//------------------------------//
// Tick, Tock 
// Story: The Day the Sky Changed 
// by Midnightshadow 
//------------------------------//


Tick, Tock


by Midnight Shadow

An MLP:FiM fanfic in the Conversion Bureau Alternate Universe.

note: I'll be coming back to the previous chapter's part 2, do not fear. I guess I should add this chapter is grimdark...





"They tell me it's ready, traitor." said Hank, softly. He may as well have been talking to himself for all his eyes were riveted on his prize. He kept fingering the stopper on the vial almost absent-mindedly as he approached the pony. The creature was whimpering, favouring the broken leg, one eye bruised closed where it had been beaten. Hank crossed the small room in moments, heavy footsteps echoing in the suddenly silent space.
"Please," it said, as it looked up at him with those large, oh-so-innocent eyes.
Hank sneered, of course the animal would beg for it's life. "Quiet, traitor." said Hank as he stood over the cage. He realised that he didn't know the animal's name. On one hand, soon it wouldn't matter. On the other hand, it didn't deserve a name. It used to be human, but it had turned its back on mankind to become a beast, one of the conquerors, one of the usurpers. "You've been judged, animal, and found guilty. There is only one sentence for an animal like you, and that is death."
"I h-have a f-family," it cried, tears streaming down it's face to mix with the blood, "my d-daughter..."
"Please, you don't have to do this." said another voice. Hank turned to look at its owner, another pony.
"Would you rather take its place, pony? I would still have to test it on him after, but at least you wouldn't have to watch me put it down."
"You're an evil, evil man, Hank Prichard."
Hank slammed his fist on the cage of the captured newfoal, who whimpered and cowered, but he screamed at the Equestrian pony, "I am a man! See these?" he shook his fists at the caged Equestrian, a dark blue unicorn that had been born and raised in the bubble-universe across the sea.
"I see them, human. Let me out of this cage and let's see how good they are against my magic."
"Oh you'd like that, wouldn't you? If our kind just rolled over, belly-up, and gave? Well there are those among us who won't! Not like this snivelling wretch."
Hank turned to the newfoal and scowled.

A newfoal was a human who had been transformed through a fusion of technological and magical wizardry into a pony. The one in the cage was an earth pony, with no magic like unicorns and no wings like the pegasi. It had been easy to catch.
Hank remembered when the bubble known as ‘Equestria’ had been spotted, rising from the sea. It had promised so much - open spaces, fertile lands - quite unlike the oily, dusty, dirty decrepit planet so ridiculously called 'Earth'. There was only three problems with such an occurence; one; only ponies, not humans or other, similar, higher mammals, could travel through the barrier. Two; it was growing, inch by implacable inch, as the years passed. It threatened to engulf the entire Earth, swallowing it whole. And three; humans, therefore, were becoming extinct as they 'went pony'. Conversion Bureaus had been set up across the globe that took willing victims and stripped them of their humanity, some said their lives, and shat out ponies the other side, happy-go-lucky subjects of the demon sisters ensconced in their bubble in the faraway land of Canterlot.

Hank was sick of it, angered beyond any possibility of reprieve. He had one of these traitors now in his grasp, and he would make it pay. "You know what this is, beast?"
"N-no, please, please don't..." the voice of the newfoal was despondent, flat, without hope.
"A new medicine for you to take. You don't even need to drink it. It's so simple to use..."
Hank, with shaking hands, undid the stopper on his vial of 'medicine'. It was bolt grey and oily. He upended it over the newfoal and stepped back.

