The Conversion Bureau: A Mare's Tail

by HiddenBrony


Her Past

Author's Note

    Man, it's been a long time since I thought of this chapter. This is where Mare's Tail firmly disestablishes itself from the rest of The Conversion Bureau series. In case it hadn't been clear, this story took place many years before most others, due to a lack of technology and other such sci-fi edges the others took, and the fact that my Equestria showed up in the Pacific, rather than the Atlantic, ala the much subscribed First Contact story.

    Chapter six is a bit of a hiccup in that it was written off the cuff, in a vague attempt to fill holes in my story. Mare's Tail was written mostly as a stream of consciousness, so it has the most variance between good writing and gaping plot holes. I just hope you're ready for it, because it's about to take a turn. Hope you didn't think this held a 'Dark' tag just for the scene with the semi...

    -----


Years earlier...

        The lights flickered on, taking a customary moment to warm up, electricity surging through the fluorescent tubes. The sound of a door closing echoed in the halls aside the tiny apartment as a girl of only twenty-one threw her bookbag on the floor. Lifting her arm up with a jarring stop, a lavender and blue purse sailed through the air and landed roughly on the kitchen table. The girl was a bit pudgy, but her clothing choice hid it well enough, even if it was a bit unflattering. Decked out in a gray hoodie and a pair of matching sweats, Violet didn’t much care for her last class of the week, brushing aside her fluorescent pink hair. Dyed, of course, and it wasn’t the first time. Brunette roots started to threaten the very base of her hair, and out of her purse rolled a small tube of hair dye - this one a violet purple, much like her namesake.

        Brushing her hair aside, Violet breathed in deep as she took in the final rays of sun that filtered through the blinds on her window. Spinning the long white plastic rod, she denied the sun access to her apartment, taking delight in the fact that she had already had her time in the sun today, and now was the time to sit in front of her computer and browse the internet for hours. Without class in the morning, Violet checked her phone as she confirmed she’d have at least five hours of unadulterated nothingness. Sighing contentedly, the girl raided her fridge and took a seat in her rolling chair, spinning about a couple times as she scanned her desk for her remote and booted up her desktop. Snatching the sleek, black plastic block, she turned on the television so she could subsequently ignore it. Throwing on the news, her eyes scanned the screen for today’s highlights, but found it had cut to commercial. Sighing through her nose, the girl’s eyes scanned her computer, still in the boot process, and she picked up a half of a sandwich she had thrown in the fridge two days ago that she couldn’t finish on a recent night out with some friends.

        “To microwave, or not to microwave, that is the question,” she murmured, leaning on her elbow as she brought the food under her gaze. A loud crack issued from outside, drawing her attention briefly. “Someone must of forgotten something...” she mused, covering other reasons for such a rush in her head, most of them too dirty for words. However, she was surprised when the door to her own apartment shot open, a short, nerdy looking man wearing a Nintendo shirt looking about wildly until he found Violet on her chair. The girl had one eyebrow raised as she quickly dismissed her thoughts, not entirely wishing to add her friend to those mental images. “Evan, you make me regret giving you a key to the apartment.”

        “Television!” he gasped, letting Violet on to the fact the out-of-shape geek was completely out of breath, as if he had run all the way to her apartment. Considering she lived on the second floor, he did make it from the front door to her place in a surprisingly short amount of time. “Ponies!”

        Her thoughts ceased. “Ponies?” The rotund little man navigated the sharp corners that made up Violet’s apartment and looked to the TV, his eyebrow furrowed as he brought a hand up to his chin. Spinning in her seat, Violet saw that the commercials had ended, and the news had continued with its ‘Top Story’. What she didn’t expect was to see six three-feet tall, pastel ponies on the screen. There were two others that stood out, one a deep blue, but another with multicolored hair which stood at the same height as any person - or rather, any horse. Violet could feel her mind trying and subsequently failing to grasp how a horse’s mane could flow with colors like that, and turned her head to her friend. “Uh, so, is that some new Japanese fiber optics shit?”

        Passing a glare towards his friend, Evan was still heaving slightly as his breath tried to return to him. “No V, those things are real! Look at their sides, there are little marks and everything! Look! One of them is speaking right now! Like, English!”

