You chose a realistic approach, which means that we shall be seeing a repeat of history.

I shudder to think of it.

I just wonder which history it will most resemble. Humans are historically a vengeful lot, so this could be truly horrific.

Fascinating premise, though. And I liked the daring of the interspecies relationship. It challenges one.

So the World Government is about to go Barbarossa on Equestria. And this is benevolent condescending Celestia version.

1217717 Thank you for your kind words Lady Chatoyance. Well I think that the shadow council might have some regrets eventually, if only Mr. Green had more influence among his peers. When they draw the sword that is known as the God of War, it can't be sheathed until it has tasted blood of its enemies.

While war in its own right is terrible, often every cloud has its silver lining. Maybe with removal of every HWS from the Earth mankind might actually have a chance to force change against their corporate masters. On the other hand, the teeming masses might only receive the imprint of their steel toed boots on their back.

Regarding the interspecies romance, thanks I was really worried it might be overplayed. I have no idea how to write love, women, or romance, and I was afraid I was going to end up in Harlequin territory. I truly had no intention of writing about it either, and then bam I was forced to by that little minx Floating Point. Though I think its sexy how much she likes science and blowing stuff up. Out of curiosity, do you think I was too graphic with the sex scene? I thought a clinical approach was probably the best way to go, to avoid offending anyone.

Once again thanks for reading. Until next time!

1218283 Thank you for your comments gentlereader. Interesting you should mention Barbarossa, as in Operation Barbarossa perhaps, or more the crusading king? While this version of Celestia might appear condescending, I think her summation of humanities government is apt. There's no way she could ever allow humanity to live among her ponies, without some means of making both groups equal to each other. She's well aware that many of the elite among her ponies consider humanity inferior to them, given towards humanities propensity for war, violence, and the current condition of the Earth. And humans, if allowed into Equestria carte blanche would soon bring the vestiges of their horrid government with them. Equestria could afford to absorb a small number of humans unchanged, but not the entirety of their population without being overwhelmed.

Thanks for reading gentlereader.Until next time!

To me, the relationship did feel a little fast, both in terms of the time it took for both parties to realize it was more than deep friendship and in terms of how little was devoted to any moreal qualms either of them might have felt toward such a relationship in the first place. But, after reading it a second time and your author notes, I understand it was your first real foray into this. As someone who has been planning for some time to explore the subject of inter-species relations, I understand how difficult it is to write properly and applaud the effort you did put into it. I do hope to see it make a return in the future, as it does make for some very interesting and thought-provoking reading.

1227121 Thank you for your comments gentlereader. Yes emotions, especially romance has never been my strong suite. In fact this piece was never supposed to have any of that mushy stuff in it. Unfortunately since chapter 1 was devoted to showing how humanity discovered the backdoor into Equestria, the relationship that Floating Point and Dr. de Lancie shared was by necessity rushed. Since their relationship isn't really the focus of the story, but more ancillary I fell that their relationship can be looked at facsimile of the Humanity/Equestria relationship. One born out of necessity, and in the heat of the moment. Neither Floating Point or Dr. de Lancie knew what the outcome of the relationship might become but decided to live as if tomorrow might never come.

Once again gentlereader thanks for reading. Until next time!

1228172 Thank you for your comments gentlereader. The reasons that Dr. de Lancie chose Floating Point and Equestria over Humanity was because of what he feared would happen. He's not ignorant to the kinds of people in power, the corporate run world government runs things with an iron fist. The only reason why the powers that be even are bothering with ponification is because there was no way past the barrier. As a moral human being, his conscience wouldn't allow him to be the one that gave the world government unfettered access to Equestria. He felt it would be better if he kept the secret. As for the romance, I hadn't really planned on it turning out like it did. Originally I was going to make Dr. de Lancie betray Floating Point. She slowly wins him over, and then discovers the wormhole. They present their findings to the H.E.S.S. board and then the truth is revealed. The trap them both, and demand that Dr. de Lancie makes a choice. Either he shoots Floating Point to keep the Equestrians from discovering the truth, or he dies along side her. In the end he picks up the gun they offer him, and carefully considers it as she looks up at him with pleading eyes. Moments later he pulls the trigger twice. Putting both rounds in Floating Point's head, as the other humans congratulate him on making the correct choice. Then fade to the narrator.

