• Published 25th Oct 2013
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The Conversion Bureau: The Last Week - Cloudhammer



Seven days. Seven lives, each of which had a part to play in the end of the world. But through their efforts, the earth has a chance for a new beginning

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4 - Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, Part I

February 27th, 2053
The Day of Rejection

Celestia stood calmly amidst the sea of lights and cameras. “Distinguished members of the United Nations, I am pleased to be able to tell you that our efforts with the Rejection spell array are ahead of schedule. Once Twilight Sparkle engraves the final runes, we will be ready.” She nodded her head as the United Kingdom ambassador raised a hoof. “Yes?”

“I know that this has been asked before, but do we have any new information to indicate this spell will work?”

“As much as I wish I could say yes, we don’t,” Celestia replied firmly. “I have faith in my student’s hard work, as well as that of the hundreds of ponies who’ve contributed their minds and skills to this project. I know that Equestria is asking much of this august body to take our words at face value, but I must ask all the same. We have done our best to include ponies from other nations in this undertaking, but unfortunately we still have much to accomplish to bring proper magical training to other countries.”

The UK delegate nodded and sat back onto his cushion, while other delegates clamored to have their questions answered.

Celestia raised a hoof, waiting until the hall was silent. “I understand you have many more questions, and I have charged Equestria’s ambassador, Duke Fancypants,” she gestured to the unicorn beside her, “with answering them to the best of his ability. But I must beg your leave, as there are preparations of my own that I must make before Rejection begins.” With a brilliant flash of golden light, she vanished from the stage.

Many delegates frowned, but sat in their seats nonetheless as the light from her teleport faded. Fancypants coughed lightly and moved to stand behind the lectern. “Yes, now, I believe I saw the paw for the delegate from Mongolia?”


Celestia sighed as she materialized in her chambers, her ceremonial garb floating off to rest on their stands. She turned toward one of the guards bowing by the door. “Could you be so kind as to let my sister know that I have returned, and will need to speak with her? She will know where to find me.”

“Of course, Princess, right away.” With a salute, the two galloped down the corridor, and Celestia smiled at their dedication. She left her chambers, turning down several hallways seemingly at random, nodding acknowledgement to the ponies she passed on the way. As she drew closer to her destination in the bowels of the castle, the number of ponies dwindled until she was finally alone. The hallway she stood in was ancient, carved from the natural stone instead of the imported marble, and only held one door. It loomed ahead of her, the dull runes inscribed into it still humming with power. As she approached, they briefly glowed in warning, but then her aura meshed with theirs and the defensive spells deactivated.

“Sister, you know as well as I that there is no time to speak with them yet,” Luna chided, stepping out of the shadows cast on the wall.

“We should have done so sooner, Luna,” Celestia replied, the nostalgia washing over her as she regarded the door. “They have as much right to be involved as we do.”

“And we’ve done what we can to ensure their representation among the Converted,” Luna pointed out, “but you know that with the mortal world having as little time as it does before Rejection begins, we cannot risk any temporal delays in going through the portal.”

“As usual, your counsel is correct, Luna, but—” Celestia paused as a faint tremor echoed around them. The stone remained unmoving, but the leylines that converged under the mountain shuddered, their flow disrupted. “Did you feel that?”

“Of course. It would seem that Rejection is as impatient to get this day over with as we are. Come, we must ensure that Twilight Sparkle is finished with the spell matrix.” Luna vanished back into the shadows.

Celestia closed her eyes and reached out for the familiar presence of her student’s aura. ”Right where it should be,” she thought, in the throne room, the proverbial central point of Equestria’s leyline network. She teleported again, this time emerging in the air to make sure she didn’t land on a rune by mistake.

“Princess Celestia, you’re back!” Twilight exclaimed, the sticks of chalk floating in her magic continuing their work as she trotted carefully over.

Celestia landed carefully in the circle designated for her, mindful not to smudge any of the lines and symbols surrounding it. The rest of the throne room floor fared little better, intricate patterns running to, and in places up, the walls. She smiled as she saw the other Element Bearers were already in their assigned places, their elements shining from around their necks. Arrayed around them stood fifty-two unicorns, almost universally from the School for Gifted Unicorns, though there were some from other nations who’d demonstrated the raw magical power necessary to aid the ritual.

