Salvation Through Destruction

by RoflLuxRay

Chapter 4

Salvation Through Destruction:
Based on concepts from: The Conversion Bureau, by: Blaze

Chapter 4

“I demand both your presence and Mr. Leighton’s presence today at six o’ clock?” I stared at the paper astonished, Twilight walked around seemingly nervous, “What does she mean? Why is this bad news?”

“I knew I was making a mistake, stupid!” she punched herself violently in the face, I ran to stop a second punch.

“What is going on? I demand an explanation! You’re freaking me out,” I shouted in desperation.

“Spike, go ask Applejack for her cart. Leighton, grab your suitcase and stay in here with me, you cannot go outside,” she ran to the bookshelves and books began flying all around.

“Right away, ma’am!” the green dragon rushed outside, I reached for my briefcase and pulled my blue laptop out.

“What’s that?” she approached with a book in the air.

“I’m checking my laptop, I need to verify my presentation and if the projector can function in this dimension,” I tried to typed my long, secure password without fingers, the efforts were futile.

“Already missing your fingers?” Twilight teased with a sly grin.

“They are helpful for more reasons other than just typing on a computer, I did not foresee this,” I continued my attempts at typing and Twilight turned to one of her books and went silent. It took me around five of six minutes to carefully type the password with the edge of my left hoof.

“Voila! It works!” I exclaimed in delight, she glanced at me from the edge of her book.

“Do you ponies have any electric outlet around here? I need to plug the projector,” my eyes quickly scanned my surroundings, noticing the lack of electric installations.

“Nope,” she said in plain voice, “but let me take a look at that,” her horn began glowing as she approached the small, white projector that I had just pulled out from the briefcase. The lights in it began flashing, without any power intake, it was on.

“That’s awesome, Twilight. Now, let me connect this cable to the computer…” I took the A/V cables with my teeth and struggled to put them in the correct position, I rubbed my neck after the tremendous effort.

“At least your trick is working; I can see the content of your laptop on my walls,” she stared at my Ferrari screen saver amazed.

“I suppose it’s fair that I show you my slideshow with my-“

“Hey Twiight? You n’ ‘ere?” a feminine voice with a southern American accent yelled along with the sound of the door being slammed open.

“Applejack? Thank Celestia you’re here, I need a favor,” she ran towards the orange colored pony, this pony had a large beautiful blonde mane and a cowboy hat on her head. Really suits her accent.

“Spike said y’all needed my cart, and I’m here deliverin’ it personally.”

“That’s wonderful. Thank you so much,” Twilight ran outside, probably to check the cart.

I approached this Applejack carefully with a grin in my face, “Hello, Miss. I guess we haven’t met, my name is Leighton McRae, you are…?” I extended my hoof, expecting a handshake, more like, hoofshake.

“You must be the pony Spike was talkin’ ‘bout. My name is Applejack, pleased to make yer acquaintance,” the orange pony said with a big smile as she took my hoof and shook it rapidly, almost in a way that could be considered violent.

“The pleasure is mine, Miss Applejack,” I released my hoof from her grip, “I appreciate the favor you’re doing us.”

“No problem at all, Mister McRae,” she stared at me intensely, as if looking into my soul, “I ain’t mean to offend, sir. But is it true that you’re a human?”

“Indeed, I am a fine specimen born in Knowsley, England in August twentieth fifth of nineteen ninety seven.” I proudly replied as Twilight entered the library with a worried look in her eyes.

“Everything is ready; we will leave in a couple of hours. I asked Rainbow Dash to convince a few Pegasi to pull our cart so we should get there in two hours or so.”

“What’s troublin’ you, sweetheart?” Applejack implied placing her hoof in Twilight’s shoulder.

“Nothing… I’m just stressed,” she took Applejack’s hoof off her shoulder and walked towards me, “Leighton, you were about to show me your slideshow.”

“It’s true,” I snapped and walked towards the projected image on the wall, “I was about to show the reason why I came to Equestria, Applejack, would you care to join?”

“Sure, I’d like to see what these fancy lookin’ devices can do,” she sat on the floor next to the projector.

“Spike, would you mind passing me the pen over there?” I pointed at my briefcase; the dragon joyfully nodded and quickly handed it over. The pen shot a laser that interacted with the projections, allowing me to load the slideshow without touching the laptop.

“Now,” I cleared my throat and ‘Project HC’ came on screen, “I present to you, Project Human Conservation; a plan to ensure the survival of mankind.”