I decided it would be more fun to make it be Floating Point the one who betrays him instead, and in the end not only betrayed the person she loved but also her fellow ponies, Princess Celestia, Equestria, and most importantly herself. If their relationship was going to be a more prominent fixture of the story I would have stretched it out over 3 or 4 chapters. But I know what everyone came to read and it wasn't poorly written romance, but giant death dealing machines.

Thanks for your comments gentlereader. Until next time!

1229873 I will agree with you that it it was wrong for Celestia to obfuscate the truth behind the true nature of Equestria. But could you really blame her? A population of probably under 500 million ponies who are technologically inferior, versus a population of at least 9 billion humans who have the means and are currently fighting meaningless wars over profits margins with weapons that could only come from their nightmares.

I've always envisioned Celestia as nothing but compassionate and benevolent, with the protection of Equestria is her primary motivation (she did banish her own sister to the moon after all). Perhaps if Humanity and Equestria had the proper time to woo each other a more equitable relationship could have been achieved, instead of the hasty Hobson's choice of ponification or die. A being so full of compassion could never allow sentient beings to become extinct without at least trying something to save them, while at the same time protecting her own realm from their more caustic influences.

Sorry if the story so far has been annoying you, I promise that you'll enjoy the next chapter much more. But out of curiosity were you Celestia's place how would you have run things? Would you have allowed full scale immigration with potion like her? Limited immigration for a select few? Or whole sale immigration for all consequences be damned, and live with the fallout?

1230458 Yes I'd agree with you that most people are inherently good, with the jerks who managed to get to the top as being the ones who give everyone else a bad rep. As far as the ponies are concerned, as much as I enjoy Chatoyance's dystopia setting in her conversion bureau universe I never bought into the whole notion that ponies are any better then humanity. Which is why I always write a few characters who always proclaim their supposed moral superiority to humanity either in the way of pride or pity. I'm sure without the benefit of Celestia watching over them, within a few generations the ponies would be well on their way to society much like humanities.

Dr. de lancie, reference to John De Lancie (actor behind Q and Voice Actor for Discord)... i like

1234167 Thank you for your comments gentlereader. You're the first to catch the reference. I originally was going to have the good doctor actually be a humanized Discord to explain the divergence between this story and The Reluctant Cyborg. I had originally wanted to actually start off with chapter 6 of The Reluctant Cyborg and have Tinman doing his search for the unicorns as he flew over Phoenix until he finds himself frozen in midair. Checking his sensors he discovers that time has frozen. As he wonders what the hell just happened, the camera would pull back revealing Discord sitting on a recliner eating popcorn and drinking chocolate milk. He had paused reality cause it was getting too boring. Tinman demands to know whats going on and Discord laughs and says that the story was getting trite and predictable and he was going to spice the movie of the week up by making a few changes. Tinman annoyed of having to deal with his shenanigans refuses to play along until Discord promises him what hes longed for. The war to end all wars. Tinman thinks for a moment and says okay I'm in.

As you can see I decided to go with my Rod Sterling Discord telling his little parables for each chapter. Out of curiosity how did you enjoy the rest of the chapter? I know the romance was a bit weak, but that because I needed the betrayal to happen at the end of the chapter so I could get back to Tinman.

Once again thanks for reading. Until next time!

The chapter's a little rough, but damned good. Some missed punctuation, nothing major.

The road to hell is always paved with good intentions, something I believe Floating Point is well aware of, now.

1252877 Thank you for your comments gentlereader. What parts of the chapter did you consider rough? Is it the rushed nature of the romance, or perhaps the pacing?

1253882
Chapter felt slightly rushed, but it also had it's share of straight grammatical errors.

I really like the setting in which you place your conversion bureau universe. Most fics I've read usually take place around our current time period. Placing the 'Equestrian emergence' event decades in the future must've been a interesting route to explore (giant robots are really fun to write about aren't they?).
With that being said, I'm curious as to how much much of the barrier encompasses Earth by this time, in both this continuity and in 'The Reluctant Cyborg'.

As for this particular chapter, I'm curious as to why the human and equestrian scientists weren't working on ways to evacuate mankind from the planet. Wouldn't simply leaving and establishing, let's say, a colony on the Moon have been more simple?

That moment when the romance between Dr. John de Lancie and Floating Point was more interesting then the actual story itself...