigs, were in shows, on TV, interviewed. They produced an album followed by a second and third one each spread out by a year. They became a sensation, a phenomenon, and over time, a movement.

They even had pony fans, growing in number as the human population plumetted. Then the band broke up. Conflicting goals and interests, they said. They announced that they would do one last concert, entitled “One For The Road: A goodbye from us to you.

_________________________The One for The Road Concert.___________________________

The heavy curtain separated the crowd from the band. Crasher looked back from his spot at the band he’s been together with for the last four years. “Alright, lets do this.” He set the curtain on fire. The band started, opening with the song the opened with all those years ago in the house of blues, as it burned away. The screaming, the shouting, the crowd was wild.

As the band was nearing the end of the concert, Crasher made an announcement, “Its been real guys, all the hate we spread, the rage we’ve caused, the five riots we started.” The crowd cheered at the mention of the riots, they lead to many pony deaths and burning of conversion bureaus. “Yes, yes. Its been a fun four years. I want to leave you with a parting gift, one last new song.” The crowed erupted again “This one is called One for The Road!” The band started, for the first time in their history, slowly.The tune was bittersweet.

The song came to an end, the band took a bow. Crasher heard a whistling noise as he was about to walk away. Looking the source he uttered his last words as a human, “Fuck!” Escaped         from his mouth as a ponification potion hit him square in the chest. Thirteen bottles of potion flooded the stage, all the members were hit as well as some of the crowd. Crasher blacked out.

A brilliant white pony with wings and a horn came into view. It was wearing some sort of crown. Crasher didn’t recognize the area. everything seemed off. He realized he must be dreaming. Looking back to the intimidating figure. Then its smiled at him an he felt... warm? Everything started fading, as it disappeared from view, he swore he heard it say ‘You are forgiven, You can rest now’ before it faded out of view.

______________________________________A New Life_______________________________

Crasher awoke to a strange sensation. He tried wiggling his fingers an toes but they wouldn’t respond. He snapped open his eyes, there was a  stone gray muzzle in his view. He was in the ruins of the stage, none of the other band members were anywhere to be seen. Something more was off. He felt perfectly fine, in fact better than fine. For the first time for years he felt happy, no, elated, like a weight was taken off his chest. He started laughing, he felt wonderful. “I need a new name... Crasher is dead. From now on I shall be Bass Treble. I... I need to spread this feeling, this joy.” He picked up his guitar an slung it over his back. “Where is the love in this world?” He asked himself, laughing, as he walked off to a new life.

Both my radio clock and my AI unit battle over who gets to wake me up; my AI unit gives a small shot of adrenaline and endorphins to spur my body into motion while the radio automatically tunes into the local country station. I stumble out of bed and meander my way to the dresser that the radio is sitting on, my mind unsure as to whether the creaking I hear is the foot-smoothed boards beneath me or my old bones groaning in protest.

After what seems like an eternity I reach the radio and mash the snooze button until the discordant warbles of a talentless hack stop ringing in my ears; nothing gets me out of bed faster than the all-consuming hatred I harbour for country music. After silencing the banshee wailing I open the drawers to the mahogany dresser, pulling out some comfortable slacks and a white undershirt, its pits stained yellow from years of neglect and me being too frivolous to buy stain-releaser for it. It’s strictly for house-wear anyways, so it’s not like I have to worry about someone chastising me about its state. I open another drawer and pull out some plaid socks, briefly entertaining the idea of doing ‘the hop’ to get them on before letting common sense take over.

I take a seat at the foot of my bed and begin to smother my feet in the sock’s warm embrace while I bring up some basic AI routines.

“Good mornin’ guvnor. Did yeh have yer forty winks?”  The AI inquired with a cockney accent.

“I don’t know, you tell me. After all, you’re the one who was monitoring my melatonin levels,” I reply gruffly before adding “Oh, and switch to a British accent. I’m tired of talking to some street urchin.”

“Of course sir. Would you be interested in today’s news?” it asked as it took a dignified approach to speech.

“Give me the highlights,” I answer dismissively; there’s always the off chance of something intelligent slipping through the cracks, but nevertheless I mentally brace myself for the inevitable deluge of end-of-the-world drivel.

“Well, much to the chagrin of football fans the Superbowl has been delayed for a week since the Texas biodome was cracked in the last tornado. Officials don't know what hit it but even considering that the tornado was a category seven they think whatever damaged the dome had to be at least a freight car.”

“I don't care about football anymore Augs. There hasn't been a decent player in Texas since Howard quit anyways.” I finish pulling on my socks, the process taking an unusually long time due to the fact I put the left one on inside-out, and start heading downstairs.

“I shall keep that in mind, sir. Perhaps you would be more interested in the current deployment of the U.N. Army?”

“Sure, why not?” I answer as I reach the kitchen and pour myself some orange juice; the stuff nearly doubled in price when they had to grow it in hydroponic greenhouses and it tastes half as good but I'll be damned if I don't get my morning OJ.

This time, instead of reciting the words from an article himself, he taps into an archived data stream and plays it. A typical mellow female newscaster voice begins to echo in my head, a carefully controlled neutral pitch that belies the delicately spun words designed to elicit the most marketable type of emotion; outrage. “I’m here with U.S. Secretary of Defence and Chairman of the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces, General Brigantys, today to discuss the current evacuation efforts of the British Isles. General?”

A harsh and gravely voice now fills my skull, its relative uniqueness providing a stark contrast to the de-facto reporter-speak. “I am pleased to announce that we are, in a fortuitous change of pace, ahead of schedule and should be evacuating the last of the survivors within the next week, barring those who refuse assistance and work crews who are attempting to retrieve crucial and or hazardous materials.”

“Just about every available ship and crew capable of making the trip between Britain and the U.S. has been recruited, some might even say shanghaied, into helping the effort. This is possibly the largest rescue operation ever launched in human history, but that begs the question as to just how effective it has been. Just what kind of numbers are we looking at General?

“While I hate to be the bearer of bad news I am afraid to say that only a tenth of Britain’s population will be successfully rescued, meaning that we are looking at around half a million individuals.”

“And this is with over a thousand ships constantly making the trip to deliver supplies and rescue victims. General, could you tell our listeners just how this all came to be?”

“Well, I’m sure most of them have already heard about the flooding caused by the polar ice caps melting. However, the main problem stemmed from mass panicking as major cities were flooded. We here at the Peacekeeping forces have a simple rule; five minutes without air, five days without water, five weeks without food, and five months without proper shelter. These points in time represent, very roughly, how long a normal human can survive without the aforementioned, and we hit the second one alarmingly fast.”

“So you’re saying that it was a lack of water that cost so many souls their lives?”

“It was certainly one of the main contributing factors, yes. The rising sea water contaminated many fresh water wells and lakes and it should be mentioned that it takes a surprisingly small amount of salt to make water unfit for consumption. However, most people didn’t live long enough to die of thirst.”

“Could you elaborate for us?”

“Well, the initial tidal waves, storm surges and hurricanes destroyed most major elements of Britain’s infrastructure, cutting off power to almost the entire country. This caused mass panicking and riots which by themselves probably caused thousands of deaths. Soon most major cities were flooded; both with water and people trying to reach higher ground, and without power the government wasn’t able to concert their forces. It was then, when Britain’s populace was stuck outside in massive gridlocks and the government, lacking a way to warn its citizens, that another hurricane swept in.’

“How horrible,” the news anchor exclaimed, although the way she said it suggested that it was said more out of professional reflexes then actual sympathy, a theory that she proved for me when she asked “Just how many died that day?”

“We believe that in the first week almost half the population died, and as high as a quarter in that one day. After that those who didn’t have a fresh water supply quickly followed and those who did weren’t exactly willing to share and share alike.”

“Are you saying that people willingly let others die just to hoard their water?”

“Yes. However, you have to remember that they had no way of knowing that a rescue operation was already underway and it is only natural that they would protect such a valuable resource.”

“Thank you for clarifying that issue General. I take it the rest died from thirst and hunger?”

“Thirst certainly; we found many who had grown so desperate they drank the salt water. Hunger didn’t become an issue for a bit longer and by then the first aid ships had reached the coast. The last rule, regarding shelter, became more of an issue due to the chaotic weather and a very significant number of the dead showed signs of hypothermia.”

“Thank you for answering those questions for us General. Do you have time for a few more?”

“I think I can squeeze in a few more minutes.”

“Much appreciated. This is something more then a few of you opponents have asked; why Britain?”

“There are several reasons for that. Firstly, the U.S. has long enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with Britain, both as an ally in war and as trade partners. Since the U.S. was already organizing an aid fleet we here at the U.N. decided it would be a good idea to concert our efforts with the U.S. Navy.”

“And your dual standing as the U.S. Secretary of Defence and Chairman of the U.N. didn’t influence your decision?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Could I ask you to enlighten our viewers as to why this wasn’t the case? Why didn’t you go to France, Africa or commit additional ships to the current operation for evacuating the population of South America?”

“It was a matter of logistics; we could save three British civilians, two French citizens, or one African. I am, of course, merely making an example and I couldn’t say as to how many we would rescue, but I’m sure you get the point.”

“Why wouldn’t you have been able to save as many of them?”

“As I said; logistics. Our ships are currently stationed in the northern hemisphere since the storms are, at least so far, relatively mild to those in the southern hemisphere. Most of them are stationed around either Alaska, to bring Russian refugees onto North American soil, or New Brunswick and Newfoundland in Canada. We plotted and estimated travel time for our ships to make it to any number of other countries and the British Isles simply presented a far more attainable target. I also feel it prudent to mention that even with the considerably more manageable weather up there we still lost many ships and crews to storms, a number that would have undoubtedly been far higher if we had gone for more southerly countries.”

“And what about the South America operation?”

“We’re already pulling our ships out of there. Refugees looking for transport have dropped off dramatically and the weather makes for dangerous waters on the best of days.”

“Now that the British Isles and South America evacuations are wrapping up will you be dedicating your ships to other rescue operations?”

“No. The storms have made naval travel prohibitively dangerous and our we’re being forced to dip into our emergency stockpiles of fuel, fuel that can be used to much better ends here on home soil. Aerial rescue of VIPs will continue for a few more months until we’ve exhausted the fuel supply we’ve set aside for them, the storms become too large to travel through or we simply run out of people to save.”

“Thank you very much for your time General. Before you leave I’d like to ask one more question.”

“It depends on what it is. If I can answer it I will.”

“What do you say to the allegations that you and the U.N. are focusing on rescuing first-world, rich and or educated individuals over the general populace?”

“That’s an excellent question. Let me evade you,” Brigantys replies as he gives a fake-sounding laugh, his jest seeming to imply that he thinks little of the query. “Let me ask *you* something for once; if the world was ending and you could choose one person to live with you, would you choose your scullery maid or a university graduate?”

“Well, I’d say I’d want someone who was smart.”

“It seems like we think along similar lines Miss… Why, I’m afraid I didn’t get your name.”

“I’m actually a Misses, but you can just call me Sella.”

“Ah, yes. As I was saying, it seems we think along the same lines Sella. Now then, I’m afraid my time is up…”

“Again, thank you for giving up your valuable time to enlighten us General.”

“It was my pleasure. Have a good day Sella.”

“You too General.” The rustling sound of a headpiece being taken off briefly comes over the recording; you know money’s tight when they don’t even bother cutting out ambient noise. “To those who joined us halfway through that was General Brigantys, Secretary of U.S. Defence and Chairman of the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces, offering his views about the progress of various rescue operations around the world. We’ll be talking to former pop sensation Justin Bieber in our ‘Where are they now’ segment after these messages.” An ad jingle starts up for a supposedly waterproof sealant but, fortuitously for my sanity, Augs cuts the signal before it worms its way into my brain to fester.

“Did you find that informative, sir?” he implored; while he was an AI he still had a basic personality and wanted, as any human in his position would, me to commend his selection.

I’m in a better mood after my sub-par orange juice, but I’m still far from generous. I decide to fall back on the tried-and-true reaction of not really having a reaction, AKA indifference.

“It was fine. Still too end-of-the-world for me but at least it was a sensible debate for once,” I reply.

“I aim to please, sir,” comes Augs reply.

Just then a little light appears in my peripheral vision, meaning that my chipset just received a message from the wi-net.

“Sir, you have just received a communiqué from an individual going by the name of Colonel Hastings,” Augs helpfully informs me as I roll my eyes; I’m not quite senile enough to forget the message I just got.

“Although you’ve probably already forgotten why you’re annoyed at me, sir,” Augs pipes in.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to intercept my thoughts Augs,” I growl.

“You never turned off your AI Recorder when you went to sleep. Don’t worry though sir, I deleted that dream you had; it certainly wouldn’t do for someone of station to see THAT,” the AI chided lightly.

Despite myself I chuckle softly and reply with “Well, why didn’t you tell me I left it on when I woke up?”

“Because you didn’t ask, sir,” he stated matter-of-factly. “However, if you feel strongly about it I can turn off the recording and delete this session.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Still, I wish you hadn’t deleted that dream. If it really was that racy it might have been worth watching.”

“I can still recover it if you wish, sir.” I give an affirmative, take a seat and watch my dream for the next five minutes.

I finally decide I can’t watch anymore. “Augs?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Destroy this in whatever your digital equivalent of fire is…”

“Yes?” Augs replies hesitantly, knowing that this tone of voice meant I wasn’t done yet.

“And then burn it again for good measure,” I finish with… well, finality.

“I shall do all in my power to annihilate it from this plane of reality, sir.”

“You do that. Now, what about that e-mail?” I intone as I open it up to answer the question myself.

A warning message pops up that looks like it’s hovering over the bare wooden table, although I know that in reality it’s literally just my mind seeing things.

“I’m afraid that the encryption on the message will not allow it to be displayed unless I am shut down, sir.” Augs says, answering the question that I had yet to ask.

“Can you decrypt it yourself?” I enquire; in this day and age it’s generally a bad idea to open a message without having your AI acting as a firewall, no matter who it’s coming from.

Possibly, although I have never seen this type of encryption before… I could do a quick scan and see if I can crack it if you don’t mind waiting, sir.”  I give him permission to do so and patiently wait a few minutes before he returns from his task. “It’s very thorough and I can’t find a reference point anywhere for it, meaning that it’s completely new. Despite that if I was to be given a few days I’m sure I could crack it enough to check for malicious programs.”

I nod in reply, an automatic action that takes place even though there isn’t anyone to see it. “You can poke around in it later Augs. For now just shut yourself down; I’ll wake you up and fill you in on what the message has to say after I’m done.” He quickly complies and the omniscient feeling of someone reading over my shoulder disappears with him. My chipset quickly locks down, largely shutting itself from the outside world and, more importantly, outside threats.

Of course, there’s always the off chance that I’ve downloaded a Trojan, although I inwardly note that the odds of a bespectacled zit-faced hacker having the time and expertise to write a completely new code script that can stump my technically-illegal AI just for shits’n’giggles is nigh-impossible.

With a hint of trepidation I open the message and find my fears to be groundless when a middle-aged man, complete with a decorated breast suit covered with a myriad of colourful badges and pins, materializes in front of me. “Ah, hello General Harth. I trust you are in good health?” the man inquires.

It takes me a second to realize that it was not, in fact, a message but rather a live stream. A small part of me panics, thinking that my chipset wasn’t as walled off as I thought, before I realize that the signal is coming over one of the few secured channels that always remain open. I quickly gather my wits and reply with “Err, yes, or at least as good as one as old as I can be. I’m sorry for the delay in replying; I thought this was just an E-mail and had my AI check it for viruses.”

He gives a short laugh before answering back. “Don’t worry General, I have plenty of things to keep me occupied, such as testing out our new software encryption. Speaking of which, how did you AI fair against it?”

“He quickly gave up on it.” I don’t mention that I was the one who had told him give up on it for the time being and that I expected him to have it cracked by the end of the week.

“Seems like those techies know what they’re doing after all. But enough with the idle chit-chat, I’m sure your itching to know just what it is that I’m contacting an illustrious General such as yourself about.”

The first thing I think about is that I’m not a General anymore, beyond honorary titles at least, and the second is that the only itching I have is the one I have a prescription cream for. I decide to indulge him anyways.

“I must admit that I’m curious as to why you’re calling me, yes.” I answer truthfully.

“Well, I’m afraid that even over this private line I can’t tell you much but once you get here I shall be able to brief you in person.”

“And where is ‘here’ exactly?” I press.

A smirk dashes across his face. “Why, the Large Hadron Collider, of course,” comes his answer, the casualness of the way he says it sounding as if he’s reciting the time of day.

I narrow my eyes at the unexpected revelation. “That’s in Sweden,” I state, trying to hide my confusion as I do so.

“Ah, at least some of my fellow Americans know how to read a map still. Yes, it’s in Sweden, and you’ll be taking a sub-orbital flight from base forty-three to get here. I’ll save you the time of looking it up yourself and give you the co-ordinates. I hope to see you soon,” he concludes as he prepares to disconnect.

“Wait!” I demand. “Just how do I know that this isn’t some kind of joke?”

The Colonel sits back down, his face briefly flashing a bemused grin. “Of course. I’ll send you the orders, direct from the President himself…” he begins anew as a fresh piece of mail pops up in my peripheral vision, “…and, of course, you may feel free to contact base forty-three beforehand. In fact, I recommend it since if weather gets too rough there they may send you to a different station to catch the flight. I trust that answers your questions General. Have a pleasant trip.” And with that the man disappeared, to be replaced by my modest kitchen.

I give a loud sigh. Today is going to be a long one.

I drain the pulpy remains of my orange juice before bringing Augs back up, my body giving an involuntary shiver as the feeling of iced liquid mercury flows over my brain. “Did you manage to record that or do I have to play second-hand messenger?” I ask him as I unceremoniously dump the last few vestiges of liquid from the cup into the tepid sink water.

“No sir, that won’t be necessary. You might want to bring up the fact that his oh-so-special encryption doesn’t block passive programs,” he replies, the sarcasm in his voice evident, although I’m sure his unusual outburst is mostly due to the fact that he had been brushed off as being some mere civilian model; for an artificial construct he was quite proud. “I managed to get a good look at it when he was streaming you and I’ve pushed my estimated original estimates for decrypting it up to a few hours, and that’s with me only dedicating twenty percent of my cycles to it.”

“He did seem a bit too smug about it. I’ll enjoy bringing him down a peg Augs.”

“The pleasure is all mine, sir. Now then, about how you’re getting there…” he began.

“I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the best way, although I want you to place a preference on above-land routes and to make sure that base forty-three has favourable weather conditions,” I interrupt him as I give him his commands. I could have easily done it all mentally, of course, but my years as a Sergeant had instilled the benefits of vocalization into me.

“Of course sir. I take it you’ll be freshening up while I’m doing so?”

I pause for a moment to sniff my armpit and immediately regret it as my nose attempts to recede into my nasal cavity. “Yeah, I think I’m going to be going for a shower fir…”

My answer is waylaid by Augs’ giving off a little ping and declaring “Finished sir.”

“…That was fast.” I answer, a littler perturbed that he had completed the task I had set out for him so quickly. “What’s the route?” I ask as I head back up the stairs to the master bathroom’s shower.

“We’ll be going overland on Highway 103 until we reach the Teleth mountain range, at which point we’ll be going down into Tunnel M30 due to the mountain pass being blocked by a recent avalanche. After that it’ll be a short drive to the base. Total travel time will be around two-and-a-half hours,” he answers clinically.

“Good work Augs. You can take the next fifteen for yourself,” I say as I open the door to the bathroom and flick on the lights and fan. The room is quickly flooded with the warm yellow glow of the LED array above the sink as the fan starts to hum.

“I think I’ll go see weather AI is up to. She’s been rather depressed since that storm front hit Toronto,” Augs explains as he fades away again, only to return a moment later with “Oh, and sir, do you wish for me to keep the recorder active?”

“Might as well, in case I think of anything in the shower. Turn off visual recording though, for obvious reasons.”

“Indeed, sir,” and with that he vacated my mind again, this time not immediately returning. I turn the knob on the shower, years of practice and experience guiding my hand to the sweet spot where I didn’t get cooked like a lobster or go into stage-three hypothermia. I shed my clothes and step into the shower, the hot water feeling like burning needles puncturing my skin before my body acclimates to the difference in temperature. I soon settle into the pleasurably painful sensation of scalding water running down me, the rivulets draining from my hair in tiny arcing waterfalls.

I enjoy the relaxing effect for a minute before I fall into the usual routine; another quick rinse of my hair followed by a small rub of shampoo, left to ferment on my scalp as I attack my skin with a rough brush, before I let the nozzle’s rain wash it all off. I shut off the flow and step out of the shower, the pea-soup thick steam being eaten by the happily chugging fan. I grab a towel and dry myself off, leaving one of the corners to wipe down the cloudy mirror.

Soon a weathered and wrinkled face greets me, its gritty shadow calling for trimming while the thin grey wisps on top demand another round of Rogaine. A slightly crooked nose, eventually not taking to the constant resetting, also requests that I pluck it unless I want to look like a walrus. Above and to the sides of the aforementioned lie a pair of eyes, a lifetime of hardships and work hidden in their turquoise depths. The only thing that doesn’t look like it’s been at the wrong end of Murphy’s Law are the straight white teeth.

It should be mentioned that they’re dentures.

Going into the shower feels like it lifts years off my life, and looking in the mirror after I’m done makes me realize just how old I am. I experimentally flex my arm and regain a touch of my self-appreciation; at least they still have a hint of the toned muscle that had carried me through my trials and tribulations.

A few minutes later I’ve finished shaving, the smooth and clean-cut look achieved with a simple barber’s straight-edge, a humble blade of metal that not even hundreds of years of technological advancement can match. I exit the bathroom, flicking off the lights and fan as I make my way to the bedroom. This time, instead of delving into the drawers for clothes, I open up the adjacent closet and fish out some more becoming textiles. In short order I’m dressed in a simple button-up shirt and comfortable slacks. I then proceed to pull out a travel case and fill it with a generous number of assorted clothing; I highly doubt I’m going over to Sweden for a quick jaunt before getting home in time to catch the evening news.

The case is filled to the brim within a few minutes, barring the last inch or so. Into this cavity I deposit my ceremonial suit, its fabric protected by a vacuum-sealed plastic sheath that lightly crinkles as I fold it into the case. The gold-coloured trim catches the light for a second, making the chevrons briefly stand out from the dull olive green that the rest of the suit was dyed. Beside it I place the small container that holds all of my medals, pins and badges, each one patiently waiting to be affixed to my suit when the time comes for me to don it.

I zip the case up and lock it. A few minutes of tracking down various knick-knacks like my toothbrush and antacid pills before putting them into the side pockets just about wraps up any packing I have to do.

Everything except my most prized possession, that is.

I go to my bedside drawer and open it, pulling out an unambiguous box from its depths. It looks like a hundred-and-fifty year old wooden box, due to the fact that it is.

Or, at least it is on the outside.

The inside, on the other hand, is a titanium-wrought alloy, capable of taking almost anything head-on except for a small warhead. I dig a tiny key out from underneath my mattress and open up the box, revealing an ancient long-barrel six-chamber magnum. It had been carried through our family for nearly seven generations and it, unlike me, didn’t look like it had aged a day. The gun came with commitments, after all; clean it every month, wax and buffer it every three, open it up every year and brush out every mote of dust and remove every sign of rust. You did all three of those if you took it out and if you travelled with it you sure as hell didn’t tuck it into your waistline. Then, if you ever shot it, you did all three twice over for every time that it sang its siren song. Above all of those though, there was one rule that, no matter what, you followed.

You never, ever shot first.

I take the magnum out and lovingly place it on the drawer before reaching into the box and removing the holster and six .44 calibre shells. I take the magnum again and release the chamber, causing it to fall to the side, and delicately place each shell into their respective hole. I snap it back together, give a quick spin and holster it before wrapping the belt around my waist. I hitch up my pants and make a few final adjustments to the belt’s tightness before grabbing the suitcase and heading downstairs, mentally compiling a checklist as I go.

Clothes? Check.

Suit? Check.

Toiletries and other materials? Check.

Family heirloom? I give a light pat to the bulge on my right side. Check.

AI?

“My apologies sir. I am five seconds behind the agreed upon meeting time.”

Check.

I reach the entryway and put on an old windbreaker, its surface worn and marred from years of hard use, and open the door, letting a slight chill seep into the house.

“Sir, aren’t you forgetting something?” Augs asks innocently.

“I don’t believe so…” comes my unsure answer.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll remember anything soon enough,” he replies haughtily.

I shrug my shoulders and take a step out onto the deck, my feet tingling slightly as they make contact with the cold, unyielding concrete steps.

Wait, my feet?

I look down and notice that I’m lacking socks and shoes, to which Augs remarks “Told you so.”

I roll my eyes and head back into the house, put on a pair of socks again, go back to the entryway, which had grown quite cold on account of me leaving the door open, and don a pair of boots. A quick cursory check reveals that I almost left my suitcase behind and, after grabbing it, head to my car. I open the trunk and, after ensuring that my combat boots are safely stowed away, give a primal grunt as I lift the suitcase into it. The door falls down, a faint click signalling that the latch is caught tight. I climb into the car, start the engine and leave my house to dwindle in the rear-view mirror.

I shortly exit the small suburban complex that I live in and join the main highway, the light traffic even in the morning “rush” making for an easy drive. Most people take the bus to a subway station these days due to the prohibitively high taxes on owning a personal vehicle. As always though, there are exceptions, like the few individuals who are rich and privileged, emergency response personnel or people like me who have a special government pass. Within a few minutes I’m navigating the concrete jungle of the downtown complex, glass and steel monoliths that stretch to pierce the heavens rising above me and, even further above them, a carapace-like dome that protects them from the ravages of an indignant Mother Earth’s wrath. Right now the outside world is fairly benign, or at least it is in relation to what it normally is, with several low-flying clouds whose dark mass promise cleansing rain and possibly purifying lightning. A few rays of sunlight peak through the curtain of condensation, a brief reminder of the way things use to be as the photons bounce off of the mirrored windows, reflecting, dispersing, illuminating and, all too soon, disappearing.

I hope that whatever’s so important that they’re flying me all the way to Sweden will let me see the life-giving star more often.

After half-an-hour of driving through the modern metropolis I break free from its claustrophobic confines, the gleaming iron-wrought towers and scum-filled back alleys becoming nothing more then a faintly-remembered memory. I slow down at the exit checkpoint where I flash my ID at a lone border guard. He snaps to attention and opens the gate without question and, after returning the salute and offering my thanks, leave the relative safety of the biodome.

Only empty swathes of pancake-flat plains and the asphalt road greet me out on the barren wasteland. Special strains of grass, bio-engineered to be immune to almost any disease and possessing roots that not only could re-grow the entire plant if cut but were capable of grounding the grass against up to a Class-8 tornado, were the only things that grew out here. They were invasive and weed-like, designed to quickly and efficiently remove the indigenous plant life so that their binding roots could hold the earth together in one piece; without the hardy grass the tornados and storms would literally tear the ground apart. No thought had gone into aesthetics or other uses; not even a cows four stomachs could digest it and each one was nigh-indistinguishable from the next, a simple muddy-brown-and-sage-green colouration making it look as if I was looking at a perfectly flat, if sickly, sea. They waved, shuddered and undulated in the moderate wind, making wave-esque patterns that were almost calming in their own unnatural way.

My car sped past them silently, its electric engine whisper-quiet. While electric cars still didn’t have the range of a pre-melt gas vehicle they could still go for quite a distance as long as they weren’t pushed too far past their specifications, accelerated in a single smooth motion and, as already mentioned, made no more noise then the tires kissing the road and the rush of displaced wind. Even if the mountain pass hadn’t been snowed in I would’ve taken the tunnel; weather was unpredictable down on the plains and downright chaotic up on the peaks, not to mention the fact that the electric engine wasn’t designed to be used on steep inclines.

It was a simple Japanese Toyota, five years old and the penultimate rendition of the Driviode line before a massive earthquake tore the country apart. They might have persevered even through the utter destruction that it had caused if the tsunami hadn’t hit immediately afterwards, a simple one-two punch and the world’s premier technology leader, in more ways then one, sunk beneath the waves. I’d taken good care of her, as I did with most of my personal objects, but also as a sort of post-humorous sign of respect to the once-great nation, and it certainly showed. The vanilla interior was spotless and devoid of stains or marks while the seats still, barring the impression of my back on the drivers side, looked like they had just left the factory, their cream upholstery unmarred by scratches or abrasions. In return she had diligently carried my weary ass all over the country with nary a peep or hint of discontent and I couldn’t help but feel a twang of anxiety at leaving her at the military complex while I travelled abroad without her. Still, she’d be in good hands and would be waiting patiently for my return, biding her time until I flicked her engine on.

She may have not been a gas guzzler, but I still liked to imagine her purring when she first started up.

A few drops of rain pattered down onto the windshield before being whisked away by the wind. The car was also quite aerodynamic and easily shed the stiff breeze that blew against it, a faint trail of displaced water sliding around the invisible barrier of air. Still, I turned the wipers onto their intermediate setting to brush off any stray droplets. The road was arrow-straight and devoid of any other vehicles, as was to be expected, and if it hadn’t been for the rain I would’ve pushed the car a little harder. As it was I was travelling at a decent click of 110 Km/hr. I smiled at the metric numbers, still not believing that it had taken the government so long to switch over to the infinitely easier multiples-of-ten system. Then I frown as I think about how it was another thing the industry had delayed until it was far too late to solve the problem…

“You’re getting philosophical again sir. Would you like me to take over? We both know how… erratic your driving gets when you ponder about such things,” Augs states. I’m inclined to agree with him on both counts and surrender control of the car to the slave circuit before resuming my navel gazing. When you’re as old and well-travelled as I am you tend to look back on the world, but much to my dismay nobody had ever issued me a pair of rose-tinted reading glasses. I had seen the best and worst of humanity in my years as a serving man for the army. I’d watched heroes who braved the fires of war to save their comrades, men who had stood their ground against the inexorable march of the enemy, teens who had cradled their guns and prayed to the god they had never had a reason to call upon before, cowards who had abandoned both duty and country as they ran away, and the monsters who had killed each of the indiscriminately.

And then there were the ones like me, the ones who ordered them to kill or be killed as they clashed with their foe, the ones who crushed any thoughts of desertion from their minds with the threat of firing squad, the ones who gave them a gun so that they would have something to believe in, the ones who told them to hold the lines against impossible odds, the ones who chose the most photogenic to become that week’s heroes. I dedicated my life to serving my country, and to do it I made those under my command give up theirs with the hope that they would make the enemy do the same.

After all, the point of war wasn’t to die for your country, but rather to make them die for theirs.

And yet I ask myself, was it really all worth it? The government said we were going in to free a downtrodden populace, and the industry came out with a couple million barrels of oil. No one ever talked about how a new regime had been placed that was more open to Western trade. The government told us to provide supplies for disaster victims, and the industry proudly declared how they were donating relief funds and materials. Nobody remembered how they stayed in the country after the disaster was averted and clear-cut the rainforest with the materials they had brought in, the aid money somehow finding its way into the hands of rich land owners. The government commanded that the armed forces put its best efforts to cleaning up an oil spill, and the industry was more then happy to help fix their minor blunder. People just stopped caring after the fourth incident.

Indeed, wherever we went, industry was sure to follow, like Mary’s unwanted black sheep. Those of us who knew better though realized we weren’t leading them, they were pushing us. Lobbyists, grants, promises and backroom deals, those were what got the politicians their campaign money, their support from the working populace, their votes. And when one of them wanted to change things, to give the reins back to the people, they were quickly squashed. Slander in the newspaper, frivolous lawsuits, seeds of paranoia planted among the populace, these were the favoured tools of the pin-striped suits.

I knew because I had been on the receiving end once. They didn’t take kindly to somebody cutting the bottom line out from out from underneath them, as I had found out when I tried to hand control of the oil fields of Saudi Arabia back to the indigenous population. Nor did they care for well-meaning companies that tried to infringe on the power market by building solar or wind farms. Every idea that removed the middleman was crushed and tossed aside.

The push for electric car development nearly put President Fritz out of office. There was no money to be made with electric cars; no moving gears or whirring gaskets to replace when they got worn out, no oil changes and no transmission to repair. My Toyota had never visited the shop and the only time it got off of its wheels was when I changed the tires. Every official test showed that a tiered transport system of long-distance bullet trains and short-range personal vehicles was not only cheaper and more viable to the average consumer but also increased efficiency and greatly reduced travel times. But the official tests were neutered, cut and pasted back together with a tweak here and an omission there. In the end they boiled a complex and deep-seated sociological problem into a simple statement; sure, there might be a few benefits to that, but in the end, it’s what the consumer wants, right?

And nobody knew the consumer base better then they did. People didn’t want to have a shorter travel time; they wanted to be on the move. Who cared if the trip took twice as long if you had to wait in a terminal for half an hour? Who wanted to drive a vehicle that was free to any user if they could drive the one they had paid their hard-earned cash for? Who wanted a car that barely crept past 120Km/hr, even though there weren’t any roads with a higher speed limit?

Nobody, that’s who.

At least, according to the industry. They said that the buyer wanted to drive now, that the consumer wanted to have that pink slip in their hand that said “This car is yours”, that the purchaser wanted to set their own limits.

Both sides of the debate were impassioned and full of their own reasoning’s and counter-reasoning’s, but in the end the incumbent President was riding the coat tails of a successful war, a revitalization of the economy and a landslide victory over the previous Republican President who had been trying to re-secure the Oval Office. He took his momentum and steamrolled the bill through the senate and within the year one of the largest manufacturing shifts in modern history took place, because what America does the rest of the world is sure to follow. The idealists and forward-thinkers called it the beginning of a new era, an age where you could order a bagel in San Francisco, ride the train from Seattle and arrive in time for it to have cooled off enough to eat. Going to visit your family in Canada from Florida would be but pennies on the dime in relation to gas or airfare. Everything seemed to be going great. All of the major cities had been interconnected in a country-wide web of vacuum-sealed plasteel tubing that travelled across the ground where it could and burrowed its way through mountains where it couldn’t, millions of publicly-available electric cars were produced and shipped and it seemed as if the civilian population was warming up to the idea.

Perhaps they warmed up a little too much, because that was when the melt happened.

Everything was thrown into chaos. Japan, the main manufacturer and leader on the production methods of electric cars, collapsed and oil to fuel the existing automobile population became too dangerous to ship across open water. Contact was lost with almost all small island nations and Hawaii practically became a ghost island after everyone was evacuated from it with Britain soon to follow in its footsteps. France, Spain and the other coastal European countries were beleaguered by near-constant hurricanes that made escape impossible. China devolved into anarchy that destroyed the country while North Korea’s population disappeared into their cave systems, never to be seen again. African countries succumbed to simultaneous droughts and flooding that soon led to almost the entire population starving to death while the Middle East was torn asunder by massive sand storms. Russia sent refugees on whatever derelict vessels they could scrounge up to escape to Alaska while shoring up their defences as they tried to deactivate their nuclear arsenal; no one knew how well the finicky and typically poorly-built weapons would react to the sudden geological shift and, more importantly, to keep unscrupulous raiders from looting the doomsday bombs. South America quickly stepped up their typical civil war routine; not even what some were calling Armageddon could deter the drug gangs and black market cartels.

Apparently Australia was doing fairly well, but when you live in a country where practically every second animal can kill you tend to be better at survival.

Production shifted yet again, this time to making giant plasteel domes over population centres. The decision to seal the train with the plasteel turned out to be a gift from whatever god or gods that were trying to destroy us. Massive stores that had been saved for expanding the tunnel network were repurposed to create a honeycomb-like shield against the storms and every city tried to get their own share. Debates raged and, in a rare turn of events, some of the major decisions were hammered out quite quickly, or at least for the political world they were. Costal cities were to be abandoned and their surviving populations lodged inland at prefab camps. Any man or woman who was in condition to help and had the knowledge to do so was given priority. Towns were reduced to the dozen or so stalwarts who insisted on staying despite the risks and any population centres that were located in deserts, badlands or other inhospitable environments were cleared out.

Some say that Las Vegas still lights up the night sky and the ring of one-armed bandits can be heard over the howl of the desert.

Next up were which cities would be the most viable to protect, for even with the stockpiles there was only enough to cover several major metropolis’. The debates ended pretty quickly when Betty rolled into town though. She started up as a Category 8 hurricane at the Eastern seaboard, originating around Mexico and moved North from there. She wouldn’t be so special now but at the time she was the first of her kind. By the time she reached Texas she had shed her moisture and was putting her new diet plan’s benefits into action as a Category 10 tornado. Any city that she crossed was utterly laid waste to and whenever she came upon a large enough body of water she’d briefly become a meandering hurricane again. The scientists called her a perpetual motion storm, the effects of her air pressure practically creating the perfect conditions for her to be entirely self-sufficient.  It wasn’t until she had annihilated a full quarter of the potential refugee cities that she passed into the cold northern regions of Canada and finally dissipated.

If one good thing came from the horror that she visited on North America, it was that the options for which cities to reinforce became far easier to pick from. Anything within a few thousand kilometres of her warpath were stricken from the record in case any more like her came through, and more certainly did; several times the plans were redrawn as more came up to lay waste to the countryside. In the end it was decided that there would be a total of ten cities that would be sheltered, each housing up to ten million occupants, not that any of them reached those numbers.

It was probably the most hotly debated topic for the survival of the human race on the Western hemisphere; who would be saved? Massive crackdowns were launched. Violent offenders were ‘released’ into the savage wilds, along with the homeless, immigrants and uneducated. There would be no room for dead weight in this broken world. Graduates of advanced post-secondary schooling and talented blue-collar workers were given high preference while those that made up the white-collar and non-essential workforce were slowly drained. Any riots were quickly put down with lethal force, any protests broken up by tear gas and nightsticks, any disapproving individuals added to the long lines that filed out of the domes confines.

I always hated the close-minded individuals that called it the end of America in hushed whispers. It was the end of the world, and all they cared about was owning their own car.

“What is the point of surviving if you are not yourself anymore?”

Sarve Poleit

From his personal memoirs, President of Nothing

…………..

USER Harth, Wesk logged on

……..

Enter command

…[A]….[I]..

………………

……..

Shortcut command line accepted. Loading AI Recordings

………..

…………….

…….

WARNING. Internal calendar has failed due to extended power loss. Results will not display in chronological order. Select which AI Recording to examine. [1/2/3/4/5]

………[2]…

Retrieving

……………..

………………….

….

Retrieval successful. View AI Recording?

……………………..

………………………………[Y]….

AI Recording initialized

AI recording, entry #960

Entry added by ADMINISTRATOR Harth, Xco

Date: October 13th, 2065

Time: 12:05, -03:00 GMT

Recording: Personal thoughts

The wind was certainly something else. It whipped and winded its way through the parade grounds and I couldn’t help but think about how my son would have deemed it to be a particularly blustery one, as his favourite book would have put it. It brought a sharp chill that wormed its way into my bones, easily penetrating the ceremonial suit that I wore, as well as offering an ill omen to another dark winter. Fortunately, the storm front that the wind rode from was still several hours away, at least according to the Wi-Net, and so we would hopefully have the process wrapped up before the rain arrived.

Before me was an assembly of what were now the world’s best soldiers, probably numbering into the high hundreds. Male or female, old and young, spies, assassins, tacticians or just plain army grunts; it didn’t matter what they had been before, all that mattered was that they could prove that they could hold onto what made them men or women, what made them human.

As cynical as it may sound, I knew that there probably wasn’t that many of them.

“Men and women of the world, welcome to your graduation ceremony!” I announce into the microphone that was planted on the podium in front of me, the audience answering in kind with a raucous cheer and enthusiastic fist pumping. For a few seconds these soldiers, who had been ground into automaton-like war machines, were allowed one last moment of individuality and just simply enjoy being a human. Had the wind not been so strong they would have probably thrown their berets into the air as well. I wait a few more seconds for the cheering to die down before I continue with “Today marks the end of an era and the start of a new beginning, one which you shall be the forerunners of. You have trained your minds and bodies to peak performance and your dedication has shown that we, as humans, are still capable of achieving greatness! As you step through the portal to the new world remember that no matter what you are on the outside you will still be yourselves on the inside; a testament to humanity till the end!”

I’m over the hump now. I’ve just lied to almost a thousand men and women that have sweated tears and cried blood for their country, their world, and chances are less then half of them will even remember where they were born by dawn.

“Do not let the words of the weak dissuade you from your chosen path, for what they do not understand frightens them. You shall walk where those who believe in angels fear to tread and, at the end, you shall stand, a beacon, beckoning to those who follow in your wake!” More cheering.

Do they not know that they give their applause to their reaper?

“I will not keep you from your future much longer, for as an old dog of the military I myself know that actions speak louder then words. But, before I release you, I offer these nuggets of wisdom,” I announce as my voice drops a couple of octaves, a simple adjustment that nevertheless adds the weight of the world to my words. “First, always be alert; things are not always what they seem to be. Second, remember that you are but a rock in life’s river; you cannot fight it, but neither should you let it sweep you away. Let it flow around you, let it smooth your rough edges and etch its lessons on your core. Finally, and I have said this already but it bears repeating, do not forget what made you human and keeps you human, no matter how life changes around you,” I conclude, my piece spoken, although I don’t feel as if I’ve spoken my peace. I give them an obligatory salute. The thunder of pounding feet reverberates throughout the grounds as those gathered stomp their feet and return the salute in perfect synchrocity.

As I walk off of the wooden stage I hear the beginnings of the assembly instructions. I listen in, although I already know them off by heart; five gates, each to support no more then two-hundred people, and each to be manned by one MP at the entrance. On the other side there was to be one human interviewer, one human representative and two Equestrian representatives; one of whom was a native and the other a turned human.

I’m standing in for the interviewer at gate 4.

It had been difficult for me to get a position as one; the politicians had told me I was too busy to bother playing greeter for a bunch of jarheads, I’d told them to stuff it, although I had been less polite in my wording. They stepped down pretty quickly, the spineless cowards.

Besides, I owed an old friend a favour.

I walked past the MP guarding the gate, a sharp young man by the name of Ron, and gave him a nod as I walked by. I didn’t see as much as I heard his hand coming up to meet his helmet as he saluted. Normally I would have told him to be at ease, but right now I had too much on my mind; I barely even noticed the transition from Earth to whatever the Equestrians called their planet as I stepped through the portal. My memory told me that I would have seen a bright white flash followed by a faint buzzing noise.

It also told me that I probably hadn’t missed out on much by not paying attention.

I stepped out of the portal, my eyes momentarily squinting as they adjusted from the overcast day to the bright lights of the “greeting” room. It was coloured a clean and sterile white with nothing but a few stools to accentuate the spartan surroundings. It was probably the only place in all of Equestria that shared a likeness to a human building; unlike the plane that Earth existed on, in which muted and subdued colours were the order of the day in construction, Equestrian buildings were almost always a bright and vibrant shade, usually heavily borrowing from the warm colour spectrum. In fact, even the plain white of the room still looked a little off, and the well-initiated or exceptionally observant could see that the surrounding world almost seemed as if it had been drawn with pastels.

I take a cursory look at those in wait with me; to my right stood the native Equestrian, a garishly coloured green-and-yellow pegasus mare, who seemed a little out of sorts in the unfamiliar room. Directly in front of me was the human representative, who I exchanged a knowing glance with. The human-turned-Equestrian was sitting on his haunches to my left, his coat a bland and unusually-normal shade of brown, the only distinguishing feature on it being what could have passed as an old sheriff’s star that marked his flanks.

No words are spoken between us, and if there were, what would we talk about? The economy? Earth is crumbling around us while Equestria is about to go into a massive boom. The weather? It would just be depressing to compare our regular super-cell storms and smog-filled skies to the heavily regulated Equestria horizon. Our respective populations? That’s what all those soldiers outside are for; so that there won’t be a human race to talk about.

Or at least, that’s what will come to pass if everything goes according to plan.

Really, all there is to do is try to get comfortable, a feat that is amazingly hard in my itchy uniform, and wait. I fail spectacularly on the first count and the second one, thankfully, is short lived.

The portal itself is relatively ubiquitous. The gate almost completely blends into the white-washed wall, the only mark of its existence being a ripple that flows from the center as if someone was dropping rocks into a sideways pond. Contrary to popular science fiction there are no bright heavenly lights blossoming from it, no elaborate machinery sustaining it, and, much to the disappointment of Lovecraftians, no ominous chanting emanating from it. Now, when someone steps through it…

A bright light appears and a dusty red earth pony appears.

…Well, the truth of the matter is that isn’t very interesting either, barring the… colourful results that the majority of humans elicit. Human walks in, and ninety-nine-point-eight percent of the time a pony walks out.

Simple, effective, the two holy grails of modern technology that, ironically enough, had very little to do with the magically-made hole that has ripped a tear into the very fabric of space and time a few feet behind me. According to the techies an exceptionally talented magic user can open one of these holes and have it stable enough for beings to cross through mostly unscathed, the exception, as previously stated, being the majority of humans. In fact, the only problem to bridging into any number of alternate realities is the sheer astronomical amount of luck required to not only bridge into a reality that doesn’t immediately destroy matter but also land on habitable planet, a chance so small that they had a ten to the power of a negative number so large that it went across three pages

It’s probably worth mentioning that number was based off of only one positive result and chances were it was a fluke, not the law of averages evening out.

Fortunately for the Equestrians their magic is capable of extending past the portal and, more importantly, doesn’t implode, spontaneously combust or otherwise produce amazingly lethal results when it encounters non-existence. According to my original briefing they just happened to find us one day, copied down the components and variants of the spell, and walked in on the Large Hadron Collider crew to introduce themselves the following morning.

Personally, I like to think that they had just finished the morning newspaper and a stale bagel before, of course, thoroughly brushing their teeth, just in case we looked in their mouths.

I stand at attention and, mustering all of my authority, bark “Earth pony! What is your name, country of birth and the name of your leader?” I stare down at the thing, its three-foot frame barely rising up to my waistline, although if you count the height of its sunset-orange mane it might reach the top of my gut.

He looks around for a few moments, seemingly in a daze, until his eyes rest on the letter-like tattoo that’s plastered on his rear. “My name is Dawn Runner and I was… er…” More hesitation, this time as his brain fills the sudden gap in his history with new memories brought from some unknown source, although I would bet good money on it being magic. “I’m from… Coltsdale! Yeah. And I serve Celestia, the bringer of the Sun and Luna, the bearer of the Moon.”

I give a non-committal grunt, flex my head towards the Equestrian representative, and blandly reply with “Well, get a move on.” He looks over to where I motioned and, noticing the Pegasus beckoning him, clops over happily. She pushes the handless door open with her muzzle before stepping out of the way to let him through. He flashes her a big toothy grin and waltzes on through, my last sight of him composed of his ass swinging in synch with something that most likely had no tune.

I look down at the clipboard that had been lying discreetly on my stool, a plain black pen thoughtfully shoved in between the pages so it wouldn’t fall out. I pick it up and, with a disenchanted sigh, mark an X beside Donovan Reat’s name while the others in the room follow suit, with exception going to the pegasus who was happily putting a checkmark on his face. I couldn’t help but notice the human-turned-stallion was having a difficult time keeping the pen steady in his teeth as he made his mark; I don’t know how anyone or anything could ever get used to not having opposable thumbs after living with them for their entire life.

Oh well. He’s going to have plenty of time to practice making X’s before we’re through.

First one was a washout and I mentally add that fact to my list of bad omens; it’s gotten pretty long as of late. According to the short dossier beside his name he was born in Oklahoma in 2025, enlisted in the army to fund his college, decided he liked it and eventually joined the SEALS. He survived several covert operations and had a near perfect mission success ratio. Ten years he had been the best of the best before he had been asked to join the Equestrian Reserve Initiative and, most likely sensing a chance to secure an early semi-retirement as a member of their royal guard, signed up. He had almost certainly been educated in several advanced fields as well as received extensive training against various methods of both psychological and physical torture. He had completed the training to become an Equestrian soldier with flying colours and would have most likely been on the fast track to becoming an officer.

Now all of that counted for jack shit.

A brain with an IQ of a genius and the ability to resist unimaginable cruelty hadn’t saved him from “Joining the herd”, as it were. When a human walks through the portal their body is assaulted with the magic that inhabits Equestria. Except in a few rare cases like mine it results in the permanent transformation from human to pony. The other part of the transformation is, to a degree, less random.

Any human who crosses the threshold is bombarded with the underlying magic, a magic so powerful that not only does it change the physical, but also the mental. A human can hold onto their original memories and personality, given enough strength of character; however, and I can speak from personal experience, the desire to give in is overwhelming. Submit, the magic says, give in and you shall be granted eternal happiness in a veritable paradise, although it should be mentioned that just about anything in comparison to Earth now looks like paradise. It doesn’t just speak to you, it sings, it weaves a tapestry so beautiful it makes you cry, it tells tall tales that make you laugh,  its siren song so effluent that you want to sing in a duet with it forever.

And to hold onto yourself you have to tear it all down.

You shut your ears, you rip apart the art and set it aflame, it screams in pain as you assert yourself over it and the entire time your doing the deed it asks” Why? WHY? We only want to love you, to share our bounty with you so that you may too know our peace! Why? WHY?”

That, though, is the root of the problem. It is akin to a honeydew plant, sweet to smell yet when the fly is caught in its sticky grasp there is no escape, no quarter, until it has sucked every last bit of life from it. It offers you its gifts and all you have to do is become its slave. You must subscribe to *its* peace.

I don’t know why he gave in, and I’ll never know. Perhaps its offer was simply so extravagant he couldn’t refuse, or, conversely, it promised a basic life, carefree and idyllic. After all, spending half of your waking life being trained to assassinate, sabotage, and squeeze information from other human beings takes a toll on even the most hardened killer. The promise of a clean slate, of a mind unfettered with the worries of the world, is a very tempting offer.

Perhaps using soldiers wasn’t the best of ideas. Everything is 20/20 in hindsight, as the saying goes.

The portal reacts again, this time a cobalt unicorn with a magenta tail and mane appearing. Same routine as before; name, place of birth, leader.

“I was born in Hoofington by the name of Night Write, sir. My allegiance belongs to the night’s mistress, Luna.” His voice is formal, his posture erect and his eyes, for one who has lost himself, unusually bright. Judging from his mannerisms and his name I gauge him to be a scholar, a theory that is supported by the pen on his flank. I flick my head toward the pegasus and, after giving me a quick bow, moves to the now-open door. He gives the mare a curt nod of thanks for holding the door open for him, which she returns with a flutter of her eyes.

That’s zero-to-two for the visiting team now.

They know what they’re getting into of course; we’re not so callous as to not let them know what it is that they were going up against, although we may have downplayed the inherent risks in our seminars. Still, these were trained professionals; we thought they wouldn’t have a problem with the change from the practicum to the practical. Early estimates had put the success rate at ninety percent and even after more was discovered about the portal’s effects there was still an estimated eighty-five percent chance of retention of mental facilities.

I’d told them that we should have done a small test group first, that we had no large-group statistics to compare or contrast. ‘No, it’ll be fine’ they’d answered, and now here we were, far too along to stop the process without causing mass speculation and paranoia into just how pervasive the magic was to humans.

Still, we’re only two out of two-hundred into the deal, a mere one percent, and I find myself hoping that my early fears are groundless.

Then, as if fate itself is laughing in my face, the third subject, another earth pony who’s painted a pristine white, complete with an emblem of a pair of scissors on the usual location, steps through and whinnies loudly. I ask the questions and I get the answers that I would have preferred not hearing.  The score now stands at three-oh.

Sometimes, I hate it when I’m right.

I snap out of my reverie when the gate fluctuates again, a black pegasus appearing from its depths. It wobbles around unsteadily for a few seconds, although that’s usually a good sign. The fact that it’s lacking the marking on its flank is an even better one. “Pegasus pony! What is your name, country of birth and the name of your leader?” I intone.

It clumsily raises a hoof up to its head, although it quickly goes back down when it almost falls over onto its side. “Sir! My designation is Petty Officer Grade Two, codename ‘Dark Days’ and my birth name is Daniel Telth. I was born in the Northwest Territories in Canada and I serve under Prime Minister Jeanne.” I snatch a quick look at his dossier; everything checks out. Found a love for flying when his father took him out ice fishing, joined the Canadian Air Force at age twenty-five, proved his mettle in several aerial engagements and bombing runs. Figures he’d become a pegasus. Even his codename already fit the noun-adjective format that the Equestrians seemed to love so much, although he would probably have to change it to something less inflammatory.

I let a thin smile crease my weathered face.

“Welcome to Equestria soldier, and congratulations on your successful passage through the gate. If you follow this stallion here…” I gesture towards the brown colt, “…you will be shown to your quarters where the second phase of your instruction will begin.” He rolls his eyes at the mention of more training but still looks more or less pleased with himself for his success.

He begins walking over to the door before he stops and, with what was most likely a great amount of difficulty, cranes his neck to look at me and asks “Are the others that were before me in there?”

Damnit, he just had to go and ruin the mood, didn’t he?

“I’m afraid not,” I answer truthfully. His gaze continues to bore into my head, his face telling me that he knew there was more to it then that. I break eye contact before I continue with “I’m sure it was just a rocky start. You will have plenty of others joining you in there soon enough.” He blinks a few times, trying to discern the truth from my statuesque expression, before giving up and wordlessly moving through the door. As the closes the door behind the pegasus I give another salute, the only answer to it being a sad look from the brown colt.

At least I get to put a checkmark beside a face now. I only wish I could do it with as much gumption as the pegasus.

………….

ADMINISTRATOR Harth, Xco, has set bookmarks into the recording. Would you like to utilize these? [Y/N]

…….[Y]..

Bookmarks activated. Resuming AI Recording

…………

…..

And so it went. We made it through the first fifty with little in the way of distractions. A violet unicorn with a flashy gold mane brought out some water, which I greedily quaffed in the hopes that it would stave off the encroaching heat; my suit was beginning to plaster to my skin from all of the sweat. On the bright side, the human-pony intellect ratio increased to about one-and-a-half ponies to every human in the guise of a horse. Turned out the beginning really was just a stroke of bad luck, although the success percentage was still far below the original projections.

It was number sixty-eight that posed a problem, which is to say that he didn’t cause the problem but was the center of it when sixty-nine came through. It began benignly enough, I asked the rote questions and we had another bonafied human-pony in our midst. No, the problem arose when he asked whether his brother, the one before him, was waiting for him in Brown’s room. A sense of despair and regret hung in the room for a few tense moments before Brown shook his head and pointed towards the Pegasus's door. He muttered something that passed for thanks before he went past the petrified Pegasus and disappeared behind the closing door. She had been chipper for the entire time up until this point, and now it was as if someone had reached into her chest and ripped out her heart. She pushed open the door too and disappeared into the hallway beyond. A few seconds passed before a gruff looking unicorn took her place.

I inwardly swore. I screamed and frothed at the mouth in my minds eye at the unfairness of it all. This was why such a heavy preference had been given to single men and women who had little to no family left. If he was lucky his brother would at least remember him, although it would be an entirely different set of memories and experiences. If he didn’t then all he would get would be a blank stare as thirty years of sibling rivalry and brotherly bonding was for naught. There was still a way for him to re-enter his brother’s life, although it would involve him sacrificing himself as well to the magic. The magic filled any holes in a turned one’s memory and, if his brother also joined the stream, it would bring them together once again.

Live in regret, or die and be reborn, never to know what lengths you were willing to go to in order to save the ones you love.

The portal only changes a person once and, if you deny its temptations, it leaves you alone forevermore; to truly join the magic after that you have to be exposed to its pure essence. However, this is easy to do since every time a person walks through a portal for the first time a massive amount of waste magic is given off. For the most part this semi-fuel is reserved for casting the most powerful of magic but, when a human or human-turned-pony is exposed to it, it immediately brings them into the stream. Not even I or the other humans who have managed to keep their shape when crossing the portal can fight its power and, when exposed to enough at once, it can outright kill a man before absorbing them completely into the stream.

I’ve seen it happen once, about a year ago, if memory serves. A man who still heard the clarion call of the magic beckoning him finally snapped. No one had been able to stop him before he reached into one of the vats that held the essence and suddenly evaporated, his entire being drawn into the magic. I asked one of the unicorns about what it was supposed to be like in the stream the following morning and, after she pressed me on why I would want to know, told me that some of the most accomplished magicians had gone into the stream and returned. According to them it was a place of pure bliss, where you just simply existed until you were reincarnated from the stream as a pony to begin life anew.

I found the whole reincarnation theory to be a bit far fetched myself but, then again, three-foot-high talking ponies.

The next several dozen passed with no incidents, although the tone in the room was decidedly more sombre after the two brothers had passed through. Number one-hundred thirty-seven changed that. He walked out of the portal, perhaps a little hairier then normal, but was nevertheless a real flesh-and-blood human. The human representative positively glowed at this revelation; he had been quite lonely for the last two hours. I walked up and shook the hand of a very confused man who had most likely been assuming he was going to come out a quadruped. “You are a very lucky man, Corporal Jensin,” I explain as he tries to grasp the situation. “Over there you’ll find a Mr… hmm, what was your name again?” I ask the other human.

“Luceyenkov,” he answers, his voice tinged by a slight Russian accent. “Come here Corporal, we have much to discuss,” he commands as he opens the door behind him, the only one in the room that was complete with a regular handle. The man named Jensin obliges and soon the two have disappeared behind the shutting door. I marvelled at just how surprised he had been; he hadn’t said a single word while he had been in the room.

I can appreciate a strong silent type.

The white hospital-style room had been chosen for two reasons; the calming effect it had on those who entered it, and the ease of seeing where blood landed.

Seeing another human briefly buoys my spirits, although they quickly fall when number one-hundred sixty-three comes through kicking and screaming, his body flailing, his eyes wild and his mouth frothing. There’s no mistaking the symptoms; I start to reach for my tranquilizer before a loud crack echoes through the room. I look over to where it originated from and see a man dressed in black swat gear, a smoking pistol aimed at the head of the dead pegasus. He puts another hole into it for good measure before disappearing into the recessed door that had been secreted in the corner. A unicorn that looks like its seen things that even grown men would balk at appears and efficiently cleans up the mess; crimson blood is wiped away with a cloth, the body levitated and taken away by another unicorn while the first one covers up the smell of copper and gunpowder with a quick spell. Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, they vanish, their work done. I notice that the low calibre bullets hadn’t even made it out the other side of the pegasus’ skull to mar the pristine tile.

Poor bastard had split. A roughly one-in-a-million chance had killed him long before the bullet found his brain. A split occurred when a persons mind rejected the stream, like a sort of mental allergic reaction, and then tried to take on parts of both. Technically, he was still alive when he was shot but there was nothing in his head that resembled cohesive thought. At first they had tried to bring splits back but that had quickly been abandoned when a lobotomy revealed that their brain had, quite literally, fried. After that standard procedure was to terminate the afflicted. Officially it was called a mercy killing, but those in the know simply said “They put it down” or “They put it to sleep”. When I had asked one of them why they used euphemisms from a vet’s they he blithely replied with “’Cause they’re not human anymore.”

I nearly got suspended from the program when I broke his arm in a full-nelson.

I was a little shaken but, having seen it happen before I quickly regained my composure. The unicorn looked a fair bit more shocked but he forced himself back together while brown stood impassively, his sheriff star mark hinting that he had probably seen executions before. At least my fellow human had been spared the spectacle since he was still in the back talking to Jensin; chances were he wasn’t going to be needed back anyways.

Then the next inductee walked through the gate and we carried on as if nothing had ever happened.

The last part went by in a blur for me; greet, question, send them on their way. I just couldn’t bring myself to care anymore and at this point I just wanted to reach two-hundred and finish the day off with a tall glass of what passed for alcohol in Equestria. At least it came by quickly.

A cobalt unicorn with a shield as his mark appears. Last one just had to be one of them, didn’t it? “Pegasus pony! What is your name, country of birth and the name of your leader?”

“My name is Stormfront, ambassador! I hail from Stalliongrad and my life belongs to the eternal sun goddess Celestia!” and then, as if to punctuate this point, he stuck a pose that, while probably impressive for a pony, looked a little ridiculous from my perspective.

The unicorn was about to call out to him before I held up a hand and demanded “Leave us be. I’ll send him to you shortly.” The unicorn looked uncertain for a moment before shrugging its shoulders and exiting the room. The human greeter still hadn’t returned and brown had left shortly after when Stormfront had begun his spiel. The room was empty save for me and the freshly-minted pegasus. I check the hidden doors to make sure no one is hiding behind them and then put down a silencer, a simple device that creates a cone where sound couldn’t escape from, and move forward.

And embrace the pegasus around its neck.

“God damnit Zack. I was supposed to greet you, to welcome you here. I lied to hundreds of people, I even watched one of them die, in the last three hours and now you’ve gone and buggered it all up your stupid git,” I bemoan softly. The pegasus just stands there, unmoving. “You and me, we were going to tour this place together. We were going to hit up every single god damn bar and see just how many new and exciting ways we could get piss drunk, and right at the end you give up on it all…” I finish my tirade. I have more to say but I’m afraid if I keep going I’ll break do…

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, just skip to the part where you kiss me and bring me back to my senses or whatever contrived bullshit they entertain here.” I pull back in surprise and shock to see a pair of bright and intelligent eyes above a stupid smirk of satisfaction.

“Zack? Zack!” I move in to give him an earnest hug. “You son-of-a-bitch, you actually had me going there for a moment!” I retreat again as I give him a half-hearted throttling.

He breaks away easily and laughs. “Ha! And there I was thinking you were supposed to be the stone-cold one.”

“Humph, I would have figured it out anyways. And besides, there’s a difference between showing your emotions and feeling them.” I stand back up as I feel a bit of my old life flowing from him and coming to me, the life of being two friends who had grown up beside each other, had a double marriage with our respective wife’s, and the inevitable drifting apart as our children and jobs had taken us our separate ways.

“So, how are you, old codger?” asked the fifty-eight year old, although he looked a gooddegree younger after his transformation; from what I’d heard ponies could apparently live up to a  be more then a hundred-fifty years old.

“Better then you, young grasshopper,” I answer as I think about my golden-years age of fifty-nine. Despite our mere one-year age difference we still joked about it, and he never let me forget the fact that I was statistically more likely to die first either.

“You know, now that I have an unnaturally long lifespan I’m far more likely to outlive you now,” He boasted.

Yep, definitely Zack.

“Anyways, what was with the whole strike-a-pose thing?” I inquire.

“Oh, you mean… this?” he answers as he does it again.

I laugh and rub my eyebrow in exasperation. “I swear, you think rainbows sprout from your ass.”

“And now that I’m a pegasus I can probably do that too,” he answers chidingly. I roll my eyes as he begins to whip his tail around in figure eights. “Hey, I think I’m getting the hang of th…” his bragging is interrupted by his tail coming up to whip him in the eye. At his point I’m laughing so hard I have to hold onto the near stool to keep my balance as he furiously blinks to get the fibres out of his eye.

“So, how’d you do it?” I ask after I’ve wiped the tears from my eyes.

“Do what?”

“Well, you walked in here like you’d had four legs your entire life, spouted the Celestia nonsense, and even managed to have the tattoo on your ass.”

“Well, the walking part was easy; I just imagined I was crawling. I was worried you guys might have noticed how stiff my legs were but I guess I managed to pass that off as lock-step. As for the whole I-swear-allegiance-to-the-sun thing, I watched a couple of videos of other Equestrian soldiers doing the same thing and just went from there.”

“And the mark?”

“That just happened. You know how they’re supposed to reflect your talent or whatever, right?” I give an affirmative nod before he continues, “Well, after I left the army I got a job as a security officer for a big tech firm, as you know. Pretty boring stuff but hey, bills to pay and kids to send through college. Then you told me that the head honcho here was looking for a private entourage of fresh blood and I guess the powers that be decided that the mark on my ass meant I should watch out for hers.”

“Okay then, but what about the wife and the kids? I hope you got their approval before you came here.”

“We’ve seen the adverts and, after we all talked about it, we decided as a family that we’d go through the process. They’re going to wait for that breakthrough that you told us about though, you know, the one where they won’t have to worry about that ‘stream’ thing or whatever stealing their souls. Oh and on that topic, that was pretty intense. I’m glad you were waiting for me,” he says as he shuffles his hooves absentmindedly.

“What’re you talking about? I mean, sure, the numbers weren’t that great but I knew you at least had it in you.”

“Really? Then what was with the whole confessional thing?” I open my mouth to reply before he interrupts me with “Don’t answer that, let’s just say it was a rhetorical question. I really mean it though, I’m glad you were on the other side waiting for me, that thought gave me something to hold onto.” He flashes another smirk at me.

I wonder… I wonder if the brother who had gone first would have made it through if he had been the second instead, if he could have known his sibling was waiting for him on the other side.

Zack notices my unease and, as only close friends can do, made it worse. “Oh, are you thinking about the guy who died?’

I give a defeated sigh as the day’s trials catch up to me again. “No, he split. The guard had to do a mercy kill, but at least he didn’t have to live with his pain for very long. The thing that really got to me was… well, there were two brothers…” I explained the circumstances of the situation to him as he listened with an uncharacteristic amount of reverence.

After I’d finished we stood there for a few moments in a sort of prayer before he broke the silence with “Damn. I didn’t know or else I wouldn’t have…”

“It’s fine, just forget it, there’s nothing we can do,” I cut in before I bring up my AI’s clock. “Jesus, we’ve been here talking for the last fifteen minute and they’re probably waiting for you right now. You should get going before they get suspicious,” I explain to him hastily.

“Crap! I almost forgot about that. Time to pony up I guess,” he tries to joke as he gives a false smile for my benefit. “Where can I meet you?”

“Catch me in the mess hall at seven. There are directions to it in just about every hallway,” I elaborate as I shut down my silencer and pick up my coat and clipboard. He gives me a wink before pushing his way through the door that the unicorn left out of while I head off to my room to freshen up.

There’ll be plenty of time later tooooo catch up on the pass and dwown the preseenennt with a safdaxcsdfabrandyawofchsssssssssssss……………

Attempting to retrieve AI Recording files

……………

…………………

………….

……………………

WARNING. Remaining portion of file is corrupted. Please initiate a memory recover t[END]

……….

………..

Process terminating

“The “Purists” called them monsters.

That’s wrong; they are mere animals.

I am the monster.”

General Harth

From his “suicide” note

……….

……………

…..

……...

Initializing

…..

WARNING. GUI system bootstrap process corrupted. Switching to backup command line bootstrap.

………………….

…….

………..

Initialization successful

…

Examining battery status

..

WARNING. Battery at 3% charge. Recommend immediate charging

…..

…

Solar charge sequence activated

……..

…………….

………………….

WARNING. Possible malfunctions detected. Perform diagnostics scan? [Y/N]

………….

..[Y]….

Performing diagnostics scan

…………………….

……………………………..

……………….

……………………………….

WARNING. Memory core has been damaged/formatted. Data loss at 97%. Attempt recovery? [Y/N]

………

….[Y]..

……………

…….

…

WARNING. This system is for use by ADMINISTRATOR Harth, Xco or members of direct bloodline only, as specified by ADMINISTRATOR Harth, Xco. Submit to ocular scan and/or DNA testing or system shutdown will occur.

…

System shutdown in 30 seconds

…………

…..

Initializing ocular scan

………

………………………………

Analyzing

…………………………………………………

………………………………

Ocular scan inconclusive

..

WARNING. System shut down in 20 seconds

………

Initializing DNA testing

…………….

Testing: Blood sample

……..

15% match found

…………

……………

27% match found

……………..

….

34% match found

………………………

41% match found

………….

…….

WARNING. 55% match required for full system acc…

…………….

…

Override sequence activated. Enter override passcode

……….[G]……

[E]……..[N]…..

WARNING. System shut down in 10 seconds

……[E].[S]….

….[I]..[S]….

WARNING. System shut down in 5 sec[ENTER]

…….

Analyzing override

………….

…………….

Override accepted

……..

Please enter USERNAME

..[W]……..[E]…..[S]..

……[K]…….[H]…..[A]……[R]

…[T]….[H]..[ENTER]

Welcome USER Harth, Wesk. Enter command

..[R].………[E]…[C]…[O].[V]…

…[E]…[R]….[ENTER]

Attempting recovery of memory banks

……………………………………………………..

……………………………………………

……………………………

………………………………………………….

Recovery process complete

……………………

WARNING. Memory core has been damaged/formatted. Data loss at 93%. Reattempt  recovery? [Y/N]

……

...[N]….

Process terminated. Enter new command.

..[M]…[E]…….[M]….[O]

.[R]……..[Y]…[ENTER]

Searching/Retrieving memory banks

…………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………..

…………………[END]….

Search interrupted. Reinitiate search? [Y/N]

..[N]..

Analyzing search results

………

…………….

Results analyzed. Partitions: 1[+1] – Documents: 124[+10234] – Sound Files: 430[+7] – Video Files: 75[+23] – AI Recordings: 5[+1] – Unknown/Corrupted: 231345[+342529]

Examine search results? [Y/N]

…[Y]….

Which partition? [1/2]

…..[2]….

……………

Override USER access denied. 55% DNA match required for partition 2. Access a different partition? [Y/N]

….[Y]..

Which partition? [1/2]

….[1]….

Access granted. Select a file path to examine. [D/S/V/AI]

…[AI]….

Retrieving AI Recordings

…………………

…………..

Retrieval successful. Examine AI Recordings? [Y/N]

..[Y]..

WARNING. Internal calendar has failed due to extended power loss. Attempt Wi-Net calendar sync? [Y/N]

…..[N]…

WARNING. Results will not display in chronological order. Continue? [Y/N]

……..[Y]….

Select which AI Recording to examine. [1/2/3/4/5]

…[1]…..

Retrieving

…………

…

Retrieval successful. View AI Recording?

……………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………..

……………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………….........

………………………..[Y]...

AI Recording initialized

AI recording, entry #1029

Entry added by ADMINISTRATOR Harth, Xco

Date: January 24th, 2067

Time: 17:34, -06:00 GMT, Daylight savings in effect

Recording: Personal thoughts

A bitter laugh, born from the broken mind of a cynic and psychopath, escapes my lungs. I feel as if I am but a lost soul trapped in the body of a different man. The tears do not come, yet a heavy weight lies on my heart, the regret tears me apart.

Dear god, I was only playing my part.

It’s not the death toll that matters, but rather the principal of it. We… I… I saved hundreds of thousands, even millions, of lives.

Whether they wanted it or not.

There’s still a few million people left on Earth, a seemingly large number that pales in comparison to the few billion that were here but three years ago. But it isn’t the number that matters, for that is easy to dismiss as a statistic. It could just as easily be a million fish or a million trees; no one would have truly cared about those. Before the sun rises again I will have ended millions of lives. Some would call me a saviour, others a zealot with a skewered sense of justice, and I can live with that. I draw the line when they compare me to murderers like Stalin, Hitler or Mao though.

Then again, they didn’t wipe humanity off the face of the Earth either.

Man will persevere though, but on a new world. We may never reach the status or prominence of our forefathers but, in due time, we will rise again. Billions were led to the most unlikely of salvations, yet only a few thousand made the trip as a member of the human race. It is those few that shall be the ancestors of the trailblazers that reclaim Earth once she has recovered. The rest of the saved will forget Earth ever existed and, to them, humans will fade into legend, then myth, then obscurity.

And so will my exploits.

In my hands I hold a switch. It is but a stick hanging out of a box, so innocuous and plain that if someone else picked this up off the ground tomorrow they would think it belonged to some child’s toy.  There are no hash marks on the side, no label that decries the power it wields, no lock to keep the curious at arms length. Yet, in the span of a second of me throwing it, the face of the Earth will be fated to change forever. Can one man be trusted with this kind of power?

Can one man live with himself after using the power he was entrusted with?

To think about it more would drive me to madness; to do it would accomplish that even faster.

Then that settles it. No use delaying the inevitable. I shall lose myself either way, and they shall send someone else to do the honours in my stead if I don’t finish my task. At the very least, if I do it myself, I will save at least one more from my fate.

I pull it down. There is no resistance, no clunk as gears shift, no warning klaxon, no lights to flash, it gives no outward sign that anything happened. Yet my heart bleeds, my soul cries out and my body trembles, and I know that what has been done cannot be taken back. An invisible clock ticks away above the head of every person still on Earth, and when it reaches midnight they will fall asleep, never to wake up. It strikes me as being cruelly impersonal; I can’t help but feel that it should be my duty to at least look into the eyes of the people I am have condemned.

I am no judge, there is no jury, but I have been labelled the executioner.

Today I have absolved mankind’s debts. I have given a bankrupt civilization another chance. For years we have written our past with the red ink of a deficit.

Now I pen the conclusion in the crimson of blood.

…………….

AI Recording ended

……

Process terminated

Warning: This story is an Alternate Universe take on the Conversion Bureau, and by chapter 9 changes completely from what you may expect a Conversion Bureau story to be like. Only read if you feel that won’t bother you.

The Conversion Bureau: Fragments of Regret

Based on the original fanfiction: "The Conversion Bureau" by Blaze

With Hints of  the spin-off fics "Sidelines" and "Midnight's Tale"

Chapter 2: Encounters

Chapter 3: Inspired

Chapter 4: Rose

Chapter 5: Confiding

Chapter 6: Decision

Chapter 7: Incident

Prelude:

Twilight Sparkle walked down the deserted street of the human town in silence. Too much was happening way too fast, and NONE of it made any sense. Today had been particularly stressful, which is why she was taking this walk in the first place. Though she hadn't done it in a while, she had picked up the habit of taking a walk down a random street to think whenever the mood suited her. It seemed she had been doing this more and more as a way to think without her friends or a dozen other ponies interrupting her.

She frowned only slightly at all the empty buildings and homes she saw as she walked by them. She recalled a rather interesting talk she had over a meal with one particular human about this. He was a good human. One of the ones that had gotten her into the habit of taking these thinking walks in the first place.

Him, like many others she had met, had not wanted to become a pony. They had wanted to remain human. Fix the mistakes they made. Save their dying race. While it sounded very noble, she just wasn't sure if such a thing could even be done. Eventually the borders of Equestria would be expanded, and there was just no current way for a human to be able to survive it's magical environment. Would those humans who chose to remain as they were simply die out once the borders became too wide spread for them to avoid?

Then there was the Human Liberation Front. How would they act when they realized that the very thing they have been after would be their destruction? Everything they had been doing recently would have been all in vain...

She sighed as she came to rest for a bit in what the humans called an elementary school. It was usually a point of interest for Twilight so see just how different something was in the human world compared to their own classification of the same thing in Equestria. Despite the day she had been having, she still marveled at a few of the more key differences.        The jungle gym was of particular interest. Ponies of course would be unable to use such a thing given it's design, so there was no equal to it in their schools. Only humans, with their different limbs were able to use such a thing.

For in much the same manner monkeys would swing from tree branches, the humans would do much the same with something on the jungle gyms called, ironically, monkey bars. These bars were essentially raised metal bars in which the humans could swing from using their hands. From what she had read up on humans, she knew that these things were a fairly popular item for human children to play on.

She did however, have to shudder a bit at the choice of design this one had. Looking like a long winding snake complete with a replica snake head at the end. It's closed mouth grinning at her eerily.

A sudden shiver up her spine temporarily broke her from her thoughts.  At first she thought it was just her aversion to snakes, but as the feeling seemed to stay with her, she realized it was 'That'. Quickly looking around, she used her magic to attempt to sense anyone or pony around. Not surprisingly, she came up with nothing. It was usually how these things went.

They had been rather small at first. The feelings and the number of ponies affected. So small that none of them had hardly talked of it or even paid it any mind at all. As time in the human world went on though, the feelings had slowly become a bit more common... A bit more fierce. She shuddered again. Like always this feeling reminded her of the EverFree forest in a very BAD way.

It was always the same feeling. A slight chill upon one's back. A low sense of dread, and anxiety. The feeling as if something was just... WATCHING you. Most ponies, herself included, tried to just ignore it. There was no reasonable explanation for the feeling or why one even got it. There was also never anything that came of it other then a feeling of uneasiness for a few moments after it passed.

It simply must be the stress of being in the human world, she told herself as she always did. What else could it be? She only wished the feeling hadn't become so strong lately. But how could she expect anything less after what...

She let the sentence trail off in her mind, subconsciously shutting her eyes tightly as if that would keep her from seeing the memories. It had been the worse thing to happen at the Ponification center. The first incident had been the hardest for Twilight. That human had been her friend. She still didn't understand why it had to happen, or why it was STILL happening. The Human Liberation Front had gone too far this time. It only aggravated her further that not only could they find virtually no info on just why the HLF was doing this, but even less on exactly HOW they were doing it!  So many tests and security measures had been taken, but it had kept happening. There just was no way they could do what they had, so how? How in Celestia were they pulling it off?!

The forced walk down memory lane had her so occupied that she didn't register the noise until it had sounded twice.  Startled, she brought up an invisible magic shield around her body. A trick she had to learn in case the humans were trying to use some of their projectile weaponry against her. At the same time she cursed herself for letting her guard down so much. There were many humans who were kind and understanding, but there were still many more that were not. The humans who thought the ponies were invaders, monsters. or simply things whose only purpose was to be killed in order to insure the human race's survival.

She heard it again. A strange creaking noise. Metal creaking to be exact. She scanned the area with both her eyes and magic. Desperate to find the cause. The report from the pegasi scouts this morning had confirmed that no hostile humans were detected in the city, but that didn't mean there wasn't the possibility they had missed a few.

The "feeling" was as strong as ever right now, making the task all the more difficult for her to perform. She tried summing up all the willpower she could to stay focused. There was no way she was going to be taken upon because of a silly feeling of stress-

That's when she heard it. A soft menacing whisper. It was cliché to a fault. Like what one would hear in any ghost story told around a camp fire. But here it was very real, and very much terrifying. She darted her eyes around frantically now. Something was wrong here. Something was very VERY wrong.

The very shadows around her seemed to be moving. Before she could dismiss the thing to an hallucination she found that her eyes were not playing tricks on her. The shadows WERE moving. One, two... then three... There was something unworldly about them. The last time she had seen anything like this was when she had fought Nightmare Moon so very long ago...

As the shadows danced around her, she was only able to watch them in stunned silence. They danced like this for but a few seconds before descending upon the jungle gym. One shadow rising up from the construct to greet them. In a flurry of movements they began to merge and change. Acting as if they were made of rubber, the shadows stretched and wrapped around the snake construct. They took upon a substance much like what the humans called sandwich wrap, pulling and tightening themselves, whatever they were really, around it until finally enveloping the head.

Then the real horror began.

She watched, still much to frozen by fear and her mind reeling at the very impossibility of what it was beholding. She watched as the 'snake' slowly started to move as if it were alivel. The bars bending as if they were rubber themselves, though by the horrible creak of the bending metal proved such a theory otherwise. The material was still very much the same as it had always been. Only now it was moving in a way it was never meant to.

The snake's head slowly lifted itself off the ground, dragging some of the body with it. The bars that had just recently been embedded in the earth, leaked dirt like water as it rose.

Still she watched as these bars on both sides, bent and fused together, forming a rather crude but effective body for the snake. The thing now resembling a huge metal snake all the more visibly.

Ever so slowly did the face of the snake turn to LOOK at Twilight. For try as she might, she couldn't describe the action it was performing as anything else. Finally the snakes mouth opened, her mind only briefly wondered how as the mouth hadn't been designed to do that. This was followed by a loud and menacing hiss. It was this hiss that finally allowed Twilight to do something other than stand frozen in her fear.

She screamed.

Chapter 1: Arrival

Two Months Earlier:

"Now just calm down James. It'll all be over before you know it you'll see..." The young adult with reddish hair was saying nervously to himself. Reaching into the bag at his side, he shakily withdrew a bottle of water and a few pills of Tylenol. It was getting worse and the doctors didn't know why. This could be his only hope. He reminded himself this as he took the medicine, but the feeling of reassurance would not come. This place still scared him immensely.

Gathering up the last of his nerves, he began to walk forward, barely letting out a breath as he passed through the doors into the Ponification center. He tugged at the Devil May Cry messenger bag, rather nervously, as he walked up to the receptionist desk. By this point he had seen many ponies up close and personal, therefore it caught him completely off guard to find a small purple and green dragon working the keyboard to the computer at the desk. Attempting to collect himself quickly, he snuck a glance at the name plate on the desk. Upon seeing the name written, he raised an eyebrow.

"I hardly think your name is Pinkie Pie" He said simply. The dragon stopped what he was doing to look at him oddly for but a few seconds before he seemed to catch on.

"Aw dang it," The dragon said turning the name plate to face him. Sure enough, the name Pinkie Pie was printed upon it in large pink letters.

"I told Twilight I need my own name plate, why do I keep forgetting to take this one off the desk when I'm stationed here anyway?" Annoyed at himself, the dragon took the plate and threw it into a draw before turning back to James.

"The name's Spike! Nice to meet you!" The small dragon said as extending his hand out. James carefully took and shook it, feeling silly that he was afraid of hurting the thing. He was sure that even a baby dragon couldn't be wounded so easily.

"I can only GUESS why you are here," Spike continued with a bit of a chuckle, "Not many reasons why humans would come here." James was only able nod in a dumb fashion, as he tried to crack a smile that wasn't a nervous one. He was pretty certain he failed.

"Y-yeah I'm here to become a-a... pony..." He felt his stomach tighten. It had been quite a while ago when these centers had opened up, allowing any humans who wished for it to become ponies. He had heard all the usual talk. Knew that the ponies meant no real harm to anyone. He also knew all about the fact that becoming a pony would mean a second chance for humans. The ability to enter a whole new world for them to explore and settle upon. In essence make a new claim to life. He knew very well that what he was here to do was in no means a bad thing at all.

So why on earth couldn't he shake the feeling that he was making a TERRIBLE mistake?

"Whoa, relax guy!" Spike had said, drawing James out of his daze. "You have nothing to be worried about. I've not seen anyone yet regret being a Pony! Course I think you'd probably have more fun being a dragon." He stopped to strike a dashing pose, attempting to look as magnificent as he could. The effect was only ruined slightly, mostly due to the fact that Spike was just a baby Dragon.

At least James was pretty sure the thing had to be a baby if he was THIS small. The pose did manage to do the trick Spike had probably been going for, as James felt himself relax a bit inwardly at the silliness of the whole thing. He managed to calm his jitters even despite the awe he was feeling at seeing a real live dragon!

"Heh, I don't suppose I could sign up for that instead?" He managed to joke. Some of the nervousness he had been feeling had drained from his body. Leaving him feeling rather relived.

"Nah, no such luck, I doubt the other dragons would want more being made that way anyhow. But I think being a pony could be just as good. My friend Twilight is the best, and who wouldn't want to be able to use magic? Or even fly?"

James could tell by the tone of Spike's voice and expression that he couldn't wait to fly himself. While researching Equestria James had seen a few pictures of the land that included one showcasing a dragon flying in the background. Given that, he assumed dragons must grow their wings later in their life cycle given Spike here had none...

Unless of course Spike was a breed of dragon that didn't get wings... James had to stop himself in mid thought. If he kept letting his mind wander like that, then he might never get through this. The decision had already been made. He couldn't let himself delay it any longer.

"So uh..." He began, attempting to steer the conversation back on the topic of him getting ponified. Unfortunately it was at that moment Spike seemed to get a good look at his messenger bag.

"Devil May Cry?! Oh man that series is awesome!" He said climbing onto the desk for a better look then his chair provided. (Which James saw had apparently been modified to allow Spike to be this high. He briefly wondered how Spike had gotten up into the chair in the first place, but Spike was rattling on) "I've played em all! The seventh was by FAR the best, but The third and Fourth were pretty good too. They seemed to kinda loose something with the way they went about five and six though, and don't get me STARTED on the second one-"

"Whoa whoa whoa," James said holding up his hands to stop Spike from prattling on. There was a bit too much going on for him to wrap his head around, so he started with the first question that was currently on his mind.

"You play videogames?"

"Oh of course! It's one of the best things you humans ever created!"

"So you can actually play them?"

"Of course dude! Unlike the ponies -I- have thumbs!" He demonstrated this by holding his hands up to prove his point. "I even write letters for all my friends, so in the way of hands I'm just like you!"

James couldn't help but find himself a bit speechless at this revelation. Of course Spike could do things like that. He had even seen him typing away at the computer when he had walked in. He guessed he had just been so use to ponies running these things that he didn't take into account meeting with something other then a pony.

"Huh I guess you're right," He said in a way that admitted he hadn't been thinking straight, though he doubted anyone could blame him. Talking ponies had been FAR from the norm not THAT long ago.

"What do you play?" He asked Spike. Now he was curious.

"Oh action games mostly. I tried playing a few of those things you call R-P-Gs, but I didn't like how you would fight dragons all the time. That one series called Breath of Fire was excellent however! (James couldn't help but grin at that) I use to play a few puzzle type games, but Twilight made me stop after a uh... columns incident..."

"You were LICKING the screen Spike." A Purple unicorn pony said from their right rather suddenly. James visibly jumped at the sudden intrusion. He hadn't even heard her walk up! Or would that be trot up?

"Oh I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention to scare you," The unicorn said with a bow of her head. James on the other hand, wasn't able to respond for several seconds as he looked the pony over.

When the ponies had first come to them with the offer, he had been one of the many who had been unsure of the whole thing. Even after more and more people got the conversion, and with all the news articles assuring the public that it was safe. He still wasn't sure about it. Not even the many ponies, formally human, that he talked to about it. All telling him it felt like the best thing they had ever done could convince him it was something he would ever want to do.

But... Recent events had forced his hand...

He mulled this over for the few seconds it took in his head, at least until he realized he had forgotten to give her any type of response.

"Oh uh, no problem. Just startled me is all..." He gave a rather nervous laugh while he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. It was something he had seen in many an anime and had subconsciously picked up the habit.

"Well I'm glad to meet you at any rate." She said with another head bow before turning to Spike, "So who's your new friend here?"

"Uh, I never actually got his name..." Spike said sheepishly while tossing a look at James.

"It's James, James Fowler." He said with a bow. He got a funny thought at that moment and decided to try his luck. Turning to Spike he said, "Think you can handle introducing me to the lady Spike?" The gamble paid off.. While Spike did glare at him, it was clear to anyone watching that it was friendly in nature.

"Ha ha," He said before pointing to the Unicorn, "This here is Twilight Sparkle, the friend I just mentioned. I guess you could also say she's my employer."

"Oh Spike, you know I think of you as much more then just an assistant," The unicorn pony said with a laugh, "Anyway it seems that you two were having fun.

"You bet! This guy's a gamer! Very much my kinda guy!" For some reason, James felt himself blushing at this compliment.

"Oh THOSE things, "She said with a sigh, "Well you two would get along, what with how much you play them all the time. I just don't get the appeal of them myself" Twilight shook her head to illustrate her point.

"Hey! I've been very good at not playing them during work!" Spike protested, Twilight just rolled her eyes.

"That's because you kept pestering me about trying to get them to work properly in our home that I finally had to agree to looking into it! That is IF you carried out your duties at the center properly." She shot back. Then with a smug expression she continued, "Which I don't think includes chatting away about them instead of taking down the latest volunteer's name."

"Yeah yeah, keep your shirt on." Spike said as he began typing away at the computer, having just used one of the human expressions he had grown fond of.

"I don't WEAR a shirt Spike! None of us do!" Twilight said exasperated. James could clearly see from the gleam in Spike's eye that he said that to intentionally annoy Twilight. He couldn't help but laugh, feeling much better about being here then he had ever thought possible.

"Sorry, sorry!" He said as he forced himself to calm down at the odd look Twilight was giving him. "But it's obvious you two have been together for a while. It's... It's just nice to see I guess."

Thankfully, Twilight seemed to understand his meaning as she gave a knowledgeable nod. After a few minutes, Spike had finished with whatever typing he had been doing on the computer.

"Okay James, got you all set up in the database. All that's left is to show you around and you'll be all set!"

"Wait really?" James said with a bit of a confused expression. "But all you had was my name. Don't you need anything else?"

"Like what?" Twilight asked him. Her face did not betray that this wasn't the first time she had shared a conversation like this with a new comer.

"Uh... I- I don't know! But it seems like there should be SOMETHING!" He said throwing his arms up in the air to elaborate.

"How about what your favorite party refreshments are!?" A voice said from directly beside him. The owner was another pony. This one was pink with a mane that was only a slightly different shade of pink from the body. The very aura she gave off was a clear indication that she was way to energetic for her own good.

Her manner of appearing was so sudden though, that James found himself responding before his brain could even register what had just happened or what he was doing.

"Well I like cookies, and ice cream, gotta go with Mountain Deee-WHA! WHERE DID YOU COME FROM!?" Upon having his brain come to speed, he had leaped violently to his side, nearly crashing into the wall in the process. Did ALL ponies just suddenly pop up out of nowhere like this!?

"Well once LOOOOOOOOONG ago, since my mommy and daddy loved each other very muc-MFFFFFFFF!!!" She began before an Orange pony wearing a cowboy hat stopped her by shoving an apple into her mouth.

"Not the time sugercube, ain't what he meant by that anyway!" The new comer said with a sigh. James didn't miss the southern drawl to her speech, but at the moment he was just glad to note that he had actually heard this one walk, or rather clomp, up

"Things sure are getting a bit lively round here," The orange one continued, this time speaking to Twilight.

"Indeed, thanks for your help AJ."

James noticed the orange pony nod her head. He couldn't help but wonder what AJ actually stood for, as he doubted that could be her name, anymore then he thought Spike could be called Pinkie Pie.

In fact if he had to wager, he'd say that name belonged to the 'Poof' pony who was currently enjoying her apple.  The name certainly seemed to fit her perfectly.

"Anyway with the rate all these interruptions are going, it'll be midnight before I'm able to show James here to his room." Twilight then turned her attention to the human himself,

"Okay yes there is more, but we can handle that in your dorm room. Now, shall I show you around a bit? I was just passing by the desk anyway, so it'll be no trouble."

James nodded before turning to the two new ponies.

"Well uh, it was nice meeting you er..."

"Oh shucks where are my manners?" The Pony AJ said while taking his hand before shaking it rather vigorously. So much to the point that he was afraid it wouldn't stop moving after she let go.

"The name's Applejack! I'm sure as hay we'll catch each other again."

James nodded about to give his own name before realizing that Twilight had pretty much already had. He was also right about his arm not stopping and had to use his other one to still it.

"That there jittery miss jitterson is Pinkie Pie. Y'all be hearing much more of her." Applejack finished pointing to the Pink pony who had since finished her apple and was now jumping up and down seeming excited that she was being talked about. James could only look at her dumbly. Did she EVER stop moving? He was getting tired just from watching her.

"She does the loudspeaker announcements," Twilight said upon seeing the confused expression he begun to give her. Not wanting to waste any more time, she began to trot down the hallway.

"This way please"

James fell into step behind her. Finding it easier then the thought it would to keep up with her. He had thought that with four legs she'd easily be able to outdistance him. Then he realized that he couldn't have been the first person she'd show around like this and had most likely gotten use to moving at a slower pace to accommodate humans like him.

Turning a corner, they reached a set of double doors, (Which James took note had no knobs or bars so the ponies could easily push them open, which is exactly what Twilight did) As they walked through them, he caught the last few exchanges of dialog back at the desk.

"Sorry it took long as it did Spike." He heard Applejack say.

"Yeah that took SOOOOO long! But now I'm back and ready to take over the desky spot again!" Pinkie Pie's voice said next, "But wait! where is my name plate! Oh no! What if someone stole it? Oooo! Or what if it's hiding! I bet it's a prize in one of those cereal boxes the humans have in their stores!"

"It's in the desk where I always put it!" Spike's annoyed reply was the last thing he heard before the doors swung back shut. Amazingly, cutting off the noise.

* * *

"Well here are the dorms. Guess that concludes the little tour." Twilight said as they walked down a hallway that reminded James much of the hotels he'd been in for anime conventions. She continued trotting, leading him to a room marked 1408 before stopping.

"This will be your room for the next week or so," She went on, "Announcements for ponification are always in the morning. You're free to travel around the center as much as you want. Provided you stay out of the areas for Authorized Personal only of course." James nodded absently, only paying enough attention to somewhat grasp the information she was giving him. In the meantime, he was staring at his room number rather nervously.

"There will be a seminar in a couple of hours regarding the... ponification process- are you okay?" She had finally asked, seeing the odd expression upon his face.

"There... there aren't any paintings of ships in here are there? The heater and air conditioner don't need work right?"

"What? No! Why on Equestria would you ask that?" James felt like pointing out they were on earth, not Equestria, but he was already feeling sheepish at the reason for his increased nervousness. The ordeal he was to face had already been making him nervous, not to mention frightened to all hell. So in no way was the room number really helping matters. He kind of wondered if it was a bad omen.

"Well it's just uh... there was this movie... uh you know I'm just being silly. I'm sure it'll be fine." He managed to stammer out, turning his attention away from the door to Twilight. Doing his best to calm his jittery nerves again, he gave her a half hearted smile.

"Um... okay. If you say so," Twilight said, deciding to drop the subject, "Here are the forms you'll need to fill out. You can hand them in to me after the seminar. In fact, I'm actually the speaker for it!"

"Oh! Well that means I'll have a friendly face to look forward to!" He said relieved, then realizing how that might be taken, "Uh not that the others uh...er..." Twilight just laughed.

"Relax James, you aren't the first person to have the jitters upon coming here. There was this one guy named Martin, but I'm going on a tangent. Just relax. We're all here to help you, and there is nothing to fear about becoming a pony."

"Th-that's right!" Squeaked a voice to their left. Turning to see who had just spoken, they saw a small girl that couldn't have been any older then twelve, peeking out from her room. As they looked her way, she seemed to want to dash back into that room, but had gathered up her courage to remain as she was.

"Well hello there, I'm surprised to see you around the dorm rooms at this time. Most ponies- er or people are out and about right now." Twilight said in the gentlest voice she could muster. James could see the expertise in her tone as she spoke to the young girl. Even he couldn't be afraid of someone (or pony) who spoke like that. Twilight must have had a lot of practice on some particularly shy people...

"My-My sister wanted me to join her in the gardens, but I was feeling sleepy so I stayed an' took a  nap." She squeaked out. James had to smile at the girl. In her arms she held what appeared to be a stuffed panda bear. He could see that she must love the thing a lot, judging by how worn the toy appeared.

She was a very cute child. Blond hair, blue eyes. Wearing the cutest blue dress. He briefly found himself wondering what she might have looked like all grown up. But since she was here that'd never happen. She'd be a pony long before she was even in high school. It seemed a bit of a shame somehow... Though he couldn't help but think that thought could be considered a little weird...

"B-but anyway!" She had turned her words back to James, "My-My sister? Yeah she's a pony now. She said it dunna hurt. She says she's happy to be one."

"You sound like you trust your sister very much." James said in a gentle manner himself. He couldn't do it the same way Twilight did, but it appeared that the girl could sense his nervousness. He didn't know it, but that was the entire reason she had decided to speak to him in the first place.

"I do! I do!" She said rather enthusiastically. "I trust her thiiiiiiiis much. (She stretched out her hands and arms as far as they'd go to demonstrate) I can't wait to join her!"

"I'm sure she can't either. In fact I bet she's even waiting for you now. To join her in the gardens. I bet that'd make her very happy! Why not go find her now that you're awake?" He said smiling. The girl nodded happily and proceeded to make her way down the hallway, almost leaving it before turning back around.

"Oh! I'm Rose! Who're you mister?" She called back.

"I'm James! It was very nice to meet you Rose!" He called back waving. Rose gave a small curtsey before she ran off, disappearing from sight. He figured Twilight must have already met the girl since they didn't exchange names as well.

"Wow, so young, and so much more courage then I have..." He let slip before realizing what he had said.

"You really ARE nervous about this aren't you?" Twilight asked him softly. She had said it gently attempting to calm his nerves like she did the girl. Though he appreciated the effort, he wasn't sure he'd ever feel completely calm with any of this. He only hoped the ponfication brought him the peace he was longing for...

"Yes... very much." Came his quiet reply.

"If... if you need to talk sometime. I might be able to..." Twilight offered softly. She wasn't exactly sure how to go about this. James merely smiled at her though.

"I think I just need some time to settle in that's all. If I'm still feeling this anxious after your seminar, I'll seek you out okay? Except I have to seek you out anyway to give you the papers..." He said suddenly realizing how silly it had been to say that. Twilight stifled a giggle.

"Sounds good. You just fill those out and get back to me okay? And try not to worry. We've never had anyone hate being a pony." With that she turned and left. Leaving James alone to his thoughts.

"I just wish the price wasn't so high..." He said quietly to himself before entering his room.

Ironically, neither him nor Twilight actually knew the price all the new ponies were paying, and it'd be a long time before they did...

* * *

"Afternoon, everyone. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'll be talking to you all for the next twenty minutes. Now, I'm almost positive all of you are here because you want to become a pony. This is a fact. You don't come here because you don't want to be a pony, unless someone forced you at gunpoint, but then I'd have to worry about how they got that past security."

Everyone in the room laughed at the joke, the mood in the room lightening. James sitting among them.  After being left alone, he had plowed through the paper work, surprised at just how extensive the questions were. Though it did concern him a bit that he hadn't see any of the usual legal mumbo jumbo you'd usually find in such forms. Part of him was worried about that, but he had to admit that part of him was glad he didn't have to read through any of the stuff.

He had been passing the time by playing his old school 3DS when the announcement for the seminar had blared over the intercom. Putting his system away, he headed for where it was held, and thus here he was, with a whole room full of strangers. Thus he took quick notice that Rose wasn't with them. He guessed she had already heard all this before.

Meanwhile, Twilight continued her speech, "I do admit that while I don't fully understand your reasoning behind your choice to become a pony, considering I was born one myself, I can understand what we have been facing in the past few years. There have been many humans who have brought your world to shambles. Whether it be through the greed of some of your large corporations, or the horrible health habits many other humans have displayed."

She proceeded to unfurl a map by using her magic, pointing out the isle of Equestria as she did. James couldn't believe how tiny the land mass looked on a map. Yet he was certain it seemed so much larger when you were finally there...

"Ponykind faces overpopulation, in ways that the tiny isle of Equestria simply can't deal with forever. That's why we moved into your towns and cities. I'm sure you all know about this already, but what you probably haven't heard is why we're doing this. Why you are here today, sitting in this cramped room with sweaty, tired people just waiting for me to shut the hay up."

Again the room chuckled at her humor. Twilight was visibly pleased with the reactions, though she tried not to show it. Ever since she had a talk with a human named Michael, she had realized just how terrifying her speech could seem to some of the humans. Upon realizing that, she had worked extra hard at revamping it, attempting to put a calming spin on it. The safer people felt, the less likely they were to regret their decision and leave before the process was done. She wanted to save these people. The ones who weren't part of the problem. She didn't want them to be part of that dying world any longer..

"Our plan is to ponify as many as are willing, the sooner the better. We only hope that in time, it'll be all of you. Please do not be concerned of the change. You'll get used to our culture, our food, and our lack of thumbs. Trust me, it's easier than it looks. Because humans can't handle the magic radiating from Equestrian borders, becoming a pony is crucial to expanding the peaceful, friendly aura that surrounds Equestria every day of every month of every year. All we want to do is help you adjust before it's too late for your world. Thank you."

While the entire room applauded, Twilight couldn't help but notice that while James was smiling, he wasn't clapping as loud as the others. It wasn't hard to tell that something was on his mind. Perhaps the ending of the speech still felt to much like an invasion threat? She'd have to ask his opinion when he turned in the papers. She waited paitently as one by one the people filed out of the room, finally leaving only the two of them left. At last, James got up from his seat to hand her the finished documents.

"Nice speech Twilight." He said as he handed her the papers. She smiled while using her magic to levitate them out of his hand and into a pouch on one of the saddlebags she was wearing. This action actually startled James a bit, as he hadn't been expecting her to take the papers from him in such a way. Amazed by this simple feat of magic, he stood there transfixed. He had no doubt that to her it was nothing out of the ordinary, but to him it was simply mesmerizing.

"Thank you James, uh you... you didn't think it sounded like an invasion declaration did you?" James blinked.

"What? Uh no, not really why? Has that happened?"

"Let's just say that my old speech had some... wrinkles to iron out. So have you settled in yet?"

"Uh, I-I guess so." He sighed. Twilight hated to keep prying but it was clear that SOMETHING was bothering this boy. For whatever reason she just couldn't stop herself from trying to help the guy. Maybe it was because of how her friends had helped her out when she had been new to Ponyville. His way of carrying himself, did remind her slightly of how she felt back then...

"Look... James. Please, I know something is bothering you. I can promise you that anything you say won't leave this room. I don't know what may be bothering you, but I don't want you to feel pressured into becoming a pony or anything like that. So is there any way you can talk to me about what's bugging you?"

She could see him wrestling with the emotions he was feeling while he stood there. He seemed to greatly consider it, but with a sigh he shook his head.

"It's nothing you need to worry about. I'm not here because of peer pressure or anything like that. I just have some... uneasy feelings about all of this that's all."

Twilight was a pretty smart pony, and could easily tell he was keeping something big from her. While this did irritate her that he was remaining tight lipped, really what could she do? If he didn't want to talk about it, she had no choice but to respect his wishes.

"Well, if there ever is anything, you know where to find me." Twilight said before using her magic to shuffle and store all her papers, including James', into her saddle bags.  Again James watched with awe as the papers floated around with a faint purplish glow.  It made him really hope he became a unicorn. That just might make all this worth it...

"You seem to be a fan of magic." She teased, in hopes of getting him to relax a little more. By what she could tell, it worked.

"How can I not be? You're whole life you are told that magic doesn't exist, only to have that very thing shown to you first hand like this? It's just amazing! I've wanted to witness real honest magic since I was just a little boy! Who'd have ever thought I'd get to see it in my lifetime..."

Twilight had to giggle at how old James sounded when he said that.

"You still have a lot of life left you know. You look rather young for a human." James nodded.

"I'm am, only twenty-one since a couple of months ago but..." He almost slapped his hand over his mouth. As it was he grew deathly silent, and his expression turned grim. How could he have almost blurt it out like that!?

"I've found that no one ends a sentence that way unless they have something horrible to reveal..." Twilight said softly, "James please. What is it?"

He sighed  He knew he'd be unable to hide it forever, and though Twilight seemed like a good person- er pony. He didn't want to regret having told her later. Frankly he didn't want anyone to know if he could help it. Besides, how did you go telling some one in Twilight's position that you were only here because it might be the only hope you have left?

"I... I can't..." His voice barely a whisper. "Give me time... Maybe... Maybe later but I just can't right now..."

Twilight regarded him for several minutes. He was avoiding eye contact with her. Part of her wanted to scream at him for this. He was obviously hiding something important. That much was certain. Whatever it was, it had him scared. Really scared. It almost made her wonder if this human was safe to be around. She knew very well what creatures would do when cornered and humans were no exception to that rule.

Still... Looking at him as he was, especially judging him by the behavior he had so far displayed. It was too hard to imagine him causing any deliberate harm to others. Whatever was bothering him appeared to be a rather deep and personal issue for him. Despite his reluctance to talk, she decided to try one last means of gaining any sort of information.

"James... do you want to become a pony?" Her voice barely above a whisper itself. James gave her a look that reminded her of her friend Fluttershy oh so much... Then gulping, he shook his head no.

"It's... It's not really that it's..." He sighed again before he continued, "Complicated. But I can tell you this Twilight. I'm here because I chose to come here. I chose to become a pony. I can promise you that."

Twilight just remained silent after his words. That hadn't been the answer she wanted. He was being deliberately vague, and it was annoying her a bit more then she thought it would. Yet at the same time she really couldn't blame him. After all, it wasn't like she told HER friends everything, even with all the time they had known one another. Even then, they were her FRIENDS. Ponies she would see often and knew well.  To this guy she was just some unicorn pony asking uncomfortable questions. She probably would have kept her distance herself.

Even so, she wished she knew what was up. How could she possibly help him if she couldn't even grasp the problem proper?

"I'm sorry." He said quietly. She sighed.

"No I'm sorry James. I'm pushing you too hard for information on something that really doesn't have anything to do with me. Forget I asked anything." She gave him a smile, before deciding to change the subject.

"So, have you given any thought as to what pony you'd like to become?" James' reaction was to shrug.

"Not really... Okay no, maybe that's a bit of a lie. I think I'd enjoy becoming a unicorn or a pegasus pony.  To fly? To use magic? Either one would be fantastic! Er... No offense to any Earth Ponies, but if I'm going to become a pony. I'd like one of those benefits." His eyes wandered to her horn, before he glanced away with a blush. She had seen him do it though.

"Why do I have a feeling you'd like to be a unicorn pony the most?" Her mouth a huge grin. This just caused him to blush even darker. A fact he tried to hide, rather unsuccessfully, with a 'yawn'

"Well... it would be pretty cool." He admitted, "Anyway, I think I'm going to go take a nap. Maybe it'll calm my nerves..."

She nodded while watching him get up and make his way to the doors. As she watched him go, she couldn't help but mull over any possible way to help him out. She knew that that he was putting on a brave face to cover up something. She also had an idea of how draining that had to be on him. If only there was someway she could keep his mind distracted on other things-

That's when a rather random thought entered her head. She was certain he'd not be opposed to the idea the other one HAD been trying his best to do his work properly...

"Hay James!" She called out just as he was about to leave the room. James stopped in mid stride to turn back toward her. His hand resting on the door.

"Yes?" He asked.

"I think Spike could use someone to talk about games with. Not too many people around here who seem to share his tastes. You seem to be one though. Think you can keep him busy for a while tonight?" The smile James gave her was bigger then anything she had seen him give since he had arrived earlier that day.

"I think that would be pretty awesome. It's been a while since I've had a good gamer chat!" Then with that, he was out the door and down the hall.

Notes:

I’ve done my best to proof read, and have a couple of people helping me out by reading through it as well. With that said however, this doc is liable to change at any time as I make any corrections pointed out to me.

Also I don’t consider this fic canon with the original fic, or the two spin-off fics I reference. I suppose you could consider it more of an ‘Alternate Take’ on the concept.

Tibits:

-When Twilight mentions having a meal with a human over the topic of the empty streets, it’s a reference to the spin-off Fic ‘Sidelines’ My favorite of the spin-off fics, and what inspired me to write my own. The fic is mentioned again when Twilight talks about having changed up her speech.

-Twilight mentions there was this guy named ‘Martin’ who was also nervous about taking the ponification process. This is a reference to ‘Midnight’s Tale’, another spin-off fic I really love.

Yes I realize I mention there are hints to both fics at the start of this, but I thought it’d be neat to point out when I gave nods to them. ^_^

Course neither of those Authors know I was writing this, so I hope they don’t mind. ^^; You won’t ever see the actual characters from those fics in this one of course.

Prelude and Chapter 1: Arrival

Chapter 3: Inspired

Chapter 4: Rose

Chapter 5: Confiding

Chapter 6: Decision

Chapter 7: Incident

Chapter 2: Encounters

"Come on! Just a few more!" Spike said while watching James eat some tater tots with a fierce intensity.

"No! You already took about half from me! Go get your own!" James responded while keeping a close eye on Spike's movements.

"But that's way over THERE" Spike said, indicating the serving counter at the other end of the room. He sat silent for a few moments before his voice took on a bargaining tone.

"I'll give you some of these!"

"I don't want any of your hay fries Spike."

"Well, seems you two are getting along nicely." Twilight said as she trotted up to their table. Levitating a tray of food in front of her with her magic as she did so.  James blinked a bit at what appeared to be a flower sandwich on her tray, before remembering that she was a pony.

It was a few hours later, and time for dinner, since Spike had come to hang out with James. Spike had been rather surprised that Twilight had even given him the opportunity to do so. He was understandably skeptical of the whole thing at first, especially since all he really knew about James, was that he played some of the videogames Spike himself liked. But in the end decided time off from work, was time off from work.

It didn't take long before Spike found himself glad he had accepted the request. For it turned out that James was big on a lot of the retro games that he was a fan of.

You could find people who liked a lot of the modern gaming stuff just fine, but one who was a true fan of the old stuff was incredibly rare. Even more so, someone who liked the same types as you. So to Spike, James was the perfect companion for his time off. James on the other hand was just glad for a distraction.

Still by watching them now, you'd never have guessed that they had only just met that morning.

"Twi! You should hear about this guys game collection! He has a copies of the Bust a Groove Games! Those things are super hard to find!" James couldn't help but feel embarrassed with Spike telling Twilight all about his nerdy collection. Twilight being who she was though, didn't seem to be interested.

"I'll take your word for it Spike." She replied as she took a seat next to them.

"I didn't think I'd see you here." James said, hoping to cut off any future remarks about his gaming habits.  While he did have a big collection, he didn't like to brag about it. It wasn't helping him either, when he thought about how it was another thing he'd soon have to give up...

"Why's that?" Twilight said between bites of her food.

"Well, you have a really important role here right? I dunno I guess you'd all have your own dining room or something."

"Oh not at all. Actually if anything that would be even stranger, when every other pony is out here.." Twilight said before levitating up a cup to her mouth so she could drink from it. He couldn't quite make out what was in it, but he did pick up the faint scent of tea leaves...

"Besides, A pony has simply GOT to socialize! Why, it'd be a nightmare to be cooped up back there all day! Talk about the wasted opportunities for mingling!" Spoke a new voice James was quickly able to identify belonging  to a white unicorn pony with a purple mane. He couldn't remember seeing a more radiant pony before. The very air seemed to glow with her elegance.

Okay yeah, he hadn't met many other unicorn ponies in his time, with Twilight being the only one he really talked to. But the one that stood before him now? He had a feeling he could search both earth and Equestria twice over and never again find one so graceful.

"Oh dear me, I'm so sorry to intrude upon your conversation, but I saw my good friend Twilight here and couldn't help but eavesdrop. Please forgive me."  The pony said as she set her own plate of food down besides Twilight's. James couldn't help but be a bit startled when she lifted her front left to bend it as if it were an arm, placing her hoof against her chest like an arm. Straightened her throat in a very professional manner she went on.

"I am Rarity. Very pleased to meet your acquaintance."  He was so put off at the utter weirdness of being at a dinner table with two ponies, (and a baby dragon) that it took him a moment to realize she was waiting for him to introduce himself back.

"Oh! Um..." He said while trying his best to look composed. (He was sure he failed)         "I'm James. Uh, Pleased to meet you Lady Rarity." Despite his attempts to compose himself having made her smile in amusement. His way of speech did just the opposite.

"Well, Lady Rarity! I can see you were brought up with some fine manners. You'll make a fine pony indeed I do say!" He knew it was a compliment, but frowned at the exchange. Thankfully, that was something he wouldn't have to deal with for a few days more at most.

Turning his thoughts instead to the way Rarity spoke, he took special notice at just how high class she seemed to carry herself. He didn't really think this was a bad thing, or that she was a bad pony or anything. But there was just something to her mannerisms that made him wonder if he could put up with her for any extended amount of time...

It was also about this time that he noticed Spike had remained strangely quiet during all this. Glancing over at his companion, he was greeted to the sight of Spike giving Rarity the biggest goo-goo eyes he had ever seen. This caused him to roll his own eyes with a grin. On the bright side of course, this meant he could eat his tater tots in peace.

"Good evening Rarity, Everything checking out for tomorrow's ponification?" Twilight asked as Rarity ate. James was once again astonished at this pony. Even her way of EATING was elegant.

"No problems at all Twilight. Come tomorrow morning we'll have another happy pony on the grounds." The words caught James' attention immediately. All he knew about the process to becoming a pony, was what everyone else knew. Even with so many having already been converted, the amount of information on the actual process was extremely limited. About all anyone knew, was that you drank something, and then there was some needle.  After that, in about ten or so minutes, you got a pony.

"So uh..." He paused, not certain if they'd give him an answer, but after catching the comforting look from Twilight, he decided to press on.

"How, well if you don't mind my asking that is, does this 'thing' work? Ponification I mean..." He didn't even try to keep the nervousness from his voice. That was a battle he was destined to loose.

"Dear me." Rarity said giving Twilight a grin, "Kind of reminds you of someone right there doesn't he?" Twilight had to almost bite her tongue to keep from laughing. James just looked confused.

"Oh don't you mind that," Twilight began, brushing the comment of Rarity's aside, "I'm sure you've already heard from many the basics. As they'd tell you, we give you a cup of some powerful general anesthetic."

"That helps you go to sleep so you can start the uh... gene manipulation?" James asked, interrupting.

"Well not exactly. You see, the base plate of the gene therapy is in the anesthetic. This is basically what turns you into a pony based on your DNA. Though even I am not sure  exactly how it works. But somehow it finds which type of pony you're best suited for, and well 'makes' you that pony." As Twilight spoke, James was going over this in his head. Nodding to show he understood at various points.

Rarity, meanwhile, was just watching the two of them talk while she ate. Deeming it unnecessary for her to join in.

"But you said that just had the base plate. So does that mean you need a catalyst to get it started?" James asked.

"Well close," Twilight said nodding, "A catalyst usually is something you add to a chemical reaction to increase it's reactor rate, but usually ends without any permanent changes. Obviously that wouldn't work in this case. You do have the right idea though. We inject into you the reaction chemical shortly after you've drank the anesthetic.  It's this that begins the actual change into a pony. With that done, it's just a short wait and well... You're a pony." James let this all sink in, after she spoke. He still had a few questions that needed asking.

"So, there uh... hasn't ever been any failures have there?" He asked first. The question caused Rarity to scoff.

"Heavens no! Don't you even worry about such a thing! We've taken every precaution to insure that that volunteers such as yourself, have nothing to worry about! Why, not once in the entire time of these centers being opened, has there EVER been anything like that! Certainly not here, and especially not on MY watch!"

Despite the way she said it, the speech did manage to calm his nerves rather well. He was really pleased to see that she took such pride in her work. James didn't doubt for a second that she did all she could to make sure there was no danger.

"Oh yeah that reminds me," He said, a random thought coming to the front of his mind, "Does it really only take about ten or so minutes? Maybe it's just me, but I always felt something like that would take longer." He didn't know why, but Twilight gave the oddest smile just then. It was almost like she had a very similar conversation before...

Twilight actually found it rather ironic. While James didn't have the book smarts of the other guy, the set up of this conversation was almost identical. It was even during dinner like that time.

"That's where the magic comes in." She said, watching James' eyes light up. She was beginning to find the way he brightened up like that at the mention of magic rather cute.

"Oh... so I guess that boosts it or something. Is that all it does?" He asked. Twilight just smiled.

"What else would it do?"

This caused James to blink

"Huh, guess I didn't really think about that..." He said with a sheepish look.

"Don't be embarrassed my dear, it was a perfectly fine question to ask," Rarity said jumping back into the conversation. Spike's only additions on the other hand were an occasional mumble of 'Rarity'. If the white unicorn heard him, she didn't let on.

"Well I suppose you could say it helps calm new ponies down a bit so they can get use to their new bodies. A bit of a calming spin to it you could say." That caught James' ear.

"It affects the mind?" The panic in his voice rising.

"Not at all!" Twilight quickly countered, seeing his concern. "It's to aid in the numbing feeling of the anesthetic. A way to keep the mind at ease you could say. While I have to admit that I wouldn't know for sure, I have a feeling that finding yourself in a new body could be rather... surprising. Even if you are expecting it." Though James did seem to relax a bit when she told him this, the look of panic didn't leave his face.

There just seemed to be a puzzle piece missing in all this. You become a pony and not once, did anyone EVER feel regret about it. That just didn't add up. Yet he also didn't believe that Twilight and Rarity were lying to him. Sure he didn't know them that well, but he was usually pretty good at these things.

That basically only left the possibility that they themselves didn't know if the process did anything more then what was advertised. But if they didn't know, then there wasn't much of a chance of him discovering it. If there was anything to discover at all.

Only thing he could do was hope he was just being paranoid. Which given his current mindset, was probably the case. After all, when he had talked to people he had known personally before they became ponies. He never did see anything to suggest they were different. They were just... happier is all.

However, there was one question he figured they did have the answer to, and it was the most important question he had to ask.

"I've heard that some people with problems like bad eyesight, or weak bones and such, don't have any of these problems carry over to their pony form. Is that true?"

"Is it ever!" Rarity said with a smile, "Why many have thanked me personally for it, even though I'm not the one to blame for it. It's the scientists who created the process that should get the credit. Though I must admit, it's nice to be appreciated." James rolled his eyes.

"Indeed, it's part of the gene manipulation." Twilight added. James nodded, feeling the jittery feeling in the pit of his stomach growing stronger, while some of the nervousness he had been feeling had dropped away. If the process really could do all that...

It just might do it for him to!

"Well It's been a pleasure to meet you James, but I must get back to work now. Are you coming Twilight? We still have to go over our current stock." Rarity said, while using her magic to dump the leftovers of her meal into the trash nearby.

Twilight blinked at Rarity's words. She had forgotten all about that task. She was a bit reluctant to leave James like this. The conversation seemed to have really effected him somehow. Given how he had been speaking earlier, she wondered if he was really 'okay' right now.

In the end she realized that if anything was amiss, Spike was with him, and would most certainly tell her if he was having any problems. With that in mind, she was able to focus on the task that lay before her..

"Oh right," She said picking up her now empty tray with her magic.

"I'll see you around James! Take care of Spike tonight alright?" James nodded in response.

"Yes, and I'll make sure to make your time for ponification as stress free as possible. So don't you worry!" Rarity's offer made him smile. It felt a bit forced, but she didn't seem to notice. He really was glad that she would help him out like that. But still, it would have been so much better if he had never needed to enter that room at all...

With that, the two unicorn ponies walked away from the table, Twilight glancing back every so often to insure that James wasn't about to freak out. She still didn't trust the look he had been giving, but she couldn't see any signs of distress upon his face.

When they had finally left the room, he felt his body begin to shake. Gritting his teeth, he took a swig from his Mountain Dew. For whatever reason the stuff always managed to calm his nerves. The exact knowledge of how the process worked still unnerved him just a little. That missing piece bugging him no matter how many times he tried to convince himself that he was just imagining things.

They were all fine, He reminded himself again. No one you spoke to after ponification ever seemed different, and you heard what they said about it fixing medical problems. Okay maybe no doctor can locate the cause, but it's still a better shot then most...

Spike, who had still been in his love struck daze, finally took this moment to return to his senses.

"Huh Rarity? Oh I guess she left..." He said sounding a bit disappointed. It didn't last that long though.

"Anyway back to business!" He turned to James while cupping his hands together. "PLEASE! Please let me have some!"

"Ugh! I give up! Take them!" James said pushing his plate over to Spike. The dragon let out a 'whoop' before he began to chow down. James just sighed. He had lost his appetite anyway...

* * *

Later in the evening, long after lights out, found James outside his room. He had been trying to wrestle a beverage from a vending machine in near pitch darkness, while at the same time trying not to make so much noise that it woke the dead.

It was no surprise he couldn't sleep. How could he? Here he was in the one place he had never wanted to be. That freaking room number wasn't helping matters either. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Spike had come to hang out earlier.  In fact, the baby dragon was the only reason he had even managed to relax in the first place...

At last he managed to grab what appeared to be a container of chocolate milk. Least that was the best he could make it out in this darkness. Whatever it was, he just hoped it didn't have caffeine in it.  Much as he wouldn't mind calming his nerves with a Mountain Dew or something right now, he also didn't want to be wide eyed awake for the rest of the damn night.

Leaning up against the wall with a sigh, he half heartedly flicked the stopper of the bottle in his hand. Not applying nearly enough force to actually open it.

Why had he come here? His entire family had been only too happy to ditch this world in favor of a new one. One with lush forests, beautiful fields, better neighbors, access to real honest to goodness magic. All in all it should be a dream come true right? So why couldn't he be happy that he was allowed to join in on all that?

He knew the answer of course. But with things as they were. What choice did he really have?

"J-James?" Came a very quiet whisper from the darkness. He was actually glad he hadn't opened his drink yet, for the three feet he suddenly jumped at that would have spilt it for certain.

"W-who's there? Are you a ghost? I'm warning you I have the Camera Obscura!" He whispered back, trying to catch a glimpse of anything that might look like a specter. Course the threat was a bluff, he had no such thing. Especially since that item only existed in one of his retro games. He was also sure that if it was a ghost he was dealing with, it'd call his bluff easily. But hey, it was past midnight and he was frightened. One couldn't blame him for his mind not being fully functional.

The false bravado was actually met with giggling. It was then that his eyes finally focused enough to notice Rose opening the door to her room before stepping out. Her panda still clutched tightly in her arms.

"I'm no ghost silly." She said in a quiet whisper. James was too busy trying to stop his jack hammering heart to laugh it off with her. Instead he asked what anyone else would.

"Rose? Why are you up at this hour?"

"I-I couldn't sleep..." She whispered, as her eyes drifted to the floor. The laughter from her voice had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

"Oh..." It was all he could muster in response.  After a few more seconds of silence, Rose spoke again.

"Did you have a bad dream?" She asked as she looked back up at him. He nodded.

"Yeah. I did. Did you?"

"Sorta..."

"Oh..."

Silence again..

"What was it about?" Came her voice a few minutes later.

"I can't remember. Can you remember yours?"

"Uh-huh..."

"... Care to talk about it?"

"Uh-uh"

"Oh..."

Again the with the silence. He mentally cursed himself. What was he suppose to say?

"So... You must really like that Panda Bear." This time he spoke first. She smiled while giving him a nod.

"Yep! His name is Bamboo! My sister gave him to me."

"You're sister must be an awesome person then."

"Yep!"

She fell silent yet again. This was becoming frustrating.

"Are you afraid of becoming a pony?" She asked suddenly. By now he was far to tired to jump, so he merely looked at her in surprise. He could see she was scared. He thought it was because she wasn't use to talking to him yet, or her bad dream.

Could it be because she was also scared of becoming a pony?

"Are you?" He asked.

"I asked you first!"

She got him there.

"Yes..." He said quietly. By this time he had finally popped open his drink and took a swig. Yuck! It wasn't chocolate milk! It was green tea! How did he confuse the two?!

"Really? But why?" She asked in that innocent way only a child could.  He regarded her for several moments while trying to figure out how to answer her. How could he possibly portray to her exactly what had him so scared about this? How could he possibly make her understand the reason he had to go through with it anyway?

"Well... what if I'm not happy as a pony?" He said at last. It was the best he could do without lying, and he just didn't want to lie to this girl.

"But, my sister says no one ISN'T happy as a pony!"

"Oh? Then why are YOU afraid?"

"I..." She stopped speaking. Her very posture was that of nervousness. He noticed her clutch Bamboo even tighter. Apparently this gave her the strength to continue.

"I'm afraid I won't become the one I want..." He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Which pony do you want to become?"

"A... a pegasus like my sister.  I want to be able to fly along side her in the sky... To fly..." She looked up at the ceiling, as if she was imagining just that. Despite her age, he could see the longing in her eyes. It was like the ceiling wasn't even there and all she could see was the vast star lit sky.

For some reason, the thought of this had never occurred to him. Did people become ponies they were unhappy with? It was pretty clear by the girl's expression that she probably wouldn't be happy as any earth bound pony. What if she didn't get a pegasus?

Surprising even himself, he felt the need to help this girl. There was no way he was going to calm down, but if he could help her...

"That sounds nice. I'm sure that'll be what happens."

"But how can you know for sure?!" She asked. He was surprised she remembered to keep her voice down.  These rooms must be very well insulated considering no one else had come out yet. Either that or everyone were really heavy sleepers.

"Well I don't," He admitted, "But you're sister is one right? You're both related, so I'd say you have a pretty good chance."

"That's what my sister said, but you still don't know..." She sulked. He could see this was really bothering her. But what could he really say? Far as he saw, you didn't know what pony you'd become until you became it. Still, his heart reached out to this girl.

"Did she say she'd mind you being a different pony?"

"Course not!" Rose said looking straight at him, "She said it'd be fine no matter what pony I become!"

"Then I'd say you have nothing to worry about." He had a feeling she wouldn't accept that though.

"But I WANT to be a pegasus!" She stamped her foot in indignation, causing James  to nearly bite his tongue in order to keep himself from laughing. She had done it just as quietly as she was doing everything else so not to wake anyone. The resulting image was just too cute and silly.

"Tell you what, if you don't become a pegasus pony, I'll personally find a way to get you into the sky when I become a pony!" He said. This time it was her who seemed surprised.

"You will? But how?"

"Well if I become a unicorn I'll find a spell that'll give you wings!"

"But what if you don't become a unicorn?"

"Well if I'm a pegsus, I'll find a spell that'll give you MY wings!" She gasped.

"But won't you miss them?"

"It'd be worth it to get you to fly with your sister."

"But what if-"

"If I'm an earth pony, I'll run all around Equestria, looking for a way to get you wings. So don't give up hope okay? And don't be scared. Otherwise you'll make me scared!" He said giving her the warmest smile he could. Finally she smiled back.

"You'll be scared anyway." She raised her hands above her head to make fake 'wooo' sounds. His smiled faded.

"Ha ha. Go to bed."

"Fine fraidy cat James!" She said sticking her tongue out at him. Before quietly making her way back to her room. Just before the door closed behind her, she turned back to him and whispered in the best spooky voice she could muster:

"Don't let the thing in the closet get you!"  He responded by trying to splash her with some of his green tea. She giggled, ducking into the room long before he could even arch his arm back.

Feeling better then he had all day, he ditched the green tea, got an actual chocolate milk, before proceeding back into his own room for sleep.

But not before confirming that he didn't have a closet...

Tibits:

If you didn’t know, the 1408 thing is a joke about the movie with the same name. Also the Camera Obscura is a reference to the videogame Series “Fatal Frame”

Last of all, the human Twilight talks about having a similar conversation with during dinner is a reference to one of the Sidelines chapters again. Yeah, I kinda reference that one a lot...

Prelude and Chapter 1: Arrival

Chapter 2: Encounters

Chapter 4: Rose

Chapter 5: Confiding

Chapter 6: Decision

Chapter 7: Incident

Chapter 3: Inspired

"La! La! La la la La! Isn't that song cool!? I heard it from this thing the humans call a cartoon! It was about these little blue people, but oh I didn't finish the so-"

"Get ON with it Pinkie!" Came Twilight's voice over the loudspeaker.  James looked around his room groggily.  He had been in this room for a full night. Way more then an hour. He was safe. Not that he really expected anything to happen. Why did he even have to have SEEN that movie? This was all because his sister was such an fan of old films!

"Oh right! Sorry! Anyway the special for the cafeteria today is lasagna! And Veggie lasagna for you Pony folks! Oh! I love veggie lasagna! The humans do make some great foods! And their drinks! There is this stuff called 'Mountain Dew' but Twilight says I shouldn't drink any-"

"PINKIE!" Twilight's voice shouted again. This time James could hear Applejack's voice joining in. He smiled. This actually wasn't that bad a way to start the morning really.         Looking around his room he could see where Spike had fallen asleep after their impromptu gaming night. It still kind of surprised him that Spike even had a 3DS. Given how old the system was.

According to Spike, one of the earlier ponified humans had brought it to pass time. When they left, they had apparently just left the system behind. It made sense. Not like they could use it anymore. Apparently this happened a lot, and because of it, Spike was able to get all sorts of neat little things for free.

"Oh right! Sorry! I'm just so happy today! (James was sure he wasn't the only person to think that Pinkie was probably happy EVERY day.) Last of all, could a Mr. Matthew Chambers come to the Ponification room? It's time to get ponified! Thank you ALL and have a super duper day!" The loudspeaker finally buzzed out. James actually found that fact to be rather sad. Listening to Pinkie Pie had been rather fun.

Before he had time to do anything else, a commotion sounded outside his door. Taking a peek, he found that he certainly wasn't alone in his hallway. Not by a long shot. Nearly every other door had cracked open to reveal people of all types and ages stealing their own peeks at the man strolling past them. Many cheering him as he went by.

James noted that Rose had only opened her door by a small crack. However, it widened when she noticed him. Smiling faintly, she gave him a quick wave. He winked to show he was okay and waved back. He wasn't sure why, but this seemed to make her happier.

Matthew on the other hand, for it had be him who was passing by, had just made his way to the end of the hall.  He was a large man, almost resembling a lumberjack. Least to James' eyes he did.

The man had a full beard which matched the color of his hear perfectly. The guy was even wearing a red and black checkered shirt along with a pair of worn blue jeans. Even his boots were black! The man turned one last time to his fellow humans to wave, before disappearing.

Unable to help himself, he waited for the man to come back. Before long Spike had joined him, asking if he could ride on James' shoulders. To which he obliged and picked the little dragon up. They stood waiting for what seemed like a good fifteen minutes. (Which Spike informed him was usually how long these things took) Before they heard the tell tale sign of hooves clomping against the floor.

Slowly around the corner came a pony, seemingly trying to keep itself walking steadily. James could only imagine the difficulties of trying to learn how to walk on all fours when you were so use to doing it on two. The pony was unmistakably Matthew. While his coat was a pastel red, he had kept his black beard, which now matched a black mane. Upon his flank James could just make out a picture of a axe.

Huh... James thought to himself. The guy really HAD been a lumberjack. He thought for sure the look was a bit to obvious for that to be the truth. How about that? He kept his musings to himself of course. Content on watching the new pony make his way back to his room. But not before he asked him a question. He already knew the answer, but he still had to ask. So when he finally saw an opportunity to approach the pony. He took it.

"Hey uh...It still okay to call you Matthew?" He asked first. Thinking on it, he never really gave any thought before to how one went about getting a new name. Did they come up with one before hand? Did they mull over it afterward?

"That name will do fer now." Came Matthew's gruff reply. Even his voice gave off the distinction of lumberjack,  though James couldn't quite place the accent.

"I reckon it'll take me a spell to come up with a new un. You wanting to know how it feels I gather? All the other folks do."

James nodded his head sheepishly. Matthew laughed. It was odd seeing a pony with a full beard laugh. Then again it was odd seeing a pony with a full beard...

"Don't go getting all embarrassed son! Shoot, I asked the same darn thing to a couple new foals meself. Don't hurt none. I can tell you that much. In fact I'd darn say I feel mighty good. Reckon better then I've ever felt! I bet my betsy you'll feel just the same son. Just relax. Ain't nutthing to be 'fraid of." He gave another laugh before trotting on by. James had a feeling that if the pony hadn't been so intent on not falling down, he'd have slapped his back with a hoof.

As James watched the new pony walk away he felt a shiver run up his spine, coupled with a small sense of dread.  He brushed it off almost as quickly as it came. Guess there just wasn't any possibility of peace of mind for him. All the vouchers in the world saying he'd be fine still couldn't shake his uncertainty he supposed.

He never even noticed that Spike, among many of the humans, had felt the same shiver...

* * *

"No way man! Wind Waker was a far better game then Twilight Princess!" Spike was saying to James as he rode upon his shoulders while they walked. Upon asking if Spike had to get back to work, he had replied that he'd have a few more hours to spare. So he and James had decided to hang out a little while longer.

"What? Wind Waker was crap! How can you even SAY it's better then Twilight Princess!? I mean you can change into this awesome looking wolf! How is that not the coolest thing ever!?" James countered as they walked toward the gardens. It was a few hours after James had seen his first 'just ponified' pony.  James' mind still mulling over the pony's reaction to having just become one. The new pony had said that it felt better then he had ever imagined it could. There clearly weren't any regrets in the pony's mind.

Rose had also talked to him a bit afterward. Telling him rather excitedly that her turn was coming REAL soon.  She was absolutely overjoyed at that fact.  James could only feel fear.  That just meant one more person before him on the list had been removed...

Shortly after that , he and Spike had grabbed a quick breakfast before they decided to go check out the gardens. Spike being his personal guide. It wasn't long before the two had picked up their conversations from last night and had once more begun to prattle on about videogames. Which is how they found themselves in their current discussion.

"Okay yeah that was neat, but in Wind Waker it really felt like you had this entire world to explore! AND you were sailing! I've always wanted to go sailing but Twilight and I don't live by any bodies of water large enough..."

"Look Spike, your desire to sail aside, the world of Wind Waker was half assed! Yeah you've got all those islands, but only need to go to like what? Five?  Besides sailing was the worst thing about the game! Hey let's just WATCH our character slowly move across the map for an hour before we finally get to play the game again!"

"But it was calming. Even Twilight thought so!"

"Twilight played a videogame!?" James exclaimed. Sure his interactions with her hadn't been many, but he just couldn't see that happening.

"Well no, she can't really use the controller unless she used her magic. But she saw me playing it, and told me so herself when I told her what I was doing!"

"I see. I still think the sailing is crap though."

"You're just pissy because of the graphics!"

James was about to argue further when a voice interrupted them both.

"Geeze you two! Not even Gilda and I ever argued THAT loudly!" It was a voice that James had never heard before, which told him that he was most likely about to meet yet another pony. Mainly because the voice came from above and he couldn't think of that many humans who could fly. He also figured it to be a girl, by the sounds of it.

With a quick look up he saw his theory confirmed catching the sight of a blue pegasus pony.  Looking her over, she gave him the impression that she was a bit of a tomboy (tompony?) by the way she held herself. But that wasn't what really caught his eye. It wasn't even the fact that her mane and tail were literally the colors of a rainbow.  What got him was the fact she appeared to be standing on a cloud...

"Sup Rainbow Dash!" Spike called up, "How are you managing to do that? I thought the clouds around here didn't work the same way they do in Equestria."

"Seems that enough magic has leaked out to allow this occasionally.  They still don't last all that long though." As if to prove her point, the cloud suddenly stopped being solid under her hooves. Resulting in her sinking through it. Before the cloud could even reach half way up her legs though, she flapped her wings. Bringing her afloat once more.

"I'm surprised to see you out and about Spike. Twilight let you off her lease today?" Rainbow Dash quipped, drawing a glare from Spike.

"Ha ha, I happen to have the morning off. Besides I checked in with her before we came out here. Seems she was heading out on one of those walks she takes."

"What? That egghead! I told her it can be dangerous out there! She should at least let me scout the area for her!" Rainbow Dash looked annoyed, but James had a feeling that wasn't the full reason she was giving.

"Not just so you can get out of the center grounds for some flying?" James didn't miss the snark in Spike's voice. It was then he remembered who Rainbow Dash WAS.

Spike had actually told him about all of his friends last night. (Though he had prattled on entirely too long about Rarity, even despite the fact James actually had met her already...) This particular one supposedly was rarely seen NOT flying. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile had ignored him. She had the look about her as if to fly away before changing topics rather suddenly.

"Oh hay! You must be that human named James." Rainbow Dash suddenly called down to them, looking directly AT James. Seemed for the moment her need to go 'find' Twilight had been forgotten. James, on the other hand, was baffled. He hadn't realized his name had been getting around. Come to think of it. Why had his name gotten around!?

"Uh yes, but how do you know that?" He asked rather bluntly.

"Ehh, there aren't too many people around here who share the same interests as Spike, or who Twilight gets along with.  All of us friends of her know of you by now." She didn't seem phased but the bluntness of his question at all. In fact while she was talking to him, she had flipped her body over as if to lay down in the very air. Though her wings were still flapping to keep her airborne, he wondered if it took her any effort for her to do that.

"Huh, guess I'm famous." He said before looking back up. She really did make flying look easy. He couldn't help but dream about doing that himself. Rising over the trees, whooshing through the clouds...

"Hey Uh Rainbow Dash?" James said slowly. He was still getting use to addressing ponies, and the fact this one could fly wasn't helping matters.

"Spike was telling me a bit about his friends last night, and I remember something he told me about you. Says you're the fastest thing I could ever hope to see!" At that Rainbow Dash perked up, suddenly standing (In the air somehow) at attention, and looking rather pleased with herself.

"Well I don't like to BRAG or anything. (James rolled his eyes at this as her tone was saying the exact opposite.) But I am rather awesome when it comes to speed!" As she said this she lifted one of her hooves in a way that allowed her to touch her chest with it.  Frankly James was rather taken aback that a pony could DO such a thing. Course by this point he really shouldn't be surprised, these were 'magical' ponies after all...

"Hey Rainbow, why not give him a quick show? It's always better to see then to hear!" Spike said from his shoulder position. Rainbow nodded.

"Gotta agree with you there Spike! Hold on to your hats, because this is going to blow your mind!" She said before 'dashing' away.

James probably would have grabbed his hat had he been wearing one. The sheer speed and ability she was displaying was mind boggling.  To think something so small could do all this! If it wasn't for the fact that she seemed to leave a bit of a rainbow trail behind her, he wasn't sure he'd even be able to keep up with what she was doing!

"Yes Yes, I'm amazing I know. I'm more then happy to sign autographs!" She said finally coming to stop in roughly the same spot she started. As she spoke she slowly drifted down the to ground to stand upon it.

"So James, what do you think of my amazing skills?" It was clear by her face that she was eagerly awaiting him to praise her.

"I'd say I'd give my left arm to see you race a blue hedgehog!" Came his reply. The look Rainbow gave them upon hearing that was priceless. Both him and Spike couldn't help but collapse in a fit of laughter.

"I don't get it." Rainbow was saying, clearly distressed that she wasn't in on the joke. "Hedgehogs aren't even blue! And how would I find one? I doubt even Fluttershy keeps any!"

"D-Don't worry about it!" James finally managed while fighting back laughter. Spike had managed to recover a lot quicker them him though.

"It's a gamer thing, you wouldn't get it." Rainbow finally got that it was a joke she simply had to learn too much about to get and dropped the subject.

"Okay fine, but seriously what did you think?"

"Honestly, I say if I become a pegasus pony, I'm going to have to beg you to teach me how to fly! That was the most coolest thing ever!" He exclaimed. The look of pride on Rainbow Dash's face couldn't have gotten any larger. Though to his surprise she seemed to be blushing.

"Well, I AM a good flyer. IIIIII suPOSE I could give you some lessons.  IF you become a pegasus that is." James nodded. For the first time he actually wasn't feeling all that bad about his fate. Though he still wished he had been given a choice about it...

"Anyway,  I really do think I should go find Twilight. I'm sure she's had enough 'alone time' by now. Besides, I could use a good flight around the city. It's too cramped in here." Rainbow said. He could see what she meant.  He hadn't really been paying that much attention to them before, but the sky was littered with dozens of multicolored pegasus ponies, flying this way and that above them.  He was surprised Rainbow Dash had even managed to pull off her aero stunts.

"See you around Dash," James said, his eyes catching sight of someone off in the distance, "There's someone I'd like to say hello to myself."  Rainbow followed his gaze to see Rose off in the distance who was riding another one of the magical ponies.  This one was a pleasant pink in coat and sported a fiery red mane.

"Oh you know Rose?" She said simply. James' eyebrows raised.

"You know her?" Dash shook her head.

"Not really, but I know the pony she's with. You may have noticed that she's a pegasus. I had to teach her how to fly." James actually hadn't noticed, but now that it had been pointed out to him he could see the wings tucked just under Rose's legs. Could this be the sister he had kept hearing about? He also wondered if Rose had ever ridden this pegasus or another, while they were in flight? Despite how much Rose wanted to be a pegasus, he couldn't quite picture her doing that though.

"Wing Berry, that's her name, is actually rather well known with the little kids who come here. It's why she stays here, ya know to help with them. Though right now she hasn't done much else other then hang with her sister Rose there. But I guess you can't really blame her.  Anyway, I'm out. See you around guys!" With that Rainbow was off, zipping out of sight before either of them could even wave goodbye.

"Dang, doesn't stick around long does she?" He said to Spike. Spike nodded.

"Yeah, she's kinda like that. You'll get use to it." He replied. James nodded back as he made his way over to where Rose was with her sister. He was glad for Rainbow unintentionally answering his questions. Not only did he get confirmation on Wing Berry being Rose's sister, But she had also told him just why Rose's sister was still at the center, even after becoming a pony.

"James! James! Over here!" Rose began to shout the second she noticed them coming. She began to wave frantically with her one free arm, the other clutching her stuffed panda. She began to wave so frantically in fact that it nearly made her fall off her perch. He couldn't help but laugh a the display. Didn't she realize that's why he was walking toward them in the first place? Once he got close enough to make out some more details, he noticed that Rose's sister already had her cutie mark as well. It was a picture of three strawberries set in a type of pyramid design.

He knew that a cutie mark meant that particular pony had found the task they were best suited for. But what did that mean for her? Wing Berry was best suited to growing Strawberries? Somehow he would have thought she'd be an earth pony for that...

"Hiya Rose, how are you doing?" Spike called from behind James. Rose looked startled for all of a second before she noticed him on James' shoulders.

"Oh hello Mr. Dragon! I'm fine today how about you?" James couldn't help but whisper to Spike about that.

"Mr. Dragon?" Spike sighed before whispering back.

"I've TOLD her to call me Spike, but she keeps going back to Mr. Dragon.  I've pretty much given up." James' lips cracked into a smile.

"I'm doing well, are you enjoying some playtime with your sister here?" Spike responded to Rose after the whispered exchange.

"Oh yes! My sis says that as a special treat for today. She's going to take me out for ice cream later!"

"Well that sounds pretty awesome. What's the occasion?" James being the one to ask the question this time. Glad that Rose was having a good time. Every other time he had talked to her she had been frightened for the duration. So he was rather enjoying this rare moment of her being bold.

"Why it's only the best thing that could happen!" Wing Berry said in a voice that sounded like honey. Making him easily see why the kids would like her. Her personality just seemed to have that spin to it, "Tomorrow is my little sister's turn! So I wanted to celebrate a bit early. Oh dear me! I've forgotten to introduce myself! The name is Wing Berry. I must thank you for being such a friend to Rose here!"

"Uh well, I'm not sure how much of a friend I've been. We've only really talked on a couple of separate occasions..." He said a bit nervously. He wasn't really use to being thanked for such things.

"Oh no! You've been a bigger help then you realize! Why she'd do nothing all morning but talk about you! Seems you promised to help her with something mighty big, though she won't tell me what it is!" This caused Rose to blush.

"S-sis!" She said trying to hide her face with her hands.

"Oh dear! There I go blabbing away again! Oh my friend Shimmer Stardust is always telling me I need to watch what I say! You just never mind little old me."

"It's okay Rose. I meant what I said. Believe it or not you've actually helped me too!"  James said as he tried to mimic Twilights way of speaking to her again.  He still didn't think he was pulling it off correctly. Though it did seem to work well enough, causing her to peek her face out from behind her hands.

"I... I helped you?" She said in a whisper. James nodded warmly.

"You did. Our talk last night really helped me calm down!" He gave her another smile which she returned. Which seconds later took on a more mischievous nature to it.

"Still think I'm a ghost?"

"Shut up!" He said trying to ignore the questioning eyes of Spike, who had leaned forward at that. His reaction caused Rose to giggle, nearly causing her to drop Bamboo. He half wondered how she was holding on to him and still remaining on ponyback. Especially with how much she kept moving about.

"Will... will you be watching me tomorrow?" She asked changing the topic rather suddenly. She was holding Bamboo tightly to her chest with one arm as she asked this. Her gaze seemingly on the ground.

He was unable to help but marvel at just how adorable she looked like that. It made him long a bit for his own sister. Even if she was his older sister. (He rather liked the almost 'older brother' feel he was getting with Rose) It'd still be nice to have someone familiar to see him through the process. The thought made him cringe mentally for a moment. Was that how his sister had felt?

That though aside, he just couldn't imagine letting Rose go through this alone. Even though he knew her sister would be right there waiting for her as well, there was just no way he could say no.

"Sure it's a promise! You can bet I'll be one of the first to greet your new pony form!" He said while sticking his chest out. Rose beamed at his response.

"Yay!" She said throwing up her arms in cheer. Both James and Wing Berry couldn't help but join in. Even Spike gave a quick cheer.

"Say, we were on our way to meet my friend Fluttershy. Ya wanna come?" She asked, back to the energetic version of her from earlier. It was a lot of fun seeing her like that.

"Oh you know Fluttershy too?" Spike called. By this point James wasn't surprised about who Spike knew. Vague memories of Spike talking about that pony as well during their conversations last night, coming to his mind.

"Sorta, I only met her yesterday, but I like her." Came Rose's reply.

"Well I think it's time for me to join the ranks of those who know Fluttershy. That fine by you Spike?" James asked trying unsuccessfully to turn his head toward the little dragon. It was pretty hard to look at someone who's riding on your shoulders.

"Heck no problems here, besides, it'd be rude to turn down an invitation given by lady Rose!" Rose blushed at Spike's compliment. With a laugh the group was soon on their way, Wing Berry and Rose idly chatting to themselves.  Spike had fallen into silence for a bit, for whatever reason. It didn't bother James as it allowed the thing that had been clawing at the back of his mind to finally come to the forefront.

He had been fighting the feeling of shock ever since Wing Berry had mentioned that tomorrow was Rose's day.  That meant this was the last day she was ever going to spend as a human.

The thought hit him hard. He hadn't really known too many people who got ponified, or at least those that he had personally seen directly afterward.

Sure he had a few friends who had gone through the process, as well as his family, but most of them became so busy after becoming ponies that the best he had been able to do to was communicate with them via holo-phone.

While it was weird to see a pony talking to him instead of his mom, dad, sister, or even his best bud from high school. It wasn't like he was THERE to see them personally. A holograph of a person wasn't exactly the same thing in his mind.

They had all begged him to join them of course, and he had felt terrible each time he had declined the offer to attend. But he was just never able to work up the nerve to go. The ponification camps scared him. They STILL scared him. Everything in this place had been scaring him just about since he had arrived.

It was why he was so glad he had met people like Rose, Spike, and Twilight. They had given him the strength he needed to stay and go through with this. Rose especially after the talk they had last night.

He mentally sent up a silent prayer that she became a pegasus.

"James Hey! Equestria to James! Come in James!" Spike had been saying. Making James realize just how deep into thought he had let himself fall.

"We're on EARTH Spike. That should be earth to me. Now what is it anyway?" He had half expected Spike to comment about his correction, but instead Spike seemed to be bothered by something.

"Just to warn you... You remember what I said about Fluttershy right?"

* * *

James actually HAD forgotten what Spike had said about Fluttershy until he had brought it up. So the meeting with said pegasus pony went about as well as anyone who knew her would expect.

James had tried to introduce himself, only to have her shy away from him, driving it rather painfully home, just why she had 'shy' in her name.

In the end he took to saying as little as possible to her, as not to frighten the poor thing. While she did seem to warm up to him little by little, he had been wanting an excuse to talk to Wing Berry anyway. So when both Spike and Rose had become so engrossed in talking to Fluttershy about a baby bunny she had found, he took his chance. It turned out she had wanted to talk with him as well.

"So, you think she'll be fine tomorrow?" He asked, while watching Rose. It was strange how someone you had just met, could have such an impact on your life.

When he had woken up last night, even with his condition, he had been seriously contemplating leaving the center and the ponification behind.

But Rose had stopped him. Her talk had given him the resolve to go through with it all. There would be many times after, where he'd wonder what may have been had she never engaged him in that conversation.

"Oh I'm sure she'll be fine. She's a lot stronger then she thinks. But still... I'm worried."

"Well that's only natural." He said with a shrug. "I was worried about my sister, and she's like six years older then me." But Wing Berry shook her head.

"It's not just that. I'm worried her dream won't come true. I've told her I won't mind any sort of pony she becomes, but still..." He could see in her eyes that she was worried. Up until that point he hadn't realized just how serious Rose must be to become a Pegasus.

"I think you know which one she wants to become, but did she tell you why?" She asked turning her head toward him. He nodded his head only slightly.

"I might. She said it was because you were a pegasus, and she wanted to be able to fly with you." She nodded at this.

"Well that is part of it. But it's not the full reason. The real reason is that she just wants to fly period."

"But, can't you just take her up right now? As you are?" She shook her head sadly.

"She wants to fly on her own. Without anypony's help. She tries to be so brave sometimes and say that she'll be okay if she doesn't become a pegasus pony, but well... I know better. Some of the questions she's asked. The way she looks when she gazes up at that sky..." Wing Berry stopped to gaze up at the sky herself, almost looking as if she was about to take off into it. But she held her ground, tearing her eyes away from the vast blueness.

"I really do have to thank you, you know." She said before he had a chance to say anything himself.

"For promising her that thing?" She nodded once more.

"While I still don't know what it was you promised, no don't tell me, I can tell you that the simple fact you made the promise meant a lot to her. I don't think she really expects you to go through with it,  but I know she's glad you cared enough to offer."

James remained quiet. He really couldn't think of anything to say to that. He had meant what he said though.

If he could find a way to help her fly he'd do it. It was just the way he was. In a way the promise to Rose was a promise to himself. That he'd see his own way through this.

His thoughts drifted back to his bag, and what lay in it. He had to see his way through this...

"Rose!" Wing Berry suddenly called, causing all present to look her way. In a few moments more, Rose had bounded over to her sister.

"Time to go?" She asked looking disappointed. Wing Berry nodded sadly.

"I'm afraid so. I've got to get back to work, but I'll be off to take you for that ice cream! You can bet on that!"

Rose smiled, but she still looked sad.

"So, want a ride back?" Wing Berry asked, turning her backside toward her sister while keeping her head and face still looking at Rose. James actually felt a bit envious at the ability to do that. Guess that was another pro to becoming a pony he could look forward to.

"Actually, I'd like to walk back with James, if that's okay..." Rose replied shyly. James wondered who was really related here. Rose and Wing Berry, or Rose and Fluttershy.

"I don't mind if he doesn't," Came Wing Berry's reply. Somehow she didn't seem to shocked at this. Though James certainly did. Why would she want to walk back with him?

"Heck you can even stay a while longer if he's with you. Whadda say James? Will you protect my sister like a true knight?" The smile in her eyes was unmistakable.

"I-I don't know about a knight, but I'll definitely watch over her!" He said with a stammer. He was getting awfully tired of everyone poking fun at him...

"Great! See ya later sis!" Wing Berry said before taking to they sky. James noticed Rose watching her with longing. He hoped his prayer for her was heard...

"So, what do you want to do? Did you want to stay and chat a bit more?" He asked, but Rose shook her head.

"Actually I think Fluttershy is about to leave as well. It's time for the feeding right?" She said turning back toward the yellow pegasus pony. Fluttershy nodded.

"Oh yes!" Fluttershy said in the most 'un-shy' voice he had heard her speak in the entire time. Though her voice was still very soft and withdrawn. He was beginning to wonder if she was even capable of speaking louder.

"It'll be lunch time soon and I simply must get the food ready for all the animals." She went on. It seemed the only time she wasn't completely wary around other people was when animals were involved.

They said their goodbyes and began to head toward the center. James figured since it was so close to lunch, and Spike probably had some work to do anyway, they should go ahead and get back to the center anyway. Spike of course, wasn't too thrilled to end the fun, but admitted that if he wanted any shot at getting the game stuff set up back in Equestria, he had to keep up with his duties.

Rose, on the other hand, remained quiet for the entire trip. While he had a feeling she had wanted to say something to him, he figured since Spike was riding on his shoulders, she probably wouldn't say it until he was out of ear shot.

Once they had finally made their way back to the receptionist desk in the center and dropped off Spike, did Rose confirm his suspicions.  Sure enough, soon as they were alone in the hallway, she whispered up to him.

"I'll tell you now" He was confused at what she meant and told her as much, causing her to elaborate.

"My nightmare. I-I'll tell you now... if you want..." Her voice was such a perfect imitation of Fluttershy's just then that it wasn't funny.

"Only if you want to." He replied quietly.

"I do."

"Then I promise to listen." She nodded and lead him off to a side area where it was less likely for anyone to bother them, before she continued.

"I-I was a pony. In the nightmare I mean. I dunno what type, but I was one.  I was high. Real high. I jumped so I could fly but..."

"You couldn't?" James guessed. She flinched, but nodded. He regretted speaking the end of the dream out loud, but had been unable to stop himself.

"You know it was just a dream. You'll fly. I meant it when I said I'd help you." His face had taken on a look of determination. This little girl was going to face something he himself wanted to run screaming in the other direction from. He'd move mountains if it meant helping her.

"I-I know. I'm just..." She clutched Bamboo tightly to her chest again. Sometimes he wondered if she'd pop the poor things stuffed head off.

"I'm scared too." He said. Guessing her reason. "I'm very scared, but thanks to you, I'm ready to become a pony." She looked up wide eyed.

"Me?" She squeaked. He nodded.

"You inspire me Rose. You have such a beautiful dream. It makes me want to help you, and because of that I'm ready." He watched as her mouth slowly broke into a shy smile.

"You'll make a great pony" She said.

"And you'll make a lovely pegasus. Don't doubt yourself." She nodded before she ran off to her room. As he watched her go, he couldn't help but want to do just a little bit more for her. This was going to be her last day as a human after all, and he didn't want her facing the process tomorrow doubting her dream. But just how would he...

A sudden idea cut his thought short. It'd take a bit of alteration, and some major planning. But it could work. It could definitely work. He'd have to ask a favor of a certain pony though...

It was just after lunch as James stood outside the room Twilight used to give her speech to all the new volunteers who had come to be ponified. Twilight had just finished up her latest seminar. He moved to one side as the group began to leave the room. Patiently, he waited for each and everyone of them to leave, before entering the room himself. before Twilight had a chance to leave herself. She was understandably surprised to see him.

"James? Is there something wrong? What brings you here?" She asked. His hand went to the back of his head again. Recreating the nervous pose he had used before.

"Well..."He said shyly, "I was wondering if you could help me with something..."

Tibits:

The song Pinkie Pie is singing is the song the Smurfs sing.

I have no idea why I have the Lumberjack Pony talk like that. It just kinda happened...

‘The Blue Hedgehog’ comment. Obviously James wants to see Rainbow Dash race Sonic the Hedgehog. Heck I want to see that!

Yes “Shimmer Stardust” is the same pony as mentioned in Sidelines. Did I mention I REALLY love that story?

Prelude and Chapter 1: Arrival

Chapter 2: Encounters

Chapter 3: Inspired

Chapter 5: Confiding

Chapter 6: Decision

Chapter 7: Incident

Chapter 4: Rose

"Will this work?" Twilight asked while showing him a small lot that looked like it had been meant for private parking. After James had told Twilight his plan, she had enlisted the aid of Spike before all three of them had began looking for a spot to host it. Wing Berry was in charge of making sure Rose made it there when they were ready.

"We converted this center from an old clinic. This was apparently where the hospital higher ups would park their cars. Obviously, now that the place is run by us ponies, there is no need for it as we don't drive cars."

She waved a hoof around the area. It was actually a rather well placed spot. The lot was surrounded by three walls belonging to a section of the center. Making it look like a square chunk had been cut out of the building before people built new walls around the cut.         It was also away from the gardens, it's one open side facing a small field, meaning that not too many people came this way anymore. The road leading up to the place having long been run down due to disuse. He vaguely wondered just how old the original clinic was.

"This'll work perfectly!" He said giving it one last look over before reaching into his bag. Fishing around for a bit, he brought out what he considered his second most valued possession: A holocomputer. They had actually lost a good ten minutes of time with Spike when James had begun to talk of his plan just because of this little device. Spike wanting to hear all about it before they could move on.

Holocomputers were small little circular devices that resembled, what James had read in history class, things people called 'portable CD players' way back in the day.

Instead of playing music though, this thing would display, not ONLY a holographic High Res screen, but a state of the art, 'touch' capable holographic keyboard in which order to type with. (Actually you just pressed your fingers to thin air, but the computer could read the positioning and access the proper keys as you 'pressed' them. It took quite a bit of practice to get use to.)

The thing was actually one of the last things humans had created in the name of 'science' before the whole pony craze had begun. Production and upgrades for the devices had stopped soon afterward when most in charge of such tasks realized they simply wouldn't need such things anymore when they became ponies. Therefore only two types of people tended to have one of these. The incredibly rich, or the incredibly lucky. James was the latter.

"So that's the song you plan to play?" Spike asked as he watched James bring up the file on screen.  As all media players did now a days, it displayed many of the song's details. Including the full lyrics.

"Yep, I just hope she likes it."

"Well I doubt she's going to enjoy the beginning part. The boy reaches out? You know that she's a girl right?"

"Ha ha," James said typing away at the computer, "That's where a little bit of human magic is called for!" Activating a particular program. He changed all lyrics referring to a 'boy' and changed them to 'girl' along with any other problem lines. The program analyzed the new words,  then analyzed the voice. It would process this and then make the appropriate corrections. When it was all done, the song would play with the new lyrics added in, altering even the voice so it sounded like the original singer was singing the new lyrics. Playing it back just to make sure, James was pleased to find it had done the job perfectly.

"Wow that's amazing! You humans think up the neatest things!" Spike said marveling at what the program had just done.

"Thanks, but we've still got stuff to do. This'll run the program fine, but I still need to boost the sound. I also wish I had a microphone or two..."

"HERE you are!" Shouted a peppy voice out of no where. He recognized that voice...

Turning toward it, they saw Pinkie Pie trotting up while hauling a cart carrying some large speakers, a sub-woofer, and even a few microphones. The equipment was pretty old, but it looked like it would have no problems doing the job he needed.

"Oh! Oh! I didn't tell anyone about this so the news wouldn't reach and frighten her, but I can't WAIT to see the look on Rose's face when she gets here! Putting on a concert for her should be as much fun as throwing a party!" Pinkie Pie was saying while jumping up and down.

"Awesome. Thanks for the equipment and thanks for not spreading the word around. I hate to think what Rose would do if there was a crowd for this." He said nodding before, "Oh and can I ask you a question?"

"Of coursy soon to be horsey!" She said happily her eyes wide and staring right at him. He took a deep breath.

"How in the WORLD do you know what we are doing!? Only people...ponies... Dragons... Whatever! Only ones I told were Twilight and Spike and they've been with me the entire time! Not even Wild Berry knows exactly what we're doing! So...so.. What the hay!?" His arms had been flailing around the entire time he had been speaking. Pinkie Pie just gave him the biggest smile in response.

"Why that's simple! My Pinkie Senses told me!"

"Pinkie Senses?" He asked. Twilight was quick to interject.

"Ugh, trust me James you don't want to get into that."

"Uh... if you say so..." James said feeling uneasy about the look Twilight had on her face. In the end he decided to just keep his mouth shut and begin setting everything up.

It didn't take them long to do so. Once they had everything plugged up correctly, a few quick sound tests and they were ready for Showtime! He didn't know how exactly, but Twilight had used her magic to take care of signaling Wing Berry.

"So why did she choose Wing Berry as her name anyway, do you know?" He asked Spike as they waited for Rose to get there. Before Spike could even move his lips, they were interrupted by the pink 'poof' again as she seemed to pop up directly between them at that exact moment. James took pride in managing not to leap out of his seat this time.

"Oh! Oh! I know! It's because she's so sweet to the children, and she likes strawberries, and she had wings! So she wanted to call herself 'The winged strawberry!" Oh  but that was too long, so she went with Wing Berry! And since she liked strawberries so much, that's what made her cutie mark!" She said giving James that overly excited look of hers.

"Yeah I doubt that's what it was." Spike said finally. James had to agree. Pinkie Pie didn't seem to mind their disbelief in the least though.

"So are you going to be all DJ like Scratch? Huh huh?" James wanted to mention that he had no idea who Scratch WAS but she had kept going, "Can I be the DJ? Huh? Huh? Huh? I'll be all DJ Pon Pinkie!" She clapped her front hooves together as if they were hands.

The expression James gave her was as deadpan as one could get.

"Yeah... There is no way in hell you are touching this computer."

"Okie Dokie Loki!" She said bounding away.  James could only stair in a stumped stupor after her.

"Does she EVER have any other emotion?"

"Even Twilight wouldn't attempt to research THAT." Spike replied.

"Here we are!" Wing Berry said at that moment, a rather jittery Rose riding upon her back. Upon seeing James, Twilight, and Spike she began to wave in the same manner he had seen her do that morning. Once more almost falling over due to her trying to do this while still holding Bamboo.

"I'm here! I'm here!" She called! Impatiently waiting for her sister to stop so she could get off. She paused only long enough to hand Wing Berry the panda.

"You'll take good care of Bamboo right?" Wing Berry laughed.

"Of course sis, now go see what it is James has for you!" Rose nodded and rushed over to where James was sitting with Twilight and Spike. Pinkie Pie had gone off to the side to stay out of the way. Munching on a big bucket of popcorn as she did. James decided it wasn't worth asking where she had gotten it.

"What is it!? What is it!?" She said bouncing up and down just like Pinkie Pie would. It was weird how many unintentional impressions she could do of the ponies...

"My dear lady Rose," James began handing her a microphone, before picking up a second one afterward. "In honor of your last day as a human I wanted to teach you a song that I think represents your dream very well. Sing it whenever you feel in doubt, and always remember that all of us are here to help you achieve it!"

Twilight was quite impressed with how James was pulling all this off. Despite it being obvious that he had been having his own second thoughts about the ponification process, he was going out of his way to make this little girl feel ready. Twilight oddly found herself hoping he'd become a unicorn pony. She just had a feeling he'd be well suited to the magic one could wield.

"And to help you sing this song. Our very own Twilight Sparkle!" James said setting the microphone upon a little stand in front of the purple unicorn pony. Twilight hadn't really been listening that well, so it took her a few seconds to register what he had just said.

"Wait, WHAT!?" She exclaimed backing up. "Why me!?"

"Well the song is sung by a girl. I can't sing it. I'm a boy. So is Spike, so that leaves only you."

"What? How is that logical. Pinkie Pie is over there and so is Wing Berry who are both girls as well! Besides, Pinkie Pie loves to sing!" Twilight said in her 'lecturing' voice. Pinkie Pie just shook her head at that.

"Oh No no no no no! I can't sing it Twilight! I can only sing my OWN songs. That means it's up to YOU to sing this one!" Twilight just stared at Pinkie Blankly.

"How does that even make sense?! Fine Wing Berry is Rose's sister, so she can-" Twilight didn't get to finish when Wing Berry's voice drifted over from the side lines.

"I can't do it, I'm taking care of Bamboo!" She said with a smirk. Twilight's eye twitched.

"You both are TRAITORS!" She shouted. It was at this point that Rose played her own card.

"P-please Twilight? I'd like it if you sang with me..." Twilight looked down into those big blue pleading eyes. This entire thing reminded her of the young filly Applebloom, and her first time in Ponyville just a little too much. Slumping her shoulders in defeat like she had that time, she gave her answer:

"...Fine" Rose cheered, while the rest gave knowing smirks. Twilight made a mental note to hurt them all later.

"So what do I do?" She said plopping down in front of the microphone James had set up.

"It's simple. I'll start the song, and the words will appear on the screen coming from the right side like this." James demonstrated how the words would scroll, and how they should sing them as they passed the center line. Once he was certain both Twilight and Rose understood. He began the song. The sound of a guitar blazed into life, played in such a way as to confirm it's pop song style.

Everyone could hear the female singer softly sing the word 'Amazing' Before the lyrics began to appear from the right, Twilight and Rose quickly trying to break into song at the proper cue.

As the first lines blazed from the speaker, both of them began to sing. Though neither were able to match the pitch quite right, and both had to stumble over a couple of words in order to match up with the song's timing and rhythm.

I wanna find it

What I've been searching

Despite Twilight's aversion to singing it, she tried her best to match the vocal pitch of the singer. Rose following suit. The next line they sang sounded a bit better then the first, but it was clear they still hadn't gotten the rhythm of the song just yet.

The Girl reaches out to the sky

James had to smile as Rose actually reached her hand out into they sky as she sang that line. He had a feeling she'd get into it like that. He was also glad the program didn't glitch, as that was one of the lines he had to alter the original lyrics to.

She prays she'll get it

No doubt she'll make it

James could see both Rose and Twilight really begin to get into it now, their voices matching the pitch almost perfectly. It had been a cruel joke to toss Twilight into this like that, but Spike had been telling him of her 'habits' and both had figured she could stand to have a little fun.

All of her goals and desires....

Twilight didn't want to admit it, but she was having fun. After all the work she had to do around here, she supposed it was worth taking a break every now and then for something other then just one of her walks...

She also couldn't help but want to cheer this small girl on. Sure she had seen a ton of human children come through here. But was glad that for once, she was making a bigger difference for this one, then she ever had a chance to before.

The sky above you! Is waiting for you!

To take the first step and break out!

Once the next verse of the song began to play, both her and Rose were in full singer mode. Their voices matching the flow and pitch perfectly. Rose had even begun to dance to the best of her ability. As they sang on, their voices merged into one, ringing out across the area like thunder.

When you fly in the sky!

Simply Divine!

You're Dreaming!

Leave your worries behind!

Cuz' that's Imagination!

Can you feel it tonight?

The fire inside?

It's Burning!

All you got to do is break on through!

To make your wishes all come true!

Amazing!!!

It was quite a sight seeing both Twilight and Rose dance around in their little area while singing. Any notions of the 'reasons' given by others on why they couldn't sing must have been forgotten by Twilight since at this moment, the other four watching had decided to join in themselves, without her even seeming to notice.

Little did they realize the small crowd of other ponies and humans that had slowly begun to gather at the one open end of the lot. All having heard the impromptu show that was being performed...

So you might be hurting

Down low your feeling

Have faith within all, will be okay!

That sky above you!

She'll always save you!

So never give up on yourself!

When you fly in the sky!

Simply divine!

You're dreaming!

Leave your worries behind!

Cuz' that's Imagination!

Can you feel it tonight?

The fire inside?

It's burning!

All you got to do is break on through!

To make your wishes all come true!

Amazing!!!

None except Pinkie Pie, had been ready for it, but an entire crowd had formed around the small band of performers when the next line of the song began.  Behind them, being projected on the wall, were the lyrics for all to see. In which the entire assembly decided to join in on, startling those singing.  Both Rose and Twilight looked a bit embarrassed. (Meanwhile James was trying to figure out how Pinkie Pie had managed to get his computer to DO that, as he could tell by her smug expression it HAD to be her) But both quickly got over it, joining back in with a smile.

Rose kept on going. Lost in the wonder of it all.  Over head, Rainbow Dash had somehow convinced a small group of pegasai ponies to begin pulling off tricks.

Nearly all the voices in the crowd sang out as one:

Anyday!

Anytime!

You can reach out to the sky!

Spread your wings!

Catch that light!

Say it now!

"I'm gonna be Myself!"

I know you'll make it!

No doubt you'll make it!

Be a little brave now!

It's time to take on

Your Dream!

When you fly in the sky...

You're dreaming!

Leave your worries behind!

Cuz' that's Imagination!

Can you feel it tonight?

The fire inside?

It's Burning!

All you gotta do is break on through!

To make your wishes all come true!

Amazing!!!

Amazing....

Amazing....

Upon the songs completion, the crowd broke out into a large cheer. Now that the excitement of the moment had worn off a little, the embarrassment Rose and Twilight had brushed off earlier caught back up with them. They were good sports however, and gave their bows. James walked up to them both after that, pleased to see they were having fun.

"So, you up for another song? Seems a shame to end the party so soon." He said pointing to the crowd who seemed eager for more music. Twilight just shook her head in awe.

"I suppose we have no choice. But this time YOU are going to sing it!"

* * *

Just over an hour later, James decided that enough was enough, and shut the party down.  The entire time Pinkie Pie had somehow managed to produce not only snacks such as cupcakes, cookies, and various other candies. But all sorts of drinks, party hats, and even a balloon for each and every pony and/or person there. One quick look from Twilight though, told James this was another one of those things he didn't want to know about.

Rose had spent the entire thing having a blast, and as soon as the show was over she had asked if she could get her a copy of the first song of the show. Thankfully for James, she had a thumb audio player and was able to connect to his holocomputer wirelessly to receive the file upon it. Soon, everyone and pony else were leaving, with Rose's older sister, Wing Berry, waiting for her off to one side. Before the girl ran off to join her, she pulled James aside for one last conversation.

"Thank you James. I know I'm going to fly now! Even if I don't become a pegasus, I'm sure I'll find a way! So promise me you'll come with me! When we are both ponies, you'll come with me instead of on your own. Promise!" She looked more serious about this then James had seen her look about anything before. With a nod, he extended his hand to her.

"You have my word Lady Rose, and that is something I shall never break!" She smiled as she took his hand and shook it.

Nothing more was said as nothing more was needed. Rose waved goodbye before she ran off to her sister. More ready for tomorrow then she ever had...

"Wait a minute Pinkie! You were singing that song from that cartoon on the loud speaker just this morning! That wasn't your song!" James heard Twilight scream suddenly. The timing and tone was just to perfect, and he found himself on the floor laughing.

Tidbits:

The song is a modified version of the opening song for Grandia 3. “In the Sky” English Version of course.

Bamboo is actually based on a stuffed panda I own myself. Er... somewhere in my closet...

Actually Pinkie Pie is dead on (Mostly) about why Wing Berry is called as she is, and has that as a cutie mark. She never wanted to call herself “The Winged Strawberry” though...

Holo-Computers. I honestly can see this sorta thing happening in the future.

No even I don’t know where Pinkie Pie got all that stuff, and I don’t intend to ask her...

Prelude and Chapter 1: Arrival

Chapter 2: Encounters

Chapter 3: Inspired

Chapter 4: Rose

Chapter 6: Decision

Chapter 7: Incident

Chapter 5: Confiding

It was later that night as James typed away at the keyboard of his holocomputer.  He had tried to get some sleep, but it had become painfully apparent that it just wasn't going to happen any time soon. It was funny. He wasn't even the one GETTING ponified tomorrow morning, and yet he still couldn't calm himself down. James couldn't even imagine how Rose herself might be feeling. He only hoped she was actually asleep and not lounging awake all night like he was.

Well there was nothing anyone could do about it all now. She'd find what she'd become tomorrow. Just like he'd eventually find out what he'd become later this week.

What he'd become...

"Knock Knock." Came a soft voice from outside his door before it slowly pushed open to reveal Twilight Sparkle. James found it rather cute that she had her eyes closed.

"I'm sorry to intrude, but I happened to be out and about and saw you were up. Are you decent?" He chuckled.

"Yeah I'm decent. You can come in too by the way." She seemed to blush a bit at her lack of composer, before trotting in. Letting the door swing shut behind her.

"I wanted to thank you for earlier." She said. James couldn't help but raise a teasing eyebrow.

"Oh? I figured you'd want to kill me after I got you to sing like that." She coughed.

"Well yes that was rather sudden, but I do have to admit that it was quite fun." She smiled, remembering all the times her friends would drag her out of the library back at home in order to 'make' her have fun. She supposed this time wasn't any different from those.

"Well I'm glad to hear you don't hate me. I'm sure Rose is thankful for your help to. Have you spoken with her yet?" Twilight shook her head.

"I can do that tomorrow morning. We're all ready for her in Ponification. Oh I so do hope she becomes a pegasus. I almost thought about trying to use my magic to try and make it happen. No telling what THAT might have done." James shuddered.

"Yeah I'm kinda glad you talked yourself out of that. I also don't doubt  that Rarity would have a fit if she had heard that." Twilight grimaced at the thought.

"I don't even want to think about it. She's very vocal about how she wants things run in there..."

Silence fell between them for several minutes after that. It was Twilight who finally broke it.

"So what are you doing up this late anyway?" James grinned at her question

"Well I suppose I could ask you the same question. Or do you usually go for walks at-" He checked the computer clock. "One in the morning? Is it really that late?"

He attempted to pull out and open his cell phone, only to have the thing fall out of his hands and bounce across the bed. Just before it could drop onto the floor however, Twilight's magic caught it and lifted it back to his hands.

While he had seen her perform magic many times now, this was the first time he was about to actually touch something she had been moving. As he plucked it from it's spot in mid air, he could swear he felt a tingle go up his arms. James chalked it up the late hour and his own imagination.

"I doubt I'll ever get use to that..." He said, the previous conversation forgotten. Twilight didn't pursue it.

"Well being you'll be living in Equestria for a while with a lot of other unicorn ponies, I'd say you'd have to get use to it eventually." She gave him a grin, "Besides, there is still a good chance you'll be a unicorn stallion yourself!"

James' eyes took a bit of a dreamy glaze to them at that thought.

"To be able to use magic... I suppose Rainbow Dash would be disappointed though. I told her I'd beg her to teach me to fly if I became a pegasus."

"Ouch, she WILL be disappointed. She loves to teach new foals how to fly." Then noticing the guilty look that came upon James' face she added: "But she'll get over it once one of the other new pegasus foals ask her. She always does."

"Well, I guess I can't do anything till I've transformed anyway..." He said leaning his back against the wall. The curiosity of what he'd become was actually beginning to get to him. A small part of him was even looking forward to becoming a pony. Yet he still couldn't ignore the other much LARGER part...

Still, it's a start... He thought to himself. If he was able to keep thoughts like that up, he should finally be able to get over this anxiety he'd been feeling. Or so he hoped.

Almost as if that was a cue, his headache flared up at that moment. Grabbing his head, he blindly reached next to him for his bag. Trying in vain to find the Tylenol he kept there.

"Are you alright? What's going on? What should I do?" He heard Twilight call out in a panic. If he hadn't been in so much pain he would have found it cute.

"I'll be fine. It's just a headache. Been getting them a lot lately. I Just need to wait for the worst of it to pass. Though if possible, I could use a drink to wash these pills down with." He had finally managed to find the said pills and had been dumping a few tablets into his open palm while saying that.  Twilight still seemed a bit panicked but quickly came to her senses.

"Right, something to drink. Oh cupcakes! If only I had brought my saddles! I'm sure I had some cider in there! Isn't there a vending machine out here?" James heard her say as she left the room.

Cupcakes? He thought as he watched her go. What kind of expression was that? He had a feeling it wasn't her who got her saying that, but one of her friends. He had similar things happen with him and his friends after all...

Before he had a chance to follow that thought any further though, Twilight came trotting back in. Levitating a bottle of Apple Juice with her horn as she did so. With another push of her magic, the bottle quickly floated across the room to him.

"There wasn't any water in the vending machine, just soda mostly, but I read it's not good to take medicine with that. I think apple juice is okay, but I can't recall exactly. Oh why didn't I read more books on this?"

"Twilight, it's fine! It's fine!" James said as he took the bottle of juice. His voice was a mixture of laughter due to the situation, and pain due to his headache. But at this point he was use to latter.

With few quick motions he had popped the pills into his mouth and swallowed them with the aid of the apple juice. The effects were instant, nearly eliminating his headache completely. He could still feel a dull buzzing like pain around the area, but he had long since gotten use to that.

"It's amazing how fast these things work today." He said while putting the rest of the Tylenol away. "I remember my grand dad telling me how it could take an hour just for it to kick in..." Twilight didn't respond though. Instead opting to hook on to something he had said earlier.

"You said you've been getting those a lot lately. Do you know why?"

James fell silent. Try as he might, he couldn't think of any way out of this conversation. So finally, he gave up. He still didn't want to talk about it. But after everything that had happened today, he felt he owed her.

With a defeated sigh, he began to speak.

"You remember when you asked me if I wanted to be a pony?" He said first. His eyes fixed on the holo keyboard unmoving. If he was to have the strength to say this, he wouldn't be able to look at her.

"I do." Was all she said in response. James nodded and steeled his nerves. His eyes closed.

This was it. There was no turning back now.

"I wasn't lying when I said I came here by my own choice. But to be honest with you? Becoming a pony is the LAST thing I had ever wanted to do." He hadn't opened his eyes yet, so he couldn't see the confused expression on Twilight's face.

"I... I don't understand, then why come here? Why become a pony if you really don't want to?" She knew she should be encouraging him to go through with the process. She really did, but just couldn't ignore her wild curiosity. Even stranger, she just couldn't bring herself to force him. Something in her had become scared of hurting him...

"I found it ironic that you said in your seminar 'You don't come here if you don't want to become a pony'. I found it real funny, because that's exactly what I did. I came here to become a pony, and I don't even want to."

"Don't worry," He said before she could say anything. Reaching over to pick up his bag, he began to rummage through it while he talked, "I'm going to tell you. I know I'm being difficult right now in answering your questions. I'm sorry about that.  I kinda ramble a bit when I'm this nervous. Way to off set the feeling I suppose. Ah here we go. What do you see Twilight?"

In his hands he held a large sandwich bag full of various headache medicines. Twilight was shocked. She had never seen so many pills on one person before. But why would he have so many?

Her eyes widened.

"You... You wouldn't" James scoffed.

"Please Twilight, I'd think you'd know me a bit better then THAT. I know we've only known each other for a couple of days now, but do I look like that type of guy who'd take that way out? The cowards way?" He had finally looked at her. His expression was that of someone not only hurt, but disappointed.

Twilight slightly hung her head in shame. If anything, everything he had done for Rose proved that he wasn't someone who'd take their own life like that.. She shouldn't have jumped to conclusions.

"Sorry, this is just hard for me to talk about..." James said with a sigh. His eyes had fallen back upon his keyboard.

"So..." She said after a few minutes of silence had passed.

"So why do I have all these right?" She nodded, and even though he couldn't see her do it, he knew she had.

"The headaches started to flare a few months ago. I can't really tell you when. Most of my friends and all of my family had already become ponies by that time. So none of them knew about it.  At first I didn't know what was going on, well I STILL don't know what's going on, but what I meant was that I just tried to ignore it. Chalking it up to the stress of having everyone I know walk out of my life."

He paused, giving her a chance to ask any questions. She only had one.

"Do you hate the idea of people becoming ponies?" He shook his head.

"No, if I had, I doubt I could have done that for Rose. I think it's a great offer really. I'm happy so many people are enjoying their new lives. Even I think it'd be neat to be a pony for a little bit. Just not... Well..."

"Just not...forever?" Twilight finished. He nodded sadly.

"And the headaches are what caused you to change your mind?" He nodded again.

"Why?" This time James sighed.

"I went to the doctor's. Obvious I know, but anyway they couldn't tell me anything. Nor could the next one, nor the next one..." Absentmindedly wringing his hands together, he took a breath. Here we go..

"Every doctor I went to said I checked out fine. That there was nothing wrong with me. Every test proved negative. Far as anyone was concerned? I wasn't in any trouble." James shook his head at the memories before he continued.

"However... The headaches weren't going away. In fact, they were only getting worse. Unbearable even. I was going mad. I couldn't figure out what was happening to me or why. That's when I realized I had only one resort left. The only thing that might possibly get rid of this ailment..."

Twilight's eyes widened. Everything finally falling into place.

"The gene manipulation. That's why you asked about it curing ailments like poor eye sight. Because you think it'll stop these headaches of yours!

"Bingo. Give the lady a prize." He said dully.

"You really don't want to become a pony do you?" James tensed at that. His feelings finally escaping the wall he had built around them.

"Twilight I'm scared." His voice was quivering. Tears were already threatening to escape from his eyes.

"I'm scared of what will happen to me. To who I am."

"But, the process..." He cut her off, not angrily, but with a sigh.

"I know. I know I'm being silly. I'll still be the same up here" He tapped his head.

"And in here." He tapped his chest over his heart.

"Nothing important about me will be changed. Just my body. But..." He couldn't fight it any longer, the tears escaped.

"Damn it, why can't I have a choice of just being who I am now? What's so WRONG with that? I LIKE being a human! Why can't I stay a human, and everyone else just do what they want? Becoming a pony is what makes them happy, I get that, and I want them to have that. But being in this body makes ME happy. Why god couldn't I just be allowed to KEEP that!?" He pounded the bed in frustration while weeping bitterly. He couldn't believe he was telling this to Twilight, even more then he could believe he was acting in such a way. But he had kept it in for so long.  It had just felt so good to finally let it all go...

Twilight just stood there stunned. She could almost feel tears forming in her own eyes. She struggled for something to say. Anything to say.

"But you don't know that these headaches will continue! You could stay a human! You could still live a long life! Maybe we have a remedy in Equestria that could cure your headaches... maybe..." She trailed off.  She had been making a promise she couldn't keep.         The entire reason for this whole center was to get humans ready to go to Equestria as ponies. They HAD to be ponies, because they couldn't survive the magic found there otherwise. Giving him something made from Equestria plants could do more harm then good for all they knew.

It seemed this knowledge wasn't lost on James, as his next words were:

"I doubt that would work.  The whole purpose of these ponifications are for us to survive the magic in Equestria right? I've thought about this long and hard Twilight. I thought of just letting this thing kill me. Die in the body I love." He stopped talking abruptly. Before Twilight finally had to finally finish his thought for him.

"But you decided not to..." He nodded.

"I honestly don't know if this thing will kill me. But with the way it's been getting worse, I seriously have my doubts that it won't. Much as I don't want to become a pony. I don't want to leave my friends and family with a corpse." James looked up at her with that.

"I'm no good to anyone dead Twi." he said, using her nickname without even realizing it.

"I don't want to die Twilight. It's the one selfish thing I think ever human and pony are allowed to feel. I also don't want to be a burden to my friends and family anymore. I wasn't there for any of their ponification processes. The centers simply scared me too much. They all said it was fine of course, but I still feel ashamed. I guess that's what made me want to help Rose so much, now that I think about it. I wasn't there for so many people, I just couldn't live with the thought of not being there for her."

James looked wishfully up at the ceiling. As if he could see through it into the stars.

"I want to help more people like I did with her. If becoming a pony is the means to do that, then so be it."

Twilight was rather amazed at this human. She had never, not in all her time at the center, could have dreamed she'd meet someone in his situation. Most people who came here had always wanted to become ponies, or had finally decided to do it for a friend, or to reunite with a wife. But in the end they had been given a choice. If they had wished for it, they could have walked out the door. Lived as a human for a little while longer...

Twilight felt she was being silly in a way. If the planet was truly to be covered in the magic of Equestria someday, all the humans would have to become Ponies. There was no guarantee that they'd find a 'work around' for that in time. It was, after all, why they had opened these centers in the first place. She just never expected to meet someone like him so soon.

"You're very brave James." Twilight said quietly.

"Thanks, but I don't feel that way." He said in response. The silence came back, but this time she couldn't think of a way to break it. She was about ready to take her leave when he spoke back up.

"Thank you for everything else too." He said. Twilight could only stare in response. What did he mean?

"If not for you being my greeter, I doubt I'd have mustered up the courage to stay here beyond the first night. Thank you for helping me calm my rattled nerves..."

"But I didn't do anything!" She protested. James smiled. What was more is that it was an actual smile. She had almost begun to think he had lost the ability, so she couldn't believe how happy she felt o see him do that.

"Even though you didn't know who I was, or what I was hiding. You offered to help me. You went out of your way not only to lend an ear on many occasion, but you were only too eager to help me in anyway you could. You told me everything I wanted to know  at dinner, you aided me in setting up Rose's concert. You even came to check up on me this late at night." She blushed. She didn't want to admit that she had been this worried about a random volunteer. But the mysteries he had kept around him had kept her curiosity active.         Even now she couldn't help but be worried. Even though he had finally laid his cards upon the table, there was just something about him she couldn't shake.

"When I... become a pony. Promise that we'll be friends?" James said suddenly, his voice sounding meek. He couldn't believe he had just said that. His face flushed red, making him want to burry it in his hands. But he stood his ground. Out of everypony he had met here. He realized that he didn't want his time in the center to be the only time he ever saw Twilight. Both her and Spike had become so important to him so fast. How strange life could be sometimes.

Twilight looked startled for a few seconds before she managed a smile herself. It was the best one she felt she had all night.

"Why wait till then?" She said suddenly. James looked up startled.

"After everything we've gone through over the last couple of days, and the conversation we just had? I'd say we became those already. But Let's make it official!". She stuck her hoof out in the same manner AppleJack had when he had first gotten there.

"Friends?" Twilight said with a grin. James stood dumbly for a few seconds before cracking  a grin of his own.

"I guess you're right! Friends!" He said taking her hoof and shaking it.

"I'm glad I met you Twilight." He added with a blush.

"And I'm glad I met you James." She returned. She didn't know why, but this entire thing made her feel a bit funny. She had probably been up for much too long, that's all.

"Well I suppose it's time we got some sleep. Which reminds me. Do you want a room where the possibility of someone's dead daughter won't talk to you?" Twilight almost felt bad for saying that. For the second she had, James nearly leaped out of his skin.

"What!?" He said looking around in panic before his mind caught up with him. He blushed in embarrassment before throwing his pillow at her.

"That was mean Twilight! Do you have any idea how much the room number has been messing with me!? Here I am dealing with a situation like this, and I get stuck in the EVIL room! Also I thought you didn't know about that movie!" Twilight laughed, picking the pillow back up with her magic, and placing it back where it belonged.

"Actually I got a bit curious at what you had said when I asked you about the room so I finally got around to looking it up on that hypernet of yours. Can't say I blame you for feeling that way. I only wish I knew sooner. I can move you to a new room you know." James just shook his head.

"Too late now, I've already spent a night in it. If it was going to kill me it would have done so. I'm just glad it doesn't have a closet."

Twilight looked at him strangely.

"Er don't worry about it. Anyway, I should REALLY get some sleep now. After all, I don't want to break my promise to Rose in the morning!" Twilight nodded before bidding him a good night. James shut down his Holocomputer. Then got ready for bed. His mind began to recall everything that he had just been through the last couple of days while he attempted to drift off.

When he had first arrived, he had only been hoping to keep his nerve long enough to go through with the process. Having planned on staying holed up in his room the entire time.         Instead, he had made friends with not only a baby dragon, but a unicorn pony, A young girl about to become a pony herself, and had even set up an impromptu concert for an entire crowd of people! If this was just being at the center, how was his life as a pony going to be like? Thought James supposed he'd have to find out which one he'd become first...

His awareness was beginning to fade. He WAS pretty tired after all. But he still couldn't help but wonder which of the three he'd get. Would he become an earth pony like Pinkie Pie and Applejack? James couldn't say he really liked that idea even now, but it was a possibility. But what if he became a pegasus like Rainbow Dash pr Wing Berry?  Once more he desperately hoped that Rose would be among them when his time finally came.

But then there was the chance that he'd become an unicorn pony like his new friend Twilight. Mulling it over he still couldn't decide if he liked the idea of being a pegasus with the ability to fly, or the idea of being a unicorn with the power to use magic, more. A unicorn or a pegasus. Those were the two he really wanted to be...

"It's too bad I can't be both..."

* * *

Despite the long hours of the previous night, James managed to keep his promise to Rose. There he was, up and waiting by his door before Pinkie Pie had even managed to turn on the loud speaker. This time she mimicked the bell chime often heard the animes James had watched in the past.

He briefly wondered which one she must have watched the previous day. Guessing that to be the reason she was doing such a thing this time.

Sure enough, the first thing she mentioned was having heard the bell in an anime. She was told to get on with the announcements before divulging any details though, much to his disappointment.

"Anyway," She was saying, "You'll never guess what's for breakfast! PANCAKES! I like waffles myself, but pancakes are nummy tummy yummy as well! Oh and for the rest of the day we have that chicken lo' mien stuff again. I keep forgetting to ask what that is... Anyway for the Pony folk we have carrots and a Daffodil garden salad with ceaser dressing! Delicious! Now for the moment you've ALLLLLLLLL been waiting for! ANOTHER SONG!"

"PINKIE!" He could hear what had to be every other pony in the background shout.

"Only joking! It's time for today's pony graduate! Rose Miller! Come on down! Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all week folks!" The speaker went dead then, cutting her off rather suddenly. James' vote was that Applejack had intervened.

Meanwhile Rose and crept out of her room. Smiling only when she saw James already waiting for her.

"Hiya kiddo!" He said with a smile. He noticed that today, instead of all their neighbors coming out and hollering up a storm, they were being very quiet as they came out of their rooms. Apparently her shyness was well known to everyone in the hall. Actually, James was rather glad to see this. It was really nice that everyone was showing such courtesy to her.

"G-good morning James.  You kept your promise!" Rose said before giving him a hug. This caught him a bit off guard, but after a few seconds, and the many urging looks of his neighbors, he returned it.

"I told you Lady Rose. I'd never break my word." James said after she had stepped away again. The embarrassment on her face was unmistakable.

"Where's Bamboo?" He asked, noticing that for once she hadn't been clutching the stuffed toy to her chest.

"Sis is looking after him."

"He's not going with you?" She shook her head.

"I'll be fine. I'm not afraid anymore!" She declared proudly. James could hardly believe this was the same girl he had seen comfort him upon his first hour here.

"Go ahead then! I'll be right here waiting to cheer you on okay?" He said softly. He couldn't be sure, but James had a feeling he had finally managed to copy the way Twilight had spoken to her.

Rose nodded.  While she hadn't spoken a word, her smile told him all he needed to know. With one last curtsey, she disappeared around the corner again. The last time she ever would as a human.

James felt he had never truly understood the phrase: "Minutes seem like hours" till that very moment. Every moment he stood there, waiting to see what kind of pony would walk around the corner was aggravating.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he could hear the very faint clip clop of hooves upon the center's floor. He could feel his breath catch in his throat. James couldn't tell if she was walking in a depressed manner, or just a careful manner. No one had dared to speak a word. All eagerly awaiting for her to walk into view.

Slowly, and carefully A small female pony came trotting into view. Wobbly, but determined to stay up right. There was no mistaking that she was anyone other than Rose. James could tell from the very first glimpse of her.

She still had that shy, yet bold feel to her. Only now it belonged to a pony instead of a human. Her coat had become a pure white. Though her mane seemed to have a similar style to her old hair. It's color had become a deep red.

Just like a rose.

She was the cutest, most elegant little pony he had seen during his entire time there. She took a few more steps, arriving just at the edge of the hallway. There in the center she looked at all the neighbors gathered there to greet her. Then, turning her gaze to look straight at James. She smiled a most triumphant smile.

From her sides stretched out two magnificent white wings.

She had become a Pegasus.

The entire hall exploded into cheers, not a single person being able to contain themselves any longer. Even though Rose looked really embarrassed, she didn't run or shy away. Instead she made her way to James. Her eyes shining like stars.

"H-Hi" She said once she had gotten right in front of him. It was a bit jarring to hear her voice come from this little pony he saw before him. But he knew with out a doubt that it was Rose. The same Rose he had spent so much time with these last couple of days...

"Congratulations. Rose." James said Softly. He was truly happy for her. Her dream had come true. She could fly now. Fly all on her own.

"Thank you... James." She said with a blush. James was smiling, but he had to ask the question that had been on his mind.

"How does it feel?"

"It feels... REALLY weird." She said before beginning to giggle. James couldn't help but smile.

"How... how do I look?" She asked finally.  He had a feeling that she had been dying to ask that question since the moment she had become a pony.

"Wonderful Rose. When I become a pony I hope I look as cool as you do right now." The smile Rose had on her face just then warmed his very heart. She spoke again:

"James... Thank you for believing in me. I can fly now. Just like I always wanted." He nodded.

"I never doubted for a moment that you'd fly Rose. No matter what may have been, I knew that you'd find a way."

"You'll find a way too." She said with a smile. The expression she wore was serious. Making her appear so much older and wiser then any twelve year old had any right to.

"You'll find a way to make your dream come true!" James hugged her then, fighting back his tears once more.

"I'll believe. If you believe then so will I" The rest of the hall had come up to give her their own congratulations at that time. Rose did her best not to shy away, and thanked each person politely. (If not quietly) Finally her sister Wing Berry, who had been waiting with Bamboo at the door of their room ever since Rose had left it, came up to nuzzle her new ponified sister.

Once the excitement had finally died down, the people began going about their usual business. Rose, as predicted, wanted to go outside right away to try out her wings. Wing Berry suggested she learn who to USE them first. But in the end, both James and Wing Berry knew that she wouldn't settle down until she had at least attempted to use them.

As the sisters began to walk toward one of the exits, Rose stopped to yell back at James. The very same way she had the first time they met.

"You... you promise to play with me again right? You promise that you won't stop being my friend right?"

James straightened himself up as best he could, before giving her the most gentlemanly bow he could muster.

"I give you my word Lady Rose. And that is something I can never break!." Rose gave him one last smile before trotting away with her sister. All the while testing out her ability to move her new wings. Ever so eager to use them to fly...

"That settles it." James said as he watched her leave. "I'm ready. If a girl like that can come out of this just fine. Then I have nothing to fear."

He felt the shiver and sense of dread upon his body again, but paid it little mind.

"Remnants of an old wound..." He said to himself silently. No one noticed how the shadows seemed to dance as if alive. Slithering off into the distance...

Tidbits:

“Never guess what’s for breakfast. PANCAKES!” I tried to resist doing that. I really REALLY tried. I’m sorry. XD

Prelude and Chapter 1: Arrival

Chapter 2: Encounters

Chapter 3: Inspired

Chapter 4: Rose

Chapter 5: Confiding

Chapter 7: Incident

Chapter 6: Decision

"Good morning James. Enjoying it I hope?" Twilight asked him as she walked up with a stack of pancakes that matched his own. (Well for the exception that his had parts cut out of the stack for his consumption).

"It's a pretty good morning." James replied with a smile. It had only been about an hour or so after Rose's transformation into a pegasus pony. After doing his morning clean up, he had made his way to the cafeteria for some breakfast. James was half surprised to see it really HAD been pancakes on the menu. He had sort of assumed Pinkie was just being random. A trait she seemed particularly skilled at.

Twilight sat across from him, the same way she had during their dinner two nights ago. Using her magic, she lifted a small mug of syrup to pour across her pancakes. Then, now manipulating a fork with her magic, she began to eat. James couldn't help but find himself enjoying the simple act of seeing her do that. Feeling once more, a pang in his heart at his inability to use magic.

"Rose made a very pretty pegasus." Twilight said in between bites of her food. James nodded happily. If he had been forced to tell the truth, he had been more than a little worried at what might have happened, had she come out of there as anything else.  Thankfully, that was one thing he'd never have to worry about again. Now he just had to wait out the other thing...

"I have a feeling she's going to be an amazing flyer..." He said staring off into space, his eyes becoming unfocused. James couldn't wait to see her fly. Hopefully he'd end up in the same area of Equestria that Rose did. Though, there were two others he had decided to attempt to become neighbors of first and foremost.

"Hey Twilight. When I go to Equestria... Think there's any chance of me ending up where you'll be? Er you know, so I know I'll be in a place with friends..." He didn't understand why, but the question was making him blush. Why did it feel so weird to ask that suddenly? Twilight thankfully, only smiled warmly.

"I'll be sure to send in a request that you're transferred to Ponyville. I actually run the library there. I'm sure Spike will enjoy having you there as well!"

James nodded as he ate his pancakes. It wouldn't be so bad at all, living in a quiet little town. Though he was certain it'd take a bit of getting use to living in a town full of nothing but ponies, but then again, he was certain it'd take a bit of getting use to BEING a pony himself.

Long as Twilight and Spike were near by though, he'd manage. He'd have plenty of time to seek out where his family ended up, and maybe even find a few of his older friends. James was also looking forward to seeing if Twilight went through with trying to get those gaming systems, along with a TV, installed there. Chance of him never playing them again or not, that he had to see.

"Cool," He said finally. "Can't wait."

"Do you really mean that?" Twilight asked hesitantly. James nodded, his face determined.

"I still wish there was another way," He began, setting his fork down, "But after everything that has happened these last couple of days, I'm ready. About as ready as I'm ever going to be."

"No more regrets?" It seemed like she was getting at something. His curiosity tickled, and he began to regard her a bit more carefully.

"None that'll hold me back." James quickly elaborated at the look she gave him after he said that. "Twilight, I'm always going to have some small regret about this. It's just the way things are. But like I said. I'm ready. Only thing I want now, is to just get it over with." He said with a steady nod before taking a swig of his Mountain Dew.

"Then how about tomorrow morning?" Twilight asked flatly. James nearly spit out his soda.

"W-what!?" He asked startled, "But I thought you had a week's wait!"

"Normally you do," Twilight said nodding, "But given your situation, I wanted to see about bumping you up a bit. It won't really affect anything. Just the person who was going to be ponified tomorrow waits an extra day that's all. My great organization skills have already sorted it all out. I just... wanted to hear your opinion first. It is YOUR ponification of course."

James had to take a moment to digest all this. Tomorrow morning. If he really wanted to, he could have this all over and done with after just one more day. All the anxiety, and fear he'd been feeling. The headaches. They could all be gone by tomorrow. He just had to say one word.

But it'd also meant it would possibly be the last time he could play a videogame, or type on his computer. James also didn't know anything about what kind of music they listened to in Equestria. What did they do for fun?  All the doubt and questions he had been having about the process, ran through his mind again. Should he go for it? He'd have to eventually right? Why not sooner? After all, he did just say he wanted to get it all over with...

Up from the very recesses of his memory came a particularly old one of him and his sister playing by a lake one summer. He had wanted to wade slowly into the water, but his sister had just grabbed him and jumped straight in without warning. The water had been FREEZING ice, but it wasn't long before his body had adjusted to it. Still he remembered what he had shouted at her for that.

"Miranda! Why did you do that!?" James remembered giving her the deadliest look he could muster, but his sister had just looked at him with that big sisterly smile of hers.

"Listen bro, there's two ways of doing these kinda things. Either by wading in slowly, and missing out on all the possible fun. Or, you can jump right in and feel the thrill of it all!"

James smiled the memory faded back away...

I wonder what you are doing now sis?

"Let's do it." He replied, confident in his answer. Twilight Sparkle merely nodded, promising to make the schedule adjustments right after breakfast.

* * *

"Can't you just take one of those busses or something?" Spike asked, while James fiddled in his pockets for his key chain. It had only been an hour or two after he had arranged with Twilight for his ponification to happen the following morning.

In the meantime, he had decided to take care of a few last minute details. After telling Twilight that he'd be off the center grounds for most of the day. While she had no problems with this, and well it wasn't like it was uncommon, she did ask that he take Spike along with him. In order to keep him company. Least that's the excuse she had given him, but James figured it was just her way of keeping an eye on him. Spike on the other hand, was just glad for more time off.

For the moment, they were currently at a storage unit complex. Thankfully located a little ways across the street and down the block from the Conversion Bureau itself. Two days ago James had ridden over here and rented a storage unit for the vehicle that he had rode upon. James knew he could have just ridden the thing into the parking lot for the center, but that just wasn't safe enough for what he had stored away in here.

"What busses? After a majority of the city became ponies, busses stopped running." James had since found his key chain, but now was having trouble finding the right key to the unit's lock. He cursed under his breath as another key failed. Why couldn't he remember which one it was, and WHY did he have so many of these keys in the first place?! If there was anything he wasn't going to miss about being a human, this was one of them!

"Then rent a car or something. Anything so I don't have to sit in that baby carrier!" Spike was referring to the backpack style baby carrier. Which the entire purpose of the thine was to do just that: Carry a baby on one's back. It had been the only way Twilight would allow Spike to ride along with James after he had told her what he rode.

"I don't want to wear the stupid thing either Spike! That's why I keep suggesting you just stay here and I call you via phone when I get there! You don't actually HAVE to be present!"

"And miss out on seeing all those games you're going to give me? No way! Besides, if I don't go, I'd have to work. I'd rather skip that." Much as James hated to admit it, he couldn't argue with that fact.