“I am so very proud of the work you have done here, Twilight. Truly this circle is the equal of anything even Starswirl could envision, let alone cast.”

Twilight blushed at the praise, scuffing a hoof on the marble of her own circle. “Well, I did have one of the best teachers I could have asked for. And really, much of the matrix is repurposed from twenty years ago, so it was mostly the initiator and the director array that needed to be redesigned…” She trailed off as she realized she was rambling. “In any case, this was a team effort from everypony, not just me.”

Celestia’s smile only grew wider, seeing for a moment the precocious filly who had such talent but no skill at making friends, and the young mare who’d figured out the truth of her sister’s return all on her own. She opened her mouth to say more, but another leyline tremor shook the foundations. “Is everything ready, Twilight?” Celestia looked down, extending her senses to feel for the next tremor. “I fear we do not have much time remaining.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ve felt the leyline tremors too, and….” The chalk pieces drew a few more lines, then winked out of the room, “we are finished! Now, we just need Princess Luna to get into her designated circle and we can begin!”

“Then let us not tarry, Twilight,” Luna said as she arrived in a flash of azure light. “The tremors are already intensifying, and I can feel the material world starting to respond as well.” Almost to add emphasis to her words, the floor shivered slightly.

With a nervous swallow, Twilight looked to her friends. “Are you ready, girls?”

“You better bet on it!” Applejack exclaimed, stamping her hoof.

“Absolutely, darling, ready to follow your lead!” Rarity chimed in.

Fluttershy nodded, mumbling something which sounded like acknowledgement.

Rainbow Dash grinned. “I was born ready!”

Pinkie Pie nodded, her usual smile somewhat muted as a wave of twitches and shivers ran through her body. “Ready-Freddy, Twilight! Though my Pinkie Sense is going haywire, so there’s one heck of a doozy coming!”

Twilight couldn’t help the smile. “You’re definitely not wrong, Pinkie.” She took one more look around the room to ensure everypony was in their proper place. Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, check. Her brother and her friends, check. Spike, safe behind a triple-redundant barrier to make sure no stray energies hit him, check. The other unicorns she’d evaluated, check. “Okay, everything checks out, the runes are all placed correctly, everypony is in position.” She took a deep breath, her magic welling up with her exhale as she focused on the initial rune in the chain, right at her hooves.

As her energy poured into it, a soft glow suffused it, spilling over into the other runes as the first began to resonate. The chain reaction spread slowly at first, but as the amplifier runes began to exponentially increase the energy, it began illuminating the entire throne room.

The glow reached Rarity first, and her horn ignited almost on reflex, adding her energy to the steady flow. It quickly reached the other element bearers, the light beginning to take on a rainbow hue as their stones resonated with each other.

“That’s it, girls, just keep it going,” Twilight urged, her senses almost fully occupied with directing the flow of power. She could feel each flare in magic as the energy reached each member of the ritual, their own unique energies identifying them as clear as day. Her brother’s resonated with his desire to keep his loved ones and country safe, while Cadance’s shone with her connection to the primal magic of love. Her friends all resonated almost as one entity, underpinned by their unshakeable faith in each other and her.

The throne room was glowing brightly now, too bright to be directly observed. Even Spike had to cover his eyes as the power spilled out of the castle, practically racing along leylines to the corners of Equestria. Everywhere the lines ran, ponies, diamond dogs, humans, griffons, zebras, all gathered to wish those at the center their best.

At the center of the ritual, Twilight was enveloped in light, her mane and tail whipping in the ethereal winds as the spell started to wind in on itself. This was the key to the casting, to provide the initial charge, and much like winding a spring, to start drawing the power in on itself to recast it through the same runes. As her small-scale experiments had proven, and her two years of theory work with the other unicorns at the School suggested, this would exponentially amplify the spell’s power, allowing it to set up a continuous rebound. This in turn would allow her to extend its influence around the entire globe, acting as a net to draw it through the rift and back into Equestria’s dimension.