The screaming started immediately. Where the liquid touched, the pony's hair and skin turned black and bubbled, sloughing away like soap under a faucet. It wasn't even talking, Hank noted, just screaming. He watched dispassionately as bones and the internal organs became visible. They, too, melted as the mixture devoured them. It had looked so inert in the container, so harmless. A bolt grey, oily substance like dull mercury. in action, though, it was voracious. It didn’t drip like a normal liquid, it sought out flesh and wormed its way to the very heart of the creature, eating as it passed. The remains of the pony fell over, twitching, blood spewing from its mouth as its heart and lungs ruptured, as veins and arteries burst.
Hank snorted, at least the screaming had stopped. He noted how the organs seemed to be mostly the same as a human’s, and idly wondered if when he dosed the Equestrian he'd see the same. Intestines boiled out, melting even as they came. Several of the technicians covered their mouths, several more looked away. None protested. They were all here willingly, they were all dedicated.
"Humanus pro vita!" exclaimed Hank,  raising his head high as the echoing cry from his compatriots filled the room. He stepped back from the puddle on the floor and sneered, "So end all traitors. It looks like your grey goo is a success, Tennery! How much of this stuff can you make?"
"I... I... the coding is quite simple, but... are you sure?"
"The world must see, Tennery! It must!" Hank threw the glass bottle to a corner of  the room where it was lost, shattered. He turned to his head coder, Scrum Master Tennery, and grabbed the small wiry man by his lapels, "we need this, Ten, you know the plan!"
"But... it's... it's dangerous! I... I had to... it will eat..."
"THAT'S THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT! SCORCHED EARTH! WE WILL SHOW THESE BEASTS WHAT MAN IS MADE OF!" roared Hank, all but throwing the ginger scientist to the floor, waving his hands about expressively, "They come here, they steal our land, our jobs, our children, our very world," he hissed the last word, spat it into the room, "and the sheep lap it up, sucking at the foul teat of slavery. You know what, I don't blame them! What did we have in return? Nothing, no way to fight these devils. But now, my beautiful, beautiful crew, we have this."
Hank rapped his knuckles on a large perspex container which held a shimmering silver-grey mass. He smiled, leaned his head against it tenderly, closed his eyes. He whispered, crooned to it, "My wondrous concoction, you will make me so proud. Today we have struck a mortal blow against our enemies." he kissed the container, hugged it, stood there silently and intimately for a few moments. Then he opened his eyes, "Just one final test left."

Hank fingered another vial, an Erlenmyer flask. He chuckled at the symbolism, the very same type of flask as was used in those damned bureaus to hold the potion that turned humans into animals. This one, however, held a different future. It held a future where Man regained his proper place at the top of the food-chain. He measured out a single fluid ounce, the nano-machines were potent, far more potent than the pretender potion that stripped men of their right to exist. The grey nano-fluid in the jar - he swirled it around as he stood up straight and headed towards the Equestrian pony - would eat through any pony presented to it, rendering a once live creature into a very dead stain on the carpet.
"Please don't." said the unicorn, backing away.
"Now you beg." said Hank, "You bastards arrive, steal my wife and child, steal my job, steal my land, steal my very species from under me, and now you beg." Hank spat, "You will get no such pity from me."

Hank upended the flask.

Hank looked down at the pony. It stood there, with a dumb look transfixed on its face. Hank looked back up at the flask. It was, surprisingly, still held in his hand. It was upright, entirely un-upended, and still full of the nanobots. He tilted his head, and upended the flask.

He... upended the flask.

