//------------------------------//
// Fragments of Truth 
// Story: The Conversion Bureau: Preservation 
// by Westphalian_Musketeer 
//------------------------------//

A modified course plan, made and permitted because of my purpose here was the only way to get through all the information I needed.Five hours of lectures each day, followed by studies pertaining either to my classes or personal initiative. For now, it was largely in following the classes. The books recommended for reading? I read them. The books referenced by those? Read those too. I recorded them all and every week I would send the list down to New York as a request for the next shipment of titles to got to Equestria, with recommendations on which to send to Ponyville, and which to send to keep in Canterlot for circulation at a later date.

I sat there, in a library, with a human personal computer, a DaTab, in front of me. I gripped a stylus in my magic to manipulate the device, and take down notes of everything.

I had made sure not to deprive myself of sleep; the last thing I needed was worrying my friends when I was a universe away. Then there was the fact that I was technically a delegate from Equestria, sent here on royal business; feinting would do no good.

I heard a foot shuffle against the carpet below me. One of the guards. It felt odd, having a group following you with the specific purpose protecting you from...

A small icon on the corner of my DaTab blinked. I looked at the time stamp and sighed. It'd been four hours of studying, and if that icon was blinking, the news story was important. I opened it up and read the headline.

Plans Announced for New Conversion Bureaus, Riots in Singapore Riding Suppressed

My ears wilted, pressing against my head. Conversion was still considered highly suspicious by... well, most people outside of EarthGov, and an appreciable minority within it. The security for me was warranted. I shook my head, half in regret and half in an attempt to sort out my somewhat disjointed thoughts.

This was a concern that had nagged at the back of my mind for quite some time. Conversion numbers were still low. At a rate slower than the expansion of the barrier. If things kept up like this, an estimated two billion lives were at risk of being consumed by the barrier.

I frowned and looked at my DaTab, willing it to tell me why conversion was so feared. If I could find out what was wrong, I could explain it. So far my studies had turned up almost nothing to the matter. Admittedly, I wasn't surprised, on the reluctance to convert, and the failure to find out why. An event like this was unprecedented, but I had a goal, and I was going to see it through to the end.

I turned the DaTab back to the 'book' I was reading. "Oh, Aristotle," I sighed. "I don't suppose you have any advice?" I scrolled down the page, occasionally changing tabs on the screen in order to write down some notes.

A few minutes later a man in casual wear walked up the stairs, muttering to himself. I focused on my work, scrolling, reading and writing all the way as he paced back and forth. The appeal of my work downgraded in importance when the man hissed.

"Blast!" His pacing, once erratic and uncoordinated, settled into a circle, with myself in the middle. I placed a hoof over my panic button as I followed him with my eyes.

"Coding needs to be adjusted, program far too sensitive, cause false positives. Told not to use that. Perhaps I could? No, not an option, not an option! What? No, don't delete that string."

"Excuse me?" I leaned forward a bit and stared at the man as he looked up from from his DaTab. "Can I help you?"

The man's eyes glazed over me as though he was reading a book. He reached into a pocket.

I tensed my legs.

He pulled out a DaTab and started pressing some buttons. A satisfied chuckle escaped his mouth as his eyes brightened. "Already have," he said as he returned the device into a pocket. He walked towards my table, eyes blinking rapidly. "Don't believe I've seen you before. Convert recently? Why not wait till after university? Is magic difficult?"

He sat down across from me. I sat there, mouth gaping for a few moments trying to process the verbal stream. I was getting out of practice without Pinkie Pie around.

"Um no," I answered. "I'm not a convert, I'm a native Equestrian."

More blinks. "Interesting. Enjoying Harvard? What about Boston? How did you enter?"

That was going to take some getting used to. "Yes, I mostly stay in the university, and I'm not at liberty to say how I entered," I answered his questions sequentially.

"Ah, understand, EarthGov relations, political secrecy, cloak and dagger, prefer working with AI's myself."

