The Conversion Bureau : Landfall

by Feefers

Humanity’s last stand

Smith walked out of the OSS building heading back up towards the conversion beuraux he had passed this morning a little surprised the queue had almost vanished.
He nodded softly, but kept his head lowered to the security bots this time not wanting an embarassing repeat of earlier.
He reached the door carefully opening it, inside there was a large reception area and several ponies trotting about whilst there was a small number of people sitting down anxiously waiting.
Smith walked up to the desk, “Hello, Lyra wasn’t it?”
The pony behind the desk beamed widely and nodded, “That’s me ooh hey you were that guy that fell over this morning.”
Smith nodded slightly embarrassed that would be how he was known.
“It’s okay, I sometimes struggle with four legs, I don’t know how you cope so well on only two.”

Smith smiled softly and followed the unicorn as she walked into a small room with a strange table, half at pony height and half level with a chair.
“Please take a seat?” Lyra prompted gesturing to the seat before Smith moved to sit on it looking across and slightly up at the pony.
“So it’s Mister Johnston?” Lyra looked up from a clipboard in front of her as Smith nodded.
“Please just Smith.” He smiled slightly trying to get comfy on the hard seat.
She smiled, “Thank you Smith, now what kind of pony would you like to become?”
Smith blinked slightly, “I ... get to choose?”
Lyra nodded a little, “Somewhat, it’s magical so you can never be sure but I’ve seen myself someone that really wanted wings became a pegasus.”
“And there’s Pegasus, Unicorn and ...Earth?” Smith thought carefully grinning a little at the irony of the last pony race.
Lyra nodded in confirmation, “There’s also Alicorn, princess ponies of course, we haven’t had any here but I heard there was a conversion down in Florida got one...”
“What would you be?” Smith asked sitting back.
Lyra beamed, “I’ve been asked that a bunch by people here for conversion, if I could be anything, i’d be a human; just for a bit get hands, hair, all that.” Lyra gestured towards Smith.
Smith giggled a little, “I see.”
Lyra nodded, “Hands were really awesome.”
Smith looked to her for a moment thinking before nodding slowly and quietly saying, “You volunteered to test the conversion process.”
Lyra grinned, “Hurt.. Lots, but was totally worth it.”
Smith looked to the unicorn noticing slight bandages now around her foreankles shuddering a little.
“I think you are very brave, thank you for helping us.” Smith mumbled not quite sure if he should be saying anything.
Lyra blushed a little flustering, “But this doesn’t help us with your situation Mister Johnson.”
Smith rolled his eyes and nodded.

“Normally there’s a period of week or so preparation, then you drink the potion and we get you acclimatised to being a pony.” Lyra explained, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the period of preparation is pretty much gone, we are at potion as many people as we can and hope to deal with the consequences.”
Lyra walked over to the wall pressing against a secluded recess Smith hadn’t seen as she levitated a small purple vial onto the table in front of him.
“So ... this is it.” Lyra announced looking slightly deflated, “No big ceremony, no streamers and confetti, just you and me in a dark room with a magical potion.”
Smith carefully reached out picking up the vial holding it in his hand, it was light and there was a soft almost internal glow amongst the purple fluid.
“I never know what to say, i’ve helped maybe thousands of people become ponies now and just in this instance, there’s no words to help, nothing I can say.” Lyra quietly spoke trotting around the table.
Smith stood up as he felt the chair magically levitated away from him.
“I’m going to be here for you Mister Johnson.” Lyra said smiling at him softly, “The potion only changes you, it won’t hurt.”
Smith nodded softly as he popped the lid of the vial, the room was filled with a strong tingle of magical energy, Smith could feel his skin creeping and tingling, all the hairs suddenly flaring up and tickling against his clothes.
Smith steadied himself as he closed his eyes moving the vial to his mouth.

Smith didn’t really feel the impact as the wall suddenly stopped being a wall and became a rapidly exploding fireball.
Lyra jumped towards him reaching out as a golden field of energy surrounded her and Smith.
Smith’s eyes widened in terror as the boiling mass of wall and fire surged towards him, the heat scorching past the protective golden glow as Smith caught Lyra’s hoof holding onto her, spinning her as best he could away from the heat.
Smith’s world was suddenly noise, a rumbling deep low impact from the fireball now hitting into him shaking down to his bones, he was flying in the air with the unicorn now soaring above the ground even if it was for just a second it felt like minutes of freedom from gravity before there was a sickening dull thud as first Lyra hit the ground then Smith impacted into Lyra.

Smith looked up to the unicorn reaching out to her muzzle pressing his hand against it; sirens started to whine and whirr in the background.
Several ponies galloped in helping Smith and Lyra up from the large bits of masonry that had been a wall earlier.
“Anything broken?” A unicorn asked helping Lyra dust off as she looked herself over, “No.. thankfully, that was close.”
Smith dusted himself off, feeling his hand tingle significantly as a unicorn nudged against it carefully with its horn.
“Just dislocated here...” The unicorn said focusing hard as Smith’s hand painlessly cracked as it snapped back into place.
Smith wiggled his fingers nodding up at the unicorn, “Thank you.” He said before searching around for the potion vial seeing the shattered remains on the floor nearby.
A unicorn trotted in slowly shaking his head, “We got a picture of the guy but it’s unlikely we’ll find him.”

Lyra steadied herself wobbling as she looked to where the wall recess was, “I’m sorry I think we might be out of potion today.”
Smith nodded a little, “Maybe just a bit. Should I come back tomorrow?”
Lyra nuzzled at him softly, “I think we might need a new building.”
Smith stroked softly against her muzzle, it was strangely natural; somewhat relaxing.
Lyra sighed, “I’m sure we’ll get this fixed, it’s usually quite easy, it’s only walls nothing that can’t be rebuilt.”
Smith smiled a little thinking of that, it was the pony way, objects, houses, money, all things; people, other ponies, that was what mattered.
“Lyra...” One of the other unicorns nuzzled her softly, “We gotta go, this wasn’t the only attack.”
Lyra visible sunk shuddering a little as she nodded to Smith.
“I hope we can see you tomorrow under better circumstances.” Lyra said quietly.
Smilth shook her hoof, “Thank you. Good luck.” He watched as she and the other unicorns galloped off leaving Smith to pick his way out of the rubble.

The outside of the conversion centre was a mess, more bits of wall strewn everywhere as people shuffled off nervously.
“Attention.” A loud speaker announced, “This area is under curfew, please return to your homes.”
Smith sighed and looked to his wrist computer as it started to flash red.
He checked over his clothing, it was in a bit of a state but might be passable as he scurried to a road side booth.
“Cab please.” He spoke into the booth.
“Please wait, there is high demand, expected arrival time, 4 minutes.” The booth replied.
Smith waited as a sleek sliver cab finally pulled up and he held his wrist up again as it scanned it.
“Up town.” Smith said quietly.
“There will be a required checkpoint on route.” The car quietly hummed back to him as he climbed in.

“Taking off.” The car announced as the ground fell away the car soaring up into the air, Smith gasped slightly, the horizon was red with fire and dark with rising smoke.
Smith started to look around in a panic, it looked like the entire city was on fire, burning as the red as the sun in the setting city smog.
Humanity’s last stand was going to be more violent then he had thought.

Comments

[pjabrony]

Dun dun dun! Damn those HLF bastards!