The View Over Atlantis

by Zobeid

Prologue (Intro to Conversion Bureau)

On the night of 12 April 2045, spring thunderstorms rolled across the Everglades of southern Florida. This was far from an unusual occurrence.

The perfectly smooth silver dome found the next morning was another matter. It was somewhat less than 500 meters in diameter, located deep in the Big Cypress National Preserve, within view of U.S. Route 41. It was first reported by passersby. Local law enforcement and reporters soon investigated.

Before the day was over, national news media swarmed the site, and the National Guard had been called in to keep order and keep the public away from the mysterious dome. The initial investigation by first responders had discovered (almost accidentally) that, although the surface looked like a polished ball bearing, they could step through without hindrance. They found themselves standing not inside but rather outside of another, identical dome — somewhere else. The surroundings appeared similar, but not identical, and deserted of any other people. Stepping into the dome again returned them to the original dome in the Everglades. Only a handful of people went through, and only briefly before returning. Further experimenting was halted until scientists could investigate.

The terse reports from the few people who’d seen the other side described a normal-looking, earth-like landscape. Bizarrely, electronic devices — including phones and cameras — failed to function there. Planes flew all over the Everglades looking for another dome, but none was found. Meanwhile, a steady, cool breeze blew outward from the dome, causing patchy fog to condense around it.

At sunrise the next morning it was discovered that the silver dome was surrounded by a slightly larger dome of what looked like clear glass. Once again, though it appeared solid, objects passed through easily, but without being transported anywhere. The clear dome was slowly growing in size, creating an ever-increasing gap between itself and the inner, silver dome, and electronics also failed in this interim region. The investigators who had gone through the dome the previous day had, by this time, fallen ill and were taken away for quarantine and observation. Fearing some sort of radiation or pathogen, authorities moved everyone even further back. The military began preparing a small team of volunteers with full NBC (nuclear-biological-chemical) suits to venture into the silver dome and attempt to scout the other side more thoroughly.

Before the scouts were ready to depart, the first pegasus popped out of the silver inner dome. It was small, a miniature horse with an implausibly sea-green coat and white mane and tail, flying easily on impossibly small wings. It looked around, wide-eyed, surprise written on its oddly expressive face, and then it darted back into the dome.

Soon it returned with several other pegasi. First contact was aided greatly when it was discovered that the ponies spoke a language nearly identical to English (or, conversely, that the local humans spoke a language nearly identical to Equestrian). It soon became apparent that the silver dome was nothing less than a portal between two parallel worlds: one of humans and one of small, colorful equinoids — or ponies, as they called themselves.

A frenzy of public interest erupted in the following days, on both sides of the portal. Humans around the world were glued to their TV sets, learning about pegasi, unicorns and “earth ponies” (as the ones without horns or wings were somewhat confusingly called), and a world awash in magic. Ponies devoured newspaper reports about humans and a vast new world powered by incredible science and technology.

The cause of the portal’s eruption remained a mystery that befuddled human scientists and pony scholars of magic alike. Could it happen again? Would it last? Nobody knew. Meanwhile, the glass-like dome continued advancing.

The euphoria of those days was soon tempered. Humans who ventured into Equestria became ill within hours and were forced to return to the human world. By comparison, ponies seemed to suffer little ill effect from visiting America; at worst, their magic-based abilities were somewhat weaker or recovered more slowly when expended during their visits. Humans who merely ventured near the portal — within the boundaries of the crystal dome — suffered ill effects not unlike radiation poisoning, although no radiation could be detected. The crystal dome continued growing even more quickly than it had at first, pushing the safe area for humans further and further away, placing an increasing area of the Everglades effectively off-limits to them.

Intense study by scholars from both worlds reached few firm conclusions, but did produce some disturbing observations. The portal and the advancing crystal dome were, crudely speaking, magical in nature, though they didn’t seem to be the result of any type of spell that unicorns understood. The worlds exchanged atmosphere: breezes blew through the portal, from one world or the other, depending on the difference of local barometric pressure. The portions of Earth inside the clear dome experienced a subtle transformation; weather became more tractable to pegasus control, plants and animals more easily nurtured by earth ponies, and spells became easier for unicorns to cast. Wild animals caught in its boundaries seemed to gradually gain intelligence. In short, the land became more like that of Equis, the pony world. Only humans and their closest relatives, great apes, were made ill from exposure to the magical field of this region.

