//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5:  History, Culture, Dinner, Darkness, and More History. 
// Story: The Conversion Bureau EarthGate Saga:  Through the EarthGate 
// by Dolphy Blue Drake 
//------------------------------//

After the escort arrived, the three Terran Proteans followed a group of men in suits and climbed into a long, black, ellipsoid-shaped vehicle that had four wheels, with tires with treads that were so complicated, they looked like they could be used to drive up a mountain.  There was a driver in the front, who lowered her shades after they got in.

“The Chimeron usually only invites foreign dignitaries or famous people to dinner with him, so you should feel honored!” the chauffeur said as the vehicle started moving through traffic of vehicles of all shapes and sizes.  “I’ve only driven him around every once in awhile, so I haven’t had much time to get to know him.  I’ve heard he’s very nice, though.  Also, what do you think of our nearly frictionless roads?  That's what the heavy-traction tires are for:  enabling a quick stop on a virtually frictionless surface.  You should see the slideways between the cities, though.  They have so little friction, you can travel incredible distances quickly for almost no fuel at all!  They only still have some friction left to avoid collisions.  We could remove all the friction, but it'd be stupid to do that to a road.”

The three Terrans didn’t reply and instead looked around at the many different structures in the city besides the domed cylindrical ones.  The streets seemed to be based on not a grid system, but one huge ring serving as a street surrounding most of the city, with smaller and smaller rings forming more streets in a target pattern, with straight roads linking each ring to the ones further in and the ones farther out, with the center ring surrounding a silvery mansion/academy/cathedral combination, as well as the grounds around it—obviously the Chimeron’s dwelling.

On the way to the building in the center, the new Proteans spotted many buildings that were obviously facilities used to run the city, but other structures caught their eyes, as well:  a monument to Executive Joe dan Bohr XVI and his amendment that said all must be paid a minimum of a living wage, a sculpted mountain that inspired awe into all who saw it, a massive tower made of rounded shapes that appeared to be some kind of radio tower, a bank of cloned organs and other body parts for every Clerisiac citizen, a device emitting a red field over the city that also projected similar fields over other cities barely visible at the edge of the horizon, and most likely the entire nation, and many other structures.

“So, like what you see, do ya?” the chauffeur chuckled.  “I can’t blame you.  Every wonder of the entire Lalande 21185 system ever constructed by human beings—and all those constructed by Proteans—were constructed right here in this city.  Elder Lodge itself is considered the most wondrous city in the system!  There's a few other wonders of the system, but they were all built by klackon nations with knowledge that only worked for klackons, anyway.”

“What be dat big statue of a prayin’ maine befoe a crystal orb fo?” Martha asked, pointing to a huge monument rivaling the height Lady Liberty stood at before the advancing barrier turned her to copper dust.

The chauffeur grimaced before replying somberly, “That’s the Penance:  a sad monument to tomorrow’s dead and a reminder of the price that comes with using science for the pursuit of war.  Once we discovered disintegration technology, everyone refused to even test such a weapon until it was constructed and dedicated.”

“Why?” Takoda asked, giving the giant monument an odd look as they passed it.

“Killing has always been easy,” the driver explained sadly.  “But every weapon leaves behind some kind of aftermath as a reminder of the horrors of war.  Even the nuclear weapons our ancestors back on Earth made left some kind of trace of the victims:  intense radiation, charred corpses of those who just barely couldn’t escape the blast entirely, sometimes shadows of obliterated victims would be burned into the ground, partially ruined buildings, and the destroyed areas became uninhabitable for decades.  But the Ne Plus Ultra:  the self-guided disintegrator bomb, leaves none of those.  It flies to its target, detonates, and leaves no trace of its victims whatsoever.  It is when killing becomes clean and efficient that we run the risk of it ceasing to horrify.  And if we ever cease to be horrified by it, we all become monsters.”

“But why does the monument exist?” Henry demanded, sharing in his companions’ confusion.

“It honors those who will have no one to honor them,” their driver answered as they finally passed the massive statue.  “The victims of such weaponry are essentially wiped from the mortal plane entirely.  There must be something to remind us of the ethical and moral problems of using such a weapon, and the Penance does that.”

Finally getting what the driver meant, the three passengers looked back to gaze on the statue with understanding.  These people, even with such a horrific weapon at their disposal, had it in their hearts to mourn their own enemies before they could even be destroyed.  The barrier on Earth had disintegrated all evidence of human civilization, and after it was all gone, Celestia revealed that she had never really cared about the loss in the first place.  People of this sort had much greater hearts than the Solar Tyrant did.

