//------------------------------// // Saga 2: The Rainbow Connection // Story: The Conversion Bureau: Reality Break // by Fullmetal Pony //------------------------------// I felt something metallic. I opened my eyes; I was in a small grey room. It was definitely somewhere completely enclosed from the outside world: the entire environment was artificial. I couldn’t tell the temperature, the humidity, or whether it was day or night. Then I remembered the feeling of cold metal under me. I looked down and saw I was on a cold metal slab like an operera- “Ah!” I flew up, but smacked my head on the ceiling, wherever I was, it was small. Then I remembered everything: my parents, the black-ops, and the tranquilizer. “Please!” I cried out, “I’ll tell you whatever I want, just don’t hurt my parents!” Oh god, what if they got the others too? Please let them be safe, please! “I…I’m the one who started all this! If you want to dissect someone then dissect me, just let the others go!” A long silence greeted me, but then a voice came from the ceiling. I looked up and saw an intercom. “We apologize for the rough treatment, we assure you that the others of your kind have not been harmed. We do not know where your parents are, were they with you upon your arrival here?” Oh thank god, everypony is fine… what about mom and dad though? “You took me and my parents at the same time.” “How does your species age? All your kind appear to be around the same age, so we could not determine which ones were your parents.” Oh my god, they think I’m an alien… hmm, technically I am now. “Um, my parents were the middle aged humans with me when you took me.” There was another long silence. “How long have your ‘parents’ been taking care of you?” “Since I was born.” Now I felt like I was in the most bizarre trial ever. “When were you born?” “Eighteen years ago, nineteen in three months.” “What is your name?” “John Bacanti, do you need my address as well? Anything to just get everypony out of here.” “Do not be concerned, ‘everypony’ will be released shortly. We just have a few more questions. Are you aware that a Mrs. and Mr. Bacanti, have a human son with the same exact name as you?” “Yes, that’s me.” “Are you a human?” The question hurt to hear, I flapped my wings as I looked up at the intercom, “I want to believe that I still am, but my heart…” I choked on the words, “even it isn’t fully human anymore.” Even as I said the words, my wings twitched, they wanted the air again. “Can you elaborate for us?” “Until last Monday, I was a human, I walked on two legs, used two hands, ate meat…” “You cannot eat meat?” “Not without a severe reaction, produce is fine though,” my stomach grumbled as I spoke. It must have been a while since I’d been knocked out. “Can you continue?” “Yes, on Sunday night I was very sick, possibly with meningitis. After a trip to the restroom, I drank what I thought was cold medicine. I awoke like this.” It still felt surreal to say I’d gone to bed a human and woken up a pony. “In our operation to bring you here, we found an empty bottle with trace amounts of a unknown substance in it, was this the serum you are referring to?” So Sybil did drink, darn, Dan’ll be ticked. “Yes.” “Were all of your species originally human then?” “Yes.” “What compelled you to change humans into such a form?” “I…at first I didn’t want to, I never wanted to force this upon them. But… despite how I looked, they still wanted to stand with me, whether I was human on not. The choice was theirs.” “I see.” The door in the room opened to reveal a man in a black suit with sunglasses. Despite the circumstances, I still couldn’t help but chuckle a little at how cliché the man’s portrayal was. “Come with me sir,” his voice wasn’t the same as the one on the intercom. “Where are we going?” In response, the man pulled out a blindfold. “I’m sorry sir, but that is confidential. “Is everypony else ok?” “They are already at our destination,” the man said as he tied the blindfold over my eyes. He then grabbed the side of my neck and led me out of the room. As we walked through more of what I assumed was a building, I was still concerned about my friends and my family. “Are…are you going to study us?” “I am not at the liability to say sir, our orders were merely to confirm origin and chance of hostility.” I heard another door open and the world around me changed from darkness to grey. Wherever I was, it was colder than where school had been, much colder. My senses were still dulled though, I was still in a partially artificial environment; I suspected it might be an underground garage. There was the sound of a car door opening and then somepony helped get me into the