Salvation Through Destruction.
Based on Concepts from: The Conversion Bureau
Chapter 5
“Why, why shouldn’t I be here?” a shiver ran through my spine with the notice, it explained her attitude, her actions, everything. She looked down and avoided my harassing sight.
“Humans are not allowed to enter Equestria so easily,” her voice filled with fear as she glanced at the clouds outside.
“Alright, I buy that. But still, it does not explains the offense in my presence,” I approached her carefully, grabbing her hoof.
“I shouldn’t have brought you here, Celestia is going to demand your head” she pushed my hoof away, I sat back continuing my glare at her elusive eyes.
“Do you think a bunch of ponies are going to kill me so easily?” I remarked sarcastically.
“She’s not going to kill you, Leighton. Celestia is quite a reasonable pony, and an excellent ruler, but she seemed quite angry on her letter. And I’ve never seen her angry.”
“We humans have an old saying that goes: ‘There is always a first time for everything’. Calm down, if she goes insane I got your back,” I winked my right eye at her, causing her to show a nervous smirk.
“Hey guys,” Spike popped his head from a small door on top of the cart, “these boys are pretty fast, we should get to Canterlot in thirty minutes or so.”
“Noted, thanks Spike” Twilight said with a more tranquil grin. I reached for my briefcase and pulled out a heavy grey colored book.
“The man who mistook his wife for a hat? What kind of book is that?” she stared at the cover with confusion.
“It is not a novel about a man who confused his wife with a hat. It’s a human psychology book; I’ve been reading it for a few weeks now. The human mind is an unsolvable puzzle.”
“You are always doing something interesting, Leighton. I still can’t believe all you told us back at the library about humanity,” she said with a sigh.
“The information was not easy to gather, let alone to process. I had to learn how to gather it and process it too, that’s why this plan took two years to take shape.”
“What did you do before making this plan?” she asked curiously, putting all of her concern aside.
“Before devoting my life to this…” I sighed and gazed at the sky outside, “I was a Sociology professor and researcher at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University.”
“Sociology professor? I don’t think you used to teach your students how to kill someone with a pistol” she implied with, again, confusion in her face.
“Once the war began I had to learn how to protect myself from the looters and mercenaries that broke loose all across the UK. I was sloppy at first, but practice allows us to reach perfection, so they say.”
“Right and how did you come up with a plan like Project Human Conservation?” she asked with even more curiosity as before, a trait that was sometimes annoying in her.
“My job as a journalist eventually led me back into school to do a PhD in sociology as I noticed a radical change in human behavior, social structures and dynamics. I… dug into some books and ran into Malthus’ numbers, discovering that humanity was closing into them. I tried to warn, but they laughed the hell out of my flank, so now I’m saving theirs.”
“Do you have any family?”
“I once did,” I sighed again, “my mother was a Scottish nurse and my father a Liverpudlian cardiologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, as well as a huge fan of Liverpool F.C. They both died during a bombardment in Liverpool from the Chinese; I was in London at the time.”
“I’m sorry…” she muttered, “I didn’t know”
“It’s ok. Their death was long ago. I’d rather look into my book now, if you don’t mind.” I took no offense from her comment, but I thought it was for the better if we kept silence until our arrival at Canterlot.
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The cart stopped after a rough landing that shook both Twilight and me off our seats, “We’re here! The Queen’s Palace!” Spike announced through the door on top. I politely opened the door for Twilight to step down.
“Thank you” she looked at me with a smile, I descended the vehicle and discovered a huge garden with a stone path that leaded straight inside the huge white castle, surrounded by a gray wall of brute rocks. In front of us, a majestic white Pony with her mane colored as the rainbow stood gazing at our presence. At her right, a smaller dark purple Pony with a deep dark blue tiara timidly walked to the bigger one’s side.
“Queen Celestia!” Twilight instantly bowed at her sight, I mimicked almost instantly.
“Arise, my dearest and faithful student. It is a pleasure to have you here” she greeted with a big smile on her face, the dark pony next to her remained silent, merely watching.
“You demanded our presence here, and here we are, Queen” Celestia glanced at me with pretentious eyes.
“I see that you brought the human along with you,” she turned to glare at me with the same eyes, “I am Queen Celestia, ruler of Equestria. Next to me stands Princess Luna, bringer of the night. Before me stands a Pony I have never seen before, indentify yourself!” she exclaimed in authoritarian voice.
“I am Leighton McRae” I bowed once more reverentially, “Son of Steven and Allison McRae, born in the metropolitan borough of Knowsly, England. Your presence honors me, your highness.”
“You said humans don’t have manners,” Princess Luna covered her smirk with a hoof.
“Your gesture surprises me, Mister McRae. Arise,” I stood and stared directly into her beautiful lavender eyes, “Follow me into my chambers, we shall discuss important matters inside,” she turned and walked into the castle, decorated with golden and blue banners that symbolized the sun and the moon. In front of us, a staircase led into a huge golden throne with a smaller, silver one on its right. A pink carpet led the way into the thrones, guarded by two Pegasi with golden armor. Celestia gracefully sat on her throne and gazed down at Twilight and me.
“If the letter Twilight sent is correct, then you are a human that came into Equestria with her help, am I correct?” she asked with a heavy glare on me.
“Yes. After I saved Twilight Sparkle’s life at the Oriental Mandarin Hotel in New York I took her to a safe house east of the American city, where, after listening to my proposal, she agreed to bring me to this world with the sole purpose of me talking to you, your highness” I firmly stated, taking a couple steps forward, Celestia continued to stare at me with her face of disdain.
“I remember that part in the letter,” she closed her eyes and let out an acceptance sigh, “since you saved Twilight’s life on earth, I think it is fair for me to listen to whatever you have to say; my attention is all yours, Leighton.”