“We’ve had to use the Ne Plus Ultra three times since we started creating them,” their driver informed them sadly as they started passing government buildings near the center of the city.  “Our arsenal of them is large, but we pray for forgiveness before ever launching one, then recite prayers for the doomed and dying as the weapon flies to its target.  We used one in a fierce war with the Ellecor two centuries ago, and we used two more to end a conflict where all seven nations were at each others’ throats only fifty years ago.”

As they pulled up to The Hallowed Academic Mansion, the sorrowful atmosphere faded as the Chimeron himself approached the vehicle with the six black-clad soldiers from before following behind him in two columns of three.

The leader of Clericorum offered each of the three Terrans a handshake as they got out of the vehicle, and each one accepted.  He was wearing a dark teal business suit and tie underneath a cross between a lab coat and a clerical robe that was white with teal trim, and shiny black business shoes.

In addition to the outfit, he wore an extravagant pendant depicting a highly-complex atom with many religious symbols in the place of the electrons:  A Catholic cross for Roman Catholicism, a Suppedaneum cross for Eastern Orthodoxy, a Celtic cross for Anglican Christianity, the Empty Cross for the Protestant movement, the Angel Moroni for the Latter-Day Saint movement, the Star of David for Judaism, the Star and Crescent for Islam, the Dharmacakra for Buddhism, the Aum for Hinduism, the Khanda for Sikhism, the Taijitu for Taoism, and finally the Faravahar for Zoroastrianism.

He had fair skin, pale blonde hair and electric blue eyes that spoke volumes about his mostly gentle nature, bearing no ill will towards any living thing, carrying a mixture of joy and sorrow that was the burden of many a benevolent leader.  His smile was full of joy, but it also had slight traces of uncertainty for the future and concern for his people.  In all, he appeared to be a very kind and loving leader burdened with the current state of affairs but was forced to put on a strong face for his people when he was no stronger than any of them were.

“Welcome, all of you!” Joe said brightly, some of the traces of concern fading from his smile and making it more genuine.  “I see you’ve been restored and enhanced!  That’s good!  I wasn’t absolutely sure Dr. Eureka could pull it off.

“Anyway, follow me!” the Chimeron requested before turning around to walk back to the mansion that was the center of the Capital campus taking up the three innermost rings of the city.

The three Terrans followed the leader of the Clerisy up the path to his mansion, then followed him inside, immediately stunned by the dwelling’s internal architecture.

Religious and intellectual designs blended together to give the feel of both a sacred structure and a place of learning.  Rooms with white walls, ceilings and floors typical of laboratories had engravings of religious symbols in the walls, while rooms that looked like they were right out of a place of worship had murals of great feats of science achieved by the Clerisy.  Every room radiated the Clerisiac idea of the union of science and religion for a greater understanding of the universe than either could provide on its own:  a merging of academics and faith for the betterment of a highly enlightened people.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” the Chimeron asked his guests as they continued to walk the halls of the wondrous place he called home.  “Clericorum was founded by a group of ten thousand religious academics six thousand years ago.  And now look at us!  We’re two billion strong and the most advanced people in the system because we didn’t see religious devotion as a hindrance to science, but instead worked to put the two together for a greater purpose:  advancement and enlightenment!  And this building represents that mindset:  the idea that being an atheist adds nothing to your intelligence, and having deep devotion to your faith and its teachings doesn't make you backwards or stupid.”

Seeming to lose himself in awe and excitement, the Chimeron continued with both immense joy and reverence in his voice.  “Religions don’t have to change their teachings when science advances, nor does science have to consider religion its taskmaster.  The two can work in perfect harmony, side by side, making everyone happy.  By staying true to what you believe in, even while pursuing great advances, society itself will remain in a happy state where our lives become improved more and more by new technologies without people trying to order religious leaders to change their so-called ‘outdated’ teachings.  For a religion to be able to claim it is the one true way to enlightenment and salvation, it must hold firm to its teachings in spite of changing times, for the one true religion would never need to reverse its stance on anything, for they have to have been in the right the whole time already.  Suddenly saying something isn’t wrong when their teachings said the exact opposite for hundreds or even thousands of years gives the appearance of a false religion that only wants to be popular, making them look like total frauds, possibly dooming their faith to extinction.”

