The Conversion Bureau: The First Choice

by Westphalian_Musketeer

Chapter Five

Willard and Monica were waiting outside the conversion rooms, there were several in total, in case there was a particularly large influx of converts. For now only two rooms were operating, churning out every hour or so another new-foal. It was ‘graduation day one’ as those at the bureau called it. The day when a class was certified to be converted.

Monica was fidgeting with her hands.

“Nervous?” Willard asked.

“I think impatient is a little more like it, remember when I applied for the archives project?” Monica answered. “I was practically climbing up the walls waiting to see if I was accepted or not.”

“Heh, yeah, I remember that,” he chuckled.

The door to the conversion chamber opened up and out stepped a purple pegasus with a maroon mane. Several other new-foals gathered around him and asked how he felt.

“Like I haven’t eaten in days! That conversion really takes it out of ya!” the stallion responded enthusiastically.

The group left, leaving Monica and Willard behind.

“Last but not least, Monica Radrim.” Oscar Pascez, the human instructor in the conversion program, walked up to the two and smiled.

Rough Sketch followed close behind the large man. The red mare spoke, “It’s been an honour being your instructors, but after today you’ll both be heading to the specialized classes for each of the three pony breeds.”

Monica stood up and headed for the room. Willard remained seated, causing Rough Sketch to sit by him.

“As her legal guardian and next of kin you have the right to be present at the conversion. Ensure that nothing goes against procedure,” the mare said. “All that legal precedent.”

The blue earth pony’s ears twitched. “I’d rather not see a conversion... I don’t think I’d like any of the memories it would bring back.”

“We understand,” Oscar responded. “Want us to wait here with you?” Just then the DATab on the man’s wrist flickered and started beeping. “Hang on.” The latino man brought up the device to his face. “That’s strange, I have to go to some meeting with ConSec. I guess we’ll have to talk later.” With that he walked away, leaving Rough Sketch and Willard alone to wait for Monica’s conversion to be completed.

Willard was staring blankly at the door and twitching his left fore hoof against his cushioned seat. He looked to his left and noted a gryphon security guard walking by tending to his DATab. When the blue earth pony turned to his left Rough Sketch was still sitting there, looking at him.

“Can I help you?” the stallion asked.

“Oh! I’m not bothering you am I?” Rough Sketch asked. Her head drew back and she gave a toothed grin.

“Not in particular, though it is strange having someone sitting next to me without talking,” Willard replied.

“Ah... I see, you’re not the first newfoal to say that, and I get that from nearly every human I meet.” The red mare squinted her eyes as though she was scrutinizing some book. “You always want to either be alone or talk, something about just being silent always implying some taboo, I think they told me?”

“I think tension would be a better word than taboo in this case,” Willard answered.

“Funny, I’m feeling more awkward from the talking.”

“Me too, maybe we should just go by the old adage, ‘talking comes by nature, silence by wisdom’.”

The two continued to sit for what seemed a long time. Eventually Willard approached a news terminal and began operating it with his fore hoof, the large holographic interface making the task easy. He selected news on the battle of Carrenton and began browsing the story.

The new-foal muttered softly under his breath as he scanned the contents. “Joint forces found dozens of PER families that had been converted, including some that had been imprisoned for attempting to flee the facility. The PER families are now set to be scrutinized and questioned for relevant information before being either integrated into the civilian population or transported to Equestria once innocence has been confirmed.”

Willard went to the next section of the story. “A new legal predicament has arisen, during the battle of Carrenton, several HLF members were ponified, the situation is unique as PER forces have in the past taken a strict ‘no-conversion’ policy with the HLF, deeming them unworthy of conversion. Further complicating the matter is their technical Equestrian citizenship. Only time will tell what will happen in a truly unforeseen legal debate.”

Willard shut down the terminal and looked at the door, and then to a nearby clock. “Fifty eight min—”

Just then the door to the conversion room opened and out stepped a lime green pegasus with an olive green mane. She stepped tentatively, pressing at the carpet with her hooves, gaining a feel for them in a new way. On her flank was an ink-pot and a quill. She looked up and smiled. Willard walked up to her, and lay his neck beside hers, nuzzling her mane.

“Here I thought you were going to come out as a unicorn,” Willard chuckled.