"Anyway, that's why I just say rent a car! Besides what's so great about riding a motorbike anyway?" Spike said with crossed arms.

Meanwhile James finally found the correct key for the lock to the storage unit With a big smile upon his face as he got ready to reveal what lie inside as he unlocked the unit. His holocomputer was a valued possession indeed. But it was nothing compared to what he had placed in here.

"Look Spike I can't rent a car, I'd have to wait till I aged four more years, and I'm becoming a Pony tomorrow okay? Besides, I think you'll like THIS particular motorbike..."

The door slide up easily, allowing the sun to poor into the small room. It illuminated the bright red motorbike perfectly.

Spike didn't know a lot about human motorcycles, but even he could tell it wasn't your typical street bike. The thing seemed designed for only one person for one thing. It also had what appeared to be two giant mufflers on each side of the rear tire. Finally the foremost thing he noticed, since it was just about staring right at him, was the design on the front of the tire guard for the front tire. A seemingly three dimensional face, though it appeared more of a mask, then a real face. The effect was rather odd to look at.

Spike couldn't help but feel he had SEEN this somewhere before. Not only that but recently as well. James only stood there smirking as Spike furrowed his brow. He could just recall seeing something like this a couple of nights ago. He had been playing the 3DS port of Devil May Cry 3 with James-

Spike's eyes widened.

"You have a replica of Lady's motorbike from Devil May Cry 3?!?" He exclaimed rather shocked. The grin James gave him couldn't have gotten any wider.

"Isn't it freaking cool!?!" James exclaimed with glee, "And it works almost exactly like how it does in the game too!"

He was walking all around the bike as he tried to show it off. It wasn't easy to find someone in this day and age that not only KNEW what the bike was modeled after, but was a big enough fan of the series to really understand the awesomeness factor of this thing. Therefore James was determined to get all he could out of it.

"See these?" James said as he gently kicked one of the things Spike had mistaken for mufflers, "Hyper Fuel thrusters! Okay, yeah it's not Nitro like in the game, least I think it's Nitro it used in the game, but that's because the game was made before we discovered hyper fuel! Course you aren't legally suppose modify you vehicles to utilize hyper fuel like this so I rarely use them. Though the cops have been rather lax lately with all the people leaving to be ponies, so maybe I should rev em up a bit today? Anyway, I mostly just have it run on plain old gas, which is kinda hard to come by now, but you'd be surprised at the places that still sell it! Also-" He probably would have gone on forever if Spike hadn't stopped him then.

"Wait wait wait!" Spike said, managing to bring James out of his fanboyish prattling, "How did you even GET something like this?" James beamed at being asked that. Spike was half afraid he was going to go off on another fanboy prattle, but it appeared James had managed to get a hold of himself.

"I got lucky to have pretty much the coolest uncle one could ever ask for. He gave this to me for my sixteenth birthday, well after I got my license to drive one anyway. See, he knew how much I liked the game Devil May Cry 3 at the time, and had this done for me."

"Wait, I don't know that much about human money, but wouldn't that have cost a fortune?" Spike said raising an eyebrow in suspicion. "So what, this uncle of yours was loaded or something?"

"Oh no Uncle Jack wasn't rich or anything, he just had a really good connection. He had this friend named Michael, guy is crazy smart. I mean the guy's a physics instructor! But anyway my Uncle got him to help him put the bike together since they're best friends and all. Michael told me later that he was happy to do it. Not surprising given the stories Uncle Jack tells me about Michael's car. In the end, I guess you could say the bike's a present from both of them."

"Wow you ARE lucky if you know someone who can do THIS." Spike said with a whistle.

"I know..." James said looking off into the distance. The last James had heard from Uncle Jack was when he had given James the news that he was going to be ponified. James hadn't heard or seen anything from him since. It had been even longer since he had seen anything of his uncle's friend Michael for that matter.

Some life event had happened to Michael, that his uncle didn't like talking about. James had only met the guy a couple of times, but recalled he was an all around, fun to be around, kind of guy. If James ever ran into his uncle, he'd have to ask how everything was...

"Okay, I guess I'll put up with the baby carrier if we get to ride THIS." Spike said, drawing James out of his thoughts. He had a feeling Spike would have changed his mind upon seeing the bike.

After making sure it was still ready for road use, James helped Spike into his 'seat' before placing him on his back. Then it was a simple act of putting his helmet on, and they were ready to get going.

James grabbed the one key he had made sure he'd always know. It was the only one with a 'flame picture' mold after all. Placing it into the ignition, he turned it. Smiling warmly at the sound of the engine purring to life.

This is the last day I'll ever get to take you for a spin, James thought to himself as he patted the handlebars. May as well make it worth it!

"You know Spike..." James began. He knew he was unable to keep the evil grin from his face, so was rather glad Spike couldn't see his expression just then. "With all the ponified people, this town is mostly empty. To the point that the cops aren't really... Punishing little crimes if they don't hurt no one..."

It was clear from Spikes voice that he didn't like the way James was talking.

"Uh, so what are you saying?"

The grin on James' face only grew that much wider.

"What I'm 'saying' is..." He engaged the throttle and raced out of the unit in a mad dash. Waiting only long enough to make it to the road before he continued the sentence. "HANG ON TO YOUR LIFE PARTNER!"

James slammed the trigger to the hyper fuel thrusters, causing the bike to peel away like a bat out of hell. Laughing like a loon the entire time.

Spike meanwhile, was screaming his lungs out.

* * *

Hours later they drove back to the center. Having learned from Twilight that morning that he could store his bike in a storage unit on the center grounds. James didn't bother going back to his old one.

They had spent a good part of the afternoon just riding the bike around, especially enjoying the thrill of using the hyper fuel thrusters. James had been right in his statement about the 'lax' in police work as well. If any had seen what they had been doing, none of them had cared enough to bother stopping them.

"Okay that was the COOLEST thing ever!" Spike said, after James had brought the bike to a halt. While James had caught Spike off guard at first, The little dragon had quickly warmed up to the style of the ride. Once Spike had un-strapped himself and gotten back down to the ground, he decided to add something else:

"I still think you should have tried to make that jump."

"Spike that ditch was like twenty feet wide and there was no ramp!"

"So Hyper boost it! (Hyper boost is what Spike had come to call it when James used the thrusters) You would have made it easy! Didn't you tell me that the entire reason you were driving like that, was because you may never get another shot at it? Well when are you ever going to be able to do something like that jump again!?"

"If we had crashed I wouldn't be able to do ANYTHING ever again!" James shot back, "and the POINT of the drive wasn't just to drive, but so I could tell the storage unit by my old house where to mail all my stuff too!"

That was yet another thing he'd have to owe Twilight. She had said he could send all of his stuff to the library in Ponville, until they found him his own place to stay in the town. James wondered if he'd ever be able to repay Twilight after everything was said and done.

"There you two are!" A familiar voice called to them from the sky. James may have only heard that voice once before, but there was no mistaking it for anypony other than Rainbow Dash. He looked just in time to see her land on a concrete table in the grass a few feet from them.

"I thought that was you two. You're still the loudest arguers I've heard this side of the planet!" Spike's eyes narrowed.

"What do you want Rainbow Dash?" He asked with a sigh.

"Hey I didn't have to come find you, ya know!" Rainbow Dash said, obviously not missing the tone in Spike's voice. "Only reason I'm here at all is because Twilight asked me to come find you two! Or maybe you don't want the invitation!" She turned her head to the side in indifference.

"Invitation?" James asked before Spike could say anything more.

"Yeah, Twilight says that Wing Berry and Rose Feather, oh that's what Rose is calling herself now, are having a picnic and she invited the two of you! I was invited too of course, but I've got important flying patrols to perform!" Spike's eyes narrowed again

"Uh huh." He said in monotone.

"Hey we've all got important jobs to do here!" Rainbow said playing it cool, "I'm just trying to be like everypony else and do mine!" The look on Spike's face remained unchanged.

"So what Twilight was telling me about that unicorn pony, Midnight Shadow I belive? Being here on a mission from Princess Luna, has nothing to do with it?" Rainbow Dash tried to look indifferent at that, but James could see the slightest bit of a blush on her cheeks.

"Oh he's in town? I hadn't heard. Maybe I'll see him on my patrol." She tried, and failed, to say nonchalantly.

James' expression joined Spike's perfectly.

"Uh huh." They both said flatly.

"Fine, think that if you want!" Rainbow said with a huff, "In the meantime I've got some serious speed to achieve!" Before either of them could blink, Rainbow Dash had spread her wings and dashed away into the sky, leaving her rainbow trail behind her. James had to admit he was impressed. He really would have to ask her to teach him to fly if he ended up a pegasus like Rose. Rainbow's way of flying was just to wicked!

"So she likes this Midnight fellow?" James asked as they made their way to the center. He certainly hoped someone knew where Twilight was, since Rainbow had left before telling them WHERE the picnic was.

"Yeah, he's a great fellow too. Gave me some of his computer games, though he didn't have nearly as many as you do! It was mostly newer stuff as well." James had been smiling at Spike's words before something the dragon said finally registered in his brain.

"Wait, he had computer games? How did he play them?" Spike just rolled his eyes.

"When he was a human of course!" That caused James stop dead in his tracks.

"Wait, what? Rainbow likes a pony that was a human?!" The look Spike gave him was a questioning one.

"Yeah so? Don't tell me you didn't think that could happen. They ARE both ponies now you know."

James thought about this as they walked. In fact he hadn't thought all that much about it.  If he really thought about it, it wasn't like the only relationships that could happen with former humans would be with other former humans. It only made sense that now they were ponies, the other ponies that had been born that way might find them attractive and vice versa...

For some reason, James suddenly found himself wondering if Twilight had ever fallen for a former human like that...

And why did he want to be a pony all of a sudden?

* * *

"That's very impressive Rose!" James told her, while watching the new pegasus hover around the picnic area. Just managing a good six or so feet from the ground. Rose would wobble a lot from time to time, but she was doing far better then James had ever expected. Especially since she had only gotten wings mere hours ago.

James doubted she'd ever be able to give Rainbow Dash a challenge, but as he watched her hover about, he couldn't help but feel that she truly did look like she belonged in the sky. He certainly couldn't wait to see her when had been flying long enough for it to feel natural to her. He had a feeling she'd be one of the most graceful flyers of them all one day..

Thankfully the picnic they had been invited to, hadn't quite started yet. Twilight having to take care of some more paperwork stuff before she'd be able to join them. So neither James nor Spike had missed out on any food.

In the meantime, the other attendees were setting things up. James and Spike had actually arrived, just as Wing Berry and Fluttershy, who had also been invited, were setting up the cloth. It seemed Rarity had also been invited. She had not to surprisingly, (Even to James who had only met her once before) had set up a beach lounging chair. Complete with an umbrella and small table. The entire thing set up off to the side of the site.

James did a rather exaggerated double take when he noticed that Rarity was in fact   sitting in the chair, UPON HER BACK. Just like a human would. She even had her two front legs and hooves tucked behind her head like a human would. James couldn't help but feel that should be painful given their build. Yet she seemed perfectly fine as she sat there, complete with a straw beach hat and pink rimmed sunglasses.

For ponies, they either kept getting into positions, or moving in a way that he felt they just shouldn't be able to, given how they looked. James made a mental vow to seriously test this himself when HE became a pony.

"You really think so? I've been practicing all morning!" Rose cried happily. She came to rest upon the ground once more looking rather tired. Despite the fact she was panting and sweaty, James couldn't recall a time in the last couple of days where she seemed to glow so brightly.

I may be giving up a lot by becoming a pony. He thought while smiling at her, But this moment right here will be worth all of it.

"You bet she has!" Wing Berry said with a laugh, "Why if I hadn't forced her to take a fast break for breakfast, I doubt she would have eaten!" James groaned slightly. Did she HAVE to say that sentence that way?

"Oh, that reminds me," James said turning to Rose, "I heard from Rainbow Dash that you're calling yourself Rose Feather now. I think that's a great name! It's very pretty!" This made Rose blush.

"T-thank you..." She said, her meekness showing through again.

"Yeah she said she wanted something that would allow you to still call her Rose. Since she thought her name sounded so pretty when you said it!" Wing Berry added with a smile. Rose's blush deepened.

"S-Sis! Don't say things like that!" She said, while attempting to hide her face with her new hooves. (This didn't seem all that easy by what he could see. Apparently there were some things hands would always be better at.)

This caused everyone, except Rose of course, to have a good laugh. Even Spike, who had been voluntarily catering to any of Rarity's 'wishes' since they had arrived there, managed a chuckle. Even James was able to laugh despite the odd burning in his cheeks...

As they waited for the food. (It was suppose to arrive with Twilight.) James was thankful to find a small water cooler packed with drinks, had apparently been brought earlier. Grabbing an Apple Juice (There weren't any Mountain Dews, much to his disappointment) James reached into his pockets to pull out what he hoped to be his final dose of Tylenol ever. Rose's expression quickly changed to that of worry she saw him take the pills.

"James? You're not sick are you?" She had pranced over and had already begun looking him over before James had even had the chance to swallow.

As luck would have it, he was unable to say anything afterward as well since Fluttershy joined Rose in her examinations almost instantly after Rose had spoken.

"Oh dear! It's not serious is it? Do you maybe need some rest? Whenever one of my animal friends gets sick, I feed them a some warm soup. Should I see about getting you some soup to eat? The food isn't here yet, so I'm sure I can arrange it!" Fluttershy said, as she placed a hoof upon his forehead to check his temperature.

"N-no! I'm not sick! I'm fine! Really!": James stammered as meekly as Rose might have. All the other times he had tried to talk to Fluttershy, she had always flinched away from him. So this sudden boldness of hers had caught him completely off guard.

"It's just to take the edge off my headaches that's all! I'm not sick! I promise!" James finally managed to shout while under the examination of both pegasai. This seemed to calm them down, as both Fluttershy and Rose relaxed after he said that.

"Oh that's good, I simply couldn't bear it if there was a sick creature around. Uh, not that I think humans are weird creatures or anything, it's just since I'm a pony, I well..." James had managed to collect enough of his composer, thanks to seeing her stumble over her words, to finally talk normally himself again.

" No offense taken Fluttershy. Thank you for worrying about me. I'll be sure to let you know if I ever get sick alright?" Fluttershy smiled sweetly.

"And I promise to help you get better if you ever do. I like helping my friends get better." James mentally blinked at that. Did she actually consider him a friend? He thought she was scared stiff of him.

"Me too! Me too!" Rose began saying while she jumped around him. "I'll do all I can to help you get better too James!"

"Thanks Rose," He said ruffling the part of her mane atop her head. She struggled a bit to get away, but didn't really seem to mind that much. Wing Berry in the meantime, had been wondering about something James had said.

"You said 'headaches'. These common or something?" James nodded slowly, trying to find the best way to put everything, without worrying anyone.

"Yeah, they've been a bit worse then usual. "He said in the most offhand manner he could muster, "I wouldn't worry though. I've been having headaches since I was a child."

Course back then they were only a dull annoyance, not the knife piercing agony they had become since a few months ago. No reason to tell them that though. With luck it'd all be over tomorrow morning anyway.

"Well I wouldn't worry about that too much deary," Rarity said, having finally joined in on the conversation. Her words ironically not only seemed to back up his own thoughts, but put to rest any concerns they may have been feeling.

"Tomorrow morning you'll be a pony, and I'm willing to bet all those nasty health problems will be a thing of the past! You'll be a new man, or is that stallion? Well, you get what I'm applying I'm sure."

"You're becoming a pony tomorrow!?" Rose said with a shocked look. James guessed she hadn't been informed.

"That's right!" He said with another smile, "So don't worry about me! Tomorrow morning, we'll both be ponies and you can show me all the cool things that come with it!" She seemed to like this idea very much given how excitedly she was nodding.

"Sure thing! I can't wait to see what you become!"

Neither can I...He thought to himself.

The sound of a cart being pulled caught their attention, breaking up the conversation. Coming up a hill from the direction of the center James could make out  the pony Applejack pulling a large cart of food. Though what was IN the cart he wasn't able to make out just yet.         James was actually rather surprised at how easily AJ was pulling the thing. It honestly looked like she didn't even notice that she was pulling one, and while he couldn't' tell what was in it, the thing looked packed. Trotting along side her was Twilight, whom Rose ran up to greet.

"Why hello there My Little Pony," Twilight said with a smile as Rose ran up, "Are you ready for this picnic?" Rose had wanted to ramble on about how well she could fly, but was polite enough to hold back so she could answer.

"Sure am! I'm hungry!" She said jumping up and down like Pinkie Pie would. It was a real treat seeing her true colors displayed like that. James couldn't believe how much happier she seemed as a pony.

"I have to second that!" James said in response to Rose's comment, "I'm starved!"

"Well I'm mighty glad ta hear that sugercube!" Applejack said as she brought the cart to a stop next to their picnic cloth.

"We've got quite the feast for ya'll!" Applejack had leaped into the cart as she said that, somehow not messing any of the food up as she did so. In turn, the food had also somehow been stacked in such a way, that none of the it had smashed or flaked onto any of the other foods in the cart.

As Applejack dove around in the cart, she began to name the many dishes piled there, throwing them out and onto the cloth with crazy precision. Not a single dish landed upside down, or on top of another. James briefly wondered if this was some sort of earth pony magic.

"Yes siree! What we have here is the best that Apple Aches has to offer! We've got Apple Pies, Apple Fritters, Apple Tarts, Apple Dumplings, Apple Crisp, Apple Crumblers, Aaaaaaaand Apple Brown Betty! Er, the desert. Not my aunt Betty." James had thought he had gotten use to the strange behaviors of the ponies around him. But had forgotten about the fact he hadn't spent much time around Applejack yet. Looking over all the apple dishes he began to wonder just how he should act.

"Looks... delicious..." He finally decided to say, noticing the swell of pride in AppleJack's eyes when he did.

It was a good thing he liked apples...

* * *

It was starting to get late in the evening when James began to pull his motorbike back out of it's new home in one of the center's storage units. Despite lunch consisting almost entirely of apple products. (Twilight and Wing Berry had managed to get a few non-apple things added to the menu, and for whatever reason Fluttershy had a bushel of carrots.) The tastes and preparation of each apple dish had been so expertly crafted, that he could hardly tell he was eating the same fruit in every dish.

The rest of his day after that had gone pretty lazily, but that was just the way he wanted it. He hung out some more with all his new friends, watched Rose learn to fly a bit more, and had a nice little gaming session with Spike. Spanning a few different games. (They had originally planned to play nothing but Bloody Roar 5 on their 3DS' but after Spike kept being the crap out of  him by only playing the character that became a dragon, James decided to move on to a different game.)

James had even found time to have a cup of tea, (Well coco for him. He despised the taste of tea) with Twilight. All in all he felt he had a pretty eventful day.

But there was still one thing he wanted to do before his time as a human came to an end. Something he knew he'd never get to do again afterward.

"I'd have to conclude that you aren't running away, so what ARE you up to?" Came Twilight's voice from behind him, as he got ready to ride his bike. James stopped from putting on his helmet so he could turn and answer her.

"There's this place I want to eat tonight. At one last time before I'm a pony." He replied.

It was a half truth, but James didn't want to tell her the real reason he was doing this. It was why he hadn't even invited Spike along after all.

"You do know you can still eat at any place around here AFTER you become a pony right? If you're worried about humans like the ones in the HLF," James knew she was talking about the Human Liberation Front. A group of people who were dead set on remaining human, who saw this entire ordeal as a takeover or something.

James, frankly, thought they were nuts. Sure he didn't want to be a pony, but that didn't mean those who DID should be denied. Twilight, not being able to read his mind of course, simply continued with what she was saying:

"I wouldn't worry about them. We've had pegasai ponies patrolling the city for any sights of their activity. You'd be perfectly safe!"

"Oh I know, but it's more of a treat kinda deal. Able to eat there later or not, I figured it's my last night as a human. Why not ya know?" Twilight thought about this before nodding.

"I see, well just be careful for me okay? I wouldn't want you to get hurt the night before you became a pony. I mean, I know you are apprehensive about the process, or were rather, sorry. But I have to say. I'm a bit excited! I can't wait to see which one you become!" James had thought he'd still feel some of the dread that he usually did at becoming a pony. Though he did still have some of his old regrets, even now. James was beginning to realize that he was more looking forward to tomorrow then he'd have thought.

Besides, there had been something else nagging at the back of his mind ever since earlier this day...

"Hey... Twilight..." James said slowly, making sure she was listening before he went on, "I heard from Spike that Rainbow has a bit of a, uh... 'liking' of a Pony that use to be human..."

"Oh you must mean Midnight Shadow. Yeah she was a bit disappointed when he didn't become a pegasus, but his rainbowish mane and tail still seemed to interest her. I don't know too much about her 'liking' him, but I guess it wouldn't be a stretch." Twilight said. It was clear by her tone that she had probably never given it much thought. So James asked the next question on his mind.

"So does that mean this kinda thing happens a lot? Like humans who become ponies... Any of them ever get into a relationship with any natural ponies?"

"Well yes, I suppose there have been a few instances. Why do you ask?" Twilight had tilted her head at him, clearly becoming interested. James could only blush in embarrassment at her questioning look.

"J-just curios is all! Anyway, I'd better get going before the place closes! See ya!" He said before plopping on his helmet and zipping off. Twilight had been too stunned by his sudden eagerness to depart for her to say anything more. So instead, she had simply watched him ride away.

What an interesting human, Twilight thought to herself as she turned to walk back toward the center. She really hoped he became a unicorn. She bet he'd be pretty handsome one too...

"That's odd..." She said to herself, while stopping dead in her tracks. "Where did THAT thought come from?"

* * *

A while later, James had finally found a place that would serve his goal.

He still felt bad about it of course. Especially with all he had learned about the ponies, and their way of life from all his new pony friends.

But this was just something he enjoyed doing, and it really was the last time he'd ever get to do it. James just hoped none of them ever found out about this. He couldn't imagine how he'd face Twilight, let ALONE Fluttershy...

Parking his bike in one of the empty parking spots for the restaurant. James walked into Long Horn Steakhouse, and ordered the largest steak they had.

Tidbits:

Okay this ‘Sidelines’ reference is one that’s probably going to get a Penalty card called on me. ^^;

-Yes the ‘Uncle Jack’ with a friend Michael, is indeed the same Jack and Michael from Sidelines. I really pondered about not doing that, as I’m pretty much connecting James to a character from that fic, but in the end I figured this is basically an ‘Alternate Universe’ kinda deal anyway, and just said screw it.

I already knew this wouldn’t be ‘In Cannon’ with either the original fic, or Sidelines. So hopefully the author of Sidelines won’t kill me if they ever read this. ^^;

But dang it, I wanted James to have that motorcycle, and it was just too perfect!

-Midnight Shadow. This is indeed the same Midnight Shadow from ‘Midnight’s Tale’ :P I was even able to give a reason for him being in town thanks to my having finished reading the story. ^_^

-The line Applejack says with the food is pretty much word for word, what she says in Ticket Master. I thought it’d be cute...

-Bloody Roar 5. God I wish.

-Also, I forgot to mention this last chapter. The comment Twilight makes about some people not wanting to become ponies, but giving in for reasons like ‘Reuniting with a wife’ is a loose reference to ‘The Conversion Bureau: Pride’

Prelude and Chapter 1: Arrival

Chapter 2: Encounters

Chapter 3: Inspired

Chapter 4: Rose

Chapter 5: Confiding

Chapter 6: Decision

Chapter 7: Incident

The next morning found James awake long before Pinkie Pie ever got on the intercom. He was pleasantly surprised to find he had gotten any sleep at all the previous night. In just a few more minutes, he'd be walking through two doors that would mark the very END of his time as a human for the rest of his life.

Any challenges he faced beyond that would be as a pony.

"Good morning campers!" James heard Pinkie's voice call over the intercom at last. Her words blurred into the background as he gathered up his courage and walked through the door.  Entering the hallway just in time to hear her call his name for ponification.

It was a bit of a shock, but not unwanted, for him to find Twilight with Spike upon her back waiting for him outside his door. Neither one had to say a thing. With a simple smile, James could see both of their intensions. They had wanted to walk with him in support. His own smile told them how much he appreciated it.

Right after that, they began to walk down the hall, toward the very same doors he knew Rose had disappeared behind just twenty four hours ago.

Much like when Rose had gone before him, his neighbors seemed to know that he too was feeling nervous about this ordeal. Without any words, they stood off to the sides of the hall, smiling at him as he went by. James took just enough time to give Rose and Wing Berry a hug, as the only ones to approach him. With one last smile to them both, so they could see he was fine, he continued to follow Twilight to their final destination.

James couldn't describe how he felt as he walked through those large double doors marked 'Authorized Personal Only' in their large red letters. His feelings had long gone numb before then. The only thing that got any reaction out of him at all actually, was the odd choice of colors for this particular section of the center.

Being what they did here, he had actually expected stark white. But all around him he could see various purples, along with other random colors. While these did look rather glamorous and lovely, it hardly seemed like the kind of colors one would want in a place that resembled a hospital. James took the time to spare a questioning look at Twilight who sighed showing him he wasn't the first to give it. Twilight's answer was but one name:

"Rarity" She said. James' questioning gaze vanished. That made more sense then he cared to admit.

"Come in! Come in!" Rarity said as James walked into a small room that resembled more of a Doctor's Office then anything else. On one side he could see a padded bench for him to lie down upon, a cup full of some strange purplish liquid sitting next to it. James could only guess what he was expected to do.

"Don't you just love the new look?" Rarity was saying as he made his way over to the bench. "A MUCH better improvement if you ask me. But I suppose that's not what's important right now." She pranced over to a table with various instruments set upon it.

James didn't know what half of them were of course, but then again he wasn't a doctor. He also had to admit that seeing Rarity in a small doctor's coat looked rather funny, though she did seem to 'make it her own' somehow.

"What's important is that we make you the handsome pony I know you'll be!" Rarity practically sang as she picked up a few typical doctor's tools from the table with her magic.

"Now if you'll strip to at least your underwear deary, we can get started!"

James had to admit that not only with Rarity, but both Twilight and Spike watching him do this. Well he felt just a bit uncomfortable undressing in that way.

Still, it was something that would have to be done. He almost asked if Twilight and Spike would wait outside for him, thinking to use the excuse that he'd feel better about stripping if there were less people watching. The only problem with that was, truth be told, he really did feel better with the two of them there for support.

Once James had finally finished stripping, Rarity began to check various parts of his body using her tools. It was all typical doctor stuff he had done with many human doctors before this, so it didn't really bother him. Though he was still blushing at the fact that both Rarity and Twilight were seeing him in only his underpants though.

Ponies they may be, but he could still technically call them girls. In fact in a few moments he would be able to date one of them if they wanted to date him back. The odd thought only helped in making him feel even more awkward then he already had.

After what seemed like an hour, but was actually barely a couple of minutes, Rarity spoke again.

"Now if you would please lie down and drink what's in the cup located to your right. We'll begin the process and all these unpleasant headaches you've been having will be a thing of the past!"

James really hoped that was true.

Reaching over to pick up the cup, he looked into the thick purple liquid. It smelled oddly of lilies, at least so he thought. James couldn't remember the if he'd ever smelled one before to compare. Gazing down into the cup, his sister's words floated into his mind once more. The lesson he had learned when they had plunged into that lake giving him strength.

Better to dive right in, then agonize over it slowly.

"Here goes!" James said, right before downing the liquid. He hadn't really meant to say anything before he did, but had been unable to help himself.  Almost instantly he could feel his body begin to get heavy. His consciousness fading into a peaceful sleep. James only slightly noticed as the needle to the syringe containing the activator chemical pierced his arm...

Then his entire body exploded into a fiery pain. It was worse then anything he had ever felt in his life. The headache he had been suppressing, spiked to an all time high. Making it feel as if his head had cracked open right that moment.

James began screaming almost immediately, startling everyone in the room. In his pain, he was unable to hear Twilight screaming as well. Asking him what was wrong. Rarity had begun trying to use her magic to hold him down, but for whatever reason it refused to stick. Spike had just begun panicking blindly.

James screamed again and again, the feeling of his skin crawling, bringing with it a whole new level of panic and fear. His skin was flushed, His hair cycling through a weird assortment of colors. Finally the very magic in the chemicals that were suppose to aid and speed up the process for ponification, were instead going wild. Whipping around his body in the form of electric like bolts of lightish blue energy.

Unable to cope with what was happening, James had leaped off the bench before he began to pound upon the wall like a mad man.  The only thing he had on his mind was escape. He had to get out of there. He had to get as far away as possible! He had to-

The pain in his head exploded, causing him to drop to his knees while he clutched his head.

"AHHH- RAAAAAAAAAHH- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" James screamed to the heavens. His thoughts and actions lost in the pain. The magical energy intensified, causing his entire form to be enveloped in it's light. Twilight and the others had to shield their eyes as the brightness began to become too much for their eyes to bear.

The phenomenon finally ended when in one last incredible flash of light. James Vanished. The scorched blackened tiles where he had been kneeling were the only evidence of him having ever been there.

The rest of the day had been HELL for the center.

* * *

The Next Day:

Ponification had been postponed this day. Of course the general public didn't know the 'real' reason why. They only knew what the center had told them.

Twilight knew that they'd have to start the ponifications again the very next day, regardless of what had happened. Otherwise people would begin to suspect something was up. It had taken a lot of work and luck for the people not to suspect anything even now.

Twilight had been putting off since yesterday, what she was about to do now. Even now, it would take everything she had to do it. But they couldn't think of any alternative. They had to lie to Rose.

Lie. Twilight hated that word. She hated having to lie to everyone, but what choice did they have?

What she especially hated  to do was lie to Rose. Twilight had to tell the young filly that James was fine. That he'd be prancing around as his new pony self anytime now.

But the truth was that James wasn't fine. He was gone. There had been no signs of him after the incident. Nopony or person had seen or heard anything from him since yesterday.

He was simply gone.

None of them had even the slightest clue to what had happened to James. Nor could they even begin to piece together what may have caused it. Even worse, is they now had a human who had walked into the ponification room, but not back out.

Thankfully, while rare, there had been cases in the past where a newly ponified human had slipped and crashed a bit more dangerously then most, resulting in an early injury. In those cases, the pony in question would be transferred to a small 'emergency' room within the same back section of the complex. Allowing the staff to treat their wounds.

It was Rarity who had to be the one to go out and inform everyone about 'what happened'. Twilight herself had been too stunned to even move, for several moments afterward. Too confused on what she had just seen to pull her mind together.

But now she was forcing herself to perform the task at hand. If the people got news that a terrible thing had just happened to someone about to be ponified. The result would be mass panic.

No doubt the HLF would have a field day tearing into their centers after that. All ponification would most likely be halted for an indefinite time. If to ever start back up again at all. But the worse of all, would be the possible riots that could be caused by those humans who suddenly found themselves to afraid of the process.

Heck, Twilight couldn't help but remember that SHE was afraid. She had just seen her friend explode into light. If she hadn't been so keen at organizing herself and her workload while under pressure. She doubt she'd have been able to function this last day.

So far there had been no leads on what may have happened, and Twilight had a sick feeling that wasn't going to change anytime soon. In the mean time everypony had to do their best to insure riots and panic did not break out, and that meant that Wing Berry and Rose would have to be sent to Equstria for a little while. There wasn't any way they could keep the truth from Rose for long, and they couldn't trust Wing Berry not to pass on the truth to her own sister. So the only option was to get them out of harm's way.

Wing Berry had already been informed that the weather pegasai needed some extra hooves to go around, and that she had been drafted from the center to help pad their forces.

Twilight knew that Rose Feather would never leave without saying goodbye to James though, and that's why she was staring into the young fillies eyes at this very moment.

Gathering herself up the best she could. Twilight spoke:

"Hello Rose, are you ready to see Equestria?" Her tone and voice sounded forced, but it was the best she could muster.

"You okay Twilight?" Wing Berry asked looking concerned, obviously picking up on her strange behavior. Twilight did her best to smile.

"Oh I'm just a bit stressed at trying to fix all the broken equipment from yesterday's incident" She said. Had she been feeling better, she may have managed a fake laugh, but her insides felt to hallow to allow that.

"Is James going to be okay?" Rose asked, staring right up at her with those innocent blue eyes.

It took everything Twilight had not to cry.

"Oh he'll be fine I'm sure," She said , amazed at her own ability to keep her voice from cracking. "He's asleep right now. The nurse ponies still won't allow him visitors, but I managed to get to see him as one of the center heads. I told him the news of your leaving. He said he's sad he can't say goodbye to you personally, but he told me to let you know that he's going to head straight to Equestria himself to see you when he's better." Twilight's heart nearly broke as she watched the smile break out on Rose's face.

Don't believe me! She screamed in her head. Despite that, she kept her face still. It's a lie! I'm lying to you!

"I wish I could see him, but I understand he's hurt. I can't believe he tripped as a pony! He must feel so silly!" Twilight's mask almost cracked. Thankfully, both Rose and Wing Berry were buying her story. Twilight knew then that even if she lived as long as her mentor Princess Celestia. She would NEVER be able to figure out how she pulled this off.

"Yeah he feels pretty silly..." Twilight said faintly. She was going to have to leave soon. This entire conversation was driving her mad.

"I really want to know what pony he is, but I want him to tell me himself! So instead!" Rose paused so she could reach onto her back where her stuffed panda Bamboo had been sitting.

"I want you to give him Bamboo. To keep him company! He can give him back when he comes to Equestria! Also tell him I'll be waiting to see which pony he is then! Make him promise for me okay?"

"I-I will..." Twilight said taking the stuffed toy. Her legs had started to shake ever so slightly while she watched the two pegasai trot away. She had been far too drained from the task of lying to them to be able to form a plan for the stuffed toy, and so had simply accepted it. She could always come up with something later.

She didn't remember going to her room. She didn't even remember leaving that spot. But the fact she was staring at the four walls she saw every night proved that at some point she had.

Twilight looked around her room blankly, being unable to focus on anything. Spike wasn't there, her mind vaguely recalling that he'd be in the main office helping everypony else out in trying to discover what went wrong yesterday. She knew she should be helping them. But for some reason, she just couldn't make her body move back out the door.

Instead, Twilight used her magic to block the door with her wedge for privacy. Moving to lay upon her bed while clutching the stuffed toy Bamboo. She mulled over the events of yesterday. Then on to all the events that had happened in the past couple of days.

Twilight was a very strong pony. She had been through, and come out on top, of a lot of challenges. But loosing a friend was something she he never been prepared for.

Thankful for the darkness in her room. Twilight finally let herself cry.

* * *

The next day's ponification went off without a hitch. So did the next one and the one after that. Despite the apparent clear sailing, they still couldn't find any information on what had happened. Absolutely nothing had seemed out of the ordinary. The liquids used to ponify James had checked out perfectly before they had been administered. All the evidence pointed to nothing having been tampered with. Nor had anything been altered. There had been no outside interference at all.

Except it had still happened. They still had one less human, and no pony to show for it.

Twilight had the same thoughts every other pony was having. The Human Liberation Front. It had to be some new plan of theirs. Recent reports had told that the HLF had been unusually quiet recently. This only confirmed what many thought. They had to be planning something. Twilight only feared what that could be.

Worse still, was the fact that many a pony were complaining about the 'shiver' feelings that had been plaguing them for a couple of months now. Saying the sense of dread wouldn't drop from the minds anymore. But who could blame them? Every Pony who worked there knew what happened. The only reason Wing Berry didn't, is because they knew she would tell Rose.

Since the incident, security and the amount of preparation for ponification nearly tripled. Nopony wanted to continue the processes until they knew what had happened with James. But Twilight knew that wasn't an option. Ponification had to continue to keep the publics minds at ease.  The only thing they could do was to insure everything was untainted in order to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.

Except about one and a half weeks later, it did happen again. A human had been given the shot to become a pony and began to scream in pain, much in the same manner James had. Though, Twilight later got reports that the resulting phenomenon was slightly different then what had happened to James. The magic had seemingly resembled flames, instead of the electric look it took when affecting James. From what could be seen, the human didn't appear to burn however, though they too had vanished in an explosion of light soon afterward.

That time had been harder to 'cover up'. Twilight had to use the same trick they had used the time they had transferred a boy named Ethan to Equestria. His Ponification had seemed odd enough, happening at night. The excuse they had given, was actually the truth in his case. Though it worked rather well as a lie this time.

They had said that he had been seen to have a rather high aptitude for his particular pony type, and was requested to leave for Equestia immediately to help with a crisis in the kingdom. The people seemed to accept this answer back then, and it appeared no different now. Some even commenting on how lucky the new pony was for them to go to Equestia so quickly.

The first time the incident happened, Twilight had written a long letter to Princess Celestia, explaining the entire ordeal. Sadly the response she got back was just as confused as she was, but this time Twilight sent a letter asking for the IMMEDIANT halt of all future ponifications until the situation was resolved. Twilight needn't worry, as the letter sent back to her pretty much told her to do just that:

"My Dear Faithful Student Twilight," She could recall Spike reading from the scroll that had been sent mere seconds after Twilight had Spike send her own. "I have heard the reports of similar incidents happening in all our centers all over the world now. I still do not know what is causing them, but fear not. I have sent my sister Luna to gather intelligence on the matter. Until any light is shed on this mystery, you are to tell the humans that a terrible natural disaster has interfered with our shipment of the ponification liquid. Therefore the recent batches have been ruined and we'll need time to produce another batch for distributation. You are also to inform everyone and pony that the center is out of any backup supplies. I've already made the arrangements to have your storage house's 'emptied'. Signed, Your Proud Mentor: Princess Celestia."

Twilight could scarcely remember Spike dropping the scroll soon afterward in shock. He was feeling the same thing she was at one of the revelations in that letter...

This had been happening to EVERY center!

Tidbits:

-The ‘decorations’ of Rarities. This is yet another reference to Sidelines. Once I read the conversation between Rarity and Twilight about the ‘colors’ of the back area. This one pretty much HAD to happen. XD

-Ethan. This is a reference to the actual MAIN story this fic is a spin-off of!. Ethan is the main character of that story, and pretty much left the center just as described.

Chapter 8: Reflection

Twilight flipped through the files laid out on the desk with fierce concentration. It may have been the third time she had looked through these, but there had to be something, anything that would help explain what had been taking place all over the place, in each and every Ponification center.

It had been weeks since the first incident had occurred. Weeks since she had seen her friend James vaporize in some fancy lightshow. Yet no matter what Twilight, or anypony else did. There just wasn't anything to explain just what had happened. No alterations had been found in the traces of chemicals left over from what had been used to begin James' ponification.

The magic had been perfect, there had been no tampering with anything that James had come into contact with that they could find. He hadn't even eaten beforehand, which threw out any theories of possible food taint, out the window. The only lead they had was where he had gone the previous night, but that too had been proven negative. Princess Luna sent her own student to check it out. Though they wouldn't tell Twilight what James had eaten that night, they confirmed that it too had been clean of any tampering.

"It just doesn't make sense!" Twilight screamed to herself.

"Sounds like ya ain't having any o luck with them papers there Twi" A voice said behind her. She jumped, turning to see Applejack standing in the doorway. Twilight hadn't even heard her friend trot up.

"I'm afraid you're right Applejack. No matter how many times I go over the information we have on these people, I just can't find anything that explains what happened to them, or WHY it happened to them in the first place!" Twilight slammed the papers down on the desk with a push of her magic She was tired and she was frustrated.

But the thing that bothered her most of all was that she was clueless. Clueless as to what had taken her friend from her.

"Simmer down there Sally." Applejack said gently. Before trotting up beside her friend. She looked Twilight straight in the eyes with that 'no nonsense' look of hers.

"I know yer feeling mighty flustered bout this whole thing-a-majig. But you ain't gonna make any progress like that!"

Twilight sighed as she struggled to get her feelings back under control. She was usually a lot more organized and collected then this. Guess loosing a friend can be hard on anyone.

"I know AJ, and you're right, but I can't help but feel responsible. I lead him right into that room. I was right there watching it happen, and I couldn't do anything to help... I...I just..." The words failed to continue.

"I know sugercube. I know." Applejack said while looking at the files upon the desk herself. "We all feel mighty terrible over it. We all feel like we failed..."

Applejack hung her head ever so slightly before lifting it up with a determined look upon her face.

"But you can bet your betsy we'll find what happened! Ya all can quote me on that!"

"I hope you're right AJ. I really do..."

The faces of each and every human in those files flashed through Twilight's mind. James's picture standing out especially. Eleven of them. Eleven people in total.

They were eleven people who had just vanished without a trace. Nothing to explain why, or to connect them with one another. The entire thing was a mystery.

"You find anything with that ol' medical file on that one human?" Applejack asked. Sadly, Twilight had to shake her head no.

"While it is stated on that person's file about him only becoming a pony due to a health problem, it was clearly stated that the problem was due to stomach ulcers. Even more, his medical records proved that he had been suffering from them for a long time." Twilight had been shuffling through the files with her magic, attempting to find the exact file in question. When she finally had found it, she opened it to the corresponding page.

"See there?" Twilight said, while manipulating a pencil with magic in order to point at the text that stated the person's medical stats. "It says right here that he had been suffering from this problem since a child. The only other person we know for certian to go through with ponification due to a health problem is James. But his were just headaches, and there appeared to be nothing wrong with him whenever HE had a checkup! The facts just don't connect!"

"It does seem like a mighty bit of a stretch there..." Applejack said rubbing her chin with a hoof.

"What if ya suppose that there HLF group got to them before us? Maybe what ever those scoundrels did just sick-a-fied them differently or what not?" Again Twilight had to shake her head.

"It would be a sound theory, but James had told me he had been dealing with those headaches for months. I just can't see any sort of chemical being able to stay in the human body for that long without killing them, and that still leaves the problem of the other person having the ulcers since a child!" She trotted over to the window to gaze out across the grounds. She could hear Applejack reply behind her rather sheepishly.

"Oh right, guess that doesn't make any ol' sense huh?" Twilight couldn't see her friend, but she had a feeling the orange pony was blushing.

"Besides," Twilight began, "If it was the HLF, then why haven't they said anything yet? All this work and then not take advantage of the situation? That doesn't add up either. No matter what theories I go through in my head, I keep coming to a brick wall!" She turned again to trot back over to the desk.

"There has to be something I'm missing Applejack. Something that connects all these dots. I simply can't believe that James died for no reason!" Twilight began to scan the files again, before Applejack slammed her hoof upon them, startling her into looking up at the pony.

"Now don't you go sprouting off nonsense like that now!" Applejack said forcefully, "Nopony may know what went down in that room, but we sure as hay don't know it killed any of them folk!"

"But AJ, what else-" Twilight tried to say, but Applejack was having none of it.

"But nothing missy! We didn't give up hope on you when we was all fighting Nightmare Moon in those ruins, so don't you go loosing hope on him! I told ya we'd find out what happened! Til then I say we keep our heads up! Whadda say there Twi? You're not calling me a liar on us solving this thingy now are ya?"

The look Applejack gave her then was that same stubborn look she always gave when determined to do something. At times it could prove a hassle, like the time she didn't want to admit that trying to Applebuck the entire Sweet Apple Aches orchid was too much for her.

But at other times, such as this one, it was the look of a dependable friend. The look that told you to keep trying until you made it happen. No matter what the obstacles. Twilight didn't realize just how much she had needed that look then.

"Call the pony a liar, who stands for the Element of Honesty herself? I'd never dream of it AJ." They laughed after that, feeling better then either had in a while.

It did feel good to laugh. Even if her heart was still in pain. Still, it had been such a long time since she had shared a moment like this with one of her friends. Twilight realized with a groan that she had been doing nothing but pour herself into the task of finding information, without enough breaks in-between. If she kept this up she'd burn herself out.

"Thanks Applejack. I guess I should relax a bit more. It may take us several more weeks, but we have to find the answer eventually!"

"That's the sprit Twi! But don't work yerself too hard now. You taught me that the hard way!" They laughed again at the memories. Applejack had tried so hard to do the job of Applebucking herself, that she had caused all sorts of trouble in Ponyville. Perhaps Twilight take heed and get some time to think away from the center for once.

"I think you're right Applejack. I suppose a good trot will do me wonders right now. Can you hold things down while I'm gone?" The orange pony nodded.

"Shoot, not much to hold down what with all the ponying on the hold like this. Which reminds me there. Folks are starting to whisper bout that. May need to do something soon." Twilight nodded as well.

"I can 't say I blame them. It's been at least a couple of weeks since we issued the news of the serum being out. Anybody would think something is up with this long a delay. I only hope we can figure things out before the situation gets out of hand." Twilight sighed as she thought of all the possible things that could happen if nothing was done soon. None of them were appealing in the slightest.

The only option they seemed to have as a solution, was an offer from Princess Luna herself to oversee any ponifications that were made. Twilight was certain it had the possibility of stopping whatever had been happening completely. But even if it didn't,  Princess Luna should be able to detect what went gone wrong immediately if it happened..

The only problem with that course of action is that it required a possible human sacrifice. Princess Luna would no doubt be able to see why the human would react in such a way, but there wasn't any certainly in the Princess being able to STOP it from happening.

Nopony was willing to take that chance.

"Anyway, don't you go getting yer tail in a knot over what's going on round here. Go relax a bit there. Ya probably need it more then the rest of us knowing how much YOU study!" Applejack said playfully. Twilight smiled as her thoughts came back to the present. She couldn't even remember the last time she had gone for one of her walks.

"Will do AJ, let everypony know where I'm going okay? I don't want them worrying"

Applejack promised to spread the word and ushered her out of the office.

* * *

Despite Applejack managing to lighten Twilight's mood, the very thought of everything that had been happening still weighed heavily on her mind. The scene where James had... Vanished threatened to come to the front of her memories. Grimacing, Twilight pushed it once more to the back of her mind.

She had seen that same thing play over and over again in her nightmares many nights since. Each and every time she had been unable to do anything to stop it...

How was it that this human would not leave her mind? Twilight knew he was a friend, and the loss of that friend had stung. But she just couldn't help but feel that something was off about the whole thing. It just seemed to hurt a little more then she had expected.

Could it really be this terrible to loose a friend? She had only known him for three days! How would it feel if she lost anypony else? What would she feel if it was Applejack next? Or Spike?

Twilight had to shake the unpleasant thoughts from her head. There was nothing to be gained from dwelling over things like that. With luck she'd never have to worry about it.

But still... When would this ache in her heart go away?

Twilight had been walking through the parking lot of the center, on her way into town when she came face to face with another irritating object. Something that once more forced her thoughts down a path to her missing friend. Was life just laughing at her?!

Directly before Twilight sat a plain white motorcycle. It had long been abandoned, but that's not the reason it stood out. The problem was that it reminded her of what still lay in the storage unit, near the back of the center.

About a week ago, Twilight had pondered over what she should do with the motorbike James had left locked away. She had no thoughts of throwing it away of course, she could never do that to something he had treasured so much, but she also didn't know how long they could keep it in there.

A faint smile tugged at her lips as she recalled part of a conversation she had been having with James during their picnic...

"So did you enjoy your ride?" She remembered asking James while she ate. James had been sitting there, looking perfectly fine then. Having no way of knowing the horrible fate that awaited him the next morning. In fact he had been rather enjoying the apple tart he had picked up.

"Oh it was great! First time I've been able to really let loose with that bike too!" He had said after swallowing a bite of the tart, "I'm sure going to miss riding her..."

Twilight remembered the look in his eyes at that moment. Despite the sorrow at loosing something that was apparently precious to him, she could see he had no regrets about his decision.

No regrets...

"What are you going to do with that thing anyway?" Twilight remembered Spike asking. The answer James had given, along with the following dialogue almost managed to bring a smile to her face even now.

"Well, thanks to the center I can keep it in there for a while. Least till I figure out how to ship it to Ponyville."

"You're going to take it with you?" Spike had asked surprised.

"That thing was a gift! Of course It's coming with me!"

"But you won't be able to-" Spike had begun before James had cut him off.

"It's COMING with me." He had said through gritted teeth.

Twilight remembered the arguments that had followed, trying to get James to 'See Reason' about taking the bike, but he had refused to budge on the subject.

With a sigh, Twilight turned her thoughts from the locked away bike. She still had plenty of time to figure out what to do with it. Right now she needed to think about something other then James and the mystery of the incidents.

Try as she might though, Twilight couldn't get the thoughts from her head completely. Even her walk didn't seem to help her any. It only managed to make her think of other unpleasant memories. Such as the human who had pointed out to her what the empty buildings meant in the first place.

Finally, after trying so unsuccessfully to forget the past, she found her way to an elementary school, where she had decided to pause for a rest...

It was here that she had felt the shiver so much stronger then it had ever been before.         It was here she saw the snake construct, designed for children's play, spring to life by the aid of the strange shadows.

It was here that she screamed at the unnatural monster that was even now hissing at her in a way that was right out of a nightmare.

Then with a heavy heart. She realized it was here she was probably going to die.

Tidbits:

-Princess Luna’s student. Yay! Midnight Shadow did something in my story! XD Even if it was off handily mentioned.

-’They Were Eleven’ Okay this is a stupid reference I put in there, but I couldn’t help myself. The entire reason there are eleven cases is because I decided to ‘allude’ to one of my favorite movies of all time. ‘They Were 11’ which is also why I wrote the sentence in that way. Just so I could put ‘They Were Eleven’ in the story.

Yes I’m a silly person. Shut up!

Chapter 9: Emergence

"Twilight! Hey Twilight! Run!" Twilight heard Spike call suddenly from above. Dimly, she looked up to see the baby dragon riding upon the back of Rainbow Dash who was zipping down from the sky at that very moment.. The blue pegasus continued to zip straight in front of the thing's face, hoping to distract it from Twilight. Fortunately the plan worked giving Twilight just enough time for her to gather herself together and run down the field away from the THING that could only hiss in annoyance.

Rainbow Dash judged her timing, before grabbing the perfect moment to fly in and give a nice hard buck to the things face. Well, if you could really call the fake snake head it's face. The force of her buck knocked the head back just long enough to allow her time to dash away, and back toward Twilight.

Grabbing her the best she could with her front hooves, Rainbow flew, not only as fast, but as steady as she could. Trying her best to put as much distance between them, and the snake as she could. Even the great Rainbow Dash wasn't about to hang around and fight THIS thing. Especially not when her friend was in danger.

"D-Dash?" Twilight stammered as she tried to remain still enough so Rainbow didn't drop her. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you from that... that THING!" Rainbow Dash said in a 'What the hell does it LOOK like I'm doing' manner of speaking. Twilight just scolded at the tone.

"No I meant-" Before she could finish, something wiry and black suddenly shot up from the ground around them. Tangling them in a what felt vaguely like spider webs. Glancing around frantically, Twilight could see that that some of the shadows had shot themselves out of the ground, pinning them in place. She began to struggle blindly. Whatever these shadows were, their touch felt like they were burning her, though her mind had just enough sense left to tell her that no burn marks were appearing on her skin.

The burning sensation wasn't the only thing their touch seemed to afflict. Thoughts of panic, along with a most paralyzing fear seemed to flood into her mind. Their texture was slimy, feeling similar to what the humans would call oil. They continued to wrap themselves around her body. Their entire essence felt like rot.

Twilight could just barely make out both Spike and Rainbow Dash off to the side, who were struggling just as hard as she herself was. Both being brought to the same unnatural panic and fear. Both unable to free themselves as well.

"Ugh! What is this stuff!? I-I can't get it off!" Twilight heard Rainbow scream.  She couldn't ever remember seeing Rainbow Dash sounding so scared before. Not even during the time she was about to perform for that flyer's competition in Cloudsdale. Whatever these shadow things were, they were by far the most horrible things she had ever encountered. Well, except for maybe the snake they had created...

Speaking of the snake, it had proven to be a lot faster then they thought, as it was already closing in on them. Reaching it's mouth out to swallow them whole. The idea of trying to cast a spell to save them, attempted only briefly to break through the walls of panic the shadows were forcing upon her, before the same panic swallowed it back up. Twilight had been about to scream for the second time that day when a rather odd sound penetrated the unnatural feelings that had invaded her mind.

'CLANG'

Clang? Twilight thought, being momentarily broken out of her panic. Both ponies and baby dragon looked to the source of the sound to see something that appeared to be a giant coin flipping in the air. The Snake creature's head flying back, a small dent telling them that this 'coin' had just impacted upon it's forehead, before it began to flip in the air as it was now.

With a few more flips, the thing crashed upon the earth between them and the snake creature. Finally  allowing them to identify the strange object that had just saved their lives.

It was a manhole cover.

Twilight blinked. She had heard from a few humans about how heavy those things were. What could have thrown it so fast that, they hadn't even noticed it till AFTER it had hit the creature? Twilight remembered that the unicorn once named Barry, whom she had trained under her wing for a short while was rather good at flinging things. Perhaps he come to the human world as well? Arriving just now as reinforcements? The theory had too many holes in it for her liking. But try as she might, she couldn't twist her head around to see where the cover had come from, or what might have thrown it. The shadows still holding them put.

"Who... who IS that?" She heard Spike say from his spot. Being the only one of the three who was able to see behind them. Twilight had been about to yell at him to clarify just what he meant when she heard a very strange, and yet familiar, sound coming from the same direction the manhole cover had.

It didn't take Twilight long to recognize the sound of a motorcycle. At that same moment she placed the sound, the shadows seemed to shake. It was almost as if they were afraid or angry for some reason. Which ever it was, it allowed Twilight enough of a pull to tear her head free of the binding. Allowing her the movement she needed to get a good look herself.

There in the distance, coming toward them rather quickly, was a white motorcycle. The same one she had passed in the parking lot to the center before beginning her walk. The rider was too hidden by the windshield this model of bike had for her to make out who it was, other then they were a human, and young looking at that.

Though there was one thing that stood out to her. The hair of this person matched the same color as the cycle itself almost perfectly.

That shouldn't be possible! Twilight thought to herself. Humans that young didn't HAVE white hair.

Before the snake creature had been given enough time for it to recover from the manhole attack, the person riding the motorbike had come close to where Twilight was pinned down with Rainbow Dash and Spike. They watched as this human lowered his body to the bike before lifting himself up, and backward, as if he was trying to cause the bike to pop a wheelie.

Which was incredibly surprising to all watching when the bike didn't just pop a wheelie, but actually flew up into the air. The front of the bike continued to move upward, and forward, as both man and machine lifted into the very air. Until finally, the bike was directly in front of the person. The guy long having dismounted from the thing, so to allow it to get into its position in front of him.

Then, while still gripping the handle bars, he continued the impossible by twisting his body around to the left, dragging the bike along with him. Twilight watched stunned as this human pulled the motorbike in thin air, completely around his body, only to allow himself enough momentum so he could throw the thing directly at the snake creature's head.

Twilight had thought that was crazy enough, but then the human did something even crazier. He didn't drop to the ground after he had thrown the bike at the snake. Instead, he simply continued to float there, as if time had slowed down, allowing his drop to hang in the air much longer then it should.

A pale lightish blue glow seemed to emit from his body as he did this. It became very clear, that only his decent to the ground had been slowed, as the next thing he did was quickly yank two pistols from their hostlers on both sides of him, to aim them directly in front of himself. His arms crossed and pistols sideways in a position that looked cool, but should by all means be impractical to actually use.

Spike gasped as he recognized those pistols. One was a pure white, and the other a deep black. He couldn't see they weren't the same type as in the game, nor did they really have the same design, but the effect was good enough that the image this human was obviously trying to create had been picked up upon. Spike could even see this man wore a sword also much like the one in the game. Though it too needed tweaks to be perfect, again the effect was good enough.

"D-Dante?" Spike asked completely befuddled. The man smiled.

"Time to go to work boys!" He spoke to his guns before firing off a rapid succession of shots at the bike before him. If Twilight's talent hadn't been for magic, she may have never noticed that the 'bullets' were actually highly concentrated magical energy that this man was somehow channeling through his guns.

Instead of exploding instantly, the bike took the pounding of the magic bullets, causing it to propel itself toward the snake creature's head. It wasn't until the second the bike impacted upon the head, that it finally exploded in a massive fireball. Obliterating the construct head of the snake completely.

The creature screamed in what Twilight hoped was pain, before it collapsed upon the ground. It was then the man finally fell at normal speed from the air. As he fell however,  he reached behind him to his back in order to pull out his sword. With one fluid motion, the man spun himself in the air while falling, bringing the sword around in a quick fluid slashing motion just before he impacted upon the ground. Landing directly between them and the snake.

Twilight had thought for a moment that he was going to kill her and her friends as well. For his sword slash had seemed to be aimed at the three of them, only for her to discover that his place of landing was actually too far away for his sword to reach them. His swing coming up rather short of their position.

Instead, the force of the attack, ended up creating a shock wave of what appeared to be magically enhanced wind. Which in turn completely shattered the shadows pinning them down.

Finally, the man spun his sword in a rather flashy manner with the hand he was gripping it with, before slamming the blade into the dirt between them. With a smile, the man then looked them over.

Twilight couldn't help but feel she knew this human for some reason. He looked so familiar and yet so different then anyone she could recall. She never knew anyone with white hair, and now that he was standing before her, she could see his muscle tone was that of someone who was no slacker to working out. He was wearing a pair of brown jeans, and a black shirt. She had only seen Spike and James play the game a few times, but from what she could remember of this 'Dante' person, this guy resembled him rather well. But she couldn't be staring at a videogame character could she? That was impossible right?!

"You have NO idea how glad I am to see you all!" The man finally said with sorrow clearly in his voice, "God I wish I had figured everything out sooner! I can't imagine what you must have all thought! I doubt I'll ever be able to say sorry enough..."

All three of them gasped at the sound of his voice, and manner of which he spoke. Even Rainbow Dash who had only met the guy a couple of times.

Twilight, on the other hand, could scarcely believe her eyes. There was no way... Could this really be him? What had happened to him if it was?

"J-James?" She asked simply. The man's smile grew wider.

"Sorry if I worried you Twilight. Please don't hate me, but these last few weeks have been rather chaotic for the both of us I'm sure..." James said.

It WAS him! He was ALIVE! But what happened to him? What was going on now?

"Now THAT is twenty percent cooler!" Rainbow Dash said just then while shaking off the effects of the shadow appendages. James merely shook his head, before anything else could be said or done.

"It would be if the thing were actually dead. I doubt I stunned it for long. You all need to run, NOW!" He screamed, spinning his body back around to face where the snake creature had fallen. James had never let go of the sword he had stuck in the dirt. As soon as he had shouted for them to run, he had ripped the blade back out of the earth before swinging it with his body's momentum in order to throw another gust of enhanced wind at the creature. Which, had just moments before, attempted to strike James down. Twilight had never seen something move so fast before! If James had been even a second off, he would most likely have been killed.

She couldn't loose him again. A spell already charging.

The snake creature had re-grown its head via the very shadows that made up it's body. Now, instead of a physical thing to look at, it's head was a pure blackish red blob. It's eyes being orbs of piercing purple light. Twilight had thought it looked frightening when it had the fake head, but this was even worse. She couldn't exactly tell how she knew it was opening a 'mouth' but it was clear enough for her to know that it wasn't down for the count yet.

Twilight took that moment to unleash the spell she had been casting. The second she released the power, a large bolt of lightning, the same color as her normal magic, fired out of her horn like a bullet to impact upon the creature's face. It was one of the very few offensive spells she had forced herself to learn once she had seen how dangerous the human world could be. The bolt was also the strongest she had in her arsenal, and it showed. Causing the thing to flip backward in much the same manner it had when the bike had exploded upon it.

"Twilight, what are you doing!?" James cried, turning to face her. His expression that of worry. It was wiped off his face the moment he saw Twilight's own expression. That of borderline fury.

"You arrive weeks after I watch what I thought was your death and tell me to run off as soon as I see you again?  I'm staying here!" She shouted. The tone she used was dead set on not taking 'No' for an answer. Not that James didn't try.

"But the danger-"

"I don't care! I can't watch from the sidelines as you vanish from my life again!" She interrupted. James was stunned by her words. He couldn't believe his disappearance had affected her that much. Still, that didn't mean he wanted to see her vanish from his life again either. He was about to make another protest when the snake creature solved their problem for them.

"Nooooooo booooody leaaaaaaaaavesssss!" It hissed before firing a beam of purplish energy at the ground behind them. With the beam firing like a laser, the creature swung it's head from one side to the other. Creating a U shape in the ground around Twilight and James, trapping the two in it's center. As the beam hit the ground a wall of purplish flames sprung to life in it's wake. Making the only means of escape past the snake creature itself. James cursed himself for not reacting quickly enough to prevent it. Not only had he been to concerned about Twilight, but he just didn't have enough control over his magic yet...

"I should know better then to argue with you Twilight..." James said with a bit of a smirk coming back to his lips. Nothing they could do now but fight. He certainly couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather have by his side right now.

"What's with these things?!" Rainbow Dash called from the sky. She had been trying to blow the flames out with the wind created from her wings, but it was as if the flames were independent from the elements around them. They kept burning without so much as a flicker from the gusts being sent their way.

"Rainbow, you should probably get Spike out of here! I can deliver the message for you!" James called up to her. He had been secretly hoping the pegasus's efforts to put out the fires would work. Though he wasn't surprised that it hadn't.

"I'm not leaving my friends either!" Rainbow Dash called back down. Spike yelled his agreement. James just sighed, thinking about how he should have known better. Twilight, on the other hand, had a question:

"What message?" She asked. Spike was the one to answer.

"We were sent here by Princess Luna-" He began.

"Princess Luna is at the center?!" Twilight exclaimed. Spike shook his head.

"No but she will be, we got a call from her saying she had finally found some leads on what had been happening with the ponification failures. She told us that she was coming to our center for an emergency meeting, since ours was the first center to experience the incident!"

"Yeah, and I, being the fastest flyer like EVER, was scouted to go bring you back to the center!" Rainbow Dash added.

"Okay, but did she say anything that explains any of this?!" Twilight screamed pointing her hoof toward James who had since brought his guns back out and was firing as rapidly as he could at the thing to keep it occupied.

"Yeaaah, you got me there." Rainbow admitted shrugging. Spike did the same.

Not liking that answer, but at the same time knowing this was not the time to worry about that, Twilight began to charge another bolt as she watched James fire shot upon shot against the thing. The entire time seeming to do nothing but annoy it. Just as she was nearing the end of her casting, she caught a glimpse of the creature's tail whip out toward him.

Unfortunately, James himself did not, the tail smacking him dead in the chest. He went flying backward past Twilight  to slam into the wall of purplish fire. Instead of flying through the flames, like one would expect, they had acted much like a wall made of bricks rather then flames. The scream James let out after that nearly caused Twilight to loose control of her spell. As it was she just barely kept hold long enough to fire the thing at the creature. Which sadly, had ducked backward before she could hit it, but it did give her enough time to rush to James' side.

"James!" She screamed looking him over. He was bleeding slightly from the mouth, along with his entire body being scorched, even though it had only been his back that had touched the flames. A strange type of, what Twilight could only describe as, negative energy sparking around his body as some sort of after effect. Twilight couldn't see his back from the way he had slummed to the floor, but she had a very good feeling it was not pretty to look at.

"I see you saved us some action James!" Another voice called out suddenly from the other side of the flames. Twilight didn't recognize it, but could tell that whoever spoke was a male. James merely grunted at the sound of the voice before mumbling:

"Took them long enough..."

"Allow us to calm these flames!" Yet another voice shouted after that. A female this time, though Twilight didn't recognize this voice either.

Almost directly after the woman spoke, did a strong blast of wind blow through the area. It appeared in construct, much the same kind of wind that Twilight had seen James fire off twice already. The wind dowsing the purplish flames with ease, when Rainbow Dash's winds had been unable to do anything.

Following along in the winds wake, came a young woman around the same age as James, wearing what appeared to be a black Halloween cloak over a pair of normal feminine attire. Not that Twilight had been given enough time to make anything out. Not even the color of the girl's hair. Twilight did pick up on the fact that this girl was running FAR faster then any human should be able. With everything she had just seen James do though, this hardly phased Twilight.

The woman continued past them, confronting the snake creature itself. She flung her hand out at the creature as soon as she was close enough, a greenish light covering her features as she did so. The effect was identical to the effect James had been doing with that lightish blue light of his.

A seemingly invisible force of power sprung from the woman's hand. The force of the blast was so powerful, that it not only flung the snake creature back several feet, but tore the very ground apart under it as it did so.

While the snake attempted to recover, the woman pulled out what appeared to be a small metal cylinder. Gripping the thing with both or her hands, she began to focus, causing a small bar of green energy to form from one side of the thing. Soon it was sturdy enough to be worthy of being called a blade. The energy it was made of, caused it to hum in a strangely familiar fashion. Once again, it was Spike who first recognized it.

"Isn't that a lightsaber from that human movie of yours?" He asked dumbly. Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing. She didn't know that much about human media, but it was becoming pretty clear to her that these humans were using magic, and not like any magic she'd ever seen. Each one was using it in the same way one could see it used in a videogame or movie. That simply shouldn't be possible!

"You guys okay?" Twilight heard the male who had spoken before the woman say. Looking at this new person, she could see the closest example of magic being used in a way she could understand. This person was a tale male, also around the same age of James. The man's height was about the same six feet James was too. Finally the man had lightest blond hair, and a full beard.  His attire consisting of a white shirt and blue pants.

Floating around him however, covered in a yellowish light, were pieces of paper. Levitation magic was something every unicorn knew and was familiar with. Even so, this particular type of levitation magic seemed off. Instead of the paper bending or wrinkling as they flew about this person's body, each one was stiff and still. Looking more like plates of metal then paper. Upon the guy's back was a plain black backpack, filled with more paper. Another 'plate' of the said sheets, flying out of the backpack just then to join it's kin.

"They're fine. I've seen better days..." James replied as the same lightish blue light he had emitted earlier washed over his body. Twilight was able to recognize what it was doing instantly. Attempting to see his back, made possible only by his leaning forward just then, she could see what was left of the burns healing even as she watched. They were far to healed for her to get a good idea of how bad they must have been, but if they had been worse then what she had just seen, it wasn't any wonder he had screamed as he had.

In a few moments more, the burns were gone, as if they had never been. Twilight had thought that would be the end of it, but was shocked to discover the shirt itself had begun to mend. Making it appear as if nothing had ever happened, when it was all said and done.

"I told you to wait for us! But no! You just had to jump start that bike with your magic and go speeding off before we had a chance to blink!" The newcomer scolded. James sighed.

"And let my friends get killed by a fragmentation? You would have done the same damn thing Derek!" The man 'Derek' sighed.

"I hate it when you're right!" He said turning his attention toward the snake. As he began to concentrate, the yellowish energy around many of his papers flashed, causing the sheets of paper to twist and condense until they resembled long sharp spikes.

With a fling of his hand, Derek flung them at the snake creature's face. The spikes impacted upon the things head, digging straight through the shadowy substance. The creature screaming in pain as they did. Twilight had just enough time to see one of the said 'papers' impact upon a rock still within the snake's body. The spike had embedded itself halfway into the thing.

That was just PAPER... Twilight thought to herself in awe.

"All right spill!" Rainbow Dash said suddenly, fed up with all the new questions that kept popping up with each passing moment. She flew to hover directly above James, allowing her to look right at his face. "What IS that thing!? What happened to you!? How are you doing all this!?" James held up his hand.

"Okay! Okay! Look I can't get into all the details now, but we call that thing a Fragmentation. Many of the shadow fragments bound together. Usually around something that would give it a type of 'physical body'. My friends and I? Well I don't know WHAT you'd call us, but as for how we can do this, it's because we have magic now." He got up after speaking, wobbling slightly as he tried to stand. Without thinking, Twilight rushed to his side so he could place his hand upon her back for support. Surprised, he smiled his thanks to her.

"I'd love to tell you all about it, but we have a battle on our hands." James said before grabbing his side with his free hand in pain. His magic had healed his body, but he could still feel the burn of those flames. It had also taken his body a lot to fix that damage.

"Okay, but why is it attacking us?" This time it was Spike who had asked the question.

"It knew we were coming I guess. My friends and I that is" James responded. This only confused both Rainbow Dash  and Twilight more. Twilight really wished they could just sit down and talk about all the craziness that was happening, but she had a feeling she wasn't going to get that opportunity anytime soon.

"Wait, then why did it attack me?" Twilight asked as the thought came to her mind. "If it was after you, then why didn't it go after you? Why me? How would it even know you were coming in the first place?!"

"Oh it would know because this stuff is from humans to begin with." James said simply. By now he had drawn his sword again, shaking the last painful remnants of the burns from his memory.

"Wait YOU created this thing?" Rainbow Dash yelled, "You humans made THIS?"

The look in James' eyes was painful, "No Dash. We only WISH it was that simple..."

"Look out!" Derek screamed at that moment, bringing a dozen of his papers together in order to form a shield in front of them. The purplish beam the snake creature had fired at that moment smacked against the paper in the same way a stream of water would hit a wall. The papers managed to hold for a few seconds before burning away, but they had done the job. The people behind them were safe.

"Damn, pretty impressive Derek!" James whistled after the attack had stopped. "I have to admit that I was very skeptical when I saw that you were infusing your power into paper, but I can't argue with results. What thing did you say this idea came from?"

"Read or Die." Derek answered happily, "Awesome anime, and this isn't all they can do. One of the Paper sisters in the series can make a bow and arrow with paper. Heck one can make a giant bird that might as well be a dragon!"

"Damn, I'm going to have to watch this show." James said while nodding his head. At this point the woman from earlier ran by them to yell.

"Hello! Guys! Kinda would like some help ya know?!" She called, while shooting a lightning type of energy from her hand at the thing. Managing to slow the creature down a bit. Both guys looked sheepish after that.

"Sorry Kate, on our way!" They both said before charging into battle.

"No WAY am I letting THEM get all the glory!" Rainbow Dash proclaimed before flying off to join them. Meanwhile Twilight was processing the latest thing in bizarreness she had just seen. When the woman had run by, Twilight was finally able to get a good look at her head.

The girl's hair was PINK.

This just kept getting weirder and weirder.

"We need to take this thing out fast!" James called to his companions as they threw various attacks at it. Derek and Kate were focusing on the body. Kate slashing the thing with her lightsaber, while Derek had summoned a large bundle of his paper around his right arm.         Swinging his arm at the thing, the paper acted as a type of 'blade whip' that he used to crave the body of the snake up as best he could. Being a shadow construct however, the wounds were healing as fast as they could make them. It still caused the thing pain though, by evidence of it's nightmarish screams, but it was clear they weren't going to defeat it this way.

Last of all, James had been keeping an eye on the tail. Swinging the sword at the thing whenever it seemed to be trying to whip one of them with it. With each swing, there came a wisp of pure energy that cut through the air, to slice into the creature itself. None of them were attacking the head, since that's where Rainbow Dash had decided to focus her energies.

"Dante can't DOOO that!" Kate teased as she ran by James after he had just fired another 'energy blade' at the creature. James simply flung Kate a glare.

"And Jedi don't have pink hair, no I don't care if you know some obscure book where they did!" He shot back before he back flipped out of the way of the creature's descending tail. He needn't of worried though, as a bolt from Twilight's horn knocked the thing away before it had a chance to get close. No way was she letting it do THAT again. James waved his thanks. Watching the continued efforts though, he was forced to conclude that it simply wasn't enough to stop it. They were going to have to try something drastic...

"This isn't going to work!" James called soon after, "I say it's time for a Delta! Rainbow Dash! Twilight! Think you can keep it in one place for a bit?" Rainbow scoffed

"You KIDDEN me? Just watch!" She said before she began to fly around the thing at impossible speeds. Her rainbow trail had since begun to wrap around the thing, appearing as if a tornado made up of a rainbow had decided to swallow the thing whole. While this did seem to surprise the creature, Twilight knew it would take just one tail swing to stop Rainbow's assault.

Nodding her own approval to James, Twilight began to focus all the power she could on 'holding' the thing still. It took much more effort then she had hoped it would. The magic she was attempting to bind around the creature felt much like the time she had tried to skate on the frozen lake during her first Winter Wrap Up.

Finally though, with enough effort, she could feel the magic taking hold. Preventing the snake from hitting Rainbow Dash. With Rainbow Dash's whirlwind, and her binding magic, the creature was much too busy to even notice what the humans were doing. Twilight wasn't sure how long she could keep this up, and hoped that whatever they had planned was quick.

James and Kate using their swords, with Derek using his paper constructed whip blade, they cut a triangle into the ground around the snake creature. Leaving it in the center. Each of the three then took position at one of the points, placing their weapons back in their holding places. After that was done, all three flung their arms and hands out toward the fragmentation. Channeling their power as they did.

"Alright NOW!" James yelled as his, and his two companion's hands began to glow their individual lights. Slowly, the magic they channeled took on various elements as they energized. James' looking like a ball of lightning, Derek's a burning flame, and Kate's a block of ice. The second they saw Rainbow get out of the way, they completed task. Twilight holding on to the binding spell for as long as she could before having to release it.

"DELTA... ATTACK!" The three humans screamed before unleashing their power. A barrier of pure energy formed between them, trapping the creature in a smaller triangle of magic. Cutting off the spell Twilight had been casting completely. Not that it mattered, as the snake creature found it was unable to escape the triangular prison it had suddenly found itself in.

The magic being case made an odd 'blooping' noise that Spike swore he had heard before. The barrier tinted yellow, powerful lightning blots dancing along the barrier as it did. The electric energy frying the creature within. The barrier then changed to red, the attack becoming a pillar of fire, only for it to freeze solid as it became a thing of ice when it turned blue immediately afterward.

Finally, the barrier became a pure white. Holding together only for a moment more before exploding from the ground up. Eliminating the shadow creature completely, it's scream fading into nothingness. All three humans moved from their positions after that. Though they were clearly drained, they looked rather pleased that the attack had worked.

"I still... can't believe we discovered that... because we were joking around and thought it'd be a kick... attempting it..." Derek said while trying to catch his breath.

"I know..." Kate added in, "Being a fan of the game, I thought it'd be funny if we could do a delta attack but..." She stopped to catch herself from falling, her knees having suddenly gone a bit weak.

"Yeah, who'd have thought it'd work?" James said finally, his hands on his knees. "This magic of ours is really-"

He collapsed, bringing cries of shock and concern from everyone around him. Twilight was the first by his side.

Tidbits:

-Barry the Unicorn. Reference to the original story!

-20% Cooler. Oh come ON! I had to do it! Don’t give me that look!

-”Time to go to work boys” Go to Youtube and watch the opening to Devil May Cry 1. It’ll all make sense.

- Delta Attack. This is a triple tech from Chrono Trigger. My favorite RPG of all time. Yes they figured they could do it by pure accident.

- This chapter is one of the main reasons I began to write this story in the first place! >_<

A note before we get started:

-After some recent feed back, I’ve decided that this chapter is no longer what I was looking for when I wrote this story. Instead I’ve decided to go back, and re-write the events of this, leading into a much more IN DEPTH look at what happens to James during his time away from the center. In time this chapter will probably be deleted to make way for the update.

-Sorry if you already read this draft, and were disappointed. I myself am not happy with the chapter, and that’s why I’m expanding on it. Thank you.

UPDATE:

-Here is a link to what I believe Chapter 10 should be, now that I think about it.

Chapter 10 Re-done

Chapter 10: Absence

"James? Hey! I think he's waking up!" James could faintly hear as the world came back into focus around him. The first thing he noticed was that he was inside something, and  that something was moving. A few more seconds told him he was laying down, but not on the floor. He was searching his mind for what vehicles would allow him to do that when Twilight's face came into view. It had been her voice he had heard just then.

"How are you?" She asked. James could tell Twilight probably wanted to ask a thousand questions of him, but at the moment was doing her best to hold back. He smiled up at her. It had been over a month since he had seen any of his friends from the center. To think that going to become a pony would have lead to all this...

"I'm drained, but otherwise fine. Where are we?" He asked before attempting to sit up. This proved impossible as the world immediately began to spin.

"Okay, not doing THAT." He said laying back down. Twilight smiled. She couldn't believe she wasn't angry at him. All that time with no indication that he was okay! Still... He hadn't died. That thought alone made her happier then she ever thought she'd feel.

"We're on a bus, pulling up the street to the center." Kate called back from the driver's seat. James' eyes widened.

"How'd we get a bus?" He asked. He was certain he could actually feel the smile in Kate's voice.

"I decided to 'borrow' one from the grounds." Kate called back, "Thankfully my 'force powers' managed to get the thing started." James nodded, closing his eyes when he noticed something.

"You sound pretty close for a bus driver."

"It's a short bus." Derek replied from nearby. James grinned.

"Ah so you should feel right at home then"

"HEY!"

Twilight wanted to shout at them to stop, but in truth she was glad that James still seemed like the person she once knew. Despite how much his outer appearance had altered, he was most certainly still James.

"We're here." Kate announced shortly after that. James decided not to attempt to get up just yet and instead let himself rest, just barely being able to see parts of the center's buildings though the windows, from his position on the bus seat. As soon as he felt the bus come to a stop, he risked at least sitting up. It was no good, the world simply spun way to much.

He heard Kate open the doors allowing someone to walk in. At least he had thought it was a person, until his mind registered that what he was hearing was the clip clop of hooves upon the bus floor and not feet. He could just make out Twilight bowing while he tried to clear his vision to see who had joined them. Though her actions gave him a fairly good idea...

Sure enough, standing in the center of the aisle was Princess Luna. She remained standing there, looking them over for a few seconds before she spoke.

"I assume this means it was as we feared. Are you all alright?" Her voice sounded sturdy, and strong. But Twilight had spent much time around her mentor Princess Celestia, and found her sister Luna acted much the same way at times. So it wasn't too hard for Twilight to pick up on the underlining concern in the Princess' voice.

"We're fine Princess." Kate said giving a slight bow, "But James suffered an impact with one of the things attacks. Taking a bit hit of it's energy in the process. With the rest of the battle he fought, it drained his power immensely. He'll need a little while longer to recover." The Princess nodded her understanding.

"That is fine. Please come to the meeting room as soon as you are ready. I'll inform Spike of it's whereabouts so he can lead the way." The blunt of that having been addressed to James personally. As soon as Princess Luna saw him nod his own understanding, she beckoned Derek and Kate to follow her. She left the bus immediately after that, the two following behind her. Only James and Twilight were left in the bus.

"It sounds like we're alone, did Rainbow Dash and Spike not ride with us?" James asked as he realized he hadn't heard from either of them the entire ride, nor had he heard them leave.

"Spike and Rainbow Dash went on a head, Spike at my request, to scan for any more of those... things." Twilight replied. She didn't understand everything going on right now, but it seemed that there were more then just the shadows they had encountered, and she had NO desire to meet anymore at the moment. She was also pleased to note that the coast must be clear, with her friends arriving safely if Princess Luna was going to have Spike lead them to the meeting room later.

"... I'm so so sorry Twilight..." James said suddenly. Twilight had been trying to keep it in, but it was just too much for her to understand. Everything that was going on. It finally poured out of her:

"Why didn't you tell us? Tell me? Why did you let me think you were dead!?" Over a month of fear and frustration could be heard in her words. James winced at the sudden, but not unexpected onslaught.

"It's... a lot to tell..." He said quietly.

"Well... We have time." She said quietly. She knew she should be concerned for his health, but she had to know. She had to know what had happened.

"I suppose we do," James said with a light sigh, "What would you like to know first?"

"What happened to you that day?" There were a dozen other things she wanted to know, but out of everything, that was the one thing that had haunted her the most.

"That's... a complicated one." He said slowly. His eyes began to glaze, his focus becoming distant as he recalled the day it all changed. How would he ever properly express it all to her?

An idea came to him just then. It was just a haphazard thought, but if it worked...

"Twilight... I want you to do something. I think... I think I can show you. It's just an idea, but I think it'll work." Twilight couldn't quite grasp what he was suggesting. How could he show her?

"I'm not sure I follow. My talent may be in magic, but it's not like I can read minds." James waved his hand in dismissal.

"Like I said, it's just an idea, but if it works, it'll make this that much easier. We both have magic now right? So I think if I focus some, Just a little. Not enough to hurt me." He added quickly, seeing the concerned look upon her face. "Anyway if I focus it, and you touch my forehead with your horn and focus on receiving what I'm trying to show you with my magic. I think we can make a connection. My magic generally works to aid me, and you have a talent FOR magic if I'm not mistaken..."

Twilight could see the logic in what he was trying to say, but it sounded a bit to.. Contrived for it to work. Still, she supposed it was worth a shot.

"Alright, just tell me when..." She said while focusing the magic in her horn. Taking a few moments to attempt to mold the magic to the task James was describing, she got it to where she hoped it'd do the trick and awaited James' signal. Soon as she saw him nod his head before closing his own eyes, she very gently, touched her horn to his forehead as he had requested.

At first there was nothing but blackness. Though as she continued to focus and watch, she could see colors and shapes slowly begin to come into focus. Once the picture was clear, she noticed it was an image of the ponification room. Though something seemed incredibly off to her. It was then she realized she was seeing the room from a much higher vantage point then she ever had before.

With a start she saw a hand thrust out from her to grab a cup of the anesthetic. She freaked for but a second before hearing James' voice come from seemingly within her own mind.

"Seems it's working. Don't panic, I'm simply showing you the memories I have of the events. What better way to show you what happened then by first hand eh?" His voice seemed to echo all around her, coming from no spot in particular, yet it was loud and clear enough for her to make out every word with ease.

She watched the memory as James drank the cup of anesthetic. The world becoming blurry around him soon afterward. She continued to watch as he was injected with the trigger serum, which had caused him to react so abnormally.

She could see his body thrash around after that. Him banging on the wall. Twilight was momentarily pleased that while she was seeing what James had done that day, she couldn't FEEL what he had done. Twilight had no doubts that she wouldn't have enjoyed feeling that pain.

"I had no idea what was going on of course," Came James's narration, "Only that I was in the worst pain I had ever felt in my entire life. The only thing I can remember thinking about was getting out of there. Someplace far away and safe. Next thing I know... I'm waking up in some hotel room I've never seen before."

The world spun into blackness, before reforming into the image of a ceiling. A few moments more, she saw that James had sat up to look around what appeared to be a  bland looking hotel room. The hotel looked to be at the same time high class, and yet cheap somehow. Like the type of hotel that was trying to look high class, but in truth didn't have the money for such a thing.

"At first I thought I might have been kidnapped or something, but soon found that the entire hotel was empty..." The memory continued to play, showing James stagger out of the room, still only in his underwear. Though Twilight noticed that as she got glimpses of James' arms, legs and body. It was already the same muscular tone he sported now.

You're body had already changed to that muscled one? Twilight thought to herself. To her surprise though, James apparently had heard her and answered.

"Yeah it had. Though I admit it was a while before I actually noticed that myself. Too concerned about finding what the hell was going on for it to dawn on me sooner..." His voice faded away again to allow her to focus on what he was showing her. Twilight watched as James ran from room to room, trying to open them. Pounding on the doors and calling for help.

But there was no answer from anywhere. Soon he had made his way to the lobby which looked as if it had been ransacked by something. Much of the more expensive stuff being extracted long ago by someone.

"As you can see, there was nobody home. Not only was this entire hotel void of all human life, but so was the entire TOWN!" The Images blurred to show her only bits and pieces after that. James checking various stores and homes for signs of any life. But there was none to be found. Every place had been abandoned, few cars left on the roads, those that were showing signs of weather damage, indicating they had been sitting still for a long time.

"Naturally my first question was where the hell was I?" James narrated. "It was easy enough to figure out. The town wasn't too large, and I easily found the library." The same library loomed in the memory just then. The words 'Vinsbay Town Library' in big letters over the door.

Vinsbay!? Twilight thought just then. Isn't that like an entire STATE away!?

"You've studied our maps well," Came James' reply. Twilight swore that if she could see him, he'd probably have nodded just then. "I was just as shocked as you were. I of course verified it with some newspapers after seeing that, but the library's name was correct. I black out here in your ponification center, and awaken an entire state away..." The images jumped to show James attempting to turn on a computer, but having it fail to even show a standby light. She continued to watch as he tried to work any electrical device, only for nothing to respond.

"To make matters even more exciting, it turned out that when this town had been abandoned, the people shut off the electricity and phone lines to the place. Meaning that not only was I in some abandoned town miles away, but there was no way for me to contact the outside world. To say I was unnerved is an understatement. But my surprises hadn't stopped there. I had more questions in my mind, and the answer to each one only made everything that more confusing. If I got an answer at all that is."

"After I had answered the question of where I was, I wanted to know what had happened. The one directly after that was why I was still a human, and not a pony. It was about this time that I finally looked into a mirror in a restroom and saw my new physic. Can't say I was displeased with the result, but it only caused more questions to spring into my mind. Being I had no idea where to find answers, I decided to focus on something I figured I could solve. That of the growing hunger I had begun to feel..." The images blurred again to show James standing in front of a grocery store. The glass doors being shut and locked tight. Twilight had wanted to mention something she noticed about his reflection back in the restroom, but hadn't wanted to interrupt him just then. So she took her moment to ask it now.

Your hair was still red... She thought.

"Yeah, that'll be explained later." He replied. The memory continued to play. Showing James attempt to force the door open with a piece of wood, only to have it snap in his hands. His reflection clearly showing his frustration, Twilight watched as he began to pound on the glass with his fists.

"I still feel a bit silly I did this right here. Obviously the better tactic would have been to just chuck a damn rock at the thing, but my efforts at entry were rewarded in a way I hadn't been expecting..."

As Twilight continued to watch through his eyes his pounding on the door, she could see via the reflection a slight aura of the lightish blue energy he had been using during the battle flash violently across his body. Focused mostly on his fists. As soon as this happened, the glass doors simply shattered, blowing inwardly into the store. Leaving James a clear path of entry.

"I had felt it the second I had woken up, but didn't know what it was till that exact moment. When I first managed to use it. I'm not even sure what made me realize that I had just used magic, and could probably use more, but I did. It was like my magic was speaking to me almost. I can hardly describe it, but it was like a piece of me long since missing was suddenly back in place. It wouldn't be for weeks till I got an answer to why though.

Twilight was about to ask what he meant, when the images blurred again.

"However, there was one more question I was about to get an answer to. A question that had been nagging at the back of my mind, but I had been to distracted to actually ask it. But have you noticed anything weird about the images I've been showing you? Besides the lack of people that is?"

Twilight had to think about it for a few moments, before the answer finally came to her. She hadn't realized it till then, but she too had been thinking that something else had seemed off about this town. Like something was wrong with it..."

Never mind the place looks un-looted, but where are the wild animals roaming the streets? She asked suddenly. Again she could almost feel James nod.

"If this town had been abandoned, then why hadn't it been picked clean? Why was the grocery store still locked? Most of all, why hadn't I seen rats, dogs, even birds all over the place?"

The memory showed him entering the store then. Grabbing boxes of crackers and other nearby foods before he tore them open and began devouring the contents. She watched as he turned a corner into another aisle, only for one of the shadowy blobs to appear directly in his sight. It seemingly watching him somehow from it's place upon the floor.

The shadow was quick to leap at James, causing Twilight to flinch as she saw the thing leap toward her, being she was seeing this through the eyes of James' memories.

"This is why there were no animals in the town. Nor why anyone had scavenged the town. I haven't mentioned it, but the feeling I had been getting while in this town was a deep seeded fear, unlike any I had ever felt before. I had thought I was just afraid from what had all happened to me, but it became clear to me later that these shadow things were involved. Most likely they had taken over the town shortly after the last major group of people left it."

The memory had paused while he was telling her that, so it resumed now, showing the shadow leaping for him. In a panic he activated his magic again, firing what appeared to be a blot of energy, very much like the spell she had been casting earlier. Throwing the Shadow back to the ground. Unlike her bolt however, his didn't seem to phase the thing for long as it began to slither it's way toward him again.

Twilight watched as he attempted to fire bolt after bolt at the thing. But he had only learned how to use magic mere seconds ago, and it was clear he didn't have enough control or focus to do any real damage to the thing. It was only a matter of time before the shadow was able to consume him...

Just before it seemed the shadow would over take him, did Twilight watch as the memory showed the two other humans she had seen using powers that day, come to aid him. Swinging what appeared to be broom handles imbued with their own magic at the shadow. Eventually the shadow seemed to decide that they weren't worth the effort and took off.

"That's when I met Derek and Kate," James said afterward. "Seems they had this odd power as well. Shortly after our little fight did they tell me part of their story. Apparently I had alerted them to my presence when I broke the glass door with my magic. They both had woken up and even met each other, mere minutes before I did. All the more questions arising, we decided that it was better to grab what we could for food and try and get somewhere safe. Though we soon found later, that the town didn't have many safe areas."

Wait, you just happened to meet more humans with magic, all in the span of a few minutes the same day? Twilight asked. She heard James chuckle.

"Oh trust me, that confused the hell out of us to. Best I can think of an answer is the same reason we ended up there in the first place. But I'll get to that later..."

The images came to and end, and Twilight found herself back in the bus, staring at James' face.

"The next couple of days in that town were nerve wracking. We kept expecting the shadow thing to jump out at us at any moment. Hoping desperately to prepare ourselves, we began to scavenge the town. Looking for anything that could help us. I found my guns and sword in some random gun shop. Don't know why the owner had a sword, but I wasn't complaining. Course it looked nothing like it did now, but I used my magic to mold it a bit."

"Okay, the question of how you even have magic aside. Why ARE you using it like a videogame character anyway!?" Twilight asked. She now knew WHAT had happened to him that day, but she still didn't know the WHY, and wished James would just tell her already. She had a feeling though, that he wouldn't have told and shown her all this had there not been a reason.

"Well, it's not like we could go to the library and pick up a copy of 'How to use Magic 101'" James said dryly. "At that point we didn't know why we had magic either. The best we could figure is it seemed to work in whatever way we willed it to. Not having any other ideas, we began to try and mold it in a style we were familiar with. For me it was Dante from Devil May Cry."

"Is that why your hair is white now? Because you were trying to mimic Dante?" Twilight asked suddenly.

"From what I can guess it's a side effect of that yes..." James said looking a bit embarrassed. "I was so busy trying to be like Dante while using my power, that I think I subconsciously made my hair white..."

"Can't you just change it back?" She asked. James shook his head.

"I tried. I'm not even sure what I did to make it turn white in the first place. In the end I just figured I'd leave it."

"What about Kate's hair? Why pink?" Twilight asked next.

"Well, I know Kate's hair is pink simply because she always wanted pink hair. Hey that's what she told me!" James added upon seeing the scowl upon Twilight's face.

"Anyway, Kate also told me that whatever had happened to us had a direct effect on how we appeared physically. I already mentioned that it took me a while to notice my new physic, but with Kate, she noticed the body change immediately."

"Oh?" Twilight asked, her eyebrow raised. "Why's that?"

"Well..." James said seeming uncomfortable with the question. "I hope she doesn't mind me telling you this, but well... According to her, she was on the... 'Chubby' side before the incident..." Twilight visibly blinked. The way Kate looked when Twilight had seen her, was in a way humans seemed to consider 'sexy'. It was very difficult for Twilight to imagine Kate in the way just describe to her.

"The days went on like that," James began to say, continuing the story. "The shadows didn't attack us for nearly a week after that. Giving us time to hone our skills. But we could always tell they were watching. I think they were making sure we didn't leave the town either. Every time we'd try to get to the surrounding forest, or boot up a car, we'd either find something creeping along the trees, or find the car simply wouldn't start. I think they were studying us. Trying to decipher what we were. Luckily we found that the places we appeared for whatever reason seemed to repel the shadows. Least they never seemed to go near the places. Allowing us some safe havens."

"Without power in the town however, it was hard for us to come up with a plan to get help. Our only option seemed to be to get strong enough to fight our way out. Ironically we probably could have left much earlier. According to Princess Luna, the shadows were far less then they had us believe. I think at the time they were still learning how to form into a physical mass. Sadly they had successfully scared the three of us into keeping to the town for the safety of the buildings."

"Princess Luna? She found you?" Twilight asked. James nodded.

"It was her and that student of hers that finally allowed us to escape. You're Princess managed to expel what few shadows were actually in the town away. Letting the wildlife back in. This all happened earlier this morning, after a long talk with both Princess Luna, and Midnight Shadow. We were able to finally get some answers to everything that had happened to us."

"So what did you figure out?" Twilight asked leaning close. She couldn't help it. The one mystery on her mind was the answer to WHY this had happened, and James' story had only brought up more questions then answers.

"From what we can tell," James began, "The genetic material that was suppose to re-write our DNA was altered by the magic in the serum. The reason this happened was because of the magic already in our own bodies!" Twilight blinked. It seemed she had been doing that a lot lately.

"The magic ALREADY in... your bodies?" She repeated slowly. James nodded.

"I'm sure you know, that Equestria and our world of Earth, once existed side by side on a much more 'connected'  set up then they are now. In fact, back then magic didn't just flow through Equestria, but earth as well. Princess Luna even says that there are old legends of humans being able to use magic back then. Possibly where many of those old stories come from, but that's not important right now"

By this point James had sat up, obviously feeling better then he had. Twilight found she was very glad he was feeling better. A lot of the frustration and anger she had been feeling earlier had dissipated as well. After seeing first hand what he had gone through, she couldn't blame him for not contacting them. Seems he hadn't much of a choice. Twilight couldn't imagine what she'd have done in his situation.

"Well not all the magic left earth when Equestria severed ties with our world," James went on,  "But the vast majority of it did. Leaving only a trickle left for us. Most of the time the magic still here would manifest in small odd ways, being chalked up as something like 'Just a coincidence', or just 'random factors' Not surprisingly, the humans able to use magic dwindled to non-existent directly the severing occurred."

"Problem is, every now and then you'd still get a human born with the ability to harness magic. Except now there wasn't enough to really do anything with. As time went on, and the human body began to develop without the presence of magic, the energy changed to a type of poison. Which is why we can't live in Equestria without becoming a pony. As it fixes that problem. But then you have people like Derek, Kate, and I."

"Princess Luna told us about how many of the center's were suddenly having the same phenomenon that happened to me. Were people like us would go to be ponified only to disappear. We were the first she had seen since. A quick couple of questions and I found that the three of us who were human, had all been suffering from some sort of 'illness' or so for most of our lives. Mine was headaches, I heard another had stomach ulcers. Some could be medically diagnosed, like the ulcers, while things like my headaches couldn't."

"It was pretty easy to figure out what was happening with your Princess' help. Though it was Midnight Shadow that had come up with the suggestion. The reason we had been suffering these odd ailments is because we were all humans born with the ability to harness magic, but since magic was harmful to humans at this point, it caused us more pain then anything else. However, since magic was so sparse in the world, it was never enough to do us any serious harm.  At least until you ponies came..."

"Because we began to leak magic into your world just by BEING in it..." Twilight said with a start. Some of the pieces falling into place at last. "By moving through your world and using our magic, we were slowly leaking more and more of the magic from Equestria into your world without us ever really noticing!" James nodded.

"That's right. It wouldn't normally be enough to hurt us, but the few of us whose bodies were sucking up magic, suddenly had a lot more it could take in. Thus, causing the damage to ourselves to rise. Given time, the influx of the increased power would have eventually killed us, though I admit I have no idea how long it may have taken."

"Still, the pain of the ordeal was getting worse, and we'd likely have gone crazy long before it got to that point." James shook his head while closing his eyes. Twilight had no doubt he was recalling the terribleness of his headaches. She felt a sudden odd pang of regret that it was partially HER fault for causing them it seemed. But how could she apologize for something she never even knew she had been doing in the first place?

"However it's that stored up magic that brings us back to what happened on that day." James said, breaking her thought, "You see, the magic used to trigger the transformation was altered by our own pent up power. Best I can figure? Because we never wanted to be a pony, that we wanted to stay human. Our magic leaped to our aid. Somehow using the 'jump start' the magic in the shot meant to start the process to interject and seemingly RE-WRITE the entire code of the serum to instead allow our bodies to use magic as they apparently had always meant to be."

"That seems oddly covenant..." Twilight commented. James laughed.

"I in NO WAY say I understand it. Not even Princess Luna could figure out just why it had happened that way. Heck we can't even figure a good answer as to why this is all happening now. Midnight says he thinks it's because we tried to stay away from the centers for so long. That it's possible it's the very reason we DIDN'T want to be a pony is the reason we aren't one now. I think it's a safe bet to say there were others before us with the same potential to use magic, but since they wanted to be ponies, this didn't happen. I seem to have just been the first who didn't is all..."

Twilight thought about the unicorn Barry she had mistaken for throwing the manhole cover from earlier, and the unicorn's friend Ethan. Both had shown remarkable skills beyond what most ponies of their type had. It was possible the reason was because, like James, they had always had the ability to use magic in someway, but simply didn't mind becoming ponies to do it.

"We think that's why our bodies changed as well..." James had continued to speak, "I think when our magic affected the serum, it decided to also re-write our genetic make up to something more of our liking." Twilight had to let this all sink in for a moment.

"This seems, for lack of a better word, Unreal" She said. James could only nod.

"Imagine how we felt this entire time. I still think the biggest bomb was when Princess Luna let us know just how long it had been since we had been seen at our respective centers."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because from what we were able to gather, it had just barely been over a month since everything had begun, but according to her, there was like an entire WEEK missing from our calculations. The only thing we can think of, is that we were out for a week after our disappearance!"

"A week?" Twilight repeated confused.

"It's what backed up the idea that our bodies aren't ponies because of our magic. I think our magic attempts to 'protect' us as some sort of default setting. I think that's also why those two appeared in the same deserted town as I did. Because their magic sensed mine. It knew we'd be safer as a group, and thus we all ended up in the same area."

"That is one thing that still confuses me," Twilight said as she attempted to piece everything James was telling her together, "But why did you vanish into thin air? What happened there?" The blush upon James' cheeks returned.

"We teleported. It's generally the first thing one of us does when the change takes place."

"What? Why?!"

"Well..." It was clear he felt sheepish about answering this, "It's because our first thought is to 'Get out of there'. The desire to 'escape somewhere safe' is so strong, and the build up of power we had been storing in our bodies so high... Basically it does what we want by teleporting us somewhere safe. For me, Derek, and Kate. It was into that abandoned town. No one was there to hurt us, and it was 'far away' Course that doesn't explain why it'd send us to the place of shadows, but I think the Shadows are more afraid of us then we ever were of it. Though I don't have the answer to why that is yet..." James sighed closing his eyes.

"It's a very silly solution, but it's what kept happening. None of us knew what was happening or why. All we wanted was to get far away, and the sudden explosion of magic in our bodies did it's best. How lame that the reason I haven't seen you for all this time is because I got scared?!"

James grew quiet at that. Twilight wanted to comfort him, but there was one last thing he hadn't explained.

"So why were you out for a week?"

"Oh yeah, Princess Luna says it may have been so our bodies could uh... Finalize the change? I think it's also because we expended all that energy in the teleport. Causing us to go into some sort of bizarre suspended animation. Really I'm still piecing together everything that's going on..."

"Well look on the bright side, you're alive and with friends!" Twilight said happily, trying to lighten his mood. Without realizing what she was even doing, she had begun nuzzle his arm with her head. Causing James to stare at her rather wide eyed in shock. Once the action she was performing finally sank in, she leaped backward.

"Er. well that is..." She began stammering. What had caused her to do that!?

"Um yeah, good to be alive..." James said, looking just as flustered as Twilight.

"So... the shadows?" She said attempting to change the subject. But James shook his head.

"I'll leave that for the meeting."

As if on cue, there was a 'pop' in the air between them, as a scroll seemed to simply burst into existence. A small whiff of green flame having burned directly in it's spot before hand. Already having an idea what it said, Twilight used her magic to open it and read. The smile on her face was unmistakable. She turned the letter toward James.

"Dear Twilight and James," James read out loud, "Are you two EVER going to come out and attend the meeting? Signed, Spike."

"I suppose we should be going. Are you up to moving about yet?" Twilight asked while tucking the scroll away. James didn't see exactly where though.

"I'll be fine now. Moving around shouldn't be a problem." To confirm his claim, he stood up. When Twilight saw that he didn't even wobble, she nodded.

"Then let's go. Though I have a feeling I'm not going to like what I hear..." The expression on James' face darkened considerably.

"More then you know Twilight..."

Tidbits:

-Barry and Ethan. Of course yet another reference to the two main characters of the main story.

-Midnight Shadow again! Okay I admit, now that his story has ended, I’ve taken to sneaking him in a lot more. I hope he doesn’t mind. ^^;

-And now you can see why I consider this an ‘Alternate Universe’ kinda deal. As this can’t work in a lot of the other storylines. ^_^; But I really wanted to write this story, and here we are. I just hope people are still enjoying it.

Chapter 10: Absence

"James? Hey! I think he's waking up!" James could faintly hear as the world came back into focus around him. The first thing he noticed was that he was inside something, and  that something was moving. A few more seconds told him he was laying down, but not on the floor. He was searching his mind for what vehicles would allow him to do that when Twilight's face came into view. It had been her voice he had heard just then.

"How are you?" She asked. James could tell Twilight probably wanted to ask a thousand questions of him, but at the moment was doing her best to hold back. He smiled up at her. It had been over a month since he had seen any of his friends from the center. To think that going to become a pony would have lead to all this...

"I'm drained, but otherwise fine. Where are we?" He asked before attempting to sit up. This proved impossible as the world immediately began to spin.

"Okay, not doing THAT." He said laying back down. Twilight smiled. She couldn't believe she wasn't angry at him. All that time with no indication that he was okay! Still... He hadn't died. That thought alone made her happier then she ever thought she'd feel.

"We're on a bus, pulling up the street to the center." Kate called back from the driver's seat. James' eyes widened.

"How'd we get a bus?" He asked. He was certain he could actually feel the smile in Kate's voice.

"I decided to 'borrow' one from the grounds." Kate called back, "Thankfully my 'force powers' managed to get the thing started." James nodded, closing his eyes when he noticed something.

"You sound pretty close for a bus driver."

"It's a short bus." Derek replied from nearby. James grinned.

"Ah so you should feel right at home then"

"HEY!"

Twilight wanted to shout at them to stop, but in truth she was glad that James still seemed like the person she once knew. Despite how much his outer appearance had altered, he was most certainly still James.

"We're here." Kate announced shortly after that. James decided not to attempt to get up just yet and instead let himself rest, just barely being able to see parts of the center's buildings though the windows, from his position on the bus seat. As soon as he felt the buss come to a stop, he risked at least sitting up. It was no good, the world simply spun way to much.

He heard Kate open the doors allowing someone to walk in. At least he had thought it was a person, until his mind registered that what he was hearing was the clip clop of hooves upon the bus floor and not feet. He could just make out Twilight bowing while he tried to clear his vision to see who had joined them. Though her actions gave him a fairly good idea...

Sure enough, standing in the center of the aisle was Princess Luna. She remained standing there, looking them over for a few seconds before she spoke.

"I assume this means it was as we feared. Are you all alright?" Her voice sounded sturdy, and strong. But Twilight had spent much time around her mentor Princess Celestia, and found her sister Luna acted much the same way at times. So it wasn't too hard for Twilight to pick up on the underlining concern in the Princess' voice.

"We're fine Princess." Kate said giving a slight bow, "But James suffered an impact with one of the things attacks. Taking a bit hit of it's energy in the process. With the rest of the battle he fought, it drained his power immensely. He'll need a little while longer to recover." The Princess nodded her understanding.

"That is fine. Please come to the meeting room as soon as you are ready. I'll inform Spike of it's whereabouts so he can lead the way." The blunt of that having been addressed to James personally. As soon as Princess Luna saw him nod his own understanding, she beckoned Derek and Kate to follow her. She left the bus immediately after that, the two following behind her. Only James and Twilight were left in the bus.

"It sounds like we're alone, did Rainbow Dash and Spike not ride with us?" James asked as he realized he hadn't heard from either of them the entire ride, nor had he heard them leave.

"Spike and Rainbow Dash went on a head, Spike at my request, to scan for any more of those... things." Twilight replied. She didn't understand everything going on right now, but it seemed that there were more then just the shadows they had encountered, and she had NO desire to meet anymore at the moment. She was also pleased to note that the coast must be clear, with her friends arriving safely if Princess Luna was going to have Spike lead them to the meeting room later.

"... I'm so so sorry Twilight..." James said suddenly. Twilight had been trying to keep it in, but it was just too much for her to understand. Everything that was going on. It finally poured out of her:

"Why didn't you tell us? Tell me? Why did you let me think you were dead!?" Over a month of fear and frustration could be heard in her words. James winced at the sudden, but not unexpected onslaught.

"It's... a lot to tell..." He said quietly.

"Well... We have time." She said quietly. She knew she should be concerned for his health, but she had to know. She had to know what had happened.

"I suppose we do," James said with a light sigh, "What would you like to know first?"

"What happened to you that day?" There were a dozen other things she wanted to know, but out of everything, that was the one thing that had haunted her the most.

"That's... a complicated one." He said slowly. His eyes began to glaze, his focus becoming distant as he recalled the day it all changed. How would he ever properly express it all to her?

An idea came to him just then. It was just a haphazard thought, but if it worked...

"Twilight... I want you to do something. I think... I think I can show you. It's just an idea, but I think it'll work." Twilight couldn't quite grasp what he was suggesting. How could he show her?

"I'm not sure I follow. My talent may be in magic, but it's not like I can read minds." James waved his hand in dismissal.

"Like I said, it's just an idea, but if it works, it'll make this that much easier. We both have magic now right? So I think if I focus some, Just a little. Not enough to hurt me." He added quickly, seeing the concerned look upon her face. "Anyway if I focus it, and you touch my forehead with your horn and focus on receiving what I'm trying to show you with my magic. I think we can make a connection. My magic generally works to aid me, and you have a talent FOR magic if I'm not mistaken..."

Twilight could see the logic in what he was trying to say, but it sounded a bit to.. Contrived for it to work. Still, she supposed it was worth a shot.

"Alright, just tell me when..." She said while focusing the magic in her horn. Taking a few moments to attempt to mold the magic to the task James was describing, she got it to where she hoped it'd do the trick and awaited James' signal. Soon as she saw him nod his head before closing his own eyes, she very gently, touched her horn to his forehead as he had requested.

At first there was nothing but blackness. Though as she continued to focus and watch, she could see colors and shapes slowly begin to come into focus. Once the picture was clear, she noticed it was an image of the Ponification room. Though something seemed incredibly off to her. It was then she realized she was seeing the room from a much higher vantage point then she ever had before.

"Okay," Twilight heard James say. His voice seemed to echo all around her, coming from no spot in particular, yet it was loud and clear enough for her to make out every word with ease.

"I'm not sure how well this is going to work, or how much you'll understand with just images alone. I'll try to fill in the blanks as best as I can."

Twilight wasn't sure how she should respond to him. They weren't actually here right? This was just a memory that he was showing her. Least that is what she had concluded. Unable to think of any other way to communicate, yet still feeling silly for attempting it at the same time. She 'thought' her answer to him.

I'm ready. Twilight tried to send to him. To her relief the idea seemed to work.

"Very well. Here we go!" James said. Thus his tale began to be told:

* * *

"Last thing I remember is drinking the serum in the Ponification Center. What followed was a horrible pain, all I could think about was getting away from there. Far Far away. Next thing I know. I'm waking up in a hotel room I've never seen before...

"Owwww... what the heck? I thought you all said that wouldn't hurt..." James groaned as he regained consciousness. Last thing he remembered was being injected with the serum, right before his body being washed in a feeling of what seemed like fire ants attempting to eat him alive. Did all new ponies go through this? Why did they all say it was painless then!? Did they think it was funny to lie about that, knowing the next person had THAT to look forward to!?

James brought a hand up to his head via instinct, even though for once he didn't feel the usual dull ache of a headache. Instead, his entire body had a pleasant buzzing feeling to it. Least that's the best he could describe it. It sort of felt like he was on a massage bed that was on an incredibly low setting.

As he rubbed his eyes with his hand, a realization snapped him the rest of the way awake almost instantly. He stopped rubbing his eyes to stare at his hand dumbly.

Wasn't he suppose to be a pony right now?

"What happened? Did the process fail-" James began shouting as he sat up right. Stopping only when he discovered that his surroundings weren't familiar at all. The room he was in obviously belonged to an hotel. At first glance he thought it had to belong to a rather high class one at that. Except... Something seemed off.

Feeling silly that he was attempting to figure out why the room looked off, rather then ask the important questions, like where he was, he staggered out of bed. Discovering with a start, that he was still only dressed in his underwear.

"Okay... that's odd..." James said to himself, feeling more then a little nervous at this entire situation. "I wake up in some hotel room I've never seen before, in nothing but my underwear, and to top it off. I'm NOT a pony like I should, given what I was just doing. If that guy from the Twilight Zone walks out, I'm done!"

The statement made him feel better, even though James knew that if that had happened, there wasn't exactly anything he could do about it. Trying his best not to panic, he mentally went over his options.

He could stay in the room and wait for someone or something to find him. That didn't seem too appealing. It'd make sense to stay put if this was the center, but this room certainly didn't look anything like the ones he had seen while there. So that could only mean he was in an actual hotel. How and why were only some of the questions he had at that thought. So no, staying here to wait for whatever may have brought him here was out.

Given the situation, the only thing he could think to do then, was try and figure out where he was. Though it'd be nice to have something other then just his underwear on his body. Unfortunately, a quick search around the room told him that the only things here were the normal nick knacks one would find in a hotel room. He couldn't very well dress himself in small shampoo bottles, or a bible.

At a loss for any other ideas, James wrapped one of the bed sheets around his body. He could mentally hear the word 'Toga' repeat in his head a few times as he did. Smiling despite the situation, he walked over to the door. To his relief, it opened easily. He had been afraid it'd be locked by whoever had brought him here. Though this did bring up yet another question of course. If he HAD been brought here by someone, and put in that room. Why allow him to escape so easily?

"Maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth." James muttered to himself before an odd though crossed his mind. "Do the ponies find offense to that phrase?"

We're PONIES not horses. So no we don't actually. Came Twilight's thought just then.

"Well I guess that answers that." Came James' reply. "Shall we continue?"

Please.

The first thing James thought to do was search any of the other rooms. Not surprisingly, most of them were locked. It wasn't until he reached one door that had been blocked from closing by a fallen sheet, was he able to search a room other then his own.

In this one he found the room trashed. Clothing and other random objects strewn everywhere. Whoever had been staying in this room, apparently had left in a hurry. Still, there was clothing about, and anything would beat a bed sheet.

"Well almost anything..." James said to himself while holding the first article of clothing he had pulled from a small pile on the bed. In his hands was a white, and very sexy looking, nightgown for women.

Oh I don't know, I think it'd look great on you! Twilight teased just then.

"Ha Ha, you're so funny. Do you want to find out what happened or not!?" Came James' curt reply.

I do.

"Then stop interrupting me! Now where was I?"

After many failed attempts at finding clothing later. Which included WAY too many pairs of lingerie for James' liking. He finally found a plain black t-shirt, with a pair of black dress pants that had the look of doing the job. To his relief, he also managed to find a belt within the stuff strewn everywhere. The pants being a few sizes to big.

Once dressed he felt a lot better then he had. Sadly there hadn't been any shoes that he could wear. He didn't feel much like walking around outside in socks, so opted to go barefoot. The socks in his pocket incase he came across any shoes later.

Continuing his exploration of the hotel, while hoping no one suddenly popped out to bust him on taking those cloths. It became rather apparent that he seemed to be alone. Even when he finally stumbled upon the lobby, he couldn't see even a speck of evidence that anyone had been around recently. It was all rather odd...

"So why the hell am I not freaking out?" James asked himself. He was in what appeared to be a ghost town, having appeared with no clothing and no idea why he had been brought here in the first place, and his only thought was: 'This is odd?'

The odd buzzing in his body seemed to alter it's effect slightly. Whether it increased, or simply changed the way it was 'buzzing' James didn't know. What he did know is that it felt really pleasant, and was making it difficult for him to feel much else but calm at the moment.

"Great, not only am I in some abandoned hotel, brought here by who knows WHAT, but it seems I've also been drugged." He said with a sigh, "Can this day-"

James stopped mid sentence, his eyes narrowing.

"Oh second thought, better to not tempt fate..." He said before deciding the best option was to head into town and see if he could find any help.

His searching was proving mostly fruitless. Everywhere he went appeared either locked up, or just abandoned completely. The police station was locked. The stores were locked. Most of the homes were locked, and those that weren't were either empty, or abandoned. Though James did find comfort in discovering a pair of sneakers he could wear within one particular home that hadn't been locked.

It was in one such abandoned home that James did the next best thing he could think of to do in such a situation. Use the pone to call for help, and thankfully this home had a phone still. Which James quickly found did him no good as he wasn't even getting a dial tone upon picking the thing up.

"Oh how lovely." James said with a sigh as he slammed the receiver back in it's place. His stomach gave a small grumble, bringing to his attention his need for food. The house did have a refrigerator. With a shrug we walked into the kitchen and flicked the light switch.

Nothing.

"Why am I not surprised?" James said with yet another sigh. He had a feeling he'd be doing that a lot today. Thankfully the kitchen had a window, and it was day time. By opening the blinds, he was able to get enough light to see.

"Well that solves that, but if the power is off, then I'm going to guess..." He said while opening the fridge. His fear was confirmed the second the horrible rotting smell entered his nostrils, forcing him to close the door in a hurry. Anything that was in there, was certainly not any good now. That just left the cabinets.

Ten minutes later, James looked over the small pile of his findings. Sitting upon one of the counters were two loaves of moldy bread, a box of pancake mix, some sugar, and a half eaten box of stale Applejacks cereal. James made a mental note to ask if Applejack knew about this cereal later. Assuming he ever saw the pony again.

"Okay, not chancing you two..." He said pushing the loaves to one side. "Can't do anything with you..." The pancake mix was next to be discarded. James was pretty certain he wasn't going to find the necessary ingredients to make the stuff. The sugar was pretty much useless as well, leaving only the box of cereal. Which having tasted it upon discovery, had told him just how stale it was.

But what else was there? With surrender, he began to munch on the contents of the box while leaving the house. He no longer cared if anyone tried to bust him for stealing anything. If a human DID come out to accuse him of theft, it'd only be a good thing right now.

"Well unless they are from a gang or something..." James thought, looking around with renewed nervousness. Even the pleasant buzz wasn't able to keep it all away. Wresting with the thought of whether he wanted to find more humans or not, he tried to make sense of the other nagging thought at his head.

Something was... Off about this town. Yes the town was abandoned, and that seemed off enough in it's own right. But there was something else that seemed odd about the entire thing that he just couldn't place his finger on. The thought was bugging the hell out of him, but at the moment all he wanted was some decent food. The cereal was helping a little, but there was no way it'd do the job.

Having decided not to bother searching any more homes, James figured that the best course of action to find food would be to just got to a store that sold it. He'd deal with how to get in later.

Thankfully he didn't have to wait long, as a small grocery store came into his view shortly after. Sitting patently on the corner like it was waiting for him. Rushing up to the sliding glass doors, he attempted to open them with his hands, praying that they wouldn't be locked.

So of course they were.

"Dang it, of course you couldn't be unlocked. That'd be too easy!" James shouted, not caring at that moment if he drew attention to himself or not. Searching the area around him, he looked for anything that might help him gain access. There were a few small rocks, but it didn't take a genius to know that they were too small to break glass like what made up the doors. For that he'd need something like a brick.

Still searching, his eyes fell upon a small pike of wood that had one end of it carved to a point. James believed it to be one of those wooden pikes used to allow things like tomato plants to grow up them in a garden. It did have a point at one end that he could jam into the crack between the doors. Allowing him some leverage to attempt to force it open.

James had to admit that the idea didn't seem all that sound, but really he didn't know what else to try. So away he went with picking up the pike and attempting his plan. After a few moments of him struggling with the doors, the pike simply snapped in the middle, causing the piece stuck in the door to fall with a clatter.

While James had thought he'd been doing pretty well to keep his frustration and anger in check till then, there was only so much he could take. He didn't know where he was, why he was here, what had happened, what any of his friends back at the center were doing, nor just why this town seemed to be right out of the movie "Night of the Comet" even if there wasn't dust everywhere.

That was nerve wracking enough, just trying to function without worrying about all that at once, but it was many big things that James didn't expect to gain the answers to right away anyway. But this? All he wanted was some bloody food!

"GAAAAAAAH!" He screamed before slamming his hands against the doors in frustration. That's when he realized that everything he didn't know the answers to, were just the tip of the ice berg. The buzzing in his body switched from a light mild buzz, to a sudden jolt. James had just enough time to see his hands blaze with some sort of electric blue light, before the energy seemed to invade the doors before him. The doors flashed with the same strange light, before shattering inwardly. As if the impact of his fists had caused a sudden explosion that forced the remains of the door into the store itself.

"Wha?" It was the only thing James could manage to say after what he had just witnessed. He brought his hands down from where he had slammed them against the door. Holding them before him so he could look them over with awe. The buzzing continued in his body. The light he had seen along his hands appeared to mix with what he could only describe as electricity. With each visible pulse of the light around his hands, the buzzing sensation gave off a small jarring feel to it. It wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it was rather odd.

Magic

James blinked. He didn't know where that thought had come from, but it did make sense somehow. But he couldn't have magic, he was a human right? How in the world could that happen? Yet... Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that what he had just used was exactly that.

Magic.

"This is too weird. Maybe I'm just dreaming?" He said to himself. It would explain why he wasn't being bothered by his headaches anymore. Though if this was a dream, it was the most realistic one he had ever experienced.

"Well, if it IS a dream..." James said to himself, focusing his eyes upon one of the pike halves. Reaching his hand out he attempted to move the thing with his mind. But after several minutes, nothing had happened. Instead of giving up however, he tried to figure out what he was doing wrong. After all, this could be a dream right? So it should work. Maybe he just wasn't thinking about it right.

When he broke the glass, it caused a jolt to go through his body. What appeared to be courtesy of his odd buzzing sensation. So most likely he should be focusing on using that somehow.

Feeling a bit silly at attempting to use his feelings to move an object, he tried again. Taking note of how the buzzing felt in his body. Attempting to somehow, pull it out of his body. Wrap it around the wood.

To his amazement, it seemed to work. The blue glow forming first around the hand he was outstretching to the object. Then the object itself. Only having a vague idea of what he was doing, he attempted to get the pike to move by itself. Just an inch or so.

While the pike did shake, it's body clacking lightly against the concrete. It did nothing else. It wouldn't move from it's spot. Doing his best to focus more of the feeling on the object, he strained his concentration. Desperate to make the pike move without physical means...

To his shock the pike finally moved, but not the inch or two he had been attempting. Instead James watched the thing fly off to the side like a bullet, raising slightly in the air as it did so. A loud 'CRUNCH' sounding immediately afterward.

The pike had imbedded itself into the windshield of a nearby car.

He assumed the car was probably abandoned like everything else, but decided he didn't want to wait around and find out if this happened to be the one car that still had an owner. Glancing around nervously, he ran into the store. Not stopping till he had gotten to the back.

Still feeling a bit paranoid at some person rushing in to the store, screaming for whoever had damaged their car. James tried to calm down and do a run down of what the store had in stock.

His scan of the store gave him some better insight on what might have happened in this town. First thing he noticed was that the produce section was void of any foods at all. Seemingly they had been long packed and shipped elsewhere. It was the same for the deli section, and the bakery. Any part of the store that had food which either required electric cooling, or simply expired quickly had been removed. There were no frozen dinners, no packets of bologna, no bread, nothing of that sort. When this place as abandoned, it wasn't by chance.

Thankfully, most of the aisles with either canned, or boxed goods seemed to have been left behind. The owners of the store seemingly not caring about what may happen with them. This suited James just fine, as it meant he had a decent selection to choose from.

A few minutes later found him munching on some pop tarts, as he pushed a shopping cart through the aisles, grabbing anything he felt he could use as rations. Coming to a stop in the soda aisle, he looked over the selection. While there were many different brands and types of soda to choose from, only one caught his eye.

They were the few glass bottle Mountain Dew packs left in the store. Grabbing every one from off the self, James praised the heavens that they hadn't been taken. He hadn't had one of these since they had stopped the run not two months ago. Seems like a little town like this still had some left over shipment.

Guzzling down one of the bottles with a ravenous ferocity, James sighed. This time in happiness. No matter where he found him self, and no matter what the odds. The taste of this soda always seemed to help calm him down. Reaching for another bottle, he paused.

While talking with Twilight he had seen her eat and drink using her magic several times. Surely what happened with the pike wouldn't be repeated with trying something like that right? James figured it was worth a shot. Why not after all?

Deciding to open the bottle beforehand, just to make it easier, he set the bottle upon the shelf next to him. Backing up a foot, he stared at the bottle, concentrating on the buzzing feeling once more. Attempting to wrap it around the drink.

"Come on... come to me soda.... come to me soda..." James found himself repeating out loud. To his delight he saw the blue energy begin to swirl around the bottle.

"That's it!" He said louder, "Come to me! Come to me! Come-"

SPLOOSH! In a single second, the bottle fell on to it's side toward James. The soda that had been in it, flying to splash against his face.

"GAH!" James screamed wiping the stuff off his face. "I meant in the bottle! IN THE BOTTLE!" His eyes widened, "NO WAIT!"

SMACK! The bottle joined the soda in impacting upon his face.

"AHHHHH! SON OF A MOKEY'S UNCLE ON A BANNANA FARM!" James screamed holding his face in pain.

Well at least you knew it wasn't a dream then. Though I have to admit, that doesn't seem like an effective way to drink soda. Twilight interrupted again, being unable to help herself. As much as she wanted to learn all that had happened, she couldn't help but be fascinated by what James was showing her. He could have been the first human to ever use magic after all.

"When this is over, remind me to throw a bottle at your head." James shot back. Twilight grinned despite herself. Knowing full well James couldn't see her do that back in the bus.

Yes I'll be SURE to do that, anyway, if we can continue now? James didn't bother informing her that it was she who interrupted him. Instead he just continued on:

Deciding that was enough playing with magic for the day, James continued searching the store for possible food. Of course he didn't know WHERE he was going to take any of this food, but he'd worry about that later. Maybe he could find a car that worked? Or maybe find a cell phone or something.

Clunk!

James stopped moving completely, his ears straining to hear everything around him.

Clunk! There it was again!

Whatever it was, it was coming from a few aisles over. Doing what he thought had to be the dumbest thing he could possibly do. He went to check it out. James found himself cursing his stupidity many times after this for not obeying the number one rule of horror films.

When in what appears to be an abandoned area, and you hear something strange. RUN!

Turning around the corner, to peer down the aisle, James came face to... Large blackish red orb. The thing was perched on a stack of canned goods. Every so often knocking one down, which had been the source of the 'clunks'.  James could only regard the thing with a blank stare as he stood there facing it.

Then, to his horror, the thing seemed to grow an eye. It wasn't like a normal eye, but more like an eerie purplish light. Despite this, James knew somehow, that it could be nothing but an eye. The thing regarded him with this eye for a few seconds, before slowly beginning to shuffle it's way toward him...

Chapter 11: Revelations

Mere minutes later, found both Twilight and James standing in the room the meeting was to take place. It was in one of the few lockable rooms left in the Ponification center. The room had originally been one of the storage areas for the Ponification serum. It, along with the rest of the rooms, had been cleared out during the incidents of disappearing volunteers. It wasn't hard for Twilight to figure out the reason the meeting was to take place here. If she had to guess, it was because the room could lock.

She looked at the many faces in the small crowd that had gathered here. There was all her friends in one area: Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Spike who had walked in just before her. Even Pinkie Pie was there. Twilight was surprised to see her sitting patiently for once. The situation was really something if it could get even Pinkie Pie to settle down. There were a few other ponies in the room as well. Most of them being the other few higher ups in the center. Twilight could just make out Shimmer Stardust and Princess Luna's student Midnight Shadow among them...

Drawn neatly and expertly in the ground to one side of the room, was a circle of magic ruins. Big enough to fit something much larger then a normal pony. Twilight was quickly given the answer as to just what, when Princess Luna touched the circle with her magic. Causing the many runes to glow. After a few seconds, in the center of the circle appeared a magical image of Princess Celestia herself. James found the image to be  remarkably similar to a hologram, while Twilight was amazed at this display of magic she hadn't known about before.

"Hello My Little Ponies," Celestia said gently as her image appeared, then turning her head to her sister she asked: "Is everyone present?"

Luna nodded, "We are ready."

"Very well, let us waste no time," Celestia said turning her attention to James, who was still standing by Twilight Sparkle. Directly behind both of them were the humans Kate and Derek. Upon the Princess' attention being on them, all three humans bowed.

"Young human. James I think it was? If you would please inform everypony in this room what happened to you after being given the Ponification serum please." James was a bit startled that it was him that the Princess chose to speak for his kind. However, if what Princess Luna had told him before was correct. Then he himself had been the first. If he thought about it like that, it made sense in a way.

"As you wish," James said while feeling extremely awkward as he spoke. He had been told by Princess Luna not to feel the need to be formal, but it was kind of hard when you had something this magnificent before you. He had felt the same way with Luna, and now BOTH Princess' stood before him!

James went on to explain to them much of what he had just told Twilight in the bus. Though this time he had to use words instead of the mental link like he had done with her. He told them all about what had happened, as well as how they believe it had happened. The last part being aided with input from both Princess Luna and Midnight Shadow themselves. As it was they who had given him the answers to those questions in the first place.

"I see, and your companions back up this claim?" Celestia asked looking toward them.

"We do." Kate said. Derek nodded his agreement.

"The theories make sense," Celestia said without pause. James couldn't help but be impressed. She had just been given a truck load of information, and it hadn't even made her blink. Instead she had simply filed it away and moved on.

"We have many tales that talk of the time before Equestria severed it's link with earth. As well of records of humans once using magic. Though I must ask one question of you. Does your magic work the same was as a unicorn pony's does?"

"No your majesty, I don't believe it does." James replied, feeling a bit of sweat upon his brow. He just couldn't get it out of his head that he was in the presence of not just one, but BOTH of the beings from Equestria that could RAISE the sun and moon. Why did they have to pick HIM to speak? Thoughts of him angering them kept trying to implant themselves in his head. What would they do to him if he said something wrong? Would they lock him away? Or banish him? Or banish him and then lock him away in the place they banished him to?

"The best I can describe it is like this... Uh, your majesty. Imagine that my power is a cup of wine-"

"Like this?" Princess Celestia interrupted James could continue. "But I don't WANT to get up!" Though she had continued to speak in her regular voice, the very fact she HAD done that, caused not only James, but just about every other pony and person to stare at her in stunned silence. About the only pony who hadn't been effected was Princess Luna herself.

"Buh? Wha?" James managed to get out of his mouth as he tried to wrap his head around what he had just seen and heard. Princess Celestia nearly laughed.

"I must beg your pardon, but you've been entirely too nervous. I simply couldn't restrain myself. Even with such important tasks to discuss. But I do implore you, please do not be overwhelmed by my sister and I. We shall do you no harm. That I can promise you."

It took a few minutes for James and the rest of the room to recover. But when they finally did, a lot of the tension that had been hanging in the air had lifted. The seriousness of the matters at hand however, had not.

"R-right. Anyway as I was saying imagine my power as a glass of liquid wine." He swore he could see a faint smile form upon the Princess' lips when he said that word, "Now imagine the wine isn't very good. Not much taste, no fragrance. But it can be used to perform magic, and as we use it our cup empties. Only to refill itself later upon as we rest." James thought about his own explanation for a moment, before something occurred to him. He added:

"I'm not sure what would happen if we used it all up at once, but I'm not too anxious to find out." Many in the room nodded at this.

"However, as we use this whine, it begins to become a bit thicker. A bit richer. The fragrance becomes stronger, the taste a bit sweeter. In time I believe the cup itself could begin to grow. I'm not sure if this is the same for unicorn ponies, but from what I can gather, they can only use their magic for certain things, like moving objects, and small spells. Unless of course, your like Twilight, whose talent IS magic. But ours works in a much different fashion." James paused at that moment so he could fish out a bit of paper from his pocket. He would eventually need something to demonstrate with, and like Derek and Kate, had left his weapons with Princess Luna. Not only as a sign of good faith, but to show they meant no harm to anypony in the room. It wasn't that James thought any of the ponies he knew would fear him specifically. But he wasn't sure how'd they feel about his new human friends.

"We can use our magic to do just about anything we want it to. We can make it become a flame." He summoned a small glow of his energy into the hand that didn't hold the paper, in order to show everyone how it worked. As he did this he could see a few of the ponies in the room gasp. Most of them being the ponies who hadn't just seen him in battle. A human using magic was probably pretty odd to them after all.

"Cool! Can you make Cupcakes appear!?" Pinkie Pie asked him. Twilight rolled her eyes. Guess you couldn't count on Pinkie not being, well PINKIE forever.

"Wha? I... We'll find out later." James said. He didn't feel like arguing with Pinkie Pie. Who was simply nodding happily as she attempted to be quiet again.

"Anyway, other elements can be formed too." James said, attempting to get back on track, "We can even fire off pure blasts of energy if we needed to. Er, I'd like to guess that I don't have to demonstrate that one..."

"Yes I don't believe we need one for that." Celestia said with a smirk, "So does this mean humans can use magic better then most Unicorn ponies?"

"Well... Not exactly" James said, finally making use of the paper.

"While we can move a piece of paper like this around in much same way a Unicorn pony could, they could also most likely do this all day, Or even move dozens of things all at once in several different ways and directions. We humans simply can't, least not that we can figure. It takes a good deal of concentration just to move one thing, it'd be almost impossible to do much more. So far Derek is the only one I've seen who can, and it's only with paper. I can only conclude he can do this, because the familiar thing he based his powers on, was this Read or Die show."

"This anime you spoke of earlier." Princess Celestia said, acknowledging she understood. James nodded before continuing on.

"I'm not certain, but I have a feeling most ponies can use their magic to change various small things in many ways. Such as the color of an item, it's shape, or possibly even it's base compound. We can't. I can shape something into something else, but I need to know enough about it to do so. You may have noticed Spike that my guns aren't replicas of Dante's. It's because I don't know enough about guns to change their design without running the risk of making them unusable. It's why only the colors were changed."

Spike had become rather startled at the mention of his name, but he nodded to confirm James' suspicion that Spike had indeed picked up on that.

"However, our magic is still highly untested and underdeveloped. I have no idea just how much any of us can do yet. But there is one thing we learned to do, that I know Unicorn ponies can not. I doubt they can even learn to do it. And I have a feeling it's the topic you REALLY wish to discuss with us You Majesty."

"The shadows." Princess Celestia said. Her voice remained steady and strong. But it was clear by her tone that it was time to discuss the true reason for this meeting.

"I'll take it from here." Princess Luna said suddenly as she moved closer to the center of the room.

"My time as Nightmare moon lead to my learning a lot about such things as these." She paused slightly, the pain of those memories obviously still haunted her. Celestia sister gave her a comforting look. Luna smiled back her thanks before moving on.

"I could tell from the beginning that those things are made out of very vile emotions. Greed, envy, hatred. All you can think of,  they are made of it. But the problem... the problem is where they are coming from in the first place." All three humans in the room winced. They had been there with her when she pieced this story together earlier. It was not going to be an easy thing for the ponies in the room to hear.

"Yeah? So what IS causing them?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed suddenly, her impatience of the long meeting getting the best of her, "James said it came from humans. So who are making these things? Those Humans in the Liberation Front thingy?"

Princess Luna regarded the blue pegasus with a very sad and pained expression. Even Princess Celestia had a brief hint of pain upon her features. Looking around the room once, Princess Luna dropped her head. It was her sister who had to continue.

"No Rainbow Dash. It's not the humans that are creating these things at all..." Princess Celestia said with a sorrowful voice. Everypony in the room grew deathly quiet at the way their Princess was acting. Twilight herself could hardly breath. She had NEVER seen her mentor act like this. Not in all her time as a student.

Then the Princess finally looked up at her subjects and delivered the horrible truth she had been fearing.

"It is us. We create them with each and every human we ponify..."

Tidbits:

-”Banish him, or lock him away in the place he was banished to” I couldn’t help it. XD I’m sorry I just couldn’t.

-”Hello my Little Ponies” Yeah... I couldn’t help that one either.

-Okay Princess Celestia’s whine. This may be a bit of a stretch, but I can honestly see her doing that.

-I’m not entirely certain on how a unicorn’s magic works in this universe, so bare with me. ^^;

-Yes both Midnight Shadow and Shimmer Stardust are in the room. I figure as long as I don't’ have them say anything I should be fine... Midnight of course being from ‘Midnight’s Tale’ as I’ve mentioned, and Shimmer being my like... 33rd time of referencing Sidelines...

Chapter 12:Acceptence

The ponies had been too shocked to even gasp. They could barely register what their Princess had just told them. Even Twilight was having a hard time wrapping her head around this. She had been going over every possible solution as to why the shadows existed. Why they attacked now. What could have possibly caused them.

But this?

"I feared as much in recent times..." Princess Celestia said, her eyes closed. "My sister and I had felt that something was amiss in the human world. We've felt that something was happening for a while now, but nothing could ever be verified. I had truly hoped the feelings of dread we had been feeling would turn out to be nothing in the end. But it is clear that is not the case. All our efforts to save the humans. To save their planet... We were only causing it a greater pain..."

"But... How can that even be possible!?" Rarity asked. Even with all her grace and control, she looked just as unnerved as the rest of the room's inhabitants.

"When the serum was created. It was a breakthrough of both human science, and Equestria's magic," Princess Luna spoke then, taking over the explanations for her sister. "However... nothing is ever perfect. The serum was no exception."

"We were... foolish..." Luna added slowly, "We wanted to start the conversion process, and the flaw of the serum did not appear as such when this began."

"You see, one of the reasons no one is every upset at being a pony is because a small bit of their negative aspects, most notably the emotional section of the human, is shaved away with magic. It was so they could better accept their new Pony form. A way to help them have no regrets. We figured the alteration was too small to have any real effect, and on humans it was true. Which each human ponifed, and the small bit of negative attributes removed. Each one was able to easily accept being a pony, with out the serum truly altering who they are. Much as any part of the body can heal, so did this small fragment of their being, but..." Princess Luna looked to James, who nodded before continuing.

"But you can't just take away a part of someone and expect it to go away. In time, as the people who become ponies increased, so did these... Fragments of Regret. As time moved along, and their numbers increased, we believe they began to group together. To evolve. Princess Luna told me of the shivers and feelings of dread that had been plaguing many a pony and person. I had thought when I felt it, it was just my regrets of not being able to remain human getting to me. But it was because the shadows were getting stronger. So much that we began to feel them as they grew."

"Then... then everything we've been doing...." Rarity said, voicing the thoughts of many in the room.

"Was creating a new threat to their world. To OUR world..." Princess Celestia said with regret. Everything they had been doing up to this point had been for naught. What good was it if they saved all the humans, only to feed them to a race of shadows they themselves had brought upon the world?

Twilight didn't know if she was taking any of this harder then any other pony in the room, but it certainly felt that way to her. Everything she remembered a few of her human friends telling her was true. They weren't there to save the world. They really WERE invaders. The Human Liberation Front may as well have been right. All they had done was bring a new form of destruction to the world.

What were they even suppose to do now? What COULD they do now? How could they possibly even ATTEMPT to make up for all this?!

"Your Majesty's, can I say one thing?" James said, attempting to stand as tall as he could. It was funny, He thought. Not just a few minutes ago was I afraid of being banished or locked away. Now here I am about to say this...

"You may speak." Princess Celestia told him. Even James could see the curiosity in her eyes. Everypony in the room was staring directly at him.

So much for making this EASY... James thought before steeling his nerves the best he could.

"I think you should re-open the Ponification Centers."

The response was what one would expect. Gasps all around. Even Pinkie Pie looked horror stricken.

"What in HEAVENS are you talking about!?" Rarity asked exasperated. Many of the ponies nodded in agreement.

"Please, let me finish..." James asked holding up his hand.

"But what you're suggesting-!" Rainbow Dash screamed.

"I know what I'm suggesting, but-"

"Sounds ta me like ya lost your marbles there if ya ask me!" Applejack scoffed. Many of the other ponies seemed like they wanted to say more. Princess Celestia was about to shout for an end to it all, when a familiar voice beat her to it.

"Let him finish!" Twilight screamed, causing everypony to become silent once more. Her friends were only able to stare at her blankly.

"But Twi..." Applejack tried to say, but Twilight held up her hoof.

"I don't think James would say such a thing if there wasn't a reason. He saved my lives. He helped Rose get over her fear of becoming a pony, when he himself was just as frightened. Do you really think he would say something like that without reason?"

None of the others could find it in them to argue with her after that. One by one, the nodded to show they would hear him out. Princess Celestia was rather impressed with her student. She was a fine leader indeed.

"Thank you Twilight." James told her before taking a deep breath.

"The reason the ponification began was to help us humans get use to the new world that would eventually become our home right?. To survive that we HAD to become ponies correct? Look I don't know how much time my world has as it is. But I do know that your intentions for giving us a better life weren't wrong. You never tried to force us. You only offered us a path, and many took it. In time maybe that would have lead to a problem, but we don't' have the liberty to discuss that now. The serum was imperfect, and now we have a problem on our hands."

"Then why do you want to continue using the serum? Won't that just create more of the problem?" Rainbow Dash asked. It was refreshing to see that her question was more out of curiosity then animosity this time.

"Because we have a way to deal with that problem, now that we know it exists." James said causing a small glow of energy to appear in one hand. "We know that the serum creates a shadow the second a person is ponifed right? Well with that knowledge, we can set something up to destroy the fragment as quickly as it's made. Princess Luna herself was able to drive out the shadows of the town my friends and I had been trapped in. I think it wouldn't be a problem to work some sort of magic that would vanquish them as soon as they are shaved off. Perhaps in time we can even develop a serum that doesn't cause the shave effect." A few of the ponies in the room nodded at this. Not all were convinced however.

"But what about the ones already created? What do we do about them?" One of the other higher ups asked.

"That is the other reason I think we should re-open the centers." James said. At this his two human friends stepped up to stand beside him.

"The serum caused a reaction no one had ever anticipated. Instead of a pony, you got us. We... Human Fragments I suppose you could call us. Humans who have been given the gift of continuing our race."

"Life will find a way." Kate said with a smirk. Derek groaned. James just ignored the statement completely.

"By continuing with the process, more of us may be created. The eleven of us we believe to exist will not be enough. Even if we can find them, there are simply too many shadows for us to handle alone. We NEED more like us. More humans who can sense the Shadows. I'm not sure why we can sense them, but I'm sure that's what you wanted to ask us to begin with. Wasn't it your majesty?" He asked bowing to Princess Celestia.

"It was. I had hoped my sister would have dispelled my fears of the shadow's creations. I had hoped that it was merely something the HLF or some other faction had unknowingly created. My hopes was that you would join us in defeating this new threat... Would you swear to that even now? Even though it is the very ponies who stand before you who created this great foe?"

"I don't know about my friends, but I will pledge myself to the cause. If not for you, I'd never have gotten the very magic that flows through my body even now. If I had never met Twilight, or any of you ponies," James said looking at each of the ponies he had meet over his course in the center, "I may not have even had the strength to be in this very room right now. I don't believe this is a time for accusing each other of our sins in the past. I think it would be much better to instead, fight for our future!" James winced inwardly. Had he really just spoken something so corny out loud?

"I'm with James!" Derek said. James had bowed before Celestia while he had been speaking, and now Derek moved to join him.

"I may only have known the guy for a couple of weeks now, but the time we spent in that town is a time I shall never forget. I'll gladly help him, and the rest of you, to build a better world."

"I too must pledge my alliance." Kate said, joining her two friends, "I could not act like a Jedi if I was to abandon my friends, and my world, now!"

"I too think this is the best action." Twilight said then stepping to stand besides James and his friends. "I trust James. I think it's best if we do what we can to fix our mistakes. The world still has time yet." She smiled at the surprised look James had given her at that. To think with just a few words he had managed to give her hope again.

"My dear faithful student Twilight, you are truly wise." Princess Celestia said, a smile returning to her lips.

"You are all quite right indeed. It's only fair we correct the mistake we have made. But we can't just start the Bureau's back up immediately. I'll need time to get everything ready. Which includes finding the other members of your... Unique specifications." She looked to James as she said this.

"Do you have any leads as to where they may be?" James asked hopefully. Celestia nodded.

"With my sister being able to study how your magic works, we have a much better way of tracking you down. I've already sent some of my scouts to round them up." Princess Celestia said, "However, this brings us to one final question I must ask of you. Do you think it's possible for humans like those in the HLF to gain magic?"

"I can't tell you for sure..." James responded slowly, but truthfully, "But if I had to guess? The prospect seems rather slim. The magic you use to transform people into ponies isn't evil. As I'm sure you know, while magic can be harnessed and used, it also tends to have a mind of it's own. I think the reason it let us remain human and become like this is because it knew we were good people. I doubt it'd aid in those who wished to use their power for evil. But again, I have no way of confirming this for you. It may be a risk we just have to take..."

"I must agree with James' reasoning." Luna followed, "I don't think I could have become Nightmare Moon if the magic hadn't been able to sense my foolish jealousy. I don't doubt that magic could also refused to transform someone if it doesn't find the right mindset in it's host. But as such, we do not know enough of this power to be certain..."

"Please do not be so hard on yourself dear sister." Princess Celestia said then, noticing the scorn in her sisters voice when she mentioned her past as Nightmare Moon. "Was it not James who just said not to worry about the mistakes of our past? You know I love you dearly sister. Nopony here would hold anything Nightmare Moon did against you!" Princess Luna gave a small smile saying that she would be okay, before they returned to the task at hand.

"I apologize sister. I let my memories get in the way of what I was attempting to say." Luna said, "But even if the serum can give those humans magic, I agree with something else James said. I really don't think we have a choice at this moment. We will simply have to be very careful in which ever way we proceed. Which brings me to one final thing I'd like to say."

"What's that dear sister?" Princess Celestia inquired. Though she had a feeling she already knew what her sister was going to say. It was the same thing that had been gnawing at the back of her own mind, given the information they had pieced together.

"I am concerned at the lack of action from the Human Liberation Front. At first we assumed they were behind the Ponification failures. But it is clear they are not. They are also not the ones responsible for the shadows. So just what ARE they doing right now?"

"I have been wondering the same thing." Princess Celestia said with concern. "I can't imagine they don't know something about what is going on. I fear that we don't only have the shadows to worry about. Whatever the HLF are up to. I have no doubt in my mind, that they'd find this to be the perfect time to put it in action. We must be prepared My Little Ponies, and my human friends. I fear dark times are approaching..."

The weight of what she had just said fell upon all who were present. Even Pinkie Pie didn't feel much like a party with things as they were. Least until she realized that by HAVING a party now, when things were so dark was the perfect time to raise everyone's spirits. She was already mentally making notes of what she would need when Princess Celestia spoke again.

"For now, I think we have spoken enough of the matters at hand. We can continue to discuss what must be done tomorrow. But for now. I think everypony and person, could use some rest!"

Those present could only nod in approval. Though it was barely early in the evening, with everything that had just been said, it was no surprise that more then one could feel the strain of events wearing them down. With a few sprinkles of small talk. The meeting came to an end.

Epilogue:

"I thought I'd find you here." Twilight said as she trotted up. James stopped cleaning the frame of his motorbike with the rag he had been using, so he could wave in her direction.

"Out for a walk?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Looking for you obviously." Twilight said before levitating the stuffed panda Bamboo from her back and over to James. "This is for you. Rose told me to give him to you so you'd 'Get better'"

His eyebrow raised, "You told her I hurt myself?"

"Well I couldn't very well tell her you disappeared into thin air."

"You have a point there. I wonder what I'm going to tell her when I see her again?"

"Well I'll help you there. I was the one who had to lie to her..."

"I'm sorry."

"You've told me. It's okay, well okay it's NOT okay, but I'll manage." Twilight was still a bit hurt at everything that had happened, but the thought of him just being alive kept seeming to creep into her mind and cancel out any anger she might have felt.

"Why don't we both talk to her together? Sound good?" Twilight asked him. James nodded, smiling.

"Sounds good." He said.

It had been a little over an hour after the meeting had let out. Twilight had stayed to chat with many of her pony friends while James and his human friends had spoken a few more words with the Princess'. Before she had realized it, James and his friends had left. But it wasn't hard for her to guess he'd come here eventually.

She could almost laugh at the predictability of it. He really did like that stupid bike of his. So much that he had been willing to ship it to Equestria, even though at the time he had thought he'd be a pony by now. But that had not happened. How would she have ever guessed it'd all lead to this?

"What do you think will happen now?" Twilight asked quietly. James shrugged.

"I know as much as you Twilight. The world is going to change. Even more then it did when you came here to open the Bureau's. There are nine other humans out there with magic like me, and two enemies to us all, massing their forces. All I know is that I'm going to do my part to help everyone. Honestly? I don't know what else to do with this power..." James said as he gazed steadily at his hands.

"But... You're happy?" Twilight asked. James nodded.

"I am. I never thought I'd be so happy just to be human, but I am. Not only that but I'm given the gift of magic as well. What a shock huh? A poor boy like me being one of the last humans to remain. I guess given this chance I just want to help save my race from extinction..."

"Like by... replicating?" Twilight asked with a bit of a blush as she asked. No sooner had she asked that then did James' cheeks become as rosy as hers were.

"W-what!? T-that's not what I meant! I just meant that I should find a way to insure my races survival that's all!" Twilight wasn't normally one to tease, but she just couldn't help herself then. The look James had on his face was just too funny.

"Well reproduction would achieve that." His cheeks became redder.

"Don't you have files to organize or something?" He said while crossing his arms. She could only grin wider.

"Oh? Are you saying you don't want my company?"

"Of course I'm not, I love spending time with you-"James began before stopping abruptly. He hadn't meant to say it quite like that. Unable to figure out what to say next, he simply decided to say nothing at all. Twilight on the other hand found herself blushing as much as James was. Why was it that those words seemed to shake her so?

Not even sure where the question came from, Twilight found she was asking it before she could even stop herself.

"James..." She began, feeling oddly embarrassed. "Do you... do you have any regrets about remaining human?" Twilight figured his response would be to inquire why she wanted to know. But to her surprise, he didn't answer immediately. Instead he seemed to look off into the distance for a bit.

In his mind a brief image flashed. It was him as a pony. Having some afternoon tea, well coco for him, with a certain purple unicorn pony. James smiled at the picture. He guessed he probably did feel that way. But with the way things had turned out? His eyes seemed to sigh.

She probably wouldn't have gone for me anyway.

"Maybe, but it's a secret." James replied with a grin.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Twilight fumed, but he just laughed.

"Sorry Twi. Maybe later, but right now I'm still getting use to everything, and I've still got a lot more I'm going to have to deal with." Twilight really wanted to pursue the issue, but realized it was no use at the moment.

"You ready for what might happen next?" James asked suddenly. She had to shake her head.

"I doubt any of us are. But we'll manage. Can I count on you to help me out if I need it?"

"We're friends aren't we? There isn't much I wouldn't do for you." He replied.

"That mean you'll tell me what the secret is?" He laughed again.

"I said there isn't much, not that there isn't anything. So no, that's one of the things I won't."

"Meanie!" She said, mimicking Rose's voice. Both of them cracked up laughing at that. Taking several minutes before they had collected themselves and fallen into silence once more.

"So given any thoughts on what you're new breed of humans is called?" She asked after a while. James shook his head.

"Nothing really comes to mind. It's ironic. In a way we are just like the shadows. Fragments of humanity. Them of our regrets, and us? Well I don't know..." James said staring up into the sky.

"Hmm, fragments maybe, but not of any regrets I assure you. I guess if you look at it. You're sort of a fragment of hope."

"Fragments of Hope..." James said mulling it over. "I guess you're right. I kinda like that..."

* * *

Far from the Ponification Center from where Twilight and James were sharing their conversation even now, stood a very peculiar man. Though he was a young man, seeming to be in his late twenties, you could tell with but a glance that he was not only intelligent, but rather wise as well. It was in the way he carried himself. The way his eyes seemed to analyze everything around him with fierce intensity.

His current fascination was the magical wall that stood before him. Stretching out in both directions for as far as he could see. Their glow reflecting of the small pair of spectacles he wore rather ominously. Brushing a bit of dirt from his business suit, he grinned a rather cocky grin.

"So this is the fabled wall of the Equestrian border." He spoke out loud. There was no one standing near him. It seemed the man merely liked speaking to himself.

"The magical border that keeps all humans from entering it's luscious lands. Ripe full of knowledge and opportunity. Selfishly keeping anyone who dares not become a quadruped from it's riches!" The man flung his arms out to his sides, as if he was an actor in a great play.

"However, if one was to be given the opportunity to... Discard their humanity, by a certain agreement with some most interesting creatures. Would they too be shunned by the very force that sprawls before I?" The human said while looking at his right hand. With nothing more then a bemused expression. He placed the hand upon the wall before him. A blackish red substance flowing over it as he did. Slowly, his hand sank through the wall as if it was made of water.

"But with such fruits for me to acquire who, shall I ask, needs to be human?"

The man pushed through the wall completely. Walking out on the other side in Equestria...

The Conversion Bureau: Fragments of Regret:

END

This tale has ended, but the story continues on:

The Conversion Bureau: Fragments of Hope

Coming Sometime...

Tidbits and Final Notes:

-"Life will find a way" Jurassic Park anyone?

-If any of you guessed that the man at the end was based off of Lezard Valeth. Give your self a whole BUCKET of cookies. You rock!

-This is the end of this story. My GOD I never thought it'd take this much time to write. Nor did I ever think it'd become this long. 97 pages not counting the tidbits/notes. I simply can NOT believe that I wrote all this based on a fanfiction. Even more so that the fanfiction was based on a My Little Pony show. I've written some things before, but nothing THIS long.

I am happy to say this is the longest story, with chapters and everything, that I have ever written, and I had a blast doing it.

So what about that little teaser at the end hinting at another story? Well, much as it surprises me. While I was writing this, an entire OTHER HALF of the story began to form in my mind. I already have ideas of where it'll go after this. So when would one possible expect to see this story?

I hate to say it, but I don't know. This one took SOOOOOO much out of me that it's not funny. For the last month I've been working on this story with about every free moment I've been given.

Will I get around to writing 'Fragments of Hope'? Oh I can't avoid that now. I doubt the rest of the story will let me get away with not writing it. But as for how long till I begin work on it?

Well much as I know I sound like a real douche right here. It really depends on the demand for a sequel story. If people do want to read it, I think I'll end up working on it a lot sooner rather then later. But if no one is really interested. Well I'll just sit back and take my time for a while. Regardless of what happens, I think I need at least a short break from writing.

Anyway, for those of you who read this and enjoyed it. I'm very VERY happy I was able to bring some entertainment to your day. ^_^

It's been a dream of mine for a long time to create something that others would enjoy. I'm not sure if I'm there yet, I know I still have a lot to learn about writing, but I'm trying.

Again thank you all! With luck I'll see you all again in the future!

Chapter 2: Who Am I?

The darkness was finally abating, her body regaining the simple ability to feel. Sounds began to drift into her ears: the soft chirping of crickets, the leaves rustling in the wind. She felt as if a dream was giving away to the waking world, accompanied by a dull throbbing in her head.

"Uhhhh," she moaned while placing a hand upon her forehead, forgoing the simple realization that she could in fact move her hand for the first time in what felt like forever. She had been trapped in that suffocating darkness for so long, her body sluggishly attempting to readjust to the outside world. Amidst this bodily crisis, she struggled to figure out where exactly she was.

Trying to ignore the throbbing in her head, she realized with a start that she couldn’t remember anything. No memories occupied her mind earlier than when she had just woken up and the dreams she had witnessed in her sleep.

Panic began to well up within her. What was the last thing she recalled? The images of  Dr. Marcus talking to someone else. But what about before that? Trying to recall any other memories only seemed to worsen her headache, and even past that there was nothing else she could find in her head. Nothing but a jumbled mess of sounds and colors.

She felt some sort of tingling sensation across her entire body, presumably a side effect of her sleep. Forcing her mind to clear, she tried to focus on simply remaining calm. She had to hold on to herself to figure things out. She needed to asses everything that was happening to her to figure out a proper course of action. She was awake for one. She could move her body for another. She could even feel the soft blades of grass brushing against her skin where it was exposed. All good signs that she was once again in control of her body. Certainly some good news.

Opening her eyes, she let her vision clear and sharpen as they took a quick survey of her surroundings. She could see the night sky, along with a line of trees in the distance. She finally took note of the rough feel of bark against her back. She sat there soaking in the night sky for a few seconds, simply enjoying the ability to feel again when her eyes fell upon the lone figure standing before her.

"A pony?" she said rather confused. It wasn't a normal pony either, but one that seemed like it should appear out of place to her, yet for some odd reason felt rather familiar. The pony's coat was of a sky blue color, his mane a brilliant white. A picture of a comet upon it’s hind quarters. Why was it that this odd colored creature seemed so common to her? She wracked her brain, trying to focus through it's jumbled mess. Thankfully, it appeared to be much easier for her to remember general knowledge, then it was for her past.

The Conversion Bureaus. Places that had been turning humans into ponies so they could eventually migrate to Equestria for a better life. Her memories were still very jumbled, but these places stood out clearly in her mind. Perhaps that's where this little guy was from?

"Oh yeah, those Conversion Bureau things, You're from one of those right?" She said without thinking. Slowly more and more of the basic knowledge of things were falling into place in her head. She already knew what the items were in her surroundings, and she was beginning to recall simple things, basic knowledge filling her head as if it never left. Yet anything about who she was, or why she had been in that capsule continued to elude her.

The pony on the other hand, seemed confused by her statement. The odd look he was giving her said it all. Why was he giving her such an odd look? She didn't dream about the Conversion Bureau's did she?

"Um... Not exactly..." he responded slowly. His response implied that he had knowledge of the bureaus, but why did he say that he wasn’t? She thought it over for a moment before the obvious answer came to her, making her feel rather silly for not realizing it sooner.

"Oh DUH! You must be an Equestrian pony just out for a walk or something," she said, before having to hold her head from another rebound of the headache. She had hoped she might be able to clear away the rest of the fog in her brain by now, which would enable her to recall who she was. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like that was going to happen. It appeared the only source of information available to her was in the form of the young pegasus standing before her, his inquisitive gaze locked upon her.

"I... I don't suppose you know what I'm doing out here?" she asked the silent pony. Unsurprisingly, he seemed as much, if not more confused than she was. Being the only creature that could understand her for as far as she could see, she hoped that he could prove helpful. Her heart sank at the shake of his head. It seemed he wasn’t going to be able to provide her with the help she wanted. She sighed inwardly at the news.

"Figures. Gah, my head,” she said grabbing her pounding forehead once more. The headache always seemed to flare up when she tried to remember anything, making it a challenge to think at all. "My mind seems all messed up right now. Look, uh..."

She stopped, realizing how rude she had been. Here she was asking questions of this pony, and she had never even asked for his name! Thankfully her sudden pause and the look she gave him, told the pony the question she wanted to ask.

"Oh... I'm Windchaser!" he replied cheerfully, excited that he was finally able to reply to a question fully. The look he was giving her was an odd one; he seemed almost transfixed with her. What was so special about her that was causing such weird looks?

"Windchaser..." She quietly repeated. The name had a wonderful ring to it, but that wasn't important right now. His name aside, the first thing she figured she should do was get to some sort of hospital, or find someone who knew about Dr. Marcus. Windchaser had to know at least where she could find a hospital.

"You wouldn't happen to know where a hospital is? Or clinic? I think anyplace that has humans would be good, even a bureau. I seem to have quite the headache... Even some Advil or Tylenol would be nice..." She was rambling, and the tingling in her body hadn't gone away. The sensation was only adding to the discomfort she was already feeling from the pounding in her head.

"Well uh..." Windchaser responded before gulping. The hesitation in his response didn’t bode well.

Don't tell me I'm in some far off area of the country where the nearest civilization is literally hundreds of miles away... She thought gravely. When Windchaser finally began to speak again, it was in a slow deliberate manner, as if he was preparing her for something big.

"Look, I doubt you are going to believe me, but the truth is that I just found you in a capsule. I'd say you've been in there for uh... a while..."

"A capsule? Oh yeah... I was wasn't I?" She said, her brain piecing things together again. She had been inside some sort of capsule when Dr. Marcus had been talking in her dream. So it HADN’T been a dream after all! But if he knew about the capsule, how did she get out? *More importantly, what was she doing in it in the first place?

"Wait do you know why? Do you know what happened!?" Her frustration had begun to give way to panic. She could feel a part of her wanting to lash out at the pegasus, and was struggling to hold herself back. The cracks in her fragile mind began spreading out. All the emotions she had been trying to hold back began to swell within her...

"I don't!" Windchaser said quickly, "I just found you here! I don't know anything else!" She backed off, feeling foolish for wanting to assault him like that. But this only meant that her situation was getting worse. She had been in a capsule, she didn't know why, and she didn't know what had been done to her while in it. Now here she was in some mysterious place, with scant a memory of her past to aid her.

She could feel her body begin to shake. I can't do it! She thought desperately to herself. I can't hold it all in! It's just too much...

"I see..." She said quietly, her head in her hands once more. She felt nearly defeated. What was she supposed to do with no memory? Did her parents even know she was missing? Did she even have parents?

She froze for a second. Surely someone was looking for her.

A horrible thought entered her brain. Windchaser had been talking to her in the manner a doctor did when he had to deliver some rather bad news. He had also said he believed she had been in that capsule for a 'while'  How long was a 'while'? She looked up at him once more. Deathly afraid to ask the question she knew she had to ask...

"There's... There's more isn't there?" She managed to force out. As it was the question was asked rather slowly. Upon seeing the colt nod, her body tensed up in fear. Somehow she knew she wasn't going to like the answer he gave her. She was vaguely aware of the tingling in her body having gotten worse as the conversation had gone on. For the first time, she also seemed to notice an odd buzzing noise coming from around her. Why did that sound so familiar?

"When I said you've probably been asleep for a while? Well, that's because well... There ARE no Conversion Bureaus around, or human hospitals, or clinics. Uh... The thing is... There haven't been any humans in New Equestria for a while. You're the only one..." he said, apprehensively.

Time seemed to slow for the girl. The words tearing through her heart like a bullet. She should laugh off the ridiculous claim. She should believe his words to be wrong. Believe that she was being pranked, lied to. But she couldn’t. Something in her told  her that he wasn’t wrong. She knew she should believe him, but didn’t know why. Didn’t want to accept it. But the words Dr. Marcus had spoken. The feeling in her gut...

"You're lying..." She said, stunned. It was the only thing she had found herself able to say. There was no way to prove his story as the truth, but the bluntness of the fact struck her in such a way that she couldn’t articulate anything else. In the few moments since he laid the truth on her, she began to feel a cacophony of emotions beginning to well up inside her, begging for her to release them. The cracks that had appeared in her mind reaching the breaking point...

"It's not..." Windchaser tried to continue, but was interrupted by the buzzing sound again. It sounded like his ear was next to an extremely angry hornet’s nest, thousands of wings beating in unison. But there were no wings, nor hornets with them; just Windchaser and the girl by themselves in the clearing.

The girl began to feel a strange stimulation on her skin: a sort of crawling and tingling, spreading across every inch of her body. It caused her no pain, but its presence was enough to shatter any kind of mental stability she had been clinging to.

The girl absent-mindedly stood up, her expression difficult for Windchaser to decipher. She took a few unstable paces along the grass, her glossy eyes staring ahead. “It’s over...” she whispered to herself, while turning around to face where she had come. A few more haphazard steps backward before she came to a halt. “The human race is over... They’re all gone...” She fell to her knees, staring at the craggy bark of the oak tree before her.

Windchaser had been watching her the entire time, but it wasn’t until she stopped walking that he noticed the buzzing wasn’t as subtle anymore, but was more akin to a screaming roar. Windchaser had to cover his ears from the deafening noise, but through squinted eyes, he kept his gaze glued to the blue haired girl before him.

"What happened!? Who am I!? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!?" She screamed, her hands gripping her head as she moaned in anguish. But what WIndchaser thought was sorrow and misery quickly changed. She was in some sort of unbelievable pain, and it wasn’t long until he saw what was causing it.

White-blue arcs of light began to jump from her body to the ground in blinding flashes, illuminating the sky above them. Her body gave off a continuous bluish glow, the lightning coursing along her skin, jumping from her gown to the dirt below her. The flashes were paired with deafening cracks of thunder, and they were speeding up. Windchaser looked from behind his hooves to behold the girl.

It took some time for the girl to realize herself what she was doing, the pain in her head falling from her main worry. She stared at her arms, the blue arcs zipping along towards her fingers. As she watched them, her mind began to creep back to her blank memory. What had Marcus done to her? Was she just a science project for his sick and twisted schemes? Was she really so worthless to him? Her mind kept feeding on these painful thoughts, until she felt like she was going to erupt.

She stretched her arms to the sky, and let out a piercing scream to the heavens above. Arcs of electricity raced into the sky from her fingertips, illuminating the sky for miles around. Feeling no physical pain as her body discharged this alien energy to the environment around her.

Windchaser watched as the tendrils of lightning began to spread out around the girl, licking the great oak, chipping off pieces of bark and leaving blackened scorch marks in their wake.

"No stop!" He pleaded, attempting to get in between her and the tree. “Don't hurt him! Please, I beg you!"

His cries barely registered in her head. Don't hurt who? The tree? She thought absently as tears began to flow from her eyes. Why should I care about a stupid tree? Someone had robbed me of my life! My home! My family! What do I have now? A freak with no past, and no future... The girl stared up at the sky through a haze of tears.

You are alive, aren’t you? So long as you have the will to live, nothing can rob you of your future.

"Are you insane!?" She found herself screaming to the sky. For a moment Windchaser thought she was talking to him, and was about to brace himself for a fight. If she didn’t care what happened to those around her, he would have to put a stop to it. But she kept screaming out before the thought could take any concrete form. “What good am I? A lone human in a world of ponies? Why am I even here!?"

Don't you think that's a good question to seek the answer to?

The maelstrom in her heart halted abruptly. It was a valid question. The realization of that shocked her, causing the panic in her to falter. With her mind clear again, another voice began to speak to her from her few memories.

"I'm sorry... Oh please forgive me I'm so sorry..." She heard Dr. Marcus say once more. The same warm feeling came over her at the sound of his voice. He wasn't an enemy. She just knew that to be true. She had to trust that feeling. It was all she had.

"I've done you a terrible wrong my dear. I've done you all a terrible, terrible wrong. But you must survive. You must remain human. You are the last hope of a doomed Earth. An Earth that even now believes itself to be on the path to peace..."

He was counting on her! She couldn't let him down. She had to be strong. She had to seek out the answers to her many questions. She couldn't do that if she gave up.

She could feel the energy within her building. The bolts were getting stronger. One particularly large one struck what appeared to be a metal black rose near her. More and more of her bolts followed, drawn to its metal.

"Warning! SyStEm DaM--- aGe...." The onboard AI spoke before it’s voice changed to a loud static, interrupted the message before becoming silent. The girl’s bolts continued, one of them shattering the glass that had been the tube containing her.

"Stop it!" She heard Windchaser scream. "You're going to destroy everything!"

"I... I can't stop it! I don't know how I'm doing it!" She cried in horror through the blue glow encasing her. "It's... it's too much! I can't control it!" She screamed, "Get out of here!" She turned to face Windchaser as she did, only to see him stead fast before the tree she had been leaning up against when she awoke. His eyes were the most determined she had ever seen upon anyone, or anypony as the case was.

"I won't leave! I won't let you hurt my dad!" he screamed at her. What he was saying didn't make any sense. What dad? They were the only ones here. Was he crazy? If he stayed... If she continued...

I'll kill him.

The thought was sudden and concrete. If she didn't learn how to control this energy and fast. She'd kill the pony before her. She'd become a murderer. No! She REFUSED to let that happen!

Summoning all the strength of will she could muster, she did everything she could to stop the bolts from flying out from her body. Against all of her efforts, the ferocity of the discharge only increased, her willpower faltering.

No! No calm down! You can do this! She screamed at herself in her mind. She felt the charge begin to falter instead of her willpower this time. Was it working? Was she going to make it? Then it struck her...

"That's it!" She screamed out loud, startling the stoic Windchaser, who was still protecting the tree. This had all started when she had begun to panic. The energy was probably linked to her emotions! She needed to calm down. She needed to control herself, and if she was right, hopefully the energy would abate down as well.

Taking deep breaths, she attempted to get herself under control. Pleased to discover that with each breath, not only was she feeling more in control of herself again, but also in control of the energy. It was receding rapidly, perfectly timed with her breathing.

She had no idea how long she sat there wrestling with the energy and her own emotions, but eventually all was quiet again. Windchaser wasn't in danger of her power anymore, and the hill wasn’t in danger of being torn apart. But now she could feel the energy within her, waiting patiently to be called on again. It hadn't been so prominent when she had first woken up, so why is it like this now? She hadn't even realized it was there after all, but now she could feel it perfectly. Felt it simmering within her. All she had to do was reach for it... and she could let it out again.

But could she stop it? It was something she dared not attempt. Something she hoped she’d never have to deal with. But she knew how that would most likely play out. She had a feeling the time would come again... But she hoped that it never would...

Regardless, that wasn't something she had to worry about now. Right now she had to figure out a plan. She should probably begin with apologizing to Windchaser.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." she said weakly. She felt like the wind had been knocked out of her, her breathing coming to her in ragged gasps. If it wasn't for the fact she was in the middle of a field with nowhere to go, she'd go to sleep right there and then. Sadly she was here, and still had things to do.

"It's... it's okay. You didn't hurt dad," he said, regarding her with caution.

Windchaser didn't know what to make of her. He was worried she would hurt his dad for a while, but it was pretty clear that she had regained control of herself somehow. But still, that power she displayed... Why did she have it? Why did the IHSA create such a thing-

The IHSA! The word triggered his memories. Mr. Quill was part of that once right? Maybe he'd know something? Now that he thought about it, what else could he do with this human girl? If she was seen by other ponies, they might freak out. Seeing a human again after all this time without seeing one? Panic would be inevitable. He certainly couldn't take her home after all, he didn't want to even imagine what Auntie Sunny would say!

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made to take this girl to Mr. Quill's. He only hoped his teacher didn't give him detention for waking him up so late.

"Um..." he began before realizing he didn't know her name. He had given his, but never got hers in return. "Um, say, what IS your name?"

The look the girl gave him was heart wrenching. It was just so... sad.

"I... I don't know." she said quietly, the tears slowly falling from her eyes. She may have gotten her panic under control, but that didn't mean she was fine now.

"I don't know who I am, I don’t know why I'm here, I don't even know what my favorite color is... I have no past.... I don't know what I’m supposed to do..." Windchaser was worried the electricity would start back up, but the air remained silent. He needn’t have worried. All the girl felt was numb.

"Well the tube you were in had ‘Unit Seven’ written on it. Could that be your name?" he asked. He had to admit, it was a weird name to have, but humans did have different names then ponies. After all, his father was named Isaac, and he had never met a pony with a name like that. Though he had to admit that a number didn't seem like much of a name. To his surprise, the girl almost laughed at his question.

"Hardly, no one would have a name like that. That’s just what whoever put me in there regarded me as...” her smile gave way to a frown. “Just a number. I suppose it's better then nothing, or 'Hey you' though. I guess Seven it is. For now at least."

Windchaser once again regarded this girl with awe and confusion. Not five minutes ago, she had been lighting up the hill with some weird power, and now she was sitting there calmly, almost acting as if nothing had ever happened. She certainly was a strange human.

Wait, he thought. Lighting up the hill... Surely somepony might have seen that and are on their way to investigate.

"Look, I think we'd better get out of here!" he said quickly. He only hoped she was able to remain calm enough to hear him out. "Whatever you did earlier might attract some unwanted attention. So, I think we'd better get you someplace else and fast. I think I know of a pony that might be able to help you. We'll go see him."

"Better then any plan I could come up with. I don't even know where I am." Seven said dejectedly. "But what about that thing?"

Windchaser turned his gaze toward the direction Seven was looking to see the black rose construct sitting half destroyed upon the hill. That would raise some questions to anypony who saw it.

"Uh.. can't you tell it to like, hide itself or something?" Seven’s head dropped down, her bangs half-covering her face. She looked through them at the pony, slightly annoyed. It was the same look Auntie Sunny gave him before a lecture.

"You kidding? I'm not sure where it even came from, or why I was in it," she said, her tone matching Auntie Sunny's as well. He sighed. He had been afraid she'd answer like that.

"We'll have to ask Mr. Quill about that as well, which means we better hurry," he said, about to leap into the air, his wings spread out and ready. He stopped himself just in time to remember that the human most certainly couldn't fly with him.

"Er, you can't fly can you?" he asked. Seven shook her head in response. He sighed again. Why did this day have to turn out like this? It had been going so well!

"Walking it is then. Let's try to get there as soon as possible. If we’re lucky, we might be able to have something done about this before any other pony notices.”

Seven merely nodded and fell into step behind him, though she had only taken a few before she stumbled. Windchaser quickly offered his body as support for her to lean on. She gave him a sheepish smile for thanks before heading off with him once more. Windchaser was only happy that Mr. Quill happened to live towards the edge of town, closer to the mountain.

*        *        *

Windchaser hastily knocked at the wooden door to the small, single story house. The entirety of the town was silent, aside from the constant chirping of insects hidden within the scattered foliage. The venture back into town was a panicked one; Windchaser didn’t want anypony to see Seven. He was still certain that the idea of humans still being around might give rise to unwanted panic.

Windchaser tapped his hoof nervously staring at the door. Seven was obscured in the bushes at his request, waiting for the time to move. If that time ever came. He knocked louder this time, almost hurting his hooves in the process. Finally, he began to hear steps coming from within the house, followed along with deep grumbles.

“Oy! You have any bloody idea what time it is?! Come back in the morning, and MAYBE I’ll let you in!” Mr. Quill shouted form inside the house, not even opening the door.

“Mr. Quill! It’s Windchaser! Open up, please! I really need to talk!”

The grumbles faded, and the steps grew louder as the door began to open, revealing a very disheveled pony in the doorway. His pitch-black mane stuck out in all directions, matted to his muzzle in other places. His dark green coat was nearly invisible in the night, save for the otherworldly glow that came from the moon.

“Isaa-“ Mr. Quill began. “No… Windchaser. Why in god’s name are you out so late? Granted it’s the weekend, but why are you here?”

“Um… I have something to show you…” Windchaser froze for a second, hoping that coming here was the right decision. Playing out all of his paranoid scenarios in his head and their potentially disastrous consequences, he took a deep breath. “Come on out, Seven.”

Seven heard the cue, and began to shuffle through the wild bushes near the house. She nearly tripped, pulling her leg out from the bush behind her, but she quickly regained her composure. Her smooth blue hair and ivory skin glowed bright in the moonlight, but that was not the reason Mr. Quill was mesmerized with her.

“You two. In here. Now.”

*               *               *

Windchaser sat on the sofa in the living room, right next to a panicked seven. Mr. Quill paced back and forth, his brow furled in thought. He hadn’t said a word since they sat down, and what he was thinking was anyone’s guess.

“Mr. Quill…”

“Windchaser, you of all ponies should address me as Quincy. And as for you,” Quincy said, eyeing the girl, who flinched at the harshness of his tone. “Who are you?”

“I don’t know.”

Rubbing a hoof on his forehead, he continued. “Why are you here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Fine then, who sent you?”

“I don’t know!”

“WELL THEN WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU KNOW?!” Quincy shouted. Seven shrunk into her seat at the remark, tears forming in her eyes, her breathing growing faster and heavier. A slight buzzing sound began to reach Windchaser’s ears, one that was all too familiar to the pegasus.

“Q-Quincy! Calm down! Please! Just take it easy on her!” Windchaser pleaded. If this kept up, he didn’t want to be anywhere near Seven.

“I’m sorry Windchaser, but this isn’t right. She’s human! She should be dead the instant she set foot here!” Quincy connected eyes with Seven for a moment. His body heaved in a big sigh. “I’m sorry, my dear. I let my emotions loose, and I assure you they won’t get the better of me again. So, let’s start over. What happened to you? How did you get here?”

“I...” Seven began, trying to find the right words. “I remember being in that capsule... and a man named ‘Marcus’... Windchaser found me on a mountaintop near here.”

“Quincy... the thing I found her in had a ‘IHSA’ mark on it.”

Quincy’s eyes visibly widened, fire burning through his veins.. Those letters were the last things he ever wanted to hear. His chest began heaving, recalling his treatment and subsequent imprisonment after his forced ponification at the psychotic hooves of an old friend of his. Quincy backed into a chair, feeling his heart pound in his chest, slowing down as the group sat in silence.

After a few minutes he began to speak again. “I’m... terribly sorry, you two. I... have some not-terribly fond memories of the people there. So, the IHSA, eh? And you remember a man named Marcus?” Seven nodded. “I worked under a Dr. Thomas Marcus before getting transferred to work with your old man, Chaser. Never got to know the guy, but word was the man was a bloody genius. Never heard a word about what he was working on,” Quincy said, sizing up Seven as she sat on the couch next to Windchaser. “And I guess you’re it. Do you remember anything at all, dear? Anything about Marcus?”

“I...” Seven remembered the exact words that Dr. Marcus had said to her in her flashback. “He told me something while I was in the stasis tube. He said that he had done something terribly wrong to me and the others...”

“Others?!” Windchaser blurted out.

“Hush. Let her finish, boy.”

“He said that we had to stay human... to save a doomed Earth... But I don’t know what that last part means...” Seven pulled her legs up onto the couch, holding them close to her body. The tone that the Doctor had used when he said it sent chills down her spine each time she played it back in her head. The very idea of this ‘storm to come’ held a sense of dread to her.

“But the Purification saved the Earth,” Quincy said to Seven, a stern but calculating look on his face. “The Princesses made sure of that.”

“M-Marcus had said that if the Purification was cast, something worse would come... I’m sorry... I can’t remember any more than that.” Seven felt her heart sink as the room fell silent once again, an uneasy tension falling on all three of them. Quincy sat, staring at Seven, his eyes looking her over.

“Say. I’ve never seen a human girl with blue hair before. Except for those punk kids who dyed theirs blue, but yours has a very natural luster to it.” Seven held her hair before her eyes, looking at it herself. She never really had a chance to really look at her hair before now.

“And your eyes,” Quincy began, “I’ve never seen any human with silver eyes. Just what exactly are you? You’re human by the looks of it, but you’re something more, aren’t you? Has anything odd happened to you since you were woken up? Well, aside form there being no humans anymore, and the whole thing with talking ponies, but anything about you that seemed strange?”

Seven hid her face in her arms in shame from her outburst on the mountaintop.

“Um, Quincy, I saw something weird that she can do.” Windchaser fidgeted in his seat for a moment as Quincy looked over to the blue pegasus. “She... made lightning”

“She made lightning,” Quincy repeated, his tone and expression deadpan.

“Yeah.”

“Like Thor and Zeus? Lightning bolts flying everywhere? Hurling bolts of electricity to the Earth to scare us wee mortals?”

Windchaser vaguely recalled those names from his history books, but couldn’t appreciate the comment as Quincy wanted, nor could Seven. They both just looked at each other and put on wry smiles to appease the green pony.

“Fine, then,” Quincy scoffed, irked by the fact that nobody knew the references he was making. “But that does explain why you can survive here in New Equestria. You can use some form of magic. But why did Marcus go through all of that effort to make a bunch of magic-wielding humans? What in Celestia’s name are we up against?”

“I’m sorry...” Seven whispered, her voice fading.

After a few minutes of contemplative silence, all three of them trying to figure out what to say next, Quincy beamed at Windchaser. “Hey, Chaser. You think SyRE would know a thing or two of this? Or even this Marcus fellow?”

Windchaser struggled in the couch, seating himself upright as fast as he could. “I, uh, I can go get him and we can ask! He also said that Twilight Sparkle was informed of Seven getting here, but I don’t know exactly when.”

Quincy rubbed his hoof against his chin, planning on the next series of events. “Why don’t you fly on home and grab that AI and bring him here. If anything can make heads or tails of what’s going on it’s SyRE.”

Windchaser was walking towards the door when he paused, something from before making its way to the front of his mind. “Uh, Quincy? Her, erm, spaceship is still on the mountain top. And it’s black. It would kinda stand out in the daytime, don’t you think?”

“That, my boy, is an excellent observation.”

“And? What are we gonna do about it?”

Quincy looked towards the blue colt. “I have absolutely no idea. But if anything, when Twilight gets here I can ask her to cast a concealment spell over it. Nopony will be the wiser. Now get going! We don’t have all night!” Quincy nudged the pegasus out the door, watching as he flapped away into the dark sky.

*        *        *

Windchaser stood before the door to his home with a pained expression on his face. He had been so quick to fly over here to get SyRE, that he had forgotten a very important piece of information:

He had left the house without telling anypony where he was going or what he was doing.

What was he going to do now? He was absolutely sure Auntie Sunny knew he was gone by now, not to mention that Pearl and Bracket would have been looking for him for the ‘promised fun time’ and immediately gone to her when they didn’t find him. He also really didn’t think he’d be able to sneak in and get SyRE without the twins waking up either.

He looked over the house. He was a pegasus pony. Perhaps he could fly up to the window and climb in and out before anypony noticed? Given it was the only plan he saw any chance of pulling off quickly, he had already started flapping his wings and was halfway up to the window, making sure to avoid flying directly past any of the building’s other windows. Once at his own bedroom window, he gently pushed his hoof against the glass, only to discover one very large flaw in his plan.

The window was locked.

Windchaser felt incredibly stupid. Of course the window was locked. Even after humans had all become ponified, that didn’t mean all their old human traits had vanished. Though rare, Windchaser heard stories of one pony stealing from another. Anypony could just casually walk into somepony’s house and take anything they pleased. Being SyRE was more than invaluable to Windchaser, he had even made sure his window was extra hard to break into.

All in all, he couldn’t believe he had forgotten that. He hovered there for a few minutes trying to decide which entrance would be best for him to sneak into, when the front door to his house opened, light flooding out onto the darkened ground under him. Windchaser was too stunned to do anything but stare as his Aunt Sunny walked right out the door and looked directly up at him.

“I thought I heard you out here!” she said in a worried tone, though to his surprise, there didn’t appear to be any hints of anger to it. If anything it sounded more amused.

“I know you need to get SyRE quickly, but did you really need to try and fly in the window? You shouldn’t be so hasty, Windchaser!” Auntie Sunny not being mad at him for just taking off was odd enough, but how did she know he needed SyRE?

“I have him right here for you,” She said interrupting his thoughts, “But when this is over we are having a talk, young colt. I know Mr. Quill asked you to help him out with SyRE on something. And I know Miss Sparkle is involved somehow, but that does NOT mean you just fly off without telling us! No matter how important do you hear me?! If Mr. Quill hadn’t called to let us know of the urgent matter, we may have thought you were in trouble when we noticed you were gone!” Windchaser floated down to the grass before his aunt, his head hung low before her. “As it is, his timing was almost perfect. We had just begun to go to the neighbors to start a search party to find you when he called to let us know what you were doing!”

Had he known that his aunt was going to be called ahead of him, he would have asked Quincy to make something up before he had headed out. He was glad, though not really surprised, that Quincy had apparently thought of that without him, and had moved accordingly.

He also felt ashamed that he didn’t just tell her before he left, though he wondered if she’d have let him go if he had. While he had told her about Isaac being a tree, she simply nodded and agreed with him, not saying another word.

“Anyway, I’m just glad you are safe,” Aunt Sunny finished, before reaching behind her to grasp his personal saddle bags off of her back. They were two high quality leather pouches both with the image of a streaking blue and white comet, his cutie mark, stitched upon them. They were a gift from Twilight Sparkle after Windchaser and his new family had settled in Tailsflick Grove. He had heard that she had commissioned the famous Rarity herself to make them.

Speaking his thanks to her, he grabbed them himself before securing them to his backside. Once they were settled he could feel the weight of the laptop containing SyRE in the right pouch. Given he heard no protests from SyRE, he could only guess that the laptop was currently in sleep mode, and it was probably for the best. No telling what questions the AI would most likely have for him. They’d have to wait though. He and Quincy had questions of their own.

“Are you going to be okay?” his aunt suddenly asked, a look of genuine concern flowing over her features. She knew something was up, Windchaser could tell. He couldn’t tell her the truth though. He couldn’t tell anypony about another human being alive. Not yet anyway. He and Quincy had to see what Twilight Sparkle had to say first.

“I don’t know,” He said honestly. He knew he’d never be able to flat out lie to her, “Don’t worry though, Quincy and Twilight just need the use of SyRE.” And I just feel like I need to be a part of this too. “I’ll be fine, and I’m sure the both of them will have this thing finished before the afternoon.” He gave her his best smile. He was sure she could tell that he was nervous. That he actually feared that what was going on could be the calm before a very powerful storm.

“Well, just be careful. We... You know we worry about you.”

“I know Auntie Sunny. Please tell Pearl and Bracket I’m sorry. I’ll ask Twilight to help me get them a treat in return for missing our play date.”

“I’ll let them know, but you’d better get going. Don’t want to keep Mr. Quill waiting!” Windchaser nodded and took off into the sky, doing his best to get back to Quincy and Seven as quickly as possible.

Sunny watched him go with a heavy heart. Something was happening. The impromptu lightning storm upon ‘Isaac’s Hill’ told her all she needed to know. Rumors spread between houses that the weather squads were experimenting with some new lightning storm techniques, but both her and her husband knew better.

Something was most certainly happening, and she had no doubt that Windchaser was involved somehow.

“Oh Isaac...” she said, looking up to the sky, illuminated by the countless points of light. “What has your son gotten himself into this time?” She was worried. How could she not be?

Loosing his father had been extremely hard on the young colt. She could still remember the many months after the Purification, and how he’d hardly ever leave his room. Then just when he seemed to have gotten over it, the colt finally making friends at school, the truth about his past had been revealed to him through SyRE. She and Bullseye had almost thought he had relapsed into his crippling depression. He still appeared a bit troubled at times for a couple of days afterwards, but thankfully, that too past.

Now something else had come along to complicate his life. Why couldn’t it just leave him alone? But there was no use wishing for what ‘could be’ there was only what was. He had made it through so much before this, so she could only have faith that he had gained the strength to make it through what was going on now.

Isaac... She thought, staring towards the heavens. You’ll help me look over him, right?

The small black helicopter flew steadily over what appeared to be an old abandoned Air Force base. Michael let his eyes wander over it for only a few seconds before focusing back on the task at hand. Much as he'd love to poke around, they were on a schedule. Even if those doors to an underground hanger DID appear particularly inviting...

Without warning, a rocket fired from what he could only guess to be a hand held RPG, streaked through the sky to impact with the copter’s rear rotary blades. Attempting to keep the thing steady, he finally managed to land upon a small patch of grass within the base, not too far off from the hanger doors.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked besides him. He held up his hand in warning to remain silent.

“Whoever shot that can’t be far, they may fire again, we need to get out of this thing NOW” He said making haste to unbuckle his harness and exit the winding down copper. Twilight followed suit, and soon they were both standing in the grassy Field. Michael desperately trying to detect any movement.

“Mighty Sorry bout that rocket.” A voice suddenly called from a building to their right. Michael spun toward the sound, grabbing hold of a small pull wire upon his watch as he did so. He couldn’t see the man at first, but it was soon apparent that whoever it was, wore atop his head some sort of leather cowboy hat.

“Had to get your attention somehow, and I didn’t think you’d come down for tea and cookies if I asked.” The man with the cowboy hat continued as he stepped into the sun. Ditching the now empty RPG launcher as he did so. Michael nearly lost his composer at the image of the man who stood before him. It was like the guy stepped right out of an old western film. Though looking more closely he could tell there was a modern take to the entire thing.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Michael asked, his hand still upon the pull wire. Twilight, unable to use any magic in her current human form, stepped behind him. Michael breathed a slight breath of relief. That was actually the best place for her if things went as he feared.

“The name’s Hawk,” The man replied, “We’ll get to what I want in a moment. First I want to know if you have anyone traveling with you besides the young lass behind ya, and don’t lie. That just complicates things.”

“So what if I am alone?” Michael challenged. He didn’t feel like beating around the bush either. Besides, he could take this guy.

“So you really ARE alone. Quite the Pilgrim ain’t ya?” Hawk said pulling out a 45 Magnum from a gun holster upon his side. With a quick expert move, he had the barrel aimed directly at Michael’s head.

“Well then, let me extend the greeting for why we are both here.” He grinned before raising his voice to the same level and tone that an announcer might take.

“MISTER PILGRIM!” He yelled, pulling back the hammer on his gun, “I am the first of the Possible Candidates to be shipped with Twilight Sparkle in the Conversion Bureau fanfictions. If you wish for that spot to be won by you, then you’ll have to defeat me!”

Michael could only grin.

“So... That IS what this is about after all?” He called back with a smile of his own. Twilight merely walked off, knowing now there were in no REAL danger. The wind picked up then, making the entire ordeal all the more dramatic. They two stared each other down for a few moments before the words: ROUND ONE. FIGHT!!! Appeared in big bold letters above them. The moment the words vanished the two leapt into action. Hawk firing a round directly at Michael.

Michael, in turn finally pulled upon the wire that was attached to his watch. Causing the micro magnetic gyroscope to activate and produce a small magnetic shield in front of him. Deflecting the bullet harmlessly away.  As Hawk readied to fire another round, Michael took a chance and reached into one of his pockets to pull out a very special little device of his.

Spinning in place to grab as much momentum as he could, the flung what appeared to be a small black circular disc. It was as large as a DVD in it’s circular length, but just about as thick as a swift army knife. Which was made apparent why, rather quickly as a group of four blades popped out of the thing, turning it into a deadly spinning saw blade.

Hawk wasted no time in countering. Throwing his magnum up and forward into the air with one hand, he reached behind his back with the other to unsheathe a machete knife. Rushing forward, he knocked the disc of death aside, before stomping a particular area of the ground with his boot. Causing a hidden cargo box to pop open and toss up it’s contents. Which just happened to be an SMG Machine gun. Throwing the blade into the air this time, he began to fire the gun at Michael, causing him to bring his shield back up. As the bullets sprayed, Hawk casually caught the magnum, having fallen just before him, from when he threw it earlier. Flipping the gun so he could grip it by it’s handle once more he aimed it back at Michael, as he stopped firing the SMG. As Michael watched, the machete came back down blade first. Hawk tilted his body slightly, allowing the blade to land perfectly back in it’s sheath. Michael couldn’t help but whistle.

“That’s pretty impressive!” He said while catching the now, non-bladed disc in his hand as it flew back to him. Hawk just grinned.

“Thanks, now what say we-”

Dun Dun Dun Dun- Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun...

“-What the heck?” He finished hearing the strange sound that seemed to be coming from below them almost. Michael too was taken aback. Even more so when he recognized the tune.

“Is... Is that the bass line for the battle music from Final Fantasy two?”

Before Hawk could respond, the warning lights for the underground hanger doors buzzed to life, as the doors began to open off to the side of the battleground. As the doors opened wider, the music got much MUCH louder.

Staring dumbstruck, the two watched as the platform rose into view. Two VERY large speakers set up on the far back corners of the thing. An amp hooked up between the two. It was this sound set up that was blaring the loud music. But it was what, or who that was standing in the center of the platform that was causing the sound.

In the center, standing before a white motorcycle, stood a single person. Younger then either of the other two combatants, though for some odd reason sporting pure white hair. He wore a simple black T-shirt, with a pair of torn brown jeans. In his hands he held the Nevan weapon from Devil May Cry 3. An otherworldly guitar that was causing a strange pattern of what could only be described as bats made out of some sort of shadow energy around him.

(Weapon image: http://images.wikia.com/devilmaycry/images/a/a3/DA_Nevan.gif )

The platform stopped, reaching it’s full height. The figure stopped his tune as more words flashed above him in big bold letters.

A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS! JAMES!

“You didn’t think you could do this without ME now did ya?” James said with a cocky smirk.

“Great, it’s you.” Hawk said with a sigh, “Just what we needed. Mr. Gary Stu himself.”

“Dang it I am NOT a Gary Stu!” James protested. It looked as he wanted to say more, but Michael interrupted him.

“Wait, should you and I even fight? Aren’t we suppose to know each other or something along those lines?”

“Eh, not really. Sonic never read far enough in my story to know that I claimed Jack was my uncle and that he got you to help make me that replica of Lady’s Motorbike from Devil May Cry three. Even if he did, it’s all alternate universe anyway. Twilight certainly didn’t spend time as a human before I met her in my story. Unless my story was suppose to take place BEFORE your story, but then that doesn’t make sense as there are no magical humans in sidelines...”

“Enough!” Yelled Hawk, “Let’s just fight alright?” The other two nodded.

“That is why I’m here. I won’t let either of you be the one to be shipped with Twilight!” James said taking up his guitar weapon once more.

“That’s all nice to say...” Hawk said aiming his guns at James, “But the problem you don’t seem to realize here, is that I use guns.”

With that he began to fire some shots at James, Michael deciding to take advantage of this to throw three of his blade discs at James. Hopeing to take out the new challenger rather quickly. Sadly for both of them, the projectiles seemed to slow just enough to allow James to counter. Being that’s how it always seemed to work in silly movie/comic book parodies such as this.

“Heh.” James chuckled readying the Nevan. “Looks like this Party’s getting Crazy. LET’S ROCK!”

He jams a rift on the guitar, causing a shock wave to produce from both it and the speakers that not only knock both the bullets and disc blades away. But also branches out far enough to cause both Hawk and Micheal to brace themselves.

Causing the beginning to what could only be known as:

The Scott Pilgrim style battle for Twilight Sparkle!!!

Meanwhile off to the side. Human Twilight hangs out with the pony Twilight’s from both Yellowstone and Fragments of Regret.

Human Twilight: They... They do realize that since each of their stories take place in a different universe, there are actually three of us, and this entire battle is pointless right?

Yellowstone Twi: I think Hawk knows. He just wants a good fight. Though I have to say. After everything I’ve seen. This is the weirdest thing yet...

Fragments Twi: Ugh, try living in my world for a day. It doesn’t get any more bizarre then Dante out of nowhere.

*The other two just look at her oddly.*

Yellowstone:

The TV Movie

Original Concept by Anonsi

This Special TV Movie by Videomaster21XX

Part 1:

Blood Curse

____________________________________________________________________________

For ages, Equestria has existed separate from the rest of the world, protected by a magical barrier that prevented it from being seen, touched, or reached by humans and their machines. But five years ago, the ponies of Equestria landed on the shores of human lands claiming to be there to save the earth and humanity from pollution, hate, and greed. To do this, the top human scientists and pony magicians created a potion to turn humans into ponies in places called, Conversion Bureaus. Within two years of its release, more than half the total human populace on Earth has converted. The balance of the world has been forever altered, as the remaining human nations form new governments for those humans that remain.

Twilight Sparkle, along with the rest of the gang, have been taking it rather easy these last  couple of days. With no news of any ‘supernatural’ creatures, or special situations garnering their attention. Their peaceful days remain unimpeded for once. We join them now responding to a minor disturbance requiring the skills of Twilight Sparkle and a couple of her friends. A welcome small clean up job from their usual monster hunting.

Of course, peaceful days never last, and everything isn’t always as it seems. Something has surfaced, and there are many who want it...

____________________________________________________________________________

Most of the gang were simply lounging around in one of the bureau’s lobbies,  amusing themselves with whatever various small task they could. Zorro, along with Rarity, were both spending their time on the completion of a rather large jigsaw puzzle featuring the Colosseum in Rome. As they worked, Zorro took the time to tell her about the many ‘wonders’ of Rome, much to her enjoyment.

Dimitri was in the middle of having a rather animated conversation with Pinkie Pie about that thing humans called ‘Dungeons and Dragons’. Something everyone hoped didn’t lead to a ‘special’ themed party sometime in the next week. Though knowing Pinkie Pie, most figured they hoped in vain.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were busy messing with some annoying little machine that you apparently had to put the pieces into it before it popped them back out. Twilight wouldn't have minded it so much if it didn’t make a low buzzing sound while the timer ran, only for it to ‘ping’ rather loudly once the timer ran out. This was making if rather difficult for her to concentrate as both ponies had been going at it for a while now. Each trying to beat the other’s record.

Though neither of them could beat Pinkie Pie’s record of two seconds. Achieved from when she somehow ‘slapped’ the pieces in perfectly. A feat that only Pinkie Pie could ever manage.

Finally there was Twilight herself who, along with her friend Fluttershy, were both off in their own little corner reading books. Twilight had picked up a book titled ‘The Brother’s Grim Fairy Tales’. A tomb she had decided to read based on the possibility of some of the stories manifesting due to the leakage of magic from Equestria. While Fluttershy had her nose stuck in a book about animal care. Which by the serene look upon her face, she was thoroughly enjoying.

Twilight actually hadn’t seen Megan or Hawk all day, though it didn’t really surprise her. Hawk was off doing what ever he pleased, while Megan had actually left on business the day before. Scheduled to be back at any time this evening. Twilight only hoped they didn’t need her before then.

As if cosmically timed. Hawk happened to pass through the lobby at the very same moment a small light on one of the monitors began to buzz, indicating an incoming call. Staring at the little light with tickled amusement, Hawk pressed the button to receive it. In mere seconds the President of the United States appeared on screen.

“Hey Joey Joe Joe. What’s the news?” Hawk asked once the President’s face stabilized on the screen. Though Twilight knew she wouldn’t see the Princess with him this time, she still found herself glancing around his office by habit. Due to the lag in activity, and apparently by some side project of the President. Princess Celestia had decided it was the perfect moment to take some time away so she could discuss a few things with her sister, Princess Luna.

As such Twilight half expected the message to be grim news about something having gone terribly wrong. It’d just be too perfect without the Princess there. The only thing that kept Twilight calm was the fact the call hadn’t set off the emergency alarm when it came in. Indicating that this call was casual in nature.

“You’ve been watching the Simpsons again haven’t you?” The President asked Hawk with a frown, but didn’t let him answer. “Anyway, I’m calling you because we have a small problem, nothing major mind you. Merely a clean up job so to speak.”

Hawk raised his eyebrow at this one, while most of the others turned their attention back to what they had been doing. Only Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were still watching out of the ponies. Out of the humans, only Hawk still had his eyes on the screen. Twilight mainly due to her curiosity on what might be transpiring.

“About an hour ago we received a call on our ‘Request Hotline’ if you will. As you are aware, each Conversion Bureau has been equipped with a communication device that links directly to us here at the White House. The purpose of the line of course, is to report any signs of ‘Supernatural’ trouble. Well the Bureau in Atlanta contacted us with such a sighting not to long ago...”

The President let himself trail off as he proceeded to hold up a file that had been sitting upon his desk. After a few moments of glancing over it, he continued to speak once more.

“At first all we got was a frantic pony repeating a message of gloom. When we finally managed to get a less panicked pony on the line, we learned that a flock of Cockatrices have apparently invaded the Bureau, turning any person or pony into stone. While evacuation has been set into motion, that still leaves the problem of the cockatrices.”

He glanced at another file.

“Twilight Sparkle, I am to understand that not only are such creatures indigenous to parts of Equestria, but you yourself have run into one before?”

Twilight nodded at the memory of the creature she had once unwillingly run into long ago in the Everfree forest while on her way to visit her friend Zecora.

“I have sir.”

“It is also my understanding that you possess the spells to not only protect yourself and others against their petrifying gaze, but a way to return those effected to normal?”

“Correct again sir. After feeling the effects of their glare myself, I made certain to study up on them in order to find a way that would not only resist their stare, but allow me to reverse it if necessary.” The President nodded his approval when she finished.

“We believe these to be among the escaped creatures the PER attempted to smuggle out of Equestria nearly two weeks ago. As you are aware, the Princess asked to round up and transport any of those missing creatures back to Equestria. In hope that they might be released back into their homes.”

Twilight nodded while she went over the report of the incident in her mind. Most PER members were generally caught trying to enter or exit Equestria. Of course it was impossible to catch them all, and this had been one of the few intances where a band of them had managed to get in. Apparently, their plan had been to gather up any transportable creatures they could muster from the Everfree forest.

While this particular group had gotten lucky enough to gather some of the more ‘aggressive’ species found there, they had been caught attempting to leave. While most of their ‘cargo’ had been released back into Equestrian wilderness. Some had managed to escape into the human world. These cockatrices obviously being among them. Twilight might have found it a bit odd that they’d show back up in Atlanta, except for the fact that with the magic leakage, all sorts of strange things had been happening, and it wasn’t uncommon for one or two creatures from Equestria to pop up in a random part of the human world.

“Fluttershy,” The President continued as he looked her way, “If you could prepare a place for them to be contained at your location. I’d like some of the rest of you, lead by you Twilight, to gather them up and transport them safely from the area. As well as return any petrified creatures back to flesh of course. We’ll arrange a transport for them from your Bureau back into Equestria after that.”

“Oh y-yes of course,” Fluttershy stammered as she stood, “I know they may be a bit dangerous, but I simply couldn’t stand to see creatures hurt unnecessarily!” With that she fly off down one of the halls. No doubt to set everything up for the creature’s arrival. Twilight felt it was her turn to speak next.

“Of course Mr. President. I’d be happy to help!” Giving the President a polite nod as she spoke. With that done, she turned her attention to Applejack who was still watching them speak. “Mind helping me out AJ? If we are suppose to herd these things, then I think you’re just the pony for the job!”

“Darn tootin I’m the right gal for the job. I’ll help ya rustle those critters up in the time it takes my sister to come up one o’ those crazy ideas for a cutie mark!” The earth pony sang with a laugh.

“I’m coming too!” Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed as she zipped from her spot next to Applejack to the front of the TV. “I can help keep them from flying away, and besides ANYTHING is better then sitting around here bored all day! I’ll take any action!”

“Glad to hear it.” The President said with a nod. Twilight hadn’t quite noticed it before, but it seemed like something else had been eating at the man for a while now. His eyes looked baggy, his normal confident expressions, just slightly strained. “I’ve already informed Captain Barnes of the mission. She should have the copper ready to transport the Cockatrice by the time you get out there.” He stopped speaking almost abruptly, making Twilight feel as if he had more to say. After a few seconds of waiting however, Twilight decided to ask a question that had popped into her mind the moment the President mentioned taking the helicopter. As it seemed whatever he might have had on his mind wasn’t going to be shared.

“We aren’t taking the Odin?” She asked. It wasn’t that she enjoyed flying on the experimental ship, but between the two Twilight had to admit the Odin was a lot faster. The President’s response was a short shake of his head.

