//------------------------------// // Legion Of Steel // Story: The Conversion Bureau - Synthesis // by FatesEnd //------------------------------// "Let your voice speak for the revolution, All join forces with all the power that you feel. Let your heart beat for the revolution, Led by the Legion of Steel!" Solenoid carefully marked a jagged shape on a map. It wasn't entirely unlike what a small child with bad hand-eye coordination would draw when asked to make a star. "What's that?" He looked up to see a changeling with a metal mask covering her head and upper jaw and a metal plate that covered her flanks. The armor wasn't strictly necessary - as a changeling, she had no need to hide her appearance and her chitin was surprisingly resilient - but ever since Glowing Hammer began building it out of scrap material, it had become a sort of uniform for Masquerade. Hammer was a pegasus blacksmith who had been among those broken out of the prison, and had proposed it as a form of disguise and protection that would still be distinctive. "Ah, this is a map of Equestria and its surrounding countries from before it arrived here, Bon Bon. I've been drawing the border of the Equestrian continent from a recent map in order to find out exactly what made it to Earth. To be honest, I'm surprised that it never ended up being occupied by all of these nearby countries." "Oh, that's because Celestia is the one who raises the sun back home. Only Chrysalis was ever willing to go up against that." Crowley dropped the marker he had just capped, gawking at her. "She whats the what?!" Bon Bon raised a brow. "She moved the sun. Why, who does it on Earth?" He scrunched his face up in bafflement. "Buh- Nobody does it, the Earth- gravity- What about the moon?" She took a few steps back. "Well, Princess Luna used to move it, but nopony has seen or heard her since Princess Celestia said she had committed treason. That was a few months before Equestria ended up here, so I think she started to do it." Crowley opened his mouth to speak before closing it again as comprehension washed over his face. "THAT'S IT!" A few ponies turned to stare at him after his yell. He started pacing, practically bouncing as he talked. "That's what's been causing the tremors! On Earth, the sun is stationary while its gravity moves the Earth and the Earth's gravity moves the moon. She must be trying to move the sun and moon against their path, causing wobbles in the Earth's rotation from gravitational and tidal forces. But that means that if we don't stop her soon, she'll either end up reversing or even stopping the Earth's rotation, or she might even succeed and end up freezing or burning the planet! And that Princess Luna; if she's still alive she would make for a great ally against her." He stopped to catch his breath, poring over the map as his companions look onward in bewilderment. "Let's see... this tendril in the north Atlantic holds the Griffonian capital. It looks like not much of their land crossed over, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince them to ally with us for preemptive protection. Part of the Dragonlands extend into the south Atlantic; we might be able to win over a dragon or two if we're lucky. And over... here..." He trailed off as he stared at a mass of green near Canterlot. The Everfree Forest Straightening up, he looked Bon Bon in the eyes. "What do you know about the Everfree Forest?" "Well, it's next to Ponyville, it's filled with freaky monsters, the weather controls itself-" "Is there a castle in it?" "You mean the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters? They say that it's inside the Everfree, but nopony's been there since the Bearers retrieved the Elements of Harmony from it to defeat Nightmare Moon." Solenoid grit his teeth. So it was real. He couldn't ignore this. The vision he saw when he converted must have been a communication with a real being. He wasn't sure how, but he figured that it had something to do with the Conversion Dreams. Apparently, every victim of the ponyfication serum, without exception, dreamed of a conversation with Celestia, where they would feel completely at peace. He believed this to be where the mental alteration of the serum took hold, so when he had countered it, he had dreamed of... something... else. It likely wasn't allied with the Tyrant; had she any say, he had no doubt that she would have the power to clear up the vision. Now he had to decide what to do with this information. "Bon Bon? What exactly is the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, and this 'Nightmare Moon'?" The changeling hummed. "I don't know much. Just that Celestia and Luna used to live there before Luna became Nightmare Moon, and that it's been abandoned ever since. As for