=== The Conversion Bureau:
A New Age, A New Life (Pt II) ===
=== Chapter 5: Building of A New Hope ===
It had been a couple of months roughly since the official end of hostilities, regarding the clearing out of the SPH from their stronghold in Washington, D.C. For the most part they appeared to have gone underground, figuratively; an irony not lost upon the HEA and the other principles.
=== [ May 04, 2082 – Safe Haven Holographic Planning Room ] ===
"So are we in agreement, Princess Celestia?" President Aguillar asked over the holophone, her new aides in close proximity as official negotiations were being concluded for the time being.
"Yes, I believe these terms are satisfactory. The offer of triple the average going rate for such land should be sufficient from a public relations perspective, yes?" The Princess responded.
After some brief consultation, Aguillar responded herself. "Yes, that should be more than enough. The more this looks like a normal land deal, the better off we will all be."
"No need to agitate anyone else out there without due cause. Especially now that we have forced the SPH to ground in some respect," an aide added, most of the others on both sides of the call agreeing.
"We should have the official documents and 'bill of sale', if you will, drawn up within the next half-hour or so. Once everything is officially signed, you all are free to start your project, within the guidelines established in our earlier agreements and treaties," President Aguillar concluded.
"Yes, hopefully the SPH will see fit to not interfere with us during construction. Although I doubt they will try anything major in the near future," Luna added, somewhat bored by all the legal wrangling from the last few weeks and wanting to flex her civil engineering muscle.
Defense Secretary Richardson, having 'un-retired' since the restoration of normal civilian government, offered to respond this time. "Princess Luna, we do not believe that the Black Shield, as some of yours call them, are a threat at this particular moment. However, we have not been able to indict anyone higher up the chain-of-command than field commanders. Whoever the real brains behind that outfit are still at large, so it would be best if we all remained on guard."
Everyone listening nodded as the meetings continued apace.
~=-=~
Meanwhile, over in a media room the that had, by this point, belonged to them by default, the Ten Elements and Spike were spending the morning looking at the various news reports, as had become their custom throughout the months they were there.
"At least the Black Shield hasn't reappeared in all this time, so I guess we're going to continue with that new project that Luna was discussing a couple of days ago," Fluttershy said as B-roll of construction crews repairing streets played on the projectors off to the sides of them all.
"Have they decided on a name for the town, or city, or whatever it is that place is supposed to be?" Golden Storm asked while laying on a couch.
"No, I heard that none of them could really decide on single name, so they are just using the code phrases each individual nation came up with," Spike said as he and Pinkie Pie were playing a game on one of the long, sheet-like, and lower-grade Q-Machine computers.
"You ever think of what'd happen if all of this were available to the public," Twilight Sparkle asked idly, as she and Shift were monitoring the news feeds for any minor skirmishes with outlying SPH cells.
Blue Vague and the others thought for a few moments, before he answered for himself. "Not to sound selfish, but I think we should roll it out first in the... um... community that ends up being built within the territory the Princesses are buying right now. Sometimes you can't push a product out to market immediately..."
"... Gotta see how a trial audience deals with it first, right?" Applejack concluded. While she had little to no idea how a computer would or should be sold; she knew that you had to test a product before selling it.
"Well... yeah, that's pretty much the long and short of it," Vague responded somewhat off-putting-ly, not expecting to get interrupted.
"I wonder what work they'll have us doing?" Rainbow Dash asked, wondering just how involved the ten of them were going to be in the repair and construction work.
"Hard to say, but we should have a lot of help. The Princesses want to have all five species living within the borders, but not packed on top of each other. I guess that'll rule out a big contingent of Dragons," Rarity mused aloud while sketching out more designs to try out when she went back to the Carousel Boutique.
Red Blaze, putting a forehoof grip on and joining Spike and Pinkie's second round, added her two bits. "It will be nice to have some relative calm, so that we can get everything going. Hopefully being out of the way like this will also make it hard for rabble-rousers to cause trouble from without."
"Yeah, but every time we get everything all calmed down. Someone comes and messes it all up..." Pinkie Pie said, snorting in exasperation.
"It is a world in transition, and we're the agents of it, in more ways than one. We'll just have to deal with as best we can," Midori Hana replied while patting Pinkie on the back, eliciting a nod of agreement from Pinkie as she put on her customary smile.
--=--
As the HEA and the American government continued their negotiations to a more or less amicable conclusion, there were very, VERY, different machinations underway within America's nominal borders.