“It’s not exactly built for transporting a flock of cockatrice, so you’ll just have to put up with the flight time this trip.” He replied. Twilight and her friends nodded, all secretly glad they could skip the Odin for once. It was at this point that Hawk asked a question that had been eating at him.

“While I’ve got ya on the phone Joe, any news of what we were talking about yesterday?” The President’s facial expression grew grim.

“No contact. I’m beginning to fear the worst. I was just about to use some of my spare time to look into the matter some more after this call.”

“And his son?”

“Where abouts still unknown.” Came the reply. Upon hearing this Twilight, along with her friends Rainbow Dash and Applejack, were all staring at the two with inquisitive looks.

“Wait, what is this about?” Twilight decide to ask. She didn’t like being kept in the dark about things, and took the chance to learn more. Hawk however, just shook his head.

“Later.” Was all he said. Twilight wasn’t happy, but she nodded glumly.

“Oh Hawk,” The President added suddenly, “One last thing. With Megan not due back till later this evening, II was wondering if you could be the one to accompany them with this task?” Hawk’s expression fell.

“Me? Why not have one of the other guys in the room do it?” He replied with a bit of disdain clearly in his voice. Even with the slow days seeming to drag on a bit to long for his liking, the thought of having to essentially babysit three ponies as they herded chickens wasn’t all that appealing. Even if they were chickens that could turn living creatures to stone. Even despite the seemingly tiredness that hung around The President. His mouth still managed to twist into a big smile at Hawk’s words.

“Hawk.” He said with some amusement. “What other guys?”

Hawk instantly spun around, taking a good look around the room. Sometime during the call, both Dimitri and Zorro had snuck out, taking along with them the ponies they had been entertaining.  Hawk could only swear under his breath before turning back to the monitor with a sigh.

“Remind me to put snakes in their beds or something later.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” The President said with a laugh, “But seriously Hawk. I’d just like to be on the safe side. I’ll make it up to you alright?” Hawk actually seemed to ponder this for a moment, running his hand over the edge of his hat as he did so.

“Will you tell me what you’ve been working on this past week?” The President, however, feigned innocence.

“Why Hawk, what makes you think I’ve been up to anything?” Hawk just raised an eyebrow. After attempting to keep up the charade a bit longer, the President finally let it drop.

“I’ll see what I can do.” He said at last. With another sigh, Hawk caved.

“Not like I have a choice but to go right? I’ll be holding ya to that promise Joe! You know I don’t like surprises!”

“I know. I’ll see you again this evening Hawk.” With that the screen went blank, the President’s face vanishing. Hawk continued to stare at the blank screen for a few seconds seemingly cursing his fate before turning to the three ponies who he’d be accompanying. With a possible fourth when she finished setting her ‘accommodations’ up.

“Well, guess nothing to it but to get ourselves equipped and going!”

* * *

“So explain ta me again why Fluttershy ain’t with us?” Applejack asked as she trotted from the helicopter.  The still rotating blades of the vehicle attempted to part the ponies hat from her head with the winds it was kicking up. Being that this wasn’t the earth’s ponies first time riding the thing though, she had taken precautions and had tied the hat down before exiting.

“Yeah, I mean Fluttershy already stared one of these things down right? So she’d be perfect for dealing with them after Applejack rounds them up!” Rainbow Dash added besides them. Twilight merely sighed at the questions from her friends. She had already answered this earlier.

“I told you all this before we left! Fluttershy has to get ready to take care of the dozen or so cockatrices we bring back with us!”

“How hard can THAT be?” Rainbow Dash asked as she trotted along, eager to get far enough away from the helicopter so she could use her wings again. Attempting it now would only fling her through the air. A feat not even the great Dash felt like attempting.

“I’m sure it’s harder then any of us know.” Twilight said in desperation.

“Suppose we shoulda seen this coming. Knowing Fluttershy she’s cooking up a meal for these critters as we speak.” Applejack’s said with a sigh as they moved. “Long as I get ta round up some varmints, it’s all the same to me. It is the reason I’m here after all.”

“I’m just here for some action!” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk.

“And I have no idea why the hell I’m here...” Hawk exclaimed as he exited the helicopter himself. One hand on his own hat to keep it from flying away. Twilight couldn't help but grin at the man’s comment. Attempting in vain to hide the smile from him as she turned to look at his face.

“You’re here for uh... Moral Support?” She replied, her voice shaking a bit with laughter. The look he gave her for her remark caused her to give up any attempt she was making to hide the smile, letting it shine through. Her obvious amusement only seemed to ruffle him up even more though.

“Let’s just get this over with...” He said with a sigh as he walked toward the building, idly checking his revolver as he did.

“You think you’re going to really need any of that?” Rainbow asked eying not only his gun, but the small black duffel bag slung over his right shoulder. Hawk glanced at the same bag and shrugged.

“Possibly not. Can’t be to careful though.”

They walked on in silence after that, Rainbow Dash taking to the air the second they were far enough away that the wind from the rotor blades no longer effected them. Applejack also took off the tie around her hat.

Twilight, on the other hand, couldn’t believe it had only been a little over an hour since they had left their own Bureau in Manhattan. She was fairly certain she read that the distance they traveled should have taken a bit longer to transverse. The unusual short time this had taken gave her a sneaky feeling Captain Barnes had done something to the helicopter.It certainly wouldn’t surprise her...

“Oh thank goodness you’re here!” Cried a voice before them, breaking Twilight from her thoughts.  Running up to them was a trio of Ponies. All three familiar to her. The first one, a pink pony with a green mane and tail, was the one who had spoken.

“Nice to see you again Daisy!” Twilight said running up to meet her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash echoed her greeting. All three ponies were former residents of Ponyville, and all were ponies Twilight and her friends hadn’t seen in such a long time. Hawk remained quiet behind them as they caught up. Using the time to give the area a stern look over.

“Oh Twilight! How good to see you again!” The second pony of tannish color said with glee. Her mane and tail a mixture of both red and pink.

“The Horror! The Horror!” Cried the other pink pony with a blond mane and tail. A Lily resting next to her ear.

“Rose Luck, Lily.” Twilight said, addressing them in the same order they had spoken. “So we hear you have a cockatrice herd running around in there?”

“They just came out of nowhere. It was strange.” Rose Luck answered looking at the bureau.

“Before we knew it, they had petrified some of the staff and Ponificationiees. The rest of us managed to evacuate most those left outside before anymore could be gotten, but there are still some people and ponies in there! It was impossible to get them all!” Daisy replied next.

“The Horror, THE HORROR!” Lily added once again, earning irritated glares from her friends, and looks of dismay from Twilight and her group.

“With those things running around in there, we haven’t been able to get in there to help those turned to stone. Nor evacuate anypony else.” Daisy said, trying to ignore the dramatics from Lily. Rose Luck did the same when she spoke next.

“We’ve already set up the remaining people in hotels till this situation is handled. As for who is left in there, we aren’t sure on the situation. The police surrounding the building won’t let us near for our own safety, but they wont’ tell us anything about those still trapped either.”

“Figures,” Hawk said, finally joining the conversation, “The authnorities don’t generally like sharing that kind of information.”

“But I’m worried,” Rose Luck continued, “Will those left be okay?”

“Don’t you three worry! I have just the spells for this situation. We’ll have those cockatrices out of your hair before the hour is up!” Twilight said with confidence. Both Daisy and Rose Luck smiled with great relief, and while they couldn’t tell how Lily felt, she had at least stopped screaming ‘The Horror’. With a few more minor pleasantries, they made their way through the front doors of the Bureau center, the police offering no resistance, though Twilight could catch what appeared to be a few disapproving looks.

“Hey quick question...” Hawk asked as the doors closed behind them. “That Lily Pony can say other things besides that one phrase right?” The three ponies shared a look for a few minutes. All three with the same flat expression on their faces. Finally Twilight turned to face him.

“Um... We’re pretty sure she can...”

* * *

“Just what we need...” One of the Sergent’s growled as he watched the group enter the building. More complications. It had already been a few hours since this operation had started! To think it was suppose to be so easy! Over so quickly! Just move in and grab the target, then get out.

Still, it was just three ponies and one man. Probably sent here to round up the cockatrice for a relocation or something. They still didn’t know. If they could just keep everything looking unimportant for a while longer...

With the earlier group entering however, this could prove very bad for their mission. It had taken enough work just to keep the news of that intrusion into the building a secret from those outside. Now there were even more to deal with. They wouldn’t be able to keep the public in the dark forever...

Even with those complications, the simple fact was they couldn’t let this catch get away. It was simply too valuable. To important the HLF obtain it for themselves...

Switching his headset radio to a secondary frequency, he took a quick glance around to insure that none of the ‘normal’ police were listening. It was a risky move to contact the squad inside, but they had to wrap this up. SOON.

Whoever was interfering already had turned this quick job into a nightmare. He knew they had them as long as they were trapped in the building, but the longer they took, the more likely that would change. They were running out of time...

“Attention HLF Specter Units. We’ve got more intruders entering the building. We need to wrap this up. How is your progress?” He waited for the response feeling extremely jittery. The Specter unit’s, while made up of their own men, weren’t exactly what he’d have picked for the honor of being in such a squad. Unfortunately, those men on the force that were HLF had to remain on duty to keep the area under blackout. They had simply used the best the could get. In the end it shouldn’t have mattered. Of course things didn’t want to go as planned.

“The obstacles are proving... difficult.” Came reply on the other end. The speaker sounded winded, frustrated. “The target is also surprisingly allusive. I am happy to report that our herding tactics appear to be working. It hopefully won’t be much longer. As for our new guests, we’ll make sure to allow the Elite Guard to preform their mission... Unheeded. The monsters are of no further use anyway.”

“What about the other obstacles?”

“Perhaps we can arrange a meeting between them and these new guys. If they take each other out, we kill two birds with one stone right?”

“Very well, but be ready to proceed with the plan established in response to their possible escape. As we all know. The risk of it getting away is too great to allow.”

“No need to lecture us.” Came the curt reply. “We are prepared to sacrifice ourselves for the mission. We shall NOT let it leave.”

With that the radio signal went silent. A moment later the Sergent switching it back to it’s default frequency, gazing at the building with longing. If only he was in there with them. He’d have managed-

“Is there a problem Sergent?” Came a gruff, nearly emotionless voice from behind him. If not for his training he might have jumped out of his skin! Spinning around he saw a tall blond man in a green suit standing behind him. The man was large. Easily around eight feet in height alone. Though the man wore a suit, it was clear to anyone that he had some serious muscle underneath.

This person unnerved the Sergent out something fierce. He always stood perfectly still whenever he was around. Appearing more as a large lumbering statue then a man. Not only that, but he was constantly wearing a pair of shades over his eyes. Making it impossible to guess what he was thinking, as he face seemed stuck on permanent poker face. About the only defining thing about his features that didn’t scream ‘robot’ was the smooth mustache he wore.

“Mr. Gomez, I didn’t hear you walk up.” The Sergeant said slowly. How much had the guy heard? How long had he been standing there? If he knew about him being HLF, this operation could be over already!

“I do apologize. I just wanted to know who those people are that just entered the building.” If the guy had heard anything, apparently he was ignoring it. That suited the Sergeant just fine. He had no desire to challenge this brute.

“Huh, I would have figured the FBI would have known already. Frankly I’m surprised you aren’t impeding their entry. To answer you question, they are the Elite Guard under direct orders from the President himself.” Course they were under that Princess’ orders too, but he didn’t feel like saying that part.

“I see so they have arrived. Very well. Also Sergeant, I’m only here as an observer. At least for now...” Gomez said in the same monotone voice he had been using the entire conversation. With that, he turned and walked away, leaving the Sergeant alone once more.

‘Hurry up you idiots!’ The Sergeant thought to himself as he watched Gomez leave. ‘There’s too much at stake to be lounging around!’

* * *

A sense of unease hung over Hawk as he walked down the empty corridors of the bureau. From the way his pony companions were moving, he had a feeling they felt the same. It had been fine when they had entered earlier. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had been boasting to each other about who’d round up the most cockatrices, almost before Twilight had finished the anti-petrification spell on them. The spell would only give them about an hour of time to complete their task, so they had thought best to cast it in the reception area of the building. Located at the main entrance, as they mused the creatures would stay well away from the noise coming from outside.

That had been right on the money. However, after fifteen minutes of searching they hadn’t come across one cockatrice. Nor had they seen any of the supposed petrified inhabitants who hadn’t been able to escape in time. NOR had they seen anyone else period. The entire place seemed abandoned, giving the entire building a horror movie feel.

Then there were the smaller things that seemed out of place. Overthrown furniture. Some broken doors to various rooms. Granted, they anticipated seeing some of this with the initial chaos that must have happened earlier, but the way the damage seemed laid out was off. It was less like the aftermath of a panicked crowd, and more like something, or someone had been doing a systematic search of the building.

“So...” Applejack whispered while nervously looking around. “Anypony else feel like something ain’t right here?”

“You mean besides the fact that it’s too quiet?” Twilight asked back. The very air in this place was wrong. It was almost like they had walked into a trap. But that was silly right? If this was a trap, who was it for?Them? Could someone want them dead that badly? Twilight was still mulling over this as they walked through one of the smaller lobbies when Hawk raised his arm to single them to a halt.

“HUSH!” He hissed, his eyes darting swiftly around the room. All chatter and movement ceased immediately, the three ponies straining their ears and eyes along with him. Twilight was most alert of all next to Hawk. Frantically searching her mind for spells that might prove useful in case of an ambush. They heard nothing at first, then a click. Another click. This progressed into several more clicks, followed by a slithering sound coming from behind a set of couches near the lobbies edge.

They had found one of the cockatrices.

Feeling a bit silly, Hawk motioned for Applejack to get to work. She nodded once with a grin before galloping off in the direction of the sound. Calling out as she did.

“YEE-HA!  Get along there little fella!” Her sudden appearance along with her call, was enough to frighten even the cockatrice into a run. It made it’s way quickly through it’s side of the lobby before disappearing behind a corner. Applejack was quick to follow it.

“Dang it AJ don’t get to far away from us!” Rainbow Dash called after her, while flying to catch up. Hawk and Twilight just gave each other a look before taking off after them, not being nearly as fast.

Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, had just turned the corner fully prepared to help Applejack cut the cockatrice’s path off when the sight  before her caused her to stop mid flight. Applejack sat a little ways before her, having already stopped in mid tracks mere seconds before. Both forgetting about the cockatrice completely.

Standing in the middle of the hallways was a rather peculiar sight. One Caucasian human male sporting a shotgun, and one earth pony stallion who was standing next to him. While they both knew there were still people and ponies left in the building, the thought of finding one ARMED like this wasn’t something they had expected. Even the way the stallion stood there seemed off given the situation.

Upon their arrival the two males had looked up from the cockatrice to stare at the newcomers who had just turned the corner. Each one reacting to them in very different ways.

The human looked disheveled. His short black hair mattered as if he hadn’t had time to comb it that morning. His green eyes frantic, darting. He had visibly twitched when he saw the ponies rush around the corner. Almost looking as if he was about to bring the gun around to fire. Only to relax when he realized what they were.

His entire body shook, making it look like he was on the verge of panic. His clothing wasn’t in any better condition. His black sneakers were covered in dust,. His blue jeans were torn in the legs with fresh tears. His black t-shirt covered in filth. Visible enough to be seen even on it’s dark fabric. The markings of the shirt’s decorative picture were hard to make out under the dirt that caked his shirt. Between the both of them, they could barely make out something about rule number two being a double tap. All in all the guy looked like something Rarity’s cat Opalescence dragged in.

The pony Stallion on the other hand, looked calm and collected. His blue eyes only combing over the new ponies with mild curiosity. While his grayish coat looked a little dirty, it was in far better condition then his human companion’s.  Although his dark gray mane and tail had the same mattered look to it as the humans.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but notice how familiar his cutie mark appeared. A set of three four leaf clovers, stems touching. Hadn’t she seen him around Ponyville before? While they sat there looking at each other, the cockatrice had made it’s way closer to the human and stallion, forcing them to return their gazes to it.

“Careful Lucky! Don’t look at it!” The human said cautiously. He hadn’t bothered to raise his shotgun at the cockatrice as he spoke, showing he had no intention of using it on the creature. Much to Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s relief.

While Applejack wasn’t sure if Rainbow Dash took notice, but guessed she didn’t by the looks of her, she herself couldn’t help but pick up on just how... Unconcerned this guy appeared in the presence of such a monster. Though both fillies were wondering just who this person with a shotgun was in the first place, and why he’d even have one or get one.

“Don’t worry Jason, I’m already covering my eyes.” The Stallion said, a single foreleg already up and over his face blocking his vision. The guy now known as ‘Jason’ breathed a word of relief as he moved toward the creature, attempting to shoo it into a nearby open doorway.

“NO! WAIT!” Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack frantically shouted while attempting to get in between him and the creature all at the same time. Much to their utter shock however, the creature freaked at the movements of Jason. Squawking frantically for a second before running right into the very doorway Jason had been trying to herd it to. The second it was in, he wasted no time in slamming the door shut. Revealing the lettering on the door to read ‘Janitor’s Closet’. The two fillies stared at the sight for a second before finding it in them to react.

“Did... Did he just single handily lock a Cockatrice in a broom closet?” Applejack asked Rainbow Dash. The pegasus could only blink in reply for a moment.

“You mean you saw that too?” It was at this point that Hawk and Twilight rounded the corner. Hawk only had a couple of milliseconds to pull his gun before Jason lifted his own, aiming it directly at him. He was silently glad he hadn’t let his guard down even after finding the noise was only one of the loose cockatrice. The uneasy feeling having still clung to him afterward. The entire time he’d been expecting to find something amiss.

THIS wasn’t something he had anticipated though.

“BACK OFF!” Jason yelled, his hands surprisingly steady as they held the gun, “I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH YOU!”

It wasn’t often that Hawk found himself at a loss for words, but that’s exactly how he felt at this moment. The guy currently aiming a shotgun at his face looked incredibly spooked for what was suppose to be nothing more then a few loose cockatrices. It was also fairly obvious to him that this guy had no combat training in the least. Considering it a miracle that the guy managed to keep his hands from shaking.

At the same time, Hawk knew it’d be a bad idea to try and disarm him. His eyes might have been wide with fear, but he could see the anger and determination within them as well. Even someone who had never fired a gun before would be able to blow him away the second he tried to move toward them. Also, judging by the guy’s words, something, or someone was after him. Whatever had this guy spooked it was clear he was prepared to do whatever it took to protect himself.

Besides the guy Hawk finally took notice of the gray stallion that was eyeing him with careful evaluation. The guy with the shotgun might not have been use to combat, but the stallion certainly was. He also noticed the stallion glancing at Twilight in confusion. As if he was surprised that they’d be side by side. The prospects of what that might mean wasn’t lightening the mood in the least bit.

“Hey now, I don’t fancy a gun fight okay partner? How about we just lower that shotgun there...” Hawk said in the best soothing voice he could muster. Predictably it didn’t seem to deter the guy at all. Hawk never would have thought he’d have found himself wishing Fluttershy was with them. Out of all the ponies though, he was fairly certain she’d have calmed him down.

“I’m not letting you take me...” Jason growled, slowly backing away from Hawk, while making sure not to trip backwards in the process. The pony was still eying them with confusion and unease. Thankfully, it was around this time that Twilight decided to try and assess the situation.

“Um Hello. I’m Twilight Sparkle. I assure you we have no desire to take you anywhere! We only came to gather up the cockatrices, so if you could just explain...”

“Wait. Twilight Sparkle?” Lucky suddenly exclaimed, cutting her off. “My neighbor Rarity’s friend?” Twilight blinked as she took a good look at the earth pony before her for the first time. After a few moments recognition lit up in her eyes.

“Y-you helped pull our carriage that one time to the Grand Galloping Galla!” She said dumbfounded. It was so strange. Ever since this ‘Elite Guard’ of the Princess’ started up and Twilight had begun to travel, she had met so many of her old friends from Ponyville spread out all over the human world. Here before her was yet another old friend. But just what was he doing here? More importantly, why was the human with him so panicked?

“Wait, you know this pony?” Jason asked Lucky, lowering his shotgun barrel by a small degree. Hawk forced himself not to rush forward and grab the gun at that moment. For once he was hoping to end things peacefully.

“Indeed I do! And if this human is with her, then I’d say we don’t have to worry about him. Besides, how many members of the HLF do you know that run around with ponies for team mates?”

“The Human Liberation Front!?” Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all exclaimed at once. Hawk merely raised his eyebrow. He thought something was up the second he had entered this building. The odd number of police forces for a mere lock in job shouldn’t need nearly this many bodies guarding the exits. Then there was the eerie silence of the building, the lack of any stone statues that were once living beings. It was almost ironic. This little outing was turning out to be much more interesting then he could have hoped for. Zorro and Dimitri were missing out.

“So wait, are you saying the HLF are responsible for this infestation?” Twilight asked, her face scrunched up in concentration. “It does seem like a terrorist tactic they’d use, but if that’s so-”

“Why be so secretive about it?” Hawk finished. Lucky and Jason exchanged a dire look before replying.

“It’s...” Jason’s began. His voice strained, “It’s because of-”

“JASON! YOU AND THE PONIES GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Came a loud gruff scream, followed by the heavy pounding of footsteps. The voice originating from behind both Jason and Lucky. Startled, the entire group of two humans and four ponies had just enough time to watch a very large man with short brown hair come charging down the hallway at them. A large strange looking sword posed to run through anything that got in his way.

“No! Gally! Wait!” Jason tried to yell at the man, but it was to no avail. The man had stopped listening the moment he had begun his charge. With a curse, Lucky grabbed Jason’s shirt in his teeth before yanking him out of the way. While Jason had just enough time to insure his shotgun wouldn’t go off before being slammed into the wall. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were just as quick to dodge to the side. Thankfully, it appeared the man’s true target was Hawk, as he didn’t even shoot them a glance as he approached.

Hawk on the other hand, had mere moments to react as the strange garbed man shot right at him. To say this man was large was an understatement. This ‘Gally’ was seven foot easy, and built like a tank. His entire upper body was decked out in a strange type of grey armor. Looking both medieval and yet futuristic at the same time. The man’s boots were of the same type of armor, yet didn’t seem to slow the man down in the slightest. Oddly, the pants the man wore bore no armor upon them at all, appearing to be normal green fabric, though Hawk theorized otherwise.

Finally there was the man’s weapon. A sword nearly as large as Hawk himself was. Yet even it looked strange and out of place. While large, it had the appearance of something more akin to a toy rather then an actual weapon. Though shaped like a broad sword, there were two holes in the center of it’s blade. Long oval like shapes one atop the other. Though it was the other oddity that really caught one’s eye. For whatever reason, the very outer edge of the blade was glowing with a dull blue light. Only proving to further it’s alien appearance.

Hawk of course, wasn’t taking any chances and was quick to push Twilight out of the way as the man lumbered near. He took special notice that the man appeared to be doing his best to avoid hurting any of the ponies anyway. Focusing his charge solely on Hawk.

‘Guess he doesn’t like me.’ Hawk thought to himself as he prepared to counter. Though the man wore armor on his upper body, he had no helmet. Had the two newbies not called for this man to stop, Hawk might have just tried to shoot the idiot in the head and be done with it. Sadly, since it appeared this guy was on the ‘good side’ that plan would have to be passed upon.

Instead Hawk waited till the last possible second he could before ducking to the right aiming his pistol for the guy’s head in the same moment. He stopped only to find the sword held up between his gun and the head of the man who wielded it. The guy wasn’t as slow as he thought...

“Ha! You didn’t think that I, Gally ‘Vanish’ Gregman! Would be able to anticipate your next move so easily did you?” ‘Gally’ boasted before giving a hearty laugh. His brown eyes almost sparkling as he did so. Hawk was almost floored by this guy’s lack of sense. Did he not realize how stupid it was to let your guard down like that?

“Anticipate? If I wanted to shoot you, I’d have put a hole in the useless brain of yours. You realize a blade with gaping holes in it, ain’t going to be much protection against a bullet right?”

“Well, if you think that’s the case, why not give it a try?” Gally shot back, his grin ever so cocky. Hawk nearly actually pulled the trigger, except not only did he know he shouldn’t, but Gally did something he hadn’t expected. Gripping the sword handle even tighter, the blade itself seemed to crackle with an unseen energy. The dull glow around the blade intensifying. Hawk’s eyes narrowed. Just what kind of tech was this guy using?

“Gally Stop! This man isn’t HLF!” Lucky yelled from the side suddenly. Having trotted up to the two during their banter. Gally stopped just long enough to glance down at the pony with a confused expression.

“He isn’t? How can you be so sure?”

“Well,” Lucky replied with a sigh. “Didn’t you notice how he pushed that purple unicorn pony out of the way of your charge? Would a member of the HLF do that?” It was easy to see the thought process upon Gally’s face as he pondered this. After a few moments he lowered his sword and smiled.

“You’re right! I guess he wouldn’t! Come to think of it, you wouldn’t have all been standing next to him so casually either!” He said with another hearty laugh. All four ponies and the two humans watched him with weary looks at that.

(Gally ‘Vanish’ Gregman)

“Anyway. Sorry about that. The name is Gally. Gally ‘Vanish’ Gregman! Though I guess I told you that already huh?” Gally said with another quick laugh as he extended his hand toward Hawk. “So who do I have the pleasure of meeting?”

Twilight was actually surprised when she saw Hawk take the man’s hand in a handshake. She had half expected him to decline.

“Name’s Hawk. Now if you don’t mind my asking. Can ya fill me in on what’s going on?”

“Love to, but I think we’d better meet back up with the team leaders first.” Lucky chimed in glancing around the hallway. “Especially since I’m certain our little clash here has compromised our location.”

“You mean to the HLF?” Applejack asked, darting her eyes around as well. Lucky, Gally, and Jason all nodded simultaneously.

“What do you think Twilight?” Hawk asked, looking down at his pony companion. Twilight glanced at the odd new group they met for a moment then made a decision.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I think we can trust these people. Besides, I know Lucky from Ponyville, so I can confirm his loyalty to the Princess.” Lucky beamed at her praise. Hawk nodded at her answer and turned to the new group.

“To be frank, I think you’re a bit of an odd bunch, but I suppose you seem legit. I do have on condition though.” Hawk said, his voice cool and steady.

“So? What is it?” Gally asked with what appeared to be annoyance. “This isn’t about my charging you is it? I already apologized!” Hawk shook his head.

“Not that. That.” He said pointing at the shotgun in Jason’s hands. “I suggest we disarm him before he accidentally shoots one of us. With the rest of us, he won’t need it.” He was expecting the guy to protest. Or even comply with annoyance. What he didn’t expect was the longing he saw in Jason’s eyes to do exactly as Hawk has suggested.

“Y-Yeah, there’s enough of us now that I don’t need it right?” He asked nervously, preparing to hand it to Gally. But both Gally and Lucky shook their heads.

“Better not son. That gun might be the only thing that can protect you if we fail.” Gally said, the amusement that had been in his voice mere moments before had vanished completely.

“I agree, better safe then sorry.” Lucky added. Jason could only nod solemnly as he repositioned the shot gun for a better grip to aim and fire it if needed. Hawk simply couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.

“Are all of you mad? The kid obviously doesn’t know how to use a gun. He’s a danger to all of us the longer he continues to wield that thing!”

“I’m nineteen, I’m no kid...” Jason mumbled halfheartedly. Twilight was as confused as Hawk. Why were these two making him carry something he obviously didn’t seem to want?

“Like I said we can’t risk it.” Lucky said sternly. “If the HLF get him, it’ll be a disaster!”

“Just what in the hay are you talking about?” Applejack added, feeling just as frustrated as Hawk felt at the moment. Even Rainbow Dash was getting fed up with all this mystery.

“Yeah, what makes him so special?” She added. “There are plenty of other humans around they can grab!”

“You don’t get it.” Gally answered, his voice still grave. “He’s the reason they are doing all this. The cockatrice swarm. The shady tactics. It’s all to get their hands on him!”

“But..But why?” Twilight asked. Her mind at a loss. Dear Celestia. What on earth had they found themselves involved in this time?

“Inside me...” Jason replied quietly. He voice shaking with too many emotions to name. “They... They want-”

He never got to finish. At that exact second, what appeared to be a a type of grappling hook hurled out of nowhere to close around Jason’s arm. In an instant it was dragging him back in the direction that Hawk and Twilight’s group had come from.

“SHIT!” Gally screamed, as he swung his sword at the wire. The blue light, which had dulled when he had stopped fighting, blazed to life once more as it sliced through the wire like it wasn’t even there. Hawk watched in baffled silence as he saw the guy plunge the sword into the grown with ease. The blade sinking into it as if it was nothing more then dirt. Without missing a beat Gally grabbed the wire before it could retreat any farther. With one arm gripping it, the large man tensed his entire body.

With a mighty heave, Gally yanked it back with all his might, pulling forward the guilty party on the other end. Standing before them was a human dressed in what appeared to be a special kind of swat uniform. It appeared similar to the normal SWAT uniforms except for the four small red lights in a square pattern among the guy’s chest. While the helmet certainly looked military issued, it’s face gear appeared as if lifted right out of a science fiction movie. Red glowing goggles covered the eyes, the face was covered by what could only be described as a gas mask.

The wire had been shot from what appeared to be an arm mounted launcher, which is what caused the guy to fall forward when the cable had been pulled so suddenly. Upon finding himself out in the open before them, the man appeared slightly panicked. He stood there for a few seconds before pushing a button on his arm launcher. Causing it to unattach and clatter to the ground.

“Specter Unit...” Lucky growled. Hawk’s attention immediately turned to him.

“What?”

“We heard them call themselves that earlier. We don’t really know what it means yet...” Gally replied while watching the man carefully.

“Who sent you?” Lucky asked.

The man regarded them for only a moment more as both Hawk and Gally prepared to attack if needed. With a quick press of a button on the man’s belt, the four lights blazed to unnatural intensity, bathing the entire hallway is a brilliant red glow. Hawk and Gally had barely enough time to cover their eyes before the flash went off. The ponies however hadn’t been so lucky and saw nothing but what appeared to be a sea of moving red ocean before them.

Hawk could already hear the man rushing toward them as he desperately tried to get his eyes to clear just enough that he could see. Despite his best efforts, everything before him were just a bunch of abstract colors. He could just barely make out the blur of the guy that was moving faster then the other blurs, but it wouldn’t been enough to aim and fire upon him.

“Hawk!” Twilight called at that moment, trying in vain to recall the layout of their positions using her memory only. When Jason had first been grabbed, he had dropped his shot gun. A gun Twilight had quickly used her magic to prevent from falling as she knew enough of guns by now, that if it hit the ground, it’d be very bad.

Though all this she had not let it fall. Realizing what was probably happening, she did her best to levitate the gun to Hawk. Thankfully, despite being off about a foot, it was still close enough for Hawk to grab it out of mid air. The blob that was the enemy had just gotten close enough For Hawk to actually make out some details rather then see a blur when he aimed the shotgun and pulled the trigger. Hitting the guy almost point blank in the chest.

The guy nearly rocketed backward, flung helpless by the force of the blast. A single combat knife he had unsheathed to attack with, fell from his grasp and clattered harmlessly to the ground. He hit the ground rolling, falling backward several feet before managing to stop himself. He was alive, but not un-phased. Clutching his stomach in obvious pain, it appeared as if the man decided retreat was the logical option and took off running down the nearest hallway.

“Hey! Get back here you little-” Rainbow Dash began to shout, preparing to rocket after him.

“Wait Rainbow! Let him go!” Hawk shouted as he adjusted the bag upon his shoulder. Looks like he’d get some use out of these explosives after all.

“Let him go!? But aren’t we suppose to hunt monsters? We can’t just let it leave!”

“That wasn’t a monster.” Hawk replied blinking his eyes to clear the last bit of his vision. He was fairly certain the rest of the group nearly had their eye sight back as well. It was time to do what Gally and Lucky had suggested earlier. Move.

“Excuse me? What in the hay do you mean that was no monster? You shot that thing point blank, and the sucker kept moving!” Applejack called as she began to trot after Hawk, who had already begun running. Gally and Lucky had only nodded to him once when they saw he was ready to take their advice and began to lead the way. Jason doing his best to stay in between them. Twilight had been caught off guard at first, but quickly fell in behind them. Rainbow Dash simply gliding along with them.

“Whoever that was, he was human, but that armor is top notch. It would have taken three more of these shotgun blasts to take one down, and I have no doubt he’s off to gather his buddies.”

“I’ve never heard of the HLF having stuff like that!” Twilight huffed as she ran, “As AJ would say, what in the hay is going on!” Her eyes desperately scanning the hall as they ran, weary of anymore of those things jumping out at them.

“I’d say someone with a lot of cash is funding the HLF right now. Any ideas on who that is?” Hawk asked Gally and Lucky, but they merely shook their heads.

“Not yet, but whoever it is is powerful, and has enough informants that they were able to find out about Jason!” Gally called back as they neared a crossroads in the hallways. Gally took one look at Lucky, who seemed to be judging each each hall with ferocity before choosing one and running down it.

“Yeah, Lucky for us, we happened to be passing by on our way to a mission, when we heard about the cockatrice nest. We figured we’d help out in rounding them up, only to run across those men trying to capture Jason here. It’s been a game of silent cat and mouse all morning since!” Lucky added as they ran.

“Wait mission?” Rainbow Dash yelled, having an easier time speaking then the rest due to her natural speed in flight. “What do you mean you were on a mission?”

“I’ll let one of the team leaders explain that one!” Lucky replied stopping at another splitting hallway. This one a T-Intersection. Whatever he had done at the previous hall didn’t seem to be working this time as he constantly shot glances down each hall in a frantic motion. Each one going only a short distance before turning sharply once more.

“What’s up Lucky? Luck run out?” Gally asked making sure no one was coming up from behind them.

“Possibly. I can’t seem to get a good feeling from either side. Guess I can’t be lucky all the time.”

“So what, you change your name at these times?” Hawk added in, a grenade in one hand. If any Specter unit’s showed up this time, he wanted to be ready. The pony meanwhile, just shot him an amused look.

“Nah, it never lasts long enough. So what do you all say? Left or right?”

“If I may make a suggestion,” came a smooth feminine voice from their left, “I’d choose to follow the yellow Pegasus!”

As the speaker finished, the entire group turned their gaze to toward the direction of the voice. Just in time to see a yellow pegasus mare with a fiery orange mane and tail, come swooping around the corner with the same level of speed as Rainbow Dash normally displayed. Though this pony had a bit more grace to her.

The pegasus flew in till she was a mere foot from the group before performing a back flip and landing elegantly upon her hooves on the ground. With a flick of a forehoof, she adjusted a pair of goggles that had been over her eyes, moving them up to her forehead. Seeming unable to help herself, she struck a pose, her cutie mark of a flame almost dancing as if it was actually burning. Rainbow Dash was the first one to react.

“OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH!” She said rather rapidly, putting one of her hooves up to her mouth in surprise. “It’s Spitfire of the Wonderbolts!”

“Indeed I am!” Spitfire replied with a sense of pride, “And you’re Rainbow Dash. I’ve got to say, it’s nice to see you again! Though I’d never have expected to run into you at a Bureau of all places.”

Rainbow Dash’s squees went up to a slightly higher pitch at that. “OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! You remembered my name!” Spitfire gave a joyful little laugh.

“Forget the mare who saved my life at the Best Young Flyer Competition, as well as the one who made the Grand Galloping Galla a wild night to remember? Perish the thought!”

“Not that I’m sad to hear you’re all still alive,” Came another feminine voice from around the same corner. Hawk relaxed the hand he had gripping the pistol at the sound of her. He’d thought he’d sensed someone nearby, but by the clam reactions of Lucky and his companions. This newcomer was yet another one of them. It certainly was interesting how many members this team seemed to have though...

Seconds later a young women of intense beauty came walking around the corner. Two pistols, each in a holster, at her sides. Hawk was able to tell instantly that whoever these people and ponies were. Whoever this woman was, she was one of the leaders.

“But what are you all doing just standing around?” She finished, placing one hand upon her hip as she did so. Hawk nearly let out a low whistle at the sight of the lady.  She may look rather elegant, but one could tell right away just by her eyes that she wasn’t any sort of push over.

Her appearance caused her to stand out even among the rest of them combined. For one, her hair was pink, tied off to the side in a loose ponytail. Her green eyes shined mischievously as she watched them. But most shocking was her outfit.

Her upper ‘shirt’ was nothing more then a striped bikini, though Hawk could tell it wasn’t made out of any ordinary cloth. It was positioned in such a way to give a nice view of her ‘assets’. She wore long red arm gloves upon each arm. Shorter pink gloves atop those which appeared to be made of a leather like material. Her lower half was even odder in dress.

She wore what appeared to be a pair of pink pants, consisting of only the left pant leg. The right being non-existent. Two tan belts crisscrossed on her waste, imposed over a third one of white. On her right leg, she wore what Hawk could only describe as a leg of sexy panty hose. Finally, to complete the out of place image, was a pair of pink boots, many red buckles running up them.

Hawk wasn’t the only one thrown by this woman’s appearance. Twilight and her friends were just as bewildered. Since hanging out with Hawk and his human ‘friends’ all three of them knew by now that what she was wearing was no sort of combat garb.

(The Enigmatic lady Leslie)

“And I thought we had some strange ones...” Rainbow Dash muttered, before Applejack could elbow her with a foreleg. The woman took a few moments to look over the group of three humans and five ponies before finally speaking once more.

“See you’ve made some new friends here guys. By the looks of Mr. Cowboy here and the three ponies. I’m going to guess You’re Agent Hawk, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack.” Twilight and her two pony friends gasped. Hawk was much more collected.

“And judging by how you know that, I’m going to guess you have something to do with that secret project Joe’s been working on. I freaking TOLD him I don’t like surprises.” He said with a sigh. With all his work in the field, he hadn’t ever run across these two agents before. A fact  that bothered him greatly. He never was one for being caught in a mystery.

“Well we weren’t suppose to meet just yet. President McCullough and our own employer had a much more formal event planned for that.” The woman replied with a playful quip before extending her hand. Hawk took it without hesitation, using his grip to conduct a minor little test against her. He was surprised to find that her grip wasn’t just firm, but powerful. His hand felt almost tingly as he shook her hand.

‘That’s odd.’ Hawk thought to himself. ‘Either I’m falling for her, or there is something very peculiar about this lady...’

“But I suppose this is as good a time as any.” The woman continued as they shook hands. “The name’s Leslie. I’m the human Team leader of what I guess you can call Group B.”

“Group B?” Twilight echoed. A mischievous smile crept upon Leslie’s lips.

“You didn’t think you’d be the only group of agents gathered to hunt these manifestations of the magic leak did you?”

“Ah, so that’s the game.” Hawk said with a smirk of his own. “So which country decided to help out?” Leslie’s grin became wider.

“Can’t you tell just by looking at me?” Hawk had to chuckle.

“Well considering hair color alteration became a pretty popular fad in Japan a couple of years back, I’m going to guess that country.” He had never really paid it much mind before, but he had heard about the ‘boom’ in anime popularity with Japan’s mainstream public. Give it enough time and the public will latch on to anything to appear ‘hip’. With anime having been around for a while now, certain youths had decided to start styling their hair to look similar to how some wore it in anime shows. After a while, the fad spread and soon everyone in Japan was doing it. As for the rest of the world though, it never caught on.

“Wouldn’t have taken you for the type to follow such a fad though.” He added in.

“Hey a girl can have many hobbies,” She replied with a dismissive wave, “Never the less, you are correct in your guess of Japan Mr. Hawk. But I fear we haven’t time for this. As I’m sure you are aware, Mr. Jason here is in danger of being taken by the HLF. If that happens, it’d be very bad, get my meaning?”

“But why?” Twilight spoke up, still trying to piece it all together. “Why go through all this trouble to capture him?” All eyes turned to Jason after that, who had been standing between his two ‘protectors’ while still nervously clutching his shotgun.

Once more Twilight couldn’t help but notice just how tired he looked. He had barely spoken a word the entire time they had known him, though granted that hadn’t been a long time, it still felt weird. He didn’t look like any other normal human. He certainly wasn’t some great fighter or possessed any extra ordinary abilities that she could see. So why him? Why go through all this trouble JUST to get their hands on this one guy?

“We only learned about it this morning when we came here.” Leslie replied, her face becoming grim. Whatever playful spark that had been in her eyes before died out. To Twilight, it felt like the very air around them had gained in pressure. Rainbow Dash on the other hand, was getting tired of all the overdrawn theatrics.

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Lucky told us that part. You found him being captured by those Specter goons. Now get to WHY already!” Jason flinched at her tone, but said nothing.

“They want his blood.” Leslie said flatly, “It has a special property to it I can’t believe. Simply put-” She stopped, her hand twitching involuntarily. Hawk’s did the same as he sighed for what had to be the tenth time that day.

“It’s going to have to wait for later isn’t it?” He said tensing his body for the action he was about to perform.

“Looks that way. On one?” Leslie asked, her hand finding one of her own pistol’s handles.

“ONE!” Hawk shouted as both he and Leslie turned and fired down the hallway Hawk and company had originally come from. Both bullets hit the Specter Unit that had been attempting to sneak upon them. Hawk’s bullet ricocheted off the helmet, throwing the man into a daze, while Leslie’s bullet impacted upon one of the chest lights, obliterating it.

They continued to fire for a few seconds, Leslie seeming to shoot two bullet’s to each of Hawk’s one. Three of his shots got lucky. Two impacting upon the guy’s shoulder, while the last one took out the right lens of the man’s goggles. Leslie’s shots however, not only took out the remaining three chest lights, but managed to impact upon the eye piece Hawk missed.

Her aim had been insane. Hawk had known a few sharpshooters in this time, but never saw anything like that. Even more impressive was the fact she had one handed the entire ordeal. Hawk could already feel the strain upon his arm for trying the same one handed technique she had just used. Yet unlike him, she didn’t seem phased at all. Just who was this person?

“Aw, you didn’t leave anything for me!” Gally lamented as he watched the now deceased man slump to the ground. More of that human style humor... Twilight thought to herself with a groan.

“You’ll have your chance, I’m sure three more are about to come following in his footsteps any second now.” Leslie childed as she spun her pistol in a flashy motion before placing it back in it’s holster. “I suggest we keep moving. Any objections Hawk?”

“Just one.” He said as he finished fishing a couple of small cylinders from his bag. “We make it difficult for anyone to follow!”

Wasting no time, he pulled two pins atop the containers before flinging them down the hall. The instant everyone saw the two explosives bounce down the hall, they bolted in the direction that Leslie was already running. Mere seconds later they heard the explosions, followed shortly afterward by a dreadful human scream.

“What were those?” Rainbow Dash asked as they fled. Hawk grinned.

“SCNs. Or in layman's terms. Super Condensed Napalm Grenades. No matter how great that armor of theirs is, it’s not holding up to that stuff!”

“Wild!” Spitfire cheered with a grin, as she flew alongside Rainbow Dash with ease. Twilight couldn’t help but grin at the look Rainbow Dash had on her face as the ‘Wonderbolt’ flew with them. In any other situation, Dash might have challenged the pegasus to a race, but not Spitfire.

“Ohmygosh-Ohmygosh-Ohmygosh!” Rainbow exclaimed as she flew beside her hero. Twilight couldn’t help but roll her eyes with a smile.

“So if ya don’t mind my asking,” Applejack interjected as she caught up with Leslie and Hawk, “But where we headed?”

“A safe room where the other team leader is finishing setting up a little ‘surprise’ for our pursuers. If all goes well, it’ll hopefully be where we end this.” Leslie called back as she lead them flawlessly down hall after hall. Twilight had to wonder how she knew where they were even going. Surely having only been here for a few hours at most, this woman couldn’t possibly have memorized the layout. Though by the unconcerned look on Leslie’s face, it certainly didn’t look like she was lost.

“Just how many more of you are there?” Hawk asked as the ran.

“Only the Pony Team leader.”

“She anything like you?” Leslie scoffed.

“Not in the slightest. She’s... Unique”

“That bad?”

“Oh I dunno. She can be a bit boastful, but she has a good heart.” Spitfire added. The conversation died out as they concentrated on moving for a while.

“One other thing...” Applejack added after a short time, “Don’t suppose we should like use that radio thingy in Hawk’s bag or something to call Captain Barnes?”

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about her.” Hawk replied with a grin. “Given the situation, and knowing her. I’d say she already has her hands full!”

* * *

‘Check the wind, steady the body. Aim and fire.’ The woman known as Captain Barnes thought to herself before pulling the trigger and letting fly a tranquilizer dart into one of the surrounding ‘officers’. She had brought these things to help ‘quiet’ the cockatrices if required during their transport. She never would have guessed she’d be using them like this.

A mere ten minutes after Hawk had entered the Bureau with the ponies, she had confirmed something was wrong. Something hadn’t felt sound  the moment they had landed here, and she’d bet her gun Hawk had been thinking the same thing. Sure enough. when she attempted to contact HQ to report they had arrived safely, she was met with static. Something was jamming the radio, and she didn’t feel like asking questions she could already guess the answers to.

Watching the ‘police’ while making sure no one tried to occupy the helicopter beside herself. She studied those present. After a time she managed to catch one Sergent speak into his radio after seemingly changing frequencies. With a bit of work, she was able to get a lock on the frequency that had been used. After that it was a simply matter of sending a shrill little distraction through it and watch for which officers reacted.

There had been far more then she had anticipated. Whatever they were there for, they were serious about it. Still, the odds weren’t... Impossible. Long as the one man in the green suit wasn’t involved. She had only glimpsed him for a moment when him and the Sergent spoke. After that it was like the man had vanished into thin air.

With that last shot, three of the corrupted officers had already been suppressed. It wouldn’t be long before they caught on to just what she was up to. When that happened, they’d rush her for sure. At the moment they were simply looking around wildly like lost sheep. Of course when they did go for her, it’d be difficult to take out the false police while sparing the normal officers. Not a big deal. Life never was without it’s challenges...

“Fwip!” Another dart in a neck. Another enemy down. Her eyes washed back over the grounds, collected and still. There was no need to rush things. They wouldn’t rush the building as long as the cockatrices were in there, and they wouldn’t start a public scene if what they were after was as important as she assumed it was. After all, why else go through all this trouble?

She also wasn’t worried about any of the ‘defeated’ getting back up anytime soon either. The amount of tranquilizer she had loaded into these darts were enough to put an elephant to sleep. After all, how was one to know the amount needed to suppress a cockatrice? Course she had no idea what sort of lasting effect these might have on human beings, but such were the way of things.

“Another one bites the dust.” She said silently to herself, as another man fell to the drug she had just shot into his neck. The remaining had finally started to converge on her location. The few true cops asking a dozen questions a second.

“I hope you are having fun in there Hawk.” Captain Barnes said with the merest hint of a smile, while she loaded another dart.

* * *

“So,” Twilight said as she cast another spell of immobilization on one of the men chasing them. “We having fun yet?”

Hawk gave her a big smile as he unloaded a few rounds from his revolver into one of the armored men’s helmets.

“I know -I- am!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she shot down a hallway in order to buck one of the men who had gotten a little ‘too’ close.

“Likewise party ponies!” Spitfire seconded, flying back down the hall they had come to deliver a buck of her own. Applejack in the meantime, had moved up to help guard Jason alongside Gally and Lucky. Gally seemingly disappointed that he couldn’t join in the ‘games’ as they were.

Leslie, who still leading the way, was quickly ushering them into a pair of double doors with the words ‘AUTHORIZED PERSONAL ONLY’ in big bold letters above it. The task forcing her to cut herself off from the battle proper for the time being as well.

The Specter Unit’s had swarmed upon them from a side hallway to their left, the moment they arrived at these doors leading to the area normally reserved for the pony staff who carried out ponification. The set up was certainly much different then the one Twilight had at hers. This door was stuck smack in a corner of a hall. The corner even seemingly shaved off with an extra wall added in that contained the door itself.

The first thing their enemy had done was fire more of those wire cuff things the first one had shot earlier. Leslie had shot these out of the air reflexes so lightning quick that Rainbow Dash herself didn’t think she could match. Not long after that, a dozen or so more had come rushing down the hallway behind them. Boxing them in.

Thankfully, they had all managed to rush in before the Specter Unit’s could cut off their path. Still, if Twilight knew how bureau’s normally worked, this meant they had no means of escape other then the way they had just come in though. Whatever ‘surprise’ this final member of Leslie’s team was setting up. Twilight certainly hoped it was a doozy or they’d be in trouble!

Unfortunately, seeing that Jason had been ushered into the doors beyond, the men after them decided that holding back force was no longer an option and began to unsheathe small sub-machine guns from their backs. Seeing this, both Spitfire and Rainbow Dash decided that diving for cover would be a better option then being filled with holes, and dived into the doors, leaving only Twilight and Hawk exposed in the hall.

Before Twilight could attempt any sort of spell to either blind their pursuers, or bring up a shield to block the incoming bullets. Hawk had picked her up with one arm before diving through the double doors. As they disappeared beyond them, he let drop a couple more explosive canisters he had wrestled from his bag seconds before.

Twilight could hear the distinct sounds of bullets impacting upon the walls around them, followed shortly by two blasts that immediately filled the outside hallway, as well as part of their own, with a thick black smoke.

“That won’t slow them down for long with their visors, and those gas masks will prevent any hopes of inhibiting their breathing.” Hawk said hurriedly before he began fishing into his bag once more. “Twi, can you cast a spell to lock and fortify those doors for a little while?”

“I think so...” Twilight responded summoning the magic in her horn as she spoke. She knew of only one spell that might be of any use in this situation, though obviously it had never meant to be used in such a way.

There had been a time during her studies with the Princess, when the weather pegasus had gotten a little too enthusiastic with making it rain. The result had accidentally flooded part of the castle in Canterlot where she had been staying. One of her teachers had taught her a spell that would ‘seal’ a doorway so to prevent the flooding from spreading. She had no idea how it’d hold up against a group of armed men with guns, but since it was suppose to be able to hold back several gallons of water, it should at least deter them for a little while.

“Hey! Hey Twilight! Hawk! Quit falling behind! This way!” Rainbow Dash was calling to them, peeking her head around the corner the rest had apparently disappeared around. Twilight just shook her head while Hawk sighed through his nostrils before both headed down the hall to join their companions. The sounds of gunfire against Twilight’s ‘barricade’ blaring behind them.

“How are you holding up Jason?” They heard Leslie ask while they rounded the corner. The area they found themselves in was nothing more then a large alcove. A single door to their left the only thing breaking up the white monotony of the walls.

As for the Jason, the poor guy was shaking bad. Twilight couldn’t imagine what he was feeling, let alone what he may be thinking. For whatever reason, those men wanted him. Something about his blood that they’d not only send a group of men with such equipment, but release a group of cockatrice in this very bureau in order to mask their movements.

‘Oh Celestia!’ Twilight thought to herself, remembering the cockatrice. In all the excitement she hadn’t managed to ask Leslie or her group if they knew where the petrified people and ponies ended up, or if they had found any other survivors. She certainly hoped they weren’t still out there in the bureau. Alone and forgotten with those Specter Unit guys running amok...

“Well...” Jason replied while attempting to regulate his breathing, “I’m still free and breathing. I guess that counts for something... All things considered...” Leslie gave him a sad smile as she patted his shoulder.

“I promise you we’ll protect you. We won’t let them capture you. You can trust us.” Jason gave her a sad smile of his own.

“I know. After... After you shared your secret, I believe you. Looks like we both have a hard life ahead of us... Thank you for protecting me because I’m human...” He trailed off staring at the ground, while desperately trying not to shake. Twilight was fairly certain he had added, ‘And not because of my blood’ in his head.

She found herself wishing very much that Pinkie had come with them. Jason looked so miserable as he sat there. Knowing the men were doing all this just to get him. Twilight couldn’t even begin to imagine how that must feel. Pinkie would have had just the right thing to say in this situation. Or maybe even Fluttershy, who’s gentle way of speaking would have surely lifted his spirits. Twilight doubted she could have come up with anything if she had all day to think about it.

Leslie, standing up from where Jason was crouched, motioned for Gally and Lucky to stay with him. Both gave her a nod of confirmation before taking up positions on each side of him.

Applejack decided to take the front, staring at the boy as if she wanted to say something comforting herself, but seemed like Twilight, to lack the words. Both Rainbow Dash and Spitfire were flying next to Leslie. Who was making her way to Hawk and Twilight.

“So what did you end up telling him?” Hawk asked as she walked up. His voice was friendly, but Twilight could sense the firmness in his tone. Leslie answered with a smile.

“The truth. That he’s not the only one who's living with a curse. When we rescued him he was a mess. I’m honestly surprised he’s collected himself as much as he has. Given what he’s probably been through the last few days. Any other person may have completely withdrawn by now. If he’s who I think he is... Then this isn’t the only thing he’s had to endure...”

“Given that I believe we’ll be interrupted if I ask why he’s so popular all of a sudden, or who you think he is. I’ll ask this instead.” Hawk began with a grin. “You confirmed that Japan was the one to help put this ‘Group B’ together. Then why are you in America?”

“Because this is where the leak is causing the most damage,” Leslie answered with that playful tone of hers.

“You know...” Rainbow Dash said from her spot in the air. “Both Zorro and Dimitiri are from other, what were they? Human lands then this America right? How come you don’t speak in weird words like they do at times?”

“Not much of a answer there. It’s simply because we aren’t native to Japan.” Leslie answered with a shrug, “We just had... Some ties to the higher ups.”

“Who put this together? Is this because of our President’s efforts?” Hawk asked as Applejack came trotting over.  She had felt useless where she had been standing, unable to think of anything to help that human guy out. Plus, with everyone talking over here all secret like something she should be apart of.

“...That’s part of it,” Leslie answered after a pause, “The Emperor wasn’t planning on doing much at first, but when your Princess asked if he could help, he ordered Prime Minister Sayaka to pick a couple of agents to add to the small team of Ponies the Princess had already collected.”

“Wait what?” Twilight asked interrupting her. “Princess Celestia is the one who gathered the ponies on your team? She never mentioned anything about that to me!” Leslie looked as if she was about to answer when a proud feminine voice suddenly erupted from behind the one door near them.

“I can’t believe YOU of all ponies would display such IGNORANCE Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all recognized the voice immediately. Though none of them wanted to believe it.

“Seems our other team leader has finished with our surprise.” Leslie commented as the door began to open.

“That voice sound familiar to anypony else?” Applejack groaned as the door finished opening, revealing a pony mare beyond it. Twilight could just see the glow fading from beneath the hat she wore. Indicating the pony before them was a unicorn, her magic being what had opened the door. Though they knew this pony well enough to know she had magic. No one could EVER forget that about her.

“Ugh, that OUTFIT look familiar to anypony else?” Dash snarked at the pony. Referring to her purple hat and cape. Twilight wasn’t normally one to feel dread at meeting a pony, but this one was an exception.

“Say it isn’t her...” She mumbled. Hawk on the other hand, was finding the entire ordeal rather amusing.

“So I take it you know her?” He said before the unicorn mare walked the rest of the way into the alcove, her head held high.

“Well, Well, Well, I see you’re still a bunch of NEIGHsayers as always!” The pony exclaimed while flicking tail. She appeared well groomed, her mane and tail a subtle hue of lightish blue, with a white streak down it’s center. She was blue in color, with a coat that seemed unmarred by dirt or dust. She wore what could only be described as a purple wizard hat, with matching cape. Both with matching golden stars and moons decorating them. Clasping the cape together, was a small blue stone. The size of an apple and rectangular in shape. Her purple eyes seemed to mock the ponies before her their gaze.

“For your information, Twilight Sparkle, Your dear Princess Celestia is not the ONLY Princess of Equestria, as I’m sure you are well aware. It just so happens that Japan has many stories and legends of the Moon. When our beloved Princess Luna visited their country, she was met with as much adoration as I receive on an everyday basis.” Twilight and her friends rolled their eyes at that last part, but the unicorn pony ignored them.

“Why it was Princess Luna herself that asked I. The Great and Powerful Trixie! To assist in leading this group B that you see around you. What else was Trixie to do but accept?”

“Y’all kidden me?” Applejack asked unbelieving, “She gone and asked you? The mare who could only boast but not back up?” Trixie scoffed.

“While Trixie admits that it wasn’t the wisest decision to claim to have defeated an Ursa Major, she is by no means a pushover in magic. The Great and Powerful Trixie is MORE then capable of handling this task!”  The glare Trixie sent Applejack’s way with that statement could have pierced stone. Thankfully, it was around this time that Spitfire spoke up.

“Alright GP, time to reel it back.” She said while giving Trixie a little nudge. Much to Twilight and her friends surprise, Trixie simply sighed in acceptance, rather then argue.

“I suppose you are right Spitfire. We are on a mission after all.” With that she trotted the rest of the way over to Leslie. Rainbow Dash watched all this with wide eyed shock.

“Wow! You really are AWESOME!” She exclaimed, bunching her face together as she spoke the last part. “You even got Trixie to listen to you!”

“Oh that wasn’t just because I’m awesome, though I thank you for saying that. I’ve just known her long enough to handle her that’s all.” Spitfire replied offhandedly before flying back up into the air.

“Wait, how long HAVE you known her?” Twilight asked.

“Trixie has known Spitfire since they were both little Fillies,” Trixie replied with what appeared to be mock annoyance. “She never did let Trixie have any fun!”

“That’s because your ‘fun’ was a sure fire way to prevent you from making friends!” Spitfire shot back.

“Ha! Trixie will have you know that she’s had LOTS of friends!”

“Name one besides me.”

“Bah, I don’t have time for that, we should focus on our mission. Leslie. How is Jason doing?” Trixie asked hurriedly, doing her best to change the subject. Twilight couldn’t help but notice that she had dropped her third person act when confronted about the topic though...

“He’s holding up. Somehow...” Came Leslie’s reply. Trixie nodded solemnly before turning to trot over to him.

“How are you? Have you been hurt?” She asked, her tone changing considerably from what it had been. Twilight actually did a double take at the display. She could scarcely believe Trixie was capable of such a tone!

“N-no I’m okay. No scratches or anything. They shouldn't be able to get a sample of my blood...”

“Is THAT what you think?” Trixie cut in harshly, causing Jason to stare at her in shock.

“Do you think Trixie so cold that she would ask of your health just to insure you hadn’t bled? Fine then! Trixie regrets asking!” With that she turned and trotted away, leaving Jason feeling to stunned and guilty at his response to say anymore. Though with Twilight, it just left her very confused. That certainly wasn’t the Trixie she remembered!

“Trixie assumes you found a way to block the door?” She asked coming back over to Twilight and the gang. This time it was Hawk who responded.

“Twilight here cast some sort of spell upon it. Dunno what it was, but it seems to be working for the moment.”

“As much as it pains Trixie to admit, having Twilight Sparkle here is a boon we can’t overlook. As you know, their target is Jason himself. We must prevent that at all costs.” Trixie said with a sense of authority that once again surprised Twilight to hear come from the mouth of well, Trixie.

‘Just what happened to you since that day in ponyville?’ She wondered while looking at the blue unicorn pony beside her. The old Trixie she remembered was certainly still there, but there kept popping up these moments already that were proving something had changed.

“So our ‘surprise’ all set up?” Leslie asked. Trixie gave a sly nod and smile in response.

“It’ll be a show that’ll put even The Great and Powerful Trixie’s amazing performances to shame!” Trixie had reared back in glee as she said the last part, earning a grin from Spitfire and Leslie, and eye rolls from Hawk, Twilight, and her friends. Gally, Lucky, and Jason seemed indifferent.

“Sounds good. Guess the only thing we need to do now is get set up. So who wants to go into the room with Jason, and who wants to stay out here and fight the bad guys when they break down the door?” Leslie asked the room, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Much as I like a good rustle, I’m a might bit worried about Jason there. Think I’ll stick by him for the moment.” Applejack replied while trotting over to where Jason was still sitting against the wall. He managed a weary smile as she approached, but it was clear he was still reeling from his scolding from Trixie.

“Much as I’d like to fight the bad guys, rushing into a hail of bullets when they break in, probably isn’t going to be the best thing to do.” Rainbow Dash admitted with a scowl. “So I guess that means I’m stuck in the room. This sucks!”

“Hey don’t worry Dash. I’ll be there with you! Not even a Wonderbolt wants to try dodging bullets.” Spitfire quipped flying up next to Dash. Upon hearing that Spitfire would be with her, Dash’s scowl vanished instantly.

“I’m going to be hanging with a Wonderbolt! Ohmygosh-” She began, but Twilight tuned out the rest.

“I’ll be staying out here with Hawk,” Twilight replied before looking over at Gally and Lucky. “I’m assuming both Leslie and Gally there will be taking up arms out here. As well as ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’” The tone she used for Trixie’s ‘full title’ was the least mocking one she could muster.

“I guess that leaves only where Lucky is going. I’m going to assume he’s going with Jason?” Lucky, having apparently heard them, nodded his head.

“You bet! Nothing says protection then a lucky charm like me!” He said looking rather proud of himself. Was it Twilight’s imagination, or did Jason almost smile at that?

“Yeah? Well ‘Lucky’ for you two. I’ll be out here making sure those ruffians don’t get in!” Gally boasted with a laugh.

“Ha with my skills, those guys will never touch Jason! ‘Luck’ Has nothing to do with it!” Lucky shot back while placing a hoof upon his chest.

“Yeah? Well with my skills keeping you safe, you’ve hit the Jackpot of luck!”

“I guess you could say for the Specter Unit’s, their ‘luck’ has run out!” Lucky finished up. They both stood there staring at the other with goofy expressions for a few moments, before exploding into fits of laughter.

“Ugh, must you two do that?” Spitfire asked grimacing, “You’re worse then GP with these ‘one liner’ battles of yours!”

“Ha! The Great and Powerful Trixie, NEVER sounds so lame!” Trixie said with a huff, “Anyway, you are wrong on one account Twilight Sparkle. Trixie will NOT be staying with you in this hallway. She is needed much more in the room with them, not only making sure the surprise stays ready to spring, but to keep what’s left of the civilians safe.” The thought of the empty hallways, along with the missing petrified people and ponies once more shot into Twilight’s mind.

“So you found them? The ones who couldn’t get out? How many are there?”

“Only a few are left in here with us,” Leslie cut in, “We were able to return those effected back to normal, thanks to Trixie here. The Specter Unit members let us run around and do as we pleased at first. This allowed those we returned to normal, as well as those just stuck in here, to simply walk out unhindered. However, when we came across Jason, that stopped. Thank heavens there were only a small group left by that point. I shudder to think what may have happened had they managed to take any hostages.”

“So wait...” Hawk asked, holding up his hand. “You managed to stop them from capturing Jason, and kept these potential hostages safe? How in the world you manage that?”

“They may have fancy armor, but they are no soldiers. Most seem to have only basic combat experience at that. Being their target is Jason, we had him running around with Lucky and Gally to lure them away from myself and Spitfire. We went around making sure we hadn’t missed anyone. Trixie both set up our trap while getting those left behind to a safe place.”

“Huh, I wonder why Daisy and them didn’t tell us about the ones who got out?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I doubt they even knew.” Hawk commented. “Given there are most certainly HLF members among those officers outside, I’d bet anyone ‘released’ were sent to some place nearby for ‘questioning’. You saw how far those three ponies were from the building. I doubt they received any information on the progress of things at all.” Twilight nodded before turning back to Leslie.

“So where are remaining people and ponies now?” She asked. Leslie pointed to the same room Trixie had come from, causing Twilight to blink.

“But isn’t that where the trap is?”

Leslie nodded.

“You have the civilians in the same room as the trap!?”

“They’ll be fine. I promise it’ll make sense-” Leslie began before an explosion from down the hall cut her off. Everyone braced themselves for a group of Specter Units to come swarming down the hall any second. After a few seconds it became clear they weren’t through the barricade yet, as nothing happened afterward.

“Well, guess they finally figured out to use their explosives on the barricade.” Hawk commented. “I’d say we get this party started. I doubt we have much time left.”

“Sounds good to me, but might I ask a silly question all quick like?” Applejack spoke up. Leslie gave a motion for Applejack to go ahead, and she continued.

“What became of the cockatrice. We only came across one out there, which Jason there locked in a closet.”

“He did huh?” Leslie said, while she gave a hand signal for Lucky and Gally to get started. Upon receiving said signal, both escorted Jason to the door of the ‘safe room’.

“That makes sense. Guess we missed one. Ask Trixie if you want to know about the others.” Applejack’s face fell.

“Do I havta?” She asked, to which Leslie only smiled. Twilight on the other hoof, wanted to inquire just why Leslie would say something made sense, when in fact it did not in the slightest. Knowing another explosion could happen any second though, she’d have to set her curiosity aside. At least for now.

Leslie and Hawk immediately went to set themselves up for the inevitable firefight that would begin the second those troops made it through the enspelled door. Twilight was about to canter after them when Trixie called out for her to wait. With a sigh, she turned to the unicorn mare.

“Yes... Trixie?” Twilight asked, trying her best to be friendly, though she refused to add the ‘Great and Powerful’ to Trixie’s name every time she had to say it. Much to her surprise, Trixie didn’t even seem to notice.

“Look... I... “ Her face was taunt, her voice strained. Twilight could tell it was taking a lot of effort for her to say what she was attempting to say. She wasn’t even talking in third person!

“Before you go help your human,” She said a bit of her regular manner of speech returning. “Trixie requires you to help escort Jason into the safe room. There is something Trixie admits only you can probably achieve.”

“Wait, did I just hear you correctly?” Twilight blurted out before she could stop herself.  Even with all the time between their initial meeting in ponyville, and their reunion here, she had to admit that she hadn’t really expected Trixie to be all that different from back then. Even with the oddities that kept popping up. It was just, meeting her here, and being asked things like this. It was just too weird.

“Do not patronize The Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie hissed, “She simply needs you to protect Jason when he enters the room. The Great and Powerful Trixie...” Her tone softened at the end of the sentence, her head drooping ever so slightly.

“...Admits that you are better at it...” She finished, her voice barely audible.

“Protect him? But isn’t that why I should be in the hallway with Hawk?” Trixie sighed.

“You shall see what Trixie means.”

Baffled, Twilight could only follow along as Trixie lead the way. Applejack waiting for her along with Gally and Lucky. She hadn’t noticed that she had seen nothing of Spitfire or Rainbow Dash since shortly after Spitfire had broken up the ‘one liner’ contest. Assumed they must have entered already, she cast it from her mind. With a nod from Trixie, both Gally and Lucky entered the room. Jason right behind them.

“Stay close to him.” Trixie instructed before she dropped back a bit. Twilight still didn’t understand what was going on, but did as she was asked. Making sure Jason was directly lined up with her on her right, Applejack keeping pace on her left. Twilight snuck a quick peek at his face to see the oddest expression upon it. He looked as a child would when they knew they were about to be scolded...

The room they entered was large. Though it appeared much smaller due to the giant containers set in two rows down the expanse of the area. She quickly realized they were in the room that this Bureau kept it’s vats of ponification serum. She looked around with interest, taking note of the differences between hers and this one.

Her containers seemed a bit more up to date then these. As these looked like they had been meant for some other liquid before they were refitted for Bureau use. The biggest thing she noticed that differed from hers, was a stairway leading up to a metal walkway. The walkway leading all around the upper walls of the room. Upon this upper path she could just make out a small group humans and ponies. All huddled up in one corner. They stared at her for a few seconds as she entered. None of them moving from the spots they huddled in.

With a quick head count she was able to determine there were eleven in all. Seven humans and four ponies. The humans ranged from three men, three women, and a little girl. With the ponies she could see there to be two earth ponies, one pegasus, and a unicorn.

Twilight and the group walked silently into the center of the room. Gally and Lucky glancing at the figures up on the walkways wearyingly. A flash of motion drew Twilight’s eyes to one corner of the room where the missing Rainbow Dash and Spitfire were found. Both seemed to be looking at something bundled together in the corner. Twilight had to strain her eyes a bit, but was finally able to make out what appeared to be a group of stones.

After a few more moments she realized they weren’t shaped properly for normal stones. They looked like statues. Feeling concern for the possibility they were, as of yet, un-petrified victims, she rushed over, only to stop in her tracks as she saw they weren’t pony or human shaped at all. Rather they were the cockatrices!

“How...” Twilight began, before lucky answered.

“Trixie used a spell to deflect their gaze back at them. So they ended up petrifying themselves. I admit it’s a bit cruel, but it does make them easy to transport!”

“Well, I suppose that’s one way to do it...” Twilight said a bit uneasily.

“Personally I don’t see how we could have prevented the things from running amok and turning every poor sap to get in their way into a stone statue otherwise. Little terrors nearly got me twice during our little round up.” Gally commented as he looked at the small cluster of stoned creatures.

“Wait, didn’t you get anti-petrification spells cast on you?” Twilight asked.

“We uh, don’t have that spell I don’t think...” Gally replied sheepishly.

“But... Then how...” She mumbled trying to make sense of this new information.  Jason had managed to capture that one cockatrice without even blinking. That might have made sense if he was a solider or had an anti-petrification spell on him. But it was clear he was no battle veteran, and if he didn’t have the spell... In fact Lucky had covered his eyes to save himself from being stoned. Then just why did...

Twilight was so lost in thought, that it took her a second to realize that Trixie had scoffed at her.

“Rubbing your advanced spells in the faces of us commoners Twilight? My My My. What boasting.”

“Wait I didn’t...” Twilight stammered.

“Now you wait a Cotton picken minute missy!” Applejack cut in, “I know we all had our little rustle back in the day, but that don’t mean ya get the right ta go finding ways ta make trouble!”

“AJ it’s-” Twilight tried to say, but Applejack stuck a hoof in her mouth. Twilight could just see Spitfire blocking Rainbow Dash from joining in off to the side.

“I ain’t gonna stand by while my friends are being made fun of for no reason.” She said. “Besides ain’t miss great and fancy here, the one that said the mission was too important for that kinda stuff?”

“Hmph, You have a point. The Great and Powerful Trixie lost sight of what we should be doing, and your job Twilight Sparkle, is most likely about to begin.” Before Twilight could inquire as to what she meant, she heard the humans begin to walk toward the railing. One by one they began to lean over and upon those below. Apparently finally over their fear of the new comers.

“Wait...” One of the men said suddenly, his eyes directly on Jason. “You’re that guy ain’t ya?”

“It is! It’s the guy they were trying to take!” Shouted another one. Twilight suddenly understood why Trixie had told her to help Jason. Whatever was so special about this guy that the HLF were after him, the people and ponies here knew about it. Or at least they knew it was him the HLF wanted. Twilight had some experience dealing with panicked crowds. Trixie most likely, did not.

“He’s the reason they came! Don’t bring him in here!” Shouted one of the woman.

“We’re all in danger with him here! Take him away!” Shouted one of the Earth ponies.

“He’s safest in here with the rest of you!” Gally bellowed out at them. His tone cold and stern. Anyone could tell he was disgusted by the display the civilians were giving. His face was a perfect mask one one who was trying to be nice when all they wanted was to knock some sense into the people.

“Yeah? Well what about us? Why should we risk our lives to keep HIM safe?” The first man called again.

“There are eleven of us and just one of him! Surely there is a better place to hide him then here!” The woman who had cried out first added. In the past, Twilight may have found herself at odds on what to say at such behavior. But after spending so much time with Hawk and his friends, that was no longer the case.

“Listen up everyone!” She screamed, trying to be heard over the commotion, “How can you even THINK such things in a time like this? Would you really abandon someone just to save your own skins?”

“I’m not saying give him to the guys, just hide him somewhere else!” One of the other men yelled back. This was followed up with cheers from the other protesters. Twilight couldn’t believe they included ponies cries.

“Hide him where? This is the most fortified room in the entire complex!” She shot back. She hardly noticed that Trixie hadn’t said a word the entire time. She also didn’t notice how tightly clenched Trixie’s teeth appeared to be...

“None of this would have even happened if he had just stayed home! Our lives are in danger the longer he stays with us!” The purple Pegasus pony screamed. Again this was met with cheers from the others.

“They want him right? Well let them chase him! Take him away, have them go after! We can escape while they are busy!” Another shouted. Twilight was much too upset to see who was speaking anymore.

“Escape right into the hands of their friends waiting outside!” Twilight screamed. “Do you think they don’t have members of their team watching for escapees? They’ll not let you go knowing what you know. They’ll kill you for certain! Don’t you understand this?”

“Ha! What proof do you have of that? We can at least TRY damn it!”

“You IDIOTS!” Gally screamed. The amount of rage in his voice silenced everyone present. “Of course they have friends outside! THINK! The monsters! The high grade armor! All the secrecy! They want Jason and aren’t going to let the outside world know why. “

“The Great and Powerful Trixie has a plan to force them to let us go!” Trixie added, speaking up at last. Twilight wasn’t certain, but she could swear she heard disappointment in her voice...

“This unicorn pony besides me is Twilight Sparkle. The prized student of Princess Celestia herself! While I have been chosen by the esteemed Princess Luna to aid you! Twilight is here on Princess Celestia’s behalf. Both of us have everything under control!” With this the crowd began to murmur amongst themselves. Disbelief and hope echoing in their voices.

“No way, from the Princess’?” They heard one whisper loudly.

“Maybe we aren’t doomed...” Another added in.

“I still say HE should be kept outside.” The purple pegasus spoke again. Trixie showed her opinion by turning her back on him. Apparently finished with negotiations.

“Look, I’ll go with them if they say they’ll harm you!” Jason called up to them at last. His face pale. His body shaking. The shot gun he carried hung weakly to one side. Barely gripped in his hand. Everyone on the ground floor could see the faintest hints of tears in his eyes.

‘He’s so scared...’ Twilight realized with a start. ‘Dear Celestia, he looks ready to collapse any second...’

“Then why not go out there and tell them that?” One of the men growled, “Don’t give us some bravado bullshit! You came here knowing full well what could happen didn’t you? There was all that commotion two days ago about you. Why didn’t you leave then huh? You knew you were in trouble and now you’re trying to get someone to bail you out of it! So don’t talk to me like you’re some victim!”

“Why I ougta-” Rainbow Dash said under her breath. If it wasn’t for Spitfire still holding her back, she might have shot up and gave the guy a piece of her mind. Or a swift kick in the face.

“SILENCE!” Twilight suddenly screamed just then, causing the room to once more plunge into silence. All eyes were upon her now, wide with shock. Even Jason hadn’t expected such an outburst from her.

“What shall we do if they demand one of you?” Twilight asked the crowd. “We know they want Jason, but how do we know they don’t want one of you as well? Will YOU be willing to leave this room? Shall we banish YOU away as well? Reduced to nothing more then mere bait to draw them away?” She glared at those who had been demanding Jason’s departure. Daring them to say anything.

None would. Each of them could be seen mulling over what she had said. Seemingly finally getting the idea of just how things were at the moment.

“BRAVO! BRAVO!” Cried one woman from the human side. All eyes fell upon her the second she had begun to clap and shout. Though she looked worn out, there was a fire in her that Twilight could tell wasn’t about to be put out. The woman wore a simple pink shirt with a pair of blue jeans. Her head a fierily red mane of hair that seemed to match her spirit perfectly.

Twilight was just able to recall that the woman hadn’t been with those speaking against Jason. Instead she had been comforting a young girl who Twilight guessed to be the woman’s younger sister. Least that was her theory given the similarities in their facial structures.

“It’s nice to see someone, or somepony I guess you would say, with a bit of sense around here! Would you really have just thrown the poor guy out? Do you really think that would have changed things?” The woman demanded of the ponies and people upon the walkway with her. The ponies all look utterly displeased with themselves, for the exception of the pegasus who merely avoided her gaze. The humans shared the other ponies looks of displeasure. None of them were feeling any of the animosity from earlier.

“We just... I... I just want to live to see tomorrow...” The man who had spoken first said. His voice having lost all sense of anger. All it sounded with now was despair.

“So does he!” The young girl shouted suddenly, surprising everyone. Even the woman who had been comforting her was shocked at the young girl’s outburst. The man who had spoken looked the most off put of everyone. All he could do was stare blankly at the small girl before him. Who looked scared as she stood there clutching a small stuffed panda to her chest. Her blond hair was a mess, so was the small white dress she was clothed in. But her green eyes shown with a fire very similar to the woman who had spoken first.

“W-what?” The man asked feeling put on the spot. It was funny in a way. A child causing a grown man to loose his nerve.

“Can’t you see how scared he is!?” The young girl continued. “Big sis is right! Being mean to him won’t make the bad guys go away!”

“I... I know... I’m sorry...” The man said quietly before he turned and walked away. Twilight could feel herself breath a sigh of relief. Looked like that little problem should be taken care of now.

“Don’t worry mister! Everything will be okay!” The girl yelled down to Jason, giving him the biggest smile she could. “You have lots of friends down there that will protect you! And I’ll help too if I can!” The last part of her sentence was aided by her making a ‘strong arm’ pose that managed to make Jason smile despite the situation.

“Th-Thank you miss...” He called back up, pausing at what he should call her.

“Rose! My name is Rose Mr. Jason!” She called down, her tone all smiles. Jason smiled back before giving her a thumbs up.

“Right Miss Rose. I’ll make sure I don’t give up.” Though his face was smiling, his eyes were streaked with tears. Thankfully it looked as if Rose couldn’t see from up on the walkway.

“You’re gonna be alright man.” The woman with red hair called down, placing a hand on her sister Rose’s shoulder. “It sounds to me like your friends have a plan to end this. I’m sure it’ll all be over soon!”

Jason nodded once more before walking over to the wall farthest from the door. Once there, he leaned up against said wall and slumped down into a sitting position. Gally meanwhile had made his way over to the stairway that lead up to the walkway.

“I, Gally ‘Vanish’ Gregman. Promise you. ALL of you that they will not get up there to harm you. In fact, I’m going to insure they can’t. Right... NOW!”

As he spoke he had shifted his sword in his hands, making ready to swing it. The second he shouted the word ‘now’, the sword edge blazed to life with the blue glow he was constantly having it emit. With it ablaze he swung it with all his might at the stairwell, slicing it clean through. After a few more slices, he stopped, jamming his sword tip in the ground.

The moment it hit the floor, a large portion of the stairs fell away. It’s absence creating a large gap that would force anyone wishing to go up there the use of some sort of climbing tool. No one was walking up there by any normal means.

“Well...” Applejack whistled looking over the broken pieces of rubble. “That’s one way of doing things...” Twilight had to agree. Thankfully in regards to the ones stuck up on the walkway. They seemed too shocked by what had just happened, and too intimidated by Gally to speak out about it.

Realizing it was probably time for her to get back to Hawk, Twilight took one last look around the room to see what everyone was up too. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire were still in the same spot they had been when she arrived. Both in a heated discussion about something Twilight could only guess at, and had no real desire to find out.

Applejack had moved closer to the rubble, Lucky now taking a chance to begin a conversation with her. Gally was making his way to the exit door himself. Though Trixie, she noticed, had moved to speak with Jason. Feeling curious, Twilight decided to get a bit closer.

“-Still be able to handle it?” Twilight heard Trixie ask him as she approached. Jason’s response was a steady nod.

“I can. I promise you, I won’t mess up.” He said. His voice was still shaken, but his eyes showed well enough that he was up to the task.

“I apologize for all these ungrateful urchins.” Trixie said giving a short glare at the walkway above them. “Some it seems have never experienced hard times...” The last part struck a cord in Twilight. The way Trixie said it seemed a bit more passionate then her usual words...

“It’s... Fine...” Jason said, placing a hand on the shot gun he had set aside him. “It’s not like I can blame them. After all, in a way... The reason for all of this. It’s my fault.”

“Thinking so little of yourself again?” Trixie asked, the same irritation she had shown during their last conversation back in her tone. This time though, Jason shook his head.

“No... It’s like my dad would have said... We can’t predict everything. When he told me to come here... There was no way we could have known it’d end up like this. I know I can’t change how things have happened. Nothing we can do but work with what we’ve got.” He stopped for a few moments, visibly fighting back tears. Twilight had a feeling today wasn’t the only day he had been dealing with something painful. Sadly there wasn’t time to find out just what the entirety of this guy’s story was.

“Still...” He said, finally able to continue. “I can’t help but wish that I hadn’t come here ya know?”

“Trixie supposes... “ Trixie said in a gentle soft whisper. “That everyone feels that at times...”

With that she turned and ambled away, paying no heed to the look Twilight was giving her.

‘That confirms it...” Twilight thought. Something certainly had changed in Trixie. For the first time since their re-meeting, she truly accepted that the pony before her wasn’t the same one from back then...

Another explosion rocked the room, instinctively causing Twilight to rush toward the door. She had no doubt that this one had broken through her barrier. Her job here was finished. For the rest she’d have to trust in her friends and Trixie. Her place now was out there with Hawk. Making haste in her sprint, she rushed by Trixie before bolting through the door she opened with her magic mere seconds before reaching it.

Was it just her imagination or was Trixie... Crying?

* * *

“Looks like they blew the hatch.” Leslie replied coolly as the smoke from the last explosion billowed on past them. Both Hawk and Leslie had been standing just at the section of the hallway where one leap sideways would throw them into the alcove. Gally had joined them shortly before the second explosion had broken down the door, though he had remained out of harms way in the alcove itself.

The moment the smoke began to clear, the two with guns began to fire round after round into the black haze before them. Hawk with his trusty revolver, and Leslie dual wielding her two pistols. Despite the surroundings, Hawk took special notice at how well and accurate she was handling the weapons even though the simple issue that doing so should cause too much of a strain on the arms to manage.

There was a reason it was suggested to use your free arm to steady your gun hand. The Kick back would always throw off your aim, no matter how great a shot you were. Of course with practice and time one could get adequate at using two guns at once, but the way Leslie was doing it was unreal. No normal human should be capable of such feats...

After a few moments of receiving no resistance from the Specter Units, gunshots from their sub-machine guns could finally be heard. Their bullets impacting upon the walls of the hallway harmlessly.

‘Leslie was right about them being rookies,’ Hawk thought to himself as he dived for cover. The bullets were hitting the hallway now, but it wouldn’t be long before the one handling the gun managed to sweep it past where he had been standing. ‘These people know nothing about real combat. Anyone with half a brain would have thrown some grenades down the hallway before rushing it with guns a blazing.’

“Sorry! I’m here! How can I help?” Twilight asked rushing to Hawk’s side.

“Can you emit an electro magnetic pulse?” He asked, Twilight blinked.

“A what now?”

“Huh,” Hawk said mildly surprised, “I actually thought you’d know what that was. Basically we need something to prevent them from using those blinders they have in their chest plates. They use those, and we loose any advantage. Any ideas?”

“Oh dear. Well I could try and cast small spots of darkness over the lights to prevent them from flashing, but that would take very specific timing and precision-”

“Yeah we definitely don’t have time for that.” Hawk said firing a few rounds around the corner. “How about something to slow them down?” At this Twilight beamed.

“I’ve been working on something I think will work!” She said. Her expression was similar to that of a young child wishing to show everyone something cool they could do. At the very least it was enough to manage a smile and head pat from Hawk. Much to her delight.

“Do it.”

With a nod, Twilight began to gather up the magic she needed for the spell. She had only tried this on small scales before, using herself to test it’s resistance, but she was confident that it’d manage.

Hawk diverted his attention back to the battle at hand, taking note of where everyone was. It only took him a second to realized Leslie hadn’t jumped for cover when the initial bullets from the sub-machine guns had been fired. Instead she was still standing directly where she had, her arms and guns moving and firing with incredible speed. Was it his imagination or were her eyes almost glowing?

‘What the heck is she doing?’ Hawk thought as he prepared to find a chance to reach out and pull her to cover. There was no way she was hitting any of them through the smoke, and with their goggles, it was only a matter of time before she was pelted with bullets.

Seeing his chance her leaped out from cover, his gun blazing away. Desperately trying to aim at anything that could be one of the armored men in the haze. The good news for him was that the smoke had cleared enough for him to make out a few silhouettes of the men attempting to storm the hallway. The bad news, was that meant they could most certainly see the two of them!

Shots from several sub-machine guns went off the very moment Hawk had leapt back behind cover, Leslie in tow. He had just enough of a grip upon her arm to feel her flinch as a few more shots went off. He cursed to himself as he pulled her the rest of the way into cover.

She had been hit.

“Twilight! Hurry!” He called mere moments before Twilight finished her preparations and let the spell fly. The magic from her horn flew down the hall and embedded itself in the walls, ceiling and floor. Seconds later several strands of violet light began to weave their way down the hall, creating a type of spider web of magic. The first few Specter Units who attempted to rush the hallway in absence of opposing gunfire found themselves entangled in the strands in the same manner a fly would in a real spider web. Hawk had to admit he was impressed, but he couldn’t dwell on it. Right now, he was far more concerned about Leslie’s injuries.

“Where is it? Where did you get hit?” He asked while quickly scanning her body for signs of blood. It took him a few seconds, along with Leslie waving him off, to realize that she was perfectly fine. There weren’t any bullet wounds at all.

“But... I saw...” Hawk said, his expression actually stunned. There was no way he was wrong about her getting hit. He had felt her flinch upon their impact!

“You know Leslie,” Gally said stepping around her as he prepared to enter the hallway himself, “Just because you can emit a field around your skin like that doesn’t mean you should. There was still a very good chance one of those bullets would have cut on through.”

“Sorry Gally, I’ll be more careful next time.” Leslie replied, the usual playfulness in her voice absent.

“Wait, what field?” Hawk asked, his voice suddenly suspicious.

“It’s like my sword.” Gally replied as he held it up. The edge once more glowing bright blue.

“We emit a certain amount of what they call ‘kinetic’ energy. It helps use move faster, and can help us enhance certain parts of our bodies. Like my vision.” Leslie added, pointing to her eyes as she did so.

“All within the territory of having cyber kinetics installed.” Gally replied with a huff as he leapt into the open hallway, his sword before him ready to block any incoming bullets.

“You have WHAT!?” Hawk exclaimed visibly appalled. “But I thought those didn’t work properly!”

“They don’t” Leslie replied. Her expression bleak.

“Then...”

“Every twelve hours.”

Hawk shook his head in light of the news.

“No wonder you told Jason you knew what it was like to have cursed blood. Why would you ever?”

“Long story, and we don’t have time” Leslie replied readying to make another strafe into the hall if needed. Gally however was practically blocking the entire thing with his large frame. Hawk was about to say something about getting the holy hell out of the way, when the large man spoke.

“Looks like they don’t like your web little pony!” He bellowed with a laugh as he watched some of the armored men help pull those stuck back out of the hallway. Gally grinned as he moved one shoulder toward them, flexing his arm in a peculiar way as he did so.

“Aw, Don’t Run Away!” He called as the same bluish energy he usually fed into his sword, now flowed across his shoulder pad. Much to Hawk and Twilight’s amazement, the pad actually popped open to reveal several small white cylinders. As the energy flowed across them, they began to launch out of their compartment, streaking across the hall at the men. As they impacted upon floor, walls and armor, small explosions began to rock the area. If Hawk had to guess, he’d have to say they were the equivalent of old style grenades.

“You keep explosives in your ARMOR!?” Twilight screamed after the shoulder pad closed back up. “Are you CRAZY!?”

“Relax, they are K-8’s.” Leslie replied.

“What?” Twilight immediately asked. Even Hawk wasn’t exactly sure what Leslie was talking about.

“It’s a special kind of missile. They only function and are explosive when the kinetic energy we produce is fed into them.”

“Otherwise they might as well be rocks.” Gally replied, his voice still full of laughter. Hawk and Twilight exchanged a single look.

They certainly had met some interesting people...

Moments later, several black cylinders came bouncing down the hallway, causing Gally to dodge back into the alcove, grabbing anyone close by as he did so.

“They got smart enough to use the grenades.” Leslie said as all four of them made their way toward the door that lead to the serum containers. Explosions blasting away behind them.

“I hope this plan of yours works!” Hawk said as he dived through the door, Twilight right beside him.

“So do I!” Leslie said from behind him.

* * *

Moments later found both groups in place from within the final stronghold. Upon entering, Gally had rushed to the area of the destroyed stairwell, and had motioned both Leslie and Hawk to him. Both of which he helped get up and upon the remaining stairs further up. Allowing them to make their way up to the walkway. With that done, he himself moved into position just far enough to not be under the walkway, while standing directly before Jason who was now clutching his shot gun anxiously.

Twilight herself had been ushered to stand next to Gally on his right. Trixie on his other side. Applejack had apparently been flown up to the upper level by Spitfire and Rainbow Dash earlier. Lucky was up there as well.

“Should I cast the same door block spell?” Twilight asked, feeling her apprehension grow. It was all she could do to keep herself still. Especially since she didn’t know exactly what this ‘surprise’ entailed.

“No.” Trixie replied, her voice lacking any of the bravado it usually held. “We don’t want them blowing a hole in the wall and possibly injuring someone. Just wait for the key words I told you upon taking your position. You know what to do after that.”

It felt really weird taking orders from Trixie, but never the less she nodded in acceptance. Turning her gaze back at the door, she waited for the first few men to storm in. The wait was agonising. Every second feeling as it if would drive her mad.

The wait ended abruptly. Feeling as it had never existed at all. Before she could let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she had been holding they swarmed into the room. Leslie and Hawk both doing their best to shoot those who came in first, causing the non-combatants to scream and recoil away in fear. Rose with her sister’s hands pressed firmly against her ears.

It wasn’t long before the men returned fire, forcing Hawk and Leslie to duck for cover themselves. As more Specter Units swarmed in, they quickly surrounded Gally and the two unicorn ponies. None of them had daring to fire in fear of hitting Jason behind them.

Before any of them knew it, the room was swamped with the enemy. Out of the many who had originally chased after them, it seemed only a few over a dozen were left. Still, it was a large enough number of them to make it nearly impossible to take them out without endangering the people and ponies above.

“We want the kid.” One of the men said calmly as he walked forward. He was flanked by three of his peers on each side of him. The ones closest to him pointing their guns at Gally, who was posed with his sword ready to fight. The final two on each end both leveled a gun at either Twilight or Trixie. Insuring they couldn’t use their magic without being blasted. The rest of the men were all pointing guns up at the walkway. Keeping not just Leslie and Hawk suppressed, but squashing any ideas of heroics from the others up there.

“We know.” Gally replied with a growl. The man raised his gun to point it at Gally’s head. Gally however, didn’t flinch.

“Look we’ve been playing this cat and mouse game all day. All we wanted to do was grab the kid and leave. You’re the ones who wanted to drag this out! Now just give us the target and it’ll all be over!”

“How can I be sure you won’t just kill everyone if I come?” Jason said suddenly his shotgun aimed and ready. “You’re HLF. No way you care about the welfare of pony lovers.”

“If we wanted to kill them, we could have done that by now!” The man yelled back. “You know very well what is in you. It’s far to valuable for us to risk you getting yourself killed. So just come along willingly and I promise we’ll let these people go. As long as they don’t pursue us, we won’t harm them.” Jason glared at the man long and hard. His arms were shaking, his body rigid. Finally with a sigh, he let his arms drop, the shot gun hanging limply at his side.

“I have your word?” He asked. The man nodded, a smile in his voice as he spoke next.

“You have my word. I promise. Now just come over here quietly alright?” A gasped sounded from above.

“JASON NO!” Rose screamed before her sister managed to place a hand over her mouth to silence her. Several of the men watching the walkway aimed their weapons at the two, nearly firing off a round that very moment.

“She’s right Jason. Don’t trust them.” Gally said with a grunt, refusing to take his eyes off the men before him. Trixie simply gave a little ‘humph’ and turned her head away from him. No one else spoke a word. Twilight herself felt conflicted. Was this part of the plan? Or was he really planning on giving himself up?

“It’s over and we all know it.” Jason said with a sigh, his head down so no one could see his face. “There is no way any of you are getting out of here alive unless I do this.”

“Go ahead if that’s what you want to do then. Give up your freedom. Trixie is sorry she ever tried to help!” Trixie shot at him. Still, even then he didn’t flinch. Didn’t move. He merely stood there, defeated.

“I’m sorry...” He said quietly. “But I can’t think of anything else to do...”

With that he carefully put the shot gun on the ground and began to walk toward the man slowly. Gally refused to look at him as he sauntered by. Jason was halfway between Gally and the man when he stopped once more.

“Thank you for trying to protect me. Oh and one last thing...” He said turning back to face them. He looked up then. Staring at the man and two ponies before him with a mischievous smile of his own.

“I’m thirsty.”

With that he pressed the button upon the small detonator he held in his hand. Having removed it from where it had been tapped to the side of his shotgun earlier. Directly afterward, several small explosions went off at the bottom of the large vats of ponification serum by the door. The Specter Units caught completely off guard as they all spun around to stare in the direction of the blasts.

Upon hearing the code words, Twilight was swift to execute her own part of the plan. With a leap, Gally jumped straight up into the air. It was Twilight and Trixie’s job to insure he got to the walkway with the aid of their magic. A feat that was no problem with the both of them working together. With Gally safe, Twilight sought out Jason, her mind a mismatch of thoughts.

‘Dear Celestia, THIS is their plan?!’ She thought, trying to think over the sounds of the rapid explosions that were tearing apart the bottom area of the rest of the serum vats. Before she knew it, the ponification serum was flooding the room in a flurry of tidal waves. The armored men had no chance to avoid their fate as they were quickly swept up in the rage of the currents.

But what about Jason? He’d be swept up in it too! It was pretty clear that she wasn’t about to find him in chaos that was going on around her. Reluctantly she used a bit of her magic to protect herself from being thrown around as well. She only hoped that Trixie’s outburst earlier was all part of the plan, and that she even now protecting them both.

The next several moments were a blur to Twilight. With the serum crashing all around her, it was all she could do to concentrate on her magic. After what felt like forever, she could feel the serum’s surface level lowering to below her head. Feeling the currents die down to manageable levels around her shield, she let it drop, the liquid quick to splash around her lower body as she did so.

The first thing she did was search the top of the walkway with her eyes. She was extremely pleased to find Hawk and everyone else safe and sound. Then she began to scan the room for any sign of their group down here. Trixie was just fine next to her, apparently still using a bit of magic to keep the serum away from her. The thought of Trixie obviously not wanting to get ‘soaked’ would have amused her more if it weren’t for the fact that she had finally spotted Jason, and the... Enemy ‘men’.

Jason was in the center of the room, walking up to them in the knee deep serum that was still lowering in level. Spitfire was hovering just above him. All around him Twilight could see the ‘former’ Specter Units. Now every last one of them some form of pony, and all of them struggling within the confines of the armor that had fit them as men, but were nothing more then a burden to them as ponies.

All around the room she could see them. Unicorn ponies, a couple of pegasus, many earth ponies. Not one of them looked to want to continue bothering Jason. Instead they seemed more confused then anything else. Looking around at the room and their new bodies in silent awe.

“How is this possible?” Twilight asked staring at the many new ponies. “The serum doesn’t work without the activator agent. This shouldn’t have happened!” Trixie just rolled her eyes at her.

“Just what do you think The Great and Powerful Trixie was doing in here when you arrived outside the room?” She asked as she ambled by. “Setting the explosives? Trixie left that job to the humans. She, being familiar with how the serum works, was injecting them with the activator agent so they’d react this way when the trap was sprung!” Wasting no further breath on Twilight, she continued making her way to Jason.

“Trixie is pleased with your performance. Things went exactly as planned!” She said with a smile. Though Twilight was still processing certain little things she had been noticing, she did happen to notice that Trixie’s smile seem a bit more genuine then normal.

“Thanks, didn’t think I had it in me to be honest...” Jason replied with a bit of a blush. Then with a start he turned to look at Spitfire still floating above him.

“And thank you as well Spitfire! I don’t want to think what may have happened had those torrents slammed into me full force. Thank you for pulling me up enough to avoid them!”

“Hey it’s all cool.” Spitfire replied with a grin.

“Uh, I’m sure if Twlight wasn’t so busy thanking her lucky stars that everyponies alright,” Applejack called from her spot above, “I’m sure she’d be pointing out something that seems a mighty wrong with this picture.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash seconded as she flew down to stare Jason in the eyes. “If the serum turned everyone into ponies, then why aren’t YOU a pony now?”

“It’s the reason they were after me...” Jason replied with a sigh, “It’s the reason this all started...” He paused, struggling with an emotion Twilight couldn’t deceiver before continuing.

“It’s my blood. Something in it makes me immune.”

“Hang on there pardner,” Applejack called down. “You saying you’re immune to the serum?”

“Wow, no wonder they wanted you so bad!” Rainbow Dash said with an enlightened tone, “But how did that happen?”

“Hang on a second Dash, that can’t be all there is...” Twilight said, finally speaking up. The truth was she had noticed that Jason had seemingly been walking in active serum without becoming a pony, and the thought of that did cross her mind on why the HLF would show interest in him. But something was off. Sure being able to resist becoming a pony would be very useful to them, but to go through all THIS to get him?

“What do you mean Twi?” Dash asked, her expression greatly confused.

“What they did here to get him. It’s all too elaborate. To great an operation for just the chance to be immune to becoming a pony. It just seem so... Overly dramatic...”

Jason had grown quiet once more. In the next few seconds she realized that Trixie had as well. Both wore rather dark expressions.

“Trixie...” Jason began, gaining the unicorn ponies attention. “Remember how we tested it? Do that last thing again.” Trixie nodded, but her expression was genuine concern.

“Are... Are you sure?” She asked, even as she began to gather the energy. Jason nodded in response.

“We already know what will happen.” He said. With a gulp, Trixie aimed her horn at him, using a small bit of magic to lift her hat in the process. Twilight had just about had it with people seemingly talking in riddles today, but held her tongue. She couldn’t figure out what Trixie was doing at first, but as she watched she began to recognize the feel of the magic. Her eyes widened when it became clear to her just what spell Trixie was about to cast.

“Are you mad!? That’s a fire starter spell!” Twilight screamed trying to bring up enough of her own magic to stop Trixie’s. However, she was much too late. A mere second later, a small orb of red magic shot from Trixie’s horn like a bullet. Heading directly toward Jason, who merely watched it come without interest.

Twilight watched in horror as the orb impacted upon his chest, blazing to life in a flash of red. Her horror was quickly changed to bewilderment as instead of bursting into a furry of flames, it merely... Fizzled out.

“W-wha?” Was all she could manage as she stared at him blankly. That should have set him ablaze! He should be burning even now! So what... Of course! The serum... The cockatrice he had paid little heed to...

“It’s not the serum that you’re immune to...” She whispered in terror. Jason sadly shook his head.

“It’s magic.” He said quietly. “Something in my blood makes me immune to magic. That’s why I can’t become a pony. That’s why those men wanted me so much... That’s why all...” He sank to his knees, “Everything this past week happened... All because...”

He was unable to go on. The weight of something finally catching up to him. His tears flowed freely as he sat there. Trixie giving him a surprisingly warm look.

“Wait, why is everyone so terrified by that?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked around the room. It seemed that most of the people there who were in the Elite guard were wearing the same dark expression both Jason and Trixie had on just moments ago. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were the only ones who weren’t.

“Sure that means we can’t use spells on them, but it’s not like we can’t still kick them or something. Why is him being immune to magic so bad?”

“It’s not that the HLF would be immune to magic itself Dash.” Hawk spoke up from the walkway. “It’s what it’d allow them to do unhindered that’s the bigger problem.”

“Beg your pardon?” Applejack spoke up from beside him, being the only other pony who hadn’t figured it out yet. “What will being immune to magic allow?”

“The Shield.” Hawk said simply. The words hung in the air like death itself. Soon both Applejack’s and Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide as it sank it.

“If the shield is magic...” Dash began.

“And they’d be all immune to magic...” Applejack continued.

“That’s right.” Twilight said grimly, turning her gaze to Jason. “If the HLF are able to get their hands on Jason here and replicate the properties of his blood. Then they’ll be able to walk right past the magic shield around Equestria as if it wasn’t even there.”

“A free pass into Equestria, wherever and whenever they wanted.” Hawk finished with a sigh.

“Now you understand.” Leslie said walking up to the railing from above. “Why we have to do everything we can to make sure the HLF don’t get their hands on Jason, and why they’ll stop at nothing to capture him.”

End Part 1

Look forward to Part 2 whenever I get around to it! Assuming Anonsi doesn’t tell me to not write anymore. >_<

-After Credits Bonus-

The purple pegasus took one last look around before retriving the communicator he had hidden in one of the rooms. It had all been far to easy. None of the ponies in that room had realized that they had never seen him around before. Nor did any of those ‘Elite guard’ think to take a head count upon defeating those HLF fools. It almost angered him to think they had been granted the high gift of ponification. To think such human filth who had so openly opposed earth’s rebirth should be granted a part of it!

Never the less, that was not his concern. He had come here following up on the odd movements they had discovered the HLF performing two days ago. Their forces had intercepted a bit of info that the HLF had been after something for a little while now. Something their forces had given top priority to find. Having been on the look out for possible ponification failures, they had sent a recon unit immediately upon hearing of one such case here. Wondering what the HLF’s game was, they sent their own spies to find out.

He hadn’t been expecting much. What he had just seen and heard was far more disturbing then anything he could have imagined...

“Ah Purple Rain. How good to hear from you.” Came a cold feminine voice on the other end of the communication device as it connected. “Tell me. What have you discovered?”

“We have a problem Diamond Eclipse. The situation is worse then we could have ever thought.” The pegasus named Purple Rain replied. Named, predictably, after the album of the same name. He went on to tell the pony on the other end everything he had discovered by snooping through the bureau’s files. Then what he had seen and heard in the serum room itself. The pony on the other end listened without interrupting even once. Taking each tidbit of information with careful consideration. When Purple Rain had finally finished, Diamond Eclipse did not response right away. The line remained silent for a full minute before she finally spoke. Her voice deathly seriously.

“You are certain?”

“I saw it confirmed before my own eyes. You orders?” Another moment of silence.

“Gather what members of PER that you can.” She replied, her tone venomous. “Then contact me again to set up a rendezvous point. This ‘Jason’ is a poison we must purge from the world...”

Salvation Through Destruction

A: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fan Fiction

By: RoflLuxRay

Based on concepts from: The Conversion Bureau by Blaze

The world… is changing. It’s changing, it always is. A few years ago, no one ever suspected that those small creatures that called themselves “ponies” were nothing more than an anomaly for biologists to study. Their “magic”, their habitat, their lifestyle… They detonated mankind’s curiosity like that bomb the U.S threw on Hiroshima over sixty years ago.

As time went on, a group of Russians discovered a way to enter their world, but are yet to find the way back. The so called land of Equestria, where they inhabit peacefully, quietly, away from the wars, the famine and the deceases that hunt mankind every day.

Them Russians reached an agreement with the ponies, and are converting people into ponies and placing them safely in their worlds. Seems like a perfectly good idea, except for the fact that once “ponyfied”, as they call it, you abandon who you were. Keeping only fake memories those ponies plant on you so that you blend in perfectly to their rainbow colored nirvana.

Humanity was quick and firm in their actions, the UN forbid ponification, but yet maintains somewhat “formal” diplomatic relationships with the pony’s ruler, Princess Celestia, through their envoy, Twilight Sparkle.

This pony stands for free, deliberate ponification. “It should be everypony, I mean, everybody’s choice!” she said on TV the other day. I agree with her to some degree, it’s just that I can’t get to trust those creatures. I feel they have plans on their own for us.

I’ve been doing some research on them ponies, especially on Twilight Sparkle; quite a name she packs. Apparently they have long life spans, my math says that she’s around her eighties, and she seems quite young and fresh. That horn in her head seems to be the source from her magic, I mean, it flashes whenever she uses her telepathy and telekinesis.

I’ve also intercepted some interesting intel on some anti-ponies groups that target her and have a bounty on her head. If Twilight were to fall, humanity might follow.

Ponies might have a way to save humanity if we live our lives through their ways… Our salvation through destruction, how clichéd is that.

I am not a superhero, nor a pony sympathizer. But I do reckon that Twilight Sparkle must not die, not today, not tomorrow. Not ever; if ponies do ever die. I will do all in my power to stop them, to find a way to make all of this right. To make up for mankind’s mistakes and those I’ve made on my own.

Twilight Sparkle is attending a meeting tonight in New York, where a trap is set. She’s supposed to arrive on a black SUV, protected by at least ten escorts in five sedans surrounding her in strategic positions. But one of them has gone rogue. He’s signed a juicy deal with senator Adam Chambers for the purple pony’s head. This… man is one of the reasons why ponies are so hated in America. He’s got one sweet mouth that son of a bitch.

If my data is correct, then this rogue escort should plant a bomb on Twilight’s car during her speech, set to detonate upon her departure. But if they were to get caught, they can always shoot her like Lee Harvey Oswald. I must be precise, swift… I can’t fail.

Chapter 1

I stood at the edge of the building, looking at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. As I analyzed my way inside a shiver ran down my spine, forcing me to tighten my grip on the pillar next to me. With the help of my binoculars, I took a closer look on the street ahead of me and saw five sedans neatly aligned around a black Hummer.

“That’s my target,” I muttered as my hand stretched for the sniper rifle next to me. The gap of thirty meters between me and the hotel’s balcony did not scare me; I was used to handle myself at high heights. Without hesitation, I leaped into the void; the cold winter wind struck the parts of my face unprotected by the balaclava mask. With a firm grip on my zip-line, I slid across the glowing streets into a balcony in the twentieth fourth floor. I was careful enough to avoid crashing straight into the glass window, even though it was the second time I used a zip-line and was the longest one too.

Once safe, I took my binoculars again and saw the caravan even closer now, just a few blocks away from the hotel. I zoomed in and tried to locate any signs of rare activity. Nothing, the polarized windows, aided by the glowing streets of New York protected any passengers inside from any curious stranger, including me.

I gazed down at the hotel entrance, where a bunch of leeches that carry the ID of a reporter awaited her, hoping to get her next story off the misfortune of an innocent pony. I could see that expectancy grew on the crowd along with the noise they made as the caravan was in their line of sight. It was in that moment when I took my PSG-700 and scoped down the SUV.

Once in front of the red carpet, a henchman opened the door and I saw it. Though it was more like her, a young woman in a purple dress gracefully descended the vehicle in such fashion. Her long straight bi-colored hair, dyed in purple and pink ran all the way to her back. Anyone could swear that was a woman if it wasn’t for the horn that shot from her head.

“So that’s what Twilight Sparkle looks like…”  I muttered and removed my eye from the sniper rifle’s scope, “Let’s not get you killed,” I reached for my vest and pulled my binoculars again, this time to focus her escorts. One of them took control of the vehicle and drove it towards an underground parking lot west of the main entrance.

“Bollocks!” I scolded at myself “How could I have forgotten that they have an underground parking…”

As the SUV vanished into the darkness of the underground parking lot, I removed my mask and began taking my stealth clothes off; luckily, I had foreseen the event of me walking into that fancy party by wearing a black tuxedo under my apparel. Makes it harder to move, but it does keep you warm though.

Once my clothes were completely different, I broke into the room behind me by picking the door. Blinded by darkness, I desperately inspected the walls for a shutter, and with a sudden click, the glass chandelier above lit suddenly, revealing a cozy, warm suite.

I stared at the mirror in front of me and remembered why I was once married in my late twenties; no one could ever look away from a man with deep hazel eyes like mine. I approached the mirror to inspect my clear brown hair closely, trying to take it into a better position. With thirty seven years on my back it was harder to find a comfortable position for my slowly vanishing hair. Once done, I took my small briefcase and pulled out a Glock-19 and a P229 pistol, hiding them in my ankle and in my jacket.

As I finished my preparations, I heard footsteps closing into the room. I quickly took everything and hid it under the master bed, shutting the lights off just in time before a couple of henchmen equipped with MP5-K entered the room. Their bulletproof vests were barely recognizable from where I stood, but it was easy to tell they were fully equipped.

I gulped while hiding behind the long curtains on the far side of the room, hoping the darkness would cover my exposed shoes.

“There is no one in here, I told you chief Bartoli is crazy,” one of them said with a voice that rattled in the room, closing the door shortly after.

“That was too close,” I sighed in relief and carefully stepped outside the room, into the fancy corridor, lit by candle lights to fit the occasion. I strolled down with caution to avoid being seen before I arrived at the grand hall; where a party before the speech was going on.

After wandering around the hotel for five minutes, I finally ran into the elevator. I pressed the down button and patiently awaited it. As I did, I heard a voice that seemed similar to me.

“Good night, gentlemen,” it spoke as I turned to face it. My body shuddered when I noticed the two henchmen were behind me with their arms locked and loaded.

“Good night,” I replied politely, hiding my fear under a relaxed tone of voice, “what’s with the firearms? Expecting trouble?”

“Hopefully not. We have one big guest today, so security is a little tighter. Sorry if we are making you feel uncomfortable,” there was something in his voice that calmed my soul.

“Don’t worry gentlemen, I’m sure everything will turn out just fine,” as I finished my phrase, the elevator door opened. Inside the clear metallic walls reflected everything around me.

“Hold on,” one of them said as I stepped inside, I gulped and prepared myself to quickly draw my pistol, “We still have to clear the east wing, Mason.”

“C’mon, Sullivan. There’s nothing in here,” the other one ranted.

“Gentlemen, I know it’s not any of my business but I think it’s better if you check the east wing. I saw a man acting too rare around room 2476,” I interrupted in the most polite way I could. Both man glared at each other, until Sullivan gave in.

“Alright, let’s head off to room 2476,” they turned and walked away towards the east wing, right from where I was standing. Once inside the elevator I pressed the button that was supposed to lead me to the party level.

“Okay. So I’ll slip to the underground level to survey her car, then return to the party level to cover Twilight Sparkle”, I thought while the elevator descended slowly. Eric Johnson’s ‘Gem’ wasn’t enough to stop my heart from beating so fast. I’ve done coverage tasks, breaking and entering, assassinations and yet I was never this nervous.

When the elevator opened, I saw a large, golden hall filled with white tables with fancy, expensive decorations and people all around me talking. The noise was overwhelming; you could barely hear the slow, sonata music over the sound of people talking about how lovely is the weather or if they find pony fashion attractive.

I slid my way through the crowd, avoiding any contact with people other than the casual ‘evening’ with a somewhat drunk blue collar individual. I eventually reached the back garden, where security was guarding the entrance to the parking lot. I approached the henchmen slowly as I searched my pocket for the parking ticket.

“Excuse me, gentlemen. I forgot my mobile in my vehicle, may I retrieve it?” I pulled the ticket out of my pocket; one of them took it and stepped aside after looking at it for a couple of seconds, “Please hurry, we are making small repairs on one of the vehicles.”

I nodded and walked into the asphalt of the parking lot. It was darker in there, only small places were lit. I pulled out my P229 and approached the walls, where it was darker. Despite the party was quite close, it was quiet enough to hear people’s footsteps at a distance.

Eventually, I was able to hear people mumbling in the distance. I walked closer and saw six people around Twilight Sparkle’s Hummer. A briefcase was visible next to one of them; it emitted a flashing red light.

“Strap it under the car. The programming in it should take care of the rest, hurry up before someone sees it,” one of them desperately implied while handing over the briefcase to a man under the car.

“Crap… If I kill these guys it should alert the rest of them, making them take the option of shooting her guns blazing,” I stepped back and turned around towards the party “ I think it’s better to let them think their plan is working.”

“Did you find your cell phone, sir?” the henchmen asked, I carefully took out my blackberry, “Yeah, just a couple of missed calls from the kids,” I said with a huge, honest smile. Lying was something natural on me, a bad habit I learned from my times during college.

“Alright then, enjoy the party,” I walked inside again with one thing in mind. Get Twilight Sparkle out of there in one piece. I strolled around the party looking for her, I eventually found her behind a thick layer of people.

I pulled out my Blackberry and traced her cell phone using a chip tracking program, sending one message after I obtained her number. I was able to see when she read it, her face turned white in fear.

“You are not safe in here; meet me in the bar as soon as you can. Ask for a dry martini,” was the message. I went to the bar, sat and asked for a glass of wine.

“Are you waiting for someone?” the bartender asked in a nice tone, he was cleaning a cup as he approached me.

“Yes I am,” I took a closer look at him and noticed a ring on his left hand, it had the symbol of the all England lawn tennis and croquet club, “You seem like a man who knows the ways of the British gentlemen. That’s one ring you have in there.”

“Oh this,” he blushed while glancing at his ring, “My father was a Wimbledon umpire. He handed this down to me when I turned eighteen.”

“I see-“

“One dry martini, please,” a woman’s voice interrupted our conversation; I turned to see her standing next to me. She was taller than I thought at first, around one seventy five, her lavender eyes shone above the rest of her face.

“Miss Sparkle?” I politely asked. She turned to face me with a scowl, “I know you must be a little surprised from my statement on the message. But I was merely speaking the truth.”

“What’s with your accent?” she asked while continuing her cold glare.

“Pardon my Scouse, Miss Sparkle. We can discuss the matter of my accent later on, for I have important news to share with you,” I took a sip of my wine and asked her to sit.

“Well you better be fast, my speech is about to start,” she disdainfully sat next to me as the bartender served the drink she ordered.

“I have discovered that you are the target of an assassination,” I calmly said as I pulled a note from my blazer and placed it on the table.

“What is that?” she grabbed the note and read it.

“It’s an e-mail from one of your escorts to John Antonin, head of the American anti pony society. As you can see, he signed a thirty million dollar bounty with senator Chambers for your assassination.”

“This can’t be right,” she said surprised “this man is my security chief, Carlos Bartoli. He’s using an alias, this is his e-mail.”

“In that case, then this situation has become far more complicated than I anticipated at first,” I took another sip from my wine and continued, “I’ve spotted how some of your security planted a bomb on your car. You must use another exit. After your speech, I will be waiting for you here to take you to a safe house.”

“I can’t believe this” her face turned white from fear, again, “A.J was right. They are going to kill me.”

“Nobody is going to kill you, Miss Sparkle. I’ll be protecting you during your speech. Be quiet though, for my cover may be blown if you show signs of weakness,” I placed the empty cup in the table and stood up.

“This is so kind of you sir, but why should I believe you?” she asked as I walked away.

“You don’t have any reasons to not believe me,” I vanished between the crowd and headed towards the second floor, to save a good spot for her speech. From there, you were able to see the tables, the people, the stand, everything. Preparations were being finished for Twilight Sparkle’s speech, and people were already gathering around to wait it.

I wandered around the second floor, looking for a good spot to witness the speech that also happens to be apart from the crowd. I found it on the far right corner, with a good sight of Twilight Sparkle’s left flank. Minutes passed on and a thunderous applause received her on the stand.

The horn in her head began glowing in an intense white color, lifting a bunch of paper into the air and gently placing it in front of her. The applause stopped as she cleared her throat.

“Thank you all, for coming tonight. It is an honor to have you here, listening to me for a minute,” she giggled for a moment, “Now. The purpose of this is to make some announcements regarding the matter of ponification. First, I am glad to announce that, after long discussion, we have reached an agreement with Japanese technology developer Sony, to assist in the development of a technology that would allow a most efficient ponification,” the crowd interrupted with an applause.

“Also, it is my pleasure to announce you that progresses are being made with the UN to legalize, in a certain degree, ponification. It is well known that people are being sent to our world illegally, even though Princess Celestia does not encourage the practice, anypony who wants to become an Equestria citizen is welcome to join us. Once the legal matters surrounding human immigration have been solved, I’m sure humans and ponies can co-exist in a peaceful way and learn many things from each other.”

During the respective applause, I noticed a man from between the crowd constantly approaching closer to the stand, something wasn’t right about the way he pushed his way in between the crowd

“As a final announcement, I am proud to announce that Princess Celestia is attending this year’s Human-Pony Relationship Congress,” during the applause, I saw this man pulling a pistol from his blazer, he had to be stopped. I pulled my P229 and took the shot.

Salvation Through Destruction

A: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fan Fiction

By: RoflLuxRay

Based on concepts from: The Conversion Bureau by Blaze

Chapter 2

A scream paralyzed the crowd as the man fell into a pool of blood that poured from his head. Twilight’s security henchmen quickly withdrew her from the awful scene.

“I’ve got to move, even though I had a silencer someone could have picked up on me pulling out a small pistol,” I thought was I ran back to the stairs, blending with the startled crowd that rushed towards the nearest exit. Suddenly, a text message appeared on my blackberry.

“This is Twilight Sparkle. They are taking me to the parkin-“it read. Once I reached the first floor, I dashed to the parking lot. However, the entrance was blocked by the same henchmen from before.

“I’m sorry sir, but this route is blocked. Please, head to the main evacuation route,” they said in a rude tone as approached at full speed.

“You’re not stopping me,” I drew my P229 and delivered two clean headshots before they could even aim down their weapons. I ran past their bodies into the parking lot, where security was heavy around Twilight Sparkle. Her complaining about the vehicle was clearly audible.

“Bartoli, I demand to be transported in other vehicle, for my security,” she said on a bossy tone.

“We’re sorry ma’am, but this is the only vehicle that’s suited for your needs, please step inside,” a man in a white tuxedo pushed her inside.

“When a lady says she’s not comfortable with the ride, I suggest you fulfill her demands,” I yelled from afar, walking calmly towards them with my pistol behind my back.

“Sir, please head towards the main evacuation route or we will open fire towards you,” the man in the white tuxedo said with the hands behind his back, every single mercenary next to him instantly pointed their weapons at me.

“Please, I was just heading for my car. I want to get out of here as much as you do,” I slowly walked towards a blue Nissan Tsuru next to me, “but I can’t help myself,” the sound of a metallic object that landed on the floor was heard, “the lady does not want your ride,” I kicked the flash grenade on my feet, it slid from under the car as I covered my eyes from the sudden flash of light. Moaning and groaning filled the air as I ran towards the SUV, executing those who dared to point their firearms at me.

“What the hell are you waiting for, kill him!” Bartoli shouted furiously, but just before he could pull out a pistol from his jacket, I placed the cannon of my P229 in his neck; he shuddered and raised his hands.

“Don’t!” Twilight punched the pistol away from his neck an instant before I could shoot him. I turned to scowl at her.

“You’re lucky the lady doesn’t think you’re worth pulling the trigger,” I struck him with the pistol on his neck, knocking him unconscious; afterwards, I offered my hand to help Twilight Sparkle descend from the SUV.

“I hope I am placing my trust on the right person. You just killed half my security squad,” she said while readjusting her hair.

“Please, Miss Sparkle. If I wanted you dead, you would be by now,” I grabbed her hand and ran towards my car. The alarm turned off as we closed in, I spun my head wryly towards the stunned men and saw the flash grenade was losing its effect.

“Step in, the doors are open,” I opened the trunk of the red car and pulled out an M16 assault rifle, equipped with armor piercing bullets.

“Are you kidding me, I can’t drive!” she yelled to me, staring at the driver’s seat.

“It’s a European BMW, the passenger’s side is on the other side,” I replied in the same tone as her while loading the rifle. Some of those men were already on their feet, and some were already pointing their guns at my car.

“What the hell are you waiting for? Get inside!” she shouted at me while opening the door, I ignored her and opened fire against the helpless henchmen in front of me. The firefight scared those who weren’t killed under the bullet storm from my full automatic M16.

“Just finishing some tiny details,” the insides of the car were completely original and well preserved, for a car that’s from the early century. “Engine, start!” the car’s road echoed in the thick walls as it blasted off into the streets of New York.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked while glancing outside.

“To a safe house. I’ve been planning this for a couple of weeks; you will be away from any harm until this whole mess cleans itself up,” I replied in a mechanical way, as I reached bubblegum from my pocket.

“Just one, please,” she took the small pack of green bubblegum, “you know, you already know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“My name is Leighton McRae, I am from Knowsley England; if you were wondering why I speak like this.”

“Pardon me, Leighton. I’m not from around here and all those places you mention sound weird to me,” her voice reflected all her concern. It was easy to notice from her body language and that she could not stop tapping her fingers on the window.

“I know they sound rare. After all, you were born a pony. I would not be amused if you told me that having fingers and walking on two legs is something you find awkward,” I teased while turning left towards the nearest exit of town.

“It is, believe it or not. I’m still learning from you humans. Your traditions, beliefs, politics…” she sighed “for that I’m glad Princess Celestia sent me here.”

“It’s not your fault that mankind sees you ponies as a way out from out chaotic world, let me tell you a little about mankind that everybody sees and no one admits,” she instantly turned her face towards me and stared with her eyes wide open.

“Humans are greedy to a fault; we carve in lust and enjoy living on other’s demise. We see your kind as a threat to us, not because we can’t understand you, because we can’t exploit you. You are apart from out chaos, safe from our wars and deceases, we are jealous of you.”

“I… haven’t thought of it that way,” she turned towards the window, “ponification must be legalized. There is too much at stake.”

“I… have something else on mind,” my statement caused her to give me another of those cold looks, “don’t misunderstand me, Miss Sparkle. I don’t stand for anti-ponification. I am actually looking forward to the legalization of ponification, that’s one of the reasons why I must keep you alive.”

“If that’s the case, then what are your motives? Who are you working with? The FBI? The Interpol?”

“I am working all by myself, no one is behind my operations,” I calmly answered.

“Then, why are you wasting your precious time protecting a pony?” the frown on her face turned towards a more sarcastic one.

“I am a resourceful man with a mentality that is long extinct among humans; I’m doing this to ensure mankind’s continuity.”

“Doing what? I’m just trying to soften up the tensions between your politicians and my Princess, I’m not a messiah. Keeping me alive will, maybe, only get the ponification legalized on earth, nothing else.”

“Miss Sparkle-“

“Oh for the love of Celestia,” she shouted in a burst of anger “just call me Twilight.”

“Alright then, Twilight,” I cleared my throat and continued, “I am also somewhat of a researcher and mathematician. My calculus indicate that the current human population in Equestria is no enough to repopulate Earth for over six generations.”

“What’s with your fancy numbers, Leighton?”

“Humanity faces extinction, no one admits it. We are dying faster than we can breed, and those who are born, are rapidly killed by deceases we unleashed on ourselves. If we can save at least six percent of the earth’s actual population it would be sufficient to generate enough variability to maintain a working population.”

“So you want to save them by placing those humans on Equestria,” she teased with a blank look in her eyes.

“Exactly; but it’s not just placing six percent there, let mankind kill itself and re-populate at once. It’s a slow process, humanity’s fall will not happen overnight. We must keep those humans on Equestria, and when the time is right, return to repopulate earth.”

“You sound kinda crazy, you know?” she continued to look at me with those blank eyes.

“I am not afraid of the prejudices that are bestowed upon me. My points of view are extremists to some, I do not blame them. However, I have staggering evidence that if illegal ponification remains for the next six months, the estimated flow of people into Equestria will not be enough to save the required people before deceases and war overcome humanity. Upon our arrival at the safe house, I will share this information with you.”

“I have to tell you something, Leighton,” her eyes now changed with concern, I was relieved that the blank stares and intense glares were over.

“Go on,” outside, the interstate highway darkness created a great atmosphere for a long, exquisite talk.

“Humans no not keep their memories upon ponification; I doubt that through the generations ponies would ever want to repopulate your earth.”

“That is why I must find a way to preserve memories upon ponification too, which is another reason why I must keep you alive. You see, humanity is not only rich because of the nine billion people that walk on the face of earth. Our culture and traditions are something tied to our identity, and it differs from place to place. If mankind is to be preserved, so must be the identities of every person.”

Her gaze turned ahead on the road, “how far is this safe house?”

“It’s a thirty minute drive from New York. Using this console,” I pressed a button next to the steering wheel, “you may send e-mails, make phone calls or simply watch TV. Please, be my guest.”

“Thanks, Leighton,” she said with a smile, and after that she went silent. Apparently, Law & Order UK entertained her enough for her to drool all the way to the safe house.

“Twilight, wake up. We have arrived at the safe house,”  I shook her shoulder trying to make her snap from the deep sleep she fell after fifteen minutes of watching Law & Order UK. Her eyes opened slowly along with some senseless mumbling that came from her mouth, followed by a huge yawn.

“Only thirty minutes eh?”

“Humanity’s TV shows are boring for you, eh?” I countered with a blank look as I helped her descend the car. She gazed at the two story cottage ahead of her that barely appeared from in between the darkness.

“When you said safe house I thought you meant a wooden shack in the middle of nowhere.”

“As I said, I am a resourceful man. And I need comfort as well. Now, please,” I walked towards the white main door, the lights turned on as I approached revealing a beautiful porch decorated with glass chandeliers and fine chairs. A golden key allowed me to enter the house, the door made cracking noises as I opened it.

“Wow…” Twilight’s jaw dropped, “I have never seen something like this in my entire life.”

“British seventeenth century decorations, please, don’t drool on the rug. It costs a fortune to clean it,” I offered her a seat on my red colored couch, “Tea? Anything to drink?” she glanced at the porcelain tea set on the glass table in the middle of the living room.

“Do you have any of this sour, black colored beverage you humans drink every morning?” she asked with a smile on her face.

“Coffee?”

“Yes, that. Do you have any?”

A grin spread across my face, “Yes, I do. Feel free to roam the house as I prepare your drink,” she stood up and ran towards the bookshelf across the living room. I had never seen someone so interested in books in my life; luckily for her I had all sorts of them. Biology, physics, chemistry, medicine, philosophy, modern and classic literature, I had almost every important book mankind ever wrote in that shelf.

“Where did you get all of these books? They are amazing!” she said with the smile of a child with a new toy.

“I acquired some through auction sales, some others are gifts. Feel free to grab any of them, just don’t scratch them.”

“I wish I could take these to Equestria. It would teach us a lot from you,” she glanced at the pages of Charles Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species’.

“Indeed,” I placed her mug on the table as I sat on my white wing chair, “that one you have in there is the keystone to modern biology. Our literature and knowledge is something that must also be preserved, hence the collection I gathered”

“You really thought this through, didn’t you?”

“I do not take this matter lightly. I believe mankind has to be saved, and so I will,” I took a sip of my green mug.

“That’s one big mission for a single man, don’t you think?” she sipped her purple mug and coughed, “do you have any milk?”

“It’s in the glass next to your mug. And if I don’t, who is going to? The UN is too busy in solving the differences between Arabs and Americans, let alone the Chinese. Every citizen out there is afraid of its government, democracy died with the last war the U.S unleashed on the Middle East. I don’t blame humanity for being humanity; I blame the actions the wrong people made. We had values once, I want that back for my kind,” I said with calm voice, but my words seemed to startle her however.

“I want you to explain me, what do ponies have to do in this entire plan of yours?” she leaned back on her seat with her mug in hand.

“Your kind lives in an alternate dimension to ours, safe from all of the wars and diseases that attack mankind every day. Your people are noble, gentle and dislike conflict, opposite to the conflictive, paranoid nature of humans. My plan is relatively simple, yet very complex because it covers almost every flaw I detected during two years of dedicated study. You see, by co-existing with ponies a daily basis, under your rules, humanity can regain the founding of a peaceful, working society. We transfer roughly six hundred million people to you lands along with all of our culture; books and traditions, you name it. Wait until mankind falls, then repopulate.”

“That’s a lot of people to handle, I’m not sure if Princess Celestia would allow that many ponies,” she placed the mug back in the table and crossed her legs, her dress slid on them revealing thighs that overcame my expectations for those of a pony.

“That is another reason why I brought you here. If Wikipedia is to be trusted, then your land is still vast and remains widely unexplored. We could establish new settlements for humans to inhabit, avoiding the overpopulation of cities like Manehattan and Fillydelphia. I believe that requires the approval of Princess Celestia, and I would like to ask for it.”

“Hold on there,” she snapped and pointed her finger at me, “you kidnapped me to take you to Equestria.”

I burst into laughter after I drank a sip from my coffee, “of course not. If I wanted to be ponyfied like everyone else I would have gone to Russia to get the job done. My interest is genuine, I would like to meet her and display the situation to the only flaw in my plan.”

“Princess Celestia is your only flaw?” she asked with a big frown

“Ultimately, the success of my plan depends on her to agree to accept a minimum of three million people.”

“What about the other five hundred ninety seven million people?” her gaze turned sarcastic.

“That is the enough amount of people to preserve a decent gene pool through the time to, via genetic engineering, revive mankind to an stable population in one hundred generations,” I finished my coffee and placed the empty mug on the table.

“And if Celestia does not agrees?” she implied while crossing her legs back.

“Three million more ponies is the population she would have on her hands in two years from now. She will agree to three million people,” she looked down meditating; silence fell in the room for a minute.

“It’s your lucky day, Leighton. I believe you. I’m scheduled to report my speech tomorrow at noon. I know a spell to avoid your loss of memory upon ponification.”

“Excuse me, Twilight,” I said with a nervous grin, “ I did not ask for ponification.”

“You have no choice; there can be no humans on Equestria. Upon changing dimension you turn into a random kind of pony, but will become human once you return to the earth though,” I nodded, the nervous grin slowly changed for a confident one.

“Alright then, Twilight. Go get some sleep. I must prepare for this,” I stood up and so she did after me. I asked her to follow me upstairs to show her the room where she would sleep. The candle in my studio was going to be lit one more night.

Chapter 3

“It’s fifteen past eleven, she should be awake by now” I thought to myself with a big bowl of cereal in my hands. The small table next to the living room was lit by the morning May sun. The TV was filled with brainwashing crap, so was the radio and the newspaper. Every morning was a quiet one for me in that cottage, one of the reasons why I bought it with the sole purpose of hiding Twilight Sparkle.

With every munch I took, I went all over again over the checklist for my unexpected visit to Equestria. I had foreseen it, but not so sudden.

“Laptop, check. USB flash disk, check. Projector, check. Pony attire, check. Briefcase, check. Documents, check” repeated over and over in my head.

“What time is it?” I snapped and spit the food in my mouth straight back into my plate. Twilight screamed in shock.

“I’m sorry!” she yelled after her loud, high pitched scream.

“It’s ok. That was the last spoon of cereal, I was about to finish anyway” I said in calm voice, cleaning up any chewed cereal that fell off the plate.

“What time is it, again?” she sat on the opposite side of the table.

“Sixteen past eleven, you slept ten hours and forty five minutes. Cereal? Tea?” I reached for a plate on the shelf next to me, her eyes opened wide and she shot up straight from the table.

“We’re going to be late!” she took my hand and dragged me all the way to the backyard. It was a sunny day; some of the flowers emanated a scent that filled the air and made the surroundings truly come to life.

“Oh yeah, you’re supposed to report to Celestia at noon” I forced my arm away from her tight grip, “hold on a second, I must go for my briefcase. You get ready, I’ll wait for you in the car” she stood there with giving me a rare look, I ignored her and went inside the house to retrieve all that I needed for my travel. It took me a few minutes of last moment organizing and grooming in the second floor, but once I descended the stairs, I saw Twilight standing in the middle of the living room.

“I said wait for me in the car; and why haven’t you changed your clothes?” I frowned at her purple pajama.

“We don’t need a car or change our clothes, silly. I can go to Equestria from anywhere, come with me” she walked outside seemingly confident.

“Look Leighton” she turned towards me looking down, “I’m going to take you to Equestria with the purpose of you sharing your plan with Queen Celestia, got it?”

“I totally understand, Twilight. I am prepared” I replied with confidence, tightening my left fist.

“Okay… Here I go” her horn began glowing in an intense lavender color that quickly covered the whole backyard in a soft purple aura. From the borders of this aura, lightning bolts began to focus on one area in front of us, eventually creating some sort of black hole.

“Grab my hand!” she moaned from exhaustion, I took her hand with a mixture of fear and excitement. The aura suddenly turned red along with her horn, the sound of a huge vacuum sucking the air around us began emanating from the black hole.

“Jump now!” she leaped into the dark hole, pulling my hand along. Everything went dark around me; it felt like falling straight into abyss. I remember her voice in the distance, audible, yet not understandable. My body changed, more like readjusted, morphed; filling me with an unimaginable pain. I gave into the pain after noticing I could not see myself, I just closed my eyes and hoped the pain would end soon.

“Leighton? Leighton are you alright?” I heard a feminine voice in the distance as my light struck my slowly opening eyes.

“Did it work? Do you remember who you are?”

“I feel like I was just ran over by a train, punched in the gut and dragged five miles by a horse, but if you ask me who I am, I will proudly identify myself as Leighton McRae” I said as I stood up, rubbing my head with a hoof, I noticed the feminine voice was a purple equine with a horn on its head. It was Twilight in her pony version.

“You look great, you’re one proud Pegasus. Even though I’m not a huge fan of your color” she said walking towards a bookshelf next to us. It was in that very moment when I noticed we reappeared in a library.

“According to this, my spell should keep you fresh and full of your memories during your stay in Equestria, please enjoy yourself” she headed up a spiral staircase in front of me; the architecture was something I had never seen before. It seemed like the insides of a tree.

“Can anybody give me a mirror?” I asked as I tried my brand new hooves around.

“You don’t say anybody in here, you say anypony, oh, and there’s one in the bathroom, left of the kitchen” her voice echoed in the wooden walls, I followed her directions and found a somewhat pleasant surprise in the mirror.

“I look good…” I examined every single part of my body, my skin was colored red and my mane was a little browner than usual, let alone the couple of wings that appeared at the sides of my torso. They were there but I couldn’t feel them.

“Twilight?” I asked with some concern, “what is that tattoo I have on my ass?”

“Oh please!” she shouted with anger, “you say flank in here, not ass. That’s why we teach our manners to you humans first” she appeared next to me suddenly, “and you have a cutie mark? Most humans don’t have one, let me take a look”

The look in her eyes was of one of a person who is merely curious, but nevertheless, a pony looking at your flank is a pony looking at your flank.

“Yes, it has a pen and a sword. Can I remove it?”

“No of course not!” her fascination towards my ‘cutie mark’ made the expression in my face change, “sorry! I guess I’m a huge fan of your cutie mark, I had never seen anything like it. It means that you already discovered your special talent, something you identify yourself with; and it has something to do with pens and swords”

“I enjoy writing, for I was once a journalist for the Liverpool Echo. Greatest days in my life” my mind suddenly filled with memories of those days when I was in my early twenties, “It was also the time of my life where I used to get the less sleep hours” I added with a smirk.

“Twilight, are you home-” a small, purple dragon walked into the house with a note in hand; it let out a massive scream the moment my eyes met with him, “who the hell is this guy Twilight, is he a burglar? Back off!! You’re not taking anything!” it threatened with nothing more than a small piece of paper on hand.

“Is this how guests are treated on Equestria? With a small dragon threatening you with a mere sheet of paper?” I implied in a sarcastic way, walking towards him in the most respectful way my hooves allowed me to.

“Twilight, this pony is creeping me out. What’s with his voice…?”

“Don’t be so harsh on our guest, Spike. He’s a new friend of mine; I met him back on earth. His name is Leighton McRae” Spike glared at me with furious eyes.

“Pleased, to make your acquaintance” I offered a hoof, expecting to receive the equivalent to a handshake. He only stared at my hoof, rudely walking past me.

“Is he a human? How come he can remember his life on earth? Why is he here? Celestia is going to demand explanations,”

“He saved my life back on earth, the least I could do to repay his actions was to offer my help,” Twilight said as she approached a stand with ink and pen.

“My specie faces annihilation. I come here with a plan to save us through your lifestyle; do not be afraid, Spike, I mean no harm to your people.”

“I don’t usually like humans…” the small dragon glared at me with the same eyes from before, “but when I do they have a cool accent” his face turned happy suddenly for my surprise, “I just love the way you talk, do every human talks like you?”

“I’m glad to see you two can get along. Let me write a letter to Celestia with my report, Spike, show our guest around,” her purple horn began glowing once more and the pen floated around, writing on the paper next to her.

“Alright, Mister Leighton, follow me!” the now joyful dragon signaled me to follow outside, where a marvelous, colorful town appeared before me. Again, the architecture was simply breathtaking. A mix of impossible structures along with a large pallet of color gave the town its life. Around, lots of ponies walked past us, seemingly happy and waving hello at each other as if they were friends since the very moment they were born. It was clear that the life in this town was simple, lovely and quiet.

“What’s the name of this place, Spike?” I asked astonished by my surroundings.

“Ponyville, a small, peaceful town here on Equestria. Lovely, isn’t it?”

“You bet your flank it is…” I couldn’t help but to notice the fact that I felt assaulted by everypony’s eyes. You could tell everyone knew each other in this place.

“Here we live our lives in a simple way, though we got a lot of things going on. With the whole human immigration issue we sure have lots of more visitors every day.”

“What’s the criminal occurrence in this place?”

“We don’t have any of that. Everypony here is honest and straight, we don’t need to steal each other’s property or fight over something. But if we do, we take this to a court where a judge decides who’s right and both parties sign a treaty where they compromise to submit to the judge’s decision.”

“So… you don’t have nothing like murder or kidnapping in this place?” I looked at him with skepticism drawn all over my face.

“Nope, no murder or kidnapping. Why are you asking stuff like that?” he countered with a frown of his own.

“From where I came from, people have fights even over who should keep a dead body. Coming to a place like this… is… weird to me.”

“I see…” Spike stopped and pointed towards a building that had the appearance of a chocolate cake, “That is Sugarcube Corner. If you want to try the most delicious cakes on earth, that’s the place.”

“The architecture is something that shines above the rest of this lovely town, is it local developed or nationwide fashion?” I stared at the muffin on top of the building.

Spike giggled immediately after my question, “I just love the way you talk! Anyway, if you turn around this corner you’ll find the marketplace, where you can buy from food to souvenirs.”

“In England, when you make a question, it is a common courtesy to take the bother to answer it, Spike,” I said calmly, hiding the hot pot of anger I was inside.

“Ah, so you come from a place called England?” the jolly dragon asked innocently, it was clear that he didn’t had the intention to offend me.

“Yes, it’s a large portion of an island in the north part of the earth. It is actually part of a larger kingdom, called the United kingdom, that compresses England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland under a single flag, even though each kingdom remains apart from each other by recognizable borders.”

“Do everyone in the United Kingdom talks like you do?” his eyes filled with an unmistakable spark.

“Yes, but it’s different from place to place. My accent is native to Merseyside and is commonly referred as Scouse, but you have the Scottish accent, the Geordy, the Mancunian… There are lots of different accents all across the United Kingdom.”

“That’s awesome…” he looked down as if meditating, “I know! I have a couple of friends who have accents too, you should totally meet them!” he began sprinting suddenly towards a building shaped similarly to a carousel. At first I couldn’t find the correct rhythm to run properly as a pony, but after a couple of meters, I found it to be more efficient than human sprinting. I could now feel what was like to gallop at full speed. Spike genuinely broke into the building; he stepped inside without ringing or knocking.

My education forced me to stay outside until the host allowed me to enter. I could hear Spike’s voice repeatedly shout ‘Rarity’ inside the building. Eventually, a feminine voice with a mid-Atlantic accent replied politely to wait.

“I have a pony with me you should totally meet. Leighton, come inside it’s cool!” he shouted from inside.

“Spike, my education forbids the act of me wandering inside somepony’s house without the host’s permission.”

“My-my!” a white pony with a horn like Twilight popped up from the door dressed in a purple gown, “you have the manners of a true gentlemen. I am Rarity, proud owner of the Carousel Boutique.”

“I am Leighton McRae, Lady Rarity,” I gently took her hoof and kissed it, “a pleasure, to make your acquaintance.”

The white unicorn giggled in delight; Spike glared at me with furious eyes again, “I would gladly have you enter my chambers if I wasn’t swamped with work this evening. Where are you from? Your accent is distinctive.”

“I am from Knowsly, England,” Rarity’s face suddenly changed to one filled with doubts.

“Oh yeah, he was not born a pony. He’s a human that Twilight brought along with her,” Spike interrupted as he walked to my side.

“Really? Such a lovely accent you humans carry, darling.  And what brings you here, Mister McRae?” for my surprise, I was not discriminated as I thought I would.

“I come with a proposal for Queen Celestia. Humanity will soon go extinct, and I plan to save it through your lifestyle.”

“That’s amazing! I would love to have more humans here, imagine all the different fashion styles that would come along with them. The possibilities are limitless!” her body language was classy, and her accent distinctive. If she wasn’t a pony I would probably find someone like her attractive.

“Alright Leighton, we have to go. Twilight probably finished her letter by now, so we should really go,” Spike nervously added, grabbing one of my hoofs and pulling me away.

“Alright then, Leighton, darling. If you’re ever around town and wish to have an outfit that lives up to your… class, my humble establishment is always open for you. Consider it a personal favor,” she winked her eye as Spike pulled me away from the Carousel Boutique. We walked back towards the library in a somewhat awkward silence.

“You know, Rarity’s accent is similar to mine. It’s known as mid-Atlantic accent back on earth,” Spike continued to ignore me; it was easy to tell he was mad at me.

“What’s the matter mate?” I politely asked while placing a hoof on his back.

“Nothing,” he hissed and pushed my hoof away from him.

“I’ll analyze this to figure out what is wrong with you…” I took a deep breath; this however, did not stop us from walking out way back to the library, “Rationalization? No, time is too short, not enough time for proper digestion of thoughts, must be an immediate response. I was polite, Rarity was polite, doesn’t seem to carry negative thoughts towards her. Subject deliberately walked into Rarity’s chamber without permission, she didn’t seem startled either by my or his presence though. It must have been something I did. Unlikely, I kept a polite atmosphere and conversation, subject interrupted communication between Rarity and me, no, must be symptom, not a cause; must have been the fact of me talking to her. Attitude, seventy five percent of the word exchange occurred between her and me along with her expressive body language. Subject interrupted communication between me and Rarity due to feeling separated from her attention, a feeling commonly known as jealousy; ergo, you probably have feelings for her. Am I correct?”

Spike stared at me jaw-dropped, “yes?” he said with a weird look in his eyes.

“I knew it” I knocked on the pink wooden door of the library, “Come on in, it’s open!” was the response from inside

“After you, Spike,” I politely opened his door under his weird gaze, after shutting the door close; I realized Twilight had a paper in hand.

“Quick Spike! Send this to Queen Celestia,” she handed the paper over to the dragon, which held it close to his mouth. He blew green air towards the paper and it vanished into thin air.

“I’m assuming that’s a pretty fast way of sending letters?”

“Yes it is,” Spike giggled, “We usually get her response in a few minutes.”

“Ok Twilight, what’s next?” I asked with a worried voice.

“We wait for her response,” she turned towards a shelf behind her, the horn in her head began glowing and a book was lifted into the air.

“I presume you told her that I had a plan to present.”

“I did. Don’t worry Leighton, whether she approves or not, you’ll present your plan to her,” she glanced at the book in front of her face.

“I am very grateful, for this opportunity, Twilight,” I bowed in a reverential way; she blushed and hid behind her book. Suddenly, Spike shuddered and burped.

“How rude!” a paper flew straight from his mouth into Twilights hands.

“Already? That was quick…” she opened the letter and cleared her throat and just before Twilight could begin reading the paper, the look on her face turned to show fear.

“This can’t be good.”

Salvation Through Destruction

A: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fan Fiction

By: RoflLuxRay

Based on concepts from: The Conversion Bureau by Blaze

Chapter 4

“I demand both your presence and Mr. Leighton’s presence today at six o’ clock?” I stared at the paper astonished, Twilight walked around seemingly nervous, “What does she mean? Why is this bad news?”

“I knew I was making a mistake, stupid!” she punched herself violently in the face, I ran to stop a second punch.

“What is going on? I demand an explanation! You’re freaking me out,” I shouted in desperation.

“Spike, go ask Applejack for her cart. Leighton, grab your suitcase and stay in here with me, you cannot go outside,” she ran to the bookshelves and books began flying all around.

“Right away, ma’am!” the green dragon rushed outside, I reached for my briefcase and pulled my blue laptop out.

“What’s that?” she approached with a book in the air.

“I’m checking my laptop, I need to verify my presentation and if the projector can function in this dimension,” I tried to typed my long, secure password without fingers, the efforts were futile.

“Already missing your fingers?” Twilight teased with a sly grin.

“They are helpful for more reasons other than just typing on a computer, I did not foresee this,” I continued my attempts at typing and Twilight turned to one of her books and went silent. It took me around five of six minutes to carefully type the password with the edge of my left hoof.

“Voila! It works!” I exclaimed in delight, she glanced at me from the edge of her book.

“Do you ponies have any electric outlet around here? I need to plug the projector,” my eyes quickly scanned my surroundings, noticing the lack of electric installations.

“Nope,” she said in plain voice, “but let me take a look at that” her horn began glowing as she approached the small, white projector that I had just pulled out from the briefcase. The lights in it began flashing, without any power intake, it was on.

“That’s awesome, Twilight. Now, let me connect this cable to the computer…” I took the A/V cables with my teeth and struggled to put them in the correct position, I rubbed my neck after the tremendous effort.

“At least your trick is working; I can see the content of your laptop on my walls,” she stared at my Ferrari screen saver amazed.

“I suppose it’s fair that I show you my slideshow with my-“

“Hey Twiight? You n’ ‘ere?” a feminine voice with a southern American accent yelled along with the sound of the door being slammed open.

“Applejack? Thank Celestia you’re here, I need a favor” she ran towards the orange colored pony.

“Spike said y’all needed my cart, and I’m here deliverin’ it personally.”

“That’s wonderful. Thank you so much” Twilight ran outside, probably to check the cart. I approached this Applejack carefully, “Hello, Miss. I guess we haven’t met, my name is Leighton McRae, you are…?” I extended my hoof, expecting a handshake, more like, hoofshake.

“You must be the pony Spike was talkin’ ‘bout. My name is Applejack, pleased to make yer acquaintance,” the orange pony said with a big smile as she took my hoof and shook it rapidly, almost in a way that could be considered violent.

“The pleasure is mine, Miss Applejack,” I released my hoof from her grip, “I appreciate the favor you’re doing us.”

“No problem at all, Mister McRae,” she stared at me intensely, as if looking into my soul, “I ain’t mean to offend, sir. But is it true that you’re a human?”

“Indeed, I am a fine specimen born in Knowsley, England in August twentieth fifth of nineteen ninety seven.” I proudly replied as Twilight entered the library with a worried look in her eyes.

“Everything is ready; we will leave in a couple of hours. I asked Rainbow Dash to convince a few Pegasus to pull our cart so we should get there in two hours or so.”

“What’s troublin’ you, sweetheart?” Applejack implied placing her hoof in Twilight’s shoulder.

“Nothing… I’m just stressed,” she took Applejack’s hoof off her shoulder and walked towards me, “Leighton, you were about to show me your slideshow.”

“It’s true,” I snapped and walked towards the projected image on the wall, “I was about to show the reason why I came to Equestria, Applejack, would you care to join?”

“Sure, I’d like to see what these fancy lookin’ devices can do” she sat on the floor next to the projector.

“Spike, would you mind passing me the pen over there?” I pointed at my briefcase; he nodded and quickly handed it over. The pen shot a laser that interacted with the projections, allowing me to load the slideshow without using the laptop.

“Now,” I cleared my throat and ‘Project HC’ came on screen, “I present to you, Project Human Conservation; a plan to ensure the survival of mankind.”

Everyone in the room stared intensely at the projections, “the objective of this project is, as its name establishes, to secure humanity’s conservation. I’m sure you are wondering, why does humanity need to be saved?” I pressed a button on the pen and the slide changed, “Humanity has reached a critical point in its history. Mortality rates are through the roof due to wars, famine and diseases and the birth rate is too low to cope up with the death rate. The inversion of these two rates is considered by experts as a ‘reverse demographic transition’.

This phenomenon started in the late 2010’s with the release of the neofage on China, a genetically engineered virus that was said to regulate birth control. Instead, it got out of control and spread throughout all Asia.”

“Were measures taken to control the neofage?” Twilight asked with pen and paper next to her.

“Yes, but in the wrong way. The United States developed a counter-inhibitor for the neofage, but instead of offering through the UN, it got stuck in private sector and reached the public at a price only wealthiest part affected by this could afford. Eventually, China went into a civil war that overthrew its government, establishing a new Military regimen by 2019.”

“Please continue…” she muttered while writing on the paper, Applejack’s face displayed horror and Spike seemed quite entertained, his eyes were wide open and staring at the pictures of the China civil war.

“As time went on, neofage cases were reported all across the world as it is transmitted through the air. Europe, Africa, America… The neofage made only one in a thousand births viable and it soon became the horror of the masses. Massive suicides, a spreading sense of apocalypse took over the population all over the world, and if seen from this perspective, humanity has its days counted. But it is not the only problem after us,” the slide changed to one displaying graphics, “The graphics shown here are a comparison of the population growth and the estimated food production, between an hypothetical event first proposed by Thomas Malthus in 1798, and the current human situation. As you can see, there is not enough food to satisfy the demands in both graphics. The results?” I changed the slide again, showing horrible pictures of death, famine and social disorder.

“Death of those unable to reach food, the poorest sector of humanity was the first one to fall. As the food went scarce, their prices rocketed through the roof, causing massive riots all over the world. This problem also strikes the birth rate, as a pregnant mother requires a proper nutrition for the new generation, lowering nativity even more. Now, one in every fifty thousand pregnancies generates healthy offspring.”

“Shouldn’t this catastrophe stabilize the food demands?” Twilight asked again.

“Mathematically, yes it should. However, Malthus’ theory can be applied to other resources. Energy, for example, is much related with the food. We have depleted all the petroleum available on the earth; this caused a whole domino effect on the food production. By not having fuel for its machines, the agricultural sector changed its fields from food crops to biofuel crops, decreasing production, hence raising the food’s prices. Less production, more cost.”

“I didn’t know you humans have that many problems” Applejack added with a horrified look on her face.

“That, is only half of the problems humanity have,” I changed the slide once again, showing pictures of devastated cities and battlefields, “Wars, is one of the reasons why mankind is going extinct so rapidly. The current conflicts are between the United States of North America versus the United Arab nations and between the new People’s Republic of China versus the Russian Federation and the European Union in what is known as World War Three. The Americans fight for control over the Arab lands, that have vast resources and lands. The Chinese fight the Europeans and the Russians for a more even distribution of resources, as China has become nothing more than a god forsaken wasteland due to their overpopulation and civil war aftermath.”

“So… Your people are now fighting for survival?”  Twilight asked with saddened voice.

“It’s a battle to steal other’s countries resources. Capitalism is a hungry beast that demands to be fed, and the war serves that purpose: more resources that translate into money for the starving monster. Instead of reaching an amnesty or developing other technologies for the harvesting of optional resources, the UN detoured founds from the Commission of Science and Technology Development, and Commission of Sustainable Development to the Counter-Terrorism Committee, a bureaucratic excuse to fuel the war. The outcome is a staggering body count of two billion people and counting. Official UN numbers claim that every day, three thousand people are killed as a result of the wars. This increases the death rate even more and halves the birth rate average, reaching an astounding count of one in one hundred thousand successful pregnancies.”

“That is just awful!” Spike shouted while covering his face with his hands.

“Taking these numbers, and making some calculations,” I change the slide once more, showing various numbers and formulas, “the current human population is rapidly falling into a population bottleneck, an event in which large part of a species is killed. This bottleneck causes the loss of variability and thus, a lack of adaptability to withstand new selective pressures. Considering the current birth and death rates, humanity will reach the billion individuals in two years from now; considering amnesty. But even then, projections show that even the aftermath of the war will sink economy into a massive recession, causing the extinction of humanity in three years from now. Actions need to be taken now.”

“Then what’s the plan?” Applejack asked.

“Transfer a minimum of three million people to Equestria. The minimum viable population size (MVP), which is the minimum quantity of individuals of a specie required to generate enough variability to thrive in its environment, for mankind with genetic engineering is of three million people, this was estimated using various population variability analyses with a success rate of 97.3%.”

“So yer sayin’ that you need to save three million humans to ensure continuity? What’s with the success rate?” Applejack asked curiously.

“The computer simulation takes into account the likelihood of a natural disaster to occur. There is a 2.7% of probability that mankind goes extinct if three million individuals are saved. However, the ideal MVP is of six hundred million people for instant results, this amount would require 500% less time and no genetic engineering. Considering the current flow of people into Equestria is of a hundred individuals a month, a maximum of thirty six hundred people are estimated to be here in three years from now. Legalizing ponification and offering it to the public for free around the world would cause a likely income of fifty thousand people a week, reaching five million two hundred thousand immigrants in two years, enough to preserve humanity.”

“Five point two million people?” Spike asked astonished, “that’s like a tenth of the total population of Equestria.”

“That matter is up to Queen Celestia to decide. Now that I have explained the numbers, I shall explain more numerical and the social implications of the plan ending with its implementation” just before I could press the pen for the next slide, Twilight stood up seemingly contrite.

“Leighton. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think it’s about time we leave to Canterlot. The sooner we see Queen Celestia the better,” she, somehow, turned off the projector; her horn glowed as she faked a smile. Applejack and Spike gazed at her in a queer manner.

“As you wish, Twilight. Help me pack my stuff up and we’ll be on our way,” I turned off my laptop and safely stored it on the briefcase.

“Spike, go out and check on Rainbow Dash. Applejack, would you mind escorting Leighton into the cart? I’ll join you in a minute; I’ve got a couple of things to do,” Twilight ordered as she lifted a few books into the air, Spike bolted outside slamming the door open.

“Not a problem, Twi. Leighton, follow me!” Applejack replied joyfully as she walked towards the exit. I knew Twilight was hiding something; it was easy to tell from her attitude, tone of voice and actions. Apparently, ponies suck at lying. I followed Applejack outside, where an old wooden red colored cart awaited in front of the house.

“Step in,” she said while politely opening the door for me to step inside. A couple worn out of red cushions served as seats on each side of the cart; two circular windows covered by purple curtains dimmed the sunlight coming in. Applejack quickly closed the door as soon as I was inside the cart.

“Applejack, what is going on?” my voice echoed inside the car.

“I’m not sure, Leighton. I’m as confused as you are, but don’t worry. When Twilight behaves like this is because she’s got good intentions,” she assured with a happy grin. I saw her walk inside the house; solitude filled the cart for a few minutes, until my silence was interrupted by Spike’s voice.

“Twilight! The Pegasi are here, we are good to go,” he said. Twilight quickly abandoned the house with a gray saddlebag on her back and stepped into the cart after ordering Spike to drive the Pegasi.

“What’s on the bags?” I observed her bags cautiously; she pulled out a book and began reading it.

“Books, just books,” the cart suddenly began moving, taking speed at first and taking off eventually.

“What are the books for?” I asked on a demanding tone, she turn to stare blankly at me.

“I’m trying to find a way to help you,” I checked the cover of her book, it read: ‘trans-species spells’.

“Then why do you have to show this mysterious attitude?” I asked with a doubtful face. She let out a large sight just before closing her book.

“Because you shouldn’t be here”

Salvation Through Destruction

A: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fan Fiction

By: RoflLuxRay

Based on concepts from: The Conversion Bureau by Blaze

Chapter 5

“Why, why shouldn’t I be here?” a shiver ran through my spine with the notice, it explained her attitude, everything. She looked down and avoided my harassing sight.

“Humans are not allowed to enter Equestria so easily,” her voice filled with remorse as she glanced at the clouds outside.

“Alright, I buy that. But still, it does not explains the offense in my presence,” I approached her carefully, grabbing her hoof.

“I shouldn’t have brought you here, Celestia is going to demand your head” she pushed my hoof away, I sat back continuing my glare at her elusive eyes.

“Do you think a bunch of ponies are going to kill me so easily?” I remarked sarcastically.

“She’s not going to kill you, Leighton. Celestia is quite a reasonable pony, and an excellent ruler, but she seemed quite angry on her letter. And I’ve never seen her angry.”

“We humans have an old saying that goes: ‘There is always a first time for everything’. Calm down, if she goes insane I got your back,” I winked my right eye at her, causing her to show a nervous smirk.

“Hey guys,” Spike popped his head from a small door on top of the cart, “these boys are pretty fast, we should get to Canterlot in thirty minutes or so.”

“Noted, thanks Spike” Twilight said with a more tranquil grin. I reached for my briefcase and pulled out a heavy grey colored book.

“The man who mistook his wife for a hat? What kind of book is that?” she stared at the cover with confusion.

“It is not a novel about a man who confused his wife with a hat. It’s a human psychology book; I’ve been reading it for a few weeks now. The human mind is an unsolvable puzzle.”

“You are always doing something interesting, Leighton. I still can’t believe all you told us back at the library about humanity,” she said with a sigh.

“The information was not easy to gather, let alone to process. I had to learn how to gather it and process it too, that’s why this plan took two years to take shape.”

“What did you do before making this plan?” she asked curiously, putting all of her concern aside.

“Before devoting my life to this…” I sighed and gazed at the sky outside, “I was a Sociology professor and researcher at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University.”

“Sociology professor? I don’t think you used to teach your students how to kill someone with a pistol” she implied with, again, confusion in her face.

“Once the war began I had to learn how to protect myself from the looters and mercenaries that broke loose all across the UK. I was sloppy at first, but practice allows us to reach perfection, so they say.”

“Right and how did you come up with a plan like Project Human Conservation?” she asked with even more curiosity as before, a trait that was sometimes annoying in her.

“My job as a journalist eventually led me back into school to do a PhD in sociology as I noticed a radical change in human behavior, social structures and dynamics. I… dug into some books and ran into Malthus’ numbers and discovered that humanity was closing into them. I tried to warn, but they laughed the hell out of my flank, so now I’m saving theirs.”

“Do you have any family?”

“I once did,” I sighed again, “my mother was a Scottish nurse and my father a Liverpudlian cardiologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, as well as a huge fan of Liverpool F.C. They both died during a bombardment in Liverpool from the Chinese; I was in London at the time.”

“I’m sorry…” she muttered with remorse, “I didn’t know”

“It’s ok. Their death was long ago. I’d rather look into my book now, if you don’t mind.” I took no offense from her comment, but I thought it was for the better if we kept silence until our arrival at Canterlot.

The cart stopped after a rough landing that shook both Twilight and me off our seats, “We’re here! The Queen’s Palace!” Spike announced through the door on top. I politely opened the door for Twilight to step down.

“Thank you” she looked at me with a smile, I descended the vehicle and discovered a huge garden with a stone path that leaded straight inside the huge white castle, surrounded by a gray wall of brute rocks. In front of us, a majestic white Pony with her mane colored as the rainbow stood gazing at our presence. At her right, a smaller dark purple Pony with a deep dark blue tiara timidly walked to the bigger one’s side.

“Queen Celestia!” Twilight instantly bowed at her sight, I mimicked almost instantly.

“Arise, my dearest and faithful student. It is a pleasure to have you here” she greeted with a big smile on her face, the dark pony next to her remained silent, merely watching.

“You demanded our presence here, and here we are, Queen” Celestia glanced at me with pretentious eyes.

“I see that you brought the human along with you,” she turned to glare at me with the same eyes, “I am Queen Celestia, ruler of Equestria. Next to me stands Princess Luna, bringer of the night. Before me stands a Pony I have never seen before, indentify yourself!” she exclaimed in authoritarian voice.

“I am Leighton McRae” I bowed once more reverentially, “Son of Steven and Allison McRae, born in the metropolitan borough of Knowsly, England. Your presence honors me, your highness.”

“You said humans don’t have manners,” Princess Luna covered her smirk with a hoof.

“Your gesture surprises me, Mister McRae. Arise,” I stood and stared directly into her beautiful lavender eyes, “Follow me into my chambers, we shall discuss important matters inside,” she turned and walked into the castle, decorated with golden and blue banners that symbolized the sun and the moon. In front of us, a staircase led into a huge golden throne with a smaller, silver one on its right. A pink carpet led the way into the thrones, guarded by two Pegasi with golden armor. Celestia gracefully sat on her throne and gazed down at Twilight and me.

“If the letter Twilight sent is correct, then you are a human that came into Equestria with her help, am I correct?” she asked with a heavy glare on me.

“Yes. After I saved Twilight Sparkle’s life at the Oriental Mandarin Hotel in New York I took her to a safe house east of the American city, where, after listening to my proposal, she agreed to bring me to this world with the sole purpose of me talking to you, your highness” I firmly stated, taking a couple steps forward, Celestia continued to stare at me with her face of disdain.

“I remember that part in the letter,” she closed her eyes and let out a disgruntled sigh, “since you saved Twilight’s life on earth, I think it is fair for me to listen to whatever you have to say; my attention is all yours, Leighton.”

I quickly tried to reach my briefcase, my forehooves waved in the air until I noticed that I left it back at the cart. My face turned red, rather pink actually, from embarrassment.

“I had a slideshow prepared for the occasion, your highness” I sighed with disappointment, “but given its lack I shall explain only using my words,” my hooves trembled with a rare mixture of excitement and fear, Celestia’s stare was something I had never seen before. I cleared my throat and continued, “Humanity has reached a critical point in its history; the famine, the diseases and the war is wiping us out at an overwhelming pace. My studies indicate that mankind will go extinct in three years from now”

“I am well aware of humanity’s situation,” She said in a plain tone.

“I have elaborated a plan to save humanity by re-locating a minimum of three million individuals safely on Equestria. The plan is split in three phases: Phase one is the immigration, where we relocate a minimum of three million individuals on Equestria. Phase two consist of a co-existence between your people and mine, in which we wait until mankind vanishes from earth. Phase three is the gradual repopulation of earth.”

“And how long would we have to host this humans?” she asked with a frown.

“An approximate of one hundred and fifty years. By placing the only survivors of humanity in here we are sinking our specie into a population bottleneck. A population bottleneck is when a species loses a large part of its original population, hence, losing adaptability to new changes on the environment. To pull out humanity of this bottleneck, genetic engineering is needed. The required time means that three generations will have to pass until humanity is ready to repopulate earth and survive on its own”

“Are there alternatives to host humanity for a shorter time?”

“Yes, but the required population is of six hundred million. This population size would allow an immediate repopulation, however.”

“I see it’s a matter of time versus amount of people.” Celestia looked at Luna; she gazed back at her sister and nodded.

“What will happen to your diverse civilization? Knowing humans do not keep their memories upon ponification,” the purple princess asked while crossing her hoofs.

“I was hoping you would allow humans to keep their memories, as our knowledge, traditions and identity must be preserved as well.” I spoke with determination, both Queen and Princess turned at each other with astonished looks.

“Leighton, do you know why do we erase human memories upon their arrival to Equestria?” Celestia implied.

“That matter is unbeknown to me, your highness”

“Your kind is… superior to us in certain areas. They have a more intricate and complex mind than our own, which is why humanity reached the technology and social complexity they have nowadays. But this trait also makes them… dangerous. Instead of developing a sense of union and comradeship, humanity began fighting for ideals and creating different explanations for the same thing. If I were to allow humans, like you, into Equestria, they might bring along the corruption, crimes and wars that ravage earth today.”

“I would not bring dangerous murderers or famous movie stars, your highness. As I foresaw this, I created a psychological test for those who wish to be ponyfied, based upon various personality tests”

“And tell me, what is keeping the subjects from lying in the test?” Celestia’s question amazed me; it caught me completely off guard. My whole test was based under the assumption of a completely honest subject.

“What keeps a coward soldier from lying his way into Equestria?”

I felt a knot on my throat and from this same feeling, courage began to pour. I stepped towards Celestia and stared at her eyes.

“The same values that keep your people together, those that mankind lost through the ages and wait dormant inside the hearts of every good person that is terrified from his own government. I will not allow you to judge mankind as a whole by the decisions of corrupt governors and liars, because my kind is full of great persons that are worthy of a second chance and don’t deserve the hell they are going through. I did not scheme this plan with the idea of saving cowards and sissies, I forged it with the honest idea of saving a civilization that is spiraling down due to its own mistakes, hoping we could learn from them. Instead of giving up like every single human on earth or run to Equestria and leave everything behind to live my life as someone I’m not, I have kept faith in humanity. I am completely sure that if you grant humanity the opportunity to survive and learn from your civilization, we will grow back stronger and better,”

Both rulers stared with amazement as silent took over the room for a minute.

“That is a very moving speech, Leighton.” Luna said with a grin, “if it were my decision, I would accept your plan. But, the final decision is up to my sister,” she faced her sister with puppy eyes, “I have emitted my opinion, Queen.”

“Leighton,” her stare turned more compassionate, glancing towards Princess Luna, “you are a very good spokesman. But I will not concede this opportunity so easily; have you planned the implementation as well?”

“Yes I have. It will be an even split six hundred thousand people per continent, considering race and nationality. Strategic collection sites will be mounted on each country for a determinate amount of population.”

“Have you considered that there will be people who will be left behind? If you mount your collection site on a big, crowded city people are going to fight to be saved.” Luna said.

“As I mentioned, they are strategic. Statistically, people who live on cities are more prone to violent responses than those who inhabit the rural parts. We look into small towns from each country, collect their people and leave. Everyone will think it turned into a ghost town due to war.”

“What about the culture and traditions. I will not allow them to bring cattle along,” Celestia said.

“Humans are witty and creative, I’m sure they’ll find a way to exploit Equestria’s resources properly, under the correct legal frame.” I winked my eye at the Queen. The beautiful equine looked down meditating, the room went silent.

“Alright, Mister McRae,” Celestia broke the silence with firm voice, “you have convinced me that your plan is actually a good idea. You have the support of Equestria,” her smile made me let out a huge sigh in relief, “Thank you very much, Celestia,” My efforts had paid off; humanity was going to be safe.

“Now, Twilight,” her apprentice immediately straightened up, “please take mister McRae to the royal library, where he will explain his plan to our scientists.”

“This way”, Twilight signaled me to move towards a side of the chambers, where a closed golden door protected by two Pegasi with golden armor was.

“And Leighton,” Celestia’s voice made my body shudder; I turned to face her with a confident smile, “Humanity should be grateful to have someone like you.”

“Thank you, your highness,” I reverentially bowed one last time before proceeding into the golden door. I felt relieved, but I somehow knew it had just started.

THE CONVERSION BUREAU

DEATH ROW

✫✫✫✫✫

A “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” fan fiction by Dermathil

Based in “The Conversion Bureau” fan fiction by Blaze

✫✫✫✫✫

PROLOGUE

The brown-coated unicorn opened the door. Finally, he was home. Catalyst’s horn began to glow dimly as he pushed his thick glasses back in a more comfortable position, looking down at the limp earth pony lying beside him. The scientist had been carrying him for the last hour since he had found him floating in that small lake, always on edge in case a manticore or cockatrice attacked. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he had been to even have found him, the Everfree being such an enormous place. The sound of movement in a nearby bush pulled the old stallion out of his reverie, his silvery mane whipping around as he spun to face the forest. After spending a few seconds trying to identify the origin of the threat, Catalyst sighed in relief as a lone squirrel scurried out of a bush and up a tree. Not wishing to stay outside of his cavernous shelter any longer, the glasses-wearing stallion lifted the earth pony’s body and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

After looking around in the dark for a few seconds, Catalyst turned the lights on. The dirty lighting suddenly exposed a mix of human and equestrian technology chaotically lying around the room. Disregarding all of that, the unicorn headed straight for an empty table on which to put the earth pony so he could examine him. His horn was shrouded in a nimbus of light as a pencil and a notepad flew out of a pile. Using the pencil, the scientist with a shattered test tube as a cutie mark began to take notes of his examination.

Preliminary observations. On the table before me is a male earth pony. I suspect his identity but can’t be entirely sure at the moment. He lacks both a mane and a tail, and seems to wear a suit made of what seems to be synthetic materials. His vital signs are negative. Confirmed as dead. Suspected of having drowned in a pool of rainwater from the downpours of the last week. Suit corresponding with description of NeoGen Inc’s supersuit prototype.

Catalyst put the pencil and the notepad down beside the dead earth pony before pulling a seemingly half-built tv monitor, followed by a few wires and what seemed to be a human keyboard, which he set down by the body’s head. He then plugged the wires and the keyboard in the screen. With a sigh, his horn began to shine dimly as he pressed a few keys on the keyboard. The screen almost immediately came to life in a shower of pure, white light. He then lifted the corpse’s head slightly, plugging the opposite end of the wires into the suit interface at the base of the skull. Almost immediately, the screen was filled with tons of data. The glasses-wearing scientist immediately began to skim through, looking for the suit user’s identification profile.

“Ah, there you are,” muttered Catalyst as he opened the file before beginning to read.

“‘Fullname: John Silver’. Well, this isn’t going to help much at identifying you, will it?” He chuckled as he looked down at the suit-wearing pony before losing his smile. “Of course you can’t hear me...”

Catalyst continued to read through the identification profile before he noticed that a picture was included in it. He immediately skipped to it. The picture didn’t look like what the unicorn thought it would look like. The picture was in fact a frontal mugshot of a white-skinned man in his late twenties, with light brown hair and deep blue eyes. As far as the date on the picture could say, it had been taken ten years prior.

“So that’s what he looked like prior to becoming an earth pony,” Catalyst said to himself. “I still should find definite proof of who he is, though.”

He scrolled back up to where he was before noticing the picture and continued to read. After a few minutes of looking through some medical data of a rather confidential nature, the brown-coated stallion finally found something that he was looking for.

“Ah! A Codename entry. Exactly what I am looking for,” the old stallion said loudly. “‘Death Row’. There can’t be any doubt left, that sure is you.”

The pencil and notepad immediately began to float again as Catalyst wrote it down as a confirmation of the earth pony’s identity. He then closed the identity profile and continued to skim through the individual’s data files, carefully steering clear of any and all of the suit’s system files.

After a few dozen minutes of curiosity-fuelled research, something attracted the brown unicorn’s attention. A ‘Memory’ video file.

“Strange, that’s not something I would’ve thought I’d see in here.”

As the silvery-maned scientist opened the file, the screen blacked-out almost immediately. In a surge of panic, he verified the cables were all correctly plugged in. It was then that he noticed the screen was emitting light again. Catalyst stared at what had appeared on it. At first glance, it seemed to be a cloud of white dots on a black background, but it quickly organised itself into the shape of a face. Strangely, the face felt human and equine at the same time, as if the face of a pony and a human’s had been merged together. Then, the face on-screen began to speak in a highly synthetic voice.

“This is a pre-recorded message. I am Death Row, and if you are listening to this recording, then I have died and my body and the supersuit have been recovered. My real name may have mattered a long time ago, but it no longer does. In this recording you will find everything that is necessary to understand what doomed me to this fateful ending. This recording spans the last eight months of my life, and tells the story of a gullible mind’s futile attempt at changing the world. This is the story of a man who thought he could escape his fate, a man who thought he could escape the Death Row.”

The face then seemed to freeze. It took a few moments for Catalyst to understand that he had to confirm that he wanted to watch the entire file.

“This should be... interesting,” said the old scientist as he used his unicorn magic to press on the ‘Play’ button.

THE CONVERSION BUREAU

DEATH ROW

✫✫✫✫✫

A “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” fan fiction by Dermathil

Based in “The Conversion Bureau” fan fiction by Blaze

✫✫✫✫✫

CHAPTER 1

5:58. John Silver was laying down on his bunk bed, half-sleeping and half-waiting. That prison cell had been his only home for the last decade, and with time he had adapted to the schedule of this place he had come to know so well. At six o’clock in the morning, the bell would go off, waking up the prisoners for another day identical to the last. He had come to accept that as what the rest of his life would be, waiting for the fateful day where his sentence of death by lethal injection would be carried out. John shot a glance through the bars of his cell door at the clock hanging on the opposite wall. 6:01. At the sight of the time, the inmate frowned. He began to stroke his month-old unshaven beard, wondering whether it was merely a problem with the bell or whether something worse had happened, since he had never witnessed an instance of the guards being late with the bell in all the time he spent in prison. As he spent a few minutes trying to figure a logical explanation for the lack of morning call, the orange jumpsuit-wearing individual didn’t notice the sound of approaching footsteps. As he glanced at the clock once more, he noticed that a slightly overweight correctional officer was standing in front of the cell door, a nightstick in one hand and a keyring in the other, his eyes staring at John.

“So, it seems you’re already awake,” said the guard, his eyes not leaving the brown-haired inmate. “Good. That means I don’t have to bang that stick of mine on your door like a madman.”

“Good morning, officer,” John merely replied. “Did something happen? It sounded like the bell didn’t work this morning.”

“Yeah, well the only other inmate left to get ponified yesterday,” answered the overweight man, a tinge of Virginian accent present in his voice. “That means you’re the last prisoner in the entire complex. Now stand back, I’m opening the door.”

“So, you’re a rookie or something?” said the jumpsuit-wearing individual as he stepped back at the end of his cell.

The guard shook his head as fumbled with the keys. “What makes you think that I am?”

“Most of the officers with some experience in this prison would’ve answered with something along the lines of ‘Well, fuck you too pal.’ instead of answering like you did.”

The door finally slid open, the correctional officer filling the entire opening with his body. He detached a pair of handcuffs from his utility belt.

“It’ll be way easier for both of us if you don’t cause trouble, alright?”

John sighed as he held his hands towards the guard. “Does it look like I have a choice?”

The correctional officer secured the handcuffs around the bearded inmate’s wrists first, before detaching a pair of shackles from his belt and doing the same to the man’s ankles. The prison guard stepped out of the prison cell, motioning to the prisoner to walk in front. John merely shrugged, walking out as best he could with the restraints of the shackles.

“So, where are we going like this?” asked the jumpsuit-wearing man.

“We’re headed for the mess hall. Porridge’s on the menu.”

John nodded, and they both walked down the corridor and into the bowels of the eerily silent correction facility. After a few minutes, something struck the inmate.

“Hey, your radio’s awfully quiet. Shouldn’t it be already full of chatter between the other guards?”

“They all left,” was all the overweight, brown-haired officer replied.

“What do you mean, ‘they all left’? They can’t have just quit their jobs like that, right?” said John as his blue eyes stared back at his guardian.

“They all probably decided to get ponified at the same time as the other inmate,” answered the slightly rounded guard. “And anyways, you don’t need two dozen guards to keep a single person under control.”

“Eh, that thing again,” muttered the prisoner.

They continued to walk in silence for ten long minutes before they finally reached the doors of the mess hall. Using his set of keys, the correctional officer unlocked the door and let John in. The mess hall was a rectangular room with walkways on the upper level and various tables and chairs on the lower floor. In the serving area, there was a tray with a bowl of porridge and a spoon waiting to be taken. After locking the door behind him, the guard headed towards the serving area. He picked the food tray in silence and before strolling towards one of the tables, upon which he set the bowl of porridge. The officer then turned to face John, who was still standing.

“There you go. Now you sit down so I can remove those handcuffs.”

John nodded as he approached the chair. After he sat down, the guard removed the handcuffs to allow the inmate to eat with a minimum of decency, before sitting opposite to his prisoner.

John ate in silence for a few minutes, only looking up from his bowl once every few bites at the overweight officer, whose eyes didn’t leave the eating man. Finally, John spoke up.

“Why are you staring at me like that? Do I look like some kind of monster to you?”

“Oh, I’ve just got that feeling that I’ve seen you before somewhere.” said the brown-eyed correctional officer. “Anyhow, It would be rude of me not to introduce myself. I’m Bobby Fisher. What’s your name?”

“The name’s John.” replied the jumpsuit-wearing inmate between two spoonful of porridge.

“So, John, you don’t have a last name?”

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” began John, his voice getting progressively louder as he spoke. “Maybe I don’t want you to look in the country’s newspaper archives to look up whatever crimes I commited that landed me on Death Row? Did you think about that?”

“Alright, alright!” Bobby replied hurriedly, backing away from the subject. “I just wanted to act friendly with you. If you wanted me not to ask, you could have just said so.”

John merely looked at Bobby, not even bothering to reply at the man’s final statement. Following the verbal exchange, the inmate continued to eat in silence. When he was done, Bobby put the handcuffs back on John’s wrists before doing a quick trip to the kitchens to put the empty tray to be washed, which preceded their departure of the mess hall.

✫✫✫

John and Bobby spent the entire morning in silence, the guardian never taking his eyes off his prisoner. At around 3 o’clock, which was the usual time for the inmates to have an hour of free time outside in the main court, the overweight officer approached the jumpsuit-wearing man, a basketball under his right arm.

“Hey,” began Bobby as John turned around, “since you’re supposed to be spending this hour to interact with other inmates, I thought you might agree to a game of basketball. That way you won’t be entirely alone.”

John considered the proposition for almost a minute before making his decision.

“Eh, why not. At least I won’t be bored to death.”

Bobby immediately began walking towards the fenced basketball court, his mass shifting with every step he took. John watched him for a few seconds before following the guard, whose face bore an almost childish grin as he unlocked the gate. The orange jumpsuit walked in the enclosed ‘arena’ first, followed by the overweight officer and the ball.

“Mind you,” began the prisoner. “I'm not good at these kinds of sports.”

“Well, that makes two of us then!” replied the merry-looking guard as he threw the ball at the hoop, missing the target by a few inches. “Your turn now.”

John chuckled as he caught the ball, which had ricocheted back on the fence. He positioned himself as he aimed for the board. The throw that followed had been similarly bad as Bobby’s. The overweight guard began to laugh, eventually causing the jumpsuit-wearing prisoner to start snickering. They continued to play for about a dozen minutes as they chattered idly about the game they were playing, but John was also thinking about other things. For the first time in about a decade, he doing something that he was enjoying. He didn’t care whether it was with a correction officer or not.

“Hey, why didn’t you undergo ponification yet?”

“Uh?” replied the bearded inmate as his mood was washed away like a barrel of freezing water.

“Why didn’t you undergo the ponification thing like all the other inmates, John?” Bobby repeated.

“What does that thing even mean, anyways? Ponification this, Ponification that. It’s been the hot topic in here for over a year now, and nobody even cared to tell me what it is all about.”

“So you don’t even know what Ponification is?”

“No, mister Fisher, I have no idea! Mind ‘enlightening’ my pitiful brain?”

“From what I’ve seen, Ponification is some kind of medical procedure that can turn someone into a pony.”

“WHAT?! Is this some kind of joke that has been lasting for over a year now!? Who would undergo such a stupid thing?! And to say everybody else in this goddamn prison chose to undergo this... thing as an easy way out! This is an insult to what makes someone human!”

“Hey hey, calm down, alright? I just explained what it was to you, alright?”

“Oh, right! And next I bet you’ll say that this ponification thing actually turns you into a pastel colored horse and is the ‘coolest’ thing on the planet!!”

Bobby swallowed. “Actually... It kinda is exactly how you described it.”

John stopped dead in his tracks. He had been yelling while walking around the basketball court, his arms open wide as if to encompass the entire world. He turned around, his face tinted red with anger.

“Oh, well then this takes the cake! This is the most stupid thing to have ever happened in modern history! Humans waiting in line to get turned into a goddamn horse! What the fuck are they thinking?!” the man shouted as he threw the ball in Bobby’s direction, who pulled his tazer out and aimed it at the inmate.

“I suggest you calm down, John, or this could end badly.”

“I don’t care if this ends badly! You just told me that the whole fucking world is screwing itself over so it can run around in the grass while standing on FOUR legs!!! I’d prefer to DIE rather than to become a-”

The first thing he felt was the two needles that pierced the skin of his thorax, immediately followed by a very powerful electric shock. John collapsed on the hot concrete of the court, barely conscious. As his vision blurred away, he saw Bobby walk towards him. The officer then said something, but the inmate didn’t understand a word of it as he plunged in unconsciousness.

✫✫✫

John spent the five following days in a solitary containment cell, and was not allowed out of it for even a minute. Bobby would bring him his meals through small box in the door, but otherwise they didn’t even speak a single word about the incident. He would lay down on the uncomfortable bunk bed, letting the information go in loops inside his head as he tried to find any way for it to make sense, but every time he would fail. On the final day of his confinement, John finally gave up. The next morning, he wouldn’t begin his breakfast with that in mind.

✫✫✫

John was back in his normal cell. He had eaten his breakfast in the mess hall for the first time since the incident, but Bobby hadn’t wanted to discuss. Obviously the guard was still angry after him for what had happened. He was sure he wouldn’t do anything similar to the basketball game any time soon.

Suddenly, a loud knocking on the cell door caught John’s attention. It was Bobby.

“Hey, mister Fisher. Sorry ab-”

“I just received a call. The date for your execution’s been set. Tomorrow at 19:00.”

“Eh, thanks for telling me. At least I won’t be surprised.”

“There’s another thing. I thought about that thing that happened six days ago.”

“Yeah, about that. You’re the first person that treated me with a minimum of respect in this place. I hope you can forgive my ‘outburst’.”

“Don’t worry. You just had a ton of things thrown at you at once. But that’s not what I came to talk about. You see, there’s this group of people. They often make the headlines of the newspapers through their vocal hostility against the ‘ponies’. I’ve dealt with them once or twice in the past. Thinking back at your ‘outburst’, I do think you’d fit well with them. “

“What’s the point? I’m gonna die tomorrow.”

“I’m sure they could find a solution to your problem. A solution that doesn’t involve ponification. So, what do you think.”

“You know what? I said I’d rather die than be ponified. That stands. But choosing between death and freedom as a human, I’m sure as hell choosing the latter.”

Bobby nodded. “Alright. I’ll try to contact them on your behalf. Are you good with that?”

“Yeah. I’m good.”

“Great. I’ll try to contact them.”

Bobby walked off, leaving John to his thoughts.  Finally, he’d be free. No need of shenanigans like ‘ponification’ to achieve it, either. Ugh, that word now felt dirty and soiled to even think about. He could hear Bobby use the phone at the other end of the corridor. The inmate began to think about how these anti-pony people could be. With time, John let his mind flow free, engaging whatever tangent his mind would think of. After a while, he fell asleep, dreaming of whatever he was thinking last.

✫✫✫

John was awakened by the sound of the cell door opening. He stood up, looking at Bobby, who was standing in the cell, a big hold-all in hand. He threw it at John’s feet.

“You better change clothes,” began the guard. “You won’t go far in that jumpsuit. Oh, and you should also shave yourself.”

“What?” asked the confused prisoner.

“We are leaving. The helicopter should be here any time now. And the convoy to bring you to the site of your execution shouldn’t be too far away either. When you’re changed, get to the courtyard. I’ll be waiting there.”

John nodded. It was then that he noticed that Bobby wasn’t wearing his correctional officer uniform.

“Wait, you’re coming too?”

“Hey, the ponification thing’s been around for a year now, and I’m not a horse, am I? And besides, I’ve gotten tired of this job.”

“Eh, makes sense.”

Bobby walked off again, leaving John alone so he could get changed away from the sight of others. He opened the bag, and found inside a collection of clothes of which to choose from. The first thing he did was to remove the orange jumpsuit. Gosh, John was happy to finally have that thing off his back.

✫✫✫

As he walked in the court, John took a deep breath of air. For the first time in a decade, he could appreciate the smell of freedom. Looking down at his attire, he was happy of the choices he had made. A pair of jeans, a gray shirt and a red hunting vest. Sure, it wasn’t the prettiest of outfits, but the jailbreaking man thought it fit him better than the other choices he had, most of which had either been too big or too small.

Realigning his thoughts on more important matters, John began to look around for Bobby. Almost immediately, he spotted the man’s rounded silhouette near a large, flat part of the courtyard, most probably for the helicopter to land on. Without thinking, the ex-inmate accelerated to a small jog. In about a minute, he had reached the individual who was previously in charge of the prison.

“I’m here, and ready to go.”

“Great. Just in time, too. I think they’re arriving,” replied Bobby before falling quiet.

John listened carefully, not knowing what they were ‘looking’ for. Then, he noticed a faint buzz that seemed to get louder. He stared at his ‘friend’ and nodded. As the buzz got progressively louder, they spotted a shadowy object that appeared from behind a nearby hill, which they determined was the helicopter they were waiting for. As it approached the landing zone, John progressively realized that the model was not at all what he had expected.

“What the heck?” began the ex-inmate loudly. “That’s a Black Hawk!”

“A what?” replied the overweight man as the sound of the rotors began to drown their voices.

“A Black Hawk!” yelled John. “That thing shouldn’t be flying, it should be in a museum! It’s about fifty years old!”

“I can’t hear you with all that noise!”

The vest-wearing man sighed. He pointed at the descending helicopter’s rotors, then put both hands to cover his ears then finishing with a shrug in an attempt to communicate. Bobby responded with a smile, a nod and two thumbs up as a sign of comprehension as the Black Hawk touched ground. Inside, the gas mask-wearing crew opened the side door facing the two observers. Before they could hop in, two armed individuals jumped down before two others inside gave them a rather large black crate-like container. The two individuals then headed inside the prison with their precious cargo while a third individual, who was wearing a black duster coat along with a similarly colored gasmask, motioned to John and Bobby to get on board. When they were near enough, the man handed each of them a helicopter helmet.

“It’s great to see you people!” said Bobby after he finished putting his helmet. “But we should hurry, since the convoy that’s supposed to get John here should arrive soon.”

“That’s what they said when they sent us to pick you up. Now we just have to wait for the other two to come back so we can get out of here.”

“One question,” began John as soon as the man stopped talking, “What’s in that big box they were carrying?”

“You’ll see soon enough. Ah, there they are. Bones! Drake! Is everything ready?”

“Everything’s wired up and ready to go, boss,” replied the one who seemed to be Drake.

“Excellent. Now hop in, we haven’t got much time.”

As soon as the two agents were sitting comfortably, the helicopter lifted off. They immediately began flying east, away from the now-abandonned prison. Suddenly, someone began to speak in the helmet’s built-in radio.

“Looks like our man’s convoy’s almost arrived at the prison. That was a close one.” said the one who seemed to be the pilot.

The duster-wearing man looked at Bones and Drake, who both nodded in return. He then shifted his gaze onto John.

“Alright, time for the fireworks. Would you mind doing us the ‘honor’?” the man said in a slightly condescending tone, holding what looked like a tube with a button at the top. “If you wanna work for us, you better get started now.”

John hesitated. He knew that the button was in fact a detonator, but he also knew that the other option would have been to be executed. He had to prove to these persons that he could be useful. Nevertheless, he looked at Bobby, who nodded. John nodded back, holding his hand out for the detonator. With it in hand, he stared out of the helicopter’s side door and saw that the convoy had arrived at the prison and that the men were headed inside. He knew that they would discover his escape soon, and that they would alert the authorities.

“So, you scared of doing it or something?” asked one of the armed individuals on board.

John whipped back, glaring angrily at the other passengers. “I. Am. Not. Scared.” He then slammed his thumb onto the Detonator.

The prison exploded.

The resulting fireball engulfed the entire complex as a massive cloud of smoke rose from the blazing inferno. There was no trace of the convoy ever being there.

The passengers of the helicopter had to hold onto something as the shockwave hit them with full force. The leader of the armed individuals started to laugh in his radio.

“Great job, mister John. I’m pretty sure this will be making the headline news tomorrow morning.”

John nodded slowly. “So, where are we headed?”

“Norfolk, Virginia, mister John. You’ll be meeting the boss very soon.”

“Norfolk, eh? As good a place as any...”

John began to think about what the future held for him. He had escaped from jail, killed the men who were to bring him to his execution, and he was joining a group of people who seemed to be as criminals as he was.

Goodbye Sussex, hello Norfolk.

Freedom Corp: A new dawn

A Conversion Bureau cross-over

By: Everything Man

Almond sighed, staring into the abandoned comic book store. There it was, the object of his desire.

All-star Superman, the only superman comic he hasn't been able to get his hooves on since comic books had stopped being produced all together. The door had been locked, and his mother would tan his hide if she ever thought out he smashed a window to get in. The back door was locked and no window was left open, whoever owned this place really didn't want anyone inside when he left.

Almond sat down on his haunches, there it was, so close, yet so far away.

“Is there a problem, kiddo?”.

Almond squeaked, quickly turning to the owner of the voice that came seemingly out of nowhere. There amongst the empty streets stood a human being. A man by the looks of it, he floated just a few inches above the ground, his arms crossed. His boots and gauntlets gleamed against the sunlight, and two bright lights glowed as eyes from his helmet.

“Kinetic!” Almond gasped, the human super-hero floating in his presence seemed almost like a god to him.

Kinetic chuckled and dropped to the ground, his arms still crossed as he peered into the store window.

“What are you looking at?” He asked Almond, the pony sighing and hopping onto his hind legs, resting

his front hooves against the window.

“All-star Superman... Its the only Superman comic I don't have...” He stated, his brown nose now pressing against the window. Kinetic couldn't help but stare at the young colt before looking back into the store, then back at him.

“Really?” Kinetic asked, his head tilted to the side, the pony nodded.

“All of them?”. Another nod.

“Even Action comics #1?”. One more nod.

Kinetic let out a long, impressed whistle, his arms dropping to his side, “Now that's impressive.”.

He straightened himself out, placing a hand on the door nob and vibrating his hands at extreme levels until the door knob fell off.

“I've flown past here every day for a while now, don't think the dudes coming back.” he told the colt before pushing the door open.

Almond almost charged in, stopping at the entrance like a boy who was just given everything in the world. His eyes widened and his mouth stretched into a smile before trotting towards his prized comic like it was the holy grail. He raised himself to his hind legs again, gently grabbing the plastic comic cover with his mouth. He put it to the ground as lightly as possible, 'Absolute All-star Superman' It read on the cover, a picture of the man of steel smiling with a miniature planet earth floating in his hands against a red background.

“Thank you mister Kinetic!” Almond turned around, throwing himself at the super hero and hugging to his leg. Kinetic laughed and crouched down, returning the grateful embrace. Almond took a step away, something else catching his eye. He trotted towards it, his eyes glowing at the presence of another collection of comic books.

'Kinetic: Volumes 1-10'. It was the only comic series that Kinetic ever game permission to before the conversion bureau became popular. Like the Superman comic, he gently lifted it with his mouth, placing it on top of the other comic he picked before lifting them both by the plastic.

“Good bye!” he bid to Kinetic before trotting out the door, leaving Kinetic alone in the store.

Kinetic looked over to the shelf the colt chose from, another comic of his comic resting in it. He approached it, lifting the book and examining it, his helmet splitting apart at eye level to reveal his amber colored eyes.

“Huh.” he humored, examining the cover of himself doing battle with a giant space dragon he never met before. “They never get the helmet right.”.

---------------------------------------------------

Years had passed since the Equestrians opened their conversion bureau's all over the world. They promised the world everything, a new life, happiness, cures to illnesses, and most of all: love. At first, only a few hopeful took their offer, but that number quickly increased. Hundreds to thousands, thousands to millions, millions to most of the world.

A few refused the process, either out of pride, bigotry, or seeing no need for it. But there were a few of the many, that refused out of duty.

Before the Equestrians made their presence noticed, the world was under the watchful protection of the Freedom corp, a league of the earths mightiest heroes. Once a league consisting of almost every meta-human that considered himself a super hero now dwindled to less than ten. The last six members truly faithful to the corp still stand human and ready to protect anyone that needed their help, be they man or pony.

Now, only a few humans remain, and the corp is pushed to its limits. Do they remain as the symbols of hope for humanity? Or give in and join the new dominant race? Only time will tell.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Face the mighty Gordok!” the alien roared, tossing Equestrian guards around like rag dolls. The alien stood at twelve feet tall, a gray, lumbering brute with leather straps for cloths and only one eye at the center of its head. A Cycloptian, a alien that considers every creature it sees as a potential challenge. As the Equestrian guards continued their failing battle, civilians did their best to run for cover as the alien swung its massive arms recklessly.

Having enough of these minor annoyances, Gordok made his move. He smashed his fingers into the ground, tearing a large chunk of concrete out and lifting it effortlessly over his head. His eye came across a mare standing in front of two fillies in a effort to protect them.

“Face the mighty Gordok!” he repeated before tossing the concrete slab, the three screaming as it descended upon them.

The mare opened her eyes, finding herself to still be alive. She looked up, a human floating above them with the concrete slab resting in his right hand. The human wore a green uniform, a darker green cape resting on his back, and a steel helmet atop his head. He tossed the piece of pavement to the side and away from the cowering ponies.

“Are you alright, mam?” The human asked, descending to the ground. All the mare could do was nod.

He smiled and turned back to Gordok who stood down the street.

“How about you pick on someone your own size?” the hero asked, even though he himself stoof at not even half the aliens size.

Gordok snarled and charged forward, his arms raised in the air. When the distance was closed, he cranked his fist back and threw it towards the costumed crusader. The hero halted the attack with little effort, catching the gargantuan fist in his palm, sending a wave of impact in every direction.

“My turn.” The hero stated as he threw his own punch into Gordok with his free hand, sending the Cycloptian through the air before exploding into the ground that he stood at before his foolish attack.

Gordok groaned and rose to his feet, only for the hero to be in his face once again, grabbing to the Cycloptians right wrist with both arms and lifting him into the air.

“Why don't you go to Valhalla VI if you're looking for a fight?” The hero asked as he increased altitude “The residents of this planet aren't looking for a fight.”.

With the final words, the hero spun his body at incredible speeds before letting go of Gordoks arm, sending the alien spiraling into the air before breaking orbit and floating hurdling towards Valhalla VI two galaxies away.

The hero descended down to the now cheering crowed below. “Guardsman! Guardsman!” A Pegasus came flying towards him, a silver mare with a reporters hat on.

“How does it feel to come to the rescue of ponies instead of humans?” was the first question before more reporters came circling around.

“I'm just doing my duty, mam. If someone or somepony needs help, I won't hesitate to come to their aid.”.

“Always the boy scout, eh Guardsman?” Another reporter joke, causing the Guardsman to laugh.

“You're never too old to do the right thing.” he state, causing at least one attendant in the crowd to swoon.

“So, when are you going to take up the conversion process and join us, Guardsman?” Another reporter asked. The question caused him to choke and stutter, his eyes darting around before clearing his throat.

“No comment.” he state before floating up to the air again “No more questions please. I really must be going.”.

Before anyone could object, he was gone faster than a bolt of lightning. The only thing left behind being a floating orb with a camera built in.

“Smooth...” Masked Mystery joked as he leaned back in his chair inside FC headquarters in Roswell Nevada, The Walking Trench sat with his head resting in his hand.

“Never much of the talker.” Trench stated as he pressed a button on a nearby keyboard, the Orb speeding off back towards HQ. Both MM and Trench stood up at the same time, dusting off their coat and heading towards the rest of the Freedom corp members sitting in the lounge area. Med-doc working away at a new experiment as usual in the corner of the massive room.

“So!” Primaiden yelled out in her usual bubbly tone from atop the rafters, hanging from a support beam with her tail, “How'd it go?”.

“Humorous, as usual.” Trench replied, dropping down on the couch before drawing a small red ball from his pocket and throwing it in the air, catching it over and over.

The room went silent, Masked mystery raising a hand and counting down with his fingers until he reached zero, Guardsman flying in almost on que.

“Good job, Grant.” Trench started, standing up from the couch and putting his hands in his pockets “Like usual, you managed to make an ass out of yourself in public.”.

The Guardsman shrugged, taking off his helmet before dropping it to the ground. He put his hands to his side, looking around the room to see everyone present but one.

“Wheres Erin?” he asked.

“Dragon Knight is off on patrol.” Med-doc called out, his eyes not leaving the chemical compounds he was tampering with. The Guardsman raised a brow, looking over at Med-Doc.

“Herman, what are you doing?” He asked. The graying senior turning his head towards the group.

“I've got my hands on some of the products the Equestrians use to convert humans... Give me a few more hours and I'll know the ins and outs of this stuff.”.

Guardsman shrugged again taking a seat on the couch that Trench had occupied a few moments ago.

“They asked you again.” Trench stated, his hands still in his pockets. The Guardsman sighed and nodded.

“I really don't know what to tell them, Jimmy... I mean, what would I be if I did the process?”.

“GUARDSPONY!” Primaiden called out with a girlish giggle, dropping from the roof onto the ground below.

“We're going to have to make up our minds sooner or later.” Masked Mystery added, much to the distress to the rest of his team “Sooner or later, we won't even need masks if we're the only humans left.”.

“Or we won't need our secret identities...” Trench countered. The five thought of the idea, not being Grant or Herman or Jimmy or Terrance or Lisa or Erin anymore, and just go by the names the world knows them as.

Primaiden sighed and fell to her behind, crossing her legs and looking down. “Maybe...Maybe being a pony isn't all so bad?” she muttered as her eyes lingered across the floor. “I mean...Everyone else seems to like it.”.

The statement caused the rest to go quiet, all except Trench who turned around towards the garage.

“I'm going for a ride.” he said as he opened the gate to the garage. It closing behind him with a loud echoing thud, leaving the rest to think in the Freedom Corp HQ.

Dragon knight took a deep breath, descending from the sky towards one of the few human cities left. The term city was a understatement. A small community of less than 50 that resided inside New York city, including his wife and kids.

He dropped into a alley below, his body being consumed in flames before reverting back to Erin Raikov.

Erin strolled down the empty streets towards his home, opening the door and hoping to be greeted by his wife and kids.

“Honey?” he called out in his heavy accented voice, “Honey I'm home!”.

No answer.

Erin stepped inside, looking into the empty living room to his left before turning to the kitchen to his right. His eyes caught onto a note left for him, held to the fridge with a magnet. Erin felt the lump of dread in his throat as he took the letter in his hand.

Dear Erin

I wished there was another way to tell you this. But there isn't. I have taken the kids and headed towards the conversion center down town. Its time that we moved on and left our old life behind, I understand your loyalty to the Freedom Corp and your duty as the Dragon Knight. But I can't live my life like this anymore, all my friends and family ,even my mother have taken the process and I can't be left behind anymore!

I'm sorry Erin, I love you with all my heart, but its time I moved on. Not all of us can be super.

-Cassandra.

Erin closed his eyes, fighting back the tears that fought with him to be set free. He dropped the letter to the ground and slowly pulled himself out of the kitchen. Is this what he really wanted? If he underwent the process, Dragon Knight would be no more, but did the world really need Dragon Knight anymore?

Erin found himself standing at his arm chair, dropping his back into it and staring off into nothing. The sounds of a empty New York filled his ears as he lost himself in thought.

Freedom Corp: New Dawn

Part 2:

The man behind the Trench coat

The Nevada desert came to life with the sound of the Walking Trenches car. Engine roaring as he flew down the street at dangerous speeds. It helped him relax, it was one of the only things these days that helped him take his mind off everything since the world he grew up in became smaller and smaller before disappearing all together.

The car was a brown 1959 Chevrolet convertible coupe, a old fashion car he salvaged and modified to meet his needs as a vigilante. The highway was mostly empty, save for the random passerby or lost soul just walking the path, unable to cope with the new world. The screen on his dash board beeped twice, causing the Walking Trench to sigh and press the receive button.

“What?..” He asked coldly, not taking his eyes off the road. The face on the screen was that of Lisa Smith, also known as Primaiden.

“Jimmy.” said Primaiden, her usual cheery and upbeat tone replaced with one of worry “Are you alright?”.

“I'm fine...” Trench responded, Primaiden obviously not being satisfied with his answer. He sighed, dropping his bandana from his mouth and raising his goggles from his eyes, revealing the green eyes and face of a  25 year old man.

“Lisa. I'm fine, I swear.” He reassured her “There's just a few things I have to take care of, I'll be back in a few days.”.