Everyone in the room stared with different looks at the projections, some of confusion, some of excitement,“the objective of this project is, as its name implies, to secure humanity’s conservation. I’m sure you are wondering, why does humanity need to be saved?” I pressed a button on the pen and the slide changed, “Humanity has reached a critical point in its history. Mortality rates are through the roof due to wars, famine and diseases and the birth rate is too low to cope up with the death rate. The inversion of these two rates is considered by experts as a ‘reverse demographic transition’.

This phenomenon started in the late 2010’s with the release of the neofage on China, a genetically engineered virus that was said to regulate birth control. Instead, it got out of control and spread throughout all Asia.”

“Were measures taken to control the neofage?” Twilight asked with pen and paper next to her.

“Yes, but in the wrong way. The United States quickly developed a counter-inhibitor for the neofage, but instead of offering through the UN, it got stuck in private sector and reached the public at a price only wealthiest part affected by this could afford. Eventually, China went into a civil war that overthrew its government, establishing a new Military regimen by 2019.”

“Please continue…” she muttered while writing on the paper, Applejack’s face displayed horror and Spike seemed quite entertained, his eyes were wide open and staring at the pictures of the China civil war.

“As time went on, neofage cases were reported all across the world as it is transmitted through the air. Europe, Africa, America… The neofage made only one in a thousand births viable and it soon became the horror of the masses. Massive suicides, a spreading sense of apocalypse took over the population all over the world, and if seen from this perspective, humanity has its days counted. But it is not the only problem after us,” the slide changed to one displaying various graphics.

“The graphics shown here are a comparison of the population growth and the estimated food production, between an hypothetical event first proposed by Thomas Malthus in 1798, and the current human situation. As you can see, there is not enough food to satisfy the demands in both graphics. The results?” I changed the slide again, showing horrible pictures of death, famine and social disorder.

“Death of those unable to reach food, the poorest sector of humanity was the first one to fall. As the food went scarce, their prices rocketed through the roof, causing massive riots all over the world. This problem also strikes the birth rate, as a pregnant mother requires a proper nutrition for the new generation, lowering nativity even more. Now, one in every fifty thousand pregnancies generates healthy offspring.”

“Shouldn’t this catastrophe stabilize the food demands?” Twilight asked again.

“Mathematically, yes it should. However, Malthus’ theory can be applied to other resources. Energy, for example, is much related with the food. We have depleted all the petroleum available on the earth; this caused a whole domino effect on the food production. By not having fuel for its machines, the agricultural sector changed its fields from food crops to biofuel crops, decreasing production, hence raising the food’s prices. Less production, more cost.”

“I didn’t know you humans have that many problems,” Applejack added with a horrified look on her face.

“That, is only half of the problems humanity have,” I changed the slide once again, showing pictures of devastated cities and battlefields, “Wars, is one of the reasons why mankind is going extinct so rapidly. The current conflicts are between the United States of North America versus the United Arab nations and between the new People’s Republic of China versus the Russian Federation and the European Union in what is known as World War Three. The Americans fight for control over the Arab lands, that have vast resources and lands. The Chinese fight the Europeans and the Russians for a more even distribution of resources, as China has become nothing more than a god forsaken wasteland due to their overpopulation and civil war aftermath.”

“So… Your people are now fighting for survival?” Twilight asked with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“It’s a battle to steal other’s countries resources. Capitalism is a hungry beast that demands to be fed, and the war serves that purpose: more resources that translate into money for the starving monster. Instead of reaching an amnesty or developing other technologies for the harvesting of optional resources, the UN detoured founds from the Commission of Science and Technology Development, and Commission of Sustainable Development to the Counter-Terrorism Committee, a bureaucratic excuse to fuel the war. The outcome is a staggering body count of two billion people and counting. Official UN numbers claim that every day, three thousand people are killed as a result of the wars. This increases the death rate even more and halves the birth rate average, reaching an astounding count of one in one hundred thousand successful pregnancies.”

“That is just awful!” Spike shouted while covering his face with his hands.

“Taking these numbers, and making some calculations,” I change the slide once more, showing various numbers and formulas, “the current human population is rapidly falling into a population bottleneck, an event in which large part of a species is killed. This bottleneck causes the loss of variability and thus, a lack of adaptability to withstand new selective pressures. Considering the current birth and death rates, humanity will reach the billion individuals in two years from now; considering amnesty. But even then, projections show that even the aftermath of the war will sink economy into a massive recession, causing the extinction of humanity in three years from now. Actions need to be taken now.”