        Violet’s head spun on a pivot as her hair passed in front of her face. Blowing it out of her face dejectedly, she craned her neck back toward her little black box. Indeed, one of the ponies had approached the podium, and at this point she had realized it was a live feed in the same area of the Presidential Address. “Wait, like, this is for real?”

        “Yes! It’s fucking real!” Evan nearly shouted, earning himself some ire in the form of a cold glance. Ignoring it, Evan reached forward and turned up the volume. Violet sat, dumbfounded, at the events unfolding in front of her. This pony, this ‘Princess Celestia’, had come from a magical land where she and her ponies lived. The conference carried on, with questions, concerns, and some talks of how the anatomy worked in comparison to horses. “So, how do they speak English?” Violet heard Evan ask, to which a reporter on screen echoed his sentiment exactly. The regal Princess lowered her head, to which, for the first time, Violet noticed a couple things.

        “They're Unicorns!” Her eyes scanned the rest of her body. Along her side were two giant wings, folded neatly against her, almost like a bird’s own feathers. “With wings!” she shouted, her fist slamming against the table in her excitement. She liked the idea of unicorns, magical talking horses and all that when she was growing up, and the fact one was on screen - with wings no less - it was all she could do not to leap up on her feet and possibly throw her sandwich.

        Evan scoffed slightly. “Look behind the big one - there are a couple of those ponies with just wings or just horns. And look, that pink one doesn’t have either. And she’s chatting to that white one, with the... curls. Okay, curls? And look, that one is wearing a hat! A freakin’ cowboy hat!”

        “Details!” Violet shushed, waving her hand about as she listened to the broadcast. The regal white pony with the flowing hair explained to all those listening in that it was innate magic, earning herself some scrutiny from those in attendance, Evan included. Violet smirked, “Oh, so the talking pony with wings and a freakin’ horn is suddenly less realistic once she says she’s magical.” Evan shook his head, but his eyes were focused on the screen. Violet had to make special note that she rarely saw her friend with such intensity in his eyes - normally only when he was fighting a fairly difficult boss in a video game, or was brought down to his last couple lives in some Mario game.

        The two sat in silence for the rest of the conference, with some of the other ponies getting a word in, cementing the fact that even the bubbly pink one could talk English - or rather, talk a common language. At least for what Violet could understand, the pink one was hard to follow. The regal Princess confirmed that their words could be understood by all those listening in, much to the awe of some of the reporters, some of which remarked that their words reverberated in their heads more than through their ears.

        Suddenly, the white ‘alicorn’, as Violet’s checks to the internet during the conference had claimed, put on a more serious face. Evan tapped Violet’s shoulder lightly, bringing her away from the glowing computer monitor long enough to take notice of her change in demeanor. “I’ve become accustomed to the curiosity and the cynicism in humans over the past six months as I’ve spoken to your world leaders. War, starvation, greed, and pollution have left your world, our world, a shadow of the paradise it once was and could be.”

        “As such, I, along with many others from many nations, have agreed to do something about it. Your nature, your human condition, is a wonderful thing, and I can see advancements here that ponykind has only dreamt about. But there are things humans do that are... obscene. Nightmarish things. Your wars, those of you who become  pirates that sail the waters... these are things that are not innate in our society. Ponies exist in harmony. We are loyal, kind, generous, honest, and jovial. It is through this that we have come to develop our magic.”

        There was a pause as the reporters were unsure of what to make of her speech. What did she plan to say? Plan to do? Clearing her throat, the smaller ‘alicorn’ stepped forward. “What my sister means to say is that while our land is a pristine paradise, yours is a dying world, one we have looked out and seen and wish to help. Not in any terrible way, but through choice. We have been aware of each other for some time - two years, in fact. Our lands have recently started to suffer from overpopulation, and it was through your human leaders that we have developed a new plan. Twilight, if you please...”

        A lavender pony strode forward, a single strip of pink hair consumed by a straight mane of purple. Casting a casual glance over to her purse, Violet’s eye caught sight of her hair dye, and subsequently focused on her own dyed head of hair. Shrugging nonchalantly, Evan’s attention was drawn to his friend. “This is kinda crazy, huh?”