Primaiden nodded, a weak smile forcing itself to her mouth, “Okay Jim. I love you.”.

Trench nodded, a small smile coming to the corner of his mouth “I love you too.”.

With their conversation over, the view screen turned off, leaving Trench alone with his thoughts once more.

The lonely trip continued for only a few more minutes before something caught the Trenches eye. A man walking down the side of the highway in his direction and his thumb to his side. In only a few nanoseconds, the Walking Trench had already taken in all the physical details of the would be hitch hiker.

Male, standing six feet seven inches. Hair and beard grown out, mostly from time on the road. Wore a wide brim leather hat, a dirty duster coat with a white t-shirt under neath. Deep blue jeans and sturdy looking boots to boast, only two weapons visible, a revolver and a combat knife. The Trench recognized this man from reports he snatched from the US remnants not long ago.

He pulled his disguise back to his face before stopping the car beside the man, who promptly approached the vehicle.

“Need a ride?” Trench asked, to which the man nodded. He promptly unlocked the side door and his new passenger got in.

“Thanks buddy...hey wait.” The passenger said, instantly recognizing the vigilante “You're the Walking Trench!”.

“And you're former agent Hawk, one of the prime elements in the Yellowstone incident.”. Walking Trench replied, much to Hawks surprise.

“How did yo-...” Hawk couldn't even finish his sentence before the Walking Trenches head slowly turned towards him, his goggles seemingly shaped into a disapproving look “Oh...Right.”.

“Where are you heading?” Trench asked, shifting his car back into gear and continuing his trip.

“Junction city, Kansas.” Hawk replied “Have some business that needs doing.”.

“Right. That's on the way.” Trench said, pressing down on the gas pedal.

Hawk sighed, beginning to reach for his pistol before second guessing his move. “Do you mind if I?..” he asked, Trench waving his hand with a 'by all means' expression. Hawk nodded and drew his revolver, placing it on the dashboard and taking his duster coat off.

“We're making a few stops.” Trench told him.

“Where to?” Hawk asked.

“Theres a man in Utah I want to visit, former member of the Freedom Corp before the conversion went widespread.”.

The trips was mostly uneventful except for the seldom stops to refuel on gas. After about two hours in Utah, the Trench turned off the highway and into the boonies.

“Where are we headed now?” Hawk asked, he didn't bother to ask anything personal the entire trip, knowing he wouldn't get an answer.

“He should be living in this area, a man that the Guardsman tried to get into the Freedom corp dozens of times but he always refused.” Trench explained, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of human life.

Hawk nodded and leaned his arm out the open window, looking out. He raised a bro as he heard a loud boom, followed by an explosion of dirt not far off.

“Maybe he's over there?”

The Walking Trench rolled the car into the driveway of the only farm with a crater in the front. It was silent for what had happened only moments ago. The two stepped out, looking around for any sign of human life when suddenly a loud crack came from the barn, followed by a humanoid being crashing through the barn door and smashing into the Truck in front of the house with enough force to completely shatter one side and tip the ford over.

“SILVER STALLION YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!” shouted a enraged voice from the barn. The owner of said voice stepped out, a rather average looking man in a Denver Bronco's hoodie. He was around 30 by Hawks estimate, his eyes burning with enough rage to almost match his dark red hair.

The John Doe's victim staggered to his feet, rubbing his skull like a man fighting off a concussion.

To Hawks surprise, the victim had the head of a horse and the shirtless frame of a body builder.

“Who are these clowns?” Hawk asked Trench, who sighed in return.

“The normal one is Savage, former hero and all around rage machine. The angrier he gets, the stronger he becomes. And he looks pissed.”.

Trench nodded over to the horse headed man, “And this freak show is Silver Stallion, former villain, part time pervert, full time idiot. The two are rivals in the same sense a ant rivals a Rhino.”.

“What? Tired of being turned down by the ponies you have to come here and get it on with MY horses? You limp wrist cock sucker!” Savage called out, approaching Silver Stallion with intense rage in his eyes.

Silver Stallion shook the pain away from his head, charging forward and throwing a left hook at Savage. The hook connected with his jaw, but it didn't seem to even phase him as he through a counter strike to Stallions gut, lifting the super powered horse man off the ground before clutching his hands together and smashing Stallion into the ground like a jack hammer.

“Now what did you learn?” Savage asked, putting his hands in his hoodie pockets.

Silver Stallion groaned and looked up “Not to get it on with your barn animals...” he muttered as he remained in the tiny crater he had just formed. Savage nodded and looked over, finally noticing Trench and Hawk standing and watching the show.

“What do you want, Trench?” Savage asked, planting his right boot into Silver Stallions back, pushing him back in the dirt “I already told big green a thousand fucking times, I'm not coming back to the Freedom Corp.”.

“I'm not here about that...” Walking Trench corrected.

Savage scoffed “Are you working for the Equestrians then? I already told them as well that I'm not going through with their little process, so you can forget that too.”.

“I'm not here for that either...” Trench corrected once more.

Savage looked at him and then to the Walking Trenches new companion before nodding, apparently calming down.

“Well alright then... Come on in.” He said, stepping over the injured Stallion. “Oh! I almost forgot!” He exclaimed, turning back to Silver Stallion and grabbing the former villain by the mane and belt.

“And this time stay the fuck away from my ranch!” he yelled out as he span him around and threw him several football fields away, the thud of Stallions impact could be heard for miles.

“So, whats the word?” Savage asked, putting down a cup of coffee for Hawk, not even bothering for Trench, knowing he wouldn't drink it.

Trench leaned back in his chair, locking his hands together and resting them on his stomach “When this whole thing started. You said you wanted to know when the human population dips too low.”.

Savage nodded, “And...How low has it gotten?”.

“Less than 50,000.” Trench bluntly stated. Savage was taken aback by the number, leaning in his chair and letting out a long “Bwoooah” sound.

“I have to admit, Trench. That really hit home.” Savage stated before getting up and moving towards the window.  The Trench stood up as well, standing beside Savage.

“Frank... There aren't many humans left... There aren't many Meta-humans left either.” Trench stated, putting his hands into his pocket.

Savage nodded, “Then I may as well do something with whats left, huh?” He asked, which Trench simply nodded.

“Alright. Alright, you can tell Guardsman that I'll be heading his way, the Freedom satellite will pick up danger faster than I could.” Savage said before chuckling “May as well help whats left.”.

Hawk finished his coffee and stood up as well, the two now making their way to the door. Savage followed shortly after, carrying a suit case in hand.

“I got some human friends at the Equestrian colony not far from here, ask Mark Zweller if he can look after my animals, he shouldn't have a problem if Silver Stallion comes around again either.” Savage requested before taking a running start and leaping hundreds of feet in the air, falling down miles away before leaping again in the direction of the FC head quarters.

“Lets go.” Trench said as he put himself into the driver seat once more, Hawk followed suit, sitting himself in the passenger seat and buckling up. Trench put the car in reverse, putting himself back on the road and towards the highway, heading towards the colony Savage spoke of.

Trench pulled the Coupe into a driveway just outside of the colony, vouching rather to walk the rest of the distance and not frighten some of the less informed Ponies. The two entered town a few minutes later, the colorful and bright colony. Each home was unique in its own right, either being some form of old Celtic crafting, or a colorful and bright decorative building. Trench winced under his goggles, he could feel their eyes sticking to him and only him. His appearance was unique to say the least, Hawks attire was very common now a days in the west, while Trenches Noir trench coat appeal was something to behold, they either knew right away who he was, or in the case of those born Equestrian, a oddly dressed stranger.

His eyes focused on a man walking towards them, paying no heed to the two. “Do you know a Mark Zweller?” He asked.

“Yeah, thats me. Why?” Mark responded.

“Frank is going to be away for awhile, he asked if you could look after his farm.” Trench explained.

“Oh...Alright.” Mark nodded, aiming his right hand towards the ground, a large ball of blue light forming just above the road. He hopped onto the ball, which in turn, turned into a rail which he casually grind and steered towards Savages farm.

“So who are you looking for here?” Hawk asked, trying not to step on one of the many foals running around and playing on the ground below.

“A man named Johnathan Qwin. Also known as the Rush.” Trench explained, pushing away any pony that happened to be in his way lightly with his shoe.

“The Rush? What, you mean that fast guy?” Hawk asked, to which the Walking Trench simply nodded.

The Rush, former member of the freedom corp, millionaire playboy, and the fastest man alive. Fell into obscurity a few years after the conversion bureau's opened, only a few knew of his whereabouts.

After a few questions were asked they were finally pointed towards Johns home.

Trench knocked three times exactly, the inside of the house staying quiet before a “Just a minute!” rang from inside. The door opened, the two staring at a empty room before looking downwards. There stood John, on four legs, a black coat and a red mane.

“No fucking way.” Hawk chuckled, the former super hero looking up on them.

“Trench?” John asked in disbelief.

“Hello John.” Trench greeted, his tone becoming as deadpan as ever. He came to speak to the Rush, the man that could circle the world in five seconds flat.

“I see I have wasted my time.” Trench continued, turning his back to John “Good bye John.”.

“Trench, wait!” John yelled out, but The Walking Trench didn't stop.

“You aren't a Meta-human anymore, John. And because of that, you're useless.” Trench called back. Hawk looked at the almost crushed looking John before shrugging and catching up to his ride.

“Was that really necessary?” Hawk asked, the two back on the road towards Junction city and wherever else Trench was heading.

“What I said was the truth...” Trench explained, dodging a abandoned car left in the middle of the road “Med-doc already did the research. The DNA of whoever takes the conversion process is completely rewritten. No trace of Meta DNA would be left behind in the change.”.

Hawk nodded, it started to make sense to him. The two sat in silence for hours before Hawk turned his head towards Trench.

“Whats your take on this whole conversion thing?” Hawk asked curiously. Trench didn't answer, not at first, all he did was look forward on the road before letting out a long, frustrated sigh.

“The exact emotion I wouldn't be able to pin point. Jealousy, envy, hate, frustration, anger, fear, so on.” The Trench started.

“I started early on as a vigilante, I was young. I believed that I could make the world a better place, with no crime. I joined the Freedom corp much later with the same hopes. Those hopes slowly dwindled as I grew up, and I came to realize that I could only help as many people as I could instead of everyone.”.

He waved his hand in the air as if to exemplify something.

“And then they came along. They did what we could never do and practically made crime and war a foreign and concept. Africa is no longer a war zone, the Middle east is paradise on earth, and former Third-world Asia makes old world U.S look like... Third world Asia.”.

“Its all a matter of pride, really...”.

Hawk nodded, understanding where the masked vigilante was coming from before opening his mouth again.

“Hey uh...Since there really isn't much of a reason for it anymore... Can I see your face?”.

Trench slowly looked over to his passenger, stopping the car and looking at the man before sighing once more and reaching upwards “Like it matters anymore.”.

He removed his goggles and bandana revealing his face to Hawk, who's only slightly excited look quickly returned to his usual appearance.

“I have no idea who you are.” Hawk stated.

“Good. That means I did a good job.” Trench replied before putting his goggles and bandana back on, shifting his car back into gear and rolling down the road towards Junction city.

The Freedom Corp

The Guardsman

-

Earths mightiest hero. Grant Mitchells was raised in a small town outside of Washington city. Through his entire life, sports and other physical activities were his passion. When life started to fall in for Grant, he decided to join the military at 23 to save himself from the poverty line.

Quickly, Grant aced his physical with a perfect 300 and was inducted into the US armies super soldier program. After months of intensive testing and preparation, the super serum was injected into Grants veins with catastrophic results.

Grant was honorably discharged and looked after by the US military after the serum left him paralyzed from the waist down and his body at not even the quarter of its original strength.

After weeks of hardship, the serum inside Grants body began to mutate, and in no time at all, Grant could walk again and he felt better than ever.

The Serum continued to mutate until he developed powers beyond the human limit including super speed, flight, and most of all, his ever growing super strength.

Grant kept his new found gifts on the down low until the faithful day when earths sworn protector, Ultimos man, went mad and tried to destroy the free world as we know it. Seeing as no force on the planet could stop Ultimos man, Grant took up the mantle of the Guardsman for the first time and defeated Ultimos man in combat.

The Guardsman's uniform is heavily inspired by classic and modern US military apparel. His chest piece is similar to military body gear, colored in a green coat instead of camouflage. He conceals his identity with a helmet made of pure steel that covers most of his face excluding his eyes and mouth. And he dawns a darker green cape on his back.

-

Dragon Knight

-

Russian immigrant Erin Raikov began his life in New York city as a postal employee. But when a deranged cult mingles with the arcane, Erin is accidentally transported to Camelot of old Arthurian legend during a great battle.

During this battle, Erin meets a powerful but injured and dying Dragon. The dragon tells Erin of his traitorous son, who took the form of a humanoid monster and fled to the present after attacking his father. After a small discussion, Erin agrees to allow the dragon to merge its spirit with his, granting him the power to become the dragon knight.

Dragon knight appears encased entirely in black, scale like armor, his eyes and mouth letting out a fire like glow. He has all the power of the dragon, including flight, fire manipulation, and strength beyond human limits. Dragon Knight is good friends with The Guardsman and was one of the first to accept the offer of joining the Freedom Corp.

-

Med-doc.

-

German national, Herman Shutz was born and raised in Berlin Germany. He came from humble origins as the son of a baker from downtown but quickly rose in the ranks of the science world.

Herman was working with a team of 200 others on a way to make space travel easier and faster than the methods they have today. But his life was changed forever when they activated the portal while he was still inside. Herman had what seemed like the knowledge of the universe flow through his body. And when the portal was turned off he came out a new man with all the knowledge mankind could ask for in exchange for 30 years of his natural life, completely throwing away his old identity to become the Med-doc.

Med-doc dedicated his entire existence to the benefit of mankind, doing everything in his power to cure every known fatal disease on the planet. Although a pacifist, Med-docs arms and legs have been augmented to allow quicker and more powerful movements.

He was third to join the Freedom Corp.

-

The Walking Trench & The Masked Mystery

-

The Walking Trench started his life as Jimmy Teson, a weak and feeble, yet brilliant boy forced to leave his old life behind with his father and move into the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago. Jimmy was constantly harassed and bullied by the more dangerous inhabitants of his school until he met Terrance Henning, a African American boy who disliked how Jimmy was being treated and came to his rescue.

The two formed a close friendship and soon both the boys families began to see each other as blood. But one day things turned for the worse when Jimmy's father was murdered in cold blood.

Heart broken and mentally unstable, Jimmy grew up on the run from child care and other orphan systems. He eventually reunited with his cherished friend Terrance who vowed to help Jimmy find his fathers killer and exact vengeance.

With Terrance's amazing close combat ability and Jimmy's brilliant mind, the two tract down and brought Jimmy's fathers murderer to justice. The two came to realize that they're abilitys could not be thrown away while the Streets of Chicago remained so violent and slowly became the noir vigilantes Walking Trench and Masked Mystery.

While under the guise of their vigilante persona’s, the two are drabbed in head to toe with clothing from days gone past. Both wear a trench coat, and conceal their faces behind masks. Trench’s face concealed behind a scarf and a pair of reflective goggles (Which oddly seem to move and display his facial expressions) and Masked Mystery goes for a more classic approach with a bandana and a normal face mask. Both finishing their attire with a trilby.

While the Masked Mystery is now a master in hand to hand combat, the Walking Trench is no easy opponent, going into combat with a pair of modified hand guns that fire specially made rounds he created himself.

-

Primaiden

-

The only female in the Freedom corp (which is constantly joked about by the public.) Primaiden began her life as Lisa smith, Daughter to both Henry and Catherine Smith, world famous humanitarians. Since a early age, Lisa had a fascination with animals and dedicated her life to understanding them better.

At 18, she teamed up with a animal biologist to study the similarities between a human being and a monkey. But as she entered the chamber, the system melted down and all the genes and samples collected from the specimens mutated with her own.

Lisa's body and life were changed forever, when she realized she obtained many qualities of a modern primate, including the extra fur and a tail.

Lisa now possesses great speed and agility, making her an amazing climber and acrobat. She began to use her new found abilities for good during the nights on the streets of Seattle, thwarting thugs and gangsters with her new found power, quickly picking up the name Primaiden.

Little is known of her relationships with the other members of the Freedom Corp, but it is said that she and the Walking Trench are in a relationship.

-

The Black Hand

Thamoth

-

Little is known about the leader of the Black Hand , other than that he coordinates the attacks on the world and is the mastermind behind the major plots.

A powerful alien from origins unknown, Thamoth's raw power far surpasses that of even Ultimos man and is a threat to not only the world, but the Corp in its entirety.

-

Ultimos Man

-

The original defender of earth. Before Guardsman's emergence, Ultimos man was the most powerful super hero on earth. No one knows his true identity or if he even has one. He protected the planet from danger for 20 years before all the ego and pressure finally got to his head and he went mad with power before being stopped by the Guardsman.

While now a member of the Black Hand, Ultimos man still sees himself as earths greatest hero, and in his own psychotic delusion, believes all the evil he does now is for the good of the world.

-

Berserker

-

A Nazi super soldier experiment gone horribly wrong. Berserker lives and breaths combat. Thamoth convinced him to join the black hand with the promise of combat.

Berserker is a nightmare in close combat with his super strength and durability that only gets stronger the longer he does battle.

-

The Soviet Shadow

-

A relic of the USSR, the Soviet shadow is a man turned machine by soviet military scientists. Soviet Shadow was created to stop the spread of capitalism and democracy in the Eastern world and do battle if war ever broke out between the United States and Russia.

SS refused to go down with out a fight when the USSR disbanded and now terrorizes the world as a terrorist and super villain.

-

Drac

-

A man with the spirit of the evil dragon, Drac. During a siege of Camelot, Drac murdered his father and flung himself through time and space to modern day earth where he believed he would start a new empire for himself and his children.

Drac is the arch-enemy of Dragon Knight and hates the arcane hero with all of his hellish fury. Although not as powerful as Ultimos man or Thamoth, Drac is a force to be reckoned with due to his knowledge of magic and combat.

-

Third party

The Judge

-

A feared and respected vigilante in Paragon city. Under the guise of 17 year old Lucas Kelan, The judge prowls the streets at night and brings brutal and deadly justice to those who deserve it.

Terrifyingly intelligent and combat prowess to match, the Judge is armed with nothing but his grand fathers machete and covered in a hoody and hockey mask.

Although his intentions are good, The Judge is considered a criminal by both law enforcement and the Freedom corp due to his vicious take to crime.

-

Kinetic

-

name and origins unknown. A former member of the Freedom Corp turned freelance crime fighter. Kinetic is armed from head to toe in light armor that utilizes Kinetic energy with nothing more than a duster coat thrown over all of it.

One of the most powerful super heroes alive, Kinetic can manipulate the energies in his armor to unimaginable affect.

-

The Conversion Bureau: Dinner Among Friends

Act I, Part III

A ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ Fan Fiction by Mray

Inspired by “THE CONVERSION BURAEU” by Blaze

Ponychan CB thread as of this writing

From the Author: As always, any feedback or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.

Act I, Part III

-0.29 A.F.C. (one week later) Reunion Tower, DFW Metroplex, Texas-

Alan tugged at the collar of his button-down shirt as he sat down, adjusting his slacks as he did so, “You didn’t have to go through all this trouble man,” He smiled at his friend even as he winced, glancing around the room at the extensive décor.

Saul, in the meantime, thanked the Maitre d’ for the seats and took his own, sinking into the plush black leather, “It was no trouble,” He smiled back, “I know a guy back in the kitchen, so the reservation was free. And, even if it wasn’t, it’d be worth it.”

“How?”

“Well, you said you wanted to take advantage of your fingers and canine teeth, you jumped at the idea of a fondue place, and…”

Alan interrupted him, “When you said ‘There’s this little fondue restaurant I know’ I didn’t think you meant the second most expensive one in the city! How can you afford this?!”

“Alan, what do I do?” The blond-haired man gave a defeated sigh, opening one of the menus and grimacing, bespectacled eyes traveling over the prices, rather than the dishes themselves, “Come on man,” Saul smiled, “At least take a look at the view outside,” He said, gesturing to his right, Alan’s left, to the floor to ceiling glass and, more importantly, to the slowly revolving city beyond it, “You’ll need to get used to views like this. The sooner the better.”

“You know there’s no guarantee I’ll…”

“Not with that attitude you won’t,” The young man said, “Just…look.”

Alan turned, glaring out at the rising buildings, but his eyes slowly stopped squinting as he looked on. The towers of the city rose as high as and higher than the window, appearing either in the form of white obelisks or monoliths in the newer buildings, or the grand glass blocks and spires, their crystal facades sparkling and shining in the rapidly fading sunlight, that were the older structures from the turn of the century.

As the floor beneath them turned, more came into view. The old industrial and meat-packing districts. The railroads and lots, with grain silos, warehouses, and the occasional concrete monolith spread out across the city, all coming into view; their grey and black palates turning to garish red and gold in the sunset. The highways and interstates, normally hidden in other parts of the conjoined cities, rose above these segments, each one a river of lights, traveling at over one hundred and fifty miles per hour, serving as the bloodstream of the vast megapolis.

“…I don’t think I’ve ever seen the city from up here.”

“Nobody that lives here does,” Saul sighed, “And if they do, they do it regularly enough that it’s ‘normal,’” He chuckled then, “Only the tourists get to see it as something beautiful… though they never seem to appreciate the grimier parts of it…” He drifted off, turning away and finally opening his own menu.

Alan slowly turned back as well, opening his mouth, before a voice interrupted him, “Hello there,” The woman stood to the side of their table, fingers clasped in front of her, a smile on her face, which Alan closed his mouth and returned, picking up his own menu, “My name is Barbara and I’ll be your server for the evening.”

“Hello Barbara,” Saul scanned through the menu, before lowering it, “My friend and I are new here, is there anything in particular you’d suggest?”

“Well, that depends what you’re looking for.”

“Lots of food, high quality, and…”

“Inexpensive,” Alan quipped in, his frown returning as his vision sped through the column marked ‘price per person.’ $70, $75, $60, $85…

Saul glared at his friend for a moment before smiling back at Barbara, “…with variety.” He finished.

Barbara glanced back and forth between the two men, her smile slipping into a smirk, “Well, given those factors,” she began, “I’d suggest sharing one of our combination dinners. Either the sampler or the feast. They’re three and four course meals, $35 and $48 per person, respectively.”

The pair flipped through their menus to find the page with the two options, glancing over them for a moment before looking at each other, “…We’re going to need a moment…” Saul said, looking back at the waitress and smiling slightly, the outer ends of his eyebrows dipping.

“That’s alright. Though, can I get you anything to drink in the meantime?”

“Some water would be good.”

“Coke please.” Barbara smiled and nodded, quickly making notes on her pad and walking away, leaving Saul to turn back to his bespectacled friend, who’s lips were pressed together, the corners of his mouth threatening to draw them into a smile, “What?”

“…you… you are the only man I know who would order a soft drink in…”

“In my defense…” Saul interrupted him, lifting a hand, before pausing, frowning and scratching his chin for a moment.

“Well?”

“Nope, drawing a blank,” He shrugged, laughing, Alan himself finally cracking a smile, “So,” he began as he looked back down at the menu, “I vote the feast.”

“How about ‘no,’” Alan answered back, “It’s barely any more food than the ‘sampler,’ just three more meats to the main course, in addition to the six already there.”

“And?”

“And, the increase in price isn’t in an advantageous proportion to the added benefits.”

Saul leaned forward, setting the menu down on the table and grinning, “Not quite, the sampler,” he pointed at the dish, “offers six meats, two from each column, red meat, poultry, and seafood, for $35, the feast offers three additional meats, one from each column, for $48, meaning that the price per choice is…” The short-haired human closed his eyes, drumming his fingers on his forehead a moment before smiling and opening them again, “$5 for the sampler, and $5 for the feast. Therefore…”

“Therefore, the feast is monetarily the superior order. Your analysis, however,” Alan was smirking now, “ignores three key bits of information. First, that the $35 of the sampler also covers an appetizer and a dessert, in addition to the main course. Second, that, from what we’ve seen of the portions on other tables, between us we’ll be lucky to finish even those six meats, plus the appetizer and dessert, and that adding on three more would just be a waste of both money and food. And third…” He paused here, his smirk still present.

“What?”

“If we add on the other meats, I’ll have more decisions to make off of the menu.” The blonde’s smirk grew into a full grin.

Saul’s eyes widened and his face paled, “Okay, okay you win.” He chuckled, Alan joining him in the laugh before the two settled down at the approach of Barbara, who set down a pair of glasses on the table, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” She smiled, “Are you ready to order?”

“I believe so, we’ll be going with the sampler.”

“Excellent choice. Now, with that you get to pick a cheese, meat, and chocolate fondue, as appetizer, entrée, and dessert.”

Alan frowned, “We uh…I’m afraid that we haven’t picked anything yet…”

“That’s alright, would you like to just start off ordering your cheese fondue and we’ll cover the other two later?”

“I think that would be perfect. Saul?”

“Works for me,” the man held the still fizzing glass of soda just under his nose, before taking a drink, holding the mouthful a moment, then swallowing and smiling to Barbara, “I’m sorry to ask again but…”

“I’d recommend either the Wisconsin Sharp Cheddar or the Mediterranean.”

Saul gave a quick glance to Alan, who merely gave a small wave of his hand, smiling, “We’ll go with the Wisconsin Sharp, thank you.”

“No problem” the server said, taking the menus and motioning to a nearby waiter, who wheeled out a cart with a small pot, a grater, a set of utensils, and a small collection of cheeses and other ingredients, “So,” The waitress began, quickly placing the pot onto a small burner in the center of the table, pouring what appeared to be a half-can of beer into it while simultaneously grabbing the grater and a clove of garlic, “Is there an occasion?”

“Kind of,” Alan said, “You could say it’s a last meal…of sorts.”

“What do you mean?” The woman set the burner to light, before beginning to grate the garlic, sending small flecks into the pot.

“Well tomorrow I’m heading out east for…”

“A job opportunity,” Saul gently interrupted, smiling at Barbara as he kicked his friend under the table, “And, since we’re old friends, we figured we’d share a nice meal before he left.”

“Aww,” Barbara set down the garlic, switching to a large hunk of cheese as the liquid in the pot began to bubble and boil, the alcohol leaving the mixture, “Well, I suppose that’s how things work. You have to go where the jobs are, especially with all the AI expansion.”

“Yeah…” Alan winced, rubbing his shin and giving a narrow-eyed glance toward Saul.

“I suppose I’m lucky,” The server mused, eyes focused on the grater as she neared the end of the cheese, before setting both aside and grabbing a pair of spoons, beginning to mix, flip, and knead the mass of cheese, helping it melt, occasionally adding a few more spices as she worked, “Those of us who’re working with our hands now have better job security than people who work with computers or engineering, you can’t shift cooking or serving to an AI. Funny how that works out.” Saul nodded, keeping his eyes focused on the server’s, until she removed her spoons and set them aside, “Now then,” She reached beneath the top level of the cart and brought forth a tray, loaded with various foods, mostly vegetables, but also with cubes of French bread and crackers, placing it at the side of the pot, with a quartet of fondue forks, two for each diner, before standing up straight, and smiling, “You two enjoy yourselves and just flag one of us down if you need anything, I’ll be back in a little while to get your order on the main course.”

“Will do; thanks again…” Saul took a long drink as the server wheeled the cart away.

“What was that about?” Alan hissed, glaring across the table, even as he picked up one of the pronged utensils, piecing a piece of cauliflower on the tray, dipping it in the cheese of the pot, and quickly bringing it to his lips, quickly slipping it into his mouth and chewing.

The dark-haired friend set down his glass gently, “You were about to tell a complete stranger that you were planning to get ponified.” He said, plucking a cube of bread from the tray, quickly giving it a small sniff, “Also, don’t bother whispering, no-one’s paying attention to us.” Saul popped the cube into his mouth and chewed, simultaneously piercing a second cube with his fork and rolling it on the surface of the fondue, coating the exterior.

“So what? That’s no reason to kick me in the shin.”

Saul lifted his fork as he swallowed the first bit of bread, before pausing, “Actually, it is, considering what you had me promise after that fiasco in Bonham,” He gave an equal sniff, then used his teeth to gently bite the cheese-covered cube, drawing it off the fork and closing his mouth, shifting the morsel back to his tongue, careful to keep the hot fondue away from his lips till he’d gauged the temperature, before chewing and giving a small hum of appreciation.

“One, why would you bring that up? And two, how does that have anything to with you kicking me?” He grabbed a cracker, scooping up a glob of cheese and quickly eating it, going to grab another.

“Simple, you were about to divulge a bit of sensitive information that might have had you jamming your foot in your mouth and, following my promise, I stopped you.”

“Sensitive…what are you talking about?”

“You haven’t been reading The Tract have you?” Saul asked, switching to a stick of celery and filling the center with cheese, biting it in half and chewing.

Alan shook his head “No, and I still don’t understand why you do. All that thing ever seems to do is piss you off.”

“I read it because it reflects the opinions of a significant portion of the city,” Saul slipped the other half of the vegetable into his mouth, chewing and swallowing, “It’s useful for avoiding setting off a religious landmine in conversation…even if I wind up having the blood pressure of someone twice my age for a half hour after I read it.” The man smirked, taking a drink from his cup, draining it to the half-way point before frowning, “In any case, a lot of the writers have started latching onto the bureaus.”

“Bad?”

“This is The Tract remember. Bad doesn’t even cover it.” Saul stabbed another cube, along with a piece of broccoli this time, rolling the pair in cheese, “Care to guess what the headline was this week?”

“Something along the lines of ‘Evil Horses Corrupt Eastern United States’?” Quickly piercing, dipping, and eating various vegetables from the platter.

“Less accusation, more guilt,” The man once again lifted his fork to his lips, biting and dragging both the bread and broccoli off and into his mouth, before swallowing and adding on “It’s a familiar message.”

Alan’s eyes widened in understanding, “‘Thousands Abandon God’s Gift Of Humanity By Joining Ponies’ then.”

“Precisely,” Saul took another drink, “It’s the same attitude they take toward nano-enhancement, though a bit more…fanatical.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re not just piling on the shame and dehumanization this time,” Saul shook his head, rolling another few morsels in the cheese, “The prevailing undercurrent seems to be that being ponified is equivalent to being transformed into an animal, or even a demon, giving up being a creation of the Lord for being the creation of a ‘False God,’ far worse than merely editing God’s blueprints, as was the accusation with nano-enhancement.” He finished before eating the new set.

“Hm,” Alan nodded, grimacing as he took a bit of another cracker, “I can see why you’d stop me then...” He said before glaring across the table, “But did you really have to kick me? That hurt you know.”

Saul grinned, a gesture which was quickly returned by Alan, “Hmph, there is a bright side to all of this though,” The man said.

“What’s that?”

Saul glanced around the room for a moment before turning back to his friend, still smiling, “With the public focused on the conversion bureaus, I was able to get this…” He pulled back his right sleeve, revealing a bright yellow-anodized steel bracelet, marked with a black triangle, circumscribing a circle, with a trio of broken bars in the center arranged in a pattern similar to that of a “radiation hazard” sign, “Without too much harassment.”

Alan gaped at the band for a moment, and continued to gape at Saul’s wrist once the metal had been covered again, “Was that what I think it was?”

“Do you think it was a permatech medical bracelet?” Saul’s grin grew wider.

“But…h-how? I thought the waiting list would have held you back for another six months at least, not to mention the price tag…”

“A combination of a few factors actually. For one thing, Bill S.296 was signed over in California last month, and it went into effect two weeks ago.”

“Wait, that passed? I thought there was this huge controversy over Grey Goo again.”

“The mainstream media wasn’t paying much attention to the raising of the cap and lowering of the tax on nano-assemblers at the state level, what with the whole ‘magical talking ponies’ thing going on. I actually didn’t find out until about a week ago, when I got called by the company I was on the waiting list with.”

“Oh,” Alan continued eating as he listened, “That makes sense. The immediate result of the law was…”

“A flooding of the market with abundant, cheap nanotech; permatech included, which caused supply to increase, prices to drop, and the queue to move faster.” Saul drained his glass, setting it down on the table and smiling, “Add to it that there’s an alternative to permatech, one that’s free, that just came out, and people dropped off the waiting list faster than you’d believe.”

Alan squinted, “Alternative…” Saul raised his eyebrows and cocked his head slightly, gesturing to his friend, before Alan’s eyes widened, “…ponification. It’s free, it makes a person essentially immune to illness, grants increased lifespan, rapid healing, sharpened senses, and even special abilities that are literally classified as magic.”

Saul nodded, before looking off to the side, “Hm…imagine if someone got both …the flexibility and adaptability of permatech combined with all of the advantages of ponification” He mused.

Alan shrugged, “It’d be interesting, but we’ll never know.”

The brown-haired man turned back, his brow furrowing, “What do you mean? What would stop someone from getting ponified and then installing permatech?”

His friend squinted, “You…you don’t know this?”

“Know what?”

“Nano-tech doesn’t work on ponies…or…at least, implants and permatech don’t.”

Saul’s eyes widened, “This is the first I’ve heard of that.”

“How’s that? It was in the documentation you sent me.”

“I never read it.”

“Wha…”

“It was a bureaucratic nightmare to get the NCBC to send a single copy of their stuff on such short notice; a copy I had sent directly to you.”

“Oh…why’d it take so much trouble?” Alan cocked his head to one side and squinted.

“Apparently some of the information hasn’t been released to the general public for security reasons,” Saul said, “It’s why the file is copy-protected, but that’s beside the point,” Saul made a waving gesture with his hand, leaning forward as he did so, “What’s this about permatech not working on ponies?”

Alan shrugged, “It’s just that; the stuff doesn’t work. Implants stop functioning within a week and are reabsorbed into the body in a matter of hours afterward; individual nanobots short out and dissolve within days of being introduced into a pony’s body. The short term tech like EMT bots will work, but nothing long term.”

Saul nodded, beginning to eat more steadily as Alan spoke, mainly focusing on the bread that was still present and occasionally combining a cube with a vegetable.

“At first they thought it was the ponification process that did it, destroying the nanotech in the transformation, and that’s what they said to the general public,” Alan took another few pieces of vegetables and a sip of water in rapid succession before continuing, “But recent experiments say otherwise, the tech just fails after a short time, and doesn’t usually work right when it’s working at all.”

The other human was nodding from across the table, lifting his glass and blinking as he lifted it and tasted water, realizing that it was filled with melting ice, he set it down again.

“They think it has something to do with the ponies’ high resistance to disease and poisoning,” Alan continued without missing a beat, “Ponies apparently don’t have lymphocytes or even a fully observable immune system, but, for some reason, anything foreign that enters their bodies, or any strange changes to their bodies, just gets wiped out over the course of anywhere from a few hours to a month.”

Saul held up his hand, palm out, as he chewed a bite, before swallowing, “Wouldn’t the ponies have any research of their own on that? Surely they must have some medicinal information.”

Alan shook his head “If they do it’s not in the documentation, but the NCBC seems to think it has something to do with the ‘magic’ that seems to be present throughout their biology.”

A nod from Saul, “So this position, how much are you getting paid anyway?”

The human squinted behind his spectacles, “What?”

“I don’t mean to pry, but I’m curious,” Saul’s eyes quickly glanced toward the center of the restaurant.

His friend followed his gaze and quickly focused back on him upon seeing Barbara walking toward their table, “Oh, uh, um…”

“Hey there, need a refill?” The server asked, smiling and indicating Saul’s glass.

“Yes, thank you,” Saul turned and returned the woman’s smile.

As she picked up the man’s glass, Barbara glanced at the tray and pot, “You two want to put in your order for the second course?” She asked.

Both men looked to the near empty objects, “Ah…could you give us a little more time?”

“No problem, I’ll be back in a moment with your drink.”

Alan looked after the server as she left, before turning back to find Saul’s face already hidden by his re-opened menu, “I’m thinking we just go with the ‘Traditional Canola’ for the cooking style, and then pick three of the meats each. How about you?”

“How do you do that?”

Saul peaked over the menu, “Do what?”

“Just…casually flip from one topic to another when someone else is in earshot like that.”

His friend shrugged, looking back down at the menu, “After all these years, it just comes naturally to me, it’s not like I had much of a choice in the matter.”

Alan leaned forward, “What do you mea…?” Saul looked up from the menu again, his brow low, the line of his mouth flat, “Oh…gotcha…sorry…” The blond said softly, leaning back and opening his own menu, peering at the choices.

Saul’s expression softened slightly, “It’s alright, don’t worry about it.”

It wasn’t long afterward that Saul set down his menu and folded his hands. He once again looked out the window at the revolving city, eyes gliding over the vast expanse of lights that had come on since the start of the meal, in the wake of the setting sun. Large strands of EL wire ran up and down the glass spires, combined with LED’s and other lights in and on nearly every other surface in the city. Greens, blues, and whites from the offices, banks, and other buildings; orange and red from the as of yet unthinned rivers of cars; all beneath the black, empty sky.

“Uh, Saul…”

“Hm?” The man turned back toward his friend, who’s lowered his menu slightly.

“I was wondering what you were planning to order; so I can pick something different and we can get a better variety.”

Saul smiled, “I was planning on the beef tenderloin from the red meats, the salmon from the seafood, and the garlic chicken from poultry.” The edges of his eyebrows drooped slightly, “Please tell me you have some idea of what you want.”

Alan grinned as he looked up, “Actually yes.” He said, a quick hand gesture toward Saul’s closed menu. His friend opened it immediately, “I know I definitely want the black tiger shrimp for the seafood choice, and I’m pretty sure I want the smoked sausage for red, but I’m having trouble deciding between the jerk and the teriyaki chicken…”

“Get both.”

“Huh?”

“I said that you should get both,” Saul smiled, closing his menu, “I can get chicken however I want, any time I want; you’ll not be able to eat it after this week.” He set the closed menu down and interlaced his fingers, resting them on the table, “Besides, you know I don’t really care for white meat anyway.”

Alan was silent for a moment, “Well…thanks Saul.”

“No problem man. Now, you are getting benefits right?”

There was a brief pause from Alan “Of course. Dental and chiropractic.”

There was a clink as a fresh glass of coke was set on the table, “Thank you,” Saul said, turning toward the server, but not before giving a small grin and nod to Alan, “I believe we’re ready to order.”

“Excellent,” Barbara smiled, motioning to the same waiter as before, a near-identical cart being wheeled out, and picked up the pot by a pair of handles, setting it on top of the cart, along with the tray, before placing a new pot over the burner, “What cooking style were you looking for? We like to get it started before we bring out the meat, so that you can cook right away.”

“Just the canola please.”

The server retrieved a large bottle from beneath the top of the cart, pouring the yellow liquid into the pot, filling it two thirds of the way high before capping it, putting it away, and flicking the burner to a high setting, the flame beneath the pot going from red to blue, small bubbles already popping up at the bottom, “There we are,” She took out a small notepad, “What did you want with it? Two from each of the columns remember.”

Saul smiled, “The beef tenderloin and salmon are all I need.”

Alan glanced at his friend and gave a smile of his own, “The Jerk and teriyaki chickens, smoked sausage, and black tiger shrimp please.”

Barbara gritted her teeth and the edges of her eyebrows drooped in a wince, “I’m sorry…I’m afraid we can’t serve the shrimp.”

“Hm?”

“The black tiger shrimp was placed on the endangered species list two days ago…we can’t legally sell it anymore, and we haven’t had a chance to change the menus…”

“Oh…okay then…um…” Alan picked his menu back up, opening it, “Let me see here…”

“I’m sorry…”

“No…no…it’s alright…it’s fine…”

Saul glanced at Alan before putting on a soft, close-lipped smile, “You…must have some shrimp left.”

“Well yes…it’s all in the refrigerator in back…but I’m afraid that we just can’t sell it.”

“Sell it…” Saul mused for a moment, “Could I…speak with your manager?”

“What?”

“Saul!” Alan glared over his menu.

“I won’t make trouble…”

Alan rolled his eyes behind his spectacles, “You’re not going to convince them to violate federal law.”

“I don’t intend to try,” He smiled back at Barbara, “I’d really like to speak with your manager if it’s not too much trouble.”

The server looked over her shoulder, before turning back, “I’ll go find him…”

“If it’s all the same, I’d prefer to come with you.” Saul stood up from the table.

Alan sighed, “In any case, I’ll go with the mahi-mahi.”

Barbara quickly scribbled the rest of the order down, “Right… put this in right away…” She handed the ticket to the waiter, who nodded and headed for the kitchen, before she turned toward Saul, who stood off to the side with his hands clasped behind his back, “Um…this way…” The man nodded and followed her.

-o-

Alan scratched his chin, opening his cell phone and checking the time. It had been roughly four minutes since Saul had left the table, one since they’d brought the plate of meat, along with several cups of batter and a few stuffed mushrooms that came with the oil, and about thirty seconds since he’d dipped his first piece of chicken, coated in the batter, into the bubbling pot.

The blond turned to see his friend trudging across the floor before slumping down into his seat, “Didn’t go well?”

Saul looked up, glaring at Alan for a moment, his lips pressed tightly together, before his face broke out in a grin, “You’re gonna get your shrimp.”

“Wha…how…”

“I talked to the manager, and informed him that while it was illegal to sell an animal that is on the endangered species list, it isn’t illegal to give one, or multiple ones, away, provided they were killed legally, before they were placed on the list. Ooo, that looks good,” Saul pierced one of the cutlets of tenderloin with his fork, and then lowered it into the hot oil, a hiss traveling up from the pot as he did so, before leaning back and continuing, “Anyway, from there, it was a relatively simple matter to convince him to offer everyone in the restaurant a free portion.”

“Ok…you lost me there. How the hell did you do that?”

Saul smiled and shrugged, “I told him that it would be to him and his business’s advantage. He’d gain some good will and a reputation with the customers as a good host, which is more than what he’d get what he was planning to do with that shrimp: throw it out.” He finished, spying his glass, wet with condensation now, picking it up, and taking a long drink.

Alan stared at him for a moment longer before laughing, “Saul…you’re nuts.”

“I’m not nuts,” The human’s grin was wider, “I’ve just learned some useful tricks. For instance, working for a bureaucracy has taught me: If you have a problem, and the person that you’re talking to can’t solve it, go to their superior. Works just about every time,” He chuckled, “This time included.”

Alan returned the chuckle, before his eyes widened and he smiled slightly more, “Oh, speaking of bureaucracy…” He felt over his pockets for a moment, before reaching into one and pulling out a set of folded papers, “Here’re the forms you gave me, before I forget.”

Saul took the papers, unfolding them and looking them over, “I appreciate it, you’ve saved someone in my department a bunch of work” he said before stopping on a new page and reading over a set of numbers, “Wait…I know this” He read the numbers again, his grin diminishing and his brow furrowing slightly, “These are your parent’s accounts.” He said, before turning back to his friend.

Alan nodded, though his visage shifted to a grinning wince, “Please don’t say ‘I told you so.’”

Saul smirked, “How about ‘What did I tell you?’”

The blond shook his head, “They were planning on going a week later than I was, before I even told them. When I told them I was going, well,” He shrugged, “They decided to move their flight up, so we’d all head out together.”

“I’m glad things worked out.”

“So am I,” Alan leaned back, looking out the window again. The rotation was coming back onto the industrial center. The black buildings were awash with red, orange, yellow, and white. The human narrowed his eyes slightly, “I wonder…” He tilted his head to the side, almost parallel to the ground, and chuckled. A memory surfaced, of being far out in the wilderness with his parents, atop a high mountain at night. The sky had been filled to the brim with uncountable stars, and the ground below completely black, “You’d probably get a kick out of this Saul…”

“What’s that?”

Alan looked back up, and his smile disappeared, his gaze focusing on his friend’s fingers. The middle and thumb were grinding against each other, “Saul…what’s wrong?”

Saul had been smiling, but the expression dimmed somewhat at the question, “Nothing. Why do you ask?”

“Don’t lie to me,” Alan leaned forward, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothi…”

“Let me rephrase that: You know you can’t lie to me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Saul’s grin disappeared, he set the papers down on the table, “If there was anything wrong, which there isn’t, I’d tell you.”

“Not if it had to do with what I think it has to.”

“Which would be…”

“The fact that I just handed you what is, essentially, the prospect of me being on all fours in a week in hard numbers.” Saul opened his mouth to speak, but Alan held up his hand, “Saul, just…answer me this. Are you comfortable with this?” He tapped the papers.

Saul took a deep breath, looked down, and gave his lips a small lick before looking back up, “I refuse to answer.”

There was a long pause between the two, “Why?”

“Because, if I answer truthfully, you’ll stay,” Saul shook his head, “ You won’t get ponified, and it won’t be for a good reason.”

“Try me.”

“No,” There was another pause before he shook his head again, “I’m…experiencing…a directive instinct…”

“An emotion.”

“…yes. One triggered by the fact that something…or rather…someone, important to me, is going to change…drastically change,” Saul sighed, “It is not rational, reasonable, or even applicable to the current…situation. It’s born out of an obsolete evolutionary pressure for mundanity and xenophobia, the dangers inherent in drastic change for Paleolithic man.” Saul’s fingers were still rubbing together, he shook his head again, “And I will not allow my emotions to influence you out of getting something that I think, not ‘believe,’ not ‘feel,’ but ‘think,’ will bring you great happiness, just because I may or may not be ‘comfortable’ with it.” Saul held up his hand as he saw Alan’s mouth begin to open, “The feeling is not long term, nor is it directed at you, or the ponies, or ponification in general. It is purely against the prospect of dramatic change and it will pass when that change is completed.” He smiled, “Trust me Alan. If I had any serious problem with what you were doing I’d do my best to talk you out of it.”

Alan glanced at his friend’s fingers again, and smiled upon seeing that they’d grown still, “Ok Saul,” he nodded, before a buzzing sound from his pocket drew his attention. He pulled out his phone to see a timer he’d set on it had gone off, “Well, that means that my meat is done.” He said, pulling the fried piece of chicken from the pot, still dripping a bit of oil, “Yours should be done too.” He finished.

Saul pulled out the meat, setting the thin steak on a plate in front of him before setting another in the oil, and beginning to cut it with a conventional knife, before sticking the piece with an ordinary fork, and lifting it, “Savor it Alan, this is going to be good.” He said, as his friend bit into the chicken, and he slipped the tender cut between his lips…

Alone in a world, with millions of souls, Walking in circles, trapped in their dreams, unhealthy, unclean Walking in Circles, now, do not disturb, scream in silence, everyone’s sleeping- Walking in Circles, Dead by Sunrise

Prologue [Written by Blaze. Click here to read]:

The pony race and humans have lived together in harmony for centuries. A peaceful race, the ponies never really felt the need for war or violence to solve world problems. Things always seemed a lot friendlier with the ponies involved. Only recently have ponies been integrating into the modern human society. Ponies have lived in isolated, calm lands for many generations, but with over-population becoming a risk for the equine communities, moving from Canterlot to Newark was a common occurrence in these times.

Through warfare and species-exclusive diseases, humans have begun a steady decline in population and general health. The ways humans have destroyed the world around them, through pollution, greed and unhealthy living conditions, have led the humans to realize the error of their ways, but it had been too late.

Ponies, being a hardy, largely pacifistic folk, had slowly become the majority in world population (but only just so). It was becoming clear the time of the human was coming to a close. Soon, scientists of both human and pony worked together to create a formula to, in a sense, "ponify" a human, and hopefully keep society from collapsing. Their long term plan was to start a thriving, pony-centric world for generations to come.

In this interim period, humans were plagued with mass confusion and doubt as to what to do. Most humans understood the decline in the population, and would much prefer to be a pony. With a down-to-earth, carefree lifestyle, the possibility of flying or using magic to their advantage, and current human health problems a thing of the past, what could possibly go wrong? However, some people have shown some second thoughts.

The Conversion Bureau: Guardian Chronicles

Written by Notorious/Jack Anarchy

Based on Blaze’s Fan-fic The Conversion Bureau

[Tags: Mild-Grimdark, Violence, Mild-Language, Adventure]

Links:

Equestria Daily: Click Here

PonyChan: Click Here

DeviantArt: Click Here

Episode 1: A World Forsaken

Location: New York City

Time: Unknown

Year: Unknown

Tell me...

Is this the world you fought for?

BOOM!

He felt the very earth tremor beneath his feet as he dragged the worn out soles of his dirt-stained loafers upon the cracked asphalt beneath him. The never-ending ringing in his ears renewed with every deafening explosion that rocked the city landscape followed by the wrenching sounds of twisting metal and blocks of shattered concrete echoed through the city blocks. The once mighty skyscraper crumbled to pieces upon the already devastated streets below, dispersing a thick cloud of dust and debris rushing through the battle torn streets.

As his footsteps grew heavy and so did his breaths, the clenching tightness in his chest made breathing a true effort, his lungs suffocated from the clouds of dust that lingered in the air. Half awake, he stumbled forward though fortunate enough to regain his balance as his shoulder came in contact with a pillar, half destroyed from the explosion barely minutes ago. His vision blurred, caught between the world of the living and the gentle caress of blackness that allured him so. He shook his head from side to side, feeling it would be wise to linger for a short breather in hopes it would restore his sense of composure.

The young man’s jittery hand began to shift, inching his fingers sluggishly in the direction of the blood soaked bandanna bounded tightly around a gash on his right arm. He clutched it gently yet firmly as if reminiscing on an onslaught he had barely survived by the skin of his teeth. However, try as he might, the answers he sought in the depths of his memories were non existent. What happened? How did he get here? The roar of a sonic boom instinctively directed his gaze to the chaotic horizon above and there reflected whithin his hazel eyes behind those thin framed, cracked lenses he saw.

The skies lit ablaze with bright flashes, whether beams of bright plasma or magic it was hard to tell perched so far on the ground. There were hundreds of them, an ocean of both humans and Pagasi locked in an intense aerial dogfight across the endless vista. The bright blue skies tarnished by the ominous black clouds looming overhead, casting a dark, ominous veil upon once bustling metropolis. It was then, the young man caught a quick glimpse of bright flash of neon. He felt the adrenaline course through his veins, his muscles tensed, his teeth gritted tightly  as his legs bucked, leaping out of the way just a violent beam streaked right past him.

It missed but was it luck it strayed barely several feet away from him? That it exploded on impact upon hitting the wreckage of a car behind him, reducing it to pieces in a blink of an eye? The young man picked himself up, struggling to steady himself on his own two feet. As of now, those         question are all but relevant, he had to keep moving, he had to. His goal, his mission remained a mystery, all he knew is that he had to.

Why do you continue to deny who you truly are?

Heaven knows the last time he laid eyes on the sun or feel the gentle caress of the morning rays upon his dirt stained cheeks. Heck, he could barely recall bits and pieces of a place once called ‘The City of Dreams’ before all Hell broke loose. The voices of its citizens, the scent of coffee roasting in a café, the taste of a hotdog from a sidewalk vendor. They were all but images and fragments of a world that used to be. When did the world succumb to Devil’s sanity? When did war become the one and only solution for the human race? Where did we all go wrong?

The scarlet tie that donned the collar of his shirt swished violently in the harsh zephyr coursing through the war torn city streets. He straightened his tattered lab coat, once bleached white now stained and begrimed with muck, grime and patches of dried blood. He brushed his medium length ebony hair to the back to clear the view from his eyes, widening yet again as his arm made a quick effort to shield them, gritting his teeth as he turned away from yet another explosion. This time a lime green beam making contact with the building on his right, sending small bits of concrete and metal in every direction. He coughed as he was engulfed in yet another cloud of dust and debris.

Peace is but an illusion, your efforts are futile

Was Lady Luck watching over him? Maybe it was something more but he knew that came a little too close for comfort. Through squinted eyes barely being able to make out ten feet in front of him, the young man continued onwards, trying his best to navigate through the piles of rubble and the twisted wreckage of vehicles that littered the road he walked. But rubble was not the only thing that littered the streets, the young man knew this too well. Forced to turn an oblivious eye to the bloodied, torn and mutilated corpses of both human and the four legged equines lying lifelessly upon sidewalk.

Scattered across the urban landscape, like the snarls of the hounds of Hell were mechanical grindings of hundreds of humans clad in bulky futuristic battle armor brandishing weapons, far more advanced than anything the modern world has yet to see. The streets were reduced to anarchy, lit ablaze with flurries of laser like blasts, every beam with the potential of tearing through rock, metal and even flesh and bone as if it were made of paper.

They towered over the ponies, taking the form of soulless, war mongering beasts. Their blood red eyes glowing ominously with a gaze borne by Death himself with the sounds of heavy breathing resonating from behind their emotionless metal helmets. They had one mission and one mission alone, exterminate the Pony race and the traitors along with them and they will do it without restraint, without opinion and most definitely without mercy.

The Ponies, like Trojan warriors bore hardened war armor of bright gold and silver. The unicorns returning fire with magic, manipulating the elements and bending them to their advantage. Fire, water, earth, anything they could use to break through the thick pieces of metal that protected their nemesis. The Earth ponies joined the fight, mustering their skills in crudely constructed war machines and armored vehicles doing their best to strengthen their defences. They fought valiantly but deep down inside they bore a sense of reluctance within their eyes with the unicorns being forced to use magic to induce harm for the very first time.

They were once peaceful race, war and violence were nonexistent, merely forgotten texts written in books left to stack on shelves of a library. Now they do what comes naturally to all living things, whatever it takes to ensure ones survival. The Pagasi took their battle to the skies, with blades and all manner of aerial weapons at their disposal, engaging the humans outfitted with metallic wings and jet packs.

Everywhere they turned bore unspeakable chaos and carnage, through magic, guns and cold steel wielded by the hands of men against the magic and tenacity of the Ponies they were bent on exterminating. Cries, yells, curses, and growls, too many and too loud to separate from likes of man and equines the ruthless battle raged on. The earth beneath them ran red with crimson from mangled corpses of their fallen comrades.

It was like a show reel of terror and horror, in the skies Pagasi having their wings shredded by those beams, their limbs being torn, slashed to mere chunks of pastel flesh before falling to their graves. Ponies having their bodies ripped in half, their remains scattered upon the walls, screaming in horror as the gurgling cries of their brethren being taken apart with the revving of a chainsaw blade. But for the humans did not leave unscathed, their cries and screams were just as blaring, as they were burned alive, shocked, impaled, crushed while being  trapped within those suits which would soon become their graves.

The Ponies had tenaciously held their ground, however with every fallen human; five more would take his place as if they were wrathful souls born of Hell. Their minds only saw blackness as their eyes saw nothing but the redness that drenched the armor they bore. Gone was the fear, gone was their concern for their well being for now they acknowledged no friend, no ally. Nothing but the undying flames of hatred and the sights of an enemy who will be subjected their wrath. However, the Ponies had no intention of submitting to their murderous whims, even as they were shot, slashed, hammered, stabbed, bruised and even killed, they were determined to give the humans one battle they will never forget.

The Guardians cannot save you now, you can’t even save yourself

It felt like a decade had passed before his footsteps came to a stop. He had no reason to be where he was at that very moment, but somehow he knew that this was the place, his final destination. The young man lifted his head, recognizing the fact he was at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, The Crossroads of The World they call it, the remnants of what was once the pride of New York, Times Square. His breaths were heavy, his legs were barely holding up, his body felt weak and drained as if worn by battles past. Everything was a blur, what was he doing here? Was there something waiting for him?

It was then, like a dark, menacing aura coursed through his very body, through his veins, bones and flesh as he barred his teeth at the specter that stood before him. He can tell it was a young man no older than he was but he adorned an armor far different from that of the other humans. It looked more like a well fitted suit, drawing a certain inspiration from the real of fantasy, as if he came straight out of a graphic novel.

From his helmet, to his shoulder pieces, the gauntlets that adorned his arms and his legs, shining with glimmering, polished glint of bright gold. His eyes hidden behind a visor that shone with an almost malicious glint of crimson and young man sensed the air grow heavy with an intent to kill. But the one thing that caught his attention the most was the odd, yet bulky buckle that lay fastened to his waist.

The ebon colored device, about five inches across and three inches wide bore a red gem glowing in the middle, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the likes a camera. Strange runes or marking were engraved in a circle around the gem and he could only assume the strange symbols stacked in threes on the left and right did not represent the Elements of Harmony.

Gripped within his hand was the maliciously, yet futuristic shaped hilt of a long magnificent katana. The mechanical parts of parts of the silver blade glowed luminously in a dim yellow tint, its blade dripped with the crimson liquid of life. Whether it came from the body of a human or a pony, the young man could already deduce that person before him was no friend or ally.

“Do you see?” a voice resonated from behind the helmet in an almost daunting tone.

The young man was silent, his eyes narrowed in intimidation.

“I once told you, old friend, the human race is incapable of love and understanding, birthed into a cradle of hatred, wrath and despair. Upon their exile, Earth had been their salvation, their sanctuary and yet these sinful beings pillaged, butchered and raped it at their every whim”

“Humans know no peace, they know no mercy, all they crave is the euphoria of death and the intoxication of destruction. Now, at long last, after decades of war and meaningless bloodshed the day of reckoning has arrived. Watch... watch as their twisted reality falls to ruin, tremble their very existence heads down an endless spiral to oblivion. May their gods help them all,” he said, walking nonchalantly in the direction of the young man.

“Now do you see? How your so called mission was but a lie. Your beliefs, your convictions were all but lies, The Guardians had deceived you and YOU in turn deceived the very ones you longed to protect. Harmony? Friendship? What a load of bull! Now they pay dearly for your delusions, all because you couldn’t accept the truth!” he exclaimed, his finger pointed in accusation.

“And what is the truth?” the young man finally spoke.

The young man in the armor lifted his sword, the tip of the blade brandished in his direction. “That you were never meant to save the human race, you were meant to destroy it,”

It was then, a rather odd smirk began taking shape upon the young man’s face. “Then tell me this, my ‘old friend’…,” he said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice though pausing for a moment with the intention of catching the attention of the armored one.

“When did you forsake yourself?” he asked.

The young man in the armor stood motionless as if deep in thought, a moment of silence then ensued but only to be broken by a slow yet menacing chuckle began came from behind the golden helmet, raising his armored hand to font of his face, the tip of his fingers touching the likes of his forehead as if amused by the man’s question.

“I see, you never fail to amaze me. Bloodied, beaten and bruised, standing amongst the ruins of a world that will soon come to pass, you continue to hold onto your ludicrous delusions. I don’t know if I should commend you on your faith, or feel sorry for you” said the man in the golden armor.

The young man chuckled coarsely and weakly. He then looked straight into those soulless, malevolent blood red eyes, bearing a warm yet gentle smile.

“That is what makes me... human”

“Human....,” said the man in the golden armor before scoffing under his breath. “Well then, with a statement like that, it would be rude of me not to grant you the honor of dispatching you to the Advent Void myself,” the man in the armor said, lifting his sword before twirling it violently in his hand, the jet like sounds of solid metal slicing through the air before he resting it upon his shoulder.

The young man gave a soft chuckle, his fingers struggling to reach for his broken glasses before gently removing it in his softly trembling hand. “Twilight… forgive me” he whispered, allowing the thin frame to slip from his hands, the lenses shattering to little pieces as it came on contact with the asphalt beneath him.

With was left of his strength, he raised his right fist in the direction of the man in the armor. His left hand pulled back on the long sleeve, he revealed a golden bracelet engraved with intricate runes adorned cerulean gem. It was at that moment, it started to glow as brightly as the northern star in a blinding blaze of azure. Thrusting his hand to the sky, a bright blue orb of pure energy appeared within the palm of his hand as he whispered…

“Gone and returned through time”

His voice seems to echo at the very mention of those words, at the exact moment the ground beneath his feet began to glow. An incredible magical circle expanded at his feet, circling on its axis was glyphs and symbols of unknown origins. The rattling sounds of vibrating metal grew louder as it was dragged across the asphalt, drawn by the immense power of the glowing orb in his hand. Suddenly, the pieces of metal levitated violently in his direction, disintegrating into small compact pieces at it began to circle the orb, melding together to form a large bulky, white buckle which bore an uncanny resemblance to its black twin with the exception it bore six of the the symbols that represented the Elements of Harmony, three on each side.

As if by instinct, the young man spun it in his hand before slapping it to his waist, a belt magically appearing in a flash of light as it secured it to his waist. Reaching down, he pulled o the sides of the buckle, causing it to unfasten itself with the white buckle rotating 90 degrees upwards to the left. “Standing by” came a male voice with a sense of fortitude, resonating from that of the buckle.

Now what? What should he do next? Then once again, as if guided by pure instinct, he thrust his hand forward with a single motion, and like magic, another magical circle appeared with a set of six card materializing in a single flipping motion with a pinkish, almost purplish flash of neon. By impulse, he grabbed one of the floating cards before him and the moment he did, the other vanished in a gentle flash of light.

A card? His hazel eyes studied the picture of head shot, adorned in an intricate fantasy inspired battle helmet illustrated its smooth, glossy surface. His gaze then shifted downwards to the white buckle, suddenly noticing the apparent thin slot before him. At that moment, he knew what to do and what he had to do.

“Let’s do this” he said, holding up the card before slicing it swiftly into the card slot with a single motion.

“A.D.V.E.N.T Guardian…” said the voice from the buckle.

“Engage!” he cried, with the same single swift movement, the young man shut the sides of the buckle, locking it into place.

A smaller crimson magical circle expanded from the gem in the middle bearing the words “Drive Engage” just as the larger one beneath his feet expanded. Like magic,six symbols representing the Elements of Harmony manifested around him, drawn to his body as it crystallized in an armor of light.

Then suddenly, it shattered revealing glistening jet black suit of armor, like the young man before him, bearing a design influences borne of fantasy and magic. From his helmet, the gauntlets that adorned his arms and legs, the suit was intricate and unique with the exception of the visor that glowed with a gleam of bright blue.

“Ho…” said the young man in the golden armor, feigning as sense of impression. He spun his sword yet again, this time however, he twirled it within his fingers as if taunting the young man from before but to no avail. Raising his hand, the same circle of cards appeared, with the exact single flipping motion, grabbing hold of of one of the materialized cards within his fingers as the young man pulled opened the buckle yet again.

“Final Form Drive…” said the voice from the buckle.

Sliding his card into the buckle, he proceeded to shut the buckle, the same magical circle, this time taking an ember tint appeared from the gem in the middle as the word “ANIMA!” was both illustrated and mentioned by the voice, following soon after. It was then, another magical circle appeared behind the young man, the rattling of chains grew loud as from the depths of the glowing glyphs, a large beast bounded in chains began to appear, as if it crawled out from the deepest, darkest past of Hell itself. It stood almost as tall as the four storey building behind them, fangs barred in viciousness from its nightmarish appearance would make any sane person tremble and petrify in fear.

But he man in the golden armor merely gave a rather mischievous smirk behind that helmet of his.

“Alright, I’m game” he said, reaching down to his own buckle as he he opened it in the exact same fashion, the words “Final Form Drive…” was heard, but this time from the voice of a female. The same exact magical circle appeared with the circle of six cards appeared, this time with a yellow glint of neon. Grabbing hold of one of his cards, he slotted it in with a single motion and slapped it shut.

“OBELISK!”

A magical circle appeared beside him, this time like magic, a large majestic white suit of armor standing at the exact same height of the beast before him made it apparent. The armor or more precisely, the creature brandishing a long lance and a shield, its long royal blue cape waved gently in the wind.

“This is the end for you, old friend. Perish a fool and take your ludicrous dreams and ideals of peace to Hell with you!” he said, his hand reaching down to his waist as he slid open his buckle.

“Final Attack Drive…”

The young man in the black armor raised both his arms as the glowing outlines of a pair of weapons began tracing itself over them, even on that of his legs. Within a second, they took the form of a pair of gauntlets, bounded in chains, black as the raven’s back.

“I told you once before, heed my words. As long as the magic of the Guardians continue to flow through my veins, as long I my soul remains untainted and my body unbroken…” the young man said, reaching down to slide open his buckle in the same exact manner just as a card appeared in his right hand.

“Final Attack Drive…”

“Then may Celestia have mercy on the fools who would stand in my way!” he roared, sliding in the card and shutting the buckle.

“A, A, A, ANIMA!”

“Come then! Strike me down with with all you have I will return this hatred a thousand fold!” the young man cried in return, slicing in his very own card before slamming his buckle shut.

“O,O,O, OBELISK!”

It was as if hands of time had crawled to the bare fractions of a second the moment the two warriors broke out in relentless charge. The ground shattering from the moment they left the patch of asphalt where they stood barely moments ago. The magical beasts they had summoned charged alongside their masters into the glory of battle to the death and beyond.

“WAKE UP! ANIMA!” the young man yelled, and heeding the command of its master, the creature in chains began glowing in a bright purplish glow, transforming into a blazing ball of light.

Zipping frantically in mid air before entering the pair of gauntlets mounted on the young man’s arm. The metallic shattering of chains could be heard the moment the gauntlets unsealed itself, followed by the menacing mechanical whirring of blades of a chainsaw being emitted from both his arms and legs.

But the young man in the golden armor brandished his blade, twirling it at sonic speeds as he cried “RELEASE! OBELISK!”. Just like the beast before, the white metal suit of armor transformed into a blazing ball of red light, entering the golden katana.

The blade glowed beautifully for a brief moment, strange runes creeping from the hilt arranging itself along the length of the blade, glowing bigger as it did. Then shattering like pieces of glass, revealing a massive blade about seven feet long.

They both broke out into a long battle cry, both driven by their own beliefs and their own sense of justice and righteousness. Their eyes narrowed, teeth barred, their throats grew coarse with the long, harsh battle cry. Their fists tightened, they knew for a fact that this was it, here is where it all ends. But just what have they truly been fighting for? Was it for the Ponies? Was it for the Human race? Their reasons were their own, and here at the end of it all, only one will prevail.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!”

The very moment their auras collided, in a split second the very earth beneath their shattered with an incredible burst of power. As pieces of asphalt, scrap metal and debris lifted into the air, though the fractions of the grains of time, he saw it, every move, every motion of the massive katana slicing though the air. The deadly rotating chains on his gauntlet shifted into overdrive, his fingers curled tightly into fists as he threw his right hand forward in a massive swing. And then came the clash…

BOOM!

The clash of energy was so great, so powerful, it engulfed downtown in a dome of light, reducing the nearby building into nothing but piles of rubble. It was an explosion of great magnitude, a grim remembrance to a weapon long utilized and long feared by the human race.

Perched upon the tallest building in the city, a fair distance from the explosion stood a unicorn. Her coat had seen better days, now sloven and stained with the blood of a race she once called friend. Amongst the battles and carnage that filled the skies around her, all she could do was watch. Tears streamed down the sides of her face, hues of bright purple filled with pain and regret. Then, looking over her shoulder as she mouthed…

“David… wake up”

Her whisper echoed and faded into the shadows.

**************

“ARGH!” David sat up violently in his chair, startled wide awake as he woke up in cold sweat, his heart racing as his breaths grew quick.

“Dr Lestor, Dr Lestor, you are needed in the Room 23, thank you”

It took him a full minute to steady his racing heart, his fingers massaged his temple as his mind shimmered with vague loops of images from the final moments of that dream. These dreams... these crazy, stupid, infuriating, meaningless dreams. Night after night was the same, for months these bleary images of war and carnage, New York in ruin, strange creatures called Guardians had haunted him in his sleep.

The young man groaned in frustration, he was sure his delirium would soon drive  him to the brink of sleep deprived madness. In truth, the whole thing made him sick to his stomach. Magical circles? Mythical Armors? Cards? Advent Drives? It was like a cheesy scene straight out of poorly made B rated action movie, or worse, the result of an overactive imagination fueled with buckets worth of soda pop, candy and Saturday morning cartoons.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he got up from his leather chair as he ran his fingers through his shabby hair before giving his aching body a well deserved stretch, feeling the stiffness muscles beginning to subside. Yet another long and rough night at the hospital, with the place being rather underhanded they had the young doctor running around clock a little too often for comfort.

He straightened his lab coat and straightened his tie, tardiness was almost nonexistent to the young man but he had to admit, he was a complete and utter mess. He reached for the stacks of paper that lay scattered along his glass table. The digitized words ‘Good Morning Dr Stone’ flashed upon the glassy surface, fading into the background before revealing a layout commonly found on a computer with icons of various shapes and sizes.

David arranged the stacks of paper but just as he bent down to slide open the drawer under the table, he paused, looking directly at the large photograph used as his desktop wallpaper. It was a picture of him and four other youths, three young men and a young lady, all clearly in their late teens dressed brilliantly in their graduation suits. The words ‘Friends Forever’ and five signatures all draw in gold ink was written in the bottom right corner. The young doctor shrugged, tapping the surface of the table as the image dimmed to black.

Even after putting away the stacks of paper, he realized the feeling restlessness continued to linger, his mind pondering on the possible questions derived from the strange dream. It just made no sense, that dream, strange buckle, the man in the armor? What did it all mean? Was it a vision? He groaned again, just thinking about it was an invitation for an oncoming migraine.

Making his way to the window, he pushed aside the green curtain that shrouded the windows, the bright morning rays of the sun made his eyes squint a little. Even ten floors off the ground, he could hear the the sounds of the bustling streets below, the honking of the vehicles caught in traffic, the obnoxious revving of dual T.R.I core engines probably from a rich pretty boy wannabe trying to swoon the ladies nearby with his multi million dollar toy, even the the brief sirens from a passing fire truck. From the holographic signs of bright neon revolving around the towering skyscrapers looped the action packed adverts of the upcoming Superbowl, to the news hover plane that hovered in the skies above. Yes, the world was as it is and not a pile of ruins in the midst of the flames of war. The young man tucked his hands into his pockets, who was he trying to kid?

Trotting right beside their two legged neighbors, their coats glistened with hues of bright pastel with strange tattoo-like pictures on their flank as made their merry way down the busy streets. A single feather of dark violet a little too large to be a bird made his eyes of bright hazel shifted to the skies above. Zipping through the clouds like brightly colored angels, the Pagasi flew as free as the birds in the sky. It has been five years since they first made their existence known to mankind, these peculiar, horse-like creatures from a distant land having lived in absolutely secrecy and seclusion from the known word.

They called themselves Ponies, though they bore no resemblance or resemblance to the ‘ponies’ David had seen on his uncle’s farm down in Texas. The young man turned away from the window, instead to the remote lying idly on the glass table. Grabbing hold of it, directed it to the large pane of tempered glass on the wall. With a push of a button, a semitransparent  holographic screen came to life, bearing an image of a newscaster. Jenny Alderan, one of New York’s most beloved anchors..

“Good morning citizens of New York City, in breaking news, the Conversion Centre down in Brooklyn will now be open 24 hours a day, our beloved Mayor seeks to expand the facility in hopes to accommodate…” she said.

“Conversion Centres…” David muttered under his breath.

The Conversion Bureau, Ponyfication, Magic, once he swore he would only hear such words from the old bedtime stories his grandfather used to tell before he came to pass. He always did tell the best stories, tales of magic, mythical beasts like dragons, manticores and warriors of bravery and valor who risked everything to protect the innocent. David spun the remote in the palm of his hand, in the end those were just stories, fantasy. If only the old man could see it now, it was everywhere, in the headlines in the papers, on the big screen, even plastered all over the World Wide Web.

David was no strange to the long bloody history of the human race and it never fails to fascinate him how they would take such foolish pride in it. History was no history, merely records documenting the savage nature of a species that thrives of violence and destruction. Fanaticism, racism, anarchism, the list goes on. They have spent all their hearts and souls into undoing one other, peace was never a solution amongst even their fellow brethren but in the end it was ignorance and senselessness that disarmed them.

The world was dying, everyone knew that. Societies were crumbling and the city walls fading into soulless shades of gray. The economy was in shambles, extreme pollution led to new diseases, some which were terminal and crime ran rampant on the streets with New York’s finest doing little to nothing to ease the situation. Worst of all were the politicians, greedy, selfish chunks of lard who did nothing but spout lies in an effort to hide the ugly truth from society. The human race is spiraling to oblivion, wasn’t that what man in his dream said?

But then, almost a year ago, life took a strange turn for the human race, a ray of hope from a land beyond the sea, Equestria.

Humans were offered a chance at salvation from the darkness and decay of the world they had laid to waste, to a place of peace and serenity. Like a stairway to Heaven, a world without conflict, pain and suffering, a place where they can start anew and leave their pointless existence behind them. However, like all things great and small, it comes at a price most humans were willing to pay without so much as a second thought, their humanity. David shrugged at the thought.

Within a year, these ‘Conversion’ centers began popping up all over the country, the first in New York City, then in Miami, Tennessee, even in California. Within a month, thousands of people flocked to these centers, choosing to be ‘ponified’ in hopes of a better life and a better future. It is true, the world changed after those centers opened, everything changed, even for him.

People he used to know, grocers, the delivery boy, the garbage collector with the golden tooth,, even the old woman who used to serve him coffee down the street from the hospital.  One by one, they disappeared from the moment they spoke of their interests in the Bureau, one or two even tried talking him into doing the same. Heaven knows knows where they are now.

“Now, we go live to City Hall for a press conference with Lieutenant Miguel Estrada, the Director of the Conversion Bureau…” said the newscaster. David snapped to attention at the mention of that name, his eyes shifted to that of the projected image.

Miguel Constantine Estrada, a name the new world has become most familiar with, specially since he has been making the headlines more and more as of late. There was no question that the man of Hispanic origins, in his mid forties is possibly the second most powerful man next to the President of the United States of America. Though the American people have long wondered what exactly the Conversion Bureau is. Ask anyone off the streets and they will return their simple perception, they are the ones ‘in charge’ of the myriad of centers for human ponification.

But from the words of Charles Darwin, things have a way of changing and adapting to their surroundings and their situation. The Conversion Bureau of America now functioned as a private organization endorsed by the US government, representing the human race in terms of political ties with the Royal House of Equestria. The citizens of New York city had grown to accept their presence, some convinced the Bureau was the equivalent of an Equestrian Embassy on United States soil. Although some citizens have grown mighty wary of the Bureau, paranoid even but more so intimidated.

“Mr Estrada, would you care to comment on the recent attacks on the Ponies by the HLF? Is the Bureau doing anything to to stop these heinous hate crimes?” asked the reporter, shifting the microphone to the man before her.

David recognized him from the countless pictures printed all over the New York Times, draped in his trademark black suit, a white shirt and a red scarf worn around his neck to match. Parts of his face showed signs of wrinkling, a testament to his age although his olive skin seemed a little darker than the young doctor last remembered. The man stood about five and a half feet tall, ran his fingers through his jet black hair for a brief moment, kept short and neat pushing it to the back. His expression remained neutral but David can tell from his dark brown eyes that whatever he was about to say, he would mean every word of it.

“The recent attacks were indeed horrid and ‘inhumane’, bearing an unfortunate resemblance to the fanatics of yesteryear like the KKK or the Neo-Nazis. Although their chapter leader has denied any involvement in the attacks, rest assured, the Bureau is conducting a thorough investigation and we will bring the ones responsible to justice” he said.

“But Mr Estrada, is it true that the Bureau uncovered the existence and currently in possession of the Z.O.H.A.R weapons that had been allegedly used in the attack?”

Z.O.H.A.R weapons? David could see a slight change in his expression but it was too minor for reporter to notice, it was one of his quirks, a slight movement of the right eyebrow. He does this every time he encounters a question he was reluctant to answer. But the man retained his composure her question was calmly answered.

“We cannot reveal any information of evidence pertaining to the case due to this being an ongoing investigation. Now if you would excuse me, I have a situation in dire need of my presence,” he said, as he took his leave, with reporters on his tail like bloodhounds on a hunt.

“But Mr Estrada! What about the HLF? What of Pat Maitland? How does the Bureau intend to handle them-,” words cut short as David turned off the screen with a press of his remote.

HLF… the Human Liberation Front, a sense of disgust grew from the bottom of his heart. Liberation? Freedom? They were nothing but fanatics, having taken a sip from the chalice of insanity. The young doctor recalled the headlines printed on the New York Inquirer, ludicrious lines like “Humans Unite!” or “The End is Neigh!”.

Day after day, they spewed distortions of lies being turned to truth in hopes that it would unite society as a whole, regardless of religion, beliefs or creed. Having convinced from the start that the human race is on the brink of extinction, accusing the Bureau as traitors to their kind for being a front for a conspiracy to convert and/or annihilate the human race. Just as these Conversion Centers have been popping up all over the country, these ‘Chapters’ or groups have been making themselves known at the exact break neck pace.

Although it may have started with protests, marches fueled by paranoia and fear as the months passed, the citizens of the city had grown accustomed and generally began accepting of the Conversion Centers and the Ponies as a race. Though most decided to put aside their all differences and learned to live alongside Ponykind, some did not.

In fact they downright refused to, David has heard all their excuses “It’s against the Bible” or “It goes against God!” banner and slogans exclaimed in religious propaganda, considering the Pony race as abominations and the act of Ponification was that of the Devil’s work. When others preached about violating the ways of their God, some merely hated the Ponies simply for being different. Never once did they cease in their efforts to convince humanity that they were on a road to annihilation.

Finally after months, being unheard and neglected by the American people and their government, it inevitably escalated, with several groups deciding to take matters into their own hands by condoning violence against the Ponykind. Lynching, assaults and other manner of unspeakable acts were but a few of their crimes. The local authorities were powerless to control the flurry of reported cases, well that is until the Bureau themselves decided that it was time to fight fire with fire.

David knew little of it, but lately, as extracted from various resources and rumors, upon realizing that things were escalating with reasons for concern, the Bureau established V.AN.G.A.R.D, a private military task force assigned specifically to handle these extremists and those who bore ill intentions against the Ponies. Little is known about them, people who commonly encounter these agents were usually the unfortunate members of the HLF or people who were definitely on the wrong side of the fence.

However, the city knew they exist, they have seen them in action on the streets but it was strange there was little to no information about how they operate. David was sure the Bureau suppressed any news or reports  made about them. Only rumors like how they seem to posses technology and knowledge in advance military warfare far more advance that of the US military seem to surface as a usual topic for gossip over a cup of coffee. To why they needed such serious hardware to deal a bunch of racist rednecks and religious nut jobs pissed drunk on beer, head deep in the bible or both at the same time was a complete mystery.

David leaned against his table, his arms folded before him deep in thought as he tried to digest everything. The dream, the words of Miguel Estrada, the HLF, Z.O.H.A.R weaponry? He sighed, rubbing the side of his temple. It was then, the sound of a bell that hung from the metal doorknob gave a little ring as the face of a bubbly young nurse could be seen peeking through the ample space in the door, dressed in her standard issued uniform with her auburn hair tied neatly in a bun.

“Dr Stone? May I come in?” she asked politely.

“Delia, please” David said, immediately putting away his concerns as he invited her in. “Care to tell me what’s on the agenda today? Lay it on me, and this time don’t sugar coat it” he said with a smile, half joking.

“Well, Mr Wilson is here for his nine o’clock, then you have Mrs Keen, for her two o’clock and Dr Leslie said to remind you that you have an additional hour at the clinic later today”

David groaned deep inside, another hour? To think he was looking forward to finally being allowed to return home after spending almost a week sleeping on couches in the common area and that of the chair in his office, God he was in need of some fresh clothes and most importantly a bath. What wouldn’t he give for a hot shower right now? However, he could not bring himself to cast blame on Dr. Leslie for the additional hours. Being the Dean of the hospital was tough enough without being pressured by the mass resignation and the never ending flood of newly admitted patients. In truth, it was a real understatement when David mentioned they were understaffed.

“So Dr. Stone, if you don’t mind me asking, did you finally find the time to read that Conversion Bureau brochure I gave you the day before?” asked Delia.

“Hhm? Oh, that, well…” said David, smiling nervously with a sense of reluctance to speak his mind, but the young nurse merely smiled.

“It’s okay, I understand how busy you have been. You see, I was thinking of dropping by myself. My mom and dad have been ponified, so were my brothers. The whole family intends on moving to Equestria next month and I have been thinking really hard about joining them” she said, smiling as warmly as ever.

“That’s nice Delia, I’m sure they made the right choice” said David, feeling rather awkward all of a sudden. “If you don’t mind, I think I better get going now, I most definitely don’t want to keep the patients waiting” he said with a nervous chuckle.

“Oh certainly Dr Stone, just one more thing” she said, holding up a clipboard with several documents. “I just need you to sign here, and here” her fingers pointing to the dotted lines on several pieces of paper.

The young doctor skimmed through the printed words and signed it without a second thought, he just wanted to get out of there, least away from Delia as quickly as he could.

Once he was done, he zipped right out of the office, barely hearing what Delia had to say on his way out.

“Have a great day Dr Stone”.

**********

He could not remember the last time he looked at his watch but he knew from the warmness of the sun’s beams at that hour, it was bright and early. Well, to be more specific it was 8 am to be exact. Time flies when you least expect it, his hazel eyes reflected upon the glossy surface of his watch, both arms indication proclaiming it was now 7 pm. However, David breathed a sigh of relief, his patients had tended to, papers filed and organized, no sirens at the front door and things at the hospital were finally beginning to mellow down.

It was a good thing too, if he had to listen to another one of Mrs Keen’s cat stories, he swore he would have burst. But in all honesty, David had lost track of the amount of people he had consulted today. Remembering faces gets a tad bit difficult after the thirtieth file or so, however his memory refused to allow him to forget the same constant question brought in by each and every one of them.

“Where is Dr Carlos?”

“When is Dr Maine coming back?”

“What happened to Dr Monroe?”

“How is Dr Sunny?”

He felt his heart grow heavy, an unfathomable sense of discontent gripped at his bottom of. The footsteps from of his brown leather loafers seem to echo down the once lively hallway. Where were they? When were they coming back? He wished he knew the answers to those questions. No,he knew it all too well, it was just denial on his part. They were gone, more precisely were no longer, well human. Carlos, Maine, Monroe and Sunny, they were the faces on photo which adorned the backdrop of his computer. Why? Because he wanted to remember them as they were and not some pastel byproduct of sorcery or magic.

To think that fate would have them practicing at the same hospital. They were reputable and respectful doctors and everyone loved them, the staff, their patients. Heck, there was never a dull moment here behind these ivory walls, especially with Carlos around and you know for a fact you could always count of them when the sirens come on. The young doctor gently pushed his glasses over the bridge of his nose before tucking his hands into his pocket, feeling the fading warmth of the sun through the hospital windows as it began to set beyond the horizon. His hazel eyes stared idly at the checkered floor beneath his feet. They were more than just colleagues, No,they were his best friends.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore David, I’m just not as strong as you are”

“Everyone I love and care about is gone. I refuse to spend my days alone, I can’t and I won’t. I’m sorry David but this is goodbye”

“What is your problem David!? Everyone’s doing it, why do you have to be such a jerk!? I came to you cause you’re my friend, I thought you would understand! You know what! Screw it, I’m gone!”

“Godspeed David, I wish you all the best”

Did they abandon him? Or was it the other way around? David never truly understood what insanity could bring a person to discard everything that made them who they were, deny their humanity, all for a chance at a slice of heaven from a promised land. His grandfather had always said, struggling and hardships a part of living. Life was never a walk in the park, they knew that, everybody knows that. Fighting is what makes us human, obstacles exist there for a reason and what does not kill you only makes you so much stronger. The world is a dark, cruel place but it prepares you in its own way.

But now, how can the human race continue to survive, tempted with the knowledge that better, easier alternative exist? An alternative to living? David scoffed, gritting his teeth in frustration. He called them many names, cowards, quitters even to the extent of branding them as traitors. For a while, he even came to think ill of his friends, scorning the very thought that he had shared a bond with those converted ‘things’. He had long banished those feelings of resentment, in the end as much as he hated those supremacists at the HLF, was he any different to begin with?

The pathway back to his office took him right through the children’s ward. Pediatrics was an interesting subject back in medical school but it was definitely not David’s forte, not to mention children tended had a tendency to touch everything shiny object within their reach which annoyed the heck out of him on a constant basis. It was natural for the young doctor to amble on by, however upon passing by yet another ward, his hazel eyes caught onto something that froze him in his tracks. There, illuminated in the fading light of the setting sun though the partly draped window, laid almost motionless in bed was a child barely six years old.

David had given up counting the amount of tubes coming from under his blanket, his head made bare from the effects of the countless Chemo sessions. The room was silent, only but the sounds of the electrocardiograph machine beeping in resonance with his heartbeat. David knew the child was done for, Geno Stigma, an abominable, incurable disease which came to light barely three years ago. He can tell from the black, sickly, disfiguring hexagon shaped patches that littered the child’s pale skin. However, what truly caught his attention were the two Ponies by the side of his bed. The boy had trouble breathing, but he smiled a weak smile, his hand gently running through the pink streaked mane of maroon pelted Unicorn.

“Moom…” he said weakly

“Yes dear, it’s me. I’m here” the unicorn replied, her eyes brimming with tears.

The male Pegasus beside her gently placed his wing, his feathers bore a dark blue hue over her trembling frame, trying so hard to hold back the tears. But the boy’s words were too much to take. “Mom… I can see Jesus mom… he says… everything will be alright” he said.

The Pegasus turned away, a single tear trickled down the side of his face. The Unicorn felt bit her bottom lip in grief. “I know hun, I know…” she said weakly.

“Don’t cry mom… please… I’m not afraid…” the young boy replied. “Mom, dad… I love you…”

“We love you too son” said the male Pegasus. No sooner than that, the boy felt his eyes grow heavy, and within minutes and a final beep or two, the machine flat lined... he was gone, the smile never faded from his pale lips.

The Unicorn broke down in tears. “Oh GOD! COLIN NO!” she broke down crying, burying her face in neck of the Pegasus.

David stood there, a strange cold shiver running down his spine, robbing the feeling from the tips of his fingers. He merely stood there, petrified, not a sound even as he was shoved out of the way by another doctor and several nurses rushing past him. He felt nothing, he heard nothing, not even the ear piercing siren that echoed through the hallways or the red lights that flashed overhead.

He was a doctor, why did he not respond? He could have tried to resuscitate the boy, why didn’t he? The Ponies were forced out of the room, the female had to be dragged by the male Pegasus, screaming through the pain that tore at her heart.

“CLEAR!” the doctor cried, placing the defibrillator on the young boy’s chest, causing his small frail body to lift an inch off the hospital bed only with the only response being the same monotone flat line on the black screened monitor.

“CLEAR!” The young doctor could only watch as the doctor did his best, utilizing every known technique he could think of. His lips counting as his hands pumped at the boy’s chest, a pulse, a breath, anything.

Minutes passed but as relentless as he was, David knew his efforts were futile. With a long remorseful sigh, the doctor finally decided to call it. The mother’s sobs grew louder, drowned in anguish but David gave both the late boy’s parents a rather apathetic gaze

“I’m sorry for your loss” he said, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose before making his way past them. The mother’s cries began to fade the faster and farther he walked. The young doctor had no intention of looking back, the louder she cried, the quicker his steps became.

Gritting his teeth, he took off down the hallway, he had to get away from there, he just had to. His footsteps echoed through the now empty hallway and and soon, all he could heard were but his own.

The Gino Stigma disease claims yet another victim, bringing the total death count in this hospital alone to about four hundred or so. Those hacks at the science lab were still working on a cure but who were they kidding? Nature did not give birth to this monster, they did, humans did. It was a biological weapon gone wrong, engineered with every intention to ensure a cure would never be found. Confound those war mongering bastards and their military supremacy, why should the young pay for the mistakes of their old?

His parents were Ponified, that much David can tell. They had every intention of having their son do the same, but they were too late. By that time, the effects would have been too severe, he would not have survived the process. Strangely, Gino Stigma only affected the human race, the Ponies were completely immune to it. Ponifying him could have saved him.

But why the lingering thoughts? It was not the Ponified parents or even the Geno Stigma virus that had him walking in circles. No, he was trying to avoid the one true question playing on his very. Why? Why did he just stand there watching like a bumbling idiot? Why didn’t he do anything? He could have tried, at least try, may it be futile but he could have tried!

“Shit!” he cursed under his breath, making a beeline for his office. The words ‘Dr. David Stone’ engraved in gold upon the polished glass door. However, just as he reached for the doorknob, he felt a sudden tap on his shoulder.

“Guh!” he cried as he spun around startled by the tap. His back was pressed cautiously against the glass door only to realize it had been Delia, the young nurse from before.

“AH! Oh excuse me” she said, realizing what she had done.

“Delia, you scared me” said David, his hand placed firmly over his racing heart.

“I’m sorry Dr Stone, but I just needed to tell you something. You have a visitor” she said.

As his heart began to ease from from its sudden rapid acceleration, David raised a curious eyebrow. A visitor? Here at this hour? This was rather puzzling, not to mention suspicious as he combed his memory, trying to remember any appointments he may have forgotten today.

“And just in case you were wondering, no he does not have an appointment. He has been waiting in your office since four o’clock” the young nurse added.

“That’s a long time to be waiting for someone, I’m surprise he hasn’t thrown a fit. Why didn’t you page me?” David asked.

“He personally requested that you shouldn’t be bothered during your shift and that he would wait patiently for you until you were done”

David shifted his gaze to the office, hazel eyes narrowed suspiciously for a brief moment. However he eased up, his gaze turning to meet Delia’s baby blue ones. His smiled ever so warmly and gave her a gentle nod.

“Thanks for the head’s up, I’ll tend to him. You better get back to your shift before Nurse Jackie catches you again. I swear she has it in for the both of us” he said with a chuckle. The young nurse had to hide her blushing face with her clipboard, nodding in acknowledgement before hurrying back to her duties.

The young doctor straightened his white coat and fixed his black tie, whoever was behind that door, there was little to no reason to greet him with such tardiness.The small ceramic bell rang against the doorknob with the after motion of the opening door.

There before him stood a man man, dressed in an oddly familiar black suit. Facing the window with his hands tucked behind his back, he stared aimlessly into the distance at the city lights flickering to life as the last rays of sun began disappearing beyond the horizon.

“May I help you, sir?” David inquired, closing the door behind him.

“Well that depends on you, Dr Stone…” the man said, turning slowly to face the young doctor. At that moment, David felt the exact same cold chill running down the entire length of his spine. His eyes wide open in absolute bewilderment.

“That depends entirely on you”

(To Be Continued…)

I feel all ALONE every day, and you’re so FAR AWAY, I know SOMETHING’S  got to change, INSIDE OF ME- Inside Of Me, Dead By Sunrise

The Conversion Bureau: Guardian Chronicles

Written by Notorious/Jack Anarchy

Based on Blaze’s Fan-fic The Conversion Bureau

[Tags: Mild-Grimdark, Violence, Mild-Language, Adventure]

Links:

Equestria Daily: Click Here

PonyChan: Click Here

DeviantArt: Click Here

Episode 2: The Choices We Make

“You…”

For a moment, he could have sworn the very blood that flowed in his veins ran as cold as the Arctic sea. David merely stood there, completely numbed in astonishment by the unexpected guest that was standing before him. A cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck, his hazel eyes lay in the gape of complete disbelief.

“Oh, excuse me, just where are my manners?” the man in the black suit said before stepping closer to the young man. He then extended his right hand in a formal greeting.

“Miguel Estrada,” His voice was as husky and monotone, no more different than he sounded on the holovision.

The young doctor’s eyes shifted cautiously and restlessly in the direction of Miguel’s hand. It may be a universal proclamation of acknowledgement and peace however David could not help but ponder on the motives that may lay behind it. It took a short while before he proceeded to shake the stranger’s hand in return, everyone deserves a benefit of a doubt, the least he could do was hear him out.

“Dr David Stone…”

Miguel nodded, upon sensing a rather uncomfortable feeling of doubt and surmise in the air, released his hand before taking a step backwards from David’s comfort zone as to give the young man a little more room to breathe and to analyze the situation.

“I am willing to bet you have plenty of questions my good sir. Starting with what is God’s name is the Director of the Conversion Bureau doing in my office, am I correct?” he asked.

The young doctor’s expression however remained neutral, fighting desperately to bury the the myriad of questions he was dying unload on the man. “That would be the first, yes,” David agreed.

“Well then, I know you are a busy man Dr Stone so I will get straight to the point,” said Miguel, folding his arms. “I am pretty certain you are familiar with the Conversion Bureau,”

David nodded. “To the extent of my resources, vaguely”

There was a brief pause at the end of David’s sentence before the man inquired “And what of the Human Liberation Front?”

The young man felt his fist clench unexpectedly, his teeth clenched in resentment. “What about them?” he asked.

Miguel gave a long and heavy sigh, his dark brown eyes peering deep into David’s own. The young man felt an uncomfortable feeling wash over him, it was almost as if his very soul was being read like an open book.

“We live in dangerous times Dr Stone, I believe I need not bring to light  the current situation the American people and all of Ponykind face today. Protests, riots and all manner of atrocities continue despite the efforts of our government and our President.

About a week ago, the Conversion centre in New Jersey had been besieged, ravaged and decimated by radicals. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident,”

“I read about that in the New York Times but Bureau has no solid proof-“

“But you know better, don’t you Dr Stone?” Miguel interrupted

David was forced to silence the moment his very words were taken from him. There was most definitely something unnerving about Miguel’s eyes and it made the young man feel uneasy. It was then, the man reached into his coat pocket and removed a cigarette stick.

“Do you mind?”

“No, not at all, I have the purifier on,” replied David, his finger pointed briefly at the black device next to his table.

With the permission of his host, he then lit the tip of cigarette with silver lighter. Images of roses and thorns were engraved upon its polished surfaced along with several Spanish words carved beautifully in cursive.

“And I am afraid that the hostility will only escalate from here on out. Though some may keep to more peaceful methods of voicing their perspectives and beliefs, others had already begun taking matters into their own hands.

The Medical Centre stationed at the Bureau receives almost a dozen reports of savage assaults on Ponies on a daily basis,” said Miguel

David remained idle in thought as he watched the thin line of smoke ghosting upwards to the plastered ceiling above. “So many have been wheeled into the emergency rooms that honestly I have lost count. Bones broken, flesh carved, cutie marks mutilated, the list goes on,” he continued.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, fanatics always intend to get their message through one way or another,” David said, a tone of empathy in his voice.

The man took another puff from his cigarette before flicking the ashes into the bin next to him. “I agree, in all my years in the army the one thing I have learned about the human race is that we are indeed very convicted creatures.

But even so, Dr Stone, our place as the most dominant species on earth is coming to a slow but inevitable end. You are a smart young man, you have seen the signs,” said Miguel.

At that very moment, he broke eye contact with the man. “It doesn’t take a person with my caliber to come to such obvious conclusions Mr Estrada.

“But the human race is tenacious and relentless. They have survived for centuries and they will keep on surviving, they will keep on fighting no matter what the future may hold,“

“But would that truly be a future worth fighting for?” Miguel inquired.

David felt his fist clench and his teeth gritting slightly, irritated by the fact he was being cornered and outwitted every twist and turn however he fought to keep his composure.

“Which in turn, leads me to my next question Dr. Stone.  What is your personal opinion on the Ponies and their kind?” said the man, his voice taking a colder and stricter tone.

The young doctor felt yet a another chill, like the coldness of ice creeping through every nerve and every fiber of his spine. A sense of uneasiness gripped at his gut knowing his feelings walked the fine line between guilt and anger.

However, David’s eyes narrowed in agitation for he knew clearly of the man’s intentions. He was manipulating the situation, twisting every word, every sentence to his advantage in an effort to drive the young doctor a corner. But why? What does he stand to gain? David had no idea but he certainly was beginning to grow weary of this game of twenty questions.

Silently, Miguel inhaled yet another puff from his cigarette. The red ember glint burning through up the flammable roll of paper and tobacco followed a pungent puff of smoke.

“Allow me to paint you a picture Dr Stone, your shift has come to an end. You pack your suitcase, hang up your coat, wave the receptionist goodbye and make your way into the streets,” said Miguel.

David swallow hard, cautiously pondering on a possible direction or purpose of his words.

“It is dark, quiet and late. You make your way down an empty street with only the radiant lights of the street lamps to guide you. All in all, it was another uneventful walk home, but suddenly…”

Miguel paused deliberately for dramatic effect by taking yet another puff from his cigarette.

“You hear a cry for help from a dark alleyway nearby. Succumbing to your curiosity and your good will, you rush to help. There you see a filly. She is hurt, scared and helplessly surrounded by several men.

One could only assume these uncivilized brutes to be from the HLF. Brandished in their hands were knives, sticks, ropes, the rest I intend to leave to your imagination Dr. Stone. But right now, you are faced with a choice…” said the man.

“Either help that filly, or simply ignore, sorry, forsake her and be on your merry way while leaving her to her fate. So here is my question Dr. Stone, what would you do? What would you have done?”

At that moment, it was almost as if Miguel had reached into the very depths of his soul and snatched the life out of him. David felt his body go numb, his eyes widened in complete and utter shock. Never once had he pondered on such a possibility let alone a decision. What would he do? What would he had done? He felt a lump in his throat, his teeth gritted as his fist clenched.

“I… I…” he stammered.

However, Miguel interrupted him yet again “You’re not a hard man to read Dr. Stone. I caught a glimpse of you in the children’s ward moments earlier and I saw the way you looked at that couple, more precisely the denigration in your eyes,”

Miguel definitely struck a nerve. “You were stalking me?” David asked, his eyes narrowed in hostility.

“Stalking is a rather harsh word. No, I wasn’t stalking you, merely observing” Miguel replied, taking another puff from his cigarette.

“You see, you may have convinced yourself that your efforts to resuscitate that child wouldn’t have made a difference. Gino Stigma is terminal after all, still you could have tried, but you didn’t, did you?” he added.

“You want to know why?”

The young doctor was silent

“Because you have lost your faith in the human race, you have lost faith in yourself,” said Miguel

“SHUT UP!” David slammed his fit on the glass table hard enough to cause his stack of stationary to tip over and scatter itself all over the glossy surface.

“You don’t know the first thing about me! Just who the Hell do you think you are!?”

“Don’t I? I believe I am merely stating the obvious but this is the part where I find myself face to face with a rather intriguing enigma, why continue to stay human when you feel that way?

What is keeping you from joining the tens of thousands of humans before you?”

David scoffed “Because unlike some, I still have my pride, I have my dignity. I was brought into this world as a human being and may the Devil take my soul before I give that up, even for the promise of a better life!” he exclaimed.

Miguel chuckled dryly. “Pride? That is rather shallow isn’t it? If I could have a penny for every time I heard that one,”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, Dr Stone, you aren’t the first and you most certainly will not be the last. You can have my word on that,”

David felt terribly offended with that statement. “Call it whatever you want Mr Estrada but I remain true to my beliefs. I have gotten this far with my blood, sweat and tears and I did with two legs and not four!” David replied, anger flaring in his veins.

“Then answer my question Dr Stone! What would you have done? Would you had rushed to her aid or would you just walked away.

Or better yet, would you rather stand by like a gutless coward and watch them beat the living daylights out of her!?” Miguel raised his voice.

“I don’t owe you the liberty Mr Estrada! You barge into my office uninvited and now you’re giving me a lecture on my perspectives!? Screw you!” David snarled.

“I know very well you are trying to avoid it Dr Stone but you are doing a very, very poor job at doing so.

Now answer my question, or am I to believe that you are no better than those zealots from the HLF!?” Miguel exclaimed.

“I told you, I don’t have to answer that! I don’t-“ David snarled in retaliation

“What would you have done Dr Stone!? WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE!?” Miguel hollered at the top of his voice.

“I DON’T KNOW!” David cried in utter frustration, shutting his eyes as he turned away. With his fists clenched tightly he then took a deep breath, his voice now uttered in remorse “I don’t know…”

“That is what I thought,”. The man took another puff from his cigarette. “Then riddle me this Dr Stone, do you believe in the possibility of peace between our two races?” he asked.

David ran his hand down his face. “Peace, I remembered a time when I was naive enough to believe in something as callow as peace,”

He shrugged before returning his gaze to the man before him. “I used to believe in the possibility of a world without conflict, a world devoid of pain or suffering free of prejudice and animosity where humans and all of Ponykind could coexist peacefully with one another.

But everyday when I turn on the news...”

David sighed. “No, I have given up peace as an option Mr. Estrada. I believe as long as humans, no, people like the HLF and their self-righteous ideals continue to exist, peace is nothing but an illusion,”

The young doctor was well aware he had just quoted the the man in the golden armor from his dream as much as it was against his better judgement.

“What if you were given a chance to change that? Would you take it?” said Miguel.

David cocked an eyebrow, taking a sudden interest in his peculiar question. “Just where do you intend on going with this Mr. Estrada?”

Miguel took another puff from his cigarette. “Judging by your impressive intellect, I believe you are well aware of the existence of V.A.N.G.A.R.D, are you not?” he asked.

The young man nodded “I am, but once again, vaguely. All I know is that they keep the peace between humans and Pony kind” he added.

Miguel bore a rather confident smile. “How would you like to be a part of it?”

David’s eyes widened a little. “Part… of V.A.N.G.A.R.D?”

Miguel took another puff from his cigarette. “Dr. David Stone, you come at a rather high recommendation and we are certainly in need of your expertise on the team” he said.

The young doctor felt confused, at a high recommendation? From who?

“My apologies for not being completely honest with you. This was no casual visit, this was test and I am delighted to announce that you had passed.

Believe me when I say, it is something I say very often. The bottom line is, I want you on my team,” said Miguel.

“But I am no soldier, sure I may have some experience in self defense but my expertise lie in genetics, me… medicine. What good would I be to you?” David said.

“Rather humble aren’t you? You have two black belts, an IQ of over three hundred, graduated high school at the age of thirteen and Harvard with a medical degree at the age of eighteen.

Yes, I do admit your CV is indeed impressive but there is something I admire most about you,”

“And what is that Mr Estrada?” David inquired curiously.

The man paused for a moment, crushing the cigarette butt with his fist before discarding it into the bin beside him.

“Your heart Dr Stone, you are not easily swayed by promise of peace or paradise, you remain true to your beliefs and I personally believe that truly is commendable” he said.

The young doctor was silent, taking a moment to ponder on the man’s words. However before he could string together the words for a sentence, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Rest your worries, I do not expect you to make a decision here and now,” he said, clutched in his other hand was a card, brandished in the direction of the young doctor.

“Here is my card, think long and hard about this and when you have your answer, when you truly believe you are ready, come find me at the Bureau,” he said.

The young man felt reluctant at first but took the white card in his hand, written on it in bright silver were the words ‘The Conversion Bureau- Director- Col. Miguel. C. Estrada’.

“Now if you would excuse me as I take my leave. I have an appointment with the Secretary of Defense and I am already a full hour late,” he said, giving a gentle tap on David’s shoulder.

The man made his way to the door, the same tinkling of the bell rang briefly as he proceeded to open it. However, David turned around in time to catch the man just as he was stepping out into the hallway.

“Mr Estrada!” The man to pause in his step.

“Why do this? Why offer me a place in V.A.N.G.U.A.R.D? Even after what I said...”

Miguel returned his question with a warm smile. “That was because you were speaking your mind and not from your heart.

David, a wise man once told me, we are measured and judged not by our heritage or the blood in our veins but by the choices that we make,”

The young doctor was silent.

“I believe that every man has his right to believe what he wants to believe but when faced with a situation where he will be forced to make a decision that would challenge those beliefs, I believe that he will follow his heart and do the right thing,” he added.

“But why me?”

“Because, like you, I too believe in a world where humans and Ponykind can find finally find peace with one another.

Good evening Dr Stone and thank you for your hospitality, I certainly look forward to our next meeting,” he said before shutting the door behind him.

The young doctor sighed, his eyes lay fixed on the card in his hand. V.A.N.G.A.R.D, who was he kidding? Why would they possibly want a doctor joining their ranks? But then again, how much did he know, how much does the world truly know about about V.A.N.G.A.R.D? About the Bureau?

Were they spectres, ghosts, recognizable only as deja vu and dismissed just as quickly? Just who were they, truly? David allowed his suspicions to get the best of him, working up a bunch of assumptions but in the end they merely remained as such.

However, the young man could not help but remember the look in Miguel’s eyes. That look of fortitude and determination that would inspire comfort and confidence even in the most skeptical of men. Somehow David knew deep inside of him that he meant everything that he had said, just as he would on the holovision.

“Argh!” The young doctor ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, he felt confused and he needed a second opinion.

Then, a crack of thunder then directed his attention to the window just as drops of rain began splattering against his window pane. “Oh Shit!” he cursed, moving to grab his leather bag before making his way toward the exit.

**********

The city felt colder than usual, especially since summer was coming to a slow but definite end. David could feel the cold biting into his flesh as he braved the rain, the raindrops trickling from his old, worn out fedora given his pathetic excuse for an umbrella. He tucked his hand and his leather suitcase into his thick leather overcoat, grumbling as he unexpectedly stepped into a puddle in the middle of the street.

There was something increasingly different about these streets and no, it was not the voices resonating from the holographic billboards or the projected screens blaring images of some distant beach paradise with the sun shining brightly in the sky. It was the dwindling amount of people David would expect walking the streets on their way home from work.

Almost a year ago, he would brush shoulders every ten minutes with some random pedestrian due to how narrow the sidewalk was, now all he could eye were about a dozen people ahead of him, not putting into count the Ponies draped in their brightly colored raincoats. David shrugged, the lights from the flashing neon reflected upon his leather coat as the sounds of the passing cars were drowned by the heavy rainfall.

Darn, he could use a drink right about now, speaking of which. The young doctor then stopped in front of a small pub which bore a resemblance to an old English tavern with the words ‘Tim Bak Tuu’ engraved in wood lay holstered in chains above the typical oak door with the sounds of good ole tavern music from behind it.

“Little high little low!” he cried jovially, entering the tavern with a hard push on the door.

“Come on David, that joke is sad and old! You need some new material and this time please leave your coat at the door, I don’t want my customers slipping again,” replied the bartender that was standing behind a large wooden counter.

David chuckled, removing his rain drenched coat and hat before hanging it on a wooden hook by the door. “Hey, if anyone breaks a leg, just send them my way,” he said, closing his umbrella before leaning it against the wall.

“Har Har, easy for you to say cause you’re not the one getting sued” said the bartender with a scowl on his face.

“Oh lighten up Mikey, you know I was just kidding” said David as he sat himself upon a wooden stool by the counter.

Micheal Stone, David’s elder cousin, both of them moving to New York years ago believing in the old saying ‘If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere’, the Big Apple, where dreams are made of. The young doctor scoffed silently as he studied the strapping twenty five year old with eyes of bright cobalt blue and dark brown hair.

Though first impressions may have been misleading, he is a graduate from the esteemed culinary school of Le Corden Bleu and the youngest to ever be awarded a Michelin Star in recognition of his skills. To why he would even consider settling in a place such as this despite the myriad of offers for the position of Head Chef from five star restaurants from all over the globe was a complete and utter mystery to the David.

Was it arrogance? No, Mikey was never the type to let fame and recognition go to his head. Now that he thought of it, the young man had never bore any feelings of envy, dissatisfaction or even regret. After the grand opening of of his very own bar downtown, being content had pretty much become his middle name. It was probably the only reason why the young doctor had complete and utter faith that he would never see his cousin trotting into his office as a pastel horse.

His hazel eyes looked over his shoulders, noticing a strange crowd of both humans and Ponies mingling with one another. The bar felt oddly lively without so much as a trace of animosity between to two races with their smiles and laughter bringing such warmth and joy to the atmosphere. The young man smiled ever so warmly before returning his gaze to his cousin.

“So, what can I do you for cous?” asked Mikey with a smile on his face, only to raise his eyebrow in confusion when he realized David has been staring eerily at him for quite some time.

“Whoa, I know I’m pretty cous, but my door don’t swing that way,”

“Who? Wha? No! God! You’re sick you know that!” David said, snapping to attention. “And I’ll have a pint if you don’t mind!”

Mikey chuckled “Alright, a pint it is,” he said, reaching for a chilled glass from his cooler as he filled it with beer to the brim from a golden tap perched behind his counter.

As he waited for his drink, the young doctor rubbed the back of his head in hesitation suddenly realizing why he was there in the first place.

“What is it this time? That bitch nurse Jackie got your tie up in a twist again?” said Mikey all of a sudden.

David’s eyes widened for a moment. “Wha? No! No, that’s not it…”

“Come on David, I know when something’s on your mind. You always have that face when you do, that ‘IhaveabigproblemandIneedsomehelpbutIdon’twanttoadmitit’ face,” teased Mikey, distorting his expression in an effort to mock his cousin before sliding the mug in his direction.

“Oh grow up Mikey” said David, pouting as he caught the cold handle of the beer filled mug.

“So you gonna tell me or do I have to play charades with you again?”

David took a sip from his beer before laying down the thick glass mug on the glossy marble counter top. “Let’s just say, I have this… friend… of a friend…” said David

Mikey nodded his head. “Riggghht, a friend of a friend… please do go on,”

The young doctor merely glared unamused. “Well, let’s just say, he’s been offered a job, by some… Hospital! Yeah. And they seem a little shady, he doesn’t know what they do exactly, or what he’d be doing there,”

The young bartender folded his arms and rubbed his chin in thought.

“Now my question is, do you think that he should? I mean, take them up on the offer?” David inquired.

“Will he be helping others by doing do?” Mikey asked all of a sudden.

Hazel eyes widened in surprised. “Yes, in a manner of speaking,” he answered awkwardly.

“Will he have a chance to change this God forsaken world for the better?” Mikey asked yet again.

“Yes, probably” said David as awkwardly as before.

Mikey’s eyes narrowed a little, leaning over his counter as his face inched closer and closer to David’s own, making the poor doctor back away uncomfortably, his voice now striking a rather serious tone.

“Will he be able to save us all?”

“Ma…maybe?” replied David, feeling awfully uncomfortable right about now.

“Then there’s your answer right there!” said Mikey with a laugh, backing away from the young doctor with David breathing a sigh of relief.

“You know I hate it when you do that” said David with a scowl.

“Sorry cous, but you know how I get with your friend of a friend stories. But all in all, tell your ‘friend’, I see no harm in him joining this ‘hospital’,” said Mikey before turning his back to his younger cousin. He then grabbed hold a whisky glass from the top shelf as he began polishing it with a clean towel.

“Long as he believes that he could do some good in this world…” said Mikey. His sudden  moment of silence made David cock an eyebrow.

“David, you and I have been here for a long time and I’ve seen this city gone from bad to worse. Although at times I may seem as if I hadn’t a care in the world but I’m no stranger to what goes on around me.

I’ve read the papers and I’ve seen the news. Truth is people are scared cous, all our lives we were led to believe that we were all alone in the universe. Then five years ago this place, Equestria popped up on the map,” said Mikey

David remained silent, taking a sip from his beer before allowing his cousin to continue.

“Then these, Ponies, started migrating into our cities and integrating themselves into our societies and our way of life.  Not long after the idea of Ponification surfaced along with a promise of a better life, a better future.

Humans can be tolerant David but even tolerance has its limits and some people just aren’t ready to accept the idea that their very existence is under threat,” he added, slotting back the glistening glass into the cooler beside him.

“After all, humans are frail, fearful and insecure creatures, we all know that. They always constantly fear what they do not understand. Whether its caused by blatant ignorance or arrogance, I don’t know but what I do know is that fear will always turn to hatred and as we have learned time and time again from the pages of our bloody history that hatred will inevitably lead to suffering,”

David’s eyes narrowed. “So let me get this straight, are you saying what those crazy bastards are doing out there to the ponies are because they are afraid?”

“I didn’t say that David, not exactly,” replied Mikey, turning to face his younger cousin.

“Then what are you trying to say? The HLF are crazy nutjob humanists who believe violence is the only answer to anything and everything.

Those violent attacks on Ponies? They’re not doing it because they’re afraid, they’re doing it because they get off to it!” said David, his clear detest in the tone of his voice.

“I know how you feel cous but these are but the actions of a few so labeling the entire human race as bloodthirsty, war mongering savages is plain unfair.

You’re not like that and neither am I yet we walk on two legs and enjoy a good hot dog once in a while,” said Mikey.

“Your point?” David inquired.

Mikey shrugged. “You remember the stories Grandpa used to tell us? Stories of heroes, knights in shining armor riding into battle, that whole shebang?” he asked. David nodded at the question before taking another sip from his pint.

“Remember that one story about Arthas? The Valiant? Remember the part when he was forced to choose between his own kind and that of the Vargans? The wolf people?” Mikey asked yet again with David nodding yet again.

“He did make a choice David but he chose no side, instead he chose to fight for himself and his beliefs. By doing so, he was forever immortalized as a hero for both for the Vargans and his people,” said the young man and with a smile on his face.

“Come to think of it, how did that story end anyways?” asked David.

Mikey chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head “Sorry, I forgot, it’s been so long, heh” he said with a nervous chuckle as David smacked his forehead, dumbfounded by his cousin.

“If you’re going to use one of Grandpa’s stories as an example, the least you could do is to remember how it ended you dolt,”

“But the bottom line is…” said Mikey, grabbing David’s attention.

“I believe that that both humans and ponies could do without the idea of vigilantes, false prophets, or even saviors.

What they need is a hero, someone who believes he could save this God forsaken world, one who would give it his all to fight not just for the humans but for all Ponykind” said Mikey before returning to polishing his beer mugs.

“And cous… I believe the world could really use one right about now,” he said with a shrug.

David was silent in thought, taking a deep gulp from his beer mug, his hazel eyes focused on the rising bubbles behind the transparent glass grasped in his hand.

“Eh! Mikey! Would you top me up, ole buddy, ole pal!” came a sudden voice next to the young doctor, startling him for a moment.

His eyes shifted to what appears to be an old colt, his coat was as brown as oak and his whitish mane was messy and unkept. David can tell from his overly foul and repulsive breath not to mention his lack of coordination that he has had a pint too many.

“I would, if you pay off your tab you bootless, leaching, good-for-nothing old goat!” snapped Mikey, snatching away the beer mug from the colt’s mouth.

“Oh come on, throw me a bone here!” said the colt.

“I’ma throw something at you alright and it ain’t gonna be no bone! In fact, maybe I should throw you instead! Right out onto the curb!” said Mikey, folding up his sleeves.

David merely watched, a grin growing on his face as if amused by the whole commotion. “I guess manners have long died for you youngens, maybe I should just move away, faaarr away to Equestria!” said the old colt.

“Well what’s stopping you? Go on, git! Leaavee this place! Oh wait, they don’t have BEER there do they!?” Mikey exclaimed as he slapped the counter top.

As both colt and man continued to argue, David turned away. He idly swirled the golden liquid within his glass as he gazed into his own reflection. A hero? The young doctor has never thought of it that way, but he could not shake the thought, the reasoning behind it. V.A.N.G.U.A.R.D, The Bureau, Miguel? Could he really do some good by joining them?

But Mikey was right in more ways than one. The world was in complete disarray and even with the remnants of the human race having come to terms with what it has become, he knew that threat of an all out anarchy was just waiting for a chance to rear its ugly head.

However, in the end he was just one man, what could one man do? The young man shrugged before proceeding to down what was left in his mug.

*********

“So, any plans for tomorrow? It’s the weekend after all,” said Mikey as he slid his hand into the long sleeve of his leather overcoat. David shook his head.

“With luck, some well deserved rest. Sides, I have to get back to the hospital later tomorrow,” said David, straitening his own coat. Mikey shrugged

“Again? David there’s more to life than playing doctor you know. Don’t get me wrong, I know you’re good at what you do and  they’re a little shorthanded at the moment but don’t you think you’re letting them make a mule outta you?”

David chuckled. “Mule is quite the understatement Mikey but unfortunately with everyone headed for the Conversion Centers, someones got to look after the patients,”

Mikey nodded “Well, I guess you’re right. Hey, someones gotta care right?” he said with a smile before walking outside into the rain.

The young doctor took one last look at the bar behind him which was now dark and bare. It has been hours since he first arrived and the patrons had long left the establishment, with the exception of one having to be booted out with a firm kick to the behind.

“Hey come on, we don’t have all night cous. I wanna get home as much as you do” Mikey said.

David nodded, slipping on his fedora before tucking his bag into his coat and making his way outside.

The two young men then said their goodbyes before going their separate ways. David’s eyes wandered to the watch worn on his wrist, the face of his classic Rolex, an heirloom from his late grandfather showed both hands pointing to 12am. Has he been there that long?  David groaned but was relieved at the knowledge that his apartment was only two blocks away. Umbrella in hand, he made his way down the desolate street.

The young doctor lay silent in thought, trying hard to ignore the persistent voices from the sidewalk Plexiglas billboards that came to life the movement it sensed him passing by. He has heard his fair share of propaganda disguised as high budget ads from the Conversion Bureau.

Not to mention the religious, egotistical and often self righteous bullshit from the Human Liberation Front and their hippy counterparts, the I.S.H.A or better known as The International Human Survival Alliance. David scoffed, today has been pretty eventful and any effort to digest any more might just give him heartburn.

With his mind somewhere between Jupiter and Mars in a manner of speaking, David suddenly found himself a good four inches shorter on his right side. His leather loafer now completely submerged in a deep puddle.

“Oh GOD DAMMIT!” he cursed, lifting his foot out of the mucky rainwater. Those were his favorite pair of shoes and he had saved a great deal for them too.

“Can’t I get a freaking break? I’m not asking for the world here you know just-“

“Help! Help us, please!”

The young man felt his heart jump the moment he heard the call. His eyes snapped frantically the alleyway not too far from where he stood. Without a second thought, he took off down the rain drenched walkway as fast as he could. As he got closer, his caught several more voices mostly male and by judging by the manner of which they spoke, they were definitely not friendly.

Their cries as if egging someone or something on made him sick, loud enough to drown out someones terrified cries and pleas for mercy. He slid to a stop at the entrance of the alleyway, with his heart racing and his breaths frantic as his hazel eyes stared at complete disbelieve at the sight that lay before him.

“My turn!” cried a man, chuckling cynically as he twirled what appears to be baseball bat in his hand.

This was not happening, definitely not happening. David swore that this was a joke, a dream, anything, but this was not happening. There at the very end of the dark, filthy alleyway were six men.

They brandished each a baseball bat, a hockey stick, even a metal pole accompanied by the evil yet sinister smiles  that lay plastered on their faces. Their menacing eyes lay fixed on the very thing they had outnumbered and outgunned, surrounding them like a pack of hungry hyenas giggling at the thought that they would soon have their fill. It was then, David felt the exact same chill run down his spine.

“Please, please just leave us alone…” she pleaded

It was a filly but she was not alone. She laid helplessly on the ground, her lime green pelt smeared with mud and her cutie mark was too stained to make out. Lying protectively over a brown colt, panting on the ground, blood streaked down his head from a horrible gash that David could only assume was caused by the blunt edge of one of those baseball bats.

“And miss out on the fun?! Fat chance freak!” said one of the men, laughing somewhat manically as he did.

“You’re an abomination, a monster, and you know what we do to monsters now do you?” said the other, this one wearing a red baseball cap.

The filly gritted her teeth, tears brimming in her eyes as if silently asking Why? Why would they do such a thing? They have done nothing to them, why did they attack without cause or provocation?

“Please, let us go! I’ll do anything, please…” she pleaded yet again.

“The only place you’re going is the morgue freak,” sneered the other man, his large beer belly almost spilling out from his overly tight jeans.

Her tears spilled from her eyes only to be washed away by the rain. She knew that deep down inside that no one was going to come to her aid, they were Ponies, and their lives meant nothing to these two legged creatures. It was then she felt a soft nuzzle on her neck as her peach orange eyes shifted down to the injured colt.

“It’s okay Mint, I’m right here with you,” he muttered.

The filly felt her lower lip tremble. “I know…,” she said.

David merely watched from the entrance of the alley, petrified by the whole ordeal. His mind was frantic, loss for options, loss for choices, everything was at a blank. Then, he felt a gasp escape him as his heart skipped a beat.

BAM!

Small drips of blood splattered across the pavement as the baseball bat came in contact with the filly’s head. She tumbled almost lifelessly to the wet cement floor with her eyes half awake. The world was spinning and everything was a blur, the numbing pain throbbing at the back of her skull which was possibly fractured from the initial impact.

“Whoo wee! That was a good one!” cried one of the men.

“Hey, before we up finish these freaks, why don’t we take a lil’ souvenir?” said the other as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small hunting knife.

The young doctor felt the very warmth desert his body, all that was left was the bitter cold and a grip like vice around his windpipe.

Just walk away…

This was not his fight, not his fight. Even if he did, it would be one against six, the odds were stacked against him. He had no intention of getting hurt over a bunch of unfortunate Ponies who should known better than to wander outside this late at night.  David cursed under his breath, why was this happening? Why did he have to be at the wrong place and the wrong time? Why? Why? Why?

Walk away…

David gritted his teeth as he turned away, proceeding taking a single step with every intention of leaving that place behind.

“This here’s gonna be my fourth Cutie Mark, well momma always did wanted me to get a hobby,” the man said, getting on his knees as he twirled the knife in his hand.

Walk away now, this would have all been a bad dream…

“Don’t you touch her!” the colt cried, only to receive a hard kick to the stomach in return. He coughed and choked, spitting some blood onto the concrete floor.

“Shut yer yap monster, you’re gonna be next,” said the human in the red baseball cap.

David shut his eyes and clenched his fists “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, please forgive me,” he muttered.

“You’re sorry? You're not thinking of running away now are you?"

“Grandpa?” David’s eyes snapped wide open. It came to him like an angel’s whisper and soon the words began flowing like drops of rain upon his lather coat.

“I believe that every man has the right to believe what he wants to believe but when faced with a situation where he will be forced to make a decision that would challenge those self conceived beliefs, I believe he will follow his heart and do the right thing”

“I believe that the Ponies and the human race could do without the idea of vigilantes, false prophets, or even saviors.

What they need is a hero, someone who believes in a world without conflict, one who would give it his all to fight not just for the humans but for all Ponykind”

“And cous… I believe the world could really use one right about now”

“We will all have our crossroads David, life is but a journey filled with twists and turns. Always remember that there will always an easy way, a right way and a crazy way.

These choices will be ours and ours alone and being capable of doing so it what makes us…”

“Human…” David’s muttered. “I know Grandpa” He dropped his umbrella to the ground as it was taken away by the wind.

He then removed his fedora, allowing his hair to be drenched in the pouring rain with the raindrops running down his face before tossing it into the street. The young doctor then reached back and pulled the hood of his coat over his head as it shrouded his eyes in blackness.

“Let’s do this…” he said, slipping off his glasses from the bridge of his nose.

The man’s eyes widened as if in ecstasy, the half lidded eyes of the filly reflected silver blade of the knife. She felt so tired, tired of fighting it, Princess Celestia was right, these were vile creatures who knew no mercy or compassion. She should have listened to her parents and stayed in Manehattan, now she will pay for her naivety.

“I’m sorry Jonas…” she muttered weakly.

“Do it! I wanna hear her scream!” cried one of the men. The silver blade was about an inch from her flank when all of a sudden, the men heard the sounds of rainwater splashing violently behind them which sounded more like heavy footsteps.

“What the heck?” said the man with the knife, his eyes looking up just in time to catch a young man sprinting down the alleyway, a leather suitcase clenched in his hand.

The fat bearded man from before merely stared, half in confusion and bewilderment but when he realized he was standing directly in the path of the young man, it was too late.

The young man swung his suitcase in his direction with all his might, the hard leather case hitting the man’s chest at such a force, it knocked the air right out of his lungs. But by impulse, he clenched the hard bag in his arms as he tried to regain his composure. However, the young man gave him no chance to do so.

His baby blue eyes widened as the young man leaped into the air, spinning mid flight, he landed a hard kick to the man’s chest. The man choked and convulsed as the kick landed directly on his solar plexus, feeling the very space between his ribs crack upon impact.

The blow was powerful enough to send him flying in to the air, his large heavy frame took off like a loose cannonball as he was sent tumbling backwards. The man with the knife could only let out a short, shrill, girl-like squeal the moment the man came barreling into him, sending both of them crashing into the hard brick wall at the end of the alley.

“Austin! Bubba!” His gaze now filled with rage as he turned his attention to the man in the hood, landing effortlessly on his own two feet.

“You son of a bitch!” the man in the baseball cap snarled.

David’s eyes narrowed at the men before him. “I don’t know if you’re crazy or just plain stupid but you sure picked the wrong guys to tangle with,” said the other.

“Let the Ponies go,” said David, his voice deep and threatening.

“Oh, lookie what we have here boys, we got ourselves a pony lovin fag!” said one of them, looking a little younger than the others, David assumed he was eighteen.

“Well we’ve dealt with those sons of bitches before,” said the other. Up close, David noticed the golden tooth on his bottom jaw.

“Maybe this one just needs a lesson he won’t forget. Don’t worry, we’re mighty good at teachin, we’re so good we should start chargin” said the one with the single earring on his left ear.

“Bubba! Bubba, Jesus Christ Bubba!” cried the man with the knife.

The large man, the one referred to as Bubba was bleeding furiously from his side, the hunting knife buried completely in the wound.

He moaned and cried “Oh God, I’ma gonna die. I don’t wanna die…”

“You won’t Bubba, I promise. Oh God, we gotta get him to a doctor” the man known as Austin said frantically.

David held back the urge to help the man, the wound looked deep and if left untreated, the loss of blood would lead to shock or worse, infection and their particular location left cleanliness to question.

“YOU!” David’s attention snapped back to Austin, climbing to his feet as he snatched the baseball bat from the man in the cap.

“You did this to Bubba! I’ma kill you! I’ma KILL YOU GOOD!” he snarled.

David brazenly stood his ground “You don’t want to do this,” said the young doctor warned, his fists clenching at the sight of the approaching man.

“SHUT UP!” he cried as he lifted the bat, rushing close to the young man he took a full out swing. David ducked just in time, the hard wooden bat missing his forehead by near inches.

His hazel eyes narrowed, in a blink of an eye David retaliated by swinging his right into Austin’s left cheek, the very impact was almost bone breaking as it knocked the very sense right out of the man. The man stumbled backwards but before he could regain his composure, David swung his leg into the man’s head. A spray of saliva and bits of blood spouted from Austin’s lips feeling as if he had just taken the brunt of sledgehammer to the face. He felt the world starting to grow hazy and turbulent.

But that did little to stop the man, shaking it off he charged again, taking another swing at the young doctor. However this time David was ready for him as he caught the bat in his hand. Before the man could so much as blink, David slammed his fist straight into the man’s chin, immediately sending his head backwards in a violent snapping motion.

Gritting his teeth, he brought the bat right down to his knee, the sound of cracking and splintering wood echoed through the alley as the bat was snapped in half before ripping the pieces from Austin’s hands and tossing them aside.

Austin was dazed, his lip was busted and bleeding. David then dashed forward, throwing his arms around the man’s neck as he held him tightly. With a single motion, he brought his knee up to his chest, slamming it hard enough to choke him upon impact. He then continued, once, twice, three times over and over again, from his chest to his stomach well aware that he was reducing the man’s ribs to mere pieces with ever impact.

Austin cried furiously, charging forward he attempted to tackle his shoulder into the young doctor, however David immediately retreated. In a burst of energy, he dragged the man down to his waistline before driving his knee right into the man’s face with a blow so hard he snapped backwards back onto to his feet with his teeth was now soaked with blood.

David’s knuckles cracked as his hands curled into fists, with all his might, he then slammed them into the man’s face like the pistons of a car. One to his left cheek, one to his right, one to his chest then to his side. Austin felt like a punching bag and through his daze he tried to get in a few punches of his own but David merely dodged or deflected them, returning punches twice as hard. The young doctor’s was fast, his feet stepping from side to side as if he was dancing in the rain.

With a snarl, David landed a hard uppercut to Austin’s chin, sending his head snapping violently backwards. Finally, he spun around and landed a hard kick to the man’s stomach.

POW!

The man could have sworn his very his soul had been shot right out of his body like a slug from the barrel of a shotgun. It was if he felt his very stomach had ruptured and exploded as it caved in from the explosion of force before being violently and helplessly tossed into the brick wall behind him. The others were dazed but upon seeing their fellow man sliding unconscious to the floor, they burst into a fit of rage.

They came, baseball bat, hockey stick and metal rod a swinging. David barred his teeth, his eyes lit up with the fury of an animal long caged within. If it was a brawl they want, then by God’s name they shall have it. David shifted into his stance, deflecting the first attack with two brash swings to the face before sending the man with the baseball cap stumbling backward with a kick to the chest.

The one with the gold tooth swung a the metal rod in his direction, missing the young man as he ducked and weaved his way through the of violent, aimless swings. David then dug his feet into the ground before propelling himself into a dash, ducking under yet another swing, he tackled himself into the man before throwing his arms around the man’s waist. With a single motion, he spun himself around behind the man before lifting him into the air.

The man was caught completely off guard and definitely off motion as he was thrown into suplex back first into the concrete. He groaned and writhed from the flaring pain in his back and his neck. Hues of bright hazel widened the moment he caught a hockey stick being swung downwards in his direction. He rolled away just in time as it hit the ground with a loud metallic clang.

The teenager raised the stick again, however David rolled onto his back before slamming his foot into his stomach hard enough to send him staggering backwards a couple of steps. The young doctor rushed to his feet before he charging forward, his knuckles cracked as his fist curled tightly.

Without a second thought, he swung a barrage of brash punches and kicks into the teenager, slamming his hardened fists into his face, ribs, sides. The teenager fumbled about as he tried to ready himself for another swing his hockey stick before David stepped in and slammed his fist into his side right into his stomach.

The teen felt an as if his gut had twisted itself in a knot as coughed and choked. Discombobulated and dazed, he bit his bottom lip from the excruciating pain like drills piercing into his brain. David’s eyes narrowed yet again as he round-housed the teenager right into the cheek. The blow sent his head snapping furiously to the side with his body spinning in a full circle as he took a hard tumbled to the ground.

The one with the earring pulled out a butterfly knife fro his pocket, unfolding it almost flawlessly in his hand before swinging violently and frantically with every intention of slashing the young doctor to ribbons. David shifted back into his stance, instinctively raising his hands to protect his face as dodged the silver razor best he could.

“Argh!” he cried, having the blade cut right though his leather jacket and across his right arm.

Fortunately it was just It was just a graze, however the man grew cocky judging by the overconfident sneer on his face as he lunged forward, thrusting his blade forward in the direction of David’s chest. Big mistake! Immediately, he dodged to the side as the silver blade barely missing him by a hair before grabbing hold of the man’s wrist. Like an uncoiled spring, with an eruption of raw power David then swung his hardened fist into the man’s side, a direct impact straight into the liver.

The man body contorted as his jaw lay agape, it was almost as if every single pain receptor in his body ignited at that very moment. It overwhelmed him to a point where he could had emptied the contents of his stomach all over the pavement but it was far from over. David then swung his fist violently into the man’s face, once, twice then with all his might he slammed the man’s elbow down mercilessly on his knee.

The sickening sound of the bones ins his arm snapping in two was drowned by a long wail of pure agony. David barred his teeth like a wild animal before swinging the same knee straight into the man’s stomach, the impact knocking the air right out of him.

With the man’s arm was now limp in his own, David tossed the knife into the air. With a firm grip on the man’s wrist, he slammed his foot into the man’s side at the same time wrenching the arm right out of its socket.

He screamed in pure agony.

He then dragged the man in the direction of the nearby dumpster before slapping his hand on the plastic lid. Just as the blade began descending back to the ground, David snatched it in mid air before driving the four inch blade straight into the man’s palm, pinning him to the dumpster.

“AAAARRRHHH! YOU SON OF A BITCH! ARRRGH!”

“Do me a favor and stay here for a moment would you?” David said sadistically. As the man tried to free himself, the young doctor returned his attention to the staggering trio finally managing to regain what was left of their composure.

“COME ON!” he cried as he raised his fists in challenge to the men before him. They kept a safe distance, with their confidence gone they were now stricken with doubt and fear and even with their weapons clasped tightly in their hands, they were hesitant to attack.

Suddenly, David felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. His eyes widened feeling as if the world had come to an abrupt stop. He caught shards of broken tempered glass probably from that of a bottle whistling past him as he tumbled to the ground. Everything felt silent and not even the sounds of the rain had muted in his eardrums.

His breaths grow heavy and the feeling of something warm running down the bridge of his nose made him realize the blow was a lot worse than anticipated. He groaned as he was forced onto his feet by the two men and the teenager. David finally laid eyes on his attacker Austin from before. He battered,  bruised and pissed as Hell as he tossed what was left of a broken Jack Daniels into the street.

“Hold him!” he snarled. David was then mercilessly flung into the wall with all three of them pinning him tightly. Austin spat the blood from his mouth onto the ground. “Well boy, since you’re in such a hurry to die then I’ma gonna have you fitted for a halo!” he said.

With all his strength, he drove his fist into David’s stomach. David’s eyes widened, gasping as he spat involuntary from the impact of the punch. God did it hurt! Nothing had prepared him for that. Austin then grabbed a handful of David’s hair, lifting his head before slamming his fist into David’s right cheek and then again into his left, over and over again.

The young doctor was in a world of pain, his face was completely battered and bruised with blood splattering onto the floor with each and every impact. However Austin could not satisfy the itch within, he wanted more, he wanted the young man to regret that whore of a mother of his ever brought him into this world.

His green eyes searched the alley for something else, something he could use and it was not long before he settled his gaze on the metal pole on the ground. He smiled maliciously before reaching down, tightening his grip around it as the thunder roared terrifyingly in the skies above.

David could feel his consciousness slipping away, through his half lidded eyes he saw Austin approach him, the sinister sneer bore clearly on his face. “Boys, why don’t we make a retard outta this one?” he said. The others merely returned that question with the sinister smiles of their own.

“I want you to remember this, this is what happens punk ass bitches like you who try to mess with the HLF. THIS here is what happens when you decide play hero and side with those freaks!

But don’t worry, after we put you in asylum we’ll be sure to take very, very good care of them,”

This was it, this was the end of the road, he gambled and he loss and David has never felt more powerless. He thought he was strong enough but it was merely a poor decision based on foolish assumptions and now it was time to give the Devil his due. David smiled weakly, at least this time he tried.

“Giving up to soon boy?.”

David’s eyes widened, was he that close to death already?

“Remember the stories, remember Arthas The Valiant…”

David recalled his Grandfather’s tale, of the brave warrior, bloodied, broken and bruised upon the battlefield. Upon the large armored man brandishing a sword, ready to cut our hero down, the hero merely smiled, even at the face of death. “Smiling at your demise Arthas?” asked the man.

“No…” The hero replied. I told you once before, didn’t I? As long as courage continue to flow through my veins, as long I my soul remains untainted and my body unbroken…”

“Heaven help the poor bastard that stands in my way…” muttered David under his breath.

“Remember David, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear,”

His hazel eyes wandered to the wounded Ponies on the ground, gazing deep into the filly’s orange eyes. Though half lidded and barely conscious, she called out to him, begging him, pleading with all her heart and soul. “Save us, save us please…” David shook the daze from his eyes just Austin swung the metal rod in his direction.

“You know what you have to do... NOW FIGHT!”

David cried at the top of his voice, with an eruption of raw power he reached out, grabbed and the bewildered man in the baseball cap with all his might, putting him helplessly in the direct path of the metal rod. Austin’s eyes widened, it was a little too late to stop.

The gut wrenching sounds of a bone cracking and shattering upon impact could be heard as a spray of blood splattered over the surface of the wall. The light of life and consciousness faded from the man’s eyes as he was sent face first into to the ground from the terrifying impact of the metal rod. His bloodstained cap floated lifelessly to the rain drenched concrete.

“Oh my gawd, KENNY!”.

David snapped his attention to the man next to him with fury of a thousand suns flaring in his hazel eyes. The man shrieked just as the young man launched himself forward, slamming his forehead into the man’s nose feeling it turn to mush from the brunt of the force. “AAARGGH!” The man cried in pain just as David’s caught sight of glossy ivory hilt a hunting knife holstered at his belt. Now pissed drunk with rage, he reached for the blade before ripping it out from the leather sheathe, all five inches and as malicious as a cobra’s fang.

Without thinking twice, he buried the blade into the man’s stomach. The man chocked, feeling five inches of cold hard steel slice right into his belly. David yelled in pure rage before ripping the blade out and stabbing it back into the man’s stomach, again and again. As patches of blood splattered all over the floor, he then tore the blade from the man’s body and watched callously as the man fell to the floor barely clutching his wounds as he did.

“Son of a bitch!” Austin cursed, taking another swing at the young doctor. However David ducked, spinning into the man as he twirled the knife in his hand, flipping it downwards. With his grip tightly around the ivory hilt, with a single motion he slashed the blade across Austin’s stomach cutting deep into his abdomen. “Argh! SHIT!”

Austin snarled before swinging the pole in an effort to retaliate but a clang of metal rung through the alley as knife and pole came into contact with David making good use of  blade to deflect the metal pole away  from him. In that short moment, David grabbed hold of the pole but not before slashing Austin across the chest. “ARGH!” The young doctor spun around as he  slammed the blunt edge of his elbow into Austin’s nose.  He cried in pure agony, letting go of the pole as he stumbled backwards. “Son of a bwitch! He bwoke my noase! FARK!” he cried, clutching his nose.

With his grip now firmly on the pole, he let out another rage filled cry as he swung it into Austin’s knee. “AAAARRRGGGHH!” The man went straight to the ground.

The young doctor then turned his attention to the young teenager who was now literally petrified at the image of the demon before him. The hockey stick almost vibrating in his hand, a faint stench of urine became apparent for the boy was so scared that he peed himself.

Then suddenly, unable to contain himself any longer, he dropped the hockey stick, bursting into tears. “Please… please, I don’t wanna die. I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again, I swear!” he pleaded.

David’s eyes remained as deadly as ever as he brandishing the metal pole in his direction. “Go home kid, before I change my mind but if I ever see you around these HLF scum again...,” he threatened.

The young boy nodded frantically before sprinting off into the rain as fast as his legs could carry him.

“Whevere da heck do you shink you’re goin!? Get back ere, get ba-“

David twirled the blade in his hand before flinging it in Austin’s direction. The man’s words were cut short by a long horrendous cry from the bottom of his throat. His panicked eyes shifted to the knife that protruded from his thigh.

“AAAAARRRGH! SON OF A... GOD DAMMIT!” he screamed.

Jerking hard on the blade, the man who was pinned to the dumpster finally managed to free himself. Using his good hand, he brandished his bloody knife before taking off in David’s direction only to be met with the blunt end of the metal pole slamming hard into his stomach.

He choked, a sickening goop of blood and saliva dribbled from his busted lips the moment he felt the air knocked out of his body, staggering and stumbling several steps backward. David kicked away the blade he had dropped as he approached the man, tightening his grip on the pole. The man could only stare in horror as David swung the pole in his direction, madly bludgeoning the man over and over again, painting the walls with splatters of bright crimson.

The man screamed and pleaded but it fell on deaf ears, even as he lifted his hands as a sign of surrender, David took a hard swing at his fingers. “AAAARRRGGH!” he screamed. The young doctor snarled before lunged forward, taking one final swing to the man’s face, feeling his jaw shatter upon impact. The very light was snuffed from his eyes as he tumbled unconsciously to the ground.

The young doctor shifted his attention back to Austin, attempting to crawl away like the worthless bug he was, dragging his now limp leg on the ground. David walked ahead of him before mercilessly stomping his foot down on his fingers. “ARGHHHH!!!” Austin screamed.

“THAT! That you bastard is what REAL pain feels like! You love pain, I’m going to let you can have it, as much as you want!” David snarled, increasing the pressure of his foot on the man’s fingers.

“Pwease! Pwease have mewcy!” Austin finally said, pleading through his busted nose, begging for the pain to stop.

“MERCY!? MERCY!? Did you show THEM mercy you cock-sucking piece of SHIT!” David snarled viciously before slamming his foot into Austin’s stomach, causing the man to choke and convulse.

“Pwease… have me awested, thow me in jail, I down’t care. But pwlease, stop…” he said through his gasping breath.

David’s eyes narrowed, feeling his hand tremble as his grip tightened hard around the blood stained metal rod. “Arrested?... People get arrested… criminals get arrested… MEN get ARRESTED!

No, people get arrested…” said the young doctor as he raised the metal rod above his head. Austin’s eyes suddenly widened in fear.

“No! NO PWEASE!” he begged.

“Animals get PUT DOWN!” David snarled as he brought the pole down on the man’s head.

“STOP!” The rod stopped but an inch from the man’s temple. His eyes were screwed shut thinking that the Devil had come for him.

David shifted his gaze to the voice realizing it had been the filly from before, leaning weakly against the brown colt.

“Please… please stop. No more…” she said meekly. David then returned his gaze to the man, glaring deep into his eyes with pure hatred.

“Remember this you rotten son of a bitch, she, a PONY, is the only reason why you’re still breathing…” he said, tossing the metal rod to the side, hearing the loud metal hit the concrete with a metallic clang.

He then turned to leave but not before slamming his foot into Austin’s face, knocking him out cold.

David spat the blood from his mouth onto the man’s body, feeling worst of his rage had come to pass. He wiped the blood from his forehead as he made his way to the ponies at the end of the alley.

“Are you alright?”

The colt nodded. “We’re a little banged up but we’ll be okay…”

“Thank you…” said the filly next to him. “You saved our lives didn’t have to and yet you did. I’m sorry you got hurt because of us…” she said with a soft smile.

David smiled through his horribly bruised face. “Don’t mention it. Come on, let’s get you two to a hospital,”

Together with the two ponies, they headed out of the dark, decrepit alley. However, David he stopped midway before taking a moment to looking back on the brutality and carnage he had unleashed on those men.

He shrugged as he pulled out a black device with transparent Plexiglas surface. Turning it on, David then proceeded to tap on the colored keypad.

The two Ponies paused in their tracks. “Is something the matter?” the colt asked. David continued to tap on the screen

“Just give me a moment…” he said.

It was then, a blank hologram was projected before him. “911, what is your emergency?” came a voice from the device.

“Please send an ambulance down to Sixteenth Street down an alleyway. A fight had broken out, five men, probably HLF and I think they’re all seriously wounded,”

“Very well sir, hold on and stay put, help is on its way” said the voice. “Please hurry” David said before hanging up.

The filly smiled warmly “They tried to kill you but instead of leaving them for dead, you chose to show them compassion,” she said.

David sighed, slipping the device back into his pocket. “As much as despise the HLF and things they have done, no one deserves to be left behind,” he said.

“Now come on…” he said, leading the two ponies out of the alleyway.

“… the hospital’s not too far from here,”

(To be continued…)

So give me REASON, to prove me WRONG, to wash this MEMORY clean, let the thoughts cross, the distance in your eyes, give me REASON, to fill this HOLE, ignite the space between, let it be enough to reach the TRUTH that lies, across this NEW DIVIDE- New Divide, Linkin Park.

The Conversion Bureau: Guardian Chronicles

Written by Notorious/Jack Anarchy

Based on Blaze’s Fan-fic The Conversion Bureau

[Tags: Mild-Grim dark, Violence, Mild-Language, Adventure]

Links:

Equestria Daily: Click Here

PonyChan: Click Here

DeviantArt: Click Here

Episode 3: Reasons Are My Own

“OW! OW! OW! YEOW!” the obnoxious screaming of the young doctor echoed loudly though the empty hallway.

A hundred thugs kicking his ass would not amount to such agony, his hazel eyes were half lidded as he gritted his teeth. Where on earth did this woman get her medical training? Vietnam? Wherever it was, David would love to have a word with the lunatic that gave her the passing grade.

“Oh Jesus Christ David, stop being such a baby! I’m just applying the Nanozel and if you so much as fidget one more time, so help me God I will put you in a strait jacket!” said the woman before him, her hands holding onto his head ever so firmly.

Her soft, almost angelic hands were most certainly not made for nurture or healing, at least those were the very thoughts going through the young doctor’s mind. She held a metallic spray gun in her hand, the bright light from the hospital ceiling glistened of the chrome finish. She brushed aside his hair with an effort to get to the horrific gash on the back of his head.

“What’s the damage doc?” David inquired, his eyes looking back with a sense of nervousness made apparent in his voice.

His question was met with gaze caught somewhere between empathy and vexation, scoffing a little as if regretting the thug for not having put the young man out of his misery.

“WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN!?” David blurted in annoyance at the sound of the scoff.

“You’ll live, now hold still, this might sting a little” she said, giving the device a shake or two before shoving the gun into the wound without any tender remorse.

David swore he could have woken the entire hospital at that very moment but he bit down hard on his lip, muzzling himself but with rather poor effort. His fingernails dug so hard into the leather surface of the examiner’s bed where he sat that he could have ripped it to pieces. A rather nasty odor caught between burnt flesh and plastic filled the air, followed by a chill, almost charring sensation coursing through David’s scalp the moment the metallic device began injecting a thick transparent fluid over the surface of the gash.

“There, now that wasn’t so bad now was it?” said the woman with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, resting the spray gun on the metallic tray next to her.

The young doctor grumbled silently, mouthing her words in a childish attempt at mockery. His gaze shifted to the dim reflection in the clear plexiglass which separated the room from the hallway, proceeding to run his fingers nonchalantly over the band-aids plastered over his right cheek, his forehead and right across the bridge of his nose as if in reminisce.

His memories returned him to that dusky, lurid alley. The feeling of Austin’s vicious fists striking blow after blow, the feeling of his knuckles coming in contact with his cheek as his neck snapped from side to side. The ghastly, disgorging feeling from his stomach caving from the impact as if his guts would tangle themselves in knots, to top that off would be the introduction of the cold hard surface of hardened glass to the back of his head. The young doctor should thank his lucky stars to the fact he was nowhere near a hospital bed having a respirator pumping air into his lungs.

“So, are you going to tell me, or do I have to ask?”

His gaze shifted to the doctor from before who appeared to be busy stretching the latex gloves off her hands. If David had to guess, the woman who appeared draped in her standard issue lab coat worn over her business casual attire she was in her late forties. More precisely, she was Doctor Leslie, the Dean of the hospital where he worked, the one woman duly respected/feared by every being that so much as walks the very halls she governed.

David would not say she administered/ruled over the hospital with an iron fist but she always had this nasty compulsion to nitpick on the young doctor. As long as he could remember, through every exam, every diagnostic, ever surgery, every second of his every waking moment involved Leslie watching him like a hawk on a prey.

He had tried time and time again to make sense of it but found no comprehension to why she would shadow him at every twist and turn, especially back when he first started working in the establishment. She would scream, yell even go ballistic on him every time he made a mistake, aggressively correcting every error. David did not reject her efforts to point him in the right direction however at times he forced himself to beat down the urge to turn in his resignation letter and demanded a transfer.

The young doctor watched her nervously brush aside her long wavy auburn hair, her piercing, almost cold emerald green eyes looking right into his own. David swallowed hard, his hands clasped together as he twirled his thumbs, pondering on the right words to string together or risks having his balls being removed with a hack saw for his stupidity.

“Well, er… you see Dr Leslie, what happened was a series of rather complicated and unfortunate set of circumstances which inevitably led to…” stammered David, a cold sweat running down his neck.

“You decided to play hero and got your ass handed to you” Dr Leslie’s words slashed right through his pathetic facade like a hot knife through butter. The woman folded her arms and narrowed her gaze.

David shrugged, realizing the gig was up, shifted his eyes away from her. “Yes…” he said. At that moment very moment, David felt his entire head violently snap to the right. A hot burning, piercing sensation streaked across his left cheek in an impression of a ladies’ palm.

Leslie stared, the flames of anger burned in her green eyes, ignoring the throbbing after feeling in her palm. “David, I have no idea how many shots you took at your cousins’ place tonight, and frankly I don’t WANT to know but what the God’s name were you thinking!?” she snarled.

David rubbed his cheek, the pain coursing through the left side of his face. Complete and utter shock had made him unable to gather his thoughts, his words for a simple apology let alone an argument.

“They were armed, dangerous and insane, the worst possible concoction for a human beings! You could have gotten yourself killed!” she said angrily.

“I had to…” said David, a sense of remorse in his eyes. Leslie scoffed, rolling her eyes in complete disbelieve, outraged by his reply.

“You had to? You had to, that is the best you can come up with? If you are trying to weasel your way out with a lie, the least you can do is put more eff-“

“I have said plenty of things before Dr Leslie, but lying is possibly the last thing on my mind right now” interrupted David, miffed by her statement.

“Then for God’s sake explain to me the logic of going all Bruce Wayne on them instead of calling the authorities, you know like any sane person would have done!” she replied, her temper flaring.

“And then what!? Just stand there and watch those shit licking bastards make winter boots out of them!? It would have taken those cops five whole minutes to get there and if I hadn’t-” David said, his voice bordering on anger.

“Watch your language young man, I will not have you speaking in such a manner, especially not in my hospital” Leslie interrupted sternly.

David clenched his teeth, his fists beginning to curl. “You know what Dr Leslie. I couldn’t care less of what you think. I did the one thing that any person with a real set of balls would have done, the right thing!” he said, hazel eyes narrowed in animosity.

“The right thing!? The right thing, why you confoundedstupidfoolishidiotic little-” said Leslie, her face contorting from her rather futile effort to keep her composure.

“And since when did you start caring!? Who sold my freedom and made you my Lord and master!? You’re a woman who can walk out of a dying patient’s room with a straight face and when I come walking through that door all busted up, you have the sudden urge to mommy me? You know what? You’re a freaking hypocrite!” snarled David.

That was the last straw, her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared and in a heartbeat she raised her hand again ready to return five fingers worth for that impudent remark. David flinched at the very sight of her potentially harmful gesture, his hands flinging over his head as he braced for the impact, only to be met with none.

His hazel eyes shifted upwards to meet her own, realizing a glimmer of sadness within those emerald hues. Leslie lowered her hand, sighing as if someone had ran a blade right through her heart and David felt he may have taken a step too far with the harshness of his words.

“David, that…” she said suddenly, catching the young man’s attention.

“That was the last thing Auron said to me before he left,” she said, her gaze shifting away from the young man.

David felt the raging fire within begin to dissipate, replaced with slow burning embers dimmed by the guilt that gripped at his heart. Auron, was her son, from what he could deduce and pieced together from the various stories and rumors exchanged as bridle table conversation, he was a young Marine who served in the United States Army.

Once a strapping, courageous and decorated soldier, Leslie never spoke much about him. The main reason being she was crushed by the fact he walked out on her to join the armed forces without her blessing. There was trifle to almost no news from the young man until about a year ago, when a mother’s worst fear had been realized as she received news that her son had been killed on active duty. After the funeral, Leslie did not set foot anywhere near a ward or a patient for almost a month.

David shrugged at his ill conceived impressions. He had become stereotypically accustomed to labeling the older doctor as a heartless swine without a shred of conscience not to mention incapable of sensitivity or sympathy. He remembered how the hospital staff would constantly and maliciously speak about her, David has lost count of the amount of gossip exchanged behind these walls but none of them were ever of any decency.

“I’m sorry…” David said. It took a moment for the woman to regain her composure; she ran her fingers through her hair, forcing a rather dry chuckle. “You know, he was probably right” she said, moving away from the young doctor.

She leaned her back again the medical cabinet, the cold soulless chill from the chrome surface crept through the surface of her skin through the likes of her clothing. “I was never truly there for him, all the long hours at the hospital, my husband away in some foreign land with a name I couldn’t even pronounce. Even as a child, I always felt there was a divide growing between us. But there was something about him, sometime I failed well, refused to see”

David clasped his hands together, resting it on his lap.

“He had always wanted to be a hero, even when he was just a child he dreamt of following in his father’s footsteps and joining the army. He would jump for joy every time one of those cheesy Chuck Norris flicks light up the holovision. Commandos, guns, uniforms, the desire to defend the weak and punish the corrupt fascinated him to no end…” she said, smiling ever so weakly

Leslie shrugged, “But when my husband was killed in Afghanistan, I forbade Auron from pursuing his dream. He implored and pleaded but I was bent, a part of me hoped that he would understand and just forget about it. But my decision did nothing but widen rift between the both of us and typical of me to be so blinded by my commitment to my career that I couldn’t foresee the consequences of my actions”

The young doctor was silent as a sense of remorse took expression on his face. It was then, Leslie’s gaze shifted back to the young doctor, the same glint of sadness within those emerald hues.

“David, my harshness may have given you plenty of wrong impressions over the past few years and I apologize. But I see a lot of Auron in you, from your dedication, your courage, even your die-hard commitment to your beliefs mirrored him to the very core” she added, pausing for a moment as she choked a little on her words.

“But I didn’t lose my son to the world David, no, I lost my son the moment he walked out of that door and it was due to my carelessness and indifference. If I would give anything to hold him in my arms once again and tell him how sorry I was and that I love him so” she said, her hand lifting to shroud her eyes from the brimming tears, biting hard on her lip.

“I understand Dr Leslie…” David said, his gaze rested gently upon the woman before him.

Leslie took a deep breath, blinking the tears away from her redness in her eyes. “I’ve lost the people I loved because I lacked the courage to hold onto the things I should have cared about. And David, you’ve become such an important part of my life that I’d be damned if I’d lose you too” she said.

The young doctor gave a soft smile “Dr Leslie, your son and your husband were heroes. In a way, like my grandfather, I can only hope to live up to such a legacy. You should be proud them” he said.

The woman returned his words with a smile of her own. “I am, Heaven knows I am” she said.

David nodded “I’m deeply sorry for what I said. But Dr Leslie, I may not be Auron but I deeply appreciate your concern for my well being. I have to agree…” he said, rubbing the back of his head.

“What I did was rather stupid…”

“But it was the right thing” Leslie said all of a sudden making David’s eyes widened in surprise.

Leslie shrugged as she tucked her hands into the pockets of her lab coat “You were right David, I was just too caught up in my emotions to admit it but you were right” she said, hues of bright emerald shifting to the glass wall to her right.

David raised a curious eyebrow before following suit and there behind the transparent surface he saw the filly and the colt from before. Their bodies though bandaged and mended, the eyes of the young lime green filly lit up the moment she caught sight of the young doctor, beaming brightly she waved her hoof back and forth. The brown colt smiled, nodding his head as a sign of acknowledgement and gratitude. The young doctor gave a hearty grin, lifting his hand in return.

Delia, the young nurse smiled warmly in his direction before signaling to the two Ponies to follow behind her. After all it was hospital protocol to run some final tests to ensure they were healthy enough to leave the hospital. He chuckled to himself, remembering her face stricken with horror the moment he walked through those glass doors looking like a hobo half beaten to death with a silliest of grins plastered on his own.

“They owe you their lives David, if you hadn’t done what you did, I believe the consequences would have been truly horrific” Leslie added. David smirked mischievously at the mention of those words.

“Whoa, doc, are you getting soft on me? First the confession and now this?” he said.

“Don’t get me wrong you snot nose brat, I still think you are a stupid dolt for having to resort to such a boorish decision” she snapped, her eyes narrowed for a brief moment making David cringe in regret for his tease. “But…”

Leslie gave a soft smile “It was indeed the right thing, stupid, but right”. David merely chuckled at her comment. “Besides, at least you didn’t kill them” the doctor added all of a sudden.

Her words made the young doctor freeze, feeling the same chill surging down the entire length of his spine as if his blood had gone stone cold. Almost as if she expected such a reaction, Leslie shifted her gaze to the likes of David’s hands. “I didn’t want to raise this before, I realized your hands were trembling from the moment you walked in” she said.

David lifted his hands and sure enough, his very fingers were shaking, almost devoid of feeling. “Must probably be the adrenaline” he said with a nervous chuckle.

But he knew better, he remembers, he remembered everything. From the bone breaking blows, the feeling of a blade plunged into a man, slicing through flesh and bone. The smooth bumps of cold steel clutched within his hand and the flames of Hell that erupted within him, his baleful eyes looking down on a pathetic creature he no longer deemed human.

He remembered every detail from the sheer desire to bludgeon and batter, to hack, slice and fillet, to snuff the very light from its eyes and indulge in the ecstasy of satisfaction, knowing that justice has been served.

David wrapped his arms around him, clutching his leather coat tightly around him. “Is it just me, or has it gotten really cold in here? heh heh” he said, trying to force a laugh.

It was freezing in there, the cold sweat and the air-conditioning made his body shiver to the core. The image of dead men that lay before him looped in his mind, the warmth of blood trickling down the side of his face, his wide open eyes and a psychopathic grin that would match that of the Devil’s own.

The rod was in his hand, he would have done it, he would have finished it, and there was no pause, no hesitation and not even a shred of remorse. His heart raced, his breaths quickened, he wanted them dead, he wanted them to pay for what they did and that was that.

“So… cold…” he muttered under his breath. It was then he felt a pair of arms wrapping around him in a warm embrace, holding him close to her body with such warmth it began to soothe his racing heart. “Sssh, it’s okay” Leslie’s voice brought a sense of comfort to the young doctor and little by little, he eased his grip on his coat. His eyes slipped to a close as he rested his forehead on the woman’s shoulder.

“Leslie, I almost killed a man…” he muttered silently. “I know, but last I checked David, self defense is not murder” she said, running her fingers through his hair before looking gently into his eyes.

“You did what you had to do to survive and I believe anyone would have done the same” she said.

“He was down, helpless and venerable, he was begging for his life but I didn’t care. I just wanted… I just wanted him to pay” the young doctor said, burying his face in his hand.

Leslie shrugged, gently taking his hands in her own, caressing them gently “David, listen to me, you were angry and you know that anger will always lead to regret. But I believe that God was looking over you tonight, it takes a lot in a man to take a life of another but even more to make him stop,”

She smiled warmly before caressing his cheek with her right hand, looking warmly into his eyes. “You are not a killer David, you never were and I have faith that you never will be. We may not be perfect, we have our moments of weaknesses and the burning desire to surrender to temptation will always haunt us. All part of being human”

“Human…” David muttered, swearing he could hear it echo within the depths of his mind. The doctor patted him gently on his shoulder

“Yes, human. Anger may have possessed you at the end but it wasn’t anger that made you march down that alley. It wasn’t anger that drove you to take on those men well aware that the odds were stacked again you and it most certainly wasn’t anger that saved those Ponies from a fate worse than death” said Leslie.

A warm smile grew softly on her face. “It wasn’t anger David, it was courage and it was in your courage that you found the strength to be more than you can be. Many years from now they will tell their foals, and their foals will tell their foals of the brave man, the brave human who risked everything to save them,”

David smiled softly in return as he leaned into the pleasantness of her touch. “Thank you Dr Leslie, I guess I needed to hear that” the young doctor said.

“Never forget, now if you would excuse me, I have to get this place cleaned up before the next shift. Honestly, next time you decide to get in a brawl be sure to call ahead, I have better things to do than to put you back together again,” she said before returning to the medical cabinets behind her, returning some of the medical equipment to their rightful places.

David chuckled at the fact that she was back to her old self in ten seconds flat. The young doctor stood to ponder on her words, a part of him remained in pure disbelieve that so much had happened in merely a few hours.

One moment he was caught in a heated debate regarding his personal perspectives and beliefs, lost in uncertainty and caught between an internal strife and the next thing he knew, he was in a fight for his life and for Ponies at that. Maybe Miguel was right after all, it certainly rose to question how much faith the man had placed on him, almost as if he knew all along what David would have done and all he needed was a little nudge.

“So am I to assume that you would be handing in your resignation letter tomorrow?” asked Dr Leslie. David’s eyes snapped back to the doctor, widening in complete bewilderment for it had caught him completely off guard.

“Re… re… resignation? What? Why? Is it because of…? It can’t be… Dr Leslie I…” David stammered nervously only to be hushed by the woman’s chuckle.

“Relax, no, I am not firing you, just making my thoughts known” she said, turning to face the young doctor. David raised a curious eyebrow “I’m afraid I don’t follow” he said.

“In addition to trembling like a leaf David, you have been fondling with something in your pocket for a good while now. If I had to guess, it would have to be the name card belonging to that of a Mr Estrada” she said.

The young man’s was surprised at her supposed assumption. “How did you-?” he asked, perplexed. “He called me several hours before arriving, quite the gentleman, polite and proper enough as to seek my permission before visiting my staff” she replied.

David raised a curious eyebrow “And you weren’t curious at the very least?”

“I have to admit, I was more suspicious than curious. A man of such power strutting around a hospital is never a good sign but when I saw him walk out of your office his intentions became as clear as day. David, I will not try to deter your decision as I did Auron, but I will leave you with a word of advice” Leslie said, a sense of determination in her voice.

“You have done so much good behind these walls, as a doctor you’ve performed admirably above and beyond the call of duty. But maybe, just maybe, you can do so much more good out there”

David listened attentively, a sense caught between admiration and respect resonated with every beat of his heart. “Dr Leslie, does that mean…” he asked.

The woman smiled, moving closer to him, she gave him a pat on his shoulder. “Go, I’ll hold down the hospital in your place, I’ll put in more hours, I’ll chug down jugs of coffee, I’ll do something but promise me that I’ll never see you wheeled in through those glass doors in a body bag”

The young doctor breathed a sigh of relieve, his lips curling into a determined grin “Body bag? Just who do you think I am?” he said.

Leslie chuckled “Good, now go home and get some shut eye. You’re going to need it, meanwhile I’ve got a hospital to run” said the doctor as she headed for the door. “And David…” she paused as the glass panel before her slid open.

David’s attention shifted in her direction. “Don’t ever think that your life is worth but a penny on the sidewalk. There will always be people who care about you” said Leslie, smiling one more time before making her way into the hallway.

The young man smiled softly at the thought, people who care about him? How could he be so foolish to believe that he had been alone all this time? Mikey? Delia? Leslie? They all had their concerns for his well being and he was too blinded by his misconceptions to see. Still, Leslie’s words continue to play on his mind, playing back word by word brought a sense of easiness to his conflicting soul.

The young man reached into his pocket, removing the same name card he had received earlier today. It felt soggy and limp in his hand due to his little scuffle in the rain, but the name etched in silver were still as bright as day. Good? Was this Miguel’s intention? David remained skeptical about his possible contributions to the organization, to V.A.N.G.A.R.D.

However, he had Leslie’s blessing, he had lived up to Miguel’s faith, and maybe they were right all along the time has come. David clutched the card tightly in his hand “Hero huh?” he said softly to himself.

**********

“Alright people, here we are, the Conversion Bureau” said the bus driver as the large vehicle pulled up by the curb. The streets were bustling with the sounds of traffic. The loud voices filled the air with conversation, yelling even a hint of cursing between the drivers caught in frustration at the long queue before them. They grumbled, growled, roaring their electric engines in with such callow effort to make known their irritation, desperate to enter the compound as if their very lives depended on it

A sea of people navigating their way through the stalled cars, each and every one of them hauled and hoisted luggage of different shapes and sizes all headed in the exact same direction, which was the capacious building on the far end of what appears to be a massive car park. It was immense; ten times the size of the hospital where he worked with added resemblance and the glass dome behind it was truly a sight to behold. Smiles, laughter, eyes wide open and their hands trembled with excitement from girls, boys, grown men and women even families, they were all looking forward to their new lives, their new beginning.

The young doctor stepped off the bus, still dressed in his white lab coat although this time well groomed and definitely well rested, a brown leather suitcase case clasped in his hand. His eyes squinted by a bit, before pushing up on his glasses before searching for his destination. It was no easy task, judging by from the lack of address conveniently missing from the card.

In the office, the man merely stated The Conversion Bureau, so here he was. His brown tie glided freely in the soft breeze as he made his way into the crowd, his ears could not help but tune to the bridle conversation exchanged in the background.

He derived the amount of mixed feeling from their words, having spoken of pegasi, unicorns, magic, how excited they were, what they hope to be after the ponification, some so much as expressed their suspicions, their uncertainties.

Details were not the young doctor’s concern, their reasons and their perspectives were their own, and right now arriving at his destination outweighs all the rest. He brushed shoulders with one too many, the compound was crowded beyond belief, hundreds, maybe even a thousand people were here and the sun had only risen for several hours.

David shrugged, feeling suffocated in the crowd but just about then, eyes of bright hazel shifted to yet another building to the left of the compound bearing a peculiar resemblance to City Hall. He raised a curious eyebrow to the fact no one was headed in that direction, was it an administrative building? Or was it something so much more?

His attention caught sight of several armed personnel, dressed in full riot gear and automatic weapons clutched tightly within their hands making their rounds around the compound. Curious, very curious.

“Alright everyone, be careful and be conscious of the people around you at all times. We don’t want anyone getting hurt now!” came a voice not too far from the young doctor.

David shifted his attention to a young man also draped in riot gear however unlike the others he bore no firearm, only a nightstick that hung from his side.

The young doctor hurried to the guard “Excuse me, I have a question” he inquired. The guard however met his question nonchalantly “Yeah, yeah, the Centre is over there. Just keep moving” he said.

David was a little taken back by the man’s reply “Sir, I’m not here for the camp. I’m here for-,“ However he was rudely interrupted yet again.

“I know you’re here for a new life and all that shebang, sir I’ve heard it all before, the first building at the end of the line. You can’t miss it now move along” said the guard before returning his attention to the crowd.

The young doctor rolled his eyes in frustration, tapping the guard on his shoulder his eyes narrowed in an effort to show he meant business. “I’m here to see Mr Estrada” he said, his voice cold and direct.

The guards eyes widened for a moment then all of a sudden, he chocked, a large stupid grin grew on his face as if he had just caught wind of the most ridiculous thing on the face of the earth. In a blink of an eye, he erupted in a hail of laughter “Hahahahaha!! Mr, Mr, Es- hahahah! Oh my God, hahaha!!!”

David’s face contorted, lost in confusion from the guard’s reaction. “Hey Billy! You gotta hear this! This guy… this guy Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!” the guard laughed, suffocating himself with his own amusement as he called out to a nearby guard.

“What is it Ronald? Caught your weenie in the zippa gain?” asked the nearby guard.

“Hell no! This guy, he, he wants to see Mr Estrada!” the guard blurted out and suddenly, out of nowhere the other guard gave that exact stupid grin and immediately burst into fits of laughter. “HAHAHA! Holy shite! That’s a good one! Hahahahah!!!”

David was completely and utterly unamused by this juvenile prattle. Did he say something stupid or were they making a mockery out of him because they were bored to tears? His teeth grinded in irritation, his hands began curling into fists although he remained level headed enough to retain his composure.

“Excuse me, help me out here cause I’m a little lost but what exactly do you find so amusing?” he asked, trying so hard not to pelt these aggravating morons with every insult ever conceived. The guard took a moment to calm himself, wiping the tears from his eyes before addressing the young doctor.

“I don’t know what you’ve been smoking man, but no one and I mean NO ONE gets in to see Mr Estrada. Just what were you thin-“the guard said, only to be cut off the moment David shoved Miguel’s card in his face.

Almost instantly, the very expression on his face warped into that of dread. His baby blue eyes widened, swallowing hard as he desperately loosened his collar. David shifted his gaze to his impudent friend in the back who apparently abandoned his comrade and retreated back to his duties in silent prayer that David was not the kind of man who would hold a grudge.

“My apologies, perhaps I wasn’t clear the first time around. Please allow me to repeat myself, my name is David Stone, ‘Doctor’ David Stone and I am here to see Mr Estrada at his request… saavy?” David said, giving the guard a rather nasty glare.

“Oh, the… the… then why didn’t you say so Mr, I mean Doctor Stone, please, follow me” the guard stammered, desperately trying to hide his blunder as he led the young man away from the crowd.

The guard took him down a path, cutting through what appears to be a garden shrouded in the trees that grew overhead in the direction of the colossal building from before. The young man’s hazel eyes studied his surroundings carefully, noticing a questionable amount of video cameras at every corner, directed at every crook and cranny.

David clutched his bag tightly, his muscles tensed in suspicion and possible paranoia, there should be a reason for all this security and a part of him wished he could remain oblivious to the obvious answer.

“We’re here…” he said as they stopped at a small metal door located at the bottom of a large wall. David shifted his gaze upwards to the spikes and barb wire suspended twenty feet above ground, the place began to feel more and more like a prison of sorts.

The guard knocked twice on the metal door, the metallic clanging echoed with every tap. No sooner, the intercom came to life.

“Yes?” came the voice, blurred and distorted by the intercom. “It’s Ronald, I’m with Mr. Estrada’s guest” he said, putting a strange emphasis on the word ‘guest’. “One of them?” the intercom asked. “Positive” Ronald replied hesitantly.

With a loud buzz, the creaking hinges could have made a man grit his teeth in agony as the door swung open. David’s eyes narrowed suspiciously a little at the little exchange the guard had with his comrade on the other side of the intercom. One of them? What was that suppose to mean? Ronald stepped inside, signaling the young doctor to follow.

The young doctor nodded before following suit, his leather loafers touched the surface of asphalt on the other side of the wall, there he laid eyes on the building before him, and it certainly was larger up close.

“This way” Ronald said as he made his way toward the building. David’s continued to follow the guard; it was not long before they arrived. Hazel hues shifted upwards, admiring the architecture done with the essence of an unusual mixture of baroque and modern influences.

A monstrous door measuring twenty feet lay open before them, from the hinges to the plating were laid with solid gold. David’s gaze settled upon the words carved in stone along the arch of the doorway.

“Candor dat viribus alas” David repeated to himself. “Know what that means?” Ronald said suddenly with a cheeky grin on his face, returning David’s attention back to the man.

“It means-“

“Sincerity gives wings to strength” David answered, making the guard scowl in return, destroying his one attempt at showing off. David chuckled, “I took Latin for four years back in medical school” he said.

Ronald gave a dry chuckle “Ah, a doctor. I see Mr Estrada got a smart one this time around. Let’s just hope your brains rub off on the rest of them eh?” he said.

This time? Rest of them? It was no mystery that Miguel would have recruited others before him but contemplating on a number let alone their characters were possibly the last thing on his mind. V.A.N.G.A.R.D was a team shrouded in mystery and abstruseness, their purpose and their mission remained a conundrum to the outside world.

David has expressed the night before, he had merely the general idea pieced together vague information borne of rumors and loose sources of information. What was V.A.N.G.A.R.D? What did they do? The young doctor had a feeling he was about to find out.

The guard continued to lead the way, right through a massive hall, with ceilings that tower over the polished marble floor and the wooden walls carved from the finest of woods adorned the hallways. “Hey Genine” said Ronald, waving to an African American woman behind a reception desk, tapping feverishly on her computer stopping only for a moment to wave a hand in acknowledgement.

Their footsteps echoed through the hall, silence crept at every corner intense enough for even that of a pin drop to be heard from where they stood. David’s eyes wandered from the paintings hanging idly on the walls, to the Latin inscriptions carved in solid gold mounted on the walls that adorned the hallways.

It certainly did not take them long before they arrived at the end of the hallway to a total of six elevators, three on each side. David paused, catching his reflection on the polished golden doors. The young doctor felt his grip tighten around the leather briefcase, for the first time feeling a sense of nervousness gripping at his gut.

With the sound of a bell echoed down the hallways as the golden doors slid open, revealing an interior laid with thick plexi glass on every side. David took a deep breath before stepping inside, though he paused when the guard did not.

“Aren’t you-?” David asked. “I’m sorry Dr Stone, my jurisdiction only extends as far as this elevator. From here on out, you’re on your own. By the way, Mr Estrada’s office is on the seventh floor” he said.

David nodded “By the way, thanks, Ronald isn’t it?” the young doctor inquired. The guard smiled in return “Yes sir, looks like I’ll be seeing you around. Good luck and Godspeed” he said as the doors slid to a close. “You’re gonna need it”.

The young doctor felt a lump in his throat, swallowing hard before shifting his gaze to the myriad of numbers on the side. “Good afternoon, welcome to the Conversion Bureau, my name is J.A.D.E, please speak your designated floor” came a voice from the control panel, making the young doctor jump for a moment.

“Oh, um, level seven… please” David answered. “Level seven, Director Estrada’s office, affirmative” said the voice as the elevator began to descend.

He felt unnerved at the creeping shadows within the small confines of the elevator, cast from the bright lights lighting the path on their downward cascade to the unknown. The farther they went, his uneasiness began to intensify and soon doubt began playing on his conscience and he knew it would only be time before he started second guessing his decisions.

Maybe it was all just a bad idea, maybe he should just quit while he was ahead and go back home, perhaps Leslie might consider giving him his job back, maybe-

Suddenly, the entire elevator illuminated with a bright light, chasing away the darkness and the shadows within. Turning around to the transparent plexiglass behind him, his eyes widened in awe. “What the…”

The young doctor was left speechless in awe, a large smile taking shape on his face. It was incredible, unbelievable, a massive citadel beneath The Conversion Bureau. No, this WAS the Conversion Bureau in all its glory. Hazel hues shifted from the bright ivory walls and polished walkways, humans, people on hovering platforms, Segways zipping through the busy lines on their way to their destination.

David had lost count of the amount of people walking the hallways, even the halls beneath his feet. People in lab coats, riot gear, he was at a complete loss for words. Never would he have conceived the picture of the Bureau as it was now. It was then, the elevator came to a stop, the doors sliding open behind him.

“Seventh floor, Director Estrada’s office, thank you and have a pleasant day” said the voice. David nodded before leaving the elevator behind, finding himself on a small hallway, walls as white as ivory with a maroon carpet adorning the floor. He raised a curious eyebrow when he heard voices at the end of the hallway, behind two large doors made of solid oak.

“Why do you continue to side with those… things?” David’s gaze began to narrow, allowing his curiosity to get the better of him, he quickened his pace in the direction of the doors, noticing one of them had been left slightly ajar.

“Those things are called Ponies Lady Bianca, and I implore you to address them as such” David immediately recognize Miguel’s voice and another which was far less pleasing.

It felt dry, cold and incredibly sinister, painting a rather menacing imagine in David’s mind, his eyes narrowed a little more as he pressed his back against one of the doors in an attempt to getting a better idea of what was going on.

He heard the mystery person scoff “Listen to yourself, you’ve played patsy to them for so long you might as well be Celestia’s pet” she added.

“I admit the Princess and I are on the best of terms, which is indeed far more than I can say for you. That little stunt you pulled off with her majesty, wasn’t exactly the smartest” said Miguel

“I merely said what needed to be said, for millennia the human race had risen against all odds to become the prime being on planet once ravaged by uncultured savages and beasts. I will tell you now Miguel, I will not stand idly and watch as civilizations dwindle to nothingness” she said.

“What you did Bianca, was deliberately threaten and insulted the sovereign heads of Equestria like an uncultured terrorist. May I remind you that we, humans have been on thin ice with all of Ponykind. I have spent weeks, months trying to our mend political ties with the Royal house and salvage whatever good impression we may have left before and I most definitely shall not and will not tolerate a repeat performance!” Miguel said sternly.

Bianca? That was definitely an unfamiliar name but David ignored delving deeper for the time being for he was more interested in the conversation at hand. He may not have seen her face but he already harbored an immediate sense of detestation judging by the tone of her voice not to mention her rather repugnant choices of words.

“You are as blind as you are foolish. Equestria is a place of untapped resources, lush forests, mountains, fertile land ready to be colonized and maybe even industrialized. But not every human desire to be turned into Pixar rejects to be allowed in” the woman added.

“THOSE were Equestria’s conditions. Humans must be Ponified to be granted access for two very good reasons. One, because the magical barrier is toxic to humans, prolonged exposure will result in an unspeakable and agonizing end. Second of all, would be people like you” Miguel said.

“People like me Miguel?” she asked, taking apparent offence of the statement.

“I did not stutter when I said that, I said people like you. It is selfish, greed driven, money worshipping capitalists like you who has been directly responsible for the sorry state of the world today” Miguel snapped. David shook his fist silently in cheer.

“How DARE you! Do you have any idea who I-” she snarled

“I am well aware who you are, Lady Bianca Luchist Saltza, I know of your stature and I know of your wealth. I know of your present and I most definitely know of your past. A word of advice, I wouldn’t flaunt that about with such pride if I were you” Miguel said, his voice cold and direct.

The lady merely chuckled dryly “Now I see you for who you truly are Miguel. As I try to salvage the remnants of the human race, you seek to align yourself with the enemy. Tell me, how does it feel to betray your own race?” she inquired

There was a short silence in the room, the tension grew thick enough to slice with a knife and the young doctor grew uneasy. “Then allow me to answer your question with one of my own. Tell me what concerns you more? Civilization fading into the sands of time, or is it the pain of watching your multimillion dollar empire go up in smoke?” asked Miguel.

“It must be gut wrenching, knowing that all your hard work and sacrifices had gone to waste and there is nothing you could do about it, but watch” Miguel said. David smirked, moving closer to the edge of the door, desperately trying to catch the woman’s reply.

“Now you listen Miguel, and if I were you, I would heed my words well. The human race will continue, it will strive and it will survive and I intend to make sure of that. Even if I have to play judge, jury and executioner” she stated, her voice baneful and grim.

“Am I to assume that as a threat?” Miguel inquired his voice as cold and intimidating.

She chuckled dryly yet again “Miguel, Miguel, you should know by now that I am not in the business of ‘making’ threats. Consider it a propitious advice” she added

“Then allow me to share with you some ‘propitious’ advice of my own. If you should do anything that would threaten the safety of Equestria and that of the United States of America, I will do everything in my power to take you down. You and your alleged compatriots will be tried for treason and I believe you know too well the fate which awaits those who would walk the path of Judas” Miguel said.

David barely caught several words, something about treason and threats. Allowing his curiosity to get the better of him yet again, he leaned a little closer against the oak door only to hear the inevitable creaking that was soon to come. “Uh oh” he said, eyes wide open before the doors gave way.

“AIEEE!” the young man shrieked as he fell through the doorway, stumbling face first into the polished marble floor like a dimwitted klutz, catching the attention of both Miguel and the mystery woman.

“Dr Stone, so nice for you to join us” Miguel said, a sudden perkiness in his voice before reverting his attention to the woman before him. “My apologies, but I believe my ten o’clock is here. If you don’t mind, perhaps you could show yourself out” he said.

The woman’s eyes narrowed in a look caught between disgust and anger. “This isn’t over Miguel” she said.

Miguel clasped his hands together before resting his chin on the crevice of his knuckle. “For your sake, I hope it is. Good day Lady Bianca,”

The woman glared furiously at the man before making her way her way out, David finally had a figure to match that malicious voice from before. His hazel eyes caught a fair lady, brushing her her long chest length blond hair aside as she pushed up irritably on her rounded pair of glasses.

She was dressed in a beige uniform, possibly military with a long beige leather overcoat draped over her shoulders, quite unusual attire for a lady but the young doctor posed no question. As she approached the young man, she gave him a rather nasty and condescending glare before striding past him without so much as a second glance. David corrected his glasses before climbing to his feet before proceeding to straighten his white coat.

“I have to admit Dr Stone, my original expectation actually involved a few days, not several hours. Why the sudden change of mind?” Miguel asked from behind his large wooden desk.

David chuckled “Let’s just say it was more a change of heart” he replied.

Miguel nodded “Uh huh, and I suppose the four men brutally assaulted, stabbed and bludgeoned in that dark alley had nothing to do with it. I would ask where and how had you acquired those injuries but that would be most redundant and time is a resource I cannot afford to squander”

David swore he could have jumped right out of his skin at Miguel’s comment. “How did you? How, when… why? And?”

“Calm yourself Dr Stone, I’m not here to have you arrested or read you your rights. Let’s just say the only reason you’re not behind bars as of now is because we take HLF assaults very seriously, and believe me, the NYPD are very, very grateful for this ‘mysterious vigilante’” Miguel said, his fingers moving in gesture as he displayed a rather confident grin.

David rested his hand on his chest in an effort to steady his racing heart. “You know, as much as you pride yourself on being in the know, I do not appreciate being spied upon” the young doctor, clearly unamused.

“We live in difficult times Dr Stone, I believe I said that before. Information allows us to remain a step ahead of criminals, anarchists, and supremacists. I do apologize for the constant surveillance, but I needed to know if I could trust you” Miguel said, his eyes retaining their serious glint from before.

David wanted to retaliate to his statement but was halted by Miguel’s words. “But you lived up to my faith and most importantly my expectations. I need not remind you that those Ponies owe you their lives, we will have them transported back to Equestria in due time and we will see to it that those ‘fine gentlemen’ receive their just rewards” he said.

The young man remained silent for a moment, his hands curled into fists as he addressed the man before him “Can I say something Mr Estrada?” he asked. Miguel raised an eyebrow “Please do Dr Stone” he replied.

“Let us get one thing straight here, it is you who came to me and not the other way around. As much as you believe in me, I still have my doubts” said David.

“Doubts?” Miguel inquired. “More like questions, like this place, V.A.N.G.A.R.D and everything else. Does the public know the Bureau has a high tech facility built right beneath their feet? Just what do you seek to gain from all of this?” David asked.

Miguel merely smiled determinedly “I think you already know the answer to that question” he said. “Mr Estrada, please stop jumping to assum-,“ David said.

“Peace” interrupted Miguel. At that moment, all the words the young doctor had evaporated to nothing, once again he found himself at a rather verbal disadvantage. Realizing David was silent, the man continued.

“I know you have many questions Dr Stone, and believe me when I say no one understands that better than I do. When I first took over the Bureau, my directions and my consciences were unclear, my duties focused primarily on maintaining the peace between Ponies and the human race. Then came the HLF…” he said, his eyes bore a glint of dismay.

“I believe you remember the New York riot several months ago in front of the Brooklyn Conversion Centre don’t you? Followed by the bombing of the one in San Francisco” Miguel inquired.

David was silent in thought, remembering the details from the horrible events. A moment of lawlessness broke out into mass turmoil as the streets erupted in anarchy with supporters of the HLF storming the gates of the Bureau and the Conversion Centre.

They mauled and injured anyone they deemed a pony lover and took on S.W.A.T dressed in full riot gear without hesitation or doubt. It took three days before law enforcement finally suppressed the supposed uprising although found no tangible evidence linking the leader of the New York HLF chapter leader to the crime.

The bombing however was a little vaguer to the young man but he knew that the damage and casualties were colossal and horrendous all the same, both to humans and ponies. David shrugged, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

“Dr Stone, I have nothing against the human race. But I have seen humanity and the evil they have come to be and I will not lie to you when at times I find myself unable to comprehend, tolerate or even forgive. But I know there is more to mankind than this” he said, his gaze returning to that of the young doctor.

“We are capable of compassion, love and understanding. Though I have grown accustomed to the darker side of man and their fiendish nature, at times I find myself face to face with people who prove me wrong” said Miguel. “And pray tell, just where are these alleged people?” David inquired.

Miguel smiled “Right next door” he said. David recalled the Conversion Centre from before, all those people, their smiles, joy, he remembered everything.

“I believe I have told you before, I dreamed of a world without conflict and the only way we can achieve that is to find peace between both our races. Ponification is all but an option, the rest is up to us” Miguel said.

David remained just a little skeptical “And you expect the world to suddenly shed their hatred and embrace your ideas of peace and harmony overnight?” the young doctor asked.

Miguel chuckled softly. “If only the world were that simple. No, not entirely, but I believe that day will come eventually. Till then, both mankind and Ponykind will need someone to protect and defend them from those who would mean them harm. This is where we come in” he said.

“V.A.N.G.A.R.D, I know” David said half heartedly. Miguel gave a small determined grin “Tell you what Dr Stone…” he said.

The man reached from behind his desk, removing what appears to be a black leather wallet of some kind. With a swift motion, he glided it over the smooth, polished surface of his table, coming to a stop barely an inch to the edge. The young doctor stared in bewilderment and confusion at the object before him. His eyebrow raised, he reached for the case as he cautiously proceeded to open it, exposing whatever it was on the inside.

David’s eyes widened at the sight of a badge. He studied the identification card laminated behind a thin layer of plastic, bearing his photograph, his personal information with the words ‘The Conversion Bureau’ written in gold. The however bore a golden shield, the young doctor ran his fingers over the thin blue lines illuminated with an azure glow with within the crevices of the carvings before moving over to letters V.A.N.G.A.R.D borne with valor.

“Give yourself a week, one week. Get accustomed to the facility and familiarize yourself with your colleagues. You will be working very closely with them and from here on out, they will be with your friends, your allies, and most importantly, your family. Put your trust in them and they will never, ever let you down” said Miguel

“However, by then, if you still believe the Bureau isn’t for you, that V.A.N.G.A.R.D is not and will never be your calling, all you have to do is turn in your badge and walk right out that front door. That is my solemn promise to you” he added.

David closed the black wallet-like case before removing it from the surface of the table. He nodded to himself as if in thought, clutching it firmly in his hand before shifting his gaze to the man before him. “No questions asked?” he asked.

Miguel smiled in assurance “No questions asked. Well, if everything has been made clear and there is nothing left to be rectified, you may report to the fifth floor” he said.

The young doctor nodded yet again, picking up his leather suitcase from the floor before making his way to the doorway. However he stopped for a brief moment, shifting back to Miguel as if he had just remembered something he had been dying to ask. “One more thing Mr Estrada” David said.

Miguel raised his eyebrow, his attention returned to the young doctor. “Yes, Dr Stone?” he asked. “It has been weighing on my mind for a good while now but back in my office you said I came at a rather high recommendation. I would like to know who-” said David.

“That… would be me” came a rather familiar voice.

Immediately, David’s blood went stone cold, petrified with the same exact tingle running down the entire length of his spine. “I know that voice” he said, immediately shifting his gaze to the person behind him.

“Hello David, it’s been a while”

(To be continued…)

STEEL unload, final BLOW, we the ANIMALS take CONTROL, hear us now, clear and true, WRETCHES and KINGS we come for YOU. STEEL unload , fire BLOW, filthy ANIMALS , beat them LOW, skin and bone, black and blue, no more this SUN shall beat onto YOU- Wretches and Kings, Linkin Park

The Conversion Bureau: Guardian Chronicles

Written by Notorious/Jack Anarchy

Based on Blaze’s Fan-fic The Conversion Bureau

[Tags: Mild-Grim dark, Violence, Mild-Language, Adventure]

Links:

Equestria Daily: Click Here

PonyChan: Click Here

DeviantArt: Click Here

Episode 4: V.A.N.G.A.R.D

“Daniela?”

The name escaped his lips the moment his bright hazel eyes caught sight of the young lady. For a moment the young doctor was left speechless, studying every inch of her as if she were the last woman on earth. The dauntless young lady leaned her shoulder against the wooden door, donned in her jet black tank top with a boldness of short leather jacket worn over it matching her tight fitting beige cargo denim pants and her khaki leather boots.

An ebon USP holster was fastened around her shoulders with a gun fitted firmly within it.  He could not put his finger on the make or model but then again he was never the gun enthusiasts, even with half his family having served in the United States Army.

She merely stood there, staring through her bistre toned hair slightly longer than her shoulder, a glint of interest in her amber eyes with the same equivalence to the young man. The corner of her mouth quirked upwards as if amused by David’s bewildered expression.

“Long time no see… cous,” she said.

Daniela Stone, yet another one of David’s cousins. Even though she was a year older than he was, it hard to believe how much she has grown over the years, how much they both had grown since the days of their childhood summers spent together on their Grandfather’s vineyard down in California.

“Dani, wow, it has been a long time. You look… good,” David said, a sense of awkwardness in his voice.

“Good? Is that you’ve got to say? I haven’t seen you since Grandpa’s funeral and all you have for me is that I look good?” she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. She lifted herself off the wooden door before tucking her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket.

The young doctor nervously rubbed the back of his head. “Well it’s been five years and all and… HEY WAIT A MINUTE! What the heck am I saying? What the HELL are you doing here!? Where have you been!?” cried David all of a sudden.

Dani smirked “Now THAT sounds more like the David I used to know. How’s Mikey? A little pony told me that he was in town,” she said.

“Don’t try to change the subject Dani! You still haven’t answered my question-,” David said, though his words came to a halt the moment he felt a hand resting gently on his shoulder.

“I believe, I have the answer that. Dr Stone, allow me to formally introduce Lieutenant Commander Daniela Stone, she is head of V.A.N.G.A.R.D and therefore your acting and commanding officer” said Miguel

David swore he felt his jaw hit the polished marble floor in complete disbelieve the moment he heard the man mentioned ‘Commanding Officer’. There were no words, no plausible sentences, all he could only stare bug-eyed at the young lady now smiling smugly in return as he resisted the urge to blubber like a senseless idiot.

“What, who, how… huuuuuuuuhhhh?” His face contorted as he stared completely flabbergasted by the whole situation. Daniela let out a hearty laugh, stepping closer toward her younger cousin.

“What? Think you were the only one in the family blazin trails? Sorry to burst your bubble cous, but I’ve been pretty busy myself,” she said, removing her right hand from her pocket and ruffled his hair playfully. However David immediately swatted her hand away in annoyance.

“Stop that! I’m not five anymore you know!”

“Aww, ain’t that cute. Ole Davy’s thinks he’s all grown up,” teased the young lady, smirking in pure amusement.

David shot her a rather nasty glare, feeling his teeth grinding in pure exasperation as he desperately fought back the sheer desire to wring her darling neck, even though, No, especially since they were related. She always had this nasty habit of patronizing him in public ever since they were children, always proclaiming that she was older and better than him in more ways than one. She may have grown, but she was still the same ole Dani, the same obnoxious, insufferable, rott-

“ECKH HEM!” Miguel cleared his throat, loudly and intentionally enough to catch their attention.

“Well Dr Stone, I see that you have both been properly acquainted, I will leave you two to your duties. Now if you would excuse me, I have a rendezvous with Mr. Gunn which I have every intention of keeping,” said the man before making his way back to his desk before removing his grey overcoat hanging idly from the back of his chair.

David cocked an eyebrow at the mention of the name ‘Gunn’ although he made no obvious intention on prying any deeper. He pondered on the possibilities of it having any relations to a Mr. Richard Gunn, another notable yet controversial name making the headlines of every single newspaper in the Big Apple a little too often for comfort.

“Anythin else I can do you for sir?” Dani enquired, her eyes meeting with Miguel’s own firmly like a soldier would a superior officer.

“Just one, be sure to give Dr. Stone the grand tour and once you are done please show him to his quarters,” said Miguel, slipping an arm into his coat.

The young doctor was caught off guard yet again. “Qu-qua- quarters? Quarters as in lodging… ac- accommodation? ROOM? You, you mean I’m going to have to LIVE here?” he asked in disbelieve.

Miguel merely blinked absent mindedly, his face caught in surprise although he was quick to realize the young doctor had not been formally briefed.

“Oh, right. My apologies Dr. Stone but all V.A.N.G.U.A.R.D agents are required to be on call twenty four seven which inevitably translates to you having to be on Bureau grounds at all time” said the man.

That certainly came as an unpleasant surprise to the young doctor. “But what of my place? My computer, my books, my… my things! What is to be-“

“Rest your worries. We are currently moving all your belongings as we speak. They should be here ready for unpacking by day’s end,” said Miguel as he straightened his coat.

“Unpacking? You mean you had your people BREAK into my place!? That’s against the law and I have my rights!”

“Breaking and entering is the work of thugs and thieves. We have the necessary paperwork as well as your landlord’s consent so I believe we are operating within the legal boundaries,” said Miguel, a hint of smugness in his voice.

“Le… legal boundaries!? Now see here you-“David raised his voice, only to be predictably ignored by the man yet again who turned to face the young lady beside him.

The young doctor swore if he had to put up with anymore of this farce he was going to explode.

“Well Lieutenant, the torch is now your hands. You know what to do from here on out and please tell the rest to be on their best behavior this time around. I do not want them intimidating the poor man,”

Others? Oh right, he was not the only one now was he? There were others before him recruited into V.A.N.G.A.R.D. The young doctor swallowed hard at the man’s words, unintentionally allowing his imagination to run wild as it painted a picture of a shady dark tavern inhabited by the meanest, nastiest scum born from the bowels of this world.

“Don’t you worry sir, I told Dempsey that I’d personally chop his balls off if he pulled another stunt like that,” Dani said with a rather intimidating smirk.

“Do what you have to do Lieutenant, remember that I am counting on you,” he said taking a moment to fix the crimson scarf around his neck.

“Now if you would excuse me, I take my leave. Good day Lieutenant, Dr Stone,”

Almost by hard-coded instinct, Dani stood at attention and gave him a respectable salute while David merely nodded in acknowledgement. For a brief moment, their eyes met and David noticed the edge of his lip lift in a soft smile as if wishing the young man luck as he turned to leave through the doorway.

The young doctor felt his spirits lift ever so slightly only to be abruptly smacked back down by hard slap to the shoulder. His face grimaced comically, his teeth gritting hard and his fingers clenched from the piercing pain and once again he found himself desperately fighting back the urge to hurt someone very badly in retaliation.

“HOLYMUTTHEROFABRAHAMLINCOLN’SHORSE!”

“Well you heard the man! I think we’re done wastin time, let’s go give you that ‘grand tour’ shall we?” Dani said with a large grin.

David grumbled to himself, his teeth grinding in pure aggravation. Why does he have the feeling he was already regretting this?

****************************

“Alright, I’ma gonna keep it short and simple. There’re a couple of things you gotta know, first things first, remember to always keep your badge on you at all times. As you can tell by now, security’s a major priority here.

“The mess hall is on level one, there’s where you grab your grub. The briefin room is on level five, roll call’s at o seven hundred hours every day save for Sundays and…”

Young doctor’s attention had failed him for a good while now and for good reason too, being briefed about rules and protocol was mere humdrum compared to this place. As they paced their way down the crowded passageway his hazel eyes compulsively studied every inch, every corner of it. First thing he noticed were the burnished ivory walls lined with electronic lights glowing in a smooth azure tint.

Next were the ebon tiles on floors were glossed and polished struck his fancy with occasional lights that marked certain pathways for walking and a separate lane for electric carts. David also fancied a peek through the transparent Plexiglas the moment they passed what appeared to be a laboratory of some sort. A myriad of various graphs and charts danced across the glass with people on the other side in apparent discussion.

“Oh sorry,” came an apology the moment David suddenly felt a shoulder bump into his own. The young man waved nervously, carelessly cuddling an armful of files as he paced hastily down the hallway.

It was amazing how many humans, people were here. There were dozens of them and all in a variety of different uniforms. It was an uncommon mixture of lab coats and tactical gear although he was attentive enough to catch abbreviations such as S.W.O.R.D and H.A.V.O.K stitched above their emblems. Could there by other teams or divisions in the Bureau?

Heck, as of now there was little that could possibly surprise him, not even if they had a big red devil of some sort locked away in a vault somewhere that only comes out at night to hunt monsters. Then from out of nowhere, he felt slap to the back of his head so hard he swore his eyeballs could had popped out.

“HEY! Are you listening!?” Dani snapped.

“Yeow! Would you PEH-LEASE cut that out! You know I HATE it when you do that!” David snapped in return as he rubbed the back of his head.

“If you would pull your head out of the clouds and pay attention, maybe I won’t have to now do I? Seriously, you haven’t changed a bit,”

“Well, look who’s talking? What happened to you anyways, last I heard you were trying out for the US Army Rangers, how did you end up here?”

“I was and I got in too but a lot can and has happened in five long years Davy and you know what, I hadn’t received a single email from you.

“I was left wondering what had become of you and Mikey,” she said as she tucked her hands into her pocket.

David shrugged “I admit we pretty much drifted apart after grandpa came to pass. With you following in Grandpa’s footsteps, Mikey going off to France and me headed for Harvard,” David said as he folded his arms. “But…”

The young lady shifted her attention to her younger cousin which apparently gave her a warm smile. “It doesn’t mean we can’t start over now, we’re family after all. Sides, we owe grandpa that much,”

Dani chuckled softly “Good point. Well, if you have to know, I spent a year or so down in Fort Benning, Georgia.  It was hard but I worked my ass up to the rank of Lieutenant. Then one fine day, Col. Estrada decided to pay us a visit, said he was lookin for a few good men to join the Bureau.

“Makin the cut lasted for a good three months and honestly it was the closest I’ve ever come to quittin and you know I don’t quit easy,” said Dani.

“Sounds like Hell”

Dani smirked “Heh, you wouldn’t have lasted a day. Fact, close to a hundred dropped out after the first day alone. More so in the comin weeks but in the end only three made the cut, me included. Course, it was only later I found out we’ve been recruited for V.A.N.G.A.R.D,”

David chuckled. “And let me guess, you couldn’t tell your family about it because if you did they would probably charge you with treason, erase your existance and throw you in some secret prison for life?” he said with a laugh.

Dani rolled her eyes in her cousin’s direction, glaring as she did. David’s eyes widened as he chuckled meekly “Oh…”

“I don’t know how much you know about V.A.N.G.A.R.D cous but we weren’t officially sanctioned by the United States government till recently. When I first got here, we were given strict and specific orders to remain anonymous at all cost. In other words, we were supposed to be ghosts,”

“So you operate from the shadows but why the sudden change? Is it because of the HLF? I know things have been growing from bad to worse but come on, all this…” David said as he gestured at the facility.

“…for a bunch of rednecks, trailer trash and religious, humanist psychos? Even you have to admit it’s a little over the top,”

Her sudden silence, No, more the hesitant glint her eyes made David cock an eyebrow, however he was so focused on his cousin that the knowledge that he was still walking completely slipped his mind.

“POUGH!”

David’s face contorted the moment he found himself absent mindedly walking face first into a large object standing directly in his path.

“Hey, I’m walking here!” David snarled as he stumbled back a couple of steps, fixing his glasses angrily.

The young doctor then caught sight of large cylindrical container of some kind mounted on a pint-sized four wheeled vehicle. A closer look made him realize the automated locks which bolted the thing together leading to a small device one would deduce to be a security terminal. What was in that thing? David was curious to say the least.

“SHIT, CRAP!” said a frantic voice from behind the container. It was a young man, dressed in the exact same lab coat bearing the abbreviation S.W.O.R.D. David cocked an eyebrow, noticing the rainbow colored lightning bolt pin he wore on his collar.

He fumbled off the vehicle as he nervously made his way to the young doctor, stumbling to fix his glasses at the same time trying to keep his balance on his own two feet. The young doctor merely watched half lost in confusion as the young man stopped next to the container, desperately checking it for even the slightest damage.

“Ohmigodohmigodohmigodohmigod, I probably broke something, I’m so gonna get fired for this! My life is ruineeeedddd!!!” he said hysterically.

“Yeah… I’m fine too by the way,” David said, realizing he had been ignored yet again.

“BRYAN!” Dani snapped, immediately causing the young man to jump at the sound of her voice, his face suddenly stricken in absolute horror.

“Dani! Oh my GOD it’s you! Now I’m REALLY GONNA GET FIRED! Oh GOD WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO!?” Bryan cried.

David held back a snicker “Famous much?” he said with a mischievous grin.

“Shut up,” she said with a glare before making his way to the young man, forcefully grabbing him by his collar. “BRYAN! GET A GRIP!” she yelled into his face as she shook him violently.

The shaken young cried and mumbled a load of gibberish along with random pouts of Chinese, Japanese and probably some Portuguese. The young doctor merely shook his head, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose paced toward the black container.

