The Conversion Bureau: The Dead.

badassgrunt presents:

The Conversion Bureau: The Dead.

Celestia smiled as scouting party moved up the throne room. That smile, unfortunately faded when she saw there were one missing. The frown turned deeper once she got a look at the remaining ponies. Quick Draw was silently sobbing, while Obsidian (who was GIGANTIC) allowed her to lean on him. Bold Wings looked sick. Strong Shield looked angry. Silverhoof worried her the most. He stared ahead blankly.

The five meandered to Celestia. The ponies bowed. Silverhoof took off his helmet. This undid the enchantments that made the ponies of the Royal Guard look alike. He was grey-coated with a rust colored mane. He had a silver birthmark on his hoof. "Your Majesty,"

Celestia nodded solemnly. "Sargent. What do you have to report?" she said, her face impassive with a slight smile.

Silverhoof had brief flash of anger at how Celestia seemed uncaring that one of his friends had died horribly, but was quick to smother the offending emotion. "Our party was...attacked," he stated. "We.. lost a pony." He then told her what had happened.

By the time he had finished recounting the encounter with the zombie, (they didn't know at the time that it was undead) the bodyguards that "protected" the immortal goddess looked sick. Celestia, however, looked down to hide the growing smile. If anypony had been able to hear what she had heard, it would be different that what the Sargent had said. Instead of how the party got attacked, she heard that most of humanity would gladly become ponies. Some part of Celestia's mind that was still rational(1) told her that Bob was missing and what she had supposedly heard didn't make sense. Celestia's eye twitched as she realized that she didn't know what Silverhoof had actually said

She smiled sadly. "Come, my little ponies, we need to go to the briefing room."

Silverhoof expected some sort of pity from the Princess about Bob's death, so he hesitated before putting his helmet back on and followed her. As they made their way to the briefing room, he slowed down to walk along Quick Draw; who was currently glaring daggers at Her Majesty's Royal Backside.

Silverhoof, though he would never admit this to her, (at least for now) had a "crush" on Quick Draw. The other males in his squad (they knew each other since boot camp) knew about it, but promised not to tell anybody.

"She doesn't care." Growled Quick Draw.

Silverhoof flinched at the malice in the voice. He was about to reply when Celestia stopped abruptly,making Silverhoof almost walk face-first into Celestia's buttocks. He heard snickers from behind, but he ignored them.

Celestia opened the door, revealing Princess Luna and Shining Armor. The briefing room was decorated like the rest of the castle. The only item of interest was the table that mapped "Earth" with Equestria on it.

As soon as the sun goddess entered the room, Shining stiffened and bowed."Princess Celestia." He said curtly but with respect.

She smiled sweetly. "Shining Armor. How is Cadence doing?"

Shining smiled in return. "She's doing just fine, your highness."

"Good," she turned to Silverhoof. "This is the Sargent who made first contact with the Humans. Would you like to share with them your encounter, Silverhoof?" This time she would make sure to listen carefully. He nodded and stepped up to tell them the story.

As he finished the story, Shining looked green, and Luna's brow furrowed. She turned to her sister. "You said that some humans were violent, but this....." she trailed off.

Celestia ignored her and looked down at Silverhoof. "Why didn't you use the potion, Sargent?"

Silverhoof looked down at the floor. "I didn't think of it at the time, your Highness." He then added in his mind 'I was too busy watching Bob get eaten alive.'

She sighed and gave him a forgiving look. "You may go."

Silverhoof curtly nodded. Before he turned for the door he noticed Luna giving here sister strange looks. As his group made their way to the barracks, Strong Shield  spoke up. "Did the Princess seemed... off?"

"Which one?" Rumbled Obsidian.

"Celestia."

Obsidian pursed his lips and nodded. The more he thought about it, the less it made sense. Then again, he was a grunt of the Royal Guard. Leave the heavy thinking to the higher-ups.

"She's different from what everypony said." Stated Quick Draw.

The group pondered this as they walked down the hall.

The noise from Equestira had attracted attention; not all of it from the undead. John was sleeping on a secured rooftop when it happened. The noise was akin to a sonic boom, though much louder. John shot up from his make-shift bed, wide-eyed. He sighed when there were no visible threats. There were no chance getting back to sleep now. He had to get sleep when ever he could since the plague, sometimes in the middle of the day. He was just an average man before the virus spread. He was single and had a job he was satisfied with. His parents were out of state at the time, and since the other countries lost touch with each other, he had no idea if they were safe or not. He hoped so. He got up with a groan and stretched. That's when he saw the island(2). He was sure as the dead were walking that it wasn't there before. He stared at it, dumbstruck. He rubbed his eyes. It was still there. He shrugged. 'After you have to kill dead people, not a lot surprises you.' He thought to himself. He was thinking about how it got there when a pink shield formed a dome around the island. Now he was curious. As far as he knew, the military didn't possess the technology that could teleport an entire island, or make giant force fields. He noticed there weren't colossal tidal wave. Curious. A look down told him the zombies took notice too. As he watched a few of them stumble towards the island, he remembered that he needed to forage for food. He could hit two birds with one stone and get a better look at the island, and get food on the way back.