I quickly tried to reach my briefcase, my hooves waved in the air until I noticed that I left it back at the cart. My face turned red, rather pink actually, from embarrassment.
“I had a slideshow prepared for the occasion, your highness” I sighed with disappointment, “but given its lack I shall explain only using my words,” my hooves trembled with a rare mixture of excitement and fear, Celestia’s stare was something I had never felt before. I cleared my throat and continued, “Humanity has reached a critical point in its history; the famine, the diseases and the war is wiping us out at an overwhelming pace. My studies indicate that mankind will go extinct in three years from now”
“I am well aware of humanity’s situation,” She said in a plain tone.
“I have elaborated a plan to save humanity by re-locating a minimum of three million individuals safely on Equestria. The plan is split in three phases: Phase one is the immigration, where we relocate a minimum of three million individuals on Equestria. Phase two consist of a co-existence between your people and mine, in which we wait until mankind vanishes from earth. Phase three is the gradual repopulation of earth.”
“And how long would we have to host this humans?” she asked with a frown.
“An approximate of one hundred and fifty years. By placing the only survivors of humanity in here we are sinking our specie into a population bottleneck. A population bottleneck is when a species loses a large part of its original population, hence, losing adaptability to new changes on the environment. To pull out humanity of this bottleneck, genetic engineering is needed. The required time means that three generations will have to pass until humanity is ready to repopulate earth and survive on its own”
“Are there alternatives to host humanity for a shorter time?”
“Yes, but the required population is of six hundred million. This population size would allow an immediate repopulation, however.”
“I see it’s a matter of time versus amount of people.” Celestia looked at Luna; she gazed back at her sister and nodded.
“What will happen to your diverse civilization? Knowing humans do not keep their memories upon ponification,” the purple princess asked while crossing her hoofs.
“I was hoping you would allow humans to keep their memories, as our knowledge, traditions and identity must be preserved as well,” I spoke with determination, both Queen and Princess turned at each other with astonished looks.
“Leighton, do you know why do we erase human memories upon their arrival to Equestria?” Celestia implied.
“That matter is unbeknown to me, your highness.”
“Your kind is… superior to us in certain areas. They have a more intricate and complex mind than our own, which is why humanity reached the technology and social complexity they have nowadays. But this trait also makes them… dangerous. Instead of developing a sense of union and comradeship, humanity began fighting for ideals and creating different explanations for the same thing. If I were to allow humans, like you, into Equestria, they might bring along the corruption, crimes and wars that ravage earth today.”
“I would not bring dangerous murderers or famous movie stars, your highness. As I foresaw this, I created a psychological test for those who wish to be ponyfied, based upon various personality tests”
“And tell me, what is keeping the subjects from lying in the test?” Celestia’s question amazed me; it caught me completely off guard. My whole test was based under the assumption of a completely honest subject.
“What keeps a coward soldier from lying his way into Equestria?”
I felt a knot on my throat and from this same feeling, courage began to pour. I advanced a few steps towards Celestia and stared at her eyes.
“The same values that keep your people together, those that mankind lost through the ages and wait dormant inside the hearts of every good person that is terrified from his own government. I will not allow you to judge mankind as a whole by the decisions of corrupt governors and liars, because my kind is full of great persons that are worthy of a second chance and don’t deserve the hell they are going through. I did not scheme this plan with the idea of saving cowards and sissies, I forged it with the honest idea of saving a civilization that is spiraling down due to its own mistakes, hoping we could learn from them. Instead of giving up like every single human on earth or run to Equestria and leave everything behind to live my life as someone I’m not, I have kept faith in humanity. I am completely sure that if you grant humanity the opportunity to survive and learn from your civilization, we will grow back stronger and better,”
Both rulers stared with amazement as silent took over the room for a minute.
“That is a very moving speech, Leighton.” Luna said with a grin, “if it were my decision, I would accept your plan. But, the final decision is up to my sister,” she faced her sister with puppy eyes, “I have emitted my opinion, Sis.”
“Leighton,” her stare turned more compassionate, glancing towards Princess Luna, “you are a very good spokesman. But I will not concede this opportunity so easily; have you planned the implementation as well?”
“Yes I have. It will be an even split six hundred thousand people per continent, considering race and nationality. Strategic collection sites will be mounted on each country for a determinate amount of population.”
“Have you considered that there will be people who will be left behind? If you mount your collection site on a big, crowded city people are going to fight to be saved.” Luna said.
“As I mentioned, they are strategic. Statistically, people who live on cities are more prone to violent responses than those who inhabit the rural parts. We look into small towns from each country, collect their people and leave. Everyone will think it turned into a ghost town due to war.”
“What about the culture and traditions. I will not allow them to bring cattle along,” Celestia said.
“Humans are witty and creative, I’m sure they’ll find a way to exploit Equestria’s resources properly, under the correct legal frame.” I winked my eye at the Queen. The beautiful equine looked down meditating, the room went silent.
“Alright, Mister McRae,” Celestia broke the silence with firm voice, “you have convinced me that your plan is actually a good idea. You have the support of Equestria,” her smile made me let out a huge sigh in relief, “Thank you very much, Celestia,” My efforts had paid off; humanity was going to be safe.
“Now, Twilight,” her apprentice immediately straightened up, “please take mister McRae to the royal library, where he will explain his plan to our scientists.”
“This way”, Twilight signaled me to move towards a side of the chambers, where a closed golden door protected by two Pegasi with golden armor was.
“And Leighton,” Celestia’s voice made my body shudder; I turned to face her with a confident smile, “Humanity should be grateful to have someone like you.”
“Thank you, your highness,” I reverentially bowed one last time before proceeding into the golden door. I felt relieved, but I somehow knew it had just started.