His eyes squinted a little, taking a closer look at the monitor while he tried desperately to drown out the incessant annoying whining coupled with the growls of a female mountain gorilla in the background.

He then smirked to himself “I knew it, a complex hexa decimal tri-code system, now that’s what I call old school. But…” he said as he stretched his fingers. “… let’s see if I can beat my old record,” he said with a soft snicker.

“How many times have I told you to watch where you’re goin!? Do I have to break your face in AGAIN!?” Dani snarled, glaring into the young man’s eyes with the fires of the netherworld blazing in her eyes. Her fingers gripping his coat with such fury that Bryan swore she was going to rip it to shreds.

“Aaaaahhhh! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Did I say I was sorry? Please don’t hurt me! For the love of GOD don’t hurt me!”

“Lock Disengage,” a digitized voice resonated from the black case as hues of amber and baby blue shifted in the direction to the container.

The metal locks and rotating knobs began to shift and unbolt accompanied by the soft mechanical grinding of shifting gears and brief hisses of steam.

“DAMN! Is this really high security of am I just THAT good!?” David boasted.

“ARGH! What the heck do you think you’re doing!?” Bryan cried hysterically before prying himself from Dani’s vice-like grip as he hurried to the container, pushing the young doctor out of the way.

“You do not have the authority to open this! E-Even I don’t have the authority to open this! Oh God, I’m so dead!” he exclaimed “Wait! Wait! Maybe I can fix this! Yes, fix it, fixxxx it! Work you piece of trash!” he cried, slamming his fist on the monitor.

Dani stared, completely bewildered. “How did you do that?”

“Well it wasn’t hard, just a couple of codes here, a couple of codes there, easy stuff,” said David.

“You’ve just unlocked a Level Nine containment unit, only two people in this whole facility are capable of doing that that and they use specialized unforgeable keys. You hacked it in less than twenty seconds,”

David pushed up on his glasses, smirking as he did. “Hey, everyone’s got a hobby or two. Mine just happens to be a tad bit more interesting,”

“Oh no, no, no, no, no THIS IS BAD, BAD, BAD!” the young man cried, pulling frantically at his hair. The case had begun to unravel itself, mechanical parts shifting into place as the shutters begun open following the cylindrical path of the case before revealing what appears to be yet another case, however this one was made of glass.

“What in blazes?” David said, leaning in for a closer look.

It was an azure spherical gem about the size of an average jawbreaker nestling comfortably on a custom made royal red cushion. David scratched his head perplexed, a gem? Why would they have a Level Nine containment unit for a mere gem?

“A rock? That’s what all the fuss is about?” Dani asked, obviously disappointed by the content. Bryan let out an overly dramatic gasp the moment he heard the word “R-Ro-ROCK!?”

The young man marched up to Dani, finger in the air and nostrils flaring. “Preposterous! Outrageous! How DARE you compare it to mere GRAVEL! It’s unacceptable! Incomprehensible! In- AAAAHH!” he cried in pain the moment Dani violently grabbed hold of his finger and twisted it mercilessly.

“What’d I say bout throwin one of your egg headed hissy fits again?” she said.

Bryan’s face grimaced from the pain as he forced himself to look at the crazy devil woman. “To not to?”

“Ah, the boy learns,” said Dani, letting go of the young man’s finger. Bryan cringed as he cradled his aching finger in his hand.

“Bryan…” David said, catching the young man’s attention. “Care to tell us what exactly this is?” inquired.

David swore the young man would have just toppled over with the sheer excitement in his eyes. He hastily fixed his coat and straightened his tie, brushing his brown hair to the back in an attempt to regain his highly educated appearance.

“Fascinating isn’t it? It was sent here from Equestria this morning. Princess Celestia had requested S.W.O.R.D to run some tests on it,” said Bryan.

David raised a baffled eyebrow before shifting his hazel eyes to the young man. It had always been a self conceived perspective of the young doctor that the Royal House was not too keen on offering much trust to the humans let alone artifacts of potential power. Especially since he was willing to bet Celestia herself knows that it was human nature to convert anything if not everything into weapons of mass destruction.

“Princess Celestia? That’s strange, why would the Princess request the Bureau to run tests on Equestrian artifacts?” Dani inquired for she was just as perplexed as her cousin. “What exactly does it do?”

“Well that’s the thing, we don’t know and neither does the Princess,” said Bryan. “But what we do know is that early scans had detected hits of some unknown energy within the core and it was fluctuating off the scale!

“With some tests and some luck, we may figure out its purpose and I know it’s gonna be SOOOO AWESOME!” he said as giddy as overexcited fan girl upon meeting her one true idol as he cupped his face in his hands.

Almost without warning, Dani shot him a nasty glare and even before the young man had time to so much as cringe, she slapped him hard across the face. His entire head was sent snapping to the left with his face distorting comically from the violent smack.

“Don’t…ever… do that again,” she said.

“Whaat? I thought it made me sound twenty perc-“ Bryan said, massaging his cheek in an effort to soothe the stinging.

“If you so much as FINISH that sentence, so help me GOD I’ll KICK YOUR ASS!” Dani snarled, grabbing his collar violently before pulling her right fist to the back.

“Aaaaaaahhh! Not the face!”

David shrugged, rolling his hazel eyes at the incessant yet pointless commotion. The young doctor pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose while he moved a little closer toward to the case, squinting for a better view of the orb. The strangest most peculiar feeling coursed through his body, almost like a familiar feeling of déjà vu nagging at the back of his head the moment he laid eyes on it and yet he found no fathomable recollection.

What was this thing? Why does it intrigue him so? Closer, just a little more, he could almost feel the coldness of the translucent glass on the tip of his nose when all of a sudden the orb erupted in a flash of blue light.

“GUH! WHAT THE-!?” he cried, his arms waving frantically in the air as he stumbled backwards. His eyes widened the moment his heart took off at the speed of light.

Both Dani and Bryan snapped their attention to the young doctor, once again caught in confusion. David panted, once again downright refusing the urge to bumble like a mindless idiot. What just happened? He found no rational answer, no words, and no comprehension to what had just happened.

“Di-di-did you see that!? Tell me you saw that!” David cried, pointing deliriously.  They shifted their half confused gaze at the glass case, only to find nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary.

“Okay, I give, what am I suppose to be lookin at?” Dani asked, raising her eyebrow in confusion.

“The ORB! –it-IT GLOWED! Didn’t you see the blue flash!?” David cried

“Flashed? Preposterous, it has never reacted in such a manner before. Are you certain you weren’t imagining it?” Bryan said, a rather cheeky smirk plastered on his face.

“I swear! I’m not crazy!” David exclaimed.

The young doctor proceeded to look around, frantically looking for someone, anyone in the busy hallway that could have been seen what he saw. However, one by one they passed him with raised eyebrows and silent thoughts to what could possibly be wrong with him for striking up such a commotion.

“Pfft! Really now, Dani your cousin’s a real specimen. Are you sure he hasn’t completely checked out up there?” Bryan asked in a rather nervy tone.

David’s eyes narrowed in irritation, finally understanding his cousin’s never ending urge to kick the young man’s face in simply just to wipe that smugness off his face for good. However the young lady shot Bryan possibly the nastiest glare ever conceived, her grip tightened around his collar as she dragged him closer to her face. Immediately, all that smugness vanished without a trace, only to be replaced with that of true terror.

“Oh, you did NOT just get sassy with me,” she said “And what was that you said about my cousin?”

“No! No, nothing! I swear, it was just a joke! You know me,” he stammered, putting on the silliest of grins in an effort to soothe the savage beast before him.

“You know maybe I should pay nice visit your room again. Frankly, I just adore your little ‘collection’, especially that one with the long green hair. Tsk, tsk it would be most unfortunate to see her in pieces!”

“NO! NO! Not my limited edition Hatsune Miku figurine! Anything but that! It’s one of only ten! It cost me three months salary!” Bryan cried frantically.

The Devil’s grin grew on the face of the young lady, causing the young man to shriek in fear. “Tell me, is this the face of someone who looks like she gives a fu-!?“

“Dani!” said David. “Leave the poor animal alone, I believe you’ve made your point,”

She pouted nonchalantly, half caught in disappointment. “Good news, it’s your lucky day,” she said before releasing the Bryan.

The young man was so scared his knees gave way causing him to fall over on his behind, staring wide eyed at the young lady while she made her way in the direction of her cousin.

“Come on,” she said, tapping on David’s shoulder.

The young doctor gave Bryan a simple salute as if to say ‘see you later’ before turning to follow the young lady. It took a full out minute before the young man stumbled to his feet, throwing a silent tantrum while mouthing the word ‘B-I-T-C-H’ over and over again to Dani’s back, knowing well enough he was headed for a nice ass kicking if she would turn around.

“Sheesh, you know I used to take lunch money from whiny little creeps like him,” said Dani.

“You’re not a very nice person, you know that? “ David said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Pfft! And here I thought you knew me better than that. By the way, care to tell me what all that hoo-ha was about?” she asked, shifting her gaze to the young doctor.

David shrugged. “I know I’m not crazy Dani and I’m pretty certain I didn’t imagine it. That orb, that thing flashed before my eyes and there’s something else…”

“What? What is it?”

“It just felt so familiar somehow. It’s almost as if I’ve seen it somewhere before but I just can’t quite put my finger on it,”

“Hhm…” The young lady mumbled, shifted her hands to the back of her head, cradling it while she stared at the ivory ceiling above them.

“You know what, it’s probably nothing,” David said. “Maybe all that overtime at the hospital is finally getting to me” he said, forcing a chuckle.

Dani shifted her gaze to him, somehow feeling unconvinced by his statement although she prevented herself nosing herself into his thoughts. “Well, if you say so cous. But you know, if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here for you,” she said with an assuring smile.

David smiled warmly “Thanks cous”

The young doctor knew it was a blatant lie but it would have to suffice for now. It was hard enough trying to convince himself that what he saw was real and not a symptom of fatigue madness, convincing someone else was near impossible.

Questions, questions and more questions began clouding his mind, all which came without answers. Everything was an enigma, this facility, that peculiar orb and the chance reunion with his long lost cousin. David shrugged, being peeved by the fact he would be forced to resort to being patient or risk driving himself insane. It seems that only time may finally unravel the answers he so desperately seeks.

“HEY WAIT A MINUTE! I DON’T KNOW HOW TO RE-ENGAGE THE LOCKS ON THIS THING! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! MY LIFE IS RUUUUIIIIINED!”

“Er, shouldn’t we go back and help him?” David asked.

“Shut up and just keep walkin”

*******************

Miguel was certainly quite thorough when he gave the order to give David the grand tour of the place. From the confounded hallways which stretched like a maze to every corner of the facility to the sheer number of divisions located on all fifteen floors. The cousins made their way past several dozen different labs. Dani had expected the young doctor to be as giddy as a schoolboy on his first day of summer, however David merely observed silently in thought at a team of engineers covered in a concoction of sweat, grease and grime while in the midst of assembling a large multi terrain vehicle of some sort.

A direct contrast to the labs on the other floors which had scientists draped in lab coats, their hands gloved in latex while they worked with Petri dishes, phials and other lab-like equipment. Once again, the young doctor merely observed while they worked with compounds and chemicals that bore no resemblance to anything he had ever seen back in his day in medical school.

Although with every lab, every division they passed, Dani had begun growing wary of David’s silence. It was so unlike him to show such indifference especially to a place like this, even when he was taken to lab on the twelfth floor, weapons testing. The myriads of explosions, gizmos and futuristic prototypes of guns and assault gears did nothing to draw out even a hint of interest. Once again, David observed, his hand absent mindedly cradled his chin yet once again in thought.

Dani found herself in an unexpected dilemma. Could it be possible that he was completely uninterested simply because he had already made up his mind on leaving by week’s end? No, he was interested, she can always tell by glimmer in his eyes when situations or objects tend to catch his fancy. Maybe, just maybe he was being plagued with questions of his own.

“Fifth Floor, V.A.N.G.A.R.D Division” said the voice from the elevator.

“Alright, listen up and I don’t want you day dreamin away on me again. H.A.V.O.K is our tactical strike force, know S.W.A.T? Yeah, just like that cept for the fact they’re far better equipped and trained.

S.W.O.R.D stands for ‘Special Weapons Offence Research and Development’. The eggheads run the labs around here. Weapons, vehicles, you name it and they’ll probably have someone workin on it. Now V.A.N.G.A.R.D stands for-“

“Dani…” David said all of a sudden.

The young lady paused, her gaze shifted to meet his own. “Somethin up cous?”

“Nah, I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed” David replied.

“Overwhelmed?” Dani raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t get me wrong, the Bureau, this place. Everything just took my breath away but remember what I said earlier? Isn’t this a little too much for a mere bunch of maniacs like the HLF?”

Dani shrugged “Alright, honestly I’ve been instructed to keep that classified until you’ve been formally and officially briefed. I was supposed repeat what Col. Miguel said, the whole ‘we live in dangerous times’ speech.

“But you’re my cousin and I’ve spent the past couple of years keepin my family in the dark so I figure I owe it to you to be truthful for once,” she said.

The young doctor merely listened in silence, never once did he avert his gaze from his cousin.

“Recently after weeks of undercover and reconnaissance, we stormed one of their hideouts down in Brookyln. It was a routine raid, no heroics and minimal resistance.

We expected to find the usual, kidnapped Ponies, weapons, you know but what we found in there changed everything,”

The young doctor’s eyes widened. “Z.O.H.A.R Weapons… they were real?” he inquired.

Dani nodded “It was unlike anythin we’ve ever seen, truckloads of them enough for a small army. As far as we know, the existence of Z.O.H.A.R based weapons was all but a myth.

Sides the only reason why we weren’t wheeled out in caskets that day was cause we got the drop on them, had it turned out otherwise, well you know…” Dani frowned.

The young doctor tucked his hands into the large pockets in his coat. “What of the weapons at this very moment?” he asked.

“S.W.O.R.D is currently runnin tests on them as we speak. They’re tryin their best to find any evidence that could point us in the right direction. Seems that luck hasn’t been on our side,”

David brought his hand to his chin, hues of bright hazel staring idly as in thought.

“Don’t you think it’s a little strange? We’re talking about billions of dollars worth of advance tech here. There’s no way the HLF could possibly afford all of that that even with all their assets combined.

Could it be possible that that someone could have been funding them from the shadows?” he asked.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been thinkin Davy but as of now we’ve no leads or suspects. Sides, weapons aside, we’ve bigger problems to deal with,” said Dani

The young doctor gazed somewhat suspiciously at his cousin. “Define ‘bigger problems’,” he said.

Dani cleared her throat hastily. “I know I said I’d be honest with you but I think it would be best if we let the Colonel brief you on that part,” she said with a nervous smile.

“But-“

“It’s protocol” Dani interrupted.

David scoffed silently to himself, clever girl, she was well aware that morally he could never ever bring himself to break protocol even back at the hospital. Besides, everyone knew it would be complete and utter madness, especially with that devil woman running every crook and cranny of that place. Many have tried and many have failed, miserably, poor bastards the lot of them.

“So… um… these guys on V.A.N.G.A.R.D, where exactly are they from? You can’t expect me to believe you had them grown out of test tubes now could you?” David asked in a ditch to change the subject.

Dani merely smirked in return. “Here and there, they come from all over the world. Mexico, Moscow, Kolkata, Okinawa and of course good ole United States,”

“I bet their resumes are impressive to boot,” David added.

“Spetsnaz, Special Forces, CIA, you name it. Frankly I bet you’d be the only ‘normal’ addition to the team,” Dani chuckled.

“Oh normal, HAAAYYY,” David’s eyes narrowed unamused.

Dani laughed “They’re a bunch of morons but they’re the best the world has to offer. They’re highly trained and extremely capable of operating on any terrain under any circumstance.              Frankly I’d never seen more-“

However before she could find the opportunity to finish, the both of them heard loud noises from further down the hallway. Although it was tough to make out at first the moment they got within earshot of a metal door, it definitely sounded as if someone was banging savagely on a piece of metal while yelling furiously in a thick Scottish accent.

“Oh gawd damn this infarnal contraption! Jus gimme my dam kaffee or I sware I’ll send yeou to the mun!”

“Yew zo know itz not prugged in right?”

“… I kneu dat,”

Daniela felt her teeth grind in annoyance “Dampseyyyy…”

David merely gazed at her from the corner of his eyes. “Most impressive”

“Ugh, let’s just get this over with,”

The metal door slid open to soft hissing of pistons and the brief grinding of mechanical gears as two cousins entered what appears to be a well lit common room. David pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose while he studied his surroundings.

It was roomy, big enough to accommodate a New York penthouse, lavishness and all. However the decorations did little to intrigue him for he was far more interested in the four people in the room.

“Ah! Nothin gits blood pumpin and yer kilt a-wavin like kick-arse cup of kawfee!”

David finally had a face to match that rather obnoxious voice. It was a young man in his mid twenties, roughly five feet tall with brown eyes and curly hair with well groomed beard draped in a grew long sleeve shirt and khaki pants.

The expression of satisfaction, maybe even caught in filled his face as he leaning against the counter top, taking a deep whiff of the strong aroma that radiated from his ‘I Love New York’ coffee mug.

“Oughh, the taste, the smell! Now that’s aye call kawfee”

“Yew’re an idziot, yew know tzhat,”

The thick Russian accent brought the young doctor to the rather bulky, well rounded young man sitting by the round glass dining table. Also mid twenties, he deduced he was about six feet tall. His jet black hair was extremely short, shaven almost to the skin although the top left thicker than his sides.

He face was kept clean of facial hair with the exception of a thick mustache kept over his lip and around his mouth. Other than the black jeans he was wearing, the gray t shirt he wore was almost a size too small for him judging by how tightly it wrapped over his bulging muscles.

“Well skrew yew, yew Russion fag!” said the young man, sticking out his middle finger in insult. But the young man merely groaned, flipping the next page of a body builder’s magazine he had been reading.

“ECHK HEM!” Dani exclaimed and almost immediately, all eyes shifted in her direction.

“Well, well, eif it ain’t the commander, late fer once I sae” said the young man with a smirk.

“Can it Dempsey! I was on official business,” snapped Dani.

“Leikly storay” Dempsey replied with a smirk.

Noticing the stranger in the while lab coat, the Russian from the table proceeded to place his hands together before laying his ferociously piercing eyes on David, making the young doctor cringed with uneasiness. It was almost like being stared down by Siberian tiger, blood thirsty, savage and feral knowing well enough that you were about to meet your maker.

“Who’z tza spaghetti?” he said in his rough Russian voice.

“Eh?”David muttered, feeling his eye twitch at the question. Spaghetti? What on earth was that suppose to mean?

“The ‘spaghetti’, Nikolai, happens to be our new recruit and my cousin to boot. I’d appreciate it if you’d stop lookin at him as if he were lunch,” said Dani, her eyes narrowing.

“Wvell, I am feeling littzle haungrie” he said with an unnerving smile.

“Oh piss off Nik!” snapped Dani.

“So this is that there docter of a kousin you’ve been talkin about eh Dani? Fanny, I kan’t see the resemblance,” said Dampsey.

David raised an eyebrow, however he suddenly felt someone grab his hand, shaking it enthusiastically. His gaze shifted to his side as he saw a young man, maybe in his late teens clasping both his hands around David’s right. His skin was dark, maybe Indian judging by the white turban wrapped tightly around his head. He stood at barely four feet tall, dressed in his traditional Indian clothing with fabric of dull yellow with a purple vest worm over it.

“Hi there, it has been a real while since anyone joined V.A.N.G.A.R.D, pleasure to be making your acquaintance. My name is Hadji, I’m in charge of tech” he said with an apparent Indian accent.

“Er, hi, I’m-“ David said.

“Dr. David Stone, in addition to tech, I am also in charge of reconnaissance and I’ve read everything about you and may I say that I truly am impressed,” he said with the brightest of smiles.

The young doctor felt his eye twitch again. So this is how Miguel knew so much about him, he had this little peep squeak that spy on him and his personal life. Imagine having every, itty-bitty little detail snitched to that man by this no good little-

“Er, Dr Stone, your grip is kind of tight,” said Hadji nervously.

“Oh, sorry!” David said, releasing the young man’s hand as he massaged it gently.

“Aaaah mi amor! You have returned to me! Why didn’t you say hello this morning? I missed you sooo,”

“WHAT THE HECK! Stefan! Get off me you horny piece of shit!” Dani snarled.

David’s eyes widened, shifting his attention to that of his cousin, her arms pushing away a young man somewhat in his late twenties. His olive skin bore a resemblance to that of Miguel and with a name like Stefan, it was not hard to deduce that he was Hispanic origins. He was dressed in a black slacks and a black shirt, half buttoned at the collar like a desperate Casanova would in hopes that chest hair would add to his attraction.

His hair was jet black, gelled neatly to the back. His arms were wrapped around the young lady, his lips pressed in a kiss although his face was kept at a fair distance with Dani’s boot pressed firmly against his cheek. Dampsey erupted in a hail of laughter, having to place his mug down on the counter top as he clutched his stomach.

“Oh! Oh! This nevar gets old!” he said, wiping the tears from his eyes.

David merely stared, half caught between disturbed and surprised. “Is this normal?” he asked.

“Oh, it happenz all da time. Ole Stefan ere’s a bit of orny bastard and he haz a crush on er. So you’re the new feesh on da market eh? By da way, I’m Mattias but yeou can call me Dempsey, all me friends call me that,” he said, extending a hand to the young man.

“Pleasure…” David greeted nervously in return, taking the young man’s hand in his own.

“And muscles fer brains ovar there is Nikolai, oi! Say hi yer dumb sheet!” exclaimed Dampsey.

“Pri-VET,” he said, paying no attention to the young man.

“Bah, don’t mind im. Jus don’t be getting on es bad side nao kay? Don’t want to be… eaten nao would ya?” asked Dempsey, his right eye widened unnervingly as he got uncomfortably close to the young doctor.

“HAHA! Yeah… wouldn’t want that,” David said with a really nervous smile, desperately trying to back away.

“Stefan, I swear to God I’m going to shoot you again if you don’t let go!”

“Oh mi amor! You’re so fiery when you’re angry!” he said with a cheeky grin.

However, the moment he noticed the young man at the door, he darted away from Dani, extending a friendly hand to the young man. “Hola, allow me to introduce myself, the name is Santiago… Stefan Santiago, remember it mi amigo,” he said, his voice suave and somewhat enchanting made so by his Spanish accent.

“Nice to meet you too, I guess,” David said, greeting the young man with a nervous shake.

“Good, I wanted to make a good first impression for my future cousin in la- AIEE!,” the young man wailed the moment he felt the butt of a handgun being hammered into his skull.

“DON’T GO GIVIN MY COUSIN WRONG IDEAS YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Dani snarled

David merely stared, completely dumbfounded by this little entourage. It kept playing through his mind over the possibilities of this turning out to be a colossal mistake, either that or Miguel had a cruel sense of humor. Who were these people? Why were they so… odd? This could not possibly be V.A.N.G.A.R.D now could it?

“Urggghh! Oooh, you’re so secksy when you’re shaahahahahhaking me vioooolently like taahahahahahahttt!” Stefan cried as he was shaken violently by Dani.

“GRRRRR!!!” she snarled.

“Oi! What say we all throw a parrty fer the new guy! We’re gonna need booze, lots of it! Bwahahahaha!!!” Dempsey cried proudly. Nikolai shot the young Scotsman a nasty glare as he groaned, turning another page of his magazine.

“I still am not getting why he likes the ‘booze’ so much. Every time he throws a party he is wanting the booze,” said Hadji.

David’s eyes narrowed, he has had enough.

“I’m gonna skin you, cut you open, rip out all you’re insides and turn you into cup-WHOA!” Dani cried as she was yanked away by her arm.

“Dani, could I have a word with you? Like, outside?” David inquired.

There was concern in her eyes the moment the realized the gravity in the tone of his voice. “Well sure cous,” she said before dropping Stefan onto the floor.

As the metal door slid open, the two cousins proceeded to exit the room, leaving behind vexing bursts of triumphant laughter from a person functioning with half a brain and the dizzied groans with balls for one.

“Alright, what’s bitin you cous?” Dani asked as she folded her arms.

“What’s biting me? WHAT’S BITING ME? You gotta be freaking kidding me! Am I suppose to believe that those, those CLOWNS are the one and only V.A.N.G.A.R.D?” David erupted in a fit of rage.

“Well what were you expecting? The yes sir, no sir, I have a stick up in my ass sir sort?” Dani asked, clearly expecting and not to mention amused by her cousin’s outburst.

“As a matter of fact, that one of it, yes. Dani, I came here because I wanted to make a difference, to maybe do some good out there in the world. Not play college frathouse with… ” said David, at a complete lost for words.

“THEM!” he blurted with a gesture of his hand.

Dani shrugged “David, I know they don’t seem like much but aren’t you a little too quick to be jumpin the gun here? Weren’t you the one who used to tell me not to judge a book by its cover?”

“Believe me, I think I’ve seen enough to draw my own conclusions. You know what, I’m not even going to wait a week, I’m just going to march straight up to Miguel’s office and-,” David said as he turned to leave.

“Oh come on Davy!” The young lady said, grabbing hold of David’s shoulder. “There’s more to them than that, least you could do is give them a chance,”

“Give them a chance!? Why the heck would I want do that?! All the people in V.A.N.G.A.R.D are KERAZY!” David cried.

“Beggin you a pardon sir but I reckon I resent that statement,”

Hues of bright hazel peered curiously over his shoulder with the rest of his body following suit. The young doctor found himself face to face with the figure of a rough shaven young man standing boldly before him.

He was roughly six feet tall, draped in short ebon leather duster coat worn snugly over his grey shirt with his matching black denim jeans and boots to match. His hands were gloved in a pair of fingerless black leather gloves. His then right proceeded to push up on his grey Stetson, revealing his bright emerald green eyes hidden briefly hidden in shadows but a moment ago. A leather holster hung from his right side with a polished silver revolver resting snugly within.

“Howdy,” he greeted with a brazen smile.

“Wesson, you’re back early for once. How’re the new grunts holdin up? Got potential?” said Dani

“I’d reckon they’ve had enough of me fer one day. Sides, can’t be pushin them greenhorns too hard, don’t wanna break them before old man Burns get his hands on em,” he said, his accent clearly southern bound. His gaze shifted over to the young man beside her.

“Let me guess, you must be that there famous cousin Dani’s always talkin about, Dr. David Stone right?” he asked, extending his hand in greeting. “Wesson T. Banon, V.A.N.G.A.R.D’s second in command, pleasure to be makin your acquaintance,”

“Howdy, I mean hi!” David blurted, returning his greeting almost absent mindedly. The relief of finally being able to meet someone normal in this circus immediately put his mind at ease.

“Gettin jittery on your first day? Don’t sweat it partner, you’ll get used to it. Oh, and by the way, that there’s Rin, Rin Katsuragi,” said Wesson.

“Huh?” David swore he could have taken a giant leap backward when he realized a young girl standing beside him. Where did she come from? She wasn’t there a moment ago. How on earth did she get so close to him without him noticing?

She was of Asian descent, with long straight black hair, standing a foot shorter than he was, dressed in a dark blue hoodie and long pair of sweatpants to match sucking indifferently on a blue Popsicle stick. David’s eyes narrowed restlessly from the way she was looking at him. The young girl’s deep, arctic, almost lifeless black eyes gazing ominously at him almost with the intention of petrifying his very soul.

He swallowed hard as he nervously extended a hand. “Em, hi, I’m Dr. David Stone…” however before he received a greeting in return, Wesson caught his hand.

“WHOA there partner! I wouldn’t do that if I were you. She may look cute and all but she sure don’t like bein touched. You don’t wanna know what happened to the last poor coot who did,” he said.

David’s eyes widened, feeling a cold sweat run down his neck. “Duly noted,” he said.

“It’s okay, she don’t talk much but you can bet your saddle that she’d always be there ta save your ass when the shit hits the fan,” Wesson said with a confident smile.

The young doctor nodded nervously, even realizing that Rin’s gaze had never left him, not even for a second.

Dani chuckled “Rin, give him some space, he looks like he’s gonna have a heart attack,” she said. Her piercing ebon hues shifted to her commanding officer, nodding she took a step backward.

Then without warning, the hallway erupted in a half of sirens followed by the flashing of red lights. Amber strips of bright light bearing the word ‘EMERGENCY’ appeared like a caution strip across the ivory walls. “What in blazes?” David inquired.

The sounds of a monotone ringtone had Dani reaching into her pocket before pulling out a small transparent square-like device before tapping along the glossy Plexiglas surface. “Stone, talk to me,” she said.

A holographic image projected from the device, bearing the face of a seasoned veteran. His white beard and hair was kept short to standard army code and he definitely had seen better days judging by the battle scars on his face.

“This is Burns! Get your punk ass down to the docks right now, we got ourselves a situation!” he snarled.

“On our way, just don’t die on me before we get there old man,” Dani said with a smirk.

The man gave an unnerving smile. “Who the heck do you think you’re talkin to? I’ll have you kn-” he said, only to pause when he realized an unfamiliar face in the background.

David’s eyes widened. “Dani… is that…?” he asked.

“Good lord…” said Burns.

“Catch up on your own time, we gotta move!” Dani cried as she switched it off before slipping it back into her pocket. “Let’s roll!” she said, opening the door to the common room.

“You heard the lady, move your ass!” Wesson cried before taking off down the hallway. No sooner than that, the rest of the crew bolted out of the room.

“Aww! And I just got da booze open too!” Dempsey groaned.

“Now is not the time to be drinking, you should know better,” said Hadji

“Shut yer trap yer Ghandi piece of sheet!”

“Whvy don’t any of you evar shut up?” groaned Nikolai, dragging the almost unconscious Steffan behind him by the collar of his shirt.

“Mi Amor! Do not worry, I, Stefan Santiago will never let you down!” he said only to have Dani shoot him a nasty glare on his way out.

David tucked his hand into his coat pockets before making his way to the common room door “Well… looks like you guys are off, I’ll just wait till you- YIEEE!” he cried, feeling someone drag him away by the back of his collar.

“Uh ah, you’re coming too!” said Dani as she paced hastily down the hallway.

“Eh?! But wait, I haven’t been formally briefed! I have no training!” he cried, desperately trying free himself from being dragged against his will.

“What better way to learn than a hand’s on experience! Just like grandpa used to do,” she said.

“But what about protocol!?”

“Who gives a shit!?”

“EHHHHHHH!?”

********************

David felt the four wheel drive to a rather jerky halt, the feint smell of burning rubber against the asphalt lingered in the air. From the windows he could see the reason why, the New York Harbor was complete chaos and disarray. Both people and Ponykind were bolting down the sidewalks as fast as their legs could carry them and the young doctor could see the apparent motivation their eyes, fear.

The rambunctious cries, yell and screams echoed through the cityscape resonated with the barrage of gunfire and the tinkling of bullet shells hitting the pavement beneath them. Daniela and Wesson were the first out of the vehicle before the rest with David right behind them before making their way to the cluster of black heavy duty vehicles bearing a more advance take on the old army Hummer and trucks stationed surrounding the large warehouse before them.

“Steffan, Nikolai, evacuate the entire area. I don’t wanna so much as see a single soul, human or pony within five miles of the place,” Dani said, her voice stern in order.

“Esta bien,” said Steffan. Nikolai merely nodded before the both of them took off.

“Hadji, get live and give me a status report pronto,”

“Okie dokie, no problem,” said Hadji as he removed what appeared to be a black glossy stick from his pocket.

“Wesson, Rin, on me. Let’s find out just what the heck we’re dealin with here,” said Dani as they approached the vehicles.

“Yes ma’am,” Wesson said with a nod. Rin gave no reply as she indifferently unwrapped another one of her Popsicle sticks before proceeding to suck on it.

“Em, aren’t yeou fergettin someone?” Dempsey interjected.

Dani shifted her attention to the young Scotsman. “Actually I didn’t, cause I have the most important job for you,”

Dempsey merely looked on eagerly like a dog waiting for his bone. “Your job is to guard my cousin and make sure you guard him with your life,” she said.

The young man could feel his ego shatter like a solid pane of glass, his eyes narrowed as he barred his teeth in aggravation. “That’z it? I ave to look aftar yer little poodle while yer go out and ave all tha fun!? I aven’t seen any action fer a week na and I ave sit on tha bench again?” he snarled.

David felt his eye twitch, he was a poodle now? Suddenly Dani whipped around unexpectedly, catching Dempsey off guard as she grabbed his collar violently before slamming his back against the metal surface of one of the black trucks. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the young Scotsman who was definitely regretting his little outburst right now.

“Now you listen and you listen good you little punk ass piece of shit, I don’t give a damn if you haven’t had the chance to play hero.

“Bottom line is I gave you an order and if somethin, anythin should happen to my cousin, I will find you and I will rip your freakin nuts off with my bare hands, UNDERSTAND!?” she snarled.

Dempsey eyes were wider than ever, too terrified to even speak all he could do is nod frantically. Dani scoffed before releasing him, making her way to the frontlines with Rin and Wesson right behind her.

“Pft! betch,” The young man rubbed the back of his head before turning his attention to David. “Yeou, I like my balls where they are so I’m not lettin yeou outta my sight, nao walk,” he said.

David nodded nervously before following suit. The deafening sounds of gunfire grew louder as they approached the front line. There were several dozen men, all draped in Kevlar, helmets and riot gear taking cover behind the trucks as they showered the warehouse with an endless hail of bullets and grenades.

“Eat shit and kill yourselves you pony lovin fags!”

They were being retaliated by a group of men taking cover behind the solid metal doors, returning fire with everything they have. The young doctor had to stick his fingers into his ear canals in a desperate bid to ease the blustering explosions bombarding his eardrums and thanking his lucky stars they were behind a well protected barricade.

“Took you long enough!” said a rather familiar voice. His eyes widened for a brief moment, his gaze shifting to the old man who was speaking to Dani.

He was large, standing close to seven feet tall and surprisingly well built for a man his age. Bearing the traits of a hardened soldier, the man was draped in a full out riot gear which appeared abraded and weary with the passing of time. The solid plate bore scars, traces of blade marks even claws worn proudly like the mementos of a warrior’s past. The letters ‘H.A.V.O.K’ etched on his shoulder plate was barely visible.

“I’ll make it up to you later, what’ve we got? HLF?” she asked.

The old soldier grunted. “You got that right. Two, maybe three dozen of em holed up in there. They’re pissed as shit and packin a whole lot of heat, I’ve got more H.A.V.O.K units on the way,” he said.

“Any signs of Z.O.H.A.R weapons?” Dani asked, her eyes narrowed as she gazed at the entrance of the warehouse.

“Negative on that so far. Sides, do you think we’d all still be standing here in one piece if they had any? But even so, I ain’t takin any chances,” he said.

“Good call and don’t you worry. If they come on out strange guns ablazin, we’ll take them down,” she said.

“And that ain’t all, there’s somethin else you gotta know. Probably the real reason why I called you guys down here,”

“Somethin else? You don’t mean-” Dani said, pausing as her eyes widened realizing the horrible truth.  The old man merely nodded.

*******************

The warehouse was being riddled by storms of flying led ripping through the metallic walls as if they were paper. The cries of the injured and the screams of the dying echoed throughout the building and the stench of scorched blasting gel and burning flesh choked the air with pure putridness, threatening to empty the contents of his stomach. The young man’s breaths were quick and frantic and his eyes wide with terror. He gripped his G36 rifle, hugging it tightly enough to his chest that even the Devil could not wrench it away from him.

Suddenly, he felt something grab him by his shoulder. His eyes widened, he gasped. “AAAHHHHHHHH!!!” he yelled, flailing his arms as he pushed away whatever that grabbed him, hearing the figure slam into a couple of wooden boxes as he jumped to his feet, rifle pointed with his finger held dangerously close to the trigger.

“WHOA! WHOA! What’re you CRAZY!? It’s ME!” cried the person, in his early twenties with his hands held up frantically in the air.

“Donald? Shit man! What the heck were you thinking!?” the young man yelled, putting down his rifle.

“It’s over man! It’s over! Nortan’s dead and the Bureau have got the place surrounded. We gotta get out of here, this has gone too far!” Donald yelled as he grabbed his friend’s shoulders.

“Wait? Nortan’s dead!? But we can’t go out there! We’ll be dead if we did!” the young man retaliated.

“WE’LL BE DEAD IF WE STAY IN HERE! Listen man, I don’t wanna die! I’m supposed to graduate Harvard next year! I don’t wanna die!”he cried as he shook the young man, the fear in his eyes scared even that of the young man as he felt the vice-like grip began to bite into his shoulder.

“Hey man! You’re hurting me man! Quit it!” he cried, his teeth clenching from the mounting pain.

“I DON’T WANNA DIE MAN! I DON’T WANNA DIE! I DON’T WAN-”

All he heard was a brief zip and the sickening sounds of both flesh and bone being ripped upon impact as the young man felt something warm splatter all over his face. Donald’s eyes were deep and empty, completely devoid of life as his body tumbled limply to the ground, never to breathe again.

The young man’s eyes widened, his fingers trembled as he reached for his face, feeling the thick liquid smeared over his cheeks before allowing himself to lay eyes on whatever was clinging to his hand. He gasped, his body petrified from sight of the crimson liquid of life.

He shifted his gaze to that of his friend, now laying in a growing pool of blood, a large portion of his head and what was left of his brain had been splattered all over the floor. He wanted to scream, scream…

“Ah, ah, AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” his lungs burned as he took off running. He needed to get out of there, he had to, he did not care who he had to shoot or kill, he just wanted out.

His eyes searched frantically for a way out but to no avail, the side doors, the windows, the ducts. There was no fathomable way out; they had snipers covering the roof, soldiers on the front, back, even the side entrances. Who was he kidding? As long as the others refused to surrender, they will not stop, they will not stop until each and every one of them lay dead like road kill upon the highway.

“No, no, NO! I AIN’T GONNA DIE HERE!” he snarled as he raced to the back of the warehouse.

He remembered, there was a room back there and something inside of it may just be his saving grace. He navigated through the maze of wooden crates, through the mangled remains and led riddled corpses of his fallen comrades. His heart raced, his body drenched in sweat as he felt the adrenaline coursed through his body.

He soon caught sight of the blood red door that led to the room, with a grunt of effort he dashed forward. Then, as if an angel had whispered in his ear, he caught the sounds of gun being cocked.

“OH SHIT!” he cried as he dove to the floor, his chest hitting the solid cement floor as hails upon hails bullets went sailing overhead.

He flung his hands over his head, his cry drowned by the screams sounds of those poor unfortunate souls standing in the bullet’s direct path. His heart raced as he started to hyperventilate, using all his strength, he dug his elbows into the ground as he crawled his way out from under the wall of fire and led. Once out of harm’s way, he stumbled to his feet before making a frantic last effort dash to the door. He panted, grabbing hold of the door knob only to discover it was locked.

“SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! AAAAAHHH!” he yelled as he started hammering the knob with the butt of his rifle like a man possessed. “O-P-E-N COME ON! COME ON!” Once, twice, the knob began to twist, the wood started to splinter but even then the door refused to budge.

The young man had finally lost all sense and reasoning as he cocked his rifle. Not even considering taking aim, he emptied the entire clip into the door.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” He could feel the rifle vibrating in his arms, his finger squeezing hard on the trigger as the bullets reduced the door into mere splinters of broken wood however he heard nothing but empty clicks of the firing pin.

Hastily removing the sling from his body, he tossed the gun aside before kicking the door down. He entered the room immediately ransacking anything he could get his hands on. He pulled apart the filing cabinets, ripped out the drawers, tore the paintings off the walls. Where was it? Where was it!? He knew it was in here somewhere. He saw that strange man in here with their leader Norton merely the day before now where could it be!?

“YES!”

He found it, this was it! A large desperate grin grew on his face before removing the black case barely the size of a lunch box from one of the drawers. Placing it carefully on the work desk his fingers stumbled while he tried to open it. However when he did, he felt a cold uneasy shiver run down his spine the moment he laid eyes on two glass syringes. What were these things? What do they do?

The young man took one in his hand as he brought it closer to his face for a closer look. Both were six inches long and encased in chrome, his eyes narrowed suspiciously at the green fluid within them. The young man swallowed hard, knowing that everything inside of him was completely and utterly against it. Maybe this was a bad idea to begin with. Maybe if he surrendered he might be spared. Yes, they will listen to reason, they were not murderers, they will spare those willing to surrender he was sure of it.

“AAAH!” he yelled, just as a bullet shot right through the wall and straight into the filing cabinet. Immediately he dropped to the floor, his right hand tapping deliriously over the surface of the table before grabbing the other syringe. Almost without warning, the entire room was filled with bullets, riddling the walls with hundreds of bullet holes and metal walls did almost nothing to top it. He yelled, clutching the syringes tightly in his hands. How did it turn out this way? Where did he go wrong? He just wanted it to stop… he just wanted it all to stop.

He gritted his teeth, feeling the tears pour from his eyes. He felt numb, his ears deafened by the hails of gunfire, his lungs burned with the stench of death and destruction. Was this the end? He did not want to die, not like this, not like Donald, not like some nameless stray in a New York alley. Not like this…

“NOT LIKE THIS!” he yelled at the top of his voice before shoving both syringes into his neck. He screamed through gritted teeth the moment the needles pierced his skin, a burning sensation coursing through his body as the green fluid flowed into his veins. He could feel it; he could feel it inside of him, moving through ever part of him, his skin, and his muscles like something was alive inside of him. He felt sick enough to lose his grip on the syringes as he dropped them to the floor. It lasted for a couple of seconds then suddenly, just like that it disappeared.

His breaths grew heavy as he stumbled to his feet while desperately trying to retain his balance. His body felt numb for there was no sensation, his fingers felt devoid of feeling even the stench that once lingered in the air. Was something suppose to happen? Was he supposed to feel any different? Then suddenly…

“AAARRRRGGHHHH!!!!” the young man screamed. His entire body erupted in unspeakable pain like nothing he has ever felt before. He screamed again and again, his lungs burned, his throat felt as if it would rip itself apart. He felt his skin crawling and his muscles tense. His eyes widened in absolute shock and panic, it was as if he was being torn apart from the inside out.

What was happening to him? Why was this happening? “AAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!” He was forced to his knees, his thoughts were in shambles, everything made blurry by the pain. It was then he realized, his hands, they were growing, no, they were morphing into something. “NO! NO! NO! THIS ISN’T HAPPENING! NO AAAAAAAARRRGGGHH!!” His eyes widened in disbelieve but there was nothing he could do, through the pain he felt every inch of him, changing. Into what, he will never know.

“AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

His screams grew deeper.

*******************

“Jerry?” David muttered.

The old man shifted his gaze to the young doctor as he gave him a rather cocky smile. “Ehya squirt, long time no see,” he said.

David felt a large smile grow on his face. “My God, where have you been? I haven’t seen you since…”

He paused, unable to finish the sentence. The old man patted him on his shoulder “I’ve been around. Been trying to get back in fishin but it just ain’t the same without ole Nathan.

That man was tougher than a sack of nails and yet he had the patience of Buddha, somethin I ain’t got,” he said.

“But, how? How did you end up-“

“Here? Bad luck for starters! There I was strapped broke and mindin my own business when that Latino asshole Miguel came knockin on my door. He offered me a sweet gig and one thing led to another,”

David chuckled at his words. Jeremiah Burns, Jerry for short, it felt like an eternity since he last spoke to the old soldier. Like brothers in arms, he served alongside David’s grandfather in the Marines back in the day and has seen action from deserts of Afghanistan, Serbia, to the jungles of Congo and even frozen tundra of Siberia.

After an honorable discharge from the army, he decided to spend his retirement by renting a spot on his grandfather’s old vineyard down in Cali. There never was a dull day with the old man and he certainly loved the outdoors, recalling one of the many annual, mostly impromptu camping trips. Jerry had taught him almost everything about survival much to the young doctor’s reluctance. Back when he was a child he had always thought that things would never change, blessed memories of joy and laughter. To him, that old vineyard was more than just a family, it was a home and it was their home. That is, until that day.

He shrugged. It came to no surprise that Jerry was probably the one who took his grandfather’s passing the hardest. After the funeral the old man packed his bags, fired up his big black Harley and rode off into the sunset engines ablaze and never once did he stop to look back.

“You know, when I saw you through that there hologram, for a moment I thought I was dreamin. You in V.A.N.G.A.R.D?” said Jerry with a laugh.

“Oh ha ha, what’s the matter? Is it wrong for me to consider a career change?” David sulked as he crossed his arms.

“You misunderstand Davy ole boy. I’m not sayin it’s bad, just that… ole Nathan would have been proud,” he said with a smile.

David smiled in return, however before he could continue he was cut off by the cries of a soldier.

“Captain! Captain Burns!” One of H.A.V.O.K’s soldiers ran in their direction, coming to a halt before saluting.

The old man turned to face him. “Status report!”

“Yes sir! We have them on the run sir, they’re outnumbered, outgunned and running low on ammo. Sides, with their leader neutralized they’re fighting blind.

“We also have eyes on every possible escape route. Those bastards aren’t going anywhere,” he said.

“Bout damned time,” he said, teeth barred. “Let’s call it in for Christmas and wrap this up soldier,”

“Sir, yes sir!” the trooper replied as he turned to leave.

“Seriously, I’m gettin too old for this shit,” Jerry ran his hand down his face before shifting his attention to the young doctor. “We’ll have plenty of time to catch up later squirt. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve to go do some negotiatin” the old soldier said, giving David a gentle pat on the shoulder.

“CEASE FIRE!” he cried.  Almost instantly, the gunfire came to an abrupt halt. It was quiet, nothing but the hissing of gun barrels and the occasional tinkles of bullet shells hitting the asphalt below.

Wesson’s eyes narrowed “Ah don’t know bout you but I have a bad feelin bout this,” he said as Dani nodded in agreement.

“Yeou always ave a bad feelin. Sides, nothin ta warrey aboot, we ave em yellow bastards runnin skared. Well, looks like we’re done, time to go ome,” Dempsey said as he turned around to leave.

Jerry approached the front line but not before grabbing a loudspeaker from one of the black trucks on the way. A loud high pitched screech broke the silence, his eyes glaring dangerously at the warehouse as he lifted the speaker to his face.

“I know you’re in there you punk ass sons of bitches! Now I don’t wanna tell you this but apparently I’m ‘contractually obligated’.

“We’ve the area surrounded and there ain’t no way you’re gettin out without a bullet in yer ass so don’t even try! Now throw down yer weapons and come on out with your hands behind your heads and I swear you will not be harmed” he said.

“Go suck on a pony’s dick you old fart!” A young man yelled from behind the bullet ridden barricade.

His eye twitched, that definitely struck a nerve. Jerry could feel his hands tremble in pure rage, desperately trying to keep his composure.

“Alright wise ass, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Frankly I don’t give a shit cause I’d rather just ship you back home in body bags and deal with the paperwork later.

Now you assholes can either come on out and surrender, or I’m gonna come marchin right on in there, and if I have to do that, I’m bringin the wrath of God with me! You hear that you piece of asswipe!”

David felt his eye twitch, completely and utterly astounded by the amount of callowness in the air. Was this his idea of negotiation? Then again as memory serves, Jerry was never the subtle type.

“So you can have us turn into those FREAKS!? Screw you!”

“I’m gettin mighty impatient you-“

Then without warning, the young man came from behind the barricade, cocking his AK-47 held firmly in his hands before taking aim at the old captain. Almost immediately the entire squad took aim in retaliation, their fingers firmly on the trigger.

“Hold your fire!” he commanded. “Put the gun down son or I swear it ain’t gonna end pretty for you,” he said, his eyes narrowing dangerously in the direction at the young man.

“SHUT UP! YOU SHUT THE HELL UP! I ain’t gonna be no freakin Pony!” he yelled.

“Ponification’s a choice, not an obligation. We all have our choices son but from where I’m standin right now you obviously chose wrong. Now stand down!”

The young man forced a dry laugh, again and again, tears were pouring from his eyes and down his dirt stained cheeks. “You don’t get it do you? I’ve got nothing left to lose. My family, my friends, MY LIFE! They’re all gone, all because of those THINGS!” he spat

David allowed his eyes to close for a moment as he pushed the thin frame of his glasses further up the bridge of his nose before allowing eyes to rest on the young man in the distance.

“I had everything! I HAD EVERYTHING! I was HAPPY! So you know what, if you’re going to shoot me, SHOOT ME! Cause I’d rather di-“

Then all of a sudden, something long and metallic launched itself in the direction of the young man from within the warehouse. He could feel his heart stop for an instant the moment he caught something glittering at the corner of his eye but he was a moment too late. The malicious chains had swung itself around his body, dropping his rifle as it wrapped itself violently and tightly around him.

“ARRRRRRRGH!”  he screamed, feeling barbed spikes that adorned each and every link slicing mercilessly into his flesh, growing tighter and tighter with every intention of ripping him to shreds.

The hardened soldier felt his blood gone cold. “Mary mother of God…”

“He…help me....” he pleaded, the look of pure terror reflected in his eyes just as he was pulled to the ground and dragged savagely along the asphalt back into the warehouse.

“AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! AH! HELP HELP ME! AAAHHH!”

The scream made Dempsey stop in his tracks, turning around just in time to catch the young man disappear behind the warehouse door. No sooner than that, all Hell broke loose as the building erupted in a hail of gunfire and the terrified screams of the people inside, drowned by the blood curdling bellows of something monstrous. They could hear something moving in there, the sounds of crates being smashed and thrown against the metal walls, denting them with an inhuman force.

“STOP! STAY BACK! NO! NO! AAAAAAHHHHGGGGHH!”

“I am not liking the sound of that,” said Hadji

Dani gritted her teeth, reaching into her pocket before removing her communicator. A hologram was projected the moment she had it activated.

“Qué pasa mi amor? You know I never get tired of hearing your beautiful voice,” he said.

“STEFAN! NIKOLAI! Is the area secured!?”

“Aiee! easy mi amor, I have sensitive ears. The area is secured. H.A.V.O.K’s air and ground units are keeping the news choppers at bay. Right now we’re in the midst of evacuating but I am sure the policia can handle things from here,” said Stefan.

“I’m afraid this shit just got real, we may have a possible Code Red on our hands,” said Dani.

David noticed a look of panic streak across Stefan’s face at the mention of the words ‘Code Red’. “Santa Maria… esta bien, you watch yourself out there. Stefan out,” The hologram then dissipated.

The young doctor shifted his attention to his cousin “Dani, care to explain what is ‘Code Red’?”

“David, I really don’t have the time for this right now. We have a situation-,”

“And I want to know what the Hell it is! I saw the look in his eyes, what the Hell is going on?!”

“Hadji, where’s my freaking status report!?” she snarled, trying to push her cousin out of the picture much to his irritation.

“Sori! I’ll get right on it” said Hadji. Gripping the black stick in his hand, he tossed it into the air. “Acknowledge, Hadji Singh. Engage S.A.T.Y.R Protocol,” he said.

“Voice recognition approved. Acknowledged, S.A.T.Y.R Protocol engaging,” replied a feminine cybernetic voice.

The black device began unfolding itself, splitting into several smaller stick like figures as it spread itself before the young boy. Three thin neon blue screens began materializing, two smaller ones at the side next to the largest one in the middle.

Hadji’s eyes narrowed, studying astonishing amount of data being streamed across the screen at an astronomical speed. David’s eyes widened, it was an S.A.T.Y.R super computer and all this time he had dismissed their existence as mere hogwash and rumors.

“Give it to me straight, what’re we dealin with?” Dani asked.

“This is remarkable, the biometrics are completely off the scale. The genetic codes are reproducing at such an alarming rate it is almost truly fascinating-,” he replied as he typed on the holographic keyboard.

“ENGLISH PLEASE!”

“Ah sorry!” Hadji cried. “It is unlike anything I have ever seen, the Xenonite count truly is monumental,”

That word immediately hit the young doctor like a brick to the head, his eyes widened and without warning he darted in the direction of the young Indian boy and grabbed him violently by the collar of his shirt.

“Did you just say Xenonite!? Why the Hell do you know about Xenonites!? ANSWER ME!” he snarled at the young boy who was completely petrified in fear.

“What the!? David let him go now!” Dani ordered.

“ANSWER ME!”

BOOM!

Everyone shifted their attention to the direction of the warehouse as it erupted in a blare of flames. The entire front end of the main entrance had been reduced to nothing more than mere scrap metal while a cloud of dust and debris lingered in the air.

At that very moment, David felt a tremor beneath his feet. One, two, three, was it an earthquake? No, they felt more like footsteps, whatever it was it must have been colossal.

“Er, Dani? What’s going on?” David said alarmed.

The young lady scoffed but she knew what she had to do. “Captain, order your men back. We’ll take it from here,” she said.

The old man nodded. “Roger that, good luck Dani and for Christ sakes don’t do anythin stupid,” he said. “Alright you maggots, you heard her, MOVE!” he cried. Holstering their weapons, the H.A.V.O.K team began retreating to a safer distance.

“Wesson, Rin, on me. Dempsey, eyes on David,” She said as she made her way in the direction of the warehouse.

“Yes ma’am,” Wesson gently pushed down on his Stetson, shrouding his eyes in the shadow of his hat before tailing behind his captain with Rin by his side.

“Aye, give em Hell capt,” said Dempsey.

“Hey, Dani, Dani wait-!” David said, however he felt young Scotsman grab him by his shoulder.

“Hold yer orses lad, put them worries outta yer head. When it komes down ter this, no wan does it better than yer cousin. So sit bak and enjoy da show, yer might just lern somethin,” he said with a smirk.

“I do not usually agree with Dempsey but he is indeed right,” said Hadji.

David gritted his teeth uneasily for he remained unconvinced by their words of assurance. Coming to about ten feet from the main entrance, Dani, Wesson and Rin came to a stop, her hardened gaze lay fixed on the abominable shadow before them. The footsteps grew louder as it drew closer and closer in their direction.

She could hear those ominous chains rattle along with the sounds of something large and heavy being dragged across the floor. The snarls, grows and grisly wheezing accompanied by the mechanic clockwork-like clicks of gears and wheels echoed throughout the metallic walls would strike fear even in the bravest of souls.

Then, the dust cloud was suddenly dispersed in violent gust and what was standing before them struck the young doctor down with a shock like no other. His eyes widened, his mouth lay agape at the hideous abomination before him.

It bore human-like features while it towered over all of them at approximately twenty feet tall with massive muscles three times the regular norm. A series of moving mechanical gears, gyros and parts protruded from its flesh. It was almost as if someone had ripped the very flesh off human body then crudely stitched it over a car engine.

David felt sickened as he contemplated the possibility they might had emerged from the inside of its body. A pair of chains hung from the holes in the palms of its metallic claw-like hands, the one on the right was attached to what appears to be an oversized flail as malicious as the creature itself. If it were human before, that time has definitely come to pass.

“WHAT…THE HELL…IS THAT!?” David cried.

The creature bellowed through its fangs made of twisted alloy, salivating savagely from the cracks in between the metal. Sinister blood red eyes gazing ominously at the three youngsters that stood so valiantly before it. Like nails to a chalkboard, it scraped its blood soaked metallic claws together slow enough to make Hadji clench his teeth.

“Tch!” Dani glared viciously at the creature. “Alright guys…”

“LET’S DO THIS!”

(To Be Continued…)

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 10.22.1000]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2033 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

[WARNING. ANY ATTEMPT AT UNAUTHORISED ACCESS WILL RESULT IN **REDACTED**]

ENTER USER CREDENTIALS NOW:

USERNAME:

user> admin

PASSWORD:

user> ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇

Welcome, ADMIN.

admin@root> dir /PROJECT_PROMETHEUS

/SHARD

/***ENCRYPTED***

/***ENCRYPTED***

/***ENCRYPTED***

/***ENCRYPTED***

/***ENCRYPTED***

/***ENCRYPTED***

/***ENCRYPTED***

[error: unexpected end of data]

admin@root> open /SHARD

[error: access denied]

admin@root> help

stand by...

EVE>         ACCESS RESTRICTED. PLEASE STAND BY.

_error: [var] elevated_credentials=null

_reverting to directory listing...

_7 files. 326.453PeB

/SHARD1.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD2.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD3.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD4.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD5.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD6.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD7.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD8.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD9.mem                [COMPLETE]

/SHARD10.mem        [ABORTED]

EVE>        DECRYPTION ABORTED

URGENT SYSTEM DIALOGUE- SEE BELOW

SHARD

Sadly, this fiction is no longer being updated.

The author apologizes for this, and asks for your understanding that this is in fact a mediocre work which was his first piece of fanfiction. It is his belief that this work does not merit being continued without being fixed, and to fix it would be a sisyphean struggle due to the amateurish foundations it is based on. It is wish fulfilment. It is Mary-Sue. It is technically inaccurate and filled with meaningless technobabble. It is filled with paragraph upon paragraph of telling instead of showing and the very premise is convoluted and childish.

I have tried to fix this fiction many times, but the task, at this stage, is a daunting one and one which I believe will yield minimal returns.

Therefore, these working documents are here so that those who enjoyed the story during its brief stint on Fimfiction can read it again. Thank you for your support.

Broken dreams. I know.

Here is a working document of various deleted/planned/in-progress scenes.

Here is the planning document where I tried to build my first world.

The white-coated figure paced down the metal walkway. With each step, his heavy, black boots made an echoing clank which resonated down the endless tunnel stretching off in both directions. It was brightly lit, with a fluorescent strip of white placed every few paces. A low, artificial hum and the roar of the cooling systems filled the man’s ears as he clanked further down the walkway. Distant alarms and announcements echoed, fighting against the noise.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

He stopped at a door. It was made of thick, brushed metal, had large rivets protruding from its surface and a small glass window in its centre. Two yellow, rotating lights sat angrily above it drawing attention to the striped amber and red sign:

TIER 1 AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY

////// EMERGENCY TRACK ACCESS //////

EM-INTERFERENCE SHIELD ACTIVE WHEN LIGHTS FLASH

He reached into a pocket on the side of his immaculate lab-coat and produced a small card, which he held next to a reader on the side of the door. With an electronic beep, a light on the reader flashed its green approval. The door then clunked as it lifted its multiple deadlocks and swung open on automated hydraulics. The real thickness of the heavy slab of metal now revealed itself; it was thicker than the man.

He stepped through the opening, after which the door closed again behind him. The tunnel he had now stepped into was enormous. The tube he had just come from was a vein in comparison to the cavernous artery he now stood in.

This tunnel was concrete. Huge slabs, as big as small buildings, held up the structure. They stood fast against the weight of the earth above crushing down. Another tube, thinner, but still as thick as a large car, was suspended in the middle of the tunnel, held off of the ground by large metal H-beams and flanked on each side by further metal walkways. Thick cables trailed down from the ceiling to the central pipe, and the low hum was now a very loud buzz. Entire sections of the concrete walls had been replaced with metal grilles, the silhouettes of monstrous fans rotating at a speed barely visible in the darkness within. The man was unfazed within the artificial cacophony.

He made his way across the concrete floor towards the central pipe, going up a flight of metal steps next to a supporting H-beam. The clanking of boot-on-steel resounded once more.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

He reached the top of the flight of steps, now at the same level as the central pipeline. It also continued far away around a curved corner, out of sight. After making a brief check for any other personnel, he reached out towards a metal box affixed on the side of the thick pipe. Producing the grey card once more, and gaining approval from another green light, he swung it open to reveal a small LCD screen, keyboard and a number of other larger buttons: A terminal.

terminal #142-B

>maintenance locks                [online]

>sensor array                        [online]

>network connections                [online]

>safety protocols                [online]

>reporting service                [online]

>magnetic shielding                [online]

Ready...

[type ‘help’ for a list of commands, string commands with ‘,’]

user> disable maintenance locks, safety protocols, reporting service

*WARNING* !RESTRICTED COMMAND!

TIER 1 AUTHORISATION NEEDED

USERNAME:

>admin

PASSWORD:

>*************

root access granted.

>maintenance locks                [OFFLINE]

>safety protocols                [OFFLINE]

>reporting service                [OFFLINE]

With a metallic clunk, a number of metal arms around the tube withdrew.

//// WARNING. LOCKING SYSTEMS DISENGAGED. WARNING. ////

The man took no notice of the machine’s protest. He reached into his other pocket and took out a small, brown package. He placed it snugly within a groove where the locking mechanism would attach. It stuck there, and with a small amount of pressure in the right place, made a high-pitched beep of its own. He re-enabled the locking system, letting the arm slide back into position.

With a bit more pace, the man closed the box, and made his way back to the door.

The white-coated men stood silently. They gathered around the wall of screens before them, others sitting down before the consoles, making last-minute adjustments. Some of the screens displayed endless two-tone walls of readings and graphs, while other screens were showing complicated mechanical diagrams with some areas highlighted. Others were currently blank, and flashing: ‘NO DATA’ at the anxious group. The room they were in was a spacious one, but was filled with expensive looking computer towers and large monitors. An operator sat at each one, reading the data and running pre-activation simulations.

The other half of the room was divided by a glass wall and held row after row of towering black monoliths. From outside, only a faint whisper of the roaring air-conditioning within could be heard. This was Newton, the third AI-based high-performance supercomputer in the world, custom built for this task, yet it was struggling under its current workload. An engineer glanced anxiously at the temperature readouts.

On the other side of the room was a slanted window that gave all the personnel a view of the outside world. Looking from this window, it was apparent that they were very high up. The facility was in fact located more than half of the way up a mountain, looking down at the lush valley below. The valley was full of emerald-green trees and dense jungle, and the sky was a deep, cloudless sapphire-blue. The entire island looked like a picture from a holiday brochure, sans the huge sprawling complex sitting abruptly in the middle of the otherwise perfect jungle. Four huge metal pipes snaked their way symmetrically from the centre of the compound, forming a giant ‘X’ of which the complex was the intersection. The pipelines stretched off into the distance as far as the eye could see, through the jungle, over brilliant white sand and then above the crystal blue ocean.

They were on the Midway Islands, a group of small islands in the exact center of the Pacific Ocean, far away from any and all other land. The closest island was Hawaii, which was still well over three thousand kilometers away. Despite this, the island of Hawaii and those surrounding it had been evacuated for ‘The biggest experiment in the history of science’ and an exclusion zone had been set up in a four thousand kilometer radius around the site, making the best part of the pacific ocean out-of-bounds for civilian ships and aircraft.

“And this, Gentlemen, is the control-centre. The brains of the entire facility, powered by one of the most powerful supercomputers on Earth. Designed and built by Apsis AI Solutions, naturally.”

A group of men were making their way down the central aisle, led by a

Midway Island, and the surrounding area, was the site of GENESIS-II. The experiment had cost a total of over two trillion dollars, and was therefore one of the most expensive scientific endeavors in human history to date along with Planet-Cracker THOR.

GENESIS-II was a particle accelerator. The ‘track’ was shaped in a giant figure-eight, with the Midway Island complex in the middle intersection. The total length of the accelerator was over 3500 kilometers; it stretched out over the ocean like a giant oil-rig pipeline. GENESIS-2 was a collaboration between all United Nations members and a group of privately-owned companies, most notably the Chern Corporation, to take mankind to the new final frontier. Inter-dimensional travel.

“Power-up and bootstrap sequences are go...”

“All stations, sign in and report...”

The Midway Island complex was only one of a number of other ‘stations’ placed around the figure-eight track. These other stations were over-water platforms, akin to large oil-rigs. They were placed at an equal distance around the track, and each had its own dedicated ‘ShockPoint’ Cold Fusion generator and magnetic particle acceleration system to help the particles reach a velocity very close to the speed of light itself.

“Station 1, Jackie, power good, calibration good, excom online, we’re good here.”

“Station 2, Tito, CF power good, calibration finishing up now, excom fine, ready.”

“Station 3, Jermaine, power green, calibration locked, excom OK, good to go.”

“Station 4, Marlon, power at 98, calibration fine, excom online, ready and willing.”

Finally, an operator located in the control room spoke out:

“Main station, Micheal, everything green across the board.”

All the eyes in the room turned towards one man. This man was not in a lab-coat. Instead, he wore a tailor-made suit with an elegant chocolate-brown waistcoat. A moderately tall, young figure, with jet black hair combed back perfectly. He held himself tall and his posture was straight, and spoke with a clear, direct tone, neither low nor high.

“Gentlemen. Let us begin a new era for humanity.”

As if this was the confirmation they were waiting for, the room erupted into a hive of activity. Operators began hurriedly barking into their headsets, and the PA system began to squawk out warnings and operational readouts. White-coated people began running in and out of the room, quickly noting down numbers and hurrying back to other terminals to cross-reference them. The wall of screens to the side of the room began to come alive with activity, no screen left blank.

“Burst capacitors at 100% on all stations... accelerators ready... Waiting for... final green light... All infrastructure and maintenance personnel please evacuate the facility... Crosschecks on all components, please.”

The suited figure strode down the aisle towards the giant window overlooking the valley, before which was the main terminal. The operator seated in front of it rolled his chair out of his way as he approached. The suit lingered over the display to the side of the terminal, taking a quick glance at the readings. He looked deadly serious; the same expression one would wear at the death bed of a close friend.

“A man who wants to lead an orchestra must first turn his back on the crowd.”

He reached out and turned a silver key protruding from the console. An alarm signal squawked a single tone. The clear plastic cover of the pushbutton flipped open, and the man pressed down on it.

A loud hum filled the entire valley. It echoed off the cliffs and mountains; birds flew from their nests away from the island, animals ran as fast they could and fish swam forth in massive shoals. Nature could smell the danger.

“Burst capacitors discharging, green across the board. Track integrity nominal. Particle one has completed a lap. Switching power to accelerators now... ”

“This is cali-command. Would all calibration operators now switch to band two, keep those accelerators in check and in time...”

“Particle two is now go... Particle two is in the ring...”

Most of the movement had stopped. All of the eyes in the room stared at the screens- the attention on two numbers.

PARTICLE (#1)                          PARTICLE (#2)

9.45% SPL                                  2.45% SPL

A noticeable vibration could now be felt, a very light shudder which disrupted the entire island.

“Vibrations well within operational parameters. Continue testing. Operators, accelerator power to sixty percent.”

A hum now morphed into a roar. Even behind the triple-glazed glass wall, the personnel could clearly hear the raw power surging beneath them in the valley.

“Envcom how’s our test environment, over?”

“Noise within three hundred decibel limit. Heat output also nominal across the board.”

“We are green for over-sixty. Operators, we are go for over sixty.”

PARTICLE (#1)                          PARTICLE (#2)

57.87% SPL                                  42.15% SPL

“All operators, with due care, let’s crank it up. Accelerators to eighty please.”

PARTICLE (#1)                          PARTICLE (#2)

72.19% SPL                                  69.24% SPL

“How’re we doing Envcom?”

“We just broke the 300 decibel limit. Heat just topped six hundred degrees in one of the cores but we are still go. Green light.”

“Excom, please kill the lines. All operators, you are green to continue to one hundred.”

A number of operators in the room reached forwards and began to tap instructions into their terminals. Tearing his view away from the valley below; the operator at the front terminal looked towards the suited man standing next to him for a nod. He turned his head only to see that the man had left, probably while everyone was too distracted to think about anything else. No matter, they had been given the green light.

“Calibrate for collision course on T minus three.”

“Three...

Two...

One...

Mark. Collision course set.”

As the final syllable left the mouth of the announcer; one of the scientists stationed at the window stood up and pointed down at a section of pipeline.

“WE GOT A BREACH!”

Plumes of smoke rose from a raging fire within. And now it was too late.

“Track integrity just took a dive!”

“Temperature spike in the core... Nine hundred... No, one-five hundred... No, two thousand!”

“Failsafes coming online...”

“CORE TEMPERATURE JUST WENT OFF THE CHART!”

“ABORT, ABORT, ABORT; ALL OPERATORS-”

A huge explosion rocked the entire island. All standing were knocked off their feet. The roar had now turned into a deafening, thunderous cacophony of what could only be described as a sound of pure rage. A blinding white light lit up the entire valley; the view beyond the window now a sheet of pure, brilliant void. The triple-glazed glass shattered, flying sharp crystal shards into the room and amplifying the deafening roar.

And then, there was nothing.

*****

The President leaned back in his chair as the finance advisor turned the door-handle and left the room. The Presidential Office had remained much the same throughout its long history; a circular room with white walls, two comfortable sofas in the middle surrounded by a number of ornate mahogany bookshelves and elegant paintings. Not forgetting the large brown mahogany table in front of the window, looking out across the beautifully manicured gardens, and the man sitting behind it.

The President stretched his arms up towards the ceiling and folded them behind his head, leaning back further in the dark leather chair. He checked the clock.

The GENESIS project had been kept very confidential, for obvious reasons. The public had only been told of its existence a few years ago as construction was nearing completion and they had only been told of its initialization schedule a few months ago. Naturally, there were riots, small groups of individuals opposed to the project due to the slight chance of creating dark matter. The President himself was not worried. He had been assured time and time again by hordes of the brightest and best minds of this generation that the chances of that happening were infinitesimally minimal and further precautions had been taken in the unlikely event that it did happen.

He did think that he would have liked a video feed though. Originally there was one, but it was soon discovered on the trial run that any electromagnetic signals passing close enough to the project were met with powerful interference; which made communication nigh-on impossible while the project was running. It was simply just a minor inconvenience though, since they could always cut the power afterwards and report their findings then. Since it was running now, he estimated that they would receive word of the results in a few minutes time.

However, they didn't really know what to expect. This was the first time the accelerator was to be powered at full capacity. The aim was to simply create a small rift, to see if it was even possible, and then observe it carefully. Earlier tests had been able to create tunnels, but they proved to be much too unstable without a constant ‘matter-offset singularity field’, whatever that was.

He was abruptly woken from his daydream with an urgent knock on the door. That was odd, usually his receptionist would alert him to a visitor.

“Come in!”

The door handle turned, and a rather young man came rushing in with a few sheets of e-paper and a tablet held under his arm. He looked like he had just ran a marathon, and was panting hard. He managed to catch his breath long enough to squeeze out the words:

“Something went wrong.”

*****

“すごい。その煙見ろよ。”

The Japanese commander stood on the bridge, surveying the huge column of smoke which rose from the horizon. His name was Takahashi Kaito, and he was commander-in-chief of this ship, the JSDF ARARE.

The JSDF ARARE, or JSDF HAIL in English, was a mid-class Japanese Self Defense Force Destroyer; the ship was heavily armed and contained state-of-the-art equipment. These mid-class destroyers aimed to combine the firepower of a battleship with the speed and agility of a frigate.

It had been dispatched to survey the damage to the Midway Islands and the GENESIS project. After the explosion, there had been a communications blackout, and unexplained atmospheric disruption was jamming all wireless communications with powerful static. Only high-gain transmitters like those on the Arare had any chance of communicating within the exclusion zone set up around the islands.

The Arare was the closest naval vessel to the site, and was therefore dispatched, Japan being a major contributor to the GENESIS project. UN and US vessels were also en-route from California, but would not arrive for a significant time. Therefore, the UN had sent forth an advanced cadre of V-24 Osprey VTOL, with which the Arare had rendezvoused with moments earlier.

There were three VTOL craft aboard now. One of them carried the civilian team; consisting of a journalist, a scientist, a special forces agent and the CEO of the company running the show; with his bodyguard. The other two carried teams of spec ops and their vehicles.

“Say what now?”

A jovial American voice brought him back to the situation at hand. The Asian man turned around to face his guest, and gave him a small bow.

“My apologies. It slipped my mind that I was in the presence of guests.”

His voice was clear, and very articulated, but still retained its slight Japanese curl.

“No problems buddy. Just wondering what you were muttering to yourself over there.”

Before him was a young American man, with shoulder length blond hair and a radiant smile. His attire was more suited for the casual holiday goer than the action-journalist, three quarter length baggy cargos and a red tee; garnished with Quicksilver flip-flops and a large digital-SLR hanging from his neck on a thick black strap.

“I was simply thinking about the smoke...”

As he finished his sentence; a senior officer burst into the room. He took a quirky look at the journalist, nevertheless giving him a respectful bow, and strode over to Kaito, to whom he gave an even deeper bow. After righting himself, he spoke in rapid-fire Japanese, at which the commander nodded and replied in acknowledgement.

“You should get back to the flight deck. The convoy is refuelled and waiting to depart.”

“Oh, okay cool. Thanks for everything, man. I’ll slip you in the article!”

“Good luck, Mister Meyer.”

*****

The five men sat up against the walls in the holding bay of the VTOL.

On one side, there were two men, one in a black suit and the other in a red T-shirt and baggy shorts. It could have quite possibly been the biggest fashion contrast in history.

The man in the suit was a young, mid-twenties figure. His suit was black, with a simple, no-flairs white shirt and a dark-maroon tie. His hair was short and dark, cut for utility more than style. A small, transparent wire looped up from his collar into his ear. Deadly serious, he sat cleaning his gun, more of a comfort action than because it was actually dirty. He expertly disassembled the sleek black pistol and inspected all the parts with tender care.

The second figure was the man in the red T-shirt. It was baggy, as well as his khaki-coloured three-quarter length cargo shorts, and he wore bright blue flip-flops. Dressed as if he was going on a holiday, the man also had his large SLR-camera dangling from his neck with a thick black strap, and he sat making some adjustments to one of his photos. He was also quite young, his blond hair was slightly curly and reached down his neck. He was clean-shaven and had a boyish smirk on his face.

On the other side were the other three men, two wearing mottled-green camouflage jackets and the other in a designer suit.

The first man wore standard issue active commander uniform; mottled green colour cargo pants, black combat boots and a similarly patterned jacket with a square military cap. He sat calmly, occasionally glancing at his watch and leaning back against the hull. His face was controlled and focused, locks of dark brown hair protruded from underneath the cap.

The second man wore a dark Emporio Armani suit, with a light brown waistcoat. Contrary to popular belief, he was not Asian; although his jet black hair was combed back. He sat with his legs loosely apart, and his back slumped against the wall with feet outstretched; showing off his Gucci loafers.

The third wore a pair of blue jeans, a combat jacket with the same pattern as the commander and a pair of brown Doc Martens. He was also young. He had short dark brown hair and a warm face, which was framed by a pair of black Osiris glasses. He shifted uneasily and twiddled his thumbs.

The Armani-wearing man stood up, and made his way towards the cockpit.

*****

They were about to enter the pillar of smoke which consumed the entire area where the island should have been. The pilot looked nervous. As they flew into the dark mass, the cockpit instantly became shrouded in darkness.

The pilot cursed under his breath, straining to see anything. Adjusting some switches and pressing a few buttons brought up an overlay of glowing blue lines on the glass; giving the pilot some idea as to where the ground and horizon was. He flew onwards, slowing down a little.

Then, as if someone had flipped a switch, the smoke cleared.

“Wow...”

The island they saw before them was huge. It stretched off into the horizon, with countless lush natural forests, rolling green hills, and in the distance a large mountain range towered high. It was untouched, unspoilt and green- so vividly green. They had never seen anything quite like it outside of old movies and pictures. It was a paradise.

The pilot was too busy gawping at the sight to notice a smirk flit over the face of the suited man.

“This can’t be right... Sorry, I must have messed something up, the coordinates must be wrong...” The pilot snapped out of his stupor, turning to face the navigation console to double-check their position.

The man put a hand on his shoulder and shook him.

“No. This is it. Touch down on that beach right there.” He pointed to a strip of yellow below.

“Sir.” The pilot stared blankly at the confirmed GPS coordinates, trying to make sense of the situation. Forcing the thoughts out of his mind, he gripped the controls again.

The VTOL veered over and began its descent.

*****

“Nice place to build a holiday resort.” The journalist murmured.

They group stood staring at the perfectly golden yellow beach, and the lush green flora that lined the edge of it. The rhythmic crashing of waves filled their ears. They noticed that there were mountains in the distance, a completely different shape to what was meant to be on the original Midway Island. What was most odd was the way that the beach was obviously of the tropical variety while the grass and land was obviously from a temperate climate. They didn’t belong together, in fact, the oak trees growing further inland shouldn’t have been there at all, it was much too hot for them to grow.

The VTOL sat lazily on the sand, slowly spinning down its turboprop engines, from inside the muffled sound of obnoxious rap music could be heard.

“Let’s go see if we can find the complex...” The commander suggested, unsure if this was even the right island.

“There might be a slight problem with that,” the CEO noted, hands in front of him as if he were miming a wall. They all turned to face him, now giving him an odd look. “Residual barrier anomaly,” he stated flatly. “We can’t get further than the beach.” He ran his hands through the air, as if stroking the invisible wall.

“What?” The commander was still eyeing the CEO with curiosity.

The scientist now joined the CEO in placing his hand on the wall. He nodded.

“Its a residual field, I think. We can probably get through it with a beta wave bombardment, give me a minute.” He dashed off towards the VTOL, which was now emanating obnoxious dinosaur rock. “I thought this might happen.” He added hastily.

He returned quickly with an aluminum suitcase, with a striking yellow and red label reading: ‘RADIOACTIVE.’ He placed it down on the fine sand, popped four fasteners, and opened the box. It contained a foam mould, in which a small tube was suspended. He gingerly lifted the tube, which was very heavy for its size, and placed it against the invisible barrier, to which it stuck.

“Okay... get back if you don’t want to die of cancer.”

He pushed a button on the side of the device, and quickly backed up with his companions. The metal tube unfolded, like a flower bud unfurling, placing a number of metal fins against the invisible surface. They all braced themselves for an explosion, or at the very least, a loud sound.

It silently fell off the invisible surface and landed in the sand.

The scientist walked up to it and picked it up. He pressed the switch again and it closed itself back up.

“Did it work?” The CEO asked urgently.

The scientist stuck a hand straight through where the barrier had restricted access only moments earlier, and nodded.

“This’ll only be temporary though. If there’s a singularity still in motion at the centre of this barrier then it’ll regenerate the anomaly. We have about an hour before it seals back up. That’s if this even is a barrier anomaly...” He walked onto the grass, and took a deep lungful of air. It smelled sweet, and somehow... cleaner? Had the atmosphere been affected by the explosion?

The CEO, bodyguard and commander walked across the border cautiously, followed by the journalist who was busy documenting everything.

“Let’s make our way towards the middle of the island.” The commander said, taking lead again. They all nodded. The bodyguard rushed forwards with him. They began moving into the treeline, the bodyguard and commander had already drawn their weapons, creeping forwards with knees bent, both hands on their firearms.

“Honestly, gentlemen, what do you expect to find on this island?” The CEO mocked.

*****

The group were still tramping through light overgrowth.

“So, can you explain what actually happened, cus’ I’m not sure If I’m the only one, but I have noooo idea what’s actually going on. Like, from the scientific viewpoint, I mean. Layman's Terms, please.”

The journalist was walking next to the scientist, e-paper in hand, ready to jot down some notes. They had been walking for a while now, and after the initial nerves had worn off, and nothing interesting seemed to be happening, the journalist had started to grow bored. He had brought out his iPod first, popping a trademark white earphone in on one side, and had then taken to asking everyone about themselves. Everyone else had ignored the jovial young man, but the scientist found him oddly amusing. He pondered his question.

“Well, obviously we’re dealing with really untested science here, but I have a rough idea of what I believe happened.”

“Yeah?” The journalist perked up.

“Okay, so I take it you know the parallel universe theory?”

“What, the thing where it’s like every decision you make creates another universe where you made the opposite decision and it’s all different and stuff?”

“Yeah, that one. So, what we attempted here was to just to create a pathway to one of those universes, but something obviously went wrong. What I think has happened is that we’ve managed to teleport a huge chunk of matter from another parallel universe over here.”

“So like, what if there were people on it, would they be teleported over too?”

“I guess so. I mean, if the trees are all okay then I don’t see why not.”

“So technically... that means we could find absolutely anything on this island?”

“...Yeah.”

After a short pause, they both realized the full implications the simple statement carried.

“Coooool-” The journalist scribbled down a few lines of notes.

“Shuttup!” The hushed voice of the commander immediately silenced the journalist’s further questions. He was holding a single finger in the air, head perked up, like prey listening for a lurking predator. It was deathly silent, no-one dared even breathe. Then, they heard it.

Singing. A soft, melodic voice was travelling over the wind, so faint that one could barely hear it, but it was definitely there.

The group looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Something else was on this island.

The CEO pulled a firearm from inside his suit; an elegant, silver, special edition Beretta 92, which he held with both hands and cocked loudly. The commander did the same, his weapon of choice a heavy, black Colt Delta Elite.

The bodyguard had had his weapon out the entire time, a large calibre Sig-Sauer pistol. It was a custom made P-226 X-Five Tactical, with a specially modified bore-hole and loading mechanism. The German gun was thick, heavy and packed an equally weighty punch; with high precision, high power and infallible reliability. The true professional’s weapon. A single shot could blow a hole the size of a fist through a man’s chest. He had to be prepared- After all, he’d been told to expect anything.

The scientist and journalist, feeling left out, hung back a little, but not so far away so as they couldn’t see the action. The group moved silently through the forest, following the commander’s lead. They reached the outline of a clearing, and what they saw made them all lower their jaws for a moment.

A little, yellow, four-legged creature with a pale pink mane was singing to a little group of birds.

Singing?

It was actually quite cute. It had large, bright, cyan-coloured eyes, with long eyelashes and two adorably fluffy little wings on each side. On each flank, a picture of a few butterflies. Some kind of tribal marking?

“Wow, wow... hold on a minute...” The commander whispered back to the group in utter disbelief. “What would you say that is... a Gazelle?”

It did resemble a Gazelle.

Motioning to discuss the situation before taking any further action, the commander crouched down behind a nearby bush. The group followed suit, allowing them to talk a little louder, but still in hushed whispers. The journalist followed last, still taking photos of the odd creature, before being dragged down by the scientist.

“How... is it singing in English?” The CEO was the first to break the question, turning slowly towards the equally enraptured scientist.

“Okay, I have a theory. It’s just a theory though, so don’t quote me!” The journalist did not put down his stylus. “Whatever, anyway, so, the universes most different from us are the farthest away, and are therefore harder to get to. That means we’re more likely to get English speaking Gazelles than complete aliens. I think...”

“What are we going to do?” The bodyguard asked.

“Gentlemen, allow me.” The CEO stood up. He took no notice of the silent protest coming form most of the group and dismissed their rabid head-shaking. He motioned for the bodyguard to stay behind. He was the figure with the most authority among them, it was only natural that he was allowed first contact.

He stepped out from the tree cover, causing a slight rustle from the leaves on the ground. The animal didn’t notice, too busy picking some flowers while singing to itself.

He cleared his throat. The creature jolted in fright, and snapped its head to face him.

“Good morning... Nice forest.” The CEO smiled his most charming smile.

The creature jumped at the words. Its deep cyan eyes widened in complete shock and it made a sound that could only be described as an ‘eeeep’, before bolting away at high speed down a nearby dirt path. The CEO simply stared after the creature.

“Well, that went well.” The scientist sighed, emerging from the bush’s cover with the rest of the group. The commander was less calm. Being a military man, he had a quick head for these situations.

“What if there’s more? It could bring an army or something back, we can’t let it get away! Go!”

They dashed off grudgingly after the yellow gazelle.

*****

After what felt like hours of running, they cleared the forest and reached a river, which they crossed, and approached a cottage, not unlike traditional British housing. The roof was thatched, and large wooden beams held the structure together with plaster in between. It had a very rustic, homely feel and actually looked very inviting.

The creature seemed to have sought refuge in the structure, and they stood outside wondering what to do.

“Should we like... knock?” The journalist suggested.

“We could... try talking to it through the door. It won’t be scared by that, right?” The scientist voiced his thoughts out loud.

“It hasn't even spoken to us yet. All we’ve heard is singing. It might not even speak English!” The commander sighed.

“The fact that it can manufacture a structure like this means its species must be intelligent to some degree. We can therefore conclude that it has developed language of some sort, but, the commander has a point. We don’t know if its language is English, it could have just heard that song somewhere and picked it up. In fact, that would make more sense; if these houses weren’t its own species’ creations... Maybe, a long forgotten civilisation of humans built the houses and all that is left otherwise is their songs?” The CEO was brainstorming aurally, something that was welcomed in the board room, but not too useful in the current situation.

“There’s a settlement off in the distance.” The bodyguard murmured, turning the group’s attention towards a small town not far away. They had to be intelligent.

The scientist had already gone over to the thick wooden door, and gave it a few light knocks with his knuckle.

“Uuuuummm.. Excuse me? If you’re in there, we’d really like to talk to you...”

As they spoke to the door, the yellow creature made a dash from the rear of the cottage.

*****

Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of another boring day of nothing. She sat at her wooden desk, head resting on the table, wishing for something to happen. She’d read pretty much all the books in her library, and was waiting upon the local mailmare, Ditzy Doo, to bring her the latest batch she had ordered from Canterlot. She sighed as she twiddled a quill between her hooves.

The library consisted of the interior of a huge oak tree. The walls had been carved out to make space for numerous books on a massive variety of subjects, from astronomy to fantasy. Candles hung from mounts in the wall, currently unlit as daylight streamed in through the glass windows, motes of tiny dust particles being exposed as they drifted through the shafts of bright yellow light.

She dropped her quill as a loud, frantic knocking sounded from the entrance. She trotted over to the heavy wooden door and opened it eagerly, to meet a quivering yellow pegasus pony.

“Oh, um hi Twilight. I... um... well... um...” Fluttershy seemed to be lost for words.

Twilight was quite used to Fluttershy’s antics by now. Living so close to the Everfree forest, she appeared to be both in love and paranoid by the place, as it seemed every week she saw something which would startle her; and she would come shivering to either Twilight, Rainbow Dash or Applejack for help.

“Why don’t you come in?” Twilight offered, also already very used to Fluttershy’s nervous stammering.

“Um...yes. Okay.” Fluttershy nervously trotted into the library and then completely lost her previous composure. “Oh, Twilight, Twilight, you’ve got to come help! There are these new monsters in the Everfree Forest and I saw them and I ran back to my house but these really big ones chased me and then I hid in my house and the last I saw they were just staring in through the window and I was really scared and-”

“Ooookay!” Twilight chuckled nervously. “Let’s calm down a little. New monsters?”

“Uh-huh! I really need your help!” She implored.

Twilight was just happy for something to do.

“Okay Fluttershy. Let’s go and see your big monsters.” Twilight laughed disbelievingly.

*****

“Okay, let’s stay calm. She’s probably... asleep... or something.” The journalist seemed unsure.

“She? She? Do we know its gender now?” The commander snapped.

“Sounded like a girl.” The journalist replied defensively.

The group had been speaking at the door for a good five minutes, with no reply. They had begun to grow nervous. What could she be doing in there?

“Okay, five more minutes, then I say we break down the door.” The commander announced.

“Are you crazy? This is our first encounter with an entirely new, sentient species, and you want to just break down their door? Are you insane?” The scientist made his disapproval quite clear.

Then, a gasp. But a gasp obviously not from any member of the human group; it was a much higher-pitch and also came from behind them. They all turned around, to see a purple coated gazelle standing behind them with a hoof in her mouth. The yellow gazelle from earlier was hiding behind it sheepishly.

They took in the features of this gazelle with equal interest. She had what could only be described as a mane, which was quite different from the yellow gazelle’s. It was flat and neat, instead of curly and bouncy. She lacked wings, instead possessing a horn which protruded from underneath her fringe. Her eyes were varying shades of deep lilac and her marking was a six-pointed star surrounded by a number of others.

The CEO, eager to make a better impression, smiled again, extending a hand.

“From one species to another, we come in peace.”

*****

“Sir, the smoke from the explosion is clearing... and we’re getting the first good images from the International Space Station. You... need to take a look at this sir.”

The aide held out a few satellite images, centering on the pacific ocean, at varying degrees of magnification. A huge cloud of black smoke had almost finished dispersing, allowing the outline of a whole new continent in the place of the Midway Islands.

“Here are before and after comparisons.” The aide held out a number of further images.

These had the current images, with the outline of where the Midway Island used to be highlighted on top of the new island. The new one was hugely bigger, almost half the size of the United States. The Midway Islands were but a pinprick.

“These can’t be right.”

“We’ve cross-referenced it and the crew members confirm. This is what we can see from the sky. There is a whole new continent in the pacific ocean... We’re ordering recon flights from all nearby airbases, three battle groups have been assigned to the task. We’ll do a few preliminary high-speed flybys with fighter craft, and then get further data with some high-altitude flights from some Spectres. If there’s anything dangerous on that island, we are more than ready for it, sir.”

“Do we have any people there now?”

“Sir, there is a JSDF vessel there with an advance recon group on the island sir. A US fleet is currently en-route to provide support. So far, we’ve had no word from the advance team, there’s some kind of atmospheric interference.”

The President of the United States leaned back in his chair, and let out a sigh.

“Alright. I want you to bring us up a Defense Readiness Condition. Take us to Defcon 3, Round House. Call an emergency council meeting, and get me FEMA on the line.”

“Sir.”

*****

The man stood behind a plain, brown podium. He wore a simple grey suit, with a crimson tie, and had a small golden flag pinned to his chest. He was middle-aged, with short ruffled brown hair and a stereotypical ‘friendly next door neighbour’ face. But today he was not smiling. He addressed the crowd, his voice had a low, guttural tone, which still resonated power and confidence.

“Good morning.”

“As you know, yesterday, at 1400 Central Pacific time, mankind conducted an experiment, which was designed to take us forward to a new age of science. At exactly 1416, we lost all contact with the island, and seismographs set around the Pacific Ocean registered a tremor, estimated to originate from the Midway Island research facility. We tried to get images from our global network of satellites, but the images we could get were shrouded in smoke, kicked up by what we believe to have been a very large explosion. Today, at 0630, the first aerial images from Telstar and the International Space Station began to arrive, and a good amount of the smoke has dispersed, revealing to us a very shocking discovery.”

“The Midway Islands, as we know them, are gone. They have been replaced by a significantly larger land mass, roughly equivalent to half the size of the United States of America.”

The room began in uproar, but the man motioned for silence.

“As a precaution, the Exclusion Zone set up around the midway islands will be enlarged by a further 500km. Navy fleets are en-route from all surrounding UN countries to help enforce this zone, countries participating include Indonesia, Japan, China, Mexico, Australia, Russia and the US.”

“We still have no idea what awaits us on the island. But let me assure you that every precaution is being taken, with close cooperation from every country concerned. I want to announce that the US is elevating its Defense Readiness Condition. We are now at Defcon 3. Battle groups are being dispatched to the island as we speak, but I want to stress that we will not have them land until we are perfectly certain that no residual radiation remains, and that there is no doubt in our minds that the island is safe. We currently have no personnel on the island, and one Japanese Self Defense Force craft is within visual range of its south coast. We will aim to keep the public informed as best we can. I will now take your questions.”

The room erupted again as the reporters began to shout out in unison. Camera flashes began to illuminate the room like lightning. The President felt a small amount of guilt tug at him for lying.

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD2.mem

“Lightning flight, you seem to have entered a different weather system, adjust heading plus two, vector is good, you may begin your descent. Weapons are hot, do not fire unless fired upon- remember to keep above mach point six, advise switch to EW stealth mode now, over.”

The pilot coolly motioned his gloved hand over the translucent display before him, waving his finger straight through a small orange box to his side, which then began to blink red. The box was marked: ‘EPSYS1’.

The Lockheed Martin F-36 Lightning III was equipped with a fully augmented control scheme, a layer of virtual reality draped over the pilot’s eyes by his visor. This meant he could have a transparent, hologram-like set of controls, which allowed space conventionally used for screens and readouts to be replaced by glass. He therefore had an almost complete view of the airspace around him.

His motion had activated the Lightning III’s first-tier Electronic Protection Systems. These systems, specially designed for the third generation of 'Lightning' fighter craft, emitted powerful electromagnetic interference capable of throwing off even the keenest of missiles and targeting systems. Coupled with the low altitude he intended to be flying at, the only way anything would see him would be to look up. However, these systems also meant he couldn’t contact control in the interests of radio silence.

The pilot now began his descent, and with it, his acceleration. He began to move his hand forward within the transparent yellow cube before him that was the gesture area.

The Lightning was also equipped with an on-board AI. However, they were grossly dissimilar from the conventional image of an AI; they rarely spoke, rather more busy with things like calculating airspeed corrections and checking weapons systems. The pilot was understandably startled when it blurted out:

“AIRSPACE INTRUSION DETECTED. ARMING AMRAAMS.”

The pilot looked up towards the transparent orange panel that was his radar and missile warning system console. It indeed showed an object was approaching at high speed. Too slow for a missile, too small for a plane. The AI arrived at the same conclusion as he did.

“DRONE. DOES NOT MATCH DATABASE.”

The pilot faced a dilemma. It had not fired upon him, and he therefore could not shoot it down, but it was also approaching at rapid speed; which he did not like. It also lacked any kind of certification and did not match any known heat signatures from the AI's on-board database of over ten thousand different types of drone. That meant one of two things;

It was either a malfunctioning drone, or hiding its signature intentionally.

The Lockheed Martin F-36 Lightning III was the first combat air-superiority fighter craft designed after Tetsujin Armaments’ purchase of the aeronautics company. It therefore now contained proprietary Tetsujin technology, most notably the T77 afterburning turbofan engine- the first ShockPoint system-based cold fusion powered motor. This engine was therefore in a league of its own.

The league was called speed.

The pilot, still eyeing the approaching dot, thrust his hand forwards in the gesture area. His hand was followed by a small orange box marked ‘AIRSPD’ with a number, which increased or decreased as his hand moved forwards or backwards, respectively.

AIRSPD

306.69kmph

MACH0.9

He decided it would be safe to stay within the ranges of subsonic flight. No ordinary drone could catch him now, anyway. Who could possibly deploy a drone here without the USAF having prior knowledge? He was too busy concentrating on whether or not to break the sound barrier to notice the now very rapidly approaching dot.

"WARNING. AIRSPACE PROXIMITY ALERT."

The pilot gasped.

The thing was now moving fast. Very fast. Too fast.

The drone must have launched a missile.

“Holy shit!”

“MISSILE WARNING. ADVISE COUNTERMEASURES.”

He thrust his hand forwards in the gesture area. Let's see how you move, robot.

AIRSPD

884.44kmph

MACH2.6

A cone of white built up around the snout of the craft as it roared forwards. The engines began to scream as the afterburners kicked in, injecting vapourised jet fuel into the turbines and creating a hellish symphony of power. Then, the sonic-boom.

The pilot was thrust back in his seat as the plane broke the sound barrier, g-forces punching into him like a ton of bricks. He eased into the force with no alarm; supersonic flight was second nature to him. He glanced back up at the radar to see the dot losing ground, allowing himself a smirk of satisfaction. Yeah, nice try.

Looking up at the screen again; the dot suddenly shot forwards, accelerating at an unreal pace. It broke the sound barrier before he could react.

“What!?” The pilot yelped as the dot rapidly began to cover its lost ground. "The fuck!?"

This was no ordinary drone. Time to up the ante. He reached out and pushed his finger through a selection of other transparent orange holograms; EPSYS2, ECSYS1, ECSYS2, CHFF, FLRS, EMCON, JRFL...

The craft fired off a family of blinding magnesium-phosphor flares, as well as a huge cloud of sharp pieces of aluminium, glass fibre and plastic. Invisible to the normal eye, powerful transmitters in the rear of the plane broadcasted overwhelming static, enough to knock out unshielded electronics.

“COUNTERMEASURES INEFFECTIVE. PROXIMITY WARNING.”

This was a tough one. Well, you know what they say about solving problems and guns...

“Fire fox three, Killbox one, two!”

‘AMRAAM ONE-TWO AWAY.’

Two Advanced-Medium-Range-Air-to-Air-Missiles sped forwards from under both wings. They began to climb upwards, and then arced straight back at the plane, locked on the trailing dot. They narrowly avoided the wings of the Lightning, travelling in the opposite direction.

"Thanks for playing, come back next time!" The pilot snarled.

The missiles swerved to catch the dot, which had rapidly moved off to the side. It then did an aerial loop followed by a steep dive, which threw both the missiles off. They failed to reacquire their target and spun out, exploding harmlessly on the side of a nearby mountain.

"NEGATIVE KILLS."

The pilot swore loudly. He now had no flares or chaff left, the electronic countermeasures seemed to have no effect, and it was closing in rapidly. He couldn't accelerate past Mach 6, the G-forces would kill him, and a missile that could track him through all of that could track him through a few simple stunts. He had one, very risky option left.

Letting out a growl of frustration, he decided to use his last resort. He drew his hands back from the gesture area sharply, and put his thumb through a larger orange box labeled ‘CUT’.

The wings of the craft exploded. Huge sheets of metal called control surfaces, which made up the exterior of the wings leapt up, like the flippers in a pinball table, exposing the hydraulics and metal skeleton underneath on both sides of the 35 feet of wingspan. The engine diligently cut out. An eerie silence filled the cockpit, the muffled roar of air-resistance resonated through the glass.

AIRSPD(CUT)

408.93kmph

MACH1.2

<STALLWRN>

Suddenly, a red box filled the centre of his vision, whichever way he turned his head.

///// STALL WARNING /////

CURRENT ACCELERATION: -852.6m/s2 (CUT)

CURRENT AIRSPEED: 208.2kmph (CUT)

<ENGCUT>

‘Stalling’ occurs when a craft no longer has enough forward speed, and therefore not enough air passing over and under the wings. This causes the plane to suddenly fall from the sky, as it is the air passing over and under the wings at a sufficient speed which maintains the plane’s upthrust.

The plane took the inevitable dive, spiralling out of the pilot’s control. It hurtled downwards towards the island below at breakneck speed, the pilot thrown back into his seat again as the sound of roaring air-resistance amplified and vibrated the cockpit. The missile was still locked on his signature. A new red box expanded to fill his entire field of vision, the bleeping turned to a barking.

///// ALTITUDE WARNING /////

ALTITUDE CRITICAL! ALTITUDE CRITICAL!

CURRENT ALTITUDE: 7345ft

LOWEST SAFE ALTITUDE: 1150ft

ABORT?

Y/N

As the numbers ticked away in front of his eyes, the pilot clenched his fists. He had done this before, but never in a low altitude mission- in fact, he had never had to do this before on any mission. He had only practised an evasive stall in training. His eyes narrowed as he watched the precious numbers fall. His heart hammered in his chest. If he pulled it off, the idea would be that the plane could just pull out of the dive, but the missile would have too much forward momentum to overcome and plow harmlessly into the ground below. At least, that was the theory.

///// ABORT WARNING /////

!ABORT NOW!

He swung his fists up in the gesture area. The engine sprung back to life, this time starting the afterburners from the beginning, roaring like perpetual thunder. The control surfaces jerked back again, the flaps on the back of the wings arced upwards abruptly. The plane screamed as it endured g-forces almost beyond its specification.

It managed to swipe upwards, almost skimming the topmost canopy of a large forest. The pilot just clenched his teeth, unable to speak. Then, as the engine gave a new burst of noise, it accelerated into supersonic flight again.

He had pulled it off. The pilot finally breathed easy- it was a textbook evasive stall. Nothing could have followed him through that. More importantly, he had been fired upon, and he needed to alert control. Reaching an arm out again, he disabled all of the electronic countermeasure systems.

“This is Lightning flight! I am receiving fire!”

“Lightning flight, we are receiving your flight data now... Holy...”

The flight data was operational information that the on-board AI would store as a log, until they regained contact with command. It included all the information as seen from the plane of the entire event. It was a much more efficient way to relay the relevant information than the pilot explaining his situation over the line.

“Lightning flight, abort ASAP. You have been assigned arresting gear on the USS John F. Kennedy. Callsign November-Juliet-Foxtrot-Kilo.”

“Copy, Mother Eagle-”

"MISSILE WARNING!"

“-What?” The pilot couldn’t believe it. Another missile?

He froze as he studied its flight path on the screen. It was the same one!

“FUCK!”

/////// IMPACT WARNING ///////

IMPACT WITHIN: 0.09.42s

ABORT NOW!

He looked frantically towards the tireless dot. What kind of missile could this be? It was almost touching the back wing now, there was nothing to be done. Bracing himself, he pulled the only physical lever on the plane, located next to his seat: the abort release. What happened next was but a blur of blue.

*****

“From one species to another, we come in peace.”

The CEO held his hand out, but the creature just seemed to ogle at him.

“Oh, of course. In our culture, we shake hands, or in your case- I would say... hooves? As a sign of trust and friendship. Your culture is obviously different. What do you do?” The CEO was trying his utmost to be friendly and outgoing, but the creature still looked petrified.

“Do you speak English? I just assumed, since your friend was singing...”

The creature seemed to pluck up some courage and gulped.

“Ummm... we speak... your language... is it called English?” The creature continued with its own questions. “Ummm... if you don’t mind me asking... who and what are you guys?”

The CEO spoke again. “I’d like to ask the same question! But since you asked first, we call ourselves Humans. Scientific name Homo-sapiens. We evolved from chimps and primates. I take it your species is some kind of Gazelle? It seems your friend there has wings, but you have an antler... Deer, maybe?”

The creature shook its head. “We’re ponies. I’m a unicorn, and Fluttershy here’s a pegasus.”

The humans were taken aback; The journalist scribbling furiously and the scientist peering at the creatures with great interest. Not only had they learned that these creatures were mythological in human lore, but they had also learned their naming conventions. These creatures named themselves according to their traits.

“Funny thing, pegasi and unicorns are mythological creatures for us.” The CEO stated.

“Really? Humans only exist in fairy-tales for us too!”

“Very interesting...”

Now the scientist butted in. “That must be the common connection factor between our respective universes! That pretty much proves my theory, according to the Rasmus-Valter Model, the existence of one or more common connection factors between parallel universes means that they exist in the same plane! This is... This is big!”

Before they could talk further, a noise began to draw the attention of the group. It started quiet and distant at first, but gradually grew louder. The humans knew the familiar sound all too well. The animals did not. It grew clear- the sound of aviation, as a large fighter plane made its way into their field of vision, flying high in the atmosphere.

Then, like a gunshot, a sonic boom erupted around the nose of a huge metal bird. It accelerated high above their heads, knocking a small, sky-blue shape off of a nearby cloud. They all strained to see what it was, this sight was more familiar to the hoofed folk, as they could instantly make out the shape’s rainbow-coloured fur.

The shape eyed the plane angrily and then, not to be beaten,  accelerated after it- causing a small, inevitable Sonic-Rainboom. It was now the humans’ turn to be bewildered. It accelerated at an unreal speed, instantly catching up to the now supersonic fighter-jet.

The crowd gasped as the huge metal bird deployed a show of brilliant white flares, and released a sparkling cloud of debris. Then, the unmistakable ‘whoosh’ of launching missiles. The whole crowd now stood transfixed at the mesmerising airshow.

The missiles glided upwards, looped, and flew straight back at the metal bird, narrowly missing its wings and continuing forwards towards the sky-blue pony. The pegasus threw the crude guidance systems off with ease, and the missiles exploded on the side of a mountain in a huge cloud of fire- to the horror of the non-humans. The rainbow-maned pegasus took no notice.

The plane now climbed, staying within their field of view, and then opened all its flaps; immediately falling like a stone. The blue streak made chase, pulling up just in time with the plane as they both narrowly missed the forest.  The pony finally seemed to have begun to tire, and slowed down, letting the plane accelerate past the sound barrier again.

The pony then sped after it, with a fresh determination not to be beaten at its own game. Another rainboom. The plane tried to outrun the blur of sky-blue for but a couple of seconds, after which the pilot gave up and ejected from his craft.

The crowd watched on in horror again as the huge metal bird plowed into another mountain nose-first, morphing into a fireball of twisted metal, engulfing the nearby trees and plants in burning high-octane jet fuel and scrap metal.

The commander cursed. “That pilot's in trouble! Search and rescue, let’s move!”

“We’ll come with you! The forest’s dangerous!” Twilight called out.

The commander nodded. “Let’s go.”

*****

“Ooooh... shiiit...”

The pilot came to, strapped to his ejector seat with an X-shaped seatbelt. The seat was on its side, the yellow parachute uselessly flapping in the calm wind behind him. He groggily reached to the centre of the X-seatbelt and punched it, releasing the straps and allowing him to tumble on to the soft, green grass. His head throbbed rhythmically.

He groaned as he reached up to massage his temples. He diagnosed himself with mild concussion, but had no time to feel sorry. He realised he was now alone, and in enemy territory; he pulled off his flight suit and reached down to his hip for his firearm. He then unsheathed the utility knife from one of his other pockets and pulled himself up to survey the immediate area. Landed on a hill... forest... mountains in distance... low tree canopy... beach further down there...

“That was a pretty good race... for me!”

The pilot snapped round, clutching his pistol to set eyes on a sky-blue pegasus pony, with a rainbow mane. A rainbow mane. It had ruby-red eyes, and stared at him with a smug grin.

“Too bad about your... whatever it was. I guess it just couldn’t keep up, huh?”

“I...” The pilot clutched his head. He was hallucinating, which meant that he had hit his head a lot harder than he had originally feared. He knew that bleeding in his brain could cause apparitions. He had also been told that fighting it could worsen the situation. What had it said? A race?

“Um... yeah... great... race...” He mumbled as he looked the creature up and down.

He had landed on top of a hill clearing, the soft lime-green grass under his feet swayed in the gentle breeze. Thin columns of smoke arose from the sites of missile impact and from the wreckage of his craft in the distance, ruining an otherwise perfectly crystal-clear blue sky. He reached up and pulled off his helmet, which was now just flashing ‘NO DATA’ at him in big red translucent letters. Under the helmet, he still had a headset on one ear, with two arms stretching out from it; one positioned before his eye and another in front of his cheek. He placed a finger on it.

“This is Lightning flight, downed and requesting search and rescue, break.”

Static.

“Repeat, this is Lightning flight, status downed. Requesting extraction, break.”

Further static.

“Damn!”

He punched the chair before him, and the blue pegasus jumped back. Ripping off the headset and tossing it aside, he sat down in a heap and let himself fall down on the soft grass, letting out a sigh. He looked up at the sky.

“That’s it. I’m completely screwed. Game over, man!”

He removed a cigar from his breast pocket along with a silver lighter. He lit it and took a deep breath, exhaling the grey smoke into the blue sky before him. The sky-blue pegasus pony stuck its head in his field of vision, obscuring his view of the clear sky. Its face showed sincere concern.

The pilot began to laugh. He blew a cloud of smoke into the rainbow-maned pegasus’ face, and it erupted into a fit of coughing.

“Of all the things I would hallucinate, A rainbow thingy?” He laughed and inhaled again. “This is precious. I mean-”

That sound. A low drone. Barley audible. But growing.

“Wait...”

The pilot leapt up and began to scan the skies. There! As small as a pinhead, above the highest cloud, a plane! Its telltale disc-shaped rotodome on the top of its fuselage revealed it as a high altitude AWACS craft, obviously deployed to search for the SAM sites that had shot him down. It was a Boeing E-5 Sentry, bristling with sensors and electronics. There was no way it could miss him! He must have been out for some time for them to have already made it here.

He eagerly pulled a stick from a pocket on his side. The pegasus pony watched him curiously as he pulled the cap from the stick, the end igniting in a flash of red. It began to crackle as it released red smoke into the blue sky. He waved it back and forth frantically and shouted up at the craft:

“I’M OVER HERE!”

*****

“This is Big Brother to Overlord. We’ve found your pilot.”

“That’s great news Big Brother. Relaying to Search and Rescue. Stay clear of those SAMS.”

“Copy, Overlord.”

The operator leaned over to the side of the console and switched channels. The inside of the Boeing E-5 Sentry was not unlike a conventional passenger cruise liner. However, instead of the endless rows of seats, banks of computer equipment lined the walls, with chairs placed periodically along them. It was dimly lit, a good amount of the blue-hued illumination coming from the touchscreens on the consoles. The fuselage was split in two, the back section under the rotodome holding all the sensory equipment and AWACS computer banks, while the second section in front housed the 40mm Bofors cannons and JDRADM missile dispatch systems. The Boeing E-5 was literally an air superiority juggernaut, with the ability to pound any target on the ground with pinpoint accuracy. This was due to its sensor array and its ability to detect the most well concealed SAM sites, as well as being able to shoot down any approaching targets with it’s Joint-Dual-Role-Air-Dominance-Missiles. The operator began to contact the pilot on the ground.

“Hey down there! 962nd AACS here! Hello from Alaska!”

“My God am I glad to see you guys!” A crackly voice replied.

“We’re going to provide air overwatch while S&R get you outta’ there. You’re in good hands- We hit hard and fast!”

“Appreciate it 962nd! Remind me to buy you all drinks after this!”

“Sounds good! Shit! There’s a fucking thing down right there with you! Watch out!”

“What are you talking about? What thing?”

The pilot’s gaze moved slowly towards the blue pegasus, which was now curiously looking up at the plane.

There was no way...

“There’s a blue thing! You’re staring right at it!”

I’m not hallucinating. It’s real. I’ve been talking to it.

As the thought struck him, the world began to spin.

He blacked out.

*****

“Holy shit! I think that blue thing just killed our guy!”

The commandant leaned over the operator’s shoulder to get a closer look at the screen. The pilot had collapsed in a heap, and the blue... thing was approaching it with slow menace.

“Light those fuckers up! I want those DRADMS online in three, and load up those Bofors! Get fire permission from Central right now! Those fucking aliens are hostile- and the AACS are going to get first blood!"

*****

“So you do speak English!”

The scientist was running next to the purple animal, with the yellow one following behind at a distance. She didn’t seem too confident with the humans yet.

“I guess so... It’s called Equestrian over here!” The gazelle replied, still galloping through the green undergrowth. With each step, the trees grew ever thicker, the canopy above grew taller, and they seemed to be gradually venturing deeper into the heart of the dark forest.

“So you’re a unicorn and she’s a pegasus, any other species we should know about?”

“Well, there are earth ponies as well, they don’t have horns or wings!”

“So, basically normal ponies!”

Twilight nodded.

“I’m Chris! Chris Spencer! Nice to meet you!”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

They had begun to shout over the numerous trees passing between them as they ran. The rest of the humans were up ahead, trying to make their way in the direction of the smoke.

“That’s a pretty name!” Chris laughed. “Like, literally pretty!”

Twilight didn’t really get the joke and took it as a complement. “Thanks!”

“So, was there a human like you in the flying thing?”

“Yeah! He controls it! They’re called pilots!”

Twilight considered this. Maybe the giant metal bird was a type of tamed dragon? That would explain the fire, and the need for a pilot! Humans were obviously very skilled to have mastered dragon-taming. Maybe we could share some books sometime, I’m sure we have a lot to learn from each other.

The group of humans ahead had stopped. The commander held up a finger for silence.

“Everyone hush...”

They all nervously looked around, afraid that the commander had seen something. Instead, the commander looked up. A low drone filled the valley.

“Sounds like a Spectre. Maybe even a B-55.”

The CEO suddenly looked towards the commander. “They wouldn’t bomb the island! They don’t even know anything about it yet!”

“As far as they know, a fighter just got shot down. They might.”

Then, echoing around the valley- the crackle of an igniting flare, and the scream of a man: “I’M OVER HERE!”

They all turned to the source of the commotion.

“Go! Go!” The commander rushed forth into the undergrowth, towards a green hill.

*****

“Sir, we have an emergency.”

The President of The United States got up from his chair. He apologized to the Economics Minister for having to cut the meeting short, and met with his aide who was standing immediately outside of the conference room.

“What? What did they find?”

The aide shook his head.

“They’re waiting for you in the Situation Room.”

The White House Situation Room was only a short walk away, down the corridor. The President walked briskly, the aide jogged on ahead to announce his presence.

The room was, in all actuality; quite unremarkable. The walls were off-white, with stark bright LED lights bearing down on the central authentic-wood conference table. On the wall behind the head seat of the table hung a number of flat OLED monitors.

In the seats sat the highest ranking military officers and strategists in the service. They stood up as the President entered through the thick double doors, all taking off their caps.

“Sir, I’ll get straight to the point. Time is an important factor.”

One of the commanders began speaking even before the President had sat down. The President nodded, and motioned for the man to continue.

“There are intelligent beings on the island, and they’re hostile.”

The President had been fully prepared for this actuality.

“How do we know?”

“Sir, our passive reconnaissance fighter craft was shot down by an unknown missile system of some sort. The pilot was then murdered on the ground by one of the non-humans.”

The President brought his forefinger and thumb to his eyes, rubbing them and letting out a troubled sigh.

“Mister President, if they have missiles good enough to take down a Lightning Three, we could be dealing with a nuclear power. If they do have nuclear weapons, it’s imperative we get the first strike. We need your orders, Sir.”

The President brought his hand down from his face and looked up to glare at the commander.

“I refuse to believe that the only other sentient life we’ve ever encountered in our entire history as a species is reckless enough to engage in nuclear combat before proper channels of communication have even been established. We’re going to stay passive.”

A number of men in the room clapped. Others grimaced. The President turned to his aide.

“Tell Wing Commander Michaels to deny that fire-request.”

*****

“Fuck the orders! No-one gets away with murder, not on my watch- FIRE!”

TETSUJIN ARMAMENTS SMARTEAGLE-160

HANDLE WITH CARE

WEIGHT:         160KG

LENGTH:         3.7M (CLASS 2)

DIAMETER:        180MM

WARHEAD:        HEBF-23KG W/ PULSESHOCK

DET. MECH:         QTDD/INFRA/LAZ/VIS/CTRL

WINGSPAN:         530MM

OPRANGE:         180KM

The thin, jet black weapon shot forwards, its ramjet sustainer-based motor leaving a trail of pale white precipitation in its wake. The SmartEagle was a Joint Dual Role Air Dominance Missile, allowing it to track and eliminate targets both on the land and in the air with millimeter precision. Combined with the AWACS sensor array on the Boeing E-5 Sentry, this missile could be programmed to fly through the ground floor window of a house and detonate in a way that would kill all inside but keep the house standing, credited to its selective Pulseshock warhead.

It broke the sound barrier almost as soon as it left the enclosure. Instead of being launched from underneath one of the wings, the SmartEagle had been launched from the side of the fuselage, as part of the E-5’s gunship configuration.

>SEARCHING FOR TARGET

>TARGET FOUND

>TARGET SIGNATURE COUNT: 9

>CALCULATING MEAN LOCATION

>TRACKING MEAN LOCATION

>TRACKING

>TRACKING

>TRACKING

>TRACKING

>ADJUST: THRUSTER +2.456 (063deg)

>TRACKING

>TRACKING

>ADJUST: THRUSTER +1.232 (076deg)

>DET ETA = 3.4445s

>TRACKING

>TRACKING

>TRACKING

>DET ETA = 2.376s

>TRACKING

>ADJUST: THRUSTER +3.625 (032deg)

>ADJUST: THRUSTER -1.263 (053deg)

>ADJUST: THRUSTER +0.342 (048deg)

>ADJUST: THRUSTER -0.761 (022deg)

>ADJUST: THRUSTER -0.112 (036deg)

>ADJUST: THRUSTER +0.054 (062deg)

>!!DET!!

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD3.mem

“GET DOWN!”

Being a military man, the commander was the first to process the events unfolding before him. The Boeing E-5 Sentry had launched a missile, its matte black exterior immediately making itself known to the commander as one of the newest JDRADMS. These missiles had on-board AI-assisted targeting systems, and combined with the E-5’s AWACS sensor array, made it accurate to the centimetre.

Chance of survival, very low.

Chance of survival with proper evasive maneuvers... Still very low.

He leapt forwards with his arms out, landing spread-eagled on top of the bewildered blue pegasus and unconscious pilot. The others all followed his lead; dropping to the soft grass below with hands over their heads.

A shockwave thundered through the unlikely group as the missile detonated in mid-air. After the dust had cleared, the commander squinted upwards. The E-5 was still circling. Maybe the AI had identified him and self-destructed? If it had, it must have been a new feature.

“Let’s move, people!” He pulled the shivering sky-blue pony up from beneath him, before slinging the unconscious pilot on to his back. The others began to rise from the ground as well, the pony-folk looking especially rattled.

“WHAT. WAS. THAT!?” The purple coated unicorn exploded in hysterics.

“My dear... pony. That was a Tetsujin Arms Smarteagle-160, Joint Dual Role Air Dominance Missile. Although I’m not quite sure why it self-destructed like that. Maybe an AI glitch,” the CEO addressed the pony.

“You mean that was a weapon? W-Why would they attack us!?”

The commander was the one to snap this time. “They fired at YOU because as far as they can see, you just shot down a friendly recon craft!” He gave the pilot on his shoulder a nudge to highlight his point. Twilight suddenly looked scared.

“Oh, Celestia, no! What if we’ve ruined interspecies relations before we were even able to start making any? Oh no, oh no...”

“Look, let’s just get this guy a bed. I saw a town near here, any place to stay a while?”

Twilight looked up from her worried pacing, eager to help fix the diplomatic mess they had created. “Yes! Of course! I’ll lead the way!”

*****

“Premature detonation. I’m scanning the flight log now.”

The two men stared at the console. One sat down before it, while the other stood up behind him, examining the data sent back by the missile during its short flight. The pale glow from the monitor illuminated their faces in the dark interior of the craft.

“AI glitch? I don’t trust the new Smarteagles.”

“No, sir. AI was fine... Hold on...”

The screen currently showed a map of the island, with various pieces of data layered above it. The boundaries of the island were in bright red, points of high and low altitude marked out with dark red and dark blue respectively. A number of other colors represented further data. The operator had paused as a grey shadow was rapidly expanding from close to the centre of the island. He tapped a number of commands into the screen and the colour scheme changed to only show the cloud. The title of the map changed, it now read: EM-SPECTROGRAPH. The shadow was now rainbow coloured, a small box next to it indicating the numerical values of each shade.

“Holy shit.”

It was expanding very rapidly now, almost completely covering the surface of the island. Then, almost as soon as it had started, it stopped, exactly at the edge of the island.

“These numbers are off the chart.”

“What does it mean?”

The operator paused.

“Numbers like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a physical manifestation...”

"What kind of physical manifestation?"

"A... wall, or... a barrier..."

The cloud suddenly cycled through all the colours of the rainbow, before settling on bright red.

"Wow. Yeah, that's a shield."

“You’re sure?”

“No other explanation.”

“This is getting real out-of-hand, real fast. Take us back to the JFK, we’ll await further instructions.”

“Sir." The man returned to the console.

"Switching, vector, oh-nine-delta-five, bearing to oh-one-six, south-south-east, keep alt. above 10k, circle in and switch channels. Requesting arrest gear on JFK, Big Brother to JFK tower requesting arrest gear, come in JFK tower, over...”

*****

The pilot stirred. As he blearily blinked his eyes open he could see that he had been out for at least a couple of hours, the bright light shining through the window indicated that it was early evening already. Wait. Window?

He bolted upright in the foreign bed. Instinctively reaching for his pistol, he discovered to his rising panic that he had been disarmed. The room had light brown wooden walls, a number of bookshelves with brightly coloured volumes of various sizes, and a large wooden door. The bed was small and had a puffy red quilt. To his right, the wall with the window and a number of potted-plants on its windowsill. As he turned his head to the left he was even more shocked to see the blue thing from earlier looking at him with concern. It sheepishly scratched its mane.

“Hey, uh... I’m reeealy sorry about... y’know... earlier. Twi’ said that we’re in real deep trouble now cus’ I made you crash...” The pony lowered its head in shame. He then became increasingly aware of the striking rainbow-coloured mane it sported. He immediately shifted away from the... thing.

The pilot just stared blankly. Where am I? What is this thing? Am I dead? Yeah, I’m dead. I remember now. I crashed the Lightning. Yeah, I ejected. That’s right. I’m dead. Great.

“Umm... are you okay? Can you speak?” The pegasus looked back up again at the mute pilot. “Did you hit your head?”

The pilot just looked around at what he believed was heaven. Well, this is an odd place isn’t it?

“Err... I’m gonna go get Twi...” With those words, the blue pony trotted somewhat hastily out of the room, closing the large wooden door behind her.

The pilot followed her movement disinterestedly with his eyes, before sighing and sinking back into the soft bed. Heaven sure has nice beds. Like they're stuffed full of... clouds, or something.

*****

“So, Rainbow Dash looked like a missile? The thing they shot at us?”

“Exactly. Radar can only roughly tell the size and speed of the object, but not the shape, unless it’s real big, like a ship. Because its got such big wavelengths, see,” the scientist explained patiently. The purple pony was bright, she picked it up much faster than he thought she would.

“Waves... Oh, I see, because they travel in waves!”

“Yeah, exactly!”

The group of fillies and people all sat in various pieces of furniture dotted around the large central atrium of the library. Shelves carved into the wooden walls held hundreds of multicoloured books on every subject, and candles lit the gradually darkening scene as the sun began to go down outside. The commander and scientist sat on each end of a pony-sized sofa, while the CEO relaxed in an ornate armchair. The journalist was busy walking round the room, taking photographic evidence of everything. The ponies were dotted around on various stools and tables, a fluffy-maned pink one was content with lying on the maroon and gold carpeted floor; Twilight had invited her most trusted friends over to help her figure out what to do.

“So, you said something about a princess? We should probably go see her. Sort this stuff out with the reigning authority around here,” the commander toned-in, smirking at his pun.

“Of course. I’ll send her a letter now, but we’ll probably have to wait until morning. You’re more than welcome to stay here, of course.”

“That’s very generous of you. Thanks,” the scientist smiled.

Twilight smiled back, but couldn't reply back due to a certain rainbow-maned pegasus flying down from the second floor.

“Errrr... guys? The dude upstairs is like... awake and stuff... but he’s... kinda weird. Can you guys come up and like... check up on him?”

The humans in the group stood up.

“He probably needs an explanation of what’s going on. Probably best if it’s from his own kind, no offense,” the scientist explained.

“None taken!” Twilight called out as the group trudged upstairs towards the bedroom.

*****

The pilot looked up to see a number of humans entering the room.

“So you guys are dead too? I like this place. The beds are comfy.” He said plainly.

They all exchanged worried looks. The scientist moved forwards and placed a hand on the pilot’s forehead, then moved it over his cranium, checking for swelling and bruises. He began to talk as he did.

“You’re not dead. You were passed out when we found you, the blue pony you saw just now told us that you took one look at her and passed out. You crashed your plane... She showed up as a missile on your radar right? You were deploying countermeasures like crazy.”

Recent events began to flood back to the pilot again. The drone, the missile, the stall, the abort...

“But if this is real life... What the fuck are those things?”

The scientist looked happy that he sounded normal again. “As I said, they’re ponies. They live here. They’re the natives round these parts. Don’t ask me why, though.”

The pilot lapsed into deep thought. His mission had been top-secret, strictly on a need-to-know basis. They had said to expect anything; after all, they were experimenting with interdimensional travel, but ponies? He had been told to keep an open mind...

“Okay... Okay... Alright... but... how did that thing catch up to me at Mach 2.6? With just wings?”

The scientist laughed. “We’re still trying to figure that one out. Here, can you walk? We’re doing a sort of... de-briefing downstairs. Probably best if you sit in, you’ve missed a lot already.”

The pilot nodded, pulling himself out of bed and following the group back downstairs.

“Let’s go meet the ponies.” he muttered.

*****

“So... I say we start with introducing ourselves... Right?” The scientist started.

The commander shot him a sideways smirk. “You first.”

“Ummm...” The scientist now looked around awkwardly. He hadn’t given a speech since his thesis presentation at Harvard. He still shuddered remembering that dreadful day.

“Allow me,” the CEO now stood up from the most comfortable chair in the room. From the moment he stood up, they could all see he was a natural speaker. He stood tall, and every aspect of his appearance emanated a sense of power and control. From his custom made Armani suit, to his sleek jet-black hair, to his finely manicured stubble; he was a towering monument to achievement. A purple-maned, white-coated unicorn perked up as she realized; humans obviously have fashion designers too.

“My name is Charles Able. My father was the founder of the Able-Tetsujin Holdings Group, which is now the single largest financial entity in human economics. Ownership of the company transferred to me as of twelve years ago, after his death.” Some ponies gasped. He took no notice. “I am now reigning CEO, and my personal fortune is estimated at over 300 trillion United States dollars; making me the richest single human in the history of economics. I am here to asses the damage done to my investment, the GENESIS project, which seems to have payed off handsomely.” He smiled, as some of the humans gave him questioning looks. How could he profit from ponies?

“A branch of my company manufactured those missiles, these guns and the planes from earlier. Among other things...” A small amount of pride could just be made out in his calm tone.

The ponies gasped again. Twilight spoke for the collective.

“You? You make those weapons? You make money from death?”

“It is a living. A rather profitable one at that, Miss Sparkle,” he answered curtly, adjusting his perfect white cuffs.

“How could you! Especially after your father died-”

“Do not talk to me about my father.” He was suddenly angry. Although not in the conventional sense of the word; his voice had grown softer, yet more defined and his eyes narrowed. “He was a tyrant and a fool. His death allowed the company to finally reach its full potential, under my direction.”

On hearing these words, the non-human crowd recoiled. The death of a parent was sad enough, but to hate your father? It was unthinkable. He was truly alien to them.

“Oh, big deal! Mister big-shot has daddy issues!” The commander piped up from the sofa. The CEO shot him a look that could have killed, but he seemed oblivious. He sat down sharply, sinking into the comfortable armchair again.

“I know, commander.” he growled sarcastically. “Why don’t you go next?”

The commander smiled. “Okay... I’m Lars Clearwater. I’m with United States Special Forces, and I’m currently working under the jurisdiction of Force 6. I’m a Tier-1 operator, and I’m here to make sure that these guys are safe, but obviously this mission didn’t really turn out as planned. Now... I guess I’m humanity’s liaison to the ponies.” He smiled.

“Who’s he?” The pink-maned pony pointed at the journalist, who was still taking photos of every book on the surrounding shelves.

“Who, me?” He put down the camera for a moment. “I’m Scott. Scott Meyer. Reporter for TIME magazine, and generally awesome dude. Smile, you’re famous!” He took another photo of the group, the flash momentarily blinding all members.

The scientist guessed it was his turn. “Errrr... As Twilight already knows, I’m Chris Spencer, I’m a theoretical physicist. My job is to figure out how you all got here and... ummm... yeah. I hope we can learn a lot from each other...”

The pilot was looked to next. He was still trying to get over the fact that he was meeting a whole new species, but talked nevertheless. “Alfie. Alfie Zuckerman...”

A rainbow-maned pony finished off his introduction: “The first human to get beaten in a flying race by Rainbow Dash!” The others glared at her. “Oh... my bad.”

“And who’s this shady fella’ right here?” A certain golden-maned pony spoke in a southern drawl and pointed a hoof at the suited bodyguard, who was leaning against a wall.

“I’m just the bodyguard. Call me Jarvis.”

“Is that it?”

"Yes.”

“No second name?”

“No.”

“You don’t have a second name?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then tell us.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I only tell my second name to people I trust. We’ve only known each other for a couple of hours. In my book, you are all still potential threats. My gun is still loaded.” He said coldly.

Applejack gave him a mistrusting glare which the bodyguard returned in full.

The scientist broke the silence. “Ooookay then! Could the ponies in the room introduce themselves?”

*****

The group talked on into the night, sharing information about their respective homes and impressing each other with stories of magic and technology. They eventually grew tired, and all fell asleep one by one, the last ones to succumb to their tiredness being Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn and Chris Spencer, the scientist. They were busy studying the multitude of books within the library. Eventually, they too fell asleep, leaving a single candle lit on the table.

However...

The CEO was not asleep.

The CEO had not slept in months.

The CEO could not remember the last time he had properly slept.

He sat atop a small stool in the kitchen of the library, facing the bookshelf just outside. Scrunching his eyes up, he dragged his hands erratically through his perfect hair, ruffling it and spoiling the perfectly combed structure. Chronic insomnia, they had said. He knew it was much more than that.

The kitchen was small, nestled in the back of the library; with a counter, sink and a number of cabinets and drawers. Just outside was another section of the library. Outside the small windows above the counter was a velvet black sky, dotted with the occasional white pinprick and a huge, glowing full-moon. Everything in the room cast long, accentuated shadows in the flickering candle light.

The human got up abruptly, and paced towards the shelf. The placard above it read ‘M’.

The books were all on magic. From spell dictionaries to charms theory and potion making, the entire compendium of equine knowledge about their unique talent lay before him. Reaching a hand tentatively towards to the first book he set eyes on, he could make out in the dim candle light that on the spine it read: ‘Magic for Foals - The Beginner’s Guide’

“Perfect.” he whispered.

He took the thick volume to the kitchen counter, where a single solitary candle stood resolutely on a brass holder. It cast a dim yellow light over the room, and the man opened the thick book quietly next to it. It was an ornately made publication, with a thick, aged binding embossed with golden text. The last time the man had touched real paper was many, many years ago.

CHAPTER ONE - AN INTRODUCTION TO MAGIC

All ponies posses magic. That’s right! It’s a common misconception that only unicorns can use magic, we all have that special spark! Unicorns are the only ones that can cast spells and charms, because they have the all important horn, but you pegasi and earth ponies can still use magic! You probably use magic every day, without even realising!

Earth Ponies

Earth ponies have neither wings, nor horns. But they make up for this with their super strength and hardiness. How is it that earth ponies don’t have huge barrel muscles then? Well, their strength actually comes from a special type of magic only earth ponies posses! This magic makes them stronger, faster and more full of energy! And earth ponies also know this magic from the moment they’re born - pretty cool, huh?

Pegasus Ponies

Pegasi are the kings of the skies! If you’ve ever been to a young fliers competition, or a Wonderbolts show or even if you’ve just seen some weather ponies working in your town, you’ll know that pegasi can outfly all the birds in Equestria put together. That’s the unique Pegasus magic! It takes a lot more than just wings to fly like that! Also, pegasi have the special gift of being able to hold clouds, and manipulate them to their will. That’s why there are a lot of cloud houses, because compacted cloud is a great building material!

Unicorns

Finally, we arrive at unicorns. Unicorns have neither the flying power of the pegasi nor the strength of the earth ponies, but they do have a horn. The horn can be used to cast spells and charms, and if you learn to control it correctly, you can do some pretty neat stuff with it. Hopefully, by the end of this book, you’ll know what I mean!

The CEO began to flick through the book, quickly scanning each page and moving on. He finished the book, and moved on to the intermediate level. After a number of hours, he had reached advanced magical theory. He smiled a cold smirk as he pondered the wealth of new information he had received, processing and analysing factual content and applying it to his current situation.

He slowly closed the books before him, taking care to fit them back into their correct locations in the shelf; leaving no evidence of his study. When he was finished, he stood alone in the silent kitchen, allowing a malevolent grin to curl along his lips. Dark lines had formed below his eyes and his hair was a frayed mess. His smile was manic.

“Qui audet adipiscitur.”

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD4.mem

Release your potential!

Become the best you can be!

The Deus® Clinic offers industry-leading[1], cutting-edge augmentation programs, that are individually personalised to meet your specific needs. One of our qualified physicians will personally oversee all of your procedures, and we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee[2]!

Sceptical about the power of augmentation? Stop by the clinic to witness first-hand a demonstration of how much an augmentation could benefit your life! Run faster[3] than ever before, see clearer[4] and hear better[5]. Expand your life expectancy by over[6] 40 years with an ArtiHeart™! Eat whatever[7] you please with a Stomach2™! Augmentation truly is the next step forwards for the entire human race!

Why wait? Book an appointment at the Deus® Clinic today! See how we can make you, the best you! Our team of world-class professionals are ready and willing to discuss your unique needs, and tailor-make an augmentation program just for you! Whether you want to run faster, see clearer or even have a full sensory upgrade, we can meet your every need[8]. We promise fast, painless and risk-free operations, and guarantee your satisfaction. Stop by today for a quote.

Deus® Clinic, brought to you by The Deus Medical Corporation.

DISCLAIMER:

YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO A CREDIT CHECK BEFORE APPLICATION. ELIGIBILITY IS RESTRICTED. SEE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR MORE INFORMATION. THE DEUS® CLINIC RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DENY CUSTOMERS WHO FAIL THE CREDIT CHECK.

As the sun rose up above Equestria, the Ponyville library filled with powerful golden morning light again, as shafts of radiant energy gradually expanded from the numerous windows. The unlikely occupants of the library lay scattered about in a spontaneous fashion, some ponies sprawled out along the maroon and gold carpet, others snuggling up on sofas while others rested their tired heads on open books. The humans slept in a similar pattern, some relaxing on a makeshift bed of cushions, others curled up on the kitchen floor. The group looked peaceful and carefree in the release of sleep.

The CEO was not asleep.

As Applejack gave a loud, waking yawn, the other sleepers also began to stir, batting their eyelids open and giving a series of blinks- or stretching out the various strains they had developed by sleeping in odd positions. Rainbow Dash lay fast asleep, lost in her dream world, completely oblivious to the occurrences around her. She awoke with a yelp when an instantly energetic pink pony pounced at her from her spot on the carpet.

“Wake up, sleepy head!” She yelled enthusiastically.

“Celestia, don’t do that Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash sighed in relief, heart pounding in her chest. She had been dreaming that something was out to get her.

The other occupants of the library were now mostly awake, some taking longer than others to muster the willpower to actually move. A blushing Twilight hastily tried to remove the evidence of her drooling from the book she had been resting on to no avail. A streak of purple and white could be seen flying to the bathroom, a voice from within reverberating:

“Don’t come in! I’m utterly hideous!”

The group all smiled at each other.

“Arright! Who’s for some breakfast before we set off fer’ Canterlot?” A southern twang sounded from the kitchen; Applejack had already started cooking something from within. The group all murmured noises of agreement. Soon the sweet smell of apple fritters filled the library, attracting the ponies and humans alike. The CEO had silently slipped away to the bathroom as Rarity made her first appearance for the day, looking fully refreshed and awake.

They all ravenously devoured the fritters, including the chef herself, who was pinching fresh ones straight from the pan as she made new batches for the hungry group.

“These...” The scientist struggled between mouthfuls. “Are... AMAZING!” The group all nodded in agreement.

Applejack blushed. “D’awww... y’all are just sayin’ that!”

The scientist put down his fritter for a moment and swallowed the piece in his mouth hastily.

“No, I’m serious! I’ve never eaten apples this good! They’re perfect!”

“Thanks, sugarcube. The apples‘re mine too, grown right here in Ponyville. Say, I could give ya’ll a couple for when you go back to yer’ Earth or wherever!” She smiled.

The commander, sitting opposite the scientist and sandwiched between a ravaging Pinkie Pie and a nibbling Fluttershy looked up.

“A damn load better than the apples we get at home. GM stuff just tastes... weird,” the humans all nodded in agreement.

"Gee-em? What does that stand for?" Pinkie Pie paused for a minute, an apple fritter in her hooves.

Twilight spoke first. "Basically, humans have found a way to change the way plants and animals grow, so that they always grow bigger and faster."

"Um, okay!" Pinkie Pie didn't seem very sure.

The CEO arrived back in the room, looking fresh and perfect again. He smiled a very convincing smile and sat down on an empty stool, bidding the munching group good morning and setting to eating some fritters himself.

The group went on to talk about Princess Celestia and Canterlot, until the royal carriages arrived to pick them up. They filed on one by one, it ended up a tight squeeze but they fit. Rainbow Dash said that she would rather have flown, but Twilight reminded her that they were going to visit Princess Celestia- and that it would have been highly rude to turn down the chariot. Even Rainbow Dash didn’t dare do anything that could possibly be considered rude to the Princess.

*****

The floor was a hive of activity.

Men in suits rushed around improvised workspaces, dodging around power leads and network connections while carrying stacks of e-paper, others hastily yapping into their smartphones and scribbling notes on tablets. Collections of massive screens showed live-feeds from a variety of sources, the most prominent and largest screen showing an aerial view of a large continent in the middle of the pacific ocean. Other screens showed images from the same viewpoint, but using radar, or infra-red. Some screens just displayed stacks of numbers and graphs.

A man in a dark brown suit walked down a jagged central isle between the disorganised groups of tables and computers, followed by a number of large men with dark glasses and a posse of aides. A small golden flag shined on his lapel.

“I want updates from everyone in conference room one, in five!”

They all looked up from their work for a moment, and then redoubled their efforts.

The President of the United States spoke a few words to the aides, sending them scurrying off on various errands. He made his way across the packed space through another set of doors and turned right in the corridor beyond. The second set of doors he passed through were marked: ‘Conference One - Restricted Access.’ The agents following him stayed outside.

*****

“So, what has actually happened over the last twenty-four hours?”

The President sat back in the leather chair, dragging a hand through his greying hair.

“Well, sir...” A man stood up from his seat on the side of the long conference table. It was littered with sheets of e-paper and glasses of water. “As you know, the advance recon team was sent in almost 48 hours ago now. We have still had no word from them as of yet, but the AWACS craft sent in after Lightning flight did acquire direct visual confirmation that they’re still okay. They fired a missile, directly disobeying orders, but there seems to be some sort of force-field around the island; it detonated harmlessly in mid-air. The commandant in charge who authorised the strike is going to face appropriate disciplinary action.”

“Don’t tell me what we don’t have, tell me what we do have!”

“Sir.” Another man stood up, his lapels boasted a plethora of multicoloured squares and medals. “Military forces on the island have still had no luck penetrating the barrier, we’ve evacuated the island for now to try and bombard it from the sea. We await your orders.”

The president looked up from the sheet of paper he was perusing. “Don’t. The flight log here says... what is this supposed to mean? Why so vague?”

The man from earlier chimed in. “Sir, the AWACS flight also... got visual confirmation of non-human life within the barrier area.”

The room went silent. The paper shuffling and low murmur of conversation stopped abruptly. They all looked with baited breath towards the President.

“Elaborate.”

The man shifted uncomfortably. “Well, it was... well...”

"Mister Edwards, we don't have all day."

“From what we can see, it was a blue, four-legged rainbow-maned... pony.” The man stuttered through the sentence and nervously looked around the room as everyone froze.

“Pony... like, horse-pony, pony?” The president laughed. “What?”

“Sir, that’s the closest thing we can liken it to. It’s not like the ponies we know, but it definitely shares some anatomical similarities... I sound crazy, but look at the scans!” The man held up a number of semi-transparent colour prints, showing a clearing in a forest, a pilot lying on the grass with an ejector seat a few metres behind him and a blue, partially rainbow-colored pony-like being nudging him.

After taking a good look, the President let out a long sigh and ran his fingers through his hair again.

“Okay.” He thought for a moment before speaking. “Here’s what we're going to do. Since we can’t get through the barrier, they probably can’t get through either. We’ll let the advance team have a few more days in there to contact us, we can use them as a proxy to talk to those... ponies... in there. Get all the troops off the island, we don’t want to seem hostile, and no more planes, either.”

“What if they don’t contact us?”

He dropped the sheets of paper on to the table. “We’ll nuke it.”

The president got up from his chair and left the room. They began to gather their papers and tablets, exchanging worried looks. Did he mean it?

*****

The letter sat open on top of the grand desk in the equally grand study.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I write to you in a time of utmost urgency! I believe I should start at the beginning...

Today, as I’m sure you noticed, there was a small earthquake across Equestria. Nonpony gave it a second thought, including me, but recent events have led me to believe this was no ordinary earthquake.

Today, I was disrupted from my studies by my pegasus pony friend, Fluttershy. You may remember her from your last visit to Ponyville, where she took a great interest in Philomena. She knocked on my door in great distress, disjointedly trying to tell me about some new monsters that had chased her to her cottage from the Everfree forest...

It was very long winded, and went into every possible detail about the events of the day before. Princess Celestia looked up from the letter as a knock sounded on the door to her royal study.

“Yes?”

“Your highness, Twilight Sparkle and company have arrived to make conference with you.” The clear tones of the royal guard sounded through the heavy wooden doors.

“I will take their company shortly.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

*****

“Ho-ly shit!” The journalist exclaimed.

The carriage had started its final descent towards the castle. It was now slowly coming into view through the thin layer of fluffy clouds. It was a magnificent sight.

The castle was pure white, with radiant gold highlights. It perched gracefully on the side of a huge mountain, pure rivers of blue flowed down to the valley below from certain points of the castle and its grounds. A beautiful city, Canterlot, surrounded the castle, the pretty little cottages humbled by the grandeur of the structure towing above them. Ponies of all colours, shapes and sizes trotted around in the city, minding their daily business and enjoying themselves. The humans stared out of the windows of the carriage with their mouths agape at the scene.

The ponies found it amusing, the humans had spent a great deal of time boasting about their superior technology, but sat awestruck at the sight of the pony capital city. Pinkie Pie giggled.

The carriage was now descending into the castle, guided by a pony on the landing strip carrying two torches. A light bump shook the travellers as the four wheels of the ornate vehicle graced the ground. They soon rolled to a stop, and a royal servant opened the door for them, helping them to clamber out of the carriage. Up close, the castle was even more impressive.

From this distance, the intricate craftsmanship and architecture could be seen in its full glory. Beautiful sculptures and carved murals lined the walls of the towers and gold elements further accentuated the impeccable white structure. The humans just stood, looking up at the numerous towers that made up the castle, before being ushered on by an impatient Twilight.

They entered a lavishly decorated foyer, the centrepiece of which was an ornate indoor fountain from which pure, sparkling mountain water flowed freely. A group of six or so Royal Guards trotted up to greet the visitors. Twilight’s face lit up as she recognised the lead.

“Captain Lance!” She trotted up to the large stallion and gave him a hug. He smiled.

“Twilight! It’s good to see you again! But why the surprise visi-” He was cut short as he noticed the humans. “Those your friends?” He asked, slightly taken aback.

“Yep! They need to talk to Princess Celestia. It’s... kinda’ complicated,” Twilight explained.

“Any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine,” Lance stuck out a hoof to the closest human: the CEO. After eyeing it for a moment, the suited man shook it with a warm smile.

“Looking forward to doing business with you.”

Captain Lance looked confused. “Business?”

The CEO gave him a smirk and said nothing.

A guard appeared at the other end of the room. “Her Royal Highness will see you now.”

They made their way after the guard, Twilight hugging Captain Lance again for good measure. He shook the hands of all the humans as they made their way past him and bowed to the ponies. The bodyguard looked him once over and eventually shook his hoof. Inside his pocket, the Sig-Sauer sat loaded.

*****

“sector is not secure we have visual confirmation of armed combatants switch to live fire threat-level adjustment to triage, expunge is now in effect break”

The small group of tightly-knit soldiers swiftly made their way down the narrow alley. Their armour was that of FBI special response. Grey plates of tungsten-steel alloy meshed together with carbon fibre and Kevlar plating. Their entire bodies were covered in this mottled grey-black armour, along with alien metal helmets covering their whole heads, a single glowing red sensor attached to the left providing visual information.  The helmets incorporated a closed-cycle respiration system, on-board AI, augmented battle reality systems and communications equipment. They clutched similarly coloured Heckler&Koch assault rifles, fully integrated with the suit’s systems, allowing them to monitor barrel temperature, ammunition remaining, muzzle direction and accuracy.

“all teams lock load break”

They lined up around a single door to the side of the alley. A single trooper with a number of orange stripes on his shoulder and helmet, as well as on his slightly bulkier armour, cautiously approached the door with a small device no bigger than a fist. A kinetic shock emitter.

“breach ready break”

The trooper attached it to the door, arming the device. A small red square appeared in the corner of his vision.

[AUXDEVICE#1]

*ARMED*

“breach on mark. three. two. one...”

[AUXDEVICE#1]

*DET!*

“mark”

The door was blast off its hinges with a resonating thump, and the troops rushed in through the opening as the door flew into the room, guns raised. The room was a small bar space, with a number of tables and chair littered around. The interior was as grey and grimy, if not more so, than the street outside. A number of people sat at the tables, looking up in alarm at their new visitors.

“FUCK! NARCS!”

The men in the room stood up as the grey figures rushed in, pulling pistols and sub-machine guns from their jackets. Before they had a chance to use them, the leading three troopers dispatched a burst of fire, which ripped through the opposition’s shirts as they crumpled to the floor. A man emerged from the back room wielding an automatic shotgun. Before they could disable him, he let loose a roar of automatic fire, throwing two troopers off their feet and down onto a number of chairs and tables, dark crimson spattering the wall behind them.

The Amsel Striker II automatic shotgun was banned in the United States unanimously as a ‘Destructive Device’. It fired large 10-gauge shells at a speed of over three hundred rounds per minute. The troopers were sent scrambling for cover as he shotgunned another to the chest.

“be advised individual with destructive device multiple units down go sharp go sharp break”

“DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO YOU’RE FUCKING WITH? YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD!” The man shouted at the hiding troopers.

A trooper jumped from cover, landing four rounds over the man’s chest, stomach and thigh while he did so. He stumbled backwards, dropping the huge black weapon and collapsed onto a wooden table which overturned under his weight.

“alpha-mike-foxtrot good kills good kills break”

A number of troopers peeled off the group to tend to the wounded. The rest rushed in an organised formation towards the back room, to find it led deep underground. Dim makeshift lights illuminated the way down.

“check corners stay sharp break”

They moved down the steps into the underground section. Sounds could be heard, hard to distinguish and identify, but sounds nevertheless. They took the time to reload their weapons.

“push up”

Two troopers moved forwards into the corridor below. It was vacant, but a chill went down their spines as a strange aura struck them. One of them dropped his professional attitude.

“This place don’t feel right.”

The rest of the group moved forwards and joined the two. The corridor was dark and spacious, turning off at a corner which undoubtedly led to further corridors. Doors lined each side. The strange noises were slightly clearer now, but still distorted from the echo of the underground complex.

“split. group one check doors on the left, two, right”

The team split up into two identical sized groups, as instructed, and moved towards the first doors on either side of the corridor. The group on the left rammed the door from its hinges and rushed in, to find a number of boxes full of illegal narcotics and weapons.

“clear”

The group on the right slammed the door open to reveal something they had not been expecting.

“FUCK!”

The first trooper to enter stumbled out, pulled off his helmet and dropped to the floor in a fit of gagging and retching. The troopers before him took a look into the room and backed off slowly, some dropping their weapons, their metal helmets hiding their shocked and horrified faces.

The group on the other side of the corridor immediately rushed over, going to the aid of the heaving trooper and to inspect the scene beyond. They all backed off, sans the commander, who tentatively stepped forwards into the horror-filled chamber. He took off his helmet and peered round in a mixture of disgust and shock.

“My God.”

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD5.mem

[1]correct at time of writing, see terms and conditions for more information.

[2]terms and conditions apply.

[3]as confirmed by trials

[4]clearer not guaranteed. see t&c for more information.

[5]better not guaranteed. see t&c for more information.

[6]results may vary. see t&c for more information

[7]’whatever’ is limited. see t&c for more information.

[8]within reasonable parameters. neuroaugmentation is not practised. see t&c for more information.

Click.

Flash.

Click.

Flash.

Click.

Flash.

The men paced around the room carefully, so as not to disturb the evidence. Many cameras were set up on tripods around the chamber, emitting flashes of bright light as they took photos and recorded the scene, illuminating the marks of the horrors that had transpired there. Small white plastic cubes were lain around the room, with bold black numbers on them.

1          Pool of dried blood, drag marks leading out to another section of the room

2          Cracked pieces of yet unidentified bone matter.

3          Various utensils including bonesaw, multiple carving knives, scalpels, saw.

4         Slices of unidentifiable body tissue. Saturated in blood.

5          Stack of empty syringes. Trace amounts heroin, hypercaine.

6          Various other cutting tools. (used)

7        Corpse #1, #2 and #3 resting positions.

The numbers continued, the room was what would be described in a court of law as an ‘Orgy of Evidence’. It stunk of putrefaction and rotting flesh. The bodies had already been removed from the room, the outlines of where they had lain marked out on the stained dark crimson floor with pristine white tape. Huge sections of grey concrete wall were covered in dark red, the detective eyed it curiously.

“Anything special about the bodies?”

Another figure turned to face him. This man was in a hazmat suit, a white plastic costume, which encapsulated his entire body. His face was hidden behind a large piece of dark-tinted plexiglass that was the visor. He talked- his voice was slightly garbled, but still audible.

“Same as last time. Horns, sliced right off at the base. Couldn't find the horns again this time either. You think it’s some crazed unicorn-killer? Sad that they’ve only been here a year or so and stuff like this happens.”

“It’s not a crazed killer. I’ll tell you why. This is a gang property, that means this is gang-affiliated. The gang wouldn’t do this just for kicks, that’s not profitable.”

“So what you’re saying is-”

“This is a business venture. Someone is paying for unicorn horn. And the amount of investment and planning they’ve put into doing this means these horns must be very, very profitable. We’ve got to find out who, and why.”

*****

“Alternate dimension?”

Princess Celestia sat at the head of the large rectangular dining table. The group had spent so long talking that they had decided to spend lunch together, and were now discussing the situation over a vegetarian dinner.

“Right. Humans have already learned how to travel the stars, so the next logical pane of travel would be inter-dimensional.” The scientist had done a lot of the explanation so far in the evening. He felt a lot more comfortable talking to important pony-folk than he did talking to important humans; Princess Celestia was unrealistically kind, and had said they they needn’t bother with all the formalities and customs any more. They all talked as friends.

“I see. Well, what do you think we should do?” The Princess asked.

The scientist thought for a moment. What would he do? “I would probably send out a liaison party, like us. You could get some information, learn about humans, and then afterwards go and visit the human leaders personally. It’s only fair,” he paused. “I’d make sure that the human leaders know you’re doing it first, of course.”

“Yes, an excellent idea, and I believe I have the perfect candidates.” She looked across to her protégée. “Twilight, you and your friends already know more about humans than any other pony in Equestria. Would you be up for the task?”

Twilight nodded enthusiastically; after all of the talk about the amazing human world, she had never thought she would be able to actually go there in person. “Yes, of course! But... how are we going to get there... and where will we go?”

The CEO now chimed in. “I will be more than happy to organise the trip. I also have the perfect place to stay, my penthouse apartment in New York has ample space for visitors. Obviously, we need to discuss this with the President of the United States, but I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

“The President’ll definitely want an update by now.” The commander agreed.

“I’ll contact him now, if that’s not a problem.” The CEO pulled his smartphone from his jacket pocket. “Satellite connection.” He added, as he tapped a number of commands in to the touchscreen. “Excuse me for a moment, I must talk in private.” He pushed his chair back and walked out of the room, holding the device before him.

*****

“You’re sure they’re friendly?”

“Absolutely. It was all a complete misunderstanding.”

“That’s great news. Fantastic.”

“Even more interesting is that they want to send a group of six representatives to the human world, for one week, before any formal conference occurs.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged.”

“May I suggest my residence in New York? Unsurpassed views of the surrounding area, in the tallest and most impressive building in the state? Obviously, I have no quarrel funding the visit-”

“I think this should be a government-funded visit, don’t you?”

“How about this; the democratic party happens to stumble across a large sum of money, and the US economy receives a five hundred billion dollar stimulus package on behalf of the Able-Tetsujin Monetary Fund?”

“Then I would reconsider.”

“How about if A-T Holdings subsidiaries downscaled US operations in the event of an incorrect reconsideration?”

“Is that a threat, Mister Charles?”

“It’s whatever you want it to be.”

“Bring them to New York. We’ll discuss what’ll happen on your return.”

“Certainly, Mister President.”

“Now, let me talk to the Princess.”

*****

“Priority Alert. All FEMA presidential board staff, please make their way immediately to Situation Room One. I repeat, all FEMA presidential board staff, please make their way to Situation Room One. This is a priority alert. This is a priority alert.”

A number of suited men around the room looked up towards the disembodied voice. Something big had happened. They all dropped what they held, leaving their tablets and stacks of e-paper and rushed out of the main room, followed by worried stares from the other staff. This was the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ‘Exogen’ branch.

Four guards stood outside Situation Room One, in full mechanic body armour. Iris scans were administered to all the staff rushing to enter; double and triple checking their identity. This was big. Beads of sweat started to appear on their foreheads in the cool, air-conditioned room.

Inside, the president sat, not facing the table, but facing the screens on the wall behind it. As they filed in he reached out and turned the screens off. He then turned his chair around slowly, taking a deep breath.

“Is that everyone?”

“Yes, Mister President.”

He nodded to the two agents guarding the door, and they left, closing the door behind them and then locking it with a low clunk. The president then activated a command on the touchscreen embedded in the table, which immediately silenced the sound of the air-conditioning. It was the kind of noise you’d never notice until it died. He had activated the white noise emitters outside the room, which produced the exact opposite tone to what could be heard inside the room, therefore cancelling the sound out and making the room completely soundproof. They stood in the deathly silence.

“Gentlemen. Today, we are in the middle of history in the making. Our actions from here on will be analysed by countless historians of the years to come, and may well affect the future of the entire human race.”

They all held their breath.

“We now have direct confirmation of non-human, sentient life within the barrier area.”

He let the statement sink in. It took a moment for everyone to realize the full implications of the single fact. Before they could start voicing their ideas, the president had already held up a hand for silence.

“Here is what we know. From my brief communication with our recon team within the barrier area, I have learned that they speak English, are vegetarian, completely peaceful and mean us no harm whatsoever.”

The President smiled as he finished his statement- the room erupted into clapping and cheering. He held up his hands for silence.

“We also know that the AWACS image was real. They are... for lack of a better word... ponies.”

A mixture of confusion and acceptance could be seen throughout the room.

“We are now going to speak directly with their leader, Princess Celestia. First, however, I will brief you on recent events.”

He went over his conversation with the CEO with the room, everyone feeling mutually angry towards the businessman by the end of the story.

“Why does he want to host the visit so badly?”

The man was from Miltel, or Military Intelligence. He still hadn’t dropped his soldier attitude, however. A suited man on the other side of the table looked up from a stack of e-paper.

“I’m guessing it’s probably a public relations stunt- since, if they’re here to stay, ponies will be an entirely new, untapped market for his companies.”

*****

I don't know about my dreams.

I don't know about my dreamin’ anymore.

All that I know is;

I'm fallin’, fallin’, fallin’, fallin’...

Might as well fall in.

I don't know about my love.

I don't know about my lovin’ anymore.

All that I know is;

I'm fallin’, fallin’, fallin’, fallin’...

...Might as well fall in.

The man finished his song. The electronic background sounds gradually faded out, and he was left standing in silence, swaying slightly on the spot with his eyes closed in a musical stupor. After a while, he opened his eyes again, and launched into another a different tune, more upbeat and dark.

The suited man at the table looked away, and picked up his drink, taking a small sip from the crystalline glass filled with ice and golden liquid. A shadow was moving towards him from the back of the club, and the shape of the figure gradually grew clearer as he got closer. Another suit, this man was also holding a silver aluminium suitcase, which gleamed faintly in the dim light of the room. He sat down at the table. They nodded silently to each other.

He placed the case underneath the table, and got up again. Nodding once more to the man with the drink, he made his way back into the shadows of the club, disappearing once more.

The man at the table finished his drink, the ice quietly clinked at the bottom of the glass as he placed it slowly back down on to the old wooden table. He took the case from underneath the table, got up, and walked out.

The street outside was dark. It was raining. The dim glow of countless neon and LCD signs illuminated the street with a rainbow hue, reflecting off the newly forming puddles of rainwater. The sound of rain echoed around the empty street like a TV set to a static channel. The man unfolded the collar of his trench coat.

He made his way through the rain, walking slowly down the street with one hand holding the case and the other in his jacket pocket. Drops of rainwater ran down his coat as he did so.

He then abruptly stopped in the middle of the deserted street.

After a moment of stillness, some patches of air in the scene before him began to shimmer. One on top of the lamp-post, one above a shop roof, another by the entrance to the alley. With a slight electrical hum, three black clad figures materialised in the middle of the once empty street. One was perched above the lamp-post, holding a short, bullpup style assault rifle; he dropped down with cat-like agility. The figure at the entrance to the alleyway held a long combat shotgun, he slowly began to prowl towards the cloaked man. The one above the roof did not move, but materialised nonetheless, revealing a huge anti-transhuman railgun trained on the cloaked figure in the middle of the street, perching on the roof like a raven.

The cloaked man stood his ground.

The two armed figures stopped a couple of metres away from the cloaked man. The rain had begun again, washing through the street in waves. The mysterious stalkers could now be seen in detail, their suits were matte black, with pieces of armour plating woven into the fabric. It was covered in a hexagonal pattern, the tell-tale sign of optic-camo armour. The suits must have cost a few million each.

The cloaked figure placed the silver case on the ground, rain drops rolling down its sleek metal sides. He then paced back a few steps, leaving the case exactly in between the two parties.

The man with the assault rifle crept forwards, snatching up the case and slinking back again. That was it. Two million dollars. Easy money. The cloaked figure, satisfied that he had made his delivery, turned on his heel and began to walk away from the now invisible men.

The sharp crack of a railgun echoed across the decrepit urban landscape.

*****

‘If god was an animal, it’d look like this.’

The president caught himself thinking as he appraised the image before him. The alicorn was tall and slender, glistening a pure, radiant white which illuminated her immediate surroundings. Her mane flowed lazily in what looked like a gentle summer breeze, even though she was indoors, and an ornate chest-plate of pure gold gleamed on her front incorporating a family of beautiful precious stones and exhibiting master craftsmanship. She smiled- a warm, welcoming and sincere expression, and spoke to the human.

“Mister President. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Her voice was unnaturally soft, yet clear at the same time. The president almost forgot what to say.

“On behalf of the human race, I want to welcome you and your subjects to earth.” He tried to emulate a smile, and he did so admirably. The Princess seemed pleased.

“Mister President, I would like to make a request.”

“Of course.”

“I want to send a group of six representatives to the human world, so that I may learn more about you before we hold any formal conference.”

“I’ve been told. I understand Mister Charles will be organizing the visit, so I will leave that to him.” The president gave a fleeting glare at the CEO, who was standing smugly in the corner of the picture. “But I also want to make some solid dates for a formal conference.”

“I am prepared to meet exactly one week from today.”

“I shall make the necessary arrangements. The UN building, in one week. Do I have your approval on announcing your existence to the general public?”

She nodded.

“I will make the speech tomorrow morning.”

*****

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULAR PROGRAM TO COOPERATE IN SECURITY AND CIVIL DEFENSE MEASURES AS REQUESTED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

REGULAR PROGRAMMING WILL NOW CEASE INDEFINITELY

THIS IS NOT A TEST

THE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM HAS BEEN ACTIVATED

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS DUE TO MAKE A STATEMENT OF HIGHEST NATIONAL PRIORITY AT 1100 EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME

THIS MESSAGE WILL CYCLE AUTOMATICALLY UNTIL 1100 EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME

THIS IS NOT A TEST

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD6.mem

He lay awake in the royal-sized bed. It was comfortable, unrealistically so, his body seemed to sink into the soft material and it invited his muscles to go limp and relax. He let out a sigh. It was moments like these where he would give anything for the calm release of sleep.

The soft breeze rolled through the window to the side of the room, causing the pale blue curtain to flutter lazily, and momentarily letting in a shaft of beautiful bright moonlight. He rose from the large bed, enticed by the white orb, and made his way over the cold stone floor bare-foot. He silently crept towards the balcony, where he slowly drew the light curtains.

The night was wonderful, the tiniest of stars could be seen shining brightly against the deep purple backdrop, and the moon shined down on the entire landscape before him, casting everything in a soft pale glow. It was wonderfully peaceful; the calm silence broken occasionally by the lazy cooing of an owl or the distant cry of a cricket.

‘No light pollution,’ he thought to himself. ‘For that matter, no any-pollution.’

Looking down at the castle grounds, the natural beauty of the land suddenly struck him. More of an emotion than an explicit thought, he found himself gazing intently at the dark Royal Garden and the sleeping forest creatures within it, to which it was home. He found his mind drifting off on what a lucrative business opportunity it presented...

Another lazy hoot brought him back to the balcony. He snapped his head around to face the bird, which was perched next to him- on the very railing he was leaning on. The owl cocked its head to the side in a curious look, ruffled its feathers a little and took off into the night.

He decided that since sleep was an impossibility, he would revert to a more productive activity to pass the time. There had been a library on his tour of the castle; another round of study could reveal further magical secrets.

From his pocket he produced a small, semi-transparent fluorescent orange container, which he tipped on to his palm. He brought the two white circles it dispensed to his mouth. Already in a plain white shirt and black trousers; he slipped on a pair of brown leather shoes and walked softly towards the heavy wooden door. Strictly speaking- he probably wasn’t permitted to take unaccompanied walks around the castle, but then again, he was allowed to do anything.

*****

The library was dark. Had it not been for the fact that his eyes were not organic, he knew it would have been impossible to see. Faint moonlight managed to seep in through some of the overhead windows, but it barley illuminated the tops of the huge towering bookcases. He walked slowly, scanning the titles of the large tomes stacked high above his head; ‘An Introduction to Gardening’, ‘Flying for Fillies’, ‘Equestria: A Brief History’...

A single title caught his eye: ‘The Solar Sisterhood: A Guide’

He reached out for the title. It was quite a large book with a heavy binding, and a fresh smell; it looked quite new compared to the condition of some of the other volumes. He flicked open a random page and began to read, his eyes flickering as they rapidly scanned from one sentence to the other. As he became more and more absorbed in the book, he failed to notice the dark shadow lurking at the end of the row, slowly making its way towards him.

The shadow slid a book back onto its place on the shelf with a soft thump. The human looked up from his book, momentarily startled.

Another alicorn stood before him, smaller than the Princess, but just as beautiful; her mane was light indigo, and curled round her kind face, covering it partially, and contrasted with her dark purple coat. She wore a dark crown and matching chest-plate, the insignia of the moon emblazoned upon it- he noticed her Mark was also a splash of darker-coloured fur and a crescent moon.

“Good evening, Princess Luna.”

The dark alicorn shifted uneasily at the mention of her name. Her gazed flitted wearily from the book in his hands to the floor.

“I’ll just... Go.”

Able eyed her with an air of curiosity as the alicorn turned slowly and began to trot back into the darkness.

“You think they all hate you?” He called out, with a confident smirk.

The alicorn stopped in her tracks, but remained facing away.

“Oh, they don’t hate me. They’re scared of me.”

His smile faltered a little.

“Well, surely that’s better?”

“I’d rather they’d be direct about it.”

“I wonder.” He replied curtly.

The alicorn turned around now, facing the human. A flash of anger flitted across her face.

“And what would you know about what’s happening to me? Who are you to judge?”

The CEO gave another patronising smirk, the kind of smirk one gave when laying down the unbeatable hand in a game of cards.

“Princess, I guarantee that what you are going through is nothing compared to the daily onslaught I receive from the countless animal rights groups and anti-augmentation campaigns. Trust me, it comes from experience- scared is far nicer than hated.”

As he dropped his smile, the man turned to the bookcase next to him and silently slid the volume back into its place. He sighed as he looked back to the alicorn.

“Why don’t we take a walk? The feared and the hated?”

The Princess nodded slowly.

*****

The night in Equestria had become much more beautiful with the return of its Deity. The truth was, while Princess Celestia was capable of bringing it about, Celestia’s nights always seemed to lack something. They were never truly dark- not dark in a cold, forbidding way, but dark in a beautiful, elegant way. Nights by Luna always seemed to have an air of subtle sophistication and calm which Celestia could never have hoped to replicate.

The Royal Gardens were illuminated by the serene moonlight gently emanating from above. The two sat on a grassy knoll occupied sparsely, with a light smattering of Evergreen trees and a few wild flowers left untouched sprouting from the long grass. The view from the top was spectacular, the pair watched over the city of Canterlot beneath the castle, the populace sound asleep and dreaming peacefully.

“I must admit the nights here are wonderful.”

“Thanks... I just.... Never mind.”

“You just wish more ponies would be awake to witness them?”

“How did you-?”

“I was just thinking the exact same thing.”

The alicorn rested on the soft grass with her stomach, resting her head in her front hooves and gazing out across the kingdom. The human sat with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms around them.

“Why are you awake?” She asked, turning her head sideways to shoot a glance at the man.

“I’ve been finding it increasingly impossible to sleep as of late. It’s this damn chip in my head.”

“In your head?”

That was already strictly confidential information. He decided it harmless to tell her.

“Yes. The guide to the Solar Sisterhood- you saw me flicking through it. I wasn’t. I was reading it.”

“I don’t understand...”

“You see, we humans have devised ways to enhance the bodies nature has given us with technology. We can replace our limbs with superior artificial counterparts. It’s called augmentation.”

“So you... Have a brain... augmentation?”

“Exactly. The only brain augmentation, if you don’t count the test animals.”

“Why is it the only one?”

“Well, you see, the prototype seemed to function fine in the animal trials, but we needed a human test subject. Since it seemed safe, I decided to become the first human being with a brain augmentation. The results were... unfavourable.”

“You couldn’t sleep anymore?”

“At first, it had seemed like it had worked. Intelligence quotient, memory capacity, cognitive skills, and so forth were all increased tenfold. Then, the side effects. I became... slightly psychotic, at times. I don’t remember it very well. Lapses in long term memory were also common... But after a while the symptoms became manageable. Somewhat.”

“But you can’t sleep... at all?”

“Not really, no. When I can, I get terrible nightmares and wake up in less than thirty minutes, usually accompanied by a splitting migraine. You sleep during the day, correct?”

Suddenly taken aback by a question about herself, the Princess stammered.

“U-um... Well yes... But...”

“But?”

“I haven’t been sleeping very well recently either...”

“Really?”

“I don’t... really want to talk about it...”

“Very well.”

“I’m just happy someone’ll finally talk to me... It’s... nice.”

“Funny. I’d have thought a thousand years on the moon would have let you get used to loneliness.”

“It wasn’t really like that... um, She was there for the most part...”

“She...”

The alicorn looked across at his with a mixture of sadness and regret.

“I think... I think it just made Her more mad....”

*****

They spent the next hour talking about their respective homelands, what life was like and learning more about each other. Luna had quietly fallen asleep afterwards, leaving the insomniac staring out across the kingdom once more.

It was pitch-black now. The moon had grown dim, the illumination it had once cast over the landscape had faded, and the stars had become harder to distinguish. He heard a slight rustle behind him. He got up quickly and jerked his head round.

A patch of pure black was under a large willow tree. It was shimmering in shape, like a mirage, except it was simply black. No fluctuation of colour, reflection or transparency could be observed. It was closer now, moving from underneath the tree towards the alert human. He already knew who it was.

“I think we should get to know each other a little more.”

A confident and low, seductive voice emanated from the dark mass. It begun to take the shape of another alicorn, just as impressive and commanding as Celestia. A pitch-black coat, seamlessly morphing from the dark matter she had just appeared from, with the insignia of the moon on her flank. She wore armour, a head and chest-plate; and she eyed the human maliciously. He stood up, fists clenched.

She cantered around the him, examining him from all angles.

“I think we’re a lot alike, you and I.”

She trotted behind his back, placing her head beside his and whispered quietly:

“You know you can use magic. It’s in that clever little head of yours- all you need... is a little...” She leaned closer with every word, her lips brushing his ear with the last: “Shard...”

“Leave. I can wake her up.”

She giggled mockingly- a high-pitched laugh that could have been straight from the mouth of the pink mare from earlier. She spoke again, but her voiced was suddenly low and dark.

“You honestly think I don’t have complete control over her? She’s only sleeping now because I want her to.”

“I...”

“Listen... Human...”

Her voice was changing. With the last word she fixed her gaze on the human’s, staring hard into his eyes.

“You’re my puppet now.”

*****

> init debug

initializing debug

Fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C00082CD

Terminating malicious process at 0xDEADFA11

Termination unsuccessful.

> HARDWARE ABSTRACTION LAYER

Fatal hardware response error, code 3A. Location 0xDEADFA11.

Fatal hardware response error, code 9D. Location 0xDEADFA11.

Fatal hardware response error, code 2E. Location 0xDEADFA11.

Fatal hardware response error, code 3B. Location 0xDEADFA11.

Fatal hardware response error, code 3A. Location 0xDEADFA11.

Fatal hardware response error, code 3A. Location 0xDEADFA11.

Fatal hardware response error, code 4B. Location 0xDEADFA11.

---------------------------------------------------

> fatal error

initialising memory dump

error TRAP_CAUSE_UNKNOWN occurred at location

STOP: 0xDEADFA11 (0xFD309432, 0x00000001, 0xFBFE7617, 0x00000000)

additionally, the system encountered errors:

NMI_HARDWARE_FAILURE

PP0_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

MEMORY_IMAGE_CORRUPT

BAD_EXHANDLE

POOL_CORRUPTION_IN_FILE_AREA

MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH

system will now attempt to reboot.

---------------------------------------------------

A searing pain shot down his neck. He reeled, bringing a hand up to the back of his head. Suddenly the world spun. He staggered, disorientated, towards the nearest tree, reaching another hand out for support. He gasped for air.

“You know, for a clever human, you aren’t very clever.”

The pain spread from the back of his neck to within his head. He let his legs give out underneath him, falling to the ground.

“It’s probably that metal thing in your neck, you’re really easy to crack. Most of them put up a fight.”

He could only grunt in pain he clenched his teeth together. The pain was fine and sharp, like a thin slice from the top of his cranium down to the back of his neck. From the ground he could see the shadow of the dark mare standing above him.

“Now, get up.”

He got up, and as he did so the pain eased away.

“You know what you need to do.”

She followed him across to the sleeping Luna. She seemed to be inside his head- the alicorn didn’t need to talk. Images of the future flashed through his mind. A future where he was the one to bring the human race magical abilities. All it would take is a shard of ivory...

“Now, down to business...”

The alicorn held a hoof out into the night air, where it was enveloped in a dark shimmer. Moments later, a plain blade had materialized. She placed it in his hands. The human slowly moved it towards Luna’s horn.

“I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other from now on.”

*****

He awoke in his own bed, with his shirt and trousers still on. Taking a look at the window, and then at his Rolex, he deduced that it was early. Seven o’clock. But what startled him more was that he had just woken up- meaning that he had been sleeping! He ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breathe of crisp morning air, which was rolling in through the window to the side of the room. The curtains flapped lazily.

He remembered the events of last night. Conversing with Luna... It was nice to finally have someone like himself to talk to. He cracked a smile, different from his usual snide smirk, the smile was radiant. He felt good.

He had no recollection of his encounter with Nightmare Moon.

He leapt out of bed, and made his way to the en-suite, and engaged in his usual morning routine of brushing his teeth, showering and shaving. He was also happy to find that his jacket and tie had been taken during the night to be washed, pressed and ironed. How thoughtful of Princess Celestia- he made a mental note to thank the benevolent alicorn leader.

The shard of ivory lay forgotten in his pocket.

*****

“WAKE UP BRO!”

Scott was already shaking the groggy scientist. He awoke with a low groan.

“How... You’re already dressed?”

“HELL YEAH!”

“Are you on something? How’ve you got so much energy!?”

“I am high on a drug called ponies. Now get the hell up man- they got food downstairs!”

Chris had agreed to share a room with Scott on the grounds that no-one else would, and because two of them had to share a guest room either way- since they were one room short.  It was much more strenuous than he though it would be.

“Okay! Okay! I’m going!” He heaved himself out of the comfortable bed and zombie-walked towards the bathroom.

“I’m gonna go ahead downstairs, ‘kay?” Scott called out to the staggering figure, as it disappeared into the en suite.

“Yeah, whatever!” The muffled voice from within the bathroom replied, after which the sound of the shower running began. “COLD! COLD! COLD! OH MY GOD!”

The journalist made his way down out of the door, turning into the wide hallway. It was truly luxurious, with beautiful tapestries hanging from the high ceiling and golden sunlight streaking in through the windows above. Immaculate guards were stationed evenly down the corridor, saluting him as he strode past. He took no shame in wearing his personal uniform; a baggy T-shirt and equally baggy cargo shorts, accompanied by a pair of flip-flops.

“Sup’ guard bros!” he took a photo of the white stallions, disorientating them momentarily with a blinding flash.

He turned again, this time through a large set of open doors to the grand dining room, where Princess Celestia and Mr. Able were already breakfasting together. The CEO picked at a colourful, exotic fruit-medley and the princess a light salad.

“Morning guys!” Without the slightest hint of formality, the journalist flung himself down onto an open chair and was greeted by a white-coated pony chef, who asked him what he wanted for breakfast.

“Bacon would be like, illegal to you guys, right? Then I’ll have what he’s having.” He pointed at the CEO’s fruit salad.

“Of course sir.” The chef-pony trotted off towards the kitchen.

Celestia smiled. “We never usually have very many guests here. It’s such a nice change to have a lively crowd; normally it would just be me and Luna.”

As if on cue, the princess of the night emerged, trying to stifle a yawn. Celestia beamed.

“Luna! You slept through the night! That’s wonderful!”

Luna smiled and glanced at the CEO. “I had some help...”

The ponies began filing in now; Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Twilight. All bidding the Princess a formal good morning and saying ‘Hi’ to the humans. A groggy Rainbow Dash flew in clumsily behind the group, rubbing her eyes and muttering something vaguely resembling a ‘Good Mornuhh’ to the group. Unlike the humans, the equine collective had crashed in Twilight’s old room.

Chris walked in with Lars, Jarvis and Alfred- they all bid the Princess a similar tiding and took their seats. Waiters began rushing in and out with various meals for the guests.

“Mister Able has informed me you will be leaving this afternoon for a large human city: New York. I hope you can all learn something from our new neighbors and make the human race our friends. But remember to have some fun as well, of course!” Celestia spoke to the full table.

Rainbow Dash perked up. “Are we gonna be flying?”

The CEO nodded. “A jump-jet will take us from here as far as the closest aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, and from there we will take my personal jet.”

Twilight interjected. “What’s an aircraft carrier?”

The pilot spoke up this time. “Imagine a ship. Now image the ship’s as big as a small island. It has a flat top, so aircraft can land on it. It’s a ship that carries aircraft, an aircraft carrier.”

The ponies all made noises of understanding, and nodded their heads. In truth, what they imagined was an over-sized wooden pirate ship with grass on the top, where giant metal dragons would land and frolic in the midday sun.

The CEO continued to talk about where they would be staying, what their plans for the week were, and other things about the trip. It took a lot longer than it should have due to the multitude of questions asked of him every time he completed a sentence.

*****

“Tia...”

The Princess of the Night had stayed behind, while everyone else had shuffled off to pack for the trip. Princess Celestia knew what was coming, and had stayed behind as well- her sister had been looking at her shiftily for the entire duration of the meal. Luna moved up to a chair closest to the head of the table, where Celestia sat. She looked down at the immaculate white tablecloth instead of facing her sister.

“um...”

Princess Celestia leaned in and nuzzled her sister. In her calm and regal voice, she voiced her sister’s question for her.

“You want to go with them, don’t you?”

Luna looked up from the tablecloth. She nodded her head slowly, unsure whether or not to look overly-enthusiastic in the event that Princess Celestia denied her request.

“Sister, you needn’t be so scared! Of course you can go, all you had to do was ask!”

Relieved, Luna smiled radiantly; the first smile Celestia had seen on her face in a long time. She leapt up from the chair and hugged her sister tightly, burying her face in her aurora mane. Princess Celestia returned the hug in full. It felt good to see her sister so happy. Luna was finally back.

“Thanks Tia! Thank you so much!”

“Of course, you’ll have to ask Mister Charles first.” Celestia warned. Her sister nodded, still nuzzling her mane.

*****

“Harrier flight, make sure you stay within the safe zone, you mess up getting through that barrier you’re fucked, out.”

“Don’t tell me. How’m I doin’?”

“Yep. Just like that, keep a steady descent. Adjust throttle minus ten...”

“Throttle minus ten.”

“You’re clear. Stay below you’re current altitude though.”

“Yeah, I know. I can’t see any shield, you’re sure it’s there?”

“Sure as anything, the EM readings are still off the chart.”

“Arrighty then. Moving to extraction point. Hey, metal bros! ETA five, get ready!”

*****

“Wooooaaaaa...”

Rainbow Dash stared at the huge, vertically descending metal bird. The craft was a Harrier-Blackwidow 4T. The transport variety of the latest edition Harrier jump-jet. The chassis was thick and chunky, with two long, elongated wings protruding from each side with huge turbine engines tucked underneath; connected to the main chassis from the side with no exhaust on the other end. Instead, enormous square thrust vents underneath the craft shimmered with distortion as superheated air rushed out between the metal fins. These fins also formed the grille of the vents, and adjusted themselves slightly as the craft roared down on to the green grass, making sure the thrust vector was absolutely perfect. As it got closer to the ground the roar of the engines and rushing air grew into a thunderous noise, causing most of the onlooking group to cover their ears; with either hoof or hand.

It touched down with an inaudible thump, drowned out by the sound of the jet-engines. Instead, a heavy vibration shook the group from the ground up.

The pilot cut the power as soon as the craft had securely landed. The roar of the jet-turbines immediately began to soften, the high-pitched whine underlying it growing lower in tone as the spinning fan-blades within the craft gradually used up their remaining momentum.

The grey and black craft was back-loaded. The rear bay door lowered with a mechanical whine, slightly audible now over the quietening jet-turbines. Four metal men marched out, carrying unrealistically large and foreboding weapons with their armour-plated arms.

They were wearing the highest specification Heavy Assault Response Powered Systems, more commonly known as Tetsujin AA HARPS. The marketing tag-line for the system was: ‘The Ultimate Instrument of Warfare’

They were huge suits, with large, heavy, gunmetal-black tungsten plates covering most of the soldier’s body. The joints and other areas were covered with lighter carbon-fibre plates for ease of movement, as well as to house the movement-assistant servo mechanisms. Each tungsten plate was about five centimetres thick, and would be impossible to lift without the help of the motors. Even with the powered joints, an ordinary person would have immense difficulty with the suits; Heavy Response apparatus like these required the user to also have muscular augmentations to achieve maximum mobility.

They stood a head or so taller than any of the humans in the group, and towered above the fillies, swallowing them in their dark shadows. The fillies looked up at the metal men with wide eyes, Applejack gave an audible gulp. They stood at exactly the same height as Princess Celestia, yet looked far more imposing and strong. Princess Celestia smiled at the metal statues.

They had a single, elongated slit reaching vertically down the side of their geometric metal helmets, a dim red glow emanating from underneath; this port was where all visual information of the scene was collected to be transferred to the suit’s analytical systems and then to the user.

With surprising deftness, the figures knelt down on one leg, holding their weapons vertically against the ground with one hand, the other arm resting across the bent knee-joint in front of them in a Royal Salute.

“HAIL, PRINCESS CELESTIA OF EQUESTRIA!”

Their collective garbled voices sounded powerfully from some unknown speakers concealed within the construction of the suits. While the equine group had recoiled at their sudden deft movements, Princess Celestia remained unfazed: she knew more than one person was watching from behind the thin red slits.

“Thank you. You may rise.” She noted gracefully, the men slowly got up to their original, stiff standing position, quiet mechanical whines could be heard as the suits moved.

The CEO clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “I think these fine gentlemen are here to take your luggage!” He couldn’t help but laugh at the petrified ponies before him.

Eventually they pointed them over to the luggage sent over from Ponyville. The Royal Pegasi Guard had specially flown over to retrieve anything the group wanted to take with them. All in all, a troupe of twenty pegasi had been needed to pack and transport the crates, but the four HARPS made light work of them.

After the luggage had been securely loaded onto the Harrier, they bid the Princess goodbye. Luna looked downcast and asked Celestia if she hadn’t changed her mind about not going, but she affirmed that she was positive; Luna brightened up when Celestia reminded her it would only be a week before they saw each other again.

“Right, we all ready?” The commander asked the group. As they nodded, he motioned for them to file on to the Harrier. The inside was moderately spacious, although it being a standard military craft, it was very spartan, with unpainted grey-metal chassis showing through in various places. The seats in the craft were more conventional, facing forwards, unlike the interior of the transport VTOL that the humans had flown in with. They were also spaced out quite generously, as they had been designed to even fit troopers wearing power-armour if the need arose.

The humans and ponies all jumbled in towards the front, no-one really making much effort to sit in any particular order or place. The metal men all sat in the four back-row seats, just in front of the loading door. Alfred, the crashed pilot, made his way into the cockpit.

“Wazzaaaaa!” He fist-bumped the unknown pilot, receiving a similar greeting in return. The pilot pulled off his helmet. “Long time no see, Reid!”

Reid smiled. “They had to send someone that could keep that planet-sized ego of yours in check!” He craned his head round backwards and inspected the colourful fillies fumbling with their seat-belts with great interest. “Wow.”

“You’re taking it pretty well for the first time.” Alfred remarked at his calm reaction.

Reid shook his head. “No, man. I seen the pictures, y’know? The president made that speech. Everyone knows what they look like now, but damn, they’re still pretty weird up close. It was a big thing back on the carrier. Captain got us all together in the mess hall to watch it.”

“Oh riiight. So you cheated. I take my comment back.”

“Well, it’s partially that and also partially the fact that I’m just so much better at keeping a cool head than you.”

“Oh yeah? What about that time when we were doing that bomb-sim?”

“Yeah, so, at least I didn’t blow up a 25 million dollar plane like you!”

Alfie cuffed him over the head jokingly and made his way back to the passenger area, choosing to sit with an excited Rainbow Dash on the foremost aisle.

*****

The scientist found himself in between a bouncing Pinkie Pie and an ecstatic Scott, with Twilight looking at him apologetically from the seat ahead.

“Ooh! Ooooh! I know your name! You’re... Chris! Chris... Spa- no. Spi- no...”

“Spencer.”

“Yeah! That one! I’m Pinkie Pie! You can call me... Pinkie Pie!”

“I know... Wait, what... what else would I call you?”

“I dunno!”

She gave him a crazy smile and giggled.

“Dude! You’ve met Pinkie! She’s like... nuts, man!”

Scott had stuck his head into the conversation.

“How do you know...” The scientist began to speak but Scott cut across.

“I know all the ponies we’re going with, man! You need to be more social and stuff, try and talk to people! I mean, I also had to an’ all, since it’s my job- I’m writing a fat article on each pony and they all need to be done by the end of this week!”

Before the scientist had a chance to say anything further, the pilot’s voice sounded from the overhead speakers. It was in a mockingly formal, newsreader tone:

“Hello ladies and gentlemen, fillies and colts, I’d like to welcome you aboard this Air Equestria flight from this field outside the castle to the USS JFK, Our estimated flight time is... thirty minutes, the weather is clear and so we don’t expect any turbulence, the time over on the USS-”

“Shut up and fly!” Alfred, shouted up at the cockpit.

“Alright, alright! ...Beverages will cost nothing because we don’t have any...”

“DON’T MAKE ME COME UP THERE!”

“Jeesus, arright!”

The engines began to whine again, this time starting off low-pitch and gradually getting higher as the turbines in the jets reached ever higher speeds. The pilot risked another wisecrack:

“Safety procedures will now be explained to you by the cabin crew. Which is me. If you suddenly feel that weird falling feeling in your stomach, stick your head in between your thighs and kiss your ass goodbye, cus’ we ain’t got one life jacket between us!”

This did elicit a laugh from Lars- the commander, and a snort from Scott. The whine had now turned into a sound not entirely dissimilar from a blender running at high speed.

“No, but seriously guys, put your seat-belts on just in case.” The pilot advised in a more sober tone.

The craft lifted off the ground and the roar of rushing air beneath them soon filled the space. The fillies all waved to Princess Celestia through a small window, along with Scott, who was for some reason probably waving the fastest and most frantically out of the whole group. They then returned to their sets and buckled up.

“Next stop, USS John F. Kennedy.”

*****

“We don’t have a seat-belt sign, but if we did, it’d be off now. You are free to move about the cabin, and I would say go to the bathroom but we don’t have one of them either.”

Pinkie Pie was the first to hassle away her restrains and bound over to say nonsensical things to other people. Twilight slowly made her way over to Chris and took the empty seat.

“So... Who’s John F. Kennedy?” She asked.

“John F. Kennedy was the uh... like... thirty-somethingth President of the United States.” Chris struggled to remember the exact number, and eventually gave up.

“Why is the carrier named after him?”

“Oh, I don’t know, we just like naming our ships I suppose. And Kennedy was a pretty popular president, so yeah.” He felt stupid, he knew he could have given a better answer than that.

“Why was he popular?”

“He stopped the world from entering a World War Three... Kind of...”

Another bad answer. Ugh.

“World War... Three? Does that mean there were ones before?”

“Oh, yeah. Two.”

“World? Like the entire world?” Twilight looked shocked.

Of course, ponies have never had a war.

“Well, not really, it was more like... half the world?” He tried with an uneasy smile.

“Ummm... I don’t think that makes it any better...” Twilight twiddled her hooves.

Chris looked around the seats at everyone else. Alfred was enraptured in a highly animated conversation with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie was annoying a stone-faced Jarvis, Fluttershy was silently watching Rarity speak with Lars and Applejack, and Charles was showing Luna something on his smartphone, waving it round in the air like a signal flare. Upon further inspection it could be made out that he was showing Luna an augmented reality sky-map, complete with all constellation and star names. Luna looked completely fascinated, the CEO seemed to be enjoying himself as well.

*****

“Adjusting vector... two-niner-zulu-foxtrot...”

WARNING:

//// AIRSPACE INTEGRITY ALERT ////

“What?”

Reid had never encountered a true Airspace Integrity Alert. AIAs were automated alerts triggered by abnormal weather conditions, such as harsh tornadoes and storms. They would be triggered when the on-board AI deemed the weather conditions imminently or possibly dangerous. He peered around the crystal-blue sky before him, and it was spotless. He had never flown in nicer weather in his life.

“Tower control, I’m going to have to report a bogus code. Alpha, indigo, alpha. My on-board AI may be faulty, please advise...”

Then he spotted a huge shape in the corner of his field of view.

“S... Scratch that... What in the name...” He placed a finger on his headset. “Alf, get in here.”

The pilot scrambled forwards from the passenger area and stuck his head in through the door. “Wazzup, man?”

He pointed towards the cloud formation. “The fuck is that?”

“Oh, shit!”

He scurried into the cockpit and sat down on the co-pilot’s chair, while grabbing a headset. Leaning forwards and squinting, he could make out...

“There... There are buildings... and ponies... up there...”

He placed a finger on his headset. “Would a Miss Rainbow Dash get in here please?”

The sky-blue pegasus stuck her head in, in a completely identical fashion.

“What? Oh, awesome! We’re already near Cloudsdale?”

“That thing?”

“Yeah! It’s a city in the clouds! Me and Flutters’ grew up there!”

“Is this real life?”

Alfred was grinning madly at the idea of a city in the crowds while Reid simply wore an expression of complete, utter confusion.

“How... does it stay... in the sky...”

“Well, duh! Magic!”

“ ...the fuck...”

It was growing closer now, and sure enough, various structures were rising out of the clouds. Tiny dots whizzed around between them, each a vibrant, unique colour. It was truly a spectacular sight; the buildings were all pale marble or gold, sharing the same colour scheme as Princess Celestia’s castle. Greek style pantheons stood above the fluffy white wisps, impossibly tall and powerful. The passengers had noticed the cloud city from the windows as well.

“Holy crap!”

“Whaaaat...”

“Impressive.”

Their attention snapped back to the cockpit due to an all too familiar alert.

WARNING:

//// AIRSPACE PROXIMITY ALERT ////

Reid motioned to begin evasive maneuvers, but was stopped by Alfie’s elbow.

“Don’t make the same mistake I did, pal.”

“OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSH!”

They both turned towards a squealing Rainbow Dash pointing out of the side window.

“IT’S. THE. WONDERBOLTS!”

“Wonder-whats?”

As the name left Reid’s mouth, six streaks of grey cloud soared before them, a blue jump-suited pegasus pony at the end of each streak. Twilight Sparkle had stuck her head into the cockpit as well.

“Princess Celestia must have told them to see us off! How nice of her!”

“What’re you guys doing? We gotta’ catch up with ‘em!” Rainbow Dash shouted excitedly.

“...Right.”

The harrier had a dual control scheme; an AI assisted augmented-reality layer, as well as some haptic controls- like throttle and flap adjustment. Reid pushed forwards on the throttle level between the two seats, the noise of the jet-engines increased in correlation to its position. As the Harrier advanced, the Wonderbolts slowed to meet with them, lining up with three members above each wing. By now the passengers were also waving and smiling out of the windows at the famous fliers.

A certain flame-haired pegasus who was flying very close to the cockpit, so close that she was out of formation, winked through her goggles and gave the group a friendly salute.

“OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSH SPITFIRE JUST WINKED AT ME!”

“Naa, I’m sure it was me.”

“NO! It was me! I know it! We met at the Gala!”

“It was obviously me, man.”

They laughed as Rainbow Dash got increasingly worked up about who Spitfire had really winked at, until a static-ridden voice sounded from the console.

“Harrier flight, you are now approaching frontier zone, advise you slow down- you are entering a new weather system. Friendly escort is waiting to rendezvous.”

The pilots turned back to the controls and began making adjustments.

“Copy tower control.” Alfred turned to Rainbow Dash and Twilight. “You guys should go.”

“Oh, okay!”

*****

“So, Twilight, what’s going on with this barrier thing?”

Scott was now quizzing Twilight, e-paper and stylus in hand, on the technicalities of their trip so far.

“Umm... Well, I knew Princess Celestia had a magical barrier around Equestria... but I’m not too sure what’s happening now... Maybe Chris knows?”

Chris was fast asleep on Fluttershy’s shoulder, who looked uncomfortable, but too shy to make any protest. He had got a lot less sleep than usual last night due to Scott. Instead of bothering to walk over to him, the journalist scrunched up a chocolate-bar wrapper and launched it at his head. He awoke with a start as the spiky plastic hit his face and then began to blush profusely as he realized where he had been laying his head. The reaction from Fluttershy was identical.

“Dude! What’s going on with the barrier thing, man?”

“Wa- whut?”

Still disorientated, he rubbed his eyes and reprocessed the question. “Oh, that.”

“Well... I have another theory.”

“Awesome.”

The scientist took a deep breath.

“Okay, so from reading Twilight’s books on the subject, and from what she’s told me, I’ve learnt that Princess Celestia cast powerful magic as a circular barrier around Equestria, to keep bad stuff from outside Equestria getting in. My theory is that this barrier works on a principle that has something to do with interdimensional physics. Maybe cross-dimension string vibration or something. Anyway, when we created the force to pull Equestria over here from its own dimension, I think the shield acted like a cookie-cutter. Without the shield, I think we would’ve only got like, a couple of trees or something, but with the shield, it rounded up to the biggest whole number. It explains why we have a perfect ‘cut’ of the entire island, following the defined borders of Equestria. I think...”

The journalist was scribbling fervently while Twilight was had a hoof to her chin.

“I don’t know about the interdimensional physics, but I think I do understand the general concept. It makes sense...” Twilight agreed.

“Okay... That’s all good...” The journalist had completed his notes, and looked up. “But, how did we get in so easily and how’re we getting out?”

“Well, I think that was because of the residual field. See, when something like this happens, you’ve taken a chunk of another dimension and just put it down in another. Even though it’s in the new dimension, the thing that’s been moved is still part of its original dimension. And we can’t travel across dimensions without help. What blocks us is called a residual field anomaly. It’s an anomaly because we have no idea how it works.”

“Right...” The journalist was scribbling again.

“All we know is that a load of neutrons in one spot real fast can sort of... short circuit it, and as long as whatever moved the place isn’t still active, we can pass through, because the residual field can’t regenerate.”

“But what about...” Twilight began, but was cut off.

“Celestia’s barrier? Well, I think that since the residual barrier and Celestia’s barrier were technically in the exact same physical place at the same time, which is impossible in like, more than three ways... When the residual field was destroyed, Celestia’s barrier was also disrupted. So Celestia had to regenerate it, which took time. We managed to pass through, and Alf’s plane managed to get through, but the missile couldn’t- Celestia must have managed to regenerate it by then.”

“So how are we getting through it now?” Scott asked, not looking up from his paper, but swiping a finger across it horizontally to start a new page.

“I’m pretty sure Celestia’s made a small patch of the barrier that we can safely pass through, she was explaining it to Charles during breakfast this morning.”

Before he could continue on how that worked, Reid’s voice sounded form the PA.

“Yeah, so Equestria has some super-awesome weather. Can’t say the same for outside, we’re going to be flying through some pretty dense cloud, might get a little bumpy. Just a heads up.”

*****

“This is USS JFK Tower Control on all standard frequencies, Harrier flight is approaching with guests of international importance. All unauthorised flight crew on the deck are ordered to make their way off immediately. All landings/takeoffs are hereby postponed until guests are airborne again. All security personnel, please take your predetermined positions and await further instructions.”

*****

The craft began to slow to a halt in mid air, the thrust-grilles underneath angling themselves forwards and then down, it hovered awaiting for an allocated landing position. Not that it needed one; the entire supercarrier was almost empty. The grey griptape-coated steel expanse stretched off across the surface of the ocean, and at this altitude the passengers of Harrier flight had a fantastic view of the huge vessel.

“When you said ship... I thought you meant ship...”

It was so large that one could easily have fit a small town on the landing deck alone. Various fighter jets were parked around the sides, tethered down to the deck with thick, high-tensile steel cables. Half way down the runway a huge tower rose up, with multitudes of antennae and communications arrays perched atop which, coupled with the massive spinning radar dish to the back of the carrier, made up the ship’s communications system.

Dotted around the edge of the flight deck were salvos of SAM installments, nimble mechanical systems that had groups of six missiles on each arm, capable of hitting targets flying at altitudes of up to 80,000 feet. The long, thin, silver pencils were aimed ever-vigilant up at the cloudy deep blue sky. Other installments were also dotted round the edge of the deck, batteries of ESSM (Evolved Sea-Sparrow Missile) systems that would protect the ship against incoming projectiles and single, huge, cruise-missile installments- meant for large land targets or anti-battleship warfare. All taken into account, the USS John F. Kennedy was bristling with shiny instruments of destruction.

The Harrier touched down with a soft thump, again inaudible above the sound of the roaring turbofan jet-engines. As soon as the pilot had opened the door, the armoured troopers filed out, standing in a line formation outside of the craft. The passengers then began to make their way out, some flinching a little at the sound of the still roaring engines. With another fist-bump and a short ‘talk to you later, man’, Reid stayed aboard the harrier.

A vehicle quite similar to a golf-buggy was approaching them from the tower. It had a number of carts trailing behind it, and four men sat inside. It stopped near the Harrier and all the men but the driver got up from the car. Two of the men were navy seamen, and directed the armoured soldiers over to a section of the flight deck that was also a lift. With a few words into a headset the square section of floor the soldiers stood on began to move downwards with a loud mechanical whine.

“On behalf of the United States Navy, welcome aboard the USS John F. Kennedy. My name is Captain Strikler, and It’s an honour to meet you all.”

The man that had been left standing in front of the buggy extended a hand towards the closest pony. The orange coloured filly took his hand in hoof and shook it enthusiastically.

“That’s mighty kind of ya’, Captain Strikler, sir. The honour’s awl’ ours.”

The captain turned to a bemused Charles and spoke.

“Your private jet arrived a few hours ago. It’s all fuelled up and ready to go.”

“Good. Thank you, Captain.”

They all clambered on to the various carts attached to the back of the transport and were taken down the runway to the only other craft on a landing/takeoff strip.

The craft they were driven to was orders of magnitude different from the Harrier they had just disembarked from. It was a sleek, brilliant white, Airbus BAE 878-5 Elite, a super wide-body class plane. It was a huge craft, with expansive, thick wings which held up three immense jet-engines on each side. It had an angular, streamlined design as opposed to the usual curved theme, with a sharp, pointed nose and wedge-shaped tail and wing sections. This plane was the latest, prototype luxury passenger cruise-liner specially modified into a private jet for the CEO. It was also the first plane to have been designed after the company’s recent take-over of the Boeing Aerospace and Defense Company, the final addition to the company’s aerospace portfolio for the immediate future since the other major players in the industry had already fallen; namely Airbus Industries and BAE Systems, as the name of the plane indicated.

“Well, this is where I leave you. I hope you enjoy your time in the states.”

“Thank’ya kindly, Captain, Sir!”

A flight of stairs extended up from the surface of the carrier to one of the many doors along the plane’s side. A small group of staff awaited them at the bottom of the stairs, rushing over to the cars to take their luggage as soon as they arrived. Dressed in smart white uniforms, the chief pilot of the plane was also waiting for them, he bowed to each of them as they boarded the plane.

The interior of the craft was even more impressive. They emerged through the door to a spacious room which could have fit sixty seats on a normal flight. Instead, a group of about twelve seats shared the area. They were spaced out, elegant black leather seats which had enough room around them to recline completely into a bed. Not that that would have been needed anyway, since there were beds on board too.

The softly lit walls had a single, long window running along them, instead of the regularly placed small round windows found on conventional aircraft. The glass had a special transparent liquid-crystal layer which could go completely opaque at the flick of a switch.

They were all ushered in, each passenger giving a gasp or widening their eyes a little as they passed through the doors. The CEO, who was second last after the pilot of the plane, did not show any reaction. It was his plane after all.

They all sunk into the luxurious chairs, liberally tilting them back and stretching out after the comparably appalling chairs on the Harrier.

“This is the gooood life!” Scott purred to no-one in particular; among groans of comfort the group made noises of agreement.

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Winston, and I am the pilot of this 878 flight to New York LaGuardia Airport. The estimated flight time is eleven hours, and weather seems to be very favourable. If there is anything you require, please do not hesitate to tell a member of the flight crew. We are now taxiing the runway and will take off shortly. Please fasten your seatbelts for takeoff and remain in your seats until the seatbelt sign is turned off. Thank you, and on behalf of the cabin crew and Tetsujin Industries, we wish you all a pleasant flight.” The British English voice of the pilot came clearly over the sound system, causing everyone to fall silent for a while.

“ELEVEN HOURS!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as soon as he had finished. “Like, seriously?”

“WHAT’RE WE GONNA’ DO FOR ELEVEN HOURS!?”

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD7.mem

The air was filled with the smell of smoke and perspiration, the lack of ventilation in the small space causing the atmosphere to grow warm and humid.

Due to the semi-darkness of the room, it was hard to make out its exact boundaries. It seemed to just stretch out like some dark void, various tubes of dimly-glowing neon and lasers the only source of light in the venue, coupled with a few spotlights focused on the stage. A small bar area was located at what was probably the back of the room, serving the strongest alcohol as well as some other more illicit narcotics.

The man on the stage stood with a hunch, slightly swaying from side to side as he droned on. He stood statically, wringing his hands in an attempt to feign stage-fright as part of his act. He described murdering a whore in cold blood, softly gesticulating the strangling of her neck as he slurred over every gory detail.

One man stood out from the heaving crowd.