He glared at his hand. It would not budge.
"Paulie, Paulie you fucker, you said that inhibitor ring would work! I paid those fucking griffons handsomely for that ring!"
"Boss," said Paulie with a gulp, "it's working. It ain't that unicorn."
"Then what is it!" snarled Hank, grinding his teeth at the flask in his hand, both of which refused to do his bidding. He turned to Paulie, who pointed at the door to the room. Hank started, tried to turn, to run screaming at the intruder, to fling the flask through the air at the newcomer, but he was rooted to the spot like a tree.
"Good afternoon, human." said the intruder. He was a unicorn, an unassuming light brown with a black mane and tail. He didn't appear to be anything special. Hank noticed idly that on it's flank were two gears set inside a ring.
"Get him! Somebody shoot that motherfucker!"
The unicorn shook his head, "No, no, you'll find you're quite, quite unable to move. Any of you."
Hank spat and swore, and then found his lips frozen.
"We'll have none of that. It's no use even attempting to call for help, your comm lines just went down. Oh, there goes your mainframe. Strange, the entire city block seems to be suffering a major blackout."
Hank went white, struggling to speak. The unicorn relented, nodding with his head and granting Hank leave to speak.
"You can't! It's not possible!"
The unicorn laughed, cold eyes gleaming, "There's a scale they use to measure unicorn talent, Hank Prichard. It covers many things, from base transmutation and transliteration to transmogrification and autology. It goes up to ten, with each level before it an entire decrease in magnitude. I'm a special case."
"I'll kill you! I'll..." Hank spat.
The unicorn sighed and Hank's mouth sealed itself again. "As I was saying, I can't turn an apple into applesauce. I can barely lift a cup and saucer... but oh, what wonders I can work with the electromagnetic spectrum. I'm a perfect ten, Hank, a perfect ten. I don't believe they can adequately measure just how powerful I am. Do you know what that means, you hairless shit-flinging abomination?"
Hank shook his head, anger flashing and burning in his eyes.
"It means I can influence all sorts of fun toys. Computers, cameras, cars... people. I can read minds, Hank, I can swim up and down your pathetic excuse for a consciousness and at the same time, fifty klicks from here, I can make a fruit machine give out the ten million credit jackpot, just for shits and giggles."
"What do you want from me?" managed Hank, white lips pursed and stretched as he fought with all his might.
"I want you to die, human. I live in this hellhole of a world as my true home is born from the ashes, but still monsters like you, shouting and screaming, filling my mind with your loathsome hate... what did you expect me to do, Hank?"
Hank whimpered now, as he saw the white, wild blood-shot eyes of the unicorn fasten upon him, utterly devoid of anything resembling sanity.
"I became one of you, Hank, one with the voices, screaming out for death! Death! Death! Day in, day out! The chanting! Hank, oh Hank, when I gave in to the voices, sweet bliss. I found my calling, just as you found yours. I would end the blight and curse of humanity by hook or by crook... and today, oh today Hank, you were so joyful. You hold in your unworthy hands a cup of deliverance. But it shall be mine, not yours. Everyone!" the unicorn turned to the room, "Take a cup! Fill it! Drink!"

Hank watched as, one by one, the members of his team all about the room got to their feet and walked like robots to the container in the middle and filled their ceramic coffee mugs with the silver-grey concoction, emptying them of their previous beverages any which way. They returned to their stations and then, one after another, upended the cups into their mouths. Hank closed his eyes as the room was filled with a deafening cacophony of screams, gurgles, wet splashing noises and finally a bubbling silence. When he opened his eyes there was only one other human in the room left, Dave the radio operator, communications expert.
"Him?" asked the unicorn, eyeing Hank as he looked at the last other living human, "Oh I have something special for him. Watch!"
Hank tried to close his eyes, to look away,  but he was unable to. He watched transfixed as Dave's own hands took a hold of his head and very, very slowly twisted it. Dave was crying, screaming. His trousers suddenly bulged and a hot pungent liquid ran down his legs to spread on the floor. The unicorn only sneered and kept up the pressure. Suddenly, Dave's neck snapped and his whimpering stopped. He was dead. Very slowly, Dave's hands twisted his lifeless head back until it faced forwards again instead of over his shoulder. His eyes, glassy and unseeing, were still open. His mouth sagged, and Dave's own voice issued forth, "Computer, take a message. Help, oh god," The voice was as expressionless as the dead man's face, "oh god, help, argh, there has been an accident. Grey goo, we were killing the ponies, the damned ponies. We're with the HLF. Something went wrong. Oh god no, the grey goo, it is loose. It is killing us all. Message ends."
Hank's own trouser leg became warm as he pissed himself with fear, looking deeply into the abyss of madness before him, echoed in the wide, wide eyes of a the newfoal pony.
"They call me the puppet master, Tick Tock, but you'll never be able to tell them what I look like. Even if I let you live, you'd never remember me."
Tick Tock walked slowly and calmly to the unicorn in the cage, and he nuzzled the bars as he whispered, “Sleep, dear Equestrian, you need not face such horrors.”
Hank watched as the blue pony folded in upon himself, his eyes closed, and he started to softly snore. Tick Tock looked up, his expression tender, “He won’t remember you, none of you, none of this. He’ll forget the last week; the beatings, the rape, the torture. Most of all, he’ll forget you, and finally, me. So now, all I have are the loose ends.”
Hank whimpered, crying, tears streaking down his face, "Please! No! Don't!"
"Now you beg," mocked Tick Tock.
"I just... wanted it to stop! I just wanted a way to halt the destruction! You ponies are eating Mankind! Destroying our world! I just wanted it to end! With this, they- they would stop! Find another way! It would end!"
"End it shall, human."
Hank upended the flask.