        “Crazy isn’t even a word for it,” Violet chuckled, running her hand through her hair. “Figures! We graduate in a week and now no one is gonna care,” she laughed, leaning forward in her creaking roll chair. The unicorn’s horn sparkled, the first real show of magical skill from these ponies. All watched as the lavender mare brought her notes together in mid-air, placing them neatly on the shortened podium next to the large one her Princesses used just prior.

        “Hello everyone,” she began. Twilight looked out over the crowd. Violet could tell she was nervous, and shook her head, a small smile on her face. Her mind raced through all the instruction, all the lessons she had learned in her time with theatre. Project your emotion through your voice. Keep calm. Imagine the audience in their underwear. Peering back towards the unicorn, Violet had to make note that none of these ponies wore clothes, so that old trick would likely fall flat. Imagine your orange friend without her hat, then!

        “Humankind is destroying their planet, and the Princesses have already confirmed that there isn’t much time left in your world before major climate shifts not only kill many of your ‘third world’ countries, but destroy and condemn the rest of you to a squandered existence. The loss of such life and technology... we could not abide.” Twilight stared out in the crowd, hoping her words had curried some favor, or at the very least some introspection. Clearing her throat, the unicorn continued with her speech. “As such, your United Nations, in conjunction with ponykind, have developed a serum that will turn any human into a equine, or pony, with their memories and personality intact.” There was many murmurs circulating in the audience.

Were some of the girls behind the unicorn actual products of that serum? Is that why one of them wore a hat? Did the rainbow pegasus know she looked like a gay pride banner made real? These were some of the questions flying through not only Violet’s head, but through the congregation of reporters in front of the lavender pony. Closing her eyes, the mare steeled herself for her next line. “I, among with many magic and science majors of both pony and humankind, have developed this method to remove much of the selfish nature of a human without touching what we call the ‘soul’ of a person, and have them reborn,” Twilight sighed, letting her words sink in to the audience. “We need to do this-” She was interrupted by a shout from the audience gathered.

        There was an uproar on screen as Violet reached for her remote and slammed down on the mute button. Her cellphone rang and vibrated, a hundred different calls and texts trying to make their way through to her. Evan stared at the screen, his breathing even but his hand to his chin in a contemplative manner. Looking between it and his friend, Evan exhaled long and hard. “Well, that was...”

        “What.” Violet finished, shaking her head. “That was simply what.

        -----
Elsewhere, merely 45 minutes after the speech.

        The buzzing sounds of children and cell phones surrounded a flaming red-haired man. It was packed in these long aisles, people grabbing food off the shelves, in fashions and flavors he’d never heard of. Nearby, men were shouting across long distances to their mates - their more romantically inclined mates - but it hardly bothered him. It was like this on most Fridays after the paychecks were firmly in hand. However, he had to admit that this was just far more than that, as it almost seemed like it was some super Saturday sale. Musing that WalMart didn’t actually have those kinds of sales, he decided to allow himself a moment to reflect on the time of day it was. Or rather, the time of night. The store was packed almost wall to wall with people, with clothes being ripped off racks and food torn from the shelves.

        Robert “Rusty” O’Brien wasn’t a built man, or what anyone would say as overtly attractive, but he was normal enough in his own regard to be completely and utterly ignored in the mass of flesh that had rushed to the stores following the announcement of magical, sentient beings. To say that the initial reaction was panicked would be putting it lightly, but as the red-haired construction worker milled about, waiting for room to move his cart full of Ramon ahead and out of the aisle, he found himself reaching for his pocket and grasping a long length of line. Drawing it out, the line revealed itself to be a wire, and on one end was unearthed to be an ear piece, the connecting socket found way to a cheap looking cell phone that popped out of his fairly tight blue jeans. Nabbing the technology out of the air before the connection loosened and he’d be forced to scramble the ground looking for however many parts the old phone would have burst into, Robert took a look at its screen.

        Four missed calls.

        “Not entirely surprising,” he murmured, shaking his head. The ponies had been quite a start, but few people he cared about would have reason to call him, as Rob never was one for answering the phone. However, as he fitted the ear piece, the phone shook rapidly in his hand. Checking the vibrating block of plastic, a freckled hand answered the call, Robert not finding much else to do while he wheeled his cart an extra two feet that had opened up. “Y’ellow?”

