• Member Since 11th Jul, 2011
  • offline last seen Apr 24th, 2016

Midnightshadow


T

These are stories set in the conversion bureau universe, with a twist. Often designed to address the other side of the balance, I try to give something unique in these stories other than "human becomes pony". They are raw, unfiltered and could probably be improved, but you may enjoy them.

It's a darker and sometimes slightly twisted take on my little pony, so tread carefully. If you want happy pastel ponies, look elsewhere. If you want gritty and cutting, you're in the right place. That's not to say it's grimdark out the wazoo, but it's not going to be entirely shipping and tea parties.

Picture (from NASA) from http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html where all credits can be found.

Chapters (8)
Comments ( 57 )

Really excellent take from the other side, Midnight. I quite enjoyed it, and I loved your triple agent.

wow... i'm just lost for words... nice work man, nice work...

That's an absolutely awesome kick-ass story, nice work man :heart:

This is going well, you make the connection from the "prologue" to the first chapter quite well, i humbly ask for more.

I spy a Blade Runner quote!

Good to see that this story is getting some progression! Keep it up Midnight!

I like where you are going with this story!

i want to kick that pony's ass, all ponies are pussies (i am a brony i just think that humans are better!) i would stay on earth as a human if it killed me, i would curse out any pony who tries to be a smartass like the one in your story.

Good story anyways...

25028 Oh, it will kill you, slowly, surely, and painfully, while all your innards rot from the magical irradiation that spots the globe that only threaten to expand.

Have fun.:scootangel:

Hmm. Not sure how they're going to address that second hazard...

Great stuff, and a refreshingly less dark read after the first chapter. I look forward to seeing the Big Move.

God damn. Wow. EXCELLENT!

Tick Tock rocks. What a magnificent son-of-a-bitch.

Great as always, Midnight.

Okay, Tick Tock is one Scary Son of a Bitch. I cannot lie, I can't wait to see what you do with Tick Tock. I am curious to find out the depths of his insanity and what it can say about his reactions to Equestrians and Humans. One particular area I think you should get on would be his reaction to humans who plan to get converted. Does his insanity prevent him from letting them go, or does he let them live? I think that should be something to consider about writing.

Again, Great story and keep up the great work!

#12 · Nov 19th, 2011 · · 1 · Tick, Tock ·

why isnt celestia doing something about tick tock? hes such a bastard, i want to strangle him, rip his eye out, skull-fuck him and cum in his brain (then piss on it). I am then going to take his intestines and wrap them around his penis and balls, and watch them explode with pressure. then im going to remove him organ by organ. Then make cupcakes

35047
Hehe, glad you hated him that much. That's kind of what I'm going for. He'll be back.

This was a fascinating premise, and to tell the truth, I was gravely disappointed that you didn't go somewhere with it. If Ponification were real, this would happen; it would be inevitable, really, at least for a while. That means, to me, that this is good speculative fiction. Yes, it's whimsical, but it's also believable, at least in principle.

I wish this one could be taken further. I found myself intrigued; how would a human/equestrian relationship work? It's a bit Alien Nation, which is awesome, at least to me.

What's that picture of?:rainbowhuh:

46784
Alien Nation is actually the (admittedly very rough) template I was going for - that was a masterpiece of sci-fi that was essentially an action-packed drama with sci-fi elements that played with the ideas of religion, ideals, personhood, loyalty and discrimination. I see Alien Nation as the fore-runner of the movie District 9, where the former is about pretty humanoid aliens integrating, and the latter is about pretty alien aliens failing to. The backdrops to each were distinct and colourful and I thoroughly enjoyed both.

This "Strange Bedfellows" story is not an abandoned story, I would not normally have published it yet but for two things:
1) I wanted to test the new google docs uploader. It worked flawlessly and perfectly. I shall have to throw something more complicated at it to see what goes boom
2) It was actually at a stop that gave an understandable taster for the rest of the story (which I have playing about in my head), for which I was hoping to get feedback from the few who either a) watch me or b) track this story

It's not abandoned, it will go somewhere, I just can't say when.

46790
The header picture is the earth at night, I forget who took it and to be honest I should probably replace it. It's such a gorgeous picture in full rez, however.

I'm not a very good artist, so sadly none of the cover art for any of my stories is my own.

Just found this, a very interesting read. Hope to see future chapters :twilightsmile:

Oh, bother. I woke up one of the tenants with my non-stop laughter! Oops :rainbowlaugh:

I think part of my soul just shriveled up and died, excellent work Midnight, a very gut-wrenching chapter. If i hadn't already given you five stars you'd be getting them now

EDIT: After reading part 1 and 2 back to back, I think I need to go watch something happy now :rainbowlaugh:

What the fuck did I just read?

This isn't like snuff tortune fics, this IS a snuff torture fic.

175555
there's a good what the fuck, a bad what the fuck, and then a "what the fuck!?".