-=~=-
"Drone H000007, what do you have to report to me this... evening I would assume..." Queen Chrysalis asked from in front of a magical viewing membrane; stretched across the walls of her throne-room. She was laying on her belly across her couch/throne in her normal teal-and-black form, and clearly in a lazy mood.
The faint-green eyed human answered curtly but respectfully. "I am currently in the Princesses' human collaborators organization branch for London, United Kingdom. While they do have reasonable protocols for security in regard to personnel, it is clearly not designed to deal with Changeling infiltration."
"Hrm, I don't know if I should be happy or disappointed in that news; it is not like Celestia to leave that kind of back-door for me. Then again, even her and her damn sister's predictive abilities are not absolute or universal. I should be thankful in the end for that. Anyway, continue as you are H000007. For now, we only need information regarding their Ponification Serum. If our researcher's predictions are true, it should make our plans far faster to execute. And the faster, the better," Chrysalis stated with clear conviction, as she 'rose' to a normal, and definitely more regal, seated position; her long insectoid wings flat along her back. "By the way, it would be even faster if you could procure a sample, if you will..."
"Yes, my Queen," the drone reported, as 'his' image evaporated from the ‘screen’.
"My Queen, do you believe that neophyte drone can get far enough into their organization to acquire the information we need?" a slate gray-striped Changeling asked of the hive leader, the gray stripes marking his affiliation with the Infiltration Corps.
"The collective memories of those we have so warmly welcomed into the Hive should prove sufficient to get into their computer archives. Perhaps if 'he' could even get a sample... oh what fun we could have. This poor planet won't even know what hit it by the time we're done with it!" Queen Chrysalis exclaimed while snickering. The snickering soon turning into uproarious laughter, one which that resounded throughout the entirety of the second Hive she had created.
=== [ May 10, 2082 – Border of Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, USA ] ===
"You know, I was genuinely surprised the governments allowed us mostly free reign over this land. Though now that I look at it, I guess I shouldn't have been..." one of the Pony civil engineers stated somewhat despondently, looking out at the barren and dusty grassland that made up the border junction of the three states.
"It actually reminds of home... just less sand," one of the Dragon engineers quipped, driving the point home.
"Your Princesses and the HEA couldn't have spent that much on it, even if they were paying triple the going rate. Oh well, that's how it goes I guess," a Gryphon worker said, as he jammed a shovel in the dirt, just to see how the ground was for basic digging. The fact he had to put some effort to drive the head in implied that this was going to be a major undertaking.
-==-==-
A few tens of yards away, most of the principles of the HEA and some consorts with the American government were looking out at the 100 sq mile, perfectly square-shaped block of land they had to work with. What they saw was expected, but still sad: in that there was a whole lot of absolutely nothing.
"Ah've heard of fixer-uppers, but this is just plain ludicrous," Applejack said, almost disturbed by the fact it was deathly quiet out there save for the crew and some hardy small mammals and insects.
"Well, it's not like any of the Domers care about this land, it's practically worthless to them," Golden Storm added, almost mesmerized by how flat everything was, and how the horizon looked of slightly-tinged blue meeting slightly blotchy orange and green.
"I guess this will be a test of how well you all can leverage Magic and modern tech in terms of constructions and rehabilitation. Because Lord knows it's the only way these Plains are ever gonna be useful to anything again," one of the Secretary of Interior's aides mused aloud.
He's right... these lands, skies, basically everything is horribly damaged. We are going to be engaged in full-blown environmental engineering to make this whole project feasible. But... if we want to rebuild the Earth, we have to start somewhere... Luna thought to herself as magicked herself a large canopy to block the bright mid-Spring, midday Sun.
"So what do you think is going to be of primary concern, Princess Celestia?" Secretary of Interior White asked of the white Alicorn.
"This is going to be a massive undertaking; even though, given the scale of the planet, it is but a pittance. I believe we should focus on building robust dormitories and living spaces for the 'permanent' workers, since this is not a project where we can just warp people in and out," Celestia began to respond, but then thought to refine her statement some. "Well actually, we could do that, but it would largely be a hassle, to be quite frank. Plus, the Earth Ponies and Zebras need to build a connection to the land, in order to properly manage it. Coming in and out constantly would just needlessly stretch out that phase of the effort."
Luna, for her part, simply nodded in agreement, not needing to add anything else herself.
Celestia then concluded. "Thankfully, our combined skills should have the residences built in a few days. Contingent upon that, we should be able to start building the reservoirs and related structures by Friday or Saturday."
