//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: The Conversion Bureau: The First Choice // by Westphalian_Musketeer //------------------------------// Willard and Monica were in a lecture hall, about to receive their first lesson on life in Equestria: law and governance. Among them were several other humans, Willard being the only pony. Under normal circumstances prospective converts all went through the first few classes as humans, if they changed their minds, or decided they wanted to delay the time for conversion, they could do so. When Willard had entered he drew in a few stares, being a pony at what was the first set of lessons was not something that was largely anticipated. Willard had taken his impromptu conversion well and so had been allowed into the regular classes with Monica and an office number for one of the bureau psychiatrists. Blank Slate was still spouting off drivel about the PER saving the universe from humanity's taint. The PER sympathizer was thus being given his education in a separate setting, away from Willard, Monica and all others of rational disposition. Willard was still faced with seeing the stallion whenever he went to his room, but he had found a workaround for dealing with the painted unicorn in a nonviolent manner. It involved frequent, and loud, laughter, directed typically at a distance of one foot or less from Blank Slate's face. A red unicorn mare with a fluorescent teal mane and a pencil for a Cutie Mark walked through the door. Behind her a tall and heavily built latino man in a suit and full beard walked to the front of the room. The man turned to the mare and asked, "You want to open, or shall I?" "I think it would be best if you started," The mare replied. The man faced the class, and spoke loudly, his voice carrying so that all could hear. "Good morning everybody, I'm Oscar Pascez, and this is my associate and fellow instructor, Rough Sketch." The mare's name elicited a snicker from one of the humans and Oscar continued. "Today we'll teach you about Equestrian law and government, and go over basic procedures and how the country is run on a day to day basis." Oscar nodded to Sketch and the mare lifted a pointer with her magic as a projected image cast itself on the wall behind her. "As most of you likely know," the mare began, "Equestria is led by the two alicorn princesses, Celestia and her sister Luna, together, Celestia raises and lowers the sun, and Luna raises and lowers the moon." With this a hand shot up from the front row, a young man, looking to be at just the age of consent for conversion, was the possessor. Rough Sketch inclined her head to the man. "Yes?" "How does that work? Raising and lowering the sun and moon I mean, gravity means that Equestria should be orbiting the sun, that means the world would be moving, not the sun." "That question is not precisely pertinent to today's lecture, but so far as pony magicians and Earth scientists have been able to determine, certain laws of physics that apply on earth, and in this entire universe, don't apply or operate in the same manner as on Equestria. In time we hope to be able to understand these mysteries." The young man up front mumbled, "Preferred it when quantum mechanics explained everything." "As I was saying,” the red mare said. “Our leaders reside in and rule Equestria from Canterlot, the capital, located roughly in the geographic center of both the country and the world. From there various cabinet ministers, ponies dedicated to particular roles in the government, are assigned by the Royal Sisters. By tradition however many of these ministers are elected by ponies. Are there any questions?" A hand rose up from a back corner of the room, a middle aged woman with wan skin stood up to ask, "You keep referring to your leaders as princesses, but if they’re the leaders, shouldn't they be Queens?" With this Oscar took a step forward. "That's a good question, the Princesses are such because they are the rulers of Equestria, but they are not married, thus, no queenship. Furthermore, they feel no need to refer to themselves as queens" A man from the middle of the room piped up, "So... they're single?" "And thousands of years old, capable of altering the position of the Equestrian sun, and about twice the size of any other pony," Oscar deadpanned before continuing with the lecture. "The sisters and their ministers, elected or otherwise, have the authority to create laws in an assembly. The assembly doesn't often meet as a whole. Most often particular members are left to their own devices with oversight from the Royal sisters." Another hand arose, again from the young man in front. "Isn't that kind of open to abuse?" "Theoretically yes, but ponies aren't known for a malicious nature, most of the time if a problem arises it’s because a minister didn't know what to do, in which case a solution may be chosen by the assembly, or a select council, or simply the Princesses themselves," Oscar replied. The lecture continued on for an hour and Willard absorbed every ounce of information he could. Near as he could tell from history books Monica had suggested to him in the past, Equestrian government operated like a constitutional monarchy. At the end of the lecture a quiz was displayed on the computer monitors in front of them. Willard had taken the longest to complete the quiz, having difficulty pressing the appropriate holographic buttons with a stylus fixed between his teeth. When the results were ported back Willard smiled at his results, 93%. "Heh, good thing conversion let me keep my good memory." Monica leaned over and saw the percentage and smiled. "Tie." "Told you you got your memory from your father's side. Which question did you get wrong?" "The one on how judges are appointed in Equestria, I put down that they were elected, turns out, appointed from a list of recommendations presented by ministers. What about you?" "What rights prisoners have in Equestria, it was a big list. Makes me think our way of dealing with PER is better," Willard answered. "Very well done everyone," Rough Sketch called out. The absence of a ponyism was a nice detail that showed the mare had worked at the bureau for quite some time. Willard and Monica returned to the hall their rooms were located near but noticed that several humans and new-foals had gathered around a monitor in the lounge staring wide eyed at the news broadcast. "What's going on here? Something happen?" Willard asked. One of the new-foals, a pegasus with a yellow coat and blue mane, answered, "Dude, watch the news feed." With that Willard obliged as a news anchor appeared on the hologram and began speaking. "Thank you Jane, for those just tuning in Princess Celestia, sovereign co-ruler of Equestria, just introduced a new option in conversion, 'Gryphonization'. The program's first convert, Isaac Wrenn, along with other members of a Gryphon delegation team answered questions and made some statements. Chief among these was the announcement that the Gryphon Kingdoms, a long standing ally of Equestria, have declared war on both the PER and the HLF. Its a brave new world Jane, here's the footage again." The clip played over, starting with Princess Celestia making an opening speech as the broadcast continued Willard asked the new-foal, "Where is this?" "Ground floor entrance, security wouldn't let me go see the receptionist there, when I asked why he told me to turn on the news and woah..." The new-foal was entranced. "Can you believe that?" a man spoke up from a couch. "Those gryphons were as big as Celestia! Not to mention they still have hands, well claws, but still, I gotta try and get into that program!" "Damnable feathered fiends! How dare they try and steal away humanity from the great Princess Celestia!" Willard turned to face the door, sure enough, Blank Slate was standing there, shuffling his hooves. Most of the humans and new-foals were staring at the unicorn stallion, confused by the outburst. "Please excuse the fellow," Willard spoke. "He's an idiot and an asshole, but a perfectly harmless one at that." "How dare those puffed up birds lord themselves over Celestia, they shall know true wrath when she no longer has to entertain such misguided delusions of humanity, ponification is the only way to salvation!" Blank Slate yelled. Willard sighed, and then smiled, this was the first time Blank had spoken like that to sizeable group of humans. The blue earth pony walked to the door and nodded to Monica. His niece in tow, Willard left Blank to his part and parcel. He'd later find out one of the ponies in the room was an off duty guard who had the ‘Blessing of Luna’ a spell that let certain ponies commit acts of violence more easily when necessity arose. Sadly, that necessity had warranted keeping the PER pony from being resoundingly thrashed by several humans who, even though they were going pony within days, still saw the value of free agency. Still, Willard had a few days of silence for which he was grateful.