It was as the energy hit what should have been the critical point to begin rebounding that Twilight noticed something was wrong. The energy just wasn’t increasing quick enough. “Come on everypony, we can do this! Give it everything you can!” The aura around her horn doubled in brightness, it’s light so bright she could see it through her eyelids. Sweat was forming on her face, but the energy swirling across her swept it away before it got into her eyes.

Celestia, Luna and Cadance all nodded, pouring even more of their power into the spell. The temperature started to fluctuate as heat and cold clashed, while everypony present felt the surge of love from Cadance.

And yet, it still wasn’t enough. Twilight frantically crunched through her runes, the layers upon layers she’d interwoven flashing by in her head. It didn’t make sense, the power should be there—

”Come on, we can do this!” Rainbow Dash’s voice suddenly echoed. Twilight glanced up in surprise, only to see her friend’s teeth gritted, red light flowing from the element around her neck.

”It’s just a little magic, I can spare more!” Rarity’s voice chimed in, and this time Twilight saw that her lips weren’t moving at all.

Realization hit her like lightning. It was uncommon, but some unicorns had documented hearing scattered thoughts and emotions from others in collaborative magic of sufficient scale. And there had never been a spell on this scale cast before. She could practically feel her friends’ minds, their wills working to drive the spell—

The storm of thoughts in her head stopped, a single idea occupying all of her concentration. She could feel her friends’ wills. Theories that shouldn’t have been thought in books that shouldn’t have been written, which were not locked in the forbidden archives, which a certain overcurious mare shouldn’t have read, came to mind. Spells which would allow a pony to dominate the mind and will of another, directing it to their purpose as if it were their own…

”Well, it’s not quite what its creator intended, since it’d be a voluntary joining of minds,” Twilight thought as she reached out through the spell, a rush of bubbly happiness filling her as she brushed against Pinkie’s consciousness. ”Pinkie?” she asked hesitantly.

”Ooooh, this feels weird, Twilight! Also, I don’t know much about magic, but something feels strange, but not the fun strange like when you get an all-body shiver, or when eating pickle flavored ice cream—”

”Yes Pinkie, you’re right. The spell isn’t working, and we don’t have much time left. But I’ve got an idea. It’s risky, but—”

”Go for it!” Pinkie replied immediately. ”I trust you, Twilight.”

Twilight felt tears being whisked away by the roiling energy, and she took a deep breath, steadying herself for what she was about to do. ”Okay Pinkie, just relax, I’m ninety percent sure I know what I’m doing.” She reached out further with her will and enveloped Pinkie’s into her own.

Abruptly she felt the energy around them stabilize slightly, now moving with a singular purpose. New calculations ran through her head, and she felt a thrill of happiness as she and Pinkie both came to the same conclusion. Of course the spell wasn’t quite working right, even though she and everypony else involved were working toward the same goal, they were just out of sync enough to throw it off.

”Girls, everypony, I think I’ve got it. I need you all to trust me.” She reached out further, grasping for each of her friends. Applejack’s determination, Rainbow Dash’s fearlessness, Fluttershy’s compassion, Rarity’s selflessness, they all filled her as she began to direct their efforts into the spell.

Celestia frowned as the energies shifted. “Twilight, what are you…” A twinge of horror took root. “Twilight, you can’t…”

Her mentor’s words went unheard as Twilight continued to stretch herself, now adding the minds of the others to her growing network. She still felt alright, considering she was one will directing fifty-seven others. Extending her new magical muscle into the leylines, she could feel them growing, extending beyond Equestria’s borders. The spillover of magic that had covered Hawaii was the barest tip of the iceberg, she realized.

She didn’t have the words to describe it. She’d practiced expanding or restricting leylines as part of her advanced studies, but to feel new leyline growth, worming through the crust of the world as they branched out for the concentrations of life on the other continents… it was sublime. She briefly wondered if Starswirl had felt the same way during the reconstruction of Equestria after Discord had been sealed.

Then the leylines hit the Japanese coast.