"Alright everyone, let's get these buildings put up so we aren't having to live out in this damn heat all day and night!" a Dragon engineer shouted, as the Unicorns started up the Q-Drones (drones powered by miniature magic-based supercomputers); and Humans, Dragons, and Earth Ponies started turning the baked clay-like soil into much more sturdy material.
-==-==-
"Goddamnit, it's been two months since everything went to pot," Peter Vaughn said, head resting in his steeple-d hands.
"At least no one has figured out we were the masterminds of the SPH. I say we take our good fortune and rebuild while we're out of the eye of the public; if it worked for those damn Ponies, it can certainly work for us," Claire thought aloud, angry she couldn't shop the way she wanted to.
Nathan was less concerned for himself, than he was for the entire structure of the SPH. "Yeah, but they apparently have reinforcements now. I say we start focusing on strike teams. Heavily armed and armored small groups that can get in, do damage, and get back out."
"Basic guerilla warfare, eh? Well we don't have much a choice right now. Start calling your contacts, we're about to go on a re-armament plan of our own..." Peter said, as he began calling contacts in the Toronto Domes to set up a branch office.
=== [ May 16, 2082 – Unnamed HEA-owned territory, Western Nebraska, USA ] ===
"So what's that thing supposed to be?" Pinkie Pie asked, as she looked at a portable pedestal-like device with several inflatable rings bolted around the top, and what looked like spouts coming out of the side. It was sitting in the bottom of a concrete lined test pit, about 300 cubic meters in volume to the top.
"We'll, Twilight had an idea. She thought it would be far too much work to just generate water using Water Magic, and it'd be better to purify water from an existing source. But given we're in the middle of the Ogilala Aquifer, but who knows what is in there at this point; and our location makes digging a tunnel straight to the Pacific a bit of a reach. So I said 'Why not make something to bring the water to us?' And there you have it..." Blue Vague said as he pointed a forehoof at the device down at the bottom of the 'pool'.
"And it would be the Water Transporter Mk I!" Twilight beamed proudly, Fluttershy quietly applauding in the background.
"So I figure by the name that it is supposed to transport water from wherever to that thing?" Red Blaze asked, teleporting down and looking around the roughly meter tall device.
"Actually," Twilight started, as Red Blaze teleported back up to ground level. "The device is a pair. We had one of the humans volunteer place the intake half a mile or so off the coast of Los Angeles. "
Twilight then pointed to a tablet screen showing the human and what appeared to be a buoy-like device tethered to his boat. "Alright Twilight, I'm anchored down. You can start the test when ready!"
"That's great, Harris!" Twilight responded, before resuming her explanation. "Simply put, that thing that looks like a buoy is the intake 'valve', and the device down there, is like the outflow 'valve'. We're just simply sucking water in one end and pouring it out the other."
"Sounds reasonable," Red Blaze thought aloud. "Although, um... what are those poles around the pool for?"
"Given it's seawater near a coastline we're using, they're odor neutralizers. To be perfectly honest, seawater smells awful," Twilight replied, waving a hoof in front of her snout; which got an exasperated snort from Vague. "Anyway, Vague, if you'd do the honors~"
"Yeah," Vague responded. His horn was then alight as his Terran Water Magic mixed with his Unicorn Explicit Magic and activated the device on both ends.
Despite some quaking from both parts of the unit, the water came pouring out of the end the four Ponies were standing near; somewhat off-color and brackish, but still water nonetheless.
"You were right Twilight, this seawater smells awful," Pinkie replied, holding a hoof in front of her nose. Twilight activated the odor neutralizing poles, which alleviated most of the issue.
"Despite the awful smell and the fact the water we're getting looks like halfway treated sewage, the experiment is a success!" Twilight stated excitedly, as she recorded the outflow rate and the stability of the devices.
-==-==-
"Oh come on it didn't smell that bad..." one of the Gryphon workers stated as he was with Midori Hana, checking an excavator that was carving out a giant cavern to be used as a first stage reservoir for untreated sewage and transported unpurified water.
"He smelled like a combination of dead fish and a waste-treatment plant. I told him to cut it off early. But no, he had to try and fill the pool up to the EXACT brim..." Midori Hana said with a mildly frustrated look on her face. Vague, for his part, was being thoroughly cleaned up from being splashed with sea-water.
"I dunno, I guess those couple of years working in a butcher's shop made me not notice that kind of smell so much..." the Gryphon stated as they drove the excavator back to the main work area to 'hand' off to one of the human workers.
Meanwhile, while clearly away from the gigantic piles of earth and whatever might have seeped in it, Rarity was looking on at the ever increasingly gargantuan pit with Rainbow Dash.