They passed statues and paintings honoring great scientists and religious leaders from throughout Clericorum’s history, mixed together as the Clerisy felt they should be.

They passed libraries where huge collections of academic texts shared the shelves with religious ones, deemed of equal value by the Clerisy.

“Aside from the many religions of Clericorum establishing new leaderships for themselves, they haven’t discarded or reversed any of their doctrines here since we crashed here so long ago,” the Chimeron went on.  “They have added new doctrines as new issues of right and wrong came up, but not a single one has given into pressure from dissenters in their religion and inverted a doctrine to its opposite.  Those dissenters either finally realized that changing their religion would automatically make its claims to be the one true way null and void, or they simply formed their own breakoff religion that had the change they wanted implemented in its founding doctrine.  Most splinter movements that formed here didn’t last very long, though.”

His three guests tried their hardest to listen, but the amazingly unique architecture kept breaking their concentration on his explanation for a couple seconds every once in awhile.

“Excuse me, Mr. Chimeron?” Henry began nervously, resulting in the Clerisiac leader falling silent and nodding for him to go on.  “I think I speak for all three of us when I say that we’re having trouble concentrating on your explanation of Clerisiac philosophy.  This place is so incredible, it’s distracting!”

The Chimeron simply chuckled warmly before replying, “I admit, I’m paraphrasing a lot of what the tour guides tell foreigners and young children on guided tours.”  He chuckled again and added, “This place truly is awe-inspiring.  I’ve seen many people marvel at its interior.  Even some of our own citizens were completely unprepared for the interior architecture.  They all know our national philosophy by heart, but some just don’t expect the whole interior to be that philosophy manifested in the form of an architectural masterpiece.”

By that point, they had reached a pair of tall teal stained wooden doors.

“Beyond here is the dining hall,” Joe explained.  “The more ornate doors we would’ve reached had we continued to go straight lead to the old throne room that became more of a historical site once we became a Confederation about four thousand years ago.  It’s kept clean and pristine, but it’s rarely ever used anymore except when a foreign leader comes to visit.  Especially one from a nation we aren’t currently on good terms with.

“Anyway, our dinner awaits!” the Chimeron exclaimed, throwing the doors open himself and leading his guests inside while his honor guard followed and Secret Service agents formed a perimeter around the entrances to the room.

The table was set with four plates near one end.  A tall chair with a depiction of the same emblem represented on the Chimeron’s pendant placed so it would be above the occupant’s head was at the end with one plate before it, then two plates were on the right hand side of the large chair with just one on the left hand side.

Martha took a chair on the right, and Henry started to approach the other one on the right, but when he noticed Takoda seemed to want the spot as well, he immediately conceded and took the left chair without any fuss.

Curiously, the Chimeron seemed to take a mental note of that occurrence before clapping his hands twice, summoning four people with menus that were each stapled together like thick pamphlets.  They gave one to each person at the table.

“Dat’s a lotta choices!” Martha exclaimed as she looked through the menu.

“Well, with six thousand years of history, we’ve come up with a lot of different dishes,” the Chimeron replied while rapidly pointing out multiple kinds of food and drink to the woman who handed him his menu.  After half a minute, she accepted his menu, wrote down what he’d ordered, and waited five minutes for the three guests to complete their orders as they had to ask what some things were before making up their minds.

With all four sets of orders taken, the staff returned through the doors they came through and the Chimeron decided to strike up a conversation while they waited for their food to arrive.

“Now, what I’m about to ask of you three may seem like a lot,” he began slowly, looking at each of them one at a time before continuing.  “But we’ll need soldiers and spies who know how to work their way through newfoal and truepony society to obtain information that we require.  But for us, a spy’s job isn’t that simple:  a spy has many different tasks to perform.  These include:  sabotaging an enemy unit, destroying enemy property, bribing enemies to fight for us, bribing entire towns to defect to join our nation if we have enough money to buy them off, stealing the secrets to enemy advancements, and establishing an embassy with another country so we can contact them whenever we wish.  We’re preparing for our first of many liberation campaigns on Earth, and we’d appreciate it if the three of you could at the very least train our spies and soldiers in how to achieve the pony form, and in how to use its various abilities.  We’d also like for you to fight alongside us, but we’ll understand if you’d rather not fight, and we’ll accept ‘no’ for an answer on the training, as well.”

