Equestria's End Begins
The Conversion Bureau:
Inversion
Chapter One:
Equestria's End Begins
Twilight Sparkle shook her head in annoyance. No matter how she attacked the problem, she couldn't come up with a solution. And that fact was slowly driving her up the wall with fear and frustration.
Six years ago, a massive continent had appeared in one of the oceans of Equus during a unique astrological convergence that Luna had set up due to the sheer energy put out by that same event. Calling itself the United States of America, it was said to be part of a world called Earth. It was discovered that the two worlds were merging. This fusion would result in a planet roughly three times the size of either due to the energy which caused the fusion in the first place, as it occurred due to the fact that Earth was from a parallel reality, and all the energy from this fusion of worlds had to go somewhere. On the upside, this would mean that there would be no lack of space for the population of the two worlds, as it seemed new land masses would result from the fusion, according to every simulation model run by Earth's greatest computers and scientific minds.
The downside was that no pony could set foot in it without dying an utterly horrific death.
And Twilight had been working on this problem for the last two years. With no luck whatsoever.
The unique nature of Earth made it incompatible with the magical energy field that permeated the planet. The magical energy field, also called Thaumic radiation, was unique to their world. And while Earth's power plants could use it as a form of near-perpetual energy due to how the energy changed when it came into contact with Earth, the machines were the only thing that could use it. Because the non-magical nature of Earth created a kind of anti-magic field. One that, it had been discovered, was lethal to any living creature who depended on that magical field for life. And it was spreading as more and more of Earth began to emerge and fuse with their world. As mankind began researching the energy as best they could (and in so doing discovering that thaumic radiation became a safe, non-lethal fusion radiation that could become a near-perpetual energy source as the energy changed from magic into a form of clean energy that seemed endless due to the fact that magic had pervaded Equus for so long.) in order to try to avert as much loss of life as possible for the population of their new neighbor, Earth continued to encroach on Equus. More and more of the planet and its unique life forms called Humans were becoming part of the soon to be superplanet that would exist as a result of the fusion of the two worlds.
Celestia and Luna had no idea what to do for once in their millennia-long existences. Not even Discord had caused this much panic in his days as Equestria's ruler. They reached out to mankind, trying to find some way to save their ponies, even as other species such as the Griffins and Zebras and Buffalo wondered why the anti-magical nature of Earth did little to nothing to their kind. This was later explained as being because while these species could use magic, it wasn't part of their intrinsic genetic makeup. In other words, Griffins, Zebras, and Buffalo could use magic. Ponies, on the other hand, were genetically dependant on it just to exist. The only thing the princesses could do was erect a barrier against the advance of Earth. But it was doomed to fail almost from the word go.
The anti-magic nature of Earth began eating away at the barrier almost immediately. Leaving behind only the energy now being distributed across Earth, which was able to maintain contact with America and travel to and from the various Earth continents was still possible due to an odd quirk in the way the two worlds were merging. Sadly, this meant that any artificial items such as buildings, and even pony-made clouds, were being destroyed by the anti-magic field— or as it had come to be called, the Fusion Field, or simply the Field— due to their saturation in thaumic radiation, which presented its own problems. It was theorized that only the EverFree Forest might go unaffected by the Field since weather was non-magical there. As was nearly everything else inside it, save perhaps the old ruined castle that once belonged to the Equestrian Diarchs.
The proposed manner in which to save the pony population, put into effect a year and a half ago, was controversial enough that many ponies had dismissed it outright, but the majority were in favor of it simply to stem the tide of death that would emerge otherwise. And there were still some who were desperately trying to find a way to render its necessity moot.
Twilight threw down her books in a heap and collapsed on a pillow in a huff.
"Nothing!" she muttered. "Not a single clue to how to stop this fusion whatosever in any of the old texts I have. Even Starswirl's textbooks are no help."
"You're pushing yourself too hard, Twilight." Cadance said as she entered the library. Twilight smiled a bit at her old foalsitter and current sister-in-law. The Crystal Empire had been one of the first parts of Equestria to be consumed by Earth as the anti-magic field began it's slow progress across the planet. That had been two years ago. While the majority had been saved thanks to the emplacement of the barrier, the fact that many had not made it had been a heartbreaking experience for those ponies that had seen family ripped apart by the still growing anti-magic field.
"What else can I do, Cadance? The Crystal Empire is gone, Appaloosa is on the verge of following it, and we're slowly losing every piece of our art, our culture and everything else to that damn energy field! And what did the humans propose? They want us to give it all up! To be turned into humans in those darned Conversion Bureaus! Bureaus they created after studying our transformation magic! Thanks to them, everything we value will be gone in just another four years or so if we don't do something!" she ruffled her wings in agitation. "Discord is somehow the only one not affected by it, too, and he's got no idea why. Not that he's complaining. He was already pretty unique to begin with. But what about you, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? What about every unicorn on the planet!? I can't just let them be turned into humans!"