car. Now the world went black on me again: the car had it’s own environment. The drive to wherever we were going was pretty short. Then we got out into another garage area, where I was led into another building. Suddenly, we stopped. I heard a knocking on a door and then the man spoke, “Agent Vincent; Code: Pi Omega Nu.” “Thank you agent Vincent, delivery acknowledged,” came a female voice. I heard a door open and “Agent Vincent” led me inside. “Good luck,” he whispered to me as he removed the blindfold and left the room. “Good luck? Why do I need go-” I then saw where I was. I’d seen it hundreds of times on TV. Given that I was pretty much a cartoon now, I was amazed my mouth didn’t drop to the floor. I was in the Oval Office. Screw Australia, it has nothing on this. Then I saw the man standing by the window, he was looking out onto the White House lawn. “I never thought that in my career, I’d be turning to my daughters for help.” “Um…” I had no idea what to say. The president, i.e. the guy who runs the entire damn country, was talking about My Little Pony to me, an actual pony. Surreal didn’t even begin to describe the situation. “I suppose I should start with an apology,” he turned to face me as he talked, “please understand, we are in very strange waters here. Over the past few days, occurrences around the world have been straining us. We’ve barely been able to stymie the tide of panic. When we first received news of a transfigured human, we chalked it up to the average fear-mongering, we’d gotten quite used to it with all the 2012 preachers out there. But events on Monday pushed us to reanalyze those initial reports.” “Equestria Daily and Australia?” I asked. “Yes, when my daughters saw the news footage, they kept screaming that ‘Discord’ was real. At that point, I realized there might be grounding behind what some of the, um, what is the term you fans use?” “Bronies.” I was a pony now and I still thought that term was a silly. “Yes, ‘bronies.” We looked into their sayings and traced an ip address to your location. I sighed, “I knew that computer would be the death of me.” “Death? No, no, no. I don’t know what fears you’ve had, but I assure you the United States is open to all.” “Well, technically, I already am a citizen.” “Yes, about that, could you elaborate more on how things came to be?” I got the feeling I’d be telling this story a lot more now. ~~~ Obama was sitting down now, “I see, so you are aware of the situation in Nevada then?” “I…I had my fears, but you and Celestia appear to have confirmed them.” “I’ll be frank, we’ve thrown everything at this ‘entropy’: conventional arms, ballistic missiles, even smaller nuclear arms. The only result was seeing the weapons enter the ‘entropy’s’ zone and stop mid-air, even remote detonation didn’t work.” Obama had his hands clasped as he spoke. “Then the reports came in from Bolivia and Australia, our worst fears were confirmed then. This was a global event, not just a problem of the United States. We knew we had to act fast to find someone who knew about this.” “Me?” “Not quite,” Obama walked over to his desk and pressed an intercom button. “Send them in.” A door opened and, much to my shock, four other ponies came in, followed by a very flustered looking Japanese man. “After Monday’s Australia event, we sent out a plea to all the other countries to assist us in any way possible. Japan was the first to respond.” “I…” I looked at the four other ponies, they looked back at me nervously, and I noted that a blue Earth pony with white hair seemed a little older than the other three mares. “I had my suspicions after the power outage, but I never expected this.” “Like you, all four of them were picked up by the government and questioned. I wish communication between our two nations had been better though. We might have been able to mobilize faster or prepare more.” He glared at the Japanese man. “But that is in the past, right now, our current concern is what will happen to our planet. Tell me, do you know any of these ponies?” I looked at the blue pony and recalled how the news had talked about a blue blur running through Tokyo’s streets. I pointed a hoof at her, “Are you a seed as well?” The Japanese man bent down and whispered to her. Her response was in Japanese, so I couldn’t pick it up, she did mention a “monster” though (thank you anime for impromptu Japanese). “She says,” the Japanese man translated, “that she doesn’t know what a seed is, but it might have been the, um, creature that took her daughter and turned into this form.” As he spoke, I noticed the other ponies talking amongst each other and then to the older mare. They seemed to be arguing a