        “Robert! Thank God you answered! Have you heard the news?” A panicked, yet slightly elated female voice reached him over the din. Robert silently thanked his sister a moment for the ear piece, which made calling on the job a lot easier while keeping his hands free. It made spending time on the high rises far less boring, as the fear of falling started to wear thin when he proved himself so good at not doing it. “There are like, magical ponies or some shit!”

        Chuckling, Robert nodded, a smile playing on his features. “Eeyup, there certainly are. Guess I wasn’t alone in thinking this is some End of the World scenario. This place is certainly filled to the brim.” The man looked left and right as he found himself at the edge of the aisle, freeing himself from the enclosed space to the somewhat more open main floor. Taking a moment to get a feel for his position, Robert pushed forward into the Woman’s Lingerie, knowing that he could cut through the linens faster than the aisle’s at this point. “So what’s your take on this?” Robert’s smile faltered slightly at an almost knowing pause issued from the other end. “Delia?”

        Delia sighed audibly on the other end of the phone. “I don’t know. It’s kind of interesting, really, Bobby.” The term of endearment struck a chord within her brother, but Robert kept silent, allowing his sister to continue. “I mean, it couldn’t have fallen at a better time...”

        “You lost your job, Delia. There are more of them out there, you know?” Robert shook his head as he expelled a long, hard breath. “It’s not exactly the kind of situation where you up and drop everything at the first easy solution.”

        “Robert, it’s not like that! You know me, I don’t take my life lightly!” she seethed into the phone, giving the red-haired man pause. Considering her, until recently, job as an accountant, his sister wasn’t well known for being the impulsive type. Even her marriage had taken two years of dating and almost just as long finding a good time for the wedding. “It’s just... things are different now.”

        The man stopped his cart, despite making good time as he stood upon the outskirts of the main stretch of emptiness before the cashiers. Robert took note that many of the shoppers were heading straight through the door, with only a few employees trying to stop them, while others simply shrugged it off. A few of the higher functioning paranoids among them were lost in thought, wondering if the next paycheck was truly worth it. “I can agree about difference,” the man pushed on, finding himself in a surprisingly empty aisle, reaching for his wallet. The clerk seemed surprised that he wasn’t simply going to loot the place, and helped him with the groceries. Robert noticed continued silence on the other line, and gestured toward the clerk that he needed a second. “‘Lia? ‘Lia you there?”

        “I’m here, Bobby...” It was further away, but still clear in his ear. “It’s different in more ways than you think. James lost his job today. Under an hour ago, actually. The news shook his company to the core and his boss ripped it apart from the inside. Their stocks diminished and he’s stuck with the pieces. God, you should see him in the study, rushing through papers. I wish I could help, but I’ve been feeling a bit... under the weather recently.”

        Robert felt his heart skip a few beats. Delia suffered from a weak immune system, and even a cold could be dangerous for the girl.  “Under the weather? Oh God, you’re not sick are you? Oh no, ‘Lia, I’ll be right there, just hold tight-”

        “No, Bobby, nothing like that. Just a little morning sickness, usually. I actually just woke up from a nap...” There was a strangled laugh on the other end, with Robert’s mind working overtime as he deconstructed what she said.

        “Wait, morning sickness..?” Even the clerk could see the lightbulb turn on behind his eyes as his hand shot up on and over his head. “Delia, Are you saying...!”

        “We found out a week ago, but we wanted to be sure. Surprise! You’re an uncle!”

        Spinning in place, the red-haired man yelped out a few surprising laugh, the woman clerk taking a step back, wide-eyed with one of the most amused faces she could muster. She suddenly found herself grabbed at her shoulders, a look of merriment plastered over Robert’s face. “Oh my God I’m going to be an Uncle! Like, sister’s pregnant! Oh my Gooood. ‘Lia! This is wonderful news! Names! We have to think of names. Oh joy, look, I’m going to be right over, okay?” In a tizzy of enjoyment, Robert slapped his card down next to the clerk, finally released from his hold and muttering a few strangled ‘congratulations’. However, it wasn’t long before the other pieces started to fall into place. “But you don’t have a job. James doesn’t either. How are you going to pay for a baby? Oh dear God twins run in our family! What if you have two!?”