Silence fell as the three Terrans exchanged looks, tiny whispers, and a few nods before all three looked at the Chimeron and nodded, all of their faces showing grim determination.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ to both, then,” dan Bohr announced with a nod of his own.  “Henry, you’ll be in charge of the training, battle and espionage operations, with Martha and Takoda second to you in these operations.  Training should be complete in a week, and we’ll be ready to attack again after another week.”

All three Terrans shouted “What?” at the same time, utterly confused.

The Chimeron gave them a knowing smile and pointed to the spot Henry had taken.

“Henry willingly gave up the chair he wanted so Takoda could have it, then took the chair no one wanted,” dan Bohr explained.  “The arrangement of the plates was to serve as a test, and Henry passed it.  A leader has the right qualities to make sacrifices for the rest of the team, even if those sacrifices actually negatively impact the leader.  A leader has to make tough decisions quickly, and Henry did that as well.  The test may not have shown his prowess in battle, but it shows he has the selfless qualities a good leader needs to have.”

The group nodded in understanding with the other two congratulating Henry, and then the food arrived.

“Now, enough banter,” Joe said hungrily.  “Let’s dig in!”



Meanwhile, in the world that had contacted Earth first, someone else was having a fancy dinner, as well:  Princess Celestia and her great-niece Princess Birthright were finishing up discussing plans for their next offensive.  They’d confront the Proteans at New Hoofington, just like last time, and even if they somehow lost again, they planned to leave with a minimum of one captive.  The Clerisiac Chimeron was preferable, but if that proved impossible, they’d grab at least one other Protean and drag them back to Equestria for testing.

They wouldn’t be able to get Twilight Sparkle to create the new potion, for she didn’t want to have anything to do with ponification ever again.  The failed attempts on thousands of human test subjects had left her emotionally scarred from all the deaths they caused before she finally created a successful version of the potion, so they’d have to look elsewhere.  Celestia was having a facility hastily constructed for that exact purpose, and she had all the notes on the potion’s creation that Twilight thought had been destroyed, so by performing similar tests on the Proteans to the ones Twilight had on humans, they’d find a way to override their immunity to the potion.

And to their good fortune, the humans hiding on Mars left behind a few space cruisers after their most recent failed assault mere hours ago, and Celestia had ordered them to be brought through the barrier after she personally enchanted them so that the barrier would treat them as something not made by humans, allowing them to pass through.  The four ships were being modified at the moment to be truly meant for ponies to use, and they’d also begun making physically and magically armored pony versions of the spacesuits found inside the craft so troops could be sent.  Oh, they’d deal with Mars and New Equestria’s moon soon enough, but these Proteans were a bigger threat than them, so she’d spare the human colonies for the time being.  The craft were meant to fly through the EarthGate, land near a settlement, then kidnap as many Proteans as they could.  After that, they would study the makeup of the inhabited regions of that system so Celestia could create a new version of the barrier generator that would affect anything made by the Lalandeans.

With discussions complete and dinner finished, Celestia nodded to her great-niece.  It was time.

Birthright hastily got out of her chair and approached her Great-Aunty, eagerly awaiting the gift her father had received being bestowed on her as well.

Celestia’s darkened eyes grew even darker, and the purple mist from her eyes reached up to envelop her horn, engulfing her entire form with a dark purple aura that radiated immense wicked power.  Birthright was too caught up in excitement to notice the evil in the aura and just grew even more excited as Celestia began casting an extremely powerful spell, her horn engulfed in black energy which in turn enveloped Birthright, causing the two of them to disappear.

They reappeared on a platform of black mist, a view of the entire universe below them, stretching further than the eye could see in every direction.

A bolt of black lightning struck Birthright in the horn, filling her body with the same sinister energy that her great-aunt was using.  The energy made her grow a bit larger in size, increased her magic a hundredfold if not a thousandfold or even more, caused deep blue Bat Pony wings to sprout from her sides, and increased her physical strength beyond that of any Earth Pony.

After the transformation was complete, Celestia stopped the spell and announced, “It is done.  She has joined us as well.”

“Excellent,” a female voice echoed from nowhere and everywhere.  “The universe still must be cleansed of chaos, and making those Proteans join you in the pure harmony of ponyhood is an important step.  Every race must become ponies, and all must bow to the will of Queen Celestia, whom I have chosen to be the one to bring the entire universe into perfect harmony.”