little. “Then, none of them are the seed?” The man turned around again. When he spoke to the ponies this time, he had to get them to settle down a little first. After some more talking, he turned back to me. “They say it was a blue unicorn that gave them the stuff that turned them into ponies, but they don’t know where she is.” One of the ponies, a white unicorn with green and silver hair trotted forward and slowly spoke in English, “But I like being a pony, it is fun… hello too, nice to meet an American pony.” She seemed very happy as she looked at me. I just felt even more bizarre. “Oh um,” Darn it why couldn’t college have Japanese classes? “Hello, nice to meet you,” I replied in Japanese. Thank god for that tutor in high school. All three of the young ponies broke away from the man and galloped over to me. “You know Japanese?” “Can you practice English with us?” “Can we go to Equestria now?” Then the questions became more specific and I couldn’t understand them anymore. “Um, sorry I only know basic Japanese.” The mares’ faces were still happy though. I turned over to the man, “Sorry, but could you act as translator again? I only know the really basic stuff.” “Er, um,” the man had very quizzical look on his face, I couldn’t really blame him though, I don’t think any political career could prepare you for this sort of situation, “They are saying they are so happy to meet another, er, pony like them. They were very scared when we took them in, that they were alone, or that they’d be experimented on.” “Heh, tell them I had the same fears, but…but it’ll be ok.” The man relayed my message to them, then they somehow managed to hug me; we all fell to the ground. The older mare still stood in the background. “Um, Mr. Bacanti,” Obama interrupted, “we still have other issues at hand. All of them were told by Celestia, that’s her name right?” “Yes.” “Well, they were told by her that they were part of the initial step in saving the planet. But the true key to salvation lied with the ‘seeds’, what can you tell us about them?” “All I really know is that I’m apparently one of them.” “Do you have any way of contacting them?” “Well there was Celestia, but she only appeared when Summer got a cutie mark.” “Cutie mark?” “It’s, uh, this mark on your flank that shows what your special talent is.” I looked back on my blank flank. “Do you know how to obtain one?” “No, I really have no idea how this works.” Great, now I feel like a cutie mark crusader. “I see,” Obama brought a hand to his chin as a pensive look grew across his face. “Regardless, we need to prepare the nation… no, the world as soon as possible. Can I ask for your assistance?” “You’re actually the second world leader to ask me. But, can I at least see everypony else first?” “Certainly, it’s the least we can do for you after what we’ve put you through.” Obama pressed the intercom again, “You can send the rest in now as well.” The door opened again and out trotted four ponies and five humans. I galloped past everypony else and hugged my family. “Mom! Dad! Oh god, I was scared!” “We know John,” my mom was crying as she petted my mane, “your friends explained everything to us. We…we’re just glad you’re ok.” “Well,” I awkwardly flapped my wings, “I’m not sure if ‘ok’ would exactly define my situation.” “Oh man bro,” my sister looked over me, “you so can’t complain about how I look anymore.” My sister was in middle of that “I’m rebellious and unique, so I’m gonna get a ton of piercings like all my other friends” phase. I slightly face-hoofed, “Rachel, I swear, you have got to be the biggest idiot I know. I turn into a pony and that’s what you say to me?” “Well what am I supposed to say? Besides, mom and dad are probably gonna ground you for life because of this.” “Rachel,” my dad turned to her, “try and be a little mature.” He now turned back to me, “John, is it really the end of the world?” “I think, unless we can stop it.” “How do you do that?” “Make more ponies” “Oh John,” mom hugged me tighter, “is it permanent? Can’t we all just become ponies and then turn back once whatever this is disappears?” “I…I don’t know,” I sighed, “I just wish somepony were here to explain things more.” “Um,” mom looked on me oddly now, “don’t you mean ‘somebody?’” I realized I’d been using ponyisms since I’d woken up, “Oh,” my ears drooped, “that… that’s something that happens when you take the stuff… it…it changes a lot more than just how you look.” “Like what?” Dad asked. “Depends on what you are.” I looked over at my friends. Dan and Nate were still human, but I counted one Earth Pony, one pegasus, and two unicorns: Dawn and a unicorn with a pink coat and a purple mane with green highlights. “How’s