“I had a feeling you were going to bring that up,” Monica replied dryly.

Out of the conversion room the pink mare Ana Thetic exited. She smiled at the tender scene unfolding before her. After a minute Willard withdrew from Monica and the nurse coughed. “A textbook conversion, no complications, no undetected injuries or chronic conditions that conversion had to heal. You’re a perfectly healthy pegasus Monica.”

Rough Sketch walked towards the group with a DATab and pressed a few buttons. “Alright, I have you both scheduled for the classes you’ll be taking. Willard, you’ll be heading to the hydroponics lab tomorrow morning to learn about passive earth pony growth magic. In the afternoon you’ll be attending the gym for advanced strength courses and how to use your hooves for finer motor manipulation. And you,” Rough Sketch said, turning to Monica, “shall be beginning flight classes tomorrow, theory only for the first day though.”

“Thank you Sketch,” the green pegasus said. Monica turned to Willard and smiled. “Well, we’ll be going to different classes now, don’t be a stranger Uncle!”

“When have I ever done that?” the earth pony scoffed.

“Come on! you know I’m joking... oh uh, hello?” Monica tilted her head and Willard turned around. Karphal was approaching them with full armor and an RAC-8 rifle.

“Karphal! I was wondering when I would see you again! How are you?” Willard asked.

“I have to ask that you all come with me down to ConSec. I can’t say why, just trust me on this,” the golden gryphon responded.

“Err... o-okay,” Rough Sketch stammered, “lead the way.”

The gryphon escorted the four ponies to ConSec. They went down the hall to a set of stairs. Monica had to take her time to become accustomed to descending, quadrupedal locomotion. At the second floor they reached the main office for ConSec. There, a few dozen other ponies had been gathered.

A human doctor walked in front of the group and cleared his throat. “Attention everyone, if I could please have your attention. We just need to run a blood test on all ponies.”

The doctor went to open a door into ConSec when a pony yelled out. “Is something wrong? Was there a problem with the potion? If that’s it shouldn’t it just be the newfoals?”

The doctor opened the door and answered, “There is nothing wrong with the potion, you’ll all be informed of the reason for the test after it is done, rest assured this is just a precaution. Now if you would all form an orderly line.”

All the ponies agreed, though many were quite vocal at how abusive the demands were. Willard stood behind Monica, with Rough Sketch and Ana Thetic behind him. The line lasted for about an hour. A new pony was taken in every two minutes or so. Occasionally a pony walked out and sat on the floor nearby. Guards discouraged talking between the two groups. Eventually it was Willard’s turn to go into ConSec. Inside a vast array of terminals were running what seemed to be biological scans. Monica was just making her way out and she nodded to her uncle before he walked up to the doctor.

The doctor pulled out a syringe. “Give me a hoof please.”

Willard complied and stuck out of hoof, the doctor took it and felt for a vein. When he found it the doctor stuck the needle in and drew out a small amount of blood. The blue earth pony cringed at the sight. The doctor placed the blood into a machine and it began whirring. A few seconds later a green light came on.

“You can go now,” the doctor instructed.

Willard left in time to see Ana Thetic entering, he gave a nod as he had been given to confirm everything was alright. Willard sat beside Monica back out in the lobby and waited for the rest of the ponies to be tested for whatever they were being tested for. When the doctor exited with the last pony the doctor smiled.

“All your tests came back negative, there was an infiltration of the bureau security and we were making sure all of you are who you really are. Thank you, and have a nice day.” With that the doctor left a thoroughly confused looking mass of ponies as he walked back into ConSec.

Willard walked towards Karphal, who was scanning the group at a distance. When the earth pony reached the gryphon he asked, “What does he mean infiltration?”

Karphal looked down at Willard. “The HLF have some new technology, it lets someone transform into a pony without reducing their capacity for violence, or changing their minds in any way,” he answered.

“Why would the HLF do that? Wouldn’t that kind of option make people more willing to convert?” Ana Thetic asked as she and the other mares walked behind Willard.

“It’s not a conversion,” the gryphon stated. “The transformation is unstable; from what I gathered from the doctors and tech experts, anyone who uses it ends up dying within a few days, it’s a spy’s tool, and a coward’s weapon.”