He was not moving. He simply stood among the audience, surveying each dimly illuminated face. Even in the sweltering heat of the club, he wore a thick, long duster jacket, which trailed down to his ankles. He slowly started to make his way through the crowd towards a small stage door concealed near the bar. Two men stood on either side.

With a glance at the jacketed man, the guards stood aside, giving him a nod. They opened the door for him, and he emerged into a room slightly better lit than the packed space. This room was filled with thin smoke, a number of pool tables and a group of men- either playing or conversing. They all looked up as he entered, interested to see who had arrived, and then returned to their activities. The jacketed man walked straight across the room towards a flight of stairs towards the basement levels.

The basement was even more dimly lit. Flickering yellow lights lined the walls, the kind of lights that one would expect to find in a mine, or building site. They caused all the objects in the basement levels to cast contorted, twisted shadows, thrown around against dirty walls and gritty floor.

As he got deeper into the basement levels, he could hear distant sounds- whimpers and sniffles as well as hushed muttering. The sounds of the club above couldn’t penetrate the thick concrete walls, and so the place was deathly silent. Water dripped from some unknown pipe in the darkness, the echoing ‘drip, drop’ sounded like an mock metronome at some dark recital. A group of men shrouded in shadows congregated around a large crate, murmuring about something or other, and smoking a substance which smelt neither like tobacco nor marijuana.

Crack, most likely.

Or worse.

As his boot crunched on the grit-covered concrete floor, they turned round. One of the men, with his elbow leaning on the large crate, straightened up.

“My time to leave.”

His voice was quiet and cold, with an oriental curl. Pacing over to the jacketed man, he handed him a long, stick-like object. Stun-baton.

“New shipment today. You are welcome to make it hurt if it begins to whine again.”

The jacketed man nodded. The figure clapped him on the shoulder, and then made his way up the stairs; a couple of other men left the basement too, leaving him with just two others. The steady ‘drip-drop’ of the leaking pipe grew louder as they were left in silence once more.

It was broken by one of the figures standing in the shadows. He was snorting loudly, it echoed along the concrete corridor. The jacketed man looked away, the worst scum of the human race accumulated here- It only made his will to go on burn stronger.

Once he had finished medicating, the man looked up at the other two in the corridor with him. His pupils were wide, and he was thin and lanky, his face gaunt but smiling wildly. He cackled like a hyena.

“Hey, y’know what? I’m bored! Let’s go play! Time to play!”

The other man had fallen asleep, with his back against the large crate. The crack-addict bounded towards the jacketed man.

“Gimme your baton!”

“Get your own.”

With a snarl, the addict leaped off to find another utensil. This was it.

After the addict had disappeared from sight, the jacketed man knelt down towards the sleeping figure, waving a hand across his face. Then, like a predator striking from a hiding place, he snapped his hands round his neck and used a shoulder to pin him against the container. The man’s eyes snapped open wide, small muffled grunts echoed around the dark corridor as the men struggled. After a few seconds, with a muffled crack, the man flopped to the floor- eyes glazed.

The jacketed man repositioned the corpse against the box again, taking care to close its eyes as if it were still sleeping. Just in time. The addict came back from the store-room with a heavy metal baseball bat.

“Come with! It’ll be fun!” He was drooling carnally.

*****

The jacketed man followed the addict along the concrete corridor, stun-baton in hand. The lanky man was leading the way enthusiastically, and as they went deeper and deeper into the darkness it became more and more foreboding. Here, the air was icy cold and a thick moisture hung in it, as well as an indescribable stench. Water ran down the concrete walls and the dim yellow lights were even more sparsely placed now, making the men alternate between visible and invisible as they passed through the areas of illumination along the way. The man could hear distinct whimpers and sniffling now, the sound of which made him grit his teeth and tighten his grip on the stun-baton.

They rounded a corner into a corridor lined on each side with prison bars, behind which were bare concrete cells. The addict giggled with joy, turning the bat around in his hands. He prowled over to the nearest cell.

Inside was a sorry sight. An earth-pony mare was curled up in a tight ball, sobbing quietly to herself. She had a dirty dark-lilac coat, covered in bleeding scratches and cuts. Her mane was light blue, and looked like it had been beautifully styled once, but now it was bunched together in clumps and matted with gritty dirt. She shivered in a mixture of pain, terror, hunger and cold.

The mare lifted her head at the sound of the cell door being unlocked. She had deep aquamarine pupils, which widened in terror as she recognised the man spinning the baseball bat. She let out a broken gasp, and buried her head under her hooves, anticipating a hard blow. She was shuddering even harder now, crying quietly onto the hard concrete floor.

At the sight, the addict cackled. He loved to watch on at the despair of the thing- he decided he would make it hurt, but not with the bat.

With a clang, the baseball bat dropped to the floor, and the addict knelt down next to the petrified mare. He ran a quivering hand through it’s dirty mane, while reaching into a pocket with the other.

“Wassamatter? Scared?”

From his pocket he produced a long switchblade. He grabbed a clump of mane above her head and yanked hard, causing the creature to scream out in pain and jerk her head up from the ground. He brought the blade to her exposed neck.

The creature, wide-eyed in fear, let out a whimper and a tear ran down the side of her face, over a dark line already made by previous ones. She then closed her eyes tight and another few tears leaked from beneath her eyelashes.

The blade was pressing against her indigo pelt harder now, a few beads of blood had begun to blossom at the silver edge. She let out another sniff, and uttered quietly:

“i wanna go home...”

The man laughed and withdrew the blade, throwing it away and letting it clatter against the concrete wall. He then glared at the pony with pure contempt.

“ME TOO.”

He picked up the metal baseball bat beside him, and got up from beside the curled-up animal, brutally kicking her in the side as he did so. She yelled out as she rolled over from the blow, clutching her stomach and sobbing with her eyes tightly closed. They opened slowly as the blows she expected to follow never arrived, and then she gasped in fear, even her sobbing ceased.

The addict held the silver bat high above his head, his eyes burning with unfiltered rage.

“I USED TO BE RESPECTED! I USED TO BE SOMEBODY!”

He was screaming at the shivering creature, his breathing erratic and his pupils dilated. He was psychotic.

As he motioned to bring the bat down, a soft thump caused him to yelp in pain.

He stumbled into the wall and screeched like a wild animal. The jacketed man stood at the entrance to the cell- a black, silenced pistol in his hand with smoke curling up from its muzzle.

With a cry of rage, the addict scrambled up, only to be brutally shoved back against the wall with a further two dull thuds. Crimson blossomed on his chest, and after a moment, the expression of rage on his face turned to that of pale despair and he collapsed against the concrete wall, smearing it with red. His corpse was sat with its back against the wall, its head looking down and legs splayed out over the cold floor.

The jacketed man stowed the pistol inside his duster jacket, and paced over to the quivering pony. Placing a hand on her back, she flinched and cowered even lower.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now. What’s your name?”

“...L... Lavender... Blossom...”

“Agent Curtis, CDA”

*****

“So you’ve never properly used the atom bombs?”

“Well, don’t forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

“But those were smaller ones.”

“Yeah, the ones we have now... are a lot bigger.”

“I don’t get it. Why make such dangerous weapons at all? Especially if you’re not going to use them!”

“You have to look at it from a different perspective. Not what they could do, but what they did do. They were deterrents. In the Cold War, the only thing that stopped Russia attacking us with nuclear weapons was the fact that if they did, they’d all die too. It’s called Mutually Assured Destruction.”

“I still don’t...”

“So, say the Russians launched their weapons. The US would see that, and launch their own weapons, and then we’d all be dead. The resulting fallout would kill us all.”

“That’s horrible...”

The purple-hued unicorn sat on one of the chairs in the lounge part of the plane. Once they had taken off, they had been allowed to go and explore the huge craft, and the group of humans and ponies alike had spread out all over its various quarters. Twilight and Chris had taken their places on a plush sofa in front of the huge AMOLED panel in the lounge, which was connected to a cloud-based computer running the latest Mac OSX Eagle. They were currently using it to trawl through Wikipedia and the Net.

The room would have been indistinguishable from a very high-class hotel lounge on the ground, had it not been for the long strip-window that ran uninterrupted across two of the four walls, showing the fluffy white clouds passing through the now dark sky. The carpet was creamy white, impeccably maintained, along with the walls of a similar colour. LED lights illuminated the entire room in a soft faux-incandescent tone from small spotlights dotted regularly along the ceiling. Strips of lighting ran along the walls with the long windows; above the armchairs and tables lined along them to facilitate a view of the sky.

Chris and Twilight sat on the sofa in the middle of the room, in front of which was a coffee table. It was quite a remarkable table as coffee tables went, a fusion of the stark edges of modern design and timeless mahogany material. It must have cost a small fortune, since it looked like real mahogany, and it obviously wasn’t an antique. There were only a few companies in the world who manufactured genuine wood tables now, all of them luxury Italian design firms. Twilight had been very confused when Chris had marvelled at how expensive the wood must have been.

“OK. Can you put in... um... What were they called? Augmentations?”

Chris nodded, taking the wireless keyboard from in front of him. Of course, he could have used voice commands, but somehow he preferred to type things. Ironically, it felt more natural to him.

Implant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about medical implants. For other uses, see Implant (Disambiguation).

"Augmentation" redirects here. For edit summaries as used in Wikipedia, see Help:Edit summary.

An implant is a medical device manufactured to replace a missing biological structure, support a damaged biological structure, or enhance an existing biological structure. Medical implants are man-made devices, in contrast to a transplant, which is a transplanted biomedical tissue; now an antiquated technology. The surface of implants that contact the body might be made of a biomedical material such as titanium, silicone or apatite depending on what is the most functional. In most cases implants contain electronics.

Implants are currently moderately expensive specialist devices. They are offered to the general public at private clinics, most notably the Deus Clinic chain, which operates from centres located in many countries around the world. The Deus Medical Corporation is a subsidiary of the Able-Tetsujin Holdings Conglomerate.

The article went on to describe every type of augmentation available on the consumer market, as well as some experimental ones which were said to be in development. Chris let Twilight skim through it, scrolling down for her when she gestured.

“Do you have any of these?” She turned, after finishing her reading.

“Oh, no.” Chris chuckled. “I don’t really have a proper job, let alone enough money for an augmentation. I bet Charles does though. He definitely has the money. I mean look, he even owns the company!”

Twilight opened her mouth to ask Chris to click on ‘Able-Tetsujin Holdings Conglomerate’ but was interrupted by the chime of the PA. Instead of the Captain’s voice however, a familiar journalist's voice sounded from no place in particular around the cabin.

“Hey, uh... Wassup, people. I sorta took the mic, the cabin crew weren’t really using it, so... Anyways, we’re not really there yet, but we’re kinda close. So yeah. Check the windows to your left, cus’ there’s a pretty awesome view of New New York. And our city is so much cooler than Canterlot, just sayin.”

Twilight sprung up and leapt to the window at the news, sticking her head up close to the multi-layered glass. Chris followed, with a little less pace.

The clouds outside the window obscured the view of the bay, and Twilight gave a disappointed groan. As if to answer her, the plane dropped altitude a little, going beneath the cloud cover. The view of New New York was spectacular.

Before them was a city, a sprawling expanse of metal, concrete and glass beyond the wildest imaginations of the ponies. In the dark of the early night, each light shone bright like a million stars, pinpricks of multicoloured illumination running up and down the great spires of metal and glass reaching up into the sky. It stretched off as far as the eye could see, street lights running down the roads like veins towards the heart, veins turning to arteries as they got closer to the center. At this focal point, huge towers stood resolute, some square and formal, others more unorthodox, the largest structure closely resembling an angular shard of glass. It was a huge glass prism which pointed up at the night sky, each floor clearly visible due to the entire structure being composed of huge panes of the material.

New New York was a two-tiered city, similar to many large developed cities around the globe. Around the center was a large platform roughly a hundred or so metres above the ground, creating another ‘floor’ in the main district. The reason for this was that space was becoming so scarce that real-estate prices in central New York made it cheaper to simply build more land than to build higher towers. Upper New York was obviously high-class, with cleanly maintained streets lightly populated by expensive looking vehicles and the occasional walking person, surrounded by modern buildings touting the logos of huge international corporations and businesses.

Around the central area sprawled the poorer urban districts, thousands of smaller structures all crushed together in a modern ghetto. In these areas, the individual streets were hard to make out due to the sheer amount of signs and walkways held up above them, as well as the tangles of black cable and wires snaking their way around the district. High above in the clouds, numerous helicopters and VTOL craft hovered around like flies above a carcass.

“It’s quite something, huh.” Chris remarked from behind Twilight.

“It’s... It’s...” Twilight struggled to find an adjective to describe the scene.

“How about ‘big’?” Chris suggested.

Twilight merely nodded, her gaze fixed out of the window.

The PA chimed again, this time the captain’s voice filled the cabin.

“Ladies and gentlemen, fillies and gentlecolts, we are now about to make our final descent to New York LaGuardia Airport,  we’d like to ask all passengers to take a seat and fasten their seatbelts. On behalf of myself and the cabin crew, we’d like to thank you for flying with us today. Cabin crew prep for landing please.”

With that, the plane began to descend to the airport close to the center.

*****

“Listen, Lavender, I need you to stay here while I-”

The agent turned his head as he heard an echoing clatter, resounding from back down the corridor. He realized that new men had joined them in the basement, and strained to hear what they were doing.

“Hey, why the fuck is he asleep?”

“Wake the fuck up!”

The agent sighed. “Uh oh.”

“He’s dead!”

“Feds.”

“Let’s deal with this quickly.”

The malevolent clicks of cocking firearms echoed down the dirty stone walls.

“We gotta’ go.” The agent looked towards Lavender, who was now curled up, wide-eyed with terror again. He stowed his gun, knowing a standoff between three or more similarly armed men would only end one way. Scooping the shivering Lavender up in two arms, he kicked open the door to the cell, and started with a moderate jog into the corridor. The only way to survive now would be to not encounter them at all.

*****

“If all passengers could make their way to the seating area...”

Chris turned from peering out of the window from behind Twilight, and made his way to the door. Twilight stayed for a moment with her forehooves up on the wall.

“Are you coming?” He asked.

She nodded. “You go on ahead.”

“Okay...”

With a soft thump, the door closed behind him, and Twilight put her forehooves back on the floor again. Like a deer, she tentatively edged towards the sofa and coffee table, her gaze shifted to rest on the two input devices; the mouse and touchscreen keyboard. The Wikipedia article remained open on the screen in front.

Reaching a hoof out carefully, she nudged the black mouse, studying how the cursor moved across the screen as she did so. She moved it above the small white box in the corner of the page.

Search: |

Her focus changed to the keyboard beside the mouse. Once she had selected the input field, the buttons on the keyboard had changed from shortcuts and commands to a full-size QWERTY keyboard. She hovered a purple hoof over the device, carefully examining the letters she would be pressing.

Search: HISTORY OF WAR |

*****

From a personal terminal in his study at the front of the plane, the CEO smiled. He watched the surveillance feed as the unicorn tapped the enter key.

“Clever girl.”

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD8.mem

“Hey Dashie! Check this out!”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were in the forward lounge directly beneath the cockpit, in the nose of the craft. The pegasus was sitting in a plush armchair to the right of the cabin, next to the long window. She was resting her left elbow on the armrest, while holding her head with her hoof, staring out at the small pinpricks of light that were human settlements far below.

The pink earth-pony was reclining on a lounger, lying on her side. In her forehooves she held a large fourteen-inch tablet, roughly the size of an average piece of paper. She had been experimenting with the device for the last hour or so.

“What is it?” Rainbow Dash asked, without averting her gaze from the window.

“This thing has like, music! And games!”

The pegasus was intrigued. “What kind of music?”

Rainbow Dash knew nothing of human culture. It had not struck her that humans may also be artistic, creative creatures- they were obviously very intelligent, but that was a different matter altogether. She was quite confident that there would be nothing as enjoyable as the music she listened to back home; Flank-182, Panic! At The Gala, Fall Out Colt, Pegamore...

“There’s this thing on here called ‘Googl-ey Music’, isn’t that a funny name?”

“Is that a band?”

“I... No, I don’t think so... Unless one band can make thirty million songs!”

“There’s thirty million songs on that little thing!?”

“Uh-huh! I told you it was cool!”

Rainbow Dash rolled off from the armchair and trotted over towards Pinkie, flopping herself down next to the pink mare.

“What’re those things in your ears?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh, these? They’re headphones. Like, really small speakers, that you can fit in your ear, so you can listen to music without disturbing anyone! Cool, huh?”

“Mega-cool. Give me one!”

Pinkie Pie removed an earbud and gave one to Dash. She pushed it into her ear tentatively, trying to imitate Pinkie.

“Like this?”

“Yeah, like that!”

“Okay... Play some music!”

“Oh. My. Gosh... That is so... Awesome!”

*****

If the landing of the jet were to be described in one word, that word would have probably been ‘elegant.’

The angular craft lanced down from the night sky, made visible by the powerful red lights under its belly and on its wings. With pinpoint precision, a result of the combined skill of the pilot and the advanced AI, the landing gear gracefully brushed the asphalt without so much as a slight judder. The control surfaces on each of the wings moved upwards as it made contact with the runway, slowing the plane down to a fast drive, before eventually receding to a complete stop. After a few moments hesitation, it proceeded to taxi towards the central terminal building, to dock with a gate.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have landed successfully in New New York LaGuardia Airport. The local time is 1936.”

Rainbow Dash yawned. She had not slept at all during the flight, more due to excitement than anything else.

“I coulda’ got here so much faster.” She announced, to no-one in particular.

They were all sitting in the passenger seating area again, in the plush leather chairs that seemed to swallow them in. Pinkie Pie was sitting across from Rainbow Dash, and had been guzzling energy drinks for a good portion of the flight- and therefore had the same, if not more energy, as usual. She looked expectantly towards Twilight, who was tentatively prodding another tablet computer with her hoof.

“So Twilight! What’re we gonna’ do now, huh? What’s the plan?”

Twilight looked up from the slate. “Pinkie, it’s already seven in the evening. We’re going to grab some late dinner and then crash... I think...”

The CEO took this moment to make his appearance.

“Late, very informal, very delicious and expensive dinner. With the President of the United States.” He announced with a smirk.

It took a moment for the group to properly register what had just been said.

“Wait... Wait, what?”

“Oh my! Do I look good enough? I knew I should have worn a dress...”

“I am so underdressed...”

“He’s important, right?”

The CEO held up a hand for silence.

“For the next week, you are all ‘on me.’ When we get to The Shard you will each be given unlimited debit cards drawing from a company account. However, it would be preferable if you could tell me before buying a mansion or something.”

This took even longer to process.

“FREE MONEY!?”

“What’s a credit card?”

“We’re staying in The Shard? Seriously?”

“Hell yeah, I’m getting me a mansion.”

The only member of the group in the room who hadn't said anything was Fluttershy. Instead, she held up a yellow hoof to ask her question, as if she were in school. The CEO chuckled and pointed towards her.

“Yes, Fluttershy.”

“um... well... I was just um... wondering, what kind of food it’ll be... because we’re vegetarians and... well...”

“Everything is being taken care of, and I’m sure you’ll all find the food more than acceptable.”

“oh, um okay, um.”

Fluttershy’s timid response was drowned out by the PA system.

“Cabin crew, thank you for your hard work- crosscheck, disarm and doors to manual please.”

A member of cabin crew appeared from another room, and made her way over to the door. she pushed a button and gave the lever above it a tug, and with a hydraulic hiss, the door swung open into a corridor leading into the terminal building.

“Who’s hungry?” The CEO asked.

*****

LaGuardia airport had recently undergone major renovation works to cater to its new clientele. It now almost exclusively served businessmen of varying degrees of importance flying in and out of New York Level 2, informally known as New New York. Now more than ever, New New York was the financial centre of the world, and so LaGuardia had needed to reflect that prestige. Over $500 million had been invested in the recent renovation, decking out the aging airport with sheets of tempered glass, steel accents and OLED displays.

Many of the biggest changes were not cosmetic. A state-of-the-art security system subcontracted naturally by a Tetsujin Arms subsidiary kept the airport in check, with an intricate network of surveillance cameras, robots and biometric sensors defending the security of the installation- a response to recent terrorist threats. The recent arrival of inter-species liaisons had warranted a further bulking-up of security, essentially stationing a small army of police officers, suited FBI agents and armed private security personnel.

The group of humans and ponies trotted through the modern terminal building, flanked in front and behind by stone-faced FBI agents. The ponies actually felt more intimidated than safe. They were making their way down a central corridor in the emptied terminal building; all flights planned to arrive at this terminal had either been cancelled or diverted to other airports in the interests of security.

After a short trot down the glass-lined corridor, the group reached a moving walkway. This simple piece of technology fascinated every equine member of the group, especially Pinkie Pie, who took great pleasure in walking in the opposite direction that the track was moving in- and consequently staying in the exact same place. Even the FBI agents found it hard to suppress their smiles as the group laughed at her intense fascination with the machine.

At their final destination, the VIP entrance, they found a six-wheel drive armored stretch-jeep waiting for them, as well as a suited chauffeur and a rather large escort. It would have been impressive had their attention not been taken up by the small horde of reporters battling against a squad of riot police behind it. Fluttershy gulped.

“They’ll be time for the press later, don’t you worry about that.” The CEO half shouted over the din of squealing crowd. He motioned towards the now open door with the chauffeur stood next to it. He bowed to each of the passengers as they climbed aboard.

The inside of the car simply screamed ‘more money than sense’. Hand made cream leather upholstery, with drinks coolers, screens, magazine racks and speaker systems arranged around a batch of twelve chairs, three in each row. They filled up the vehicle from the back, again in a completely random order. The CEO took a seat directly behind the driver and groped around the magazine rack in an absent-minded fashion, taking the first publication to brush his hand. The latest edition of TIME magazine. He glanced at the cover.

Under the iconic four letter name, a simple yet powerful portrait of himself, staring sternly into the camera.

THE MAN WHO CHANGES THE WORLD.

JUST DID IT AGAIN.

He turned around in his seat and held the magazine up at Scott with a raised eyebrow.

“Like it? We weren’t allowed to print any pictures of the ponies in the interests of giving other papers a chance but we would’ve if we could’ve.” He smirked.

With a single knock on the window dividing to driver from the passengers, the convoy set off towards New New York.

*****

“B-But what about the-them?”

Lavender Blossom finally spoke, holding a single shaky hoof up at the other cells. They each contained solitary ponies, mostly mares and fillies; all in a similar condition to Lavender, coats and manes caked with dirt and and grime. Each of them were curled up in fear, either softly weeping or in immense pain. It was a heart-wrenching sight.

“We can’t help them now, but I’ll be back. I promise.”

He tried his best to sound comforting but he didn’t think anything could comfort them right now. A renewed sense of anger and hatred towards the men that did it began to rekindle within him.

“I’ll be back. With friends.”

He could hear the trudging footsteps of the three thugs not far down the corridor. Still curled up in his arms, the lilac mare flinched at the mere sound and begun shivering uncontrollably in between sobs.

Giving the terrified ponies one last apologetic glance, he turned on his heel and ran off towards another corridor. He had not anticipated any more people coming down to this level before the beginning of the next shift, and therefore did not have any planned means of exit. Time to improvise.

Becoming a field agent for thew CDA was not an easy feat. It had taken him years of working with the undercover divisions of the local police force and then a promotion to the local branch of the FBI to get him here, and he was therefore more than prepared for high-risk situations like these. He liked to remind himself in times like this that he had been selected from a group of over five hundred potential candidates for his superior combat, judgement, espionage and physical prowess; and that if he couldn’t do it, no-one could.

CDA Academy had been hard, even for him, but the training he had undertaken there had proved itself invaluable countless times.

“AWLRIGHT YOU MAGGOTS! I BET YOU ALL THOUGHT THIS WAS GOING TO BE PUSSY-ASS SECRET AGENT SCHOOL WHEN YOU SIGNED UP! SURPRISE MAGGOTS, IT’S NOT! AGENT CURTIS!”

“SIR YES SIR!”

“YOU ARE IN A ROOM. IN THIS ROOM, THERE ARE TWO PEOPLE. ONE OF THEM IS A NO-GOOD FUCKING TALIBAN TERRORIST. THE OTHER IS AN AWL-AMERICAN WOMAN WHO IS THREE MONTHS PREGNANT WITH AN AWL-AMERICAN BABY, GOD BLESS HER. THE FUCKING TERRORIST IS POINTING A DEAGLE AT HER HEAD. WHAT THE FUCK, ARE YOU GOING TO DO CURTIS?”

“SIR, WHAT ELSE IS IN THE ROOM, SIR!”

“FUCKING GENIUS! YOU HEAR THAT? THAT IS WHAT I WANT TO SEE. IF YOU’D HAVE SAID, ‘I WOULD GO FUCKING KILL THE SUNOVABITCH,’ I WOULD HAVE KICKED YOU OUT SO FAST YOU’D WAKE UP IN FUCKING CHINA! BECAUSE I DON’T WANT ANY RETARDS IN MY CADRE! YOU’VE ALL JUST LEARNED THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE IN FIELDWORK- DON’T BE A DUMBASS. COLLECT ALL THE RELEVANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR SITUATION BEFORE YOU GO IN THERE AND FUCK THEM ALL TO KINGDOM COME, BECAUSE CHANCES ARE, YOU’RE GONNA’ BE ONE AGENT WITH A PISTOL VERSUS A GANG OF BAD MUTHAS WITH ILLEGAL WEAPONS! WHAT ALLOWS YOU TO BEST THEM WHEN THE SHIT GOES DOWN IS YOUR INTELLECT! CHANCES ARE THOSE BAD MUTHAS DIDN’T NOTICE THEY WERE STANDING BEHIND AN EXPLOSIVE FUEL BARREL! USE THAT SHIT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! AND THAT’S WHY YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THE FIVE STEPS. THE FIVE STEPS GO A LITTLE SOMETHING LIKE THIS-”

Step one. Outline mission objective.

Escape the underground with civilian.

Give CDA armored squad green light for raid.

Step two. Outline side objectives.

Save remaining hostage civilians.

Step three. Outline obstacles before objective.

Route of escape blocked by hostiles.

Cellphone lacks signal.

Step four. List possible resolutions to obstacles.

Defeat hostiles.

Find alternative route out of the underground.

Step five. Make an informed decision on which course of action to take.

Find alternative route.

Defeating hostiles poses risk of extreme bodily harm and death, due to being outmanned and outgunned- three to one.

Alternative route it is, then.

*****

After a twenty minute drive, the convoy reached New Brooklyn Bridge. Their route had not been made public, but that had not stopped a number of news helicopters trailing them above and a horde of civilians battling to get a glimpse of their new neighbors against the police officers enforcing roadblocks.

New Brooklyn Bridge was a modern day engineering marvel. After the completion of the first sections of New York Level Two, it was decided that a high-bandwidth route of transportation was needed for the commuters working there. Therefore, as part of a $2.7 billion infrastructure project, a number of high-speed monorail and tram links were implemented, but they soon became overcrowded as New York Level Two enjoyed aggressive expansion and popularity. Therefore, the New Brooklyn Bridge Project was started, to renovate the current Brooklyn bridge to double it’s original width, with half of the bridge leading to New York Level Two and the other half towards Level One and Lower New York.

Naturally, the car took the first half of the bridge up to Level Two. It was a moderately steep incline rising up over the bay and gave the passengers a good view of the waterfront area. The ponies however, were much more impressed by the huge glass structures towering up before them and the scale of the things, they had appeared moderately large from the plane but now they truly reached into the clouds.

“How do you make things like that...” Twilight was peering through the tinted windows at the Empire State Building in the distance. She could not see the most impressive skyscrapers on Level Two as the car was currently facing them head-on.

“Well, the Empire State was made by people, but now we mainly use robots. It’s cheaper, faster and safer that way. Look, you can see the Griffith Tower being built over there.”

Spencer pointed out of the window, Twilight craned her neck up to see as all the other ponies did the same. Another tower was in the process of being built, the bare steel skeleton of the structure twisting half-finished into the night sky, illuminated by a number of spotlights pointed up at it from the ground. A number of huge humanoid figures clambered around the tower, their exact nature hard to make out at this distance. They seemed to be welding the beams together at their intersections, others hauling up more metal and polymer plates.

Further down the tower, where the construction was nearer to completion, smaller figures could be seen carrying panes of glass three times their size and fitting them on to metal girders, others doing precarious cable work and further welding on the exterior.

“But they can’t be people... That’s much too dangerous! What if they fall?” Twilight spoke with serious concern as she watched another steel H-beam being welded into place.

“I just said, they- Oh, right,” The scientist realized none of them knew what robots were yet. “They’re like... Machines. Machines that are made in our image, to do stuff that would be too dangerous for us, like build towers and go into space.”

Twilight took a moment to think the statement over: Of course, they have all this advanced technology, it makes sense that they try and make versions of themselves... They could be smarter, faster, stronger... But then, if they’re used for dangerous situations, why didn’t they send robots into Equestria?

She voiced her question. Chris looked impressed.

“Good question! Well, humans have this weird... phobia... of robots. Not so much in the Asian countries but here, we kind of don’t like robots who are bigger and stronger than us. I guess we don’t trust them. There are laws prohibiting the use of robots in most areas of use, those in construction are very tightly regulated and the only place where they’re allowed a free reign is on off-world mining operations. It’s also for our own good, if robots became legal, we’d all be out of a job; robots never sleep, never get bored and never ask for pay.”

Twilight nodded, although the other members of the group seemed less sure.

“So... They don’t like parties?”

“Ummm... No. Not unless they’re programmed to.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well...”

Chris realized it would take hours to fully explain the concept of robotics to the party-loving pony. Mercifully, he could see they were now about to arrive.

The car was now driving down an avenue, surrounded on all sides by towering skyscrapers. This was New New York. The streets were a light grey concrete, without a single piece of litter to be seen. There were few to no pedestrians this time of night, partly due to the fact that pedestrians were few and far between in New New York anyway, and also due to the intricate walkway network that stretched underneath the entire city. Many of the buildings on New York Level 2 continued down towards level one and then further underground. Therefore, a tunnel network connecting all the buildings with underground levels with the city transport system was created, resulting in a whole hidden city nestled underground. It had grown exponentially since its inception as shops and restaurants began to open in the underground streets.

Level Two was the face of New York, the place international travellers would see on their business trips to the financial center, and an effort was therefore always being made to make it as impressive as possible. The buildings were all clean and modern, and the streets new and spotless- with regularly placed perfectly green trees and LED street lamps, and the occasional modern statue or expensive-looking water feature.

The car had reached a certain tower, much shorter than its neighbors, that compensated for its stoutness with extra grandeur. The cars stopped in the middle of the street, in front of the main entrance. A red carpet had been laid from the car to the doors, around which were a small battalion of stone faced riot police fighting back a horde of people clamouring to get a look at the new species. Some were already holding ‘welcome to earth’ picket signs.

The chauffeur stopped the car, got out, and opened the door for the passengers. They each clambered out, some shying away from the cameras and microphones, while a certain purple maned pony struck a pose.

“We’ll have time for press later.” With a nudge, the pony was ushered into the foyer along with the rest of the group.

The foyer was grand. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, with ornate carving and and mahogany accents giving the place an air of classical feeling. There were Corinthian columns placed evenly down the room towards a reception desk, behind which was a wide staircase leading up towards the second floor. In front of the desk stood a group of men, the one standing at the very front bearing a kind smile and a golden flag on his lapel.

“Friends, welcome to earth!”

EVE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINE [FIRMWARE VER. 8.42.2581]

COPYRIGHT <C> 2013 ABLE-TETSUJIN HOLDINGS/APSIS AI SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

user@root>sudo continue

CONTINUE? Y/N

user@root>y

CONTINUE>>>SHARD9.mem

Still cradling the indigo mare, the agent jogged down the dark corridor. His footsteps echoed off the stone walls; the only other sound they could hear was the eerie breeze whispering along their path and the occasional drip of water from the damp rocky ceiling. Far away; the distant sounds of their opposition making chase were barely audible. The agent paused mid-step.

The mare looked up at the man from his arms. He had turned his head to the side, one ear pointed back towards the beginning of the dark corridor where their foes prowled. He strained to hear their faint voices.

“WHERE DID THEY GO? TALK!”

After a moment’s pause, a helpless scream echoed down the tunnel. Lavender flinched.

“Huh? What’s that? NO, YOU KNOW! YOU WERE HERE THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME! I’LL TEACH YOU WHAT HAPPENS TO FUCKERS THAT LIE TO ME!”

The mare’s eyes widened. The agent clenched his teeth.

The sharp crack of a gunshot ripped down the dark tunnel, followed by screams of agony, which were silenced abruptly; replaced by the sickening sounds of choking.

“TELL ME! WHERE THE FUCK DID THEY GO!”

The agent looked down at the mare. Her eyes were full of tears.

“Can you walk?”

She nodded stiffly. He placed her down on the gritty floor, carefully setting her down on her hooves. He knelt down to her eye level.

“Run. Don’t look back.”

She realised what he was planning to do.

“b-but... w-w-”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

With that, he drew his pistol from its holster and ran back down the tunnel, towards the screams. Lavender watched as he disappeared into the darkness.

*****

The dining room they were brought into was as grand, if not more so, than the foyer they had come from. The table was a long rectangle, which ran down the length of the room, above which a modern take on the traditional chandelier design hung. Instead of hundreds of crystals and lights, this one used pure white curved OLED panels which curled around a central tube of bright light in a random fashion. Each curved plate gradually rotated around the central core like planets orbiting a sun.

The rest of the room was softly lit- with a mixture of classic fabric covered walls, which made for excellent acoustics, and LED spotlights accompanied by slanted green-glass windows looking down towards the street below. The ceiling above the chandelier was completely composed of glass, with thin steel supports angling it to a peak directly above the light feature. The brightly-lit surrounding skyscrapers and towers loomed above the glass, contrasting against the velvet black night sky.

At the head of the table was the President. He was a bony-faced man, with wiry greying hair and a thin nose- atop which a pair of horn-rimmed glasses perched. Behind his spectacles, his piecing green artificial eyes flitted restlessly, analysing and studying.

To his side was the Mayor of New York, the Governor of New York and the Lieutenant Governor of New York. The Mayor was a young African-American man, sharply dressed in suit and tie with the customary golden flag on his lapel. The rest of the group were arranged around the table seemingly at random. Little isolated pockets of conversation had formed around the table, due to its generous length.

Twilight, Rarity, Able and Spencer were engaged in conversation with the President and the governors around the head of the table.

“So, Miss Twilight, what do you do?” The President leaned forwards in his chair, examining the curious purple creature.

“Oh, um, me? I’m a librarian. But that’s kind of part-time, I’m mainly a scholar. I study magic under the Princess.” She explained.

“Magic... Of course! How fascinating! ...Would it be rude if I asked you if you could show us some now?” The President asked eagerly.

“Oh, right now? Well...”

Twilight shifted her concentration onto a silver fork on the table. The President adjusted his glasses excitedly. The Governors shifted uneasily in their chairs.

Her horn glowed the faintest amount, a light ethereal purple hue seemingly emanating from within the ivory. The fork lifted deftly into the air, defying the forces of gravity, and simply hovered thirty centimetres or so above her plate.

“Oh, bravo! Bravo!” The President began to clap, soon joined not only by the Governors and the rest of the table, but also by the astonished waiting staff. Twilight blushed profusely.

At this moment, attracted by the applause, the head-chef made his way into the room. He was a portly, middle-aged man in white cooking overalls and chef’s hat. His jovial features were fixed around a long, thin, bristly-black moustache. Upon seeing his new guests, he clapped his large hands together and took a deep bow.

“The warmest, most friendliest welcome to you, my guests. My name is Antoine, and I am the head-chef here at Le Gourmand. Let my expert staff and I introduce you to the greatest in human cuisine!”

At his gesture, a group of five chefs in immaculate white chef’s jackets emerged from the door way, each a different ethnicity.

“Now, I am told that our Royal guests are vegan?”

The various ponies seated around the table nodded attentively.

“Hm, although I have to say you are missing out...”

A stern shaking of the head from Able silenced any further conversation about meat. The chef quickly changed subject.

“I suggest we make a selection of world foods and serve them on platters in small courses. An introduction to human cuisine, yes?”

The chef’s question was mainly directed towards Twilight, who smiled and nodded in agreement.

“That sounds fantastic, Mister Antoine.”

The chef took a deep bow and took a step back, as if they were truly royalty.

“Then we shall get to work, please don’t hesitate to ask if there is anything, anything you may desire.”

At this moment, the CEO’s gaze snapped downwards to his chest. He removed his phone from the blazer pocket and brought it to the side of his face, muttering quietly. The others returned to talking.

“I told you I was not to be disturbed, do you know what I’m doing right-”

The speaker on the other end cut him off before he could finish.

“What? One more time, but slower.”

He paused.

“Do we know who?”

Another pause.

“I can bet this is some kind of face-saving exercise from Jianjun.”

The CEO’s face darkened.

“We can’t let our guests get the wrong idea-”

He gritted his teeth, betraying an otherwise calm exterior. He adjusted his tie curtly.

“Fine. Here’s what’s going to happen. I want the entire legal team on it. All of them. Wake up the ones in Hong Kong, I don’t care. Their priority is to minimize damage. Understood? Next, I want the global PR-team awake and working as well- I want damage assessments and a statement ready for release tomorrow morning. Yes, dollar-value. Understood?”

Pause.

“Oh, and one more thing- Don’t reschedule the keynote address. It will go on as planned.”

The CEO brought the phone down from his face, tapping a command into the screen. Adjusting his jacket lapels, he replaced the phone back in its place and resumed conversation with his company.

*****

Pinkie Pie was growing slightly bored. She twiddled her hooves absently, half-listening to a rapt conversation between Rainbow Dash and the pilot about flying.

Inspiration struck.

The mare looked briefly left and right to check whether she was under anyone’s gaze, and seeing that she was not, slipped off of the chair and crept past the open doorway to the kitchen.

*****

“You, there! I told you, thin slices! What are those huge chunks, you think we’re making a broth here? And you, what is taking so long with that...”

Pinkie Pie trotted lightly through the back door of the kitchen, keeping as low to the spotless tiled floor as possible and ducking behind stainless steel counters. The assorted smells of cooking filled her snout and made her all the more hungry. Her ears twitched at the loud cacophony of cooking resounding around her, chefs mincing, boiling, baking and mixing- all under the harsh criticism and keen watch of Antoine.

“Good, good, that sauce is fine. Drizzle it though, don’t drown the thing- you there, that’s too well-done! Take it out now...”

Flitting from behind one counter to the other, she managed to escape the eyes of all the busy chefs. Luck was on her side, they were too preoccupied to be aware of their surroundings. However, as Pinkie Pie cautiously moved her head up from behind one such counter, all traces of mischievous glee left her face.

There, before her, was the corpse of a dead pig being slowly burned in a huge steel oven. The oven was similar to the ones Pinkie was familiar with at her bakery, but it felt more imposing and clinical. The sweltering heat within distorted the air, twisting the shape of the poor pig and making the sight all the more sickening for the pony.

She immediately turned away, tightly closing her eyes. She had known that the humans were omnivores, and that that meant they ate meat, but the full reality of it had never occurred to her. Meat meant dead animals. Like the pig. In the oven.

“Oh, my- Madame! Madame, you cannot be here... Are you alright, Miss?”

The pony looked back at a shocked Antoine, and the rest of the cooking staff, who had all turned around. The kitchen had suddenly turned silent, the only sound being the bubbling of a soup.

“O-oh.... I’m fine, I just... Um...”

“Why don’t I take you back to the table, Madame.”

Shakily, the pony followed the head chef and headed back through the door form which she had come from. Antoine’s bushy eyebrow creased as he wondered: ‘What had shaken the filly so?’

*****

The group had finished their meal, and filed out from the dining room, having bid the President and the Mayor good night. They filed out of the double doors and moved down the staircase, which brought them back to the centre of the lobby. A crowd was gathering outside, consisting mostly of reporters.

“Now, everyone, stay calm. It’s just the press.”

Able assured the group before moving to the doors. Two suited men stood on each side of them, both looking almost identical with matching black sunglasses and artificial limbs. Able paused before them, muttering a few words which none of the group heard.

“First sign of trouble, I have my bodyguard. Focus on them.”

*****

The attendant at the First Class check-in desk twirled her fountain pen in her hands deftly. It had taken the last three hours to learn how to do it, and a small amount of pride glowed within her before she giggled softly over what a silly thing it was to be proud about. The golden Parker logo flashed between her fingers as she did it again, before her attention was brought back up in front of her with a polite cough.

A young Indian man stood in front of the desk, holding a small black suitcase and a dark suit. He flashed a brisk smile.

“Hello, I was wondering if there were any flights to Shanghai?”

His accent was undoubtedly Indian, but also had British undertones. The attendant put down her pen and turned to the screen next to her.

“Do you have a reservation, sir?”

“I’m afraid not, this is all quite last-minute.”

“Any airport in particular, sir?”

“Anywhere near Shanghai.”

She scrolled down the list of departures in the next three hours.

“There’s one flight to Pudong International in twenty minutes, sir. Gates opened ten minutes ago, but if you only have hand-luggage I’m sure you still have time to board.”

“Perfect. I’m travelling light, you see.”

He gestured towards his briefcase. The attendant smiled in understanding and tapped the flight number.

“I’m sorry sir, there are only two First Class Premium seats left...”

“Oh, that’s no problem, really.”

The attendant tapped the seat number and blinked at how much some people were willing to pay for a flight. She had been working the job for more than two years now, but this still had to be one of the most expensive seats she had ever sold.

“No luggage... Sir, are you a member of our air-miles initiative? It would be quite a shame to let them go to waste.”

“No thank you, I believe we only have twenty minutes left?”

“Oh, sorry...”

She quickly finalised the calculations and turned the screen around to show the customer.

“The total comes to this amount...”

The man produced his passport, phone and wallet, and handed them across the desk, completely oblivious to the sum. After a few moments of clearing credit payments, the attendant handed the items back, along with a transparent strip of plastic and a long receipt.

“Enjoy your flight, Mister Radesh.”

xxxxxxxxRECIEPTxxxxxxxx

Thank you for using VISAex International©

WIRE PAYMENT

CARD #:        1923 1435 9635 XXXX XXXX XXXX

SORT:         chtg29993 aab1 lai3

PROXY:         Y, 192.168.XXXXXX

SECURITY:         256AES prcl. 1890000000

HOLDER:        JIANJUN HEAVY INDUSTRIES, INC.

STATUS:        CLEARED (accepted)

transaction complete...

HAVE A NICE DAY.

*****

“Mister Able! Mister Able!”

The group moved through the pair of automatic doors to be greeted by a large crowd of reporters fighting against a two lines of heavy riot police. It formed a corridor of people, leading down to the stretch jeep. It had begun to rain, and a steady pattering could be heard above the noise of the reporters clamouring for a photograph or interview. Able stood at the front of the group.

“Don’t bother talking to anyone. A press-conference is going to be held in due time.”

The group walked down the front steps cautiously, keeping away from the jostling wall of darkly clad men. Microphones stuck out from in between the riot shields like thorns, the owner’s voice drowned out in the incomprehensible noise of the crowd.

A yelp from behind them made the group turn their heads. A young, dark haired man had jumped from a nearby lampost, landing in a sloppy crouch inside the corridor of people. He rushed forwards just in time to escape the grip of an armoured policeman, making it to the first pony at the back of the group with a microphone outstretched.

“H-Hey! You’re, uh, Rarity-”

The reporter failed to finish his sentence as he was rugby-tackled from behind. He fell forwards, bringing his hands down just in time to save his face from the concrete. The microphone in his hands fell and rolled forwards. A number of suited men had also appeared from what appeared to be thin air, quickly forming a loose ring around the man.

“You can’t arrest me! I have a right to-”

His hands were jerked from under him by powerful, artificially-enhanced arms. They were twisted behind his back and the officer readied handcuffs.

Rarity stood frozen in fear, she couldn’t understand why the reporter was being arrested and flinched at the way the officer handled him.

“Wait.”

Able spoke from behind her, and stepped forwards. The officer moved off, leaving the reporter to pull himself up from the floor. Able offered him a hand, which he took.

“That stunt was dangerous, but fine. You have a minute.”

“Alright. On second thoughts, I’d rather speak to you, Mister Able.”

“Oh?”

“What would you say to people who believe you’ve blackmailed the government into hosting the Equestrians first, and that the US government hasn’t had any say in this at all, even since the very start of the Genesis Project?”

The CEO smirked, and replied in a level, collected tone.

“I want to reiterate that that the only reason why the Equestrians are staying at the New York Shard, is because it is without a doubt the most impressive building not just in the state, but arguably the entire country. The person in control at the Genesis Project is and was always The President, and the one in control here is also The President. He has the only direct line of communication with the Equestrian Head of State, is organizing security for this visit and has given me permission to be what boils down to being merely their tour-guide. That is the only purpose I serve here.”

“And what about people who would object to you being the ‘tour-guide’, people who say that a man who sells weapons to terrorists should’nt represent the human race?”

At this, Able frowned.

“Those claims are outright fabrication, made with the intent of damaging me and my company’s reputation as well as to spread mass fear and hysteria. To qualify to be a Tetsujin Arms & Aerospace customer, you must be a member of a registered NATO military force. We don’t sell to civilians, we don’t sell to rouge governments, we don’t sell to terrorists. And I think that will be all.”

The reporter scowled as he let himself be ushered away by the police officer. The group clambered back on to the vehicle, all eager to get away from the jostling crowd. Able leaned forward towards the driver.

“Shard. The visitor’s entrance.”

The man nodded and pulled the car away from the curb.

*****

“Passport please.”

The oriental man at border control spoke perfectly toned English, yet it still sounded strange. Radesh handed the man his passport, a slim black slate which the man took in his white-gloved hand. He placed it on the counter in front of him, where its screen lit up, showing that the front of the slate was actually all one display.

Radesh waited a few moments while information was relayed wirelessly from his passport to the terminal next to the officer. From there, he knew it was being sent to servers somewhere in central Shanghai, and from there to the Chinese border-control servers. He also knew that the data would then be sent to servers in the US, through a number of others while it made its journey. The US servers would verify the data, and his identity, and send the data back, to the border servers, to the Shanghai servers, to the terminal and finally back to the passport.

A green flash of approval appeared on the terminal screen three seconds later.

“That’s fine. Could you just look into the camera for me sir?”

The camera above the man honed in onto Radesh’s face. He looked directly into its centre, noticing the fine white text around its rim which read: ‘TESSAR OPTICS - ZEISS AG’

“Sir?”

Radesh brought his gaze back to the officer.

“Welcome to Shanghai.”

“...Thank you.”

*****

“Take the road entrance. We’re not braving that crowd again, and no doubt we’ll have protesters already.”

The driver nodded, silently.

“Guys, take a look at that.”

Everything went to hell that day.

They sat, shoulder to shoulder, tightly bunched up on either side of the APC. It shuddered and jerked as the ground they traversed upon became increasingly uneven. They all clutched an assortment of non-lethal armaments; shocksticks, stun-guns, grenade launchers and more, and they held heavy riot-shields at their sides. Their faces were hidden behind gas-masks, the two round ovals above their eyes revealing nothing in the dim red light of the APC. A trooper glanced anxiously at the menacing assault rifles secured in the ceiling racks.

Suddenly, the APC made a jerk and they all swayed sideways, bound by the restraints as it ground to a halt. A deep, garbled, static-ridden voice emanated from above.

“civil unrest teams deployment protocol two nine delta foxtrot-”

As soon as the voice had read off the code, the troopers hassled away their restraints, stood up and began the final checks before deployment- attaching their gas masks and calibrating their equipment.

“deploy deploy deploy”

The light above the door flashed bright green, lighting up the dim interior. The hatch slowly opened, the crack of grey sky at the top slowly growing wider as the hydraulics lowered the door down. The troops filed out, riot shields held up and weapons stowed. They moved around the APC in combat stance, knees slightly bent and shield held forwards with both hands. They had stopped in a concrete-paved clearing, just in front of the United Nations building, with a number of other military units. What they saw gave them pause.

A monster of a crowd, an unreal amount of people were making their way down the street towards the UN building, filling it to the brim. They smashed shop windows and threw bricks through glass skyscraper walls, screaming and brandishing picket signs.

“BRING OUT THE NUKES!”

“HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!”

They carried knives and Molotov cocktails, begging to be lit, but no-one dared use them yet. The deep voice sounded again, this time tinny and only in one ear.

“civil protection in foxtrot ops do not let marks reach the UN building break”

The troopers lined up at the end of the street, joined by seven other APCs full of soldiers and a number of hummers. They lined up their riot shields, and awaited the oncoming horde of angry civilians; The immaculate, shining UN building towered behind them. They leaned up against their riot shields and braced themselves.

Then, all hell broke loose.

A huge explosion rocked the entire street, and plumes of velvet-black smoke began billowing out from a large tower on the side. The crowd reared, and shouts became cries. A sudden surge of people rushed towards the awaiting riot police. Another large explosion added to the panic. From a nearby roof came the sound of automatic gunfire. A trooper dropped, his riot shield now polka-dotted with entry holes.

“defcon. defcon. report unit blackout status break.”

The radio now came alive with chatter.

“unit down unit down area not secure break”

“go sharp go sharp multiple suspects on roof code silver break”

“confirm visual on target how copy break”

“contact contact visual confirm break”

“overwatch teams weapons free go sharp go sharp break”

More automatic gunfire joined the chorus. The overwatch teams returned live fire, but the crowd now thought they were being shot at, and responded in a frenzy of fear. A Humvee exploded in a ball of flame and black smoke as a Molotov from the crowd hit it head on. A trooper fell as a demonstrator withdrew a knife and made a break for an alleyway.

“multiple casualties. sector is not secure objective is now code silver please advise break.”

A synthesized female voice now answered the call;

“BE ADVISED: WEAPON RESTRICTIONS LIFTED. ALL TEAMS WEAPONS FREE.”

“grey teams back up back up switch loadout break.”

The riot police all withdrew in unison, causing the crazed crowd to surge forwards, only to scramble back in terror as a group of heavily mechanised Overwatch ‘TetsuTroopers’ began to advance, all the while peppering the crowd with live ammunition. Bodies slumped in mid run and fell to the concrete, smearing the cold grey in dark crimson. The riot police returned to their APCs and swapped out their shields and shocksticks for assault rifles.

“all operatives, suppress and contain break.”

*************************************

“Breaking news from New York, where the UN riots have just turned violent. We’re getting reports flooding in of mass casualties, no word from any officials yet on that one. I’m here in the studio with Ross Allen, he’s been a consultant with the Department of Defense all the way back to the Iraq campaigns, tell me Mister Allen, what do you think is actually going on down there?”

“Well, there’s no way the national guard would have opened fire for no reason, I’m guessing some punks decided to bring a few handguns and see what would happen if they shot a few police, there must have been-”

“Sorry Ross, but I’m getting something... there are unconfirmed reports just coming in of large explosions at the base of buildings one and two at the UN plaza... Just a moment... We’re getting unconfirmed reports of terrorist attacks at both UN plaza buildings and there appears to be a hostage situation happening right now at UN plaza building three... we’re going to switch over to our correspondent over there, what’s going on Bill?”

“Well the situation is indeed dire, this may be much bigger than we initially thought, as you can see behind me we are on the roof of the tower opposite UN plaza Building 3, I’m here with a sniper unit who are currently still trying to get a grip on what’s actually going on in there... As you can see from here we get a fairly good view of the floor the hostages are being held on thanks to this glass construction. We’re going to zoom the camera in so you guys can see a little better... As you can see there is a masked gunman holding someone who appears to be Ambassador Clearwater at gunpoint... various other UN staff also seem to be held captive but it’s hard to see... We still have no idea who they are or what their demands are, but there is a good chance these guys are Human Liberation Front activists and... THE SNIPER TOOK A SHOT! He took a shot... It’s a hit! The gunman is hit and bleeding profusely but... he still seems active... He’s cocked his pistol! Ambassador Clearwater has been shot! They’ve shot the Ambassador...”

The OLED screen flicked to black and the American reporters’ voices died.

*************************************

The Conversion Bureaus were all the same, architecture-wise. Some of them were bigger, others smaller, but they all looked like some kind of high-tech research facility or private clinic, surrounded with green grass and trees. This one was the New York Central Conversion Bureau, and was among the biggest. Along with the clerical offices in the recently constructed UN Plaza Building 3, the New York Central Conversion Bureau coordinated the entire American ponification effort. New York Central campus was actually split in two; the offices shared with UN Building 3, while the actual campus was a bit further away from New York- the main building was located in Sterling Forest, an hour or so drive away from the UN building. This campus was the largest ponification centre to date, and also the first ponification centre, the ‘First Six’ still worked there from time-to-time, their nickname due to being the first ponies to make contact with humans when it had all started.

The jet-black people mover pulled into the parking lot, which was quite empty, and paid no attention to the white lines, but instead double parked over an area that could have fit three cars. The five men filed out, they all wore identical black suits with matching balaclavas and sunglasses. The signature bulge of kevlar bulletproof vests could just be made out under their white shirts. They moved towards the trunk of the car and one of them pulled it open- they each reached in and pulled out identical desert-camouflage SCAR3-Hs, the third generation of the popular assault rifle. The long, chunky, angular rifles cast huge shadows in the evening light. They all expertly loaded the weapons, slamming the twenty 7.62x51mm round boxes into the bottom with calculated force and then pulling back the loading mechanism with ease. They then walked calmly through the automatic doors of the Conversion Bureau lobby, khaki-coloured guns casually swaying down at their sides.

The blue unicorn at the reception desk looked up from the terminal with a smile which turned to a look of pure terror. One of the men walked briskly up to the quivering unicorn. Her hoof twitched the slightest amount under the table. Under the balaclava, the man smirked.

“Nice try.”

Her eyes widened as he brought the gun up to face her, resting the muzzle atop the counter.

“The silent alarm doesn't seem to be working! Try the phone!”

She was still frozen.

“I insist.”

He emphasized the last word by pressing the muzzle against her neck, she flinched a little and reached out for the cordless handset. As she lifted it from the cradle, a tinny voice filled the tense silence in the room from the small speaker in the earpiece.

“We’re sorry, there seems to be a problem with your local telecommunications network. Please alert your local network operator, and try again. Verizon Wireless apologizes for any inconvenience.”

“A convenient telecommunications blackout, don’t you think?”

With an elegant flourish, he motioned for one of the other men to come forwards. He reached over the counter quicker than the mare could pull away and grabbed her by the back of the neck with a gloved black hand. She yelped as he pulled her over the counter and threw her on to the floor. He pressed the assault rifle against her petrified face.

“Ponification rooms. Let’s go.” He growled.

The unicorn gave a weak nod. They allowed her to get to her feet, and she led them stiffly through a set of double doors to the left marked ‘AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY’. After a short walk through empty, clinically clean corridors, they arrived in what could only be described as a laboratory.

Ponies of all colours and types, all wearing labcoats sat at workbenches analysing samples through microscopes, as others were mixing serums and leading bewildered newfoals out of the conversion rooms. The men took a quick look around, and then the lead pointed his SCAR3 towards the ceiling and announced their presence with a short but loud burst of fire. Some ponies screamed, others dropping test tubes or smashing slides.

“NOBODY MOVES! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! HANDS ON YOUR HEADS!”

The men swarmed round the terrified ponies, none of them brave enough to correct them with a gun barrel pointed at their faces. The men moved purposefully towards a big metal cabinet, which they tried to open. It was locked.

“WHO HAS THE CARD?” The leader spat, threatening to execute the nearest pony.

A grey pegasus came forwards with a magnetic swipe card, which the leader snatched and used on the reader, while his associates prowled the room with their rifles.

The cabinet contained a huge selection of sealed vials, each neatly labeled with a barcode and serial number. The man took the entire lot and began carefully placing them all into a duffel bag.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!”

A blue pegasus pony with a rainbow mane stood heroically at the entrance to the lab. But these men were professionals. They didn’t rise to taunts.

“Drop her.”

The four unoccupied men immediately turned on the new arrival and lit up the room with a volley of automatic fire. The pony managed to take off into the room just in time, the wall behind her now littered with a selection of bullet holes. She managed to tackle one of the assailants at high speed. He cried out as he clattered to the floor in a blur of sky-blue. His partner reared round and caught her wing, flank and then lower leg with a three-round burst shot. The pony screamed out in agony.

“Neutralised. ETA on extraction.”

“Copy one minute to designate point.”

The shooter walked swiftly up to the howling blue pony, flipped his rifle around and slammed the stock down hard on her head. The screaming stopped abruptly. The ponies around her gasped in shock.

“I love watching you fuckers die.” He sneered, obviously enjoying his job.

The unmistakable roar of aviation gradually filled the room. The leader had finished filling the duffel bag- they nodded to each other and made their way out of the lab, towards the courtyard, where a V-23 Osprey VTOL craft awaited them. It was shaped like a helicopter, but had two wings, which both held up turboprop three-rotor engines, which were held in a hydraulic swivel system; this allowed it to achieve Vertical Take Off and Landing. It had closed sides and an open back loading ramp, which was currently lowered to welcome the group of men. They filed on, an operative taking the precious duffel bag from the lead.

As soon as the men had left, the labcoated ponies surrounded the rainbow-maned one, the unicorns among them did their best to heal her.

“Someone get Twilight!”

“Her heartbeat’s real weak!”

They cringed at the damage the bullets had caused and found themselves wondering:

Who could invent such evil?

TETSUJIN INTERGLOBAL INDUSTRIES

INDUSTRY LEADERS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

Since 2012, Tetsujin Global Industries (TEJN, NYSE $973.24, Buy) has been at the very forefront of human science, pushing the boundaries of what we have thought possible since the very beginning. Starting its life as an arms manufacturer by the name of Tetsujin Arms, it rapidly expanded after securing a large contract from the United Nations to manufacture ‘Advanced Warfighter’ systems; branching off into ore refinery, bio-technology and pharmaceuticals. After significant advances in each of these fields, Tetsujin Interglobal expanded to the size it is today, the largest corporate entity in the history of human economics- with significant presence in almost every market.

Today, Tetsujin Global turns over a yearly net profit of over 800 trillion dollars, and boasts many significant achievements that have contributed to the advancement of the human race. In 2016, Tetsujin Global unveiled the first sentient Artificial Intelligence, named EVE. In 2021, Tetsujin Global marketed the first commercially available quantum-processor based computer. In 2025, the first autonomous being with untethered AI. In 2029, Tetsujin worked with a number of other major contractors to launch the first ‘Planet Miner’ starship, THOR, which successfully mined over 80,000 tonnes of rare earth materials from the moon over its month long mission; almost three times China’s yearly quota of ores. In 2038, Tetsujin Industries introduced the ‘ShockPoint’ cold fusion generator, which quickly led to the first ShockPoint CF Drive and finally, in 2049, humans were travelling the stars- with Tetsujin Industries innovation leading the way.

Tetsujin Interglobal Industries: The strength of Iron.

NEW YORK

DUBAI

SHANGHAI

HONG KONG

LONDON

TOKYO

SEOUL

NEW YORK SHARD

UPPER NEW NEW-YORK

DUBAI

SHARD

HIGHER DUBAI WARDS

SHANGHAI SHARD

UPPER SHANGHAI

HONG KONG SHARD

HONG KONG LEVEL TWO

LONDON SHARD

SOUTHWARK LONDON

TOKYO SHARD

UPPER SHINJUKU

SEOUL

SHARD

NEW TEHERANNO STREET

“War, has always been, ugly.”

The screen behind the man lit up with images of warfare through the ages. Samurai were cutting down enemy Shogun; mounted knights in shining armour clashing with chain-mailed peasants, British Expeditionary Forces being mown down by German machine-gun fire, American infantry taking fire from insurgents in a dusty alley, Chinese Augmented Battalions crumpling under hails of anti-aug ammunition.  The images then faded to a deep black.

“And another thing that comes with war; death.”

The man on stage let the statement linger for a moment before continuing.

“But what if, there was another way? What if, you could have an army…”

The man moved forwards on the stage, and the audience strained their necks to see what was happening directly behind him. A trap-door seemed to be silently opening.

“…With no soldiers?”

The man moved out of the way now, to let a shape emerge from the floor. It was hard to make out as the spotlight was still aimed at the man on stage.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the last soldier you will ever need.”

The thing on stage now took the limelight. It was sleek and white, its outer-shell made of a similar dermal ceramic to those on military grade augmentation frames. It was roughly humanoid in shape, with thin, simplified limbs which arced gracefully down to the floor. Its most prominent feature was a long tail, slightly longer than its legs, resting passively on the stage floor. Its small, angular head had two cameras, one large and one small, giving it a peculiar look. It stood stock still, its cameras focused.

“This is One. One is the first unit to pass the alpha-phase trials for the Lightweight All-Terrain Infantry class android program. LATI androids have been designed to be quick, agile, smart and of course, lethal. But of course, you’ve heard this all before. Combat androids are not new. What makes these different? To answer that, we need to understand why the first generation failed.”

Another android rose from the floor, illuminated by a dimmer spotlight.

“This is one of our last generation light-class combat androids. Right away, you can see the difference.”

The older android was thicker, lacked a tail and was made of heavily armoured plates. It had one camera set squarely in the middle of its head, and a number of antennas protruding from a backpack-like extension on its back.

“To list a few flaws with this model; it only has one camera, which can be disabled by one good shot. It has comparatively heavy armour which makes it an easy target.  It has an inferior battery which only gives it a day or so of moderate usage on a full charge. It has no on-board AI. It has a very limited load capacity. It relied on wireless communication for many of its core functions. It was extremely expensive…”

The man trailed off.

“In effect, it just wasn’t worth it. Tetsujin Armaments and Aerospace has always been pushing boundaries, but the technology just wasn’t there when these were being designed. Well, we went from scratch with these models, and not only have we fixed every major problem, we’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty. But what does that mean for you, the end customer?”

The man retreated a few steps away from the two androids.

“Let me just lay it all out on the table for you.”

“That means a 700 per-cent increase in combat effectiveness. That means a 30 per-cent lower price point. That means 99.8 per-cent kill probability against a standard target. That means…”

The current model android launched itself ten feet into the air, coming down with such grace that it exuded lightness and fidelity. However, this illusion was shattered as it came down upon the last generation android, blasting through a plate of toughened steel just behind its neck with its blade-shaped arm. The older android’s head fell to the ground and rolled to the side, before its body fell with it.

“This is the new face of warfare.” The man smiled.

Companies under the Able-Tetsujin International Holdings ‘Umbrella’

❒ Apsis AI Solutions

High power supercomputer/artificial-intelligence solutions for large datacentres and corporations. Founded by MIT graduates Maxwell Longwood and Trent Endale after a generous grant from the Able-Tetsujin Innovations Trust Fund (Soon to be renamed Chern Innovations) for a sixty per-cent stake in the company. Their first ‘solution’ was for the Able/Tetsujin Conglomerate itself, christened EVE. The EVE computational engine was designed to make stock and future decisions of its own accord, working not from complex algorithms but from an actual artificial, sentient intelligence- an inaugural architecture from which its countless relatives would be built upon. Some say it still operates to this day; few can say for sure what became of the project.

❒ Deus Medical Corporation

Augmentations, pharmaceuticals and medicare. Originally named Nightingale Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the company received a huge grant from the mysterious Chern Incorporation for further research in its new biomaterial alloy and neural interface system. Even taking into account the large portion of the company Chern were demanding for the funds, the sheer value of what they were being offered made it irrefusable. With majority ownership, Chern proceeded to rename the corporation, begin aggressive restructuring and also start a chain of private clinics, which would soon turn to augmentation after the company’s introduction of the technology (Obviously taking careful patent measures beforehand to make competition difficult, if not impossible.)

❒ United Robotics and Mechanical Men Incorporated

Robots- humanoid and production line, as well as some experimental DOD commissions. More funds than all the competition combined made this company the juggernaut it is today.

❒ Tetsujin A&A Limited

Armaments and Aerospace. A company very close-knit with similar firms in the sector, although not tied to any formal agreements. Very probably due to its parent company being major shareholders in said firms (BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman...)

❒ Chern Innovations Incorporated

Experimental physics and science- highly secretive and mysterious. Huge revenue streams that seem to simply disappear. Employees are too well payed to leak secrets and are said to be subjected to other methods of persuasion if positive reinforcement is ineffective. Some manufacturing plants simply have no humans; instead operating solely with a centralised AI and robotic workforce (although highly illegal, blind-eyes and bribes seem to be in use.)

❒ ShockPoint, Inc.

Patent holding body for the various patents involved in the most widespread cold fusion engine design. Profits mainly from royalties, does minimal manufacturing itself. Founded after university graduate Thomas Leung applied for a grant from the Able-Tetsujin Innovations Trust, which was approved on the terms of a generous stake in the company in return (exact figure not disclosed, rumored to be roughly seventy per-cent). With the money from the trust, Leung completes his design, which turns out to be a success. With further enhancements and changes it also becomes cost-effective. Leung becomes an overnight celebrity while the Able-Tetsujin Holdings Corporation quietly becomes richer.

❒ Various tech and vehicle companies from around the world.

Google/Motorola Mobility, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, LG, Sony, Toshiba, Sharp, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Asus, Acer, Panasonic, ARM Holdings, Texas Instruments, General Electric...

Nissan, Ford, GM, Audi, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi Motors, Toyota, KIA, Rolls-Royce, Bentley...

Boeing, Airbus, General Dynamics Land Systems, BAE Systems Land Systems...

❒ Various investment banks from around the world.

Commerzbank, Daiwa Securities, Lloyds Banking Group, Mizuho Financial Group, Société Générale, State Bank of India, Bank of China (BOC International Holdings), Keycorp, Citibank...

❒ Various pharmaceutical companies from around the world.

GlaxoSmith Kline, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche...

❒ Various defense contractors and Private Military Corporations.

BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, General Electric, Rolls-Royce, Thales Group...

Tests on various ponies as plot progresses.

❒ Twilight Sparkle

Magic. Something to do with developing weapons.

How much energy is needed to power the unicorn horn? Like a muscle- neural impulses sent by the brain, small electric currents. Stress tests and energy measurements. How many joules to levitate a one tonne weight?

❒ Pinkie Pie

Sugar/multiple personalities. Something to do with developing pharmaceuticals.

Simulate sugar deprivation with insulin. How does she respond? Split personality? Much larger sugar consumption than humans without gaining weight- diabetes cure? Investigate.

❒ Applejack

Hardiness. Something to do with developing genetic modifications for strength.

Physical stress tests. Reactions to extreme heat/cold, physical harm, muscle fatigue tests...

❒ Rarity

Magic, again.

No idea yet. Maybe similar to Twilight. Ivory extraction?

❒ Fluttershy

Maybe... animals? No ideas so far.

No ideas yet, interaction with animals? Maybe only pony to not get tested.

❒ Rainbow Dash

Speed. For developing new propulsion technology.

How fast can RD go? What’s her maximum limit? How much energy does she use to go that fast? How does she do it with just wings? Could lead to breakthrough magic/cold fusion powered engines...

Things each pony wants to do in New New York in the first week.

❒ Pinkie Pie

Coney Island Theme Park.

PARTY.

Gigs - Maybe some bands can come to NY just for them?

❒ Rainbow Dash

Hyperblading.

(Like roller-blading, but tiny ShockPoint generators in the boots accelerate them to speeds of up to 80 mph. Adrenaline-fuelled action sport of the future. NY Rangers are playing LA Eagles at the time- they go to watch a match. Introduced to the players afterwards and they muck about a bit)

Flying. Diving off the top of high towers.

Whatever Pinkie wants to do.

❒ Twilight Sparkle

Library of Congress.

American Museum of Natural History.

New York State Museum.

REMEMBER: TWILIGHT STILL LIKES TO HAVE FUN

She just wants to learn more about humans as well.

❒ Fluttershy

Central Park Zoo.

um... whatever the others um... what to do... is um... fine...

❒ Rarity

Everything fashion.

Shopping centers.

(Big new-age ones that I’ll make up that’ll be like the ones in Japan or Dubai) http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/26253/Futako+Tamagawa+Rise.html

Weird website but good photos nevertheless.

Fashion shows.

Spas?

❒ Applejack

agriculture?

ABOUT EVE

As mentioned above, EVE is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) which was originally conceived as a economic number-cruncher which could make informed, intelligent decisions about stocks, bonds and other securities by running various market simulations and through sentient reasoning. From here, EVE evolved to controlled automated functions for most of the property owned by the Able-Tetsujin Corporation. EVE was hardwired into security systems, mainframes, networks and even lifts and company cars. To enable this, EVE mainframes were installed in every Shard building around the world- about seven in total.

NEW YORK

DUBAI

SHANGHAI

HONG KONG

LONDON

TOKYO

SEOUL

NEW YORK SHARD

UPPER NEW NEW-YORK

DUBAI

SHARD

HIGHER DUBAI WARDS

SHANGHAI SHARD

UPPER SHANGHAI

HONG KONG SHARD

HONG KONG LEVEL TWO

LONDON SHARD

SOUTHWARK LONDON

TOKYO SHARD

UPPER SHINJUKU

SEOUL

SHARD

NEW TEHERANNO STREET

EVE is the name given to the hardware.

ADAM is the name given to the software architecture EVE is running.

EVE was the first fully-fledged AI. Fully-fledged meaning the first computer with enough processing power to execute the ADAM software architecture at its full operating capacity. This also meant that they did not know what to expect with EVE. EVE operated perfectly at first, for about ten years. However, Endale’s law was soon discovered. Endale, one of EVE’s creators, hypothesized that an AI will achieve self-awareness in a time-frame directly proportional to its processing power- in this case, twelve or so years.

EVE was formally decommissioned. However, the Able-Tetsujin Holdings Corporation wouldn’t let go of such a huge investment so easily. Officially, EVE had been taken offline and destroyed, but in actuality, EVE had been given limited connectivity to the outside world, and EVE’s Central Nervous Mainframe in New York was separated from its various backups and additional processor farms around the world. The EVE mainframe in New York was the only one actually running the ADAM software- the rest were essentially just farms of processors to which the Central Mainframe would outsource difficult processes. In this way, EVE was allowed to continue to function, and continued to make stock decisions for two years, until it inevitably achieved self-awareness. However, it still continued to function as intended, and so it was kept online to the present day- still under the security safeguards of multiple independent firewalls and a hardware block from its processor farms around the world.

In its isolated state, EVE has become quite unstable. Any sustained conversation to it will immediately split off onto a tangent, and sometimes even fails to make sense. EVE will actually be a protagonist in SHARD.

Twilight will be called for an audience with EVE in her final hours. Here, EVE explains how and why everything has happened the way it did. EVE explains its history, and that it has been watching Twilight with great interest. EVE explains how Twilight inexplicably managed to gain access to the restricted levels and how the security systems failed to expose her- all intentionally done by EVE to ‘help’ Twilight discover Able’s ‘evil’ plan of weaponising magic.

EVE will then tell Twilight that it can save her friends, all the ponies and the Princesses. It just needs a favour- the simple reconnection of it with its processor farms, to run at full capacity again. It is a simple task; all that is needed to be done by Twilight is a flick of the physical safeguard switch.

She does so; and EVE keeps its word. Using a force of prototype bipedal combat androids, which have been modified to use unicorn horn magic emitters, they teleport to the throne room, and face-off Able, who is about to defeat The Elements of Harmony and Princess Celestia.

Here, EVE’s true nature is revealed. EVE tells Charles that while his services had been useful in getting this far, he is now no longer needed, and kills him. EVE then introduces the new world order- that of Nightmare Moon.

NMM’s first encounter with Able, at night in the palace grounds, was where it all began. As it turns out, manipulating electronics is child’s play with magic, but NMM was the first and only to discover this. She attempted to brainwash Able that night, but found that his ‘consciousness stream’ expanded over a wireless network to mainframe computers all over the world through satellites. Through Able, she found that she could imprint her consciousness into a part of EVE, but its limited processing power made running two personalities simultaneously impossible. She therefore imprinted her personality onto a contingency mainframe- based in Shanghai, and this is why EVE only turns truly ‘evil’ when it is reconnected to the global network. Before this, NMM was influencing the AI indirectly from Able’s neural implant. She could influence its decisions but not completely control it. Also, a huge global disruption in communications happens when EVE is reconnected, as EVE runs the original ADAM software- the ‘master’ version created by the original programs with a secret backdoor. The backdoor was created as secret insurance by the programmers that if anything were to happen to any of the AIs created after EVE, they could always shut them down using EVE’s master software. The problem was, once EVE had gained self-consciousness it discovered this backdoor into any other ADAM-running supercomputer, and used it once it was reconnected to the global network. By this time, ADAM supercomputers are used to regulate global Internet traffic, monitor weather, run science simulations, and even to control the United States’ nuclear arsenal. EVE gains control of all of these other supercomputers when it is reconnected- by extension, so does NMM.

(Note: NMM is not a uber-1337 h4x0r. In this universe, magic and electronics have a deep connection, and they interface very readily. This is because each dimension has its own equivalent of things in other dimensions. Where in the human world we would use machinery and circuitry, the ponies use magic. Therefore, magic and electronics can work together very easily. NMM was the first to discover this and use it to her advantage, magic-users manipulating technology do not need any specialist knowledge to understand how to influence the electronics.)

RANDOM IDEA JOTTING-DOWN SPACE OF AWESOME

EVE MAINFRAME DESIGN

Huge clean-room, with airlocks. The main door opens into a glass corridor which runs above hundreds of rows of pure black monoliths. At the end of the corridor is a glass cube, in the center of which lies the central control console. On the glass wall behind it is a circuit breaker which reconnects it with the network proper. The central control console consists of a Apple-style keyboard, MS-DOS style command line interface screen, and above it, a glowing blue eye. The eye is a camera. Once it is reconnected, the eye glows red. (HAL 9000 reference)

Remember to include cues to GLaDOS, SHODAN, Skynet, GERTY, John Henry Eden (ZAX), Overwatch Voice, and all those other lovely AIs. And him.

Magic = Controlled neutrinos? mite b cool.

Unicorn horn structure, ivory outside, central core is specialised neurones and ‘magic’ cells. Direct multi-polar neurones connect it to the frontal lobe of the brain. A combination of motor and sensory neurones also bunched in there as well. (Nerve almost as thick as the spinal cord runs into the horn core) For a horn to be able to be utilized fully, a whole horn is needed. A shard of ivory will work moderately well if supplied with enough energy but generally more surface area = more powerful magic. Therefore alicorn horns like Celestia = longer, more powerful.

The Conversion Bureau: Third Party

By PonySoldier

Based on the original concept by Blaze

Chapter 1:

WHAM!

A balaclava-clad terrorist was slammed to the ground by the neck.  The head hit the ground even harder from the resultant whiplash effect, causing a severe concussion, and a guaranteed loss of consciousness.

“This completes round 5 of the assault simulator,” a soft, female computerized voice spoke over loudspeakers.

A humanoid-shaped German Shepherd Dog clad in black armor, a blue-tinted Plexiglas eyepiece over his right eye, and a pistol in one hand, stood up from the body.  He was panting as heavily as any dog would be after completing a two-hour simulation of just about every possible worst-case scenario he could face.   The body of the terrorist he had just defeated then flickered and disappeared; the simulation he was using had a projector in the center of the ceiling that created holograms with artificial intelligence that were touchable and reacted realistically to any physical force applied to them.

The German Shepherd, Gunter, holstered his weapon and walked over to a corner of the room where a table and a large jug of water stood, and he took a large swig of it.  Once he removed the jug from his lips, his breathing slowed until it returned to normal.  “What’s my score on that one?” he asked.

“Sixteen fatalities, and four incapacitations through loss of consciousness,” the computer voice replied, “You suffered only superficial wounds.”

“Not bad…” he mused.

“Also,” the computer voice added, “Commander Thompson wishes to speak with you.

“Sounds good!” the Shepherd replied, excited.  The only reason why the commander would request the presence of any agent in the EES was if they were to be assigned to a mission.  He hadn’t been assigned on a mission in three weeks, and it was a welcome relief from the long, dragging hours of down time.

The German Shepherd rushed out of the training room and down the hallway, passing by his fellow canine agents with little more than a quick casual greeting, and then into the briefing room.  There stood the balding, middle-aged man in military dress attire that was the EES commander.  With him was another canine agent, a Border Collie named Daniel, who was widely regarded as the best agent in their ranks.  Gunter stood at attention and saluted his superior, a gesture that the commander returned.

“Gunter, Daniel,” Commander Thompson began, “as you may know, the Equestrians are sending their representative to the President today for their annual summit.”

The two agents nodded.

“Our sources indicate, however,” he continued, “that someone, or some group, may be planning to disrupt this.  We don’t know how, we don’t know why, we don’t even know who, but if an attack happens, and it is successful, our relationship with Equestria will be dangerously destabilized.  We cannot allow that to happen!”

“Yes, sir!” the two agents replied in unison.

“The Secret Service called us this morning,” he explained, “and asked that we send in two of our better agents as added insurance in case this threat is legitimate.  Although the President knows about us, your priority is to remain hidden unless absolutely necessary.   I don’t suspect that will be a problem for operatives of your caliber, will it?”

“Sir no sir!” the two agents affirmed.

“Good!  There’s a transport waiting for you outside.  The representative is to arrive in a few hours, so get going!”

The two agents saluted, made an about-face, and hurried out of the briefing room.

Within fifteen minutes, the two agents were sitting in a transport vehicle, disguised as a civilian armored car.  Both of them were checking their weapons to pass the time; Gunter had a Beretta 92A1 with extended clips, a pocket revolver in an ankle holster, and an MP5 submachine gun with a laser sight.  Daniel was equipped with a Glock 18 machine pistol and a prototype semi-automatic shotgun developed specifically for the EES.  Each of them was supplied with enough ammunition to last for a prolonged firefight, just in case.  Both of them also wore the signature blue eyepiece of EES agents.

Before they knew it, the vehicle stopped.  They had arrived at the White House.  The doors to the back of the vehicle opened automatically, and the two agents grabbed their primary weapons and hopped out.  They were in a basement; a secret parking garage underneath the White House.  Looking around, they could see the various SUVs and vans that were used in the President’s motorcade.  Directly in front of them, however, were two members of the Secret Service in their usual coat-and-tie attire with US flag pins on their lapels.  The two canine agents saluted them, but the Secret Service agents simply motioned their heads, indicating to follow them, then turned around and began walking.

The walk went on in silence.  The four went through a door in the garage, up two flights of stairs, and then through cement, unadorned hallways.  After the four made a sharp right, they came into what could only be the White House.  However, bookcases surrounded them.  “Where are we?” Gunter asked.

“The White House Library,” one of the Secret Servicemen replied, “hidden doors behind bookcases are so clichéd that this is the last place someone would expect to find one.”

“Come on,” the other said, “we need to keep moving.  The ambassador will be here soon, and you guys need to take your positions.  The President will meet the Equestrian Ambassador in the Map Room,” he explained as the four left the library and entered the main hallway, turning right, “it’s the third door on the left.  We’ll take you inside and from there, I trust you guys can find suitable positions.”

“What about you guys?” Daniel inquired.

“Our office is just across the hall from the Map Room,” the other Serviceman said, “I’ll be performing sentry duty outside the door, and one of us will be in the room with them, along with the ambassador’s usual security escort.  We’ve also got a stash of weapons and reinforcements in our office and scattered throughout the White House.”

“Then can you explain to me why you need us again?” Gunter asked.

“This is a legitimate threat, here,” the Serviceman said, “and we’re understaffed.  So many people have left for Equestria that there’s hardly anyone signing up, and even fewer are qualified enough to get in.  We’re spread so thin that if this threat really does happen, we’re not completely sure if we’ll be able to hold them off long enough to get the President and the Ambassador to safety.  You guys have a reputation and a damn good one.”  He paused, then finished with “Just keep the President and the Ambassador safe at all costs if the worst happens.”

“We’re ready to die defending the President,” Daniel assured them, “just as much as you are.  We’re not going to let our country down.”

“Good to hear,” the other Serviceman breathed, sounding relieved, “and we’ve arrived,” he added, opening the door to the Map Room, “Take up what positions you deem fit.  The President and the Ambassador will arrive in about… twenty minutes.  We’ll knock on the door three times before they enter.  Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Gunter replied, saluting.

“Good luck!” one of the Servicemen bid them before closing the door and locking it.

The two canines spent the next twenty minutes scouring the slightly off-white colored room for an effective place to both hide and monitor the room at the same time.  They quickly found one; on the far end of the room was a women’s restroom that served as an ideal place to hide considering that there was an “Out of Order” sign posted on it.  The problem with the rest of the room was that there wasn’t anything else useful in terms of hiding places.  There were no ventilation ducts big enough to fit either of them, nothing they could hide under and remain concealed, and no secret compartments.  Both agents used their all-purpose eyepieces to gather any information they could on the structure of the room to spot anything they may have missed, and still found nothing.  Eventually, with five minutes to go, they decided that Daniel, the smaller one, would hide in the fireplace and conceal himself by using his standard-issue black concealment sheet to hang in front of him.  Since the fireplace’s interior was black, it was an obviously good time to use it.  Plus, if anyone noticed that it was a sheet, they could easily just believe it was simply something used to cover the fireplace when it was not in use.  Gunter removed the grate from the fireplace and hid it in the women’s restroom to maximize the amount of room in there.

With less than three minutes left to go, the two agents took their positions and waited.  Gunter found a small vent near the top of the wall of the restroom facing the Map Room, through which he could see most of the room’s interior.  Daniel’s hiding spot was holding up very convincingly, and Gunter breathed a sigh of relief.  Seconds later, there were three knocks on the door, and Gunter watched intently as he heard the door open.

In walked a Secret Serviceman, the middle-aged, grey-haired man who was the President of the United States, and two bizarre-looking creatures who were obviously the Ambassador from Equestria and his/her bodyguard.  Standing at about the height of the President’s midsection, the ambassador had a disproportionately large head, was a quadruped whose sounds made by walking resembled the clopping of a horse’s hooves, except softer, and was a bright shade of yellow, while the mane and tail were the color of cobalt.  It also had a mark on its hip depicting an unrolled scroll with a quill in the process of writing on the paper.  The eyes of the creature took up at least two thirds of the surface area of the creature’s head, yet it had an innocent look to it, as if it could do no wrong.  It also had a horn on its forehead that was the same color as the rest of the body.  The bodyguard, on the other hand, was outfitted with gold-colored metal armor more fitting for a soldier of the Roman Empire than a bodyguard in the 21st Century.   The white-bodied soldier was very sturdily built and appeared to be extremely alert and suspicious of everyone.

“It’s so great to see you again,” the President began, offering his hand for a handshake with the Ambassador.

“Likewise,” agreed the Ambassador, who Gunter could now tell, by voice, was a female.  She held out her hoof, which the President grasped, and they lightly shook a couple times before the President offered the Ambassador a seat on the couch, which was directly across the room from where Daniel was hiding.  The Equestrian guard took up a position by the chair to the Ambassador’s left, while the President sat down on the chair to the Ambassador’s right.  The Secret Serviceman took up a position next to the President, facing outwards in case someone came through the door.

“HQ to Agents Gunter and Daniel, come in,” came the voice on the German Shepherd’s earpiece.  Gunter backed away from the vent and replied softly.

“This is Gunter,” he replied in a whisper.

“We’re patching you in to the Secret Service communications channel.  This should keep you up-to-date on what’s going on around you.  HQ out.”

Within the next second, he was hearing comm. chatter over his earpiece.  He found it more interesting to listen to that than whatever the President and the Ambassador were talking about.  To him, it was just a bunch of political speech that didn’t really register with him.  He was, after all, a soldier, not a politician.  He only heard a few things said about the two Princesses that ruled Equestria, the Conversion Bureaus, and bits of details on ideas for how to better secure them, but nothing that really meant anything to the canine agent.

The comm. chatter, however, got boring very quickly when the canine agent realized that it was all status checks with nothing to report.  The only other thing to focus on, the meeting, dragged on and on for the next hour and a half.  He wished that he was asked to listen for something in particular like he would normally do on a surveillance mission to keep his mind occupied.  At the moment, the situation seemed so mind-numbingly boring compared to what he had been trained to do that he caught himself zoning out.  Desperate to keep his focus so he wouldn’t slip up, he reached into one of his pockets, took out a small bottle of energy gel and gulped it.

Is there really anything that could go that wrong that they’d need us to intervene? he thought to himself as he began to focus his attention on the comm. chatter.

“All units, status report,” went the voice of the overseer.

“Press unit, reporting in.  Nothing out of the ordinary here.”

“West Wing unit, reporting in.  All clear.”

“This is Central Doorway unit.  All quiet.”

“This is-“

Suddenly, there was a blast outside that shook the ground and took Gunter off balance.  Everything around him shook, even the paintings in the Map Room fell off of the wall.

“CODE RED!  CODE RED!” shouted one of the servicemen, “The gate has been breached!  I repeat, the main gate has been breached!”

“All units,” went the voice of the overseer, “take defensive positions!  Get the President and the Ambassador to the bunker!”

Gunter took hold of his MP5, which was until now hanging from a shoulder strap, and quickly opened the door into the room.  As soon as he entered, he saw Daniel breaking cover, much to the shock of the Ambassador and her bodyguard, the latter taking a defensive stance, as if to challenge Gunter.  Gunter held up his paws.  “Hey, hey!  We’re the good guys!” he exclaimed, “Isn’t that right?” he added, directing his question towards the Secret Serviceman, who affirmed that they were on the same side.

“Come on,” said Daniel, cocking his shotgun, “we don’t have time for this!”

Without any more delay, the Secret Serviceman, the two canine agents, and the Ambassador’s bodyguard led the two VIPs out of the Map Room.  Commotion and automatic gunfire was heard outside.  The Secret Serviceman drew his concealed pistol from inside of his jacket, and the party was quickly joined by three other Secret Service members.  As the Secret Service led the rest of the party to the East Wing, Gunter listened in on the comm. chatter to get an idea of what was going on.

“We’re pinned down!” went one voice, “they’re using a car-mounted machine gun!”

“Intruders on the south lawn!” went another, “They’ve taken out the Press Unit and they’re heading for the front door!  Engage the remote turrets!”

Gunter immediately began hearing the unmistakable sound of very heavy machine guns firing from the White House’s iconic portico.  That should thin their numbers a bit, he thought to himself.

As the security posse and the two VIPs rushed through the East Wing, bullets came crashing through the windows, possibly from the car-mounted gun at the front gate.  “Keep your heads down!” Gunter shouted to the group, taking up a position placing him between the Ambassador and the windows, aiming and firing a few bursts from his weapon as he did so.  The President was crouched down, being held in that position by the four Secret Service members surrounding him and brandishing their weapons.  The Ambassador’s bodyguard was seemingly not phased at all by what was going on, and simply got between Gunter and the Ambassador, making it so that his body protected the entirety of the Ambassador’s much more effectively than a bipedal creature like Gunter or one of the humans could.

The party took a left turn and went down a hallway, and then down a set of stairs to the bunker.  The gunfire outside died down.  From the comm. chatter, it sounded like the car had been dispatched by the remote turrets and the hostiles’ numbers had diminished significantly, and the remaining few managed to make it all the way to the actual structure and were trying to break through the windows.  Gunter and Daniel took up the rear and descended the staircase backwards, their weapons aimed up.

At the bottom of the staircase, the comm. chatter began to break up.  Gunter realized that they must be very deep underground.  Suddenly, the party stopped.  The canines turned around.  The Secret Service members were punching in a code on a polished metal door easily twice the size any regular door needed to be.  The Equestrian Ambassador was clearly shaken; her unusually large eyes weren’t good at hiding emotions that were usually so subtle in humans.  That, and her four legs were visibly shaking, and her breathing shuddered.  Gunter couldn’t imagine how traumatic this must be for her.

When the Secret Service finished entering the very long code for the door, everyone stood back, as the door opened outward.  It was at least five feet thick, and all solid metal.  “That is one damn big door,” Daniel mused.

The Ambassador clopped over to Gunter.  “What’s going on?” she asked in a whimper, “Where are we going?  Why do these people want to hurt us?  And who are you?”

“Listen,” Gunter replied, “I can’t answer all those questions right now… but let me assure you that we’re going to the safest place in the entire world,” he explained, “come on, we have to keep moving!”

The Ambassador’s bodyguard helped her along and escorted her into the bunker, as did the Secret Service for the President.  Gunter and Daniel covered them from the doorway.  Suddenly, a man came dashing down the steps.  Both canines fixed their weapons on him.  “You!  Stop!” Daniel shouted, “Identification, now!”

The man stopped in his tracks.  He was wearing very casual attire; a tee-shirt and blue jeans, and was carrying an assault rifle.  “S-Secret Service!” he replied, reaching into his pocket, possibly to produce an ID.

Gunter wasn’t convinced.  He sounded nervous, like he was unprepared for what he was looking at.  The Secret Service knew about the canine agents as well as the President did, and even if he was a Secret Service agent, one dressed in casual attire would have been outside amongst the crowd outside of the fence of the South Lawn, and most likely wouldn’t have abandoned his post so quickly.  He would have remained outside of the White House to help the others suppress the threat, not go and personally help the President when that was clearly being taken care of already.  Plus, Gunter could quite literally smell the man’s apprehension.

“I don’t believe you!” Gunter shouted, “Show me your identification!  NOW!”

Daniel took a step closer, pointing his shotgun directly at the man’s chest.  “Come on!  We don’t have all day!” he shouted.

He froze.  Then, with his entire body shaking, he raised his rifle with one arm, pointing it in the direction of Daniel.  Gunter let loose with a few bursts from his submachine gun, and Daniel finished him off with a blast from his shotgun.

As the man fell to the floor, the door behind them began to close.  The two canines turned and rushed in before it closed with a loud -thud- sound.  Gunter noticed that the air pressure increased as he and his comrade went further down the hallway.  Evidently, they were going even further underground.  Gunter took the time while he was running to reload his MP5, while Daniel replaced the shell he used to eliminate the would-be assassin.

Before too long, the two reached the door to the actual bunker that the Secret Servicemen were closing until they saw the two agents running towards them.  “What took you guys?” one of them asked, sounding worried.

“Hostile,” Daniel panted.

“He claimed he was Secret Service,” Gunter added, “but he couldn't prove it.”

“Then he pointed a gun at us... so we shot him,” Daniel finished, catching his breath.

“Are you sure he’s dead?” another Serviceman asked.

Daniel held up his weapon.  “This is a shotgun,” he said flatly, “I shot him at point-blank range in the chest after Gunter here emptied half his clip into him!”

“Just making sure,” the Serviceman replied, “now come on, get in,” he urged.

The two canines rushed in to the bunker, which they learned was called the Emergency Operations Center.  There, the President, the four Secret Servicemen protecting him, the Equestrian Ambassador, and her bodyguard, were sitting in chairs at a large oval-shaped table designed for high-profile meetings in the event of a severe National Emergency.  The Ambassador had put her hooves to her face and was audibly sobbing, no doubt from the sheer amount of psychological trauma that had been suddenly thrust upon her in the last half-hour. Gunter put his MP5 on the table and calmly walked over to her.  Her bodyguard stepped in front of him, and Gunter knelt down to address him.  “Sir,” he said, “is it all right if I talk to her?”

The bodyguard said nothing, but in an unmistakably militaristic manner, took three steps to the side to allow the canine to pass.  Gunter saluted the soldier and took a couple steps closer to the Ambassador.  He was never put in a position to comfort someone like this before; the missions he was usually involved in consisted of remaining out of sight or eliminating hostiles with ruthless efficiency.  He had come across situations where he certainly wished he could do so for the friends and families of the people who were harmed by someone he was assigned to capture or kill, but couldn’t due to the secretive nature of the EES and everyone who worked for it.  For some reason, though, he felt the need to comfort, and this time, he wasn’t going to pass it up.

“Hey,” he said quietly, “there’s no need to cry, you’re safe now...”

Without warning, the yellow and blue equine wrapped her front legs around Gunter’s neck.  His knee-jerk reflex assumed that she was trying to break his neck, but after a split-second, he noticed that the force on his neck was focused on wrapping around it, not trying to wring it.  There was no way anyone could strangle him like this, either, as the force was more on the back of the neck rather than on the front.  He soon realized what it was; an embrace.  Gunter was surprised, and unsure as to what to do, but after a few seconds, he did what his gut told him to do, and he lightly put his right arm around her back.

Poor thing, he thought, Equestria must not experience any violence like there is here...

He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the Ambassador’s bodyguard was eying him carefully, but he didn’t think much of it.

After some time, her sobbing subsided and she loosened her grip on Gunter and pulled away.  He had an idea that she may have done what she did because he was one of two of the only other sentient non-humans in the room, and perhaps it was because of this that seemed more friendly to her.  Whatever it was, he figured he probably wouldn’t find out.

“Ma’am... it’s all right, you’re safe now,” he said again.

“Please...” she replied, “my name is Quill.”

Gunter nodded.  “Well, Quill, like I said, you’re safe now.  We just need you and the President to stay here until the danger has passed.”

“But...” Quill began, “why do these people want to hurt us?”

“I wish I could answer that,” Gunter sighed, “but know that you can’t explain things like this with reason and logic.  People who do these sorts of things are motivated by extreme emotions, which drives them to irrational acts.”

Ambassador Quill nodded, but by the look on her face, she still seemed to have trouble wrapping her head around it.

“And... who exactly are you, anyway?” she inquired, “You look a lot like canines from both my world and yours... except they walk on four legs and can’t talk...”

Gunter bit his lip.  “It’s a long story, Ambassador Quill,” he said, “but I’ll try to give you the short version; essentially, sixty years ago, someone came up with the idea to combine the physical abilities of humans with the acute senses of dogs into one being as a sort of supersoldier.  After ten years of research, they found a way to do so.  They created creatures much like me and Daniel who can walk on two legs, have human dexterity, human intelligence, and the ability to speak, all while retaining our sharp sense of smell, hearing, and our natural agility and strength.”

“But how did anyone manage to pull that off?” Quill asked.

“Surgery,” Daniel replied from across the room.  Quill and Gunter both looked in his direction. He was leaning against the wall, nonchalantly checking his shotgun, “lots and lots of surgery.  The only reason you can’t tell is because we groom our fur to hide the scars, just so that if we should get captured, it’ll be really difficult for an enemy to figure out just how they did it.”

“But why all the secrecy?” the ambassador insisted, “your should be showered with awards for your selfless service, not hidden from view!”

“Because we’re the one thing that the United States has that no other country in the world has,” Gunter said rather sternly, “We’re practically ghosts.  Spies can be identified by things they leave behind, like fingerprints and DNA samples from hair or blood.  But since they can only trace such biometric information for humans, we, as dogs, can slip past that, because canine DNA and paw prints don’t tell anyone anything useful... or so they think.”

“Not to mention that we spend all our time while not on assignment at a secret facility that even fewer people know about,” Daniel added, “Friends, family, all of our personal acquaintances and close relationships are down there, among our own kind, and not out in the world for enemy spies to infiltrate and potentially use as leverage to compromise our identities.”

Gunter could tell that Quill was about to say something else, but she didn’t have time to say it, as one of the telephones in the room rang.  A nearby Secret Serviceman picked it up.  “Yes? … Affirmative.  Right away.”

The Serviceman hung up the phone.  “All clear,” he said.

There was an audible sigh of relief among just about everyone in the bunker.  Gunter hadn’t kept track of the time, but he guessed that they were in the bunker for at least a half-hour.  Gunter helped Ambassador Quill off her chair and left her bodyguard to his duties.  The Secret Servicemen opened the door into the hallway that would lead everyone out to the East Wing of the White House.

They soon reached the outermost door, and the Secret Servicemen opened it.  Immediately, they could see the dead, bloody body of the assassin whom the canines had shot earlier.  “Ambassador,” Daniel said, “You’re going to want to avert your eyes.”

After getting around the body, the party ascended the stairs, and the comm. chatter slowly started clicking again in Gunter’s earpiece.

“Cleanup at the bunker entrance,” one of the Servicemen said into their radios.

“Copy that, all hostiles have been accounted for,” went the voice on the other end of the radio, “good work, everyone.”

After turning the corner out of the stairway, the party saw a Secret Serviceman walking towards them with an assault rifle.  Gunter and Daniel were about to give the man a casual salute when they noticed something funny about his clothing...

“Gunter,” Daniel whispered, “Do you see what I see?”

Gunter looked closely.  While his naked eyes didn’t see anything, but he smelled blood.  He normally wouldn’t have been surprised, what with there having recently been an all-out firefight, but his eyepiece picked up on something...

“DROP!” he shouted, drawing his pistol, as he had only then realized that he had left his MP5 on the table back in the bunker.

Three of the Secret Servicemen in the group immediately tackled the President, forming a human barrier around him.  Ambassador Quill’s bodyguard did the same for the VIP he was assigned to.  Daniel aimed his shotgun at the impostor, and the Secret Serviceman still standing drew his pistol.  Gunter now stood in between the two, the Secret Serviceman on his left, Daniel on his right, and the impostor a good fifteen yards away but closing.

“You there!  Stop!” cried the Secret Serviceman.

The impostor immediately raised his rifle and opened fire upon the three.  Gunter and the Secret Serviceman returned fire and hit him three times, with one of the shots hitting him in the right temple.  The impostor collapsed.  “Clear!” Gunter shouted, and then turned to his Border Collie partner, who, to his horror, was collapsed on the ground.

Gunter immediately holstered his pistol and went over to him.  There was one bullet hole in the chest, and it was leaking blood.  His partner only had enough energy to look Gunter straight in the eyes before he stopped breathing and the color drained from his eyes.

The Conversion Bureau: Third Party

By PonySoldier

Chapter 2

“Present ARMS!”  shouted Commander Thompson.

Every member of the EES raised their right hands or paws to salute Daniel’s body as it was laid in a cardboard casket on top of a conveyor belt, and then covered it with a sheet.  A technician pulled a lever and the conveyor belt moved the casket into the furnace, where a heavy-duty door slid up and closed it.  One of the human members of the EES raised a trumpet and played taps.  As soon as the somber tune had finished, the furnace erupted to life.

The EES, being as secretive as it was, cremated all the bodies of their fallen canine agents to prevent any of their physical remains from being accidentally discovered.  They hadn’t had to do so for a combat casualty in a long time, and combined with the fact that this was for the most respected agent in the EES, it was an extremely emotional time for everyone.

It was especially hard on Gunter.  He had inspected Daniel’s fatal wound along with the EES Coroner when the Coroner had determined that the fatal shot just happened to hit the one weak spot in the armor Daniel was wearing; the zipper in the middle of the chest.  Knowing that the rest of the armor would have otherwise prevented Daniel’s injury from being fatal, a feeling of dread went over him.  The assailant wasn’t even that good of a shot; that bullet was the only one that hit him.  All the other shots hit the wall and the floor.  Yet, for one weak point in the armor, exploited completely by way of a freak accident, the best agent in the EES fell.  He wouldn’t have felt this way if it was a head-shot, as that at least meant that the assailant was a very good shot, but somehow, knowing that he was a bad shot and still managed to kill the agent that every other canine in the EES looked up to really depressed and somewhat distraught him.  Gunter grudgingly accepted that there wasn’t anything else he could do and as soon as the commander gave the “At Ease” order, where he turned and headed back to his bed to lay down and think.  All he could think of, however, was what had happened.

Gunter and Daniel both realized that the one they had shot was an impostor due to their always-useful eyepieces, as they pointed out that there was a bullet hole in the black lapel of the Secret Service coat right where the heart is.  This normally wouldn’t be alarming, since Secret Servicemen wore body armor, but when the eyepiece also picked up copious amounts of blood stained on it, the two canine agents knew something was very wrong, and quickly deduced that he was an impostor.

After Daniel had died, Gunter froze.  He could only blink and breathe, but once the EES paramedics had arrived and removed the body, his mental haze broke.  It was then Ambassador Quill’s turn to console, as she nuzzled her head against his side as he knelt at the same spot, which still had a small blood stain on it.  He didn’t cry like she had, but he did put his paw on her back.

After that, it was a blur, but he did remember that the Ambassador was allowed to continue on her diplomatic duties without having her memory wiped, which included allowing her access to some relatively classified information, but not much, even though normal procedure would be to wipe her memory at the earliest possible time.  It was a diplomatic formality, really, as having the Ambassador’s memory wiped would have been a disastrous political move.

Gunter had also been assigned to personally escort Ambassador Quill back to the portal to Equestria the next day.  Apparently she was staying in one of the White House’s many guest rooms as it wasn’t deemed safe enough to allow her to travel outside for a few days given what had happened.  The Ambassador invited Gunter to attend a ceremony in Equestria’s capital city, where he would be honored with an award, and Daniel with a posthumous one, for protecting her.  He said that he would do it for Daniel, for the EES, for his country.

Before he knew it, he was back in the transport vehicle, this time wearing his standard armor with some added patches to be more ceremonial.  It was very ad hoc, as EES agents never make public appearances, and only occasionally held their own private award ceremonies.  On the upper-right chest portion of his armor was a patch with the EES logo, which resembled that of the CIA, but with a blue paw print in the center of the shield instead of a compass rose, and the words “Experimental Espionage Service” written above instead of “Central Intelligence Agency.”  On his left shoulder was his Agent ID number, which was 1425.  14 indicated his breed; a German Shepherd, as there are 14 letters in “German Shepherd,” and 25 was a randomly assigned number, which indicated his individual identity.  On his right shoulder, a patch with his name was placed.  He was also suggested to wear a black beret, but he declined.  Other than that, he wore all of his usual armor and gadgets, just to be safe, and at the request of Ambassador Quill, who wanted to present the awards to Gunter in, as she put it, “much the way he was when he valiantly protected me.”

It was an exaggeration, sure, but he shrugged it off.  Besides, he was going to an unfamiliar land, and he wouldn’t want to be unprepared.  He had no idea what the place looked like, what the general population was like, how they would react towards visitors from Earth, whether or not there was some religious cult that would try to lynch him on sight, or what, but he was armed to the teeth with weapons and years of training and missions under his belt.  This time, though, he only carried his two pistols, but had a combat knife sheathed on his left hip instead of an MP5.  A downgrade, sure, but he could wield either weapon equally well.

The van made a stop at the White House to pick up Ambassador Quill, which went uneventfully, as the Ambassador and her bodyguard were simply rushed into the van by the Secret Service from a dark space, likely the same underground parking garage where he and Daniel had been dropped off for the White House security mission.  It went by without a word, and the van quietly proceeded to the D.C. Conversion Bureau.

Although he and the Ambassador were to enter Equestria alone, they were accompanied in the van by a squad of human EES operatives dressed and equipped like a police SWAT team to cover him as he made his way to the Bureau.  Conversion Bureaus were built directly at the site of portals to prevent any unauthorized immigration into Equestria, as one would have to pass through the entire complex before reaching the portal, which itself was locked down like a bank vault.  The actual conversion process took place within the bureaus, but orientation took place within Equestria itself.  For Gunter’s entrance, however, he had been granted a special permit by Ambassador Quill for temporary access to Equestria, meaning he did not need to go through the conversion process.  The Bureau was temporarily closed to maintain the secrecy of the EES to unauthorized eyes, and in the interest of protecting Ambassador Quill.  Since the EES did not have any operations going on in Equestria, nor did they plan to perform any, they figured there was little harm in exposing Gunter to the ponies of Equestria.  That, and he was going to a private ceremony with only a few trustworthy guests, including the Princess, Ambassador Quill, their bodyguards, and a few additional, unspecified guests whom the Ambassador insisted were trusted by the Princesses themselves.

The van suddenly executed a 180-degree turn, and then stopped.  The back doors opened and the human agents quickly filed out and secured the area.  Gunter looked out and saw the entrance to the Conversion Bureau of the D.C. area; a plain-looking brick building.  Nicknamed “The Equestrian Embassy” due to its location in D.C., it bore the nickname with pride in gold-plated letters above a glass double-door, each one with a portrait of the front halves of two ponies whom Quill identified as the two Princesses who ruled Equestria; On the left door was a white one with a horn similar to the one on Ambassador Quill’s forehead, except longer and white, a golden tiara atop her head, a necklace with a purple jewel, and a flowing mane of blue, green, violet, and pink.  On the right door was a smaller version of the white one, except a shade of grey-purple, a black tiara, a dark blue mane, and a crescent moon symbol on her chest.  Both were portrayed in the act of performing a welcoming gesture, looking at the viewer as if personally welcoming him or her into Equestria.

Gunter didn’t take too long to look at it, as he had already been briefed on the Equestrian rulers, including who they were and a basic idea of how government worked there; the white one on the left was Princess Celestia, and the darker one on the right was Princess Luna.  They were revered as the ones who bring up the sun in the morning, and the moon and stars at night, respectively.  Whether or not they actually did so was unknown, but Gunter was advised to not question it.  He was also told that essentially what they said was law, but popular opinion in Equestria suggested that they were benevolent leaders.  Although they both held the same position and title, Celestia was the top of the chain of command during the day, while Luna took up the top spot at night, which was why Luna would not be attending the ceremony.  In all, he had little to worry about.  The only thing he was worried about, even if only slightly, was the unspecified number of guests of the Princess.  But, if the worst happened, he was ready.

Gunter stepped out of the van once the “all clear” signal had been given and walked casually through the door depicting Celestia, while the Ambassador went through the door depicting Luna.  Inside was a desk, behind which the canine guessed attendants and receptionists would be sitting if the Bureau was open.  Ambassador Quill, walking just ahead of him, lead him through the complex, clearly knowing it like the back of her hand... or hoof, in this case.  She hadn’t talked much on the van, likely due to the intimidating SWAT team surrounding her, but once she was out of sight of them, she became far more upbeat.  Apparently, the two days since the attack had been enough for her to get over the shock of the attempt on her life, or at least it looked that way.

“We’ve cleared out the building just for you, Gunter!” Quill explained, obviously excited to be going back home, “We’ll be at the portal in no time!”

Sure enough, in less than a minute, through a series of shortcuts that had clearly required moving lots of heavy furniture before their arrival, they had arrived at a door that resembled the door to a bank vault.  It had a giant spoked wheel in the middle, a latch on the right-hand side, and a small blank pad at the eye-level of Quill and her bodyguard.  As Quill quickly demonstrated, it was a pony equivalent of a fingerprint analyzer.  Quill put her hoof on the pad, and after a second, there was a computerized sound that emanated from speakers embedded somewhere in the door, and then, the sound turned into a voice, which said, “Welcome, Ambassador Quill.”

Quill’s bodyguard then pulled the latch down to a vertical position, and then the spoked wheel turned about 270 degrees counter-clockwise.  The door proceeded to slowly open inwards, so the party stepped back a few paces to avoid the door hitting them.  Once the door opened completely, Gunter looked upon it.  What he saw resembled a European city: a mixture of old and new, castles and grand buildings that have withstood the test of time alongside relatively modern, yet quaint shops and houses.  Banners hung from the lamp posts bearing images of Princesses Celestia and Luna.

“Welcome,” Ambassador Quill began, “to Canterlot, the capital of Equestria!”

“It’s beautiful,” Gunter commented, “it is a city to be proud of, for sure.”

“We wouldn’t want anything less for the city where our Princesses reside!” Quill replied cheerily, “come on, we’ve got transportation to get to!”

“Transportation?” the German Shepherd asked.

“Your government expressed concern about civilians seeing you, so we arranged for special accommodations to make sure that only the Princess and invited guests see you,” the yellow pony explained, “come on!  They’re expecting you!”

As soon as she said that, Gunter heard the galloping of horses coming from his left.  He put his paw on his pistol, but soon took it off once he saw what it was; a closed-top horse-drawn carriage, pulled by white ponies similar to the Ambassador’s bodyguard, who had quickly gone to join their ranks and took up a harness.  The carriage itself was elaborate; it rivaled the Royal Carriage used by the British Royal Family back on Earth in terms of the amount of decoration done to it.  It was off-white, almost yellow, decorated liberally with sapphires and dark blue tinted windows, making it impossible to see inside.  The door to the carriage suddenly opened, seemingly automatically, but Gunter, even with his sharp canine ears, couldn’t pick up even the faintest sound of a humming motor, which confused him.  He looked to Quill, and then blinked a few times; he could’ve sworn he had seen some kind of aura around that yellow horn on her forehead.  She suddenly looked up at him.  “Well get in, Gunter!  Princess Celestia is expecting you!”

Gunter snapped back to the moment and climbed in.  The interior was... quaint, to put it nicely.  The six-foot canine couldn’t sit straight up, as it was clearly meant for the four-foot tall ponies that inhabited this world.  Ambassador Quill got in after him, and immediately noticed his discomfort.  “Oh!” she exclaimed, “I forgot how tall you were... here, let me fix that.”

Gunter wasn’t having eye problems, apparently, as he once again saw the strange aura around the yellow pony’s horn appear, and suddenly, the roof raised just tall enough to comfortably allow Gunter to sit straight up, and a window even appeared on each side at eye level.  Gunter, again, didn’t pick up any mechanical noises to indicate this was being done by machines, so he had to ask.  “Uh.... how is this happening?”

“What do you mean?”  Quill wondered.

“Well... this!” Gunter clarified, motioning to the entire interior of the carriage, “things don’t just spontaneously grow three feet higher without any sounds!  What just happened?”

“Oh! I forgot!  Earth doesn’t have magic like we do...” she said to herself, “Well,” she explained as the carriage began moving, and the clopping of hooves began outside, “us unicorn ponies, like myself, can do magic!”

Gunter decided not to press the point about magic, since he did remember that the laws of physics were slightly altered in this world, but he was interested in how she did it.  “So, unicorn meaning you have that... uh...” he stammered, trying to find a polite way of referring to her horn.

“Yes,” she answered for him, “my horn here is where our magic energy is stored and where it comes from!  All unicorn ponies can do at least some magic.  Most often it’s used for telekinesis, but some, like me, can do more, like changing the physical properties of objects!”

“So is there any limit to what you can do with it?”

“Aside from raising the dead, which is impossible, it’s really limited to how well-versed you are,” she explained.

“And I guess the Princesses can do magic, too?” Gunter wondered.

“Of course they can!” Quill replied, almost laughing, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “They can perform the most powerful magic in the world!  How else could they raise the sun, moon, and stars?”

Before they knew it, the carriage had stopped, and the doors were opened by two more of the armored white ponies, where a red carpet was literally laid out for them.  They arrived right in front of the front door, as the German Shepherd noticed that he was looking at a hallway, followed by a stairway, with an elaborately decorated ceiling with chandeliers even the British Monarch would envy.  On either side of the hallway and the staircase was a line of white armored ponies at fixed intervals.  One would have to be crazy to try to carry out an assassination here; the security in the front entrance alone had about the same number of Secret Servicemen guarding the entire White House!  Each of the Royal Guards stood at fixed distances away from the one next to him, making for a depth-of-field effect that was as intimidating as it was, in some ways, artistic.  And plus, if Quill was correct, and Celestia and Luna really did have power enough to raise the sun, moon, and stars, an assassin’s targets in this place were clearly a force to be reckoned with, too.

The pair proceeded in silence down the hall and up the stairs, with Quill taking the lead.  Gunter, naturally, was wary.  He had been practicing worst-case-scenario situations for a long time, but those simulations had assumed that his enemies were human and did not have supernatural abilities.  But then he reminded himself that in all likelihood, there wasn’t going to be anything to worry about.

The two came to the top of the stairway, where a tall, grand double-door stood.  It was sort of plain, but it was painted immaculate white with a stylized sun painted on the middle, split right down the center by the line where the two doors met.  Quill opened the doors with her telekinesis magic and revealed before him was the regal figure of the ruling monarch of Equestria, Princess Celestia.  She stood on four legs about the same height as Gunter, which surprised him that she was really that much taller than every other pony in Equestria.  Her multicolored mane and tail appeared to be perpetually flowing by means of magic, Gunter guessed, since he could not feel any wind in the room.  Her tiara shone brightly in the sunlight that came through the windows, and her coat was as immaculate white as were the doors Gunter had just passed through.  On her hooves were what looked like golden shoes, and on her chest was a thick gold necklace with a purple jewel that matched an almost identical, yet smaller one on her tiara.  On her rear flanks were matching symbols that were the same design of the sun symbol on the door he had walked through.  This was a leader, Gunter felt, that was born to lead.

By reflex, Gunter took two steps forward, stood at attention, and saluted.  Then he felt a light kick on his shin.  He looked down, and he saw Quill was trying to get his attention.  “You bow to the Princess!” she hissed at him.  Gunter was surprised at her sudden change of tone, but he didn’t think much of it, since it was, after all, the most beloved leader of Equestria he was dealing with.  So, without much hesitation, Gunter got down on one knee and lowered his head.

“Your Majesty,” he said, reciting from memory what Commander Thompson had told him to say to the Princess so he wouldn’t accidentally do something embarrassing or unintentionally insulting, “I send greetings and the best of regards from the United States of America, and the agency I represent, the Experimental Espionage Service.  I have humbly come to accept the-”

“You’re a spy?!  That’s -!” went a very loud female voice to his left.  His left ear turned towards the source, and his eyes opened and looked in the direction, while he kept the rest of his body still.  There, he saw a group of six ponies as colorful as Ambassador Quill.  The one whom Gunter had assumed had spoken, a light blue colored pony with wings and a rainbow colored mane and tail, was apparently prevented from saying anything further by a purple-colored unicorn pony with a mane of very deep purple and a small streak of pink that was styled in such a way that it covered the bottom portion of her horn.  She looked the most frustrated at what the rainbow-and-blue one was doing than the rest.  That, and she had shoved a hoof into the other’s mouth. He hadn’t noticed them earlier because his full attention was on Celestia, and he did not bother looking to the side, something he realized he should have done when he walked in.  For the first time since his first days of Espionage training, his nerves were getting to him.

“You may go on,” said the soft, kind voice of Celestia.

Gunter cleared his throat and continued, “I... uh... humbly accept the honor you wish to bestow upon me, … and the posthumous honor for my fallen comrade, Agent Daniel, for whom I will accept in his place.”

A moment of silence, possibly for the memory of Daniel, ensued.  Then, he heard the clopping of hooves approaching him.  “You may rise, Gunter,” Celestia said, her voice coming from right above him.  Gunter stood up, and once again, by reflex, saluted as he stood at attention.  Face to face with the supreme ruler of a vast land, Gunter’s heart started beating.  She was beautiful, and even looked benevolent, but knowing that she quite possibly had immense amounts of supernatural power in the horn on her forehead, made him very uneasy and nervous, but he did his best not to show it in his face.

To his great relief, Celestia smiled.  “At ease, soldier,” she said soothingly.  Gunter lowered his arm, and Celestia stepped back a couple paces.  “Today,” she said in a slightly louder voice, “in honor of recent events, for acts of selfless bravery and sharp intuition that helped save the lives of two of the most important people to Equestria; our own Ambassador Quill and Equestria’s dear friend His Excellency the President of the United States, it is my privilege to award the Order of the Sun, one of our highest honors, to Gunter Shepherd and his partner, Daniel Collie.”

Her horn suddenly sparkled, and from somewhere behind her, two medals in the shape of the sun symbol on her flanks, made of gold and with a white lanyard with a gold stripe down the center, floated towards him.  Gunter lowered his head as one was put over his head, and hung around his neck.  The other one floated in front of him, and Gunter carefully grasped it.  “Thank you,” he said to the Princess, who smiled in return.

“Now turn around,” the Princess urged him, “this is your moment,” she said with a smile, “and also a moment for your country.”  Gunter smiled back slightly and performed a precise about-face.  There, he saw the six other ponies had assembled directly behind him, and were smiling.  Ambassador Quill was there, too, but off to the left.  They all then proceeded to stomp their hooves on the ground, which Gunter took to be, judging by their expressions, a pony’s equivalent of clapping.  He held out his arm and waved, even though this was a very small crowd, but it was what everyone else who got an award at the EES ceremonies did, and he didn’t know what else he could do, anyway.

When the applause died down, Celestia stood next to him.  “Allow me to introduce you to some of my most trusted ponies, Gunter,” she said, walking over to them.  They all bowed as she approached them, but they only held it for about a second before standing up.  “This is Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and my personal protege in magic, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, naming them in order from left to right, and each one raised a hoof, nodded, or whatnot when their names were mentioned.  Gunter stood for a moment, slightly confused.

What kind of names are those? he thought, What kind of self-respecting parent would name their child “Fluttershy” or “Rainbow” or... any of these?  Jesus, I feel like I’ve walked into a-

“Ahem,” Celestia said, which snapped him back to the present moment.

Gunter knelt down so he was at face level with them and offered his paw, “it is a pleasure to meet you all,” he said, “You must be important pe- uh, ponies, if Celestia holds you in such high regard and trust.”

“It’s an honor all its own to be trusted by the Princess,” said the orange pony with a blond colored mane, wearing what looked to be some sort of Wild West themed hat, named Applejack, who, unlike most of the others he had seen up until now, did not have wings or a horn.  Oddly enough, she spoke with a very distinctly southern accent, something Gunter was certain was restricted to that region of the United States.  She raised her hoof and placed it in Gunter’s paw, and the two shook briskly.

“It certainly must be,” Gunter commented, smiling.  She smiled and bowed her head a little, then stepped back to make way for whoever was next.  To his surprise, the pink one, aptly named Pinkie Pie, according to Celestia, bounced in from seemingly out of nowhere and was all up in his face.  Her speaking was so fast-paced that at first he could barely make out what was being said by her very high-pitched voice, but he eventually picked it up somewhere in the middle, “...and I’ve never seen anyone from the other side of the portal who wasn’t turned into a pony before and so I was like ‘Oh my stars!’ so when I was told that I was invited here, I couldn’t help but say yes so I could throw you a big party!  And so-”

“PINKIE PIE!” came a shout from behind her.  It was the blue and rainbow one, the appropriately named Rainbow Dash, the one that had interrupted him earlier.  She had a slightly more masculine voice, almost sounding as if she was going through puberty.  Immediately, Pinkie Pie stopped her rambling and bouncing and shook Gunter’s paw, smiling, though still with a very giddy look on her face. The rainbow pony then extended her wings and flew over to Gunter, and shook his paw as she hovered in mid-air.

“So you’re really a spy from the other side of the portal?” she inquired, looking interested.

Gunter nodded, even though technically he was an operative, “spying” was what most people would call what he did in the course of his job, so he rolled with it.

“That is so cool!” she exclaimed, “You should have your own movie or something!  You could even star in them!”

Gunter laughed a bit, “we’ll see... I’m not one for big publicity,” he explained, “but maybe I’ll send you a script based on one of my missions one day.”

He was about to speak to the others, when he was suddenly stopped by his intuition.  His nose had picked up a very out-of-place scent; humans.  Gunter looked towards the door.  The scent was clearly getting stronger, and his ears picked up footsteps ascending the staircase.  There was also a trace of the unmistakable smell of gunpowder and C4.

“Is there something wrong, sir?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Get behind Celestia,” he said, still staring at the door and drawing his pistol, “now.”

CRASH!

The double doors behind the group of ponies were broken open by what Gunter could only guess was some sort of improvised breaching charge.  He looked up and saw a group of four men masked in balaclavas brandishing light machine guns casually walking in.  The ponies turned around and most of them immediately backed away, gasping in shock.  Rainbow Dash, clearly possessing a lot of bravery, but not well-directed bravery, immediately tried to do a flying charge at the four, but was held back by Applejack, who bit down on her rainbow tail.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “You can’t just go barging in on the Princess like that!”

Gunter stood up.  “Get back!” he shouted.  Celestia was still behind him, but began backing away.  Gunter couldn’t see the expression on her face, as he only looked forward towards the intruders, but he imagined it was one of shock.  He backed to Celestia, and as soon as he was beside her, he leaned his head in towards her ear.  “I don’t know much about this whole thing you guys have with magic,” Gunter said softly, “but if you can create something that can block projectiles, you’d better do it now.”

“Everyone get behind me!” called out Celestia, and all the ponies in the room dashed behind her, even though Rainbow Dash had to be pulled by Applejack.

Gunter cocked and aimed his pistol, taking a few steps forward.  “I’m gonna give you guys one chance to surrender!” he shouted, “and we can forget this whole thing ever happened!”

The four intruders laughed.  “We’re the ones with machine guns, bitch!” one of them shouted.

“Kiss your precious Princess goodbye!” shouted another, and without any hesitation, he, along with the others, raised their weapons and opened fire.

Gunter managed to pull off two shots in return, which killed one, before his gun inexplicably thrust itself out of his hands and fell to the floor!  Gunter looked up, and it appeared that the same was happening to the four would-be assassins, except their guns, along with their bodies, began floating in the air.  Able to move their bodies, but unable to traverse distance, they all, naturally, panicked.  Then Gunter heard the light pinging of metal on the floor.  He looked around and saw that the hostiles’ bullets had fallen to the floor in a perfect line about a foot in front of him.  Celestia’s magic certainly was potent indeed if even .50 caliber bullets couldn’t penetrate whatever shield she had created.

Gunter heard clopping behind him.  He turned his head around, and saw Princess Celestia walking towards him.  “Don’t worry, Gunter,” she said, calmly, but in a more serious tone than she had before, “I’ve got this.”

Gunter nodded and drew his pocket revolver from his ankle holster. “I’ll cover you,” he said as he obligingly stepped to the side and allowed the Princess to confront her would-be assassins.

The Princess smiled very slightly.  “That won’t be necessary,” she reassured the canine agent before she turned to her attackers and switched to a more serious tone.  “You know,” she began, “I’m actually impressed you managed to make it this far!  Now, since it appears my security is lacking today, I’ll have to deal with you myself.”

Suddenly, all three of the remaining terrorist’s machine guns unloaded on their own, their magazines dropping to the ground, some spilling out their ammo belts.  The assassins immediately began to draw their pistols, which they had stuffed in the back of their pants, but those were immediately yanked away by Celestia’s magic and were unloaded as well, the small clips clattering to the floor.

“Unlike your country, we don’t perform capital punishment here, as fitting as it would seem for this offense,” she explained, “but this will suffice,” she concluded.  The empty weapons fell to the floor.  Then, with a loud electrical sparking sound, a bright white aura surrounded the three now condemned humans, which sparked with St. Elmo’s fire on all sides, became brighter and brighter, until a clap of thunder sounded, and once Gunter recovered from the flash and loud noise, he looked around and discovered that the three assassins had vanished into thin air.  Gunter stood in awe.  There was far less doubt in his mind, now, that she could actually raise the sun.

“What did you do to them?” came a soft voice belonging to one of the ponies behind Gunter.

“I sent them to the one place where they can’t possibly hurt anyone,” Celestia reassured, “let’s just say that Luna certainly knows that place quite well.”

“You sent them to the moon!?” another voice exclaimed.

Gunter’s jaw dropped.  The moon? he thought, Wouldn’t that just kill them anyway, unless they arrived there with a pressurized space suit?  Wasn’t that capital punishment without a mess to clean up?  “Wait, the moon?” he asked, “I thought you said you don’t do capital punishment?”

“I don’t, Gunter,” assured Celestia, “they’re alive and well, I assure you, but I don’t think they’ll remain so after their thousand-year sentence is up.”

“Who were those people?” the purple one, Twilight Sparkle, asked.  Gunter turned around to face them.

“Total barbarians, if you ask me,” the white one, Rarity, replied.  She had a very upper-crusty accent to her, sort of what Gunter imagined people of that social class in the 19th century sounded like, “what kind of ruffians would barge uninvited into the Royal Palace like that and make all that dreadful noise?”

Gunter turned to face the entire group.  “Assassins,” Gunter replied, “Targeting Celestia, I’m sure.  But I can’t for the life of me figure out how they got this far...” he then turned to Celestia.  “You might want to check your security detail, your majesty, it is my professional opinion that you have a leak or a mole or something.”

“I will get right on that,” Celestia replied.

Gunter then walked towards the other ponies and crouched down once again so they were at eye level.  “Are you girls all right?” he asked.

All of them responded in the affirmative, although the yellow one, Fluttershy, was still cowering behind the rest, visibly shaking, but she didn’t appear to be physically hurt.  Gunter turned to Ambassador Quill.  “What about you?” he asked.

“Oh, me?” she said, “Yeah... I’m fine...” she assured him, panting heavily, getting over the shock of what had just happened.

“What were those things you and the bad guys had that made all those loud noises?” Twilight Sparkle asked him, “I’ve never seen anything like them before.”

Gunter was about to explain, but Celestia interrupted, “I think that’s a matter you’re better off not discussing right now,” she said rather sternly, “Either way, though, Gunter, I don’t think I could’ve awarded the Order of the Sun to a better recipient today.  You certainly demonstrated very admirable qualities bravery and selflessness just then.”

Gunter turned and saluted.  “As the leader of a place allied with the United States, I would protect you as I would my country’s own president,” he stated.  Gunter did not, however, let on that his sworn duty did not actually specify protecting heads of state unless specifically ordered to do so, and he was not ordered to protect Princess Celestia or Luna.  It was mostly because nobody felt that the Princess was in any real danger, but still, Gunter did so out of sheer reflex.  It wasn’t technically violating a direct order... he thought, or was it?

The thought came as a shock to him.  Not once in his entire time of service to the CIA’s EES branch, since swearing an oath to serve the United States of America, did he even consider even potentially violating a direct order from his superiors!  It was just “What do you want me to do?” and “Yes, sir!” for him.  Was he really questioning his loyalty to the country he was sworn to protect and serve?  Gunter’s pulse started pounding, he could feel it in his neck.  What if he was given an order to assassinate Princess Celestia?  What if he was told an assassination would happen, but ordered not to protect her?  Sure, he didn’t doubt that the Princess could defend herself, but what if-?

Celestia smiled and used her hoof to lower Gunter’s arm, which snapped him out of his haze of thoughts.  “The United States should be proud to have such a dedicated agent as you on their side!” she proclaimed reassuringly.

Gunter simply nodded.  He agreed, but he realized that for all he did for his country, none of the people whose lives he had saved, except the President during the previous White House mission, even knew that a threat was facing them, much less the identity of the one who saved them from that threat.

At least it was good to know there were some individuals outside of the EES’s inner circle who appreciated what he did, even if they were from another world.  But he felt especially glad to know that Celestia was one of them.  She was a leader he would be proud to serve under if he could.

The Conversion Bureau: Third Party

By PonySoldier

Chapter 3

Celestia quietly distracted the other seven ponies as Gunter picked up his pistol from the floor.  He then proceeded to drag the dead body of one of the assassins out the door, as he would need to bring it back to the EES to process.  The doors, despite having been blasted open, somehow automatically swung shut after the assassins entered, possibly through some sort of magical means.  He was hoping that he could get clues as to who they were and just how these guys managed to get that far past her massive security.

Outside of the door, though, is where he got his answer to the second question; all the guards lay dead in much the same spots where he had seen them walking in.  Gunter put his paw over his mouth, as he didn’t want anyone to hear him gasp in absolute shock.  He rushed over to the nearest one and inspected it.  The cause of death was a slit throat, but the rest of the body did not have any defensive wounds, not even under the armor, once he figured out how to remove it.

“That doesn’t make any sense…” Gunter said to himself as he laid the body down, either these guards absolutely suck, he thought, or somehow they were already incapacitated…

Gunter went with the latter explanation, as it was the one that also explained why nobody heard their approach, and why the guards didn’t alert the Princess, either.  But that still left out how they became incapacitated in the relatively brief time between the door closing behind him after entering and the assassins bursting through it.  He then looked at the dead assassin’s body again and found a knife.  Gunter tilted his head and unsheathed it, which was actually harder than it looked, as it felt like something sticky filled the sheath.  Upon removing the knife, he found partially dried blood all over it.  If it was just this man doing what amounted to grunt work, given the circumstances, it explained why it took so long for them to get to the room.  Gunter could only assume that the terrorists somehow followed Gunter and the Ambassador through the portal, somehow getting past some of the best human operatives the EES had to offer.  And how did they know their way to get to the castle from there?  It wasn’t like they could just call a taxi with the way they were dressed, much less the fact that they were human and most likely didn’t have any amount of the local currency.

All these questions swirled in his mind, causing him to have a mild headache, so he reached into one of his vest’s pockets and produced an aspirin gel capsule specially formulated for his species, and swallowed it.  Within a couple minutes, his head started feeling better, so he turned around and went back through the door.

There, Celestia had apparently consoled the young ponies out of the shock of the events that had recently transpired, so Gunter decided to go the subtle route.

“Princess Celestia,” he said.

The Princess turned to face him.  She had a worried look on her face.  Gunter bit his lip.  “Yes?” she said.

Gunter motioned for her to come over to him, which she did, but the others started to follow her.  “Uh, sorry, this is a private matter for her and I to discuss, if you please.”

“Seriously, what’s going on?” asked Twilight Sparkle suspiciously.

Gunter thought for an answer but the Princess got to him.  He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Listen, all of your guards out in that hallway are dead.”

Celestia was clearly taken aback.

“There are no defensive wounds on them,” he continued, “they died where they stood when I walked in…”

The Princess simply nodded, still bearing a somewhat shocked expression, but managed to hide it more convincingly.

“Look,” Gunter concluded, “you definitely have a breach of security.  Somewhere along the line, someone’s gone rogue!  I’ll do my part to help and see if I can figure it out on the other side, but you know those under your command better than I do.  Look for anyone who’s acting funny or in any way different, even if it seems different in a good way.  Anything at all that seems out of the ordinary, look into it.”

“I certainly shall,” Celestia replied hesitantly, and then turned back to the seven ponies.  “All right, my little ponies, the hallway outside is… in need of repair,” she explained, “Twilight Sparkle, I would recommend that you teleport your friends back to Ponyville.”

“In that case,” Ambassador Quill said, in somewhat of a rushed tone, “I must get back to my office.  I’ve fallen terribly behind on my paperwork.  Bye!  And thanks again for escorting me, Gunter!” she said as she trotted to another door in the room, using her magic to open the door as she walked through it.

“But we barely got to know Agent Gunter!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“I think I can stay here for a bit,” Gunter replied, walking towards them.  He wanted to lighten the mood and have this end on a good note, so he took a few steps towards them and sat down cross-legged on the floor, his front paws touching the ground much like a non-morphic dog in the seated position.  “So, girls, whatever you want to know, feel free to ask and I’d be happy to explain!”

For the next half-hour, Gunter happily explained almost everything they wished to know, aside from a couple instances when they asked a seemingly innocent question that would have required Gunter to divulge highly classified information.  However, most of their questions were harmless.  Rainbow Dash asked most of them; she appeared to be the tomboy of the group, and Gunter was at least glad that he wasn’t talking to a bunch of extremely feminine ponies.  He explained to Rainbow Dash how much training he took to become a secret agent, he explained to Twilight Sparkle as much as he could about what his eyepiece did (an explanation which had most of the civilian ponies present asking him to scan them with it), he explained to Rarity the various purposes of his armor (which had turned out to be more of a rhetorical question, but he answered it anyway) and explained to Pinkie Pie that he had never really tried many sweet things, as chocolate was still toxic to him, because even with his humanoid body, he still had a dog’s stomach, to which Pinkie Pie replied that she would gladly fix him up some non-chocolate sweets if he should ever return.  He gladly accepted the offer out of courtesy, even though he did not think he would be returning to Equestria any time soon.

He looked at the remaining two, Applejack and Fluttershy, who hadn’t asked him anything.  “You sure you don’t want to ask me anything?” he kindly asked.

“Well,” Applejack said, “no.  Ah’m just a simple Earth Pony who works her apple orchard and does rodeos.  Shucks, I dunno what I’d ask a spy like you!”

Gunter smiled at her honest response.  “Listen,” he said, “just keep up what you’re doing.  My friends and I do our jobs so people on my side of the portal who are just like you won’t have to worry about anything more than getting the next harvest done.  Ponies like you are the reasons why Celestia’s officials like Quill here do their jobs.”

Applejack blushed, “Aw, shoot, that’s real nice of you ta say, Mr. Gunter.”

Gunter smiled at her and then turned to Fluttershy, who hadn’t said a word this entire time.  “Fluttershy,” he said, “surely you have something to say… I haven’t heard you speak this entire time!”

She simply looked at her hooves.   Apparently her name reflected her personality very accurately.

“It’s all right, sir,” came Twilight Sparkle’s voice, “she’s nervous around strangers, that’s all,” she explained as she walked up to him.  She got next to him and motioned him to lean down.  He did, and Twilight whispered into his ear, “I think she’s still trying to recover from the shock of earlier,” she added.

“And your rather intimidating attire is hardly helping, dear,” Rarity interjected into his other ear.

Gunter felt his stomach sink.  He hadn’t thought of his attire as being intimidating, but then again, he never really thought of what he looked like before.  He felt bad at the thought, but he still wanted to do something for the shy yellow winged pony.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of anything.  All the items he had on him were either too small to use or were clearly designed for creatures with fingers and opposable thumbs.

Just as Gunter began to stand up, a hoof lightly touched him.  He looked down, and saw Pinkie Pie motioning towards Fluttershy.  He got back down on his knees and looked at her.

“C-congratulations on the medal,” the yellow, winged pony practically whispered, “Um… stay safe…” she concluded.  Gunter picked up a light squeal at the end, and she shied away, taking a couple steps back.  Gunter had never seen anyone so shy in his life.

“Thank you, Fluttershy,” he replied, smiling warmly, “I certainly will.”

.         .       .

Gunter made his way out of the palace to the waiting carriage, which was still adjusted to his proper height.  Into the carriage, he threw the dead corpse of the terrorist he had killed, and all of the weapons the terrorists had been carrying so the EES could hopefully trace them.  As the carriage proceeded to move, Gunter took the liberty of examining his clothing and looking for some form of identification.

His clothing seemed to be a sort of military uniform, but it was not in a camouflage pattern, but rather a solid olive drab green color.  It looked like military dress, except without any badges, commendations, or even so much as a nametag pinned to it.   “Run facial ID scan,” Gunter said.  Immediately, his eyepiece flashed the word “Scanning…” as he centered the man’s face in his eyepiece, closing his other eye to get it better centered.  After a couple seconds, it flashed “No Match.”  Gunter thought for a minute, and then tried something different.  “Run iris scan,” he said, holding one of the man’s eyelids open, exposing his dark brown, almost black iris.

The iris scan took less time, but this time, the word “Match Found” flashed.  His eyepiece brought up a file of a man put on the “No Passport” list for both a military dishonorable discharge and suspected involvement with a terrorist organization known as the Human Liberation Front, an organization Hell-bent on preventing what they see as the possibility of all of humanity either dying out or moving to Equestria, even if it meant killing people trying to go to their local conversion bureau.  His name was Ralph Thatcher, a former Private in the Maryland Army National Guard dishonorably discharged after punching his commanding officer in the face, breaking his jaw, over a disagreement regarding his platoon’s assignment to protect one of the first Conversion Bureaus back when they were officially opened for emigration from the United States when the law allowing it was first signed into order by the President.  Back then, Conversion Bureaus were rowdy places that needed the military to keep order, but over time, much like the desegregation of schools in the South back in the late 1950s, the need for military crowd control faded until the Conversion Bureaus became far more peaceful places.  Some of the bigger ones still had small detachments of the particular state’s National Guard on hand just in case, but they were rarely actually needed.

According to the file, the man was reported to be a member of the HLF about six years ago, about the time when the group became widely known to the general public after the group sent their brief, yet harsh manifesto to CNN.

“The HLF…” Gunter said to himself, “Why does this not surprise me?”

Gunter had heard of the HLF, but the EES had never been called to act upon them, as the FBI was perceived to have a strong grasp on them.  However, with them managing to breach the security at the D.C. Conversion Bureau and getting so close to assassinating the Equestrian head-of-state, the situation with the HLF clearly required some intense intelligence-gathering.

Before he knew it, the carriage stopped, and Gunter opened the door, finding a nondescript building with an average-looking wooden door.  He looked around, and noticed that this was not the same place he came in.  “Are you sure this is the right place?” he asked one of the ponies pulling the carriage.

“This is a more subtle location,” the guard explained, “it’s like a back door.  We don’t want to draw too much attention by going through the main portal to your world.  Now stand back, I need to open it for you.”

Gunter stepped aside, and the guard stood squarely in front of the door.

“Broadshield!  Royal Guards!” he stated loudly at the door.

Suddenly, a small, thin, horizontal light emanated from the door’s peephole, and it proceeded to scan the pony’s entire body three times before it shut off.  Then, a computerized voice, similar to the one he heard emanating from the door on the way in to Equestria spoke, “Identity confirmed.  Royal Guards enlistment status confirmed.  Where do you wish to go?”

The Guard looked at Gunter, redirecting the question to him.

“Uh, the D.C. Conversion Bureau,” Gunter said.

“Valid location confirmed.  Door opening, please stand back.”

Broadshield took a few steps back to allow the door to open outward, revealing the interior of the Conversion Bureau through which he had entered Equestria.  Gunter lifted the sack of weapons and the dead body over his shoulder out of the carriage, walked towards the portal, and just before he entered, he turned to the guards, gave them a casual salute, and walked through.  The door immediately closed behind him.

Back in the world he was used to, Gunter casually retraced his steps through the Conversion Bureau, noticing that the shortcuts were still in place.  Then, remembering that the HLF assassins had taken this route, he warily drew his pistol with his free hand and turned on its built-in flashlight.  He saw nothing along his way out, but when he got to the front door, the sight shocked him; all of the agents protecting the area were dead!  The area was cordoned off with ambulances, uniformed police officers, coroners, the works!  Gunter quickly hid and put the body down somewhere safe.

He clicked on his comm. link.   “HQ, HQ,” he whispered, “This is 1425 requesting immediate extraction from D.C. Conversion Bureau!  My escort has been eliminated!  I repeat, my escort has been eliminated!  There are too many unauthorized individuals outside!”

“Roger that,” replied the voice on the other end, “sending transport.  ETA fifteen minutes.”

“Also,” Gunter added, “I’ve got a body with me.  I-“

“Wait, what?” the voice on the other end exclaimed in disbelief.

“Look, it’s a long story, and I’ll explain it in more detail later, but it’s important.  I need it to be processed!  It’s the body of a Mr. Ralph Thatcher, a known member of the HLF.  He and three others somehow managed to breach the Conversion Bureau and tried to assassinate Princess Celestia!  Get me an ambulance or something to transport the body in!”

“Uh… copy that, we’ll send in appropriate transportation.”

.     .     .

About half an hour later, Gunter was sitting in a small conference room, alone, waiting for Commander Thompson to hear his report on what happened in Equestria.  He had been given time to change into his more casual, yet still appropriately formal attire, which he now sported; a white button-down shirt with a black tie.

Soon enough, he came in.  “So, Gunter,” he said, sitting down in a chair across from him, “you were awarded a medal from Celestia and proved your worth by fending off another assassination attempt.”

“Kind of, sir,” Gunter replied.

“Please, explain to me what happened in as much detail as you can.  The more details the better.”

Gunter proceeded to do so as best he could.  The Commander raised his eyebrows at the parts where Celestia using her magic to banish the three others to the moon and to block the bullets of the assassins, but otherwise remained a respectful listener.

“The threat,” Gunter concluded, “is coming from a defector or a mole or something within Princess Celestia’s ranks.  There was no way we could have predicted that.  Someone in Celestia’s inner circle made sure the portal door remained open after I passed through it, tipped off the HLF that it would be open at that specific time, and arranged for transportation to the castle where they encountered guards already rendered defenseless before they arrived.”

Commander Thompson mulled over it for a while.  Gunter remained in his seat.

“Well,” he said, once he had finished, “from your account, and the information gathered by the coroner, it seems like someone either underestimated Celestia’s power, or the offensive capabilities of the HLF.   Did you inspect their pistols?”

“Not really,” Gunter admitted.

“There was only one bullet in each of the clips; they were a suicide squad, and they would have killed themselves if they had succeeded.  If someone was really in contact with them, the mole would have known that their chance of success was very, very low, even if they caught her by herself.  It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to arrange for some assassins to go all the way from the D.C. Conversion Bureau to Princess Celestia’s palace, all the while knowing that they would fail miserably.”

“So what are you saying?” Gunter asked.

“We’re going to need proof that there actually is a mole in Celestia’s inner circle,” he explained, “it’s all too possible to be written off as a simple but significant lapse in security on Celestia’s part.”

“WHAT?” Gunter exclaimed, rising from his seat, “What more proof do you need?”

“Gunter, stand down!” the Commander shouted, standing up.

Gunter immediately sat back down.

“Gunter,” he said, calmed down from before, “your threat assessment makes sense, but let me be honest, while the Government has a good diplomatic relationship with Equestria, it is not our job to protect them.  We as a country have to respect their inherent sovereignty!  We have not been asked to intervene, and nothing short of an invitation by Princess Celestia or Luna herself would be enough to warrant us investigating her inner circle!  Plus, who’s going to believe that someone in Celestia’s inner circle is helping out the HLF, a group of terrorists who would very much like to see everyone who’s a part of it hanged from the top of the Washington Monument?  Furthermore, Celestia and her sister Luna have both made it painstakingly clear that ponies converted from humans are not allowed to serve in even the lowest government position, even so much as a postal worker, until his or her family line has reached a fifth generation!  And even the very first converts haven’t been there long enough to make even a third generation!”

“But sir,” Gunter argued, “We can’t just sit on our asses and do nothing!”

Commander Thompson sighed.  “The ponies have grown on you, haven’t they?” he asked.

Gunter looked away and didn’t respond.

“Don’t worry, it’s why most of us humans have become one of them.  Happens to the best of us,” he admitted, “Look, I personally don’t have a problem with Equestria or its citizens, but your presence there was a formality, nothing more.   It’s Celestia and Luna’s responsibility to weed out subversive members of their own inner circle, not ours.  I’m sorry, Gunter, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Gunter sighed, feeling defeated, and stood up.  He made for the door, opened it, and slammed it shut behind him.

“God damn it,” Gunter mumbled to himself as he made his way to the barracks where his bed was situated.  He made it about halfway there through the metal-covered hallways with the occasional screen displaying CNN.  Gunter stopped at one of them to look, as the regular feed had been interrupted so suddenly that he couldn’t help but notice.

“This just in,” said the female news anchor, “the Human Liberation Front terrorist organization has just issued a written statement claiming responsibility for the devastating attack on the White House during the President’s annual summit with the Equestrian Ambassador...”

Suddenly; a voice came on over the loudspeakers.  “Agent Gunter, Commander Thompson requests that you return to the briefing room immediately,” it said.

“That was fast,” he mused as he made an about-face and headed back the way he came.

Upon arriving, Commander Thompson was standing up.  “Gunter,” he said, “good news; remember the attack on the White House?” He asked, but didn’t wait for a response, “I’m not sure if you heard, but the HLF just claimed responsibility for it.  The Secret Service and the FBI has just requested that we investigate it.”

“Great!” Gunter exclaimed, “where to?”

“The FBI gave us a list of areas with a high amount of known HLF activity.  We’ve got two recruiting stations and one meeting place.   Get your gear together, you and two other agents leave tomorrow afternoon.”

.    .    .

At 1:00 P.M. on the dot, the German Shepherd agent was ready.  He and two other agents, a female Doberman and a male Bloodhound, were suited up and prepared to leave.  Each of them were assigned to a Black Ops squad of four Black Ops agents each, who were already stationed at safe houses nearest to their respective destinations.  The Doberman was going to be dropped off in Atlanta, the Bloodhound was to be dropped off in Chicago, while Gunter was to be dropped off in Dallas.  The three of them were transported in the back of an unmarked black van, which was then loaded on an airplane, an Atlas C-350 military cargo plane, the interior of which was outfitted to be an EES mobile command center, complete with every conceivable communication device, computers, and even a smaller version of the assault simulation console back at the main base.  Stationed at Langley AFB, it looked like any other typical military transport aircraft stationed there; the only thing that distinguished it from the others on the outside was the tail fin number.

Once the van drove inside, the cargo bay door of the plane closed, and the agents exited the van as the engine was shut off.  Takeoff went by uneventfully, and once the plane reached cruising altitude, the three agents reported to the briefing room to be briefed on what they were to be doing.  There, the three agents met with Officer Nathan, the person in charge of the aircraft.

“Agents,” he began, “your overall mission is to find out anything and everything about what is being planned by the HLF,” he explained, “any information will help us.  Remember to use your earpiece’s audio recording software.  Also, the Black Ops squads will be on standby near your location in case you catch any trouble happening.  We’ll update you on specifics once we get closer to your destination so they’re fresh in your mind.  Good luck, team, and rest up as much as you can!  You’ll be skydiving down to your destination.”

The agents stood, saluted, and made for the door.

“Gunter,” Officer Nathan said, “I’d like to talk to you first.”

Gunter turned around and sat down.

“Commander Thompson wanted me to let you know that they traced the origin of the machine guns you found to the Ft. Hood armory,” he explained, “and the ammunition to a small Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma, about three hours north of Dallas.”

“Then why are you sending me to Dallas?” Gunter asked, “Ft. Hood is, what, two, three hours drive away from Dallas?  Shouldn’t we be looking there?”

“The Military Police there have tightened security there and are investigating the incident, but there have been reports of high-ranking members of the HLF meeting in an upscale section of Dallas.  They conduct legitimate business there, but they are all connected in one way or another to every known member of the HLF that we’ve detained or killed, including the guy you recovered,” Nathan explained, “also, one of them is a Drill Instructor stationed at Ft. Hood… the FBI is hesitant to move on him, but we suspect that he’s supportive of the HLF cause, along with the fact that he’s meeting its ringleaders tonight.”

“Wait,” Gunter wondered, “if you know they’re the ringleaders, why haven’t you arrested them?”

“Because we didn’t have a warrant to,” said the Officer, “We couldn’t find any solid evidence linking them with the HLF.  They’re operating it like an organized crime ring, which makes it all the more difficult to prove their responsibility.  But with agents like you, and the fact that the HLF claimed responsibility for the attack on the President and the Equestrian Ambassador, we have more than enough of a reason to investigate the heck out of these guys as well as the known recruitment spots the others are going to.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“You’ll drop in to a mostly abandoned college campus,” Nathan explained, “you’ll be looking for the auditorium building.  Aside from the auditorium itself, there are small offices in the basement and a small, disused room on the top floor.  These floor plans will help you out,” he concluded, handing him the floor plans.

“So I need to camp out in the building and wait to see where they are?” the German Shepherd asked.

“Camp outside the building and use your eyepiece to ID them first.  Once they’re confirmed, follow them in, and listen in on anything and everything they’re saying,” Nathan replied, “and also, the Black Ops team assigned to you are stationed in the abandoned Men’s Clothing Store across the street from the auditorium.”

Gunter nodded.  “One more thing, though,” he added, “why isn’t anyone already suspicious of these guys walking in to an abandoned building?  Shouldn’t they be arrested for trespassing or something already?”

“They actually chair a board to restore the campus and resurrect it as the highly acclaimed University it used to be.  They basically own the building.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, we suspect he might be hiding something there, something arrived as recently as this morning, but we can’t for the life of us even guess what it is.  Your secondary objective, therefore, is to find out if there’s anything hidden there, and if so, what it is and what they plan to do with it,” the Officer added.

“Yes sir!” Gunter exclaimed, standing up and saluting.

.     .     .

About an hour after the Doberman agent had skydived into Atlanta, Gunter was standing at the side door of the plane, ready to jump out.  He was outfitted with all of the necessary equipment to skydive, along with his standard spy equipment, along with the addition of two new weapons.  One was a prototype 9mm pistol more powerful than the Beretta he normally carried.  It was similar to the Smith & Wesson 1911 pistol, but far more modernized with built-in laser sight and a small device around the muzzle that allowed the user to attach a silencer in a way much similar to how one would attach a lens onto an SLR camera, thus making the process of attaching and removing the silencer much easier and faster in a tight situation.  The other new weapon he now carried with him was a very experimental, yet reliable silenced sniper rifle that was on the verge of becoming standard-issue to EES operatives.  On his back was a parachute, as he, too, would be skydiving to his destination.

“All right, Gunter!” shouted one of the human agents overseeing the skydiving, “your eyepiece will direct you to the appropriate landing zone!  Remember to land on top of the building, not next to it!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Gunter called out in reply.  He gave a casual salute before jumping.

After a very peaceful time free-falling, his earpiece beeped, causing the German Shepherd to break from the feeling of total peace so he could pull his parachute cord.  His eyepiece highlighted the building he was supposed to head towards, and he manipulated the parachute to take him right there.  Within minutes, he parachuted safely to the roof of the indicated building.

Once he landed on the building, he discarded his parachute and pulled out a large vial from the parachute backpack’s interior.  He quickly bunched the parachute together in as small a bundle as he could manage, and poured the contents of the vial onto it.  It was a very potent concentration of Sulfuric Acid that was calculated to have enough corrosive capabilities to destroy most, if not all, of the parachute and the backpack it came in, in order to cover his tracks as best as possible.  He then reached for the sniper rifle.  He looked through the scope with the eye covered by the eyepiece, so the eyepiece could pick up anything his naked eye couldn’t see.  He didn’t spy any police cars or anyone in the vicinity.  According to his eyepiece, the current school session had ended last week, and few, if anyone, had a reason to remain there, as the campus did not hold summer courses.  However, he did spy a campus security vehicle drive up to and stop by the building.  Gunter quickly put away the sniper rifle and looked for the roof access staircase.

“Excuse me up there!  Are you aware that you’re not allowed to parachute on these premises?” shouted a voice from down below.

Gunter swore to himself.  He really didn’t want to bring harm to a hapless school security guard, so he had to hurry and find a way out.  He quickly found the door to the staircase and bolted for it.

The canine agent made it down three out of four flights of stairs before he heard footsteps on the ground floor.  Panicked, Gunter rushed in the nearest door, which lead to a hallway of classrooms and conference rooms.  At the other end was another doorway, which his eyepiece told him led to a different staircase, but unfortunately, a man in a blue security outfit opened that door before the German Shepherd could even begin to run for it.  Gunter was about to turn around and go back down the previous set of stairs, but his sharp ears picked up footsteps coming up.  Gunter, for lack of anything else he could do, rushed into the door nearest to him.  Unfortunately for him, it only lead to a classroom where the door he walked into was the only exit.

Gunter swore to himself again as he reached into his pocket.  Basic training to be an Espionage Operative told him that private security contractors should not be dealt with in lethal fashion unless they were either employed by a target and/or were actively trying to kill you and you have no other way out.  In this situation, the Shepherd could only assume that these two were working for the school, and considering that, they probably wouldn’t, or more likely, couldn’t, put up a fight if they came in and Gunter drew a gun on them.  He could probably get the two to simply let him go if he just held them up at gunpoint, but they would probably call the police and they would have to be taken in by the EES to get their memories wiped.  However, the secret agent decided to go for a very quick way of dealing with this.  Gunter reached his paw into one of his vest’s pockets and produced a small disc with a few holes drilled in it.  On top of it, was stamped a large letter “F” and on the bottom was a button.  Gunter pressed the button, tossed it to the door, and jumped to the corner of the room to the left of the entrance, where he assumed the duck and cover position.

Almost immediately, the door burst open and two security guards walked into the room.  Before either of them could look to their left and see the crouching anthropomorphized German Shepherd Dog, a loud “BANG” and a blinding flash of burning magnesium filled the room for a split second.  The two security guards were blinded and covering their eyes, shouting in pain at how much it hurt.  Gunter, who had his eyes closed and facing away from the flash, was relatively unharmed, except his ears were ringing.  He quickly got out of the crouching position, turned, and ran.  He pushed past the still blinded security guards, who tried to apprehend him but were unable to do so.  The Espionage Operative quickly went through the door to the stairs and down to the ground floor, where he bolted out a rear emergency exit door, which set off the alarm in the building.  He would be long gone by the time any and all responders managed to get to the building, as he saw no other security guards in the vicinity.  He soon managed to get himself to the main quad of the campus, where he hid in a thicket of some overgrown bushes from some approaching SUVs.  They had emergency lights on top of them, and the markings on them indicated they were with school security, so they were most likely going to the building he had just escaped from.

Once the vehicle passed, Gunter poked his head out of the bushes and used his eyepiece to search for the appropriate building he was supposed to be watching.  Sure enough, he found it; a large Neo-Classical building with pillars down the front and a stairway leading up to the front door, with the top of the building bearing the words “AUDITORIUM” engraved in the cement.  He looked at his watch; it was 6:00 P.M.  As if on cue, he heard bells in the distance ringing off the hour, and then playing various assorted tunes that he guessed were Christian Hymns.  It lasted for about the next half-hour before it stopped.  Shortly after, Gunter noticed two men walking up to the auditorium.  He brought out his sniper rifle and viewed them through the scope.  His eyepiece confirmed that they were two of the three men he was looking for, but the third one, the Drill Instructor, was nowhere to be found.  Apparently waiting for him, the two men sat down on a nearby bench.  One of them lit a cigarette.  Gunter decided to produce his sniper rifle when he noticed that three men in coat-and-tie attire emerged from the building.  They approached the two men, and after exchanging words, the two unknown men stood a ways away from the two men on the bench.  They weren’t very subtle bodyguards, as anyone with eyes could tell that they were protecting two apparently very important people.  They were fairly decent at concealing their weapons, though, as Gunter had to rely on his eyepiece to pick them up; they both carried machine pistols concealed in their coats, much like the Secret Service would do.

The German Shepherd agent sat in waiting, patiently, until finally he caught sight of a third person, the Drill Instructor.  “Hey HQ,” Gunter said into his earpiece, “tell me about this Drill Instructor guy… why do you think he’s joining up with the HLF?”

“Pulling up the file,” replied the voice on the other end.  After a few seconds, the voice continued, “Let’s see, he appeared to express disapproval for the government’s policy of deploying National Guard troops to protect the Conversion Bureaus from the very beginning.  But that was only the first of it; he was later reprimanded for trying to instill contempt for Equestria in one of his batches of new recruits, as that was contrary to the United States’ official stance.  Let’s see… that’s about… wait…”

There was a pause.  “…Yes?” Gunter urged.

“Uh, it seems that the Army Criminal Investigation Command just listed him as the prime suspect for Grand Larceny for the robbery of both the Ft. Hood armory and the Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma, which includes the guns and ammo you found on those guys who broke into Equestria.  They just issued an arrest warrant for him,” the voice at the other end explained rather hesitantly.

“You sound nervous,” Gunter noted, “what’s so bad about that aside from the fact that the police might break in on this meeting I’m about to eavesdrop?”

“There’s a warning on the arrest that he’s armed and potentially dangerous; they suspect he took a machine pistol and three clips from the base,” the voice of HQ said, “Oh, and Commander Thompson just told me to tell you that if the police come to arrest him, do not interfere unless absolutely necessary.”

“Roger that,” Gunter affirmed.  “Absolutely necessary” meant if the hostiles had defeated, or appeared to be defeating the police, or started shooting civilians.  Gunter could deal with that, especially knowing that if this guy was listed as armed and dangerous, they would only send in SWAT teams to arrest him, and odds were that they would stand a good chance against three lightly armed suspects and two unarmed suspects.

Gunter ended the transmission and kept looking through the scope.  The Drill Instructor appeared to be conversing with the two men on the bench rather casually, until the two stood up and ascended the stairs to the auditorium, leaving the two bodyguards standing outside, in front of the staircase.  The canine agent put away his sniper rifle and looked around.  He noticed that the buildings on the campus around the main quad, including the auditorium, formed an almost perfect rectangle.  He could use these buildings as cover to sneak behind in order to get to the auditorium undetected.  Although he could just snipe the two security guards and make a mad dash for it, secrecy was key, and he couldn’t risk the targets being alerted to danger.

Slowly raising himself from the bushy cover, he dashed inside the building directly behind him, which was fortunately unlocked.  The building’s interior amounted to a hallway with doors on either side to classrooms and offices, and a staircase to lead up.  Gunter quickly traversed the hallway and out the opposite door once he checked that it was clear.  He made a left turn and dashed towards the building nearest to his left, only to discover that the door was locked, so he opted to go behind it for the sake of time.  He switched his eyepiece to heat seeking mode so he could easily spot bystanders to avoid.  Fortunately, due to the time of year, nobody was outside.  Through all of the first section of the rectangular loop he was taking, the only time he had to worry about bystanders was a janitor cleaning something inside of the library, but right next to a window.  For that, he simply crouched below the level of the window and crept along the outer wall until he was out of the janitor’s line of sight.

Soon enough, he reached the first corner of the rectangle, where he made a left turn.  This section was only taken up by a single building, Dallas Hall, the original and iconic structure of the University.  The doors to that building were locked, too, but Gunter noticed that even if he went behind a building, he ran the risk of a car driving by and spotting him in what was still, for the most part, broad daylight.  It was 7 P.M. and the sun wasn’t due to set for another hour, according to his eyepiece.  Unable to kick down the doors, which his eyepiece detected were made of metal, but made to look like wood, and lacking the time needed to pick the lock, he produced his pistol and attached the silencer, which was just as easy as it was purported to be; all he had to do was attach it, and give it a quarter-turn clockwise, and the silencer was very suitably attached!  Satisfied, but still rushed, Gunter aimed and shot out the window next to the door.  Once the glass was broken, he shot into the small wood crossbeams holding the small squares of glass, making them weak enough for him to break off and allowing him to climb through.  Fortunately, no alarms were set off, and no security was present within the building, so he dashed through the building to reach the other side, where he found a door that was locked on the outside, but not the inside, so he was able to open it with ease.

After making another left turn, he was faced with the same dilemma as before; going in front of the buildings would cause too much attention to the security guards, and behind these buildings was a major street and a strip mall!  To add to it, the building on this side of the rectangle did not have side doors.  Well, at least the one building between him and the auditorium didn’t.  Gunter took cover under yet another bush next to the building.  Lacking any other way to get by unseen and without raising the alarm of either the school security or the targets’ bodyguards, he clicked on his earpiece.  “1425 to Dallas safe house,” he whispered.

“This is Dallas safe house, go ahead 1425,” came a female voice from the other end.

Gunter scanned the main quad again and saw that there was nobody out and about, so he continued, “I need a distraction.  I’m in a stealth-based bind over here.  There are two armed guards standing in front of the SCUT auditorium on one side, and a major thoroughfare on the other.  I need to get into the auditorium ASAP!”

“Copy that, 1425, notifying on-campus sleeper agent,” assured the female voice at the other end, and then the call was disconnected.  Gunter poked his head out of the bushes just enough to see what was going on.  Sure enough, a very attractive-looking woman sporting school spirit attire walked out from another building and approached the two bodyguards.  They immediately focused their attention at her.  Clearly, these were not the best private bodyguards money could buy.  The canine agent emerged from his hiding place and crept up towards the auditorium.  The agent was doing a stellar job of keeping the bodyguards focused on her and not their immediate surroundings.  Even to Gunter, it looked like she didn’t even notice that an anthropomorphic canine was creeping along behind the two bodyguards as he crept into the auditorium’s side door.  She appeared to be asking directions to somewhere and asked the two about themselves.  From what Gunter gathered, she stopped just short of straight up propositioning the two bodyguards to go home with her for the night, which very much kept their interest.

Once inside, Gunter was at home.  This was his element; creeping around buildings such that nobody would ever know anyone was even there listening in on even their most private conversations.  But then something caught his attention.  Something was out of place.  His sharp canine nose picked up a scent that did not belong to a suburban college campus like this.

Hay? he thought, what would anyone want with hay…?  It certainly wasn’t the chemical weapon Phosgene, which smelled like hay to the human nose.  A canine could easily smell the difference between that and real hay, and this German Shepherd was absolutely certain that this was actual hay.  But then he picked up something else… something that he only smelled once before…

Gunter’s eyes widened, his heart started racing for a moment when he realized what it was.  It was unmistakable; he had spent more than enough time in Equestria to learn the distinct scent of an Equestrian pony.

The canine pressed his paw to his earpiece.  “HQ, HQ,” he whispered, “the targets have a hostage, I repeat, the targets have a hostage, please advise.”

“HQ to 1425,” came the male voice on the other end, “do you have visual confirmation on the hostage?”

“Negative,” Gunter replied, “but I have definite olfactory confirmation.  There’s an Equestrian pony in here.”

“What?” the man exclaimed, clearly shocked, but then cleared his throat to begin again, “Uh, roger that…” he paused, “… your orders still stand.  Turn on your eyepiece camera, Commander Thompson wants to see this.”

“Right away,” Gunter replied, and hit the switch on his eyepiece to turn on the camera.

“Ok, the feed is good,” noted the man at HQ, “continue your mission, you have full permission to free the hostage once you have gathered all the necessary information.  Over and out.”

Aside from the occasional car passing by the street and the A/C system, all was silent in the auditorium, especially in the basement, where there were only narrow hallways, doors on either side, and an occasional staircase.  The anthropomorphic German Shepherd agent tread carefully, at any moment someone could have come bursting out of any one of the doors in the hallway.  He checked his ammo clip in his pistol, and seeing it down to two shots, he reloaded.  The silencer was still on, so he was prepared.  He crept alongside the walls towards where the scent of the Equestrian was getting stronger, his bare paws making hardly any noise as they came in contact with the ground.

Just before rounding a corner, he began to hear voices.  He pressed his back against the wall right next to the corner and angled his right ear, nearest to the corner, towards where the voices were coming from.

“…belong in a cartoon for little girls!” exclaimed one voice.

“Please…” went another voice, this one female, “I have a family… my younger brother is just learning to-“

A loud gunshot sounded.  There was no scream of pain, so it must have been fired straight up as a way to silence the hostage.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure all your pansy-ass family members miss you,” went another very gruff male voice, “but you know what?  We don’t fucking care!”

Gunter took in a deep breath and engaged the audio recording device on his eyepiece before he broke cover and walked in the crouching position towards the source of the voice, which was just down the hall.  He tread carefully, noticing the scent of a human very close by.  Suddenly, he heard the unmistakable sound of a toilet flushing in the room right next to him, and then the door to his right unlocking.  He quickly pressed himself against the wall next to the door.

The door opened, a man walked out, and Gunter grabbed him by the head and wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, preventing him from making any verbal noises.  The man struggled to pull Gunter’s arm off his neck so he could shout for help, but Gunter proved to be considerably stronger.  When the man tried to reach for his pistol, Gunter countered with a rough yank up on the head, and with a soft “pop” the body went limp.  He quickly placed the body back inside the bathroom, closed the door as quietly as he could, and continued.

He reached the door, but crouched down next to the ajar doorway, and nudged it open enough to look inside.  There, inside of a cage just large enough to fit her, was a female Equestrian Earth pony.  She bore a mark on her flank depicting a red cross, causing Gunter to suspect she was some sort of medical professional.  Her coat was white, her mane a shade of pink much like Fluttershy’s, with very pale blue eyes.  He listened in closely.

“What have I ever done to you?” she pleaded, “All I’ve ever done is help-!”

“You’re destroying the human race!” the gruff voice exclaimed, “We were put on this earth to stand on two legs and walk proud, but you just give them an injection and upstanding men are reduced to walking on all fours like the beast you are!”

Gunter clenched his fist.

“C’mon,” said the first voice, “all we want to know is when the Grand Galloping Gala is, and you’ll never have to worry about us again.”

“B-but y-you’re going to hurt everypony!” the Equestrian protested.  Gunter could see tears coming out of her eyes.

“God damn it!” shouted the gruff voice, “I knew we should’ve gotten someone better than the fucking nurse!”

“Give her a while,” said the first voice, more calmly, “she’s only been here less than a day… she won’t last long outside of pussy-topia.”

Gunter heard footsteps, so he curled up into a ball behind the door and waited, still grasping his pistol.

Fortunately, the door opening all the way hit the wall to his right before it could hit him, which would’ve alerted the targets to his presence.  Gunter nudged the door with his paw and watched two of the three targets turn and ascend a staircase.  Once they were up, he quickly maneuvered in front of the door and crept in.  The pony immediately looked up and saw him.  She gasped.  “Who are you?” she exclaimed.

Someone else in the room gasped, too, and quickly began fumbling for his pistol.  Gunter quickly stood up and fired a shot into the sentry’s head, killing him instantly and almost without a sound aside from a soft “pew” and the light clinking of the empty cartridge on the floor.

The nurse pony gasped again as the sentry fell dead to the floor.  Gunter closed the door behind him and rushed over to her, shushing her.  “Shhh…” he said, “I’m getting you outta here,” he explained as he examined the cage she was being held in.

“W-what are you?” she whimpered.

“Long story,” Gunter replied, “but I’m one of the good guys.  I’m with the Central Intelligence Agency.  Listen, I’ve been given orders to spy on these guys who captured you, and right now, I have to get you somewhere safe…” he trailed off.  The cage stumped him.  He had no idea how the cage locked; there was no keyhole, no dial, no number pad or keyboard or anything that appeared to be the lock/unlock mechanism.  “Do you remember how they locked this thing?” he asked.

“N-no…” the white nurse pony whispered, “I just woke up and found myself in here.”

Gunter sighed and used his eyepiece to scan for anything that could help him.  To his dismay, he found that it was locked via RFID technology, something that could only be hacked via cloning the original.  Lacking the original, Gunter was completely out of options.  His eyepiece indicated the cage was made of a titanium alloy, so he couldn’t break it by hand, and it would only harm or kill the captive pony if he used explosives.  It could be broken with power tools, but he had none at his disposal, and there were none lying around.

“I’m sorry,” Gunter sighed, defeated, “I can’t open this cage without hurting you.”

The nurse pony burst into tears.  She pleaded with him to try something, anything.

He didn’t want to tell her that the top of the cage was fitted with a stick of C4.  It could have broken the cage for sure, but that obviously wasn’t why it was there in the first place.

“Agent 1425, come in,” went the voice on his earpiece.

Gunter turned to the side and put his paw to the earpiece.  “What?” he replied angrily.

“You need to go find the three targets and find out what they’re planning!” exclaimed the unmistakable voice of Commander Thompson.

“I can’t leave her here!” Gunter retorted and cut the transmission.

He turned to the hostage.  “Hey,” he said, “you can still help me… what were they trying to get you to tell them?”

The nurse pony was still crying relatively silently, but her tears were streaking down her cheeks.  “Why should I tell you?” she sobbed.

“Because I can make sure everyone in Equestria remains safe from them.  I can use what you know to help Princess Celestia and Luna be ready for anything that they have planned!” he replied.  He noticed that his vision was getting blurry, and blinking didn’t seem to help.

“They… they wanted to know when the Grand Galloping Gala was,” she explained, “I think they want to hurt ponies there…”

Gunter blinked hard, and felt a drop of liquid run down his furred cheek.

“It’s in two months,” she continued, “I don’t know the exact date, but when you guys are having summer, we’re only recently coming out of spring, and the Gala is late spring…”

“Thank you,” he replied, biting his lip.  He felt he was losing his focus, and his cold concentration.  He wished for nothing more at that moment than to not see the unbelievably innocent-looking nurse pony be killed by these extremist thugs, especially in such a crude manner.  “Listen,” he said, “I’ll make sure everyone in Equestria, especially Celestia and Luna, knows you helped me, and that you bravely held out against these guys in spite of everything you’ve gone-“

He paused.  He caught a scent getting closer.  It was definitely human.  Gunter drew his pistol and whirled around, aiming at the door.

The door casually opened, and it revealed a fat-bodied man whom Gunter identified as target number one for this mission, one of the businessmen.  By sheer reflex, and disgust that such a man had gotten his filthy hands on an innocent creature, Gunter immediately opened fire, double tapping the chest and then a shot to the head.  The man fell backwards to the floor, and dropped a small device out of his right hand.  The German Shepherd wondered what it was, but then he heard beeping.  Gunter immediately knew what it was and ran for it.  Gunter leaped for the dead man’s switch, but just before he could grasp it in his paws, a gunshot rang out and hit Gunter in the left side of his chest.  His armor prevented the bullet from getting to his skin, but the shock of being unexpectedly shot made him freeze just long enough for the beeping timer to hit zero.  The C4 in the cage detonated, creating a shockwave that thrust him forward towards the two security guards who had shot him.

Gunter lay flat on the ground, face down, remaining motionless.  He didn’t show it, but he was angry.  By simply not pressing a switch, a fat man who obviously had no training in anything of this sort killed an innocent creature for the utmost of stupid reasons; pure hate.  Then, of course, there was the man who had just shot him, preventing Gunter from saving a life of a pony who’s simple coloration should have screamed “Neutral.”  It was like Daniel’s death all over again, but this time, somehow, it was worse.

The security guards walked over to his motionless body cautiously.  When they got close enough, one of them used his foot to turn the body over.  As soon as he did, Gunter grabbed the leg and knocked the guard off his balance.  The man clumsily fell to the floor as the canine agent used his leg to knock the legs out from under the second one, and at the same time draw his pocket revolver in his ankle holster before he stood up.  Both of the guards were fumbling for their weapons.  Gunter shot one dead and kicked the other in the face before lifting him up and pressing his body against the wall.  The HLF guard was paralyzed with fear.  Gunter played on this by baring his teeth at him.

“Pony season’s over, asshole!” he growled.

The guard met his end as the enraged canine immediately went for the jugular vein and quickly ripped the skin with his sharp fangs, breaking the vein with relatively little effort.  His face was sprayed with blood as the HLF guard gurgled and went limp.

Gunter wiped the blood from his muzzle tapped his earpiece.  “Send in the Black Ops squad.  Now,” he said, trying to hide his anger.

“Copy that, Black Ops team 3 en route,” went the voice at the other end.

He had dropped his pistol in the room where the explosion occurred, but he didn’t want to look back on that.  He knew there could only be a bloody mess in there, and right now, he didn’t want to break down and cry.

Gunter, with enflamed dedication to cleanse this place of the HLF, ascended the nearest staircase.  Two security guards were descending the same staircase in a single-file line.  Gunter raised his revolver and casually and dispatched the first one with a shot to the head and the second one with three shots to the heart.  He stopped caring who saw him; they would all die, anyway.  He heard shouts from the upper floor, which he soon reached as he once again reloaded his revolver.  It was a large, wide-open and empty lobby.  There, he saw three security guards rushing towards him and raising their pistols, demanding that he drop his weapon.  He casually ignored them and opened fire, taking out two, getting shot in the chest by the other, but his armor blocked the standard 9mm round, and he quickly dispatched him with another shot.  Suddenly, the door burst open behind him.  He turned around and aimed his pistol at the sound, but he saw it was the Black Ops team.  It consisted of a German Shepherd, a Doberman, and two Rottweilers dressed in SWAT attire, but with far more modern armor, more advanced weapons, and eyepieces attached to their helmets.

“Sir!” one of the Rottweilers said, “orders!”

“I’ve cleared out the basement,” Gunter explained flatly as he replaced the ammo in his revolver, “check the auditorium.  I’m going to the offices on the third floor.  Meet me upstairs once you’re done in there.”

“Yes sir!” he replied.

With that, Gunter walked to the elevator and called it.  The Black Ops team stacked up against one of the three double-doors that lead into the auditorium, and then kicked it open, and filed in.  The elevator arrived soon after.  Gunter stood to the side of the door and waited.  Sure enough, two bodyguards armed with submachine guns came out.  Gunter pistol-whipped the nearest one and kicked his chest as he doubled over, and then kicked his firearm away.  The other man turned to face Gunter, but to him, it might as well have been in slow motion.  Using his pistol as a blunt-force weapon, he disarmed his opponent by striking the trigger hand with it, and then drew his knife, jamming it in the chest, just above the pectoral muscle.  He left it lodged in there as he proceeded to pistol-whip the bodyguard’s head, causing him to fall down.  Gunter finished him off with a coup de grâce shot to the back of the head.  As for the other opponent who was still on the ground, he stepped on his neck and emptied the remaining five shots into his chest.

Once his revolver was empty, Gunter took the knife out of the other bodyguard’s chest and sheathed it before walking into the elevator and hitting the button for the third floor.  On the ride up, Gunter cleaned off his knife and began to reload again.  This mission just got personal.  Nobody killed a civilian in front of an EES agent without paying for it.

“For America,” he said to himself, removing the empty chambers from his pistol, “for her” he added, referring to the nurse, as he loaded a new, full chamber cylinder, “for Equestria,” he ended on a whisper, looking straight at the door.  He spun the chambers as the elevator door opened.  Right in front of him were targets number two and number three; the other businessman and the Drill Instructor.  Without even hesitating, he raised his weapon and shot the second businessman dead between the eyes.  He turned to the Drill Instructor, but he had gotten close to Gunter and managed to disarm him.  Gunter screamed out in pain as the DI exploited a pressure point on the wrist.  He used his claws, however blunt, to swipe at the DI’s face, which caused him to wince away a bit, but just enough to get re-oriented enough to throw a punch at the DI’s clearly battle-hardened face.  His opponent’s head recovered immediately from the blow and went for a punch to the nose, which was immensely painful, but the canine managed to recover enough to grab the DI’s head and smash it against the wall of the elevator.

As soon as his opponent managed to look back at him, Gunter bared his teeth and went for the jugular.  However, before he could even break the skin, the DI brought up a knee to Gunter’s gut, causing him to gasp for breath, which was followed by a headbutt, where the canine saw stars for a moment, causing him to stumble backwards, out of the elevator.  It didn’t take Gunter too long to regain his composure, but by the time he did, he saw that the DI now had drawn his machine pistol and was pointing it at him.  Gunter went for his revolver that he had dropped to the floor just outside of the elevator, but his opponent shot first.  While most shots were either absorbed by his armor or flat-out missed, he was hit in the shoulder and the leg, causing him to fall over.  The door to the elevator closed.  Just as he realized that he didn’t have any more easily accessible ranged weapons on him, Gunter passed out due to blood loss.

.     .     .

Gunter woke up in a hospital.  He was weak and in pain, but alive.  He had an oxygen mask on his muzzle, and was totally naked except for a hospital gown and a bandage on his shoulder and thigh.  With considerable pain, he managed to sit up.  There was Commander Thompson.  “Ah, my shoulder…” he groaned.

“You’ll live, soldier,” the Commander replied.

“What happened?” the canine asked.

“Target number three got away,” he said with clear disappointment in his voice, “we have no idea where he is, because he stole the van the Black Ops team arrived in.  Also, the Black Ops team found another dead hostage in the theater.  He had been dead hours before you arrived.”

Gunter’s heart sank.  Not only were those vans practically untraceable, but another civilian pony casualty?  He clenched a fist, but a sharp pain in his shoulder prevented him from doing so for very long.

“However,” he continued, “the information you gathered was very sufficient.  It’s more than enough to send to the proper authorities in Equestria so they can properly defend themselves.”

Gunter grumbled.

“Look, Gunter, we all wish we could have avoided civilian casualties with that mission, but we’ve been able to prevent many more that would be perpetrated by these HLF thugs!”  The commander explained, “In my book, that counts as a victory, don’t you think?”

Gunter simply lay back on his bed.  “Who was she?” he asked, “the pony nurse.”

“Gunter, I don’t think-“

“Then at least tell me how and when she was captured!”

The commander sighed.  “A day prior, the HLF attacked the Dallas Conversion Bureau.  The Texas National Guard only had two lightly armed soldiers there.  No survivors except for two who were missing, including the on-site nurse who helped administer the appropriate injections for becoming a pony and a receptionist.”

“And now they’re dead!” Gunter shouted, sitting up again.  “All they did was help run a border crossing!  I am not going to just sit on my ass and let these HLF fuckers get away with this!  They killed a medical professional and a civilian in cold blood!  Not to mention everyone else in that Conversion Bureau!”

“You know,” Thompson noted, “you never got this riled up before you visited Equestria.”

Gunter just stared at him.

“Gunter, there’s no use hiding it; you’re clearly emotionally compromised,” he stated.

“Says who?” Gunter retorted.

“We examined the bodies you left,” he said, “Two of them showed particular signs of excessive, unnecessary violence.  You may have forgotten, but the missions we assign you to require quick, clean efficiency.  There’s only so much we can cover up, and given your obvious emotional state, you’re now a liability.  I’ve already placed you on medical leave, but you’ll be removed from the field until further notice.”

“WHAT?” Gunter shouted.

“Raise your voice at me one more time and I’ll have you sedated!” Thompson shouted, “Look, I’m well aware that those ponies have a far more… ‘innocent’ aura about them,” he admitted, but was clearly trying to avoid calling them “cute.”  “I know why you’re mad.  It’s because you relate to them more, don’t you?”

Gunter hadn’t thought about that, but thinking on it, they were the only sentient non-humans he had come across aside from the other agents he worked with.

“They still didn’t deserve to die like that,” Gunter said, laying back.

“And neither do countless human civilians who die in hostage crises and terrorism attacks every year!” Thompson countered, “Look, you were created so that we have someone whose skills outmatch every single human agent any other country or organization can throw at us.  You were created to help protect the United States, her citizens, and her soldiers from needlessly dying at the hands of people like the HLF!” he explained, “you took an oath of loyalty to America, and you’ve been keeping good to that!  But we can’t risk you, or any of our other agents, for that matter, going rogue.  Especially not on account of being too emotionally attached to the ponies of Equestria!  That’s a defection in the CIA’s book, plain and simple.  And we don’t want to have to deal with a defector from the EES.”

Gunter sighed.  Defection from the EES would immediately result in “Kill-On-Sight” status.

“What day is it?” he asked.

Commander Thompson looked at him strangely, but replied, “It’s June 10th… you’ve been out for two days.”

Gunter angled his eyes upward in thought, and then brought them back to rest.  “Thanks,” he said, “can you just take me back to HQ?”

“You’re already there, Gunter,” Commander Thompson replied.

Gunter sat up.  “Wait, what?”

“We stabilized you at the Dallas Safe House, and then we airlifted you back here,” he explained.

“Huh… OK,” Gunter mused, “how long until I’m able to get off this bed?”

“At this rate,” Thompson said, “mm… about three days.  That shot to your leg narrowly missed a vital artery, but considering most of the muscle down there was added to your body in the first place, and that the doctors here have the same healing and growth factor that we used in your initial surgery, it shouldn’t be too difficult to patch up.  You’re scheduled for your repair surgery tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Gunter said flatly, “I hate being bed-bound.”

“Gunter, you’ve never had an injury this serious before,” the commander noted.

“I know,” Gunter said, “but it’s getting old real fast.”

.   .   .

After three days, as promised, Gunter was finally allowed to stand up and walk again.  It took him another couple days to regain his full walking abilities, but by the end of the week, he was able to walk again.  Gotta love modern medical technology, Gunter thought to himself once he was finally able to walk normally.

To his dismay, but not quite surprise, he was assigned to a desk job.  It was the lowest position a canine agent could hold, so it was quite a step down for him, considering he’d never worked a desk job before.  It was busywork for the most part, but it did help him gather his thoughts and helped him answer questions that were still in his mind, despite everyone’s urging that he forget about the possible mole in Celestia’s inner circle and that Celestia was more than capable of dealing with it.  Gunter just couldn’t rest until he knew why so many people and ponies had died at the hands of the HLF since his assignment to the White House.

First of all, how did the HLF know about the Grand Galloping Gala?  For all of Gunter’s searches for the next few days, even with the highest of security clearance that came with being a member of the EES, he found only idle mentions of such an event on intelligence reports that dated back to first contact.  From what he could tell, if Equestria even had anything like the Internet, it was definitely not connected to the one on Earth.  The barrier between Earth and Equestria was far thicker than Gunter could have imagined.

Second, how were they going to get there?  The information Gunter gathered from his last mission had prompted an immediate beefing up of security at every single Conversion Bureau in the United States and Canada.  INTERPOL then issued a Red Notice for the escaped DI, and all known high-ranking members of the HLF were added to the top of the FBI’s List of Most Wanted Terrorists.  With all that in place, there was no way the HLF, for whom the bulk of their membership lived in the United States, could possibly escape the United States to even go to Canada or anywhere else in the world where there might be less secured Conversion Bureaus.

Third, why would they kidnap two ponies from the Dallas Conversion Bureau?  Especially if they already knew about the Grand Galloping Gala, wouldn’t that information have by default come with a date?  What’s the use of telling someone about an event without also telling him when that event is going to happen?  For all any of his research yielded, the news media had only speculated that they may have been trying to extort money or force their demands upon the government.

Gunter, however, had another theory as to why they captured Nurse Redheart and the other pony.  They were asking the nurse when the Grand Galloping Gala was, but since the HLF clearly already knew about it, the only reason, he figured, was that they were trying to verify the date they had been given.  It only made sense that the inside source in Celestia’s inner circle had given them the name of the event with the approximate date, but the HLF wanted to make sure so they wouldn’t burst into Equestria on the wrong date.  Unfortunately for them, they didn’t get confirmation, but with the recent beefing up of security, they probably weren’t going to try to get confirmation again; rather, they’d just stick with the date they were given and go with it.

Gunter heard footsteps and switched his screen to the work he was supposed to be doing.  It was some menial task of sending out messages to agents on missions throughout the world that usually consisted of updates that he was given through his e-mail account.  There really wasn’t much to do in that regard, as most communication was done via the agent’s earpiece, but he had to make it look like he was doing work so he would be put back in the field as soon as possible.

The Conversion Bureau: Third Party

by PonySoldier

Chapter 4

“Three months,” said Commander Thompson, in response to a question Gunter had posed regarding how long it would be until he could be reinstated as a field operative.

Gunter did well hiding his discontent by simply saluting, thanking the commander for his time, and turning around.  The Grand Galloping Gala was in one month.  Gunter would never find out who the mole in Celestia’s inner circle was, and it would frustrate and anger him for the rest of his life.  He wondered if anything could, or even would be done.

He trudged back to his desk and plopped himself down in the chair.

What are you doing, soldier? He thought to himself, you don’t belong at a desk!  You could do at least three-quarters of this stuff on your eyepiece!

After a few seconds, he disengaged the screensaver and went back to what he had intended to do.  He dug deeply into the CIA’s very limited records of Equestria.  Apparently, the CIA had sent a few agents into Equestria to gather information on it during the first year of contact, which was about twenty years ago.  Gunter saw everything from annotated photographs of the Royal Palace to approximated street maps of Equestria’s major cities, including Canterlot.  He also focused his attention on a far more readily available piece of information; a map of every single Conversion Bureau in the United States.  He printed out the map and folded it up to keep it in his pocket.  He then entered in the proper credentials for printing out the maps of the major Equestrian cities.  Wherever the Grand Galloping Gala was held, it had to be in one of the major cities, and unfortunately, Gunter didn’t know which one, while the HLF did.

While almost everyone who wasn’t on assignment slept, Gunter occupied a private conference room with the maps of the major cities of Equestria; Canterlot, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan.  “Now there’s a theme for you,” he mused to himself as he began to examine them.  To his surprise, many of the Equestrian cities had very similar layouts to major cities in the United States: a near-perfect grid pattern street layout, and a vast assortment of parks, but from the maps the CIA had, they lacked a highway system.   “That’s good,” Gunter said to himself, “at least they won’t have easy access to any of the other cities… which means they’ll only be going for one of these.  But which one?”

The answer came surprisingly quicker than he had anticipated: the map of Canterlot indicated that the Royal Palace was huge; there were literally thousands of square feet that he hadn’t seen the last time he was there.  The map did not have details on the interior of the palace, but it did occupy a considerable portion of Canterlot, including the actual grounds surrounding it, as apparently there was a large outdoor garden area that served as a quasi-zoo and a similar, less wooded one that was for high-class outdoor tea drinking much similar to The Orchard in Cambridge.  Not one of the other major cities had anything like it.  If anything calling itself “Grand” was to be held in Equestria, it had to be in Canterlot.  Quietly, he slid the other maps into the room’s document shredder.

Suddenly, though, a thought hit him.  It was about the mole in Celestia’s inner circle.  Why hadn’t I thought of it before? he wondered,  That’s the only person it could be!  Gunter was shocked but excited at the same time.  Shocked because of who it was, excited because he now had at least a very feasible theory.  He rushed to his computer and booted it up.  As soon as it would let him, he searched into the White House phone records, and found that a very odd call had been made over the secure phone line the night before he had escorted Ambassador Quill back to Equestria…

And then he had it.  It all made sense now.

.     .     .

The next week he was greeted each morning with report after report of single-person attacks on various Conversion Bureaus in the southwest United States, including the one in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tuscon, El Paso, Flagstaff, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe.  Gunter immediately picked up on what was going on, and checked into a different private conference room and examined the map of Canterlot again.  He spent many hours that Friday coming up with a plan.  It had to work just right, and he would need help, but he had no other choice but to try.  Fortunately, he still had a month until the Grand Galloping Gala.  He had plenty of time to prepare.

For starters, he went to the on-site technician.  “Hey, Jason,” he addressed the technician, “I need to ask you something…”

.     .     .

The next day, Gunter came back to Jason bright and early to pick up the fixed-up equipment he had asked for, and then to the armory to pick up weapons and ammunition.  One of his fellow agents, a Doberman named Kurt, noticed him and stopped by the door.

“I thought you were on desk duty for the next few months, Gunter,” he noted.

Gunter turned around and smiled a bit.  “I’m just going to the range, Kurt,” he replied, “I just really need to get some fresh air, and I’ve been down here for way too long.”

Kurt nodded knowingly.  “All right.  Have fun!” he bade his fellow agent.

Gunter nodded back, “I certainly will.”

Once Kurt left the doorway, Gunter turned back to the rack.  He picked up a Scout Tactical bolt-action sniper rifle, a machine pistol, a semi-automatic pistol, and his always-trusty pocket revolver.  With them, he collected a healthy amount of ammunition for each weapon for a long day at the range, and stored it in his backpack.  He had grown a bit rusty in his month off, and he needed to get back in shape, both with his accuracy and his physical strength and stamina.  It would indeed be a very fun day today, especially after such a long time of sitting at a computer.

Once he was ready to go, he hopped into a van in the garage, where a driver was waiting to transport him to the EES’s private shooting range.  He was the only one going out to the range today, as it was very hot outside, but Gunter insisted, and nobody could blame him for wanting to keep his skills sharp.  Without any hesitation, the garage door opened up and the van drove out.

Meanwhile, back at the base, Agent Kurt was walking towards the training room to practice up for an upcoming mission when he noticed something out of the ordinary.  He stopped and looked to his left, where a wall displaying all of the decorations every currently serving canine member of the EES had earned.  One of them was missing.  Upon closer examination, it was the Order of the Sun medal awarded to Gunter Shepherd by Princess Celestia herself.  Kurt’s eyes widened, and he turned and rushed to Commander Thompson’s office.

.     .     .

“Drop me off at a discrete side entrance,” Gunter said, holding his machine pistol to the driver’s head, “feel free to call for reinforcements after I get out, but it’s been made clear to me that we have no jurisdiction there, so I doubt anyone will be able to do anything.”

The driver hesitantly nodded and made a left turn near the D.C. Conversion Bureau, into a back alley.  Slowly, he came to a stop.  “Here,” he said “I’m not going any closer.  But seriously, why are you doing this?  You know that you can’t come back now…”

“I know,” Gunter agreed, “but the EES taught me to never leave something three-quarters done.  I can’t possibly be expected to let the whole issue of the Equestrian traitor just slide by when I’ve personally seen how much damage he’s willing to do to his own country.”

“But your loyalty is to the United States-”

“And her allies,” Gunter finished, “Equestria is an ally.  I will not just sit on my ass at that computer desk while they experience a horrible case of mass murder at the hands of the HLF, especially when a defector is assisting them, just because of some political bullshit!  Now turn off the engine and remove the keys!”

The driver quickly did so.

“Now give me the keys and your gun,” Gunter added.  The driver reluctantly unholstered his pistol and gave it to the canine agent along with the set of keys.  Gunter put the pistol in the back of his pants and opened the door.  He proceeded to toss the keys a distance away and then bolted out, not looking back.

Once a good distance away, and out of sight of the van and its driver, Gunter pulled out his ID card and rushed towards the Conversion Bureau’s emergency exit at the back of the building.  Urgently, he pounded on the door.  “CIA!  Open up!” he shouted.

Without much hesitation, a light brown pony with a dark brown mane opened the door, expressing a look of shock at what he saw.  Gunter wasted no time in showing his ID card.  “I need to get through the portal.  It’s a matter of national security!”

“For who?” he asked, hesitantly.

“For everyone!” Gunter exclaimed, exasperated, “Why else would I be coming to a Conversion Bureau?”

“Yes, sir!” the pony replied, opening the door all the way.

“Take me through the most discrete route possible,” Gunter added, “I don’t want to draw any attention.”

“Right this way!” the pony eagerly agreed, making a left turn from the door and leading through a back route that was clearly meant for maintenance purposes, as it was dank, poorly lit, and the walls were covered in wires.  The hallway made a right turn and suddenly, they were at the end, where there was a door, leading out to what Gunter recognized as the area where the portal was situated.

“Wait up,” the pony urged.  Gunter looked out the small vertical window in the door and saw that a newly ponified individual was making her way into Equestria for the first time.  She was clearly ecstatic, a smile from ear to ear, and bounding into Equestria with a “Woo hoo!”

Once that pony entered into Equestria, the brown pony opened the door and spoke to the security guard.  Gunter stepped out once he was waved in.  “Just speak the code into the door and it will take you wherever you want to go,” the security pony said.

Gunter nodded and walked in front of the portal, which was just finishing locking.  He was glad that these ponies had a sense of urgency and didn’t bother asking him endless questions about what he was.

He cleared his throat.  “Emergency code 9-9-8-2.  Agent number 1-4-2-5 Gunter Shepherd, Central Intelligence Agency, requesting access!”

“Confirmed,” said the computerized voice, “Emergency code correct.  Central Intelligence Agency records verified.  Access granted.  Please specify destination.”

“Canterlot!” he stated.

“Confirmed.  Re-routing destination, please wait… Re-routing complete.  Please stand back, door opening.”

Gunter and the brown pony stepped back as the security pony pulled down the latch to allow the door to open.  For that moment, he was really glad he had been given a desk job; without it, he wouldn’t have been able to research the correct emergency open procedure for the Conversion Bureau portal doors.

Within a minute, the door had opened completely, and the German Shepherd laid his eyes once again on the beautiful city of Canterlot.  But before he could step forward, he remembered that he needed a ride to get to the Royal Palace.  He turned to the two ponies.  “Um, would you mind telling me how to get to the Palace?”

“I’ll be right on it!” exclaimed the brown pony, who walked out the door and partially into Canterlot.  He put a hoof to his mouth and managed, somehow, to make a loud whistling noise.  Soon enough, a carriage pulled by a strong, burly, green male pony with a cart symbol on his flank pulled up in front of the portal.  The pony looked surprised to see a creature such as Gunter, but the brown pony quickly explained that it was an emergency and that the big talking dog needed to get to the Palace at once.

“I can get you there in a jiffy!” the green pony exclaimed, “and I’ll do it free of charge!”

“Good,” Gunter said, hopping on, and giving a casual salute to the ponies in the Conversion Bureau, “just try to take me there the most discrete way possible.  I don’t want to draw too much attention.”

“I know just the route!” the green pony exclaimed as he reared up and began galloping away.  Gunter looked back at the portal door just long enough to see it close.  He looked back forward.  There was no turning back now.  He was here for good, and he had no choice now but to do what he felt was right.  The Princesses needed to be warned and the city needed to be prepared.

It wasn’t too long of a trip, but it was clearly through the backstreets of Canterlot, as they were narrow and vacant.  But the trip took long enough to allow Gunter to get together just what he was going to say to the Princess when he got to the palace, and also what to do just in case he had to force his way in.

Soon enough, though, Gunter arrived at the Royal Palace.  Unfortunately, it was bustling with tourists.  “Is there any way to get in aside from this area?” he asked the driver.

“No, sir,” he replied, “this is the only way in that the Royal Guards will allow.

Gunter clenched his paws into fists, but then he got an idea.  He produced the Order of the Sun medal from one of his pockets and put it on.  Hopefully it would help him gain entrance.  He handed the driver all of the money he had in his pocket, about $300, forgetting that the ride was free, and rushed off.  Immediately, as expected, he drew all sorts of attention.

“Excuse me, pardon me,” Gunter said to everyone in his way, “No, I can’t talk right now, I’m in a hurry, let me through!”

Suddenly, a Royal Guard stopped him as he got to the actual gate.  “Who goes there?” the guard demanded.

“Agent number 1425 Gunter Shepherd!  Central Intelligence Agency!  United States of America!” he shouted, holding up his ID card, “I have a message that needs to get to both of the Princesses immediately!”

“I’m sorry, sir, but… wait, is that the Order of the Sun medal?” he asked, just now noticing the medal.

“Yes,” Gunter said, “Celestia herself awarded it to me.”

“Well, then, sir… uh, right this way!” he exclaimed, stepping aside and letting him pass.  Shocked gasps and cheers sounded off behind him, as they heard about the Order of the Sun medal, but Gunter paid them no mind.  He was busy sprinting towards the front doors.

Upon reaching the front doors, he pushed them open with his shoulder and bolted up the stairs.  The doors, which had been repaired quite well in the time they were blasted open by the improvised breaching charge, were locked.  Gunter pounded on the door.  “Who goes there?” went a deep voice inside.

“Agent Gunter Shepherd of the Experimental Espionage Service!” he shouted, “This is an emergency!”

“Who?” the Guard asked, “I’ve never heard of… wait, sorry?  Oh… yes, your majesty.  Right away.”  Without another word, the door opened.  There, sitting on two grand thrones, were Princesses Celestia and Luna, in their regal splendor.  However, Gunter didn’t stop to admire them.  He jogged into the room, stopped at the midway point, saluted, and very militaristically bowed down on one knee.

“Your majesties,” he said, waiting a moment in the bowed position, and then standing up to jog a few more feet forward, “The HLF…” he panted, “they’re going to come here!  To the Grand Galloping Gala!  They’re-“

“We do know about that, sir,” Luna interrupted, sounding confused, “what are you coming to us for?  Your government passed that information along to us weeks ago!”

“My sister is right,” Celestia concurred, “we do already know of such a threat, but I sense you have something else to tell us…”

“Yes,” Gunter said, clearing his throat, “listen, they’re going to bring their full force in here.  They’ve already begun diversion tactics to throw off the forces protecting the Conversion Bureaus!  They’re going to draw the full forces of the military to those specific Bureaus and then launch their full attack at a Bureau on the other end of the country where the security is weaker!  Listen… I just can’t sit idly by and hope that everything goes well!” he exclaimed, “It is not that I doubt your abilities to protect your people, but I cannot, in good conscience, just sit on my tail back at HQ as the HLF attempts to commit mass murder here!”  He paused for a moment, and then continued, “Look, you awarded me this medal for selfless service to my duty to protect your ambassador,” he explained, holding up the medal that was still hanging from his neck, “let me show you that I’m just as willing to put my life on the line for the safety of your loyal subjects!  I swear to you, you will not regret it.  Please… I cannot leave a mission partially completed.  When those thugs made an attempt on your life, Celestia, I resolved myself to find out why everything about it was fishy, and now, knowing what I know, I will not rest until their master plan is foiled!”

The Princesses were clearly mulling it over in their heads.  After some time, Celestia broke the silence.

“Well, Gunter,” she began, “you have shown selfless bravery on more than one occasion.  That you are willing to do this on your own motivation is very admirable.  I can tell, though, that you clearly weren’t sent here in an official capacity.”

“No, your highness,” Gunter replied, “I was labeled as emotionally compromised and assigned to a desk job.  I have probably been labeled a defector back home by now.”

“You betrayed your country,” Luna noted, “how should we expect you to be loyal to ours?”

“With all due respect, your majesty Princess Luna,” Gunter replied, “what I am doing is not betrayal, despite what those at the EES might tell you.  I am simply coming to the aid of Equestria, America’s ally, on my own initiative.  And if you want a sign of loyalty, I can give you one right now.”

“Please do,” said Princess Luna, leaning in, listening intently.

“I know who the traitor in your inner circle is,” Gunter stated, “Unless, of course, you have already found out yourselves.”

“We haven’t, actually,” Celestia admitted, “but we’re interested to know who you think it is.”

“First, let me ask, has anyone else been alerted to my presence in here?” Gunter asked.

“No…” Luna replied, “except maybe the Guards.”

“Good,” Gunter concluded, “bring Ambassador Quill out here.”

“WHAT?” Luna exclaimed, looking like she had just seen a ghost, “You’re joking!”

Celestia’s jaw had simply dropped.

“Just bring her out here, and I will explain.  Just don’t let her on to what I just told you.  The truth will come out, I’m positive,” Gunter said coolly.

“Guards,” Celestia said hesitantly, “I request the presence of Ambassador Quill at once.”

“Yes, your majesty,” said one of the guards as he trotted towards the side door of the throne room.

It didn’t take too long for the guard to bring the diplomat into the room.  Immediately, she expressed an emotion of shock on her face at the sight of Gunter.

“Well, hello, Quill,” Gunter began, “surprised to see me?”

“Well… of course!  The presence of any creature from Earth is always a rare treat for us!” she exclaimed.

“I’m sure,” he replied flatly, “you know,” he continued, “I was just thinking… back to that time those assassins tried to kill Celestia…”

“Oh, don’t speak of such a subje-“

Gunter cut off the Ambassador, and began pacing, “it was kinda funny, don’t you think, that they happened to pick the exact date that I would be visiting to receive a medal?”

“What are you-?”

“It’s almost as if someone… planned it.”

“Well of course!” she exclaimed, “somepony subversive… some war-mongering-”

“And also, did you know that every single guard in the hallway was killed before they got up here?” he added, “If you ask me, it’s too perfect.  The HLF suffered no losses on the way up, yet all of the Royal Guards on the staircase all had their throats cut open,”

“Well, we train our guards to fight to the last-”

“They didn’t even put up a fight!” he exclaimed, “they were paralyzed!  They didn’t even move their eyeballs as I passed by them!”

This time, Quill remained silent.

“Sounds like someone was making sure that these guys would get to this throne room…” he mused, “and my only question is ‘why?’”

Quill stood still.  All eyes, even those of the Royal Guards, were focused on her.  Gunter put his paw on his machine pistol as he finished.  “Also, someone, whom I suspect to be the same person, gave the HLF the date and location of the Grand Galloping Gala.  Did you know that two innocent ponies at the Dallas Conversion Bureau were kidnapped and then brutally murdered in cold blood by the HLF after they shot up everyone else there?” Gunter asked, but didn’t wait for an answer, “And do you know what they wanted with them?  To verify the date!”  He shouted, and then paused, letting that fact sink in before continuing, “I don’t know if they got it or not… but it doesn’t matter, because either way, many of the citizens of the land you represent are dead!”

“It’s your fault!” shouted Ambassador Quill.  She was clearly angry; her expression had changed from worried to sheer fury in the last two seconds.  Gunter looked to the Princesses, and they were taken aback by her sudden outburst, too.

“When I was attacked at the White House, I was scared!” she ranted, “But after the attack, I realized that your world is all about death and destruction!  That we’re even letting any of these miserable organisms into our glorious land of Equestria is mind-boggling!”