        There was a laugh on the other end that did wonders for his nerves. “Then I’ll have two wonderful children, Bobby. That’s why... that’s why this news couldn’t have fallen at a better time. I’ve continued listening to these ponies and their proposals. They’re setting up these clinics that make a person into a pony, and I’ve already seen a couple of the post-op ponies - they look every bit the same as one of the others. And pregnancy is safe, the children are safe, and they’ve mentioned that this process can even make the blind see and the deaf hear-

        “Well so can stem cells, and we’re doing so good with those,” Robert sighed, bringing his hand up to his eyes and pushing them in, his head moving on a swivel. “Of course, I’d be willing to bet this is some weird magical stem cell thing,” he mused, trying to take his mind of the fact his now pregnant sister was talking about becoming an equine.

        “Bobby, listen. I’m not gonna be going until I see it for myself, and Albuquerque isn’t on the initial list of these ‘Conversion Bureaus’. But when it is... I think I’m going. And I want you to as well, and mom, and dad, and cousin Mary, and...”

        Robert laughed, taking his card from the clerk who thanked him for his patronage. “Alright, alright, let’s talk about this later, alright? The whole world is losing its head and I’d rather not dwell on it. So what I’m gonna do, now, is hop in my shiny new truck, head over to your house, and spoil the shit outta my twin sister. Kapeesh?”

        “No arguments here.”

        -----

Flashback a half an hour and across town...

        Evan stuck his head out of the fridge, pulling a 20 oz of soda, giving it a parsing look before shutting the door and striding over to the window, watching large groups of people gathering on the lawn outside the apartment building. The crowd had been growing there since the initial uproar almost fifteen minutes back. “They’re still out there,” Evan sighed, pulling the blinds, “Ever since the pony said they developed a way to turn people into... that. A lot of them look... scared. Think they might do something?”

Violet rolled her seat over to the window next to Evan, mildly noting he smelled of too much body spray. “Nah, they’re college students. They can’t afford to do anything too stupid.” Cynicism at its finest, the female slid back to her computer and opened a couple tabs in her browser, checking a few news sites and a couple more personal stomping grounds.

Evan sighed through his nose, peeling his eyes from the gathering crowd of people outside. Making his way to an empty seat, there was trash and different articles strewn about its base from when he cleared it off enough to sit on shortly after the reporters started shouting questions at the unicorn after her revealing broadcast. With a satisfying ‘Ksssh’, he cracked open the pop and turned to Violet. On screen, officials at the gathering attempted to calm the reporters so the now flustered unicorn coud finish what she came to do. “What’s the damage?” he said, his eyes drifting over to Violet. The officials were finally making progress, many of the men and women were calming down, the reporters finding their way back to their seats while the lavender mare was seen nervously peering toward her Princesses. The blue one shrugged, a blank expression on her face, which gave Evan a chuckle, drawing the attention of his host.

        “Well, 4chan’s ablaze. First time I’ve ever seen /b/ devoid of porn.” Violet sighed, running her fingers through her hair front to back. “Oh, there’s some photo-shopped breasts on a screen cap of the white pony queen. God Bless 4chan.” Leaning back, the pink-haired girl leaned her arms on either side of her chair. “All in all, no one knows what the hell is going on, or what this potion thing is supposed to accomplish outside of turning someone into a horse. Maybe it’s a takeover from aliens.”

        “Ponies,” Evan corrected, a smug smile on his face. “Kinda like that indoctrinating crap that used to pass as cartoons in the 80’s and 90’s.” Taking a long sip from his drink, Evan leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his face in thought. “Still though, that was a pretty poor way of putting it. I mean, yeah, the world’s in bad shape right now, but I don’t think there’s an express need to... well, do whatever the hell they’re suggesting.”

“I know, right?” Violet laughed. “What do they take us for? Oh hey, be a pony, you might get wings or horns at the cost of hands and the ability to turn a doorknob.” Drumming her fingers on the table for effect, she pointed toward a pink pony on screen with a completely unkempt hairstyle. “Look at that one. She’ll have to open doors with her mouth or something.” Laughing it off, she caught a look from Evan that expressed amusement, but not the amount of laughter she was calling for. Dropping it, she gestured toward the television. “Look, the reporters are shutting up. Let’s just listen. History in the making, might as well be good little Americans and listen.”

