The Conversion Bureau: Caught in the Middle

by no sh*t sherlock

Chapter One: Immigrant

The Conversion Bureau:

Caught

In

The

Middle

Immigrant

Six Years ago...

I stood at the bow of the mini yacht and let the warm night air wash over me. It felt amazing out here. The sea was perfectly calm, so serene. So nice that I nearly forgot my situation.

"Hey Jay." Ed called. I turned around and saw him walking up from below deck. I waved to him and he smiled. "Coast guard just cleared us and Immigration sent your papers. You're all set."

I turned and continued looking over the railing. "Great, thanks Ed." I said flatly. Edward Morrison had been a close friend of my dad's and had co-founded their multi-billion dollar software company. He was good guy and I liked him, but I just couldn't be happy at his latest news.

"You don't seem to excited." He said as he joined me at the railing.

"I don't want to live here." I said coldly, turning away from the water.. "I was fine back in the states."

Ed grabbed my shoulder and turned me back to him. "Don't kid yourself, Jay!" He said angrily. "With the stuff you do, you be dead or locked up in two month. I saved you."

Old feelings came back to me. "Maybe I wouldn't have to steal if that old bastard had left me something." I said bitterly.

Ed sighed. "Dammit, Jay, that was four years ago!"

My anger flared. "What does that matter?! He left me with nothing, Ed. Nothing at all. Rozek and Morrison has consistently made over two billion each quarter for the past sixteen years and I don't get a cent!"

Ed was silent for a moment. He looked away from me and back to the sea. "I'm sure he had his reasons."He said quietly.

"I hate him." I said quickly as I watched the water again.

Neither of us said anything for a while. We just stood at the railing. I liked Ed and I hated prolonged silences. I needed to start a different conversation.

"The name on your boat says "Triple 8"" I started. "That's the year they popped up, right?"

"Yup." He said. "1888. And since then the world's been nothing but fascinated."

We both kind of chuckled at it even though it wasn't very funny. I didn't want to live here, but there was still so much I wanted to know.

"So what's it like down there?" I asked.

"Oh its great. So peaceful." He said with a smile on face. "Like nothing I've ever seen before."

I smiled. "I guess that does sound nice."

Ed nodded. "Sure its expensive and there are some rules you have to follow,but other than that its amazing."

My smile dropped off my face and fell into the water. "How expensive?" I raised an eyebrow.

"How much do you have on you?" He asked.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out 48 dollars. "Not much." I said, embarssed.

"Hmm that'll get you about 19 Bits." He said as he reached into his own pocket. He pulled out some bills and handed them to me. "Here's 300 more, now you got around 140 something."

"Thanks, Ed." I nodded to him. "I appreciate that."

"That should hold you over until you get some more."

I looked down as something hit me "What am I going to do for money out here?"

"Oh, there's plenty of options."He said. "You could work in gem mine."

I looked at him with a flat face. "Not for me."

"Train dragons?"

"No."

"Breed dragons?"

"Hell no!"

"I've got it." He said proudly. "Fight dragons."

I sighed. "Ed, I'm serious here."

"Alright fine." He turned away "...You could work in a bureau." He said softly.

My eyes widened with interest. Conversion bureaus had gained popularity in the past couple of years. I thought the whole concept of it was pretty cool, though I could never afford it. The procedure cost over 30,000 bits. That's over $75,000 in the states. Even though I thought conversion was cool, I didn't see the point of a rich person, or anyone for that matter, going through it. I'd prefer to keep most of my rights.

"Really?" I asked. "You know if they got a Dual Result ones down there?"

"Nope, HADC is fighting against it."

I nodded. "Yup and PIER is fighting right back." I said. "But at least if I worked there I could see the rallies up close." We both laughed again.

"But no." I said. "I don't want to work there either."

Ed got quiet for a while after that. He kept opening his mouth, but then closing it again, like he didn't quite know how to say it.

