I'm late to the party. Hope you saved some cupcakes.
The Conversion Bureau387 stories ·769 members
The Conversion Bureau389 stories ·1,316 members
The Writers' Group56,427 stories ·9,294 members
Delphine Thibodeaux--Tib to her friends, if she had any--is a member of a privileged working class. Yet her life is empty and joyless, and her future is as immutable as it is bleak.
Then Equestria makes contact with her dying world, and Tib has the opportunity to change her life in ways she never imagined. But the price of a new future can be very high.
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Wonderful story, the very first to deal with the experience of the saving of artificial life forms in this genre. I cared about the characters, and it was nice to have a happy ending.
Hmm... I have to say that the story is much tighter and more approachable sans the song lyrics in it. This is actually better, I think.
Really fine job!
Dude really dropped this in one day as if it's a regular book
11521395
I've never liked posting incomplete stories. When I start something, I want to finish it rather than get distracted and leave it hanging. And I was so excited about this story that I just decided to publish all the chapters at once instead of once a week or something like that.
I hope you enjoyed it.
"Not every human is like Shirl," Harmony reminded her. "Or the ones who tried to burn us up. Some people are good. And most of them will probably choose to be ponies."
"I hope so."
* barf!*
I really hate the TCB verse. Humanity bad or mostly bad, ponies good. Yeah, we're taking over your planet, so join us or else.
Literal genocide.
11521433
There is a reason I have blocked you HumanSVD, and you have just shown that reason here. Your comment is mindless hate, and offers nothing beyond that. Just came here to shit on Maddie's story. That's it. That's all you did with that post. Shit on her effort.
That is not a kind way to behave. I hope someday, you grow up.
11522609
Replace Humans with Jewish people, and the ponies as Nazi supremacists. The concept is virtually the same. Joseph Mengele himself would probably shed a tear if he could do what Princess Celestia is doing. Convert everyone with magic to the chosen race.
Ponies are literally committing genocide via a magic barrier in a world that isn't theirs.
Why can't you see the obvious issue? I'm showing disgust to the morals and concept of the TCB verse in general.
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I didn't want to respond to your negative posts. Everyone has a right to not like something, and to openly voice their dislike. I did find it interesting that you chose a passage where I had a character specifically state that not all humanity is evil...but I still wanted to let it pass.
But then you brought up the Nazis.
I'm not going into any specifics since I'm sure you're not interested in my family history, but I had relatives who died during the Holocaust. They weren't Jewish: they were native Germans, marked as "enemies of the state" because they opposed the Nazi regime. I personally suffered abuse at the hands of a neo-Nazi skinhead because my blood isn't "pure". (I'm mixed race and damn proud of it.) So, as I hope you can understand, I have very strong negative reactions to any discussion about Nazi Germany. It's a raw wound that runs through my father's side of the family.
Still, thank you for providing such a fine example of Godwin's Law.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GodwinsLaw
You don't have to like TCB fic. You can even be offended by it. That's your right. Me, I don't like smutfics where (for example) Macintosh does unbrotherly things to a terrified and unwilling Applebloom. You won't see me commenting on stories like that because I don't ever read them. In fact, I avoid them like the plague because I know I hate them. Why would I ever read anything that offended me so viscerally?
I very clearly marked this story as TCB related in the cover image. If you don't like a subgenre, I don't understand why you would ever bother reading a fic based around it if you're so repelled. Could you help me understand your reasons for doing so?
Sincerely, I'm hoping you didn't come here just to stir shit up. Because that would make you an asshole.
11522789
Voicing revulsion of what a character says in a story you wrote is negative? Lol okay.
So what? That doesn't change the fact the ponies are literally invading and altering the native species and essentially killing their identity. The reaction of the humans being hostile to an invading race isn't unreasonable. If anything, that SHOULD get you to see why the humans violently reacting to the ponies is reasonable.
Because the comparison is valid. It's literally, in its entirety, the same concept of attempting to wipe out "undesirables" but with different means.
And since you're pulling that, I have Jewish blood in me. It's not much but it's still there. And if some invader is coming to make me "convert" or die and change my planet, yeah, I'm picking up a fire foam bomb too.
I explicitly chose this because the character saying it completely doesn't understand the implication of what they are doing. It's insane and maddening. They essentially are saying most or a lot of humans are bad. Not all mind, but enough that the planet must essentially be cleansed of their identity or reduced because Princess Celestia says so. They'll become ponies because ponies are a better, benevolent race and a superior life form of morality.
NO! NO THEY ARE NOT!
The premise was compelling, so I read it to see what the cost is and if the ponies would, at any point think, "Maybe what we're doing isn't a good thing."
But nope, tone deaf and failure to see the consequences of their actions. Just "Convert the humans for their own good, even if some of them are good by our righteous judgement."