        Twilight Sparkle, as she was to be called, cleared her throat in front of millions, perhaps billions of viewers now with their eyes glued on her. Breathing in deeply, she seemed to remark something about a ‘rainboom’ and how it seemed easy in comparison, to which a rainbow-maned pegasus behind her seemed to scoff at. “Ahem. I’m sorry I wasn’t clear with my last statement. I’ve had difficulty trying to grasp our culture gap and am trying very hard to compensate for it. I suppose we all just need some getting used to.”

        Violet nodded in response, deciding swiftly to give the pony a second chance. “Well, she isn’t wrong. I’m watching a purple pony move her yap and I hear Raven from Teen Titans!” she coughed, remarking how she’ll never see the dark sorceress the same way again. “Still though, she does magic too, so it’s not that much of a stretch.” Hearing a shush behind her, she threw a cocky smile toward Evan before bringing her attention back to the unicorn.

        “But don’t misunderstand me. We came out here not only to alleviate stress on our borders, but to begin healing the world around us. I know what we’re asking is steep, to undergo a change in not only physical appearance but also a change in outlook. To become a pony is to become part of the herd. And we look out for our herd. Our friends.” She turned her head slightly, in a direction not caught by the camera’s on location. However, Violet noticed the five smaller ponies like her gave her big smiles and the pink one even cheered. As she turned back, billions of people noticed the small tear of joy in her eye that was quickly rubbed away. She cleared her throat, steeling herself for some message that was to come. “Your world is in shambles. I know that it’s hard to look at it, as it’s everything you’ve known, but even your leaders agree. Wars are being started over singular resources. You are killing your own over differences of opinion. I’ve been informed that this is concurrent through your history. It scares me that you see those as barbaric times, when these years it is much the same as before, with just more advanced... weapons.” The very idea of advancing in a culture meant to kill more efficiently seemed to shake the pony to her very core, and Violet frowned a bit. Not because she was angry, but because the outsider was right. All of the advancements in technology had been for the war effort. Even so far as predicting the weather had been developed for means of war. She was so lost in thought she almost missed the next part of the speech.

“Furthermore, the magic of Equestria is expanding. There is no way to stop this, but don’t fear - it is gradual. It won’t be for many years before its borders reach human soil. However, in meeting with your President and other leaders, it has become increasingly apparent that the human body has become intolerant to the latent magic, and it is like poison to their bodies.” Turning to her Princesses, Twilight received a reassuring nod from the older Princess, and returned her gaze toward the camera. “Magic can be swept up like dust, and as such there will be times with your Jet Stream will sprinkle over the United States the magic of our land as it seeps out, so it is imperative that we open up Conversion Bureaus over the next couple of weeks.” Sighing, Twilight let her papers dropped as she opened her large purple eyes to the cameras. “I know how this sounds, but please believe us when we say we do not bring news of the end for the human race. This is to preserve your lives, and your family’s, for as long as possible.”

“Thank you for your time.”

        -----
        Two and a half weeks after first Conversion in Albuquerque...
        Nine months after public contact.

        Robert, now designated ‘Rusty’ by both the ponies and his fellow ‘patients’, or ‘Uncle Rusty’ by his sister when playing with her newborn foal, sat agitated, looking about the Bureau’s cafeteria for a familiar face. However, most of the familiar faces these days were ponies more than people. Most of the friends he had seen and made the past couple days had been ponified and either sent home, or were out practicing their new skills, be it flight or magic.

Clenching his fist together and releasing it, his freckled hands waved about in front of his face. “So you’ll be hooves soon, huh. Nigh indistinguishable from my feet.” He was talking to himself, sure, but they say mental illnesses were cured by ponification, so he hardly worried about it. “Gonna miss grabbing things naturally.” Leaning over his food, Robert slammed his open palms into the sides of his tray as he leaned down and grabbed the apple in his teeth alone, lifting it up and sinking his teeth deeper into the pulpy flesh of the fruit. Finding himself at a loss of what to do with the apple once he bit down, he remarked that pony lips were thicker and fuller than human lips, and may be able to hold an apple easily enough without the use of his teeth. That, or as he had already seen, down an apple in a single bite. Relenting this, Rusty nabbed the apple out of his mouth with his hand, taking a joyous bite of the flavorful fruit. “Sweet Apple Crisp. My favorite.” Enjoyed that it would continue to be so, Rusty spun the fruit in the air between his hands, wasting his last hours as a human on simple nothings, not wishing to have it any other way.

