The Night Before
The man had come late in the night. Jay had just finished getting ready to get some sleep after watching more coverage of the Conversion Bureau story on the news channels. The whole thing was a little too fantastic to believe right off the bat. Ponies that could speak? Ponies that could do magic? He actually laughed at the whole thing when the first stories started airing. He had just changed the channel, surfing the television guide one last time before turning in for the night.
The man knocked twice and waited outside in the cold, drizzling rain. Jay looked down at his watch. 11:30. His parents should be getting home around now, but they wouldn’t knock at the door. They both worked at the chemical plant several miles to the west, for Telios Chemical. They actually met at the factory while working under separate contracts, and through casual workplace chatting, hit it off. They got married not too long afterwards, and then Jay came along. He was enrolled at Blowing Rock High School in North Carolina, paid for by Telios. The company offered to pay for many expenses for the employees as part of their contract, which his parents were very much inclined to agree to as workplace spouses.
But with all of their work, they weren’t home too often. Most nights Jay would have already gone to bed before they got home. His mother would always leave a note in the morning for him on how to cook up the prepackaged dinner sitting in the refrigerator. He hadn’t had a home cooked meal at his own home for as long as he could remember, each night a stale repeat of the last. Frozen pizza one night, followed by frozen lasagna the next, and so on. Even though he didn’t see his parents too often, he still loved them dearly.
“Mr. Benton? Jay Benton? Son of Laura and Felix Benton?” the man asked. He towered over jay, his black coat slick from the light rain. His black hair was plastered to his forehead and reflected the light of the porch lights, failing to detract from his solemn expression. Jay nodded, his mouth slightly agape in confusion. Had something happened? Where were his mom and dad?
“Will you get dressed? I need you to come with me. There’s been an accident.” Those final four words hit Jay strangely. And with those four words came wave of uncertainty. Accident could mean many things, from a minor injury or a splash of acid causing a burn on an arm to... The man cleared his throat rather audibly, staring at Jay with a piercing gaze. He nodded again and ran upstairs to his room.
He rooted through his dresser and his meager collection of clothing for something clean. Telios gave his parents a monthly food and clothing stipend to spend on necessities, but the money was mostly spent on food. Jay only had simple tee shirts and a few pairs of jeans. He donned them and grabbed a matching pair of dirty socks and his far too thin hoodie from the corner of his door. He stuck his feet in his old sneakers and walked back down the stairs.
The man beckoned Jay forth through the door to the house and held the car door open for him. The car’s interior was dark grey with black leather seats, the drivers cab closed off by what seemed to be a one way window. Jay buckled himself in and sunk into the seat. His heart was beating heavily, his sense of dread growing with every minute. The man outside seated himself in front of the steering wheel and started up the quiet electric engine. The car hummed as it backed out of the driveway and sped down the road. Jay only hung his head.
---
The man had said this was the district office for Telios. The tall glass building stood out distinctly from the rest of the town, which itself was comprised of buildings no taller than three stories. Yet the district office was a fifteen story black obelisk looking over everyone around for miles. The black glass doors slid apart as the man and Jay approached them. The lobby of the building was lavish; a chandelier hung above, probably thirty feet high, three inch synthetic diamonds gracing almost every facet of it. Just one of those diamonds cost more than the lifetime income of both of Jay's parents combined.
The man rushed Jay through the lobby and into the elevator, pressing the button to the eighth floor. The doors began to slide closed before someone shouted out in the lobby. "Hold it! Hold the lift!" Another man in a similar outfit as the man with Jay rushed forward, the rain dripping from his hair and coat with each step. Someone followed behind him, someone Jay was familiar with.
"Jay? What are you doing here?" the boy asked.
"Hey Austin. And no, I have no idea." The man and Austin scrambled into the elevator before the man with Jay pressed the button to close the doors. Jay kept his mouth shut after he saw the glare from the man with him when he spoke. It seemed as if they were going to find out soon anyways. The mirrored walls of the elevator began to fog up from where the man with Austin was standing. Apparently he was a bit out of shape and already worked up a sweat.
Austin had been Jay's friend for years. His short blond hair was plastered down from the rain and he was steadily catching his breath from the short sprint he and the man with him shared.
A tone chimed frothy speaker as the small monitor above the doors lit up with a stylized number 8. The doors slid open, revealing a brightly lit, carpeted hall. There were no doors, but the hallway turned at a corner a few dozen feet onward. The men walked on, Jay and Austin following in their wake.
After a few minutes of walking, they reached a door to a large room, filled with people that both Jay and Austin recognized. The majority of them seemed to be younger than the two of them, probably from Blowing Rock Elementary School. A few of the older people in the room Jay recognized from his high school.
"This is real creepy, Jay." Austin timidly walked forward.