"So that's what you were working on?" I leaned a hoof against the desk and rested my hoof against it. "Figure everything out?"

"Indeed, and yourself?" Before I could answer, he held up a hand. "No, managed to see book title upside down. Political theory. Aristotle. Good to start with basics. Find everything you need? Wait. Can't answer that? Yes? No?"

I stifled a giggle at his frenetic talking. "I think I can tell you that; it's going slowly, and I'm not exactly sure I'm taking the right approach to the problem for my independent studies."

"Ah, difficulties, have you considered laying the problem aside and reading for leisure before coming back to it?"

I pulled my head back. "I would, but I'm not exactly certain what I should read for leisure."

"Could make a recommendation." He nodded his head quickly and smiled. I nodded in turn, and he answered, "Bram Stoker's Dracula, always loved it as a child. Though mother never appreciated my reading it." He stood up, walked by me, and stuck his hand out towards me. "Michael Johnson, by the way. Vanilla name, I know. Probably not as colorful as your name, but still, pleasure to meet you, miss...?"

I reached out with a hoof and allowed him to shake it. "Twilight Sparkle," I answered.

"Much appreciated." With that, he walked back down the stairs and began humming to himself.

When I had been alone for a minute, Ishii stepped out from a corner. "He seemed... interesting."

I nodded, eyebrows raised. "That's one way of saying it. I nearly pushed the panic button."

"He doesn't have any record, and he didn't have any weapon," Ishii responded, looking down the stairs.

"So there was no danger?" I asked.

"If he was, there were two pistols trained on him at any given moment, Miss Twilight."

My ears flicked downward as I bit my lip. "Riiight."


***


I lay in my bed, floating my DaTab in front of me. On Michael's recommendation, I had looked it up. I was exhausted for options, and all my projects had been completed for class with two weeks to spare. I opened the file, and started reading.

As my eyes graced each word, I found my heart racing, yet still I continued to read. A flash of black flashed across my vision as the story spoke to something in me. When I finished the book, I was left staring at the barren, dark wall in front of me. I felt an itching sensation all over my body, like someone had rubbed against all of it with a flee-ridden brush. I swallowed a wad of spit.

Horn glowing, I flipped open the lid to my trunk and pulled out an old book. The cover's front image had long since been worn off, but the embossed-in-gold letters were still there. Twelve years old, and I had read this five century old Equestrian classic. The Changing.

Flipping open the book, I read a few passages.

	Moon Silver awoke to the sight of his bed chambers. He tried for a sigh of relief, but it halted in his throat as he perceive the green hint that marked it. A terror built in his stomach as he screamed for help. Useless bubbles poured from his mouth as he screamed for help.
Green ooze seeped into him as he squirmed for release. Struggling against this alien cocoon, his horn managed to pierce the side. The sac burst open, expelling him onto the floor into a heap.
He sat up and heaved and wretched, but none of the green ooze that had entered his lungs came out. He tried to scream, but was silent, his eyes darting around for anypony who might be of assistance. Nobody was there. His horn glowed as he tried to cast some spell that would once more let the sweet life-giving air into his lung. The color of the glow bid him stop in fear.
It had been green.

I flipped towards the half-way point of the book, and continued reading.

	Evening Showers stepped back as bile pushed up in her mouth. Her Moon Silver had been replaced by this impostor.
"What did you do to my husband!?" she screamed at the blackened changeling before her. It stepped forward, its eyes locked on her panic stricken face.
"Eve, it is me! Something wonderful happened in Zebrica. I was transformed into this. I can move faster than anypony else, I can hunt and kill! All the power in the world is mine... and now... I can do the same for you!"

I shut the book as green eyes and fangs clouded my vision. I put the book down and curled up in my bed. "We fear that we'll lose ourselves." I muttered, shivering as the uncanny similarities made me realize that there was perhaps more common ground between ponies and humans.