Twilight shuddered as the energy of the spell surged, the leylines branching out along random yet natural flow lines through the ground. Above ground, she started to feel the minds of the populace, their hope for the spell to work as the sky burned with impossibly colored fire.

It was almost too easy: reach out with the energy, coiling power around their minds, her stretched awareness reassuring those afraid of the presence intruding on their thoughts.

”Please, everyone, we can do this, all of us together!” Twilight shouted inside her own head, teeth gritted as the leylines hit the United States. She could feel the clawing of thousands, millions of minds as she wrestled to bring them all into herself. ”I know you’re afraid, but this. will. WORK!

“Twilight, stop!” Celestia shouted, withdrawing from the spell enough to open her eyes. The throne room was engulfed in solid white light, enough to blind any mortal who dared look, but she could make out the form of her student.

Twilight’s body was suspended in the grip of the spell, her coat blazing white with the power coursing through it, mane aflame with the excess energy. Her eyes were wide open, two white orbs gazing into nothing.

Celestia tried to take a step forward, the runes crackling and hissing as she neared the edge of the circle.

“Twilight!” The cry was faint, but Celestia’s head snapped around as she realized Spike was still in the room, the shielding spells peeling back before her eyes.

“Forgive me, Spike,” she whispered as she teleported him from the room. Turning back to Twilight, she took another step forward, the spell pushing against her.

“Sister, you must remain still!” Luna shouted as she continued to pour energy into the spell.

“I can’t let her do this, Luna!” Celestia cried, head bowed against the ethereal wind. “She’ll be destroyed!”

“They’ll all die if you break that circle now! There is no going back, you know that as well as I, as well as Twilight does! The only thing we can do now is to put our faith in her and help see this to the end!”

Celestia nearly took the next step, had to fight against every instinct she had to not break the circle. Finally, with a cry of despair she dove back into the spell. The sheer scale of what greeted her staggered her. The leylines had reached all the way around the globe, magic pouring into the planet to its core. She could feel billions of pinpricks, all the inhabitants of the world coordinating as one to direct the influx of energy.

And spread thinly across the ‘top’ of it all was Twilight’s mind, frayed at the edges, but guiding the spell all the same.

T-Twilight?” she asked, a slight chill running down her spine as Twilight’s consciousness turned its focus toward her slightly, mirrored by all the minds joined to her.

It’s beautiful, Celestia. Can you feel it? So much intricacy, all the subtle changes taking hold…” Her voice grew fainter as the leylines began connecting on the opposite side of the world. The planet shone with eldritch light as a foreign reality asserted itself over what had held sway since its creation.

”Twilight, you have to let go now! It’s too much for a mortal mind, even yours!” Celestia begged, trying to spread her consciousness overtop of Twilight’s. She could feel Luna’s silent shouting behind her, but paid it no mind, summoning more of her power. She’d bring herself fully into the mortal world if she had to.

”Celestia, I—” Twilight’s voice suddenly vanished, absorbed into the maelstrom of consciousness. For a single instant, the entire world was truly unified, every pony, dog, griffon, human linked as one.

And the spell was complete.


The Curiosity rover had waited in its last directed position, cameras dutifully aimed where its final instructions had indicated. It was forced to recalculate for the sudden increase in illumination from the second sun that briefly shone in the sky, though the light soon diminished and returned to normal.

It continued to record and store information, unknowing and uncaring that it would never receive another command from its makers.


Celestia grimaced as the spell unraveled around her, the energy dissipated back into the aether. She shook her head as the last of the light vanished, and looked around the throne room. Luna stood quietly in her circle, mane almost completely gone, with what was left hanging limp. Everypony else lay unconscious on the floor, though the Element bearers were starting to stir. Cadance had already crossed to Shining Armor’s side, a flickering pink light surrounding his head as she assessed his condition.

“Sister,” Luna said quietly, her voice strained.

Celestia didn’t want to look, didn’t want to confirm what her heart already knew. But she looked anyway.

The array had been built with sixty-two circles, one for each of the participants in the spell.

Sixty-one circles were currently occupied. At the heart of the array, the sixty-second stood empty, save for a pattern burned into the stone.

A star surrounded by five smaller ones.

Celestia screamed.