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Recruited by the Worldgovernment, a young woman is given a holocorder to document her experience of going through a Conversion Bureau, and her experiences after. This is the text transcript of her hypernet holofeed. This story takes place in Year Three of the expansion of Equestria.
First person ponification - this should be fun. 
And, thank you... There are a lot of people who cold use a basic class on equine physiology, let alone Equestrian physiology.
I'm still waiting for someone to explain how they pick things up... I'm personally siding with Gecko-like setae that cover the frog area of the hoof. 
Sunshine reminds me a lot of Caprice from 27 ounces.
That commercial wow you are really playing up the comedy in this aren't you. I really like this, actually more than the some of the other fics. So far its kept things pretty simple and light. A very drastic shift from your other work. But I really enjoy that, it shows you can write outside of just one genre which is really neat.
I somehow just imagined Jim Carrey as the father in the commercial... I don't know why.
It's ok that I'm giving complements right?
Edit 1: also who does the art as it seems both you and Krass used the same artist?
I do all of my own art. I do the title images, and the spot art inside my stories too. You can see larger versions of some of the art on my Deviant Art account, linked through my personal page here on FimFiction, if you are interested.
I did the art for Krass, Windchaser, and also a couple of Midnight stories too. Before I wrote pony stories, I did three graphic novels, they are out there on the net too. But writing is funner.
Hmm, fruit juice, right out of a tree? I wouldn't put it past Equestria. Actually, it isn't completely crazy, either.
Start with a flower, a species that prefers hummingbirds or another larger pollinator. Now, cause it to get bigger, specializing in even larger pollinators, bigger hummingbirds or even bats at this point. Then it gets even bigger, and with more flowers. Now it's this big, tall stalk, right? It gets more flowers, and the vascular structure becomes even more tree-like. What you have now is this tall, tree-like bush with enormous flowers. Well, now some tree-climbing animals are shoving their snauses in it for the nectar, so they very quickly start taking advantage of that, specializing in those because what else uses such a large animal as a pollinator? So, there's speciation, with some species sort of absorbing the flowers downwards, into the trunk of the pseudo-tree, and they grow less complex, relying on larger creatures, some even grazers and browsers, to smell out and sort of suckle on the tree. Eventually, you'll end up with these trees that have these structures on them that just sort of ooze nectar, and leave a ring of powder on the creature's nose. I guess there would be even more speciation on height: one targeting pony-sized creatures, and those for even taller creatures.
Well, okay, that's not really fruit juice as much as it is nectar. Still, yummy yummy tree juice, and I guess it would be hypothetically farmable, and then mixed into a solution with water before serving. The final product would seem like fruit juice, and it would have been extracted out of a tree.
That way really off topic. What I'm really meaning to say here is:
Teacup Down On The OH MY GOD IT'S GETTING EVERYWHERE HRLGLRBRLGBR GLRLG!!!!
Those teacups can trip you up.
I really liked what you have done with the story so far. I like the idea of having humans get used to doing things in a different way to get accustomed to how they will have to do things when they are ponies. One curious thing that I saw though was the idea of how the world government is going out of its way to make sure that people try to convert to ponies before ZP day. The way that the scientist talked about conversion and how the elite were still looking for a way to save themselves, I am led to believe that the world government, at best, was simply looking for a cheap and easy way to reduce the total population of the earth and make more space for themselves. Which, in the context that you set up the story, works brilliantly. While I do believe that there are good people all around and that there would be good people even at the top of the world government in your story, the entity, as a whole, would care more about potential resources and personal gain than the human race as a whole. That's just my personal take on it so far though, and I may be completely wrong about it. I can't wait to see your take on it Chat.
Also, I really like the inbetween advertisments and reports that you shad set up in the story. It really helps with the stream of consciousness style that you are going for in the story. Until the next part. Allons-y!
I'd be pretty interested in seeing, from both sides of the barrier, what happens to various cities and whatever monuments and famous buildings as the barrier passes over them. If Denver is already being reached, then Vegas and the Hoover Dam have already been absorbed. I bet those would be something to see.
I saw new Chatoyance and I was like 0_0
This is really interesting, the way it's told. Not only is it from a first person perspective, but it's a recording. So... it like this is happening in the "present" and it's already all happened in the "past" perhaps. It's like a fictional dream within a fictional dream. 0_o That's so cool!
This is hilarious and frightening at the same time. The implacable march of the soft genocide is... awful, despite the fact that the alternative is readily available, it just comes with a little piece of body horror.