        Sifting his gaze from his partially consumed meal, Rusty caught sight of a light pink pony with purple highlights in her otherwise startlingly straight white mane. She ran the Bureau, and she was the one who initially convinced him to stick with his nickname on premises, stating that it worked well as a pony name, and something he needn’t train himself to respond to. His roommate, already ponified at the time, had asked him about it almost as soon as he set his suitcase on his bed.

        “Just an old schoolyard name, really. Got it back when you could remember what the hell ‘recess’ was,” Richard said, a wry smile on his face.

        The blue pony laughed, putting a hoof over his face as his wings flapped jovially. “Oh man, recess! I forgot that even existed!” Rusty smirked at this, and nodded his head in agreement. Shifting on his bed, he had lain down to relate the rest of his story.

“There was an old junkyard not too far from the school. Two miles, on the way home for me and a group of my buddies. Lots of dangerous, rusted metal everywhere. Made a nice dust though. Me and a couple of my friends liked to play there, looking for hiding spots, when the parents weren’t worried about where we were, and the man who ran the place didn’t care. Said, ‘I ain’t liable for none of you gettin’ hurt. I know you kids come in from that hole in the fence, and I’m just an ignorant old man’. Didn’t stand up in court a couple years later when a kid fell and cut a two inch gap from his shoulder blade to his neck, but the parents dropped the charges when the kid lied and said the old man tried to stop him when he saw him.” Rubbing the back of his neck, Rusty decided it was best not to show the pegasus the scar in question, as the offending piece of information would likely be gone in a couple days. “Either way, back then I ended up hitting my head on some flimsy piece of rusted out metal, and all that rust rained on me and turned me as brown as a negro.” Laughing, Rusty didn’t much mind the more nervous laugh of his compatriot. “Got in my coat and clothes and wouldn’t come off. Sister likes to say that’s why my hair is red to this day.” Laughing, Rusty felt his hair run through his fingers. He was going to miss that sensation. “So, what’s you’re name?”

        The pegasus flipped up onto his belly and put a hoof up to his chin. “Haven’t had time to really think of a name. I was thinking of something like ‘Skychaser’ or something like that. For now, you can call me Evan.” A hoof hung loosely over the bunk bed, which Rust graciously shook with his hand. There was a visible shudder from the pegasus, along with accompanying dialogue, “Ooo, human hands feel weird on hooves. Gotta remember that.”

        “Duly noted.”

        Robert broke from his memory as a loud crash tore everyone’s attention to the doors. A human female, looking horridly distressed, shouted for everyone to get into the lounge room. “It’s an emergency! The whole world’s going to hell!” Shooting to his feet, Rusty relented a moment and reached for his apple, hoping that whatever she meant wouldn’t rob him of his appetite.

        He was wrong.

        -----

The ponies had underestimated the destruction they had predicted just ten months earlier. While many nations had predicted a climate change, there was no one in the world capable of predicting the disasters that were to come. All across the ‘Ring of Fire’, the fault line that encompassed the Pacific seaboard, earthquakes and massive waves of water thrashed and destroyed civilizations there, parts of Japan and California disappearing into the water. Contact with Hawaii was lost.

However, even that paled in comparison to what happened just hours after. Cracks ran across the Himalayian mountain range, the mountains moving and shifting as the whole of India started to dislodge from the mainland, giant shocks leveling mountains and cutting away at the land. The torrent of water which splashed in from the Indian Ocean into the newest ravine helped battle the tsunami of water that was pushed away, but people along the Austraillian coastline could only prepare or escape as the news came in of the major shift, having only hours before the wall of water would come and rip their homes apart.

Along the Middle East, whispers could be heard in the ears of all present. No one and nopony could tell of their origin, but the best and brightest started to piece together the cause for these rampant and destructive phenomenons.

Magic.        

In the British empire, deep within one of their nuclear bases, a team of ponies and men worked around the clock to disarm a warhead that had suddenly and horrifically armed itself deep within their own soil. Calling in the help of the both Germany and America, scientists could only barely disarm one before another would trigger unexpectedly. It wasn’t long at all before the governments of the United Nations decreed that all weaponry of the nuclear persuasion were to be dismantled and done away with as quickly and safely as possible. Reluctant to give up such a superpower, it was Celestia and her ponies which were able to convince the council to give up their missiles. There was no use for war, now.

