//------------------------------// // Prologue: Contact // Story: The Conversion Bureau: Ascend or die // by GrayOnBlue //------------------------------// February, 2017 Atlantic Ocean, Earth It was on all the channels and newspapers. “The strange anomaly keeps expanding!” “United States Navy sends additional warships.” “Scientists claim that the barrier cannot be breached by any tech known to mankind.” “Atlantic Apocalypse is nigh!” People were scared. For the first time in its history, humanity has faced something like this. An alien structure, that goes far beyond any comprehension, defies laws of physics and shakes the very foundation of the world. Numerous scientists tried to research the anomaly, but sooner or later they were forced to admit that even the most primitive attributes of it cannot be understood. Scientific method, that worked without failures for millennia was useless in the Atlantics. Humans soon found out that nothing material could go through the barrier. The matter was annihilated by unknown energy, as if it never existed at all. Surprisingly, living organisms didn’t seem to be affected in any harmful way. Instead, the expanding anomaly simply let them inside, without causing any damage. Empirically, researchers found out that humans were the only living organisms that haven’t been able to get through the barrier. Instead, they were pushed away by it. They also measured that the barrier was expanding with the approximate speed of three hundred and thirty-eight feet per hour to either direction. Calculations showed that it would take around seven years to fully consume the planet’s surface. This meant that humans had a real, one hundred percent chance to extinct, crushed like insects in a jar. They had to do something. March 2, 2017 United Nations Headquarters, New York City The emergency UN session was in full play. Representatives of almost two hundred countries tried to decide what to do with the indestructible, omnicidal wall of forthcoming apocalypse. For them, people who used to deal with mundane wars and massacred, having the slowly approaching, irresistible death was stressful, to say the least. Delegates lost their tempers in no time, starting to shout at each other, blame other countries, throw insults and venomous questions back and forth. India blamed Pakistan, China blamed Taiwan, South Korea blamed North Korea, United States blamed Russian Federation, The Arab League blamed Israel, Vatican City blamed gays and abortion, African states blamed white colonists… It was both fascinating and terrifying to watch how usually confident and full of themselves people lost their civilized manners and turned into a bunch of scared, angry kids. Fascinating, because such drastic changes are very informative and tell a lot about humans’ psychology. Terrifying, because lives of billions of souls depended on decisions that these furious, clamorous manchilds make. Events began to go out of control. Deep inside, delegates knew that stopping the anomaly is not in their power. They understood that no country or even a group of countries would be able to make a difference. The world has so much hatred and so many disagreements that it would rather die than make an attempt to find common ground, assuming it ever existed. Old and ongoing conflicts erupted again, this time more passionate than ever before. After all, if everyone is going to die anyway, why not settle accounts with old enemies? Who cares about wars or even nuclear warfare when the wall of destruction keeps devouring the world? Some philosophers argued that if it’s the end of humanity, everyone might as well kill each other in wars than be slaughtered like cattle. But before anything irreparable happened, before wars were declared and any nuclear arsenal was used, an event occurred. An event, that was even more fundamental, than the Atlantic anomaly. Suddenly, all of the delegates were almost blinded by the pure-white, shimmering light that appeared out of nowhere. But this was the least of their concerns. Each of them perceived with the most basic of animalistic instincts the presence of something that could not be. Something alien, beyond cognition and understanding. Something so impossible and unnatural that the human brain refused to grasp it. When the light was gone and they opened their eyes, they beheld the BEING, standing in the head of the assembly. A slender, equine-shaped body, taller than a grown up man. Astonishing white wings. A long, elegant horn, glowing in soft, golden color. And the eyes. Not a single delegate was able to look directly in them, for a reason neither of them could even begin to fathom. The primal ape within each of them refused to do so. The BEING was literally coursing with unknown energy, so colossal that even the power of a supernova would have paled in comparison. And then, it talked. “Greetings, venerable humans. I am Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria and I have come to offer you the gift of ascension.”