Willard gulped and then cleared his throat. Turning to Monica and the others he spoke, “Rough Sketch, Ana Thetic, if you could be so kind as to help my niece get her first meal and then help her back to her room, I need to talk with Karphal for a bit more.”

“Of course,” Ana Thetic replied, nodding her head.

When the mares left Willard looked back at Karphal and started walking with him down a corridor. “This is a lot of escalation for such a short time frame, first potion rifles and advanced aerosol detonators for the PER. Then the PER gets diamond dog mercenaries. Now the HLF not only has augmented soldiers, but these, err.”

“Techs are calling them doppelgangers,” Karphal said.

Willard shook his head. “I miss the good old days.”

“When you had hands?” Karphal asked amusedly.

“When I didn’t have good old days!” the pony expressed in a hushed voice. “When a man could go get a flu vaccine without having to worry the PER had spiked it with serum, or get converted without worrying that their batch was the one an HLF member poisoned.” Willard sighed. “When people built houses and military installations on hills, not in devastated wasteland swamps like Carrenton, when you could tell who to shoot because they were eight feet tall, buck naked and screaming for blood.”

Karphal hoisted his rifle. “It’s not all bad, we’ve got the support and advantages of three races, five if you count the separate pony breeds, though they don’t like being differentiated from one another that much.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Is there any way to tell someone’s a doppelganger?” Willard asked, turning down another corridor with Karphal.

“If someone isn’t acting like their usual self that’s a clue, but apparently their eyes give off a metallic-green glint sometimes too, regardless of eye color.” The gryphon and the pony stopped in front of a set of elevators. The golden-feathered predator eyed Willard. “Stay safe, you should go see your niece, conversion and this news within the same day can be... difficult.”

“She’s not made of paper, but still, that doctor left with us still having a bunch of questions,” Willard replied. “I’ll be sure and tell what you told me.”

Karphal pressed the elevator button and nodded, the door opened and the two entered, ascending to their called for actions.

Willard was laying in his bed. His rear legs splayed out behind him as he worked on a DATab game developed for new-foals to gain fine motor control with a combination of hooves, mouths, wings, or if lucky, magic.

“Dammit,” the earth pony muttered as the stylus he held in the crook of his new ‘wrist joint’ fell to the cushioned mattress. He positioned the thin plastic implement into position with his mouth and began again. Willard moved the stylus through a projected holographic tunnel, carefully trying to avoid the edges. When it made contact with the end box the DATab flashed green and played a chime.

Willard closed down the application and set the DATab aside with a smile on his face. He looked at his hoof and flexed it. “Advanced and expert levels complete, I guess I could work a bolt-action rail-snipe if the trigger guard was removed. Not that I’ll need that skill.” The newfoal lowered his head.

A knock sounded at the door and Willard called out, “Come in!”

The entryway slid open and in stepped Edward Miles: former Private of the EarthGov military, former HLF operative, and now, unwilling PER convert. The grey unicorn walked to the center of the room and sat down on the carpeted floor, staring at the small window opposite the door.

“I guess I owe my new room to you?” he asked.

“Not necessarily, Ana Thetic suggested it, I just didn’t oppose the proposition.” Willard shifted in his bed to lift his head up and look at the stallion with him.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t be grateful. The... ponies they had me roomed with, none of them were forced converts, and I couldn’t talk with any of the men from Carrenton; they’re all still being sedated to stop them from hurting themselves.” Miles sighed and turned around to face Willard. “It’s going to be good to have someone to talk to who is at least in the same ocean as me, if not the same boat.”

“So you’ve decided to see how to live like this?” the blue earth pony asked.

“Yeah, I still hate the PER for having done this to me, and I wish I could go back, but I’ll find a way to get through this, not change, but...”

“Adapt,” Willard offered.

“Yeah.” Miles looked around the room and set his eyes on a bed along the wall to Willard’s left. “Do they have you bunking alone?”

“No, I had another roommate, but you’re his replacement, can’t say I’ll miss him.” Willard stood up on his bed and then jumped down, landing with a soft thud. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

“The future, presuming I have one. It’s not exactly like I’m in a position to decide it wholly on my own. Apparently I’m getting shipped off to Equestria in a few days with the others so Celestia can judge us.” Miles lowered his head and shuddered.

