//------------------------------// // 04 - A World Watches // Story: The Conversion Bureau: The St. Louis Massacre // by Cloudhammer //------------------------------// Year 5, Week 19, Friday As Luna finally dismissed the last petitioner, she swore that she would think of something to get back at ‘Tia for convincing her to reinstate Night Court. Ponies these days had no sense of propriety, assuming that just because they asked nicely with their best begging face that their requests would be granted. “Are there any other petitioners, First Lieutenant?” She asked the unicorn guard sitting to the right of the base of her throne. “No, your Majesty,” Ruby replied, expertly hiding his yawn. Or so he thought, anyway. Luna rose to her hooves and stretched. “Very well, I believe I will retire for the evening. Inform any tardy petitioners that they must wait until the Day Court commences for their chance to speak to the Crown-” She was cut off as the sound of frantic hoofbeats drumming on the floor could be heard. The doors to the throne room were flung open as a unicorn guard burst in. “Just what is the meaning of this?” The guard paused for breath, his sides heaving. “T-there’s... there’s an attack ongoing on the serum research facility in St Louis. We just received this notice from the Embassy in Washington.” The guard levitated a piece of paper to her, his eyes fearful. Luna rapidly scanned down the document, the minor scowl of annoyance deepening as her mane began to roil. “Summon Generals Gold Arrow, Cloudhammer, Amber Dusk and Captain Aegis Exemplar immediately.” Ruby swallowed nervously. “Your Majesty, General Cloudhammer and Captain Exemplar... are in St Louis now. Captain Flare was having his bachelor party yesterday.” Luna’s expression darkened further. “Then who is the ranking earth pony guard in the city right now?” Ruby furrowed his brow in thought. “That would be First Lieutenant Sledgepetal, I believe.” “Then send somepony to bring them here.” Luna took a breath, forcing her mane and emotions to calm themselves. “And I need you to go wake my sister. She will need to know of this too.” Ruby gulped. “Y-yes, your Highness.” He saluted, barking orders at the guards as he trotted out the door. Luna rose to her hooves, her horn igniting as she reached out with her will. In a cloud of indigo smoke, a massive table thumped down onto the floor of the throne room, a large map of Equestria laid upon it. She strode down to stand at its head, resting her hoof on it and concentrating. The map began to zoom out, new continents drawing themselves in until the map now resembled the entire Earth. Concentrating again, it began to zoom in on the central United States until the location of St Louis was in the middle. “Celestia is not going to be happy with this.” Luna said absently as she focused on the map, filling in as much of the details on the city as she could remember. Nimbus yawned as she stretched her wings, the pegasus shuffling out of the bedroom toward the kitchen. She flicked the light switch with her wing as she crossed the room, smiling as she saw her goal in sight. “Hello beautiful.” She said as she picked up the coffee pot with her mouth. One of the major companies had seized on the idea when Conversion first became public and started designing products that would be more pony-friendly. The coffee pot bore a horizontal handle, with the pouring lip on the side, so it was a simple task to fill a cup. Letting the coffee sit for a moment, she trotted into her Breaker’s room. She felt her smile widen as she watched her son sleep for a few more minutes. Finally she nuzzled him gently to help him wake up. “Come on now Breaker, somepony has a doctor’s appointment today. And how’s my big boy this morning?” Breaker squirmed out of the tangle of his sheets, rubbing at his eyes. “I’m sleepy Momma.” “Well, if you want, you can sit and watch some TV while I fix your breakfast.” Gently lifting him onto her back, she carried the little colt out to the couch in the main room. Setting him down, Nimbus pressed the power button on the TV and tapped the buttons to bring up the morning cartoons Breaker loved. She trotted back into the kitchen to put her coffee in the microwave, fetching a packet of apple instant oatmeal from the cabinet. She was in the middle of taking the coffee out when Breaker suddenly screamed, running into the kitchen and cowering underneath her. She set the coffee cup down and sat on the floor, scooping him up. “What’s wrong sweetie?” “The TV took away the cartoons and now it’s being all scary!” Breaker buried his face into her chest, bawling like he hadn’t done since he was an infant. Nimbus rocked him gently until the wails turned to sniffles. “It’s okay, now, let’s go make the TV stop being mean, alright?” Putting Breaker down, she picked up the coffee in her mouth and trotted back into the living room. Looking up, she froze at the feed on the screen. “For those of you joining us, we take you again to Hank Wilson, our traffic helicopter pilot, who’s been covering this attack on St. Louis. At this time we cannot speculate on the identity of the attackers, but must again emphasize that these gunman are extremely dangerous. Any pony citizens in the St. Louis area are urged to stay indoors and out of sight.” Nimbus was dimly aware of the sound of the coffee cup smashing on the floor, and Breaker’s continued wailing. Numbly, she turned the television off. ‘Oh Flare... Please be safe...’ Jesse scowled as he drove his pickup down the side streets, staying off the roads. His police scanner continued to spit out more and more bad news. It seemed that whatever precinct had begun redirecting officers had the right idea, as there were now about forty of them gathering at a rally spot. He’d thought about joining them, but then the scanner had picked up that there were a few officers still in the pony district who were frantically trying to avoid the armored Suburbans hunting them down. With a scowl, he turned onto Jefferson Avenue, heading downtown. Picking up his radio, he tuned into the channel the officers were using. “Any units listening, this is former officer Morales. Officers downtown need assistance. Requesting help from units not responding to rally point.” The scanner crackled. “This is Unit 7-12, good to hear you back Lieutenant. I’ll task four to you, what’s your 20?” “November SJA to the 44.” He replied tersely. “Roger that, expect friends soon.” There was a sudden burst of noise on the other end. “Cancel that, the party found us. Sorry Lieutenant.” There was a burst of gunfire as the radio fell silent. “Shit... guess I’m going solo.” Jesse cursed as he came to a stop at the next intersection. Reaching behind the seat, he pulled out his 12 gauge and a box of shells. Loading the weapon, he set it on the seat next to him and continued to drive down the road, hoping that he wouldn’t be too late. The Situation Room was a clamor of noise, as the assembled politicians and military experts tried to get a grip on the situation. “But how in the hell could they get this much equipment into the country?” Secretary of Transportation Robert Merricks asked angrily. “Regrettably, it’s not that difficult.” Logan Harris, Homeland Security replied with a sigh. “Their weapons could have been bought legally and then modified, like the HLF attack four years ago.” “But the miniguns on those Suburbans are a lot harder to buy. That says whoever these guys are, they have some serious backing.” Frank Kingsworth, Defense chimed in “Do you think they’re connected at all with the HLF? We never did find out who their backers were...” Arnold LaRue, State wondered out loud. “For now, let’s focus on what we can do,” Foster said, getting to his feet. “What assets do we have in the area?” “Not much, sir.” Kingsworth admitted. “There’s the Marines next to Lambert, but I don’t recommend moving them. That and the St Louis Downtown airport are the two closest airports out.” “What assets do we have in the area?” Foster asked. Kingsworth thought about it, then leaned back as his aide whispered into his ear. “Well, there’s a a small number of Apaches at Scott AFB, they were due to be flown down to Little Rock tomorrow. I suppose we could use them-” Curtis cut in. “Sir, I don’t recommend that. It’d be using American military assets on US soil., and inside a city on top of that.” Foster thought about it for a few seconds. “Are there any ground assets we could send in, National Guard?” “There are some National Guard assets on the other side of the river, not enough to reliably retake the city, but we can seal off the bridges to prevent them making a move for the St Louis Downtown airport. Sir, I think the Apaches would be our best bet at providing relief to the city police. We can arm them with the 2.76 inch rockets, that’d minimize the damage to the city.” Foster steepled his fingers as he thought about it. “Sir, doing this is a mistake.” Curtis said. “There’s no guaranteeing that the attackers won’t turn their weapons indiscriminately onto the city if we do this.” “Curtis, they’re using their weapons on US citizens and foreign nationals already. If we don’t do something this will only get worse.” Foster looked to Kingsworth. “The order is given. I want it made clear that the Apaches have to be careful about their targets. I will not have them hitting civilians or police.” Kingsworth nodded. “The helo pilots know their stuff. They’ll be spun up and airborne within twenty minutes. I also recommend we order up the Marines at Lambert to prepare to defend the airport should the enemy decide to try to go there for an evac.” Foster nodded. “Alright. Now let’s pray to God that this doesn’t blow up in our faces.” With a snap of displaced air, Spatial Shift landed hard on the floor of PER HQ. Shaking for a few seconds, he heard worried voices around him and managed to get to his hooves. “Spatial, are you alright?” He recognized the voice and opened his eyes. Standing in front of him was an earth pony mare, her coat a shade of amethyst purple with a light blue mane. Her light brown eyes watched him worriedly. “Aurora, oh thank Celestia. I thought I wouldn’t get out of there.” Spatial started shaking like a leaf and he nearly collapsed. Aurora and another earth pony caught him and helped him to one of the meeting rooms. “What in Equestria happened Spatial? You were supposed to be there for another six months.” Aurora asked curiously. Spatial nearly started crying. “It was awful. A bunch of humans attacked the serum facility. I think they k-killed everypony else! I heard s-something outside the closet I hid in, and I panicked. I managed to teleport before it found me...” Aurora nuzzled him. “It’s alright. You’re safe now.” She turned to the other pony. “Go find Amber Dream, he’ll want to hear this right away.” “I already have.” Amber Dream said as he entered the room. “Spatial, were you able to bring any of the serum back with you?” “Y-yes, I have some right here in my pocket.” Spatial carefully took out the bottle and hoofed it over. “Excellent work Spatial. And I am sorry that you had to suffer through that. We’ll take care of it from here. You two, take him to one of the guest rooms for now.” Amber levitated the vial with him as he left the trio. Trotting across the cavern floor, he bellowed, “Alright! I need everypony to assemble in the middle of the cavern please!” The various ponies looked up and trotted over, forming in a mob that encircled the single unicorn. Taking a deep breath, Amber turned in a slow circle as he spoke. “St Louis is under attack by an unknown force of humans. We’re going to go help our fellow ponies. Knight Rampart, step forward.” The muscled earth pony, sporting a number of vicious scars and an eyepatch over his left eye, strode forward. His coat was a shade of dull grey, while his mane was the color of the winter sky. “Yes, Grand Knight Amber Dream?” Amber nodded to the earth pony. “I’m giving you the overall command of this mission. You will deploy first to the suburban Bureau. We have agents there, you can learn a more detailed idea of the state of the city from there. You will then proceed to either the serum facility or the pony district, depending on the situation. We’ll arm you with our newest serum weapons to defend yourself. But remember, those are for defense only. We’ll likely be revealing ourselves to the public, so we need to work to keep our public image intact.” Rampart nodded. “I understand.” Amber Dream nodded and lifted his head high. Raising his voice for everypony to hear. “Then go with the grace of Celestia, High Knight Rampart.”