//------------------------------// // Chapter Five // Story: Tales from the Conversion Bureau: The Last Bastion // by Sachiel //------------------------------// The Emperors Office, Second Imperial Palace, Petropolis, Second Empire of Brazil, Present Day The Emperor remained in the chair behind his desk (not rising when she came in, another calculated little power play) while Celestia took a seat on a large fluffy cushion that had been set up beforehand. Her hair shimmered in the light from the sun outside and her fur seemed to be unnaturally white. Everything about the Sun Princess seemed alien to Pedro, in all his forty years on (what was for the moment still) this Earth. He wondered why, Twilight had never been like this He remembered the fantasy books he'd read as boy, the ones that had elves in them. Elves weren't real (as far as he knew, if the ponies were who knew what else was out there) but a big part of what made them so interesting to read about was how they were so human-like in their looks but almost too perfect, too flawless. He looked over the desk at the creature on the cushion, superficially she was a horse, albeit one with wings and a horn, but there was something...off about her. Too flawless, too perfect, like a porcelain doll that moved and talked It could be the magic, a concept, substance, power, whatever you called it it was so utterly alien to humanity. Maybe as the most magical pony it was why Celestia felt so utterly alien. That was part of it he thought, but it wasn't all of it Everyone who’d met her going back to her appearances at the UN and visits to foreign countries gave off a sense that something just wasn’t...right about her despite how nice she was. Something about her being almost too serene, a disguise that failed because it was too good, they should have seen that as a warning. Too often in nature beauty and splendour hid something much worse beneath the surface, in her case Pedro knew for a fact that that was true The sun Princess turned to look at the photo hanging on the wall beside them, it was of the royal family on the day of his coronation, when Crown Prince Pedro succeeded his father Joao II as Pedro V, Emperor of Brazil. He was there in his royal uniform, the Imperial Crown on his head, next to him was his wife Clara of Orleans, next to her his mother Mary of Windsor. On his right side, sporting her court dress, wearing the royal sash of Imperial Advisor and beaming with pride was the family's oldest friend, Twilight Sparkle “She looks so happy” Celestia noted “She was happy, more than I was back then, my father dying and making me emperor at 19? I wasn't ready to take over the Empire, I couldn't even drive, I was a nervous wreck. She helped me, coached me, let me confide in her, she knew all about having royal power suddenly thrust on you” he looked to the photo “I wouldn't have managed without her” “She looks so proud” “She was” he replied, happiness and pride creeping in as he spoke, his coronation going off without a hitch was one of the proudest moments of his life. It had to go right, it was going to be the last one. He'd come to terms with that a long time ago, that he'd be the last, that as much as he'd groomed his son Luis to succeed him he never would. Still, it wore at him, the happiness faded from his face, watching him Celestia thought she knew why “I miss her too, she didn't deserve to end her life here” what was an attempt at sympathy went the wrong way “Then maybe you shouldn't have driven her away” he replied dryly, letting it linger before continuing, not wanting her to get a word in he switched tack, forcing the emotion out of his words with some difficulty “but since she's not here let's get down to business, what was so important you had to come here to tell me in person?” “I think you already know” “It's going to finish the job isn't it?” “Yes, sometime this week in fact according to my mages” There was a sense of dread sure, but also relief, now he had an end date, it was strange, he'd spent his entire life growing up expecting the end, now it was just around the corner. Humanity had received its last notice, the doomsday clock was down to its final seconds “Let me guess, you want us all to go to the Conversion Bureaus don't you?” “Actually my mages have told me the barrier may mutate in its final push when all the energies converge, you might get converted regardless” 'mutated', that was a good one, sure, the unstoppable inching wall of magical annihilation would 'mutate' right at the end when the final holdouts would rather die than convert “And if we don't get converted?” “What always happens when humans get near that much pure magical power” so they'd get their wish, some of them anyway, death before conversion “I'm sure you'd love that, less guilt for you right?” “Please, I beg you, urge your people to go to the Bureaus before it's too late, save as many as you can” He didn't have an answer to that, he just sighed, she'd never get it, Twilight had, despite what had come first Canterlot Castle, several years After First Contact (AFC) Celestia looked on grimly as Twilight summed up her Friendship Report, it hadn't been good “So it's that bad then?” “Yes, from what I’ve been able to study with help from