I love that.
And fan art of the art (both are adorable) made me giggle.
I wasn't sure this method of story telling could work - I was wrong.
>we are dealing with a form of physics our universe has never encountered before.
Now that is superb and terrifying at the same time. I feel bad though every other TCB writer is writing these ideas before me. Oh well, I'll just have to try harder to make sure my work can also be unique.
>yes, they are Muslims For Christ... and a party from the Human Liberation Front.
Hmm, so you went with muslim terrorist as HLF sided... interesting
>Breakfast Pony Club
You are officially in the awesome book. But in regards to the actual fic: Did Breakfast Club survive up until this point in the TCB-verse? If so awesome! John Hughes will never die! 
Actually no, she's posturing that islam and christianity have, in some sects, combined into a single religion, which isn't an entirely new idea.
Having said that, she's also not saying that the HLF are all religious, muslims or christians or otherwise - just that these particular ones are.
If you've read Arthur C Clarke's stuff, you'll see at least one variation on his specific future histories has such a similar occurence, wherein islam and christianity and judaism unite into a single world religion.
Midnight is correct: I do not buy into the whole 'Muslims are inherently evil, Jihad, terrorist' crap that the American Media loves to invent. All I was suggesting there was that just as there is 'Jews For Jesus' - a real organization - there could someday be 'Muslims For Christ' and that, as Middy pointed out, this could become a big religion someday. I am imagining a world where, despite the dystopia and everything, some people really are trying to get along and get together, in various ways.
The HLF members are not necessarily religious, they are just marching with the Islamochristians in unity for humanity. It isn't because they share religion in common, it is because they share humanity in common. They are singing hymns together because it is a uniting thing to sing, especially when you are marching into a potentially fatal situation. You don't have to believe in a religion to join in singing a commonly known hymn if you are afraid.
That's what I was doing there: two very different groups sharing a common agenda - protesting the loss of Earth, and humanity itself.
"the enemy of my enemy is my ally," no?
also, I noticed something odd.
in the intermission, the reporter says that ZP-day is 1084 days away, while the scientist instead claims that there are 1133 days left, 49 more than what the reporter said.
Was the scientist still using the previous estimation, or was that interview over a month ago?
This is exactly as fascinating as I thought it would be. I appreciate the challenge of writing a story that consists, more or less, of dialogue and only dialogue. That's hard. You're pulling it off quite well, though, if I may say so.
I have one complaint, and that is the fact that I was planning on using Goldenrod as a pony name in my TCB fic. :< Now it would only feel like stepping on your hooves, so to speak.
(/whine whine moan moan)
But in all honesty I probably could come up with a better name, and now I have impetus to.
Might be a bit nit picky, but I beliebve its Rebirth, not Renewal. Not that it really matters.
Anyways, I damn near died laughing when I saw Crusade Me. Ah man, too bad no one else was there except for us authors. That was fucking hilarious. Good times, Good times...
And geez, when are these two going to realize that they are in lesbians with eachother?
I've liked the interruptions-- this jarring feeling and then you're right in the middle of sight and sound. (Crusade Me! was both amusing and strange) They feel real and contrast with the mostly happy, up beat narrative. One minute Millie's getting her mane brushed and the next-- Cyber terrorism! It gives some interesting context.
Thank you, Ma'am, may I have another!?!
I got the goofiest image in my head after the PER "commercial" - some lonely sap, in the middle of a busy street starts yelling "Crusade me!" and....zilch. So, he tries again (a few days later, when his neighbors stop giving him weird looks) with continued nada. After a few weeks he manages to track down so honest-to-goodness PER Crusaders and asks them why he hasn't been contacted. The Crusader gives him an apologetic blush, channels Fluttershy and admits that the PER....kinda....is a tiny group with only a few hundred members and wasmaybebluffignabit *cringe*. 
Anonymous eh? thinking bout' the hacker group? as you wrote in your other TCB-stories you mention hackers, so that Anonymous would still exist is not unthinkable. it kinda make sense that they would be supporting PER, or at least a part of the group since the group isn't focused at one goal, other than to bring down Scientology.
does ponies work computers well, or do they have to have help from a human?
"Crusade me". very funny concept. ten points!
Is it really hair not fur? Hmm
>I would say that is a miracle on par with old religious dudes with big long beards and glowy heads,
>religion
interesting, especially given what you wrote in 27 Ounces with Sandcastle. Still the idea of abandoning everything, my god, that's terrifying
>The other thing I wanted to mention was about taste. I was worried about what being a pony would do to my sense of taste, if ponies love hay and alfalfa and grass and stuff like that, right? It apparently is not a problem.