Hopefully it's the first or last - the last would mean that it was good, even if it pissed you off or made you upset.

This was so wrong in all the right ways.

177540
I was actually unsure whether to post it - this was one of those times when I just let the scene play out as it was supposed to go, and I even went back and tidied it up to amp up the crazy just a little bit more... and then I finished and realized what I'd done.

It's all for a reason, but it doesn't stop it being something very dark. I posted it anyway. :pinkiecrazy:

Question: Are the voices that Tick Tock hears insanity, or are they telepathic, and driving the pony insane - in other words, is he tuned into the most vile of humans, and that is what he needs to silence?

If so... double-plus awesome.

177845
Okay, you want my take on my own character, to clear things up?

This may be spoilers, but I think it's something that most will have gathered may be the case.

He's a newfoal unicorn, with a very specific talent. He is, in a way, autistic as a pony. He, in his own words, can barely lift a cup and saucer. He can't turn apples into carriages, he can't set things on fire, he can't make dresses. He can't, in fact, do almost anything that even the most simple of unicorns can do. In almost every way, he is an earth pony, because his magic is so specific, and broken.

What he can do is work with electromagnetic fields and thoughts. He doesn't really understand his own talents, either. It's like a game to him. He can read and influence even the most feeble of electromagnetic fields - it is magic, but to him he doesn't see spells or incantations, or even effort. He just... does it. He also cannot turn it off.

The voices he hears is the result of him being completely unable to turn off his talent, which is (in his own words) off the scale. Every second of every day, even when he's trying to sleep, he can hear every dirty little thought from everything in a fifty klick radius. Everything. The arguments, the fights, the plotted murders, rapes, thieving. The conspiracies, the attacks on ponies.

As always, negative emotions are powerful and loud, and you don't get much louder than rape and murder, which happens to mostly be of ponies. He hears and feels both the adrenalin rush of the perpetrators as well as the agony and death of the ponies. To him, he hears the death of pure innocence and the exultation of the corrupt.

He is a pure empath, unable to silence the voices - except under certain rare conditions. Sexual excitation and great pain, which often come together. In a way, he is driven to commit the crimes he does because he has grown used to the release being from both at the same time, and like pavlov's dogs, he is now trained for it.

He's a real poor character, really. If he'd been Equestrian he could have been trained, or shielded, or sheltered. As an unknown newfoal, driven completely barking bonkers, he's got no hope. He doesn't even know about inhibitors, and likely now would refuse one seeing as he thinks he is doing the will of the princesses by silencing the evil voices and saving the happy ones.

177862 Dear lord, it's like River Tam fell off the knife edge into the dark instead of the light

236498
I don't know, directly. I can say I did want a villain character that echoed the sort of ethos of the DC and Marvel greats - I'm not so full of myself that I can claim I have managed it, but it was what I wanted.

I want a believable, if over the top, bug nuts guy you can still relate to. Even whilst he's frothing at the muzzle and doing his worst, I want you to understand why, perhaps even hate him for it. Was the joker's callous disregard for humanity part of Tick Tock? Quite probably - the Joker, the Penguin, these two have essentially left humanity behind. One of them by embracing his animal nature even as he builds his deadly quirky inventions, the other one by become a true chaotic evil avatar.

By contrast, Batman puts on a mask that he knows is a mask. Superman's secret identity is Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne's is Batman. Part of the internal conflict for the latter is when Batman becomes the dominant personality. Tick Tock's mask is of an amiable unicorn, entirely forgettable and sweet, but it's a mask he never has to take off as behind that mask twitches the bubbling insanity of a psychopath who just wants the voices to stop. He's hurt to the core and lashes out, reveling in a side of him he wouldn't acknowledge even if you could make him understand he has it.

You're not supposed to like-like him, you're supposed to love to hate him - I do know we all love a good villain, so if I've managed that then I'm pleased.

I have to go read the bible now:pinkiesick::pinkiesick::pinkiesick::pinkiesick:

wat

Wait so the ponies destroyed earth? I don't understaaaaand

829568
These are a collection of stories, and aren't meant to be read in sequence, as such.

Chapters 1 and 5 are one-shots
Chapters 2 and 4 are the "to save eden" story
chapters 3 and 6 are the two "tick tock" chapters written so far

And yes, the unicorn in "the day the sky changed" has, in my world, perpetrated the biggest crime against humanity possible. He, single hoofedly, modified the spell that should have created nothing but a mere whisper of a gateway a planck length across so that it ate the planet.

Does he get his comeuppance? Well, I haven't written it yet.

239984
Well you aren't really supposed to like him, he's a complete monster. I wanted to see how far I could take it, and it sounds like it went roughly where I wanted it to. He's a fun character I'd like to write with again, his closing chapter.