the newfoals humans are every bit as bad as we feared” Twilight began re-showing images and evidence from her report to get her point across The first was an old print taken from an engraving, it showed humans that were very gaunt, almost skeletons dressed in rags, shambling along “Their most powerful nations starved those they ruled for greed and profit, in this case the British Empire starved Ireland, hundreds of thousands died and hundreds of thousands more had to leave to survive. Even today the population of the country isn’t up to what it should have been, many just didn’t care” she’d known from her history books that ponies had gone through hardships in the past but they'd never been wilfully starved, Celestia would never have allowed it The next one was a black and white photograph, a young girl was holding up her arms, not her hands but her arms, which ended in uneven stumps “They hate those who aren't like them, they use that to justify doing horrible things. Belgium's king took over the area they call the Congo and bled it dry. If your village didn't deliver its quota of rubber he sent his soldiers to punish you. The soldiers weren't allowed to waste bullets so for everyone, they had to bring back a hand to show they'd killed someone. Villages who delivered hands had their quotas cut so they'd go to war to get enough, it led to men, women, children having theirs cut off and they weren't always dead when they did. They turned severed hands into currency princess” Celestia felt her stomach turn The next was a church made of red brick in a tropical region, bones and bodies putrefying and dried into mummies by the hot sun were scattered outside, one spread out in a perverse mockery of their god Christ on his cross. The red soil of Africa was stained a dark brown by the gallons of blood that had been spilled there “They kill each other based on ethnic hatred, in this place, Rwanda, they murdered up to a million humans in four months, even women and children, they chopped them up like apples for crab-apple salad” having said that, Twilight knew she’d never be able to fully enjoy dinner with the Apple family again The next few were a series of grainy black and white photographs, one showed a massive pair of industrial chimneys similar to ones that had begun popping up in Fillydelphia, Stalliongrad and Detrot, both were belching smoke, others were of mounds of shoes, glasses and hair, the final one was of a gate with the words ‘Arbeit macht frei’ on it “They commit genocide on industrial scale. The Nazi party killed over six million people in an event the humans call the Holocaust, those piles all belonged to people they gassed at this camp the humans call Auschwitz, six million Princess” The final image was of a cloud, one shaped like the mushrooms Celestia enjoyed grilled and served with a nice side salad, it was jet black and though she couldn’t be sure how, she could feel immense power behind it “And they possess weapons that could wipe Canterlot off the face of Equestria,if they saw us as a big enough threat...Princess ,I don’t know how to say this but they’re bad, bad to the bone, what are we going to do?” Celestia moved forwards, she placed her forehooves onto Twilights shoulders and pulled her into a hug “I'm so, so sorry I made you do this Twilight, I hope you can forgive me for having to learn...this” “Someone had to do it Princess, but what are we going to do?” “There is something we can do” she pushed her away, Celestia's horn glowed and the walls, windows, floor and ceiling of the room began to be covered by a pale golden aura “Twilight what I’m about to tell you must never leave this room, you are my student and I trust you greatly but I need to know you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you, promise me, my most faithful student, not your friends, not even my sister or Cadence” “I swear Princess” “As you know, the barrier is slowly expanding, turning more of Earth into Equestria” “It’s moving at a glacial place, half an inch a year, probably less” Twilight parroted the study that Celestia and the UN had commissioned, since it was so slow there was no panic, no urgency, they had thousands of years, tens of thousands to come up with a solution “That might not be true, from what I've seen and studied, it's possible that that pace could be...accelerated” Twilight couldn’t believe what she’d just heard, Celestia...lying? “Princess humans can’t survive in Equestria, they can’t take the magic levels here” “I’m aware of that, we’ve accepted and transformed a few humans into ponies, we can expand that program and any who are willing can be converted, Equestria will get bigger and it will have plenty of space to spare” she laid a forehoof on Twilights shoulder and looked down into her eyes “I can do this on my own but I'd rather have your help to make sure it goes right? Can I count on you? If we do this we end it all, their war, their strife, we save them from themselves, friends are meant to help one another. In the name of friendship and harmony, can I trust you to help me, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship? “I...” Twilight trailed off, in her mind she saw the images and reports of the great evil lurking behind the happy welcoming