Screw the heart, the stomach is where your soul truly lies
>crusademegray
Ha-ha references, and look! the PER still creeps me the hell out 
evidently The Breakfast Club still made it through hell as well. Funny what survives the end of the world
It is hair - not fur. The way to tell the difference is if the one wearing the fur or hair - sweats through it to cool off. Dogs and cats, for example, have to pant to remove their body heat. Horses sweat. I can see my mare's sweat even on a cool day when I remove my saddle pad and cinch. Horses that work harder - for example in a race - will have copious amounts of sweat and foam pouring off them. We would often give them a bath with an astringent liniment afterwards to remove the sweat and dirt. The smell of Vetrolin (the kind of liniment we used.) still brings back memories. It smells of... horse shows.
<takei>oh my!</takei>
In all fairness, I should also comment on the delightful golden-age scifi interlude. Freaking awesome. Something right out of an Asimov collection, infact I swear I've read it before.
The overblown space-satan scooping out the brains? Well, I could point to a few cults like that today!
And oh my, dat interlude...
I love how it's just so painfully obvious it's being sanitized for mass consumption, though!
These interludes shine like stars. Also, interesting: the WorldGov AIs don't want people knowing about, well, whoever Millie was going to name. The implications of the WG cooperating with the PER -- imagine the reactions of the RPS to that. Then again, we didn't see what HH Celestia did at the PER HQ in LM, so IDK.
Also, if this comment makes sense to you, well...
Jarring:
When you go from high, beautiful transcendent meeting of ascended man and space dog to... I'm not sure? Interspecies relations?
hahaha Love the intermissions!
Singularity... you've mentioned that before. What is that? Because just that tiny snippet blew me away. I wanted to know more, wanted to read more of that. I'm not sure what it was about it....
I'm disappointed by the HLF commercial. It was clearly a parody. I'm not saying it wasn't funny, because it was ridiculous and silly, but it still was completely unbelievable. A real HLF commercial would only need to hint at a few conspiracies being true to get the crazy people to join. The tone of the commercial was lacking that creepy v
>Failure to disconnect the contents of this message with this infostream or the Corporate Worldgovernment is a Capital Class Three offense punishable
So if you disconnect from the info stream do you get in trouble or do you get in trouble if you listen?
Either way, huh, interesting that HFL seems to be much more legalized than PER
Perfect...
For a TCB fanfic, surely there's a whole bunch of technical stuff here
The Singularity. You should look up Verner Vinge for more information, but simply put it is this:
tens of thousands of years ago, man mastered fire. This took probably thousands of years before the ability was spread throughout the world's population.
thousands of years ago, we had agriculture and husbandry. This took probably a thousand years, or less, to spread.
hundreds of years ago, we had scientific theories like orbital mechanics. Decades later, it is everywhere on the planet.
a century ago, radio covers the world in a few scant years. Television follows. Computers pop up. The internet. Mobile phones. Online banking. twitter.
Now, new ideas take days to travel across the planet, new products take weeks to go on sale, new ideas take seconds to distribute.
The pace of change, and the pace of the pace of change, are both accelerating, at an exponential rate.
At some point in the near future - very near, maybe five years, maybe ten, almost certainly less than twenty at this point - the pace of the acceleration of the rate of change is postulated to be so fast, that a singularity of change will occur. Overnight, our civilisation will cease to be the same as the day before.
Some see general AI as being the catalyst, others just powerful computers, others still see nano-manufacturing as being the key - neighsayers point to plateaus of non-advancement, and they may be right. But if they aren't, trying to predict what our world is like after this singularity occurs is increasingly difficult because when every invention is as world-changing as fire was tens of thouands of years ago, and every day comes tens or hundreds of such inventions, the world is never the same and inherently unpredictable.
In many TCB stories, the singularity is just on the cusp of happening, but it is a failed singularity. Nanomanufacturing is here, but wealth still runs on jobs that have now been taken over by AI, so millions go on the dole, the economies of the world cannot cope with not being needed any more... and so states fail, governments collapse, corporations take over.
When I write, it needn't end like that, but the ponies turn up and offer happiness in a jar, against a backdrop of certain annihilation. The big push for ponification is suddenly real jobs, real meaning, real lives, and and end to the crushing death of the shield erasing their existence. A second singularity, that changes everything, wiping away the old just as assuredly as a perfect digital future.
