//------------------------------// // One lives // Story: The Conversion Bureau: Fleeing the unknown // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// After finally leaving the ghetto, the two arrived at the apartment of Heart Drop. It was extremely tall, and was made of an assortment of wood, brick, cement, and many other materials, giving it a rustic yet modern appearance. Several balconies balanced above the air, allowing the owner to relax in the sunlight if they so pleased. This was a block full of similar looking apartments, although the perfectly trimmed grass set a few apart from eachother. As the unicorn walked towards her own, Gill followed. This was met by irritation. "Okay. We've gotten back to my house. You can go back to yours now." "What? But I have no house! I don't even have a family znymore. Atleast, not that I know of...I'll help clean things! I can cook. I even have money in this bag to pay for rent." "Really? Let me see that." The man let the bag slide off his shoulders and rest on the ground. With a quiet zip, he pulled a bag out of another bag, and opened the bag to reveal, no, not another bag, but the beautiful golden sparkles of bits. Heart was enamored by the amount in there. "This might be enough for, like, two years, I guess." "Are you kidding me? that's enough to buy your own apartment!" "I know, but-Wait, what?" "Yeah! Where did you get so much...*gasp* You didn't steal this, did you?" "What?! No! Why would I? I told you. I participated in an experiment that failed, and the engineers and scientists doubled the amount they would have normally payed, then changed everything into bits. That's a stupid name, by the way." Gill mumbled that last part. "Hm. Fine. Only if you help around the house." "I swear it on my proud British blood." "That's a heavy swear. Come on, then. Hurry up." "Before we go even further, on which floor do you live?" "The second." Gill sighed in relief. "Thank god. Climbing fifteen floors just isn't in me right now." Heart giggled and left for her own part of the house mass. Her door had "23" engraved on it, and the door, compared to the others, seemed rather clean. However, the interior was someting else. The apartment wasn't too big, and there was garbage littered everywhere, horrifying the human that walked in. The kitchen, which could be seen from the entrance, was so horrid to look at that a description would induce chronic vomiting. As Gill stared at the horror with an open jaw, Heart Drop walked forward and gave Gill a nervous smile. "Well, here you go. My house." "..." "You okay?" Gill cracked his knuckles, his neck, and even his eye-lids, and, with a seriuos look, said: "It's time to start cleaning this shithole of a house! YOU! Fetch me cleaning suppliiiiies!" he commanded as he raised his hand into the air in a somewhat comical way. During the entire time he cleaned the appartment, Gill was singing a song he learned about awhile back. It may not have been perfect, but it helped him keep his morals up as he cleaned and washed the place. He also swore that he saw the food in the fridge starting to move on their own. "How long have you come here?" "Not often. I'm usually abroad." "I can tell that. Yuck." About two hours into cleaning the place, a knocking came across the door. Gill wiped his forehead while still wearing make-shift gloves. "Now who could that be?" He opened the door just as Heart screamed after collapsing a pile of garbage. There was a vanilla colored mare with a sapphire colored mare standing in front of him with a big smile and holding a book in her mouth. To many other humans, she would look adorable, but to Gill, who was in hell, she appeared to be "A Jehova's witness?" "What?" "Nothing. What do you need?" "I heard that there was a human here, so I wanted to talk to you about Ponyfication." Gill frowned. "Word goes around fast." "Heh. We have good folks around. So, about po-" "NNNOT interested!" Gill shouted with a wide smile. The mare lookd horrified by how casually he shouted that. "B-b-but-" "NNNNOPE!" He was hanging upside down on the door. "I'm a human. I was born a human. I will live as a human. And I will die as. A. Human. Tata!" "But wai- *slam*" "Heheheh." "What was it?" "Jehova's witnesses a-la pony." "What?" *knock knock* "Ugh. What is it now? Hm?" This time, there was a scruffy old pony that was holding the mare who seemed to be crying her tears out. The stallion of a worn out red, that almost seemed pink, looked up angrily at the human. "Who do you think you are?" "Hm?" Gill said with a wide grin and an upwards look. "I believe I am Gill Tammerheight. A human with a proud cultural heritage from