veneer the humans had put on, she’d found plenty of examples of their capacity for evil and the few newfoals they’d already taken in were all too happy to help her find plenty more. Also, Celestia was treating her, well, more maturely now, since she’d gone to the human world she’d been representing Equestria, she’d grown up and now the Princess was treating her like the mature pony she’d become, like an equal What if she said no? What if Celestia was disappointed in her? What if she thought she wasn't mature enough to take the necessary steps to protect Equestria? Was she willing to give it up? Give her new friendship with her mentor up? And with what she'd learned about them... Twilight?” “I...I agree Princess, this is the right thing to do” she looked at the ground “I sense a but coming on” “But what about those who don’t want to convert to being ponies? The ones who don’t want to embrace our society, we can’t, I can’t let anyone or anypony die because of that” “Don’t worry Twilight they’ll be the same as they once were, only ponies, they’ll be welcomed into Equestria, I give you my word” “Alright, I’ll help however I can Princess” Celestia beamed at her “I’m glad Twilight, and proud to have you by my side on this” at those words Twilight beamed back Pedro V's Office, Present Day Celestia's ear picked up the sigh “You doubt my sincerity” “You've given us little reason to trust you, what with how you sped up the barrier so instead of ten thousand years we'd have a couple hundred” he didn't let up and delivered the next bombshell, he'd been playing this out in his mind for years, he was almost working on reflex Pedro reached down to the bottom drawer on his desk, he'd been waited years for this, as had his father before him and his grandfather before him. Slowly he pulled out a heavy file, one that had rested in the desk of the presidents back when they led Brazil, now in the desk of the emperors. He tossed it into the air unceremoniously, the file glowed yellow as Celestia caught it in her magic “Or how you shift our minds to be your prancing peons” bombshell dropped he watched Celestia for how she'd react to the skeletons in her closest being exposed She knew, she had to know they knew he thought, after Twilight defected to Earth, after what she and her friends had tried to do there was no way they wouldn't tell the humans. Celestia had to know, had to have worked with that assumption, assume the worst and plan accordingly. It's what he would have done He’d not been sure what he’d expected from Celestia once he’d told her they knew what she’d done, maybe she’d get angry, sink into denial and storm out. Maybe she’d begin a big villain speech and show the demon they knew lurked beneath the veneer of a saint. Maybe she’d just destroy the palace with her magic, he’d imagined it a hundred different ways like his predecessors had. What she did do was something he’d never expected her to. Her saintly veneer remained, she kept her composure, aside from a twitch that he thought might have been the makings of a snarl or grimace her happy sunny demeanour didn’t change. She could have been discussing the weather or what to have for lunch except this was her copping to genocide “So you know, I assumed you did after Twilight came here” there was no emotion in her voice while she talked about Twilight, no warmth, no sadness, sure as hell no guilt. It was the default, cautious, guarded, borderline monotone regal voice all monarchs used when talking in public No, she didn't get this, he wasn't going to let Twilight, the Princess of Friendship, the mare who'd been like a grandmother to him growing up, who'd worked herself half to death trying to reverse what Celestia had twisted her leg into doing, be remembered like this. Not as a dissenting footnote in the eyes of the one who'd betrayed her. The emotion crept back in, the anger coated in silky soft tones “You have no idea how much Twilight suffered because of you” “She chose to do what she did, I never made her do anything” she was surprised when Pedro let out a bitter laugh, all regal decorum gone, Honesty must have been the element she'd given up first “That's a lie and you know it, she was your 'most faithful student', she idolized you, worshipped you, she thought the sun revolved around you. Hell on your side of the barrier it actually does, you knew she'd jump if you asked how high. You took a brilliant person and twisted her into helping you commit genocide, to carry out mass murder” “You're free to think whatever you...” he slammed his fist on the table, he thought he saw her flinch “No, I don't think, I know, I know because I spent years with her, she was my mentor far longer than you were hers, I knew her like you never did, she trusted you” and because of that he couldn't let her off the hook, she could vaporize him in an instant but it needed to be said, she needed to hear, even if it was too late to make a difference “You abused that trust, used her up and then tossed her aside when she tried to defy you” he looked her right in the eyes “how very human of you, your highness” The emperor felt the rooms temperature begin to rise and saw the Princesses eyes shift to black and gold, burning with white hot fury “How dare you...”