"It's like most of the people from school are here," Jay said. He walked up to one of the people he recognized from his classes, Leah. She was standing by one of the walls, her arms folded. She stared at the floor, a blank expression on her face. "Uh, hey, Leah? You have any idea why we're all here?"
She lifted her head up and stared blankly at Jay. "No I don't," she said forcefully. She dropped her head again and let out a long sigh. Jay walked back to Austin, still standing in the middle of the room.
"Well Leah seems to be as colorful as ever," Jay sighed.
"If she said something even remotely kind to you, THEN we'd know something was wrong," Austin joked. The two chuckled for a short moment before settling back into silence, the all too breif smiles fading from their faces.
"I'm... I'm kinda scared, Jay," Austin murmured.
"Why?"
Austin shuffled in place. "My parents are usually home pretty early in the evenings. My mom promised to make some eggplant casserole and nothing could stop my dad from that. If he was forced to miss that..." Austin's voice dropped to a whimper as he stared at the floor.
Jay patted his friend's shoulder reassuringly. "Listen, everything's gonna be okay. Let’s just wait and not worry too much about it, okay?" Austin nodded and forced a weak smile.
One of the men in black coats stepped into the room and cleared his throat. "Will all children under the age of sixteen come with me please?" His voice was heavy and assertive. Most of the kids in the room followed him, leaving maybe a dozen people left, including Jay, Austin, and Leah. The twelve looked at each other, each more confused than the other.
The door opened once more. A man in a white button down shirt and a red tie entered the room carrying a stack of papers in the crook of his arm. He handed each one of the twelve a packet, asking them not to open or read it just yet. After everyone got their packet, he walked to the front of the room and cleared his throat.
"It is my displeasure to inform you that there has been an accident at the facility your parents worked at, resulting in… in their deaths." A stunned silence filled the room, broken only by a girl towards the back. Jay was frozen in place. His parents... gone? Just like that?
Austin's face went slack. The blood drained from his face, leaving it a pale alabaster, his eyes unblinking in shock. His fingers were trembling slightly. The tremble made its way up his arms, growing in strength as he brought his hands to his mouth. Tears began filling his eyes until, without warning, he turned and grabbed Jay in a great hug, crying into his shoulder.
The sobs shook Jay as he could feel his friends tears soak into his thin hoodie. Jay apprehensively wrapped his arms around his sobbing friend and hugged him back to comfort him. Austin began to regain his composure and pulled away, wiping the residual tears from his eyes and cheeks.
"When your parents signed their contracts with us, it included certain provisions for you all, their children." The man gave a big sigh. "But because you all are over the age of sixteen, we no longer have to provide for you through company protocol. The younger ones you saw earlier lost their parents too, but they're being placed in company sponsored foster care under other employees. However, because you all are over that age cap, you only have two options. First, you can sign the contracts I gave you all and become an employee yourself, entitling you to keeping your house and belongings, as well as finishing your high school education."
Everyone around Jay began looking at their packets, including Jay. The agreement was hundreds of pages thick, but after flipping through many of the pages, he could see they already filled out with all of his personal information. On the cover page was just a line with a red X. The line for his signature.
"Should you decline our offer, we would offer you transportation to any city within fifty miles around and leave you on your own, to seek a life for yourselves. We wouldn't be responsible for you anymore. However... Because of the recent... happenings... we are offering a third choice. A lift to the nearby Conversion Bureau." All of the eyes in the room rested on the white shirted man. "Enrollment there will almost guarantee you a life, which in my opinion is considerably better than the second option."
Austin promptly walked over to the trash can by the wall and dropped his contract in there without hesitation. After a short moment of silence, another girl followed suit, but Jay never let his eyes wander from her as he did so. A friend of his throughout middle school and high school, Chloe walked to the trash can with tears streaming down her cheeks as she dropped her contract with the rest of them.
Jay was shocked and saddened to see her here. The few times he had met her parents, they were always very kind and welcoming to anyone who was friends with Chloe. They were gone too? After she dropped the packet of papers in the trash, she sunk down against the wall and began crying into her hands. Leah had followed her, and after throwing out her own contract, went over to comfort her friend.
Jay looked down at his own packet. What was he going to do? He had his two options: become an employee of the company that led to the events that killed his parents… or abandon his species for a new land? He didn't read much up on the ponies since they had appeared several months ago, but he had been hearing the discussions around the school.
He didn't care too much for them, the ponies. But what was making the decision so hard was seeing Chloe so destroyed by what has happened in the past few minutes. Jay had always cared about Chloe since the two of them went to their eighth grade dance together simply as friends, nothing more. It was then that he realized how nice she looked, how bright her smile was, and...
The same thing that made the decision so hard before had made it so easy now. He walked over to the trash can and dropped his contract amongst the pile of others. He looked back at the rest of the group, realizing that he was the last one out of them all to do so. They all watched him as he took his place next to Austin. As he did so, they all steadily looked to the man in the white shirt. He began to smile.
