//------------------------------//
// Part 1: Chapter 5 
// Story: The Conversion Bureau - The Last Human 
// by Maxis122 
//------------------------------//

~The Conversion Bureau - The Last Human Chapter 5~
~By Maxis122~

The sun began to rise as the tide drew itself out and flushed away. I was just about regaining my consciousness and control of my body, but I was still rather weak. A smell of sand and sea water filled the air. I was trying to piece together what was going on as I moved my fingers in the sand.

My left eye began to open and I looked into the blue sky. It felt too hot for it to be france, but not hot enough to be the bottom of South Africa. So I must have been somewhere within that area - but where?

After opening my other eye I was able to look around a little bit and see the sand itself. This sand then continued into the land and further beyond. Was this a dessert of some kind? It was hard to tell as my vision was still rather blurred.

Then I began to hear someone’s voice, but I couldn’t really tell whose it was. Then again I am probably on the edge of the desert, so it would be someone I didn’t know. Wait, could it be another human? I then closed in on the voice and began to listen.

“...oh my god, oh my god. There’s a dead man on the beach. What do I do? Umm, I know! Call 911 or something like that” the voice sounded like it was in panic as it was quick paced, it also had a british accent on it as well. I then heard a couple of bleeps of a phone. “Common, pick up... pick up... YES, ITS ALWAYS BEEN ON FUCKING HOLD!” the voice then yelled as it threw the phone away in anger.

I moved my head to the source of the voice and saw a pony. He had dark green skin and black hair with green eyes. Oh god, a pony. This was the last thing I needed, was a good for nothing...

Then it hit me, did that pony just curse. I’ve known about the effects of ponies but I thought that they get rid of the unpleasant parts of the human. This was like nothing that I had encountered before - a pony with human qualities. 

I then got myself up from back and then stood up. Still being a bit weak my legs gave in and I fell back down to the ground again. Then with another try I got onto my feet and was able to walk again. I then looked around to see the pony then look around to me.

“Oh, so you are alive. Thats great!” the pony said as he approached me.

“Could you keep your distance for a bit, I’m just a bit uneasy around ponies” I said as I didn’t want to get too close to this pony.

“What, you don’t trust another human like yourself” the pony said.

“Well, you are a pony. Can’t you see?” I asked.

“I know I look like a pony, but seriously - I am a human on the inside. And that’s what counts” said the pony. The pony then examined me a bit more and noticed my weapons on my chest. “I see you have quite the collection of weapons there, may I ask why?” the pony asked.

“Well, you can never be too safe these days” I said as I then looked out at the desert again. “Would you mind telling me where I am” I asked as this pony seemed to have some kind of human intelligence.

“Yeah, this is the Western Sahara” the pony said.

“So, what happened then? Because I thought you would be living in Equestria” I asked as this was one of the things that wasn’t making sense so far.

“I got placed here after I got converted. You know - I am the one out of the million subjects who goes wrong. Anyway my form changed but my brain didn’t, I can still think one hundred percent human. When they found out that big leader purple pony had be banished here saying that I was still human” the pony explained.

“You mean Twilight Sparkle” I said as I knew who he was talking about.

“Yes her, anyway I was one of those forceful conversions...” the pony said.

“They forced people to get converted?!” I exclaimed as this was completely new to me.

“Like hell they did! I was one of the scientists who was working on a way to reverse the effects of the pony transformation. I was able to inject myself with a prototype version of it before I was taken and converted. It seemed like it worked when I woke up, but then I looked at myself and... well you get the point” the pony explained.

“What could you tell me about this?” I said as I pulled out the document from the hospital and handed it to the pony. The pony then looked at it for a moment and then gasped when he read a part of it.

“Wow, he did it. I never thought that he could - but he did” the pony said to himself.

“What is it?” I asked as the pony got all excited about this document.

“This is the second half to the anti-conversion of humans to ponies. Look, and it even worked on seven test subjects. It says that the seven subjects were healthy and were all back to normal. But they still had the mind of the pony, that was where I came in” the pony explained again.

“You mean you found a way to get ponies to turn back into humans” I asked with hope in my mind.