“Equestrian courts are quite lenient as I understand, you don’t have to worry about capital punishment.” Willard stepped towards the unicorn and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

“That’s exactly what’s wrong. Here I am, living, and going to keep on doing so even after what I’ve done. What right do I have?” Miles looked at Willard, his eyes glistening with moisture.

“The fact that now you’re willing to accept what’s happened,” the blue pony said, “and that you’re glad to be away from others who are like you used to be. This shows you’re willing to change, truly, in how you look at and behave in the world.” Willard looked at Miles and tried to glean some indication as to whether or not he had successfully reached the unicorn. “Do you want to tell me about some of the things you did?” he asked.

“Yes,” Miles responded immediately, “I want to be able to get this off my chest, at least to one other pony... er, that’s kind of excluding others isn’t it?”

“Somewhat, yes, but your meaning is clear, go ahead.” Willard removed his hoof from Mile’s shoulder and waited for the ex-human to begin.

“I... did things that now I’m beginning to regret, not just because of the conversion, but thinking back, I should have realized that... When I joined the HLF it was because I was convinced that conversion really made a human lose... everything.”

Miles stood up, and went towards one of the beds. Pressing his head against the mattress, he continued, “Now, I see that I still like the same things, still feel like I’ve betrayed myself, the same things that motivated me in the past are still there, but now I see that those motivations were... wro-- ill founded.” Miles’ eyes shut tight. “I killed them... I killed ponies, converts and Equestrians, shot people who got in the way, thinking they were all trying to destroy humanity. Maybe the PER is, but conversion by itself isn’t.”

“Do you want to talk about anything specific that you did?” Willard asked.

Miles shook his head. “No, not yet, at least, not before Carrenton. I didn’t have the opportunity to kill any ponies there. EarthGov military had most of them all locked down tight in the buildings where I was. I was running across a street when a potion rifle round hit me. I remember waking up to a soldier prying my body armour off of me. When I saw myself, I screamed for him to kill me, that was when I realized he wasn’t HLF.”

“Three way battle.” Willard nodded.

“Battles are chaotic enough when there are just two sides trying to... let’s just say for simplicity’s sake ‘kill’, eachother,” the grey unicorn said.

“Reminds me of an attack that occurred on one of the archive shipments a few years ago. HLF and PER showed up at the same time.” The earth pony stretched his neck, working out tight muscles. “Total anarchy, the comms were being jammed, but you could hear the enemy screaming out to focus fire on us or the other alternately, trying to keep either of us from wiping the other out without having casualties of our own.”

“The only allies were enemies,” Miles offered.

“Exactly, the PER troopers were losing, and one of them tossed a potion grenade, back then it was surprising when the things worked, but that time it did.” Willard walked over to the window and reared up onto his hind hooves and braced himself against the sill, gazing out to the city.

“It landed next to the last two HLF soldiers. Two of my men, Andrew Wight and another fellow named Alex Talson went in to help them, took off their armor and waited for them to recover. When one of the new-foals looked at himself, he head-butted Alex, pulled the pin to one of his grenades. Andrew was lucky to survive that time, Alex... there was nothing left.”

“The newfoals?” Miles asked.

“They got what they wanted,” Willard stated flatly.

“Wait, you said Andrew was lucky to survive that time, what happened?” The unicorn lifted himself onto his bed and lay down on it.

“Allergic reaction to a potion grenade, with no medical staff nearby to help with the process, he didn’t make it. Most people with potion allergies can get through it if they have the proper medical care, or they could use a harder to make variant of the potion, but PER doesn’t take the time to do that for its weaponized potions.” Willard sighed, lowering himself from the window and turning to face Miles. “That was the battle I got shot in. His funeral is in two days.”

“Woahwowowo... hang on a second,” Miles said, “how are you able to just move on from something like that? And just adding non-chalantly that his funeral is in two days? That seems rather... cold.”

“I’ve had other things to attend to, arranging some valuables to be stored, making sure my niece is getting through her own conversion alright. I have to attend my duties, I guess the end of my being a soldier didn’t change that.” The navy colored earth pony walked to his own bed and entered it. “You’re probably right though. I’ll probably attend his funeral and it’ll hit me, but at least I know he went out doing something he truly cared for.”

“You mentioned that the attack was on an archive shipment. What were you guys shipping exactly?” Miles questioned with genuine interest in his voice.