I gotta say I'm surprised I hadn't come across the idea of a DNP before this. It's a good device for introducing internal conflict to ponies who want to help. Frustration with DNPs might push a lot to join the PER, just as the lack of options between pony or death would push a lot to join the HLF.

I'd also hate to be the technician who has to scrub through all those automated maintenance requests.

Worship is often demanded of those who need it for validation. People often demand it, sure, but I think a truly omnipotent and omniscient being wouldn't need either of those. Celestia and Luna may or may not be all-powerful, depending upon whose headcanon you're visiting, but the one consistent thing seems to be that they're confident and content enough not to need worship. They'd rather be friends.

Celestia does seem to enjoy a bit of the courtly bowing and scraping now and again, though. Rank has its privileges.

843902
First, I apologize for inflicting that story on you (or anyone, though a clockwork-orange style punishment of having it read to you may be suitable for some of the worst types).

Secondly, a DNP seemed like a natural extension of the sorts of rules and safeguards we have in place now. Plenty of folk have DNR's in place (mostly it's for those people who are already on life support, of course, but like blood transfusions I can see they would be popular), though mostly it's to avoid unnecessary pain. Interestingly enough, the right to life groups don't care if you're in pain and will die anyway, they'd rather you suffered until it was "your time" (whatever that means). Humans would be tempted to break the rules, they do it all the time. Maybe a pony wouldn't. Would involuntary ponification at the hands of a human be a better thing than sticking to the person's wishes to prefer death?

843922
Again, I apologize for subjecting you or anyone to this bitter polemic. It's something I wanted to write, but I still think it's horribly trite and pretty damned terrible to boot.

as I see Celestia and Luna, they are immensely powerful, but neither omnipotent, omniscient nor omnipresent. Whether they are goddesses or not is really up to the person or pony in question, but whichever it is, in the show they've never been shown to want or need worship and would rather be as approachable as any other pony. They even make mistakes, get jealous or cross and play mischievous tricks. I like that a lot in their characters.

i liken celestia and luna to the gods of old, the ones who rather than rule the world, just want to have fun.
they do what they have to, then play the rest of the day.
as for the omnipotent part.
they cant know everything but they could do anything. all five gods, Celestia, luna, discord, cadence, and chrysalis.
at least that is my perception on how one (changling queen) can defeat another (pony princess)
and why one (pony princess) cant interfere with another (pony princess or last draconiquis) plans.

Wow... Experimental, yes. Strange, you bet... but I liked it. It's intriguing to see just how some folks really would react...

Talk about bittersweet.

You showed this to me before, and I STILL enjoy it! This is how I think Celestia and Luna really would view a lot of religion, and it's a nice view on it. It's not a bitter polemic by any means. It's nothing but some soul-searching with a pair of near-deities.

Honestly, I found the idea of a growing gestalt of evicted AIs developing self-awareness on the Moon to be the most intriguing part of the story. Not by much, though.

deathandtaxesmag.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/monty-python-god.jpg
There. See what happens you stop groveling? You get tea and a nice chat. Why can't Arthur be more like this bloke? Where'd he bugger off to, anyway?

I really enjoyed this one Midnight, hope to see more from you soon :twilightsmile:... also, you ought to come on to the IRC once in a while, we miss you :pinkiesad2:

Comment posted by Deadite174 deleted Apr 30th, 2013

856703
These stories are a collection, and not necessarily meant to be read in order. The ones that are related can be seen from the titles. They're not "ponies r evil" and they're not "humans r gud", and some are quite frankly just dumb - and they really haven't been polished much - but ymmv. I'm generally happy with them, or I wouldn't have posted them (the last two being an exception - they're posted in a kind of "I made these, so I'm adding them to the collection" vein).

Don't feel pressured, it's not like I'm paying you or anyone to read them.

I am so glad you added Tea With God. Thank you.

a dragon potion..
that is ... another advancement in potions
grape,
cherry,
strawberry,
gryphon
dragon.

amazing how we think of these..

Mmm. Blue raspberry. Looking forward to life for the first quintessential dragon of Earth.

This was very neato, and I liked Sharptooth in it especially.

That said, I felt like the scene changed so fast with regard to the mutant dragons, that I experienced narrative whiplash. It is my assumption that... somehow... either Sharptooth, or the safety features of the Conversion Chambers must have dispatched the monster converts, and that after this fact that somehow Jouni's egg had been transported... somewhere, probably Equestria, but I found that a great deal of filling in to do.

It felt a little like Commander Amazing trapped in a hopeless situation at the core of Jupiter with no possible means of escape, and then the next scene being asked how he survived, and he replies, "I'll tell you later, right now we have to..."

A dragon potion is an interesting notion (hey that rhymes!) but I am unclear as to why Sharpie was so sure it would work on Jouni? Because he was a cautious man? Because he was injured? Because he was not Blackmesh? Because he was childlike and willing to be mothered?

An interesting tale with... for me at least... gaps.

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