"Your friend Lyra seems to be happy with it." The alicorn of love pointed out. Lyra had been one of the very first volunteers for the process of Conversion: a means by which ponies could become humans and thus survive in a soon-to-be magicless world. She had come through with flying colors and had been positively giddy about it. She became a minor celebrity, and had moved to Philadelphia, where she had joined a small up and coming rock band. Turns out she played a mean electric guitar.
"Yes but she was always fascinated with stories about aliens. Finding out that aliens actually exist was like giving her the ultimate Hearth's Warming present!" This was accompanied by an annoyed stomp of her hoof. "I can't do it, Cadance. I can't just give up everything and become a human. I never expected to become an Alicorn, but I dedicated my studies to magic! My Cutie Mark is based around magic. I spent years doing nothing but studying magic! Ask Spike, he can vouch for that. And now I'm supposed to just give it up? For what? What could I possibly do with myself if the very thing that makes me special is taken away from me because of something that wasn't even my own fault?!"
"I know, Twilight. But running yourself into the ground isn't going to help either." Cadance replied, gently patting the other Alicorn on the shoulder. "I don't think anyone likes this situation, Twilight. But we have to make do with what we have. At least they found a way to save us. And it's not true that we're giving up everything. So long as we live, our culture will survive with us."
"But that's only partly true, Cadance." Twilight shot back. "Earth ponies can still do almost everything they do now with only minor changes. But what about unicorns and pegasi? No wings means no flight. No flight means no weather control. No more air races, nothing. Cloudsdale will be destroyed once the Field hits it....everything up there is made of clouds for the most part. An entire city in the clouds, something humans can never duplicate. Gone just like that. As if it never was. The Pegasi and Unicorn cultures will both die out because there's no magic anymore. Nopony will be able to walk on the clouds. Weather's going to be like it is in Everfree! Don't you see? It'll be all wrong! Magic....real magic anyway...will be forgotten in a few decades, unless Discord decides to start playing pranks on every...one." She shook her head at that. She used to occasionally use that word, but now she'd have to use it almost all the time since ponies were no longer going to be the dominant life form of the planet. Then a more horrifying thought came to her. "Oh no....what about the Elements?! Discord isn't be affected by the Field. But does that mean they won't be either? Or-or will they be destroyed too?"
Cadance's eyes went wide. She hadn't even considered that point, and was sure neither of her aunts had either. She shook her head in response. She had no answer. Discord's seeming immunity to the Field was still a subject of contentious debate. Some thought it was because his powers were so much stronger than even those of the princesses. Some thought it was because his powers came from chaos and disharmony instead of the normal magic everypony else used.
Some thought it was because his magic used the same power source as the anti-magic field itself, which led to some thinking he was responsible for the current situation. Discord had been so incensed by that accusation that the few who had suggested it were still trapped as dancing dolls. Celestia and Luna had managed to calm him down before he'd done anything worse, but he hadn't changed his accusers back yet due to not wanting to forgive them.
A knock at the door caused both alicorns to turn, as Spike moved to open it. "Oh, hey Dash, what's up?" he asked as the cyan pegasus entered. She looked....well, disturbed. She made her way in and plopped down on a pillow next to the two princesses.
"What's wrong, Rainbow?" Cadance asked. Twilight's wings twitched a bit. Rainbow Dash looking so upset did not bode well.
"Pinkie just told me she's considering going Human."
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Hmm. I'm keeping an eye on this.
So far so good, I think.
So... a 'chapter one' prequel to Shogun Six?
2670856
Nope. I can understand why you might think that, but this story has no relation to what I guess I should now call the Shogunverse.
2670886
Fair enough. Thanks for clearing that up.
this wasn't really that good everything took place in a library that or I was just being
and not reading it that much.
2670917
It was only the first chapter. I'm hoping to have the second up soon.
Period before And.
I think combining these two sentences would look better.
Machines, plural. Things to match.
Combine these sentences and modify to add more for fluidity.
Because the non-magical nature of Earth created a kind of anti-magic field, any living creature who depended on that magical field for life could not pass. Worst still, it was spreading as more and more of Earth began to emerge and fuse with their world.
This has repetitive information from previous sentences. I suggest incorporating them as to not sound redundant. Also, remove the period after 'so long.'
Use this.
field—or as it had come to be called, the Fusion Field, or simply the Field—due...
Haha.
Honestly, its a bit of mess. As Fang points out, most of the story is tell, not show. I would suggest Twilight actually describing the mood of everypony, paint what's going on in the world.
Also, missed opportunity in making it a complete inverse of the Gammaverse.
Other than that, readable.
2670970
Believe it or not, never read Gammaverse.
2670976
Concept is pretty simple... choose the species you want to convert to.
To inverse that, lose total species identity to be... one whole species. This takes it to literally a very dark turn, probably worst than normal TCB. Extinction of humans, inverse that, extinction of ponies, zebras, diamond dogs, dragons, griffins, and others.
2671000
Heh. Actually, if you re-read it, you'll see that it's only the ponies who're having to deal with this. I figured if I'm gonna do the inverse of normal TCB, then it has to be done the way TCB did it. Dragons, zebras, griffons and the like don't need to be converted. Only humans. Thus, the reverse is true in Inversion.