Some reckless human adventurers took their chances and attempted to enter the dome, convinced that its poisonous effect was either a hoax or that they, personally, were somehow immune to it. Some of these ventures ended in death. After some time, the ruling Princesses of Equestria, Celestia and Luna, joined with their most talented unicorn spell-casters to add an enchantment to the crystal dome. They turned it into a Barrier that humans could not penetrate. For their own safety, humans would be unable to enter the converted zone that would come to be known as the Exponential Lands — or, to some, Greater Equestria. In time this enchantment would be further expanded to make the dome impermeable to items considered harmful to Equestria: poisonous chemicals, explosives and weapons of all kinds. All of these things, like humans, would be bulldozed and pushed away by the ever-expanding Barrier, as it came to be known.

The rate of the Barrier’s expansion could be estimated only roughly. Its expansion rate had already been observed to change unpredictably. It was slow, but it never stopped growing, and various predictions were made for how long it would take to convert the world and crush humanity out of existence — assuming no solution could be found. Attempts to slow the Barrier’s advance were uniformly unsuccessful. Attempts to immunize human beings against the effects of Equis’s so-called “thaumic field” fared no better. As the Barrier approached Naples, Florida, the matter took on greater urgency, and the general feeling of anxiety began turning to panic. Most inhabitants were evacuated from the city successfully, but the refugee crisis in America had begun.

A different, more desperate, solution was formulated. Pony scholars of magic, together with human scientists and AI artilects, devised a concoction that blended advanced nanotechnology with advanced enchantment to transform a human in a matter of minutes. With the Potion humans could be converted to ponies of random type, with statistically equal numbers becoming unicorns, pegasi or earth ponies. Newfoals, as they would be known, left behind their old forms but retained their minds and personalities and gained the ability to use magic and to live within the Exponential Lands, or even upon Equis itself. As an added bonus, the transformation cured medical conditions, regenerated limbs, and even reversed the ravages of age. In the 2040s many of these things could be done using technology instead of magic, but only with far greater time and cost.

With no other option demonstrated to work, plans were laid for mass conversion of the human race into magical ponies. Conversion Bureaus were opened in major cities. At first they were visited by the destitute, aged and infirm. Their quick and easy transformation into healthy, bright-eyed ponies made Conversion seem a less fearful prospect, at least for some.

Not everyone would accept this fate so easily. Factions began to form, and conflict followed.

The HLF — Human Liberation Front — believed the Emergence, the Barrier and Conversion were all planned and caused directly by Celestia, The Solar Tyrant, with the goal of subjugating Earth under her rule. Although hostile toward ponies in general, and viewing the converted newfoals with scorn, Conversion Bureaus were the primary focus of their wrath, and more than a few of these were burned or bombed.

Among ponies (and a few sympathizers) the PER — Ponyfication for Equestria’s Rebirth — represented an equally strident opposing view. Humans were violent and corrupt, meat eaters, polluters, ruiners of their own world. Conversion would save the Earth from mankind, save mankind from itself, and establish a Greater Equestria far larger, wealthier and more powerful than ever imagined before. Although Princess Celestia had decreed Conversion must never be forced, the PER were convinced she secretly wished all humans converted, willingly or otherwise, and they were happy to carry out this effort in her name even as she publicly denounced them.

Some artilects — artificial intelligences, new in the world, but already growing in capabilities and power — began uploading themselves to the rapidly-expanding lunar colony. It would take a long time for the Barrier to reach the moon, if it ever did. And then, if the converted world proved hostile to them, there was always the rest of the solar system, and beyond. Earth was their cradle, not their home.

The Chinese, although allowing Conversion Bureaus to be opened in their country, also began building large numbers of breeder reactors: a seemingly outdated technology when the rest of the world had already begun switching to nuclear fusion plants. Rumors began to circulate of a massive program to produce thousands of nuclear weapons, and the world trembled with rumors of war. Then it emerged — though not openly acknowledged — that the bombs were intended as drive bombs to power a fleet of huge, Orion-type spaceships and transport a large colony to Mars. Although only a tiny fraction of their population could go, they intended that some portion of humanity could thus survive as humans, not as ponies.

And the rest of the world, by and large, looked on with apprehension, and waited to see what would happen.