“Yeah, don’t you see here. If I were to combine this with my research we would have found a successful way to revive the human race” The pony said.

“So, that means that the humans still have some hope” I said. 

“Well, we still have a problem. You see, I don’t have my research. And I don’t have the facilities to make the injection” he said with a disheartened voice. My mind then sank into thought, this could be a way to get some more humans on the earth. But there was still a problem - who would want to change back.

At this time my mind wasn’t ready to think ahead about the long term consequences about this plan, but it was worth a shot. My cleared my throat and then began to expel my thoughts.

“I can help you get there, where is this place” I said. The pony then grinned and looked at me, something inside of me felt a little off guard for a moment with his grin. But it was freindly never the less.

“It’s in London, there is a research facility there where I worked. I locked them in a safe so they couldn’t be harmed” the pony said. The pony then thought for a moment and then presented his hoof in front of me. “Elliot Mercury” he said.

“Max...” I simply said as I took his hoof.

“No last name?” Elliot asked.

“I’d rather not say” I said.

“Well then Max, nice to make your acquaintance” Elliot said as we shaked. This was the first time that I had proper contact with a pony since the time that I was told that I was the last human left.

The next matter at hand was getting back to London. I had just come from there but I was now on the edge of a desert. I looked ahead to see something like a perimeter gate around the edge of something in the distance.

“What’s that?” I said as I pointed ahead. Elliot turned and looked at the place before turning back with his answer.

“Thats a US Air base, made after the Conversion Bureaus were opened. It was to get the military closer to the supposable threat. Now its a ghost town, if you know what I mean” Elliot explained.

“Do they still have planes there?” I asked.

“Yeah, they have a big AC-130 parked up, it was going to do a artillery strike but then the mass Conversion happened. It’s still fueled up and ready to go...” Elliot said. I looked down at him for a moment, then I looked over at the air base.

I then began to walk in the direction of this air base with Elliot close behind me. He seemed to be the most human thing around here, he was probably one of the most unique ponies ever to exist. A pony with the mind of a human.

The walk was only going to take a few minutes but those minutes were spent just thinking as I approached the Air Base. Elliot seemed to be a nice pony, but something in my brain was just flicking on and off about him. It was probably just the fact that he was who he was, a human pony.

The sun was still lingering at the top of the sky and blasting its energy down at me. It watched as the land below began to weave in the heat and create false images. We were almost there now as the gate was getting closer.

I then came to standing in front of the gate, on closer inspection the gate was left unlocked. Then again if you were rushing the last thing on your mind would be to close the gate to the place you are never going to see again.

I pushed the gate open and then walked inside the facility. It was empty and like Elliot said, a ghost town. There were a couple of jeeps sitting around, loaded with fifty caliber machine guns. On the left were some Mini-birds with some fuel pumps still linked up to them. Everything had just been left and abandoned in a heartbeat.

I slowly walked through the air base and looked around at the many sights left over by the mass rush out. Everything was so still and silent. Nothing moved, nothing breathed. This walk was becoming a bit freaky as everything was so unreal. To think that this place was gleaming with life and now it is dead.

The AC-130 was ahead, sitting on the runway - all ready to take off. Just as Elliot had said. It was a very big plane, this one was loaded to the brim with ammunition for its cannons. It really was ready to go out on a mission - a mission of destruction. I then finally got to the back of the plane where the back was open.

Upon walking in I saw that the plane was separated into two main parts - the back storage area and the main gunning area. Then there was the coppit area at the front of the aircraft. I walked on in seeing that the shells were all tightly packed together to give maximum space use in the aircraft’s storage bay.

There were three different sized cannons on the side of the plane, each were devastating in their own way. The biggest cannon was slower but could hit a lot harder. The middle cannon was faster but did less damage and then the gatling cannon was for picking off infantry. When combined this made the ultimate death machine.

I walked into the coppit and looked at the controls. Everything was still set to off and the starting models were still off.

“Do you have any idea how to fly this thing” Elliot asked as he looked at the controls in complete confusion.