"That is a very big pit. It's already an eighth of the size of a Rainbow Pool back in Cloudsdale, and they just started on it..." Rainbow Dash said, eyeballing the three dimensions and running the numbers in her head roughly.
"I'm surprised you calculated that in your head like that, you don't strike me as a mental math type," Rarity quipped.
"Oh come on, why do you all think I'm dumb or something?" Rainbow Dash shot back.
"Well, if you would display your intelligence a little more, Dash dear, we wouldn't make such assumptions," Rarity replied with as much sternness as Rainbow did.
Dash just simply turned her head and her nose up at the fashionista.
"Oh fine, be that way..." Rarity replied.
=== [ May 20, 2082 – Unnamed HEA-owned territory, Western Nebraska, USA ] ===
Princess Luna sat in properly themed office in the main dormitory for the main workers on the project. She decided to make herself available for a couple of hours a day of direct questioning and oversight, and Applejack was there as well, looking at the giant tilling machines being operated by Zebras and Earth Ponies on a pair of monitors.
"So what exactly are they doing, we can't be looking to grow anything here so soon, right?" Applejack asked, her hat on a hat-rack in deference to the Avatar of the Moon.
"No, the first few months worth of food will be imported from Equus, as we fine-tune the land for agriculture again. We are just getting a head-start on busting this sod. At the same time, the Earth Ponies are weaving a spell to keep the top-soil, or what's left of it, from being blown away; we cannot afford a repeat of the Dust Bowl some 150 years ago in this very region." Princess Luna responded with her usual heavy detail.
"Ah see what ya mean, Ah've done some tramping around, and this soil is barely able to support the grass that's growing on it now. But that's what we're here for right, to fix it as much as we can?" Applejack asked.
Luna looked out of the window at the less-tinged blue sky above her, the Pegasi keeping atmospheric conditions optimal for physical labor. "Indeed Bearer of Honesty, our mission is to help humanity rebuild this world the best way we can figure out. It is our sister world, and we cannot leave it as it is after we've found it after so many eons,"
Applejack nodded in agreement, as she excused herself and left the office.
"I just hope the natives don't find what we're going to build too ostentatious..." as Luna looked over a large sheet of paper with a large and rather detailed pentagon-shaped settlement right in the center of the territory they were now working over.
--==--
Twilight, Vague, and Dr. Jun Isegawa stood and sat in a improvised office, as the interior of the soon-to-be waste treatment and water purification plant was being furbished by the drones and Pony and Dragon carpenters and stone-masons.
"I am serious Twilight; if and when this all ends amicably, you should look at becoming a professor or doctor in your own right..." Dr. Jun stated, while looking at Zebras and Humans testing for the most efficient mechanisms and spells for automated purification and waste-disposal.
"Oh come on, every time we get together for more than a few minutes you say that~" Twilight said while blushing a bit, slightly embarrassed when anyone starting gushing about her high intelligence.
"I'm just glad I don’t have to work over the open pools at the moment, you know it took me almost a full 48 hours to totally get rid of that smell. Hana will never let me hear the end of it, either..." Vague replied with clear exasperation, wondering why he didn't cover himself with a water-repelling spell when he knew how cruddy coastal waters could be.
"Dear husband Hayato was on the wrong end of an ill cow one day. Took almost four days to completely kill the odor, so I know what my daughter had to put up with," Dr. Jun explained, a wry smile the whole time. Vague just shook his head as he tried to figure out what end of the cow Dr. Hayato was on and why he'd be the one attending to it.
"So, in any case, what seems to be the plan regarding water treatment?" Twilight asked, sensing that Vague was about to derail the conversation somewhere it really didn't need to go.
Dr. Jun pulled up some of the plans and showed it to the pair of Unicorns. "Here, we want to engage in a four step process, each step representing one of the primary Terran elements, in a way. First, a matrix of nano-runes pulls out solid waste that we can then recycle or dispose of, depending on the material. Second, we reprocess it again, this time drawing out dissolved liquid wastes. Third, we superheat the water to kill the microbes in the water. Finally, we aerate the water, to get a more proper distribution of dissolved gases."
"Earth, Water, Fire, Air... makes sense to me. Although what are we going to with the recovered waste product?" Twilight then asked.
"Well, the recovered wastes will then be taken by tram to the separate recycling facility. From there we can use different methodologies of separating out useful elements and minerals and packaging the pure refuse for sequestration," Dr. Jun explained, showing a map with a new complex going up separate from the two water-treatment plants.