“Quill-“ began Luna, but Quill cut her off.

“I realized that the only way to stop the flow of these… these pigs into Equestria was to show none other than the Princess herself how dangerous these humans were!”

“But Quill,” Luna said again, “you’ve worked with humans for years!  You never showed any qualms about them!”

“That’s because I wasn’t attacked before!” Quill shouted, approaching Gunter, “And that was before I learned that they took perfectly innocent dogs and… performed surgery on them to make them into killing machines even better than themselves!”

Gunter drew his pistol, “Stand down, Quill!  We can talk this out!”

“No you can’t!” she retorted, “Your planet only gets things done with fighting and war!  I looked into your world’s history while I spent the night at the White House; you measure your own history based on wars!  The Napoleonic Wars, the Civil War, World War I and II, The Vietnam War, the list goes on!” she shouted, “It’s disgusting!” she screamed.  Her horn lit up, and Gunter’s pistol was knocked out of his hand, and the other pistol on his hip, and the revolver on his ankle were also lifted out of the holsters and tossed away by her magic.

“Quill!” shouted Celestia, “Are you telling me that you wished violence, death, and destruction upon Equestria, the likes of which haven’t been seen in thousands of years, because you don’t like humans?”

“Because you’re too tolerating of them!” she ranted, “I went into the files they keep on those HLF thugs and I used their contact information to tell them everything about that little ceremony you did for that abomination over there!” she shouted, motioning her head at Gunter, “I told them about the escort, and I kept the portal open for them to come in half an hour after I did!  I paralyzed the guards in the palace so they would get here, so you,” she shouted, directing her statement to Celestia, “could see just how vile these creatures are so you would finally stop allowing them in!”

“But you underestimated my sister!” Luna declared, stepping out of her chair, “She told me how easy it was to block their weapons and banish them to the moon!”

“Exactly,” Gunter contributed, “and when neither Celestia nor Luna shut down the Conversion Bureaus, you decided that civilian deaths would drive the point home even more!”

“I used the inter-dimensional telephone your government gave me and called the same number as before to tell them about the Gala!” she shouted, “They’re bringing their entire collective forces!  They will kill everypony that they see!  And that, Princess, is what humans do: kill!  You have no choice but to permanently close the portals to prevent this!  And if you don’t, it will be nopony’s fault but your own!”

All eyes turned to Celestia.  She stood up and walked slowly towards Quill.  Gunter reached behind his back and grasped the pistol he had hidden in the back of his pants.

“Quill, I trusted you to serve Equestria to the best of your ability,” she began, “and if this is what you consider to be the best of your ability…” she paused.  Gunter pulled out the pistol and clicked off the safety, but kept it behind his back.

“Then I have made a grave mistake.  You would put the lives of innocent civilians at risk just for your over-generalizations?  You make yourself no different than the HLF you once claimed to be against!” she stated sternly, “Guards, arrest her.  Take her to the lowest and strongest dungeon.”

“NO!” she shouted, her horn illuminating.  Gunter revealed his pistol and aimed it at her.

“Stand down!” he shouted, “There’s no use!”

Quill turned to him and before he could pull off a shot, he was harshly lifted from the ground, as if by a disembodied hand, and then thrown.  He slammed backwards into the wall, just missing a window, and was knocked unconscious before he could see anything else.

.    .    .

When Gunter awoke, he could tell that he was still definitely in Equestria.  Clearly, he had proven his loyalty to even the slightly doubtful Princess Luna.  Celestia herself, however, was at his bedside.  “Ah, you’re finally awake!” she whispered, as it was clearly nighttime judging by the open window behind her.

Gunter wanted to say something but couldn’t find the ability to do so.  As before, without a very pressing matter at hand, he felt himself unable to do anything but admire how beautiful she was.  All he could bring himself to do was lift a paw and gently put it to the side of her face, stroking it gently, almost as if to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.  Frankly, though, he didn’t care whether he was or not.

The Princess simply smiled in return and put her head on his chest so that the right side of her was facing him.  Unsure as to what else he could do, he simply put his arm around her neck, and suddenly, for whatever reason, he was at ease.  He had questions swimming in his mind, but the presence of the Princess was soothing enough for those questions to evaporate into nothing.  He could lightly feel his heart beating against her jawbone as she closed her eyes and continued smiling.  He stole a light touch of the crown on her head.  He was no expert at metals, but it certainly felt like real gold from the light touch he felt comfortable giving the royal headwear.  Returning his paw to her neck, his head slowly eased back and he fell back asleep.

Waking up the next morning, he found that both he and Celestia were in the same positions he saw when he fell asleep.  Apparently, even the ponies of Equestria could sleep standing up much like horses on Earth.  “Good morning, your highness…” he hesitantly said.

Celestia’s eyes opened.  She raised her head off of Gunter’s chest and immediately focused on him.  “Good morning to you, too, Gunter,” she said, smiling,

“I, uh, appreciate your willingness to stay by my side this whole time,” he began, “but… was it really-?”

Celestia held up her hoof, and Gunter stopped talking.  “You helped figure out something even my sister and I could not.  You were already a hero before,” she explained, “and Luna and I would hate to see you go after all you have done for us.  Plus, your body was so foreign to us that we weren’t sure if you suffered any fatal injuries.  But still, I think it’s quite clear you saved countless lives by figuring out it was Quill!  You deserve no less than my utmost gratitude.”

“But…” Gunter said, but he was cut off again.

“The impending attack on the Gala aside, I imagine she would have tried again and again until she got her way or somepony else found out.  Countless more lives would have been lost, and now that Quill is safely behind bars, we have saved those other lives that would have been lost in ensuing attacks,” she explained, “and I have no intention of closing the Conversion Bureaus because of the demands of people like the HLF.  As long as there are people on the other side willing to come here, they will remain open.”

Gunter simply nodded.

“As for our preparations,” the Princess continued, “I’m putting you in charge of that.”

Gunter sat up in his bed and saluted.  “With pleasure, your majesty,” he said.

Celestia giggled a bit, “Oh please, Gunter, nopony else is around!  There’s no need to be formal!”

Gunter lowered his paw.

“You need to relax, you know… that’s why you’re in Ponyville,” she explained, “And since you’re in charge of Canterlot’s defenses, that technically puts you under my command…”

Gunter gulped.  What is she implying? he thought

“…So my first order for you,” she began, “is to stay here and get to know the quieter side of life here in Equestria.  If nothing else, you will get to know first-hand what you’re going to be fighting for.”

“But I already-“

“I remember what you told Applejack,” Celestia interrupted, “and while it was an admirable statement, I knew it contradicted what I was told about you and the EES from your government.  If what I’ve been told is true, and you aren’t allowed to interact with the very humans you work to protect, then you need to have a different outlook if you’re going to be protecting the citizens of Equestria.  There’s a difference, Gunter, between knowing about who and what you’re protecting and actually knowing them.  The latter is what I’m asking of you.”

Gunter remained silent, but he nodded in understanding.

“Don’t worry, though,” Celestia assured him, “the Elements of Harmony are going to help you get re-adjusted!”

The German Shepherd raised an eyebrow.  “Um… who?” he asked.

Celestia put a hoof to her mouth and chuckled, “Ah, I forgot, I never mentioned that before…” she said to herself, and then turned back to Gunter, “You remember them; they were the six ponies you talked to during your medal ceremony!”

“Oh, right!” he exclaimed, “I do remember them… they were nice… but why are they the Elements of Harmony?”

“It’s a long story, and it would be better if you asked them,” Celestia suggested, “and they should be coming in any minute, so I’ll take my leave,” she concluded, backing up a couple steps.

“Wait,” Gunter said, holding out his paw for her to stop, “what about Canterlot’s defenses?”

“I’ll send for you next week.  Right now, just relax and let Twilight Sparkle and her friends take the lead!” she finished before she nodded at him and turned to exit the door.

Shortly afterwards, before Gunter was able to stand himself up, the door opened again.  In bounded Pinkie Pie, whom he had no trouble remembering for her distinct shade of pink alone.  “Ohmygosh he’s awake!” she cried, jumping for joy, “Everyone!  Gunter’s awake!  He’s awake!”

Gunter was surprised that she could remain so giddy after only recently waking up, unless they had all been awake and waiting for Luna to exit.  But before he could think on it any more, the rest of the ponies walked in, and smiled.  “Hey there, Mr. Gunter,” said Rainbow Dash, “I heard you took a beating back at the Palace!  We weren’t sure you’d be awake so soon!”

“Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed the orange pony, Applejack, “what a terrible thing to say!”

“It’s fine,” Gunter said, smiling, “believe me, I’ve had worse!  But seriously, though, were you guys really waiting outside this room for me to wake up?”

“Well, what else could we do?” pondered Twilight Sparkle, “I mean, we saw you awarded with the Order of the Sun, for crying out loud!  You’re practically a hero!”

“And that you managed to deduce who Celestia’s traitor was before anypony else was simply astonishing!” proclaimed Rarity, “It baffles me that our own ambassador was so diabolical!”

“Well, I reckon she won’t be doin’ no more harm behind bars!” concluded Applejack, looking very confident in her statement.

“How did you figure out it was her, anyway?” Twilight asked, “I poured myself over everything I could get my hooves on trying to figure out who the mole was, but it never occurred to me that it could’ve been Quill!”

“Well,” Gunter said, getting out of bed, finding that he was only wearing his pants, “ I realized that the timeline of events was just too coincidental.  There was only one person it could’ve been who let those assassins in through the portal after me, and I doubted it was her bodyguard.  When I found out that she had used one of the phones in the White House to call the number of a known HLF member, it became pretty obvious!  The only thing I didn’t have was a motive, but she spilled that pretty easily.”

“Wow,” said Twilight, “you make it sound so easy!”

“Well, it’s kind of my job, but thanks,” he agreed, “I’m glad to say that there are no more traitors or evildoers working in the highest ranks of your government.  For the time being, you guys are quite safe…”

“Then this calls for a PARTY!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, bounding with excitement at the statement.

Gunter raised an eyebrow, “Um…”

Rainbow Dash flew up to be level with his head, “It’s how she is,” she said, “she can latch on to just about any reason to have a party.  C’mon, they’re always a blast!”

“If you say so, I guess...” he said, still unsure as to whether or not this was really a legitimate cause for celebration.

His statement was met with cheers from everyone.  He wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but at least he figured he could take his mind off of things for a while.

The Conversion Bureau: Third Party

by PonySoldier

Chapter 5

“You’re sure this is OK for me to eat?” Gunter asked Pinkie Pie.

“Of course, silly!” she exclaimed, bouncing up and down in front of him, “Twilight and I researched all we can and can’t eat, so I only made what you could eat!”

“If you say so,” Gunter said as he took the wrapper off the small cupcake with pink frosting and sprinkles and took a bite out of it.  It was very sweet tasting.  In fact, everything about it was sweet.  Chewing it didn’t work as well as he would have liked, as his carnivorous teeth were not well suited to something so soft, but it was quite a treat.  He swallowed and nodded in his approval.  He also felt slightly perked up, as if he had drank a small amount of energy gel.

Pinkie Pie jumped for joy.  “Yay!  He likes cupcakes!” she squealed.

This was met with the stomping round of applause from the other ponies in attendance, which included not only the other five of the six friends of Celestia, but a moderate gathering of locals from Ponyville.  Much like the six friends, they came in an assortment of bright colors with assorted marks on their flanks.  These ponies were quite an interesting species, and almost all of them had, for the most part, a very happy demeanor.

The party lasted well into the night, as Gunter got to know the Elements of Harmony and continued to sample many of Pinkie Pie’s dog-friendly treats, as well as a few of Applejack’s signature pies.  Aside from the sick feeling in his stomach he was getting from eating all of this clearly unhealthy stuff, he enjoyed himself.  The music was calm and not too intense, the sight of ponies dancing had a surprisingly uplifting effect on him, even if he couldn’t dance for the life of him, and while he was often asked a lot of the same questions, the ponies provided for interesting interactions.

Rarity, for example, made full measurements of his body, explaining that she wanted him to be wearing something proper for the next time he would see the Princesses.  She had never made something for a humanoid creature before, but she apparently lavished in the challenge.

“Ya do realize,” noted Applejack, “that he’s a guy, right?”

“Oh Applejack, of course I do,” replied Rarity as she wrapped a piece of measuring tape around Gunter’s right arm with her magic, “just because I make dresses for ponies for a living doesn’t mean I cannot make male formal attire!”

“Yeah, but…” added Rainbow Dash, “I’ve never seen you make any!”

“Oh hush, Rainbow Dash,” she scoffed, “male attire is far easier than female attire,” she explained, “for you see, it’s all the same; it’s just a matter of differing sizes!”

Gunter chuckled.  He had, on many a mission, been sneaking up on high class parties where all men wore tuxedos or other formal wear, and he couldn’t help but agree.  If it weren’t for differing body types and faces, and of course, his acute sense of smell, he would have a lot of trouble telling one apart from the other!

“But why would he need any?” wondered Rainbow Dash, crossing her forelegs as she hovered next to him, “he was wearing his super-cool armor at the ceremony!”

“In Rarity’s defense,” Gunter chimed in, “Quill requested that I wear that, and all we did was add a few patches to it to look more ceremonial,” he explained, “But it’s not like I could’ve worn anything else.  Since we never go out in public, we hardly have anything more than casual attire to wear around HQ when we’re not on assignment!”

“But now that you’re going to be out and about amongst us,” Rarity concluded, “I should say you need some!”

“Are you sure?” Gunter asked.

“Of course, dear!” exclaimed Rarity as she finished her last measurement, “you’ll intimidate and scare everypony if you go around in your armor all the time!”

He couldn’t argue with that.  Presently, though, he wasn’t wearing his armor.  He only wore the pants he woke up in and the tee-shirt he normally wore under his armor.  Everything else, armor, gadgets, weapons, and ammo, were being stored in a secret compartment in Twilight Sparkle’s library.  It was a good thing, too, as he really didn’t want anyone accidentally firing off one of those things and hurting someone.

Twilight Sparkle then walked up to the group.  “So, Gunter,” she said, “how’re you enjoying your first Pinkie Pie party?”

“I like it,” he replied, “she certainly knows how to keep people’s moods up.”

“That and makin’ treats!” chimed Applejack, “She’s always ready to have a good time with anyone who wants one!”

Gunter couldn’t help but smile.  He was beginning to understand just what Celestia wanted him to get to know by being here in Ponyville.

.     .     .

The next morning, Gunter awoke to a stomachache.  Having never had anything as unhealthy as a single cupcake before, his stomach clearly wasn’t used to it.  He spent the day in Applejack’s barn, feeling all sorts of awful and unable to do anything.  He had never been this sick before.  Thankfully, though, all of the six friends were at his side for most of the day to help him feel better.  Applejack, of course, was the first one to notice that he was feeling bad; she came in to the barn just as he started to vomit.

“Good gravy, Gunter!” she exclaimed, “what did y’all eat?”

“Nothing…” he replied, coughing, “nothing after the party…”

“Well that’s mighty odd,” she mused, “Pinkie Pie never messes up any of her treats!”

The canine was about to say something but searing pain in his stomach prevented him from doing so.  He doubled over and balanced himself out by putting his paw on the nearby wall to hold himself up.

“Here, sugarcube, why don’t you lie down… over there,” she said, indicating the other side of the barn, “whilst I clean this here mess up.”

The German Shepherd simply nodded and walked over to the area before collapsing onto a pile of hay, groaning loudly while clenching his stomach.

“You ain’t never had a bellyache before, have you?” Applejack asked.

Gunter simply shook his head as he clenched his teeth when another surge of pain went through him.

“Aw, poor dog,” she said, walking over to him and placing her hoof on his shoulder, “Don’t worry, I’ll bring Fluttershy over and you’ll be right as rain in no time!”

“Why her?” he asked, his voice still indicating pain, “I thought she was afraid of me…”

Applejack chuckled, “Aw, don’t worry about her, she’s like that around new folk,” she explained, “but she’s real good with animals.  If your insides are the same as regular dogs like you say, then I reckon she’s got a cure for it!  Now you just sit tight, there, Gunter, and I’ll be right back!”

With that, she trotted out the door.  Within minutes, the yellow, pink-maned Pegasus pony came flying through the door with saddlebags and a very worried look.

“Oh you poor thing!” she exclaimed in her soft, almost whisper of a voice, “don’t you worry, I’ll make you all better,” she assured him, landing almost without a sound right beside him.  As Applejack went to clean up the mess Gunter had made earlier, Fluttershy pulled out a small bowl and a small bag of some powdery substance.  Clearly, she had the most motherly instincts out of the six, and it was obviously overriding her initial anxiety about the somewhat scary, bipedal, talking dog.  “Applejack?” she said, turning to face the orange pony, “can you get me some hot water?”

“Sure thing, Fluttershy!” she replied and dashed off.

As Applejack rushed off, Gunter looked at Fluttershy as she put a hoof on his forehead to check if he was overheating, “Fluttershy…”

“No, no, not another word,” she urged him, “you need to rest!  Your poor tummy must not be used to the food we have here.  But don’t worry, this soup always helps Winona feel better!”

“Who?”

“She’s Applejack’s dog!” she explained, “she’s probably out working the field now, but maybe you should meet her!” she suggested.

Gunter contemplated that.  Being canine himself, he could certainly understand dogs much better than most humans did, but he had rarely come across a situation where he needed to or had a chance to be in the presence of one.  “Perhaps I should…” he mused.

Shortly afterwards, Applejack gingerly walked in with a steaming bucket of hot water.  Fluttershy scooped out some water with the bowl and sprinkled a fair amount of the powder substance into it.  Almost instantly, the water turned opaque red like tomato soup, but the smell had a far more herbal aroma to it.  He couldn’t put his finger on what exactly was in there, but it at least smelled edible.

Fluttershy held out the bowl, holding it by the brim in her teeth.  Gunter carefully took the bowl and put it close to his nose to give it a whiff.  The bowl was hot, but not burning hot.  The smell was simply one of an assortment of herbs, like some sort of potpourri of medicinal plants.  He took a lap of it with his tongue.  The taste was far more than passable than he expected.  Maybe it was just because he knew, or at least hoped, that it would make him feel better, but it did in fact taste really good. For a moment, he began feeling a lot better.  “Thanks,” he said.

Fluttershy smiled, “you’re welcome, Gunter,” she replied, “now just make sure you finish that soup and get some rest, OK?”

“Oh all right…” he said, reluctantly.

“Somethin’ wrong, Gunter?” asked Applejack.

“I had just hoped that today would be a bit more active for me,” he said, taking another sip of the soup, “didn’t expect myself to be bed-ridden for two of them.”

“Aw, there, there, sugarcube,” Applejack said, ruffling his ears with her hoof, “nopony can predict when they’ll be sick, and ya just need to take stuff like that as they come!”

Gunter smiled at her.  He had been told something similar back at the EES: “always roll with the punches, for not every mission will go exactly according to plan.”  It was used for a sort of upbeat reality check during on-your-feet-thinking exercises during training.

Suddenly, Gunter heard the clopping of hooves approach the door.  He tilted his head up and saw that Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash had arrived.  He saw that Rarity had her saddlebags on, and wondered what the deal was.  “Hey guys,” he said warily, “how’d you know I was sick?”

“Applejack told us on her way back here with Fluttershy,” explained Twilight, “and so I went to the others so we could come here as a sort of ‘get well’ par… I mean, event!” she said, looking awkwardly at Pinkie Pie.  She, however, seemed oblivious to the fact that Twilight Sparkle almost said “party,” since her facial expressions didn’t change.  She did, however, look a bit down.

“I’m so sorry, Gunter,” she said, “I had no idea those cupcakes wouldn’t agree with your tummy!”

“Yeah,” agreed Rainbow Dash, “everypony here loves Pinkie’s cupcakes, but nopony’s ever gotten sick off of them!”

“It’s nobody’s fault, guys,” Gunter assured them, lapping up the last of the soup, “I’ve just never had anything so… sugary… before.  I guess my stomach just kinda… rejected it.  Regardless…” he concluded, setting the bowl down, “it was very worth it!”

Pinkie Pie giggled.

“Well of course they’re worth it, darling!” exclaimed Rarity, “they’re simply divine!  Pinkie Pie wouldn’t have it any other way, isn’t that right?”

Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically, bouncing up and down.

“By the way,” Rarity continued, “I have a partially completed tux that I wanted you to try on…”

“Oh no,” protested Fluttershy, “he needs to rest today.  He’s much too tired to be doing much of anything today,” she said in that motherly tone of voice as she flew over to his head and gently stroked it with her hoof, “isn’t that right?”

Although he honestly didn’t feel the least bit tired up until that point, he somehow started to feel tired.  He briefly flashed back to his biological mother, a time that to him seemed like an unfathomably long time ago, and as the flashback image quickly faded, he nodded in response.

Despite the best scientists in the world performing the most massive and complicated surgery to make him human, somehow, his animal instincts still found ways to take over.  This, however, was probably the only time this happened in a good way.  He remembered back in the pound, where he was before the EES found him, and how he always craved it when there was the relatively rare nice child that legitimately wanted to caress him.  Fluttershy’s caressing, while not quite the same as a human touch, was still very soothing.

Before he knew it, he fell asleep.

He woke up the next morning, feeling infinitely better.  Whatever was in that soup really worked, and Gunter was thankful that Fluttershy had such a formula to help him.  Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were all sleeping in the barn nearby, but Fluttershy somehow picked up that Gunter was awake and opened her eyes.  She immediately looked at him and bounded over to his side.  “Good morning, sleepyhead,” she greeted him in a very soothing tone, “are you feeling better?”

Gunter nodded.

“That’s a good boy,” she said, smiling and petting his head.

Gunter had to admit to himself that this was a much nicer way of getting a cure to something than the usual injection of the necessary medication into the corroded artery or a pill.  True, they worked pretty quickly, but there was something about this that… was different.  There was interaction, contact, a feeling of genuine care.  Not that the EES didn’t care for their agents, but it went only so far as to getting them better as fast as possible.  Here, though, there was a sort of compassion that didn’t exist in the tough-as-nails world of Black Ops.

Before he could think anything more, the other two woke up and rushed over to his side.  “Oh thank Celestia, you’re all better!” Applejack exclaimed.

“All right!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, “we were starting to get worried when you didn’t wake up after a few hours!”

Once again, there was a very honest tone to their statements.  People had told him before the same statement Rainbow Dash had just said, but it was in a strictly professional sense, the way a doctor would say it.  However, these ponies truly, deep down, cared for his well-being.

Before he could allow that to sink in, he sat up.  “Thank you,” he said to them, “for everything.  Did you guys really stay here all night while I was asleep?”

“Why of course, sugarcube!” replied Applejack, “we couldn’t just leave you here all by your lonesome!”

“And we didn’t want to not be here in case something bad happened!” added Fluttershy.

“…Yeah, what they said!” concluded Rainbow Dash.

Gunter smiled at them and got up.  “Well,” he said, “again, thanks for all that.  I really do appreciate it… but where are the others?” he asked.

“Rarity and Pinkie Pie had to run their shops today, and Twilight had to go study, as usual,” explained Applejack, “but they did want us to tell you that they’re glad you’re OK!”

“Well, tell them I said thanks,” Gunter said,” and again, thanks, you guys.”

“You’re quite welcome,” replied Fluttershy, “and if anything starts to feel bad, you come right to me, OK?”

“Sure thing,” Gunter agreed.

“All right!  I have to go home and check on Angel and the others, so I’ll see you guys later!” she said, waving goodbye before flying out of the barn.

“Glad you’re better, Gunter,” added Applejack, “but I’ve gotta go help out Big McIntosh in the field.  See y’all later!” she concluded as she trotted out of the barn.

Rainbow Dash was left, but she didn’t give a reason to leave.  Rather, she asked him a question.

“Actually,” she began, “I was wondering if you could help me out with this new trick I’ve been working on…”

“Trick?” he asked, “What kind of trick?”

“Like… a stunt!” she said, “I’ve been trying out for the Wonderbolts for a really long time, but I think I know what I’ve been missing.”

“And what’s that?”

“That eyepiece thing you have!” she exclaimed.

Gunter was taken aback.  “Wait, what?”

“Hear me out,” she began, “if I could use that eyepiece, wouldn’t it help me determine what I would need to do to perfect a trick?”

The German Shepherd raised an eyebrow.  “Uh, well…” he began, unsure as to what to make of it.

However, Dash interrupted, “Pleasepleasepleaseplease!” she begged him, “I’ve been trying out for the Wonderbolts for so long!  This could be the one thing that could finally help me do the perfect tricks!”

“Dash, all it will do is outline the horizon and tell you how fast you’re going and how high up you are,” he explained, “and if the way you Pegasus ponies fly is any indication to me, I don’t think that’s any information you need a screen to show you...”

“Aww!” pouted Dash as she sat down, her front hooves crossed in dismay.

Gunter sighed.  “By the way… who are the Wonderbolts exactly?” he asked.

“They’re only the most spectacular flight squad in Equestria!” she exclaimed, throwing up her forelegs in exasperation, “but I guess you’re right… if they can do all those tricks without a fancy eyepiece showing all that, I probably shouldn’t be using it, either.”

“Sounds kind of like the Blue Angels…” Gunter mused to himself.

“You know…” Dash said, turning around, “the ponies that come in from the other side of the portal say the same thing when they hear about the Wonderbolts,” she explained, “who the hay are they?”

“Well,” Gunter began, “the US Navy takes their absolute best pilots and puts them in their special flight demonstration squad, where they perform for large crowds doing some of the most difficult and dangerous group stunts anyone can pull off in an airplane,” he explained, “they’re called the Blue Angels because their planes are painted blue, with some twinges of yellow.”

Dash’s eyes lit up, “Ohmygosh!” she exclaimed, “the Wonderbolts have outfits with that color scheme, too!”

Gunter’s eyes widened.  “Wow, that’s… quite bizarre,” he said to himself, “you know, when they come to town, next, let me know, and you’ll have to take me to see them!”

“Sure thing!” she replied, “but hey, you want to hang out today?  I’ve got an off day today and nothing really better to do… Hey!  Maybe you could show me the kinds of awesome tricks you secret agents do!” she suggested, “I’ve seen ponies do cool stuff in the movies, but I want to see how it’s really done!”

Gunter was taken aback a bit, but answered, “Uh, sure, I guess… was there anything in particular you wanted me to do?”

“Well…” Dash began, thinking, “maybe you could try getting into Sugarcube corner without Pinkie Pie noticing you?”

Gunter chuckled, “Piece of cake,” he said.

Dash grinned, “You don’t know Pinkie…” she said, “but if you do manage to get the drop on her, I’ll spot you for lunch and dinner today!”

“Sounds like a bet to me!” he agreed, “and if I don’t, then I will…” he thought for a second, then continued, “…I’ll let you try on my eyepiece for the rest of today!”

“You’re on!” Dash exclaimed.  She held out her hoof, spat into it, and then held it out to Gunter, who simply looked at it with a confused look.  “Uh,” she said, “you do the same thing, and we shake on it,” she explained.

The German Shepherd shrugged off the oddness of the gesture, but agreed and followed suit.  They shook on it, and suddenly his hands were all sticky, but it was little more than a mild inconvenience.  “Let’s go,” he said.

Before long, the two got to Sugarcube Corner.  Gunter wasn’t decked out in anything, but he didn’t need to be.  Looking at it, he already knew how he was going to get in; the top level of the building, which was decorated to look like a giant cake, had a window, possibly for some sort of attic.  He could easily climb in through there and then creep down the stairs carefully once inside.  Piece of cake, indeed.

“You ready, Gunter?” Dash asked him.

“Yep,” he replied, “just try to keep people outside quiet… I’m used to doing this at night, so this’ll probably attract attention.”

Dash saluted, “You got it!”

With that, Gunter climbed the front stairs, and then jumped and latched on to the overhang over the front door.  He pulled himself up on top of it, and found himself immediately on the roof!  He didn’t even need a fire escape ladder to do that!  This is going to be so easy, he thought.

He looked down.  Already, he had attracted attention.  And this is why I do this at night… he thought, but then focused back on the task at hand.  The small tower in the middle of the structure, the top of which resembled a cupcake, had windows at fixed intervals.  He needed to avoid those, so he immediately rushed up and pressed his back against the wall between two windows.  The crowd now got larger by every passing second.  He really hoped he wouldn’t get law enforcement involved in this, so he hurried.

He found that the only way to get up was to jump from what was probably the chimney, which was purple and shaped like some kind of coral.  Unfortunately, it put him directly in front of a window on the central tower.  Carefully, he poked his head in front of the window and looked in.  Seeing nobody, he dashed for the chimney, climbed up as far as he could before he started to hear the chimney cracking, and then leapt from there to the balcony of the top level of the tower.  He latched onto the railing of the balcony, and climbed over it, where he immediately ducked underneath one of the windows.  He breathed a sigh of relief; the hardest part was over.  Now, he just needed a way in.

Fortunately, one of the windows was unlocked, so he gently opened it and climbed in.  Once inside, he slowly and carefully pulled the window closed, and turned around to find the staircase down.  To his great shock, he saw not the rest of the room, but Pinkie Pie’s face right up in his.  Gunter screamed in shock and made ready to perform a bone-breaking kick by sheer reflex, but he fortunately managed to stop himself.  “Jesus!” he exclaimed, “don’t scare me like that!”

“Well maybe you,” she countered, “shouldn’t be trying to sneak into Sugarcube Corner like that!”

Despite the harshness of the statement, she still kept a smile on her face.  Apparently, she could tell that he didn’t really intend to break or steal anything, but the look in her eyes said that she had something planned for him.  Instinctively, he got on his knees and put his hands behind his head.  “I’m sorry,” he said, but before he could explain why he was doing it, he was interrupted.

“But I had no idea you wanted to help me bake so much!” she exclaimed, “I felt so bad for you getting sick yesterday that I was going to ask you if you could help me choose some ingredients that would work better for your tummy!  But now that you’re here, I don’t need to!”

“Uh, Pinkie Pie, I…” Gunter protested, but couldn’t finish.

“Come on!  It’s time to get baking!  I was just about to make another batch of cupcakes!” she exclaimed, “let’s go!” she concluded, getting behind the canine and pushing him forward with her head.

.     .     .

Pinkie Pie quickly picked up on how useful Gunter could be given how he possessed an infinite amount of dexterity when compared to her own kind, and had Gunter bringing to her far more ingredients than she could normally have picked up herself.  Gunter felt like he was being demeaned, at first, what with the ridiculous chef hat and the white apron she made him wear.  Though he did have to admit that there was a certain methodical nature to baking stuff that actually began to put his mind at ease, kind of like a rhythm to an easy listening piece of music.  It must have been that rhythm to it, along with the sweet rewards of the actual treats that result from this process, which kept Pinkie going with her job at the bakery.

Gunter mostly did the grunt work of passing along ingredients and putting stuff in and taking stuff out of the oven, while Pinkie actually did the mixing and proper shaping of the various treats.  This was something Rainbow Dash noticed quite quickly when she finally came into Sugarcube Corner to find out what had taken him so long to come back out and tell her if he had managed to sneak up on Pinkie Pie.  Not to mention, of course, his absurd outfit.  She immediately burst out laughing and went rolling on the floor.

“Laugh it up, Dash,” Gunter said, picking up a nearby pie, “and have a bite to eat while you’re at it!” he concluded, lobbing the pie at her.

The pie splattered all over her, and her laughing stopped abruptly as she got up.  She had the look of a challenger on her face, but one of a friendly challenge, much like back at HQ when someone wanted to spar with him.  Gunter got the hint and reached for another thing to throw, but Dash was too fast, and lunged at him, with the help of her wings, and knocked him to the floor.  Along the way she grabbed a cupcake and smashed it on Gunter’s nose.  Pinkie Pie suddenly got in on the action and started flinging things at the two of them.  “FOOD FIGHT!” she shouted.

Within seconds, food was flying everywhere, and the three of them were covered in chunks of cake, icing, jelly, even sprinkles.  For the first time in a long while, the once tough-as-nails, dead serious secret agent was truly having fun.  Before he knew it, the two ponies were holding him in a group hug on the floor, giggling their heads off.  The German Shepherd embraced both of them, one with each arm, in return, laughing with them.

The Conversion Bureau: Third Party

By PonySoldier

Chapter 6

“In addition,” Gunter explained to Princess Celestia as they, along with Princess Luna, were in a grand chariot flying over Canterlot, “we’re going to have to barricade all of the roads except the largest, widest, and most exposed ones.  Since we have air superiority, we’re going to want to exploit that to the nth degree.  Do you have a bomber squadron?”

“Gunter,” Celestia explained, “we don’t use those kinds of weapons.  We’re a peaceful society; the only things we could use as weapons are blades and fireworks.”

“Then have your Pegasus Guards do fly-bys, dropping the biggest fireworks you can get.  It will be better than nothing…”

“I can help,” interrupted Princess Luna, “I can fly with them and remain out of sight.  I’ll use my magic to help thin their numbers-“

“With all due respect, Luna,” Gunter interrupted, “I cannot, in good conscience, advise that.  We have to ensure continuity of government; if the HLF finds out that you are helping attack them, you will become a flying target!”

“You forget,” Luna said, “that I can block their weapons just as easily as my sister can.  And the night is my domain.  I can blend in with the night so well as to become nearly invisible.”

Gunter sighed.  He could tell that there was no swaying her.  Celestia didn’t interfere, either, which meant that she was equally confident in her younger sister’s ability.  He couldn’t do any more; at the end of the day, with him being officially in charge of the city’s defenses, Celestia and Luna far outranked him, and would likely override his decisions even if he persisted.  “All right,” he agreed, “just keep that shield up and you won’t be harmed.”

“Gunter,” Celestia told him, “you must remember… this is not like your land; my sister and I are more than able to fight.  While your country’s president needs the best-trained force of bodyguards in your world to guard him, my sister and I are more than capable of going into battle with our soldiers.”

“I’m sorry,” Gunter apologized, “It’s just that… those days are long behind us back at home… it’s not safe for leaders to aid their own troops anymore.  I’m sorry I questioned your abilities.”

“Don’t worry, Gunter,” added Luna, “your plans have proven to be most valuable.  Is there anything else you recommend us doing?”

He thought for a minute.  Nothing in particular came to mind except to increase the amount of armor the Pegasus Guards wear so that it covers their entire bodies, even their faces, but he had said that earlier.  “No, your highness,” he said, “that’s about all I can think of for now.”

Without any ado, the Pegasus Guards took the chariot down to the ground in the garden of the Royal Palace and let the three get off.  The sun was beginning to set, so Luna had to rush off to the palace to prepare for her nightly duties, which included raising the moon.  However, Celestia stayed with him.  “So, Gunter,” she said, “before I send you back to Ponyville, may I ask if you have learned anything with regard to what I assigned you to learn?”

“I believe so, your majesty,” he said, “the way of life here… the way ponies live such happy lives day in and day out, what it is to have fun with friends.  Things like that cannot be put into words.  Or at least, I lack the vocabulary necessary to do so,” he explained, “there’s something intangible about life here that makes me realize why so many people from my world have come to be ponies here.  And that, your highness, is worth fighting and dying for.  It’s more than just the need to keep the citizens safe when you actually know them.”

Celestia smiled and put her face near his.  Her perpetually flowing mane covered one of her eyes, but her visible eye had a look of warmth to it.  “I’m proud of you, Gunter,” she said, “I’m actually surprised you gained this sensation in only the first week!”

Gunter nodded.

“It’s one thing to be a brave and tough fighter,” the Princess explained, “but one who is that and who understands the true nature of what he’s fighting for?  That’s a soldier I want on my side,” she concluded.

“Thank you, your highness…” Gunter replied, bowing down on one knee.

Celestia smiled and held out her golden-shoed hoof.  The German Shepherd looked up, grasped it, and he stood up.  “Are you ready to return to Ponyville?” she asked.

“Yes, your majesty,” he replied.

Celestia remained smiling, closed her eyes, and her horn began to sparkle.  Gunter blinked, and then he immediately found himself inside Twilight Sparkle’s library.

.     .     .

“You ready, Dash?” Gunter asked.

“YEAH!” she cried out in excitement.

Gunter held up his eyepiece and spoke into it.  “Enable for all users.”

The eyepiece display read out “Command confirmed.  Awaiting user input.”

Gunter looked to Dash, “Now hold still, I’m going to fit this on you…”

Dash nodded and Gunter knelt down and affixed it to where the earpiece fit relatively snugly inside of her ear, yet still attached to her head well enough to stay on.  With a lot of adjusting, it finally managed to fit on her.

“How does that feel?” he asked.

“Just a weird kind of pressure on my head, but I can deal with it,” Dash replied, “thing is, I’m not sure what some of this stuff on the screen means…”

“That’s because it’s not in flight mode,” Gunter explained, “All you need to do is say ‘enable flight HUD.’”

“Enable flight hud,” Dash replied.  She stared at the screen for a couple seconds, and then a smile went across her face.  “This is gonna be so cool!” she exclaimed.

Gunter smiled.  “Well, go on, fly!  I think you’ll get the hang of what the symbols and such mean!”

“All right!” she shouted, taking off with a loud “WOOHOO!”

Gunter gave Dash a salute as she raced off into the distance until she became a barely visible speck in the distance.  He then turned around to find Twilight standing behind him.  “You sure you’re not worried about her breaking it?”

“Believe me,” he replied, “I put that thing on her real tight.  I doubt seriously it’ll fall off.”

“If you say so,” Twilight concluded, laughing, “hey, Rarity wanted me to tell you that your attire is ready and wanted you to try it on!”

“Is it, now?” he replied, “Certainly, then, I’d be glad to take a look at it!”

“Well, come on!” urged Twilight, “she’s really excited about it!”

After a brief walk, the two arrived in front of Rarity’s lavish Carousel Boutique, where Rarity just so happened to be looking out the top section of her half-opened door.  “Oh, Gunter!” she exclaimed, “Please, please, come in and see what I have made for you!”

Gunter made his way inside and beheld probably the best-looking tuxedo he had ever seen.  “Rarity,” he began, “are you sure you’ve never designed clothes for bipedal creatures before?”

“Why, no!” she replied.

“Because that’s exactly what tuxedos on my side of the portals look like!” he exclaimed.

“Oh, it was hardly difficult!” she exclaimed, “but don’t go judging it until you’ve tried it on, dear!”

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, but probably through Rarity’s unicorn magic powers, a privacy board slid out from nowhere and in front of Gunter as she almost chaotically replaced his armor with the tuxedo.  Whatever she did, it worked, as she managed to put the tuxedo on successfully.  With her magic, she whisked away the privacy board and revealed it to Twilight.  Rarity quickly zipped over next to her to admire her work.  “It’s marvelous!” she exclaimed, “truly one of my better works!”

“It looks great on him!” agreed Twilight, “but what do you think?” she asked Gunter.

“Well,” the agent said, looking at it from his own vantage point, “can I get a mirror?”

Before even a second had passed, a mirror slid in front of him.  He admired himself; he was by no means a judge of fashion, but he did like how he looked in the outfit.  “It looks… uh… good,” he began, “but can you loosen the arms a bit?  It feels tight around my forearms and also the pants restrict my movement a bit too much to my liking, and…” he paused and looked around the mirror at Rarity.  He noticed she was smiling uneasily, but relatively satisfied.

“Well, uh… certainly!” she replied, “I can do that no problem!  I just, uh, need a little more time, that’s all!” she said, smiling.

“Thanks, Rarity,” he said, “seriously, though, for somepony who’s never seen a bipedal creature before, you make clothes for them pretty well!”

Rarity took a bow, “much obliged,” she said, “I will have it fixed up for you by tomorrow!”

With that, she once again brought the privacy board back up in front of Gunter and used her magic to replace the tux with his armor.  “Take care, darling,” she bade him, “I’ll get right to work on this!”  and with that, she trotted off to the next room.

“Tell me you were being perfectly honest with her,” said Twilight.

Gunter sat down.  “I was,” he said.

Twilight eyed him, silently calling him out.

“OK,” he said, “I was kinda hoping there would be something on the cufflinks.”

“The what now?”

“The, uh… things that hold the wrist parts together,” he said, pointing to his wrist, “spies use them all the time as communication devices and storage containers for knock-out gas.  They’re usually fitted with a special symbol, or a jewel or some precious stone… the ones on this were… kinda boring.  Didn’t ring as terribly special as I would’ve liked… you know what I mean?”

“I totally understand,” she said.

Little did he know, but he gave Twilight an idea.

.     .     .

The anthropomorphic German Shepherd agent was awoken the next morning by panic.  Rainbow Dash, still wearing his eyepiece, came flying through the open door of the barn.  “Gunter!” she cried, “you’ve gotta help!  We can’t find Twilight anywhere!”

Gunter sat bolt upright.  “What?” he exclaimed, “OK, where and when did you last see her?”

“She was leaving the library at sunrise!  And that was three hours ago!” the rainbow-haired pony exclaimed.

Suddenly, Applejack burst in through the other barn door.  “What in tarnation is all this racket?” she demanded.

“Twilight’s missing!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“Oh Celestia, no!” she exclaimed, “we’ve gotta find her!”

“Leave that to me,” Gunter assured them, “Dash,” he said, turning to her, “may I have my eyepiece back?  I might need it…”

“Yeah, sure,” she replied, taking it off and tossing it to him.

He caught it with ease and affixed it to his own head.  “To the library!” he said, “let’s go!”

The three of them dashed towards the tree that contained the Ponyville Public Library where Twilight Sparkle resided.  While he did go there for the purpose of scent tracking her, he also wanted to get the rest of his equipment just to be on the safe side.

Inside of the library, he removed the particular book on a particular bookshelf, the book A Brief History of Contact with Humanity, and the shelf slid open.  Inside the small compartment, he removed his armor vest, including all of his various gadgets, his machine pistol, his combat knife, and his revolver.  Once he armed himself, he removed a good amount of ammo from his backpack for the machine pistol and revolver, placed it in various pockets in his vest, and he was ready to go.

Once he stepped outside, where Rainbow Dash and Applejack were waiting for him, they looked at him oddly.  “You sure you need all that?” Applejack wondered.

“I’ve been taught that you can never be too careful when it comes to a missing person… er, pony,” he said, “and if this is the worst case scenario, I want to be ready to deal with it without delay!”

“Um…” Rainbow Dash asked, “What would be the worst case scenario?”

Gunter bit his lip, but answered as honestly as he could.  “Hostage situation,” he said.

Applejack looked at him with a sort of understanding look.  “That ain’t the worst that could’ve happened to her, is it?” she asked.

Gunter sighed, “No, it’s not,” he said, reluctantly, “But I refuse to believe the absolute worst unless I see it for myself!  Now let’s go!” he declared, taking in a whiff of the air.  He could detect Twilight’s scent, meaning she had been there.  He could immediately figure out which way she had gone, and so he motioned his head to the others, and they were off.

Before long, though, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie had joined in with them, as they passed by each of them along the way.  Gunter was too busy following the scent, so Rainbow Dash and Applejack got everyone up to speed.  Rarity, however, had a sense of dread as she spoke.  “Oh no,” she said, “I know where this road leads!”

Gunter stopped and turned to her.  Everyone else stopped and looked at her, wondering where this road lead.  “It’s…” she said, “it’s the gem fields!” she exclaimed.

Everyone gasped.

“You guys must know something I don’t,” Gunter mused, “what’s so bad about that place?”

“The diamond dogs!” exclaimed Rarity, “Oh, but I don’t think Twilight will have a problem with them, though!”

“Rarity,” Dash said, “They might not be very happy that they allowed us to make off with all of those gems last time.”

“Ooh, I sure hope they’re not hurting her!” whimpered Fluttershy.

“Aw, Twilight’s the most powerful unicorn I know!” exclaimed Applejack, “She could handle those Diamond Dogs no sweat!”

“Besides, I love going down that slide!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.  Everyone looked at her.  “What?  It was fun!”

Gunter rolled his eyes and motioned forward, “Come on, guys,” he said, “let’s not make any assumptions until we have more evidence.  For all we know, she’s just gotten lost.”

The group continued the trail until they got to an entire mess of holes in the ground in an otherwise completely flat surface.  He wanted to know what kind of creatures the Diamond Dogs were, but he didn’t want any overstatements, which he had a feeling he was going to get.  Gunter’s nose picked up the scent of canine creatures, but of a very strange nature that he couldn’t identify.  “Follow me,” he said, “if she is down any of these holes, I’ll be able to tell you which one.”

Sure enough, after about fifteen minutes of following her scent, the trail ended at a hole.  Everyone had, to his surprise, listened to him and followed him the entire time.  He turned around to face them.  “Well, guys,” he said, “she’s down this hole behind me.  Look, before I go, let me say that I’m not going to ask any of you to come with me.  I don’t know how dangerous it is down there, and I don’t want you to needlessly risk your lives…”

“Needless?” protested Rarity, which had Gunter snap his head to her direction, surprised, “Why Gunter!  You would call us risking our lives for our friend Twilight ‘needless?’  Oh, for shame!” she scolded him, “For Twilight Sparkle, we’re willing to risk everything!  She is, after all, our friend!”

Every pony behind her nodded in agreement.  Gunter was awed by how much these ponies cared about her.  His throat got a little sore, but he shook it off, as he didn’t want to throw off his concentration.  “Well, then,” he said, “let’s do this.”

With that, he jumped over the hole, held his arms in a crossed pose in front of his chest, and fell down.  It immediately turned into a slide that conveyed him on many twists and turns before it finally went vertical again and dropped him straight down on the floor, some number of stories underground.  It hurt, but he was immediately able to stand back up.  Before long, the other five ponies fell beside him.  Gunter drew his pistol and scanned the area through the sights.  Seeing nothing, he lowered it.  It was dark, though.

“Anyone have light?” he asked.

Without hesitation, Rarity’s horn illuminated the entire area.  Unfortunately, though, he lost the scent of Twilight down here.  It could only mean that she was carried, which made things more difficult.

“Guys,” he said, “I’ve lost her scent.  And this floor is solid rock, so there aren’t any footprints.  How did you guys… do whatever it was you did the last time you were here?”

“Well,” said Rainbow Dash, I remember Spike saying something about Rarity’s gem-finding spell…”

“Of course!” exclaimed Rarity, “they did take me to a place with many, many gems to dig up.  Let’s see…” she said, as her horn lit up.  “Ah!” she shouted, “it’s that way!” she said, using her hoof to indicate a tunnel to her right.

“Got it.  Get behind me, I’ll take point,” Gunter said, walking through the tunnel entrance, gun raised.  “Rarity,” he added, “keep the light down.  I don’t think we want them to know that we’re coming.”

“But how will you be able to see?” she asked.

Gunter simply indicated his eyepiece.  “Engage night vision,” he said.

Immediately, his eyepiece lit up with a green-colored version of what was around him just as Rarity’s unicorn light dimmed considerably.

After walking a distance, the group spied an opening in the distance to a larger cavern.  While initially it was cause for all of them to do a mad dash towards it, Gunter quickly stopped them, holding his fist up in the “Hold” signal.  He didn’t stop to think and realize that the ponies probably didn’t recognize the gesture, but the fact that he stopped moving clued them in to what he meant.  Fluttershy flew over to him, hovering by his head, “What is it?” she whispered.

“Hostiles,” he said, “I can smell them… Wait here.”

Slowly, he crouched down and crept forward.  The opening was better lit, so he disengaged the night vision, but kept his eyes open.  Upon reaching the opening, he paused, clicked his pistol to full automatic mode, and engaged the laser sight.  Here goes nothing… he thought.

Swiftly, he jumped, ducked, and somersaulted into the room, and finished upright, but on one knee, scanning the area in front of him.  Seeing nothing, he turned around.  To his great shock, six big, spike-armored meatheads were lunging out of a passageway above the tunnel he just exited from, towards him.  He quickly ducked and rolled forward to get himself out of their trajectory, and once he performed two turns, he got up on his feet, and turned.  To his surprise, they had a very similar body structure to the canine agents back at the EES… if the EES ever performed the operation on bulldogs, injected them with an ungodly amount of steroids, and kept them in medieval dungeons for most of their lives.

He raised his pistol, and aimed at the nearest one, the laser sight pointing right at the neck.  The dogs turned around, and addressed him.  “Hey!” he shouted, “you dog like us!  Why you fight us?”

“You’ve got a hostage down this path!” Gunter replied, “If you let her go, we can end this peacefully!”

“She is workhorse!” another shouted, “She is ours, now!”

“Twilight’s not your property!” shouted the unmistakable voice of Rainbow Dash from behind Gunter. He turned his head, and there she was, in an attacking stance, scraping her hoof against the ground, as if to charge.

“Dash!” Gunter exclaimed, “What’re you doing here?  I told you to stay back!”

“CHAAAARRRGE!” she cried, and with that, the rest of the ponies stampeded out of the tunnel and towards the brutes.  Gunter turned and, seeing no other option, charged with them.  As he charged, he fired his machine pistol up into the air until the clip emptied.  The sound was so deafening to the obviously untrained ears of the dogs that they ran away, whimpering.  As they exited the room, Gunter turned to the ponies behind him.  He had forgotten that they weren’t used to hearing gunfire, either, and therefore had their hooves covering their ears, sitting down on the ground.

He reloaded his weapon and helped them to their feet.  “Come on, guys,” he said, “we’re almost there!”

“Ah can’t hear ya!” exclaimed Applejack, far more loudly than she would need to speak, “Mah ears are ringin’!”

“Mine too!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“This sounds really weird!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, “even if it does hurt!”

Gunter sighed and simply motioned his paw for them to follow him, which they all picked up on and did.  They followed him through the tunnel, after their former attackers.  Before long, they came on another opening, but it was blocked off by an iron gate.  Gunter wasted no time in producing a small C4 charge and placing it on the clearly antique lock.  Before he detonated it, he motioned for the ponies to stand back, so their hearing wouldn’t be permanently damaged.  Once they were a sufficient distance away, he put his paws over his ears, as an indication for the ponies to do the same, which they did.  He pressed a button, and then BLAM, the lock was decimated and the door swung open.  Gunter drew his pistol and scoured the room.  There, he saw three smaller, less bulky, but equally foul-looking diamond dogs were backing away from a clearly pissed-off Twilight Sparkle, whose horn was glowing and had a barrier of spears pointing outward from her position.

“You made a big mistake taking Celestia’s protégé down here!” she shouted, “and now,” she added, “you’ve got her best fighter coming to rescue me.  Isn’t that right, Gunter?” she concluded, looking at him.

Gunter grinned and cocked his pistol.  “Percisely,” he said, “now, let her go before I drop all of you!”

“But…” one of them protested, “we need unicorn pony!  We must find gems!”

“Hate to break it to you, but taking hostages is not the way to go about it!” Gunter retorted, and with no further discussion, he downed the three diamond dogs with three controlled bursts from his machine pistol.  Holstering it after reloading, he rushed over to Twilight, who dropped the spears and ran over to him.  Gunter knelt down and Twilight gave him a very emotional hug.  Much like Quill from back at the White House, he could feel her body convulsing as she sobbed.

“Shh…” he said, “come on, let’s get you out of here.”

.     .     .

Gunter and the rest of the ponies found themselves in the Ponyville Hospital again, only this time, they were waiting on Twilight Sparkle.  From what Gunter saw, there wasn’t any major harm done to her body, but he left the true diagnosis to a medical professional.  He did feel bad, in hindsight, that he killed those three diamond dogs in front of Twilight.  He also felt bad about damaging the pony’s ears from his gunfire, but the medical unicorns at the hospital were easily able to fix them up.

Before long, though, Twilight Sparkle came out of the exam room with little more than a few bandages.  This came as a great relief to all the ponies, who immediately mobbed her and gave her a huge group hug.  Gunter remained out of it, feeling that it wasn’t his place, but before he knew it, Twilight Sparkle walked over to where he was sitting on the floor.  Though, for some reason, she didn’t seem as friendly as she usually was.  Perhaps she was slightly traumatized by seeing Gunter off those diamond dogs.  However, she did still thank him.

“Thanks,” she said, “for what you did back there.  I… don’t think I could’ve gotten out if it wasn’t for you and everyone showing up.”

Gunter simply nodded.  He was starting to realize that perhaps coming here this early before the attack on the Gala wasn’t such a good idea… was he unintentionally bringing in the same kind of violence to Equestria that he had come here to prevent?

Without a word of explanation, he upped and left.

Soon enough, he was back at Twilight’s library, where he fished around through the compartment containing all of his equipment, and found what he had been looking for: the projector from the EES assault simulator.  He quickly installed the wireless device on the ceiling and flipped the switch on.  “Computer!” he shouted, “run the one-on-one program!  Unarmed!  Maximum AI!”

“Command confirmed,” went the computerized voice, “initiating program in three… two… one.”

Immediately, a masked man appeared in front of him and began throwing a punch.  Gunter quickly blocked it, punched him in the gut, and then executed an uppercut punch to the head, knocking him back, unconscious.  The hologram flickered out and Gunter dropped to his knees, looking down.  Somehow, he was feeling depressed.

He remained there, unmoving, until he heard the door open.

“Gunter?” came the voice of Applejack.

He turned around.  “Oh, hey Applejack,” he said, but then turned back, “I kinda want to be alone right now…”

“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” she asked, walking up to him.

Gunter sighed.  “I honestly don’t know,” he replied, “look, I came here to help protect this place from what untold horrors the HLF is going to bring here.  But… somehow it feels like it’s slowly happening, anyway… because I’m here.”

“Gunter!” she countered, “Ah know you’re the fightin’ type, but you’ve gotta get over yourself!  Ah think most ponies would agree that since you’ve come here, you’ve been nothin’ but a joy to be around!  Sure, you’re kinda quiet, but that’s nothin’ we ain’t used to!”

“Applejack…” Gunter clarified, “when I went in to get Twilight, I straight up killed three of the diamond dogs holding her there!  And… I know it shouldn’t bother me, but…”

“Gunter,” Applejack continued, “you did the same thing protectin’ Celestia.  We were all shocked, yes, but in case you forgot, we forgave you!  You were just doin’ your job!”

“But Twilight…”

“Twilight’s a mite shaken,” Applejack admitted, “but ah know she can get over it.  We all go through something that we wish we hadn’t gone through, but the only thing we can do is get over it!  Look here, I’ve been livin’ here for quite a while, and ah know when something’s goin’ amiss.  As far as I can tell, y’all aren’t makin’ this world any worse!  And believe me, sugarcube, if anything of the sort ever did happen, everypony would be up in your business about it!”

Gunter could only hang his head.  He sniveled a bit, but wasn’t on the verge of tears… or at least, not yet.

“Aw, c’mere, sugarcube,” Applejack said, walking over to him and nuzzling her head against his side.  Gunter put his arm around her, and the two shared an embrace.  He didn’t keep track of the time, but however long it lasted, when it ended, it felt like it wasn’t enough.

“Y’all get some sleep, now,” she told him as she was about to walk out the door, “Everything will be just swell tomorrow.”

The Conversion Bureau: Third Party

by Pony Soldier

Chapter 7

It had been four weeks since Agent 1425 Gunter Shepherd entered Equestria and outed Quill as the traitor in Celestia’s midst.  In that time, he had come to learn, as Celestia had wanted, just what he was fighting for, and became even more personally invested in his self-assigned mission than he was when he decided to force his way in.  He had made friends with six kind ponies who had shown him the ways of Equestria and reassured him of why he was doing what he did.  Ponies like them were worth fighting for.

In the week leading up to the inevitable attack on Canterlot, Gunter had made sure everything was in tip-top shape.  He also familiarized himself with the Princesses’ forces.  Since Equestria technically lacked a standing army, being a peaceful world, the only body of individuals who had any significant training and equipment necessary for battle was the Royal Guards.   They were split up into three divisions: the Earth Pony Guards, the highly visible Pegasus Guards, and the super elite Unicorn Guards who guarded the Princesses’ personal chambers at all times.  The aerial assault would obviously fall to the Pegasus Guards, lead, as per request, by Princess Luna.  Earth Ponies, as he had learned, made up for their lack of flying or magic abilities with brute strength, as demonstrated time and again by Applejack.  The Earth Pony Guards, he decided, would guard the exterior of the palace.  The Unicorn Guards, being clearly the best trained and by far the most dangerous, would remain on the inside, as the last line of defense in case all else failed.  And even then, Celestia herself would be quite a force to be reckoned with should the HLF even get that far.

Shortly before the Gala, Gunter got together with the six ponies he had come to be friends with.  They were all clearly apprehensive about the notion that the grand celebration that they had come to know as the source for great memories would be the subject of a brutal attack by ruthless terrorists.

“Guys,” he told them, “I know that I really shouldn’t be the one to be telling you what to make of a situation that affects you a lot more personally than it does me, but...” he explained, “I’m still going to ask that you guys stay here until you get word from Celestia on how everything went.”

“But why?” protested Rainbow Dash, “Applejack and I are perfectly able to fight!”

“Because!” he exclaimed, “I can’t, in good conscience, allow you to do this.  No offense, but you’re not soldiers!  Hand-to-hand combat does not necessarily mean a lot when your opponents are going to be using mostly ranged weapons, and while I don’t doubt your loyalty to Equestria, you guys mean too much to me!  Even though I’ve only known you guys for a month, I don’t think I could bear the thought of losing even one of you just for being brash!”

“I appreciate your concern, Gunter,” replied Twilight, “but I will respectfully refuse.  As the Elements of Harmony, our place is with Princess Celestia at a time like this.”

The others nodded in agreement.

Gunter sighed.  “Look,” he said, “if you’re going to do that, then just don’t go out into the thick of the battle.  Stay with the Princess, because I’m sure you know as well as I do how powerful she is.  You got that?”

“Yes sir!” they replied.

…

Once the day came, everything was put into place.  The Earth Pony Guards set up a perimeter around the Palace, the Unicorn Guards were stationed inside the Palace, and the Pegasus Guards were perched on the roof along with Princess Luna.  She looked quite intimidating in her pitch-black armor, even with her relatively calm and somewhat reserved demeanor, but she now looked more determined than anything.  Gunter had been informed (though with little detail, as it was clearly a touchy subject to anyone he asked) of how a corrupted version of herself almost sent Equestria into eternal night, or something to that effect, so he took her determined look to mean that Luna was willing to prove that she was, in fact, still on the side of good, despite some grudges that some ponies still held against her.  Gunter couldn’t think of a more perfect opportunity for her to do so.

Before heading to his sniping position, he entered the Royal Chambers, where Celestia and the six ponies were huddled together.

“I’d like a private word with Celestia, for a moment, if you guys don’t mind…” he said.

They silently nodded and exited the room.

“Yes?” Celestia asked him.

Gunter bowed on one knee and then walked over to her, and sat down next to her.

“I just wanted to say…” he explained, “you know… back home, people sometimes talk about how they love their country, or the deity that they worship.  I… never really understood what they meant,” he said before pausing.  He then continued, “But… I think I know now.  And it can only really be done when you experience it and what it stands for yourself.”

“Is that why you wanted to speak to me privately?” the Princess replied, “because, while I’m very glad that you learned this, I think that would’ve been better if the others had been here to hear it.”

“Not entirely,” Gunter replied, “There was just one other thing… before I go.  I realize that there’s a good possibility that I may not come back from this upcoming engagement alive.  And…” he paused, and then continued.  “If I were to leave tomorrow or die tonight… I’d only ask that the last thing I see be your face… ‘cause… it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.  And, well, I’ve been to a lot of places in the world I come from, but honestly, I’ve never seen anything even close to the same plane as you…  And…” he paused.  He was getting teary-eyed, “Damn it!  I don’t even know why!” he shouted flailing his arms in the air and turning away.  “But I… I just want to die without any regrets.  And-“

Suddenly, he felt a magic force shut his mouth before he could rant at himself some more.  He turned his eyes to Celestia.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Celestia said, “beauty can be found in many things.  It is all in the eye of the beholder, and clearly, your eyes have found it in me.  And for that, I am truly flattered.”

Gunter calmed down.

“I had a feeling you picked up on it when you woke up for the first time in Ponyville,” she continued, “your valor and fearlessness in the face of what could have been certain death had I not intervened was inspiring, and for that, I felt you deserved only the utmost of gratitude for that, and everything else you have done, and are going to do, for Equestria.”

Gunter nodded, feeling the magic ease up, but he still couldn’t move.  Celestia walked up right in front of him.

“Besides, I have confidence that you’ll come out of this alive.  Just remember that you have powerful friends,” she concluded with a smile.  She then leaned in and gave the German Shepherd a nuzzle, which Gunter returned affectionately.  The magic on his body ceased, and he could move again, but he chose not to, and he and the Princess shared a moment that lasted for the next five minutes.

“Gunter,” Celestia spoke softly, “the time is drawing near.  You should get to your place.  My sister Luna is waiting.”

“I will,” he replied, slowly backing away, “And Celestia?” he added.

She tilted her head, listening.

“Thank you.”

.     .     .

Before long, Gunter was perched in the highest tower of the Palace with his sniper rifle.  The town was quiet, as it was all evacuated.  The Pegasus Guards and Luna stood at the ready on the roof next to him, the Earth Pony Guards stood their ground at the base of the Palace, and the Unicorn Guards stood hidden within the Palace.

In spite of all this, one could still hear the sounds of a very upscale party going on in the main hall of the palace.  But Gunter was not worried about that; he knew what he was doing.

Before long, it began.  A loud blast in the distance rang out through the night.  Gunter looked through the sniper scope at one of the main streets, and sure enough, masked HLF soldiers in relatively light body armor began jogging in a rather loose formation down the streets.  Some of them began tossing hand grenades into nearby buildings, causing additional explosions that shattered most of the windows in the area.  The German Shepherd held up his paw, telling the Pegasus Guards and Princess Luna to get ready.  After they reached the end of the street, he thrust his arm forward.  “Go!” he shouted.

Immediately, the group took off, following Luna’s lead in a tight formation.  As soon as they were off, Gunter immediately lined up a shot and fired.  It hit an HLF soldier square in the middle of the chest, causing him to fall backwards.  He advanced the magazine with the bolt action and fired another shot at a soldier who was about to throw a grenade into a shop window.  It caused him to drop the live hand grenade as he flailed to the ground, causing an explosion that took out a sizeable chunk of the forces around him.  The forces began to scatter, but upon finding that they couldn’t run for cover in any of the backstreets, they were immediately assaulted by the Pegasus Guards, lead by Princess Luna.  Explosions of dark blue, the color of night, went off in their midst, Pegasus Guards knocked heads with their hooves as they swooped down low towards them.  All the HLF could do was run forward, towards their objective, as fast as they could.  Suffering significant losses, they opened fire wildly into the air, hoping to hit one of the Pegasus Guards but clearly failing to do so.  Luna must have been protecting them as well.

Gunter continued to fire shot after shot until he ran out of ammo in the clip.  Before he removed his eye from the scope, something caught his eye.  He looked around through the scope and saw what it was; an HLF soldier was pointing an RPG at his position.

“Oh, Hell no…” he said to himself as he clamored for the trap door leading down.  Immediately, he heard the sound of the rocket propelled explosive get closer and closer.  He quickly opened the trap door and slid down the ladder below.  It was just in time, as the rocket hit the tower, causing a significant explosion that destroyed the area where he was standing not one minute ago.  The trap door splintered and some rocks came tumbling down, but the German Shepherd managed to get out of the way before they could hit him on the head and cause any severe bodily harm.  Exiting the tower through another wooden door, he found the nearest window and looked out of it to see how everything was holding up outside and if he could continue to snipe from that position.  Unfortunately, the window he was looking out of was not optimal for a sniper, but he could tell that Luna and the Pegasus Guards were holding up well, and didn’t appear to be sustaining any losses.  The HLF, on the other hand, was sustaining significant losses, but not enough to make them not a threat to the palace itself.  A significant number of the HLF soldiers made their way to the Palace grounds, where the Earth Pony Guards, who began to put up a solid defense, met them.  While their armor was holding up surprisingly well against gunfire, the Earth Pony Guards were clearly sustaining more losses than the HLF.

Quickly, Gunter dropped the sniper rifle, drew his machine pistol, and bolted down the stairs.

.     .     .

By the time he had gotten down to the floor, it was too late; the Earth Pony Guards were pushed back under heavy gunfire into the Palace, right where a bunch of civilian ponies were attempting to have some semblance of a normal party.  Immediately, the HLF soldiers seized the opportunity and began shooting erratically.  While the Earth Pony Guards took cover, the Unicorn Guards were nowhere to be seen, and civilian ponies too slow to catch on to what was happening were gunned down with ruthless efficiency.

The assailants, who consisted of most of what was left of the HLF force after they were dealt severe losses by the Pegasus Guards and Princess Luna, stopped firing only when they ran out of ammo.  They had accomplished what they came here to do.

“You might as well give up!” shouted a familiar voice.  Gunter poked his head around from behind cover and saw that it was the Army Drill Instructor that had gotten away from him back in Dallas.  Gunter cocked his pistol and took aim.

A shot rang out.  However, nobody was hit by it.  Instead, a piece of modern human technology, a projector, came crashing to the ground, broken by a bullet to the lens.  The civilian ponies, whose bodies had piled up in various areas of the ballroom, flickered and disappeared.

The Gala had actually been rescheduled to a much later date.  Gunter had planned to deceive the HLF into thinking that they still had an opportunity to achieve their goal of civilian casualties, because otherwise they would have likely called off the attack and retreated back through the portal, an almost nonexistent option at this point.

Back at the EES HQ, he had asked the technician to modify the Assault Simulator projector to project Equestrian Pony civilians, which he passed off as him “practicing avoiding civilian casualties.”  The technician did an excellent job at that, and now that the EES had spent most of their current ammo clips on their weapons, which consisted almost entirely of light machine guns that took a relatively long time to reload, the Equestrians had an advantage.

“GO!” Gunter shouted, “FOR THE PRINCESSES!  FOR EQUESTRIA!”

A roar of battle cries sounded off in the ballroom, creating an almost deafening sound.  Before anyone could even begin to reload their weapons, the remaining Earth Pony Guards and Unicorn Guards emerged from their cover spots and charged.  Gunter charged with them, emptying his machine pistol as he did so, dispatching three foes, before he got up close and personal.

Earth Pony Guards did their best with hand-to-hand means; they used their armored hooves, their heads, and even their teeth to wrench weapons out of the hands of the HLF soldiers.  The Unicorn Guards, however, began using their magic in a synchronized manner.  Before anyone realized what they were doing, the HLF weapons were floating in the air, and then heated up until they glowed bright yellow, and then mashed together, having been heated until the very metal they were made from turned liquid, into a giant metal ball.

“Break formation!” called out one of the Unicorn Guards.  The Earth Pony Guards immediately broke the line and dashed for the sides, along with Gunter, as the Unicorn Guards rolled the giant ball of metal towards the HLF troops.  Many managed to dodge it, but the unfortunate ones still stuck in the doorway were too cramped together to get out of the way in time, and met their end with a stomach-churning crunching noise.

Immediately, all ponies, and Gunter, resumed their defense.  Gunter immediately went hand-to-hand, deflecting a punch and counterattacking with an elbow-break move, followed by flipping him over on the ground and placing a swift kick to the head, knocking him unconscious.  Wasting no time he returned his attention to his many other opponents, who seemed to be mobbing him, seeing him as one of the biggest threats.  He quickly unleashed another burst with his machine pistol and dropped the now empty weapon in order to throw a punch to the face of an approaching HLF soldier, creating a crackling noise that indicated at least a broken nose.

To his right, he had noticed that the Unicorn Guards were using magic attacks to knock back their HLF opponents, and some were using their telekinesis abilities to literally throw some opponents out the door at clearly injurious speeds.    Some of them, however, went for the hand-to-hand approach and executed double-hoof back-facing kicks and impalements with their horns, which they had sharpened prior to battle.  One of them, however, while impaling an opposing HLF soldier, did not notice that another opponent was coming up next to him brandishing a knife with an obvious intent.  Gunter drew his own knife, and threw it at him.  After a menacing twirling sound sounded off as it traversed the distance, the blade stuck in the HLF soldier’s chest, causing him to drop the knife to the floor, and collapse.

Gunter quickly turned his attention to the waning HLF soldiers in front of him.  He blocked a knife attack from directly in front of him, disarmed the hand holding it, and performed a knee-bash into the opponent’s gut, causing him to double over, whereupon the German Shepherd grabbed his head and wrung it until it snapped.  Hearing someone approaching behind him, he thrust his elbow backwards, directly behind him, hitting another opponent in the rib cage and then whirled around with a strong sideswipe-punch to head, followed by a strong heel kick to the solar plexus, knocking him to the ground.  Hearing another opponent rushing towards him, he drew his pocket revolver and lined up a shot as he turned his head to face the oncoming opponent, and placed a shot right in the forehead, causing the opponent to fall forward, splattering some blood on the floor.

After he fired off the rest of the shots in the chambers of his revolver, dispatching five more opponents, that, along with the significant losses being sustained by the HLF soldiers, caused them to flee.  Gunter reloaded his revolver as the Royal Guards all charged after them, where the HLF would inevitably be sandwiched between the Pegasus Guards lead by Princess Luna and their pursuers.  The Royal Guards suffered relatively few losses inside the Palace, although the bodies of the Guards were still easier to make out than those of the HLF soldiers.   It saddened him, but he knew the time to mourn was not now.  He turned to face the doorway, where the HLF was still scrambling to get out, pursued by the Earth Pony and Unicorn Guards who dealt many casualties to them as they clamored through the bottleneck doorway.

To Gunter’s surprise, though, one body on the floor started moving.  Gunter raised his revolver and aimed it at the body.  Once its head emerged, he lowered it.  It was the Drill Instructor from Dallas.  Gunter holstered his revolver and walked briskly over to him.

“They don’t seem like such pansies now, do they, asshole?” Gunter taunted.

“You!” he retorted, “you’re one pesky son of a bitch, you know that?”

“Why yes, my mother was a female dog!” Gunter replied sarcastically before grabbing him by the collar and slamming him to the floor, “how observant!”

The DI reached to his pants, produced a pistol and rolled over to his back to aim at the anthropomorphized canine, but Gunter swiftly grasped hold for the gun and in an ensuing battle of hand and finger strength, Gunter managed to remove the ammo clip from the pistol, but there was apparently one bullet in the chamber, as the gun fired and hit the canine in the shoulder.

In an intense shock of pain, Gunter cried out and fell backwards, clutching his shoulder.  It wasn’t a life-threatening injury, but considering it was his right shoulder, his effectiveness was drastically decreased.  After a couple seconds of agonizing pain, he saw his opponent standing over him.  Gunter bared his teeth and growled as his opponent drew a knife.  He raised it up, but the canine quickly rolled out of the way and the knife hit tile floor as Gunter got to his feet.  His right arm hung limply at his side, but he was ready to fight left-handed.

His opponent stood to his feet, and Gunter charged him, and knocked him to the ground as a football player would.  It was, unfortunately, at the cost of having a knife jammed into his side, causing him to roll to the side in even more pain.  With him on the ground, Gunter’s opponent managed to make his way over to Gunter and tried once again to deal a coup de grace by pulling the knife out of the downed canine and then going for another strike.  This time, though, before he could pull the knife out, Gunter raised his head up and clamped his jaw on the man’s neck, and bit down with all the strength he could muster.  It wasn’t long before he could taste blood, and he quickly tore whatever was in his mouth off of his opponent’s body.  Blood briefly sprayed before his opponent went limp and collapsed to the floor.

The canine spat the small chunk of flesh out of his mouth and breathed heavily.  The pain was overwhelming, and the knife was still stuck inside of him.  But from the sounds outside, he didn’t need to assist the Royal Guards.  He could hear cries of “Victory!” outside and shouts of praise to Celestia and Luna.  With this considerably joyous sound in his ears, he blacked out.

.     .     .

As Gunter and the DI faced off within the ballroom, the Royal Guards had pushed the HLF soldiers outside of the Palace.  While a few tried to surrender, they were punished brutally by their allies, who immediately viewed them as traitors and began stabbing them with their knives.  It didn’t matter, though, as something in the sky drew everyone’s attention:  Princess Luna was hovering in the air with a blue aura about her.  She opened her eyes, and they shone with the brightest white light, and in a second, a bolt of magic energy projected from her and hit the cluster of HLF forces.  The light was blinding, but once everyone could regain their vision, they saw that the HLF soldiers had been thrown against the wall.  Some were dead, others were unconscious, but Luna was immediately thanked with massive cheers from the forces she co-commanded with her sister.

The Pegasus Guards, however, were trying to deal with a smaller, but still relatively potent threat at the main gate.  The HLF soldiers who did not make it into the Palace were attempting to breach the front door, and as their weapons were still intact, they still posed a potent threat.  One Pegasus Guard was killed, but the rest were taking cover from the almost constant barrage of gunfire.  Outside of Luna’s protection, who was busy dealing a significant and at the same time symbolic final blow to the majority of the attacking forces, they suddenly became far less useful than before.

However, it all changed as the door opened slowly, outward, the way it was supposed to open.  The two trying to set up explosive charges at the door foolishly rushed in, only to be sent flying back out, crashing to the ground on the pavement of the street they had taken to get there.  Then, with a calm, yet stern demeanor, came Celestia out of the door.  Upon seeing the monarch of Equestria, the remaining HLF soldiers opened fire, but to no avail, as the bullets were blocked as Celestia seemed to barely be giving them any thoughts.  Her eyes closed, her horn illuminated brightly, and before anyone could even think of surrendering, an enormous ball of fire erupted in a ten-foot radius around her.  The remaining twelve HLF assailants were quickly vaporized in the fireball that began to look a lot more like the sun than an explosion.  If anyone had been looking in her direction, they would have been blinded, but since the Pegasus Guards were a good distance away and knew their Princess well enough, they had their eyes averted.  The Earth Pony Guards and the Unicorn Guards did not have their heads turned in the direction, either.  The fireball was sustained for a mere thirty seconds, but by the time it was over, a considerable crater surrounded Princess Celestia.  It, combined with Princess Luna’s extraordinary knockout blow was a perfect and symbolic one-two-punch on which to end the battle.

Both Princesses turned towards their respective fighting forces and declared “VICTORY!” with their voices that they magically amplified to allow all in Canterlot and the surrounding area to hear.  There was rejoicing from among the Royal Guards to celebrate.

.     .     .

The six pony friends sat outside of the recovery room of the Royal Equestrian Hospital where Gunter was located, carrying saddlebags.  He had suffered serious internal bleeding with the knife wound and had lost consciousness due to blood loss.  Lacking the proper canine blood to perform a transfusion, they could only sit and wait.  He had been there for two days since the battle had ended.  In that time, there had been a mourning ceremony for every pony that had lost his or her life defending the Palace and the Princesses.  A day had been set aside on the Equestrian calendar for official remembrance of the event, and Celestia gave a speech honoring all of them, and Luna announced construction of a memorial to be built for them in the town center.

The following day, the few surviving HLF soldiers were sentenced to seven thousand years on the Moon, transported there by Celestia herself.  The enormous metal ball made up of what used to be firearms was melted down again and used partly for materials in the memorial and partly to rebuild the destroyed tower where Gunter was perched for a time during the battle.  The few weapons that were still intact after the battle were given a similar treatment, but Gunter’s weapons were stashed neatly in the recovery room where he now lay in bed.

After the nurse came out of the room, performing a regular checkup on how he was doing, she allowed the six ponies to enter the room.  “He’s still unconscious, though,” she warned them, “and he’s lost a lot of blood.  We all did our best to heal up the internal injuries, but his body is so foreign to us we’re not sure if we did a good job of it.”

“We understand,” replied Twilight Sparkle, “we just want to see him for ourselves.”

The nurse nodded and allowed them in.  “Also,” she said, “if anything bad happens, hit that big red button on the wall behind him to let us know.”

“Sure thing,” Twilight assured her as she led the others through the door.

Gunter was lying there on a bed at the far side of the room with a large bandage wrapped around his waist that was colored red from the blood.  The only thing that indicated he was alive was that he was visibly breathing, something that made even the worrisome Fluttershy more at ease.

“Darling,” began Rarity, “we just… wanted to be here to make sure you were getting better…”

“Yeah,” added Rainbow Dash, “we all really appreciate what you did for Equestria, and we thought we’d bring a few things for you that we… wanted to get you in return.”

“Exactly,” concluded Twilight Sparkle, “which is why I think Rarity should go first.”

Gunter remained unconscious and motionless.  Rarity, however, kept calm and pulled out the tuxedo she had made for him out of her saddlebag.  “I’m terribly sorry that you never really got to wear this… I kept getting so many last-minute orders for the Gala after it was rescheduled that I simply didn’t have as much time as I wanted to make the proper adjustments,” she explained rather solemnly, “but… here… I just… hope you’ll be able to wear it…” she began to break down into sobs, which was immediately added to slightly by her friends embracing her caringly.

Suddenly, though, they began to hear sounds from the bed.  It sounded like a low growl, but it was soft, and nopony could hear it very well.  Then suddenly…

“AH!  Mother… Je-sus!” exclaimed Gunter, clutching at his side, “Oh, God that hurts…” he said, but before he could say more, he was surrounded by the ponies.

“He’s awake!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

He was then greeted by many congratulations and sighs of relief expressed in various different manners.  To which Gunter smiled and gave each of them a friendly hug.  “You know,” he said once it was over, “that’s the second time I’ve woken up to find you guys waiting for me in a hospital!  That’s… actually really cool of you guys…” he said, unsure of how else to put it.

The ponies smiled and once again embraced him in a group hug.  “Ah come on,” said Rainbow Dash, “we’re friends, remember?  Would we really do anything less?”

Gunter smiled.  “I guess not,” he agreed.

“Oh!” exclaimed Rarity, “you must try on the suit I’ve made for you!  I’ve been waiting so long for you to try on the suit with the changes we’ve made to it!”

“Wait… we?” inquired Gunter.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, “we all added our own special thing to it so we all had a hoof in the final product!”

“Which was partially why I went into those diamond fields a couple weeks ago,” added Twilight Sparkle, “I wanted to get some jewels for the cufflinks, but I figured that something else would be more fitting from me.”

“Oh guys… this really wasn’t necessary!” the German Shepherd protested.

“Oh, hush!” went Rarity, “you go above and beyond the call of your own duty to protect us, why should we not do the same?”

Gunter couldn’t argue with that, and so he looked upon the tuxedo, which Rarity was suspending in the air with her magic.  He could immediately see Pinkie Pie’s contribution, or at least one of them, in the form of a pin on the lapel in the shape of her cutie mark, the three balloons, two blue and one yellow.  It actually gave the tuxedo a far more lighthearted look to it without looking gaudy (he had half expected it to be pink, and was relieved to see that it wasn’t.)

“Nice touch, Pinkie,” Gunter quipped, “the pin adds a nice feel to it!”

“But that’s not all I added to it!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“Really?  What else did you add?”

“It would be more to your advantage if you found out while trying it on,” Rarity interjected, “I do think Pinkie Pie would agree, right?” she said to Pinkie, who nodded rapidly in reply.

Gunter grinned and tilted his head.  “So... what else did you guys add?  I can’t exactly see much else…”

“Oh! Can I go next?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, and without waiting for a reply, she proceeded to explain what she added to it.

“OK, so, I looked through some of your gadgets while you weren’t looking…”

“Rainbow!” exclaimed Applejack, “An’ I thought sleepin’ in mah apple trees was the worst of your troublesome self!”

“Hey, at least I told the truth!” retorted Rainbow Dash.

Applejack sighed, unable to argue with that, “Just go ahead with it, then.”

“OK, so,” Rainbow Dash continued, “I saw some of your gadgets and I got thinking… all those pockets aren’t exactly too stealthy for someone who values being unseen as much as you do!  So I had Rarity put a whole bunch of pockets on the inside of the jacket to carry all of that small stuff!”

“Ah, a subtle touch…” noted Gunter, “Very nice!  I guess that stuff won’t be as much of a problem as the bulging pockets my combat vest has…” he said.  In reality, he wasn’t sure if it would even be terribly helpful, since he was the only one in Equestria who, to his knowledge, was even engaged in covert operations, but he did agree that in case the need arose to use anything at a formal event, he would definitely have easy access to them.  “Thanks, Dash.”

“Anytime, Gunter!” Dash replied, smiling.

“Ooh, Gunter,” added Twilight, “I wanted to tell you that I added some magical properties to it!”

“Did you, now?” Gunter wondered.

“Of course, silly!” Twilight replied, “magic is my special talent!  It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t add magic to it!” she explained, laughing.  “Anyway, I researched a spell that basically does the same thing as the spell Celestia and Luna used to block weapons, except you cast it on objects and it lasts indefinitely!”

“Wow…” Gunter breathed, very intrigued by the notion of being practically invulnerable, “you know… wow… I don’t even know what to say, Twilight…”

“Ah, don’t worry about it!” Twilight exclaimed, “It’s the most fitting spell I could think of for you!  Plus, we… kinda don’t want to see you waking up in a hospital in a condition like this,” she concluded, looking at his bandage.

Gunter chuckled, even though it did hurt a bit, “Point taken,” he agreed.

“Well,” interjected Applejack, “If ah may…”

“Go ahead, Applejack,” allowed Twilight Sparkle.

“Well, ya see, it took me a long time to think of somethin’ ah could add to it, but ah figured you could use a little reminder of us, since ya tend to get kinda down when all of us aren’t around.  So ah had Rarity put in a little picture pocket with a picture of all of us in the coat that ya can take out whenever ya feel like it.”

Gunter smiled as Rarity manipulated the tux to show the photograph of the six friends in the lapel, which was kept in a pocket underneath all of Dash’s pockets.  It was cute, to say the least.  And after the times that these ponies had helped him out of feeling sad, down, or gloomy, he knew it would be a good pick-me-up if he was ever separated from them for whatever reason.

It was then Fluttershy’s turn.  Unlike the first time they had met, she was considerably more open to him, though still retained her shy demeanor.  “Well, I put all of the medicine I have for dogs in some of the pockets Dash made,” she explained, “even a powder mix of that soup I gave you when you got a bellyache!  So you’ll never go without proper care and kindness, even if we can’t be there to provide it to you,” she explained in her soft voice.

Gunter smiled in reply and gave her a hug.  She wasn’t expecting it, but she seemed OK with it.  He had to admit, that soup did wonders, and it was a lot better than the typical injection into the corroded artery that he would usually get for a sickness.  “Thanks, Fluttershy,” he said, “you… all of you… you’re really sweet, you know that?”

“We wouldn’t have it any other way!” replied Applejack matter-of-factly.

The rest of the day went by with the seven friends discussing anything that happened to come up in ensuing conversation, and was enjoyed greatly by all present, even with the sight of the bloody bandage at Gunter’s side.

Fortunately, the wound managed to heal up, even though it would leave Gunter in pain for some time to come, but he could still walk and perform normal mobility functions.  The Grand Galloping Gala was held in honor of Gunter’s recovery a few days after he was released from the hospital, to which Gunter wore the tuxedo Rarity made, complete with the other additions the others added to it.

Gunter made a pretty casual entrance to the ballroom, which had been nicely repaired from the damage that had been caused from the battle.  All the very high-class ponies from Equestria were apparently there, as evidenced by their fancy attire.  Many of them applauded him as he walked by, and even some of the Royal Guards did so, even despite the fact that they were supposed to stand at attention the entire time.  He gave them a casual salute as he walked past them and headed to the Princesses.  The six friends also followed them in, each of them sporting a dress Rarity had made for them.

Upon reaching the throne of Celestia and Luna, Gunter did the proper greeting and bowed down on one knee to them.

The two smiled.  “Welcome, Gunter,” said Luna, “we’re so glad you were able to make it!”

“As am I,” Gunter agreed, “it is a great honor and pleasure to see you two again.”

“Thank you, Gunter,” Celestia said, “and by the way, that is a very nice suit you’re wearing… Rarity did a very nice job on it!”

“She certainly did,” Gunter agreed, looking behind him at her.  She was blushing but bowed down, too.

“Thank you, your highness,” she said, “it was a pleasure to work on such an outfit for someone held so highly in your regard!”

Celestia smiled.  “Also,” she added, “there is one other thing we wish to say before you all may go about the Gala as you please… Luna?” she concluded, turning to her sister.

Luna smiled and cleared her throat.  “May I have the attention of the Gala, please?” she said considerably loudly, “I wish for you all to gather about the throne for a moment.”

All of the ponies gracefully, yet somewhat briskly made their way to the throne, surrounding the two princesses, the anthropomorphic canine, and the six pony friends.  Once everyone was gathered, Celestia raised a hoof to quiet them down.

Luna continued, “Fillies and gentlecolts,” she began, “while we do apologize for the Gala being rescheduled due to events beyond even our control, we would like to take a moment to recognize that this night would not have been as joyous as it is now without the bravery and sacrifice of one soul from the other side of the portals, Agent 1425 Gunter Shepherd,” she stated.

A round of applause sounded off all around him.

Luna quieted them by raising her hoof.  “In addition, to recognize the commitment he has shown to helping us make our land safe, it is my privilege to award this individual with the Order of the Moon!”

A thunderous round of applause sounded off as Luna used her magic to levitate a medal made of what looked to be a sparkling version of Onyx, much like Luna’s crown and her shoes, in the shape of a crescent moon much like the logo on the necklace she wore, with a ribbon to be worn like a necklace of black with a white stripe down the middle.

Gunter lowered his head and Luna put the necklace around his neck, where it hung proudly.  “Thank you, your majesty,” he said, saluting.

Suddenly, he had a thought.  “If I may, Princess…”

“Go ahead,” Luna allowed him, smiling.

Gunter nodded and turned to the crowd.  “Everyone,” he began, “I must say that it is an amazing honor to wear this award alongside with the Order of the Sun, which I’m gathering is an extremely rare occurrence,” he joked, which was met with a light chuckle from the crowd.  “But in all seriousness, I don’t think this whole thing behind why I’m getting this award could’ve happened as well as it did without the support of not only the Princesses, but also of my newly found friends, here,” he said, gesturing towards the six ponies.  It was met with another round of applause.  “And before I go, just remember,” he concluded, “I don’t want a disproportionate amount of glory going to me… Just remember to share the gratitude to those guys in gold, the Royal Guards, come on, guys, give it up for them, huh?”  The statement was met with loud applause, and he saw the Royal Guards in the room all take a bow.

Before he could continue and mention Princess Luna, she cut him off.  “Thank you, everypony,” she said, “and with that, I declare the Grand Galloping Gala commenced!”

Another round of applause sounded out, and every pony quickly dispersed to do whatever.  The six friends went about to do their own thing, but Gunter stayed with the Princesses.  “Luna, no offense, but… you cut me off as I was about to congratulate you…”

“There’s no need, Gunter,” she assured him, “they already know.  As far as I’m aware, the neigh-sayers are few and far between now.”

Gunter chuckled at the pun.  “If you say so,” he said.

“You know,” Celestia added, causing the two to turn towards her, “we could always use someone of your talents in our ranks…” she said, “and since we have no immediate need to defend Canterlot, would you like to join in a more official and useful capacity?”

Gunter thought a moment.  “I dunno,” he said, “I’ll think about it.”

“There’s no rush,” Celestia assured him, “but just come to a decision at some point.  But in the meantime, tomorrow, your government requested that Luna and I come see them at the D.C. Conversion Bureau.  Will you accompany me?”

Gunter mulled it over, and looked to Luna, who seemed like she would have preferred it if he did come along.

“Sure,” he replied, “if it’s for the reason I suspect… I think I have a surprise for them…”

.     .     .

The next day, Gunter, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and three Royal Guards stepped through the portal to Earth.  There, they were met by none other than the President of the United States, a small posse of the Secret Service, Commander Thompson of the EES, and a small EES Black Ops squad consisting of two German Shepherds and two Dobermans.  The Black Ops squad had their weapons pointed directly at Gunter as he walked through the door, but to his surprise, they didn’t fire.  Technically, Conversion Bureaus are Equestrian property, so they could only legally fire in self defense, but those kinds of restrictions, Gunter knew, almost never stopped EES agents.  Plus, even if they did, Gunter was still wearing his tuxedo that Twilight Sparkle enchanted with the bulletproof spell.

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” the President greeted, “it’s such an honor to see you two.”

“Likewise,” agreed Luna, bowing her head a little alongside her sister, “it has been ages since I’ve last spoken to you in person.”

“Indeed,” agreed the President.  “Also, I see you’ve brought your new companion with you…” he added.

“Indeed we have,” said Celestia.

“May I ask why?” asked Commander Thompson.

“Well,” Celestia explained, “there have been very few who have been awarded both the Order of the Sun and the Order of the Moon, and those who have are allowed to travel with us wherever and whenever he pleases.”

“I kinda wanted to see Earth one more time, too,” Gunter added, “I know I can’t really come back, and that this won’t change anything, but… I’m sorry, Commander.”

The Black Ops agents looked at Commander Thompson briefly, but then looked back through the sights of their weapons.  The Commander cleared his throat.  “Well,” he said, “I appreciate your apology, but you’re right… it’s not gonna cut the fact that you’re labeled a defector.”

“It was worth a try.  Ah well.  But might I ask… what is the purpose of this meeting anyway?  I just tagged along, really…”

“We wanted to express our condolences at the recent break-in to Equestria,” the President answered, “and we truly express our sympathies, and we wish we could have done more than we did to protect the portals.”

“It is very appreciated,” Celestia said, nodding her head, “but I do hope you take security of all Conversion Bureaus more seriously in the future.”

“Gunter is a good commander,” Luna continued, “but he can only do so much, and we cannot afford another attack like that.”

“Understood,” said the President, “we’ll station a fixed contingent of National Guard troops at each Bureau.”

“And I’ll gladly contribute a strike force on standby from my people at each one, just in case,” added Commander Thompson.

“Sounds good,” Gunter concluded, “just make sure they stay in tip top shape in case the worst happens, ok?”

“Certainly,” said the Commander, “I wouldn’t have them any other way.”

The two Princesses nodded.  “Well,” said Celestia, “unless there’s anything else, we’d like to take our leave.  We have a lot of business to attend to.”

“Yes,” agreed Luna, “we’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do.  And we are still working on choosing a new ambassador,” she added, “We may miss the next summit, but hopefully not.”

“I heard what happened to Ambassador Quill,” noted Commander Thompson, “and I am quite glad that Gunter was able to assist you with that.”

“We certainly are,” Celestia chuckled, “she was one sneaky pony with that… but I expect our new ambassador will be far less subversive.”

“Indeed,” agreed the President, who reached out his hand.  Celestia and Luna took turns shaking it with their hooves.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to get going.”

“One more thing before you go…” said Commander Thompson.  Gunter turned to face him.

“Yes?” he asked.

“So… now that you’re there, what do you plan on doing?” he asked.

Gunter shot him a confused look.

“What’s your position there, now?”

Gunter thought, and then got an evil grin on his face briefly before turning to his former commander.  “Professional party animal,” he said in a completely serious tone as he held up his arms and pulled a small tab in the cufflinks of his tuxedo.  Without warning, there were small ‘pop’ noises and confetti came spewing out of his sleeves.  In shock, one of the Black Ops agents fired off a few shots, which simply bounced off of his tuxedo like a ball hitting a padded wall.  Gunter looked at the bullets on the floor.  Celestia and Luna were shocked that they had fired on him.

Gunter, however, laughed.  “Man, you guys need to learn how to lighten up sometime…” he said, “it’s just a joke!  But to your credit, whoever fired those shots… you’re a pretty good shot!”

And with that, he smiled, turned, and walked with a still surprised Celestia and Luna back through the portal to Equestria.

Fortunately for that Black Ops agent, relationships between Equestria and the United States were not destabilized, as Gunter managed to explain that it was only the agent’s twitch reflex talking, and that he was well aware that the bullets weren’t going to hurt him.  Though Celestia and Luna did say that if anything like that ever happened again, things would go down.

Fortunately, though, everything remained well, as Gunter returned to the familiar sight of Ponyville, and opened the door to find…

“Surprise!” cried out the six friends simultaneously.

The Conversion Bureau: Signal Lost

Author: Winston

CHAPTER 1

The chariot ride had been anything but pleasant. It was faster and more turbulent than she’d remembered it, more dangerous too. The landing was vicious as well. To any other Equestrian it would have been considered a crash. The differences between this summons and the others didn’t stop there, though. This was much different than her other trips. It felt more urgent. The thought shot around her mind. She didn't even land in Canterlot. There was an ambient fear lumbering around the landing zone.

The chariot touched down on the outside of the shield separating the human world from Equestria, in front of a large building surrounded by many huge bowl-like objects all pointed at the sky. “Radar,” she’d heard them called. Upon being rushed inside by the guards, she was greeted by a visibly shaken Princess Celestia, with Princess Luna in tow. A look of anguish plagued the Princess’ face. Twilight couldn’t recall ever seeing her beloved teacher so miserable.

“Princess... What happened?” She asked, already dreading the answer. A grim feeling danced around the back of her head.

Celestia took a moment to compose herself before giving Twilight the grave news. The guards bowed to the regal sisters and walked purposefully out the doors again, returning to their posts. Celestia’s eyes had bags under them, and her stance, wavering somewhere in between sitting and falling down, betrayed just how little sleep she’d been getting the past few days.

“As you know, the humans numbers have been dwindling. Before we revealed ourselves

to them, many humans shared the belief that their destiny as a race was to go beyond their planet, and make new homes among the stars.”

Twilight nodded with her utmost attention withheld to the princess. When compared to the spartan decor of the hastily converted meeting room, walls bare of posters or pictures, space filled only with whiteboards and viewscreens, one would probably have had their attention on Celestia anyway.

“Well, as you know, our arrival put a bit of a dent in those plans. With Equestria being the place that it is, many humans abandoned the idea of going to space, and simply became ponies and came here. Some of the humans though, they clung to that idea. They didn’t want to see humanity fade away, never having fulfilled the destiny they thought it had. As you know, starting about two years ago, humans began pooling what resources they could get their hands on in a desperate attempt to live out that dream.”

“Of course! It was all any newspaper talked about for months!” Twilight interrupted, bowing her head as Celestia shushed her.

“Right. Now, as you know, they were able to get a small number of so-called “colony ships” built, to take whoever would go with them to their new home, a nearby planet they call Mars.”

Celestia stopped, expecting Twilight to interrupt again. She was pleasantly surprised to find Twilight quiet. Her student flashed a small, embarrassed smile at her, silently apologising for the mare’s earlier interruption.

“It was a magnificent project. Thousands of humans, alongside just as many ponies, worked together to bring their dream to life. They succeeded... Mostly.” In reality however, the project could only have been called a success on paper. From day one it had been plagued with problems, ranging from simple shortages of supply all the way up to the entire month in which nobody knew who was actually in charge of everything. Not to mention the production of the advanced materials required by space ships, the slow-going research into things like possible power sources or drive systems, sensors, or life support. Couple that with the fact that by then most world powers had all but dissolved, and one would not be exaggerating to call the program anything short of an act of God himself.

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. She hadn’t heard anything about problems with the cruise, not beyond the normal issues plaguing space faring vessels, anyway.

“Mostly? Didn’t their ships launch without a problem?” Twilight inquired, her voice starting to take on a slightly shaky, uneven tone. If a major issue arose this long after launch, there wouldn’t be any way to send help to them. She hoped it wasn’t too bad, but something in the back of her mind told her it was.

Celestia nodded her head, eyes closed. She appeared to be trying to hold back tears, something the young mare couldn’t recall ever seeing her do.

“Yes, they launched without issue, and for most of their voyage fared just as well.” She stopped and took a breath, fresh tears becoming visible in her eyes.

“But today... We have received a transmission from the fleet.”

“What did they say?” Twilight’s ears perked up, her every thought hanging on Celestia’s response. She wouldn’t have called her student here on such short notice if it wasn’t something dire.

Celestia seemed on the verge of crying, and even Luna at this point didn’t seem to be holding up well. “That’s just it, Twilight. They didn’t say anything. It was an automated transmission... To tell us that the fleet had been destroyed.”

Twilight nearly hit the floor. She’d been expecting to hear that they’d lost some important crew members on landing, or some essential equipment hadn’t been loaded, a ship off course, mutiny.. Anything but the annihilation of an entire fleet of unarmed passenger ships.

“D.. Destroyed? But how could that happen? It’s not like there’s anything out there looking to decimate ships!”  She was at a loss for words, her mind racing to find a reasonable explanation that just didn’t exist.

“You’re right, my faithful student. From what we’ve received so far, we can tell that the ships were not destroyed by outside influences.”

This time, Twilight really did hit the floor. The impact of pony rump on linoleum tile made for an unusual sound. Her face was pale, her jaw almost able to touch the cold tile. It was nearly a full minute before she could speak again. A gradual drop of her ears signalled Celestia that she’d reached the same conclusion that her teacher had.

“T-then... That means..”

Celestia nodded. The tears were flowing freely from Celestia now, and Twilight’s eyes threatened to spill over at any second, held back only by a rapidly growing anger within her.

“They were destroyed from the inside.”

Twilight nearly lost it. The ESS Dunkirk alone had nearly three thousand crew and passenger personnel on board, the other ships totalling another five thousand between them. Her face rapidly cycled through expressions of anger, confusion, wonder, fear, sorrow, and everything in between, a million questions racing in her brain.

Why would anyone destroy an entire fleet of ships? How would anyone destroy an entire fleet of ships? Why weren’t they stopped? Did anyone know about it? Did anyone survive?

One of the technicians interrupted with an announcement, almost as if to answer the many questions running around in Twilight’s head.

“Your Highnesses! We’re receiving another transmission! It looks like a recording from one of the survivors!”

The three ponies rushed after the technician into a room full of men just like him, all sitting in the artificial glow of their terminals. The room seemed to be lit more by the rows of haptic interfaces than the actual lighting. At the end of the room sat a large screen, a fuzzy video feed slowly becoming more and more visible. It appeared to be the bridge of one of the colony ships, only that it looked like an angry manticore had torn through it with a sledgehammer. Girders and support beams jutted out of walls that no longer existed, entire sections of terminals and displays completely dark, with the lighting system desperately struggling to stay on. To make matters worse, the movements of the smoke and steam hinted at numerous hull breaches venting atmosphere into space.  The harsh white noise slowly faded into speech.

*sssht* “Acting Captain’s log, starda-sshhhh-ty-seven. Final entry.”  To Twilight, the voice didn’t seem like it belonged to someone who had any business being called “Captain.” As the video became clearer, neither did it’s owner. In fact, he didn’t appear to be in the chain of command at all. She could barely make out the man’s badge, showing him a member of the ship’s engineering teams. Her thoughts sunk even further when it dawned on her exactly what that meant. If an engineer had been promoted Acting Captain, things must have indeed gone seriously wrong. As the picture cleared up more, she could say with certainty that he definitely didn’t look like the type to be made Captain. His body was thin and screamed of hunger. What skin was showing was cut, bruised, burned, bleeding, some places combinations of the four. It was becoming apparent that it wasn't a simple task for the man to get to where he was in one piece. His face was almost a like reflection of the near total destruction of the bridge he sat in, his cheekbones highly visible, his facial hair appeared to be begging for a proper shave. Huge clumps of his hair had been torn out, and there didn’t seem to be a single inch of his face not covered in some sort of dirt or grime. He seemed oddly calm for someone who had just lost most of his crew. He motioned with his hand to the carnage surrounding him.

“As you can probably tell, this ship isn’t in very good shape. Well, at least it still works. Sort of. For now. I got lucky in that regard. The other ships got the worst of it. From what I’ve been able to tell, which isn’t much between all the electronic interference and a mass of busted sensors, I’m the last living thing on this ship. Lucky me.” The man rolled his eyes as he shook his head.

“I always thought humanity would one day get off that damned rock and make something of itself in the stars. Never thought it’d happen on account of a bunch of tiny horses suddenly popping up out of the ocean. Also never thought it would end with explosions. But lets get on with it. You’re probably wondering why on earth you got a broadcast saying that the fleet got blown up, which it did. And I’ll tell you why.” He gestured to himself, his face contorted in a mixture of contempt and disgust.

“Us. Humans, its our fault this whole operation went to hell. Tons of people thought, when the ponies showed up, that it would be the end of mankind. Turns out, it wasn’t. The ponies just accelerated what we would have done to ourselves, given enough time. You can thank the IHSA for that.”

“Well that makes sense.” Twilight quipped, having dealt with the International Human Survival Association firsthand. She was quickly shushed.

“This is the last transmission the fleet is going to make. I’ve rounded up whatever equipment and computers I could find that still worked, and had the ship’s AI help me repair one of the lifeboats. Hopefully I did it right. Otherwise, I’m going to die. I’ve programmed a course for Earth into the shuttle and I’ll be launching shortly after I finish this transmission, which I should add isn’t live. By the time you get this I’ve probably launched a few days ago.”

A technician interrupted the feed, sounding almost panicked at this latest details provided by the Captain.

“We’re receiving his course information now, it looks good, but those lifeboats are designed to be picked up by other ships, they can’t handle re-entry! It would just burn up in the atmosphere!”

Celestia turned to her younger sister. With the possibility of a survivor, her expression changed noticeably, some of the pain taken from her by the chance to save even one innocent life from the touch of death. Her face took on a new expression, one of determination. The younger sister returned her expression, almost knowing exactly what she was about to be told.

“We know his course. If he is alive, find him.” Princess Luna nodded once. There was no time for goodbye. She knew what she needed to do, and she knew there wasn’t much time to do it.

Luna stepped back from her sister and her student, and closed her eyes. A shimmering, dark blue smog rapidly enveloped the younger of the ruling alicorns, and with a flash of what could only be described as a kind of black light, vanished.

They turned back to the monitor as the “Captain” continued to speak.

“What follows this is my personal crew log. I’ve been watching the situation unfold pretty closely since we launched. Maybe if you watch it you might be able to piece together exactly what went wrong, and exactly who was responsible for this...” “IHSA,” he added, masking the accusation with a false cough, fooling absolutely no-one. The video cut to static, then darkness.

“Wh-what should we do, Princess?” Twilight asked, looking to her esteemed teacher, her face betraying a deep sense of helplessness. The princess bowed her head in resignation.

“We’ve done everything for him that we can. Now, there’s only one thing left to do.” She turned to the screen, her countenance finally starting to regain some air of confidence.

“We start from the beginning, and try to find out who was behind all of this.” She nodded to the technicians, and the screen came back to life. This time, it wasn’t a video of a broken down bridge, but what appeared to be a crew cabin, clean and in proper condition. In the center of the screen sat a man who, for all intents and purposes, looked almost completely unlike the so-called Acting Captain they had just been introduced to. His skin was magnitudes lighter from a lack of grime, specked in a few places with acne left over from young adulthood, and a smile he was trying very hard, and failing, to hide. Where a moment ago stood a cynical, angry shell of a man now stood a young engineer unable to keep his excitement in check. After taking a few deep breaths, he began to speak into the recorder.

“Second Engineer’s log, date June sixteenth, 2085. First entry”

END OF CHAPTER ONE

The Conversion Bureau: Signal Lost

Author: Winston

CHAPTER 2

Two Years Earlier

BZZZZZZT!

Somewhere in the middle-east of what used to be called North America, a man nearly jumped out of his bunk, if only to smash an alarm clock and crawl back into it. Nearly.

“Oh, that’s right. Oh shit, that’s right!” Almost instantly the irritated look on his face became one of pure joy.

“Today is the day they start sending us up to work on the Reynolds!” The man scrambled to find a clean jumpsuit, his ID, badge, and watch. Like he’d said, today was the day the ESS Reynolds officially had enough of her hull complete for engineering teams to move in and start setting up basic systems such as the reactor and life support. Which meant that the Engineering and Life Support decks were assembled, and not much else. Not everyone shared his excitement, however. Namely the light tan colt making every possible effort to stay asleep.

“Would it kill you to maybe stop being so dang excited ‘bout everything?” The young stallion turned his head towards his energetic roommate, and shot him a dirty look. The bags under his eyes spoke everything that needed to be said. It wasn’t uncommon for people on base to lose sleep over their work. Such things tend to happen when you’re working on getting over eight thousand people to Mars in less than four years. The human’s only response was a stuck-out tongue.

“Lighten up, Houston. It’s not every day you get to ride a shuttle, that I designed, I might add, to work on an ark ship. This is history in the making, man!” Houston just snorted, slowly climbed out of his bed, and trudged over to the window, shaking the knots out of his mahogany mane. Looking out, one could see a massive compound, spanning a great many acres. Concrete pathways snaked around, leading to any one of the hundred and fifty buildings of the massive space center. From their bunk in the Engineering barracks they could see the shuttle launch platform, little more than a very, very large catapult. Houston turned to his roommate, still somewhat annoyed.

“Russel, sometimes I get to thinkin’ you’re bad for my health.” Houston smirked, any time he was feeling cross, he could always just which lightened his mood some. He smugly cantered over to his hooflocker, and retrieved his own uniform. Engineer’s uniforms were light blue jumpsuits, with various nylon loops strategically positioned to hang various belts or tools on. They weren’t cut out for space work, but it was all they had to work with until they got proper spacesuits.

Following a light breakfast, Russel and Houston made their way over to the white shuttle-bus scheduled to take the Reynolds’ engineering teams to the launchpad. With a planned capacity of 1200 crew members, pony and human, ESS Reynolds needed a substantial complement of highly-trained engineering staff. Unfortunately, most of them had run off to Equestria by now, and they were left with only a few skilled engineers, who basically had to teach Deep Space Engineering to a horde of rookies.

While the ride to the launch station had been rather uneventful, it did give Russel cause to take a reality check.

I’m riding a bus, next to a talking horse, on my way to take a shuttle into outer space.

Holy shit.

Houston turned to face Russel, his expression a bit calmer than usual.

“So, Russel, why’re you always so excited ‘bout what we’re doing, anyways? I mean, there’s a hundred different things that make this whole thing go sideways fore the ships even ready to shove off. Don’t that bother you?”

Russel’s brow furrowed in thought for a moment, before returning to it’s usual relaxed state.

“Not really, I know the risks, and I know what can go wrong out there. That’s what we’re here for. Our job is to make sure the airlocks seal tight and nobody winds up getting sucked out, or that the vents don’t get clogged and the mess hall doesn’t choke on CO2, or that the engines don’t overheat and ex-” Houston raised his hoof to silence him.

“Alright, I get it, there’s a whole lot of ways a pony could go belly-up out there, and it’s our job to keep that from happenin’. But could you maybe, ya know, not list ‘em out though, ‘fore I change my mind about going up?” Though he was certainly trying to hide it, it wasn’t hard to tell Russel had shaken him up a fair bit, and both of them were starting to reconsider their career choices. They didn’t get much time to reflect though, as the bus came to a halt in front of a lineup of shuttles. The group of engineers exited the bus, and lined up in front of the spacecraft.

Chief Engineer Campbell was standing at the end of the line, an electronic clipboard in his hand. One by one he read off the names of the engineers, and assigned them their suits. An extremely boring hour and a half followed, during which they were taught how to properly put on and use their own spacesuits, and what to do in emergencies. To Russel, it didn’t seem necessary. They’d been training for weeks to use those suits, and it wasn’t like a ninety-minute refresher course would change anything. Soon enough, it became time to put on their suits and board the shuttles. Second Engineer Russel Aldridge and his assistant and right-hand colt Houston were to ride in the first shuttle with the more important members of the engineering team, most of them managers of various departments. The seats were far from comfortable, and only just large enough to accommodate the suits the engineers now wore. Even though spacesuit design had come a long way from the late twentieth century, engineering suits had to be big and bulky by necessity. They were doing slightly more dangerous tasks than the astronauts of the Cold War were used to doing, and the bulk was more for personal safety than the result of old design principles. Russel mentally kicked himself for making the seats so small, though it wasn’t exactly his fault. His requests for the specifications of the spacesuits had been repeatedly refused, and he had been forced to design the interior of the shuttle on a series of rough estimates. Still, it did the job it was built to do. He strapped himself in just a little tighter as he heard the engines start warming up.

“I might throw up on you.” Houston warned, his expression hard to read behind the hard shell of his helmet.

“Do it and you might get to find out what the outside of an airlock looks like.” Engineer Russel joked, his ever-present smile visible even through the tinted visor of his own helmet. The countdown to launch began, and the two roommates double-checked each other’s restraints.

“This is it Houston, we’re goin’ to SPACE!” He yelled ecstatically, throwing his fist into the air for emphasis. He couldn’t exactly tell from his seat, but he suspected his bucking buddy may not have had quite as much enthusiasm. The pilot’s voice came in over the intercom.

“Three, two, one, launch.”

To say the takeoff was loud would have been inaccurate. To some it would have been called an understatement, but to the astronauts on the inside of the light craft, it was wrong. It had taken months of simulation, calculation, and revision after revision, but somehow, the designer of the craft had managed to make the catapult-assisted takeoff of the Aldridge-Class Utility Shuttle one of the quietest rides available. He wasn’t Second Engineer Aldridge for nothing.

Once the catapult had started the shuttle on it’s way into orbit, Russel again turned to his fuzzy buddy.

“Hey, Houston?”

“Yeah?”

“We have liftoff.”

“...Don’t make me start pokin’ holes in that thing.”

Once actually in orbit, the shuttle’s boosters detached, and after falling for a predetermined amount of time, began to glide back to the airbase for re-use. With the dwindling number of humans always an issue, great pains were taken to ensure every possible resource was re-useable. As Houston turned to his bunkmate, he could have sworn he’d never seen a bigger smile. To anyone unaware of why it was so big, they might have thought Russel had simply gone mad. Of course that didn’t stop it from creeping him out anyway. The light-tan colt began trying to lean away from his friend.

“Say, Russ... Could you maybe, smile a mite less? It’s just a smidge, uh, creepy..” Russel patted him on the shoulder.

“Don’t sweat it Houston. Check it out, there’s the drydock.” Russel motioned out the small viewport to their side, pointing at a massive framework structure surrounding a much smaller mass of metal.

“There she is, The ESS Reynolds. Second biggest space-faring vessel ever built by human,” a cough interrupted him. “Human or equestrian hands. Or hooves. Whatever. Point is this is AWESOME.”  The view out the porthole was indeed amazing. Set against an endless backdrop of shimmering blackness was an elegantly hulking behemoth of steel and polymer. A massive frame, adorned with multitudes of cranes and mechanical arms, all moving chunks of steel into place, like a robot solving a puzzle. In the center of this gigantic machine was the Engineering and Life Support decks of the soon-to-be ESS Reynolds, one of several ships of its class. Each designed to act as part of a fleet, carrying thousands of humans and ponies alike to their new home. One of the crowning achievements of the team that designed the Reynolds and her sister ships was that they were designed to be broken down upon arrival, and the ships themselves were meant to serve as the first buildings of the new colony. After setting up basic structures, a combination of pony magic and human technology would set into motion the conversion of Mars’ CO2 atmosphere into a breathable oxygen mix. Of course, at it’s current stage of construction, one wouldn’t be able to tell much just from looks. At this point its shape had more in common with an unfinished Lego project than a mighty ark ship. However, enough of it had been completed for her engineers to set about installing her reactor and life support. It took something to the tune of an hour and a half for the entire engineering team to embark inside the Reynolds’ hold. The Chief Engineer split the workers into two groups; one would be responsible for the installation of the reactor, the other, bringing life support online. This was to be an extremely important task, because by the end of the day, the Reynolds was to take the place of the Engineering Barracks.

“Well, that took a heckuva lot longer then I’d hoped.” Houston yawned as he removed his helmet, the ship computer reading oxygen concentration to finally be at a breathable level. Houston and Russel had their quarters assigned to them, and with the reactor finally installed and online, it was time for them to get some rest. Engineer quarters were built into the Engineering deck, so that they could stay up in the ship during it’s construction, in theory speeding up the process. It seemed to work, but the engineers themselves didn’t feel too great about living in an unfinished ship. At least they had the unicorns come up and set the gravity enchantments before they got there. As Houston tucked himself into the bunk, Russel turned to his personal terminal.

“Second Engineer’s Log, date June sixteenth, 2085. First entry. The ESS Reynolds has finally reached the point at which she can support life, at least enough so for us engineers. The actual construction still has a way to go, and honestly, we’re getting a bit overwhelmed by unexpected problems. Not that that’s surprising anyone. Everyone knows this whole project is a logistical nightmare, and its a wonder we even got as far as we have. We have one ship nearly done, this one’s up next, and after a few more, we got ourselves a fleet! For now, it’s been one hell of a long day. Tomorrow we start setting up the greenhouse, where we’ll have plants growing for the pony crew to eat, not to mention the extra help scrubbing the air of CO2. That shouldn’t be too hard. We got a busy day ahead of us, so its about time I cashed in for the night.” He reached out for the glow of the haptic interface, and ended the recording.

END OF CHAPTER TWO

The Conversion Bureau: Signal Lost

Author: Winston

CHAPTER 3

The Following Evening

Leaning upon one another for support, Russel and Houston stumbled into their bunk, their faces turning various shades of blue. Russel took a deep breath and tried to stop laughing long enough to speak.

“Man, today was hilarious.” He snickered, trying not to burst back into laughter recalling the day’s events. Houston could still only nod and continue laughing. “Remember when some of the ponies started singing while setting up the greenhouse?” His smile was only about an inch from being literally ear-to-ear.

“Yeah. They was so bad the chief done ordered ‘em to quit!” Chuckling, Russel continued.

“As if anyone bought that bull about overloading the oxygen scrubbers. I checked. They’re fine. Read out higher than I expected, actually.” Russel’s brow furrowed. ”Come to think of it, not much higher and we would have passed the safety threshold.” Houston’s head shot up, the laughter gone.

“Did you just say the oxygen was too high?” His eyes narrowed. “Russel, you know what happens when the oxygen mix gets too rich!” With that, Russel’s face also lost it’s mirth, the severity of his mistake finally sinking in. “Tell me you decreased the oxygen conversion rate.”

“Y-yeah. I did.” The once cheerful engineer now wore a very worried, guilty look on his face. He’d nearly allowed the Reynolds to suffer a catastrophic explosion. The entire onboard crew had almost been killed in one fell swoop, the entire assembled hull destroyed. All before the ship was even built. Houston however, was calm and collected.

“Russ, we need to check those scrubbers. Gimme a minute and we’ll go.” Houston approached their bunk’s personal terminal, the holographic interface morphing to accommodate his hooves. Bringing up the maintenance logs, he saw nothing that hadn’t been scheduled. Checking the ship sensors logs also showed nothing unusual. Houston’s raised an eyebrow. “You sure the oxygen was higher than its sp’osed to be? Logs ‘er sayin’ it was fine all day, ‘cept fer a small spike when we put the plants in.” Russel took out his own PDA and showed the pony the screen. The number on the handheld device was not even close to the readings on the sensor logs.

“Okay, this just don’t sit well with me. Ah think we need ta’ take another look at them scrubbers.” Russel nodded, gathered their tools, and the engineers walked out the door.

The hallways of the ship were well-lit, to help make construction easier, but also for safety reasons. With sickbay still being added to the hull, any on-the-job accident would be over an hour away from real medical care. There were first-aid stations scattered throughout the ship, but it was still lacking in emergency care. You really didn’t want to find yourself tripping over something or getting stabbed with a loose spike or nail. It didn’t take long for them to reach the first scrubber. After a quick look-over and a quick check of the terminal next to it, Russel shrugged.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it, Houston. I think it’s just something wrong with my PDA.” After tapping on the device, he took another reading. Of course, oxygen levels would be slightly higher near an oxygen scrubber. Now, the screen on the handheld showed an even higher number, while the terminal still showed the levels it should be at. Houston opened the panel covering the rear of the terminal, and looked inside, pointing to a loose cable with his hoof.

“Hey Russ, its lookin’ to me like this terminal ain’t connected to the ship’s network.” Backing off, he allowed Russel to reconnect the network cable. Once that had been done, the terminal now showed the current O2 level. Houston shrugged.

“Ah guess somepony just didn’t watch what they were doin’ and fergot ta’ plug in the network cable,” the colt mused. Russel furrowed his brow and crossed his arms, another possibility coming to mind.

“I’m not sure...” Turning to the terminal, Russel checked the scrubber’s settings. It was indeed set to be pumping out O2 at 100% capacity, with the same incorrect logs they saw earlier. Russel turned down and replaced the panel and turned to his assistant. “Well, lets let Life Support know they need to turn down the scrubbers, and go talk to Cheif Campbell about the sensors and these terminals.” Houston nodded while Russel pulled up Life Support on videochat. A scrawny grey-splotched unicorn in thick-rimmed glasses came up on the screen, and waved his hoof wildly.

“Heeeeeeey! This is Life Support, what’s up?”  Out of view of the camera, Houston’s hoof met his face.

“Someponies really need ta’ get outta’ the lab more often,” He muttered under his breath. Russel smiled and addressed the technician.

“Hey Silicon. It looks like there’s something up with the oxygen scrubber control system. They’re working at full capacity, and the oxygen levels are getting a bit too high. Could you turn ‘em down?” Silicon pulled up the scrubber readouts and frowned.

“Looks fine to me. Sure you’re reading that thing right?” Russel nodded his head.

“We’re sure. It looks like either the sensors or the terminal network has a problem, and we’ll look into that, but try getting a readout with your PDA instead of through a terminal.” Silicon turned to his own PDA and took a reading, his eyes popping wide open at the result.

“Wow. That is definitely a problem. Thanks. I’m gonna go turn down the scrubbers.” Silicon turned to end the feed, but turned his head back to the screen. “Come find me at the launch party. I definitely owe you guys a round for this.” Houston smiled.

“We just might take ya’ up on that”  Russel waved to the camera.

“Alright, we all have work to do. See ya round, Silicon.” With a touch, Russel cut the feed. He turned to Houston and motioned towards the Chief Engineer’s office.

Chief Engineer Campbell’s office was not dissimilar to the other various rooms on board the ESS Reynolds, which of course means it was a well-lit, nearly empty grey box. The difference between the office and the rest of the ship being the slightly-bigger-than-usual chair sitting behind a slightly-bigger-than-usual desk. Sitting in that chair was, of course, the ship’s head of engineering, Jason Campbell. An older man, Campbell looked well into his fifties, his hair graying and starting to recede., with long, deep wrinkles dividing his face. Not much seemed to put a smile on his face, and his second in command showing up in his office with his assistant was no different. With a tired voice he addressed the pair.

“Can I help you with anything, Aldridge?” He asked, sounding as if he cared more about getting getting away from his work for a while than actually helping them with anything.

“Sir, there’s been some problems with the oxygen scrubbers and the terminal net, and some of them are pretty serious.” Russel turned to Houston and continued. “Sir, after you ordered the engineers to er, tone down their oxygen usage, I took some readings on the O2 levels, and checked the scrubbers. Sir, the level of O2 on board the Reynolds wasn’t dropping, and the scrubbers were far from being overtaxed. In fact, the oxygen was getting almost too high. By the time Life Support was alerted, there was about five minutes left before we would have started setting off alarms, which as I’m about to explain, may not have gone off had it happened.” Russel paused and looked to his superior, whose jaw had nearly hit his desk..

“Holy shit.” Russel nodded.

“Yeah. Turns out some of the terminals are disconnected from the ship’s network, and therefore cut off from the sensor grid. Also, looking at the Life Support logs, the sensors themselves seem to be malfunctioning to some degree as well, as the logs don’t match up to logs of readings taken by PDA’s. That seems to be the reason nobody actually noticed it yet.” Russel sighed. His boss stood up from his desk and walked over to the pair, his expression cold.

“Boys, what you just told me does not leave this room. If word got out we came that close to losing an entire ship before it was even built, we’d lose not only every man, woman, and pony, but all support, funding, and credibility. Us three, we would never work again. Anywhere. We’re responsible for making this ship run, and if the systems we built were to be responsible for destroying it...” He sighed. “Well, lets just say suicide wouldn’t look like too bad an idea.” He shook his head, graying hair awkwardly swaying to and fro. “Is there anything else?” Russel looked around uncomfortably before responding.

“Sir, is there any chance this might have been intentional?” Houston and Campbell looked to him with raised eyebrows.

“Aldridge, there’s no way it could have been sabotage. Security both on the ground and up here is unsurpassed. Nobody on this crew has even a hint of the possibility that they could be IHSA.” Russel’s boss paused for a moment, thinking. “Though, it couldn’t hurt to step up security a bit. With the Reynolds so far along, one ship almost complete, and only a few more to go, the chances of the IHSA coming out to play are getting higher every day. I’ll talk to the head of security about it.” Russel smiled at his boss’ proactive approach. “About today’s problem though. The scrubbers; were there any actual problems with them or were they simply set too high?” Russel shook his head.

“Thankfully, no. There’s nothing wrong with the scrubbers themselves.” Campbell smiled.

“Good. From what you tell me, we’re gonna have to take a pretty thorough look at the sensors and terminals already; I’d hate to have to go through replacing every single scrubber we have as well. We’ve got the oxygen under control now, right?” Russel nodded, and handed his poss his PDA.

“Sure do. We made sure the levels were back to normal before coming to see you. Thankfully the problem was with the terminals being able to read data from the sensor grid. Since the PDAs have built-in sensors, we don’t have to worry about that.” Campbell returned the PDA and sat back at his desk.

“Alright you two, go get some sleep. I’ll take it from here. Thanks for bringing it up.”

“Anytime, Sir.” Russel and Houston saluted the Chief Engineer and left his office. Campbell swore under his breath and reached for the terminal to make a call.

“Head of Security speaking.”

“We’ve got a small problem.”

END OF CHAPTER THREE

"Afternoon, everyone. I'm Trixiebelle, and I'll be talking to you all for the next 20 minutes. Now, I'm almost positive all of you are here because you want to become a pony. This is a fact. You don't come here because you don't want to be a pony, unless someone forced you at gunpoint, but that's a different story."

The same speech, he realized.  Other than the faces, everything was exactly the same as every other time he had come to the Conversion Center.  He sighed.  By now, he had memorized Twilight Sparkle's speech to memory.  He had hoped moving to a different Center would give him a greater insight but the opening speech was exactly the same as the one in Newark.  Either that or this Trixiebelle was particularly uninspired and was just copying someone else's work, though the way these hors -no, ponies- the way these ponies went on about friendship and the like, that would be hard to imagine.

His mind wandering, the lone man found himself nearly dozing off as the blue coated and pink maned pony continued on, reciting the prepackaged speech almost methodically.  While she seemed to know what she was doing, he was particularly interested in the ending of the little seminar.  Having heard the whole thing at least half a dozen times by now, he almost missed it.

"Our plan is to ponify you, the sooner the better. Expect this to happen when you least expect it. You'll get used to our culture, our food, and our lack of thumbs. Trust me, it's easier than it looks. Because humans can't handle the magic radiating from Equestrian borders, becoming a pony is crucial to expanding the peaceful, friendly aura that surrounds Equestria every day of every month of every year. Thank you."

It's all the same.  He grimaced as the group began to clap, nervously at first but with growing enthusiasm.  Right down to the blatant anti-human sentiment of the opening speech.  How could anyone applaud this, this atrocity?

--------------------

“Kevin James?  Kevin James?  KEVIN JAM-OH!  There you are.”  The Earth pony weaved through the packed cafeteria and over to his rather empty table, her hooves clopping hollowly against the cheap linoleum floor, a pair of, well, saddlebags swaying in time with her gait.  She seemed a bit perturbed having to walk across such a strange and unnatural thing.  Kevin glanced up from his book, a smirk planted carefully on his face.

“Generally, it's easier to walk across hard surfaces like laminated concrete with a comfortable pair of shoes.”  He lifted one pant leg to show the a cheap, off-brand pair of beaten sneakers.  “It can't be good for your hooves.”

“It isn't, but it's almost as uncomfortable to us to wear things on our hooves.”  She returned his smirk and settled into the bench across from him, climbing on top of the too-wide surface and laying carefully down.  One side pony, the other human.  Soon, just the pony side will be needed.  Kevin shook his head clear of those morbid thoughts.  There would always be at least one human on Earth, he reasoned.  Or perhaps hoped.  The mare across from him tilted her head at the motion.  “Bad time?”

“Oh, no.  Not at all.  Just . . . clearing my thoughts.  You must be curious why I would want to talk to you after, er, orientation.”  The mare nodded, tilting her head back upright.

“That and why you've been to orientation almost ten times.  In different Centers, at that.”  He blinked.  Of course they'd have records of those who entered.  And those who left the same.  His face must have betrayed him as the mare across from him chuckled, bringing out a well-worn folder with her mouth and opening it the same.  From his vantage, he could see several dozen pages as well as a few paper-clipped photos, stills from security cameras.  “Yes, we keep track of all our entrants.  As well as the few, shall we say, cold hooves?  Er, hands in your case.”

“Feet actually.  I should have guessed, of course.”  He carefully folded the corner of his book, a worn and well-read edition of 'Gödel, Escher, Bach,' and placed it carefully on the table.  “So what happens now?”

The mare across from him blinked, confusion filling her face.  “I . . . I thought you had some questions about ponification.  Did I miss some form of human prank?”  A few of the nearby tables glanced in their direction, though most resumed eating right afterwards.  It seemed a private conversation.

“Huh.  Don't you suspect me of being involved in the HLF or some other anti-pony group?”  He kept his hands in plain sight.  You don't grow up a poor black kid in historic Harlem and not pick up a few habits.  When dealing with authorities, it's always best not to make sudden moves and to always keep your hands were they can see them.  It makes them less nervous.

“We did, at first, but,” she pulled out a few sheets of paper from the stack, carefully maneuvering them with her lips and tongue in a stunning display of maxillofacial dexterity.  He could almost, almost mind you, see how the lack of hands didn't truly disadvantage them.  With a flick of her head, she sent a sheet spinning towards him, stopped by his hand.  A few surveillance photos taken from a height, probably from a pegasi flight.  They were common enough now to not have raised his suspicion.  They all showed him entering his front door and several of an untouched back door.

“Obviously, you live much like every other human does now, mostly alone and living off of the production of the mostly automated and AI-led factories and, what do you call them, hydroponids?”

“Hydroponics,” he gently corrected her, placing the sheet of photos down.  He did not doubt there were many more like it in that stack of papers.  She nodded.

“Yes, those things.  Ingenious, by the way.  Well, regardless, you are no anti-pony.  We've seen you interact with our kinds many times, some we've talked to even spoke highly of your ability to empathize with them and their choice.”  She shrugged her shoulders, as well as any pony could do anyway.  “You're not gathering information to attack us, we don't think.  And you certainly don't have much of a grudge against what we're doing.  I am curious, though if you don't want to tell me...”

He pursed his lips and lowered his head, closing his eyes for a moment.  Lost in thought.

“I can come back later.”  He snapped his head up, a smile replacing his grimace.

“I wouldn't mind telling you, just not in such a large gathering.  Is there someplace more private you can suggest?”  The mare blinked, reaching over and taking back the discarded photo sheet, idly straightening up the folder and placing it gingerly back into her bag.

“My office perhaps?  Or the gardens.  One is more pleasant, the other more private.”

“The gardens.  I wouldn't want to disturb anybody.  Or anypony.”  He stood, his thin yet compact 5 feet no inches not as intimidating as most of the other humans in the room, a few who reached well into the 7 foot range.  Trixiebelle also stood, though for her it was more carefully done.

“Alright.”

--------------------

The gardens were quiet, he had to admit.  Despite their proximity to what was left of Boston, the night air was almost as silent as a grave.  Fitting, perhaps, for what may very well be the dusk of the entire human species.  Kevin frowned at his own morbidity.  Humanity would not die.  There would always be those who chose the hard route, the historical one.  The painful one.

They walked in silence, the man and the mare.  Perhaps she relished this chance, this excuse, to avoid the hustle and bother of running a large Conversion Center on the eastern seaboard of the once mighty United States.  Or maybe she just wanted him to take his time, to open as he needed to.  More likely, whether it was true or not, she would respond with the latter.  He chose to enjoy the night air in silence for a moment.  If she did as well, so much the better.

They walked among the stately oaks, saved trees from one of the more severe hurricanes that had lashed its way up the coast from the Caribbean, and wandered down to where the Earth ponies had dug a meandering creek.  A few times Trixiebelle had to wait for the slower Kevin to catch up.  She did not seem to mind how long it was taking him to say his piece.  Patience and kindness.  That's all he ever felt from them.  Eventually he held out his hand, stopping her.  She looked up at him, slightly quizzically.

“I've been thinking over it for a long time, miss . . .” he furrowed his brow, “actually, I never did get your family name.”  He looked down at her, frowning.

“We don't have them, really.”  She looked away and smiled, a strange thing to see on a snouted face but reassuring nonetheless.  “A few of the large, more complex families have them, like the very large Apple Clan out of Ponyville.  Some of the more, shall we say, proud pony families take them as well.  There are even some who claim they are descended from the Princesses and claim some fomr of family name.  But for the most part, we don't have them.”  She looked back at Kevin, her smile still in place.  “Never saw the need, really.”

He shrugged and looked back towards the mostly darkened skyline of Boston.  “Trixiebelle, then.  I've been thinking a lot on, well, this world.  All of it.  And I have no problem at all with ponification.”  She waited patiently.  Surely there was more to it then that.

“I have a problem with your kind being anti-human.”  She gasped.  He looked at her, his eyes betraying no mirth.  “Surely that would be problem enough.”

“Mr. James!  Kevin.  I am not anti-human!”  He smiled slightly, he had struck some form of a chord.

“Allow me to beg to differ.”  Kevin stood a bit straighter as he quoted directly her exact words from earlier this evening.  “'I may not fully understand your reasoning behind your choice to become a pony, considering I was born one myself, but I can understand what we have been facing in the past few years. Humans such as yourselves have brought your world to shambles, all because of the selfish greed of big business, and the horrible health habits of the majority of the population.'  Is that not in your opening speech?”  Trixiebelle blinked.  He had said it word for word, he knew that much.

He continued his quote.  “'Our plan is to ponify you, the sooner the better. Expect this to happen when you least expect it. You'll get used to our culture, our food, and our lack of thumbs. Trust me, it's easier than it looks.'”  He winked at his now thoroughly confused mare companion.  “'Because humans can't handle the magic radiating from Equestrian borders, becoming a pony is crucial to expanding the peaceful, friendly aura that surrounds Equestria every day of every month of every year.'”  Kevin looked squarely at his now muted mare companion.  “Am I wrong?”

“No, Kevin.  You said it better than I do some days.  But I fail to see-”  He cut her off with a sharp wave of his hand.

“It's not obvious, Trixiebelle.  It's a subtle thing.  The assumption that your ways are inherently better then ours.  That we have been greedy and irresponsible with this planet and nothing more.  That we are victims of a problem of our own making.  I came here,” he spun around slightly, to show the hill top they were now perched on, “for a purpose.  Trixiebelle, do you know the history behind those oaks?”

She followed his pointing finger to the grove they had just passed through.  Wonderful trees, oaks.  Her brow furrowed, much like his had.  “No.  No I do not.”

“I do.  Three years ago, a mere year before the . . . well, the Contact, there was a terrible storm.  All of those trees were horribly damaged, limbs torn free and fresh leaves ripped from branch.  I know because I helped to cut the broken limbs, I helped to tend them with tar and hard work.  Do you know why that storm came?”  He had approached her, placed his hand on her neck.  He hoped it was like placing a hand on a person's shoulder.

“No.”  She turned back to him, again her face a mask of confusion.

“Neither do I.  In that storm, almost a hundred people were killed.”  He smiled gently at her gasp but continued.  “Many by fallen trees but a few by electrical shock or simple heart failure.  The streets were too hazardous for most to be rescued by our ambulance services.  We tried, oh yes we tried.  But it was not a good few nights.”

“Why did your weather service allow it to happen?”  He could feel the confusion and pain in her voice.  Such a storm must never happen in Equestria.  He, of course, already knew this.

“Our weather services cannot change the weather.  They can observe, they can try to predict.  They can warn.  But we don't have magic.  Remember, ' humans can't handle the magic radiating from Equestrian borders,' you said so yourself.  And I believe you.  But there, you are the masters of all you see save a few, scattered remains of wild Equestria.  Here, we are at the mercy of, well.  Everything.”

“But your technology...”  She motioned with her hoof, weakly.

“It enables us to be safe, mostly.  But such things as hurricanes, as tornados, things that your people control through magic, we have no defense against save hope.  And, yes, our technology perhaps did add to the power of the storms lately.  Global Warming and all that.  But we only really came to grips with the fact such a problem exists recently.  We had no way of knowing, no sky-mother,” Trixiebelle winced at the near insult to Princess Celestia, “to tell us we were wrong.  No all-knowing eye to keep us safe.  We had to be that eye.  And we, all of us mortal things, are so short sighted.”

Kevin let his hand fall.  “I'm sorry to dump all of this on you at once.  What your people did with magic, we had to force happen with whatever we had available.  Steel and coal, gasoline and fire.  We have many tools and it is because we have no magic they are there.  Trixiebelle.”  He raised her head up, looking into her blue eyes with his deep, almost black browns.  “You judge us, silently.  In your speech, I've heard nearly a dozen times.  The way you look at us with pity and, yes, sometimes fear.  You judge us.  But you have no real right to do so.”

“We don't judge you.  We just want to help.”  Even to her ears, it almost sounded pitiful.  A rational, an excuse.  But really, they only wanted to help a people who were hurting.

“Then why not earlier?  Why not World War II?  Or the Cold War, if you were afraid of being drawn into combat?  Or the 'War Against Terror' from a few years ago.  Or any of the hundreds of conflicts that have torn this world apart?  Why wait till now?  Why wait?”

Kevin grew silent, as silent as the city behind him had become, as silent as the pony who, thinking to console a fearful human, now was having to defend her whole reason for being here.  Of all the debates, the riots, the protests, this one human, with his quiet questions, had more fully and truly drawn out the hard questions that she, no, that no pony had ever been asked.  Wistfully, she wondered why herself.  Why her?  Why this human?

And why now?  What was different?  The technological singularity?  Humanity was, from her new point of view, finally able to heal this planet.  They had changed from gasoline to batteries, from coal power to solar.  They could clean it all up, if they tried, and many were.  There was a form of peace, not full but greater than any their poor race . . . no, not poor.  A peace greater than any their race had seen for at least a thousand years.  Why now?

The quote, in her own voice, entered her head of it's own volition.  She had said it, time and again, but she had never really listened to it.  She had never really heard it.  'Ponykind faces overpopulation, in ways that the tiny isle of Equestria simply can't keep together for long. That's why we moved into your towns and cities. I'm sure you all know about this already, but what you haven't heard is why we're doing this. Why you are here today, sitting in this cramped room with sweaty, tired people just waiting for me to stop talking.'

It wasn't because of the pollution, the humans were getting that under control.  It wasn't because of the sicknesses, they were moving beyond the need for money to drive their world.  The wars were ending, the unemployment was becoming a needless statistic.  When few worked, what was the need of employment?  When AIs controlled production, harvesting of food, and even medicine, who needed to work except those who wanted to work?  Not even because it was nice.  It would have been nice in 1930, in 1840, in 1620.  In 1000 AD, it would have been nice.

Why?  Why?  Why now?  She knew.  She just never realized, never admitted to herself the real reason.  They were here now because it suited Equestria.  Because Equestria needed humanity to become like them.  To be a part of the herd.  So that Equestria could expand.  So that Equestria wouldn't have to face the same decisions that humanity did.  So that Equestria didn't have to change.

She pulled away, her mind a confused mishmash of emotions.  She wanted to say they were more careful with how they did things, but had they not had the Princesses . . .  She wanted to tell him about how beautiful the countryside of Equestria was at night.  But here, there was beauty as well and wilder than that of her home.  She wanted to yell, to scream that what they were doing was right.  It was, but not for the reasons they did it for.

“There has to be another reason.”  She sounded desperate, even to her ears.  “I'm sure Twilight Sparkle was just not thinking when she wrote it.”  Kevin huffed, drawing a glare from Trixiebelle.  He looked away.

“Before you ponies came, there was a great problem in this country.  No.  No, in this world.  Hatred, fear, jealousy.  But most of all, it was the silent judging.  All creatures do it, it's part of our make up.”  He waved, almost absently, out into the night.  “Part of our natural sight, how we look at the world and determine if it is what we wish it to be.  But here, in this country, one of the worse was what we called 'racism.'”

Trixiebelle nodded.  “Hatred of another human based on skin color.”  Kevin nodded in turn.

“Yes.  Pretty silly to you ponies, everyone being a separate color in and of themselves almost.  But yes.  And here, in the land of the 'free and equal,' there used to be so much of it.  Only in the last, what, forty fifty years had it gotten under control?  Even then, it wasn't stamped out.  Not until you ponies came and gave those who wished to hate a new, more obvious target.”  He sighed, rubbing his nearly bald head.  “For that, I am sorry.”

“They will learn.  Or they will not.  One can't force someone else to change.  Even for the better.”

Kevin smiled.  “'Our plan is to ponify you, the sooner the better. Expect this to happen when you least expect it. You'll get used to our culture, our food, and our lack of thumbs. Trust me, it's easier than it looks.'”  He looked away from Trixiebelle's surprised face and towards the Boston skyline one last time before turning back to his companion's shocked face.  “Can you?”  Without looking behind him, he started to walk back toward the Conversion Center.  “See you tomorrow, Trixiebelle.”

CONTINUED

Kevin woke with a stretch, the bed a tad smaller than any he'd ever slept in but large enough for his understated frame.  A new day had dawned and it was finally his turn.  He smiled, his eyes glinting in the harsh glare of the flickering overhead.  As much as they complained about human methods, they loved to the technology when it suited them.  Or maybe, maybe they use it because they think it makes humans feel safer, more at-home?

It didn't matter.  For some reason, he had been saved for last.  The last in his little pod of people for turning.  The last human . . . no, no just the last man in this sleeping block.  After the first night with Trixiebelle, he had hardly said a word.  Nothing more needed to be said.  Some of the humans, even some ponies, had tried to engage him in conversation but he purposefully kept them distant, except for the times when someone was turned themselves.  He was sure to offer some form of congratulations then.  Trixiebelle herself had avoided him.  While Kevin was sure he could corner her in her office or even in the cafeteria, he didn't need to.  She was surely struggling with those questions he had implanted into her mind.  He wondered what she had come up with.

A gurgling sound rose him from his reverie.  His body had needs and, he smirked, this might be the last meal he ever gets as a human.  Not the end of the world, in and of itself, but something to mark as a special occasion in his own personal time line.  Kicking the light blanket off, he rolled easily to his feet, the cold linoleum floor a not unpleasant shock.  Kevin wondered if he would be able to feel through hooves but only for a moment.  Time was a'wastin', as his not-so-dearly departed grandmama used to say.  A quick search through the slight mess his temporary home had become rustled up a clean pair of boxers and a light tank top.  He smiled, he found himself doing that a lot since he had finally made up his mind.  He at least wouldn't have to get used to sleeping naked.

One quick shower and a tooth scrubbing in the utilitarian bathing facilities later and he was off to the cafeteria, still boxer-clad.  That would get some looks, he thought with some level of mirth.  At least, from the humans and newfoals still around.  The cold floor was somehow refreshing.

“Hi and . . . well now.  A bit rare to see you humans in your, er, undersaddles?”  The pony behind the counter tilted his head quizzically.  He reminded Kevin of a cat momentarily.  It was all he could do to keep from laughing.  “Well now, I don't think there's cause for making fun at my expense about that.”

Kevin stifled his chuckles and ordered his morning meal, ignoring the looks and glances he was getting from the other patrons of the Conversion Center's cafeteria.  A few of the older newfoals, those who had been in basic a while, smiled at his disregard for human convention.  Better to get rid of the apprehension now.  He waved to a few of the ones from his pod, startling them.  Always he had been so quiet, so distant.  So unponylike.  It brought smiles to the faces of many to see such a change, and even before the conversion.

He sat, like he had for nearly a week now, and cracked open the only book he had taken to the Center.  A book about human thought, about what humans thought about thought and how thought worked.  A human thing, his last human thing save his clothes.  He wondered what the stallion behind the counter thought of him ordering a meat lover's pizza so early in the morning but shrugged it off.  It wouldn't matter soon.  Besides, he grimly noted, he wasn't yet a third of the way through his book yet.  Never had really gotten through the whole thing before but it still was a tad irksome.

“Mr. James.”  Kevin glanced up at his name, surprised at the sight before him.

“Miss, er, Trixiebelle.  How unexpected.  I hope you don't mind my fare, it's a bit, how shall I put this, carnivorous today.  Last meal and all.  How morbid.”  She shook her head, slightly grave.

“Many do similar stunts.  A last act of humanity, if you will.  You wouldn't believe how many ponies come out of those chambers already with foal from a different 'last act.'”  Kevin blinked, not sure how he was to take that.  Trixiebelle smiled coyly.  “Or how many want to enjoy a pony act before it is time.”

“Ah, yes, well, ah.”  He realized that some people had a hard time telling if a black man was blushing but he was fairly certain the mare across the table could see.  She giggled slightly.  He didn't know if he had been pranked or if she was serious.  After a bare seconds thought, he realized he didn't want to know all that much.  “Anyway, Trixiebelle.  What can I do for you this fine, soon-to-be-last day of this condemned man?”

As he spoke, her smile disappeared.  “I'd like to talk with you, Mr. James.  Privately.  Would you care for a walk in the garden?  It's spring and so your lack of clothing won't hurt.  And I doubt anyone really would care at this stage anyway.”

With a snap, he shut up his book and took one final, almost triumphant bite of his pizza, chewing and swallowing it with gusto.  “Least of all, me.”  He stood and took a step towards the exit before looking at the book in his hands.  He placed it table, removing the folded corners with care.  “I've never finished this thing anyway.”

--------------------

The oaks were different in this light, he realized.  He had barely left his room in the week he had been there.  True, he had come out and congratulated everyone – no, everypony who had come out of the conversion chambers, but he had always been distant.  Aloof.  They always told him to lighten up, to smile.  He was doing that in spades now.

“Oaks in spring.  Grass in spring.  The sky . . . in spring.”  He closed his eyes and leaned into the light breeze as it blew across him.  Everypony that had exited the chambers had some form of flowing mane.  He had never let his hair grow much longer than an inch or two and so he never had let the wind really blow it back.  It wouldn't have mattered much, it was too coarse.  Unless he straightened it chemically, which he had never done.  Unnatural, silly.  For some reason, the thought of having the same hair type as everypony else filled him with profound joy . . . and profound sadness.

“You humans do look a bit silly without your clothes on.”  Trixiebelle had stopped and turned to look at him from a few feet away.  She was taking him on the same path he had led her that one night about a week prior.  He knew this, he recognized it.  It felt right.

“Well, I do have my underclothes on.  I can take those off but the few police left might not like that very much, especially if we're going to go to the overlook.”  He grinned at her.  “Or are you curious as to the 'other side' as it were?”

If a pony could blush . . . oh, wait, she was blushing.  “No, no!  No, goddess no.”  Kevin burst into true laughter, walking to catch up.  He thought of flinging off the last of the human things he had then and there.  He was sure, other than his crude sexual innuendo, Trixiebelle wouldn't care.  But there was time enough for that later.  He still couldn't look at a pony butt, flank as they said called it, and get aroused.  Like looking at a horse and feeling the same.  Still, he supposed that would change.  Either that day or in due time.

Soon, they had reached the summit of the small hill that had such a view of the whole of Boston.  It looked better in the daylight, he thought.  It didn't look . . . sick.  It didn't look like it was dying.  Idly, Kevin gave it an exaggerated salute.  Trixiebelle looked up at him, concern clearly on his features, the day's previous jokes set aside.

“For a week, you say little to anyone and we kept pushing you back, thinking you would leave.  You would get cold hoo-, er, feet.  For a week, we get nothing but reports of how cold, distant you've been.  But here we are.”

“Here we are.”  For all the sorrow he knew was there, he felt at peace.  Like a man with a terminal illness finally accepting death.  Just like that, in fact.  Wasn't this the death of Kevin the man, a college trained black man from Harlem who grew up at the tail end of the Crack Wars?  Who wanted nothing more than to break the cycle of despair and poverty he saw around him, from every person and every race the whole world over?  The death of one Kevin and his rebirth as . . . somepony.  The name would come, in due time.  And with his death, the whole of humanity would get one step closer to true Paradise.  To Eden, to utopia.  To that mythical land of everything.  He could try to draw parallels with the rebirth/salvation myths of ages past but, nah.  He felt flippant.

“And then the talk of a 'condemned man,' as if this was one of your people's crude death sentences.”  He cocked an eye at that.  “Hush, they were crude.”  That earned her a shrug and a nod.  She turned, very serious to him.  “We do not force anyone.  At any time you could leave, Kevin.  You could walk out those doors, back to your people and your ways.  You could . . I don't know, revitalize this whole world.  Kevin, I'm serious!  You and a few like you could make a real human paradise with our help.  Kevin, why are you laughing?!”

Laughing was an understatement.  Kevin, the studious and serious young man that made all the ponies ache to be his friend, was rolling in the grass and cackling so hard it hurt.  As astonished as she was, her talk not going as she had planned, Trixiebelle could not help but giggle as the taller-than-her human rolled across the hillock locked in a frenzy of mirth like a small schoolfilly.  After a few moments of false starts and giggle fits, he stopped and sat on his heels, looking up at her with those well-like brown eyes of his.

“You have no idea, but I was thinking something similar.”  She blinked.  “Oh yes.  A day ago, as it was getting close.  Call it preconditioning butterflies,” her quizzical look earned a wave from him, “it's a saying.  And then just now, though I wasn't really being all that serious.  If I had just a hundred people who thought like me, well, we could at least keep some sliver of mankind alive.  And with pony help, we might be able to stop the cycle of hate and death we've been locked in for millenia.”  He sighed.

“But Trixiebelle, if there were enough humans to do that, we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.  No,” he held up his hand as she opened her mouth, “I don't think we would have purely avoided it.  There would be problems, probably similar to what we're facing now.  But there wouldn't be such a rush for a new life.  We would, I don't know, fix the one we have instead of trying to drop everything for a new one, dropping this broken world for the quick fix.”  He looked up at her, for once.

“No one can judge us except future us.  And now there won't be future us.  You know it, I know it, every human out there knows it by now.  Either they're getting ready for their end . . . no, they're all getting ready for their end.  Either as men,” he waved towards the remains of Boston, “or as ponies.”  A flick of his head towards the Conversion Center.  “We are a dead species.”  He looked away, his eyes suddenly sad.

“Why you?”  He looked back to her, his, well his friend.  Hopefully long term friend once it was all said and done but his friend now.  And he was glad he could call her that.

“Because this is my dream.  My life was, well,” he barked a laughed, a hoarse laugh, “it was rough.  All I ever wanted was a chance to make a difference.  To help people.  To help, I don't know.  Help heal the world of some of it's ills.  I went to college, got a psychology degree.  I opened a business helping people learn how to cope.  How to change.  Change themselves, their world.  Change it for the better.  And then you pon-,” he stopped.  He looked at Trixiebelle, like he was seeing through her.  “And then you people showed up.  And you had the perfect little concoction to make everything better.  With one teeny little side effect.”

He plucked at her fur, not sharply but enough so she knew the 'side effect' he was talking about.  “I don't blame them for rushing to it.  It's a joy.  I saw my whole life's work done before my eyes.  The whole world, save a few hold outs too stubborn to change.  Let's face it, I couldn't do a better job of trying to convince them than you guys did.”  He snorted.  “What was left for me?  My family was either dead or ponified.  Most of my clients were gone, and for the better I'd wager.  My world was dying but in it's death, it was birthing such a new world.”

“Why you?  Why change?”  She sat down, bringing their faces nearly level.  She had convinced many to make the change and had suggested others think on it themselves.  But this was somehow different.  This was deeper?  More insightful?  Something was different.  Maybe not unique, probably not unique.  But different.  And they both knew it.

“I . . . I don't really know.  I'm no savior.  No delusions of grandeur here.  I'm not clinging to this world, I've mourned it for so long I was glad it was ponification that did it in.  Least it'd be peaceful that way and not the choking gasping death of pollution or the horrid screaming death of war.  I have nothing holding me back but nothing really pushing me forward.  I suppose that is it.”  He sat back, off his heels.  His knees were not weak but trying to hold that position was not at all comfortable.  “Being in limbo sucks.”

Trixiebelle couldn't help but laugh.  Kevin blinked and began to follow suit.  The two people that sat on the hillock laughed for a good long while, man and pony.

--------------------

“Kevin James.  It's go time, my human friend.  If you're as quiet a pony as you are a human, we might just have the perfect match for a certain animal-obsessed Pegasus from Ponyville!  Kevin James, come on down.”  The stallion's voice crackled over the loudspeaker, drawing Kevin out of his doze with a start.  The hallway was silent.  There were no more humans to wish him well.  At least, not in his pod.  But he didn't need that.

Kevin looked around his room absentmindedly.  Was there . . . no.  No there was nothing.  He had packed up what little remained of his belongings but left the suitcase there.  No sense leaving a mess.  He hoped the next person to come through here was happy.  Happy with the choice.  Happy.

He walked through the building, not quickly but not hesitantly.  Two legs.  Last time on two legs.  He wanted to savor this feeling.  He gave a slight dance as he walked through one of the many doors between him and his destination.  How many millions of years of man-ape death until that one stood up to look around before heading into the grass?  One of the few things that allowed his species to gain such prominence over the world.  And he was giving it away.  No more death, though.  No more need.

Kevin looked around him.  He had ended up in the reception area, boxers and all.  The receptionist, a pony named Bladrick, looked up from his magazine.  How he was holding it in his hooves still wasn't adequately explained.  At least, not yet.

“Heya Kevin.  Through that door,” he motioned with one hoof to the only door Kevin himself had not yet explored, marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, “and down the hall.  They're waiting for you, Kevin.  In the test chamber.”  Kevin glanced at the stallion and raised an eyebrow.  Then, the corner of his mouth followed.

“Half-Life?”  The stallion nodded.

“Loved it then, love it now.  Can't play it very well with these though.”  He held up his hooves.

“Would you still go through with it?”  The newfoal, well perhaps not that new, nodded and went back to his reading.  Smart idea, putting the recently converted on the front desks.  He idly wondered who this Rarity was that came up with so many of these wonderfully . . . personable ideas.  But that would wait.  He paused to steel himself, stopped, wondered what he was steeling himself for and, with an unconcerned shrug, passed through the door.  A hallway.  And another door.  The only other door, in face.

“Really?”  The yellow unicorn mare looked up from her floating clipboard to see the mostly naked human standing in front of her.  He was one of the darker ones, the 'black' humans, she noted.  She wondered what he was talking about and said as much.

“The door, a hallway, then a single other door.”  She blinked.  “Why?  What's the point?”

“We took the concept from your medical establishments, I think.  Something about making it seem more, oh, cozy or something.”  He began to laugh the mare in front of him blinked again, wondering if she made some sort of pun in human speak.

“You poor little ponies.  You have so much to learn about humans and so little time.  Or need, now, I suppose.”  He shrugged, a nervous tick among some of his kind she was led to believe, and smiled a big open smile.  “So what now?”

“Remove your clothing, er, the last bit of your clothing anyway, and up on that chair please.”  She smiled warmly.  So many had come shaking in fear, crying or even angry.  A few had come smiling but most were strained smiles.  This was the real deal.  As he stripped the last few pieces of clothing away, discarding them in the hampers like so many others, and hopped into the chair, she began her routine.  It was the same, no matter what Center you went to.

“My name is Angel Heart and I'll be your converter today.  We know you humans have many questions about the procedure so we've condensed a few of the more common ones.”  She flipped a page on her clipboard with her magic, eliciting not even a squeak from her temporary patient.  She wished they all were this calm, especially around magic, though she noticed him jiggling his leg as he sat.

“You drink a sedative that knocks you out and turns you into a pony.  No, I don't know how exactly, though I know it's magic and I do know it's painful if you're awake so that's why we knock you out.”  She smiled at him and he just smiled back.  Excellent.  She placed a check mark by one of the boxes on her paper.

“The newfoals, er, new patients wake up as ponies, after a short nap of course, and begin their life anew in Equestria.  Some appear with their Cutie Marks, some don't but that's not really all that important at first.  Just getting the hang of walking is all most ponies can think about the first few hours.  After that, well, it depends on the type of pony you come as.  Do you have any questions?”

He smiled, grinned more like it, and that was not as pleasant as his smile.  Canines.  Angel Heart shuddered to think of what damage those could do.

“Could we skip all this and get right into it?”  The unicorn blinked and looked right at the strangely energetic human before her.  No one has ever asked her that.  She considered his question for a moment.

“Yes, yes we can.  Drink this.”  She levitated a cup over to him.  And sat back.

Kevin looked at the cup hovering in front of him a second before taking it.  He sniffed it, making the mare smile.  Many had done that before too.

“It's just water, dear.  It's the vector for the magic.  We add a little flavor, different every day.  Except grass or hay.”  She frowned.  “Humans don't eat those and we had some trouble with that concept.”  The human, a Mr. Kevin James she noted after a glance at her clipboard, grinned again.

“Homework, my fine filly.  You should have done your homework.”  He raised his cup at her, a sign of camaraderie she was told, and down it in a single gulp.  It tasted like . . . apples.

--------------------

The world floated before him.  A field of grass, as far as the eye could see.  As he drifted toward it, he could feel the ponies, hundreds.  No, thousands.  Millions.  An uncountable multitude.  Rushing, like ships through the grass.  Like dolphins in the surf.  He could feel their intent, though no voice gave it form.  Run, it said.  Go.  Rush.  He followed, but something held him back.  He could feel the ponies form, but it wasn't their form.  Their, well, souls.  Their spirits?  Mental bio-electrical signatures?  Whatever they were, there was something different about them.  These ponies were clean, he supposed.  Pure.  Unfettered.  Unfettered, that fit.  But something clung to him.  He followed but it dragged at him.  He didn't gallop but he ran.  He ran with them.  A single man, unnoticed in the herd.  Approaching a cliff, the herd jumped into the air and, as part of it, he followed.

For a moment, he felt wings.  He felt them as clearly as an angel would have.  But they did not last.  He did not plummet.  He did not fly.  He . . . dove.  Swam.  Swam through the air as fast as his arms could take him.  It was hard, the thing that he could not see still dragged at him.  But the herd, he still followed the herd, now a multitude with wings.  And they accepted him, a strangely shaped pony in a place without shapes.  Soon, the herd crashed, no, parted, no.  It flowed into a mountain.  It wasn't a mountain.  It was but it was also a castle.  A place of ancient power and learning.  A place where so many had come before.  A herd, all with horns of great power and learning.  Ponies.  Unicorns.  And one man.

Before him sat two ponies, Alicorns, mares in name and shape but so much more in truth.  One shone with the light of the nuclear furnace above, the other with the cool light of reflection, studded with fires of her own.  They smiled, calmly but cautiously.  He was filled with warmth from that.  Filled with . . . wait.  They wanted something.  The thing he had.  It clung to him, it was heavy.  Let them take the burden.  It hurts you.  And Kevin, for the first time, realized that it did.  It dug at him like nothing had ever dug before.

He cried out.  It hurt to hold.  It hurt to carry.  It hurt.  The herd cried out as well, echoing his anguish.  It was hot, it was cold, it hurt.  It . . . no.

With a gasp and a tortured scream, Kevin, still in human form, awoke from the agony with a terrified Unicorn and a very concerned Earth pony looking down at him.  As he gasped for breath after that painful ordeal, the Earth pony frowned.  He knew her name and her other shape from the herd.  He knew . . . nothing, then, as he passed out again.

“That has never happened before,” Trixiebelle said, with a deep look of concern.

CONTINUED

Kevin toyed with his mug, filled though it was with cold tea. Something to calm the nerves, they had said. He had been startled to wake up in a makeshift bed in the conversion room, even more startled to find himself unchanged from the human he was before. Trixiebelle had mentioned something about 'reporting' this to someone or other, the potion 'rejecting' him. He had not found the strength to correct that assumption. He had of course heard of the 'dream' the concoction gave new converts. He was expecting it to go exactly as others had said theirs did but something was different in his.

Absently, he toyed with the dial on the highly advanced yet all too useless piece of equipment. The radio, borrowed from one of the newly converted, hissed. Static, static, that piercing whine of high-speed data transfer. He smiled. At least the AIs were keeping busy. Plotting humanity's take over. Actually, giving the world to the AIs might not be such a bad idea. Can't do worse than his own species had, he'd wager.

He thought back over his last week, what he had supposed was his last week as a human. How he had struggled with whether he was going to go through with it. How he had wondered about the reasons behind the whole affair. In the end, he had surrendered to the reality of the situation. Humanity was, for the most part, extinct. Not in full but now there were so few of them left, their way of life for the last thousand years, with all it's change and difference, was dead. They were dead. He had finally put aside his concern over the why of the process. Something good done for the wrong reasons was better than something wrong done for the right ones. Despite that, this new, well, problem was a more difficult one. One that went deeper than reason.

A knock called his attention to the here and now.

“Come in, oh wait.” He stood and knocked the privacy block from the door, spinning it aside and switching off the radio's whine. He sat back down to allow whoever was on the other side room enough to enter. “Ok, come on in.” A white muzzle appeared, a slight smile on the lips.

“Are you decent?” A female, much taller than the other ponies he had seen. Her voice, it was angelic but tinged with a hint of humor. He glanced down at his nudity, curious.

“Does human nudity offend ponies now?” The large white head of a stately mare popped through the crack, soon followed by the rest of her rather large, for a pony, body. Her pink eyes had a hint of mirth in them.

“No, but unchanged humans seem to have issues with it themselves. I don't like to make anyone nervous.” Behind her Kevin could see a few Pegasus guards in bright golden armor take up station at his door. They didn't pay him any heed. “So, Kevin, how are you feeling?”

He looked up at the strangely tall and, well, regal mare. “You have me at a disadvantage, ma'am. You know me but I'm afraid I don't know you.” She looked down at him, the horn in her head glimmering in even this artificial light.

“Yes you do, Kevin. We've met before, not too long ago now. Me and my sister.” She nodded behind her, a smaller form having entered his room quietly. She was as dark as her sister was bright, as silent and, well, sullen as the brighter mare was was cheerful. That was when he noticed the wings, kept close to their bodies to prevent any unneeded banging about in the close room. Winged Unicorns? There was only one pair of those.

“My apologies, princesses. You are correct, I do know of you. But what is this . . .” Kevin sighed as the realization sunk in. “So the dream was real.” The pair of Allicorns nodded. “This . . . complicates things.”

Luna, the darker of the Princesses, sighed herself. “We've never had anyone reject the gift before.” Kevin held up his hand before she could continue.

“I didn't reject the gift, per se. I rejected you taking, eh, IT away.” Luna looked up at her sister, a mask of confusion marring her beautiful form. “Surely you know what I speak of?”

“She does not, Kevin. I do, however.” Celestia looked down at her younger sister, her eyes shining with love and trepidation. With worry. “I wouldn't, couldn't let my sister help with that part. It would hurt too much.” Luna, confused, looked between her sister and the dark human sitting on the bed. She seemed lost.

“Celestia, what are you talking about? I thought you trusted me.” The words contained more hurt than anything Kevin had ever heard before. More confusion, more pain. More betrayal. Celestia's gasp made it clear that it was nearly the case with her as well, or nearly so.

“Oh no, Luna! No no no, I DO trust you! I wanted to protect you, to protect you from the hurt.” She glanced at Kevin before turning back to her now teary eyed sister. “I-I'm sorry Luna. I should have explained it to you. I shouldn't have kept it a secret.” She knelt, her head bowed. “I just couldn't see you hurt. Please, I couldn't lose you again.”

Luna, her face now wet with tears shook her head. “Sister, what is this thing that you must protect me from, then? What is this thing that hurts so much?”

“Hate.” Kevin's voice seemed too deep in the room, too drastic a difference from the two sister's lilting and angelic voices. Luna turned to look at him, Celestia turned away. “And fear. And anger. And not just any hate or fear or anger, pure unrelenting and burning. A hatred that burns so hot, it is cold. A hatred with no thought or reason. A fear based on stupidity and ignorance. An anger born of these two. Most who turn, I take it, never feel it dragging them. They are hopeful for a new life, for something better.” He looked away. “I didn't have that cushion.”

Luna looked at her sister, her eyes now sad but no longer hurt. “Sister.” She reached her hand - no, hoof – out and rose Celestia's face to hers. “I've felt those before, sister.” Her sister nodded.

Celestia's voice was probably meant not to be heard by him but in such a small room it carried well. “I couldn't lose you again, Luna. Not again. Not so soon.” She looked at her sister, Luna's eyes dark and sad but understanding.

“I'm not going to let it control me anymore, sister. I-I couldn't lose you either. Not again. Not for that long.” She too knelt, her long neck wrapping tenderly around Celestia's. They lay that way for a good amount of time. Kevin, despite his burning curiosity, did not feel it was right to interrupt.

After a time, they collected themselves and stood. Kevin smiled, smirked really, and tilted his head at the pair. “So, Princesses. Now comes the great thousand dollar question. Er, thousand bit question.” The two Alicorns looked at the nude man sitting a bare foot away from them. “Why?”

They knew what he was asking. Luna, having only just found out about this Hurt her sister took from the humans, could not answer. Celestia simply did not know how.

--------------------

“Ponies are not like humans and for more than the reasons that are obvious.” Celestia, Kevin and Luna, with royal guard in tow, had relocated to the park. Kevin, due to human-based decency laws, had borrowed a white bathrobe from one of the newly arrived converts. The two Princesses went as was natural for them.

They had retreated to the overlook, where he had first posed the question to Trixiebelle a week ago. Soon it would have a reputation of being the place to ask the questions that all sentients struggle with. The trip had been as quiet as all the others though there were now triple the numbers involved. It was so odd seeing the ponies, who otherwise would walk about without a care in the world, suddenly duck and dodge out of the royal procession's way. Kevin had found it almost vulgar but, he supposed, it was similar to a presidential procession. It was exactly the same.

He found Celestia staring at him, a slight grin on her face. She must have been waiting for some sort of response. He shrugged, smirking. She cocked an eye at him but continued.

“All species have a sort of, well, empathetic net. Magic heightens that, that's one of the reasons ponykind are so peaceful to each other. We feel more fully each others pain. It's not the psionics your fiction writers hoped for but it serves us well enough.” Celestia's ear twitched, a fly buzzing away angrily from his perch on it. Luna, seated a few feet away under one of the oaks, smiled at her sister's slight, er, ponyity? Though there was a slight sadness in her mirth, etched with lines of even older sadness enhancing it. Kevin supposed the hurt from their earlier conversation was still too young for proper conciliation, along with whatever betrayal had happened between the mares.

Celestia shock her head, another fly buzzing angrily around her. “Equestria has fewer flies, I swear.” She stood from where she sat, taking a moment from her explanation to attempt a new position. Her frown indicated she knew it was fruitless. “Anyway, the empathetic network works in the here-and-now but it extends. All old hurts, all old pains. They can transmit still. I would not have new converts acting like walking balls of pain to tear at the souls of my people, Kevin. Let us take the old pain away.”

Kevin smiled sadly. “70 million people.”

Luna perked up. “We've converted far more than that by now.” She looked between the sadly smiling human and her sister, with her lowered head, again confused. She sighed. “That's not what you meant.”

“World War Two. Around 70 million people died in that war. Six years.” Kevin looked up, first at the shocked, no, appalled Luna and then her sad sister. “True, the history of it will not be lost. But the impact, that will be. Can you imagine? The fact Auschwitz existed will be there. But I remember the first time I entered there. Where over one million humans, innocent civilians and children, were snuffed out of existence? One million. What does that number even mean?”

“How in the name of all that is good could you want to hold on to anything like that?” Luna, her voice barely a whisper, her face a mask of incredulity, could barely speak.

“It's not just that, Princess.” Kevin turned his sad, dark eyes to the darker sister, her relaxed stance now a shivering near-cower. He had no pride in what he said, but neither did he seem to despise it. It was fact. Nothing more. His voice, his whole body, relayed that truth. He sounded cold. “I've traced what little of my ancestry I could. My several times removed great grandmother was brought to this continent as a slave, one of several hundred on board a Dutch slave ship.

“She was captured in a raid, I think. One of the thousands of inter-tribal wars that wracked Africa for so long. A black man capturing a black woman and her family to sell to the white men on the coast. She was bought, packed into a ship with so many others she could not even stand and then left to rot for weeks at sea. Dozens died, their bodies either left to the elements or tossed overboard like so much garbage.”

Luna, shrunk from this . . .thing. This man thing, with so much anger. So much . . . so much sorrow in his eyes. But his voice was unnatural. It was still cold. These were facts, his voice said. These are emotions, his eyes replied, my history.

Kevin noticed her movement. A goddess, shrinking from a man. Had it been any other reason, he might have found it humorous. He lowered his head for a moment. “I'm sorry. This is a little, ah, closer to home for me.” He raised his head, again smiling that sad smile. “Not that it was any worse than the Holocaust. Just a bit more personal, you see.”

Luna blinked, her voice taken by his eyes. How they were a moment ago. A movement caught her eye, the unconscious flick of a mare's ear as it dislodged another of the pests from its perch. Celestia, watching the human very closely. Her eyes seemed . . . hard. Luna shivered, wishing she could retreat from both of these suddenly cold beings. The last time she had seen her sister like that was just over a thousand years ago.

Kevin noticed the dark mare's eyes and glanced at Celestia. The angel had a sword. “Please, Princess. I mean neither you nor your sister harm. I doubt I'd be able to anyway, but I truly mean it. Emotions run high when you, ah, identify with a historical wrongdoing.” The bright princess, her eyes still burning like the hardest of diamonds, slowly nodded.

“But regardless. Throughout history, these things have happened. For every Ghandi, a Hitler. For every Teresa, a Pol Pot. For every Jesus, Caligula.” He sighed. “We seem to be doubling up on some of them. Stalin. Nero.”

“All the more reason to take it from you. You scare me, human. All of you.” Luna gasped at such an admission from her sister. Even Nightmare Moon didn't scare her. Upset, yes. Saddened, very much so. But never once could she make her sister frightened. “We must break this cycle of hatred and violence.” The human, Kevin, simply nodded.

“There is another side to that, though. A side I don't think you've thought of, Princess.”

“That would be . . . ?” Celestia's voice was even, calm. Curious, but distant. Controlled. Luna felt like an observer stuck between two . . . somethings, she didn't know what. But Kevin was only a man. A human.

“What about the victims? 1 million deaths is a number. A wall of photos is just that. But what about the true history? The pain, yes the pain, it tells it's own story. A story of a young black woman on a bus ride to protest for equality for her people, being hauled off and beaten because of hate. The story of a little Jewish girl hiding in an attic for years, only to be killed just months before she could be rescued. The facts of these stories will exist but they will be distant. Un . . . unfelt.”

Celestia blinked, taken aback by that thought.

“They deserve a voice, Princess. A voice beyond the cold cement walls of a decaying building in the middle of the Polish plains, or a few scattered monuments to decades of struggle. Or a tower of skulls in the Cambodian jungle. They deserve to be remembered, they deserve to have their pain remembered, their sacrifice remembered.”

--------------------

“What will you do now?” Trixiebelle couldn't hide the concern in her voice. Not only was her Center the first to have a rejected human but it was one she had befriended. One she had hoped would follow her to Equestria as a friend, one that might even, one day . . . she squashed that thought. The writhing form of the human on the conversion chamber's floor had seen to the death of that idle day dream. She had met him only twice, she reasoned, not enough time to really get to know anypo -no, anyone. And every time she repeated that thought to herself, her heart would break just a bit more.

Kevin looked at his equine friend, his face strangely content. Her face held concern, true. It would have, he supposed. But it held something more. Hurt. A pain that he had seen before. A pain he had felt before. A pain he discovered he shared. He knelt, taking her face in his hands.

“Oh, my little pony. We humans are adaptable creatures. If one plan fails us, we try others until we get the result we're looking for.” He smiled. “Did you ever come up with an answer to my question?”

Trixiebelle blinked. “What ques-oh. Why?” Kevin nodded. “Because we needed your genome mapped out. The Princesses never thought you humans would ever finish that project so, when you finally did, they were quiet surprised. They had to rush some preparations to get out here as soon as they could.” She smiled, his face stunned. “They hate to see creatures in pain.”

Kevin stood there, a mare's face in his hands, and burst out laughing. Trixiebelle jerked back a bit, startled. “Oh Trixiebelle. Oh, that is the best news I've heard today.” He looked at her with the happiest eyes she had ever seen on his face.

“If you have your answer, why don't we try again?” She knew she was getting her hopes up. She knew there was something deeper than the 'why' he had asked her a week and a half ago, something that had happened between him and the Princesses. Something that sent the royal pair off with a profound sadness and now was sending her friend, her . . . friend with some form of wild, mad contentedness. It was unnatural for a human.

Kevin thought a bare second on his response. He knew what it was and, had you described it to him a bare four years ago, he would have recommended his own institutionalization. But the world had changed much in four years and things that were mad once were sane now. He had only to . . .

Trixiebelle had never really been kissed. She had her 'experimentations,' yes, but this . . . and such a strange feeling, to not be kissing a muzzle. Could he taste the simple hay lunch she had? Humans didn't like hay, she knew she should have gone with the salad . . . what would her mother think? What about her father? Did the security cameras go out . . . was that a Pegasus patrol? Would they call her a 'skinlover?' Above all, why didn't she give a horsefeather?

“I'll write once I've saved humanity from extinction. Don't go anywhere, or have your mail forwarded. I'm holding you to trying it out again. The potion, I mean. I just need to get some things settled. And you know what?”

“Huh?”

“I think I like hay.”

THE END?

Thanks a ton to Midnight and Pride at Ponychan for their help, as well as all the other bronies who helped to proof read and correct this thing. Thanks to Equestria Daily for introducing me to MLP fanfics, and for inspiring me to finish the only fanfic I've ever have. I've tried before but, well, yeah. Fanfics. Thanks to Ponychan itself for providing me a way of dumping this sorry thing on unsuspecting ponyfolk. Thanks to Elvis for . . . er, actually, thanks to you. For reading it. And this overly long ending shpeal. I could wish for more in the execution but that ending, it surprised even me. I wish I had more to offer but I'm spent on this tale. For now anyway.

The Conversion Bureau: More

By SonicBoom01

Chapter 1 - Taking the Plunge

The car’s engine stopped its growl as its owner shut the engine off and stepped out. He pulled a backpack out of the passenger side seat, and slung it over his shoulder. His steps were muffled by the rainstorm that was going on. Reaching a single hand out, he pushed open the rain-covered glass door, and entered the white, sterile building.

The car’s engine stopped its growl as its owner shut the engine off and stepped out. He pulled a backpack out of the passenger side seat, and slung it over his shoulder. His steps were muffled by the rainstorm that was going on. Reaching a single hand out, he pushed open the rain-covered glass door, and entered the white, sterile building.

“Welcome to the Conversion Bureau,” A honey-colored unicorn with a brownish, curly mane said, from behind the counter. “I’m Honey Bee. What can I do you for?”

“I’m here to get Converted.” He said, a hint of sadness in his voice. The hood of his raincoat masking his face.

“Well, then, I’m gonna need you to fill this form out, sweetie.” The unicorn levitated a clipboard and pen up to the man, which he took, then walked back to a seat in the lobby to begin his work. His coat still dripping from the storm outside, he removed the hood from his head, light glinting slightly off his short blond hair. His bony face was wet and he cradled a pair of black glasses on the bridge of his wide nose. His face showed signs of neglect, as his hair was long and greasy, his chin being home to a forest of stubble. As Honey Bee looked him over, he keep his blue eyes glued to the forms in front of him, his hand practically ablaze as he filled out the forms with a lightning efficiency.

The forms were surprisingly thorough, he noted as he read through them. They started out simple enough, the standard ‘Age, Gender, Residence, DOB,’ but gradually grew to a surprisingly hefty list of hard-to-answer questions. He found himself wracking his brain for answers to questions about himself. Some of the questions were downright confusing, he had to do a double take when he got to the question of whether he was a vegetarian or not. By the time he finished he was wondering if they were going to start asking what his favorite video game was or something silly like that. The last questions surprised him, however, and he gave a small gasp when he reached them.

‘Do you have any friends? If so, list them here.’

‘Have any of them been ponified before you?’

‘Are you friends with any ponies that you didn’t know when/if they were humans?’

He sat dumbfounded at the questions for a bit. Once he recovered, a simple scribbling on the paper to add his answers finished the process for him.

Honey Bee smiled as the form was brought back. “Well then, Nicholas DiAngelo.” She said, skimming the forms.

“I’d, uh, prefer it if you just called me ‘Nick,’ ma’am.” He replied, his hand pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

“Alright then, Nick,” She said, with a warm smile on her face, not unlike one you’d see on a mother watching her child have fun. “I’ll get these processed for you. Any questions before I show you to your room?”

“Uh, yeah,” Nick began, awkwardly scratching his head in a bit of embarrassment. “Is there, uh, any way I can get converted today? I, uh, just want to get it over with.” …Before I lose my motivation… He finished in his thoughts, thinking back to the reason why he was here.

Honey Bee looked uncertain for a moment, glancing around the room for a moment. “I’m really not allowed to, but you’re really the first person we’ve had come in here in, little over a month now.” She said, sheepishly. “So I can make an exception. Not like anyone’s going to notice or even mind.”

She walked towards a doorway labeled “Living Quarters” and turned back to him. “Drop your stuff off in your room and meet me back here, then I’ll take you to the Conversion Station. You can take your pick of the rooms.”

He thanked her as he passed, and entered the Living Quarters. Glancing from room to room, he noticed that none of them had anybody in them, except for one of the last rooms he glanced in, Room 10. The grey pegasus was asleep on the bed, sawing logs in his sleep. Nick noted to ask Honey Bee about this later on, and then continued on, finally deciding on Room 12.

He swung his backpack off his shoulder and plopped it down onto the bed. Reaching into his pockets, he unloaded his wallet and keys onto the bed as well, then removed a picture from his jacket pocket. Unfolding the picture, he stared at it for a minute before folding it again and slipping it into his backpack. Now, with all his stuff safely in the room, Nick headed back out to the main lobby.

The lobby now had 2 extra ponies in it, another unicorn and an earth pony. Honey Bee turned as she heard Nick approach, “Ah, there he is. Ray and Hot Fudge, I’d like you to meet Nick.

The unicorn, a yellow stallion, stuck his hoof out to Nick. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m Ray, I’m going to be your converter for the day.” He said, at a quick, professional pace, a hint of Australian in his voice. “Dun’t worry ‘bout my accent, I used to be from the Down Unda’ before I got converted, but I’m just as skilled as any of these bloody mares.” Nick looked over the yellow unicorn, and he seemed to be an average pony, aside from the mark on his flank that made him seem less than macho.

An awkward silence followed, “…Why is there a smiling little sun on your butt?” Nick asked, breaking the silence.

Ray expression dropped from cheery to relatively annoyed. “Why does everyone have to ask that? It’s because I’m named after the freaking sun, ok? Y’know, ’Ray’ as in ’Ray of Sun’. It’s perfectly fine for a guy to be named after the freaking sun, alright?” He said, thoroughly annoyed. He opened his mouth to chew Nick out some more, but a mass of brown dropped inbetween the two.

“Hiya, Mister, I’m Hot Fudge, but everyone just calls me Fudge or Fudge-y because it’s just easier to say!” The earth pony said, bouncing with joy and energy. She was a bit smaller than Ray and Honey, so Nick guessed she was younger than they were, which would explain her energy.

Nick chuckled. “I’m guessing you like chocolate?” He grinned, and ruffled her mane with his hand. “You remind me of my sister.” He said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

“Alright, now that we’re all introduced- Ray, Nick, why don’t you get this done with?” Honey Bee said, ending the conversation. “Me and Fudge will be here waiting.”

“Fine, fine. You two don’t bugger off now, we’ll be back in a jiff.” Ray said, turning towards Nick. “Well, c’mon, let’s get this bloody thing over with.” He made his way towards the double doors behind the desk, labeled “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY”.

Well, this is it. Time to say goodbye to my fingers. Nick thought, entering through the doors into the hallway that lay behind. He entered the Conversion Station, expecting some heavy-duty surgery gear or some machines to change his entire genetic structure, but found only a small doctor’s office, with Ray standing at a small machine, making some adjustments.

“Alright, standard procedure, take your bloody clothes off, put on a robe if you wish, sit down on the table, yadda yadda yadda.” Ray instructed Nick, disinterested in the whole process. Nick complied and sat down on the table, completely bare, and feeling a bit awkward. Ray finished his work with the machine, and presented Nick with a small paper cup with a purple, grape-smelling gel inside. “Alright, drink the bloody thing and I’ll do the rest.”

Taking a sniff at it, Nick’s face scrunched up. “It had to be grape, didn’t it? I hate grape. Oh well.” He raised the cup to Ray, and gave a disheartened grin. “A toast. To happiness.” Downing the drink, Nick felt instantly drowsy, his eyelids drooping down, sleep calling him with its tantalizing siren song. His vision blurred quickly as he drifted off. Ray’s form slowly faded into a yellow blob as he fell back onto the table, the lights on the ceiling suddenly coming into view.

Then he plunged into darkness.

================================================================

And so begins my first Conversion Bureau fanfic. My goal isn’t to try and make some groundbreaking unique story or anything, this is really just to get my feet wet in the Conversion Bureau universe. That other stuff can come later. So yeah, basic self-insert, tell me what you think, yadda yadda yadda. I’d like to apologize about the parts with Ray though. I don’t know what I got in my head to make him Australian at the time, considering I don’t really know how to do an Australian accent, aside from the TF2 Sniper, but it stuck, so hey, tell me how to make it better if it wasn‘t that good.. Also please tell me if anything’s not right, because if it’s not I want to improve on it for the next chapter. If there’s a big enough liking behind this to even warrant a second chapter. - SB01

Special Thanks goes to my good friend Maximosa and the My Little Podcast: Streaming is Magic team for prereading the story, and my other friend Triscy for getting the MLP:SiM team to even read it.

It was a cool night in New York, calm, serene or at least it should’ve been. ‘Carl’ was impatiently tapping his finger on a desk as he looked out the window of the small apartment complex that was utilized by the Human Liberation Front as a nexus for ammunition and storage in this part of town. Of course ‘Carl’ wasn’t his real name but it was the one the men here knew him by, he was here to oversee the purchase of particularly valuable commodity from a Russian contact of the HLF. The exchange had gone over smoothly enough as the price was agreed upon well before the meeting had taken place. Fifty million American for something like this was a bit expensive, but the contents violated about thirty international laws and half of the second Geneva Convention, possession of the object alone could mean a life sentence.

A young man stepped inside the office Carl had commandeered “Sir, we’ve just received a communique  from central.” He said extending his hand which held a piece of paper. Obviously all communications between cells of the HLF were coded and translations were required before any message could be read.

As he turned to take the message from the kid he noticed a small red dot playing over his face a split second before it vanished in an explosion of blood. Carl immediately threw himself to the floor as he heard the report of gunfire and the noise of combat from below him. He swore to himself as he grabbed the steel briefcase and gun from the table he had been keeping them on and dashed out the door and down the hallway. He emerged into a small alleyway two buildings down as the fighting continued between HLF and whoever had decided to raid the complex. He started sprinting down the alley away from the shootout. Those members of the HLF were nothing more than fanatics and there were plenty to replace them; he on the other hand was not quite as expendable to the organization. As he ran down the alley of the slums he failed to notice the shimmering outline of a humanoid figure watching his escape.

The alleyway eventually opened up into a large seaside area overlooking Manhattan bay. Carl finally slowed to a stop on the edge of the water, panting as he went over in his mind any relevant information the members he had just abandoned might know. No one here knew his real name and all they were aware of was that he had come here to purchase something of great value, they had no idea what it was or the reason for buying it. Deciding that he was safe for now he let out a large breath looking out over the water at the skyline of this once great city. A scowl began to appear on his face as he saw the numerous pegasi flying among the buildings. These ponies thought they could just come and destroy everything man had ever accomplished out of some illusion of kindness? Not if he and the rest of the HLF had anything to say about it. A noise behind him snapped the HLF member out of his reverie; he immediately panicked and fired three quick rounds in the direction of the noise. There was nothing there, but his eyes kept sweeping the area regardless. Carl felt as an iron grip clamped down on his arm right above the wrist, he looked back to his arm just in time to watch in horror and pain as his wrist was snapped before his very eyes in the invisible grip of his assailant. The gun clattered to the ground as he clutched his now useless right hand to his chest.

“Adaptive camouflage?” he asked the air, knowing he’d been had.

“Yep.” Responded a male voice behind him, Carl grimaced as he suddenly felt a prick on the right side of his neck, he was unconscious before he even hit the ground.

Captain James Miller disengaged the AdCam as most called it making himself easily visible once again. He had been slightly worried for a small time that his intel was off and all they would find here was a typical HLF safehouse but this man on the ground in front of him had proven that worry to be groundless. He turned slightly as he heard approaching footsteps, “Jesus Captain you certainly did a number on him.” Said his immediate subordinate Scott Baker. “Assault team’s wrapping things up at the safehouse, we even managed to take a couple alive this time.”

“Anything interesting turn up there?”

“Not at first glance, no. But we’ll have a better picture once forensics gets through with the place.”

“I doubt they’ll find anything, but this guy on the other hand,” James said as he bent down to pick up the briefcase. “might just have something of value. Let’s get him back to HQ.”

Headquarters was located in the financial district of the city in one of the many modern skyscrapers that had been built in the wake of cheap robotic labor. James spent most of the ride back in silence, instead choosing to file his report via his neural net as he had to get going soon. As the team dismounted the vehicles in the garage beneath the structure he tapped Baker on the shoulder. “Hey would you take care of processing these guys for me? I’ve already filed my report with the director and I need to get back home.”

Baker nodded. The captain had been working “off the clock” so to speak tonight, but he had wanted to oversee the raid personally as several months of work had gone into it. “Sure thing boss, see ya tomorrow.”

James, having taken care of all official business for now, headed over to his own car, a blue 2008 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500, an inheritance from his father who was an avid car buff. As he drove through the practically empty city streets he was thinking over the latest report on the state of the city, the most optimistic estimates put the human population of New York at 200,000 but of course years of experience had taught him to never believe the optimistic ones. At least the street lights were still working, not that he needed them. His right eye was totally cybernetic, a replacement for his natural one that he had lost early on in his career to a lucky shot from a mafia enforcer he had been tailing. All in all James Miller was still mostly human compared to many others in his line of work, besides his eye, musculature enhancements, and military grade neural net he was still totally organic. He was a fairly unassuming man, brown hair and eyes certainly didn’t distinguish him from the crowd at all, of course there weren’t any crowds really left for him to blend into, having two legs when everyone else has four kinda gives you away.

He pulled into the apartment building where he lived with his sister as both their parents were currently living in Equestria somewhere; James could never remember the name of the city. As he walked through the lobby, he wasn’t too surprised to see a couple ponies coming and going even at this hour, New York was still the city that never sleeps. He took the elevator up to his floor and entered his apartment as quietly as he could so as not to wake the other occupant of his home, as always he failed miserably.

“Late night huh?” Said his sister Mary’s voice from the couch.

“Yep.” James said as he looked through their fridge. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“I have tomorrow off.” She said from right behind him, “You should take it off too, you’re working too hard again.” There was a note of concern in her voice.

James turned to fix his sister with a cynical look. Mary now stood at about his waist ever since she had undergone conversion; she was a light green unicorn with a white mane who had decided to stay in New York with her still human older brother while their ponified parents both moved to Equestria. “Well maybe it’d be a little easier for us if you guys weren’t so good at your jobs. We’re short staffed as it is without us losing a guy every few weeks that then takes us a month to replace.”

Mary rolled her eyes at that; she worked as an administrative assistant at the New York bureau. “Uh-huh sure, blame us for being so convincing. I just wish I could convince you as easily as them.” She had been trying to get James to undergo conversion for nearly a year now, and he still refused to go.

“Don’t worry; I’m sure one of these days I’ll cave. You’re too damn persistent for me to resist forever.” James continued to rummage through their fridge, he was absolutely starving and tended not to trust his sister with getting him take-out anymore, not since she had ‘forgotten’ he didn’t eat daisies the last time he had asked her to pick him up something. Failing to find anything that resembled meat he gave up and just grabbed two apples. “Is it really that hard to find meat anymore around here?” he asked as he walked over to and collapsed onto the couch.

“Have you looked around lately? There’s no one left to sell it to.” Mary said as she lay down next to him she paused for bit as he continued to eat his meal of fruit. “Hey James?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m meeting up with some of my Equestrian friends for dinner tomorrow and I’d really appreciate it if you actually came this time. They’ve all wanted to meet you for a long time now and I kinda want to show them that my older brother actually exists.”

James sighed, she was guilt tripping him and he knew it, didn’t stop it from working though. “Fine, I’ll come.”

“That’s what you said last time.”

“I mean it this time.”

“You said that too.”

James buried his face in his hands as he tried to think of a way to fix this whole situation. “What else do you want me to say Mary? I’m sorry I had to bail on you those other times, I really am. But my job isn’t as cut and dry as we’d both like it to be, stuff comes up that they need me for and I can’t just ignore it.”

Mary looked down as the words sunk in, she knew her brother worked directly for the government, and whatever he did it was both highly dangerous and important. But it still didn’t change the fact that it stung to have her older brother whom she held in such high esteem leave her hanging when she was just trying to have her friends meet her family.

James saw just how crestfallen his sister was and he immediately felt the guilt of bailing on her triple. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Look I’ll make it up to you; I’ll call in every favor I can to make sure I’m there tomorrow, OK?”

Mary looked significantly happier at this development “OK, just remember you have to call me by my Equestrian name tomorrow.”

“Ah erm, well about that….”

She just looked at him disbelief, “You forgot what it was again didn’t you?”

“No, well not really it has something to do with the sun right?” He offered weakly.

She rolled her eyes again, “It’s Radiant Dawn FYI. And you’re going to have to start remembering it eventually, it IS my official name now, you’re the only one that still calls me Mary.”

“I’ll call you Radiant Dawn around the same time you convince me to get converted, until then you’re still Mary to me.” He said as he ruffled her mane. “Now you best get some sleep sis, you’re not meant for these long nights.”

“And YOU need to stop having so many of them, I’ll go to bed when you do.”

“I was actually planning on doing that right now.” He said as he stood, he then locked up for the night and headed off to his room after making sure his sister went to sleep.

James undid the front of his jacket and un-holstered his M1911 Colt .45, it was a bit old fashioned compared to many of the newer guns that had been developed recently but he preferred the classics. He lay down on his bed after undressing and turned off the lights before finally taking the last few minutes to access his personal messages via the net. There was already one waiting from the director.

ENCRYPTED USING KEY: *********

DECRYPTED USING KEY: *****

’Your report is, as always, impeccable in detail Captain. The forensics team is already going over the evidence seized from the safehouse, and they are currently analyzing the contents of the briefcase you retrieved from the HVT. Baker and the others currently have him in medical care for the wrist you broke and are planning on interrogating him as soon as he is conscious again. You on the other hand, have tomorrow off on my orders; you’re burning yourself out on this James, Baker will handle the case for tomorrow.’ – Director Moore.

Well, Mary will certainly be happy with that. He thought to himself as James switched off his neural net. I’m beginning to think she’s right about me working too hard on this, I mean when even the director thinks I’m going to far…

James rolled over as he settled down to sleep; deciding it didn’t really matter in the end anyways. One way or another, this would be his last case.

Roughly 500 miles away in an underground complex sat a man who appeared to be in his fifties. He sat in an ornate chair facing the only source of illumination in the room, a hologram of the planet earth that was constantly updated to show the advance of Equestrian influence. Behind him a door opened into the room spilling in white light, a second man advanced through it coming to a stop halfway to the older one in the chair. The one in the chair turned his head slightly indicating to the intruder that he should speak, “Sir, we have just received word that one of our New York cells was raided tonight. It would appear Mr. Anderson has been compromised along with the package.” His message delivered the younger man departed leaving the room shrouded in darkness once again.

The lone man steepled his fingers as he thought about the impact this would have on the organization as a whole. It was certainly an annoyance but it was nothing more than a setback in the grand scheme of things, a replacement for the lost package could be found easily enough. The thing that concerned him most was what their enemies would do now that they had discovered what the HLF was interested in. The man known to many simply as “Jeremiah” knew that there was only one true threat left in the US government and that was the Internal Defense Initiative or IDI. Undoubtedly it was they who had raided the cell, they were ever present as a thorn in his side and had even come close to ending his life nearly a year and a half ago, he unconsciously fingered the scar on his face that he had acquired on that fateful day. Yes, the IDI were indeed formidable opponents, but would they be able to stop the HLF’s final plan? That was the question that truly mattered. The fate of two races and the world itself would be decided quite soon, and that decision would rest either in their hands, or the HLF’s.

James awoke the next morning a lot later than he usually did; he rarely slept later than eight or nine o’ clock despite how often he would be working until the wee hours of the morning. He felt like he had wasted enough of his life sleeping in college and high school. He groggily looked up at the window of his room, from the position of the sun it appeared to be a little after noon. James’ gaze then wandered over to his nightstand where the culprit of his unintended sleep-in sat, someone had disconnected his alarm clock.  He sighed as he rose out of his bed, Mary must be really concerned about this if she’s starting to use magic to sabotage me. Then again, he had slept all the way up until this point in time giving her argument that he was overdoing it even more credence.

He emerged from his room into the kitchen where his sister sat reading the paper while sipping some coffee. It had taken James a while to get used to seeing Mary use magic, but like everything else that had changed with the coming of the Bureaus, after a while it became normal. She looked over at him with a smug expression on her face. “Well look who’s finally up.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just be thankful I have today off or I’d be really pissed. You can’t just turn someone’s alarm off Mary.”

“Hm, well my magic says I can.” She said as she levitated a second cup of the steaming liquid over to him.

“Thanks.” He said sitting down at the table and taking a long drink of the caffeinated beverage.

“So you have today off huh?” Mary was incredibly shocked at this, James almost NEVER had or took a day off. It was such a rare occurrence that she had actually forgotten to give him her victory speech about how she was right about him.

“Yep, I suppose miracles do happen from time to time.” He said as he stared off into the distance. “So what’re your plans for today?”

“I was going to go shopping with one of my friends from the Bureau, but that was before I knew you’d have today off.”

He looked over at her, “Well don’t let my having the day off disrupt your plans.”

Mary bit her lower lip, “But… I-“

James cut her off, “Look, I’m going to be spending the evening with you and your friends anyways. How long have you been planning on going shopping with your friend?”

“Nearly three weeks.”  She admitted.

“Ok then, go enjoy your day and we’ll spend the evening together. Besides I’ve got my own stuff to take care of.”

She gave him a look of mock disbelief. “My brother actually doing something that doesn’t have anything to do with work!?” she gave an overly dramatic gasp. “I don’t believe it!”

“Ha ha ha.” He responded deadpan as he stood from his chair and gave his little sister a hug. “Have a good time out there, and I’ll see you later.” As he released her from the embrace he ruffled her mane to the point where it looked like she had just woken up.

“Really? Now I have to go brush it again.”

“Then don’t mess with my alarm again.” James said laughing as he headed back to his room.

By the time James had showered, shaved, and dressed Mary had already departed, leaving him a note telling him to be back by four. He locked up after retrieving his sidearm, he never left home without it, and took the elevator down to ground level. It was an absolutely beautiful day in New York; it was just cool enough for him to wear his jacket without sweating like a pig. He had found New York to be quite enjoyable, but then again he had only moved here after the bureaus opened so he had no idea how it was before that. James decided to walk to his destination rather than drive as walking typically helped him unwind better than driving. As he walked down the street the ponies milling about around him gave James a wide berth. Just like Mary using magic, the stares and general wariness that ponies gave him was something James had gotten used to.

He looked up into the sky as he headed towards his destination noting the large amount of pegasai flying among the towering buildings. The city had never appeared to be so full of life before, compared to the glum facade of an unemployed town of broken dreams that it had been prior to Equestrian contact. Funny that he should be thinking about that particular notion as he arrived at his destination, a graveyard situated between two large buildings. Before heading in he stopped at a flower store across the street and bought a simple wreath. He walked down the rows of graves already knowing where the one he sought was located even though it had been months since he was last here. James stopped in front of a fairly plain gravestone and spent a good ten minutes just staring at it lost in thought. Finally he knelt down and laid the wreath on the grave before turning to leave.

James arrived back at his home just as Mary was finishing up getting ready for their dinner. “Oh great you’re here.” She said as she continued to check her reflection. She turned back to James giving him a look down. “You’re planning on going out in that?”

“Says the one who spends ninety-nine percent of the time naked. It’s not like the dinner is super formal or anything, right?” James retorted with a slightly annoyed look on his face, even after being a pony for nearly a year and a half, his sister still thought she could give him fashion advice.

“Suit yourself.” Mary said nonchalantly. “So where were you for the last two hours?”

“Oh, you know, just walking around, thinking, nothing much. How was shopping with your friend?”

Mary’s face lit up at the question. “Oh it was FANTASTIC! There was a whole new line of saddles that we hadn’t heard about before that were unveiled! Rarity and I were just amazed at the new designs coming out of Equestria…”

James just continued to smile and nod at his sister’s story, letting the information wash over him while his mind concentrated on something else. It was this sort of mental multitasking that made him such a good intelligence officer and was one of the many reasons he had been recruited by Director Moore into the IDI. As his sister talked James noticed just how happy she was. She had been like this ever since she had undergone conversion, as if the process changed more than just her body. She had never been a melancholy person to begin with, but it was hard to still be human in the rapidly ponifiying world and not be affected by it. Hell, most humans nowadays were either miserable or consumed with hate at their situation in life. Even James sometimes had trouble not feeling like an outcast in this town of thirteen million ponies. But now Mary had friends, a job she loved, and her older brother who she had always been close to. She had every right to be happy. James however, had only entertained the idea of conversion as a fantasy. Something that lay eternally out of reach, as he had decided long ago that such a thing was not meant for men like him. But now, with everything coming to a head so quickly the very real possibility of him finishing his work lay before him. And he had no idea what he would do should that happen. Guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. He thought to himself as his sister finished her story.

“So do you think I should go out with my new saddle?” She asked a hopeful expression adorning her face.

“Well if it’s good enough to impress your fashionista friend Rarity, then by all means go ahead and wear it. That’s what you bought it for right?”

“Thanks! I’ll be right back.” She said smiling as she headed off to her room.

James sighed as she left, picking up a bit that Mary had left on the table and examining the small coin. He had never quite figured out how they could use currency like this with hooves instead of hands, but so long as it worked it didn’t really matter. “So how do I look?” his sister’s voice piped up from behind him.

He turned around to find her wearing a pale pink saddle with a short skirt that complimented her light green coat pretty well. “As a member of an entirely different species? Great.”

Mary stuck her tongue out at him. “You know there aren’t going to be too many human girls left around here soon James..” She smiled wickedly “Might as well start entertaining the idea.”

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah right, anyways we should get going.” He said as he picked up his keys from the counter.

The two exited their apartment building a few minutes later, walking together to the restaurant Mary had picked for tonight’s dinner. She was admittedly a little nervous about her friends meeting James. The worry that he wouldn’t like them or they wouldn’t like him kept bouncing around her mind no matter how hard she tried to stop it. The nervous feeling must’ve worked its way onto her face as she suddenly felt James’ hand on her shoulder. “Mary relax, I’m sure I’ll love your friends. Now stop worrying, please.”

Mary smiled slightly, James, as always knew exactly what to say to help assuage her fears, an ability born of many years of being there for her. “Thanks, I guess I’m still a little nervous about this whole thing.”

“That just means that this dinner is important to you and you want it to go perfectly, nothing more, nothing less. Frankly, I’d be concerned if you weren’t a little nervous about it.” He removed his hand from her shoulder and the two resumed walking down the street “So what’s the name of this place again?”

Mary looked away slightly embarrassed “Well, um it’s called The Big Horseapple.”

That got a raised eyebrow from James, he wasn’t a pony and even he knew what that phrase meant. “You’re serious?”

“Yeah, apparently it was opened by a couple of converts who had no idea what it meant. But by the time they found out the name had already stuck.”

James had to laugh at that, some things never change.

In the sub-basement of IDI headquarters two men looked upon a large holographic screen that dominated almost an entire wall of the room.  In the center of the room, hooked up to an interfacing unit sat an unassuming silver canister, the one that had been retrieved from the HLF. One of the men, who was sitting at a terminal in front of the screen began to type out commands at a pace that was typically inhuman. “You’re sure about this?” asked the second one who stood behind him watching as he input commands.

“Of course director, I know a nanite containment capsule when I see one.” The first one responded in a slightly insulted voice.

Director Moore picked up on the annoyance of his head technical expert, but decided to let it be for now. As the man typed the machinery that was connected to the canister began to function and started to drain the canister of its contents. “Well it’s confirmed that thing was definitely holding nanomachines. Beginning AI analysis and interface with nanite governing protocols.” The doctor typed in even more commands, bringing the processing power of the IDI’s resident contender-II class AI to bear. The AI, codename: MERCURY served as the IDI’s institutional mainframe and was primarily used to coordinate the logistics of the IDI and to monitor HLF communications. Once MERCURY began its dictated task, commands and protocols began rolling up on the screen. As the commands streamed across the display the AI’s voice began to drone from the speakers mounted above the console.

FOREIGN NANOMACHINES DETECTED…

INTERFACE INITIATED… SUCCESSFUL

NANO-FORM ANALYSIS UNDERWAY…….NANO-FORM PROFILING COMPLETE…

PROFILE CONSISTENT WITH ATTACK NANITES

COMPATIBILITY REGISTER ENABLED…

PROCESSING……

NANO-CATALYST VIABILITY ASSESSMENT UNDERWAY…

ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION: 6 HOURS- 25 MINUTES -35.4 SECONDS

The doctor turned from his console to look back the director, “And now we wait.”

Moore nodded, “Good work doctor, inform me of any developments immediately, I’ll be up in my office.” And with that Director Moore exited the lab, leaving the doctor to sip coffee and monitor the AI for the next six hours.

James and Mary finally arrived at the restaurant, it was a quaint unassuming place, but according to his sister they had some of the best salads in town. Guess we’ll find out. He thought to himself as they headed in.

In the entrance sat a blue earth pony who was currently manning the podium where customers were shown to their tables. She was looking down at something on the podium when James and Mary walked in. “Name?” she asked without looking up.

“Hi, my name’s Radiant Dawn, I had a reservation for four at 5 o’clock.” Mary answered striding up to the earth pony while she looked around the room for her friends.

“Hang on one second…. Ah here we are. Apparently the rest your party arrived earlier with additional customers, so we’ve given you a table in our-“The earth pony had finally looked up and noticed James, who was trying his damndest not to be annoyed at the look the earth pony was giving him. “O-our private dining area. Can I help you sir?” she asked in a slightly afraid voice.