“Yeah, I used to fly these things” I said. Elliot then looked up at me, confused at what I just said.

“You flew this type of aircraft” Elliot said.

“Yeah, then when the mass conversion began I took time off to think. But everything seems like it is ready to go” I said as I sat down on the pilot chain and pressed a couple of buttons. Elliot then sat on the other chair and looked ahead at the runway.

I then pressed some more buttons and the engine roared to life. The propellers began to spin and thrust air behind them. Then after a few seconds of warming up I then pushed the throttle forward and the plane began to move. I grabbed the controller and stabilized it.

The plane then began to pick up some speed as the engines pushed it forward. The land around the plane moved away as the plane got faster and faster. Then I watched the speed dial until it got to the required speed.

With it reaching its required speed I pulled the controller back and the flaps adjusted. The plane then began to gain altitude as it was pulled up into the air by the force of the engines. Elliot looked around in amazement as he looked around the land that was getting further and further away from him.

We were gaining some height now, so I then turned on the Satelitte Navigator and looked at its screen. Then I searched the map and figured out where I was in the world. So I needed to turn the plane so it was flying north with a slightly westerly angle. After turning the plane I put on the autopilot and set it to fly forward in the current direction.

The track was now set for the plane to go back to England, the place that I had been trying to escape from for so long. Now I was going all the way back, with someone that I would have never expected to meet. 

And upon that there was a chance to revive the human race, but that was the problem. It was only a chance, there was no real solid probability that this was going to work. Because after we have the injection, who would want to change back?

Life is so much better in Equestria, why would anyone like to go all the way back to square one. That would be a issue to deal with later, but for now the point stands - there is still a light of hope in this darkness.

I lied my head back and watched into the distance. Then I began to drift back to that one day when it all changed, the day that I truly became a human.

-----

A storm was brewing ahead and I looked left and right at the skies surrounding the plane. We were almost at the target destination where the attack run had been signaled. I looked to the GPS and then began to turn the plane as it got to the right point.

“Ready!” I shouted down to the gunners in the back. They then loaded their shells into the cannon and aimed them at the ground below. Then with a shout from the commanding gunner the cannons unloaded their payload.

The ground below was torn apart and destroyed as the shells exploded. Everything below was being destroyed by the mass power of our guns. My main focus was on flying the plane but I found myself a little window of time to see what we were firing at.

I opened a window on the viewer and looked at what the gatling cannon was firing at. It was hard to make out at first but then my eyes widened in horror when I saw what was going on.

Below was a town with innocent lives in that was being devastated by our machine. They were doing nothing but running for cover. I watched as the innocent bystanders just missed being hit by the shells. Then I saw her.

Part of me wished that I could just carry on. But she was there, even if she had done what she did. She didn’t deserve this. She stopped and looked up to the sky. She watched the plane and closed in on the coppit where I looked back down at her.

The cannon then aimed over her, frozen in place. “Hey a free kill, heh heh” said the gunner. I then grabbed the controller by force and balanced the plane again setting it to go back to the air base.

“What the hell, turn this plane around Captain!” yelled the gunning commander.

“I’m in charge here and this is a clusterfuck. We are leaving...” I shouted.

“Are you disobeying an order from command” shouted the gunning commander.

“Yes, because this is unnecessary bloodshed. This war is over” I shouted back at the gunning commander.  He froze in place and took in the word that I had shouted. He then subsided and sat down.

“This is AC-130 Bravo Four, we are requesting a immediate debriefing when we land. We also request no more aggressive activity in the area until we have sorted this issue” the radio correspondent said.

“Roger that Bravo Four, you are clear to land and the debriefing is ready for your return” said the voice over the radio.

I kept my focus on the rage that had been inspired because of this event, this event was the reason why I began to hate my own race. But then again this was why I didn’t want to change. Because I alone could prove that humanity still had heart.

She watched the plane fly away from the combat zone and the other ponies began to crowd around her. Each one with the same question in mind.

“Who was flying that machine?” One of them asked. The crowd gained some numbers as everyone was curious about who had the plane suddenly turn around. She let out a single tear and then walked away, knowing who was in that plane that day.