"I see. Not only do we need to take care of the needs for whatever city or settlement we build, but we have to prove how the magi-technology can be scaled up to clean up the established urban areas," Vague then thought.
"Yeah, the work we're doing here building this place can be used to rebuild the rest," Twilight concluded.
You two don't even begin to realize just how right you are. And the sheer scale of that would imply... Dr. Jun surmised to herself.
=== [ May 27, 2082 ] ===
"Asphalt always feels weird on my hooves. And I don't like it when my hooves feel weird..." Rainbow Dash stated, walking along the paved grounds outside of the growing pentagon shaped walls in a quartet of shoes.
"Can't be helped, Miss Dash. But the airport is coming along nicely. Won't be the biggest around, but it really doesn't have to be," one of the human workers said, as he monitored the drones constructing the main hub and traffic control tower.
"Planes are alright, I've been on a couple now. I'd rather be using my own wings, but definitely not at 35 thousand feet in the air..." Rainbow Dash replied, fluttering along as they walked past the reinforced frame of the building.
She looked overhead at the flyby of the weather control team, and wondered how things were going in Ponyville. Despite some of her grousing, she hadn't actually been home in a couple weeks, despite not having a formal job to do during the construction. In fact, none of the Ten Elements had a specific role; deciding to observe or do spot work on request.
I feel like I should be doing more, but I have no idea what that'd be... Rainbow Dash thought as she eventually relented and began walking along the ground, determined to at least get used to walking on pavement. At the very least though, this whole project is coming along quickly. Never thought a city could be built so fast…
=== [ May 30, 2082 ] ===
“The airport and train stations’ main buildings are nearing completion as far as the main walls and interior rooms go. The two water purification and the recycling facilities are ready for their test runs. Plus, the outer walls are about two days away from completion,” one of the team leaders reported to Princess Luna.
“That would put us about two days behind schedule, or at least our predicted schedule. Then again, these are new techniques we are employing, so perhaps attempting to formulate a schedule was not the best of ideas…” Luna thought as she read over the reports.
“At what date did you believe everything would be completed?” Dr. Hayato asked, as he let himself into Luna’s office. As he did, the team leader left to go back to overseeing his crew who were marking where the streets should be set up in the city’s interior.
“Roughly June 30th. As we said, it may not have been the best idea to attempt to formulate a schedule before seeing how all of the crew would operate. So it is more of a goal than any hard deadline,” Luna answered, making sure to not imply any anger.
“Well, construction on city interior should start in within the week, no?” Dr. Hayato then asked of the Indigo Alicorn.
Luna compared the actual work rate to her theoretical schedule, and responded. “That is a fair enough estimate, Dr. Isegawa. I’m not expecting anything to further delay us, but allowances should be made just in case.”
“No telling when the SPH or something else could decide to rear their head, right?”
“Indeed not. That is also why I did not want the Ten Elements to be too tied down with construction work.”
“But you know they are all young adults. The idea that they don’t have anything to do is probably eating at them quite a bit…”
“Just like a lot of humanity, no?”
“Correct, Princess Luna”
=== [ June 15, 2082 ] ===
“A little less than a third of the way home already; boy those things sure do work fast…” one of the Pony engineers reported, looking at all of the buildings that, at least from the outside, looked ready for inhabitation after only a couple of weeks. Everyone there knew they were basically the barest of bare bones as it were, hardly fit to be sold on the open market if there was one.
“Mess around and we homebuilders might be out of a job…” a Dragon compatriot stated, halfway between joking and serious.
“I’d rather have someone in the flesh build a home for me, but we can’t mess around. No telling when the SPH might want to come pay us a visit, so we need to have everything up and running, ASAP,” one of the humans replied as he checked the wiring of the drone.
--==--
Princess Celestia stood in a concrete room, window overlooking the city that was more and more coming into existence as each hour ticked by.
“I can see why machines replaced men in the long run…”
“Unfortunately, my company has had a hand in that. There is forever a tension between keeping people employed enough to buy your products, and having machines make them because they are programmable and generally require less maintenance, as it were,” Mr. Edwards replied, hands on a black framed window-sill.
“It requires some scruples and restraint in the pursuit of profit, considering it’s coming at the expense of others,” Celestia remarked, standing behind Richard as he continued to look out into the city.
That’s easy enough to say, but when the world revolves around money, sometimes people get shoved to the side… Richard responded silently, not wanting to engage in a wider moral argument at the moment.