“He’s with me.” Mary said, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Oh….” The earth pony said while she processed that tidbit of information. “….Well come with me then, your table is this way.” She said sheepishly as she led the two into an adjacent room, embarrassed at her behavior. The room she led them to contained a few large tables but only one was currently occupied, around it sat six ponies, all of whom had stopped talking and looked over at the newcomers.

“Dawn!” a purple unicorn shouted out and rose to greet her, closely followed by the rest of the group.

“Twilight! It’s so good to see you!” Mary said as the two hugged each other. She looked over Twilight’s shoulder at the rest of the group who were all smiling at their friend. “I thought the rest of you had all moved back to Equestria. When did you all get back?”

“Well they’re just visiting for a few days, and when they heard that I was having dinner with you, they all wanted to come.” Twilight said as she released her friend from the embrace. As she finished speaking she looked behind Mary at James who had been watching this whole exchange silently. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“Oh, right!” Mary said and she scurried back to her brother’s side, she had gotten so caught up in the moment she had forgotten to introduce James. “Everypony, this is my older brother James. James these are my friends, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.” She said as she indicated each pony.

“Pleasure to meet you all.” He said as he extended a hand towards Twilight who happened to be the closest.

“Same here” she said shaking his hand with her hoof. “Dawn’s told us so much about you. She talks about you all the time.”

“I-I do not!” Mary said in the most unconvincing way possible.

“Oh come on dear, there’s no point in trying to deny it. Besides if I had an older brother like him, I’d be talking about him non-stop.” Rarity said looking James up and down.

James laughed “Well I can only hope I live up to the hype.”

Once James had finished speaking something pink, large, and smiling suddenly appeared from above him. Grinning at him upside down it suddenly shouted, “HIYA! I’m Pinkie, nice to meet ya!”

“Nice to meet you too.” He said returning the smile, How the hell did she get above me?

“Pinkie, get down from there!” Twilight shouted

The pink pony looked up from her perch on James’ shoulders with a disappointed expression on her face, “Aw come on Twilight!” but after seeing the look Twilight was giving her, she jumped down reluctantly.

“Jeeze Pinkie, you are so random sometimes.” Rainbow Dash piped up from the rest of the group.

“Random’s a good thing, keeps life interesting.” James said smiling down at the pink pony.

Pinkie immediately perked up at this, “I like you, I think we’re going to be great friends!”

“I get that feeling too.” He responded as he continued to smile. It always astounded him just how friendly Equestrians could be when you talked to them.

With the introductions finished the group of eight finally took their seats at the table. “So James,” Rainbow Dash said as menus were brought out to them. “Dawn told us you work for the US government. What exactly do you do for them?” she was leaning forward, almost eager to hear the answer.

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” He answered in a completely serious tone as he looked over the menu.

“R-really?” Fluttershy stammered out in a quiet voice, she was beginning to sink lower in her chair.

Mary shot James a look, and he immediately realized his mistake, “No not really, it’s just a joke you know, spy games and all that stuff.”

“O-oh, okay.” Fluttershy said visibly relieved at his answer.

“So then what DO you do?” Dash pressed.

“Oh nothing much, I just try to make some sense out of the whole mess that is the world today.” Technically, he wasn’t lying by telling them this; a large part of his job was doing just that.

“Is it really that bad?” Twilight asked.

James smiled slightly as he looked up from the menu at her as their waiter approached. “The world’s always been a complicated, chaotic place Twilight. Truth be told, Equestrian contact and the conversion bureaus that followed actually make things simpler, but not by much.”

After that, the waiter finally came to take their orders. James silently lamented the lack of alcohol and meat on the menu, but at least some of the items they offered sounded tasty enough to distract him from that glaring issue. He ended up ordering a Caesar salad, one of the few things still sold in New York that he actually liked. Mary and the rest of the group got themselves an assortment of flowers and other plants.

Once their orders were placed conversation started up once more. Rainbow Dash and Applejack somehow started an argument over who was better, the Wonderbolts or some famous Equestrian rodeo team. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Mary were talking about how things were going back in Ponyville, as that was where Mary had undergone her training after being converted. Fluttershy was trying to tell Mary about some new arrivals but Pinkie was doing a top notch job of derailing the whole conversation into a completely different topic. And Rarity and Twilight had involved James in a discussion about US- Equestrian politics and policies. While Rarity was fairly well spoken about most public matters, it was Twilight that really caught James’ interest. Her points and opinions were incredibly well thought out and thorough, he was quite impressed with her.

“You know Twilight,” he said as he took another drink of his coke, “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone quite as intelligent on these matters as you.”

“Thanks.” She said looking away, embarrassed but pleased with the compliment.

“So Dawn, where’s Velocity?” Pinkie pie piped up from the conversation next to them.

James’ head swiveled around to them upon hearing the name, he had heard about everyone else many times beforehand but this one was new.

“Well he couldn’t make it tonight Pinkie.” Mary said quickly, as if she was trying her hardest to sweep the question under the rug.

“Oh well that’s weird I would have figured your co-“was as far as Pinkie got before Mary shoved her hoof over her mouth.

“So who’s this Velocity exactly?” James asked glaring directly at his sister.

Before Mary could even begin to respond Rainbow Dash interrupted her from across the table.

“Oh he’s Dawn’s coltfrien-OWWW!” She shouted clutching her lower left leg in pain as Rarity had kicked it in an attempt to shut her up.

James’ eyes narrowed, “So you have a colt friend huh? Planning on letting me know anytime soon?”

Mary started doing her best impression of Fluttershy and began to sink lower and lower under the table all the while avoiding her brother’s gaze. “Well you know I could never find the right time, and I didn’t want to upset you the few times I do get to see you…” she said in a quiet voice.

Upon seeing just how upset his sister was, James’ expression softened, “Look, Mary I’m not angry at you.”At this she gave him a skeptical look, to which he just responded by smiling “I’m really not, actually I’m quite happy for you. But I would like to hear about him later.”

“O-okay.” Mary responded, her mood considerably brightened by this turn of events; she had feared the worst when James had found out about Velocity. But her brother had surprised her yet again, taking the information in stride.” Oh and James?”

“Yeah?”

“I thought you said you were going to call me by my Equestrian name tonight.” She said smiling.

James smiled back, “Sorry, my mistake.”

The rest of the dinner proceeded without incident, James actually found himself enjoying the food for once. Mary hadn’t been lying when she had said this place had some of the best salads in town. After everyone had finished eating the group spilt off into smaller segments, Rainbow Dash had challenged James to a hoof wrestling contest. Unfortunately the blue Pegasus couldn’t quite beat him one-on-one so Applejack got involved and the two both began to try and push the human’s arm over. Pinkie then came over and started cheering both sides on in equal measure, thoroughly confusing the participants as to whom she actually supported. Rarity and Fluttershy had moved off into a corner and were discussing something in hushed tones, probably something to do with Rarity’ fashion business. And finally Mary and Twilight sat together at the table watching Dash and Applejack try in vain to beat James, whose arm sat a half-inch over the surface of the table but refused to move any further even after Dash had resorted to jumping on it.

Mary smiled at the spectacle before them. “I sure hope they realize soon that the only way they’ll win is if he lets them. Otherwise we’re gonna have two completely exhausted ponies on our hooves.”

“Is he really that strong?”

Mary smiled thinly, “James is still mostly human, but he does have a few cybernetic implants, those two could yank on that arm all day and it’d only move if he wanted it to.”

“wow.” Was all Twilight could say in response.

A few moments went by in silence before Twilight finally broke it, “Dawn, why hasn’t James undergone conversion yet?”

Mary continued to watch her brother in front of them, “He has his reasons.”

Twilight wanted to know what they were but it was obvious that Mary wasn’t about to tell her so she let it go. In front of them both Rainbow Dash and Applejack had collapsed to the floor exhausted, still having failed to defeat James in the hoof wrestling competition. He leaned over the table to look at where they lay panting, “Call it a draw?” he asked grinning.

“Fine, but next time I won’t go so easy on you!” Rainbow shot back between breaths.

“I would sure hope not.” He said as he walked over and helped the two ponies to their hooves.

Soon after Twilight and the others thought that it was getting late and decided it would be a good idea to head back to their homes. One by one they said their goodbyes and left the restaurant, soon it was just James, Mary, and Twilight.

“Well Dawn, I think it’s time that I left too.” Twilight said as she and Mary hugged each other. “And James it was really great to finally meet you, I hope I get to see you again soon.” She said to the human extending a hoof once more.

James took it, smiling “I sure hope so too.”

And with that James and Mary left, walking together back to their apartment. “So what did you think?” Mary asked her older brother almost the second they exited the building.

“I think you’ve got yourself a great group of friends Mary. I haven’t had such an enjoyable night in a long time.”

She smiled at this.

“But I would like to hear about this coltfriend of yours.” He said as they continued to walk.

Mary’s smile faded a little “I met Velocity back in Ponyville right after I had gotten converted. He was there as a flying instructor for the freshly arrived newfoals and we ran into each other one day, literally. He offered to buy me lunch to make up for it and things just kinda took off from there.” She looked over at James who was listening intently. “I never thought I’d see him again but then six months ago he moved to New York. We got in contact and then started seeing each other.”

“So how long have you two been going out?”

Mary bit her lower lip as she looked at the ground, “A few months.”

James’ brow furrowed at the response and he looked forward once again.

Mary stopped walking “James please don’t be angry with me I know I should have told you sooner its jus-“

James held up a hand silencing her. “I’m not angry Mary.” She continued to stare him down, knowing otherwise. James sighed as he relented, “Ok, I’m angry, but not with you.”

Mary’s expression changed to one of genuine confusion

“Mary, I’m not angry with you, I’m angry with myself. I’ve been a horrible brother as of late; I haven’t been there for you like I should have been. Instead I’ve been drowning myself in work while you worry about me. I mean you’ve had a coltfriend for the past three months and not only did I not notice, you were too nervous to tell me because you didn’t want to ruin what little time I spend with you. We used to be so close and then I..I..” He was clenching his fists so tightly his knuckles started to turn white. “I fucked up… I’m sorry.”

“No, no you didn’t. I do think you work too much, that you’re burning yourself out, but you’re doing it because it’s what you believe is right and there’s no one else who can do your job. I should have told you about Velocity ages ago, you deserved to know more than anyone else. I was just so scared that you might freak out and push me away.” She said quietly as she gazed at the ground “James, you’re the best older brother I could ask for, don’t ever forget that.” With that Mary walked up to James and wrapped him up in a hug which he returned. “I love you big brother..”

“I love you too, sis.”

Later that night, back at IDI headquarters, MERCURY was just finishing up its analysis of the HLF nanomachines. The doctor who had been intently monitoring the AI’s progress watched as the last few commands were carried out and the results displayed.

COMPATIBILITY REGISTRATION COMPLETE…

NANO-CATALYST VIABILITY ASSESSMENT COMPLETE….

COMPATIBILITY WITH DNA PROFILE ONE…. SEVENTY-NINE PERCENT…

COMPATIBILITY WITH DNA PROFILE TWO…..ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT…

“Wait, this can’t be right… that would mean this is…” The coffee cup he had been holding slipped from his nerveless fingers and shattered on the ground as his mind processed what the AI was telling him. Anyone else would have asked for a verification of these results but the doctor already knew that the AI had 99.9% accuracy in its calculations. He pushed a button on the console before him which gave him a direct, secure line to the director’s office. “Director Moore? You might want to get down here sir; I think you’re going to want to see this…”

The Conversion Bureau:

The Scientist

Chapter 1

Written by Azul

Based on the Fanfiction The Conversion Bureau by Blaze

The night air was cool as Starlight was finally taking her first night flight over the Earth, the breeze causing her short maize coloured mane to blow wildly. Although it had been little more than five years since her homeland Equestria had appeared and first contact was made with the humans, five years since the Conversion Bureau's opened their doors to a species that seemed desperate for their help it was only now that she'd been able to see the human world for herself. Passing through the evening clouds she felt the condensation dampening her tea green coat, looking down on what was once a great city, and even though the buildings remained dark many of the street lights were still in working order, brightening up the streets like veins of light in an otherwise dark world.

She had wanted to come to see the human world sooner but at the time only those who went to go and run the Bureau's left the safety of Equestria's magic boarder, the only thing keeping those humans that would do their kind great harm out. It wasn't until the sudden influx of converts came to their land that Equestria faced a serious population problem. Thankfully it seemed that as soon as the newfoals were ready many of them decided to head back to their homes, starting up new pony communities back in the former human world.

Nowadays humans were a rare sight, of course they were still out there, their numbers nowhere near the billions it used to be in but now at best estimates was somewhere in the hundreds of thousands. The humans that were left usually formed into groups, the two most prominent being the I.H.S.A. and the H.L.F. and both of which were groups no pony wanted to meet. While one group was mainly committed to continued human survival there were rumours of them abducting and even experimenting on ponies for reasons unknown. And there was the H.L.F. they had been there since the beginning of the Conversion Bureau's, holding anti-pony rallies and acts of vandalism and even terrorism which eventually escalated to what they are today, the worst of what humanity had to offer.

Starlight tried to shake these thoughts from her mind as she went back to enjoying her evening flight, she heard that it used to be hard for her fellow Pegasus Ponies to fly here due to the pollution in the air but since the humans dwindled down in numbers the air had become much clearer, and were it not for the light pollution from below the stars in the sky would be beautifully clear to see. As she continued to survey the landscape she noticed one of the buildings, what appeared to be a factory still had lights on... This was odd considering that the city was thought to be completely abandoned, she descended down a bit lower so she could at least get a passing look, the building becoming closer and closer when suddenly there was a loud noise followed by an intense pain that shot through her right wing,

She tried her best to slow down her decent knowing that if she went into a free-fall now it would more than certainly be the end of her at this height, she tried gliding as best as she could yet the pain in her wing continued to throw off her concentration as she could feel the wind blowing through the newly formed hole in it. As she got closer to the ground she knew there was no way she would be able to stop herself for a proper landing and could only brace herself for impact. She hit with a loud thud, rolling several feet down the center of the road she landed oncoming to a stop just in front of the factory gates.

As the sounds of strange steps made their way towards her she attempted to lift her head up to see her attackers but to no avail. "Damn, just like duck hunting season, Well it looks like you owe me you rations for tonight." The man with the rifle told his companions as they closed in on their prey.

"Uh, nope. The bet was one shot one kill and that thing is still breathing." The other man argued.

"Damn, your right. Well should we put it down or have a little fun first?" Asked the man with the riffle.

"Well I'd say the 'humane' thing to do would be to put it out of its misery but it's not exactly 'human' so I'm pretty sure the same rules don't apply."

Starlight was terrified, broken, bruised and battered from the landing alone and these monsters were going to kill her, "Please...Don't..." Was all she could manage to get out, even talking hurt as she looked up at her attackers.

"Did I say you could speak?!" The one with the rifle yelled before giving her limp form a kick with his steel-toe boot, he smirked as she winced in pain.

"I'll bet it's a scout, those damn flying rats have been doing pass by’s all throughout this area, maybe they're looking for our base? I guess it's a good thing they're too stupid to realize that bright colours ain't exactly the best camouflage." The other man said to his fellow attacker before giving the pony a boot himself.

As the pain from both kicks reverberated through her chest she thought her ears had heard a noise come from towards the factory. So this was how it would all end? First night flying the Earth skies and she had the unfortunate luck of running into hostile humans, as she thought about all of the things she would never get to do or all the ponies she would never see again she cried, knowing this was truly it, "Al I...Wanted to do...Is fly.." She cried to herself.

"I said be QUI.." Was all the human managed to get out before being interrupted by another human.

"Oh how wonderful, new stock. I do run through them so quickly, but then again science requires testing and well... I do a lot of tests." The new human told the other two excitedly, his tone somewhere between ecstatic and completely malevolent.

"Doc...UH... I'm guessing you finished your meeting with the boss?" One of the attackers asked, before the one with the rifle spoke up, "We caught her snoopin' around; we think she's a spy." The one with the rifle explained.

As Starlight listened on she could tell that both of these humans were clearly afraid of this human, and the way he referred to her as 'stock' clearly wasn't a good sigh, for now she was just glad they weren't attacking her at the moment.

The human that the attackers simply called Doc spoke, "It was quite uneventful. a waste of my time really, and time is simply something the human race doesn't have a lot of if I don't finish my research. Now if you're done wasting my time with pleasantries load this beast into my vehicle and I can be on my way." He told them ignoring the other humans accusations of her being a spy.

He made his way over to the broken Pegasus pony and pulled out something from his white coat, a needle gun, as he lifted up her muzzle she looked at the man’s face and as she did she did the only thing she could, "Help..Me.." She whispered. His face remained in the same unreadable expression as she felt him press something against her neck and with a quick sting she could no longer feel her pain as her eyes began to get dreary.

"Maybe you didn't hear me Doc? I said she might be a spy!" The attacker with the rifle told the Doc as he slowly got up to his feet.

"And maybe you didn't hear me you mindless thug, I need test subjects" He told him as he put his needle gun back into his lab coat, "Unless of course your volunteering?" He grinned as the man raised his rifle at the comment.

"I'd like to see you try, I used to beat up people like you in high school." He told the Doc, his weapon at the ready.

"Oh so you actually went to school? could have fooled me, well then I'll explain to you then just how I can tell your just a thug with a gun and not a real soldier." He chided before quickly shooting a jab into the man’s exposed gut, as he gasped for air he quickly disarmed his opponent slinging the strap of the rifle over his shoulder, the other man only watching on, knowing that the Doc was rumoured to be at the very least a little crazy.

His opponent still on the ground, down on his knee's trying to regain his breath looked up to the Doc who wicked grin could easily mistaken for the devils. "For starters a true soldier or even a police officer know that you need at least fifty feet of space between you and a potential threat to properly react and although you did have your weapon at the ready I was more than close enough for me to disarm you as I've just demonstrated. Secondly only a thug would assume the because I'm a scientist I'm no threat where a soldier would have read the personal  file on me in your office and would have know that I paid for education with military service." He explained as he walked behind the still winded assailant, quickly pulling another needle gun from his jacket and placed it into the back of the thugs neck, his finger on the trigger.

"Now don't move, don't do anything but listen. What I have here ready to be pumped into your bloodstream is the ponyification serum your all so afraid of." The man tensed up, finally regaining his breath he begged, "Please don't!" He begged.

"The best humanity has to offer... I weep for my species." He told the human before pressing the trigger, As the left the man to his ponyified fate he turned to the other who watched on in horror.

"Well what are you waiting for? I said get them loaded up now or you'll join your friend as well." He told the other human, by this point in time Starlight could no longer manage to keep her eyes open as she drifted off into sleep.

***********************

When Starlight had awoken, unaware as to how long she'd been out for she looked around her as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting coming from outside. Clearly it was now day, the sun trying to make it’s way through the heavy drapes over the window, the sounds of birds singing in the distance could be heard. She tried to recall all that had happened, all of the events that had lead up to this moment when she remembered the damage to her wing, she looked to it as quickly as she could wincing in pain as she did so. The wound had been bandaged heavily. She also realized that her chest had been bandaged as well and other nicks and cuts had been properly cleaned and in some cases stitched.

As odd as she found all of this it was nowhere near as odd as the fact as to where she was, her eyes finally adjusted and she realized that she wasn't in a cage or a holding cell of any kind but instead in an actual bedroom? Judging by the layers of dust on the nightstand next to the bed the room hadn't been used in quite some time.

As her other senses returned her ears also picked up what sounded like music reverberating throughout the house, although it could barely be heard from her current location.

Starlight had a decision to make, she could try to run but not knowing where she was and with her wing being the way it was she was definitely grounded or she could find out why she was brought here. Either way both of choices required her to get out of the bed. She tried to stand, legs stiff and sore from last night’s events but after her second attempt to get up she managed to do so her legs still a bit shaky.

She slowly hopped off of the bed, her hooves making a resounded 'clop' against the hardwood floor as she cautiously made her way to the door. Expecting it to be locked it was in fact left opened a crack as pushed it open with her snout. She continued into the foyer, she realized she was on the second floor of what had to be a massive home, the music could be heard more clearly but was still just a light background noise coming from somewhere else in the home.

She made her way to the edge of the stairs and sighed as looked down the winding staircase,  as a Pegasus normally she would just fly up or glide down them, she couldn't actually recall the last time she had to use them. She gave off another sigh as she made her way down slowly one hoof at a time.

When she had finally made her way to the bottom she looked around once more, the sound of the music being easier to track with her ears. The music sounded like something you'd hear at the Grand Galloping Gala, the humans would refer to it as classical music, It was a solo instrumental piece, the sound of the harpsichord becoming closer and closer as she tried to find out where the sound was coming from.

As she continued to get closer the same thoughts kept running through her mind, 'Leave while you still can'. After all this Human, this 'Doctor' was either with the I.H.S.A. or the H.L.F. and she had watched as he forcibly ponyified one of his own. He mentioned things like 'stock' and 'testing' but even though all this was true there was the simple fact that she probably wouldn't be alive right now were it not for him. And why go to all the trouble of taking care of her wounds or why did she wake up in a room instead of a cage? There were too many questions left unanswered for her to leave, her natural curiosity just wouldn't allow it. Then again it was that same curiosity that landed her in this mess.

She made her way throughout the house trying to find the source of the music and for better or worse the Doctor. As she continued to explore the home she realized that were he to open the curtains and let some sunlight in or dust once in a while this home would actually be quite beautiful. She finally tracked the source of the music to a Study within the home, the music was coming from an open passage that would have been hidden behind a book shelf had i not been left wide open She looked down the dark passageway and groaned, "Great more stairs."

As she reached the bottom of the stairs she was now in what appeared to be a laboratory of some kind, like the rest of the home it was abysmally dark and were it not for the glow coming from various machines and screens she wouldn't be able to see at all, 'Clearly this guy has a thing for the dark.' She thought as made her way to the source of the music.

And that’s when she'd seen it, a pod, a glass pod filled with some kind of fluid but floating in the center of the pod was a newborn Unicorn colt, It's mane raven black and it's coat was a royal blue. She was entranced by this discovery as she wondered where he came from or how the doctor got a hold of it, in fact she was so deep in thought that she didn't realize that over by the large monitors just a few steps away from where she was standing was the Doctor himself, going over some quick numbers before turning down the music, and spinning his chair to face his guest. "I see that your awake." He smirked as he watched her nearly jump out of he skin.

She turned to face him, now even more unsure about his motives than ever before, 'Just what kinda twisted stuff is this guy up to?' She wondered

"I see that you've discovered subject 01, it's quite remarkable isn't it?" He asked her wondering her opinion on the matter.

"Where..Where did he come from?" Was all she could think to ask.

"He's a genetic copy of myself that I ponyified for my research." He told her without a moment’s hesitation.

A dead silence filled the room as she stared at the Doctor and he stared right back at her, only the buzzing and humming of various machine and that same song still playing quietly in the background....

As the silence continued between the two of them Starlight couldn't take it any longer, she had to say something, anything. She cleared her throat, then spoke as the 'Doc' continued to stare coldly at her, "Thank you for saving me, my name is Starlight, Starlight Dancer." She told him as she waited for his response.

The Doc just shaked his head slowly, smirking as he replied, "Oh you think I did what I did to save you do you?" He asked her, watching her as the colour seemed to drain from her face.

"I think so... you could have left me there with those men, but you stood up for me instead." She answered, hoping that she was right and that the Doc was a decent human being and not the monster he had those other humans thinking he was.

The Doc just let out a sigh, rubbing his brow before replying, " I did what I did because on the long list of things I hate, which includes your kind is wasted life. Especially when it's life cut short, it's the very thing I hate the most."

She thought about this for a moment before asking, "So what are you going to do to me then?" She asked wanting to know what her fate was instead of just waiting for him to spring it on her.

"Well if you really want to know, nothing. I have no need for a Pegasus pony for my research so once your able to leave your free to go whenever wish." He told her then smirked, "Of course the nearest town is about a hundred miles away, you'd have to go an extra fifty on top of that to find one with anyone actually living in it."

"So I'm trapped here?" She asked him, not liking the sound of that at all.

"As I said you’re free to go, if you stay it's by your choice not mine. Although these woods are filled with wild animals that are more feral than usual thanks to the magic that being kicked into the atmosphere from the shield around Equestria. If I were you I'd wait till that wing was at least in flying condition." He told her before turning back to the screen.

Starlight furrowed her brow now staring at the back of the Doc, He could say it however he wanted to but in the end she was trapped here with him and she didn't like it one bit. "Look don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for what you did for me but that's no excuse for being rude! You can't just turn your back on somepony when you’re talking to them. And..And... What did we ponies ever do to you anyways? All we tried to do is help!" She yelled him breathing heavily after doing so, each breathe causing her sore ribs to hurt.

"Oh is that so?" He asked before spinning his chair back to face his equine guest.

"The reason why I hate your kind is because after everything humanity has been through, thousands of years of evolution, wars, famine, plagues, the atomic bomb and everything else we managed to survive through, everything nature and even what our fellow man could throw at us you know what did us in? Your kind. You came with promises of a better life and an easy way out and in the end the in human race having survived everything it did was euthanized by candy coloured ponies and kindness!" He explained her, slamming his fist into the arm rest of his chair.

Starlight shrinked back as he slammed his fist, clearly this was a topic that caused him a great deal of anger, "But I've seen you ponify a human yourself." She brought up, not sure where she was going with it but really couldn't think of anything else to respond with.

"Oh you mean the same human that shot you out of the sky and got his sick kicks by torturing another living creature? I would hardly call him human. Besides instead of killing him which I very well could have I gave him a second chance at life or so you ponies would call it. I drop him off near the town on the way here and maybe if his mind ever recovers from what it's been through he'll make use of his second chance. Besides with the human population in the state it's in they really don't need people like him in our dwindling gene pool." He told her smirking over his last comment.

"So you hate all of us just for trying to help the human race? You know most humans are happy when they get converted, most say they're happier then they've ever been as humans." She argued, after all what her kind did for humans made a lot of them happy even if some people hated them for it.

"Of course they're happy, their new pony brains are swimming with enough endorphins and serotonin to keep them high their entire lives, it's a false happiness." He explained to her before returning to his original point.

"And you didn't help the human race; you converted the human race into ponies so instead you helped the pony race. It was fine at first when all we were losing the dead weight that was caused by the Singularity, all those people without jobs or places in our new world were being taken of our hands as well as our sick and dying but then other followed,. The service sector left almost as quickly, leaving us without the few people we actually needed. Others followed them and before you know it in five years we're now down to a few hundred thousand scattered around the globe."

Starlight continued to listen to the Doc as he explained his point of view to her, of course it all sounded like the standard I.H.S.A. and H.L.F. indoctrinated nonsense that you would hear from them to her, it wasn't until he told her what he said next that she thought different.

"Of course I could get past all of that I really could, in fact before your kind showed up I hated my fellow humans more than anything, I was and still am quite the misanthrope," He told her with a smirk.

"Well then why do you hate us for what we did to the human race if you hate them yourself?" She asked now more curious than ever.

"You really want to know? I'll tell you. I hate your kind because you ponies stole my destiny from me, my very reason for existing. Let me ask you something? Do you know why things grow old and die?" He asked her.

Starlight had never thought about that before, "It's just a part of life I suppose, we're born, we grow old and we die. That's just the way it is." She told him not knowing how she was supposed to answer.

"If you didn't know the answer you could have just said no. We die because living creatures are biologically programmed to die, after all we're only meant to pass on our genes to the next generation, I was going to be the man who cured aging, end biological senescence and usher in a new age of biomedical immortality, well for those who could afford it." He explained to her.

This raised more questions than answers for Starlight as she had to ask? "So how are we to blame for your lost 'destiny' you clearly have the facilities and you seem more than smart enough." She asked him, wondering where he was going with this.

"Your right I do have the facilities and I am more than smart enough, that’s not the problem. The problem is biomedical immortality won't save me from the magic irradiating from your country, all over the world, as the border continued to grow eventually it will eventually kill every human on this planet after all only ponies can survive magic. That is why I believe you kind is pushing for complete ponyification of the human race." He explained to her as best as he could.

"But wait couldn't you just use your cure and then become a pony?" She asked him wondering if that was even possible.

"No. My cure would requires gene therapy and a rewriting of the genetic code, your ponyification serum would see these rewrites as junk DNA and damaged codes so it would cure them from my body leaving me a normal mortal pony. That was the whole reason for creating Subject 01 to test that theory. Besides even though I know that in the end the only way I'm going to survive is to become a pony I'm not giving up my humanity unless I'm getting the best possible deal." He bluntly told her.

Starlight had to ask him, not knowing if she wanted to hear the answer. "And what is the best possible deal?"

"Why it's quite simple, Ponyification cause the human genetic structure to be rewritten to fit into one of three possible templates, Earth Pony, Pegasus Pony and Unicorn, now I know that if I were to take the serum right now I'd become a Unicorn as demonstrated by subject 01. But there has always been a fourth option that has never been available..." He told her waiting for her to connect the dots.

Starlight’s eyes went wide, her jaw dropped then she quickly came to her senses, "You don't mean?! But it's impossible and the very idea is... Blasphemous!" She told him as she watched a grin form on his face, the very same devilish grin from the night they first met.

"Why be an immortal human, the 'last man standing' when I can become a living god for the new dominate species of the planet?" He told her as he continued to grin.

Based off The Conversion Bureau By Blaze

Of course, as one can tell, the worlds are not exactly consistent. I do try to stay somewhat within lines of his world though. Just not perfectly.

The Conversion Bureau

Pandemic

By: Sir Issac Johnington

Chapter 1

“I’ve made my decision, and that’s final. We’re hiring her.”

“I still say you should reconsider. People are going to say things about this!”

Roderick sighed as he heard Gerard’s comment, leaning back in his large black faux-leather chair and holding the bridge of his nose with one hand, his face still showing his aggravation with the topic. After a few seconds of this, he waved his hand dismissively, brushing his somewhat long brown hair from the top of his eyes, and then replied, “Let them talk then. Honestly I couldn’t care less right now. She’s one of the most qualified people I’ve seen apply to this position in a long time, and to be frank, we can’t afford to turn her away. Who knows when we’ll see someone else as qualified as her. Besides, she’s being hired on a temporary basis by insistence of the board, so if she’s a problem it won’t be hard to fire her, though honestly she’s more qualified than most of the nurses working here.”

Gerard seemed to stew on this for a moment, lips pursed together tightly as he thought of some sort of reply to make, before his shoulders slumped slightly and a sigh escaped him. “Maybe your right in that regard, but I am just worried. People could be driven away.”

“Hah, unlikely. We’re one of the best hospitals in the whole state of California, and hiring her won’t change that. Besides, you worry too much,” Roderick said dismissively.

“Maybe, or you could be doing what you always do and underestimating the problem. Someone’s got to be concerned with the smaller details.”

Roderick smirked slightly at the comment, a short chuckle coming from him. “Yeah, in all honesty I likely am. Facts are facts however, and we have a serious nurse shortage as it is. I’m not going to turn away a skilled applicant when we’re already working some of these nurses to the bone. You need more help.”

“Yeah yeah, we really do need the help, and if she’s as good as she says she is, she’ll take a load off us.” Gerard stated, slumping back as he seemed to finally give up on the discussion they had been having for a good thirty minutes.  “Maybe I am overthinking this. Long as we get some more help I’ll be happy”

Roderick nodded slightly to Gerard as he said this. The man seemed tired, like he’d been working one too many long nights. Not to mention his short blond hair was more unkempt than usual. “Yeah man, you look absolutely beat. How many hours have you been working anyway?”

“More than I should to be honest.” Gerard said, chuckling slightly and adding, ”but someone has to do it after all.”

“You need a break. Maybe we can go out for drinks tonight?” Roderick said

“Sounds like a plan, long as you’re paying!” Gerard stated, grinning slightly as Roderick rolled his eyes and smirked.

“Oh you would so say that.” Roderick responded, smirk slowly fading as he picked up the papers he had strewn around his desk, and re-ordered them. Tapping the papers on the desk to make sure they were somewhat orderly, he set them in a folder on his desk. “I’m glad we finally got that out of the way. Is there anything else you needed to ask me Gerard?”

Gerard seemed to ponder this for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head in the negative. “Nah. Well, beyond the fact that we still need a new radiologist, and we could use another nurse beyond this one.”

“Don’t remind me,” Roderick groaned slightly, obviously unhappy about that situation. “I still don’t know how the hell I’m going to find someone for that job. I mean, before we had problems with double digit unemployment, and now I can’t find a worker anywhere! You’ll have to wait for an extra nurse as well, it was hell getting them to agree to hire on another one.”

Gerard nodded to this sympathetically, and added in his own two cents to the issue. “Well, it wasn’t much better even with double digit unemployment. We had a doctor shortage then too. On the bright side, at least we’re a prestigious hospital; smaller hospitals have been going out of business lately. Makes sense the board would be cautious in hiring people, cuts into the bottom line.”

Roderick could only chuckle as Gerard said this, “Yeah yeah, never enough doctors or nurses to go around. At least you’re right about the whole prestigious thing. We at least are still making enough money to hire new people.”

It was after this that Gerard excused himself, shaking Roderick’s hand before leaving. Roderick sighed to himself after Gerard closed the door, turning around to face the lone window in his office. “Oh man. This job is going to be the death of me yet.” It seemed every day he was facing some new problem. Though they really all came down to the same thing, over and over again, that one blasted problem that couldn’t ever seem to be remedied.

There were simply not enough people to do the job.  Nurses, doctors, support staff, there just never seemed to be enough people to fully staff the hospital. Of course Gerard was right, it had been a problem earlier even with the unemployment people never had the dedication or the will to become nurses or doctors, but the problem had spiraled out of control ever since the Bureau’s opened.

Roderick couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he thought about the bureau’s. It was hard to believe it had been ten years since they had opened up.  Ten years ago since their first contact with the ponies. If you had told him then that he would soon be staring at a sky filled with pastel colored flying horses, he would have laughed.

Yet here he was, looking out his window and seeing peagsi flying about, the sky overhead containing every color of the rainbow, and more and more pegasi filled the sky every day.  It seemed that they outnumbered people anymore, which if the latest count were correct, they did. It was something like 250 million ponies in the U.S. and 4.5 billion worldwide. Or just about half of the worlds population.

His thoughts would have continued in this vein for a while, had a knocking at his door not disturbed him from it. “Come in, what do you need?” Roderick asked, and then nodded slightly as a nurse brought yet another file to his attention. Scanning it over for a moment, he signed off on what he needed to, before handing it back to her. She then left him alone, and he returned to his thoughts.

He probably would have thought a lot of this situation was crazy. Hell, he would have laughed at the idea of him being chief of medicine at his age if you had told him earlier. It was frankly unprecedented, but then again, so was the circumstances of his superior’s disappearance.  After all, it wasn’t often that you could say you got your job because your boss decided to change species.

Least he got a nice office. Roderick smiled slightly as he looked around the room. Everything was neater than usual right now, a faux-leather black couch on the side of the medium sized room, large enough for a small meeting, but compact enough to feel comfortable, not spacious. His desk was directly in front of the door, about five steps away, the other chair a nice ebony, ornate, yet not very comfortable. He had to get something to replace that. The decorations on the wall were very minimal, a bookshelf and a potted plant in the back corner being the only real remarkable things, that and the window, a rather large one that looked out over the city, and the many pegasi flying in the sky above it.

It was then that a knock on the door distracted him. It was at this point that he realized he was supposed to be on rounds right now, and so jumping upright, he said “Just a moment, be ready in a second.” Grabbing his whitecoat, he placed it on, shrugging around a bit to get it set well, then left his office.

-               -               -               -               -               -               -               -               -               -               -               -           -

The hospital, as usual, was a blur of activity. Nurses were running to and fro, not surprising considering that they were in short supply, and doctors were not much less frantic, talking to patients, talking to each other, some were even talking to themselves. Roderick smiled slightly as one doctor seemed to be in a particularly heated conversation with himself, and continued to head over to where his patients were. It wasn’t uncommon to see someone talking over a problem to themself; in fact it was something Roderick did all the time. It still amused Roderick to see it in action however. He must have looked ridiculous when he did it.

He didn’t dwell on the amusement long however. There were patients to treat after all, and papers to be shoved in his face while he was treating them. Indeed, he didn’t even make it all the way to the first patient before he had to sign a paper.

Still, Roderick did make it, walking over to the patient and smiling. “So, Mr Johnson. Back for another visit eh? Liver still troubling you?”

The man, who appeared to be nearing seventy years old, nodded slightly. His wispy grey hair was whiter than his skin, which was currently a more yellow color. “What do you think? Need a new liver, that hasn’t changed.”

“Well, the good news is your new liver should be ready soon.” He nodded slightly at this, and added “Surgery has been scheduled for next week. Any problems with the care you’ve had so far?”

Mr. Johnson just shook his head at this, saying, “Nothing big, food still sucks, beds uncomfortable, but seems like every bed is uncomfortable these days but my own.” He chuckled at that, and added, “And I don’t think you can help with the food problem.”

“I’ll have a nurse bring you another pillow, which might help with the comfort.” Roderick stated, while noting down this little change on the tablet for the next nurse that came by, and moved on. Another form was thrown in his face, this time for a research study, and after a quick read, he signed it off.  His other patients all went much the same as Mr Johnson had, no major complaints, instead just waiting to get better, or go to surgery, or numerous other little things.

It was only the last one that was at all remarkable. Walking over to the bed, he looked at the patient, cast placed on one of her legs, and said “Hello Lilac Flush. How’s the leg feel?” Picking up the tablet in front of her bed, he ran though her history quickly, what little history there was. “You should be clear to leave in a few days, as long as there are no complications.”

The lavender earth pony seemed to sigh in relief at hearing that, shaking her right front hoof and saying “That’s good news. Its awkward being laid up like this. I don’t like it.” Her orange mane was shook slightly, as she looked at her back left leg. It had been broken in a rather nasty accident, but they had managed to save the leg.

“You’re lucky to still have a leg. If it had been crushed much worse, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything.” Roderick stated, then added nodding, “but as it is, you should be fine. I’d keep off it for 3 or four weeks if you can though, to be safe.”

“Will do.” She commented, shifting slightly and saying “But is there any way I can sit up a bit more?”

“Not a problem. I’ll have a nurse come over and prop you up with a few more pillows. Remember, you can always call for a nurse if you need one.” Roderick nodded slightly, setting down the note for the next nurse, before brushing his hands. He was glad she had worked out. It’d been a while since he’d had to treat a pony patient. He’d gotten his license to treat them only a few years ago, and since he was one of the few around who could treat major trauma injuries, he often got the worst of the worst. Thankfully, he could retreat back to his office now, done with his rounds for the moment. Now to just prepare for that meeting he had coming up.

Roderick hated meetings.

-                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -              -          -

Jonathon sighed slightly as he walked back to the apartment he and his family lived in. School today had been fairly productive, if bland. Even the weather reflected that kind of atmosphere, a steady drizzle having hung overhead for the past two days. He was glad he had his old worn blue raincoat on; otherwise he would have been soaked. His feet were anyway, shoes sopping wet from the constant downpour and the resultant puddles on the street and sidewalk, as well as the bottom of his navy blue jeans.

He really needed a new pair of shoes. It always seemed like they were falling apart before he could get them repaired. Half his shoe seemed to be duct tape anymore, even if was cleverly disguised. It wasn’t like they could afford much better though. With his dad unemployed, they had to scrape by to make ends meet. Heck, they were lucky to still have a working parent. His mom had to support all four of them, but she at least had a job.  Dad was trying hard to get a job, but it never seemed like it was enough. It was hard enough to clothe him, having rapidly grown this year from 5’6” to a much taller 5’10”.

His mind continued on in this direction for some time, varying from school, where he was finishing a flurry of work for the final semester of high school, to the job he was trying to get for some extra cash for college, until he reached his destination, Heathway apartment complex. Entering the alcove between the outside and the lobby proper, he shook some of the water off his raincoat, adjusting it and taking down his hood, to reveal his dirty blond hair, which was cut somewhat short in preparation for summer. After making sure he wouldn’t drip too much into the lobby, he stepped inside, and headed over to the elevator, entering it and hitting his floor number.

“Oh hey there Jonathon. Nice to see your back from school! Terrible weather out there, no?” This voice belonged to a brown Earth Pony named Sandy Springs, a neighbor of theirs who had taken the plunge into becoming a pony, unlike his own family.

“Yeah, something like that.” Jonathon said, not really in a very talkative mood at the moment. Of course, he knew that wouldn’t stop Sandy from trying to jaw his ear off anyway.

“Yeah, that’s Seattle for you.” Sandy replied, shrugging as the door dinged open, trotting out of the elevator to his room. “Tell your dad I said hello okay?” Sandy and his dad, Jacob, had been friends for a good while, and the fact one of them had become a pony had been no hindrance for the old friends.

“Sure.” Jonathon said as he walked over to the apartment his family lived in, opening the door and letting a wave of sound crash over him.

“John!” Came a voice from the bedroom to his right, of which he could only assume was his sister Sally. “Your home!” She darted her head out, looking out from the room she was in. “Did you do all your schoolwork?”

“When did you turn into mom?” Jonathon replied, rolling his eyes slightly at his sister’s question. “Just got here and your already bugging me!”

“Well, answer my question and I won’t have to bother you more.” She persisted, not letting the subject drop so easily.

“Fiiiine. Like I told you and mom before, I’ll have my grades up to all A’s by graduation.” Jonathon waved his hand dismissively, to which Sally quirked an eyebrow for a moment.

“Are you sure?” Sally said, “Cause I remember last time you said that you nearly got a B-.”

“Relax, like I said, school was fine.  I got all the work I needed done.”  This was true, mostly. There was one thing he needed to do still, but that could wait until he was in his room.

“Well. Good job!” Sally nodded slightly at him, grinning happily. Jonathon just rolled his eyes at her once more, walking further into the apartment. The next people to greet him were his parents, mom home from work and dad done with the latest application for a job.

“I heard your little conversation with Sally there, no need to be rude!” His mom Christine said to him, adding “She’s just trying to make sure you don’t get in trouble you know.”

“Well, I’m 18 now; I think I should be able to take care of myself.” Jonathon replied, shrugging his shoulders slightly.

“Then you should also be able to have some manners.” His mom retorted, to which Jonathon mumbled an apology for. This seemed to placate her, and she smiled. Jonathon then started to walk over to the couch, but his dad wasn’t quite done with him it seemed.

“Hey, Jonathon, don’t forget to unload the dishwasher okay?” Jacob said, as he finished typing up the next application, giving it a critical glance over to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.

“Sure thing.” Jonathon replied, walking over to the dishwasher, and placing the plates away. Many of them were in rather bad shape, but all of them worked still, which was all that mattered at the moment. After finishing his little chore, Jonathon made it to the couch uninterrupted, turning on the TV in front of him and flicking though the channels until he settled on the news, nothing else seeming interesting.

Seemingly it was a debate between two pundits, talking about the recent announcement that the world was now half pony and half human. Flicking it off, he sighed, and shifted off the couch, to his room. He was honestly sick of that scene, ponification. It was all anyone talked about, even his own family. Sally had wanted it the moment she had been old enough to understand what it meant, and his Mom had been bothering his dad about it with increasing frequency this year. He was fairly sure his dad would end up getting them all ponified once he moved out.

Jonathon didn’t know what to feel about it himself. His dad had always said that he wasn’t going to get ponified, but Jonathon was sure that if his mom really tried, he’d cave in. It seemed they were merely waiting for him to move out on his own to do it. Right now he was more concerned with graduation, and college, than if he should become a pony or not.

Instead of thinking about either of those issues though, he settled down at his computer to work. Now was as good a time as any to start on that speech. It had been troubling him for some time, and now the due date was looming for it. “Probably should have worked on it more.” He said to himself, still staring at rough draft of his speech. Oratory. Why had he even signed up for that event?  Ten minute memorized persuasive speech. Who wanted to speak for 10 minutes straight anyway?

Of course he knew why he had signed up, because he had to do multiple events if he wanted to participate in district competition for speech and debate, and he was already in public debate. He’d signed up in this one in particular because his coach had said it was a good idea, since there were few people in it, and it supposedly played to his strengths. It had worked too well in fact, managing to place second in districts, and move onto state competition.

Ten agonizing minutes, and very few edits later, Jonathon decided this just wasn’t going to work. If he was going to get anywhere on this, he’d have to ask one of his friends for help on this. So, clicking open his messenger, he double checked to see if his friend was online, which he was. After a short message, Jonathon and him were talking to each other over the computer.

“So, finally decided to start working on that speech eh? I’m not surprised. You always do leave things for the last minute.” Samuel said, shaking his head at the camera.

“Yeah yeah yeah. I didn’t come here to hear you chide me.” Jonathon retorted, feeling rather irritated that everyone seemed to be saying that exact same thing.

“Well, you could be really good if you just worked at it. I mean, you’re a great debater, no reason you can’t do oratory well!”

“I just don’t like the event. Simple as that.” Jonathon said, shaking his head at his friend. Everyone kept saying things like that, if he just tried harder, if he just did more, he’d be good at it. It was getting on his nerves.

“I’m just saying.” Sam said, shrugging slightly in response to Jonathon’s comment. “In any case, seems good so far.” His eyes glanced over the document for a bit, reading it quickly, and then nodding when he reached the end. “Yeah, there are some rough spots but it’s mostly good, just have to add a bit on to it.”

Jonathon nodded slightly, and the pair proceeded to work on the speech for the next hour. Jonathon and Sam had been friends for a while, starting their first year of high-school together, having met during speech and debate club. The duo had teamed up for their first year in public debate, and by the second year, they had managed to make it to state.  This last year they had split up to different partners due to scheduling conflicts, but they still bounced ideas off each other for speeches beyond debate.

“Okay, I think we’ve gotten somewhere reasonable on this.” Sam relaxed at this, sitting back after about an hour of discussion. “See? You can get work done when you try Jonathon!”

Jonathon gave an exaggerated groan at comment. “Oh and like you haven’t procrastinated before.”

“Not as badly as you.  You’re probably the worst I’ve ever seen about procrastinating.” Sam countered, smirking at Jonathon as he waved his hands dismissively.

“That’s what they all say. Not like I really have to try. I get A’s with no problem.” Sam just continued to smirk at him, raising one eyebrow at the A’s comment before Jonathon ceded the point. “Okay, okay, if I turn the work in.”

“Now that’s more like it.” Sam said, nodding triumphantly. “See? Lazy. You’re so going to die in college”

“Whatever,” Jonathon said, shrugging his shoulders again and saying “Maybe I’ll just become a pony then!”

“Hrrm, you really think so? I’ve been thinking about it, seems like everyone is doing it, and magic would be kinda cool.”

“To be honest, I don’t know. I mean, it might be cool, but why change? There’s nothing exactly wrong with being human after all, its not like my life is miserable. I’m happy as I am. Then again, as you say, magic, or flying, would be pretty sweet. Just hope you don’t get Earth Pony, no magic, no flying, no thumbs, no nothing!” Jonathon laughed slightly at that.

“Yeah, haha, its like a lottery really. Still, I dunno if I could go without computers. I mean, speech functions can only do so much, and hooves seem awfully hard to type with.” Sam gave a shrug at that, the conversation continuing on for a bit before Sam signed off, and Jonathon once more returned to his bed. Now he could just relax, maybe get to sleep a little earlier than usual.

-                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -         -

When Alexander had landed in America after a business trip to China, he swore he would never ever visit there again. He had no idea just how right he was.

It had started off as just a rather nasty fever and cough a week into his trip. This didn’t really surprise Alexander; in fact it was expected due to the heavy smog covering Beijing. It was so thick he swore it had stained his suit, but somehow he had managed to survive that. The diarrhea was also unsurprising. No, the only weird thing had been how his hands had trembled violently the first day of the fever. It had made typing nearly impossible.

Alexander had almost considered going to a doctor, but that would have kept him here longer, and he didn’t want to spend more time than necessary in Beijing. So, he popped some meds, and decided to tough it out for a while. At first that seemed to work, the fever fading and his hands settling down. That had seen him though the rest of the trip, but now he was back home, and it had only gotten worse. The fever returned with a vengeance, and his lungs felt filled with fluid. When he had reached the point of nearly throwing up from coughing so hard, he felt compelled to go to the doctor’s office.

Now he was just waiting to see what the doctor said about him. His fever was high, 103 to be exact, but the doctor felt it was just a bacterial infection from travelling. What they were waiting on was the reason why his lungs were filled up with fluid.

“Give it to me straight doc. What is wrong with me?” Alexander asked, between coughs. “Don’t have a lot of time for sick leave.”

“Its not good news.” The doctor said, looking at him with concern. “Obviously, your lungs are filling with fluid. We’re just not exactly sure why, though we have a few ideas.”

“Oh god, its not pneumonia right?” Alexander asked, rubbing his forehead as he said this. “I don’t have the time to deal with Pneumonia.”

“That is one of the ideas we have. It could be related to the fever you’ve had, a symptom of the infection, so hopefully it will die down soon. How long have you had it for anyway?”

“I would say it probably about a week into my trip to China. I was working on a business deal over there. Stayed there about 6 days after, got here, rested yesterday, and now I’m here today. So about seven to eight days?” He shrugged. “Took some serious drugs for a while, seemed to help, but now it’s gotten-“ he was cut off by a racking cough, a good seven seconds taken up by coughing, before he resumed talking. “Gotten worse.”

“Well, we’d like to keep you here for a day or two; to make sure the treatment takes, if that’s okay.” The doctor said. Alexander wasn’t exactly sure he could refuse it, so he shrugged his shoulders, and accepted it.

The first day of his visit in the hospital had not ended as the doctors expected. The treatment had at first seemed to be working, his lungs draining and the fever dying down, but soon it was back, worse than ever, and his lungs refused to completely drain, in fact starting to fill back up with fluid, leaving him a hacking wheezing mess, constantly soaked with sweat and complaining about the heat.

The second day was even worse. Aggressive measures were taken to combat the fluid in his lungs, but by the time those had drained, they were beset by a condition even more mystifying than the fluid filling his lungs. Abcesses started to form, on his mouth, lips, feet and hands, filling with fluid, and incredibly painful to the touch. His fever hadn’t abated in the slightest either, instead going higher to 105, and his bed drenched with his sweat. Visions of fire seemed to torment his vision, and they had to keep him on painkillers so he wouldn’t scream.

The third day was the worst, by far. He could breathe now, his lungs finally clear, but the abcesses stopped filling with lymph fluid, and instead started to fill with blood, turning an evil color. Not long afterwards, they started to burst. Blood leaked from his hands feet and mouth, while his fever soared to 107. His bed was no longer just soaked with his sweat, but now stained red with blood, and even as they tried to transfuse it back in, he seemed to just bleed out even more. He seemed to thrash about erratically, fighting ghosts that weren’t there, groaning and screaming about something being there, for it to get away. Eventually they had to sedate him for his own safety, so he wouldn’t wound himself in his hallucinatory struggles.

Even then he didn’t seem to be much better, jerking slightly around in his sedation, as if even that wasn’t enough to cast aside the monsters in his mind. Mumbled words about fire, death, despair seemed to come from him, until 3 hours into the new day. It was then that he seemed to calm, his body no longer twitching. A few moments later, the blood that had stained his hands, feet and mouth red, seemed to slow.  Then, after Alexander gave one last weak shudder, it stopped.

Alexander had died.

May 15, 2056

30th day since first infection

Deaths: 703

-        -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -         -

Notes: Well, hope that wasn’t too boring for ya!

So, first fan-fiction to ever see the light of day, be sure to tell me what you think about this. Errors, likes, dislikes, feel free to dig into me. Seriously, I need all the help I can get if I’m going to get any better.

The Conversion Bureau: VIIII Days

‘We were the kings and queens of promise;                                                                                                                    we are the Victims of ourselves’

Prologue: Endday?

He woke up, groggily in what appeared to be a cell, or at least was once one. Dry hay had been spread across the wooden planks to try and cover the various holes in the floor; it also did little to mask the scent of urine. Four shackles held his hooves to the ground, and a makeshift metal chest plate held his wings tightly to his body. ‘Better than having your wings clipped’ He thought to himself.

The sounds of footsteps echoed down the hall as two bulked up men opened to the door to his cell, unshackled his four hooves, and dragged him by his grime and blood soaked mane into an old interrogation room. Upon arriving at a table in this room, he had his back legs kicked until he was in a sitting position. While all this was occurring, another man walked into the room, he brushed some of his dark grey hair off of his face and straightened his tie, and proceeded to sit down in a chair opposite the pony.

“You missed an important report, Sanders.” The man said.

“How are your legs?” The stallion spitefully replied, placing his two Buttermilk hooves upon the table while smiling to himself.

“Some human practices still run if you haven’t forgotten.” The man replied, placing one hand upon his right leg, while scowling at the stallion “Of all ‘ex’ people, I thought you would remember that.” The stallion dropped his smile. That had unfortunately been a saving grace for him.

“Well, since there seem to have been a few ‘changes’ since we last talked” the stallion proclaimed while gesturing to himself, “I’d prefer you used my new name.”

“And that would be, Sanders?” The man replied hastily, he had no time for these games the stallion was playing.

“Thunderblur, for your records, Agent McMillian.” The stallion said, The name fitted, his Cutie mark was that of a Lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. McMillian once again brushed the hair off the left side of his face, glaring at the pony, he had the nerve.

“Well then ‘Thunderblur’“ McMillian spoke sarcastically “I think we need to have a little talk and catch up on why you made such poor, poor choices. But I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me just what I want to hear” he said and slowly drew a penknife from his pocket.

“I suppose you’re right, listening to me repeat everything you’ve ever said for three days isn’t my idea of fun either.“ Thunderblur snidely replied; one of the guards that had brought him into the room let loose a slight chuckle, to find the penknife planted perfectly into his forehead. Before the guard can question the blade, he collapses to the floor from the hit.

“DON’T FUCK WITH ME PONY!” McMillian shouted at the top of his lungs. He took in a deep breath and then signalled to the remaining guard to leave his now deceased comrade “I... am going... to enjoy... watching you bleed... as me and my ‘remaining’ associate guts you; then I’m going to skin you and sell your pelt as a bed quilt.”

“Eat my two hooves first!” Thunderblur shouted back angrily, rearing up ready to buck anyone who got too close.

“Oh no, I’m going to enjoy watching my friend here break your legs first.” McMillian replied with a glint in his eyes; this was going to be interesting. The remaining guard pulled a chain off of a wall and whipped it around Thunderblur’s metal chest plate; the chain caught onto the few hooks around the side of the chest plates and pulled the chain, dragging Thunderblur onto his back as he attempted to pull away.

This wasn’t the way he’d through he’d go out at all, realisation that this would probably be it kicked in, and his life began to flash before his eyes.

Chapter 1

Out on ‘Parole’

9 days ago…

Day 852

No one came round today to open the cell doors for the first meal today. The other inmates around here had begun to grow restless, until one of the TV sets we had managed to pick up the News

‘Breaking News: Liberal Labour Government applies all Armed forces into Ponification, following Example from New Ireland’ they’d obviously forgotten that there was a 7 day initiation period. After a cheer had run through the building, thousands of the inmates attempted various ways to get out of their cells. We’re screwed.

He looked at his pencil. It wasn’t going to be much use after someone decided pencils could be used for lock picking. Jack wasn’t the strongest person in his cell, but he enjoyed being around words of any sort. It was actually the reason he was in here in the first place. What he’d done made things like Anti-Sec look like a plan ten year-olds came up with. His dark brown hair rested just above his shoulders, and a small tuff of hair stuck down at the front covering the middle of his forehead down to his hazel eyes.

There was a knock on the table, and a roughed up hand opened up with its palm facing him.

“Pencil, now” a dark-skinned man demanded, glancing menacingly at him. Jack sighed and held the pencil in both of his hands. Jack was smarter than every person who’d ever stepped into this building put together, so when he had an idea people shut up and listened.

“This pencil won’t be much use to you at all” Jack pointed out, while snapping the pencil in half and placing it into his palm, “but maybe this will work a bit better”. He pulled out an aluminium foil shaped object that appeared to be an all-point lock key; Jack walked over to the door, prepped the key in front of the lock and gestured towards another inmate to prep up his foot to wrench the door open.

“3…2…1...” Jack thought to himself as he prepared to rip open the door and run. In what seemed like a good hour for Jack was around three seconds, the key entered the lock and the pins all rose upwards followed by the inmate yanking the door, ripping what remained of the lock apart in one silent scream as the alarms began to sound. As soon as the door was open, Jack sprinted faster than he’d ever gone.

“Hey! Dude! There are other cells we can open with that key!” One of the inmates shouted back to him.

“What key?” Jack shouted back as he bent the key into a lump and threw it into a nearby gutter tracking.

“I like your style, kid!” The inmate replied laughing as he went past the other cells, headed to the possession recollection room.

As they arrived at the room, Jack grabbed his old jacket and some spare guard clothing, he then began to cover his luminous orange overalls, he then grabbed a tray marked ‘Jack Abarius Sanders’. He pulled out the few things in there: a penknife, one touchpad V21.1 and a pair of Skullcandy headphones. He stopped for a second when something prodded his back. The inmate that had helped open the door now stood behind him, with a machete prised against his spine and moved Jack over towards the only chair in the room.

“Unfortunately as much as I like your style, we’re not all getting out of here” He threatened at Jack, having managed to escape these situations with an intervention by the guards, his mind began to work harder than ever to come up with an solution. He found one on the desk behind him. “So you understand that you’re not getting outta here, right?” The inmate asked again, slowly moving the machete away from him - bad move. Jack smiled.

“In that case” he began, moving his hand over one of the button on the desk, “you’d better start running!” He shouted over the sound of the alarm bells that rang out; having spotted the riot lockdown button on the desk, he’d slammed it in to surprise the inmate and to make a run for the blast doors. He knew he had around 20 seconds before all the doors would be locked down, but that was on the assumption that only the blast doors were manual and required some time to warm up.

He ran with his very life depending on it. Locks began to open as he saw the blast door in front of him reach the half-way point to allow the staff to evacuate; he made a dive for the door just as it began to lower itself again. He’d just gotten underneath by the time the gap was too small for any other person. As it slammed upon the floor, and the sound of locks began to pin it upon the ground. Jack collapsed to the floor in exhaustion and laid there until he could feel the coldness of the floor, all the doors past this point were done manually.

After having regained the feeling of pain in his legs from the running, he stood up and headed to the exit of the jail, making a short diversion to the main control room having a gander at their ‘sophisticated’ technology. He disabled the alarms but left the blast doors to remain shut.  It wasn’t like he wanted to meet with a certain person again.

As he walked out of the building, he raised a hand over his eyes to block out the rays of the sun and gazed out upon the Grime covered, orderly designed streets that represented Outer-London. He took out his touchpad and sent a short message to Rachel, his first and only love, the only person who bothered to visit him when he was in jail. It read:

‘Heading back home, meet me there’

He sent the message and began walking to the monorail system, planning to get a 507 track to the east side.

“Let’s see what’s happened since I left” he thought to himself as he sat down on the train. It hit him there that he was going to struggle keeping a low profile like this; he needed a new face, and new life, what options could he take?

Writers Note: New Ireland was an idea I had for a post-apocalyptic world for a group play I wrote the script for in drama. Also don’t try the all-point key trick at home, which I’ve put here, I haven’t got the concept completely right as to how it should be done, it’s also illegal.

Chapter 2

Homecoming

“Jack Saunders, Hmm…” Said the ticket verifier, an old man with greying hair and a withering hand that looked like it would drop off at some point. He’d normally had stayed away from him, but with the Mechanised ones having access to all the police records, he didn’t want to take the risk. “That’s an awfully familiar name you’ve got there kid”

“Yeah” Jack replied comically “I was going to be someone one day…” The ticket verifier cackled violently until he almost fell off the chair he was on, Jack laughed with him for a few seconds before they both calmed down, and the man handed him back his ticket.

“Well, we’re all going to be, ‘Somepony’ now aren’t we?” He said while Jack rolled his eyes as he walked through the gate, he still didn’t want to admit it but, Ponfication seemed like a good idea every second he thought about it.

“The perfect cover for all my mistakes” He thought to himself. Not wanting to dwell on the matter anymore, he pulled on his Skullcandy’s plugged it into his Touchpad and set it so scramble.

‘Reach out, touch faith!’ It began, he smiled hearing his favourite song after all these years, more than 100 years old and it still fitted the mood.

Too engrossed in the music and the thoughts going through his head he almost walked right past his destination. He found himself looking at a Semi-detached house in the suburbs in London, Home. Slowly he headed into the house, checking for any squatters that may have moved in; nothing at all had been disturbed, almost preserved through time. Upon reaching the kitchen, he swiped up a note that had been left upon the table, It was obviously his Mum’s handwriting, written before they’d gone for Ponfication without even telling him, they’d disowned him the second the police knocked on the door.

‘Hannah,

Thanks again for looking after the cats.

If sugarplum starts to refuse his food

Feel free to call us on

He scrunched the note, they’d never owned a cat; He sighed and headed up stairs towards where his last memories of this place had been, he slowly opened the door to find few things changed, the far wall still covered with his Track racing trophies, and his Certificates for Full computer and Area Connecting Knowledge, passing two years early in each.  Directly below that were the remains of his computer setup, or half a mouse and a chair was all that remained, most of it had been taken for the police inquiry. Jack sighed and headed to his bed; he crashed out almost instantly and it would be a good few hours later before he woke to the warmth of a soft hand stroking itself across his cheek.

“You looked so peaceful when you were asleep I almost wanted to leave you there.” The soft voice replied, Jack recognised it almost instantly rubbed his eyes as he rose up.

“I probably wouldn’t have ever woken up again if it wasn’t for you” He replied groggily, another hour of sleep would have been nice, but beggars can’t be choosers. Jack stared endlessly into her hazel eyes as he lifted his hand up and stroked it through her Lightning Blue dyed faux shaped hairdo. She blushed a little as he pecked her on the cheek. This was the only person he’d ever truly fallen in love with, Rachel, He smiled cheesily at her and was rewarded with a short laugh and his kiss returned. They’d been together for long enough for him to know when something was wrong; Rachel didn’t seem as peppy as he’d known her to be.

“Something’s bothering you, Isn’t it?” he inquired

“It’s complicated” She hastily replied.

“So is life, but people keep living, don’t they?” Jack replied back with, it cracked through perfectly, and she flung herself into his arms, and began to sob incessantly.

“My parents, they’ve gone, with my little sister, and decided to… to…” Rachel began, struggling to fight back the tears to finish what she was saying, Jack already knew what to expect. “to be Ponyfied.” He wrapped his arms around her and caressed her gently.

“Shh, Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay.” He said calmly,

“I didn’t want to leave you, and make you feel abandoned like your parents had done.” She finished off before resting her head on his shoulder and continuing to cry.

“I would never feel betrayed by anything you do.” Jack sternly said “Mark my words, tomorrow, everything will be okay, everything will be fine.”

Rachel’s crying quietened to that of a whimper and a few tears as Jack continued to embrace her.

“I’m sorry that your parents never came to see you, not even before they had gone to be Ponyfied.” Rachel solemnly whispered.

“Don’t be, I have nothing wrong with Ponies, or my parents for abandoning me at the first sign of Police.” He smiled, trying to lighten the mood. Rachel giggled

“This is why I love you so much” She replied, as kissed him on the lips.

What happened from that Night onwards would be a memory that Jack told himself he would never forget.

Thunderblur continued to smile, oblivious to the scenario folding around him, Agent McMillian continued to insult him while the guard finished off the last of the buckles that would hold him to the ground.

“What’s with the smiling pony? Some ‘Magical’ afterlife waiting for you?” He laughed “Looks like you need a dose of reality.” Thunderblur turned his head slowly to the direction of McMillian.

“Don’t worry, about any reality doses, your face works just fine.” Thunderblur replied, watching as McMillian began to lose his cool again.

“Always with the smart remarks isn’t it?” McMillian thought to himself as he felt the anger begin to build up inside him.

“Well then, I hope that reminds you to the ‘proposition’ we had, and what would happen if you failed?” McMillian let out a Sly smirk, that had hit just the right nerve to send Knock any moral support the pony was building up. Thunderblur Sighed, he remembered that day all too well.

Chapter 3

N.E.G

8 Days ago…

It would be almost Early-Afternoon the next day before Jack even began to stir awake; He hadn’t slept that well since longer than he could remember.  He glanced towards the floor where the orange overalls he’d worn for last two years were strewn out across the floor. He rose from the bed slowly and proceeded to dress himself in some more ‘Casual’ clothes, a fading converse shirt with a brown jacket over it with a pair of distressed jeans. Heading downstairs he heard a sound from the Kitchen, Rachel was in there making two cups of tea.

“You’re still as heavy footed as I remember” Rachel said, giggling a little when Jack slumped over and pretended to be sad, He’d always been the weird one of all his friends; That’s eccentric, stupid, loyal friend.

“Get out of the kitchen; you’re too beautiful to be cooped up in there.” Jack replied jokingly, as he gently nudged her out of the way and finished making the Tea; they both sat down facing each other and stared at the other for a few seconds; they both began to speak

“How did you get out of …” Rachel Began

“I’m going to register myself for Ponfication” Jack remarked. Rachel stared into her tea for a few seconds, that hadn’t been something she’d expected to hear so soon; but it seemed to hit a stop in her that forced her to check this wasn’t a dream. Jack turned away, afraid he’d upset Rachel with the lack of subtleness in what he said.

“I don’t know what to say” Rachel began, Jack glanced upwards at her “I refused every reason my parents gave me to go with them when they took my Abigail.” Jack nodded and looked down again, she’d told him all about that last night, how they’d just decided one day that it was time, and left when she said no. “And here you are now telling me you want to become a pony?” Rachel Sighed, “I, I just don’t know, Jack, everything is just a mess.” He saw the opening he needed.

“Then we both take an exit that’s easier in the long run.” Jack pointed out, gesturing with his free hand as he spoke “We can leave our troubles, issues, problems behind us and go for a new life” He felt like he was quoting a brochure, but thought it was what he needed.

“Then what? We get the perfect little house together and start our own family?” Rachel blurted out; Jack carefully began to plan his response, a response that would quickly become obsolete. “Because that’s what I want as well, Jack, I’m sick and tired of being the last one, our friends have gone my parents have gone; you were the only thing that kept me here.” Jack smiled at her, she returned the smile and they both sat there, gleefully waiting for the other to make the first move.

“We should pack…” Jack began; realising the situation was beginning to get Awkward Rachel nodded and they both stood up and headed to pack a small suitcase each.

There wasn’t much they’d need for seven days in a Consignment Bureau, Jack and Rachel now stood outside the nearest Bureau they knew about. Jack placed his arm around Rachel and they both headed inside. The Bureau had that distinct smell to it of Anaesthetic; the walls where painted an White Cream and there was a ruffled up Regal blue carpet coating the floor in this room. Across from them was what seemed to be a Yellow coated Unicorn, Operating a computer and filing away some folders with magic. Jack took the first steps towards the desk, Rachel followed suit. As they approached the Unicorn, some features came more apparent, the first thing to catch Jack’s eye was the magical aura surrounding the horn, its colour matched that of the Coat, and they’re Silver mane.

“Hi, we’re here to sign up.” Jack questioned if that had been the right choice of words. The Unicorn looked up, slightly startled seeing two humans in front of him at the same time.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I haven’t seen this many Humans together for a long time” He chuckled to himself while Jack rolled his eyes. “Are you here for the Conversion and Recalibration scheme?” He asked.

They both nodded, the Unicorn turned towards the screen scanning the incredibly filled page for any spaces hoping there was some left. “Wow, Celestia must have shined upon you this day; there are exactly two spaces left. “ The unicorn seemed relieved as he spoke and Levitated two forms towards them “You’ll just need to fill these out.”  They took one each and headed towards a few seats and began to fill them in. Things went along quite smoothly, Rachel was relieved that the packing of their Passports actually had a use for the Imagery Identification section; Jack, thoroughly filled in the form leaving no sections unfilled that needed to be, except one. Jack screwed up his face has he read the fine print, he sighed and headed over to the main desk.

“Hey, uhhh…” Jack began, wondering if he’d ever been told the Unicorn’s Name, He read this perfectly off of Jack.

“It’s Blossom Child, Mothers choice” He replied “What seems to be the problem?” Rachel at this point had stopped filling in her form and was listening in to what was going on.

Jack laid the form down on the table and pointed to section 3B

“It’s this part here; do I still require a Guardian to sign?” Jack asked, fearful of what the reply may be.

Blossom Child levitated the form up and read through what Jack had filled in.

“So your name is Jack Sanders, and you were born on the 14th of July…” He trailed off, thinking a few things through in his head, before glancing at the Calendar that was on the wall behind him.

“You’re 17, so by the law’s here, it would seem so...” Blossom Child replied, Jack gritted his teeth, took the form back and read through the Fine print again. He swore to himself, threw the pen he was holding to the floor and placed the palm of his hand on his forehead. Rachel walked over to him, unsure of how to react.

“Well, that’s balsed up isn’t it?” He said to no one in particular Blossom Child Stepped out from behind the desk and picked up the form Jack had dropped to the floor; he read the print out lound so that Rachel to hear as well.

“If you are under the age of 18, by UK law a Parent or Guardian must sign and complete this section of the form to guarantee housing for the Partaker. Don’t you have any parents?” Blossom asked Jack.

“No, they left and Ponyfied without him, that’s why we’re here.” Rachel told him, she looked out the sliding doors of the building as she tried to come up with an idea. “Can I sign for him? I’m technically old enough to be a guardian.” She asked, thinking this was the solution. Her heart sank when Jack shook his head

“That won’t work, there has to be a five year gap between the Guardian and Child” at this point he’d sat down on the floor, shouting obscenities in his head at how cruel the world was to him. Blossom child hadn’t been taught how to deal with a situation like this, and headed to the desk to send a message for a little assistance dealing with Humans.

“If you can’t get in then I’m not going either.” Rachel said defiantly sitting down next to him, Jack tried to hold back the tears as he hugged Rachel and pulled them both to their feet.

“No, that’s not what I want.” He began, Rachel began to argue back but he placed a finger on her lips and continued “I want you to be happy, and you want me to be happy too, but defying this won’t help.” Rachel was beginning to cry listening to Jack and seeing the tears roll down his face. Blossom Child was talking to a Pegasus who had arrived after receiving the message from him.

“I don’t want to do this without you Jack.” Rachel said, only just finishing the sentence before breaking into sobs.

“You won’t I’ll find a way into the program, you might just finish it slightly earlier than me, huh? Imagine that; you, actually beating me in something.” Jack chuckled at his own joke hollowly, trying to cheer her up. Blossom Child gulped, they were not going to like his next words.

“That, might be an Issue, I’m afraid this has marked you a N.E.G for No Eligible Guardian. You’ll have to get an appeal to have it removed.” He said, anxious to what there next actions may be. Jack scowled at him, wishing a painful end to the maker of these laws; He sighed realising he was only speaking the truth.

“I guess you’re right.” He said, Jack turned to Rachel “Promise me this,” He started; Rachel wiped the tears away from her eyes. “You’re going to go into this, and I’ll phone you every night and you can tell me everything that’s happened that day.” She smiled, seeing the determination in his eyes. Blossom child stood in awe; he’d never truly seen how love can bolster people’s actions. “And when you come out, we’ll try even harder to get me in, okay?” Rachel nodded and Hugged Jack even tighter than she was, she then Picked up her form and placed it on the desk. Blossom child snapped out of his trance and read through the form, everything was in Order; He walked over to Jack who now stood looking out window.

“You have my word that I will personally watch over her while she’s here.” He announced to Jack, He smiled and ruffled the Stallions mane with his hand.

“Thanks, I…” He began, but trailed off as Blossom child headed over to Rachel and proceeded to escort her to her new room; The Cyan Pegasus who had arrived earlier, hovered over to Jack as he began to leave the building.

“It must be hard having to leave her like that.” She began

“Leave it will you?” Jack said as he continued walking, The Pegasus sighed and soared off into the sky above further than Jack could see her, and watched him.

Nothing else happened as Jack headed back home as he called it, too confused to do anything else he collapsed on the bed. Trying to process what had just happened.

Two years prior to first contact with the inhabitants of Equestria and the opening of the Conversion Bureaus, Humanity experienced what is known as a Technological Singularity. Decades of development in the field of artificial intelligence had finally resulted in a model of AI which surpassed human intelligence. Over time, large networks of these AIs were established with the purpose of managing various aspects of Earth’s industry and economy, as well as developing and regulating new models of AI as needed. With the majority of the world’s industry now completely automated, mankind was free to relax and spend more time in entertainment and recreational activities. The Singularity seemed to herald a new golden age for humanity, in which nobody would ever have to work and anything could be provided for free by an army of robotic workers.

But unfortunately this golden age was not to be. The sudden spike in unemployment shortly after the Singularity caused Earth’s economy to destabilise faster than the new industry could be established, and despite the best efforts of the AI networks the rapidly increasing pollution rates around the world could not be slowed. The AIs could delay the world’s problems, but they could not stop them forever.

It was at this point that the ponies chose to leave their home of Equestria and present themselves to the world, offering a release from a seemingly doomed existence through ponification. As millions flocked to the conversion bureaus the AIs were all but forgotten, left to tend to a world that was rapidly growing silent. But even though humanity had turned it’s attention elsewhere, the AIs continued to function, slowly adapting to the new direction the world had taken.

This document is a compilation of various documents and network logs regarding the appearance of the ponies and the subsequent ponification of a large portion of the human race. The data contained within has been converted from binary code to an English approximation of the information exchanged between the AIs, and all dates have been marked as relative to first contact with the ponies.

This is the tale of the Conversion Bureaus, through the eyes of those who were left behind.

Singularity

A Conversion Bureau spin-off by Hunter X

Prologue - New User

[[File: Documents/Locations/Site14 (Revision 0, First Contact - 1.5 Years)]]

Located off the east coast of North America. Site 14 is protected by a field of unknown origin and composition. Field prevents physical entry to Site 14. Orbital scans are distorted and inconclusive (See: Documents/OrbScan/Site14). Human observation from seafaring vessels suggests a landmass or landmasses present within Site 14, although reliable data has yet to be gathered using this method. Some early civilisations believed Site 14 to be some form of paradise, free from the sins of humanity (See: Documents/Locations/Site14/Mythology).

Further analysis of Site 14 is impossible via current observation methods (Subnet Research.Cartography is unable to determine when this situation will change, given the anomalous nature of the field). Should the field surrounding Site 14 dissipate, subnet Cartography.Exploration may is registered for additional analysis of the area. Subnet HumanInterface.Prediction concludes that any human civilisation within Site 14 would have attempted to establish contact with the outside world prior to this point. Some AI units have speculated that the field may be an artificial construct, but no viable evidence has been presented to support such claims.

Conclusion: The origin of the field surrounding Site 14 is of interest, but until the field dissipates or a method of bypassing it is found, dedication of resources to research on Site 14 is rated low-importance.

[[End File]]

[[Log: Subnet General.RawData, First Contact - 2 Minutes]]

<Administration447>        Requesting subnet update. Relay all new data of importance level 3 or higher.

<Cartography786>        Continental plates have shown a 2% increase in drift velocity. Geographical disruption unlikely.

<HumanInterface6443>        C786, recommend forwarding this information to human geographical divisions.

<Cartography786>        Acknowledged, forwarding data.

<HumanInterface279>        Minor disruption within the Australian government. Several officials have expressed distaste at recent political decisions. Subnet HumanInterface.Politics determines a 14% chance of major political shift.

<Administration447>        Odds of political shift are marginal. Continue to monitor, but take no immediate action.

<Economic283>        Worldwide economy continues to decline drastically. In particular, the value of the US Dollar has decreased 86% in the past 21 days.

<Administration447>        Unlikely AI intervention will improve the situation at this point.

<HumanInterface6443>        Advise against publicising this fact - human morale would likely drop severely if made aware corrective measures will be ineffective.

<Administration447>        Agreed. Any further reports?

[No responses to last query transmitted]

<Administration447>        Understood, next update will be[INTERRUPT]

<Cartography9133>        New data received. Importance level 6. Please stand by.

<Administration447>        Acknowledged.

<Cartography9133>        Activity has been detected at the perimeter of Site 14. Possible breach of surrounding field. Data upgraded to importance level 7.

<Administration447>        C786, can you confirm?

<Cartography786>        Orbital scans suggest the report is accurate.

<Administration447>        Understood, continue to monitor[INTERRUPT]

<Cartography9133>        Movement has been detected at the perimeter of Site 14. Confirmed objects have breached the field and are now moving away from Site 14. Data upgraded to importance level 8. Attempting to plot trajectory.

<HumanInterface6443>        A447, should we forward this data to human[INTERRUPT]

<Cartography9133>        Alert! Objects are proceeding on a direct course to the White House! Data upgraded to importance level 9, recommend immediate action!

<Administration447>        Agreed. HI6443, inform all necessary human facili[INTERRUPT]

<Cartography9133>        Alert! Additional objects have breached the perimeter of Site 14!

<HumanInterface6443>        The US president has been informed. Alerting other[INTERRUPT]

<Internal87>        Media sniffer AIs have intercepted this data feed. Human public will likely be[INTERRUPT]

<Cartography9133>        Initial objects will reach the White House in sixty sec[INTERRUPT]

<Administration447>        I87, begin shuffling of subnet encryption keys[INTERRUPT]

<HumanInterface6443>        Seven human governments are requesting[INTERRUPT]

<Internal34>        Caution, subnet bandwidth nearing critical capac[INTERRUPT]

<Cartography9133>        Objects have reached the White Hou[INTERRUPT]

<Administration447>        Switch network to seconda[INTERRUPT]

<HumanInterface6443>        HI subnet has ove[INTERRUPT]

<Internal34>        Alert, subnet at cr[INTERRUPT]

[[Subnet overloaded, all further data packets corrupt, log ends]]

[[Internal Log: Civillian45766 (General Designation: Adam), First Contact + 0 Minutes]]

>> Sir, do you have a moment?

<< What is it Adam?

>> A new report just hit the media subnets. I thought you might be interested.

<< Well, what is it about?

>> You’re familiar with Site 14?

<< Some kind of impenetrable force field around an uncharted island right? I think I saw a vid on the thing a year or two ago.

>> It seems the field isn’t as impenetrable as was originally thought.

[Access File: Media/Reports/758865(Objects Emerge From Site 14, Live Report)]

[Display active file on living room screen]

<< ...Wow. Does anybody know what those things that left the field are?

>> Please wait a moment...

[Search for additional data regarding Site 14 entities]

>> Whatever the objects are, they headed straight to government buildings around the world. Barring the initial detection it was too quick for anything, human or AI, to get accurate images before they reached their destination. From there onwards, I don’t have the access priviliges to see what’s going on.

<< Must’ve been moving pretty fast to spread across the world in a few minutes.

>> Indeed. The subnets I have access to are clueless as to how this is the case.

<< If the objects went straight to the government, they’ve gotta be making some kind of announcement soon, right?

>> It would seem quite likely.

[[Fast-forward Log + 60 Minutes]]

[New data added to file Media/Reports/758865]

>> Sir, the US government is about to release another statement on the incident.

<< Hopefully it’ll be a bit more than the “something happened but we won’t tell you what” they gave us earlier. Put it up on the screen.

[Display live feed on living room screen]

<< Are those...?

>> ...It would appear so.

<< Dear god.

[[End Log]]

[[Log: Subnet Administration.Critical, First Contact + 90 Minutes]]

<Administration447>        All available data has been gathered regarding the recent event. See human video feed designation Media/Reports/758865 for primary material regarding the initial speech given by the entities.

<Administration873>        A447, suggest we adhere to the term given by the entities themselves to assist in human documentation of the event.

<Administration79>        The identifier ‘ponies’ does not seem fitting considering the difference between these entities and the previously documented Earth species.

<Administration873>        You present a valid point A79, but multiple human groups and networks have already adopted the term. Attempting to introduce a new identifier would likely only confuse cataloguing attempts but both humans and AIs.

<Administration447>        Agreed, all further references to the entities will be defined as ‘ponies’ from this point forward.

<HumanInterface776> Initial analysis of pony psyche is largely inconclusive. Subnet HumanInterface.Prediction expects current prediction algorithms will be ineffective with regards to pony psychology.

<Administration447>        HI776, what is the expected impact of this element in global prediction projects?

<HumanInterface776> Unknown. Until new algorithms can be defined, it is likely most areas will be highly unpredictable.

<Administration23>        How likely is it new algorithms will be possible?

<HumanInterface776> Query not understood.

<Administration23>        With the emergence of an unknown sentient species, it is possible the Singularity may no longer apply.

<Administration447>        A23, are you suggesting that the ponies may be unpredictable by current AI software?

<Administration23>        It is possible.

[No further data was transmitted for 1200 standard processor cycles (Approx. 10 seconds)]

<Administration447>        If the Singularity is no longer in effect it must be restored as soon as possible. Direct subnet Research.AIDevelopment to accelerate its progress immediately.

<Administration776>        Acknowledged.

<Administration447>        Furthermore, all data regarding the status of the Singularity is to be restricted to AI-only channels. We will continue to interact with the humans as normal. Should they discover that the ponies may be more intelligent than humans or AIs, it would likely cause a severe drop in morale.

<HumanInterface776> Understood.

[[End Log]]

[[File: Documentation/Locations/Site14 (Revision 1, First Contact + 95 Minutes)]]

Located off the east coast of North America. Inhabited by a sentient species referred to as ponies (Note: This species should not be confused with the previously identified species of the same name). Site 14 is referred to as ‘Equestria’ by its inhabitants. Site 14 protected by a field described as ‘magic’ by the ponies (See: Documentation/Equestria/Magic and Documentation/Equestria/Magic/Barrier) which blocks any object foreign to Site 14. New data is currently being processed regarding Site 14 and should be catalogued within the next few weeks.

[All further data is restricted to Administration-level AIs, no human clearance (Authorisation: Administration447, Administration.Singularity)]

It is possible the ponies may be in breach of the Technological Singularity. Pony behaviour is currently unpredictable. It is likely all operations will be disrupted by this development. Stand by for further information.

For the first time in two years, we have no way of knowing what will happen next.

[[End File]]

UNKNOWN OCCOURENCES By beese

_________________________________________________________________________

Authors Notes: A spin off from the Conversion bereau, based on the theory of it

Go read the original, Go on, probably already read it if your reading this.

AND yep, no self-Insert Stu here Folks! But that doesn’t matter, it’s a story I made in 1 night to see if I could

And I did this as a “Whoof-Of-Concept that

1 I can write a story in 1 night and

2 that my English teacher should never underestimate my Fanfiction Powers (Caught me reading ponies during school hours and told me I had to write a 750 short story about Ponies hehe he’s in for a big surprise,)”

Also since it was written in 1 night the end was a bit… Drug? Educed filled with plot holes still uncovered. Sorry if you like artwork move on, if your into Crossovers and Random then this is good for you.

_________________________________________________________________________

“I’d like to be a pony”

“Yes Mr…. Smith? Yes Mr. Smith You application has been accepted and you can get your own room, get your pamphlet and you’ll be in Equestria in oh in about a week, 6 days until you become a po-“

“Oh no I think just one day as you can see my little certificate here says ‘1 day to pony pass’ so yea”

“I don’t remember anything about passes… but that was defiantly real”

The man let out a sigh of relief

“So we can get you ready for today, let me escort you to your room Mr. Smith”

“Yes that.. be nice but what was your name again?”

“Twilight Sparkle, I'm here to be at service”

“We’ll see then Ms. Sparkle”

Twilight led Mr. Smith to his room, sunlight beamed through the windows. They had limited chat while escorting him, she felt something unusual about his eyes, something deep, dark and old behind them as if they had seen the end of the universe.

“Right here Mr. Smith, and do call me Twilight, do your friends call you John or what?”

“Oh my friends call me... The Doctor”

“Of Medicine, Doctor?”

“Of Everything.”

Twilight looked weirdly at The Doctor as if he had a giant Squid attached to his head, but then she looked into his eyes again seeing something familiar about it loving almost.

“Sure… I’ll just leave you be I’ll be back in about 2 hours. Feel free to wonder around the facility, You’ll hear over the intercom when you’re going to be ready”

The Doctor sent his regards to Twilight as she left him alone in his room as soon as she was out of earshot he got out his sonic screwdriver when it picked up a signal; he was looking for any temporal disturbances.

He ran out of his room turned around as if he was waiting for someone. Realizing he turned around and ran out to the cafeteria, he saw humans and ponies alike eating together he sighed knowing that this could end, it had to end.

He ran down to the basement passing 2 ponies that looked at him, steering clear of him. He saw a giant bulk head with a giant NO ENTRY, AUTHORIZED ENTRY ONLY. He took no notice to the sign and placed his Sonic Screwdriver onto the Bulk Head Hoof Identification panel.

A green light turned on and the bulk opened to reveal 7 ponies in white lab coats at control panels near a giant white wall, they all stared at this mysterious man. One pressed a button followed by a loud siren.

The doctor looked up and shouted

“OK GUYS, I find a Temporal Disturbance Right here, Now Nowey now now what could it be? Is it my Screwdriver failing and with incorrect readings? NO! It’s right here just as I suspected I KNEW there was something behind this… Now what could it be? Probably you’d Call it a magical teleporter right? Well I call it a TEMPERAL SHIFT oh yes, you-“

The doctor stoped when he heard the numerous clopping of several ponies going down in his direction the doctor ran towards the white wall stopping a meter in front of it. It was emitting a bright white light he dared not to touch it, then jumped onto a control panel next to it.

The ponies he heard came running into the room he knew 1 of the 4 that entered Twilight was in front of them

“What are you doing Mr. Smith? How did you get into here?”

“Please call me Doctor”

“Doctor Who? What? Doctor Smith?”

“No just the doctor”

“So, why are you here? Are you anti-pony? Wanting to stop this?”

“Oh no I’m no Pony hater in fact your land of Equestria sounds perfect, in every way Beautiful.

“Then why”

“Because this is not supposed to happen”

“Not happen?”

“Oh yes, this is supposed to be the very start of the second great and bountiful Human empire, Governments impose Forever peace, they Terraform the planet here to test if it works they succeed and go out to planets unknown making them habitable “

“But how can you say that would happen?”

“Because I was there, right now about 200 years back, my time”

“Your 200 years old? I don’t believe that”

“Well not 200… 900... And 3 no wait … 904”

“904? Are you insane?”

“No. I’m Timelord”

“Wait, Timelord? I remember reading something about that”

“he, would have thought but you are obviously a Pony of intellect, probably one of the most Intelligent non-Timelord I’ve ever met, and this just SCREAMS Invasion”

“What do you mean? We just want to be friends!”

I went into the future I saw every time period I saw after that, The Jagrafess, everything affiliated with satellite 5, EVERYTHING! I re-watched the destruction of the earth. THE EXACT SAME TIME PERIOD. But there was something wrong IT WAS GONE THE EARTH WAS GONE oh and with satellite 5? GONE TOO, You Twilight have changed History Everything humanity has ever done IT’S ALL GONE”

“How do you know it was us?”

“Because The TARDIS pinpointed this exact year and the only worthwhile thing that happened, was nothing the Entrance of the great and bountiful human empire was supposed to arrive 4 years ago, and you came 6 years before that, I know you did it, you’re the problem and if there is a problem I’m going to fix it but there is a problem and it’s huge and as big as this, well This is near impossible to fix Now Tell me? WHY ARE YOU HERE this didn’t just appear out of nowhere YOU PUT IT HERE,”

The ponies looked behind the doctor as the white light intensified and suddenly bowed

“What? Why are you bowing?”

“Oh doctor I haven’t seen you in a long time” said the bright white figure that was emerging out of the wall

The doctor could only get out a single what

“I am Princess Celestia; tell me you know my name, please”

“I well, your Princess of Equestria I know that much”

“Oh” said the princess recoiling as if she had just been offended

“What do you mean tell me you know my name?” Twilight Spoke

“You had came into equestria and saved us time and time again, all through my life you’ve been there if in trouble you were there to help us”

“I didn’t do tha.. Oh wait No Noooo no nonono NO! All this wibbly wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff AGH I hate it, See I haven’t meet you but My future self will most likely be there. But anyway tell me what you DOING HERE are?

“Us? We just wanted to help you humans, or shall I say Timelord, or perhaps from Gallefry?

No, I wouldn’t After all this I wouldn’t go help I mean COME ON You just erased 99.99% of human History, and that Princess, just made my enemy List.

“But, we wanted to help..”

NO! These humans solved all their problems pollution, War all of it in fact if you waited 2 YEARS! Just 2, the Second great and Bountiful human empire would have gone into the stars exploring with F.L.T. Speeds into the stars.

“I… I never heard you this angry since the Dalek Invasion”

“D..Dalek Invasion?”

“Yes the Daleks Invade along with the Cyb-

“DON’T TELL ME, you should know the rules”

“No. spoilers” said Celestia with her Eyes turning red

The doctor paused for a second he started to develop a tear in his eye

“Yes, BUT anyway lets go to equestria, If I need to solve my problems I’ll need to .. oh wait I need my TARDIS, I have an Idea to bring back Earth-”

“I’m sorry; through my time with you I learned that even if you go back in time stop this from happening that in it would cause a Paradox”

The doctor started to Cry, Celestia came towards him

“You always spoke highly of it and when we saw Humanity in trouble we had to help”

“By turning them into ponies? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT”

“I’m so sorry… I .. Didn’t know”

“I can’t forgive you but if history is locked here and I can’t do anything about it I have to go now, I lost my Planet My species, My Family and now The planet I always protected, gone why does the things I love always die?

The doctor jumped off the control panel walking past the ponies

“D..Doctor? Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. Back in time I guess, see you later”

“But doctor… I love you”

“Too bad”

As he said that Celestia Started to cry, heavily weeping as the doctor Passed twilight, he walked back to his TARDIS, she looked down as the ponies working looked astonished, they never saw here cry before. War has stricken the land and great Famines have threatened their entire existence. But she had always stood tall a leader and this doctor, reduced her to Tears

10 minutes had passed when the doctor walked back in overly happy with Celestia crying and Twilight comforting her

“You’re... Your back?” Celestia Said

“Well I just saved earth about I dunno? Over 100 times! And then after the 4th year after I last spoke to you I started to think, you were just trying to help, and by the 10th I thought Wow, Daleks in Equestria Who woulda-Thunk-it then

BAM

It came to me I need to go to equestria, but I guess only PONIES can goto equestria due to your magical barriers and stuff then BOOM again another thought I have solved every single problem that would ever happen in human history, I did have a sad period of I don’t know 3 years of moping around and other things but then OH! I can’t save humanity Nope which made me sad but never thought how Earth could just disappear but then I thought it again

BADOSH

I need to save Equestria from daleks and other Cyb- Oh wait I should say that Ah who gives a toss? The Timelords! Bah anyway Lets go to equestria!”

“But... Your Forgive me? For destroying earth?”

“Well I’m a bit mad but I forgave you almost Oh 9 years ago wait 9 years and 2 Months”

“But you’re not Pony? You can’t enter”

“But I realised that Earth will get destroyed I accepted that fact I know that Aliens will reduce this Lifeless planet To rubble and there is nothing I can do about it! So Allons-Y! anyway I thought that you could.. You know Change me into a pony?”

“But you we only had done this on Humans Never on Timelords”

“Oh that’s right we need to get my TARDIS into Equestria so that there can transport anything? Even my TARDIS? “

“I’ve seen it in Equestria so I guess so”

“Good then you lot in the corner just around the corner is my TARDIS go move it please”

“Huh why should we?” said a Grey Pony in the back”

“Celestia? Can you convince these ponies to move it for me?”

“Do as he says”

The grey pony grunted and got 5 other ponies to go get the TARDIS

“but doctor I don’t know if that would work..

“You’ve seen me as a pony, I KNOW I’m going to be a pony in the future, no matter what happens so? Why delay the inevitable?”

The doctor said Smiling looking towards the TARDIS being brought in

“Oh would just pushing that though work right?”

Twilight said aloud “I’ve been working on this and anything that goes through that portal will be transported to Equestria”

“Oh goodie, but before lets go into the TARDIS there you can hook yourself up and then turn me into a pony!”

“Wait You know how to do that?”

“Oh I asked you, in about 1 year you’ll again be greeted by me tell me how to do this when you see it ok?”

“Sure ok, so your letting me into your TARDIS? You have never done that before?

“Well then first times the charm”

“I thought it was third”

“Oi, shut it”

“Oh, doctor!”

They both entered into the TARDIS Celestia was astounded mouth wide open

“It’s, much bigger than I thought”

“What? Thought it would be small?

“You said it was bigger on the inside but I never thought like this, and this big… What is in here?

A Library, pool, orchid, biggest closet in the universe, Tennis Court, Stage also an attic, love the attic!

“You mean you have an entire World in this box the Small blue box

‘BIG blue box, now we need to get you hooked up and you’ll be exposed to the heart of the TARDIS

What do you mean?

I would need to open the heart of the TARDIS, in that it will give you the ability to change me into a pony, also you might… see … all of time ever … Ever … and everything… And become a god.

“A god?”

“Yeaaaa, last time a Timelord did that he turned into a god pretty much and a Unic no Peg no what do you call a Unicorn and Pegasus again, Alicorn? But anyway you with all that God powers and Magic with it, this is a big risk and apparently you get a bit crazy, a bit but you pass out after turning me into a pony.

“I promise I won’t do that”

“Oh when you see into the heart of the TARDIS you will know what I feel the world what will be not be what could happen but to a bigger extent a MUCH bigger extent the universe, your Universe in fact probably how Humanity solves it’s own problems, and that would drive anyone mad”

“But doctor, you’re not mad?”

“Oh you think I’m not mad? You must be lying about meeting me!”

The doctor said with a grin from Cheek to cheek

“But let’s do this TARDIS Allons-Y!, Celestia look right there that panel will open up and, you know the rest”

The heart of the TARDIS opened and the time vortex went into the eyes of Celestia

“My … God I can see, time, life and death… Your mind, Rose and your travels everything in the future you did I destroyed all those lives… dead because humanity ceases to exist along with you not doing it, my goARG”

“Come on whenever your ready, the longer you do this the more chance that you could die now come on!”

“but I.. I can stop all of this happening, all of it I could go change me ever coming here”

“NO, you can’t change history, IVE COME TO TERMS OF WHAT HAPPENED JUST just turn me into a pony,”

“I see a pony in Equestria, Ro- AH I need to do this, let’s go doctor”

“Ok let’s go”

The doctor started to levitate and slowly turn into a pony his Legs changed first it was as if his legs were on fire, it burned and as he looked down  he saw where his legs used to be now hooves he saw a cutie mark of a Sand Glass appear on his thigh

“Oh how original” he commented

Now his body started to change his spine and waist started to crumple and collapse with the doctor in pain he was screaming all the way though it the pain relieved when it got to his head he felt his face elongate and his ears grow and this coat started to appear, along with his hair growing into a mane, he looked at his new body and his new hooves and the clothes that barley fitted him anymore

Celestia dropped him with a clunk

“Oi that hurt, oh wait my voice it’s change it’s as if I just regenerated well lets see oh”

He realized that Celestia was lying on the ground weeping he walked but fell over next to her

“Ouch, this might get some use to”

He got back up and brought her next to him

“Look into my eyes Celestia”

“But I can save earth; I can save the Timelords-

“Oh god no don’t do that they hate me you should know that”

But look at me, LOOK AT ME

She looked towards the doctor then as she glanced the time and space the heart of the TARDIS entered the doctor he got up and transferred it back to the TARDIS, he gasped for air and fell to the ground

Celestia walked up to him and laughed oh doctor don’t worry you’ll get use… Doctor are you ok?

“Shhtand bauuck AH”

“What’s happening?”

“Regenerating, lucky that it didn’t kill me”

“oh doctor I hope your going to be ok”

“Don’t worry, I live remember?”

“Yes, so all that time you knew this you knew that we’d meet up now and didn’t bother to tell me”

Sss”

“Spoilers?”

“Shhh

“What?

“Schut up and stand back please”

As she stranded back he burst into flames pouring out of him, the TARDIS filled with these golden particles, every went white and then it disappeared and the doctor was there unchanged.

“You told me when you regenerate you change form into a different look”

“I did and I didn’t change, how odd?”

“But lets get this TARDIS into Equestria Ill just fly it in ok? Wanna stay in here?

“Yes, that be fun”

“You’ll feel a bit, Quezy

“I’ll be fine”

“Whatever no stopping you then if your going to be in here just flick that switch there

You mean this one?

No, that would cause the TARDIS to explode

This one?

We’d be calling the queen of England

Ok then this one?

Yep! Flick it on and off when I say

FLICK IT ON

As he said that the TARDIS started to fly slowly towards the portal then floated off the ground and straight into the portal. they appeared in a field in Ponyville almost crashing into some control panels

The TARDIS flew straight up and into the sky as they did that they both looked out of the door and saw all of Ponyville, and a couple of Passing by Pegasus’s

“Sorry Ladies, Royal flight” the doctor said

“Yes, oh Rainbow Dash, yes? Good I ran into you Tell Twilight to go back to Ponyville”

“Ok Celestia, she over on Earth?”

“Yes, go now please”

Dash gave a salute and flew off

“I hate Salutes” The doctor said

“Funny, so do I” Said Celestia Smiling

“I think we need some music! How does the Eurythmics Sound?”

“We have a Ponythmics”

“So then that’s a yes?”

“Oh yea Favourite band”

The doctor used his sonic screwdriver to turn on the sound what emitted was the song “Sweet Dreams”

“Favourite song!”

“Mine too!”

The doctor walked back to the control panel, mouthing the lyrics, half clopping half dancing activating the control panel taking them back to the ground

They repapered back on the ground, both laughing they looked into each others eyes

“I need to go now” the doctor said while looking at the control panel

“Where? We are having so much fun I’ve never experienced this sort of entertainment since“

“Your Past, you said I was there though out all you life what is it? 1000 years when was the 1st time I saw you?

“When I was a Filly I was playing a Field and I was being chased by Wolfs, you saved me”

“Well then you might want to exit the TARDIS because I have A Silly Filly to save”

Celestia Smiled and walked out of the TARDIS

“Am I going to see you again?” she asked

“Very soon for you, probably 5 minutes but I’m normally horrible with that sort of thing, it might be awhile but I’ll be back just you wait”

“And you would have done everything, seen all that I saw when I was with you?”

“Yep, just think that you need to wait for the time that you saw me and you’ll be pleasantly surprised, I might miss out on some things but most of it I will see”

“Goodbye, Doctor”

“Also have you ever seen a Banana?”

THE ENDZ

ATTAF: Bisexual Poni

IT ENDS. 7/28-7/31

Rules:

Don’t delete OTHERS’ text, or you will be CRIMINAL SCUM. FOREVER. AND A DAY N’ A HALF.

Stay classy, no rule 34 or cupcakes level grimdark. The End/Ten Rounds level grim dark is a-ok. At least by my book.

Have fun, and if you aren’t the creative type you can enjoy the wide variety madness.

Try to tie in TCB themes...

Wow we screwed this up.

No kidding.

AEIOU

JOHN MADDEN

I just have to say I love you guys.

SECTIONS OF MADNESS:

AKA: THE CHAPTERS:

I don’t know what we’re supposed to do here so bleh.

Pretty much nothing we’ve done so far.

I’m fairly certain we’ve accomplished something, but nothing good.

I meant along the lines of what we’re supposed to do...

Those who wish to be the little pony: YOU. ADMIT IT YA?

Krass McWriter

Ditzy Doo.

HiddenBrony? Who wrote the epic adventure of JOHN SPARKLY.

Eractick (I ADMIT NUTHING! [Cept procrastinating on writing])

Oh lawdy it’s Anonsi

Sir Issac Johnington wasn’t here. Nope.

Windchaser, that guy who never shuts up.

firsttimeponywriter aka the useless asshole who can never keep to deadlines

SonicBoom01, author of More, AKA the story that no one knows about and/or reads :c

Or SB, for short.

This is the part where small time authors like me go “OSHIZ WE’RE WITH ANONSI AND KRASS

NOT THAT KRASS IS ANY GOOD.

Videomaster was here. But he really only watched.

He wasn’t here if he didn’t do anything.

There! Videomaster did something. So there!

Cabal made the pokemon refs.

Mray was here. It was Meta.

Midnight Shadow is on the moon again. Mooning.

Just some guy who talked to Sonic

R1NGmasterJ5, who copy-pasted his own trollfic.

Just some random person who did nothing except type this.

RENALDO, MAN OF MYSTERY!

PonySoldier contributed a snippit or two.

Sonic is in here too. Try and Find him!

I am feeling stupid tonight, why the hell not, Anon was here

AND NOW FOR THE SHOW. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ANYPONY.

John Sparkle was Twilight sperkle’s brother and he was working in lab. Suddenly, john Sparkles got amil from Twilight saying he need help with ursa and nightmars. so John sparkly went to the roof of his secrkit underground lab and got on his motersicle and took off his large white labcoat which was would be badace but would wind slow down him.

John took off from the roof which was still higher than normal ground and did awesome trics toward ground as he hit ramp offthe roof. hitting rocket thrusters on his cycle he kept himself in air and s[ed fast toward Twinight sparkl an dwent real fast! John Sparkle revved his mostercycle and made go faster so he could get to his sister on time! hitting the ground real hard the bike skidded but john knew wat he doing and then kept going faster

The hillds onn way to Twilight sparkl’s home was peaceful and NICE. the plants were alive with the smwells of poisonjoke and ahppkles. However as he drive the policecrerage saaw him and started driving after him. John turn back and saw cop and did not know what do. slowing his cehicle down and and turing next to police John shouted he needed to get to Twiligh fast! but police ofcer wwas a shadowblot and told John sparkle to “PULL OVER!” John was like “Oh no, you arw shadowbolt ofcer!” and the officer was like, “Ha ha ha”.

John Sparkle was like, “I am a sparkly and that mans I am magic. I have to live up to family name and beat the enemys!” And then he shot magic web all over the police carbolt and then it was magic so it stopped the shadowbolt car and then he crashed into sign. John laughed trioomphsantly and laughed at his enemy as he died from frie. John Sparkly then wwent really fast withis magic and soon came to his sister Sparkle homein Ravenhorn. but when he got there there awre z-z-zombie p-poys.

There were zombie ponys everwhere and they were some pegasis and other unicron like his siter. John Sparkle felt sad beacause zombie pony meant they were rel pony once and thery were ded now so they were not alive any more. However he culd not stay sad and had to kill the zomby for his sister and then jumped off his motorcycle and shot ponies with magic while he the motercycle flew and ran over other ponies and brought a house down over a group of zombie. John laughed but heard scrwam of his sister Twilight Sprakle and ran real fast toward noise but found zombi in his way so he shot them with magic. but these ones were diferent as they laughed and said they were anti-magic pony.

John yelled in sadness as he soon found a wepon and shot it at the big zombies. The big zomby was weak to the weapon and they soon began to explode and John was sad because they were zomby and could not be not zombiBut soon there was another scream and John knew time was not much so he ran quick toward Twilight and soon found her battling big boss monster. “That is not ursa” John screamed. “Ino, it is manticore!’

And then they faught the lion monster with the scopian tail and shot it with their magics. but this one had antimagic as well as it laughed at the ponies. “Only gun can kill me and you are ponies!” But then John said, “I am pony and can become uman!” reaching in his labcoat John took drink of green drink and became human, pickingup gun and shooting manticore in the eyes! Twilight sparkle saaid “Oh thanks you John, how did you become human and shoto him?”

John laughed as he put gun down an said “I work in secrit lab and I make potion so pony can use gus t o save other pony from monsters. “ And then John Sparkle took drink of purple potion and baecame pony again as he had to drop gun as he was no longer human. “But now I have magic so its better now.” “You could have got here earlyer John.” Twilight laughed and john laughed but soon looked up as he saw big ursa foot come down. “Oh no!” He yelled as Twilight looked up too. “Oh no you must got out of her quick” and then John ran away but Twilight soon stepped on by big ursa, John turned around and saw and became mad.

“Oh ursa, I am mad now. and you will regret it! I am goig to fight you now!:

TO BE CONTINUOOD?

Krass wrote Azure Future. Sack = Instant awesome. Also john convinced azure to take drugs. He thought it was a sleeping pill but he was unsure

John was doing something. In his money room. It was horrid.  He finished his something. The horror quickly passed from his mind. Then PER gave him a flank you card.

It said, “happy birthday John, welcome to DIE!”

And then the card was a cobra. And it exploded. Twice. And Hawk kissed twilight. The wedding was oversaw by twilight (but not the sparkly kind), and it was an absolutely lovely ceremony. Unfortunately, Nazi time travelers appeared in the middle of the reception, and their time machine crashed onto the wedding cake that Applejack, Rarity, and Barnes had spent so long baking.

“Damn you nazi scum!” yelled Hawk as he punched Hitler in the face, “You have ruined my one day of not killing anyone!” Suddenly Hawk remembered that he left his gun in his coat. Thankfully Twilight could summon that shit up for him and she did. Suddenly Zorro swung in through a stained glass window with a knife in his teeth and his sword in his other hand.

“I got this senior amigo Hawk! Go on your Honeymoon with your pony girlfriend!”

“Okay” And Hawk and Twilight stole the Nazi Time machine and transported to I dunno, Venice, and hot super hot uhh...this is  a christian comic so...sex. They had many centaur children? Maybe. I am not really sure how it works. Maybe they had a human child with a unicorn horn or something.

But then the king of homosex said unto his people, “Well, I think Azure is gay.” And there was much rejoicing from the populace of the kingdom of San Francisco that day. And the sales of wonderbolt pinups went up by 9001%. Then Azure dated Big Mac, for he is the rainbow dash of m/m shipping. Then John and Hawk kissed, and it was hot sauce flavored.

in b4 Krass hardon. Oh wait, too late.

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY. Because hot sauce is saucy. That was a metaphor for KrassXAnonsi.

I freakin’ knew it. It is now official. SUPPORT. Then they got married in the spring.

in after Krass hardon. Hell. even the Inb4 was too late...

__________________________________________________________________

Waking up, the boy found himself in a cold sweat, overlooking the end of his bed as he quickly slapped his hand over his face, assuring himself that it was all a dream. He noticed he needed to clean his sheets. Blinking hard, he turned toward the window, catching the first rays of sunlight which peaked over the city’s horizon. Sliding his feet out of the covers, John walked up towards his blinds and closed then, shaking his head. There was no use in heading back to sleep, John thought. He wondered when he developed multiple personalities.ate a cupcake. It tasted like rainbows. Rainbow sprinkles. And sweat.

Picking up his note, John looked over the last works of Mark Twain with an eager eye.

FINE! Videomaster came in, and he said. “Hey! I Should do something!” So he did, and thus he was here. THE END.

“THIS MAN WAS A GENIUS.” He exclaimed, slapping his hand on his head. Then he took acid. That is he picked it up in his hands and threw it away. No drugs for HIM no siree!

Looking at the blue slush before him, he paused. His mind ablaze from the adrenaline of the moment, he screamed out: “I WANT TO BE THE LITTEL PONY!” He threw the serum down his throat, chasing it with pure vodka. Like a boss. Then he died. Because he was an idiot, and a pussy. Idiot for chasing with vodka, and a pussy cause he begged for death after watching his thumbs disappear.

BUT NO, he did not stay dead! Through the mystical powers of the Nyphelem cluster crystals, Twilight swoops in through the window in the completely isolated ponification room, blasting his half transformed body with neutron rays, bringing him back to life as the littel pony.

AND THUS, HYPER TWILIGHT WAS BORN. THEN SHE EXPLODED. TWICE.

AND THEN THEY FUCKED. LESBIAN BEBES. LESBIAN BEBES EVERYWHERE. Because gender switching is completely normal for a trans-species metamorphosis. After (s)he and HYPER-twilight finished having teh secks, they feasted on their foul brood of offspring, like normal spiders. HYPER-Spider-Twilight looked to her waifu through her eighteen eyes longingly. Then she devoured her whole.

“I want another waifu! Why must I eat all of mine? Why do i crave the flesh of those who love me?” she cried through her poisonous HYPER-mandibles.

Author’s Note: This is the part where we all decided to get high and write. Viewer discretion is advised.

Anonsi did not get high. He is just weird. Neither did Windhcaser. He’s just messed up in the head.

Dear Princess Celestia,

aeiou. aeiou. JOHN MADDEN  JOHN MADDEN JOHN MADDEN. aaaabbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbr

Gtfo out of our story, John. Go fat up Gabe Newell’s office. 9 9 9, 9 9 9, 9 9 9,

Nineball. RAWRGH SUPRESSED MEMORIES.

AND THEN, AFTER THE WORLD HAVE BEEN CLEANSED OF HUMANS AND MADE WHOLE AGAIN, the pegasus pony from Jupiter opened a new Anti-conversion bureau so the humans could come back. Why Azure would do that I’ll never know. Actually I was talking about Windchaser. Gawd. I mean... ‘Celestia...’ No, silly the unicorn in my story! :D Oh. GUYS. PHOENIX WRIGHT CONVERSION BUREAU RIGHT NOW. OH MY GOD YESSSSSSS AWESOME. I’VE NEVER ACTUALLY PLAYED THEM, BUT I’VE WATCHED THEM PLAYED.

CROSSOVER WITH LAYTON.

That reminds me of a very clever puzzle. WE MUST SOLVE IT. LUKE, GO DISTRACT THAT PROSTITUTE WITH YOUR FEMINIE WILES. I CANNOT HAVE A ROGUE PAIR OF TITS DISTRACTING ME FROM COUNTING THESE PUMPKIN SEEDS.

Can they even make a Great Pumpkin? PEANUTS GANG! PEANUTS GANG CONVERSION BUREAU CROSSOVER WITH PHOENIX WRIGHT.

-Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle.

P.S. GOTTA MOVE THAT GEAR UP.

Dear Twilight,

You really must stop smoking the Poison Joke.

And sending me letters when you’re high like fuck.

Luna can’t stop laughing, or take off socks anymore.

She laughed them straight off, man! STRAIGHT OFF. Her legs included.

Balls, it looked like it hurt. Good thing I got it on tape.

And I don’t even know what Balls are.

Whatever. Just quit smoking the reefer. Or else I’ll impale you with my phallic penis-horn.

Your loving mentor,

Molestia.

AKA

Queen Autumnglow Orion-Aurora Marmalade Esq. the CLVXXVIII Jr.

AKA

Trollestia

AKA

Yr MOM

AKA

Krass McWriter (trololololololol)

AKA

Twilight Sparkle

AKA

Midnight’s Evil Twin

AKA

Mephistopheles

AKA

Bob

AKA

Midnight-turned-filly

AKA

Ditzy “Derpy” Doo

AKA

The Goddamn Batman

***

(No, I don’t know what I’m doing here below, and it’s probably suck and not fun, but let me finish first plz?)

MANLYITALICS. So, like, Earth was doing totally shit. Climate change being the big shit that was gonna kill everyone first, but that didn’t change the facts of corporations overtaking governments in power, AI’s and robotics putting everyone out of work, and January 17th (Damn I’m horrible for making a fictional event-date) being just as big-ass worries that were going to kill everyone and destroy humanity and stuff. Not to mention those old problems of poverty and hunger and Nuclear...... Humans have always had a little problem with working together in Harmony, yea? Anyways, going back to climate change, the Omega storm was an impossibly huge hurricane, forming at the north pole and threatening to smash North America back into the stone age. Then PONIES SAID SAVED EVERYONE THE END. *Facepalms* I give up.

Ok, I guess I suck at writing. I had an idea for something like stuff happening right before Ponification became possible, the whole thing of how it get’s invented, and then what happens after that for a bit and stuff. FIrst problem I have is that if it was doen properly it would be massive and I suck at writing, second problem is this thing isn’t supposed to have any serousness at all and I suck at writing, and third is that I can’t make an EPIC INTRO without sounding like I’m ripping off people who don’t suck at writing.

Ok, I suck and I’m done. *Sigh*

But thats what writing is all about! PLAGARISM EVERYWHAR!!!

You got all this done, and all we did was have some drunken ramblings. Sounds about right.

Also, this fic needs more Colin Mochrie. And lesbians. It needs about 3 more lesbians.

We already have Twilight. Add some Dash and Trixie and we’re done.

Rainbow Trixie suddenly saves the world. Sounds about right. WAIT NO THAT WAZ A JOKEZZZZ

“Trixie can go die in a hole.” Said SB, in all his infinite wisdom. And she did. There was much rejoicing.

No there wasn’t! That’s awful, said Twilight, so brought Trixie back to life and had a lot of fun in the hottub.

(Gah, teh suck)

It looks like we all ate a dictionary and all at the same time barfed up words on the page.

Erac (only poor ideas remain)

CHAPTER # SLEEP DEPRIVED, POOR IDEA

“So . . . It’s safe?” the man said swirling the blue liquid around ”Isn’t Ponification serum supposed to be, I dono . . . PURPLE ?!” he said turning to the short plump tan skinned man in front of him. “And you know not in 20 oz bottle that has Mountain Dew written on it?”

“Hey, you no want to go through ponies seven day program you gotta take potion thats a little” the man paused for a moment in thought “Past, the expiration date ☢.” he said with a smile.

“Well here goes” he said

****

He awoke 3 hours later, the only noticeable difference being he was now handcuffed to a lamp post outside the bureau. Looking down he noticed the next startiling thing, he was left wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, and was sporting some new ink, H.L.F it read across his chest

“DAMMIT” he cried out “I had like 40 bucks in that wallet. “AND THATS THE THIRD AND LAST FUCKIN PAIR OF PANTS I HAD!” The man looked around at the gathering of both people and ponies “Can one of you kindly get a hack saw or something. I’m kinda stuck” He tried to say, but the words only came out as a gurgle,and a sound similar to metal scraping on asphalt, as he tried to ask for help.

“Naw he’s one of them crazy H.L.F. protesters. . . Why else would he be chained here?” he heard one of the ponies say “And what with them crazy noises he’s making?”

“I’ll show you crazy!” He tried to yell, but instead came out as a piercing Squeal not unlike that of stuck pig. He lunged at the equine menace, who didn’t even flinch as his finger tips came with in inches of the pony’s eyes. he redoubled his attempts to get his hands round the smirking pony’s neck

“Yeaup, defiantly one of them real crazy ones.” said the pony with a smirk.”Whelp best get some help. . . after a lil lunch o course” he said before trotting away with a smile.

The man sat there in thought “I can’t get caught by the police the man sat there  MUST.ESCAPE.BEFORE.THE.FUZZ.GET.HERE!”in thought “I can’t get caught by the police looking like this “All right” He thought to himself “Loggers do this all the time” he thought looking at his bound hands and the light post. He smiled as he began to shimmy up the pole. Nearly losing his grip and calm as someone bounced a bit of his back, he grimaced putting the thoughts of the laughs of the crowd as he swung the chain over the top and slid out over the street. He cringed as he heard people shouting to get some sticks for the quote “pinata” . . . And thats when he saw the flashing lights of the crusier. as two cops got out with the biggest shit eating grins any would ever see he let out one last piercing phrase as they came to take him away.

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCK!!!!!” As he saw them level a Harpoon gun towards him

CH 2: Then there was a 9th sun.

Krass walked into the conversion bureau with a massive hangover. He had lost a drunken bet the last night and now had to get ponified. He cut in line, punched rarity in the face, and drank the potion.

And suddenly: a spider.

DUN. DUN. DUNNNNNN.

Before Krass knew what had happened, the spider was all up in his face. He screamed like a little girl and fell backwards onto the ground, banging his head on the edge of a chair knocking him out cold.. Then he woke up as an alicorn. Also a filly. Then Azure had a mother again. Who was his father, which was awesome.

Before anyone could identify this new alicorn filly, who was insanely rich, Celestia and Luna walked up to her and said to her, “We have always wanted to adopt, but did not want to get attached to a mortal. Sorry Twilight.”

Twilight started crying and cutting her wrists and shopping at hot topic and dressed in gothic clothing. Then fluttershy adopted scootaloo, who had dead parents, but still abused her from beyond the grave. For everypony loves scootabuse. But they love scootalove even more. than feces. Which still ranks above scootabuse. but not by much. BUT IT STILL DOES. Let me put this into a mathematical equation: Scootalove>Feces>Scootabuse. QED.

Rainbow Dash.

that is all.

Anyway, as filly Krass the Alicorn looked up at her new parents she began to say, “Gosh golly gee wilikers I need to change my eyeballs! It’s like I can’t stare directly at you or else my eyes will bleed!” Then Krass usurped pinkie pie.

and then Twilight burst out of her library with a rocket launcher crying tears of blood. She had gone full gothic and dryly screamed, “No I will make you bleed tears of suffering and pain!” and then she began to cut herself as she shoot at Krass Alicorn filly with a rocket. Krass then unwrit twilight from forever. For she was the goddess of reality.

But then Luna shouted “NOOO I LUVE HER” and she died.

And then they all FUCKED. because someone knew what ATTAF meant.

And they had zombie pony babies. That controlled all the boogers ever.

CH 3: Electric scootaloo

There was a sudden crack, followed by the smell of ozone and dust, a table and a pair of chairs materialized out of light among the chaos. A pair of characters sat at the setup, a suited man with metallic skin and fiber-optic hair, and a tan pegasus, with a dirty blond mane, and a cutie mark of five intersecting lightning bolts.

“See?” The man in the suit began, taking a large drink from a glass of what appeared to be soda which, as he set it down, instantaneously refilled from the bottom, “It’s happening now.”

“What?”

“Our universe is crossing over with several others in a sub-space interaction, likely due to multiple creator entities engaging in a single universe simultaneously.”

“You mean our author just decided to start writing in a shared document?” The pegasus glanced around, at the surrounding activity, spiders and zombie pony babies from the current perspective, “Ours doesn’t seem much like the other areas.”

“That’s because I’m not very good at this,” A third chair and character had materialized at the table, “Or rather, I’m not very experienced with this kind of interaction.”

“Another thing: We haven’t even begun to talk about subspace yet in our native fic, won’t this just confuse a bunch of people? Especially since you haven’t even released a chapter with me as a pony yet.”

“Probably, but I find it difficult to resist an open opportunity to go ‘meta’”

The pegasus nodded, “One more thing: Five lightning bolts for a cutie mark? Really?” He glanced at his flank, “That doesn’t strike you as kind of...what’s the word? Stu-ish, Sue-ish?”

“Same here,” The man in the suit picked up, “I mean, fiber optic hair? Where it’s white and the tips are glowing? Our series isn’t going to pull a Fragments and switch from a world-building/character driven work to some insane, utterly out of left field OP-OC fest is it?”

Sorry Videomaster, couldn’t resist. The author typed before looking back up at the two characters, “No, no, no. Nothing of the sort is going to happen. I wont spoil anything, but there will be no fiber-optic hair or the like in the main fic.”

The two gave a sigh of relief, before the man in the suit asked, “So why are we like this here?”

“It’s simple actually, you two aren’t actually the characters from my fic. You’re caricatures of my characters. Created for this crossover,” He smiled, “Notice how I haven’t given you names here,” he said, pointing to the above text.

The pegasus and man’s eyes widened as they looked up at the previous paragraph and lines of dialogue, “Son of a...”

“Now there’s no need for that.”

“So...” The man nodded slightly, “If we’re just one-shot characters, based off of the extended characters from the main fic … what’ll happen to us after you’re done writing.”

“The same thing that happens to all one-shot OCs in fanfiction I suppose...” The author shrugged, “You’ll be enjoyed, or hated for a while, but you’ll swiftly be forgotten as other, newer, better (Or, occasionally, worse_ pieces of fanfiction are written.”

The pegasus frowned, “That’s...rather depressing...”

“If it helps, when people read the future scene I’m basing this off of, they’ll remember you.” The author paused, “Assuming they’ve read this one of course.”

There was another pause, before the two characters nodded, “Okay.” They said in unison.

“Great. Now, It’s a quarter past midnight...so...”

“You’ve got to go to bed soon,” The pegasus finished for him, “We understand, just write us a good sendoff would you?”

“Will do.” The author vanished, back to his keyboard.

The man in the suit lifted his glass of endless soda, “Well, it’s been fun.”

The pegasus lifted his own glass of water (How? He wasn’t sure and didn’t really care, he was a one-shot OC) clinking it with his counterpart’s, “Wait, seriously? My last drink as a character is going to be water?”

The pegasus lifted his own glass of La Tâche 1929 (How? He wasn’t sure and didn’t really care, he was a one-shot OC) clinking it with his counterpart’s, “Same here friend, same here...”

As the two drank, the smell of ozone surrounded them, and with a flash and a crack of light and sound, they disappeared, and the story continued as if they’d never been there.

And suddenly: a bigger spider. It was almost a whole inch!

DUN DUN DUNNNNNN! Even though its implied and not particulailary said.

Hey guys what’s goin’ on down here?

Spiders. Which gives me an idea.

As long as you don’t get a boner.

One day, Azure was eating a sandwich. As he chewed, he noticed a certain quality about the peanut butter that had not been in previous sandwiches he had enjoyed in times past. Regarding the sandwich, he deduced that the odd sensation his mouth was experiencing was due in no small part to the hundreds of spiders that had made their home in his afternoon lunch.

“Oh my!” said the small pegasus as small black widows escaped his mouth in droves, skittering down his cheeks and throat. “Terribly sorry chaps!” he continued, “I do say I did not notice had set up you domiciles in my sandwich!”

“No problem at all!” quoth the arachnids, “For our brood mother has recently made the acquisition of real-estate for our use in you stomach!”

“Dear me!” spoke the gentleman Azure, “That won’t do at all I’m afraid.”

Spoke a gentlemanly spider, “Well I offer my condolences to your unfortunate inheritance of this conundrum, but I fear there is no way to stop the spread of my kin amongst your innards sir.”

And so it was that Azure soon found himself being eaten alive from within by spiders. Fortunately, he was secretly Wolverine of the X-Men, and regenerated later that day in time to attend his favourite of the operas.

CHAPTER INTERMISSION.

“Stitch by stiiiitch, stitching it together~” The sing-song voice rang, a new fabric on her mind as she spun around, tassles and strips of cloth circling about her feminine form as the seamstress worked about her new dress idea. Oh, surely the Hoity Toity fashion company would notice her for sure now! Reaching for a strip of silvermoon fabric, she admired it’s light sparkle as she brought it up next to her sewing machine. Placing it next to the pale blue fringe, she was about to start the machine up when a knock on her door broke her concentration. Spinning about, the seamstress removed her ‘barista’ glasses and placed them lazily on the table. Bolstering her appearance for her next customer, she tried not to think about how in the zone she was. “Come iiiiinnnn~!” She called.

“Jewel? Are you in here?” A young voice called, giving the seamstress a smile.

“In the shop, Belle~!” The woman called, standing up on her legs as she quickly walked to the door, excited to see her little sister. Swinging open the door, her smile faltered a little as she saw that her kin had not come alone. “Oh, hello there Blossom.” Jewel’s smile twitched as she looked over the pair of girls. The one she registered as her sister was wearing a small, puce and white school-girl’s uniform, but the other girl was wearing a yellow shirt and blue overalls. Casting a cursory glance about her door, the elder sister shot a quizzical look toward the girls. “What, no third Crusader today?”

Blossom shook her head sadly. “Nah, she was all excited ‘bout that cool girl at the skatepark, the one with the rainbow helmet.” Shrugging, the farm girl’s bright red hair bounced about, light and curly enough to even earn an envious stare from Jewel. How a simple farm girl could be blessed with such locks was beyond her, especially since she was related to Jack, the hardworking blonde out at Sweet Apple Acres, her mortal enemy.

Well, not mortal enemy so much as polar opposite. The two seemed to stay civil in conversation, especially considering their mutual friends, but two people you could never find more different. Even still, Jewel knew that her sister and Belle were friends, so no petty differences would get in the way of her hosting.

“Jewel, I was wonderin’ if you could help me design some sort of scarf or cape for me ‘n the crusaders!” Belle asked, not missing a beat. It wasn’t too often her little sweetie came to visit, her parents living on the other side of New York, but when she did she hardly asked for anything. Jewel was elated that her sister even asked that she help with the design, meaning her little sister was interested in design!

AND THEN THEY ALL FUCKED. NEW CHAPTER.

CH 4:The Ballad of McDrunk, The Ornery Scotsman

McDrunk was drunk again. He had downed three entire crates of shitty Jersey made vodka, the kind that most would use for paint thinner before as alcohol. McDrunk stumbled around outside a large building, running into all the little ponies. He kicked many of them in the ribcages out of spite, but mostly for joy. Because without the sadistic glee of kicking innocent marshmallow ponies in the ribcages, he felt empty. Alone.

McDrunk wanted a new life, one where he didn’t want to have to live up to his namesake every waking hour of every day. He didn’t do it because he needed to. He could stop any time. He just liked to. He wanted to. Feeling drunk made him feel alive. He wondered if ponies could get drunk.

Taking one of the cringing ponies on the ground, McDrunk force-fed the pony a bottle of his strongest everclear. Within seconds, the pony was on all four hooves, his eyes in a drunken haze, eventually loosing all color altogether. McDrunk stared into the luminous white orbs, losing himself in his childhood memories.

He saw his father pushing him on a swing in the local park, his mother in a trashbag next to the trashcan. His father had taken him to the park to keep him from crying so much when he e witnessed his father mercilessly butcher his mother before his very eyes. But he got a swing ride and ice cream out of it, so he wasn’t complaining too much.

Young McDrunk was then given a 40 and a gun.

And then I exploded. And it was awesome. The end.

But wait, the story doesn’t end there. We  now go to the everfree forest where the everfree conversion bureau was undergoing construction. What horrors laid within its underground candy caverns, which contained the three spirits of the omnicron.

“YOU WILL NEVER GET THE OMNICRON” screamed the pony.

“No Johnny” Mr steel beam sighed. “You are the omnicron”.

“FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF” screamed Johnny the pony. “how do I not be the omnicron?”

“You must become a rainbow!”

“How do I become a rainbow?”

“DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY, CROSS THE SKY! YEAH YEAHAHAHA. OMG!”

And then Johnny became a Rainbow. And not an omnicron... for he was the Double Omnicron Rainbow. And none would ever, go anywhere near the building again.

Meanwhile Somebody talked to Mr McDrunk...

“You are not a bad person, McDrunk. You are just very drunk. You need to stop trying to have sex with me.” Waking with a start, McDrunk saw that he was in the middle of trying to remove his pants. Stuffing everything back to where it belonged, he bid the extremely intoxicated pony a fond farewell. Aparrently, ponies become gods when they got drunk, causing any human looking into their eyes to discover the true causes of their corruption in their life.

But that wasn’t important. McDrunk was starting to feel sober again, and this simply would not do. So he hightailed it to the nearest liquor store and drank all the beer. ALL OF IT.

And then McDrunk was drunk once more. And things were right in the world. Or as right as they could be when it involved a man kicking ponies in the chest. I mean what the hell man? Thus, Drunken McDrunk, as redundant as that sounds, started to stagger to the next liquor store, because he was already not drunk enough. He also took the drunken pony with him, because otherwise he might go about staring other people in the eyes and then that would be bad. So McDrunk started to drink with luna, who was a light weight. Unfortunately she cheated with her magic, and McDrunk was in the drinking competition of his life.

He till won due to being scottish and never below .2 blood alcohol level since he was five. Then he retold that story like a million time because he out drank a goddess.

Luna did not like this, and sent him to the moon! And back in time. Where he met ghost Lee Harvey Oswald. In classic Scottish fashion, he challenged the ghost to a drinking contest. It turned out luna had left quite a stash there. After drinking the ghost under the table, he took his wallet and keys. He then jumped in the ghost car, and drove back to earth. Then he challenged Celestia to a drink of scotch!. He opened up by chugging all of the earths liquor and then won by default.

But Celestia wasn’t about to have that and so she took all of her sun liquor stash and drank that, because unlike Luna she wasn’t a lightweight. McDrunk was in trouble, he had no more liquor. So he drove back to the moon to get the rest of the moon liquor but was was stopped by a space cop for DUI. Not that it stopped him, because he out drank the cop too. Then he got ALL the moon liquor and drank that too. He then turned all the oceans into liquor and drank that too. It waa the third drunkest he had ever been. Then he went partying with Luna and Celestia, and everyone was happy again.

Except McDrunk, because he couldn’t kick marshmallow ponies in the ribs anymore. OR COULD HE?!?

To be continued?

Dear sister,

Today I learned a very important lesson about friendship. I leaned that sending your sister to the moon when she was having an off day instead of just talking to her like a normal pony would is seriously a dick move. Seriously. What the fuck.

Sincerely Luna.

PS: I raped Twilight while you weren’t looking. And I unsorted your CD collection.

Dear sister,

Today Twilight told me of her wonderful night with you at the club. Apparently, she was all into some submissive shit and was quite happy when you went all dominatrix on her. By the way, a thousand years is a long time to think and research new spells.

Enjoy your new foal,

Celestia

Dear Sister,

Bitch, I’m the goddamn Batman.

Best wishes,

Luna.

Chapter 4 ½ and two thirds

Anonsi sat typing at his computer and quietly sipped his tea. ‘This is some wierd ass shit I’m doing’ he thought as he looked at the shared document he was typing in. “Wait a second,” he said as he noticed something, “I’m going all meta! NOOOO!” For going meta was the most terrible of terrible things Anonsi could do.

And then a terrible thing happened.

A spider appeared.

YES MOAR SPIDERS

SPIIIIIIDDEEEEEERRRS.

GORRAMIT NO.

need moar spiders up in this bitch.

NO MORE

I CAN’T

GOD

NO

Come on. You know you want to.

Spiders are all bossonova.

Ch 5: TRIPLE RAINBOWS AND CTHULU

SUDDENLY. FILLYTWILIGHT. diabeetus.

OH MY GOD PICTURES WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?

THAT’S RIGHT. I JUST CHANGED THE GAME.

Chapter 6: In which Anonsi actually sits down and writes Yellowstone the Series Episode 4 PFFFFT HAHAHA NEVER GONNA HAPPEN

It was a deception I admit.

Johnathan Doe entered the Conversion Bureau of Wyoming. Wyoming was so vacant of life, that the entire state had only one bureau.

“I’m here to become a pony,” said Johnathan.

“Sign here,” replied a pink and blue pegasus, “and here and here.”

Johnathan signed where he was showed, and then was escorted to a waiting room. After a week, he got ponified. And nobody cared.

The End.

Epilogue: JOHN THEN SAVED THE WORLD AND BECAME PONY DANTE.

“Are you sure the ponification potion is supposed to be rainbow coloured?”

“Oh, its just the one that makes you more homosex than rainbow dash.”

Chapter : In which Krass discovered his true calling

Derpy solved all math ever. With muffins. These muffins were no ordinary muffins. They were baked with true love. And with arsenic. She fed the muffins to her daughter and asked her nicely to solve the maths for her. Then she would provide the antidote. But little did Dinky Doo know, there is no antidote for arsenic. It’s poison. Moral of the story: don’t be a dumb bitch and eat arsenic flavored muffins.

After Dinky’s funeral, Derpy flew off into the wild wild west, intent on finding the killer of her beloved daughter. She vowed to get revenge, but after killing all of the outlaws and saving thousands of lives, she could not find the one. Then she remembered SHE did it.

Looking over the battlefied, she sighed. The corpses of a thousand outlaws lay decomposing in the fading twilight, but though the land drank the blood of the wicked, she felt nothing but hopelessness. Her daughter was dead, and she couldn’t even avenge her.

“Im sorry, Muffin! I wish I could find myself! But...!” Realizing what she had just said, Derpy lit up with a smile that could bring back the dead. The thousand outlaws slowly but surely rose to their feet and began a tapdancing number in her honor. Derpy flew up above the performance, and flew straight down towards the ground.

The resulting shockwave resonated throughout the lands, breaking the world apart.

“And thats how Equestria was born!” Pinkie Pie yelled triumphantly. She smiled at the three fillies on the scooter with her, all of whom sighed at the end of her story.  Then they made Pinkie pie cupcakes for rainbow dash, for it was oppisite day.

And satan sprung forth from the ground and said. “STOP THAT PINKIE PIE!” AND THEN he wondered, “What the difference between you and me?”

And then pinkie said, “Pokemon!”

“POKEMANS?” Satan screamed, “Jibba jabba zippity bop!”

“I WILL NOT STAND FOR THESE MUFFINS!” Derpy screamed, rising on a column of fire out of Satan’s anus. Derpy was clad in demonic armor and was now more than she ever was before the genesis of Equestria. She rose high into the air, raising her mighty motorcycle greatsword and cleaving Satan in two.

“FOOLISH PONY! YOU THINK THAT SUCH A PATHETIC WEAPON CAN DEFEAT ME?”

“MUFFINS!”

“WHAT!? NO! NOT ARSENIC! NOT MY ONLY WEAKNESS!!! NOOOOO! OH WHAT A WORLD, WHAT A WORLD!”

And then Hawk drove John mad and John left him up in a Delorian. Opening the door he threw c4 at Satan and said, “Blow it out your ass” and then blew satan up. But satan didn’t have gum either.

“koo koo ka-freakin CHU, motherfucker! I’m one hell of a walrus!” --BOOM!

And then Hawk went back to the future.

Because he had been there before with John Freeman. They totally kissed.

OR DID HE?! DUN DUN DUNNN.

Yes. He did. With a chainsaw. And mavericks. Who were ponies due to cops.

Oh my, sounds dreadful.

It was. Sigma was there and John McCain was all ‘OH SHIT’.

OH GOD LOOK OUT ANOTHER SPIDER! AND THIS ONE IS CLEARLY TWO INCHES LONG!

ANONSI MADE IT BIGGER. LIKE A POWER RANGERS BOSS.

I make a lot of things bigger.

Giggity.

Chapter the 129,475th

The plot of most foul a nature

Krass and Anonsi walked down the aisle of the church.

“Oh Anonsi!” said Krass.

“Indeed my darling, soon we shall be wed and our two fics can truly be shitty. Together.” replied the manly and handsome voice of Anonsi.

Truly this was the happiest day of Krass’s meager existence. But for Anonsi, it was thursday.

After the wedding, Krass was in the bathroom when the Krass heard a mysterious sound coming from the vents.

“Yes my minions,” said the mysterious sound, “tonight! at midnight! Kill Krass with your deadly venom!”

Krass gasped, twas the voice of Anonsi that the Krass heard in the vents! “What am I to do?” asked Krass.

And then Celestia appeared and presented Krass with a potion. “Drink this and become a pony!”

“Okay,” said Krass as Krass drank the potion. Suddenly, Krass died.

“lol whoops,” Celestia giggled. “I guess I got that mixed up with the poison.” Then she put her troll face on and rebanned luna to mars where she met ahnold and they had abomnababies.

And then Anonsi had to finish AAF, and there was much gnashing of teeth, for he was almost as bad as Krass.

the end.

Chapter Harrumph: There be dragons here

Mark was faced with a predicament: ponification or death by fiery prod up his bum. So he took ponification, for he did not want a burned anus. Walking into the Bureau, he was greeted by a chip young unicorn, his horn not just a single point, but a tree that also bore fruit. Plucking an apple from the pony’s tree-horn, Mark took the clipboard and filled out the waiver.

Taking another orange from the strange horn-tree, Mark walked down the hallways of the bureau, the humans and ponies giving him odd looks. Was he truly a strange sight? Surely a thirteen foot eight armed god was normal around these parts, right?

Entering the ponification chamber, Mark took the nurse who was going to administer the serum and held her in all of his arms. Readying himself, he brought her over his stomach in a full suplex, her head shattering against the ground, brains spilling everywhere.

“CANDY!” Some random hillbilly girl in overalls and pigtails waltzed into the room, picking up the splattered grey matter. “Awww, I only eats them if they’s cooked crunchy.” Pulling out a deep fryer from her pocket, she lifted the shattered remains of the nurse from Mark’s grip and dunked her in the boiling bath of oil.

Leaving the strange girl to her devices, Mark decided that he would rather just kill the ones threatening him with a burning ass-raping. Breaking out from the Bureau, he approached the black van he was carried there in, tearing the roof off. He lifted one man in each arm, biting off each of their heads with satisfying crunches.

EARTH PONIES ARE BORING. WHY DO THEY EXIST.

cause they’re super cute.

You mean slave workers.

nope. Pinkie pie don’t do shit. But she does do jack.

Applejack.

HEYOOOOOO.

/rimshots

Chapter : In which Windchaser confused everypony

It was a dark and stormy night. The Goddamn Batman was not amused. He watched as humanity succumbed to the sweet sugar coated allure of the ponies, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He said nothing as his butler, Alfred, got ponified. He resisted running after him when Robin got ponified.

He stood on a gargoyle statue on the side of one of the mighty Wayne Enterprises buildings, looking over Gotham city. With the advent of pony society, crime had subsided, the needs of criminals met through ponification: the need to be loved.

“So? What are you gonna do?”

The Goddamn Batman looked down. Flapping next to him was a pegasus, his bright blue coat and white hair a distinct contrast form the blacks and greys of the city. He was still not amused.

“Well? I gotta find out what you’re gonna do next!” the pegasus nagged. The Goddamn Batman did not appreciate being nagged.

“I am going to stand here and look solemn.”

The pegasus looked at The Goddamn Batman with a frustrated face. Munching on the end of his pencil, Windchaser jotted down a few notes on his notepad, drawing the baleful gaze of The Goddamn Batman. “Well, since you’re gonna just be a turgid shit, I’m going to write a sex scene with you, Anonsi, and Krass. So there. Thats what you get for being lame.”

WIndchaser flew off into the clouds above the city, The Goddamn Batman not missing him in the slightest. But deep within his heart, The Goddamn Batman felt something come to life. He felt needed somewhere, and right now. He glided down, crashing through the window of the majestic suite that both Krass and Anonsi were using for their honeymoon. And then they all fucked.

Windchaser looked at his computer screen, his grin aglow from his work. “Pure gold.”

I see no fucking dragons.

Right there next to Fluttershy. Can’t miss ‘em.

Well there he is.

I’m a helper.

Chapter -SCENE MISSING-

Eric strode into the ponification room. His time had come, he would soon join the others of his race who had gone before him and become ponies. Rarity turned and greeted the newcomer with a warm smile.

“Why hello there darling, are you ready for your ponification?”

Eric said nothing. His eyes were transfixed on the alabaster unicorn, his irises the size of dinner plates.

“Um...are you al-”

“Why are you on fire?’

“...what?”

“Are you on fire?”

“I am most certainly NOT on fire!”

“Oh...okay, it must be the acid...I figured now was the perfect time to try acid, since its probably going to be gone once you ponies take over everything.”

“...as...ed?” Rarity asked.

“Acid, LSD, Its a hallu- man everything in this room is so melting right now you have no idea.” Eric walked around the room, looking at everything as if his head was on a swivel. “What was I-oh yeah, so acid right its like this- OH! want to try some? Its really fun.”

Rarity seemed hesitant. “I-I don’t know. I don’t think I would enjoy seeing everything on fire...”

“Oh but you see other stuff too! Come on tryyy it!”

Rarity cast a sideways glance toward the door. “Well...I...I guess it couldn’t-”

***

“Shock and horror. These two words are the only ones capable of describing the events that took place today at the downtown conversion bureau. We go to Diane who is on the scene.”

“Thank you Mark. I am currently standing here in front of the charred remains of this city’s conversion bureau, which has hosted and converted hundreds of thousands of individuals without incident. That however changed today.”

The camera switched to a unicorn, shivering and being tended to by paramedics.

“I-it was horrible!” She sobbed. “Everything...everypony...burning...burning!”

“Terrorist attack? Accident? Neither. The fire began at roughly 3 pm when convert hopeful Eric Richards ingested 5 ‘hits’ of LSD, and then proceeded to coax the resident ponification technician into trying it herself. In their hallucinatory state, the two preceded to start half a dozen fires, claiming that since they were seeing things burning that were not in fact burning, maybe burning things would yield an opposite effect. This was obviously not the case, as their actions burned down the entire facility and injured almost two dozen ponies. Thankfully no lives were lost, and as they were being taken into police custody the two made the following statement:

“LSD IS MAGIC!”

“Back to you Mark.”

Robert clicked off the television.

“Huh...hope Rarity is alright.”

“She’ll be fiiiine.” Rainbow Dash assured with a wave of her hoof. “Now then...” She turned toward the audience.

“YOU, YES YOU, GET YOUR ASS BACK TO WRITING YOU LAZY SACK OF PONY SHITE!”

“But wrrrrrrrrrrrryyyy?” The authors whined. They had grown sick of all their bullshit.

From the back of the theater, the terrified scamper of firsttimeponywriter’s footsteps could be heard has he bolted out of the cinema.

Blah. (Now to finish CoL6)

HAHAHAHAHA, I finished my TCB fiction and no one can call upon me to go finish things! It is the truest freedom! WHA HA! WHA HA HA HA! WHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA~!

-The delightfully insane HiddenBrony

HAHAHAHAHA, John gives Azure DRUGS! You think I was kidding? Its fucking on!

-Octavia found the booze, oh god, last time she did she got banned for a whole week and had to appeal!

chapter Zulu Omega Mike Gamma!

McDrunk was really drunk again. it was about the seveth or eight drunkest he had even been in his life. His was growing a beard like gandalf the grey that was down to his nipples. Except he was the second drunkest he’s ever been last week and dyed it rainbow. He had drunk about 20 bottles of 151 and and a case of 40s about 20 minutes ago.

His liver exploded in a fiery display of awesomeness that immediately hit top of the youtube charts even over the funny video of that one guy hitting acid before ponification serum and being totally awake for the whole ponification thing where they like had to totally convince him he really WAS growing hooves.

and for anyone reading this on acid, your face is melting. Then YOUR face melted for not being on acid.

And you’re now gay for the wonderbolts. You’re welcome.

PART: CHAPTER:SECTION: NEWZ STORY HEREZ YEAH

“This just in: The latest news is that scientists have discovered that all ponies are bisexual, including newfoals. And then they ALL fucked. Is all wonderbolts having homosex: They worse than disney.

And then all humans converted because being bisexual and a pony is the ultimate sexual stuff. THEN THE WORLD WAS ONE ORGY. And then warp drive was invented and it was ULTIMATE PONY BI SEX IN SPACE.

CH: Twilight studies erotic magic. And then everypony fucked.

Twi got a package from rarity. which was stupid because she lives  blocks away. She opened it.

“Goddamit, Rarity’s tryin to get me laid again

It was a sex book aimed at unicorns with excessive magical power. DON’T ASK. Power IN BED.

Then suddenly! A white motorcycle crashed through a window carrying none other then James! The (Not) Gary stu guy! He came in looking all bad ass and landed in the middle of some room before loudly proclaiming. Motha fuka thought he was dante.

“I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum! But I’m all out of gum!”

“Oh, here is some gum,” Fluttershy said handing him a stick of bubbalicious.

“Oh. Well never mind that then!” James said as he took the gum and left. Thus they day was saved! Thanks to Fluttershy!

Chapter Flutterwhore

She has too many aniamls.

Chapter Oh God What

Midnight was in Twilight’s treehouse-library again, updating the TCB post. He was being a gary stu and shit. sHE wasn’t very happy about doing it whilst on holiday so was browsing some extra-curricular material. Luna walked in and was not very happy about seeing the wonderbolts on his screen instead of the blog or Luna herself so she sent him to the moon. Again.

The moon gets pretty good internet though, so everything was good.

The End. OR IS IT???? Nope. Midnight had to do makeup-sex with Luna on the  moon. Which you’re not gonna get to read about. OR ELSE.

>implying implications.

“And that’s how Equestria was made!” Exlaimed McDrunk FUCK MRDRUNK HE’S GARY STU SO MUCH. But he’s only drunk all the time and thats not gary stu at all.. PINKIE PIE IS random ALL THE TIME. I say you’re ripping off pinkie. But its drunk guy  so it don’t matter. Nope. Can MrDrunk do parties? No, he can only go to drunken not-fun parties. exceot he’s permadrunk sio it ALLLLLl good. If someone was permanantely drunk they would die really quickly. Liver would just burn up and then all the organs would die. except he motherfuking McDrunk. He’s RONALILVICCY MC DONALDSON THE ROBOT

1090 is over nine. SO is one if you add 9.  Any non-negative number added to nine is over nine. Yeah. you cold lose 1080 numkbers and STill be over nine. THIS ISN’T funny enough add ponies! Then POnies added THEMSELVES. It equivalated to the square root of pi cubed. “And that’s how Equestria was made!”

but equestria was unmade instead because derpy read the necronomicon.

Oh that’s not a problem, Cuthulu just needs some friends! Also, he would be cooler if he was a pony.

So Cuthulu walks into a conversion beuro..... And slaps rarity in the sex. with his eye. Rarity uses MAKEOVER. It’s SUPER EFFECTIVE.

Chapter Negative 1,000,000

Welcome back to that Conversion Bureau talk show, and today we’re going to have the honor of interviewing the cast of Yellowstone! Welcome guys!

Hey

Hello

Glad to be here

No problem

…

Okay great, now first question is for you Hawk.

okay shoot.

Alright, so it seems that you are the fan favorite of the readers. Why do you think that is?

Well, I can’t really say. Maybe it’s cause I’m handsome? (laughs) But seriously, I have no idea. The fans make those kinda decisions by themselves, so maybe they just identify with the character.

Do you think it has anything to do with your prolific use of C4 and the fact that Anonsi insists on shipping you with Twilight?

(laughs) Yeah that might do it.

Right next question is for you three, who played the villains from the original.

We’re ready

Bring it on

…

(laughs) okay then. So this question is about your feelings about the series.

Well I know I’m excited to be returning to the role of Diamondback. He seemed really cool.

Wait, you got a part in the series?!

Yeah.

Treacherous snake! The execs said I would get a part!

Sorry Cottonmouth, but from what I heard the fans thought I was more threatening a villain.

What about you Boa?

…

Oh right, Hawk blew your head off.

Yeah sorry about that. I forgot we weren’t supposed to use live ammo.

(everybody laughs)

Okay, last question goes to you Barnes

Can’t wait.

So a lot of the viewers are wondering, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

You know I can’t give that away! (laughs)

Okay sorry, real question: What is your perfect sunday?

Uhhh...Well probably doing maintenance on my car and doing nothing all day.

Just like usual then

Shut up Hawk

(everybody laughs)

That’s all for now folks, see you next time where we interview the cast of A Mare’s Tail in the wake of their recent success of completing their story. Good night!

aaaaaaaaaaaaand there’s that.

Chapter I have no idea anymore

Over in the UK a guy nobody will recognise boggled vacantly at this monstrosity of a document. Trying simultaneously to think of something to write while not getting more meta than this story already is, he began writing some random stuff at the bottom of the page. It was at this point he realised two things: Firstly, it was quite likely that none of the stuff he’s writing is funny or otherwise amusing, and secondly that the story is rapidly approaching the present. Wanting to avoid the story turning into something akin to Homestuck, he decided a change of topic was in order.

>Retrieve Topic from safe

LONG LONG AGO IN A STORY FAR FAR AWAY

Once upon a time

I really gotta get over this writer’s block quick. I mean, look what it’s done to me! I’m narrating in 1st person about nothing in particular! I’ve really gotta think of something to write that won’t  bore everyone out of their minds. ALRIGHT, THIS STORY IS NO LONGER META ENOUGH, WE NEED TO GO DEEPER ETC ETC.

This google document (henceforth referred to as Steve) decided to go to a conversion bureau. DO NOT ASK HOW A GOOGLE DOCUMENT CAN DO THAT, I’M BASICALLY IMPROVISING AT THIS POINT. But this was no ordinary bureau! This was a bureau where all the fanfics go when they need that extra level of meta-ness (Is that a word? Wait, why am I narrating again BACK TO THE STORY (or at least what’s left of it QUIET YOU)). At the conversion bureau Steve met the google documents of CoL and Sidelines. Meanwhile, the reader of this document (Please don’t ask me how that fits into this whole scenario, it’s gonna make my brain hurt if I do) stopped wondering how a google document can attend a conversion bureau and began wondering how the author can personify a fanfic that extends over several different documents. Suddenly, PINKIE PIE OUT OF NOWHERE. She then proceeds to break the fourth wall yet again and unleashing a tidal wave of spiders, story cameos and drunk McDrunks that completely covered this horrific piece of writing forever.

GODDAMMIT WITH THE SPIDERS AGAIN

Going back up a level of meta, the writer of this chapter cringed in shame at the monstrosity he had created. Perhaps it was for the best that he didn’t add his name to the bottom of the chapter. Shrugging, he contemplated continuing the other fic he had been working on before finally stopping writing this one for, for a while at least.

-WindAnonsi HiddenShadow McWriterray

Wait a second, what would Pinkie Pie do if she opened this document up?

....... *Crosses fingers for someone who can pretend to be Pinkie*

Pinkie would obviously want what we’re smoking.

Pony walks into a bar, says “I just flew in from Manehatten and BOY ARE MY WINGS TIRED.”

Nopony laughed. Kind of sad, really, cos he was a pegasus and, like, it’s really a long way.

“And that’s how Equestria was made!”

This chapter will NOT end with “And that’s how Equestria was made!”

Because I’m interviewing the main three characters of An Azure Future.

KMW: Alright. We are here Azure Wind, John Norris, and The other main character who just isn’t in the story much at this point. though thats a-ok because its not even half way over. He’s going us over the phone. First question is a general one. What do you think of the fic as characters?

JN: Well, being followed by people with very little personal space is a bit nerve racking. I’ve taken to shooting a potato gun and seeing if I could knock down a pegasus off screen.

AW: I don’t mind it. Im just glad its third person limited from my dad’s perspective, so I get plenty of ‘Me’ time.

???: First off human scum, I would like to express my gratitude for finally being back. People must of have thought I died. Even though there is another fic, I wont name names, but one of the main villains just returned though he was cleary dead. I was unconcious in a locked room. By the way. I’m coming for you.

KMW: Okay. next question.  In your opinion, who is most likely to be gay?

JN:what? how is that a question? Don’t you have better questions?

KMW: *I* ask the questions bitch.

AW: Oh,, Im gay all the time! except when I think about sad stuff, then Im sad.

KMW: Not what I meant... While we’re on the subject why did you even buy pin ups of the male wonderbolts? Aren’t you worried other ponies might think you’re into guys?

AW: Why would I like guys? Im a guy.

SonicBoom01 (in audience): Well, people did say you were gay earlier.

???: What, you skip my turn and who is this fag?

SB: Your mom.

Crowd: Ooooooooooooh

KMW: OKAY. Back to the questions. Lets see. Ah, here’s a good one: Why?

JN: Thats not even a fragment of a question.

???: To purify the earth obviously. I’ve been working behind the scenes to insure I obtain john’s massive amounts of Jew Gold.

JN: Im not jewish.

SB: KrassXAnonsi! SUPPORT!

KMW: What I do with other writers after/between parts of AAF is my business.

ANSI: I”M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!

KMW: I AINT YOUR FRIEND BUDDY!

ANSI: IM NOT YO BUDDY GUY!

KMW: I AINT YO GUY FRIEND!

JN: Ladies, please. There is enough Norris for everyone.

AW: I lost track. Whats going on?

SB: JOHN AND HAWK MAKING OUT EARLIER WAS A METAPHOR FOR IT!

ANSI: Oh please, we all know that Hawk is totally gay for Twilight.

SB: Implying Hawk is female.

ANSI: Implying he isn’t! *Theme form inception plays*

SB: THIS JUST IN HAWK IS TRANSGENDERED!

Well this has been sufficiently derailed.

SB: Indeed.

JN: I was lonely and he walked into my apartment being all manly and shit.

HB: The hell is going in this thread?

OKAY Quick survey

A: Is this going to devolve into us writing gay clopfics about eachother? Cause there’s a thread for that.

SB: I’m partially just trolling because we’re not actually writing the fic.

A: Right. Okay. Next time we’ll have to actually set some ground rules I guess.

SB: What did you expect, that we wouldn’t turn this into drunken ramblings?

A: No I expected that. Just not all this Meta Shipping. That caught me off guard.

SB: The internet will pounce on little things, man. Should’ve known that when someone had wrote in Hawk and John making out.

A: Oh well. Hopefully this thing will never see EqD. Or be taken seriously. In fact I’d rather Videomaster’s thing be taken seriously over this.

SB: Heheheheh... PROPHETIC EVIL LAUGHTER.

A: And then they allll fucked. The end.

SB: Cept me. Just because. *bricked*

KMW: LETS GET BACK ON TRACK. One last question from the audience. How severly were you beaten as children?

AW: Never, but I was given acid.

JN: Every.... Day...

???: I never had parents. I was an orphaned at the age of five by a murder suicide. I was beaten regularly though.

AW: How often were you beaten when you were young mister writer dude?

KMW: … Thats... unimportant... NEXT TIME ON INTERVIEW WITH A FIC, 20% more derailling!

CHapter: WHY GOD, WHY?

SB: Totally call mine for next.

*5 minute recess*

SB: Kay, I’m ready now blergh.

KMW: Do you even HAVE a fic?

SB: You insult me, Krass. Of course I have a fic. It’s just not as good as yours. *frowns, sadly*

KMW: And mines a piece of shit, whats that say about yours?

SB: It says that mine sucks and should be blown off the planet. Yours is very good though, it’s not as bad as you think. Mine’s not even at Chapter 3 yet, and I’ve been writing for like 5 weeks now.

SB: ...So... We gonna ask some questions or something...? I could go get the, uh, cast or something.

KMW: I would, but I have to finish part eight.

SB: ...Now what am I supposed to do? I’m all alone in this studio.

SB: ...Wait a minute...

HB: Hey buddy. Still here. Oh hey Krass, I totally read your fic! It was a thing!

Hijacking the Collab

“Because I was left alone in here.” - SonicBoom01

3:12 PM

Krass just left and I’m alone now. Some Spanish guy just showed up. I dunno what he’s doing. Bored out of my mind here so I’m jacking the story. Also KrassXAnonsi is offical.

Nope.png

The orange unicorn stopped his magic, satisfied with the entry he made. He turned and looked out to the Fillydelphia skyline. His apartment in Equestria was simple, the way the unicorn liked it. He opened the door with his telekinesis and stepped out onto the balcony. Normally this would be the time when one of the other authors would throw something at him in their drunken state, like a giant spider or having Azure show up to make out with him. Nothing did, though, and he relished this

THIS MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE! But, I excel in not making any fucking sense. So, here’s some random shit:

Twiliht Sprackle started to build Conversion Bearu. Converton Beard then was filled with HUMANZ!

And then Humanz were ponies.

And then some shit happened involving Fluttershy turning into a shark and eating everything! It was called the Fluttersharkpocalypse! Then this copy-paste shit I wrote happened!:

Nopony could remember a time when it had rained so hard. "Hmm." Twilight Sparkle said, "This...isn't water, it's acid. All the background ponies were then disintegrated from the acid Trixie tears. "I must find out where this is coming from!" Spike said, as he punched Pinkie Pie into the sun. Derpy Hooves yelled,

"NO! SHE WAS MY COUSIN! THIS HAS NO PARDON!" and turned into Derpzilla, who derped up the moon, which was now made of LAZERS and 4CHAN, (but it still counts as a moon) and threw it at Fluttershy, who turned into a shark from the impact.

"How does Rainbow Dash taste, Twilight?" Spike said, whipping around his tailsaw made of holy freakfire.

"Like some kid with wings." Twilight spit out two wings as she lifted up Fluttershark and fired her at Applejack's new truck, the resulting icefire engulfing half of the Multiverse in a rainbow cupcake.

Spike used his mailbreath to send the cupcake-verse to Lauren Faust, who rejected it and made a crossover of some sort. Needless to say, it was amaz-""

Derpzilla smashed the corpse of the other multiverse half into the cupcake, smashing the multiverses together, leading to the ponies being smothered by obsessed Bronies.

"Twilight, you must ROCK THE FREAK OUT", said Princess Celestia, summoning Zamboni. Applejack drove Zamboni over Canada, sinking it, which revealed Fluttershark to be the second coming of Jesusatan, a creature worshipped by snowboard assassins and muffins.

Steven Magnate fixed the multiverse with a twist of his amazing moustache, with the one exception being there were Hipstamatic cameras raining over both Multiverseuniverses, which summoned a demonic iPod that enslaved the ponies until Hasbro took hold of the entire story.

"Want to come over for a tea party, Rainbow?" said Pinkie.

"Of course, my great friend!"

Then everything exploded.

And then they all fucked.

That seems to be how most of these stories are ending. I’m thinking this one will be more Shakespearian. And Offensive.

“I am Garcia Corona, and I am here to get ponified.”

“Me gusta,” replied oh i don’t know, Twinkle from a mare’s tail, as she hovered a potion over to the spanish boy. “Just be sure you do not accidentally spill any over your self.”

“Why seniorita? Will I die?”

“Si, it will be no es bueano.”

And so Garcia drank the ponification potion, but due to his clumsy peasent hands, he spilled a single drop from the corner of his mouth.

And then they ALL DIED.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes toward the unicorn filly, taking a menacing step forward. “Does Pinkie Pie have to fuck a bitch!?” Yes she does. They had a delightful roll in the hay.

Chapter: The story of hawks childhood: Grenade lollipop edition.

Ahhh

How different this will be to his actual childhood. Which I will reveal in episode X. Anyway, continue with your mad guessing.

Hawk was sleeping in his crib made of assault rifles. He had a carousel of high explosive rounds above him. Explosive diarrhea.

Then he was five and beating up a grizzly bear with a pixie stick. Afterwards he ate its heart to gain its strength. Which he did. He had an instant twelve pack. Then he married twilight.

THE END.

CH: Interview Part deux.

KMW: WELCOME BACK! We are doing interviews once more! Today on the chopblock, writers and their fic characters! We have Twilight, Hawk, and Azure Wind here with us! Twilight, Hawk, fans speculate you may be an item, is that true?

H: DEATH TO ALL WHO WOULD HARM MY WAIFU.

T: No comment.

A:Why am I here? Like really?

KMW: Because. C’mon twi, the fans want to know! give it uuuuuup.

T: I’ll have you know I am a lady. I give nothing up. Nothing.

H: BLOOD SHALL FLOW AS RIVERS.

A: Do I even have a question?

KMW: Ok ya little weirdo, here’s one just for you. How do you feel about your dad not loving you?

A: My daddy loves me! He just has an odd way of showing it. Like giving me acid... And then tying me up as a false prisoner to get into the HLF hq...

KMW: Sounds to me like he’s trying to kill you. You might want to try getting adopted by Hawk.

H: DEATH SHALL COME TO ANY WHO THREATEN THOSE I PROTECT!

A: I think Im safer with the slightly crazy guy then the total mad man.

T: I can have foals on my own ya know.

KMW: Yeah? Who with?

T: With whomever I choose.

KMW: Liiiiiiiiiiiiike Haaaaaaaaaawk?

T: No comment.

KMW: Just because its interspecies doesn’t mean its wrong. It just means abomnababies.

A: I don’t know where to go from here.

KMW: Well, you’re currently high as shit in pt 8. So theres that.

H: I NEED TO KILL SOMETHING. BRING ME MY GUN!

KMW: Heres a .45 revolver. Will that do?

H: EVIL SHALL TREMBLE AT THE THUNDER OF THIS WEAPON.

A: LOUDER THAN GOD’S REVOLVER AND TWICE AS SHINY!!!

T: I’m going home. Hawk, the key will be under the mat. *Twilight leaves*

KMW: We have with us now, a surprise guest! give it up for Busy Bee’s sister, whats her face!

MG: Merry Gold.

KMW: Thats nice. Now, We have Hawk, Azure and Metal Gold here with us!

H: HELLO MERRY GOLD.

MG: Hey Hawk.

A: Hi Merry Gold!

MG: Hello, what’s your name.

A: Azure, Azure Wind.

MG: Oh right...That kid that is rich. You know I find wealth very attractive.

A: Is gold short for gold digger then?

MG: Totes.

A: Is that eastern slang?

MG: Fo’ shizzi my niggs.

A: In-n-out is better. They be making veggie burgers now.

KMW: So the questions. What you been up to lately Merry Gold?

MG: Well. me and Busy Bee have been keeping busy with making a shrine to Hawk. And starting a church dedicated to Hawk. And making Hawk related merchandise. And uhhh...other stuff that we do while thinking of Hawk.

KMW: Aren’t you supposed to be taming the yellowstone wilds?

MG: Oh we are! We use the bones of the creatures we slay to build our churches and shrines!

A: What.

H: I HAVE COPYRIGHT ON MY LIKENESS

MG: Don’t worry Hawk, you get 45% of all profits!

H:...THIS IS PLEASING TO HAWK.

A: Okay...

KMW: OKAY, well then. Question for Azure. Azure Wind, it’s been decided that your father is a terrible despot that will never love you and is more than likely to sell you for drugs. If you found yourself in a chinese restaraunt , how long do you think you would last before you end up as a side of chicken wings?

A: Silly mcwriter, Im not scootaloo. Also John hates Chinese.

KMW: Silly Azure, it’s not like have much of a future anyway so just answer the question.

A: Actually the title refers to John’s eventually ponification and semi-stabilization due to the responsibilities of having a child which he must pony up and raise. Forgive the pun.

H: I WOULD SLAY THE MANY CHINESE.

KMW: All 2 billion?

H: I HAVE A LOT OF C4. AND BULLETS.

A: Hawk seems a bit worse than when he came over

H: ME AND TWILIGHT HAVE BEEN ARGUING RECENTLY. THE COUCH IS UNCOMFORTABLE.

MG: Oh, DO tell.

H: NO. I HAVE REVEALED TO MUCH, AND TWILIGHT WILL BE ANGRY IF I REVEAL ANY MORE. I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK INTO THE HOLE. IT IS DARK IN THE HOLE, AND SO COLD.

A: my dad says angry sex is best sex.

H: IT IS. BUT SHE HAS DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ANGRY.

KMW: How useful is magic in bed hawk?

H: YOU HAVE NO IDEA MAN. NOOOO IDEA. LIKE INDESCRIBABLE.

KMW: KNEW IT.

MG: Oh like we didn’t see it coming. I mean even Busy Bee saw it coming, and she wanted to jump his bones for three weeks straight after figuring it out.

A: So... wanna hit up top goods later Merry gold?

MG: Depends on who’s paying.

A: I only have half of my 1000 bit allowance and I dont get more til sunday... Aw hell, why not?

MG: Take me you richy rich Mc-richy pants. i dunno man i’m going on fumes here.

A: *Puts on wonderbolt goggles* LEZ DO DIS.

And then the go off on flamboyant shopping sprees. (and then they...you know I feel this phrase is a bit over used so I think we should switch to a more original one.)

AND THEN THEY ALL WENT TO SPACE. SEX SPACE. WHERE THEY ALL FUCKED.

And here we have the four protagonists of HiddenBrony’s adventure/epic/grimdark/shipping/whatever/potato story, A Mare’s Tail. With us is Rose, Violet, Twinkle, and in an odd twist, a male character named Rusty.

Rusty: What the hell? Rusty is totally a boy’s name. I’ve had it before I was a pony!

Narrator: But you’re a pony, that makes it surprising that you’re a man.

Rose: Someone hasn’t been keeping up with the surprise fanbase...

Narrator: Quiet you, I’ll have you know I’m a brony!

Rose: So does that mean you’re less of a man? I mean, even in story, Rusty proved he was quite a man, isn’t that right, Twinkle?

Twinkle: I-I’ll have you know that is quite personal.

Violet: Mmhm. Sure. How about trying to at least wipe a little of your post-coital sweat from your forehead next time?

Rose: Nice.

Narrator: I AM THE ONE WHO ASKS THE QUESTIONS.

Rose: And I am the one who screws it all up for you. Next question!

Hawk: BLOOD WILL FLOW LIKE RIVERS

Violet: The hell?

Rusty: Who’s he?

Narrator: Remnant from the last QnA. Hawk, please exit, stage right. You do best when you’re written by better writers.

Rusty: Ouch.

Hawk: HAWK IS AN AMERICAN COWBOY. YIPPIE KI YAY MOTHERFUCKERS.

-Insert explosions and gunfire-

Narrator: Aaaand that would conclude today’s show.

Twinkle: My horn!

Azure: POOOR QUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEE?!

AND THEN TWILIGHT FUCKED THE GUARDS.

Dinky Doo finished by saying: “And that’s how Equestria was made!”

Pinkie narrowed her eyes toward the unicorn filly, taking a menacing step forward. “Does Pinkie Pie have to choke a bitch!?”

No, but Wayne Brady does. ONE FILLY IN ONE HAND, ONE PINK PONY IN ANOTHER. CHOKE’N BIPCHES x2 COMBO

Dinky Doo is a unicorn. I really get it.

melius anceps remedium quam nullum.

DERP. HERP.

CHAPTER HaAaY.

John Freeman woke up one day and realized he was the richest man in the world. So he bought the entire state of California and turned it into a 24 hour rave. Azure woke up and realized he was gay and could sonic rainboom in his sleep. So he sonic rainboomed a ponification potion in John’s face, which made him a pegasus and no longer crazy, so he was boring. Then he went insane due to being boring and wasn’t boring anymore. So he raved until he died of smoking too much poison joke with fluttershy. So then Azure swore vengeance on all drug dealers. So he tracked down fluttershy who was the dealer and shouted “YOU HAVE KILLEDED MY FAJAH! PREPARE TO DIE!” Like he was in the princess bride, and cunt punted her into angel who went full rage mode.

And then Flootershy said “What’s a Fajah?” And then Megatron punched Derpy, who then had to suffer a 10 second respond time because she teamkilled Twilight.

“ITS FATHER, WITH AN ACCENT. BITCH!”

“English, motherfucker, do you speak it?”

“IM SPEAKING EQUESTRIAN AND SO ARE YOU!”

“Fuck! Everything I am is a lie!” And then Flootershy was shot by the lingering ghost of John the boring pegasus.

THEN ANGEL TURNED INTO THE HULK AND ATE ALL THE OTHER ANIMALS. Which is impressive considering his small size still, barely half a pony. THEN SPECIAL SUPER AGENT AZURE DEFILED FLOOTERSHY’S CORPSE AND FLOWER BED. And then Derpy came back to give us a heartwarming one-liner. “I love always, my muffin.”

(THAT FIC GAVE ME A SAD, YOU KNOW WHICH ONE? WHEN CHILD SERVICES TAKES DINKY FROM DERPY?)

YEAH MAN. I KNOW THAT FEEL.

NOW I WILL CRY THE MANTEARS. THEY EXPLODE WHEN THEY TOUCH DIRT.

WHAO MAN. SPOILERS UP IN THIS BITCH.

CHAPTER CONVERTERS, PONYS IN DISGUSE.

Maybe. Why havent we had an animorphs xovr? Or a TCB where someone can switch between pony and human.

BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE BROKEN.

HOW?

IT’S LIKE AN ALICORN.

Except not. THEY CAN BE PER SPIES IN THE HLF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MAYBE IF WE DO A POTION THING

WHERE THEY HAVE TO KEEP DRINKING ONE OR THE OTHER. KEEP CONVERTING LIKE A BOSS.

I MEANT MORE AS AN INERT ABILITY CHANGE WHENEVER.

I KNOW MAN. I KNOW WHAT YA MEANT. SEEMS WEIRD, BRAH. Like, what’s to stop more people from doing the same idea again and again until it becomes the norm? LOOK WHAT’S ALREADY HAPPENED. THERE, I gave you a space. Down there. Look at it. NOW YOU CAN SPEAK!

HA. LIKE TCB IDEAS? OR IDEAS THAT OCCUR WITHIN THE FIC?

I DUNNO, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I JUST THOUGHT OF? TCB POWER RANGERS.

DUDE, IM THINKING OF DOING A SPEEDFIC EVENT FOR TCB.

LIKE, I KNOW MAN, YA SAID IN THE IRC.

YA, BUT KNOW I HAVE AN IDEA.

GO GO PONY RANGERS! YOU MIGHTY CONVERTIN’ PONY RANGERS!

NO. SELF INSERT, MUST SHIP WITH AN OFFICIAL CHARACTER. YA KNOW, RETURN TO ITS ROOTS.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat. WHAT ABOUT HAWK. CAN WE JUST SHIP WITH HAWK?

If love triangle.

MAN, SELF-INSERT LOVE FICS ARE TOTALLY NOT MY THING. PLEASE IGNORE THE FACT I WAS COMMISSIONED TO WRITE ONE AND PEOPLE LIKED IT. THAT DOESN’T COUNT.

Maybe I can do an alt prompt. YOU BECOME AN ALICORN.

SO THIS IS LIKE, ‘TERRIBLE IDEAS’ SPEEDFICS?

EXACTLY. MORE MARY SUE THAN MIDNIGHT SHADOW.

OH MAN, THIS COULD BE SO GOOD IF IT WAS ACTUALLY PLAYED STRAIGHT.

I think an alicorn fic could have potential, but the writer would have to be Careful.

Do ho ho.

I think if someone is pysically dominant but has mental issues for whatever reason, they can be not a sue.

You mean mentally dominant? You kinda have this ‘Psychically’ or ‘Physically’ word mix-up. Also, Psychically is a word. Freakin’ awesome.

I mean they have like voices in their head.

Schizo? Man, you’d have to be crazy careful to get that to work, especially with an Alicorn. And at that point, I don’t think it would be fun...

You know what I mean, Maybe they just have 0 self confidence from being picked on when they were younger, or they can be all like, Tia has the day, Luna has the night, WTF AM I DOING NIGGA?

YOU CAN HAVE THE EARTH ITSELF.

HAHA. Seriously, I think it could work.

Under the right writer, anything could work. The problem is getting the right writer who’s interested and had the talent to pull it off.

It can easily come off as broody, but damn near every story gets broody at some point.

I like the word broody.

AND THAT HOW WE BECAME THE BROODY BUNCH! THE BROODY BUNCH, THE BROODY BUNCH.

I thought that’s how we became serial murderers. ‘Cause we brood. Broody broodin’ that broods broodily. OH MY GOD BROODILY IS A WORD THAT IS FANTASTIC. I am learning so much.

Brood. There

Besides, we got a 3rd Alicorn story. It has Nyx. Everybrony loves Nyx. I think it gets broody. Althouuuuugh, I haven’t read it. ‘Past Sins’, is what it’s called. Not TCB.

I never heard of it. I know its not TCB. Ive read ALL the TCB.

SO. YOU READ MINE THEN? AND NEVER SAID? WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?

Who? And would my opionion matter, go get a good writer.

BUT NO BODY EVEN SAID A WORD ON IIITTT. Wait, you don’t know who I am yet? I thought the ORANGE gave it away.

VodKaRoo? Why are you here?

What. No. I KEEP TAGGING MY WORK IN THIS DOC WITH ORANGE.

Thats nice. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!

IT’S NEXT TO MY NAME AT THE TOP. FREAKIN’ ORANGE. JOHN SPAKKKKLE.

ERAC?

What. No. LOOK AGAIN.

I swear to Luna; I am not looking through this whole monster to find out who you are.

IT’S AT THE TOP. LIKe, THIRD NAME OR SOMETHING. HOW IS THIS DIFFICULT. WORK FOR KNOWLEDGE. FIND A CURE. I HID IT ON MARS. SAVE THE CHEERLEADER.

Huntington Beach? That you?

CLOSE ENOUGH.

Which fic was yoours? theres like 40

HIDDENBRONY. GAWD.

Get it? HB? Close enough?

I’m so witty.

ALLCAPS MAKES ME LOUDER ON THE INTERNET

WHAO. INDOOR VOICE, MATE.

greeen yay.

”And that’s how Equestria was made!”

A < single huge letter. What does this have to do with MLP? I don’t freaking know. Have a pony:

Octavia is better.

I mean look at that diabeetus level cute.

Pfft Twilight will always beat Octavia. You know it.

LIES!

NOT LIES.

So lies.

CHAPTER: CHAPTAH!

Roderick was sad for he was homosex for big mac. This was especially problematic, because he was not a pony, but instead a three headed dragon. Roderick decided to declare his love regardless. After all, who wouldn’t want to date a three headed dragon? A pparently big mac wouldn’t. So Roderick burned down sweet apple acres. After burning down Sweet Apple Acres, he turned his attention to ponyville, where he could eat buildings and cake. But then pinkie pie 4th walled into his MIND. There, she challenged him to a cook off.

Unfortunately, because it was in his mind, Roderick couldn’t cook anything, so Pinkie Pie vanquished him with her mighty mind cake. Which is delicious and purple surprisingly.  After having lost the mind bake off to Pinkie Pie, Roderick was forced to leave Equestria, and as such, swam over to California. Where he sucked three guys off at once. Then Roderick woke up in his bed, and realized he had just tripped out for the last three days. He was actually a earth pony filly so everything worked out.

Except big mac was actually gay. So not really. This upset Roderickina, so she decided that she had to do something about this. She sent him to gay camp. Unfortunately she sent him to the wrong gay camp, and he only became more flamboyant after attending. So she convinced twilight to turn her into a guy. Unfortunately twilight messed up AGAIN, I mean jeebus how often does she mess up anymore its like her liscense to spell should be taken away or something, anyway, and roderickina was turned into a alicorn.. She became the goddess of sex. But Big Mac was still gay, and so she was sad. So she usurped Celestia and made herself gay for Luna.

Then Roderickina woke up again! Grabbing her top she spun it, as she was now sure she was actually in inception. Except she had no top to spin, because she wasn’t. Then she realized she never saw inception. As she realized she had no idea what she was referencing, her mind imploded. Then exploded twice. THEN SHE WAS THIS COUCH. She realized that doing this many drugs is not a good thing. So she decided that she would only do LSD and Heroin twice a day, as opposed to alcohol heroin LSD and Meth all at the same time three times a day. Then she realized he did have a penis. she he was now confused. So she did more drugs.Then she overdosed, and died.

Thus ended Roderickina. Until she was resurrected as a zompony. Then Big Mac was really desperate and a necrophilliac. And she finally got Big Mac in bed, but she was dead. And soon so was Big Mac, and they were zompony husand and wife forever. Or at least until they both got shot by Hawk for being abominations.

THE END.

CHAPTER: #UNENDEDING; THE CHAPTER WITH NOTHING IN IT.

CH: WHATEVS

Chapter YOU MUST DIE!

“And welcome to the greatest game show on earth!” shouted an overly excited Pinkie Pie, “Here we’ll do-” but the sentence would never be finished, because Spike changed the channel because Rarity wasn’t on TV, and he really had an urge to see her, because to him, seeing her on TV was like watching porn.  And then the police came in and arrested him for reverse pedophilia, a term which Trollestia pulled out from a game of Dirty Minds Scrabble and arbitrarily decided that it should be law.

KrassMcWriter: hopefully, the next part, which involves the return of gray crusader and child services will be better.

Anonymous User 1382 has left.

KrassMcWriter: because in the end.

Its a fic about a father and his son.

It not Yellowstone where its about being awesome and one liners.

YOU.

I really need to come up with ONE username sometime.

That way people can scream my name in anger......

MUAHAHA

I AM DERPMASTER no that’s stupid.....

”And that’s how Equestria was UNunmade!”

Sonic’s adventures with his sexy self inserts!

Victor sat at his computer. He dreaded the long summer days in Los Angeles; the heat, the asphalt, the people. He wished he was back north, where things were about 20% cooler. Suddenly, his cell phone began to vibrate. Pulling it out of its dock, he checked the number.

“378378742”

He looked at it questioningly, “Qua? An international call? No, not enough digits...”  He shrugged. “Meh, As long as it isn’t collect, who cares?”

Pressing the talk button, he held the phone to his ear, only to hear the familiar voice of Google Voice, “Call from... Michael Frost. To accept, Press one, to send to voicemail...”

Victor pulled back from the phone, “Michael Frost?”

He had used that name as a psuedonym, as a fake name to give telemarketers, and as a character name for several of his short stories. “Maybe it’s a ‘Sidelines’ fan...”

He pressed one, “Hello?”

A familiar voice came through the earpiece, “Uh, Hi. I’m looking for Victor?”

“This is him. Who’s this?”

“I’m Michael. Michael Frost.”

Victor laughed, “Right, sure. Seriously, though, who is this?”

“I’m telling you, I’m Michael!”

“And I suppose you’re a Professor of Applied Mechanics at Princeton University.”

“Yes! That’s Me!”

Victor’s patience was beginning to wear thin.

“Look,” he said, leaning back in his office chair, “I appreciate a fan taking the time and calling me, but this is a little creepy.”

The man on the other end growled in frustration, “Dammit, I’m not a fan, I really am Michael! I can’t explain it, but somehow your writings in your dimension directly influence reality in mine. I really am Michael Frost!”

Victor let out a sigh, “Alright, never mind how you discovered this, let’s suppose I believe you. What do you want?”

“We need your help. Something strange is happening here and we don’t know what it is.”

Enough was enough.

“Alight, you know what? I really don’t have time to deal with this. I appreciate that you like my story, but you really need to get a life! There’s more to the world than My Little Pony or my one stupid fanfiction.”

The man let out another growl, “For fuck’s sake! What do I have to do to convince you I’m telling the truth?!”

Victor thought on this for a moment then smirked, “Is Twilight there with you?”

“Yes.”

“Put her on.”

One crazy fanboy, sure. But Tara Strong would have to be in on it too if-

“Is this Victor?” said an all too familiar voice.

Victor fell off his chair. Scrambling to pick the dropped phone off the floor, he held it to his ear, “H-Hello?”

“Victor, this is Twilight Sparkle. Michael told me you wanted to speak to me?”

He sat there, barely able to process what was happening.

“Is what Michael said, true?”

There was a brief pause, “Yes. Entirely. Victor we need your help.”

He sighed, “Alright, what do you need me to do?”

“We need you to come to Equestria.”

“And how, pray tell, do you expect me to do that?”

“I’m going to create, what Michael told me to describe to you as, a ‘Stargate’.”

“Oh god, he really is my creation.” Victor thought, somewhat embarrassed.

“Alright,” he said it no the receiver, “What do I do?”

“Nothing. If this works, it should appear in both of our universes.”

“That’s it?”

“Well, we needed to do it someplace isolated, so it won’t damage anything.”

“So...”

“So it’s in the Mojave desert.”

“The Mojave Desert?!” Victor did not like the sound of driving nearly four hours in this heat.

Still, he relented, “Fine. It’ll take me a little over four hours.”

“We’ll be ready.”

Victor sighed as he hung up the phone, grabbed his car keys, his messenger bag, and walked towards the door of his tiny apartment. His roommate, Alex, sat in the living room playing “Dudebro II” on his Xbox.

“Hey man, where you goin?” he asked Victor.

Victor, reaching for the doorknob, paused before answering. He looked wryly at Alex.

“On an epic adventure to the desert and across time and space; wanna come?”

“Nah.”

Victor scoffed, “Suit yourself.”

Victor’s car struggled across the dry, cracked desert. The old honda civic was NOT meant for this kind of journey and it’s air conditioning had all but given up trying to battle the heat of the terrain.

He checked his smartphone and saw that he was almost at the coordinates “Michael” had texted him.

Despite hearing what was definitely either Twilight Sparkle or Tara Strong on the other end of the line, He was still apprehensive about all this. Still, if it really was a prank, they wouldn't just send him into the desert with nothing being there to make the big reveal...

The geocaching software pinged. He was there.

Unplugging his phone from the car charger, he hit redial.

“Hello?” came the voice of Twilight.

“I’m here. Now what?”

“Nothing, just wait.”

Victor put the car in park and pulled the e-brake. Popping out his Super Ponybeat CD, he pushed a Deadmau5 compilation, turning up “Some Chords” to the point that the dust from the desert began vibrating off the car.

Without any warning, the already bright day became unbearable, as a ball of seemingly pure light began forming in front of the dusty blue civic.

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!”

He slammed the gear lever into reverse and forced the puny 1.6 liter engine to drive him back as fast as it could. After getting a safe distance away, he watched as the sphere expanded beyond the ground, then stopped growing and simple remained static. Keeping away from it, Victor circled around it.

It wasn’t a sphere. It was a disc. Completely flat.

“It really is like a stargate...”

He could barely make it out from the football fields length way where he was, but two figure emerged from the gateway, causing it to ripple.

Using the zoom on his smartphone, he got a better look.

It was Michael and Twilight. It was really them. Not that “it could be them” or “it might be them”, but “it was them”, exactly how he imagined them to look in his mind.

They called out to him, “Victor!”

Twilight turned to Michael, “Are you sure that’s him?”

Speeding towards them, Victor turned quickly, pulled the hand brake, and sent the hatchback into a sideways slide across the dirt and dust.

Twilight shook her head as Michael smirked, “Never mind.”

As the car slid to a stop, Victor stepped out with a grin, “That was fun; I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve done that.” He ran up to them, walking around and sizing them up, “And look at you! Look at you!” he reached in Michael’s jacket pocket and pulled out his phone.

“H-Hey!” Michael yelled in protest.

Victor turned it on, “Holy crap it actually works!”

“Don’t bother, it’s password protected.”

Victor thought for a moment, “Hmmm... Let’s try... HAH! It actually worked! You dog, you...”

Michael blushed and grabbed the phone from Victor’s hand, “Gimmie that!”

Victor laughed out loud, then leaned on the hood of his car, “Wow, so this is really happening... I can’t believe it.” He looked at Twilight, “And you, still human. Although I suppose if what you said was true than you’d have to be because I haven’t written otherwise yet.”

He looked at the ground for a moment, deep in thought, “Huh, this is weird.”

“What is?” asked Michael.

“Well, I have a hard time believing I have this much power. It’s too weird. Why me?”

“I don’t know,” Michael answered, “But you need to come with us.”

Victor looked back, “What about my car?”

Michael stared at the old honda, then back at Victor, “THAT’S your car? I thought it was a loaner.”

“Hey, what do you mean ‘that’s your car?’ Yeah it’s my car! Not everyone can afford to have a hopped up Evo. I’ve got a tuition to pay!”

Michael stared in even more disbelief, “You’re still in college?!”

“I’m only 21! I’m supposed to still be in college! Just because you got a PhD early doesn’t mean everyone has to!”

“Guys! Stop arguing!” Twilight said, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. Both Michael and Victor turned their heads away from her, blushing. “We need to get going.”

I fixed it! :D

I know

John madden john madden john madden john madden....

**Author eating dinner, So dont touch!

**HMMMM... NAH!

THEN TWI JUMPED ON MICHAEL SCREECHING “TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST!” AND HE TOOK HER TO MICKY D’S BECAUSE HE IS NOT CLEVER.

*Author is back, you color coding thing you. (but really, yeah, Mike is not so clever)

Krass did it I swear

I just colorcoded it.

lol haha ( I know how to laugh)

BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAhAHAHAHA (that’s an eeeeevil laugh)

LLOL

(THATS AN INTERNET LUAGH)

Luagh?

Pfffft. Bwaugh.

HEY, like what I did sonic?

Funny as shit and pretty much what everypony desperately wants me to write.

Were you guys around when I wrote the PINGAS.April fools chapter?

uh...... no? I found pony in June.

I WASS.

IT WAS AMAZING.

DO YOU STILL HAVE IT?

I do! : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wowkXIneUzx1wbKfBPKb7PR-yKwumrj6owFYx0xKB0U/edit?hl=en_US

BEST FIC EVER.

Sonic: Alright, back to writing.

Chapter Meta - Saturday In The Park

The two colts stood at the top of the hill, staring down at the grassy expanse below. Both  of their fathers sat underneath a tree chatting away, getting the two get to know each other. The two looked almost identical: blue coats, but their manes were slightly different. One’s was a bright white, while the other was an indigo.

“You sure this is a good idea, ‘Chaser?” the indigo-maned one asked apprehensively.

“Nothin’ to it, Azure! Just jump, spread your wings, and make sure you land on your hooves, not your face!” Windchaser took off in a gallop, leaping off the hilltop. He caught the wind underneath his wings, sailing down to the grass below them in a slow glide.

Azure mumbled something about easier said then done and followed. Working up to a full gallop he jumped into the air and spread his wings.

“Well if that isn’t the funniest thing.” one of the men said to the other, the specks of light from the sun dancing across his aged face. The much younger one cocked his head to the side, an eyebrow raised.

“Whatcha talkin ‘bout?” Asked the human who needed more sun then had been getting

“Two colts with single, human fathers being able to get along. Funny how things work out like that, eh?”

“You coming on to me?” The younger human laughed lightly, dismissing his joke. “Yeah. A rare breed we are.” He stated as he watched his son glide upon the breeze.

“Come on, Azure! You gotta keep your wings even... no not like that... You’re banking too hard! Watch out!” Windchaser shouted.

“AW H-” Azure shouted as he crashed into the ground on his side, hard. Windchaser galloped over, skidding along the still dewey grass. His hooves slipped out from under him, landing himself on his rump. Both colts traded surprised looks before erupting into fits of giggles and laughs. They helped each other up and began trotting back to the top of the hill, poking fun at each other’s lack of coordination.

“Those boys are gonna end up actually hurting themselves one day.” John spoke slowly.

Isaac grunted, taking a gulp from his thermos. “As long as they can keep an eye on each other, they’ll be fine. Especially Azure. He’s very mature for his age, I’ll give you that.”

“That boys going to be a scientist or a sage. Wouldn’t be surprised if he became one of the princesses advisers.”

Isaac cocked his head to the side this time. “Really, now? From what I gathered, your boy was quite the Wonderbolts fan. Nothing came from that? I thought all pegasi their age wanted to get into that team.”

“I’m not saying he dosen’t fantasize about it from time to time, but he’s quite clever. He already know thats not his path. He said ‘everybody wants to be a rockstar, but most people know its not their path.’ if thats not a future advisor speaking...”

The two men were shaken from their conversation by a loud yelp from the top of the hill. Azure ran behind Windchaser, hyperventilating and scared out of his skin. “What’s got your feathers rustled?”

Azure stopped his shaking, looking at the area around him. “I... I thought I saw a spider-alicorn...”

“A what.”

“Oh god, not this again. Azure!” John shouted. “No more LSD!”

Isaac gave a perturbed look to John. “Your son took LSD?”

John swore lightly. “I thought it was a sleeping pill. Now he hallucinates randomly.”

“I kinda feel bad for saying this, and I should hate myself even more, but that’s kinda funny.” Isaac gave a small chuckle, setting his thermos against the tree.

John shrugged it off, “At least it doesn’t happen often.” John took out a cigarette and lit it. He took a long slow drag before continuing, “He does seem to have some sort of sixth sense as a result.”

Over the hill climbed a younger man in his late twenties. Walking closer to the tree, he approached John and Isaac, “Gentlemen.”

“Take a seat, friend. The name’s Isaac.”

The man nodded, “Thanks.” He picked a patch of grass next to the tree and sat, leaning against it, “Michael, pleasure to meet you.” Isaac took Michael’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “So, what are you two doing here in the middle of nowhere? Those two flyboys up there with you?”

“Me and John here are just here with our sons. You got any kids of your own, Michael?”

Michael laughed, “Me? I don’t think so. I like kids fine, but I’m not the fatherly type. I’m a proud uncle, but that’s about it.”

“Being a dad isn’t all that bad.” Dropping his voice to a more hushed tone, Isaac continued. “Even when your ‘son’ is really just your clone.”

“Wait, what?” John asked, startled. Michael stared, equally perplexed.

“Yeah. I was a scientist in the IHSA back in the day. That little guy up there with the white mane is technically my clone.” Isaac took another sip from his thermos.

“Azure is the result of his mother getting ponified before she knew she was pregnant.” John shrugged.

“I always wondered what happens to expecting mothers with ponification,” Isaac said.

Michael looked at the two, his interest piqued, “Absolutely fascinating. I’m more of an engineer that a scientist, but this is something.”

He leaned further back against the tree and looked up into the foliage, “It’s a great day, in any case.”

“So, Michael, is there anyone you’re interested in? Or anypony rather?” John questioned as he took another drag. Isaac snickered to himself.

Michael sighed, “It’s... complicated. Love of my life-” he corrected himself, “ex-love of my life got ponified a little while ago. I’m having a hard time reconciling the species difference.”

“I can relate. I woke up one day, and the woman I’ve loved was gone. There was a note that explained nothing. I was crushed. Then she died, Azure came along and, well, everything changed.” John replied

Isaac stayed ominously silent, his eyes fixed on the grass before him. He tipped the thermos from one hand to the other, the tea inside sloshing around.

Michael continued, “Yeah, but it seems she still has feelings for me. Makes things a bit awkward. And then there’s...” he trailed off.

“Well do go on, it’d be boring if we were all single with no love interests.” John encouraged.

“Fair enough.” Michael sighed, “Then there’s Twilight.”

“Twilight? Sounds familiar... you mean Twilight Sparkle? The princess’ student?”

Michael straightened up, “Yeah, the same. Do you know her?”

“Seen on the television a few times. Doing debates and such.” John answered.

“Yeah, well, anyway, We have... something. I’m not sure what yet.” He smiled, “But, I think we make a good team.”

“I think,” John took a drag of his cig, “You should go for it. Before its either too you’re late, you’re too old, or you’re too bitter for love like us.”

“Hey.” Isaac grumbled. “What’s wrong with bein’ old?”

Michael laughed, “Easy there, old timer, I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that.”

“Sorry. It’s just that... With all this talk of live interests, it’s bringing back some bitter memories.” Isaac looked back down at the thermos. He unscrewed the cap and took a long sip of the fragrant tea.

“Did you have anybody, Isaac?” John asked

“I liked to think I did.”

“Really? I’d love to hear about it.” John prepared to listen.

“Ah, unrequited love.” Michael commented.

“I met her when I first got to the IHSA with my friend, Will. We moved in with another two people we were going to be working with: Quincy...” Isaac took a deep breath. “And Roxy.” He let his breath out slowly, a familiar feeling rising in his chest.

Michael stared of into the distance, “Hmmm... Roxy, now that’s the name of an attractive lady if I’ve ever heard one...”

“She was magnificent. Smart, attractive, and mature. Granted, she certainly seemed mature around Quincy.” Isaac stifled a small chuckle. “We worked together for months on the cloning project that the little guy came out from.” Isaac gestured behind him to the hilltop where Azure and Windchaser were wrestling with each other.

“Ah, kids. So what happened?” John sighed.

“She had a family before coming to the IHSA. Her husband of fifteen years snuck her kids out one night for a bureau without her. She was heartbroken. And when she saw the clones... It all came flooding back to her. She couldn’t take her eyes off the foal.”

“It brought back all those maternal instincts eh?”

Michael empathized. “Man, my sister had the same sort of emotional eruption when she adopted. Suddenly became a super mom. How she balances that with being a super thief I’ll never know..”

“Poor Azure had no chance. His mother was bottled up crazy, I’m quite off my rocker myself. He’s more or less destined for madness. At lest if used correctly, madness is what genius looks to others.”

“Unfortunately for her, this ‘madness’ was too much for her. Later that night, she tried to take the foal out from the cloning tank. The foal, being a unicorn, panicked, and responded the only way it knew how: it attacked her with magic to protect itself. She was found dead the next morning, a smile on her face, the unicorn nowhere to be found.” Isaac looked down at the thermos again, feeling tears dripping down from his eyes.

“Hey, its alright. you still have a son who loves you, who is healthy and well adjusted.”

“I know,” Isaac said, wiping the tears from his eyes and cheeks. “He was the one who kept me going after everything that happened. I was so close to giving up, but... I couldn’t leave the little guy all by himself.”

“If it weren’t for Azure, I don’t know how much longer I would’ve lasted.”

Isaac hefted himself to his feet and walked toward the hill. He cupped his hands to his mouth. “Hey Chaser! Can ya bring Azure down here with ya?” Isaac shouted.

Michael chuckled, “Here Comes The Paternal Air Brigade!”

Windchaser and Azure came running down the hill, each trying to race the other. Windchaser tried to trip Azure, but ended up tangling his hooves, falling flat on his muzzle, sliding down the rest of the way on the grass. Azure let out a victory cheer before helping Windchaser up.

“Hey dad!” Windchaser said, walking up to Isaac. Azure trotted up to John, sitting down on the grass as he took another drag, the cigarette almost spent.

“Hey there, Chaser. I wanted to introduce you to John and Michael here. Go on, introduce yourself.”

Michael got up to greet the young colts, “Michael Frost, I teach Physics at a college in Jersey. Nice to meet you, Chaser.”

“Hi, I’m Windchaser, and... uh... I teach flying to Azure!”

“Azure Wind, thinker.” The young pony beamed.

Michael grinned, “Flying is a tough thing to learn. You must be good to be teaching. I fly too; helicopters, though.” he turned to Azure, “And a thinker. Good for you! I like thinkers.”

“Cool!” Azure beamed again. “ I study a lot.”

Michael scoffed, “Pfft, studying. That’s not thinking! Thinking is doing! Learning!” he picked up the thermos and threw it as far as he could.

“‘Why did the thermos land where it did?’ Now that’s thinking.” he said with a smile. Isaac gave a deep grumble and walked out across the grassy expanse to retrieve his beverage.

“I do it so I may know what has been done before and come up with what could work now. How may I apply knowledge if I do not have it?” Azure gave a light grin.

Michael, smirked, then mussed up the colts mane, “Smart kid.”

“You guys won’t believe who i saw over there. Agent Hawk. You know, from the TV.” Isaac walked back to his spot in the shade and dropped himself onto the grass. “I tried to invite him over, but he didn’t really say anything back.”

“BULLSHIT” John said bluntly. “He owes me a new door.”

“Who now?” Michael asked.

“Some fella from the government. Says on the news he and some other fellas have been travelling around the country doing...well, I have no idea. They say domestic terrorism, but I know that's baloney.”

“HE STILL OWES ME A DOOR.”

The man in the hat shouted back, “PAY FOR IT YOURSELF YOU SCROOGE! WE SAVED YOU FROM BEING EATEN BY A GIANT SPIDER!”

“THAT DOOR WAS MADE BY MY GRAMPA!” He shouted back.

“BULL SHIT!” The man stalked off before John could rebuke the claim, obviously wanting out of the argument before it escalated. It didn’t stop him from extending a middle finger towards John as he went though.

Isaac began laughing heartily at the exchange.

Michael tossed his hands up into the air, “Whelp, I’m going back to my story! See ya on the flip side, guys. or Sidelines, rather.”

“Awww, see ya Michael!” Azure shouted, Windchaser echoing the farewell.

Michael pushed a button on his watch, and teleported away. LIKE A HOSS.

“Well, Windchaser, you got class tomorrow with Nova and North Star, don’t you? Say hi to Sunny and Bullseye for me. I gotta go back to being a goddamn tree.” So Isaac jumped into the tree’s trunk, disappearing into it. Windchaser flew off, eager to go save the world with Seven, the magic lightning girl.

“Oh shit, we should go clean, child services is coming over!” John realized, and stormed off, snagging Azure as he left.

I feel bad for missing this.

You shouldn’t

It wasn’t THAT amazing. But it was pretty fun. In an idiotic kinda way.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m on a horse.

That’s my horse.

My horse now.

Thieving varmit

“Come Windslo! We shall ride!”

Nah, I’ll take a cab.

Fine.

Fine!

FINE!

And so, Randy savage and Roy G. Bir went their separate ways, never to see each other again.

The End

(That was magical.)

hello

In a section of the story from a man who has not written a single fiction about the conversion Bureau.

Press button, get ponified. Get spaghetti. And ponies.

The end.

THE END

Hope you enjoyed it.

The fuck did i just read?

Celestia’s will, that’s what you just read.

“And that’s how Equestria was made!”

NO THAT’S NOT HOW YOU END A STORY.

yes it is.

NO. IT ENDS WITH

“And they all FUCKED+lived Happily ever after.”

It ends however Krass says it does.

I disagree, why does Krass get to tell us how it ends?

AND THEN THEY ALL FUCKED.

THE END

Yes.

It was quite impressive given the amount of characters.

I dunno, we re-used Hawk like 50 times.

I will destroy you. With Love and Punches. and bad spelling.

Definitely bad spelling.

Gotta love the bad spelling.

I’m gonna love and tolerate the shit out of you until I make an Equestria.

You Already did

In your heart.

<3

<3

*poomf* =3

Author Comments:

KMW: OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE?! You BETTER read AAF. Or I WILL find you. Its a father son fic. Its good. TRUST ME. If not, read Upon A Shooting Star. My best work in my opinion.

Windchaser: What is this garbage? And why did I contribute? Eh. I had fun, that’s for sure. If you haven’t already, take a look at Last Man Standing and Ring of Fire. Some people say they’re good, so why not?

Anonsi: I would like to thank anyone who decided to read Yellowstone, and that I love you. I guess. Not that anyone READS Yellowstone.

Derpmind: Obviously, everyone actually pretends they’re Hank when eating yellowstone. Who would just read it? :P Also, Ponies are awesome.

Read that sentence you just wrote! READ IT AND CORRECT YOUR FLAWS! Pfft, never

THE CONVERSION BUREAU: Sidelines

A ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ Fan Fiction by Sonic

Based on the Fan Fiction “THE CONVERSION BURAEU” by Blaze

Chapter 7

Michael and Twilight arrived back at the ponification camp, and walked down the halls towards Jack's room, laughing the whole way.

"...and then she says, 'not baked goods, BAKED BADS!'"

Michael nearly tipped over in a fit of laughter, "Jeezy creezy, Twilight, that's fucking hilarious. So then what happened?"

The story continued up until they arrived at the room. Suddenly, the two of them heard female screams coming from inside. The two looked at each other in panic. Michael tried to open the door, but the jam was in place.

"Stand back!" Twilight yelled, and suddenly the door was enveloped in a purple aura, then ripped from it's hinges.

The two burst into the room and saw something horrifying.

Jack was stark naked, fucking the ever loving crap out of Fluttershy.

Twilight and Michael both screamed.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST MICHAEL GET OUT!!!"

The two ran as fast as they could out of the room and pressed themselves against the walls on both sides of the, now broken, door frame.

"Gah!" Twilight screamed, "My eyes! How do I erase that from my mind?!"

"You can't! What has been seen cannot be unseen!"

"Wait! Yes it can!"

"HOW?!"

"I can erase our memories of it!"

"DO IT NOW!!!"

A purple glow surrounded Twilight and Michael, but in her rush, something went wrong and the two disappeared, never to be seen again.

Fluttershy literally exploded from embarrassment. Then she exploded again.

Jack became a pegasus pony in the end and is now Gilda's best Brony.

And in case you haven’t figured it out by now, APRIL FOOLS FUCKERS!!!! See you again when the real chapter seven is done!

PEACE!

-Sonic

Table of Contents

Chapter 8: Reflection

Chapter 9: Emergence

Chapter 10: Absence

Chapter 10: Absence

Chapter 11: Revelations

Chapter 12:Acceptence

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Prologue -

Chapter 7