"Well then I have a proposition for you." He finally said uneasily.

"Go on." I encouraged.

"The rules they enforce here... sometimes they can be hard to follow".He said looking ashamed. "Some are pretty easy, but others, not so much."

"What are the hard ones?"

"To name a few. No alcohol, no meat, no fossil fuels and no human property can be more than 10 acres.

I rolled my eye at his wealthy person problem. "Oh gosh." I said sarcastically. "Only 10 acres!"

"Yeah." Ed said with sorrow. "And perhaps you can't can't help with my land problem, but you might be able to help with the others."

"What are you asking?" I said, though I already had a good idea.

"Jay, I won't lie to you. The humans here are mostly old, rich guys who just want to live out our days in this green peaceful land." He said. "Sometimes we just want to have a drink at night or have some bacon in the morning when we wake up."

"How would I help with that?"

"There are people here, Jay, including myself, who would pay generously for items like these."

I pushed away from the railing in anger and pointed a finger at him. "You didn't bring me out here to save me" I yelled. "You brought me in to run errands for you and your friends!"

"Jay, I did save you!" Ed said loudly, matching my tone."You wouldn't have lasted back home, you know that! I just saw a way that many people could benefit."

I shook my head. "So you took me from doing crime in my own country to doing it in a foreign one?"

Ed turned away from me." It was just a suggestion. If you don't want to do it that's fine. I'll get you a dragon breeder application."

I sighed. "So get killed by a dragon or go to an Equestrian jail when I get caught." I said.

"Or just don't get caught." He said softly.

I lowered my head. I knew I could do want he wanted. Smuggling some items wouldn't be too hard for me. I just thought that maybe I could do something else when I got here. But the same mentality from the states still followed me around. I wouldn't tell Ed, but I knew I would do it.

When I admitted it to myself, I sighed again.

"Come follow me." Ed said when he heard it.

He walked to a small table and pulled a bottle of scotch and two glasses from underneath.

"Come take what could be your last drink for a while." He said as he poured. Ed held his up and when I took mine, I did the same.

"Welcome to Equestria." He said smiling. I nodded and we both downed the liquor. I turned around back to the enormous island in front of us. I could the buildings and bright lights of the city of Manehattan. There were honks and beeps from Equestrian cars and even sirens from their police.

We were maybe two miles away from a large harbor. In a couple minutes I'd be going through Customs. I took it all in and shook my as I looked to Ed again.

"Pour me another."

End Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Just an idea I had. I'll explain more of the universe and how Equestria has cars, Customs, police and a Coast Guard later on. Might take a minute before I update again though. Oh and "HADC" stands for Humans Against Dual Conversion and "PIER" stands for Ponies for International Equal Rights. Dual Conversion Bureaus can make ponies into humans and vice versa.

Comments

[Guardian]

Dual conversion... awesome!

[Royal Brisk]

Must admit that I'm kinda curious at what Dual Conversion is going to be.

[Westphalian_Musketeer]

You have quite a few grammar mistakes, particularly in your dialogue. If you're interested in improving I can give you a link to where you can get some good advice.

However, a smuggling ring sounds interesting. I'll be keeping track to see how you do with this story.

[digiboy]

Awesome :D

[no sh*t sherlock]

******************************************
The World
*Equestria rises from the ocean in 1888 about 280 miles(450km) off the east coast of the United States.
*Ponies frequently travel to other countries and because of the exposure, Equestria goes through its own industrial revolution and modernization.
*Equestria becomes trading partner with many nations, but has no allies and is untouched by wars and violence of the 1900's.
*After the WWII, Equestria begins to modernize its military and creates its own verisons of the Coast Guard, Air Force and Marines.
*Ponies can live in most countries around the world, but have verylittle rights.
*Starting in early 2000's humans can live Equestria.
*H.A.D.C= Humans Against Dual Conversion
*PIER= Ponies for International Equal Rights