“Just look at it, Princess. Each of the five sections starting to come into existence; each representing the five species that make up our organization. Of course we are having the drones building the foundations and frames of each building, but each species will take over soon enough,” Richard stated as he moved to the side, Celestia now standing beside him.
Despite the length of the partnership so far, he still felt odd regarding the height of Celestia and Luna were relative to the rest of their population. Not only that, but he couldn’t help but wonder just what all machinations went on within the combined brain-power of the two Alicorn Princesses.
“How long do you think this relative calm will last, Richard?” Celestia asked, speaking as if they were friends instead of more-or-less business partners.
“That… that I can’t even begin to guess.”
Celestia only sighed as she looked out at the horizon, the pentagonal walls rising over some of the shorter buildings on the edge of the city limits. “My sister and I worked very hard, over a very long period of time to bring order to Equus after the devastation Discord caused ages ago. There are still parts of the world that are so horribly warped that my power can barely make sense of it.”
“Really now,” Richard replied, as he turned to look the winged and horned mare in the eye. What he saw in her eyes wasn’t an ages old leader, but eyes of some Pony that had just taken the reigns of leadership; unsure if she was worthy of leading anything, let alone an entire nation.
Celestia continued, not breaking eye contact with Richard. “I was hoping to reserve the entirety of this story until a later date, but you deserve at least a bit of it now. There are stretches of Equus, smaller now than in the past though, where reality as we know it simply ceases to exist. These zones are basically rifts in time, space, and magic. Think of your legends regarding places like the Bermuda Triangle, and then contemplate everything those legends stated, all happening all at once. That begins to explain these places.”
Richard tried but ultimately failed to contemplate such a place, but internally noted that such a thing was definitely to be avoided.
“Nevertheless, I, my sister, and all the creatures that I have allied with since that time have sought to build a world truly worth living in. When I saw this world ravaged in an analogous fashion, I could not help but offer my hoof in assistance. I only hope that I and the others are not too late in doing so,” Celestia stated, once again taking the visage of an ages-old leader in the eyes of Richard.
“We are still here, and we are still operating. So long as that remains true, then we are never too late. That’s my response to your concerns,” Richard firmly replied.
Celestia thought for a few seconds, and then smiled the warm smile that put just about everyone that saw it at ease. “Hrm, even though I’ve only known humanity for a couple of years, I can tell that intonation and body language means a deep felt sentiment. Don’t worry; I don’t plan on abandoning Humanity before the real work has even started.”
The two shared a brief chuckle as they left the room.
-==-==-
“Oh, and here I thought you had forgotten about poor little ol’ me…” Chrysalis whined at disguised Changeling in her magic viewing screen, feigning hurt at not having received a report from ‘him’ in nearly two whole days.
“I could never bring distress to you, My Queen,” the human-form drone replied, bowing his head in apology.
“No, no you can’t. But you can bring me joy. And what would bring me great joy would be news of progress on your mission, H000007,” Chrysalis stated in her normal, stern tone of voice.
“I have managed to gain an assignment checking stock of potion that will be returned Earth-side within the next week. All that is required of me will be a transfer to a new center of operations in the American flatlands,” the drone replied in his usual dreary monotone.
“Now that is very good news indeed. We have an enchanted flask for you to place your acquired sample in, so do take care to not allow it to be damaged or stolen,” Chrysalis said, now taking the tone of an overbearing mother.
The drone simply nodded in agreement. “Yes, my Queen. I will do all within my power to ensure the success of my mission.”
=== [ June 27, 2082 ] ===
A large gathering stood on the roof of the 20-story building, the center-point in the rapidly growing office complex. Everyone marveled as the city was slowly evolving from a concrete and dirt foundation over a month ago, into now a nearly complete city, ready for regular occupancy. Lower to the ground, but arcing around the building, stood the above-ground sections of the Unified Conversion Bureau. All in all, just like the city maturing around it, the office park represented all five species that constituted the HEA. A fact not lost on the cadre standing on the roof of the main building.
"It's like standing on a movie set before the shooting starts; kidna funny being behind the proverbial curtain," Twilight Sparkle said, as she looked through a pair of binoculars at the Zebra section of the city.
Golden Storm hung off the side of the safety rail, looking over at the lights starting to flicker on as the early-summer sun began to set. "It is really strange, I mean you look out at the city, and it looks like something out of a comic book. I mean, look at how all the houses and residences just sorta blend into the more modern things humans and Converts are so used to."
Backdraft leaned over the rail, near Golden Storm, musing internally on the same idea. It's really strange... those Q-Machines let us build buildings that fit out aesthetics, but at the same time can comport to the devices that these people are so used to.