“What about Discord?” Birthright asked curiously before Celestia shook her head.

“It is not our place to ask why she has chosen to leave Discord alive,” Celestia said before the voice giggled and spoke again.

“On the contrary, I’ve waited a long time for somepony to ask me questions about my intentions and reasoning,” the voice answered.  “Discord and I have a… history of sorts.  As more and more chaos is removed from the universe, he’ll steadily grow weaker until he’ll beg you to put him out of his misery.  I want to see him beg.  I want to see him squirm.  I WANT TO SEE HIM BROUGHT TO WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE AND EXTINGUISHED AS HE ONCE DID TO HIS ONLY KIN!”

Celestia and Birthright were confused after that last part, but the voice simply calmed down and said, “Nevermind that last part.  A pre-Discordian memory only he and I share that you don’t need to know about at the current time that he’d never divulge to anypony who asked.  I hope to see you with another recruit at some point, Celestia.  Maybe her children once she has her own?  Or perhaps your niece if you can manage to get her to see things our way?  Or better yet, your sister.  She’s confused at the moment, doesn’t know what to believe, so there might be a way to get her to join us.  Or how about your brother?  Blueblood’s father?  I know he was kept hidden for a very long time because he was ashamed of somehow botching the ascension process and only gaining the eternal life and larger stature of an Alicorn and increased magic without gaining wings, strength or the special power ascension would have given him, leaving him an immortal large Unicorn with Alicorn-level magic and nothing else.  Then he fled the castle after fathering Blueblood, leaving his son in your care.  Cadance’s mother is long dead, though the fate of her father is still unknown, and though he’s tainted, the promise of getting the ascension he never got might be enough to persuade him to join us.  I could even remove Discord’s taint on the side.  Still, if you can find anypony who would fit the bill and could be persuaded, bring them to me.  Birthright’s grandfather is still out there somewhere, and he’s your best shot of all.  How could he resist his dear eldest sister telling him she had finally found a way to help him complete his ascension?  I’m sure he’d do anything for it.

“Now, that is all,” the voice finished.  “Keep up the good work, Queen Celestia, and welcome to the team, Princess Birthright.  Farewell.”

The next instant, the pair were back in Canterlot Palace, in the dining hall once again.

“So, who is she?” Birthright asked as she flexed and tested her new wings.

“I don’t know,” Celestia admitted.  “But she opened my eyes to the truth about how we must achieve true harmony:  every sapient being that isn’t a pony, must become one.  She’s from before the Discordian era, that much I do know, but I was born in the middle of the Discordian era, as were Luna and Atlas, your grandfather, as well as our wayward brother who I won’t bother naming:  Cadance’s father.  Anyway, the four of us were born after the time she’s from, so I have no idea who she is for there’s no record I can find of a being that focused on harmony from before Discord’s reign.”

“What happened with you, Great Aunt Luna, Grandpa and my great uncle?” Birthright asked curiously, hoping for some more information on family history.

“Luna and I ascended to defeat Discord,” Celestia explained.  “But Discord’s power caused Atlas’ ascension to be incomplete and tainted our youngest brother before he could even begin ascension, giving him incredible power different than an Alicorn’s, but Discord also turned him wild and wicked, so he fled north for he was still outnumbered three to one in spite of Atlas not gaining full power, and Discord only tainted him to get him out of the way, not to have our youngest brother aid him in fighting us.

“Ashamed of failing to fully ascend, Atlas hid himself away from history after that battle,” Celestia continued. “He took to living with us as our reclusive little brother who was unknown to everypony.  Even the servants didn’t know he existed.  He’d teleport letters to us when he wanted to talk, then we’d teleport to his room to speak with him.  We also brought him food so he wouldn’t have to leave his room.  A maid somehow discovered him, but I managed to get her to keep him a secret, and they quickly fell in love, were married in a secret ceremony, and had your father before Atlas fled the castle because he realized he couldn’t raise a family and remain hidden in the castle at the same time.”

“So, my Grandpa’s still out there somewhere,” Birthright muttered to herself before speaking up.  “Will we ever go to find him, Great Aunty?”

“Perhaps,” Celestia replied.  “But for now, we need to get you in position.  Getting all of your troops properly equipped should only take a couple days, and we’ll get you to New Hoofington in less than half a day, then we can begin shoring up defenses in the area until they attack again.”

“Understood, Great Aunty!” Birthright chirped.  “We’ll be ready for them this time!”