Genocide with rainbows and sunshine always stir me up.
Voicing anger at genocide makes me an asshole? Hoookay then.
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I'm rather pleased that my description of my story interested you. I'm sorry you didn't find the story itself to your liking.
As to the question of our widely different interpretations regarding the TCB genre... where you see invasion and genocide, I see the rescue of a species that killed their own planet and can only survive in a new world by "going native" like Jake Sully did in Avatar . We'll just have to agree to disagree, I guess.
11522857
At the very least, you wrote it and completed it....in a first publication no less. Most people, including me, typically take forever to complete projects. I myself get sucked into expanding what was to be a one-shot, turns into a saga. For a newcomer, you should be satisfied with that. Plus it's not riddles with a bunch of mistakes on my first story, which I have yet to redo.
Never do a 400K story without a proof reader. That was my mistake. I've since gotten better and you're doing just fine in that department.
Woah woah, hold up.
In avatar (it's been awhile since I've seen the movie), Jake Sully was traitorous misanthrope cripple who chose to become one of the natives. He did not, nor any of the other humans, attempt to commit wholesale genocide. Their only interest in the Navi were to obtain research on aliens species and the resource they were mining (I don't remember the name of it). And his actions resulted in the needless death of many people, when telling the Navi what humans wanted COULD have resulted in a reasonable compromise.
THAT'S ABOUT IT.
The Equestrians are not trying to come in and help humanity clean up their planet. They're not trying to show them a better way of managing their life or ways. They are LITERALLY changing their very identity and minds for THEIR own reasons. It's a conquest and a delusion to think otherwise. There's nothing similar to Avatar and the TCB-verse at all.
I get it, most of you or many fans of this genre like Equestria. You want to go there and live a happier, simple life. I get it, I get the appeal. I'd love to go there and have a family with a mare (I'm a straight guy) and just chill. But I'd never change my body or mind to do it. Nor would I be a willing accomplice to kill off humanity's soul.
Nor would I allow Equestria to be converted into humans either! Humans and Ponies should be friends as equals.
11523107
Unobtainium. I laughed out loud when I heard that word used in the movie, because it's a term long used in SF for an element that would be perfect for a certain purpose, if you could get it, which you (usually) can't.
Again, we're coming at this from two entirely different angles. I simply don't agree with your take on the TCB genre, but that's okay. Agree to disagree.
I very much appreciate the kind words about the writing itself. If I ever write anything that isn't TCB related, I invite you to come read it, and I hope you enjoy it.
11523443
I will be following you. I'm glad you joined the fandom. It's one of the reasons I have kept myself from going angry at the whole world. I'll never stop being a brony. Keep writing! Don't stop and always write down your ideas. You'll never know when you'll be inspired.
I love it, and you dino game?
sigh……some would wonder if this is as far as the world would go if there was no way out of the planet and the rebellion ideas are suppressed. that was nice world building even though it is a pretty scary one that made us appreciate how our world is actively changing for the better.
also, couldn't help but notice……
in short, DRAT……
Don't know if that's on purpose, but it's both funny and sad.
so that's how equestria got introduced……i was expecting something like a new planet, a random portal produced by an experiment, but not something literally "eating the world".
it's a little unreasonable, but i suppose it works so far and the feelings are pretty genuine.
also, surely humanity had plenty of chances before, no epiphany can stop the greed if the majority is as dull as that.
that's pretty cute! a little compassion really goes a long way!
also it seems that changing into that form has an affect on how they think as well, some may find it terrifying but in my opinion it's just that they don't suppress their feelings anymore, which is understandable given the circumstance.
Characters like that are usually pretty interesting, they provide hard, useful assistance. And we got people with different nationalities, the variety is good!
That one sounds pretty fun, and we're learning more about Equestria!
……DRAT……
the dialects are quite fascinating here, shows a bunch of cultural knowledge.
that's a relief. and i frankly thought she would comment about how "weird" it is first.
cultures clashing is fun.
becoming shorter and being held like a baby by someone much younger……
dignity shrinking~
not that surprising, but glad to have confirmed.
let's see how the cranky granny manages this from now on.
:p
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100% deliberate. I am easily amused. Well spotted!
Nice~it sounded just like her old one!
I could make a long argument against that, especially under their circumstances, but I won't ramble too much in the middle of the tale so I'll say this: "You do not know how to perserve our lives."
Sigh……the people in this world……they're just too cold to care about anything, whether it's fighting against change or trying to change. (I kinda expected more people to protest, an apocalypse is coming and people who stay do not even have any faith?)
Come on, why would they even care about such little money, i don't think the economy could even hold on like this.