"Truth be told, I've gotten used to a bunch of the devices you all and the humans had made. I'm pretty sure the Scribes back in Jalve would agree." he concluded to himself out loud.
"That's good, because this is a bit of an experiment on our part as well..." Silentclaw said, joining the gathering of the Ten Elements and their friends and associates on top of the roof, honoring a request by Luna to check in on them.
"What kinda experiment?" Pinkie asked, sitting on a Wind-Magic powered air-conditioning unit.
Silentclaw responded after a few moments of thought. "Well, Miss Laughter, it's a sociological experiment. We want to adopt the technologies developed here back in Equus, and this is the best place to test them. We will have more than Bureau workers living here, so we don't have to worry about that bias, at least I wouldn't think personally."
I would like to be able to watch Earth movies without having to turn them into film, or use my Element as a proxy... Rainbow Dash thought to herself; perched on a cloud floating next to the edge of the railing.
"We cannot emerge from this joint venture with the other major Nations and Humanity without absorbing things. In fact, I figure that fact is some of why Wraithwind wanting the Dragons to open up as a culture," Silentclaw added.
"So you're gonna share some of your secret spy techniques with us then?" Midori Hana asked.
"I said open up, not spill everything for the world to see, Miss Geo," Silentclaw concluded, chuckling to himself.
"Worth a shot," she said, rolling her eyes. She and Vague were sitting together looking over the side pointed toward the Gryphon section of the city.
It will be interesting to see how the whole thing really shakes down... Vague thought to himself as Hana leaned on him affectionately.
=== [ July 6, 2082 ] ===
It was the day of the 'grand opening' of New Hope. The entire city was a-twitter as the trams made their first real runs through the city, and the streams and canals filled with purified water flowed through the various sectors. All of the principles of HEA were tied down giving interviews and press conferences and the like. The Princesses were concerned that Wraithwind would be the one least willing to open up to probing questioning by the human press, but he ended up being the most forthcoming about the whole intent of New Hope; something that made him a bit of a darling with the press looking for a straight-shooter counterpart compared to Edwards's idealism and Celestia and Luna's almost cryptic nature.
Meanwhile, riding along one of the rather well populated public trains, Midori Hana and Golden Storm were entertaining a quartet of fillies on a semi-private tour of the new city.
"This place really does feel like the busiest parts of Manehatten, but with a lot more metal and glass..." Babs Seed said while clearly awestruck by the sheer size of modern human construction. She was the first of that 'core four', as they called themselves, of the Cutie Mark Crusaders to find her Cutie Mark: a magnifying glass over an apple core.
A fact not lost on Sweetie Belle, the annoyance clear in her voice. "I'm still miffed that you found your Cutie Mark before we did,"
"Well you know I had ta. It's hard trying ta recruit in a big city by yaself," Babs replied as she blew her cropped mane out of her eyes.
"So what do you think it means, Babs?" Midori asked, as the train slowed down to let passengers embark and disembark, still in the mostly Human and mixed section of the city.
"I wasn't doin’ a lot of apple coring and inspecting in da city, so I doubt it's literal. It probably means I'm good at seeing inside Ponies, I guess..." Babs replied, unsure of the exact answer.
I guess even when you find your Cutie Mark, you still have to figure out quite a bit about yourself... Storm thought as the train picked up steam again and moved on from the stop.
The train passed through a ceremonial arc, which was white on one side and sky blue on the other, marking they had passed from the human-run to the Pony-run section of the city. It was more evident as the asphalt gave way to dirt, and then eventually thick grass.
"Wow, this is really neat how all of the parts of the city are separate, but they kinda fit into each other like a jigsaw puzzle," Scotaloo said, looking how even the buildings seemed to transition like a gradient instead of a hard and obvious break.
"Princess Luna said, as they were building the city, they wanted each Nation to retain their own identity, while blending it in with the others. So instead of having clearly marked borderlines and such, everything just kinda flows into everything else," Midori explained, her forehooves moving in a gentle wave-pattern.
The CMC just nodded as they looked out the windows, spying a tour-group of 20 or so humans being shown around by a Pony and Zebra.
Eventually they passed through the Gryphon section of the city, noticing the arc that was marked blue on one side and gold on the other. The Gryphon section of the city was like a steppe, and high-rise apartment buildings fashioned to look like cliff-faces. They saw another tour group of humans, this time with a Gryphon and Dragon guides, and the group itself being much more male than female.