He put on his newly acquired shark suit and slung his backpack filled with essentials on. He slung his M1 Garand over his shoulder and picked up his crowbar.

He unlatched the door and went down the stairs. He went out the back way leading to the alleys. He rounded the corner and ran face to face with a zombie. Or, what ever what was left of its face. It looked like God had taken a cosmic cheese grater to it's face. The eyes, nose, pretty much its whole face was grinded down to the bone. What was left of the eyes rested in the sockets. It was attired in a police uniform, which was brown with dried blood.

John reacted fast, and swung the crowbar overhead. It came down on the zombie's cranium with a squelchy crack, the hook going deep in the brain. The undead dropped like a rock, yanking John's crowbar out of his grasp.John simply wretched the crowbar out of the skull, dripping with coagulated blood and grey matter.

John grimaced. 'Gonna have to wash it when I get back.'

He peered around the corner to check for more undead. Seeing none, he continued on his way.

He reached the beach head without further incident. he checked to see if any undead were nearby before he pulled out his binoculars. He tried to see the new landmass, but the shield was too thick to see through. He cursed under his breath for the wasteful trip and turned to leave when something shining caught his eye.

To the left he could make out several silhouettes out in the distance. Some of them didn't look right. He looked through his binoculars and gaped at what he saw.

Several horses with...wings... wearing armor similar to what the Romans wore appeared to be...talking to a zombie. A part of his mind noted that the ghoul was in good condition, while the rest of his mind raced with questions. Were they aliens? Or were the Greeks actually right about pegasi? That didn't explain the island, though. Did they make it appear? Why on earth were they talking to a Zed? Didn't they know what it was? Did they seriously think that armor would help. All it would do is attract the undead.

His pondering was interrupted when the thing lunged at the horse. Luckily the horse was faster than the creature and, faster than one would think with all that armor on, dodged and bucked the zombie square in the jaw. The blow sent the Zed reeling with an audible crack that even John could hear. The zombie went down, but wasn't out.

The zombie clumsily got to it's feet, much to the horror of the aliens. One of them charged it with a spear, (how it had managed to hold it with hooves, John had no idea) and John had a small hope that maybe the alien was going to kill the zombie.

That hope quickly vanished when the alien stabbed the undead in the chest. John face-palmed. When he looked back he saw the Zed was already biting chunks out of the pegasus. The rest of the aliens was fleeing.

A moan drifting on the wind reminded him he needed to go soon. he took one last look back to see the zombie staring blankly at him. He swore, knowing he had to dispose of it before it attracted more Zack. John walked swiftly to close the distance. He readied his rifle. He couldn't fire it, that just attract more undead. He smashed the the butt of the rifle in the zombie's face with a crunch, knocking it off balance and making it fall down.

He straddled the creature and jabbed the end of his crowbar in one of the eye sockets. The eye, which was somehow festering, popped. John made a drilling motion with his crowbar, smashing through the eye socket and into the brain. The zombie twitched once, then laid still.

John wrenched the weapon free and glanced around. Spying the dead horse's helmet, he took it. It could come in handy as a distraction. He was about to leave when he saw them.

Zombies started to poor out onto the beach. No doubt they saw him, as their arms were stretched outwards and making "food" moans. He could probably find a place to hold a siege, but something held him in place. He wasn't a very religious man, but something told him to stay here. Maybe the aliens would comeback. He was only one man, and he surely couldn't take a full-blown horde on his own.

Knowing he was probably going to regret it, he pulled out his M1 anyway. He didn't have enough ammo for all of them, even if he got all one-shot kills.

He sighed as he loaded a round into the chamber.He was so tired with this game of life and death. He scowled. If he was going down, he was going down fighting. There was no easy way out.

"C'mon, you fuckers." He shouldered the WWII rifle and fired the first shot.

Strong Shield stopped suddenly. They were still walking to the barracks. "Something doesn't seem right." He muttered.

"What'ya say?" Bold Wing asked.

"I think we're missing something here, guys. Celestia told us that some humans were violent and omnivores, but what happened to Bob..." He trailed off, thinking. "I need to go back."

Silverhoof sputtered. "You want to..to do what?"

Strong turned to him. "You heard me. Besides, we have to get rid of that...thing.. before the coroners get there."

"Couldn't we let somepony else take care of that?" Stammered Bold Wing.

"Feel free to stay here. I'm going to kill that monster for Bob."

Before anypony could argue, Strong Shield galloped towards the armory.

Silverhoof acted fast. He turned to Obsidian. "Alert Shining Armor. We're gonna make sure Shield doesn't do anything stupid."

Obsidian nodded. As the group ran off, he sighed. Today was going to be a long one.