Exactly as the title implies. What do you think makes a story TCB? Or, if it better suits you, what do you want to see in a TCB story? Who knows? There might be someone just waiting to write something TCB, but they don't know what to put in it.

In case you didn't see it, I said I thought that for a story to be "TCB", it needed:
1) Equestria.
2) Ponies of a "My Little, Friendship is Magic" flavor.
3) Conversion Bureaus.

And I suppose if pressed, I wouldn't mind seeing:
1) A character who can't decide for whatever reason.
2) Some drama about conversion.
3) Someone being a badass and/or using ponification to cheat something or someone.

2687601 I agree with all this, I've read allot of fics that say their TCB fics but do not contain any of the above-mentioned.

2687601

All of that yes, but also anything else that creates the proper background for the story you want to tell, whether that's personal transformation, rebellion (refusal to change or give in), grace under unbearable stress, sacrifice for others, the breakdown of society, ecological cautionary tales, the approaching singularity, or even more traditional themes such as a murder mystery, a personal quest, slice of life or just 'friendship is magic'.

Most TCB stories also use 'the inexorably expanding barrier' to create a time limit and a feeling of jeopardy to drive drama, but even that is subject to what the author wants to do with the story.

I've been surprised at how little human + pony romance seems to fall out of these stories. (Although, maybe I just haven't read the right ones?) You'd think the TCB setting would open up endless possibilities for that. Not gonna try writing any myself, though. I'm no good with that sort of thing.

The other aspect of TCB that appeals to me greatly is the worlds-in-collission vibe. TCB is a natural playground for Discord, even without him ever showing up as a character. I don't mean so much Anti-TCB fascist ponies and open warfare... but I do think if you smash two different realities together, you'd see all kinds of upheavals and conflicts, from culture clashes to diplomatic dustups to natural disasters. Those I would like to explore.

And of course you can push the boundaries and have none of those included, BUT as they say (okay, just me): If you don't know the rules, you will break them. If you know the rules, you CAN break them.

I'm guilty of using the entire (usually generic) TCB setting as a backdrop instead of a focus, which has made many of my tales only tangentially TCB, while still requiring it to be TCB for the characters to exist/develop into just what I wanted to use. I'm not sure if that's a failing or a virtue.

As for what I like to see in a TCB story? I think that the classic "Groups of folks hanging about a Bureau before/during/after converting" is a story type that we've not had in too long.

2687886
There was one story centered around a human/Rainbow Dash, but it seems to have been abandoned. I still remember the last line;
"What do mean he has to wait three weeks!"

1. Humans
2. becoming ponies
3. due to a systematic and/or institutional intervention.

That is all. That is the base minimum for being TCB.

Alas, English cannot express a tenseless sentence, so my pithy definition is overly strict. You can have humans who will become ponies, humans who are going to become ponies (but may not in the end), humans who have become ponies, or ponies whose ancestors were humans that became ponies. All of those are TCB. Even if the humans are just backstory.

The institutional clause is what differentiates TCB from (other) HiE wish fulfillment plots, or other pony transformation stories. The existence of a formal institution to cause the transformation, or a systematic plan to, say, evacuate Earth, is the bureau part. It need not be salutary; Ten Rounds is still TCB. But it doesn't need to be harmful, either; Wackyverse is TCB even though there's no apocalypse nor ponification doom squads.

(And there can be other conversion targets, as long as pony is one of them.)

actually IMHO for it to be a TCB Fic it has to be set in one of the "three" TCB-universes
1: chatverse, closest to the origional tcb and possibly the one with the most stories set in it
2: yellowstoneverse the mane 6 wielded like hunters and SHIELD agents combined
3: TCBUniverses: all the universes that dont feature the typical "TCB Storyline" (the HLF winning, the gateway not blocked by magic, the TCB being a one room shack with a door to the elaysian fields, ect)
technically there is one more.. but it has been refrenced in practically all three of the "universes" that it is more of a paradox.
but yes. that is all it has to be to be considered TCB

2691620

The only thing we might have to worry about in Wackyverse is an Alpacalypse.

I know this probably isn't where I should ask this, but where is the original story? With all the spinoffs and Parnell worlds, I can't find the story that started it all.