"Ah guess some human guys wouldn't like turning into a Pony, huh?" Apple Bloom quipped.
"Even in this day and age, some guys just like to be more macho than others. I guess it's just part of the Y chromosome or something..." Golden Storm said, inwardly nothing how his own group was 80% female.
"To be fair, the stats said that half the Converts in the first run were male, so maybe they just want to see what's up with the Dragons and Gryphons," Midori responded as a bit of a counter.
They passed through another arch-way, the Gryphon Gold turning to Dragon Red, and the rock-faced apartment buildings transitioning into brick and stone houses, spread wider apart than any of the other sections of the city.
"Ah guess even if they live in a city, Dragons need their space..." Apple Bloom remarked, as a Dragon flew well over the train tracks toward the Airport in the Northern section of town they were in.
"So when are the human families supposed to start moving in?" Sweetie Belle asked, noting the Human section wasn't as busy as the other four.
"Well they already are, but we have to go through quite a bit of processing. But as you can see here," Hana started, before walking over to a panel near the door of the train-car to show the 'traffic' map for the roads and train-tracks within the city, showing how the human sections were steadily getting busier and busier. "More and more humans are moving into their housing and getting settled."
As the 'steppe' transitioned into 'grassland' and the red-and-black arch passed overhead, the six looked out at the Zebra section. They debated the fine points of homebuilding aesthetics with a Zebra passenger before he disembarked, at which point the conversation turned a bit more personal.
"So, Sweetie Belle, what is it that you all like to do anyway?" Hana asked somewhat innocuously. She resolved herself to go trawling for some ideas, to see if she could help the other 3 Crusaders find their Cutie Marks.
"Um... well I like singing..." Sweetie said somewhat sheepishly, fidgeting with her forehooves.
"Oh come on, Sweetie, you're an awesome singer!" Apple Bloom said while patting her on the back.
"I dunno, and everytime somepony mentions you like re-building stuff, you get all nervous like I am right now," Sweetie Belle shot back with some consternation in her face.
Apple Bloom soon joined Sweetie Belle in showing obvious internal conflict.
"Alright then... um... Scootaloo, what do you feel you'd be best at..." Storm asked, as he looked at the two fillies looking far dourer than they did a few moments ago.
"Since my wings are kinda small for my age... if I try and fly for long periods, I get tired faster than other Pegasi. But I do do a lot of scooter tricks. Maybe that's what I'm good at!" Scootaloo said.
Suddenly the light-bulb went off in Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's heads. If Scootaloo could resolve to apply the things they liked to do in their heart of hearts, why should they be so nervous about doing the same?
"You know, I don't know why I'm so nervous about telling others I like to sing. Or singing in front of others..." Sweetie Belle mused out loud.
"And why should I care what other Ponies think if I really like makin' old stuff new again?" Apple Bloom added.
"I guess my talent isn't as obvious, but it's mine. And that's all that matters..." Babs concluded.
"So, I guess we've had a breakthrough then?" Golden Storm asked of Midori Hana.
"Looks like..." Midori Hana replied, as the four fillies quickly began talking about how they could leverage their nascent talents in furthering their Cutie Mark quest.
~=-=~
"And who is my favorite Drone-turned-Gatherer?" Chrysalis asked of the former H-000007, 'his' shell now marked with a single grey stripe, showing his induction into the Infiltration Guard.
"Um, I am?" he responded, somewhat unsure of 'him'self.
"Correct, now, have you come up with a name for yourself?"
"Phasmid Grabber, I guess..."
"Oooh a nice name, it shouldn't surprise me that you used Phasmid in your name though, so mind if I just call you Grabber?"
"I do not mind at all, my Queen."
Grabber was then dismissed to return to his new quarters, where he'd begin learning more refined camouflage techniques. Meanwhile, Chrysalis took out the now transparent, miniature flask full of the slightly radiating purple liquid.
"So this is what dear Celestia and her ilk have been using to turn Humans into Ponies. Now if she just asked us nicely, I would have gladly given it to her," Chrysalis said out loud, levitating the flask in her lime green aura. "Of course, I would have asked for proper... compensation."
The notion got a chuckle out of the Research Corps member that had come to retrieve the sample from his Queen. "Your Highness, I have come to retrieve the sample for analysis."
"Straight to the point, just like the rest of the Research Corps. Anyway, here you go," Chrysalis responded, a bit miffed that the Research Corps were the least likely to play along with her rhetorical antics.
This will make my plans for this world so much easier... she thought to herself, as she began entertaining herself with more of the Humans' television programming.