two different countries. What's it to you?" "You bastard. This is why I hate humans!" "Yeah? Well it's your fault for trying to force me to drink that shit flavored beverage." "What is your problem? We are just trying to make the world a better place! We just want to make sure every human gets into a better lifestyle." "By doing what? Eliminating an entire race? I've been awake for pretty much three days now, and I can already see a pattern going on here. Humans are part of nature, whether you and I like it or not. Eliminating an entire race is eliminating nature in its whole, so whether you can deal with that or not is NOT my problem. Besides, I can do this." Gill lowered himself and picked up the elderly stallion from under his forelegs and lift him high in the air. "Look, ma. I dun found me one of dem small herses." the human said in a rather degrading town. "Put me down this instant!" "Fine." "Ugh! You are very cruel. You'll hear from me!" "I already am, and it's killing me! Is shutting up and going somewhere else so hard to do?" "It was just to tell you about something great." the mare whined as she looked up to the human, having not moved from her spot. Gill, being emotionally unstable as is, layed himself against the door frame and said: "There exists a word in every human language that allows us to express our disapproval or refusal of something that we do not appreciate. It usually starts with 'n', but there are other instances. In english, that word is 'no'. So no, I do not want to hear about how you want to tear my beloved humanity away. Good day and goodluck." The human slowly closed the door while waving goodbye at the shocked pony sitting in front of the door, and sighed in relief. "Wow. You are mean." Heart said as she stayed under the garbage, unable to move. "Yeah? Well I've been attacked twice by fanatics that have been trying to shoot me with their damn potion shit. It's a good thing that they don't check the expiration dates of their products, or I'd be in deep shit." "About that...umm...could you help me out of this first?" "Hm? OH! Sorry." A few moments later "Thank you. Now about the potion. It's magical, so it doesn't expire." "What's your point?" "The potion doesn't affect you. I used to be a human, but that potion turned me into one of them. Now, I'm not complaining, but every bureau that allowed humans to become pones drank that potion and, hence, became ponies. Not ONE had an immunity to it, nor did they have the capabilities to lengthen the time it took for the changes to start. Yet, somehow, YOU aren't affected by it. By MAGIC! I don't know how it's possible." "Really? Cool. I'm Superman! But, that stuff certainly isn't magic. It must be some sort of chemical agent that alters the composition of the dna." "Do you have ANY way to explain that?" "That I'm Superman?" "No! Not that. That the potion does not affect you." Gill shook his head. "The only ones I know that could have explained it were all killed by the PER." "Buck. That sucks." "Wait...the message did say that there were a few who went to be ponified. They might be aged now, but they most certainly know what happened." "So we leave my apartment, half-cleaned, with garbage on the floor, to go to the town hall and find the answer?" "Pretty much." It barely took Heart a moment before she nodded with a smile. "Then let's go!" Gill would have loved to travel around in his old truck, but nothing allowed him to do so. Especially seeing that it was destroyed, walking was the best alternative. Still, Gill's fears were coming fll circle as pretty much every pony would turn around to look at him, especially the little colts and fillies who had never seen a human before. Little comments were made by the children, but they weren't mean comments. They were mostly on how he was walking on two legs or how he could use fingers. Some even asked how they could get that tall themselves. Eventually; the man's nerves broke, and he need to hold someone. The closest person...err, pony, was Heart Drop, so he did like any sane man who was panicking. He picked her up and held her in his arms like she was a cat, despite her size. "H-hey! Let me down." "I need to hold someone. I'm terrified." "So? You're a grown man. MAN UP!" "It's not that easy! How would you react if there were almost no more of your kind, and you wake up in a thirty year gap where almost everyone you know is dead?" "That's true. Still put..." Heart moved around a bit, trying to adjust herself. "Actually, this is pretty comfortable. Transport your queen, peon!" "I will drop you and hold you upside down." "Geez. No need to get so upset. I was just messing around." "I'm