the horn treating ya Sybil?” “Guh, I don’t know how Jane dealt with this,” Sybil complained, “it’s like someone is banging a drum in my head with all these electronics.” “Well at least now that we’re out, people won’t be like ‘Ahhh! A pony! Call the government!’” Sean said in a slightly mocking voice. “Oh yeah, being captured gave me a bunch of time to think of a name, I’m totally gonna be Iron Ore from now on!” “Mom, dad, you sent me to a college not an insane asylum right?” I asked my parents. “I’m not entirely sure anymore,” dad replied. “So what do we do now?” “We inform the masses.” Obama spoke up, “If ignorance continues to persevere through this disaster, panic will reign.” He turned to me now, “From what your friends have said and your title as a ‘seed’ would you be willing to assist me?” “I…” I looked over at my friends, the Japanese ponies, and back at my parents. Their fates were in my hooves. “I’ll do it.” “Excellent, the emergency broadcast will be ready in a few minutes.” “B-b-broadcast!?” “Well, of course, we need to reach the people as fast as possible.” “It’s just, um, wow, I’m a little nervous.” “John,” Summer trotted over towards me and my parents, “I know you can do it, you got us this far didn’t you?” She then kissed on the cheek. “Oooh, John,” my sister teased, “this has so got to count as a crime in some form, does it count as a crime dad?” “Shut up Rachel!” My dad and I replied simultaneously. “Guh! Dad doesn’t even work in that form of law!” My dad was a lawyer. Hmm, wonder if they have lawyers in Equestria. I turned back over to Summer, “Thanks Summer, still don’t know what you see in me though.” “Aw John,” she nuzzled me, “you just know how to get through things.” “She’s got a point,” Dawn said, “I mean, I know we didn’t get control of my magic, but you still tried to help. I don’t know what we would have done without you.” “Yeah pony!” Iron couldn’t check his voice to save his life, “Shit was flying everywhere and you were like ‘let’s help Dawn’ and it was sweet!” “Sean, for god’s sake, you’re in the Oval Office!” I yelled at him, “Show some manners.” “It’s quite alright,” Obama chimed in, “stranger things have happened in here. “I highly doubt Clinton counts,” I sarcastically replied. Everypony except the Japanese ponies laughed at that.” “Oh yeah John,” Dan interrupted the laughing, “is there going to be more potion soon?” “Sorry Dan, I don’t know, but I…” I saw him looking over at Sybil, “oh.” “It’s just that I want to get it over with now that, well… my girlfriend is a unicorn.” Dan’s face was now red with embarrassment. “Oh, I’m sorry Dan,” Sybil stumbled over to him; she still needed to get the hang of walking. “I just wanted to help Jane and I didn’t know what else to do and the potion was there an-” “Shhh,” Dan bent down and stroked his hand through Sybil’s mane, “it’s ok… just really awkward right now.” “Smooth Dan,” Nate chimed in. Then the phone on Obama’s desk rang. He picked it up and listened. He set it down and looked at me. “It’s time, are you ready?” I looked over at everypony else in the room, “Yes, I am.” “Then let us go, I’ll lead the way.” ~~~ Izumi floated a bowl in front of her. A few minutes ago, it had been filled with rice, but she had quickly finished the meal off. Rice had seemed mundane before, but now it had a whole different level of flavor. The farmer gave it to her whenever she asked. She really did enjoy the Japanese countryside: it was quiet and serene unlike the city. The only annoyance was a small TV the farmer kept, but that was in his own room. Izumi had been staying a guest room of the farmer’s house for the past few days. “Hmm,” she moved the bowl up and down. Her skill with magic had improved over the past few days. She could now easily move small objects around and even shift larger objects like the futon if she focused. It was odd to move inanimate stuff around. It felt like she was touching whatever it was she was manipulating, yet her hooves were still touching the ground. “I hope everypony is ok.” She thought of her mother and the three girls she had transformed. The thought had woken her up a few times the first few nights she had been at the farm. But she had assured herself that Celestia would never let anypony get hurt. Celestia… what should I do? She had thought that after she used up her potion, Celestia would have contacted her again. But no contact had been made. The closest thing to contact she had had was the farmer panicking on Monday over something in Australia. Izumi guessed that it must have had something to do with the entropy, but she had kept her mouth shut. She didn’t want the farmer to expel her like everypony in Tokyo had. Her musings were cut short by the farmer bursting into her room.