However, such was not the case for terrorist groups across the world. And for that, they would pay dearly. With few scientists that could work on an unstable warhead on their own, it was less than three days before the world saw the true terror of nuclear war, and no country could be blamed.

The bombs went off in tandem the next couple of days, the chaos and destruction leaving no clear way to cut down on the loss of life or keep Black Market missiles from continuing to explode all over the world. Even places thought to be safe, such as Greenland or the Eastern parts of Russia, were damaged by the occurrence. Countless lives, human, pony, plant and animal, were lost. Celestia and her sister, with a large contingent of unicorn ponies, worked around the clock to do what they could to save lives from radiation poisoning and redirecting much of the offending particles into space. Celestia remarked to her sister to send them toward the sun, the destructive powers of the bombs were nothing in comparison to the mighty explosions that made up the stars.

        The Middle East was left a smouldering crater, much of the sand turned to warped landscape with dirty, jagged glass covering the land. Much of Russia was left more inhabitable than it had already been, the cold weather turning even colder, breaking countless records as it became an even colder place than Antarctica. Many blamed the ponies, to which none could speak up against. Truly, their peaceful agenda hadn’t been accepted by many, and developed nations had taken steps against violent lashes against them, but in turn had become less focused on keeping others safe.

        The population of Earth had been more than decimated, as not all could be saved of the radiation they endured before the ponies could step in. Many reports mentioned the highest casualties in both Africa and Eastern Asia, with even the heart of darkness becoming a giant sinkhole. Even the cultural center of India, New Delhi, had been wiped from the map during the earthquakes.

Many hailed the ponies as heroes, saving the planet from nuclear winter. Others called them the horsemen of the Apocalypse, which literary scholars often scoffed at, while others ended up chuckling despite themselves and the situation the Earth found itself in. Beaten, damaged, with far less life in it than most would care to admit. Many humans found themselves with much less than before, and others decided that life might be better behind Equestria’s borders, their magic shield having protected the country from the force of nature that battered the pony’s land. 

But it was clear to many - the world would never be the same.

Celestia had since returned to her palace in Equestria, deciding to further research into a plan to revitalize the planet. Luna decided to stay in New York among the United Nations, to help politically move them whilst dealing with the fear and the loss of the people. Conversion Bureaus surprisingly spread quicker and faster after this, with some cities receiving up to five new buildings for conversion. Albuquerque, too, saw three Bureaus running at once.

-----

In front of his flickering screen, a man stared numbly into the blue glow of the news reel depicting the destruction of New Delhi in India. The cathode ray tube flickered a moment, before dying out as the man weakly pressed the button on a nearby remote. Distressed, the young man slowly walked to the window, peering out into the streets. He could hear panic, gunfire, and shouting as the police tried to rally everyone to calm down. Surprisingly, a local sect of a gang were working side by side with the police, some even stopping would-be looters before they approached store windows. But he didn’t care about that.

Slowly reaching into his pocket, he drew out a small note, attached to it a small picture of a black female, with short straight hair and a soft, happy look on her face. Beside her was a minty green unicorn, her own ponified brother, and they stood near the entrance of the Forbidden Temple in China, posing together. The woman was holding her stomach, a knowing smile on her lips as she seemed to be staring at him. Flipping the note over, he looked over the words written on the page with dying eyes.

        Hey handsome! Hope you miss me less than I miss you~!

        China is fantastic, me and Charlie are having a wonderful time,
        Even if he’s shorter than me for the first time in fifteen years. Ha ha.
        It’s so beautiful, and in the envelope you’ll find a picture of me and
        him in front of the Forbidden Temple. Kinda funny that’s a tourist
        spot now, huh? Ha! Anyway, bro and I are gonna head off a bit more
        west, toward India, near Delhi. Then we should be home and I’ll
        tell you all about my adventure around the world! I hope you’ve
thought of a few names for my belly while I’ve been gone!
                                                Hope to see you soon, XOXO
                                                        Michelle~
                                                        P.S. Say hi to your sister Rose for me!-