2671005
I know, that's why I said 'missed' opportunities. Not really a bad thing, but you could have cranked this to Nightmare Fuel. xD
2671009
*snickers* Who says I won't? Trust me, this is only the beginning.
2671011
Okay, but you'll need to step up a bit. The concept is nice, but you have to work on when to put the info in, and how.
Wow just wow
This was really good. I mean you just reversed the whole concept and now it's just...I can't really put it into words. Normally I don't read TCB stories but this...this was the exception. Keep up the good work and I will definitely tell my friends to give you some support ^^.
2671050
Glad you liked.
*reads title and description"
Me gusta
2671009 2671011 They wasted a perfectly good plot!
2671134
Let's see how this plays out before we pull that trope out of our hats.
2671134
And besides, what makes you think that anyway?
A very interesting concept, I must admit. I do think I've seen something like this before, the reverse CB part at least, but this seems like it will be quite interesting nonetheless. It raises a lot of what if's, and it seems to be very organic. I like that, I really do.
Let us see where you can take this little project, shall we?
Also. Just noticed something. Your current stories now number from Chapter Four (Shogun Six) to Chapter One (This). It's an reverse order of numbers!
2671160 He has pretty much said: "Dragons, zebras, griffons and the like don't need to be converted." A dragon, turned into a human, can you say Blessed with suck? Loads of potential for that one.
2671169 See above.
2671191
I also explained why.
Also note I said they didn't NEED to be converted.
Who says someone else in the story might not decide they do?
2671191
Yeah... though honestly, I can see the dragons turning to Firebats.
2671207
Firebats? Really?
2671236
Fire it up!
2671240
What does the Crow have to do with this?
2671240 I see what you did there
STARCRAFT ANYONE!!!
Hm, this feels like the conversion bureau but just flipped on its head. Of course, I do have a feeling that this will be more than just that.
Though, the near-perpetual energy source sounds far too convenient to be true/believable. There's going to be a pretty big catch with that, isn't there?
2671309
Well I wish someone would explain it to me!
2671360
2671370 The firebat is a terran unit that uses a flamethrower to take down enemy units. This unit is best used against zerglings and when paired with the terran Marine units it can make for an effective one two punch when going up against zerg swarms.
wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/8/8a/Firebat.png the firebatas seen from Starcraft
carlsguides.com/starcraft2/screenshots/terran/units/marine.gif The marine as seen from Starcraft 2
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071118224743/starcraft/images/thumb/e/ec/ZerglingSCIIsamwise.jpg/180px-ZerglingSCIIsamwise.jpg zergling concept artwork
2671421
Nice.
Changelings seems to be even more magic dependent life forms than ponies, given that they eat emotions.
How are they coping with having to change into something else permanently?
2671621
An interesting question. You'll have to read to find out.
>all these downvotes
Ass annihilation detected.
2671983
No prizes for guessing who it was.
2671983>>2672017
No but if you wanna share your guesses that would be fine. What did you think of the first chapter?
2672058
It's a very good inversion of the human predicament. Because ponies are soft and adorable, people on this site actually care about them. You lay down legitimate concerns they have, readers are like "yeah, that's correct", then BOOM that's exactly the problem humans have. Where is the concern over the humans whose culture is similarly obliterated?
2672086
That is part of the experiment I've been dealing with.
2672144
Experiment, huh?
Both make me feel uncomfortable, so there's that.
2672691
Both what?
2672697
Both humans turning into ponies and ponies turning into humans.
2672770
Ah
An inversion of the conversion!
Dr. Seuss, is that you?
Hmmm... Planet 3x larger? The gravity increase from the added mass is going to kill off a lot of species,wreck just about every building over a certain size, ground all flights, make it harder to get into space, and make the atmosphere denser at sea level.
In other words, almost everything dies.
And that's not even taking into account all the other arbitrary changes to force the story.
The Everfree being free of magic? Explain the magic pools, Timberwolves, Hearts Desire/Poison Joke, active weather generation over a forest, and so on. The place is magically charged if anything.
Or how in certain episodes, and especially the comic, they get hit by anti magic/counter magic fields, and survive, because they don't actually need magic to live, they just generate it.
...What about Dragons? They generate magic(Heck, part of their biology is magical growth spurts fueled by emotions!), so are they effected too?
And why is it that the magic field is still around enough to be able to power machines, which have much higher drainage levels, but not enough to power the ponies, since they apparently need it to live on now? Does the antimagic field discriminate?
And lastly... Why does Demon Eyes Laharl's post listing a bunch of grammatical fixes and suggestions have two downvotes? What kind of incompetent downvotes constructive criticism?
"She had come through with flying colors and had been positively giddy about it. She became a minor celebrity, and had moved to Philadelphia, where she had joined a small up and coming rock band. Turns out she played a mean electric guitar."
I see what you did there.
2674082 Someone has been down voting a lot of innocuos comments here. I don't think the actual content of the comment matters but just that they are trying to sabotage the whole section.
IN YOUR FACE PONIES!!!
I just can't stop the urge to say that.