"Technically, the management told me to either employ you or dump you lot on the streets. I always hated that policy." Jay smiled as the rest of the group did so as well. "Now the bureau program is a ten day stay, so I'm going to send you all home to collect everything you need for it. A few changes of clothes, toiletries, and also we'll give you one last night at your homes for closure before we pick you all up in the morning. Be ready by eight."
The man walked out of the room, shortly followed by twelve men in black coats entering. Two of the men Jay recognized as they moved towards him and Austin. Wordlessly, he gestured for the two of them to follow him out from the room. Jay chanced one last look at Chloe, her face still buried in her hands. Leah was helping her up as two more men in black coats waited for them.
---
Jay sat on his bed. The last time he would sit on his bed. He looked around his room. He had packed a duffel bag with a few changes of clothes like the man in the white shirt said. It sat at the foot of his bed. He had looked up some information on the bureau when the man in the black coat drove him back home. The bureau program was ten days, because it helped foster a smooth transition from human culture to that of the Equestrians.
The bureau they were going to was one a few miles to the east, away from the town. It was just built and had just opened, and it was very likely that the twelve that Jay was a part of were going to be the only ones there. The website had said that interacting with ponies beforehand did assist with the 'conversion', as personal friendships were an important aspect of their culture.
Jay fell onto his back, the pillow puffing up and steadily deflating as his head sunk into it. He turned off the light on his bed side table and looked at the clock. 12:30. His whole world had been turned upside down in an hour. He had just gone from a regular high school student to a pioneer of sorts. It was still early in the Conversion movement, the first bureaus opening up a few months ago amidst protests and controversies concerning the nature of the program. Not many people had initially jumped at the opportunity, but given that Jay didn't really have an alternative aside from a life on the streets and ultimately a short life at that, he was glad that the bureau was there for him and his friends.
As the world melted around him and the sounds of the world outside faded from his recognition, Jay thought one thing before sleep overtook him.
Good night mom, good night dad. I love you.
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OK, I just have to know. What the hell is The Conversion Bureau? I Googled it, and I learned nothing.
59104
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uHwM6jFStJxLTestWo3q7HqRLC5PVXbq7xIIEgSTAWY/edit?authkey=CI6W8t4P&hl=en_US&authkey=CI6W8t4P
Midnight Shadow put together the companion document that I linked above. Give it a quick read to get an idea what the Conversion Bureau is all about.
Its off to a good start. It felt a bit quick learning about Jay and his parents dying but that may just be the "first chapter" feeling that I am getting.
In any case I will await the next chapter attentively. Good luck sir!
59137
Don't worry, this chapter was mostly to set up the circumstances of why they were all going to get converted. And there will be many points in which Jay as well as others will reflect about what has happened.
I've enjoyed most Conversion Bureau universe fics and this one seems like another I'll probably enjoy. I agree with DerangedDingo a bit about how it seemed quick with the mass parental deaths but then again this story is to be about the kids and apparently Jay and Chloe as a focus. Well Jay as a focus at least until things between him and Chloe actually go somewhere.
mother of god another conversion bureau
I love the Conversion Bureau universe. I've been (slowly but surely) putting together a fic that kind of zooms out on the scenario Blaze made, and I'm glad I'm not the only one still posting about it.
Yes! Yes! Yes! I cannot get enough Conversion Bureau, and Windchaser is good. Happy day!
I didn't even need to read it to 5-star it and fav it, just having Windchaser's name on it is enough for me. And the chapter didn't fail to deliver haha, can't wait to see more.
59514
I'm glad you think so. And just wait for the next chapter. Already at work on it, and at less than a quarter done, it's passed the first in terms of length.
59525
Yay! I love long chapters! I'm hoping to finish Chapter 2 of my very first fic tomorrow sometime, though mine aren't as long as yours
Very nice start, makes me with I could do a Conversion Bereau story.
Yay!
I love conversion bureau stories.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
59514
*Swats with rolled up newspaper*
read first, fav after.
59846
*cuffs upside the head*
I already knew it'd be 5-star material, I didn't feel like scrolling back up to do what was inevitable anyway
Not much plot, a little light on pathos, but we have the makings of a story here. It's a little bit just-so, but competently written.
fantastic
Hmm, you've got me, but this is something of a rough start. It doesn't have much of a hook, and you do a lot of telling, and not nearly enough showing. I think the strongest part was the details of how this corporation handles this whole thing: it corrals all these kids together, and then wows them with lavish surroundings -- the bit about the diamonds and the allusion to the worth of his parents is a real gut-punch to an aware reader.
59350
Did you ever write it? (I'd just look at your user page, but I can't access it, presumably because of the period and/or the apostrophe in your name.)
Also: What's this a crossover with?