“There are people and ponies who are working to transcribe as much of earth’s written records as they can,” Willlard explained. “Let me think... ah, yes the shipment was of music sheets, hundreds, maybe thousands of songs, with lyrics too where it applied.”

“And you guys got assigned to that often?”

“Volunteered for it every chance we got. We wanted to make sure that when we did get to Equestria we’d still be able to read Dante, listen to Beethoven, and discover the joys of Haiku... Come to think of it, scratch that last one.” Willard chuckled.

The two lay on their respective beds for a few minutes. The muted grey-teal sky darkened as night approached and the room slowly became mostly shadow.

“Sarge?” Miles asked in the darkness.

“You can call me Willard, colt. What is it?”

The outline of the unicorn snorted. “You used a ponyism, but that’s not significant. I was wondering, what’s equestrian fashion like you think?”

Willard shifted onto his back; legs in the air, he stared at the ceiling. “I suppose it would have a lot of velcro or some such, at least for earth ponies and pegasi, suppose unicorns could handle something like buttons though.”

“I can’t wait to learn how to do more with my magic than just well... whatever it was I tried to do when we met. At least I’ll be able to do the things I could with hands,” Miles said.

There was then a knock at the door and the entryway opened, bathing the interior with fluorescent illumination. Monica walked in and looked around. Seeing her uncle she smiled widely.

“Hi Uncle! Who is your new roommate?”

“Hello to you too Monica,” Willard responded, “this is Edward Miles, an old colleague of mine from the military. Miles, this is my niece, Monica.” He asked Monica, “What brings you here?”

“I just wanted to say hello, see how you were doing, you know that kind of stuff,” the green pegasus responded.

“So that’s what the shrink meant when he said conversion makes people more gregarious,” Miles harrumphed.

“Well Miles, my niece was fairly friendly even before, shouldn’t be too surprising that she can’t stand to not socialize now.” The earth pony shifted back onto his legs and sat up in his bed. “How’d your classes go Monica?”

“Reviewed the physics and dynamics of flight, like back in highschool. Then we went over pegasus magic, making things we carry easier to lift in flight, cloud walking, weather manipulation, no actual flight lessons yet though. I only get to start tomorrow for that.” Monica’s wings twitched at the mention of flight as though they could anticipate the act.

“Glad you’re enjoying it,” Willard responded. “I’m also glad security hasn’t found any more doppelgangers.”

Miles shuddered. “Blegh, if I had known they were doing that kind of stuff I wouldn’t have—” The unicorn immediately shut his mouth, remembering he was in the presence of a pony who didn’t already know he was HLF.

“Wouldn’t have what?” Monica asked, tilting her head.

“Nothing,” Miles stated with an air of finality. “I was thinking of something else before those doppelgangers came up.”

“Uh, okay,” Monica said, her wings and shoulders shifting in a shrug like gesture. “Anyway it’s good to have met you.” The lime pegasus turned to her uncle. “Well, good night Uncle. Out of curiosity, you’re not going to be spending the whole day at the funeral right?”

“No, I’ll be back to the bureau in time for you to see me before lights out,” the blue earth pony answered.

With a smile Monica left the room.

“Thanks for not telling her,” Miles said when the door slid closed. “I’m going to have to own up to my mistakes, but I’d rather not be thought of as some boogeyman.”

“Everyone has got to take things at their own pace, sometimes it’s just a little too slow for others.” Willard shifted onto his back again: comfort be damned, the position was a small piece of familiarity to him.

“What do you think is going to happen when the barrier gets close to New York?”

“There’ll be a mad rush for conversion and evacuation, hopefully with some time in between.” Willard got out of bed and switched off the light. “Get some rest, I hear casting magic on earth really takes it out for unicorns,” the earth pony said as he returned to bed.

“You too, I hear grieving takes its toll,” Miles answered under his breath.

Author's Note:

And here are the next two chapters for "The Conversion Bureau: The First Choice". As per some suggestions I've broken down some of my earlier versions of the chapters into smaller chunks. Hopefully at this point I'll only be dropping details of the world as they become relevant so that the whole thing isn't just a text-book. Hope you all enjoyed these chapters.

Comments

[Pathfinder118]

Hah I'm lovin story, canthe't wait to see where this goes, and much luck for all the gamma verse writers