"He already came, miss. this is the reckoning and we need some "divine intervention" to reach salvation and get to paradise."
we've learnt this in geography class, it's nice to see such knowledge being introduced to her. (and i like seeing school stuff in stories, they give a nice down-to-earth feeling)
that's why the world's trying hard now!
what a cultured mare, with such an artistic and fascinating name.
fighting for faith is not bad, the key is to never force others to accept.
family and school moments! how sweet! i'm liking these vibes!
"incinerated", man, that hurts, old items like those carry a lot of memories, and our meat mind memory can sometimes be very fragile, which make the things from the past important for nostalgia.
heh, that's pretty cute stuff, also Madrigal is still calling her "Halmeonee", guess those names really are similar!
ok, there's definitely a lot of culture lost here, i'm sure they can be mostly perserved, and not just forced to be abandoned during the transition.
cheesy, but true!
what a sweet moment, glad that they still have the faith and sense inside.
not really surprising, changing is hard to do, and it's frankly weirder that there aren't any bigger protests
until now.
let's see how they handle it.
that was quite an intense event, still wonder why aren't there more pegasi to clear the stuff.
the Blackmesh "destroys" those beings that are advanced like that, a shame that this thing is not forgiving to foreign creatures.
i can tell why that is like "genocide to humanity" and all that, but it is not that way in context, and i see no imbalance or unrealistic things given that the circumstance is out of anyone's control. after all it's transform or death so far, getting human bodies and culture back can wait.
……uh……
don't know if i should feel offended, because he's still very much respected to this day. and it's frankly a little petty to call a person bad things even if they're true when they lived in the distant past where things were different and certain "morals" were accepted.
also most of his morals are very true and useful, and good for cultural research to learn about the world.
grazing is fun for those lovely lives.
aw~ such a joyful reunion!
little typo here, not "Magical", it's "Madrigal". how can anyone not see a mistake in a name? and she's literally your ponyself!
haha……come on……eggs don't grow on trees, silly!
"saucy"? i smell deepened friendship stuff.
will do, but i still love the sun more for being the loving mother of all life.
thanks for the first story (which is also the first TCB story i finished)! glad to have another experienced person onboard as a storyteller.
11527520
Thank you so much for reading my story. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
There are only the two pegasi in this group of newfoals, one of the first groups to travel to Equestria. It's only later when there are more newfoal pegasi, more Bureaus open, and more visitors from Equestria.
It was an exciting scene, though, wasn't it? It almost wrote itself and even I wasn't sure everypony would survive.
Tib/Madrigal was always meant as the main character, but Eun-sook/Harmony turned out to be the real hero of this event. If anything in my story brings out the original source material's spirit of caring and cooperation, it's this scene.
As to Confucius...yes, he was a very wise man and he had many good ideas, especially regarding political integrity and respect for others. Sadly, he also firmly delineated gender roles and centuries of Asian society used his views as an excuse to subjugate and objectify women. Harmony, a very assertive mare, would have a huge problem with that aspect of Confucianism.
Please don't get me wrong. I adore Celestia! I have nothing but respect for her. Hers is in no way an easy task. I just have an attachment to Luna, and for evident reasons, Maddie shares that.
This fic has been my bedtime reading for the past couple of weeks and I've been loving it :) The scene of COREy's "death" was so heartbreaking, which was really well done considering we'd only known them for two chapters at that point. I had originally assumed that COREy's death would just be the impetus to drive Tib to do what needs to be done, but I was relieved when I realized that he would eventually be coming back. Probably. Leaving that hanging in the air was a great hook. I also really love the idea of Equestria's magic working on artificial lifeforms too :) It reminded me of similar concepts in Friendship is Optimal (particularly Shrink Laureate's sweetie.log).
I enjoyed the near-future sci-fi elements which felt just enough to give flavor to the world without overshadowing the character drama. If I've got one criticism it might be a lack of balance between the core group of ponies. Aside from Tib and Harmony, the others feel a bit sidelined and it could have been nice to see more interplay between them.
Minor issues aside this was a great read and captured the spirit of TCB perfectly, well done :)
11547846
Thank you for the excellent review! I'm so glad you enjoyed my story ..the first I've written for this genre, but not the last.
I had some help in getting the SF elements straight. Tip of the hoof to my heart sister Chatoyance for helping me keep it grounded. I'm much more of an organic writer, and hard SF is definitely outside my comfort zone. I'm glad it worked for you!
This is definitely Maddie's story, though Harmony ended up with a much bigger role than I had anticipated. Admittedly, Tib/Maddie is such a powerful presence that the others kind of took a backseat in the carriage. But fear not! I have backstories and side stories planned for the rest of our happy little herd. I just finished Lilac's story and it will be showing up soon, I hope. Chip, Feather, and Harmony will be following after. Yes, and even COREy.