“Then what’s the plan?” Applejack asked.

“Transfer a minimum of three million people to Equestria. The minimum viable population size (MVP), which is the minimum quantity of individuals of a specie required to generate enough variability to thrive in its environment, for mankind with genetic engineering is of three million people, this was estimated using various population variability analyses with a success rate of 97.3%.”

“So yer sayin’ that you need to save three million humans to ensure continuity? What’s with the success rate?” Applejack asked curiously.

“The computer simulation takes into account the likelihood of a natural disaster to occur. There is a 2.7% of probability that mankind goes extinct if three million individuals are saved. However, the ideal MVP is of six hundred million people for instant results, this amount would require 500% less time and no genetic engineering. Considering the current flow of people into Equestria is of a hundred individuals a month, a maximum of thirty six hundred people are estimated to be here in three years from now. Legalizing ponification and offering it to the public for free around the world would cause a likely income of fifty thousand people a week, reaching five million two hundred thousand immigrants in two years, enough to preserve humanity.”

“Five point two million people?” Spike asked astonished, “that’s like a tenth of the total population of Equestria.”

“That matter is up to Queen Celestia to decide. Now that I have explained the numbers, I shall explain more numerical and the social implications of the plan ending with its implementation...” just before I could press the pen for the next slide, Twilight stood up seemingly contrite.

“Leighton. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think it’s about time we leave to Canterlot. The sooner we see Queen Celestia the better,” she, somehow, turned off the projector; her horn glowed as she faked a smile. Applejack and Spike gazed at her in a queer manner.

“As you wish, Twilight. Help me pack my stuff up and we’ll be on our way,” I turned off my laptop and safely stored it on the briefcase.

“Spike, go out and check on Rainbow Dash. Applejack, would you mind escorting Leighton into the cart? I’ll join you in a minute; I’ve got a couple of things to do,” Twilight ordered as she lifted a few books into the air, Spike bolted outside slamming the door open.

“Not a problem, Twi. Leighton, follow me!” Applejack replied as she walked towards the exit. I knew Twilight was hiding something; it was easy to tell from her attitude, tone of voice and actions. Apparently, ponies suck at lying. I followed Applejack outside, where an old wooden red colored cart awaited in front of the house.

“Step in,” she politely opened the door for me to step inside. A couple worn out of red cushions served as seats on each side of the cart; two circular windows covered by purple curtains dimmed the sunlight coming in. Applejack quickly closed the door as soon as I was inside the cart.

“Applejack, what is going on?” my voice echoed inside the car.

“I’m not sure, Leighton. I’m as confused as you are, but don’t worry. When Twilight behaves like this is because she’s got good intentions,” she assured with a happy grin. I saw her walk inside the house; solitude filled the cart for a few minutes, until my silence was interrupted by Spike’s voice.

“Twilight! The Pegasi are here, we are good to go,” he said. Twilight quickly abandoned the house with a gray saddlebag on her back and stepped into the cart after ordering Spike to drive the Pegasi.

“What’s on the bags?” I observed her bags cautiously; she pulled out a book and began reading it.

“Books, just books,” the cart suddenly began moving, taking speed at first and taking off eventually.

“What are the books for?” I asked on a demanding tone, she turn to stare blankly at me.

“I’m trying to find a way to help you,” I checked the cover of her book, it read: ‘trans-species spells’.

“Then why do you have to show this mysterious attitude?” I asked with a doubtful face. She let out a large sight just before closing her book.

“Because you shouldn’t be here”

Comments

[RoflLuxRay]

It might get a little hard to read on the 4th chapter, due to all the technicalities I use. I tried to explain them the best as I could, but if you don't understand some, they all exist and are on wikipedia.

Thanks for your time

[Doctor Proctal]

Hey, I remember this fic- part of the Conversion Bureau series, right? If it is, why not add the Conversion Bureau extension to the title so people know or whatever?

[RoflLuxRay]

207 Yes, equestria daily classified it under TCB series because of its likeness with TCB. It's inspired by the work of Blaze, because I use some terms (ponyfication and the whole dimension shifting issue), but, personally do not consider it *purely* another universe from TCB.

But I'll tag *Based on concepts from: The conversion bureau* on the beggining of each chapter to let people know.

Thanks for the tip