“Izumi-sama! He screamed. “Please come quickly, there is something going on in the United States that you must see!” ~~~ Somehow, David now both loved and hated his mum’s cooking. Before, his mum’s cooking had been ok, but now it was amazing to eat even the simplest dishes. The problem was that dishes weren’t simple anymore. All of them had complex backstories on where they came from. A vegetarian shepherd’s pie now had a grand story behind it: the potatoes were raised in Ireland with quite fine soil, a shame some of the field they’d grown in had been overwatered; the peas were grown and harvested in an English farming town about five months ago and had then been frozen; and the carrots had actually come all the way from the United States, they had also been frozen and transported over the Atlantic. The flavor of the pie was an eloquent symphony, but David couldn’t fully enjoy it, because every bite he took came with a surge of information in the pie’s origins. There had also been the potato incident on Sunday. David’s mum had been trying to make a vegetarian Cornish pasty (he had found at the hard way on Friday morning that bangers didn’t sit well with him anymore) and he had wanted to help at least a little. So he’d relegated himself to bringing the potatoes over from the pantry, it was the least he could do. But when he’d brought over the first potato, he’d experience the information stream as usual, but at the time, he’d also been hungry. His mum made the best Cornish pasty and just thinking about them made David drool. The potato in his mouth didn’t help either. He just wanted to eat some good food so badly. Then he had walked over to his mum and she had given him a quizzical look. “David, I know you’re trying to help, but I don’t think I can use a potato with a bunch of spuds in it.” David had spat out the potato in confusion and, to his shock, had seen that the potato was covered in green spuds. “Mum, it wasn’t like that when I picked it up, I swear!” “Is…is it something you can do now?” “I…I don’t know.” David backed away from the potato, afraid that it might burst into a giant plant any second. His mum had stopped cooking and had stroked his mane to comfort him. “It’ll be fine David, I just wish the guard would listen to us.” She’d been trying for the past few days to get in contact with a government contact. If the end was coming, she wanted to make sure the Queen was safe. Now it was around eleven on Wednesday night and still no calls had come in. David was sitting on his couch watching whatever was on the BBC. Suddenly, his program was interrupted. “This is an emergency news report, we are now going live to United States president, who is about to address the strange events that have been plaguing the world for the past few days.” “Mum!” David called out, “get in here! I think something is going on!” ~~~ Alvarez couldn’t find his way out of the forest. He knew where every plant and animal was, but everything just mashed together and confused his mind. He was lucky that now he could at least find edible plants. But the confusion of the forest was better than the areas where he felt nothing though, areas where time and space had stopped. Those places terrified him to the core, especially because every day, he could feel the dead zone’s area grow. He knew soon the forest wouldn’t bother him anymore, but a greater terror would replace it. ~~~ Atunga felt like a king. When he had landed in his village, the people had been shocked at seeing him. But they had also seen that he had moved the clouds and had thanked him greatly for it. They had slaughtered one of their last cows to honor him, but just seeing the people kill the animal had made Atunga sick. But then they had also offered him milk and it was incredible. The only other time he had had milk was when he had gone through his initiation ceremony. But he could enjoy the milk without guilt, because he had ensured that rain would fall on the village. His skill in flight had increased substantially over the past few days, what had originally been instinct was now a honed tool. There had also been his mother and his sisters. He had given the potion to them, they thought he was a spirit offering them salvation, the entire village did. The final serving of the potion had gone to the chief, who had graciously accepted it, thinking it was a sign from the gods that they were smiling upon the village. Now his mother had a strange horn coming out of her head, while his sisters looked like him, but without wings. The chief, however, now had wings like Atunga did. Yet, the entire village