3522564
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/35030/the-conversion-bureau

Your question comes up every once in a while, but surprisingly it's the first story you find by searching "the conversion bureau original".

Thanks. I didn't think to add original to my search ( grr, I'm stupid.) Anyway thank you very much. Also, love the avatar.

I think I might be able to add to this. The thing I like best about these stories is seeing our beloved ponies interact with humans and human related things. Namely music. I always wanted to know how the ponies would react to heavy metal, and classic rock.

I think it depends on how "orthodox" you are about it.

In its loosest sense, a Conversion Bureau story is simply one in which there is some organized effort to turn humans into Equestrian ponies, whether it's entirely willing, forced by circumstances such as the imminent end of the Earth, or outright forced in an invasion/Xenolestia kind of way (this would be the ACB view of every story it seems).

Then there is a buffet of other options and tropes from the original story, the Chatverse and others. The Chatverse has the closest to an actual canon of its own.

For instance, the Barrier. This is a deadly barrier between Equestria and Earth, impassable by humans, though ponies can cross it in both directions. The Barrier is constantly expanding and will eventually envelop the entire Earth, effectively turning it into Equestria. Magic is deadly to humans, and for that matter, things like unicorn magic disrupt electronics and have other ill effects. Only through Conversion is it possible for humans to cross the Barrier and survive Zero Point, when the last of the Earth is consumed.

How the Barrier works and whether or not it actually does inevitably destroy the Earth differs from story to story, though in most Chatverse stories, it is inevitable. However, what is also inevitable in Chatverse stories is that the world was already doomed before the Barrier or anything to do with Equestria, because humanity's destruction of the environment has already passed the inflection point where doing anything about it is past.

Other important and critical tropes involve the degree to which humans are changed by Conversion. For instance, what happens to the original person? Releasing humans simply changed in form from the shape of humans to ponies, while leaving our capacity for violence and cruelty intact, would be a tremendous danger to ponies.

So in many stories, the transformed humans are incapable of murderous violence and may, if they were violent beforehand, be absolutely horrified at their own previous actions. In most mainstream stories, memories remain mostly or entirely intact. Like a religious conversion, pony Conversion does result in changes.

However, a common misconception of the stories is that it's simply a brainwipe of some sort, utterly destroying the original personality and replacing it with some mindless, grinning slave. I have yet to see any story where something like this is portrayed as a good thing.

So if I had to put it in bullet points, it would be simply:

1) Organized conversion of humans into ponies
2) Some pressure, whether it is simply desire or peer pressure or, at the extreme, death (though in most stories the need to convert is not instant but years off)
3) Some exploration of the nature of identity, consciousness, what it is to be human, what is lost or gained in transformation

The 3) part sounds poorly thought out because that's where most disagreements on the subgenre originate, at least among people who like it.

Just 1) and 2) are enough to cause issues between people who like and do not like the whole idea of transformation.

(I am firmly in the former camp and if a Conversion Bureau opened up anywhere near me I'd sign up that day.)

2687601
Lima beans and a car chase.

I feel like it needs to have some form of relation to a conversion event such as a person's experience in this universe such as being in the resistance such as the HLF or being on the run meeting various characters ponies and human along the way.

In my opinion the best ways of handling a conversion fic is by doing one of the following.

1) making a short one shot which is fast paced but has enough character development to make the reader invested in the characters which can end badly for the humans, ponies or both this could be used as a way to spring a full blown fic into play depending on how the writer wrote it for example X amount of humans survived the fic and their stories continue with a longer story with more depth and meaning

2) a story which has multiple views and perspectives, while having one protagonist is fine having two or three characters with their own character development and spotlight will allow readers to understand these characters more and enables them to flesh out plot points for example

In a final battle one of the main protagonists is about to bite the dust when they're saved the next portion can then display the other perspectives which allows the author to have more flexibility for content rather then being stuck with one character and not being able to deviate from that characters unique plot for example if two friends were in the HLF the author has the ability to create unique scenarios such as one friend goes on a mission while another tends to another task and while friend is on said mission gets captured and could progress the fanfic further by then having a side character inform other MC that said friend has been captured the results are endless the author can then have the main characters form their own plans for example captured character can have a sub plot where he/she escapes while the other one prepares a raid on the conversion facility and have their plots intertwine somewhere in the middle.