having a panic attack, so don't try and do anything stupid, or I'll end up doing something completely irrationnal like before." The unicorn cringed at that remark. What more idiocies was he capable of? When they finally arrived at the town hall, Gill awwed in the glory of its architecture. It looked like a building from the Roman Era. The gigantic white pillars seemed to have been masterfully crafted, while the flag hanging on a pole above the door demonstrated the power of the country it represented. Yet, something was off. "What? What's with that flag? It's white with a sun on one side, and dark blue with a crescent moon on the other." "Those are the symbols of the princesses. They-" "I DON'T wanna know. Thank you." "But-" "No." The man climbed the white stone stairway and entered the building. Right in front of him was a wooden desk with a receptionist. Everything had changed. No America, no bald eagle, but various things pertaining to some "Equestria" and other gibberish about the princesses. At the counter was a rather scrawny stallion with a mane coiffed back. He was hard at work, taking phone calls and actually writing with his mouth. Gill took a deep gulp and walked towards the counter with Heart in his arms. She was smiling wildly as she still didn't need to walk. "Um. Excuse me." The stallion stopped writing and looked upwards with a questioning expression, then got back to writing. "The conversion bureau is down the street. I don't need to ask why you two lovers are different species, do I?" "Lovers?" "The mare you are holding in your arms." "Oh. Woops. I forgot." "Wait!*slam" It took a few moments, but Gill's neurones finally connected, and he face palmed. "Ahhh shit. Sorry about that, Heart. Let me help you up." "Don't touch me." "So touchy." "Nyes. Why are you here? I'm very busy." "I need to know if there are any scientists who worked at the "Aldale Factory" who could still be alive and in the city." "Aldale? But that closed ten years ago." "Then there's still hope. Please. This is very serious." "*sigh*" The stallion started to tap his hoof against the desk." Okay. You're lucky I earned how to use computers, human. Let's see here...Aldale Factory...workers... There's about thirty of them still alive...but there are five of them in the city." "How conveniant. Can I see? I should be able to recognize the names." "Sure. Let me just turn the monitor around." "Hmhmhm...There! Smith Halls...now know as...Cho-Chocolate Dip? Oh my god! Really?! You ponies have no imagination in naming. He is a few blocks away from here...in the cherry boulevard...house two thirty-five. Well, thanks alot for that. Atleast this didn't take ten hours." "Glad to help. Have a nice day." "Well, that was...new." "See? Not all of us are mean." "Perhaps, but I still don't trust the majority of you." In the distance, there were five watching Gill from a distance, with the two idiots being part of the group. Each had binoculars. "There. That's him." "Are you two sure?" a woman asked. "Positive. Oh great. He's with a pony." "Yes. That purple one." Four of the group turned to one of the "normal" individuals who was drooling like some buffoon. "Purrrple...I like purple." "Someone slap him." "I prefer to punch him" *whack* "OW! What did you...oh...I got hypnotized by bright purple again?" The other four sighed and went back to observations. However, there were pegasi flying at extremely high speeds around the corner and were holding some rather menacing weapons. "Oh shit! The PER! Crap...with so many bullets, even he would be ponified." And, to the horror of many passing ponies, the man was shot, not with darts, but bullets this time. The perpetrators wore both masks and black circles around their cutie-marks, so as to not be recognized. Gill fell to the floor while Heart began to cry out for him. Much to the surprise of the surrounding ponies who were watching and awaiting the transformation, nothing occured, except for intense bleeding and pain. From the distance, the five humans couldn't hear the unicorn, but they could atleast figure out what she was saying. She was crying out for help. A few heeded, and helped to carry Gill, who was leaving traces of red on the ground, to the hospital. The group was stunned. "Amazing." the woman said. "How is this even possible?" "We don't know. We saw him walk out of the stadium unharmed, but he just seems to have an immunity to the potion." "YOU!" the woman pointed towards a tired looking man who was observing a photo he took. "Is that a picture of the man?" "Yeah. I took it to remember him as a human. I guess it will be more useful to Snowman." "Good. Let's head out."