Ya know zombie jesus was probably the last thing I ever expected to hear in a story involving colorful ponies 
Interesting that it's just the middle finger that forms the hoof, not just the whole hand morphing into it.
Darn it I want to know what pony sunshine was: I'm betting unicorn
Question though: How the bat out of hell has the Equestrian "Bubble" not offset a) Earth's Rotation or b) it's orbit around the sun? That thing is insane (and cool as hell to look at)
And yet, in Equestria, the rich still get rich and the poor get foals and taxes...
Communistic thoughts aside, the last bit might seem... Disturbing. But, ask yourself, What Would Kirk Do? Either way, that bit with the dogs was the best sci-fi I've read since I finished High School.
Often a fist in the face will do little, but sometimes, depending on the angle, force, location of impact, and any preexisting conditions on the part of the person attacked, a fist to the face can do anything from blind, to kill.
A fairly common injury is the shearing of the olfactory nerves, loss of smell is a common result.
The impact can also damage the cervical vertebrae of the neck, and can even tear or rupture the aorta, again depending on various factors. A punch just where the nose meets the lip can drive the cartilage into the brain for an instant kill, and of course any blow to the head causes some amount of brain damage, the degree varying.
I am suggesting that Sunshine likely had a preexisting condition which would have allowed bleeding within the brain from the impact as the brain sloshed against the inside of the skull. This is common, but in some cases can be very dangerous to fatal.
Interesting note: pugilistic dementia, the condition that boxers eventually get where they lose the power of speech and become gradually paralyzed can happen to footie players, soccer players, from nothing more than heading balls. It is quite extraordinary just how vulnerable the brain is despite being encased within the skull, and buffered with cerebraspinal fluid. Most damage is cumulative, over years, but every once in a while, one hit can change everything.
This happened to me, by the way. I tripped going to a restaurant and fell. I broke my elbow, which likely saved my life, my skull hit with less force than it might have as a result, upon the concrete. I tipped over just like a tree falling, thunk.
Since then my sense of smell has been halved, I can barely smell things anymore. Just one fall.
We take blows to the head for granted, because of our media, but any blow loses something, even if you don't notice it. The exact same fall that I took outright killed actor Hervé Villechaize just a week after me. He was a very short person and fell a very much shorter distance.
Never underestimate a blow to the head.
>>285081 this may sound weird, but my mother told me that your smell gets less sensitive after time, because you get used to the smells. but you could reset that by taking a big sniff from under your arm. it worked for my grandmother, and while you have lost some of your smelling sense from that fall, it might help a little.
now, one thing I always find myself get unreasonably annoyed over, is the plural form of Pegasus. I always use Pegasi, but officially there is no "proper" plural, since the original Pegasus was literally one of a kind.
minor rant aside, lovely chapter. It is always interesting to see how different writers illustrate the differences between humans and ponies, and your style of writing often, if not always, involves plenty of interesting little details, like the sudden lack of swearing or the new sensations of having wings.
I love this series, you are an amazing writer, and NEVER let anyone or anything convince you otherwise!
"now, one thing I always find myself get unreasonably annoyed over, is the plural form of Pegasus."
Oh, me too. Which is why I campaign for the acceptance of 'Pegasai' as being the official plural form. Pronounced 'pega -sigh' (or 'sai', like the Japanese three pronged weapon, same sound, rhymes with 'Rye' or 'Pie'), 'Pegasai' has been used in more more books and filksongs than any other plural form of pegasus I have ever heard. I naturally adopted it for that reason.
For a grouping of Pegasai, I always go with a 'Constellation of Pegasai', just as one would have a 'murder of crows', or a 'flock of seagulls'.
While doubtless following the most common convention may not be imaginative, I just like the sound of both of these, I definitely like the classy sound of 'Pegasai'.
No pegasai
will ever cry
as long as they can
freely fly.
Funny that word pegasus.
It is not truly the name of the species, which is ptreippus, but of the first of its kind, Pegasos (The one that Hercules rode). Now, pegasus is the nglish bastardization of Pegasos, and a ploy at greek writing. So technically being greek in orgin and english in nature, there are two ways to spell it rtruthfully and neither is wrong. On of which stays true to the words greek orgin, and is spelt pegasi. The other plays off the fact that it is in truth an enlish word, pegasuses. Niether are wrong. Now, you seem to be usuing an english bastardization of the greek plural form.
Such a funny, silly word.