Nightmare Moon, about a thousand years ago Luna became jealous that ponies enjoyed Celestia's day over her night, and she tried to bring the world into permanent night, and so Princess Celestia had to banish her to the moon for a thousand years. A few years ago, she escaped and the Elements brought her back to sanity." Crowley sighed. "I wish we had them on our side now." He began to circle the table holding the maps. "That castle would make a good hideout. If the ruling powers lived there there should be the remains of plenty useful facilities and equipment. That's not to mention that if Celestia used to live there there's bound to be something we could use against her, if not just knowledge lost to time. The problem is that without a guide we'd be sure to get lost and killed. We can't risk asking around Ponyville; all five of the Bearers of Harmony live there. What we really need is-" "Hey guys! I found another recruit! She was a friend of mine back in Ponyville." Like an angry bull, everyone's favorite green unicorn gleefully stampeded through Masquerade's makeshift headquarters, ponies parting on instinct to avoid getting rammed by the mint missile. "Oh, hi Lyra. Where's the recruit?" "What do you mean where? She's right- Oh, c'mon, say hello!" Peeking out from behind her, a trembling yellow pegasus whispered. "Oh, um, hello. I'm Fluttershy." Solenoid strained to hear the pink maned pony. "What?" "I,I'm, um, Fl-Fluttershy." He smiled and nodded. "Welcome to Masquerade, Fluttershy." Returning to the map, his face quickley fell back into a glare. "As I was saying, we have to find some way through the Everfree. We can't all go at once, even though that would be the safest-" A squeak from behind made him turn around again. "W-why would you want to go into the Everfree Forest? There's all kinds of angry animals in there that could eat you if you aren't careful!" The rock blue pony sighed before her words gave him an idea. An awful idea. Solenoid got a wonderful, awful idea. "You know, didn't Lyra say that you were from Ponyville?" Fluttershy dipped her head. "Um, yes." "And isn't the Everfree Forest right next to Ponyville?" She whimpered. "Well, yes, it is." "And you said it was filled with animals, not monsters." "They only do what they have to in order to survive." She leaned back as he took a few steps towards her. "You've taken more than a few visits there, haven't you?" "Well, just a few-" "You wouldn't happen to know how to get to the Castle of the Royal Pony sisters, would you?" She tried to hide her face behind her mane. "Just the once, when we went to find the Elements." Crowley stumbled, just barely catching himself with his wings. "The Elements?!" She blinked in confusion at his change in demeanor. "Well, um, yes." "You're telling me, that you're one of the Bearers?" The pegasus meekly nodded. He gave Lyra a flat look. "You brought one of the Element Bearers?! When the Royal Guard finds out, they'll be searching high and low for her! In fact, how did you even get her to Manehatten- You didn't, did you?" She shook her head. "There's six Elements, aren't there?" Bon Bon nodded. He threw up his hooves in frustration. "Why does nobody tell me these things?!" He directed his weary gaze back at Fluttershy. "Okay, how long have you been missing, and why did you do so in the first place?" From what he could gather from Fluttershy's story, about a month before Equestria appeared on Earth, Princess Celestia had requested that the Bearers meet her in Canterlot. Fluttershy had declined the invitation, something to do with helping birds migrate, for whatever reason birds needed help migrating in the first place, and when her friends had returned, they started to act strangely, their every action taken with the intent of serving their monarch. When she started to question them about it, they started pressuring her to visit Celestia. Eventually, she made the decision to flee Ponyville. Solenoid rubbed his chin. "Well, that's one less weapon we have to worry about Celestia using against us." "Anyway, Fluttershy, could you help guide us through the Everfree?" "I wouldn't be a very good guide..." "Please?" "It's really dangerous..." "Please? "I've only been to the castle once..." "Pleeeeeease?" Her shoulders drooped in defeat. "Well, if you're sure..." "Great!" Masquerade's de facto leader began zipping around the warehouse, throwing around instructions. "We need to get everything out, we can't let them know we were ever here. We'll divide into seperate groups, taking different paths to get to the Everfree at different points in time. Hammer, grab as much scrap as you can carry. Dining, you'll have to turn all our stock into traveling rations. Blow, let those poor ponies rest up before we leave. Pottery..."