now wanted the magical drink, they saw it as ascension to a higher level of being. But unfortunately, Atunga had received no more potion or dreams from the beings that had granted him this form. Every night since he’d returned to the village, he’d prayed for Celetia and Luna to come back and speak to him, but nothing had come of his prayers. Now he found himself sprawled over the bed everyone in the village had made for him. He was about to fall asleep when a loud booming voice awoke him. ~~~ Jen was eating breakfast with her parents. They were all sitting in front of the telly, they’d found that chairs were quite difficult to sit in as ponies. Jen’s mom was now an Earth Pony, she looked a lot like Jen only no horn and her mane was yellow with purple highlights. When her mom had come home, she’d nearly passed out upon seeing her and her dad as ponies. Then she’d called her dad a bloody idiot and downed a shot of the stuff herself. The first thing she’d done as a pony was buck her dad right in the face. Her dad was still nursing a black eye. Jen had been quiet shocked when her mother’s brutality, but she’d been even more shocked when a tan aura had covered her dad’s face, which stopped it from swelling. She had innately used healing magic. But as soon as she realized what she was doing, the aura had faded and her dad had had to rely on ice rather than magic. Now they were all watching the telly, waiting to see if any other parts of the world had gone through what had happened to Australia. The answer had come in the form of an emergency broadcast. “I hope that is what I think it is,” Jen said. “We all do sweety,” her dad replied. ~~~ All the cameras were trained on the president. Flashes were going off every half-second. He was used to this though. I was still behind the curtains where the reporters couldn’t see me and I was freaked the hell out. Oh god, I’m about to speak for both humanity and Equestria. I took some deep breaths. This is what I get for wanting to be a diplomat. Then Obama spoke, “My fellow Americans and people around the world, as you have noticed, over the past few days strange events have been arising across our planet. Today, we are here to put the fears these events have caused to rest.” “People of the world, we face a crisis the likes of which humanity has never seen before: our world is on the verge of collapse. An event we are dubbing ‘thaumatic entropy’ is spreading across our reality. It has already laid claim to Nevada and the South American nation of Bolivia.” I heard gasps from the reporters. Ok good, that’s the right reaction. Maybe I’m not going as insane as I thought. “But Mr. President,” one of the reporters called out, “are the events in Australia also tied to this ‘entropy?’” “That brings me to my second order of business. While humanity is facing a doomsday scenario, we are not alone in fighting it. Individuals across the world have been contacted by an extra-spacial race we are calling the Equestrians. Some of you viewers may know this race from a popular children’s television show called My Little Pony.” I swore I head somepony slap their head. “Government sources have confirmed that this show was in fact a message sent to humanity to warn and prepare us for the coming disaster. Their reality also faces a population crisis and is in need of more land to live in. Thus, they have come to us to reach a middle ground where both races shall survive.” “Mr. President,” came another reporter’s voice, “assuming what you are saying is true, what is the middle ground that has been reached?” I saw Obama pause on the stage for a second. Then he spoke again, “The human spirit has endured countless trials in the past: oppression, slavery, genocide; all these horrific events have left their mark on humanity. Yet, our essential essence of humanity, the ability to aspire for more and live for others has also remained in peoples’ hearts. What the Equestrians have given us is survival of the human spirit… at the cost of the human body.” There were more gasps now. A reporter nervously spoke up, “Mr. President, what are you implying?” “I think,” he gave me the signal to come onto the stage, “Mr. Bacanti can explain better than I can.” I heard somepony hit the floor, I am not kidding, a journalist, trained to be stoic and controlled in the face of anything, had passed out upon seeing a flying horse. I walked over to the podium and balanced myself on it. “Um…” I looked over at the passed out reporter, “you might want to get him some medical attention.” The only thing that kept the reporters from rushing me was the secret service agents. “This isn’t an elaborate costume right?” “Do your wings