Yeah, I just found that out this afternoon. 'Pegasi' is apparently pronounced the same as my 'Pegasai', despite the fact that in Greek that 'i' at the end should rightly make an 'ee' sound, like 'Pega-see' only it doesn't. That is what threw me for a loop: every time I see 'Pegasi' my head goes 'Pega-see', and that sounds bad to me.
I found 'Pegasai' spelled that way on several things out in the internet, and that made sense to me, so I went with it. But clearly, the more proper version is 'Pegasi', except just pronounced according to different rules than Greek would use. So basically... Muffin.
Ok. It's all bullshit.
So, my bullshit is going to be spelled universally 'Pegasai' because that makes sense to my head when I pronounce it inside, and outside, and that is my bullshit and I am sticking with it.
And may everyone enjoy their own, personal bullshit name for bullshit creatures, and maybe we can all go to plural together someday, which might be twice as nice in any case.
Kissy Kissy, Heart Heart.
It is an interesting thought. Humans are not naturally built for flying, and fear of heights is fairly common. It's one thing to trust your life to an Authority represented by an engineered machine, such as an airplane, but perhaps another to face taking your own life into your own wings.
Perhaps newfoals being frightened by flying should be a common thing. There is nothing to trust in such flight but one's own body, and that is utterly new for humans, even transformed ones.
Well this has been really enthralling so far. I'm really enjoying this fly-on-the-wall esk writing style. Without much actual scene setting or descriptive text, the reader still gets all the information they need to formulate the picture of what’s happening around them from the camera’s point of view.
Oddly enough it feels that much more genuine then the normal third person stories, putting us literally behind the eyes of the focal character.
Have to say you had me going for a while back there too when you belayed mention of Sunshine's species. I kept flicking back to see if I’d missed something. And when there wasn’t anything; I ended up laughing at the image of half the audience shouting ‘BUT WHAT ARE YOU! This is Eastenders all over again!
’ at their hollo-screens.
Wonderful as always hun and an interesting exploration in writing style
Yeah, I was a bit of a tease with the whole breed reveal. Hee! So naughty of me.
When I wrote Per Equitum, my short comedy Conversion Bureau story, I just felt that there was something there to experiment with, in the style of a monologue. It didn't seem sustainable for a longer piece, though, so I went for a radio-play, which is ultimately what Going Pony is. As I write it, I imagine Going Pony being done by ZBS media, the folks that did the Fourth Tower Of Inverness and all the awesome Jack Flanders audio dramas.
That's the style I'm going for: modern day radio play.
Sunshine Laughter is our primary voice, but because she wears a holocorder, we hear the voices of others around her, such as Samantha. It is tricky for me to find ways to keep things flowing while identifying who is saying what in what amounts to a radio play.
The Pony Breakfast Club (so Far)
Sunshine Laughter - Female Pegasus. Cornflower Blue with darker mane and tail. Violet eyes. Holocorder. Prime Protagonist. Rolling with it.
Millicent Nguyen 'Millie' - Female Earthpony. Copper coat with red mane. blue-green eyes. Love interest. Fun and nice.
Goldenrod and Aquamarine - Male Earthpony and Female Pegasus. Likely couple, though not open about it.
Jan - Female Unicorn. Analytical personality. Serious.
Samantha - Female Pegasus, green, yellow mane and tail, blue eyes. Rooms with Honeydrizzle. Easygoing.
Honeydrizzle - Female Earthpony. Got cutie mark first in the club. Can be severe at times.
.......I'm on the fence to say the least. I'm thoroughly enjoying the pony aspects of this story, but I have to fight the urge to reach through the aether and through several dimensions to smack Sunshine upside the head for the bloodcurdling amount of misanthropy. Do humans mess up.....Is the sun bright? A definite yes. Humans have all sorts of problems but then again we all sorts pluses too. The way this fic views the ponies as a god race is really starting to grate on my nerves. Would being able to turn into a pony be cool? Yes. I would do it for a temporary amount of time, but not forever. But having them go on and on about how so much wonderful they are is kinda killing my ability to relate to them. They're almost too perfect at this point and as an imperfect human being that means that the character likability is dropping. I'm not writing this to be a troll, I'm just saying I haven't been so turned off an idea like this in awhile because A) Sunrise's mysanthropy is really starting to get under my skin in about every way and B) the ponies are being ridiculously hyped. I know it's a documentary with a narrator's point of view which is going to have some bias, but something does need to be held back abit.
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