functions?” “What is you home world like?” “How long does humanity have left?” “Everypony!” I called out with as much volume as I could muster, “Please, calm down, calmness is the most important thing we can have right now.” All the reporters backed up and were silent. I don’t think they knew how to react to this. “Well, I suppose I should introduce myself first.” Oh god, I’m on international television, not some job interview. “M-my name is John Bacanti, I’m an eighteen year old citizen of the United States, and until last Sunday I was an average college student with friends and family. But… but now I’m also a pegasus and a representative of Celestia.” “Who is Celestia?” A reporter asked. “She is the monarch of Equestria.” “Have you been to this ‘Equestria?’” Another reporter asked. “I have not, I don’t believe any pony from Earth has had that privilege yet.” “How did you come to obtain this form?” The reporters were getting bolder now. “A potion sent by Celestia causes humans to turn into ponies.” My god, this is a strange day. “It may be the only way to save humanity. She has said that more magic needs to be created and humanity must answer the call.” “Can you truly call yourself human anymore?” The reporter’s question might as well have been an knife to my heart.” “I…” I was wavering, “I…” but I knew what was at stake here; this was bigger than me, bigger than anypony. I dug deep into myself for strength, “I want to believe I’m still human, I have to for the future, because that is what I am fighting to save!” I didn’t notice my flank start to glow. “If the human spirit is infallible, then right now I am a human in sprit, I have to persevere to save everypony!” The glow brightened, I didn’t notice, “Celestia said she’d be sending help soon, but until then, we, the human race, must put aside our differences and stand united, whether or not we look human anymore!” The world flashed white for a second. I looked back to see what the source of the light was. There was now a star partially covered by a cloud on my flank. Well I looked like my OC, shoulda known I’d get the same cutie mark as well. But before I could marvel at the cutie mark more, I saw that Celestia was standing beside me at the podium. She was still blue, but was less ghost-like now, I couldn't see through her this time. She looked over at me with a smile. “Well done my little pony, I couldn’t have said it better myself,” she said and then turned over to face the cameras. All the reporters just looked on in stunned silence. “Greetings Earth,” her voice seemed to echo even more than it should have with a microphone, “I am…” ~~~ “Luna, Princess of Equestria!” Luna’s voice filled London’s streets. David had rushed outside as soon as he’d heard it. Aside from the name, Luna was saying the exact some things Celestia was saying on the telly. What he saw outside made his mouth drop. A vision of Luna was up in the sky above London. “If you have been listening to you communication devices, then you know that the end is nigh for both our realities. But fear not, we have come up with a solution.” ~~~ “We have devised a potion that will transform you into ponies and stop the spread of the magical entropy that threatens your world.” Izumi stared up at the projection of Celestia in the Japanese sky. Celestia’s image was right in front of the rising sun. The farmer was bowing to Celestia’s image, “My god, it’s the Sun Goddess, she’s descended from heaven!” ~~~ “We know this is a difficult choice to make,” Luna continued over the Kenyan night, “but we assure you, we are trying to preserve the best of what both races have to offer.” Atunga could only stare dumbfounded at the princess in the sky, then again, that was all anyone in his village could do. ~~~ “However,” Alvarez couldn’t see Celestia through the thick forest canopy, but he could hear her, “just becoming ponies won’t be enough to fully stop entropy. Equestria must also enter and occupy Earth’s realm.” ~~~ “Regrettably,” Celestia continued over the Australian morning sky, “this means that Earth will cease to be as you know it.” “Oh my god,” Jen brought a hoof to her muzzle as she looked up at the princess in the sky. “But, if what my little pony in America has said is true, then I believe you humans will be able to overcome this adversity and come to reach even greater heights in Equestria! We will be sending potion to all your major cities. As soon as more people are converted, more potion will come, so there is no need to panic. Earth and Equestria will prevail!” Celestia’s image then seemed to pause in the air. ~~~ Celestia turned back to me now, “Now there is one more thing I must ask of you today.” “W-what?” I’d spent all my bravery and now my head was beginning to spin. “Fly,” she said to me and then turned her attention back to the cameras. “Seeds! If you can hear me, use your magic now! Fly, grow things, use your horn, whatever it takes to summon your magic!” My wings responded to the call, even if I couldn’t sense the artificial air in the room, there still had to be currents created by the AC. I zoomed around the air and started doing rapid circles. Hats and papers started flying into the air as I picked up speed. ~~~ “Mum!” David rushed back into his house, “get the potatoes!” “David what i-” “Just get the potatoes, the veggies, anything!” He dashed over the pantry alongside her. He stuck his hooves into the middle of the sack of potatoes and pushed past the information surge and focused on only one thought: GROW! ~~~ “Izumi-sama what are you doing?!” The famer was alarmed to see that all the water in one of his patties was rippling now and covered in a blue glow. “Quiet!” Izumi yelled as she poured even more power into her horn. Princesses! Be with me! ~~~ Atunga was dashing through the clouds; he didn’t even see what the other ponies were doing. He just knew that now was the time to fly. He bent and shaped the clouds into surreal forms that nature could never form on its own. Then he got an idea. He rushed to push all the clouds into one huge cloud. As he pushed more and more clouds together they grew dark. He began to feel a tingling throughout his body, but he didn’t care. Once he’d gotten all the clouds together, he started spinning around the structure as fast as he could, the force would hopefully compress the cloud more. He was so preoccupied with fulfilling the princess’s order that he didn’t even notice the lightning bolt. Not that he really could have noticed the bolt it was lightning after all. A raindrop was the last thing he felt before the world went dark on him. ~~~ Alvarez focused all his attention into the ground beneath his hooves. There were countless seeds beneath him, just waiting for the right moment to sprout. That moment was now. “Please!” Alvarez pleaded to the sky as he felt the plants wiggle underneath him, “Please help me out of here!” ~~~ Jen was straining all her thoughts into levitating everything in her living room. Everything was now floating the air above her and her parents’ heads. “You’ve got this sweetie!” Her dad encouraged her. “You can do it Jen!” Her mom added. “Guh,” Jen’s head was starting to hurt, “why do you always have to be so dotting!?” Her horn glowed brighter now. ~~~ The reporters were now hugging the walls in a panic. I’d essentially created a vortex in the middle of a press conference. My wings and lungs were starting to hurt now. This was the fastest I’d ever gone, even faster than when I’d been chasing Summer. But I pushed past the pain and kept going. “C’mon gotta go faster!” A bright flash appeared in the center of the vortex and blinded me for a second. I crashed right into the podium. Luckily, it appeared magic glasses were also durable glasses, as they were perfectly fine despite my collision. The world was still spinning on me when I tried to get up though. “Ugh, I really hoped that worked.” I brought a hoof to my head to steady myself, but I still couldn’t tell up from down. “You did more than just make it work, you made it work great!” Came an ecstatic voice. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, everything looked like a blur to me. I nearly fell over, but something caught me. “You might want to take it easy though, making tornados can take a lot out of a pegasus.” The world was starting to focus again. I saw directly in front me that the room was now filled with boxes. “You’re telling me, how Rainbow Dash did that stuff in the show must have been an exaggeration.” “Well, maybe they went a bit far with my sonic rainboom,” the voice replied. “Yeah well I…” I looked to see that a blue wing was keeping me steady. “Oh, um, but if you want an autograph, I’d always love to give my first trans-dimensional one to you! I think you earned it!” An azure pony smiled back at me. “This… this is really happening right?” A red necklace with a lightning bolt in the middle was draped around her neck. “You bet it is! Nice speech by the way, it was almost as cool as the tornado!” She brought her wing back to her side and trotted in front of me and held out a hoof. “Oh yeah, it sounds like you already kinda know me, but I think a proper hoofshake’s in order.” I tentatively held out a hoof, “I…I’m John Bacanti.” “‘Bacanti?’ Huh, humans sure have some odd names.” She somehow gripped my hoof with hers, “Well, I’m the one and only Rainbow Dash!”